Tie Fido to the Car Roof

Mitt Romney mistreated the family dog.

But has he ever kicked a cat in anger?

Scalia, Insult Comic of the Wrecking Crew

With the dismantling now in high gear on the Bush Supreme Court of all the social safety nets within reach, you might find Scalia's calling fellow arch-conservative (and Chief Justice) John Roberts a wimp (in effect) somewhat amusing, in a rueful sort of way.

The NYTimes today has the story and the analysis.

High Density Development on Holloway Mtn Rd

On the same day we attend a meeting to learn more about Watauga County's comprehensive planning process, being launched now to produce a plan for growth in two years, we also learn of another massive, high-density housing development planned for the corner of Hwy 221 and Holloway Mountain Rd., west of Blowing Rock.

A preliminary plat plan, which we've seen, calls for almost a hundred building lots in addition to a bunch more "townhomes," "cottages," and "lake house cottages." Both the primary and a secondary entrance will intersect with Holloway Mountain Rd.

Oh, the "lake" of "lake house cottages" is a proposed empoundment of Boone Fork Creek.

The potential impact on both Holloway Mountain Rd. and on Hwy 221 -- just the additional traffic -- will be substantial. The new lake? Well, who knows?

This sort of massive development on fragile mountain land is currently little addressed by county ordinances, and there IS NO PLANNING for this or much of anything else. Here's hoping the planning document forecast to be unveiled by August 2009 will address this sort of development and what it's doing to us.

Our Bumbling State Auditor Has Been Moonlighting

Les Merritt (sic), the man who brought us the Great N.C. Voter Fraud Fizzle, has been moonlighting and using his official position as State Auditor to advertise his services.

He'll be up for reelection in 2008.

And No One Has Ever Been Held Accountable

Big surprise, this: the CIA did a document dump yesterday, proving that our worst fears about the agency back in the 1960s and 1970s were wholly and fully justified, that a "no-holds-barred culture" existed at the CIA for illegally spying on innocent Americans, all justified by a paranoia about the Soviet Union.

That was then. This is now. And should we believe that the "no-holds-barred culture" has gone away, that secret foreign prisons and torture and the interception of innocent Americans' phone & e-mail messages, and the Good Lord knows what else, hasn't accelerated under this current regime?

Puh-leaze!

Young Voters Turned Off by the GOP

A significant new New York Times/CBS News/MTV poll discussed this a.m. in the NYTimes. More Americans aged 17 -29 are paying attention to politics, and what they see doesn't make them lean toward the Republican Party.

No wonder the state GOP wants to suppress voter registration and voter turn-out among this group!

One surprising number in the polling: Rudy Giuliani attracted only 4% of these respondents. We thought his name identification and support would be much higher among young people.

Heath Shuler, Speaking Very Carefully

The new congressman from NC-11, parsing those words, threading that needle, in Christianity Today:

What is the best way to handle abortion politically?

I'm pro-life. We can talk about how we're going to vote and what we're going to do, and so many people are activists. Far too often it's about Democrats and Republicans and their views on that issue. We need to spend more time as Christians being part of the solution to make sure that women know there's someone here for you financially, there's someone here who will support you, and someone telling you they love you.

What legal measures do you support to reduce the number of abortions?

I don't think it's as much about legal measures. Our communities have to do better. Our churches have to do better. I think that's part of growing up in a community like I did. It was a small, very [tightly] knit group, and you knew people in your community and your church whom you could lean on and [who] would help you make these difficult decisions. Everyone wants to talk to us about legislation.

"I have a different understanding with the president"

Anyone even vaguely interested in the drift of this nation under the ministrations of Vice President Dick Cheney will want to read the multi-part series that debuted in the WashPost yesterday. Part I is here, and Part II is here. Parts III & IV come tomorrow and Wednesday.

The quote that we're using as the title for this post is what Cheney told former V.P. Dan Quayle, when Quayle warned him that as vice president he'd mainly be attending a lot of funerals. "A different understanding," but did Bush understand it?

The sources of the current stand-off with Congress -- Cheney's bizarre argument that he is neither a member of the executive branch nor of the legislative branch and is therefore not subject to any of the rules that apply to either branch -- are all laid out here. Cheney's "understanding" with El Presidente gave him unusual powers to "reach down" into any cabinet-level policy-making council and to impose himself on decisions, to sit with the president during daily briefings, to keep all his own daily contacts and briefings utterly secret.

Clearly, he began even before 9/11 to fashion a rationale for an imperial presidency beyond the power of any of the other branches of government, a presidency that could indefinitely imprison and could use cruel and inhumane treatment on anybody considered an enemy, without legal niceties. 9/11 gave him the justification to seize power.

All of this we've known but hardly in the detail offered in the WashPost series.

"Most of his operational agenda, in practice if not in principle, remains in place .... an insurrection against legal limits on the commander in chief ... bypassing Congress and the courts .... Cheney turned his attention to the practical business of crushing a captive's will to resist .... Many of the harsh measures he championed, and some of the broadest principles undergirding them, have survived intact but out of public view."

Eventually, they will come to public view, though it'll be too late.

There'll Be No Blowin' in the Wind Here, My Friends!

The town of Blowing Rock's decision to ban residential wind turbines is a municipal black eye that just gets blacker.

The W-S Journal editorial on Sunday found the town's action, well, backward.