Democrats researching Perdue's voodoo economics.

AJC: Paycheck delay plan called unprecedented.

Democrats are asking state lawyers to look into the legality of Gov. Sonny Perdue's maneuver to avoid increasing property taxes next year.

Perdue announced Monday that he was backing off his earlier proposal to lower the state homestead exemption. Instead, he said he would be able to save $200 million in fiscal 2004 by delaying employee paychecks one day.

House Democrats asked the legal services office to see if the move is legal.

Looks like Perdue is going to run the government more like a business.

Perdue's proposed delay would allow the state to pay employees on the first day of fiscal 2005, on July 1, 2004, rather than on the day before, June 30, which will be the last day of fiscal 2004. The change would push $200 million in costs into the fiscal 2005 budget and give Perdue time to look for other ways to cut costs.

I'm thinking that if I tried crap like that on my taxes, somebody would be hauling me off to jail. See my earlier post for more info.

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Coca Cola laying off 1000. Its going to get worse before it gets better.

AJC: Coke to cut 1000 jobs, 500 in Atlanta.

You hate to see it. More people out of work. It is not looking pretty. It is bound to happen more and more.

After hearing the news, President Bush did point out that these people will save signicantly on income tax!

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My new bumpersticker!

Order yours today!

Yeah, it is kind of mean, but after what the radical lunies put Clinton and family through for 8 years, not to mention the millions of taxpayers money spent to do it, I don't give a crap. It is to f%&#ing funny!!!! Oh, and they always give crap to Ted Kennedy also, for pretty much the same thing.

Via Tbogg, who you should be reading everyday.

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Cannondale Bicycles files for bankruptcy.

Inside Triathlon: Cannondale to file for Bankruptcy.

Cycling News Cannnondale files for Bankruptcy.

Wow! Cannondale used to be a big hitter. It looks like management made some very bad decisions. The motorsports division is certainly dragging the company down. I can also look back to few years ago when the national sales rep and a VP tried to preassure a local bike shop, which was one of the largest Cdale dealers in the country, into changing it sales practices. The shop began pushing Giant and Merlin because they were so pissed off. When I sold bikes on weekends, I thought the national sales rep was a dick, and so made an effort not to sell Cdales. I didn't want any money going into his pocket.

"Cannondale has also reached an agreement in principle with Pegasus Partners II, L.P. to sell substantially all of its assets to Pegasus Partners, subject to better and higher offers and court approval. Pegasus would operate the bicycle business with the involvement of current management and would purchase separately the Company's motorsports assets, including the intellectual property related to the design of Cannondale's motorsports products."

At least GT could blame everything on the guy running the company dying.

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Joe Millionaire finalist a S&M porn star!

The Smoking Gun: Sarak Kozer S&M porn star.

Yes, the Sarah that Joe Millionaire, aka Evan Marriott, made out with the other night, previously supported herself as the "bondagee" in many BDSM porn productions.

Maybe if former underwear model Evan wore some leather underwear, this could be a marriage in heaven! After all, neither one of these people are who they pretended to be.

Probably for the best that she was booted off the show. After all I doubt she really wanted to be tied down.

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Kasparov vs. Computer.

AJC: New Luckovich cartoon.

Just go look at it.

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I called this one correctly: Perdue has no backbone at all.

AJC: Perdue may yield on sin taxes.

Gov. Sonny Perdue told Buckhead business leaders Wednesday he is willing to back off the last of his tax-increase proposals, targeting alcohol and tobacco users.

Damn! That didn't take any time at all. Pretty soon Perdue won't be going to the bathroom without calling up some constituents to make sure it is okay.

The governor, who does not drink or smoke, said he thinks that teens might be less inclined to start smoking and that older people might be more inclined to quit smoking if the price of cigarettes goes up. He already had said that an increase in the cost of alcohol could contribute to a reduction in drunken driving.

I really have no problem raising sin taxes. Smoking does increase the governments cost for healthcare. Pricing cigarettes higher would probably decrease teens smoking also. I think raising the price of alcohol will not reduce drunk driving, but it would give the state more money to battle it with.

The speed with which Perdue will abandon unfavorable policies is hilarious, however. If former Governor Barnes had no backbone, we would still have the confederate battle flag above the capital, and there would have been no education reform. Maybe if we progressives and liberals can raise a little hell, he would back off his abortion stance also.

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Over 3200 poisoned birds found.

AJC: Kahn to cooperate in bird kill probe.

Former congressional candidate Roger Kahn is cooperating with state and federal authorities investigating the apparent poisoning of more than 3,000 birds on his Bartow County cattle ranch, said his attorney, David Vaughan of Cartersville.

This is not just little birds. This includes duck, geese, and hawks. Searchers are also looking for deaths up the food chain, as predators and scavengers may also be poisoned from eating these dead birds. The poisoned seed was found on property belonging to Kahn. State officials are investigating and no arrests have been made. Of course this is only a misdemeanor crime, but the punishment maximum is $1000 and 1 year in jail. Oh, that punishment and fine is per carcass.

It would be nice to string up the person who did this. Thankfully no humans have reported being poisoned. The possibilities of people being poisoned includes everything from children nibbling on the seed to hunters eating contaminated kill. That could slightly increase the jail sentence if they find out who spread the deadly seed.

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Producer swears Shania wasn't lip syncing.

Slate: Did Shania Twain lip-sync her Superbowl halftime songs.

Paul Liszewski, who produced the sound for the show, says Shania's mic was hot and her vocals were live.

Yeah, right. He also gives us some excuses about why there were vocals coming over the loudspeakers when Shania was in the crowd and obviously not singing. The lack of heavy breathing and missed notes from the diva while she ran and danced all over the stage makes me wonder about the truthfulness of this producer's statement. The much more enjoyable Gwen Stephanie could easily be heard breathing hard during her performance. Even Sting was unable to duplicate a recording studio performance.

A little girl I was very close to a few years ago used to love the Shania song "I Feel like a Woman." I used to play that and Earth, Wind and Fire for her all the time. What I heard Shania "perform" during the Superbowl was exactly the same, notes and inflections. Nobody can reproduce a studio performance in such conditions. Nobody!

Edited to add:

SFGate: Is Shania human? by Mark Morford

....She lip-synched every word. She completely faked it. She was a walking mannequin, all hair and teeth and strings pulled from above. Nothing new there, though as a culture we're probably more accustomed to such simulated performance from non-singers like Britney or J.Lo, rather than someone who professes to be an actual crossover diva "artist," but still.

And then about No Doubt and Sting.

They actually sang. They talked to the audience. They were genuinely into the music they wrote and their movements weren't at all scripted and their voices weren't perfect and they were breathing hard into the mics because they were running around the stage, and Gwen was moving and gyrating spontaneously like a love goddess on ecstasy and therein lies the biggest difference: They may still be pop confections, but at least they genuinely taste good.

.....

Gwen Stefani and Sting sang a duet to "Message in a Bottle." At one point Gwen swiveled her hips so gorgeously and so deeply that the TV cameras were forced to shoot her only from the waist up, assumedly because it was just a little too racy for the Sunday Doritos n' Bud Light football crowd.

Stefani had more genuine sex appeal and feminine power in her left eyelash than Shania has in her whole career......

I read this yeasterday, but could not access it this morning. Morford pretty much nailed it. The whole column is a great read.

You can actually get Mark Morford emailed to you every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning, known as the SF Gate Morning Fix.

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