Archive for 2010
Tea Party Skunk
I thought it was my job to be the skunk at the garden party: yesterday’s John Locke Foundation “Headliners Luncheon.” Then Mr. Herbert Hoover Rosser (yes, his real name) stood up. I was the token Democrat on the panel. The other panelists and audience members were savoring the prospect of big Republican wins come…
Read MoreGary Responds to Carter’s Response
Carter, if you and I are going to start being all reasonable with each other, we’re going to lose our readers! Your response poses a question I can’t begin to answer: How will Muslims around the world interpret it if we let the Islamic community center go up? (Though I would be happy…
Read MoreThe Main Attraction
Today’s N&O story by Jay Price and Mandy Locke captured a telling vignette from the competing political rallies by the “Spending Revolt” bus tour and Organizing For America: Both featured videos of President Obama. It reminded me of a conversation I had with a thoughtful Republican. He opined that the anger driving this year’s…
Read MoreThe Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight
A few years ago the Department of Health and Human Services set out to reform mental care and wrecked it. Next it set out to reform in-home care for Medicaid patients and wrecked it. And, now, itâs got another â $265 million dollar â train wreck on its hands. Back before he…
Read MoreCarter Responds to Gary
Now, Gary, that’s what I call a reasonable response. And you’ve raised a good question: Does building the mosque at Ground Zero make it easier or harder to win the War on Terrorism? The theory that building the mosque takes us a step closer to victory, it seems to me, goes like this: By…
Read MoreThe Same Old Republican Pledge
For the fourth consecutive decade, Republicans are “pledging” to cut taxes and cut spending. Ronald Reagan made the pledge in the 1980s. Newt Gingrich made it in the 1990s. George Bush made it in the 2000s. And now it’s back in the 2010 “Pledge to America.” Jon Stewart did a masterful job of…
Read MoreCall it Religion
The school board down in Johnston County has a problem: Every time fourteen-year-old Ariana Iacono walks through the door of her school with her ‘stud’ in her pierced nose she gets suspended – but she simply won’t give up. She goes home, serves out her suspension then demurely returns to school with the stud in…
Read MoreGary Responds to Carter
Well, Carter, to be fair, I didn’t call you “a bigoted skunk.” I’ve grown more mellow these days, and I try to avoid name-calling. Instead, I said your ad for Renee Ellmers was “an appeal to anti-Muslim prejudice.” I think that is a fair statement. “Sixty Minutes” had an interesting piece about the…
Read MoreThe Obama Voters
In 2004, George Bush beat John Kerry by 51-47 percent in the popular vote. Four years later, President Obama beat John McCain 50-49 among the same voters. A significant swing, but not huge. What gave Obama a landslide victory was the surge of new voters. Among people voting in 2008 for the first…
Read MoreThe Wrong Message
Gary, doggone it, itâs like âdéjà vu all over againâ â here you are [see below] attacking me for a TV ad. Canât a fellow even oppose the Ground Zero mosque without being called a bigoted skunk? And how did the folks opposing the mosque become the wicked, hard-hearted âdividersâ as opposed to the Iman…
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