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May 2005 Archives
Still Don't Get It.
By Charlie Daniels
Note: This is not a blanket indictment of every college or university in the country. I know that there are schools and professors who practice real teaching and students who go to college to learn a profession and get a good education in the process. But we all know that there are the other kind, which seem to be more interested in indoctrinating their charges with radical politics and socialism than they are with teaching them anything useful.
If I had it to do over I would not have sent my son to college. As it turns out he majored in a subject he did not pursue. I don’t think he acquired very much practical knowledge and in essence wasted several years, professionally speaking, years that he could have devoted to the work he loves and eventually ended up doing.
Practically speaking it was a waste of his time and my money.
And on top of that, some of his professors tried to fill his head with left wing trash, which thank God he was smart enough to see as the hogwash that what it was.
The atmosphere on some college campuses these days seems to be anti-God, anti-country, anti-military and anti-common sense. They are long on criticisms and pitifully short on answers.
I don’t have to defend God, because one day the knee of every college professor and every college student will bow and the tongues which deny his existence will acknowledge that He not only exists but that He rules the Universe and that His son, Jesus Christ is King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
The anti-American feelings, I think for the most part are fostered by flower child, sixties, hippie-type teachers who have carried their socialistic leanings and blame America philosophies into the class rooms.
They were wrong in the sixties and they are wrong now and will be proven so in the days to come, but in the meantime they are doing an enormous amount of damage to young impressionable minds.
I hate to say it, but if I don’t miss my guess they will all be hiding behind the military they hate before the war on terror is over, instead of chasing recruiters off their campuses they will be begging for their protection.
I sometimes wonder what will happen to these militant college students when they finally graduate and have to make a living in the real world. It’s easy to call the military baby-killers when you’re hanging out with a bunch of your buddies of like mind. But it’s a little different when you’re working next to ol’ John who happens to be a Vietnam Vet or someone who has a son or daughter in Iraq.
There is an America out here that a lot of college professors refuse to believe exists, where the skill you have for your job is the only thing that keeps you going. Where there is no tenure and where their idealistic barnyard scatology just don’t cut it. Where action, not words count.The utopian world envisioned by these people is not utopian at all. It’s a world with abortion on demand, even a few minutes before the child is born, the military would be disbanded, we’d give up our atomic weapons and expect the rest of the world to do the same thing, you could marry a tree if you wanted to and rampant socialism would be the order of the day.
I guess the economic structure of the nation would be abolished and we would give 80% of our GNP to third world countries.
Lenin, Marx and Mao would be the honored names in history and Washington, Lincoln and Jefferson would be relegated to being statues in the nation’s capitol, if the capitol would still be in Washington, DC, I’m not sure they wouldn’t move it to San Francisco.
It would be a world of peace and love and flowers and a shiny primrose path for all the enlightened to skip down.
And it would probably last somewhere between twelve and fifteen minutes. After that all the flower children would be taking an Islamic oath or marched off to prison or beheaded.
I know this don’t ring well in the halls of academia but, “ We’re not the bad guys”
You can believe it now or believe it later.
Pray for our troops.
What do you think?
God Bless America
Charlie Daniels
Copyright © 2005 Charlie Daniels All rights under copyright reserved. Used by permission.
HELL NO, WE WON’T GO.
By Mark Ruscoe
HELL NO, WE WON’T GO.
(THE CURIOUS CASE OF PISGAH LEGAL SERVICES)
Pisgah Legal Services has been providing legal aid to the poor of Western North Carolina since 1978. It provides an invaluable service, according to the PLS website, to “battered women, disadvantaged or abused children, the elderly, the disabled, recent immigrants, and the working poor”. Fittingly, it is called a “Poverty Law Center” by the Asheville Citizen-Times, which imparts a certain moral cachet.
But by all accounts, PLS does a good job. It has garnered statewide recognition for the quality of its work. It maintains a great deal of local support, both financially, and in its volunteer base. It receives money from the United Ways of Buncombe, Henderson, Rutherford and Madison counties, from faith-based organizations, businesses, foundations, and individual donors.
Pisgah Legal Services bases its operation out of the historic Gudger House, located in the stylish Montford area of Asheville. The Gudger House, which was recently valued at approximately $300,000, was bought for PLS in 1981 (three years after its inception) with federal taxpayer money. Along the way, PLS was also the recipient of generous annual operating expense grants, in the neighborhood of $250,000 per year, from a Washington, DC, business called Legal Services Corporation. LSC was set up to administer federal grant money to legal aid services such as PLS. And PLS, so it seems, made full use of the grant money opportunities available.
However, in 1996, Congress enacted a law that said that any legal aid grantee that received federal money would forthwith not be allowed to engage in certain activities. These included engaging in “policy advocacy”, participating in “class action lawsuits”, and representing “illegal aliens”.
This apparently did not sit well with PLS. For it placed a high value on participating in at least one of these things—representing “immigrants in various stages of documentation”, as the Asheville Citizen-Times euphemistically put it in a recent defense of PLS.
So, citing strong community support and a moral obligation to continue the kind of legal work it felt compelled to do, PLS opted out of the federal aid program administered by LSC. In 1998, after having received federal taxpayer money for many years and a house, which had appreciated to several hundred thousand dollars, PLS said good-bye to LSC.
All well and good, according to LSC. But they wanted their building back. According to Tom Polgar, director of government relations and public affairs for LSC, “It’s still, unfortunately, our building. We have no beef with Pisgah Legal Services. They made a choice they weren’t going to live with the Congressional rules…If you quit the program, we get the building back.”
