Security & Emergency Response

NCDP Platform Plank: Security

admin — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 11:29:58 -0600

We believe that the best way to defend our home is to be prepared, and that North Carolina should have safeguards in place to protect from attacks and to be adequately prepared for natural disasters. This preparation should include the best technology and other appropriate tools for local and State law enforcement officials.

We strongly support our men and women in uniform who protect our communities every day. We are proud of and thankful for our police and fire/rescue forces and other public servants.

Click here to read the full security section of the party platform.

John McCain Offers More of the Same

admin — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 10:45:34 -0600

North Carolinians have an opportunity during this election to help change the course of this country.

While Barack Obama offers historic, responsive and responsible change, Republicans offer more of the McSame.

John McCain has voted with President Bush 95 percent of the time and promises to continue the failed policies that have gotten us high gas prices, high food prices and no clear path to ending the war in Iraq.

How can McCain offer North Carolinians a better future when he’s spent the primary season recycling George Bush’s failed economic agenda and bragging about his willingness to keep our troops in Iraq for 100 years?

MCCAIN’S RECORD VS. MCCAIN’S RHETORIC

North Carolina Democrats Stand Up for Troops, Veterans and Families

admin — Fri, 23 May 2008 13:59:17 -0600

North Carolina Democrats, led by Kara Hollingsworth, April Padilla and Phillip Gilfus, called on President Bush during his visit to Fort Bragg this week to honor his contract with our military by supporting Democrat Senator Jim Webb’s 21st Century GI Bill.

The bipartisan initiative expands educational opportunities to all members of the military who have served on active duty for at least three months since September 11.

President Bush has threatened to veto the measure.

This is another example of how Republican leadership in Washington has failed our troops and their families at every turn – whether it’s a plan to stabilize Iraq in order to safely withdraw our troops, substandard living conditions in their barracks, providing proper body armor when they are sent to war or offering full health and educational benefits they earn on the battlefield when they return home.

McCain Puts Politics Ahead of Our Troops and Veterans...Again

admin — Thu, 22 May 2008 12:05:39 -0600

While John McCain was campaigning and raising money in California today, the Senate voted on a bipartisan to bill to support our brave men and women in uniform by helping them pay for college when they complete their service. Unlike both Democratic presidential candidates, who took time off the campaign trail to support our troops by voting for the 21st Century GI Bill, Senator McCain refused.

Senator McCain might not have voted, but he has made his views perfectly clear.

Here is what Republicans have to say about McHenry

admin — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 15:03:33 -0600

McHenry: Do-it-yourself stupidity

admin — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 08:03:07 -0600

Paul O'Connor, Winston-Salem Journal

When the history of political news and the 2008 campaign is written, U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry of Cherryville may deserve a footnote.

The 10th District Republican has been much in the news lately for his reference to a “two-bit security guard” who denied him access to a gym inside Baghdad’s Green Zone. McHenry was there on a photo opportunity so he would look concerned enough about our troops to get re-elected.

Contrary to that mission, however, McHenry may have hurt his prospects for renomination with his own reporting about the trip.

Subcommittee Investigates FEMA’s Toxic Trailers

admin — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 12:36:14 -0600

The House Committee on Science and Technology’s Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight today examined how and why the Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease Registry (ATSDR), a sister agency of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), failed to protect the public’s health after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

The agency failed to translate scientific findings and facts into appropriate public health actions which would have resulted in properly informing and warning tens of thousands of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita survivors living in FEMA-provided trailers and mobile homes of the potential health risks they faced. Instead of pushing to have the residents removed immediately, the agency did virtually nothing.

Care for Injured Vets Raises Questions

admin — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 15:16:42 -0700

Bradley Brooks, Associated Press

BAGHDAD (AP) — The number of wounded soldiers has become a hallmark of the nearly 5-year-old Iraq war, pointing to both the use of roadside bombs as the extremists' weapon of choice and advances in battlefield medicine to save lives.

About 15 soldiers are wounded for every fatality, compared with 2.6 per death in Vietnam and 2.8 in Korea.

But with those saved soldiers comes a financial price — one veterans groups and others claim the government is unwilling to pay.

Those critics also say that the tens of thousands of soldiers wounded in Iraq are part of a political numbers game, one they say undermines the medical system meant to care for them.

The most frequently cited figure is the 29,320 soldiers wounded in action in Iraq as of Thursday. But there have been 31,325 others treated for non-combat injuries and illness as of March 1.

"The Pentagon keeps two sets of books," said Linda Bilmes, a professor at Harvard and an expert on budgeting and public finance whose newly published book, "The Three Trillion Dollar War," was co-authored with Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz.

Study led by Brad Miller says FEMA ignored toxic findings

admin — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 09:52:51 -0700

The Durham Herald Company

The Federal Emergency Management Agency manipulated scientific research in order to play down the danger posed by formaldehyde in trailers issued to hurricane victims, according to an investigation by congressional Democrats released Monday.

Rep. Brad Miller, D-N.C., led the investigation.

FEMA "ignored, hid and manipulated government research on the potential impact of long-term exposure to formaldehyde" on Katrina and Rita victims now living in FEMA trailers, Democrats on a House Science and Technology subcommittee wrote in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. FEMA is part of the Homeland Security Department.

In a separate letter, lawmakers said the federal health agency that provided guidance to FEMA was "complicit in giving FEMA precisely what they wanted."

Butterfield: Halt Washington County OLF

admin — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 17:05:40 -0700

The House took the first step toward overriding President Bush’s veto of a key defense bill today, which would ensure a halt to the Navy’s proposed outlying landing field in eastern North Carolina’s Washington County.

“If the Navy wants to move forward with an OLF, it should now be clear that they will need the support of the community,” Congressman G. K. Butterfield said.

Today, the House again approved the FY 2008 National Defense Authorization Bill, taking the first step toward overriding President Bush’s veto. The Senate is expected to vote on the bill next week.

Last month, the conference report on the FY 2008 National Defense Authorization Bill included language repealing “the authority for construction of an outlying landing field at Washington County, North Carolina.” The bill won overwhelming support from the House and Senate, but was vetoed by President Bush.