|
|
Raleigh
Carter Wrenn posted on June 17, 2013 12:28
The Democrats have gotten plenty fired up about the ‘Moral Monday’ protests down at the state legislature – even an old war horse like Gary, catching a whiff of grapeshot in the air, rode to the sound of the guns, defending the protestors from a broadside by Governor McCrory.
But, in another way, all this consternation seems out of place – the protests may have ignited the imaginations of political insiders but they don’t really seem to have caught the imagination of the man on the street. Instead of protests filled with high drama – like fire hoses and clashes with police – every Monday the protestors politely line up, blocking the huge metal doors into the State House and State Senate, then the Capital Police politely carry them away one by one, book ‘em, then let ‘em go.
No harm’s done. No one suffers. And everyone goes on about their business.
In addition while the demonstrators are chanting away decrying the foibles of Republican politicians, the lead protestor (leading the chants) is the one of the most colorful demagogues to come down the pike in North Carolina in years – the Reverend William Barber. North Carolina’s answer to Al Sharpton.
As a firer of broadsides Reverend Barber is second to no one – but as the face and voice of a political movement he leaves something to be desired.
The Republican’s best response to the “Moral Monday” protests isn’t to start firing back – it’s simpler: Just go on being courteous.
[Click to read and post comments...]
Gary Pearce posted on June 12, 2013 09:28
Maybe it’s the heat, the humidity or just that it’s June. A reporter gets arrested. Senator Tom Goolsby has 60s flashbacks. Governor McCrory sees “outsiders” when they’re not there. The Democratic Party debacle deepens.
But the flap over the Governor’s game of catch – and his spokesperson’s bizarre statement – still stand out in a week of bizarre capital news.
First video evidence and a time stamp are examined to resolve whether the Governor was in a meeting or playing catch on the lawn when Progress NC, Bob Etheridge and a group of children brought him a petition protesting education cuts.
Then Kim Genardo makes this classic statement:
“The photo being circulated today by that liberal advocacy group was taken AFTER the petitions were dropped off at the Capitol. Taking the advice of First Lady Michelle Obama, the governor each day attempts to get some exercise, yesterday throwing the baseball and today walking from NC State's campus back to the Capitol. Governor McCrory will be back out tomorrow throwing the baseball perhaps with children who share his All-American passion.''
That’s the ticket: Blame Michelle. And hide behind America and baseball.
[Click to read and post comments...]
Carter Wrenn posted on May 28, 2013 10:16
Lust has undone more men than most any other sin and, about a year ago, over in Chapel Hill, it turned an aging professor into a drug runner.
Professor Paul Frampton was born in a working class family in a working class neighborhood in England, earned three degrees from Oxford, earned a Ph.D. in nuclear particle physics, moved to Chapel Hill and settled happily into a quiet life without a glimmer of controversy for thirty years.
The genial professor was also a confirmed bachelor until he was fifty – when he married a Frenchwoman. The marriage didn’t work out and at sixty-four, divorced and lonely, he started searching for a new wife on online dating websites and fell to ‘chatting’ with a Czech model, Denise Milani, who’d won the Miss Bikini World contest and had, well, a figure to shame Dolly Parton.
One thing led to another and soon Miss Milani was confiding to the lonely professor how she was unhappy and how much she wanted a new life – then she cooed, Could you ever be proud of someone like me?
The professor’s response was, Hell, yes – then a strange thing happened. When he asked Miss Milani for her telephone number, she said no.
Later, when a puzzled New York Times reporter asked the professor why on earth he’d thought a Czech beauty who wouldn’t give him her phone number wanted to marry him – the aging professor replied, Well, he was in the top 1% of the men in the world when it came to intelligence and she was in the top 1% of women in the world when it came to looks – why wouldn’t she want to marry him?
The professor kept on asking for Miss Milani’s telephone number and she kept saying no until one day, out of a clear blue sky, she sent him an air plane ticket to La Paz and asked him to fly to Bolivia, where she was doing a photo shoot, to meet her. Fast as a jackrabbit the professor boarded a plane and headed south but when he got to La Paz Miss Milani was nowhere to be seen – instead she’d left a message that she’d had to leave for another photo shoot and would he fly on to Argentina to meet her and, by the way, would he bring her a suitcase she’d left in La Paz.
