Downsizing your carbon footprint
Saturday, June 14th, Woodruff Park
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Just after I saw Ted Turner in hospital scrubs yesterday at Ted’s Montana Grill, my bison burger came out of the kitchen with a American flag. In fact, all the burgers at Ted’s come out with flags.
Will Jack Kingston scold me for removing the flag before eating the burger? More importantly, what would Barack Obama do in this situation?
Ted Turner was walking kind of gingerly and holding his midsection after he finished lunch today at Ted’s Montana Grill on Luckie Street, but I don’t think it was the burger.
He was wearing a jacket over hospital scrubs and was with his daughter Laura Turner Seydel, and her husband. Folks at various tables applauded as he left (presumably to head back up to his apartment, which is upstairs). He waved.
I didn’t get a chance to ask him, but did I miss something? Did my favorite Atlanta billionaire just have surgery? (Didn’t see anything in a web search, but I have asked his people.)
The year before the Boston Red Sox won their first World Series in nearly a century, I got to see a game at Fenway Park. Afterward, punkish kids were hawking the coolest T-shirts: “Get yo ‘You can take your 26 rings and shove ‘em up your ass’ T-shirts, right hee. $10.”
I almost bought one — loved the way Red Sox fans were sticking it to the hated Yankees for winning the Series with sickening regularity while the lovable Sox always blew it.
Well, pardon me Celtics fans, but — at least this week — you get me sick in the same way. You can take your 16 NBA trophies and shove ‘em up yo’ ass.
If anybody prints that T-shirt, lemme know. You can sell your “take your 16 NBA trophies and shove ‘em up your ass” T-shirts, right here.
Joe Johnson gets 15 points, Josh Smith 11. Al Horford collects only 5 rebounds. And the Hawks’ still force a seventh game against the Celtics?
Amazing team effort tonight: Six guys in double figures, but the real hero may have been Zaza Pachulia, who scored 9 and played great defense on Kevin Garnett. This is the athletic, scrappy team I thought the Hawks had all season — more evidence the Billy Knight hasn’t done such a bad job as GM.
The difference in Philips Arena tonight was remarkable, too. I’m hoarse and sweaty, and my ears are ringing. Is this what NBA playoffs normally are like? Since I’m from Atlanta, I don’t remember.
Atlanta Hawks’ GM Billy Knight gets a lot of grief for the team’s eight-year absence from playoffs. On the eve of the sixth game in the Hawks-Celtics surprisingly competitive playoff series, however, the question really is: How’d such a talented group of players end up with just a 37-45 regular season record?
Head Coach Mike Woodson is accountable for that under-performance, as he showed again Wednesday with poor coaching decisions, a pre-game press conference that lay blame for a loss on his players before the game even happened, and an embarrassing “pep” talk (in which he depressingly quoted Phil Jackson instead of coming up with his own inspiration).
I’m thinking now that Knight’s gotten a bad rap. First, he had to dig the franchise out from Pete Babcock’s truly horrible roster moves. Then, this year he tried to do the right thing — fire Woodson — but ownership wouldn’t let him.
Just rate Knight’s major roster moves after the fact, and he looks pretty good. Here’s what I came up with when I rated his No. 1 picks, major trades and major free agent signs on a zero-to-10 scale (”5″ being an average, fair deal for the team):
Josh Childress, 7th pick: 5
Josh Smith, 17th pick: 8
Joe Johnson trade: 9
Marvin Williams, 2nd pick: 3
Zaza Pachulia signing: 6 (not saying he’s great, but all-in-all he’s turned out to be a savvy addition)
Speedy Claxton signing: 2 (he didn’t know Claxton would be injured but could’ve guessed)
Sheldon Williams, 5th pick: 1
Al Horford, 3rd pick: 7
Acie Law, 11th pick: 4?
Mike Bibby trade: 6
That’s a respectable 5.1 average. Yeah, yeah. He missed drafting a point guard for two straight years, but balance that out with Johnson, Smith and Horford — and with undoing Babcock’s incredible mess. Winning two (at least) against the Celtics ought to let Knight keep his job. Am I missing something?
Georgia prison officials finally have been sanctioned by a federal judge, six years after teenage inmate Damon Lee’s death and nearly five years after CL’s Mara Shalhoup’s horrifying story drew attention to the case.
