Another Reason I Don't Live in GA

STONE MOUNTAIN, Ga. — Police say a 61-year-old man annoyed with a crying 2-year-old girl at a suburban Atlanta Walmart slapped the child several times after warning the toddler's mother to keep her quiet.

A police report says after the stranger hit the girl at least four times, he said: "See, I told you I would shut her up."

Roger Stephens of Stone Mountain is charged with felony cruelty to children. It was unclear if he had an attorney and a telephone call to his home Wednesday was unanswered.

Authorities say the girl and her mother were shopping Monday when the toddler began crying. The police report says Stephens approached the mother and said, "If you don't shut that baby up, I will shut her up for you."

Authorities say Stephens then grabbed the 2-year-old and slapped her. The child began screaming and Stephens was arrested. Police say an examination showed the girl's face was slightly red.

Required Reading for Everyone Fed Up With The Lies About Health Reform

In an excerpt criticizing the NYT's poor coverage, this paragraph caught my eye while reading Fire Dog Lake blog:

"So the front page part of Kevin Sack's story was completely misleading; it should have said, right from the beginning,

Conservative media sources, including Fox News, Russ Limbaugh, and Matt Drudge, have been persistently misleading people about health care reform proposals. As a result their listeners, as the experience of a Georgia couple illustrates, have become victims of unjustified fear and needless anxiety, fed by the false impression that the federal government is planning to deny or ration their health care.

These conservative media efforts are provably dishonest, but despite having the facts repeatedly corrected and the distortions denounced by numerous experts, the conserative media continue to repeat the false information, leaving those Americans who rely on the sources even more anxious and confused."

Read the full account here: http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/7545

Fox Ignores Facts, Yet Wants to be Taken Seriously

"And there was yet another project [the Lake Optima guard rail project] -- somebody dubbed it 'the guard rail to nowhere.' It's for a guard rail along a lonesome, desolate patch of highway by a waterless lake outside a town of 266 people -- $1.1 million. ... There is a lot of waste there."
-- Fox News's Bill Sammon, 6/16/09, criticizing the economic recovery plan

VERSUS

"Work on the Lake Optima guardrail project is not going forward as we explore other approaches to protecting public safety."
-- U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 6/15/09

See more at this site:
http://thinkprogress.org/