Fresh Loaf

In 1974, then-Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter unveiled a stunning painting of Martin Luther King Jr. in the state Capitol.

But has anyone looked lately at the portrait of Carter that hangs in the state House?

I don’t mean the statue on the Capitol grounds. I’m talking about the painting inside, behind the lieutenant governor’s office.

It’s a study in hero worship so intense that the real-life features of the subject have been discarded as irrelevant, his individuality replaced utterly with the face of an earlier Democratic Party icon.

The artist was apparently laboring under the assumption — or the influence of some kind of subconscious secular hagiography — that if he painted a white-haired likeness of John F. Kennedy and called it "Jimmy Carter," some of the beloved, bankable JFK mystique would be transferred, and the viewer would be forced to remark on the extraordinary good fortune of the state and country to have produced another Kennedy.

Nice try.

This is not Carter.

– Max Pizarro

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Remember Mayor Franklin’s vaunted "pothole posse?" Her honor promised when she ran to cut down the number of potholes in the city. It made progress, but it turns out there were a lot of loopholes in her pothole program.

Randall Vaughn wrote us and sent us these photos of a nasty spot right near the Aquarium:

"This problem corner has been reported again and again, to no avail — this is a VERY dangerous corner for MANY reasons; hazardous (broken) manhole cover, poor crossing for pedestrians — after constant complaining, someone FINALLY came and put a State Stop sign in the crosswalk, but it isn’t enough! A pedestrians traffic light is needed BADLY! Cars and trucks are
regularly moving in excess of 50-60 miles per hour on this strip, with VERY LIMITED sight distance. This is the crosswalk people use to visit the GA Aquarium — I  see kids crossing this street by themselves all of the time — it’s just a matter of time before someone is KILLED, then everyone will want to do something REACTIVE! Let’s be PROACTIVE, folks, and prevent serious harm or death to one of our citizens…… These pictures were taken from our Studio’s window."

OK. So technically, it’s not a pothole. But do you know of other ankle and/or axle breakers like this around the city?

– Ken Edelstein

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Shanell Thomas of Atlanta served 11 months, three weeks and two days in Iraq.

Her mother Denise remembers those numbers, because she lived through the stages in agony, waiting for her daughter to come home.

A military police officer, Shanell Thomas went house to house in Baghdad during her tour of duty. Deemed non-deployable by two Army doctors on her return stateside, Thomas is nonetheless in line to go back to the war zone, according to her mother.

But not if Denise Thomas can help it.

"Send my daughter back to Iraq? Over my dead body," the sign in Denise’s hands read where she stood in front of Your DeKalb Farmers Market in Decatur on Saturday. Horns blared as drivers made the turn into the market past Thomas and other Georgia Peace and Justice Coalition protestors.

"What I really thought is we were bluffing," the Army mom said of the initial congressional resolution giving President Bush the authority to go to war in Iraq. "I thought there was no way we were going to war. I thought we were threatening the use of force to get Saddam in line, but I didn’t think we’d actually go in the way we did. I knew it was going to go nowhere once we went in."

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Did anyone see this Sunday New York Times story about soccer and refugees in Clarkston? It sounds like a damn movie: A bunch of refugee kids in Clarkston have a great soccer team — the Fugees — but the town’s old-timers, including the mayor, have banned soccer from the city park: "There will be nothing but baseball and football down there as long as I am mayor."

– Ken Edelstein

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Birgitt Eysselinck’s husband returned from Iraq after trying to dismantle part of Saddam Hussein’s bomb collection. A defense contractor who worked for the RONCO Consulting Corporation, Tim Eysselinck wanted to come home for his 40th birthday and to see his wife and daughter.

He came home.

Two months later he shot and killed himself.

"He was suffering from post traumatic stress disorder," says Birgitt Eysselinck, a native of Namibia who said she met her American-born, U.S. Army reservist husband when he worked in Africa de-mining the Ethiopia-Eritrea border in the late 1990s. He went to Iraq in August of 2003 and stayed more than a year. On his return to America, "He was never debriefed," Eysselinck said. "Defense contractors don’t get debriefed."

