Sunday, July 17, 2005

AP's Estes Thompson on the Truth & Rec hearings. 6:22:58 PM   permalink   comment []

Michael Ignatieff in the Times mag: "Any American neoconservative betting on the Iranian regime to crumble under the impact of isolation, blockade, sanctions or foreign condemnation ought to pay a visit to the martyrs' cemetery. Revolutionary regimes anchored in faith and blood sacrifice have good reason to believe they are impervious to outside pressure." 6:19:33 PM   permalink   comment []

Howard Coble writes to the Charlotte Observer: "I think our entry strategy into Iraq was brilliantly planned and executed, but I have yet to discern a similar exit strategy. I don't think we have one, and no one in official Washington has yet to spell one out to my satisfaction." The Greensboro congressman says he and fellow NC Republican Walter Jones "are becoming increasingly frustrated by the daily loss of American lives, along with the enormous cost to the American taxpayers, in an operation that should be taken over by Iraqi citizens." 5:39:54 PM   permalink   comment []

Jim Capo says Bush had a tough day selling CAFTA in NC. "Wavering Republicans Robin Hayes and Howard Coble avoided the event and instead took the opportunity to announce that see no benefit in CAFTA for North Carolina.  29 year-old freshman GOP Congressman Patrick McHenry whose district runs only a few miles from the site of Mr. Bush's visit issued a statement saying he stands firm on his campaign pledge to vote down CAFTA." 10:41:10 AM   permalink   comment []

Ahearn on the T&R hearings: "No stop-the-presses headlines that didn't emerge in two criminal trials and a civil verdict, when a jury held Nazi and Klan shooters and two police officers liable. But in another sense, we began to hear about the most horrible, surreal, absurd, unutterably sad 88 seconds in Greensboro history in a new way. We heard it in context -- what led up to this unlikely cast of characters being assembled at the intersection of Everitt and Carver. What came later. "In these first two hearings, to be televised on public access July 29-31, you’ll notice a lot of voices missing. "No official Greensboro. No police. And of course, two key players who are now dead: Bernard Butkovich, an undercover federal agent who infiltrated the neo-Nazis, and Edward Dawson, the Klansman and police informer who led the KKK and neo-Nazis into Morningside, a black public housing complex where communist demonstrators were about to start a "Death to the Klan" march." 9:51:23 AM   permalink   comment []

Allen Johnson reflects on his first six months as a blogging newspaperman: "We are in a new place, with new implications, new possibilities ... and new problems... I believe we're doing the right thing by sharing ownership of the newspaper with the community and by striving to be more interactive. "And I believe we're headed to the right place, wherever that is." He also laments the "primitive" blog software -- and he's using one of the better products -- and says "Writing for the blog has made my writing voice crisper, more direct and more conversational." Read the whole thing. 9:43:46 AM   permalink   comment []

The Rhino Times sent Scott Yost to Hawaii to monitor Guilford County commissioners Davis and Gibson, who are attending a conference there. Yost took an earlier flight and greeted the public servants as they deplaned. According to John Hammer, their reaction was...well, Yost's report this week should be entertaining. 9:38:52 AM   permalink   comment []