newsobserver.com projects - COPs - Comments

Re: La Vie en Grey

Proctor — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 14:50:37 -0400

Magnifique! Be sure to put some of The N&O's reporters and editors in there too so they can enjoy their rightful place under the Big Dome Top. And local elected officials in Wake County too because people have enough trouble already recognizing them in the news columns.

This just in: If you try to put one of these caricatures on your license tag, the DMV is not exactly going to wish you a "Bon Voyage."

La Vie en Grey

ryanteaguebeckwith — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 14:06:00 -0400

We're working on adding more caricatures to the blog, bientôt.

— RTB

Re: Too much debt?

Proctor — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 13:58:50 -0400

Grey Blackwell has provided a cartoon rendering "par excellence," and anyone who has any regrets about it can just shrug it off by concluding: "C'est la vie."

Now the way for Richard Moore, Beverly Perdue and all the other gubernatorial hopefuls to show their appreciation for French culture in the Old North State is to go out to Burke County in Western N.C. and have a debate in downtown Valdese for all the Waldensians in the area. They could even get Morganton native and Raleigh newscaster Bill Leslie to serve as narrator, but Burke County is past Carrboro and out of WRAL's viewing range, so the station might respond with a "Non, non!"

A lot of the '08 crop of political candidates and the public too would probably like having a Blackwell etching just as much as a regular photograph, but what are the chances of the DMV allowing them on drivers' licenses? Non? (Then how about a mug by Powell?)

Re: Too much debt?

ryanteaguebeckwith — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 13:13:56 -0400

The cartoon is by our in-house artiste, Grey Blackwell.

It may make Moore look a bit French, but Grey regrets nothing.

— RTB

Re: Too much debt?

Proctor — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 13:06:12 -0400

This "Under the Dome" drawing of Richard Moore looks a lot like the boxer in the movie, "La Vie en Rose." Is Richard going for the French vote in North Carolina? About the closest we have to a town honoring the Parisian singer Edith Piaf of "La Vie en Rose" would be Pfafftown, but Pshaw, that's way over there by Winston-Salem.

Not convincing

Anglico — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 17:24:27 -0400

Not to me anyway.

Let them expire and then reinstitute them, or better yet, increase the income tax on high income households.

I tend to agree about the sales tax, but Cowell's talking like they're joined at the hip. They're two completely different things that are only related in terms of timing.

The bigger issue is simply that the Senate isn't stepping up to invest in all the areas that need attention. Not even close. The COPS scheme is an end-around doing the right thing.

Re: Did she say why?

ryanteaguebeckwith — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 16:30:06 -0400

Dome: How important is repealing the temporary taxes to you in the final budget?

Cowell: I think there's multiple issues there. Certainly, there's keeping your promise to voters, and if you say you're going to roll off a tax, there's an integrity issue of actually rolling it off. What I'm watching for is to make sure that if we cut the high-income tax and cut the sales tax as we've done, we don't come back in with another plan to up the sales tax, for example, as part of a Medicaid swap with counties. I would have a very, very hard time putting a sales tax back on, which would make the whole tax code more regressive.

Did she say why?

Anglico — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 15:11:01 -0400

n/t

Re: I didn't hear much about "support" for the budget

ryanteaguebeckwith — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 14:28:12 -0400

In a portion of the interview that I didn't include, Cowell also said she supports the repeal of the temporary taxes.

— RTB

I didn't hear much about "support" for the budget

Anglico — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 13:35:18 -0400

other than a novel argument for the COP funding scheme. And if that argument (lock in low prices now for construction) is to be taken seriously, why not COP the entire Land for Tomorrow agenda?

Despite the Senator's impressive record on many fronts, if she does indeed "support" the proposed budget, she has either (1) resigned herself to its passage and played along to make nice, or (2) had her brain stolen by the anti-tax zealots.

This budget stinks, pure and simple. It may be "realistic" and it may be the best the Senate could cobble together, but it ain't good enough. Not by a long shot.

Good for Mike Easley

Anglico — Wed, 30 May 2007 08:20:14 -0400

The Senate should make the "temporary tax increases" permanent and stop screwing around with our future.