Fresh Loaf

Has metro Atlanta’s growth and development had any effect on the metro region’s water shortage? It depends who you ask.

“Absolutely not!”

— State House Speaker Glenn Richardson’s response when CL Senior Editor John Sugg asked him on Nov. 18, “Do you think development has contributed to the water problems?”

“In Atlanta, for example, the model shows that between 59.9 and 132.8 billion gallons of groundwater infiltration may have been lost in 1997 compared to 15 years earlier. That is enough water to supply the average daily household needs of between 1.5 and 3.6 million people per year.

— Page 8 from “Paving Our Way to Water Shortages,” a 2002 study by Smart Growth America, the Natural Resources Defense Council and American Rivers on the amount of groundwater lost because of development

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After CL Senior Writer Mara Shalhoup reported Demetrius “Big Meech” Flenory was to plead guilty to federal charges resulting from his co-leadership of the Black Mafia Family cocaine ring, comments began to pour in to Fresh Loaf.

“What happened to ‘DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR’ so now Big Meech is now ‘LIL MEECH’…”
– ‘Muhammed’

“Fuck coward ass niggas like Muhammed. I bet you wouldn’t say that shit to Meech’s face.”
– ‘Ziploc Moe’

“u cant be mad at meech unless he snitch.”
– ‘abdul-aziz’

“. . . for u ignant coccsuccas, pleading guilty DOES NOT mean u working with dem faggitz. . .”
– ‘Crystle Boeckman’

“How did I know this thread would be full of illiterate morons spouting about the ‘code’.

“Meech is a criminal who made millions from the misery of others and led an organization responsible for murder of innocent people.”
– ‘Dale’

“I’d rather live in a neighborhood with a bunch of Meechs then most people- who lack character and integrity.”
– ‘Sayword’

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Rapper Clifford “T.I.” Harris faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted on federal weapons charges. Before he was released on $3 million bond Oct. 26, U.S. Magistrate Judge Alan Baverman had some stern words for Harris, as well as comments on Atlanta’s real estate market.

“I don’t want to sound crass about it, but in addition to being in the music and entertainment business you’re essentially in the insurance business now. If any harm is [befallen upon] the informant, the court will be looking to you. Do you understand that?”
— Baverman warning Harris not to attempt to hurt or intimidate witnesses for the prosecution

“Yes, your honor.”
— Harris’ response to Baverman’s question

“The nature of the real estate market in Atlanta right now is such that legitimate appraisals are affected.”
— Baverman explaining why he valued Harris’ College Park home at $1 million, less than what Harris and his lawyers contend is its appraised value. Harris is using his home as part of his bond.

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Marietta police say 21-year-old Matthew Cherry was suffocated to death with duct tape during the Oct. 21 armed robbery of the GameStop store he managed on South Cobb Parkway. Below is the responding officer’s description of the scene.

(Click on image above to enlarge it)

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Last week, Fulton County voters overwhelmingly rejected a referendum that would have incorporated more than 96 square miles of southern Fulton County into a city named South Fulton.

“When this election is in the books, I believe that we’ll be seeing Georgia’s next great city; the new City of South Fulton, and as a resident of South Fulton, I look forward to working with my neighbors towards getting our new city off the ground and running on the right foot.”

— Andre Walker writing on his blog, Georgia Politics Unfiltered, on the morning of the referendum. Walker supported the referendum.

“The voters of south Fulton spoke today. They made it clear they want to have a city controlled by six commissioners who don’t live in south Fulton County.”

— Benny Crane, an insurance broker who led the incorporation campaign, speaking to the AJC after the referendum’s defeat

“In the end, I don’t have any regrets whatsoever. The people decided and the people will have to live with their decision along with the consequences of their decision far into the future.”

— Walker in a post on Peach Pundit titled “My thoughts on yesterday’s South Fulton referendum”

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The United States’ top officials in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker, testified before the Senate on Tuesday, Sept. 11.

Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., who sits on the Armed Services Committee, and Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., who sits on the Foreign Relations Committee, had just eight and seven minutes, respectively, to ask important questions about the war’s progress.

“And let me echo the thanks of everybody else here to you gentlemen, number one, for providing the kind of leadership in a very complex world at a critical point in the history of the world, the kind of leadership that’s really needed right now; and also compliment you on what you’ve had to go through for the last 24 hours.”

— Sen. Chambliss’ opening remarks to Petraeus and Crocker

“General Petraeus, Ambassador Crocker, thank you very much for your service. We all admire you.

