Fresh Loaf

– The race between “that one” and Johnny Mac isn’t the only thing on the November ballot. Even beyond the race between the “Sax Machine” and “Big Ears,” there’s some more obscure, but equally important, questions to decide. DriftGrift gives the lowdown on Constitutional amendment No. 1, which preserves forests and who doesn’t want to preserve forests? But wait ’til you read the fine print.

— Sure, “that one” is ahead in the polls. But optimists thought Gore and Kerry were going to win, too. Can the Republicans steal another election? You betcha. Reporter-Cub ponders the possibilities.

— In Catch 22, there was the Major Major, who looked like Henry Fonda and never did much of anything. But at the Daly Report, there’s the one and only Sergeant Major. Daly’s days in Iraq are coming to an end. And he looks back at his favorite officer.

— DownRight, cries out, “Where have you gone Newt Gingrich? A lonely nation turns its eyes to you.” They also give J-Mac a reluctant endorsement.

— The lovely Sara at Going Through The Motions reveals that she is a Red Sox fan. She likes Greek food. She thinks she jinxes FSU whenever she shows up at a game (go to as many games as possible, Sara). But in her “this & that” post, she also has this sobering reminder: the state of Georgia will kill Troy Davis, who is likely an innocent man, next week. And whatever happened to American justice?

— And, finally, Left On Lanier has discoverd a candy that is the world’s most … well … you know … I suppose it all depends on your point of view. Is it tasty? Or tasteless? Either way, it’s definitely perverted.

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A recent Democracy Corps poll focused on Georgia shows a slight 46-44 margin for John McCain over Barack Obama and a 48-44 margin for U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss over Democratic challenger Jim Martin.

But it was a question about the 2010 Governor’s race that caught my eye:

(more…)

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Lady Tigra, one-half of the legendary novelty rap duo L’Trimm, recently recorded an ode Michelle Obama with Jon Ruff.

In the song, titled “First Black First Lady,” Lady Tigra sings from the perspective of Michelle Obama during the couple’s early courtship.

Here’s Lady Tigra’s Michelle singing about the couple’s first date:

Not so fast, bromeo
Take me to Baskin-Robbins
For a scoop of rocky road
Got a deep-ass voice, like a man should
Talk so smooth
Must be able to hear real good
With your intelligent eyes
And your teeth like ivory
Telling no lies
I might give you a try, B.

The song is available as a free download. Trust me, it’s worth every penny.

And while I’m at it, here’s the song that made Lady Tigra a novelty hip-hop legend, 1988’s always delightful “Cars With The Boom.”

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Even with two more work weeks left for early voting, the number of Georgians who have voted early this year has already exceeded 2004’s total.

So reports George Mason University Professor Dr. Michael McDonald*, who is keeping track of early voting around the country on his blog United States Election Project.

691,507 Georgians have voted early, as of today.

Ben Smith at Politico looked at the demographic breakdown of early voters in Georgia and North Carolina and describes them “almost unbelievably tilted Obama’s way.”

Information about when and where you can vote be found in CL’s Voter Guide.

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We all gotta dream, don’t we?

For seven years, we’ve been living somebody’s idea of a perfect world: terrorist attacks, multiple wars, killer hurricanes and economic calamity. Oh, what fun it’s been.

Now, the rest of us get to fantasize a little. Imagine a world where the hero comes riding into the White House, carried by a magical force that heralds the arrival of an enlightened era. He brings along with him the hopes of millions, perhaps billions – for peace, for prosperity, even for a step toward redemption from our country’s dark racial heritage.

Stop hallucinating and read our 2008 Voter’s Guide!

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In response to a lawsuit filed today against Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel alleging that the voting rights of a Cherokee County man have been violated, Congressman John Lewis — a leader of the voting-rights battle of the 1960s — released the following statement:

“Georgia is not the only state where questions are mounting.  In Ohio and in Florida and other states around the country it seems that obstacles are being created to keep citizens from participating in this election.

“I think there is a deliberate, systematic effort to depress the turn out of African American, Latino and other minority voters on November 4th. This is harassment.  It is intimidation, and it places an undue burden on some citizens.  Who decides, based on what standards, which 2 million voters deserve greater scrutiny than any others?  I think these actions violate both the letter and the spirit of the Voting Rights Act.  They should be pursued by voting rights groups and the Department of Justice with all deliberate speed so we can make the way clear for registered voters to freely exercise their constitutional rights.”

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After Thursday night’s roller-coaster ride on the YouBetchaExpress, this evening’s presidential debate was relatively staid. I thought Barack Obama clearly led the night, but McCain’s final two answers were stronger.

Your thoughts?

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This is the last time I’ll hector you about it. But if you haven’t yet registered to vote, you have until the end of today to do so at a local registrar’s office or mail in your application.

