Fresh Loaf

It’s been posted elsewhere, but deserves a mention here.

Democrat gubernatorial candidate David Poythress released a video yesterday that’s sure to squelch the macho man talk about Georgia seceding from the Union (can’t believe I just typed those words). Poythress, who adds that he’s the only announced gubernatorial candidate to have served in the armed forces, whacked several GOP candidates for entertaining the notion of bringing the Peach State back to the Dark Ages.

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In the closing days of the most recent legislative session, the Georgia Senate overwhelmingly passed SR 632, one of those states’ rights resolutions that seem to be all the rage these days. Most of the local media ignored the legislation, mainly because there were more important things to cover. Things that matter.

The New Yorker’s Hendrik Hertzberg caught wind of SR 632 and has opined on his blog:

My most recent Comment was a series of small jokes riffing on a big joke, namely a moronic suggestion by the governor of Texas that his state might secede from the Union on account of the tyranny of slightly higher marginal tax rates for the rich. It was a thin reed to build a whole piece on, but it was all I had.

I should have looked harder. I’m usually a careful reader of Talking Points Memo, but I had somehow missed Brian Beutler’s April 16th post, in which he brings the startling intelligence that the Georgia state senate, by a 43-1 vote, has passed a resolution that mixes three parts inanity and one part prospective treason into a Kompletely Krazy Kocktail of militia-minded moonshine and wacko white lightning—a resolution that not only endorses defiance of federal law but also threatens anarchy and revolution.

Worth checking out.

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Meet Neal Horsley. The longshot candidate for Georgia governor for the Creator’s Rights Party (warning: graphic images) is everything this state needs.

He’s techno-savvy:

Neal Horsley made national headlines when he posted the names, phone numbers and addresses of abortion doctors online. His “Nuremberg Files” website also crossed off the names of doctors as they were killed.

He works well with all God’s creations, evident in this article’s headline:

And he’s a family man! Horsley, the father of a U.S. Army sergeant, basically says in an interview with the Examiner’s Dylan Otto Krider that he’d kill his son if the young man tried to stop Georgia from seceding. Krider writes that Horsley thinks the best way pro-life advocates can overturn Roe v. Wade is to “take over a state, then hole up and wait for the United States army to come for a kind of Alamo last stand.”

Well, at least he’s candid. Former CL senior editor Steve Fennessy profiled Horsley in 2004. Read Krider’s interviews with Horsley here and here. If you’re not eating lunch, it’s a good time to learn about the perils of mule sex. And it’s exactly the kind of weird-ass journalism for which Fridays were made.

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When Texas Republican Gov. Rick Perry earlier this month insinuated Texas might attempt to secede from the United States, it was the most extreme expression so far of the Republican Party’s juvenile sore loserdom. They’ve been so thoroughly rejected by voters in two straight elections, the GOP is basically saying “Nevermind, we quit.”

Honestly, my first thought upon seeing the words “Texas” and “secede” in a headline this month was “good riddance.”

I don’t want the U.S. to break up, but it makes me smile to imagine a new USA, liberated from the millions of staunch Republicans who think the solutions to all society’s ills can be found in Leviticus.

The New Yorker’s Hendrik Hertzberg had a similar thought, only he’s smarter and a superior writer.

In his latest column, he imagines the win-win resulting from Texas and the rest of the Republican south splitting from the rest of the U.S.

The leftover United States, he says, would ”briskly enact sensible gun control, universal health insurance, and ample support for the arts, the humanities, and the sciences.”

And the new Confederacy?

“[It] could get on with the business of protecting the sanctity of marriage, mandating organized prayer sessions and the teaching of creationism in schools, and giving the theory that eliminating taxes increases government revenues a fair test. Although Texas and the other likely [secessionist] states already conduct some eighty-six per cent of executions, their death rows remain clogged with thousands of prisoners kept alive by meddling judges. These would be rapidly cleared out, providing more prison space for abortion providers.”

Next time a Republican “leader” hints at secession, don’t mock him. Encourage him.

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Matching House and Senate bills to revivify the long-gone Milton County at the expense of Fulton never made it to the floor in the just-completed General Assembly despite having some heavyweight sponsors. But that doesn’t mean the issue is dead. In fact, if a recent lunch gathering of North Fulton mayors is any indication, the movement may only be gaining steam.

For its annual luncheon Tuesday, the Fulton County Taxpayers Foundation invited elected officials to opine on the unwieldy topic: ”How Fulton County Could Improve Its Governance To Prevent Any Secession.” But no one really took up that challenge — instead, the consensus seemed to be that it’s too late to preserve Fulton County in its present form.

