Archive for July 2006
An Election Lesson from Mexico
Put this under the category of non-surprising news: the Mexican election might be stolen. But the news made me thankful for the wisdom of our Founding Fathers. Namely, the much-maligned Electoral College. American elections are going south – literally. Thanks to Florida 2000, every closely fought presidential election will see charges of fraud. Just like…
Read MoreNew Life for ‘Pay to Play’?
Republicans are hoping the ‘pay to play’ scandals swirling around Speaker Jim Black will help them retake control of the State House this fall. So it sounds odd that a Republican, Representative Paul Stam, has introduced a bill to delete a key provision from the legislation to end ‘pay to play.’ Money and campaign contributions…
Read MoreFlags and Whipping Boys for the 4th
Here are two appropriate topics for my Fourth of July post: flag-burning and The New York Times. The two have this in common: They are the Republicans’ latest ploy to avoid an election disaster in November. Since W can’t catch Osama, pacify Iraq or convince Americans he has a plan to win the war, he…
Read MoreMaintenance
The News and Observer reports the maintenance for the RBC Center is going to cost $60 million over the next 16 years (6/27/06). Who can argue with that? We built it, we’ve got to take care of it. But there’s a warning here. When the City Council or County Commissioners spend $100 million for an…
Read MoreJohn Edwards to Democrats: You Need Backbone
John Edwards is telling Democrats they need backbone. Mr. Edwards is also running for President on the courageous platform of eliminating poverty. He says he can do it – or a lot of it – for $20 billion. Lyndon Johnston couldn’t eliminate poverty with the whole Great Society program. The trillions we’ve spent on welfare…
Read MoreUp! Up! Up!
The State Senate’s budget increases government spending a whopping 9.4%. But it turns out the Senators are the ones holding the line. The Governor wants to increase spending even more: 9.6%. And the House topped him: 9.7%. The Governor and the Senate want to spend 90.5% of the state’s $2.4 billion surplus – and return…
Read More