Problem is, PLS won’t vacate, and LSC has now been forced to sue to get their publicly funded building back. Fully three years ago, in 2002, LSC told PLS that they would have to vacate the Gudger House at 89 Montford Ave. A lawsuit has now resulted, which PLS says it plans to fight tooth and nail to retain what it thinks it legally and morally owns, according to former Asheville mayor and PLS founding board member Larry McDevitt. “The gall of them to come in and take our building away is remarkable. We have a strong position, a position that is superior to theirs legally and morally.”
All this is a bit curious, for two reasons. On the one hand, PLS and its media supporters claim the defense of this suit will cost PLS valuable resources that would be better spent on legal aid to the poor of WNC. And on the other, PLS President, Geo. Ward Hendon, in a recent address claimed that, at present, PLS’s “funding is more diversified and considerable greater, in spite of, and maybe because of, the loss of federal Legal Services Corporation funding.”
Several questions arise.
Why the much-publicized fight over a house that PLS does not own—a fight it will not win? (Polgar says LSC has never lost such a lawsuit to reclaim such disputed property.)
If PLS’s balance sheet has never been stronger, as Mr. Hendon claims, why doesn’t it just pay taxpayers back for the darn thing?
Why has PLS decided that the cost of making a point outweighs the needs of its clients?
Most of all, why has PLS, comprised of a group of respected public leaders, slipped into the entitlement mentality that seems to historically plague recipients of federal largesse—that the “moral claim” on taxpayer gifts, once received, outweighs any legal obligation of responsible participation?
"Mark is a fortunate recipient of Asheville's largesse of leftism. He frequently blogs on it, at www.theculturewasteland.com."
AN NCC EXCLUSIVE - Interview with Jack Hawke
By Joel Raupe
Chairman of North Carolina’s Republican Party for nine years, conservative activist, and high-power campaign consultant, Jack Hawke left all that behind in April to head up the recently formed John William Pope Civitas Institute in Raleigh. As he assembled his team, installed phones and put together furniture in the Institute’s offices near the state Capitol, Hawke paused long enough to answer questions about the future of conservatism and the role of leadership in steering public policy.
NCC-Tell us a little about your background, and your long experience with Republican Politics in North Carolina.
My father was a Methodist minister, and I went to grade school in Binghamton, New York, attended Drew University, a small Methodist affiliated college in New Jersey, and Duke Law School. My political experience began in leading a youth group in church, and later I got involved in Jim Gardner campaigns for Congress, fell in love with the state and the rest, as they say, is history.
I managed Jim Gardner’s congressional campaign in 1966, and we won 58 percent of the vote, winning in agricultural areas and in counties thought to be Democrat strongholds, that included Raleigh and Chapel Hill. At that time, Jesse Helms was a Democrat and a commentator on WRAL-TV in Raleigh. Redistricting played a big part in politics then as it still does. The Democrat legislature gerrymandered Jim Gardner out, and they got Jim Broyhill.
The Party divided between Jim Gardner, who was cast as a Conservative from the east, and Governor Holshauser’s wing identified with old Republican mountain strongholds.
When Jim Gardner was chairman of Party, the Congressional Club was organized to run Jesse Helms for the Senate and to raise the necessary money run conservative Republicans for the U.S. Senate and House.
I ran for Congress in 1970 and in 1972 when I lost by 900 votes. It later became apparent that 800 voters in Durham were unregistered, voting places were kept open late in liberal areas and closed in more conservative areas and voting machines were realigned forcing people to wait in line longer in favorable precincts with no waiting elsewhere. Sound familiar?
NCC-You also served in Gov. Jim Martin’s and Governor Holshauser’s administrations.
Under Governor Holshauser, I was Deputy Secretary of Transportation. The President appointed me to be chairman of the Coastal Plains Commission, which included all the Governors of the states on the coast, including Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter (laughs). Of course, the 1974 and 1976 campaigns were big losses for Republicans, after Watergate. Republicans in North Carolina had come a long way toward showing we were different, that we were not as susceptible to corruption. After President Nixon’s resignation, and the fall of Saigon, Republicans were perceived as not being different after all, and it almost erased all the progress we had made.
I headed up Jim Martin’s first campaign for Governor, and became his chief policy analyst and director of the State Policy Commission.
NCC-How did you become chairman of the NCGOP?
Governor Martin endorsed me while Senator Helms and the Congressional Club worked for Barry McCarty, and it was a very bitter fight. The Club faction worked the counties and we worked the precincts, and in the end we had the votes and McCarty withdrew.
In 1988, we led the nation in numbers picked up in the legislature, re-elected Governor Martin and elected Jim Gardner Lt. Governor. In 1990 we picked up more seats and in 1992 we held our own. Everyone remembers 1994 as the year of the Gingrich Revolution, when Republicans took control of the U.S. House for the first time in forty years, but I agree with those who say good luck is when opportunity meets good preparation. Great Republican gains that year were by no means certain when I traveled around the state preparing the plan for the ’94 election. In 1995, I stepped down.
NCC-Have you been a consultant since then?
I’ve certainly been a grandfather since then, with eleven grandsons and one granddaughter. Seriously though, I’ve done some consulting, but as a general rule, I help when I’m asked by friends who I respect and who want to run. I recruited Virginia Foxx to run for the state Senate in 1993, and I was pleased when the misconception that she was something of a liberal was proven false when her service and voting record showed her to be a conservative.
