Posts by Carter Wrenn
None of the Above
Here in North Carolina the Democrats poll (Public Policy Polling) shows President Bush’s popularity continues to be low (News and Observer, 5-21-07). President Bush Job Approval Approve – 41% Disapprove – 52% And, if anything, the numbers in the Republican (Civitas Institute) poll are worse. Approve – 39% Disapprove – 57% The good news is…
Read MoreA Political Grab
The Democrats want to give North Carolina’s Electoral College votes to the candidate who wins the popular vote nationwide. Instead of to the candidate who wins North Carolina. The Republicans of course are up in arms, making the Electoral College sound as sacrosanct as the College of Cardinals. Is the Democratic plan partisan? Yes. Does…
Read MoreClueless?
North Carolinians need look no further than Wednesday’s action by a state House Committee to confirm that the representatives are clueless about public dissatisfaction with the legislature. – Winston-Salem Journal May 21, 2007 Last week the State Board of Elections said Representative Thomas Wright had failed to report $220,000 in campaign donations. And that he…
Read MoreJohn Edwards Makes $285,000
Whatever fig leaf of credibility John Edwards had left is in tatters. Consider this report from a California blog. Edwards charges $55,000 to speak to UC Davis students about poverty. Democratic Presidential candidate John Edwards, who recently proposed an educational policy that urged “every financial barrier” be removed for American kids who want to go…
Read MoreThe Answer to Rising Gas Prices
In the last week gas prices have risen seventeen cents. They’ve risen thirty-four cents in the past month. The last time that happened the oil industry said it was Hurricane Katrina. Which made sense. The Gulf of Mexico is full of oil rigs. So the solution was to grin and bear it. But why are…
Read MoreMeeker Goes Halfway
Last week something unusual happened on the City Council. Mayor Meeker recused himself from a vote. Why unusual? Well, for years, the Mayor’s been voting on city agreements with the downtown developer his son works with. So, what changed? The Mayor says the problem is his law firm is representing ‘a Fayetteville Street building owner…
Read MoreBoundless Passions
Mayor Meeker’s passion for spending money downtown knows no bounds. It tests the borders of the infinite. First, he gets the city council to increase spending on his pink elephant Convention Center to $220 million. No sooner is that done than he gets the Council to spend three or four million on his English-style Roundabouts…
Read MoreJohn Edwards’ Transparency
The other day two radio commentators on NPR were joking about a survey they’d taken of presidential candidates. One of the questions each candidate was asked, What is your dream job? The first commentator said, I love Congressman Tom Tancredo’s answer best. Tancredo – a dark horse candidate – when asked what his dream job…
Read MoreBuying Drugs in Canada
It just seems like just yesterday that the newspapers reported the Democrats in Congress were about to pass legislation to let pharmacists and consumers buy prescription drugs in Canada. The pharmaceutical industry quashed that idea like a bug. It was alive one day and dead as a doornail the next. Why? The big pharmaceutical companies…
Read MoreThe Deal of a Lifetime
Imagine this. Your employer loans you $12.5 million to build a country-western music theatre, pays you $1.5 million a year to manage it, then tells you when the debt is repaid you can buy the theatre for $1. And as a perk he gives you a house to live in. That would never happen you…
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