YDATL Blog
NOTE: The opinions expressed by our individual bloggers are their own, and not necessarily those of Young Democrats of Atlanta.

Friday, October 27, 2006

Sonny did II: Coffin cover slams on Hapeville Ford plant
Today's blogger
Benson's editorial note: Mature content (translation: Benson is pissed); parental discretion advised. Oh, and Peach Pundit, why don't you link to this, you cowards?


DIED: Hapeville Ford plant, aged 59 years, after lengthy illness. Mourners are encouraged to make donations to the Mark Taylor campaign in lieu of sending flowers. Governor Sonny Perdue charged with negligent homicide in death.

Let's get this clear: Georgia lost the Hapeville plant for a lot of reasons. Ford has lots of problems, some of them self-made and some of them caused by health care costs that no one in power has the balls to deal with. Americans just don't take pride in American jobs and American industrial might like they used to, and yes, that land the plant is on is going to look mighty tasty to Atlantic station wannabes. But not least of the reasons 2000 union jobs evaporated today is the fact that Sonny Perdue was busy fucking his mistress Kia and plying her with extravagant tax breaks while leaving the Ford plant bound, gagged, and dying on the street.

I find it truly sickening to recall all the times Special Sonny has played the patriotism trump card – from crying for Georgians killed in Iraq to make up for President Shrub's inadequate endowment (we'll be seeing Laura Bush in Levitra ads any day now) and to keep the oil pumping through the black decayed mass of cancerous flesh that presumably used to be Dick Cheney's heart, to all the pompous bloviating we've gotten over illegal immigration in Georgia. Beneath that smarmy veneer of unctuous pseudo-patriotism, Sonny Perdue is a quisling colluding with foreign firms robbing America of union jobs. The man wouldn't know a real job if it bit his plump ass – I sure wish I could get paid for making ridiculous bullshit statements at news conferences and making every day Halloween by dressing in absurdly tasteless and downright wacky outfits on a regular basis. Sonny Perdue is just another odious sycophantic wart on the shriveled toad that is the Republican party – he loves money and power, and could give a flying fuck about America or American values or the people who live here. If Sonny Perdue loves America, I love Rick Santorum.

If you don't believe that the Kia plant was the result of political fornication between Sonny Perdue and some sleazy Korean businessmen who make chinsy cars and ship the profits to Asia, consider these moronic Sonny quotations:

Governor Sonny Perdue said, “Today's ceremony marks the beginning of a long-term partnership between Kia Motors and the state of Georgia. We are looking forward to many years of cooperation as Kia's new plant in West Point creates thousands of jobs and sets the standard for the automotive industry.”

Um, didn't we already HAVE a long-term partnership with FORD, an AMERICAN COMPANY that ALREADY SUSTAINED thousands of Georgia jobs? And it's just a coincidence that your Republican pond scum henchmen cash in while metro Atlanta gets another cheery stomach punch from its governor? YAY we're going to have ANOTHER urban bling-o-plex where a scion of American industry once stood!!!

”Thousands of additional jobs will be created by small businesses and service sector companies that will either start up or expand because of the increased economic activity in the Troup County area.”, [Perdue said].

Fabulous, I'm so glad that your pals in Troup County are going to be raking in the dough while the members of UAW Local 882 look for jobs. What are you doing for them, you pandering son of a bitch?

Oh, and here's the best one:

“Georgia has a strong presence in the automotive industry and has long delivered the right resources and talent to help companies thrive,” said Governor Sonny Perdue.

Spare us, you lying porcine oaf. If you had given Ford half the gourmet fuck you gave to Kia, we might still have them around. Don't you dare claim to deliver “the right resources” after standing nonchalantly by like the priest and the Levite who left the traveler for dead. I've got a Sonny-Do for you: Go to hell, assclown.
del.icio.us digg Furl Ma.gnolia NewsVine Reddit Spurl YahooMyWeb

posted by Ataru Atlanta at 10/27/2006 10:28:00 PM 0 comments

Thursday, October 26, 2006

AJC picks it right in HD48
In an attempt to de-assclown-ify themselves and get back in Benson's good graces, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has endorsed Jan Hackney for House District 48!

