23 NOV 04: SHE SPY

She drove a white car with a Lee County, Alabama license plate. And in 30 seconds Monday morning, she put on one of the strangest displays of driving I'd seen in some time. In fact, I wish the woman had smoked her tires -so I would have known she won a stock car race or something.

My humble Honda was heading north on First Avenue, when the driver of the white car turned in front of me at Sixth Street. It didn't look to me like the woman had stopped completely at the stop sign.-- but at about 9:00 a.m., maybe this was her idea of a morning rush hour.

So the white car turned in front of me onto First Avenue - then suddenly pulled to the side of the road. That close to downtown, you take free parking anywhere you can find it....

But no, she did NOT park the car along First Avenue. Instead, she turned left and put her car across First Avenue right in front of me. What was going on here? Were public safety workers surrounding my Honda to take me into custody, and shut the blog down?

For her next stunt, the driver of the white car backed up a bit - then rolled forward, going the opposite direction on First Avenue. She did a U-turn in the middle of the street, apparently without caring about me driving behind her. Or then again, maybe she thought I'd follow her to Bobby Peters's house.

As the woman turned around and passed me in the other direction, I stared almost in shock through the window. And that's when I noticed the driver holding a cell phone in her right hand. She drove like a jerk, because she was jerking the car
around one-handed....

So what do you think happened here? Did this woman make a wrong turn, because she was distracted by the cell phone call? Was someone on the phone giving her directions as she drove? Or did I happen upon an undercover officer, whose target just walked across a street one block away?

BLOG UPDATE: SOA Watch reports 18 demonstrators appeared in federal court Monday, for their actions during Sunday's march outside Fort Benning. Almost all of them posted bond - but for some reason they didn't return to Benning Road, where the fences were being taken down.

One 75-year-old protester claimed he was a victim of discrimination in federal court - because he's blind, and for the second year in a row his charges were dropped. The last time we saw someone so willing to go to jail, a tabloid hired her to provide scoops on Martha Stewart.

The Associated Press reported one S.O.A. Watch protester was arrested for violating Georgia's law against wearing masks. How many police officers could have enforced this on Halloween, and made their quota for a couple of months?

Did you hear what one city clean-up crew member said about the dozens of crosses protesters left in the Fort Benning fence? He said all of them were thrown in the trash! You'd think some of them would be saved for recycling - for instance,
along U.S. 431 in Russell County....

(How many Columbus residents will be stunned to learn wooden crosses were thrown away like this? We're in the "Bible Belt," after all - not the heart of Berkeley.)

Now some other shorts from a warm, steamy Monday:

+ The Alabama State Patrol reported 62 percent of all rural highway deaths this year have involved drivers NOT wearing seat belts. This truly is sad news - but maybe there's an explanation that's being overlooked. How many of those vehicles
were old pick-up trucks, with no seat belts in the first place?

+ Some residents of Hamilton protested a plan by Harris County Sheriff Mike Jolley to rezone six acres of land for apartments. I heard this report and was simply stunned - because how in the world can a law officer afford to own 22 acres of land in Harris County? Which lottery jackpot did he win?

+ Columbus State's men's basketball team opened the season by topping Tuskegee. But a 24-point second-half lead almost disappeared, and C.S.U. only won by three. I could really tell it was opening night when I started worrying about the lead well before broadcaster Scott Miller did.

(Tuskegee brought to Columbus a player from North Carolina named Robert Helaire. If he becomes the star of the team, it will be absolutely Helaire-ious.)

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