This week, we’re doing a countdown to last week’s most widely read post. So … let’s start with No. 5, shall we? Fun!
5. Zell Miller: Obama should be restrained with ‘Gorilla Glue’ (Hey Zell, I think there’s a booth with your name on it at a certain bar referenced in post No. 1.)
President Barack Obama has named U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Sonia Sotomayor as his nomination to replace retiring Justice David Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court.
From the New York Times:
Judge Sotomayor, 54, who has served for more than a decade on the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals based in New York City, would become the nation’s 111th justice, replacing David H. Souter, who is retiring after 19 years on the bench. Although Justice Souter was appointed by the first President George Bush, he became a mainstay of the liberal faction on the court and so his replacement by Judge Sotomayor likely would not shift the overall balance of power.
OK, I was at a lunch meeting, so I’m late on this, but holy shit! Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania announced around noon that he’ll switch parties, running as a Democrat next year. That would give the Democrats a filibuster-proof majority of 60 in the U.S. Senate. That’s not to say, of course, that Specter can be counted on to always vote with his party — he’s always been more of a free radical in that regard — but it would give Pres. Obama a helluva weapon for pushing through his agenda.
“I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans,” Mr. Specter said, acknowledging that his decision was certain to disappoint colleagues and supporters.
Assuming Al Franken is finally confirmed as the winner in Minnesota, the Democrats would possess 60 seats for the first time since the Carter era. For all Karl Rove’s talk of a “permanent Republican majority,” the Bush-led GOP never managed to reach that magic number. In your face, Karl!
For those who’d prefer an alt-weekly version of the story, check out the Jackson Free Press story, Arlen Specter To Join the Wu-Tang Clan.
I’ll be the first to admit to being less than familiar with former Atlanta resident Dr. Joseph Lowery prior to yesterday’s stirring Inaugural benediction. By the time I started laughing through the tears he’d wrenched out of my otherwise cynical heart, though, I figured I should find out more.
A Civil Rights Movement veteran of the highest order, Dr. Lowery led the Selma to Montgomery march in 1965 on the request of Martin Luther King Jr., helped lead the Montgomery Bus Boycott after Rosa Parks’ arrest, and continued his involvement into the Free South Africa movement. He was among the first arrested in anti-apartheid demonstrations at the South African Embassy. Oh, and unlike that other Inaugural speaker Rick Warren, his notion of civil rights actually includes the LGBT community.
While Dr. Lowery’s closing remarks brought a lighthearted note to an otherwise somber ceremony, they also riff on a great song — Big Bill Broonzy’s country-blues classic “Black, Brown, and White.” Though Fox News is doing their best to stir up a controversy, I’m willing to bet they didn’t even get the reference.
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
NOT FUNNY Aides recently told Obama about our unicorn cover
Tomorrow, CL staffers will hunker down in front of TVs and laptops to witness and participate in a historic moment in our nation’s history — Rick Warren leading a large crowd of people in prayer. No wait, I mean, we’ll be liveblogging the inauguration of Barack Obama, the nation’s first African-American president!
If you’re stuck at work or sitting at home and looking for a place to comment, make snide remarks, celebrate, or even commiserate, this is it. We go live at 10:45 a.m. and plan to type until we’re so full of hope and change we’re inspired to become decent, law-abiding citizens. We’ll have polls, funny photos of large men on mopeds, and maybe even some special guests. (Vernon Jones, call us back!)
It’s been a long eight years. And the next four — hopefully eight? — will be tough. But regardless of your politics, it’ll be a ceremony you won’t want to say you missed.
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
President-elect Barack Obama today is traveling by train from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C. for Tuesday’s inauguration. And “Georgia 300,” the train car carrying Obama and his family, has Georgia roots.
From the Associated Press:
The car was first built by Pullman Standard for the Southern Railway, when the car was known as the General Polk and used by railroad officials.
Georgia Railroad later acquired it in 1954, and [John Heard, the car's current owner], who is president of First Coach Rail Inc., bought it in 1986. It was a prized purchase for a man who recalls seeing the car as a boy in Atlanta.
Heard has made a series of electrical and plumbing upgrades to the car over the years.
“It had deteriorated and I completely rebuilt it,” said Heard, of Fernandina Beach, Fla.
Here are some interior shots of the train car.
(Photo by Tony Bucca used with permission)
>> Riots rage on in Athens and angry teenagers demanding justice have been joined by angry air traffic controllers demanding pay raises. Hey, we’re all in this together!
>> CARTASTROPHE: GM, Chrysler and Ford factories shut down as the Big 3 pray for last minute saving from the impending autopocalypse.
>> DAMNIT!: Gas prices have apparently bottomed out and are headed up again. Probably also bad news for the Big 3.
>> Since one of the most important parts of a recession/depression is the music detailing how depressed everyone is, the New Orleans Jazz Fest lineup has been announced.
>> LEGALIZE IT: Another necessity of a recession/depression is mind-altering substances. The citizens have spoken and they want their weed.
>> SURF’S UP SUPERHERO: Obama continues his plans to attempt to save the world. But only after Jan. 20. Before that, it’s Aloha Hawaii baby.
>>Talk of all the tech items we could barely afford in 2008 and probably will have to try to sell in 2009. But if you were lucky enough to buy an iPhone or Blackberry Storm, now you can text all your friends news of your layoff super fast!
(Photo courtesy Wikimedia)
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:
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
Creative Loafing, Oct. 15
I was so pleased with Creative Loafing’s Obama-rides-a-unicorn cover (left), which graced our election issue.
Something about a presidential candidate going bareback on a mythical creature — look, Ma, no hands! — that gives you just a bit of faith in the guy.
I mean, if he can lasso a unicorn he should be able to rein in Wall Street, find peace in the Middle East, make the transition to clean energy, eliminate the budget deficit and win the respect of cowboys everywhere.
Then, this week, Young Thomas Wheatley — who was tipped off by Christa at Pecanne Log — passed along the deflating news that we weren’t alone in a breakout of obamaunicornitas.
It seems LA CityBeat took the concept one step further by dismounting the Messiah off his high horse, so that he could frolic with the animals (left). I gotta admit that I kinda like it.
At the same time, if unicornitas has now gone bi-coastal, I really am concerned that expectations for an Obama presidency have gotten too high.
In a sign that the presidential race has tightened and the contest is narrowing to just a few battleground states, the New York Times reports today that the Obama campaign has pulled ads in Georgia.
A bar-owner in Marietta is selling t-shirts depicting Sen. Barack Obama as a banana-chomping chimp.
From AJC.com:
Marietta tavern owner Mike Norman says the T-shirts he’s peddling, featuring cartoon chimp Curious George peeling a banana, with “Obama in ‘08″ scrolled underneath, are “cute.” But to a coalition of critics, the shirts are an insulting exploitation of racial stereotypes from generations past.
But don’t call Mike Norman a racist!
Norman said those offended are “hunting for a reason to be mad” and insisted he is “not a racist.”
