Across the country, public education is under attack. The number of for-profit charter schools has increased while teachers’ unions are being dismantled and budget shortfalls have put hundreds of thousands of education jobs in jeopardy. In Wake County, the new school board majority — dubbed the “Resegregationist 5″ by critics — have been using race as an issue to distract and divide the public. Their real goal is to weaken and dismantle the nationally-acclaimed Wake County school system in order to make charter schools more attractive. The new board majority may seem like they are “fulfilling campaign promises” with their push for neighborhood schools but it is a ploy to create massively over-crowded schools in both poor and rich neighborhoods.

Art Pope and Bob Luddy were the two largest campaign contributors in the October 2009 school board election. Pope is the North Carolina state head of Americans for Prosperity, a far-right advocacy group, and uses AFP and his vast array of right-wing media to promote charter schools and urge North Carolina to lift its cap on the number of charters in the state. Bob Luddy runs three private schools in Wake County and a charter school in Franklin County. He has stated he wishes to build a network of 25 to 50 schools in Wake County based on his Thales Academy in Apex (of which school board chairman Ron Margiotta is on the board of trustees).

Both men provided a combined $38,000 to get their Republican candidates elected. But that sum is chump change compared to the financial rewards Luddy would reap if his schools were approved for charter status. Consider: if the new board majority approved just one of Luddy’s schools as a charter, under current NC per-pupil spending, a school with 300 students would receive over $2 million in taxpayer money — YOUR money – every year.

It’s not about race. It’s not about diversity. It’s about money. 93.5% of 40,000 Wake County parents surveyed felt they were satisfied with the quality of their child’s education. My goal is to obtain 21,670 signatures — one more than the total who voted the new board majority into office in October and the November runoff election. Sign this petition and let’s get these Republican clowns as far away from our schools as possible.

To sign:

http://education.change.org/petitions/view/republican_millionaires_should_have_no_voice_in_the_future_of_wake_schools

Previous articles:

The Exhaustive Guide On Why Your New School System Sucks(Part One)

The Exhaustive Guide On Why Your New School System Sucks(Part Two)

How Our Town Was Astroturfed

Real Losers In Wake Schools Fiasco — Teachers

Welcome back. Since we last spoke, the Republican ideologues voted 5-4 to scrap Wake’s diversity policy, which we always knew they would, and the NYT, Christian Science Monitor, and The Economist sent reporters down to write the blandest articles humanly possible, which I always knew they would. The fix was in. But the recent board meeting arrests and downtown protest demonstrated Raleigh citizens weren’t fooled and they weren’t going away.

So John Tedesco and Rev. Barber got some face time on CNN. Cool. Here’s a couple of articles to update you on what’s going on in the world of education that’s not dominated by talk of race: Tough-guy Michelle Rhee fired 241 D.C. teachers for “failing” under No Child Left Behind and warned 737 more they had a year to shape up….or ship up. This is not to be confused with the 266 D.C. teachers laid-off in October 2009 for budgetary reasons. You know, that’s just the way tough love is: sometimes you get fired because of a horrible economy, and sometimes you get fired because, goshdarnit, you just didn’t do enough to turn that high-poverty school around. The best part if you were among the 266 is Rhee smearing you on your way out by implying you were a pedophile or hit kids (Seriously, it’s in the article).

That’s Bush’s legacy. Now on to Obama: WRAL reports that North Carolina is one of 19 finalists for a chunk of $3.4 billion in the second round of Race to the Top grants. Race to the Top is all about “voluntary” reform — the article states “the competition rewards ambitious reforms” — but in reality, pretty much ALL states are broke and need this cash. Desperately. And the kind of reforms states are pushing?

Dozens of states passed new education policies to make themselves more attractive to the judges.

New York, which was a finalist in the first round but did not win money, lifted its cap on the number of charter schools that can open annually from 200 to 460. Colorado passed laws that would pay teachers based on student performance and can strip tenure from low performing instructors.

Two states, Tennessee and Delaware, were awarded a total of $600 million in the first round.

Their applications were praised for merit pay policies that link teacher pay to student performance and for garnering the support of teachers’ unions. Tennessee and Delaware also have laws that are welcoming to charter schools.

(bolded for later emphasis)

Basically, if you live in the U.S. and your Republican governor hasn’t pushed through pro-charter school and merit pay reform, the Obama administration is now bribing them to do so. And if you’re a teacher who manages to survive the hundreds of thousands of potential layoffs, you now have the very real potential of having your wages and benefits slashed. Free-market justice has come to government, bitch!

