My latest Magnificent 7 article is now available. The original is located here at Da Tech Guy Blog.

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NC Dems Continue Marching Further Left 

The North Carolina Democratic Party has had yet another shake up.  No, Randy Voller isn’t apologizing for another rape remark, but it does involve him. Chairman Voller has fired manager Robert Dempsey after only nine months on the job, citing ‘personnel issues’. The last personnel issue we saw surrounding Voller was the resignation of Nina Slzosberg-Landis, who took issue with the direction Voller would take the party as well as the methods he used. Members of his own party then called for his resignation.

Let’s also not forget Voller’s Vegas trip, the IRS wanted $286,522 from him, appointing himself interim executive director while Chairman. The appointment was to fill a long empty position vacated in 2012 after the man filling that post, Jay Parmley, was forced to resign amidst allegations of sexual harassment of a male co-worker. The Chairman at the time, David Parker, was also pressured to resign and the Parmley story continued to become more sordid. Voller also was accused of inappropriately hiring of pal Jim Neal for $7,000 a month, as well as Michael Carmichael for $6,000. Charlotte Observer was spot on with the headline, Chairman makes sideshow of N.C. Democratic Party.

Voller only won the Chairman’s spot by 11 votes. He was not a popular choice. In a nutshell, Voller’s summed up by Indy week as, “That he’s arrogant, divisive, lacks rudimentary political judgment or interpersonal skills, and is oblivious to the need to avoid even the appearance of improper conduct.”

The NC Dems were considering taking a hard left turn or at least Chairman Randy Voller was. To replace Dempsey, Voller indicated his choice to be far left radical Ben Chavis. One has to ask if this might be a case of one back scratching another. It would appear that Dr. Chavis endorsed Voller for the NC Democratic party chair position.

This firing of Dempsey apparently came to the surprise of the rest of the NC Democrat party members. Voller’s pick of Chavis would have had to be confirmed by a vote by the state’s executive council.

All of this is now academic, as Voller seems to have been put in his place, or as ‘democratic consultant Perry Woods put it, Voller was “rebuffed”.  WRAL reported on Tuesday evening that the Democrats are now backing off Chavis. Here’s a fun quote from their report:

“Our main concern is to turn anger into action,” Voller said, referencing the discontent Democrats and others have displayed through the Moral Monday protests. He said Chavis could help the party “win elections from Sen. Kay Hagan on down to county commissioners.”

But, he told those on the call, “I’m not submitting his name at this point.”

Turn anger into action? That sounds like fightin’ words. Voller sounds a bit unhinged. How exactly would a convicted arsonist and sexual harasser help elect Democrats? The war on women angles are endless.  Just for fun, let’s look at who Voller wanted to see as his right hand man.

There was an update this morning before this article went up. The NC State Auditor spoke out against Randy Voller and his interim pick and then asked for her $500 donation back and stated she had no confidence it would be spent wisely. Her statement seems to be an indirect slam to Voller’s leadership and to the party as a whole:

“I am doing so because I have no confidence that my contribution (or anyone else’s) will be spent to elect Democrats to local, State and federal office,” the email reads. “[I]t is apparent to me that there is no intent to put checks and balances in place that are necessary for financial accountability and fiscal responsibility. As a CPA and the NC State Auditor, I know what fiscal accountability looks like and what it doesn’t.” – WRAL

Read the whole thing. It’s an especially vicious take-down. My hunch is the Dems try to force Voller out and he doesn’t go quietly. It’s also worth noting what local media is choosing to reveal about Chavis and how they word it. Compare that to what you’re about to read.

Chavis’s Checkered Past

Chavis has quite a checkered past. He had the distinction of being the only executive director of the NAACP to ever be fired. This firing came after allegations Chavis made a secret back room deal to hush up a sexual harassment claim from his assistant to the tune of $332,400. To help finance that hush up, Chavis was alleged to have stolen $64,000. The sexual harassment deal was bad enough, but after only serving 17 months, Chavis had put the NAACP $3 million in the hole. Chavis’s response to the firing:

Chavis responded, however, by calling the firing a “lynching” and a “crucifixion.” He charged that the NAACP is being controlled by “forces outside the African-American community.” – Solidarity

His firing was also blamed on ‘right-wing jews” by Russel Simmons, who was closely associated with the Nation of Islam and Louis Farrakhan and of which Ben Chavis Muhammad was now a part of. By the way, these days Farrakhan is still peddling his special brand of hate.

