Pat McCrory Wastes Our Time

As we've already discovered, Gov. Pat McCrory is irrelevant in the direction that North Carolina is being steered by the Republican radicals in the General Assembly, so the budget document he put out this a.m. is probably not worth the ink.

But if you're into masochism, you can take a look at Mark Binker's quick read of its contents.

"Bad Moon Rising"

Mark Binker recently pointed out that over 100 of the 170 men and women about to take their seats in the new North Carolina General Assembly were not in office three years ago. They are more ideologically homogeneous, too, and considerably more conservative.

Kirk Ross speculates on what this is likely to mean for the University of North Carolina system (and he didn't even mention the likely role of McCrory's chief budget officer, Art Pope):

...it is hard to see how the new legislature, more ideologically driven and less experienced than any in recent memory, will be able to resist a test or two of the boundaries of intellectual freedom in state-funded academia. 

You may recall last year’s notorious sea-level rise bill, which essentially put a moratorium on the use of climate-change science in public policy. An early version of the bill imposed restrictions on the use of scientific research that would have applied to all state agencies and institutions including its universities. 

While ultimately UNC’s lobbyists were able to get that language stripped from the bill, it likely won’t be the last time the university will see rules on research rewritten, budgets shifted or programs zeroed out for ideological reasons.

Art Pope, Disagreeing with Himself?

The first mention we saw of this very curious example of cognitive dissonance was just before noon today on WRAL reporter Mark Binker's Twitter feed:

#ncgov Budget Dir Art Pope talking to journos at UNC. Says he doesn't think eliminating personal/corp income taxes is a good idea #ncga

This is more than just passing strange, since it's been the Pope-funded "think tank" Civitas Institute that has been promoting the idea that North Carolina would be brimming with fiscal health if we could just eliminate the income tax on the wealthy and on corporations and shift the burden to sales taxes, including most notoriously taxes on groceries and services, like lawn-cutting and hair-shearing.

Art Pope

It's also more than just passing strange, because the GOP-dominated General Assembly of North Carolina is in office largely because of the accumulated expenditures of Mr. Pope, who has drawn his money from five & dime stores across the state (often located in the poorest neighborhoods). Mr. Pope's combined contributions to conservative causes and conservative (Republican) candidates is currently estimated in the $40 million range. Leaders of the GOP in the General Assembly, Mr. Pope's obedient brigade, have already opened up a call for eliminating the state's income tax even before the legislature has actually convened.

The brains behind that state income tax elimination meme is the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which is funded by the Koch Boys, who are closely tied to Mr. Pope. If any one of them gets an itch, they all scratch simultaneously.

So ... was Mr. Pope experiencing a fugue state this morning? Did Mark Binker just hear him wrong? Or is he dissembling because (a) Deputy Governor Pat McCrory is getting cold feet or (b) Art Pope Hisownself is getting cold feet? (He has of late complained that he's being personally attacked.)

We'll wait with impatience for Mark Binker's full report on that curious scene at UNC this morning.

It's Coming ... From the Black (Pope) Lagoon

Mark Binker is reporting that Real Jobs NC (remember them?) is about to unleash their Art Pope-financed smeers of Democratic candidates again this election cycle.

And why not? The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that billionaires have the inalienable right to buy any legislature that they can personally afford. And the Real Jobs NC slimeballs of 2010 worked so well to turn the NC General Assembly over to Dan Soucek, Jonathan Jordan, and other Tea Party types.

Remember what they did to Cullie Tarleton and Steve Goss in 2010, the mailers the put Mexican sombreros on those gentlemen's heads and warned about rapists moving in next door to your granny.

Grass Roots NC, A Bully Org

Paul Valone

We referred here once before to the intimidation meted out to WRAL reporter Mark Binker for his apparently unforgivable sin of delving into concealed handgun permits in the state.

