Fresh Loaf

How’s that for a headline, eh?

Tomorrow night at the Capitol, thousands of people will gather as part of the Atlanta Tea Party, one of more than 500 scheduled on Tax Day. There, outside one of the most beautiful and useless buildings in the state, the crowd will complain about something that’s been going on for years — gross misuse of taxpayer dollars and business-as-usual politics. Emceeing this affair will be Sean Hannity, Fox News’ angriest white man.

Turns out Hannity and some of the various dignitaries who’ve signed on for the event might not get the warmest of welcomes. A tipster tells us that some members of the state Libertarian Party — have they gone rogue?!? — have printed more than 600 signs that scold the talk show host and politicians for turning their heads during Bush-era bank bailouts and excessive spending. (Even if you disagree with their policies, Libertarians have an incredible sense of humor. The Allen Buckley radio ads during the U.S. Senate race gave that grueling contest a much-needed jolt of excitement.)

(UPDATE: Just spoke with Daniel Adams, chairman of the Libertarian Party of Georgia. He wanted to stress that these signs were made by individual party members and not endorsed or approved by the party. Adams says the state party is co-sponsoring Atlanta’s April 15 protest to show support for the grassroots movement that’s organized these events. He says the website listed on the signs is a mirrored site belonging to the national party, not that of the state’s.)

The aforementioned tipster was kind enough to pass along PDFs of the signs, which I’ve posted after the jump. You can download them all here. Print ‘em out and join the crowd! It’ll be fun!
(more…)

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Today marks the sixth anniversary of the Iraq war. Since it began on March 19, 2003 the war has cost the United States more than $600 billion dollars, with an estimated $440 to $865 billion expected to be spent in the next 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

President Barack Obama calls for 127,000 troops to remain in Iraq until the end of this year, and for 50,000 troops to remain at least until the end of 2011.

More than 4,250 American troops have died since the start of the war, and another 36,000 were wounded. For Iraqis, the toll has been much higher, with an estimate of more than 91,000 Iraqi civilians killed. What’s more, water in Baghdad is still mostly undrinkable.

Today in Atlanta there are several events to mark the anniversary. At 3 p.m., there will be a forum at Georgia State University in room 24 of GSU’s Aderhold Learning Center at 60 Luckie Street. Speakers include Iraqi native Raed Jarrar, a war expert, and Jason Hurd, the southeast regional director of Iraq Veterans Against the War.  At 5 p.m., there will be a march led by veterans. The march will leave Woodruff Park at 5 p.m. and end at the CNN Center.  The day will end with a free concert at 8 p.m. at Metropolitan Warehouses, 675 Metropolitan Parkway (fishmarket D-125) with music by Futureshock, the Black Pockets, Contraverse and the Wild.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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Gov. Sonny Perdue on President Barack Obama’s swearing-in ceremony:

“Today’s inauguration of President Obama marks yet another peaceful transition of power in our nation’s great history. Mary and I were honored to attend today’s ceremony and our prayers are with President and Mrs. Obama as they take on this awesome responsibility. Georgia looks forward to continuing to work closely with the incoming administration as we address our softening economy and the impact it is having on our citizens. I also want to thank President Bush for his service to our country and for his support and friendship during his time in the White House.”

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With just a few pages remaining on our “countdown to a president who can actually pronounce the word ‘nuclear’ and who doesn’t look or act like he sprouted from the egg of a dim-witted chimpanzee fertilized by the irradiated sperm of Roy Rogers” page-a-day calendars, George W. Bush has already given up even pretending he’s president.

Instead, Dubya is in ex-president mode, focusing his energy on legacy-management.

Roughly half the White House home page is now occupied by links to documents that attempt to spin a positive, alternate history of the Bush years.

The most obnoxious is the 40-pager titled, “100 Things You May Not Know About The Bush Presidency.”

In the “every day is opposite day” dream-world from which the document emanates, Bush actually boasts about his economic leadership.

“[S]ix years of uninterrupted economic growth and 52 consecutive months of job growth,” says one bullet point. Conveniently missing are the bits about how he steered the economy into its deepest hole since the Great Depression.

Even more asinine is this bullet-point boast, appearing under the header “Kept America Safe”: “For more than seven years after September 11, 2001, prevented another attack on our homeland.”

Excuse me? Um, George, you were actually president on 9/11. It was the deadliest ever foreign attack on U.S. soil, and unless Wikipedia is lying to me again, the deadliest violent event in the U.S. since the Civil War’s Battle of Antietam.

“We haven’t had an attack while I was President except for that huge one that happened while I was President,” isn’t much of a boast.

