Welcome to CL’s annual catalog of impotence: the 11 Least Influential. You’ll meet folks who tried to achieve an ambitious goal, but fell short; people who’ve devoted themselves to a personal mission in near-total obscurity; and ordinary losers who can’t get anyone to pay attention to them. Every day until the full issue hits the streets on Nov. 11, we’ll bring you a new story of failure — some noble and heroic, others abject and pathetic.
We begin with one of the latter. Enjoy.
Subject: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Failing: Can’t nut up enough to endorse candidates
One of the perks of being the sole daily newspaper for a major metropolitan city is that you can tell folks what to do. Where to eat. What movies to see. What books to read. And who to vote for. That goes double for a paper with a storied history of taking strong editorial stands on the issues of the day, such as Ralph McGill’s impassioned columns blasting segregation.
But what if, in giving an opinion — even a modulated, rational, well-argued one — you happen to say something some people don’t wish to hear. Horrors! We can’t have that. What if readers stopped subscribing to the paper? Oh, yeah, they’re already doing that… Perhaps it’s best to remove any opinion, insight, conclusions or point of view from the paper altogether.
At the GOP rally/Tea Party at the U.S. Capitol yesterday, Rep. Paul Broun (R – CrazyPartsOfGeorgia) had a stern warning for Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi:
“Go tell your Congressman you’re not going to eat this rotten, stinking fish that is . . . [awkward pause] Pelosi health care!
We’re going to put a stop sign in front of her steam roll of socialism! Go to it, patriots!”
I haven’t played Rock-Paper-Scissors in a while, but I’m pretty sure steam roller beats stop sign. Here’s a video. Broun’s comments begin at the 4:35 mark.
While we’re on the subject of gratuitous dumbassitude masquerading as steadfast patriotism, at the same event yesterday House Minority Leader Rep. John Boehner’s held up what he claimed was his copy of the U.S. Constitution and read aloud from the section he described as its preamble:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
In January, state lawmakers will convene in Atlanta to shake hands, eat at fancy restaurants, and maybe pass a law or two. Because it’s an election year, these men and women will introduce a bunch of ridiculous proposals and resolutions to earn some brownie points with voters. But they’ll also have to tackle such serious issues as water, transportation and tax reform.
On Nov. 11 and 12, state lawmakers who represent Fulton County under the Gold Dome will hold three public meetings at the Coverdell Legislative Office Building to discuss local issues. Among them: Grady Health Systems, MARTA and education.
At the annual citizens’ public hearing on Nov. 11 at 6 p.m., you’ll have a chance to tell lawmakers what you’d like to see them focus on during the session.
The meetings are free and open to the public. Meeting dates and details are after the jump.
>> Scientist are discovering more animals appear to be having sex for pleasure, including Australian redback spiders that have 100 minutes of foreplay and fruit bars that have oral sex. The discovery brings to light the debate of “what’s natural” and if sex exists purely for procreation. Next, the Supreme Court will be debating whether the animal porn observed by these scientists is considered obscene. (Fox News)
>> Someone who knows a thing or two about animal pleasure: A 50-year-old South Carolina man was sentenced to five years in prison after having sex with the same horse for a second time within two years. The horse’s owner became suspicious when she noticed Sugar, her 21-year-old horse, was getting infections again. In the man’s defense: it was a female horse. (New Orleans Examiner)
>> More seriously: Twenty-three American CIA agents as well as two Italians were convicted by the Italian court for kidnapping an Egyptian cleric off the streets of Milan and taking him to be tortured in Egypt. This practice of shipping arrested people (sometimes innocent) to countries where torture is illegal, common under Bush’s war on terrorism, is now brought to the international spotlight as illegal. (the LA Times)
Write-in candidate Dr. Tiffany Brown got in the neighborhood of 60 votes city-wide. That’s about one vote for each time the line “Vote for Tiffany Brown” was used in her catchy campaign rap song.
