puppetmaster

I've been in California for ten days. Talk about a state hard on the rocks from budget short-sightedness. Parks and local cultural centers will take a huge hit. The word's getting out and the tourist faucet is drying up. Canceled rooms, closed restaurants, closed parks, closed visitor centers. A downward spiral if ever there was one.

While I was gone, I checked in only briefly. The big story here seemed to be Art's Glittery Huge Pay Off. After spending upwards of $5 million a year to manipulate the media, they finally cashed in their chips. Joe the Plumber has nothing on Dallas The Busdriver when it comes to cheesy publicity stunts that pull reporters in like a herd of horny cowboys. Pardon my west coast pun.

It looks to me like the liberal media and their corporate masters will help America get exactly the healthcare system it deserves: second rate and outrageously expensive. Which makes perfect sense from the throne. Perpetuate the permanent underclass, keep them off balance, keep them needy.

It's what the right accuses the left of all the time. Sustaining dependence. It's good for business.

To my knowledge.

Alert reader Max the Dog pointed out today that Art Pope is in the news again, this time airing dirty laundry in yet another family feud.

Jane Forbes Pope, who married into one of Raleigh's most affluent and politically influential families, is not entitled to inherit $50 million from her deceased husband's estate. In a nine-page order, Jan Pueschel, clerk of Wake Superior Court, ruled that Jane Forbes Pope, who was married to John W. Pope Jr. for four years, will not receive half of her husband's money that was transferred to a Pope family foundation after his death in March 2004. The Popes own Variety Wholesalers Inc., which runs discount retail stores across the Southeast, such as Roses and Maxway stores, with an estimated $800 million in annual sales.

Raleigh lawyer Stuart Dorsett, who represents Jane Forbes Pope, said they would appeal the clerk's ruling to Wake Superior Court. Jane Forbes Pope challenged the actions of her brother-in-law, Art Pope, a Raleigh lawyer and former legislator, and sister-in-law, Amanda Joyce Pope, who moved the funds out of a family trust to the foundation after John Pope Jr. died.

Mr. Art Pope, admired around these parts as the Puppetmaster (parody, satire, public figure), has apparently given one of his old adversaries an offer he couldn't refuse. The Dome has the story:

Former NC Rep. Stephen LaRoque of Kinston has apologized to former state Rep. Art Pope of Raleigh, who he had accused of buying legislators by pouring money into contested Republican primaries, Rob Christensen reports.

First off, let me congratulate Rob Christensen on getting the names right in his piece. After bungling (and not apologizing) a mention of NCBlue instead of BlueNC this morning, he's apparently sharpened his reportorial skills. But beyond that welcome bit of accuracy, the intrigue in the Pope-LaRoque saga gets really interesting.

As y'all may or may not have heard, the Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law, Campbell University, has decided to move to Raleigh. I don't really think it's a good idea for many reasons, but regardless, one item about the move jumped out at me when I read this morning's article in the FayOb:

"The Associated Press reported late Wednesday that a letter from a real estate agent
showed the law school intends to move into a downtown Raleigh building, owned by a company held by former state legislator Art Pope."

I was reading a new post at Progressive Pulse this morning, where I learned that one of the regular commenters there is being paid to blog by the Puppetmaster. His name is Max Borders (no, it's not a joke) and he is a self-avowed soldier in the so called freedom movement.

I've seen Max's name many times, but always assumed he was an honest broker, another run-of-the-mill free-market fundamentalist without a real job. When I discovered he's actually a shill for the Civitas Circus, I wrote this:

I appreciate the background on Max. Even though I’ve seen scores of comments from him here, I never realized he’s a paid shill for the Puppetmaster. Thanks for saving me the trouble of reading his future commentary.

Note to Civitas: If you’re going to spend a boatload of Art’s money upgrading to a fancy new website, why on earth would you plaster the incoherent ramblings of Jack Hawke on your welcoming video? Just sayin’.

If I were Art Pope, I'd be pissed. Here he is spending more than $300,000 a MONTH to shape the public policy agenda in North Carolina and this is all he has to show for it?

Two pieces of juicy news about the Puppetmaster and NC State:

The Pope Foundation has apparently turned down a piece-of-crap proposal submitted by four College of Humanities and Social Sciences departments at NC State. The proposal asked for $1.88 million - a small sum for which the four departments would sell their souls and become whatever Puppetmaster Pope wanted. All the details aren't in yet, but it seems that even the Pope Foundation has some standards. According to insiders, the proposal was hastily thrown together, generally sloppy, and mostly incoherent.

Secondly, the Puppetmaster has recently given a boatload of money to a new "center" at NC State which will be designed to help right-wing donors demand and get more for their money. Long frustrated by the fact that, left to their own devices, faculty lean in the direction of critical thinking, Art Pope has decided that the best way to tilt things to the right is to buy the influence he wants the old fashioned way.

