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Dear Republican Friend,
The message of Easter is a message of hope and transformation. With faith in the goodness of God and the strength of the people of North Carolina, I am optimistic we can bring change to North Carolina and transformation in state government. I thank you for all the hard work you are doing and will do to help make the conservative vision for North Carolina a reality by electing more Republicans this fall. I wish you and your family a very happy Easter. God bless you all!
Sincerely,
Linda Daves
Chairman, North Carolina Republican Party
On March 15, 1973, John McCain was released as a POW from the “Hanoi Hilton.” This is his story.
Program provides local law enforcement officers training,
resources to identify criminal illegal aliens
Press Release
March 14, 2008
 Washington, D.C. - The Senate yesterday evening approved U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole’s amendment calling for $75 million to be directed to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to expand the 287(g) program, which provides local law enforcement officers the training, resources and authority to help ICE apprehend, identify and remove criminal illegal aliens. The measure is part of the fiscal year 2009 budget resolution.
“To address the problems presented by individuals who are not only here illegally but who have self-identified themselves because of their criminal behavior – we must provide the funding for ICE to make the necessary resources available to our local law enforcement officers who are on the front lines,” said Dole.
Dole helped deliver the first in the nation statewide partnership plan for North Carolina sheriffs to coordinate with ICE, part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The plan, which adopts a regional approach to ensure statewide access to 287(g) databases and other resources to determine the immigration status of apprehended individuals, is being directed by a steering committee made up of sheriffs from around the state.
Currently, four North Carolina counties currently have 287(g) agreements with ICE – Mecklenburg, Alamance, Cabarrus and Gaston Counties. Sheriffs, working with ICE and the steering committee, will determine what tools and resources best meet their needs and where additional resources are needed in a region.
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Press Release
March 18, 2008
 Washington - Today, Congressman Patrick McHenry (R-NC-10) released the following statement after the Supreme Court heard arguments for District of Columbia v. Heller, a landmark case that will have a major impact on the right to bear arms in the United States.
“The right to bear arms is a basic, fundamental right in this country. I hope the Supreme Court will take this opportunity to make clear that this right is guaranteed to every individual citizen by the Second Amendment. It is immoral for any government to deprive people of the right to defend themselves and their families.”
In keeping with his strong support for Second Amendment rights, Congressman McHenry co-signed an amicus curiae brief submitted to the Court by several lawmakers urging protection of the right to bear arms.
The Supreme Court has not conclusively interpreted the Second Amendment since its ratification in 1791. The amendment reads: “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”
The basic issue for the justices in Heller is whether the amendment protects an individual’s right to own guns or whether that right is somehow tied to service in a state militia.
Since 1976, Washington, D.C. has enforced the most prohibitive gun ban of any American city, when the City Council banned handguns and required rifles and shotguns to be registered, stored unloaded, and either locked or disassembled.
In the Heller case, residents of the District sued the city on grounds that the restrictive gun ban infringes on their Constitutional freedoms. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled last March that the District’s gun bans violate the Constitution. At the time, the majority opinion said that the D.C. gun ban, “amounts to a complete prohibition on the lawful use of handguns for self-defense. As such, we hold it unconstitutional.”
The last Supreme Court ruling on the topic came in 1939 in U.S. v. Miller, which involved a sawed-off shotgun. Constitutional scholars disagree over what that case means but agree it did not squarely answer the question of individual versus collective rights.
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Press Release
March 18, 2008
 RALEIGH—In honor of Sunshine Week, Chairman Linda Daves has sent Governor Easley and North Carolina Democrat Party Chairman Jerry Meek a bottle of sunblock and a bottle of aloe. If sunshine is truly coming to North Carolina this week, Democrat leaders should prepare in case of burn.
Chairman Daves made the following statement:
“As many of you know, it is Sunshine Week in North Carolina. Some have noted the irony of Governor Easley proclaiming Thursday to be Sunshine Day considering the controversies that have surrounded the Governor and his office over the past couple weeks. I know that the Democrats here in Raleigh will have a hard time coping with sunlight when they have for so long concealed their deeds in darkness. That is why I have sent Governor Easley and Chairman Meek each gifts this week and will be happy to provide sunblock and aloe to any Democrat leader in Raleigh the same in case of burn.
In seriousness, however, the controversy currently swirling around the Governor’s office began because of his part in the failure of the 2001 mental health reform plan. It is time for Governor Easley to take responsibility for the failures in mental health throughout his tenure as Governor. No one likes to admit failure, but true leaders will own up to their mistakes. On issue after issue throughout his tenure as Governor, Easley has deployed a duck and cover strategy in place of offering solutions to the problems facing North Carolina. The people of North Carolina deserve better leadership from Governor Easley and the other Democrats in Raleigh. …
Democrats have successfully consolidated power in the executive and legislative branches of state government, but what do they have to show for it?