At the end of September, mayoral front-runner Mary Norwood had a huge campaign warchest. But over the past month, she burned through more than $600,000, spending more than Kasim Reed ($274,000) and Lisa Borders ($300,000) put together. As of Oct. 25, Norwood and Reed each had about $166,000 in cash on hand (although Reed had loaned his campaign about $100,000 of that amount).
High on the list for the the Hall County Republican who’s also running for the GOP gubernatorial nomination? He and some congressional colleagues will kindly ask President Barack Obama to show a copy of his birth certificate.
The AJC’s Christian Boone today brings us the story of Vandy Beth Glenn, a transgendered woman who three years ago was fired from her state Capitol editing job. Why exactly? Well, her higher-ups feared she might be “extremely harmful to work operations” and make state lawmakers uneasy and
Glenn, who was born Glenn Morrison, filed a federal suit against her former employers to get her old job back.
Here are some choice quotes from the deposition of Georgia Legislative Counsel Sewell Brumby, who was Glenn’s boss at the Capitol:
“It makes me think about things I don’t like to think about, particularly at work … I think it’s unsettling to think of someone dressed in women’s clothing with male sexual organs inside that clothing,” said Brumby, in a deposition taken May 11th in U.S. District Court in Atlanta. [...]
“I think some members of the legislature would view that taking place in our office as perhaps immoral, perhaps unnatural, and perhaps, if you will, liberal or ultra-liberal,” [Brumby] said.
Now on that last quote Brumby does have a point. The Georgia Capitol, after all, is a beacon of morality. No one’s ever raised flag about anything scandalous allegedly happening at the Gold Dome. Nope. Never. Check out Boone’s entire profile. UPDATE: Southern Voice has done an excellent job covering the story since it broke. Matt Schafer has a thorough article here.
ALCOHOL: Making people publicly pee and fall off horses
>> Give pees a chance: A 19-year-old university student may be jailed after being photographed urinating on a war memorial poppy wreath. If a drunken Brit can’t publicly pee without being hassled, then there’s really no point in living in England, now is there? (Reuters)
>> More wonderfully boozy news: The annual Todo Santos Cuchumatan horse race in Guatemala was ruined when riders and onlookers consumed copious amounts of homemade moonshine, leaving some riders to fall off their horses and many tourists to drunkenly stumble through the nearby village. I’ve never wanted to go to Guatemala so badly. (Reuters)
>> Brigitte Harris, who chopped off her father’s penis and sautéed it after he allegedly has raped her since the age of three, is now taking cooking classes in prison. And here I thought revenge was a dish best served cold. (the New York Daily News)
>> Obama totally embarrassed his daughter Malia when he revealed that she made a 73 on a science test. If he’s trying to revamp “No Child Left Behind,” he’s not doing a very good job. (the New York Times)
>> And finally, coming out of the Florida panhandle: A baby who had been missing for five days was found alive under her baby-sitter’s bed, and the parents may have known about it. At least that baby’s dad didn’t tell the whole world she got an F on a test! (AP)
StoryCorps, a national oral history project that documents stories of everyday people, will be recording in partnership with Atlanta public radio station, 90.1 (WABE-FM), launching its newest StoryBooth on Oct. 22. Interviews have already been collected from over 50,000 Americans in all 50 states. During StoryCorps’ year in Atlanta, it will record stories and life experiences from about 1,500 local residents.
The StoryBooth is located in the WABE studio, 740 Bismark Road, in Atlanta. Make reservations if you want record your story on StoryCorps’ 24-hour reservation line at 1-800-850-4406 or online at www.storycorps.org.
Probably the biggest surprise of Tuesday’s elections was Lisa Borders’ poor showing. Granted, various polls had showed her support waning and Kasim Reed’s numbers growing. But no one I talked to had expected Borders to net only 14 percent in what was widely perceived as a three-way race. I mean, City Hall shouter Dave Walker got nearly 10 percent in the Council president’s race and he didn’t raise a dime!
So how did the former runoff hopeful become an also-ran? A few thoughts:
1. She didn’t define herself — Easy for us to say, but it’s true. Mary Norwood positioned herself as the throw-the-bums-out, anti-City Hall candidate, a spokesperson for everyone sick of business as usual. Reed cast himself as the determined outsider, criticizing those on whose watch the city had faltered and promising to restore hope to inner-city neighborhoods. Quick — what did Borders claim to represent?
