Young Democrats of Atlanta

Continuing blogging from Manuel's w/ Governor Dean

2009-07-10T16:47:00.011-04:00

4:47 P.M. Starting a new entry here, with some unique individuals (including Tom Baxter and Tom Crawford) along for the ride here, with obligatory comments about me and their sandal straps.

Tom Baxter just asked whether Governor Dean was still confident that we are going to see a public option, and he said that he was, through the prism of a bipartisan compromise (with the assorted chunks in that sausage as usual).

4:52 P.M. Catherine basically asked how we can convince people that our system is in need of change - Governor Dean is bringing it back to the point, which is choice (something we Democrats know more about than the other side). The choices will be private health insurance and a version of Medicare not restricted by age as the current version is.

Tom Baxter is bringing up a study that showed that blue states could bear more of the cost of the new system than red states, but points out that those red state lawmakers haven't been convinced by these statistics. Governor Dean is saying that these folks are ignoring public opinion at their peril - I mostly agree with that, but as the economy continues to struggle we may also find that public opinion may change beneath us. It's really a game of chicken - will the public change for the lawmakers, or the other way around?

4:57 P.M. In response to a question from Tom Crawford, Governor Dean points out that there's not a lot of competition to be destroyed by health care reform, with a handful of big insurers in most states.

Catherine is asking why corporations like GM aren't speaking up about the problems being inflicted on them by current health care costs - the Governor says some want to, but are afraid to rock the status quo, but that there is still a lot of misplaced faith in the efficiency of the private sector. Governor Dean also believes most employees would want to keep their employee-provided plans - and hey, I might too, until I figure out what the new plan that passes will do for me. Yay choice!

Governor Dean is saying that the public competitor will lower costs in two ways - it will provide a more attractive product, with no predatory pricing and other such "gotchas" we all know and hate about the private sector, and by lowering administrative costs (read: CEO pay and advertising).

5:04 P.M. Just as an update, we're looking at a select group of fourteen of the local political elite and "new media" (is that still a real term?) here with the Governor. Bernita asked how women receiving breast cancer coverage will be affected, and Governor Dean says there won't be any changes to such existing public programs.

5:10 P.M. Governor Dean just said that the old coalition that defeated this last time isn't there anymore - I wouldn't say it's gone, but maybe they don't have quite the muscle they did in the 1990's. I also wouldn't agree that the public isn't afraid of this at all, we have to assuage their fears as much as we can in the face of these sneaky attack ads.

I asked Governor Dean about some of the "maybe" public options, like the "trigger" option (which would only create a public option if the private sector doesn't reduce costs by some magic amount) and "co-ops" (I commend the reader to Google on that one, not familiar with it), and he immediately labeled all of those as "fake public options" that wouldn't be effective and wouldn't pose a threat to the "real" public option". I haven't seen where various party figures stand on these fake options, but I think it's always up for grabs in the Senate.

5:15 P.M. On the future of the Republican party - Governor Dean is suggesting that the Republican party will have to stress their fiscal credentials and leave all their social conservative nonsense to the fraction of the population who are yearning for the resurrection of Richard Nixon.

Catherine asks, "What's our next big goal?" and Governor Dean immediately pointed to climate change, legislation addressing which (or not, to varying degrees) is already underway, which he expects to be a more traditional political pitched battle (than the health care battle).

And with that (5:19 P.M.) this special session is at an end. We could wish the Governor was still running the DNC!

Live blogging from Dean's book signing at Manuel's

2009-07-10T15:39:00.006-04:00

3:39 P.M. Well, this begins anticlimatically, since the event started at 3 and it is sooo crowded here there was no way those of us who arrived late had any chance whatsoever at this one. Fortunately Paula was there to capture the event for our friends at Blog for Democracy. Governor Dean is here at Manuel's signing his book and talking health care reform - although I haven't read the BfD post, so I don't know what he actually said...

The Q and A is over, so people have managed to get a better foothold in the room, but it's still pretty hard to maneuver.

3:47 P.M. There are a number of people here in orange shirts in support of H.R. 676, sponsored by John Conyers.

They had a banner too, but I missed the chance to take the picture. I guess it's not super crowded here now, there are places to sit.

4:01 P.M. Paula is totally making the most of the chance to be a Dean groupie, with YDAtl friend Catherine Smith:

YDAtl financial friends A Capella Books are providing the printed materials for this event. At some point these updates will fall to a lull until the book signing is over, but hey, something exciting could happen in the next hour (like a martini).

4:26 P.M. The dreaded Last Call has been issued - for books, that is. Governor Dean is posing for some photo ops with a medium sized handful (melts in your mouth, not in your hand) of the folks still here. Not sure what's next, but this ain't the end of this post - stay tuned.

YD's at the Democratic Party of Georgia Jefferson-Jackson dinner

2009-05-12T18:36:00.005-04:00

7:43 P.M. The YD table, featuring your YDG president Jane Bradshaw...

7:24 P.M. If you haven't met your Atlanta region rep Leslie Small, or his dynamic ("dynamic" = "sweet but don't facking mess with her") fiance Nikema, here they are!

7:03 P.M. Michael Julian Bond isn't a Young Dem, but he was at our May business meeting, and we were happy to see him.

6:42 P.M. This isn't the real live blog from the JJ dinner, but you might like to see some friends all dressed up. Amir Farokhi, our friend running for city council, is here:

Recognize Mr. Male Young Democrat of the Year and president of Most Improved County, Cobb?

Zak and Khaz hangin' with Senator Curt Thompson, a friend of ours from Gwinnett:

Live blog from the remainder of Sine Die

2009-04-03T20:09:00.031-04:00

12:05 A.M. This legislative session, and maybe MARTA as you know it, is over.

Might wanna bring a Segway to your next Braves game. Oh well, guess it could have been worse.

11:58 P.M. House is reading the resolutions, it's all over on this side.

Jerry Keen has moved to adjourn Sine Die on this side... and I hear the Senate adjourning too.

11:52 P.M. King Glenn has put in a call to the Bat Phone, time's getting real tight. H.B. 169 is again not considered on the motion to suspend the one hour rule 55-107. Another motion to suspend the rule fails 67-97.

11:47 P.M. Motion to suspend the one hour rule in the House fails 87-82 - supposedly that was because the bill had not lain on the table for an hour. Rep. Morgan is moving to adopt the CCR to H.B. 251 again, and it is adopted 97-73. One hour rule is again not suspended, 76-90, to consider H.B. 169.

11:43 P.M. Senate rejects a bill whose number I can't remember, but some evil people cheered, while the environmental folks stood by.

11:37 P.M. Larry just told Tim that transportation is toast. He might not have been joking when he asked for a ride back to the Inman Park station...

11:32 P.M. Senate passes H.B. 2 38-16. More immigration enforcement, 'cuz that's what we need to focus on now.

11:23 P.M. House rejects Rep. Morgan's H.B. 251 77-78, but votes to reconsider 103-62. Word is "payback", not sure I'm at liberty to say for what though.

11:15 P.M. Bunch of boring House conference committee reports, one by Rep. Major Jerk of the 80th, who incidentally isn't that much taller than I am. My feet hurt. Here is our next Attorney General taking a break:

H.B. 189 passes 91-66, but is reconsidered 87-77. I don't know what this bill is but it seems controversial.

10:59 P.M. House rejects H.B. 169 55-110. No sub metering.

10:50 P.M. Word is that S.B. 164 (billboards) may come back and Tim's talking call-out strategy and counting votes.

10:45 P.M. Amazing, S.B. 67 (English only written drivers' examinations, among other things), fails 22-22. House just passed S.B. 56. 107-60.

10:26 P.M. House votes 136-30 to take S.B. 56 off the table. Don't we already have laws that keep you from stocking up on Sudafed?

10:21 P.M. S.B. 82 finally passes 141-20. Some education stuff is coming up in the House soon, we hear, but we're not being called on to act yet.

10:17 P.M. The Senate votes down Adelman's amendment to S.B. 200 22-33. Senate adopts the House substitute 33-22. Rep. Golick seems to be speaking in favor of S.B. 82.

10:07 P.M. The Senate debate on S.B. 200 is continuing and is not proceeding quietly.

9:57 P.M. Page and Tasso are chillin'. The YD's are scattered. I'm bored. Rep. Smyre isn't.

9:53 P.M. The Senate (in the form of Sen. Thompson) has been discussing something that sounds suspiciously like the DOT revamp.

9:44 P.M. The Big Show and Rep. Alan Powell are passing the time while the House continues droning on about metal recycling.

9:26 P.M. The House is debating S.B. 82. Hopefully someone will be able to explain to me why something trying to cut down on copper theft by imposing some regulations on metal recyclers is generating so much controversy. Leslie Small says the purpose of the bill is to make the night longer. Guess they'd rather chit chat about metal recycling rather than talk about MARTA.

9:22 P.M. Sen. Orrock is taking questions from Sen. Thompson on the conference committee report on H.B. 481, which would provide part-time unemployment benefits. Speaker (sic) Richardson is up to his usual silliness.

9:14 P.M. S.B. 86 passes the House, 104-67.

9:07 P.M. There is some action going on now, yes. Debate on S.B. 86, which requires proof of citizenship before you even register to vote (as though the voter ID law wasn't strict enough), is ongoing. Rep. Pedro Marin (Gwinnett) is in the well and a good number of the YD contingent have headed to the gallery.

8:50 P.M. Check the array of Young Dems ready to spring into action when (not if) the Republicans try something sleazy:

And in what HAS to be the moment of the day, an intrepid soul (pictured) managed to capture Sharon Teague's latest unbelievable DFI transgression.

This blogger's opinions regarding Rep. Teague are once again vindicated.

8:34 P.M. Dinner's over, and the crew is getting ready for the last shift. Larry Pellegrini is always a good guy to talk to...

Tim's been on top of the game for the whole day. Brad says he thinks there's something voucher-y going on, but when isn't there with these bozos in charge?

8:10 P.M. More or less just got here. I hear that many YD's have taken a semi-permanent break at the Irish pub near the Capitol (because the service sucks, not because anyone's giving up or anything). When Tasso (and Lauren Benedict)...

...and Calvin Smyre...

...have time to kick back to this degree, you know it's going slow. They're back to voting on some stuff now, but I see Ben Myers and Nikema Williams still sitting here near me, so nothing too important seems to be imminent. Reading Young Democrats of Georgia guru Tim Cairl's running commentary (interrupted by some Guinness, as I mentioned), seems that some of our stuff is still in play.

I figure it's probably not a good sign when random old guys high-five while waiting at the rope for their legislative victims.

Celebrate Earth Hour tonight

2009-03-28T10:48:00.002-04:00

The annual observance of Earth Hour, an hour where the lights of cities and homes are dimmed to promote awareness of environmental issues, has once again arrived. From 8:30 P.M. to 9:30 P.M., whatever your time zone, turn off the lights and show your Mother some love.

No Surgeon Sanjay after all

2009-03-06T06:59:00.002-05:00

Atlanta's most visible doctor, Sanjay Gupta, who was *squinchy gesture* thisclose to being Surgeon General, has removed himself from consideration for the post. Is it ok to be a little disheartened by another first choice not working out?

Sunday sales squashed, again

2009-03-04T17:59:00.002-05:00

Another year, another victory the Sarah Palins of the Georgia Legislature. The Sunday alcohol sales legislation was withdrawn in committee in the Senate, again, because the votes to pass it weren't there, again. We tried, guys!

Sunday sales committee vote today?

2009-02-25T05:49:00.002-05:00

For those of you who don't like having to ask "What day is it?" before you head out to the convenience store, YDAtl is lobbying today in favor of a bill that would allow Sunday alcohol sales - a committee vote on the bill could be coming soon. This may be one of the very few issues where we can actually get on the same page with the Young Republicans - that's when you know our state has some silly laws!

Blue Dining: Flip

2009-02-18T13:47:00.003-05:00

Flip Burger Boutique

www.flipburgerboutique.com

1587 Howell Mill Road

Lunch: M-S 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Dinner: M-Th 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., F 5 p.m. to 11 p.m.

Saturday: Open all day 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Closed Sundays

By Jeff Romig

I’ve eaten countless Krispy Kreme doughnuts in my 31 years.

For as long as I can remember, I believed the only way to eat an original glazed Krispy Kreme was hot and fresh.

When the hot sign is lit, that’s the best time to get your fix.

But thanks to Chef Richard Blais, I’ve had a paradigm shift.

Blais has taken the traditional goodness of a hot, fresh Krispy Kreme and flipped it on its head.

While any given meal at Blais’ Flip Burger Boutique won’t necessary begin with the Krispy Kreme milkshake, it should certainly end with the liquid version of America’s best doughnut.

It’s as amazing as it sounds. I promise.

As for what to get before you order your milkshake, Flip also reinvents the idea of what a burger can be.

The top and bottom of each burger is a buttery, delicious brioche bun, while the middle is your choice of 15 or so different options from new takes on the traditional beef variety as well as nontraditional takes like a Shrimp Po Boyger, a Cuban and a Breakfast burger.

My favorite is the Steak Tartare burger, which is a wonderful mix of chopped rare steak, garlic, capers and Worcestershire topped with a smoked mayo.

And you can’t go wrong with a side of Vodka-battered onion rings and an old-school bottle of Cheerwine or Sundrop.

But if that’s not your style, I guarantee with all the choices offered on a daily basis, you’ll find something you’ll love.

I recommend going early because lines are consistently long and there are no reservations.

But even if you have to wait, it’s more than worth it as the food and atmosphere are truly a blast!

Is this the end for Morris Brown?

2009-02-17T07:02:00.002-05:00

Morris Brown, an HBCU founded by former slaves, has been on life support for years, and today might be the day the feeding tube gets disconnected for good. The college owes the City of Atlanta $214,000 in back water bills, but only has $60,000 to pay. They have until 5 P.M. today to come up with the cash or the water switch gets flipped off (again). It doesn't seem to be looking good.

100 years of the NAACP - where does it go now?

2009-02-12T18:55:00.002-05:00

The venerable NAACP, an organization that over the years has stood both at the forefront and the middle of the push for civil rights, turns 100 today. It's come a long way from the days of Brown v. Board of Education and W. E. B. Du Bois - not least in that many people now would be hard pressed to identify him, or to identify any of the NAACP's ongoing activities. When was the last time you saw the NAACP in the news? For me, it was when they were leading the outcry against the treatment of the Jena Six. That was a time to remember that even with Barack Obama in the White House, the battle is not yet over. But what vision can move the organization to its next victory? Is the NAACP suffering a similar fate to many of the HBCU's in Atlanta, as we see Morehouse, Clark Atlanta, and others struggling? Will there be another John Lewis, Ralph David Abernathy, or Martin Luther King Jr., and if so, will (s)he come from the ranks of the NAACP?

Bzzt, time warp, we're still here!

2009-02-10T07:13:00.003-05:00

Wow, a lot as happened since our last blog post on May 6, 2008.. Barack Obama won the primary, John McCain imploded (insert "poof" sound here), America elected a black man as its President, and now the news of the day is President Obama and his three best friends in the Senate, who just happen to be Republicans at the moment: Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe, and Arlen Specter. Oh yeah, and that guy who makes the jokes still hasn't finished beating Norm Coleman yet. Hope Y'ALL have been doing good in the last, what, 9 months? We have! Look for slightly more frequent updates here going forward.

2008-05-06T13:44:00.001-04:00

Future is Blue: Passing the Torch: Connecting the Young Democrats of 1968 to the Young Democrats of 2008

Please join us on Monday, May 12th at Carolyn’s Gourmet Café at 7 p.m. for our annual fundraiser, Future is Blue.

Forty years have passed since the events of 1968 reshaped our nation. Young Democrats of Atlanta is deeply honored to host Democratic leaders who will lead a night of remembrance and storytelling.

Speakers will recount their 1968 experiences related to Vietnam, the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, the lives and deaths of Martin Luther King, Jr., Bobby Kennedy, and more.

We are pleased and deeply honored to feature the following speakers:

Winston Johnston - confidant of Coretta Scott King, who inspired her involvement in LGBT issues.
Lonnie King – Civil Rights Movement Student Leader and former President of the NAACP
Tasso Knight – 7th Congressional District Chair and Political & Legislative Directors for UFCW 1996
Nan Orrock – Georgia State Senator
Kay Scott – President and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Georgia

Additionally, we will present video recollections by U.S. Representative John Lewis

Georgia State Senator Kasim Reed and Atlanta City Councilman Lamar Willis, representatives of a young generation of lawmakers, will serve as the evening’s hosts.

We could not be more thrilled to be the next wave of Democrats from the birthplace of the civil rights movement.

If you would like to make a donation to the Young Democrats of Atlanta, please visit our website at www.atlantayoungdems.org or join us Monday at Carolyn’s.

Admission: We are asking a minimum donation of $25 dollars.

Carolyn’s Gourmet Café is located at 1151 W. Peachtree Street, Atlanta, GA 30309
-A note about parking: There is limited parking at Carolyn’s and Einstein’s Bros Bagels, as well as street parking on 13th. There are also pay lots across the street and at the corner of 14th and Spring streets.

Live blog from YDA quarterly meeting in Anaheim

2008-02-29T16:55:00.032-05:00

Sunday, 10:45 A.M. Last pictures before I hit the shuttle...

I leave you with a picture of Tomorrowland, and it's *blue*, people! Great conference - we'll be back, Ah-nold.

Sunday, 10:12 A.M. Things are wrapping up here. Unfortunately our coverage will have to end prematurely due to my flight out at 1:30, but we currently have the state presidents' association meeting...

...as well as the college caucus (which has more people in attendance than you can see in this photo). Not sure who the guest speaker is (not pictured).

The LGBT caucus meeting starts at 10:30, which I can bring a little bit of before I catch the bus to the exciting theme park known as LAX, featuring thrills, chills, and surly TSA agents.

Saturday, 7:13 P.M. Just got done with the Southeast Region meeting - we have a new region director, Alan Brock from Florida. We are getting ready to go get some food and inevitably degenerate into, um, other activities, so this may be the last update for tonight.

Saturday, 6:11 P.M. Dispatches from the picket line:

Word from Tony Cani is we had 286 people on the picket line - it's amazing how powerful you feel with a picket sign in your hand, shouting "Si Se Puede" or "We are the union, the mighty mighty union". We were on the picket line with people in their chef's uniform and with their kids. Anyone up for finding a picket line around here? :-)

This is definitely uncharted but awesome territory.

Saturday, 4:18 P.M. This rally is STARTED! Do we have a huge crowd here or what?

We are ready to march and take the message to management!

Saturday, 4:07 P.M. Oops, guess there were also breakouts on LGBT issues, women's rights, immigration, and a couple more things I can't read from here. The number of people gathered outside waiting for this issues stuff to finish is pretty impressive.

Saturday, 3:58 P.M. We're very close to starting the labor rally, but here are the four breakout sessions (the fourth one was environmental issues or something).

Environmental issues:

Health care:

Veterans' affairs:

And education:

Not sure how this rally thing is going to work. The VA group is advocating Google bombs, which I don't think is really very kosher ;-P

Saturday, 3:42 P.M. Bunch of photos. Between all the branding and cuteness, the kids, and the incessant Disney theme music, everything is seeming very corporate Stepford here...

This guy has got to be rolling in his grave.

The smokers' caucus had a little meeting. They've really raised their profile here - the prominent members really have their own special credentials and positions (Lindsey Barret is VP of chain smoking or something...).

The video taping and general geekery has been continuing (the interviewee in the second photo below is the labor caucus secretary, which you can probably guess from his Teamsters shirt):

The issues meeting has divided into breakouts on health care, education, veterans affairs (or something), and something else which I didn't catch. Here are some photos from earlier...

Our union march supposedly starts in ten minutes, but as usual we've been behind for most of the afternoon. At least it's not really raining at the moment.

Saturday, 3:10 P.M. Here's the Christine Pelosi clip:

There seems to be strong interest in purchasing the "Boot Camp" book, as well as in getting it signed by Ms. Pelosi...

Tony Cani is now running a session on issues activism and advocacy, similar to what I remember him doing for the Southeast Region meeting last year. According to Tony, the main reason legislators listen to us under the Dome is a desire to keep their seats and/or look good to their constituents (rock stars like Nan Orrock being the exception rather than the rule).

I met one of my fellow bloggers earlier today, who suggested that we might profitably blog occasionally on Kos (which I confess I know nothing about) and reach a wider audience in Georgia. Maybe that's something worth looking into.

Saturday, 2:49 P.M. Sweet, looks like the video upload worked this time. Christine Pelosi is uploading now. This is turning out to be another good session - giving people a chance to put into practice what they just heard is a lot more effective, and that's what we're getting here. My cyber colleague Ken Whitaker from Michigan is going to have pretty much this whole shebang on YouTube somewhere sometime, so if you're looking for more Christine check it out. You can see him to the right of the picture below, with the video camera.

