Carolina Politics Online

Every once in while, Bane Windlow and I zero in on a politician we really don’t like and take them to task. Bane’s favorite targets are Paul Lindeman and Jake “The Fat Man” Knotts, both of whom are very deserving of as much wrath as we can direct their way.

I haven’t been as selective. Richard Stevens and “Fatty” Fletcher Hartsell stuck out as pretty damn pro-government when I did “Dead Republican Walking” during the last session of the N.C. General Assembly. But I didn’t really concentrate on them so much as RINOs and government-lovers in general.

Well, that’s gonna change. I now have a new target- a new object of my affliction, if you will. And ohhhh… what a juicy, fun-to-pick-apart object this little runt is going to be.

And I will pick him apart. If I have to spend my own money to go to Stanly County and look up everything this self-important little twerp has ever done or forgotten he has done, I will. And I will post it here.

Hello St. Rep. Justin Burr (R-Albemarle)- you and I are about to become very, very close, because I have decided to take a special, personal interest in your political career.

L'il Prince Chucklehead

Burr (no relation to the senator) is just 25 years old, or old enough to think he knows everything despite knowing very little. He has been in the legislature since 2009. He defeated an appointed Republican incumbent in the 2008 primary. Funny enough, Bane Windlow actually endorsed Burr back then, but that’s OK. Burr campaigned as a strong conservative and a fresh young face, despite the fact that he was actually a scrawny statist douche who has since let his true colors shine through.

So, why the playa-hatin’? Read on.

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Adam Bliss is the former owner of Hookah Bliss, a hookah bar in Chapel Hill, N.C.

I say “former owner” because sadly, despite a valiant fight to stay open in the face of N.C.’s smoking ban, Adam’s business closed at the end of April. He lost his business, his job, and his entire life savings.

I sat down with Adam Wednesday night at Prince Hookah in Raleigh and interviewed him while puffing on a a delicious apricot flavored hookah. Oh yes… didn’t you know? There are still hookah bars in N.C. They just aren’t allowed to sell anything other than hookah. Way to crack down, smoking nazis!

Every person who even slightly loves freedom, and appreciates what it means to live in America, should be outraged by what happened to this man. Try telling Adam that your supposed “health rights” give you permission to take away his rights to live the American Dream.

CPO thanks Mr. Bliss for his time, and encourages you to get really pissed off about this.

Interview below the fold…

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Gate City Billiards Country Club has pool tables but no pool, no golf course and no ladies in white gloves nibbling on finger sandwiches. In fact, owner Don Liebes says he aims to have only one thing in common with the country club set: smoking.

“I opened my business a year and a half ago,” Liebes said. “Smoking was a large part of my plan when we opened.”

He put about $70,000 extra into the business toward things like setting aside a room for nonsmoking games and adding air filtration gear. The aim was to create a high-end billiards club where stogie-chewing sharks and health-conscious aces could peacefully coexist.

About six months after Gate City opened, Gov. Bev Perdue signed a smoking ban for most bars and restaurants into law.

Liebes already has appealed his two fines to the Guilford County Board of Health, losing each time. He plans to take his case to District Court.

His would be only the second case in the state to go that far.

The News-Record

Some of my preferred candidates lost.

Some of my preferred candidates won.

But only two of last Tuesday’s results brought a shit-eating grin to my face- B.J. Lawson in the 4th and this state house race down in Gaston and Cleveland Counties.

As Kelly Hastings helped his daughter with her homework Tuesday night, the arithmetic was working in his favor.

The Cherryville real estate agent carried Cleveland County with a convincing 62.55 percent of the vote after trailing state Rep. Pearl Burris-Floyd by a handful of ballots in Gaston County. With all but one Gaston precinct reporting, Hastings led with 1,298 total votes to Burris-Floyd’s 1,162.

“I think our overall conservative message probably helped carry the day,” he said.

The campaign had few fireworks early, but the candidates recently feuded over Burris-Floyd’s 2008 pledge to N.C. FreedomWorks, which included a statement indicating that she would not support a ban on smoking on private property. Burris-Floyd would later co-sponsor the House bill to make Tar Heel State restaurants and bars smoke-free.