I hate to pile on the AJC with regard to their election coverage, because they’ve already taken plenty of lumps for cravenly weaseling out of endorsing candidates in the Atlanta city elections.
But, sweet Jesus, did they screw things up! As my colleague Thomas noted in an earlier post, someone over on Marietta Street just plumb forgot to add in the results from precincts in DeKalb County. (Granted, DeKalb, which is usually very facile with online data, has made it excruciatingly difficult to find said results.)
The snafu is most noticeable in the District 6 Council race, where the AJC online graphic suggests that Tad Christian made the runoff, rather than Liz Coyle:
While the DeKalb numbers didn’t alter who won or who survived in any other Council districts, they did change the percentages in all the city-wide races.
Our federal overlords are currently mulling climate change legislation that aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, thus reducing the impact of global warming. (They’re doing it for the children, ya skeptics.) Some carbon belchers — as well as some Republicans — aren’t thrilled about the bill.
According to a study reported by E&E, a subscription-based energy industry and policy publication, Atlanta-based Southern Co. would be hardest hit if the legislation passes. The article’s only available to subscribers, but here’s a snippet:
Atlanta-based Southern Co. will suffer most from a federal carbon cap-and-trade system, facing $393 million in costs to comply with legislation to curb emissions of greenhouse gases, according to a new study by Point Carbon, a carbon market information firm. Two other energy producers, American Electric Power and Duke Energy, round out the top three firms in the nation facing the most risk, with those two companies expecting to incur costs of $252 million and $125 million, respectively, Point Carbon analysts said.
In an attempt to flesh out the “winners and losers” of federal cap and trade, analysts zeroed in on 18 companies that are expected to represent 40 percent of any future U.S. market in emissions allowances. Southern Co. is characterized as the worst off, while Chicago-based Exelon Corp. is seen as the best off. Point Carbon believes Exelon, the nation’s biggest nuclear power producer, could actually see net revenues of $1.7 billion from the sale of its surplus allowances.
Before we get sucked into a “Buckhead vs. Southwest Atlanta” narrative for the run-off, consider this: the spreadsheet users over at the AJC say Mary Norwood won a significant number of votes yesterday from predominantly black precincts.
Political Insider Jim Galloway posted results from Atlanta’s top five predominantly black districts, and the top five predominantly white districts. Norwood received an average of 21 percent of the votes in the top five mostly black districts, while Reed received an average of just under six percent of the vote in the top five mostly white districts.
Norwood clearly has stronger appeal outside her geographic base than Reed does outside his.
Last night, longtime community activist Liz Coyle was edged out of a Dec. 1 runoff against Alex Wan by darkhorse candidate Tad Christian in the Atlanta City Council District 6 race.
Or so we thought.
CL just spoke with Coyle. And the Atkins Park resident says she’s ready for a runoff.
“Huh?” we asked.
Coyle said the election results reported for the six-candidate race didn’t include three DeKalb County precincts that are considered part of the City of Atlanta. When you add those results, Coyle says, she leads Christian by 65 votes.
“So I’m ready for a runoff,” she said. Work begins today on her Dec. 1 showdown with Wan.
We’ve reached out to the Christian campaign. We’ll update when we hear word.
