Archive for 2013
Public Hanging
So, according to the newspaper, a varmint in Fayetteville shanghaied two teenage girls, held them hostage for months, beat them, threatened to kill their families, raped them, turned them into prostitutes, videotaped them having sex then a high judge gave him 45 years in prison. These days we’re civilized and enlightened but given some…
Read MoreOn the Air
This from our Shameless Self-Promotion Department: Carter and I did an interview with Don Gonyea, National Political Correspondent for NPR. Part of it ran in a story about Senator Kay Hagan’s reelection race. And I was interviewed on Chris Fitzsimon’s News & Views on WRAL-FM. It’s on the NC Policy Watchwebsite.
Read MoreApartheid and Us
Nelson Mandela lived half a world away, but North Carolina has a history with South Africa and the apartheid system he destroyed. Go back more than 50 years. Jim Hunt, a student at N.C. State in the late 1950s, heard Allard Lowenstein speak to a National Students Association meeting about “the terrible injustices and cruelties” of…
Read MoreNo Bridge over Troubled Water
Chapel Hill-bashing may play well on the Outer Banks, but it’s not helping people who live or work south of Bonner Bridge. DOT Secretary Tony Tata sounded like the Fox News commentator he once was when he blasted “ivory tower elitists (who) file these lawsuits from their air-conditioned offices in Chapel Hill…with their lattes…
Read MoreParsing Pat
Governor McCrory’s response to the now-famous Taylor Batten column is worth a close read. After all, it was headlined: “Here’s where my attention really is.” First off, there is not one word in his 397-word essay about public schools or teachers. Then, he said, “North Carolina is poised for an economic revival” and noted the…
Read MoreMcCrory as a Manager
A TAPster who is a veteran of corporate America and the Raleigh political scene offers another take on Governor McCrory and the Charlotte Observer column: “Gary’s blog ‘McCrory under siege’ and the Observer story that prompted it are revealing, but the governor’s thin skin and ego are not the weaknesses that doom the McCrory administration. “Being…
Read MoreHunt Vs. Sanford
A TAPster who pays attention to politics and high school football notes that James Hunt High and Terry Sanford High played each other in the first round of the state 3AA football playoffs. The Hunt Warriors beat the Sanford Bulldogs 35-21 on November 15. Since then, Hunt has also beaten West Brunswick and Douglas…
Read MoreProving the Point
To show he isn’t “obsessed with his image,” Governor McCrory sent a response to the Charlotte Observer that showed he is, in fact, obsessed with his image. This calls to mind Virginia Sen. William L. Scott. In 1974, New Times magazine labeled Scott the country’s “dumbest” congressman. Scott called a press conference to deny…
Read MoreMcCrory Under Siege
Governor McCrory certainly isn’t the only politician “obsessed with his image.” But he shows it more than any politician I’ve ever seen. Read Taylor Batten’s remarkable and revealing account of his hour-and-40-minute interview with the Governor. Batten, editor of the Charlotte Observer’s editorial page (which endorsed McCrory for governor) wrote: “This is a man…
Read MoreShut Up
So long as politicians exercise – and abuse – power, we need the press and professors around to question power. But it looks like Republicans in Raleigh want to shut down questions and shut up critics. This after Governor McCrory promised to run an open, transparent administration. First, McCrory’s highly paid PR flacks…
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