N.C. -- Enabler of Mountaintop Coal Mining

Rep. Pricey Harrison of Greensboro has filed a bill in the N.C. House to ban N.C. power companies from buying coal obtained via mountaintop removal mining, by far the worst and most destructive form of strip mining. Sen. Steve Goss of Watauga has filed the same bill in the N.C. Senate.

Duke Power and other power suppliers in the state are yelping like scalded dogs, since strip-mined coal from West Virginia and Kentucky is generally cheaper than coal from deep mines. Yelping like scalded dogs and simultaneously threatening members of the General Assembly with unspeakable retribution.

But here's the point: though North Carolina has no coal mined from mountaintop removal operations, it's the second largest consumer in the country (behind Georgia) of strip-mined coal. And that's shameful.

Porn Nation

An assistant professor of business administration at the Harvard Business School talked one of the top-ten vendors of online "adult entertainment" (a.k.a., porn) into sharing certain anonymous information about where the bucks for paid nakedness were being spent. The porn company shared the zip codes "associated with all credit card subscriptions" for online porn with the researcher. You can guess what's coming here, right?

Subscriptions are slightly more prevalent in states that have enacted conservative legislation on sexuality .... In the 27 states where "defense of marriage" amendments have been adopted (making same-sex marriage, and/or civil unions unconstitutional), subscriptions to this adult entertainment are weakly more prevalent than in other states....

Those who were prone to referring to their own "red-state" areas as "the real America" back during last year's campaign will want to stake a good deal of their current reputations on the researcher's use of that adverb weakly in that last sentence. Otherwise, there's not a lot to be proud of here, O ye of the Bible Belt.

...subscriptions are also more prevalent in states where surveys indicate conservative positions on religion, gender roles, and sexuality. In states where more people agree that "Even today miracles are performed by the power of God" and "I never doubt the existence of God," there are more subscriptions to this service. Subscriptions are also more prevalent in states where more people agree that "I have old-fashioned values about family and marriage" and "AIDS might be God's punishment for immoral sexual behavior."

This adds evidence to our longstanding assumption that the person railing the loudest about other people's sins is very likely more guilty of that sin than the people he's pointing the finger at. And the bigots screaming about gays are themselves signaling some powerfully frightening private urges.

We're particularly amused that Utah, possibly the reddest state in the Union, has the highest precentage of porn subscriptions per thousand people in the whole country. Apparently, Utah's "redness" is more than just a political inclination.

FOOTNOTE: HT: C.D. The full report, "Red Light States: Who Buys Online Adult Entertainment?" can be read here (pdf file).

Bobby Jindal, Public Liar

Turns out that Bobby Jindal totally made up the centerpiece story he told last Tuesday night on nationwide TV. He said that while Hurricane Katrina raged, he stood shoulder-to-shoulder with a Louisiana sheriff and shouted down the niggling bureaucrats of the Bush administration, which led directly to the saving of lives in the flooding.

Only, he didn't do any of that. Instead, he heard about the sheriff yelling at FEMA officials and simply put himself into the action and made himself into an on-the-spot hero. It's called fiction in polite circles. It's called a baldfaced lie to make yourself look good in our household.

Governor Jindal, kiss your bright political future goodbye.

Signs and Wonders

Buncombe County Schools say they may have to lay off 55 teachers, and Asheville City Schools another seven, if the threatened cuts in state aid to education are carried through. Unclear, still, how the Obama stimulus might alleviate such educational gore.

Meanwhile, about $100 million of stimulus money targeted at housing problems (rehabilitations, new construction of affordable housing, etc.) is beginning to flow into N.C. Most of this money will be available to local governments as block grants.

Hypocrite of the Day

Rep. Sue Myrick managed to get tens of millions of $$ in earmarks into the omnibus spending bill just passed by the U.S. House, and then piously turned around and voted against it, like most of her Republican brethren and sistren.

Most of the Myrick earmarks -- some $20 million -- will go to expand Charlotte's light-rail system.

It's one thing to oppose spending on principle. It's quite another thing to lard up a bill with stuff your constituents will enjoy while knowing the bill will surely pass without your support.

It's a whole new benchmark in hypocrisy!

David Hoyle Sneers at the Unemployed

One of the most powerful men in the N.C. General Assembly, Democrat David Hoyle, is sometimes more obnoxiously patrician than ... your average rich Republican. According to Rob Schofield, Hoyle was loudly signaling his disdain yesterday for anything in President Obama's stimulus package that doesn't enrich the Paving Lobby. Questioning a provision that will allow for the hiring of additional child-care workers (jobs, Senator?), Hoyle asked sarcastically, "What's that? Babysitting for people who lost their jobs?"

Jeez!

Anti-Gay Bills in the NC General Assembly

Bills were filed (yet again) in the NC House and Senate (both) for an amendment to our state constitution to deny marriage to same-sex couples, which is already illegal under state law anyway. This particular piece of nonsense comes back every session, introduced by Republican tools who have nothing better to do than carry water for the Christian Right and try to stir up the latent hatreds of the under-educated. Because, Lord knows, the holy matrimonies of man-woman couples will be disastrously devalued if gay people are allowed the same right.

Not to worry. Mark Binker, who wrote the article linked above, notes on his blog that Marc Basnight has assigned the bill in the NC Senate to the Ways & Means Committee, which hasn't met since 2001 and which seems highly unlikely to leap into action for this particular piece of soiled linen.

Speaker of the House Joe Hackney has a similar attitude about this kind of right-wing extremism.

This anti-gay bill is going nowhere.

Rush Limbaugh, The Real Loser Last Night

Because Rush has been grooming Gov. Bobby Jindal as his own personal dittohead, Jindal's trainwreck last night in responding to President Obama had Limbaugh in something of a lather today on his radio blabfest.

Is this cosmic irony, or what? That the "I hope Obama fails" yakker is forced to defend the disastrous performance of the governor of Louisiana, whom Limbaugh has touted as "the next Ronald Reagan."

Governor Tone-Deaf Takes the Stage

Bobby Jindal, the Great Non-White Hope of the Republican Party, decided to remind us all of the ineptness of the Bush administration during the Katrina aftermath by way of making a few points:

1. The Republican Party has lost the trust of the American people, deservedly so

2. Therefore, you should trust us

Governor Jindal had previously pasted an inadequate fig-leaf over his own hypocrisy: he said he would not accept part of the Obama stimulus money for Louisiana -- about 1 percent of it -- while taking the rest of those "irresponsible, wasteful, ridiculous" billions. We want Bobby Jindal to have the courage of his convictions. We want him to reject ALL of that irresponsible, wasteful, and ridiculous stimulus money. Otherwise, we'll conclude that he's actually the Captain Renault of the Republican Party (shocked that there's gambling going on at Rick's) rather than the voice of a reborn political party imbued with virtue and truth.

Because, see, some $175 billion of federal money has been spent in Louisiana since Katrina, which somehow, by some right-wing voodoo, is supposed to prove that the federal government is just evil.

Someone on cable TV referred to Jindal as "Governor Buzz-Kill." Someone on the blogs last night hung this title on his rebuttal of President Obama: "You're On Your Own, America."

Maybe they should have picked Sarah Palin.

FOOTNOTE
Did you see Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel Alito greet the president in the well of the House prior to the speech? Whoa! If body language were toxic, Alito killed every furry animal on Capitol Hill last night.