Now back to Wake. A month after the axing of Del Burns, everyone’s favorite astroturf group Wake CARES held a press conference to throw a let’s-all-work-together Hail Mary plea in support of the increasingly unpopular new board majority. Like any good mama grizzly, Patrice Lee couldn’t resist a dig at the people she’s sneered at for the past four years: “Lay down your candles and your songs and give them breathing room.”

Vicious harridan Patrice Lee illustrating how “awesome” “post-racial” America can be

Wow! I thought I knew how to mock people, but Jesus — she really threw up two baseball bat-sized middle fingers at anyone not falling in line with their smug conservative ideology. It’s a real riot considering the way they acted like Apex was turning into the Gaza Strip during the MYR lawsuit of 2007. (I believe the Apex mayor said his town was “under siege.”) They just HAD to sue the school system — even though over 90% of parents stayed with their year-round school, even though tracks were collapsed and some traditional schools were hit with over-crowding — they claimed they had no other choice, it had to be done to protect their little Hamiltons who just couldn’t stand the thought of not being able to attend Vacation Bible Camp during the summer they felt he was constitutionally entitled to.

]]> http://www.raleighgawker.com/real-losers-in-wake-schools-fiasco-teachers/feed 0 http://www.raleighgawker.com/downtown-raleigh-bar-rankings-nc-state-edition http://www.raleighgawker.com/downtown-raleigh-bar-rankings-nc-state-edition#comments Tue, 17 Aug 2010 15:00:16 +0000 RG http://www.raleighgawker.com/?p=896 It’s that time of year again: they’re back, dumber and meaner than ever, packs of them, wandering up and down Hillsborough St. dressed in their Friday night best looking for something to do. But for the rest of us who’ve learned to tune out this annual ritual, it’s worth objectively taking a look at the best DTR has to offer — so whether you’re a 21 year old College of Design major or just a bitter old head like me, take a look at this list and speak on it (hopefully you’ll agree).

1. Neptune’s

Alibi was a shithole. You know it and I know it. Neptune’s is the complete opposite. Whoever fixed this shit did it right: the bar and lounge are comfortable, they play good music, and they make amazing specialty drinks. Deserving of a pat on the back and a 25% tip. I did notice from looking around that it’s kinda awkward bringing a date there, mainly because everyone you know is up in the bar staring at you.

And there’s the caveat: Go into Neptune’s with full knowledge that it’s a condensed version of the Jackpot. Same DJs, same bartenders, same mopes at the bar, everything. Fair warning. If you’re like me, though, you shouldn’t give a shit! Drink enough and they all end up looking like clowns anyway.

2. Havana’s

This off-Glenwood spot made last year’s list of top places to take a sketchy first date, but it most certainly wouldn’t now (think: SMOKING BAN). No worries. I’ve always liked this spot and the ability to smoke in air-conditioned comfort pole vaults Havana’s to the top of the heap. Plus, it’s become a new hangout for the nicotine-addled service industry elite, so if you want a shot at that cute Raleigh Times waitress who served you that one time, there you go (Pro tip: she probably won’t go out with you).

3. Poole’s

Poole’s reminds me of that scene in The Wire where Chris and Snoop try to smoke out all the New York boys by asking Baltimore-related questions. Poole’s is the Raleigh airhead hipster corollary — if you’re unsure about whether someone enjoys a PBR draft at the Landmark or actually has good taste, just hit ‘em with something like “YO, whatchuknow about Ashley Christensen?” or “Say, man, you know if there are any James Beard Award nominees around here?”

If it were open every day it would be #1. Fuck this place rules.

4. The Remedy

It’s THE Remedy, get it right, and it’s worth braving the usual crowd of those hula-hooping attention whore losers and the music nerds who want to talk your ear off about some 7″ they just discovered (I always want to ask them what AIG stands for). Good food for cheap and it’s amusing to get a day drink and laugh at the suburban families who drag their kids in from Marbles.

5. Isaac Hunter’s Oak City Tavern

Look man, sometimes you’re out with your friends and they’re being annoying as shit. It’s just the law of averages and to be honest there’s an awful lot to complain about these days. Use the Wii. The Wii is your friend. Repeat: The Wii is your friend.

I’ve been out of the game for a while. Unlike 99% of my peers, as soon as the financial crisis hit I became instantly obsessed with a desire to learn more and music got kicked down to the bottom of my priority scale. So while I can’t tell you how “gnar” the new 7″ from that new Durham band is, I can probably explain how a credit-default swap works in under 30 seconds. Priorities, man, priorities.

