By clicking the title above,this video from the New York Times(not a conservative,lottery hating people)shows the real pit falls of a "too good to be true fix" to education. As you will find only 35% of the actually money from the lottery reaches schools. Another 50% goes to over head and prizes,not to mention the lottery is raising its prizes every few months. They say this is to get more people to play but what it really does is just take more of the money from schools. The numbers for the lottery's first year and the years to follow were 1.2 billion dollars a year,but in reality was only 225.77 million the first year and the following year was still below the 1.2. billion estimate giving to us by the "lottery fixes all" crowd. I remember when the lottery was passed back in 2005(though the first ticket wasn't sold till 2006)the dark cloud it brought with it. The only way the lottery was passed was by false statements and down right dirty politics. They sent the Assembly home with the promise they were done for the session,only to call them back a week or so later to shove the lottery bill through in the last minute. The proponents knew that two legislators would not be present because one was getting married and the other was going in for surgery. Even with these two missing it still ended up a tie vote,but not for the benefit of the people of North Carolina the law is,if there is a tie vote in the senate then then Lt.Governor can break the tie. As they say the rest is history and North Carolina was hoodwinked into having a lottery. I always said "if they're that dirty to pass it,how good of a chance do you have to win it".
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Smith: Perdue plan 'hypocritical'
Fred Smith says Beverly Perdue's public-financing plan is "hypocritical."
The Republican gubernatorial candidate told Dome that he objects to her plan to create an endowment to fund positive campaigns for governor and reduce the influence of contributors.
"She is the picture child of the politician who goes to the rich and powerful and raises money using her political position," he said.
He said that Perdue has "shaken down" donors such as country music singer Randy Parton and run ads attacking Democratic rival Richard Moore.
Smith, who has loaned his campaign $1.9 million so far, said he would be willing to make an agreement on personal spending in the general election, avoiding negative ads and holding debates -- three things Perdue's plan would promote.
"If I'm the nominee and she's the nominee, I'd be happy to make a deal with her that there would be no negative ads," he said. "I'll debate her anywhere, any time, and I'll agree to any rules on using personal money. We can do that without having some government program."
Thursday, February 28, 2008
1st TV Ad -- Richard's Agenda for North Carolina
Well lets see how the Dems are doing on tv ads? I have to say that the dems are fighting like cats and dogs. Hopefully they will tear each other apart so that the Republicans can win and put this state on the right track again. though I have to say if i was wanting a dem over another I think Moore is the right one.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Immigration will drive the population of the United States
WASHINGTON (AFP) - sharply upward between now and 2050, and will push whites into a minority, projections by the Pew Research Center showed Monday.
"If current trends continue, the population of the United States will rise to 438 million in 2050, from 296 million in 2005," an increase of nearly 50 percent, the study by the Washington-based think-tank said.
More than 80 percent of the increase will be due to immigrants arriving in the country and their US-born children, who will make up nearly one in five Americans by 2050 compared with one in eight in 2005, it said.
Whites, who currently make up around two-thirds of the US population, will become a minority (47 percent) by 2050, the report said.
The Hispanic population, currently the largest minority group, will triple in size and double in percentage terms from 14 percent in 2005 to 29 percent in 2050, the report said.
The Asian population will roughly double in percentage terms, from five percent to nine percent, while the black population will remain static at around 13 percent.
The projections are based on trends over the past 50 years, during which legal and illegal immigration have played an increasing role in US population growth, the report said.
From 1960 to 2005, new immigrants and their US-born descendants accounted for 51 percent of population increase, and for 58 percent from 1980 to 2005, the report said.
But, the report warned, "possible future changes in immigration policy" could impact the projections.
Illegal immigration has become a top issue in the race for the US presidency, especially among Republican candidates, most of whom favor of a crackdown.