At one point, the bloggers in the audience (and the audience is pretty dang big) were asked to raise their hands, and a bunch of people did. We're hearing a practice campaign speech from a man running for a judgeship in Texas.

Saturday, 2:34 P.M. Let's see if this works this time - I recorded a few minutes of Mark Newman's fundraising presentation from earlier, and I believe the sound and all is working this time (unlike it was when I tried things in Dallas). Mark had a lot of good things to say, and if this works I have some footage of Christine Pelosi as well that is rendering as we speak.

Christine specifically mentioned Max Cleland's experience as an example of the lesson that you should not let the opposition define you. (We're perfectly willing to define Saxby, of course, but this is a family blog.)

Saturday, 2:16 P.M. The next item on the agenda (after the conclusion of what was a great panel with some WGA members) is a "boot camp" session run by Christine Pelosi.

You know, she's a YD as well as everything else she is, which makes it that much cooler that she can speak so authoritatively about what it takes to be a candidate.

Saturday, 12:54 P.M. We're about halfway through lunch now, and we are just starting a panel discussion with some members of the Writers Guild about the recent writers' strike.

This may be the most pro-union place I've been - we gave a big shout out to the people serving us, who we are probably going to be joining us in the march (I don't know whether there's a picket line - people have said these people aren't actually on strike). Fist in the air for Labor!

Some of these people on stage have written for such well-known shows as The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, and others were prominent strike organizers, so this is pretty cool.

Saturday, 11:16 A.M. Holy dollar signs, Batman, this fundraising training meeting is *packed*. Every seat is taken and there's barely space to sit on the floor in the back. Mark Newman and Amy Lewis are running through some power point slides that I am hoping to get my hands on - I missed the start of this by being at the labor caucus. Mark just said that the thing he hates most is when people view donors as ATM's rather than investors.

The whole "I can't believe she said no!" thing is definitely going to be my least favorite part of my finance chair job!

Saturday, 10:31 A.M. Coincidentally, one of the people here is also live-blogging, so that makes at least 3 people at this meeting, and any number of other people with video cameras. Tech power!

Saturday, 10:24 A.M. There are some interesting ideas being discussed at the labor caucus, which seems well-attended (President Hardt is here as well). In addition to discussing the march for the Disney hotel workers later today, there's also a suggestion to have Young Labor Democrats (or some such slogan) t-shirts printed for Labor Day, and to have photos of chapters around the country wearing them to Labor Day events. We'd look good wearing them to the Labor Day picnic at the Hapeville UAW (assuming that happens...), don't you think?

It's kind of neat to be asked to introduce yourself with "I believe the brother from Georgia has joined us?" ;-)

Saturday, 10:07 A.M. Geez, walking between the buildings here is a real trial. I mean, there's the kids screaming "I wanna go hooommmeeee!!!" (seriously), as well as towers named "Dream" and "Wonder" ("Tower of Wonder IV, the Quickening", coming soon to theaters), and then the Donald Duck topiary that looks more like a nightmare than a dream...

I'm at "On Camera Media Training", which is looking like it's a very good training indeed - attendees are going through some media pitches for their organizations while getting tips from the woman doing the training...

Got to grab my stuff from the demographic training room.

Saturday, 9:56 A.M. Dropping in now on "Working with the Media" (my favorite subject <sarcasm>)...

Judging by attendance here, it seems that learning about the young and unmarried demographic is less interesting to young people than learning how to talk to the media. Guess demographic outreach just isn't as sexy as getting interviewed and sending out press releases... They're now mentioning my #1 lesson, "Nothing Is Off The Record. Ever." I could raise my hand and be like "yeah, here's what I said off the record that ended up in the AJC!" ;-)

Saturday, 9:45 A.M. Reporting briefly from Rules and Charter, the topic under discussion is some arcana related caucus formation and procedures - seems there is desire to have a Veterans Caucus, but I've missed a lot of the preceding discussion.

Now we're on to the soooo exciting "Amendment 2", so I think I'm heading elsewhere.

Saturday, 9:11 A.M. My portion of the Georgia contingent called it a night early last night, but the welcome reception did feature some fairly high profile people. We had the vice chair of the California Democratic Party, as well as Crystal Strait (DNC representative for YDA) and Phil Angelides, who you may remember as the Democratic challenger to Ah-nold in 2006. He was not a girly-man, and he kept his comments short so we could get back to the open bar.

This morning some of us (Billy and Kirk) are enjoying the Fun that is Rules and Bylaws, while me and Jane are currently at a session on reaching woman and young voters, put on by a speaker from Lake Research Partners.

We know that these demographics are trending Democratic, but there are still some interesting figures here. Only 21% of unmarried woman have a bachelor's degree - wow. Also, contrary to what I thought at least, young people and unmarried women list jobs and the economy as their most important issue, above Iraq. With 80% of these demographics indicating that they are following the election closely, we clearly have a chance to really impact the election and win some new converts to the Democratic cause.

Friday, 7:52 P.M. We're hearing from president of Unite Here Local 681, which represents the hotel workers here who have been on the job since February 1 without a contract.

We're hearing from some of the rank and file union members as well, one of the bellmen shared his concerns about his employer health care. So yeah, I'm going to be there marching tomorrow. Disney can sure afford to pay these people more than $8 an hour, which ain't the same as $8 back in Atlanta. You can't live on that here.

Our last speaker is Tim Steed, the president of the California Young Democrats, and then we are off to the welcome reception.

Friday, 7:24 P.M. Well, guess I was wrong - the conference "kickoff" is in progress. We got some nice propaganda (this is the only picture of the video that came out, not that the video favored Obama):

We heard from Tony Cani, who is (I think?) YDA political director, who introduced YDA president David Hardt, who happens to be a Texas superdelegate (i.e. more popular than Britney Spears these days).

This is the first time I've seen David since he was elected at the convention last year. We're seeing a YouTube video about the "youthquake" that is shaking the nation ;-)

Friday, 6:56 P.M. We're here now, with an hour before the welcoming ceremony.

Everything has names like "Magic Way" (street) and "Sleeping Beauty Pavilion" (meeting room...). Ugh! Tim told us all about how we're supposed to be supporting the Disney hotel workers tomorrow, or something.

Dinner was tasty, although apparently "Tex-Mex" isn't a concept that exists around here. I guess Jason doesn't have to worry about the cow tongue tacos on this trip...

Friday, 4:28 P.M. Well, we have finally arrived at the hotel, after an exciting trip in the rental car, where we ran into some of the famous LA palm trees...

...as well as that famous LA traffic.

Looks kinda familiar, huh? Turns out we could take public transportation from here to Disneyland (we're opting for the cheap and Mickey-free hotel), but it would involve two different buses and would take an hour - this is for five miles. Yup, that's something us Atlantans know all about!

We're going to hunt for some edibles of the Tex-Mex variety before we join our friends at the Disney hotel.

Friday, 1:55 P.M. I bring you news from Anaheim, or more properly LAX at the moment, where me and Jane Bradshaw are waiting for Exalted President Cecil, who is arriving late after a fun snow delay in Chicago.

The YDA meeting is at the Disneyland hotel and resort, and we are looking forward to a productive couple of days - although some people are probably still going to be in full campaign mode (like our YDA president from Texas, for one). You can see we're having lots of fun ;-)

The Bill on the Hill

2008-02-19T22:32:00.000-05:00

In honor of our first lobby day under the gold dome, I figured I would treat you to a Seuss-inspired meditation on the joys of lobbying...

One bill,
two bill,
bad bill,
good bill.

People vote for the bill -
on a hill in the city, they will!

Will the people kill the bill on the hill?
Or will they dote when they vote their fill?

How will the people vote on the hill?
The people on the hill serve us, the public, still -
They note what they hear, with a cheer or a sneer -
They hear and they note, before they vote,
What the public says, however remote!

You can call them on the phone -
You can call them from home or from your ring-tone phone -
You can grumble and groan about the bill on the hill -
Only a goat would vote for that swill of a bill!
Just be humble, don't mumble - it's part of the drill,
But they'll listen, the people who vote, they will!

Boy or girl, give it a whirl -
You can write them a letter!
If you're a go-getter, you can do even better -
you can go go to the dome, unless you're a gnome,
and call the people, big or small, short or tall -
They'll come to the hall!
You can grill them on the bill on the hill
If you're on the ball!

So give it a try -
Start the Lobby Hobby - don't be shy!
Bobby and Robby and Sue,
Mildred and Maggie and Lou!
Don't be blue because of Sonny Perdue -
there's still a lot to do!
Don't let them vote for the bill on the hill without you!

Live commentary on the Democratic debate in South Carolina

2008-01-21T20:11:00.000-05:00

8:12 P.M. Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, and Barack Obama are debating tonight in South Carolina, and hopefully all of you are watching from home - the rest of us are here at Verve with the Atlanta Urban League Young Professionals. A lot of Hillary and Obama supporters are here. The opening question is focusing on short-term economic issues, and Clinton and Obama have promised economic help. John Edwards unnecessarily began with a preamble about Martin Luther King Jr., which got a "uh yeah" look from Obama. Obama is now taking a middle ground between Edwards (who is anti-free trade), and Clinton (who is more pro-trade, if I understand her stand).

8:23 P.M. WOW, the gloves are coming off early! Edwards made a comment about some of Obama's plans, saying that they put control in George Bush's hands, and Obama said "Well, first of all, in a year I'll be the one in control." And then Obama called out both Hillary and Bill, to which Clinton retorted with her perception that Obama hasn't followed through with his war speech and that he agreed with Ronald Reagan. Clinton and Obama at one point were talking over each other and everyone here was like "ooohhhhHHH!!!" Obama accused Clinton of supporting Reagan herself, and now Clinton has attacked Obama for serving as a lawyer for some "slum landlord" in Chicago. I don't even know half of this shit! Edwards is now playing the "Hey I matter too" card, so we're calming down again.

8:33 P.M.

John Edwards is talking about predatory lenders and such, and I'll take this opportunity to wonder if maybe both Obama and Clinton are missing an opportunity a la Drew Westen to defend themselves without resorting to some pretty low blows. Hillary is defending her interest rate freeze plan, which doesn't sound like such a bad plan to me. I don't know how this debate is playing nationally so far, but I don't think Hillary can win with South Carolina voters by tearing down the black man on national TV.

8:39 P.M. Obama has just said that he spent five hours on the project that he worked on that prompted the "slum lord" comment from Hillary. Hillary is still on the attack on Obama, saying that he's done the bidding of the insurance companies and voted against limiting credit card interest to 30%, and Hillary just said "Senator Obama, it's very difficult having a debate with you because you never take responsibility for any of your votes." YIKES!!!! There are still people out there who are using this debate to make a decision, and I'm not sure they're going to have a lot to go on here.

8:47 Edwards just went off on Obama too! "You've done the same thing you've done to us [me and Hillary], picked out certain votes out of the thousands of votes we've cast." Obama is using his support for reforming the death penalty in Illinois to show that he's willing to make the tough decisions, and I have to say that's probably going to score him points with this audience.

8:51 We're finally back to some substance in the debate; Hillary is talking about her health plan, although not quite specifically answering the question which specifically asked how black women would benefit. "Senator Obama, does your plan cover the illegal immigrants?" The answer is no; he's avoiding calling for universal health care, as Hillary has done here. Sadly, this is well-traveled territory for both of these candidates, it's not too interesting. Edwards is pointing out that Obama has taken drug company money and Clinton has taken insurance company money, and that Obama's health care plan isn't really "universal".

8:58 P.M.

Hillary is coming out strong on universal health care, "If we don't start out fighting for it, it isn't going to happen." She's calling out Obama again by saying that he is taking a pass by not going for universal health care. Obama is saying that a good plan will induce people to purchase it, which really is a fundamental philosophical disagreement with Hillary - again being honest, hoping that people are going to purchase your magical health insurance plan sounds a lot like Mitt Romney's position. Like, geez.

9:03 P.M. Hillary is talking about the Iraq surge, and she's saying that she will put pressure on the Iraqi government by withdrawing troops (not ALL troops, no one missed the absence of that word). Edwards is talking about why John McCain is wrong about the surge, which is not an answer that is really going to surprise anyone. Obama is also not giving an answer that's really different than the usual rhetoric, yeah, he's not a fan.

9:20 P.M.

We are just getting back for the halfway mark break:

The people I talked to weren't generally very happy with the very uncivil tone of the debate thus far, and I'm inclined to agree. I don't know that it presents a problem for us in the general, but I think both candidates involved in the semi-personal attacks could have scored more points with a less combative approach without allowing their opponent to score unwarranted points against them. Incidentally, I'm blogging with my back to the T.V. here, and other people have told me that Hillary's body language has in particular been too aggressive. Al Gore lost the election partially on the basis of his step towards Bush during one of the debates that he "won", so clearly there are some lessons from the past that could profitably be applied here.

The question is basically "Senator Obama, should black people vote for you or for the best candidate?" and he had a snappy comeback, "Well, I think Senator Clinton things women should vote for the person who would do what's right, and John Edwards is looking for his white male constituency to do the same." John Edwards is on his poverty stump again, and Obama and Clinton are responding. The Obama folks at the front seem amused by Senator Clinton's answer.

9:30 P.M. Hm, I suspect things are going to get interesting again. The question to Obama is "Do you think Bill Clinton was the first black president?" Obama is saying that Bill Clinton deserves credit for what he did... LOL Obama just said that he's not sure whether Bill was in fact a brother, and Calvin Smyre in the audience apparently got a laugh out of it. Hillary is saying that one of her heroes was Frederick Douglass, which I'm not sure is going to come across as inspiring or patronizing. I wish she could have had a chance to make that comment earlier.

9:37 P.M. Hee hee, Mijha just leaned over to me and said "Do you figure Howard Dean called during the break and said 'YOU FREAKS GET BACK ON MESSAGE, DAMN IT!'", because so far things have been a lot more subdued in this half of the debate.

9:40 P.M. The next question is for Hillary, "Do you think Bill has overshadowed you and your message?" and of course the answer is "No, I'm my own candidate." It's dressed up a lot better than that, of course, she is casting it as "I want to help these people in our country, they are what inspire me." Obama is basically agreeing but of course alluding to the big issues he and Bill have had over the last few weeks. Obama: "Bush and Cheney, the one good thing they have done for us is give their party a very bad name."

9:45 P.M. Wow, John Edwards just said that John McCain is increasingly likely to be the Republican candidate. What? I haven't counted Mitt Romney out of the equation yet, and the only reason McCain won South Carolina is that Fred Thompson took a lot of Huckabee's votes away. If Fred Thompson reverts to form and sucks it up the rest of the way, Huckabee has a great chance of winning Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, and Tennessee on Super Tuesday, and probably any number of other states with a bunch of evangelicals. So I definitely don't agree with Edwards on that point. We're into another break.

9:54 P.M. We're back, and Hillary is playing along with Edwards and assuming that McCain will be the nominee, and she's saying that she can beat McCain at the national security game. Despite Edwards disagreeing with her, I think she's completely right. McCain is Iraq, Iraq, Iraq, Iraq, and Iraq, and it's a lock that national and international security are going to dominate the election. And all of a sudden the Howard Dean call is out the window and Hillary is going back on the attack on special interest money, lumping Obama and Edwards in with the "take money and help from lobbyists" and saying "you just have to say no". Obama isn't really taking the bait, but he's saying that Hillary can't contrast herself with McCain because she voted for the war with "reservations".

10:01 P.M. This might be a make-or-break question to finish, it's "Why would MLK endorse you?" Edwards is on his poverty stump again, and hey, MLK might have gone with that. It would be interesting to have them answer, "Why would Malcolm X endorse you?" - I think that would be a total win for Obama. Obama is saying that MLK wouldn't endorse anyone, which is a nice idea, and he's dressing up the answer, but I really think MLK would have made a choice just like everyone else - and really, he might very well have gone for Obama, for any number of great reasons. I suppose that was the right answer though. Hillary is answering along Obama's lines, talking about what MLK's values were. And that's the debate!

10:05 P.M. Last thoughts, before the pundits beat me to it: I rate Hillary 50, Barack 45, and Edwards 5, but with the audience listening, I don't honestly think Hillary came out better than 45 and Obama 50. She can't treat the black man on stage, who's between two white people, like one of the pathetic old white Republican dudes one of them will face, and she has to attack him differently. So my prediction, which you should believe as much as the pollsters who said that Obama would win NH, is SC will go 49% Barack, 43% Hillary, and 8% Edwards. Maybe more Edwards at the expense of Hillary. (Full disclosure: I'm a Hillary guy, which doesn't mean that YDAtl is endorsing her).

5 Days Left!

2008-01-02T17:48:00.000-05:00

If you haven't done so, please register to vote. Deadline is January 7th.

Thank you, Chris Dodd

2007-12-18T14:56:00.000-05:00

Say what you will about Chris Dodd's chances of winning the nomination, let alone the presidency, but I think the man deserves our gratitude for doing what the Democrats really should have been doing since the day George W. Bush took office - putting the brakes on when legislation comes through that deserves scrutiny, careful thought, and, in many cases, raucous laughter as it's booted out on its legislative ear. The reauthorization of FISA with immunity in place for the telecommunications companies that enabled the president's illegal wiretap operation should not pass. Dodd came off of the campaign trail to say exactly that, and his leadership, along with that of Russ Feingold, has kicked the reauthorization back until after the Congressional recess. While this is only a delay, it is still a change from the usual rubber stamp given to measures the administration deems crucial to our national security without providing (or even being asked to provide) any reason that that is the case. As I'm sure we all remember from when the warrantless wiretapping story broke, there was nothing in the existing FISA scheme to stop the administration from wiretapping terrorism suspects. The protections the law offered citizens were far from difficult to navigate - the White House just decided it didn't have to consider them at all. Instead of holding them accountable for their illegal activity, the Democratic majority rolled over and gave them temporary amendments that essentially gave legitimacy to the illegal wiretapping program. The passage of these amendments was an embarrassment. It was another case of capitulation for no discernible reason, something akin to folding with a full house. Just like so many times before, the majority acquiesced, perhaps hoping for favor from the administration in the future when the past has shown that such favor won't come. Thank you, Mr. Dodd, for finally showing us that we can have a spine, and for standing up for the rights of all Americans.

Less Than A Month To Go - How Do I Register To Vote?!?!

2007-12-11T12:37:00.000-05:00

That’s right, the Presidential Preference Primary is right around the corner! And thanks to overzealous states, ours has been bumped up a month. That also means that registering to vote has been bumped up a month too! So how do you register? It’s Easy!

Option 1:

Are you moving before January 7th? Then registering is easy. When you make your dreaded visit to the DMV (or now DDS) and they ask if you’d like to register to vote, say YES! If you are changing your address via internet, like I did a few years ago, you can also register to vote; just click the correct radial button. Trust me, it is easy!

Option 2:

Show up to the next Business Meeting or FCDP Holiday Party! This Wednesday, I will be at the Fulton County Democratic Party Holiday Party armed with registration forms. I will also be at our meeting in January, just days before the deadline, with more forms.

Can’t make either. Then send me an email and I’ll make sure a form is in your hands before the deadline. If you choose this option, please do so many days before January 7th.

Option 3:

Online Options: Go to the Secretary of State’s Website before January 7th and download a voter registration form to mail to your County Board of Registrar's Office or Secretary of State's Office. Again, no postage necessary if mailed within the United States.

Option 4:

Any of these other locations before January 7th: Fulton County Government Center (141 Pryor Street, SW, Suite 4085, Atlanta, GA 30303), South Service Center (5600 Stonewall Tell Road, College Park, GA), North Service Center (7741 Roswell Road, Sandy Springs, GA), All Public Libraries, All County Courthouses and City Halls. If you are a student or school personnel, you can also register at your college or high school.

Please note that we are currently subject to the new voter registration laws in Georgia. Please visit this site to learn about which IDs are acceptable, or how to obtain a free voter ID if you currently do not have an acceptable ID.

REMEMBER THE DEADLINE IS JANUARY 7TH!

Will you help turn Georgia Blue?

Candidate Round-Up.

2007-12-03T13:20:00.000-05:00

Clinton Scare.

As you may have heard, a man made his way into the Clinton Campaign office in Rochester, NH on Friday. He entered the building around 1PM, with what was later determined to be road flares strapped to his chest, and the standoff ended around 6PM. Luckily, all 5 hostages were freed unharmed. Also, luckily, this was the work of a man who wanted to speak to Clinton regarding mental health care – he is a man who describes himself as needing mental care that is very difficult to come by – and not the work of someone who does not want to see a woman in the White House.

Rudy Gets No Love.

Rudy Giuliani visited our wonderful State this weekend. He was in town for a Buckhead fundraiser, and decided to make a stop in Marietta. It was in the Marietta Square where he met about 2 dozen supporters – and about 2 dozen louder, younger Paul supporters. Granted, it would be nice to have these enthusiastic Paul supporters vote for the Democrats, but it is refreshing to see young people making a call for change, even if we don’t agree with the supported leader of said change.

