Could This Be The Beginning Of The End For Circuit City?

A few weeks ago, Circuit City announced that it was closing over 100 of its store including all locations in Georgia. The company cited the ailing economy as the cause. Well I wish I could be one of those people that after hearing the news, their jaw drops and have such a surprised look on their face. Well I can honestly say that I’m not surprised, in fact I predicted the company’s downfall, but not because of current circumstances.

I’ve told this story it seems like hundreds of times, but I don’t mind doing it again. I only wish I had my blog around this time a year ago. Perhaps things would be different. Anyway… last Christmas I decided to treat myself to a new HD TV. Because I don’t believe in just walking in a store and buying the prettiest model I see, i did tons of research on brands, models and prices. After crunching all the info I decided that I would not buy just one, but two TV’s. When I bought my last two TV’s I paid nearly $2000. So when I decided to buy these new TV I was expecting to be paying around the same price. To my surprise the price had drop considerably, partly due to the demand but also because of the holiday discounting the stores do to move inventory. I quickly realized that for the price I was prepared to pay, I could buy two TV’s. My original intention was to buy an HD LCD TV for my den. But now I could also buy a TV for my new bedroom. So that is that was the plan I went with.

After careful research I choose two TV’s. They were two different brands, sizes and located at different stores. The TV for my den I decided to buy a Polaroid 42’ LCD TV from Circuit City. The best deal I could find for the size I wanted was on Circuit City’s website. So I bought the TV online would pick it up at the closest store. The Closest store to have the TV in stock was a 25 minute drive away. So by the time I was able to get to the store, they had already closed for the night. So I go the next evening to pick the TV up. By the time I get to the store the next night it’s already more than 27 hours since I originally ordered the TV and received email confirmation. So I go to where you are suppose to go, to present the confirmation number, ID, and method of payment verification. They tell me to go over to the merchandise pick up area. So I’m waiting over there for nearly 10 minutes, so I knock on the service window and ask about my TV. The lady that said they were trying to find a guy that was big enough to bring it out. So after another 6-7 minutes a guy emerges with the TV and helps me load it into my car. So after ordering the TV 27 hours ago, and waiting nearly 20 minutes, I believed that I was owed a gift card for waiting because of the Circuit City’s 24 minute guarantee. According to the store’s guarantee the time you wait in line inside the store is excluded from the 24 minutes. I waited nearly 20 minutes for my item to be brought out from the stockroom, when it should have already been ready to bring out. So I explain this to the manager on duty and they say no. You have to give them time to get the item. I countered, “That’s not what the guarantee states, if that were the case you would never be violating your guarantee.” So instead of arguing with the manger on duty, which turns out was only a supervisor, I decided to call the Store Manager the next day.

The next day comes and I call the store and ask to speak to the store manager, I’m told he’s not available but they were the Assistant manager. I tell her my complaint, and she says no problem. She gives me her name and tells me it won’t be a problem. So I’m happy that it’s resolved. The Assistant manager tells me to ask next time I’m at the store to get my $24 gift card. So a couple of days later I’m in the area and stop by and try to get my gift card. I’m told that the Assistant Manager I spoke with is off that day, and I would have to speak with her because no one knows about the situation. So I’m thinking ok, I’ll come back another day. I was kind of bummed in the fact that this store is 25-30 minutes away from where I live. I do not really want to make a special trip for the gift card. So I call the next time to see if she is there, and I speak with her to let her know I’m on the way, they she pulls a 360 on me. She totally changes her tune and says that she can’t issue me a gift card because of the incident. So I ask to speak with her manager, and he tells me the same thing. I get all the way to a regional manger that apologizes but doesn’t issue me a gift card. So At this point I’m pretty ticked. If it were not for the fact that the TV was so big, and I had a hard time getting it out of my midsize car, I would have taken it back. I was so mad; I came close to renting a truck or van just to return it. But I decided to exact my anger in telling people my story and not recommending Circuit City for anything.

