EdCone.com

Lisa Scheer took this pic quite recently in Eden.

Live coverage of the hostage situation at Clinton campaign office in New Hampshire.

From The Humbling of Eliot Spitzer, Nick Paumgarten's long and interesting article on the NY gov's first year in office: "Somehow, he’s become an unpopular governor careering from mess to mess...By last week, Spitzer seemed to have settled into a lumps-taking, amends-making phase—one as unfamiliar as it is likely to be short-lived."

Alert reader FG sends along news of Scotland's clever new marketing slogan: "Welcome to Scotland."

What do you expect for $250K and six months of work, "Scotland Connects?"

Previously: "Greensboro Connects ... what? Summerfield and Pleasant Garden? The bygone manufacturing era and the uncertain future? Several flights a day to destinations as diverse as Charlotte and Atlanta?"

More. More.

More, more, more.

AP: "Thousands of Sudanese, many armed with clubs and knives, rallied Friday in a central square and demanded the execution of a British teacher convicted of insulting Islam for allowing her students to name a teddy bear 'Muhammad.'"

Facebook dials back its purchase-publishing plan, which was so creepy that Josh Marshall took a minute off from blogging about Rudy's secret taxpayer-financed shag fund to write about it.

Was Trent Lott's resignation tied to the case of Dickie Scruggs?

The odor around Scruggs is bad enough to scare off all kinds of folks.

Evil Genius and co. planning a web conference for the Myrtle Beach area in April.

They're taking nominations on what to call it.

I think I helped come up with the "Converge" part of ConvergeSouth, and my nickname for the Blogging, Journalism and Credibility conference gained surprising traction, so maybe I'll take a stab at Myrtle Beach monikerization.

Glenn Reynolds: "CNN's problem isn't just bias -- it's a failure of professionalism."

I was thinking about Everything is Miscellaneous -- which Howard Rheingold just declared one of the best business books of the year -- and I remembered a quote I liked in high school: "In times of widespread chaos and confusion, it has been the duty of more advanced human beings -- artists, scientists, clowns and philosophers -- to create order."

Dr. Weinberger is a philosopher, and his work as a gag writer qualifies him as a clown.

What's great is that his book creating order also lives up to the second part of the quote: "In times such as ours, however, when there is too much order, too much management, too much programming and control, it becomes the duty of superior men and women to fling their favorite monkey wrenches into the machinery. To relieve the repression of the human spirit, they must sow doubt and disruption."

McClatchy: "The American campaign to turn Sunni Muslims against Islamic extremists is growing so quickly that Iraq's Shiite Muslim leaders fear that it's out of control and threatens to create a potent armed force that will turn against the government one day."

Some people advocate a three-way division of Iraq. Maybe we'll get one whether we want it or not.

Utata is "a collective of photographers, writers, and like-minded people."

They publish a website.

And, judging by the image they chose for today's front page, they have excellent taste.

Jon Swift: "I do know a little something about journalism since I once saw All the President's Men and I worked on my high school newspaper, so I think it would be helpful if bloggers knew the 20 basic "Rules of Journalism" so that they won't pester Joe Klein and other professional journalists too much about journalistic ethics in the future."

Lisa Scheer took this pic quite recently in Eden.

Vie de Malchance: "[I]t appears that the Grey Lady has regurgitated a web page from the only significant anti-immigration network and dared call it journalism."

Apple is looking for a "genius" to work at its Friendly Center store.

Related: Pogue likes the new Zunes.

I want a slick hand-held wifi-enabled computer, don't really need a phone or music player.

UPDATE: News travels fast -- the N&R posts a blurb on the Apple store.

UPDATE: N&R front-pages the story, which I should mention came to me via a tip on the Craigslist page from alert reader TL.

I hear there's a big meeting coming up December 6 in Atlanta between principals in the Haw River Park land deal.

This would be an excellent time for proponents of the park to encourage the state to get the deal done.

Related: another delay proposed.

Economists react to the latest housing numbers with dueling cliches: "That light at the end of the housing meltdown tunnel appears to be an oncoming train" vs. "There seems to be no silver lining in the darkening cloud overhanging the housing market."

DBR says ESPN is mean to Dook.

No, really.

Deadspin: "Duke (sic) should construct campus statues of Vitale and Berman, at which all students should gather and pay homage at least once per day. A more symbiotic relationship you will never find in nature, unless it's that tiny bird that lives on hippos and cleans their ears."

Big Lead: "It’s enough to make one wonder if the author is familiar with the name Dick Vitale, who wears knee pads in the presence of the program."