FreedomWorks, a grassroots conservative group, accused Burris-Floyd of breaking her pledge. The state representative countered that she interpreted the pledge as vowing not to prevent smokers from lighting up in their own homes and cars. Eateries may be privately owned, she said, but are open to the general public and are subject to certain restrictions to ensure public health.

The Gaston Gazette

“She interpreted the pledge as vowing not to prevent smokers from lighting up in their own homes and cars”? What part of “private-freakin’-property” did this moron not understand? Can I have a side of fries with that bullshit sandwich you’re serving me, Ms. Burrisfloyd?

Are you happy, Ms. Burrisfloyd, that the bill you co-sponsored recently put Hookah Bliss owner Adam Bliss and all of his employees in the unemployment line? Was that your plan to help the N.C. economy? How about you walk up to Mr. Bliss, look him in the eye, and tell him it was just a sacrifice he and other hookah bar owners had to make so you could feel better about yourself? How about explaining to him that his establishment, which he poured his life saving into, isn’t really “private” property? Try explaining to him that  he doesn’t really have “private property rights”; he just has privileges that you and the other geniuses in Raleigh bestow upon him when the mood pleases you.

You, Ms. Burrisfloyd (no, I don’t use hyphenated names; pick a damn name already) like so many other Republicans, campaigned on freedom only to take a dump on private property rights once you got into office. Well, how’d that work out for ya?

Hastings: 1,366
Floyd: 1,224

Ha ha. Ha ha ha ha ha!!!! Adios, you junior-grade fascist! Don’t let the door hit ya where the dog shoulda bit ya! In a perfect world, you’d stay unemployed until Adam Bliss found a new job to replace the one you stole from him.

Voting against freedom had a price for at least one of these bozos. It’s doubtful that any of the other buffoons took notice, but hopefully this will entice a few more challengers in 2012. Vote against freedom = lose your next election. Let’s start making this a habit, shall we?

A Chapel Hill hookah bar owner who’s been engaged in a public battle against the state’s smoking ban is finding it just as frustrating to try and comply with the law as it is to fight it.

On Monday, Adam Bliss, owner of Hookah Bliss on Franklin Street, notified the Orange County Health Department that he has stopped selling beer, reluctantly putting a temporary halt to his defiance until he can raise money for a legal fight. By ending beer sales, Bliss is seeking to meet the law’s definition of a tobacco shop, which is exempt from the ban.

But according to Bliss, instead of giving the business the seal of approval, Konsler told him he must also cancel Hookah Bliss’ alcohol permit, which Bliss renewed in March at a cost of $225. Once that’s done, Bliss must notify the county again and another compliance visit will follow.

Bliss says he will do as instructed, but his frustration with the law, county enforcers, and legislators who supported the ban, is palpable. “I feel like I’m being forced to change my business for no better reason than politics,” he said. “I’m pretty ticked off at this point, but I’m not sure what I can do. I’m not rich. I’m a small-business owner.”

The Carolina Journal

Bliss plans to hold some fundraisers to help pay for legal costs. I’ll keep you updated if I hear anything about them. Meanwhile, ponder how exactly we can live in a free country when a bunch of morons in the state government can take this man’s livelihood and entire life savings away from him… for operating a hookah bar.

If Bliss shuts his doors, he stands to lose $70,000 and will have to lay off his employees. The first fundraiser will likely take place in two weeks. Proceeds will go into a legal defense fund to pay for an attorney with whom he recently met.

“He sounded fairly sure that we might be able to pull this off, but it may end up having to go all the way to the North Carolina Supreme Court,” Bliss said. “Now we’re talking money and about a two-year time span.”

People seeking real reform of North Carolina’s annexation law should ignore a bill that cleared the N.C. House last year. That bill does more harm than good, a John Locke Foundation expert argues in a new Spotlight report.

“Some legislators have tried to push House Bill 524 as reform,” said report author Daren Bakst, JLF Director of Legal and Regulatory Studies. “Supporters claim that H.B. 524 is a ’start’ or a positive incremental step in the right direction. They are wrong.”

