Fresh Loaf

— 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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— The National Enquirer claims it caught John Edwards meeting his alleged mistress down at the Hotel California. Since Edwards seems seemed to have momentum as a running mate for Barack Obama, ATLMalcontent theorizes this could help Sam Nunn’s chances to become the VP candidate. He also produces our fave line of the day: “I’ll say this for Sam Nunn — he’s unlikely to be spotted trolling the hallways of a Beverly Hills hotel at two in the morning.”

— There’s a revolt brewing against Speaker of the House Glenn Richardson, and Jason Pye talks about why Mr. Surly just needs to go.

— Over at Black Gay Blogger, Karsh seeks your advice. How did a great first date lead to a blow-off text message a day later?

— Kacie has seen The Dark Knight (along with, it seems, everyone else in America with the exception of your’s truly) and wonders on Dirty Rotten Feminist why there are so few female super heroes? And I agree with her: Halle Berry in Catwoman hardly counts.

— Eddie Cochran sang about the summertime blues, and how there ain’t no cure. At Going Through The Motions, Sara is in a funk. She’s bored, worried about being laid off and has zero romantic possibilities. Send her some blogger love, folks.

— Over at Reporter-Cub, he’s going all “postal” on the “unnecessary” use of quotation marks. Give him some love, too; he’s also going through the summertime blues. Sara, meet RC; RC, meet Sara. Go cheer each other up.

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A new blog called Photo Clichés collects photos of people in poses so popular that they’ve become, well, photo clichés.

The blog is new and thus far has only five clichés: I’m king of the world, Jaws at Universal Studios, see no evil, statue groping and Lynndie England — named for the former U.S. Army reservist infamous for posing with a cigarette dangling from her mouth, while pointing at prisoners in photos taken at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

This photo of a woman pointing Lynndie England-style at a martini is posted on Photo Clichés as the lynndie-tini:

I hope the site starts collecting examples one of my favorite photo clichés, college girls leaning into one another for a group pic. Those always make me laugh.

(H/T to Phil O’Steen of My’Lanta)

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— Decatur Metro has found the city’s annual report online. One interesting nugget: Decatur’s population is declining despite a boom in downtown condos. Why? Household size is shrinking in the city.

— And InDecatur brings us up to speed on the latest city news, including Kid Rock’s plea of no contest for his role in a Waffle House brawl in 2007.

— The state’s budget is all in a mess, and flackattack chimes in at Tondee’s Tavern on how state lawmakers are totally out of touch with reality.

— Over at Cracker Squire, Sid discusses how Rand Knight’s union endorsements failed to give him a lift in the U.S. Senate primary. Now that those unions are backing Jim Martin, will it matter in the run-off?

— Drifting Through The Grift thankfully shares another Morning Wooten.

— Just as fun, Preston Craig — the DJ host of the Decatur Social Club — is back online at Kiss Atlanta, with a couple of hot underground bands to help us get our groove on.

— What happens when a good friend reveals that he’s HIV positive? ETK shares a sad, intimate moment on I’m Just Sayin’.

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— Al Gore gives a speech that says we need to wean ourselves off petroleum in the next 10 years, and ATLMalcontent is skeptical. He thinks Gore is being rather hysterical.

— Gore is definitely against new off-shore oil drilling. But our governor, Sonny Perdue, thinks it’s a swell idea. Reporter-Cub gives us a reality check: The last time the U.S. had an energy crisis, the oil companies explored off the coast of Georgia and discovered that there’s no black gold/Texas tea out there.

— Folks in Dunwoody are pleased as punch to be Georgia’s newest city. At Heneghan’s Dunwoody Blog, John reports that 29 people turned out for a candidates training forum with the intention of running for mayor or city council. Leaders have also come up with a proposed vision statement for the new city.

— Doug Richards at Live Apartment Fire veers away from his customary posts on television news to talk about why the AJC still matters.

— Only 21 percent of Clayton County’s registered voters bothered to go to the polls last week, and Andre at Georgia Politics Unfiltered wonders WTF? Look for Thomas Wheatley’s insightful cover story on Clayton County in this week’s Loaf.

— Speaking of young Mr. Wheatley, the sirens at Pecanne Log can’t get enough of him. Another new post at Pecanne Log means another opportunity for a gratuitous shout-out to Wheatley. This time, they’ve found a personals site that features ads from wealthy men, including a group of of sugar daddies from Tucker. They’re already fighting over the one with the boat.

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