Questions For Water Mismanagement

The brass at Central Atlanta Progress knows what questions reporters from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution should be asking Rachet Rob “I’ll turn your water off” Hunter and his minions at the City’s Department of Water Mismanagement. Starnes has been directed by CAP to know a minimum of four questions in her task to cut-off water: 1. Who besides the Task Force is delinquent on paying the water bill? 2. By what amount of money are those customers delinquent? 3. Has their water not been cut off? 4. If not, why not? The Brass warns how “Anita” may win on this or that particular “spin.”

Are not the answers to these questions public information that should have been given the newspaper by the Department of Mismanagement? I wonder if the struggling AJC (a bit narrower every day) has paid its water bill? My grape vine tells me that the AJC is about as broke as the Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless, Inc. That can’t be; billionaires can’t go broke. We can’t pay the water bill. Does anyone know of businesses with delinquent water bills? Please let me know.

The above questions are really not all that important. Those questions have to do with fairness, equity, justice, serving the public. However, one question looms! And SOMEBODY from CAP or the City or the Mayor’s office will have to answer it at a pretrial hearing on September 21, (if it really happens). That’s when a Superior Court Judge will hear, will listen, will have to be told why Debi Starnes communicates regularly with CAP brass on her task to close the task force and to cut off the water for 600 homeless people at the Peachtree-Pine shelter. Why would Starnes, an employee of United Way be talking to the doers of all good at CAP about keeping poor people from having water? CAP? United Way? City Hall? What will a Fulton County Superior Court Judge hear? As CAP brass dictates the “spin” to reporters that the water cut-off is only the tip of the iceberg. Subpoenas and depositions are flying around like flying biscuits. People that ain’t never got no subpoenas gettin ’em now. CAP may be the new “spinners.”

Stay tuned!

James Wilson Beaty, PhD
Jeremiah 22.16

Ethelyn Whitman Beaty

My favorite sister-in-law is Ethelyn Whitman Beaty. She lives and thrives in Columbia, S. C., and has been my brother’s widow since 1970. His name is Walter Kirkpatrick Beaty, Jr., and he was my favorite brother. Ethelyn told me recently that a friend asked her if she ever thought of the hereafter. Ethelyn, in her mid eighties, answered quickly, “Indeed, I do, often. Each time I go to the refrigerator, I stand there and say to myself, ‘Self, what am I here after?'”

Jerry Farber, my favorite comedian

Very few comedians make me laugh, Two who do are Foster Brooks and Jerry Farber. Jerry has served for years as a member of the Board of Directors of the Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless, Inc. When attending board meetings, Jerry always walks in with a joke or two that breaks up everyone present. One day, however, Jerry came in wearing a very sad face, a somber countenance. In all seriousness Jerry said, I just talked to a homeless guy outside. He was wearing only one old tennis shoe. I said, “Buddy, did you lose your shoe?” With a big smile he replied, “No, I found one.”

Jerry said, “That’s the optimism we gotta have.”

"I was clearly misquoted in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution article." Steven R. Katkowsky, M. D., April 2007–Part II

I hold in my hand the memo that I cited in Part I of this article. The memo is from Dr. Katkowsky, Director of Fulton County Health Department. The memo is dated April 19, 2007, and is sent to Fulton County Commissioner Emma Darnell. Upon reading Rhonda Cook’s, “Homeless shelters warned of lice; Alleged source denies outbreak,” Darnell had some questions and she wanted an answer from her Health Department. Cook’s article was published on April 14, 2007, and alleged the outbreak of “lice infestation” at the Peachtree-Pine shelter. Dr. Katkowsky writes, “I am not aware of any health official declaring a lice infestation at the Peachtree-Pine Shelter or any other shelter.” Two sentences later he wrote, “I was clearly misquoted in the Atlanta Journal Constitution.”

The remaining portion of the two-page memo explains that he had sent two members from his staff on April 6, 2007, to meet with Task Force staff as a preventative visit. The memo states that Valerie Lofton-Dawson was “somewhat familiar with the process of how to access for lice and would report any problems to the Health Department.” There was never an infestation of lice at the Peachtree-Pine shelter, just another Starnes invention.

