Choosy parents choose Luddy(TM) brand schools:

At an event today in Apex, Luddy will offer details of a technology and science concentration - to be called the Luddy Institute of Technology - to be featured at his planned high schools. Land has already been purchased in Apex and Rolesville for the new schools, which will serve grades 6-12, and the existing schools will educate children from kindergarten through fifth grade, Luddy said.

Um, didn't Wake County just purchase land in Rolesville for a new high school? Future breaking story: "School board votes to suspend plans for new school in Rolesville, citing lack of demand."

Reaffirming the Foundation's policy of misdirection:

Now is the time for a robust, open, public policy debate on how to reform and improve state government. Instead, N&O editorial page editor Steve Ford, in his Sept. 5 column "Money and rhetoric from the right," complained bitterly and maligned businessmen, such as myself, for supporting nonpartisan independent public policy organizations such as the Civitas Institute and the John Locke Foundation, and citizen groups such as Americans for Prosperity. One of the nicer things Ford said about AFP's over 50,000 volunteer activists in North Carolina was that they were a "rough crowd," that attempts to stoke fear and loathing.

I guess "open public policy debate" means sending fliers to people's homes that tell lies about the votes of legislators.

Raleigh's leaders likely squirming in their seats today:

The city council in North Carolina's capital could soon make its feelings known on proposals for high-speed rail in town.

The council could decide at a Tuesday meeting whether to endorse one of two proposed routes for high-speed passenger trains, or to urge more study.

Five bucks says "urge more study" wins the day. ;)

p.s. Sorry about the use of the word "imbroglio", but it popped into my head and demanded recognition.

In the latter part of the 19th Century, a new voice erupted in the public sphere: that of the worker. That voice shook the foundations of many a mansion, whose inhabitants realized the previously meek laborers who provided the backbone of their personal empires were beginning to grow a backbone of their own, and big changes were just over the horizon.

Resistance to this change was predictable, and our government was drafted by the powerful industrialists in an effort to crush the movement in its infancy. The resulting clash was nothing short of horrific. Blood was shed, lives were lost. But something else happened, too: visible and irrefutable evidence emerged that acting collectively brought power to those who had none by themselves. And that power could change everything.

The N&O's Steve Ford blasts Pope and the Koch Brothers:

There has to be a certain irony in a group bankrolled by some of the country's wealthiest business types - people with a vested financial interest in low taxes and limp-wristed regulation - using the working man and woman's annual holiday as a springboard for its anti-government agenda.

Americans for Prosperity has as a national director none other than the ubiquitous Art Pope of Raleigh, head of Variety Wholesalers (owners of Roses, Maxway, Super 10 and other bargain-oriented retail chains). Pope, one-time GOP legislator and candidate for lieutenant governor, hardly needs an introduction these days as the kingpin behind the libertarian/conservative John Locke Foundation and Civitas Institute.

Oh, it's dripping with irony, but I'm afraid that escapes most people.