It’s the priorities that are keeping me from attending. It’s not that I think Hopscotch is too expensive and it’s not some weird desire to be contrarian or anything. It’s that I don’t like live music and I suspect I never did. The standing still with arms crossed staring, the awkward lunch-break conversations between bands, the annoying behavior of blackout losers — sorry, this anti-social nerd would rather drink and read in his room alone. But that’s just me. That shouldn’t keep YOU, the average hipster-American, from attending.

Woods would be an excellent choice to go see. They’re so good I actually considered dragging my sad ass out there next month. The criminally under-appreciated Kaze and the rest of 9th Wonder’s show would be awesome as well, probably your best chance all year to catch some new hip-hop. Savannah’s Kylesa won’t be nearly as incredible as they were rocking the fuck out of an Everett Ave. living room, but definitely still worth checking out. The best of the best of local bands will all be playing, and if you don’t like Broken Social Scene, there’s something wrong with you.

Grayson Currin did an excellent job setting this shit up. I really mean that. Go, have fun, get wasted, celebrate Raleigh. I’ll be here, ready to talk your ear off about the coming American economic collapse when you get back.

The only thing more politically deranged than these mopes are their supporters. See, you might wake up enjoying life in your socialist paradise, but for millions of Americans, every day under the totalitarian yoke of the Obama regime brings them a little closer to the breaking point, their dreams shattered as all power is ceded to immigrants and unions while hard-working white men and Christian women get the shaft.  Every once in a while, a story hits that gives them the fuel to harness every single drop of their ignorant rage.

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

These are their stories.

On WRAL, dgarrard2 couldn’t resist the tie-in to Obamacare in his anti-socialist screed: “I guess Etheridge is touchy on the subject of whether or not he fully supports Obama’s socialist agenda? I believe that question was answered when he voted for the healthcare bill despite the majority of Americans NOT wanting it! Vote this guy out of office in November and put anybody that will truly represent the views of North Carolina’s residents and not those of the socialist agenda!”

bcarolinabreeze took a different tack, using the generic “North Carolinians are so tough and fearsome and smart” approach: “He wouldn’t try that back in North Carolina. Not that he would be pandering to voters, he would just…shall we say…his hind parts would be quite sore. BTW, Youtube rules!” dugmuster concurred, “Someone needs to slap that old man in the face. I want to get a camera on him and see if he grabbed me like that. He would regret it.” while fdp1 throws in an attempt at humor with his violent fantasy: “You’re true character comes out under pressure. Etheridge is an arrogant phoney and a fake. If it where my second son, Etherige would be in a hospital. If it where my 3rd son, I would have lodged assult charges against the bully!”

MarcoPolo seethes at the double standard: “If he had been a republican, the media bias is such that he would have resigned by noon.” Yeah, just ask Mark Sanford! TheeDude takes it a step further: “I was not shocked when I saw this. Its the typical action of a liberal that has no regard for anything except his own agenda. Lets see how our local liberal TV, News Paper and Radio stations help him out of this mess. 10 to 1 says he will get a pass…” When a commenter asked why the kid’s face was blurred in the video, ContinuityMan cheerfully replied: “He doesn’t want 500 thugs from the local SEIU branch threatening him in his front lawn. You think there won’t be retaliation over this? Ask James O’Keefe.”

qgirl232 bemoans the decline of our democracy, asking “Why are our Congressmen and women allowed to get away with almost murder and no one take a stand?” She then goes on the attack against any commenter who has an issue with the video: “What is it with you die hard E fans? It doesn’t matter if there were props, or if the students baited him. What matters is that Bobby, who all of you must think is a saint, got physical! He didn’t just sit and yell or spit like Barney Frank usually does then cover it up by saying awful words. Bob got physical!”

floyd_lawson throws up his hands, admits defeat: “He HAS to be arrested for this, that is absolutely outrageous!!!! Oh wait, he’s a democrat so he’s above the law, nevermind.” Don’t be so sarcastic, Floyd! Puff up your chest like the commenter below yours: “All of you that come on here and try to defend Big Bad Bob must be what, 16 or so? You need to study what this country was founded on, and how the dems are ruining it. No matter, come November you’re going to see something you’ve never, ever seen in this country, a cleaning of house like never before. It’ll be YEARS before the dems ever have any kind of power again, if ever. Whether you like it or you don’t like it, get use to it!”

On and on it went. katkins01 screeches: “A private citizen is not required to identify himself/herself by name to simply ask a PUBLIC SERVANT WHO SUBSISTS ON TAXPAYER DOLLARS a simple question. He’s acting like gestapo and liberals are protecting him. The double standard is embarrassing, and totally predictable.” woodybeez: “bob etheridge is nothing but a dead beat living of the tax payers and representing harry reid. he does not represent his district he represent nobody but hiself. just wait till they get the health care bill/bill in higher taxes he just passed along with the other cronies and the #1 cronie in the w/h they care nothing about the country or the people. it time for that deadbeat to go HOME PERNAMENTLY ALONG WITH BRAD DEADBAT MILLER AND THE REST. WE NEED TO CLEAN HOUSE IN NOVEMBER”

I had more than my fill of this garbage, but continued to read because I knew with all the anti-Obama anti-Democrat anti-healthcare pontificating, someone sooner or later was going to make a crack about Etheridge and the AZ illegal immigration law. JAFOinWF did not disappoint: “I’m surprised that WRAL is actually covering this since it doesn’t fit their agenda. So, now I’d like to see Elcid explain to me why Etheridge wants to know who these kids are but AZ police cannot ask for ID in that state?!”

To be fair, some of the comments were about the accuracy of the edited video, and some cheered Etheridge for not taking any crap from Republican twerps. A few even nailed the truth: Etheridge was drunk when accosted and acted as such. The overwhelming majority of comments came from right-wingers and had little if anything to do with the video or the article. They can be divided into three camps: the first is angry assholes who took from this article a vicarious and bizarre desire to slug an elected official. The second, heavily overlapping with the first, is comprised of Rethugs who have been ranting about an electoral “Republican bloodbath” since Valentine’s Day 2009 and are using this incident to justify their moronic worldview that the 2010 election won’t be like all those other elections where 90% of incumbents win. The third is the most insane. In their dystopian view, all media is firmly in the pocket of Obama and the Radical Democrats and whatever suits their “agenda” is what We The People receive. This is 9/11 Truther logic at its finest. And yet a strong plurality of comments expressed exactly this view, with some going past the usual liberal media smear and implying that WRAL was actively working to cover this story up. Yes, that’s right, people actually believe some minion in the bowels of the media basement was sweating over how best to cover up this viral internet video because it made a Democrat “look bad.” Never mind that it was on the front-page of the N&O site and WRAL and News 14 covered it. Shit, never mind that progressives regularly criticize Obama in print and CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News all had health-insurance industry shills on their programs. Conspiracy!

I personally recommend that any jobs bill proposed by Congress include $$$ for rooting out “liberal bias” in media. Put the unemployed ‘wingers on the case. They’d work 16 hours a day.

]]> http://www.raleighgawker.com/troll-patrol-wral-commenters-have-meltdown-over-etheridge-video/feed 2 http://www.raleighgawker.com/conagra-is-the-triangles-bp http://www.raleighgawker.com/conagra-is-the-triangles-bp#comments Fri, 11 Jun 2010 08:22:00 +0000 RG http://www.raleighgawker.com/?p=864 Not a very happy one-year anniversary:

If you want to know how the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is going to play out, it’s worth taking a look at last year’s June 9 natural gas explosions at the ConAgra plant in Garner. The corporate giant story’s familiar, and it sucks: ill-prepared contractors, safety violations, a horrible environmental track record, and nothing but platitudes from politicians. The basic question to Obama/BP is of course is “Will anything get done?” Take a look at the ConAgra quote timeline and you tell me:

June 10th:

ConAgra Chief Executive Gary Rodkin and other executives arrived in Garner on Wednesday afternoon to speak with employees and their families and to help with the investigation.

“Our goal is to make sure nothing like this ever happens again,” Rodkin said.

“The accident (Tuesday) is devastating for ConAgra Foods and for me personally,” he said. “There is no worse nightmare for a CEO. What happened here to our family – our employees – is very difficult to bear.”

[ConAgra spokeswoman Stephanie] Childs said the company would continue paying workers “while this situation is under way.” It’s too early to determine when the plant might reopen, she said.

“Our hope is to rebuild,” Rodkin said. “Obviously, there are many challenges.”

June 14th:

The mayor of Garner is apparently confident that ConAgra will stick around and rebuild the plant locally. “They’ve been a longtime corporate citizen providing jobs and income and benefits to the town,” he told a local TV station. “I’ve been reassured from the corporate people, that rebuilding is going to take place.”

June 15th:

On Tuesday, June 16, just before 11:30 a.m. EDT, the Town of Garner, North Carolina, as well as ConAgra Foods employees at locations across the nation, will observe one minute of silence to recognize the victims of the ConAgra Foods plant explosion. Mayor Ronnie Williams will lead the community observance.