You see my revenge is very satisfying to me. I’m the person that people I know go to ask recommendations on what to buy and where. So when I recommend brands or stores, I just don’t include Circuit City in my advice. So when people ask what about Circuit City or why I didn’t mention them, I explain what happened to me. I am happy to say that in the last year I’ve bought or helped people buy several thousand dollars worth of electronics. I’ve often joked about becoming an electronics personal shopper for people that are not tech savvy. My only concern with the downfall of Circuit City is the status of my extended warranty on the TV a purchased.

Circuit City shot itself in the foot a few years back. It put more emphasis on it’s spin off CarMax, that it allowed store like Best Buy and Wal-Mart to come up and take control of the market. They had to play catch up, like creating their tech repair unit fogdog after the successful launch of Best Buy’s Geek Squad. Sales have taken a nose dive for years, and the economy over the last few years did not help their position. Big box retailers still have not learned the basics of retaining customer loyalty. In this economy companies can’t afford to lose repeat customers. $24 dollar gift card in the long run is a small price to pay to retain a repeat customer. There isn’t much in Circuit City that one can buy for just $24, so pretty much any purchase made with the gift card will require additional money. That gift card would translate to additional purchases in Circuit City and another opportunity to sell even more merchandise. It’s a cliché, but it’s very true, a bad customer experience cost a company more customers as opposed to a good experience. People like to tell as many people that will listen to a bad experience, this blog entry as an example. I call it therapy for a frustrated consumer.

Georgia’s Senate Race Decided

The Georgia Senate race between incumbent Saxby Chambliss a Republican and Democratic challenger Jim Martin is finally over. Sen. Chambliss retained his seat by a clear majority. Chambliss beat Martin by receiving nearly 57% of the vote. Voter turnout for the race was about 20% of registered voters.

Both candidates put up a fierce 4 week long battle of campaign ads, big name speakers and of course the name calling and mud slinging that we have come to expect. Some of the Republican’s superstars came to Georgia to campaign for Saxby Chambliss such as Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, Arizona Sen. And former Presidential candidate John McCain and for Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. Jim Martin had Former President Bill Clinton and former Vice-President Al Gore come down and help his campaign. Martin had asked for the Democrats biggest star, President-Elect Barrack Obama. However it seems that the President-Elect wasn’t interested in making any kind of significant effort to help Jim Martin win the Georgia Senate seat and help the Democrats gain the so called “Super Majority”, 60 Senate seats that would make the democratic controlled senate filibuster proof. To his credit, President-Elect Obama did help Jim Martin’s campaign by recording a radio ad that was released the week before the run-off, robotic calls to residents to ask them to vote for Jim Martin, and he mailed out a postcard with “Happy Holidays” on it along with a picture of the Obama family.

I think that President-Elect Obama might as well make this mistake number one as the highest profile Democrat and as a leader. Let face it, the radio ads, postcards, and “robo” calls are all great, but making an appearance in Georgia would have been a 100 times more effective than all four combined. Georgia had record turnout for the Presidential election. Nearly a million and two-thirds fewer democrats voted in the runoff than the general election. The President-Elect could have taken a few hours at the beginning of the run-off campaign and towards the end to come down to Georgia and talk Jim Martin up, and help motivate people to go to the polls. I really believe that most people didn’t understand how crucial this election was to the democrats. Sure they heard all the spin on TV news show, but it’s different if the top Democrat himself, a superstar came down for the people to see and hear.

Barack Obama’s presence in Georgia would have been the extra boost needed to get people to the polls. People are still caught in the awe and excitement of his election. Having the President-Elect here campaigning for Jim Martin would one, tell people that the election isn’t over yet, two, that he cares about what happens in Georgia, three, that having a 60 seat in the Senate is so important it warrants’ his attention especially since it will help him make the changes he campaigned on. People clearly needed motivation to go to the polls for a run-off.

Recently the President-Elect revealed his choices for cabinet appointments, among them were current Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, and former political opponent Hilary Clinton, nominated for Secretary of State. I think he made some great choices in people, however I don’t think it was very smart to pull an active and popular Senator from a seat that can be strangle defended by Hilary Clinton. But despite the difficult work he is obviously conducting in preparation for the transition of power, there isn’t any excuse why he couldn’t have hopped on a plane and come to Georgia for a few hours. As President-Elect he can be briefed or hold meetings anywhere he chooses. He has time to go to the gym for a couple of hours a day, he could have flown down and help win the Senate race in Georgia. I hope this doesn’t come back to hurt him politically in the future. He has such great plans; it would be a shame that his first mistake could affect the rest of his administration. Let’s hope it doesn’t.

