NC parenting columnist’s 3-year-old son shoots his 17-month-old sister with his handgun

Both children are expected to be OK. There are a few of lessons to be learned here: 1.) columnists and pundits generally are not experts in their fields and are mostly blowhards; 2.) guns suck at keeping your family safe; 3.) if you do happen to be a dope who keeps an unsecured, loaded weapon in a house with kids, there will probably be no legal consequences.

“Regardless of the outcome,” the local sheriff says, “the parents have been punished more than any criminal justice system can do to them by this happening.”

Great. But why don’t we try putting someone behind bars anyway? You know, just to see what happens. And maybe the local paper can stop letting this guy give people advice on how to be an awesome parent.

[photo via Wikimedia Commons]

In North Carolina, another success story for the 'hands off' approach to environmental regulation

Associated Press: Canoe guide Brian Williams dipped his paddle downstream from where thousands of tons of coal ash has been spewing for days into the Dan River, turning the wooden blade flat to bring up a lump of gray sludge.

On the river bank, hundreds of workers at a Duke Energy power plant in North Carolina scrambled to plug a hole in a pipe at the bottom of a 27-acre pond where the toxic ash was stored.

Since the leak was first discovered by a security guard Sunday afternoon, Duke estimates up to 82,000 tons of ash mixed with 27 million gallons of contaminated water has spilled into the river. Officials at the nation’s largest electricity provider say they cannot provide a timetable for when the leak will be fully contained, though the flow has lessened significantly as the pond has emptied.

An Associated Press reporter canoed downstream of the spill at the Dan River Steam Station and saw gray sludge several inches deep, coating the river bank for more than two miles. The river had crested overnight, leaving a distinctive gray line that contrasted with the brown riverbank like a dirty ring on a bathtub.

Williams, a program manager with the Dan River Basin Association, worried that the extent of the damage might not be fully understood for years.

“How do you clean this up?” he said, shaking his head as he churned up the ash with his paddle. “Dredge the whole river bottom for miles? You can’t clean this up. It’s going to go up the food chain, from the filter feeders, to the fish, to the otters and birds, to people. Everything in the ecosystem of a river is connected.”

According to the AP, the sludge is a “witches’ brew of toxic chemicals, including lead, arsenic, mercury and radioactive uranium.” But here’s the kicker:

Environmentalists and government regulators have been warning for years that the 31 ash ponds at Duke’s power plants in North Carolina had the potential for calamity, especially after a similar pond in Kingston, Tenn., burst open in 2008.

“Even without a spill, these settling ponds have been releasing continuous contamination into the rivers downstream from coal-fired power plants,” said Avner Vengosh, a professor of geochemistry at Duke University, which was named for the same family that founded the power company.

So the ponds leak chemicals into drinking water, have resulted in a previous spill, and now this disaster. But this is North Carolina, so how much do you want to bet that absolutely nothing will change as a result?

After all, going after the “job creators” for taking a big toxic crap in your drinking water would be class warfare. And we can’t have that.

Former Sec. of State Colin Powell blasts NC’s voting restrictions

News and Observer: With Gov. Pat McCrory in the audience, former Secretary of State Colin Powell took aim at North Carolina’s new voting law Thursday, saying it hurts the Republican Party, punishes minority voters and makes it more difficult for everyone to vote.

"I want to see policies that encourage every American to vote, not make it more difficult to vote," said Powell, a Republican, at the CEO Forum in Raleigh.

"It immediately turns off a voting block the Republican Party needs," Powell continued. "These kinds of actions do not build on the base. It just turns people away."

The retired general served as the keynote speaker at the event and made his remarks moments after McCrory left the stage. His comments represent the most high-profile criticism of the Republican-crafted law that requires voters to show photo identification at the polls, cuts early voting days and makes it harder for students to vote.

In one comment, he seemed to rebuke McCrory for suggesting that voter fraud likely exists but is hard to detect. The governor had compared it to insider trading.

"You can say what you like, but there is no voter fraud," Powell said. "How can it be widespread and undetected?"

"What it really says to the minority voters is… ‘We really are sort-of punishing you,’" Powell said, which is correct. You can’t complain that minorities always vote for Democrats when you’re screwing them over and blaming them for imaginary crimes every chance you get. The going theory among Republicans is that minorities vote for Democrats because they’re all poor and dems give them "handouts." The less racist and more reality-based reason is that Republicans are dicks toward minorities — relentlessly.

That said, this is more of a feel-good story than anything. Colin Powell is a conservative who’s unwilling to exist outside of reality, which means the base has written him off as a RiNO a long. long time ago. No one on the right is going to listen to him or even take him seriously, because he stopped being a team player a long time ago. Powell has taken on conservative political correctness like this on more than one occasion, which puts him outside the GOP hivemind. If there’s one thing all these supposed “rugged individualists” hate more than liberals, it’s a conservative who dares to think for himself and disagree with the forced conservative consensus spilling out of talk radio and Fox News.