Rove and Obama?

In an unsolicited memo sent from Karl Rove to Barak Obama, Rove explains to Obama how to beat Clinton for the Democratic Nomination. So what is Rove’s advice? In a nutshell, “stop acting like a vitamin-deficient Adlai Stevenson.” While, on the surface this appears to be solid advice, I have to wonder what Rove’s motives are. The Republican Party has already implemented the “lets make out like Clinton is going to win the Democratic Nomination, so our base will be motivated to vote - because, lets face it, they don’t like any of us” card. It seems that any advantage Rove might give to Obama would erode the carefully laid Clinton plan for the Republicans. Or is that the point?

Huckabee’s Surge.

Recent polling data shows Huckabee in a tight race with Romney in Iowa, and with Chuck Norris’ help, Huckabee may just have a clear path to win the Caucus. We shall see…

Transgender Day of Remembrance

2007-11-20T11:39:00.000-05:00

Today, Tuesday, November 20, is Transgender Remembrance Day. For those interested, there will be a vigil tonight at 8pm at the Georgia State Capitol. If you cannot be there, please take a moment tonight to remember those who struggle to gain acceptance.

For the LGBT community, the fight for equality has been a long, hard fought battle, and continues to be. It’s amazing to see that no matter how far we have come within the last few decades, we still have a long road ahead. And it makes my heart ache. I would like to point out a couple of recent instances with regards to our friends that are an example of the continued discrimination within our borders: ENDA and the Riverdale City Council Election.

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act, unfortunately, hit a wall in the House this year and will continue without the gender identity provision. Many felt that the Bill had a greater chance at success without the provision, others were against it completely. No matter the reason, we have failed as a society to live up to the ideals our Nation was built upon. I only hope that change will come soon.

The other recent tragedy of humanity came in the form of a law suit against Michelle Bruce for committing fraud during the Riverdale City Council Elections – right here in Georgia. Bruce, the Incumbent, earned enough voted to be considered for the runoff in her election bid to the Riverdale City Council, holding off two of the challengers. Those challengers, Stanley Harris and Georgia Fuller, filed the law suit claiming fraud on the part of Bruce due to the fact that she identified herself as a female prior to the election. You can read the article here.

I ask that all of us stand up and fight for everyone with in the LGBT community. We some times forget while supporting our lesbian and gay friends that there is a transgender community who needs our help as well. And this, I know, is starting to change. Thanks to the Stonewall Democrats for pointing out this event in our community today and for the continued information with regards to ENDA.

Leadership Drought

2007-11-19T22:09:00.000-05:00

There is an oft-told story about a man sitting on the roof of his home as rising flood water laps ever closer to his feet. A man in a boat comes by and offers him a ride. The stranded man declines the ride, explaining that he is waiting for G-d to save him. Later, a helicopter whirs overhead offering a lift to safety. “No, no,” says the man, waving off the helicopter, “I am waiting for G-d to save me.” Having declined all assistance, the man eventually drowns.

Governor Sonny Perdue’s showy prayer display last Tuesday (conveniently scheduled just before a brief rain shower that had been in the forecast for days), reminded me of this story. Our state is drying out, we have not ever had a statewide water plan, and our governor’s two-pronged response is to take more water from our downstream neighbors and to call a prayer conference. To be sure, prayer is important. However, as a Christian whose Democratic values are informed by her faith, I am tired of watching Republicans co-opt my faith and use it as a cover for poor leadership. The Georgia legislature, led by Speaker Richardson and Lt. Gov. Cagle, is poised to start considering the state’s first-ever water management plan in the 2008 session. They should be ashamed. The water emergency did not sneak up on our leadership; they ignored it hoping that we would be blessed with a monsoon that would eliminate the need for planning and sacrifice.

G-d gave humans the ability to reason, to plan, to foresee threats and to mitigate them. The refusal of an individual to use those gifts and rely solely on divine intervention is lazy; the refusal of a leader to use those gifts is an abdication of the trust placed in him by the citizens of this state.

Atlanta Business Chronicle recently published an article focused on the Dallas region and its water management plan. The Dallas region has a water plan through 2060. I doubt that Dallas’ leadership is lacking in religious fervor. What they have in abundance is the foresight and courage to face the water crisis and head it off through sacrifices made upfront that will protect the region’s future.

I don’t have a problem with what Sonny did. I have a problem with what he didn’t do. I suspect that most Christian leaders pray for guidance. They don’t need to put on press conferences to prove that they’re doing so. Still, failure to plan is planning to fail. We ought not to reward failure, even when it dresses itself up as piety. A prayer conference to make up for a gross lack of leadership is a cynical and manipulative ploy. Georgians deserve better.

I call on Georgia to pray. Pray for leadership. Pray for a governor who takes the state’s problems seriously enough to create a plan to confront the challenges we face. Pray for a governor who will follow through on his word. And of course, since there's nothing like a quick fix, pray for rain too.

2007-11-13T13:28:00.000-05:00

Happy Hour/Debate Watching Party - Thursday, 11/15

This month's Happy Hour will be a special debate watching party at Manuel's Tavern, this Thursday at 7PM. Come out and cheer on your candidate(s) of choice with the Young Democrats of Atlanta.

Once again: November Happy Hour/Debate Watching Party at Manuel's Tavern, Thursday, November 15, 7 PM

Don't miss it!

Copyright/Far Right

2007-11-07T14:28:00.000-05:00

At a friend's suggestion, I watched Larry Lessig's speech to the March TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference yesterday (see it here). While it is about Lessig's views on copyright, toward the end he raises a point that really struck me, especially after watching Bill Clinton's speech at the same conference (see it here). Lessig discussed how digital technologies have become entirely integrated into our culture, to the extent that the types of creativity they allow have become the younger generations' core understanding and means of expression. As he points out, young people today learn and think and express largely in terms of mashups. Easy, inexpensive tools for digital duplication and manipulation have become widespread, and they have fostered a creative boom, filling YouTube to the brim with cobbled-together music videos and mashup sensations like Danger Mouse's "Gray Album." In fact, you need look no further than our own Shelby Highsmith's Canvassing with YDAtl video to see this idea at work. While much of the discussion of copyright law centers on simple 1-to-1 copies of music and movies, which Lessig acknowledges as piracy, these mashups and the culture of sampling are often given the same label, and thereby declared illegal.

That's a significant point (and the point of this post) - the way young people think and express themselves is being regularly labeled illegal. I'm not going to get into the discussion of right or wrong in this instance - right or wrong, this is the reality. It's similar to the discussion of legalization of marijuana. Whether you feel that smoking dope is good or bad, there are a great many people out there who feel that it is very much right, and they opt to smoke up, despite knowing that it's illegal. This shapes their attitudes toward the police, laws, and government in many ways, some overt and some subconscious.

One of the subjects of much YouTube creativity has been Ron Paul. I've been kind of vexed by the popularity of Dr. Paul, as he's by far the most mainstream Libertarian in recent memory. The popularity of Libertarianism has bugged me for a while. Most of the Libertarians I've met have essentially defined their political views as "stay out of my business, let me do what I want." I'm not going to win any friends by saying so, but that worldview always struck me as, well, lazy. There's something to the idea that, left to their own devices, people will be inherently decent and kind - I like the idea of trusting humanity that much. Thing is, a small group of people who fall short of such decency can easily make life difficult and unpleasant for the majority, and history has shown us that such groups are essentially inevitable. Pure Libertarianism fails in precisely the same way pure Socialism does - imperfect humans have to live up to those lofty ideals, and a few bad apples and all of that... As Lessig points out, we're defining youthful expression as illegal. As more and more people come to see the government as against the way they live their lives and see it as unable to help them in any way (thanks, Bush administration FEMA), it doesn't take much of a leap to believe that government is at best useless and at worst predatory and dangerous.

I don't mean to make this sound conspiratorial - I don't believe that there is a plot afoot to drive young people to the right by telling them they can't pirate music. I do, however, know that disillusionment is widespread, and if we as Democrats are going to succeed, we'll have to overcome a pervasive belief that the government simply cannot be a force for good. And you should really check out both TED speeches.

That About Sums it Up

2007-10-12T13:20:00.000-04:00

It seems no matter how gross the excesses and misdeeds of the Bush administration get, people still like to harp on Clinton's transgressions. Thanks to Huffington Post's Hail to the Punchline, a collection of pundits listing their picks for the most comical president, and specifically the piece by Joe and Jerry Long, a perfect encapsulation of the difference is now available to us:

When Bill Clinton left the White House, the damage his sleazy, self-centered administration inflicted could be wiped away by a mop and bucket guy from the late, lamented Times Square peep show booths. When our current Rodent In Chief sashays off, the building will have to be disinfected as if for hantavirus, lest anyone inhale the terminal putrefaction of cronyism, incompetence and psychotic absoluteness staining everything our nation claims to be.

That about sums it up.

Live blogging from Hillary's event in downtown Atlanta

2007-10-12T11:59:00.000-04:00

11:59 A.M. In case you've missed it, Hillary Clinton is holding an event at the historic Paschal's Restaurant in Atlanta today, where she is reportedly going to get the endorsement of our own beloved Congressman John Lewis. This is going to be a big deal, you can be sure...

Special shout out to Bernita for providing me with my very first media badge!

In addition to the usual national media, the local media have also begun arriving...

We're all standing in line at the moment, as I imagine things will run on Democrat time as usual...

12:15 P.M. I've been told that 400 people can fit up here at Paschal's, but it sure looked a little tight in the main room for that! There's a good number of people waiting downstairs still - hopefully they'll get in! (Just learned which room is *not* the media room despite the signs, ooops...)

Good luck, Angela and RuthE! Certain people got here real early and are now waiting expectantly...

This is where the action will be once we get underway, which of course has yet to occur.

Unless my eyes deceive me, my own Congressman David Scott is in attendance today...

Where do I send the check, Bernita?? :-)

12:32 P.M. They're going through the sound checks now. There are a LOT of people in line downstairs who I'm afraid are going to be stuck there. Hopefully they'll at least get to see SOMETHING... In the meantime, the Hillary supporters are being put in position to cheer the candidate when she arrives. The connection's a little slow back in the media cave (ok, it's just the back of the room, but it's dark... fortunately the glow of the LCD comforts me), so the pictures might be easier to take than upload.

12:41 P.M.

*wow* I had to go downstairs just to get this uploaded. I may have to forego the pictoral portion of this for awhile :-* There is a lot of really professional equipment back here... I'm sure I'm getting a lot of "who the f*** is HE?" looks...

12:55 P.M. We're STILL waiting for something interesting to happen... there's quite a crowd outside here...

At this rate I'll be here until happy hour! :-!

1:06 P.M. Even Congressman Lewis looks like he's ready to get this show on the road...

As usual, the wireless card trumped Verizon's broadband. Everyone has been moved out of the hallway into the restaurant proper, and it seems like some folks have probably just given up home of seeing anything. Don't know what's happening upstairs, but it can't be all that much...

1:13 P.M. Senator Clinton has arrived to cheers!

She took some time to greet her supporters crowded outside, and the media scrum has followed her upstairs. I'm waiting for the crowd to die down a bit. Shannon Marietta just came and told me she had a chance to shake the Senator's hand - lucky! Upstairs I go...

1:19 P.M. Well, by "upstairs" I meant "inside" - Hillary has just now made her way upstairs, but it's a mess down here still. She's gotten several rounds of cheers and wild applause, and Shelby has gotten here just in time for the action to start.

I hope I'm still allowed upstairs!

1:31 P.M. Whew, it's *nuts* here. A lot of people got stuck irretrievably downstairs - me and Grayson had to sneak up in the elevator to grab our gear! John Lewis is now giving Hillary his endorsement in his usual strong speaking style - makes ME want to get up and cheer! Hillary is now speaking and has accepted the Congressman's endorsement - she's giving God his props, and has just recognized Congressman Scott and Jane Kidd (who I haven't seen yet though), as well as Valerie Jackson and several other assorted dignitaries. I'm having some internet problems so probably won't have photos for awhile.

(Well, scratch that, just taking awhile...)

1:39 P.M. Hillary is really playing the civil rights card - and rightly so, given where we are. I think this is a really good endorsement for her.

1:44 P.M. Nice, Hillary is definitely prepared. She's actually just told John's own story about standing on the corner of his grandmother's house to keep it from blowing away. You can tell I'm behind a bunch of cameras, but here's what I've got...

We've got some strong supporters in here who have punctuated Senator Clinton's remarks with shouts of "Say it!". And she's just now finished up... I think we're done here, but I figure I'm going to be trapped here for awhile. I might get squished ;-P

2:00 P.M. Well, now we're done, and here's the last of the photos - it was still crazy for awhile after the speeches were over...

Chairwoman Kidd took some time at the end to say hi to the local media, and I got to show her this fine piece of journalism :-)

2:10 P.M. Well, turns out there are no short photojournalists - didn't get any photos of the press conference worth posting ;-P (I'll keep trying though!) Signing off so I can get back to my day job...

My Children's Health Care Rant

2007-10-07T19:05:00.000-04:00

This healthcare debate has me all riled up. All riled up. And you know how I get when I am all riled up – verbose. So let me just tell you, I have spent all day gathering everything you need to take action on this issue. Confused about SCHIP? I got your facts. Unsure how to counter the right-wing spin? I got your answers. Don’t know what to do to help? I got your action plan. Read on, folks, we have work to do.

FRAMING IT UP

In an age where many voters think there are no real differences between the parties we couldn’t make up an example to more starkly demonstrate the substantive differences in our values. For the love of God, the issue is literally whether or not we’re going to protect our most vulnerable – our children – by providing them basic healthcare.

(Side note: For a more amusing and less overwrought frame on this issue, check out Jon Stewart’s clip from Friday. He spends 7 minutes filleting Bush and his deluded congressional lackeys for their inexplicable position on this bill. Jon frames it as “taking money from cigarettes and giving it to poor sick children.” Which Bush vetoes. Jon says, “you know, I thought something like that could only be done by cartoon villains. Mr. President, you’re slowly going from Nixon to Mr. Burns. That’s not good.” Classic Daily Show – check it out.)

But, back to your melodramatic president: I for one am not going to let this override vote go by without a fight. I don’t care whether or not we can use this vote against vulnerable Republicans next year – how many kids have to face illness and even death for us to decide this is enough. This is where the line is. We do not accept it. It ends here.

Are you with me? ARE YOU WITH ME?

WHAT TO DO

There are two calls to make in Georgia. Rep. Jim Marshall (DINO, 8th District) voted against the House bill. That’s right. Democrat. From Georgia. Voted against health care for kids. Make the call.

He may not represent you directly, but he is standing in the way of funding to help all of Georgia’s children. And, chances are, you helped campaign for him last year. Chances are, you wrote a check for him last year. Chances are, you celebrated his victory last year. Chances are, if his vote stands, he will get NOTHING from metro area Dems next year.

Second, I suggest that you also call Senator Saxby Chambliss. There is next to no chance he’ll change his vote, but by God he *does* represent you and he is up for re-election in 15 months. Let him know you’re watching.

In addition to the Georgia politicians, there are a handful of Republicans currently being targeted by the House leadership as possible switchers – mostly due to being vulnerable next year rather than possbile ideological kinship. A call from you to their Washington office couldn’t hurt. Just tell them they are standing in the way of healthcare for kids in the US and that you hold them accountable. Maybe you can’t vote for or against them, but you can exercise your First Amendment right to send money to their opponent, and a vote against health care for sick kids will force your hand.

Here’s the list of targeted Republicans linked to their contact information:
Steve Chabot (R, Ohio 1st)
Thelma Drake (R, Virginia 2nd)
Tom Feeney (R, Florida 24th)
Sam Graves (R, Missouri, 6th)
Randy Kuhl, (R, New York, 29th)
Jim Saxton (R, New Jersey, 3rd)
Tim Walberg (R, Michigan 7th)

Same message to the Democrats who voted against the issue (can anyone explain why Dennis Kucinich is on here? Anyone? Asking for real…)
Dan Boren (D, Oklahoma 2nd)
Kathy Castor (D, Florida, 11th)
Bob Etheridge (D, North Carolina, 2nd)
Baron Hill (D, Indiana 9th) (scroll to bottom of page)
Dennis Kucinich (D, Ohio 10th)
Mike McIntyre (D, North Carolina 7th)
Gene Taylor (D, Mississippi 4th)

WHAT TO SAY

I’ve been reading all afternoon, and what you think is basically true. SCHIP good. President bad.
To read an excellent summary of SCHIP policy, including summaries of the original House and Senate reauthorization bills, and the Administration ‘guidance’ on the issue, read the Kaiser Family Foundation briefing.

To read a summary of the impact of the SCHIP legislation on PeachCare and Georgia’s children, check out the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute briefing and don’t forget to make a donation to the gbpi while you’re there.

HOW TO COUNTER THE SPIN

But no one's dealing in facts, so how do you handle the myths?

First, let’s handle this immigration one. Cause I think this is probably big in Georgia.

MYTH: SCHIP will let illegal immigrants get free health care.
FACT: SCHIP is not available to illegal immigrants. SCHIP is not even available to LEGAL immigrants. During the conference committee discussions, Republicans successfully re-instated the current five year waiting period for *legal* immigrants.

So why are they claiming that it will be open to illegal immigrants? The claim is, apparently, based on a change in the way that applicants will prove their citizenship because the existing method doesn’t work. But bottom line, it’s race-baiting. Illegal immigrants are NOT eligible.

What about this claim that “upper middle class” families will be covered?

MYTH: Families making up to $83,000 will be covered by SCHIP.
FACT: Bullshit, bunkum, nonsense. This number is based on a single cherry-picked instance of a waiver request from a single state in the entire ten years of the program. And the request was turned down.

And I will tell you what else is bullshit. The Administration has come out with “Poor kids first” as their tri-syllabic talking point on this. The Administration proposal says that if a state wanted to go above 250% of poverty, they would have to first prove that 95% of the kids in the 100-200% range were covered first. Now, this MAY sound reasonable on the face of it – of course you want to make sure your resources go the most needy kids, but it’s actually not reasonable, and they know it. Achieving a 95% participation rate – they might as well say the kids have to fly to the moon, or perform their own bone marrow transplants. SCHIP is a voluntary program. Even Medicare Part B only achieves 93% participation, and that is an “opt-out” plan, meaning you have got it by default unless you specifically say you don’t want it. 95% is a bullshit number. He just wants to make it impossible to go above 250%. Asshole.

So, we’ve been race-baited and lied to….why not throw in red-baiting too…

MYTH: This is a step towards “Socialized” medicine. (Oh! My! God!)
FACT: Wait, first of all, what does that even MEAN? What is the fear? There are a couple of responses here.

1) Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley may have answered this best. Here is what he had to say (read it yourself here) "The bill is not a government takeover of health care. The bill is not socialized medicine. Screaming `socialized medicine' during a health care debate is like shouting `fire' in a crowded theater. It is intended to cause hysteria that diverts people from looking at the facts. To those of you who make such outlandish accusations, I say, go shout `fire' somewhere else. Serious people are trying to get real work done. Now's the time to get this done." Well said, well said. Are you paying attention, Ms. Pelosi? That’s how you tell the President to jump in a lake.
2) But here’s another response… “No it’s not:” if what you mean is a program administered by the government. The VA – now that’s socialized medicine. But SCHIP is the government contracting with private insurance plans, just like a private employer. Insurance companies run the plan and private providers give the care. This is not a government-run plan. But I might add…
3) A third response: “It might be:” if what you fear is the government paying for some of it. But what’s wrong with that? Think the kids’ parents are freeloading? Well, almost no one pays for their own health insurance by themselves. The American model has been that employers pay the bulk of it – and you pay a little. Emphasis on a little. In SCHIP, many families pay into the program just like I do at work, and they have copays, too. So they are paying about what they would IF they had a job with decent benefits – they are not freeloading any more than any of us who depend on our employers to pay. So, the collective “we” pays to defray insurance costs for the community either through taxes or through higher prices on goods and services that those companies pass on to us. Who cares? ALSO note: the President, the Vice President, the entire cabinet, and the entire congress have government-sponsored health insurance. And so do our senior citizens through Medicare. Why do we begrudge the kids?
4) But you know what? Maybe we should just say “bring it on.” If what this means to you is that expanding SCHIP is a step towards universal healthcare, I say, You’re damn right it is, and about time. Our current system doesn’t work – kids, seniors, adults – too many are uninsured, many more are underinsured, and nearly all of us are struggling with an out-of-control system that doesn’t meet our needs. Our system is arbitrary, unfair, and immoral. And the collective “we” pays more for uninsured and underinsured than we would if we just covered everyone with a single payer system. So there is some sort of Phyrric victory if what you want is to make sure no lazy welfare recipient gets a free ride – congratu-fucking-lations. So we’re cutting off our nose to spite our face and meanwhile, our American companies are at a competitive disadvantage, groaning under the pressure of providing care, cutting benefits to the bone and limiting coverage to fewer and fewer employees. Foreign companies are opting to locate plants and branches in places where the government provides health care, like the Toyota plant in Canada. And insurance companies are laughing all the way to the bank while they squeeze us all – declining benefits we thought we had, forcing us through bureaucratic hoops to trump up reasons to deny coverage. It’s a broken embarrassment of a mess and yes, people are literally dying because of it. If this is the best we can manage – covering 2-4 million kids when there are millions and millions more that need help. If this is the best we can manage, I’ll take it as a feeble start. God bless America.

