Saturday, October 15, 2005

A profile of NC congressman Patrick McHenry. "Like most of the post-Gingrich generation, McHenry's ultimate loyalty is less to principle or ideology than to the machine itself." A hit piece, to be sure, but then again McHenry is a tempting target. Be sure to read the part about the credit union conversion bill. 5:34:25 PM   permalink   comment []

Homecoming at A&T is a big deal in Greensboro, as it should be...but Nita has a different view of the festivities. 5:30:54 PM   permalink   comment []

Transparency and conversation are fairly new to the top ranks of the newspaper business. JR just makes it look easy. Some unsolicited advice for the N&O's Melanie Sill: Sometimes, it's best to backtrack and say I'm sorry, thanks for the context (she's starting to do that here). Sometimes, it's best to continue the conversation with more info, even if the challenge comes from a determined antagonist with an agenda you will never satisfy. And sometimes, it's best to counterpunch -- in this case, I'd say, give me a break, get a sense of proportion, we'll cover Air America's travails in roughly the same manner as we cover Rush Limbaugh's trials, not the way we cover an investigation into the White House. 11:26:16 AM   permalink   comment []

DarkTimes: MoDo smells blood, or at least fear. "Sex, Envy, Proximity" is the hed on a column that begins, "The White House has lost its mind - and its survival instincts." Core message: "Lyndon Johnson said the two things that make politicians behave more stupidly than anything else are sex and envy. You might add one more: proximity. I always think men are more prone to get seduced by proximity into making unwise choices. They tend to be a bit lazy. They'll grab the closest doughnut off the platter. Like Jude Law and the Nanny. "It was Monica Lewinsky's proximity that caused Bill Clinton to forget the dignity of his office. It was Harriet Miers's proximity - she has spent more time with W. than any aide except Andy Card - that caused George Bush to forget that flattery and catering to his every need are not qualifications for the Supreme Court." Tierney follows up his recent piece on cronyism among lefty academics with a piece about cronyism among lefty academics, "Why Righties Can't Teach." "Once liberals dominate a department, they can increase their majority by voting to award tenure to like-minded scholars. As liberals dominate a field, conservatives' work comes to be seen as fringe scholarship." But that's kinda good, he says, because it forces conservatives to go develop and defend their ideas in the crucible of the real world. 9:14:08 AM   permalink   comment []

John Robb has an op-ed in this morning's free NYT, The Open-Source War. He suggests that "the insurgency isn't a fragile hierarchical organization but rather a resilient network made up of small, autonomous groups. This means that the insurgency is virtually immune to attrition and decapitation. It will combine and recombine to form a viable network despite high rates of attrition." More: "The insurgency uses an open-source community approach (similar to the decentralized development process now prevalent in the software industry) to warfare that is extremely quick and innovative. New technologies and tactics move rapidly from one end of the insurgency to the other." And: "It's possible, as Microsoft has found, that there is no good monopolistic solution to a mature open-source effort. In that case, the United States might be better off adopting I.B.M.'s embrace of open source. This solution would require renouncing the state's monopoly on violence by using Shiite and Kurdish militias as a counterinsurgency." Oddly, John's ID at the end of the column doesn't mention his blog. 9:07:42 AM   permalink   comment []

Why does the N&R label this morning's interview with Jefferson-Pilot CEO Dennis Glass an "exclusive," when the BizJournal ran an interview and companion article yesterday? Of course, the BizJournal stuff isn't online yet...but the N&R splashes that red "exclusive" tag on its print edition. Marta Hummel's article about Glass's role in the community is depressingly accurate. (Full disclosure: Dennis is a friend, and I continue to work closely with him in the volunteer world.) 9:00:06 AM   permalink   comment []