WFMY, News & Record, it is time to correct the record

Frank Mickens, WFMY, January 27, 2006: "Interim Chief: No Evidence Supporting Validity Of 'Black Book'"

Although a crappy web site keeps me from linking to similar News & Record articles, anybody paying attention will acknowledge that the narrative told by local media about the events surrounding stripping former Greensboro Police Chief David Wray of his authority and his subsequent resignation included as a central theme the existence of a "black book" -- a photo line up book illegitimately used to "target" black police officers.

It is time for local media to correct the record; to report with just as much attention as they originally did when painting the "black book" as an indictment of Wray that Greensboro City Manager Mitch Johnson has now acknowledged, in a sworn affidavit, that the "black book" was a legitimate investigative tool and that there is no indication that it was used for any other illicit purpose.

Jerry Bledsoe in this week's installment of his Rhinoceros Times series "Cops in Black and White" explains:

Earlier this year, Greensboro lawyer Samuel Spagnola and Roch Smith Jr., proprietor of the internet site We 101, filed suit against the city seeking public records about the police and the Project Homestead scandal of 2003. In August, Spagnola submitted to the city his first set of interrogatories as well as a request for admissions of fact. The city completed its responses on Sept. 16.

Number 11 in the request for admissions was this:

"Admit that the 'Black Book' was compiled for the purpose of solving or preventing a possible violation of the law.

"Response: It is admitted that the 'Black Book' requested by the Plaintiffs is a photo array or record compiled for the purpose of solving a violation of the law."

The city denied a request for an admission that there was no other use for the book, saying it was privileged under the law. But in the first set of interrogatories, number 10 is this:

"State whether there are any documents or recordings in the possession of the City that indicate any other use of the 'Black Book' other than to solve or prevent a violation of the law.

"Answer: Based on information and belief, the City of Greensboro is not aware of any documents or recordings in the possession of the City that indicate any other use of the photo array, an original of which is currently in possession of the State Bureau of Investigations, other than to purportedly solve or prevent an alleged violation of the law."

These documents are accompanied by a sworn deposition entitled "Verification," which is signed by Mitch Johnson. It states:

"I am the City Manager for the City of Greensboro, and I am authorized to make this verification on behalf of the City of Greensboro. I have read the foregoing Answers to Plaintiffs' First Set of Interrogatories, and know the contents thereof to be true of my own knowledge, except for those matters and things stated therein upon information and belief, and as to those things, I believe them to be true."

So, how about it News & Record and WFMY? Are you going to inform the public or are you going to consign Greensboro to yet another bit of racially tinged history clouded by innuendo and incomplete reporting of the facts? Will you capitulate to the mendacity and mediocrity that have damned our fair city in the past or will you step up, set the bar higher and do your part to allow Greensboro to move forward with an accurate understanding of its past?

News & Record history online goes "poof"

This morning I was trying to research some of the media coverage of the events surrounding stripping former Greensboro Police Chief David Wray of his authority and his subsequent resignation. I am frustrated and disappointed to find that search result links to News & Record articles lead to page after page of broken links: "Page not found. We're sorry, but the page you've requested does not exist."

This blog post by News & Record editor John Robinson about the N&R's reporting of the Wray affair has seven links to what the editor purports to be relevant News & Record articles. Each one is broken.

The local newspaper should serve as an historical record. It doesn't. It sucks. The whole enterprise should be gutted, torn down and rebuilt from the ground up with the goal of some modicum of competence; or someone should start a new media enterprise to replace the N&R. That could probably be done for a quarter of the rumored sale price of the N&R and without the drain of a legacy culture and financial overhead that weigh like an anchor of perpetual incompetence around the neck of the N&R.

My New Obama Sign

After having had two Obama yard signs stolen from our yard in as many days, and after having had an Obama bumper sticker removed from our car, I have made a new Obama yard sign:



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Yes, it's a double standard. Calling 'em as I see 'em

News & Record reporter Mark Binker writes on his blog that North Carolina candidate for US Senate Kay Hagan, is a member of Greensboro Country Club and was a member when the club, prior to 1995, excluded blacks as members.

Binker headlines his post with "Is this anything?" Joe Guarino and Tony Wilkins think it's a double standard; that, in the past, revealing membership to clubs that discriminate was considered legitimate reportage of political candidates. Joe and Tony are right, this is a double standard unless and until the media report this and get an explanation from Hagan.

Stifling dissent

Elon College student and Obama supporter Andy Milne was arrested for disturbing the peace at Thursday's Sarah Palin rally after he was accosted while holding up a sign.

A few years ago, a couple was arrested in West Virginia for wearing anti-Bush t-shirts to a Bush rally. They filed suit and, last year, the federal government agreed to settle, paying the couple $80,000.00.

Letter to the editor writer Larry Surber of Stoneville not up to speed.

Larry Surber of Stoneville had a letter to the editor published in today's News & Record (Greensboro, NC). Wondering where Sarah Palin has been on the Exon Valdez oil spill, he writes:

"But where is the 'populist' Palin? Has she been fighting for 19 years on behalf of the devastated Prince William folks? No, she is donning her old cheerleading outfit and waving pompoms and cheering, 'Drill, Baby, Drill!'"

I don't know that Sarah Palin has been fighting on behalf of the Prince William folks since she was twenty-five years old, nor have I seen her don a cheerleading outfit. She certainly seems to condone "Drill, baby, drill," but, under her administration as Governor, Alaska formally sided with the Prince William folks in the case before the Supreme Court earlier this year where Exxon successfully sought to have their monetary responsibility for the Valdez oil spill reduced.

No need to mislead, Larry.

Letter to the editor writer Lisa McCoy Reid of Greensboro gets her facts wrong

Lisa McCoy Reid of Greensboro had a letter to the editor published in today's News & Record (Greensboro, NC). She begins with:

"Barack Obama refers to Bill Ayers as just “some guy that I know.” Obama accepted a job from the unrepentant terrorist to head his Chicago foundation from 1995 to 2000. This position required a very close working relationship with Ayers."

Wrong. Ayers did not hire Obama. From an October 4th, 2008 article in the NY Times:

"[A]ccording to several people involved, Mr. Ayers played no role in Mr. Obama's appointment. Instead, it was suggested by Deborah Leff, then president of the Joyce Foundation, a Chicago-based group whose board Mr. Obama, a young lawyer, had joined the previous year." [See a complete debunking of the myth here.]

Reid then offers up this unsupportable nugget:

"Ayers avoided conviction for bombing places in the United States because the prosecutors failed to get a warrant before using wiretaps."

Not that this is relevant to Obama, but this serves as an example of the lack of critical thinking from the writer. The lack of warrants did not keep Ayers from being "convicted," they kept him from possibly being prosecuted.

Finally, Reid writes this:

"Those associated with ACORN have been convicted of mass voter-registration fraud in Ohio, Colorado, Mississippi and Washington."

This may be the smartest part of Reid's letter in that she carefully writes of "Those associated with ACORN," acknowledging that, where there have been such convictions, they were of people contracted by ACORN to register voters. Reid falls to mention that these convictions happened with the cooperation of ACORN. "Mass" fraud? Well, what's a little hyperbole when you have your facts wrong and can't think straight?

1 hour, 40 minutes to early vote

Just got a call from mom and dad who went to early vote this morning at the old courthouse. They report lines around the block, with an hour and forty minutes in line. They said they heard state senate candidate Don Vaughan (running against Joe Wilson) on the phone with the Board of Elections trying to convince them to set up more than the ten voting machines currently available.

Worthless McCain yard signs

Last night, someone stole my parent's Obama yard sign and replaced it with a McCain sign, which was promptly delivered to the garbage can. I guess there must be a shortage of people willing to put McCain signs in their yards and the landfill is the only place left for them.

She acted legally. Why is the Palin report newsworthy?

Three words for your elucidation:

Johnson fires Wray.

Is We101 faster?

I tried something today with We101.com that I should have done a long time ago (file caching* for you geeks). This should make We101 faster. What do you think? For those of you who are regular users, do you notice an improvement?

* Previously, We101 performed a database query every time a visitor loaded a page. For a city like Greensboro, with several hundreds (or more) of posts displayed by default, this was some substantial server overhead. It also was unnecessary.