So, there it is. If you want more, here are two great sources I found to help you debunk the myths.

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities “Myths” Brief

Post from Wide Open – Political Blog in Ohio

I apologize for the crazy-long post. But clearly if you had time to get through all of this, you have time to place a few calls. Let’s get this done. Let’s get mad, let’s stand up to the crazy man. We can override this veto – we need this bill.

Go get ‘em.

Bill Richardson in Atlanta

2007-10-05T19:00:00.000-04:00

7:00 P.M. Welcome all! It's not every day that the Young Democrats of Georgia are generously treated to free admission to an appearance by a major presidential candidate, but here we are waiting for Bill Richardson at the IBEW auditorium in Atlanta...

7:16 P.M. We are starting to see some of Georgia's VIP (and candidates) trickle in - word is that Governor Richardson will be here in ten minutes.

Senate candidate Dale Cardwell took some time to talk to GADCC chair and honorary Young Democrat Mike Berlon...

Former Secretary of State candidate Gail Buckner has made an appearance (some of us will be seeing her again tomorrow at the GFDW meeting)...

And super YD power friend Melanie Goux got some face-to-face time with the chairwoman of the whole enchilada, Jane Kidd, heading the Democratic Party of Georgia!

We're starting to hit the food...

7:30 P.M. Governor Richardson has arrived and is needless to say the most popular person in the room! He talked with our own Melissa Thompson for a good while - maybe he won himself a new convert? Ed Hula had a chance to meet the governor as well...

Governor Richardson has made his first rounds around the room and Richard Ray is gathering us together.

7:38 P.M. Mike has just finished introducing the evening and Chairwoman Kidd is introducing the governor. Just look at this assemblage of Democrats on the stage!

Our own Shelby is fortunately handling the video, allowing this blogger to continue snapping and typing...

We're getting ready for the main event!

7:47 P.M. The governor is speaking and I am very happy to report that he is finally showing some of his charisma - this is a speech I wish he could give more, it would really help his candidacy. He's into it...

He even took time to recognize the candidates in the room - here he is pointing out Senate candidate Rand Knight, who I haven't managed to get a good picture of yet...

We're in the campaign speech now, and he's speaking to labor issues firstly - glad to say he knows where he is, and he's already got a reputation as a strong union guy.

7:55 P.M. Nice. Governor Richardson just called our fuel efficiency standards "pathetic". You can say that again! He's finishing up (rather than starting) with Iraq, which I think is interesting. "How many troops are we leaving behind? Zero." I think that's the right answer for everyone in this crowd except Shelby and Ed...

Incidentally, check out the diversity of the crowd here, including DPG rock star and Constituency Groups Vice Chair Virgilio Perez Pascoe...

And look who's joined us, State Representative Nan Orrock, a rock star in her own right!

The governor is wrapping up his speech, and it's a lot better than what I remember from the YDA Omaha meeting. Look for Shelby's video, it's worth seeing.

8:04 P.M. Well, he SAID he was wrapping up, but I'm not complaining - this is good! He's been counting off what he's going to be doing as President, and he got a big round of applause by putting the Equal Right Amendment back on the table. YAY!

We're a.l.m.o.s.t. done (but you're ALWAYS almost done at these things, lol...) And NOW he's done. The seated folks have gotten to their feet and it's worth it! Representative Pedro Marin from Gwinnett is giving the gift on behalf of the party - we're making Bill an honorary citizen of Georgia, peanuts not included. I'll snap a few more pictures of the scene here as the governor prepares to head out to (where else) Iowa.

8:18 P.M. We're wrapping up here, but not without some more great photos!

We've got intrepid reporter Shelby doing postgame punditry with Tasso Knight, another good pal of ours...

From the GADCC and the Young Democrats of Georgia, thanks for coming, Governor Richardson!

2007-10-05T13:58:00.000-04:00

Govenor Bill Richardson This Friday

New Mexico Governor and Democratic Presidential Primary Candidate Bill Richardson will be addressing a reception of the Georgia Association of Democratic County Chairs this Friday at the IBEW Auditorium in Atlanta from 6:30pm unti 8:00pm. This event is free to members of Young Democrats (otherwise $25 suggested contribution).

What: GADCC Reception featuring Gov. Richardson
Where: IBEW Auditorium, 501 Pulliam St SW, Atlanta, GA 30312
Who: Open to the public with $25 suggested contribution, free to Young Democrats
When: Friday, October 5th, 6:30-8pm

After Party

The night wouldn't be complete without it. Join us afterwards for more fun at the Graveyard Tavern in East Atlanta

Tilting at Bird Feeders

2007-10-02T14:35:00.000-04:00

I'm sure most readers of this blog have dealt (on more than one occasion) with forwarded emails that express views quite antithetical to their own. You may have also run across pointed comments on blog posts, or some other form of unsolicited ideological counterpoint. Etiquette (or perhaps pragmatism) typically dictates avoidance of the issue - the email gets deleted, often unread but for the opening inflammatory lines. The blog comment gets dismissed (perhaps rightly) as trolling and is given a cursory, dismissive and disengaged response, if any at all. In-person instances may play out a bit differently, depending on the situation in which they occur. In ideologically mixed company, many of us would probably prefer to leave the challenge unanswered for fear of igniting a brouhaha. All of these responses are polite and possibly even reasonable, but our environment is becoming increasingly, resolutely unreasonable and impolite. So, upon out-of-the-blue receipt of an anti-immigrant email from a friend of a friend, I opted to take the other, likely less reasonable path and respond. And it went a little something like this...

Responding to this sort of thing is probably a waste of time, but I feel compelled and have time on my hands.

Our government gives out free food, subsidized
housing, free medical care, free education and
allows anyone born here to be an automatic citizen.

With regard to automatic citizenship, this has been the case for quite some time, and indeed many (if not most or all) of the recipients of this email (both in this sending and all others) are likely benefits of the practice. Admittedly, I can't cite numbers, but I've wondered for some time if the current perceived "invasion" differs all that much proportionally from the earlier waves of arrivals by Irish, German, Chinese, and other immigrants. In their times, these waves were met with similar "purist" scorn, complete with accusations of a lessening of quality of life and the impending peril for the "American" (read: "white") way of life. Now members of the same ethnic groups who were once viewed as dangerous outsiders hewing too closely to their own languages and customs carry the banners of the same nationalist impulse that called for the removal of their own ancestors.

Then the illegal's came by the tens of thousands.
Suddenly . . . . Our taxes went up to pay for free services,
Small apartments are housing 5 families:

I'm not sure I understand the argument about small apartments housing 5 families. Is this a humanitarian issue? Is the writer arguing that living standards should be better for immigrants? As to the cost of services, the rise is likely counterbalanced (again, I don't have specific numbers) by the lower cost of many goods and services, the labor for which is provided largely by immigrant and illegal workers, especially in the produce and construction sectors. I'm not arguing that this is a good thing - I would prefer to see good wages and benefits for all workers in the United States - but those clamoring about increased taxes have to acknowledge the decreased costs of many other areas of their lives brought about by immigrant labor.

. You have to wait 6 hours to be seen by an
emergency room doctor:

I have not personally experienced this, though I do remember tales of such waits from long before the current uproar over immigration. It's also worth asking - is this a consequence of illegal immigration or problems with our health care system? It may well be a combination of factors, including illegal immigrants, but I've yet to see compelling evidence that they are the sole or even primary cause of these issues.

. Your child's 2nd grade class is behind
other schools because over half the class doesn't
speak English.

I don't have a child. I do, however, date a public school teacher (albeit one who teaches at the high school level), and the problems she describes to me are less the result of students who don't speak English than of deep and severe emotional and behavioral problems in students born to and raised (or not raised) by native English speakers in the good ol' USofA. This also hearkens back to the aforementioned anti-Irish, anti-German, anti-Chinese, anti-Whoever tirades of yesteryear. They aren't learning our language! They aren't integrating with our culture! Typically, such concerns lasted until the next ethnic wave, when the former targets gained the right to participate in the American pastime of ugly nationalism. Furthermore, it's worth noting that our public schools are ankled by underfunding and "teach to the test" mandates created by misguided education policies.

. Corn Flakes now come in a bilingual box;

I haven't seen this anywhere, but even if it's true, where's the harm? Take the chance to learn a phrase or two over your morning bowl. To my understanding, most industrialized nations the world over place a much greater emphasis on multilingualism than we do, teaching other languages much more aggressively in early childhood. Tourists often report that throughout Europe, they had little difficulty locating fluent English speakers, while you'd be hard-pressed to find fluent speakers of the languages of our near neighbors (French and Spanish) in many US locales. To be flip, is the author also offended by the gibberish of the word jumbles on the back of the Froot Loops box?

. I have to press "one" to hear my bank talk to me in English, and people waving flags other than "Old Glory" are squawking and screaming in the streets, demanding more rights and free liberties.

Again, I have a hard time mustering sympathy for a complaint that centers around an action that takes a fraction of a second to process. I'm much more bothered by banking policies that are intentionally predatory and favor the needs of fantastically, absurdly profitable businesses over hard-working individuals. Still, if the author is truly that disgusted, he or she has the ability to vote with his or her dollars by finding a monolingual banking institution. I'm certain there are some out there. I'd recommend trying a smaller, more locally-operated bank (unfortunately, those are a lot harder to find, since they tend to get gobbled up by the big multinationals pretty quickly). As for the people waving flags other than that of the United States, "squawking and screaming in the streets," first among the rights guaranteed to all citizens of the United States is freedom of speech. To assume all persons taking part in protests in favor of immigrant rights to be here illegally is foolish and quite close to racism. Certainly there are US citizens, both native-born and naturalized, in those crowds, finding common cause with those who have come here illegally, perhaps seeing in them the desire to partake of the freedoms that made and continue to make our country great. As to "more rights and free liberties," what do they demand? In many cases, they demand a path to legality and citizenship, along with the opportunities and responsibilities that entails. They demand access to healthcare and education, especially for their children - are these not fundamental human rights? Without access to such services, aren't they doomed to a perpetual outcast status? How will they or their children learn our language and our cultures if we don't let them seek and utilize our education system? If they cannot access any other form of healthcare, won't they turn to the emergency rooms as their only option? The inevitable response is that they shouldn't be here in the first place, that these problems shouldn't exist. Well, they are here, and the problems do exist. It is not realistic to speak of deporting every illegal immigrant for simple logistical reasons, but even if it were, the economic impact to the United States would be staggering. The countries to which they would be deported would suddenly be hosts to huge groups of angry, impoverished, unemployed people with a major grudge against the United States, much closer at hand than similar groups in Afghanistan, Iraq, and the rest of the world.

Maybe it's time for our government to take down the bird feeder .

Perhaps - it's certainly the author's right to believe that and to say as much. Clearly, I disagree. That disagreement is borne of many ideas and experiences, but it's existed in me for quite some time. What has not, what has only recently risen from my gut and demanded expression, is a heartsickness over the profound and unabashed selfishness of so many Americans. Gone are the concepts of the Commonwealth and our God-given position as a beacon of truth and decency to the rest of the world. In their place, we've become a collection of scattered camps of self-centered louts, eager to partake of all of God's gifts without acknowledging in any way the grander scope and vision of the Founding Fathers who helped secure them. America is not just a country, a plot of land to support your grandiose home and countless Wal*Mart Supercenters. America is an idea, a promise of unalienable equality and liberty and the fundamental worth of all human beings. It began as a bold statement of a new idea, and it drives me wild to see it perverted into an excuse for a never-ending chorus of complaints over the minor inconveniences and manufactured victimizations of those who have lived here long enough to feel like they're the only ones deserving of favor. That's not America. That's a nation of overfed children who refuse to share their toys on the playground, who refuse to accept the existence of a social contract that requires sacrifice and contribution from all the undersigned. Again, wishing for such an America is the right of the author, as is acting to bring it about through this kind of e-pamphleteering and, presumably, voting for candidates and measures that echo his or her own sentiments. Conversely, I have the same rights to wish and to act for my own ideas, and I will continue to do so. Whatever your views may be, I encourage you to do the same.

If you agree, pass this on

Georgia Young Democrats leadership retreat

2007-09-22T10:16:00.000-04:00

10:28 A.M. This is a first, because this is the first time I've actually had internet access from a Georgia state park! The Young Democrats of Georgia are getting into the really difficult portion of the work on their grand plan to win the youth vote in Georgia for Democrats - I triple dare the Buckhead Young Republicans to match us in energy and determination, and we win on the issues every time. We're going through a workshop session where we are identifying our purpose, core values, and goals.

10:56 A.M.

10:59 A.M. We're discussing a new way of looking at YDG as a business - what our product is, who our supplyers and buyers are, and who our competitors are. We're proving that we can work with ALL beverages, even Diet Coke and orange juice...

11:33 A.M. This is proving to be a very good discussion exercise. Our industry is Building a Young Democratic Voting Block.

1:12 P.M. Well, we're off lunch break...

Our president Jason Cecil is talking about the core of our plan, which is the participation pyramid, from apathetic non-voter to super Young Democrats activist...

The basic plan is talk to young people about voting Democratic - when we connect to them, they vote with us.

1:30 P.M. In the first major triumph of terminology of the weekend (and a significant "lol" moment), we've decided that the perfect representation of our "growing young Democratic voters" analogy is the Chia donkey!

We're looking for 30,000 Chia voters in three years. (Now if only terra cotta figurines covered with plant growth could vote...)

1:49 P.M. We're now going through a brainstorming session about potential strategies we can use to grab our Chia voters...

It all comes down to branding, and that comes down to data collection and analysis - who do we target, how do we find them, and how do we track whether we've been successful.

2:42 P.M. We've gone through an old-versus-new strategic overview (no more taking orders from candidates and campaigns, we have our own agenda now, thanks), and now we're discussing ways to target potential Chia pets. ("Hey babe, do you think Chia's are sexy?")

Note Gunner's sexy Teamsters T-shirt. What's impressive about this retreat is the sustained level of participation we're getting from most of our attendees. I think we're starting to reach a critical level of interest in our core members that will make moving forward so much easier...

3:14 P.M. We've now moved on to a discussion about how we are set up as an organization. We're discussing ways we can tweak how we're organized to better meet the challenges we're facing with meeting the GO grant goals. We are getting a lot of good participation on this issue - at the very least, we are at the very least bringing the de facto power structure of YDG out into the open so we can all be honest about where we are and where we ought to go from here.

3:35 P.M. Oh, this is important. We're trying to hammer out some Principles of Unity - I know the Hope Scholarship won't be on there ;-) We're coming up with some good red meat here. These are not final so I can't post them here, unfortunately.

4:23 P.M. We are talking the serious Chia math here...

If each person Chia's 12 people, we reach 10,000 by next November. We can do this!

5:16 P.M. We've been in chapter breakout sessions for about 45 minutes now, discussing our Chia goals. Say hi to some of our friends from West Georgia, UGA, and Agnes Scott...

DeKalb County...

Georgia State...

and Georgia Tech (who lost to UVA, damn them!)...

I think we're making progress to a real sense of what everyone's part in the 30,000 goal is, but we still have some ways to go.

6:14 P.M. Wow. Just wow. Get a load of this Atlanta region attendance and cooperation!

These regional meetings seem to have been very successful.

6:34 P.M. Be other things as they may, we are feeling READY to take on the 30,000 goal!

We're finishing up with some details on the chapter startup kit - then it's time for food (yay!).

September Events

2007-09-19T12:10:00.000-04:00

Happy Hour September 20th

Still dating? Want to know more about the candidates? Please join us for Happy Hour tomorrow at 7 pm at Madison Grill. This month we are featuring Virgilio Perez Pascoe, representing Bill Richardson's Campaign, and Debra Poss, representing Dennis Kucinich's Campaign.

Summertime Blue

We've got plenty to celebrate as we head into the 2008 elections, but we've also got plenty of work to do to turn Georgia BLUE. This month, YDAtl will be hosting our annual membership drive, Summertime Blue. Bring a friend and come learn how to get involved at Radial Restaurant (1530 DeKalb Avenue North East #G, Atlanta, GA 30307 - Just down the street from the Edgewood/Inman Park Marta Station). Saturday, September 29th from 6 to 9PM. We'll have live music, food, drinks and more!

Directions and maps can be found on the Young Democrats website.

Email our Membership Chair with questions and comments.

2007-08-14T13:50:00.000-04:00

Happy Hour This Thursday

Still dating? Want to know more about the candidates? Please join us for Happy Hour this Thursday at 7 pm at Madison Grill. This month we are featuring Le’Wanna Heard, a representative from the Barack Obama Campaign, and Shelby Highsmith, a representative from the Joseph Biden Campaign, as they speak about their respective candidates and field questions.

Email our Membership Chair with questions and comments.

Another Happy Hour?

Yes. Please Join YDG at Mary's East Atlanta for our YD Idol Karaoke Fundraiser! We are welcoming the Young Democrats of America Executive Director Alexandra Acker as she, along with the YDG Officers, will be singing all of the hits. YD Idol will be Monday August 20 at 8pm at Mary’s East Atlanta, 1287 Glenwood Ave, Atlanta, GA 30316.
Bring some extra cash, and your favorite officer will sing your request!

Email our VP of Finance with questions and comments.

Democracy for America Training

September 8-9 DFA will be in town to train those interested in campaigns management or for those interested in running for office some day. The trainings will take place at the CWA Local 3204, 307 Logan Street SE, Atlanta, GA 30312. If you RSVP before the date of the training, costs are $60 for General, $30 if Financial hardship. Otherwise, it is $70 day of the event.

Email your Campaigns Chair with questions and comments.

A few other reminders

Our next meeting will be September 5th. Join us at Manuel's Tavern at 6:30. A half hour of socializing is followed by official business at 7:00pm.

Thinking about running for office at the Young Democrats of Atlanta? There are only two and a half months till elections. Be sure to catch your current officers if you have any questions.

Young Democrats of Georgia Unite Behind Page Gleason

2007-08-03T13:35:00.000-04:00

Dear State Committee Members -

It is with profound pleasure that we write to you to ask you to join us in supporting and voting for our friend and fellow Democrat, Page Gleason, to be the next Female DNC Representative from Georgia.

We each have different stories about how we became Democrats. We all have different issues that drive our passions, but we all are united by a love of the Democratic Party and its ideals. We believe in a party of fairness and opportunity. A party that has compassion for people less fortunate than ourselves. A party that believes all children should be allowed to grow up and embrace their full potential. A party that embraces the equality of humankind. Even in the face of long odds, we embrace these ideals and we embrace the Democratic Party that embodies these ideals.

Page is one of the hardest working Democrats we have been blessed to work with in our collective years of involvement with the Democratic Party. Her passion and commitment are a brilliant example to us all, and it is an example that we all hope we can live up to in our own activism within the Democratic Party. Her steadfast commitment to training Democrats to be effective advocates and activists for the Democratic Party, engaging Democratic voters and turning them out to vote, along with her keen ability to think strategically about the steps we must take to regain the majority in Georgia has been an asset to the Young Democrats of Georgia and to Democrats throughout the state. She has not only been a mentor to us, but a true friend to each of us.

We, as young leaders throughout the state, are excited to work hand-in-hand with the Democratic Party of Georgia to convince the youth of Georgia that their best interests lie in voting Democratic, before the Republicanism of their parents takes root. We are determined to prevent a generation of Georgians from being lost to the Republican hate machine. Page Gleason is the right woman at the right time to go to the DNC and demand that the national party become a more significant player in Georgia again. We need someone who has chosen to build her life in Georgia, and who cares deeply about the WHOLE state, urban and rural, black and white, young and old. Page’s energy and dedication help inspire us to continue the good fight to achieve our goals of making the Democrats the majority party in Georgia again.

We strongly believe that Page’s experience, vision, and proven leadership ability make her the ideal candidate to begin the hard work of rebuilding Georgia’s relationship with the National Party, a vital step in the strengthening of the Democratic Party on the local, state, and national levels.

We hope you will join us in supporting and voting for Page Gleason on August 4 to be the next Female DNC Representative from Georgia.

