When Zahra Baker – who is 10-years-old – showed up with bruises and black eyes her friends and relatives reported their concerns she was being abused by her parents to the Department of Social Services. Then, a week ago, Zahra’s disappeared. And now the police, saying it looks like homicide, have jailed her…
Read MoreThere ought to be a play in the theatre of the absurd about Wall Street: After making trillions in bad loans, and then getting bailed out by taxpayers, the banks and finance companies are staring into the abyss again: This time because foreclosures have ground to a standstill. And the reason (Wall Street is…
Read MoreThe economy’s in the tank, the deficits soared past a trillion dollars, and the economy’s so shaky all that’s saving the government from bankruptcy is the Chinese loaning us money. Listening to the news it sounds like half the country’s being foreclosed on and half is out of work – but, while the rest…
Read MoreHistorians and politicos yearn for stable, predictable political eras. Arthur Schlesinger Jr. wrote about the “cycles” of American politics – the Progressive Era, the Republican Roaring 20s, the Age of Roosevelt, etc. After 2008, James Carville predicted 40 years of Democratic dominance. After 2000, Karl Rove predicted a permanent realignment. So…
Read MoreBy now most everyone has figured out the two things Democratic politicians love to talk about more than anything else on earth are Education and Health Care. Beverly Perdue talked about both so much two years ago she got herself elected our first woman Governor. But there was a peculiar fact – about health…
Read MoreI don’t care for Paul Coble’s politics, but I like him personally. So I’m giving him some advice about his TV ads: lose the rich furnishings. I regret I don’t have a link to the ads. Couldn’t find it anywhere. The ads are short – maybe 10 or 15 seconds. Paul is talking…
Read MoreI love polls. When I did campaigns, I spent hours digging through them. Numbers don’t lie, and they tell you what’s obscured in the political blather. The latest NBC-Wall Street Journal poll lays out clearly what’s happening in this election. The headline is that voters prefer a Republican Congress over a Democratic one by 50-43…
Read MoreThere’s a scene in the movie Erin Brockovich where Julia Roberts runs head on into the epitome of an oily corporate lawyer who represents Pacific Gas and Electric. In real life the lawyer who represented PG&E was Rene Tatro, who’s known as ‘The Darth Vader of the environmental movement.’ Attorney Tatro is now…
Read MoreSo here’s what has happened: Secretary Lanier Cansler promised legislators he could cut the Medicaid Home Care $50 million (because, he said, the 45% of the patients were cheats) – if they’d let him give out a no bid contract to one of his former clients. But it turned out only 3% of the…
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