Fresh Loaf

I have no idea if the Speaker’s comments were meant to include PP, but as the premier political blog in Georgia what else are we to assume?

— Buzz Brockway at Peach Pundit on Georgia House Speaker Glenn Richardson’s disparaging comments about what he calls “those dadgum blog sites.”

At least Richardson didn’t call the local blogosphere dim.

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I know nothing about these seemingly innocent in-breds, but I know I’m jealous of ‘em, regardless of their genetic issues. I’d love to be able to compete against my cousin uncle brother cousin/uncle/brother in high-flyin’ mud floppin’ competition. Take my aunt home and bang her. Yee haw!!!

— PartMule on Dublin, Ga.’s Redneck Games.

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The Pentagon announced TODAY the formation of a new 500-man elite fighting unit called the United States Redneck Special Forces (USRSF)

— GLEND558 announces a fictional plan to send Georgia rednecks to Iraq. Those dadgum terrorists better look out!

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Does Jim Whitehead realize that if he gets his wish he will have to actually represent the interests of Athens, GA in Congress? You know that something is terribly wrong with the boundaries of a congressional district, when the candidate favored to be elected to it, can be openly disdainful of its interest

-FlackAttack at Tondee’s Tavern on Jim Whitehead’s apparent disdain for Athens, which happens to be inside the congressional district he wants to represent.

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Dudes, the iPhone is my new best friend.

-Clunky Robot got an iPhone. Better yet, Clunky made a very nice desktop that you can download to your iPhone.

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I haven’t pooped in 5 days.

-Mingaling is constipated.

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So far, people have felt safe moving back into the city, but if another kidnapping happens, or if worse, one is successful, those condos will become very inexpensive very quickly and Real Estate Developers will egg on an already eager legislature to punish the city.

-Bloglanta on early Sunday morning’s kidnapping of two men from an East Atlanta street. The two men were held captive in Cabbagetown while their kidnappers used their credit cards.

The victims were found unhurt and were home Sunday night.

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Throughout the debate on immigration, polls have shown that most Americans are not the raging xenophobes leaders on both sides of the aisle feared and many on the right courted and ignited. Most Americans just want an alternative story to “amnesty for dark-skinned lawbreakers who steal our jobs and want to say the Pledge of Allegiance in Spanish.” They want a narrative that has the ring of truth–but comprehensive truth about comprehensive reform.

-Emory University professor of psychology Drew Westen on Huffington Post.

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In reality, the iPhone is yet another symbol of the rape of the American consumer by a plutocratic oligopoly of the big cellular providers.

-Shelbinator doesn’t like the iPhone.

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I would say that 80 to 90 percent of the people here in North Georgia are against any sort of bill to help these people. I am certainly out of the mainstream here. I find no fault in these people, and wonder how my “Christian” neighbors can carry such bitterness in their hearts.

— Aging Hipster on a Washington Post story about how Gainesville and Hall County have dealt with the area’s growing Latino population. The article’s most painful quotation: “And they don’t seem to feel any discomfort when they’re, like, six inches from your face and talking to each other in their language, either.”

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an anonymous editor monday around midnight reported the death of chris benoit’s wife on the the wikipedia more than 14 hours before the bodies were found.

adding to the confusion, the post came from stamford, ct, which is home to the headquarters of benoit’s employer, the wwe.

— James at Metroblogging Atlanta is a little freaked out that a Wikipedia contributor wrote about the death of WWE wrestler Chris Benoit’s wife 14 hours before her body was found by police. I’m freaked out by Wikipedia because I still don’t have an entry.

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It’s always a special pleasure to stumble onto great artists from the past whose reputations have faded from cultural memory, but whose work remains to let us know that they, like us, were moved by sexual beauty.

— It’s Friday. That means Gloria Brame is posting erotic art.

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If these other counties owe Grady some money, then they need to cough it up.

— Andre at Georgia Politics Unfiltered on a proposal by Fulton County Commissioner Robb Pitts to sue Georgia counties that use but don’t pay for Grady Memorial Hospital

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From water to women, immigrants to local economies, fair trade to anti-war, all sorts of people defended all sorts of rights on Atlanta’s streets today. Thousands of people had come together not for one cause, but in recognition that all of these causes are interconnected and worth working for.