In House District 48, which includes parts of Sandy Springs and Roswell, Republican Harry Geisinger, the incumbent, is being challenged again by Democrat Jan Hackney. Hackney deserves the support of voters.

In his favor, Geisinger supports a regional approach to mass transit and to financing for Grady. But too often he has voted for legislation endorsed by his party but that's not in the best interest of Georgians. And Geisinger favors more tax breaks for retirees, a fiscally unsound policy that leaves middle-class Georgia families footing most of the tax bill.

Hackney is well versed on important issues. Her advocacy for educational improvement in the state and openness in government is a critical need in the General Assembly.


Okay folks, let's go spread the good word!
del.icio.us digg Furl Ma.gnolia NewsVine Reddit Spurl YahooMyWeb

posted by Aerodad at 10/26/2006 10:58:00 AM 0 comments

Doing God's Work
Young Democrats of Atlanta
When I was a little girl, my family went to church every Sunday. My mother made sure of that. Without fail, the four of us would wake up early, fill up on a waffle breakfast, and attend the First Presbyterian Church of Anderson, SC, where we sat in the first balcony. I loved that ritual, and it continued as I got older except for the waffle breakfast. The older I got the more I enjoyed sleeping in until, eventually, I didn't mind sacrificing even waffles.

In the last six months or so, I haven't been to church. In fact, I can't remember the last time I sat down in a pew and prayed. I've spent much of this past year on the campaign trail, so to speak. During the primary season, my Sundays were spent down in House District 65 with TJ Copeland and since my Sundays have been occupied with the Melanie Eyre campaign in House District 46. Every Sunday, I tell myself I'm going to return to church when the election season is over. I have a lot of ground to make up with God, and I feel guilty. Rather, I did feel guilty.

About a month ago, on a Sunday, I was running late to an event, and I felt guilty about that too. And then a friend told me, "It's okay that you're late. You were busy doing God's work." I thought about that comment for the rest of the evening, and I realized that my friend was right. By campaigning for a great Democratic candidate, I was doing God's work! We all are!

What is God's work? The way I understand it, it includes: helping the poor; fighting for equality; protecting the environment, the world God created; and protecting families and family values. The Democratic Party is the party of these values. So, you see, I no longer feel guilty for spending my Sundays campaigning for good Democrats. In doing so, I'm improving our community, our state, our nation, and our world. When I give up a Sunday morning of church to work for the good of the Democratic Party, everyone wins, including the values that God taught us.
del.icio.us digg Furl Ma.gnolia NewsVine Reddit Spurl YahooMyWeb

posted by Anonymous at 10/26/2006 08:58:00 AM 0 comments

Sunday, October 22, 2006

Atlanta Journal-Constitution endorses John Oxendine: Assclowns endorsing assclowns
Today's bloggerYou'll never guess who helped write the AJC's endorsement of John Oxendine for Georgia insurance commissioner – our very own oh-so-lovable Thinking-Wrong-99.44%-of-the-time JIM WOOTEN!!! Wooooohoooo!! With Wooten assisting Jay Bookman (wtf?) and David McNaughton (who?), it's no surprise the AJC managed to put Guy Drexinger's one (major) ethical lapse ten years ago over Oxendine's lengthy history of being an all-around corrupt duplicitous fuckmuppet. Allow me to annotate the AJC's endorsement with gratuitous inflammatory editorial comments (my words are in red):

On one hand is a candidate who relies heavily on campaign contributions from individuals within the industry regulated by the commissioner's office. And with a history of other sleazy acts that you conveniently whitewash. On the other is a candidate whose serious ethics lapse a decade ago is cause for equal or greater concern. Only for known Republican apologists looking for ways out of bowing to reason and endorsing solid Democrats over assclowns.