I helped Art Pope in 1992 and Steve Arnold in 1996 in their campaigns for Lt. Governor. Both of these people are examples of friends with demonstrated strong core values and dedication, as was Betsy Cochrane in 2000 and Dan Page in his congressional campaign.
NCC-What went wrong in the North Carolina Governor’s race last year?
Three things. Most people didn’t notice, but when the state Supreme Court affirmed the second Stephenson redistricting decision, the General Assembly was ordered to draw legal district plans for the state House and Senate during the summer session in 2003. The Democrat leaders and their Republican allies waited until November to hold a two day Special Session to deliver up plans that were admittedly more legal but still probably out of compliance the decision. In the law that created the districts for 2004, they stripped the Superior Court in charge of Stephenson and placed all redistricting cases in Wake County. That same law ordered the State Board of Elections to delay the 2004 primary for all races until the last possible moment if any lawsuit over those maps was filed.
Of course, they filed a counter lawsuit to Stephenson in Wake County almost immediately, in effect forcing the Primary Election from May until July.
Second, after the Primary and after Richard Vinroot pulled out of the race to help Patrick Ballantine, it was still already very late in the campaign. Patrick Ballantine was low on money after the long campaign for the Republican nomination, and he began the General Election campaign against Mike Easley with nine percent name identification.
Easley, who was flush with millions of unspent dollars, knowing Ballantine’s name identification was inevitably going to go up as November fast approached, immediately began running heavy statewide advertising identifying him as the liberal in the race based on budget votes long before he became Senate Republican Leader in 1999.
Third, while allowing the Democrat Governors to pay for advertising aimed at Ballantine, the State Board of Elections stopped Republican Governors from spending money to help Ballantine, using an embargo and the delaying of appeals as the clock kept ticking, all based on a campaign finance law passed by the General Assembly just after midnight in a rare Sunday morning session in late July, while few were watching.
When people read most daily newspapers or read their websites, they can usually find national and international news, and local news, but almost nothing specific to state news. Some say the liberals in control of state government in Raleigh use this to successfully hide what goes on there, and making it hard for conservatives to get anyone to understand how important the happenings in Raleigh are to their daily lives. Do you agree with that?
NCC-I’m afraid it’s our own fault.
They say people know what happened today in Iraq, and about the potholes in their neighborhoods, but doesn’t it make sense that the average voter doesn’t understand how the General Assembly may be directly responsible for their local property taxes going up, because of the mainstream media is driven by the, so-called, ‘national conversation?’
Republicans are on the march, nationwide, and especially in the South. The situation you describe is true in those states as much as it is here in North Carolina. We should be asking what conservatives are they doing in those states that we’re not doing here.
A recent statewide poll indicated 77 percent of voters in North Carolina are in accord with the values written in the Republican platform, and yet they vote for Republicans for President and the Congressional Delegation. What are we doing wrong? What should conservatives be doing, in the Republican Party for example?
And, by a slight majority, voters statewide have voted for Republicans to the state House and Senate in Raleigh for at least the past three elections. Gerrymandering still plays a big part.
But, Republicans need an aggressive campaign to register voters. Registration drives are long overdue, not big announced drives, but determined efforts to challenge the counties with recognition of successes.
We were making great gains, but for the last ten years our per capita registration has remained static. We’re falling behind the other southern states because, unlike on the national level, on the state level the average voter doesn’t understand the difference between Republicans and Democrats. Republicans still need to be a little bit better than Democrats to overcome long-held prejudices. We need to be better in recruiting and cultivating candidates and overcoming the perception that we are a closed club. We need to invite them in.
Most of the Sunbelt states have succeeded in this, and, as I said, Republicans are on the march today. We better begin doing better on the state level soon, because, while were on the upside nationally, remember 1974 and 1976. Another downside, beyond our control, will come along again one day.
NCC-It’s not as though it hasn’t happened before. When sizing up a potential candidate, what are the qualities you would look for? What qualities make for a good candidate and, beyond that, a good elected public official?
I’m glad you asked that last part. In short, I look for core values. Unless a candidate has core values, real core beliefs, they will swing with breeze.
I hate to admit it, but in the words of Tom Ellis, Jesse Helms’ old friend and advisor, they need ‘lots of hair and teeth.’ You need to look and sound good on television.
Beyond that, I look for the things that show the fruit from the tree grown in strong core values, like a good family, someone involved, not just attending church services. Coach K, at Duke, has said as much in public. He says he recruits the family as much as the player.
Another thing I hate to admit, but I have to notice how the national committees sort out candidates. If you want people who raise money to donate money, demonstrate at least some willingness and a little talent at raising money yourself. “Don’t talk to us unless you have $100,000,” is something you hear a lot.
NCC-We’ve heard you won’t be attending the NCGOP Convention this year, for the first time in quite a while. The Associated Press has reported this is because of your commitment to the success of the non-partisan but conservative John William Pope Civitas Institute in Raleigh. Tell us about this new organization, and how it differs from other conservative and libertarian organizations already active in Raleigh.
Well, the name says a lot. The Latin word “Civitas” relates us toward civility and civilization. The First Principles that hold our civilization together are worth conserving.
This can be done in variety of ways using a variety of strategies and tactics.
The John William Pope Civitas Institute will work to present sound conservative alternatives and also to implement conservative success at the polls and in state government. We are building three departments. The Research Department will develop a conservative approach to public policy issues facing North Carolina, gathering data and interpreting information for the use of state leaders.
The Communications Department will serve as our voice, disseminating information to as large a portion of the public as possible. And the Leadership Institutes will link conservative theory to practical application. They will present regular seminars for community leaders, graduate and undergraduate students, and they will present seminars for newly elected officials interested in preparing for the challenge of local and state public service.