“I think it’s instructive to me that the New York Times poll yesterday, General Petraeus, trusted — 60 percent of the people trusted you to make decisions and 20 percent of the people trusted us. So I think we ought to all pay attention to what you’ve got to say.”

— Sen. Isakson’s opening remarks to Petraeus and Crocker

“You’ve been worn down and asked every conceivable question that could have been asked about what’s going on in your part of the world. But there are a couple of things that I want to get to.

“First, General Petraeus, we were very pleased to have you stop by Georgia on your way from Baghdad to Washington and to visit Fort Benning over the weekend and to see the next generation of Petraeus qualify as airborne qualified, as he graduated from jump school.

“I know you’re just as proud of Stephen as he is of his dad. So congratulations to you there.”

— Sen. Chambliss, on Petraeus’ recent stop in Columbus, Ga.

“The president in his speech outlined three specific goals before we went in. One, to depose Hussein and find weapons of mass destruction. Second was to allow the Iraqis [to] have free elections and write a constitution. And third was to train their military sufficient to protect that fledgling country.

“The way I see it, goals one and two have been done.”

— Sen. Isakson’s sunny distillation of the Iraq war thus far

“Ambassador Crocker, you have to dodge verbal bullets, which sometimes are more penetrating than the real ones, I know.”

— Sen. Isakson compares answering questions before the Senate with war. Isakson served in the Georgia Air National Guard during the Vietnam War. He was stationed at Ft. Dobbins.

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Tennessee Titans cornerback Adam “Pacman” Jones, a College Park native, might be skilled on the field. But he could use some pointers on strip-club etiquette. A February Las Vegas strip-club brawl allegedly started after Jones tossed $81,000 cash in the air in order to “make it rain,” before he threatened to kill club employees and bit a bar bouncer. Last Friday, he was charged in Las Vegas on two felony charges of coercion. Now he’s wanted for questioning in a June 18 Moreland Avenue shooting that occurred after his visit to Atlanta nudie bar Club Blaze.

I understand my responsibilities to my teammates, the Titans and my fans and I am committed to turning my life around and being a positive member of the NFL.

— Adam “Pacman” Jones on June 12, after he accepted his yearlong suspension and six days before the Club Blaze shooting

It’s time for the word “pacman” to become a verb. “To pacman” needs to become part of the lexicon. “To pacman” means to repeatedly do a stupid thing while professing to understand its stupidity. For example: Dude pacmanned himself when he kept going to strip clubs with his gun-toting friends even after it cost him millions of dollars.

— ESPN.com’s Tim Keown on June 20

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Gifts we haven’t yet seen at the Georgia Aquarium gift shop:

• Whale-shark-skin boots and purses
• Rub-a-Dub-in-a-Tub: Anti-bacterial, anti-whale-shark aquarium-cleansing kit
• Uncle Bernie’s Beluga Caviar
• Home Depot’s Do-It-Yourself Supersized Sushi Roller
• “Daddy, Why’s That Big Fishy Swimming Upside-down?” and Other Children’s Poems of Loss
• Michael Vick’s Fightin’ Fish Tipsheet
• How to Get Rid of Whale Sharks in Your Basement in 30 Days or Your Money Back
• Fresh lemons

Any other suggestions?

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Genarlow Wilson

[I]f it had been my daughter, he wouldn’t have made it to jail. Bigger problems would have awaited other than the judge and jury. But almost certainly the girls didn’t have fathers at home to guide them in their teen years. Another casualty of the welfare system.

— Posted on the JasonPye.com blog by District 17 Sen. John Douglas concerning the Genarlow Wilson case after a judge overturned Wilson’s 10-year prison sentence for having consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old girl when he was 17

She did not want any of this to happen … she was friends with all of them.

— Veda Cannon to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, on her daughter’s reaction to the judge’s decision

As Attorney General, it is my responsibility to follow the laws of Georgia as they are written, not how some may wish they were written.

— Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker, on his decision to appeal the judge’s decision to overturn the sentence and free Wilson

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It’s not spoken about much, but there are concerns that we will lose, as African-Americans, our political base, which has largely been the city of Atlanta for major leadership within the state.

– Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, speaking on June 1 at a symposium on income disparity in cities at The New School in New York

The efforts of Martin and Coretta King, Hosea Williams, Maynard Jackson and many others will be lost.

– Franklin, in a radio ad last fall supporting John Eaves, a black Democratic candidate for Fulton County Commission Chairman

If you think fighting off dogs and water hoses in the ’60s was bad, imagine if we sit idly by and let the right-wing Republicans take control of the Fulton County Commission.

– Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., in the same ad. Eaves won.

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