Enjoy Powell speaking truth to power — just don’t expect power to listen. If you do anything other than repeat their bullshit back at them, you might as well be a freakin’ Marxist.

[photo by Scott Ableman]

North Carolina GOP uses Sharia ban to push their own religion-based laws

I don’t suppose they see the irony.

ThinkProgress: The North Carolina legislature is advancing a package of stringent abortion restrictions that appeared in the Senate this week without any public notice. The anti-abortion measures popped up on Tuesday night, tacked onto a controversial measure to ban Sharia law, and caught women’s health advocates completely off-guard.

House Bill 695, which would prohibit the recognition of Sharia law in family courts — an increasingly popular conservative tactic that essentially serves to demonize the Islamic faith — was slated for consideration in a Senate committee on Tuesday. As soon as that committee convened, it quickly approved several abortion-related amendments to the legislation. HB 695 now combines several different anti-abortion measures that were in different stages in the legislature into one omnibus measure.

The new amendments would prevent insurance plans on Obamacare’s health marketplaces from covering abortion services, ban “sex-selective” abortions, impose unnecessary restrictions on doctors administering the abortion pill to women, and require the state’s abortion clinics to adhere to complicated new regulations that would likely force most of them to close. A similar package of abortion restrictions has inspired weeks of protest in Texas, where thousands of reproductive rights activists have been rallying at the state capitol.

Apparently, North Carolina was on the verge of falling victim to the Islamic Fundamentalist Menace. Thank goodness they had the foresight to ban Sharia law before they had a chance to impose Sharia law (after all, who would insttute it, if not the state legislature?). Too bad they didn’t quite make it in time. They may have blocked Islamic religious law, but they instituted Christian religious law at the same time. The American Taliban strikes again and Christian Sharia is now the law of the land in the Tar Heel state.

It’d be nice if these Tea Party fools loved liberty as much as they say they do, but I suppose expecting intellectual honesty from them is just too much to ask.

[photo by sunshinecity]

It’s not Monday in America until some toddler shoots himself in the face

MyFox8, NC: Randolph County deputies said a 2-year-old boy accidentally shot and injured himself when he found a handgun at his home Saturday afternoon.

Deputies said the toddler saw his father’s handgun in his parents’ bedroom and put it in his mouth, where it accidentally went off.

Authorities said it happened around 2 p.m. at a home on Spring Valley Road, just outside the Asheboro city limits.

Deputies said the boy was taken to Brenner Children’s Hospital in Winston-Salem and is listed in serious condition but expected to survive.

Authorities said the bullet missed the vital arteries in the neck and head and also missed the spinal cord. Deputies said it’s a miracle the child is still alive.

Remember, two-year-olds sticking guns in their mouths is exactly what the founders intended when they wrote the Constitution. Nothing to see here. Move along.

[photo by permanently scatterbrained]

Republicans love free enterprise, the entrepreneurial spirit — right up until they hate it

Slate: From the state that brought you the nation’s first ban on climate science comes another legislative gem: a bill that would prohibit automakers from selling their cars in the state.

The proposal, which the Raleigh News & Observer reports was unanimously approved by the state’s Senate Commerce Committee on Thursday, would apply to all car manufacturers, but the intended target is clear. It’s aimed at Tesla, the only U.S. automaker whose business model relies on selling cars directly to consumers, rather than through a network of third-party dealerships.

The bill is being pushed by the North Carolina Automobile Dealers Association, a trade group representing the state’s franchised dealerships. Its sponsor is state Sen. Tom Apodaca, a Republican from Henderson, who has said the goal is to prevent unfair competition between manufacturers and dealers. What makes it “unfair competition” as opposed to plain-old “competition”—something Republicans are typically inclined to favor—is not entirely clear. After all, North Carolina doesn’t seem to have a problem with Apple selling its computers online or via its own Apple Stores.

Still, it’s easy to understand why some car dealers might feel a little threatened: Tesla’s Model S outsold the Mercedes S-Class, BMW 7 Series, and Audi A8 last quarter without any help from them. If its business model were to catch on, consumers might find that they don’t need the middle-men as much as they thought.

According to the report, “Apodaca received $8,000 in campaign contributions from the North Carolina Automobile Dealers Association last year, the maximum amount allowed by state law.” He has not responded to a request for comment.

Ironically, this sort of thing is almost exactly what Ayn Rand complained about in her novel Atlas Shrugged — a business group and the government were forcing an industrialist to share his process for producing a new alloy, using “unfair competition” as their reasoning. I suppose it hadn’t occurred to her that they could ban it for the same reason.

The GOP has taken to praising Rand in recent years — especially post-Tea Party. Like so much else Republicans say, that praise is obviously horseshit.