Although Roswell Mayor Jere Wood has been in office long enough to have worked with a succession of county commission chairmen from North Fulton, he said the best that be hoped for is a clean break, with Milton pulling out of Fulton.

“The residents of North Fulton believe it’s time for the relationship to be ended in divorce,” Wood said.

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On Friday, the state legislature let die a bill that would have allowed MARTA to spend money from its $65 million capital improvement fund to help plug its $20 million operating shortfall.

Because of the city-phobic legislature’s malicious inaction, MARTA will be forced to cut vital services. The transit system’s board is scheduled to meet today to discuss service cuts. Among the options being considered: shutting down MARTA on Fridays.

I’m in a spiteful mood today and would love it if MARTA targets its service cuts in ways that maximize their impact on voters and businesses who support the Redneckocrats who dominate the statehouse.

For example, Home Depot founder and sashimi collector Bernie Marcus backs the state Republican Party. Maybe MARTA should cease operating near Home Depot stores. Maybe MARTA could also run shuttle buses to Lowes. I’d also like it if APD resources assigned to the area around the Georgia Aquarium were reassigned to the West End or Sylvan Hills.

And I definitely want MARTA to shut all north side operations during sporting events and country music concerts. Let it serve as a reminder to north-side suburban voters that their support of city-hatin’ Republicans has consequences.

My examples may not be serious, but my overall point is very serious. If the Republican-dominated state legislature continues trying to destroy the city, the city should fight back.

Or secede.

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Last Monday, state Rep. Jan Jones, R-Alpharetta, fired the first shot in the battle between North Fulton residents and the Fulton County Commission. The aim of these highly educated, high-income, and mostly Republican residents: Split from the terrible fiend named Fulton and revive Milton County, which fell on hard times after a boll weevil infestation and the Great Depression. In 1932, it merged with Fulton County.

Jones filed a bill that would allow former counties to “re-create” themselves. There’s no dancing around the fact that it’s meant for Roswell, Alpharetta, Mountain Park and the newly created cities of Johns Creek and Milton to revive Milton County. The House Communications office even announced it as such.

It would also mean Fulton County loses one of its wealthiest areas.

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With a belly full of grouper and anger, a Buckhead resident stood before his neighbors at 103 West in the affluent north Atlanta community and unleashed his frustration.

“When is someone going to have them indicted and taken to trial?!?” he barked, eliciting head nods from fellow disgruntled taxpayers picking at their three-course lunches.

The “them” he refers to is the Atlanta municipal government — namely, the public school system, mayor, city council and bean counters who helped dig the $140 million hole in which the city finds itself. The angry man’s audience consists of more than 200  Buckhead residents, a well-to-do group of citizens in the city’s most well-to-do community.

The occasion? The Fulton County Taxpayers Foundation’s luncheon to discuss the controversial — and extremely complex — notion of Buckhead severing ties with Atlanta, a city full of confusion that Glenn Delk, an attorney and 20-year resident of the community, said is subsidized by he and his neighbors’ largesse.

Delk, whose study about Buckhead’s possible cityhood has kickstarted a serious look into the matter, informed the audience right away that he neither intended to run for political office nor owned commercial property in Buckhead. He appears to simply be a person who doesn’t like paying high taxes for what he considers to be subpar services. Plus, he doesn’t trust the money management skills of City Hall. To him, and to many in this room, the time has come to break free.

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UPDATE: The date of the sold-out event has been corrected in the post.

On Thursday, the Fulton County Taxpayers Foundation will attempt to turn a longtime cocktail party topic into a campaign to sever Buckhead from the city.

The foundation will gather businesspeople, politicians and activists at the posh 103 West restaurant to determine whether they should create a formal coalition, begin raising money and hire a lobbyist.

Both inspired by the recent incorporations of Sandy Springs and John’s Creek and frustrated by Atlanta’s estimated $140 million budget shortfall, secession advocates say the city unfairly leeches off the largesse its wealthiest district. Glenn Delk, an attorney who conducted a study that’s emboldened the movement, claims the move would reduce Buckhead residents’ tax bills by 50 percent.

Secession is an ambitious endeavor to say the least. It not only would be difficult to maneuver through the state Legislature, but it would create a huge hole in Atlanta’s pocketbook. According to Delk’s calculations, Buckhead generates 45.9 percent of the city’s property and sales tax revenues.

