Issues
The Big Kerfuffle
Just hearing the four words Grand Jury and FBI Investigation is enough to make a politician’s blood run cold and the Governor’s got both on his hands, a Grand Jury investigating the Department of Health and the FBI investigating the Prisons Department but after reading the morning newspaper story he tore into not the FBI…
Read MoreTemptation Strikes
When temptation raises its head politicians, like most folks, topple off their pedestals. Back when the Democrats ruled the roost in Raleigh the Republicans reviled them for their wicked ways like pork barrel spending and wasteful earmarks. Now the Republicans rule the roost and, according to the newspapers, temptation’s struck again, tying them in a…
Read MoreFollow the Money
It’s hard for a Washington politician to explain away a $300 million snafu but it’s even harder for a Raleigh Bull Moose without the opportunity to learn dissimulation first-hand by watching the masters in Congress. From the first day Phil Berger rapped the gavel his hand-picked Medicaid Czar, Senator Ralph Hise the Mountain Statistician, made…
Read MoreThe $300 Million Hole
There’s not a soul in the state who can match a Senate Bull Moose when it comes to bragging he’s a true conservative – that he’s more conservative than the Governor or any politician around. But then the Bull Mosses slipped. From the day the Senate came to town Phil Berger’s Medicaid Czar, Senator Ralph…
Read MoreA Shaky Proposition
Just before the legislature left town the blog that promotes Senator Phil Berger reported hundreds of dead people were collecting Medicaid and that fraud’s gotten so bad even the Obama Administration wants a crackdown – but the warning came too late: The Honorables were headed for the exits and Phil Berger’s Medicaid Czar – Senator…
Read MoreA Tough Question
Ole Ned Barnett, the Editorial-Writing-Chief down at the News and Observer, is a fine fellow though like many Editorial-Chiefs he’s a bone deep liberal who frets over the vices of sexism and the virtues of gay rights and seldom finds an encouraging word to say about Republicans. Which is fine. The N&O’s spending its own…
Read MoreElections Where Issues Don’t Matter
Arthur walked through the door, dropped a four inch thick poll on the table with a thud, sat down, and said, If you don’t want to lose this election, you have to learn something new. That was in December of 1983 when Jesse Helms was fighting for survival against Jim Hunt and Arthur – who’d…
Read MoreThe Old Hymn
The old hymn goes, ‘Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow.’ Is that idea true? Or false? Do you agree? Or disagree? And if the old hymn’s true what happens if we elect a President who worships another god? Does it matter? Do blessings only flow to individuals – or does He also bless nations?…
Read MoreWebs
It usually begins with an evasion which leads to another evasion and soon, like a hapless fly, even for a Brigadier General (who was a paratrooper) the silken webs are inescapable: Tony Tata, explaining to the News and Observer about three affairs, an out of wedlock child, a forged court order, an army investigation and…
Read MoreQuoting a Crazy English Lord
Since the day the John Locke Foundation opened its doors two decades ago it’s stood steadfast for free markets and steadfast against government regulations but then the unexpected happened: Its two perfectly reasonable abstract principles collided head-on and suddenly the Locke folks found themselves quoting an English Lord named Christopher Monckton who’d once claimed he’d…
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