Was Moore County Schools Conducting a Lois Lerner Style Inquiry?

Posted on February 22, 2016 by A.P. Dillon

A lot of interesting things come into my inbox. I can’t write about all of them but this one needed some eyeballs.

Apparently, in March of 2015, a letter was sent from staff board attorney Neal Ramee  to Superintendent Grimesey. The topic of this letter was religious prayer in schools, specifically the laws governing participation by staff or coaches in religious activities.

Along with the letter was a survey titled “Staff Prayer Questionnaire”.  This questionnaire has three sections with a main question and dozens of sub-questions in each section.

The first main question is, “Have you ever participated in or seen any prayers at any MCS athletic practices games or events?”.

Sub-questions included, when did it occur, where, for how long and then asks for the survey respondent to get specific:

  • “Which students participated in the prayer? (Be as specific as possible.)”
  • “Which employees participated in the prayer? (Be as specific as possible.)”
  • “What was the content of the prayer? – i.e., what exactly was said?”

Gee, asking about the content of prayers? Channeling our inner Lois Lerner, are we Moore county schools?

This is the number for  Alliance Defending Freedom: 1-800-835-5233
I’m posting it just in case any teachers/coaches out there feel their religious freedom is being threatened.

View the survey and letter here:

Posted in EDUCATION | 4 Comments

Heartland Articles: USPS Reform and NC’s CSX Eminent Domain Case

Posted on February 21, 2016 by A.P. Dillon

heartland iconMy latest articles at Heartland are now available:

Prior articles this month included:

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), EDUCATION | Tagged | Comments Off on Heartland Articles: USPS Reform and NC’s CSX Eminent Domain Case

Vote Protecting or Vote Harassing? – #NCpol #NCBOE

Posted on February 21, 2016 by A.P. Dillon

big-brother-1984Those ‘non-partisan advocates for clean elections‘ are back.

Now they want you to sign up to be a ‘vote protector’. Honestly, this looks more like ‘vote harasser’ to me.  Check out Democracy NC’s latest Big Brother at the Polls campaign:

Dear Winston Smith,

Hundreds of North Carolinians have already signed up as Vote Protectors – but we need your help to cover this huge state on Primary Election Day, March 15! 

When you sign up to be a Vote Protector, you:

  • join another dedicated volunteer for a three-hour shift
  • survey voters as they exit their polling place
  • connect concerned voters to attorneys through our voter hotline – 888-OUR-VOTE
  • fill out incident reports to document voter problems – especially related to voter ID

You don’t need to be an expert to be a Vote Protector, but you do need to attend a training. At our training you’ll get the basics about documenting problems, receive your official “Vote Protector” t-shirt and materials, and be teamed with another volunteer for Election Day shifts.

Democracy NC and our allies are conducting Vote Protector trainings across the state beginning this week. Check out our upcoming training opportunities – and please sign up for one now.

Now’s the time (and your chance) to help other voters by serving as a Vote Protector!

Thank you,

Bob Hall and Kenya Myers
for the Democracy North Carolina Team

P.S. Already signed up? Forward this volunteering opportunity to friends and family to get them involved too!

 

When you click on their link to ‘sign up’,  it sends you to a webpage titled, “Poll Monitor Training 2016”.   Yeah, that’s not sketchy at all.

Gee, doesn’t the state board of elections have official monitors on site to file a complaint or get answers from? Why yes, yes they do.

The webpage also gives a handy list of locations (below). Folks can use this list to identify  if these Big Brother Poll Monitors will be at their location to harass them about their voting experience. I hope one is at mine so I can tell them to go piss up a flag pole.

  • Asheville | FEB 25 | 6:00 pm-8:00 pm
  • Boone | FEB 24 | 6:00 pm- 8:00 pm
  • Burlington | FEB 20 | 2:30 pm- 4:30 pm
  • Chapel Hill | MAR 3 | 6:00 pm- 8:00 pm
  • Charlotte | FEB 20 | 2:30 pm- 4:30 pm
  • Durham | FEB 22 | 6:00 pm- 8:00 pm
  • Elizabeth City | MAR 1 | 6:00 pm- 8:00 pm
  • Fayetteville | MAR 7 | 6:00 pm- 8:00 pm
  • Goldsboro | FEB 28 | 3:00 pm- 5:00 pm
  • Greensboro | FEB 25 | 6:00 pm- 8:00 pm
  • Greenville | FEB 23 | 6:00 pm- 8:00 pm
  • Henderson | FEB 22 | 6:00 pm- 8:00 pm
  • Lumberton |MAR 8 | 6:00 pm- 8:00 pm
  • Raleigh | FEB 20 | 10:00 am- Noon
  • Rocky Mount | FEB 29 | 6:00 pm- 8:00 pm
  • Sanford | FEB 29 | 6:30 pm- 8:30 pm
  • Shelby| FEB 20 | 10:00 am- Noon
  • Wilmington | MAR 1 | 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
  • Winston-Salem | FEB 18 | 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), ELECTIONS, Moral Monday, POLITICS NC | Tagged | Comments Off on Vote Protecting or Vote Harassing? – #NCpol #NCBOE

Jeb! drops out after doing his damage to Cruz, Rubio

Posted on February 21, 2016 by A.P. Dillon

Well most folks are talking about Jeb! dropping out last night. It was good that he did, it was clearly time given his poor showings in Iowa, New Hampshire and now, South Carolina.

