Margiotta's clear remarks

Wake County School Board Chair Ron Margiotta says that he was "out of line" when he referred to parents expressing their views at Tuesday's public hearing as animals coming out of their cages.

Margiotta tells the News & Observer that the remarks were made "in the heat of the moment." and says "if I offended anyone, it was not intended."

If he offended anyone? Referring to people who came to a school board meeting to express their views as "animals coming out of their cages" doesn't leave much room for interpretation.

What else could he have intended?

It makes Margiotta's view of his constituents disturbingly clear.

Anti-immigrant zealotry update

The anti-immigrant forces in North Carolina are lashing out in desperation as talk of comprehensive immigration reform increases in Washington.

Beaufort County Commission and anti-immigrant zealot Hood Richardson continues to rant about state government websites presenting information in Spanish.

Oh, the horror.

Richardson has again convinced his fellow commissioners to send a letter to Governor Beverly Perdue requesting that all Spanish-language content be removed from state sites.

This is the third time the board has sent the pathetic request. The Washington Daily News reports that Perdue responded to the last one with a letter saying:

"Health and safety information is essential to everyone, and the ability to understand and comply with instructions, in turn, benefits our communities. Crisis situations require immediate and collective cooperation, and therefore universal access to emergency messages facilitates help for all."

That wasn't good enough for Richardson of course, who said that Perdue "failed to understand the issue of illegal immigration confronting the state and its counties."

Perdue understands fine and she no doubt also realizes that Richardson seems willing to jeopardize people's lives as part of his ridiculous and offensive crusade.

More absurdity from Gheen

Speaking of ridiculous and offensive, the latest missive from Bill Gheen and Americans for Legal Immigration (ALIPAC) breathlessly warns people that the recent theft of railroad spikes in Henderson County by two undocumented immigrants is part of national terrorist plot by "illegal aliens" that will cause mass causalities.

Gheen cites a story in the Asheville Citizen Times about the incident, but leaves out a few things the paper also reported, like the fact that the theft of the spikes is a relatively common crime that has been committed at least 25 times this year in the 22 states served by Norfolk Southern Railroad.

The paper also quotes a company spokesman saying that the missing spikes "were along a rarely used section of track and didn't appear a threat to train safety."

So the national terrorist threat is really just a fairly common crime committed by citizens and undocumented workers that poses no real threat to anybody's safety. Foiled again Mr. Gheen.

Americans for the Prosperous -and the misleading

The folks at Americans for the Prosperous are touting a recent poll they published showing Democratic state Rep. Jimmy Love trailing possible Republican opponents in his bid for reelection.

That might be a surprising development until you read the questions that AFP used in the polls. The Sanford Herald reports that people were asked if they were less likely to support Love if they knew he "voted to raise taxes by $1 billion," "voted to slash the sentences of rapists and murderers," "voted to allow habitual drunk drivers to get their (driver's) licenses back," and "voted to force taxpayers to fund political campaigns."

Americans for the Prosperous Director Dallas Woodhouse denied that the survey was a push poll because it didn't advocate for a specific candidate. Woodhouse said, "I wouldn't (stand behind the results) if I didn't think it had some semblance of accuracy. It doesn't do us any good to have polls that aren't accurate."

Really? It doesn't do you any good to make up ridiculous and misleading questions to outrage voters and get the results you want and the offensive claims you make published in the local paper?

Please. It is a pathetic push poll that the mainstream media ought to ignore.