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Pickpockets

By Carter Wrenn January 2, 2014

You would think by now out of sheer boredom Congressmen would be looking for new ways to fool voters but, undeterred at using the same old worn-out trick again, just before Christmas eager-beaver Paul Ryan rolled out his new budget, saying how he’d made a deal with the Democrats to cut spending and cut the…

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A Symbol

By Carter Wrenn January 2, 2014

The newspaper headline read: Dome, full of cracks. And the newspaper reported: The aging iron dome ‘is slowly crumbling…riddled with hundreds of cracks and rust.’   The dome is the Capitol Dome. But the newspaper could just as easily have been writing about Congress itself.

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Possums

By Carter Wrenn December 31, 2013

Up in Brasstown deep in the Smoky Mountains, on every New Years Eve a local merchant holds a ‘Possum Drop’ – a western North Carolina version of the Yankees’ ball drop in Times Square.   What the mountain folks hadn’t counted on was PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) taking umbrage at the…

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A Great Success

By Carter Wrenn December 31, 2013

Years behind schedule, millions of dollars over budget, and riddled with 3,200  computer programming errors NC Tracks – the state’s new $486 million computer system for processing Medicaid checks – landed in the newspaper again. The News & Observer reported the Department of Health and Human Services still has no plan to right the ship and clean…

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2014: Another 2010?

By Gary Pearce December 24, 2013

Maybe I should apologize. But would Bob Rucho apologize? No sir! So I’ll double down, as they say.   My blog yesterday – warning that the next Congress might be run by people who think like Rucho – apparently ruined the Christmas spirit for some Democrats.   My friend Jerry Wayne Williamson of Boone (follow…

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A Christmas Truce

By Gary Pearce December 23, 2013

Americans are so polarized politically, we argue about Christmas and Santa Clause’s race. I propose a truce. And I’m going first.   Through a blessed accident of calendar, Christmas and New Year’s Day are on Wednesdays this year. That effectively wrecks two work weeks.   Good riddance.   But let’s go farther. Like German and…

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Flexible Ethics

By Gary Pearce December 20, 2013

Governor McCrory and Republican legislators said they would do away with “pay-to-play” and “corruption” in Raleigh.   Then a group of lobbyists held a fundraiser in Raleigh. It’s illegal, of course, for lobbyists to contribute to legislators.   But the fundraiser was for a congressional candidate named Phil Berger Jr.   Yes, the son of State Senate…

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Republican Vs. Republican

By Gary Pearce December 17, 2013

Don’t underestimate the chances that people who think like Bob Rucho might control Congress a year from now.   Behind Rucho’s tweet and the budget battle in Washington is a death match between the Tea Party and the GOP Establishment.  If the Tea Party wins that war, and if Obamacare sinks Democrats in November, the…

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Rucho’s Tweet

By Gary Pearce December 16, 2013

Sometimes all you have to do is repeat a politician’s own words. Like Senator Bob Rucho’s tweet: “Justice Robert’s pen & Obamacare has done more damage to the USA then the swords of the Nazis,Soviets & terrorists combined.”   (Note to grammar cops: Yes, his tweet said “has,” not “have” and “then,” not “than.”)  …

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Joe John

By Gary Pearce January 22, 2025

State Representative Joe John, who died today, looked something like a friendly but fierce bulldog. He…

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What You Missed

By Gary Pearce January 21, 2025

Some of my friends didn’t watch Trump’s inauguration. One went to church. One went to every…

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Women Warriors

By Gary Pearce January 19, 2025

The Democratic Party needs to get tougher, and that’s a job for Democratic women. Sydney Batch…

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