Fresh Loaf

— As the fall campaign season goes into full swing, Travis over at Lucid Idiocy notes that one reason voters are so cynical is because of all the lies, lies, lies that candidates expect us to swallow. When Paris Hilton becomes a political voice of reason, we know something’s drastically wrong.

— For most of us, the Olympic Games have devolved into another made-for-television event that is very easy to ignore. Juliana at Blog For Democracy reminds us of one of the reasons the 2008 Summer Olympics still matter. Hankies not provided.

— Another heartwarming moment comes from the Daly Briefing, where our intrepid correspondent in Iraq gets a care package from home, and it’s all about the Orange Monkeys.

— And yet another tug on the heart string from Live Apartment Fire, which discovered a video deep on the WGCL-TV website. It’s “The Evan Thomason Show,” a spoof on TV news that runs nearly 15 minutes and features a kid who is too adorably cute. Turns out the Make-A-Wish Foundation sent him to do a newscast at the station. The video is funny, it has a Dagmar Midcap sighting and hats off to the News 46 staff for being such good sports. In Evan, a new television star is born.

— The very-much-missed Atlanta song siren Kelly Hogan, who’s now living in Chicago, turned me on to Blossom Dearie many years ago. At Cable & Tweed, Rich notes that it’s the 50th anniversary of the jazz singer’s best album. And Kelly, won’t you please come home?

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— Yesterday’s run-off primary saw a welcome changing of the guard in Clayton County and the defeat of Vernon Jones in the U.S. Senate race. All of which, writes Prince Tao at Not Your Average Democrat, is cause for serious celebration.

— The election of Burrell Ellis as the new Mr. CEO of DeKalb County has the folks behind the anonymous DeKalb Officers in an optimistic mood. They post an open letter to Davis, urging him to appoint a civilian task force to look into problems at the county police force.

— Despite those victories, it can be a scary thing to be a liberal in a red state, as D-cup relates on Politits. She had an encounter with a co-worker who was shocked that she will vote for Obama because, well, a vote for Obama is a vote for gays and abortion. God help us all.

— The ATLmalcontent notes the irony of a white guy named Toby questioning Obama’s blackness.

— Preston Craig treats us to a couple of YouTube videos at KISS Atlanta, which suspiciously looks like a gathering of D-cup’s co-workers.

— And, finally, Brian over at The Self-Abasement Tapes explains what can happen when a deity gets angry. How else to explain what’s happening to vacuum cleaners in our country?

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 — The good news is that the Shelbinator appears to be back from writing some dissertation or another. And what’s he brought back with him? An “Obama Energy Plan” tire pressure checker, courtesy of the McCain campaign. Send in a $25 contribution to his “four more years of Dubya” campaign, and you can get one, too.

— Speaking of petroleum, Tondee’s Tavern has some ideas on how the Dems can turn the off-shore drilling debate to their favor.

– The Daly Briefing lets fly with some inadvertent military humor in his dispatch from Iraq. Watch out for Foxx, the little kitten who thinks the world is his toy.

— The underground supper club Rogue Apron threw a dinner bash with a Mediterranean theme, and Disposable Income was there to give us a pictorial account. Yum. I want an invite to the next one.

— Delta has announced it will add in-flight WiFi on its entire fleet of planes by 2009, which makes Clayton over at Peach Pundit cry with joy.  Me, too. Nothing like a coffee shop with wings; one more place I can work.

— Over at Pecanne Log, Christa has extracted the Netflix list of favorite Atlanta movies. And even though Atlanta is the gay Mecca of the South, judging from the list it would seem straight people here no longer use Netflix.

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— A somewhat sobering post at Atlanta Water Shortage. They chart out Lake Lanier’s levels over the last three years. Right now, the lake is down to 1,055 feet above sea level. That’s nearly 10 inches feet lower than this time last year, and equal to the level last November.

— At The Daily Whim, Reid Stott says House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s idea to dip into our Strategical Oil Reserve to lower gas prices is foolish and amounts to little more than pandering.

— At the Daily Kos, there’s a tantalizing call for Obama to name Max Cleland as his vice-presidential running mate.