Joel Raupe, who interviewed Jack Hawke for NCC, is Chief Legislative Analyst for the John William Pope Civitas Institute. He was Administrative Assistant to the Senate Republican Leader from 1999 – 2005.
Democracy has been kicked to the curb.
By Rep. John Rhodes
The leadership, through their actions has arrogantly proclaimed, “Democracy is no longer welcome here”. The leadership in the House is turning your House of Representatives from a deliberative body into one of rule by “their” command. Most alarmingly, many members of the House, both Democrats and Republicans remain silent for fear of being denied a few extra square feet of office space or self aggrandizing titles. Imagine such silence and lack of courage and leadership at deciding moments in history. In 1775, imagine the outcome of early patriots making statements such as, “Well we really don’t want to go against the king, he may deny us our freedoms”.
Why should North Carolinians be concerned? If the trends continues, the legislature in North Carolina will negate the need for 117 members of the House and 48 members of the Senate to represent and speak on behalf of the people of North Carolina. Additionally, members of the public who wish to be heard on important matters might just as well stay home and not make the long trek to Raleigh to speak on issues that are already predetermined by these self proclaimed power mongers. I’m sure this is not what the framers had in mind when they drafted our constitution to protect against such abuses of power.
[There are 120 members in the House and 50 members of the Senate. Currently 2 members of the House, the Speaker and rules chairman both Democrats run the House in an un-democratic manner, the third Rep. Morgan a Republican simply enables and supports the liberals and works to suppress any conservative Republican agenda from moving forward. In the Senate, the President Pro-Tem and Majority Leader, both Democrats, rule in the same fashion over in that body.]
Tangible Evidence of Abuses of Power
Taxpayer subsidized Slush Funds* – The leadership has controlled nearly $30 million dollars in discretionary funds to spend at will to legislative allies. It has been reported that tens of thousands of dollars went to fund a job for a former legislator who helped a legislative leader keep retain the leadership post. The uses of the funds are now under investigation by the State Auditor and State’s Attorney General. Legislative leaders were asked to step down while a thorough investigation is completed. They arrogantly refused.
Disregard for the Constitution and Process – Recent legislation that dealt in finance and appropriations whizzed through the House without regard for the Constitution or process. Legislation such as this is supposed to be read and voted on separate days. The leadership egregiously ignored the Constitution and forced the legislation through for fear of losing votes by waiting an extra day on the narrowly passed measure (61-59). Similar speed of passage on key legislation such as the budget (a $16 Billion increased tax and spending plan) passed through the House with little or no review of the 200+ page document. , passing less than 15 minutes, with little or no debate. It’s like a classroom where the instructor hands out the full version of War and Peace, proclaims there will be a test in 15 minutes, and the only correct answer is “yes”. Those who answer incorrectly with a “NO” vote will be awarded no *pork in the cafeteria. (*tainted taxpayer subsidized slush funds)
Censorship of Citizens by the leadership’s decree – This is a common practice amongst legislative leaders. One recent incident made statewide news and further investigation and action on the matter looms on the horizon. Citizens who came to Raleigh to speak on legislation before a House Education committee were silenced ending in the Capitol Police and Sgt-At-Arms staff dragging citizens away from a podium while they were speaking. The legislation called for a referendum vote by the people of Mecklenburg County to decide whether or not to deconsolidate the embattled and struggling Charlotte – Mecklenburg School System into smaller more efficient districts within the county. A last minute decree by the leadership that no elected official would be allowed to speak on the matter, and that the bill sponsor would not be allowed to speak on behalf of the legislation, was sent down to the committee chairman. This practice has become commonplace in the legislature by not allowing legislators to speak on the House floor. This is clearly a violation of citizens’ first amendment rights. This is the same body in which members are pushing for “illegals” to receive in-state tuition at a huge cost to taxpayers. In this legislative body, the precedent is being set that elected officials are being denied rights afforded to legal citizens, while “illegals” are being accommodated for participating in criminal activity.
So what’s being done about it? – Recently, H.B. 1545 was filed making it a Class 1 Misdemeanor and removal of office for any legislative leader who coerces, dictates, or otherwise forces a member of the General Assembly to vote a certain way in exchange for (pork) projects or other items while in the course of serving their constituents and fulfilling the duties of their office. Furthermore the legislation speaks to the growing trend by the leadership of abolishing first amendment rights (freedom of speech) concerning the members of the public as they interact with their General Assembly.
So what can you do to help? – Don’t waste your dime calling individual members of the legislature, many are blindly following the leadership regardless of how egregiously they make a mockery of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and have been numbed to the abuses. Contact the legislative leadership, and remind them that this is the citizen’s legislature belonging to members of the public, not their own personal version of the board game “Monopoly”. Let them know you’re watching and ask them to support Rep. Rhodes’ H.B. 1545 – Legislature Freedom to Serve Act to reform the legislature from the abuses that currently exist. 919-733-4111.
The Lottery
By Lee P. Butler
Seven Republicans voted for and nine Democrats voted against the lottery legislation, which demonstrates the complexity of the drama surrounding the lottery issue. Every North Carolinian has his or her own reasons for their opposition or support for it and irregardless of your stance, one obvious problem still remains.
Instead of trying to improve our state budget through better implementation of existing funding combined with spending controls, our legislators once again turned to the ‘quick fix’ and opted for increasing revenue collection, using the chestnut ruse of having to make a rash decision for the sake of our children.
