States Rights v. Corporate convenience - no contest

Perhaps a lot more on this in the future, but for now, Richard Burr our anesthitizingly fair haired Senator, has proposed a bill that would pre-empt state regulation of food labeling. There is an ambiguous claim that this would make us safer, but the gist of Burr's thinking, and much of the GOP's view on all consumer protections is in this quote.

"It makes absolutely no sense," he said, "to suggest to any business that in the future they may have to market their product in 50 different configurations in 50 different states."

I've been reading the Omnivore's Dilemma, Michael Pollan's enlightening new book on the American Food chain and how it has been radically changed largely to accomodate large food processing companies, to the detriment of the autonomy of the farmer and the health of the consumer, albeit while finding a way to greatly reduce the cost (though increasing the unhealthiness) of the common calorie for Americans. And I don't doubt that companies like ADM and General Mills would very much favor ending nettlesome state regulation of their industries.

And, gosh, it sure seems like common sense to give business one market, one set of regulations, and one set of regulators with which to deal.

But unfortunately for the GOP, it is only further proof of how expediently they view their principals. It used to be that the Republicans supported the idea of a "Republic", a configuration of states which held most of the legislative power but which for a certain limited set of government perogatives - mainly national defense - deferred to the National legislature. But that was when the 14th Amendment was being used to bring obsteperous bigotry to heel or when the national legislature was acting to create a floor of consumer and civil rights protections upon which State legislatures could enact further protections.

Now, with control of both Houses and the Presidency, the right-wing sees the notion of an extremely limited Federal government as quaint, and more importantly, hostile to Corporate profits. So, Burr and other Republicans are busy proposing the pre-emption of state regulations, in food labeling and in consumer lending protections.

Now, I should say, I don't think what they are proposing is unconstitutional; I think the commerce clause gives Congress the kind of power they seek to use, and were a court to look at such pre-emptive regulations, it would have to give strong deference to the determination of the legislative body that they fell within the Commerce Clause's scope. But I do think the GOP is hypocritical as all hell when having objected to Federal attempts to protect the rights of minorities and protect the air we breathe as breaches of the Founding Fathers' original intent, as, I believe Bill Frist might call it, judicial tyranny, or as George Wallace might have labeled it, Northern agression, suddenly turn into Alexander Hamilton's wet dream running roughshod over all manner of state perogatives. This is after all the same Senate that has 48 members, all Republican, who support a vaguely worded Constitutional Amendment that would strip states' legislatures of the right to change the definition of marriage, an institution almost universally the domain of states.

The aim of these bills is simple. Create a ceiling on regulations, above which a state cannot reach, or at least has to ask permission to do so. Thereby create one regulator, a regulator like the FDA which has little hope of ever having the manpower to replace the state regulators and Attorneys General, and which can be reigned in by reduction in enforcement budget, as the GOP has done to the IRS and other agencies.

In the face of Corporate convenience, the GOP can not find its stomach to protect the local democracies which it once thought should be left to their own decisions on school busing and desegregation. What the Federalist papers might be interpreted to mean, a limited federal government granting most power to local democracies is not their aim. The stomping out of government, and therefore the subjugation of the people's will (the bill is thought to be aimed at direct democracy proposition passed by Californians) is what they aim to achieve.

Of course, putting this much power in the hands of the federal government has a risk. Should the political tide turns, and it would only take one election, a national legislature filled with more activist government supporters could rain down government regulations much stricter than the Corporate benefactors would want.

UPDATE - For a report, timely sent to me just after I wrote the above, about Congress's proclivity to usurp the state's rights it ran for election supporting, go here.

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Yeah Mr. Chairman, I think Christ would give it a shot

At the NC Republican convention in New Bern (darn I miss the place!), head honcho Ferrell Blount got a bit of questioning (scroll down, 2nd item) from an ally of Richard Morgan - one of the three GOP incumbents targetted by the corporate right-wing dollars of Variety Stores owner, former legislator Art Pope. The incumbents "crime" was being too cozy with the Democrats, and apparently, Pope - who founded the John Locke Foundation and several other right-wing alleged "think" tanks - doesn't read David Broder's columns, and therefore doesn't appreciate bi-partisanship. So Pope spent a bunch of his corporations money on Republican for a Legislative Majority, a 527 non-profit which then poured that money in the form of mass mailings into Moore County and two other districts. They worked, but, perhaps wondering why an organization called Republicans for a Legislative Majority spent the spring taking out GOP incumbents, Moore County party chairman John Owens had some questions about why the GOP wasn't playing the full field.

