Long Knives Out in Raleigh To Kill Solar

This man, Rep. Mike Hager of Rutherfordton, has drunk deeply of the Koch Bros. tea (made of four parts petroleum and one part fantasy), and has embraced hostility to solar energy as his crusade to rid North Carolina of the coming evil of "renewable energy."

"Sustainability" is a nasty word to Mike Hager.

Backed by the Koch-funded American Energy Alliance, the political lobbying arm of the Institute for Energy Policy, Mr. Hager held a round-table, ritual gutting of solar energy and other "renewables" at the General Assembly yesterday in an effort to convince his fellow legislators and the general public that the state's modest feint toward encouraging renewable energy with tax credits not only endangers democracy but actually robs poor people of money they could use to buy more lottery chances.

Some bird-nosed "expert" actually claimed at the meeting that solar energy took an average of $3,800 of disposable income out of every North Carolina household in 2013.

These legislative fossils who eat, drink, and spew fossil fuel will also be deeply embarrassed when ice-melt swamps the coast. No, check that. They won't be embarrassed at all. They'll still be deep in that river in Africa.

NC Senate Caves (A Little) on Film Incentives

Having done what they bloody well could do to drive filmmaking out of North Carolina (mainly sending it to Atlanta), with all its associated economic benefits (which were plenty!), the Republican numbskulls in the NC General Assembly announced yesterday that their utter failure at a "Film Grant Program" would be tripled in the new budget to $30 million, no matter what else happens to the future of public and higher education and teachers' salaries in this swirling-down-the-drain state.

The Republican grandees in the General Assembly had gotten nothing but bad press about the decamping of TV show after TV show, which have been shaking the dust of North Carolina off their designer boots and heading for friendlier territory since last year.

The $30 million may help, though it's still paltry peas compared to where we were before this radical right-wing bunch took over this once progressive and economically vibrant state.

Dan Soucek, Number One Wrecker of Driver's Education in NC

Bruce Siceloff details his meeting with Sen. Dan Soucek, who has decided to hate driver's education as much as he hates gay marriage.

According to Soucek, there's absolutely nothing to be gained by a 16-year-old's taking driver's ed in public school.

That wouldn't matter so much except Soucek has been put in a position in the NC Senate to actually kill driver's education.

"That's How the System Works" -- NC-Style Pork Barrel Spending

So Tim Moore of Kings Mountain in Cleveland County got to be Speaker of the North Carolina House, and a provision showed up in the House budget bill establishing a rural water and sewer infrastructure grant that must go to "a town of less than 12,000 people that received a state loan in 2013 to replace water distribution lines.”

The only North Carolina town that fits that description is Tim Moore's hometown of Kings Mountain, according to the Raleigh News & Observer. Kings Mountain is where Moore practices law, where he was recently hired as Cleveland County attorney with a regular yearly retainer of $25,000 (in addition to the $250-per-hour he'll be able to charge for actual legal work).

The News & Observer has identified at least $6 million that Moore has managed to earmark for Cleveland County, including a $200,000 grant for the American Legion World Series baseball tournament.

Suck on that, school teachers!

What Nathan Miller Said in Court This Morning

Miller

"Judge, there's no doubt that this is about politics."

UPDATED with additional information

The "this" in lawyer Nathan Miller's statement to Special Superior Court Judge Jeff Hunt of Henderson County is his petition (on behalf of Republican Party Chair Anne Marie Yates) to "compel" Appalachian State University to turn over another 9,000 of Professor Stella Anderson's e-mails that were not released, either because they were (1) confidential personnel matters, or (2) privacy protected communications with students, or (3) personal communications, having nothing to do with University business and, as such, not a public record.

Miller admitted that the fishing expedition is political after it came out in court this morning that Nathan Miller personally had complained about Professor Anderson to the University of North Carolina Board of Governors just a few hours after Anderson et al. had filed a petition in October 2013 with the State Board of Elections to remove Republican members Luke Eggers and Bill Aceto from the local Board of Elections for cause.

And soon after that, here came Anne Marie Yates, represented by Nathan Miller, demanding all of Stella Anderson's e-mails and alleging that she had violated the law by politicking on the ASU server. The 10,000 e-mails turned over to Yates did not satisfy the Republican Chair, mainly because the wild allegations being tossed around were not sustained by the evidence.

Yates, blocking the camera phone

Judge Hunt took no action this morning. He asked all parties to file briefs with him, arguing whether Anderson is subject to NC GS 126.13, which prohibits political activity by a state employee. The Attorney General's office in a prior opinion stated that UNC system faculty are exempt from most sections of 126. Faculty are classified as "EPA" (meaning Exempt from the Personnel Act).

Faculty are subject to a UNC BOG policy that mirrors 126.13 provisions, but that is not a matter to be adjudicated in the courts. Complaints of violations have to be directed to the UNC Board Of Governors, which Miller did in Anderson's case in October 2013. There was a full investigation of his complaint, and Anderson was cleared of any wrongdoing. Miller keeps trying to conflate the Public Records Request and the political activity complaint, which Anderson's lawyer maintains he cannot (or should not be allowed to) do. His only recourse through the courts in on the Public Records Request alone.

Miller had apparently chosen to ignore the EPA exemption and has claimed in court -- he did so again this morning -- that he does not know "to this day" whether Anderson is a member of the ASU faculty. That was a laughable statement. It was pointed out to Judge Hunt that in his complaint to the Board of Governors in October 2013, Miller himself identified Anderson as a professor at ASU.

