Calling Bullshit On Violence In Georgia

It was refreshing and surprising, sadly, to hear Dick Williams call-out a questioneer during a U.S. Representative Paul Broun gathering at the end of today’s Georgia Gang show as an example of negativity in Georgia news and politics.

Williams was refering to a deeply misguided person who asked *Who’s going to shoot Obama?* to Rep. Paul Broun at a Tuesday, February 22, 2011 townhall meeting at the Oglethorpe County Commission chamber.

Whether in public or within family gatherings and conversation, violence-laced claptrap and rhetoric should not be tolerated, especially here in a state where it’s been allowed to flourish, without pushback, for far too long. Let’s hope the Secret Service is making that jackass squirm now.

Rep. Paul Broun is so deeply out of it that the offensive question did not register as deeply wrong, immediately, within him. Or else he, Broun, would have called it out right then and there, live as it happened, at the town hall meeting. He did not do that. He said merely, *Next question.* To laughs. Pitiful.

It took Blake Aued going back and clarifying a question he could barely hear (and a follow-up one too), and writing about it on his blog. Aued’s name, for doing so, has gone nationwide over the weekend. See Twitter for a quick example of the power of Aued’s blog post on the matter.

And these are just the folk who could manage to spell his name right.

Tom Goes To The Inauguration

My friend Tom Roche went to Obama’s inauguration. Here are some snaps he took of his historic adventure.

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Longtime Atlanta Media Dude To Work Inauguration

If you’ve never worked a media project in Atlanta with Jeff Jeffares you’re either a hack or thirteen-years old. Jeff’s been creating ATL-related media since before Zeus had a lightening bolt. And he just keeps on going… this time with a directing gig at an Obama inaugural ball. From the AJC:

Next week, Jeffares will fly to Washington, D.C., to help an old friend from Atlanta’s WAGA-TV, Carroll Platt, who is in charge of directing cameras at five of 10 official inaugural balls, including the Neighborhood Ball, at the Washington Convention Center. Jeffares, who has already submitted his name for Secret Service clearance, does not know which ball he will film yet.

Wonder if I could pull cable in Narcisco Rodriguez? Of course I could!

Rev. Joseph Lowery Talks About Obama

Back in July, I caught a few moments on video at Manuel’s Tavern with Reverend Joseph Lowery… talking about, at the time, the Obama candidacy. And hope. And promise.

All Men Are Liars – Installment #49,653

Everyone’s fave pundit, Thomas Friedman, says that conservative white men are liars. (Ya don’t say?) That they went into the private parts of the voting booth and checked the box for Obama… after telling their cronies all along at the country club Men’s Grill, presumably over a rare steak and a scotch-rocks, that they were, of course dude, for McCain.

That buried deep in their lying, tiny, twisted hearts, the motivation that they “wanted to honor their kids” prompted them to suddenly morph to Spike Lee upon walking in the door of their local voter precinct.

Bit of a stretch, eh? Especially when you know what conservative white men are really like deep down, but Friedman even brands this lying white men phenomenon “the buffet effect.” (As opposed to the Bradley effect, of course.)

You can decide for yourself in the video here, which I must say is pure pundit nirvana: Huffington, Hitchens, Friedman… all together for your punditry pleasurin’ at the BBC on election night.

As the scoffing cynic, I must note with a vague wave of some Blanche Dubois hankie to fairness, that my right-of-Buchanan, Citadel-bred dad did scour all of Cobb County, Georgia (High Newt Country) for hours yesterday, the day after our history-making election on Tuesday, trying to find just one extra newspaper. Not for himself, but for me.

Scenes from Election Night in Atlanta, GA 200

I’d have shot more, but I got tired of schlepping gear around so I went home early.

UPDATE: Shelby Highsmith has THE winning moment from Manuel’s Tavern here.

What To Wear?!!!!

Must plan Inaugural Ball gown/wardrobe… starting NOW! The ultimate What To Wear delicious dillema! Now who do I have to blog nicely about to get an Inaugural Ball ticket? What DC power-broker am I in good standing with? Must take severe inventory. Of data base AND closet. If I’m totally off the grid, it’s because I’m in deep wardrobe assessment mode. Just thank Jesus I look smashing in blue!

Election Night – Two For The Twitter Road

Two people you will want to add ‘n follow for Election Night on Twitter will be former Atlantans Tony Dornacher and Tim State… now living in Chicago. They have their tickets to the Grant Park Obama Rally in one hand, and their mobiles and cams in the other. Plus, they’re just funny guys with a great way with their 140 characters.

Tim is: @timstate and Tony is @tonydornacher. Their website Morgan Terrace is here. And of course, I’m @SpaceyG on Twitter. See in real-time what’s happening in Atlanta on Election Day by using Twitter search and the hashtags #atlvote and #votereport.

Have a great day out there everyone!!

Only One Printing Available Before Christmas!

