NO-ZONERS REPENTING IN BUNCOMBE

"I did cut my nose off to spite my face, and I guess I'm paying the price. I don't think any of us realized … what the future was going to be."
Buncombe County resident Beth Woody, who voted against county-wide zoning in 1999 and who now regrets that vote, quoted in the Asheville Citizen-Times

The 1999 public vote for/against zoning in Buncombe County was a non-binding referendum. Some 55.6 percent of those who voted said no to zoning, impelled partly by a no-zoning scare campaign not at all unlike the scare campaign that carried Watauga County over a cliff in 2001. The people who benefitted the most in both counties were big-time developers.

Now looky here ... at how some of those no-zoners in Buncombe are ruing the day that they decided that planning for the future was a communist plot. Apparently, development is even more out of control in rural Buncombe than it is in rural Watauga. But both locales are getting exactly what they asked for. Now they'll have to BEG for land-use planning.

NEW LAWS WE LOVE

North Carolina's new minimum wage of $6.15 an hour goes into effect Monday.

So does a new lobbying ethics law meant to curb some of the pay-to-play abuses of the Jim Black era.

And...

Political parties not named "Democrat" or "Republican" will have an easier time staying on the ballot. If their candidate for governor or president gets 2 percent of the vote in 2008, they won't have to gather signatures to get on the 2012 ballot. The threshhold had been 10 percent.

On the other hand, the state income tax rate for the super-rich goes down to 8 percent from 8.25 percent.

INNOVATIVE MUNICIPAL HEALTH PLAN IN ASHEVILLE

Today's NYTimes profiles a ten-year-old municipal-worker health plan in Asheville that covers 450 city employees for diabetes prevention:

...the city of Asheville has given free diabetes medicines and supplies to municipal workers who have the disease if they agree to monthly counseling from specially trained pharmacists. The results, city officials say, have been dramatic: Within months of enrolling in the program, almost twice as many have their blood sugar levels under control. In addition, the city's health plan has saved more than $2,000 in medical costs per patient each year.

Diabetes is the bane of the Krispy Kreme-loving South, but the Asheville experiment in counseling and preventative care is being copied all across the country.

Way to go, you bunch of ever-lovin' hippies!

HUGE OVER-FLOW CROWD GREETS EDWARDS IN NEW HAMPSHIRE

Read all about it.

ADDENDUM ... Similar scene at campaign event in Nevada. And Chapel Hill gets jiggy wif 'im today.

TREE HUGGING, SANS PEDRO

Congrats to Virginia Foxx for introducing a joint Congressional resolution in the waning hours of the lame-duck House (now blessedly a dim memory) celebrating the Christmas tree industry ... without mentioning the heavy reliance of said industry on legal and illegal immigrants. Foxx's resolution is utter "crap," according to Reason magazine, the libertarian-leaning celebrator of free markets.

SEND THIS CHILD TO CAMP

"Look, I came to do big things, and we're still going to try to do big things. Regardless of my popularity and the Congress, I'm going to try to do big things."
Pres. George W. Bush, quoted in today's USAToday

Huge tax cuts to the very wealthy ... $$$

Government favoritism to big Pharma, big oil, you name it ... $$$$

A wildly unsuccessful Iraq war ... $$$$$

Presidential meglomania ... priceless.

JOHN EDWARDS, OFF AND RUNNING

There are those close to me who believe that the Democrats will win the presidency in '08 NO MATTER WHAT (pretty much). There are those holding that opinion who AREN'T close to me, too, those wishing bad tidings on all Democrats everywhere, yet they recognize the reality that El Presidente has made such a botch that a Democrat -- almost ANY Democrat -- will be elected to the highest office in the land in two years.

I ain't there yet.

And so far, none of the likely or announced candidates is sweeping me off my feet.

I'm afraid that jaded attitude applies to Sen. John Edwards too, who has his campaign website up and who put on jeans and an open-necked shirt this a.m. in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans to announce his candidacy.

Much as I like the guy. And admire his populist message about poverty and fairness. As a pure matter of "strategery," he'd be better for us here in the South, certainly, than Hillary or Obama. But I'm concerned about the lack of experience. I'm concerned that Dick Cheney made Edwards look like a lightweight in the vice-presidential debate in '04. I'm concerned that Edwards' brief sojourn as a U.S. Senator was not exactly memorable (his reputation in some knowledgeable circles was for an unresponsive and poorly run congressional office). I'm concerned that he not only LOOKS callow but IS callow.

All of which is going to make a gagging meal if I end up having to eat my words in a year-and-a-month, after the Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina voters pick the nominee. Which I will do.

VIRGIL GOODE (RHYMES WITH 'SNOOD')

We just came from Virgil Goode territory in central Virginia, and the only people we talked to about him seemed to think he's a genius (in his own right) for "standing up" against the Muslim tide threatening to sweep all of the Christians out of the House of Representatives.

You remember Virgil Goode, don't you? Looks a lot like N.C.'s own Walter Jones and behaves a little like him, too? As in the heroic bravery of "freedom fries" and this sentence from ole Virgil: "I do not subscribe to using the Koran in any way." That's telling 'em, Virg!

Anyway, it's instructive ... the calisthenics Americans are willing to put their moral compasses through to avoid admitting that a leader of their political persuasion said something really, REALLY dumb and then refused to apologize, making him an idiot in addition to a poltroon. But some voters in Virginia have earned their representation in Congress. Priceless.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL

We'll be shut down until December 27th. We can only hope that every last one of you follows the bright star of your choice to the revelations that give meaning to this long year just ending, and to the new one beginning. And stay out of those seasonal affective disorders, please!

See you next Wednesday.