She calls Tim Eysselinck one of the uncounted victims of this war.

A member of Cobb for Peace, Birgit Eysselinck and other Iraq war protestors on Friday kicked off a weeklong series of statewide protests and vigils coordinated by the Georgia Peace and Justice Coalition. The peace action comes at a time when the Bush administration finds itself increasingly isolated on the war question. Resistant to bipartisan calls for a diplomatic and political solution to the crisis, President George W. Bush last week announced his decision to commit an additional 20,000-plus troops in Iraq.

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Georgians in several parts of the state will hold local antiwar protests, after-church peace vigils and lobby their congressional representatives the week of January 19-26, according to a press release issued by the Georgia Peace and Justice Coalition. Many will subsequently join a national antiwar march and lobbying effort in Washington, D.C., Jan. 27-29. The message: "The people have spoken: Bring the troops home now."

Twenty-four Georgia events are confirmed, and others are still being planned. These run the gamut from the first antiwar protest in Stockbridge to the weekly Stand for Peace rally at Atlanta’s Colony Square, which is now in its fifth year.

"The grief experienced by our citizens, U.S. troops and their families and unknown numbers of Iraqis because of President Bush’s invasion compels me to speak out," says Mary Jacqueline Adams, organizer of Stockbridge’s first protest. "It’s difficult to express how deeply I feel the unbearable sorrow of those suffering the tragic consequences of this unnecessary war."

The fourth annual Marietta Square Vigil is scheduled from noon to 1 p.m. For information contact Tim Franzen at 404-414-5521.

On Saturday, Jan. 20, protestors will gather in Decatur at the DeKalb Farmers Market from noon to 1 pm. The vigil will be led by veterans, and will be on the street outside the market. Contact: john.zientowski@turner.com.

On Sunday, Jan. 21, faith vigils will be held at churches in Atlanta, Decatur, Cobb County, Augusta, Brunswick and Sautee-Nacoochee. "Those of us who believe in Christ as the Prince of Peace are aghast at the loss of lives in Iraq," says Anne Sayre of North Decatur Presbyterian Church. "We also grieve for the needy in our country because many programs which help them have been cut back to fund this senseless war."

On Friday, Jan. 26, Georgians will board one or more chartered buses at the Perimeter Mall MARTA station around 8 p.m. for an overnight trip to what is expected to be a massive march in Washington on Saturday against President Bush’s plan to escalate the war in Iraq and, many fear, into Iran and Syria as well. Some will return to Atlanta after the march, while others will stay in Washington to lobby their representatives on Monday, Jan. 29.

– Max Pizarro

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The lighting is subdued there in the state Capitol near the governor’s office, where an oil portrait of Martin Luther King Jr. hangs.

It’s a good likeness.

It looks like him.

But the life and death and deeds of the Atlanta native remain flesh-and-blood battles out on the streets of the poorest neighborhoods and in the seemingly most desperate causes, state Rep. Tyrone Brooks, D-Atlanta told a crowd of Vine City neighbors and community activists at Hands on Atlanta Tuesday night.

Appearing a day after he participated in the annual MLK Day march, Brooks said honoring the slain Civil Rights leader starts with on-the-ground organizing and mobilizing.

"In this state," Brooks said, "In Martin Luther King’s home state, 500,000 African-Americans are not registered voters. 120,000 in Fulton: not registered voters. 100,000 in Dekalb: not registered voters. …7 million African-Americans in this country: not registered voters."

The numbers are unacceptable.

"You cannot make the dream be a reality and not be a registered voter," Brooks said. "Name me an issue, and I will show you how it connects back to the body politic. I will show a connection back to your government. …Listen, brothers and sisters, there is no way we can love King and not be involved in political decisions. You can’t love King and not be a registered voter. Martin Luther King put his life on the line so we could have the right to vote. And it’s not about voting for president, or senator or a legislator. It’s about voting for yourselves."

