General
The Law of Unintended Consequences
A doctor is a simple creature. He measures achievement by a straightforward standard – the Hippocratic Oath. A businessman also measures success by a simple standard – money, income and outgo. But a bureaucrat has the misfortune of breathing and walking in the murky world of insider politics. Which is like no other…
Read MoreGot Something to Hide?
It’s amazing how fast politicians go from being all for openness and transparency to all-out for keeping public information from the public. Take the Republican legislators’ fight to keep secret their emails about redistricting. Hmmm, wonder what they might be hiding there? Then take DENR. Last Friday at about 5 pm, the department…
Read MoreCoal Ash
I don’t know why but I’ve become absorbed by the machinations of bureaucrats – it’s a bit like watching Alice in Wonderland: Down is up, and up is down. Take hard work. Businessmen work hard to get ahead. Students work hard for better grades. But who joins a bureaucracy to work…
Read MoreThe Future Is Now
“A change is coming, and it’s blue.” That’s the conclusion of an op-ed that looked at why more young Americans are voting Democratic. And it was my conclusion after several hours at the College Democrats/Young Democrats convention in Greenville Saturday. I found an impressive group of smart, dedicated and determined Democrats who are getting…
Read MoreGreen Paint Balls
About a month ago Greg Brannon, dead-set on getting elected to the Senate, was trying to build momentum and gain ground on front-runner Thom Tillis then, out of a clear blue sky, two investors sued Brannon for flamoozling them out of $250,000 and a jury ruled he had to repay the money. That opened…
Read MoreAddicted to Koch
Thomas Mills at PoliticsNC riled up some Democrats when he questioned the strategy of going after the Koch brothers. I have the same question. Is this a classic case of chasing the cape and missing the matador? A national poll this week showed that half of all Americans don’t even know who the…
Read MoreA Better Way
Charlotte minister Mark Harris, who’s running for Senate, hit a rough patch when he released a poll showing him trailing Thom Tillis by 11 points – an inconvenient fact his political aide, Tom Perdue, brushed aside by saying, “The fact that we are down actually means we are way up.” Saying down is up…
Read MoreWake Up
You couldn’t design a more perfect Democratic candidate for Wake County in 2014 than Sarah Crawford. Proven success in a professional career and in community service – check. Attended public schools and college here – check. Young mother with children in public schools – check. Energy, smarts, savvy and a fiendishly hard worker – check,…
Read MoreDuking It Out
Duke Energy and Duke basketball had a bad March. Duke basketball probably will come back sooner than Duke Energy. Duke Energy knows it has a problem. The utility took out full-page newspaper ads Sunday – the classic corporate PR response. It was a waste of money. A paid ad persuades no one…
Read MoreFracking, Drilling and Spilling
A federal criminal investigation. A massive, destructive spill. Deliberate pumping of bad stuff into water that people drink. Is this a description of the current Duke Energy debacle? Or a preview of hydraulic fracking for natural gas in North Carolina? The Duke mess is a huge – and perhaps fatal – problem for…
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