And what better place to prove the concept than at NC State, where apparently even department heads will dance to whatever tune the Puppetmaster plays.

Earlier coverage of the Puppetmaster & NC State available here.

When he's not out to destroy the practice of good governance here in North Carolina, John Hood, stage manager at the Art Pope Puppetshow, likes to spread his right-wing lunacy farther and wider than the Old North State. For example, he wrote a comment earlier this month in the National Review:

Basically, anti-war Democrats think that their statements and policy proposals are a response to an impossible situation in Iraq. They have it backward. Their statements and policy proposals are a main reason why the situation in Iraq is so dire. Like it or not, the enemy is counting on them — it is trying to manipulate American public opinion, because it can't win on the battlefield. Their goal is an ignominious American retreat. It cannot be in our interest to comply.

Veteran BlueNC readers know the Art Pope Puppetshow, but some of our more recent visitors have emailed me, wondering what the heck it's about. Well, I'm happy to provide this latest map to Show, as well as a few choice links to give you a flavor for how it works.

Just think, if your daddy had left you a fortune, you could have your own Puppetshow, too. You could get yourself a hold of some state legislators, a newspaper or two, a S'preme Court judge, and maybe even a candidate for governor! All for the small price of only $300,000 a month. To my knowledge.

Earlier this week, I wrote about the fact that Judge Bob Orr has worked himself into a pickle when it comes to running for governor. And as is often the case in politics, this pickle is about money. Here's my take on the whole sad situation.

1. Art Pope has to give away a lot of money. His daddy's foundation has a ton of cash, and law requires that a significant percentage of that cash be distributed each year. That's one reason Pope starts so many not-for-profit organizations like the John Locke Foundation, Civitas, and the Institute for Constitutional Law. I've studied the financial filings for many of these organizations, and while they are not lavishly funded, they are certainly not scraping by. By some accounts, Pope is spending upwards of $300,000 a month on JLF alone.

Rumors or reality? NC State is all a-twitter either way.

Toby Parcel, dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at NC State, has apparently been pressuring department heads to come up with proposals to submit to the Pope Foundation. One department discussed this possibility at its February 14, 2007, faculty meeting.

Several faculty members noted that the values and agenda of the Pope Foundation are incompatible with the values and mission of a public university. In view of this conflict, department faculty decided that they did not want to seek Pope Foundation funding or have anything to do with the Foundation.

The feeding frenzy in the NCGOP gubernatorial race has taken a new twist lately as more observers define Bob Orr as a water boy for Art Pope. Consider this piece from the obscure Up and Coming Magazine.

Is Orr the kind of principled moderate that Jim Holshouser proved to be? His close association with Art Pope will lead many to wonder. But in the campaigns to follow, we will learn more.

Principled moderate? Who's this guy trying to kid? If Orr was a moderate, Art Pope wouldn't have given him the keys to the free-market washroom at the John Locke Foundation.

A little while ago, I observed that Ms. Jane Shaw, the emerging queen of the Art Pope Puppetshow, had worked herself into a swivet because the mean old faculty at NSCU didn't want the University to take any more of the Puppetmaster's money. Well Ms. Shaw has now taken her case to the Independent, where they've printed her full-fledged defense of the Pope Center for Higher Education.

Shaw's blow-by-blow reporting of all the good and wonderful things about her organization is endearing and admirable. But it doesn't mean squat. Because in the minutia of her defense, the misses the rotten forest for the spindly trees. As I wrote in my first review:

Ms. Shaw appears truly confused as to why professors would dare to question the motives and challenge the integrity of the organization she recently joined. In the face of such confusion, I daresay the new Puppet didn't complete the level of due diligence she should have

What's more surprising to me is that the Independent allowed this commentary by Shaw in the first place. Maybe they needed some filler.

There's a new Puppet lurking in the halls of the Art Pope Puppetshow. Her name is Jane Shaw, and her credentials place her among the upper crust of free-market fundamentalists. With a career spent extolling the virtues of private enterprise (though never actually running a business), it's surprising that she landed in the Pope Center for Higher Education instead of the John Locke Foundation itself. She's infinitely more suited than Stagemanager Hood to be running the whole shooting match for the Puppetmaster. But that's another story.

This week Ms. Shaw slips into her whiniest self over the latest dust-up between the mean old faculty at NC State and Art Pope. As you may recall, a number of NC State professors recently complained about a planned deal between the Puppetmaster and the school. Mr. Pope wanted to buy himself his own private curriculum and the faculty, understandably, has said "no thanks." Now Jane Shaw is accusing the faculty of having a political agenda! Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!