>> Virgin Atlantic Airways has launched a Flying Without Fear app to help people overcome their travel trepidation with video, FAQs and a fear attack button for emergencies with breathing exercises. Who needs a therapist or a close friend when you have an iPhone? (Reuters)
>> More on mobile phones: Fanatical Muslim insurgents Al Shabaab have banned non-Islamic audio for people’s ringtones since seizing parts of Somalia, saying they do not tolerate “anything that may corrupt the people.” Come on, when did a “Poker Face” ringtone really hurt anyone? (Reuters)
>> A new American Eagle store in Times Square will be open until 1 a.m. and include a “15 Seconds of Fame” feature which lets shoppers submit their picture to be broadcast on a Times Square screen minutes later. But honestly, who would want to advertise to the world that they buy crappy logo decal shirts at one in the morning? (Womenswear Daily)
>> Finally, hit hard by the recession, Ohio is set to vote “yes” to casinos tied to new jobs after rejecting attempts to bring gambling to the state for the past two decades. Aside from a handful of new jobs, the plan seems like a great way for down-on-their-luck Ohioans to squander what little money they have left at the slots. (Fox News)
Here are some of the upsets, victories and head-scratchers in yesterday’s election:
Mayor’s race: Borders’ loss, Reed’s gain
The frontrunner in the race, Councilwoman Mary Norwood, took 45 percent of the vote, roughly five percentage points shy of an outright win (no surprise there). What’s a little more shocking is the epic stumble of City Council President Lisa Borders. State Sen. Kasim Reed, who will face Norwood in a Dec. 1 runoff, got 38 percent of the vote — a whopping 24-percentage-point lead over Borders. In September, Borders’ polling numbers dropped from 34 to 27 points. Last week, an Insider Advantage poll had her at 16 percent. She wound up with 14 percent. What happened to Lisa?
City Council President: Horseshoes and hand grenades
Councilman Ceasar Mitchell was a mere 125 376 votes shy of winning the City Council Prez seat. Instead, Mitchell — who got 49.78 49.4 percent of the vote — will face face Clair Muller in the runoff. The big WTF? is this: City Council heckler Dave Walker somehow got 10 percent of the vote, most likely forcing the runoff.
We asked him how he felt now that the election’s over.
A large part of a runoff is actually convincing voters to return to the polls. And Keyser’s proven he can rally people around a cause. No word yet if he plans to endorse Mary Norwood or Kasim Reed. His nod of approval wouldn’t be a deciding factor, but it surely wouldn’t hurt.
UPDATE 11:45 p.m. Um, we’re pretty positive Norwood and Reed will be duking it out on Dec. 2 Dec. 1. I for one am going to bed. Thomas and Scott will continue partying. (Thomas just showed up at Kyle Keyser’s gathering at Noni’s.) You’ll hear more from them soon, I’m sure. Nightie night!
UPDATE 11:33 p.m. Kasim Reed tells the crowd gathered at the Hyatt that in the “darkest days” of his campaign, Andrew Young was there to help by assuring him, “If you’re not sleeping, I don’t want to sleep.” Reed also says, “Several weeks ago, not many people thought we would be here with 37 percent, did they? … I’m ready to go for this city. I will fight for you. I will stand up for you. And I will make Atlanta the city on the hill again.”
UPDATE 11:22 p.m. Reed’s about to take the podium at the Hyatt Regency, the TV people say. With more than 80 percent of precincts reporting, we’ve got Norwood at 45 percent, Reed at 37 percent, Borders (who has conceded the race) at 14 percent.
UPDATE 11:15 p.m. Text message from Thomas Wheatley: “Norwood announces she anticipates a runoff.”
UPDATE 11:11 p.m. Via Scott Henry, as he leaves the Varsity (Norwood’s party) for the Hyatt Regency (Reed’s shindig): “I just had to get a few pictures of Eldrin Bell and his wife in the Varsity. He’s dressed to the nines. Mary just walked back in, and the crowd is chanting, ‘Mare-EE, Mare-EE.’ I just bumped into Rodney Cook, the Buckhead millionaire. Anne Fauver is sitting right next to me in her white Prius as she leaves.”
UPDATE 10:54 p.m. Thomas here. Reporting from the Varsity, which honest to God has some of the best ice in the country. There’s a lull in activity as Norwood supporters watch votes continue to line up in the councilwoman’s favor. She’s expected to return at 10:45. While we wait, it’s worth taking a look at the other races.
Perhaps most surprising: We might see a runoff in the City Council President race between Ceasar Mitchell and Clair Muller. City Hall gadfly Dave Walker has managed to pull nearly 10 percent of the votes counted thus far. That’s surprising, considering that Walker’s reported zero funds raised in this race. (CL’s profiled Walker before. Here’s a video interview shot.) Where’d he get the support? It’s worth considering that some of those are protest votes. You should also remember that Walker attends nearly every single council meeting (literally). He’s a fixture on Channel 23, usually found badgering councilmembers.