Moore County Republican chairman John Owens asked GOP Chairman Ferrell Blount why there were 32 Democratic House members running unopposed.

Owens, a Morgan ally, had criticized the party for spending money and energy to defeat Morgan rather than recruiting candidates to challenge Democrats.

Blount said only about 10 House districts were swing seats and the rest were either solidly Democratic or solidly Republican.

"There are certain seats, my friend, not to be sacrilegious, that Jesus Christ could not win some of those seats if he was a Republican," Blount said.

Owens responded: "Thank you Mr. Chairman. I do believe he would have tried."

So, Chairman Blount, are you saying Jesus Christ can't hit a curve ball!

PS - Of course, the other implication of Blount's comments is that largely-Democratic districts wouldn't vote for Christ. I'll leave that little slander to be dealt with by higher powers.

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Hot & Now - Really, Now, I mean it.

Okay, so for a while there it looked like my grand plans to start posting exciting hot off the press opportunities to be your very own progressive patriot were all part of an oafish scheme to commemorate Scott Mclellan's departure as White House Spokeperson by having this post become "inoperative."

Well, think again you darned cynic you. Here's your creme-filled, chocolate frosting activism. And thanks Lance for explaining the mishap with BlueNC, and not dropping a boatload of smackdown on me for not acting sooner.

Help Mother Earth, God's Creation or those natural areas that hide what you do when you don't want your mother or God watching:

NC Conservation Network: Quick, run little children, go help lobby for Clean Water - tomorrow. Sorry, that's piss poor, NC Conservation Network was on this a while back, and I should have moved a lot quicker. But I'll make it up to nature, because one way or the other, nature is going to even things up for us.

Why should you care about water, well, for one thing, not having enough clean public water supply is going to decimate our planet's supply of plastic. And I don't think I need to point out that there are some pretty bad side-effects to using up your plastic. And not just making that line in The Graduate seem even more dated. Where, pray tell, do you think most bottles end up. (Hint, Tony Soprano gets his health insurance from the proprieter.)

In addition to promoting clean pulbic water, you also should help promote safe well-water. As someone who deals with low-income housing issues, I can say from experience, this is a major health and financial issue for North Carolina's rural poor.

We also need smart energy . That's why Brian Busby's NC Conservation Network's executive director, says we need:

* Greater investment in renewable and efficient sources of energy.
* Encouragement of alternative fuels and hybrid vehicles with tax exemptions and credits.
* A commitment to using state-of-the-art energy efficiency techniques before building costly and polluting new power plants.
* More funding for education and other programs that help North Carolinians make smart energy choices.

So, donate your ducats over to NC Conservation Newtork. Or take action, and push for North Carolina to provide incentives for energy efficiency.

Because, we've tried plenty of Dumb Energy here in the Bush-Cheney era, we need Smart Energy.

Also, check out Bike-to-Work week, see if there's a Starbucks near you offering free lattes for skipping the caily grind of traffic. The weather's nice, you're nice, you both should be together more.


More action coming to you soon. But I've got to roll some dough to put the sign back on.

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Hmm, wonder if the Journal's reporters read the N&O?

Not shortly before she claimed here that she didn't think in partisan terms, Virginia said this.

"It is a travesty that North Carolina is controlled by the Democrats," said U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, a Republican from Banner Elk, at a breakfast Saturday at the N.C. Conservative Leadership Conference.

Well, gosh, all of us folks who criticized her for using taxpayer funds to bring a little corner of the GOP echo chamber down here to Winston-Salem, guess we missed the boat there.

The Right-wing Congress delegation from North Carolina - re-defining the term Bush League every day.

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Vernon Robinson, please! (NOT) Lead US the WAY

I've given it a great deal of thought, perhaps at least 15-20 minutes. And I have come to a conclusion the logic of which is flawless. No matter the multitude of ins-and-outs I see before me, there is one irrevocable conviction I now hold.

It is Vernon Robinson who must not lead us, because it is HE who has shown by his powerful of not leading how we can rid ourselves of the tyranny of government. Vernon is the the principaled siren call of a generation asking for all governing to cease. And thus, Vernon Robinson is the future.

Vernon. The Future.

He is no product of the temperal- that mealy-mouthed, poll-tested candidate of today. Vernon is eternal and never-changing. Some candidates spend their entire careers flip-flopping, prevaricating and vacillating. Not Vernon. The man is a rock. In fact, that wasn't a 1-ton granite monument to the 10 commandments Vernon put in front of the Winston-Salem City Hall in the middle of the night a few yea, that was Vernon himself. (Care to guess where the Don't Covet commandment was written?).

