Fresh Loaf

— The day before the best meal of the year, the feast that kicks off the season that inspires millions of diets each January. It feels strange to still be in the midst of an election cycle, but it’s heating up in Georgia. Or is it? Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight lends his expertise to the Georgia Senate race, and says Jim Martin is stuck in neutral. He started the run-off three points down, and he remains three points down. In order to take down the Big Sax Machine, Silver concludes, Martin needs at least one of three things to happen.

— Who to vote for? Jen B. at Blog For Democracy has already decided, as have most of us. But her reasoning includes the outrageous, an L.A. Times report on the treatment of U.S. soldiers who were injured in Iraq.

— Travis Fain brings that story a little closer to home at Lucid Idiocy. Meet Thomas Roach, 80, who is having to leave the Georgia War Veterans Home in Milledgeville because the state has decided to shut it down. That’s scandalous. Thankfully, we still have Sonny Boy’s “Go Fish” project to give us hours of fishing pleasure catching bass and brim soaked in our chemical-filled rivers and lakes.

— In the spirit of thanks, Reporter-Cub offers a compelling list of the things he’s thankful for, not the least of which are gasoline prices way under $5 a gallon and that Caribou Barbie is back in Alaska where she belongs.

— Doug at Live Apartment Fire gives thanks to television’s November sweeps, where local news directors go a little crazy with the gimmicks to get us to watch the six o’clock news. He has a YouTube gallery of some of the more insane reports, from here and beyond, that have polluted our airwaves.

— And, finally, the lovely Sara at Going Through The Motions is over her flu, although she’s still apparently suffering from delusional hallucinations. For example, she thinks the greatest 4th quarter comeback ever involved FSU and Florida. Of course, everyone knows it’s really the “Run, Lindsay, run” game when Georgia stomped Florida’s hearts in Jacksonville in 1980. But she’s a FSU alum and she saw the game when she was a sophomore, so we’ll have to excuse her on this one. Have a great Thanksgiving all you bloggerheads!

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— No paper likes to generate its own news, but CL did that this morning when longtime editor-in-chief Ken Edelstein was fired. Edelstein was the editor for 10 years. At his Cityscape blog, Steve Fennessy says Edelstein was let go after he protested additional cuts to “an already decimated editorial staff.” The loss of Edelstein is certainly a blow to Atlanta journalism, while CL owner Ben Eason struggles to bring his publishing empire out of bankruptcy. Former CL senior editor John Sugg also weighs in to Fennessy on what this says about the paper’s management and its future.

— There was also a major blow at the Weather Channel from their new bosses at NBC — as the struggling network was promoting its “Green Week,” the corporate beancounters fired the entire environmental unit at the Weather Channel. As pitiful a state as print journalism is in, television news is hurting as well. At Live Apartment Fire, Doug laments the death of whimsy, the kind of reports that Leroy Powell used to do so well. Stories that had no real news peg, but simply invite viewers see the world from a different perspective. And even when there is the occasional stab at it, such as WAGA’s piece on city dwellers who raise chickens in their backyard, it’s so “serious” that it’s no longer interesting.

— Speaking of inner-city chickens, the fine ladies at Peccane Log note that they used to see chicken bones up and down DeKalb Ave. as they walked their dog. Now, the bones have disappeared and all they see are discarded lottery slips. It appears that people have traded eating chicken wings for a wing-and-a-prayer lottery ticket. Another sign of the times?

— There are too many harsher reminders. At Politits, DCup writes very openly and movingly about walking the financial razor’s edge. Last week, her family filed for bankruptcy protection, and one of her initial emotions was a feeling of shame. That’s OK; the ones you have to worry about are the ones who feel no remorse. Let’s hope “the one” can turn around the economy once he takes office and stop the bleeding.

— And what of the legacy of the fellow in office right now? In his “My Morning Wooten,” DriftGrift gives wider context to a couple of more absurd claims proffered by the AJC’s resident conservative columnist. And says he can’t wait until Wooten attempts to define W’s legacy in positive terms. Perhaps it’s telling that Wooten hasn’t made a stab at that yet.

— Let’s not forget that we have a Senate run-off coming down to the wire. The Big Sax Machine had some heavy-hitters come into the state over the weekend and Andre at Georgia Politics Unfiltered has some of their fear quotes for our enjoyment. Doesn’t anyone discuss their own vision of the future these days? Or is it that they don’t have a vision, thus the fear tactics?

— And, finally, Dave at Rather Than Working gears up for the media’s obsession with all things Obama once he takes office. Like where Obama’s kids are going to school. But he leaves unanswered one burning question: which President served hot dogs to British royalty who visited the White House? Does anyone know?