Post 3 At-Large: Embattled incumbent H. Lamar Willis faces a tough contest from challenger Shelitha Roberston. 52-48. WIllis could very well lose his seat.
District 3: Incumbent Ivory Young appears headed for re-election, with 80 percent of the vote. 63 percent of the precincts reporting.
District 4: Incumbent Cleta Winslow leads closest challenger LaShawn Hoffman by 20 points. 46 percent of precincts reported.
District 6: Alex Wan leads Liz Coyle in the crowded race that’s almost certainly headed for a runoff. Looks like it will be Wan v. Coyle or Tad Christian. Too close to call.
District 8: Yolanda Adrean commands a strong lead over Rick Coleman in the race to fill Clair Muller’s seat.
District 11: The race to fill longtime Councilman Jim Maddox’s seat quickly filled up after he announced his retirement. A runoff seemed virtually guaranteed — but Keisha Lance Bottoms currently leads the pack of nine with little over 50 percent of the vote.
District 12: It appears Joyce Sheperd has a solid lead, with 57 percent of votes. 85 percent of precincts reporting.
UPDATE 10:47 p.m. It’s now up to 60 percent of precincts reporting, folks — Norwood: 45 percent. Reed: 37 percent. Borders: 14 percent. But it ain’t over yet. Can Norwood close in on the 6 precious points that will give her an outright win? Or will it be a Norwood-Reed runoff in December???
UPDATE 10:29 p.m. In other city races (with 52 percent of precincts reporting) … City Council Prez: Ceasar Mitchell, 48 percent; Clair Muller, 42 percent. City Council Post 1 At-Large: Michael Julian Bond, 55 percent; Adam Brackman, 22 percent. City Council Post 2 At-Large: Aaron Watson, 43 percent; Amir Farokhi, 41 percent.
UPDATE 10:23 p.m. With 48 percent (yes, I double-checked this time) of precincts reporting — Norwood: 46 percent. Reed: 36 percent. Borders: 14 percent. Could the magic be ever-so-slightly slipping away from Norwood? Well … even if she can’t avoid a runoff, it’s been an impressive showing. Who knows? She could still pull it off.
UPDATE 10:03 p.m. With 48 30 percent (oops) of precincts now reporting — Norwood: 47 percent. Reed: 35 percent. Borders: 14 percent. According to the AJC, “Norwood flirting with magic majority.” Ooh la la.
UPDATE 9:55 p.m. Text message via Thomas Wheatley: “That’s Norwood entering the Varsity. Talking now.”
UPDATE 9:51 p.m. So says Scott Henry: “There’s quite a crowd down here at the Varsity. I walked in and [Norwood's] press person tells us that the early returns put Mary at 51 percent. There are a lot of people with Mary T-shirts. Glenn Thomas just walked in. It’s a very mixed crowd, older African-American folks and Buckhead Betties — two groups you never see together. Ralph Long is here. Lee Morris is here. Ahh, here we have Anne Fauver. She just walked by. A lot of people with families. A very different crowd than at the W. For one, they are giving away free food. Pretty nutty. I got a chicken salad sandwich on rye. But I can’t do their onion rings. Those will kill ya. After I finish my sandwich I’m going to walk around some more and talk to some people.”
UPDATE: 9:35 p.m. This is what I’m hearing from Scott Henry, who was en route from Lisa Borders’ party (at the W) to Mary Norwood’s (at the Varsity): “Not a lot of people there [at the W], maybe 100, maybe 80. Not a lot of energy. Please put in there that I had to suffer through someone singing ‘Wind Beneath My Wings.’ Yeah, I would not say it’s downbeat, but no one was totally psyched or anything like that. I couldn’t tell if it was because they thought that they were gonna lose or what. I’m pulling into the Varsity parking lot now. It is difficult to find a parking space at the Varsity. Is that unusual?”