A ticket arrived to Argentina, a stranger met the professor on a side street near his hotel and handed him Miss Milani’s suitcase, and the professor flew on to Argentina – but instead of meeting his love eye-to-eye, strolling through the Buenos Aires airport toting a suitcase full of cocaine landed the Professor in an Argentinean prison; worse, a month later, sitting in a prison cell with eighty drug smugglers and a leaky roof, the professor came face to face with a cruel truth: Not only did Miss Milani not love him – she’d never heard of him. He’d been exchanging endearments in an Internet chat room with a Bolivian drug smuggler.
A thousand miles away in Chapel Hill, the Chancellor, shaking his head at the errant ways of aging professors, had the kindness not to fire Frampton outright but had no choice but to suspend his salary – an act of kindness that promptly backfired when Frampton sued not just the Chancellor but the University and the Chancellor, demanding one check for his back pay, another check for all the pain and suffering the University had caused him, and demanding that the University go on paying him while he was in prison in Argentina because he could teach his classes on the Internet.
Perhaps there’s a kinder way to bring the errant professor home – before he does anymore harm. Perhaps the new Chancellor should offer Argentina a deal: If it will send the wayward professor home, in return he’ll promise his shadow will never fall on Argentinean soil again and that he’ll spend the rest of his prison term in a warm, safe place where there are no Internet connections, contemplating the wisdom of Solomon’s old Proverb about lust: Can a man walk across hot coals without his feet being scorched?
[Click to read and post comments...]
Carter Wrenn posted on May 22, 2013 16:35
Republican legislators, for years, have stood up and spoken up for free markets. It’s part of their creed. They don’t like government picking ‘winners and losers.’ But when a group of Republican legislators in Raleigh decided to sponsor a bill to break the hospitals’ monopoly on outpatient surgeries and put the free market to work – it didn’t appeal to the Hospital Association at all.
Right now, before, say, an orthopedic surgeon can do outpatient surgeries in his office instead of in a hospital, he has to get a permit called a ‘Certificate of Need’ from the state. And his chances of getting that certificate are slim to none.
Now hospitals, naturally, believe ‘Certificates of Need’ are a good thing – they say they protect consumers, prevent duplication, and hold down medical costs.
But those free-market-loving Republican legislators disagreed – they concluded what ‘Certificates of Need’ really did was grant the hospitals a monopoly by limiting their competition. So they introduced a bill that would let doctors do outpatient surgeries without getting a state permit.
As far as the hospitals were concerned, that crossed the line – so they came out swinging, setting up a website and running ads defending ‘Certificates of Need.’ They also dispatched lobbyists to the General Assembly to show legislators the error of their ways. And, when the smoke cleared, the legislators’ free market bill ended up in the elephant’s graveyard of legislation – a study commission.
Afterwards, commiserating with a legislator serving his first term, an old hand in the General Assembly said, Well, now you’ve seen how government works first hand. The younger legislator bit his lip, shook his head wryly, and said, Yep. And it sure looks like the money changers have gotten inside the Temple.
[Click to read and post comments...]
Carter Wrenn posted on May 21, 2013 15:22
There’re a lot of clever politicians and smart politicians but there’re not many politicians with the courage to take a stand they know is unpopular.
The other day, baffled by the raft of tax reform plans floating around the State Legislature, I asked an economist to explain the virtues of ‘consumption taxes’ to me – and he did in a simple way even an economic illiterate like me can understand: He said, Income is good, investment is good, saving is good – so tax them less; spending (consumption) is not so good – so tax it more.
Senate Leader Phil Berger sees eye to eye with that economist and he means to reform North Carolina’s tax code to base it on ‘consumption taxes.’
Now, if you’re an average guy studying the tax code, it looks like an irrational muddle. But if you’re a politician studying that same tax code it doesn’t look so irrational at all – instead it looks like the labyrinthine result of legions of smart politicians, over years, carefully calculating which taxes they could raise without getting voted out of office.
For example, those politicians decided not to tax food because everybody eats. They decided not to tax prescription drugs because a lot of older people vote. The income tax code is ‘progressive’ because there’re fewer rich people than poor or middle class people. Farmers get the loopholes when they buy a tractor because rural politicians want to be friends with farmers.
The whole tax code, politically, is highly practical.
