Fresh Loaf

U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Marietta, appeared on Monday night’s episode of Hardball with Chris Matthews, a popular televised experiment in which a flaxen-haired jester yells questions at political guests. When asked why he thought a growing number of healthcare reform protesters were showing up to the politically charged events wearing firearms, Gingrey basically said, “They’re exercising their rights under the Second Amendment.” Yeah, that’s one way of putting it. (Galloway’s posted a rough transcript.)

(H/T to Talking Points Memo)

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1. Hundreds of fish die in Piedmont Park’s Lake Clara Meer (Turns out it was more like thousands of fish that perished, reportedly from dissolved oxygen. Who knows what Sir Paul thought?)

2. AJC may abandon Marietta Street (Today we learned the paper’s new HQ will be in the action-packed ‘burbs come next June.)

3. Why I want a public option (Andisheh Nouraee clearly states why there needs to be an alternative to private health insurance.)

4. Columnist’s solution to gay sex in parks? Attack dogs. (Marietta Daily Journal resident curmudgeon enlightens us with his wonderful idea of how Marietta City Council should send gays “back to Atlanta where they belong.”)

5. Fulton, Forsyth ban chaining your dog (Beginning Sept. 4, dogs in Fulton County cannot be chained or tethered to a fixed object unless held by an attendant or by the owner.)

(Photo by Thomas Wheatley)

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Our friends at the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute pointed us toward a couple of depressing reports today from the U.S. Census Bureau.

One said Georgia’s poverty rate was a lot higher in 2007 even than it was in the depths of the 2001 recession. Not only that, but middle-class Georgians haven’t gained any economic ground since the recession.

The other report said more people in the state now don’t have health insurance.

“Even after six years of economic recovery, Georgians have not regained the ground lost in the 2001 recession,” GBPI Deputy Director Sarah Beth Gehl said in a statement. “With the weakening of the economy in 2008, things are likely to get worse before they get better.” (more…)

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