Ben K pointed out to me in the comments section of the last post that I haven’t mentioned anything about the DOT-backed transportation sales tax bill, which would (among other things) fund the Reason Foundation’s ridiculous tunnel-under-Atlanta idea and siphon more tax dollars away from metro Atlanta and into rural road projects.
Citizens for Progressive Transit says:
[It] would prevent popular projects such as the Beltline and Brain Train from moving forward. To get federal funding for such projects, state and local governments must promise to operate the projects for at least 30 years. Mr. Doss’ bill provides operating funds for only ten years, effectively preventing the expansion of public transportation. Although the bill proposes startup funds for the Atlanta Streetcar, it provides no operating funds for the project.
The Atlanta Business Chronicle has more.
What bugs me about the people who support this kind of crap is that they try to defend their ridiculous ideas with statements like “rail isn’t profitable” or “there’s no market for rail” or “I don’t want my taxpayer dollars paying for metro Atlanta’s transportation.”
I want to grab them, shake them, slap their chubby little faces, and rub their noses in their lies until the fumes eat through what’s left of their brains.
Did you see the billions with a B being doled out for those road projects? That’s not corporate money or tolls. That’s mine and your taxpayer dollars. I am paying for rural roads, you are paying for urban roads. We’re both paying for suburbanites’ roads. That’s how state agencies work, stupid.
Private passenger rail was humming along just fine in this country until the government got into the road-building business and put the private rail operators out of business. If you support bills like this one, you are supporting a government monopoly that deprives consumers the choice to drive or take rail. There was a market for rail before, and there would be one again if it was placed on equal footing with roads.
Either fund road alternatives or stop funding anything, because what we have now isn’t working. And you’re a moron if you think doing the same thing we’ve been doing will lead to different results.
There are only so many names I can throw at road lobby shills like Steve Davis before it turns into a drinking game, even if he is a dim-witted profiteering bullshit-spouting road lobby puppet who deserves every ounce of contempt thrown his way. All I can do is pace myself and hope I don’t shout myself out.
The lack of leadership on the Democratic side on transit issues is depressing. This should be a bread-and-butter issue for them. They should shove it down the goddamn Republicans’ throat at every turn, clench their fists, and dare them to defy it. Instead, silence. Silence is complicity.
By God I want my 50 lane wide road at I-75 and Windy Hill! Give me asphalt or give me death!
Wow!
No passion for the topics in your previous post and now this.
I’m impressed by the volume and ferocity of your words and I agree on every point.
Just, wow!
Thanks Seth!
Thank you. I am sated.
Fucking milquetoast motherfuckers.
That’s what I think.
I’m sick and fucking tired of our stupid state party with no goddamned backbone.
I frankly don’t think the Dems bitching would make much difference. It would be a bunch of Atlanta Democrats complaining about Republicans, they’d piss of the rural voters, and the suburbanites won’t care. I definately think there is a market for more moderate politics in the suburbs, but they are SO republican that some Atlanta Dems complaining won’t sway anyone’s opinion. It would just be more of the same, and the radical wingers would score political points for screwing Atlanta.
What needs to happen is that people like Sam Olens need to get in charge of the Georgia GOP. I could vote for Sam Olens for Governor, and I’ve collected pay checks from Democratic politicians. Sure, it’d be great if there were some Democrats who could stand up and lead some sort of charge toward a rational transportation policy, but I don’t know who they would be. Most that I can think of have gotten out of elected politics, anyway.
God bless RGM for telling it the way it is. Where in the F are Shirley Franklin & Roy Barnes on mass transit, two Dem’s who don’t have to wory about poll numbers. Did Mark Taylor of Kathy Cox mention mass transit once during their campaigns?
Just turn your back on GA Dem’s and let’s start something new, with the one requirement being you have to have a spine.
Cathy Cox and Mark Taylor both mentioned commuter rail a few time. Cathy sort of tried to make it an issue during the primary. Mark gave the “we need to do rail, but we also need to do rural roads for economic development”. Neither ran with it like they could have, but they did mention it more than once.
Shirley is persona-non-grata among state republicans because of the John Eaves radio ad - her voice would not help so much. Besides, she has been very effective by working various relationships in the legislature and not using the traditional headline grabbing approach previous mayors used.
Roy Barnes proposed the norhern arc highway that this bill proposes and it helped him lose re-election. For what its worth, Roy had more of a spine than most folks. He took on the Confederate flag, teachers unions, alternative transit funding, the northern arc, actually trying to do something about smaller class sizes, estblishing GRTA - maybe not all things to agree with, but he took on some things that weren’t easy and weren’t always popular. And he lost. It is really easy to complain about people not standing up for stuff, and Roy did, and got his ass kicked.
Most people would rather not be a sacrificial lamb so that Creative Loafing can praise them as they lose election after election. Most good politicians would rather effect change than be someone’s whipping boy. Cynthia McKinney “had a spine,” for all the good it did her district and the Democratic Party. All these folks in other states think she is someone to look up to because she “spoke truth to power.” She didn’t get much done, unless you count resolutions asking Congress to look into the death of 2pac.
For this fight, the leader has to come from the right to effect real change. And if you are interested in actually doing more than complain, get involved with your local community. That is what the Republicans did - they started with the school boards, and the city councils. Government is most effective when it is close to the people, so join your local neighborhood association, call your city council member and schedule a meeting. Go to your county party. Do more than bitch about things. Quit waiting for the Georgia Democratic party to get its act together and focus on making your community better - you’ll be surprised at where that will take you. Before you know it, you’ll end up on the state committee. It isn’t that hard if you look at who is on the thing already.
Having a spine only matters if you are in a position to do something about it, or if you are actually risking something. Ivan Allen had a spine, testifying before Congress in favor of the Civil Rights Act - he risked re-election, and people were getting killed for that sort of thing. What Democrat has the power to do anything, much less risk anything by speaking out? what good would it do other than making folks in Atlanta feel good?
You must be freaking kidding, Ben K…
You’re just enabling.
First, GA Dem’s ran the state for a 130 years. 130 years…including the legacy of no seatbelts for pickups. Mass transit issues just didn’t begin four years ago. Shirley was a rock star among both parties until a few months ago. Barnes ran an arrogant campaign, and was foolish to piss off teachers before the election. The Northern Arc was a sop to certain land owners and road builing interests, and he should have known there’d be some backlash. GRTA was another layer of bureaucracy when ARC was already in place. Cynthia was and is a complete freak and a truly ridiculous comparison.
I’m personally already doing the things you suggested. And when you talk to the powers that be from the GA Dem party, I mean really try to talk to them one on one, they’re either clueless, or arrogant, or dismissive, or they whine about Repub’s being in control and they can’t do anything about it. Bullshit. There is still a massive divide between rural and metro Dem’s, and that’s unexcusable. And when it comes to counties, Fulton and DeKalb Counties almost all Dem, are both completely bloated and corrupt, and the Dem elected officials there infight like spoiled four year olds.
If you don’t stand for something then you stand for nothing.
Having a spine (i.e. Jim Webb) matters at all times. GA Dem’s are cowardly and spineless (at least call out Bill Campbell as a thief), and need a slap in the face to come to their senses. Once again, having a spine matters. Period.
(If you’re going to bring it, bring it better than that)
I’m not sure what you want me to “bring”. Are we fighting? I wasn’t really going after you personally, since I don’t know you. it was a more general complaint about lots of dems I know.
I wrote and deleted about three pages of stuff in response. I guess at the end of the day, all I have to say is that complaining about the Democratic party of Georgia is pretty unoriginal, and solves nothing at all. I don’t really disagree with much that you said, other than that blaming it all on the Dems is a bit of a cop out.
BK, my sincere apologies for being abrasive.
I’m fired up and sick & tired, along with a ton of other people, about the current state of GA Dem’s. It’s not complaining; it’s demanding a complete paradigm change. They were the undisputed boss for 130 yrs. Ben, it is original to complain about them, and we have a duty to get right into their grill and scream.
For decades, they ran the show without any dissent from fellow Dem’s. They need to hear it, over and over again, especially from people under 35, and it needs to be loud and clear. Mass transit is the perfect example of their impotency, and it’s intolerable, for the supposed party of the working family.
I think the “we ran it for 130 years” is inaccurate. I can’t remember is name, but Dana Blankenhorn said it best I think when he said that Georgia has always been a one party state - and it has been the same party the whole time. Hell, half the folks in charge of the GOP used to be Democrats. Today’s Democratic party was not the same Democratic party that ran things for 130 years. Zell kind of lost his marbles, but not that much - he was always pretty conservative. If Sam Nunn ran today, he’d probably run as a Republican.
sure, complain - they need to hear it. But don’t wait for them to change. I think state Dems are pretty stupid to ignore things like transit, and to be focusing on the rural areas. They should be focusing long term on moderate suburban folks - the economic and social libertarians with views similar to Rusty. That is just a political calculation from my viewpoint, not because it is “right”.