The database of blog posts is only updated once an hour, so there really was nothing to be gained by querying the database with every page load. Now, with today's change, each time a visitor loads a page, the server will check the cache for a stored static (faster) HTML page. If there is such a page and it is no older than one hour, that page will be served to the visitor. If you are the lucky visitor who is the first to hit a page after the cache has expired, your page will query the database, you'll wait for the results, and the server will write a new page to the cache so all of the people who follow you for the next hour will get the speedy cached page.

Kathryn Mittelstadt: Triad Business Leader Spammer

The spam from Business Leader Media continues unabated. As I've previously noted, and Sue has reported to the FCC, Bob Kober's new endeavor is really pissing people off. Now Kathryn Mittelstadt, Vice President - Events, has joined the spamming efforts, also sending unwanted emails to "Dear Subscriber."

If Business Leader Media tries to sell you exposure through their email marketing and they tell you that the people who receive their emails have subscribed to them, don't do it. They are sending email to people who haven't subscribed and who don't want this spam. Associating your company with this public relations wreck would be a mistake.

More radical extremist links. We must not allow this to ascend to power.

Michelle Obama was revealed to have joined a race-centric nationalist party whose founder preached armed secession from the United States and who enlisted the government of Iran in his cause.

This is crazy. There is no way we can allow this kind of anti-American extremism to have a position of power. Surely we can all agree on this.

One more thing: This is not true of the Obamas, it describes the Palins.

Triad News Wire (a Bob Kober joint) getting a formal complaint to the FCC

"The spam they send is crap; the site owners are managing a crap “business;” their technology is crap. I’m reporting them to the FCC."

Sue is as perturbed as I am about Bob Kober's latest endeavor: Spam from Triad News Wire.

Bob, you are going to have a hard time selling your product to advertisers if they start to become aware that the audience you promise them is thoroughly pissed off with your product. My suggestion? Cull your email list down to only those who really have subscribed and stop sending email to people who never asked to receive it.

Messaging Service Unavailable

The result of trying to email my congressman today from his congressional web site:

"The House of Representatives is currently experiencing an extraordinarily high amount of email traffic. The Write Your Representative function is therefore intermittently available. While we realize communicating to your Members of Congress is critical, we suggest attempting to do so at a later time, when demand is not so high. System engineers are working to resolve this issue and we appreciate your patience."

Letter to the editor contradicts Palin in her defense

In a letter to the editor in today's News & Record (Greensboro, NC), writer Matthew P. Miller tries to take another writer to task for criticizing Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin. Miller says that we are not at war for oil:

"This isn’t about oil, and if that is what Barack Obama is selling, you better get your money back because you’ve been taken."

But....

Sarah Palin said:

"I say this while our nation is at war, while we're fighting in some sense over energy supplies."

Video here (at the 8:00 mark)

"We are a nation at war and in many [ways] the reasons for war are fights over energy sources..." [Source]

I guess Mr. Miller will be wanting his money back.

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Free Speech Alive and Well in Greensboro

I inquired with the City of Greensboro about the Obama campaign's rule that signs and banners would not be allowed at tomorrow's rally. Here is the reply I received from the city Public Affairs Director, Pat Boswell:

"Roch: The Obama campaign issued the statement that signs and banners are not permitted. City Police Officers will not enforce this rule as stated. However, if a person at the event is carrying a sign that in the officer’s judgment poses a risk to public safety—for example, a sign attached to a heavy or pointed piece of wood—then the officer may require that the person remove it from the site."

[This straightforward answer required more research than may be apparent. I appreciate the effort Pat made to get me an answer in a day and half. Thanks, Pat.]

Update: I just spoke to City attorney Terry Wood, and, while he cautioned that he does not set policy, only advises, he concurs that this is the lawfully correct policy. He says he doesn't see how Greensboro police could arrest someone for peaceably standing at the rally with a sign without violating their First Amendment rights.

McCain: Flip-Flopper

Although Congress has yet to find a solution to the financial crisis, the clock ran out on McCain's gambit and he has come to realize that he made a bad decision and boxed himself into an impossible situation. So, he changes his mind and within 5 seconds, the spin starts on Fox Noise: "The McCain campaign never said he wouldn't attend the debate, just that he was suspending his campaign until we've taken action."

The McCain campaign was unequivocal that he wasn't coming to the debate unless there was a solution to the financial crisis first:

"Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., McCain's representative in debate negotiations, said McCain will not attend the debate "unless there is an agreement that would provide a solution" to the financial crisis. Graham said the agreement would have to be endorsed publicly by Obama, McCain, the White House and congressional leaders but not necessarily given final passage by the House and Senate."

McCain is a gambler, he rolled the dice and crapped out. Poor decision making.

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Rasmussen North Carolina Poll: Obama 49%, McCain 47%

"The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the Tar Heel State shows Obama attracting 49% of the vote while McCain earns 47%. A week ago, McCain held a three-point edge. This is the first time in eight Rasmussen Reports polls that Obama has held any kind of a lead in North Carolina, though the candidates were tied once as well."

Source

Free Speech-Free Saturday?

How is it that the Obama campaign, using a publicly owned facility and, possibly, surrounding sidewalks and streets to accommodate the crowd, can issue announcements for Obama's Greensboro appearance that say "Signs and banners are not permitted?" If someone were to display a sign, would the GPD protect that person's First Amendment rights or assist with that person's removal?

News & Record accommodates plagiarist F.T. Greene of Greensboro

The News & Record (Greensboro, NC) published a nice little piece of Astroturf today: A letter from F. T. Greene of Greensboro. The letter was originally published in the Wall Street Journal on September 3, 2008 from Alec Ellison of Rye, NY. It was slightly modified to the version copied word-for-word by Greene and circulated on Free Republic and Rush Limbaugh's web site.

[Previous plagiarized letters in the N&R here and here.]

A public question for Kay Hagan on unions

Senator Hagan:

I can't figure out where you stand on unions. During an interview with the News & Record editorial staff you said that you favored allowing public employees the right to unionize. (Here.) The next day, you contacted N&R reporter Mark Binker and said that you misspoke, that you would never support federal law that would mandate that state public employees be allowed to unionize. You defended that position by saying you are "business-friendly." (Audio)

Last Friday, during an interview on radio station 680 WPTF (audio -- at the 7:30 mark), you said that you support the proposed federal legislation the Employee Free Choice Act. This act would make it easier for employees to unionize without employer interference.

These positions seem contradictory. How is it business-friendly to oppose federal law allowing public employees to unionize while supporting federal legislation that would make it easier for private-sector employees to unionize? Do you see why I'm confused? You say you are opposed to pro-union law that would not affect business and in favor of pro-union law that would affect business. Can you help me to understand?

You may answer in the comments below and I thank you in advance.

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You are a nitwit. I will deceive you. You will vote for me.

Local blogger Tony Wilkins cuts and pastes a press release from the Elizabeth Dole campaign waving a red flag for Kay Hagan's support of the Employee Free Choice Act. The post includes a link to a clip from a radio interview with Hagan where she expresses her support for the Act. Unfortunately, apparently assuming you are a bonehead and that they can put one over on you, the Dole campaign edits the audio clip so that you won't hear the part of the answer they don't want you to hear.

In response to a caller's question, where he asks if Hagan supports a repeal of the secret ballot option for forming a union, the edited audio clip on Dole's web site has Hagan saying this, and only this:

“There is something called EFCA – the Employees Free Choice Act, and I do support that.”

Hagan's complete answer to the question (at the 7:30 mark) also included her saying this:

"If you look back historically, there is a choice whether you can do a secret ballot or an employee... or a check. And those have been on the books for years [emphasis mine]. And I do support the right to have working families to have an opportunity to choose."

I am no great fan of the Hagan campaign and, in this interview, Hagan sounded more than unprepared, she sounded out of it -- evasive, unsteady and distracted. Nonetheless, she did manage to spit out the important factoid that puts the lie to the scare tactics used in opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act -- that it would not, as the Dole campaign asserts, "revoke the rights of workers to vote by secret ballot."

No currently available employee options for forming a union, by petition or secret ballot, would be revoked under the Act. What the Act would do is no longer allow employers to demand a secret ballot if employees choose to utilize another existing option for forming a union. The Dole campaign is resorting to misrepresentation to support their scare tactics. As they've previously done, the Dole campaign underestimates the intelligence of North Carolina voters.

