The Big Gamble at the Raleigh Clown College

It's simple logic at work with the new Republican majority in the NC General Assembly: We can be as extreme as we please, because the flow of corporate cash will save our asses next year in the general election.

We can (and will) cripple public education, cripple environmental protections, cripple people's access to the ballot, and move our religio-corporatist agenda in hobbling women's rights to reproductive freedom and in singling out gays in the state's constitution for unequal treatment under the law ... because Art Pope & Friends put us here to do their bidding and they will return us again to our positions of power through the unleashing of their limitless cash on the muddle-headed masses who will believe any crazy thing if it's in writing. For example (from 2010), Cullie Tarleton and Steve Goss want to put a black rapist right next door to every last one of you God-fearing idiots.

Let's see what else is up in Raleigh with a General Assembly that Dan Soucek was bragging about on WATA this week -- bragging that stuff had passed far faster than at any time in history and certainly faster than his particular reading comprehension could keep up with, to know what was actually buried in all those new laws:

1. "House panel guts air pollution rules .... At the urging of some of the state's largest polluters, a committee in the Republican-controlled state House voted Tuesday to eliminate the state program that monitors and enforces clean air regulations." (N&O, 15 June 2011) That alone ought to be worth many thousands of $$ in Dan Soucek's and Jonathan Jordan's reelection coffers!

2. "Bill passage puts offshore drilling, 'fracking' one step closer .... Senate Bill 709, the Energy Jobs Act, does not explicitly allow either offshore drilling or hydraulic fracturing ('fracking'), but it represents the state’s first steps toward both." (WRAL, 14 June 2011) You think they're NOT taking us there? They're taking us there.

3. "NC lawmakers ease environmental laws for business .... Environmental advocates in North Carolina suffered setbacks Tuesday as Republican leaders rolled out a flurry of legislation sought by the state's business interests. Legislation unveiled in the House would reduce state regulation of toxic industrial chemicals like ammonia and sulfuric acid released into the air. A second bill in the Senate combines nearly two dozen changes to environmental laws, including a delayed cleanup of one of the main water supplies for Piedmont cities and broader access to taxpayer funds for underground fuel tank owners forced to clean up leaks." (Wilmington Star-News, 14 June 2011)

4. "North Carolina GOP ... Axes Planned Parenthood Funding .... Republican state representatives in North Carolina voted to override Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue's veto of the state budget Wednesday morning, ensuring that a provision to strip all federal and state money from Planned Parenthood will take effect on July 1 .... Planned Parenthood of North Carolina (PPNC), which has nine clinics across the state, provides affordable birth control, preventative health care and family planning services to over 25,000 men and women. Without the $434,000 a year it usually receives in state and federal funds, Planned Parenthood says it will now have to axe its teen pregnancy prevention and adolescent parenting programs and force its low-income patients to pay out of pocket." (Huffington Post, 15 June 2011)

This (and a whole host of other bad bilge that I won't pause to document) is only the warm-up to the main event ... redistricting of every U.S. Congressional seat and of every NC House and Senate seat so that the Republican majority can retain its power for generations. Laura Leslie has tweeted that county maps will be out this Friday, full maps July 1st, and the special session to pass the whole plan is scheduled to begin July 17.

We ain't seen nothing yet!