Ode to Virginia

With apologies to Alfred Joyce Kilmer, who after all isn't in a position to defend himself:

I think that I shall never see
A Congresswoman deaf as she.
Listening to all our fears
With fingers in her ears.


I think that I shall never find
A Congresswoman so unkind,
With heart as big as English pea,
As hard as lead and shriveled, we see.

“If Katrina,” quoth she, “blows you away,
Don’t look at me – just pray!”
No minimum wage, no student loans…
She doesn’t hear our collective moans--
Unless your name’s Schiavo, you bet!
(Though not so much if you’re a Vet)

I think that I shall never see
So 19th-century a soul as she.
We need to turn back all our clocks
To understand our Madam Foxx.

Roy Carter Announces Opposition to Mountain-Top Removal

Press release this p.m. from 5th Dist. Democratic candidate for Congress Roy Carter:

Roy Carter Announces Position on Mountain Top Removal

On Friday, April 4, 2008 at 10:00am, Roy Carter, Candidate for US Congress in North Carolina's 5th district, will hold a press conference in the Calloway Peak room of the Plemmons Student Union on the campus of Appalachian State University in Boone to announce his position statement on mountain top-removal. Roy Carter will answer questions from ASU students, area residents, and the media, regarding this vital issue.

Dr. Harvard Ayers and Dr. Pat Beaver will join Roy Carter for the press conference and may offer their own statements on mountain top removal and may answer questions from citizens and/or the media.

How Do You Out-Think a Political Party That Ain't Thinking?

Read on the "Dome" this a.m. that a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee confidently proclaimed that Obama and Clinton can put North Carolina "in play" all they want in this Democratic primary, but it won't -- definitely WILL NOT -- be in play come November.

Why?

Because John Edwards did not carry the state for John Kerry in 2004.

Seriously, that's what she said. And that the Republicans have carried the state in presidential elections since 1976. End of discussion.

Confession: we love it that the RNC is thinking like this. We love it that they are apparently oblivious to these numbers, that they are so confident that the past has etched the future in stone. We adore Congresswoman Virginia Foxx's obtuseness about economic worries ("Don't have health insurance? You have ONLY yourself to blame!"). We admire the rationalization of our own Watauga County GOP that not fielding candidates for local office is a brilliant stroke of political cunning. We're absolutely gaga over Mullah James Dobson's insistence that Sen. John McSame does not pass the litmus test for conservative purity.

Meanwhile, we get an e-mail this a.m. from a local Republican who has changed registration to Democrat and is looking for the local Obama office. Apparently, that voter hasn't heard that McSame already won N.C. by virtue of John Edwards' losing it four years ago.

If politics weren't so damn amusing, how could we put up with the appalling sapience of the RNC prognosticators?

The Importance of North Carolina

Says Peter Francia, an East Carolina University political science professor, of candidate Hillary Clinton:

"She is very much against the ropes. If she wins North Carolina, she's back in this thing. If she doesn't win, she probably drops out."

We wouldn't recommend holding your breath on that latter prediction.

But the do-or-die nature of the North Carolina vote is attested to by the posting of Clinton operative Ace Smith, "a soft-spoken Californian who headed winning Clinton campaigns in California and Texas," into the Raleigh hub for the duration.

Smith is also described as "the epitome of a take-no-prisoners political operative who has built a reputation as a dogged [digger up of dirt]." As the French say, "Holy shit!"

Little Miss Management at ASU

The Winston-Salem Journal editorializes against ASU Chancellor Ken Peacock this a.m. over "the noose incident" which has convulsed the campus for weeks. "It's past time for the school to make full disclosure," writes the Journal.

A student reporter for The Appalachian newspaper at ASU also delved into the story yesterday, coming up with an anonymous source that sheds more light than we've previously seen.

The bottomline appears to be this: Chancellor Peacock waffled and caved to pressure from the parents of a "disgruntled student," and the end result is that the standing and career of an exemplary professor, whose student ratings are consistently high, is imperiled.

Still unanswered: what "disciplinary" actions have been taken against the professor and on what basis?

Plush Panda Bear, $49.95 (cheap!)

Bev Perdue, Democratic candidate for NC Gov in the May 6th primary, is using robo calls to African-American households that say:

"I want you to know that I endorse Barack Obama for president. I've been a lifetime member of the NAACP and Barack Obama and I share a committment for equal opportunity for all Americans. It's such an exciting time. We have a chance to make history in America and right here in North Carolina.

"This is Bev Perdue. I'd appreciate your support in my campaign for governor. Thanks so much and have a great day." (Via Dome)

Is it the robo call or the pandering that hurts?

Anyway, Richard Moore, Perdue's chief rival for the nomination, endorsed Obama first.

Citizens for Change, Revisited

Reading Frank Ruggiero's account of the handful of disagreeable property owners standing in the way of the "Howard Street Project" (they refuse to grant easements or right-of-ways for sidewalks, etc.), we began to wonder how many of them were big supporters of "Citizens for Change" in the last town election.

To find that out, we went to the campaign finance report form that Citizens for Change filed with the State Board of Elections in January (though it has been mis-dated Jan. 2007).

For those who've been wanting to know, Citizens for Change says it raised a total in cash of $45,426.12 and spent $42.772.65 in last fall's Boone town elections, doubling several times over the amount spent by the eventual winners (Stephen Phillips alone excepted). This total in cash does not count what Phil Templeton individually spent on multiple newspaper ads (many of them full-page), though he was also a big donor to Citizens for Change.

You can go to the PDF file linked above and view the individuals who gave anywhere from $100 to $4,000 to this PAC. Two of them, at least, are noted obstructionists to the Howard Street redevelopment plan. New town council member Stephen Phillips, the sole Citizens for Change candidate who won, says in the Ruggiero article that he has been having private meetings with these owners, and he defends their version of civic-mindedness in halting the redevelopment of Howard Street.

The big disbursements of the PAC went to High Country Media, Aisling Broadcasting, Charter Media, Precision Printing, High Country Press, the U.S. Postal Service, Best Image Signs, and the Lenoir News Topic for printing the little newspaper that got handed out and mailed. Among the many other smaller expenditures was $194 to the Boone Area Chamber of Commerce for membership dues and mailing labels.

This Man Wants To Be Lt. Gov.

State Senator Robert Pittenger from Charlotte, the man John Hood of the John Locke Foundation (who ought to know!) says the Republican Party will nominate on May 6th as their candidate for Lieutenant Governor.

Pittenger is a big global warming denier. He goes around with a PowerPoint that debunks climate change. He's also ranked 47th in effectiveness in the 50-member state Senate, according to the most recent survey by the N.C. Center for Public Policy Research.

Yep. He'll make a fine representative for the NC GOP in 2008.

Two -- Count 'em! -- Two Obama Offices in Boone

Apparently the Obama office next door to Beanstalk we reported yesterday is primarily for ASU students. There's another office further up King Street, past the county courthouse, in the back portion of 920 W. King.

More details as we learn them.