Pathway to Notoriety?

We've tried our best to pay no attention, since "hiking the Appalachian Trail," to what goes on politically in South Carolina, which is to say the extra-marital scandal du jour, which is why we've refrained from picking through the rumpled linen of leading Republican gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley and the outing of her illicit love affair with a conservative blogger (so bloggers do get out of their pajamas occasionally, albeit only to climb into bed with fresh meat). That the spilling of those beans was done by the fornicating blogger himself almost got us going, especially as he was also formerly the public spokesman for Gov. Mark Sanford, of that Appalachian Trail hike fame, and who could resist the convergence?

Well, we did.

Until now.

Over at Balloon Juice, blogger DougJ ruefully reflected on the uptick in blog traffic such a public scandal was sure to provoke:

Do we really live in a world where bloggers can allege having had affairs with politicians and suddenly become national celebrities? Is this something we at Balloon Juice should consider as a traffic maximization strategy? And who would be a good politician to claim I've had an affair with?

Among the 194 suggestions from readers was this one:

... Rep. Virginia Foxx ... produce a string of emails in which you refer to her as "Representative Foxxxy," or how she was "a Foxx in the Rooster house" or something.

Ok, now I need a shower.

The Anti-Abortion Crowd Takes Another Stab at NC

I'm not usually prone to borrowing wholesale from another blog, but I will in this case, as the points are cogent, the issue is alarmingly local to North Carolina, the movement to force women to procreate is repugnant, and there's always the chance that the majority of aging men in the NC General Assembly might decide this year to cave to pressures from the Christian Right. So ... hat tip to BlueNC for this:

Biased and misleading information
Submitted by PPCNC -- local P... on Wed, 05/26/2010 -- 2:51pm

* crisis pregnancy centers
* NC Legislature

Imagine the outcry if North Carolina created a special breast cancer license plate to support organizations that agree to deny women information, referrals, or counseling about the medical options available to treat breast cancer. Substitute pregnancy for breast cancer and, in essence, this is what activists rallying in Raleigh this week to pass "Choose Life" license plates want.

The "Choose Life" bill specifically states that funds raised through the sale of these plates may not be distributed to any organization that "provides, promotes, counsels or refers for abortion." This puts the state in the business of fundraising for organizations that agree to deny women legal health care information at a time of crisis.

For years now, the "Right-to-Life" and other socially conservative organizations in North Carolina have pushed for a "Choose Life" license plate. Since it must be approved by the North Carolina Legislature, these activists tout the plate as either an issue of free speech or as a benign fundraising tool for "crisis pregnancy centers."

First off, just because a person is free to speak a lie or, in this case, deny women legal health information, it doesn't mean that the State should sanction this speech by fundraising to support it.

Second, "choose life" is pure political sloganeering. No other approved license plate in North Carolina panders to the politics of one side in a divisive argument.

Finally, implicit in their argument is that "life" is on their side. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Every single minute of every single day a woman dies from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth -- 536,000 women every year. Of course, the majority of these women live in lesser developed countries where abortion is mostly illegal, family planning hard to come by, and prenatal care virtually unheard of.

In fact, the abortion rate in countries where abortion is mostly banned often equals or exceeds the abortion rate in the United States. The primary difference is that in countries where abortion is illegal, women die at a much higher rate from abortion -- so much for "choosing life."

The quality of life enjoyed by most women in the U.S. hinges on access to safe, legal, and affordable reproductive health care options including abortion, prenatal care, and family planning services.

In the United States, sixty percent of women who have abortions already have a child or children. They know the love a child offers as well as the demands of caring for a child. In fact, the number one reason women give for choosing abortion is "concern or responsibility to other individuals." For most of these women, choosing abortion is about "choosing life."

So let's go back to the fallacy of "Choose Life" license plates. Whose life are they choosing? The mock up plate features children rendered in crayon. North Carolinians who want to support children may already purchase a "Kids First" license plate that raises funds for programs that directly serve children.

