Posts by Carter Wrenn
Guilty but Not Guilty
The head of the Optometrist PAC, who gave former speaker Jim Black blank checks, which Black in turn gave Representative Michael Decker (some says as a bribe for Decker’s vote) entered an ‘Alford Plea’ in court last week. The News and Observer described how an ‘Alford Plea’ works in another case, involving a school teacher…
Read MoreGoogled?
State and local government have made a deal to give Google $260 million to put 210 jobs (with average salaries of $48,000) in Caldwell County. Do the math: $260,000,000 in ‘incentives’ is greater than the total salaries Google will pay over the next 24 years. Supporters of these deals say that government subsidizing corporations is…
Read MoreSexism and Bigger Jets
The Air Force jet former Speaker Dennis Hastert used can’t fly all the way to California without stopping to refuel, so Speaker Pelosi wants a bigger plane. The Air Force said no. The Speaker shot back, “I’m not saying that I am being discriminated against because I am a woman. I’m just saying as the…
Read MoreBackstage Politics: The Way Things Change after the Election
Senator Claire McCaskill, the newly elected (with a boost from Michael J. Fox) Missouri Democrat, won “election last year with a populist campaign bashing special interest and corporate lobbyists.” (News and Observer; 1-29-07). That was before the election. After the election Senator McCaskill invited dozens of those same lobbyists “to a fundraiser: $1,000 per political…
Read MoreWhat If…
When President Bush met with House Republicans in a closed door session to defend his new troop deployment, he said, “I’m the decision-maker.” (News and Observer; 1-27-07). Only, when it was leaked to the press it sounded a bit like Al Haig charging into the White House press room after President Reagan was wounded and…
Read MoreOver Answering, Indeed!
It may be a coincidence and not the vaunted Clinton PR machine at work, but since Hillary announced there have been two attacks on John Edwards (see Gary’s post below: The Orange County White House.) and one on Barack Obama in the media. The attack on Edwards went like this: How can he build a…
Read MoreThe Curious Affair of the House Historian
It seemed peculiar: After former Speaker Jim Black had the State House pay one of his political appointees $80,000 to write a ‘history’ of the State House, he refused to make it public. Compared to the other House scandals – Lottery Commissioner Kevin Geddings’ trial, allegations of bribes, illegal lobbying – the ‘curious affair of…
Read MoreSpending Like a Drunken Sailor
Looking out the window as he gave his state of the city address, Mayor Meeker noted the four cranes hovering over his $221 million convention center, his $20 million downtown hotel and his $40 million underground parking lot. (News and Observer; 1-23-07). Then the Mayor proposed building a 28 mile adventure trail along the banks…
Read MoreBush and Webb
In his State of the Union Speech, President Bush laid out his vision of the war on terrorism, saying Islamic Radicalism is an ideology – much like Communism and Nazism were ideologies in their times, opposing everything we stand for and determined to destroy us. Democratic Senator Jim Webb, in his rebuttal, did not differ…
Read MorePolitics and DOT
A study by a local government agency in Raleigh reports that over a 15 year period (1991-2005) Wake County paid “about $186 million” a year in transportation taxes – while the DOT only spent “$132 million per year” to build roads here. In other words DOT took $54 million a year in highway taxes –…
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