A lottery will never fix our state legislator’s spending problem. At least in South Carolina, Conservative Republicans are in charge of their governmental spending and the education lottery revenue. What we now have here is nothing less than a Pandora's Box with tax and spend Democrats holding the key.
Lee P Butler has worked in environmental management for twenty years while honing his writing skills in poetry, fiction, and opinion. He is the Vice Chairman of the Richmond County Republican Party where he resides with his wife and three children and has been published in several outlets including The Richmond County Daily Journal, OpinionEditorials.com, The North Carolina Conservative, The Lasting Joy, and is the owner/publisher of leepbutler.com.
THREE CHEERS FOR THE CHARLOTTE OBSERVER
By Ann Ryder
Thank heavens for the Charlotte Observer and its series of articles re: the terrible problems with the group homes for children in this state. Unfortunately, it took the death of a young girl to catch their interest. The articles focused on children’s homes only; I wish they hadn’t stopped there. I know a minor who was placed in a couple of adult group homes and was never given his court ordered programs. Surely there are more instances of this happening. And many adult homes that we have witnessed step over the line when it comes to cruel and inhumane treatment.
In 2000, my cohort Wanda Bradley and I, both grandmothers, became interested in the mental health program in the counties served by Blue Ridge Authority…Buncombe and its neighboring counties. The mental health reform came along and Blue Ridge is now known as New Vistas, but it involves the same people. We were aware of some known crudballs who were prominent with it and wondered what was in it for them. Let me tell you about it.
Wayne Wells is the largest owner of group homes in this area by far…somewhere around 50-70 homes. He is a convicted counterfeiter and was the government’s witness against Asheville attorney DeVere Lentz who was also implicated in the counterfeiting business. At the time, he owned a motel where gambling was going on. In court, Wells’ testimony was such that Lentz was not convicted. Wells got Lentz’s daughter as his bride and ownership of the motel, which he turned into a “rest home” as they were called in those days. He subsequently became a co-defendant in a suit brought by the Governor’s Advocacy Council on behalf of a resident claiming she never received monies sent to her by relatives. Wells moved her to a home belonging to the other defendant where she was housed with men, denied medical care, denied use of the telephone, and was beaten by the owner’s grown son. The two defendants were also charged with cashing their residents’ social security checks. Wells sold the motel/rest home, but continued to build his empire of family care homes. His homes are built for six residents, plus a caregiver. Homes for more than six residents trigger more stringent rules. Wells has clusters of homes totalling many people, but only six to a house. Thus, he skirts the laws. Over the years, Lentz continued to catch the eye of law enforcement authorities, and was once brought to trial for asking a sheriff’s detective to bring evidence seized in a gambling raid to Lentz’s office. The detective testified that Lentz told him that he didn’t want “the feds or the IRS to get their hands on the books.” Again, he was not convicted; a judge testified on his behalf. Mrs. Lentz is the head bookkeeper for Blue Ridge.
David Matney is the chief attorney for Blue Ridge. He lived in the ritziest section of Asheville for years. When we checked again on this property at a later date, we found that Matney’s house was now owned by Wells! Matney is a corporate officer in Wells’ family care home business. They were partners in at least one of these homes. Since Blue Ridge places mentally disabled clients in the homes, we feel there is a conflict of interest, at least, on Matney’s part.
Larry Leake was a founder of Blue Ridge Area Foundation and has served in one capacity or another ever since. I have written about him and his corruption ad naseum and will refer you to previous editions if you are a new reader.
Senator Steve Metcalf was instrumental in bringing about the mental health reform in this state through MGT of America, a consulting firm in which he was a partner. He resigned his senate seat a couple of years ago following scandals in Raleigh and in Asheville, and was given a position at WCU. He has been Wallace Hyde’s protégé for many years. Metcalf personally benefited from the money that Lenore Behar embezzled from the children’s mental health program that she headed.
After the Observer’s articles were published, there was a lot of CYA going on. In speaking of group homes, one politician stated, “We just allowed them to grow too fast and not be able to take care of the people they’re serving.” What a bunch of crappola! This state has been looking the other way for at least 20 years. There are FOUR agencies that are supposed to be looking out for the group homes, FOUR!…DSS, Facility Services, Governor’s Advocacy Council for Persons with Disabilities, and the Ombudsmen. It reminds me of the way the state looked out for the employees of the chicken processing plant that caught fire and killed 25 workers a few years ago. In 11 years of operation, the place had never been inspected. The feds found such laxity in the state OSHA program that they took over control and ran the state agency for five years.
The situation in group homes is so acute and action, if any, by the above four agencies is so ineffective, that the Volunteer Center of Durham has put out a call for volunteers to “visit group homes housing those with mental health issues or developmental disabilities to monitor for rights violation, abuse, neglect and exploitation, and quality of life.” That’s fine and dandy, but with no enforcement authority, it is a total exercise in futility.
Due to the mental health reform that Sen. Metcalf had a major hand in putting together, patients in state hospitals, with competent trained aides and supervisors, are being moved out to commercial, self-serving group homes such as the ones owned by Wells. The previous state patients are now referred to as “consumers”. (That’s Marxist ideology, folks.) We know that Wells’ operators recruit caregivers from homeless shelters. The caregivers are allotted a fixed sum per month with which to operate the homes. Groceries are bought from this fund. The caregiver’s salary consists of whatever is left over from the operating money. You can imagine how poorly these mentally disabled people are fed and cared for. It’s no wonder that they roam the neighborhood begging food and drink.
