STONEVILLE, N.C.  – A North Carolina man has pleaded guilty to saying he was going to assassinate President Barack Obama.

The Rockingham County sheriff’s office says Steve Lee Stone pleaded to charges Wednesday of communicating threats, resisting a public officer and misusing the 911 system. He was sentenced to two 45-day jail terms, which were suspended, and 18 months probation.

Police say the 44-year-old man called a 911 dispatcher twice from his trailer about five miles south of the Virginia border in late July and said he was going to assassinate the president. He did not identify himself.

Sheriff’s deputies and a Secret Service agent investigated the caller’s identity. Stone was interviewed by deputies at his trailer in Stoneville.

Deputies say Stone became combative during the interview and they were forced to use a stun gun and arrest him.

WEIMAR, Germany (AP) – President Barack Obama toured a World War II concentration camp Friday after prodding the international community to redouble efforts toward separate Israeli and Palestinian states in hopes of resolving a conflict fueled by the Jewish nation’s post-Holocaust creation.

“The moment is now for us to act” to achieve Mideast peace, the new U.S. president declared earlier in Dresden, alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

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U.S. Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic candidate for president in 2004, will speak today at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The free public talk will be at 2:30 p.m. in Hill Hall, on campus roughly across East Franklin Street from the post office.

Kerry will deliver this year’s Weil Lecture on American Citizenship at UNC, presented by the Institute for the Arts and Humanities, a part of the College of Arts and Sciences.

In the 2004 election, the Massachusetts senator won more than 59 million votes, or 48.3 of the ballots cast, to then-President George W. Bush’s total of more than 62 million votes, or 50.8 percent.

Since then, Kerry has continued in the Senate, where he advocates for health insurance for low-income children, improvements to public education and protecting the environment.

Kerry chairs the Senate foreign relations committee, on which he has served for 19 years. He also chairs subcommittees of the finance committee and the commerce, science and transportation committee.

After graduating from Yale University, Kerry volunteered for the U.S. Navy and served two tours of duty in Vietnam. He won a Silver Star, a Bronze Star with Combat V and three Purple Hearts.

Kerry became convinced that the war was a mistake and spoke out against it upon returning to the United States, testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at the age of 27. He helped found Vietnam Veterans of America to fight for veterans’ benefits and treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Kerry graduated from Boston College Law School in 1976 and became a prosecutor in Middlesex County, Mass. He was elected lieutenant governor in 1982 and to the U.S. Senate in 1984. Since then he has won re-election three times. He is now serving his fourth term.

UNC’s biennial Weil Lecture seeks to widen discussion of issues and concerns in the United States. Founded in 1915 by brothers Henry and Solomon Weil of Goldsboro, the lecture has been given by speakers including presidents Taft and Carter, U.S. Senators J. William Fulbright and Nancy Kassebaum, Eleanor Roosevelt and CBS and NPR correspondent Daniel Schorr.

Each succeeding Weil generation has continued a tradition of philanthropy and community involvement, leading in causes including women’s suffrage and civil rights and serving as UNC trustees. The Weil lecture is one of many contributions to the University by the Weil family.

WASHINGTON – Reversing Bush policy, President Barack Obama on Monday cleared the way for a significant increase in federal dollars for embryonic stem cell research and promised no scientific data will be “distorted or concealed to serve a political agenda.”

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – President Barack Obama is making his first visit to North Carolina since his election last November.

The White House announced on Wednesday that the president will deliver an address at Camp Lejeune. His visit is scheduled for Friday.

Obama’s visit comes following word from administration officials that he is expected to order all U.S. combat troops to leave Iraq by August of next year.

PPP found that Barack Obama has the highest approval ever found for the President in North Carolina.

(Richmond Times-Dispatch, 02-01-09)
Donald Nuechterlein, a political scientist, is the author of “America Recommitted: A Superpower Assesses Its Role in a Turbulent World.” Contact him at nuechtd@cstone.net.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The United States has fought four costly wars since 1945 and none of them ended as World War II did, with complete victory.

In Korea, after nearly three years of huge American troop casualties, the war ended in 1953 in a draw with North and South Korea divided along roughly the same border they had at the start of the war.

The Vietnam war, begun in 1965, was an even costlier one for U.S. troops. And it ended in defeat when North Vietnam’s army took control of the south after Congress cut off funding for U.S. operations in 1975.

The third and fourth wars, in Iraq and Afghanistan, are still in progress. Although the outcome in Afghanistan is not clear, Iraq appears to be on track to become a stable but fragile democratic state.

