Duke Energy says that meeting the South’s energy needs will take a big rate hike, with more hikes to come in the future. Duke University, on the other hand, says Duke Energy’s viewpoint amounts to a myth that should be discarded. (Please note that I refuse to make a corny joke about the two entities duking it out.)

The southern energy behemoth has spent much time lately telling everyone that the region has no viable alternatives to the status quo of coal-fired plants and nuclear reactors. An extensive study, conducted by the Nicholas Institute at Duke University and the Georgia Tech School of Public Policy, says that’s a load of bull. Not in those precise terms, of course, but in so many words.

The ongoing wrangling before the N.C. Utilities Commission over Duke Energy’s request for a rate hike has become pretty good theater. The parade of executives, politicians, protesters and various experts are providing a snapshot of current politics, competing ideas about energy, and — to the point here — a peek into the corporate mindset at the Charlotte-based energy giant. The latter was the case yesterday when Duke exec Brett Carter revealed a bit more about the company’s attitudes toward low-income customers than Duke’s PR folks are going to be comfortable with.

Yesterday, the Utilities Commission and others grilled Carter on why Duke can’t put together a plan to lower electricity rates a bit for low-income customers (as of now, all the company offers is a pathetic, one-time “charitable” contribution). According to the Observer, here is what Carter told the commission: “That was a conversation that we had, but the administration of providing that would be outside the purview of what we could do.” Translating Carter’s “bureaucratese” into plain English, what he said was, “We’re not gonna do that because it's too much trouble and we just don't feel like it.”

As NC Policy Watch writes today, “pardon us Brett, but that’s a crock of bull.” They correctly go on to remind Carter that Duke Energy is a public utility that exists to serve the public interest (my emphasis). In other words, you can’t act like some regular giant corporation whose only emphasis is on the bottom line. Plus, Carter’s claim that it is beyond Duke’s capability to keep up with the state’s poor people is ridiculous. Again, from NC Policy Watch:

Right now, something like 35 separate telephone companies in North Carolina (all of them with less income and resources than [Duke Energy]) manage to do just that; they provide discounted phone service to people who are poor enough to be eligible for a number of low income support programs. Sure, the system is imperfect and a hassle, and they’d probably rather not be bothered, but they do it anyway.

At some point a few years back, some courageous public officials told the phone companies: “We know you don’t like it, but tough. This is the 21st Century -— figure out a way. You’ll still make boatloads of money. So get over it and do something for someone other than your overpaid CEO’s for a change.”

Yes indeedy, now that is what the Utilities Commission needs to tell Duke. And here’s another idea for Duke Energy: If helping poorer customers shrinks your bottom line a bit, let the shareholders absorb the loss. Again, you are a public utility, you’re supposed to be primarily concerned with serving the public interest. Considering that Duke Energy reported more than a billion dollars in profits for 2010, and yet not only didn’t pay taxes on that profit but even got back $5 million in 2010 from the IRS, I’d say it’s more than past time for it to reassess how to best serve the region. Hard times call for new ways of thinking, but we’re seeing precious little of it from the Voltron Towers uptown.

• Voltron says, "So, you're poor and can't afford electricity? And I'm supposed to care why . . .?"

Former Nixon White House lawyer John Dean once wrote a book called Blind Ambition, about his earlier craving to claw his way to the top in Washington, D.C. Dean’s catchphrase came to mind when I heard that Mecklenburg County Commissioner Harold Cogdell once again wants to make a deal with the GOP so he can take Jennifer Roberts’ spot as commission chair.

We’re used to politicians being underhanded opportunists, but Cogdell’s proposed deal is so blatant, shameless and in your face, he couldn’t seem more blinded by ambition if he wore dark glasses and tapped a red-tipped cane to make his way to the next commission meeting.

