Red Clay Citizen

Teachout's Reachout Harms War Hero

So much for giving peace a chance.

Darling of the left and one of the original "Deaniacs" - Visiting Duke University Law Professor Zephyr Teachout - apparently got a little rough with former Senator and WWII veteran Bob Dole at AFP's Take Back Our State rally. Classy.

Word has it former Senator Dole ended up with bruises after the Duke Prof grabbed the man's arm rather forcefully. Was she trying to make a point? Was she trying literally to pull information about the man's lobbying activities out of him? Was she over-exuberant in thanking him for his military and public service? Can't say. Wasn't there. But here is some insight from Dallas Woodhouse who posted in the comments over at the socialist website Progressive Pulse:

"I saw many faces from the far left at the event, and I was glad to see them. With one exception...

Zephyr R. Teachout, Visiting Assistant Professor of Law did far more than “approached Dole to ask him if he would make public all of his foreign lobbying clients.”

Teachout grabbed Sen. Dole’s wrist and would not let go. I saw the deep bruises in his wrist. This of course was the wrist on his one good arm. He lost use of his arm right arm in World War 2. He is a true war hero and should not be assulted by a Duke professor.

Duke University should think long and hard about being involved with a woman who would treat any human being like that.

I would not treat [a] dog like she treated a American hero yesterday."

Wow.

Here's Professor Teachout's reply to Dallas:

"Dear Dallas,

Thank you for alerting me to this, and I have sent Senator Dole my apologies.

I did not grab his wrist. I shook his hand. I appreciate your calling my attention to shaking it too hard. I certainly did not mean to hurt him.

Zephyr"

Hmmm. Funny, all those Iraq War veterans shook his hand and managed not to hurt him. How did he get bruises on his wrist from a hand-shake from a rather spritely Duke Prof? Stranger medical mysteries have occurred, but it's more probable that Professor Teachout's zeal and freedom-hatred led her to get too rough. Bob Dole can take it. It'll likely go no further.

But if the situation had been reversed, Teachout would probably have spun the whole event into felony charges -- much like her Duke colleagues (Inquisitors), the Gang of 88 would have spun it in the down-is-up world of the postmodern left.

(Teachout is known for applying distributed, voluntary networks to politics. Sadly, she supports the exact opposite for the economy: rigid, hierarchical control by interest seekers and socialist do-gooders.)

Pork, the Pulse and their Pet Issues

When it comes to one of their pet issues, the Pulse is happy to whine about pork and its opportunity costs (children's Medicaid, for example). I've spent a lot of time explain why expanding children's Medicaid is counterproductive - damaging even - to our healthcare system. But with this post, I'll settle for pointing out that just last year, N.C. Policy Watch was jumping to the defense of all the pork-barrell spending and ridiculing Civitas for even questioning it.

The best part? Rob Schofield includes the following items, calling them "things we [Civitas] don't like":

“Opera Company of North Carolina - $25,000 NR”
“Women’s Health Services - $200,000 R”
“Water Quality Monitoring on Ferry Vessels - $300,000 NR”
“Shellfish Restoration Funds - $300,000 NR”
“Money to nonprofit for documentary on Jewish life in N.C. - $250,000 NR”

Now that the senate has wisely turned its back (for now) on putting middle class kids on socialized medicine, the wingeing ensues. Consider this from Chris Fitzsimon:

There is $2.7 million in the Senate budget for renovation of the polar exhibit at the zoo and another $4.3 million for an oyster hatchery...

Suddenly shellfish and polor bears count as pork by the Pulse's lights! Funny how they change their tune when it's convenient. Or maybe they wouldn't call it pork. Maybe they'd call it something else. But insignificant semantic distinctions won't hide the fact that they're eager to point out unnecessary spending when it's convenient. (Hey, no one ever said they had consistency or principles.)

I consider this something of a learning curve for our lefty friends. I lift my coffee to celebrate their small victory. At least they are beginning to understand the concept of scarcity and trade-offs. A shame they don't get why S-Chip is terrible for U.S. healthcare.

