Posts by Carter Wrenn
Chapter Two – Nancy Pelosi
With North Korea building missiles and Iran building nuclear bombs it looks like the time has come for us to build the Strategic Missile Defense. After all, if Korea or Iran are dead set on building nuclear weapons, there doesn’t seem to be a way to stop them – short of launching a pre-emptive nuclear…
Read MoreA Second No to a “Surge”?
President Bush goes on TV tonight to discuss Iraq. The Democrats in Congress, who oppose President Bushâs âsurgeâ just got some help form unexpected quarters: Iraqâs Prime Minister, Nouri al Maliki. Malikiâs spokesman told the press that when âPresident Bush told the prime minister he was ready to send additional troopsâ instead of saying, âYes.…
Read MoreThe Female Mystique
I must admit the primordial male in me is having a little trouble coping with all the gushing over ‘the first female Speaker of the House.’ It seems to me we are having another pop-culture moment – a media feeding frenzy not as intense as like Tom Cruise’s wedding or Angelina Jolie’s baby – but…
Read MoreTrees and Earmarks
Here are two stories from the newspaper about how government works – or doesn’t work. Trees It took three years for Raleigh to approve Mayor Meeker’s tree ordinance. Two more years have passed since then, and, now, the city is getting ready to take another look at the thirty-three section ordinance. So, with the new…
Read MoreQuote of the Day
When Mayor Meeker announced he was running for reelection he told the press he considered running for Senate but decided against it. “In a fast growing city like Raleigh,” he said, “there’s more for a mayor to do than a junior member of Congress.” News and Observer columnist, Dennis Rogers, had the last word. “Of…
Read MoreDeja vu “All Over Again”
Lt. Governor Beverly Perdue just rolled out an ‘old chestnut’ as she launches her campaign for Governor. She says she wants to appoint a new government ‘efficiency commission’. It’s hard to say whether the Lt. Governor is an eternal optimist of a hard-bitten cynic. The last three governors all had ‘efficiency commissions’ of their own,…
Read MoreA “Surge” versus a “Bump”
President Bush’s much heralded ‘surge’ in Iraq has withered down to a ‘bump.’ Instead of sending forty-thousand more soldiers to Baghdad, according to the State Department we’re planning to send fifteen or twenty-thousand. Three or four combat brigades. Why not three or four divisions? If sending more soldiers to Iraq is valid logic, why not…
Read MoreCommon Sense and Lacrosse
After Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong took the oath of office for a new term, apparently, the press was complaining about not being allowed to attend the ceremony, asking if it violated the Open Meetings laws. Judge Orlando Hudson, who swore in Nifong, then became the first government official in quite a while to say…
Read MoreBackstage Politics: Meeker on Senators vs. Mayors
While Judge Hudson was making common sense, Mayor Meeker was headed in the opposite direction. The Mayor told the News and Observer (1-3-07) he has “considered” running for the United States Senate against Elizabeth Dole, but decided there is more a mayor in a bustling city like Raleigh can do than a Senator. So he’s…
Read MoreVillains and Heroes
The Associated Press just took one of its perennial New Year’s Eve polls, asking questions like “Who was the biggest villain this past year?” George Bush was the biggest villain. More Americans said President Bush was a villain, than said Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (Iran’s nuclear arms building President) and Kim Jong…
Read More