NC GOP seeks to unconstitutionally establish a state religion

Raw Story:

Republican lawmakers in North Carolina have proposed a bill that they say would allow to the state to establish an official religion and defy the Constitution of the United States.

Nine state House members joined with Republican state Reps. Harry Warren and Carl Ford of Rowan County to sponsor House Bill 494 in response to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) last month that sought to stop Christian prayers at official Rowan County government meetings.

In 2009, a court found that the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners had violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment by using sectarian prayers to open official meetings.

In his ruling, Magistrate Judge Trevor Sharp wrote that Forsyth County prayers "display a preference for Christianity over other religions by the government" and "alienates those whose beliefs differ from Christian beliefs and divides citizens along religious lines."

Warren and Ford's bill would declare that North Carolina is "sovereign" and any court ruling about religion is nullified by the Tenth Amendment of the Constitution.

There really is so much that wrong about this. I've joked that the Republican Constitution reads, "Everyone gets a gun. Praise Jesus. The end." Nothing demonstrates the truth behind that more than this. While Republicans are freaking out over guns control and (wrongly) portraying it as unconstitutional, these guys are lining up to back an unconstitutional law. In fact, it's so unconstitutional that if you wanted to think of some crazy hypothetical example of unconstitutionality, this would be on the short list of examples you might come up with. Republicans are passionate defenders of the Constitution - right up until the point that they want to launch an assault on it.

And the circular logic is just amazing; that you can use an amendment to the Bill of Rights to nullify an amendment to the Bill of Rights. You have to stop trying to follow the reasoning before you get dizzy and puke.

Just when you think state level Republicans couldn't get more crackpottish or hypocritical, they pull something like this. Once again, just when you think you've hit the absolute bottom, you learn that there is no bottom. The GOP talent for being jawdroppingly wrong, backwards, and religiously oppressive is, in fact, endless.

Stories to Watch: 4/11/12

Mowed the lawn. I hate mowing the lawn. I'm going to get some sheep or something. Now here's the news...


Reince Priebus is about as smart as the last RNC chairman.


Rep. Allen West continues to be an embarrassing clown.


Obama's up on Romney in Colorado and North Carolina. NC's the big heartbreaker for Mitt -- the GOP primary has turned what should've been a gimme into a contested race he's currently losing.


George Zimmerman is charged with second-degree murder for the killing of Trayvon Martin. The ACLU and Al Sharpton release statements. The quick take on both: the charges would never have happened without the public outrage.


And that outrage spills over. With their War on Women bills and the Martin killing highlighting insanely liberal gun laws, ALEC is starting to feel the heat -- and they're beginning to sound a little panicked.


Rightwing nut and head of the Family Research Council Tony Perkins says that Mitt Romney's only hope is to start sounding like Rick Santorum. See, because that worked out so freakin' great for Rick, right? That line about there being a fine line between madness and genius? BS. Perkins proves that crazy and dumb go hand in hand.


Wait, they sell McDonald's in some hospital cafeterias? WTF? Are hospital administrators trying to drum up business for the cardiac wing?


A new study finds that the more Wal-Marts an area has, the more members of hate groups it has. Where there are no small business people to provide civic leadership, less savory types step in.


Finally, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker gets his first official opponent in the recall -- on the Republican ticket, forcing a primary. It's a "political agitator" running as a "fake Republican." Payback's a bitch, Scooter.

Related articles

• MSNBC's Thomas Roberts And RNC's Reince Priebus Battle Over 'War On Women' (mediaite.com)
• Obama campaign introduces Mitt Romney to a rock and a hard place (dailykos.com)
• More Republican officials resign themselves to Meh Romney, but some activists remain unconvinced (dailykos.com)
• DNC chair slams Wis. gov. Walker for 'Equal Pay' repeal (news.yahoo.com)

Stories to Watch: 12/27/11

Everyone have a good holiday? Mine was pretty good. The food was awesome. Now here's the news...


***
Digby is not happy with Ben Nelson. While it's a setback for Democrats' effort to retain control of the senate, I don't think it's the disaster she thinks it is. I'm with Chris Cillizza on this one; "The Nelson retirement isn’t good news for Senate Democrats. But it is far from a death blow to their hopes of retaining the majority either."

I bring up Digby's post for a reason, though; she's happy to see Nelson go, she's just unhappy with the consequence. The other side of the coin is Michelle Malkin, who's likewise happy to see Nelson go. My point is a simple one -- when you try to play on both teams, everyone thinks you're a dick. And rightly so. It's a shitty way to save your political hide, as the fact that he's no one's hero so thoroughly demonstrates. Pick a side and fight for something other than your own reelection.


***
Gingrich's past support of "Romneycare" comes back to haunt him. Not sure who's to blame for this one, since you could argue that it hurts Romney as much as Newt.