(Update: see Brian Balfour's earmark reports for this and last sessions... You be the judge whether or not the requests are porcine.)
-Max Borders

Fitzteria Friday and Regressive Rail

Chris Fitzsimon takes me to task in one of his vacuous Friday rants as follows:

Borders says that "maybe Jack Betts is rich and lives in South Charlotte. But he has forgotten about the less affluent people in Mint Hill who're bankrolling his boondoggle." Maybe not Max, Betts lives in Raleigh and has for a long time. Those pesky facts never seem to get in the way of the desperate attempts of folks on the right to disguise their market fundamentalism as concern for working class.

I don't know what is sadder about this post. Is it that Fitzsimon refuses to acknowledge that light rail is a wealth transfer from mostly poor people (West or East Charlotte) to mostly wealthy (South Charlotte, where Lynx runs)? Or that the residence of Jack Betts is really (really) beside the point. I didn't don't give a flying proverbial where Jack Betts lives (which is why I said "maybe"), because the fact isn't relevant to my point -- you know, the point Fitzsimon doesn't bother to address.

Fitzsimon says: Borders is angry that Betts' article was "biased," but Betts is a columnist and an editorial writer. He is paid to have a point of view and express it. Borders works himself into a lather about Betts, trying to use him as an example of the elites that Borders claims are the real beneficiaries of public transportation.

(Notice also that Fitzsimon omits my critique of Bruce Siceloff who is not a paid editorialist, but nevertheless cheerleads for regressive rail -- and did so with Chris's buddy Rob Schofield on WUNC. There was no smart-arse comment to be made there, because I have Siceloff dead-to-rights. And the aggregate effect of McClatchy's paid editorialists AND journalists cheerleading for rail is, well bias. That nuance escapes poor Fitzsimon.)

Why doesn't Fitzsimon bother to address my point about the abject regressivity and unfairness of rail? Because he can't. He's got no case. He claims to care about the poor, but probably doesn't. Or at least he's willing first to lobby government to take my resources to help the poor before shelling out his own--and then he wallows in the inconsistency of regressive light rail fetishism. Typical "progressivism". Like much of the leftwing twaddle that passes for policy analysis, Chris is slowly lowering himself to the level of those lesser Koses -- one cutesy remark at a time. But cuteness doesn't a solid argument make. And I won't hold my breath waiting for the likes of Fitzsimon to engage in any reasoned discourse--like explaining why he wants to tax poor people in Garner to benefit wealthy people in North Raleigh (where, for all I know, Jack Betts lives.)

By the way: Chris Fitzsimon doesn't have a clue about what my feelings about the working class or the poor. But I do know this: at least my policy prescriptions (and my sense of charity) don't amount to compulsion masquerading as compassion. NC Policy Watch has cornered the market on that tack.

(Update: I also notice Fitzsimon never links to those he, eh hem, critiques. He's probably afraid that they'll see the original context of what he's attacking and it might actually make sense to his readers.)
-Max Borders

Dome on Bloggers' Legal Issues

Check out RTB's suggestions for an N.C. Bloggers' Association and information regarding legal matters -- particularly as they may apply to new media.
-Max Borders

Thanks to the 4 or 5 people who read our blog.

Apparently everyone else is avoiding the echo chamber, doing something productive, and getting suckered by commercials about 'hope' and 'change'. (HT: Chris Hayes)
-Max Borders

Jack Hawke, Keith Richards, and Pat McCrory

Well, here's a goodbye and good luck to our old War Hawke.

Dome has a funny post marking his departure from Civitas and subsequent return to politics. Keith Richards is old, to be sure, but still knows how to rock and roll. Does Jack Hawke? We'll see, I guess.

Anyway, we'll miss you, Jack. But we understand: this stuff is your comparative advantage.
-Max Borders

Communication for Beginners

Conservatives are woefully behind when it comes to communicating their messages. Here's are some tips and a short video for successful messaging.
-Max Borders

Another Sunshine Idea for the Dome

Give state employees a percentage of every dollar they save taxpayers -- relative to a reasonable baseline.