“We’re deeply moved by — and very appreciative of — the community’s support for our employees,” said Gary Rodkin, CEO, ConAgra Foods. “The outpouring of concern from so many people I met in Garner speaks volumes about the community’s strength and character.”

September 16th:

ConAgra Foods announced Wednesday evening that it will lay off about 300 employees as a result of a fatal explosion at its Garner plant.

“It’s not something that we wanted to do and it’s difficult but necessary to ensure the long-term health of this business and this plant here in Garner,” ConAgra spokeswoman Stephanie Childs said.

Mayor Ronnie Williams also expressed sadness over the layoffs.

”I’m disappointed and sad by the news. But there’s an upside here that the company is keeping about 400 jobs and interested in staying in Garner and rebuilding the plant and getting these folks back to work,” Williams told WRAL News.

March 3rd:

Nine months after four people were killed in a natural gas explosion at a ConAgra Foods Inc. plant in Garner, company officials said Wednesday that they plan to close the plant next year.

ConAgra will shut down the plant, which makes Slim Jim beef jerky products, in 15 to 18 months, eliminating about 450 jobs, officials said. Slim Jim production will be moved to a plant in Troy, Ohio.

Company officials held a closed-door meeting Wednesday afternoon at the Clayton Center auditorium to break the news to Garner workers. Some employees stormed out of the meeting, saying they weren’t interested in hearing the severance options ConAgra was offering.

“I’m too angry to talk about it right now,” one woman said as she left.

“This is clearly a difficult decision and has ramifications to a number of people,” ConAgra Executive Vice President Greg Smith said. “Our desire was to have continued production in the city of Garner. Unfortunately, the economic situation of doing so was just too overwhelming.”

Garner Mayor Ronnie Williams said he understood the company’s decision, but he was disheartened by it.

“ConAgra has always done things right and been a role model as a corporate citizen,” Williams said. “It is somewhat of a sad day in Garner. I’m saddened and somewhat disappointed in the news.”

March 3rd:

ConAgra (NYSE: CAG) will keep the plant open another 15 to 18 months at current employee levels before shutting it down. The decision is another blow to the plant’s 400 employees, who will lose their jobs by late 2011.

“We truly value the commitment that our Garner employees and the entire Garner community have shown over the past several months,” ConAgra Foods CEO Gary Rodkin said. “This was an incredibly difficult decision, but a decision that allows us to leverage economies of scale in Troy, which is necessary for the good of our business over the long term.”

ConAgra also will leave the town with some parting gifts. The company will donate $3 million to the town to pay for the construction of a community center. ConAgra also is giving the town the 106-acre, Slim Jim site, which stradles Interstate 40 at the Jones Sausage Road exit. .

“That’s prime real estate,” said Garner Mayor Ronnie Williams, who described his reaction to hearing the news as one of shock and disappointment.

The company also promised to market the Slim Jim site to companies looking for a manufacturing site. Williams said that ConAgra also promised to clean up the Slim Jim facility, taking the damaged part of the plant down to the concrete, before leaving town in late 2011.“So they’re not leaving us empty-handed,” said Williams.

But don’t worry you guys, ConAgra CEO Rodkin certainly didn’t leave empty-handed either – he pulled down $10.1 million in 2009, a godawful year for most Americans — all while convincing Ohio to hook them up with $9.58 million in incentives for adding a paltry 190 jobs, posting a $228 million third-quarter profit, and in a holy-shit-are-you-serious moment was named as one of the “100 Best Corporate Citizens.”

In addition to making more than twice as much as BP head Tony Hayward, Rodkin’s also out-classed Hayward in the one area BP actually cares about: its stock price. Fuck bad PR. Lower stock prices means lower net worth for executives. Lucky for ConAgra, free-market CNBC hack Jim Cramer is a huge fan. Cramer regularly pimps ConAgra stock under the absurd pretense that packaged foods are “recession-proof.” Cramer even had Rodkin interview on his show a month after the explosion, praising his “fantastic job” performance and ConAgra’s “great management.” The plant was not mentioned once. The result? ConAgra’s stock rose from $19.60 on the day of the explosion to $24.96 today…doesn’t mean shit for me and you, but since execs are getting paid bonuses in stock these days, it adds $1 million+ to Rodkin’s net worth.

Shillionaire Jim Cramer: The Glenn Beck of Finance

It was heartbreaking watching the News 14 segment on the explosion’s anniversary memorial. The people interviewed genuinely tried to put the most positive spin they could on a personal and economic tragedy. How does one cope with something like that? A Library of Congress survey found that the two books which have influenced Americans the most are the Bible and Atlas Shrugged. It made perfect sense in this scenario. The workers and their families clearly were struggling with frustration and despair and looking for spiritual guidance as an outlet, while millionaires like Alan Greenspan that screw them over lean heavily on Ayn Rand for their “moral compass.”

