• A guest editorial in the AJC salutes Max Cleland.

Neither I nor any other veteran questions his courage in Vietnam, nor his courage to live life and give more than he takes....

A nice piece. It was even written by a Republican.

      your note []

• What a great blog entry on Gore, Bush and the press.

Dwight Meredith in his PLA blog really nails the press on it handling of Gore and Bush. Well researched, this shows how the conservative press and pundits fault Gore for perceived slights and then let Bush get away with actual flip-flops and reinvention.

In one respect, the media's coverage of the 2000 campaign was spot on. One candidate really does have a problem telling the truth and is constantly reinventing himself. There was just one little problem of mistaken identity.

If you are at all interested in the unbalanced reporting of the press, read this. After you read it, email it to all your friends. Perhaps send it to your local media. Then store the blog in your "favorites" and read it often.

      your note []

Secret transcript of Bush/Rice conversation.

This has been around on the newsgroups for a few day, but I saw it first courtesy of William Burton's blog.

There is also a better formatted version at Driver 8.

      your note []

• Atlantan sued over Otis Redding Bio

Author Scott Freeman of Atlanta is being sued by Zelma Redding and Phil Walden for $15 million. Offending Redding's widow and his former business manager is how the book details rumors about Redding's drug usage, philandering and contemplated suicide. Also mentioned is a rumor that Walden plotted with the Mafia to kill Redding; supposedly Redding was about to replace Walden with a new manager. The author does discount the managers involvement in Redding's death by saying the rumor was "unsubstantiated and had no basis in fact." However, the suit will press forward.

When noted North Georgia lawyer Bobby Lee Cook was asked what his clients hope to gain from the suit, he replied: "A hell of a lot of money."

• So what the hell was it?

Fulton County prosecutors will drop drug trafficking charges against Lieutenant Governor Mark Taylor's son, Fletcher Taylor. During a July 29th traffic stop the young Taylor and two friends were arrested when police found what they believe to have been 29.5 grams of opium. Test now reveal that what was found was not an illegal substance.

Did the cops find jock itch powder and think it drugs? Or did the kids try to buy drugs and ended up getting busted with baby laxative? Inquiring minds want to know.

      your note []

• And don't let the door hit you on your ass on the way out.

Gov.-elect Sonny Perdue Thursday morning asked for the resignations of all state government agency heads.

Speaking at a breakfast meeting, Perdue said that anyone who wanted to stay on could send a separate letter outlining their interest and expertise, along with a resume, to the Perdue transition Web site just like any other applicant.

Actually, changing department heads is pretty normal for incoming Governors. They do want to put their team into place. The wholesale slaughter was bit unexpected, however.

"That's a carpeted room, and I think you could have heard a pin drop," [State Board of Pardons and Paroles chairman, Buddy] Nix said. "I think it got everyone's attention. I think it puts everyone on equal footing."

With a changing of political parties in the Governors Mansion, I would expect pretty much all department heads to be changed.

      your note []

• ECO Challenge illnesses "icky."

After reading that story, maybe I will ponder how many additional adventure races I may do next year.

Crawford reported that many racers developed large, acne-like pustules on their arms and legs in addition to boils, abscesses and staph infections from bacteria, which entered through cuts as racers hacked their way through almost impenetrable jungle and thick bamboo fields.

Yuck!

      your note []

• There has been a huge outpouring of emotion after traffic reporter Keith Lalland's death

The heartfelt outpouring has been tremendous. The AJC received over 400 remembrance postings to it forum. WGST's afternoon radio personality "The Kimmer" has received over 3000 emails. Many tributes are appearing, like this one from the Lane Ranger Joey Ledford.

A memorial service for Kalland, 51, is scheduled for 7 p.m. today at the Presbyterian Church of the Resurrection in Conyers.

• Where in the world is Linda Schrenko?

State Superintendent of Georgia Schools pouts, has a face lift, and just refuses to come to work. Sounds like this Republican elected official is setting a great example for all of Georgia's school kids! Of course when she has been in the office, she has been sending out state checks to people who did not deserve them. Maybe she should stay at home.

• Atlanta ranks as 12th most dangerous metropolitan area for pedestrians.

Cab drivers must have taken a few extra days off last year. I am sure they can get us back up to the number 2 spot easily!

      your note []

• Bush pretty much says if Iraq denies having weapons of mass destruction, we will attack them.

Anybody thinking Salem Witch Trials? There is no right answer. Denial means they are lying and they burn. Admission means they burn.

      your note []

• South Knox Bubba reminds us not to give pets as presents.

Thinking of giving a pet as a gift? Thinking of getting one for yourself? Read SKB's blog entry before you do.

      your note []

• A pictorial history of Georgia's state flags.

Did you know that in the there have actually been 6 different state flags? Do you know what they looked like? Did you know that the Confederate battle symbol was not entirely removed, just drastically shrunk in the spirit of compromise?

