Laughing Her Out of Office?

On the same day we catch a whiff of a local plan to hold a "Virginia Foxx Retirement Celebration" in Boone, featuring publicly performed home-grown limericks and other forms of grassroots satire, we come across this open invitation for Ye Wits of Bloggerdom to submit humorous videos about local examples of pork-barrel spending, and one of the examples they prominently suggest is to hold a tea party on the lawn of Madam Foxx's notorious Teapot Museum in Sparta, N.C.:

Remember to keep the videos short — two to three minutes is ideal — and make them funny if you can. Everybody online loves a good parody. Think of gimmicks, too. If you're exposing the idiocy of funding a teapot museum, try organizing a tea party on the site. [EyeblastTV]

Gosh, if we don't get an invitation to partake of some Earl Grey and crumpets, in suitable snooty attire, we don't know WHAT the world's coming to! Come on, people! Someone's gotta do it. Give us a time and date, and we'll advertise it. Hundreds will show up!

Asheboro 'Drys' Get Religion About Zoning

Asheboro wets celebrating the liquor vote last night.

The most complete reporting we've seen is in today's Greensboro News & Record.

The most curious wrinkle to emerge ... the drys are vowing to fight for stricter zoning laws in the city of Asheboro. Wha? Turn away from sin, O my brethren, and turn toward ... the Z Word!

[Asheboro First Baptist Church pastor John] Rogers said Christians in the area should work for strict zoning laws for businesses that serve alcohol and attempt to put church members on the new ABC board. "Someone who won't be afraid to give the Christian perspective," Rogers said.

We'll second that motion for strict zoning laws, but that suggestion about putting Baptists on the ABC Board will take some thought. Where I grew up, you wouldn't necessarily entrust a Baptist with the keys to your liquor cabinet.

Liddy Dole, Getting Busy

News this a.m. that Sen. Liddy Dole is shedding -- quicker'n a scared rabbit -- the $10,000 she received this election cycle from indicted fellow Republican Sen. Ted Stevens.

Plus she's announced that she won't be attending the National Republican Convention this year, a gathering where she's been a featured star speaker during the last three quadrennia. Dole's sudden allergy to fellow Republicans reminds us a little of The Guv's long history of eschewing fellow Democrats, and maybe it'll work for Liddy the way it's worked for Mike.

Hell, we guess that now that Liddy has refound the state that elected her to the Senate, she'll be putting up a cot at her mama's old home in Salisbury and pretending that she's been living here all along.

New Polling in NC-5

A new poll of fifth district voters shows Roy Carter within striking distance of incumbent Virginia Foxx, despite being outspent seven to one so far. The survey of 846 likely voters was conducted by Public Policy Polling of Raleigh on July 23-24.

Foxx 51%
Carter 41%
Undecided 8%

The raw numbers alone tell only part of the story. Here's the analysis of the pollsters:

Virginia Foxx has only a 45% approval rating with voters in the district, well below the 50% threshold that is considered safe for an incumbent. It is a remarkably low 30% with the independent voters in the district, whose votes will be critical if Carter is to win this fall.

On the issue that matters most to voters in the district, Roy Carter has the edge over Virginia Foxx. 49% of respondents picked the economy as their biggest concern from a list of eight major issues, and among those folks Carter leads Foxx 48-45. If Carter is able to keep the campaign focused on the bread and butter issues that most affect the daily lives of people in the 5th district, he will have the upper hand.

There are indications that the Republican brand is damaged in the district. Although he received 66% of the vote in the district in both 2000 and 2004, President Bush's approval rating is just 34%. Just 20% of respondents think that the country is heading in the right direction under the current Republican administration.

Although trailing, Barack Obama and Bev Perdue are both outpacing recent Democratic performance in the district. Obama trails John McCain by 19 points, a significant improvement on the 33 point losses Al Gore and John Kerry sustained against George W. Bush. Perdue trails Pat McCrory by 8 points here, where Mike Easley lost to Richard Vinroot by 12 in 2000. It's also worth noting that Carter is polling at a higher level than both Perdue and Obama, an indication that he can differentiate himself from national Democrats, something that will be key to victory in this Republican leaning district.

If Roy Carter gets the funding he needs to run a strong media campaign that will complement his already strong grassroots backing, he has a genuine chance of beating Virginia Foxx this fall given the political climate and her lacking approval rating.

Ashboro Goes Wet

From what we can see on the Randolph County Board of Elections site, liquor-by-the-drink seems to be winning, overwhelmingly.

Actually, there were four initiatives on the ballot: malt beverage election, unfortified wine election, ABC store election, and mixed beverage election. All seem to be passing by over 60 percent of the vote.

Sometimes, the threat of hellfire just isn't enough to swing an election.

According to the Ashboro Courier-Tribune, people seeking the election results were barred from going to the Randolph County Courthouse, where people have traditionally gone to see the vote tallied, because "Patsy Foscue, elections director, said she feared the possibility of confrontation between the pro- and anti-alcohol groups, regardless of which side wins."

And we thought Boone town elections were tough.

Give 'The Elevator Lady' the Shaft!

We missed last Tuesday's Charlotte Observer editorial calling for the defeat of Secretary of Labor Cherie Berry (pictured left) ... until this a.m., but it's worth delving into.

Besides getting to put her name inside every elevator in the state, Berry oversees many worker-safety issues. One of her major responsibilities ... worker safety in chicken processing plants, of which N.C. has many, where working conditions have been notoriously rotten.

A Charlotte Observer investigative series of articles exposing unsafe working conditions in the poultry industry prompted the state legislature to give additional money to Berry's department to hire four new poultry plant inspectors. On July 18 Berry announced that she would accept the four new positions but not use them for the purpose lawmakers intended. A cheeky response to the NC General Assembly, no doubt, and its message was clear: the chummy relationship between Berry and the chicken-plucking industry is gonna remain chummy.

Which sorta pissed off the editorial board at the Charlotte Observer:

"We're going to continue doing business the way I imagine we've always done it," said Delores Quesenberry, spokeswoman for Ms. Berry. "We've been doing a good job with that [poultry plant inspections] all along. And we're going to continue that."

A good job? What has Ms. Quesenberry been smoking? ...

...lax regulations and weak oversight have made it easy for a dangerous industry to exploit illegal workers, underreport injuries and get around a regulatory system that lets companies police themselves....

...Yet when confronted with that evidence, here's what Ms. Berry said: "We're going to keep doing what we're doing because it's working," she said. That's not the voice of someone who's intent on looking out for the state's workers....

...Rules and policies at the state labor department have tilted toward business instead of worker safety. Inspections and fines at poultry plants are at record lows....

Fortunately for voters this is an election year....

The Observer editorial then endorsed Democratic Labor Commissioner candidate Mary Fant Donnan.

Ashboro Will Decide LBD Issue on Tuesday

Ashboro may be a bellwether for Boone on the liquor-by-the-drink issue this coming Tuesday, so we'll be watching the returns with heightened interest. Ashboro, by the way, is the largest municipality left in N.C. that allows no alcoholic beverages whatsoever, not even beer and wine.

The Greensboro N&R has a big article up today on the battle. A few excerpts, just to show that nothing much is new under the sun:

...to many, this is more than a vote. It's a battle for the soul of the city.

On one side: businesses and citizens who feel the city should allow adults to buy alcohol and reap the benefits in economic development when hotels, bars and restaurants flow in.

On the other: church groups and more conservative residents who want to preserve the city's dry tradition and believe alcohol is dangerous to the safety and character of Asheboro.

A furious debate has raged between the two groups for months. Campaigns on both sides have spent tens of thousands of dollars on newspaper and television ads. The arguments continue on blogs and in letters to the editor. Drive through town, and you'll see "For" or "Against" signs in the yard of nearly every house, in the windows of businesses and cars....

Incidentally, the Committee for the Future of Ashboro, the group pushing for legalization, is "a virtual who's-who of the city's business, civic and political leaders." If the vote on Tuesday fails, we suspect that some of those political leaders will be facing hot reelection battles when they have to run again. Come to think of it, if the vote succeeds, they'll all be in hot reelection battles too.

Maybe Ashboro is more conservative than Marion, but we doubt it, and LBD passed in Marion earlier this summer.

Sen. McCain Turns Into Mr. Wilson

...with Barack Obama as Dennis the Menace.

McCain had goaded Obama into visiting Iraq and Afghanistan, then watched as Obama's meetings with the leaders of those countries and Jordan, Israel, the Palestinians, Germany, France, and Great Britain dominated the news. Obama visited troops in Iraq and Afghanistan on his trip and had made numerous trips to Washington's Walter Reed Army Medical Center. But because the Obama campaign canceled a visit to wounded troops in Germany after the Pentagon raised concerns about political activity on a military base, McCain now has a new attack ad up on TV claiming that Obama cares more about yadda yadda yadda than he does about our soldiers.

John McCain is just angry. Angry all the time now.

Madam Foxx Votes No on Foreclosure Prevention Act

No surprise.

The Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008 is designed to help 400,000 homeowners avoid foreclosure. The bill also includes a federal bailout for mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Virginia Foxx voted no, blaming the victims of mortgage scams for being victims. You should have known better. So what if you lose your house? Some packing crates make excellent shelter.

The bill passed in the House anyway, 272-152, and El Presidente says he'll sign it.