Archive for August 2006
The Blue Ribbon Panel
Gary and John Hood of the Locke Foundation are having a little debate about the Blue Ribbon Commission. I recently read the Commission’s report. It says Wake County’s population is going to double in twenty-five years and, as a result, we’re going to have to spend a whole lot of money on schools, streets, sewers…
Read MoreTerror Politics: The Democrats
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee knows how to fight back. Its new web ad blasts the Bush record on protecting America: “Not enough troops… “Four times as many terror attacks in 2005… “Iran developing nuclear weapons… “North Korea quadrupling its nuclear arsenal… “Millions more illegal immigrants… “Feel safer? Vote for change.” Click here to see…
Read MoreTerror Politics: The Republicans
I’m not the only one suspicious of the timing of last week’s airport-terror scare. As Keith Olderman pointed out on MSMBC’s Countdown Monday night, the Bush administration for years has conveniently announced terror threats at politically-advantageous times. Like right after the Connecticut Senate primary. Has the act worn thin? We’ll see in November. Click to…
Read MorePicasso or P.T. Barnum?
Is the dingus Spanish impresario Jaume Plensa wants to build in the middle of Fayetteville Street the most brilliant work of modern art in the twenty-first century – or is it a good old-fashioned flim-flam? Is Mr. Plensa Picasso – or P.T. Barnum? The leaders of Raleigh’s art circles say Plensa has woven aircraft cables,…
Read MoreThe N&O’s big boo-boo
Since I got my first job as a copyboy at The News & Observer 41 years ago this summer, my life has been inextricably intertwined with that paper. But I’ve never seen the N&O do more damage to itself than with the front-page mistake on the Duke-lacrosse investigation. Public Editor Ted Vaden described it this…
Read MoreIn Defense of Jim Black
Everybody’s piling on Jim Black. So I’ll dissent. First of all, enough with Republicans decrying a pay-to-play system in Raleigh. It’s a pale imitation of the pay-to-play system Republicans installed in Washington – and in Raleigh, when they had the House majority. Second, enough with politicians and reporters who are shocked – shocked, mind you…
Read MoreRepublicans at Bat – at Last
Republicans are airing their first TV ad about the pay to play scandals. State Senator Andrew Brock’s ad calls on “embattled House Speaker Jim Black to resign…” (WRAL-TV, 8/7/06). Brock also says the beneficiaries of the ‘pay to play’ scandals are Democrat House members who received thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Black. A…
Read MoreCity Debt – Up, Up, Up!
According to the News and Observer (7/24/06), since Mayor Meeker took office Raleigh’s debt has tripled. In a few weeks, on September 30, for the first time the City’s debt will pass $1 billion. Five years ago it was $294 million. That puts the spending spree the Mayor has been on in perspective. Granted, some…
Read MoreTerror Politics
It didn’t take Bush and the Republicans long to turn the airline-terror plot against Democrats. “Defeatocrats,” one blared. Cheney didn’t even wait for the arrests. The day before, he said Ned Lamont’s victory in Connecticut emboldened “al Qaeda types.” So what do Democrats do? Two relatively new Democrats – with impeccable military credentials – show…
Read MoreLieberman Piles On
Joe Lieberman went even farther than the Republicans: “If we just pick up like Ned Lamont wants us to do, get out by a date certain, it will be taken as a tremendous victory by the same people who wanted to blow up these planes in this plot hatched in England. It will strengthen them,…
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