Fitzsimon File

Do as I say, not as members of my own party do

Senate Majority Leader Phil Berger says House Democrats would not have to raise taxes if they cut wasteful spending out of the budget, which is easy to say for people who don't identify exactly how they want to address the $ 4.6 billion shortfall without making devastating cuts to public school, human services, and the criminal justice system.

Berger did list a few things that he would like to see cut before any taxes are raised, a pier in the district of Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight, severance pay for recently resigned N.C. State officials, and the $46 million incentive package recently passed for Apple Computer.

That adds up to a tiny fraction of the shortfall, but he is right about the Apple incentive bill. It is hard to justify giving a $46 million tax break to a company to create 50 jobs while the budget calls for laying off thousands of state workers.

But Berger should have checked the vote on the Apple incentive legislation before attacking Democrats for supporting it. Thirteen of the 20 Republicans in the Senate voted for the tax break.

Sounds like Berger needs to talk to folks in his own party about wasteful spending.

Why again does Wake County need to end its diversity policy?

The latest high school graduation report from Education Week has plenty of numbers worth thinking about. The national high school graduation rate, based on data from 2006, is 69.2 percent. In North Carolina, it's 63.6.

And it gets worse. The graduation rate for African-American students nationally is 51.2 percent. In North Carolina, just 43.6 percent of African-Americans who enter the ninth grade graduate four years later.  It is baffling why this scandal isn't the focus of every politician of both parties at all levels of government.

For folks caught up in the battle over Wake County Schools' policy of using economic diversity as part of the criteria for school assignment, here is something to think about.

Wake County's gradation rate was 75.7 percent, not nearly good enough, but 7^th best in the country among the 50^th largest school districts.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg school system no longer uses diversity in its assignment plans and is often compared to Wake County by opponents of the diversity policy. Charlotte ranked 34^th among the largest school districts, with a graduation rate of 51.4 percent.

And the economic diversity isn't working?

From the fringe

This week's report from the fringe again features the angry Locker George Leef, who still can't seem to come to grips with the fact that Barack Obama was elected last November.

Leef says that "relatively few people understand that and the Obama gang is exploiting their ignorance to obtain short-run political gains."

Good thing he is one of the smart few, presumably making him one of the intellectual elite. But doesn't the Right loathe the intellectual elite?

There's more of course. Here's what Leef thinks of Obama and his allies.

"They're all utterly despicable, as are the Republicans who greased the rails for them. I suggest that someone in Congress introduce a bill to replace The Star Spangled Banner with some socialist marching song. Land of the free? That's now just an Orwellian bit of propaganda."

George, George, George. Step away from the keyboard and take a breath. And whatever you do, don't read the latest poll from the Pope Civitas Institute, your partners in conservative rhetoric.  

The group's May poll found that 66 percent of the people in North Carolina approve of the job Obama is doing as president, 28 percent disapprove.  

There is no joy in Mudville.

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This entry was posted on Friday, June 12th, 2009 at 11:17 pm and is filed under Fitzsimon File. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.