A TAPster with years of experience around the legislature offers this take on the NCAE veto override: “The Republicans in the N.C. House have made a needless mess of their agenda with 1 am sessions to take potshots at their political enemies. It’s a mystery why the Rs made themselves look so weak and…
Read MoreSpeaker Thom Tillis has enjoyed pretty good press over the past year. Then he has one bad day – or, more accurately, late night/early morning – and he gets touchy: “Tomorrow will be the last day I receive the Charlotte Observer at home after nearly 14 years. I decided if the Charlotte Observer is…
Read MoreI havenât kept count, but I guess that so far Pat McCrory has âannouncedâ heâs running for Governor about â I donât know, say a bazillion times. So this tweet from Blair Miller, anchor-reporter at WSOC-TV in Charlotte, caught my eye: âAsked the McCrory camp (twice) when/where “official” announcement for his candidacy will…
Read MoreHere’s a good use for Bill Faison’s half-million dollars – or somebody’s: a super-PAC that hammers at the “legislature’s war on teachers.” Here’s the message (or narrative, as we say today): “First they slashed education budgets and forced layoffs of hundreds of teachers and teacher assistants. Then they took college scholarships away from aspiring…
Read MoreThe last time Newt Gingrich got this mad, he shut down the federal government. He thought Bill Clinton disrespected him by giving him a bad seat on Air Force One. Now he thinks Mitt Romney disrespected him by having super-PACs dump millions of dollars on his head in Iowa, making his comeback one of…
Read MoreI don’t know enough to judge the changes the new Wake school board is making in the assignment plan. Of course, I’m inclined to trust the new members – and distrust anything the old majority did. But I’m bothered. In the board elections last year and two years ago, voters rebelled against too…
Read MoreThe legislature apparently is determined to help Governor Perdue win reelection. The worse the legislature looks, the better her chances in November look. Now she can bash them over a post-midnight power play that punishes teachers who dare to speak out against education budget cuts. (That’s how I’d explain it. It will make a…
Read MoreNewspaper headline: ‘Santorum strategy pays off.’ New York Times synopsis: Rick Santorum reached the top in Iowa with a savvy strategy – by relying on his own instincts he succeeded with no polls, no speechwriter, and skeletal advertising. That’s one explanation. Of course, there’s another. Headline: Lightning strikes Santorum. Synopsis: After his…
Read MoreWhile General Washington camped in New York waiting for the British to attack, fifty-six men in Philadelphia – who said they not only had a Creator but that He’d given them what they called inalienable rights – crossed the Rubicon and told the King of England they were done being colonists. Then, years later,…
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