Vernon has not only not wavered in the way he views the world, he's never wavered in the way he sees the opponents he faces. No matter who that opponent is and what seat is being sought.

From Republican primary opponent to non-partisan city counsel representative to democratic incumbent; from Superintendent of Public Schools to Ward Representative to Congress Member, Vernon always sees a "gay-loving, tax-and-spending, gun-hating, god-descrating liberal."

Some say Vernon is a hater, I say no. Vernon doesn't hate. He sees the common in all of us. Admittedly, Vernon sees that common man as a slimy liberal, baby-killing pagan, but nonetheless, he sees a unified America of slimly, liberal, baby-killing pagans. For Vernon, there is no black, no white, no male, no female.

Just immigrant loving commies.

Sure, he's a bit of a utopian, but it's just Vernon's way of saying, "Some see the world as it is, and ask 'why?' I see the world as it never was, and ask "why don't I run a campaign attacking the things that never were and the people who have never been."

I will admit, occasionally Vernon's campaign tactics can illicit fear and mistrust. For instance - in 2004, when he compared Republican state representative Virginia Foxx's voting record to that of NY Senator Hillary Clinton, I was terrified.

First I thought,

I know Majority Leader Dr. Bill Frist is terrible at running the Senate, but I HAD NO IDEA that he was bringing up legislation meant for the North Carolina State House....

Why, I can imagine Minority Leader Tom Daschle saying 'Umm, Point of Order, would the majority leader care to explain why we're voting on a local bill from Cawtawba County? In fact, where the heck is Catawba County. And what's this next bill about allowing Lottery Advertisements in Smart Start textbooks?

Then, even more terrifed, I thought,

Oh my god!

They actually let Virginia Foxx serve in Washington!!!

Winston-Salem and North Carolina will be a laughing stock!

But then I realized, once you ignore that one wants to create sustainable energy alternatives and the other wants to park an oil rig in the shallow water of the coast of Cape Hatteras, that one wants to privatize social security and the other wants universal health care, MY GOD, IT'S ALMOST LIKE YOU ARE SEEING DOUBLE!!!!!!

Nobody ever gives Vernon credit for being the prophet he truly is.

Well, there are those out-of-state contributors feting him on his marry way as he goes from one campaign to the next. (Vernon, there is a 6th grade Class Secretary race that needs your voice and message badly, call me.)

Still, Vernon must face the taunts from folks regarding his penchant for spending so much money on so few votes. They don't understand that it is the true heir to Jesse Helms that can spend $1000s of other people's money per vote and remain fiscally conservative. Because his critics don't consider that Vernon could attempt to run a campaign that spent money on winning enough votes to actually be elected to office - but that would be pure liberal excess.

Some, so-called "conservatives act as though they are anti-government. But it is next to the shining example of Vernon Robinson that their weak, pro-government inadequacies come in stark contrast. Vernon is the true anti-government candidate - he refuses to be electable, and by doing so refuses to govern.

Even when Vernon was elected to the Winston-Salem City Council, as part of a liberal plot to force Vernon to govern, Vernon was one step faster. He fooled them by meticulously avoiding his so-called obligations as a public servant. They scheduled City Council meetings, hoping to foil his non-governing plans. But Vernon, like James Bond escapes their overly-intricate plot for world-domination.

No, no amount of liberal deviousness will force Vernon to govern, instead he will hold press conferences and explicate to the masses just how un-governing his actions are, he will raise funds promising to sing the virtues of not governing to Americans from sea-to-shining-sea. Vernon, my friends is the future. In a world populated by Vernons, us slimy, baby-killing liberals will learn how not to govern, by first learning how not to win elections (Vernon is a God at not winning, he's not won 7 times! George Bush tried to lose in 2000, but failed, and Vernon thus thinks little of George Bush's non-governing ability. Though he agrees, Iraq is a much better effort.)

Ultimately through Vernon's (lack of) guidance, we will remove the shackles of government itself so that we may all be free to be the slimy, baby-killing liberals we yearn to be!

Well, at least after we send the black-booted thugs to break down the doors of all people with hispanic surnames, load them flown to an undisclosed location in expensive apache helicopters, each one flown by Vernon himself - the man is Sir to you, you slimly liberal baby-killer.

Anybody know a good Mariachi band, Vernon's got a fundraiser to do. No North Carolina Donors necesary.