That intimidation got considerably worse, when the intimidator in chief, Paul Valone of Grass Roots North Carolina, published a picture of Mark Binker's wife and small children. Dan Besse, a Winston-Salem City Councilman, could not abide the false equivalency behind Mr. Valone's targeting of a reporter's family. Hattip to BlueNC for the exchange of correspondence between Besse and Valone that followed:

Initial message to Mr. Valone (Thursday, July 26, 4:22 p.m.):
FROM Dan Besse
SUBJECT attempted intimidation
MESSAGE
Mr. Valone, Your attempted intimidation of a reporter by posting online his nearly complete home address, together with a link to photos of his wife and small children, followed by urging your members to contact him, is truly shameful behavior. It goes beyond the usual aggressive tactics and bare-knuckled political advocacy. Arranging hostile emails to politicians is one thing. Holding up a reporter's minor children to public view and enhanced risk as an advocacy tactic is something else again -- and is beyond the pale of acceptable behavior in our country. You may wish to consider a public apology to Mr. Binker and his family, followed by a resignation from your organizational position, as a means to attempt to salvage some credibility for your organization. Dan Besse
-------------------------------------------------
Mr. Valone's response (Friday, July 27, 3:24 p.m.):
Dan:
Thanks for the note. As I am about to point out in the Charlotte Observer, 400,000 permit-holders had no idea their personal information would be “outted” by Binker. By contrast, Binker make a willful action, exposing their information, for which he should have anticipated consequences. That he published family photos openly on the Internet while engaging in such behavior indicates an arrogant disregard for his own family. As you note, we did not publish photos, we linked to his own (which are presumably pulled down by now), we did not publish his full address, and we did not advocate contacting anybody but Binker himself and WRAL – and I would hope we agree that they are fair fame.
An aggressive response? You bet. But an example had to be set to the media to let them know that unlike decades past, they can no longer attack gun owners with impunity.
Paul Valone
President, Grass Roots North Carolina
---------------------------------------------------
Response to Mr. Valone (Friday, July 27, 5:31 p.m.):
Mr. Valone,
Thank you for your response, but your comparison is invalid. No permit holder was “outed”—much less 400,000 of them.
The information online at the WRAL news site does not include names, contact information, addresses, or other identifying information of individual gun owners.
The information you posted regarding Mr. Binker’s family included all of those, including a nearly complete home address, and a link to a photograph of his wife and children. In the context you posted it, it constituted exposing him to personal retaliation for his reporting, and you included Mr. Binker’s wife and children among those swept into the sights.
No one “targeted” individual gun owners. You targeted an individual’s family, including his small children. That is not acceptable behavior in our country.
I continue to call for you to make a public apology to the Binker family; and I hope that your organization will ask for your resignation. If it does not, that tells us something more about the group Grass Roots North Carolina.
Dan Besse

Attempted Intimidation

WRAL investigative reporter Mark Binker draws a thinly veiled threat.

Perdue Says No to Fracking in NC

Gov. Perdue's second veto of the 2012 "short session" of the NC General Assembly came on Senate Bill 820, the so-called "fracking" law which would open North Carolina to horizontal drilling and the fracturing of deep rock to release trapped natural gas. "Fracking" has been highly controversial. There's plenty of evidence that it endangers ground water, among other side effects.

Laura Leslie and Mark Binker have a good post up about the likelihood of a veto override.

Only two Republicans in the NC House voted against the original bill. One of them, Rep. Bryan Holloway of Stokes County, was obviously reflecting the majority opinion in his home county, which would be one of the few counties in the state with enough rock-trapped gas to be targeted by the big fracking companies. The Stokes Board of County Commissioners unanimously passed a resolution recently calling on the governor to veto the fracking bill. That Board, incidentally, is 100% Republican.

The threat that fracking represents to our water supply does not have to be a partisan issue.

Get 'er Done!

Mark Binker tweeted a few minutes ago that "Five Democratic members of the Council of State have just called for NCDP chairman David Parker to resign."

Obviously.

Someone Watched the Dems Debate!

The best political reporters in Raleigh, Laura Leslie and Mark Binker, analyze the performance of the three main candidates in the first debate leading up to the Democratic primary for governor.

Judge Grants Restraining Order Against Republican Veto Over-Ride

Bob Orr

Yesterday afternoon, Wake County Judge Paul Gessner signed a temporary restraining order stopping enactment of the Republican vendetta against the North Carolina Association of Educators (NCAE). Gessner agreed that the association had demonstrated it would suffer irreparable harm if the law is enacted, according to Associated Press reporter Gary D. Robertson. Judge Gessner said that NCAE “has shown a likelihood of success on the merits” of its claim that the process violated the state constitution.

"A hearing for a preliminary injunction to block the enactment while the complaint is tried in court will be scheduled in the next 10 days, said Bob Orr, a Raleigh attorney representing the association."

