August 8, 2006

Primary result links

Posted by Jon Ham at 9:13 PM

Lieberman-Lamont

McKinney-Johnson

11:20 p.m.: Johnson declares victory

11:07 p.m.: Lieberman concedes

11:03 p.m.: Lamont 51.92%, Lieberman 48.08% with 95.32% reporting

10:53 p.m.: Lamont 51.65%, Lieberman 48.35% with 93.85% reporting

10:47 p.m.: Lamont 51.84%, Lieberman 48.16% with 87.03% reporting

10:38 p.m.: Lamont 51.82%, Lieberman 48.18% with 86.63% reporting

10:28 p.m.: Lamont 51.88%, Lieberman 48.12% with 83.56% reporting

10:20 p.m.: Lamont 51.83%, Lieberman 48.17% with 82.62% reporting

10:14 p.m.: Lamont 51.79%, Lieberman 48.21% with 81.3% reporting

10:10 p.m.: Lamont 51.75%, Lieberman 48.25% with 80% reporting

10:08 p.m.: Lamont 51.75%, Lieberman 48.25% with 80% reporting

10:03 p.m.: Lamont 51.76%, Lieberman 48.24% with 77% reporting

9:55 p.m.: Lamont 51.7%, Lieberman 48.3% with 72% reporting

9:48 p.m.: Lamont 51.6%, Lieberman 48.4% with 65% reporting

9:40 p.m.: Lamont 52%, Lieberman 48% with 54% reporting

                 Johnson 74%, McKinney 26% with 13% reporting

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Separating the wheat from the chaff

Posted by Mitch Kokai at 8:36 PM

There's plenty of dumb to go around, and that was true for our country even during the 1942 version of the fight for the free world.

Consider the following story from Mark R. Levin's Men In Black: How The Supreme Court Is Destroying America (Regnery, 2005).

Sixty-five years ago, Roscoe Filburn owned and operated a small dairy farm in Ohio; in addition to his cows, Filburn grew wheat. He sold some of that wheat, but he used much of it to feed his lifestock.

That livestock feeding and other internal uses of the wheat (for flour and seeding) earned him a $117.11 fine because he exceeded a federally mandated wheat quota. Filburn challenged that fine in court.

A unanimous Supreme Court ruled against him. Justices determined that Filburn's use of his own wheat for his own livestock affected interstate commerce. How? He didn't have to buy wheat on the open market; his decision not to purchase wheat affected wheat prices.

Levin quotes Justice Robert Jackson's opinion:

It can hardly be denied that a factor of such volume and variability as home-consumed wheat would have a substantial influence on price and market conditions. This may arise because being in marketable condition such wheat overhangs the market and if induced by rising prices tends to flow into the market and check price increases. But if we assume that it is never marketed, it supplies a need of the man who grew it which would otherwise be reflected by purchases in the open market. Home-grown wheat in this sense competes with wheat in commerce. The stimulation of commerce is a use of the regulatory function quite as definitely as prohibitions or restrictions thereon.

Amazing. 

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'Free' enterprise?

Posted by Mitch Kokai at 8:04 PM

In this week's TIME profile of the younger Castro brother, the following passage left me scratching my head:

After the Soviet collapse brought an end to aid that had sustained Cuba, a pragmatic Raúl turned the much diminished army into a pioneer of free enterprise, managing the government's stakes in agriculture, industry and, now especially, tourism.

Perhaps someone can explain to me the link between "free enterprise" and military control of the economy.

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Gettin' down in the Hamptons

Posted by Jon Ham at 6:18 PM

Biff and Buffy get their groove on.