U.S. District Court Judge W. Louis Sands found prison officials in contempt of court in the lawsuit brought by Lee’s mother, Johnnie Kitchen. And he said he’d tell the jury that prison officials “deliberately violated” Lee’s rights.
Publishing this heart-wrenching story was one of my proudest moments at CL, although the tale is so sickening that even the most hardened newsman would wish it never happened. Lee, convicted of trying to steal a car and given a ridiculously harsh sentence, was isolated in a cell with a much larger inmate with a history of violence. And it gets worse …
Here’s the intro to Mara’s story:
On the night of Oct. 27, 1996, Damon Tyrone Lee — barely 17 and moments into one of his worst-ever decisions — was placed in a patrol car and driven to the Ware County jail. The trip marked the beginning of the end of Lee’s abbreviated life. He would leave jail for prison, be transferred from one correctional hellhole to the next, and pass his last five years behind bars.
In his order, an obviously angry Sands said prison officials “cannot or refuse to produce key information that they are charged by law” to keep, and that prison officials wouldn’t identify those officials responsible for placing Lee in a cell with Leon Murphy. Here’s Bill Rankin’s story today on the ruling.
Former state Rep. Jim Martin’s campaign announced today that he raised almost $350,000 in his first 12 days as a U.S. Senate candidate.
“We felt like this was a great start and we wanted to get the word out because we’ve got a lot of catching up to do,†Martin spokesman Scott McCall just told me.
Martin, the Democrats’ candidate for lieutenant governor in 2006, jumped into the race March 19. The reporting period ended March 31.
He and five other candidates have announced their intentions to run for the Democratic nomination and a chance to take on Republican incumbent Saxby Chambliss in November.
In a recent post referencing a debate that happened last night, I noted candidate Dale Cardwell said Martin told him back in September that he wasn’t going to run.
“They did have that conversation, and Jim at that time had no plans to get in the race,†McCall said. “As we all know, things do change in political circles.â€
McCall said Martin “also felt like the other candidates were not strong enough to win on a statewide basis and that’s really what turned the corner.â€
Chambliss had $4.4 million in the bank at the end last year. I’m not sure whether this is such a great start for Martin — seems respectable but “great?” I dunno. We’d love for other candidates to post or send me their fund-raising info for the first quarter.
Photo by Brian Z. Danin
Dale Cardwell, Rand Knight and Josh Lanier showed up last night for a debate at Emory Law School among Democrats fighting for the chance to take on Republican Saxby Chambliss.
The two guys who’ve actually won elected office before and who have got to be considered the favorites for the Democratic nomination, Vernon Jones and Jim Martin, weren’t there. The primary is slated for July 15.
Like a lot of underdogs this year, Cardwell and Knight evoked the experience-ain’t-such-a-big-deal insurgency of Barack Obama, while Lanier — a former congressional aide and lobbyist — talked a lot about restoring the Senate to its traditions of civility.
Although each was pretty good at articulating a populist message, I can’t help but wonder whether shooting for the Senate the first time you run for public office is a bit delusional. It’s like thinking you ought to do brain surgery while you’re still taking your first First Aid class.
I was on the panel, and I asked essentially that question (albeit more politely): Might it be better for people who want to see Chambliss defeated if you dropped out of the race, threw your support to a more experienced candidate, and proved yourself by running for lower office?
Lanier, who now lives in Statesboro, said my question in itself was an example of “what’s wrong with American politics.” I shouldn’t assume fund raising is the be-all-end-all, he said. He got a lot of applause for that — but unfortunately fund raising, experience and connections do matter. Nobody’s going to crank up a bandwagon for the nomination or against Chambliss without a couple of million dollars.
Cardwell, who quit his job as a WSB-TV reporter to run for the Senate, said he was irked that Martin came to his office in September and told him he wasn’t going to run for the Senate. (I’ve alerted Martin’s folks that I’m posting what Dale said and inviting Martin to comment below if he remembers the meeting differently.)
The most impressive one of the three on the issues was Knight. He’s an earnest 30-something with no political experience. But he’s well-versed in environmental issues and has made the environment central to his campaign. He’s spent a lot of time networking among Democratic organizations across the state, and he’s gotten some union backing.
