Anti-worker agenda advances in North Carolina

<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Extremists in North Carolina, ignoring the turmoil caused by their anti-worker agenda, pushed forward yesterday with <a href="http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/politics&id=9183110&pt=print" rel="nofollow">bills to empower corporations and savage the middle class</a>. The House and Senate approved a budget that raises taxes on middle-class families and slashes public education funding, while the Senate approved a voter suppression bill that targets minorities, low-income residents, senior citizens and the disabled.</span><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlZ4BGZX4b2fGzxXeVHk8yNuwyl3JGytbGkqvzzO6geafFC-sCVSN2Svn03mcdE30K_sSlT2gNInXS3r2wGF1We9cLre1ASREYZlqLB098BUc1xioXDGueeumep0UsfD6LY2TZ2KvVEf5u/s1600/7-25NCprotest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="This is a photo of demonstrators who were protesting voter suppression legislation in the office of N.C. House Speaker Thom Tillis." border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlZ4BGZX4b2fGzxXeVHk8yNuwyl3JGytbGkqvzzO6geafFC-sCVSN2Svn03mcdE30K_sSlT2gNInXS3r2wGF1We9cLre1ASREYZlqLB098BUc1xioXDGueeumep0UsfD6LY2TZ2KvVEf5u/s320/7-25NCprotest.jpg" title="Protest in N.C. House Speaker's office" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Protesters gather in Speaker Tillis' office.<br /> </td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Legislature is set to adjourn today with its anti-worker agenda likely to pass. The voter suppression bill and the budget will head to Gov. Pat McCrory’s desk, and he is expected to sign both. <o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> They are fulfilling the anti-worker agenda pushed by </span><a href="http://teamsternation.blogspot.com/2013/02/heres-billionaire-trying-to-destroy.html"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">greedy billionaire Art Pope</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">, an </span><a href="http://www.alecexposed.org/" rel="nofollow"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">ALEC</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> disciple and </span><a href="http://teamsternation.blogspot.com/2011/10/bombshell-kochs-sold-oil-equipment-to.html"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><strike>Benedict Arnold</strike></span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Koch brothers buddy who got himself appointed state budget director after financing a number of radical politicians’ campaigns. <o:p></o:p></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Legislature’s ALEC-inspired attacks on workers inspired a popular uprising that takes the form of weekly Moral Monday protests at the Statehouse. The demonstrations have resulted in 925 arrests for civil disobedience over the last 12 weeks. </span><a href="http://www.ncae.org/whats-new/moral-monday-protest-walk-join-us/" rel="nofollow"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Organizers of the Moral Monday rallies</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> are already promising to make their voices heard on Monday, during the next planned protest of the Legislature’s extreme anti-worker agenda. <o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> The budget bill cuts $260 million from North Carolina’s public education budget, hampering teachers who are already among the nation’s lowest paid. It also ends tenure and will lead to more crowded classrooms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>The Raleigh News-Observer </span><a href="http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/07/23/3051929/teachers-take-another-hit-in-state.html" rel="nofollow"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">took the GOP to task</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> for the cuts in an editorial, saying its own leaders don’t even understand the implications:</span><br /><div><blockquote class="tr_bq"> Take Phil Berger, Republican senator from Eden and that chamber’s president pro-tem. When pressed for the reasons he has crusaded for ending teacher tenure in North Carolina’s public schools, Berger just says he heard about a lot of incompetent teachers hanging on thanks to tenure.</blockquote></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><blockquote class="tr_bq">… Teachers are the heart of the most noble thing this state and this nation do: provide an education to all. And yet Berger and other Republicans speak of public schools as if they were more a nuisance than a monument to enlightenment. They also seem to believe they can continue to make teachers a target of petty criticism, pay them poorly, offer them few benefits and still maintain a quality school system.</blockquote></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.storyofamerica.org/voting_fan" rel="nofollow">Six opponents of a voter suppression bill were arrested</a> after entering the office of House Speaker Thom Tillis last night. They refused to leave until they spoke with him and he agreed to halt the legislation. They may have hope: The<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/26/us/holder-wants-texas-to-clear-voting-changes-with-the-us.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0" rel="nofollow"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">U.S. Justice Department could challenge</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> North Carolina’s voter law, as it announced today it will take new restrictive state measures to court.</span><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>

Anti-worker agenda advances in North Carolina

Extremists in North Carolina, ignoring the turmoil caused by their anti-worker agenda, pushed forward yesterday with bills to empower corp...

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