Obama, McCain tied in latest NC poll

The latest poll of North Carolina voters has Senators Obama and McCain tied at 46% each. Obama has a 24 point lead with the 58% of voters who say the economy is their most important issue.

News & Record edits letter writer's name

My dad wrote a letter to the editor of the News & Record (Greensboro, NC) that was published today. He showed me his original submission that was clearly submitted as "From: Roch C. Smith, Sr."

The N&R took it upon themselves to publish the letter as from Roch Smith.

I'm very proud of my dad and we align closely in our politics, but dad tried to make it clear that the letter was not from Howard Coble's web site designer (thanks, dad). My liason with Coble's campaign was way too cool about it. I asked him if he read today's N&R. "Yeah, I saw your letter" he said. A staffer had faxed the letter to him with a note attached saying, "Our web designer." Before I could explain, my contact continued, "That's alright, you are entitled to your opinion. As long as you are doing a good job on our web site, we don't mind if you express your thoughts..." Finally, I cut him off and explained. We had a good laugh.

But really, with the N&R's reluctance to edit letters for accuracy, why in the world would they go through the trouble of changing a writer's name?

Triad News Wire: Spammers

I received an email today from Triad News Wire--a summary of recent public relations announcements from area businesses. The email informed me that I was "receiving this email as a subscriber to our website." Bullshit.

I am quite certain that I had never previously visited this website much less subscribed to their email list. An introductory email that invited me to subscribe would be one thing; it's an insulting pain in the ass to have been subscribed without my knowledge or consent while pretending that I had. It's a poor reflection on Triad News Wire and the companies they represent that the first impression they are creating is one of dishonest annoyance.

I say, sir, my portoflio suggests a suckiness of Bush economic policy

So, you like the effects of the Bush economic policies on your investments?

In the 7 years and 8 months since Bush took office:

S&P down 11%
DOW up 3.6%
NASDAQ down 21%

As a comparison, under 8 years of Democrat Bill Clinton:

S&P up 209%
DOW up 222%
NASDAQ up 299%

Source

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News & Record letter writer misquotes Palin

In a letter to the editor in today's News & Record (Greensboro, NC), Diane Manzi of Greensboro writes:

"Speaking about her son deploying to Iraq, Palin said: 'Our national leaders are sending them out on a task that is from God. That’s what we have to make sure that we’re praying for, that there is a plan and that plan is God’s plan.'"

That is not an accurate quote. I'll leave it to readers to decide the extent to which the actual quote changes the meaning (I think it does), but what Palin actually said was:

"Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right also for this country; that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending them out on a task that is from God. That's what we have to make sure that we're praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God's plan."

See the video here. This quote at the 3:35 mark.

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News & Record corrects erroneous letter to the editor

The News & Record (Greensboro, NC) offered a correction today of erroneous information printed in a letter to the editor regarding Sarah Palin. Terrific! I hope the N&R is turning over a new leaf and that this is the beginning of the end of allowing plagiarism and fabrications to go uncorrected. Thank you N&R, for being big enough to step up and do it better.

Waste Deep

Mark Binker wades into the bullshit that currently masquerades as campaigning by the Dole and Hagan campaigns.

Excerpt:

"[I]f you're like most of the folks who are going cast votes in this election, neither Kay Hagan nor Elizabeth Dole are like you. They own stock and shares in oil wells that are worth more than your net value several times over. If either of them tries to convince you they're feeling the same pain at the pump you are, your BS meter should not only immediately go to red but start smoking, beeping and eventually break down from exhaustion."

Read the whole thing.

Sarah Palin speaks the truth

Sarah Palin, three months ago:

"I say this while our nation is at war, while we're fighting in some sense over energy supplies."

Video here (at the 8:00 mark)

Sarah Palin last month:

"We are a nation at war and in many [ways] the reasons for war are fights over energy sources..." [Source]

John McCain once expressed the same opinion, saying we need to “eliminate our dependence on oil from the Middle East that will prevent us from having ever to send our young men and women into conflict again in the Middle East.” But he took it back. [Source]

You are dumb. I will lie to you. You will vote for me.

Haven't we had enough dissembling and obfuscation in the last eight years? Do we really need another administration that thinks lying to people is ok?

John McCain has posted a web ad that says "Barack Obama on: Sarah Palin" followed by Obama saying, "You can put lipstick on a pig. It's still a pig."

Here's what Obama said in context. Does it sound to you like he's talking about Sarah Palin or does it sound to you like the McCain campaign thinks it is ok to mislead to people?

OBAMA: Let's just list this for a second. John McCain says he's about change too. So I guess his whole angle is watch out George Bush. Except for economic policy, health care policy, tax policy, education policy, foreign policy and Karl Rove style politics, we're really going to shake things up in Washington. That's not change. That's just calling the same thing something different. But you know, you can put lipstick on a pig. It's still a pig.

You are an idiot. I will stoke your irrational fears. You will vote for me.

As election season heats up, it's going to be interesting to see which candidates offer an honest appeal to your good judgment and which think you are are an idiot who can be manipulated through deception. We've already seen one good example of the latter from Senator Liddy Dole who thinks her campaign can just make stuff up and that North Carolina voters are too gullible to notice. "I'm insulting your intelligence, morons. Vote for me, Elizabeth Dole."

Today we have another example. Local blogger (and fantasy football foe) Jeff Sykes of A Priori Concepts offered a post titled "Obama on education." It is a posting of the latest McCain attack ad--an ad that also assumes that voters are idiots; that misdirection can be used to pull the wool over our eyes and manipulate us to fear.

The ad offers the frightening warning that Obama favored teaching "comprehensive sex education to kindergarteners. " Be afraid! Be very afraid--unless you take the time to understand that this "sex education" was about age appropriate teaching of inappropriate touching so that children are less likely to become victims of sexual abuse. And if you didn't think that's a good idea, your kid didn't have to learn it. It was optional. But don't let the facts get in the way of fear. [Update: McClatchy fact checks the ad here.]

The ad offers derogatory quotations about Obama and cites authoritative sources. Here's the thing though, while the McCain campaign cherry picks a word or two from those sources to impugn Obama, those very same articles were much more critical of McCain on educaiton. McCain is hoping you are too dumb, too busy or too lazy to notice. Here's the real scoop on the sources cited in the McCain ad:
------------------

What sets this ad apart is that every article save one that the McCain camp cites as being critical of Obama's education policies either has far more derogatory things to say about McCain himself or goes on to praise the Illinois Democrat.

In the spot, the McCain campaign references a June 2008 Washington Post editorial that called Obama "elusive" on school accountability. That same editorial, however, stated that McCain "has not been forthcoming with any detailed plan." Moreover, when the Post editorial board revisited the subject of education last month, it found that "Obama has given the issue more attention" than McCain, whose plan was "both late in coming and still a work in progress."

Moreover, the specific "elusive" claim is in reference to a David Brooks op-ed in the New York Times that was noted by the Post. But in that piece, Brooks was far more critical of McCain. "Obama endorses many good ideas and is more specific than the McCain campaign, which hasn't even reported for duty on education," the Times columnist wrote.

In its press release accompanying the ad, the McCain campaign also cites an Education Week article which states that, as a legislator, Obama "hasn't made a significant mark on education." The same story, however, goes on to add: "Sen. Obama may have a unique perspective among the candidates seeking the presidency in 2008. As a private citizen, he led Chicago's portion of the Annenberg Challenge school reform initiative financed by the late philanthropist Walter H. Annenberg--an experience that shaped Mr. Obama's perspective on the critical importance of principals and teachers."

Additionally, during the heat of the Republican primary, Education Week ran a withering story on the lack of McCain accomplishments in the field, titled "John McCain on Education: Where Art Thou?"

"With Republican presidential contender John McCain poised to make a strong showing--or even win--tomorrow's primary in New Hampshire, it seems appropriate to re-examine his views on education," read the story. "That's not such an easy task. Education doesn't make the Arizona senator's list of issues on his campaign website. ... McCain is a campaign-finance, foreign-relations, anti-abortion, tax-cut candidate. Education is not his thing."