The Carolina Journal

I wrote about this law after it passed the state house. If I were a supporter of forced annexation, and I wanted to concoct some brilliantly evil scheme to make it look like the state was reforming the annexation process but was in reality making it easier to gobble up other peoples’ lands, this is the bill I would have written.

“Not only does H.B. 524 fail to address a single meaningful reform, it actually makes the existing annexation statute worse,” he said. “It does not constitute a ’start’ to anything but more annexation abuse. That means forced annexation would be an even greater problem for the 4.1 million North Carolinians who live in unincorporated areas.”

Reform should address forced annexation, the process that allows cities and towns to force individuals to live inside municipalities against their wishes, Bakst said.

I wish I could go to this, but I’m still stocking essential survival supplies (beef jerky and pizza rolls) in Ma and Pa Celtic’s survival bunker. You never know when the Democrat takeover / zombie apocalypse might come.

Anyways, if YOU can attend this,  please do. Support Adam Bliss and his fight for property rights.

The Triangle Republican Liberty Caucus

What: Support Property Rights! Triangle RLC April Social Meeting at Hookah Bliss.
When: Monday, April 12, 2010 7:00 PM.

Where:
Hookah Bliss
418 West Franklin Street
Chapel Hill, NC 27516
(919) 967-3066

 
Join us this month for a social meeting at Hookah Bliss in Chapel Hill. Among other free enterprise issues, the Republican Liberty Caucus is an advocate for private property rights and as such we are holding this meeting at Hookah Bliss to show support for its owner, Adam Bliss, whose defiance of the state’s smoking ban is costing him $200 a day.

The Republican Liberty Caucus is a nationwide, grass roots organization devoted to the traditional Republican values of Free Enterprise, Limited Government, and Individual Freedom! Working within the GOP to elect liberty-oriented Republicans to office at all levels of government, the RLC has grown steadily since its founding in 1988. See www.rlc.org or www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2211908268 for further information.

A Chapel Hill hookah bar owner’s defiance of the state’s smoking ban now is costing him $200 a day. Fines began accruing Monday for Adam Bliss, owner of Hookah Bliss, when an official non-compliance ticket was hand-delivered by Tom Konsler, Orange County’s environmental health director.

“I’m going to try to fight it,” said Bliss, who has continued to sell hookahs since the ban took effect Jan. 2.

Bliss had encouraged people to file complaints against his bar to generate an administrative penalty for a possible legal challenge. He received warning letters from the county in late January and early February. Monday’s ticket is what he’s been waiting for — a third violation, which comes with a fine.

Konsler said Bliss has told the county he’s not going to comply. The result, Konsler said, is that the penalty grows by $200 every day Bliss is open until he notifies Orange officials that he is operating by the law.

Carolina Journal

Once again- if you live in Orange County, please visit this guy and give him as much support as you can. The more freedoms our dumbass politicians take away, the more we need people like Bliss.

And if you live in Wilmington-

While Bliss consults an attorney on what to do next, Wilmington hookah bar Juggling Gypsy wages its own fight. Juggling Gypsy has received three $200 fines from the New Hanover County Health Department, said Manager Denny Best. The bar is appealing the fines.

On Friday, Juggling Gypsy will hold an all-day fundraiser, with proceeds headed to a legal defense fund, should the bar lose its appeal and decide to hire an attorney. Still, owner Sebastian Gomez said the ideal solution is for the industry to obtain an exemption from the General Assembly.

Don’t make the hookah bars angry. You won’t like them when they’re angry.

Wilmington’s Juggling Gypsy hookah bar is the first establishment in the area fined for violating the state’s new indoor smoking ban.

The Castle Street bar received two violations from the New Hanover County Health Department carrying a total of $400 in administrative penalties, under the ban that went into effect Jan. 2.

Juggling Gypsy Manager Denny Best said the bar would appeal the fine and ask for a hearing with the health department.

If unsuccessful there, Best said this week the bar would appeal further to the court system and planned on holding a fundraiser later this month to raise money for legal fees if it gets that far.

