Possums

Up in Brasstown deep in the Smoky Mountains, on every New Years Eve a local merchant holds a ‘Possum Drop’ – a western North Carolina version of the Yankees’ ball drop in Times Square.   What the mountain folks hadn’t counted on was PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) taking umbrage at the…

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A Great Success

Years behind schedule, millions of dollars over budget, and riddled with 3,200  computer programming errors NC Tracks – the state’s new $486 million computer system for processing Medicaid checks – landed in the newspaper again. The News & Observer reported the Department of Health and Human Services still has no plan to right the ship and clean…

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2014: Another 2010?

Maybe I should apologize. But would Bob Rucho apologize? No sir! So I’ll double down, as they say.   My blog yesterday – warning that the next Congress might be run by people who think like Rucho – apparently ruined the Christmas spirit for some Democrats.   My friend Jerry Wayne Williamson of Boone (follow…

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A Christmas Truce

Americans are so polarized politically, we argue about Christmas and Santa Clause’s race. I propose a truce. And I’m going first.   Through a blessed accident of calendar, Christmas and New Year’s Day are on Wednesdays this year. That effectively wrecks two work weeks.   Good riddance.   But let’s go farther. Like German and…

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Flexible Ethics

Governor McCrory and Republican legislators said they would do away with “pay-to-play” and “corruption” in Raleigh.   Then a group of lobbyists held a fundraiser in Raleigh. It’s illegal, of course, for lobbyists to contribute to legislators.   But the fundraiser was for a congressional candidate named Phil Berger Jr.   Yes, the son of State Senate…

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Republican Vs. Republican

Don’t underestimate the chances that people who think like Bob Rucho might control Congress a year from now.   Behind Rucho’s tweet and the budget battle in Washington is a death match between the Tea Party and the GOP Establishment.  If the Tea Party wins that war, and if Obamacare sinks Democrats in November, the…

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Rucho’s Tweet

Sometimes all you have to do is repeat a politician’s own words. Like Senator Bob Rucho’s tweet: “Justice Robert’s pen & Obamacare has done more damage to the USA then the swords of the Nazis,Soviets & terrorists combined.”   (Note to grammar cops: Yes, his tweet said “has,” not “have” and “then,” not “than.”)  …

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Ashes and Switches

Every child knows just before Christmas is the time to be ‘as good as you can be’ – so you might think after the mischief it’s been up to this year Congress would be rolling up its sleeves and planning to work straight through the holidays to pass the farm bill, a jobless benefits bill,…

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Unhealthy

Both President Obama and Governor McCrory are learning that reforming health care can be harmful to your political health. Their politics are different, but their experiences are strikingly similar.   Both are trying to make big changes in the health care system, Obama with the Affordable Care Act and McCrory with Medicaid privatization.   Both…

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Quoting Pat

December brings “Best of 2013” Lists, and here’s one about Governor McCrory, courtesy of the website Buzzfeed.   (Like President Obama. I thought buzz feed was something you did in college at 2 a.m.)   The Governor has acquired a reputation as the unwitting source of unintentionally funny and baffling statements – and misstatements. This is…

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