art pope

Most people consider themselves fairly well-informed, and are not likely to admit that they (personally) are vulnerable to manipulation. Those other people are, of course, but not me. And while we might think we carefully "choose" the sources of our information, our brains often store and edit things according to a different set of often less "enlightened" rules. Whatever. It's part of our psychological makeup, and not likely to change any time soon.

Rumor has it that the knight of the right, Art Pope, is gearing up his electioneering machine to target a small handful of NC House districts. Reliable sources say he intends to fund a big city consultant who would work on defeating three candidates for state House: Rep. Alice Bordsen, Rep. Graham Underhill, and Rep. Dickson.

We saw Pope crank his machine into action two years ago to unseat arch-rival Richard Morgan, so it's a safe bet that's what's happening again.

There’s a new puppet show in town, but you wouldn’t know it from their website. Capitol Monitor claims to “shed daylight into the darkest corners of our "citizen" government”:

It's all about transparency.

The problem is, there is no transparency about the website and its owners. But, it's got Art Pope's fingerprints all over it

Of all the millions of people in North Carolina who could offer opinions about stormwater management and coastal pollution, the Charlotte Observer turned this week to a reliable source at the John Locke Foundation, Mitch Kokai, whose main qualification is the fact that he's part of Art Pope's multi-million-dollar opinion manufacturing machine.

If you're like me, you'll have a mighty struggle trying to make sense of the Big Debate between dueling experts on air quality in North Carolina's mountains. On one hand, you have the conclusions of expert witnesses working for Attorney General Roy Cooper. On the other other hand, you have a "scholars" hired to carry water for the free-market extremists in the JLF Puppetshow.

John Hood, stage manager at the non-profit Art Pope Puppetshow, is at his free-market best today with a selective nod in the direction of accepting reality.

The reality here is that most people act with regard to their self-interest most of the time. They work in order to feed, clothe, house, and otherwise take care of themselves and their families. They’ll also gladly give of their time and money to causes they deem worthy, but that’s not their primary motivation to work, save, and invest.

Fortunately, another reality to accept is that intentions don’t determine results. When governments use coercion to force people to act contrary to their personal choices, the results are often disappointing regardless of how well-intended the government program may have been. And in a market economy, individuals freely transacting business to mutual advantage tend to advance the common interest by promoting innovation, lower prices, better service, and economic opportunity.

How can you disagree with that? Individuals freely transacting business to mutual advantage. Of course in some cases, that mutual advantage means you're a kid who doesn't get the crap beat out of you. Sounds like heaven to me.

This was covered in the open thread comments, but in the interest of throwing a bit more light on the subject, let's take a closer look.

Rep. Joe Boylan has been charged with driving while intoxicated. Highway Patrol troopers charged the Pinehurst Republican after he swerved off the side of the road, hitting a tree, in Cameron on Thursday, the Southern Pines Pilot reports. He was treated for minor injuries at a nearby hospital.

Map now updated with Myers Park Pat!

I admit to spending less and less time worrying about the "reports" and political activities spewing steadily from the Art Pope Puppetshow. Funded to the tune of $3 to $4 million annually by the knight of the right, the increasingly irrelevant John Locke Foundation and Civitas appear to have attracted all the converts they're going to get.

But as our handy-dandy (and updated!) map of the Show suggests, the Puppetmaster has infiltrated major media outlets and at least one major university, so they are definitely worth keeping an eye on. Which is why I was so pleased to see this post by Rob Schofield at NC Policy Watch yesterday. It's a doozy.

A couple of items of interest today.

First off, Chris Fitzsimon at NC Policy Watch smacks Rick Martinez (News Puppet at WPTF-AM) upside his wooden head with a great column on public education.

The market fundamentalists are relentless in their crusade to privatize public schools and don’t mind ignoring facts and social science if they have to. They are even willing to temporarily put aside their normal demonization of the poor.

Today's New York Times contains a well-written piece that dissects the fantasies of free-market extremists quite handily. The author is Peter Goodman, one of my favorite reporters at the Times.

As we move into the year ahead, the tension between proponents of the so-called "invisible hand" and those of us who prefer to deal with reality will escalate, and the divisions will sharpen, especially around health care issues, where the "invisible hand" mostly picks taxpayers' pockets so the money can be transferred to the corporate elite.

But now the invisible hand is being asked to account for what it has wrought. In this country, many economic complaints — from the widening gap between rich and poor to the expense of higher education — are being dusted for its fingerprints.