Friday, May 27, 2011 - 1:08pm

There's a cautionary tale to be seen in Wisconsin these days under governor Scott Walker. We all remember when he gained national notoriety for both trying to dissolve government worker's unions and tipping his hand that he was doing so at the behest of the Koch brothers. More recently, he signed into law a voter ID bill nearly identical to the one NC Republicans are currently trying to pass here in the old north state. There, like here, they have little to no problems with voter fraud, making the measure a transparent move to reduce voter turnout.

Having been pushed back on the voter ID bill, the NC general assembly recently slashed a week off of early voting time. If we're not careful, what's happening in Wisconsin could happen here. Where they have the Koch brothers, we have Art Pope. Unless we are vigilant, our democracy can and will be dismantled and sold, piece by piece.

1,195
Wednesday, May 4, 2011 - 2:55pm

For those citizens of North Carolina who live outside the radius served by the Independent Weekly, they recently published an excellent article about House Bill 129. The innocently titled "level the playing field" bill is a Civitas/AFP-backed agenda item to prevent local governments from establishing their own municipal broadband service and thereby compete with the big telecom companies. The same companies who currently enjoy big tax breaks to bring us overpriced broadband services that still ranks among the slowest in the developed world.

1,796
Wednesday, January 12, 2011 - 3:18pm

Your average petty criminal gets a pretty bad rap, all things considered. At first glance your burglars, muggers, and other varieties of thieves appear to be among the lowest of the low that society has to offer, but compared to those who are gradually pilfering the most important parts of our democracy, you begin to see the first group of lowlifes in a new light. For example, most burglars will wait until you’re away to steal all of your worldly possessions. They know, as do we, that if they were to appear in broad daylight while we were at home, they would be caught and subjected to whatever punishment the law handed down. That small act of waiting until your back is turned to rob you blind seems like a measure of respect compared to the electoral shenanigans of North Carolina’s own Art Pope.

1,351
Friday, August 20, 2010 - 1:11pm

In the most recent tiding of our backslide to oligarchy, it has been revealed that some politicians are dealing with the ever-mounting cost of running political campaigns by augmenting their war chest with their own vast fortunes. As more and more self-financed candidates crop up in numerous elections, the fragile illusion that any citizen with the will to represent their peers and enough popular support can win office is in danger of being shattered. Without some measure of reaction to restore our democracy, there is little that can be done to protect us from the formation of a ruling class. If we truly live in a democracy, then the opportunity to run for office should be available to anyone.

1,198
Wednesday, July 14, 2010 - 2:33pm

From Democracy NC's link of the day

It seems every day we lose a little more ground in the backslide to oligarchy. Already the Supreme Court has ruled that any entity with enough money can buy all the free speech they want to, effectively converting money into rights. The recent ruling by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals put another stamp of approval on that transaction. Ask yourselves, all of you, if money is the equivalent of constitutionally protected speech, how could your rights possibly be equal to those of Wal-Mart? Or Exxon Mobil? Or GE? At this rate it looks like there will come a day in the not-too-distant future when corporations and the exceptionally rich are the true citizens of the United States, and the rest of us merely serfs in their magnanimous employ.

1,182