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The Ghost of Lauch Faircloth - Virginia Foxx

Back in 1998, on his way to getting run out of the Senate by John Edwards, Lauch Faircloth held "hearings" back here in North Carolina, on the IRS-menace that would have probably made the Founding Fathers move back to London and swear fealty to King George had they seen it. Faircloth had been elected to the Senate in 1992, in large part because he portrayed himself as being ideologically identical with Jesse Helms. That had been helpful, because despite a lifetime handling political money, Faircloth seemed to lack any ideas of his own.

Well, Virginia Foxx has strapped me into the way-back machine with this "hearing" (login, but no $ required). Like Faircloth, Foxx has decided to come back to her district, during an election year and hold a hearing attacking a trendy scapegoat. And she pulled out some Helmsesque demoagoguery to boot, saying, "Every dollar spent on an illegal immigrant is a dollar that was diverted away from a law-abiding, tax-paying citizen." (Because you know, dollars spent on all other people, the tax-paying citizen gets to keep.)

Like Faircloth, she didn't wanted to make sure there wasn't anybody around to disagree:

Of the five witnesses testifying yesterday, three hold elected positions: Folwell, Conrad-Shrader and Keith. All are Republicans running for re-election, which drew criticism from Sandra Hoyle, an organizer of Monday's rally downtown that drew more than 1,500 people in favor of legalizing immigrants here illegally.

Counting Mark Souder (the Republican Chairman of the House Subcommittee Foxx abused to claim this was an "official" hearing) there was County Commissioner, a District Attorney and a State Representative. What, no Register of Deeds or Clerk of Court candidate available to discuss the impact of Hispanic surnames on copying costs?

In response to the claim of one-sided panelists, Foxx cited her reknowned independence - "It had nothing to do with liberal and conservative," she said. "I don't think in those terms."

Actually, the evidence is that Foxx rarely thinks for herself. She votes almost every time with the GOP leadership - not surprising, because the House GOP leadership are some of her biggest campaign contributors. Like Faircloth, Foxx is an empty vessel for right-wing lunacy. If she's got any ideas of her own, like perhaps voting against helping Katrina Victims, they aren't really worth much.

I think one thing all members of Congress should consider before holding these flim-flam hearings, is that "every dollar spent on a needless campaign commercial of an insult to the deliberative democratic process is a dollar diverted away from tax-paying citizens." The right-wing likes to say they believe in small government. If it really believes that, it wouldn't waste even small amounts on these tax-payer funded antiquated ideas road shows.

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Yes, That's Right The "Hot & Now Sign" Is On, Get Your Activism HERE!

I like BlueNC. I think it adds a vital source of electoral-political information. But as I learned last week, it is apparently frustrated with progressive organizations not begging it for help in advertising their campaigns. I attempted to suggest that perhaps, the several posters who make up BlueNC should take advantage of the mailing lists to which these organizations send out alerts and then spread the word. I can't say I expected this:

I have no doubt that the NC Justice center does good work, but so does ACORN, Self-Help, the Nature Conservancy, Neuse River Foundation, etc. And there is no way that I can find the listserve information for all these groups, sign-up, and filter through my inbox for relevant information. These organizations should not place the burden on getting information on their events on individuals.

I tried, after, ohh, about ten minutes of web-searching, to help BlueNC out by sending them links to the subscription pages for the organizations they claimed weren't doing enough to make BlueNC the single source for progressives looking to get involved. And I'll admit, I'd basically dared them to take the information I provided them, and to serve as a conduit for progressives. They didn't post my comment. .....

I'll let that hang out there a moment, during which while you lie on your sleepmat at rest time, little chidren, you can consider that here was someone trying to save those heavily burdened individuals the time it would take to find a list serv. And Blue NC didn't think that was appropriate material.

But, guess what, this single individual feels no burden is too great when progress is the cause! I have gotten myself on the list serves BlueNC can't seem to find the time to sort out. And from now on you folks will be getting the inside scoop from HERE!

I want to thank BlueNC.com. I really appreciate their commentary on electoral politics and they are connected with the Democratic party, as far as this unconnected blogger can tell. But, I can also say with some certainty that being connected to the party, doesn't always mean much as far as being connected with changing the lives of working people in NC. So I want to provide the sort of clearing house which BlueNC for some reason can't do itself.

So watch here, we'll be coming to you with updates about what's going on in NC and beyond. I'll be passing along what I glean from the group's emails and what I can find on the web, and perhaps, as I know a few little birdies in the group, provide even greater detail into the services they provide and the battles they are fighting.


