Over on the AJC, retired reporter Jim Walls of Atlanta Unfiltered writes of the ongoing difficulties of obtaining political campaign disclosures for various Atlanta metro candidates.

“Last week, I paid $6 to park and pick up disclosures for Atlanta’s mayor and City Council.

The municipal clerk’s office is supposed to open at 8:30 a.m. I sat on the floor outside until someone unlocked the door 20 minutes later. Then I was told that the guy who could burn the files to a CD wasn’t in, so I needed to come back later.”

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The AJC reports this morning that MARTA is pouring more money into it’s PR efforts after the economy tanked and we discovered that our state legislature thought that MARTA was some sort of optional Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride.

According to MARTA – relayed through the AJC – the word around the state house was that MARTA “needed more people down here” during the struggle to allow the agency to use infrastructure money for slumping operating costs.  So, MARTA has decided to submit to the game and take $592,000 of its operating budget and put it towards “PR”.

(I’m picturing a smiling MARTA bus cartoon mascot with a voice like Barney saying “It’s smarta to ride MARTA kids!”  It’s all about the kids.)

Of course, MARTA can’t redistribute, let alone spend any money, without raising the ire of some state reps.  I bet you can guess who’s about to be quoted…

[Rep. Jill Chambers] added that she was disturbed at the spending decision. “If they are so short of operating funds, it concerns me that the board will continuously vote to spend more on issues that are not transportation related,” Chambers said.

Ah yes.  Nothing like driving past the premise of an argument and straight to the result.  I hope this lapse in rational thinking can be attributed to the AJC’s editing process and not to Chambers lack of actual solutions for MARTA’s state legislature-caused troubles.

Oh politics, is there anything you won’t do?

Looks like my hunch was right.

Its not just rail-smooching socialists that are upset about the GA legislature’s blatant disregard for MARTA.

The Atlanta Business Chronicle reports that CAP and other Atlanta business leaders are also very unhappy with the Gold Dome crew.

And if you think that doesn’t matter, you aren’t a politician.