And that’s a problem Senator Berger ran into head-on. Because to cut taxes on income and savings, but to do it he had to raise taxes consumption. And to do that he had to close what my economist friend calls tax ‘loopholes.’
That’s logical. But it left Senator Berger facing a helluva fight. Because a senior citizen not paying sales taxes on his blood pressure medicine doesn’t see that as a ‘loophole.’ And neither do a whole welter of other groups who enjoy tax exemptions.
For instance, the Association of Realtors doesn’t see the home mortgage deduction as a loophole. And it doesn’t see switching to consumption taxes as a cure to the housing industry’s doldrums. So it’s running one ad saying folks will pay 25% in sales taxes (consumption taxes) when they buy a home and another ad with a young man saying, It’s wrong to take away my money for tax reform.
The Hospital Association doesn’t see exempting hospitals from paying sales taxes as a loophole either – so it’s weighed in, too, with an ad and website saying hospitals are fighting for their survival and closing their ‘loopholes’ is the worst kind of news for their patients.
And, of course, the Democrats don’t like Senator Berger’s plan – they let fly roaring his idea of tax reform is ‘regressive’ and will tax the rich less and the poor more.
So Senator Berger’s got a tiger by the tail. Before he’s done ‘closing loopholes’ there’s a fair chance he may be the most vilified elected official in North Carolina. But, anyway you look at it, you have to give Phil Berger credit: He’s no finger to the wind politician. People may be arguing for years whether he’s right or wrong – but, either way, you have to admit he’s got the rarest trait in politics: Courage.
[Click to read and post comments...]
Gary Pearce posted on May 20, 2013 09:51
One word can say a lot. So it was with last week’s heated meeting between the Wake County commissioners and school board.
That “victory” was Senate passage of a bill taking control of building schools away from the Democratic-majority school board and giving it to the Republican-led commissioners.
First, Bryan was giving himself a lot of credit: “the victory we had.” Given the partisan lineup of the Senate, it wasn’t much of a contest.
Second, the comment betrays an underlying theme in this legislature. It’s not about good public policy. It’s not about good ideas. It’s not even about ideological consistency.
It’s about payback. Political revenge. It’s about: “We’re going to undo everything Democrats did, just because we can.”
Wake County voters will have a chance to ponder whether Republicans are putting their party’s interest above the public interest. What does Bryan’s quote tell them?
[Click to read and post comments...]
Gary Pearce posted on April 28, 2013 15:00
If you need comfort or inspiration, take an hour to watch the moving memorial service for Jamie Kirk Hahn. If you’re pressed for time, watch Nation Hahn’s remarkable eulogy (at 34:00) and Anthony Quillar’s powerful rendition of the Lord’s Prayer (1:04).
Looking at the oversized portrait in the sanctuary, you’re overwhelmed by the impact that beautiful, lively, smiling girl had on people. (Yes, I said “girl.” When you’re a parent, you can’t help but see a little girl.)
I commend the video to you regardless of your politics. Republicans, you may grit your teeth once or twice; just substitute your own beliefs. For all of us who care about politics and public service, it’s a testament to the difference one person can make – and why we’re in it.
Democrats, take heart from it. That church was filled with many, many young people just as dedicated and just as idealistic as Jamie. There are thousands more across the state. They are an army waiting to be mobilized, and they have an arsenal of mobile weapons with which to mobilize.
Nation gave us this advice from Jamie:
1. Be kind to others. Lift other people up.
2. Be a helper. That is true power.
3. Work at it. Because it’s hard work. Stick to it.
Jamie brought a lot of people together. She’s still doing it. And she’ll be doing it for a long time.
[Click to read and post comments...]
Gary Pearce posted on April 24, 2013 11:51
Absolute good met absolute evil in a quiet Raleigh home Monday evening. Early Wednesday morning, Jamie Hahn lost her fight to live.
Her husband Nation and her family are devastated. But, as always happens at times like this, the best in people comes out. All day Tuesday, friends streamed into WakeMed to do what they could, say what they could and simply be with her family and with each other.
Mid-afternoon, their friends decided there should be a prayer vigil. Less than four hours later, hundreds of people jammed into Pullen Memorial Baptist Church. We lit candles for her. Nation spoke. We hugged, and we wept.
Together, Jamie and Nation had a unique quality that people responded to. They liked people. Their home was a familiar gathering place. People had fun.