My favorite is the 1920-1956 flag, followed by the original unofficial flag. Parts of both of them appear on the newest version.

      your note []

• AJC columnist Cynthia Tuckers argues to get rid of worst teachers, but fails to suggest how.

There are two steps to improving the quality of our teachers in the state. First you have to evaluate the teachers, and then you have to get rid of the bad ones. Governor Barnes had made teachers mad by putting into place methods of accomplishing both of these tasks.

To evaluate teachers Barnes decided to monitor the standardized test scores of their students. Barnes admitted that this method needed to be tweaked, and planned to do so. However, there has to be some method of evaluating teacher's effectiveness. If a teacher cannot teach her students standard material that all other students are required to learn, then maybe that teacher should not be teaching. How can you call teachers that fail to educate their classes the basics "good," and justify keeping them?

To keep the school system clean of under performing teachers, Barnes had stripped incoming teachers of the tenure rights that veteran teachers have. Even Tucker points out, "Superintendents and principals across the state contend that they find it difficult to fire incompetent teachers." With these protections gone, protections that most workers in Georgia do not have, teachers could now be terminated if they failed to teach effectively. If you were ineffective in your job, wouldn't you be fired?

Governor Elect Perdue plans to return tenure to the new teachers, and to stop evaluating them based upon their student's standardized test scores. Tucker writes that Perdue must find a way to get rid of bad teachers. How? You are losing your ability to terminate the bad ones, and the method of evaluating which ones are good and which ones are bad. Any suggestions?

Rest assured Georgia. Your most valuable possessions are marching off to school every morning to a system where bad teachers have just been given the go ahead to hang around and not educate them. And all because they, the teachers, were upset that they were going to be held accountable to teaching standards. How unfair!

      your note []

• Longtime Atlanta radio and television personality dead.

Keith Kalland, radio and television personality, known for his humorous traffic reports, died at age 51. The official cause of death is being reported as heart failure. He had suffered health problems in the past, but lately had appeared healthy, until being admitted to the hospital this weekend.

Kalland was known for quotes such as his famous "stick a fork in it, it is done," and his rants against rubber-neckers and bad drivers. He is survived by a wife and two children.

Other local stories can be found here and here.

      your note []

• Virginia Anderson of the AJC wonders why Southerners do not find another way to bring honor to the South's ancestors.

Dishonored and humiliated, some of us flail about searching for some way to bring honor to ourselves and our ancestors, most of them dirt poor, uneducated farmers who bore arms for the rights of rich plantation owners to own other human beings.

What is really pitiful is that we think that by waving that damn flag, or dancing to "Dixie," we can somehow do that.

There are so many good parts to being a Southerner -- the love of the land, the kindness of the people, the strumming of pine trees against a sky rinsed clean by an overnight rain.

Like Virginia, I went to high school in Athens, Georgia. Yes, the school bands used to play Dixie at the end of football games. We used to listen to southern rock, drink harsh liquor, drag race, and date teenage girls with big hair. I used to think that was a part of being southern.

Lynyrd Skynyrd used to have a big Dixie flag behind them on stage when they played in concert. I wanted one for my room. I remember telling my mom about that. She was horrified. I did not understand what the flag meant to other people. She did, and certainly did not want her son having such a symbol of hatred in his room.

I did not get the flag for my wall, but it wasn't until many years later that I truly understood why. I certainly agree with my mom. I am ashamed for ever wanting one. I cringe whenever I see flags on the back of pickup trucks driving around. I am embarrassed for my state when I see pictures of Governor elect Perdue with some guy brandishing the flag in the background.

To me being Southern is so much more than a divisive flag. It is about loving our beautiful land, smelling ham being cooked, watching a reddish leaf float down from the sky in the cool autumn, the smell of pine trees in the crisp winter air, and secretly throwing away fried okra, while the rest of my family eat those vile little things. I do not need to step on others to show myself as proud.

It does not matter if the flag ever had a noble meaning, and I certainly don't think fighting for state's rights so people could own slaves ever was. Even if it did, it does not now. That flag has been co-opted by racists, by hate groups, and by a bunch of old racist men who decided to tack it on to our lovely Georgia State Flag in 1956 to protest desegregation. Regardless of the original meaning of the flag, it is now dirty and sullied. Why not find a better way to show out pride in being Southern?

      your note []

• Protesters arrested at Fort Benning near Columbus, Georgia.

Over 90 people were arrested after they cut the lock on a gate and marched onto Fort Benning grounds. At least 6 nuns were included among the arrested. Around 6500 protesters were present this year, down slightly from last year. This was the 13th annual protest by the School of America's Watch

''I feel anger at the deliberate teaching of violence," said Caryl Hartjes, a nun from Fondulac, Wis., as she entered the compound. ''I don't feel anger at the military who will put handcuffs on me."

