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According to an AJC story that cites a mysterious “20-city index,” home prices in Atlanta are down:
From September 2007 through September of this year, Atlanta’s prices have fallen 9.5 percent.
But they’re also up:
Despite declines in 11 out of the past 14 months, Atlanta’s home prices are still up 22.7 percent since January 2000.
Alaska Governor Sarah Palin will rally for U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss on Monday, Dec. 1 at 4 p.m. From the Chambliss campaign:
4:00 PM
METRO ATLANTA
Gwinnett Arena
6400 Sugarloaf Parkway
Duluth, GA 30097Doors will open one hour before each program begins. The events are FREE for the general public but in order to attend, you must RSVP at www.procatalog.com/saxby or by visiting the ‘Action Center’ at www.saxby.org
For her full Georgia itinerary, click after the jump.
John McCain and Sarah Palin at the 2008 Republican National Convention. (Photo by Joeff Davis)
Lawmakers learn from their failures, right?
Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle yesterday told a crowd of 400 mobility-minded businesspeople, politicians and lobbyists at a luncheon sponsored by the Get Georgia Moving coalition and the Council For Quality Growth that a regional sales tax for transportation fixes — or T-SPLOST — would be given priority consideration when the General Assembly convenes in January.
The tax would be similar to a local option sales tax and allow Georgians — if the measure passes and is approved as a constitutional referendum on the 2010 ballot — to vote on a list of predetermined projects such as road, rails and bridges. Cagle said stakeholders in the coming weeks needed to reach a consensus for the proposal to be considered at the start of the legislative session.
Georgia Lieutenant Governor Casey Cagle
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
Online newshound — and self-styled gumshoe — Matt Drudge continues to scare the hell out of office lackeys and far-right keyboard commandos with today’s giant headline reporting a Russian analyst’s comments that the United States is in the throes of collapse and will eventually dissolve into six parts.
[Russian political analyst Igor Panarin] predicted that the U.S. will break up into six parts - the Pacific coast, with its growing Chinese population; the South, with its Hispanics; Texas, where independence movements are on the rise; the Atlantic coast, with its distinct and separate mentality; five of the poorer central states with their large Native American populations; and the northern states, where the influence from Canada is strong.
He even suggested that “we could claim Alaska - it was only granted on lease, after all.”
We’ll see what the governor says about that on Monday, Mr. Panarin.
Sorry for the back-to-back videos, folks, but this one just arrived via e-mail.
In this ad titled “Go to Work,” U.S. Senate Democratic candidate Jim Martin responds to incumbent Republican Saxby Chambliss’ claims that the former state lawmaker voted for the largest tax increases in Georgia’s history while he served in the state Legislature. Martin says he actually voted for tax cuts to Georgians. The ad’s running statewide.
It’s finally on Youtube, but hurry quick before it gets pulled. On last weekend’s Saturday Night Live, Zell Miller — the former Georgia governor and U.S. Senator who’s all about the gunplay — was played by Will Forte.
In the clip, Miller gave the real reason he endorsed incumbent Republican Saxby Chambliss in his U.S. Senate race against Democratic candidate Jim Martin — names.
Elect Goolsby Scroggins!
Sorry, Andisheh. A $110-million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation will be used for high-occupancy toll lanes along a section of I-85 primarily in Gwinnett County.
I pass the mic to Ariel of the AJC:
The 14-mile project, from the Perimeter in DeKalb County to Old Peachtree Road in Gwinnett, is seen as a seed that would spread to all 44 miles of Atlanta’s HOV lanes.
The tolls will be electronic, with sensors pinging a transponder in each car on the toll lane, and no stopping for toll booths. The toll price would rise and fall with congestion on the main highway: a higher price when traffic congestion is high, lower when traffic is light. Officials said questions like how much the toll price would be required more study. A similar project in California costs drivers about $1 a mile at the most congested time of the week.
And as usual, the comments are the best part.
Barack Obama’s not even president yet, but he’s already honoring his controversial campaign pledge to hold face-to-face meetings with America’s worst enemies. Last week he met with George W. Bush.
Bush gave Obama a tour of some of the White House, including the Oval Office, the Lincoln Bedroom, the Nixon Incinerator, the William Henry Harrison Office Supply Closet, etc.
The pair also discussed policy. Details were scant, but one of the topics likely was the ongoing conflict between the United States and Iran.
Obama’s promise to reinvigorate U.S. diplomacy by actually allowing U.S. diplomats to be diplomatic has many hoping our dangerously hateful relationship with Iran might improve.
Improvement is a reasonable expectation. Short of all-out war, relations with Iran can’t get much worse. But don’t expect Obama and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to be sharing kabobs and O’Doul’s at the White House anytime soon.
The deep animosity between Iran and the U.S. predates the Bush administration. Heck, it predates Obama’s birth.
