Killer tornadoes smash Raleigh and other areas of Central and Eastern NC
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Here is just one of many videos from Youtube, some in Raleigh. This video includes a compilation of a walk through a hard hit area near Saunders Street, then some footage appearing to be from Sanford and Wilson. Many areas were badly hit and at least 23 people were killed, by what appears to have been an attack of at least 60 tornadoes on Saturday, April 16, 2011.
editor @ April 18, 2011
Government doors stay open. Federal budget compromised.
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Government doors stay open.
Here’s the federal government slant they’d like you to believe. Harry Reid and John Boehner were able to negotiate a budget agreement. President Obama is pleased that government is not forced to shut down.
Mainstream media will be reporting optimistic, celebratory news to show how wonderful it is that the two state-sponsored political parties were able to iron out differences and work together on a federal budget compromise.
Reporting of the truth about the budget, planned to increase the national debt, appears closed, kept from the mainstream.
It is true. The federal budget has definitely been compromised, just as it has been for years. This is planned bankrupting of the economy by budgets in which there are too many extremely expensive funding programs and big government departments that are sacred cows.
The President and Congress are planning to implement another out-of balance budget plan which will further bankrupt the federal government which has grown to 14.281 Billion dollars. The deficit numbers at the US Debt Clock are speeding up!
Much of what you’ve been seeing in the televised news media concerning a threatened government shutdown due to the House and Senate battling over 36 billion dollars in spending cuts, and arguments about whether or not to cut off federal funding for Planned Parenthood, has been nothing more than theatrics, with all the major players failing to tell the people the ugly truth. The truth is that there will be, (by plan!) no balanced budget. They can’t balance the budget since the federal government and elected politicians want to spend, spend, spend.
All the discussion about withholding funding of Planned Parenthood being a sticking point has very little to do with the proper running of government. It is nothing more than a distraction issue to keep the people divided and bickering rather than demand an actual balanced budget.
Recently, just one day of launching Tomahawk cruise missiles into a distant country (Libya) we weren’t at war with cost about 150 million dollars. Let’s see Congress get real bold and take back the power to start wars rather than serve the beck and call of the UN. It is not just Obama who thinks the President can launch us into wars. George Bush’ simultaneous wars were costing over a billion per month. That is a lot of zeros but it translates to real indebtedness.
A reduction of 37 billion dollars is less than 1% of the spending they plan to do. Double digit percentage cuts were needed. If you and I ran our household economy like this, we would be going deeper and deeper into debt and lose everything. If a small business were to do this, their creditors would shut them down. When deep in debt, the only way out of it is either to drastically increase revenue or drastically reduce the spending. Since the working class is already at the stress point, revenue increases would have to come from those who can afford to pay more by doing away with tax deductions for expenses only the wealthy can afford, such as private jets, yatchs, real estate holdings, and other write-offs that you and I cannot afford in the first place. The idea of reducing spending by getting back to an affordable defense budget and reducing the extravagant financing of the ever-encroaching and developing police state, where cops all look like like SWAT, seems to be sacred cows. To have a military strong enough to ward off all attacks is one thing, but the US spends more on defense than the next 10 countries combined. That kind of budget planning is unsustainable and idiotic.
Anyone who is able to balance their checkbook should see through the magicians smoke and mirrors and know that even if Reid and Boehner sent chocolates and flowers to each other, there is no cause for monumental celebration. An agreement to reduce an already bloated budget by cutting only 37 billion dollars or thereabouts is just a plan to continue in the red and further run up the debt. Does the federal government plan to fix the economy by getting serious about spending reductions? Ever?
If government had to plan to keep all planned expenditures at or slightly below projected revenue levels, double digit percent cuts in spending is required. Even a 10% reduction in spending, or about 370 billion dollars (or half the wall street bailout in 2008 during the Bush presidency), would still not put the federal government in budget surplus mode.
Although the politicians and mainstream media are doing a disservice by not reporting on the stark realities, so visibly displayed by the US Debt Clock, there are some segments of the population who have reason to celebrate. For example, this is very good news for those in the military who were in a panic because they weren’t sure if they would be getting paid, and when they might see their next paycheck. Many low-ranking enlisted personnel in the military live from paycheck to paycheck, and have no savings. They depend on that paycheck arriving on time.
Also celebrating are many government employees including the bureaucrats who have job security unlike anyone in the private sector. When you see agencies such as the NHTSA wanting to send hundreds of thousands of dollars to several states so that they will put up unconstitutional motorcycle roadblocks and hand out safety propaganda literature to promote helmets that are 63% ineffective, taxpayers should wonder how much they pay those statisticians and middle managers who come up with those figures and those ideas.
