Fresh Loaf

Renee Glover, who has overseen the transformation of Atlanta’s public housing complexes into mixed-use communities, is on President-elect Barack Obama’s short list for a cabinet position.

Along with New York City’s housing commissioner and Miami’s mayor, among others, Atlanta Housing Authority Executive Director Glover is being considered for secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Glover has won nationwide acclaim — and some criticism — for using HUD’s HOPE VI program to tear down public housing and replace it with communities that reduce crime and improve neighborhoods. The improvements to the lives of the former residents, however, have been questioned.

Here are the contenders for HUD secretary:

• Miami Mayor Manny Diaz.
• Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C.
• Renee Glover, head of Atlanta’s housing authority
• Nicolas Retsinas, director of Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies
• Shaun Donovan, commissioner of New York City’s housing department.

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Six years ago, Saxby Chambliss authorized the most vilified political campaign ad of the past decade, one that questioned the courage of then-Sen Max Cleland — a triple-amputee Vietnam War veteran — by showing pictures of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein.

Well, prepare for deja vu. Last week, a new attack ad debuted on local TV channels, this one aimed at Chambliss’ runoff opponent, Jim Martin, and incoming president Barack Obama. This time, instead of using the magic of video to link the Democrats to bin Laden, they’ve chosen Mohamed Atta, leader of the 9/11 hijackings, to serve as the bogeyman.

On the left is Atta’s familiar FBI mug shot, taken from his Florida driver’s license photo:

… and on the right is a screenshot from about 10 seconds into the new anti-Martin ad; Atta’s mug shot is top center:

(more…)

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Incoming White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is known for his street-smart tactics and now, his sense of humor. He’s also missing a part of the most expressive finger on his right hand thanks to an on-the-job incident at  Arby’s. (Seriously.)

Earlier today, someone posted this image on the Tumblr social network, adding that it was sent by a friend who works on The Hill in D.C.

Emanuel’s offices were closed for the Thanksgiving holiday so we couldn’t confirm if this was his handiwork. If it’s a prank, well played, my Beltway friend!

(Screenshot from Tumblr)

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Barack Obama’s not even president yet, but he’s already honoring his controversial campaign pledge to hold face-to-face meetings with America’s worst enemies. Last week he met with George W. Bush.

Bush gave Obama a tour of some of the White House, including the Oval Office, the Lincoln Bedroom, the Nixon Incinerator, the William Henry Harrison Office Supply Closet, etc.

The pair also discussed policy. Details were scant, but one of the topics likely was the ongoing conflict between the United States and Iran.

Obama’s promise to reinvigorate U.S. diplomacy by actually allowing U.S. diplomats to be diplomatic has many hoping our dangerously hateful relationship with Iran might improve.

Improvement is a reasonable expectation. Short of all-out war, relations with Iran can’t get much worse. But don’t expect Obama and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to be sharing kabobs and O’Doul’s at the White House anytime soon.

The deep animosity between Iran and the U.S. predates the Bush administration. Heck, it predates Obama’s birth.

(Read the rest, or at least click the link to help artificially inflate our pageviews!)

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It’s not a visit from Pres.-elect Barack Obama to help U.S. Senate Democratic nominee Jim Martin, but it’s something. Below, listen to the ad that’ll brainwash every single Georgian over the age of 18 to visit the polls on Dec. 2 and vote for Martin in his runoff against incumbent Republican Saxby Chambliss.

It might now be safe to say the Peach State won’t be getting a visit before the runoff. The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza interviewed several anonymous Democratic operatives who say that a visit to Georgia may just not be worth the political risk.

I know, I know. I too am feeling a little…I don’t know…empty. But we’ll carry on, my fellow Atlantans. Be strong. Take comfort in this photo of a kitten.

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Former presidential candidate Fred Thompson has endorsed U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss in his runoff race against Democratic candidate Jim Martin. Big surprise there, eh?

But there was also this in the e-mail announcement, sent to reporters by Chambliss’ campaign, by Will Andrews of Thompson’s PAC:

The Georgia seat is key to all of these battles and many more. Barack Obama is going to Atlanta to drum up support for his Democrat candidate. The unions and ACORN and every other left-wing group is on the ground working night and day.

Night and day! Eating only Socialist food rations that we’ll all riot over on Jan. 21, 2009. Yo, Will! Let us know when Obama’s coming, please. Everyone here is saying it’s unlikely.

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The Obama for America campaign just won a landslide election, but it isn’t done yet. Now it’s looking to collect information from its many supporters and donors that, I can only assume, will allow our president-elect to achieve world domination and enslave the human race. Or perhaps I’ve been listening too much to Congressman Paul Broun.