Previously: We don't want Dookie V back on our side.

An epic thread on the theme of Democrats vs progressives.

More from Anglico.

I don't see Blue NC as a Democratic site, but as a progressive site. That means it will tend to support Democratic candidates, but the overlap with the party is not complete, and I would expect to see writers at Blue NC hammer on the Democrats to push them left.

And criticizing Anglico for daring to say nice things about a GOP candidate is idiotic.

Somehow I'm reminded of this thread, where an Edwards supporter urged me to get with the branding strategies of the Edwards site.

I like this rollercoaster better than I like this one:

Is it a really even a challenge anymore?

Maybe they should try ACC vs Pac 10.

NYT: "If you love whiskey but haven’t thought of bourbon as being in the same league as a good Scotch, Irish and even, these days, rye, you owe it to yourself to give it another try."

More: "Some of the biggest names in bourbon did not make our list. Wild Turkey just missed. It was good bourbon, but the panel did not find it distinctive enough in this company. We also liked the Van Winkle’s 10-Year-Old, which we thought would be great for cocktails. Maker’s Mark did not come close."

French rioters said to be hunting cops.

Amateur video seems to contradict the official version of the event that sparked the riots.

WSJ: "In the span of one growing season, ethanol has gone from panacea to pariah in the eyes of some. The critics, which include industries hurt when the price of corn rises, blame ethanol for pushing up food prices, question its environmental bona fides and dispute how much it really helps reduce the need for oil."

Ethanol seems like a subsidy for agribusiness and a sop to corn-state pols, not the answer to our dependence on oil.

Verizon: "Any Apps, Any Device."

NYT: "Verizon Wireless has stunned the wireless world."

A preemptive move against the Frontline/Google camp.

How not to pay for a war:

AP: "Service members seriously wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan after they received a $10,000 bonus for enlisting are being asked by the Pentagon to repay portions of the incentive money...the policy remained in effect despite a report last July by a presidential commission that wounded veterans were being unfairly penalized by a requirement that enlistees must fulfill their entire term of service or lose a pro-rated portion of their bonus."

(thanks to alert reader PN for the tip).

The Civil Society Coalition on Climate Change, of which the John Locke Foundation is a member, claims to "educate the public about the science and economics of climate change in an impartial manner."

But the very next sentence in the group's description of itself doesn't sound so impartial: "It was established as a response to the many biased and alarmist claims about human-induced climate change, which are being used to justify calls for intervention and regulation."

Anyway, here's their report.

Propaganda.

UPDATE: Background here.

N&R's Doug Clark:"proven left wing liberal" or ultraconservative "wingnut"?

Or as someone suggested, front man for the frat-boy party band of my youth?

Rally for the Haw River State Park, Saturday, December 1, 2007, 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm.

Summit Environmental Education Center at Haw River State Park
339 Conference Center Drive
Brown Summit, NC 27214

You want food, music, and guided tours of the Haw River wetlands? You got 'em.

Donations of any amount appreciated, but cannot be accepted on park property -- mail to Kyle Klimek, 6112 Church Street, Greensboro, NC 27455.

RSVP to HawRiverSP@gmail.com by November 30.

And don't forget the hearing before the Guilford County commissioners, 5:30 pm December 13 at the old County courthouse.

Dave's idea for sculpted Digg clones seems related to Calacanis' argument for blending the insight of experts and the wisdom of crowds.

UPDATE: Another related thought from Steve Outing: "My company's sites didn't work, which is why in hindsight I realize that a much higher level of professional content needed to be added into the mix. Quality matters...user content when it stands on its own is weak. But it's powerful when appropriately combined with professional content, and properly targeted."

The housing-market meltdown will reduce the Gross Metropolitan Product of the Greensboro-High Point region by about $450 million in 2008, lowering GMP growth by almost a full percentage point, according to a study to be released today by the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

McClatchy: "Your state and local governments probably will be forced to choose between raising taxes to maintain services or cutting services to balance their budgets."

Here's an Excel spreadsheet of costs to metro regions. The nation's biggest loser in % terms: Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach, at -1.7%.

Winston-Salem and Burlington are expected to take relatively light hits of .3% and .5%, respectively; the Charlotte and Raleigh areas are in roughly the same boat as GSO.

