General
There Will Surely Be A Reckoning
The following article about the war in Afghanistan was in the newspaper Saturday: ABOARD A BLACK HAWK HELICOPTER IN SOUTHERN AFGHANISTAN By ANJA NIEDRINGHAUS, Associated Press The Army medics had just dropped off a Marine wounded in a bombing when one reached over and handed me a scribbled note inside the noisy U.S. helicopter. …
Read MoreRaleigh, DC?
Is Raleigh becoming a local copy of Washington’s bitter partisanship and polarization? Long-time lobbyists say they’ve never before seen the level of anger, acrimony and arrogance that marked the Republicans’ first session. Some blame the Republicans’ determination to get everything all at once – and get back at anybody who stands in their…
Read MoreA $200 Million Snafu
Secretary Lanier Cansler has landed in $200 million worth of hot water. Back in the days when Cansler was a lobbyist the Department of Health and Human Services gave his client CSC Corporation a $287 million state contract to process Medicaid claims. Shortly thereafter Cansler gave up lobbying and, thanks to Governor Perdue, became…
Read MoreSlipped Through
It’s strange how the wheels and cogs turn in the state legislature. Senators and Representatives sit and lolly-gag for months then a week before they go home all hell breaks loose and the floodgates open and suddenly 170 legislators are working day and night trying to pass hundreds of bills. It looks crazy. But…
Read MoreChicken Littles
Iâm certainly prepared to believe that the Republican budget will damage education in North Carolina. But when it comes to the dire warnings about damage to the environment, Iâm a skeptic. Itâs a skepticism honed by 40 years of hearing environmentalists warn that the sky (and air and land) are falling into ruination, while…
Read MoreGeek Tragedy/Comedy
The Anthony Weiner scandal exposes (so to speak) the deadly mixture of three narcissistic pursuits: politics, social media and the gym. Weiner, by all appearances (so to speak), is a classic political geek: the president of the debate club who wasn’t exactly Cool in School. But in politics, he’s cool. Once he gets to…
Read MoreMore Political Foolishness
Talk about political double talk. President Obama says, Of course, it’s perfectly legal for him to make war on Libya without Congress ever declaring war. How’s that? Because, Obama explained, his war in Libya is not an escalating war. So, after two centuries of believing the Founders wrote only Congress could declare war,…
Read MoreVetoes and Districts
Anyone surprised that five Democratic House members voted for the Republican budget has forgotten that no animal in the wild has a more finely honed survival instinct than a politician. The media has reported the budget goodies the “Party of Five” received. And there is talk about Jim Crawford getting an Appropriations chairmanship, etc,…
Read MoreFoolishness and Politicians
House Speaker Thom Tillis landed himself in a mess by picking the worst time on earth to pass out $30,000 a person pay raises to his staff. The whole thing, given the timing, looks just plain crazy. On one hand Tillis is telling voters the legislature’s so flat-on-its-back-broke it has to cut budgets to…
Read MoreThe Perdue Difference
Two members of Governor Perdue’s staff took issue with my view that Republicans have successfully minimized the differences between their education budget and hers. I invited them to spell out the differences. They obliged with an analysis headed “Setting the Record Straight: Perdue Budget Would Invest More Than a Half Billion Dollars More in Public…
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