Months ago, after Judge Hunt was assigned to the case, he proposed that perhaps an independent "referee" could be appointed to review all the e-mails and reach a conclusion about whether they were "public records." Guess who Nathan Miller nominated as potential "independent referees." No, really, guess…

Stacy C. Eggers IV ("Four") and Rep. Jonathan Jordan. I'm not making that up. Those are the two "unbiased" men that Nathan Miller thought would be excellent arbiters to paw through thousands of private e-mails … the brother of Luke Eggers, against whom Stella Anderson had filed a petition for removal from the Board of Elections, and the highly partisan Republican who represents Watauga County in the General Assembly.

For tone deafness, you will nowhere find more tin than dwells within the ears of attorney Nathan Miller. And for a model of political vindictiveness, also look no further.

Playing Politics with Teachers' Salaries

Twice in just two days, we've heard the following hot rumor out of Raleigh: Republicans in the General Assembly intend to go forward with the insulting $750 one-time bonus for public school teachers (no pay raise -- just that lump) and then next year in advance of the 2016 elections, when all their wide asses are in the crack, they intend to vote hefty pay raises in hopes that the white-hot anger they've provoked in public employees will cool down and then maybe school teachers will vote them back into power out of gratitude.

That rumor made the Raleigh News&Observer today.

Will that kind of political bribery work? Maybe. Maybe not, if teachers' memories last longer than the average chalk on a blackboard.

What Do Dan Soucek & Jonathan Jordan Think of Public Education? Here's What

Soucek & Jordan

Some stark facts (hat tip: http://howfarwehavefallen.com) about the sorry state of public education in North Carolina below. These realities actually brought to you by Sen. Dan Soucek (who's also busily trying to shift public money to private schools run by big corporations via vouchers) and Rep. Jonathan Jordan and by their Republican pals in the NC General Assembly:

Adjusted for inflation, North Carolina’s per-student education investment has dropped by $815 since the Great Recession began in 2008. Only six states have seen a larger drop than North Carolina.

Since 2008, textbook funding per student has dropped a staggering 79 percent from $76.09 to $15.96. In many schools, there aren't enough books for students to take home for homework.

Adjusted for inflation, North Carolina’s average teacher salary has fallen by $5,158 since 2008. Over the same period, the state’s teacher pay ranking dropped from 25th to 42nd.

North Carolina classrooms have lost 7,138 teacher assistants since 2008.

Jonathan Jordan Sez: "What I'm Doing in Raleigh on a Daily Basis Is Confidential"

In an article detailing how much the two-month delay in agreeing to a state budget is costing North Carolina taxpayers, WBTV in Charlotte asked Jonathan Jordan to account for his activities during those two months, for which he's paid $104-a-day.

According to WBTV, Jordan "refused to provide details" of what he's doing on a daily basis (since he's not part of the budget-writing team in the House).

"Jordan went so far as to refuse an interview request to discuss what he does in Raleigh on a daily basis because, he said, that information is confidential."

Transparency and accountability? Not from Representative Jonathan Jordan.

UPDATE
Link to WBTV article has been added above.

A County Clerk in Kentucky, Our Dim Governor, and Christian Dominionism

"Dominion Theology is the idea that Christians should work toward either a nation governed by Christians or one governed by a conservative Christian understanding of biblical law."
--Wikipedia

Kim Davis, the Rowan County Kentucky Clerk in charge of marriage licenses, has now been rebuffed by the U.S. Supreme Court for her refusal to issue marriage licenses to gay couples, and commentators in the mainstream press are beside themselves at her dumbness.

It ain't dumbness, folks. It's bravery, however pretzeled by a fanatic religious belief. Kim Davis is meditating every second of every day on Matthew 5:11: "Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake."

She's divinely right on gay marriage, and everyone else is wrong, everyone on up through the justices on the U.S. Supreme Court. She's now willing, I would venture, to go to the stake over this and have the flames rearrange her hairdo. Every court ruling against her, every insult broadcast on the Internet, every sidelong sneer she's now experiencing from some of her fellow Kentuckians -- all of that is just proof, according to Matthew 5:11, that she's a righteous soldier in the army of Christ.

It's the same type of faith that bolstered many a martyr to their deaths in all the centuries of stupid religious wars -- martyrs of every sect, of every warped or blessed belief. You will not shake them, shatter them, nor move them off their rigid platforms of surety.

Now comes word this morning that Governor McCrory has agreed to be a featured speaker at a Christian dominionist rally in Charlotte. His image was being used in a full-page Charlotte Observer ad to promote the event, and words were attributed to him thusly: "Come Join Me in a time of worship, prayer, fasting and repentance."

"Repentance"? For the group hosting the event, The American Renewal Project, that word implies a good deal more than some benign regret for sins of commission/omission.

David Lane, the head of the American Renewal Project, has laid out his agenda elsewhere, and it's fully within the definition of "Christian dominionism":

As to the future of America – and the collapse of this once-Christian nation – Christians must not only be allowed to have opinions, but politically, Christians must be retrained to war for the Soul of America and quit believing the fabricated whopper of the ‘Separation of Church and State,” the lie repeated ad nauseum by the left and liberals to keep Christian America – the moral majority – from imposing moral government on pagan public schools, pagan higher learning, and pagan media.

You ask, ‘What is our goal?’ To wage war to restore America to our Judeo-Christian heritage with all of our might and strength that God will give us. You ask, ‘what is our aim?’ One word only: victory, in spite of all intimidation and terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be, for without victory, America will ultimately collapse. [emphasis added]

That's relatively explicit. They intend war (folks die in war). They intend to "impose" their version of holiness on the rest of us (and what ensues when one of us resists the imposition?). Resistance is futile, O my brethren, because these guys speak for God, and we assume that God is ordering them toward their vision of "victory."

Do you want to go with them there?

Evidently, Gov. McCrory either didn't read the brochure, or he's fully aware of who he's throwing in with. Curious minds want to know.