Consumers rely on the commissioner to ensure that insurance is both affordable and available in Georgia. Right. Too bad that Georgia, under the wise and prudent leadership of John Oxendine, has the highest car insurance rates in the southeast, to say nothing of those other trivialities such as health insurance. It's a pocketbook issue that requires a balancing act to protect consumers from being charged too much while permitting auto and home insurers to charge enough to keep them doing business in the state. Oooh, the poor insurance industry! Next thing we know, we'll be hearing about the desperate struggles of the jackals and charlatans of the pharmaceutical industry... Besides regulating Wait, is there regulation going on here? insurance companies, the commissioner's office oversees Except when malicious fools like Oxendine do the supposed “overseeing”... small-loan firms and the fire marshal's office.

John Oxendine, the Republican incumbent, was first elected to the office in 1994. AFTER he switched parties because Zell Miller decided Oxendine shouldn't run for Labor Commissioner. Party switch on principles? Fine. Party switch because of some beef with your leadership? Traitor. Apparently Jim Wooten trusts traitors... His experience and knowledge of the industry work in his favor. Oh yeah, they work in his favor, every time he cashes an HMO check to fund his campaigns. Too bad they don't work in OUR favor. So does his crackdown on health insurers that are slow to pay claims. WHOOP-DE-DO. Someone give the man a medal!

However, he has also defended the state's often predatory small-loan companies , which saddle consumers with effective annual interest that can exceed 100 percent. No big deal, right? So we are apparently to believe, since Wooten immediately proceeds to other business... While serving as commissioner, Oxendine has wrecked two state vehicles and ordered a third, even though Georgia purchasing officials warned him not to because of a budget crunch. Oxendine has never taken any real responsibility for these incidents, just like the assclown he is. Wooten neglects to mention that these weren't just any state vehicles - these were luxury bling-mobiles that could not be justified for ANY state employee under any circumstances whatsoever. We're supposed to TRUST someone who lavishly appropriated scarce state funds to satisfy his juvenile desire to ride around in a real police car and flash the blue lights and make the sirens go “wooo wooo wooo”? Oxendine needs to be in a playroom with some Hot Wheels cars, not running Georgia's insurance industry. He also has been cited by the state attorney general for misuse of the emergency lights and siren on his vehicle. That same report, issued by Sonny Perdue-appointed James Sehorn, accused Oxendine of misusing state funds and forced Oxendine to repay those funds. Of course, Saint Oxendine denied wrongdoing. (As fire marshal, the lights and siren come with the job; Oxendine gave up the emergency equipment several years ago. By “gave up” you mean “was stripped of”, right? Oxendine has no shame whatsoever and must be forcibly punished for his abuses.)

Oxendine's opponent is Democrat Guy Drexinger, an attorney and accountant who advises small businesses. He's making his first run at public office. He is bright and sincere With the unspoken subtext being “But we hate him anyway!”. You can easily imagine Wooten's glee at having a convenient excuse for endorsing his anointed Republican in this race., but whatever skills and ideas Drexinger might bring to the commissioner's office are overshadowed by his failure in 1995 to disclosure a fraudulent scheme by a legal client. HAHAHA, says Wooten. With Drexinger's knowledge, the client obtained a bank loan guaranteed by the Small Business Administration while illegally concealing a side agreement for another loan. After the scheme was discovered, Drexinger's law license was temporarily suspended, he lost his real estate license and was reprimanded by the state Board of Accountancy. All true. Does it outweigh the fact that John Oxendine abuses and misuses his power of office every single day he drags his sorry ass into his cushy state-funded chair? You be the judge.