The Star News

Gasp! Smoking? In a hookah bar?!?! Why… I’ve never heard of such a thing. Surely the benevolent busybodies of government can protect all us peons from the scourge of the dastardly people forcing customers into their bars and exposing them to second-hand smoke.
[/sarcasm]

Good luck to the Gypsy. I’ll keep my on this case and let you know how to donate to their defense fun if it gets that far.

Concerned that his sales have plummeted during the first week of the statewide ban on smoking in bars and restaurants, the owner of a Chapel Hill hookah bar is encouraging people to snitch to government officials that he’s defying the ban. Adam Bliss, owner of Hookah Bliss, says he needs an official violation notice from Orange County in order to proceed with his plan to fight the law in court.

Bliss hasn’t stopped selling hookahs and beer at his Franklin Street establishment that caters to the college crowd. Even so, he hasn’t received a notice from the county. Bliss may even file a complaint himself to speed the process. “I’ve never had so much trouble getting in trouble,” he says.

The Carolina Journal

If you live in or near Chapel Hill, please visit this guy and give him your support: www.hookahbliss.com.

Don’t make the hookah bar owners angry. You won’t like them when they’re angry.

On Jan. 2, a law extinguishing smoking in bars and restaurants statewide takes effect. There are a few exceptions, but none for bars that offer hookahs, the water pipes for smoking fruit-flavored tobacco that originated in the Middle East and are growing in popularity among young Americans.

Hookah Joe’s, the four-year-old lounge in downtown Asheville, plans to defy the smoking ban and carry on into the new year.

“Honestly, we don’t really know what to expect,” co-owner James Tsakonas said. “But we will definitely be serving.”

Local health directors can fine violators $200 a day after giving them two warnings.

Legislators who passed the law this year called it an effort to save lives of workers and customers that are put at risk by secondhand smoke. Customers at Hookah Joe’s this week said anyone who would enter a hookah bar wouldn’t be bothered by the smoke.

The Asheville Citizen Times

That last line is the key to this whole debate. If you don’t want to breathe in second-hand hookah smoke… don’t go to a freakin’ hookah bar! If you do want to smoke hookah, who the hell is Hugh Holliman or anyone else to tell you that you can’t? Oh wait… they’re elected. That makes them waaaay smarter than your or me.

Good for Hookah Joe’s and anyone else who chooses to defy this junior-grade fascism. I hope our Asheville readers will stop in and have a few puffs in honor of freedom.

The owner of a Chapel Hill hookah bar says he will defy the state’s new smoking ban that has ensnared his business but exempted other types of smoking establishments. Adam Bliss, owner of Hookah Bliss, believes the ban is discriminatory. He will continue to sell hookahs and alcohol beginning Jan. 2, the day it becomes illegal to smoke in most North Carolina bars and restaurants.

The Carolina Journal

Good for you, Mr. Bliss. I hope many other private business owners follow your lead and tell the nanny-state assholes in Raleigh to take their bill and shove it.

Failure to comply may bring penalties. Tom Konsler, Orange County’s environmental health director, expects enforcement to be complaint-driven.  “We’re hoping not to test that,” Konsler said. Konsler said the county is aware of Bliss and that a representative will visit him in the next week or two to discuss his plans.

I hope Mr. Bliss takes a hookah pipe and shoves it up up Mr. Konsler’s ass when he shows up. Mr. Bliss is a private business owner with private customers who make their own decisions to buy his legal product.

Are you a supporter of this bill? Well, here’s what you’ve done:

Bliss said he faced three choices: continue operating as usual, stop selling alcohol to fit the definition of a tobacco shop rather than a bar, or close his doors altogether.

Since alcohol accounts for 20 to 25 percent of his sales, eliminating beer would send the bar into a nosedive it might not survive. Closing the doors of his 2 ½-year-old business would devastate Bliss. At risk is roughly $70,000 in cash invested or still owed. Giving up would also put him on the unemployment line. Half a dozen part-time employees would join him there.

Wow! Nice job government! You’ve done it again. Thank God you’re here to protect us from the scourge of free enterprise and hookahs!