Anyway, an e-mail survey is circulating with this preamble:

Your hard work and passion have defined this movement for change.
Now you can shape the next phase of our extraordinary effort by sharing your campaign experience and ideas about the future.
There are a few questions about you, your work with the campaign, and your interactions with this organization. At the end, you will also have an opportunity to share any thoughts you have that aren’t covered by the questions.

In addition to the usual name, address, phone number, etc., the survey asks about political leanings, past voting patterns, level of political involvement, occupation, level of religious involvement, issues of primary interest to the respondent and whether the respondent would be willing to “volunteer in your community as part of an Obama organization?”

(more…)

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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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Seriously, why didn’t I know about this guy before the election? His name appears to be Iman, he’s part of a Mad.TV contest, and he’s got Obama down. I especially like his version of Obama doing De Niro. (”Saturday Night Live’s” Fred Armisen tries, but has always sounded more like Tiger Woods.)

If anyone knows of any others, please let me know.

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The same folks who gave us a video-shopped image of Martin Luther King shilling for a French telecom company are now hoppin’ mad that street vendors across the country are selling T-shirts bearing images of MLK that celebrate President-elect Obama’s historic election – without having paid the appropriate licensing fees to the King estate.

From an AP story:

Isaac Newton Farris Jr., King’s nephew and head of the nonprofit King Center in Atlanta, said the estate is entitled to hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees – maybe even millions.

“Some of this is probably putting food on people’s plates. We’re not trying to stop anybody from legitimately supporting themselves,” he said, “but we cannot allow our brand to be abused.”

Our brand. Think about that.

I guess Farris was called upon to speak because the King offspring are too busy suing each other. This is all very sad.

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The Nov. 4 totals in the race for Georgia’s U.S. Senate seat left Republican incumbent Saxby Chambliss literally a fraction below the necessary 50 percent-plus one in his race against Democratic nominee Jim Martin. As ballots were still being counted — and talk of recounts abounded — both candidates said they weren’t waiting for the last vote to be tallied. The runoff, they said, had begun.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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It was hard to breathe last Tuesday night on the campus of Morehouse College. The election season often felt like someone was pushing our head into and out of water. But then the time came to sit back and watch the tide of electoral votes come in. This community of black men was confident that the right thing would happen. However, no matter how beautiful we saw the potential waves of change, we feared being yanked down by the undertow of history and deep-seated inequality.

Thankfully, the only threat of drowning that we faced that night was the inundation of tears by even the most manly of men — black men who are usually depicted as devoid of emotion.

We have a unique culture on our campus. No matter the individual’s socioeconomic background, we live with a reminder of how far we can fall if we slip on any side of the narrow path. We assume our cool and sometime violent posture to save face in a hostile world. We live embattled from all sides. Hope is not a campaign slogan. Hope has a more significant meaning for us who everyday look at the face of nihilism, sometimes in our peers, sometimes in the mirror. The tension broke when we saw the electoral count tip in Obama’s favor. I have never in my life seen such eruption of pure elation that broke out on the Atlanta University Center campuses. This was not just an election. For us, Obama’s win was a victory for the affirmation of human dignity. And for the first time we took off our “face” and our cool, and some of us cried.

November 4, 2008, 11:26 p.m, at Fredrick Douglass Hall, Morehouse College

(Photo and Text by Wendell Hassan Marsh)

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Everyone’s aware of the marquis problems Obama’s likely to tackle: Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the global financial meltdown, global warming, and the iPhone’s piss-poor battery life and spotty 3G network connection.

But there are a couple others that are just as big, though not as well known. Perhaps Obama can take a look after the puppy is White House-trained.

Read the rest

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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As results came in election night, some conservatives were warning that Barack Obama’s presidency would prove a disaster for America. The morning after, talk-radio hosts and bloggers echoed those concerns.

“To me, it feels like the devastation of 9/11 again. And I feel like I just want to say to everybody, ‘Welcome to the end of America as we know it.’”

— Republican Zoe Walker, interviewed by GPB News at Sen. Saxby Chambliss’ campaign party

“Some of you people really drank the Kool-Aid. This guy is just a shyster who was born in Kenya. I’m not going to partake in this affront to my sensibilities. I refuse. Kumbaya my ass.

— Election-night comment left by “gamefan” on PeachPundit.com

“If you look at Nazi Germany, how many Jews said, ‘Oh, c’mon he won’t do that?’”

— Radio host Glenn Beck, warning listeners about Obama’s agenda

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