Posts by Carter Wrenn
High Heels
Maybe I’ve got this wrong but it seems like for years state government was bumbling and fumbling, but basically – except for the occasional road building scandal – honest. Now, times have changed. State government is still bumbling but its also learned chicanery and sleight of hand. Follow this story from the newspaper the…
Read MorePutty in Her Hands
Last summer, Governor Perdue promised legislators huge spending cuts in Medicaid if they’d let her pass out $250 million in no bid contracts – which she said would bring cost saving efficiencies. They did. She did. But no savings materialized. Instead, the Department of Health and Human Services is $250 million over budget.…
Read MoreStay Tuned
Tiger Woods ought to offer John Edwards a free golf lesson – a thank you for knocking him off the front pages of the newspapers. Last week there was a new twist in the saga of John and Liz and Andy and Rielle – and, surely, after this development the announcement the four of…
Read MoreTrick ‘Em
Back in her days in the General Assembly the Governor developed a sure-fire way to deal with legislators: Bumfuzzle ‘em. For instance: The Governor’s biggest department, the leviathan Department of Health and Human Services, has already plowed through its $200 million budget increase, plus spent another $250 million on no-bid contracts (a lot of…
Read MoreThe Great Satan
The other night, snowbound, I turned on the television: The Grammy Awards started with a gentleman dragging a blonde – I think it was Lady Gaga – across the stage. Then wearing pink glitter eye make-up and a kind of show girl costume with lime green wings the blonde went to bumping and grinding. Then…
Read MoreThe Fox
The legislature handed Lanier Cansler $200 million more to spend this year than last year and he promptly spent it all plus $250 million more – so, now, his department’s in the red and he’s pointing fingers at everyone in sight saying it’s their fault: The Obama Administration, the flu, the recession. …
Read More$6,700 Each
Last week a chill just stole out of the State Board of Elections and settled over the Republicans in the State House – Democrat Leader Joe Hackney filed his campaign’s financial report. And he has a healthy $418,000 in the bank – while Republican Leader Skip Stam has just $13,000. Representative Stam made the…
Read MoreGovernor Perdue on (Mis)Management
I have stumbled across a state agency that’s more mismanaged than Lanier Cansler’s. The Virtual Public Schools agency is (theoretically) leading North Carolina into the New Age of Internet education; students in rural areas will be taught in ‘Virtual Classrooms’ where they can learn anything from Chinese to Sanskrit – it’s technological innovation at…
Read MoreYou Couldn’t Make This Up…
20/20’s story the other night about John Edwards and mistress Rielle Hunter was brutal; after watching Edwards die the death of a thousand cuts I thought, This fellow needs a break and if he doesn’t get one this may end more badly than anyone’s imagined. You couldn’t make up what’s happened to Edwards: Sitting…
Read MoreDemocrats Reforming Again
The pictures of young Ruffin Poole being led into the federal courthouse hand-cuffed has sent Democrats into a frenzy to pass another round of Ethics Reforms â and itâs like âdéjà vuâ all over again. After every scandal (from Jim Black fixing the Lottery Commission to Mike Easleyâs wife getting a $170,000 a year…
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