Editor's Note: This post was removed from its initial state, as I initially was so flabbergasted-annoyed at BlueNC's prima donna whining that profanity spewed forth like, well, not quite like Vesuvius, but more than I would like. (Well, at least for this blog. The profanity laced version may be coming to another blog near you.) So I cleaned it up, looks purdy, don't it?

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And it still says something

It seems that the the book Crunchy Con's written by Rod Dreher (whom I already noted here has had to deal with some friendly fire for being a conservative that tries loving mother earth) is getting him the Trotsky treatment from the Right.

The book sounds like it might be an interesting read!

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In praise of unprofessional conduct - basketball wise.

Matt Yglesias (whom I normally find is saying it better than I could have) is unfortunately flailing at the value of college basketball again. (Equally talented Jason Zengerle disagrees.) I'm not sure why the Prospect would let Yglesias damage his credibility by putting the meme in a full article, but oh hell, I can't resist. First, I believeYglesias is a New Yorker who went to Harvard. From that perspective, he is performing a feat of incredible physical dexterity to suggest that the current Knicks and Celtics play a better game than do college players. (If in fact a Knicks fan, Matt may not even remember what a pass looks like, but I'm sure Larry Brown will resurrect that as soon as Isaiah ditches Stephon Marbury. Though again, Yglesias would seem to disagree.)

Yglesias claims that the College game suffers from early departures, stating that the most promising talent has bypassed college for the pros or leaves after too short a stay. This is a point that is overblown - while some great talent heads to the pros early, we are talking about 10 or 15 at the most out of 180 or so players spread through division one. But it's not just overblown, it's not backed up by one thing, NBA performance. If the college game were really suffering because of NBA-talent drain, then the best young NBA players would either have never played college ball or played so briefly (I'd say only one year) as to have not been great impacted or had a great impact themselves.

So among this year's rookie class, whose the top scorer with one year or no college experience? Marvin Williams formerly of Carolina. As a Tarheel fan, Marvin, I miss you, but I don't feel like my enjoyment was hurt by your early departure (I've got the Championship DVD to prove it). Marvin's gonna be a star, but right now he's only averaging 7.9 ppg on a very bad team. Sure, it'd be nice to have him in college still (George Mason would have lost to the Heels, in DC for a trip to the Final Four.), but somehow I think the college game has forged ahead (and even I have come to love George Mason).

Who's next among NBA rookies? Monta Ellis and Martell Webster. What, you haven't heard of them. Funny thing about these great talents the college game is missing - THEY often go missing when they get into the NBA (quick quiz, whose Jonathan Bender? Hint, he's retired at 25). Maybe one day they'll be great, but all these guys are clearly behind Chris Paul, Charlie Villanueva, Channing Frye, Raymond Felton, Deron Williams, Salim Stoudamire, Andrew Bogut, Nate Robinson and Luther Head. I guess I got on a roll there, but for Yglesias's sake I didn't want to miss naming a player who played at least two years in college and excelled in the NCAA tournament, as that was what apparently has Yglesias climibing the walls. Maybe the fact that all these rookies excelling this year led their teams in the tournament while in College will awaken Matt to the value of the college game. Perhaps his assertion that the best young players are in the NBA needs a little re-evaluation.

Of course, a rookie season does not make an NBA player. And there some great no-college NBA players. Kobe Bryant, Lebron James and Kevin Garnett are obvious examples. There's also Carmelo Anthony who left after winning a National title at Syracuse after his freshman season. But guess what, they're freaks! Among the Top 40 scorers in the league this season, Zack Randolph and Al Harrington are the only others with similar lack of need for the college game. This has been going on for a while, the anti-college NBA route- did you really think that only 6 of the Top 40 scorers spent little or no time in college?

It's true that the college game would be better if at least the kids who weren't ready to go pro stayed in school, but a consequence of drafting players who aren't ready to play NBA ball is that the quality of the professional game has suffered. The average NBA team from the early 90s team would most likely shred the NBA's best today. Except for the aging Shaq, the Eastern Conference alone probably doesn't have a single player who would crack say the 1991 All-Star team's lineup. Guys can't shoot well, they don't even have a clue what a down screen looks like, they think (and apparently Yglesias does as well) that a 2 or 3rd pass is a sign of weakness. It's no wonder that a relatively unathletic team like the Pistons (featuring an all-college player starting lineup) has played in the last two NBA finals and dominated the league for much of this year.

Most of Yglesias's column seems driven by the same unrealistic yearning that a New Yorker faced with bagels in North Carolina might have. For him, "the college game bears only a faint resemblance to the real thing." He's so convinced he's had the best, that he doesn't even want to consider anything less. Of course the college game is played by athletes "younger, inexperienced, and physically under-developed" compared to the pros. That's why you have a professional league, but it doesn't mean that the step below is suddenly barely better than Church League.