I liken Starnes’ “lice infestation” lie to the Cheney weapons of mass destruction farce. Neither the WMD nor the infestation ever existed. Both were made up by bearers of false witness. The entire “lice infestation” episode was a Debi Starnes creation. It did not occur according to Fulton County health officials. This creation, this fabrication, this false reporting are examples of the plan to exterminate the Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless, Inc. This attack has lasted for 15 years. To my knowledge no retraction of the “big lie” lice article has ever come forth, not from Debi “lice infestation” Starnes, not from Rhonda “the whole truth” Cook, not from A. J. “we’re all kind of mystified” Robinson, not from Rufus “BumBot” Terrill, not from David “Great news” Wardell, not from Horace “Hobsy” Sibley, not from Bonnie “did you write that memo?” Ware or from any other member of the mayor’s Team Goliath. In the midst of this plethora of lies, we honor the life of Walter Cronkite, a reporter who told the truth. Again, the truth is the perfect defense.

James Wilson Beaty, PhD
July 20, 2009
Jeremiah 22.16

“I was clearly misquoted in the ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION article.-Part I” Steven R. Katkowshy, M. D. April 2007

While watching coverage of the home going of Walter Cronkite, I heard words describing him as “the most trusted man in America,” “always told the truth,” “honest,” “compassionate,” “fair,” “funny,” “unbiased” and “Uncle Walter.” Cronkite possessed a passion to educate the public by reporting all the facts. I dedicate this piece to Walter Cronkite and to honest reporting. While pondering the life of this truth-loving news man, two opposites, with apologies to Conkrite, come to mind. Rhonda “the whole truth” Cook and Steve “weasel-like” Visser are employed by the ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION. A more accurate statement would be that Cook writes for Debi Starnes, the mayor’s advisor on homeless matters, Central Atlanta Progress and the Atlanta business community. Whenever she covers the Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless, she has been directed, coached, told what to write by Debi Starnes and the Central Atlanta Brass.

The title of this article is a direct quote lifted from a memo to Fulton County Commissioner Emma I. Darnell. The Commissioner had read Rhonda Cook’s April 14, 2007 article entitled, “Homeless shelters warned of lice: Alleged source denies outbreak.” Darnell asked questions about the article; she smelled a city hall rat, so to speak.

The first sentence of Cook’s article reads, “The Fulton County Health Departmant issued a health advisory to Atlanta homeless shelters Friday because health officials say a privately run facility at Peachtree-Pine Streets is infested with lice.” Paragraph four paraphrases the county director and I quote what Cook published, “But Fulton County Health Department Director Steven Katkowsky said an infestation of lice was discovered at the task force shelter when his staff inspected the building at the request of Atlanta’s officials.” What Atlanta officials? Guess who is quoted several paragraphs later? Of course, Debi Starnes. Whenever a lie is written in the AJC, Starnes is not far behind. She’s everywhere! She’s everywhere! She reverses Shelley’s “Ode to the West Wind.” If spring comes, can WINTER be far behind?

Several paragraphs later Starnes, it’s a miracle, is available for a statement, “There were about 100 facilities serving homeless people in the city. If others are infested it would create major problems. Right now it seems to be escalating at Peachtree and Pine. If it spreads everywhere, it’s a logistical nightmare and it’s a financial nightmare for these agencies.”

Moving from Starnes, Reporter Cook cites two men from the business community. Note the balanced, fair, never lopsided coverage that follows. Cook’s sources this time are Rufus “BumBot” Terrill and CAP’s president A. J. Robinson. Atlantans were made proud when the Stephen Colbert Report featured Terrill on national television. He had built a remote controlled robot (BumBot) whose main feature is to squirt water with some accuracy and force on “bums” who happen near it. Colbert listened as Terrill explained how he douses homeless “bums” who come near his Irish restaurant. Cook quotes Terrill, “We’re trying to build up business and have conventions come here, but if you have . . . a body lice infestation and it goes into hotels, that’s a disaster.”