Recently, Cogdell wrote a letter (or “manifesto,” as he grandly called it) to his fellow commissioners about his bid to be chair, praising himself for, among other things, his willingness to compromise and his desire to be a transparent communicator. That last claim probably comes as a surprise to the rest of the commission, particularly Roberts, since Cogdell wasn’t exactly “transparent” with her about vying for her position; in fact, it seems apparent that by the time he released his letter he had already not-so-transparently made a deal with the commission’s GOP members. His bid, incidentally, will be the first item on the agenda at next Tuesday's commission meeting.

Another odd part of Cogdell’s move is that he is now positioning himself to be an ally of Bill James, whom Cogdell, an African American, once publicly rebuked as “an embarrassment to Mecklenburg County” for calling the African American community "a moral sewer." He told James, in the same statement, “It continues to mystify me that you are repeatedly provided the privilege of serving Mecklenburg County in elected office. Especially, considering you so rarely offer any value to any productive public discourse or dialogue, but rather seek every opportunity to incite polarization and divisiveness.” Now, however, he wants James as an ally to help him become commission chair.

So, Cogdell is an underhanded, self-promoting power hound; that’s nothing new in politics. However, how his version of blind ambition will play in the African American community — James' "moral sewer," and citizens who have given Roberts strong support in the past — is anyone’s guess. I can’t imagine it will be widely hailed. Many local political observers are saying Cogdell wants to be chair so he can better impress visiting national Democrats when the Democratic National Convention comes to town — as if the national Dems will be looking to the Mecklenburg County Commission for new leaders to groom. One bad thing about ambition is that although it can get you where you want to go, it can also make you foolish and cheap. That’s what has happened here.

• County Commissioner Harold Cogdell

On Monday, the N.C. Senate voted to repeal the 2009 Racial Justice Act, which allowed judges in death penalty cases to consider statistical evidence of historic racial bias. The repeal now goes to Gov. Perdue's desk. Thus, the 1950s Retread Squadron, also known as the GOP majority in the N.C. General Assembly, continues its battle to drag our state back to that less-kind, far-from-gentle, not to mention systemically unjust, decade which Republicans and their ignorant, fundamentalist, ill-tempered base view as a golden age.

Ah yes, those were the days — when women couldn’t terminate a pregnancy without risking prison, when blacks and the poor could be kept from voting at the whim of a local political boss, when the disabled had the good taste to stay out of sight, when gay men and lesbians had to hide who they were for fear of arrest or worse, and the state could execute black men till the cows came home without having to worry over lousy liberals wailing about some candy-assed notion like “justice.”

One thing you can say about the Retread Squadron is that it's confident. These people apparently don’t mind throwing away what African American votes they might have had a chance to garner in the 2012 elections, nor the votes of independents who may not trust Democrats but don’t want to vote for obvious racists, either.

The Charlotte Observer’s editorial department today said Gov. Perdue shouldn’t veto the new bill, but should work toward doing away with the death penalty altogether. You can read the paper's take on the situation here. I think Perdue should do both: veto the bill, which was designed specifically to appeal to the Retread Squadron's sad base of supporters’ worst instincts — and work on moving the state toward halting capital punishment in North Carolina.

One useful measure would be to do the same as Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber, who announced a reprieve for his state's death-row inmates for the duration of his term. Then let the next governor be the one to reinstate capital punishment, if he/she thinks it's politically viable. One thing’s for sure: this latest hateful move by the legislature’s GOP is another indication that these guys are truly nasty pieces of work.

• Supporters of repeal of Racial Justice Act celebrate

Today is my wife’s birthday. In my house, that’s significant, in yours not so much. Luckily, it’s also the birthday of Mark Twain, the Missouri-born author who, despite a slump in his critical reputation in the years immediately following his death, is now generally regarded as the King Daddy of American literature. Funny how time changes perspective, huh?