To his credit, Drexinger freely acknowledges his mistakes and appears contrite about the poor choices he made. Too bad Oxendine has never done so. This is the same mentality that presumably allows Wooten to continue to ride on the Glorious Wrecking Machine known as the Bush administration – if you don't admit that maybe perhaps just possibly one or two things that you did were in fact ABSURDLY STUPID to the point that a small child on a remote mountain in Tibet could figure it out, and that EVERYONE ELSE KNOWS how STUPID the stunts you pulled were, then there's nothing to apologize for and all is forgiven. Unfortunately, that doesn't change the facts. Fact #1 being that Jim Wooten (I'm admittedly assuming that Wooten, a known source of rightist spew, is primarily behind this travesty of an endorsement) is idiotically wrong yet again. Because the ability to trust an elected official is so important, John Oxendine is the more acceptable choice. As long as you want to continue paying exorbitant insurance premiums because the traitorous lying unscrupulous reptile allegedly regulating those premiums is on a transparent mission to pay off like a busted slot machine to the serpentine insurance industry agents funding his campaigns. Thanks Jim!

del.icio.us digg Furl Ma.gnolia NewsVine Reddit Spurl YahooMyWeb

posted by Ataru Atlanta at 10/22/2006 06:55:00 AM 1 comments

Monday, October 16, 2006

Grading the candidates' materials, part III: Web sites, the ones that matter
Today's bloggerDespite the pitiful attempts at websites showcased by part II of this series, more and more Georgia voters are listening to the phone calls and reading the literature that says “Go to my web site”, and so it's worth looking at how the folks at the top of the ticket are hitting the street the 21st century way.

  • Mark Taylor - Look: A, Content: A-. Be the other problems with his campaign as they may, I have to say that Mark's web site looks great. The black-and-white photos really look good in contrast to the dabs of campaign color here and there, and the little “Did You Know?” sidebars are a very nice touch. All in all a strong effort that I wish were more representative of the rest of the campaign.

  • Sonny Perdue - Look: B-, Content: A+. Note to Sonny: Repeated backgrounds always look bad. You can see that Special Sonny went for a high-tech look with the little folder icons and such, forgetting that average voters are not looking for folder icons on a web site, and probably try to avoid dealing with folders as much as possible anyway. Unfortunately, there is really no shortage of content on the site – photographs galore, multimedia of various sorts, and a more up-to-date “upcoming events” section than Mark has. This is definitely a good example of Republican dollars at work.

  • Jim Martin - Look: A+, Content: A. Jim deserves credit as the highest-ranking candidate to include an RSS feed for campaign news, which I quite frankly wish I had noticed before. Aside from that the site looks fantastic and extremely professional. The site is bursting at the seams with photos and other content, and the front page photo – where Jim is in color in an otherwise black-and-white photo – is especially good. Yet another reason to <3 (heart, for you non-nerds) Jim.

  • Casey Cagle - Look: C+, Content: A. I'm not a fan of the way Cagle's site looks – it's a little bit too busy, too much content in too small a space. It seems cluttered, and not something I would highlight if I were working for the Stoneridge Group. The navigation menus are pretty small and easy to miss. Cagle hasn't slacked on content though – he's got a podcast (albeit one that has yet to get off the ground, negating most of the cool points awarded) and various other electronic goodies for his nerdy constituents, and has probably the most detailed overview of his positions (as awful and horrific as they may be). A formidable effort, but fortunately one which Jim outdid.

  • Gail Buckner - Look: B-, Content: B. Compared to the four previous efforts, Gail's site just isn't that good. It looks a little better than Cagle's, and the intro photo is OK but not great. Definitely a second-tier site though. Content-wise, Gail seems to have taken the same approach to her issues page as she does to her public speaking (at least when I heard her) – lengthy, highly detailed, and not particularly interesting. While she gets points for having some pretty up-to-date campaign news, the goodies that the previous four candidates offered are just not here.

  • Karen Handel - Look: C, Content: B. Let's face it: Ms. Handel's web site does not look good. It's pretty plain vanilla and her campaign color scheme doesn't help. She's organized her positions a bit better than Gail has, but on the whole it's pretty much all plain text and small photographs (the photo gallery notwithstanding). You can see the quality in these sites deteriorating markedly down the ticket. (In side news, since when is John Smoltz a dirty Republican endorsing Ms. Handel? Just play baseball, dude.)