In Afghanistan, U.S. and allied forces that ousted the Taliban regime in 2001 now find a resurgent Taliban that threatens security in large parts of the country. Many experts conclude that Afghanistan is a fractured country, threatened by Taliban forces in the south and east, and by warlords elsewhere. Unlike Iraq,
Afghanistan has never had a government that controlled the entire country.

In all of these wars, the presidents made difficult choices: Agree to an unsatisfactory outcome (Korea), accept a stalemate and eventual defeat (Vietnam), persevere to achieve success (Iraq), and, until recently, neglect the enemy’s resurgence (Afghanistan).

LET’S EXAMINE the choices made on Vietnam and Iraq by presidents Richard Nixon and George W. Bush and consider the alternatives President Obama has as he deals with Iraq and Afghanistan in the coming years.
A noted historian, Margaret MacMillan, authored an excellent book two years ago titled Nixon and Mao: The Week That Changed the World. She recounts how Nixon and his national security adviser, Henry Kissinger, secretly planned a presidential trip to China in 1972 to end a 23-year freeze on U.S. relations with Communist China. Here, according to MacMillan, is the situation that Nixon faced when he entered the White House in 1969:

“The Soviet Union and its allies had watched with pleasure as American power failed to crush North Vietnam. American allies had watched uneasily as their superpower showed its weakness. Their publics had increasingly turned sour on the United States; in Canada and Western Europe, huge demonstrations demanded that the United States get out of Vietnam. Much of the criticism, and not just from the left, was disturbingly anti-American. The United States was portrayed as an international bully.”

Nixon believed that opening relations with China would persuade both China and the Soviet Union to support a negotiated settlement in Vietnam that preserved the south as a viable state. Although he succeeded in withdrawing American ground troops in 1973, he failed in Vietnam when North Vietnamese forces took over the south in 1975 and forced a humiliating evacuation of all Americans.

In Iraq in 2007, George Bush faced this difficult choice: whether to withdraw American forces, as domestic and international opinion was demanding, or order a surge of forces in an effort to reverse the downward trend in security that threatened to turn into full-scale civil war. He chose a surge. After a year of sustained operations, it brought security to nearly all of Iraq’s cities as well as countryside.

WHAT ARE Barack Obama’s options in Afghanistan and Iraq?

U.S. commanders in Afghanistan have asked for 30,000 more troops to fight the Taliban and to strengthen the Kabul government. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said last week that he has recommended about 12,000 additional troops. Yet, none of our NATO allies, with the exception of Britain, Canada, and the Netherlands, is willing to add to current forces. Germany doesn’t currently permit its troops to engage in combat.

If the president adds troops in Afghanistan, he will need to decide soon whether to seek a negotiated settlement of the war, one that doesn’t result in a withdrawal of American forces. Secretary Gates has stated that the United States will continue to pursue al-Qaida leaders hiding in neighboring Pakistan. The alternative to a negotiated settlement is adding many more combat troops in an effort to stabilize the entire country.

The president’s choice in Iraq is far easier. He will be able to withdraw the troops within 16 to 18 months and be reasonably confident that the new government, which assumes power this month, will take responsibility for policing the country. Washington will continue to provide logistic, intelligence, and training support.

If things go well in Iraq in the next two years, Barack Obama will see the country’s successful transition to a stable, democratic government. And if so, part of the credit will go to George Bush, who was not willing to accept a defeat.

(The Richmond Times-Dispatch, 1/21/09, Editorial)
History and circumstance ensured yesterday’s drama. President Barack Obama’s presence and oratory met expectations. Every Inauguration celebrates the American experiment. In sentiment and tone, Obama delivered.

Hail to the chief.

Rituals convey majesty. They assert the traditions that nurture individual talent. Yesterday offered ruffles and flourishes, as well as manifest goodwill. Obama cited sacrifice and called for renewed responsibility. If his speech lacked phrases as arresting as John Kennedy’s “ask not,” then it captured its audience — which in this instance was not only the nation but the world.

Obama’s reliance on cadence reflected artistry. His voice would accelerate at precisely the right moment. His sentences grew into paragraphs. Paragraphs echoed as though they originated deep in the rich veins of liturgy. Style can indicate substance — and regarding presidential leadership often is substance; yesterday gave Americans a glimpse of what will be. Style cannot foretell judgment, however, and the quality of judgment is not known until it is required. Tests are inevitable.