The Nation of Islam

The NAACP turn of events wouldn’t be the first sexual harassment charge Chavis would see. After leaving the NAACP, Chavis hung his hat at the Nation of Islam as one of Louis Farrakhan’s right hand men. Chavis then started using the name Ben Chavis Muhammad.  While at the Nation of Islam, he was put in charge of the controversial Mosque 7 in New York City; the mosque made famous as where Malcolm X preached and the site of quite a bit of violence.  While with the Nation of Islam, Chavis had another sexual harassment claim leveled against him that involved a married woman he was supposed to be giving martial counseling to. The amount this time was $135,000.

More controversy surrounding Chavis when he was forced to condemn some rather vile comments by fellow Nation of Islam member Khalid Muhammad.

In a Nov. 29 speech full of invective and coarse language, Muhammad lashed out at Jews, calling them the “blood suckers of the black nation” who “crucified Jesus in a kangaroo court” and who control the country’s financial system, including the Federal Reserve. – Chicago Tribune

Khalid Muhammad was ultimately removed by Farrakhan, but it took both houses of Congress censuring him to make that happen. Muhammad was also the national chairman for the New Black Panther party. Side note on the Federal Reserve, Dr. Chavis is all for “Occupying” it.

The Wilmington 10

In recent North Carolina history Governor Bev Perdue pardoned the Wilmington ten. Chavis was one of the ten. Chavis was working with the United Church of Christ at the time and was dispatched to Wilmington in January, the month before major violence broke out. Don’t let the affiliation with a church make you think he was in Wilmington to hold a sermon and congregation picnic. Chavis was ordained as a ‘Black Nationalist Minister‘ and part of the movement of the same name led by Albert Cleague. Cleague was known for his book, Black Messiah, in which he portrayed Jesus as a black revolutionary.

For those unfamiliar, the Wilmington ten, here’s a quick synopsis. This is by no means a full accounting, but an overview.

On February 6 of 1971, a boycott stemming from controversy about black inclusion in local schools ended with a grocery store being fire bombed, looting, property damage, rioting and multiple deaths in Wilmington. In the days leading up to the 6th of February, two prior arson attempts had been made on the grocery store before it was finally burned down.

Those responding to the fire said they were shot at from rooftops. A black teen was shot by police that night and a day or so later a white man was shot and killed. The National Guard (reportedly over 600 strong) had to be called in to put a stop to the violence. The trial became more about proving political and racial motivations than it was about determining if the ten really did commit the arson. Amnesty International entered the scene and claimed the ten were “political prisoners”.

In 1978, the  NY Times did an article on it indicating that an anonymous source claimed he committed the crimes at the urging of Chavis. At any rate, Chavis had some clear involvement in the goings on that night. Excerpt from UNC’s This Month In History with emphasis added:

The largest demonstration following the assassination of King took place in the historic port city of Wilmington. Race relations there had worsened following the desegregation of the city’s high schools at the beginning of the 1969/70 school year. There were frequent clashes between white and African American students resulting in a number of arrests and expulsions. The hostilities reached a boiling point in late January 1971 when Wilmington’s African American students announced a boycott of the city’s schools. Ben Chavis, an experienced activist from Oxford, N.C., was called to Wilmington to organize the boycott.

Shortly after Chavis’s arrival, two downtown businesses were burned, and there was evidence of other arson attempts. African American activists were blamed for the incidents. Members of the Ku Klux Klan and a group called The Rights of White People began to patrol downtown Wilmington armed and openly hostile to the boycotting students and their leaders. On the night of February 6, 1971, several fires were set, and a small downtown grocery store was firebombed. When firemen reported to the scene, they were shot at by snipers on the roof of the Gregory Congregational Church, in which Chavis and a number of students were barricaded. Two people were killed and several were injured during the battle that raged that night and into the next day. Finally, on February 8, National Guardsmen forced their way into the church only to find it empty.