Indeed, I wonder if even most NBA players might think Yglesias's laudits of their relative prowess as a little spooky.

To watch the world's best basketball teams -- the Miami Heat, the Phoenix Suns, the San Antonio Spurs, the Detroit Pistons, the Dallas Mavericks -- is to distinctly put oneself in the presence of greatness. The feats on display are not quite super-human -- Shaquille O'Neal and Shawn Marion and Tim Duncan are still members of our species at the end of the day -- but they certainly appear to be.

I don't know about Marion and O'Neal. But it's hard to imagine the mild-mannered Duncan confusing himself with Aqua Man. Even O'Neal only does that as part of his schtick. Personally, I'm fear what things Yglesias has to be ingesting to think the average March NBA contest could deserve this description:

The sheer speed and ferocity of the games is astounding -- even mentally you'd be overwhelmed, lost, driven to tears or insanity amidst the flying bodies, flailing limbs, and zipping ball.

Does he take esctasy during TNT's pre-game analysis? I mean, after a while, you get used to the rythm of ohh, about 65 pick'n'rolls spiced with the scattered isolation play. I realize NBA players are doing something I could never accomplish, but so are figure skaters, professional bowlers and bass fisherman. My own athletic limitations do not shape the paradigm in which I choose the worthiness of a spectator sport. Indeed, seeing as I couldn't make the Student-faculty basketball team in High School, I'm not really sure of the level of basketball to which I'd have to stoop to find athletes not doing something I can't imagine doing.

What I do enjoy watching is effort. And that, to me, is where the college game has the NBA out-classed hands-down. I'm not saying there isn't ever effort in the NBA, I love the NBA playoffs (more on that below). But the NBA season is so long that it punishes the kind of all-out intensity that the College game thrives off of. Let's face it, the only other group detained longer than NBA players without a trial are living on Guantanamo Bay. 82 games, and (not for the Knicks) a post season that runs two months - guys will take a night off. As for the fans, most are too busy talking to their agent to really cheer. Though I hear some of them, with enough beer in them, can toss a good drink now and then.

College is about bringing it every game, every minute - for fans and players alike. Does Yglesias seriously not find enjoyment and the endeavor of sport from watching a college game in January or February, in some loud gym like Cameron Indoor, University Hall, or games at places like Butler, Wichita St., Davidson or Montana; watching players tear along the baseline, the offensive player seeking out screens and defensive player bouncing around to avoid them only to have both meet at the end of a pass to the 3-point line; watching big men fight to step out and meet the ball handler, then slip back in, make three pump fakes all the while navigating flying bodies coming at them? As Zengerle points out

Maybe Yglesias played for a kick-ass JV team; otherwise, I don't know what he's talking about. While the talent level in college is obviously below the talent level in the pros, I don't think fans are so delusional as to think that college ball bears any resemblance, even a superficial one, to any games they themselves played in.

Yglesias also takes issue with the NCAA holding a single-game elimination tournament. Perhaps he likes hearing an underdog say before an NBA series, "if we can just get out of town with a split, and get back home, I think we'll win." And, yes, best-of does provide for a more pure champion. But here's a thought: take away single-game elimination, and maybe you don't have Texas Western, NC State (twice), Villanova or George Mason. Like much of American life, the NCAA is a dance with fate's twists. That's what makes it great. And it helps to make NCAA basketball champions legendary (Yglesias's criticism is odd in many ways, but not the least because his article implies that College Football is more tolerable. And that's a sport where the college folks can't figure out a way to remove the word "mythical" from its championship.)

Basketball is the most democratic sport. It demands full and varied participation, not delimited by inherent physical traits (big men shoot threes, six-foot guards post up and rebound, and every body in between does it all) , it seeks a simple utilitarian goal, the means of achieving which is in constant debate, always in motion, with the relevant factors ever-changing. It does not require one to read sub-paragraphs of rule books to know the rules. And occasionally, some little school from a small town, or small university, without the right pedigree will take out the clearly better team on a glorious spring afternoon. Thus, the "Rule of the people" is best demonstrated by March Madness.

