Posts by Carter Wrenn
Keeping Him Bought
Most of us realize candidates for President (except the candidate we happen to be supporting at the moment), well, to put it politely, dissemble. In fact, my friend, John, is leaning toward choosing his candidate this time based on how well he dissembles. His current choice is Mitt Romney. John’s theory works like this: If…
Read MoreShop at Crabtree Valley
To add insult to injury (as far as North Hill’s developer John Kane’s $78 million parking deck goes) the city is now building not one but two decks downtown. The first mammoth ($35-40 million) underground deck is already underway. But just to be sure he doesn’t run out of parking the Mayor’s building another 500…
Read MoreArson?
What I want to know is which fool â walking around Dare County â torched Marc Basnightâs restaurant? That would be akin to burning down Don Corleoneâs olive oil business. At first when I read the News and Observer headline â âSBI Blames Arson for Fire at Basnightâs Caféâ â I thought (for one second)…
Read MoreAn Inconvenient Truth
There are hucksters in just about every business. But science is sort of a, modern sacred cow. Scientists are generally accorded to respect once reserved for Popes and Bishops when it comes to the purity of their motives. So it comes as a shock that one of the corner-stone scientific ‘proofs’ of Global Warming turns…
Read MoreAttacking Hillary?
Sometimes political campaigns are counter initiative. What you’re sure makes sense turns out not to make sense at all. John and Elizabeth Edwards are part of one campaign, but both seem headed in different directions. John Edwards wants his campaign to be about getting out of Iraq and if he can make that the dominant…
Read MorePicking Up the Pieces
In 200 years no President has ever had his legal powers taken from him. But, in addition to his legal powers, a President must also have a political mandate to govern, and a case can be made that three of the last seven Presidents lost that mandate before they left office. And George Bush may…
Read MoreSubsidies and Skyscrapers
Developer John Kane’s back, asking the City Council to give him $75 million in public money (tax breaks) to subsidize the expansion of North Hills Mall. (I guess he’s figured out he can undercut his competitors if the city goes along with the county commissioners to allow him not to pay 75% of his property…
Read MoreForgetaboutit
If you’re a taxpayer in Roanoke Rapids you’re a guarantor on the city’s $21.5 million loan to Randy Parton to build the Randy Parton Theatre. But if you want to know how your investment is doing forgetaboutit. How’s attendance? Is Parton paying his $41,000 per month rent on time? Is their any money left after…
Read MoreHelping Fred Thompson
Say you are a candidate and need to get in step with Republican voters on immigration, because your record wasn’t quite what it should be. There’s one tried and true political strategy: Find an opponent whose record is worse than yours and attack him. That’s what Mitt Romney is doing – accusing Rudy Giuliani of…
Read MoreGilding the Lily Can Be Risky?
Rudy Giuliani has done a little lily gilding of his own, declaring in a campaign appearance he’d “been in the ruins of the World Trade Center Towers as often, if not more than the cleanup workers.” Unfortunately for the Mayor that wasn’t how the workers remembered it. They complained. And the New York Times did…
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