Late Saturday night, a Grant Park couple’s home burned for 25 minutes before firefighting crews arrived. Officials are probing why it took the City of Atlanta 911 call center so long to relay the message to fire crews. A computer malfunction has hindered the department’s ability to determine the exact time the 911 call was received.
Below is a video of the fire posted on YouTube by the couple’s neighbor.
Got plenty of links to go with that freshly roasted Honduran coffee … mine that is…
Nafiza “Soulja Girl” Ziyad is asking a judge to drop her charges related to her now infamous freestyle battle with an elderly, gray-haired lady riding MARTA. The defense motion cited in the AJC says the video, which went viral and has been watched over 600,000 times, “exposed her to extreme distress and embarrassment.”
Wait till she sees the REEEMIX:
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Six years ago, Saxby Chambliss authorized the most vilified political campaign ad of the past decade, one that questioned the courage of then-Sen Max Cleland — a triple-amputee Vietnam War veteran — by showing pictures of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein.
Well, prepare for deja vu. Last week, a new attack ad debuted on local TV channels, this one aimed at Chambliss’ runoff opponent, Jim Martin, and incoming president Barack Obama. This time, instead of using the magic of video to link the Democrats to bin Laden, they’ve chosen Mohamed Atta, leader of the 9/11 hijackings, to serve as the bogeyman.
On the left is Atta’s familiar FBI mug shot, taken from his Florida driver’s license photo:
… and on the right is a screenshot from about 10 seconds into the new anti-Martin ad; Atta’s mug shot is top center:
— At Georgia Women Vote, Amy Morton met North Carolina Senatorial candidate Kay Hagan and reports that the Hagan needs no lipstick. Her opponent, incumbent Elizabeth Dole, voted with Bush 92% of the time. But didn’t most Republicans? And didn’t many Democrats who still quiver in their boots at the thought of being considered “liberal”?
— You want cynical? I’ve got cynical. Blog For Democracy notes that Republican operatives in Ohio and Michigan are collecting lists of foreclosed homes so they can challenge the registration of voters who used to live in them. This is what our political process has come to?
— In a belated “Morning Wooten,” DriftGrift gives another prime example of just how much our political discourse has broken down.
— But some folks still keep things real. Arc Of Time has posted a link to last year’s emotional recollection of being on a flight the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.
— From the Daly Briefing in Iraq: “When I got to the office, the lights weren’t working and I had to call someone to come down and work on them. I sat in the dark for a few minutes thinking about all the stuff I had to do. Then the young airman I work with walked in and asked me if I was going to the ceremony. How in the world could I have forgotten? How could any of us forget? Why did it take someone reminding me what today was for me to remember?”
— Now that’s keeping it real. But our society has short attention spans and, thus, short memories. So, finally, a YouTube clip worth remembering. In memory of …
SPY VS. PIE: The AP reports that Julia Child left a career as a WWII-era spy to become a chef; Child is one of several well-known Americans whose previously secret spy career was revealed this morning, as the personnel files of the pre-CIA Office of Strategic Services were declassified.
SHOOTING: The chairman of the Arkansas Democratic Party is dead after a recently fired Target employee mysteriously drove more than 30 miles to Little Rock and shot him.
LANIER: Georgia officials asked SCOTUS this morning to overturn a February appeals-court ruling requiring congressional approval for the state to take more water from Lake Lanier to quench Atlanta’s growing thirst.
STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE: The NYT reports on the resurgent popularity of streetcars in at least 40 U.S. downtowns such as Cincinnati, New Orleans, Houston and Charlotte. Not mentioned: Atlanta’s distant visions for the Beltline and Peachtree Street streetcar.
SACS: The accrediting agency is in Clayton County today, part of its review to determine whether the school system will be the first since 1969 to have its accreditation revoked.
SCRATCH PAPER: Cox Newspapers is selling all but three of its newspapers.
RESCUE 911: The recent death of a Johns Creek woman highlights problems in the Fulton County emergency services, as the 911 operator who sent emergency crews 30 miles in the wrong direction had a long history of such routing mistakes. She also repeatedly was disciplined for sleeping on the job, chronic tardiness and fighting with co-workers, and records show her behavior wasn’t uncommon in the department.