Order your copy of Paranoid Nation: The Real Story of the Fight For The 2008 Election now, because there will be only ONE printing available before Christmas. And you sure don’t want the paranoid political junkies on your shopping list to be left-out. Then they’ll, of course, blame you for everything whacked in their life!

Pre-order from Amazon here now. Or click-on the above photo. Video to tell you all about what you’ll find in the book is here.

HINT: Paranoid Nation is full of great political news, gossip, and poll analysis. My personal fave is a whole new story about Zell Miller I assure you you’ve NEVER heard before! Perfect for regaling folk at that office Christmas party with. If your office is having a Christmas party this year that is. If not, think of that old dude on the bar stool next to you. He’ll surely appreciate a good Zell Miller tale for Christmas.

And yes folks, you have been reading a WaySouth Media, Inc. promotion.

McCain Supporters At Ohio Halloween Day Rally. Scary Stuff.

At a McCain rally on Halloween Day, ANP reporters asked people one question: “If Obama is elected president, what will this say about America?” Their answers are in the video.

Marxist Revealed

Dude who’s done these posters, including that most iconic image of this election year of Obama in the above style, is from Charleston, South Carolina. Who’d have thought?!

Obama (Not) In Georgia = FAIL

Towery thinks Obama could have reached down in the gutter that is Atlanta local TV and easily fished-up the red-dirt crown of Georgia and placed it in his electoral basket of goodies.

Like great great-aunt Betty Wesley’s rather ugly pieces of tarnished bauble that somehow end-up in your possession, I’d not want to actually place the thing on my head, but I diverge…

From Southern Political Report, IA, etc.:

October 28, 2008 — New numbers today from InsiderAdvantage / Poll Position in the presidential and U.S. Senate races in Georgia. The polls were conducted last night among 637 registered, likely voters and have a margin of error of plus or minus 3.8 percent.

President
McCain, 48%
Obama, 47%
Barr, 1%
Other, 1%
Undecidced, 3&\%

U.S. Senate
Chambliss, 46%
Martin, 44%
Other, 2%
Undecided, 8%

InsiderAdvantage CEO Matt Towery: “This tells me in all likelihood that if the trend in the Senate race stays as it is, Chambliss barely misses and will be in a general election runoff with Martin.

“Obama’s failure to be on TV in the Atlanta market is causing him to lose some of the white vote and it is softening the support for Martin. Martin is up a point and Chambliss is up a point (in the latest poll) but Martin had had more momentum. It’s not going to get him over the top.”

“Ironically, Obama had a better shot of winning Georgia than North Carolina or Florida but he’s letting it slip away.”

Latest Georgia presidential and Senate race poll results here.

Georgia’s In Play

Very latest IA/PP poll says Georgia is a “toss-up” state. For the presidential and Senate races. Whatever happened to being a “swing” state? Or “battleground” state? Guess that was soooo last week.

10/24/08 – A new InsiderAdvantage / Poll Position survey shows Georgia is a toss-up state in both the U.S. Senate and presidential campaigns.

In the presidential race, Barack Obama has a slight edge over John McCain, although it is within the margin of error. In the U.S. Senate race, Saxby Chambliss has a 2-point edge over Jim Martin, although it, too, is within the margin of error.

The two polls were conducted last night, each with 615 registered, likely voters. The margin of errors for both is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.

Full story/poll results here. Still, anyone holding their breath for the South to rise again on Nov. 4 had better look to the situation in South Carolina. There’s whisperin’ goin’ on though that’s fer sure. SC wants their Obama appearance bad.

Georgia – Obama’s Phantom Swing State?

Despite news from places such as the douchbags windbags at The Georgia Gang that Obama has “pulled out” of Georgia like he was some kinda dubious date, the Obama campaign has not given up on Georgia. In fact, the reality is anything but.

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Didn’t We Almost Have It All?

Dear Lordy: Please let us not have to sing that awful swan song come November. InsiderAdvantage’s Matt Towery has some hard new numbers and anaylsis about Obama’s slip (via the Palin bounce) in the youth-y stats. And he wags a finger right at Caroline Kennedy for (possibly) screwing everything up.

September 12, 2008 — The hidden story of the last week has been the shift in many states and nationwide among the youngest of voters, those ages 18-to-29, from a solid entrenchment in the Obama camp to a significant drift toward a newly revived John McCain effort, all courtesy of Gov. Sarah Palin.

Our survey approach keeps young respondents from being interviewed by young interviewers, thus avoiding the inevitable pressure a youthful poll respondent might feel to “fit in” and claim to be a supporter of Obama. As a result, younger voters, while still favoring Obama, have moved to the McCain column in not insubstantial numbers. Exit polls showed that among this group of voters, John Kerry carried their vote by roughly a 55 percent to 45 percent margin. But that was close enough to allow Bush to win the 2004 election by a fairly comfortable margin.

This takes me back to what I wrote in the past and continue to believe today: Hillary Clinton, for all of her alleged negatives, could have delivered Barack Obama the kind of “superstar” ticket he needed in order to win the presidency. But Caroline Kennedy and the East Coast Democratic Establishment, once again, could not see past their insular worldview that New England is representative of America as a whole. From Dukakis to Kerry to Biden, the Democratic Party continues to go back to the same throwback region of America to find its top standard bearers.