Indeed, only one article referenced by the McCain campaign doesn't, in turn, rip the Republican nominee even harder than Obama. That article (which is misleadingly attributed in the ad to the Chicago Tribune) is a July 2008 op-ed by libertarian columnist Steve Chapman, who has also argued for abolishing the Department of Education.

[source]

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Senator Dole: Fibber

I am very disappointed to see that Senator Dole's campaign is going ahead with the bogus and insulting TV ad first revealed as disingenuous by News & Record reporter, Mark Binker. The ad, which derides Hagan by saying "They call her fibber Kay," expects North Carolinians to be gullible saps, but Dole proudly endorses it. What a shame. What an insightful revelation of what Dole thinks of us.

Here is what the News & Observer has to say about the ad:
------------------------------

The ad does not specify who "they" are who call Hagan "Fibber Kay."

The Dole campaign said they did not come up with the nickname, but they did not know who did.

"We're not sure who coined it, but we hear people call Kay Hagan 'Fibber Kay' on the campaign trail and we hear it frequently," said spokesman Hogan Gidley.

A search of North Carolina newspapers, blogs and Web sites did not return any references to "Fibber Kay" from before the ad began airing, and nearly all written since were about the ad itself.

The ad does not name any of the supposed "fibs" that Hagan has made.

More fact checking of the ad here.

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Change? What does that mean?

I was listening to Brad and Britt on WZTK FM Talk 101.1 this morning and I heard a caller bemoaning the fact that, despite both presidential candidates now promising change, he had no idea what kind of change was being proposed -- that the details are missing.

Look, if you find yourself of the same opinion as the caller, there are two possibilities. Either there are no details to be found or you are getting your information from sources that don't offer details. Which is more likely?

The details are indeed out there. If you don't have them, make a concerted effort to change your information gathering efforts. If you plop yourself down in front of Fox and Friends every morning or tune into Michael Savage every evening and find yourself coming up short on knowledge, maybe you are wasting time with the wrong media. Take some initiative. Try different programs, spend an hour on the Net Googling topics of interest to you. Read some national magazines. Ask your friends where to turn. The information is out there. Go get it.

Letter-writer Paul Greene of Greensboro fabricates his own (erroneous) facts, News and Record gives stamp of approval

Is the News & Record letters editor awake? Today the paper published another letter with factual errors, adding to the N&R's stellar history of publishing lies, plagiarism, factual errors, more errors of fact, more plagiarism, and more lies. The letters page editor simply seems incapable of or unconcerned with checking letters for accuracy. Printing an opinion is one thing; printing a statement of fact that is wrong is an endorsement of mendacity by our daily newspaper.

In today's letter, Paul Greene of Greensboro offers a quotation from Senator Barack Obama's presidential nomination acceptance speech. What Greene puts in quotation marks though is not what Obama said. Greene made it up.

Greene wrote:

Obama said, “They say (the Republicans) you must make it on your own. You want to go to college? You’re on you own. If you are down, pull yourself up by your own boot strings; you’re on your own.”

What Senator Obama actually said was:

For over two decades, he's [John McCain] subscribed to that old, discredited Republican philosophy — give more and more to those with the most and hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else. In Washington, they call this the Ownership Society, but what it really means is — you're on your own. Out of work? Tough luck. No health care? The market will fix it. Born into poverty? Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps — even if you don't have boots. You're on your own.

This is the kind of distortion that demands a correction. The News & Record won't print one. They don't care for accuracy.

Will Dell bail on North Carolina?

From Reuters:

Dell Inc (NasdaqGS:DELL - News) is trying to sell computer factories around the world in efforts to cut cost and improve profitability, the Wall Street Journal said.

In recent months, Dell has approached contract computer manufacturers with offers to sell the plants, the paper said, citing people familiar with the matter.

One person briefed on the plan told the Journal that he expects Dell to sell most, possibly all, of its factories "within the next 18 months."

The most likely buyers of Dell's factories will be big contract manufacturers, most of which are based in Asia, the paper said.

Dell's factories were originally tailored for a PC market that was driven by corporate customers ordering large volumes of desktop PCs.

But over the past three years, growth has shifted to laptops sold to consumers at retail stores. Round Rock, Texas-based Dell has lagged behind competitors in coming up with a streamlined system to build portable PCs.

Dell could face several obstacles in selling its plants. Contract manufacturers may be hesitant to buy factories in places with high labor costs, like the United States, a person with knowledge of the talks told the Journal.

And some facilities could be encumbered by agreements with local governments. Dell's North Carolina plant, for example, received several million dollars of state and local tax incentives that are contingent on the factory meeting certain employment and local-investment goals by 2015.

Though Dell's plants are still regarded as efficient at churning out desktop PCs, within the industry, company-owned factories aren't considered the least expensive way to produce laptops.

Contract manufacturers can generally produce computers for less money because their entire operations are narrowly focused on finding efficiencies in manufacturing, as opposed to large firms like Dell, which must balance marketing and other considerations.

No one was available at Dell for immediate comment.

Listen now, "They" have something to say

Mark Binker takes note of a new ad in support of Elizabeth Dole that begins with "They call her 'fibber Kay' Hagan," referring to Dole's senatorial opponent Kay Hagan.

Who calls Hagan "fibber Kay?" You know, "They" -- meaning the people that wrote the ad. Elizabeth Dole must think that North Carolinians are a bunch of dumb saps who can be played if she thinks we'll fall for this.

More evidence that Dole thinks we are stupid hicks: The same ad states that Elizabeth Dole "has been consistently voted one of the ten most admired women in the world" and cites as its source, "Gallop Poll."

The last time Dole appeared on this list was 2006. Dole fell off last year's list of most admired women.

Fudging the facts, making stuff up--in this instance it is coming from the Dole camp, but whenever somebody tries to put one over on us in this manner, it's a huge insult to the people of North Carolina and candidates are dumber than they think we are if they don't expect us to notice.

National Enquirer is legitimate, right?

Remember how local bloggers and commenters were insisting that just because it was in the National Enquirer didn't mean it wasn't true?

News & Record letter writer gets his facts wrong. N&R prints it anyway

Today's News & Record (Greensboro, NC), publishes a letter from Dan Holsenbeck of Greensboro. Holsenbeck writes:

"Last year, Barack Obama made a speech in front of NARAL, stating that if he was elected, that his first action as president would be to fight for the repeal of partial-birth abortion ban."

Holsenbeck has his facts wrong. First of all, the speech was to Planned Parenthood, not NARAL. Secondly, Obama did not say that he would "fight for the repeal of partial-birth abortion ban." Obama said that he would "sign the Freedom of Choice Act." [Video here -- at 30:15]

The Freedom of Choice Act, consistent with Roe v. Wade, allows states to make laws prohibiting abortions after fetal viability as long as there is an exception to allow for the life and health of the mother.

Consumer Report: May Roofing, Highly Recommended

A few months ago, our house suffered some some damage in a hail storm. It shattered the two skylights in our sun room. I was having a difficult time finding a roofer to do the repairs. Problems ranged from not having phone calls returned, to roofers telling me they couldn't get replacement skylights. One company even sent over a guy to start work before we had an estimate. I posted my lament on my blog.

That's when I got a call from Tim May of May Roofing in McLeansville. Tim found that, indeed, the usual supply houses either did not have the skylights or they only offered extremely expensive replacements. Tim didn't give up though, "Let me keep looking," he told us. Soon he called to tell us that he found suitable skylights at Lowe's at a reasonable price. He suggested that we purchase them and he gave us a price for the labor required to install them.

Tim and his crew just finished installing the new skylights. When it came time to pay, Tim told me, "That wasn't quite as hard as I thought it would be," and he knocked 20% of the price he had quoted us.

Tim is honest, cost-conscious, and willing to go the extra mile to help a customer out. The next rain will test the installation quality, but Tim made it clear that if there are any problems, he'll come back. This was a relatively small job compared to most, but Tim gave us great professional service. I get the sense that Tim likes pleasing people. I'd highly recommend him. You can reach May Roofing at (336) 697-8868,

Obama's VP: I think it will be Clinton

I'm not very good at political prognostications. Although I was impressively close (impressive to me) in predicting Obama's margin of victory in the North Carolina primary, I am as often wrong as I am right in guessing political outcomes. Now that I've covered my ass, I think Obama will pick Hillary Clinton as his running mate.

