The Republican civil war
The Republican civil war in North Carolina is raging. Today, the conservative blog The Daily Haymaker is calling the John Locke Foundation leaders “RINOs” or Republicans In Name Only. That’s quite an insult to the oldest conservative think tank in the state. Over in...
Fill the ballot
Election reform advocate Lee Mortimer has an idea. He calls it “Win the Vote.” In heavily gerrymandered legislative and Congressional districts, Democrats might not be able to win a majority of seats, but they can win a majority of the votes cast for legislature or...
Underfunded, less educated, and insecure
In recent weeks, the GOP has been bragging about good news for North Carolina. According to them, their tax reform that shifted the tax burden from the wealthy to middle class has worked. So far this fiscal year, North Carolina has a revenue surplus. But it’s come at...
New logo, broken brand
Well, North Carolina has a new $1.5 million logo. It’s all part of the rebranding effort that Pat McCrory promised when he came into office. It’s also part of running government like a business. Logos are subjective but this one’s not that impressive. As the News...
Stumped by Trump
The Republican establishment’s Trump panic is reaching new heights. They are now floating the idea that Trump is actually a Democratic plant. Who else, they reason, could so perfectly destroy their chances at winning the White House? Commentary Magazine’s Noah Rothman...
Siding with the lamestream media
This weekend, a screening of the film “Spotlight” hosted by the new North Carolina Newsroom Cooperative emphasized the importance of an independent press in our society. The movie told the story of how the Boston Globe exposed the systematic cover-up of child sexual...
McCrory’s spin in the twitterverse
It looks like Governor Pat McCrory got the keys to his twitter account this weekend and took it out for a spin. On Saturday afternoon, McCrory tweeted, “Press always wants to psychoanalyze & categorize me and put me in a box. I’m focused on solving problems &...
Of their own creation
The Republican Party is in full Trump panic. Ohio Governor John Kasich, despite little support for his own candidacy, is attacking The Donald with TV ads implying he’s fascist. South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham has been after Trump for awhile and told an audience...
McCrory versus the Fourth Estate
Pat McCrory kicked off his re-election campaign yesterday with an attack on the News & Observer. He’s selling bumperstickers that read “I don’t believe the Raleigh News & Observer.” It looks like he will go into 2016 with two opponents, Roy Cooper, the likely...
When was Pat McCrory laid off and unemployed?
Pat McCrory released a re-election video yesterday and it opens with an interesting story. He says that one of the hardest days of his life was when he had to tell his wife that he had lost his job. It’s a slow deliberate statement accompanied by dramatic music. It’s...
