Fresh Loaf

The AP’s Russ Bynum writes an excellent piece that helps explain why Georgia has found itself at the tippity top of a terrible list — the state with the highest number of bank failures:

Experts say it’s a combination of an antiquated state law that favored a plethora of smaller community banks over multi-branch giants; a population explosion in metro Atlanta that fueled massive suburban real estate development and a crush of new banks formed to cash in on the Atlanta boom shortly before the market tanked.

…

Georgia’s diversity of small banks was an asset when the economy was strong, with consumers benefiting from competitive rates and broader sources of credit, said James Verbrugge, a professor emeritus of finance at the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business. It became a liability when the bottom fell out of the housing market and smaller banks had less capital to weather the crisis.

The excerpts don’t do the article justice. Give it a read for your daily dose of edumacation.

(Hat tip to Travis Fain)

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Why did Republican über blogger Erick Erickson repeatedly call soon-to-retire U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter a “goat fucking child molester“?

In an interview yesterday with Macon Telegraph reporter and Lucid Idiocy blogger Travis Fain, Erickson explained his juvenile, slanderous outbursts thusly:

“I felt good at the time saying it.”

Erickson’s Twitter-friendly, 34-character sentence might as well be adopted as the official motto of the right-wing punditocracy and the G.O.P.

They’re a depressed and damaged lot; emotionally wounded by voters who keep rejecting their awful ideas and their awfuller candidates. And the smart ones, like Erick, know it’s probably going to get a lot worse before it gets any better. Palin-Jindal ‘12, anyone? How about Jeb Bush and Mitt Romney? Exactly.

To cope with the rejection, they’re regressing to a child-like state and stroking their ids.

Serious people don’t take Republicans seriously anymore, so they might as well forget all their worries by saying and doing all the stupid shit they want. What difference does it make, man? As long as it feels good.

Republicans are the new hippies and hate is the new Haight.

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Not exactly a blog, but it deserves a shout out. Staffers at UGA’s student-run newspaper the Red and Black worked overtime to provide coverage of Saturday’s shootings. Read their follow-ups here, here and here.

Ben at Terminal Station rips into state Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine’s idea to consider privatizing MARTA.

Jim Walls of Atlanta Unfiltered uses the words “Tyler Perry,” “Tupac Shakur,” and “comp time” all in the same blog post as he delves deeper into the firing of former DeKalb Police Chief Terrell Bolton.

Christa at Pecanne Log spots the hottest trend in spring fashions during historic economic collapses! Recycled ethernet cables! Yay!

Garrett Vonk fires back at Twitta-hatas.

Jason Pye, who says he’s never taken a puff, says decriminalizing marijuana should be on the table. Also: Legalizing marijuana is now more popular than the Republican Party.

Veteran TV journalist and Live Apartment Fire blogger Doug Richards today will pull the tarp off the magical news van to pull a one-day shift in the 11 Alive newsroom. Here’s exclusive video of him training for the adventure.

Travis Fain at Lucid Idiocy wonders if lawmakers have already been forgiven for failing to make progress on transportation funding this year.

Decatur Metro. Leon’s Full Service. And late-night drunken bocce. Discuss.

FlackAttack bids adieu at Tondee’s Tavern.

Other exciting links feel free to post them in the comments.

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Fox News Host Sean Hannity

Travis Fain, one of the state’s best political reporters, interviewed Fox News host and Master Teabagger Sean Hannity about his role in tonight’s Tea Party protest at the Capitol. It’s an excellent interview and worth checking out — mainly because he gives Hannity a fair shake and actually debates him.

TELEGRAPH: How many of the things that you and Rush Limbaugh, other talk show hosts — how much of what you say is an absolute belief and how much is to draw in readers, listeners and viewers?

HANNITY: I can tell you Sean Hannity doesn’t — you know, everything I say is true. I’m surprised you’d even ask that question. You mean you think I would contrive opinion just to get reaction?

TELEGRAPH: I wouldn’t say… I certainly wouldn’t say that. But it is an entertainment business, although you’re in the news business. There has to be a, sort of, flair to it. I’ll give you an example if you like. … Today on your show I heard you say that Barack Obama has this country headed for a total economic collapse, much worse than anything we’re experiencing now, within the next few years.

HANNITY: What I was saying there is, when I add up all those numbers that I just mentioned to you… and I look at the Congressional Budget Office analysis, which for years was the gold standard in terms of predicting what the deficit and the impact on the economy economic plans are going to have … and they’re telling me that the numbers are not sustainable. … That is a formula for economic — potential economic — collapse. … You can’t really fully, completely predict. But I was saying that in the context, with the texture of, these numbers are frightening.

TELEGRAPH: They are frightening. The (Government Accountability Office), though, has been saying for many years that our way of life is unsustainable. I’m not certain that this is a Barack Obama problem. I think this may be an America problem.

Definitely worth reading.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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Names of state legislators who failed to file or pay state or federal taxes — 22 at last count — are now rolling out. Chief among them: Senate Minority Leader Rob Brown of Macon.

The Macon Telegraph’s Travis Fain has the news — and even makes Drudge:

Nearly 10 percent of Georgia state legislators are late filing or paying their state taxes, and state Sen. Robert Brown is apparently among them.

