Archive for August 2012
GOP Sex Change 2012
I can’t wait to weigh in on Paul Ryan as VP. Meantime, here’s a revealing guest blog from a female TAPster: Four years ago, the Brain Trust of the Republican Party decided the way to offset the Obama Change Machine was with an unknown female Governor from a far-flung, sparsely populated state. It was a…
Read MoreGovernment on the Cheap
As I ease back into the post-vacation routine, hereâs a guest submission from a TAPster: The recent crash of a Charlotte-based C-130 aircraft while fighting wildfires in the western US makes a sad, revealing point about the mindset of our government today. That aircraft was a cargo plane, but had been modified to…
Read MoreAn Unexpected Service
Until Saturday Mitt Romney’s road to the White House was straightforward – the election was a debate about Barack Obama’s failure to turn the economy around. That has now changed. The election will still be about Obama’s failure but it will also be about the Republicans’ cure for that failure: Paul Ryan’s budget. …
Read MoreToo Much Government
The headline on John Dresher’s ‘tweet’ (“Wake Forest Baptist cited for violating federal regulations after monkey’s escape”) was more temptation than I could resist – I clicked on the link to the story imagining a ‘foot washing’ Baptist with a monkey and what the monkey could have done that landed him in trouble but, it…
Read MoreAn Odd Fact
Whenever the question of how to improve education in North Carolina comes up the Democrats are a paragon of consistency: The solution, they say, is to spend more money. Now, right or wrong, the Democrats are dead serious and whenever Republicans (who have a different idea about solutions to problems) don’t spend more on…
Read MorePopcorn Politics Part Deux
**Gary is taking a break from blogging and he asked a few Tapsters to post a few blogs. Here is another one a Tapster sent in: The biggest day of the 2012 political calendar is August 10. No, that’s not the start of the much-ballyhooed and underfunded Democratic National Convention, nor is it…
Read MorePopcorn Politics
**Gary is taking a break from blogging and he asked a few Tapsters to post a few blogs. Here is one a Tapster sent in: The rankings of the allegedly most influential lobbyists were released last week by the NC Center for Public Policy Research. This biennial joke was greeted by the usual…
Read MoreWhen It’s Over…
Harry Reid stands up beside his desk in the Senate and announces he’s got ‘credible evidence’ Mitt Romney hasn’t paid taxes for ten years – but then says he’s not sure it’s true. The Chairman of the Republican Party, throwing manners aside, brands Reid a ‘dirty liar.’ Reid’s spokesman fires back it’s ‘clear…
Read MoreWhy Is It Close?
A prominent Democrat asked this question: “With the economy so bad, why is Obama even close in North Carolina?” Three theories: (1) Voters like him; (2) they don’t like Romney; (3) they’re afraid the Tea Party has taken over the Republican Party. Maybe all three are right. A poll found Obama leading in…
Read MoreA Hard Fight
It started four years ago as an uneven fight: Five rural County Commissioners against a multi-national conglomerate with plants from Iceland to Arabia – so, losing ground, the Commissioners who’re Republicans turned to the Democratic Governor for help and got it in an odd way: The Governor helped but, at the same time, her Department…
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