How bad is it? Bad!

It may be time to panic. The state budget crisis is so bad, apparently, that Sen. Marc Basnight, powerful president pro tem of the Senate, may go along with cuts to a signature cultural attraction in his district.

Gov. Bev Perdue has asked agencies for spending cuts of 9 percent for 2009-2011 and released a list of specific cuts she is recommending. On the list is funding for The Lost Colony, the outdoor drama in Manteo that began in 1937.

Basnight is notorious for protecting his turf. But he said it was fair to consider "The Lost Colony" along with other state programs.

Holy cow! This is serious.

- posted by Mary Schulken

Hope 'in unikely places'

After the lecturing and the to-do list, we finally got to the rousing inspirational part.

"Hope is found in unlikely places," President Obama said. And then he talked about Ty'Sheoma Bethea, from J.V. Martin Middle School in Dillon, S.C., which he visited during his campaign, "a place where the ceilings leak, the paint peels off the walls, and they have to stop teaching six times a day because the train barrels by their classroom. She has been told that her school is hopeless," Obama said.

"But the other day after class she went to the public library and typed up a letter to the people sitting in this room [Congress]. She even asked her principal for the money to buy a stamp."

And while Obama was recounting this, the camera showed Ty'Sheoma, sitting next to Michelle Obama and dressed up in lavender satin, looking shy but happy to be one of the stars of the evening.

The president continued, "The letter asks us for help, and says, 'We are just students trying to become lawyers, doctors, doctors, congressmen like yourself and one day president, so we can make a change to not just the state of South Carolina but also the world. 'We are not quitters.' "

And in his closing, Obama again alluded to her letter, in his call to "summon that enduring spirit of an America that does not quit."

Those $2 trillion cuts

President Obama says he has identified $2 trillion in federal budget savings, to help reduce the deficit. He mentioned:

– Ending education programs "that don't work."
– Ending payments to large agribusiness companies "that don't need it."
– Ending no-bid contracts in Iraq.
– Reforming the defense budget, to get rid of unneeded Cold War-era weapons.
– Rooting out waste, fraud and abuse in Medicare.
– Ending tax breaks for corporations that "ship our jobs overseas."

There was much applause for each of those proposals. We think most of them would be excellent ideas. Call us cynical if you will. Call us jaded. But we are not holding our breath.

Who invented the automobile?

"We invented the automobile," Obama just said, making the point about the need to reinvigorate the U.S. auto industry.

We agree about the importance of our auto industry, and we're as patriotic as the next guy, BUT Karl Benz of Germany is generally considered the inventor of the automobile. (Wikipedia page here.)

Help banks? It's not such a horrible idea

"I know how unpopular it is to be seen as helping banks right now," President Obama just said. "It's not about helping banks, it's about helping people."

That may play well in Peoria or Paducah, but here in Bank Town, where bankers are losing jobs left and right, we are not quite so averse to helping banks.

After all, when you help the banks, you are helping people.

Mr. Prez, we KNOW what the problem is

OK, this opening part is not telling us anything we didn't already know. We heard about taking responsibility at the inauguration speech. And goodness knows, doesn't everyone now understand that "that day of reckoning has arrrived"? I mean, if you haven't figured that out you've been under a rock.

We want to know what he's going to do, not more professorial lecturing about the causes of this financial swamp we've gotten ourselves into.

But at least our insurance is secure. (Oh, really?)

Waiting for Obama

We're perched in front of the tube, waiting, waiting, waiting ...

And remembering President Obama's first news conference two weeks ago. We were so pleased to be – again – listening to a president who was cogent, coherent, up to speed on the issues, not afraid to talk about complexities. That was after five minutes.

After 10 minutes, we were still glad to have a president who was cogent, coherent, up to speed on the issues and not afraid to talk about complexities, although we began to wonder whether it was – after all – really necessary to talk quite so much about all those complexities.

After 15 minutes, we began to think about the really under-rated quality of succinctness.

After 20 minutes, we were fading, our attention drifting amid the complex syntax, the oh-so-lengthy answers.

Wonder if his aides took him to task for tediousness. Wonder if, by tonight, he'll have learned to reel himself in a bit.

Humility breaks out in Charlotte?

Monday night, for the first time in recent memory, Charlotte's City Council debated what face the city ought to offer to Raleigh.

The issue was whether Charlotte should push the legislature to pass a bill changing the equity formula for allocating transportation money.

That formula puts urban areas, where the scope of need is great, in a ditch. Yet such a bill is very unlikely to pass, which makes this a symbolic fight.

For the first time we can recall, there was dissent on City Council about adopting a posture and taking a position that will be preceived as arrogant and self-serving in Raleigh.

From at large representative Anthony Foxx (and a candidate for mayor)

"We need to unclench our fist."
"We are moonwalking. We are making it look like we are fighting something on behalf of the city when in reality we are hurting the city"
"We have fought this with a smashmouth approach."
"This is not a bill that's being presented to be passed, it's being presented to make a
point. We have to advocate in a different way."

From Michael Barnes, District 4:

"This arrogant, big-headed, "I'm gonna tell you what we want' is
not working."

John Lassiter, an at-large representative who's also
running for mayor, feels differently. Here's what he had this to say:

"I'm not overly concerned that we would step on some toes if all we're going to get
is nothing."

Get outside the shadow of it's skyscrapers, and the view of North Carolina's largest city changes.

We see ourselves as a city of need and outright neglect when it comes to state dollars. But many others - particularly lawmakers and policy-makers in Raleigh, see us as parochial, arrogant and preoccupied with our own needs while remaining blind to the needs of other places.

The irony? Charlotte has an important story to tell. But it's been unable to get that message across because of years of me-first, take-no-prisoners rhetoric from local leaders about what Charlotte needs from the state. That's a character flaw of this fine place.

Changing that strategy and posture would be a shrewd and productive step for both Charlotte - whose future is tied to North Carolina's future - and for North Carolina, whose prosperity is directly rooted in many ways to Charlotte.

- posted by Mary Schulken

Can illegals be screened?

An editorial in the Observer about illegal immigrants getting stimulus jobs drew criticism for saying E-Verify, a government program that employers can use to confirm citizenship, had a high error rate.
One reader wrote:

"I demand that you retract the lead editorial on today's Opinion page. You
stated "...E Verify, the system companies use to confirm legal status, has an
error rate that has limited its usefulness."
Since when is an accuracy rate
of 99.6 not good enough? Nothing else in our government works nearly as
well"

We think the error rate is closer to 5 or 6 percent, based on what's been reported. But what is considered an error is controversial.
The Department of Homeland Security defends its program, and explains the error rate cited above. (But please note there's a "non-comfirmation" rate as well that DHS does not consider error, and others do.)
The U.S. Chamber says E-Verify doesn't work, and points to reporting by the Wall Street Journal.
The Christian Science Monitor reports on its flaws.
The national association for public universities says its error rate hinders its use.

- Posted by Mary Schulken