• Using a secretive budget process carried out mostly behind closed doors and without Republican input, Democrats have given us more tax and spend policies making us the highest taxed state in the Southeast in regards to business. Under Democrat leadership, spending has exploded with the state budget consistently being increased to the point it is busting at the seams. Just last year, Democrats increased spending by 9.5 percent over the previous year’s budget. The continued tax and spend, liberal policies of Democrats in state government have resulted in stagnation to our economy and caused suffering for hard-working taxpayers in our state.
• Democrats are failing our transportation and infrastructure needs to by raiding the Highway Trust Fund to pay for their insatiable spending desires, by lining the Department of Transportation and Board of Transportation with their cronies and fundraisers, and by funneling new roads projects to the districts of powerful Democrat legislators instead of the areas in the state suffering from the most pressing needs and worst traffic congestion.
• Democrats have failed us in education policy to the point that one of every three students in North Carolina will not finish high school. Every year, Democrats promise a new plan and a larger budget to solve the problem facing our students and teachers. Every year, we get more of the same disappointing outcomes and the same solutions of throwing more money at the problem.
Democrats have used their power in state government to strong arm Republicans, block legislation that would threaten the status quo, and engage in secret meetings and backroom deals that are not open to public scrutiny or the legislative process. The definition of insanity is to continue doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different outcome. We cannot continue to send Democrats back to Raleigh expecting a different outcome. The only way to dramatically improve upon the failed policies of the corrupt Democrat leadership is to bring wholesale change to the culture of state government.
In this election year, Republicans welcome change in the culture of state government. Honesty and transparency should never be in question when it comes to elected officials doing the people’s business. Republicans offer a vision of smart, efficient, and effective government coming out of Raleigh and across the state. Sunlight will uncover the dark places in state government not just today, not just this week, but throughout this election year and especially in November. The Democrat leadership should take notice or prepare to be burned.”
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Maybe Gov. Mike Easley hates a cluttered inbox.
Allegations and actions concerning correspondence
suggest a carelessness about public records.
Editorial
The Greensboro News & Record
March 14, 2008
 Gov. Mike Easley is not the CEO of North Carolina.
He is the state's top public servant, and his bosses are those who live here.
Yet the governor may not want us to have a full accounting of his administration. His actions seem to indicate he favors keeping at least some public records from public view.
Here's the story: Earlier this month, Easley fired Debbie Crane, chief spokesperson for the state Department of Health and Human Services, for insubordination. This occurred after Crane had provided information to The News & Observer of Raleigh for a series it ran on botched mental health reform in this state: Some $400 million has been misspent in this area during Easley's watch and many seriously ill people haven't been served.
Once fired, Crane went to the media with news that the governor's directors of communications had told spokespeople to destroy e-mails between them and the governor's office. …
Then, Easley added fuel to the fire by admitting that he threw out a letter hand-delivered to him from Carmen Hooker Odom, former head of the beleaguered DHHS, which explained why she wouldn't provide media interviews. Easley said the letter wasn't worth saving — a decision with which many might beg to disagree. …
Easley says he hasn't violated public records law, either by destroying the Hooker letter or by deleting e-mails. That law makes it illegal to "destroy, sell, loan or otherwise dispose of any public records ... without the consent of the Department of Cultural Resources." To support his actions, Easley points to a Cultural Resources policy which states that e-mail "of ephemeral or rapidly diminishing value may be erased or destroyed when the user has determined that its reference value has ended."
But is that policy misguided? Was it the law's intent to allow Cultural Resources to provide prior approval for document destruction?
One thing is clear: The law strongly supports saving public records. It states: "When in doubt ... retain the record in question."
Whether or not Crane's allegations are true, it would better serve the state if its public servants, from governor on down, didn't make so much use of the delete key.
Click here for the full article
Click below for more on the Governor’s office deleting public records. . .
Easley sets e-mail policy review
Higher standards in Raleigh require legislator's expulsion
Editorial
The Greensboro News & Record
March 19, 2008
 The N.C. House of Representatives almost certainly will expel one of its members this week for the first time in 128 years.
Thomas Wright, a Democrat from Wilmington, deserves the boot but not the distinction. Others before him should have met the same fate: most recently, Jim Black and Michael Decker. Both of them are serving federal prison terms on corruption charges.
Black, the former speaker, resigned. Decker was voted out of office. But their colleagues should have hastened their departures by setting higher ethical standards and enacting stronger disciplinary measures sooner.
Wright, who also faces a criminal trial, is testing the House's resolve to clean up after the Black & Decker scandals. He denies wrongdoing, but a House ethics panel recently found "clear and convincing evidence" of misconduct. The full House will meet in a special session Thursday to consider expulsion.
"Let the show begin, because this is just the beginning," Wright said, hinting that other legislators should be worried, too. Who can doubt it? …
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