I'm sorry that such a state of affairs appears to discomfort Yglesias's moral compass. Of course, I have my own qualms about the NBA. It does have too many teams (namely the Clippers and the Grizzlies), as Yglesias says, and its got GMs who draft every European and high school player more out of fear than out of knowledge. And this season alone the Knicks have worn their road blue on the sacred Madison Square Garden floor, which is only slightly mitigated by the fact that at least the Knicks were wearing their actual uniforms. I occasionally turn on TNT or ESPN and think I'm watching Real Madrid take on the Washington Generals, only to realize that it's another example of how the NBA is so overly marketing conscious that they are just trotting out a team's "full-moon-in-a-February-leap-year" jerseys. And, really is Mighty Mouse finished trying to make his shot in the slam dunk contest? I mean, I know the NBA's all about the Best-of, but letting a guy take 14 tries to get a dunk? Heck that wouldn't play at United Methodist.

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Yes, but what about the hidden cost of BS?

John Hood has apparently figured it out, he's on to the fact that Government spending involves, not simply people spending solely their own money on individual needs but collective pooling of community assets to provide community goods. With this newfound discovery, he bemoans those curve who "believe that if a politician promises them a "free" good, it won't cost them anything." He must be talking about tax cuts, isn't he? Those are "painless" right John. He bemoans the "interest free loan to the tax collector that paycheck withholding represents, because we all know if once every year the state and the Federal goverments had to go seeking the entirety of people's tax obligations, that would just go over real smoothly, like for instance, we could only fight our wars during the months of May and June, people depending on social security would get paid once a year.

This of course all goes to John's fabulous point that the real cost of government is hidden from people. Yes, John, the fact that pesky retail sales tax, which everytime someone purchases something increases the cost of their actual purchase price above the price tag they read when they picked it off the shelf conceals the cost of government. Would combining sales tax with a good swift kick in the rear delivered by a black-booted thug be sufficient, or will certain, umm, probes be necessary?

John also has a beef with poorer communities foisting their silly little needs, like water supply, sewer systems, roads, education on the "state government" and therefore imposing their spending needs on the more-fortunate denizens of Charlotte and Asheville and Wilmington. Regarding leandro funding concerns, John asks, "I've always wondered what this was supposed to mean in practice. Is there a category of North Carolina suburban counties whose residents can obviously afford to pay for their own schools as well as the schools of city and countryside?" Well, John, funny you should ask, how about those suburban counties surrounding, gee, I don't know, Charlotte, Asheville, and Wilmington which you so helfpully pointed out didn't have the same budgetary problems that other counties do. And since you no doubt have written columns commenting on how over-privileged, liberal and out-of-touch the well-heeled residents of Wake, Durham and Orange counties (how those high-falutin commies don't understand the struggles of salt-of-the-earth types both to the east and west) then let's go ahead and add those guys as well.

What the heck is the Old North State, a loose confederation of entreprenuerial enterprises beholden to no one other than their own parochial interest? Is the old saying "From Murphy to Manteo" being amended to "What happens in Murphy stays in Murphy, and Manteo can go to hell as far as Murphy is concerned"? Does John think that places like Charlotte, Asheville and Raleigh, beneficiaries of the presence of state-taxpayer-supported schools like UNCC, UNCA and State should hoard the results of this largess and ignore that the kids applying to those school also come from Hoke, Pamlico and Surry counties?

John sincerely, you want your wonderful world, fine, it's in Baghdad, let's buy you a ticket - so can live in a place where one region doesn't give a damn about the other. But if anything North Carolina needs to look after all its own better, not think of it as "other people's money" and start thinkin of it as our state's opportunity. Of course, if he wants it that way, then the state can stop spending my money on incarcerating non-violent criminals, executions and building senseless road projects. but that's not how a government works is it?

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Don't be a Lotto fool

Today I bought a lottery ticket. No, not that lottery ticket. I bought a ticket in my own personal Walter Bussy Lottery, I took $2 and put it into my savings account. I don't want to lecture on the immorality of state-supported gambling, regressive public revenue schemes and of course, the whole ineffectuality of using a lottery to try to increase education spending. I'd rather just point out that as far as getting wealthy, your best bet is saving and using that miracle - compound interest.

Why don't I like the lottery, not policy-wise but for me personally. Here's the problem. I'm not a big fan of somebody else getting rich at my expense. And playing the lottery is nothing more than ignoring the near certainty that your money will end up in someone else's hands while deluding yourself regarding the near-impossibility that that someone will be you. Don't believe me, ask the NC lottery commission. The best you can hope for is a 1 in 3.75 chances at winning. Basically, your up against 2.75 other people. Maybe Kobe Bryant doesn't end up passing up that shot, but arcbender shares the ball when the odds are that bad.

