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Friday, December 15, 2006
Let’s drink to FEMA, but not on Sunday
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Thinking Right’s free-for-all Friday. Pick a topic:
• For the umpteenth time, this headline: “Audit: Katrina aid squandered.” So who do we blame? Frantic talking heads whose commentary insisted that FEMA and other agencies were uncaring because they weren’t shoveling taxpayer money out fast enough? Compassionate conservatives? Haste and oversight don’t go together.
• Sell booze on Sunday? This is a prime example of one of the General Assembly’s faults, no matter which party is in power. The agenda is set by interest groups — in this case convenience stores and other retailers. Trust State Rep. Mark Burkhalter (R-Alpharetta) on this one: “I have not seen any groundswell of movement for Sunday sales. … ” Everything politicians know large numbers of voters don’t want — higher taxes, higher per diem and Sunday liquor sales, for example — come in months after an election. The thinking is we’ll get over it.
Anyway, people who can’t anticipate on Saturday a desire for booze on Sunday shouldn’t be drinking. They’re at or near alcoholism.
• Legislators now will pocket $173 in hotel and meal money — those who live within 50 miles pay taxes on it; others don’t — but Public Service Commissioner Doug Everett of Albany, who’s required to live in his South Georgia district while his office is in Atlanta, is denied any expense money. T’ain’t right.
• Whatever happened to … the baby panda. Or Seeger’s restaurant, about which Atlanta is said to have “grieved” upon hearing that it might close. It did. But what do you expect when your top-rated PR guy goes to panda promotion?
• Wise of the state Department of Transportation to rethink the decision to remove nearly 500 small communities from its 2007 highway map. Saves me from having to hoard the old ones. Hillsboro, James, Shellman Bluff. I’ve driven out of my way just to pass through many of those small towns.
• Iran hosted 67 Holocaust deniers from around the world this week. And this is the regime the Iraqi Surrender Group thinks can or will help in Iraq.
• Either MARTA’s train ridership is up. Or its ridership is paying. Either is welcomed news. New no-jump electronic gates have been installed at all 38 stations.
• If I’m the appellate court judge, I overturn the conviction, if it comes, of two young men accused of brutalizing and killing a puppy. The trial judge, over defense objections, allowed a live puppy to be used in the courtroom for demonstration purposes. The defense objected, arguing that it would prejudice the jury. Agreed. Props, not puppies. Prejudicial.
• Tough call. Would I rather have US Airways or Donald Trump in Atlanta?
• Amazing how often a piece of ground is assigned human attributes. The humans who occupied Gwinnett 16 years ago rejected MARTA. What does that tell us about the humans who occupy Gwinnett today? Nothing.
• This is the enemy: Teachers in Afghanistan, under Taliban rules, get three strikes. They’re first warned not to teach. If they continue to teach, they are beaten, and then killed, as two were Saturday. In Gaza gunmen, believed to be Hamas, ambushed and murdered the three young sons of a Palestinian security officer. The children were 3, 6 and 9. We show weakness or lack of resolve in this corner of the world at our peril.
• It may be hard for legislators to oppose, but no constitutional amendment is needed to “protect” HOPE scholarships. In fact, the fund shouldn’t build up excess revenues, lest the Board of Regents be tempted to raise tuition to suck it up.
• Scandal-plagued Republicans step down from Congress. Ney, Ohio. DeLay, Texas. Foley, Florida. Democrat U.S. Rep. William Jefferson of New Orleans not only doesn’t, but is re-elected with 58 percent of the vote.
• When my band of right-wingers take over, it’ll be made a crime to write about possible gubernatorial and presidential candidates in the next general election cycle until the results are final from the current one. And reporters and commentators are allowed in that two-year period to mention non-nominated candidates no more than 100 times. Them’s the rules. Write ‘em down.
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