While post officials were obligated to arrest trespassers, they also called the protest a fine example of American democracy at work. They also commented that they would use the protest as a teaching tool for their Latin American students, which now not only study warfare, but also civilian and diplomatic Affairs.

      your note []

• MARTA looks to Washington for more construction funds.

"Transit is red hot. ... It's bipartisan."

• Perdue threatens to fire any staffer who talks to a certain political writer.

Sonny Perdue told his staffers that it would be a firing offense to speak with Bill Shipp, the dean of Georgia political writers. We're quite serious. And so was Perdue.

Looks like Perdue is trying to restrict press access to Shipp, who may favor the politics of outgoing Governor Barnes. Nothing easier for a Republican to do than stamp on the first amendment.

What is Bill Shipp reporting now on his website? That Perdue and his advisors are working on a plan to avoid a referendum on the 1956 version of the state flag which features the Confederate emblem. Instead they will put forth a referendum on the current flag and the pre-1956 flag. There's going to be some mad rednecks outside the perimeter!

• Divided Legislature nothing new.

Georgia has frequently had a divided Capital, if not by party then by personality. Even with divisiveness, business has still been completed. With a Republican Senate and Democratic House new legislation should still make it through, but there will be more partisan bickering.

An old picture of Perdue with a nice comb over. Just because I thought it amusing. My apologies to those with comb overs themselves.

      your note []

• If American newspapers are too cowardly to actually cover the news, maybe we should start reading Canada's papers?

The Toronto Star calls George Bush and Colin Powell on their blatant hypocrisy, when most American media shy away from any criticism of the Republicans.

Bush, probably the most hawkish president ever, was AWOL from the cushy National Guard gig. Unlike Guardsmen who were not well connected, Bush was not transferred into the Army and shipped to Vietnam when he failed to show up for duty for a whole year. To be the son of powerful and wealthy men!

Okay, I know that this is old, but mostly under-reported, news. It gets better though. How about a quote from Colin Powell's autobiography?

I am angry that so many of the sons of the powerful and well-placed ... managed to wangle slots in Reserve and National Guard units ... Of the many tragedies of Vietnam, this raw class discrimination strikes me as the most damaging to the ideal that all Americans are created equal ...

Linda McQuaig of The Toronto Star ends it well.

You've got to marvel at Powell's anger management skills.

Thanks to Buzzfash for the link.

      your note []

• Middle class rage mounts.

Guess what the U.S. Senate just did?

In a rare outbreak of bipartisanship, lame duck senators rushed back to Washington to raise their pay.

Yes they did. But that is not the main point of Cynthia Tucker's editorial. What she is most concerned with is the widening gap between the rich and poor, and America's misconceptions. Did you know that 19% of the American people think that they are in the top 1% of wage earners? Well I guess 50% of working for a living is 90% mental!

How about this:

Despite the charges of "class warfare" that always follow criticism of the tax cut, the numbers have not changed: More than half of the Bush tax cut will end up in the hands of the top 1 percent of families; that is a heftier share than they pay in taxes.

Bush must be thinking that 50% of the people are poor, and 50% of the people are rich, so there are 50% in the middle, therefore there is no real gap!

Tucker also points out how this poor economy builds irrational blame, like that held by the angry white male (AWM).

When ordinary Americans do look around and assess their declining fortunes, they often find scapegoats. One of the demographic groups clobbered by wage stagnation over the last three decades is white men without college degrees -- men such as Timothy McVeigh. He and his friends blamed immigration and affirmative action for their dim economic prospects.

An increase in ethnic and racial tensions -- a rise in extremist groups of all kinds -- is just one of the dangers facing a nation that does nothing to shore up its foundering middle class and refuses to spread prosperity around.

Tucker just nails the AWMs. These guys need to realize that voting Republican is not going to help them. Republicans shot down a bill to extend unemployment. Republicans will shoot down any bills for work training and education that may be able to lift them out of their economic hole. Affordable insurance, daycare programs, and economic help will not come from the Republicans. The social programs the AWMs so strongly criticize are the very programs that can help them.

In 2001 the programs that provide education and training, social services, housing assistance, and nutrition assistance are only 4.5% of the federal budget. Bush will cut that, while the military budget that was at 17% in 2001 will skyrocket, as will corporate welfare and agriculture subsidies. The rich will pay fewer taxes and get more favorable government. Corporations, who in 2001 paid only $157 billion in taxes while working people paid $994 billion, will get more tax cuts as well as legislation that protects their government business as they move their companies offshore to avoid taxes. There is even talk on completely eliminating corporate taxes.

The middle class rage is rising, but it is misdirected. Immigration and affirmative action are not harming the middle class. The Republicans, that have one hand in taxpayer's wallets, while the other holds them bent over the kitchen table positioned for the shaft, are.

      your note []