  • Michael Thurmond - Look: A-, Content: B. Mike's web site looks pretty good – nice layout, easy navigation, photos prominently placed. Based on the head-to-head competition, it seems that electyou.com has Stoneridge Group beat by plenty. Mike's got the standard content, so no special high or low marks there.

  • Brent Brown - Look: B-, Content: B-. There really aren't that many bits of image eye candy to be found on Mr. Brown's web site, rendering it mostly just another boring exercise in plain text. Aside from the fact that Mr. Brown seems not to care about volunteers (there is no link readily apparent to sign up to volunteer), Mr. Brown gets docked half a letter grade for having the gall to dare link to the Teamsters and CWA web sites while transparently promulgating the anti-union BS we have come to expect from Republicans.

  • Thurbert Baker - Look: A-, Content: B+. Not too bad considering that it's down the ballot. Thurbert's site has solid visuals and simple navigation. The content is pretty standard, with some multimedia thrown in; I would have given this an A- for content if the Accomplishments link hadn't pointed to a page with some photographs and an “under construction” message.

  • Perry McGuire - Look: A, Content: A-. Perry leads off with a pretty good photo with downtown Atlanta as a backdrop, and the layout is simple and clean. Nothing exciting to mention about the content except that it's all easily accessible and comprehensive, with his TV spot front and center on the main page. It's also noteworthy that the main page itself contains a direct attack on Thurbert Baker, an ominious portent for the Baker campaign.

  • Denise Majette: - Look: B+, Content: C+. Denise's website isn't as bad as you might expect from the woman currently running the most pathetic Democratic campaign in the history of Georgia. The intro photos aren't so bad, except that a canny observer will notice that none of the classroom photos feature Denise, a fact which will not surprise most of us. The content is decidedly thin, but what's there isn't horrible, except for the fact that the events are either out-of-date or indicative of the fact that the campaign is having farcical difficulties finding events for Denise to speak at. On the whole, if the campaign itself were as good as this web site, I would be a hell of a lot happier.

  • Kathy Cox - Look: B, Content: B-. If Ms. Cox weren't the incumbent, this web site wouldn't help her much. The look is not great, and her “news” section is actually older than Denise's. For fun and profit, you might want to scour the site looking for typos and misspellings – I'll pay $5 to anyone who finds one of either.
del.icio.us digg Furl Ma.gnolia NewsVine Reddit Spurl YahooMyWeb

posted by Ataru Atlanta at 10/16/2006 12:03:00 AM 1 comments

Friday, October 13, 2006

Grading the candidates' materials, part II: Web sites, the Dishonor Roll
Today's bloggerYou knew this was coming, and it won't disappoint! Yeah, I could probably come up with something useful to say about Mark Taylor's website or whatever, but it's a lot more fun to start with the Hall of Republican Web Site Shame, which I admittedly found just by clicking through the links from the candidate qualifying info page on the Secretary of State's web site until my eyes bled – I mean, it's like shooting fish in a barrel with these clowns...

  • Harry Geisinger (House 48) – Look: F, Content: F-. Hey look everyone! Looks like Harry just realized that his site has been touting the fact that he's been endorsed by State Representative (so 2004!) Tom Price for the last 21 months! OMG, is there an election coming up? Is there a Democrat running against me?? Is it that Jan Hackney woman again??? Oh, no! Better get my website in shape quick:

    If only all Republicans could be this incompetent!

  • Tom Elliott (House 80) – Look: D+, Content: C-. The first strike against this pathetic campaign web site is the grandiose flash animation that confronts Joe Voter on entry. Hey Tom, this ain't the governor's race – Sonny Perdue's got that covered. Check your ego at the door – ding! Thank you! Once the user gets past Tom's self-aggrandizement, they are smitten by ugly plain text – some of it in Courier, for crying out loud – plus the usual Republican BS spin on Mike Jacobs' great record as a state rep.