Ron Paul didn't always deny having written those racist newsletters.


Is it time to do away with the debt ceiling altogether?


Righty and lefty bloggers agree on one thing; SOPA is awful and must die. I doff my cap to my otherwise crazy-assed brethen on the other side of the digital divide.


If you ever wondered if Newt Gingrich was legitimately insane, this will probably seal the deal. It also reinforces my personal belief that people who wear bowties are almost always evil.


North Carolina's concealed carry law is a dismal failure.


Finally, this is quickly becoming a pet peeve with me; Politico runs a story about Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker complaining about recall laws. That's fine. If Walker wants to talk smack about the rules, that's legit news. But nowhere in the piece is any mention of the fact that Walker got his previous job as Milwaukee County exec in a recall under the same laws he hates so much now. This opportunistic flip-flop is an important part of the whole recall story and nearly every national outlet misses it every time. In my opinion, that's journalistic malpractice.

Related articles

• Democratic Senator Ben Nelson to retire in 2012 (shortformblog.tumblr.com)
• Gingrich In 2006: Hey RomneyCare Is A Great Idea! (outsidethebeltway.com)
• Walker On The 'Koch' Call: 'It Was Stupid' (alternet.org)
• Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker Addresses Recall Efforts On Fox News - Mediaite (mediaite.com)

News Roundup for 9/12/11

N. Carolina Senate schedule

-Headline of the Day-
"Senate to begin debate Monday on marriage amendment."

In North Carolina, like every place else, the issue of the days is jobs, jobs, jobs. And in North Carolina, like every other state dominated by Republicans, jobs can wait. Now is the time to get the really important things done: like banning gay marriage in a state where it isn't allowed anyway.

Of course, the problem here is that the general, unwashed public has a misplaced sense of priorities and would rather not have Republicans screwing around with support-bait for the crazies. They seem to think that people should be worrying about jobs and the economy -- which is why the NC GOP has come up with a cunning plan. Keep it a secret.

In public notices of the schedule of the Judiciary committee, voters are being told that the committee will consider "H61, 'Speaker/Pro Tem Term Limits' -- a proposal to limit the numbers of years House and Senate members can serve as leaders of their chambers." In other words, a procedural yawner no one cares about -- move along, nothing to see here.

"But a new version[pdf] of the bill leaked to WRAL Friday night shows the bill the committee will take up Monday has absolutely nothing to do with term limits. The new H61 is an amended version of the constitutional ban on same-sex marriage," the report says. "You can try to look it up at the legislature's website, but you won't find it there."

So, is the committee going to be voting on this term limit boring thing or the gay marriage ban? Well, quite frankly, the answer to that question is yes. "[W]hy tell the public you're talking about term limits Monday, when you're really planning to debate the marriage amendment?" the report asks.

"Well, that's the name of the bill," says a GOP spokesperson. That's right, they actually gave the bill a misleading name to get it under the radar.

And I thought the GOP in my state was shameless. (WRAL)


-A rare (and imagined) moment of honesty-
Rick Perry clarifies his stance on Social Security.


Click to embiggen

I hope that clears up any questions you might have. (TruthDig)


-Bonus HotD-
"Fred Malek: 'Too Late' for Palin to Run; GOP Nominee Will Be Perry or Romney."

That sound you just heard was the timer going off on Palin's 15 minutes of fame. (ABC)

Stories to Watch: 4/25/11

Got new banners at two of my blogs. Pretty nifty, huh? That guy's Fighting Bob La Follette, a Wisconsin political hero. I'm not sure those versions are final, though -- the worn paint effect looks too digital to me. I think I'll blow up the text layer, add the lettering and the "grunge" mask, then shrink it down again to let the anti-aliasing soften it out a bit. No rush though, these'll do fine for the time being.

Next project: getting some sort of design over at my Tumblr blog. Seriously, it's like an unpainted wall. Even Drudge Report and craigslist are prettier to look at. That's going to be a bit more work. Now here's the news...


Haley Barbour announces that he won't run for the GOP presidential nomination. Steve Benen points out that this isn't so much a case of deciding against running, as it is the first instance of an actual candidate dropping out of the race.


Leaked documents show us what's inside Gitmo. It's not pretty.


The Supreme Court is in no hurry to look at "Obamacare." They've decided to let it wind its way up through the appeals process normally, despite "a call Monday from Virginia's attorney general to depart from its usual practice and put review of the health care law on a fast track."


"Less than half of GOP voters in Georgia, North Carolina, and Mississippi" think the good guys won the Civil War.


Republican presidential campaign procrastination has Karl Rove nervous.


The latest "Donald Trump's a commie" news: he gave big to Rahm Emanuel's mayoral campaign.


Finally, high oil prices are really, really, really good for Exxon -- and so are all the oil subsidies this "struggling industry" is getting.