Democratically Yours,

Jason A. Cecil
President, Young Democrats of Georgia
State Executive Committee Member
Decatur, GA

Rahsheim Wright
Executive Vice President, Young Democrats of Georgia
President, Chatham County Young Democrats
State Committee Member
Savannah, GA

Nicolette Allen
Vice President of Finance, Young Democrats of Georgia
Finance Chair, Young Democrats of Atlanta
Atlanta, GA

C. Benson Manica
Secretary, Young Democrats of Georgia
Secretary, Young Democrats of Atlanta
Secretary, Young Democrats of America, Southeast Region
Secretary, Cobb County Democratic Committee
Vice President of Programs, Young Democrats of Cobb County
State Committee member, Democratic Party of Georgia
Affirmative Action Committee member, Democratic Party of Georgia
Vinings, GA

William Curry
Treasurer, Young Democrats of Georgia
5th Congressional District Chair, Democratic Party of Georgia
Secretary, Fulton County Democratic Party
State Executive Committee Member
Atlanta, GA

Billy Joyner
National Committeeman, Young Democrats of Georgia
President, Young Democrats of DeKalb County
State Committee Member
Decatur, GA

Jane Bradshaw
National Committeewoman, Young Democrats of Georgia
State Committee Member
Atlanta, GA

Luisa Cardona
Minority Caucus Chair, Young Democrats of Georgia
McDonough, GA

Melissa Thompson
Women's Caucus Chair, Young Democrats of Georgia
Atlanta, GA

Griffin Wasdin
President, College Democrats of Georgia
President, Georgia Tech Young Democrats
Atlanta, GA

Kirk Miller
Chair, Charter and Bylaws Committee, Young Democrats of Georgia
Chair, Rules and Charter Committee, Young Democrats of America
Stone Mountain, GA

Haley Shank
Charter and Bylaws Vice Chair, Young Democrats of Georgia
President, Georgia Southern University Young Democrats
Statesboro, GA

Christina McCoy
Platform Committee Chair, Young Democrats of Georgia
Athens, GA

Megan Mammarelli
Platform Committee Vice Chair, Young Democrats of Georgia
Vice President, DeKalb County Young Democrats
Atlanta, GA

Gunner Hall
Membership Committee Chair, Young Democrats of Georgia
Savannah, GA

S. Patrick Coleman, Jr.
Membership Committee Vice Chair, Young Democrats of Georgia
Treasurer, Young Democrats of Georgia Southern University
Statesboro, GA

Brad Barnes
Membership Committee Secretary, Young Democrats of Georgia
President, Young Democrats of Rome/Floyd County
Member, Floyd County Democratic Committee
Armuchee, GA

Bjorn Cole
Campaigns Committee Vice Chair, Young Democrats of Georgia
Atlanta, GA

Lance Helms
Finance Committee Chair, Young Democrats of Georgia
Atlanta, GA

Zach McFall
Finance Committee Vice Chair, Young Democrats of Georgia
President, Georgia State University Young Democrats
Cedartown, GA

Lauren Winfield
Finance Committee Secretary, Young Democrats of Georgia
Milledgeville, GA

Angela Trigg
Communications Director, Young Democrats of Georgia
Post Seat Holder, Fulton County Democratic Committee
State Committee Member
Atlanta, GA

Daniel Fullerton
Political Director, Young Democrats of Georgia
Atlanta, GA

Timothy Moenk
New Media Coordinator, Young Democrats of Georgia
Sandy Springs, GA

Kevin Westphal
Parliamentarian, Young Democrats of Georgia
President, Cobb County Young Democrats
Roswell, GA

Anthony J. Livington
President, Gainesville State College Young Democrats
Monroe, GA

Rachel Fullerton
President, Wesleyan College Young Democrats
Macon, GA

Cassandra Webster
Past President, Chamblee High School Young Democrats
Dunwoody, GA

Emily Schunior
President, Young Democrats of Atlanta
Post Seat Holder, Fulton County Democratic Party
Atlanta, GA

Aaron Boyd
Membership Chair, Young Democrats of Atlanta
Atlanta, GA

Allison Layton
Campaigns Chair, Young Democrats of Atlanta
Atlanta, GA

Aaron Karp,
Communications Chair, Young Democrats of Atlanta
Atlanta, GA

Carly Carros
Policy Chair, Young Democrats of Atlanta
Atlanta, GA

Kristopher “Kip” Casto
President, Savannah College of Art and Design Young Democrats
Savannah, GA

Joey Drinkwater
President, North Georgia College and State University Young Democrats
Cleveland, GA

Jeremy Barr
Co-President, Emory University Young Democrats
Atlanta, GA

Kyle Bailey
Past President, Young Democrats of Young Harris College
Hiawassee, GA native

Tre' Easton
Chairman, Young Democrats of Lamar County
President, High School Democrats of Georgia
Barnesville, GA

William “Jay” Stalnaker
President, Taylor County Young Democrats
Butler, GA

YDA Dallas Convention Day 5: Goodbye to Dallas

2007-07-22T10:09:00.000-04:00

10:13 A.M. Whew, it's been a wild and wonderful weekend. Leaving is always the hardest part, and especially when you share the airport shuttle with the Mary Kay folks.

We had some good bonding last night, including some impromptu karaoke and music courtesy of Zach:

Classic, classic times :-)

12:01 P.M. Still hanging out at good old DFW. Jesus in a Cracker Jack box, the line at the AirTran counter was ridiculous...

A little barbecue for the road never hurt anyone, and cures hangovers :-)

Flight leaves (hopefully, didn't on the way out) leaves in 40, so this'll be the last dispatch. See y'all back in Atlanta, and thanks for the memories!

YDA Dallas Convention Day 4: The big finish

2007-07-21T10:46:00.000-04:00

10:49 A.M. Well, it's certainly a joy to start the morning a little later than the last couple of mornings. It's not clear exactly what our immediate plans are - Gravel has been scratched from the agenda for this morning's session, and there are some rumors that Kucinich will be here instead. Us Geek Squad members are in the lobby mooching some wireless...

A small contingent of us is thinking of heading to the Grassy Knoll rather than subjecting ourselves to the mind-shattering ecstasy of considering credentials and platform in the session. A certain Zach is still alive...

12:23 P.M. I should have titled this day "Journey to the Grassy Knoll". We're hanging out at a barbecue joint a couple of blocks away from the site, and we got a very nice conspiracy theory tour from a Mike Jones who happened to be out in the area...

This guy was really cool actually - he was very knowledgeable (or so he seemed ;-)). Heck, how else would we have found out that an inconspicuous little scratch mark by a manhole cover is really a bullet mark?

Beat the hell out of session, if you ask me. If you ever come to the grassy knoll, look for this guy...

I suppose it was appropriate that on the walk over, we saw an interesting-looking building and took some photos, only to find out that it was not in the National Security Interest to take Photos of said Building. The guard was nice enough about telling us, but it was still a little bizarre - I mean, I USED to look like a terrorist, but those days are over ;-)

Incidentally, this Texas beer isn't bad at all. Oh, and it's hotter than hell out here... we don't seem to be on track to be back in time for the luncheon with Sheila Jackson Lee, but she's scheduled to speak at session anyway.

1:48 P.M. Back at the hotel (with other folks paying a visit to a certain Jack D.), waiting for session to start at 1:30. The Mary Kay cultists are still here, and the city seems to be embracing them...

Big Kev is walking Jason through the list of Georgia superlatives for our vote announcement. Yours truly could use a nap, espresso, or both. Interestingly, at the barbecue joint we were at (which was *stupendous*), a waiter came up and said "Hey, is there a breath of fresh air in here? I heard y'all were Democrats!".

2:06 P.M. Hm, am I wearing something that says "Potential LaRouche Cultist Recruit"? Why are they here? Does the world really need more looneytoons in it? An informal straw poll of those of us lying on the floor here finds some Edwards endorsements and Obama disses - apparently Senator Obama not only dissed this convention, he dissed the college affordability bill by missing the vote.

We're losing steam here :-)

2:38 P.M. We're hearing some rather silly state chants, to which Jason replied "Goooo LITERACY!" Supposedly we were already supposed to be started, but Democrat time has run slow this weekend...

Jason called this one - Page is gettin' her inner Wilma Flintstone on :-D (We <3 Page for a reason!)

3:03 P.M. Woohoo, only 30 minutes late! We're underway here and we're hearing from Steve Westley from California who is going to speak on behalf of the Obama campaign, to which I say "lame", or maybe "whoop de doo". I'm sorry, Obama shold have been here himself and I'm going to think twice before I support him. There's a little jeering section back here...

The guy just mentioned "Atlanta" and got probably the only cheers from this section he's going to get. Hope he enjoyed it. In other news, on the way in here, Oklahoma and New York chanted and bore up their banners and generally called undue attention to themselves. This blogger is settling in for a long afternoon...

3:10 P.M. "Once per generation, an individual can truly inspire that generation." Sorry, Howard Dean beat Senator Obama to the punch... I wish we had had a pen over here to play "buzzword bingo", we would have done pretty well in this one speech! At least Mr. Westly is finishing up here.

3:19 P.M. We've just been introduced to Congresswoman Sheila Jackon-Lee to speak on behalf of the Clinton campaign, and even though Hillary gets the same jeers for not being here, the Congresswoman is already proving herself to be a much more entertaining speaker.

Republicans have been compared to grasshoppers in this speech; we've been asked not to step on them :-)

3:27 P.M. Quite frankly I'm more ready to vote for Congresswoman Jackson-Lee than I am for Senator Clinton at this point - great speech, but how much does it reflect Hillary's personal agenda? Hopefully more rather than less. The Congresswoman is reminding me of John Lewis! She's just mentioned Hurricane Katrina, so we can credit Senator Edwards for at least making that much of an impact on the campaign. Ridiculous that Obama's guy didn't mention it.

3:34 P.M. Well, this is a big improvement over what we got from the Obama campaign - a personal video message from Senator Clinton. What the hell is the Obama campaign's problem? I'm ready to forgive Senator Clinton for not personally being here, but the Obama effort strikes me as REALLY weak.

3:39 P.M. Sigh, now we're on to the b.o.r.i.n.g. part of this meeting, the elections. Laptop is going into hibernation for awhile, and this blogger is going to break out a book.

4:15 P.M.

We're on Ohio now, things are dragging on slowly. The only real remaining drama is whether Texas will cast two of its votes for Sisto Abeyta instead of their own David Hardt - pretty sad not to vote for your own candidate. We'll see how it turns out.

4:21 P.M. Texas just had three members abstain from the vote. Kirk Miller said it best - which river will their bodies end up in? At least Vermont is now up, so we are nearly done with the initial round of voting. None of the other officer positions are opposed so there's not a lot of excitement left here (or least not until the voting is done...). Trivia: The state factoid getting one of the heartiest rounds of applause was "Tennessee: Home of Jack Daniel". Lol! Washington just cast their votes for "David Hartman" (his name is David Hardt) - it takes real skill to screw that up when it's on countless signs around here, and after so many states before got it right. We're finishing up with West Virginia now...

4:34 P.M. The votes are in: Hardt 1,995, Abeyta 107, 45 abstentions. Sisto and David were both very gracious and put whatever differences they had aside for a few moments...

The internet is acting up so there's going to be a bit of a delay.

4:41 P.M. Yay! We're electing the other officers by acclamation; Chris Anderson is our new EVP. Here's one more of President Hardt giving his acceptance speech...

4:56 P.M. Meet some more of the new YDA officers: Chris Anderson, Executive Vice President...

Francisco Dominiche, Democratic National Committee Man...

and Crystal Strait, Democratic National Committee Woman...

5:10 P.M. More officers: Omar Khan, Vice President...

A'shanti-Fayshal Gholar, Vice President...

Josh Blevins, Vice President for Programs...

Stephanie Hausner, Secretary...

and Amy Lewis, Treasurer.

We're moments away from adjourning Sine Die, and all that's left is the awards banquet. Yay!

6:25 P.M. We've got some quiet time (and you know what we do then), and everyone's kicking back a bit and basking in the glow of victory. Chris Anderson (who's half a Georgia guy anyway) and some of our delegation (as well as Alexis Tameron, former EVP) took a little break...

And Timothy happened to choose a seat near Amy Lewis, both taking well-earned breaks...

I feel good about our new officers.

9:04 P.M. The awards banquet is now getting under way. Some of us headed over to the Tomorrow Club reception - the Tomorrow Club is YDA's continuing contribution program - before the real meal:

We saw a GREAT little documentary film produced by someone who had infiltrated a College Republicans meeting and was able to tape Tom Delay and other Evil Ones, as well as interview CR's about why they weren't enlisting in the war they thought was so great...

This is going to be a great wrap up to a great convention!

9:57 P.M. We're continuing with awards. The food has been FANTASTIC (a camera malfunction prevented me from getting a photograph of the scrumptious dessert before I ate it) and a good time is being had by all.

Chris Gallaway is doing a nice job of reprising his service as president...

Our own Timmeh has even made an appearance on stage as one of the five state Executive Directors!

Georgia has had a very good night and a very good convention - our delegation has had a lot of recognition! We're still recognizing contributors and have not yet proceeded to awards...

10:21 P.M. The awards are done - President Emeritus Gallaway is giving the closing remarks. We had one especially meaningful and heartwarming award - our own Mama Page was given the "Outstanding Young Democrat" (edit: it was actually "Democrat of the Year") award and it could NOT have gone to anyone better!

We are winding down a HUGELY successful convention and I'm looking forward to all the work that is ahead for all of us.

10:37 P.M. I thought the night was over, but we're not done yet...

President Hardt is giving a very emotional and moving acceptance speech, and I feel sure that our national organization is in trustworthy and capable hands. What a great night it's been!

YDA Dallas Convention Day 3: Waiting for John Edwards

2007-07-20T11:12:00.001-04:00

11:13 A.M. Another night of festivities has come and gone, and WOW were there a lot of folks at the party of states with paid Executive Directors. Nothing like playing beer pong in a room that is otherwise PACKED with people! The breakfast meeting of the regional officers this morning offered a nice view of the Dallas skyline from the 38th floor:

President Gallaway was kind enough to attend, and it was good to meet the president of the West Virginia chapter. Oh, and the bacon was GREAT ;-) I'm back in Platform now and we're discussing some anti-sourcing language. Nicolette is upholding the banner for capitalism, heh.

11:35 A.M. Damn, reading the comments, apparently the sound isn't working on the video clips. It must be this laptop, but I still don't understand it. The sound plays on the camera when I play them back... I'll try to upload these videos again when I get home to something that ISN'T "New Vistas of Software that Doesn't Work". Sucktastic!

1:20 P.M. Volunteering is fun! We're teaming up with Democats Work to stuff backpacks for the children of servicemembers, and there are a good number of people hard at work in here. Photos of that in a minute, here's a few minutes ago:

We heard from some leaders of Democrats work just as we were getting started. Wes Clark is going to be here at some point...

1:54 P.M. Woohoo, Wes Clark is here and speaking to us, the main topic is Iraq and how SICK we are of how things are going. He just said that Afghanistan is in a "downward spiral toward failure" - PREACH IT.

"We have a real risk of war with Iran." As long as we have the current Bad Bush and Bad Dick working together... yup. "How crazy is it to want to bomb some country when you won't even speak to them?"

Stop the Iran War

More photos of the backpack stuffing soon...

2:00 P.M. General Clark has just finished speaking, it's really quite insane how many cameras and such have been going off the whole time. Here's some photos of the backpack stuffing for Operation Homefront. (soon!)

2:11 P.M. Whew, that was an exciting hour and a half, need to get these photos posted before Resolutions (yup, another job for Platforms...). Nikema is famous now!

Here are some more action shots...

2:44 P.M. Edging closer to platform, here's one last "aww, cute!" picture of the backpack distribution...

2:56 P.M. Shout out to Nicolette, who seems to be willing to carry on awhile longer! Yay :-)

3:00 P.M. Been trying to upload these photos for forever, finally worked. Here are some of the booths set up here...

3:17 P.M. Continuing on without lunch yet, I'm hanging with Spicy and Just Zach in the lobbing and advocacy training. Proving yet again that Zach rocks, he's busy taking notes...

Only in Texas do you have presenters at a convention wearing cowboy hats...

Actually, this guy is giving a pretty interesting presentation. He's going through the legislative process as a case study, analyzing which committees where shaped which ways on a particular bill, and how professional lobbyists (like Super Betsy) end up testifying before committees since so much happens there.

4:59 P.M. Had a little bit of a lull there, needed to take a nap after some fried rice. The GLBT caucus elections will be occurring very shortly and apparently this is going to have some drama - there's a certain candidate for caucus chair who has had some run-ins with some of our friends in the southeast region, and if he doesn't win that race he'll probably oppose Kyle Bailey for the vice chair position. So hopefully things will turn out right here.

5:18 P.M.

After some last minute working by Kyle and Rachel...

...nominations for chair are about to begin - drum roll please.

5:24 P.M. The credentials check is complete and Rachel Kau-Taylor has just been nominated. Raoul A. (it's Spanish, I can't quite get a handle on it) has now also been nominated and the speeches are beginning.

5:29 P.M. Well that was interesting, Raoul A. has withdrawn his name from consideration to work on the presidential race - so much for the drama. Rachel is chair by acclamation. Kyle is the only nominee for vice chair so he too is elected by acclamation.

5:35 P.M. The elections are done, and we're still 144 minutes from kicking off with John Edwards. Happy hour anyone? (Oh, I forgot to mention the best part - right before my nap, platform FINISHED! Big thanks to Lindsey from Tennessee for running a tight ship, and to Nicolette for handling as much of the voting duties as I did, and of course Tim and everyone else that helped out.)

5:56 P.M. The Southeast Region meeting is minutes (hopefully) away from beginning. I could use a double espresso...

8:06 P.M. They're just now letting us into the session hall, we're very close now to seeing Senator Edwards. Photos from the intervening time are uploading as I type...

8:14 P.M. I've just been informed that Gabriel Pressman was elected treasurer of the Jewish Caucus! They've told us that the event will begin in 5.\\

8:17 P.M. Couple of photos from the regional meeting - director Robert Hooks and deputy director "Nikema!"...

Presumed next YDA President David Hardt took some time to speak to us and gave the region a major shout out. I'm looking forward to the Hardt administration...

Angela is still pimping out the oh-so-pimpable Campaign Window and D&E!

(Spicy contributed to this post.)

The Hillary folks are outside, I suppose they feel that they still have the opportunity to get some traction even though *cough* their candidate couldn't be troubled to come speak to us...

8:25 P.M. The session has just been called back to order. It looks a little different tonight with all the David Hardt signs...

We're being introduced to Senator Edwards now!

8:32 P.M. "I hope you enjoyed my wife's little dustup with Anne Coulter" - OH YEAH we <3 Elizabeth! Senator Edwards is getting a VERY warm reception.

8:38 P.M.

Senator Edwards is giving a lot of the same speech we heard at the state Jefferson-Jackson dinner, and why not? It's a great speech and it's exactly what we want to hear. Stop Iraq, stop Guantanamo, stop coal-fired power plants, stop Darfur. Yum!

8:41 P.M. Oh yeah, this can make you forget all about 2004. I don't understand why Edwards can't catch up to Obama and Clinton when he gives these great speeches.

Edwards is telling a story about a man with a cleft palate, who didn't get the condition fixed until he was fifty years old. Gotta say, that's *insane*. The Edwards signs are out...

8:46 P.M. "Who cares whether [fighting poverty] is a good political strategy?" Well, apparently the other candidates do care, we don't get these kinds of speeches from them. He just said he wants the minimum wage ought to be $9.50 an hour (heh, nice!) and he's shouting out to unions again.

8:56 P.M. Edwards has just wrapped up, and I have two words for everything he said - "fuck" and "yeah". To say that Senator Edwards was well-received here would be a huge understatement. He put out the call to action to young people - he didn't just give the stock stump speech, he knew his audience and he spoke right to them. After that speech, and coupled with the fact that Senators Obama and Clinton are apparently too high and mighty to grace us with their exalted presences (they still have time to change their minds), I'd be very surprised if Edwards didn't come out of here with a lot of converts. We're hearing from an Iraq war veteran now, and this should be a nice followup to what Edwards had to say.

9:05 P.M. "There is no worse commander in chief in the history of this country than George W. Bush". Coming from us, that's one thing - coming from a soldier, that's another. At least some people are finding that being a "good soldier" has limits - are you listening, Colin Powell?

9:10 P.M. Ohhh snap, we're seeing some ads from www.votevets.org - "Senator McCain: Protect America, not George Bush." This guy was real. Just real.

9:24 P.M. OMG they have the BEST speakers at this event! We just heard from Chuck Rocha, political field director for the United Steel Workers, and he gets the award for using the word "bullshit" more in a serious speech than I've heard in a long time. "We don't believe that you're the future of the Democratic Party, we believe you're the BACKBONE of the damn party!" Got some of him on video too, for posterity.

