Hey, Georgia Dems: Required Reading

You will want to read Rahm Emanuel's How to Beat a Republican.

Now.

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Georgia Sheriff's Race Goes National

Making the case that even Republicans in red states are grabbing for Obama's coattails, this San Francisco Chronicle piece by Chip Johnson references our sheriff's race right here in the heart of Georgia, my sister's dinner party in North Carolina and your's truly. Here's a bit:

While some angry voters have chanted Obama's middle name, "Hussein," as an insult at Republican rallies, local candidates on the Nov. 4 ballot are using his well-known name on their campaign signs, mailers and Web sites to improve their chances of winning.The tactic has been seen in races from the Bay Area, which is serious Obama country, to Georgia, where a law-and-order Republican for sheriff in the liberal enclave of Macon is using the name as a political prop.

Macon, where we have more churches than restaurants, "liberal enclave." Ha! Tongue-in-cheek, I'm sure.

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Why Are We Shocked?

Eight years ago, we handed a bunch of foxes the keys to the hen house, and now we are shocked to find the birds are dead. My son, who thinks "race" is a factor in this race, says that his friends are "all about JMac," but he can't understand why it's okay to nationalize corporations, but not health care. It's not tough to figure. The crowd that's in charge now is all about taking care of the super-rich, to hell with the rest of us. They have duped cultural conservatives into believing they care about their values, though living few of them, while democrats have effectively shown the same group the door. Now, the republicans are banking that fear of too much change keep the keys in their pockets, and they may be making a good bet. That's the problem with the "change message." We say we want it, but the prospect of real, deep, fundamental change, makes us very anxious, and human beings are wired to act to ease our own anxiety. If it seems to be an option, people will pick change-lite over real change every time. Generally, I have found that to buy in to the sort of change Obama represents, people have to be in tremendous pain or extremely fearful-think choosing to leap from a burning building into the arms of a fireman. Well, the birds are dead and the house is one fire. The question is, will it be enough to overcome the fear of voting for someone who is fundamentally different than any other politician in our lifetime? I hope so, but I think that it depends on whether the crisis on Wall Street trickles down to Main Street before the election.

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"Stop blogging! Stop blogging right now!"

Can you imagine the hell that would rain down if a top aide to Gov. Perdue picked up the phone and called, say, Erick Erickson, and said, "You should be ashamed. Stop blogging. Stop blogging right now!" Yet, that's exactly the call an Alaskan blogger got from an aide to Sarah Palin, and it's far from the scariest thing the New York Times reports in "Once Elected, Palin Hired Friends, Lashed Foes." If you can stand to read one more thing about Palin, believe me, this is that article. (H/T to Jodi)

Whether she was handing out political appointments like candy to high school friends-including the top agriculture spot to a women who actually listed her childhood love of cows as a qualification-or creating a culture of secrecy in the Governor's office, Palin's reign in Alaska looks a whole lot like the Bush White House. If you've like that, you're going to love Palin. Of all the questionable things the Times uncovers, the worst by far is this simple statement at the beginning of the article:

Ms. Palin declined to grant an interview for this article. The McCain-Palin campaign responded to some questions on her behalf and that of her husband, while referring others to the governor’s spokespeople, who did not respond.

It is NOT FINE for John McCain to continue to hide his vice presidential nominee from the American people by picking and choosing just who gets to lift one or two of her many, many veils. McCain is getting a virtually unfathomable pass on his strategy of hiding and scripting Sarah Palin. If any of the other three candidates-Obama, McCain or Biden-were ducking press interviews, they would be absolutely skewered, and rightly so. Why? Because us everyday Americans won't have the chance to sit down and chat with Gov. Palin. We rely on journalists, imperfect though they are, to ask the tough questions of those who would be leaders in this toughest of times. It is both outrageous and inexcusable that John McCain is unwilling to find out-and unwilling for us to know-exactly who this women is once the curtain drops and there is no script. Veils off, Sen. McCain. It's time for Sarah Palin to put on her big girl pants and face the American people.

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Elmo Richardson: Expert on "White Democrats"

What, exactly, did Bibb County Commissioner Elmo Richardson mean by this comment in the Telegraph yesterday?

But Elmo Richardson, who aside from Bishop is the only other Republican on the Bibb commission, said it's still early to accurately predict how county races might play out in the coming months. He said many Republicans crossed over Tuesday to vote in the sheriff's race, which may partly explain the high number of voters on the Democratic side. More people voted in that race than any other local contest. And in November, Bishop might be positioned to attract white Democrats who won't vote for Obama and will turn instead to the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain. (Emphasis mine) "I think Bishop will probably pick up a lot there," Richardson said.

