Rep. Taylor (R-NC) opposes Flight 93 Memorial

[MethuenProgressive]

from TPM:

Charles Taylor Stands Up to Families of Flight 93


Boy, does this guy know how to choose his battles.

Even by Congressional standards, Rep. Charles Taylor (R-NC) is a world champion waffler and equivocator. Rather than take a stand on the controversial CAFTA vote, he came up with the lame excuse that his voting card had failed. And rather than admit that he'd gotten special attention from Jack Abramoff, he quibbled over whether a group of lobbyists all getting together to give him money was indeed a "fundraiser."

But when the families of the passengers and crew of United Airlines Flight 93 want a federal grant to build a memorial, Taylor's there to be seemingly the only man in government standing in the way. Why?

For Taylor, a large landowner in the mountains of western Carolina, the issue comes down to principle: The federal government is already the largest landowner in the country, and he believes that no additional tax dollars should go to more land buying for this or any other memorial.
The requested sum is $10 million, which would be used to build the memorial in the field near Shanksville, PA where the plane crashed.

Remember that this is the guy who inserted a $3 million earmark for Abramoff's client the wealthy Saginaw Chippewa to build a new school. The tribe needed the money so badly that they've since refunded it.

But $10 million to the victims of 9/11? Naw. Do they even have a lobbyist?

link: http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/

[jackster]

1. Hey Methuen....

are you Methuen Ma? I'm Andover.....

thanks for the posting and welcome to DU!

:hippie:

[nutsnberries]

3. Hi jackster and Welcome Methuen-

i'm a neighbor too... in between you two. NA here. :hi:

[jackster]

4. HEY Cosmic.....

are you involved locally - I've been toying with the idea.....

[nutsnberries]

5. how?

toying with what, specifically?

other than trying to keep up with the town's financial mess and what's going on in the schools here... no, i'm not.

[jackster]

6. I don't even keep up with the local buzz....

but I know NA is in a mess - but what a shiny new high school you have!

anyway, I'm wanting to know about any progressive Democrat or lefty orgs in the area that can work at all levels - local through national. A way to have a voice heard.

I'm thinking of voluteering for Bonifaz's campaign and Patrick's as well.

[nutsnberries]

7. i don't go to the MA forum often but maybe you could

find out about local orgs over there.

yeah, the new high school is a beautiful facility but the cuts in courses/teachers keep the high school experience far from being what it could be and accredidation is in jeopardy. Cuts have hit the schools hard at all levels. We're fighting to keep the arts alive over here. With the superintendent resigning recently due to scandal, his replacement will have to hit the ground running. We should be doing way better than this. it's frustrating. :(

[rocktivity]

2. The real reason is that the memorial will call attention

To Bush's 9/11 folly.

:headbang:
rocknation

[DemoTex]

8. Charles Taylor, Transylvania County NC

Two men who pleaded guilty to fraud charges involving loans made by a bank owned by U.S. Rep. Charles Taylor have been sentenced to probation.

Charles Cagle, a longtime friend and political contributor to the congressman, was sentenced in U.S. District Court to two years of probation and assessed $200 on charges of bank fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Hayes Martin, former president of Asheville-based Blue Ridge Savings Bank, received the same sentence in January on charges of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. (More)

http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050422/NEWS01/50421033/1001

Churches are tax exempt organizations under Internal Revenue Service section 501(c)(3). The IRS says, “all section 501(c)(3) organizations are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office. Contributions to political campaign funds or public statements of position (verbal or written) made on behalf of the organization in favor of or in opposition to any candidate for public office clearly violate the prohibition against political campaign activity.’’ (Snip ..)

He’s correct, and hit the nail on the head when noting the trend of pushing the limits of political speech from the pulpit. “Part of that,’’ Rev. Prince told the Citizen-Times, “comes from people like Jerry Falwell and James Dobson encouraging people to test the IRS lines.”