I lose patience with the self-righteous left, because they have the same problem as the self-righteous right - they ignore the realities of governing, or with the realities of this state. I think the way you shake up the Democratic party in this state is to get involved, as I’ve mentioned and as you have done. But you have to figure out a way to deal with the fact that this is a very conservative state - there are fissures within the GOP that are beginning to show, but it is one of the reddest states out there. Even Alabama has a Democratic legislature, I think.
If the state Democratic party stood up for everything Creative Loafing said they should stand up for, they’d have even fewer elected seats than they hold today. That is just a political reality. JB Powell could not be in the Senate as a Democrat if the state party really stood up for gay rights, for example. Period. You can call that enabling, but it is a as damn near a political fact as you can have.
The only way to deal with this fact is through SOCIAL change, not political change. You can organize and tighten up the state party, and they need it, but until the population gets an attitude adjustment it won’t make a whole lot of difference. Remember that all these yahoos like Ben Bridges and Steve Davis get elected by people who believe much the same as they do. And they aren’t bad people, I just disagree with them. Even Steve Davis (as much as Rusty disagrees with me) is probably just doing what he thinks is right. Most legislators feel as righteous about what they are doing as you feel about your issues. (Not all, but most.)
You have to shake up the suburban mindset, re-invest people in communities instead of cul-de-sacs, get them to believe in the American dream again, a dream of eqalitarianism, justice, and opportunity, to understand that sacrifice is more than a slogan, and that Jesus stood for more than ostracizing people. Until Georgians (and Americans) believe in each other again, you can forget about them working together. I’ve got a lot of work to do, myself, since I hold a pretty sizable resentment towards everyone in this state that doesn’t live in Atlanta proper.
But politics is about making real changes, and that takes time. We have a system designed to take time. And you can’t make real changes if you can’t get elected. Until the state population changes, the party needs to learn to talk about its values differently - we can’t talk down to people anymore, and we have to realize they aren’t always going to agree. And we have to be prepared to compromise on issues. Not on principles, but on issues. It is a marathon, not a sprint. I found out I am not the kind of person to hold a fire in my gut for as long as it takes to be on the front line of politics.
the suburbanites won’t care
If true, that’s a shame, because they are the ones that are stuck in the traffic!
The suburbanites are living in a dream world of cheap gas and long-distance commutes and they think nothing will ever change. They are unconscious. Man, are they in for a shock!
I think in the case of transit, you have to make the distinction between suburbanites - folks in gwinnett and cobb probably support the idea of commuter rails - these counties have areas that are trending Democratic already. Folks in Paulding, Forsyth, North Fulton, and Henry county, where lots of the GOP leadership and their bread and butter voters are from, are the ones holding this up.
BK, North Fulton residents would love to be able to take MARTA to the airport, downtown events and Falcons/big football games.
I suspect that if Mark Burkhalter felt real political pressure to expand MARTA or for Alpharetta to have access to commuter rail he’d at least be sponsoring a resolution similar to Don Balfour’s resolution to ask for Congressional funding for the Brain Train. Lots of folks up there are still upset that they have to pay for MARTA at all. I think with North Fulton you probably run into a different dynamic than with the south metro folks - they hate Fulton county, and they hate funding MARTA and Grady.
If they’re that bad, why not replace them?
I myself hate having to pay for Grady, too. If it were well run and wasn’t a cesspool of corruption for decades (Charles Walker), there wouldn’t be the justified resentment that exists today. MARTA is only turning the corner because of Jill Chambers’ remarkable oversight. Pretty amazing how some random anonymous state rep. pays close attention to the books and things go from A League to AAA league in a short amount of time. Would love to see Chambers have oversight over GDOT.
North Fultoners have every right to despise Fulton Co., which has to be one of the most bloated, corrupt county gov’t in US history…I do business with them and it’s truly that bad.
I am not disputing the problems that Fulton Co. has had.