Everyone can agree that state government wastes money. Rewarding government employees to streamline processes and save taxpayer resources (while improving quality, of course) seems like a no-brainer. If businesses do it successfully, why can’t governments? Bureaucrats can be entrepreneurial.

Here's the other thing: if a group of people has a positive incentive to create internal efficiencies and reforms, they're going to look over each other's shoulders. That's built in transparency. That's where we need it. You could have every major N.C. Department adopt such an initiative and not only streamline the orgs, but save taxpayer dollars, and increase accountability. Incentives matter.

-Max Borders

2007 was Great... 2008? Let's get Networked

OK, so we started this blog in 2007 and we've been able to grow our traffic pretty substantially from that inauspicious start in May. Now it's time get networked... How do we do that?

1. First, as a faithful RCC reader, get one like-minded friend to read us too. Send them a link to the site and tell them that we're a top blog for NC freedom-lovers. Don't wait!

2. Second, stay in touch. Folks with great blogs, blog posts, ideas, hot tips, and other fodder should feel free to contact us here. Or heck, leave a comment!

3. Finally, link posts you think are groovy. We'll do the same.

Warming Back Up

As the New Year approaches, RCC will be warming back up. But expect only light posting. Till things are back in full swing, try random tidbits:

Arnold Kling on his version of global warming skepticism.

Tyler Cowen on taking Ron Paul seriously.

Ryan Beckwith on more Randy Parton schlock (and Big gubment Republican McCrory and Munger's new do).

and... Me in the Fayetteville Observer offering zany ideas for your Xmas stocking.
-Max Borders

Why does Civitas run Google Ads?

Under the Dome is intrigued by the fact that Civitas runs Google ads -- enough to warrant this post. Not sure why that's interesting, but ... Why do we do it?

1. Traffic. 2. Traffic. and... don't forget about 3. Traffic.

More specifically, though, we want people to look on our poll results (in which questions about Smith, Moore, and Neal are featured). Why did we not purchase the names Graham, Hagen, or Dole? They were too expensive! We are a non-profit you know. Oh and we're also running Google ads so people will come to our Juan Williams event. (Try it, you'll see.)

Mystery solved. You can go back to your regularly scheduled lives -- and thanks for visiting a Civitas-associated website (at no cost to us this time)!
-Max Borders

Cass Sunstein: Risk, Cost, and Emotion

Interesting interview (podcast) with Cass Sunstein on low-risk, worst-case events, collective action, and what to do or not do about them. Thanksgiving is tomorrow -- you've got nothing better to do.
-Max Borders

Gossip Soup for the Soul

Guilty pleasures come in many forms. I would like to invite people to read The Soup and indulge in one of mine. Because if you read them more, they'll write more. So my motivations are largely selfish.

I've heard a plausible theory that The Soup is a dumping ground for talented press people who can not only write humorously, but are normally constrained by journalistic integrity (yeah, I know), and who want an outlet for the more tasteless, uncorroborated or otherwise not-so-printworthy material. (And it's pretty much equal opportunity gossip.)

Whoever they are, they serve a good purpose. And if you have gossip for them, make contact.
-Max Borders

NCCivitas.org

We heard your pleas, your plaintive cries to bring you something you could navigate easily and experience  without encountering those baleful letters - P - D - F.

Welcome to the new site. (After much toil, blood, sweat, and tears...) We will also be updating the site with a new event registration system, robust newsletter capability, and more. Stay tuned.
-Max Borders

PS: Thanks to the great work of these folks.

#3 with a Bullet!

Wanted to thank all you readers out there who have made Red Clay Citizen the #3 "Most Influential" Political Blog in North Carolina according to the website blognetnews.com.  (Yeah, we've never heard of them either, but it's my favorite website now!).

We'll continue to work hard to try and take over #1, but that Beckwith guy over at Dome is relentless.  The man is a posting machine, but we hope to be up to the challenge.

Notably absent from the list of top 20 are our friends at the Progressive Pulse and the Locker Room.

I'm not sure about the accuracy of the Top 20, but heck, it's just nice to know someone out there is reading.

