Live Events for Georgia Sine Die

It’s the very last day of the Georgia General Assembly. Or Sine Die (*Without Day*) as it’s commonly referred to. Lots of live action online for you to follow along with. GPB’s Lawmakers, Georgia Public Broadcasting, provide live streams of the chambers. The House live cam/stream is here.

The best live blog for your participation (it takes in Tweets using the #GAsinedie and #GApol hashtags too) is here.

Also, there will be a 6pm rally at the Capitol today to protest HB87. The immigration bill that’s causing such a stink. It’s a gorgeous day out, and that rally will no doubt be very well attended.

Happy Sine Die! And a quickie video package I did for CBS-Atlanta for last year’s Sine Die is here.

Amani Channel Post-Morts The CBS46 Blogger Summit on 7-20-09

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Atlanta Political Blogger Andre Walker On Politicians’ Payroll

I almost titled this one You’ll Never Give Blog In This Town Again. (Would have made for poor SEO though!)

It doesn’t keep me awake at night that bloggers get paid, sometimes, to blog. That’s a good thing; most sure need the paycheck. What bothers and troubles me deeply is when they don’t disclose to their audience, with full transparency, who exactly they are blogging for… if indeed they are blogging for a client and/or a campaign.

Andre Walker of Georgia Politics Unfiltered and Peach Pundit (where I too blog) was “outed” by Atlanta Progressive News’ Matthew Cardinale:

Political blogger Andre Walker wrote dozens of blog items in favor of US Rep. David Scott (D-GA) this year but did not disclose to readers he was on Scott’s payroll. Walker runs a blog called Georgia Politics Unfiltered and also is a blogger at Peach Pundit.

Previously, Walker had faced scrutiny in the local blogger community for failing to disclose at least $1200 in payments from the Vernon Jones for US Senate Campaign 2008. According to the FEC reports, Walker was doing legislative updates; according to Walker, he was maintaining a blog for Jones called “Jonesin’ for Georgia.”

And then, it gets just downright creepy:

“I said, this young man was working with the Party, so I’ll give you a chance,” (former State Sen. Donzella) James said. James said he asked Walker not to be campaign manager anymore a few days later after Walker made public statements inconsistent with her campaign.

Now, James is wondering whether Walker was an undercover operative for Scott.

“Someone told me before I hired him, do not allow him in your office, he is with David Scott. They told me he had campaigned in the first campaign for Scott,” James said.

“Andre said that’s behind me, it’s a new day. He could have been sent to my campaign by David Scott in 2006,” James said.

James said she was leery when Andre pressured her to tell him if she had skeletons in her closet. “He said during that one week, what could they possibly say about you? You’ve got to tell me. When you look at your record, you look great. We’ve got to make sure we protect you if you have any skeletons. He said, are you sure, is there anything?”

Full story here. H/T to MUR for this one.

Amani Talks To Soledad O’Brien About “Black In America”

CNN Producer Fired For Pimp Rolling

Not exactly. Rather he was fired for blogging, at the Huffington Post of all places, about the recent “pimp as a verb” issue over at MSNBC. (Since the producer didn’t run this one up the management flagpole, it’s going directly to both WTF and Corporate Land catagories.)

CNN spokesmodel says, “We don’t comment on employee matters.” Well hon, we at Mostly Media sure do. Seems MSM just isn’t ready for the verb “pimp.” Another one uses it, then promptly loses it. From TVNewser:

A CNN insider tells TVNewser (CNN’s) Pazienza was let go because, “he did not get permission to publish personal writings.”

Those personal writings come from The Huffington Post, where Pazienza has been blogging since January 23. His most recent post, on February 10, took on the controversy surrounding MSNBC correspondent David Shuster.

Dated February 10, the post was titled “Pimp My Riot: In Defense of David Shuster.” In addition to supporting Shuster, the post also attacks MSNBC where, according to his LinkedIn profile, Pazienza worked from 2001-2003. 

More dirt here. Welcome to the blogosphere, the hard way, Paz!