If the purpose of "Choose Life" license plate is simply to raise money for "crisis pregnancy centers" then would-be license holders should become donors. That's what supporters of most causes do. Assuming the "crisis pregnancy centers" are legitimate non-profit organizations, the donations are even tax deductible.

The final suggestion made by these groups is that Planned Parenthood can get their own license plate to counter the "Choose Life" plate. In essence, their answer is for North Carolina to create two license plate funds: one for Planned Parenthood, that provides women with all of their legal pregnancy options, and a "Choose Life" fund that denies women this information.

Planned Parenthood is far too respectful of women's lives, not to mention the State's budget crisis, to fall for such a wasteful bad policy. We hope the NC Legislature is as well.

Tell your legislators that the state has no business sanctioning and financially supporting organizations that deny women information about services they have every legal right to access. Take action now!

GOP ... Prisoners of Queer Fear

The most recent poll we've seen shows that an overwhelming majority (78%) of Americans believe that gays and lesbians have as much right to volunteer to die in defense of their country as straight men and women do. Which is to say, an overwhelming majority of Americans believe it is time to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

But that 22% homophobic minority is the Republican base, so when the issue came up for a vote in the U.S. House Thursday night, most of the Republicans voted "no" (including Madam Virginia Foxx), and most of the Democrats voted "yes." Except, of course, for three predictable North Carolina Democratic blue dogs, U.S. Reps. Mike McIntyre of Lumberton, Bob Etheridge of Lillington and Heath Shuler of Waynesville. Nothing gay about them!

Just for the record, Bob Etheridge was the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee's first pick to run against Richard Burr this year. When Etheridge, bless his heart, backed off, the DSCC started blowing in Cal Cunningham's ear, and we're still dealing with that particular seduction.

Concrete Business in North Carolina -- Dirtier Than Asphalt?

The proposed Titan Cement plant at Castle Hayne outside Wilmington has created a good deal of citizen push-back, but we find ourselves more concerned about another cement plant outside Weaverville, whose citizen opponents have now been personally sued for "libel."

It's a classic "SLAPP" suit ... "strategic lawsuits against public participation." Companies with harmful byproducts (carcinogenic air pollutants, in the case of cement plants) and deep pockets sue the "little people" in the proposed plant's path. The cement producers can rarely win such a suit, but it makes the little people hire expensive legal counsel and sometimes works to silence them. Obviously. It's a vile and naked exercise of overwhelming power.

In the Weaverville cement plant case, the citizens group is using as a rallying cry the fear of fatal collisions between cement trucks and school buses. Two elementary schools are near the proposed Flat Creek site for the plant. The company's lawsuit claims that an illustration on the opposition's website of a concrete truck apparently about to strike a school bus is libelous because "No [company] cement truck has ever collided with a stopped school bus." In response, the leader of the opposition said it is "preposterous" to suggest that anyone would think the image depicts an event that has actually occurred, particularly since the company has not begun operation.

Think of this: a citizens group wants to protest a proposed new nuclear power plant in their neighborhood and raises the alarm about possible Three-Mile-Island-style melt-downs. The nuclear power corp. sues the citizens for libel because they have never had a melt-down. Preposterous indeed.

The other part of the libel suit out of Weaverville is aimed at the citizens' claim that the company is "owned by an individual with other out-of-state plants that have several environmental complaints against them," one Mark E. Turner. The company's answer is most notable for its weasel words: No "other ready-mix concrete plants owned by Turner, at the time of publication of the letter, have several environmental complaints raised against them," the lawsuit says.

The denial amounts to an admission. The lawsuit has no apparent merit. And the citizens will be squashed.

Henderson County Commission Votes to Open Itself to a Lawsuit

No, the County Commission of Henderson County said to a moment of silent prayer prior to their meetings. No, they said to non-sectarian prayer. No, they said to any citizen not specifically Christian in the Henderson County tradition of that term.

Yes, they said to being sued just like Forsyth County, and to defending themselves from such a suit.

Wise use of public money!

"Vote Right, Or I'm Gonna Keel You!"