Tampon Cookies and Other Strategery

MoveOn.org is getting a lot of extra press from its Petraeus Betray Us ads. Apparently, George Lakoff is helping out. I know Lakoff from his work on metaphor (that used to be non-partisan). Now he's become a darling of the left, and therefore far less academic, but he knows how to shape perceptions with figures and tropes -- which are often more effective than rational argument. The right should take a page from Lakoff's book (literally and figuratively).

Indeed, there are all sorts of mental models, figurative language and powers of association that people can use to influence others (and change minds). Just yesterday, I saw a talk by a Duke psych prof named Gavin Fitzsimons, who has studies showing the influence of the "contagion effect" on the purchasing habits of folks in grocery stores. You can take a sterile, unopened box of tampons and have them touch an unopened box of cookies (on, say, a display) and people will often refuse the cookies due to subconscious revulsion.

I can see people applying this contagion phenomenon in other media: Run ads with roaches crawling over Hilary Clinton's face. Or repeat the phrase "Jim Black Democrats" whereever possible. Anyway, politics has become a war for hearts and minds and no device is beyond our grasp in a society of free speech and expression. (We've even criticized our counterparts on the left for less-than-artful use of such tactics.)
-Max Borders

Reagan Dinner: Inner Banks Eagle Coverage

Dean Stephens of Inner Banks Eagle attended the Michael Reagan event last night and covered it well.
-Max Borders

Blue Marionettes Looking for Strings?

I normally wouldn't give any space (much less thought) to the mean-spirited gang of pink-bedizened hatchetmen over at BlueNC. (I'd much rather tangle with a more responsible and reflective group like those at NC Policy Watch. At least with NCPW you're far more likely to get an honest debate instead of ad hominem attacks, venom-spitting and conspiracy theories.)

But BlueNC and the sundry other australopithicines who frequent it all have the poochmouth because JLF didn't invite them to their blogger's party. BlueNC? Upset because the PuppetMaster offered to tie no string to its behind? ... Well they're just going to have to have a party of their own and invite neither the right-wing illuminati with their $100-bill-wrapped cigars, nor traitors to the left like Ed Cone. That'll show 'em (sniffle).

Anyway, I'll be there representing Civitas and RedClayCitizen. I've got rich fat guys lining my pockets, after all.

(Note Ed Cone's and Mike Munger's comments beneath the post. The latter could be our next guvna, ya know. :)) -Max Borders

The 2007 Legislative Session: What should they have done?

What did the General Assembly fail to do that they should have done in this session? (This can include bills not passed, or bills not drafted.)

Comments wide open...

Climate Change: Vicious & Venomous

It's astounding that a rent-seeking parasite like the President of ACORE thinks he can get away with what he wrote to Marlo Lewis, Jr. of CEI -- a known skeptic about anthropogenic climate change. "Hate-filled" is accurate in describing this email, and the wider watermelon movement:

Marlo – You are so full of crap. You have been proven wrong. The entire world has proven you wrong. You are the last guy on Earth to get it. Take this warning from me, Marlo. It is my intention to destroy your career as a liar. If you produce one more editorial against climate change, I will launch a campaign against your professional integrity. I will call you a liar and charlatan to the Harvard community of which you and I are members. I will call you out as a man who has been bought by Corporate America. Go ahead, guy. Take me on.
Mike/Michael T. Eckhart/President/American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE)

This is so typical of the manner in which global warming activists are prepared to quell free speech and intelligent dissent. But what's most egregious is not the threatening tone, but that he accuses Marlo of being in the pockets of corporate interests without once considering his arguments - and worse still - while taking taxpayer money for his non-profit org whose sole raison d'etre is to prop up a non-existent industry that is utterly in the pockets of corporate interests (subsidized renewable companies). I can't reserve enough spite for people like this, short of coming across like some ad hominem hack like the Daily Kos.