I like Biden, Dodd and Richardson, they and Hillary all have things to offer that meet the test of conventional wisdom about what would make a good VP. But here is what I see as the bottom line: Winning (with someone who shares Obama's goals).

I think Obama is sincere when he says that his primary consideration will be to pick someone who is qualified to be president. Either of these four qualifies. Of equal importance though is to maximize Obama's chances of winning in November. There, Clinton is the superior choice. Sure, Obama can still win with another running mate, and sure, he'll have to face the prospect of managing Bill Clinton if he picks Hillary, but as a simple matter of winning, an Obama/Clinton ticket would be a juggernaut.

The Clinton Economy Was a Disaster

I took it for granted that anybody over 30 knows that the economy was better under the administration of Bill Clinton than it has been under George W. Bush. Whether one attributes this to congress or the executive branch or both, I suppose there is room for debate. But there is no doubt that the policies under Democrat Clinton resulted in a more robust economy than those of Republican President Bush.

Or so I thought.

I was recently challenged by a commenter on another blog to show that that is true. My first attempts to chide the commenter to return from the land of make-believe and simply acknowledge reality, were met with an insistence that the Clinton economy was a disaster. Sigh.

Against my better judgment, I spent some time gathering some statistics that illustrate how good the Clinton economy was and how anemic the economy has been under Bush. I'm sure the commenter will insist that everything good that happened during Clinton's eight years was a benefit of the Bush before him and that everything bad that happened under the current Bush is the fault of the previous president. If you don't fall for the self-contradictory silliness of such a view, you might find it interesting to see just how Bush's economic record stands up against Clinton's:

1. UNEMPLOYMENT
When Clinton took office, he inherited an unemployment rate of 7.3%. When he left office, unemployment was 4.2%, a 43% decrease.

When Bush took office, unemployment was at 4.2%. Today it is at 5.7%, an increase of 36%.

2. BUDGET DEFICIT
When Clinton took office, the federal budget deficit was $320B. When he left office, it was $32B, a 90% decrease.

When Bush took office, the federal deficit was $32B, it is projected by the CBO to be $482B this fiscal year. (And that's with the war being "off the books"), a 1,500% increase.

3. STOCK MARKET
When Clinton took office, the DOW was at 2,700. When he left office, it had grown to 10,800, an increase of 300%.

When Bush took office, the DOW was at 10,800. Today it is at 11,450, an increase of 6%.

4. PERSONAL INCOME
When Clinton took office, per capita income (in 2006 dollars) was $21,000. When he left office, it was $26,000, an increase of 24%.

When Bush took office, per capita income was $26,000. Today it is $26,300, an increase of 1%.

There are plenty of issues of importance for the upcoming presidential election, certainly the economy is among them. When you hear people saying that the economy will tank under a Democratic president, you may ask yourself if you should be frightened by fairy tales or make a decision based in reality.

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Scam: Greensborosingles.org

If you get an email inviting you to visit greensborosingles.org, don't bother. The email invitation itself should send up red flag warnings. The email refers to "greensboro City," a term that anybody familiar with Greensboro knows isn't used to describe this place. Another clue is the supposed address of the greensborosingles.org home, 5657 N. Classen Boulevard -- there is no such street in Greensboro.

The domain name is registered to the IMAT Group, a company located in India that specializes in marketing and lead generation. Bother to "sign up" with greensborosingles.com and you'll be required to provide a lot of personal information including your gender, income, height, weight, phone number(s), marital status and more. Once provided, you won't get access to a dating site, you'll get a promise (warning?) that someone will call you soon.

It's a scam to generate sales leads.

Are punching and kicking part of GPD's arrest techniques?

Timothy X video tapes a Greensboro police officer punching a suspect in the head and kicking him in the stomach (hat tip: Greensboring). It is very clear that the suspect is not complying with the officers' commands, but seriously, are the GPD not trained in techniques for apprehending a suspect that do not include punching and kicking?

News & Record double-speak: McCain flip-flop consistent

In an article in today's News & Record (Greensboro, NC), reporter Mark Binker writes "McCain has been a consistent supporter of expanding offshore drilling..."

Say what? Binker is a great reporter and usually spot on accurate. But this is just flat out wrong. Until June of this year, McCain was against offshore oil drilling. That hardly makes McCain a "consistent supporter." I'm sure a correction will be published tomorrow.

Tom Shuford: Letter writer, partisan clown

Today's News & Record (Greensboro, NC) publishes a fear-mongering letter from Tom Shuford of Lenoir, N.C. in which Shuford quotes Senator Barack Obama as saying:

"'Nobody in the Senate, other than maybe Ted Kennedy, has been more consistent in saying we need to have a pathway to citizenship for those who are undocumented. ...' (Obama in an interview with Univision, the Spanish-language network)."

Shuford conveniently forgets the Kennedy-McCain immigration reform bill (Oooooh, KENNEDY!), legislation that would have provided precisely a "pathway to citizenship" for illegal immigrants. McCain has since reiterated his support for a pathway to citizenship, recently telling a group of elected Latino officials that he would make a pathway to citizenship "my top priority."

Funny, Shuford. Like a clown, you amuse me.

PHISING SCAM ALERT: "Web Hosting Support" calling about your domain

I just had a phone call that I'm convinced was a phising scam. I had come inside to hear a message being left on my answering machine. I played the message back and heard a message from Shaquan Brown calling about the domain hosting I have with "them." I know the name of my domain hosting company; so do its employees; and it's not "them."

Caller ID said the call was from "WEB HOSTING SUPPORT" at (602) 716-5339.

I called "Mr. Brown" back and, after navigating through a recorded welcome message saying that I had reached "hosting support," a man answered with, "Hosting support."

"Uh, yeah, I'm returning a call from Mr. Brown," I said identifying myself. The man said that he was Mr. Brown.

Mr. Brown said that he was calling about my domain name. I have some internet domain names registered and utilize the services of a web and domain hosting company; on the rare occasion that they call me, their company name shows up on caller ID and they properly identify themselves as being with that company.

Mr. Brown proceeded to ask me for my domain name. "My domain name?" I asked him. "You have a domain or web hosting, don't you?" He asked. "I do?" asked I, "You tell me. You called me about 'it' you moron."

At this point I heard male laughter break out in the background--like Mr. Brown had just been made.

I asked Mr. Brown what company he was with and he acted as if I'd just asked him the capital of Tajikistan. I cussed at him, he informed me he would have to terminate the call and hung up.

I don't doubt that if I had been more cooperative with Mr. Brown, he would have come to the point where he needed to renew my domain name, probably conveniently with a credit card.

Beware... and don't say I didn't warn you.

News & Record (Greensboro, NC) publishes fabrications

Once again showing a disregard for factual accuracy, the News & Record (Greensboro, NC) published a complete and total fabrication as an assertion of fact in its July 11, 2008 edition. The N&R reserves on its opinion pages space for "Counterpoint" columns, reader contributions selected by editors for prominence and additional space beyond what is given to the standard letter to the editor. In a piece titled "Swifties told truth about John Kerry," writer Jospeh E. Lyons of High Point, NC writes this:

"Moreover, based on evidence or lack of it, Kerry’s naval service was less than stellar and the details (contained in his fitness reports, never released) would undoubtedly show this." [emphasis added]

Lyons goes on to speculate that Kerry's fitness reports would show him to have been a mediocre soldier and reasserts that these reports where never released. Lyons is wrong that those reports were not released--and the N&R gave its stamp of approval to this gross lie.

A simple Google search for "Kerry fitness reports" yields a link to Kerry's fitness reports at FindLaw on the first page of search results. It's caveman easy, but apparently beyond the capabilities of Lyons and the N&R editors.

I do not know what value the letters editors deliver to the News & Record. I'd say none other than secretarial. In a little over two months I have documented five instances of the N&R publishing lies, fabrications and plagiarism (the others are here, here, here, and here.) This latest is especially egregious because the editors selected it as worthy of special attention as a counterpoint column.

In this new media age, the one thing that still can still give traditional news organizations an edge is credibility. The News & Record is squandering theirs.