If I recalll, the Charles Walker/Grady situation was a matter of Walker forcing Grady to use his company or potentially cut funding. Not entirely fair to blame Grady for a corrupt leader in the senate. And I haven’t heard anything in the way of corruption at Grady - maybe I don’t listen to the right people, but the general word I hear about Grady is that it performs pretty remarkable work for being as overwhelmed as it is. I does do a pretty good job of training the vast majority of docs in this state - Emory does training there, for one, and even State Sen. Renee Unterman speaks fondly of her time there. I’m not saying Grady couldn’t be managed better, but I think calling it a cesspool of corruption is quite an exaggeration.
Jill Chambers oversight has helped, but I think MARTA’s turn around has as much to do with cutting back services, re-arrainging routes, installing new turnstyles that prevent toll-skipping, the increasing cost of gas, and continued traffic problems. Again, I think it is exaggerating to credit Jill Chambers for getting some good PR. The only real example I can remember of real problems with MARTA management is the lavish lifestyle of the former administrator. In all her auditing, what has Chambers actually found?
BK, time to do your homework on Grady and Jil Chambers/MARTA. Grady in the 80’s and 90’s was a complete cesspoool of corruption/nepotism/cronyism/illegal contracts/etc/. “Cesspool” is an understatement. MARTA changed not only their spending habits but the actual processes of spending because of Chambers. You’re lack of knowledge on this stuff is dragging down meaningful debate.
It also helps that both the new Chair of the board and General Manager at MARTA have backgrounds in finance. After McCrillis took over, an internal audit was conducted. The audit found Ford’s overuse of the company card — changes were made in the process of spending without Chambers needing to step in.
Chambers’ impact has been more in the world of accounting at MARTA. Too much was getting listed as miscellaneous expenses.
I’m not saying Chambers hasn’t helped. I am saying that you are overstating her impact - she is not singlehandedly responsible for turning around MARTA. I give her credit for helping change the accounting procedures. But I think I listed four or five other factors that have made a greater impact in getting MARTA out of the red.
Regarding Grady - I think that if you are going to accuse an organization of being a cesspool of corruption, the burden of proof should be on you. I will gladly change my stance on Grady if you can point out instances of corruption. Otherwise, I will simply repeat what I said earlier - I haven’t heard anything about major problems at Grady, other than them being overwhelmed and underfunded.
A buddy on staff there gave me the long, long version of how Grady was run befoe Dr. Andrew Agwunobi took over. Dr. A made a ton of changes for the better, but even he was eventualy beat down by the total systematic culture of malfeasance, especially while Walker was dealing with the Grady Bd., and his buddy on the board, Robert L. Brown.
Too long to even summarize, but nepotism, cronyism, very shady contracts, etc. was blatant and even fairly open and accepted.
http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2005/05/allegations-of-corruption-affecting.html
http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A19644
http://www.newcriminologist.com/news.asp?id=1494145836
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/2001/07/23/story3.html
‘Management is adrift’
Rising health-care costs and federal reimbursement cuts have hit Grady hard, but some board members insist incompetent leadership and back-door politics continue to compound the hospital’s money problems.
“Hospital management is adrift and I don’t think they have a clue what they are doing,” said Loughrey, who has been one of Grady’s most vocal and critical board members. “Wealthy contractors and trial attorneys are being allowed to rip off the hospital.”
Grady pays about $4 million to $5 million more a year than other public hospitals for everything from pharmaceuticals to paper clips because of the contractors they do business with, Loughrey said.
Hand-picked trial attorneys also receive board approval for huge settlements stemming from malpractice lawsuits, he said.
Good to know. I stand mostly corrected. I was recalling favorable press regarding Dr. A, which even you say seems to have cleaned things up a lot. I’ll admit that paying close attention to Grady’s operations is not a high priority for me.
I think you’ll find I try to be pretty intellectually honest and admint when I’m wrong.
I do think it is worth pointing out that calling North Fulton’s resentment “justified” is inaccurate. Most of Fulton’s problems are real, but calling the resentent justified ignores the history of race in this city. And it undermines the credibility of your argumentse to accept that the premis of North Fulton’s resentment is over policy and management (which I admit need work - I’d personally prefer to see everything ITP get consolidated).
Fulton’s problems are so systemic it’s beyond repair. And no matter what color you are, you pay literally thousands more in taxes and fees each year than you should. I need to find that AJC article that lists how many tax assessors Fulton has than Cobb, Gwinnett, and DeKalb. Fulton has something like 33% more assessors on staff, yet they could not even come cloe to getting the job done. Speak to anyone with gov’t finance experience, and they’ll tell ‘ya: If you don’t have reliable, updated property assessments, your gov’t is screwed.