I'm A Radio Contest Winner

So Wednesday morning something really kool happened to me. To be honest I still can't believe it. The V-103 radio morning show, "The Frank And Wanda Show" are celebrating their 10th Anniversary. So they held a contest to pick 10 winners that will get Frank And Wanda's favorite things. It's a play on the annual Oprah's favorite things she gives her audience.

So I never expected to win the contest. Here is how I entered, I recorded 90210 Tuesday night on the CW69 on my desktop computer. So later that night I go to my computer and the TV version of the "Frank And Wanda Show" was still on. I watched it for a while. Towards the end a women called in because she heard her name. So Frank Ski was telling people how to enter the contest, so that is when I decided to enter. I said what the hell, why not. I entered via the web as instructed. The show pulls two names each morning during the anniversary week one at 7:30 and one at 8:30. So the next morning I forgot to listen in at the 7:30 drawing. So I was think what are the chances that I would win anyway. V-103 is like the number 2 station in Atlanta, with nearly a half million or more listeners. What chance do I have of winning, right? So I listen in at about 8:10-8:15. So They finally pull the last name for the day, and I heard them call Stephan. I immediately thought to myself who names their children Stephan? i have never liked that name. People always mispronounce my name Stephen as Stephan. So I didn't even hear the last name until they repeated it and I realized that they were calling me. I couldn't believe it. So you only have 10 minutes to call in and claim you prize. So when I called in they ask me if it was Stephen or Stephan? I was so excited that I won that I didn't even care about that anymore... simple mistake right?

So I guess you are wondering what the 10 favorite things are.... well let me tell you that they are some pretty awesome prizes. Here goes...

Frank and Wanda's Favorite things are:

1. $100 Kroger Gift Card- just in time for the holidays

2. Life size 4 foot stuffed Mickey & Minnie Dolls - my mom loves them on her bed.

3. A bottle of Jean Paul Gaultier Perfume - very nice scent

4. A Dinner at Carrabbas Italian Grill with Frank Ski

5. A Verizon Blackberry 8330 Smartphone

6. A Panasonic Lumix Digital Camera- Sweet camera, 8.1 megs

7. A Night out on the town with Frank Ski with a night's stay at the W hotel, dinner at Fleming's Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar and VIP passes to the Velvet Room - Let say I haven't had a night like this is a long time.

8. A King Size Ralph Lauren Goose Down Comforter

9. A Trip to Las Vegas with Wanda Smith to see Cirque Du Soleil

10. A Trip to New York City with Frank Ski to see the musical Wicked

How cool is that? I hear that Oprah's prizes this year isn't all that. The Frank And Wanda Show winners were treated to a breakfast at Justin's restaurant in Buckhead. Young Jeezy mad an appearance. There was cake and champagne by Moet.

I have to say Frank and Wanda's gifts are great.... and I can't wait to get back to the cities that never really sleep, fabulous Las Vegas and lovely New York City. What a way to celebrate an anniversary. It should definitely be a fun trip.

You Can Call Him Mr. President!

On November 4, 2008 the world watched in suspense as votes across the country were tallied leading to Barack Obama’s historic win. The Senator from Illinois, was elected the nations first black President. Now more than a week later, reality has set in for most people and it’s not the total calamity that many of President-elect Obama’s opponents thought it would be.

President-Elect Obama seems to moving in a very rapid and smart manner. He has made the financial crisis a top priority. He has his transition team in place before the election to make sure they “hit the ground running”. He has been having regular meetings with his economic advisory board made up of people he trusts.

This new president has many challenges starting out, the financial crisis being at the top, also, a high unemployment rate, a $10 billion a month war and a country divided by a long and brutal election cycle. The best thing Barrack Obama can do, is make sure he retain the help of the very best when it comes to the economy, foreign policy and the war in Iraq.

