Quotes From Around Yon Blogosphere

An audio recording of the shootings 37 years ago at Kent State University includes the voices of Ohio National Guard leaders ordering troops to fire into a crowd of students, according to a man wounded in the shootings, who obtained a copy of the recording.

If confirmed as authentic, the recording could solve the central mystery of the shootings on May 4, 1970, which became a defining moment in the protests against the Vietnam War.

Alan Canfora, who was shot in the right wrist, played a copy of the recording at a news conference.

Through grainy static and the high-pitched calls of protesters, it was possible to faintly hear someone shout "Point!" Mr. Canfora said the full command is recorded on the tape, with multiple voices shouting "Right here!" "Get Set!" "Point!" and "Fire!" Those words, however, were difficult to discern when he played the recording. A 13-second volley of gunfire follows, during which four students were killed and nine were wounded.

"The evidence speaks for itself," Mr. Canfora said. "The voices are right there, very clear. There was an order to fire."

-- CHRISTOPHER MAAG

The resolution offered by the gentleman from Ohio reads sensibly. It alleges crimes high and low, misdemeanors galore -- all of them representing an effort to mislead the American people and take them into war. It is Dennis Kucinich's articles of impeachment directed at Dick Cheney. The vice president will, of course, deny being a liar. As long as Kucinich is at it, add that to the articles.

The congressman's case is persuasive, although his remedy may be too radical. He calls for Cheney to be impeached by the House and tried by the Senate, just as Bill Clinton was for what turned out to be neither a high crime nor much of a misdemeanor. What was it, anyway, compared with more than 3,300 American dead?

. . . Kucinich is an odd guy for whom the killer appellation "perennial presidential candidate" is lethally applied. But he is on to something here. It is easy enough to ad hominize him to the margins -- ya know, the skinny guy among the "real" presidential candidates -- but at a given moment, and this is one, he's the only one on that stage who articulates a genuine sense of betrayal. He is not out merely to win the nomination but to hold the Bush administration -- particularly Cheney -- accountable. In this he will fail. What Cheney has done is not impeachable. It is merely unforgivable.

-- RICHARD COHEN

Senior Bush administration officials told Congress on Tuesday that they could not pledge that the administration would continue to seek warrants from a secret court for a domestic wiretapping program, as it agreed to do in January.

Rather, they argued that the president had the constitutional authority to decide for himself whether to conduct surveillance without warrants.

-- JAMES RISEN

Gov. Jon S. Corzine voluntarily paid a $46 fine Tuesday for violating state law by not wearing a seat belt in his near-fatal car accident on the Garden State Parkway last month.

-- THOMAS BARLAS

It's only a matter of time until [Rudy Giuliani] implodes on the campaign trail with the cameras rolling. And rolling. And rolling.

This is why I think the Republican race is easier to call than the Democratic race. It seems to me that all three of the top Dems are serious contenders, and it's almost impossible to figure out which one is most likely to win. Among the Republicans, though, it's simpler: McCain is spiraling into irrelevance and seems clearly doomed; Rudy is a walking time bomb; and it's nothing more than a measure of GOP desperation that Fred Thompson is considered anything but a joke. So that leaves Mitt Romney. Despite his affection for “Battlefield Earth,” he seems like the only candidate with a chance.

-- KEVIN DRUM

When I see the worsening degeneracy in our politicians, our media, our educators, and our intelligentsia, I can't help wondering if the day may yet come when the only thing that can save this country is a military coup.

-- THOMAS SOWELL

America's school boards are being sorely tested by economics and geography. Blacks and whites still tend to earn different incomes and live in different areas. And those stark facts undermine many districts' efforts to foster racially integrated schools and equal education. As a result, 53 years after Brown v Board of Education—in which the Supreme Court declared school segregation to be unconstitutional—the gulf between blacks' and whites' educational attainment remains glaringly wide.

The winning lawyer in the Brown case was Thurgood Marshall, a descendent of slaves who would later become a Supreme Court justice himself. When the court issued its unanimous opinion that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal”, Marshall was so pleased with the decision that he said “we hit the jackpot”. For the past five decades, America's judges, politicians and school boards have wrestled with the challenges of putting the court's principle into practice. Despite all the integration that these reforms have achieved, however, Marshall's jackpot has so far brought only a fraction of the equality that it once seemed to promise.

Segregation no longer has the force of law, but it is still a fact of life in most cities. Many districts are actually going backwards.

-- THE ECONOMIST