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Thursday, October 25, 2007
Disaster: A bright side?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
While drought-weary folks in the Atlanta metro worry that their water will run out before the federal government declares the region a disaster area and funnels in money and other help, farmers out in the country are already getting some relief from Uncle Sam.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has declared 24 Georgia counties agricultural disaster areas because of the drought, making many of the farmers in those counties eligible for low-interest loans to help them recover, Rep. Sanford Bishop, an Albany Democrats who represents many of those counties, said Thursday.
But be warned, city dwellers, rooftop gardens don’t make you eligible for drought relief.
Jim Marshall, now the one and only
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Rep. Jim Marshall of Macon, once known as a Democrat who voted against increased funding for SCHIP and Georgia’s PeachCare, now has the distinction of being the nation’s only Democratic congressman to vote against the $35 billion expansion of a program that provides health insurance to poor kids.
Rep. Gene Taylor (D-Miss.), along with Marshall, had voted against an earlier version of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. But after Democrats made a few hasty changes to the bill and put it up for a vote Thursday, Taylor voted for it, leaving Marshall standing alone against a bill national Democrats hope to make into a major campaign issue next year.
“This bill is improved from the first one,” Marshall said in a statement after the vote. “It has a greater focus on needy children, but I still have concerns regarding fairness and funding.”
Marshall is against allowing adults and middle-class families to enroll in a program intended to help poor children. He also opposes raising tobacco taxes to pay for the major expansion, as the bill proposes.
Despite the bill’s easy passage in the House - it was approved 265 to 142 Thursday - President Bush said he will again veto the measure. Democrats won no new Republican votes with the modified bill and so still lack the two-thirds majority needed to override another veto. That left Marshall looking forward to the third attempt to reauthorize SCHIP through 2012.
“I hope the next version will be better than this one because I want to expand the program,” Marshall said.
Chances grow slimmer that Bush will side with Georgia over water
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It is as we thought.
A few phone calls made this morning lead us to believe that the entry of Florida Gov. Charlie Crist into the water wars has probably killed any chance that President Bush will give Georgia — and Gov. Sonny Perdue — what he wants.
In other words, an emergency order that gives Georgia control over the water behind Buford Dam.
Early on, Perdue’s push had a chance of succeeding. But with Crist and Alabama Gov. Bob Riley making noises of their own, the White House is coming to realize exactly what it’s stepped in — a complicated 18-year battle over resources.
Heightened by a drought, no doubt. Even so, the Bush Administration is likely to back off and let lawyers sort it out.
Look for the White House to issue something — maybe as quickly as tomorrow. But it’ll be window-dressing, and not what the governor of Georgia has asked for.
Here’s a copy of the Crist letter we posted earlier in the day.
How knotty is the water problem? Riley’s office just put out a press release saying that “Atlanta-Based Southern Company confirms impact on Farley nuclear plant if water flow reduced.”
Read the entire press release on the jump.
OFFICE OF GOVERNOR BOB RILEY FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: OCTOBER 25, 2007 Atlanta-Based Southern Company Confirms Impact on Farley Nuclear Plant if Water Flow Reduced Governor Riley has warned of consequences for jobs, electricity for region
MONTGOMERY — In a letter sent Wednesday to the governors of Alabama, Florida and Georgia, the chairman and president of the Atlanta-based Southern Company confirms that the current flow of water in the Chattahoochee River is the minimum needed for the Farley Nuclear Plant in Alabama to operate, and that any reduction in flow could impact plant operations.
That’s the same argument Alabama Governor Bob Riley has been making as he tries to stop an effort by Georgia’s political leaders to take control of water releases from Lake Lanier to communities and areas downstream — including the Farley Nuclear Plant in Houston County, Alabama.
Governor Riley is traveling to the Farley Nuclear Plant on Thursday to hold a news conference about the dangers to the plant and surrounding areas if Georgia succeeds in controlling the release of water.
“More than 800,000 households in the region — in Alabama, Georgia and Florida — rely on the Farley Nuclear Plant for their electricity. Any attempt by Georgia to reduce the flow would be damaging to these families. Families, not mussels,” Governor Riley said.
In a letter to President Bush on Monday, Governor Riley said the releases currently being made from Lake Lanier are the minimum necessary to maintain the required flow for cooling water at the nuclear power plant. A lack of adequate cooling water, Governor Riley wrote, “could require a shutdown of the plant, thereby putting the reliability of the electric power grid in the region at risk.”
David M. Ratcliff, the chairman, president and CEO of the Atlanta-based Southern Company, said in his letter to the three governors that the current minimum flow value of 2,000 cubic feet per second allows the Farley Nuclear Plant to “continue uninterrupted, long-term operations,” but that “Operations at flows and levels less than this could impact plant operations.”
The Atlanta-based Southern Company’s public utility subsidiaries own several power plants in the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Basin, including three in Georgia, the nuclear plant in Alabama, and a plant in Florida.
