#NCSEN: And NOW for THE REST of the story …

about Dr. Greg Brannon.....

The Daily Haymaker by Brant Clifton, February 24, 2014

Binky, The Shih-tzu, and the rest of their knucklehead mainstream media pals have been piling on Greg Brannon these past few days — amid giggling from Brannon’s political foes — since that finding from the jury in that civil case was announced.

Pete Kaliner, an Asheville talk radio host who used to do some serious reporting in Charlotte, decided to dig a little deeper into Brannon’s courtroom experience.  On Friday, Kaliner devoted an hour to Robert Rice, the CEO of the tech company at the center of the lawsuit in question. I encourage every one of you to listen to the full interview (about 40 minutes).   I did, and I learned a few things that I never would have known if I had relied on Binky and his friends:

CONTINUED. 

#NCSEN: In 2011, Speaker Thom thought state health insurance exchanges OK

The Daily Haymaker, by Brant Clifton, February 12, 2014

Everyone agrees ObamaCare will be a huge issue in the 2014 elections.  In 2013, the General Assembly said NO to accepting federal money to set up a state health care exchange as part of ObamaCare’s implementation.  We reported on Tillis telling business leaders around the state in private meetings, around that time, that it’s not about IF we get ObamaCare, but HOW we manage it.

Tillis took to Facebook to respond to critics — claiming he has always been against government health care exchanges.  But a report today on The Daily Caller web site raises questions about that particular spin from Speaker Thom:

CONTINUE READING.  

#NCSEN #NCGA: 2012 Tillis House campaign accepted $4K from wife of figure in federal bribery case

The Daily Haymaker, by Brant Clifton, February 10, 2014

North Carolina state House speaker Thom Tillis has established quite a reputation as a prolific fundraiser. He’s been credited with providing the ammo needed for the GOP to take over the legislature.  He’s tapping that skill to fuel his current campaign for the US Senate.

One particular contribution in 2012 to Tillis’ House campaign has ties to a North Carolina political scandal that broke in 2003 and ended in federal court in 2010.  Documents on file with the North Carolina State Board of Elections indicate Jane Wright of Wake Forest donated $4,000 to the Tillis House campaign in October 2012.   She is the wife of Thomas R. “Ricky” Wright, who made news in 2003:

Read more!  

Nullification coming to the courtroom?

The Daily Haymaker, by Brant Clifton • February 9, 2014 

Nullification is rearing its head as a very hot topic in this era of the Tea Party and widespread disgust with governmental overreach.  Nullification is the belief that states, communities and their residents have the right to nullify, or overrule, laws handed down by the government which they believe are unconstitutional.

Critics of nullification point to its use by states that eventually joined the Confederate States of America, as well as by entities opposed to the Civil Rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s. 

A counter-argument points to the fact that civil rights protesters regularly operated under the banner of nullification by doing things like: refusing to sit at the back of the bus, sitting at whites-only lunch counters, and attempting to enroll at whites-only public schools.  

CONTINUE READING.  

#NCSEN #NCGA: 2012 Tillis House campaign accepted $4K from wife of figure in federal bribery case

The Daily Haymaker, by Brant Clifton • February 10, 2014

House speaker Thom Tillis has established quite a reputation as a prolific fundraiser.  He’s been credited with providing the ammo needed for the GOP to take over the legislature.  He’s tapping that skill to fuel his current campaign for the US Senate.

One particular contribution in 2012 to Tillis’ House campaign has ties to a North Carolina political scandal that broke in 2003 and ended in federal court in 2010.  Documents on file with the North Carolina State Board of Elections indicate Jane Wright of Wake Forest donated $4,000 to the Tillis House campaign in October 2012.   She is the wife of Thomas R. “Ricky” Wright, who made news in 2003:

CONTINUE READING.

NCDHHS: a big government mess decades in the making

The Daily Haymaker, by Brant Clifton • January 10, 2014

The liars in the remnants of our state’s mainstream media would have you believe state government was working like a charm prior to the January 2013 inauguration of Republican governor Pat McCrory.  *The seventh seal has been opened.  The Prince of Darkness and his four horsemen are walking the Earth, bringing about the End of Days.  Children are being starved.  Barry Saunders is being discriminated against.  Lefties are being asked to leave the legislative building at closing time.  The Horror!*

It’s clear the lefties are seeking a scalp — or a severed head to mount on a pike at the gates of their Mecca — Carrboro.  It appears they've set their sights on Dr. Aldona Wos, who was given the thankless task by Gov. Pat of managing the lefties’ sacred cow:  The NC Department of Health & Human Services.

I bet most people can’t recall the names of the NCDHHS secretaries in the Perdue, Easley, or Hunt administrations.  Democrats were in charge at that time.  They were hiring a lot of mainstream media reporters as PIOs at state agencies.  Life was good.  Backs got scratched.  Negative stuff RARELY got reported.

