Archive for September 2006
Higher Gas Taxes Equals Less Roads
With the price of gasoline soaring the state must – it has to be — be awash in gas tax revenues – so why does it seem every time I open the newspaper the headline reads “DOT Delays Road Construction”? (News and Observer, 9-6-06) It seems the DOT hardly builds roads anymore – at least…
Read MoreDid 9-11 Really Change Everything?
Thatâs the cliché de jour, but I think 9/11 changed our lives in ways we canât yet see â or even imagine. Itâs not just leaving your shampoo and toothpaste out of the carry-on bag. History is an unpredictable thing. Think about Vietnam. Thirty-five years ago, nobody could have imagined how deep and searing the…
Read MorePolls
Gary, here’s some good news for your folks on the Democratic side of the aisle. Each month the Civitas Institute takes a poll; in August they asked voters who they would vote for in the elections for state legislature this fall – a Democrat or a Republican. Voters said: Republican: 36% Democrat: 40% Neither 7%…
Read MoreA Third Wake County Tax Increase
In June the Wake County Commissioners raised property taxes. In July they endorsed raising them, again, if the School Bond passes. And in August they voted to raise them a third time. This time the Commissioners want to reassess the value of your home more often — and to keep the tax rate fixed after…
Read MoreThis is Art?
The City has asked Spanish ‘artist’ Jaume Plensa to redesign the ‘Plensa Plaza.” Mayor Meeker has his director of the City’s Urban Design Center handling the new plan. The Director says Plensa will have plenty of room and flexibility under the new guidelines (News and Observer, 9-4-06). The idea, he says, is “Fayetteville Street needs…
Read MoreUnion Power
Unions have long been politically weak in North Carolina. But the state may see a new, more aggressive and more politically savvy union offensive in elections over the next three years. The Service Employees International Union – which The News & Observer called “the nation’s largest public employee union” – gave $100,000 to the House…
Read MoreWhat if we win?
What if we Democratic dogs catch the car and win both houses of Congress this year? If I’m a Democratic presidential candidate, I’m not sure I’m happy about that. Here’s why: Democrats suddenly share the blame for anything that goes wrong, doesn’t go right or doesn’t get passed. Republicans get to run against Congress. Democratic…
Read MorePlensa Plaza – Art or a Park?
The Raleigh Arts Council has told Jaume Plensa his $4.3 million plaza in the middle of Fayetteville Street has to be redone. That it can’t be in the middle of the street and it can’t block the view. So, Jaume’s going back to the drawing board. So far people have been debating whether this is…
Read MoreMending “the broken branch” of government
David Broder of The Washington Post wrote recently that Congress is the “broken branch” of government. Broder bemoaned problems ranging from “runaway budgets to the lobbying scandals to the near abandonment of effective oversight of executive agencies.” Also, “impotence and inaction, not just on immigration, but on energy, health care and the war in Iraq.”…
Read MoreLong Wars and Iraq
It took us four years to defeat Hitler, two years to defeat the Kaiser and it took the North four years to defeat General Lee. In a few days we will have been fighting the terrorists for five years. I know this is a new kind of war and people say we shouldn’t judge it…
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