Bob Orr? Former Republican justice on the NC Supreme Court, noted conservative constitutionalist, and until recently an employee of Art Pope's at the Pope-funded N.C. Institute for Constitutional Law (NCICL). That Bob Orr?

Wow.

Laura Leslie at WRAL has put together an informative piece interviewing a variety of legal experts debating the merits of Bob Orr's case for the NCAE. Most interesting are the opinions of Orr's former colleagues at the NCICL, which prompts all sorts of questions about why Mr. Orr left the Art Pope group that is now strongly disagreeing with his new clients.

Greensboro News&Record reporter Mark Binker says that Orr was asked during a conference call "about taking up a case closely associated with Democrats when he has run in conservative circles for so long. 'The state constitution does not mention Democrat or Republican. It doesn't mention liberal or conservative. It is what it is and says what it says,' Orr said."

We believe that having Robert Orr as lead counsel in their face-off with Thom Tillis and the Republicans in the NC House is the NCAE's equivalent of playing political hardball right back at the politicians who decided last year that they would play political hardball with the state's teachers.

Tillis in a Huff

Must read column by Greensboro News&Record political reporter Mark Binker.

When did a politician ever improve his position by declaring war on the Fourth Estate for reporting his behavior?

Tillis acting like Zsa Zsa Gabor ... canceling newspaper subscriptions, throwing tantrums, making his mascara run.

Under Cover of Night

Approaching 1 a.m. this morning, the new Republican leadership in the NC House rammed through an override of a Bev Perdue veto in order to single out and punish the North Carolina Association of Educators (NCAE). Two House Democrats helped the Republicans in their project.

Associations of state workers routinely have their dues deducted from their state pay checks. The State Employees Association (SEANC) operates this way. So does the NCAE, at least they did until the dead-of-night vendetta against them played out in Raleigh early this morning.

The bad blood goes back to the passage last summer of the state budget which severely cut education funding. Teachers fought back, yes they did, by the means afforded them in their advocacy group, the NCAE, which mailed flyers blasting the five House Democrats who played traitor in voting for the Republican budget. At the time, the Republican Speaker Thom Tillis accidentally left a microphone on which broadcast to the entire legislative building that Republicans intended to punish the NCAE by eliminating their “check off” privileges: “The reason we’ve decided to do that is the NCAE has gone into all five districts [of the traitor Dems] with mailers hammering these Democrats,” Tillis said. “We just want to give them a little taste about what’s to come.”

Ah, the high-minded statesmanship of the morally superior!

Mark Binker today has written the best and most complete accounting of the midnight shenanigans in Raleigh.

The reason Gov. Perdue is calling the House’s action “unconstitutional” this morning is because the state’s founding document says that a veto-override session can only take up the veto in question, and Gov. Perdue called the Honorables back to Raleigh to consider only her veto of their repeal of the Racial Justice Act ... which, incidentally, they failed to achieve, throwing in the towel around 7 p.m. last night. The Republicans adjourned the session but called for a whole new session to convene at 12:45 a.m. this morning to take up new items. They clearly also intended to override the governor’s veto of the fracking bill and the voter photo ID law, but they couldn’t gather the votes. They had to settle for just crippling the teachers’ association. So ... it could have been worse, O my brethren.

Incidentally, the two Democrats who helped the Republicans out in attacking the teachers:  Reps. William Brisson of Dublin and Jim Crawford of Oxford, both members in good standing of The Five Goobers.

Clown College Coming Back to Raleigh Tomorrow

Photo by Pinky_Kinky

The Honorables of the NC General Assembly are right now strapping on their red rubber noses and heading to Raleigh for a veto-override session tomorrow, trying to overturn Gov. Perdue's "NO" to their rewriting of the Racial Justice Act, which mainly removed "justice" from the law.

We like Mark Binker's explanation for why it's unlikely that the Clown College will take up any other veto overrides -- like voter photo IDs -- and we're prepared to trust that he's right.

'Course, ya never know fer sure, do ya?

Clown College Reconvening in Raleigh Tonight

Good deal of breath-holding going on around the state, what with the new Republican majority in the NC General Assembly coming together this evening to continue their roll-back of the state's progressive advancements since, oh, 1895.

They seem to be drawing a particular bead on the Racial Justice Act, since they obviously don't like racial justice or even just fairness in the judicial system.