9:28 P.M. We're hearing a comedian from Laughing Liberally... "It's not 'If you see someone who looks Middle Eastern, punch them in the face', it's 'The Patriot Act'". Not bad at all :-)

9:37 P.M. O-k, we're on to YDA candidate nominations and speeches. *yawn*

YDA Dallas Convention Day 2: The first full day

2007-07-19T09:07:00.000-04:00

9:08 A.M. (that's 8 central!) Ey yi yi, it is really early, but we sure had a good time after the convention business wrapped up last night. We traveled to dinner and our other, um, engagements in fine style...

We made it back to the hotel in time to catch the rest of the welcome reception, which featured live salsa music!

So we're sitting in platform now, sort of idly waiting for stuff to maybe happen... of course we haven't met quorum ;-P

9:59 A.M. Democrat time strikes again - we've only been underway for 8 minutes of the hour of sleep I didn't get. No bitterness though ;-) Tim tells me that John Edwards is expected to address us tomorrow, and our favorite potted plant is going to talk to us on Saturday. Stuff to look forward to!

12:53 P.M. Yay! We're breaking for lunch, and I'm going to delegate the rest of this platform stuff to someone else, so hopefully I'll be able to blog some more exciting things this afternoon.

2:50 P.M. Well, I was wrong, I'm in platform for at least another hour and a half. We're back from lunch. Before lunch, we talked for a bit with some of the Edwards folks:

Zach remarked that they did look a little bit youthful, but I feel like that's intentional on Edwards' part - after all, we get quite all we need of the seasoned political operative crowd. Edwards gets very strong marks for putting youth on his agenda for real - compare to Obama, who snubbed this convention, presumably because he's too big time to care about us plebes anymore.

We stopped across the street for some lunch...

Clearly Dallas has some nice architectural spaces. Notice the indoor ice rink thing, although it looked like something that wasn't actually ice, I didn't really get it.

We just added more anti-predatory subprime lending language to the platform, incidentally.

4:01 P.M. Having finally managed to escape from Platform, I'm free to see what's going on here! Some of our craftiest backroom godfathers are working Charter and Rules...

Much less interesting than Platform, but also more important. Glad someone's doing it... There's a training aimed straight at a certain person going on right now about dealing with traditional media. Best piece of advice: "Off the record comments: NEVER DO IT!!!" (I wonder who recently made some "off the record" comments and paid for it? ;-)) Here's a sampling of what they're discussing here...

They're talking about the blogosphere, as well, which definitely isn't "traditional" media, but hey, you can never say "Watch out for Matt Sludge" too often.

(P.S. Let me know whether there's any sound on the video, I don't know whether it's my laptop being crappy or what, but I can't hear any, but I know it's there.)

4:44 P.M. Got to love the irony of blogging about "traditional" media, huh? Just getting underway with a(nother) training on "new media" - probably not going to hear too much that's radically new, since Tim Moenk probably knows everything this dude and his consulting company knows and then some...

Yup, here are the bullet points on the first slide: Web site, blogs, YouTube, Flikr, Social networking sites, and SMS. That would be a check, check, check, check, check, aaaand... check. We have this covered! What's interesting though is how many of the international liberal youth (who are here at the same time) are in this training. I count several laptops from them. Not sure I'm going to stay for the whole thing, but maybe these international folks will have some interesting perspectives.

5:02 P.M. The presenter just asked whether anyone spent lots of time blogging... I was actually surprised that I was the only one who raised my hand. I guess if they DID blog a lot, they wouldn't be in this meeting, huh? I talked a little about those famous Angry Benson posts that brought so much traffic to the site in those heady days when Sonny was just an aberration instead of a harbinger of doom. "The mainstream media and the blogosphere are still trying to find the boundaries" - boundaries? We don't need any f'ing boundaries!

6:17 P.M. We're all waiting for general session to start - we supposedly have some good speakers lined up. Jason has outfitted us with hip YDG gear...

It's actually quite convention-ish in here, you could almost believe that you were on the floor of the DNC convention!

We're all a bit bored at the moment, Spicy is reading over my shoulder as I type this ;-)

6:56 P.M. Man, this Jim Hightower - guess he was a state legislator around here or something - is a trip. "In sex, they say using a feather is erotic... but using the whole chicken, that's kinky!" Or "George Bush is a corporate wet dream." I'd pay to hear this guy :-) Maybe we need some cowboy hats in Georgia.

7:05 P.M. I'm in the process of uploading a short clip of Jim Hightower. Right now we're hearing from former Texas governer Mark White, who is our keynote speaker; he's endorsing Bill Richardson for president. Hey, maybe Bill should have come here himself instead of letting someone else do his campaignining for him, but what do I know?

7:14 P.M. *sigh* More routine business, yay credentials report or whatever we just approved! We're being introduced to Garret Coleman, former Texas state rep, as our next speaker. Will we get a "Vote Obama" speech? Apparently he has "motherfucking balls" (what they said, not me...) Heh, he just said they kicked Tom Delay's ass (in so many words). I like our non-keynote speakers a lot more than the keynote...

7:33 P.M. We're singing "All My Exes Live in Texas"... somehow it seems appropriate. Knew I should have brought my cowboy hat... (Ok, so I don't have one.) Oh, and here's the Jim Hightower video, hopefully the sound works...

7:52 P.M. YDA president Chris Gallaway does give a good speech, I have to say.

The speeches are getting a bit old - I'm going to be highly disappointed if one of the musical lead-ins to the speakers isn't a Rage Against the Machine song. "You gotta take the power back!"

7:59 P.M. Now we're hearing from Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club. We're not hearing anything new but it's good that we're hearing from such a clearly important personage. It must suck to be him these days under this administration...

11:27 P.M. Last post of the night. Finished up session for the time being, ate some passable food at the hotel sports bar, and spend another two hours on the platform... oog. Nicolette is ready to smack down the platform geeks and their minor wording changes in the morning, so maybe tomorrow I really will be free...

YDA Dallas Convention Day 1: The beginning

2007-07-18T08:19:00.000-04:00

Yes, it's finally arrived - the Young Democrats of America National Convention 2007 is getting underway today, and your intrepid (well, as intrepid as hobbits get, at least) host will live blog the whole thing. Things will be getting started early this afternoon, but for those of you (like me) who are up early, let the blogging begin!

8:22 A.M. Those AJC articles about how bad things are getting at Hartsfield-Jackson are pretty accurate, unfortunately. At 7:30 - not exactly peak time yet - here's what the lines looked like...

Notice that the lines are way back beyond where they usually are. Fortunately the line moved fast for me, and I was out in 30 minutes. My confidence in America's air travel safety was bolstered by one of those bomb- (or drug- or donut-) sniffing dogs homing in on a cop drinking a cup of coffee - clearly we're doing ok if that's all the dogs can find. Flight leaves in 50...

1:21 P.M. Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away from the Dallas-Fort Worth airport, there was the Remote South parking lot:

I have a few entries in the "Dallas for Dumbasses" guide book...

The airport is possibly the only one where there isn't one central baggage claim location, but rather lots of little baggage claims sprinkled about. Bonus points if you somehow figure this out before you follow the wrong baggage claim sign...

Find out what "Premium/Two Zones" actually means before trying to ride the light rail, because the ticket machine gives you a lot of choices that don't ever mention the word "premium". Also try to figure out what to do when the ticket machines just don't read your credit card...

Take the airport shuttle - it's worth $12 bucks not to have to worry about the hassle of figuring this stuff out!!!

No, I'm not bitter, I just need a drink. Am I there yet? (No, I'm on the light rail, I may get to the hotel today.) Sorry to rant folks, I'm sure the fun is going to start just as soon as I get to the hotel!

2:42 P.M.

Yay! I arrived! I'm at the hotel, checked in, and ready to rock! Yay! Did I say yay? Yes! Um, right. So I'm at the hotel, and the IFLRY (International Federation of Liberal Radical Youth) is about to do a session on civil liberties and global security - look for updates on that shortly - but here are some images from the hotel:

Yup, we're in Texas...

Not much of a view from the 31st floor, huh? Oh well.

This place is *huge*, and we're not even the only con here...

2:54 P.M. We have someone from the ACLU (contituency outreach or something - his laptop desktop is Colbert!) beginning the discussion with a video about how individuals have gotten caught in the government's reponse to the 9/11 attacks...

We're hearing (via the video) about an innocent German citizen who got rendited (is that a word?) to our posh CIA secret prisons in God knows what countries. Go to hell, Dubya!

3:06 P.M. Ah, secret government searches, how we loathe thee. Just a glimpse of some of our (YDG) members listening intently...

(No, Jason is not trying to avoid being "it"!)

3:23 P.M. Wow, this is a telling statistic. Out of 143,000 national security letters (basically super BS subpoenas) demanding information, how many led to any kind of conviction? Wait for it... one. That's pathetic.

4:14 P.M. *sigh* Well, all good things must come to an end, and the suck of Platform must begin. Your host has been suckered into being secretary of this thing (surprise!) and will be here for the duration, pending alcohol consumption ;-)

6:01 P.M. Yowza. Two hours of platform down... more than I want to go. They did let us out of our cage for a bit though...

At least Timmeh is here to make this more bearable :-)

6:59 P.M. C'mon people, learn from the pros - DON'T CALL FOR QUORUM!!! (Oy, I think I need a replacement!)

7:04 P.M. Holy schnikes, the Mary Kay chicks next door are REALLY LOUD... I mean, party on, party on, but we're about the people's business here!

So...um...Big Sexy Paid Little Mike a Visit Last Night

2007-07-13T17:41:00.000-04:00

Go check out his post over on his blog, Blue Heart of Dixie...better get yourself a beer and a snack. Jason kind of lets loose.

Watch this space for more poking fun of the laughable and pathetic turncoat.....

Inspired by Live Earth????

2007-07-11T09:05:00.000-04:00

I was!!

I took "the pledge" and everything (have you?) And one of the things I promised to do was:

3.To fight for a moratorium on the construction of any new generating facility
that burns coal without the capacity to safely trap and store the CO2;

So! I invited someone to come talk at our meeting tonight about the proposed new coal plant in South Georgia. Yes, that's right, our very own environmental disaster right here in our own home state.

Our special guest will be Justine Thompson, Executive Director of the Georgia Center for Law in the Public Interest.

Here is a link to the website.

They are fighting tooth and nail to stop this plant and they need our help.

Please come tonight (Wednesday July 11) to Manuel's at 7:00 to hear Ms. Thompson and do your part to save our planet home.

Bring a friend!

Activist Judges

2007-07-09T12:15:00.000-04:00

Interesting point in NYTimes today about our crop of enormously activist judges on the US Supreme Court.

Adam Cohen writes,

The individuals and groups that have been railing against judicial activism
should be outraged. They are not, though, because their criticism has always
been of “liberal activist judges.” Now we have conservative ones, who use their
judicial power on behalf of employers who mistreat their workers, tobacco
companies, and whites who do not want to be made to go to school with
blacks.

What's our sound bite on this? How about "THESE are Activist judges - overturning important protections for regular folks." Or "THESE are Activist judges - looking out for their powerful friends who helped get them on the court."

Why I’m so Damned Mad

2007-07-04T01:37:00.000-04:00

So I’ve spent the last day trying to figure it out – just what about this Libby thing makes me SO ANGRY? It’s not like our president hasn’t done one illegal, disastrous, and idiotic thing after another. Why did this news nearly make me swerve off the road when driving home yesterday? Why couldn't I sleep last night or concentrate at work today?

I think I’ve figured it out.

At first, I thought it might be the sheer hypocrisy and the galling double standard (hello, “soft on crime much??”) And, there is that in spades. Here are a few of the things I was yelling at the television last night – when I could make noise emanate from my mouth – which was difficult:

Who Hates America Now??

Since before the start of the war, George has been insisting that I “hate America” because of my opinions about his disastrous policies, foreign and domestic. It’s clear now that instead of me, it’s actually George and his Dick who hate America. There’s nothing special about this country except our Constitution and the associated institutions of democracy. These are the things true patriots love – the only things worth loving and fighting and dying for, and he – well – he doesn’t even hate them. He seems too dumb to hate them – he just doesn’t give a flying f***. He doesn’t care about the Constitution, he doesn’t care about the institutions of democracy, and he sure as heck doesn’t care about the citizens. George – you’re the unpatriotic one.

This is nothing – and everything - like Clinton!

The right-wing spinmeisters are struggling with the comparisons to Clinton. Bottom line, you can’t have it both ways. There’s one school of thought trying to get us to believe that Scooter and Bill did the same thing and Scooter got the worse end of the deal: I heard one blowhard trying to say “of course Bush should commute the sentence! Bill Clinton was convicted of perjury and he lost his law license (didn’t spend a day in jail), but Scooter Libby gets 30 months in jail??” as if poor Scooter was the victim of a jury gone wild. OK – that’s insane. Republicans were outraged about Clinton’s perjury and, foaming at the mouth I might add, staged a historic impeachment of a popular sitting president. He hardly got off easy. And – remember – they were REALLY, REALLY mad at him. For perjury. Remember? And then the other approach is that if we Dems thought Clinton shouldn’t be pursued for his crime, yet we’re mad about Scooter skating, then somehow we’re the ones with a double standard. This line of reasoning is even more absurd. Bill Clinton lied about getting a blow job from his intern. Lame, but, that’s between him and his wife. Scooter Libby lied to cover up a treacherous act of retribution, if not a treasonous one. He was part of the White House team that “sold” the war – that spun half-truths and bald-faced lies to convince congress and the public to support a horrible mistake. Thousands of Americans have died from the mistakes of that “team” and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. Blood is on their hands. Don’t dare compare it.

“No Amnesty”

The same people that are praising this despicable act are the same ones who are wailing “no amnesty” for undocumented workers. The same pathological, xenophobic right wing who applaud the Scooter “get out of jail card” are the ones who said the fines weren’t enough, the waiting period wasn’t enough; throw the book at them. Absolutely no amnesty.

Whatever.

Poor Gennarlo

I am sure it has struck more than one Georgia citizen – the unjust irony of two situations in stark relief. Our own Attorney General, Thurbert Baker, decides that even though everyone everywhere knows Gennarlo’s sentence to be unfair – too harsh – too severe – he cannot intervene because WE MUST FOLLOW THE RULES. Gennarlo waits in jail. A pitiable casualty to our institutions. And yet privileged, moneyed, well-connected Scooter Libby, he gets a walk. Worse, he gets commutation from the man who refused a commutation requested by The Pope to death row inmate and Born Again Christian Carla Fay Tucker; who refused commutation to a severely retarded man on death row in Texas. Apparently if you’re truly repentant, or too damaged to be responsible for your crimes, TOO BAD! But if you’ve been a good soldier for the cause, subjugating good judgment, subjugating the law, subjugating the truth, and in fact subjugating morality to twist the trust and patriotism of the American people, well that’s ok. Poor Gennarlo.

But here’s what really makes me mad.

Beneath it all – once you scream, you SCREAM, fruitlessly, about the irony and the hypocrisy of it all, but then wonder why this is any worse than anything else these madmen have done…here it is.

Speaking for myself, but recognizing my efforts as merely representative of all of you reading my words - I stood with a handful, maybe twenty other people at Dr. King’s grave when the war started. We all 20 of us stood in protest, when Bush and his lies had everyone else beating the war drums. We stood on the other side of the line from the vast majority of our fellow citizens. And then I listened for literally years while politicians and the media fed us all lines that anyone opposing the war hated the troops and hated America. My own family questioned my loyalty to my country, cutting me to the quick. I have marched, oh how I have marched, to protest the policies of this administration. We hear that now we torture prisoners – the pictures from Abu Ghraib are sickening and no one pays. We hear that we tap Americans’ phones without due process and no one pays. We see with our own eyes that we haplessly and carelessly abandon our own brothers and sisters literally to die in New Orleans. And we abandon our veterans to miserable conditions as they come, wounded and maimed, back from Afghanistan and Iraq. No ones pays. We fire federal prosecutors on a whim and no one pays. We stack the courts – buy the refs – thereby ensuring that NO ONE PAYS.

What are we to do? I have canvassed, OH how I have canvassed – all over North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, doing the only things I know how to change the representation we have. I took vacation from work over and over to speak, to lobby, to write, to call, to protest. And the outrage continues. I have written checks. I have blogged. I have cried, oh how I have cried. I have put my flag out on every holiday, as I will do today, and have done my very very very best to follow in the footsteps of our best patriots by raising my voice in dissent.

For all this debt. For all this crime. For all this murder. We had our one small piece of flesh. As pathetic as it was, Libby’s short and comfortable, but impending, imprisonment was a small glimmer of hope that this travesty of an administration would yet be held to account. On the scale of justice, put all our pain, all our rage, all these innumerable attacks on everything we value as Americans – that’s on one side, and humble Lewis "Scooter" Libby on the other. He was a paltry payment, but he was all we had.

And with barely a “fuck you very much” George ripped it away.

That’s why I’m so mad.

Atlanta Young Democrats have PRIDE

2007-06-27T22:26:00.000-04:00

I hope most people are aware that the annual Atlanta Pride festival, celebrating members of the GLBT community throughout the Southeast and beyond, took place this past weekend. The Young Democrats of Atlanta are always at the forefront of defending GLBT rights - after all, we were a big part of what stopped the anti-gay-adoption bill on Crossover Day - and of COURSE we wouldn't miss an opportunity to support our dear friends in the community, as well as to represent Democratic values of tolerance, inclusion, and yes, a bit of fun...

Fortunately the pictures of me are nowhere near this entry, but rest assured in the midst of the welcome break from the day-to-day toil of being political activists in Georgia, we reached out to potential voters:

All in all it was a great time for everyone, and we had the added warm fuzzy feeling of knowing that we were unafraid to show our support for HUMAN rights, something that some folks (like maybe the assclowns that stole our banner) know nothing about. Thanks to everyone who helped out - see you next year!

YDAtl, SpaceyG, Chris Dodd pushing the nerd edge

2007-06-10T18:52:00.000-04:00

As riveting as our first official Ustream broadcast might not have been, YDAtl got a nod on the official Ustream.tv blog for, along with presidential candidate Sen. Chris Dodd, bringing politics to what is arguably one of The Hot New Web Thingies of the season. Today, Grayson Daughters kicked it up a notch (or 19 notches, if we're counting viewers) by sharing the For the People Rally with those of us who couldn't make the trip.

I have visions of us plugging a Ustream of somebody awesome into that big screen TV in our meeting room at Manuel's Tavern. Let's keep it up.

Help the Young Dems get to their National Convention, and Win a Trip for Yourself!

2007-06-06T20:30:00.000-04:00

The Young Democrats of America biennial National Convention is taking place July 19-21 in Dallas. In order for a young democrat to go to Dallas, he or she faces the following costs:

Convention Registration = $60
Hotel Room (4 nights, 4 people to a room) = $155
Travel Cost (airline, bus, or car) = $100 - $300
Spending Money for Dallas = $200 ($50/day)

The grand total is $515-$715. For some of our members, this cost is doable with some savings. However, for a vast majority of our members, the costs are prohibitive, meaning that some of our best young talent simply cannot afford to go.

To help with these costs, the Young Democrats of Georgia announce their Prize Drawing Fundraising Program.

Staring today, YDG is selling $10 prize drawing tickets. The ticket sales will go through Saturday, June 30th. Ticket purchasers will have a chance to win one of two domestic travel vouchers that YDG is giving away. We will be drawing the tickets during a party at Manuel’s Tavern in Atlanta, July 13th.

Physical tickets will be sold throughout the state by YDG members. We have also set-it-up so that people can purchase tickets online (check out http://www.georgiayds.org/ !)

With the funds raised during the Prize Drawing Fundraiser, YDG will be able to pay for the registration fees as well as the hotel costs for its entire 37 member delegation!

Will you help the members of YDAtl get to their national convention? Purchase your prize drawing tickets today!

* * * * * * * * * * *
Are you a YDG member who is interested in going to the YDA National Convention? Even if you are just “thinking about it”, let Nicolette Allen, our VP of Finance know right away! She can get you set-up to sell prize drawing tickets!

We are requiring everyone who plans on attending the YDA National convention to sell at least 30 prize drawing tickets between now and June 30th. Its important that you let us know ASAP so that you can have enough time to meet your ticket sales quotas!

Please contact Nicolette at any time by email (vp_finance@georgiayds.org) or by phone (404-538-7262) and she will be happy to set you up!

Extremely interesting Ustream show

2007-06-06T18:59:00.001-04:00

Or go interact via the chatroom at the show page.

Young Democrats open thread - who won the debate last night?

2007-06-04T10:06:00.000-04:00

Hopefully y'all managed to catch the debate last night (if you wussed out, you can get something resembling a recap from Blog for Democracy). CNN seems to be leaning towards Biden as the strongest performer - and I have to agree, I thought Biden was (with only a couple of exceptions) excellent. I think Obama "won" in the sense that he did the most to keep on his message, but I also thought Edwards had a good performance. Hillary Clinton played it really safe and politically correct, which was probably what she was going for, but I wasn't impressed. Bill Richardson was much worse than he should have been - he just wasn't good at all, which is sad given his resume, and I thought the idea of boycotting the Olympics to pressure China was really silly.

