Fresh Loaf

A new, star-studded PSA urges people to vote and masturbate:

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With a week to go until the presidential election, it’s time for the sinful among us to bet money.

Leave your guess about the outcome of the popular vote and the Electoral College vote in the comments section.

The person who correctly guesses the winner and gets the closest to the final Electoral College total wins $10. The person who correctly guesses the winner and gets the closest to the final popular vote total wins another $10.

One guess per person, please. The betting window closes at 6PM Eastern time, November 3.

The money’s coming out of my wallet, so everyone is eligible to participate. One guess per person, please.

My guess:

-Obama 355 Electoral College votes, 53% of the popular vote.

-McCain 183 Electoral College votes, 45% of the popular vote.

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Rodney Ho at the AJC reports Tim Orff is the new morning host at Dave FM.

Those of you with long, deep memories and AM radios might recall that Tim was the engineer of the Air Loaf radio show back when its host station, 1690 AM, was Atlanta’s Air America affiliate.

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Karl “With a K” White, candidate for Dekalb County Board of Education - District 4, apparently shot a police officer in Seattle 25 years ago.

Here’s an excerpt of White’s description of the event, as posted on his campaign web site:

I have never been convicted of any crime, felony or misdemeanor. I am not a criminal, nor do I have a criminal record. I am an upstanding citizen and have passed every background check by every organization that I have ever been employed with, including but not limited to State, Federal, and Local agency.

The tragic incident took place over TWENTY FIVE YEARS AGO.

I was home one evening in 1983. I was in my bedroom when I heard what I thought was a gang of armed men breaking down the front door of our home and running through the house. No announcement, no warning, nothing was being said by this group of men. In an effort to protect my home and fearing for my life, I shot one of the intruders who later turned out to be an officer with a search warrant. As a result I was charged. Due to the facts and circumstances surrounding this case I ultimately RECEIVED AN ORDER OF DISMISSAL.

Read the rest.

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My friend, former Scene & Herd Recurring Character Matt Gove, reports he’s been waiting in line for more than 90 minutes this afternoon to vote at the Fulton County government building downtown.

From the look of the line, he says he expects to be in line for another hour or so.

Our democracy is prepared for all challenges — except voter participation.

UPDATE: Mr. Gove says he waited in line for three-and-a-half hours before he was able to vote.

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In September, I signed up to have CNN send breaking news to my cell phone via text message.

Since signing up, I have received 14 text messages labeled “CNN Breaking News”.

Seven have been about the nation’s financial crisis. Two were about John McCain’s campaign suspension stunt.

The remaining five: Paul Newman’s death, the location of stunt-aviator Steve Fossett’s remains, O.J. Simpson’s conviction on robbery and kidnapping charges, the safe recovery of a missing boy in Las Vegas, and a report this morning about actress Jennifer Hudson’s nephew.

To say that I’m disappointed with the service is an understatement.

No offense to any of the celebrities or the missing child, but their personal tragedies are not among the 14 most important breaking news stories of the past two months. Where were the news alerts telling me about millions of Texans without electricity after Hurricane Ike, the U.S. raid in Syria, the failure of the U.S. and Iraq to reach a status of forces agreement, the third Presidential debate, etc?

I’ll keep it until the election. After that, I’ll unsubscribe unless they start sending me actual news.

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NETHERWORLD HAUNTED HOUSE: Netherworld just oozes romance.

(Photo by Alan Friedman)

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Almost everyone is surprised at how well Democrats Barack Obama and Jim Martin are faring in Georgia against their Republican counterparts John McCain and Saxby Chambliss.

One political commentator who isn’t: Matt Towery.

On June 19, the former state rep. and principal of Southern Political Report wrote the following about the 2008 election in Georgia:

“My view is that Georgia, the 9^th largest state in the nation with 15 electoral votes, will remain a major new battleground state through November. This changes the landscape of electoral politics as Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, and perhaps another surprise southern state, join Florida as potential “swing states,” that cannot be presumed to vote Republican in 2008.”