— Jessica Lind-Diamond at YES! describes the first day of the U.S. Social Forum.

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Dirty hippies, get a job.

— Erick at Peach Pundit will likely not be attending the U.S. Social Forum.

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What’s a one term Governor to do? With slick hair dye and a picture perfect family, Mitt Romney is the perfect candidate to take the reigns of The Price is Right from legendary host Bob Barker.

-Peach Pundit contributor Bull Moose has created a “Draft Mitt Romney for The Price Is Right” MySpace page. It’d be funnier if it didn’t make so much sense.

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As expected Chambliss and Isakson both vote no.

Flip-flop.

-Flackattack at Tondee’s Tavern on Sens. Chambliss’ and Isakson’s votes against moving the immigration bill forward to be voted upon by the full Senate.

Chambliss and Isakson were for the immigration bill before they were against it.

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I want: a neighborhood in the city where the architecture hasn’t been contaminated by jamming a modern structure in a village of neo-craftsman bungalows, where the trees are large and healthy and huggable, where I can’t hear gunshots or car alarms or the excitement of tiny voices.

-Help Maigh find a place to live.

My first thought is Brookhaven. Maybe the parts of Decatur north of Ponce.

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We did one lap around the park and then headed back home. We did get to see the giant AIDS quilt before we left, though.

-Me at Sallad.net recaps the weekend’s Atlanta Pride Festival. In thrilling detail!

I suspect that the festival-goers who had more fun than Sallad are probably too tired to blog this morning.

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Republicans pulled 70% in a 70% Republican district. Old school politics and old school names still matter. Most of us, yours truly included, tended to focus on issues too large while ignoring the fact voters tend to not care what we think.

-GriftDrift offers his take on the Democrat James Marlow’s third-place finish in last week’s special election to fill the vacant 10th Congressional District seat. The first and second-place finishers, Republicans Jim Whitehead and Paul Broun, respectively, face each other in a runoff July 17.

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Communism is like so rad and all that good stuff.

-ATLMalcontent on Cameron Diaz’s fashion faux-pas in Peru. Diaz visited Machu Picchu carrying a tote emblazoned with a Chinese red star and the famous Mao slogan, “Serve the people.” Tens of thousands have died in Peru due to war between the government and Maoist rebels.

If, like me, you are fascinated by the intersection of Communism and camp, you might be interested in this photo I took in Prague two weeks ago. Note the museum’s location.

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Floating around the Atlanta blogosphere today …

In anticipation of Pride weekend, I Saw It on Ponce sums up the Atlanta Eagle’s appeal (or, depending on your preference, unappeal) with a single revealing photo.

Amy Morton at Georgia Women Vote comments on the effort of some Southern Baptist leaders to get followers to make more babies.

And Brian Bannon at The Self-Abasement Tapes opines on over-bumper-stickered cars.

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I’m addicted to ATLMalcontent. I even read it when I’m on vacation.

It’s always sharp and funny, but for the past couple of weeks, especially so.

To be fair, the rest of the country has put up with considerable shit from the former Confederacy. John Edwards recently declared he has an advantage over Hillary and Obama because he can draw voters from across the U.S. — indeed, the South has essentially decided every election since 1972. We’re responsible for Carter AND Bush. We should be ashamed.

— From a post yesterday titled “Mason vs. Dixon“

And should people who wear leather jockstraps in public expect to be taken seriously . . . We may compare our crusade to the civil rights movement of the 1950 and 60s, but can we honestly say we comport ourselves with the dignity of those who marched on Selma?

— From a post Monday about the politics of the gay Pride celebration

Please, grow up and mind your own business.

— ATLMalcontent’s request of Muslims who angrily object to Salman Rushdie’s knighthood

And finally:

Are you amazed at how fast summer’s going? One good thing — Pride’s almost here. I predict it’s going to be an amazing weekend.

Okay, bitches, gotta go and get my pride on. Have an amazing day!

— From “The Blogosphere Says What,” ATLMalcontent’s ongoing parody of local blogger Duane Moody, whose posts vacillate between righteous indignation and breathless enthusiasm

For those of you who read my cover story about the Atlanta blogosphere, note that Duane is the blogger I referred to in the introduction suffering separation anxiety from his foreskin.