Indeed, legislation has been introduced — Rep. Charles Taylor, R-Brevard, is a co-sponsor — that would modify current IRS standards. If what apparently has taken place in East Waynesville, where a wet-behind-the-ears preacher with about three years service can kick out members who have called the church home for decades, is any preview, that legislation looks like a thoroughly rotten idea.

Make no mistake: This controversy has not occurred in a vacuum. We live in a time where seemingly every politician wants to be a preacher and every preacher a politician. (More ..)

http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050510/OPINION01/50509010/1039

The Moscow (yes, that Moscow--in Russia) Times Elevates NC Rep. Taylor's Shady Business Dealings to the Front Page

The bank owned by U.S. Congressman Charles Taylor squats behind a municipal urology clinic on a back street in this small industrial city some 250 kilometers northeast of Moscow.

The Commercial Bank of Ivanovo, a small bank even by local standards, is tucked away in the corner of a residential building on the outskirts of town. Taylor, the multimillionaire Republican congressman who owns a majority stake in the bank, smiles down benevolently from photographs on a wall in the chairman's office.

As a major investor who has financed an Ivanovo apartment building and sponsors a local orphanage, Taylor is something of a minor celebrity here. But in Moscow and Washington, his Russian business ventures have gone practically unnoticed.

In his home state of North Carolina, the congressman owns another bank, Blue Ridge Savings Bank, which four years ago became ensnared in a scandal concerning a $1.3 million loan to a campaign donor.

http://www.ncdp.org/node/422?PHPSESSID=a2c8b643ba02af872dadcf3cfe979c9b

In a last-ditch midnight session vote on July 27-28, the pro-CAFTA forces declared victory by a cliff-hanging two-vote margin, 217-215. But they only achieved that razor-thin margin by foul means that included crafting ridiculous cover stories for two representatives, Charles Taylor (R-N.C.) and Jo Ann Davis (R-Va.), who had pledged to vote "no," but then failed to do so at the crucial moment.

http://www.thenewamerican.com/artman/publish/article_1980.shtml

Today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) released a 93-page report entitled Beyond DeLay: The 13 Most Corrupt Members of Congress, documenting the egregious, unethical and possibly illegal activities of the most tainted Members of Congress. For the first time, CREW has compiled and analyzed all these members' transgressions in tandem with the federal laws and congressional rules they may have violated.

The 13 members are:

-- Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO)

-- Rep. Randy Cunningham (R-CA)

-- Rep. Tom Feeney(R-FL)

-- Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA)

-- Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO)

-- Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH)

-- Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA)

-- Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ)

-- Rep. Charles Taylor (R-NC)

-- Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA)

-- Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA)

-- Senator Bill Frist (R-TN)

-- Senator Conrad Burns (R-MT)

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=54005

Congressman Charles Taylor of Brevard said he will not give back contributions he received from former Washington lobbyist and now convicted felon Jack Abramoff and his wife.

Tuesday was the first time the veteran Republican lawmaker answered whether he would return the money since a spate of politicians moved to rid themselves of contributions from the once-influential Abramoff who is in the position to finger officials in a federal bribery investigation.

Taylor received almost $3,000 from Abramoff and his wife. He has not been accused of any wrongdoing in accepting the money.

http://www.hendersonvillenews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2006601110325

Taylor blocks UAL Flight 93 9/11 memorial ..

But for three years, that field has made do with a makeshift monument while one member of Congress, Rep. Charles H. Taylor (R-N.C.), has blocked a $10 million request to buy the land for a permanent memorial to the 40 passengers and crew members who overpowered hijackers bent on crashing their jet into the Capitol or the White House. The families of the Flight 93 passengers and crew will be in Washington tomorrow, this time intent on challenging the chairman of the House Interior Appropriations subcommittee, who oversees funding for federal acquisition of property. With a major motion picture on the doomed flight premiering tonight, a showdown on the issue is the last clash that embattled Republicans want.” Washington Post, 4/25/2006


More on Charles Taylor at http://www.transylvaniademocrats.org/

Charles Taylor (R-NC)
Bad to the Bone

[NJ Democrats]

9. This is why Heath Shuler

will beat him.