What do YOU think? Who won the Pretzel Award? Are you sick of Dennis Kucinich yet? Is Chris Dodd that boring in real life? Are you closer or further away from deciding on a candidate for 2008? Did you groan out loud when they started talking about a draft?

Bill Richardson and the Young Democrats of America in Omaha

2007-05-24T17:51:00.000-04:00

This past weekend, the Young Democrats of America held their Spring Conference in Omaha, Nebraska, in the final run up to the national convention in Dallas - you know you want to come, and Georgia needs your help to get all the votes we so richly deserve! - and it was a great experience. For one thing, Omaha is a lot less flat than you'd think it would be, being in the middle of a flat expanse of wheat and corn and... well, wheat and corn. Apparently Omaha has one of the best zoos in the country - who would have guessed? And who would have expected to have to make time to do anything that captured the quintissential essence of the great state of Nebraska, other than help oneself to a nice big piece of cow?

I digress, however. Another thing that was unexpected was the first appearance of a Democratic candidate for President on the campaign trail in Nebraska since Bobby Kennedy made an appearance in the fateful year of 1968. Bill Richardson may still be trying to get his campaign off the ground, but taking the time to reach out specifically to YOUNG activists (i.e., the ones who haven't gone crazy, like certain folks in Washington) was a great way to get some energy into his campaign...

It wasn't Bill's best speech ever, but really just being there was a big step in itself. I think we - Young Democrats - are really coming into our own as a force in this party, and candidates that want to make the most of their opportunities are making the most of the Young Democrats at their disposal. Bill spoke on Friday at the convention, and on Saturday we heard from a couple of Democratic candidates for Congress who came close to taking a few more seats in Nebraska and - you guessed it - Young Democrats were an integral part of their campaigns. We also got a visit from the C-Span Campaign 2008 bus...

A lot of us even got interviewed by C-Span - hopefully some of us were on message enough to make it onto some important tape reel! Speaking of folks who were no doubt on message...

I think everyone appreciated the opportunity to be heard on tape, even if it's only viewed once by some beetle droid in a back room who decides that while you're still more airworthy than Sam Brownback, you won't ever be famous. We got to see a couple of humorous moments from the Republican candidates, specifically Mike Huckabee, who can't even have a non-awkward moment with a fellow Baptist. We also had an extended conversation about Mitt Romney and how there are lots of OTHER folks like him with the special undergarments who are ready to mobilize for him. (Fortunately we didn't actually SEE any video of said undergarments *shudder*).

In addition to all the boring old work that got done - you know, committee meetings, platform drafting sessions, and drinking all the Guinness at the hotel bar (it wasn't me!) - the Young Democrats of Atlanta even got yet another special moment in the sun in front of general session on Sunday - Shelby's YDAtl commercial (the black and white one) was one of two videos that were shown as examples for folks in other states. Do we rock or what?

All in all it was a very good conference, and a lot of details got ironed out for the national convention, which is going to be a GREAT event. Thunder... Thunder... Thundercats! Hoooo! Go Young Democrats!

Dr. Joseph Lowery to YDAtl: Be good crazy (U2BE, photos)

2007-05-16T20:55:00.000-04:00

On Monday night, the Young Democrats of Atlanta were honored by the presence of civil rights icon Dr. Joseph Lowery, who spoke at our The Future Is Blue fundraiser. Young Democrats know how to throw a party...

...make VERY VIP's feel welcome...

...and OF COURSE have a good time!

Dr. Lowery was SUPREMELY inspiring, and taught us the difference between GOOD crazy (Jimmy Carter) and BAD crazy (George "Department of Evil" Bush), as well as what an "agitator" is. THANK YOU to Dr. Lowery and all our great members who made our second fundraiser a HUGE success!

REMINDER - Future is Blue is Tonight!!

2007-05-14T08:28:00.000-04:00

Its hard to believe, but May 14th is finally here. We hope that you will be able to make it out to Maestro’s tonight at 7pm for The Future is Blue, featuring Dr. Joseph Lowery. Its going to be a fantastic time that you will not want to miss!

Future is Blue, featuring Dr. Joseph Lowery
7pm, Monday, May 14th
Maestro’s in Castleberry Hill
170 Northside Dr.
Atlanta, GA30313

The Young Democrats of Atlanta Thank Our Future is Blue Sponsors!

True Blue Sponsor - $500
Mike Berlon
Jan Hackney

Yellow Dog Sponsor - $250
Jason Bogart
Melanie Goux
Catherine Smith and Jerry Tyler

Event Host - $100
Councilman H. Lamar Willis
Lee Biola
Richard Ray
Bob Roche
Dene Shepherd
Thomas Sparkman
Michael Stamboly
Allen Thornell

YDAtl Stewards
TJ Copeland
Page Gleason
Jan Hackney
Aaron Karp
Emily Schunior
Kate and Jay Sandhaus
Mike Stolarski

Want to become a sponsor of Future is Blue? Visit our website or contact our Finance Chair, Nicolette Allen, at 404-538-7262 or at finance@atlantayoungdems.org

Help Register Voters at the Sweet Auburn Festival Tomorrow!

2007-05-11T13:02:00.000-04:00

Dr. Joseph Lowery (yes the one that is speaking at our Future is Blue event!) and the Coalition for the Peoples Agenda need your help!

They are manning a voter registration booth at this weekend’s Sweet Auburn Festival and had some volunteers drop out at the last minute.

Will you help them register voters at this annual event that is attended by close to 500,000 people every year? (Think of all the Democratic voters out there!)

The Young Democrats of Atlanta will be helping to man their voter registration booth from 1:30pm to 4pm on Saturday (tomorrow). You do not have to work the entire time, but if you can help out for 2-3 hours it would be greatly appreciated.

Please contact Nicole, with the Coalition for the Peoples Agenda at 404-444-0230 to volunteer!

Cant make it Saturday, but are available Sunday? Nicole is looking for volunteers to work anytime between 10am – 4:30pm. Call Nicole at 404-444-0230 to help out!

Reaching Across the Aisle

2007-05-10T09:30:00.000-04:00

Here is text of an email that I just sent to the President of the Atlanta Young Republicans. We'll see what happens:

May 9, 2007

Cameron Fash
President, Atlanta Young Republicans

Dear Cameron,

Hello, my name is Emily Schunior and I am the President of the Young Democrats ofAtlanta. I am reaching out to you in true old-fashioned bipartisan fashion to enlist your help and that of your group, the Atlanta Young Republicans.

I am sure your organization watched the Georgia General Assembly this year with as much interest as we did. We spent several days lobbying under the gold dome, and I am sure on many issues we were on opposite sides.

But one place where I know that we as young people in Atlanta, regardless of party, are typically in strong agreement is on protecting the environment. At our age, we are launching careers and starting families. We recognize a common responsibility to safeguard our natural resources, not only for the safety and happiness of ourselves and our own children, but for future generations. We also don’t share the same outdated views as many of our elders that economic development and environmental stewardship are mutually exclusive.

Therefore, I am sure you will join in my concern about the Senate’s failure last month to confirm the nomination of Sally Bethea, Executive Director of the Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, to the Department of Natural Resources Board. She was widely considered the lone voice for the environment remaining on an 18-member board. The DNR Board has considerable impact on the natural resources in our state. Here is information about the makeup and purpose of the Board excerpted from the DNR website FAQs (which can be read in their entirety here: http://www.gadnr.org/pdf/visitor_info.pdf)

I. Who are the members of the Board of Natural Resources?
The Board of Natural Resources consists of 18 citizens appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Georgia Senate. There is one member from each of the 13 congressional districts of the state. There are four “at large” members and one additional member from one of the coastal counties (Chatham, Bryan, Liberty, McIntosh, Glynn, and Camden Counties)….

II. What are the Board’s Powers and Duties?
…[T]he Board has the power to establish the general policies to be followed by theDepartment of Natural Resources…. It also enacts the rules… that govern the Department’s regulation of activities such as environmental protection and wildlife management. The Board does … appoint the Commissioner of the Department and the Director of the Environmental Protection Division. It also by statute approves the appointment by the Commissioner of the Director of the Pollution Prevention Assistance Division. By its own policies, it approves the appointment of all Division Directors. The Department consists of the Environmental Protection Division, the Coastal Resources Division, the Wildlife Resources Division, the Parks, Recreation and Historic Sites Division, the Historic Preservation Division, and the Pollution Prevention Assistance Division.

Even we moderate pro-business types can surely understand that a board with these duties, consisting solely and completely of business and development interests, is not in the long-term best interest of either our environment or our economy. We know the long term economic impacts of poor natural resources policies. Doesn’t it make far more sense to ensure a balance of voices and interests to weigh in on such important concerns?

Governor Perdue thought so when he appointed Sally Bethea.

Won’t you help us voice your concerns? We are writing letters and making calls to the Governor to encourage him to continue appointing environmental advocates as terms expire. We are also writing to our own Senators and in particular to Tommie Williams, Chair of the committee which reviewed Ms. Bethea’s nomination encouraging them to confirm environmental advocates in future sessions.

Here is contact information for Governor Perdue and Senator Williams:

Governor Sonny Perdue
Office of the Governor
Georgia State Capitol
Atlanta, GA 30334
Office Phone: 404-656-1776
Send an email via:http://www.gov.state.ga.us/contact_dom.shtml

Senator Tommie Williams (R-19)
148 Williams Avenue
Lyons, GA 30436
Tommie@tommiewilliams.com
(912) 526-7444

We appreciate your help in preserving a fair and balanced DNR Board – that’s good for everyone in every party.

Best regards,
Emily Schunior
President, Young Democrats of Atlanta
president@atlantayoungdems.org
(404) 202-8430

For Further Reading:
http://savannahnow.com/node/279739
Overview Article from the Savannah paper

http://www.peachpundit.com/2007/04/23/those-darned-environmentalists/
Bipartisan discussion

http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/printedition/2007/04/25/eddnr0425.html
Editorial from AJC

Lou Dobbs....

2007-05-09T16:04:00.001-04:00

Today, I read the weekly commentary of Lou Dobbs on CNN and found it rather interesting. Before you start to wonder if Allison has lost her mind, I typically read his weekly commentary to see what he has decided to whine about this week. I do not necessarily agree with him, but he seems to have an influence over the middle class and determines which issues are important to them. A recent example comes to mind - immigration. Yes, there have been rumblings for a while over the issue of illegal immigration, but there was certainly a correlation between his rants and public opinion. But I’m not here to discuss Lou Dobbs’ vociferous view of whether or not we have broken borders and the problems that allegedly come from the mass immigration from the South. I want to discuss his recent article, “A Call to the Faithful.”

This article begins by describing the continuing encroachment of religious beliefs in national politics, and then it devolves into an immigration rant, as usual. What I thought would be the overarching theme of Separation of Church and State is what caught my attention, as well as a particular quote. Lou begins by saying that Protestant and Catholic churches are putting pressure on the political system and influencing their congregation’s views with threats of Hell. This time, churches are standing on the other side of the mainstream Republican Platform, and Dobbs, on the issue of immigration. As an example, Dobbs mentions the head of the Los Angeles Archdiocese, Cardinal Rogers Mahoney, who is quoted as saying, “Anything that tears down one group of people or one person, anything that is a negative in our community, disqualifies us from being part of the eternal city.”

(Imagine the sound of Vinyl being scratched on a record player, as you make the Scooby-Doo head shake noise)

I have to pause for a second and re-read the quote. Yep, it says what I thought it said. I knew churches were on the amnesty side of immigration, and traditionally speaking, they should be. Churches have always been a place of sanctuary. However, let’s examine the quote; Cardinal Mahoney wants the Church to be inclusive of all groups of people or risk going to Hell. Ok, I get it – I love the quote (except for the threat of Hell), it is loving, caring, and christianly, right? It is essentially a derivative of the Golden Rule, and who doesn’t love the Golden Rule? However, what if we removed the group in question, illegal immigrants, and replaced them with, let’s say, the LBGT Community? Will the belief behind the quote above still be applicable? It depends on the church, but most probably would not extend the sentiment to that oppressed group.

Seems contradictory, doesn’t it? Lou Dobbs finishes off his commentary by pointing out the contradictory nature of the Christian belief system regarding immigration by mentioning Romans 13, a passage addressing the role of a government and that it should be followed (Of course, I completely disagree with the use and character of this passage). Perhaps, since Lou Dobbs is so concerned about the incongruous nature of religion and the ever dwindling separation of Church and State, we can coax him to point out the inconsistency in the support for immigrants and non-support for the LBGT Community and complain as effectively on the issue of Church/State as he does immigration. Maybe that will change some minds.

Special Election June 19, 2007

2007-05-08T11:18:00.000-04:00

For those interested in assisting with the Special Election on June 19th, here is some information regarding phone banking.

Voter Registration
10th Congressional District
May 2007
Phone Bank from Atlanta area

MAKE A CALL – MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

Calls will be made to union member non-registered voters at the following dates and locations. Members will have received a mailing with voter registration form enclosed. This will be a reminder call to mail the form.

Tues, May 15 6-9PM

Office of United Food and Commercial Workers
Local 1996
3302 McGinnis Ferry Rd. #201
Suwanee, GA 30024
(N on I-85; exit Old Peachtree Rd. #109: left at top of ramp.
Pass Home Depot on right, turn right on Satellite Blvd.
Go to traffic light (big intersection) at McGinnis Ferry
Turn left on M. Ferry. You will see UFCW 1996 on left.

AND

AFL-CIO Office (near Atlanta airport)
2314 Sullivan Rd. Atlanta 30337
From I-85 going south, turn right on Old National Highway
From I-85 going north, exit right at Old National, but turn
back left over expressway.
Go about a block and a half to Sullivan Rd.
Turn right at the traffic light at Sullivan Rd.
Pass Coca-Cola on left; fire station on right.
Next 2 story building on right has the AFL-CIO office.

Wed, May 16 6-9 PM

Sullivan Rd. location only

Please call Mary Lou Romaine-Waymer at 678-714-3497 to leave your name, contact phone number, and when and where you plan to volunteer so we can make plans for phones, materials, and snacks. Thanks for your help!

Dont Be Blue Cause You Have Nothing To Do...

2007-05-04T12:54:00.000-04:00

You ever come home on a Friday night, and just go “damn, I really don’t want to spend another weekend catching up on work, doing laundry, and cleaning the kitchen?” Well never fear, Atlanta Young Dems’ regular old Julie McCoy is here to save you from a weekend of Lysol and Scrubbing Bubbles.

Friday

Tonight! – Join the users of Donkey/Elephant for what has become a weekly tradition, the Friday night happy hour.
Tonight, we are taking this informal Happy Hour tradition over to Decatur for a night of Pool, Foosball, Table Shuffleboard, and Darts at Twains
Time: 7pm
Location: Twains, 211 E Trinity Pl, Decatur, 30030

But don’t stay out too late! Saturday is jam-packed from sunrise to way after sunset with lobbying, education, and of course partying (How can you not party on Cinqo de Mayo?!?)

Saturday

9am – Peachtree Corridor Lobbying for Affordable Housing
Tomorrow the Peachtree Corridor task force will be meeting at Atlanta City Council chambers to discuss development along Peachtree Road. While we are all excited about making Peachtree Road a true destination street for tourists and residents alike, many of us feel strongly about making sure affordable housing for all is included in the development plans. Join us as we partner up with our friends in the affordable housing community and make sure our voices are heard!
Time: 9am – 11am
Location: Atlanta City Council Chambers, 55 Trinity Ave
Contact: Mijha Butcher, mijha.butcher@gmail.com

11am – Dekalb Young Democrats Focus on the Environment Forum
If there is one thing Young Dems love, it’s the environment! Please join the Dekalb YD’s for their environmental forum this Saturday and learn more about the biggest threats to our local natural resources.
Time: 11am – 12pm
Location: PushPush Theater, Decatur Station, 121 New Street #4, Atlanta, GA 30030
Speakers: Betsy Nicholas, Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper
Kathie Gannon, DeKalb County Commissioner
Contact: Tim Cairl, President, Dekalb Young Dems, president@dekalbyd.com

3pm – Atlanta Stonewall Democrats 1st Annual Derby Day
Wear your wackiest hat, and get your mint julep on with our friends, the Atlanta Stonewall Democrats for their first annual Derby Day fundraiser!
Time: 3pm – 7pm
Website: http://www.atlantastonewall.org
Location: Private residence of Dr. Bill and Verna Cleveland, 1700 Doncaster Dr NE Atlanta, GA 30309
Price: $25 Young Dems, $50 everyone else. Visit the website to purchase your tickets in advance! Seats are going fast!
Contact: Kyle Bailey, kyle@atlantastonewall.org

After derby day, there are about a million and one other things going on including the HRC dinner. So grab some friends and just go out and have some fun, and then role on over to Sunday

Sunday

8am – 4pm – Grab some breakfast at Café 458 and support our friends at Democrats Work
Nothing cures a mint julep hangover like a good breakfast prepared and served by our good friends at Democrats Work. Come over anytime during the day, grab some food, and support a very worthy cause.
Time: 8am – 4pm
Location: Samaritan House Cafe 458, 458 Edgewood Ave. SE, Atlanta, GA

2pm – Young Democrats of Atlanta Campaigns Committee Meeting
Now you’ve spent the weekend partying it up, learning about the environment, and grabbing some good food at Café 458 (Democrat food just tastes better then Republican food doesn’t it?), but lets do try and get some work in as well. Join our tireless Campaigns Chair, Allison, for her first committee meeting of the year. She has tons of plans for future training, helping out with the 10th district race, and of course the 2008 election season! Make sure you come on out and help us develop our new plan for Taking Back the State in ’08!
Time: 2pm
Location: Manuel’s Tavern, 602 North Highland Ave, Atlanta, 30307
Contact: Allison Layton, Campaigns Chair, campaigns@atlantayoungdems.org

So there you go, weekend all planned out! (and you thought you were just going to chill on the couch all weekend!) Hope to see you all out there!

-Nicolette

Please Join the Young Democrats of Atlanta for our 2nd Annual "Future Is Blue" Fundraiser featuring Dr. Joseph Lowery

2007-04-26T20:58:00.000-04:00

The Young Democrats of Atlanta need your help to plan an evening of Vision and Purpose. We believe the best days of the Democratic Party are ahead of us. The Future is Blue...

Please join the Young Democrats of Atlanta for our 2nd Annual "Future Is Blue" Fundraiser. This year we are honored to host Dr. Joseph Lowery, an icon of the Civil Rights movement. Hear the story of a man who has been at the forefront of the Progressive movement for many years and continues to be a fighter for human rights to this day.

Details

The Future Is Blue

Monday, May 14th 2007

7pm - 9pm

Maestro's - Castleberry Hill
170 Northside Dr SW

Suite 96

Atlanta, GA 30313

Tickets can be purchased at the door or in advance online! (preferred method)

Let us know your are coming! RSVP today!

The Young Democrats of Atlanta Thank our Future Is Blue Sponsors!

Yellow Dog - $250

Catherine Smith and Jerry Tyler

Host - $100

Jason Bogart

YDAtl Stewards

Emily Schunior

Aaron Karp

Become a Future Is Blue Sponsor today!

Make a contribution online or contact our Finance Chair, Nicolette Allen at finance@atlantayoungdems.org or by phone at 404-538-7262.

Pet food recall, more than just a US problem.

2007-04-20T12:16:00.000-04:00

Every since the recent pet food recall I have been following the story very closely. My cat, Frosty, was eating the brand of food who voluntarily recalled their food this past weekend, Natural Balance. This not only threw me for a loop, but the animal community as well. Melamine has been confirmed to be in not one, but three ingredients: Wheat gluten, rice protein concentrate, and corn gluten.

The wheat gluten caused the massive scare roughly a month ago when Menu Foods pulled more than 100 brands of food. Frosty was actually eating then one of the brands that had been recalled. Luckily, she was eating only dry food, and I switched, not so much because of the recall, but because of a food allergy. While this recall has been the most widely reported due to the shear amount of food, it was the expanded recall this last week that has caused the most surprise.

Natural Balance is a highly regarded food company and when they recalled their food, every one knew this problem would be much larger than previously thought. Rice Protein Concentrate has now been confirmed to have melamine in it, and this particular ingredient is a so called human grade ingredient. After this ingredient was linked to China as well reports are surfacing that China may have laced the ingredients purposefully in order to defraud sellers in to thinking the protein content is higher than would otherwise be. Click here to read a story regarding the charges I have just mentioned.

The last ingredient, corn gluten, is the scary one. It is found in many products, like wheat gluten, but unlike wheat gluten, it is also found in dry food. In the US there have been no confirmed cases of contaminated corn gluten; however, this is not true in South Africa. At least 30 dogs have been killed due to contaminated corn gluten which has also been traced to China.