Super Fast Greensboro Police Response -- A Community Watch Success

A few months ago, our neighborhood started experiencing some daytime burglaries -- kick in the door, quickly grab jewelry, guns and computers. Neighbors started talking to neighbors, a neighborhood blog facilitated communications and, after a few meetings, we formed a Community Watch. A Greensboro Police Department Community Watch liaison came to an organizational meeting and gave us some ideas for what to look for and how to respond. Today we put one of the suggestions to use with pleasing results.

For years, we have had shady door-to-door solicitors. Many of us, me included, have stories of "college kids" selling [magazines, books, mugs] to pay for [a trip, tuition, books] to whom we gave money (me, $42) only to never receive what we thought we bought. That's bad enough, but we had started to suspect that some of these "solicitors" might actually just be scoping the neighborhood, seeing what houses are empty during the day, who looks vulnerable, what items of value might be within easy reach. The GPD Community Watch liaison told us when these people come around to ask for a city-issued solicitor's license and, if they didn't have one, tell them to leave the neighborhood then call the cops if they don't.

Today, a very pleasant-mannered young lady showed up on our doorstep. Without introducing herself, she started asking questions of me: Am I a father? Is the education of my children my purview or my wife's? I interrupted and told her, "Before I give you any information, you will tell me who you are and why you are here."

She answered with "I'm a student at the University of Arizona and I've been talking to some of your neighbors..." followed by more questions for me. I interrupted again, "Are you selling something?" She answered yes, but didn't offer any more information. "Do you have a solicitor's license?" I asked. She did not. I politely, but directly told her, that we have had a problem with scammers in our neighborhood, that the City of Greensboro required her to have a license and since she did not, she must leave our neighborhood or I would call the cops.

She shrugged an "OK," got in her car and drove further into the neighborhood. I got in my car and found her knocking on another door and started video taping. When my neighbor answered the door for the solicitor and saw my camera, she came over to talk to me. I introduced myself and mentioned that this was one of the things we were supposed to be on the lookout for as part of the Community Watch. She told me their block captain lives across the street and I should go get her. The block captain turned out to be someone I know, so when she answered the door, she didn't hesitate to spring into action. She called the non-emergency number of the GPD and with cool precision described the situation: described the person, gave the make and model of the car, even rattled off the license plate number, "Arizona plate, Alpha, Alpha, Alpha..."

By now, the solicitor was getting back into her car and driving away. The neighbor she had approached had provided her with requested directions to a nearby gas station. After a few pleasantries with the neighbors, I got in my car and headed back home. Two blocks away, I saw a police car ahead of me make a u-turn and head in the direction of the block captain's house. It couldn't have been more than five minutes since our call to the non-emergency number.

I guess my point of this little tale is two-fold. One, despite my general attitude of live and let live, it is good to know that, when warranted, nosy neighbors can help protect their community; and, two, despite the sometimes negative perceptions of GPD response times, statistics don't always tell the story. A cop on the scene in a few minutes is superb police service. I'll eventually get the details of how it all ended, but for now I know this: Our community watch worked and the GPD worked.

Get well soon Sandra Anderson-Groat

The Troublemaker is reporting that Greensboro City Council person Sandra Anderson-Groat is in the hospital, this on the heels of a report in the News & Record yesterday that her home-building company is going out of business.

I first met Sandra when she hired me to build a web site for her city council campaign. She is a warm, thoughtful person who genuinely is interested in putting what's good for Greensboro ahead of her personal interests. She is a great asset to our city and I wish her a full and speedy recovery. We need her.

Another plagiarized letter to the editor

Today, the News & Record (Greensboro, NC) published this letter from Anthony Belli of Greensboro. Belli plagiarizes from this article by National Rifle Association president, John C. Sigler. Belli's letter is below. The plagiarized portions are in red.
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Barack Obama has claimed that he does not take donations from special-interest groups or lobbyists. True, but he has accepted donations from their spouses, relatives and friends (source: Fox News).

Obama has no respect for the Second Amendment. He has voiced support or voted to ban all handguns, ban the right to carry in every state, and to ban firearms in the home, even for self-protection.

Obama’s attitude toward armed, violent criminals has been one of benign neglect at best. When the Illinois Senate wanted to try gang-bangers as adults when they fired a gun on or near a school ground (1999) or when they committed murder to help their gang, and when the Senate wanted to make them eligible for the death penalty (2001), Obama voted no in both cases. Obama said he believed federal mandatory-sentencing laws used to put armed and violent predators behind bars should be abolished (source: Chicago Tribune).

When Illinois lawmakers introduced a bill that would exonerate citizens for violating local gun bans if they used a gun to defend themselves in their homes, Obama voted no. Obama would disarm the public and allow the criminals to run free.

Letter to the editor writer plagarizes

If your grandma or grandpa are fond of writing letters to the editor of their local paper, do them a favor and tell them about this thing called the Internet. Tell them that their letter will be posted online and that it is all too easy to determine if gramps wrote his own letter or copied it.

A June 30, 2008 letter to the editor in the News & Record (Greensboro, NC) from Warren Nash is identical in its majority to one from a different author published five days prior in the Times-Union (Jacksonville, FL).

Given the delay in getting a letter to print, it is possible, I suppose, that Mr. Nash wrote his letter first, shared it privately with a friend in Florida who copied it and had hers published first. Clearly though, one copied the other and if you sign your name to someone else's writings, you have plagiarized.

Of course, the letters editor at the N&R could have caught this and saved her paper and Mr. Nash this embarrassment, but, sadly, there appears to be little regard for fact-checking by the N&R on the letters they publish as noted here and here,

Records request shows responsible city staff

One of the obligations of being a some-time critic of City government is, I believe, to also write about things that go right. I still have an outstanding disagreement with the City over the release of public records, but a request for records I submitted this week was answered with impressive swiftness and the documents reassuringly demonstrate a city department being careful about spending taxpayer money.

This week's City Council meeting included on the agenda a request to approve payment of $728,229.90 to trash hauler Republic of NC for economic loss, a result of the City annexing areas where Republic currently collects trash from paying customers. State law allows garbage collectors to receive compensation for this kind of loss as a cash payment equivalent to 15 months of lost income from the affected areas. The payment was approved by city council.

Part of my interest was inspired by a misreading of the agenda item. It describes the annexation as "12 areas." I mistakenly read that as "12 acres" which had me wondering how 15 months of revenue for a mere 12 acres of homes could result in a payment of $728,229.90. In fact, the 12 areas accounted for thousands of customers.

Companies seeking compensation for this kind of economic loss are required to submit detailed documentation to substantiate their claim of loss. I submitted a request for this documentation to Pat Boswell, Director of Public Affairs. Within 10 minutes, she replied that she had received my request. In less than 24 hours, I had the information I had requested forwarded to me by Pat's assistant, Cindy Briggs, and Field Operations Communications Manager Nancy Lindemeyer. Nancy also promptly replied to my follow up questions.

Here is the bottom line: Republic of NC complied with the documentation requirements and the staff of Field Operations verified it through a variety of means. One may not like that these annexations carried this kind of expense, but it was required by law and the amount was carefully substantiated by city staff. Kudos to Pat, Cindy and Nancy for a swift and thorough response to a records request. It allowed this citizen to report good things about the city.

Are there any responsive roofers in Greensboro?

Over two weeks ago, our house sustained some roof damage from a hail storm. Although the insurance adjuster showed up within 48 hours and cut us a check, getting a roofer to do the repairs has been another matter entirely.

We have contacted five different roofers. The results have ranged from multiple messages not being returned to promises of a return call to schedule an estimate not being fulfilled. What a joke. Not one of the five has even given themselves a chance at our business. I would never conduct my business with such disregard for potential customers. Are roofers so damn busy that they just don't care about tarnishing their reputations or are they just slack asses when it comes to conducting business?

Two weeks after the storm we are still trying to find a reliable roofer. If you know of one who wants some business, please let me know in the comments.

Greensboro may adopt some funky vendor pushcart regulations

Sigh.

City Council agenda item #29 would change the ordinance governing push carts. I suspect it is a lack of attention to detail that has the proposed changes eliminating the requirement that push carts cannot exceed 40 inches in width OR 75 inches in length to a requirement that they not exceed 42 inches in width AND 77 inches in length -- a change that could allow for a really, really long push cart.

