Fresh Loaf

JIM MARTIN: Soundly defeats Vernon Jones to win the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate; will face Saxby Chambliss in November.

TED JACKSON: There’s a new (Democratic nominee for) sheriff in town.

CLAYTON: Kem Kimbrough beats controversy-prone Sheriff Victor Hill for the Democratic nomination.

DEKALB CEO: Burrell Ellis beats Stan Watson and, with no Republican contender in the race, is the new CEO.

EX-BIN LADEN DRIVER: Found guilty today in the first Guantanamo war crimes trial.

SEA TURTLE NESTS: A record number have been found in Georgia this year.

ARBORING A GRUDGE: The New York Times reports on former Atlanta senior arborist Tom Coffin, who was fired July 29 for pointing out to his bosses the under- or nonenforcement of the tree ordinance in certain parts of the city.

WILLIE B.: The subject of a new documentary produced by Andrew Young.

UGA: Named by Sports Illustrated as the magazine’s preseason No. 1 and featured on one of five regional covers this week.

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Doug Teper, the prankster with a cue-ball cranium renowned for the passion he brought to the Georgia General Assembly as a state representative from DeKalb County, is in the belly of the beast and bringing the message of freedom, Jaw-juh style, to the people of northern Iraq.

From the rabblerousers at InsiderAdvantage (scroll down):

It’s OK: Teper’s On The Job

Former Democratic State Rep. Doug Teper of Atlanta has turned up in - of all places - Kurdish Iraq. Here’s what he said in a recent e-mail:

“I am consulting with a nonprofit organization called the National Democratic Institute For International Affairs. NDI provides practical assistance to civic and political leaders advancing democratic values, practices and institutions worldwide. At critical moments of transition, NDI’s method is to introduce experts-political party leaders, civic organizers, election officials, and legislators- to those in need of information, guidance and encouragement. I am working with the Political Party Development group training Iraqi political parties in political campaign election organizing.”

Teper said he’s living in a secured compound that has a recreation facility (”tv, darts and, yes, even a self-stocked bar.”) The gig lasts six weeks but could be extended.

He served in the Legislature through 2004.

If you’ve ever been witness to The Wonder That Is Teper, his addition to a warzone would strike you as bizarrely fascinating, although not entirely unexpected. This appears to be Teper’s dormant blog, which is a little glimpse into the mind of the man.

(Photo courtesy of state House of Representatives)

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Yo, America.

American casualties in Iraq are up for the third straight month.

If you insist on focusing your attention on the idiotic ramblings of a narcissistic, ill-tempered religious figure, how about focusing it on one whose ramblings mean life-or-death for thousands of Americans and Iraqis.

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Last night, President Bush released excerpts of the speech he’s going to give today about Iraq on the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war.

As expected, it’s a collage of lies and spin:

“In Iraq, we are witnessing the first large-scale Arab uprising against Osama bin Laden, his grim ideology, and his terror network.”

Osama bin Laden doesn’t now, nor has he ever controlled Iraq. Bush is conflating the Iraq war with the man responsible for 9/11.

The only reason Iraqis have the had the opportunity to turn against al-Qaeda operatives in Iraq is because we created the chaos that allowed them to operate.

It’s true that many Sunni tribal leaders in Iraq have turned against extremists in Iraq like al Qaeda, but Bush is taking credit for Iraqis tackling a problem that his invasion created.

“The surge has done more than turn the situation in Iraq around — it has opened the door to a major strategic victory in the broader war on terror,”

That’s like chopping off a man’s arms and calling yourself a doctor because you brought him paper towels and Bactine.

The troop escalation, known as the surge, has been a skillful refinement of tactics. But even its architect, Gen. David Petraeus, acknowledges it’s a strategic failure so far because Iraqi leaders will not reconcile.

The declared purpose of the escalation was to slow violence enough to facilitate political progress in Iraq. No such progress has been made.

“The successes we are seeing in Iraq are undeniable,”

Millions of Iraqis have fled since the invasion. Millions more were forced from their homes and live as refugees in their own country.

The lowest estimate of Iraqi war dead is 81,000. Iraq is 1/12 the size of the U.S. A similarly deadly war in this country would leave 1 million people dead.

Undeniable success.

(Illustration by Jeremy Fuerst)

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LOS ANGELES (AP) - A police plan to map out Muslim communities, a proposal that civil rights groups sharply criticized as racial and religious profiling, has been shelved, a police spokeswoman said Wednesday.

I guess they’ll have to revert to plan B:

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“The Internet is the new Afghanistan,” says NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly.

But I thought it was a series of tubes.

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