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Stocks jump on report of Geithner nomination

Fortune: How to love your trillion-dollar deficit

Market Movers: This is not a financial meltdown

Salon: How to think positively about a crashing stock market

Shoestring Branding: The bright side of tough economic times

The planet gets a “breather”

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— The right-wing whackos will never give up. Like the email I got this morning from Janet (Folger) Porter of Faith2Action. See, the Electoral College doesn’t meet until December 15, so there’s stlll time to stop this Obama thing. He’s not even a U.S. citizen. Can’t we just wait and beat him four years from now? No way. In four years, we won’t be able to recognize what’s left of our country. The time for action is now. Oh, boy … The good news is that Obama is still our president-elect and, reports Amy at Georgia Women Vote, he’s keeping his campaign offices open in Georgia in order to help out Jim Martin.

— DCup isn’t bothered by the citizenship issue. As she writes on Politits, her concern is about trust and power. We entrust power to a president and after eight years of Alfred E. Neuman, her trust feels kicked around and abused. She has her fingers crossed that we won’t be fooled again.

— For Sid at Cracker Squire, there’s reason for hope. He likes Obama’s first two major decisions: his selection of Rahm Emanuel as White House chief of staff and his stance that Joe Lieberman shouldn’t be cast out for his case of man-love for Johnny Mac.

— How scared are the Republicans that Martin can upset the Big Sax Machine? Andre at Georgia Politics Unfiltered says the Republican National Committee is sending $2 million to help make sure Martin isn’t the 60th Democrat in a filibuster-proof Senate.

— Blog For Democracy predicts that the youth vote is going to be Martin’s secret weapon. The Young Democrats of Georgia have launched a campaign through places such as Facebook to get out the vote in the Dec. 2 run-off.

— And, finally, on a day when a former CIA bigwig visits the Wren’s Nest, they also get a call from a desperate grandmother. And then there was the pimp’s answering machine. Certainly a strange day for the house that Joel Chandler Harris built. But at least he was a certifiable U.S. citizen.

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Blogger ATLMalcontent is on a roll. In recent days, he’s written a great and pointy post on the Human Rights Campaign’s irrelevance, he’s thoughtfully jabbed at the President-elect Obama’s apparent courting of Sen. Hillary Clinton to be Secretary of State, and continued to jab at endlessly awful Sarah Palin.

To top it all off, he’s just introduced Sheldon Greenbriar, a new character that combines the sincere inanity of Larry King and the fake inanity Jackie Harvey.

Ex.

From the “you learn something new every day department”: Turns out Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers aren’t married. As for Miss Powers, she’s still gorgeous!

AMAZING!

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— It may have felt like the first day of winter this weekend, but that didn’t stop a large crowd from gathering outside the Gold Dome on Saturday in support of gay marriage. Reporter Cub was there, with words and pictures.

— With the election of Obama as our 44th president, we’re seeing how far our country has come in terms of race relations … as well as how far we still have to go. At Left On Lanier, Gray talks about the “funny” email folks are sending around about Obama, and what it says about our attitudes on race.

— Things are beginning to heat up in the Senate run-off, which is bringing national political heavyweights to Georgia for the showdown. Some view it as right-wing whacko conservatives facing off against left-wing liberal pinko commies. It’s much more complicated than that, writes DriftGrift. And as a country, it’s time to come together with our commonalities rather than split apart because of our differences.

— No one likes to pay taxes. But B. King at Terminal Station points out that taxes are really investments in our future, and that politicians trumpeting their lower taxes have left us holding the bag to pay for all the infrastructure that’s starting to fall apart from age and neglect. It’s a case of “pay now,” or else “pay a lot more” later.

— I’m a big fan of WAGA-TV’s Suchita Vadlamani, even if I’m never up early enough to see her on “Good Day Atlanta.” She’s smart, has a great smile and is a very agreeable TV face to wake up to in the morning. But as Doug at Live Apartment Fire points out, she should leave the pole dancing to the pros. Sure, she looks hot in heels as she attacks the pole like a … you know … a stripper. Except, her “special report” on pole dancing never mentions that the roots of pole dancing go back to burlesque and strip joints. Just that it’s a great work-out. It’s also great eye candy. Of course, it’s all done in context of November sweeps. And for ratings, the sexy tease is in.

— And, finally, on the home front, Muskrat discovers the joy of reading fairy tales to his little Princess. Since she’s too young to read them herself, he feels free to “update” them with a more modern slant. Which leads his wife to ask when he decided the Grimm Brothers need to host a bra-burning party. The answer is priceless.

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— Sweet comic relief: Paul Bourn is now the Cynthia McKinney of the radical right. So writes Travis at Lucid Idiocy, where he also provides a link to a wickedly funny Daily Show bit on our U.S. Rep. who thinks the President-elect is the new Hitler.

