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THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT!
REMEMBER THAT TRICK CITY DOPE warned would
be coming from the outgoing Mayor and
Commission? They couldn't pull it off. On the
occasion of their final meeting, at noon on
January 6, the lame duck majority tried to undo
the December denial of a greenbelt "conservation
subdivision." (Commissioner Charles Carter would
have cjst the go-ahead vote on the sprawling
development, but surprised everyone by recusing
himself due to conflict of interest—leaving the
majority one "yea" shy of the six votes needed to
pass the proposal.) For their swan song, the
departing Hugh Logan and Alvin Sheats, along
with Carter, wailed about the December mistake. If
only someone who voted against it would change
his mind, they lamented. Round and round. Over
and over. But it didn't happen. Buh-bye.
WHO'S MORE OUT OF IT THAN LOCAL Limbaugh
wannabe John Breffle? Could be his Tuesday/
Thursday on-air counterpart Elizabeth Dalton.
Early last week, Dalton called up Flagpole to ask a
"publisher or editor" to appear on her year end
wrap-up show along with other local media hacks.
JIM HIGHTOWER
tiusfis c$nQUJ £fe>$
America's CEOs are beginning to give
greed a bad name.
Take a squint at John W. Snow. He was
the Big Kahuna of CSX corporation, one of
the nations largest railroads, before being
hand-picked by George W. Bush to be trea
sury secretary, our government's top eco
nomic position. Aside from the fact that his
appointment adds yet another corporate
baron to the most corporate administration
in history, this guy was touted by the
White House for his ethics. It seems that
Snow has been quite outspoken in his con
demnation of the CEOs of Enron, WorldCom,
and all the other ethically-challenged exec
utives who make a killing at the expense of
workers, shareholders and everyone else.
Indeed, the White House propaganda
machine exclaimed that Mr. Pure-as-the-
driven-Snow is so ethical that he magnani
mously agreed to forego a S15 million
payoff that he had written into his CSX
contract. If he took a job in "public ser
vice," went the deal, he'd get 15 Big Ones.
But, he now says, he wants no special
favors, so forget it
Before we heap hosannas on him, how
ever, let's note a very special favor he's get
ting from CSX that neither he nor the White
House have mentioned: His pension. As CEO
of the company, Snow cut back on the pen
sions of CSX retirees, but he took very good
care of himself: he will get pension credit
for 44 years of work at CSX, even though he
was only there 25 years; his benefits will be
based not just on his salary (as is the rule
for regular employees), but also on his
bonuses and on the value of 250,000 shares
of stock the board gave to him. This means
he'll be collecting $2.5 million a year, every
year, until he dies.
All this for a CEO who was no great
shakes. In the past five years, while his
pay rose 69 percent, CSX stock price fell
53 percent
Snow is neither managerially nor ethi
cally ept He's just another Bush Snow job.
Jim Hightower is a political columnist,
radio commentator and former Texas agricul
ture commissioner.
After tossing her invite around like a hot potato
with Publisher Pete, City Dope reluctantly agreed
to step up—only to have Dalton explain as con
descendingly as humanly possible that the show
would be for publishers and editors, not mere
"reporters." After learning that yours truly is actu
ally executive editor of this fine publication,
Dalton was still less than impressed.
HERE'S WHERE IT GETS GOOD: Dalton then asked
where she could pick up a copy of Flagpole to
get a taste of our year in review column ["The
Year In Outrages," Dec. 25 & Jan. 1], with the
promise that she'd get back to us. After ringing
off. City Dope mirthfully informed Pete that
Flagpole was essentially auditioning to be on
Dalton's show, to which he replied "Advise them
to have sexual relations with themselves." Or
something along those lines.
HERE'S WHERE IT GETS BETTER: When Dalton
phoned back, she explained—maintaining that
uncanny air of condescension—that discus*‘ m on
her show would be on scary grown-up topics like
Terrorism and The Economy, but that she'd be
happy to have us on as the "entertainment" com
ponent. As entertaining as we consider ourselves
to be, City Dope politely declined and suggested
that she ask Breffle to appear in our stead, since
he so often reads this column on the air. Sht
didn't get that, either.
AND FINALLY, THE PUNCHLINE: In all of Athens,
what's the ideal position for a humorless, conserv
ative, self-styled politico who doesn't know where
to pick up a Flagpole? You guessed it. Elizabeth
Dalton is the 2003 chair of the Athens Area
Chamber of Commerce. How perfect is that?
P.S.: NOT THAT YOU'RE READING THIS, Ms.
Dalton, but you might want to ask your COC pre
decessor (Athens Banner-Herald publisher) Jeff
Wilson if he knows where to pick up a Flagpole.
ON THAT NOTE, CITY DOPE HAS OFTEN wondered
about, and at times marveled at, the Athens
Banner-Herald editorial board's unwillingness to
weigh in on the actions of the Athens-Clarke
County government—particularly those of the
Mayor and Commission. Now that its endorsee Doc
Eldridge has been replaced, it looks as if those
days are over. In fact, let the record show that
the daily began second-guessing Heidi Davison
before she took office. A January 2 lead editorial
"commends" Davison's Community Snapshot
Project—a group of citizens the new Mayor has
selected to help bring her up to speed on major
issues—but frets that "its work could be tainted
by the perception of bias or political cronyism."