The report includes a clear summary of the bubble's growth and poppage. It assesses the damage, which may be extensive (see summary after the jump), but does not see a Roubiniesque disaster: "[T]he mortgage crisis is not going to bring the economy grinding to a halt. Indeed, we expect job growth in 2008 to be 0.85% and GDP growth to be 1.9%. In 2009, those figures will be 1.2% and 2.9%, respectively. In the end, the economy will not come off the rails."

Abu Dhabi is buying a chunk of Citicorp.

Surowiecki explains the phenomenon of "sovereign wealth" and says: "The prospect of American companies being sold to foreign states is, to be sure, disconcerting."

Except when such sales prop up our largest bank, perhaps. Or maybe especially then.

Dan Gillmor: "One of the most amazing episodes in modern American journalism has emerged from a flagrantly inaccurate and misguided Time magazine column by Joe Klein."

Update: Much more here. "[H]e has now claimed, in sequence, that his false assertions were: (a) true, (b) disputable, (c) too complex and time-consuming to figure out, and (d) just a minor, irrelevant detail. Is this conduct not completely humiliating to Time?"

Burr mentioned as a contender for a Senate leadership post in the wake of Lott's departure.

Binker ponders the implications for the Dole campaign.

Did Lott resign to beat the clock on impending rule-changes for lobbyists? I guess we'll find out soon enough.

I listened to his infamous remarks to Strom Thurmond on the radio tonight. Yep, he deserved to be demoted.

Lisa Scheer took this picture quite recently at the Beef Burger restaurant on West Lee Street.

Doug Clark looks at NC 10 and sees Daniel Johnson as a credible challenger to Patrick McHenry.

Brad Miller will participate in a discussion of blogging and politics at Mill Town, 307 E Main St in Carrboro, on Thursday  from 5:30pm - 7:30pm.

Hosted by Ruby Sinreich and Brian Russell.

Cash bar, suggested donation $10.

RSVP at 919-834-2343 or andy@bradmiller.org or at www.bradmiller.org.

If an open record is not easily accessible to the public, how open is it?

White House versus the press.

Military versus the press.

Ged continues his series of sub* reviews with an illustrated guide.

My Jersey-bred wife finds Jersey Mike's acceptable in a pinch, and let's face it, when it comes to deli food, Greensboro is a pinch**.

The subs from Central Market in Bay Head, New Jersey were quite good when I had a summer share in Mantoloking in the late '80s, and may be quite good still.

When I was a kid, the local standard was set by Jay's Deli in Friendly Center.

Previously.

*AKA hoagie, hero, grinder...

**To say she makes a better meatball than is commercially available in this town is to damn her meatballs*** with faint praise.

***"Meatball" is one of those words that gets weirder the more you type it.

Just got a call from Howard Coble, with seasonal wishes and a suggestion that the missing Z in yesterday's column should have been the very fine zoo that happens to be in his district.

He also said it was a nice idea to include my wife on the list of things I'm thankful for, but that one just came naturally.

Fred Thompson vs Fox News.

Josh Marshall says, "Thompson's campaign has been a joke, probably the highest ratio of train wreck to expectations in recent political memory. But with Fox's open alignment with the Giuliani campaign, he actually has a point."

NYT: "Confronting an enormous fund-raising gap with Democrats, Republican Party officials are aggressively recruiting wealthy candidates who can spend large sums of their own money to finance their Congressional races."

A sign that people are taking Huckabee seriously: negative press.

The purposeful opacity of Wall Street operators -- brazenly portrayed as a new level of transparency by agenda-driven shills -- seems to be part of the proposed solution to the credit crunch as well.

Summers: "The current main policy thrust – the so-called 'super conduit', in which banks co-operate to take on the assets of troubled investment vehicles – has never been publicly explained in any detail by the US Treasury. On the information available, the 'super conduit' has worrying similarities with Japanese banking practices of the 1990s that aroused criticism from American authorities for their lack of transparency, suppression of genuine market pricing of bad credits, and inhibiting effect on new lending. Perhaps there is a strong case for it, but that case has yet to be made."

This guy is probably not happy, but I liked MMB's lede on her Hannah Montana story:

Ohmygodohmygodohmygod.

Oh. My. God.

Gretchen Morgenson on the realities of the subprime market: "[M]any lenders peddled the most abusive and costly loans to unsophisticated, first-time home buyers. Known as 'affordability products,' the mortgages generated big commissions up front and were designed to require refinancing later on — which included yet another round of luscious fees for lenders. With refinancing no longer an option, it is becoming obvious that these loans were designed to fail. True to their design, they are."

Grey's Tavern has opened for business on South Elm Street, and Downtown Diane has a glowing review.