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Paul Broun’s showing was, quite frankly, nothing less of stunning and something that both Democrats and Republicans never considered.

— JMAC at Safe as Houses on yesterday’s special election to fill the vacant Georgia 10th Congressional District seat. Republican Jim Whitehead got 44% of the vote. Once all of the votes are counted, he will face either Republican Paul Broun Jr. or Democrat James Marlow in a July 17 run-off. With 96% of the vote counted late last night, Broun and Marlow had 20.7% and 20.3%, respectively.

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So, as I’m planning my schedule for the NECC, I just realized a huge conflict: NECC pre-conference events are on Pride weekend. How am I to watch the parade and hear the opening keynote?!

— Megan Golding is trying to figure out how she’s going to watch Sunday’s Pride Parade without missing one of the big speeches at the National Educational Computing Conference at the World Congress Center.

Forget speeches! What about the NECC’s six-hour “library crawl” on Sunday?! Complete with brown-bag lunches! Who’d wanna miss that?

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Yesterday at lunch I got Snapple Real Fact #116 and I cringed a little bit:

#116 – The largest fish is the whale shark – It can be over 50 feet long and weigh 2 tons.

— Seth at Metroblogging Atlanta evidently forgot to bring a book to lunch. CL guest blogger Mei Lan wrote about whale sharks yesterday.

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Have a look at the right-hand column of this page. We’ve greatly expanded our list o’ local links.

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Today is election day in the 10th Congressional district of Georgia. Polls are open 7 AM until 7 PM and if you’re scheduled to work during the entirety of that time or if you cannot otherwise make it to vote, State Law requires that you get two hours off from work to go vote.Go Vote.

-I think Bloglanta wants us to vote today.

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Last night I rammed a can of Bud Light up a chicken’s butt . . .

-Paulie at Inside The Perimeter made dinner.

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The only given reason for pulling the suspect over was spotting him with an alcoholic beverage in his hand, not because he was driving a lawn mower down main street.

-GriftDrift, on a story from the Moultrie Observer about a man pulled over by police while driving a lawn mower down North Main Street.

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I’m not quite sure where to begin with regard to Saturday evening at the ‘Roo. It featured three acts I was thrilled to be seeing at the festival, and none of them disappointed.

-Rich at Cable & Tweed went to Bonnaroo and has the pictures, MP3s and YouTube videos to prove it.

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You are a better father than I ever imagined you would be. You are good at so many things, but at being a father, you rock. Watching you with Audrey brings me so much joy. She adores you. I do too. We have the family I have always wanted.

-Angela at My Daily Struggle pays kind tribute to her husband with a list of things she appreciates about him, and some amazing photos.

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According to a Mason – Dixon poll conducted over the weekend, Fred Thompson has decisively won South Carolina’s conservative primary vote. Though he hasn’t formally announced his candidacy, former United States Senator Fred Thompson drew 25%, and America’s mayor polled in second at 21%.

-Seth Millican at Peach Pundit has an expansive definition of the word “decisively.” Thompson’s four-point lead was less than the poll’s margin of error. I guess Thompson’s sonorous voice makes everything he does seem decisive.

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Desperate, I approached the clerk at the front desk and asked him for the phone number in Reagan’s room. Going to a house phone by the elevators, filled with trepidation, I dialed it.

— Freelance writer and blogger Carol Bogart on meeting Ronald Reagan in the late 1970s.

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Anyone who’s interested in hearing an amazing queer folk duo should check out the Coyote Grace concert on June 16th at Sadie and Jezebel’s.

— If you’re interested in amazing queer folk duos, Atlanta Lesbians is the blog for you.

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Boss thinks we have a gas leak so here i am outside. No internet :( hopefully gas company will be here soon and let us back in.

— Dramawench serves up one of my favorite types of blog posts — the blog post explaining why the author isn’t blogging.

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Gay voters shouldn’t trust Hillary, even though they do. Blame the petty queer establishment, which has sold its soul to the senator from New York.

— ATLMalcontent on how Sen. Hillary Clinton tries to spin her husband’s enactment of the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy on gay personnel into something positive for gays and lesbians.

The military has kicked out 58 Arabic-speaking linguists using Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, even though the military is desperately short of Arabic-speakers.

