Cabarrus Cheap Seats

17 responses so far ↓

• 1 LiberalNC // Aug 3, 2007 at 2:07 am

  Don’t forget to thank the NC Democrats for approving the state budget and getting the research campus all this money. Every single NC Republican voted against the budget, with the exception of our own Fletcher Hartsell. The other 2 Republican state representatives from Cabarrus County (Johnson and Barnhart) voted AGAINST the budget and thus against the money for the NCRC and against the money for the Rowan Community College to fund their biotech education. I hope the people of Kannapolis will remember who really supports the NCRC and who just proclaims they do.

• 2 Aaron // Aug 3, 2007 at 2:32 pm

  Wow, you gathered all that from the fact that the Dems voted for the budget and the Republicans against it?

  Call me a pessimist if you will but maybe, just maybe, they voted against the budget for a few other reasons.

  Reasons like:

  35 million dollars to Goodyear Tire Co to upgrade their manufacturing facility.
  500k to the “motorsports consortium fund” (whatever that is)

  100k to the “Hosiery Technology Center” (again, whatever the hell that is)

  275k to recruit minorities into pharmacy schools.

  300k to market the graveyard of the atlantic

  and so on and so on.

  But yeah, you’re right, those damnable republicans hate the research campus. They want all of towel city on the welfare rolls. You caught them!

  So what you are saying is if the Dems requested 25 million dollars to kill the first born male child of every household, a vote against the budget for that reason is a vote against everything else that might be contained therein??

• 3 LiberalNC // Aug 3, 2007 at 3:01 pm

  I don’t know all the Republican reasons for voting against the budget. For several of them I’m sure it was just about following “party discipline”. I’m just saying that if it wasn’t for the Democrats this budget wouldn’t have been approved and this budget included all that money for the research campus. That’s a fact and nothing you say can disguise that simple truth. The budget included the money for the research campus and all Republicans voted against it (except Hartsell), period.

• 4 Aaron // Aug 3, 2007 at 5:55 pm

  Maybe you need to re-read my comments. Your comments make no sense so I’ll disect them:

  1. You don’t know all the reasons…:

  I gave you 4 very good reasons that any decent fiscal conservative would take issue with.

  2. If it wasn’t for the Dems this never would have passed:

  The Dems control the House and Senate in North Carolina. The Republicans could have stayed home and it would have passed. We should thank them for sheer force of number?

  3. This budget included the funding for the NCRC:

  So would any other budget proposal that anyone else would have put into committee.

  4: That’s a fact and nothing you say can disguise that simple truth:

  Where is the disguise?

  5. Republicans voted against it:

  Again, look at my original reply to your comment. The fact that they voted against the budget does not mean they are against the research campus just the millions of millions of millions of dollars of back scratching that you apparantly dont mind having your tax money spent on.

  So I should say thanks for a budget that keeps my taxes at current rates, and spends more money than the previous budget.
  Well, thanks but no thanks.

• 5 LiberalNC // Aug 4, 2007 at 12:21 am

  Let me close by repeating one more time what you have a hard time understanding.
  FACT: Every single NC Republican voted against the budget, with the exception of our own Fletcher Hartsell.
  FACT: This budget contained the money for the NCRC and the money for the Rowan Community College to fund their biotech education.

  Aaron said: “The fact that they voted against the budget does not mean they are against the research campus.”
  Like i said before, I wouldn’t know. It’s good to know that you can either read Rep. Johnson and Barnhardt’s brains or that you talked to them, because I didn’t hear their reasons to vote against the budget anywhere. The only one I heard from was Hartsell and he made sense when he explained why he voted FOR the budget.

  I’ll gladly let you have the last word. Have a nice day.

• 6 Aaron // Aug 4, 2007 at 10:56 am

  The Last Word…

  Read the last paragraph in my original response to you:

  So what you are saying is if the Dems requested 25 million dollars to kill the first born male child of every household, a vote against the budget[that contained said funding to kill said children] is a vote against everything else that might be contained therein??

  Since you haven’t responded to any of the FACTS concerning the PORK that is contained in the budget or the fact that basic subtraction will show you that the dems passed the budget by sheer force of number, your argument has become semantical and based on your “party discipline.”

  We’ll just have to disagree on this one. You apparantly love the government spending over 100 million dollars on pork barrel projects while a bridge in our area falls apart. I think that perhaps, we should re-prioritize…

• 7 Justin Thibault // Aug 6, 2007 at 10:54 pm

  There’s a story that I remember from my days studying German. People were criticizing Martin Luther’s translation which pretty much standardized German. He would point out they were criticizing him in the his vernacular.

  That was my first impression when reading LiberalNC’s comment. It’s been Republicans that have been at the head of the NCRC effort: Hartsell, Haas, Barnhart, Johnson, Steen, Haas, White, and Carruth - for starters. They got the bandwagon rolling. So, I’ll concede that the NCRC monies were in the budget that the GOP opposed; but how did the NCRC get there in the first place. So, it’s a bit disingenuous for him to bring up one vote and ignore all of the other efforts; but I’m going to be a fair…My challenge to the Dems that read this blog: name three democrats that have been in the lead on those whole NCRC issue.

  This should be amusing. Even in the minority, the GOP has been doing the real leading around here - on this issue at least.

  Anyone who has ever served in a committee will tell you that the power is not your vote; but being able to set the agenda. From the barely legal vote on the lottery to the abominable process that produced the budgets while they’ve been in power - Democrats in the General Assembly have set an agenda of dubious priorities.

