"I Will Never Vote for Nancy Pelosi"

America faces a new culture war.
"This is not the culture war of the 1990s. It is not a fight over guns, gays or abortion. Those old battles have been eclipsed by a new struggle between two competing visions of the country’s future. In one, America will continue to be an exceptional nation organized around the principles of free enterprise—limited government, a reliance on entrepreneurship and rewards determined by market forces. In the other, America will move toward European-style statism grounded in expanding bureaucracies, a managed economy and large-scale income redistribution. These visions are not reconcilable. We must choose." Improvedclinch.com

I met with Jeff Miller, Republican candidate for NC 11th District Congress on Saturday evening at a “meet-and-greet” before a Republican fund raiser at the Balsam Mountain Inn in Jackson County. Despite feeling just a little out of place because everyone was wearing semi-formal dress (one candidate for judge was wearing a slinky red dress) everyone was friendly and polite—even one gentleman who asked if I’m a democrat (I’m not).
Miller is in his early fifties and seems to be a sincere human being. “You get what you get with me.” Evidently he’s likable enough as a dad because his son Beck, a first time voter this fall, has said that he’s going to vote for him.
With good initial impressions of Miller I wanted to know where he stood on issues.
On the Second Amendment Miller said that “there was some misinformation going around” about his position on the Second Amendment. He told me that he supports it. He also told me that he is not a hunter but he is a life time member of the National Rifle Association. He believes that “armor piercing ammunition should not be available to the general public.” Miller stated that he has a concealed handgun permit and he “loves to shoot.”
In regards to my question about restoring the constitution Miller said that he’s “for it 100%” and that he carries a copy of it wherever he goes. “To me you take the constitution as it is. I want to go by the constitution, but I also want to go by what’s right and wrong.”
“I’m coming at this from a small business owner—person who’s been giving back to his community for a long time who is just fed up with what is going along.”
I asked him about the secured bond that Dan Eichenbaum posted before the primary guaranteeing that, if elected, he would only serve for three terms in congress. Miller responded that “I do not have any intentions of making it a life-time job. But I do feel that is somewhat self-defeating unless everybody agrees to it a certain standard.” Miller went on to say that the House leadership, in making committee assignments wouldn’t take someone who had made such a pledge seriously. He said “where I think that they ought to have term limits is the chairmanships of committees because if you want to find corruption that’s where you’ll find it. “I think that two years as the chair of a committee is darn long enough.”
In response to my query about the recently passed and signed national health care bill Miller responded “I don’t even believe that Ted Kennedy would have liked that bill. It was a ram job. It was poorly thought out. There were some things in it that obviously made sense for people that couldn’t get coverage, children. My health care that I provide for my employees; I provide fifty percent and they pay the other fifty percent. Health care went up this year for no good reason. We had to renegotiate with the insurance company to get it within 17%. So somebody who says that we don’t need something is full of crap.”
How are you going to differentiate yourself from Heath Shuler? “I’d never vote for Nancy Pelosi.”
With that, Miller’s attention was diverted elsewhere and the interview was effectively ended.
Jeff Miller from Hendersonville seems to be a very likeable candidate. I believe that he can go a long way towards becoming much more familiar with the issues and that he needs to positively differentiate himself and what he stands for from Heath Shuler to win the NC 11th Congressional seat in November.
In the interests of balance I will send this post (and blog address) to Heath Shuler and give him an opportunity to respond with a face-to-face interview on these and any other issues he wants to talk about.

Cut Off Prodigal Son

Commissioners, one of the definitions of socialism is when an authoritarian government, thinking it knows what is good for the subjects under it, forcibly takes wealth from producing individuals and gives it to non-producing individuals. Taking my and every other citizen’s money and giving it to a non-producing Mr. Clemmy Queen and QC Enterprises, especially without accountability and responsibility for many years, is totally outrageous and possibly illegal. But then all those loans, missed payments, interest, and missed rent happened under other commissioners. They are not your responsibility, right?

QC Enterprises owes me and every other citizen of Jackson County at least $530,000 dollars. Repairs, if made, to the old Tuckaseigee Mills, a true turkey of a property, will be at least 500,000 dollars. The county manager has said that we could spend at least a million dollars on the property. He doesn’t seem to be behaving in an accountable manner to the citizens of Jackson County. Nor have I heard him volunteer to contribute his “fat cat” pay raise to help the bankrupt Queen. Commissioners, are you willing to take money out of your own pockets and give it to Queen?

Stanton Woodworking and Lucky Tomato are doing what responsible, innovative businesses are supposed to do--making a profit and paying their bills. They could be moved from the death trap (numerous safety and fire violations) of the old Tuckaseigee Mills into the idled Stonewall packaging plant now that Jackson Paper has failed to perform as they said they would. So much for the promised "61 jobs." It may be true that the Stonewall Packaging debacle hasn’t cost the county any money, although I won’t believe that until I see the final figures from the county. However, the county should have never loaned money to Jackson Paper, in effect becoming partners with them as this was not in the best interest of free enterprise here in Jackson County.

Commissioners, let’s hope that you listen a little better to your constituents (the owners of those seats your sitting in) this time and not be ‘spend thrifts’ with my and everyone else’s’ money. Remember what Finance Director Fox has pointed out: if we don’t reduce our expenditures in this county we are going to go broke. Commissioners, before you end up bankrupting us all it is time to cut off the prodigal son.

Commissioners, I bet ya’ll really wish you could print money like that gang up in Washington D.C. Thank Goodness you can’t.

Little Slippery Fish

Commissioners, I apologize for missing the last (April 19) meeting. I had bigger fish to fry in Washington, D.C. on that date. I know that you missed me.

Now back to the little pond with the little slippery fish that just keep nibbling the worms off the hook and getting away.

It must have cost quite a bit of political capital to get the local government commission to forget about those missing audits. I know that you felt real good Mr. Chair, about calling a big, armed peace officer to subdue a little old lady; especially after you raised her dander a bit by disavowing all responsibility for the EDC/JDC and we, the tax payer’s money. With all due respect to Commissioner Cowan, the Jackson County board of commissioners may not have the legal authority to insist on the missing audits yet we the citizens of Jackson County have the authority to insist on accountability for our money that was given to the EDC and the JDC. Remember gentlemen, those are my and every other citizen of Jackson County’s seats up there. I know that you recall that little agreement you and I have on accountable, open and honest government or else resign from our seats. Right?

It seems that it is coming down to fish or cut bait time on the old Tuckaseigee Mills property. We have already allowed the main tenant to become in arrears over $530,000.00. Anybody got an extra half of a million (or more) dollars to throw down a rat hole?

Commissioner Massie, I agree with you that Jackson County needs to reduce the size of its huge motor pool. But darn commissioner, don’t you think that we need to reduce the size of our county government first? It would seem that the exorbitant fat-cat salaries that the managerial county employees are getting contribute quite a bit to the size of the county’s indebtedness. I don’t agree with our county finance director on much. Yet Director Fox has pointed out one truth: if we don’t reduce our expenditures in this county we are going to go broke. Balancing the budget is NOT enough. Forget raising taxes. We don’t have the money. Darn, I bet ya’ll wish you could print money like that gang up in Washington D.C. don’tcha?