With adroit acumen the Central Atlanta Progress president matches Terrill’s brilliance, “The businesses in the Peachtree-Pine Street area have long thought the shelter was a problem, more so than other shelters in the city. The issue {lice} is symptomatic of a much bigger issue with the operation. Somebody needs to have responsibly (sic) for health-related issues in this shelter. It’s not the city. It’s not Fulton County. We’re all kind of mystified.” Just a note of cruel contradiction: I find it alarming that A. J. “we’re all kind of mystified” Robinson speaks concern for health issues at Peachtree-Pine while at the same time leads the parade to shut off water, an absolute necessity for healthy conditions. So much for Cronkite-like reporting, Rhonda “the whole truth” Cook.

(This ends Part I; the conclusion revealing Dr. Katkowsky’s refutation of this Rhonda Cook propaganda will be posted Monday, July 20, 2009. Stay tuned)

Sorry, Debi; Sorry, CAP, Sorry, Rhonda "The whole truth" Cook; Sorry, Dave "Great news" Wardell and Sorry, Ratchet Rob "I'll turn your water off" Hunter

The names listed above are members of the Franklin/Starnes, CAP Goliath Team committed to the extermination of the Task Force for the Homeless. They will have to wait a little longer for homeless people to be without water at the Peachtree-Pine shelter. The next payment of $5,338.90 is due on July 25. By nothing short of a miracle, the $8,400 due on July 16 was paid. A minister wrote a personal check of $1000. A business person sent $2000. A committed young woman raised $2500 from her Buckhead neighbors. A prominant church through the diligence of its senior minister electronically mailed $5000 to the city’s Department of Water Mismanagement. An additional $1000 came through the Task Force’s PayPal. Incidentally, four donors were Task Force staff who have not been paid for the last three months.

The first time the city turned off the water at Peachtree-Pine was the first week of December 2008, Christmas season. Central Atlanta Progress’s David E. Wardell upon hearing that the water had been cut off, exclaimed, “Great news!” Wardell sets the tone for Team Goliath. To a person the team members are giddy knowing 550 homeless people have no water to drink. CAP contradicts itself in its philosophy of panhandling when it gives us permission to give a bottle of water, never money, of course. Sadness, yea moans, rippled through city hall when word came that the water would NOT be turned off on July 16. The bankrupt city needs every dollar it can steal; however, more than stealing its greatest thrill for Team Goliath is witholding water from thirsty homeless people. These leaders fulfill Isaiah 32.6, “For the fool speaks folly…the hungry he leaves empty and from the thirsty he withholds water.” Why Bonnie Ware, the memo writer was seen to wipe a tear as she groaned, “And those nasty people will use our water to flush; it’s just outrageous.”

Recent developments reveal Shirley Franklin and Debi Starnes to be pawns on CAP’s chess board. They are the cupbearers of Central Atlanta Progress who in turn obey the good ole boy power structure that has ruled Georgia and Atlanta since Sherman did his thing. The chilling truth that the sickness of the Franklin/Starnes yoke (and they are sick) when gone will be replaced by other cupbearers. A sweet irony: the Task Force has gumpteen deep throats in the bowels of City Hall. Oodles of city workers even right there under Rachet Rob’s nose deplore the actions of their own department, the Department of Water Mismanagement. Words of encouragement like “We’re pulling for you.” come regularly from city workers.

The word “cupbearer” brings to mind a scene in literature that clarifies the city’s oppressing the poor. Mark Twain depicted Elizabeth I’s court in a piece he called, “1601.” This satirical piece is narrated by the Queen’s cupbearer. Believing himself to be of noble blood, the cupbearer is appalled that the Queen has invited low-lifes to gather in the court. These undesireables are writers, actors, swashbucklers such as Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Francis Bacon and Walter Raleigh. Members of the court are worthies such as the Duchess of Bilgewater and Lady Alice Dilberry.

The cupbearer voices his repulsion: “I being her majesty’s cupbearer, had no choice but to remain and behold rank forgotten, and the high having conversation with the low as though they were on equal terms. And the world will hear of this great scandal.”

The cupbearer in Twain’s “1601” makes everything clear. CAP’s initiating the plan to turn off the water at a shelter on Peachtree Street is not about water. It’s about the Duchess of Bilgewater. It’s cupbearer philosophy. It’s about CAP exclusionism. It’s about the high loathing the low. It’s about plantation thinking assessing the fact that 550 African-American males have a Peachtree Street address. Throw in “homeless males” and appears the perfect storm. This CAP zeal is about the privileged never having to stoop for the unwanted. Could we not safely add to Rachet Rob “I’ll turn your water off” Hunter the title of the Duke of Bilgewater. God rest you Mark Twain. How you would love Team Goliath.

The Usual Biased Reporting from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution–Sameo, Sameo–The Monotony of Injustice

Steve Visser’s June 30 article, “Showdown over shelter” invites scrutiny. An unsuspecting reader might believe the piece to be fair, perhaps truthful. But those of us who experience the visceral, lop-sided reporting of the AJC expect only venom and vitriol whenever the Task Force is mentioned. The AJC serves as the newsletter for the Franklin/Starnes Goliath Team committed to the extermination of the Task Force from the face of the earth and to the disappearing of the homeless population from Atlanta. Quality reporting is objective; “Showdown over shelter” is objectionable.

The article confirms that truthful reporting covering Atlanta’s homeless population and the Task Force in Atlanta’s only daily is nonexistent. For this newspaper this article is remarkably wily. Rarely, if ever, is the Franklin/Starnes Goliath Team newsletter so subtle. The article couches some of its lies; it wraps other half-truths in velvet. False witness masterfully marries the truth. Paraphrasing and direct quotes maneuver the truth snake-like in and out of lies.

The reporter’s withholding the whole truth is as insidious as his bias. Robert S. Cramer, Jr., Board Chairman is paraphrased. I quote Visser’s rendering of Cramer’s paraphrase, “The Task Force has watched its budget dwindle to about $600,000 from $1.5 because city officials quit supporting it for federal and state grants and lobbied private donors to withdraw support.”

At this point a news reporter would have asked questions and would have printed the answers. How did this happen? Was there tortious interference? What is the reason a shelter loses a million dollars in funding? Was there wrong doing? The capable Bob Cramer in a fair forum could have and would have explained the sleazy situation. But the one-sided silence of the article ignores the questions now being investigated in Fulton County Superior Court.

Debi Starnes is permitted to give the only answer. Visser writes of Starnes, “She said the task force lost its grant because of poor performance–not because the city wants it closed to appease Midtown businessmen.” As Debi Starnes spoke those words for her newsletter, a document sat on her desk that certified that the Task Force was in full compliance to be funded for the coming year’s state/DCA monies. This $100,000 funding certification reached the Czar’s desk in April. For the third consecutive year the certification has gone on to the state with one snag, a letter from the Mayor’s office signed by Greg Pridgeon, written by Starnes telling the state that the Task Force should not be funded. State funds from the feds cannot go to a shelter without city backing. And the beat goes on! Starnes is a “loaned executive” paid how much by God knows whom. It is clear that she is wherever she is to help the homeless–out of sight.

I have read this article a dozen times. There is not to my knowledge a word attributed to Starnes that she did not intend. She bore false witness about not appeasing Midtown businessmen; that is her modus operandi; she appeases business men in her sleep. What she intended reached the printed page. We expect nothing else; the AJC is her newsletter.

On the other hand, let me direct you to the last paragraph in the article. Writers know that compositions, editorials, essays, sermons and speeches end with a conclusion, a punch. It’s the point! It’s what your reader takes home! It’s the handshake that closes the deal! Journalistic writing is different on purpose. It opens with the most important point and moves usually to the least important information.

Visser’s article follows the editorial mode as it does not report news; it spews propaganda hoping to rid a city of a certain shelter and to disappear from a city a specific segment of its population. As I quote the last paragraph, I ask readers to note the meshing of compliment and diatribe to the detriment of the person being interviewed. Here’s the last paragraph, “Beaty, who champions the causes of the poor from panhandling to urban camping, said the Gateway approach helps the people seen as “the deserving” homeless who are trying to straighten out their lives or get back on their feet financially, but it ignores the people who are more stubborn. Those “non-compliant” homeless will end up camping in parks and in doorways if her shelter closes, Beaty said.”

Since when are “panhandling” and “urban camping” “causes of the poor”? Anita Beaty begs the men at Peachtree-Pine never to beg on the streets. Before Starnes slashed the funding Beaty sent outreach teams to bring “urban campers” to the shelter. The last sentence implies with really shoddy journalism that Anita Beaty referred to Peachtree-Pine as “her” shelter. No such utterance occurred.

The most serious injustice in this inaccurate editorial is the quote declaring the fact of “a long time battle between Anita Beaty and Franklin’s Czar, Debi Starnes. They first began tussling in the 1990’s over how best to help the homeless.” First, to mention Anita Beaty and Debi Starnes together is to align Mother Theresa with the Witch of Endor. Debi “Debi Does Atlanta” Starnes has swum since 1990 in the Outhouse (City Hall) cesspool. She has lived in the pockets of the status quo homeless haters from hanging judge Bill Riley’s Community Court to Central Atlanta Progress’s “sanitized zone” to Horace Sibley’s current “Tourist Triangle.” Starnes has battled, all right, but always on the side of the oppressor, never on the side of the population. As we live and breathe, the Czar exists in order to exterminate and to disappear.

This “battle” has never been between two women. It’s not personal. It’s spiritual. It’s spiritual warfare. It’s not a battle. One of these woman has already won! The other could never win. The great Samuel Johnson, creator of the first “modern” dictionary helps the spectator of this sorry saga to see the chasmic dissimilarity between these two women. Johnson was asked to comment on a literary skirmish in his day between a minor critic named Edwards and the established giant, Dr. Warburton. Edwards had managed to scorch Warburton in a few points; consequently, some of the unwashed in Johnson’s world had placed Edwards on a level with Warburton. Johnson had heard enough; he said, “Nay, he has given him some smart hits to be sure; but there is no proportion between the two men; they must not be named together. A fly, Sir, may sting a stately horse and make him wince; but one is but an insect, and the other is a horse still”

Debi Starnes’ inveterate stinging of Anita Beaty and helpless homeless people has, to be sure, caused many to wince. And she may sting on ’til her own judgement day. But when the sun goes down, Debi Starnes will be a fly still and Anita Beaty a stately thoroughbred. The fly and the thoroughbred forever and forever are never on the same level.

James Wilson Beaty, Phd
Jeremiah 22.16

I

Rachet Rob Will Have To Wait 15 Days

At 4 pm today, June 30, the Atlanta Task Force delivered a $14,809.82 check to the City of Atlanta’s Department of Water Mismanagement. Rachet Rob “I’ll turn your water off” Hunter was poised by the phone waiting for the turnoff call from Debi “Debi Does Atlanta” Starnes. But the Czar was busy reading a document from city finance approving funding for The Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless. She has had the approved document on her desk for thirty days. The deadline for certification is this week. Task Force attorneys learned June 30 of this latest Starnes effort to block every penny that might fund the Task Force. The crime committed for messing with public funds is TORTIOUS INTERFERENCE.

The next bill of $8000 is due on July 15. Ratchet Rob will have to wait two weeks before he throws the cutoff switch. Judge Glanville ordered the Task Force to maintain payments and for the City, especially Debi Starnes, not to interfere with the funding or the operation of the Task Force. Starnes has blocked hundreds of thousands of dollars of public money from the Task Force who cannot pay its water bill. Starnes is currently (July 6) blocking a grant in excess of $100,000 which has been approved by the city’s Department of Grants Management. Other orders at the hearing (June 23) included subpoenas of emails from Starnes, City Hall and powerhouse Central Atlanta Progress. The President of CAP was quoted in the AJC as saying of the Task Force, (I paraphrase) Can no one shut them down? I wonder if that giver of all good will have to repeat that question under oath? Incidentally, there is much discussion about Starnes’ employer. Lead attorney for the City introduced the Czar as a representative of the City. But at the close of the hearing when Baker-Donelson Attorney Steve Hall placed Starnes on the list of those to be deposed the City cried NO she works for United Way. The Judge said she will be deposed. Gonna be very interesting who pays her salary and how much. Is her job description and salary public information? There is the slight odor of the CAP. Somebody knows.