This story was featured prominently in every major news outlet in the Triangle (except, oddly, The Indy). It wasn’t the media’s fault. This was also right in our backyard during the Great Crazy of 2009, when unemployed working class whites waged tea-had against “Big Government” all over Raleigh and demanded Americans not be given free health care. Were they too stupid to make the connection? Stupid people watch American Idol for fun and go to church every Sunday. They would never entertain the possibility that a president would fake his birth certificate. It just doesn’t make any sense. But a redneck driven absolutely fucking bonkers by poverty and left alone to spend all day on the Internet might start to gin up that Obama is a Manchurian Candidate covertly installing a Socialist/Fascist/totalitarian whatever to bring America down…all out of some delusional belief that everyone is being helped but him.

They’re crazy and angry enough to take to the streets. But who are we? What would make us angry enough to get out there? BP has fucked this up from day one, lying and stonewalling and restricting media access. You couldn’t find a more inept, obscenely wealthy villain and yet the worst I’ve seen is (mostly sarcastic) Internet outrage. Honestly, if you take away the pelican pictures and that the potential oil might drift up here and ruin our beaches, if it were just some rig explosion in the middle of nowhere that only affected fishermen, no one I know would even care.

We’re the new hicks: obsessed with music and technology, self-absorbed to the point where we only understand people like us and only understand what goes on five feet in front of our face. We don’t care about the millions of foreclosures because we’re never moving back to the suburbs and we don’t care that our college degrees are worthless because we were never going to work for corporate America anyway. The survival instinct just isn’t in us. We buy everything Apple tells us to buy and our #1 complaint is having to add our relatives on Facebook. We’re destined to be the first generation worse off than our parents and we have can’t afford health insurance, but we’re upbeat because a new restaurant opened and Hopscotch is just around the corner.

]]> http://www.raleighgawker.com/conagra-is-the-triangles-bp/feed 3 http://www.raleighgawker.com/green-state-fair-clearing-forest-for-5000-space-parking-lot http://www.raleighgawker.com/green-state-fair-clearing-forest-for-5000-space-parking-lot#comments Fri, 14 May 2010 19:36:47 +0000 RG http://www.raleighgawker.com/?p=856 In a world at war, it’s easy to forget the major issue in these modern times for Wake County suburbanites is the lack of adequate parking in West Raleigh. I recently found out the State Fair honchos are all over that, clearing 120 acres on either side of the new Edwards Mill extension.

Here’s a visual:

(Ed. note: I did not MS Paint these comments)

Since this massive lot is about a mile away from the fairgrounds, and Americans hate walking, the State Fair will provide trams to shuttle the lazy and morbidly obese back and forth in October. It sounds like they thought of everything! It’s just a bummer that cycling activists have to fight like insurgents to get a bike lane on Hillsborough St. while down the street one of the last tracts of undeveloped land on N.C. 54 gets blacktopped up without a hitch. It’s also a bummer considering the PR efforts that went into greenwashing the 2009 State Fair:

The North Carolina State Fair is a celebration of agriculture, and organizers want to make the event an occasion to give back to Mother Earth.

Last year, the State Fair advertised its efforts to be more environmentally friendly: Biodiesel fueled the midway. Organizers collected used cooking oil from vendors to make more biodiesel.

“We were definitely trying to increase the effort and step it up last year,” fair spokeswoman Natalie Alford said.

Or as they say on their website, “As the largest annual 11-day event in North Carolina, we have a responsibility to do our part to keep North Carolina’s environment clean and sustainable. Admittedly, the N.C. State Fair has some work to do before we can be a truly “green” event, but everyone has to start somewhere.”

INDEED.

Matt Taibbi said complaining about assholes is our #1 pastime, and when it comes to Raleigh’s liberal arts graduates and service industry, he could not be more right. There’s something about witnessing the endless fake outrage summoned to outdo one’s circle of friends in Jackpot-bashing that makes it seem like a rite of passage, something you can always rely on to pass the time. Why talk about anything real when you can indulge in “God, why is it always so smoky in there (as you’ll once again find out for yourself in a few hours).”

Last year Scrooge here had a change of heart. I embraced the shit talk, I thought it was funny. I had no need for mocking haters or mentally filing complaints under F for “first world problems.” No, after the piles of self-loathing I accumulated stewing on my pathetic career, in front of me were situations I could deal with, the gossip and the cartoonish stupidity of the tables of drunks working as the perfect antidote for my rage and misery.