— When I woke up this morning, I saw a little icon that read something like: “The election’s over, Palin’s gone and there are no polls to read; what will I do?” Very good question. Although Caribou Barbie is still running around making stump speeches, she no longer has sizzle. What to do? At Reporter Cub, there’s time to indulge. Everything you always wanted to know about the Hanged Man tarot card but were afraid to ask.

— Over at Politits, DCup is not only a blogger but she also depends on other bloggers for her “wearable art.” She shows off the way-cool jewelry that she purchased from Linda at Saoirse Daily, who has a meter that shows it’s only 66 days and 11 hours until Obama takes the oath of office.

— Once they finished getting pedicures with the young Mr. Wheatley, the fine ladies at Pecanne Log played journalists and conducted an interview with local artist Sarah Emerson, where they learn how pregnancy can stimulate creativity.

— Let’s send the lovely Sara at Going Through The Motions some love. Yes, Tina Turner rocked her world Monday night at Phillips Arena, but now she’s not feeling so well. A rough week at work and a sick co-worker can give you a knock-down, drag-out flu.

— And, finally, we may be in a post-election mode, but there’s always DriftGrift’s “Morning Wooten” to remind us of the world as it is. You know things are getting serious when he starts quoting Scripture. Have a good weekend all you bloggerheads.

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— Has there ever been a sillier television show than Real Housewives of Atlanta? Oh, let us kount count the ways. You can’t even call them “Buckhead Bettys” because none of them actually live in Atlanta proper. Local celebrity chef Richard Blais is keeping a blog on the show, that includes impressions on different restaurants the BBs visit, and he’s decided the show is missing one key ingredient: Drama. What? Isn’t Kim’s off-key singing, and her perpetual cigarette and glass of wine enough?

— It’s still political season in Georgia and, nationally, the right-wing conservatives are trying to regroup. DriftGrift has a thoughtful post on the battle between moderates and conservatives for the soul of the party. He also notes Rush Limbaugh’s quote that uber-conservatives want moderates to vote Republican but that “they can never be one of us.”

— And then there’s the Paul Brouns of the world. At Rather Than Working, Dave posts a letter he sent to the distinguished Congressman noting that there’s a big difference between objective opposition and just being plain stupid.

— The folks at Down Right were also taken aback by Broun, and say that comparing our president-elect to Hitler doesn’t accomplish very much. Instead, they write, let’s step back and assess how Obama handles all the burning issues he faces once he takes office.

— At Going Through The Motions, the lovely Sara also pleads for reconcilliation and partnership. And she’s also found a cool blog that tries to foster that spirit: From 52 to 48.

— And, finally, Muskrat shares the meaning behind Veterans Day, and what the little things meant to him when he was deployed to Iraq.

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— It’s Veteran’s Day tomorrow, which is set aside to honor the men and women who have put their lives on the line on our country’s behalf. Call a vet  and thank them for their sacrifices. At the Daly Briefing, our intrepid correspondent is back in the U.S. from Iraq. But he’s stuck in Kansas because of military bureaucracy. And will be stuck there a day longer because … well, federal offices are closed because it’s Veteran’s Day. Patience, patience.

— Strong words from Erick at Peach Pundit, who is tired of hearing Johnny Mac’s folks whine about the shortcomings of Caribou Barbie. After all, they’re the ones who plucked her out of a moose hunt to be the next vice-president, right? Erick is so pissed off that he has a petition to make Republicans who bash Palin official political lepers.

— The Republican Party is obviously in trouble and Newt Gingrich has volunteered to be the savior. DownRight is down with that notion, but not the idea that the party has to become more moderate. They argue that Johnny Mac ran as a moderate and lost, which is evidence the party has to turn even harder right. But, listen, don’t forget Newt has this little issue with, you know, family values.

— Left On Lanier also delves into the Republican Party’s post-election tug-of-war and points out that for the far-right wing, even Fox News has become too liberal.

— Georgia’s U.S. Senate run-off will be under the national spotlight. At Georgia Women Vote, Amy takes note that unmarried women came out strong for J-Mart and Obama. Will they come back for the run-off?

— And, finally, there can’t be a worse feeling in journalism than to pursue a story, miss it, and then see a competitor nail it. Live Apartment Fire follows the tale of the two Atlanta garbage men who chill out in East Point while collecting OT, and how WSB trumped WGCL in the local television news wars. But that doesn’t erase the fact that WGCL still has its ace in the hole: Dagmar Midcap.

