Archive for 2015
Speaking of Which…
When you’ve been in politics some 40 years, as Carter and I have, you’ve heard a few great speeches and many bad ones. And written some of both (we like to think). Which must be why the N&O’s John Drescher turned to us for his column on “what makes a good speech.” John was reacting…
Read MoreDemocrats in Labour
British elections are entertaining. For Democrats this year, they’re also instructive. First the entertainment. On election night, all candidates for a Parliamentary seat stand on stage whilst the results are announced, like American Idol contestants waiting to see if they won or lost. They all wear big badges with their party colors. Then they all…
Read MoreThis Space for Sale
From time to time I post blogs from an anonymous TAPster. His offerings are welcome and refreshing, welcome because they save me work, and refreshing because they offer the perspective of a seasoned observer of the Raleigh scene, as well as a certain inspired looniness that comes over a man who is all but retired…
Read MoreBill Friday and the Hairdresser
Governor McCrory says our universities’ mission is to put butts in jobs. Bill Friday believed their mission is to set minds and spirits soaring so they can make North Carolina a better place. The contrast between that blinkered view and that broad vision was never captured better than in Jane Stancill’s remarkable story Sunday about…
Read MoreArtful Lies
Little White Lies. Outright Lies. Artful Lies. Once a bartender told a sailor on leave for the weekend, There’re a lot of prostitutes down at the bus station. Say hello to Anna if you see her. Listening you’d think Anna was a prostitute but you’d be wrong: She was the sixty year-old clerk working behind…
Read MoreA Tale of Two Tales
There are two competing political narratives on the state’s budget picture. The question is whether voters will buy either one. When a budget surplus was predicted last week, Democrats and Republicans pounced. “Chicken Littles on the left loudly cried North Carolina would lose so much tax revenue that students wouldn’t have teachers, roads wouldn’t be…
Read MoreWashed Up
A TAPster who has too much time on his hands and no love lost for my beloved OBX offers the rant. I post it here because I am, after all, fair and balanced. Highway 12 on the Outer Banks collapsed again last week. There was no hurricane, nor a storm of any kind. The moon…
Read MoreSchooling Democrats
On Monday, I wondered (“Why is School Out?”) whether Democrats in the legislature have retreated from the education battlefield. On Tuesday – coincidentally, I’m sure – the NC Democratic Party put out a news release: “Teacher Appreciation Week draws attention to consequences of McCrory education cuts: NC approaches massive teacher shortage as class sizes rise,…
Read MoreA Misunderstanding, Chapter 1
The Governor’s biggest challenge, a Republican consultant explained to the newspaper, is coming up with a way to overhaul Medicaid and stopping its persistent cost overruns – if the Governor can do that, the consultant said, it “practically will insure his reelection.” Which sounds fine – except for a misunderstanding. Six years ago, back in…
Read MoreIn Sambisa Forest
The soldiers slaughtered her husband, dragged her away from her children, then took her to their stronghold in Sambisa Forest. In their camp, when they learned she was pregnant, they told her that a week after her child was born she would be married to one of their commanders – one of the men who’d…
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