Now that Republicans run the show in Raleigh, we’re getting scrutiny never before seen in the history of modern journalism.

I find myself in an usual spot — defending an organ of the welfare state.  I think there is a TON wrong with our state bureaucracy.  But it didn’t start with Pat McCrory or Aldona Wos or Phil Berger or Thom Tillis. 

NC FAST is the current boondoggle being blamed on McCrory, Wos, and the GOP.  The two main contracts for this project were awarded in 2008 and 2010.  Let’s see.  WHO was governor then? 

MUST READ, CONTINUED HERE!

While beer fight brewed in NCGA, $$$ from beer interests flowed to Tillis Senate campaign

by Brant Clifton, The Daily Haymaker, January 2, 2014 

In September, craft brewers and beer distributors were knocking heads over state regulations some viewed as favoring the interests of large beer distributors over these small brewers:

North Carolina politicians in Raleigh like to say they’re pro-jobs and pro-business.

But what happens when lawmakers are forced to pick sides between new, small businesses growing jobs and big legacy businesses trying to hold on to the market share they've got?

Would it help you to know that the big legacy companies give hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions and the new small businesses are not yet organized? 

There’s just such a battle brewing in North Carolina over beer – and who gets to distribute and market it. It pits a growing number of small craft brewers against big distributors. And the big distributors who are among the largest campaign contributors have state lawmakers on their side.  [...]

Hmmm.  During this debate, Thom Tillis was serving as speaker of the House, determining what DOES and DOES NOT get a hearing in committee and on the floor.  While all of this was going on in Raleigh, cash from adult beverage distributors was piling up in the speaker’s US Senate campaign treasury.

On August 15, the Tillis Senate campaign got $2600 from the VP of Charlotte-based Adams Beverages of NC. On June 19,the campaign got $2000 from the chairman of Greensboro-based  R.H. Barringer Distributing Company. On September 9, Tillis for Senate got $1000 from a Goldsboro-based board member of R.A. Jeffreys.  

READ MORE!

Moral Monday & McClatchy: Preachers in Court. (What’s this about F.I.S.T?)

The Daily Haymaker, October 28, 2013

 

For months, we’ve been subjected to stories from our state’s dwindling, money-bleeding mainstream media fawning over Big Bill Barber’s Traveling Circus & Freak Show.  We’ve been told that Moral Monday is simply a bunch of average-joe mainstream North Carolinians upset with those dastardly Republicans running the show in Raleigh.  Some of our reporting — as well as that by our friend Lady Liberty — has poked hole after hole in that ridiculous spin.

 

We were scanning a story on the McClatchy-Raleigh web site this weekend about Moral Monday-ers in court, when we stumbled across this gem:

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CENSURED: Craven Co. GOPers have some choice words for The Speaker

The Daily Haymaker
May 30, 2013

The executive committee of the Craven County Republican Party has voted to issue a letter of censure against state House Speaker Thom Tillis.


I asked a veteran NCGOP activist and current member of the state GOP executive committee for his two cents on the matter, and here is what he offered up:

This is probably the most serious, the most severe, punitive action a county party organization can take against a party member. This is not something done — or taken — lightly.

Neither this source, nor any of the other GOPers I spoke with, could recall something like this happening previously. The closest thing was the state executive committee’s decision to kick Richard Morgan out of the party circa 2004.

What’s got these folks in Craven County so steamed? They tell us in their letter to NCGOP chairman Robin Hayes:


•The Speaker interfered in at least three 2012 Republican Primaries in eastern North Carolina.
In North Carolina House District 6, Speaker Tillis gave support to a former Democrat turned New Republican candidate. Mr. Tillis also supported a former Democrat in the Republican Primary in North Carolina Senate District 2. Finally, Mr. Tillis manipulated the Senate District 1 race by encouraging a then current House member to run for Senate but ultimately supported the House member’s Democrat-turned-Republican opponent. Unfortunately, Speaker Tillis has stated he will be involved in future Primaries.

•Speaker Tillis weakened many of the provisions in the Voter I.D. bill.

•The Speaker has taken liberal positions on legislation including Interstate Toll HOT Lanes, Ferry Tolls, and the protection of Telecommunication monopolies at the expense of smaller “free market” competitors. These positions are contrary to the economic liberties championed by the Republican Party.

•The Speaker supports HB 983 (Game Fish Bill).
This Bill will threaten the tradition of commercial fishing, cause wasteful “bycatch” as fisherman are forced to dispose of these new Game Fish, and harm the associated seafood industry. One of the ironies of this Bill is that we will initially use taxpayer money to subsidize commercial fishermen forced out of business by this Bill. Our state’s Republican Party platform reflects a position of less Government regulation on private businesses, and this Bill is contrary to that philosophy.

I also spoke with a veteran activist with the Craven County GOP — who asked not to be named in this post:

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