Listen to Bob Hall’s befuddlement

I posted yesterday about Democracy NC’s Bob Hall acting as if he’d never heard of left-wing political-giving millionaire Jim Goodmon. You can listen to it here. I think it confirms I described it pretty accurately from memory yesterday.

Go to the 14:00 mark. That’s where the fun begins. I’ll repeat my point of yesterday: It’s hard to be a “nonpartisan” watchdog when you profess to be unfamiliar with the biggest Democratic/liberal players.

P.J. O’Rourke on Progressive Elites: They Hate Poor People

P.J. O’Rourke is brilliant as he skewers progressive elites and their view of the poor — in this case, as it relates to banning smoking in public housing.  As usual, his writing is on target and laugh-out-loud funny. Read the whole thing. Twice.

Progressive elites may be confused about the existence of right and wrong when it comes to wars against genocidal fanatics, market freedom, and the death penalty for mass murderers. But not when it comes to smoking.

Smoking kills smokers, which is about what they deserve for engaging in such lowbrow, wrong-headed, retarded, vulgarian activity, except they get sick first and that drives up the cost of a single-payer national health care system, plus their second-hand smoke is worse yet because it is a, yuck, inhalation hand-me-down from uncouth people who probably haven’t flossed, and it kills progressive elites who don’t even know anyone who smokes while also releasing greenhouse gases and stinking up the cheery curtains that elites hang in public housing group activity areas to brighten the lives of the underprivileged who are confined to concrete tower blocks with six-by-eight-foot living rooms, seven-foot ceilings, plexiglass windows, and sheet-metal doors with a dozen locks on them. Smoking is wrong.

Classic Example of a Law That Stifles Competition

Today’s Friday interview is my Carolina Journal Radio interview with JLF Vice President for Research Roy Cordato about North Carolina’s dinosaur of a law known as “certificate of need.” This law, which has been repealed by many states, puts the state in charge of deciding who can and can’t build or expand medical facilities and/or purchase new medical equipment. I encourage you to read the full Q&A, but here’s a sample:

Martinez: Why does the state of North Carolina have any interest beyond just general interest, like all of us would have, as to what medical facilities are available and operating in the state?

Cordato: Well, they claim that unless they do that, people will apparently purchase all kinds of unnecessary equipment, build all kinds of unnecessary hospital space, and drive costs up. But, of course, when you think about it, it’s really silly. We don’t do that in any other industry. Imagine if in your local community, a new Chinese restaurant wanted to open up, but before they [could] do it, they had to go to the state government, and the state government had to come in and count how many Chinese restaurants there were in the area to see if there was a “need” for an additional Chinese restaurant in the area. 

And not only that, they’d have to see the menu — even the services provided, even within a facility, are under scrutiny — and is it a buffet restaurant or is it an order-from-the-menu restaurant? And then, if the government says, “Oh, OK, well, we need another Chinese restaurant in this town,” then you can get permission from the state to open it. 

Well, first of all, what’s that going to do? It restricts competition. It should be the consumers that decide whether a new Chinese restaurant or a new MRI machine is needed, not the state. And of course, with the politics, the interest is always to protect the entrenched interests — the existing Chinese restaurants — from competition. I mean, wouldn’t we all love to be in an industry where every time a competitor wanted to compete with us, they had to go to the government and get permission to do that and someone had to come in and decide whether their service was needed or not? Well, of course, the whole idea of competition is antithesis to that. It’s really a total central planning model, and it governs our health care services in this state.

Sen. Kinnaird on Perdue:”I don’t see anyone on the horizon who could replace her.”

The state senator many consider to be the most liberal – Orange County’s Sen. Ellie Kinnaird – says she’s stunned by Gov. Perdue’s decision not to run for a second term. But beyond that, Sen. Kinnaird offers this assessment of the Democratic gubernatorial field to the Herald-Sun:

Still, the news Thursday stunned State Sen. Ellie Kinnaird, D- Orange, who simply did not want to believe Perdue would not seek a second term.

“I can’t believe that,” Kinnaird gasped when told about Perdue’s decision. “Who is going to take her place? I don’t see anyone on the horizon who could replace her.”

She described Perdue as “bold” and someone who has fought “courageously” for her beliefs.

“I can’t believe she would give up the vision she has fought for so courageously,” Kinnaird said.