The federal government is the largest employer in the United States. At the end of the last millenium, during the Clinton administration, there were budget surpluses. The idea of budget surpluses changed drastically to budget deficits under the G.W. Bush administration which ran up over a trillion dollars in debt with invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, followed by sudden massive bailouts of mortgage lenders, investment bankers, and insurance companies during the final months of his failed presidency. The strategies of bailing out the wealthiest entities that are too big to fail was like stabbing a sword into the heart, but not of the wealthy. Instead of paying for their own gambling losses government intervened, forcing payments and indebtedness onto the middle class and the working class.
The Federal Reserve Bank, which is not federal but private, must be loving these out of control spending sprees, as the interest payments on the debt is making them and their few banker friends, many of whom are foreigners, wealthier than over 300 million Americans combined.
So as other news sources will be optimistically posting headlines cheering the fact that the government is open, you have to ask if it is really open government or if we are all being led down the wrong path, by plan. At least it is great to be in America where alternative news media sources are still allowed to rant from a different perspective than the mainstream media.
This is the NC Home editors’ opinion. It is what it is.
admin @ April 9, 2011
Checkpoints anti-profiling bill not stopping
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H381 receives favorable committee report!
Raleigh (AMP) April 6, 2011
North Carolina House Bill 381, H381, titled Checking Station Pattern Selection, which most people in the motorcycling community “should” favor since it will clarify motorcycle only roadblocks (MOR) otherwise referred to as checking stations or checkpoints, are prohibited in NC was heard in Judiciary Subcommittee B yesterday, where there was a committee substitute, and received a FAVORABLE report. It is heading back to be put on the calendar for the House. I believe it will get scheduled as a 2nd Reading of the bill, and then go directly into a 3rd reading of the bill (unless the Speaker of the House does an unexpected move). It is quite possible for a motion to arise on the floor of the House to ask that the bill be scheduled for the House Transportation Committee, as a courtesy prior to any vote.
Expect it to clear the House and move to the Senate with plenty of time to meet crossover deadlines.
To see H381 Checking Station Pattern Selection and check on its’ status here is the link:
http://www.ncleg.net/gascripts/BillLookUp/BillLookUp.pl?Session=2011%20%…
For our last report on this bill, see http://boltusa.org/node/231/ NC Reduce Profiling
editorraleigh @ April 7, 2011
Let Those Who Ride Decide – Motorcycle Helmets
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Editorial
Urge the NC Senate Transportation Committee to support SB 480. Let Those Who Ride Decide.
Motorcycles are the original green vehicle, with almost twice the fuel mileage as passenger automobiles, and half the traffic congestion and half the parking footprint. As such, their use should be encouraged. Motorcycle helmets are a terrible nuisance, often torturous, and can be dangerous*.
Reference: NHTSA Office of Defects Investigations, complaints database, and recalls database. http://ns3.us/odi In just 3 years since the end of 2007, there has been a 2000% increase in the number of official complaints filed about motorcycle helmets compared to the previous 12 years since 1995.
All but 20 states allow adults to make their own decision. Of the remaining 20 states, most have active repeal legislation. North Carolina has opposed this individual liberty for 40 years.
As an avid motorcyclist for 43 years, I have studied this issue extensively. I refuse to wear a helmet. Instead, I have studied the laws, and have taught many people in North Carolina how to fight helmet tickets in court. One ticket issued to me resulted in a 2 day trial in Superior Court, and cost the state an estimated $8000. The trooper had to commute from Yadkin County, keeping him away from patrol for several days. During the two day trial, cases regarding actual criminals were not heard. The judge was furious at the legislators for passing such bad legislation. This is also true of other judges I have appeared before. From what I understand, DA and judges across the state now refuse to allow helmet tickets to go to trial. Courts should be used for trying criminals rather than trying good people of principle who believe in individual liberty in America.
Please support Senate Bill 480 as an acknowledgment of individual liberty and the right to decide. If the bill is enacted, those who want the false sense of safety which helmets provide will still be able to wear them.
Editor
editor @ April 2, 2011
Ron Paul to visit NC State Monday
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Ron Paul is coming to Raleigh tomorrow. That is the buzz anyhow. I confirmed it with two unofficial sources, but you might want additional verification before you head out the door and end up at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Monday, March 28, 2011
7:00 PM
NCSU McKimmon Center, 1101 Gorman Street Raleigh, NC
Congressman Ron Paul will be speaking at the McKimmon Center at NC State. The event is FREE and open to the public. Invite your friends and family and let’s give Ron Paul a warm southern welcome!
admin @ March 27, 2011
Felon arrested in Raleigh found guilty
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RALEIGH March 21, 2011
United States Attorney George E.B. Holding announced that in federal court today VICTOR ALEXANDER HOLT, 25, of Jacksonville, North Carolina, pled guilty before United States District Judge James C. Dever III, to aiding and abetting the unlawful possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 922(g).
A Federal Grand Jury returned a Criminal Indictment on January 5, 2011.
