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Controversy fueled by greed:

Passions high around school voucher bill bit.ly/1a1pLSH

— WRAL NEWS in NC (@wral) May 21, 2013

Of course, one of the more outspoken proponents is an astroturfer heavily funded by RWI's and one of the authors of ALEC's Parent Trigger nonsense:

Only impaired leaders would prefer impaired waters:

Senate currently debating rolling back Jordan Lake clean up rules #ncga

— SierraClubNC (@SierraClubNC) May 14, 2013

As I've mentioned before (ad nauseum), this is NOT a state issue, it's a Federal one. We have a certain degree of flexibility in the construction of rules (such as Jordan Lake's), but we do not have the authority to not implement such rules. Here's a little more for the skeptics:

Speaking of power grabs:

Peter Walz @peterwalz
Didnt know they held veto MT @NCPW_LegisWatch Halliburton nixes NC’s fracking chemical disclosure rule ow.ly/kFAna #ncpol #ncga

In any sane world, disclosure of what chemicals a private company wants to inject into the ground would be a "no brainer" requirement. But in the world of fracking, and especially in the now free-market-fantasy State of North Carolina, corporate board room decisions trump those of the people:

Like I mentioned before, when big money is at stake, the fossil fuel industry doesn't give up:

JeanneBonds4NC 9:07am via Twitter for iPhone #ALEC intent on messing in #NC Policy
Still trying to repeal #renewableenergy standards. Wed calendar #ncga House Public Utilities #ncpol

This is what they're trying to stop:

We'll start with a little judicious satire:

Rob_Schofield 10:48am via Tweet Button
Must read: An open letter to the glorious NC Senate shar.es/JORwh via @NCPolicyWatch #ncga #ncpol #ncgov #bluenc

Okay, the satire actually starts now:

We'll start out with a little reality check:

Action_NC 10:30am via TweetDeck The new voucher bill in the #NCGA doesn't do much for students, but sure helps corporations. #ncpol #ncED actionnc.org/not_much_oppor…

The hypocrisy is mind-boggling. Republicans whine about poor performance, and cook up all sorts of ideas on how to micro-manage, belittle and economically strangle public school teachers. And then they turn around and throw money at private schools with no accountability attached to those dollars. And no protections for students, either:

We'll start with a salute to small-government, hands-off Conservative ideology:

Rob_Schofield 9:10am via TweetDeck War on cities continues - House Finance takes up plan to take Asheville's water system against the citizens' will #ncga #ncpol #ncgov

Our current Republican-led General Assembly reminds me of a recalcitrant 5-year-old methodically grabbing various items in the candy aisle before mom finally blows her top and smacks the soft tissue where he sits. In this case, the voters are "mom", and the time for blowing their tops is long past.

We'll start with a fresh debate about grading schools:

LindsayWagnerNC 10:25am via Web Langdon: I hear what you're saying, but I don't think it works that way. Teachers don't go to a school because of their score. #ncga #nced

Of course they do. Some of them, anyway. Nobody is going to walk into an occupation without at least trying to assess the difficulty of the job beforehand, and teachers are no different from the rest of us in that respect. A low grade for a school denotes a lot of challenges, and not all of them are in the classroom:

We'll start out with a little brisk propaganda:

NCCivitas 4:19pm via TweetDeck While Wake Co. delegation meets #CivitasPoll finds 44% of NC voters support canceling #DixDeal, 33% oppose. #NCGA #NCPol

Of course, when you peel this rotton tomato, you better have some smelling salts handy:

In honor of Sunshine Week:

gwfrink3 11:40am via Web Violating open meetings law? RT @SarahOvaska @NCPolicyWatch reporter @LindsayWagnerNC kicked out of meeting of #NCGA members & schl supers

The only reason they would do that is because whatever they're planning to talk about is going to be couched in misleading terms which could be easily unraveled to expose their true intent. Not good.