Jamie liked politics, and she was good at it. She exemplified all that is good in politics. Nation is familiar to readers of this blog. He has been a guest blogger and will again, I trust.
This is one of those times when what unites us as people is so much bigger than what divides us in politics.
[Click to read and post comments...]
Carter Wrenn posted on April 15, 2013 14:27
Republicans and Democrats over in the legislature have been battling hammer and tongs but, still, it raised eyebrows last week when the News & Observer reported Republicans have declared war on the cities.
House Speaker Thom Tillis explained the new conflagration philosophically, saying ‘Part of the conflict is due to a different world view of the role of government.’ Other legislators were blunter, saying ‘Cities are getting too big and too powerful’ and ‘Cities are too arrogant.’
The mayors (who’re mostly Democrats) tried to fight back but the legislators (who’re mostly Republicans) had them over a barrel: The General Assembly had the power – legally – so it rolled happily forward redrawing school board districts, rewriting local housing regulations, and taking the airport from Charlotte, the water system from Asheville and Dix Park from Raleigh.
But, a year from now, this war may take a turn that surprises the General Assembly: Years ago, when Jesse Helms first ran for Senate, most of the voters lived in small towns and rural crossroads not big enough to be called towns. But those days have long-since vanished. Cities are now the political dynamos and cities and suburbs decide elections and mayors (like Raleigh’s Mayor Nancy McFarlane) are popular – more popular than, say, a Republican legislator from Raleigh.
So what began as a legal fight may spiral into a political fight and, next election, if Mayor McFarlane decides to lead one of those independent Super PAC campaigns, Republican legislators in swing districts in Wake County could become casualties.
There’s also another more nuanced problem. Legislators changing government policies – like cutting spending or reforming the tax code – is one thing. But Republican legislators passing laws to weaken Democratic mayors is another thing entirely. Voters are pretty tolerant of politicians’ foibles and clay feet and hardly a soul believes anymore American Democracy is an exercise in selflessness or clean hands – but sometimes when a politician goes too far he runs afoul of a political current that runs bone-deep – then the wind changes and tolerance ends and a bedrock American spirit (that cannot abide a politician who grabs for too much power) breaks loose and wreaks havoc.
[Click to read and post comments...]
Carter Wrenn posted on April 10, 2013 11:10
My grandmother used to say, ‘Idle hands are the devil’s workshop’ – and while legislators are waiting for the Senate to introduce its budget over in the General Assembly, they’re making a strong case that temptation and too much time on your hands is as deadly a combination as ever:
-
One legislator sponsored a bill to make teaching cursive handwriting mandatory in public schools, saying teaching cursive would develop brain activity in third graders and help them read historical documents like the Constitution – which a Google search shows, is available in print on the Internet in 123,000 places.
-
Two legislators declared the 1st Amendment (and the Freedom of Religion Clause) of the Constitution doesn’t apply to North Carolina, and that under the 10th Amendment, the legislature can nullify federal laws they don’t like – but they missed one crucial fact: The last time the state legislature tried to nullify the Constitution it didn’t work out too well.
-
A Senator filed a bill to prohibit male students and female students from rooming together in dormitories at UNC – it’s hard to argue with that, but a better question to ask might be how on earth UNC ended up with a Chancellor who could be gulled into believing it made common sense to allow gay men to room with straight women in UNC dormitories?
So, with the time they had on their hands, legislators wrote bills that enraged women, nullified the Constitution, stimulated brain activity, separated gay men and straight women at UNC, and threatened FBI agents – is it any wonder (according to the latest polls) only 23% of the voters approve of the way the state legislature is doing its job?
[Click to read and post comments...]
|
|
Carter Wrenn
Gary Pearce
The Charlotte Observer says: “Carter Wrenn and Gary Pearce don’t see eye-to-eye on many issues. But they both love North Carolina and know its politics inside and out.”
Carter is a Republican.
Gary is a Democrat.
They met in 1984, during the epic U.S. Senate battle between Jesse Helms and Jim Hunt. Carter worked for Helms and Gary, for Hunt.
Years later, they became friends. They even worked together on some nonpolitical clients.
They enjoy talking about politics. So they started this blog in 2005.
They’re still talking. And they invite you to join the conversation.
Follow Gary
 
Follow Carter
Order The Book
|
Purchase Carter's Book:
Spirits of the Air
|
|