Issues
Buying Drugs in Canada
It just seems like just yesterday that the newspapers reported the Democrats in Congress were about to pass legislation to let pharmacists and consumers buy prescription drugs in Canada. The pharmaceutical industry quashed that idea like a bug. It was alive one day and dead as a doornail the next. Why? The big pharmaceutical companies…
Read MoreWar Politics
Bush and Cheney claim that Democrats are playing politics with the war. I can understand. After all, they think the war is theirs to play politics with. That’s what they’ve done from the start. Click Here to discuss and comment on this and other articles in our Forum.
Read MoreCome Home, Roy
After AG Roy Cooper’s announcement in the Duke case, I praised his performance – both here and in The News & Observer. So now I can take him to task. Roy, it was a mistake to go to the White House correspondents’ dinner in Washington – as Katie Couric’s guest. After the speech, you looked…
Read MoreHow Goes the War?
Defense Secretary Robert Gates says the United States is not losing in Iraq. In that case, I’d hate to see losing. Click Here to discuss and comment on this and other articles in our Forum.
Read MoreGuns and Politics
After the Virginia Tech shootings, both sides of the gun-control issue lined up and took their usual firing positions. But don’t expect anything to happen. Why not? Just look at the Commonwealth of Virginia. And the Democratic Party. Democrats have a majority in the United States Senate today thanks to Jim Webb of Virginia. Webb…
Read MoreTrial by Media Fire
The Don Imus and Duke lacrosse cases had three things in common: race, money and media frenzy. Imus had all three factors against him, so he lost. The Duke players had two with them: money and, in the end, media. They won. From the start, the Duke case was justice by media. The DA convicted…
Read MorePresident Pelosi
Nancy Pelosi, who has been redefining women’s roles in politics, is now also redefining the government. Even during the darkest days of the Cold War, when Ronald Reagan and ‘Tip’ O’Neil were fighting tooth and toenail, Speaker O’Neil didn’t go traipsing off to Moscow to negotiate his own foreign policy. In those days politics ended…
Read More“Home Tax” or “Developers Pay”
An interesting fight is shaping up over real estate transfer taxes. It has implications for a lot of municipal elections this year, including Raleigh’s. Opponents – Realtors and homebuilders – label the idea the “home tax.” Their website – http://www.itsabadidea.org/ – says: “Bills now being considered in the State Legislature would force the home sellers…
Read MorePolitics Trumps Logic
It’s easy to understand President Bush’s stand on the war in Iraq. He says: Let’s fight it out until we win. It’s also easy to understand the anti-war Democrats’ stand. They say: The war is wrong. Let’s get out. Now. But Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s stand is puzzling. She says: The war is wrong. But let’s…
Read MoreThe ‘Surge’ Hits a Snag
What happens to the terrorists when you occupy a big country like Iraq with too few troops? When you have a ‘surge’ the terrorist go to the provinces. In Diyala, thirty miles from Baghdad, the American commander put it this way, “You’ve got more than 20,000 more American troops pouring into Baghdad – so the…
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