Cardwell’s name recognition and publicity stunts (he’s the guy who spent part of January on a 320-foot chimney tower to draw attention to his campaign) may give him an edge among the second-tier candidates. The ex-TV guy also seems to have taken a page from Lou Dobbs, mixing economic populism talk with advocating harsh treatment of illegal immigrants. That last part could hold contrarian appeal among some, but anti-immigrant platforms usually don’t produce winners in Democratic primaries.
It’s important to remember that not all these guys are necessarily running. None will officially qualify for the contest until later this month. Qualifying ends May 2.
All three had announced their intention to jump into the race when it looked as if Jones — the controversial DeKalb County CEO might be the lone Democratic bigwig. But Martin’s March 19 announcement that he’s running foils the alternative-to-Jones strategy.
The former state rep from Atlanta and one-time state Human Resources commissioner ran a strong campaign for lieutenant governor in 2006 against Republican Casey Cagle, losing by a much smaller margin than did the Democrat for governor. Though Martin’s late entry into the Senate race will force him to convince people that he’s really committed to running hard against Chambliss, he was recruited by national Democrats, which should give him a nice jump in fund raising.
Chambliss could be vulnerable. Six years after getting swept into office on the 2002 post-9/11 tide, Georgia’s senior senator is most famous for: running a campaign ad that compared war hero Max Cleland to Osama bin Laden, being the most obsequious of Bush lackeys and nakedly flip-flopping on immigration reform. Plus, huge African-American turnout in the March 5 presidential primary has many local Democrats salivating at the thought that so many blacks could turn out in the General Election (especially if Obama’s nominated). Chambliss’ favorability ratings seems to hover around 50 percent — higher than sitting-duck territory but not great for an incumbent.
Still it’s a long shot. Chambliss has at least $4 million in the bank, and a Democrat caught in a tight nomination fight before the July 15 primary and an August runoff will be forced to spend time and money defending himself instead of redefining the Republican. Just ask Barack and Hillary how much fun that is.
Thanks to the Emory Law School Democrats for sponsoring the debate and for inviting me.
CL’s Urban Explorer site went live in the wee hours (thanks largely to the lonely late-night work of online producer Edward Adams). But we need you to test it and to give us feedback. Puh-leez. It’ll just take a minute.
AtlUrbex is a very rich guide to the best Atlanta’s intown neighborhoods have to offer. But it’ll be much more informative if it’s enriched with user-generated content. Just go to the site, navigate to your favorite neighborhood, find your favorite restaurant, shop, attraction, etc., and post a commenting at that location. If you don’t find a location that ought to be there, let us know by going to “submit your hot spot.”
We’d also love your help in telling us what’s missing when it comes to features, what functions don’t work the way they should, and what can be designed better. So, how ’bout it, Dale and Victor, Odd Ogg and Mr. Peepers? Please, do your part. Or, as you know, the terrorists will win.
Trash talk can be taken as a good sign for the environment — at least when it’s between competitors on the trade-show floor at the annual Greenprints conference on sustainable building.
And all it took was a little prodding.
“Geothermal cannot get you a good return,†Jay Sampat, who manufacturers solar water-heating panels, declared when asked why someone should select solar over the competing technology of geothermal heat pumps.
Humbug, geothermal installer Kenny Libby shot back when told what Sampat said: “Those poor, poor solar guys.â€
All of which makes Atlanta’s lead pied piper for green building somewhat happy. “That is great. … It’s the free market system,†the Southface Energy Institute’s Dennis Creech said last week during the conference at the Westin Peachtree Plaza. He notes that one in 10 new commercial projects now seeks eco-certification, when only a few years ago green building usually was considered just a “demonstration project.†“This is not just a movement. This is now a smart way of doing business.â€
The meeting displayed loads of cool devices designed not only to save the world but also to get green-geeks like me excited. And it was truly startling to witness dozens of presentations from green builders who literally are changing Atlanta’s landscape daily.
Above: TOILET TALK: Denise Grimm (left) grabs a card from Andrea Paulinelli of Eco Transitions. Paulinelli was at Greenprints to extol her water-efficient commodes. Photo shot by: Joeff Davis
I’ll brave the storm disaster zone tonight to serve as a guest on CNN Newsroom with Rick Sanchez. The show starts at 10 p.m. They said they invited me because they want me to talk about politics. Inside sources tell me it’s because I’m s-o-o-o good lookin’. Please watch this groundbreaking television.