  • Ron Forster (House 3) – Look: F, Content: C-. You know the web site is BAD when the easiest navigation on the site is provided by a frame at the bottom seductively inviting constituents to explore exciting topics of interest to the district like “FREE BUSINESS CARDS IN 5 MINUTES” and to “Order Now!” I mean, really, your mom could open up a GeoSuck account and use their site building tools for five minutes and come up with a site that wasn't as horrifically ugly as Ron's. Heck, a blank white page saying “I'm a clueless moron and I don't know how to hire someone to build this site for me, please come back later” would be less annoying. I love how the first link on the FYI page is “Happy Valentine's - Where did it come from?”, which I'm quite sure is another pressing issue in Georgia's third house district. I weep that such people walk under the Gold Dome...

  • Judy Manning (House 32) - Look: F, Content: C. One word for this Cobb County mess: YEESH! Whatever this solstudio company is that created this disaster, not only do they support Republicans, their web site design strategy makes Bush's Iraq strategy look like genius by comparison. Judy's content isn't so bad, but I had to dock her a letter grade because her “Supporters” link takes you to a 404 page, which is entirely appropriate because I have no idea why anyone supports this woman. Oh, and let's not forget to mention that the web site she provided when she qualified was to her real estate business. Way to go!!

  • Steve “Thunder” Tumlin (House 38) – Look: F, Content: F. I'm actually growing rather weary of pointing out how bad these sites look, but it's worth noting that Steve clearly cares a LOT about his district since he hasn't bothered to update his web site since 2004. Then again, I think we owe him a debt of gratitude, since the #1 “Upcoming Event” is to vote for Steve on November 2nd - I could get behind that!

  • Don Parsons (House 42) – Look: F, Content: F-----. We'll have to end here (in Cobb County – good God what is with these people?), because there's just no topping this. Representative Parsons, who listed his occupation as “Businessman/Telecommunications” on his qualifying form, apparently can't be bothered to actually create a web site to tell all those Republican Mickey Mouse bedtime stories that masquerade as their policy positions to his constituents, deprived once again of the opportunity to choose someone besides the charming and intelligent Mr. Parsons. Applause!
del.icio.us digg Furl Ma.gnolia NewsVine Reddit Spurl YahooMyWeb

posted by Ataru Atlanta at 10/13/2006 11:46:00 PM 0 comments

Thursday, October 12, 2006

BREAKING: Warner leaves presidential race
Just in from CNN and other news agencies, we find out that Mark Warner is deciding not to run for President in 2008. I personally was very enthusiastic about his potential candidacy, and I know the people over at Georgia for Warner, like Stephen Deak from Gwinnett, are going to be shocked. It's surprising that he would step aside at just the moment when he's best positioned to take the national stage, but I can't fault him for putting his family first. I think the Democratic Presidential primary is going to turn vicious, to say nothing of the general election, and without his family on the trail with him it would be very tough to ride out the inevitable dips. So farewell, Mark Warner, hello Bill Richardson - make Georgia part of your campaign strategy!
del.icio.us digg Furl Ma.gnolia NewsVine Reddit Spurl YahooMyWeb

posted by Ataru Atlanta at 10/12/2006 11:26:00 AM 0 comments

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Grading the candidates' materials, part I: Yard signs
Today's bloggerPresumably we've all by now seen more than our share of signs and literature for candidates across Georgia for everything from governor to school board. Some of it sucks, some of it is great. Here's a rundown of the yard signs, including some memorable signage from the primary (feel free to chime in with some signs you know and love/hate):

  • Mark Taylor – Grade: B+. I'm not crazy about the color scheme Mark chose for his campaign – purple/blue/something and green, with white text – but the yard signs win big originality points for not looking anything like any other campaign's yard signs, which is a big deal because...

  • Cathy Cox – Grade: A. Cathy's signs looked great, which I suppose is thanks to the design skills of Melanie Goux. The only problem with Cathy's signs was that everyone else thought they looked great too, or maybe they just all hired Melanie to do their campaign logos. In any case, the end result was campaigns from Shyam Reddy to Melanie Eyre to Doug Stoner (and probably all sorts of people all over Georgia) putting out signs with similar “swooshy” logos, which looked great but boringly similar to so many signs already out there.

