Charges stem from misreporting of campaign flights, hmm where did we hear that one before, as well as not disclosing Sitton was being paid an additional $32,000 — $2,000 a month for 16 months — to work full-time for Perdue’s campaign with money funneled through a banking firm operated by Reichard called Tryon Capital Partners.

Perdue did not comment directly but referred to her statement on the investigation:

"I will, however, reiterate what I made clear at the beginning of the investigation, and what the investigation has confirmed: as a citizen, a candidate for public office, and an elected official, I have strived to follow the rules and laws,"

"We believe a large proportion of today’s high unemployment is structural in nature, resulting from a huge skill mismatch between the jobs being created and the existing skill sets of jobseekers," said Mark Vitner, a senior economist with Wells Fargo Securities.

Winston-Salem Journal, July 15, 2011

As I have stated in the past with a shrinking business climate and fewer worker bees you will see a general drop in revenue generated for the local governments. This will result in those governments being required to drastically cut budgets and that means laying off more workers, granted we could do with some trimming of public employees around here. Those cuts however won’t be enough to meet deferred cost on expenses the city of Winston-Salem has taken on such as the Baseball stadium and surrounding obligations or plans for a downtown rail line. As the city will have to meet those obligations the only way to do it in a generally smaller and smaller revenue pool is to raise tax rates. Raising taxes on a workforce that is already leaving the area due to high unemployment will just exacerbate the situation in my opinion and in general delay but not solve the problem. As people are taxed more, see fewer opportunities there is a delay in the ultimate leaving of those workers for other areas of the state or country but it is only a delay as they make those plans, it does not stop the migration or the ultimate result.

Maybe it’s time for The Chamber, The Mayor, Winston-Salem Business Inc., Winston-Salem Alliance to stop chasing “Boys of summer” dreams and start wondering why small business after small business is moving outside of the Winston-Salem area or how a almost 43,000 square foot building set empty for TWO YEARS in a prime retail location? By the way I am speaking of the old Circuit City building on Hanes Mall which finally sold in May to a developer who plans to repartition the location into a multi-tenant space.

The first I heard about this was in reference to a article in the Charlotte Observer concerning Lincoln County Sheriff Carpenter plans to skirt the new public records law Governor Purdue signed by not providing dismissed employees with anything written down about their dismissal but to inform them verbally. The law that was passed opened up public officials records and soon after it was passed papers like the Charlotte Observer made multiple request to law enforcement agencies such as the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department and apparently of the Lincoln County Sheriff for various personnel files. In what can only be viewed as the powerful protecting their own we have the North Carolina Sheriff’s Association, Charlotte’s city attorneys as well as N.C. School Boards Association to name a few all coming out condemning the new law and saying they should not be required to provide such information. Some of those same groups sought an opinion by the N.C. State Attorney General’s Office on the reach of the new law and specifically if it was retroactive and apparently were not happy with the answer they received which was that yes the law was retroactive and yes the law required the written dismissal letters for terminated employees for all state and local agencies.

One would think that makes it pretty clear however per the Charlotte Observer, Sheriff David Carpenter of Lincoln County has no plans to issue any written dismissal letters. The exact quote from the Observer is below as it certainly appears to say the Sheriff doesn’t agree with the State Attorney General’s interpretation of the law and clearly says the Sheriff goes on to say he does not believe the public should have any access to personnel records.

Carpenter, who took office last week, promised to comply with the records law, but said "we’re not going to generate" new documents to satisfy requests by the public.

Read more: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/12/13/1907291/lincoln-county-sheriff-finds-end.html#storylink=misearch#ixzz1RdNOwIdQ

Now this on it’s surface this might not seem so bad but then we have State Senator Pete Brunstetter, a Winston-Salem Republican, submitting a new bill which would reverse the law Perdue signed just last year. Senator Brunstetter’s bill would deny the release of dismissal letters prior to the laws enactment as well as remove any requirement that dismissal letters be written for government employees, thoroughly castrating the open public records law Gov. Purdue signed sending North Carolina back to the time it was considered one of the most closed access Governments.

If the disciplinary action under subdivision (11) of this subsection was a dismissal, a copy of the written notice notice, if created, of the final decision of the head of the department setting forth the specific acts or omissions that are the basis of the dismissal. This subdivision does not require the creation of a notice of dismissal if the creation of the notice is not otherwise required by law.

SENATE BILL 554, § 126‑23, (11a)

Aside from that diversion into the powerful wanting to make sure the powerful stay protected let’s get back to Lincoln County for some more of what appears to be abuse of power. It appears there is or was a criminal case going on between the Sheriff’s spokesman and a local Blogger/News Reporter. I would point you to the post at the News & Observer however they seem to have pulled the post, interesting. So I would point you to the post at news@norman but hmmm, it’s been pulled as well so let’s try the link to the story at The Carolina Scoop but well guess what, it’s missing as well not to mention Google’s cache has no direct hits to the story. It’s almost like somebody has sent DMCA compliant letters to any source of the story so let me see if I can find some more information, ah here we go, “Sheriff’s spokesman charges journalist with harassment.”

Ken Fortenberry, editor and publisher of the Denver-based weekly newspaper news@norman, has threatened to sue TheCarolinaScoop, a Lincolnton Web site, for libel.