Bev Perdue called it ‘naked racism‘ and pardoned them in her last days in office. The prosecutor, Jay Stroud called her decision a “mistake” and the case had received a unanimous verdict:

“I think she has made a mistake,” Stroud said of Perdue on Monday. “The case was prosecuted fairly, and the jury reached a unanimous verdict fairly quickly after a six-week trial. And they found all 10 defendants unanimously guilty of all charges. And I think her decision is flying in the face of the jury’s verdict.” – CNS News

The Forgotten Piece

Chavis’s history with sexual harassment and the anti-semitic Nation of Islam aside, there is another piece of the puzzle missing. That forgotten piece is Chavis’s involvement with the Black Panther party in the late 60’s. Some details can be found in this FBI report.  Some of it is hard to read, but from what is legible, Chavis was an active Black Panther and the report also describes other related groups that played supporting roles in the Charlotte area.

According to the FBI report, Chavis, along with one Jerome Johnson were members of the Afro-American Unity Organization and attended a meeting in Greensboro to establish affiliation with the Black Panther party in California and create a chapter in North Carolina. The report describes Chavis as leading a protest rally on March 3rd, 1969 in Charlotte. Chavis’s title according to the report was “Minister of Information”, while Jerome Johnson was made “Area Captain”.

Also in the FBI report, at another rally in June, Chavis acted as “MC” and the crowd gathered and marched while shouting “power to the people” and giving the black power salute.

Not mentioned in the FBI report is that Chavis and Johnson were both arrested in 1969 for trespassing during a protest over a school closing. Also, their Black Panthers headquarters were raided for suspicion of illegal weapons and two member of the group were jailed. Not long after, the Black Panther split into factions and they had shoot outs between them, which often times included shoot outs with the police. The Oakland Black Panthers disavowed both groups and they seemingly disintegrated not long after.

Chavis himself has recounted part of his involvement with the Black Panthers and the protests in the FBI report in this interview done back in 2007 with Bridgette Sanders and Lois Stickel of UNC Charlotte.

BS: Was there a black panther party?
BC: In the community, not on campus. Well, let me put it this way, there was the beginning of a black panther party and I was involved with that.

It’s this interview that should really bother people who have been watching the increasing rhetoric of Moral Monday and the NC Democrats endorsement of such rhetoric. What Voller is proposing to bring into their party leadership is not just a man with multiple sexual harassment complaints or an arson conviction, it’s a man who believes in the power of “incidents” to force change.

Except from the transcript of the interview. Emphasis added is mine:

BS: Where there any specific incidents on campus that you remember?
BC: Incidents? I remember a lot of incidents.
BS: That for the black cause. And I guess getting at the flag incident is what I’m trying steer you too.
BC: Right, right. There came a point in 1969 when we a, took over the administration building. We lowered the United States flag and put up a black flag. And we presented ten demands to the administration. And basically the demands were to be more inclusive academically. We were concerned about the non academic employees. I can’t believe, at that time we asked that they be paid two dollars an hour. Shows what the economy was back in the ’60s. So yes, that was a big day. It was a very trying day. Because obviously the administration had to decide whether or not to have us arrested or to negotiate. And thank God, they decided to negotiate with us rather than have us arrested. Because we literally chained the Chancellor and the Vice-Chancellor in the building with us. We chained ourselves in the building. We didn’t lock them out; we locked ourselves in the building with them. And a, it was some heated words.

*SNIP*

“Incidents” like boycotts that end with snipers and fire bombings? How about turning anger in action like Chairman Voller said in the opening of this article?  I didn’t buy Chavis’s tweet not to judge him by his past for a second; it was a way to say ‘shut up’ and don’t question me. To me that was an invitation to take a closer look at the man Voller was bringing back to NC to be his right hand man.

I am pleased to return to my home in NC. No personal attacks or false allegations will stop me from helping #NCDP from winning big in 2014.

— Dr. Benjamin Chavis (@DrBenChavis) February 11, 2014

One thing is for sure, the NC Democrat party leadership is unhinged and has gone so far left, it’s nearly fallen off the edge of the map. Voller’s pick of Chavis indicates that he believes in the leftist creed and seems to have become the NC Democrat motto: By Any Means Necessary.