  • Sonny Perdue – Grade: B-. Sonny gets points for nice, small, economical signs to plaster the state with – we've all seen the damn things, I'm sure – but they're the vanilla of yard signs. I'm not including the Mega Signs that you see occasionally, because of course Mega Signs are going to look better.

  • Jim Martin – Grade: A. Jim's signs are both distinct from the Cathy Cox-inspired signs and good looking, and they've got the standard red/white/blue motif that is tried and true because it works. They're eye-catching and they say MARTIN in nice big letters. In other words, you couldn't ask them to do anything more.

  • Greg Hecht – Grade: D+. Greg's yard signs were pretty pitiful all around. They did say HECHT but they also added an exclamation point, part of Greg's “Give 'Em Hecht” campaign, which was so cheesy that it could have carried Wisconsin but was utterly lame in a normal state like Georgia. Also, a fair number of them inexplicably used blue text with a white outline on a red background, which felt like looking at one of those stupid optical illusion things where you can't look at them for more than a few seconds before you think you've been drinking, because of all the freaky pulsating contrasting colors. A crappy effort from a crappy campaign.

  • Casey Cagle – Grade: B-. Casey's signs have that rather odd-looking outline '06 on them, which I don't really like. What, is he afraid that people are going to try to vote for him in 2008? Or that some brainiac is going to an invent a time machine and go back to 2004 and say “Hey, all I see is Bush and Kerry, where is this Cagle dude?” The election year belongs in your web site URL, not on your campaign signs. Other than that they're kind of average.

  • Karen Handel, Tommy Irvin – Grade: B-. Karen and Tommy have both gone with green with white text, which makes a little more sense in Tommy's case (Green? Agriculture? Get it? Ha ha!) but still doesn't look all that great for a political sign. Passable. (Gary Black gets a B because the black (ha ha, get it? These puns are killing me) improves the look a bit, but his signs are still mostly green.)

  • Jack Kemp - Grade: F. Ok, so the signs themselves don't really look so bad, but why is it that there is STILL a freaking HUGE Jack Kemp sign at a major intersection in Melanie Eyre's district (house 46)? I mean come ON. If I were a Republican I'd tear the damn thing down for fear that one of my soccer mom constituents might not see the "Runoff August 8" sticker on the sign and look for Kemp on the November ballot, but I guess as a Democrat I'm ok with Republicans not having a clue what's going on.

  • Michael Thurmond – Grade: C. Michael's a super guy, but his signs (at least the ones I remember seeing on the way to the Georgia Democratic Convention looked pretty unimpressive. There was some kind of pinkish-red font (that I think has now been changed) and white text on a purple rectangle on a white background. I think the folks on Trading Spaces could have fixed them right up, but alas, they were not consulted.

  • Brent Brown – Grade: B-. Brent's signs are ubiquitous on my morning commute, but it took me three or four tries of concerted looking to actually see his name so I could remember it. The problem? The font is too thin. You want BOLD so people can read the thing from space, let alone from the Northside Drive exit off 75 as you're concentrating on not screaming because traffic is backed up at the exit again.

  • Jan Hackney (House 48) – Grade: C+. Jan is the Young Democrats' featured candidate and she is fantastic, but her signs just have too much text on them. NO ONE reads the text on yard signs, so you may as well just put your name on them in the biggest font you can slap on the things and hope for the best. The colors are good, and her T-shirts look much better, at least.

  • RuthE Levy (Senate 32) – Grade: B-. RuthE (E is for “Extremely Odd Looking Unless You've Gotten the 'E' Campaign Speech”) is a veteran and quite frankly I sort of like the little planes on her signs. Yeah, they're cheesy, but if Sonny can score with the “Sonny Do List” for crying out loud, we can safely assume that the electorate does not care one iota about cheesy yard sign gimmicks. My beef with RuthE's signs is that the red text on white background is thin font and hard to read. BOLD people!