On December 7, 2009, police officers were parked near a night club off of New Bern Avenue in Raleigh. Officers heard three gunshots coming from a nearby intersection. Officers pulled behind the vehicle from which the shots appeared to have been fired. Upon activating their lights in an attempt to make a stop, the vehicle sped away. Police gave chase.
During the chase the vehicle drove through a yard on Luther Road. A firearm was tossed from the vehicle into the yard. Officers continued the chase. Eventually, the vehicle stopped and the occupants exited and ran. All were apprehended and police later recovered the firearm.
During the arrest HOLT made statements indicating he had possessed the firearm.
This case was part of the Project Safe Neighborhoods(PSN) initiative which encourages federal, state, and local agencies to cooperate in a unified “team effort” against gun crime, targeting repeat offenders who continually plague their communities.
At sentencing, set for June, 2011, HOLT faces up to 10 years’ imprisonment.
Investigation of this case was conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Raleigh Police Department. Assistant United States Attorney William Gilmore represented the government.
admin @ March 27, 2011
NC Bill Clarifies Roadblocks Illegal
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(AMP) Raleigh
If HB 375 passes the NC General Assembly and becomes law, those roadblocks which stop traffic and violate everyones’ rights might become just a bad memory of a state which was rapidly becoming a police state rather than a free state.
House Bill 375 introduced in the NC General Assembly by first-term representative Glen Bradley of Youngsville would clarify that checkpoints are illegal in the state. Law enforcement refers to roadblocks as checkpoints, check points, or safety checkpoints. US Supreme Court has ruled checkpoints are seizures without a warrant and without probable cause, and as such are unconstitutional in violation of the 4th Amendment of the Bill of Rights, but the court specifies there are exceptions which allow police to violate the law in the name of public safety. For example, if police received a tip that there are religious extremists with a bomb on the way to blow up a building, there may be good reason to conduct a roadblock. It would still be illegal, but it would be an allowed exception to the Bill of Rights.
Rep. Glen Bradley explains, he hands out copies of the US Constitution to police when he is stopped, saying they obviously “need them” (to know they are violating peoples’ rights). The US Constitution is law which limits the powers of government in order to preserve the rights of the people.
In the embedded video, Wake County Sheriff Harrison clearly wants to continue the rights violations, and opposes the bill. The Sheriff is in favor of continuing to accept federal funds (which come from taxpayers) to set up checkpoints.
The General Assembly will also review a much weaker bill regarding roadblocks and checkpoints. HB 381 would prevent police from setting up checkpoints in order to profile specific types of vehicles.
Make no mistake about it, those federal funds used to fund states to set up checkpoints do come from taxpayers wallets. The US House of Representatives is currently considering House Resolution HR 904 which would prevent the US Department of Transportation (DOT) from providing federal funds to create motorcycle only roadblocks (MOR).
admin @ March 27, 2011
Severe drought persists in NC
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NC Drought Map
Raleigh – Below normal rainfall has again thrust parts of central North Carolina into severe drought, and water resources officials are encouraging communities to prepare should dry conditions persist.
“At this point, public water supplies are fine in North Carolina,” said Woody Yonts, chairman of the N.C. Drought Management Advisory Council. “But if dry conditions continue to occur, widespread impacts could quickly surface in the next few months as the temperatures begin to gradually increase and the growing season begins.”
Forty-five counties are experiencing drought in North Carolina, according to Thursday’s federal drought map. Of those, 27 Piedmont counties are in severe drought, the second worst level in the four-category system used to measure drought. Thursday marks the first time since September that any part of the Tar Heel State has
experienced severe drought.
The drought map can be seen at ncdrought.org
The introduction of severe drought is based on impacts to streamflows and the flow of rain water into reservoirs – two main factors used to determine drought categories. A lack of significant rainfall in recent months has resulted in below normal groundwater levels and streamflows and less water than needed to replenish reservoirs in parts of North Carolina.
To extend available water supplies and maintain lake levels, many reservoir managers in North Carolina are only allowing minimum releases of water. It’s unusual to take such action to maintain lake levels during the winter when rainfall typically recharges North Carolina’s reservoirs, state water resources officials said.
In addition to the areas experiencing drought, 38 mountain and eastern counties are abnormally dry, according to Thursday’s drought map. Abnormally dry is not a drought category, but means drought could emerge without adequate rainfall.
admin @ March 26, 2011
Find your beat
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nchome.us is creating an independent media network partnership across North Carolina. Many “beats” are available for journalist contributors, and editors.
Every major city in North Carolina will eventually be covered. Each of the major cities in North Carolina will have it’s own nchome.us site. At present, there is a main nchome.us website, and there are also many city.nchome.us websites, already set up and ready to go. All these sites need is reporters/writers/journalists/editors. There are also other sections, such as business, music, politics, US news and world news.
admin @ March 9, 2011