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— Tuesday is history and history was made. Obama wants to unite us, but can he? On the one hand, one Republican-leaning friend confided yesterday that he’s now glad Obama is the president-elect. He was won over by Obama’s speech Tuesday night. On the other hand, someone else I know was gleefully showing off an email on his cellphone that had a picture of the Obama family set to the soundtrack of The Jeffersons theme song. Tacky, tacky, tacky. At Politits, DCup notes that she feels a bit bad for Caribou Barbie, but her tongue is firmly in her cheek.

— ATLMalcontent has a few random observations of the vote Tuesday and its aftermath. He notes the right-wing attacks have already begun. Rush has already referred to the president-elect as a “Chicago thug.” And I’ll bet he has that Jeffersons theme song on his cellphone as well. Yes, unification is a noble ambition, but …

— Still, Obama made “hope” one of his themes. When he mentioned the 106-year-old Atlanta woman who cast a vote for him, it reminded Amani at My Urban Report of his own 101-year-old grandmother.

— DriftGrift is back with a new edition of his “Morning Wooten.” He says Tuesday’s election seems to have brought back the conflict between “reasonable Jim and wacko Jim.” Uh-oh.

— Of course, on the local front is the stunning rise of J-Mart in the U.S. Senate race to push the Big SaxMachine into a run-off. Predictions are the Democrats are going to come in full throttle after Big Saxy. And he’s going to bring his own heavy ammo. Reports are Johnny Mac and Caribou Barbi may come to the Peach State to campaign for him … if she can figure out which continent Georgia is on. And Andre at Georgia Politics Unfiltered notes that the Savannah Morning News has already endorsed the Sax Man in the Dec. 2 run-off.

— And finally, one reason the Republicans got clobbered is they are selling fear rather than hope. And at the Wren’s Nest, they remind us that people once feared electricity. Even Joel Chandler Harris was worried that if he wore a wristwatch on the streetcar, the combination of the two might make him explode. So he came up with a very unique solution that involves a secret desk compartment. Don’t worry, Joel, your secret is safe with me.

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— And so “that one” becomes “the” one. As I type this, Barack Obama has just spoken at Grant Park and Springsteen’s “The Rising” is playing in the background. It is a song born out of 9/11 that now feels transformed and complete, just as this election has transformed our country and how we feel about ourselves. Like many of us, Amy at Georgia Women Vote, will always remember where she was when she heard the news.

— At Politits, DCup explains why she feels a sense of renewal and even hope. She talks about her experience standing in line to vote and knowing that she was part of a living history.

— Something we should never forget is how unique and special our democratic system is. Every president willingly gives up power based on the results of a popular election; there’s a serious number of countries where that doesn’t happen. At Left On Lanier, Gray waxes poetic on our election system with one sobering reminder: For Obama, the campaign was the easy part.

— For starters, there’s the Neil Boortz and Rush Limbaugh factor — these are people who get paid big bucks to be professional demagogues. DownRight reports on a Boortz visit to Macon. First, Boortz assured them that he really believes what he says. Hmmm, no defensiveness there. Then he launched into a anti-Obama rant that even made the folks at DownRight cringe: People who voted for our president-elect are so dumb they should have to pass a test in order to vote. How do you bring people together when blowhards like Boortz get paid to keep us apart? And all in the name of entertainment?

— But we can worry about that later. Right now, as DriftGrift notes, is a time for celebration. The last time he heard so many car horns sounding on Peachtree was win the Braves won the World Series.

— How did Obama pull this off? ATLMalcontent takes a probing look at the irony and bad decisions that led Johnny Mac’s campaign down the rabbit hole.

— And, finally, the scene last night at Manuel’s Tavern was crazed, reports the lovely Sara at Going Through The Motions. There was a traffic jam outside and people packed like sardines inside, cheering wildly every time Obama took a state. She eventually made her way to the Democratic Party’s bash at the Hyatt, where the scene reminded her of Dragon*Con. Today, Sara’s head hurts and she needs a nap. But she still picked out the perfect mood music for her morning hangover.

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— It’s the eve of the elections and I sense a vague restlessness. Elections come and go, but this one feels different. There’s anticipation and there’s unease, a collective holding of our breath tomorrow night until the results are in and we know for sure the direction our country will go. Life On The Q offers up their “Georgia Voting Guide For Queers,” complete with links to endorsements within the LGBT community. And they’re definitely looking for “that one” to take the election.

— That rings true for Catherine at Blog For Democracy, who notes the similarities between “T-O” and Matthew Santos, the president on West Wing played by Jimmy Smits. She says she used to watch the show and wish he was her real-life president. I never watched West Wing, but after Smits left office he became an assistant DA in Miami and decided to be Dexter’s running buddy. That show, I do watch. So I’m with Catherine, television character to television character.