Commentators parsed Obama’s speech for partisan implications with the scrutiny sullen scholars apply when analyzing the works of Herman Melville. Some discerned conservative generalities and liberal specifics; others detected centrism, post-partisanship, and 100 additional clichés. The blather was as futile as it was amusing. It is time, the new president reminded a young country built on ancient truths, to cast away childish things. From him, citizens heard mystic chords.

The first African-American president is also the 44th president. The ceremonies — solemn yet elated — suggested continuity. America has a lovely face; yesterday its countenance radiated joy. “Defend our liberties,” says a prayer for our country, “and fashion into one united people the multitudes brought hither out of many kindreds and tongues.” E pluribus unum. Let everyone sing the song.

The Inaugural Address offered hints of policy but few details. Those will come, as will disputation. The debate will grow bitter. It would be sweet indeed if every four years the United States could bottle the atmosphere of the quadrennial Jan. 20, yet humans probably should be grateful they heed their better natures as often as they do. Save us, believers pray, from violence, discord, and confusion, from pride and arrogance. The supplication would not be made if it were unnecessary.

When George Bush took the oath of office eight years ago, few, if any, predicted the event that would define his presidency. Obama arrives amid clear and present danger. The outlook has changed considerably since he opened his campaign. It could be his fate to serve during one of those periods history identifies as an era. Lincoln said, “The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew.” Many are the gods that have failed.

Americans salute their president and wish him well (which does not signal automatic acquiescence with each and every proposal). They also remain ever mindful of Obama’s call to renewed recognition of personal and social responsibility. America proves itself when its people prove themselves. There were giants in the earth in those days; let there be again.

BY MICHAEL PAUL WILLIAMS
Times-Dispatch Staff Writer

Johnnie Taylor shook her head, raised her arms and mouthed a silent prayer as the band struck up “Hail to the Chief” for President Barack Obama.

Taylor, 60, recalled her youth as a civil-rights activist who was yanked from a lunch-counter stool during a Woolworth’s sit in. The conflict resolution trainer at the Richmond Peace Education Center sees Obama’s presidency as the product of divine intervention.

“When things like this happen, it’s not by accident. It’s not by history. It’s an ordained event,” she said. “I know man had to vote, but God made this happen.”

Kayla Hill-Jones was born a half-century after Taylor, but bore a psychic load no less onerous. For the Glen Allen Elementary School fourth-grader, yesterday meant this: “That I can accomplish anything, even though I’m black.”

Taylor and Kayla were among three dozen people who watched Obama’s inauguration at Highland Park’s Fire House 15 as they washed down chili, cornbread, tossed salad and brownies with sweet iced tea. The fire station-turned-eatery is run by Boaz & Ruth, a nonprofit that seeks to transform Highland Park, serve as a community bridge and rebuild the lives of formerly incarcerated men and women.

As I listened to a 10-year-old child describe her brave new world, it brought to mind the old one of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Upon telling his young daughter that the Atlanta amusement park Funtown was closed to black children, he could see “ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky.”

Those clouds have hovered over the collective mental sky of African-Americans throughout the nation’s history.

Yesterday, the skies cleared.

The forecast for America is another matter. The nation’s helm has been handed to an African-American during one of the most turbulent times in our nation’s history.

Adria Scharf, director of the Richmond Peace Education Center, described yesterday as “disorienting,” and indeed, there was a magical aura that bordered on surreal. You might say the country has found its bearings after straying wildly off course from the grand ideals charted in its founding.

The journey toward that ideal is far from complete. But perhaps for the first time, many of us understand how King felt in the famous speech that foreshadowed his death. Like him, we don’t know what will happen now. There are difficult days ahead. But that doesn’t matter as much anymore. We’ve been to the mountaintop.

“I’m 50,” said Ruth Cosby, a Boaz & Ruth graduate who supervises its furniture store at Third and Main streets. “I thought I would never see this. I just couldn’t stop crying. I think this is going to unite us as a country, and we’re going to realize Dr. King’s dream.”

If that’s the case, it’s children such as Kayla who stand to inherit a nobler nation.

Kayla’s parents, Stan Jones and Regina Hill, are supporters of Boaz & Ruth. “We wanted her to experience giving instead of receiving — of serving others,” her mother said of Kayla.

Kayla wore a red and blue T-shirt that featured a portrait of the new first family inside the presidential seal.

“She said she wanted to be the first African-American president,” her mother said, chuckling. “I told her she could be the first woman.”