The transition of power looks like it may be a smooth one. This week President and Mrs. Bush met with the Obama’s at the White House. President Bush has vowed to make the transition as easy as possible. I believe that he will work hard to make sure that the transition is seamless.

Now is the time for all Americans to unite and work together to get this country back on track. The election is over. The winners have been very sensitive and not gloating at their victory. They are reaching out to the opposition to help solve the nation’s big issues. To me, that what a President does, lead the entire nation and not just the party they belong to.

The Comedy Of Politics

Everyone loves a good joke, especially if it’s at the expense of an elected official. For years politicians have been the source of material for the late night shows. Shows like “The Tonight Show”, “The Late Show with David Letterman” and “Saturday Night Live” are notorious for their political satire. It’s always a treat when the politician being poked fun at makes an appearance and can laugh at themselves. On Saturday night, Governor Sarah Palin did just that. Sarah Palin stopped by the “SNL” studios and made an appearance in a couple of sketches. Although she didn’t say very much, it was obvious she was having fun with it.



Over the years we’ve seen politicians that are often the bud of jokes on late night television make appearances. I remember President Bill Clinton playing the saxophone on “The Arsenio Hall Show”. Janet Reno made an appearance on “SNL” in 2001 and in 2002 Al Gore hosted the show. So why would politicians appear on shows that make fun of them? Well the answer has more to do with who’s watching those shows. Today, younger adults are getting their information from shows like “The Daily Show” or “The Colbert Report”. “Saturday Night Live’s” Weekend Update is so popular that they have a special Weekend Update on Thursdays. The candidates are always campaigning for votes; they want to win people over. So they go on these shows to look more human. People can watch and see that they are people too, and they can laugh at themselves. These shows have a huge followings. Sarah Palin’s appearance on “SNL” was the show’s highest rated episode in 14 years.

With less than 2 weeks until Election Day, we can expect the candidates to step up the campaigning until election night. So I’ll expect the jokes and the sketches to get even funnier as “E-Day” approaches. Although I love the sketches and jokes, my favorite form of political satire comes from Mike Luckovich, a national syndicated political cartoonist. I think his drawings are pretty right on!

Madonna Is Calling It “Quits”

Mega Pop Star Madonna is divorcing her husband of more than seven years Guy Ritchie, according to media reports. News came today that Madonna, considered the highest-earning female singer has given up efforts to save her stained marriage. The couple has one child together seven-year-old Rocco, along with a three-year-old adoptive son from Malawi.

Rumors of divorce have been circulating for months now. Madonna has been linked by the media to A-Rod. She’s even been spotted at his games. She has maintained that she and the Alex Rodriguez are just friends. Friends or more than just friends, it would appear that Madonna is now free to publicly pursue a relationship with Rodriguez if she chooses to do so.

Madonna is believed to be worth more than $500 million dollars. With that kind of money at stake, its no wonder that she has enlisted the legal services of Fiona "Steel Magnolia" Shackleton, she is a high profile divorce lawyer that handled Paul McCartney’s divorce from Heather Mills. It’s being reported that the couple did not have a prenuptial agreement, so Ritchie could walk away with more than $100 million dollars.

Madonna’s marriage joins a long list of celebrity couples calling it quits. It really says a lot when this country is facing dire financial times and Madonna’s marriage is considered more noteworthy one news websites than the presidential debates or the economic bailout plan. You have to wonder what this world is coming to.

Markets Rebound, Cash or Credit

After one of the worst week in Wall Street history, the Dow rebounded with a gain of more than 936 points. We are finally getting some good news from Wall Street. The rebound is believed to be a reaction to news that several central banks from around the world including the Federal Reserve will be giving banks that are in turmoil short term funding. The thinking is that by infusing the banks with cash, it will help thaw the frozen credit markets.

Speaking of credit, it has become very difficult if not impossible for people to obtain mortgages or auto financing during this financial crisis. Banks are very skittish at the moment. You know its bad when banks are afraid of lending to other banks. I’m sure everyone is watching and waiting to see if the government’s $700 billion bailout plan will make a difference.

I remember when I was a kid, not many families had credit cards. Credit was for the rich. Back in the day, we use to have a cash market. If you needed a new refrigerator or a new mattress you paid in cash. Credit wasn’t so easy to get back in those days especially for minorities. If you didn’t have the money for something you needed and didn’t have credit, there was this great program that was very popular called “layaway”. With layaway, customers could pick the items they wanted, have a store put it aside with a deposit, usually anywhere from 10-25%. The customer would then be able to make small scheduled payments on the item until it was paid for and then could take possession on it. I can remember lots of stores that had layaway, Lionel Play World, K-Mart, Wal-Mart, J.C. Penny and Sears. Now, you would be hard pressed to find a store that has a layaway plan.

In today’s troubled times, the middle class needs layaway now, more than ever. Perhaps we are going to learn a lesson from the financial crisis and move back to a predominantly cash market. We will buy only what we can afford. We will buy the cars that match our bank accounts and not our personalities. We will no longer be the fast food society of “I want what I want, When I want It.” I think if anything should be learned from this is we need to live our wage and not above it.

The Atlanta Gas Crunch : The Good, The Bad And Just Plain Ugly

The gas situation seems to be getting better. Earlier this week Quick Trip (QT) vowed to has gas at 100% of its stations by Tuesday, and it looks like that kept that promise. Gas is flowing much better in Atlanta now. Stations that were without has for the longest time now have open pumps. Things are starting to get better, and it’s about time.

Last weekend was pretty rough for motorists. The Georgia vs. Alabama game was Saturday, and hundreds flocked to Athens for the festivities. Out-of-towners were warned not to come to Georgia if they lived more than half a gas tank away because gas was scarce. Law enforcement in the Athens area said that they would be towing cars out of gas to make sure that the street remained clear of obstructions.

So amid the activity going on that weekend, I went to Wal-Mart with my uncle to pick up a prescription. He said that he needed to get gas, and I knew that that particular Wal-Mart had gas earlier that afternoon. So about halfway to the Wal-Mart we run out of gas. I was a little shocked, its been a very long time since I’ve been stuck on the side of the road with no gas. I knew that there was a CitGo gas station about a mile ahead. So my uncle decided to go for gas. On his way to the station, a man in a pick-up truck saw the car the car on the side of the road out of gas and my uncle walking and decided to give him a lift. The man happened to have two gas cans in his truck of gas and offered to give us enough to make it to the gas station. The man just happened to be headed to put gas in his work truck as well.

The man followed us to the Wal-Mart, and my uncle told him he would re-fill the gas can. So when we get to Wal-Mart there is a line of about 20 cars on each side of the station. It took us about 20 minutes or so to get to the front of the line. We finally became the third car waiting to pull up to a pump, when a man in a car speeds around every one in line and pulls behind a car about to pull away from the pump. I was in total disbelief. This guy couldn’t help but see a long line of people waiting their turn for gas. Was surprised me even more was that the guy that would have been next in line, didn’t really budge. The women in the car ahead of us got out of the car to confront the line breaker. She went over to the guy, and asked him “what did he think he was doing”, but she used some language that I would rather not repeat. He muttered something like he was out of gas, and needed it now. They started arguing at the pump. There was a man riding in the car with the woman, he went inside and told the cashier what happened. The cashier came out and asked the man to leave the pump and wait in line like everyone else or they would be forced to call the police. The man acted like his need for gas was far greater than everyone else’s need. The police were called and made the man leave. We got our gas. Amazingly the man that lent us gas to make it to the station refused us paying him back. He wouldn’t let us give him money or allow us to fill his gas can back up. That was really generous of him. I know that his kindness will be rewarded 10 fold down the line.

This incident reminded me that people are just people. Situations bring out the very best in some people and also bring out the worst in others. During this whole gas shortage I’ve seen people act aggressive trying to get gas, be very generous and helpful, and just outright mean. Life is just too short to bicker and argue especially over gasoline.

Need to Get Away??

If you having been saving to get away from the everyday, now may be a good time to go, that is if you have the dough. I’ve been flooded with sales and deals for travel. Although the economy is taking a plunge, there are some great opportunities to get away if you can spare the cash. I’ve found deals at hotels in Las Vegas, and deals and sales from Delta Airlines, Hotwire.com, and NorthWest Airlines.

