So the investigator who helped out Meg Scott Phipps, Jim Black, Thomas Wright and Mike Easley had her wings clipped by her boss while looking into Bev Perdue's campaign finances?
The lead investigator at the State Board of Elections said Thursday that board chairman Larry Leake ordered her not to interview some witnesses during a probe into 42 undisclosed campaign flights by Gov. Bev Perdue.
Kim Strach, the deputy director of campaign finance at the board, said Leake, who like Perdue is a Democrat, told her to end her investigation without interviewing Zach Ambrose, the governor's longtime chief of staff and campaign manager.
Jim Morrill reports on a new poll by PPP that spells big trouble for the Democratic stranglehold on legislative majorities in North Carolina:
The poll by the Democratic-leaning firm shows Obama's approval in the state is 46 percent while disapproval is 50 percent. But, says polling director Tom Jensen, "The big concern for Democrats at the state level is that voters unhappy with Obama are planning to vote Republicans for the Legislature this fall by a margin of 80-6."
The Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies (LIACS) never holds graduation ceremonies; degrees are not bestowed upon its students. The Institute defies the norms of higher education in other ways, too: There is no requirement, for instance, that students endure hours of slumber-inducing lectures on chemistry, algebra, or accounting. In fact, attendance is optional, and admission is free.
We, the 20 million students of the Institute, call ourselves "Dittoheads" because we almost always agree with our instructor. This is another way in which the LIACS differs from conventional institutions of higher learning: Every lecture is delivered by one man: Rush Limbaugh. Among students, he is also known as "El Rushbo." His radio program, on the Excellence in Broadcasting (EIB) Network, is by far the most popular in the United States. Dittoheads here in the Triad absorb Limbaugh's lectures on Rush Radio 94.5 FM.
Because his ideas clash with the enlightened dogma espoused by The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN and the big-three networks, Rush is routinely ridiculed by the "state-controlled media." Accordingly, it was with trepidation that I picked up Rush Limbaugh: An Army of One, a new biography by Zev Chafets.
Reuben Young, once the chief legal adviser for former Gov. Mike Easley, must sit down with lawyers representing several media outlets and be interviewed under oath about whether e-mail messages about public business were ordered to be destroyed while Easley was in office.
Richard Moore, the state's former treasurer, yesterday took exception to a report issued by the SBOE that made it seem as if he had not filed report required by state law.
R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr., the long-time editor of American Spectator magazine, has committed a public service with his latest volume, After the Hangover: the Conservatives' Road to Recovery. The book is worthwhile for two reasons: First, Tyrrell reminds us that, although politics and culture are linked, they are not synonymous. In other words, a political victory is only half of the battle. And second, for youngsters or newcomers to the Right, Hangover provides an insider's perspective on the founding of the conservative movement.
A sweeping victory at the election box does not always translate into a significant cultural shift--certainly not when the victors are Republicans. This is because, Tyrrell writes, "The media, the universities, the arts, government bureaucracy-all these nondemocratic locales are smokestack industries of Kultursmog."
The term is unfamiliar, yes, but it is very useful. Tyrrell uses it to describe "the pollution of our culture by politics, almost exclusively liberal politics." It is impossible to read your daily paper, watch the news, or scan your child's textbook without choking on the Kultursmog. The author provides several specific examples, including the assertion that Al Gore won the Florida vote in 2000, that Bush lied about Saddam's WMDs, and that Clinton was victimized by a "vast, right-wing conspiracy." All three claims are sheer nonsense, of course, but they have become part of the "conventional wisdom" believed by many, if not most, of your neighbors.
Raleigh - NCGOP Chairman Tom Fetzer released the following statement concerning the State Board of Elections' report:
"An initial review of the State Board of Elections report pertaining to Governor Bev Perdue's campaign air travel leaves us with two obvious conclusions: First, Bev Perdue and her campaign have lied about their failure to disclose illegal flights. We now know that they knew about many of these flights as early as October of 2008 and willfully and knowingly declined to disclose those those flights in at least two campaign reporting cycles, in violation of campaign finance laws. And the lame excuse of a computer software glitch being the cause of the problems has proven to be just that: lame
Second, from the content, tone and even release date of the report, it is obvious that the State Board of Elections has lost all credibility and the public is justifiable in its cynicism that the the SBOE will pursue the truth and hold the Perdue campaign committee fully accountable.
