Issues
Trials for Terrorists
I had dinner last night with my old friend Will, the lawyer, and, right off, after the first beer he said, President Bush is as dumb as a post. Now, Will is an old Reagan man. He remembers seeing Reagan’s speech for Goldwater on TV in 1964 and he’s a purist. He still thinks of…
Read More$250 Million
When it comes to brute cunning it’s hard to match the Wake County School Board – it’s budget time and they’ve met the County Commissioners in fiscal battle head-on. The Board says it can cut dropout rates and graduate ninety percent of its students by 2013 – but there’s a catch. It needs more money.…
Read MoreUnhappy Newsrooms
Frank Daniels, the acid-tongued former N&O publisher, greeted a Raleigh reporter recently thusly: “Still got a job?” It’s a question of lot of newspaper employees are asking these days. Two big trees fell last week: Paul O’Connor with the Winston-Salem Journal and Chuck Riesz with the Wilmington Star took buyouts. Word is that more axes…
Read MoreThree Trends
It seems to me, over the years, I’ve witnessed two political earthquakes that changed the ground rules in American politics and gave birth to new political movements. The pictures on TV of American soldiers and refugees fleeing Saigon on the skids of helicopters said to the generation of men and women who’d fought in and…
Read MoreThe News and the Observer
Some members of Governor Easley’s email study commission are privately critical of the news media – like the N&O – for both covering the story and being part of the story. The commission members believe the dual role has led to slanted coverage. They think media representatives have been unreasonable and inconsistent in their appearances…
Read MoreDead White Males
The world up and moved on its axis yesterday morning while I was listening to National Public Radio. It started innocently enough. Cokie Roberts was talking about her two books, Ladies of Liberty and Founding Mothers, when a lady called in to thank her for recognizing the ignored Female Founders of our nation – then…
Read MoreSchool Boards and City Councils
The Wake County Manager’s trying to hold the line on spending – but he’s getting no sympathy from the School Board. He offered to increase the school’s budget more than any other local government agency – but the School Board told him to take a hike. That just won’t cut the mustard; it wants another…
Read MoreSound Bites: Putting the Shoe on the Other Foot
One reader has taken me to task, accusing me of ‘defending’ Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Anonymous (which is fine) wrote about my post Sound Bites versus Reality: Carter, before you act as a knee jerk apologist for Wright and Obama, you may want to look at that church’s website, which bases its “theology” on a black…
Read MoreCameras in the Sewer Pipes
A lot of folks thought maybe the City Council had been out in the sun too long when it up and out of a clear blue sky voted to ban garbage disposals. Well, it turns out taking on the housewives of Raleigh is a lot tougher assignment then vilifying developers. The ladies of Raleigh have…
Read MoreGovernor Easley Turns Over a New Leaf?
Governor Easley told top newspaper editors in a meeting with the leaders of the NC Press Association that the flap over his aides ordering state public information officers to delete e-mails “should never have happened.” (Earlier, he – or his office – had denied any such thing ever happened). He added, reassuring the editors, that…
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