I got a notice that Delta is having a sale on flights from Atlanta, Boston, & New York. Fares range from $69 up to $149. The destinations are pretty much across the board. The cities offered are:

Akron,OH - Minneapolis/St Paul, MN
Baltimore, MD -Moline-Quad Cities, IL
Bloomington, IL - New Orleans, LA
Buffalo, NY - New York-Kennedy, NY
Charleston, SC - New York-La Guardia, NY
Chicago-Midway, IL - Newport News, VA
Chicago-Ohare, IL - Orlando, FL
Dallas-Fort Worth, TX - Pensacola, FL
Dayton, OH - West Palm Beach, FL
Denver, CO - Philadelphia, PA
Detroit MI - Phoenix, AZ
Flint, MI - Pittsburgh, PA
Fort Lauderdale, FL - Raleigh/Durham, NC
Fort Myers, FL - Richmond, VA
Gulfport, MS - Rochester, NY
Houston-Bush , TX - San Antonio, TX
Houston-Hobby, TX - San Francisco, CA
Indianapolis, IN - Sarasota, FL
Jacksonville, FL - St. Louis, MO
Kansas City, MO - Tampa, FL
Los Angeles, CA - Washington-Dulles, DC
Las Vegas, NV - Washington-Reagan National
Memphis, TN - White Plains, NY
Miami, FL - Wichita, KS
Milwaukee, WI

I thought it was a pretty good deal. I trip from Atlanta to New York, any airport s on $99 one way. It would be great if you want to buy now and fly later. The fares have a 10 advance purchase and have to be used by January 30, 2008. Delta’s sale on fares ends on October 31, 2008 so hurry if you want to take advantage.

I was checking out prices at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, and they have several days during the week where the room rate is under $80 a night. That is pretty good deal for that hotel. Typically prices are much cheaper during the off-season and especially during the week. I recommend checking the prices at the hotel’s website and then compare them to the discount travel services like Cheapoair.com, Hotwire.com and Priceline.com. Hotels will have promotions from time to time, but the best deals are likely to be found on the discount services, if the hotel isn’t running a special.

Hotwire.com has deals on Vegas hotels as low as $32 a night. They also are advertising deals on flights on United Airlines and hotels in Florida. You can sign up to their travel ticker and they will email you new deals as they become available.

NorthWest Airlines is over a promotion running now on cruises. Just in time as the cold weather moves in, you can take a vacation to a nice an toasty destination. NorthWest is offering, for every dollar you spend you receive a WorldPerks bonus mile (NorthWest frequent flier program.) NorthWest is offering deals on cruises on Celebrity and Royal Caribbean cruise lines. Cruises on Celebrity start at $299 and a free on-board credit. Royal Caribbean cruises start at $399 and also include a free on-board credit. Both cruise purchases earn WorldPerks miles.

Lithonia Mayor Joyce McKibben Is Voted Out 166 to 47

A special election was held on Tuesday, at issue to recall Lithonia’s Mayor. In a vote nearly 3 to 1, residents sent the embattled Mayor packing. 166 votes ousted Joyce McKibben. The Mayor has been the subject of media reports for months, first after she tried unsuccessfully to fire the city’s police chief. Then there was a period of infighting with the city council. And then there were also those now infamous skirmishes with Lithonia police over computers and access to city hall among other things.

The latest part of this saga was the mayor tried to have a concert promoter prosecuted for making threats against her. That case was dismissed. Ironically that concert promoter was part of an effort to recall the mayor. Lithonia has been in the news for weeks now; I don’t expect this to be over. Mayor McKibben hinted in an interview with local news reporters that she wasn’t going quietly.

Only 20% of registered voters in Lithonia voted in the special election. Now the door opens for new candidates to run for the now vacant office. Mayor McKibben can run again if she chooses to do so. Whoever runs and wins this election, they may still face the same resistance. Although I don’t agree with how Joyce McKibben went about cleaning up city hall, I admit it did need some cleaning. The police chief I think was out of line a number of times, especially with the issues over gas cards and hiring. Also, no matter what powers the city charter gives the mayor, she is still the mayor and deserves respect from city employees.