To celebrate Twain’s birth (he would have been 176 years old today, and probably even grouchier than he was in his actual “golden years”), we’re reprinting excerpts from a column I wrote three years ago about lessons learned from reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Enjoy the day, and in case you’re wondering what to read by Twain that’s not Tom Sawyer or Huck Finn, try Roughing It, The Innocents Abroad, Pudd'nhead Wilson, or the "War Prayer," written in response to the Philippine-American War of 1899-1902, which Twain bitterly opposed. OK, here’s the excerpt:

There's a book I've read and re-read probably six or seven times, and it never fails to entertain, delight and inspire. What follows are quotes from the book, along with lessons that can be taken from them. Thank God for The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

"We catched fish and talked, and we took a swim now and then to keep off sleepiness. It was kind of solemn, drifting down the big, still river, laying on our backs looking up at the stars, and we didn't ever feel like talking loud, and it warn't often that we laughed — only a little kind of a low chuckle." (Chapter 12)
Some of life's finest moments are the simplest and are to be enjoyed, going with the flow without over-analyzing everything.

"All I say is, kings is kings, and you got to make allowances. Take them all around, they're a mighty ornery lot. It's the way they're raised. All kings is mostly rapscallions." (Chapter 23)
Rulers and politicians may be necessary, but don't ever think they're all honest, or even always mean well.

"H'aint we got all the fools in town on our side? And ain't that a big enough majority in any town?" (Chapter 26)
The idea of "communal wisdom" is too often an exercise in delusion.

"Miss Watson she took me in the closet and prayed, but nothing come of it. She told me to pray every day, and whatever I asked for I would get it. But it warn't so. I tried it. Once I got a fish-line, but no hooks. It warn't any good to me without hooks." (Chapter 3)
What passes for mainstream religious truth is often a lie, or at least very disappointing.

"Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot." (Chapter 1)
Get all you can out of a great book, but don't think you're going to find everything you need in it.

The Charlotte City Council has a lot of important issues on its plate, and its members are elected to take care of them. Sometimes, though, like all legislative bodies, they waste their time on issues over which they have very little control, in order to give voters the impression that they’re doing something valuable.

Yesterday, council wasted time galore, as it finally took up Councilman Patrick Cannon’s illusory solution to uptown violence during big events: tightening the curfew on teenagers. Council voted 9-1 to approve the new curfew hours, which go into effect December 15. Kids 12 and under will now have a curfew of 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., every day; kids 13 to 15 will have to be off the streets from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m., every day.

Cannon, who is African American, came up with this latest brainstorm following a late-night uptown shooting in May during the Speed Street celebration, which was heavily attended by young African Americans. The problem here is that both the shooter and the victim were in their 20s, which makes the new curfew’s relevance to the May incident — on a scale of 1-10 — about, ohh, 1. In addition, Councilman Michael Barnes, who cast the lone vote against the new curfew, rightly pointed out that the current curfew is very rarely enforced anyhow, and the new curfew ordinance doesn’t require stricter enforcement. Barnes’ argument was confirmed by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department’s Vicki Foster who told the Charlotte Observer that police mostly use the curfew ordinance during “special events.” “We don’t do random enforcement,” said Foster. Mayor Foxx also expressed doubts about a tighter curfew, saying that it won't fix what he described as "deeper issues" with the city's youth.

As we’ve said before, the two most obvious factors in Charlotte’s occasional uptown melees are aggressive young black guys and aggressively ill-tempered cops. Both of those were factors in May — along with the city having let the Transit Center become a collection of problems waiting to happen. The powers that be, however, chose to place almost exclusive blame for everything on the parents of young kids that were out past curfew — those parents’ poverty and political powerlessness always make such easy targets, don't you know, and it's been some time (if ever) since Cannon has had to deal with those circumstances. Again, however, the curfew and its enforcement had ZERO to do with the shooting, as both men involved in it were well past curfew age.

The underlying reason for the “tough” new curfew, it seems to me, is that the white uptown business establishment completely freaks the hell out every time a large group of young African Americans comes uptown all at once — as if those kids have a right to congregate in public spaces like regular citizens and such. (Yes, that was sarcasm.)

