Fresh Loaf

After the last Critical Mass ride in which Atlanta cops cracked down on the cyclists for traveling in a pack and disrupting traffic, velocipede enthusiasts will hold a Courteous Mass tonight at 6:30 p.m. Participants are urged to meet at Woodruff Park like before around 6 p.m.

During Courteous Mass, participating cyclists are expected to follow all rules of the road and stop at traffic lights.

From local blogger and rocket scientist Shelbinator, whose video of the police presence generated more than 123,000 views on CNN’s iReport, come the details:

Courteous Mass Bicycle Ride
Friday, July 11
Meet @ 6:00 PM
Woodruff Park
Leave @ 6:30 PM

This ride is different from Critical Mass in that it will follow a planned route and follow state traffic laws. It is intended to demonstrate support for better bike facilities and safer traffic conditions. It is also a great opportunity for less-experienced cyclists to try riding on the streets, as well as being a fun social event. We urge everyone who believes in a balanced transportation policy to join us.

Courteous Mass Tips:

• Ride no more than two abreast on 4-5 lane roads, taking up only the right lane.
• Ride single file on 2-3 lane roads so as not to interfere with traffic flow.
• Please allow faster cyclists ahead of you so they are not stuck behind slower cyclists during single-file stretches.
• Do not pass stopped cars on the right (unless there is a bike lane).
• And as always, be courteous!

There ya go. Be civil, be safe and remember: Roads are made for all people to access destinations — not just people in cars.

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— Jay Bookman = Priceless. Ah, those wacky Gwinnett Republicans.

— Tondee’s Tavern notes that the Macon Telegraph has endorsed Dale Cardwell for the U.S. Senate in the Democratic primary. This comes on the heels of Obama’s smackdown of Vernon Jones yesterday for printing up photo-shopped fliers that imply Obama has endorsed Mr. CEO-who-voted-for-Bush-twice. Says Obama: I barely know that dude.

– Our pal, the Shelbinator, has produced a video for MTV2 that focuses on ex-Marine Chris Raissi of Macon. Raissi talks about the pressures he faced as a Marine recruiter to convince people to join the military. The three-part video is posted on his web site.

— Over at Live Apartment Fire, Doug Richards gives props to WAGA-TV’s Dale Russell for his secret video of disgraced preacher Earl Paulk. Russell has a long relationship with Paulk’s former secretary, Mona Brewer. And when Paulk reached out to Brewer for a “peace” meeting at a local restaurant, she called the I-Team. Russell wired her up with sound and videoed the meeting from outside.

— The AJC’s Sekou Smith says the Hawks were saved by Elton Brand, the free agent power forward signed by Philadelphia yesterday. Why? It means the 76ers won’t be going after our own Josh Smith. That leaves the Hawks sitting pretty to re-sign their two free agents: Smith and Josh Childress. And Hawks fans everywhere breathe a sigh of relief.

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TAX BREAK: IRS extends tax deadline to May 19 for tornado victims in eight Georgia counties, including Fulton and DeKalb.

HOSPITAL SHOOTING: Three dead at Columbus hospital after a man goes on a shooting rampage. The suspect was shot in the shoulder by police, is in stable condition and charged with murder.

DEKALB POLICE: Grand jury calls for criminal investigation in six of the 12 fatal shootings by DeKalb police in 2006; DeKalb D.A. says the county will act on the recommendation.

TROY DAVIS: Attorneys ask state Supreme Court to reconsider its March 17 rejection of newly discovered evidence in the case.

GRAVE CONDITION: Tornado damage in Wren, Ga., unearths unmarked grave believed to belong to a Revolutionary War soldier.

WALK IT OUT: Norcross plainclothes cop tests testy drivers by walking back and forth on a crosswalk across Jimmy Carter Boulevard intersection, while uniformed cops lie in wait.

PRECESSION: President of Atlanta Federal Reserve says “slowdown” will last longer than previously predicted and may still become a recession. Also, AccessNorthGa.com expertly illustrates local effects of the economic downturn with this news graphic. [UPDATE: Apparently this story, and its graphic, have been taken down. But here’s a screen shot.]

LIFE IN THE FAT LANE: Overweight Henry County man is denied bus service, despite weighing less than the posted weight limit for hydraulic wheelchair lift on county bus.

WTF, MSM? Local bloggers attended the Atlanta Press Club event on “Ethics and New Media: How the Blogosphere is Affecting Journalism and Business” last night. We’re still waiting on impressions from such folks as Shelbinator, GriftDrift and MostlyMedia.

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ATLANTA PRESS CLUB PANEL: Everyone is excited about the Internet.

Last Thursday at the Atlanta Press Club, the Honeycomb Hideout of Atlanta journalism, four local masters of political webitude participated in a panel discussion on how electronic media are affecting political campaigns.

