When Hurricane Floyd hit eastern North Carolina in 1999, Richard Wagner was editor of The Free Press in Kinston. In a Carolina Beat commentary, he recalled that while Carolinians went through the same misery as Katrina victims, the similarities end there. Unlike Floyd, he wrote, Katrina has spawned divisive political opportunism from Democrats such as former senator John Edwards, which is communicated by a complicit mainstream media. Wagner’s column generated a congratulatory e-mail from writer Jefferson Weaver of the Bladen Journal, who expressed a similar view and described himself as “one of the last true conservative newspapermen in Carolina.” Meantime, the blog eaglespeak.blgospot.com focused in on North Carolina’s astronomically expensive and unnecessary light rail projects as ideal targets for federal spending cuts in order to fund Katrina relief efforts. The blog relied on contributing writer Bob Fliss’ CJ Exclusive from May about the boondoggle planned for the Triangle.