If they do push forward with the campaign, the activists are likely to face plenty of opposition from the Buckhead establishment, as well as City Hall. Scotty Greene, executive director of the Buckhead Community Improvement District, says residents would be better served by working with the city to right wrongs.

(Photo by Matthew Miller)

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The Republican Party line since Monday has been that all criticism of Gov. Sarah Palin is sexism. Apparently, someone forgot to send the “cry sexism” memo to McCain campaign co-chair and former eBay CEO Meg Whitman.

Here’s Whitman on Fox this afternoon, telling Chris Wallace that media prying into Palin’s past is not just fair, but also the “right thing to do.”

Who knows? Maybe Whitman did get the memo but chose to ignore it because, as an intelligent, accomplished person, she might very well be insulted by the McCain campaign’s crocodile tears about sexism.

I can’t wait to hear the revelers at Peach Pundit’s high-tech Palin pity party demean Whitman as a sexist tool of the liberal media.

(Speaking of talking points, thank you to Talking Points Memo for finding the clip)

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Even though I don’t share its Republican political leanings, I appreciate Peach Pundit because its not only informative, but because it has several contributors who aren’t afraid to call B.S. on fellow Republicans.

Until recently, anyway.

Video surfaced yesterday of Sen. John McCain’s running mate Gov. Sarah Palin telling the secessionist Alaskan Independence Party to “keep up the good work.”

Keep up what good work? The work of breaking up the United States of America?

If a video surfaced of a Democrat telling secessionists to “keep up the good work,” Peach Pundit contributors would give themselves carpal tunnel syndrome demanding the Democrat leave the ticket. If video surfaced of Sen. Barack Obama telling members of the Weather Underground to “keep up the good work,” they’d be calling for his head.

There is literally nothing less patriotic than encouraging people to break apart the country.

But instead of expressing this at Gov. Sarah Palin, my friends at Peach Pundit are doubling-down on her candidacy.

In a post titled “The ‘high-tech lynching’ of Sarah Palin.“, the normally non-hyperbolic Peach Punditeer Buzz Brockway absurdly claims Palin is the victim of a smear campaign

In reality, she’s the victim of a “maverick” who added her to the national ticket without considering the consequences.

How can you root for a campaign whose slogan is “Country First” and still support the selection of a novice governor who tells secessionists to “keep up the good work?”

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When Sen. John McCain tapped Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate on Friday, several contributors to the local conservative blog Peach Pundit shared a group orgasm.

“I heart John McCain.” “Brilliant.” “Absolutely BRILLIANT!” “outstanding choice”

And my personal favorite: “John McCain has saved the GOP today.”

As it turns-out, the Palin pick is quickly turning into a disaster for the Republican Party.

In addition to some personal issues about which I don’t especially care (yet), it turns out:

a) Palin misled the public about her involvement in the so-called Troopergate scandal.

b) Palin was for the infamous Bridge To Nowhere pork project before she was against it.

c) Palin and herhusband belonged to a secessionist political group.

What do Peach Pundit’s bloggers have to say about this?

As of 11:25 this morning, almost nothing.

Maybe they’re just stunned, as am I, that McCain would pick a one-time secessionist for the number-two spot in a campaign whose slogan is “Country First.”

I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t be so quiet if Obama or Biden were the pork-loving, lying, secessionists in question.

UPDATE & CORRECTION: On Monday, the chairperson of the secessionist Alaskan Independence Party claimed Sarah Palin was a member during the 1990s. On Tuesday, she said she was mistaken. She was registered Republican during this period.

She did, however, send the secessionists a videotaped message in 2006 telling them “keep up the good work.” I’d like to know what she meant by that.

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CL Columnist John Sugg raised the question with some local thinkers and officials last year. In Long Island, neighbor of New York City and childhood home of a dysfunctional starlet, a group of academics are conducting a six-month study to see if it should become the 51st state.

Looking to whack Albany with a political two-by-four, Suffolk Comptroller Joseph Sawicki and Dowling College agreed to launch a new feasibility study on the economics of Long Island seceding to become the 51st state.

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Both Sawicki and Cantor acknowledged such a split may be tough to sell politically to the rest of the state, but it is important to raise the issue to underline how much the region contributes to state operations and how much less it gets back — a gap of $2.9 billion.

“It’s time for us to begin to think outside the box. In our case, it’s that sandbox in Albany that we must look beyond,” said Sawicki, adding later, “If we were getting our fair share of education aid from the state, we wouldn’t be here talking about this.”

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