Scoop publisher and editor Jon Mayhew, who has also been the sheriff’s publication information officer since June, responded Friday by issuing a criminal summons against Fortenberry for alleged harassment. 

The key here is Jon Mayhew acts as the spokesman for the Sheriff’s Department yet runs a website which competes for readers and one would assume advertising dollars with sites such as the news@norman . Unfortunately other than this single news source it is near impossible to find anything else about what is going on in Lincoln County especially concerning Ken Fortenberry, Jon Mayhew and Sheriff Carpenter. There’s a good number of stories about the prior sheriff’s problems but try to find anything about the above story and it’s a brick wall.

This is why open records and a free press are so important yet North Carolina seems determined to stay an old boys club with the elite protecting the elites and law enforcement doing whatever they want to do, legal or not. Here’s hopping this post doesn’t spark some search warrant…

The next question is will he seek a trial or a deal?  

Over the past few weeks, people in this tight-knit university community have not seen much of John Edwards.

the possibility that a federal grand jury in Raleigh could soon hand up an indictment against him in a case centering on campaign finance practices.

One would think taking two years to track the millions is a bit much but then again how long have they been looking for Osama?

Edwards Lies Low, but That Won’t Last, New York Times 2.28.11

What’s really sad to see if how these groups appear to be evading campaign finance laws and if one politician and group is doing it you have to assume the others are as well. Basically per the report the 527 setup to raise money for Edwards also setup an LLC in which they just funneled the money from a 527 which has to report it’s spending to an LLC which doesn’t.

For the full story read the NY Post article.

When the 9/11 attack happened the country united behind President Bush in his strong response against the Islamic terrorists who committed the act. The Clinton administration had already declared Saddam Hussein a danger to the world and passed a resolution supporting regime change. George H. W. Bush had given his regime weapons of mass destruction to use against the Iranian troops he was fighting, and later he used poison gas, a chemical weapon against the northern Kurds killing men, women and children indiscriminately.  He has publicly stated the desire to procure nuclear weapons and had put over one million of his own people under the sand in mass political executions against a helpless people.

While the ties to Al Qaeda may have been tenuous, it was clear that the militancy in Iraq and her terrorist elements were aligned with the Islamic Jihad and had bad intentions toward America. Afghanistan had been an Al Qaeda hot bed where training camps and alliances with the Taliban allowed the terrorist element to flourish and gave all the necessary support that made 9/11 possible. In our own country democrats gave aid and comfort to the terrorist foe by obfuscating on issues like illegal immigration and diminishing the rule of law by litigating from the bench to castrate the system of laws which are required to protect the people and the sovereignty of any nation.

So in the true spirit of national legislative cowardice, as soon as the first shots were fired in Iraq and Afghanistan the democrats most liberal democrats started to rail against the war and find reasons to make it an evil endeavor that did not require such a response. They accused President Bush of being a liar and taking the country to war based on a lie. They obviously forgot that Clinton had already called for regime change, that they had agreed and passed the resolution, that the US had given Saddam Hussein the WMD’s that were the source of the threat, and that for many years and in spite of our threats Saddam had acted against the myriad of countries surrounding him with virtual impunity. The democrat party was demonstrating yet another pattern or political and national cowardice in the same spirit of Viet Nam. They complained about those who died and were wounded but never acknowledged that it was their political interference that caused a great deal of the problems the American serviceman endured.

Flash Forward to 2010:

The very people who were responsible for the 9/11 attacks are now treated by our government like a special class with consideration for their every need. Americans have been insulted by their representatives and members of government on a daily basis as they allow that very group of people cause inconvenience and downright pain for Americans while they arguably sit back and laugh at the way we’ve all been forced to jump through hoops for them.

Americans are now groped at airports by unskilled minimum wage troglodytes who not only get to make money to serve the Islamic inflicted punishments on the American travelling public, but they also get to a sexual thrill in sticking their hands down the pants of people who with exception of perhaps one individual out of 360 million has ever done anything to deserve it. Travelling by air is now a perversion while cargo and rail travel go on without any supervision or oversight at all. The cowardly politicians and civil servants have their noses stuck so far up the rear end of groups like CAIR, that if they make a sharp turn a broken nose will result.

It has ceased to be about protecting Americans or taking steps to insure the continuity of the American lifestyle. America has become a slave of China, Mexico and Islam and the cowards who lead us are closing down our options to the point where we may one day have to react and they will surely not survive to lead in the aftermath.

Mexico has command posts, observation posts, and sniper nests as much as 90 miles past the border between Mexico and America. Illegal’s get constitutional protections, social security services, discounted educational benefits, and often are able to get them with less trouble than Americans are forced to go through. The cowards who govern in this country have done more to serve those who destroy us than they do for the people of the United States. We as citizens must demand more, complain more, watch more, and hold these people to the levels of service they claim to give us but do not. We are victims of our own government, and our own President who has shown without a doubt that he hates America more and serves everyone else more. When 2012 arrives America will do well to send this liar and dishonest broker packing and look for someone who actually looks to serve the American people. If we do not demand to be the beneficiaries of our own government for a change the downfall and destruction of this great country is certainly inevitable.

You have to make the choice.