UPDATE: 9:16 p.m. In case I left anyone wondering, that last update was left by me, Mara. Carry on.
UPDATE: 9:11 p.m. Greetings! I’m stuck on the couch at home while the esteemed Scott Henry and Thomas Wheatley get to party-hop, so let’s make the most of this, shall we? Starting now, I’ll be keeping a close watch on the election returns while Scott and Thomas deliver dispatches from the field. With 11 percent of precincts reporting, here’s what Fulton County’s vote-o-meter is spouting — Norwood: 44 percent; Reed: 39 percent; Borders: 13 percent. Thoughts, y’all? Predictions? Hopes? Dreams?
UPDATE: 9:03 p.m. Results now rolling in. Kasim Reed at 49 percent, Mary Norwood at 31 percent, Lisa Borders at 15 percent, Jesse Spikes, Kyle Keyser and Peter Brownlowe at 3 percent, 1 percent and 1 percent, respectively. One percent of precincts reporting.
UPDATE8:39 p.m. Ahoy, Atlantans. Thomas here, writing from my car outside Manuel’s. For an election night, the Poncey-Highland pub is surprisingly empty. Granted, polls closed roughly 30 minutes ago. If you’re looking for a place to watch the election results in peace, it’s an option.
Political gadfly Tom Houck was holding court with a table of somewhat familiar faces. His itinerary for the night includes Atkins Park to see Atlanta City Council District 6 candidate Liz Coyle and Shout in Midtown to see Post 2 At-Large hopeful Amir Farokhi. He also plants to drop by the Hyatt Regency to hobnob at mayoral candidate Kasim Reed’s soiree. Emory Morsberger was also in attendance at Manuel’s, but he’s high-stepping to several parties as well. When I asked how he was doing, he greeted me with his trademark “incredible!”
Atlanta City Council President candidate Clair Muller might owe Norwood a thank you card tomorrow morning, one political observer said. Muller, a longtime councilwoman who represents the affluent area, might see a boost in support thanks to Norwood’s solid grip on Buckhead. If Muller’s successful in her race against Ceasar Mitchell — and Norwood in her own contest — the city could have a white mayor and a white city council president.
Still no results to speak of in the Atlanta races. Lisa Borders tweeted earlier that election results are set to come in first from Buckhead, then Midtown, and finally South Atlanta. If that’s the case, don’t be surprised if you first see Norwood way ahead in the polls. But we’ll see.
It’s getting cold and I need to drive somewhere else. More to come.
Looking for an entertaining take on Atlanta’s elections? Good news! CL’s crack team of scribes will be out and about this evening in the City Too Busy to Vote. Scott Henry, Joeff Davis and myself will pile into the CL Mobile Meth Lab and risk life and limb to attend campaign parties, talk to people in suits, and keep you updated about results, rumors and skullduggery. CL News Editor Mara Shalhoup will hold down the fort and use the banhammer on people who post links to anonymous Web sites. It shall be a sight to behold, my friends.
Come back to Fresh Loaf around 8:30 and chime in. We’ll update the post throughout the night and pass along photos, videos and reports from campaign soirees. If you have photos or tips you’d like to share, shoot me an email.
The news networks will have regular election result updates. (C’mon, give Fox 5 another chance.) But if you want to watch polling precinct results from the comfort of your couch or barstool, check out the Fulton County Board of Elections’ website. They’ve got several online options you can use to monitor results. The Web site says it will only update every 15 minutes, but it has a nice scrolling feature that you can keep open on your browser.
If you’re looking for a drinking game … hmm … well, we really haven’t thought too much about that. Maybe take a shot every time a candidate says something vague like “move forward” or “change Atlanta?” You’ll be soused by 8:33 p.m. If Mayor Shirley Franklin grabs a mic and starts singing Rammstein’s “Du hast,” just turn that bottle upright and cut loose.
And if you haven’t already voted, there’s still time. Atlanta polls close at 8 p.m. Check out our earlier post if you need help finding out candidate info or where you can vote. Godspeed.
