Posts by Carter Wrenn
The Looniest Department: CCME, Again and Again and Again
Right now if you’re a Medicaid patient or are a nurse or a nurse’s aide who cares for a patient you’re facing hard times – your medical care’s being cut or your hours are being cut or your pay’s being cut, by Craigan Gray Medicaid Director at DHHS. But if you’re one of the…
Read MoreThe Looniest Department: Turning DHHS into an HMO
Since he’s a former health care lobbyist I guess it’s not surprising Secretary Lanier Cansler has decided to run the Department of Health and Human Services as if, well, it was an HMO or an insurance company. Of course, the thing folks hate most about insurance companies is simple: When they go to…
Read MoreThe Looniest Department: Putting Infants in Nursing Homes?
They’re a lot of things going on at DHHS that are just plain odd, even for a state agency. For instance, Governor Perdue put a health care lobbyist in charge of DHHS’ budget – which includes granting billions in health care contracts. Then the lobbyist – Secretary Lanier Cansler – put a gynecologist in…
Read MoreThe Looniest Department in State Government
Over the summer I did TV ads and Internet videos for the Association for Hospice and Home Care and, in the process, got a close up look at the inner-workings of the Department of Health and Human Services – which has to be the looniest department in state government. I guess the best example…
Read MoreGetting it Backwards
Over at the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Lanier Cansler has been lamenting that he’s got to cut $4 billion or $1 billion (the number seems to change from day to day) from his department’s budget. When you think about it it’s an odd thing – but the liberals in the Perdue…
Read MorePost Election News
Since Election Night the pundits on Fox and CNN and MSNBC have been furiously pontificating, the Democrats declaring, Well, it’s not really all that bad, and Republicans arguing back the Democrats got drubbed and voters repudiated Obama. But what really happened was a typical odd-year election. President Obama hasn’t ended the…
Read MoreTony Rand
Ole Tony ‘the Fixer’ Rand is hanging up his spurs and retiring from the legislature and it’s created quite a buzz in Raleigh. It’s like the Pope retiring. But what’s got everyone befuddled, the big question everyone’s asking is, Why on earth does Tony – at 70 years old – want to be Head of…
Read MoreCool and Unflappable – Hooey!
A lot of my Democratic friends and a fair amount of the media were raving last week about how cool and unflappable Mike Easley was at his hearing before the State Board of Elections;—but how many times can a fellow fall for the same con job? Sergeant Shultz was German and pedantic while…
Read MoreEasley Takes the Stand…
Well, what went on in Raleigh yesterday in the State Board of Elections hearing was high political drama – the fireworks started right off when Easley buddy McQueen Campbell fessed up he’d paid for $11,000 in repairs on Easley’s house in Raleigh, then sent Easley’s campaign a fake bill for the $11,000 – which the…
Read MoreI’ve Waited Thirty Years For This…
I worked with Jesse Helms so over the years I grew accustomed to looking at polls where politicians had high ‘Unfavorable’ ratings. But I’ve never seen a politician in North Carolina with an ‘Unfavorable’ rating of 49.8% except once (in a poll for Helms) when for some long since forgotten reason we tested Fidel Castro’s…
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