Pressure has been on Democratic members of the General Assembly to drop those turkey legs, or the concomitant Tums, and get themselves to Raleigh, because the fear is that the Republican leadership will use any Democratic absences to suddenly call up a veto override of the voter photo ID bill, but ace reporter (for the Greensboro News&Record) Mark Binker posted on Facebook that it's highly unlikely.

Why the Republicans couldn't get their shit together in the long session and now insist on recalling everyone repeatedly to Raleigh when the moon is full (and on Sunday night, fer crissakes! Is nothing sacred?) for these micro-sessions of social engineering and right-wing flapping, well, chalk that up to their regular and well documented incompetence at governing!

NC House GOP Off to Kiss Koch

Mark Binker has uncovered the names of the 30 Republican members of the NC House (and the two Democrats, both members of the Five Goobers) who are off this week to attend the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) conference in New Orleans.

What is ALEC? It's the secretive, Koch-funded clearinghouse for state legislation that -- surprise! -- helps immensely in the Billionaire's Coup that has taken our federal government and is taking, one by one, all the state governments. The photo voter ID bill, for just one example, emanated directly from ALEC and was introduced and pushed by Republicans in several state assemblies and most especially in ours.

The 30 Republicans going this week to eat steak and get their orders from The Matrix:

Marilyn Avila
Jeff Barnhart
Hugh Blackwell
Jamie Boles
William Brawley
Harold Brubaker
Rayne Brown
Justin Burr
Bill Cook
Dale Folwell
Kelly Hastings
Mike Hager
Craig Horn
Julia Howard
Linda Johnson
Stephen LaRoque
David Lewis
Darrell McCormick
Chuck McGrady
Tim Moffitt
Tim Moore
Tom Murry
Ruth Samuelson
Paul “Skip” Stam
Mike Stone
Fred Steen
Sarah Stevens
Thom Tillis
John Torbett
Harry Warren

The two Democrats (both of whom played patty-cake with the Republicans in the veto overrides last month):

Bill Brisson
Bill Owens

Among other contributions ALEC has evidently suggested to the new Republican majority in the General Assembly is the idea for gutting environmental regulations.

Thom Tillis Catches a Cream Pie in the Face

Mark Binker, the General Assembly reporter for the Greensboro News&Record, is reporting an unusual moment last night in the Clown College: one of the chief clowns, a Republican committee chair no less, openly protested to Speaker Thom Tillis about the wild pace of the railroad being run through the building:

Shortly after 11 p.m. Thursday night the House introduced its third supplemental calendar for the day, a three-page affair with bills many lawmakers knew nothing about....

“Mr. Speaker, ladies and gentlemen of the House," [said the offended Republican committee chair], "you’re looking at a three-page supplemental calendar, one whole page of which are bills on second and third reading, which have never been considered by this body before. I don’t know how many amendments it will take; I don’t know how much discussion there will be.

“But folks, we’re tired, we’re not in a position to think clearly and pass good legislation.” ...

Which implies, naturally, that the new Republican majority had heretofore been thinking clearly and passing good legislation ... but let that go as too too painfully obvious.

Binker says that it's not unusual to hear this sort of complaint from the minority, but when Thom Tillis's own troops start complaining like that, well, people take notice.

BOTTOMLINE
Tillis relented for the moment, and the House is back is session this morning and plans a very rare Saturday session, probably along with the Senate, which still has its own mischief to finish.

Thom Tillis: "You Must Respect My Authori-tie!"

Rev. William Barber, head of the NC NAACP, was arrested yesterday in the gallery of the NC House, along with six others after quoting Micah 6:8 rather loudly:

"Do Justice, Love Mercy, Walk Humbly With God."

So far the venerable leader has been at every public protest we've attended in Raleigh, and at a lot more that we didn't get to, and so far he's the only leader in the state willing to be arrested rather than sit silent and watch this new thuggish Republican majority in Raleigh take us all back to the 19th century in one single session of the General Assembly.

Rev. Barber has asked for a meeting with Republican House Speaker Thom Tillis, who is now playing Aunt Pittypat, fanning himself furiously and pursing those lips at such disrespect for his Exalted Highness.

Mark Binker adds detail:

...In one particularly awkward moment, police were holding Barber in front an elevator preparing to escort him out. Tillis came down the stairs and was immediately confronted by a protestor asking about a meeting with Barber.

“When I have a respectful request I'll be happy to meet with people who treat my House with respect,” Tillis said.

One protestor replied, “Your house? We're paying for it. It's our house.