In the past, we’ve been to the home in Marshall where the toddler was killed recently. The residents’ daily diet was cold cereal and donuts for breakfast, a cheese or bologna sandwich for lunch, pork n’ beans and hot dogs for supper. Sometimes they were handed two hot dogs and an open can of beans. They occasionally were given potato chips. No dietary consideration was given to the residents with diabetes. The medicine locker was unlocked. The bathrooms were full of mold, mildew and just plain dirt, there was no toilet paper or soap, tiles were missing, and the fixtures were wobbly. Most of the beds had no linens and the mattresses were gawdawful. Even though the state mandates window fans, there was only one that I can remember, and the resident’s family had bought it for him. There is absolutely no way this place could have passed any type of inspection. The daughter of the home’s operator works for the county’s DSS. Years ago, the so-called caregiver in this house would send the residents out to the small shopping center nearby to beg money. At the end of the day, she would take their money and give them back enough for cigarettes. We have video of this place, a Wells’ home, in case anyone is interested.
The live-in boyfriend of the caregiver, a fugitive with a long criminal history from another state, has been arrested for killing the baby. We have seen many, many undesirable caregivers and/or family members and live-ins in these homes…people you would not invite into your home.
We strongly feel that allowing the caregivers to have their little kids living with them in the group homes is an abomination. I have seen a small child playing in the living room while a male resident sitting on the sofa engages in vigorous, solo hands-on sexual gratification. I’ve seen this in a state hospital too, so it is just natural behavior for the residents. However, many residents are convicted sex offenders. We think it is child abuse to house children with them, and scary as heck.
We have been in another home that had no food, even though the law says there must be a two-week supply. DSS had been there just the day before but nothing was done. We called Nathan Ramsey, chairman of the board of commissioners for Buncombe County and he got results from the owner within a couple of hours. He also had the health department visit the home and they closed it down when they saw signs of rats. The drain water from the washing machine would back up into the kitchen sink and one of the residents was suspected of having hepatitis.
I could go on and on about the abuses that we know of…such as the gay caregiver who was pressuring his male residents for sex; the caregiver who could not account for the Darvocet and Lorcet; a resident who was admitted to the hospital in a catatonic state, dehydrated, and with sores on his mouth and rear end; residents with long term calorie deficiencies; a female resident not taken to her follow-up doctor’s appointment after a mammogram showed a large mass suggestive of cancer; a home where the residents are regularly locked out of the house; and many cases of under/over medication. The charges against the above gay caregiver were substantiated, but that didn’t keep the state from giving him an administrator’s license for group homes.
We are in possession of an e-mail that originated from the office of the Governor’s Advocacy Council. It states, “we are finding intolerable abuse, neglect and exploitation.” That was written more than two years ago, and nothing has been done. This group gets most of its funding from federal sources, but it is administered by the state. A little more than a year ago, they tried to change their status to non-profit in order to be independent of the state. It didn’t work…they cannot get out from under the state’s sword. Quoting from an N&O article, “It’s difficult for the advocacy council to do its job when the paycheck comes from the source of the problem.” As this article was being written, the Governor’s Advocacy Council for Persons with Disablities filed suit against Carmen Hooker Odom, DHSS, Buncombe and Mecklenburg Counties, New Vistas (Blue Ridge), Western Highlands Network (spin-off of Blue Ridge). The suit is in regards to the tragic death of 12-year old Shirley Arciszewski. The complaint listed 59 facts and 26 legal claims, including violating state statutes, failing to inspect and monitor facilities, failure to require the immediate elimination of dangerous deficiencies. AG Cooper’s actions during the legal maneuvering will be quite telling.
Blue Ridge/New Vistas has had four years in which to set up in-patient crisis care that in the past has been taken care of at Broughton Hospital. What they were able to came up with is that, in many instances, the “consumer” will be placed in family care homes, the least inspected, least restricted facilities known to man. Training for the caregivers will be: General information about mental illness, particularly person with SPMI [Serious and Persistent Mental Illness]; How to communicate in respectful, non-provocative ways; Signs and symptoms of decompensation; How to use de-escalation skills when a client is becoming agitated; When/How to seek consultation and help from New Vistas; When to call the police. “Adult care home operators will likely have their own protocols re who to call and when, which New Vistas will honor and cooperate with.” Could we possibly do any worse for our loved ones?
That takes us to Carmen Hooker Odom, appointed head of DHHS, who is supposed to oversee all of this. Citizens have been informed by the media recently that the state has gotten into Medicaid for overpayments of close to a half Billion dollars (that’s right…with a B). And it looks like DHHS is one of the major sources of the legislative big boy’s slush funds that have come to light in the past couple of months. Her deputy, Lanier Cansler (R?), who resigned his legislative seat where he served as a Buncombe County representative to go to her side, calls himself the “point man for all legislative requests.” Isn’t that just another way of saying “bag man?” Cansler stepped down from his DHHS post last month. Must be getting hot in Raleigh.
So, Hooker Odom isn’t on top of the tragedies that are occurring daily in group homes and she’s not on top of disappearing Medicaid mega funds…just what is she on top of? The CEO of a business being run the way our DHHS is being run would have been bounced a long time ago. I recognize that she is only doing what she is being told to do by politicians who have to answer to the voters and want some distance from what is going on, but she is the goat. Has she no pride? Of course, when she is finally eased out, she’ll be given a cozy position somewhere with a large salary still being borne by the taxpayers. And guess who pays back that half Billion?
The abuses that my friends and I have seen in family care homes call for criminal charges. “The major distinction between risk-taking sufficient to create criminal liability, as opposed to civil liability, is the level of indifference to the attendant risk of harm” (Doing Time for the Clinical Crime).
