Happy Hour

Jack Kingston held a Town Hall in Valdosta, and far more people came than he expected. He's used to tens. Hundreds were there, and they asked questions:



Due to audience interaction, Kingston made an admission:

"And I’ll say this, as a Republican, we blew it, we spent lots of money."

About 1:50 in that video Jim Parker tells Kingston about his experience with cancer and resulting bankruptcy. Jim was covered by WCTV and the VDT,   The VDT even quoted Organizing for America's health care principles: You can sign on to those. Why not also help Kingston out by filling out his health care survey?  Most of the people in the room were apparently Republicans. But a few Democrats showed up and made their views known ("and a war in Iraq?" "I'm a waitress, and I want to pay for affordable health care" "what about health care for the many people in prison who shouldn't be there in the first place?"), not only in the room, but also in the news media. More here.

Rep. Scott was our special guest and Dale Cardwell was our guest host. Also, Tim Shiflett went head-on at Erik Erickson in his Outrage of the Week. Listen here:

With the passage of The American Clean Energy and Security Act, The House of Representatives has made a dramatic breakthrough for America's future by choosing to create jobs, move to clean energy, and reduce global warming pollution. This legislation, which was almost unimaginable six months ago, will help set our country in a new direction by shifting to a clean energy economy and reducing the carbon pollution that causes global warming.

Some members of Congress, like John Barrow, decided to put political expediency the pocketbooks of polluters ahead of our environmental health, better jobs, and breaking our dangerous addiction to foreign oil with a NO vote. It almost worked, too -- this historic legislation passed by a mere seven votes.

Barrow is among those who sacrificed political expediency for the good of the country's economy and the Earth's environmental health by voting YES. Please come to his event in Milledgeville tomorrow to tell him he got it wrong, and to show your support for this historic legislation as it moves to the Senate, where it needs to be strengthened, so we can reach the full potential of our clean energy future and avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

Here's the information on the event:

7/3/09 (Tomorrow) - 10AM-11:30AM
American Legion Post 523
430 West Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive
Milledgeville, GA

If Democrats are looking for diversity on their ticket for 2010, the folks at the state party ought to look at persuading Carl Camon, mayor of Ray City to run for Lt. Governor. He has a impressive record as mayor of Ray City.

In his Air Force days, he used to drive generals. "Now," says Camon, "I drive with generals." The first black mayor of Ray City (approximate population 1,000, about 78 percent white, six miles from Moody Air Force Base), Camon is serving his third two-year term. "When I took office, it was a shock for this area," says Camon. "The community embraced change, but carefully." And change has been good. Since Camon has been in office, he's played a lead role in water system improvements, using grant monies (and lowering customers' bills); establishing the first municipal-owned pre-K school in the state; and building a new city hall with SPLOST bucks. In 2000, Camon, the father of four, started the Mayor's Youth Leadership Institute, for kids from 10 to 17.

He is USAF Veteran, young, fresh face democrat that dems need to get back to power here in the state. He maybe unknown now, but if he were to run for Lt. Governor & have the field to himself, people will see how impressive this guy rellay is. Or  they should persuade Floyd Griffin, Jr back into the political fray next year as well. A former State Senator (the first black candidate to win a rural, majority white district in the state's history) & mayor of Milledgeville, he has wealth of experience that would be appealing to the state. His work on behalf of veterans would work well with the critical voting block here in the state. A U.S. Army Veteran & helicopter pilot in Vietnam, he can get African-American voters out in 2010 as well. 

Floyd Griffin Jr. back in 1994 defeated incumbent state Sen. Wilbur Baugh to become the first Black politician elected from a rural, White majority district in Georgia since Reconstruction.

(Cross posted at the Perimeter Progressive)

When I was in college, I did a lot of organizing around Hunger and Homelessness, and something I learned a little about was TANF - the Clinton version of Welfare. I don't like TANF, because I don't think it goes far enough. (It was a response to the right's rhetoric about welfare mothers - what those folk don't seem to care about is that they are punishing innocent children by not giving their parents money to pay rent. The average age of a homeless is nine for God's sake.) TANF gives money via block grants to the states and leaves it up to states to dole out appropriately.  Appropriately is apparently a relative term.

A little background first - The goals of TANF:

(1) provide assistance to needy families so that children may be cared for in their own homes or in the homes of relatives;
(2) end the dependence of needy parents on government benefits by promoting job preparation, work, and marriage;
(3) prevent and reduce the incidence of out-of-wedlock pregnancies and establish annual numerical goals for preventing and reducing the incidence of these pregnancies; and
(4) encourage the formation and maintenance of two-parent families.

With those four goals in mind, let's take a look at this way too short article from the AJC from the AP:

Georgia is using federal welfare dollars — called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families — to replace state money for child welfare programs. That’s the finding in a new report from the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank. The study found that Georgia is increasingly funneling the TANF funds to adoption assistance and child welfare programs that had once been funded with state dollars. The result is that there are fewer TANF dollars to help needy Georgians find employment.