Debunking the Voter Fraud Myth

Gotta hand it to the NC GOP: they've managed to convince otherwise rational people that there's a massive incidence of voter fraud in North Carolina that only a photo ID law can cure. They've been riling their base about "vanloads of illegal immigrants" being driven to the polls to vote illegally, about "hundreds of dead people voting from the grave," and other tall tales meant to stampede people toward a big-government solution for a non-problem.

If they do get their way, and considering the large numbers of the Republican elderly who lack a driver's license, we do trust that they will eventually learn a lesson about "unintended consequences."

But to the point of all those hysterical claims about voter fraud, Mark Binker with the Greensboro News & Record does the most complete smack-down of Republican talking points that we've seen -- all very well researched and sourced.

1. Are the dead voting?
Some people do vote early under NC law and then pass away before election day, and those votes should not count but occasionally they do because no one noticed that the voter had died. The claim that dead people had been voting recently in Washington County turns out, after investigation, to have been a clerical error.

2. Have There Been Hundreds of Voting Felonies?
No. The claim comes from a (willful) misreading of a typo on a State Board of Elections report. What should have read "Voting Felons" (convicted criminals who are not under state law allowed to vote until their rights are restored) was typed "Voting Felonies," and the NC GOP had their motors racing on that one. The fact that those "voting felons" were actually caught and their votes were not counted gets no acknowledgement.

3. Has There Been Double Voting?
A big ole 44 cases combined over 2008, 2009, and 2010. Binker:

[Gary] Bartlett [director of the state Board of Elections] said this is a type of voting fraud that the state’s system is particularly good at ferreting out.

And election watchdog Bob Hall, of Democracy North Carolina, said there are some “honest mistakes” in that double vote number.

“People forget that they voted mail-in or during the early voting period,” Hall said.

That said, there are some cases of people trying to game the system.

Hall, who opposes the voter ID bill, points out that Voter ID will do nothing to curb such instances.

An ID would only be used to verify somebody is who they say they are, not whether they’re voting for a second or third time.

4. Is There Absentee Voter Fraud?
Yes, and the Republican-sponsored voter ID law would do absolutely nothing about it. In fact, under other provisions in the proposed law, the rules governing mail-in absentee voting would be relaxed, not tightened. Could this have anything to do with the historic fact that Republican mail-in absentee voting has always, in recent years, greatly outnumbered Democratic mail-in absentee voting?

Mark Binker makes clear what was already clear enough: the Republican bill in the General Assembly is not about more honest elections. It's about shaving off Democratic votes in preparation for the reelection campaign of Barack Obama.

Whistling Dixie

Mark Binker in the Greensboro News&Record asks rhetorically why President Obama visited W-S yesterday. His number one answer:

The 2012 Elections. Despite calling for bipartisanship and for politicians to forget the consequences of their actions on the next election cycle, Obama's visit has a lot to do with 2012. "By coming to North Carolina, he's also identifying the importance of North Carolina as a swing state," said Kathy Smith, a political science professor at Wake Forrest University. Obama was the first Democratic presidential candidate to win North Carolina since President Jimmy Carter, and appearing here early is a sign that he intends to try and repeat the feat.

Good luck with that, Mr. President. If Bill Clinton -- who actually knew how to negotiate with Republicans -- couldn't do it, we have our doubts about your chances. Especially as you've mainly worked to lose your base in this state. Independent voters are not much impressed by weakness.

BTW: Being mentioned in the same sentence with Jimmy Carter is more than just merely awkward positioning.

On the Wrong Side of an Environmental Disaster

Gov. Perdue used to be against off-shore drilling for North Carolina "but in recent months has said that it appears inevitable" (N&O).

Inevitable?

She wants more experts to advise her. Yeah, like those experts are gonna pull on their hip-waders and clean up the only thing that's absolutely inevitable ... an accident, a careless screw-up, a failure to focus on what's valuable rather than on what's profitable.

And Senator Kay Hagan? The Greensboro News&Record's Mark Binker asked her directly about the lessons of Louisiana, and only pure mush came out of Hagan's mouth. She's obviously in the "drill, baby, drill" choir, only she's now singing the chorus as softly as possible, trying to be inconspicuous in her lack of leadership as an oily environmental nightmare insinuates itself into every inlet, marsh, and wetland of the Louisiana coast.

The British Petroleum Blob has only begun its reign of terror. Still to come ... the coasts of Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida ... and, oh yeah, TEXAS!