Radio host: ‘My heart goes out’ to Huckabee
Four cops were shot to death last weekend in Seattle, allegedly by a man who’d been granted clemency in 2000 by Fox TV host and presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee (over the objections of prosecutors) when he was governor of Arkansas.
The response from right-wing radio host Mike Gallagher? “My sympathy, my heart goes out to Mike Huckabee right now.”
Really, Mr. Gallagher? You heart Huckabee? What about the victims’ families?
My point isn’t that Huckabee must necessarily be hammered over an eight-year-old decision of his (which, granted, appears now to have been a bad one). It’s that people like Gallagher out to be called out on their hypocrisy: Did Gallagher say anything like that when Lee Atwater was savaging Michael Dukakis over Willie Horton to help get George H.W. Bush elected?
Georgia Tech prof engages skeptics on climate dispute
The last time Georgia Tech hurricane expert Judith Curry drew attention from the popular media she was a little miffed.
In 2005, Curry and a colleagues testified before a Senate committee on a study they’d authored, which found that global warming was making hurricanes stronger. An aide to Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., responded by accusing them of “espousing minority views that a vast majority of scientists dispute.”
Curry, who chairs Tech’s School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, was puzzled afterward that the press focused on the politics surrounding the aide’s outrageous comments rather than on the groundbreaking study, which after all was published only days after Hurricane Katrina had struck New Orleans. She still says climate-change deniers “slandered” and “libeled” her and her colleagues.
Now, however, Curry’s diving willfully into the eye of the media storm surrounding the politics of climate change — and she’s again drawn attention from national media…
See the rest of this article at my environmental website My Green ATL
‘Climategate’ — more bluster from deniers
There’s nothing people like more than a good fight. How else to explain that e-mails stolen from a climate research center in Great Britain warranted, in just a few days, more than 15,000 blog comments, wall-to-wall cable coverage and a front page article in the New York Times, while the most comprehensive review of actual climate change research since 2007 went virtually unnoticed?
Lake Lanier water going, going …
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is moving forward with work on its court-ordered plan to deny metro Atlanta water from Lake Lanier, even as Gov. Perdue’s Water Task Force met at the Governor’s Mansion today to come up with alternatives to Lanier’s water.
Georgia Public Broadcasting reports that the Corps “has started to rewrite the manual it uses to control water flows in the Chattahoochee river basin.” A federal judge ruled earlier this year that the Army had never actually been authorized to allow the Atlanta region to use Lanier’s water and must come up with a plan to send the lake’s water downstream as soon as 2012.
Perdue appointed the 80-member task force to come up with a contingency plan in case the state can’t work out a deal with Alabama and Florida to get a share of the water. Environmentalists fear that the business-dominated panel will emphasize the construction of costly reservoirs,
Read the rest of this post at MyGreenATL.
Where the Hell is Smarmy, Ga.?
This just in from ... Smarmy, Ga.
There it was, right under the headline in the Wall Street Journal that said “Builders Downsize The Dream Home.” Dateline: “SMARMY, Ga.”
Wait a second. Smarmy? I’ve never heard of a Smarmy, Georgia. And, sure enough, there doesn’t seem to be such a town.
As the Nov. 13 article — and I might note, it’s a damn good article — makes clear, the dateline should have been Smyrna: The story focuses on Smyrna-based John Wieland Homes and other builders who are rethinking their McMansion-building habits now that it’s a bit more clear that most folks can’t afford McMansions.
Hmmm … smarmy. Webster’s offers up two definitions, neither of them very kind:
1. revealing or marked by a smug, ingratiating, or false earnestness <a tone of smarmy self-satisfaction — New Yorker>
2. of low sleazy taste or quality <smarmy eroticism>
With Smyrna’s transformation over the last couple of decades from white-flight haven to somewhat declining inner-suburb, one could argue that the city is traveling from the first definition to the latter.
It seems most likely, thought, that the typo didn’t hold any hidden meaning. I couldn’t get a hold of Michael M. Phillips, the writer, to find out how the error got into the paper. (he’s on assignment overseas). And a Wall Street Journal spokeswoman couldn’t tell me how it happened — only that the Journal ran a correction: “The Smyrna, Ga., dateline in this article was incorrectly given in some versions as Smarmy, Ga.”
My explanation: “SMARMY” seems just the word that might replace “SMYRNA” in a spell check. Doncha think?
If not, though — if these Yankees came down here and tried to call the good townspeople of Smyrna “Smarmy” on purpose — there will be Hell to pay! Hell to pay, I tell ya.
Atlanta 911 callers placed on hold
I tweeted eight days ago that Atlanta 911 placed me on hold for six minutes while I tried to report a fire I happened to see in the Old Fourth Ward. But WSB’s really got the goods on the story
The Atlanta Police Department’s own records show that 30,813 calls were placed on hold for more than 40 seconds in two-and-a-half months this spring and summer, which city guidelines say would be an “unacceptable” length of time. Jodie Fleischer interviews at least three people who faced critical emergencies and were put on hold.
The response from city officials? “They don’t think their own numbers are accurate” — so they’re refusing to share upated data with the public. Fleischer also said city officials refused to allow the station to tape inside the 911 center or wouldn’t do an on-camera interview. The city also says it’s hiring more operators.
Watch this excellent report on WSB-TV’s website.
Beltline bushwhacking
You may remember a post that I wrote a few months back about the Beltline’s plans to lay down mulch and temporarily open up the trail to walkers and joggers.
Well, work has begun on this project — began today, looks like — and you can see in the photo above that the sections that will be opened up include a tract between Dekalb Ave. and Highland Ave.
I walked on that section today with Angel Poventud, uber-activist and Beltline aficionado, who took us from the new section of Piedmont Park, down through the contentious section of the Beltline at Monroe near 10th, across Ponce, next to Parish on Highland, behind Kevin Rathbun’s new restaurant, behind Kevin Rathbun’s old restaurant, next to the Irwin Street Market and finally out to Dekalb Ave., near the Krog Street tunnel.
Oh the things we saw and the people we met!
I will be posting more photos but I wanted to let you know that, come Spring, you may very well be walking or jogging on the Beltline.
Here’s a photo of the skyline taken from the Beltline, just after crossing over Ponce:
The Obi has landed
Obediah Medrano Edelstain at about one week
Where have I been? Giving birth to our son — Obediah Medrano Edelstein. That’s where.
OK. If you want to get technical about, I wasn’t exactly giving birth. My wife, Silvia, was. They always give credit to the ladies, just because they’re carrying around and sustaining the little guy for eight or nine months, just because of the amazing miracle of what their bodies can do, just because they put themselves through pain that would kill most men …
But, hey, I was there to see the little booger come out. He was blue, and then he was pink, and then he was crying. And he was so, so beautiful. Still is, in fact. He gets more and more beautiful every day.
Obi also was early. He arrived just as we completed 34 weeks. In other words, he left Silvia’s comfy confines six weeks before the full nine months. Still he’s doing well.
And he’s already blogging. Think about that: How many people do you know who began blogging before they even were supposed to get out of the womb? Read more
Jogging toward the skyline
My obsession with the skyline is already well-documented here. Now let me add another fixation: sunshine!
This track not far from Turner Field helps me feed both obsessions. I think it’s part of the Phoenix parks, and in any event it’s on Georgia Avenue, between Grant Park and Braves Stadium.
And for most of the day, there’s not an ounce of shade!
I’m not much of a jogger so I need some inspiration. Jogging toward the skyline on this track moves me forward.
I’ve been scouting out spots to soak up the sun and have come up with a few winners:
In the morning, the outside seats at Perk in Glenwood Park are drenched in sun.
In the afternoon, Danneman’s on Edgewood is a good spot, and nearby so is the King Center. I sat down on a bench there, read the paper and took in the reflecting pool, all while sunbathing (fully-clothed, of course).
Other possibilities: Cabbagetown Park where the Stomp and Chomp is held; Neighbors in Virginia-Highland; and, of course, Piedmont Park.
Got any suggestions for me? If not, check out this track in Summerhill next time you want to take a jog.
Is MARTA listening to me?!
We all like to flatter ourselves sometimes, and that may be especially so for broken-down reporters such as myself.
So I would like to think Michael Walls, the chairman of MARTA’s board of directors, read a post I wrote a few months back about the utility of our mass transit system, particularly when you need to reach certain destinations.
In an opinion piece for SaportaReport (clearly the source of so many great things) Walls wrote the following:
“For residents and visitors alike, MARTA matters tremendously to our quality of life. If you’re heading to the Peachtree Road Race on July 4th, watching musical legend Paul McCartney perform at Piedmont Park, going to a hometown game for the Braves, Falcons, Hawks or Thrashers or leaving on a business trip from Hartsfield-Jackson airport, MARTA makes all of that possible.”
That’s more or less what I said in the post. Here’s how I put it:
Read more
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