Archive for 2006
This 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…
Read MoreA Political Hurricane Coming?
Election forecasts are less reliable than hurricane forecasts. But Democrats have realistic chances to take control of both the House and Senate in Washington. If they do, the political world will be turned upside down: George Bush can look ahead to two years of total political irrelevancy; Democrats in Congress will put forward a raft…
Read MoreBlack and Decker
Last Spring, when the State Board of Elections held hearings into the pay-to-play scandals, the Board asked House Speaker Jim Black if he was paying Representative Michael Decker’s legal bills. (Representative Michael Decker later plead guilty to accepting a $50,000 bribe to change parties and vote for Black for Speaker). Black told the Board no,…
Read MoreA Storm of Confusion
The more TV weather I watch, the more confused I get. Thursday afternoon, I watched two forecasts back-to-back on two stations. The local cable system news, Channel 14, said top winds from Ernesto were 70 mph. The Weather Channel said top winds were 30 mph. Click to Read & Post Comments
Read MoreThe TTA and the Little Engine that Could
Triangle Transit Authority trustee Nina Szlosberg doesn’t want the TTA to strike the flag on Lite-Rail – so when the other trustees arrived at their last meeting she gave them copies of the children’s fable The Little Engine that Could. Taxpayers have poured tens of millions of dollars into the TTA; we’ve paid for studies,…
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