Archive for 2011
Moody’s and the Meltdown
Barney Frank may be more liberal than Harry Reid or Obama combined but he doesn’t mind marching right into the lion’s den at Fox News and taking on any anchorman in sight. The other day in an interview Neil Cavuto put Frank on the spot, asking if the Democrats’ brinksmanship on the debt ceiling…
Read MoreChickens**t
Front-page headlines and much gnashing of teeth greeted the news that a Ukrainian billionaire pulled the plug on the jobs of 1,000 North Carolina chicken plant workers last week. But the stories missed the irony that a TAPster caught: “If, instead, a Ukrainian billionaire announced he was building poultry processing plants in central…
Read MoreThe Glass Debt Ceiling
A TAPster passes along a link raising the question: What if Congress was more than 13 percent women? A NPR commentator is quoted as saying: “In experiments, when men feel there are lots of other men around, they tend to pose more, they tend to talk tough, they become shortsighted, they take bigger bets.…
Read MoreSuper Power
If reincarnation is real, I want to come back as a credit-rating agency. They apparently are the most powerful beings on the planet. They even forced Congress to act!
Read MoreIs the Center Right?
If both Tea Party Republicans and Democratic liberals don’t like the debt deal, does that make it a good deal for America? There is a line of thinking today that what is missing in politics is a “vital center” – those supposed wise men and women who find the right answer to our problems…
Read MoreTwo Facts about the Debt Ceiling Deal
It’s pretty hard to sort through all the facts and figures and the rhetoric and posturing about the latest debt ceiling deal – but two facts seem clear. President Obama, Speaker Boehner, Mitch McConnell and Harry Reid all say the latest agreement will raise the debt ceiling $2.4 trillion in exchange for $2.5 trillion…
Read MoreSecret Sharers
Two recent stories make the “what were they thinking?” list. First, the leaders of Peace College kept secret a plan to take the historic school coed, then sprung it as a done deal. Did they really expect that to go down well? Then the N.C. Department of Commerce told PCS Phosphate to…
Read MoreGOP Joblessness
Are Democrats asleep? Below are two news reports that ran a week ago. They are rich fodder for North Carolina Democrats to use against Republicans. But I haven’t seen them do it: “State cuts push up NC jobless rate – North Carolina’s jobless rate rose to 9.9 percent in June, the highest level since…
Read MoreThird-Party Dreams
“We need a third party.” That’s a recurrent fantasy among citizens and commentators frustrated by the bump and grind of politics as usual, like the current debt-ceiling stalemate in Washington. Thomas Friedman of the New York Times gave voice to this longing in recent columns. The fantasy goes like this: A heroic group…
Read MoreTackling Thorp, Baddour
I’m impressed by the timing of the TAPster who contributed the item below on UNC football. I posted the blog yesterday, timed to go up this morning. Apparently, its mere presence in cyberspace got action. Bill Friday told the N&O the firing of Davis ends the story. I doubt it. Chancellor Holden Thorp…
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