While it's good to know that there is a local expert on the behavior of "white Democrats," if I were Elmo, I wouldn't be holding my breath.

For starters, my skin might be white, but that doesn't make me stupid. The housing market is collapsing around us, people are standing in lines hoping to get their money from failing banks, GM is scrambling to keep the doors open, airlines can't keep planes in the sky, and I'm pumping $4.50 a gallon gas. Seriously, please look back over the terms of Bush I and Bush II and tell me why we should ever again trust Republican economic policy. Not only will "white Democrats" vote for Obama, lots of Republicans will, too. He could be green with purple spots, and it wouldn't matter.

Second, has it occurred to Elmo that lots of "white Democrats" have already voted for Obama? Has Richardson ever been to Iowa? You know, the 97% white state that gave Obama his first victory of the election season? Perhaps Richardson thinks that only Southern "white Democrats" vote based on race, but then he would have to find a reason for Obama's margin of victory in Georgia. Sure, the African American turnout was high here, but Obama dominated his opponents, winning more than 66% of the vote to Clinton's 31%. Looks to me like a significant number white Democrats in Georgia have already voted for Obama, and it would be a mistake to assume that those who voted for Clinton did so because of the color of the candidate's skin.

Finally, if I were Elmo, I wouldn't assume that everyone who votes for McCain will also vote for Bishop. They have little in common other than the "R" behind their name. Most folks I talk with are far less concerned about the Chair's party than about his ability to work well with others, particularly with the City of Macon. On that, Bishop, who on those grounds failed to earn the endorsement of the Telegraph, faces an uphill fight to convince voters that he has changed. And, then there are the numbers. As Matt Barnwell points out, Sam Hart, the Democrat running unopposed in the primary got 8,734 votes to Bishop's 2,620. Bishop's opponent, Theron Ussery has a very strong showing with 1995 votes. Over all, Barnwell points out, "Hart outpaced the entire Republican field in that race nearly two to one." Did it occur to Elmo that no one who crossed over to vote in the sheriff's race had to go on down the ballot and put a mark beside Sam Hart's name in an uncontested race? Plus, if I were Charlie, I wouldn't be relying on the votes of all those Ussery supporters.

Where does this leave us? Charlie Bishop's hopes for re-election are fading faster than a pair of blue jeans dunked in Clorox.

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Sine Die: Big Payday for Georgia Insurance Companies?

If you don't think that Georgia Insurance Companies need a $150 million dollar payday tomorrow, funded by tax dollars, then you need to call your senator tonight. Tell them to vote "no" on HB977.

When I was in Iowa, the red Traveler's umbrella was a landmark in Des Moines, but if Georgia Republicans have their way, Georgia may become a new haven for insurance companies. Not so much for consumers, though or for children without healthcare. Tomorrow may be the last day of the legislative session, but the insurance industry is still hoping to bank a cool $150 million in tax breaks to push high deductible-let's call these what they really are-"do-it-yourself healthcare plans." "Do-it-yourself" because while you will still pay the insurance company premiums, when it comes to paying the bills, absent something catastrophic, you pretty much have to manage that on your own. I wrote about this earlier this month, and Rep. Tom Knox has earned himself a CL Golden Sleaze Award for his rather friendly arrangement with the insurance industry, demonstrated by his sponsorship of this bill and others.


Over at American Forum, Dr. David Blumenthal has posted an insightful piece about why these insurance policies are probably not worth the paper they're written on. Here's a quote:

Faced with a high deductible and an outlay of cash to meet even minimal health needs, many consumers will postpone needed care and forgo preventive services altogether. In the short run, money will be saved for the consumer and the health care system. In the slightly longer run, asthmatic kids will wind up in the hospital, middle-aged adults with uncontrolled high blood pressure will have heart attacks, and the elderly who failed to get screened for cancer will have it discovered in advanced stages. Health care costs will increase and Georgians will be less healthy.

Please contact your State Senator today and ask him or her to oppose HB 977. Follow the link above, or visit www.capitolconnect.com/aarp, register your name and address and follow the action steps under state alerts to send an email directly to your State Senator.