"Or" means a cart is in violation if either measurement is exceeded, "and" means a cart is in violation only if both measurements are exceeded. So, under the proposed change, a push cart could be 42 inches wide and 100 yards long and would not violate the proposed new ordinance because it does not exceed 42 inches in width AND 77 inches in length. Cool.

Greensboro to pay waste hauler $728,229.90 to not collect trash

Another cost of annexation: Agenda item number 31 for tonight's city council meeting requests that council approve a payment of $728,229.90 to garbage collector Republic Services of NC for "loss of business," a consequence of the City annexing 12 acres of Republic's customers for whom the city will now collect garbage.

It has long seemed to me that annexation decisions by the city of Greensboro lack a bottom-line cost/benefit analysis. I've never seen city staff say, "On the plus side, the additional property taxes will bring in x dollars and in the minus column, the cost of the annexation and providing services will be y dollars." It seems to me that kind of comparison would simply be prudent. It seems to me that a city council person who votes in favor of an annexation without that information is being irresponsible.

Oh, Hail!

We got hammered with a mighty hail storm this afternoon. It was only about nickel-sized, but there was a lot of it, driven hard by wind. It crushed our previouly healthy tomato plants (you'll see them on the patio) and punched a dozen holes in our sunroom skylights, allowing the rain to pour in. There wasn't anything I could do while it was happening, so I just shot some video. Here it is.

Hammer Watch: Rhino Times editor puts on his tinfoil hat

In his Under The Hammer column in this week's Rhinoceros Times (a Greensboro, NC weekly newspaper, article not online), editor John Hammer regurgitates as serious the intellectually bankrupt idea that "[P]eople who might cause problems for the Clintons have had a habit of dying in unusual circumstances."

Hammer proceeds to offer his "evidence." It requires his readers to suspend their good judgment and abandon all reason. Why Hammer perpetually expects his readers to be so naive, I don't know. It seems rather contemptuous of his audience, as if he must be thinking to himself, "My readers are dumb enough to buy this crap."

First on Hammer's list is the suicide of Deputy White House Counsel Vince Foster. Hammer writes "[W]hen a top White House official dies of a gunshot wound, you would expect there to be a full autopsy and there was not." Hammer is quite simply wrong about this. A full autopsy was performed. Doubt it? Read this exhaustive investigation into Foster's death. The investigation was conducted by Kenneth Starr, yes that Ken Starr. It concludes that Foster's death was a suicide. To believe otherwise, is to ignore the empirical evidence and assume that Clinton nemesis Starr was in on "it."

Next up, Hammer turns to the plane crash in which former Secretary of Commerce Ron Borwn died along with 34 other people. Hammer describes the crash as "bizarre," although he doesn't explain why the crash was bizarre. In truth, although Hammer incorrectly writes that the crash occurred on a "relatively clear day," the cause of the crash was an improperly executed instrument landing -- tragic, but not bizarre. Hammer reminds us that Brown had a wound in his head that looked like a gunshot wound. He fails to tell us that an examination of Brown's skull by military officials "revealed no bullet, no bone fragments, no metal fragments and, even more telling, no exit wound."

Finally, Hammer offers former White House intern Mary Mahoney who was murdered in a botched robbery. The perpetrator, who was also "accused in the shooting homicide of a security guard in 1993, the attempted murder of a police officer, and four armed robberies" confessed to Mahoney's murder, plead guilty and received a life sentence without the possibility of parole while not once attempting to mitigate his punishment by claiming to be a Clinton operative.

Hammer also incorrectly asserts that victim Mahoney was "going to go public with her story of sexual harassment at the White House." There is zero substantiation of this. Prior to the Monica Lewinsky scandal breaking, Newsweek writer Mike Isikoff hinted that a White House staffer with the initial "M" was about to talk about her affair with Clinton. The "M" was Monica, not Mahoney. Doubt it? Ask Hammer how he "knows" that Mahoney was about to go public.

Snopes has a thorough examination of the distortions, misdirection, fabrications and just plain wrong assertions that people must resort to in order to put forth, as Hammer did, these tinfoil hat conspiracy theories.

If you suspect that your readers are unwilling or incapable of critical thinking, you may think you have an audience for these kinds of conspiracies. Since that seems to be where Hammer is coming from, maybe next week he will write about People With Connections To The Bush Dynasty Who Met With Suspicious And Untimely Deaths.

From local blog post to national news: Ed Cone on Fox Business

Inspired by his blog post about poor airline service, Fox Business invites Ed Cone to discuss his experience on-air with Neal Cavuto.

Another N&R letter-writer gets his facts wrong and once again, the editors let it ride.

A letter to the editor in today's News & Record by Robert A. Hahn of Greensboro claims that gas prices are going up because Democrats took away subsidies for the oil industry. Specifically, Hahn writes:

"The Democrats took control of Congress in January 2007. At that time, the economy was doing pretty well. One of the first things that the Democratic Congress did was to “punish” big oil by reducing subsidies."

Not true. The House of Representatives approved an energy bill in 2007 that would have reduced subsidies, but those provisions were rejected by the senate and the final bill, with subsidies intact, was signed into law by President Bush.

I don't know why the N&R continues to allow letters that contain factual errors. This is not an isolated incident. These are not matters of opinion that writers should be free to express. These are empirical untruths. One would think the N&R would not publish such inaccuracies, but they seem to have no compunction for doing so.

Site Launch: CobleForCongress.com

[UPDATE: Some visitors may have still been seeing the old site this morning. That problem has been rectified and everybody should see the new site now.]

We launched Congressman Howard Coble's new campaign web site this morning. It was one of the most challenging and most engaging web site design projects I've done. It's a real professional joy when a project requires one to spread the creative wings.

This was the first project for which I shot and edited video (on the home page). Tom Lassiter's and Stewart Pittman's how-to session at ConvergeSouth was a great headstart.

We also incorporated a nifty news management system that allows people to self-subscribe to the campaign's email news announcements. On the back end, the system gives the campaign a one-stop method of sending news to supporters and/or the press and simultaneously publishing the announcement to the web site.

The interface makes good use of the Spry javascript framework, doing the kinds of things that I think good web sites do, like minimizing the need for page reloads to display user selections. I also included a great Google Maps mashup from GovTrack.us that allows people to explore Congressman Coble's district down to the street level. (I knew that I was in the thirteenth congressional district, but I didn't know that my neighbors across the street are in Howard's sixth.)

I thank Howard Coble and his friendly staff for the opportunity to work with them. And thanks to to Bill Knight for the referral.

An Honest Campaign Ad

In response to an on-air caller yesterday, WZTK's Britt Whitmire improvised this "honest campaign commercial" . It's hillarious. (Thanks for the audio file, Britt.)

To "Operation Chaos" morons, uh, I mean "operatives"

Despite my prediction that North Carolina Republicans would be too smart to follow Rush Limbaugh's advice to switch parties in order to vote for Hillary Clinton, some apparently did. I heard one "operative" bragging about doing so on the Brad and Britt show on WZTK (101.1 FM) yesterday.

How did that work out for you, moran? Did your preference for governor win the Republican primary? How about your party's congressional candidates? Did your prefered county commissioner candidate win? Are you glad you left the choosing of the Republican candidates to others so that you could, uh, waste your time and your vote? Mission accomplished?

You are a great American.

I voted

I voted at 10:00 this morning -- was the 179th voter at my precinct.

Obama 58%?

I spent a little time last night looking at North Carolina voter demographics, new registrations, early voting turnout and historical voting patterns. Then I ran some "what-if" scenarios, making assumptions about how the vote might break down tomorrow. I came up with Obama winning 52% to 62% of the vote, with 56% - 58% coming up most often.

TV pundits are speculating this morning that the Clinton's strong presence in the state today might portend an upset. The only way that happens is if Obama gets less than 33% of the white vote or less than 70% of the black vote.

Hillary Clinton: "I was against the Michigan primary before I was for it."

Okay, not a real quote, but it might as well be. More than just a change of position, Clinton broke a signed pledge.

