jim, i don't know whether you intended this, but the relationship between your "critic's" e-mail to you and your "broundup" entry is too ironic to ignore. i assume your critic is a broun supporter and representative of "who do you fear hearing from in the mailbox" most.

i especially like the quote, "wrong side of history, the wrong side of human nature, and the wrong side of common sense". hey, that could be broun's campaign slogan.

recognizing the ire this suggestion will create among commuters and those who pass through athens, i've always thought the best way to address "inner prince" is to three-lane it. i realize that when such a possibility was raised previously, there was quite a bit of opposition, and our pubic officials backed down. too bad.

but now we have more evidence that there is a real safety hazard here. walking across four lanes of traffic without a median is death defying. riding a bicycle also is very dangerous. many people do agree it would be nice to "calm" traffic at certain times of the day. three laning would do that, among other things, like enhancing the "neighborhood" culture of the area.

the only question, i think, is whether we owe more allegiance to our own community or to the commuters and those who pass through. three driving lanes, one or two bike lanes, and a median would make "sense" on inner prince, although it would be "inconvenient" for some.

i've been out of town a lot and may have missed it, but i thought there would be a "traffic study" which would receive a lot of scrutiny. has there been one?

my major concern (as someone who would never use the selig development and thinks the monstrosity on the other side of the road already has destroyed the aesthetics) is traffic.

do we have a serious understanding of how all the new residents of these housing complexes will get in and out, without really clogging the road? "rush hour" is bad enough already.

congratulations, allan!

well, the main lesson learned is that prohibitions against simple possession of pot are stupid, expensive, and counterproductive. we're all paying for this dumb policy, directly or indirectly. the second lesson is that hypocrisy reigns. i'm curious: what is the uga penalty for underage drinking? shouldn't the pot possession penalty be the same? why not?

dupuy obviously is too intelligent to be appreciated by many local readers. i wonder why they bother to read her columns.

the "know nothings" did undermine the whigs, just as the tea party has undermined the republicans (at least four senate seats, now held by democrats, would be held by republicans if not for the tea party movement).

the oddity is that many of the larger tea parties are funded by the super-wealthy, who would be far better off if the tea parties did not exist.

in the longer term, as much as tea parties tend to be associated with utter nonsense and worse (we all remember the photos of placards carried by tea party members--not racist???), they may ultimately be the cause of the repub party's demise.

this cartoon has it about right.

eventually, through demographic changes or a national wake-up call, voters will whittle down the numbers of repubs in congress.

repubs would destroy social security and medicare, if they could, and turn us into a banana republic ruled by oligarchs.

how long will voters, even the christian right, support that kind of agenda?

holder was a bagman for clinton. he was and in a terrible choice for attorney general--one of quite a few poor appointments by pres. obama.

i agree with comments above. who wrote this headline, and why?

plainly, the headline, the news, is "2/3 of charters schools perform worse than public schools".

i will miss him and his columns. his was a valuable voice in the community.

confidence would be even higher if it weren't for the continuing republican war against obama. some "mainstream" republicans, whose stock portfolio has soared, would actually indicate growing confidence.

but, on the other hand, the republican idiocy is the best thing obama has going for him--his former supporters really hate some of the things he's done or not done, but then they hear/see the asinine and cruel republicans, for whom facts don't matter.

a better opposition strategy would be to just shut up and silence the echo chamber. then we'd all be focusing on obama's actual performance.

tea party groups: WHO ARE YOUR DONORS? we don't trust your claim that you're not engaged in partisan politics.

second amendment rights, second amendment rights! what are guns for, anyway? wasn't this guy "threatened" by the machete in the truck? wasn't he "standing his ground?" i think he should ask the nra to get him a lawyer. or, i suppose, people "of his kind" aren't entitled to nra and second amendment protection--unless he bought his gun legally from a proud nra supporter.

i certainly hope these "tea party groups" don't claim to be social welfare, non-politicized organizations legally entitled to tax exempt status.

irs employees asked for additional information for groups which applied for tax exempt status because many of those groups publicly proclaimed that they were involved in and organized for partisan politics--and thus not entitled to the status they sought.

they have been "targeted" in the same sense that the irs is now targeting apple computer--which paid no taxes on huge amounts of income, claiming that its subsidiaries were "stateless" and didn't own taxes to any jurisdiction. in other words, irs employees are trying to do a difficult job.

saying conservative groups were "targeted" by the irs is like saying police using radar "target" cars going over the speed limit to chase down and ticket.

sooner or later (and i think sooner) georgia voters will begin throwing off the "yoke" of talk radio, etc., and begin voting consistent with their collective self-interests. that means not voting for anyone in today's republican party. of course, demographic trends are likely to accelerate that awakening.

cong. barrow has "positioned" himself in many ways that he is a "dino"--democrat in name only--so he will be a tough opponent. i wouldn't be surprised to see him run for governor after deal is gone.

i've always admired coach perno, going back to when he was a player. he's had a very successful career so far, and i expect the best is yet to come. coach perno has had a very positive effect on many players' lives. still, big time college coaching does not accept too many unsuccessful seasons, measured by wins and losses, as every big time college coach understands when he/she takes the job.

