Mayor Meeker a Schools Convert?

It looks like our crusade to get the Raleigh City Council focused on schools is making progress. In his annual State of the City address this week, Mayor Charles Meeker laid out three goals for 2006: reduce fuel consumption, fight homelessness and – according to The News & Observer – “push Wake County to solve…

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Pay to Play

‘Pay to Play’ is the name the media has given the scandals that are going on in Raleigh. It means, roughly, lobbyists ‘pay’ (by making contributions) – if they want legislators to ‘play’ (listen to them or act on what they want) in Raleigh. To be fair to the lobbyists, they aren’t enamored about raising…

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Abortion Opponents May Regret This

For some time now, the political tide has been running against supporters of abortion rights. That’s because the opponents got smart. They started focusing the battle on issues like parental notification and late-term abortions. I’ve watched these polls for more than 20 years now. Americans are fundamentally split about abortion. They don’t like it, but…

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Scandals – ‘Pay to Play’

The Democrats in Raleigh have been embroiled in a series of scandals over the last six months that the newspapers have dubbed ‘pay to play’ – and as a result we have a series of investigations underway by everybody from the U. S. Attorney to the State Board of Elections. House Speaker Jim Black has…

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Property Tax Revolt Coming in NC

From the first taxpayers’ revolution in California in 1978, North Carolina has escaped a full-scale rebellion over local property taxes. I predict that is going to change soon. Specifically, this fall. And specifically right here in Wake County over the school bond issue. The issue is popping up all over the country again. South Carolina…

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Hoist By His Own Petard

I’m enjoying watching Republicans put President Bush on the hot seat for letting a Middle Eastern company run American ports. And I have a sneaking suspicion that beneath all this hoorah – as one of the commenters on our blog suggested – there might be nothing wrong with the arrangement. But you can’t blame me…

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Answering Bill Graham on the Gas Tax

A painful lesson Carter taught me in the 1984 Hunt-Helms race was the power of using your opponents’ own words against him. I thought of that when – for the first time – I saw Bill Graham’s ad against the state gas tax increase. His last line – after saying the politicians want him to…

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On the Public Doles

I believe The News & Observer was dead wrong Thursday morning about Senator Elizabeth Dole, her husband Bob Dole and the Dubai ports fiasco. The N&O, like other news outlets, reported that Bob Dole “has been hired by Dubai Ports World to help shepherd the company through a $6.8 billion deal to control terminals at…

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Bush’s First Veto

President Bush has not vetoed a single bill in five years in office. But, yesterday, it seemed at last he had found an issue so important it merited his first veto. What? The President wanted the United Arab Emirates (or, to be technically correct, a company owned by the government of the United Arab Emirates)…

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No Port in This Storm

President Bush’s decision to let Arab companies provide security for American ports confirms what I’ve always suspected: the one thing stronger than Bush & Co.’s fear of Arab terrorism is their greed for Arab money.

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