And you know who else gets a shout out? One of this page’s favorite politicians, St. Sen. Ellie Kinnaird. We love Ellie here at CPO, and this is one of the reasons why:

Bliss thought he’d won the support of Sen. Ellie Kinnaird, D-Orange. He said he worked with her assistant to create an exemption [for hookah bars]. On the evening the bill passed the Senate, Kinnaird called and told him she had not introduced the exemption at the request of a sponsor.

Bliss was stunned. He told her she was, in effect, closing down a viable business. Kinnaird’s response wasn’t what he wanted to hear. “This is as close to a quote as I can [recall] — ‘I know it will be difficult.’

“I said, ma’am, you don’t know anything. You’re sitting in an office paid for by people like me and you’re telling me you’re going to take my business away — tough noogies?”

Kinnaird stands by her support of the smoking ban. She said she tried hard to help Bliss, knowing he’d put his life savings and vision into the business. “But when I went to the sponsor of the bill, Dr. [William] Purcell [D-Anson], he asked me not to put it in because he said it would weaken the bill.”

Aren’t you all glad smart people like Ellie Kinaird are in Raleigh making decisions for you? Don’t you wish you could turn over more of your life choices to her? After all, she’s been elected to stuff- that makes her super smart. Way smarter than you and some lame business owner trying to make a living.

The next time I’m in Chapel Hill I’m stopping in at Hookah Bliss to give Mr. Bliss some of my business. Please do the same.

If this doesn’t get your blood boiling…

The challenge ahead for conservatives is to tap into this clear support for freedom by illustrating what happens to real people when their lives and dreams get in the way of government tentacles that stifle personal and professional liberty.

That brings me to Adam Bliss, who owns Hookah Bliss in Chapel Hill. Thanks to North Carolina’s ban on smoking (pdf link) in most bars and restaurants, which takes effect Jan. 2, Bliss may lose his business and life savings. Why? Because hookah bars fall outside the exemptions state legislators wrote into the smoking ban to protect cigar bars and some clubs. As Bliss told The Daily Tar Heel, “If you look at the exemptions, they’re generally all places that rich, older white men like to smoke. If our representatives liked to smoke in hookah bars, hookah bars would have been exempt as well.”

Bliss is a real-world example of what happens when government policy — even when it’s well-intentioned — collides with the freedom to operate a business and sell a legal product.

The Carolina Journal

There’s only one reason someone would voluntarily walk into a hookah bar. Yet, the conceited anointed in our government think they have an obligation to protect us all from unwittingly inhaling the scourge of second-hand hookah smoke.

Adam Bliss is the face of freedom lost. Today it’s hookah bars. The question is, which industry — and which one of us — is the next Adam Bliss?

Town officials pressured David Bowden on Thursday, saying they will levy fines against the Cary man if he doesn’t remove or tone down a bright protest sign painted in huge, orange letters on the front of his house.

He has seven days.

In a statement, town officials say attempts to negotiate with Bowden have failed to resolve an impasse that started in July, when he had “Screwed By The Town of Cary” painted on his home at 305 SW Maynard Road.

The N&O

I’ve driven past this house. Honestly, I think the sign provides a nice contrast from the suburban monotony along Maynard.

Bowden, who says his house was damaged by runoff caused by town road construction, refuses to budge. The slogan is a free speech issue, he says, a stance that has the backing of the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina.

Like the odd comet or the government voluntarily making itself smaller, sometimes incredibly rare things happen that you didn’t ever imagine seeing in your lifetime, and this is one of them. I am actually going to agree with the ACLU. I guess even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

Town officials offered to install a trench drain and new drainage pipe to re-route water away from Bowden’s home. Bowden declined the offer and issued his own ultimatum: The sign wouldn’t come down until the town buys his house. Bowden also declined third-party mediation, according to a town statement issued Thursday.

Is this guy being a stubborn jerk? You bet. Can he and should he work with the town to resolve this? Probably. Should the government force him? Nope, no, and Hell No. His house, his paint, his complaint. If he had a blaring bullhorn that would be one thing, but a bad paint job is another.

Sorry neighbors. If this is really getting to you, plant a hedge or something.

People have asked me why I am running for the State House 33 seat in the North Carolina legislature.
I have to respond that “We are losing our freedom and God given rights on a daily basis”.