— But what if some of us don’t get to vote? With the long lines and long waits for pre-voting, it seems possible that the volume of voters might overwhelm the polls. Which is why the lovely Sara at Going Through The Motions can’t understand why Secretary of State Katherine Harris (oops, wrong state) Karen Handel isn’t extending voting hours. And Handel’s excuse is lame — they’re doing exactly what she says can’t be done just a few miles up I-85 in North Carolina.

— Loved the moment is last night’s debate when the Big Sax Machine wagged his finger in J-Mart’s face. It was a great moment for Big Saxxy; he wouldn’t have had the cojones six years ago to do that to Max Cleland. At Down Right, the argument is made that it’s not the Sax Machine’s fault he’s lost a 20-something point lead. It’s just a sign of the times. Personally, I hope J-Mart has a metaphorical bucket of water and goes all Dorothy on him so we can collectively sing the “Ding-dong” song. Great tune for the times.

— According to Amy at Georgia Women Vote, the Bibb County Republican Party has asked Macon police for extra security at their headquarters tomorrow night. She notes that if things go as predicted, the DUI Task Force might make for a more appropriate option.

— And, finally, it was a gruesome Sunday for Left On Lanier. All he wanted to do was enjoy the Falcons pull out their can of whup-ass on the Oakland Raiders. Instead, he got bombarded by commercials. The Big Sax Machine dumps on J-Mart, followed by J-Mart dumping on Big Saxxy. Over and over and over. Where, oh, where does it all end? Hopefully, it all ends tomorrow. And if not, dude, get yourself a DVR.

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— Want to check out one of the best polling analysis on the Net? That would be Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight.com, and he has Georgia on his mind. He explains why, if “that one” landslides Johnny Mac in the presidential election, the Georgia Senate race becomes the most interesting election left on the board.

— It’s also getting down to trench fighting. Amy at Georgia Women Vote reports that one of her readers has received robo calls from the Big SaxMachine campaign, and another from the Georgia Chamber of Commerce on behalf of the SaxMan. And the topic of all those robo calls? Here’s a multiple choice:

a) How do we get out of Iraq?

b) How do we fix the economy?

c) How will the big guy make our lives better if we re-elect him?

d) Abortion.

Sigh.

— It’s endorsement time for DriftGrift, and he captures the sense of history that’s blowin’ in the wind. He also makes a couple of decidedly non-mainstream choices. Of course. It’s the blogosphere, not a robo-call, so that’s allowed.

— How tight is the presidential race in Georgia? At one point, “that one” had all but conceded the state. Now, Andre at Georgia Politics Unfiltered reports, the campaign is buying commercial time on local television stations.

— DCup is so into blogging that she’s created a second blog, Unglued, that focuses on the personal rather than the political. In the latest edition, the soccer mom overhears her daughter give a rather succinct, and potentially painful, anatomy lesson to her son.

— And, finally, it’s Halloween, the second best day of the year to be a kid. In the spirit of All Hallow’s Eve, which harkens back to a celebration of the riches of the fall harvest, the fine ladies at Pecanne Log take a look at Atlanta’s pagan roots. Druid Hills, don’t you get it?

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— Live Apartment Fire takes a look at the coverage of the voodoo lady that Cobb County Commissioner Annette Kesting allegedly tried to hire to off her opponent. The kicker? South Carolina authorities say they could charge Kesting with solicitation for murder.

— Esquire magazine takes a look at the Congressional races and compiles a list of the 10 worst lawmakers in America. As Lucid Idiocy notes, guess who’s first on that list?

— And speaking of the distinguished senator, JMac at Safe As Houses smells a well-deserved upset in the making and couldn’t be more excited.

— At Terminal Station, B King wonders whether the Obama-effect could spur a series of upsets in local races. There are, he points out, thousands of newly-registered voters who are likely to be Democrat.

— There’s less than a month to go in the presidential race and at Politits, Dcup wants to remind us that there’s a major difference between a smear and negative campaigning.

— What’s a twitter? DriftGrift wasn’t so sure, either until his blog buddy Tessa (who is featured in CL) set up a system that helped Internet-savvy Atlantans find gasoline. Now he’s a believer.

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— The wit and wisdom of Caribou Barbie is still a hot topic around the blogosphere and if you haven’t seen the latest SNL take, it’s a must-view. Amy Morton at Georgia Women Vote gathers some pointed post-debate feedback.

— Meanwhile at Going Through The Motions, the lovely Sara wonders why Americans seem to vote for the person they most identify with rather than the person they agree with politically. When she broached the topic with her Republican father, he dismissed her for using a “liberal talking point.” Ouch.

