The Democrats File a Dud

When the Democrats sued the Republicans over redistricting I thought we might be treated to see a bit of grand political theatre with Republicans arguing for the Voting Rights Act (which they hate) and Democrats arguing against it (even though they’ve been in love with it for four decades).   It’s a disappointment but no…

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Burr for VP?

After Senator Richard Burr and former Senator Elizabeth Dole endorsed Mitt Romney, a reporter asked: Do endorsements matter? Answer: Not to voters, but definitely to politicians and reporters.   No voter who is torn between, say, Romney and Newt Gingrich will think: “Gee, I don’t know who to vote for. So I’ll just vote for…

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Reshuffling

This headline should strike fear in us: “State government reorganizes, seeking more efficiency.”   Pardon my cynicism, but I’ve seen this movie before. Every administration in Washington and every state capital promises to reinvent, reorganize and rethink government.   Now, Rob Christensen reports in the N&O that North Carolina is scrambling the bureaucratic eggs again. This…

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Incompetence Rewarded

Just as the N.C. Department of Agriculture gets new responsibilities, we find out it bungled its current duties.   Lynn Bonner reports in the N&O:   “The state Agriculture Department failed to fine propane plants, dispensing sites and other facilities that mishandled the highly flammable gas, putting the public at risk and costing public schools…

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Blind Dumb Luck…

A week ago, I thought, It’s too farfetched – Rick Santorum rising in the polls in Iowa would be like blind dumb luck or lightning striking.   All year with pure steadfastness a quarter of the Republican voters have stuck by Mitt Romney though thick and thin. But they’ve been the only thing steadfast in…

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Sign of the Times

Once upon a time, owning a newspaper was literally a license to print money. Then came Craigslist and EBay, there went profitable classified ads and then came the waves of layoffs and furloughs.  How far a newspaper’s value has fallen is shown by the sale of 16 regional papers – including the Wilmington Star-News and…

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Bowled Over

Lisa Piercy was right when she tweeted: “There are too many bowl games.”   I figured that out as I sat freezing in temperatures in the 40s and winds in the 30s at the Belk Bowl. (When I tweeted about where I was, a friend replied: “Where are you sitting: Men’s wear, shoes, jewelry???”)  …

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A Barn Raising

The other day in the newspaper, below an article about unemployment, there was another article headlined “NCSU chancellor gets ‘a great venue.’”   Now, someone thought very carefully about the choice of that word ‘venue.’   North Carolina State University has a problem. Because building a new $3.5 million house for its chancellor in the…

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Jobbed

Governor Perdue has been taking heat from Republicans for allegedly breaking the law by releasing federal job numbers.   Which raises two questions:   Since when did Republicans get so concerned about protecting federal-government information?   Was it since the numbers were good for the Governor?  

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Once we knew…but not anymore

The President of Afghanistan’s in a fix: The U.S. Army, he says, hasn’t won the war so there’s no peace to give his people the “individual personal security” they need.   Half a century ago, in four years, we crushed Hitler’s armies and occupied his country and there was peace, but, today, it appears whatever…

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