It’s a bit like your wife standing up at your 10th wedding anniversary dinner and toasting you with “Honey, I just want you to know I haven’t been unfaithful to you since that weekend seven years ago when I snuck off to Vegas to star in Gangbang Party 14: Under the Milfy Way. Other than that, honey, totally faithful.” (more…)

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One thing is clear: After the Bush clan is run out of D.C., none of them will be finding careers in Hollywood.

Here’s the excruciating Christmas video that someone in the White House thought would be a good idea to broadcast on CNN.

Are these people on crack? Of course, if they are, it would explain a lot.

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Polling organization Rasmussen Reports says:

The majority of voters in Georgia (53%) say Republican Governor Sonny Perdue is not doing enough to help them through the economic recession, though he still earns fairly positive reviews.

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the state found that one in four voters (25%) say the governor is doing enough for Georgians, while another 22% remain undecided.

…

Still, more than half of voters (57%) approve of the way Perdue is handling his job as governor, while 39% disapprove.

The menz like duh govnuh. The ladies say “meh.” Also:

The early frontrunners among Republicans for the 2010 governor race in Georgia are Casey Cagle and John Oxendine. Cagle is currently serving as lieutenant governor, and Oxendine is the state insurance commissioner. Both men are favored by 14% of Republicans.

Among Democrats, former Governor Roy Barnes leads the pack of 2010 contenders with 28% support. Twenty-two percent (22%) of Democrats would consider voting for Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin for governor.

Check out the full rundown of responses. Among them: Barack Obama will do a better job as president than George W. Bush and native son Jimmy Carter.

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President George W. Bush yesterday issued 14 pardons and commuted two prison sentences in what surely will be one of the lame duck president’s most monumental acts in the last eight years. (Yes, I know, every president pardons ne’er-do-wells and scoundrels. Clinton had Marc Rich, Carter had Attila the Hun. Obama will probably pardon Predator.)

As Ken Layne at Wonkette accurately pointed out, a lot of the crimes Bush pardoned are run-of-the-mill — drugs, importing protected wildlife, and killing the nation’s majestic feathered symbol.

But with everything involving crime and silliness, there’s a Georgia angle. According to the Associated Press, among the folks Bush pardoned yesterday was in the most lotto-happy town in Jawjuh:

Obie Gene Helton of Rossville, Ga., whose offense was unauthorized acquisition of food stamps.

Yep. Food stamps. Is this “compassionate conservatism?”

The Chattanoogan:

Obie Gene Helton was sentenced April 1, 1983, to two years probation for unauthorized acquisition of food stamps. He was fined $500 and ordered to pay $875 in restitution, according to information provided by the Justice Department.

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If you just can’t wait for this Friday’s release of Oliver Stone’s W., then you should be in France, where a Gallic mockumentary titled Being W. was released last week. The subtitle of the film is “Dans la peau de George W. Bush,” which roughly translates as “In the shoes of George W. Bush.” If my high school French serves me, the film’s website describes it as “An unauthorized autobiography of the most controversial American president.”

The premise of the movie is that Bush feels he’s done such a bang-up job during the last eight years that he’s decided he’ll run for another term. Actual clips of the president’s all-too-real verbal gaffes and embarrassing behavior are interwoven with depressing footage from Iraq and around the world as a Bush impersonator provides faux-insight into W.’s thoughts. You can watch a trailer here.

And the tone of the film? Perhaps the poster will give you a clue.

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Gov. Sonny Perdue has asked Pres. Bush to release crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. (Click here to view the letter to the president.)

“As President Bush and Congress work on a plan to rescue our financial markets, I urge them to also focus on our fuel shortage in the Southeast,” Perdue said in a release. “As refinery capacity is returning to pre-hurricane levels, I believe a surge in crude from the Reserve would bridge the gap until full production resumes and lessen the impact of shortages on the daily lives of our citizens.”

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, 57.4 percent of crude oil production in the Gulf of Mexico is out, a slight improvement from Friday. Three refineries re-opened over the weekend; two refineries remain completely shut down. Oil is on the way, they say.

Keep us posted, governor. In the meantime, Georgians will continue to keep each other informed via Twitter.

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We’ve been having server problems at the massive Creative Loafing MSM complex. Angry bloggers cut our thingamajig cable and … goodbye to the Internets. Or else it was construction workers. Or terrorists.

But the hamsters are carrying our posts through the electronic tubes from remote locations. The usual errant missives should be arriving fast and furious throughout the day — now that I have my baton out and am flogging the writers.

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