Towery’s comments accompanied a June Insider Advantage poll showing McCain and Obama almost tied in Georgia.

(Hat-tip to Fresh Loaf commenter Poverty Wench, whose recent comment prompted me to dig through Towery’s archives.)

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The Waffle House Museum will be open tomorrow, Saturday, October 25, between 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. for Avondale Autumnfest.

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The latest Strategic Vision poll has Republican John McCain beating Democrat Barack Obama in Georgia 51 to 45. The margin of error is 3.

The same poll has Sen. Saxby Chambliss with a two-point lead over Democratic challenger Jim Martin. Libertarian Allen Buckley is at 5%.

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Pittsburgh police say the McCain volunteer who says she’s robbed by black man who then carved the letter “B” on her face after he saw a McCain sticker on her car has admitted her claim is a lie.

Right-wing race-baiters have been trying since yesterday afternoon to associate Obama’s campaign with the incident.

Don’t hold your breath for apologies.

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It’s a rare comedy song that starts funny and gets funnier.

(H/T Icarus at Peach Pundit)

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On Monday I reported that Habersham County Sheriff DeRay Fincher has ordered his county’s sex offenders to shun all Halloween-related activities. Habersham’s sex offenders are not allowed to take their kids trick-or-treating, decorate their homes, don a costume, or even answer their doors.

I spoke to Fincher yesterday and he told me the restrictions he’s imposing even extend to sex offenders who were not involved in crimes against children.

“I just do a blanket thing,” says Fincher.

He knows of no instances in Habersham County of a sex offender using Halloween to lure a victim, but says “I would rather be proactive than reactive.”

Additionally, Fincher says he has ordered all sex offenders in Habersham who are on parole or probation to attend a meeting on Halloween night between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m.

The purpose of the meeting, he says, is to sequester sex offenders on a night when there are lots of children out at night. The sex offenders will be provided with food and a television.

When I mentioned to Fincher that his “no-decorations-for-sex-offenders” decree might compel innocent county residents to decorate their homes just so they don’t look like sex offenders, he laughed and said he hadn’t considered that.

“I don’t have my house decorated,” he said, noting he lives in an out-of-the-way community with few, if any, trick-or-treaters.

“If I lived in town, though, I’d probably decorate.”

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Jim Wooten: "Let the Democrat infidels bask in their illusion"

The front page of Sen. John McCain’s Georgia campaign web site features a September 14 column from AJC conservative columnist Jim Wooten predicting defeat for Sen. Barack Obama.

The column’s complete and utter wrongness is almost impossible to overstate.

Some high/lowlights:

“Barack Obama knows it. The election he had in the bag is slipping away. The selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as John McCain’s running mate has so thrown him off stride, as it has most other Democrats”

“For a “change” candidate, Obama appears to be a man locked in time, unable to move past criticism, unable to move from the grip of the Democratic left, unable to adapt to the changed reality that the campaign is not the referendum on the war in Iraq or on the administration of George W. Bush that he’d envisioned.”

“Obama has the habit, too, of reminding voters of their doubts about him,”

“Obama will lose because with less than two months remaining voters won’t be able to get comfortable with him. He can’t stay on message and he can’t avoid sending signals that interfere with the message when he does.”

“McCain, on the other hand, has been superb going back at least to Obama’s European tour. Mainstream America is comfortable with him and, with Palin’s selection, conservatives who had their doubts are onboard.”

“It’s not over. But it’s getting there —- and Obama knows it.”

In a state as chock-full-o-Republicans as Georgia, is Jim “Comical Ali” Wooten really the best conservative columnist the AJC can come up with?

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Controversial pastor Bishop Eddie Long appeared on Bravo’s supremely trashy Real Housewives of Atlanta last night.

Housewife DeShawn, who attends Long’s New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, asks Long if he is willing to be auctioned off to benefit her charitable foundation.

Long appears non-committal, but nevertheless boasts that an auction for a lunch with him and wife will bring a lot of money.

“I guarantee you, we’ll bring the highest,” Long says.

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