Art Pope Puppetshow

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain:

There’s an important distinction, however, between spirited debate and character assassination. Republicans don’t favor tax cuts, regulatory reform, energy exploration, or school choice because some shadowy special-interest group has paid them off. Republicans favor these ideas because they believe them to be good public policy.

The thing is, it's not "either or" as John Hood would like his readers to believe. Whether he's referring to ALEC or Art Pope's Civitas/JLF/AFPNC propaganda machine, that "shadowy special interest group" has been engaged in an aggressive education campaign for years, spoon-feeding anti-government fear-mongering parables and arcane and unprovable economic fantasy scenarios to potential GOP candidates and their supporters, while dangling the prize of $4,000 checks from the Pope family bundlers if they have the free-market Kool-Aid stain on their lips. Here's one of the many ways to get that stain:

If something works, break it:

Republican Gov. Pat McCrory’s proposed budget calls for cutting funds for the BioAgriculture Center at Robeson Community College, a move that could stymie agricultural programs focusing on workforce development, job creation and business recruitment — and eliminate existing jobs. The budget proposed by the governor eliminates about $600,000 for the North Carolina Community College BioNetwork’s Mobile Launch Pad for Careers — which is not administered through the center at RCC — and the BioAgriculture Center on RCC’s campus. Built in 2004, the BioAgriculture Center is one of seven centers statewide that make up the North Carolina Community College BioNetwork, a network of centers that focus on biotechnology, pharmaceuticals and industries related to the life sciences.

I think the key word is that last one: "sciences". Forget about all the success our community college network has had in forming a bridge between education and entrepreneurship, between public and private innovation and job growth. If you're not putting taxpayer money directly into the pockets of businessmen, you're wasting time and encouraging intellectual meddling. The GOP crazy train is stuck in reverse, and building up speed.

Trying to tune a broken guitar:

"For a group of people who claim to believe in empirical study and higher learning, liberal politicians and other critics of North Carolina’s new conservative leaders seem remarkably uninformed or contemptuous of the research basis for the policy initiatives now being debated in Raleigh,'' writes John Hood of the John Locke Foundation in his column at johnlocke.org.

That's because the bulk of the research used to justify their actions is tainted beyond credibility by dubious "experts" who are beholden to corporate-funded "foundations", whose primary goal is to wrest control of government away from the people and move it into their board rooms. And it's a good bet John Hood has come to realize this, because he's too embarassed to cite a single study in this piece, knowing they are easily refutable, so he falls back on generalities:

When the truth doesn't fit your agenda, it's time to make shit up:

But supporters of the rollback, including the bill's sponsor, Rep. Mike Hager, R-Rutherford, say the price of renewable energy is too high, and state taxpayers and ratepayers shouldn't be forced to subsidize the sector. Woodhouse said environmentalists are pushing green energy because they want power to be more expensive. "It is a goal of them to have higher electricity costs because they want to punish people for using power," he said. "They think using power is a bad thing. They want to punish people for flipping the switch."

Just when you think you've seen the archetypical, bottom-line worst of Dallas Woodhouse, he opens up that yap and gives you a new low-level of stupidity. Dude actually gets paid for this. Fortunately, you don't have to dig very deep to see the reality is exactly the opposite of what these demagogues are spouting:

We may be on the verge of a dual Papacy:

Claude E. Pope Jr., a Brunswick County businessman and former Wake County Party chairman, announced his candidacy for state GOP Party chairman on Wednesday. Claude Pope is a distant cousin of Art Pope. He is also the son of Claude Pope Sr. who served as Commerce Secretary under Republican Gov. Jim Martin. A stretch of U.S. 1 in Wake County is named for Claude Pope Sr.

An interesting historical note: Avignon was spanked by the Plague twice during the Pope/Anti-Pope years, taking thousands of the slightly confused devout in the process. Was it God, or merely an unfortunately large collection of people with poor hygiene? Either way, the Tea Party needs to pay attention to this.

Buying in to the narrative:

But for McCrory, a rookie governor with little Raleigh experience, having Pope at his side during the early months of his administration has been an asset. McCrory can shoot hoops with the boys on Jones Streets. But Pope can throw some elbows.

While Rob does give a nod to the power Pope wields over the Legislature due to his fundraising/camapign contributions, he still casts him in a servile role, helping McCrory achieve his agenda. Not only does this go against human nature (power is not subservient), it also exposes one of the drawbacks of reporting on politics for too long: seeing patterns that may not exist:

Peppering the pages with irrelevant statistics:

The difference is fossil fuels. Because North Dakota is producing low-cost energy through exploration and extraction of the Bakken shelf, that state has enjoyed the largest job, income and economic growth rates in the nation during the past five years. Compare that with North Carolina during the past four years. Our state, which doesn’t produce a BTU of energy, has been forced to borrow $2.55 billion from the federal government to cover unemployment insurance costs.

No, one of the (many) differences is, North Dakota has a population of just under 700,000, roughly 1/13 of North Carolina's. And when that Bakken plays out, what's North Dakota going to do then? As far as that (embarassingly un-researched) claim about zero production, North Carolina is producing somewhere in the neighborhood of 170 trillion BTU's of clean, renewable energy every year. This part made me bark a laugh:

Casting Art Pope in a servile role:

Yet, McLennan said, the governor can choose other ways to influence lawmakers, he said, noting he has some powerful options, such as his budget chief, longtime Republican donor Art Pope. "I think Art Pope is going to be the kind of power broker in the executive mansion to try to move the House and Senate for the governor. He is working for the governor, not House or the Senate," he said.

Nobody dispatches the Pope on errands. When he goes back and forth, it will be his own agenda that is being served. He's spent too many years constructing an imaginary free-market paradise for the wealthy in his mind, and he's not going to squander this opportunity to pursue the goals of lesser men.

Guns don't kill people, evil does:

Who knows whether a pastor or parishioner might have provided the emotional and moral anchor Adam Lanza lacked? Who knows whether regular church attendance could have provided the spiritual bond and marital counseling that would have kept Lanza’s mother and father together and given him a more stable family structure where he felt secure and loved?

And who knows why the N&O continues to give column space to someone who will use whatever tool (in this case religion) to prop up flawed Conservative ideology? A balanced article would have included a warning that not all churches are positive reinforcers:

First, a few words from Justice Paul Newby's sponsor:

Whereas candidates and their committees can accept only $5,000 from individual donors in an election year12 and cannot receive moneys from corporations, unions, or associations, super PACs can accept money from any type of donor (corporation, union, or private individual) without any limit on the amount donated and can spend that money without limit to promote the election or defeat of specific candidates.

That's excerpted from a Federalist Society's white paper, in which the author expends much effort trying to convince the reader that huge campaign expenditures by super PACs are actually a good thing, since it helps educate us idiots better: