Bikers Mass Courteously

Right at 100 cyclists enjoyed an outing Friday evening, July 25 along the North Oconee Greenway, another BikeAthens "Courteous Mass."

The recently opened Greenway provided the setting for a leisurely ride along the river with several stops for water and explanatory remarks about the Greenway, which now extends from Dudley Park to Sandy Creek Nature Center along the North Oconee River.

The route parallels Martin Luther King, Jr. Parkway, crosses under the bypass and follows the Commerce Highway (441) to Sandy Creek, where it connects with Cook's Trail to Sandy Creek Park.

The North Oconee is not the prettiest river in the world, but it's one of the prettiest in Athens-Clarke County, and is not really visible that much from the Greenway, since the Oconee in most places is obscured by heavily vegetated banks. But the path is wide and the scenery lush (as are the odors at a few points).

The return trip for the hot and thirsty cyclists ended with a midsummer party at a rustic paradise near the trail, where one of their number provided several kegs of his craft brew (the stout was as black as strong coffee, but infinitely more refreshing).

ACC's cyclin' commissioners John Barrow and Carl Jordan were along for the ride, but it could not be established whether they sampled the brew.

Courteous Mass rides occur on the last Friday of the warmer weather months and are open to all ages: non-members are welcome.

BikeAthens "promotes transportation and land-use policies that improve alternative modes of transportation, including pedestrian, cycling, and public transit options. The mission of our organization is to make alternative transportation a practical, convenient, and safe option for all citizens of Athens-Clarke County."

BikeAthens information is available at bikeathens.com, where you will also be reminded that the public comment period is still open for affecting transportation planning in this area. You can send comments and suggestions about transportation to Planner Sherry Moore at macorts@co.clarke.ga.us until Aug. 15. Meanwhile, maps, reports and other information are available at the Planning Department auditorium in the governmental building, 120 Dougherty St. Another public hearing on transportation planning is in Watkinsville, Wednesday, July 30, from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. in the Oconee County Government Annex on SR 15, Greensboro Highway.

Pete McCommons

Pete McCommons is editor & publisher of Flagpole.

Dean Fans Meetup Here

In 1999, then presidential hopeful Al Gore claimed he had invented the Internet. No one really believed him and media broadcasters took pleasure in reminding us of it over and over again.

Fast forward four years to the race for the Democratic primary, and one candidate stands apart from the rest of the bunch: former Vermont Governor, Internet-savvy Howard Dean.

According to "Howard Dean 2004 Call to Action Weblog... The official Howard Dean Weblog" the Dean camp is conducting "the largest grassroots campaign to take our country back," the goal being to "defeat George W. Bush and the special interests that support him."

Utilizing an armament of technology, Dean may be pulling ahead in the race for the primaries, which are still five months away.

According to Dean's website 205,362 on-line supporters - one-third the population of his home state - have visited deanforamerica.com/signup, making it just as easy to be political as it is to buy a pair of shoes on eBay.

At meetup.com, a website bringing together people with various interests ranging from knitting to "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," the Dean in 2004 group has 64,000 members. The members meet the first Wednesday of each month in 549 cities all over the world with Dean-themed agendas. The most popular city, with 3558 members, is New York, the least popular, with one member, is Melbourne, Australia.

In Austin, Texas, the city most commonly compared to Athens, 400 people turned out on July 2 to show support for Howard Dean.

At meetup.com, 106 people from Athens, GA have signed up for the virtual community.

According to Dean supporter Patrick Beall, there were two people at the Athens meetup in June, one in May and about 12 in April, mostly UGA students.

Howard Dean, according to moveon.org, has enough momentum that if the primaries were tomorrow, he would be one step closer to the White House. Dean recently won by a landslide in a virtual primary mediated by the website, taking 44 percent of the vote and beating out other favorites Dennis Kucinich (24 percent), and John Kerry (16 percent).

To recent UGA grad Matt Edwards, a political science major and Dean supporter, none of this matters. Edwards claims he would support Dean, Internet or not.

"It wasn't a question of just because he got the email out first," Edwards said. "I think it's because he's Howard Dean."