“We operate these and other facilities in an economic dispatch regime as a large integrated electric system,” Ratcliff writes. “Changes to our normal operating regime have numerous implications.”
And the water war keeps those riptides churning
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Just in time for a football game in Jacksonville to serve as a metaphor, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist has lined up against Georgia.
Joining Alabama’s governor, Crist, too, has written a letter to President Bush telling him that Georgia’s request for control of Lake Lanier’s water is silly.
Gov. Bob Riley of Alabama thought the Florida-Alabama alliance — Georgia would call it an axis, we suppose — so important that his press office relayed the news at 2 a.m. this morning.
Here’s a copy of the Crist letter.
Says Crist:
“Reacting to the concerns of an upstream State to suspend environmental laws unilaterally at the expense of a downstream State’s ecology and economy cannot be justified in any circumstance.”
To match Gov. Sonny Perdue’s press conference on the banks of West Point Lake on Wednesday, Riley plans to hold a meeting with reporters today at the Farley Nuclear Plant in Houston County, Ala., “discuss the threat posed to the plant’s operations by Georgia’s attempts to cut water flows.”
All dressed up and nowhere to speak
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
All dressed up and nowhere to speak
Political consultant and former editorialist Phil Kent has just sent out a notice that protesters booed conservative author David Horowitz from a stage during an Emory University lecture sponsored by the university’s College Republican chapter.
Kent says the event was part of something called “Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week.”
Protesters included some dressed in Guantanamo orange. “There was also a sizable group of men and women dressed in traditional Muslim garb as well as students wearing Kafiyehs, a symbol of Arab solidarity,” Kent’s missive said.
Sigh. We never get invited to the best Halloween parties.
Read Kent’s press release on the jump.
EMORY AUDIENCE DENIED FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY AT HOROWITZ LECTURE
College Republicans host Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week Program, Disruptive crowd shuts down David Horowitz lecture on campus
ATLANTA (October 24, 2007) - On Wednesday evening, the Emory University Chapter of the College Republicans hosted acclaimed author and activist David Horowitz for a lecture on radical Islam as part of Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week. >From the beginning of Horowitz’s speech, rowdy protesters continually interrupted him and less than half an hour into the event, the crowd became so disruptive that police were called in and Horowitz had to be escorted off stage.
Over 300 people - a cross-section of students, professors, and Atlanta community members - packed into White Hall where the event was held. The audience included a wide range of Leftists from Amnesty International, Veterans for Peace, and Students for Justice in Palestine, as well as Muslim groups such as the Muslim Student Association. In addition, members of “National Project to Defend Dissent & Critical Thinking in Academia,” an organization dedicated to opposing Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week events throughout the country, participated in the protests dressed in orange attire as a reference to Guantanamo Bay. There was also a sizable group of men and women dressed in traditional Muslim garb as well as students wearing Kafiyehs, a symbol of Arab solidarity.
“I’ve spoken at Emory University several times and I’ve never seen it this bad,” said Horowitz responding to the crowd as they shouted and jeered. “This is exactly what the fascists did in Germany in the 1930s.” Protesters began their efforts as soon as Horowitz was introduced with boos and chants of “Heil Hitler.” Despite the people who stood with their backs to Horowitz and the shouting of obscenities and other remarks from audience members, Horowitz attempted to deliver his speech that covered academic freedom and radical Islam. The loud chants, sign-waving, and disruptive gestures continued to escalate from audience members until the atmosphere was so chaotic that even the police present were unable to subdue the crowd. Horowitz was led off stage and left the campus under tight security, and the event came to an abrupt end. “This is a poor reflection on Emory, and we are embarrassed by the actions so many in the campus community,” said Emory College Republicans Chairman Ben Clark.” The Emory administration must make it clear that they do not condone the protesters’ behavior, but that they respect Horowitz’s right to speak on campus and will work to ensure that this does not happen again.”
Many in the audience left the event disappointed. “Even the students who did not agree with David Horowitz did not get a chance to speak their minds because of the protesters’ disruptive actions,” said Emory Professor Mark Bauerlein. “No one was able to listen to the lecture or to speak themselves - pro or con - everyone was shut down.”
Over 100 campuses across the country are hosting speeches, film screenings, and other events this week, as part of the Terrorism Awareness Project ( www.terrorismawareness.org ), a program of the David Horowitz Freedom Center dedicated to waking up American college students to the threat of militant Islam. Elsewhere in Atlanta, the Georgia Tech College Republicans will host a screening of the film Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West on Thursday, October 25th at 6:30 p.m. “Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week has been very effective across the country, and even our opposition demonstrates that,” said Horowitz, reflecting on Wednesday’s debacle at Emory. “We’ve already won this debate.”
The Emory College Republicans works to represent the Republican and conservative students on campus. Our group provides members with opportunities for political involvement and works to bring conservative viewpoints to Emory.
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