— Duane Moody’s birthday is coming up and to pre-celebrate, he shares five songs he’s certain we’ll all love.

— It’s going to be a long August because Live Apartment Fire is going on a break, although Doug Richards assures his loyal readers that he’s pre-packaged some timeless posts that will go up throughout the month. Today, there’s rules for a local TV shot game that could have you toasted in minutes. And if you’re a Tom Waits fan, you’ve got to see the press conference clip Richards has posted.

— And speaking of amazing video, A.man.I at My Urban Report went down to Orlando for the World Yo-Yo Contest (who knew?). A true how’d-they-do-THAT? pleasure to watch.

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— Andre Walker at Georgia Politics Unfiltered gives a rather tepid apology for failing to disclose he was working for the campaign of U.S. Rep David Scott, D-Atlanta, even as he was blogging about Scott’s race. Should he have made that disclosure from the beginning? Probably so, says Walker. But “probably” isn’t good enough. Isn’t his blog called Georgia Politics Unfiltered? Taking money under the table from a candidate you’re covering means the news is being filtered. And tainted.

— Uh-oh, he’s doing it again. Amy Morton at Georgia Women Vote says U.S. Senate candidate Vernon Jones has sent out another flier picturing him with Barack Obama. This one also includes photos of  former U.S. Senator Carol Moseley Braun and U.S. Sen. Edward Brooke III, D-Mass., who happens to be the former paramour of Barbara Walters. Obama wasn’t very happy the last time Jones tried to grab on to his coat-tails; this flier probably doesn’t remind voters of that.

— Speaking of the U.S. Senate, Blog For Democracy incumbent Saxby Chambliss received $10,000 in campaign contributions from U.S. Ted Stevens, D-AK, who, oops, is under federal indictment for corruption. Will Chambliss return the money?

— Jason Pye discusses Eric Johnson’s decision to end his tenure as the president pro tem of the state Senate so that he can run for lieutenant governor in 2010.

— At Tondee’s Tavern, Adrian posts predictions for Tuesday’s run-off and sees Jim Martin easily defeating Jones. What? You mean those Obama pics aren’t working?

— With Dunwoody creating a new city from scratch, there’s a move afoot to make it as green as possible. Sustainable Dunwoody says there’s already a shortage of public park space.

— Christa, one of the fine ladies at Pecanne Log, pokes some fun at the AJC for its awkward foray into Facebook.

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— The Georgia blogosphere is still trying to sort through the ramifications that blogger Andre Walker’s failure to disclose that he was working for state Rep. David Scott, even as he posted on Scott’s campaign. There’s been a lively discussion here on Fresh Loaf. And besides posting comments here, Driftgrift is spitting tacks here and also here. And Sara discusses it also at Going Through The Motions.

— A WGCL-TV news reporter was duped by a guy who claimed to have invented a way to convert tap water in fuel. Live Apartment Fire says it wasn’t the first time the scam has made its way onto a news broadcast and asks the right question: Why didn’t the reporter contact a scientist at Georgia Tech to see if water can actually be converted to fuel?

— The Daly Briefing follows the adventures of a former Atlanta news photographer in Iraq. Today, he’s off for a trip to Umm Qasr, the lone port in Iraq. He writes about dealing with the heat in the desert and his unfortunate choice of a seat in a ride on a Blackhawk helicopter.

— A transplant from Long Island writes about the joys of homegrown tomatoes in Atlanta on Voted Off The Island.

— Edwin at Chicken Fat riffs on a question that’s always puzzled me as well: Why do we talk to our pets as if they’re going to respond?

— And, finally, Stephen Colbert has issued an apology for using the term “crappy Canton” to describe one of our fair cities. Reporter-cub has the link.

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— It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I don’t know how I feel. GriftDrift has posted another installment of “My Morning Wooten” and … he says Wooten makes sense. WTF? Thankfully, by the end he’s poking at Wooten for pulling out the usual canard about the liberal media. There. All’s right with the world again.

— Over at Good Will Hinton, there’s a podcast interview with S.E. Cupp, co-author of the book Why You’re Wrong About The Right: Behind The Myths. The stereotypes Cupp hopes to debunk? “Republicans are racist, we’re humorless, we hate the planet, we’re stupid, we’re religious fanatics, we aren’t cool,” Cupp tells Hinton.