I hope they send this guy to collect his unemployment check. Looks like they might. Up with Marlo! -Max Borders

Referenda of Convenience

To get into the mind of a leftist, you have to assume that: a) he'll do anything to get more tax revenues; b) that his tack will involve self-contradiction and want of principle; and c) where principle ever lived in him, only envy, guilt and indignation remain.

Let's focus on some exemplars of b) convenient self-contradition. Here's Chris Fitzsimon touting the virtues of a state-wide referendum on allowing the counties to impose transfer taxes:

Berger also says that there is no way a majority of the Senate will support the transfer tax option until “the public expressly agrees that they want an option to impose a transfer tax in order to keep annual property tax rates stabilized.” Isn’t that why referenda are held in the first place, to see how the public expressly feels about an issue?

Now consider another issue in which a referendum doesn't suit his agenda:

That must mean that Underhill opposes the lottery. Well no, she says she is committed to support a referendum because her constituents want it. But North Carolina is not an initiative and referendum state. There is a strong argument to be made that a referendum is unconstitutional. Legislators are supposed to make laws and budget decisions. Underhill’s constituents would probably want to vote on a lot of things, tax hikes, university tuition, providing health care to more people, but that’s the way our government works.

How convenient. Now, here's the N.C. League of Municipalities (Ellis Hankins) engaged in the same game:

The Realtors are doing all of this (lobbying and advertising) to keep North Carolinians from having the right to vote on a local transfer tax..." Also, "At the state level, we need to let people vote on bond proposals for schools, clean water, transportation, land and water conservation and affordable housing for seniors and others. The General Assembly also should let the people vote on alternate ways to get these public facilities built.

Isn't the N.C. League of Municipalities the same group who advocates forced annexation, insisting that opponents of involuntary annexation "...don't want a vote, they want a veto"? 
-Max Borders (hat tip Chris Hayes)

Smell Something Fishy in the Papers? Wiki-it!

There is a new Wiki site out called MediaMythbusters.com, that may be as powerful as blogs in checking bias and mendacity in the media.  Distributed systems brought down the fauxtography scandal in the Lebanese conflict, as well as the falsified papers used Rathergate. As I have said before, bloggers and readers are the only real check against the mainstream media. This new site may help not only chronical bad journalism, but challenge the status quo.

Bloggers & You: Checks on Sloppy Journalism

North Carolina, due to the Charlotte Observer and the News & Observer, gets much of its information from McClatchy. McClathy is one of the outlets cited for running more of the sloppy (read: fabricated) journalism coming from Iraq; in this case, the original source was the Associated Press.

“20 Beheaded Bodies Were Found On The Banks Of The Tigris River Southeast Of The Capital.” “A car bomb parked at a crowded Baghdad bus terminal killed at least 25 Thursday morning, while 20 beheaded bodies were found on the banks of the Tigris River southeast of the capital…The beheaded remains were found in the Sunni Muslim village of Um al Abeed, near the city of Salman Pak, 14 miles southeast of Baghdad.

While I wouldn't want to blame the good folks at our NC papers for the bad journalism they might get from the mothership or through syndication, it never hurts to be reminded we must remain vigilant about those who act as the conduits of information. If journalism is to be a sausage grinder run by massive media concerns, we must as bloggers, readers and citizens approach every article with a skeptical eye. Let the Army of Davids prevail. -MB

Will they publish anything?

Standards are dropping for Letters to the Editor, apparently, according to this Locker Room post.

Sweden, North Carolina

Here's a US map redrawn with states as countries, by comparable GDP. Check it out.

Under the Dean Dome

My heart was broken this morning when I learned via Under the Dome that coach Dean Smith, a man I've long admired, will be hob-knobbing with John Edwards. I will always respect and admire our coach, despite this guilt by association. Still it's disappointing. Next thing you know I'll learn that Mike Krzyzewski is a libertarian. What will I do then? (Go Tar Heels.)

Warming up, Under the Dome

Beckwith, over at Under the Dome, jumps to defend the N&O's unsubstantiated assertion that "Coal-fired power plants are the primary contributors to global warming."