— Why does it matter? Dcup brings it home at Politits as she details her family’s fight to stave off foreclosure. And their lender gave them a cynical Catch-22. The bank first said they wouldn’t discuss helping them “work through it” until they brought their mortgage up to date. After that happened, the bank said they didn’t qualify for any programs to adjust their rate because they weren’t late anymore.

— TV stations love “gotcha” journalism, but Doug at Live Apartment Fire takes WGCL-TV to task for its report on Atlanta sanitation workers who allegedly lounge around during working hours and then go out when the overtime kicks in. Trouble is, Doug points out, the station never actually got them on camera doing anything wrong. It’s an example of a story rushed out before its time.

— Is anyone in a good mood these days? Edwin, at Chicken Fat, had to pick up friends returning from a trip at the airport and found himself lost and circling Hartsfield/Jackson in heavy traffic. Instead of helping him out, a grumpy cop slammed his fist on the windshield of Edwin’s car and told him to get moving.

— And, finally, the fine ladies at Pecanne Log had an even worse weekend after discovering they had missed the event they’d anticipated for months: the annual bowling showdown between the Furries and the Klingons. What they don’t know is the bowling match never happened. It was a trap. The Klingons ate the Furries, then trashed the bowing alley and took off in search of Spock.

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 — At Live Apartment Fire, CL gets some props from Doug Richards for the “delightfully evil” cover photo of Bob Barr that was shot by Joeff Davis. And Doug contrasts that with the shadowy photo of John McCain in the Atlantic that made Johnny Mac’s crew go ballistic and forced the magazine’s editor to apologize because the photographer altered the pic to make McCain look sinister.

– Over at Politits, DCup has a little fun with the government’s trillion-dollar bail-out of what seems like every financial company on Wall Street. Since they aren’t paying their debts, then surely they don’t expect her to pay what she owes them. Right?

— A.man.I is concerned by speculation that white folks are having a difficult time voting for a black man. At My Urban Report, he throws in his two cents worth.

— Wednesday is “Car-Free Day” in Decatur. And Decatur Metro isn’t happy because it’s the one day of the week that being carless isn’t practical for him. Don’t worry. Your’s won’t be the only automobile clogging Poncey on the way to downtown Atlanta and then back again on a “car free” day. But at least he’ll feel guilty about it.

—  Dave at Rather Than Working has a new crib. Living up to his blog’s name, he makes a list of all the things he was supposed to do over the weekend … but didn’t. Ah, the fine art of procrastination lives.

— And, finally, at Oh The Joys, there’s a poignant post  where she recalls a visit to the psychiatric ward to see a suicidal friend, and taking with her a tape player cued up to her friend’s favorite U2 song. More proof that music heals.

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 — Reporter Cub writes about the Southern Baptist bookstores that pulled a gospel magazine from their shelves because — OH MY GOD — it had a picture of five female pasters on the cover. Such blasphemy! Bet the same folks will be voting for a female vice-president. You know, so long as they have their priorities in place.

— Some of the folks who banned the gospel magazine must’ve been in Tifton last weekend at the Omega Pepper Festival. As Blog For Democracy notes,  some Obama supporters got the boot because they were trying to register voters. The audacity!

— Amy Morton over at Georgia Women Vote joins the chorus of those who are asking if Obama’s race is the reason he’s not 15 points ahead in the polls. When push comes to shove, will white people vote for a black man for president? Even if the alternative is a ticket with a VP candidate who thinks creationism should be taught in the public schools and conducts public business on her private yahoo email account?

— Over at Decatur Metro, there’s a celebrity slugfest going on: Who’s Decatur’s most famous resident?

— At the Wren’s Nest, there’s going to be a fund-raiser on Sept. 27 featuring Kingsized.  The problem is they’re nervous that no one is going to show up because they were a little tardy in promoting the show. So here’s a plug in helping them get the word out.

— And, finally, with fall temperatures finally breaking through, we can actually sit outside without drowning in our own sweat. But where to go? Don’t fear. The fine ladies at Pecanne Log have come up with a list of favorite outdoor patios to have a brew and drink a toast to autumn leaves.

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— Travis may be in Arizona shouting “Go Dawgs!” until his voice is gone, but that isn’t stopping him from exercising his fingers on Lucid Idiocy. Today he wonders if John McCain is elected president, which McCain will we get? The maverick of the past or the bullshit artist of the present?

— Whichever, and whomever, it is, the next president will have to deal with an economy that may be at its worst since the Great Depression. And with all that’s going on with our economy, Reporter Cub is feeling a wee bit unsettled. He also wonders what we all wonder: Why is gas still over $4 a gallon in Atlanta?

