Ramblings' Journal

I'm supposed to be on O'Reilly tonight

Just got word that I'm going to be on The O'Reilly Factor tonight at 8 on Fox News Channel.

We'll be talking about a story from the first part of this week.

Overnight Monday night, a group of youngsters tossed rocks at a tanker truck, and one enterprising kid lobbed a bottle rocket into the cab of the truck. The tanker truck, carrying 7500 pounds of diesel fuel, went off the road and overturned. The driver was seriously injured.

Atlanta Police evacuated the Bankhead Courts housing project as a precaution, as there were fears of an explosion from the diesel fuel.

Police have arrested and charged an 18 year-old man with tossing the bottle-rocket, and they are close (at least in their words) to apprehending a second individual in the case.

The question - as O'Reilly's producer put it to me - is whether crime is out of control in Atlanta.

I told him that it wasn't, and that crime in Atlanta is no better nor worse than any other urban area of the country. This was the act of kids who had no business out at 2 in the morning, regardless of the notion of it being the night of the fourth of July. They were wrong, and should be punished.

The other point brought out by the producer - and presumably one that O'Reilly wants to pursue - is whether or not an increase in crime (there's that notion again) can be tied to the poor performance of the Fulton County DA, Paul Howard.

Howard, as far as I'm concerned, is an embarrassment. He has no business in the DA's office. The office, itself, needs an overhaul. That being said, the only thing that truly presents itself is the issue of a district attorney who botches high profile cases. Case after case, story after story, the one at fault becomes the DA. The APD does it's job -- I certainly can't fault the rank and file of the APD. (Management is another issue entirely, and one for another rant and another day)

On the other hand, the District Attorney's office has made a number of questionable decisions and had a questionable record in representing the people of Fulton County.

Others may point to the fact that Paul Howard ran unopposed in the last election, both in the primary as well as the general election. It's awful hard to get someone else to do the job when the guy who's there in the first place has no one to challenge him at the ballot box.

Anyway, that's what's on tap for tonight -- provided Hurricane Dennis' path of destruction and the impending retirement of Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist don't intrude.

Be there. Aloha.