— Do we need to create a code of ethics for the blogosphere? A.man.I at My Urban Reporter discusses the news reports that Atlanta political blogger Andre Walker (Peach Pundit, Georgia Politics Unfiltered) is on the payroll of U.S. Rep. David Scott (D-Atlanta), yet wrote multiple posts about Scott without disclosing their relationship. A.man.I points out, and I second, that’s an ethical no, no. See also CL editor Ken Edelstein’s post on the issue.

— Tondee’s Tavern has a report from Ed, who is in China for the Olympic Games and laments the censorship he’s already faced with Internet access.

—  Amy Smart received an invitation from Gov. Sonny Perdue to attend his annual fish fry and, as she writes on Georgia Women Vote!, she’s not really amused since Sonny’s “Go Fish Georgia” program is fully funded while schools are facing budget cuts.

— Things have been a little quiet on the Dora-Blog. But now Bubba Rich laments that the bad times have come back to Doraville, that touch of country in the city.

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— Daily newspapers are struggling to keep readers and to find ways to make money via the Internet. Travis Fain at Lucid Idiocy speaks to all the people who no longer subscribe to the paper and, instead, read it for free on the Net.

— At Tondee’s Tavern,  it’s noted that Vernon Jones has little or no union support. And that must not bother him too much because he didn’t show for the AFL-CIO candidate screening.

— Meanwhile, Georgia Women Vote! talks about the old-fashioned fish fry Jim Martin is going to have in Macon this weekend to garner grassroots support.

— It’s obvious on the blogosphere that we are entering the dog days of summer. For you non-Southerners, that’s the time of year when it’s so hot that even dogs don’t want to be outdoors. That fact must account for all the personal issues that have surfaced this week. At Mingaling, Lori talks about her bouts with anxiety-driven depression, and gives a pep talk to everyone who suffers from it.

— Hopefully she’ll share that pep talk with Maigh, who writes eloquently about the passing of Amber the cat. Rest in peace.

— And ETK has her own pep talk to her friends at I’m Just Sayin, Life Observed.

— Sara never got around to renewing her car registration, and it turned into a long and expensive ordeal that she writes about on Going Through The Motions. Don’t worry, gang, the dog days will be over soon.

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— Ah, GriftDrift’s “Morning Wooten” means all is right with the world. Especially when he gets on a roll. Delicious.

— Vernon Jones and Jim Martin, who are in an increasingly combative run-off in the Democratic run-off for U.S. Senate, had an Internet debate Sunday. Listen to it here.

— Speaking of Mr. CEO, Amy Morton at Tondee’s Tavern reveals that Jones, a Democrat, gave $3,000 in 2004 to the Republican campaign of Mitchell Kaye in his run for a state House seat.

— The fine ladies over at Pecanne Log, find a gem on eBay and evidence that Andre 3000 aspires to be the Michael Stipe of Atlanta.

— Live Apartment Fire takes a break from television news to vent about upcoming changes at the AJC as revealed in the exclusive interview AJC editor Julia Wallace gave to CL editor Ken Edelstein last week.

— On Confessions of a Political Junkie, Eric shares a widely-circulated email that purports to be a report on Barack Obama blowing off regular troops during his trip to Iraq.

— What’s the point of having a blog if you can’t announce your upcoming nuptials? Jason Pye and his significant other are headed to Vegas. But they won’t be married by Elvis, which seems to defeat the purpose. Just sayin’.

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— Maybe someone should remind Vernon Jones that if you live in glass houses, you shouldn’t throw stones. Amy Morton at Georgia Women Vote comes up with the scoop that Jones gave a total of $1,232 to the Georgia Republican Party in 2001. His people say he had, just had, to attend W.’s Inaugural Ball. Oh, get real.

— Jones is trying to become Barack Obama’s new BFF for good reason. At Tondee’s Tavern, Andy lays out his theory on how Obama can carry Georgia in November.

— One of the most harrowing, and angry, blog posts I’ve ever read is at Politits. It’s the story of a big black truck rumbling up I-75 … and running over anything in its way.

