WHOO-HOO FROM WATAUGA

In an article in today's N&O about the impending reelection of Jerry Meek as chair of the NC Democratic Party, there's a nice little shout-out to Watauga, in the context of a discussion of the positive change Meek has brought to the statewide party:

One such county was Watauga, home to the college town of Boone. Even though registered Republicans outnumber Democrats, the county elected a completely Democratic county board of commissioners and a Democratic sheriff, and helped elect two new Democrats to the legislature.

Diane Tilson, the Watauga County Democratic chairwoman, said a strong local effort was aided by the state party, which provided regular consultation as well as other help such as voter information and helping plan a roadside advertising campaign.

"I do know that Jerry has been very hands-on," Tilson said.

Otherwise, there's very little in this article to indicate that anyone in NC's mainstream press really gets what's happening out here on the ground, beyond the Capitol beltway. And frankly, my dears, we'd like to keep it that way.

IT'S OFFICIAL! GOOGLE COMING TO CALDWELL

And the guv gets to make the announcement.

$100 million in tax breaks to the company, in exchange for 210 jobs and up to $600 million invested by Google in Caldwell.

At least one Lenoir city councilman was not drunk when the incentives package was voted on (the city council agreed -- get this! -- "to waive 100 percent of Google's business property taxes and 80 percent of its real-estate taxes for three decades"). Jay-sus.

Said the councilman, "I'm philosophically opposed to economic development incentive grants. In my mind they're not an effective way in the long run to recruit business. I think they're a good way to make a splashy show to bring in a business .... Everyone else in the community is going to have to take up the slack."

We'll be able to watch this batch of porridge cook over the long term.

KEEPING 'EM HOOKED

Something needs to be done about these drug-pushers and about their chief Senate defender, Dick Burr. Only in America, brother, only in America.

COVER-UP OF HISTORICAL PROPORTIONS

Nothing spells trouble like secrecy, piled on top of $75,000 in state money wasted on a sinecure for a "historian" who isn't one, and a "history" that wasn't one, and which didn't get written anyway, and would have possibly amounted to no more than a piece of publicly financed flattery for the Speaker of the NC House, who isn't now going to be Speaker of the NC House any more, but whose abuse of that office just keeps giving off waves of rankness.

We hope that Joe Hackney -- who, far as we can tell, had nothing to do with this mess -- can find a way to dispose of it without appearing to shield guilty parties from the embarrassment they have evidently worked hard to earn.

NEARER, MY GENOME, TO THEE

Thanks to Stumpy for directing me to this interesting exchange in Christianity Today with Francis S. Collins, head of the Human Genome Project and a practicing Christian. Just one excerpt:

I encounter many young people who have been raised in homes where faith was practiced and who have encountered the evidence from science about the age of the earth and about evolution and who are in crisis. They are led to believe by what they are hearing from atheistic scientists on the one hand and fundamentalist believers on the other that they have to make a choice. This is a terrible thing to ask of a young person....

My heart goes out to sincere believers who feel threatened by evolution and who feel that they have to maintain their position against it in order to prove their allegiance to God. But if God used this process [evolution] and gave us the chance to discover it, then it seems anachronistic, to say the least, that we would feel we have to defend him against our own scientific conclusions. God is the author of all truth. You can find him in the laboratory as well as in the cathedral. He's the God of the Bible; he's the God of the genome. He did it all.

ASHEVILLE CITIZENS UPSET OVER A STAPLE'S STORE

Wanna see an ugly Staple's, wedged onto a piece of ground where it should never have gone, come on up to Boone!

Staple's refusal to cooperate in Asheville comes as no surprise.

ANOTHER REASON TO HATE THE USA PATRIOT ACT

Josh Marshall was all over this story yesterday, and it made the AP wire today ... "an obscure provision" in the Patriot Act reauthorization is allowing El Presidente to systematically push out US attorneys and replace them with partisan flunkies without Senate oversight. Among those given the shove is the US Attorney for the Southern district of California who prosecuted Randy "Duke" Cunningham.

ALL HAIL THE CONQUERING HERO

Recently defeated candidate David Blust is reportedly thumping his chest and declaring he's going to clean up the Watauga County Republican Party and set it on the right track.

Let the holding of breath commence.

MADAM RUBBERSTAMP

Rep. Virginia Foxx, quoted in today's Watauga Democrat, on surges and/or augmentations:

"The war in Iraq is critical to the Global War on Terror and we must continue to fight and defend against the terrorists there as much as at home. We must maintain our efforts to provide security and stability for the Iraqi government and its people until they are able to do so themselves. We cannot walk away or we will face increased bloodshed at home and abroad. I applaud the president for recognizing the need for a new direction in the Iraq war in order to achieve this and presenting tangible solutions to the problems we currently face there."

Foxx said she believes Iraqis should take the lead in stabilizing their country "and act aggressively and swiftly against any violence. Prime Minister Maliki has issued a commitment to meet these challenges, and the President must hold him accountable to this pledge."

"Our troops deserve unwavering support and this new direction the president has implemented must show progress. Now is the time to unite as Americans, and not as partisan politicians."

Yadda yadda yadda. But what's that "must show progress" in the last paragraph? "Must show progress" ... or else? Else what? She's not signaling a potential end to her open-ended me-tooism, is she?