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The city government cannot & should not legislate where stores catering to particular ethnicities can be opened. Doraville’s best bet for attracting many new residents in the numbers that would support these supermarkets is high density, mixed-use development in the area where the GM Plant currently stands.

— Joseph G at Dora-Blog on a petition by some Doraville residents to try to keep a new Asian-food supermarket from being built on Buford Highway. The petition signers would prefer a non-Asian-food grocery store, like Kroger or Publix.

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I LOVE Kathy Griffin, and I was elated to know that her show was coming back, because it is a side-splitter, and definitely the best that reality TV has to offer; she is a brilliant comedian, and her show always has me in stitches. But she is an unusually bright light in the otherwise dark realm of reality tv.

— Duane Moody likes LOVES Kathy Griffin!

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Without going into too much detail (it was a private function after all), there was a rumor floating around the Edwards event last night in Macon that Mark Taylor intends to enter the US Senate race against Saxby Chambliss.

— Mel at Blog for Democracy on a rumor that ex-Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor will have a go at Saxby Chambliss’ job.

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Yep, that is what I got out of the debate last night. More of the same old grumpy rhetoric. No new ideas, just the same ol’ crap.

— sndeak at Tondee’s Tavern on last night’s Republican presidential debate.

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This was my first long look at Romney and I thought he was, as Lewis Grizzard said about Bill Clinton, slicker than a whole bucket of eels.

— Commenter Mike-El on Peach Pundit’s GOP Debate Open Thread. Bloggers and commenters contributed to a running commentary of the debate in the post’s comments section.

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How long do you think it will be before the GOP starts digging through his investigative reporting trying to raise allegations that he was out for partisan motives?

-Erick at Peach Pundit, on ex-WSB-TV reporter Dale Cardwell’s just announced bid for the U.S. Senate.

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The first lies I spot are the time frame and the impact – which others can you identify?

-Maigh at Atlanta Metblogs, commenting on an announcement by the Georgia Department of Transportation claiming reconstruction of the 14th Street bridge in Midtown.

If construction stays on schedule (ha!), there will be no 14th Street bridge in Atlanta from spring 2008 until mid-to-late 2009.

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Even though I hate the beach, I really enjoy the smell and the fruity drinks that tend to come with it. Not to mention the awesome bronzed skin I come back with. It looks super under the ugly flourescent [sic] lights of the office, let me tell you…

-LB at City Savvy Girl is anticipating summer.

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While preparing for and writing my interview with Jack Pendarvis last week, I enjoyed finding the Atlanta author and humorist’s work online. On Blogspot, you can find The Place Where Jack Pendarvis Has a “Blog,” which manages to be at once a personal blog and a spoof of the whole notion of blogging.

Also, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency features “Jim Jarmusch’s Notes for a Ghostbusters Sequel” (which tweaks the film Broken Flowers); The Believer presents “I Review Books Based on One Random Sentence“; and The Mississippi Review features the entirety of “The Train Going Back,” a short-short story in Pendarvis’ new collection Your Body Is Changing.

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Inspired by Andy’s cover story from last week, ”Bright lights in the blogosphere” (which has already received 52 comments), the Question of the Week wants to know, Do you have a favorite Atlanta blog or blogger? Personal blogs are fine – just be sure to provide the URL.

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NPR’s Robert Smith did a story today about (surprise, surprise) Hillary Clinton’s YouTube video, and decided to focus on my response as an example of the vulnerability candidates embrace in the vlogosphere (who, moi???)

— Shelby at Shelbinator.com had a funny cameo in a Clinton campaign video posted on YouTube.

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I remember the first time I read a personal blog. I found it so comforting to read about someone who had similar life experiences as me, who found the same things funny as I did, who had the balls to write exactly what he or she felt and not give a damn.

— Lori at Mingaling.net responds to this week’s CL cover story, in which I expressed disdain for some personal blogs.

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I went to The Oakhurst Laundry and Cleaners @ 6:45pm and was summarily banned from “getting stuff cleaned here anymore.”

— Clunky at ClunkyRobot.com writes about being banned from a dry cleaner. It’s an odd story.

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This week’s CL cover story profiles five of our favorite local bloggers.

