JLF

This line made me bark a laugh while sitting in the library:

“Talking about buying an election,” said Michael Sanera, of the Raleigh-based John Locke Foundation. “It’s corporate welfare. They want taxpayers to pay for the technical education of their future employees.”

Oh, that's rich, coming from a mouthpiece of the biggest election-buyer in the state. But aside from that glaring irony, Sanera is actually trying to stifle the 1st Amendment rights of a large block of citizens:

It’s a Republican gerrymander, pure and simple.

Hat tip to Ed Cone for pointing in the direction of the Carolina Journal, where John Hood calls a spade a spade in the case of Republican redistricting shenanigans. He's a little late to the party, but has arrived nonetheless. Hood deserves full credit for taking this principled stand.

In any honest discussion, the funding schemes Art Pope uses to influence elections and public policy in North Carolina would be called money laundering.

When it comes to indignant rants, Arthur Pious Pope III gives as good as he gets, with the level of rhetoric defending his actions directly proportional to damage he's done. His recent response to the boycott of his stores is instructive.

Art Pope Response to NCAE Teachers Union Threatened Boycott of Pope Stores
I am shocked that the NCAE, North Carolina’s teachers’ union, would threaten the jobs of the thousands of employees at our stores, in order to further their union agenda. The NCAE teachers’ union’s call for a boycott of our stores is nothing but political extortion, to try and stop me from supporting Republican candidates and conservative organizations, and instead to try and force me to support the NCAE’s Democratic Party allies and left-wing organizations.

Binker sez Civitas is misleading and uninformed.
Hat tip to Ed Cone.

Sacrificing thousands to benefit the few:

Thousands of N.C. businesses could have to apply for permits to release carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, state environmental officials say, after a conservative think tank filed objections.

The agency ruled it would focus solely on the largest gas emitters, such as coal-fired power plants. The state Environmental Management Commission adopted the EPA rule. But objections, filed largely by the Raleigh-based John Locke Foundation, put a legal hold on them.

Proving (once again) that all that hooey about being on the side of "entrepreneurs" is just a smokescreen to obscure their whoring for the fossil fuel industry.

It's almost the end of the year, and Mr. Pope hasn't yet registered here at BlueNC, hasn't bothered to answer all the questions we've been asking. I guess that's the high price of having an unelected fat cat calling the shots behind the magic curtain. Still, Rob Christensen today has angled in on some answers Under the Dome. Feel free to drop by and ask your own questions.

JLF "expert" complains about giving voters the option to raise their own taxes:

Opponents of the sales tax hike, including members of the John Locke Foundation, a conservative think tank in Raleigh, said this week that the Alamance County Board of Commissioners should have held a public hearing before voting to place the issue on the ballot. The commissioners voted 3-2 on June 7 not to hold a public hearing to help decide whether they should ask voters to consider a sales tax hike.

Joseph Coletti, the foundation's director of health and fiscal policy studies, said the commissioners showed they didn’t want the process to be transparent since they decided not to have a public hearing.

Confused? You shouldn't be. It's a lot easier (and cheaper) to disrupt a public hearing with 15-20 bused-in "patriots" than it is trying to sway the voting public at large. True colors, showing through.

Governor Perdue declares a state of emergency at Earl's approach:

The state’s price gouging law has gone into effect because Gov. Beverly Perdue has declared a state of emergency due to Hurricane Earl. “We’re warning price gougers that you can’t use a storm as an excuse to make an unfair profit off of consumers,” said Attorney Gen. Roy Cooper in a news release.

Price gouging — or charging too much in times of crisis — is against North Carolina law when a disaster, an emergency or an abnormal market disruption for critical goods and services is declared or proclaimed by the governor.

Seems like a pretty basic and necessary function of the government; protecting us during times of crisis, right? Not in the minds of the extreme anti-government, free-market zealots.

Today we'll explore the inner workings and hidden mechanisms behind the Puppetmaster's remarkable empire. For those unfamiliar with the Show, it's helpful to think of a three ring circus.

In the main ring, of course, is the inimitable John Locke Foundation. Staffed by a core of self-styled free-market extremists, JLF cranks out propaganda like a photocopying machine, regurgitating five sets of pseudo-Libertarian talking points shamelessly. Taxes bad. Freedom good. Public education sucks. Government planning destroys value. Poor people get what they deserve. I say "pseudo" Libertarian because JLF rarely takes on anti-freedom forces in the personal responsibility arena. For example, their silence on America's insane war on drugs is all but deafening.