The ABH goes on to insist that if the group "is
supposed to serve in an advisory capacity for the
entire county government," it should instead be
appointed by the grand jury.
NEVER MIND THAT DAVISON TOLD FLAGPOLE in
an interview last week (see p. 6) that she con
vened the panel to collect data, and says that's as
far as they've taken it to this point—in whose
mind does sharing information, regardless of the
source, smack of "political cronyism"?
AND SINCE WHEN DID "CRONYISM" pop into the
ABH editorial board vocabulary? It must've shown
up on a "Word Of The Day" calendar someone
got for Christmas, because they sure as hell never
used it to describe any of the untold number of
backroom maneuvers undertaken by the previous
Mayor and Commission majority.
LETS DISCUSS "CRONYISM" FOR A BIT.
"Cronyism" is how a landscape architect who regu
larly appears before the Mayor and Commission on
behalf of himself and his developer clients gets
appointed to a governmental committee to shape
local land use law. "Cronyism" is how the past
AS A SERVICE TO THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, City Dope presents this photo of what we call a " Flagpole tack" Inside are
copies of Flagpole Magazine Founded in 1987. Flagpole is a locally owned weekly publication read by students, professors,
doctors, lawyers, developers, guitarists, Commissioners and ex-Mayors This particular rack is located outside the downtown Post
Office—very convenient to the new Chamber HQ. There are also racks nearby at The Brit and the 40 Watt, but we don't have
space here to explain what those are.
president of the Athens Area Home Builders
Association, who is also the Mayor's buddy, gets
appointed to that same committee. "Cronyism" is
when a sitting 4ayor contributes to the reelection
campaign of a Commissioner who shares his polit
ical ideology, Lhen helps that Commissioner secure
a governmental appointment after she loses.
"Cronyism" is when the same two dozen people
show up on the rosters of nearly every govern
mental board, authority, commission and com
mittee there is. "Cronyism" is when attorneys
petitioning for rezonings give money to the
Mayor's reelection campaign.
AND WHY OH WHY DIDNT WE HEAR CRIES of
"cronyism" from the Banner-Herald editorial board
regarding any of the above? Because "cronyism"
happens when the parent company of the daily
newspaper has a potential business interest in
keeping the sitting Mayor and Commission
majority in office. It's when the daily newspaper
breaks from its tradition of not endorsing candi
dates in primary elections in order to try and save
that Mayor and a Commission majority ring
leader—two incumbents who had recently helped
commit big taxpayer bucks to a project that could
very well benefit the daily paper's parent com
pany, in much the same way the parent company
profited from a similar public-private deal in its
home city of Augusta. "Cronyism" is when the
daily paper conveniently omits any of that infor
mation from its political endorsements, just as it
avoided criticizing—or even questioning—the
administration whose closed-door policies served
the paper's political and financial interests.
NOW THAT THE VOTING PUBLIC HAS YANKED the
covers off the bed once shared by the Athens-
Clarke County government and the Banner-Herald,
now that Athens-Clarke has a Mayor who is
already acting on her promise to conduct the
people's business out in the open, the paper has
apparently found its inner City Dope. And that's
fine. Just keep in mind over the next four years
why the people chose Heidi Davison—not Doc
Eldridge—to be their next Mayor, and to what
lengths the Banner-Herald honchos went to keep
her out.
Brad Aaron
Send your city dope to bradaaron@Jlagpole.com.
Tilt MtllRH WtILI by TOM TOMORROW
R£m£m3£R that conversation pat RoBERTSon had
WITH JERRY FALWELL ON THE 700 CLUB" A FEW
DAYS AFTER THE SEPTEMBER ll ATTACKS?
X REALLY BELIEVE THAT THE PAGANS AND THE
TIONISTS AND THE FEMINISTS AND THE GAYS AND THE
LESBIANS..ALL Of THEM WHO
IZ£ AMERICA—X POINT THE
AND
WELL, ROBERTSON WAS (AND STILL IS, AS FAR AS
WE KNOW; HEAVILY INVESTED IN A GOLD MINING
OPERATION IN LIBERIA--IN PAll^ERSHlP WITH that
COUNTRYS BRUTAL DICTATOR, CHARLES TAYLOR--
X BELIEVE THAT TORTURE AND SUMMARY EXECUTIONS
ARE THE KEY TO AN ORDERLY SOCIETY!
—AND HERE 5- THE INTERESTING PART: A' ABOUT THE
SAME TiME ROBERTSON AND FALWELL WERE BUSY
CASTING STONES TOWARD SECULAR HUMANISTS, ROB
ERTSON’S PAL TAYLOR WAS ACTUALLY PROVIDING
SANCTUARY To Al QAEDA OPERATIVES, in
RETURN FOR A MILLION DOLLAR PAYOFF, *
YOU HAVE MADE IT POSSIBLE FOR US TO CONTINUE
OUR HOLY WAR A6AINST THE PAGANS AND ABORTIONISTS
AND HOMOSEXUALS AND ALL THE OTHER NOf®£Ll£VERS,
PRESIDENT TAYLOR*
YOU KNOW, YOU
REMIND ME Of
THIS OTHER FEL
LOW X KNOW...
JANUARY 8, 2003 • FLAGP0LE.COM 5
'^'|5fy(?(?.yjO2003...TiP o’ THE PCNiouiM) to aawey balko/mowai»u>g.o«6* BRADAAR0N