So it looks like Georgia is a) not using TANF funds appropriately, as the adoption assistance bit doesn't seem to go with the law (*maybe* goal 4, but that's a stretch) and is certainly not in the spirit of the law, and b) screwing over those who most need help in Georgia by not fulling funding its programs. Reading this report from the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute is just fanning the flames of aggravation. This is the report the article references, and it is well worth a read. The summary from the report reads,

Georgia has 11 percent less available federal TANF funds for state fiscal year 2010 than it had in FY 2009. However, Georgia continues to direct the majority of TANF funds — in increasing amounts — to services related to child welfare while cutting TANF funds from state programs that directly satisfy its core purposes. Policymakers should re-examine TANF spending, placing greater focus on programs that work directly to satisfy TANF’s four purposes, such as promoting family self-sufficiency.

One of the unstated goals of TANF was to break the cycle of poverty. In order to do this, the person in question needs a job. That's pretty clear. Instead, Georgia is using the funds meant for helping people find jobs and get training for those jobs to help child welfare. Don't get me wrong - I am not against child welfare services, but those programs should be separate from this TANF program. Georgia is misusing these funds, and it's aggravating. Especially, as one of the Republican talking points during TANF, was that we need to stop treating the symptoms of poverty by throwing money at it and get these people to help themselves, and now that money is being diverted away from that goal by a Republican state government.

Crossposted at The Perimeter Progressive

I got told an innumerable amount of times during the Bush years that being against the War on Iraq (and when has a preposition ever been so hotly contested) amounted to being anti-American.  And if I didn't like America, I should move to Canada.  Yet I didn't move.  Because I believe that America ought to live up to its highest aspirations.  And, sometimes like a petulant child, it does things that I think are wrong.  But I still want to help raise that child into something grand.

So who are the true patriots?  Well, first, what's that word even mean.  This one, from <a href="http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=patriot">wordnet</a>, seems to work:
<blockquote>one who loves and defends his or her country</blockquote>
I particularly like the "loves."  I may not have loved Bush's cracked out policies and wars, but I could still love America.  That infuriated me during the Bush years.  Love does not mean a blind love.  Just like family, you can love them but still get aggravated-to-no-ends by them.  You fight, you yell, but its out of love.

I would say that if you want to leave your family, break all bonds with said family, that the love isn't there anymore.   And that's what I'm hearing about all over the place.  It's akin to a child pissed off at their parents over their allowance, and threatening to run away.

But its so much more serious than that.

A couple more definitions:
<blockquote><a href="http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=insurrection" target="_blank">insurrection/rebellion</a> - organized opposition to authority; a conflict in which one faction tries to wrest control from another

treason -a crime that undermines the offender's government</blockquote>
We have people like Neal Boortz (today on his show around 11:50) approving of succession from America, because they don't like Obama's financial policies.  Yet, when our county was sending people off of to die in war, for spurious reasons at best, we never thought of succeeding from the Union.  We worked to make the Union better.

These people, from the Texas Governor to Neal Boortz and Glen Beck, are advocating an overthrow of the federal government.  Yes, they'll claim first amendment rights.  But the first amendment doesn't protect you from shouting fire in a crowded theater.  They are advocating secession from the Union.  <strong>They are traitors</strong> (one who engages in treason) to this country.

What's the deal with Wyc Orr? Will he run for Nathan Deal's seat in 2010. He may have better name i.d up there than any of the potentital republican candidates vying for deal's seat. I heard speak a couple years ago & let me tell you, he can get move a audience. With all of the races except for Lt. Gov probably pretty much set for the dems, what do think about him running statewide next year.? Senate or Lt. Gov?

There's one person who would be perfect for Attorney General for the dems. Jim Butler. Now I do think Rob Teilhet would be a fine candidate & would be a good AG, but this job is right up Jim Butler's alley do you think? He has taken on some of the most poweful people in the U.S. & we need someone like that in Atlanta to keep the folks under the Gold Dome in Check. Butler won't need money because he can self-fund his own race. If you put his list of accomplishments up against the GOP candidates, even the democrats he is much, more qualified to be Attorney General that Olens, Hill, Teilhet & whoever else jumps in. I would like to see Teilhet run for Secretary of State or State School Superintendent. Butler name always comes up around election time. He would be a fine candidate for the Senate, but I think he's probably not interested. So AG fits his background perfectly. Who out there disagree with that?

Phil Kent outdid himself this weekend. Dick Williams was referring to Jeff Dickerson as their resident economist and Phil piped in and said 'you mean the communist, heh, heh.". But it didn't end there, Phil took a swipe at Cynthia Tucker calling her the Wicked Witch of the East and good riddence to her from the editorial page. I've grown tired of attempts at bullying Dickerson and Alexis Scott. As the host, Williams should have shown some spine and corrected Kent but we know that isn't going to happen.

As for Dick Williams.... For the last 5 weeks he has been 'reporting' on the Obama economy using the status of the Dow as his measuring stick. Last week Alexis asked him if he was going to continue reporting the status after we get back above where we were on Jan 20th. He said he would but surprise, surprise,...as of their taping last Friday the Dow was UP over the Jan 20 mark. He didn't mention that little nugget.  I guess he just forgot to mention it this week, yeah right.