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Welfare Lear Jets

From Wall Street to Atlanta's Gold Dome, Bush Republicans are nursing a corrupt culture of corporate dependency designed to benefit the wealthiest of the wealthy. Corporations gambled with the grocery money hoping to turn a quick billion or two, knowing all the time that if they failed, Uncle Sam would be there with a government check to make the next payment on their welfare Lear jet. These multi-national corporate giants will never learn to stand on their own two feet because they know the government will bail them out, but everyday Americans, who find themselves in a pinch as housing values plummet and fuel costs sky-rocket, best not expect help. As Charles Richardson pointed out in today's Telegraph, in this welfare system, bailing out companies like Bear Stearns is a priority, but offering a hand up to homeowners facing foreclosure is out of bounds. The new slogan for the RNC isn't "Consumer Beware" it's "Consumer? Who Cares?"

Not to be left out, last week the Georgia House, led by that darling of the insurance industry, Rep. Tom Knox with back up singers, Jerry Keen and Mickey Channell, passed a $150 million dollar tax break for insurance companies to help them sell the public stripped down health insurance policies that aren't worth the paper their written on. These plans require individuals to pay more than $2200 out of pocket before receiving even basic medical care. That's right, more than 1.7 million Georgians are uninsured and our state is facing a slowing economy, but instead of funding public schools, trauma care or public safety, Georgia Republicans just can't wait to jump on the corporate welfare bandwagon. After all, it's the Republican thing to do. (By the way, there's still time to stop this bill in the Georgia Senate, but a vote is expected any day, so please contact your State Senator today and ask him or her to oppose HB 977. Follow the link above, or visit www.capitolconnect.com/aarp, register your name and address and follow the action steps under state alerts to send an email directly to your State Senator.) By the way, you folks up in Cumming won't need to send any campaign contributions Rep. Knox's way. Judging from his last disclosure, the insurance industry has taken very good care of their man in Atlanta, just as he has taken very good care of them.

Of course, corporate welfare isn't anything new to Republicans. In 1980's Sen. John McCain's buddy, Charles Keating ran the Lincoln Savings and Loan which became insolvent due to "bad loans" (sound familiar?). The bailout cost tax payers 2.9 billion (a pittance compared to the Bear Streans guarantee) while John McCain earned his place among the "Keating Five"-elected officials Charles Keating turned to for political cover.

So, Republicans preach about personal responsibility, extol the virtues of a free market economy and admonish welfare mothers to just pull themselves up by their bootstraps, but they are more than willing to offer up your tax dollars to subsidize corporate fat cats. Why is it that the person who's born into poverty is supposed to struggle while those who have more than they ever need are given hands outs handouts? Look no further than the incestuous relationship between big corporations, their lobbyists and the money that flows into campaign coffers-of both Republicans and Democrats, by the way. Looks like we need a whole new brand of welfare reform.

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Rush Encouraging Republicans to Vote for Clinton?

Hell must be freezing over. Rush Limbaugh and Company are encouraging Republicans to vote for Hillary Clinton. I don't swallow poison, I don't listen to right wing talk radio, and I don't watch FOX News. So, imagine my surprise when I read that Rush and Company were encouraging Republicans to participate in the Democratic primaries in upcoming states and to vote for Sen. Clinton. Why? Because they want to prolong the "Democratic blood-letting" for as long as possible, and because they would rather run against Clinton than Obama. Apparently, this effort began before the Mississippi primary, and as a result some estimate that Clinton garnered more than 40,000 Republican votes. Read all about it, right here.

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Dry Drunk

I grew up in the South, in a dry county, in North Carolina. When I was a child, church was an every Sunday morning, Sunday night and Wednesday night affair. On Wednesday, we could stop on the way back through town and get cups of cherry vanilla ice cream at Ron and Eddy's restaurant in town, but we couldn't do that-or go out to eat for lunch-on Sunday-because it was the Lord's Day, and my parents thought businesses should be closed. They didn't want to support a business being open on Sunday, so they didn't patronize businesses on Sunday. They also believed that it was wrong to drink alcohol, so they never had any in the house. (Well, with the exception of the homemade muscadine wine the neighbor made, but that was different, just ask my mother.) Now, they never advocated for a ballot measure or for legislation prohibiting business from opening on Sunday or opposing liquor by the drink. It was simple their belief, and they practiced what they preached. (Most of the time... I can remember an occasional Sunday when we might've sinned by going out to lunch-but not many.) My point is this: I don't think that it's a good idea-or even necessary-to codify religious observance, and that's precisely what "blue laws" do. People of faith can practice their beliefs and impact the market place through their personal choices.