And to brighten your Monday morning, view the latest early voting statistics after the jump. According to Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel’s office, 263,408 people have taken advantage of absentee and in-person early voting ballots. African Americans, historically a key demographic for Democrats, have thus far cast 37 percent of those. DeKalb County leads the pack with 28,639 early voters. Fulton and Gwinnett Counties follow with 19,589 and 14,966 ballots cast, respectively.

Handel says she hopes 1 million of Georgia’s 5.5 million registered voters visit the polls before Nov. 4. Help her out and save yourself a headache — find your nearest early voting location here.

(more…)

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Tonight at 9 p.m., the two vice presidential nominees from both major parties — where’s the Libertarian? — will face off in what’s sure to be a battle of the wits.

In one corner, we have Sen. Joe Biden, a veteran lawmaker with a history of gaffes but who has more or less held it together — even while riding the Amtrak from D.C. to Delaware every single day of his life. In the other, there’s Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who has proven to be the most astute interview subject since Crispin Glover.

To help you enjoy the debate, the fine folks at GEDBlog have put together a Sarah Palin BINGO card. The targeted moose is a free space. Each time Palin mentions “lipstick,” “glass ceiling,” “Tony Rezko,” or the healthy polar bear population, cover a space. First person to mail in their winning BINGO card receives a free pair of 3-D glasses that have been sitting on my desk for a couple of months.

We may or may not be liveblogging this spectacle. I’m in talks with a special guest to join me, a person who has changed the very fabric of modern politics with her wit, wisdom and style. I’m speaking with her agents, who as luck would have it, are demanding I provide her with tomatoes. Even if we don’t, at least you have this fancy game to play.

To print out a BINGO card, click here to access the PDF version.

(Hat tip to various folks on Tumblr, GEDBlog)

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Libertarian Presidential nominee and former CL columnist Bob Barr was interviewed by Liz Gorman of Wonkette during Friday’s debate between the Barack Obama and John McCain. Skip the “festive” guy talking about conspiracies and start watching at 1:50. Barr shows his human side when he’s asked whether facial hair has any place in our armed forces.

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Did Republican V.P. hopeful Gov. Sarah Palin just tell CBS’s Katie Couric that being underneath the flight path of foreign airplanes counts as foreign policy experience?

I think she did.

Watch CBS Videos Online

Congratulations to residents of south Fulton and Clayton counties. By virtue of Hartsfield-Jackson’s busy international flight schedule, you’re all on McCain’s short-list to become Secretary of State.

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If McCain bails on tomorrow night’s presidential debate, they should scrounge up two extra microphones and open up the debate to three presidential candidates who actually want to be there — Libertarian Party candidate Bob Barr, Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney (both from Georgia) and Constitution Party Chuck Baldwin

Among other things, I’m curious to know if Baldwin seems as crazy when he speaks as he does when he writes.

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One of the pleasant surprises of this campaign season for me has been the emergence of Emory University Psychology & Psychiatry Professor Drew Westen as an influential national political commentator. (more…)

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Last week, former Georgia Congressman Bob Barr won a legal battle to get on the Nov. 4 ballot in Pennsylvania as the Libertarian presidential nominee. A local Republican Party official had filed a lawsuit last month to have Barr’s name stricken from the ballot, despite an earlier pledge by John McCain that he would not tolerate party underlings trying to restrict ballot access for third-party candidates.

Well, Barr has returned the favor by filing suit in Texas to have both McCain and Barrack Obama tossed from that state’s ballot. According to the Dallas Morning News, Barr is arguing that both major parties missed a state deadline to certify the names of their candidates.

The Libertarians are contending that the Democratic and Republican nominees are disqualified from appearing on the ballot because they missed the state’s Aug. 26 deadline to certify candidates. During the national conventions, Mr. Obama was not voted as the nominee until Aug. 27 and Mr. McCain claimed the GOP nomination on Sept. 3.

Rather than dismissing the suit, the Texas Supreme Court has asked both parties to file responses by Monday. Stay tuned.

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OMG y’all! Sarah Palin’s cybersecurity was like, totally breached, and all her e-mails and photos of aerial wolf hunting were stolen. And just like everything bizarre in this world, it turns out there’s a Georgia connection. It’s in Athens, the land of drunks, an Arch, and a bunch of bulldogs on street corners!

The Associated Press reports that the Internet anonymity service used by the person who hacked Palin’s Yahoo account is based in the college town I know, love and that I miss dearly.

From the AP:

Investigators were waiting to speak with Gabriel Ramuglia of Athens, Ga., who operates an Internet anonymity service used by the hacker. Ramuglia told the AP on Thursday he was reviewing his own logs and promised to turn over any helpful information to authorities because the hacker violated rules against using the anonymity service for illegal activities.

“If you’re doing something illegal and causing me issues by doing this, I’m willing to cooperate,” Ramuglia said. “Obviously this is the most high profile situation I’ve dealt with.”

