10 APR 08: THE HOVER-AROUND

"This won't be news," the caller told me right off the bat Wednesday afternoon. Well, that's OK. Plenty of blog-writing nowadays seems closer to rumor and innuendo.

The caller continued: "....but there's been a helicopter flying over my neighborhood for about the last four hours." Uh-oh. Could it be a search for a second plane crash in three days? Or were those mysterious black helicopters from the United Nations getting ready for a sneak attack on Fort Benning?

"What neighborhood are you in?" I asked the man.

"Near Green Island," he answered. Now this was puzzling. The helicopter was nowhere close to Fort Benning. And as wealthy a neighborhood as Green Island Hills is, I've never heard of anyone there getting around by landing on helipads.

"It's not a military or a medical helicopter," the caller continued. Apparently it was flying low enough that he could tell. And if WRBL somehow had found its long-lost "Chopper Three," the markings should have been obvious.

"It was flying overhead for about two hours," the man reported. "Then it went away for awhile, and now it's back again." So perhaps the pilot took a lunch break. Who could have guessed UFO's have unions?

"I can open the door and let you hear it," the caller said. If he did that, I couldn't hear it. People in Green Island Hills may be skimping on the quality of their telephones, to pay those expensive mortgages.

"If you find out what it's doing," the caller concluded, "you might have a story...."

"But you just told me this isn't news."

"It will be, if I shoot it down."

The man laughed a little after saying that. If he actually lived in Green Island Hills, I'd know for sure he was joking about shooting down that helicopter. In rural areas of Russell County, I might not be so sure.

I took the man's phone number, and promised to do some checking on this mysterious helicopter. After a couple of calls to the Columbus Airport, I had an answer. "It's work on a cell phone tower," I told the man.

"So it's not news," the man admitted. Not unless he grew tired of the noise, and reached into the closet for his shotgun.

(Wouldn't it be strange if this helicopter was used for a Verizon Wireless tower? You can hear them now - overhead, even before construction starts.)

But let's be honest here - a helicopter hovering over Green Island Hills for hours certainly could make some residents stop and wonder. Slick burglars could be scouting those nice homes. Or nosy neighbors could be checking who has the largest swimming pool - and already has it filled.

E-MAIL UPDATE: The gavel fell six days ago, to end the Georgia General Assembly session. But one reader isn't satisfied with how one matter turned out....

Follow the Money Trail. Ga Senate Bill 372, passed the Senate but not the House. It would create an ethics panel for Boards of Education, chosen by the governing body. This sort of panel would rubber stamp the Education Board and support the oligarchy, and potential corruption.

The Columbus contingent of Common Cause GA went to the capital to support the ethics panel for consolidated governments, suggesting it be chosen by the Grand Jury.

The bill also removes the need for Legislators to file campaign disclosures in local election offices!

Local filings of campaign disclosures is a critical element of our Republican Democracy. Common Cause, with the help of their Columbus member, the Republican Party Chair, supported the robbery of our right to have local viewings of the legislators' campaign disclosures.

GA allows electronic filings of campaign disclosures, and the disclosures can be seen at the state website. The state has usually not even fined the electeds who did not file campaign disclosures, and when they did they imposed a pittance of $50-100. It is a farcical system. The state now requires local filings but the bill would remove that requirement.

Local access to campaign filings is critical, assuring:

1. Access to everyone, people without computers, and people who cannot afford repeated requests of state copies can go to the local elections office and see the disclosures themselves.

2. State filings are electronic and local filings are paper creating a real paper trail with a real signature. Changes and additions can be seen readily. Local paper filings have signatures!

3. All who subscribe to the belief that with politicians- "Do not trust and DO verify" can verify.

4. A local person who is charged by local people with the responsibility to oversee the authenticity of campaign disclosure filings provides a new measure of accountability, with a local witness.

Tell the politicians, buckle up, it is going to get more inconvenient, not less. Who cares if it is inconvenient, onerous, and they say it is duplicative. We want it. We will fight to keep it. We need more filings not less. The bill will return next year.

The Senate and Common Cause said the removal of local filings is wanted because it is duplicative, I say the removal of our right to have local filings is duplicitous! Why have they gone to so much trouble to prevent local filings on paper with signature?

If a politician wants the position, and the power, it should not be considered inconvenient or onerous to provide a local disclosure filing with a guaranteed signature. They act like we are asking them to donate a kidney! If they want the position and power bad enough, make them work for it. Local filings of campaign disclosures should be considered an honor, a sacred trust, and an American duty!

Deborah Owens

Columbus, Ga 31909

Hmmmm - is this e-mail suggesting some local school boards are unethical? I haven't heard anyone suggest that the sale of the old Baker High School will allow school board member Joseph Roberson to build a big new sanctuary for his church down the street.

There may not be a city ethics board in Columbus, but something vaguely along those lines was created for public safety after the Kenneth Walker shooting. You may vaguely remember that board. Either it's evaporated in the last couple of years, or every public safety officer has become a perfect citizen.

We checked the text of SB 372 Wednesday night, in the form that passed the State Senate. While campaign disclosure forms might have ended at the local level, they still would have to be filed at the Georgia Ethics Commission office in Atlanta. In fact, I was able to call up Senate candidate Reginald Pugh's 2006 reports online. Why he stopped at a $300 donation from himself, I have no idea....

When it comes to Common Cause, keep in mind the group has members from both main political parties. Muscogee County Republican Chair Josh McKoon is part of it - but so is retired TV news anchor and admitted Democrat Dick McMichael. That's what actually makes Common Cause a bit uncommon nowadays.

But really now - isn't complaining about paperwork common in all walks of life? It's not only true with campaign disclosure reports. It's true with buying a house, leasing a car - and don't get me started on the Georgia tax return that's now seven pages long.

Back at the Georgia capital: did you hear about that Republican news conference Wednesday? Governor Sonny Perdue had to stand between Lieutenant Governor Casey Cagle and House Speaker Glenn Richardson. The next time Cagle and Richardson stand side-by-side, it may for a campaign debate in 2010.

I've decided in terms of 2010 Georgia politics, the big winner of the legislative session was the man who hardly ever was there. Somewhere in the state, Republican Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine must be smiling -- because he now looks like the cleanest crusader since Eliot Spitzer.

Now let's see if anything inconvenient or onerous happened in Wednesday's news....

+ WLTZ reported Muscogee County will add two more "advance voting" polling places for the July primary. They'll be at the Cunningham Center and the Frank Chester Recreation Center -- which still leaves none north of Manchester Expressway. Apparently Republicans in north Columbus aren't afraid about getting sick before a big vote.

+ WRBL reporter David Spunt twice claimed on the air the price of oil was "a dollar-eight a barrel." Either he misread the price of 108 dollars -- or he's getting his statistics from web sites in Venezuela.

+ A Savannah TV station reported shots were fired in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart store. Security personnel never bothered closing the store, even after police showed up. But then again, how else are you supposed to try out the buckshot you buy in the sporting goods department?

+ Instant Message to Owen Ditchfield: Wow - you've ridden a bicycle from your home to work for 40 years?! Did you also ride that bike to School Board meetings, when you were a member years ago? Or did you fear all the paperwork would fall out of your basket, while you pedaled up the Wynnton Road hill?

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BURKARD BULK MAIL INDEX: 633 (+ 20, 3.3%)

TRUDGE REPORT, DAY 39: Spring cleaning, 150 minutes. Total: 121.8 miles run, 14.5 walked

The views expressed in this blog are solely those of the author -- not necessarily those of anyone else in Columbus living or dead, and perhaps not even you.

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