obviously, this cartoon nails it. repubs in their echo chambers generally don't know where benghazi is or what the irs statutes require. it's just: attack obama.

and guaranteeing that "hillary will only be a two term president" is about right.

so far, so good.

one of the worst aspects of the adams regime was the top-down, circle the wagons, loyalty oath "leadership" structure. it sounds like jere will try to change things a bit.

but, of course, individuals and their respective motivations ultimately will make the difference. i hope jere will cultivate a culture opposed to "go along to get along" and be receptive to suggestions from all sources.

i wish him the best of luck.

this is mostly just more republican b.s., which the press is too lazy to report accurately. the irs never should have reflexively "apologized" without fully explaining its obligation under the law.

when a "non-profit" "charitable" organization applies to the irs for a tax exemption or other tax preference, the irs is supposed to investigate to determine whether that organization is legally entitled to the tax preference.

most "tea parties" essentially advertised that they were engaged in partisan politics, as part of the republican war on pres. obama. under those circumstances, tea party organizations should have been investigated carefully--which the irs normally has not done adequately--to assure a tax preference was authorized.

if a member of hezbollah, for example, complained that he was being treated "unfairly" by being investigated for inclusion on our "no fly list", would we laugh? how would journalists treat that kind of issue? the press should stop propelling republican ignorance and propaganda.

late draft pick. a risk, but worth it. i agree that he looked good this past season before his injury.

this lawsuit by "justice" makes no sense, comparatively, in view of whom "justice" has declined to prosecute. but then very little that attorney general holder has done, or not done, has made much sense.

i don't know enough facts to analyze the technical merit of the legal claims, but i do know enough to believe this litigation is badly misplaced, much like the various prosecutions of whistle-blowers. "justice" needs a massive dope-slap. i hope the courts/and or jury provides one.

many obama voters are unhappy with his decision-making, but that unhappiness is because obama has pursued too many republican programs and policies, including obamacare and various tax reductions (rather than more direct stimulus programs).

the unhappiness also is because he has been too quick to compromise with asinine, echo chamber republicans, who seem to be ruled by talk radio hosts and conservative "think tank" gurus. if they (republicans) really cared about the deficit, they'd agree to selectively increase taxes. but they won't. not even a dime. the key problem is and has been joblessness. the way to address that problem in the short term is to increase direct stimulus spending for needed services and facilities, not to reduce taxes.

the payroll tax issue is more complicated. yes, obama's reducing it for two years put more money into the system, but it created a danger--a danger to public support for social security. it was a bad idea, another republican idea that should have been rejected. i'm glad the payroll tax reduction has ended.

and the references to geithner in the editorial are absolutely correct, but why limit it to geithner? most of obama's economic and national security appointments have been poor, and his bagman attorney general has been a flop.

i voted for obama, twice, but i'd like to see him resign to take a court appointment, if a suitable one emerges. i have more faith in joe biden.

great editorial, myra.

there are far too many people/corporations making much much too much money in the testing industry. and the so-called "education professionals", or bureaucrats, are in league with them.

this is a non-partisan issue. certainly the obama administration is as guilty as was the bush administration. at the state level, parents and friends should be asking, "what are we allowing the bureaucrats and politicians to do to our children?" and at what cost, to everyone involved?

if it's not "charter schools", it's testing and "accountability". money talks. but we don't have to listen.

in nyc, many parents have decided "enough is enough" and are organizing to prevent their kids from being subjected to these tests. i really sympathize with teachers, who are put in the middle and not really allowed to "teach".

more writing on this subject, myra--especially around election time.

it would be worthwhile to trace the source( of "information" and belief of the global warming deniers. is it talk radio? and those who "fund" talk radio and similar information sources?

similar sources produce ignorance about our economy, our taxes, public education, etc. if we could pinpoint those sources, i suspect we all would benefit from a civil trial for negligence and/or fraud, in which witnesses and other evidence were cross-examined--because in most cases the dissemination of false information has costs. jurors usually can tell when a witness is lying.

if find it most interesting when people are persuaded to believe things that are directly contrary to their economic self-interests, as in the acceptance of georgia's highly regressive tax system.

how many georgia voters are aware that their legislators have created tax preferences for people like my wife and me--who derive our incomes from pensions, investments, and social security--so that we pay far less in state taxes than working people?

how many people rail against public education? why?

in each case, it's money that feeds ideology. money (we're certainly not "job creators"; most people can't afford to send their kids to private schools). people believe what they do because someone, somewhere, is paying out lots of money to make them believe falsehoods.

regarding global warming, the funding for the fraud comes, essentially, from those, like the koch brothers, who profit extravagantly from their private energy businesses and want to keep it that way. why the "true believers" allow themselves to be bag carriers for the ultra-wealthy, i guess, is one of those unknowable questions.

i actually hope obamacare runs into lots of problems, so that we can get to single payer much faster. obama wasn't willing to fight the insurance companies, but if insurance premiums keep going up, maybe others will. so, republicans, keep those complaints about obamacare coming.