NCGA

Now this is what I call customer service:

The Charlotte law firm Moore & Van Allen, where McCrory was employed until just days before taking office, helped the New York-based insurance company negotiate with state and local governments to receive more than $94 million in taxpayer-funded incentives in return for the promise to add more than 2,600 jobs in the next three years.

It's no wonder McCrory ran away from reporters when this "deal" was announced. But never fear, the 4th estate is on the job:

We'll start with some soothing words to unruffle feathers:

ACLU_NC 10:22am via Web .@RepDavidRLewis: "We understand there are some orgs who are going to be opposed to voter ID on principle.And we respect that." #ncga #ncpol

Yeah, well. It's nice to talk about respecting others, but the real test comes when they speak, and you either tune them out or actually listen. So far, the only people the NC GOP has listened to are temper-tantrum-throwing self-appointed hall-monitors who brandish poorly-researched fallacy-laced "evidence" of a problem that exists in such small numbers it takes an electron microscope to discover them. On a positive note, I'm pretty sure I used up all my extra hyphens on that second sentence. That's worth like fifty points, right?

Spreading the goodness all around:

Now state lawmakers who want to turn North Carolina into the nation’s next fracking hotspot are reopening the case for injecting brines and toxins deep underground. This time, the proposal is shifting the fracking debate from the center of the state, where the energy exploration and economic benefits would occur, to tourism-dependent coastal communities where the disposal wells would have to be drilled.

Not only would these coastal communities be dealing with wastes that another region made money from, it's likely that frack water from other states would end up there, as the drilling companies are struggling to find outlets for the hundreds of millions of gallons they've already produced. And in this issue we do have some experience:

Apparently the public isn't completely clueless:

A recent statewide public opinion survey conducted by Fallon Research found that 75.7% of Republicans, 89% of Democrats, and 81.6% of Independents (82.6% overall) said state leaders and elected officials in North Carolina should seek more alternative or renewable energy sources in order to provide consumers and businesses with electricity.

That small percentage of people who oppose renewable energy, for whatever misguided reasons, need to understand: this poll isn't a product of confusion. Even those who question the validity of global warming are aware of the pollution burning coal produces, and even the small percentage of those who dismiss that or try to ignore it know it's unwise to be reliant on finite resources when infinite resources are available. If lawmakers try to reverse the progress we've made in this area, the voters will be (understandably) perplexed and upset. And this part was pleasantly surprising:

With a smattering of creepy nut-jobs to round out the mix:

James O’Keefe, the president of Project Veritas, a non-profit organization dedicated to training video muckrakers nationwide. From student newspaper editors to bloggers to video producers to journalists, enterprising muckrakers across the country look to James for inspiration, advice, and encouragement.

Jeez, I hope not. We already have more than enough sexual harassers exposing women to inappropriate and compromising situations in this country as it is:

Creating a whole new generation of paranoid Tea-Partiers:

A Senate Education Committee presentation last week from N.C. Superintendent of Public Instruction June Atkinson included proposals for curriculum resources in "American History I: The Founding Principles," a mandatory high school course. Among the 12 resources Atkinson listed is the Bill of Rights Institute, a Virginia-based nonprofit launched by Koch's charitable foundation that distributes teaching materials such as weekly lesson plans, videos, interactive games, seminars and webinars for history students.

Click the link, read the story. And pay close attention to the graphic at the top, with the ominous "Are They Watching You?" heading. This is straight-up political propaganda, something you'd expect to see from a totalitarian regime. Which, ironically, is what they are trying to imply is the danger. Such contradictory behavior is indicative of a hidden agenda, in this case being Koch's desire to strip away government regulations simply to enhance their profit margins. And we're going to let them teach our kids?

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:

She blinded me with science:

NCCoastalfed Feb 25, 5:36pm via Safari on iOS Oooooh: a secret SC sea level rise report #cfed islandpacket.com/2013/02/24/239…

I'm surprised somebody hasn't passed a law about such reckless scientific behavior...oh, that's right. We did it here in NC. Back to the SC report: