Sen. Soucek's Plan To Screw the Suburbs of Boone

Sen. Dan Soucek introduced a "local bill" in the NC Senate today ("local," meaning it would affect only the Town of Boone and no other municipality in the state), which reads in its entirety:

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT PROVIDING THAT THE TOWN OF BOONE SHALL NOT EXERCISE THE POWERS OF EXTRATERRITORIAL JURISDICTION.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Town of Boone shall not exercise any powers of extraterritorial jurisdiction as provided in Article 19 of Chapter 6 160A of the General Statutes.
SECTION 2. This act is effective when it becomes law.

It's a breathtaking power-grab meant to cripple Boone's ability to control development on its fringes. Most if not all of the Extraterritorial Jurisdiction that Boone now has was requested by residents living there to protect themselves from unwanted and undesirable development, including the Seven Oaks neighborhood off Roby Greene Rd. which requested to be taken in under Boone's zoning regs to protect itself from a Maymead asphalt plant. This bill would simply remove all those protections with a flick of Mr. Soucek's wrist.

The senator requested a meeting with town officials today to inform them of his bill. He brought with him a veritable who's who of power players who've made a crusade in recent years against the city's land-use planning regulations. Chief among them was Jeff Templeton, along with Mr. Templeton's in-law Perry Yates and Keith Honeycutt and Nathan Miller, former county commissioners who've made their grudges against the town a matter of on-going public record.

Jonathan Jordan, we feel confident, is on board to introduce the same bill in the NC House.

According to the UNC School of Government, "By long-standing practice, a legislative 'courtesy' system provides that local bills will almost always win general approval in each house as long as they have the support of the legislators who represent the jurisdiction(s) involved. Occasionally, a local bill that is controversial will face some opposition, but otherwise, the legislators defer to the local delegation on matters of concern to their local government constituents."

So, our representatives, who preach less government when it suits them, intend to trump the residents and Town Council of Boone by ramming through from on high the most draconian change to our terrain. They intend to unleash the developers to do whatever the hell their imaginations can devise. This is "small government" at its most ironic, and it's being done to benefit the few against the wishes of the many.

Libertarian Candidate for NC Gov Calls Amendment 1 an "Abomination"

Barbara Howe, who is running (again) for NC governor on the Libertarian Party ticket, is none too happy with the Republican agenda in Raleigh, especially the intrusion of their religious bigotry into the state's constitution in the form of the heterosexual-marriage-is-the-only-legitimate-marriage amendment passed on May 8th.

Barbara Howe brought a paper shredder to the steps of the NC General Assembly yesterday, and she and her husband ran their 35-year-old marriage license through it as a protest.

No kidding.

"I believe in limited government," she said. "Government should protect us from people who hurts us but otherwise just stay out of our lives, and that's not what we're getting in North Carolina."

No, we're getting the Reign of the Religious Right in NC.

They want you to know they hate fags. Photo by Lonnie Webster

According to the Winston-Salem Journal, some 2,000 protestors of Pastor Worley's "put 'em behind barbed wire and let 'em die" Mother's Day sermon came out in Newton yesterday. About 100 "God Hates Fags" counter-protestors, several from deepest Georgia (like we don't have enough of our own home-grown bigots!), shouted Bible verses at the sinners.

Whose Chickens Are Those, Flocking Home To Roost?

The Southern Baptist Convention, which stigmatizes gays, campaigns against gay marriage, and hates a possibly Kenyan-Muslim President for endorsing equal rights (among other Great Sins), wants everyone to know that it has no connection to the Baptist preachers currently (and very recently) in the news for advocating physical violence against a minority. "We don't even know these guys," they write, but we appreciate the detailed summary they provided in The Baptist Press of the evidence that they share a certain DNA, despite their desperation to deny it:

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP) -- Anti-gay sermonizing by several independent Baptist pastors has stirred a backlash of death threats, calls for criminal prosecution and planned public protests. 

In question are sermons and comments posted to YouTube and Facebook promoting the genocide, punishment or prosecution of gays or suspected gays. The posts have gone viral on the Internet. 

Among them are anti-gay comments by pastor Charles L. Worley of Providence Road Baptist Church in Maiden, N.C., advocating the genocide of gays by enclosing them behind electrified fencing until they "die out" from the inability to reproduce. 

Pastor Sean Harris of Berean Baptist Church in Fayetteville, N.C., has apologized after he encouraged parents to "punch" and "crack that wrist" of their sons and daughters if they exhibit suspected gay behavior. 

Pastor Ron Baity of Berean Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, N.C., has called for the criminal prosecution of gays. Conversely, a Washington watchdog group is calling for the criminal prosecution of pastor Ronnie Spriggs of Hager Hill Freewill Baptist Church in Kentucky after he preached a sermon telling congregants not to vote for President Obama. 

State Rep. Andy Gipson, R.-Miss., is defending himself against death threats at his home after he posted on his Facebook page the Leviticus 20:13 law calling for the death of those engaging in homosexual sex. 

None of the pastors are affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention; only Gipson is a member of a Southern Baptist church in Magee, Miss., and a bivocational minister....

There Are Some Things Money Can't Buy

Holy Crap

Thom Tillis Doing "A Miserable Job"

When you're a Republican leader and you're also in trouble with the Rhino Times in Greensboro, you're in trouble (not that you'll give a flip or change your ways):

...Speaker of the House Thom Tillis is a prime example [of Republican bomb-throwers who don't have a clue how to govern]. He might be great in opposition, but he is doing a miserable job as speaker. First he gave his staff 20 to 30 percent raises when no one else in state government was getting a raise. Then he looked the other way when his chief of staff and housemate was having an affair with a lobbyist. He also ignored another staff member who was having an affair with a lobbyist. Then when the two resigned under pressure he gave them a month's severance pay. In each instance he made the wrong decision.

The Republican leadership of the legislature did the same thing with redistricting that the Democrats have done in the past, and the Republicans complained bitterly about. The redistricting process was done behind closed doors and presented as a done deal to the rank and file. They could either vote for it, or be blacklisted. 

This is not the kind of government we need in Raleigh. If the Republicans are going to do everything but pass laws behind closed doors, we might as well have the Democrats in office. If the Republican leadership is going to give big raises to its friends, cover up for them when they misbehave and then give them big bonuses for misbehaving, we might as well get former state House Speaker Jim Black out of retirement because that is only one step away from handing out bags of cash and accepting donations to change legislation. Black was convicted of corruption and served time in federal prison.

The Sermon on the Mount

Maiden, NC, is not far from here, though this preacher is decades, maybe centuries away.

This is "Christian talk" in the age of Obama. And listen to those "Amens" from the congregation.