I also take issue with how members of the city council have acted. Instead of trying to reach a compromise they have resorted to petty bickering. Changing the locks on the building, having employees arrested, and directing police to harass the mayor, and someone altered the city’s website removing the title of mayor from Joyce McKibben’s name, all of this was unnecessary. They should have taken the higher road. On the news tonight a member of the city council, Kathleen deCocq was just overjoyed and very excited about the 166 to 47 vote. She should have just made a simple statement and let it go. It just made this whole process look like a big school yard fight.

I think the Mayor has good intentions, and that she may be right on several things. But personalities, lack of tact and perhaps bad judgment help get us to this point. The real looser in this is the residents of Lithonia. Let’s not forget this is the city that had to ground its city vehicles because it couldn’t afford to pay the auto insurance. The city has had some major problems these past few years. Someone needed to go in and make a change in the way things were done. Perhaps that person isn’t Joyce McKibben, but I do think that someone needs to at least investigate some of her claims, if not only to give residents piece of mind.

Atlanta's Gas Crunch

Most of Metro Atlanta’s motorists are feeling the gas crunch. Atlanta is experiencing a gas shortage that some compare to the 1970’s. Only this time people are confident that the gas supply will get back to normal much sooner. But as more and more stations run dry, people are playing musical gas stations trying to get fuel before their gauges hit “EMPTY.”

There are a lot of people pointing the finger, saying that the Governor didn’t have a plan and knew something like this could happen. One good thing is that the Gov, has asked the Environmental Protection Agency, to relax the rules for special fuel for the Atlanta area until the supplies stabilize. That will mean we will get gas from sources that we normally couldn’t use. That way we get gas in Atlanta, faster.

As we wait the situation out, people are obviously frustrated and its showing. I’ve herd on the news of police being called to stations that do have gas because of customer fights. I’ve seen something similar first hand. I was at a Quick Trip gas station in Dekalb County, and there were people screaming out the window. The lot of the station was just chaos. The station I was at wasn’t fortunate enough to have an employee outside directing cars like I saw on the news. We sure could have used one though, people were lined up in all kinds of ways trying to get to a pump. It almost seemed like the people waiting in line had their own rules for getting gas at this station. People that had pumped gas were blocked from getting out of the lot because people had started lines to try to force their way into the lines coming from the street. It was every car for itself. Well I’ll just end by saying it was a very tense situation. I pumped my gas and got out as fast as I could.

I think we should wait until this shortage is over before we start pointing the finger at who may or not be at fault for this. Perhaps Atlantans can punish those they hold responsible at the voting box this November.

We Finally Hear From Gov. Palin Herself

Well it finally happened, the interview with Alaska’s Governor Palin. Charles Gibson’s interview with John McCain’s running mate was the first of several interviews to air. I now know why it took them so long before they let her sit down with reporters. I wasn’t impressed with her answers. Charles Gibson and even the women from “The View” having interview John & Cindy McCain, have gotten criticism for the questions they asked. First off these people are running for the most powerful position in this country, not the PTA. They need to be asked the hard questions. They may not like the questions, but the people want the answers to them.

Governor Sarah Palin certainly has the republicans party fired up, but what concerns me is how she downplays the state of economy. Just days after the interview aired, Wall Street stumbled. The markets went down, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, insurance giant AIG is in trouble and Merrill Lynch has been sold to Bank of America. What is the “appropriate role of government”? I would think it would be to help stabilize the American financial system?

Gov. Palin told Charles Gibson that “our economy is weak right now.” I think weak would be an understatement. She says that Government should play an appropriate role, but what exactly will that role be. John McCain has flip-flopped on the issue of government bailing out Wall Street. McCain said that government shouldn’t get into the mess that irresponsible Wall Street executives made. But after the Fed announced an $85 billion dollar bailout of AIG, McCain’s tune changed to sound a lot like that of the White House.

Even with the bailout of AIG, Wall Street reacted to the news, and the markets took another tumble. The economy is more than just weak, it’s a disaster. Banks are struggling to stay afloat. Rumors are floating that Washington Mutual is up for sale. I call it homemade financial terrorism. The Housing market and sub-prime mortgages burst, now banks, insurance, stocks are falling.