• 8 LiberalNC // Aug 7, 2007 at 12:08 am

  “name three democrats that have been in the lead on those (sic) whole NCRC issue.”
  Since there are hardly any Democrats in a position of power locally, that would be impossible. So you know I can’t name 3..because there aren’t 3 elected..DUH!
  I’m sure Mayor Misenheimer worked hard on this though, he’s a Democrat.
  I could ask the same Question about the IBT. The 2 people that worked the hardest on that are Bob Misenheimer and Scott Padgett, both Democrats (even though Padgett has been registered “unaffiliated” for a while).

• 9 LiberalNC // Aug 7, 2007 at 12:13 am

  By the way… I posted a comment on the budget, because your post was about the money for the NCRC in the state budget. Your post wasn’t about “who got the NCRC here in the first place”. I felt it was only normal to point out who got the budget you were talking about approved..and it wasn’t the NC Republicans.

• 10 Justin Thibault // Aug 7, 2007 at 7:21 am

  I felt it was only normal to point out who got the budget you were talking about approved..and it wasn’t the NC Republicans.

  NCRC funding wouldn’t have made it in a budget crafted by Republicans?

• 11 LiberalNC // Aug 7, 2007 at 2:15 pm

  Am I saying that? no.
  I’m just pointing out that when YOU put a post up about the State budget and obviously agreeing with the money that’s in that budget for the NCRC, it would only be honest to say who voted for that budget and who didn’t.
  It’s like me putting up a post about how great of a president Reagan was and then just “forgetting” to mention he was a republican. Wouldn’t you think that was a little dishonest?
  That’s my point.

• 12 Justin Thibault // Aug 7, 2007 at 3:34 pm

  I didn’t really cover the state budget; because others have done a pretty honest job about it. I would suggest that you take a look at the article that Tara Servatius wrote on her blog - it has stuff that our friends at BlueNC choose to ignore when they’re cheering on Tax Hike Mike. Here’s a taste:

  On Friday at 9:30 PM, Sen. Eddie Goodall was still waiting for a copy of the 300-page state budget that he was due to vote on at 9 AM the next morning. At that point, he and his colleagues still hadn’t read it.
  Holding back the budget until the last minute is part of a long-standing tradition on the part of the Democrats who run the legislature.

  You can read the remainder of the article here

  I disagree that it’s “only honest” to characterize a budget vote as an up or down vote on the NCRC. While it is factual that all but one GOP members of the NC Legislature voted against the budget - there were many of reasons why they voted that way. I wouldn’t call it a “half-truth”; but giving you 60% would be generous.

  The point - that you’re missing - is that a budget was going to get passed at some point. It was Republicans had more to do with those items getting into the budget than Democrats did. It was Republicans that did the early work on the NCRC. I know that this runs contrary to the Star Warsesque, Good vs. Evil picture that

• 13 Aaron // Aug 7, 2007 at 5:29 pm

  Justin,
  It’s funny you mention Tara Servatious’ blog, it’s where I got my examples in the first comment I left.

  Also, I wasn’t aware that all Americans were so polarized that they couldn’t agree as to the greatness of Reagans presidency without seeing the little “R” next to his name.

  LiberalNC
  As for what you are saying:
  It’s been repeated throughout the post. “Thank the Dems for passing the budget and funding the NCRC.”
  You’ve been confronted with the pork and neglected to respond to the obvious reasons why most republicans would vote against it. Maybe Lib’s use the “can you read my mind?” dodge but the average republican knows what their representatives stand for…

• 14 LiberalNC // Aug 8, 2007 at 12:17 am

  Gees dudes..let’s cut the B.S. please!
  The title of the original post was “North Carolina Research Campus Update: Another Doubt Dispelled”.
  The post then goes on to list all the money that’s reserved in the state budget for the NCRC.
  All i am trying to say is that it was the Democrats that passed the budget with that money in it (not more and not less). The Republicans didn’t. I didn’t start a whole discussion about the whole budget which has a lot of good and some bad stuff in it. I’m just merely saying that if you mention that part of the budget it wouldn’t hurt to mention who voted for it. I just think it’s a little bit of honesty.
  I’m sure some republicans do some good stuff too and if I ever do a post on a subject that I think republicans did a good job on I’m sure I will mention it. It doesn’t hurt that bad to admit that the “other side” sometimes does a good job too.
  Let me start: I wholeheartedly applaud our republican County Commissioners for expanding the garbage recycling program to the whole of the county, which they did at the latest Commissioners meeting.
  I’m sure some local Republicans supported the NCRC in other ways, so it was very surprising to me that they didn’t vote for this budget, for whatever reasons which I haven’t heard from them yet.
  Conclusion: the topic of this post was the part of the state budget that provides the NCRC with funding. The Democrats voted for it, most republicans didn’t. That’s all I’m saying. Is it that hard to admit that I’m right on that?
  This whole debate has made me feel like I’m back in Middle School.

• 15 Aaron // Aug 8, 2007 at 7:24 pm

  What happened to “the last word”?

• 16 LiberalNC // Aug 8, 2007 at 11:44 pm

  I just got it.

• 17 Justin Thibault // Aug 9, 2007 at 7:04 am

  LiberalNC, I understand where you’re coming from - the comment I took issue with was this one:
  

  I hope the people of Kannapolis will remember who really supports the NCRC and who just proclaims they do.

  I think the point is that - in spite of that vote - Johnson and Barnhart have been driving forces behind the NCRC.