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Georgia’s schools suck. Our roads are a mess. As this week’s cover story notes, our tax code is a love letter to special interests.

On top of that, Atlanta’s air isn’t getting any cleaner. We’re running out of water. And our streams and land are being savaged by unfettered development.

What’s Sonny Perdue’s solution? Go fishing.

That’s right. Our esteemed governor announced a major initiative last week in his state-of-the-state address called “Go Fish, Georgia.”

Now, before you get all judgmental on Sonny’s big ambitions, you gotta admit he’s addressing a serious problem. “We are behind many of our neighbors in attracting anglers,” he warned legislators, lobbyists and the media.

Much as John F. Kennedy warned in the 1960 presidential campaign that the United States faced a “missile gap,” Perdue has sounded an alarm: Georgia is threatened by a fishing gap!

“We will no longer sit by and watch as tourists drive through Georgia on their way to surrounding states to fish,” the governor boldly promised.

Next up: Boat ramps. Bass tournaments. Ads on what a great place Georgia is to go fishing.

Maybe that way, people won’t notice that we’re 49th in the nation in SAT scores. Or that 1.7 million of us don’t have health insurance. Or that University System budget cuts are forcing tuitions skyward. Or that Atlanta’s traffic is making it more difficult to attract new employers. And maybe people won’t notice that our crumbs-for-regular-folk/feasts-for-special-interests governor isn’t tackling those problems.

Continue reading “Go fish” at atlanta.creativeloafing.com È

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Recent anti-American remarks by a Pentagon official have direct bearing on the lawyers profiled last fall by Scott Henry in CL.

The New York Times reported last week that Assistant Defense Secretary Charles Stimson urged corporations to boycott law firms that are representing — usually for free — Guantanamo Bay detainees. Henry profiled John Chandler and Kristin Wilhelm, attorneys at the Atlanta firm of Sutherland Asbill & Brennan, who are representing some detainees from Yemen. It was clear from that article that the lawyers are working for the clients because they believe in the American way of justice, not because, as Stimson implied, they support terrorists.

On a right-wing radio show, Stimson argued that the firms should be forced to "choose between representing terrorists or representing reputable firms." Sutherland Asbill & Brennan was among the firms he listed. But, as Henry’s story shows, it’s not at all clear that many of the detainees are terrorists.  And even alleged terrorists get legal representation here in America, Herr Stimson.

The NYT reports today that the anti-American official now says the remarks didn’t represent his "core beliefs." Sounds a bit disingenuous, doncha think? I say we strip this America hater of his citizenship.

– Ken Edelstein

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All right all you criminals � if you�ve stolen a car, broken into a house, been publicly drunk and disorderly, the East Point Police Department would like you to promptly fill out the Self-Arrest Form and hit Submit.

Seriously.

And don�t forget to read all the rules.

I�ll see you in jail.

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Wages are stagnant. Bread-and-butter expenses, from tuition to
transportation, are outpacing inflation. Housing costs have
skyrocketed. And health insurance is so expensive that many Georgians
see their finances ruined for life because of one illness.

Learn more about the Middle-Class Squeeze at this week’s Political Party talk show.

Guests will include:

Alan Essig of the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute;

Deborah Scott of Georgia Stand-Up, a citizens action group;

Dan Fox, an Austell resident featured in this week’s story;

Allison Wall of Georgia Watch, the state’s leading consumer organization.

Wednesday, Jan. 24, at Dad’s Garage Theatre, 280 Elizabeth St., in Inman Park.

Click here for directions.

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In case you missed it (and apparently the AJC did), MARTA’s board voted Jan. 8 that "unspecified rail technology" be the transportation mode of choice for the Beltline, the proposed 22-mile loop of transit and trails circling the city.

MARTA’s decision, which has mostly gone unreported, rules out a bus rapid-transit system that, though cheaper than rail, was widely frowned upon. After all, why place noisy and polluting buses alongside a network of parks and trails?

MARTA did not specify whether light rail was preferable to streetcars, though a MARTA study found that streetcars would be less expensive and easier to build.

