Issues
The Next Big Issue?
When the pollster asked voters, Who should pay for the coal ash cleanup, Duke Energy or consumers? the answer came back loud and clear: Voters had no doubt. Almost to a man they said Duke Energy. Now that didn’t mean that was the right – or fair – answer. But it did mean…
Read MoreThin Ice
According to the Census Bureau, back in the fall of 2011 without knowing it we crossed a kind of Rubicon. Back then – during the last quarter of 2011 – 101,716,000 people had full time jobs while 108,592,000 people were receiving payments from welfare programs and, if that sounds like skating across thin ice,…
Read MoreThe Peculiar Issue Isn’t…
About one minute after sitting down Sean launched off into a tirade saying the border children ought to all be shipped home – then he stopped and was asked, Suppose one of those children fled El Salvador (or wherever) because she’d been repeatedly gang-raped – would you send her home too? He said, Absolutely.…
Read MoreForeign Policy?
Thirteen years ago the terrorists blew up the World Trade Center and, since the terrorists lived in Afghanistan, we attacked Afghanistan. The terrorists then moved to Pakistan but we kept right on attacking Afghanistan. A decade later we killed the lead terrorist in Pakistan but we’re still fighting in Afghanistan. In…
Read MoreDay Two, But Still Part One
Governor McCrory’s blast at The N&O got him another day of the “blaring, top-of-the-fold” headlines he blasted. But this is just the beginning of the Coal Ash Saga. We soon will have a U.S. Attorney’s investigation and a fight over who pays: McCrory’s former boss, Duke Energy, or his current boss, the People of North…
Read MoreInclusive
Our President praised the President of Iraq and urged Iraq’s new Prime Minister-to-be to bring Iraqis together and ‘form an inclusive new government.’ Which sure sounds fine. Except for one hitch. In New York City ‘inclusive’ means bringing together diverse ethnic groups and minorities in homogenized harmony, but in Iraq it means…
Read MoreInfectious?
Well, looking back, it was bound to happen. First, John Boehner decided to sue Obama for not enforcing the Obamacare laws and most of the House Republicans went along on the theory even if they didn’t like Obamacare the laws are the laws and the President can’t just change one whenever it suits him.…
Read MoreThe Best Lobbyists on earth
The other day Gary wrote, “For Democrats this election year, this legislature is the gift that keeps on giving. Maybe they’ll stay in session all the way to November” – considering by Speaker Thom Tillis’ announcement the legislature is about to return to town and pass the stuck ‘coal ash’ bill, Gary may get more…
Read MoreReading the Morning Newspapers
I swear it looks like there’s not a peaceful corner on the planet. We’re bombing the Taliban in Afghanistan. There’s a war in Iraq. And Syria. And Gaza. And this morning NATO reports Russia is about to invade the Ukraine. It’s like every varmint on the globe got loose at once and went…
Read MoreWhat to Do?
Over lunch Mickey and Minnie were talking about Governor McCrory’s statement last week on the influx of child immigrants from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. Mickey was outraged. “McCrory must figure he’s losing the education debate. So he decided to bash child immigrants!” He noted that the N&O said McCrory’s remarks were “tinged with…
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