I loved it. With my new attitude, I no longer felt like a pariah. It was just so tough to refute that all-encompassing logic of “Who gives a shit?” And no one ever did. Whenever I had the time and the dollars (rare), I was able to retreat to my self-important bubble that serves everyone else so well. Whenever the bellyaching would start, I cheerfully offered my solution: DRINK A FUCKING BEER! Take a shot. Relax. Life isn’t so bad. Turn your brain off for a few hours, as I am preparing to do.

Now it’s gone. No more watching over 2am scenes of shitfaced townies you feel like you’ve known your whole life. Boo hoo. The bashing transitioned into fake tears and status updates of “looking forward to Kings re-opening this summer.” The remarkable thing about Jackpot (and the reason I feel outsiders hated it the most) is that the mystique of the bar made people who didn’t deserve it feel popular, interesting, exciting. As for me, I still refuse to be a hater. After having a front-row seat for the cruelty and unimaginable pettiness of middle America, I can say with 100% “trust me” certainty that the bubble is the best lot the world’s going to offer.

Even with six new schools opening in the last two years, 51 year-rounds, and 1,071 mobile classrooms, WCPSS is operating at 91.7% capacity. Now just how bad do you think over-crowding will be after a hack study with Ron Margiotta in charge RE-assigns 140,000 kids to their “community” zone? Unfortunately, over-crowding was always the point. Luddy plans to construct a network of 25 to 50 schools based on his Thales Academy and he needs chaos and a failing school system to make it work. So when this plan blows up, as it always was supposed to, Luddy can claim public schools fail children and a) demand the charter school cap be lifted so Wake County taxpayers can line his pockets or b) start catering with his low-tuition private academies to suburban parents furious with 30+ class sizes.

Luddy’s got all the angles covered. But he needed the help of two of his rabid anti-public school trustees and an arch-conservative millionaire “philanthropist” to get him there:

Same dudes behind the Tea Parties are behind this shit

Annoyed at the suckers who spent all last year protesting free health care? Check out the big money supporting it. Arch-conservative interest group FreedomWorks were immediately found out astro-turfing ”spontaneous” Tea Party protests, leading to CNBC anchor Rick Santelli’s on-air apology for his role. Sister organization and Art Pope-directed Americans for Prosperity quickly picked up the reins. For their nationwide April 15th Tea Party “protests,” AFP organized, sent out press releases and even offered cash rewards for participating. The most infuriating aspect of conservatives is that even after being confronted about their outrageous behavior, they treat it as one big joke:

Astroturf Art also HATES public education. His far-right media and think-tanks have cranked out more than 20 pro-charter pieces in 2010 alone! He was behind the “overwhelming majority” push poll to abandon diversity. The man would sooner give Obama a hug than admit someone from WCPSS actually knows how to do their job. So when Art’s entirely self-funded Civitas Institute congratulates the “grassroots efforts” of WakeCARES and the Wake Schools Community Alliance on electing the new school board majority, you should be really, REALLY fucking suspicious.

It’s all out in the open

The problem is Art Pope’s a genius. The N&O busted him cold in December, printing an internal e-mail praising his vision and calling him the architect of the new school board majority.  This wasn’t some blogger talking shit. The e-mail’s from Wake County GOP fundraising chairman Marc Scruggs to school board member Ron Margiotta. What does Pope do? Flashes a shit-eating grin, shrugs, and then puts on the chinchilla and adjusts his diamond-encrusted watch before jumping in the Escalade with four honeys. He’d make a great rapper.

So how is this Mr. Burns motherfucker you’ve never heard of the architect of anything?! Ask the WSCA. The non-stop non-profit acted as a fucking school choice PR firm, who by their own admission “vetted and endorsed four winning candidates,” “publicized the KIPP charter school model, making it a campaign issue,” and “generated more than 1800 specific mentions of the name Wake  Schools Community Alliance in the News and Observer alone this year.” WSCA had a press release for everything and were at the center of every school board debate. Pretty goddamn impressive for a “concerned group of parents” from Apex!

The long con

Look, it’s not JUST that astroturf leaders Sarah Redpath and Kathleen Brennan are on the board of trustees at Luddy’s private school. Their statements and behavior have done more than anything to undermine confidence in public schools, in particular the idea that year-round schedules are beneath their families. “They’re only for poor kids…and the government certainly can’t FORCE your kids to go there!”