For instance, earlier this year a judge in Florida refused to dismiss charges against five DCF employees charged with failing to monitor a foster home where a toddler was drowned and another child abused. The refusal to investigate and monitor the home showed that the employees were “deliberately indifferent” to the children’s plight. The judge said, “All would agree that a person who pushes another person into a snake pit, lion den or pool of quicksand is a …substantial cause of any resulting injuries or death directly inflicted by the snakes, lions or quicksand.”
Then there is the owner of three nursing homes in Louisiana who pleaded guilty to cheating his residents out of Medicare funds. They suffered “grossly inadequate staffing; threadbare bed linens; broken A/C; shortages of soap, towels and bandages; limited food supplies; broken washing machines; critical therapeutic equipment that rarely worked; and limited social services or activities.
Perhaps the most significant is the former governor of Alabama who was brought to trial for attempting to bilk Medicaid. Three of his associates pleaded guilty and had agreed to testify against him. It never got to the jury though when the federal judge made it impossible for the prosecution to continue. The judge had refused to recuse himself even though his daughter worked for a law firm that had close ties to the governor’s administration and had done work for the state.
If other states can hold their scum to account, why can’t North Carolina?
THE POWER TO DESTROY
By Representative John M. Blust
Public officials in the legislative branch of government are vested with an enormous power – the power to levy taxes or the people they represent. If mandated taxes are not paid in a timely fashion, a citizen’s property can be seized to satisfy the amount owed. This creates an inextricable link between taxation and property rights, one of the core principles underpinning American freedom and the prosperity freedom engenders.
“The power to tax involves the power to destroy”, wrote Chief Justice John Marshall in an 1819 decision by the United States Supreme Court, and “the power to destroy may defeat and render useless the power to create.” The destructive power of taxation demands a very judicious and sober use of this power. Governments at every level should fund only those critical functions that cannot or should not be left to the private sector. Those functions should be carried out in the most efficient manner possible so that the minimum amount necessary is taken from taxpayers.
Taxation is destructive because it undermines the incentive, desire, and motivation for citizens to work, save and invest. Taxation lessens the entrepreneurial willingness to risk time and capital to develop the creative ideas that lead to additional wealth creation and progress. Whenever an activity is taxed, less of that activity will be undertaken. When the fruits of labor, savings and investments are taxed at too high a level, there will be less of these desirable activities.
Perhaps no one more accurately described this phenomenon than Franklin Delano Roosevelt, while he was first running for President in 1932: “Taxes are paid in the sweat of every man who labors because they are a burden on production and can be paid only by production. If excessive, they are reflected in idle factories, tax-sold farms, and, hence, in hordes of the hungry trampling the streets and seeking jobs in vain. Our workers may never see a tax bill, but they pay in deductions from wages, in increased cost of what they buy, or (as now) in broad cessation of employment.”
The Wall Street Journal has calculated the tax burden as a percentage of the nation’s total economic output and correlated it to the level of economic growth over several years. The comparison between the level of taxation and economic growth clearly demonstrates that the economy turns down when a certain high level of tax burden as a percentage of gross national product is reached. This data seems to indicate that there is a trigger point for an economic recession in the form of high taxation. When the tax burden reached this trigger point in 2000, a recession resulted.
Few Americans realize that they are paying more to the government through taxes than they are for food, clothing, shelter, and transportation combined. This can partly be explained by the fact that governments have been successful at hiding the true impact of taxation on citizens. The income tax is subtracted each week from paychecks in the form of withholding so that the wage earners are lulled into the belief that they only earn their net take home pay. The sales tax is hidden within the total cost of goods when paid for at the counter. Many people pay their property taxes automatically through their mortgage payments. Without exception, every category of government expenditure develops its own constituency that pushes for the continuation of or an increase in that spending. Consequently, public officials get far less direct pressure to hold down taxes than they do to increase spending.
One has only to look at the experience of California to see the destructive effects of excessive levels of taxation on a state economy. Investment capital, jobs, and opportunity fled California to lower-taxed neighboring states. The last few years have seen the enactment of enormous tax increases in North Carolina as we have trended toward the failed California approach. The huge tax increases of the last few years have left North Carolina with the second highest tax burden in the southeast and have negatively impacted job creation in this state.
Legislators should never forget that every dollar spent by the state must first be taken from a taxpayer whose work earned the dollar. The state is in effect, telling the taxpayer that there are vital things the state needs to do which gives the state a greater moral right to the dollar than that of the person whose efforts created the dollar. When the state takes a dollar from a taxpayer, the state therefore owes a moral duty to the taxpayer to give back a dollar’s value in some vital government function such as education, public safety, roads, etc. From what I have observed in the state legislature, the state is giving back only 60 to 70 cents in value from each dollar taken from taxpayers.
A private business cannot do this and survive. Customers can simply go to a competitor for better value. Most government functions do not have competition so the public must look to the people it elects to insure full value for their tax dollars. Legislators must remember we possess the power to destroy and enact meaningful reforms to minimize the use of this power such as an open budget process with full participation by all legislators, zero-based budgeting, and a cap on overall spending growth in any particular year.
North Carolina’s Debt Bomb
By Senator Robert Pittenger
Mike Easley, Governor of North Carolina, and State Treasurer Richard Moore say North Carolina’s taxpayers are reaching the breaking point when it comes to paying the interest on all the debt we have piled up over the past tenures. State Senate President Pro-Tem Marc Basnight, also Democrat, says “everything is fine” and that he is actually thinking about loading up the bond/debt boat again this year.