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Neil Peirce of the Washington Post Writers Group weighs in:

My short analysis: With Obama, we’re likely to get an activist federal government in areas from transit and infrastructure to housing. But it won’t be the Democrats’ historic center-city “urban policy.” Instead, Obama’s looking for ways to shift and coordinate federal programs to help boost the fortunes of entire metro regions.

McCain? One has to be a super-detective to discern any city-metro policy at all. We know what he’s against, starting with pork-barrel spending, particularly earmarks for politicians’ pet local projects. We know he’s for less government regulation and lower taxes for individuals, small businesses, corporations.

But do we have even a hint of a federal partnership with urban/metro America under a McCain administration? So far no. The silence could be intentional. The Sarah Palin vice presidential selection, the Republican National Convention’s celebration of small towns and invective against “cosmopolitanism” and community organizing, smacks of a calculated anti-urban message.

Read the rest here.

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Australian blogger Hugh Atkin recently found the following un-aired footage of Sen. John McCain during the Republican National Convention:

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Al Gore may have invented the Internet, but its John McCain who invented the Blackberry.

“You’re looking at the miracle that John McCain helped create,” said Doug Holtz-Eakin, an economic aide to Republican White House hopeful McCain, as he held up his BlackBerry wireless e-mail device.

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Nate Silver, who runs the awesomely nerdtastic political blog FiveThirtyEight.com, joined the chorus of campaign-watchers criticizing the Obama campaign for devoting millions of dollars to trying to win Georgia’s Electoral College votes.

According to Silver, Virginia and North Carolina are more Obama-friendly than Georgia. If he can put either of those states in his column, he wouldn’t need Georgia. (more…)

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Barack Obama’s chances in Georgia aren’t as strong as once thought, according to a new survey from InsiderAdvantage.

When asked who they would vote for if the election were held today, more than 56 percent of 506 registered likely voters said John McCain. Obama trailed with 38 percent. (Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party candidate who’s been considered a possible vote-stealer from McCain, was not included as a choice in the survey.)

Says 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.

“At first glance it would seem that Obama is headed for no better than the low 40 percentile level achieved by John Kerry in 2004. But let me warn observers that in both our national tracking and surveys in other states, the biggest change has been a near parity between the two candidates among the youngest of voters.

“Should that group return to Obama and the African-American vote end up where we expect it to be, the race could be closer in November. But as of now Georgia is no longer a “leans McCain” state. As of this survey, Georgia is in the McCain column.”

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Rep. Lynn Westmoreland isn’t the only Georgia Republican dropping the u-bomb.

During a radio interview in Macon last week, Republican congressional candidate Rick Goddard called a black MSNBC reporter “uppity” for daring to ask Newt Gingrich a non-softball question about Gov. Sarah Palin.

Like Westmoreland, Goddard denies he meant “uppity” in the “who does this black guy think he is?” sense.

Like I wrote about Westmoreland — it’s a flimsy explanation that doesn’t sound plausible because white people only seem to refer to black people as uppity.

Calling an intelligent, accomplished black person “uppity” bugs me, but honestly, I’m just as irritated this morning by the alleged non-racist point Goddard insists he was making.

Goddard says Allen was being “arrogant” and “presumptuous” by suggesting to Gingrich that Palin’s resume is not that of a typical VP-running mate. Allen was trying and (and, incidentally, failing) to get Gingrich off his party’s talking points.

Apparently, it’s arrogant, presumptuous and uppity for a reporter to challenge a politician’s spin.
(H/T: AJC Political Insider)

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The Houston Chronicle reports Republican Congressman and former 2008 Presidential hopeful Ron Paul will offer a hearty 25 percent endorsement to the presidential candidacies of former Georgia congresspersons Cynthia McKinney and Bob Barr at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. tomorrow.

They don’t quite put it in those terms.

The report says Paul will urge his supporters to reject Obama and McCain and instead cast a vote for any one of the four other candidates on the ballot this fall: former Republican-turned-Libertarian Bob Barr, former Democrat-turned-Green Cynthia McKinney, Constitution Party candidate Chuck Baldwin, or independent Ralph Nader.

According to the National Press Club’s events calendar, Paul and Barr each have press conferences scheduled tomorrow.

Perhaps Barr will be there to give Paul 25 percent of a thank you.

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Calling all bespectacled, no-nonsense women who steal the spotlight from their potential bosses when they’re not killing moose! Your services are requested for an “adult-themed video production” here in Atlanta.

The wonderful ladies at Pecanne Log unearthed this gem:

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I’ve always wanted to live in a presidential campaign swing state.

Alas, further confirmation 2008 is not my year.

From Politico:

“Obama recently stopped running ads in Georgia, a state the campaign originally identified as a potential battleground. Some Georgia field staff was moved into North Carolina . . .”

The ads we knew about. Moving staff out of Georgia is news.

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