— But Jason Pye is even more unsettled. First, he notes that McCain has flip-flopped on the federal bail-out of AIG. And then he takes us into “deep breath” territory: the feds have spent over $800 billion in bail-outs so far. And that’s on top of a $400 billion federal deficit. Isn’t anyone keeping an eye on the house up there?

— The candidates are finally starting to get it that people are freaked out about the economy. And now that the dust has settled, more and more folks are looking at Sarah Palin and going WTF? She could be a heartbeat away from being our president? Well, not everyone, as Drift Grift notes in an especially sour edition of his “Morning Wooten.”

— Speaking of the paper that used to cover Dixie like the dew, the fine ladies at Pecanne Log poke a little fun at Atlanta at the expense of the AJC and how the paper of record always seems to want to put a happy face on things.

— And finally, Live Apartment Fire has the real skinny on the state of modern print journalism, courtesy of Doonesbury. Again, it’s all about the economy.

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— The New York Times published a scathing report on Sarah Palin’s tenure as governor in Alaska over the weekend, and one item really caught the eye of Amy Morton at Georgia Women Vote: a Palin aide called a blogger and tried to order them not to blog any longer. Hmmm … sounds like someone has issues with criticism. Can we say control freak?

— General David Petraeus is leaving Iran Iraq after five years of commanding forces there to return to the United States. Our friend at the Daly Briefing was given the daunting assignment of preparing a farewell video tribute.

— There hasn’t been a lot of press on it yet — everyone’s focused on the lies being slung in the presidential race — but one of the core issues to consider is the next president will be appointing folks to the U.S. Supreme Court. Decatur Guy at Atlanta Public Affairs delves into the issue and notes that seven of the last nine justices were appointed by Republican presidents.

— Sometimes, the world turns upside down. On the latest “Morning Wooten,” DriftGrift actually finds himself agreeing with the AJC’s resident conservative … but only to a degree.

—WGCL-TV promises to cram together Atlanta’s top stories AND Dagmar Midcap’s weather forecast into the first five minutes of the broadcast. Live Apartment Fire notes that is a little white lie.

– Finally, Carla at Concrete Lace tries to explain something that has confounded modern man, or at least this one: Why are so many women these days so into eating junk food?

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— The clock is ticking as convicted murderer Troy Davis has a date with the death penalty. At Counterpunch, Laura Tate Kagel and Jen Marlowe make the case for clemency — if there was ever someone on Death Row who’s not guilty, it’s likely that it’s Davis.

— The city gets props from B King at Terminal Station for taking on the epidemic panhandling in downtown. He says downtown can’t become viable until the situation is taken care of. And how did begging for money become known as “panhandling” anyway?

— At Lucid Idiocy, Travis notes a survey that shows Southern white evangelicals are more likely to support torturing people for information than the rest of the general public. Must be some kind of Old Testament inspiration.

— They’re also more prone to vote for McCain and Palin, even if the MO of the GOP’s nominees is to not tell the truth about hardly anything. Like Palin’s past. Or saying Obama supports teaching sex education to kids in kindergarten. Say what? At Politits,  Dcup wants to know why the media is so afraid of using the “L” word. As in, “liar, liar, pants on fire.”

— At Going Through The Motions, Sara reminds us there is a big difference between spin and outright lying. Unfortunately, she got into a discussion last weekend with Republicans who didn’t quite get the distinction.

— And, finally, Mingaling  evokes JFK to remind us of what it is we’re supposed to be safeguarding.

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— At Georgia Women Vote, Amy Morton met North Carolina Senatorial candidate Kay Hagan and reports that the Hagan needs no lipstick. Her opponent, incumbent Elizabeth Dole, voted with Bush 92% of the time. But didn’t most Republicans? And didn’t many Democrats who still quiver in their boots at the thought of being considered “liberal”?

— You want cynical? I’ve got cynical. Blog For Democracy notes that Republican operatives in Ohio and Michigan are collecting lists of foreclosed homes so they can challenge the registration of voters who used to live in them. This is what our political process has come to?

— In a belated “Morning Wooten,” DriftGrift gives another prime example of just how much our political discourse has broken down.

— But some folks still keep things real. Arc Of Time has posted a link to last year’s emotional recollection of being on a flight the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.

— From the Daly Briefing in Iraq: “When I got to the office, the lights weren’t working and I had to call someone to come down and work on them. I sat in the dark for a few minutes thinking about all the stuff I had to do. Then the young airman I work with walked in and asked me if I was going to the ceremony. How in the world could I have forgotten? How could any of us forget? Why did it take someone reminding me what today was for me to remember?”

— Now that’s keeping it real. But our society has short attention spans and, thus, short memories. So, finally, a YouTube clip worth remembering. In memory of …

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 — The presidential election approaches. With Georgia now officially off the table for Obama, JMac at Safe As Houses takes a look at the states still up for grabs.