Can Mike Huckabee win the GOP nomination?
this is for all the nay sayers and the doubtful. Mike Huckabee has the entire election been called"the man without a chance" or "he is crazy, and this is nonsense". Though he keeps coming back time and time again from the grave,I mean he won Iowa when he was out spent 20 to 1. He was also down in every poll by atleast 3 to 5 points on super tuesday,but he came back to win just about all those states. Given his rivals a hard fought battle in OK, and MI. So I just want to show those folks who want support a true conservative that he does have a chance since Rommney drop out. By the way for those of you who think Huckabee should have drop out for Mr.HairJob you should know that every poll said that Huckabee supporters 2nd choice was McCain.
Can Mike Huckabee Win?
After crunching all the numbers in.....
Romney cited the "War on Terror" as a reason why he could not continue to try to forestall the nomination process and throw the GOP into a brokered convention. In reality though, the reason he dropped out is that in a three man race most of the remaining delegates are likely to go to McCain or Huckabee.
Key battle ground states for Romney would have been Virginia, Louisiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Carolina, Kentucky, Maryland, Idaho, South Dakota, Texas, Ohio, Vermont and Rhode Island. He simply could not have picked up enough delegates in the southern states with Huckabee in the race. In fact, there isn't a single contest where Romney would have been a sure winner. Maybe Idaho and South Dakota?
Huckabee supporters now need to promote the following strategy.
1. Convince enough Romney voters to support Huckabee giving him a sizeable win in at least 11 of the upcoming primaries.
2. Promote the idea among McCain's supporters that the nomination is all wrapped up creating a sense of apathy to the point where many will stay home on primary day.
3. Promote the idea that since the nomination is probably all wrapped up for McCain, non-conservative Republicans in open primary states ought to vote for Obama to block another Clinton era in the White House.
Here's the rationale for this strategy.
With about 700 delegates in his column and 1,008 still to be chosen, McCain still needs to pick up 491 delegates in the remining state primaries to get to the magic number of 1,191. Simple math tells us that that he needs just to recoup 40 percent of the remaining delegates. Huckabee would have to win well over 500 of these remaining 1,008 delegates to block a majority for McCain.
Is it inevitable? Can Huckabee pull off one of the greatest political upsets of all time and defeat McCain? Although it's not very probably it is possible. It would be on the level of a baseball team taking four straight games to win a World Series after being down 0-3. It a phenomenon that happens every 100 years or so.
Here's a few things to consider:
1. Huckabee does not have to win 60 percent of the votes, but only the plurality in enough states to take enough delegates away from McCain to keep him from the majority.
2. The most likely scenario in which this could occur would be in outright wins in the following states: Virginia, Louisiana, Kansas, Mississipi, Nebraska, North Carolina, Kentucky, Maryland, Idaho, South Dakota, and Texas.
If he won these states decisively and picked up a few delegates in some others with a strong second place showing, he could get around 550 delegates, which would bring his total to over 700. That would effectively block a majority for McCain.
3. Huckabee would then need to convince the state parties whose primary voters went for Romney, that he is the more conservative choice over McCain. It's not a hard case to make. He could do it simply by choosing Romney as a runnning mate.
For now the key is to forestall McCain's nomination by winning in Virginia, Louisiana, Kansas, Mississipi, Nebraska, North Carolina, Kentucky, Maryland, Idaho, South Dakota, and Texas.
Can it be done?
It's amazing to me that conservative talk show hosts Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh were practically begging Huckabee to drop out of the race so that Romney would have a chance on Super Tuesday. Yet now that Romney is out, Huckabee is seen to have no chance.
But he does have a chance and here is why.
McCain supporters are going to stay home in droves thinking the nomination is wrapped up. Some Romney supporters will either switch to Huckabee or stay home. An even more startling development could be that in open primary states, the "Anybody-but-Hillary" Republicans will choose the Democrat ballot and vote for Barack Hussein Obama.
Lousiania and Kansas are holding closed primaries tomorrow, but in Washington state an open primary ballot opportunity may convince conservative Republicans to cast a protest vote for Obama.
If tomorrow's primaries show a trend in this direction, there may be a snowball effect and we will have a race again.