The vote will help the city move forward in its quest to obtain federal funding for some of the 20-year, $2.4 billion project. Before seeking those funds, the city’s transit agency had to choose the "locally preferred alternative" for the type of transit traversing the Beltline.

To date, the city has not obtained any of the right-of-way for the transit component of the Beltline. (The city has obtained a significant amount of land for parks and greenspace.) And though the federal funding will help in the purchase of property for the transit loop, the real cash flow for the project is supposed to come from a tax-allocation district approved last year by City Council, the Atlanta School Board and the Fulton County Commission.

The TAD, unfortunately, is on hold pending a legal challenge. "Everybody is waiting with bated breath," says Terri Montague, CEO of the non-profit agency Beltline Inc. that’s responsible for planning and implementing the massive project. Montague adds: "There’s a lot that’s been going on behind the scenes in order to preserve our momentum. … I can assure you that conversations are underway to really accelerate the rail right-of-way acquisition."

– Mara Shalhoup

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It was a perfect blending of the pomp and circumstance of earlier civilizations, and the hearty, populist overtones of American sports culture.

The doorkeeper stood at attention.

"His excellency, Gov. Sonny Perdue, awaits entry into the committee meeting," he announced.

Sen. Jack Hill, R-Reidsville, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, nodded.

Perdue appeared at the chamber entranceway and walked the goodwill gauntlet of outstretched hands. He was robust, vigorous. If he swapped his suit and tie for sweats and headset and a windbreaker with the word "coach" stenciled across the back, you could picture him on the sideline of an NFL playoff game and never do a double take. It was perhaps no accident then that football imagery would play into the governor’s set of remarks to the 2007 House and Senate Appropriations Committees in the state Capitol on Wednesday morning.

It’s a $19.3 billion budget this year, and the version legislators fingered at their desks while Perdue talked contains $711.3 million in additional funds compared with the original 2007 budget submission, according to Alan Essig, executive director of the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute.

The roomful of elected officials stared up at Sonny, but you could feel the welled-up eyes of 270,000 children looking at everyone in the room. That’s because the budget "does not contain funds to replace a potential PeachCare federal funds shortfall of between $60 [million] and $80 million," Essig says. "If the federal government does not increase funding for the PeachCare program … [these] children will lose health insurance."

By not mentioning PeachCare, the governor relegated the issue to the heap of inessentials.

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As bad as it was in Iraq, Jeff Brown of Lawrenceville considered himself in a better situation over there.

And that was before he went to jail.

A cannon crewmember with Bravo Company, Brown was in firefights. He lived in moment-to-moment anticipation of an IED going off. He walked bewildered through the wreckage of civilization.

But he says the biggest heartbreak was coming home to discover that his little brother had joined the Bloods.

"I have more bruises from him, my little brother, than from the whole time I spent in Iraq," says Brown, a 24-year-old Jamaican-American. "I saw him walking around with his Blood knowledge book and his Blood flag. It became kind of obvious that he was digging himself deeper and deeper into it."

For all the agony he said he associates with his brother, it was Brown himself one night last Feb. 6, coming out of a convenience store in Snellville, who was approached by police. It wasn’t the first time in his life. He’d been busted before, after coming home from Iraq. Nothing violent. It was a marijuana charge. This time the police found pot in his car. Brown says it belonged to his brother, who was in the passenger seat when Brown went into the Quick Trip only to come out and find himself face to face with Detective Kevin Sebring of the Snellville Police Department. After the detective conducted his search and discovered less than an ounce of marijuana, he told Brown he was under arrest and tried to cuff him.

Brown resisted, and Sebring called for backup. And more backup.

It got worse.

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Navy seaman Jonathan Hutto of Atlanta is scheduled at 5 p.m. today to deliver an Appeal for Redress to Congress in Washington, D.C.

According to Hutto’s website, "Many active duty, reserve, and guard service members are concerned about the war in Iraq and support the withdrawal of U.S. troops. The Appeal for Redress provides a way in which in