In a typical budget fight, you usually have the Democrats and Republicans arguing with each other. But this year you see the senate and house Republicans lining up behind the Democratic governor and all testate house and senate Democrats dutifully lining up behind Basnight. Apparently, politics does make strange bedfellows.
A recent history:
In Fiscal Year 1999, the cost of interest in the state’s budget was slightly under $200 million. Last year the cost was about $400million – this year it is $480 million. By 2007, it will soar to almost $700 million. Holy credit cards!! What’s going on here? We are on a spending binge and we have been borrowing like crazy to pay for it.
What is particularly galling about this spending binge is that even with all this bond money we have not kept up with our basic road needs; our “Repairs and Renovations Fund” is $200 million under funded. Capital funding is $300 million short. Why? Because the Legislature has systematically stripped the capital budget and used the money that would have gone to the Highway Trust Funds, Rainy Day Funds, Capital Spending Funds, etc., as a source of” one-time” revenues to cover their huge spending increases. What this means is that they took money promised for projects the voter’s of North Carolina approved– roads, universities, infrastructure, and community colleges, and used those “long-term” monies to fill holes in the current operating budget. Their bet was that the state’s economy would improve enough that they would be able to replace the bond money before anyone caught on. Butte has overspent and even though revenues have actually recovered, testate hasn’t been able to put the money back where it belongs.
The legislature has also opened a new door for indebtedness. COPS financing. Certificates of Participation. The legislative leadership has found a loophole to avoid voter bond approval. Last year the leadership pushed through $450 million of new indebtedness through COPS financing, avoiding a voter referendum as required by the State Constitution.
Recently Governor Easley called for a new law requiring a statewide vote to approve any new borrowing over $25 million. Easley said thatch’s debt was “growing too fast and we have to put a stop toot.” Treasurer Richard Moore echoes Governor Easley’s concerns and says he would like to set limits on how much debt the state can incur by tying it to a ratio of total state revenue or personal income. Moore has stated that, “We are at the limits of prudent management. You know the credit card’s just about got enough on it.”
And what about the NC Legislature, led by President Pro-Tamazight? Well, Senator Basnight feels that the state shouldn’t impair its ability to keep on borrowing. “We would take it under consideration,” says Basnight of Easley’s and Moore’s concerns, “But no, why would we limit our ability to do something if it is needed?”
In other words, instead of setting our fiscal house in order, let just borrow more.
I think Governor Easley is right. More debt should require voters' approval, if for no other reason to tie the big-spenders hands by limiting their ability to borrow.
Please contact your state house and senate members and ask them to encourage Marc Basnight to agree: No more debt without a vote of the people.
“North Carolina… Where Education Isn’t Left to Chance!”
By Senator Eddie Goodall
Why should North Carolina further impoverish its own lowest income citizens by admitting failure to properly manage its tax revenues and ultimately its educational system? You hear the argument that we have to do it because our citizens are scrambling to our border states in droves in order to buy pockets full of lottery tickets.
But, does this rationale that we’re reportedly “losing millions” mean it is the right thing to do? Will a lottery ultimately help our citizens or hurt them? Those with wisdom and common sense already know this answer. A lottery is what it is: state-sponsored gambling. The negative social costs of gambling are well documented.
Using the lottery proponents’ argument, I would submit, why should they simply ask for the euphemistic “educational lottery?” Why stop there if there’s a remote chance to “earn” even more money from the masses?
If the state of Nevada happened to be our neighboring state, would it be wise and the right thing to do for North Carolina to open the doors to full service casinos? Perhaps like in some areas of Nevada, legal prostitution could likely bring in even more money for our school systems. Can you hear it now? “It is okay in Nevada, so it must be okay for us!” Does this logic sound familiar -- where would it stop?
I recognize the fact our neighboring states have state lotteries, which in essence, is a social tax in sheep’s clothing. I believe the decision to have a state government sponsored lottery is not a revelation of a state’s economic success, but rather a revelation of a state government’s failure.
North Carolina should be proud it has not fallen into the abyss of educational and economic failure and joined other states by resorting to a state sponsored gambling system. Lotteries simply result in a state’s poorest citizens attempting to provide the financial shortfall for the lack of leadership, management, and fiscal responsibility of its own legislators.
I ask you to consider this, if these current legislators cannot properly manage your existing education-tax dollars, what makes one think these same legislators will accurately manage and account for potentially millions of dollars in lottery revenues? The lottery is a “bailout,” plain and simple, and definitely does not guarantee the miracle answer to our current educational system woes.
Our current house leadership wants North Carolina to jump onto this frenzied lottery bandwagon to produce millions in revenue which they have consistently failed to properly manage. How do you want your legislators to vote? Think about it then call them because the vote is at hand, according to Speaker Jim Black.
North Carolina has historically held a proud tradition of being an independent state, not driven by what others’ do, but rather guided by its own moral, cultural and social values of its collective citizens – it is proven to be an attraction to those moving here from other states.
Let’s keep this tradition alive by doing what is best for all our citizens – the moral choice by saying a loud resounding “NO” to this state sponsored gambling. I suggest we hold our legislators accountable for our tax revenues and the quality of our educational system. North Carolina has survived proudly since 1789 without resorting to legalized gambling, why should we now fall into this trap simply because other states are doing it and are throwing in the towel on fiscal responsibility?
Think about it and let’s keep this proud motto alive and true – “North Carolina… where education isn’t left to chance!”
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