Via BlueRidgeNow.com comes news that we somehow otherwise missed, that NC-11 Congressman Heath Shuler got a death threat over his vote for the Stimulus Bill back last year. A 70-year-old man with "a history of mental illness" and "a large supply of weapons" left a message on the answering machine at Shuler's district office: "If you vote for that stimulus package, I'm gonna kill you. Simple as that...."

When the police followed up and talked to the man, he said, "I was trying to work the political scene."

Wonder where he learned that particular method of working the political scene? Surely not from Limbaugh or Beck, national GOP chair and vice-chair, respectively, or the guys toting side-arms at presidential appearances.

The Teapot Boileth Over

Tim D'Annunzio, called "unfit for public office at any level" by the chair of his party, has now demanded that the chair of his party resign his position for violating the plan of organization of the North Carolina Republicans.

That throwing down of the gauntlet was accomplished at a press conference yesterday in Concord that resembled nothing so much as the Ukraine parliament on one of their vodka-and-rotten-eggs theme day.

D'Annunzio cussed out Tom Fetzer, chair of the NC GOP, who was not there. D'Annunzio refused repeatedly to answer reporter's questions, a somewhat innovative tack to take at a press conference. He ordered a reporter to leave, and when the reporter didn't, D'Annunzio said he'd leave, but didn't. D'Annunzio and his supporters got into a shouting match with Rowan County Republican Larry Lancaster, who evidently does not support D'Annunzio. Another non-supporter, Cabarrus GOP Chair Justin Thibault, got a Bible poked in his face and was called a coward. "That's you. I'm talking about you and the Republican Party that you represent!"

A poster on Justin Thibault's Facebook wall included this insight about D'Annunzio's posse at the press conference:

What was interesting to me was who was attending the press conference as D'Annunzio supporters -- the core of the We The People PAC, formerly known as the Cabarrus Conservative Coalition, formerly known as the Republican Men's Club, formerly known as the Cabarrus Taxpayers Association -- Their treasurer -- Mr. Coy C Privette. If you thought he retired, guess again. If you are a member of We the People in Cabarrus County, and didn't know this little fact -- now you know the rest of the story.

Coy Privette is his own study in high-profile train wrecks.

Oh so little time, so many volatile Republican personalities.

Full Ahead, Backwards!

So Ross Douthat sez that Rand Paul is not so much a tea party insurgent as a "paleoRepublican."

The "paleo" part of that term comes from a Greek word meaning "ancient" or "prehistoric."

Like, backward to a time when a white Southerner didn't have to worry about verbally supporting the God-given rights of businesses to discriminate based on race.

Tim D'Annunzio: "Unfit for Public Office at Any Level"

They're ganging up on poor Tim "Machine Gun" D'Annunzio, who is locked in a primary run-off for the privilege of being the Republican nominee who will take on NC-8 Dem Larry Kissell in November.

D'Annunzio is mainly just a blunter version of Rand Paul, but he's so alarmed the state Republican establishment that NC GOP Chair Tom Fetzer came out on Friday and said, "By my personal observation of his behavior, and by acquaintance with his record and background, I consider Mr. D'Annunzio unfit for public office at any level. What he could do to the party as our nominee is secondary in my view to what he could do to the country if he got elected. If he got elected, for crying out loud, that would be a disaster."

We confess to a certain fondness for any major party spokesman who uses the phrase "for crying out loud" in 2010! It's more than just quaint. It's positively endearing.

But poor Tom Fetzer! To have to say such things about the man who took more votes (some 36.85% of the total) than the five other Republicans in the first primary on May 4th!

Fetzer loses either way, whether he succeeds in destroying D'Annunzio's candidacy or not, because he's earned himself and his state Republican Party several thousand potential enemies among the Tea Party and libertopian elements on the right.

The country club Republicans, of which Tom Fetzer is a shining avatar (for crying out loud), want blow-dried Harold Johnson to win the run-off, but Fetzer just knee-capped that campaign too by insuring that many of the D'Annunzio voters will stay home on November 2nd.

Winner ... Larry Kissell!