Joe Winter » Thinking Joe

April 27, 2006

Thinking Joe

When even one member of the MARTA board hints that next year’s budget may or may not include the possibility of a probable fare increase, THE MEDIA GOES WILD AND FIVE THOUSAND ANGRY RIDERS PACK THE BOARD MEETINGS AND THE WORLD’S GOING TO END!! AHHHH!!!! When MARTA’s budget includes no fare increase and maybe even an expansion of service, only The Story will tell us about it.
The Alliance at Ga State applied for funding, as they do every year, from one of the student fee councils — the diversity council, to be specific. Normally, they get what they ask for, or close to it. This year, they got stiffed. While Christian organizations got a combined total of $3,225, the Alliance got $500. Keep in mind that a separate gay organization was denied funding altogether because, as far as the committee was concerned, they were duplicating services of the Alliance.
A friend of mine commented recently that Democrats keep losing elections because they’re afraid to criticize. One moment, a Democratic strategist gets fired for taking part in the Georgians for Truth campaign. The next moment, Cathy Cox’s campaign manager is fired for adding a truthful statement to the “Mark Taylor” entry on Wikipedia. Remember how Democrats fared when they focused on not criticizing the Bush administration too much? That was two years ago. I still remember when the Labor Party in Israel announced they would take the high road and not use the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin to their advantage. Throw some punches at the scumbags, already.
The above bullet point was really long. So I’m going to make this one really short.
A discussion on commuter rail recently ensued on Livejournal here and here. Certain parts of the wingnut wing of the Libertarian party has always eluded my understanding. They believe in public choice theory, which vastly oversimplifies the entire field of economics. And the real world in general.
Thank you, Jill Chambers, for extending MARTA’s 55/45 split. Whether you deserve it or not, you get some credit for making sure we don’t see another fare increase. You now may want to consider what may happen if your strategy for creating a regional transit agency backfires.
The Inman Park Dance Festival is this weekend. I interviewed one of its organizers, Carolyn McGlaughlin, for the Atlanta Performs Podcast. Check out the April 18 episode, then check out the dance festival.
The website Footnoted.org was recently profiled on Marketplace. One of the ways corporations try to hide wasteful spending is by discreetly placing it in the footnotes of their financial statements. This example from Atlanta-based Aaron Rents is especially entertaining. Of course, it’s only entertaining because I don’t own any shares of the company.