First, to be fair, journalists are not scientists. So Beckwith and N&O must have really meant 'coal fired power plants are the primary contributors to anthropogenic climate change (ACC)". Otherwise, the sun would be the primary contributor to warming. (Water vapor doesn't help either.)

Second, Beckwith and Co. have probably accepted the so-called "consensus" premise that ACC - not natural climate variability - is the primary source of warming, despite evidence that it's not. This consensus is made up primarily of well-subsidized bureaucrats and climate-modelers, not independent climatologists such as Richard Lindzen, Tim Ball, and Roy Spencer. I'll pass over the fact that there were no coal-fired power plants during the medieval warm period.

Finally, if the assertion is that "coal-fired plants give off the most CO2" does the N&O mean on aggregate, or by some per unit measure?  It's not clear. In any case, this selective data/policy-of-omission/speculation-as-fact type of journalism is sadly the norm these days.  Global warming is sexy. Stories about evil power companies, too, are sexy.  (Ironically, Progress Energy supports carbon taxation, but that's another story for another day.)

But I guess we can forgive the Dome in taking up for their own. They should be careful, however. They are the gatekeepers of information.  And that comes with heavy responsibility.

Bias v. Bias?

Now if this isn't biased, I don't know what is.

I'm just waiting to see if Binker (Capital Beat) and Beckwith (News & Observer) will fairly and balanc-edly eviscerate this poll as they attempted to do with Civitas's.  In this N.C. Policy Watch poll, nearly every question is loaded.

Who's Biased?

Under the Dome doesn't like the Civitas Poll, calling it biased and unusable. But Beckwith failed to mention the other poll questions that were ostensibly free of bias.

To be fair, drag-racing museum has since been cut from the budget. But it was present in the proposed budget at the time of the Civitas Poll.  Furthermore, why is it biased to state the fact of over $1BILLION in budget surplus? How can it be biased that we mention the all the pork the government had planned to buy--AND STILL DOES?  We couldn't change the question ex post facto (But there is still $2.2 million going to a biofuels company -- is that biased?) How are we biased in asking North Carolinians if they believe the taxes will be spent on pork or education? 

If pollers don't provide some context, people can't offer informed answers.  But if pollers do provide some context, the left accuses them of bias. Anyway, if you're laboring under the theory that we're biased, you're actually attacking the usefulness of polls more than the our supposed bias.

(Update: BTW, Civitas doesn't say "it has a poll showing voters do not support the state budget". The poll shows that NCians don't support continuing the temporary taxes.  Who, indeed, is biased, Ryan?)

 

D'oh!

OK, so I kept wondering why we were getting more and more traffic, but no comments.  Turns out, I had to approve the comments.  I haven't purposefully been censoring anyone, and all of the comments should be live now. Please feel free to comment. And again, sorry to have missed that. (Duh.)

The Trouble with Netroots

After reading this post on the tactics and direction of the netroots left in US politics, kindly check out this piece I did some months back.

The crux: The netroots are so busy putting their money and energy into political action, they fail to put it into real social change.  Another way of saying this is the Left thinks government is the only way to make social change. But civil society - if utopia-builders keep their mitts out of our pockets - can be created by individuals with different concepts of the good. And may the best ideas win.  Can't we get past the idea that everyone needs saving and there's only one way to do it? If the netroots left would put that brainpower into social entrepreneurship, the world would be a much better place. (I am always struck by how strident and sanctimonious are those on the left, though unwilling to be entrepreneurial - and uncoercive - about their own rectitude. They are so often just takers... How unoriginal.)

CLC Coverage from Under the Dome

You can read Under the Dome's Coverage of our CLC conference, including controversial bits from Giuliani.

Great Post on the Civitas Conference

From the Inner Banks Eagle. (Complete with Pictures)

On Constructive Debate

Part of what makes the blogosphere interesting is controversy and conflict. However, sometimes people can go over the line -- either to get in their dig, or simply to use ad hominem tactics. DJ over at Wizbang! has an experiment to see whether people can have constructive debate without the use of such tactics. For some, this will be tough, because many of us are masochists to some degree. But enlightened discourse demands we quell the urge to call names.