For the exceedingly impatient among you, those bloggers are Erick Erickson, Rich Vining, Dr. Gloria Brame, Doug Monroe and Ponce De Leon.

Note to those who grab the print edition: The bald man in the upper-left corner of the cover page is me. It’s my first-ever appearance on a CL cover without a rat mask. My parents will be proud.

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A deal for Dave Matthews: You retire, I won’t drive a car.

– ATLMalcontent on Dave Matthews’ request that fans use public transportation to get to his Sept. 9 concert in Piedmont Park.

A question: When people say Dave Matthews is one of the highest-grossing touring musicians in the country, are they talking about this?

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I am truly amazed by the number of people who know me and know RedState. That was truly an awesome experience.

– Erick Erickson at Confessions of a Political Junkie on his dinner last night with George Will, Mary Matalin and Robert Novak, among others. Erickson is the senior editor of RedState.com and the HBIC at Peach Pundit.

Erickson is also one of the five bloggers profiled in this week’s CL cover story (online later today, on newsstands tomorrow).

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I had my first real look at the immigration legislation today. There are several sections that deal specifically with the REAL ID, oh man…this thing is bad news.

– Jason Pye, on President Bush’s immigration-themed visit to Georgia yesterday.

Pye doesn’t like Bush. He titled the post “The Devil Went Down To Georgia.”

Bush shouldn’t feel too sad, however. Yesterday Pye compared Sen. Hillary Clinton to Hitler and Khrushchev.

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“When friends call from Ohio and Virginia I am forced to acknowledge that I live in the same county as the ‘Anti-Harry Potter Lady’.”

- Sndeak at Tondee’s Tavern is embarrassed to live near Laura Mallory, the Gwinnett mother crusading to ban Harry Potter books from county public school libraries. Mallory claims the books encourage witchcraft and an interest in the occult. She will present her case today at Gwinnett Superior Court.

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Ahh.. Brazil. Birthplace of three of the hottest VS models and now home to common sense. The government wants to reduce unwanted pregnancies and abortions, so they’re subsidizing birth control.

-Audacity likes Brazil for two reasons. Or, depending on how you count them, four reasons.

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If you live in Oklahoma, look out for flying baseballs.

-Charles Davidson at Rowland’s Office on pitcher Mark Redman’s first start today with the minor league Oklahoma RedHawks. Redman was dumped from the Braves after going 0-4 with an ERA of 11.63.

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Ben Hill Package Store in southwest Atlanta was selling liquor and cups of ice in a drive-thru, so customers could immediately pour themselves a stiff one.

– Doug Monroe at Peachtree Screed on Keith Olbermann’s story last night on the Ben Harbin Hill liquor store.

“It’s the American way,” says a store employee about drinking and driving.

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Check this shit out, our little Shelbinator made it into Hillary Clinton’s latest video. Look for him around the 58 or 59 second mark:

– Rusty at Radical Georgia Moderate points viewers to a Hillary Clinton campaign video featuring Atlanta blogger Shelby Highsmith.

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Well, since tomorrow will be the 30th anniversary of the original Star Wars film (A New Hope) hitting theatres, here are some links that’ll make you feel old, nostalgic or sick, depending on your point of view.

– Seth at Mostly Muppet Dot Com celebrates the 30th anniversary of Star Wars.

My parents took me to see it 30 years ago. They say I fell asleep. I was 3.

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Saxby gets out there and says, basically, “I love this bill. It does for me things viagra can’t do. If I could carry it’s child, I would. . . . . . . .but . . . . . . I’ve never committed to vote for this bill.”

– Erick Erickson at Peach Pundit on Sen. Saxby Chambliss’ passionate-yet-noncommittal support for the proposed immigration-reform bill.

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From what I hear, the Ford F-150 is sturdier as the Nissan Titan gives more on the impact of the knuckle.

– JMac at Safe as Houses, on a report that an aide to congressional candidate Bill Greene punched and dented a pickup driven by the supporter of one of Greene’s opponents, Jim Whitehead.

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I made what was surprisingly not a tough decision last night — I opted to skip the Lost season finale in favor of seeing Laura Veirs at The EARL.

– Rich at Cable & Tweed recorded the Laura Veirs show last night. As of this morning, three are available for download on his website.

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