I’m more interested in the damage Jeb! did though. Actually,  not just Jeb! bit also Kasich and Carson. Let’s do some math. (Hypothetical math)

SC Primary Final Numbers
1. Donald Trump: 238,067 (32%)
2. Marco Rubio: 164,691 (22.5%)
3. Ted Cruz: 163,732 (22.3%)
4. Jeb Bush: 57,472 (7.8%)
5. John Kasich: 55,920 (7.6%)
6. Ben Carson: 52,958 (7.2%)

If you add Jeb!, Kasich and Carson’s votes together it comes out to 166,350.  For the sake of argument, let’s say that if those three had not been in the race that their voters would have gone to either Rubio or Cruz.

For the sake of simplicity and just as an exercise, let’s divide that 166,350 in half which is 83,175.

Now let’s add that 83,175 to our 2nd and third place finishers, which were actually only separated by 959 votes or .2%.  (I believe that both Rubio and Cruz surpassed the turnout McCain had, by the way.)

Rubio: 164,691 + 83,175 = 247,866
Cruz: 163,732 _ 83,175 = 246,907

Trump’s total was 238,067.

With Jeb!, Kasich and Carson’s vote, they both beat Trump.  When I said “damage” earlier on, this is what I meant. The leeching of votes by these three quite possibly  hamstrung the top runners.

Carson and Kasich need to get out of the way.
Rubio and Cruz need to stop attacking each other and hit Trump and Hillary.

Whether or not Rubio can ally with Cruz or not and whether or not Cruz can get past Rubio’s Alinsky style campaigning against Cruz remains to be seen. As much as he tried to muddy the waters, Rubio’s still got an Amnesty/Gang of 8 problem, which will fail to motivate the base much in the same way we say lack of motivation in 2012.

If the two of them are serious, they need to work together.  Cruz is my first choice, but I’d certainly take Rubio before Trump.

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), ELECTIONS | Tagged | 6 Comments

Cabarrus Jobs Now’s Nasty Tactics In #NC82 – #ncga #ncpol

Posted on February 20, 2016 by A.P. Dillon

It’s been brought to my attention that Cabarrus Jobs Now (CJN) has put out an attack ad on Rep. Larry Pittman.

I’ve written about this collection of village idiots before — you might recognize some of them as the RINO’s who sought Democrat votes in 2014.

I’ve got a copy of the ad, but the sound and quality are bad so you need to turn up the sound to hear it well.

Stay ClassyIt’s a regular attack ad in that it’s laughably wrong on nearly every point, but where it gets nasty is that apparently CJN swiped a picture from a Facebook page and included it in the ad.

Why is that nasty? That picture has a private citizen in it.

Jeez, Stay classy Cabarrus Jobs Now!

The citizen in question is Nancy Brewer. I reached out to her for comment. Mrs. Brewer sent me a statement, written by her husband:

I took the picture in question on 08 Mar 2014 when my wife was speaking to the Cabarrus County Extension & Community Association and Larry Pittman was also in attendance. This was just weeks before she was diagnosed with cancer. I would personally like to thank #LarryPittman for his prayers and messages of support to our family over this time. The accusations in this ad about him being a career politician are absurd. He is only in his second 2 year term however he IS a career minister and I am thankful for him. All my support goes to him for 82nd District NC House.

According to campaign finance documents at the Cabarrus Board of Elections, CJN paid over $6,291 for media items in the past.

It appears that in early 2016,  CJN paid over $64,000 for this attack ad on Pittman.  It was $64,812 to be exact. That’s a lot of cash for a really crappy ad.

I haven’t been able to find this attack ad published online.  It’s not even on Cabarrus Jobs Now’s YouTube channel. Gee, why not?  Aren’t they proud of their steaming pile of crap ad that uses images of private citizens?

If this ticked you off, feel free to go and hit Rep. Pittman’s page. Learn about him and while you are there, maybe help him out.

* This article has been updated.
Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), ELECTIONS, EXCLUSIVE, NCGA, OPINION, POLITICS NC | Tagged | 4 Comments

NCAE’s Organize2020 Is Back Pushing Political Protests In NC Schools

Posted on February 20, 2016 by A.P. Dillon

The Union loving protest arm of the NCAE is back pushing political protests in our schools.

Dr. Terry Stoops at John Locke caught wind of an Organize2020 Facebook post. In it, Organize2020 is trying to organize another Walk-In in our schools. They are shooting for April 27th.

The last one didn’t go so well, with parents seriously teed off about their kids being put in a situation where their school grounds were being used for what was essentially a political protest.

WALK IN ORGANIZE 2020In the case of my kid’s school — union propaganda in the form of a protest flyer with Organize2020 name on it was sent home… in his homework folder.  Yeah, the school heard from our family loud and clear that it was inappropriate to have kids ferry home political/union propaganda fliers.

I get teachers have gripes, but you may NOT use children or their schools to further your complaints.

I have zero.. ZERO.. ZIP.. NADA.. NUNCA respect for Organize2020 and their thug tactics.

They’ve beclowned themselves and have thrown in with the Union backed Fight for $15 protests as well as officially endorsing the Black Lives Matter movement.  That fits right in with the tax payer funded Teach For America employees who have been running these protests and bailing those arrested out of jail.

Organize2020 isn’t about teachers or education, it’s about unionization. Period.

As a parent, this is unacceptable activity taking place on tax payer funded property and worst of all, it involves kids.

If I get wind it will happen at our school again, my kid stays home that day with Grandma.

And I will show up with my camera to document the whole thing to include with the complaint I will file with the Wake County Board about political and union tied protests on a taxpayer funded property.

Related Reading: LL1885’s Organize2020 Archives

Posted in EDUCATION, NCAE, Organize2020 | Tagged | Comments Off on NCAE’s Organize2020 Is Back Pushing Political Protests In NC Schools