Fresh Loaf

Back in May, I used the word “ghetto” in a headline to describe an impoverished,  crime-ridden stretch of road in central Atlanta. As a result, I learned the hard way that the word carries so much baggage that readers are turned off merely by seeing it in print, no matter how technically accurate its usage seems to be.

But, as the AJC’s Jim Galloway points out, when a white Georgia Congressman uses the word “ghetto” in a casually dismissive reference to folks who are poor, elderly and presumably black during a campaign stop before an overwhelmingly white audience — well, you’ve got the makings of a Macaca moment.

Congressman Nathan Deal

Just as in the case of now-ex-Virginia Sen. George Allen, who was videotaped making a casually dismissive taunt aimed at the Southeast Asian man holding the video camera, Rep. Nathan Deal was recorded by his opposition telling a Cherokee County crowd about his approach toward requiring proof of citizenship for federal or state health care benefits:

“We got all the complaints of the ghetto grandmothers who didn’t have birth certificates and all that. We wrote some very liberal language as to how you can verify it. My mother was born in 1906 and she didn’t have a birth certificate. They didn’t give birth certificates back then. But we got her one, because you can do it under the proper procedures of your state.”

A video of Deal’s bone-headed statement has been posted to YouTube by the campaign of Secretary of State Karen Handel, who’s running against Deal for the GOP nomination for governor. On Galloway’s blog, the clip has attracted nearly 300 comments, many from readers who characterize Deal’s choice of words as bigoted.

(more…)

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Forgive the Yogi Berra-ness of the following statement, but Libertarian Jason Pye is the person I disagree with most often with whom I agree most often.

Ex. Last night, Pye asked his readers to stop judging Republican Secretary of State and gubernatorial candidate Karen Handel through our usual “elephant vs. donkey” filter. Instead, he wants us to consider Georgia’s restrictive ballot rules; rules that protect the duopoly of Democrats and Republicans against challengers. He’s got a great point.

Pye:

You cannot truly have a fair and open election process until all parties are given the same access to the ballot that Democrats and Republicans enjoy. For those of you who don’t know, Georgia has some of the most restrictive ballot access laws in the United States, behind Oklahoma and West Virginia, with the latter taking steps to improve ballot access this year [. . .] a relaxation of ballot access laws must be passed by the legislature, an endorsement of the idea from the supervisor of elections in the State of Georgia could go a long way and possibly could even open up some dialogue with legislative leaders.

If ballot access and election verification are subjects you find interesting, I recommend you journey into the Pye-hole for a couple minutes.

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Erick Erickson at Peach Pundit (who, on Friday, celebrates his fifth consecutive week of not calling anyone a goat-fucking child molester) has called-out Rep. John Lewis for a bizarre quotation appearing in an AJC story about the U.S. Department of Justice’s rejection of a Georgia voter law.

Lewis describes the rejected election law as:

“an attempt to take us back to another dark period in our history when people were denied access to the ballot box simply because of their race or nationality.”

A slight problem, Rep. Lewis.

We’re supposed to discriminate by nationality at the ballot box.

We don’t vote in foreign elections and foreigners don’t vote in ours. The problem with the state law isn’t that Lithuanians should be allowed to vote in Georgia. The problem, according to the DOJ, is that Georgia’s citizenship filter is inaccurate and unreliable.

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This week seems to have gone by in a whirl, so let’s recap recent developments in various state political races, shall we?

The week began with buzz over an AJC article suggesting that former Gov. Roy Barnes is weighing a bid to reclaim his old office. Certainly, Barnes, a Marietta Democrat with a thriving private law practice, has been dropping hints in recent weeks that he’s eyeing the race. But doubters, who include many Democrats, guess he’d be unlikely to get back into a contest he lost so badly eight years ago, despite an overwhelming financial advantage. One theory has it that Barnes is pulling a Mario Cuomo – enjoying the attention that his Hamlet act is bringing, but will ultimately stay out.

That feeling was reinforced for some with the surprise announcement Thursday that Democratic state Attorney General Thurbert Baker is planning a run for governor. Some political observers believe Baker wouldn’t have entered the race without first clearing the move with Barnes. (more…)

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In response to a lawsuit filed today against Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel alleging that the voting rights of a Cherokee County man have been violated, Congressman John Lewis — a leader of the voting-rights battle of the 1960s — released the following statement:

“Georgia is not the only state where questions are mounting.  In Ohio and in Florida and other states around the country it seems that obstacles are being created to keep citizens from participating in this election.

“I think there is a deliberate, systematic effort to depress the turn out of African American, Latino and other minority voters on November 4th. This is harassment.  It is intimidation, and it places an undue burden on some citizens.  Who decides, based on what standards, which 2 million voters deserve greater scrutiny than any others?  I think these actions violate both the letter and the spirit of the Voting Rights Act.  They should be pursued by voting rights groups and the Department of Justice with all deliberate speed so we can make the way clear for registered voters to freely exercise their constitutional rights.”

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On May 28, the Democratic Party of Georgia challenged Georgia’s voter ID in Fulton County Superior Court. State Republicans say a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling settled the voter ID issue in their favor. State Democrats say the opposite is true.

“We think there are close to half a million people who are registered voters but won’t be able to vote.”

-Emmet Bondurant, lawyer for the Democratic Party of Georgia, as quoted in the Fulton County Daily Report on May 28.

On Friday, May 23, millions of Georgians were busy planning their Memorial Day weekends, writing letters and making phone calls to loved ones serving in the U.S. Armed Forces, and remembering family members and friends who paid the ultimate sacrifice in service to our country. That same day, the Democratic Party of Georgia (DPG) was busy on a different matter: filing a fourth lawsuit against the State attacking the voter ID law.

-Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel, responding to the suit in a letter appearing on the Peach Pundit blog May 29.

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The U.S. Supreme Court upheld Indiana’s voter-ID law today. According to the New York Times, Indiana’s voter-ID law was stricter than Georgia. Translation: If Indiana’s law can get by the Supremes, Georgia’s law can, too.

In a 6-to-3 ruling in one of the most awaited election-law cases in years, the court rejected arguments that Indiana’s law imposes unjustified burdens on people who are old, poor or members of minority groups and less likely to have driver’s licenses or other acceptable forms of identification. Because Indiana’s law is considered the strictest in the country, similar laws in the other 20 or so states that have photo-identification rules would appear to have a good chance of surviving scrutiny.

Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State of Karen Handel is quoted on AJC.com calling the ruling a “good step forward for the integrity of our elections.” Nevermind that in-person voting fraud at polling places isn’t actually a problem in Georgia, or, as far as I can tell, anywhere else in the country.

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Atlanta voters will find on tomorrow’s ballot more than simply a choice between Hillary and Obama, or McCain and Romney, etc. It hasn’t been as widely publicized as one might expect, but the municipal option sales tax (aka MOST) is up for renewal – and Shirley & Co. are banking that you vote yes.

Here’s the ballot question:

Shall a special 1 percent sales and use tax be reimposed in the City of Atlanta for a period of time not to exceed 16 calendar quarters and for the raising of not more than $750,000,000 for the purpose of funding water and sewer projects and costs?

(more…)

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