People ask me why in a state so dominated by the Democratic Party why I am running as a Republican.
I have to respond that “My core principles are a best fit in the Republican Party. It is apparent with the level of corruption and quid pro quo that is happening in North Carolina, we are corrupt only second to Illinois”. Let me be blunt, the Democratic Party leadership is responsible.

I have been asked what we can do about jobs in North Carolina. I have been asked what we can do about returning this state and District 33 back to prosperity.
First we need to reduce the tax burden on the small businesses and people who are the spenders in this capitalist society. And at the same time we need to go back to zero based budgeting. It is common sense to only budget what we NEED and what we can AFFORD as a state.

Another question that has come up is the Defense of Marriage act.
Unlike my opponents I am fearless when it comes to defending marriage being defined as the union of one woman and one man at one time. This is especially important in District 33. I will put any opponent I face next year in the spotlight concerning this issue.

I have been asked about forced annexation and property rights in this state.
Those two issues are both separate and connected in some way. The municipalities are allowed to annex without reservations any blocks of unincorporated land in their zone of influence. And the Supreme Court allows a government to take from you to give to another private entity. These are both issues where we need to pass laws not allowing either one of these issue without those citizens approving it.

I have been asked about redistricting and how that will affect us in the future.
Republicans have to win the State House and or State Senate next year. And we need the help of independents and Conservative Democrats next year. Not winning is not an option. Gerrymandering, some of which has been struck down by the courts, disenfranchises many voters.

How are Republicans going to win?
We need the grassroots volunteers and most of all we need money. $20 dollars from many people will add up for us state level candidates, and donations of $100 will be critical. In my case I can expect my opponent to raise close to $50,000. My campaign as an example will need at a minimum of $20,000 to get out the mailers to like minded voters before the election. If 1,000 people gave $20 or even 500 gave $40 that would equal the minimum.

I am enthusiastic about the results of the School Board elections in Wake County. It was a bipartisan effort by everyone along the entire political spectrum that brought change to our schools. Unlike the current House 33 seat holder, I will be on a mission to do what is right for all of House 33’s citizens. Listening to the citizens will be my first priority.

Bane and I have spoken before about the sad saga of N.C. Hookah Bar owners. Thanks to friendly neighborhood thug Hugh Holliman and his merry band of fascists, these private business of owners will have to close or convert their smoke bars because of the property-rights killing anti-smoking bill.

The smoking ban will take effect in January. Before that happens, some legislators want to amend the ban by creating an exemption in the law that would allow existing hookah bars to continue to allow smoking.

Rep. Cullie Tarleton, D-Watauga, is trying to get the exemption passed in the House. Tarleton was a strong supporter of the original smoking ban, but he said yesterday that the ban’s effect on hookah bars was unintended.

“I am not interested in opening Pandora’s box here,” Tarleton said yesterday. “All I want to do is to save some 20 small businesses across the state that opened legally, legitimately, with the full intention of serving a population. (The smoking ban) is going to shut them down, and that’s an unintended consequence.”

The W-S Journal

Tarleton is not a hero here. If he wasn’t smart enough to understand the consequences of pissing on property rights (and it seems obvious that he isn’t) then he’s not smart enough to be in government. Unfortunately, he’s got plenty of company up in Raleigh.

But it’s not to be. The Winston-Salem Journal reports today that Rep. Cullie Tarleton is dropping his bill to exempt hookah bars from the ban after bar owners objected to amendments to the bill that they said would put unfair restrictions on them.

Private business owners are going to have to shut their doors because Hugh “Himmler” Holliman thinks he’s smarter than you. Meanwhile, consenting adults are being told they can’t perform a legal activity on someone else’s property because it offends other people.

Tell me how this is a free county again?

In my wildest drug fueled hallucinations I never thought I’d write a headline like that. Neal Boortz is a libertarian talk show host who celebrates freedom and limited government. Raleigh City Councilman Thomas Crowder is some wacko liberal who loves big government and wants to ban garbage disposals.

