The Augusta Citizen-Investigator

Weiner Art at the Kroc Center and Running the City like a Business

2011-08-09T12:29:00.009-04:00

Congratulations to respected local artist and Augusta State University professor, Raoul Pacheco, on winning the coveted media award, "Press about Artwork that made Someone Think about Weiners." Maybe it should really be called, "Gives People an Excuse to Talk about Weiners in Public." Although I'm not sure Pacheco earned it with that pantless, Where-the-Wild-Things-Are-ish, little recurring ceramic character of his he calls Otto, he certainly deserves it. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy. And it's fun to read the townsfolks' participation of this age-old ritual in the comments section. Maybe we could borrow Augusta Prep's Crucible costumes and have a dramatic reading downtown of them. Raoul could be in the middle holding the painting of Ott. I'm thinking maybe the RCSO would help us block off some Broad Street on a Friday night for us now that I know how pro-flash mob they are. Congratulations also to the Westobou Festival for continuing the Westobou Spirit in Augusta. They managed to pull off a well-publicized and police-organized flash mob right here in downtown Augusta! We're pretty cutting edge. (Remember when our very own Mayor Deke ran a grassroots campaign right out of the Mayor's office ?)
I kid the townsfolk with their comments, but sometimes the comments are very informative and even funny. The articles can be good too. Today Susan McCord hips us to the fact that department heads are getting 15% pay raises (and also suggests that the city administrator may have granted raises better than 15% although forbidden) in a year that saw city employees lose retirements, take furloughs (including fire, police and teachers as i understand), and lose jobs entirely, and the city privatize the bus system and our only municipal golf course here in the Golf Capital of the World. (Someone in the comments tells us that's retroactive and they'll be getting a catch-up check if you want a little more spice on that.) In other news, another real estate buyer gets another chunk of cash gifted from the people. Some of you may remember Augusta Country Club neighborhood properties collector who lives on the hill, Lucien Williams, receiving twenty some thousand in damages for camellias being cut when the city crew mowed the overgrown unkempt lawn of own of his properties a few months ago. This week we have a buyer of properties on streets like "Dublin, Ellis, Kennedy, Miles, Minor, Nannette, Barton, Shirley, Starnes and Tubman Home" getting "the abatement of about $22,653 in penalties, interest and other fees charged to RTG Investments." I'm not sure how they decide to grant forgiveness; if I'm remembering correctly I've seen a soldier and a widow asking forgiveness for property costs and be denied. Maybe someone should keep a scorecard of strike-outs and homeruns in these requests.

9/11 First Responders

2010-12-17T10:18:00.003-05:00

Last week, Republican Senators, who have taken advantage of 9/11 at every possible opportunity over the last nine years, filibustered a bill that would provide health care to those who were first to respond to the 9/11 attacks. John Stewart had four of those first responders on his show yesterday...

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

9/11 First Responders React to the Senate Filibuster

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show Full Episodes

Political Humor & Satire Blog</a>

The Daily Show on Facebook

Liberals and Conservatives

2010-12-10T08:50:00.002-05:00

Apparently liberals and conservatives may be distinguishable right down to biological responses. In a study done by researchers at University of Nebraska-Lincoln, liberals responded frequently to certain "gaze cues" while conservatives were more or less immune to the cues.

What the Fuck Has Obama Done So Far?

2010-11-02T18:15:00.002-04:00

Well, what the fuck?

What we know about Deke Copenhaver and Marion Williams

2010-10-31T13:34:00.002-04:00

Conventional wisdom in Augusta says that Marion Williams is bad news. There are three standard complaints against him, which I present to you in the form of Facebook comments.

1. "What about when he wanted the taxpayers to build a racetrack and it turned out one of his relatives had bought property right where it was proposed to be built? Why he was never more thoroughly investigated for such blatant criminal behavior, we may never know."

The GBI investigated the private purchase of the half-acre of land across the street from the proposed site and found no criminal wrongdoing. We also know that District Attorney Danny Craig was satisfied with the GBI's investigation. (Did we shelve a good money-maker because of a scandal that was cleared by the GBI and DA, yet go ahead with an expensive TEE center tainted by suspected bribery with evidence and commissioners and an actual arrest that many think will enrich a certain powerful Augustan at great taxpayer expense?)

2. "He was the man of NO. He single handedly held up progress. Many many times, I cant recall the times."

The writer of this complaint has still not been able to think of the times.

3. "IN a nutshell, he is ignorant and has a big mouth- a VERY bad combination!"

Mayor Bob Young, who should have been the hardest hit by this very bad combination, says that Marion Williams is not disagreeable. (And really, what do we care how annoying a commissioner is for the other commissioners and mayor? Don't we want them in there having to really work things out twice a month? Nobody has to stay in there other than the commission and workers. Maybe the local media also gets bored- hey, do they influence public opinion?)

And then we have Deke Copenhaver who is seen as good for Augusta. I think his goodness can also be lumped into three points.

1. He's a breath of fresh air,unity and cooperation.

Is Mayor Copenhaver really so good at getting the commission to cooperate, or does he just pick teams who go along with him? If he's actually good at it, why not throw in some challenges for the young Ironman peacemaker? And do we really want the commission to go along with him on everything (like moving the stadium with taxpayer money)? And as for unity, are race relations better today than when Deke took office? Does the unity talk work? That might depend on what it's meant to do. If it's supposed to help with racial equality, maybe not. If it's a way to stifle discussion by implying that talking about problems is what causes the problems ("Deke Copenhaver is thinking that the best way for Augusta to continue to move forward is for people to stop playing one area of the city off of the other. We're all in this together and when we focus on working together and when we focus on working together as one community, there is no issue that we can't overcome"), then maybe it works.

2. He's good for attracting business to Augusta.

Well, his pet project is to get taxpayers to partially fund a new stadium for a team that already plays here. How much can that really make us, and how much is it going to cost, and who profits? And the deals he has cut aren't that impressive. Let's look at Costco. We're spending one million dollars in the middle of (another) budget crisis to make them an entrance and road. Then we let them have the majority of the tax sales revenues for 23-25 years. If that's a good deal for the city, what's a bad deal look like?

3. He doesn't embarrass us. Hmmm...

Congratulations Riverhawks!

2010-10-29T22:36:00.003-04:00

Augusta's new hockey team, the Riverhawks, won their first game tonight in a thrilling, yes, thrilling overtime game! Final score was 4-3. Go out and watch a game or 25. Often times people think there's not much to do around here, and sometimes it feels like they're right, but the Riverhawks could use some support and fights on ice are always fun.

Scott Hudson and Intellectual Dishonesty

2010-09-29T11:41:00.005-04:00

I see Scott Hudson is chastising downtown business owners and others
for the "intellectual dishonesty" they show in not supporting the
DDA's Broad Street parking takeover.

Makes me want to publicly ask WGAC and Scott Hudson to correct and
apologize for the "intellectual dishonesty" of Hudson's year-old hit
piece on me that still sits on the WGAC website.

This first part isn't really to do with me, but for those of you
unfamiliar with his, uh, style, here's a classic Hudson opener: "First
let me state for the record up front, I am an 'activist journalist.'
Corruption, greed, dishonesty, blight, and hypocrisy are all things
that I abhor." Doesn't that just send shivers up your leg?

Although I have an urge to make fun of every line, I'll try to just
hit the actual untruths that he refuses to correct. Since he hates
hypocrisy and his whole piece is about how "Ms. Peterson broke with
many ethical standards and left behind a trail of misinformation that
ultimately - I believe - causes harm to everyone who presents news in
the media and the public as well," I can't imagine why, although I've
emailed him corrections twice, he says he won't correct or apologize
and that he stands by what he wrote.

He seems to assert that I was misleading by using straight data from
the Georgia Department of Labor instead of using the formula preferred
by local economics professor and advisor to the mayor, Mark Thompson.
He also parrots Thompson's bizarre accusation that I made up a quote
and attributed it to Mayor Copenhaver when that quote was hypertexted
to the source, The Augusta Chronicle. "Indeed, Thompson took the
unusual step, for a mild mannered business professor, of insinuating
Peterson either misquoted the Mayor or simply made words up for him
and placed them in quotes. Such an accusation would be the kiss of
death for any credible journalist, but not Peterson. Her disdain for
the Mayor went so deep that she may have created a whole new genre of
creative writing: blogastalkarazojournalism." Hold on the that word.
We'll get to the stalker part.

"A recent Peterson piece titled 'Face Book Mayor' sent shock waves
throughout the local world of newsgathering." (I just like that
sentence.)

This part is pretty money, too: "Rule number one in journalism is that
you do not employ an attack strategy with an interview subject unless
you are convinced through documented evidence that the person has
committed a crime. Rule number two is that you never cloak your
identity unless rule number one’s exception is employed. Rule number
three is you do not stalk an interview subject unless rule number
one’s exception is employed. Peterson broke all of those rules and
then made up some new ones." (What is an attack interview, you ask?
None of the journalists I asked knew that one. Maybe Hudson went to a
special school of journalism. Did he go to school for journalism at
all?) My interview with the mayor was a scheduled sit-down interview
with prepared questions about mayoral things. I did not cloak my
identity other than making up a fake facebook character holding a big
fish to get back on Deke's facebook friends list and didn't use the
identity to communicate at all, as far as I remember. So if one more
random follower on Deke's fb page somehow cloaked my identity, huh.
And number three is pretty bad. Here Hudson pretty much accuses me of
a crime. I guess he's taking the journalist privilege of being
convinced I'm guilty. Let me be clear, all communications I had with
the mayor were at public meetings or scheduled with him through his
office or were through his office phone and email (and of course there
were those first communications, all polite and proper, through
facebook about hotel taxes and baseball stadiums before being
defriended).

There are a couple other little mistakes for those of you interested
in Scott Hudson's level of professionalism and fact-checking.

I didn't file a "patently silly Freedom of Information Request" for
the mayor's calendar. I asked Deke for it on the phone as I wrote in
the story. (Never mind the idea that it's well within the citizens'
interest to look at what the mayor does while we're paying him.)

"Our budding investigative reporter then followed the Mayor and
Commissioners to their annual retreat in Athens. The meeting had a
quorum of elected officials, so there was nothing inappropriate with
her being there, except Peterson was not there to cover the event and
did not seem to be interested in what the officials were discussing
there." Actually, I wrote about the retreat for the Spirit and it's
available online and was presented to Hudson in my request for
corrections as well.

I guess I'm done. Is this where I do an ad in my film noir
detective/journalist voice? No, I won't do that. I know! I'll list
sources.

Scott Hudson writes about me and the problem of untrustworthy
fake uneducated biased fibbing journalists at WGAC.

I write about the mayor and what he does for a living at Metro Spirit.

I write about dazzling stats at The Augusta Citizen-Investigator.

I write about the Commissioners' retreat at Metro Spirit.

Troy Davis Update

2010-07-10T08:21:00.001-04:00

Closing arguments were heard in his new case this week...

A Government of the People, by the People, and for the People

2010-07-10T07:46:00.002-04:00

South Carolina's highest law enforcement agency said yesterday that it wasn't going to investigate Alvin Greene. That's the big news according to all the major news networks, well CNN at least. In case you hadn't heard, Greene, who has never been involved in politics, won the democratic Senate nomination in South Carolina, with almost no money to his name. He couldn't afford a lawyer to defend him on some criminal charges last year, and people in South Carolina got all uppity trying to figure out how he came up with the $10,440 to get on the ballot. Law enforcement said there was no evidence of wrongdoing.

Thank you CNN for the coverage of this, but am I the only person in the world that thinks everyone is missing the point here??? $10,440 just to get your name on the ballot!? I mean, what percentage of the South Carolina population has ten grand just laying around that they can throw away just to get their name on the ballot? We're not even talking other campaign costs here! Sure doesn't seem like a very democratic process that the South Carolina Democratic Party is running over there.....

Health Care Reform

2010-04-08T20:52:00.003-04:00

Some say it doesn't go far enough. Some say it goes too far. Regardless of your opinion on the matter, meh, who am I kidding? This is a step in the right direction. "Do unto others as you would have done unto you." Jesus said that, right? So why's everyone afraid to help others? It's okay to spend billions on wars and aid to foreign countries, but it is an atrocity to give back within our own borders? It's okay to spend millions on fancy sound equipment for a church, but not to fix little Timmy's broken arm? Give me a break.

God Bless America

2010-02-09T19:51:00.001-05:00

Crib notes?

Tom Selleck

2010-02-02T18:01:00.001-05:00

This has nothing to do with Augusta. Or politics. But the world must see.

Abortion and Murder

2010-01-28T18:01:00.002-05:00

Scott Roeder is on trial for murdering George Tiller, a Kansas-based doctor who performed abortions. Yes, after plotting for weeks, he murdered someone to "save the lives of the unborn." The irony is pretty hard to miss, but if you did miss it, all you need to do is take a look at his testimony from the trial. Roeder believes abortion is wrong because "it isn't our duty to take life, it's our heavenly father's." Said the man who took another's life in cold blood.

Spam

2009-11-22T18:53:00.000-05:00

Not that this gets updated all that much any more, but from now on, in order to leave a comment, you must have some sort of log in ID. If you prefer to remain anonymous, make a fake account. Won't hurt my feelings. Effing spammers.

Beautiful

2009-10-30T16:08:00.000-04:00

This is a great post about TSA and random searches

Augusta Half Marathon

2009-10-30T15:40:00.002-04:00

The Augusta Half Marathon is this Sunday, and I for one will be participating. This is the second annual iteration of this half marathon and a great thing the city has going for it. There is only one thing missing from this event. If you look at the anticipated start list, there is someone missing. Someone who really should be on that list. Alphabetically going down we have four different Coopers from the local area, Jacob and Brenda Cooter, aged 73 and 63 respectively, and then a Tera Corbrari coming all the way down from New York. Where is Deke Copenhaver, Augusta's mayor? The same Deke Copenhaver who was highlighted with the cover story of CSRA Active Magazine's inaugural issue? This is a man who, according to that article, runs four to six miles, three days a week, and hits the gym three other days each week. He can't double his mileage one day out of the year to participate in a major Augusta event?

Be Sure to Tune In!

2009-10-04T20:01:00.002-04:00

Make sure to tune in tomorrow night to the premiere of dividedcity.US! It airs at 7:00PM on Comcast channel 103. Jill can probably tell you what channel it willbe on if you have someone other than Comcast. An excerpt from the show is below:

Green Day

2009-09-28T17:49:00.000-04:00

I had the opportunity to go to a Green Day concert at the beginning of August. One of the first things I noticed was that it was an all-ages show. Knowing Green Day, I was a bit surprised. But that is not the point of this blog post. Green Day has become more or less the opposition voice. Damn the man and all that. Don't do what you're told. Etc... However, Billie Joe Armstrong would refuse to play unless everyone would clap louder, or in one case there were still some people sitting down in the seats they payed for rather than buying the general admission tickets to stand on the floor (these were parents that were simply there to keep an eye on their kids, going back to that first thing I noticed...) Anyway, it was an interesting case study to see this band that stands for everything they do, but still basically representing everything they oppose.

Take That Swine Flu!

2009-09-23T15:25:00.001-04:00

Sanjay Gupta got swine flu. Guess what? He survived it. Who would have guessed?

Arts in the Heart

2009-09-19T13:24:00.002-04:00

It's better than it was four or five years ago. Who knew? Props to Augusta. For once.

Faux News

2009-09-19T07:56:00.002-04:00

Fox news gets called out for more blatant lies

A Lesson for Politicians. And Hollywood. And America.

2009-09-12T07:37:00.002-04:00

Early this week, Republican South Carolina Congressman Joe Wilson called Democratic President Barack Obama a liar. You might think it was no big deal. Politicians are constantly getting on each other. True. However, this particular statement wasn't in some political campaign or private setting. It was during the middle of the President's address to Congress, that Congressman Wilson released his outburst. He later apologized for the remark. There are some lessons to be learned from this:

- We don't heckle the President. We may not agree with the President on all sorts of issues, but we maintain respect for the office. If anything, we maintain this respect so that others will do the same when our preferred candidate holds the office and theirs does not. In eight years of George W. Bush, not once did a Democrat shout out during one of his congressional addresses. In eight years of Bill Clinton, not once did a Republican shout out during one of his congressional addresses. It's just not done. We are supposed to expect a higher level of professionalism from our elected officials.

- He apologized for his actions, but then went on for days to explain why he did it and justify his actions. Here's the deal, and you can listen up too Hollywood. And America. We have gotten FAR too accepting of apologies from celebrities and politicians. Apologies we ALL know they don't mean. They aren't sorry for doing something. They are sorry for getting caught or for ruining their own credibility/reputation. Joe Wilson isn't sorry for his remarks. He's sorry about all the backlash, and he apologized in an effort to get people off of his back. The point is, what's said is said, and it can't be taken back by an apology. Each and every one of us is to blame for letting them get away with this.

Forget delta

2009-08-22T08:28:00.002-04:00

Delta airlines is dead to me. I have had nothing but bad experiences with them over the last two years. And people wonder why the airline industry is having a hard time staying afloat...

Davis to Get His Day

2009-08-18T16:12:00.002-04:00

Just got a text message from the Amnesty International folks. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Troy Davis presenting his evidence in court!

Lessons

2009-08-09T11:25:00.002-04:00

I recently drove across the US. The trip started here in Augusta, went up through Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, back into Illinois, Indiana, and then back through Kentucky, Tennessee, and Georgia, before going down to Florida and ultimately returning to Augusta. While on this trip I thought I had learned some great lesson about America, so I took a few notes to remember this great lesson. Well, I went to grab my notes and write a blog about it and guess what? The lesson wasn't all that great, because two weeks later I have no idea what it was. One of the notes I left to myself says simply 'cops.' Why it says this, I no longer remember. Another note says 'monuments.' No doubt this in reference to my visit to Mount Rushmore, America's monument dedicated to some of our greatest leaders. Shortly after visiting Mount Rushmore, I also visited Theodore Roosevelt National Park in western North Dakota. America hasn't had a leader like him since. I'm sure I wanted to go into more detail about him than that, but there's already been plenty written about him.

I do remember the purpose of the my last two notes. The first of these two says 'bridges.' This was in reference to the mass amounts of road work, specifically on bridges, being done throughout the country. This work is a result of the $timulu$ package pushed through in the not too distant past. This is, to date, the only part of that package I've seen at work, and I will say this: it is nice to see that so many construction crews have work in these tough economic times. However, having them all at work at the same time sure makes for a pain in the neck if you're trying to travel in this country and insert tourism dollars into the economy. Furthermore, what is going to happen to all of these crews once this work is done? There are only so many projects that need doing out there.

My final note was about Busch Gardens in Tampa, FL. Late last year, a Belgian company took over Anheuser-Busch, maker of "The Great American Lager," Budweiser. I can't say I've ever been a giant fan of Budwesier, but when the Belgian company (InBev) took over, and still continued to promote the "Great American Lager," I was not too happy. Outsourcing has affected many industries across America. Some industries we're forced to support, regardless of who is making the money off of it. In this case, however, there are plenty of other crappy beers made right here in America that you can buy and know the money is staying here. I, for one, cannot support a company that got rid of the best part of Busch Gardens (and Sea World for that matter). For eighty dollars, I think I deserve a free beer or two...

Shatner At It Again

2009-08-05T20:14:00.001-04:00

http://www.tonightshowwithconanobrien.com/video/clips/shatner-does-palin-072709/1139665/

Heck Yeah

2009-07-27T21:45:00.002-04:00

This guy has the right attitude...

Forensics

2009-07-27T20:54:00.002-04:00

So, forensics can be, and often is, unreliable. If something as reliable as forensics can be so unreliable, why are so many judicial officials so willing to place their faith in admittedly unreliable eye-witness accounts....

Young Turks on Reaction to Reaction to Reaction to Gates Arrest

2009-07-27T18:11:00.001-04:00

Cheney...Still....

2009-07-12T18:33:00.003-04:00

Cheney told the CIA to withhold information from Congress. Not that I'm surprised. But now it's on the record. But Obama and Feinstein have both said they won't go after punishing anyone from the last administration for anything. God bless America.

If It Ain't Broke

2009-07-08T19:27:00.002-04:00

I wanted to say something about this, but it was said so much better here.

Colbert on Obama on Gay Rights

2009-06-26T15:58:00.002-04:00

The Colbert Report

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

The Word - Stonewalling

http://www.colbertnation.com/

Colbert Report Full Episodes

Political Humor

Mark Sanford

It's always a good time to check in on x-3mta3's magical find- The Obamameter to see which promises are being kept.

Letter to the Editor of Metro Spirit

2009-06-26T14:59:00.002-04:00

Austin Rhodes writes online in the Spirit, "In close to 20 years of writing for this newspaper, I don’t think I have ever been as wrong as I was Wednesday." He's referring to his enthusiasm for Governor Mark Sanford in his column this week, "Sanford for President!"
I disagree. In expressing his enthusiasm for and admiration of Sanford, Rhodes didn't actually mislead anyone; maybe it's more embarrassment than remorse driving his crow-eating correction. He may not realize or remember, but two weeks ago his remarks did actually warrant correction and apology and the concern of the Metro Spirit.
In his recent column, "Third-world leadership," Rhodes continues the smear (which originated on his radio show) against Betty Beard as a "slumlord" over the fact that her childhood home is in poor condition. Rob Sherman of Licensing and Inspections has stated that the unkempt yard and utilities are the responsibility of the tenants, but still Rhodes and company insist there is a scandal.
How far should the paper allow him to reach? Here in the South, there's an all-access pass to make outrageous accusations or insults as long as they're followed with a show of concern (e.g. he doesn't do a lick of research, bless his heart). Rhodes uses this technique and crosses a line when he leaves the facts (or never addresses them) and opines that "the dear woman has lost her ever-loving mind" and asserts "she is obviously unfit to serve."
Beyond that, and at least as troubling, Rhodes is again churning out racist remarks. Rhodes obliviously thinks he's absolving himself of racial bias when he assures us that "each and every informant" is "a good bit darker than white. In other words," he writes, "her own people gave her up."

Guh...

2009-06-25T20:46:00.001-04:00

Why does the media pretend like she's relevant to anything?

RIP Michael

2009-06-25T20:41:00.002-04:00

The King of Pop has passed away...

Sanford

2009-06-24T20:54:00.002-04:00

South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford revealed today that he was in Argentina after being missing in action for a week. Why? Extramarital affair. As such, he has resigned as head of the Republican Governors Association. But not from his South Carolina governorship. GOP: The party of values.

US Courts Are Always so Full of Good News

2009-06-18T15:04:00.001-04:00

DNA testing to prove innocence is apparently not a right...

Guh...

2009-06-18T14:37:00.002-04:00

In general, PETA fights for a good cause. But why does nobody take them seriously? I think I know why...

Personally, I was impressed. We have a ninja for a President. What more can we ask for?

2009-06-17T18:36:00.002-04:00

Here's something to consider when looking at the Troy Davis case. This is why he should be given a new trial. In cases where the death penalty would be applied, we cannot allow our government to ignore even a shred of evidence if it casts doubt on the guilt of the accused. There is no undoing the death penalty when you find out years later you got the wrong guy.

2009-06-16T22:04:00.001-04:00

Fox emails scary according to Fox personality

2009-06-12T10:52:00.004-04:00

Shepard Smith on emails to Fox News.

from talkingpointsmemo.com

Augusta Media is Gross

2009-06-07T18:31:00.003-04:00

Gross. Here's a tv news clip called "Commissioner Betty Beard responds to slumlord allegations."

Here's a regular person telling the same story.

Here's the interview that they, uh, edited.

And when I called Channel 12's Chris Thomas to ask who tipped them off to the story, he declined to tell me. So, who made these slumlord allegations? If it were the renters that wouldn't be a secret, would it? Makes me wonder a little.

Oh, and there's this going on at the same time. Commissioner Beard sure is in the news all of a sudden. Coincidences are thought provoking.

Morris Museum of Art

2009-06-07T16:57:00.002-04:00

I have a couple of rants about the Morris Museum of Art that I need to voice. There are so many things that one can say about the museum, but here's what I have today:

1) They decided not to include any of my work in their current folk art exhibit. While this isn't terribly disappointing (I don't exactly expect to ever have my paintings hanging in such an institution), I am disappointed in the fact that the Morris' apparent definition of 'southern folk art' is anything including poor drawing/painting skills, lots of words written on the painting, and lots of Jesus. But to each their own. Who am I to judge? My painting abilities are far from great. But I know that and I have no delusions about it.

2) While in the museum I got chided about having my cell phone on. I wasn't chatting loudly on it, or trying to take pictures; I was merely trying to send out a quick text, when I got scolded by the museum security guard. Why did I get chided? Was I disturbing other museum guests? No. I was scolded because apparently cell phone usage of any kind 'interferes' with the security guards' radios. Which are absolutely necessary to protect the museum from....

Gitmo

2009-05-26T17:54:00.001-04:00

We don't torture the inmates at Guantanamo, right? What about the guards?

Sometimes I Just Like to Post Legislation and Video of Nurses Getting Arrested

2009-05-26T17:09:00.003-04:00

HR 676 (CONYERS) - Healthcare For All Americans

The United States National Health Insurance Act establishes an American a single payer health care system. The bill would create a publically financed, privately delivered health care program that uses the already existing Medicare program by expanding and improving it to all U.S. residents, and all residents living in U.S. territories. The goal of the legislation is to ensure that all Americans, guaranteed by law, will have access to the highest quality and cost effective health care services regardless of one’s employment, income, or health care status.

More on Troy Davis for Metro Spirit

2009-05-21T07:20:00.006-04:00

According to the editor, ninety percent of Spirit readers have attended college. That sounds high, but maybe the things I say sound high too.
This blog, "Land of the Blind" is meant to be about politics and media, and today I'd like to sound off a little on local media.
The reason I got involved with Metro Spirit is not because I love to party downtown, it's because I think the news in Augusta is pretty bad and the Spirit could do better as the "alternative" news source to cover things that the Chronicle, the local TV stations, and the local radio shows either don't touch or slant the way we all know they do. (After all, we're all educated here, right?) Not to say I'm not grateful for the opportunity to write here- I absolutely am.
But the story that motivated me to actually start writing is one that we don't seem to hear about. It's a story about Georgia that doesn't get told in Georgia.
Months ago when I read about the impending execution of a man with a strong case of innocence who couldn't get a trial to consider his innocence, I searched to find local coverage of it. I didn't see any and got the idea to encourage some. I called TV stations, radio stations, and newspapers. Most told me to get lost. When I called the Spirit, I was relieved to talk to a decent human being who nevertheless told me that it would need a local angle. Looking back I realize I should have just created a local angle somehow. (I regret not setting up a dunk tank downtown- are those expensive? Would Austin sit in it?) I've missed a lot of opportunities on this, but with your help it's not too late for a big push from the state's second biggest city. It's easy. Just read about it (it's interesting reading- I've had my nose in this one since October) and sign a petition.
Don't listen to me. Read what a big shot has to say about this shocking thirty car pile-up of craziness in our very own state justice system. If you don't like bleeding heart liberal Jimmy Carter, I bet you like Libertarian and death penalty supporter Bob Barr. Don't trust Desmond Tutu? How about former FBI director (and another pro-death penalty guy) William Sessions? Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn (come on, I thought you guys went to college), the Pope? The Indigo Girls? No, the Indigo Girls don't help at all, do they? Unless of course you're in college right now and trying out some new stuff. How about let's go back to the very beginning- what about hearing from the guy whose cries for help brought the hero cop to his doom?
Please take a minute, see what's up, and sign a petition saying you don't want this execution to go through without a fair trial first. (Not to point fingers, but Chatham County is known to screw up with death sentences.) You don't have to know he's innocent to sign. In fact, you can't know. I don't care how close you came to graduating college, you're not Matlock! Signing only means that we mean to be a civilized country that values truth and justice. Love America while you sign. And if you're a professor please sign this special smartypants petition to make an extra impression.

Hal Holbrook as Mark Twain

2009-05-18T09:40:00.003-04:00

Hal Holbrook has been doing his one-man Mark Twain Tonight! for thirty years. He came to Augusta a week or two or three ago with his improvised recitation of assorted writings by Mr. Twain. For the show here, he got the crowd loud and rowdy before intermission with a lot of jokes about the worthlessness of congress, the trashiness of the media, and even snuck in a little dissing of the church. I heard the guy in front of me at the break say to his wife, "it's amazing how much things haven't changed in a hundred years."
After the break, Mr. Holbrook whipped the audience up again with a little shouting match between Democrats and Republicans which led right into a rant on group think. Nice. He followed up and pretty much closed out with a long and vigorous acting out of portions of Huck Finn. A lot of n-wording on the stage and more coughing in the auditorium then I have ever heard in my life. While Huck expressed his guilt over not being a good boy and turning in his slave friend Jim, the audience choked its head off. Then gave him the standard Garden City standing ovation.
Austin Rhodes says he saw Mr. Holbrook out at dinner and sat down with him. I wonder if running into our baby Rush Limbaugh influenced Holbrook's selections at all.

Best of Craigslist

2009-05-07T15:56:00.000-04:00

This is nice.

How to Form a Union

2009-05-05T15:11:00.000-04:00

Darfur Protest Leads to Arrest of U.S. Representatives

2009-05-01T09:33:00.004-04:00

Way to go, Congressfolk. Georgia's own civil rights hero turned U.S. Representative John Lewis along with Reps. Jim McGovern, Donna Edwards, Keith Ellison, and Lynn Woolsey, were arrested this week for protesting outside the U.S. Embassy for Sudan. Sudan is the home of Darfur, where genocide has been ongoing for years. On March 4, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir expelled humanitarian groups from Darfur after the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for his arrest on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
John Lewis isn't the only Georgia public servant on the love train; Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue signed into law Wednesday a measure discouraging trade with Sudan while the genocide continues.
According to the bill's sponsor, state Senator David Adelman, “Companies are going to have a choice. You can either do business with the war criminals who are perpetrating the genocide in Darfur, or you can do business with Georgia. This bill ensures no Georgia taxpayer money will in any way support a regime that is supporting the genocide in Darfur.”
Thank John Lewis, thank David Adelman, and thank Governor Perdue. While you're praising, remind them that justice matters for Georgia death row inmate Troy Davis who was denied a new trial to consider mountains of evidence that he may be innocent and whose execution may come very soon.

The Inner Party Can Turn Them Off

2009-05-01T01:01:00.002-04:00

It's kind of funny that there was a show named "Friends." And how popular it was.

I Did It! I'm Mayor!

2009-05-01T00:21:00.006-04:00

Thank you so much, fellow Dumbasses!
I read yesterday in the Metro Spirit, or Metro if you will, that I am now it. Sweet. I'm humbled.
Here is the announcement as seen in this week's issue:

Way to go Metro, for supporting your mayor with that BS of a story called "Facebook Mayor"! Dumbasses! Jill Peterson is the Mayor of Dumbasses! You've earned that title, chick!

Swine Flu Hubbaloo

2009-04-29T16:47:00.002-04:00

I just want to throw out there that hundreds of thousands of people die each year from common seasonal influenza. Let's say a low end estimate is close to 5000 a week. Just put that in perspective and think about it...

Here Saturday

2009-04-29T13:16:00.002-04:00

At the Bell Auditorium- Hal Holbrook as Mark Twain

Arlen Specter!!!!

2009-04-28T17:47:00.003-04:00

Arlen Specter has left the Republican Party in light of its shift to the right. The change comes because he feels is values are now "more in line with the Democrats than the Republicans." Though he vows not to be a party-line voter, which is a good thing, Specter's switcheroo will allow Al Franken to become the 60th Democratic seat* in the Senate once Norm Coleman realizes he's lost in Minnesota.

*Technically 58th. The two Independents caucus with the Democrats.

OMGZZZ!!!! PANIC!!!

2009-04-28T17:18:00.003-04:00

So, press the panic button! One hundred and thirteen cases of swine flu have been confirmed worldwide! This certainly is a pandemic! Shut everything down! Be afraid! SARS, monkeypox, and bird flu didn't get you, but swine flu most definitely will!!! It has already affected 1 in 6,000,000 people worldwide! You could be next! That's almost two 10 millionths of a percent! Be afraid!!!!!!!

Carbo Dioxide is a Natural Byproduct of Nature...

2009-04-25T09:48:00.000-04:00

One Small Step...

2009-04-19T13:29:00.000-04:00

Well, uh, here.

Troy Davis Denied Trial to Consider Innocence

2009-04-16T18:35:00.015-04:00

On April 16, a federal appeals court decided not to grant death row inmate Troy Davis a hearing to present evidence of innocence.
Davis was arrested in 1989 for the murder of a police officer in Savannah. The officer was responding to calls for help from a drunken homeless man who was being pistol whipped over his beer when the attacker shot the officer once and then stood over him to shoot again.
The police department was naturally interested when Sylvester "Red" Coles made a visit to the station the next day (with his attorney) with not only a tip, but a name- Troy Anthony Davis.
Morris Publishing's Savannah Morning News ran Davis's photo with the words "cop killer" before the police had even had a chance to question Davis. Davis went in voluntarily to talk to the police and never came back out. He has been on death row for nearly twenty years. In fact, he's been scheduled for execution three times now, coming within hours of the needle- close enough to have gotten a pre-execution enema.
The postponements are not exactly fancy legal wrangling by Davis. Public defense is overloaded in Georgia to the point that Davis was without proper representation as crucial deadlines came and went, and courts have consistently denied him new trials on procedural grounds.
Davis's executions have been resisted by huge public protest and not only from the anti-death penalty crowd. This execution is also denounced by such toughies as Libertarian Presidential Candidate Bob Barr and former FBI Director William Sessions. The dissenting judge in the panel of three last week, Judge Rosemary Barkett, wrote, “to execute Davis, in the face of a significant amount of proffered evidence that may establish his actual innocence, is unconscionable and unconstitutional."
No physical evidence links Davis to the murder; he was convicted on the testimony of nine witnesses' accounts. New evidence that Davis would like to have heard includes recantations (at the risk of being found guilty of perjury) from seven of those nine witnesses, some citing police coercion, such as this from Darrell "D.D." Collins, who says the day after the shooting when 15 or 20 officers came to his house to take him in for questioning- "a lot of them had their guns drawn." His affidavit reads,

When I got to the barracks, the police put me in a small room and some detectives came in and started yelling at me, telling me that I knew that Troy Davis...killed that officer by the Burger King. I told them that... I didn't see Troy do nothing. They got real mad when I said this and started getting in my face. They were telling me that I was an accessory to murder and that I would pay like Troy was gonna pay if I didn't tell them what they wanted to hear. They told me that I would go to jail for a long time and I would be lucky if I ever got out, especially because a police officer got killed... I didn't want to go to jail because I didn't do nothing wrong. I was only sixteen and was so scared of going to jail. They kept saying that...[Troy] had messed with that man up at Burger King and killed that officer. I told them that it was Red and not Troy who was messing with that man, but they didn't want to hear that...
After a couple of hours of the detectives yelling at me and threatening me, I finally broke down and told them what they wanted to hear. They would tell me things that they said had happened and I would repeat whatever they said.

Here is the recantation from the homeless man who was assaulted, Larry Young:

After I was assaulted that night, I went into the bathroom at the bus station and tried to wash the blood off my face. I had a big gash on my face and there was blood everywhere. I was in a lot of pain. When I left the bathroom, some police officers grabbed me and threw me down on the hood of the police car and handcuffed me. They treated me like a criminal, like I was the one who killed the officer. Even though I was homeless at that time and drinking and drugging, I didn't have nothing to do with killing the officer. I told the officers that, but they just locked me in the back of the police car for the next hour or so. I kept yelling that I needed to be treated but they didn't pay me no mind. They then took me to the police station and interrogated me for three hours. I kept asking them to treat my head, but they wouldn't.
They kept asking me what had happened at the bus station, and I kept telling them that I didn't know. Everything happened so fast down there. I couldn't honestly remember what anyone looked like or what different people were wearing. Plus, I had been drinking that day, so I just couldn't tell who did what. The cops didn't want to hear that and kept pressing me to give them answers. They made it clear that we weren't leaving until I told them what they wanted to hear. They suggested answers and I would give them what they wanted. They put typed papers in my face and told me to sign them. I did sign them without reading them.
I never have been able to make sense of what happened that night. It's as much a blur now as it was then.

There is also additional testimony from new witnesses implicating Red Coles.
Two witnesses have not recanted their testimony. One is a man who told police just hours after the incident that he wouldn't be able to recognize the killer, but managed to identify Troy Davis as the murderer at the trial two years later.
The other witness sticking to his story is Red Coles.
The court has granted Davis thirty days to try for the U.S. Supreme Court which has already turned down the chance to consider his case once earlier this session. If the Court doesn't decide to hear his case, Georgia may execute as early as June.

2009-04-13T19:16:00.001-04:00

Saxby Chambliss: Seriously?

2009-04-06T19:41:00.002-04:00

Saxby Chambliss, Republican Senator from Georgia, today responded to Defense Secretary Robert Gates' proposed defense budget with this statement: the Obama administration is "willing to sacrifice the lives of American military men and women for the sake of domestic programs."

Mr Chambliss, if you are going to criticize the President, and there are things he can and should be criticized for, please do so after checking facts and do so in an semi-informed manner. You criticize this budget because of the call to cut the F-22 Raptor program. Obviously this will cause a loss of jobs in Georgia, and will impact your constituents. HOWEVER, to claim that this budget cut will result in the deaths of American troops is fear mongering and unfounded. If anything, the budget recommendations take troops out of harm's way by significantly boosting funding for unmanned aerial vehicles and shifting troops away from Iraq. Please, sir, criticize where criticism is due, but do not make yourself look like a fool by spreading worthless, partisan propaganda.

To Mr. Obama

2009-04-02T13:30:00.004-04:00

2009-03-31T16:26:00.001-04:00

DNA Evidence Frees Black Man Convicted Of Bear Attack

What Do You Think of Augusta Public Transit?

2009-03-25T18:23:00.001-04:00

Let 'em know.

The APT Survey is located at the following address:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=CUvYnBkaI_2bmCwBMU8b_2brEQ_3d_3d

Please complete the survey by March 31, 2009.

Georgia Changing Requirement for Life Without Parole

2009-03-25T17:27:00.003-04:00

The Georgia House voted unanimously to allow prosecutors to more easily seek life in prison without parole. The current law requires prosecutors to try for the death penalty first. Although there was talk of an amendment to allow death penalties without unanimous jury verdicts, that craziness did not make it onto the bill.

Wounded Soldiers Hooked Up in Augusta

2009-03-24T09:02:00.001-04:00

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Well, There It Is

2009-03-20T12:01:00.002-04:00

It took two months, but President Obama finally said something he shouldn't have. Maybe comedians don't have to worry too much about Bush being out of office...

You're Welcome America

2009-03-14T10:41:00.003-04:00

Yeah, we've been taking it easy lately. But so has the big dub.
Don't miss Will Ferrell's show tonight on HBO at nine.

Worst. President. Ever.

2009-03-03T13:43:00.008-05:00

When's the last time you were shocked by anything George W. Bush or his Justice Department did? Or by anything published in Newsweek? Well, dear, dear readers, check it out. W's John Yoo and company okayed (and seven years later- three months before Bush left office, unokayed) attacks on U.S. apartment buildings and office complexes. Surprised? Anything to get those terrorists who might do something crazy- like attack a U.S. apartment building. And, of course, it's always handy to reneg on that freedom of the press thing in times of trouble, such as the kind that includes attacking the homeland. Oh and of course more surveillance on citizens. Christ in a cave, this is a bad one.

Attorney General Says No More Federal Raids

2009-02-28T11:00:00.003-05:00

Obama promised that there would be no more federal raids on marijuana dispenseries in states that allow medical marijuana. Here Eric Holder confirms that what Obama said goes. Congratulations, States' Righters. And enjoy your freedom, glaucoma sufferers and chemotherapy patients who will not longer be arrested for filling prescriptions.

Global Warming Hits the Fan

2009-02-27T14:27:00.005-05:00

Lescaux Cave Drawing photo from Discovery.com

Ok, now it's getting real. Sorry about all the birds and bees and whatever else that's dying. Sorry polar bears, drowning in the Artic versus starving is a tough way to go. All of that is sad, but extinction isn't new. This is new. Cave paintings are starting to mold over because heat has stifled the air's circulation in the cave. Cave paintings are probably the best thing we have on Earth. The pyramids are new compared to this. We're the generation that breaks them? We're the ones who can't be trusted to watch the house? You know, in the fight between caveman and astronaut, I used to pick astronaut, but I doubt any of them can paint. Booo.

Fly Clear?

2009-02-26T17:36:00.002-05:00

For $200/year, your fingerprints, and a scan of your iris you can now skip the long and dreadful lines to get through security at over 20 airports nationwide. Sounds wonderful. Nothing better than giving up your most personal of identifying information to some random private company. That information will most likely be given to the government, and who knows who else will get their hands on it. Conspiracy theories aside, what happens when everyone starts getting these things? You know what would really cut down waiting time at the security line? The ridiculous security theater. No, my 7oz shampoo is not a bomb. And if my 3oz bottle of shampoo that you actually let me keep was a bomb, I'm pretty sure that ziploc bag would not contain the explosion. Give me a break America. Let's spend the money where it counts...

Get Ready For Higher Taxes

2009-02-26T17:11:00.003-05:00

Taxes will be going up. And not because Barack Obama is some tax and spend liberal. The government offers us services such as a military to defend us, highways, and social security, but how does it pay for these things? Taxes. This should be news to nobody. So when we ask the government to start offering us more in the way of services, why do we get scared of having to pay more taxes? The government taxes the people so it can spend money on them. Tax and spend should not be an insult. It's what the government does. And according to Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, Kent Conrad (D-ND), the government is going to need more revenue if it is to continue to offer services that Americans demand.

Bobby Jindal

2009-02-25T22:56:00.002-05:00

Yeah, Obama had his first "State of the Union" address last night (it wasn't technically a State of the Union address, but whatever), and sure it was pretty good, and I should talk a little bit about it, but I can't get over Bobby Jindal's response on behalf of the Republican Party. I mean, this is the guy the GOP appears to be grooming for a Presidential run, and, I'm, well, you know, ummmm, here's Rachel Maddow's take on it....gahhhhh

Marijuana Bill Introduced in California

2009-02-23T19:59:00.002-05:00

A California Assemblyman has introduced a bill that would legalize marijuana in the state and let the state tax it in a similar manner to alcohol. This comes in response to the budget crisis California has been facing. I've been preaching this all along. Granted, marijuana can be grown more or less undetected at home, but if passed, it could seriously increase California's revenue.

Aren't the Republicans the Ones Usually Doing This?

2009-02-21T12:49:00.003-05:00

President Obama, today, has officially instructed the Treasury Department to begin implementing tax cuts for 95% of all Americans. According to Obama, average families will start bringing in an extra $65 per month by the first of April. Go ahead and mark up that green check mark under promises kept.

Dance Off of the Century!

2009-02-21T09:35:00.002-05:00

Stephen Colbert throws down the gauntlet on Late Night with Conan O'Brien...

North Dakota House Passes "Personhood" Bill

2009-02-20T19:09:00.002-05:00

The North Dakota House of Representatives recently passed a bill identifying even a one-cell embryo as a human being. Rather than calling it an anti-abortion bill, they are calling it a "personhood" bill in an effort to mask what it truly is. The final wording of the bill more or less gives full legal rights to anything carrying a human genome. This could be interpreted to mean that every time a person spits, or bleeds, or ejaculates and cells die that person has committed murder. It also would make abortion, or even the morning after pill for that matter, murder. The last time I checked though, a single cell didn't have a heartbeat, or brain waves or fingers and toes to wiggle or legs and arms to flail. The thing I find almost sad about this bill is that it's probably not really designed to pass as a real law. It seems to be designed to get passed and then challenged through the courts in an effort to overturn Roe v Wade. North Dakota, you make me sad. How about instead of putting so much effort into anti-abortion efforts, you put some real honest effort into working to reduce unwanted pregnancies in the first place? Let's be honest here: we all know abortion is ugly, but sometimes it is necessary, because as much as you may not want to admit it, a would-be mother's life has value too. Dare I say more value than a heartless, brainless, armless, legless clump of cells?

High Speed Rail?

2009-02-20T18:59:00.001-05:00

The Obama administration may be seriously looking at investing in a high speed rail system in America. All I have to say is it's about time!

Why Can't Augusta Have a News Blog Like This?

2009-02-19T21:33:00.002-05:00

The Atlanta Progressive News covers an anti-death penalty group's appeals to the Georgia State Legislature. Augusta is represented in the House by Barbara Sims, Quincy Murphy, Henry "Wayne" Howard, Hardie Davis, and Gloria Frazier. Senators are J.B. Powell and Ed Tarver.

(APN) ATLANTA - A coalition of Georgia religious and human rights activists led by Georgians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (GFADP) spent Tuesday, February 17, 2009, asking state lawmakers to put the death penalty on hold in Georgia, improve indigent defense, and to oppose an effort to allow non-unanimous jury decisions in death penalty cases.

State Sen. Vincent Fort (D-Atlanta) and activists urged lawmakers to place a moratorium on all executions while the State studies potential blind spots in the system.

Fort said he filed a moratorium bill Tuesday, adding "further studies are necessary to make sure the State is doing its job" of protecting the innocent. The bill information is not yet available online as of press time.

"We should demand that we have a system where mistakes are held at a bare minimum," he said.

The Georgia General Assembly is also considering two bills that anti-death penalty activists say are harmful.

SB 42 would do away with the Georgia Public Defenders Standards Council (GPDSC), a group that assures people who cannot afford legal defense are provided adequate and effective legal representation, and replace it with a single director appointed by the governor.

"This will dramatically weaken legal support for poor people," Sara Totonchi, chair of GFADP, said of SB 42 during a press conference at the State Capitol.

Activists say the GPDSC is well-designed but it was not been able to serve effectively because state lawmakers have been unwilling or unable to fully fund it.

Another bill, HB 32, would allow non-unanimous juries to issue a death sentence; this is the reintroduction of a bill Atlanta Progressive News also covered last Session.

Activists say if the bill becomes law, Georgia would become the first state with a hybrid system that factors in the jury and judge's decision.

"Split jury decisions don't show a weakness in the criminal justice system," Totonchi said. "They show strength and fairness. They are evidence that jurors are taking their duty seriously, carefully weighing the evidence, and making the system operate as it was intended."

GFADP also argues the inevitable, protracted constitutional challenges to such a law would cost taxpayers millions of dollars, tie up the courts, and further delay already drawn out death penalty trials, appeals, and reversals.

"What is so important about the rush to kill people in Georgia," Edward DuBose, chair of the Georgia conference of the National Associated for the Advancement of Colored People, asked. "We stand opposed to any deal that would reduce the number of jurors, especially in a state holding innocent people - people who have been on death row for 20, 30 years."

Meanwhile, a bill moving quickly through the General Assembly could slow the number of death penalty convictions.

SB 13, sponsored by State Sen. Preston Smith (R-Rome), would give district attorneys the option of seeking a life without parole sentence without first having to seek the death penalty to obtain it. The bill is also co-sponsored by State Sen. Kasim Reed, currently running for Mayor of Atlanta.

Current rules dictate that the only way to keep a convicted murderer in jail forever is for the district attorney to seek the death penalty or to obtain a murder conviction against someone who already had a violent felony conviction.

SB 13 unanimously passed the State Senate on February 03, 2009, and received a favorable report from the House Non-Civil Judiciary Committee on February 11, 2009.

A similar Senate bill failed in a conference committee last Session after lawmakers could not come to an agreement on the non-unanimous juries legislation, which the House wanted attached.

Since 1973, 129 inmates have been exonerated from death row, including five in Georgia. While DNA evidence has played a significant role in these exonerations, faulty eyewitness testimony has been to blame for putting innocent lives on the line.

Troy Anthony Davis has been on Georgia's death row since 1991 after a jury convicted him of the 1989 murder of Savannah police officer Mark Allen MacPhail. The prosecution used only eyewitness testimony to obtain a conviction.

But since the original trial, seven of nine witnesses have either changed or recanted their testimony. In light of the recantations, groups like GFADP and Amnesty International say there is far too much doubt to execute Davis and that he should be granted a new trial so the new evidence can be heard.

Martina Correia, sister of Davis, said Tuesday her brother's case represents the problems that already exist in the system.

"We believe in a higher standard for the justice system," Correia said. "The standards that are trying to be imposed should really disgust all of us."

State Rep. Stephanie Stuckey Benfield (D-Decatur), who spent at least two years trying to reform eyewitness identification procedures through the General Assembly, said Tuesday there has been progress without legislation.

Working with various law enforcement agencies, Benfield said the Georgia Public Safety Training Center has developed a course on eyewitness identification as part of its training for all officers.

"I hope we won't see injustices like Troy Davis again in the future," Benfield said.

Correia urged other Georgians to stay informed on these issues. "If I stand out, it's because too many of us stand back."

"This is bigger than the death penalty, this is bigger than Troy Davis," Correia added. "This is about a system unseen. We can fight and be a voice for the voiceless."

Stay with Atlanta Progressive News and Atlanta Progressive Blog for updates on these bills and others.

Gitmo Guard Speaks Out

2009-02-17T21:15:00.002-05:00

Brandon Neely, a former guard at Guantanamo Bay, came forward a couple of years ago with his story and it is now being released. Obviously, based on his account, everything at Gitmo was on the up and up. That's why they all acted the same and treated the prisoners the same before and after the Red Cross showed up. Or not.

Change I Can Believe In

2009-02-17T21:05:00.002-05:00

I'm still giving Obama a year before I judge...

If You Didn't Notice, I'm Back

2009-02-17T20:46:00.003-05:00

I just returned from a six week trip to France and Spain. The trip was wonderful and I met a lot of great people while I was over there. I'll be departing again in the not too distant future, so don't get used to me being back.

Like, How Many Times Can She Say Like?

2009-02-17T20:35:00.002-05:00

I don't know why this is newsworthy but here I am commenting on it myself anyway, so whatever. Apparently Bristol Palin (yes that's the expert-on-what? daughter of at-this-point-politically-irrelevant-also-ran Sarah Palin) thinks that teen abstinence is not realistic. Could America's right have finally found its safe sex education spokesperson? Well, no. Probably not. She says teen abstinence is unrealistic, but also wants to share her story so that teens might think twice about having sex. So, basically, this interview was pointless, and thus so was this blog post. And the answer is eight, if anyone actually went and read the article.

Easy Part: Done

2009-02-17T20:11:00.003-05:00

President Obama signed the next economic stimulus package into law today, marking the end of all of the United States' economic woes. Wait. No. Even the administration is labeling this as merely the beginning of hopefully the end. Honestly, if we look back at recessions in our history, we always come out of them. The economy is cyclic. But how do we end up coming out of them most often? Well, war production always seems to help, but what if a war had a small hand in creating the economic problems in the first place? Could we not wage peace to get us out of the recession? A major part of Obama's plan is just that: focus on infrastructure and spending at home instead of abroad (let's be honest: money spent abroad is usually military/war related). Will it work? Only time will tell for sure. Stratfor has a pretty decent breakdown of the package.

Dollhouse is Awesome

2009-02-15T18:17:00.006-05:00

Dollhouse, the new series by Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, premiered Friday on Fox. The Dollhouse is a high-dollar establishment that rents out "actives" to fulfill any imaginable whim of rich clients. Actives are humans whose memories and personalities have been erased and are custom programmed for each new "engagement" with just the right mix of real individuals' characteristics from a data library of what look like 8 track tapes. Eliza Dushku stars as an active named Echo. Buffy fans will remember Dushku's great performance when her character, Faith, switched bodies with Buffy and probably share Whedon's eagerness to watch her revolve through characters and to try search for some essence of Echo that survived the erasure.

Anyone familiar with Whedon's work will recognize certain themes- the stoic, unwitting heroine with the calm, fatherly guide, the back and forth between the realistic and the fantastic, the dangerous allure of power, the conflicting desires for freedom and belonging, and the big question- what makes us human. Maybe the funniest Whedon standby is his own dual alter-ego thing, here split between the programmer- a (redheaded youthful) genius unencumbered by moral concerns and fascinated by his ability to create magnificent beings, and the FBI agent- a (redheaded youthful) clear sighted, handsome soldier of righteousness whose conflict stems from the fact that his moral standards are higher than his line of work will allow.

Whedon has been criticized for the moral ambiguity of his characters and situations. (The fact that critics see complexity as a problem seems like more of a problem.) The FBI agent getting in trouble with his boss for jeopardizing an investigation of major human traffickers is compelling precisely because it is complicated. Dollhouse has also been panned because the actives are attractive and (presumably) often hired out as dream dates; there are concerns that Whedon's losing his girl-power soul. It could be that he's just moved from (totally awesome) magic and vampires to technology and slavery- quite real aspects of our world, a world where hopefully feminism can exist just as well as it did in that imaginary high school library built over a hell mouth in Sunnydale.

Miss it? Watch here.

Big Brother and Family Farms

2009-02-14T22:01:00.002-05:00

From Organic Consumers Association:

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has been working for over five years to force a National Animal Identification System (NAIS) onto American animal owners. NAIS is designed to identify and track each and every individual livestock and poultry animal owned by family farmers, hobby farmers, homesteaders, and pet owners across the country.

USDA claims that NAIS is a disease tracking program, but has refused to provide any support for its claims.

In reality, NAIS will:

Create expensive and time-consuming tagging and reporting requirements for small farms. The requirements are particularly burdensome for those farmers raising sustainable livestock on pasture. Ultimately, this will reduce the availability of grass-fed meats, eggs, and milk.

Give factory confinement farms a loophole through the use of group identification, providing yet another unfair advantage for factory farms.

Not provide any information to the consumer, and does not improve food safety, because the tracking ends with the animal’s death.

Replace states' existing, well-functioning disease response and brand inspection programs with an unproven, expensive, and unreliable system.

Impose high costs and government surveillance on every farmer and animal owner for no significant benefits, and will likely force many small producers out of business.

NAIS does nothing to improve food safety for consumers or prevent animal diseases. This program is a one-size-fits-all program developed by and for big Agribusiness. NAIS will increase consolidation of our food supply in the hands of a few large companies and put the brakes on the growing movement toward local food systems.

The grassroots movement has already successfully stalled USDA's plans for NAIS, which originally called for the entire program - premises registration, animal identification, and tracking - to be mandatory by January 2009. The proposed rule is an opportunity to get thousands of objections in the formal record, and have an even greater impact.

Go here to sign a message to the USDA.

State of the Stimulus in Augusta

2009-02-13T20:00:00.008-05:00

City/County Administrator Fred Russell sat in on a conference call Friday with our U.S. Representative John Barrow and others, including our Georgia Representative Hardie Davis, to get an overview of the stimulus bill. Mr. Russell recounts that 35% of the bill is tax cuts, including things like rebate checks for those making under $75,000, increased child and college tax credits, and accelerated depreciation for small businesses. Congressman Barrow discussed the "smart" energy grid, broadband expansion, and health care information technology. Of particular interest was direct aid to states, meant to save core services that state budgets such as Georgia's are threatening to cut. Georgia would receive $2.3 billion (other sources list $1.2 billion) to keep us at the 2008 funding level for education, $87 billion nationally for Medicare (he may have meant Medicaid- Georgia would receive $1.7 billion), and a billion for maintenance of Georgia's bridges and roads. When asked about what action the city is taking to ensure our share of funds, he says that the unfunded SPLOST list was sent to the Department of Transportation. Also our sewer people have sent a list to the water people. Are there any other lists ready to go to other agencies? Mr. Russell says we don't know yet; the bill hasn't been passed and signed and we don't know the rules.
Here are nice links to see what's in the compromised stimulus bill the House passed Friday (with only three yes votes from the Republicans who had such influence)- one for spending and one for taxes .

Poor People's Day in Atlanta

2009-02-13T18:05:00.004-05:00

From the Atlanta Progressive News:

Story and photo by Jonathan Springston
(APN) ATLANTA - About 75 local and state activists descended on the Georgia State Capitol Thursday, February 12, 2009, via a boisterous caravan to unveil The People's Bailout, a plan for ordinary Georgians.

Several progressive constituencies hold lobby days while the Georgia legislature in session. Similar to last year, this year's 29th Annual Poor People's Day involved a caravan, which launched from the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless and ended at the Georgia Capitol.

Yesterday, an education day had been held at the office of the Georgia Coalition on Hunger.

A populist response to the recent private bank bailout in the US, this year's seven-point People's Bailout includes calls for single-payer universal healthcare, a moratorium on foreclosures, increasing the minimum wage, reforming the tax code, ending time limits on Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), ending privatization of public institutions, and sentencing non-violent petty criminals to house arrest.

"We need jobs, fair taxes, just welfare assistance," Sandra Robertson, Executive Director of the Georgia Citizens' Coalition on Hunger, said. "We need public housing. We need a host of things to help ordinary people."

This year, Poor People's Day holds significance for an even larger majority of Georgians, as the US has entered an economic recession which analysts are saying is much worse than recent US recessions.

The numbers tell the story: according to a pamphlet regarding the People's Bailout, 393,168 Georgians were out of work, 112,000 more were working jobs paying less than the federal minimum wage, and 116,225 foreclosures occurred in 2008.

As previously covered by Atlanta Progressive News, last year's Poor People's Day had been combined with a people's ballot-where people got to vote on their issue priority-and also coincided with a World Social Forum solidarity day. After a long caravan ride through downtown, activists met at the Georgia Coalition on Hunger office for speeches.

In 2006, the main event was held at a downtown church and included a march to the Capitol and lobbying of legislators for an increase in the state minimum wage, one which today still has not been enacted.

In Georgia, there are some occupations which are allowed to pay wages lower than the federal minimum wage, which has been incrementally increasing since 2007.

"We can tell those in high places that when the time for change comes... [no one] can stop it," Dr. Kenneth L. Samuel, pastor of the Victory Church in Stone Mountain, said.

"We have to be the change agents. We need to reinvest in America," he added. "Now is the time. Let's fight the war on poverty [and] put the focus back on our own people."

Other speakers targeted specific issue areas of concern.

Alan Essig, Executive Director of the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, said Georgia should do "something fundamental about the tax code."

"You can give relief to low to moderate income people," Essig said. "We can give a tax cut to the majority of Georgians."

The People's Bailout calls for exempting families who make less than $12,000 a year from paying taxes.

Additionally, the plan calls for requiring families making over $100,000 a year and corporations earning more than $250,000 taxable net income to pay 18 percent state income tax. Other corporations should pay 12 percent.

Further, the plan states that families who earn less than $100,000 taxable income but more than $39,000, should pay 10 percent; while families earning between $12,001 and $39,000 should pay 6 percent.

"We believe this is a fair tax that helps lower-income families," the plan states. "Our poorest citizens should not carry the bulk of the tax burden of our state."

Bobbie Paul, Executive Director of Georgia Women's Action for New Directions (WAND) discussed nuclear power and the impact Georgia Power's plan to expand the Plant Vogtle nuclear facility will have on residents living in the area.

"Tritium coming from nuclear power plants can be carcinogenic, mutagenic, and multigenerational," Paul said. "It is a bad idea."

She also expressed disappointment over the Georgia Senate's passage of SB 31 Wednesday, as reported by Atlanta Progressive News. That bill would allow Georgia Power to raise rates on consumers to pay for the construction of the expansion at Plant Vogtle rather than waiting to bill customers after the project is complete.

"If we had a people's lobby, this never would have happened," Paul said.

The American Association of Retired People is leading the charge against the bill and hoping to convince enough members of the Georgia House to stop it.

"Georgia Power's fantasy for clean and cheap power... is just that - a fantasy," Paul said. "[One] that is meant to shift risks from utility shareholders and executives to taxpayers and ratepayers."

Other topics of discussion today included homelessness and the prison industrial complex.

Citizens had a chance to spend yesterday participating in workshops and plenary sessions on these and other topics during Education Day at the Coalition on Hunger's headquarters in Atlanta.

To conclude the ceremony Thursday, participants jammed the phone lines of the Capitol, making calls to several state lawmakers, telling them, "We demand The People's Bailout."

They also encouraged lawmakers to support HB 290, which would raise the minimum wage and do so every year to keep up with the cost of living.

Afterwards, a delegation went to the Capitol to speak to different lawmakers about these issues.

"We know they will hear, when each and every one of you makes your voices heard," Dianne Mathiowetz of the Atlanta International Action Center said.

Stay tuned to Atlanta Progressive Blog for more pictures from Thursday's event and more information about The People's Bailout.

Buckle Up, Georgia. All Y'all.

2009-02-12T16:00:00.004-05:00

Is it really over? I didn't even know that we didn't have to wear seatbelts in pick-em-up trucks here in Georgia; we were the only state with a specific pickup exemption. The Georgia Senate voted today 49-4 to go nanny nation and require adults in trucks to wear seat belts. It will get us some federal highway funding we've been refused under the old law. I can see seat belt laws and helmet laws if medical care were covered by the government, but when we have to pay our own hospital bills shouldn't nobody get to tell us we have to be smart. New Hampshire has no seat belt law. "Live Free or Die" they say.

Augusta's Unemployment First-Timers Increasing

2009-02-12T13:18:00.004-05:00

Georgia's initial claims to unemployment insurance has increased 80.7% percent since last January. Ours here in Augusta was slightly below that at 79.1%, but well above the rates of cities such as Columbus (21%), Macon (41.1%), Valdosta (35.4%), and Savannah (39.1%). According to the U.S. census 14.5% of Georgians are below poverty level, but 22.5% of Augusta-Richmond County residents are living in poverty. Mayor Deke doesn't seem to figure either of these statistics into his formula for good economic health. "The fundamentals of our economy are strong" echoes in his ringing endorsement of our fair city last month. Augusta is "faring better than any city in the state and better than most across the country. ... We're a community that's praying. That's what's doing it."

Correct Information Should Be Privileged Over Incorrect

2009-02-09T11:45:00.002-05:00

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Augusta government quiz:
Q. Who is in charge of getting proposals ready for stimulus money here in Augusta?
A. According to Fred Russell, Augusta-Richmond County Administrator- nobody, really.

Congresswoman Tells People Facing Foreclosure to Squat

2009-02-09T09:12:00.004-05:00

In an interview with Amy Goodman, Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio advises people not to leave thieir homes when faced with foreclosure. After all the trading and buying and selling of mortgages, the bank may not be able to produce the actual loan note. And even then, the sheriff may or may not boot you.
From the San Francisco Chronicle:

Marcy Kaptur of Ohio is the longest-serving Democratic congresswoman in U.S. history. Her district, stretching along the shore of Lake Erie from west of Cleveland to Toledo, faces an epidemic of home foreclosures and 11.5 percent unemployment. That heartland region, the Rust Belt, had its heart torn out by the North American Free Trade Agreement, with shuttered factories and struggling family farms. Kaptur led the fight in Congress against NAFTA. Now, she is recommending a radical foreclosure solution from the floor of the U.S. Congress: "So I say to the American people, you be squatters in your own homes. Don't you leave."

She criticizes the bailout's failure to protect homeowners facing foreclosure. Her advice to "squat" cleverly exploits a legal technicality within the subprime-mortgage crisis. These mortgages were made, then bundled into securities and sold and resold repeatedly, by the very Wall Street banks that are now benefiting from TARP (the Troubled Asset Relief Program). The banks foreclosing on families very often can't locate the actual loan note that binds the homeowner to the bad loan. "Produce the note," Kaptur recommends those facing foreclosure demands of the banks.

"[P]ossession is nine-tenths of the law," Rep. Kaptur told me. "Therefore, stay in your property. Get proper legal representation … [if] Wall Street cannot produce the deed nor the mortgage audit trail … you should stay in your home. It is your castle. It's more than a piece of property. … Most people don't even think about getting representation, because they get a piece of paper from the bank, and they go, 'Oh, it's the bank,' and they become fearful, rather than saying: 'This is contract law. The mortgage is a contract. I am one party. There is another party. What are my legal rights under the law as a property owner?' "If you look at the bad paper, if you look at where there's trouble, 95 to 98 percent of the paper really has moved to five institutions: JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wachovia, Citigroup and HSBC. They have this country held by the neck."

Kaptur recommends calling the local Legal Aid Society, Bar Association or 888-995-4673 for legal assistance.

The onerous duty of physically evicting people and dragging their possessions to the curb typically falls on the local sheriff. Kaptur conditions her squatting advice, saying, "If it's a sheriff's eviction, if it's reached that point, that is almost impossible." Unless the sheriff refuses to carry out the eviction, as Sheriff Warren C. Evans of Wayne County, Mich., has decided to do. Wayne County, including Detroit, has had more than 46,000 foreclosures in the past two years.

After reviewing TARP, Evans determined that home foreclosures would conflict with TARP's goal of reducing foreclosures, and that he'd be violating the law by denying foreclosed homeowners the chance at potential federal assistance. "I cannot in clear conscience allow one more family to be put out of their home until I am satisfied they have been afforded every option they are entitled to under the law to avoid foreclosure," he said.

Bruce Marks of the Boston-based Neighborhood Assistance Corp. of America is taking the fight to the homes of the banks' CEOs. Last October, as the TARP bailout was shaping up to benefit Wall Street and not Main Street, NACA blockaded the entrance of mortgage giant Fannie Mae until it got a meeting with executives there. Now NACA is working with Fannie Mae to restructure mortgages. Marks is organizing a nationwide, three-day "Predator's Tour," going to the CEOs' homes to demand meetings with them. He told me: "This is what we're going to do with thousands of homeowners, go to their (the CEOs') home and say: 'I want you to meet my family. I want you to see who you're foreclosing on.' … If they're going to take our homes, we're going to go to their homes, and we're going to tell them, 'No more.' "

Before the inauguration, Larry Summers, the chair of President Obama's National Economic Council, promised congressional Democratic leaders to "implement smart, aggressive policies to reduce the number of preventable foreclosures by helping to reduce mortgage payments for economically stressed but responsible homeowners, while also reforming our bankruptcy laws and strengthening existing housing initiatives."

According to a report by RealtyTrac, "Foreclosure filings were reported on 2.3 million U.S. properties in 2008, an increase of 81 percent from 2007 and up 225 percent from 2006." As the financial crisis deepens, people facing foreclosure should take Kaptur's advice and tell their bankers, "Produce the note."

Naomi Klein on Crisis, Theft by Ideology, and Enough Already

2009-02-06T08:15:00.002-05:00

From The Nation:

Watching the crowds in Iceland banging pots and pans until their government fell reminded me of a chant popular in anti-capitalist circles in 2002: "You are Enron. We are Argentina."

Its message was simple enough. You--politicians and CEOs huddled at some trade summit--are like the reckless scamming execs at Enron (of course, we didn't know the half of it). We--the rabble outside--are like the people of Argentina, who, in the midst of an economic crisis eerily similar to our own, took to the street banging pots and pans. They shouted, "¡Que se vayan todos!" ("All of them must go!") and forced out a procession of four presidents in less than three weeks. What made Argentina's 2001-02 uprising unique was that it wasn't directed at a particular political party or even at corruption in the abstract. The target was the dominant economic model--this was the first national revolt against contemporary deregulated capitalism.

It's taken a while, but from Iceland to Latvia, South Korea to Greece, the rest of the world is finally having its ¡Que se vayan todos! moment.

The stoic Icelandic matriarchs beating their pots flat even as their kids ransack the fridge for projectiles (eggs, sure, but yogurt?) echo the tactics made famous in Buenos Aires. So does the collective rage at elites who trashed a once thriving country and thought they could get away with it. As Gudrun Jonsdottir, a 36-year-old Icelandic office worker, put it: "I've just had enough of this whole thing. I don't trust the government, I don't trust the banks, I don't trust the political parties and I don't trust the IMF. We had a good country, and they ruined it."

Another echo: in Reykjavik, the protesters clearly won't be bought off by a mere change of face at the top (even if the new PM is a lesbian). They want aid for people, not just banks; criminal investigations into the debacle; and deep electoral reform.

Similar demands can be heard these days in Latvia, whose economy has contracted more sharply than any country in the EU, and where the government is teetering on the brink. For weeks the capital has been rocked by protests, including a full-blown, cobblestone-hurling riot on January 13. As in Iceland, Latvians are appalled by their leaders' refusal to take any responsibility for the mess. Asked by Bloomberg TV what caused the crisis, Latvia's finance minister shrugged: "Nothing special."

But Latvia's troubles are indeed special: the very policies that allowed the "Baltic Tiger" to grow at a rate of 12 percent in 2006 are also causing it to contract violently by a projected 10 percent this year: money, freed of all barriers, flows out as quickly as it flows in, with plenty being diverted to political pockets. (It is no coincidence that many of today's basket cases are yesterday's "miracles": Ireland, Estonia, Iceland, Latvia.)

Something else Argentina-esque is in the air. In 2001 Argentina's leaders responded to the crisis with a brutal International Monetary Fund-prescribed austerity package: $9 billion in spending cuts, much of it hitting health and education. This proved to be a fatal mistake. Unions staged a general strike, teachers moved their classes to the streets and the protests never stopped.

This same bottom-up refusal to bear the brunt of the crisis unites many of today's protests. In Latvia, much of the popular rage has focused on government austerity measures--mass layoffs, reduced social services and slashed public sector salaries--all to qualify for an IMF emergency loan (no, nothing has changed). In Greece, December's riots followed a police shooting of a 15-year-old. But what's kept them going, with farmers taking the lead from students, is widespread rage at the government's crisis response: banks got a $36 billion bailout while workers got their pensions cut and farmers received next to nothing. Despite the inconvenience caused by tractors blocking roads, 78 percent of Greeks say the farmers' demands are reasonable. Similarly, in France the recent general strike--triggered in part by President Sarkozy's plans to reduce the number of teachers dramatically--inspired the support of 70 percent of the population.

Perhaps the sturdiest thread connecting this global backlash is a rejection of the logic of "extraordinary politics"--the phrase coined by Polish politician Leszek Balcerowicz to describe how, in a crisis, politicians can ignore legislative rules and rush through unpopular "reforms." That trick is getting tired, as South Korea's government recently discovered. In December, the ruling party tried to use the crisis to ram through a highly controversial free trade agreement with the United States. Taking closed-door politics to new extremes, legislators locked themselves in the chamber so they could vote in private, barricading the door with desks, chairs and couches.

Opposition politicians were having none of it: with sledgehammers and an electric saw, they broke in and staged a twelve-day sit-in of Parliament. The vote was delayed, allowing for more debate--a victory for a new kind of "extraordinary politics."

Here in Canada, politics is markedly less YouTube-friendly--but it has still been surprisingly eventful. In October the Conservative Party won national elections on an unambitious platform. Six weeks later, our Tory prime minister found his inner ideologue, presenting a budget bill that stripped public sector workers of the right to strike, canceled public funding for political parties and contained no economic stimulus. Opposition parties responded by forming a historic coalition that was only prevented from taking power by an abrupt suspension of Parliament. The Tories have just come back with a revised budget: the pet right-wing policies have disappeared, and it is packed with economic stimulus.

The pattern is clear: governments that respond to a crisis created by free-market ideology with an acceleration of that same discredited agenda will not survive to tell the tale. As Italy's students have taken to shouting in the streets: "We won't pay for your crisis!"

Christians Allowed into Cobb County Schools After Hours

2009-02-05T17:16:00.007-05:00

Which one is true or truer: I just got back from the postal complex and saw a story about a faith-based group in Cobb County, or I just got back from the post office and saw a story about a Christian group in Cobb County? Anyway, the Child Evangelist Fellowship gets to use the school for free after hours after all- just like the Boy Scouts get to, and Fulton County Schools have to pay them almost $22,000 to cover legal fees and court costs.
I like separating Church and State, but I also like Little House on the Prairie. Just let people use public buildings. They're ours. Use a sign-up sheet so it's fair. Big whoop. Where else should groups meet? Denny's? The mall? Park benches? Why wouldn't we want Bible study kids to use an open room? Maybe people would be less obsessed with private property if they felt more welcome on public property.
I know there's a grudge. I know Christians groups have been pretty rough on public schools. I know there's creationism and abstinence-only sex ed. But that's the school board's fault and people should vote better for their school boards. Little kids reading the Bible is not the problem. Letting Crusaders get into office is the problem. We have got to do better at studying school board candidates. Living in Georgia, our votes often don't do much at state or national level, maybe we would do better to study school board candidates. Which candidates did you like? Wanna see who won?

Troy Davis is Still Waiting

2009-02-05T12:13:00.004-05:00

Troy Davis is still waiting for a decision from a panel of three judges as to whether he will get a hearing on new evidence. New evidence such as seven of the nine eyewitnesses the state used to convict Davis of shooting and killing a police officer have since recanted. And that one of the two remaining witnesses has been implicated as the real killer. No murder weapon or physical evidence has been found to link Davis to the crime.

Tell Governor Perdue that Troy Davis must not be executed without a court ever considering the evidence of his innocence.

See What's Planned for Augusta

2009-02-04T19:03:00.003-05:00

From Administrator Fred Russell at the unveiling of Augusta Tomorrow's Master Plan:
"Setting the bar high for a bright future. Check the Augusta Tomorrow web site."

I Don't Want to Frighten Anyone

2009-02-04T12:13:00.003-05:00

That's a lie. Look at this!

From Discovery News:

A rare fossil of an ancient whale with a fetus still inside reveals that its species -- an ancestor to modern whales -- gave birth on land 47.5 million years ago, according to a paper published in the online journal PLoS.

The discovery, along with prior fossil finds, suggests the first whale ancestors were full-time land dwellers that might have been related to the early relatives of hoofed animals, such as sheep and cattle.

Maiacetus inuus, meaning "mother whale," represents an intermediate evolutionary stage. It lived at the land-sea interface and often moved back and forth between the two environments in what is Pakistan today.

It looked like an improbable cross between a cow, whale, shark, alligator and sea lion.

2009-02-03T17:55:00.001-05:00

Georgia Senate OKs "Life Without Parole"

2009-02-03T17:08:00.000-05:00

ATLANTA (AP) — The state Senate has approved legislation which would allow prosecutors to seek life without parole against convicted killers without first pursuing the death penalty.

The legislation from Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Preston Smith passed unanimously Tuesday.

Under current law, prosecutors may not obtain a sentence of life without parole unless they first seek the death penalty. Smith, a Rome Republican, says such capital trials are time-consuming and costly.

Life without parole is already an option for prosecutors in rape cases.

Smith says the bill has the support of prosecutors but that lawyers in the defense community are split on the change.

The bill now moves to the state House.