Sarah was on fire during this John Locke Foundation-sponsored era, accusing the school board of acting as “the Gestapo,” “Big Brother,” “Orwellian,” and “arrogant,” while repeatedly insisting that mandatory year-round “hurts the stability of families.” Now contrast the above statements with this puff piece on how Sarah’s lovin’ her kids at private school: IT’S SO GREAT HERE I <3 THALES SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A few things about Thales: They have no buses, cafeteria, or gym. Teachers are made to sign one-year contracts. The school is not accredited. The far-right wants shells like this to REPLACE public schools. Luddy makes no secret about wanting charter school status for current and future Thales academies. One of Thales’ trustees is state Rep. Marilyn Avila, who introduced two bills in the House this year to lift the cap on charters.

Yes, incredibly, the furious basher of public schools wants your tax dollars to pay for her children to go to Thales.

To get more of a sense of the long con, just look at this quote from Kent Misegades, director and trustee of Thales:

“(There was) turmoil due to constant reassignment and then the issue of year-round versus traditional,” said Kent Misegades, director of Thales Academy-Apex. “(There was) continued dissatisfaction with quality and stability of government schools. Many parents reject these altogether and would not enroll their children in any public school. Others have transferred out of WCPSS.”

Uh huh. The idea that a “parents group” of Apex moms had the resources to take a lawsuit against mandatory year-round to the state Supreme Court is a fucking fairy tale, up there with the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus, but WakeCARES director and Thales trustee Kathleen Brennan got away with it.

Flashback to 2007: WCPSS planned to convert 22 schools to the year-round calendar to accommodate explosive growth. Republican county commissioners withheld funding but WCPSS went for it anyway out of their savings. Mandatory year-round…the government providing for its citizens…the far-right couldn’t have this. NO WAY. It was desperation lawsuit o’clock, and WakeCARES had as its counsel one William Peaslee, former state GOP counsel and the dude behind the still-unaccounted-for $1.2 million in anti-Obama ads.

Look at it from the school system’s point of view. In addition to preparing for the 17,804 “new faces” entering Wake’s school for the first time in 2007-08, they now had 32,000 year-round consent forms dumped on them from Howard Manning’s ruling ,TWO MONTHS before the start of the school year. Former school board Lori Millberg said at the time it would cause a mad scramble, and she was right.

Chaos. Turmoil. Instability. Frequent reassignments. Sound like a campaign issue? It took two years for the state Supreme Court to rule against the sham lawsuit and reinstate WCPSS’s ability to assign students, but the damage was done. It’s interesting that one of WSCA’s first press releases was they were “extremely disappointed” in the court’s decision. Man, they were just picking up the torch!

This group that caused the massive instability turned around and blamed the board for it and used it as a campaign issue. They’re about to fuck with the program again.

“With all the constructive things that people can do to advocate their point of view in a democracy, this is how they chose to express themselves?” Peaslee said outside of his damaged office early Saturday.

Four years later, Peaslee chose to “express himself” by forming the Committee for Truth in Politics, a 501(c)(4) non-profit “advocating honesty in government”(actual quote, no sarcasm). He then “constructively” blew $1.2 million on these anti-Obama attack ads:

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The second ad was immediately debunked, with FactCheck.org calling it “absurdly wrong.” While we’re meandering down the absurdly wrong path, it’s worth mentioning that Peaslee decided his little Committee wasn’t going to file any federal paperwork, EVER. Not with the IRS. Not with the FEC. In fact, his counsel James Bopp pre-emptively sued the FEC, arguing “that what the group spends on ads is none of the government’s, or the public’s, business.”

More from Bopp: “We believe that the U.S. Constitution protects them from having to file that report. The problem is having to file a report at all. To be regulated at all. To be accountable to the government at all.”

WOW DUDE. Take a second and let that one soak in. Because it didn’t stop there: the Committee for Truth in Politics filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court on behalf of Citizens United…as in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, better known colloquially as “that dumbfuck BULLshit allowing free-speakin’ corporations to spend unlimited political $$$.” You know, the ruling even Obama dissed during his State of the Union.

Here’s the twist, the dot no one fucking connected. Bev appointed Peaslee’s Republican ass to the State Board of Elections last summer. There he is, on the far right, chillin’!

Can you even imagine the irony??! Here you have Peaslee, knowing full well he’s sitting on an absolute pile of shit, and he’s got the stones to question Easley about unreported campaign flights? Incredible.

[NPR]What They Don’t Want You To Know

[Washington Independent]Is the Committee for Truth in Politics Legal?

Committee for Truth in Politics on SourceWatch

You should check out the Committee’s new attack ad, it’s hilarious.