(Read the rest, or at least click the link to help artificially inflate our pageviews!)
President George W. Bush yesterday issued 14 pardons and commuted two prison sentences in what surely will be one of the lame duck president’s most monumental acts in the last eight years. (Yes, I know, every president pardons ne’er-do-wells and scoundrels. Clinton had Marc Rich, Carter had Attila the Hun. Obama will probably pardon Predator.)
As Ken Layne at Wonkette accurately pointed out, a lot of the crimes Bush pardoned are run-of-the-mill — drugs, importing protected wildlife, and killing the nation’s majestic feathered symbol.
But with everything involving crime and silliness, there’s a Georgia angle. According to the Associated Press, among the folks Bush pardoned yesterday was in the most lotto-happy town in Jawjuh:
Obie Gene Helton of Rossville, Ga., whose offense was unauthorized acquisition of food stamps.
Yep. Food stamps. Is this “compassionate conservatism?”
Obie Gene Helton was sentenced April 1, 1983, to two years probation for unauthorized acquisition of food stamps. He was fined $500 and ordered to pay $875 in restitution, according to information provided by the Justice Department.
Oh, man, this is gonna be rich.
Sarah Palin — governor of Alaska, John McCain’s former running mate, aerial wolf hunter — is coming to Georgia on Monday to stump for U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss in his Dec. 2 runoff race against Democratic candidate Jim Martin.
Jim Tharpe with the details:
Palin, who drew large crowds while running for vice president with Republican presidential candidate U.S. Sen. John McCain, will appear at Chambliss rallies in Augusta, Savannah, Perry and Atlanta on Monday, the day before the Dec. 2 senate runoff between Chambliss and Democrat Jim Martin.
Sarah Palin speaking at the 2008 Republican National Convention.
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
The craziest political campaign ad I’ve seen in a long time went up on Atlanta cable TV over this past weekend. What’s so crazy about it? Well, for starters, it’s animated, monochromatic and uses flashy graphics. Also, it has no campaign rhetoric, no candidate testimonials – in fact, no voice-over whatsoever – nor does it mention the opponents and why they suck.
Instead, the ad looks like an iPod commercial – OK, maybe more like a Zune commercial, but you get the idea.
Get jiggy wit da Jimmyz!
Paid for by the Young Democrats of Atlanta, it’s a content-free appeal to the Obama Generation to come out and vote for two middle-aged guys named Jim. The only thing it lacks in order to lock in the youth vote is footage of B-boy Jim Powell doing the worm. The ad’s house-lite soundtrack does, however, show why having Apple’s music-licensing budget is a good thing.
Have you noticed an increase in the number of empty storefronts around town?
Your eyes are not deceiving you.
The Atlanta Business Chronicle:
Atlanta’s retail center vacancy rate rose to 12 percent in the third quarter, according to the bi-annual Retail Real Estate Report published Monday by Colliers International.
The 12 percent vacancy rate compared with a rate of 8.9 percent as of Dec. 31, 2007 and is higher than the U.S. rate of 9.3 percent.
A newspaper operated by China’s ruling Communist Party doesn’t like the new Guns N’ Roses album Chinese Democracy.
The Associated Press:
In an article Monday headlined “American band releases album venomously attacking China,” the Global Times said unidentified Chinese Internet users had described the album as part of a plot by some in the West to “grasp and control the world using democracy as a pawn.”
The album “turns its spear point on China,” the article said.
This is great news.
If I ever find myself seated next to Chinese Communist Party hacks at a dinner party, I now know I can get conversation going by noting our mutual contempt for the music of Guns N’ Roses.
The venerable Buckhead nightclub Tongue & Groove is holding a grand re-opening tonight, as noted in today’s Peach Buzz. But the AJC item makes it sound as if T&G is just opening its doors. Actually, the club opened last spring in the space formerly occupied by Lotus Lounge in the Lindbergh City Center complex.
As owner Michael Krohngold explains, he sold his leasehold for T&G’s original location at the corner of Peachtree Road and Buckhead Avenue earlier this year, but had planned to re-open the club within the rapidly redeveloping Buckhead Village. He considered several sites in and around the planned Streets of Buckhead retail district, but ran into zoning and licensing issues, so he instead opted to take over Lotus’ lease.
In the intervening six months, Krohngold and his decorator wife, Patti, completely renovated the interior, hiring graffiti artists to give the space an urban street art motif, and installing digital projectors, new furnishings and other design touches. They also opened a new room with a high-energy dance floor.
Tonight’s grand re-opening kicks off at 9 p.m. and will feature breakdancers, go-go girls and aerialists.
Literally. The Transit Planning Board — the agency that brought you the regional-transit vision called Concept3 — kindly asks for your help to determine how a more mobile metro Atlanta would look.
Visit this survey t