Has Bob Hall really never heard of Jim Goodmon?
UPDATED

Bob Hall, executive director of Democracy NC, just showed how little one need respect his “nonpartisan” claims for his group. If the current headline on the organization’s website (“Sign the petition against Art Pope’s politics of greed”) isn’t a tipoff, here’s another that indicates he isn’t really the equal-opportunity watchdog he claims.

Hall and the aforementioned Pope (full disclosure: Pope is the chief benefactor of the John Locke Foundation) made a joint appearance on Bill LuMaye’s WPTF-AM radio show show just now. LuMaye pointed out that Hall’s group had a “teach-in” recently on Pope’s political giving, and LuMaye asked him if his group was planning a teach-in on the other multimillionaire who gives to left-wing groups in North Carolina.

A confused Hall said (paraphrasing here), “You mean from outside of North Carolina?” LuMaye said, no, right here in the state, and added (again, paraphrasing), “Goodmon, I think his name is.” He was referring, of course, to Jim Goodmon, owner of WRAL-TV, a vocal liberal and generous contributor to liberal and left-wing causes.

“Goodman?” asked a still seemingly confused Hall, as if he had never heard the name. Pope helpfully offered that, yes, his name is Jim Goodmon, and he gives quite a bit of political money throughout North Carolina, which Pope defended as Goodmon’s right to do.

Hall invited LuMaye and Pope to “send him the research” and he’d look into this seemingly mysterious (to Hall, anyway) Goodmon person. Ironically, Hall had just bragged to LuMaye and Pope about how energetically his organization targets both Democrats and Republicans.

Now, either Hall was being spectacularly dishonest, or he has really never heard of Jim Goodmon. For a so-called watchdog of campaign money’s influence in North Carolina, either one of those is totally discrediting to him and his organization.

UPDATE: A reader points out that Hall and his “nonpartisan” group get big money from Hungarian-born left-wing billionaire George Soros. Here’s a video in which Soros proudly admits to being one of the left’s “useful idiots.” (The interviewer attributes the term incorrectly to Vladimir Lenin.)

Orange Commissioners Endorse Gay Marriage

Orange County commissioners have put in writing their support for gay marriage and their opposition to the constitutional amendment that will appear on the May ballot and define marriage as between one man and one woman.

And Where Do the Other 500 or so Mayors Stand?

Over at sister blog The Locker Room, Carolina Journal Managing Editor Rick Henderson offers this fascinating piece of data about the Perdue administration’s touting of 53 N.C. mayors who are backing her call for a sales tax hike — 49 are Democrats.

D.G. Martin: Will John Edwards Be the New Newt Gingrich?

Democratic columnist D.G. Martin — who lost the 1998 N.C. Democratic Senate primary to John Edwards — wonders in this column whether Edwards can follow in Newt Gingrich’s footsteps.

If Edwards does walk away from his legal troubles, could he, with the passage of time, say 10 years from now, bring his gifts of persuasion and charisma back into the political arena and have some of those who have written him off today declare him to be the new Newt Gingrich?

RIP, Mary D.B.T. Semans

When I was managing editor of The Herald-Sun from 1988 to 2005, one thing we always taught new copy editors who had just moved to Durham from some other place, usually up north, was the name Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans. In the newsroom, we referred to her as “Mary Dee Bee Tee Semans,” and it was important to know who she was because she cropped up in the news quite often.

I remember once years ago, when I had to go to the all-night Kroger at Lakewood for something for a sick kid, I ran into her pushing a shopping cart, wearing what looked to be a frilly cocktail dress. It was about 2 a.m. She was a true original.

I just learned that she died today at the age of 91. I didn’t know her, only edited stories about her and knew her when I saw her out and about, but I’m truly sorry to hear this news. She always seemed upbeat and cheerful, no matter the venue. I won’t go into her many accomplishments. You can read about some of them in the obituary story in The News & Observer.

My thoughts and prayers go out to her family.

Do You Believe in Religious Freedom? Guess Who Doesn’t

One would hope that every American — believers  and non-believers alike — would support and defend religious freedom. Not so. And President Obama is leading the government’s attack on believers. In a stunningly arrogant, but not entirely unexpected move, President Obama has taken another serious slap at religion and religious belief. In this two-minute video, Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan, the Archbishop of New York and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, explains what is at stake.