(Hat tip: MK)

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Solutions Not Hyperbole

Posted by Lindalyn Kakadelis at 5:02 PM

Judge Howard Manning Jr. spoke to principals last Friday saying, “If you can’t fix your schools fast, you should resign.” He said that weak teachers who expect little from students “should be tarred and feathered.” He called principals who do not get rid of those kinds of teachers “a cork in the bottle.”
Now it has been sometime since anyone was “tarred and feathered,” and I expect the NCAE would have something to say if systems took the Judge’s advice.
But major problems lie in the state statute regarding “Career employee” status, i.e. tenure. Instead of “tarred and feathered,” the system simply needs to DISMISS weak teachers. Holding principals responsible while limiting their ability to hire and fire breads frustration even with the best administrator.
After four years in North Carolina, a teacher’s job security is sealed, unless criminal action is present.  Judge Manning should also address weaknesses in State Statute, Chapter 115 C – Elementary and Secondary Education, which holds government schools hostage. 
 

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Hizbullah and the Tar Heel state

Posted by Mitch Kokai at 4:36 PM

This Newsweek article reminds us about the link between the Lebanese terror group and North Carolina. 

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Woodpecker Rights

Posted by Daren Bakst at 4:00 PM

Some humans have argued that a possible solution to the woodpecker issue is to move our little feathered friends off of private property.  Yes, maybe it would protect "human property rights" (humans are so selfish), but what about woodpecker rights?

To move a cute little endangered woodpecker from its nest would be unfair to the little bird.  It would require the woodpecker to build a whole new nest, without any compensation.  If we really are for property rights, then we have to respect the woodpecker's property rights too.

Of course, sometimes the government needs to take a nest for a "public use."  In that case, the woodpecker still should be provided just compensation.  I think just compensation should be more than fair market value--it should make the woodpecker "whole."  This includes relocation costs and the cost of a new nest.

Isn't he cute!  If humans were more like woodpeckers, the world would be a better place.  We would live in trees and fly, and there would be peace and love around the world.

HT: Jon Ham and Jon Sanders 

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AFT's Communications Audit

Posted by Lindalyn Kakadelis at 3:36 PM

Mike Antonucci, director of the Education Intelligence Agency, wrote about an internal comprehensive communications audit commissioned by the American Federation of Teachers. He quotes the remarks of AFT employees:

"No one seems to know what anyone else is doing."

"Hundreds of thousands of dollars are thrown in the trash."

"I have heard bold, outright lies told to large audiences."

With these types of comments, I feel their pain. This reminds me of the entire education establishment, not just a teacher’s union.

Hat tip: EdSpresso 

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Free Market vs. "The Greater Good?"

Posted by Michael Moore at 2:55 PM

A few weeks ago I got into a discussion with Representative Haire from Jackson County (Home of the Smoky Mountain Mustangs!) on his plan for a bill for the state to create a board to help folks clean up old mobile homes.  I just found this article from the Citizen-Times.  When he responded that consumers would pay an additional fee on a new home for the betterment of the community, I said a fee on the consumers is a TAX.  He said "Oh it's no tax, but just a fee to help the neighborhood."  I must be too much of a free market person, but when a politician says fee what do think a free market person has going through their mind? 

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Discriminatory Tax Holidays

Posted by Joseph Coletti at 2:37 PM

The Tax Foundation issued a report last week explaining why sales tax holidays like North Carolina's are bad policy. Donna Martinez and I talked about this on CJ Radio on July 30. Tax holidays complicate policy and discriminate over time and against certain products. Listen to the podcast via iTunes for some examples of this discrimination.

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The Wisdom of the Governors

Posted by Dr. Terry Stoops at 1:18 PM

This article from Governing Magazine provides a nice overview of the National Governors Association's latest musings on education.

It is not difficult to determine that the NGA speakers did not say anything useful about school reform. Bob Corcoran, president of the GE Foundation, said that states need to develop more rigorous math and science standards. Ok. Sir Ken Robinson, an education consultant, said that schools need to foster creativity. Ok.

On the other hand, Tom Vander Ark, executive director of education programs at the Gates Foundation, is optimistic that the U.S. can achieve a graduation rate of 80 percent by the end of the decade. Whoa, Tom, the key is not to set a quantifiable goal like that - think back to what you and Easley do with the Learn and Earn/Early College/New Schools Project/Gates money grab here in North Carolina. Focus, Tom, focus.

Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano's, NGA's new chair, said, “Standardized tests should be passable as a natural response...Those engaged in math and science don’t have any problem passing the tests.” Now that is nonsense all of us can embrace.


Hat tip: Coletti

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Wow -- what if we were free to check more than one racial box!

Posted by George Leef at 10:43 AM

Apparently this is a Big Idea in higher ed -- allowing students to identify themselves by checking more than one racial/ethnic box. Inside Higher Ed has the story here.

How about a truly radical idea: forget about racial and ethnic classifications altogether. It's no more important for colleges and universities to have data on the ancestry of students than it is, say, for the New York Yankees to have such data on the people who go baseball games in Yankee Stadium.

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The Pine Thickets of Eastern NC

Posted by Michael Moore at 10:30 AM

In response to the talk of the Woodpecker in Eastern North Carolina that resides in the tall pines of that area, I feel the concern of the environmental groups.  To the homeowners who are also concerned about the growth of pines where this bird might reside, my friends at Stihl and Husky can help.  I also have one question for the environmental folks, Eastern North Carolina is full of pine tickets that this bird could reside in, does this mean folks will not be able to build homes or will land be condemned to preserve the pines in the Eastern counties due to the Woodpecker?

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Michigan Targets NC

Posted by Joseph Coletti at 10:13 AM

The Michigan-NC State basketball game is not until November 28, but the Wolverine State is already targeting North Carolina as a similar state with a better tax environment. Patrick Anderson studied Michigan's job-destroying Single Business Tax and suggested the state needs tax reform and relief to create a healthy economy. Nice to be emulated, now North Carolina just needs to stay ahead of the curve and improve its spend and tax policies.

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N.C. in immigration news

Posted by Mitch Kokai at 10:02 AM

The Weekly Standard offers a fascinating cover story this week exploring the impacts of immigration on a small Delaware community.

North Carolinians will find this section of the opening paragraph especially interesting:

The van has North Carolina license plates, even though its owner lives down the street. Many of the other cars parked in the ramshackle nineteenth-century neighborhood called Kimmeytown have North Carolina or Pennsylvania plates. Shortly after 9/11, Delaware governor Ruth Ann Minner blocked the issuance of tags to people who couldn't prove their citizenship with a Social Security card. North Carolina and Pennsylvania ask fewer questions. That is a big plus here. Kimmeytown is inhabited almost entirely by Guatemalan immigrants who, around 1993, suddenly started showing up in their thousands. 

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Do-It-All Government

Posted by Dr. Terry Stoops at 09:57 AM

Aside from strong leadership and good teachers, what will it take for Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools to improve? This op-ed in the Charlotte Observer has quite a list for you to consider. It includes,

1. Adequate and effective resources, including mentors, tutors and access to laboratory equipment, computers and other necessary materials

2. More active involvement of parents

3. Students' health, nutrition, and housing needs

4. Behavior and discipline problems

Now that is not too much to ask - is it?

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Eden, NC: The fight for a Greenway.

Posted by Michael Moore at 09:05 AM

The folks in Eden, NC are talking about greenways, with respect to our luncheon speaker yesterday greenways was just one of the topics.  Is a city greenway constitutional?  

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Liberals Oppose Minimium Wage Increases?

Posted by Dr. Michael Sanera at 08:51 AM

Not much new in this Thomas Sowell article on Chicago's new minimum wage, except the reaction by some liberals.  Some of them, including Mayor Daley and Andrew Young, seem to be getting the message,  a $10 ($13 if no benefits) per hour minimum wage for big box stores is bad for minorities.

According to Sowell: 

"What was uncommon was the reaction. Chicago's Mayor Richard M. Daley denounced the bill as "redlining," since it would have the net effect of keeping much-needed stores and jobs out of black neighborhoods. Both Chicago newspapers also denounced the bill.

The crowning touch came when Andrew Young, former civil rights leader and former mayor of Atlanta, went to Chicago to criticize local black leaders who supported this bill."

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