I’ve often thought council meetings could use a good dose of truth serum. If the serum was working yesterday, you’d have heard a more honest appraisal of what the city’s leaders see as the real problem: “Who do these kids think they are, crashing our nice uptown? Heck, we've spent oodles of money trying to make the area attractive to wealthy tight-asses, and those damned black kids are ruining a perfectly good, neat-o fantasy of what a city’s core should be. This insult to our white bread world shall not stand!"

• Oh my God! Get these black kids out of here!

• Chuck Kennedy / Shutterstock

That’s the word from the people who are scared shitless of Muslims — you know, Sue Myrick, the “Ground Zero Mosque” dolts, etc. They want you to know that if you eat a Butterball turkey, you’ll be helping terrorists take over America! No, I’m not kidding — the wingnuts have developed a fresh new strain of paranoia, just in time for the holidays.

According to Mother Jones, Pamela Geller, the rabidly anti-Muslim blogger behind much of the Ground Zero Mosque nonsense, is “warning” her followers that Butterball turkeys are “certified halal,” and thus will help to install Sharia as the supreme law of the land in the United States. Again, I wish I was kidding, but I’m not.

Saying that a food is “halal” is akin to judging foods to be “kosher”; they are both based on scriptural instructions regarding the proper preparation of foods; foods that are halal are prepared according to Muslim rules, and kosher foods are prepared according to Jewish rules. No biggie, right? We-e-l-l-l-l, that’s where you’re mistaken, Mr. or Ms. Inadvertent Terrorist! Geller writes, “In a little-known strike against freedom, yet again, we are being forced into consuming meat slaughtered by means of a torturous method: Islamic slaughter.”

In response to this imminent terrorist danger, Robert Spencer, a Geller disciple, started the Boycott Butterball Turkey Facebook page — that’ll show ‘em. Another Muslim-obsessed blogger writes, “Be advised: every single Butterball turkey sold in America this Thanksgiving has been sacrificed to Allah first.”
Geller urges everyone, in the name of all that’s holy, to contact Butterball now and tell them to quit selling these treasonous birds!

Non-Muslims in America and Europe don’t deserve to have halal turkey forced upon them in this way, without their knowledge or consent. So this Thanksgiving, fight for your freedom. Find a non-halal, non-Butterball turkey to celebrate Thanksgiving this Thursday. And write to Butterball and request, politely but firmly, that they stop selling only halal turkeys, and make non-halal turkeys available to Americans who still value our freedoms.

Because as we all know, the very definition of American freedom is eating a turkey that no Muslim would want. If we don’t act now on this momentous issue, the next thing you know, Santa Claus will be forced to give up his sleigh in favor of a camel.

• Boycott Butterball, or this is what Christmas will look like next month!!!

• Ooh, pretty colors: Your turkey on drugs

No, this isn’t the usual holiday “beware of hormones” story, although those play a part. Here’s a brief excerpt: In May, it was reported “that half of U.S. meat from major grocery chains ... harbors antibiotic-resistant staph germs commonly called MRSA. Turkey had twice and even three times the MRSA of all other meats.” Well, isn’t that nice? Happy holidays in the hospital!

Oh, and in June, pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced it’s going to stop using chicken feed containing arsenic — which no one knew they were eating anyhow — but, guess what? They’re still going to feed it to turkeys. In addition, salmonella outbreaks in turkey processing plants are at an all-time high — 36 million pounds of ground turkey were recalled by just one company, Cargill, because of a salmonella outbreak which killed one person and caused 107 illnesses in 31 states.

Now, it’s true that germs in turkey and other meat are neutralized by cooking. Unfortunately, though, drug residues are not. Rosenberg reveals that a report from the USDA's inspector general accused American slaughterhouses of giving the public foods with excessive drug levels in them, and charged that, "The effects of these residues on human beings who consume such meat are a growing concern." So, keep all this in mind when you gather 'round the table on Thursday. I know I will — which is why I'm giving thanks this year that we're not having turkey.