Former AJC-er and current Southern Political Report-er Tom Baxter noted how the Web allowed for a proliferation of political news outlets such as Politco and the Huffington Post. The entire panel — which included CNN.com’s John Helton, Shelby “Shelbinator.com” Highsmith and James “Griftdrift.blogspot.com” Williams — agreed the electronic media allow both facts and bullshit to go further and faster than ever, and for average people (be they bloggers, YouTubers or idiots who think Sen. Barack Obama is Muslim) to shape political debates in ways that were, until 10 years ago, limited to people with access to TV studios or printing presses.

So how are electronic media affecting campaigns? They are changing the tools, the tactics and speed without necessarily changing underlying principles.

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The Drake Diner stops breakfast at 11. A diner! Further proof Iowa sucks.

— Shebinator, one of two local bloggers I know of who was actually in Iowa last night. If there were others, please educate me.

Shelby’s feelings about Iowa might be colored by the fact that his favorite Democrat, Sen. Joseph Biden, dropped out of the race after his poor showing.

Or maybe Iowa just really, really sucks.

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The Clinton machine will do its best to slime Obama in the coming days, but — and I’ve been waiting to say this for years — their time has passed. The race is clearly defined now, and I don’t see voters opting for polarization over real change.

— ATLMalcontent on the perhaps fatally wounded candidacy of the senator he likes to call Hillbot.

Mr. Malcontent also lavished praise on Obama’s victory speech (which really was amazing), noting the similarities between Obama’s gift for rhetorical uplift and the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy’s.

Sen. Clinton also evokes RFK’s memory, but not in the same way. Like RFK, Clinton is attempting to return her family to the White House via a carpetbagged New York Senate seat.

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It’s clear that the voters want change-now they have to look hard at Edwards and Obama and decide just what sort of change they really want.

— Amy Morton at Georgia Women Vote was in Iowa last night. As you might have gathered from the order in which the names appear, she’s an Edwards supporter.

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Therefore, I support Mike Huckabee because he wants to get the federal government out of my pocket by endorsing the “Fair Tax”.

— The Oracle of Winder, posting at BuzzBrockway.com, supports Mike Huckabee for no other reason, he says, than because Huckabee supports the national sales tax scheme known as the Fair Tax.

You may recall in September 2007 that Osama bin Laden released a video in which he called the U.S. tax system “insane” and bragged that, under Islamic law, Americans would not have to pay it.

Expect to see Huckabee/bin Laden ‘08 yard signs popping up in Winder any day now.

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Rush spent most of the program bashing Huckabee, like most conservative pundits have taken to doing.

— Peach Pundit commenter John Konop, posting the blog’s Iowa caucus open thread, notes the Republican punditocracy’s failure to drive a wedge between Huckabee and Republican voters.

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The stupid and superstitious have spoken - they said “Give us the televangelist. GIVE US THE HUCKLEBERRY!”

Yeehaw!

— Peach Pundit commenter GodHatesTrash in the same open thread.

If you haven’t guessed, Peach Pundit’s open thread on Iowa is great, great reading.

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Rep. David Scott (D-GA)

-Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington today released its third annual report “on the most corrupt members of Congress.” Georgia’s own Rep. David Scott makes the list for what CREW describes as Scott’s “ethics issues … from allegations of tax evasion and misuse of official resources for political campaign activity.”

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For some prospective voters, a little smile goes a long way.

-Atlanta’s Shelby Highsmith, on a video blog report he did for Huffington Post about Rudy Giuliani’s recent visit to OK Cafe. If you don’t have time to watch the whole thing, at least watch the last minute. It provides a succinct and, well, frightening insight into The Political Brain.

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While the Tavern acknowledges that Glenn no longers [sic] sports the 70’s porn mustachio, we should never forget.

-FlackAttack at Tondee’s Tavern explains, with photo, why he calls Georgia Speaker of the House Glenn Richardson “The Stache.” FlackAttack also notes Rep. Tom Price’s startling resemblance to Ned Flanders. Former CL political writer Kevin Griffis noted the resemblance back in 2003. Since then, Price has begun morphing into a cross between Flanders and Vincent Price.

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Hey, I have an idea: why doesn’t Dave G-damn Matthews think of ways to give concerts more truck- and bus- and generator-free! For three days leading up to the concert, my street and the Piedmont Park Meadow were covered with trucks, buses, generator-powered streetlights, and all manner of workmen moving fences, stage construction materials, port-a-potties, trailers, and other accoutrement around in preparation for an environmental extravaganza that would surely leave our newly re-landscaped park in muddy ruins.

-Shelbinator, responding to an obnoxious, tone-deaf announcement by the Midtown Neighbors’ Association telling residents that use of cars would be “frowned upon” all weekend.

