Coach Carter at the Dems Fall Rally

Coach Roy Carter delivered a rip-snorter of a speech at the Watauga County Democratic Party's Fall Rally Saturday night, tearing into Virginia Foxx's voting record and vowing to "take her on," should he become the Democratic nominee for the NC-5 Congressional seat.

Thanks, Lonnie, for the photo.

Their Deeds Speak as Loudly as Their Words

Passing unnoticed in Kathleen McFadden's wrap-up article on the Boone Town Council elections was this significant passage:

"...Some of the [Citizens for Change] endorsed candidates were initially asked to sign a pledge to uphold the PAC position if they were elected, but according to PAC Chair Jeff Templeton, the PAC withdrew the request when some candidates and campaign treasurers objected...."

Let's be clear: candidates Tim Wilson, Stephen Phillips, Ethan Dodson, and Dempsey Wilcox were asked to sign loyalty oaths, swearing fealty to Team Templeton. Some evidently objected, and the pledging of allegiance to Big Money and Bully Boy tactics was suspended because reporter Kathleen McFadden began looking into it. News of these loyalty oaths leaked, McFadden began asking questions, and the demands for loyalty ceased (at least temporarily, and for outward appearances).

Be assured, if they're able to get their chums into power, Templeton will demand their absolute obeisance to his will (or a pound of flesh, if necessary). Once a bully, always a bully ... until someone stands up to the bullying. And who of that team of four do you envision standing up for anything outside the narrow set of Templeton interests?

The Latest on Congressman McHenry

The story appears under this headline:

"US Congressman owned home with another man, took DC tax deduction while voting in NC"

We Gotcha Book-Marked, My Brethren!

Heads up. A new blog, "Revolution in Jesusland," reaches out to the progressive community. These dudes are speaking of solidarity -- whaaa? -- of solidarity on issues that matter, coming from "the diverse and complex world of evangelical Christianity" and offering a loaf of bread, NOT a scorpion, to us damned-to-deepest-ranks-of-hell Democratic activists.

So is this the sound of the morning of Christ's nativity, or mere whistling in the charnel house?

...there is an incredibly large and beautiful social movement exploding among evangelicals right now that stands for nearly all of the same causes and goals that secular progressives do. Those goals include: eliminating poverty, saving the environment, promoting justice and equality along racial, gender and class lines and for immigrants -- and even separation of church and state.

You had us at "eliminating poverty."

Franklin, N.C., Limiting Big-Box Stores

The rest of western North Carolina is following Boone's lead. The point is, Boone IS leading.

Franklin, the county seat of Macon County, which according to the U.S. Census had one of the fastest growth rates of any county in North Carolina, is about to impose restrictions on any proposed "big-box retailer" that wants to build anything in excess of 30,000 square feet:

These large-scale commercial developments must come before the town board for a special use permit, allowing town leaders the opportunity to impose whatever guidelines they feel are necessary to make the development compatible with the community, such as landscaped parking lots and an attractive building design.

Oh dear.

And you gotta love this paragraph:

"We have what every developer is foaming at the mouth to get a hold of," Franklin Alderman Bob Scott said. "It is not a one way street of what the developers can get out of Franklin. What we need to get out of them is what we will look like 20 or 30 years down the road. If a town board does not say, 'This is the way we want you to go,' they are going to do whatever they darn well please.' "

Alderman Bob Scott can expect to be targeted for defeat in the next election. Meanwhile, Franklin is trying to protect itself.

One last note on courage, as sometimes practiced by elected town officials: "Most developers try to bully small towns by threatening not to come unless the regulations are relaxed. It is usually a bluff, but requires town leaders to see through the process."

We can be proud of the courage Boone town officials have shown of late, despite bullying and notorious smears of their character, their vision, even their belief in education.

Of Water Shortages and Fantasy Lands

While our local PAC-MEN continue to peddle the hogwash that our water shortage is, in their words, a "myth," the drought and its accompanying water-supply problems continue to roll through the state.

Charlotte is in the process of enacting its "harshest water restrictions ever," and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians has instituted mandatory water restrictions, and the city of Fayetteville is begging for stepped-up conservation. Just a few of the scores of examples we've seen.

Meanwhile, at an invitation-only PAC-MEN event for local realtors, Citizens for Cash featured a lengthy talk on how Boone had plenty of water and needed to be exporting it out of the town limits to further the development plans of those wishing to crush the Boone Town Council.

Their claim is that their candidates can "manage" Boone so much better! Well, ordinarily good management begins with at least a finger-and-thumb grip on reality.

Battleground Charlotte ... and Boone Too

North Carolina State Democratic Party Chair Jerry Meek will be in Charlotte Saturday at noon, participating in a "Take Back Charlotte" neighborhood canvass for mayoral candidate Beverly Earle.

Then Meek will be on his way to Boone for the local Democrats' 5 p.m. Fall Rally at the National Guard Armory ($10 tickets, available at the door Saturday).

Ya'll come.

First We Sell Our Ads and Then We Write Our Editorials

The editorial in today's Watauga Democrat would make a fine poster for "Do as we say and not as we do."

Can't we all just be nice? asks the paper that has taken thousands of $$ in paid advertising from a powerful man who can buy his smears at the retail price.

Then we get the tsk-tsking of an editorialist, whose employer profitted from the smears, trying to imply that both sides are equally guilty.

We like that. It so reduces every struggle to a moral-equivalency mush. And, apparently, it's a dependable perch for people who want to be ABOVE politics, and self-righteous about it to boot.

Hazardous Slopes & Dozing Dopes

Interesting, that it's a lone voice on the North Carolina Conservative website, calling on the state to do something about forcing sellers of mountain land to disclose known hazardous slope conditions prior to sale.

That plaint will become more resonant next month when the North Carolina Geological Survey releases its hazardous slope maps for Watauga County, which according to advance reports will show over 100 existing homes in Watauga County built on unstable sites.

The White Laurel destruction of 2004? That was nothing.