Of course other candidates are getting on-line, too. John Kerry has a weblog. He also has a meetup group, as do, among others, Wesley Clark, Dennis Kucinich, the GOP party, and George Bush.

"I think with a candidate like Dean, who's obviously not mainstream, it's probably his best chance," Edwards says of Dean's tendency to speak out on issues, even if it means alienating conservatives. "I think Bush's radical view of conservatism has people ready for a good liberal alternative."

The next Athens meetup meeting to discuss Howard Dean's campaign is Wednesday, Aug. 6 at 7 p.m. The meeting place will be determined by vote and announced on meetup.com.

Sarah Warfield

Sarah Warfield is a local freelance writer.

Liberation Of The Unwilling

"If war is forced upon us," Bush once proclaimed, "we will liberate the people of Iraq from a cruel and violent dictator." Now Liberia, a nation founded by former American slaves and whose constitution, flag, language and civil administration are modeled on those of the United States, is deteriorating as a bloody civil war devolves into total anarchy. Close to a thousand civilians have died, just during the last few days, caught in the crossfire between government and rebel forces. Here is Bush's stirring message of hope for the miserable people of Liberia: "We continue to monitor the situation very closely."

First we attacked Iraq, which posed no threat, while ignoring North Korea, which did. Taking a stance which defies common decency and common sense, we're now stiff-arming people who are literally dying for our help - while forcing ourselves on others who are willing to die to avoid our presence. Apparently, whether or not Bush "berates" you has nothing to do with how badly your country needs liberation.

Last fall, government and talk-radio loudmouths claimed that they had the power to read the hearts and minds of Iraq's 25,000,000 citizens. Now the results of their intelligence failure are in: Iraqis prefer Saddam's homegrown autocracy to our 148,000 infidel storm troopers. They're voting with mines, rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47s in ambushes so frequent that the media doesn't bother to report them until someone gets killed. Graffiti covers the walls of Iraqi cities: "Pray for Saddam's victory because he's a genuine Iraqi." "May the occupation fall and may Saddam return."

The resistance owns the highways, the alleys and the nights, forcing hapless American forces to scurry in convoys between their cantonments. On average they kill one of our soldiers every day - 152 so far - and cripple another half-dozen. Iraqi collaborators are executed nightly. They're sending a clear message to the American people: get your Kevlar-coated goons out. Sunni imams in Fallujah, The Los Angeles Times reported on July 15, rejected food from soldiers of the Third Infantry Division. "We would rather eat rocks than eat chickens from Americans," one cleric said. "Even the poorest person in Fallujah doesn't want chickens from you." Children threw rocks at the U.S. soldiers as they retreated with their proffered poultry.

We haven't lost as many young men and women in Afghanistan, but that's because fewer are there to begin with: a mere 10,000, most of whom are holed up at Kabul's Bagram air base. Before the October 2001 invasion, Bush decided against posting peacekeepers in the 95 percent of the country that needed them; now Afghanistan belongs to warlords and their tribal militias. And we're not winning popularity contests even in the rump city-state of Kabul. Hamid Karzai's puppet regime is broke, and the tiny amount of U.S. aid went entirely to non-government organizations which spent it on SUVs and fancy offices. Nothing substantial has been rebuilt for ordinary Afghans. "N.G.O.," spat an unpaid Kabul cop at The New York Times' Khaled Hosseini. "What have they done for us? I have yet to see them put two bricks together."

Twenty peacekeepers have been killed so far in Afghanistan, meaning that that assignment offers roughly the same 1-in-400 odds of dying as a one-year tour of duty in Iraq.

Regime change in Liberia, on the other hand, would be a cakewalk. Unlike Iraq and Afghanistan, the country has a strong historical connection with us - streets and airports are named after U.S. presidents, and the American dollar is the national currency. Liberian strongman Charles Taylor has promised to go into Nigerian exile. Crowds have rioted in Monrovia in favor of U.S. intervention. Taylor's only demand is that we show up to avoid a power vacuum after he steps down, but Bush - who hasn't learned from the chaos in Baghdad - has refused.

Considering recent history, sending in the Marines would also be the right thing to do. President Reagan and Bush's father funded a military coup in 1980 that led to Taylor's 1989 seizure of power and a seven-year-long civil war that killed more than 200,000 people. American taxpayers funded that carnage; they should now help end it.