— Is Sarah Palin a bad parent because her 17-year-old daughter is preggers? Dcup at Politits isn’t ready to go there.  But Palin’s family situation has caused her to look back at her own adventures in raising teenagers.

— At Blue Heart of Dixie, Jason takes offense at the AJC’s Jim Wooten declaring that Palin is “one of us.” Not so fast, he writes.  Exactly who is “us?” And why do people who challenge the status quo get labeled as traitors who don’t love their country?

—Over at Chicken Fat, Edwin waxes poetic about his family doctor growing up. Ah, the good ol’ days:  If your were sick, you didn’t make an appointment; you just showed up to be treated.

— Modernism is also stuck in the craw of Max Earnest, a local artist who has created the blog Central Branch Library to raise the question of  why Fulton County would want to demolish a perfectly fine central library in downtown to build another one. In his mind, it’s pimping the public to the tune of $275 million.

— And, finally, WXIA-TV’s Jerry Carnes, a long-time news reporter, has prostrate cancer and is devoting a blog to detailing his fight to beat it.

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— The Republican party is over, the elephants have left Minneapolis and Sarah Palin is the modern day Joan of Arc. What’s left? The same old same old, says Amy Morton at Georgia Women Vote. She also slips in the line of the day, discussing Gov. Perdue’s interest in having the power to take over a school system.

— The graphic of the day comes from Travis at Lucid Idiocy, who has posted a wordle that compares the acceptance speeches of Obama and McCain. What’s a wordle? It shows which words they used the most, and the result is fascinating and in stark contrast.

— And the uppity idiot of the day award, of course, goes to Georgia Congressman Lynn Westmoreland, who is obviously still trying to learn every one of those 10 Commandments. Mel at Blog For Democracy goes off on Westmoreland for perpetuating all sorts of stereotypes.

— DriftGrift’s reaction is sadness because he thinks McCain is a good man, and that his acceptance speech will be his last hoorah.

— There’s more to life than politics. And A.man.I at My Urban Report has posted a video report on his road trip to Myrtle Beach to chase Hurricane Hannah, and how his wife is none too happy with the idea.

— And finally, leave it to the fine ladies at Pecanne Log to keep it real. Take a ride with them on the Bulldog Bounce. Go Dawgs!

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— It was Sarah Palin’s big night and the blogosphere is alive with reaction. First off, Travis at the aptly-named Lucid Idiocy checks in with his “jerk” reaction.

— But ATLmalcontent  says liberals should at least acknowledge that Palin put on a good performance for the faithful.

– Decatur Guy doesn’t agree. He writes at Atlanta Public Affairs that he thought Palin — along with other speakers last night — came across as bitter, angry and condescending about Obama’s candidacy.

— Of course, Hurricane Gustav almost stole the spotlight from the Republicans and at Live Apartment Fire, there’s a nifty critique on how the local TV stations covered the weather event.

— While the Democrats and Republicans bicker, Atlanta’s still stuck in a massive traffic jam. B at Terminal Station takes a look at the state’s commuter rail plan and notes that riding a train will take longer to reach Atlanta than driving. Which leads him to ask: If we’re gonna spend all that money on rail, why in the world aren’t we doing high-speed rail?

– And, finally, the Daley Briefing puts it all into a deeper perspective with a letter from Iraq written to Audrey Marie, his newly-born niece.

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— Is questioning McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin demeaning to women, as conservatives would like you to believe? Of course not, writes Amy Morton at Georgia Women Vote.  The fact that McCain didn’t fully vet Palin before selecting her is what’s really demeaning.

— Palin is also on the mind of Dcup at Politits. She writes that she wants to take the high road on all the Internet conjecture about Palin’s teenage daughter and her pregnancy(s). But for Dcup, it’s personal because it’s about respecting choice and about Bible-thumping hypocrites.

— But leave it to DriftGrift to put Palin’s “issues” in perspective with his “Morning Wooten.”

— Over in Iraq, the Daly Briefing reminds me of what Mark Twain said about Americans: Everyone complains about the weather, but nobody ever does anything about it. Our correspondent in the war zone says Iraqi leaders complain about problem after problem, but never offer any solutions.

— At Lucid Idiocy, Travis takes aim at a state government that shows its appreciation to veterans by closing an assisted living center for vets because of the budget shortfall.

— And, finally, Sara at Going Through The Motions picked the wrong weekend to travel to Biloxi for a poker tournament. She left the Gulf Coast Sunday morning and writes of being swept up in evacuees in the search for food and gasoline while driving 20 mph on the interstate. Gustav missed New Orleans and for that, we can be thankful.

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