In comments about the current debate on whether to allow Sunday liquor sales, Sen. Eric Johnson said, "There doesn't seem to be a compelling reason to chip away at the Sabbath." Sunday is the Sabbath in his religious tradition, and in mine, but it is not the Sabbath for all Georgians. Even if it were, it is the responsibility of communities of faith, not the legislature, to encourage their members to observe the Sabbath. That he, as a legislator, couches it in these terms makes it evident that he is not merely trying to legislate morality. He and others, including Lt. Gov. Cagle, are trying to legislate the practices and beliefs of their specific faith and doing so for political gain, believing that their evangelical base will be more likely to vote for them if they oppose Sunday sales. The use of political power to further a specific religious practice in order to maintain political power just doesn't sound all that righteous to me.

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Fred Thompson is a Bigot

Apparently, for Fred Thompson, the most important criteria for President is whether the candidate has a penis. I would argue that a brain is more important and that since Thompson has neither, he should get out of the race now before his fast-fading campaign becomes even more of an embarrassment to his Party.

Yesterday, in the context of his remarks about Bhutto's brutal assassination, no less, Thompson observed that no women in America is up to the job of being President. No, no, this was not a slip of the tongue: he has repeated this stunningly sexist opinion twice this week, and that indicates that he is tossing out red meat for his Party faithful. Earlier this month, when Thompson was asked to name his "favorite possession," he glibly replied, "trophy wife." And yet, he continues to poll in double digits among Republicans. Amazing, really.

I can promise you this: a Democratic candidate for President who thought that it was all in good fun to refer to his wife as a "possession" or a "trophy" or who announced that women are unqualified for the nation's highest office, would have zero chance of getting elected dog catcher much less getting the Party's nomination for President. Yet, I haven't heard any Republicans-even the women-banging on podiums to disavow Thompson's remarks, have you? And there in lies the problem for the Republican Party.

There are a long list of reasons I support John Edwards in the Democratic primary, but Hillary Clinton's gender is not one of them. She, along with a long list of other women in this country, are infinitely more qualified to be President than a backwoods bigot from Tennessee who is so out of touch with mainstream America that he doesn't realize-or doesn't care-that he just royally pissed off more than half of the electorate. Fred needs to have his limo driver take him around back so he can jump in his faux-red pickup truck and drive himself back to Tennessee. Perhaps he can pick up his good friend Scooter Libby along the way.

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Will CNN Have the Guts to Ask This One?

Robert Parham, executive director of The Baptist Center for Ethics has submitted this question for the Republican YouTube Debate tonight. I hope they have the guts to ask the candidates this one!

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The Politics of Sprawl

Have short-sighted policies that blindly fuel suburban growth helped created both the water crisis and Republican majorities in Georgia? Programs intended to spur rural growth have instead provided jet fuel for massive suburban growth, and, coincidentally, in these "fringe city communities like...the outer reaches of the Atlanta region," Republicans have a nearly 2 to 1 advantage. Consequently, in BLUEPRINT, May 2004, Mark Gersh notes that in Georgia's 2002 vote, suburban growth was "the single biggest factor in the Republican victory." No doubt, the same is a factor in the current drought as Atlanta is increasingly viewed as the city that just can't take "no" for an answer when it comes to growth.

In April of this year, The Washington Post article Rural Aid Goes to Urban Areas, showed that the USDA's Rural Development program has pumped more than three times as much money into metropolitan areas as to poor rural counties. In Georgia, this Rural development money has helped to fuel "massive suburban growth."

According to the Post, since 2001, more than $400 million in Rural Development money has supported three utility companies (Jackson Electric Membership Corp., GreyStone Power and Sawnee Electric Membership Corp.) serving the fast-growing Atlanta suburbs. GreyStone serves eight metro counties including Cobb and Fulton, while Sawnee's service area includes Forsyth County, the fastest growing county in the nation.

How can this happen? Under the USDA's "once a borrower, always a borrower" policy, utility companies like GreyStone are allowed to keep coming back to the USDA for the low-cost capitol meant to support rural growth, even if the once-rural area they serve is now a booming suburb.
That makes zero sense.

I would never suggest that Republicans intentionally ignored the risks of unbridled sprawl for political gain, but they might've been distracted by the glint of gold and the Dome. I would suggest that while our current leadership ignored a looming water crisis, the Republican-rich Atlanta suburbs grew, and grew, and grew. The sprawl that contributed to the water crisis also contributed to Republican victories in Georgia. Of course, when those suburbanites realize that Perdue shelved a Barnes plan to address a potential drought, their loyalty to the GOP may diminish along with their tap water.

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