Brown, D-Macon, said Wednesday he’s not sure whether he actually owes the state or federal government any money because he hasn’t filed tax returns. He said he’s gotten extensions, but he declined to give more information or say for what years he received filing extensions.

More info at the Telegraph’s site. Pay no attention to the raging commenters, a hallmark of every Drudge-linked article.

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Christa at Pecanne Log says I say someone else says Bill Murray is loose in Atlanta. One night he’s at Loca Luna buying drinks for strangers. Another night he’s watching the Hawks play the Cleveland Cavaliers. Supposedly, he’s filming this flick. I’m still waiting for him to get a pedicure with me.

Buzz Brockway at Peach Pundit says the site’s bloggers won’t retaliate against state lawmakers who voted for Senate Bill 31, a controversial piece of legislation they adamantly opposed. The complex bill would allow Georgia Power to recover financing costs in advance for two proposed nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle. The Punditeers got into a tiff with the Georgia Public Policy Foundation, a free-market think tank, about the issue. No hard feelings, the bloggers say, but they’d still like a clear explanation of the foundation’s stance on the issue. (Just one more: Jason Shepard at the site finds Georgia’s facebook page shows an unexpected “friend.”

Remember #atlgas? Grift links to a Nightline report in which the Twitter hashtag that saved Atlanta’s ass is mentioned.

Decatur’s wi-fi cloud is “complete,” Decatur Metro reports.

Jim Galloway at the AJC’s Political Insider sneaks a peek at preliminary numbers which show Georgia’s rush of newcomers — aka the growth industry, the state’s bread and butter — might be slowing. He writes a powerful post about the subject.

Want solid political commentary recorded here in Atlanta? The new Kudzu Vine podcast is posted and available for download.

Doug at Live Apartment Fire points us to a recent piece by Tom Jones, the WSB-TV reporter who won’t work for nobody but you. Jones covered the search for a man who’s allegedly been flashing children in the Grant Park area. The suspect’s ripped a page from afterschool specials and is offering candy to the tykes.

Travis Fain wants the old Speaker Glenn Richardson back. I second that.

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Travis Fain, one of The Macon Telegraph’s best muckrakers who also blogs at the hilarious Lucid Idiocy, has parachuted into Atlanta for the legislative session. Fain ran into some Houston County bigwigs and asked why they think Perdue took out a $21 million loan last September.

Today I spoke to one man who I consider just about as plugged into the business establishment in the Warner Robins area as you can be. And he said he’s talked to everyone he can think of, and can’t get a whisper of fact about what that loan was for.

Since taking office, the governor has both managed the state and his two agribusinesses. Last month, the AJC reported Perdue secured the loan for his two agribusinesses on pretty extraordinary circumstances just as credit markets were tanking. He’s declined to tell the public why he took out the loan or how he plans to repay it.

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The Macon Telegraph’s Travis Fain, blogging at Lucid Idiocy and following up on what was first reported here at Georgia Premium, follows up and says that U.S. Senate candidate Jim Martin’s campaign may have pulled the trigger a little too soon on another endorsement. First there was the Josh Lanier gaffe, now it involves state Agriculture Commissioner Tommy Irvin. Fain reports the Martin campaign is declining comment until it speaks with Irvin.

Fain raises two good points:

But, 1.) How do you run a race against Vernon Jones and end up looking shady?

And, 2.) Is this all a case of people truly remaining neutral, or of people just technically remaining neutral because Jones might win?

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Travis Fain of the Macon Telegraph, who’s perhaps the best journalist covering General Assembly shenanigans without actually having to step foot under the Gold Dome’s evil shadow, has an astoundingly thorough post on his Lucid Idiocy blog about General Assembly leaders’ talk of water-conservation legislation and what’s actually taken shape.

Before the session began, both Gov. Sonny Perdue and Speaker of the House Glenn Richardson told me that, in addition to new reservoir funding this year, they expected water conservation legislation to move.

This was Gov. Perdue’s comment, in January:

Perdue said new building codes “for the future” and tax credits for more efficient water usage are both likely. But the governor twice noted that the state doesn’t want to usurp local power over water resources.

And the Speaker in November:

I’m not going to pass legislation to tell people you’ve got to have a low-flow toilet. I think we could change our policies on EPD, with wastewater treatment, to point discharge instead of sprayer irrigation. I think we can change some really basic things that have to do with leakage. … You do realize that leakage in existing pipes is somewhere between 10 and 12 percent loss per day, just leaking out of pipes. And that’s a problem. … I do see a possible piece of legislation in addition to the reservoir piece that might look into the viability of creating a water resource division to work with Environmental Protection Division. Clearly Environmental Protection Division has not done an adequate job of protecting Georgia’s water resources over the last 10 or 15 years.

…

Reservoirs were definitely addressed, with $40 million included in the 2008 budget adjustment for new reservoirs and $500,000 there for existing reservoir maintenance.

As for conservation, it doesn’t seem like a lot of legislation came to fruition. There are several bills dealing with water usage that have either passed or are still alive. Most of them seem to make it easier to use more water as opposed to encouraging conservation, but you should judge for yourself.

Two caveats: 1.) Things change fast these last few days, and bill language is no exception. 2.) The vote status comes from the General Assembly’s Web site Wednesday evening, which may be a little behind.

Read here for more.

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