Fresh Loaf

The foreign policy adviser who resigned her position with the Obama campaign after calling Hillary Clinton a “monster” is a graduate of Lakeside High School in DeKalb County.

Samantha Power was born in Ireland in 1970 and came to the States in 1979. So she would have graduated from Lakeside in the late 1980s. (Thanks to Atlanta expatriate Doug Monroe for this tip.)

I really like Power. Her Pulitzer Prize-winning book, A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide, is an unblinking thorough review of the American government’s response, or lack thereof, to genocide, in which she criticizes — and sometimes praises — both Republicans and Democrats. She comes across as a tough, but fair and pragmatic, moralist.

It’s not surprising that she’s down on Hillary. Her writing cuts straight to heart of Bill Clinton’s waffling on humanitarian crises in Bosnia and Rwanda. Yeah, she shouldn’t have called Hillary a monster. But, hey, people say mean things sometimes when they’re under pressure. She’s only 37. If Obama wins, she’ll be back and she’ll be a big cheese in his administration.

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To add a dash of high school cheer to my esteemed colleague’s post yesterday about the DeKalb County Commission’s vote to approve a TAD at Briarcliff and North Druid Hills roads, I wanted to add a little on-the-ground detail. Yes, DeKalb Commission meetings are usually filled with heart-stopping moments, thanks be to the CEO and his showmanship. But even he was upstaged yesterday.

First, I ask you to harken back to the early days of the debate over whether DeKalb residents wanted a $1 billion Sembler Co. minitropolis built at the busy intersection mentioned above. There were allegations of misconduct, but one that stood out — perhaps for the obvious reasons — involved Commissioner Elaine Boyer and a $20,000 donation made by Sembler to Lakeside High’s Vikings Booster Club. Boyer’s daughters attend Lakeside and are members of the cheerleading squad that the Vikings Booster Club “boosts.”

And yesterday, before the commission meeting got underway, I — along with the rest of those in attendance in Maloof Auditorium — was granted a rah-rah performance by the Lakeside cheerleaders. Filled with chants, cheers and yells. CEO Jones got to meet them in the hallway before the meeting. The girls “loved his [purple] tie.”

That is all.

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