In response to residents’ complaints, Crowder recently proposed a ban on letting property owners park cars on their yards -not their driveways, their yards.

He has written a new ordinance that, if adopted, would require thousands of Raleigh residents to get their cars out of the front yard and possibly spend hundreds of dollars to pave parking areas.

“If it’s not a problem it shouldn’t be imposing on anybody,” Crowder said. “It’s an environmental issue. It’s a stormwater and water quality issue. … [I]t’s a quality of life issue.”

The N&O

Typically, even when Crowder is right, he’s right for the wrong reasons. This has nothing to do with the environment or water quality. This is about my property values going down because my neighbor has eight cars in his freakin’ yard and it looks like I live next to used car lot. You can do almost anything you damn well want in the privacy of your own home- I don’t care. But when your actions affect me (ie. bring down my property values), I start caring. Your freedom ends when you make my street look like a junkyard.

Boortz criticized Crowder’s newest proposed law on his talk show Monday as government overreach.  Also opposing it was councilman Phillip Isley.

“This is beyond the nanny state,” Isley said. “This is a homeowners association on steroids.”

But they’re wrong this time. Here’s one reason why:

The rules would be a major inconvenience for people like David Morton, who has eight vehicles in his front yard in southwest Raleigh. His family parks four cars perpendicular to his driveway in a way that would be illegal under Crowder’s ordinance.

Eight cars? Eight freaking cars?! No, sir. Your yard is not a car lot. You can do pretty much anything you want in the privacy of your home, but your freedom ends at the tip of my property values.

The N.C. House voted yesterday for a slew of changes to the state’s contentious, 50-year-old annexation law, which gives cities wide latitude to take in new residents and force them to pay municipal taxes and fees.

Residents have long argued that the law is unfair and is frequently abused by cities.

But the most vocal opponents of annexation did not get everything they wanted and said that the bill, while better than nothing, does not go far enough to seriously rein in forced annexations.

The W-S Journal

If this bill were infused with steroids (and not just any steroids; the good stuff baseball players use) and ate Wheaties every day for a month, it would still be unable to do better than Wuss at one of those “Test Your Strength” carnival games. Hell, it probably wouldn’t be able to pick up the damn sledgehammer you need to play.

The most important provision in the bill would give annexation opponents the chance to trigger a referendum before a future annexation could take place. The opponents would have to gather signatures of 15 percent of the total of voters in the city and the area targeted for annexation.

If they did that, the city would have to hold a referendum among all city residents and residents of the annexation area. A majority of the voters would have to approve the annexation before the city could go through with it.

What the hell good is that gonna do? First of all, as someone who has gone door-to-door collecting signatures for candidates, 15% is a big damn number. Especially if the city doing the annexing is Raleigh or Charlotte, and really especially if the annexee is just a small cluster of homes that won’t have the manpower to fight back.

Also, why are residents of the annexing city allowed to vote? It’s not their taxes poised to skyrocket. It’s not property being taken over. And they can vastly outnumber the people in the area to be annexed.

I know Property Rights forces wanted something done about annexation, but this bill is so damn bad it will do more harm than good. The next time they rightfully complain about annexation, someone can point to this bill and say, “well, you’ve got some rights now. What are you bitching about?” It will make it that much harder to pass a property rights bill that really protects homeowners.

The controversial effort by the Wilmington City Council to annex the community of Monkey Junction, which sparked protest and debate, including a lively public hearing that resulted in two arrests, came to a head on May 5 when the council voted 6-1 to annex the rapidly growing community.

Some 3,300 residents are included in the annexation, and many have made their opposition very clear. A public hearing on April 6 — the only one — drew hundreds of protesters to the meeting and the street outside. Police and fire personnel provided a beefed-up security presence, including escorts for council members and police snipers on surrounding rooftops. The protesters who filled the council chamber reportedly banged on the walls and chanted slogans; two men were arrested for disrupting an official meeting, a misdemeanor.

The Carolina Journal

There’s a near riot against this annexation, and 6 bonehead councilmen STILL voted for it.

Bane, you  just got back from Wilmington. Were you aware that you had left the United States? Did you have to show a passport or ID when you entered Wilmington city limits?