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LARRY TENNER
ATHENS NEWS AND VIEWS
Midyear Conviviality: The Athens Area
Chamber of Commerce, under the care
of Doc-Eldridge, enjoyed a mid-year get-
together at the Melting Point Thursday-
evening, July 10, and a good time was had.
Squat provided the jazzy background to the
evening and among the hardworking busi
nesspeople there were just enough politicians
to lend flavor: Mayor Heidi Davison, Tax
Commissioner Nancy Denson, State Senator
Bill Cowsert, his brother-in-law, former
State Senator Brian Kemp and commission
candidates Mike Hamby and Red Petrovs.
Nascent Rupert Murdoch emulator and Dean
of the Grady College of Journalism and Mass
Communication Cully Clark, who is overseeing
UGA's purchase of the northeast Georgia TV
station WNEG-TV, was also on hand, recall-
Drivers: take it easy! Let the wars of wills con
tinue... but bloodlessly. [John Huie]
Department of Kiss-Ass: To: Republican
Candidates, From: John Oxendine, Date: 29
June, 2008, Re: Campaign 2008. Please find
enclosed a contribution to your campaign. It
comes with my best wish for victory. You have
demonstrated your leadership in our party
and your love for our great state with your
campaign.
Both Ivy and I welcome the opportunity to
campaign with you, in person, in your district.
Please contact my campaign manager, Kathryn
Ballou at 404-872-1740 to arrange. I have
stated that I feel each of you are men and
women of integrity and I am very supportive
and proud of your campaign.
The July 4 storm knocked down a pine tree at 160 Barbei Street that fell onto the newly renovated house at 170
Barber Street for which builder Drew Dekle recently won Athens-Clarke Heritage Foundation honors. Damage ap
peared slight.
ing his days as an almost-champion high
school debater. Ace Banner-Herald government
reporter Blake Aud was in the crowd, but he
was off duty. Thanks to the sponsors who did
the heavy lifting in helping to pick up the tab.
War of Wills: Being young and careless, drink
ing and driving, needing to go somewhere
at night, and walking along the road to get
there; decades of growth in Athens without
building sidewalks: these things add up to a
lethal mix. June in Athens proved that, with
three hit-and-run accidents in three weeks.
It's not news that pedestrians and bicyclists
don't fare well in car wrecks, or that young
drivers don't always appreciate the effects of
ethyl alcohol on human reaction times. And
we won't even speculate on the state of mind
of drivers who, realizing or suspecting they
just ran someone over, keep right on going.
But there is a war of wills on our roads.
Drivers, backed by power and speed, see the
asphalt as a domain for their machines. Some
pedestrians, sick of walking in ditches, dare
to step onto the asphalt. You have to admire
their nerve, while questioning their judg
ment—especially if they wear dark clothes at
niqht. Even respectful, unhurried drivers—and
those appear to be rare—can be caught short
by an unseen pedestrian who appears out of
nowhere. Pedestrians: wear white at night!
It is my honor to report that I am pleased
to be in a position to make a contribution
to every incumbent Republican member of
the General Assembly, who has an opponent.
Additionally, I have made a contribution to
every Republican challenger to a Democrat
in both the House and Senate.
It is my hope that this total contribution
of $26,750 will, in some small manner, help
contribute to our party maintaining our major
ity under the Gold Dome in 2008.
I have asked you to honor me with your
nomination in 2010 as governor and I am
excited to work with any candidate who might
welcome my support. I strongly feel we need
a united conservative party as we move
forward.
Allow me to reiterate my pledge to each
of you, I will be a governor who is accessible,,
who listens, and who will make every effort to
demonstrate respect fpr each of you as indi
viduals and the General Assembly as an equal
branch of government. [John Oxendine—State
Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine, in
case you didn't get it, is a Republican candi
date for governor next time.]
Pete McCommons
(Ben Emanuel is on vacation.)
Send your City Dope to ben@flagpole.com
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