In September of 2007, all of the Democratic presidential candidates signed a pledge promising "I shall not campaign or participate in any state which schedules a presidential election primary or caucus before Feb. 5, 2008, except for the states of Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire and South Carolina..." Here is the pledge. Here is Clinton's press release announcing that she will sign it (which she did).

When Michigan decided to move its primary to January 15th, all of the Democratic presidential candidates honored their signed pledge, kept their word, and had their names removed from the Michigan ballot-- every one of them, except for Hillary Clinton.

Now Clinton is insisting that her broken pledge be used to her political advantage by calling for the Michigan vote to count.

We don't need another candidate of political expediency. We don't need a candidate who will so easily go back on her word when keeping it has a political cost. That's the same ol' same ol' that frustrates Americans of both parties. It's time for something new, something better. Hillary Clinton is not it.

News & Record editors offer misleading look at Congressional 6th district Dem primary

The News & Record opinion editors offered their analysis of the Congressional 6th district Democratic primary yesterday. The winner will go on to face 12-term Republican incumbent Howard Coble. Vying for the chance are Teresa Sue Bratton, Jay Ovittore and Johnny Carter. The editors endorsed Bratton, but then did something very strange. They wrote that Carter "doesn’t offer voters much to distinguish himself from the crowd."

Hardly. On his website, Carter offers some unique propositions, especially for a Democrat. Among them:

• He asserts that a plan is under way to dissolve the sovereignty of the United States and says "Our elected Global elitists will seal this program with a new money called the 'Amero'."
• He proposes a year-round school schedule to allow children to "graduate" by 9th grade.
• He would, "Remove all illegal non-citizens from this country."
• He says we should "Accept no visitors from known terrorist countries"
• He claims that the Pledge of Allegiance has been legislated out of our schools.
• He says that for a church to keep its tax-exempt status, "THE CHURCH MUST NOT CRITICIZE GOVERNMENT AGENCIES OR BUREAUS, THE WHITE HOUSE,NEW WORLD ORDER, CONGRESS, FEDERAL RESERVE, SUPREME COURT, ANY PENDING BILLS OR LEGISLATION, WELL KNOWN PUBLIC FIGURES OR INSTITUTIONS, ORDER OF SKULL AND BONES, OTHER SECRET SOCIETIES, FAITH GROUPS, CULTS OR RELIGIONS, NEW AGE MOVEMENT, UNITED NATIONS OR GLOBALIST GROUPS."
  

Carter also says he would, "Require the U.S. Arab Community to publicly denounce terrorism of any form or else remove their tax-exempt status. It is time to evolve." I wasn't aware that the U.S. Arab community had tax-exempt status, but saying so, and doing it with the implication that Arabs are less evolved, is something that certainly sets Johnny Carter apart from his opponents.

Another thing unique to Carter: According to the NC State Board of Elections, Carter has never voted in an election in this state. The N&R apparently avoided reporting this too, even though it was brought to their attention on at least two occasions.

Why would the N&R avoid giving readers an accurate and complete picture of Carter? I cannot be sure. Comments on the editorial's shortcomings have gone unanswered. I have a theory, though. If the N&R wants Bratton to win the primary, they benefit her by endorsing her then leaving readers to think that, if not her, there are two alternatives. If they had offered an honest assessment of Carter, they would have revealed him as not viable in a Democratic primary, casting the contest as a two-person race, which would make a win harder for Bratton. Either that or they got very lazy on this one. Hard to know.

Why "Operation Chaos" dies in North Carolina

Rush Limbaugh has been encouraging his Republican listeners to vote for Hillary Clinton in their state's primaries. The race for the Republican nomination for governor will keep that from happening in North Carolina.

Our state has a "modified closed primary" which means that voters registered to a party must vote in that party's primary. Unaffiliated voters may choose which party's primary in which to vote. Like other states with closed primaries, Republicans would have to switch their party registrations in order to vote for Hillary Clinton in North Carolina, presumably to later switch back before the general election. North Carolina Republicans won't find that idea appealing because of what they would have to give up--a chance to nominate a candidate for governor with a good chance of winning.

There are four candidates running for the nomination, each has appeal, although it appears as if it will come down to Fred Smith or Pat McCrory. With the Democratic incumbent governor Mike Easley not running for re-election, this will be the best chance in years for Republicans to have a shot at the governorship. North Carolina Republicans are not going to ignore a serious good chance to nominate their best gubernatorial candidate in order to participate in pointless tomfoolery.

There's one more reason why the governor's race will keep Republicans in their primary. It seems possible, if not likely, that none of the Republican candidates will get above the requisite 40% to win the nomination in the first go-round. That would mean a runoff election and in North Carolina, if you vote in one party's primary, you cannot vote in another party's runoff election. North Carolina Republicans just have too much at stake to waste their vote at a time when it really will matter.

24 is larger than 900? N&R writer gets her facts wrong.

In a counterpoint column in the News & Record today, writer Jo Lynn of Greensboro suggests that if city counselor Mike Barber wants to consider re-opening the White Street Landfill, he should think instead about opening a landfill in his district. Lynn says that she even knows of a perfect site in Barber's district, one that she describes as "actually larger than the White Street site."

Bzzzzzzz! Wrong. Lynn goes on to describe her proposed site as being 24.52 acres in size. The White Street landfill is, in fact, approximately 900 acres.

I've bemoaned the N&R's unwillingness to fact check reader contributions in the past. I'm doing it again. Whatever good arguments there may be for not re-opening the landfill, or opening another one, this is not one of them. It really holds our community back when we have discussions on public policy that start from places of misinformation. While I understand and agree with the N&R's desire not to squelch opinion, assertions of facts should be checked and commentary rejected if it claims something that is demonstrably false by empirical measurement.

While it would be far better for the N&R to exercise their fact-checking in advance, it's not too late in this case. Hopefully, in a subsequent edition, the N&R will offer a correction noting that this article contained an error. Doing so would not only correct the public record and better inform readers, it would send a message to future writers that they must get their facts straight or be publicly corrected.

Clinton, Obama invited to meet with Greensboro bloggers

I sent an invitation to the media coordinators of the Obama and Clinton campaigns last week inviting each to do an interview with Greensboro bloggers ahead of North Carolina's May 6th primary. I told them of Greensboro's national recognition as one of the most active local blogging communities and of our civic engagement through the city council candidates forum, fund-raisers and public records requests. I invited them to take a look at the Greensboro page of We101.com to see for themselves the diversity, independence and seriousness of Greensboro bloggers.

I haven't received a reply from either campaign yet.

Hammer Watch: Rhino Times reports bogus terrorism plot

Have you heard about the FBI foiling a plot by terrorists to shoot up movie theaters across the country? Neither have I. But there it is in this week's Rhinoceros Times (not online) in publisher John Hammer's "Under the Hammer."

In his column, Hammer writes that "Those who claim to know" tell of a plot in which terrorists were planning to go into "a number of movie theaters in shopping malls in different parts of the country at the same time of the day after Thanksgiving..." According to Hammer, "The terrorists would be armed with automatic weapons and, when the lights went down, they would simply stand up and spray the packed theater with bullets."

Scary, huh? Thank goodness "The FBI caught the terrorists before the plan could be carried out," as Hammer reports. Still, Hammer wants us to "Imagine if it had been successful." Before doing that though, imagine if any of this were true. It doesn't appear to be. I pay pretty close attention to the news and never heard of this plot or arrests. Almighty Google comes up empty, except for some similar urban myths. It looks like Hammer pulled this one out of his hat.

This is not the first time Hammer has put forth a "story" based on vague "sources." It should be the last. This sort of blatant fabrication is simply embarrassing and a gross disservice to Rhino readers. If Hammer had any allegiance to the truth, he would publish a correction in the next issue.

David Crawford: School board candidate, plagarist

Guilford County School Board candidate Erik Huey blogged today excerpts from School Board Candidate David Crawford's MySpace page.

Crawford's blurb begins with "David Crawford for School Board at Large Crawford on the Issues..." and proceeds to copy from Cobb County (Georgia) School Board Candidate John Crooks' web site. Except for the removal of references to Cobb County-specific information, Crawford copies Crooks word-for-word and without attribution. Guilford County students get Fs for plagiarism. What was Crawford thinking?

A screen shot of the plagiarized portion of Crawford's MySpace page:


A screen-shot of a portion of John Crooks web site: