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Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Tales of suburbia
Some parts of Sandy Springs just aren't ripe for invasion
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Ran into Joe Wilkinson today. He’s an Episcopalian who represents House District 52, which has a high concentration of Jews within its boundaries.
Last week, Wilkinson and others called for escorts to rally around members of Chabad Lubavitch, a Sandy Springs synagogue, as congregants walked to and from Friday night services.
They were reacting to reports of a man in a red pick-up truck who had attempted to run down members of another, nearby synagogue.
Wilkinson said about 40 members of the community showed up to walk members home after Shabbat services, and described the entire evening as an uplifting experience — including the sermon.
He also passed on this guaranteed true story of a youngish man assigned the task of seeing home one of Chabad Lubavitch’s older members.
“This fellow — he’s probably seventyish, with a long white beard,� Wilkinson said. “So they walked and they had a good talk for about a mile. And the old man says, ‘This is the street where I live.’�
The young guardian wanted to assure his elder that he’d never been in any danger. So he patted his pocket and declared that, all along, he’d been toting a .45-caliber pistol.
The old man touched his own pocket and said, “Too heavy for me. I’ve got a 9-mm.�
Wilkinson said the escort patrols will continue for another couple of weeks. Though it may not always be clear who is protecting whom.
Words are words. Pictures are different.
Federal prosecutors in Washington show photo of Abramoff, Bob Ney — and Reed
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Five months ago, Ralph Reed dodged a bullet.
Reporters in Washington had become curious about Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s encounters with President Bush. Finding photos of the two together became a priority. Both sides understood the stakes. Words are merely words and can be disputed endlessly. Pictures have impact, and can be used — over and over again — especially in political campaigns.
There is a firm in D.C. that sends photographers to various social/political events to take the “grip-and-grins” that are later autographed and framed as evidence of one’s access. Its archives are available on-line.
As word of the hunt for a Bush-Abramoff photo spread, the firm expunged Abramoff from its archives. Fortunately for Reed, that included pictures documenting Abramoff’s attendance at the opening of a Washington office for Reed’s firm, Century Strategies, in 2003. (One of the snaps showed Dylan Glenn, the former Georgia congressional candidate, shaking hands with Abramoff.)
But Tuesday tossed Reed a bullet that couldn’t be dodged. As part of the Washington corruption trial of David Safavian, a former White House procurement official, federal prosecutors entered into evidence a photo of Safavian, Reed, Abramoff, U.S. Rep. Bob Ney and five others — including Abramoff’s son — standing outside the chartered Gulfstream jet that flew them to Scotland.
Here’s the photo, as presented by the Washington Post.