All before now McCain has been saying that the market will correct itself and now action is needed. But I disagree. The numbers speak for itself, unemployment is up and don’t forget the number of people that have exhausted their unemployment benefits and not found jobs. They almost never get included in the figures which would make the unemployment rate significantly higher than those announced by the government. Homeowners across the country are on the brink foreclosure.

AIG’s bailout, whether we agree with it or not was done with taxpayer money. So if AIG is getting bailed out, I think struggling taxpayers deserve a bailout as well. If Sarah Palin’s interview is any indication of what’s ahead if she is VP, then I’m pretty concerned.

Remembering September 11

Today is the seventh anniversary of the September 11th attacks, the worst act of terrorism on US soil. People all over the country are commemorating the tragedy and remembering those who lost their lives that day. While we remember that day in September, I think we should also remember what lead up to those events and ask ourselves are we any safer? Lapses in intelligence allowed the hijackers to get as far as they did. Lapses in intelligence lead us to war with a country that had nothing to do with the attacks. Today we are still relying on intelligence to keep us safe. Is it working, are we safer? I can’t say. We haven’t had another attack since then.

Seven years after The Towers fell, Osama Bin Laden is still at large, but Saddam Hussein is dead. Recently there was news that the Al Qaeda leader in Pakistan was killed. But still no sight of Bin Laden. It seems like the current administration took a detour in the hunt for Bin Laden. A detour, that sent us to Iraq. Are we safe because of the actions of our government? I want to say yes, but I have to question that. We have put so many resources into stabilizing Iraq; I want to know what resources have been allocated to capturing Bin Laden?

It really makes me wonder, being the world’s superpower, having the best and most technologically advanced military in the world, what’s going on? The next President needs to listen to advice of the trained and experienced military leaders. We need to find Bin Laden, secure our boarders and make sure we have dependable human intelligence to help keep us safe. At this point I’m not sure if the government has kept us safe, or just pure luck there hasn’t been another attack.

Going… Going…. Gone! Clayton County Schools Looses Accreditation

Clayton County Schools losing its accreditation was a surprise to many, but not to me. Most residents thought that SACS, the agency that oversees accreditation would give the school district more time or put them on probation. But last Thursday they decided to strip the county of its accreditation. The loose of accreditation for Clayton County Schools means that students my have a difficult time getting into some universities and they may not meet qualifications for some grants and scholarships. Parents and student are not the only victims; Clayton County property owners could also lose value on their homes.

In SACS ruling on Clayton County Schools it was learned that the district only satisfied one of the nine mandates required to maintain its accreditation. They got a passing grade on the mandate that all board members reside in Clayton County. To me, that is just outrageous. The school board had more than six months to prepare for and meet the deadline for change. SACS made note of several things in making its decision. One of which I mentioned and took issue with weeks ago was the unprecedented authority the school board granted the new corrective Superintendent John Thompson. They also had issue with the school board itself, its ability to govern the district.

It’s pure incompetence plain and simple. It’s no wonder that Governor Purdue removed the remaining four board members from office after a recommendation from an ethics administration Judge. The boards disregard for the law and its own policies have left Clayton County residents to pick up the pieces of a failed school system. Students who have worked hard to earn good grades, acceptance to colleges are now faced with an uncertain future. What more can be said about the school board other than their actions being criminal.

We should now work on solutions. I initially had hope that Superintendent John Thompson could save the county from losing its accreditation. Now that it’s gone, my confidence in him isn’t very high. Once voters elect a new school board, they should immediately seek out a new superintendent and remove the added authority the old board has given the position. They need to work closely with the State Department of Education and SACS to meet the requirements to restore accreditation. This may mean bring in outside consultants whatever it takes. This situation can be fixed, but ego and stubbornness are exactly what is not needed. Now that worse case has happened, it can only get better. My advice to the hard working students, keep working hard. Know that no matter what happens your efforst are not in vien. Parents, do what you need to do to protect you children, get involved, vote in new board members and if you feel the need move your child to another school system or private school if you can. I hope you all don’t have to deal with this very long.