Checking On Patty Boy

It's time once again to check in on The Odious Patrick McHenry. Last week's town hall meeting didn't go over as well as he's hoping, looks like.

On Aug. 14, U.S. Rep. Patrick T. McHenry held one of his annual town hall meetings here in Burke County. I attended this event, hoping to come away with a basic idea of his goals and accomplishments for the 10th Congressional District. Without a doubt, Rep. McHenry's town hall meeting was an eye-opening experience for me.

The meeting focussed on America's energy crisis and McHenry's "solutions."
He began with alternative renewable energy – points I strongly agreed with until things took a turn for the worse. He began talking about the marvels of oil shale (a highly polluting and uneconomical idea) and nuclear energy and a host of other "solutions" for the short term.

Unfortunately, in no way are these viable solutions to the problems we face today.

Nuclear energy, I think, could be a great source of energy, but there are great risks involved. As I pointed out at the town hall meeting, had the 9/11 hijackers directed one jet into the nuclear energy center 24 miles north of New York City, massive amounts of nuclear waste would have been unleashed. The results would have catastrophic, resulting in thousands of immediate deaths and many more in future generations.

When I pointed this out to our representative, he said protections are in place to prevent this and that I was "not factually correct" about this issue. He seems to have forgotten that it is not just the nuclear reactor that must be protected, but also the dry-cask storage facilities and the spent-fuel pools. Many experts know the security measures around these storage areas can be foiled, which is why many congressmen came together in the wake of 9/11 to join in increasing security measures for such nuclear sites.

Folks, if even the Morganton paper is taking Patty Boy apart over this, he's in trouble. If there is any district in the country that needs a serious rescue from a mindless GOP automaton, it's NC-10. Luckily we've got a contender this year in Democrat Daniel Johnson, a brilliant young Navy veteran who lost both his legs in an accident saving a fellow crewman's life. He's done work for Max Cleland and he's a strong example of the new breed of Democrats we're going to need to make some serious changes in Washington, here's his ActBlue page.

It's a tough road. This is a district that has never elected a Democrat. Cass Ballenger ran the place for years before The Odious Patrick McHenry. But now's a perfect time to start.