And it gets worse. If you win the lottery, which is supposed to help us pay for education without increasing taxes, guess what happens - YOU PAY TAXES on your winnings! So say you spend $2 a day buying lotto tickets over six months. Your looking at far worse than break even odds, and what little you get back, that's getting taxed too. Really people, this is spending money, to get back less than you spend, and be taxed to boot.

I know, I know - what about the thrill!?? It's the sport of it all that's attractive, right. It's the fact that you just might hit the big one. Sure you'd pay a nice chunk in taxes, but you have that chance of making it big.

To this I say, "you like the idea of funding government while taxing people who make it big? Great, let me explain how a progressive income tax works. It's called you work, you succeed and make it rich, you end up paying taxes, and afterwords, you're still rich." Sure, the rich complain about higher marginal rates, but no person has ever been seen jumping for joy, or relaxing by their personal indoor pool while they paid a sales tax (frequently the only acceptable tax for increasing).

But I said I wouldn't do that. Okay, back to the lottery ticket. It's paying for the education of that cute little braces-wearing girl on the Lottery Commission's website isn't it? (What they couldn't give her a puppy to hold?) Where does that dollar go? Well, try this break down (from the NC Public Schools Forum) of your lottery dollar on for size. The half going to winners, has got all the pepperoni on it, and guess what, you'll be lucky to get the crust. For the link challenged, here's the numbers with my $ figure calculations added.

• $0.50 – someone else’s winnings ($607 M)
• $0.15 – paying for Administrating a system that advertises to you to take your money so it can make other people rich ($182M)
• $0.02 – making sure there’s enough money in a system that makes other people rich ($21.25M)
• $0.13 – School construction ($161.5 M about 65% to counties based on enrollment, 35% to high-property tax counties)
• $0.03 – To scholarships – (according to the Lottery commission’s numbers, this would be $40.3 M)
• $0.17 – Class-size and More at-four – about $191.7 M

So, of the money your spending, 2/3rds are going to something beside Education. All told, about $394 M a year to education. A lot of money? well, according to the NC Justice Center's Budget and Tax Center's numbers for FY 2005-2006 (p.3 here) the overall state appropriations for k-12 and higher ed was around $9.5 B. In otherwords, the lottery would only be about 5 percent of our total stat education budget. Of course, we were told that the lottery would supplement, not supplant general fund money, right? Well, funny thing. That language magically disappeared, and, as this article shows. The lottery is pretty quickly going to be supplanting away.

With that knowledge, I can't really bring myself to pop-in to a Citgo, grab myself a pack of Nabs and drop the money on the lottery. I'm not sure a pack of cigarrettes aren't a better deal. And I don't much relish the idea of anybody getting rich this way. Sure, the lottery winner makes for a nice photo - the beaming face of the average guy or gal that just hit the big one. But frankly, I don't care much what background somebody who wants to win the lottery has - as far as I'm concerned, they just better get themselves a job and stop expecting me to buy a lottery ticket so they can cease their morning commute. I'm willing to help my brothers and sisters out, I just doin't want my intelligence insulted along the way.

So here's my plan, put $2 a day into savings rather than spending that amount on lottery tickets. To simplify, you can, like me, use a program like Quicken to "hide" the $2 every day in a "savings goal" so the money looks like it's gone from your checking account in Quicken, and at the end of the month put the $60/62 into your Savings account. Saving $60/month would mean twice a year you would have accrued $300. Suppose you could put that amount into a 6-month CD, which right now earns around 4%. Six months later do the same thing.

At the end of 5 years, the $3600 you saved would have earned about $285 in interest for a total of $3885. May not sound like much, but remember, this is investing the money in an extremely conservative, rather liquid asset - you could earn more. Though likely you might need to pony up a bit more than just $360 to get started (most CDs require at least $500), using the additional $2 a day to beef up your current savings (really, you weren't thinking about reducing savings to buy lottery tickets were you?) makes sense. And over 10-20 years, with longer-term investmentments it really makes sense. And even if doesn't make a whole lot of cents, its a heck of a lot better than flushing the toilet with your money in the lottery.

And no, I'm not hoping to "burn the damn thing down" on the lottery. I fully expect it to make money, not money for North Carolina schools, but money for the North Carolina politicians who want to put off an honest discussion about North Carolina's finances. Still, if I make a few folks choose, by their own work and thrift to make a certain just $285 richer (and did I mention you might not have to pay taxes on it?) rather than making a certain other person rich, I'll sleep (not dying yet!!) a happy man.


Update PS - How bout this? You're more likely to die on your way to buy the ticket than to win big from it.

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