— Staff Sgt. Daly is a former Atlanta television news cameraman now serving in Iraq, shooting video for the Army. And when he can get an Internet connection, he discusses his life over there in his Daly Briefing. Last weekend, he discussed a story he did on a hospital and how the Iraqi people have reached the point where they are starting to take care of their own needs.

— Poor Edwin at Chicken Fat. He tried out some genuine James Brown Hot Sauce and didn’t start singing “I feel good!” afterwards.

— From the did-we-really-have-to-know-this? department … Sara from Going Through The Motions reminds us that the little kid swimming on the cover of Nirvana’s Nevermind album is now 17 years old. And that he’s an apparent “disaffected douche.” Thanks, Sara. Now I feel really old.

— The fine ladies at Pecanne Log have now officially crossed the line in their blatant crush on our own young Mr. Wheatley. Today, there’s an entire post devoted to him. They’re even referring to him as a “copper fox.” Enough already! You have no idea of the egotistical monster he’s turning into because of you. The Internet is a powerful tool that should be only used for the forces of good.

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We’ll never live down Whatizzit, a.k.a. Izzy, the lamest, stupidest aspect of the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. Slate has a piece today defending China’s Olympic mascots that includes a take-down of Izzy and takes some surprising swipes at Atlanta as a city:

Let’s not forget the 1996 Atlanta mascot, known variously as “Whatzit,” “Whatizhee,” or the shortened “Izzy.” To this day, I remain unsure what exactly Izzy was meant to embody. The Journal recalls that he was “derided as everything from a ‘blue slug’ to a ’sperm in sneakers.’ ” (Izzy also represented perhaps the worst Olympics since Munich. The Atlanta games featured both a terrorist attack and a wave of nauseating Nike/Coke/America triumphalism and were held in a backwater of a town smaller than, I’m not kidding, at least 25 Chinese cities you’ve never even heard of.)

Oh, snap! Livejournal blogger elemess rightly points out:

Since when is Atlanta a “backwater”? We have the world’s busiest airport. The world’s most recognizable news organization, the most successful delivery company in history, and the most consumed beverage other than water were all founded here… There are cities in China no one’s heard of larger than practically every Olympic city, including such backwaters as Berlin, Rome, and Athens, not to mention such cosmopolitan locales as Lillehammer and Nagano. Let me let you in on a not-a-secret: Shenyang is a backwater. So are Wuhan, Dongguan, and nearly every other Chinese city that isn’t Beijing, Shanghai, or Hong Kong.

Coincidentally enough, the new documentary Up the Yangtze, which I review this week, conveys the staggering scale of some of those Chinese cities that are obscure to us in the West.

I always hated Whatizzit because the choice felt like an admission (not necessarily correct) that Atlanta lacks its own identity. But I don’t recall Izzy ever being known as “Whatizhee” — is that incorrect, or have I just suppressed that unpleasant memory?

(Image from the official website of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games)

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— GriftDrift explains why he hates liberals, but really f*cking hates Republicans. His grumpiness is for our reading pleasure.

— And Jason Pye is grumpy with CNN’s Lou Dobbs, who was grumpy on the air about our economy and the free-market. Pye’s point? Dobbs really doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

— Has the “silly season” in Georgia politics officially opened? Andre over at Georgia Politics Unfiltered certainly thinks so. Exhibit No. 1 is an email from the Vernon Jones campaign that lashes out at Jim Martin for having “voted against Barack Obama” in the primary (Martin supported John Edwards for president). And, yes, this is the same Vernon Jones who twice voted for our current Republican president. Yep. Silly season is definitely here.

— How many times did Dagmar Midcap appear on yesterday’s hour-long 4 o’clock newscast on WGCL-TV? Thankfully, our friends at Live Apartment Fire counted them. Our favorite: a lingering shot of Dagmar dramatically looking down (presumably at a weather radar) and tracking Hurricane Dolly. Glad she’s on the case. The answer is eight, by the way.

— The folks at the Wren’s Nest take us through their day, including the woman in the nightgown who sleeps in her car and parks it in their driveway.

— Over at Ashes and Glass, Sara celebrates the first day of vacation by sleeping late. Ah, the luxury.

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