The trouble is, Liberia doesn't fit into Bush-Cheney's policy of "total energy dominance." That's why a White House determined to invade Syria and Iran during its second term has only dispatched a few dozen soldiers to guard the U.S. embassy. While neighboring countries have an estimated 60 billion barrels of oil in all, Liberia itself possesses insignificant reserves. Iraq, on the other hand, is the world's second largest oil-producing state. And the U.S. invaded Afghanistan principally as a conduit to the oil-and-gas-rich Caspian Sea.

Hopefully Bush will cave in to public pressure by transferring a significant troop complement from Iraq and Afghanistan to Liberia. Until then, Liberia's best hope is striking oil.

Ted Rall

Ted Rall is a cartoonist and is the author of Gas War: The Truth Behind the American Occupation of Afghanistan.

Huh? Did I, Like, Miss Something?

"When you assume..." Boy, somebody really did a number on the word "assume." It didn't used to be a bad word. In a dictionary "assume" doesn't have a negative connotation until about the seventh definition. But somebody was real clever and coined that phrase, "When you assume, you make an ass out of u and me." Yeah, real clever. It seems every time I find myself saying something to someone, the moment I use the "assume" word their face is immediately overcome with a snotty look of self-toasting satisfaction. You know these people, right? (You might even be one, especially if you're a boss or manager of sorts.) They've got the whole "when you assume" line front-loaded and ready for fire as soon as you're done - if they even wait 'til you're done. Well, excuse a me a momma mia, whoopsie diddly do, I am so sorry that we're both asses now. That'll teach me to never go thinking for myself again. Perhaps I should be taken to court and assued. Assue me? Assue U!

Charming or alarming? Somebody really ought to come out with an official winking pamphlet, because the art of winking is definitely long gone. A wink's supposed to convey a hint or something. It used to be very simple and clear cut. A wink would simply mean, "Hey, baby," or "I think you're cute." Now most times I see someone wink, "Hey hot stuff" is the last thing I hope it means. I think some of these people must wake up in the morning and decide to try a new route to coolville by taking up the wink. Winks always seem planned, unnatural, and unnerving, at least. Example: I'm standing in line at a store and the person ahead of me is greeted by the cashier. "How're ya doing?" asks the cashier. "Oh, pretty good, and you?" the customer responds. "Great, just great," smiles the cashier, who then looks over at me and winks. Huh?!? Is it because the customer's wearing a pink shirt? or balding? or just generally funny looking? I look behind me and then back. Is there something wrong with ME? Could there be a bat in the cave? I bet that's it, bat in the cave. I go to my car after a very awkward purchase process and look in the side mirror to find... nope, no bat in the cave. I still don't understand it. That's why there ought to be an official winking pamphlet. I'd have left one for that cashier as a tip of sorts, kind of like those Christianity cards some people leave on the restaurant table when they eat out.

It won't be long... (Sigh) These white suburban teens, what the heck is going on with these troubled and confused little creatures? I know, I know: all kids, when growing up, want to express their individuality and toughness. They want to appear a certain way because they don't instead just know how to be a certain way - they don't know how to be themselves. It's much easier for many of them to wear a backwards visor and their pants down 'round their ankles and talk tough like they're street gangsters than to say, "My rapidly changing hormones have left me confused and vulnerable. Please don't provoke me, as I don't quite know how I'll respond." So what's next in suburban white teen fashion? My disbelieving eyes have seen it in a sad, sad nightmare: stylized bulletproof vests. Yes, they'll come in all different types and colors. V-neck, turtleneck, wife beater, crew, creme colored, grey shaded, red, white and blue. And for a few more bucks the teens can further express their individuality with vests emblazoned with Britney Spears, Eminem, sports teams, brand names, and clever sayings, such as "Life Sucks," "Life's a Beach", "Screw Me," "Screw You." (Oh, and of course, "When you assume, you make an ass of U and me" and "Love is Blind (Wink, Wink)."

Mike Simpson

Mike Simpson is a freelance writer and a former member of the local food service industry.