Even though polls will stay open in Atlanta for another five-and-a-half hours, Fox 5 is already reporting Lisa Borders and Kyle Keyser finished first and second in today’s Atlanta mayoral election, with 100 percent of precincts reporting.
Here’s the screenshot:
Either Ken Cook’s Doppler Radar doubles as a time machine, or someone at Fox 5 posted the wrong information online. I’m guessing the latter.
Just to be clear, the polls are still open and no results are available. The chart you see above actually appears on Fox 5’s web site, but the numbers are ARE NOT the actual results.
UPDATE: Fox 5 has fixed the chart on its web site. No votes have been counted. Keyser and Borders haven’t won. Ken Cook does not have a time machine.
>> For anyone with a few million dollars to burn: Barcelona-based architects The Galactic Suite Space Resort plan to open the first hotel in space in 2012, with an eight-week training course on a tropical island included in the $4.4 million three-night stay. No word yet on whether the tropical training is actually more enjoyable. (Reuters)
>> Need a more down-to-earth alternative to space travel? For $14 a day, Taipei families are sending their pets to chic dog hotels complete with VIP suites, pools, salons and classes. Stray dogs are a problem in Taiwan after an economic boom in the 1980s when people bought puppies, did not expect them to grow bigger and then abandoned the grown animals. Sounds like the same Taiwanese logic at work for these doggie resorts. (Reuters)
>> A fight broke out in the WashingtonPost newsroom after editor Henry Allen told writer Monica Hesse her piece was “the second worst story I have seen in Style in 43 years.” Fellow writer Manuel Roig-Franzia defended Hesse by telling Allen not be such a “cocksucker” when Allen punched Roig-Franzia in the face. That’s nothing. Sounds like another day at Creative Loafing. (Politico)
>> And finally, while you’re off to the voting booths today, lets think for a second about public officials. In a FBI interview released last week, Dick Cheney stated on 72 occasions that he could not be certain of his answers concerning the Valerie Plame case. That kind of unaccountability is giving me a heart attack, too. (Yahoo! News)
In an essay published on Huffington Post, Emory University professor and Democratic messaging consultant Dr. Drew Westen slammed President Barack Obama as a thus-far failed leader.
Leadership is a quality Barack Obama showed on the campaign trail. It is a quality he has failed to show as president.
Westen calls Obama’s handling of the health care legislation the “prototypical” example of how Obama has failed to lead the nation as he promised:
Obama could have told members of Congress when the health care fight began, “If the average American doesn’t have the same quality and range of options at the end of this process that you do, I will not sign any appropriations bill for next year that includes health insurance for federal employees, your family and mine included, because if it’s good enough for us, it’s good enough for the people we serve.” Had the president done that, he would have had populist sentiment at his back, not with its back up against Democrats over “death panels.” [. . . ]
Am I sure that he could have mobilized populist sentiment to mobilize support for health care reform, or is that armchair, 20-20 hindsight punditry? Yes. I polled it 18 months ago, and the idea of the public getting the same quality of care as their elected representatives was wildly popular with everyone, right, left, and center.
In a very long interview yesterday with Atlanta Progressive News, Atlanta mayoral front-runner Mary Norwood explained why she’s voted in Republican primaries and attended state GOP conventions.
[Norwood] said she was disgusted with the Republican Convention and decided never to return. “There seemed to be two agendas. Evidentally in all these party politics, there’s stuff that goes on on the floor and there’s stuff that goes on in the back room,” Norwood said.
“Just because you go on a date with someone doesn’t mean you’re gonna marry them,” Norwood said, making an analogy. “Just because you did cocaine once doesn’t make you an addict.”
Emphasis added, because hot damn that’s a great quote! And the image of Republicans conspiring in the “back room” followed up with a unrelated reference to the devil’s dandruff? Excellent!
Granted, Norwood’s technically correct. But this is by far the best analogy we’ll read before noon. And it made us think of other excellent analogies. “Just because you once choked a man with your bare hands doesn’t make you a bloodthirsty maniac.” There are many others out there, we’re sure.
Subject: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Here are some of the upsets, victories and head-scratchers in yesterday’s election:
