Live from Ocean Isle Beach, N.C. ...

- The Georgia Environmental Protection Division announced yesterday that only one of its six testing locations showed contamination from dichlorobenzene, and that was where the North Oconee River met Trail Creek. The concentration was 210 parts per billion, which is slightly higher than the 190 parts per billion that is considered safe. EPD officials said that results from their tests for formaldehyde would be ready next week, while Greensboro was testing the quality of its drinking water.

I don't necessarily agree with Rob Woodall's prescriptions for tax reform, but I greatly admire his pragmatism and honesty ...

Anyone who purchased a ‘road ready’ golf cart in 2009 could receive a $6,500 check from the federal government, and thousands took advantage of the offer. This was a dumb tax credit, and America borrowed the dollars from China and Japan to pay for it.

The (Americans for Tax Reform) pledge, however, would prevent Democrats and Republicans from coming together to agree to kill this bad tax credit unless they also came together to agree on a new way to hand out that $6,500 through tax code manipulation to taxpayers.

The priority of 7th District voters is to kill that bad tax credit and stop the borrowing from China and Japan. Voters here are tired of everything being thrown into the same giant piece of legislation.

Ezra Klein tries to sift through the mystery that is the inability of businesses to make the necessary investments to fuel economic growth, despite having access to record amounts of reserve cash ...

A lot of these folks are Republicans because they hate taxes and regulations, and they hate taxes and regulations because they believe them to be bad for their businesses. As you might expect, their Washington trade groups are even more conservative, and are single-minded in their determination to weaken regulations and cut taxes.

What gets difficult in all this is separating things that are actually hurting businesses from things that Republican-leaning business owners, for reasons of ideology or personal self-interest, simply don't like. And because there's virtually no data on this question, there's really no way to tell the two apart.

Elif Shafak argues that fiction can help overcome identity politics.

It's difficult to process this story.

Nathan Deal, in a matter of hours, completely reversed his position with regard to Georgia accepting federal funds from the 'Race To The Top' program. On Tuesday morning, during a speech at the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, he said he would turn down the federal funding because he didn't like taking anything with 'strings.' Karen Handel, his opponent in the runoff for the Republican nomination for governor, said she would take the money.

Just a few hours - hours - later, Deal changed his mind and decided to take the money.

So, what to make of this?

The cynic would point out that Deal's changing his position largely because he's trailing in the polls and got ridiculed for suggesting he'd turn down the funding. This smacks of nothing more than political posturing during electoral crunch time.

Live from Ocean Isle Beach, N.C. ...

- Vacation curbed into my ability to keep tabs on last night's Athens-Clarke County Commission meeting - a gathering where commissioners apparently solved every world problem - but go check out Blake's article to get caught up to date. The tennis center found its home along Lexington Highway at Southeast Clarke Park, though it was over the objections of local tennis players who wanted Bishop Park or the YWCO (nevermind that the latter, in particular, would have tied up almost every penny of the existing funds).

- SPLOST also passed by a 9-1 vote with Athens-Clarke County District One Commissioner Doug Lowry dissenting. Lowry has been a vocal critic of the size and length of this SPLOST package, which is loaded down with more than $100 in funding allocated to the jail and The Classic Center.

Susan Shaw, a marine toxicologist, shares disturbing evidence that the efforts to save our beaches from the Gulf oil spill might just be killing our oceans.

This Salon piece is an interesting read that points out the obvious hypocrisy evident in the Republican criticisms of the Journolist non-story ...

As David Brock, who had attended those meetings, explained a few years ago in the Republican Noise Machine:

Every Wednesday morning in Norquist's Washington offices, the leaders of more than eighty conservative organizations -- including major right-wing media outlets and top Bush White House aides -- convene to set movement priorities, plan strategy, and adopt talking points. Norquist seems a cross between a Communist Party boss and a Mafia don as he presides over these strategy sessions ...

Conservative media turned out in full force for the weekly strategy meetings convened by right-wing activist Grover Norquist -- Peggy Noonan and John Fund of the Journal, representatives from National Review and the Washington Times, and a researcher for Bob Novak all checked in. The right-wing writers considered themselves part of the conservative movement "team," as Norquist put it ...

Ed Robinson, the District Six commissioner for Athens-Clarke County, told BTT he isn't interested in dictating what types of development Oconee County chooses to pursue, but he does want to find ways to work with its local government to mitigate any impact that may come with future commercial development along the two counties' border.

Oconee County is requesting a permanent sewer easement from Athens-Clarke County to extend a sewer line to serve a St. Mary's facility on Jennings Mill Road, as well as provide for future residential and commercial development in that area. The area is question is a small piece of property inside the borders of Oconee County, but is owned by Athens-Clarke County. It housed an oxyidation pond that hasn't been used in roughly 30 years.

Just a reminder, The Dawg Gone Blog is up and running. Go check it out.