Full story here. Caroline the Wicked Witch of America? Who’d have though?

Latest Polling – Obama “Implodes” in Georgia

Oops. From the latest IA/PP poll:

September 11, 2008 — A new InsiderAdvantage / Poll Position survey of likely registered voters in Georgia indicates a steep decline for the Barack Obama campaign and likely explains why the candidate is moving resources out of Georgia and into other states.

The poll of 506 registered likely voters, weighted for age, race, and gender, was conducted Wednesday evening. It has a margin of error of +/- 4%

Q. If the election were held today, would you vote for:

John McCain: 56%
Barack Obama: 38%
Other: 2%
Undecided: 4%

InsiderAdvantage’s Matt Towery: “This is a huge slide from what had been, in our prior surveys, a relatively close race. The reason is simple—Obama lost serious ground in virtually every demographic.

Full story/analysis here.

I Couldn’t Agree More

 

Twittering Obama

I Twittered throughout Obama’s nomination acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention last night from a very crowded Manuel’s. So did @jenbrock, @rustytanton, @amberlrhea, @francesk. @shelbinator streamed live on his cell. Some of that is here. Tweets read from last to first:

Heck. He was just getting warmed up. It’s over? Bummer.

Preach it Brother. Now’s the moment!

My Twitter finger is toast.

Obama’s gives good Happy Talk!

Osama bin Laden first. Clayton County school board next!

Big applause from all young people with no kids on parenting stuff.

Folks pounding tables now. Free money for all!

Oh boy. Here comes the Santa Claus part.

A lobbyist once rescued my kid when I accidentally locked her outta the house. One for Wal-Mart no less. I hugged a lobbyist then.

Where’s Doug Teper?

When are we gonna get around to the “stick it to the Repugs” part of all this?

Man, I had a serious portfolio and 401K and bennies all through the 90’s. Ain’t got jack now except a DSL connection and a mortgage.

I got laid off in ’03. Doh.

I whined when I got laid off in ’93. (Didn’t cry though!)

A nation of whiners, eh? I wouldn’t know anything about that.

On November 4th, I am soooo not coming to Manuel’s. Fire Dept. might though.

Bigger applause for “when major American city drowns.”

Big applause here on “failed policies of George W. Bush.”

Nice big round ‘o applause for vid. Even bigger for Barack. And that’s good for America. But what’s with the Irish walk out music?

Did Rielle Hunter shoot some of this stuff?

All these youthi-people watching in awe.

Huge Manuel crowd very quiet to hear this video. Obviously @scobleizer not the producer.

I hear Candy Crowley is a tighty righty.

America obviously needs to party more often together.

Jeezus H. It’s like General Election night in here!

Video from Shelby’s live stream. I’m in the pink, @BBC: http://qik.com/video/243131

It is now getting seriously crowded in Manuel’s. When is this thing gonna start?

Ok, seriously underage kiddies, as in 12 or 10, just walked in. GA law is gonna have a cow. There are smokers in here. Oh the sin.

Why are all these young people here at Manuel’s?

@APNews. David Duchovny could’ve gotten a fix with me before checking in to rehab. Pity.

How are the King kids supposed to get on stage together when they’re in the middle of suing the crap outta each other? Awkward indeed.

Well that was particularly uninspiring.

No one can hear from Barack until I get my Kyte.tv channel working again. So just keep ’em busy up there, Joe.

What’s (Not) Happening Out There In Denver?

Polls aren’t bumping that’s for sure. But could it all “turn on a dime” tonight when Obama gives it the rock start treatment from the stadium? A huge mistake, that stadium staging thing if you ask me, which of course no one did, but it will surely help fuel the visual fire for a flood of hideously negative ads from the Repugs. Talk about lying in wait. And I’m mixing more metaphors than I do martinis, so I’m gonna stop this post now!

I keep thinking Hannah Montana and the Jonas Brothers… with adults filling the role of thousands of screaming tweens. Towery has some observations:

The fact is that the Democrats on Monday night didn’t offer to America a coherent message that was palatable and digestible.

Nor did they on Tuesday, which only left the country wondering: Why did Obama pick another northeastern liberal male as his running mate when he could have chosen Hillary Clinton? She absolutely blew the convention hall away with a speech that had power and — surprise! — a discussion of meaty issues.

Now Obama has “a third running mate,” whether he wants her or not. Sen. Clinton has more charisma and substance in her little finger than Biden has in his entire body.

Now we know why the Obama team decided to move their candidate’s nomination acceptance speech to a giant stadium filled with tens of thousands of screaming fans. Having to follow Hillary and Bill Clinton in the same venue in which they appeared might lead to apple-to-apple comparisons that could leave Obama’s fruit looking bruised.

Full article here.

Rev. Joseph Lowery on the 2008 Presidential Election

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