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. . . and the press has the nerve to insult her figure? Fuck you. Fuck you big time. THIS is WHY so many women (and men) have issues with their bodies, and why so many have eating disorders in this country. Statements like this are completely despicable and do so much harm to the self esteem of so many, and for what? All in the name of insult? SHAME, shame, shame.

-Duane Moody, who LOVES Britney Spears, lashes out at the author of an article mocking Spears’ physique at last night’s MTV video crapfest. Because, as we all know, Spears’ career until last night was focused on sending healthy messages to young women about body image and sexuality.

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There will be buzz aplenty in the room when Black Lips, The Selmanaires, and The Coathangers take over the 40 Watt stage. It’s the first night of the extensive Black Lips/Selmanaires tour, and the night before The Coathangers play their own CD release show over in Atlanta. We’re so damn spoiled around here.

-Rich at Cable & Tweed on this Wednesday’s Atlanta rock mega-gig at the 40 Watt. I’m a sentimental old fogey, so I’ll be at Crowded House that night.

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You see, it’s all about the Femme Troopers. And helping strangers with their cleavage.

-Shelbinator narrating his excellent short video documentary of Dragon*Con.

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Walking in the scorching Atlanta sun shouting “I’m Black, I’m Out and I’m Proud”! was life affirming and reminiscent of the civil rights movement, a different struggle, but a struggle I identify with nonetheless.

-Darian at Living Out Loud on marching during Black Gay Pride

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What I doubt she understands is that she is trapped in a classist dilemma. She’s a Little Five Points hipster, which means she has to be very carefully correct about tolerating diversity. However, she’s an educated child of the haute bourgeois culture of mid-town, , which means she has to hate everything about the DriveInvasion, which is working class, not-so-covertly racist and anti-intellectual to a fault.

-AnselPixel’s surprising take on Drive-Invasion

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Project your sexual frustration elsewhere.

— Shelbinator’s insightful and appropriate response to Grayson Daughters’ typically resentful gibberish rant about his activities at the CNN-YouTube presidential debate on Monday.

I have absolutely no intention of going, but I must give them props for finally having SOMETHING in the way of local events at the Borders on Ponce.

— Borders on Ponce is dead to I Saw It On Ponce.

Pimp C hat scheinbar was falsches geraucht und rief in Atlanta beim Radio an um das halbe Rap Game zu beleidigen. “Gefühle sind wie Arschlöcher, jeder hat welche”… dieser schöne Satz leitet seine Erklärung darüber ein, dass Atlanta eigentlich im Osten ist und Texas der echte Süden ist. Aber es wird noch vieeel besser. Grund für den Anruf war ein Ozone Interview das ihr hier checken könnt (in groß).

— ToxicProllBlog is saying something. I’m not sure what, but when I try to read it aloud phonetically with a fake German accent, it sounds like blogfighting.

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7:41 I love it when Joe Biden gets riled up. I really think there’s a serious psychological component to my support for his candidacy; he sounds just like my dad sometimes.

— Blogger and Biden fan Shelbinator was in the blogger room at last night’s CNN/YouTube Democratic presidential debate.

I caught about half of the debate and found myself in agreement with Sen. Biden on one of the campaign’s key issues — Elizabeth Kucinich is also my favorite thing about Dennis Kucinich.

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The debate would have been a lot better had it just been between Edwards, Clinton and Obama. I really like Kucinich and Richardson, but their chances at getting the nomination are only slightly above Gravel’s.

— Jim V. at JimV.com on last night’s CNN/YouTube debate

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He was damn proud of voting for George W. Bush over John Kerry.

— Nita at Tondee’s Tavern, on an interview with DeKalb County CEO and Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Georgia Vernon Jones

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So far, people have felt safe moving back into the city, but if another kidnapping happens, or if worse, one is successful, those condos will become very inexpensive very quickly and Real Estate Developers will egg on an already eager legislature to punish the city.

-Bloglanta on early Sunday morning’s kidnapping of two men from an East Atlanta street. The two men were held captive in Cabbagetown while their kidnappers used their credit cards.

The victims were found unhurt and were home Sunday night.

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Throughout the debate on immigration, polls have shown that most Americans are not the raging xenophobes leaders on both sides of the aisle feared and many on the right courted and ignited. Most Americans just want an alternative story to “amnesty for dark-skinned lawbreakers who steal our jobs and want to say the Pledge of Allegiance in Spanish.” They want a narrative that has the ring of truth–but comprehensive truth about comprehensive reform.

-Emory University professor of psychology Drew Westen on Huffington Post.

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In reality, the iPhone is yet another symbol of the rape of the American consumer by a plutocratic oligopoly of the big cellular providers.

-Shelbinator doesn’t like the iPhone.

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