January 2004 archives

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Saturday, January 31, 2004

Snookered?: Hearing involving GOP aide muddies waters in Senate

The Democrats at the national level aren’t always right, but it seems that they are nearly always shrewder than their Republican rivals. In a vicious assault on the Constitution, they are continuing to block a Senate vote on some of...

Friday, January 30, 2004

Crackdown: Castro discourages access to Internet

The State Department believes Cuba is developing biological weapons. Last year it imprisoned in one fell swoop about 80 of its people — union leaders, librarians, journalists and advocates of human rights and democracy. Their crime was to circulate a...

Thursday, January 29, 2004

Halliburton: Bribes, overcharges and kickbacks in Iraq

Perhaps it was proper not to deny Halliburton the opportunity to get huge contracts from the government just because Dick Cheney had been its president until just before becoming vice president of the United States in 2000. But recent developments...

Wednesday, January 28, 2004

Justice: Judge puts the brakes on big-shot speed demon

Bill Janklow dominated South Dakota politics for 30 years. He served four terms as governor and then was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. He also was a menace on his state’s highways, stacking up speeding tickets and still...

Tuesday, January 27, 2004

Pou Bailey: N.C. loses a colorful judge

The defendant in a civil case was confident that he would win. This happened in Durham County some years back, and the presiding judge in Superior Court was James H. Pou Bailey of Raleigh. Bailey’s son had gone to a...

Monday, January 26, 2004

It's wrong -- 'Freebie' ads promote

No elected public official in this state in recent decades has had —or deserved — more respect than the late State Treasurer Harlan Boyles. He followed longtime Treasurer Edwin Gill in continuing a proud North Carolina heritage of public confidence...

Sunday, January 25, 2004

ECU-Goldsboro: University teaching degree available in Wayne County

What happened at Wayne Community College last week should be considered a great turning point in higher education in Wayne County, not quite equal to the establishment of the college itself, but big. Under an agreement with East Carolina University...

Friday, January 23, 2004

Lieberman: A good man, but far back in the pack

Despite the old adage, good guys don’t necessarily finish last. But in the current campaigns for president, one of the very best obviously will not be finishing first. For reasons which must escape or bewilder many of us, Sen. Joe...

Thursday, January 22, 2004

Football’s Panthers: Take that, David Letterman

Not many months ago, late-night television comedian David Letterman asked a member of his audience where he was from, and the man said he was from Charlotte. Charlotte? Where’s that? Letterman asked. The Charlotte fellow said it was in North...

Wednesday, January 21, 2004

Kerry: Checking out a possible nominee for president

Sen. John Kerry’s comeback victory in the Iowa caucuses makes him a strong candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, so it would be good for us to have a look at the man. It’s easy to imagine what a Kerry...

Tuesday, January 20, 2004

Geronimo's name signifies masculinity

You have to be mighty careful in references to American Indians, as Fred Simmons of Pensacola Beach, Fla., has learned. Simmons opened a liquor store and called it Geronimo’s Spirits, capitalizing on a little piece of local history. Geronimo,...

Monday, January 19, 2004

Martha: The tallest weed is always the one you want to see fall

Weeds used to be a big, expensive problem for growers of certain crops. Soybeans, for instance. If you sprayed a herbicide to kill the weeds, you’d kill the crop as well. Researchers spent barrels of money looking for a solution....

Sunday, January 18, 2004

Man on Mars: Is it worth going after whatever is out there?

President Bush's concept of accelerating America's space program appears to be meeting with widespread resistance. That contrasts sharply with the reaction to the first proposals, 45 or so years ago, to send Americans to the moon. Bush proposes that we...