It’s not exactly a secret that America’s TV news can be really shallow; much of the time, in fact, that adjective defines them. Yesterday, however, was, to use a favorite TV word, “special.” The news media’s shallowness — showcased, so to speak, in its reliance on superficial yea-or-nay questions and lazy, he-said/she-said pieces that lack research into the actual issues at hand — were on full, sad display.

CBS newscaster Bob Schieffer, who used to know better, put Rep. Ron Paul on the defensive on the Face the Nation talking-heads show by bringing up Paul’s view that the 9/11 attacks were at least partly a reaction to U.S. policy in the Middle East. (Keep in mind that this was also the conclusion of the 9/11 Commission, the CIA and the Dept. of Defense, as well as an array of scholars who’ve studied those awful events.) Schieffer — formerly a highly regarded journalist, now apparently in his dotage — told Rep. Paul, point-blank, “What you’re saying is that 9/11 was ‘America’s fault.’” Paul then explained, at least clearly enough for this writer to understand, that there was indeed a connection between U.S. policies in the Middle East — particularly our military presence near the Muslim holy city of Mecca — and the rage of the 9/11 terrorists. Um, excuse me, but isn’t this widely accepted, not to mention very obvious? What’s the problem?

The problem is that Schieffer is caught up in a Washington media game in which only a very limited range of opinions is deemed worthy of attention, because, well, because it just upsets everything so much when you let new ideas into the stuffy parlor of the D.C. mindset. In matters of foreign policy, that aversion to reality has led to a situation where the only “viable” position for candidates is some version of “Hooray for the USA, we can do whatever we want in foreign countries because, well, because that’s what we’ve done for about 60 years and we’re too dull to imagine that it could be any different.” That kind of ossified thinking is all D.C. has to offer anymore, and it’s the only way the D.C.-based national media know how to frame issues. Frankly, it’s delusional — and therefore, it's really dangerous.

Here’s an example of the lazy, he-said/she-said “method” on display over the weekend: The congressional “super committee” is going to fold without having reached any budget agreements. Over and over, reports from the committee have told the same story: Democrats (as usual) have been willing to compromise over a mix of spending cuts and new taxes, to the point of being willing to accept way more cuts than new taxes. Republicans, on the other hand, have simply and steadfastly refused to consider new revenue sources as part of a deal. So . . . what is the media’s “take” on all this? Both sides are to blame for being unwilling to compromise — thus flying in the face of what they themselves have been reporting about the committee. But it's OK, because they've presented "both sides," never mind that one side's version is a fantasy at best.

Locally, the TV news cardboard cutouts (with maybe a couple of exceptions) have shown the same brand of laziness, and baffling self-regard, in their “reporting” on the Occupy Charlotte folks. Here’s a clue: Get off the sidewalk and talk to some people; better yet, report what they’ve actually said rather than trying to squeeze a complicated situation into a preordained narrative; maybe try to understand more and display your own cynicism less — otherwise, all you’re doing is revealing how useless you and your medium have become. Below is the Bob Schieffer/ Ron Paul tete-a-tete. Thank you and good night.

• Which way to Memorial Stadium?

All of a sudden, Mecklenburg County officials are in a rush to do something with Memorial Stadium. In fact, they want your opinion about it today — at a 6:30 p.m. public meeting at the Grady Cole Center, next to Central Piedmont Community College. The problem is that today’s Charlotte Observer story about the meeting is the first time anyone has heard about it.

The venerable, New Deal-constructed stadium has seen better days, as evidenced by the collapse of a section of seats. Afterward, the county — if you’re familiar with Charlotte politics you could see this coming — paid $225,000 for an engineering study of the facility. The last anyone heard about the stadium was that the county would review “structural options,” but now it’s rushrushrush to get some public input. After the meeting, the public also will be able to give feedback on the county’s Park and Recreation website. From past experience, I've found that rushed “public” meetings usually mean that some folks have already decided what to do and want to cover their butts. That may or may not be the case here — the short notice also could just be the result of poor planning. Either way, if officials want to know what to do with Memorial Stadium, I have an idea.