Wrapping up today's mega-misery is a great editorial from the Fayetteville Observer on how the NC budget takes from poor and gives to rich.

Maybe our friends at NC Policy Watch will do a line-by-line rebuttal to this official spin from The Master of Deceit. This was received via email by a friend from Phil Berger's spokesbot.

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Dear Ms. Jones:

Thank you for your email – and for your honest feedback. Senator Berger values the opportunity to hear from constituents across the state and sincerely appreciates your taking the time to write. North Carolina’s tax code is outdated and its taxes are excessive. It’s no coincidence that North Carolina has the highest taxes in the Southeast and one of the worst employment rates in the country. States that have no income tax are the very same states that have a booming economy and job growth. States that have high income taxes are struggling.

June 2, 2013: This weekend commemorated the North Carolina Association of Teen Democrats 50th Annual Convention. Since 1963 our members have gained valuable skills, from public speaking to organization, and I nearly experienced a culture shock when looking bad at pictures from the 1964 Teen Democrats convention. Deanne Brickhouse stands in front of a house with other teenagers, holding a large sign supporting his Vice-President election. Another picture shows students working on posters with cartoons holding signs saying "Tucker for Vice President." They were all white, properly dressed and more nuclear than Beaver. Forty nine years later at Haw River State Park the Teen Democrats represent a new kind of political youth. Everyone's not white, not men, not wealthy, not straight. We're not all liberal, and we don't all have political goals.

Updated with detailed information about being a supporter and about participating in civil disobedience. For those seeking rides and looking for even more information about who's going and what will happen, check out the Mega Moral Monday page on Facebook.

Yesterday at the NC Teen Democrats Convention in Brown's Summit, I had the chance to speak with Senator Gene McLaurin of Rockingham. Gene is a thoughtful man in every way, representing a very conservative district. In the course of our conversation, I asked him straight up: "Why are you a Democrat and not a Republican?" He said:

The Democratic Party looks more like our country than the Republican Party does. That's why I'm a Democrat.

I love that answer.

Thomas Mills here. This blog is cross-posted at www.politicsNC.com.

By all accounts, tomorrow’s protest at the legislature is going to eclipse the previous three. Caravans are gearing up to drive to Raleigh from areas across the state. Facebook pages are encouraging participation and one has over 700 people saying they plan to attend.

But the protest will have little sway with Republicans in the legislature. They’re certainly not going to slow down the GOP push to enact regressive tax laws, shred the social safety net and privatize as much of government as possible. They’ve got a super-majority and a compliant governor who more resembles a lame-duck than a leader. Besides, the Republicans are as sure that they are right as the protesters are sure that they are not.

Standing by your principles is important:

In just four short months, the extreme right-wing leadership of the state legislature has taken a hatchet to the health and well-being of our state and my patients. Their refusal to expand Medicaid to cover 500,000 hard-working, tax-paying North Carolinians will mean thousands of unnecessary deaths and increase health care costs for the rest of us. Their plan to raise taxes on food, medicine and doctor visits will cause real pain to working folks and retirees on fixed income. Meanwhile, higher income folks like me will see their tax bills cut in half.

Kudos to the Charlotte Observer for publishing this oped. Dr. van der Horst does a good job summarizing bad decisions that will adversely impact the health of North Carolinians:

Turns out that a woman's right to make her own choices in North Carolina will be officially limited to which shareholders at which private school she wants your tax dollars to subsidize. Nice.

More bad news below the fold.

If you are one of those people who tends to get caught up in Democratic Party drama, you would have done yourself a world of good by attending the NC Teen Dems 50th Annual Convention today in Brown's Summit. Not only was it informative and fun, it also was one of the most inspiring events I've attended in years.

NC Teen Dems rock.

Apparently they're too busy arresting octogenarians for peaceable assembly to worry about the real lawbreakers:

Last year, a News & Observer series revealed that many employers, even in high-hazard industries, fail to provide workers’ compensation coverage to those they employ. In response, N.C. Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin chaired a bipartisan commission focused on figuring out how this was possible and how the state might stop it. So why has the legislature, when faced with a clear course of action that amounts to simply strengthening enforcement of existing law and protecting residents from those who violate it, suddenly stopped paddling forward?

That's pretty simple, really. When you worship at the Church of the Blessed Dollar, the deacons of said church (business owners) can do no wrong. And the more of them that engage in a certain behavior, the more valid it becomes. I'm surprised they haven't tried to solve this problem by simply doing away with the laws in question. Of course, that would probably lead to other laws that would need to be struck off the books: