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

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

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
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Liberals and Conservatives

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?

Well, what the fuck?

What we know about Deke Copenhaver and Marion Williams

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Crib notes?

Tom Selleck

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

Abortion and Murder

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

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

This is a great post about TSA and random searches

Augusta Half Marathon

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!

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

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!

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

Arts in the Heart

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

Faux News

Fox news gets called out for more blatant lies

A Lesson for Politicians. And Hollywood. And America.

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

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

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

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...