  • Steve Sinton (U.S. House, 6th) – Grade: C+. Steve's signs (and his logo) have a funny little thing going on with the “O”, like you stuffed the blue part of an American flag into an O and called it macaroni, and it's just plain hard to see that “Oh, his name is SintON, not Sint with some strange logo stuff and an 'N'”. Fancy on your web site? Sure. Keep the yard signs simple.
del.icio.us digg Furl Ma.gnolia NewsVine Reddit Spurl YahooMyWeb

posted by Ataru Atlanta at 10/10/2006 09:26:00 PM 3 comments

Sunday, October 08, 2006

Work it harder - makes us stronger
In support of what Benson just said, those of you subscribing to the podcast are now (hopefully) being delivered your very own copy of our fun-filled canvassing video. See how much fun we have out there talking to the peoples?

The rest of you anti-podcast philistines can just go watch it the old-fashioned way on our front page.

And then ALL of you can come have this much fun on Saturday, earn that beer glass, and feel a lot better on November 8th.
del.icio.us digg Furl Ma.gnolia NewsVine Reddit Spurl YahooMyWeb

posted by Aerodad at 10/08/2006 10:16:00 PM 0 comments

Saturday, October 07, 2006

Losing the game of inches
Today's bloggerI'm not sure why this is, but it seems that some of us are just now starting to panic over the fact that Mark Taylor may not actually be the next governor of Georgia at all. A woman (Vicky, I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to meet you, so I don't know your last name), came to the YD Atlanta meeting this Wednesday who was beside herself with the apparently new-found knowledge that by every available metric Mark's campaign is unlikely to prevail at this point. I'm not sure why Vicky chose Wednesday to panic, and beg us Young Democrats to jump into the gubernatorial campaign, or why a lot of you Jon Q. Democrat folks out there are still thinking that if Mark Foley can win us the House, he can beat Sonny for us, but folks, a double digit deficit in October is a big neon sign saying “DANGER WILL ROBINSON” if I ever saw one.

Setting aside (for now) exactly why we're at this unhappy juncture, staring bleakly at four more years of Sonny just like we got four years of the Shrubmeister, we need to be brutally honest with ourselves about what is realistically at stake on November 7. Folks, the fact that Mark is basically not going to win means work harder, because every single percentage point is going to affect our fundraising for the next four years, if not the next four decades. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES can we lose this election by the double digits by which Mark is trailing now, unless of course we want to follow Greg Hecht into exile on Pluto. Our best case scenario is Jim Martin beating Casey Cagle like his long-lost red-headed stepchild from Dalton, because make no mistake: We beat back the vanguard of the Christian Taliban when Ralph Reed lost, but Casey Cagle has worse politics and better personal ethics, and he will be the next governor of Georgia if he and Sonny win. If Casey wins and rides Sonny's coattails to a big win in 2010, we will all pay, and pay, and pay, and pay, for decades to come, if not centuries. The only consolation is that in the long run we're all dead, and thank God that includes Casey Cagle. WE NEED EVERY SINGLE VOTE.

What this is now, then, is a game of inches. We're UGA playing UF with Steve Spurrier doing everything he can to run up the score on us. Do you understand me when I say that we CANNOT let Sonny and his Repuglican yes-men do that to us? We'll have four years to bitch about Sonny Perdue, Raph Reed, Casey Cagle, Cynthia McKinney, and Cathy Cox, and whoever else we're going to blame for losing this election; let's concentrate on beating these Repuglican assclowns for now until the fight is over.
del.icio.us digg Furl Ma.gnolia NewsVine Reddit Spurl YahooMyWeb

posted by Ataru Atlanta at 10/07/2006 01:21:00 AM 0 comments

 

Previous Posts

Archives

Powered by Blogger


© 2007 Young Democrats of Atlanta.
| home | about | events | join | contribute | act! | blog | links |
Copyright 2003-2007, campaignwindow.com™
Find out how you can create your own political website!