Thousands of animals have been affected by these recalls, not only our pets, but our food supply as well. There are reports of melamine reaching the food supply of hogs, and tests are being done to determine whether or not this contaminant has reached the human food supply. Whether or not China purposefully introduced this chemical to these ingredients for monetary gain has yet to be, and probably will never be, determined. What is true is that we haven’t seen the last of pet food recalls. Fortunately, my beautiful cat of nearly 15 years of age is doing fine.

Please check your food supply for these three ingredients, especially the last, as it has not made headline here yet.

Urban Development Happy Hour Webcast

2007-04-19T18:35:00.000-04:00

Howdy kids!

With a little luck and a lot of wi-fi, I'm going to try to webcast tonight's panel on urban development LIVE from Madison Grill, for those of you at home tending to babies or stuck workin' for the man and such. Tune in around 7:15 or so and click the play in the widget below.

Update: The webcast worked! And thanks to the 3 of you that tuned in to provide feedback. Those of you who missed out can get just a wee taste of how it looked in the short recording below (future events may be recorded in their entirety, we'll see.)

Neal Boortz and the Wussification of America

2007-04-18T16:07:00.000-04:00

"How far have we advanced in the wussification of America? I am now under attack by the left for wondering aloud why these students did so little to defend themselves. It seems that standing in terror waiting for your turn to be executed was the right thing to do, and any questions as to why 25 students didn’t try to rush and overpower Cho Seung-Hui are just examples of right wing maniacal bias. Surrender — comply — adjust. The doctrine of the left."

So says Neal Boortz, referring to the Virginia Tech killings. Boortz is a tough subject - a commentator so given to intentionally overblown invective that he, like Ann Coulter and others, is probably best left unanswered. A lot of people listen to him, and that's troublesome, but in most cases, any kind of response just gives him more attention and will be spun into proof of his point. In this instance, I certainly can't say that my response won't have precisely the same effect, but I feel the need to respond, nonetheless.

I think it's fairly hard to make a case that Boortz's words were not, at the very least, intemperate (a word he actually uses to characterize them, though in a way that's a bit dismissive for my tastes). It's possible that someone with a gun could have stopped the killings at Virginia Tech. It's possible that a group of unarmed people could have done the same. At the same time, it's possible, even probable, that the people who were in the situation, in the moment were simply afraid and too shocked to react defensively. We've all been raised on imagery of superheroism and self-sacrifice, but it's hard, probably even impossible to know how we'd react in a situation where those things are needed. I'm sure everyone would want to bravely throw themselves at the attacker to save others, or to use their wits to save the day, but when the utterly mundane normalcy of their class was suddenly destroyed in a burst of intense violence, it seems unfair to expect their minds to be clear and ready for action. We don't have the right, sitting here at keyboards without guns in our faces, with no professor lying dead a few feet away, to second guess the behavior of the people who lived (or did not live) through it.

Boortz goes on to say "The statistics are clear. Crime rates are lower where qualified law abiding people are allowed to own and carry guns. If this is true in virtually every community in which it has been tried ... why would it not be true on a large college campus? Rational answer, anyone?" Well, let's start with the fact that the guns used by the Tech shooter were purchased legally. It is true that students are not allowed to carry guns, even those they are legally permitted to have, on the campus of Virginia Tech. This issue was tested by a specific case at Virginia Tech, which prompted legislation in Virginia to change carry laws on campus. The legislation failed, and Tech remained nominally gun-free. Boortz asks for a rational answer to why his statistics (mentioned but not provided) wouldn't hold true on a large college campus. Leaving you to judge my rationality, here's my take - at the heart of this incident is a college student with a gun. Yes, this gun was carried onto the campus illegally, but it was purchased legally. Cho had spent time in a mental hospital, but he purchased the gun legally. A woman contacted police, feeling that Cho was stalking her, but the gun was purchased legally. In both of these cases, arguments can be made for mitigating circumstances. Is anyone who spent a night in a mental institution forever branded as damaged goods? As the woman declined to press charges, can we assume Cho was guilty and therefore someone to keep an eye on? Should the professors and fellow students who balked at his violent writings have had some massive Big Brother system to contact to say "Mark this guy for scrutiny?" Of course not. Still, the ease with which almost anyone can purchase guns points up the problem. There were warning signs with Cho Seung-Hui, but not necessarily the kind that would show up on a background check.

More directly to Boortz's argument about a large, well-armed campus being a safe campus, let's all take a moment to think about our college experiences. Many look back at college as the best years of their lives, sure, but it may be more accurate to call them the most intense years. They are a heady mixture of incredible stress, newfound freedom and its accompanying excesses, and dizzying emotional discoveries and revelations. College is where many of us found and lost first loves, drank ourselves stupid weekend after weekend, experimented with drugs, explored our sexuality, and worked like mad to stay on the happy side of academic probation. It is a crazy, sleep-deprived, bleary-eyed time fueled by lousy food, caffeine, and all manner of other chemicals. It puts students through an emotional grinder unlike much they've faced to that point. It certainly did that to me - after the breakup of my first serious relationship, I stopped going to class. I stopped eating. I stopped sleeping. Eventually, at the urging of my family and friends, I got help, and after a lot of work, I got better. I don't think I was ever a danger to others, but I am utterly certain that for a while, I was a danger to myself. I probably wouldn't have owned a gun even if I had been allowed one on campus, but I'm sure there are plenty of people in similar straits who would, and that line between hurt self/hurt others is horribly thin. Boortz wants to add guns to that mix? I can't speak to his statistics, since he doesn't offer them up, but common sense tells me that the idea of arming students lacks, well, common sense.

The debate over gun control is a very difficult one. The argument that the populace should be able to defend itself against a government off its moorings is powerful, but I simply don't fear the government enough to believe that guns should be so easily obtained (and the last few years have given me ample reason to fear the government). Statistics can be quoted that purport to show that gun ownership greatly increases the likelihood of being hurt or killed by a gun, but others can be quoted to argue the exact opposite. I don't know the answer, but I do know that a legally purchased gun killed 33 people two days ago, and that Boortz's questioning of the bravery of the victims is every bit as inappropriate as an honest national evaluation and discussion of our legal and moral stance toward guns is appropriate and necessary.

My Trip to Convention is Carbon Neutral, How About Yours?

2007-04-09T12:41:00.000-04:00

Hi, Young Dems! I hope that you, like me, are looking forward to some fun and education by the sea at convention this weekend. I am proud that over 25 people from our Atlanta chapter will be making the trip, and I know there are many other metro, UGA, GT, etc etc etc Young Dems going. There will be a veritable caravan of passionate do-gooders heading down 75 come Friday. And besides furiously debating Barack vs Hilary and poking much fun at the idiotic parade of Republican presidential candidates, you know what that caravan will be doing?? Emitting carbon dioxide!

Yes, that's right, a very large contingent of young blue-green activists is going to participate in the destruction of the planet. But wait! Before you cancel your reservation or begin contemplating how long it would take to roller blade to Jekyll Island, read the rest of this post. All is not lost. If you have just 5 minutes and a credit card with at least $12 left on it, you can neutralize the environmental impact of your trip to state convention.

It's easy.

If you explore the Carbon Calculator on climatecrisis.net, you will find out your average emissions per year, in tons. Depressingly, I am actually over the national average (seems like it's due to air travel.) There are numerous tips on how to reduce your impact by doing simple things such as keeping your tires properly inflated and accelerating more slowly. But you can also go ahead and purchase certificates to offset your trip. It's very cool. After you calculate your annual impact, navigate to Native Energy by clicking the links near the top of the page. What I just did was to scroll down and click on Try Our Travel Calculator. There you will find a point to point driving calculator. I entered a starting point of Atlanta, GA and an ending destination of Jekyll Island, GA. I then clicked to add another segment and added the return trip. When I clicked DONE, the calculator said I would emit less than a full ton of carbon (thank God) and rounded me up. For $12, I was able to purchase certificates for renewable energy that will displace the demand for energy from fossil fuels - I opted for a 50/50 blend of farm methane and wind energy. This will be enough to offset the environmental impact of my trip. They are going to send me a pdf certificate to prove I'm carbon neutral and also a bumper sticker so I can let others on the road know how to join the green revolution.

The Native Energy site is packed with information about offsetting, whether it actually works and why, along with other tips about how to live green.

Please consider making your trip to our YDG Convention Carbon Neutral.

See you on the beach!!

Member View - Erin O'Neil on Crossover Day

2007-03-30T14:36:00.000-04:00

Crossover Day brings out the best/worst in people at the Capitol- it’s swarming with lobbyists and legislators, there’s constant change and activity, and given the red state attitude of Georgia, more than enough ammunition to keep you fired up all day (and evening) long. Even when people don’t agree, the passionate and determined nature of the activists who inhabit the golden dome makes for great debate and a whole lot of political drama. Georgia’s whole legislative process is interesting just for the sheer novelty factor. It could just be my Northeastern Elitism roots, but being raised in an environment that promoted international politics never prepared me for people honestly thinking “Confederate History Month” or “Loaded Weapons in Cars/On Corporate Property” were good ideas.

After Payday Lending and Private Cities, those of us who lobbied late afternoon/evening on Tuesday figured it would be a fairly uneventful night. The PeachCare bill was irritating (the AJC has a great editorial on the ongoing Republican mantra of “money is worth more than people” doctrine here), as were certain legislators who refused to come talk to us despite a barrage of requests, but we’d gotten the Payday Lending bill and made significant progress with other issues. As a side note, you really can write whatever you want on those notes they send into the Senate/House chamber, which is good to know when certain people are shirking their duties as lawmakers and refusing to talk to you.

Then came the “surprise” amendment to HB 599. Around 5, we heard it directly from several lobbyists- Republicans were trying last minute to amend HB599, a great bill on adoptions in Georgia, with a little verbiage to ban all of gay adoptions in Georgia. Just a small change to an otherwise great piece of legislation, right? And of course, it’s not sneaky at all to try and slip a little piece of intolerant language in a few hours before Crossover ends. Right. Naturally, they got their discrimination inclined asses kicked.

Around 6:20p, there was a recess so that the Rules Committee could decide whether or not HB599 would be up for an evening vote. The amendment was expected to be proposed from the floor. Immediately, the late shift YD’s got organized, went over key talking points, and got to work. Sadly, Ms. Beasley-Teague did not grace us with her presence. Rob Teilhet stopped by briefly to taunt us with stories of a room filled with free food “just for House members”, but Cathy W. and Shelley kept us on target. We got a huge stack of note cards and systematically went through our little white books (think a “black book” with photos/tiny bios of legislators), checking off people one by one until we were sure we had the “no” vote in the bag. The majority of people we had to target were republicans, who were surprisingly civil and respectful to us. Most listened to what we had to say and agreed to either “kill” the amendment or to table it, if based solely only on the factor that there had been absolutely no debate or research done on the discrimination-oriented amendment earlier.

It was 8:45p before we stopped to rest- a few YDAtl-er’s were pretty hardcore and stayed even later in the evening, making sure the creepy ultrasound bill didn’t make it to the floor. That’s the bill that makes ultrasounds mandatory within the first trimester to discourage abortions, which makes a lot of sense given the whole Republican aversion to actually feeding/educating babies once they’re born. But I digress.

Crossover Day was invigorating, and allowed all of us to have first hand experience influencing legislation. Direct contact with people is still the most effective form of communication in this technophile era; e-mails and phone calls help, but actually going there and speaking to someone face to face makes a big impression. A big thanks to Emily for introducing the right people so we were able to get so much done! Tasso also was extremely helpful in giving info. Everyone who took time off work or went all the way from a long day in the office to the Golden Dome for some old fashioned up-front debate, you rock. There’s nothing better than going home at the end of the day and realizing you made a difference. And now I’ll stop getting Oprah on all of you and go back to my Cheney/Rove/Rumsfeld/Bush horsemen of the Apocalypse collage. Or wondering why a grown man would want people to refer to him as “Scooter”. Ciao.

With Democrats Like These, Who Needs Republicans?

2007-03-28T23:13:00.000-04:00

The Young Democrats of Atlanta had a triumphant day at the Georgia State Capitol yesterday. During our third and final Lobby Day of the 2007 Session, the legislative marathon that we call “Crossover Day,” we fought the good fight on many bills an even eked out a victory or two in extremely hostile territory.

We were truly a force to be reckoned with!

Our chapter is primarily young professionals (instead of students), so I was extremely proud of our showing – fourteen people took some part of the day to stand up for their fellow Georgians. Two brand new members came – what courage! And many of our old hands came down to work the ropes. Senator Nan Orrock commented that she was “mighty proud” of our efforts.

Our First Bill: Payday lending (HB 163)

As we were getting briefed on the key environment bills scheduled to come up, one of our favorite labor advocates rushed over to ask if we could help on Payday lending. This bill has been much in the news – the payday lending lobby has poured buckets of money into the effort to open the state back up to these modern day loan sharks. These loans prey on the most vulnerable people in our communities, often military families, taking advantage of their need. According to talking points provided by Georgia Watch and the AARP, “a typical payday borrower ends up paying back $793 for a $325 loan.” Further, “harassing collection tactics, dishonest marketing schemes and arrangements with out-of-state banks beyond the reach of state consumer protection laws are all common practices of payday lenders.”

There was a small contingent of House Democrats who had previously voted to allow the payday lenders back into Georgia. So we went to work on them, asking them to keep Georgia’s strong protections for consumers against payday lenders.

I had a long conversation with Sheila Jones (44^th) to understand why she was voting Yes. She was gracious and calm, explaining that she felt that there was a need in her district for this type of loan and that she felt the protections written into the bill were enough. I explained that even the Republican Insurance Commissioner felt the protections had very dangerous loopholes, making them all but useless. I encouraged her to support legislation that would create better jobs and raise the minimum wage if she truly felt that people in her community needed short term loans such as these.

One of our normally strong Dems, Al Williams (165^th) was actually, inexplicably, a co-sponsor of the bill. Ellis Black (174^th) is totally a usual suspect to vote wrong. Sheila Jones and a few others in the LBC (Legislative Black Caucus) voted with Representative Williams: Tyrone Brooks, Keith Heard, Lynmore James, and Ron Sailor. Many more LBC stalwarts either “walked” (e.g. Billy Mitchell, Able Mable) or voted No (Calvin Smyre, Lanett Stanley-Turner, Roger Bruce, David Lucas, Virgil Fludd, Howard Mosby, etc, etc, etc).

And then there was……Mike Jacobs?? Mike “Young Democrats” Jacobs? Mike “we all spent countless hours working on his campaign” Jacobs? What was Mike doing voting Yes to let Payday Lenders back into Georgia? But there it was, plain as day on the board. We called him out to ask why. He didn’t come.

But never mind, on this bill, justice prevailed! The bill needed a simple majority or 91 votes to pass. With the vast majority of Dems voting NO, a few walks that we needed, and considerable Republican support as well (too many to mention), the well funded lobby effort on behalf of the payday lenders could only muster 82 Yeas. So…..YEA!!

The Young Democrats of Atlanta were one for one.

On to the next bill: Private Cities (SB 200 and SR 309)

This bill would provide our thick THICK drama for the day. We moved across to the Senate side to talk to folks about a complex and bad bill which would essentially allow developers to establish their own private cities. The environmental community from Environment Georgia to the Sierra Club was firmly opposed to Private Cities. Georgia PIRG also opposed, because of the weak safeguards provided to residents/homeowners who buy in private cities. Essentially, this bill helps developers and hurts the environment. The spin was that it would help rural Georgia to participate in the land boom, but truly, it’s more harvesting of our shared public resources to put money in the already well-lined pockets of the developers and their lobby. To read more, check out the Sierra Club’s summary: http://www.georgia.sierraclub.org/tracker/SB200.html

Essentially, we believed that the caucus would hold, but we called out a few folks that had been identified as “loose in the saddle.” Senator Adelman assured me he was voting NO. I spoke with a few others while other teams worked the ropes as well. Senator Steve Thompson was a co-sponsor, so he was past redemption, but Senator Curt Thompson, who was getting extreme pressure to vote Yes, came out to chat with Benson. I’m not sure what magic Benson worked, but Curt Thompson was one of several shaky Dems who walked for the initial vote. Three other “walkers” who play prominently in the drama were George Hooks from Americus, Michael Meyer von Bremen from Albany, and JB Powell from near Augusta also walked. So, the bill which needed a 2/3 vote to pass since it required a constitutional amendment, received only 37 votes: two shy.

Hooray. Two for two. At that point.

So back to the House side to shore up the vote against HB 340, “Bad PeachCare” as we called it. This lousy piece of legislation was sponsored by none other than Speaker Glenn Richardson and co-signed by the veritable Rogues Gallery – Earl Ehrhart, Mark Burkhalter, Rich Golick, Jerry Keen. You get the picture – ICK. This bill cuts health care coverage for Georgia kids. Period. That’s about all you need to know. It lowered the income eligibility, cuts dental and vision out of the program, adds complexity to the state plans, and in fact SAVES VERY LITTLE. It saves a paltry 1.2-2.4 million from the budget and in fact shifts those costs to other, hidden, and more expensive places in the health care system – such as covering emergency room care and paying for expensive complications that could have been handled more effectively if caught early by preventive care.

Long story short, we were asked to check in on all the Dems, particularly the shaky conservative ones. I was speaking to one of those and he said to me, “this is going to pass. It’s the speaker’s bill. But we’ll hold the caucus firm against it.” Depressing, but true. In the Richardson regime, no Republican dares vote against Richardson. We lost, and it was very nearly a 100% party line vote. A few Republicans walked – a very few. Judy Manning, R from Cobb and Co-Chair of the Women’s Caucus walked. Bless her – she’s the Chair of the Children and Youth committee and she knows a travesty when she sees one. A couple of our recent party-switchers also walked – showing a little bit of leftover compassion. But not a single Republican voted No. And not a single Democrat voted Yes. Except. Wait – there’s old Ellis Black from Valdosta again. Currying favor with the speaker? Voting against Dubose and the House Caucus – how annoying. But that’s Ellis Black for you.

Scanning down the vote count, he’s the only Democrat who crossed lines to vote for this horrid bill. Right? Wait….that can’t be right…..what’s that say? MIKE JACOBS???? Voted YES? Mike Jacobs, Democrat from Dekalb County, voted to kick children off Peach Care? Are you freaking kidding me????

Are you????

This guy is up to no good. And the friendly advocates and many of his colleagues have had it with his bullshit. I heard him described twice as a “little turd.” And that pretty much sums it up. As one good Democrat said, “we need to find someone to run against him.” Watch out, little Mike, you are in very sketchy territory. With this vote, you managed to cross not only your Caucus and several your key campaign supporters, but also the Georgia PTA, the March of Dimes, and the American Academy of Pediatrics…..GREAT F-ING JOB, dude. You know what? Your buddy Glenn didn’t even need your crummy vote. It passed with 101 votes for. Dis-gusting.

But enough. Mike Jacobs – he moved from “on notice” for the Payday Lending vote to “dead to me” in the short space of crossover day.

So, back to our Private Cities drama.

After the bill failed, in what can only be described as “shenanigans,” the bill sponsors quickly moved to “Reconsider.” Meaning – vote again. But guess what – according to Senate Rule 6-7.5, when you reconsider a bill, it has to go back on the calendar and therefore it would be the following day before it could be on the floor of the Senate again. And “tomorrow” was too late for the bill to cross over to the House this year.

Guess what comes next? You’ll never guess. They moved to SUSPEND Senate Rule 6-7.5. You can-NOT make this shit up.

So then the bill gets tabled, meaning that it can be brought up for a vote again at any point during
the day. Read: as soon as the Private Cities lobbyists feel they have the votes they need, they’ll bring it up again.

So we quickly set about working on Curt Thompson again. But he must really be feeling the pressure, because he is literally refusing to come out of the Senate Chamber. For ANYONE. Long time friendly advocates are calling him out. The Young Democrats, who have worked on his campaigns, are calling him out. Constituents are calling him out. Advocates from the environment and labor lobbies start to call him, text him, anything – he won’t come out!!!!

I went back to the House side to talk about the benefits of trees over billboards, and a few of us started working on SB 66, trying to keep the Dems firm against mandatory first trimester sonograms for women seeking abortions when we heard that Curt Thompson was actually seen exiting the chamber and entering an elevator. A friendly said she watched the paid Private Cities lobbyists bolt in six different directions to cover the six elevators and pounce on Senator Thompson.

Shortly thereafter, the bill came back up.

Mercifully, it seems as if Senator Thompson cleverly eluded the Privates Cities lobby because he was not present for the vote. Good for him. Wish he had stayed and bravely voted NO (like his good friend Senator Adelman who was also under pressure) but at least he didn’t vote Yes. But this time it passed with 40 Yeas. So three new Yes-votes…….let’s see: a quick comparison reveals that two of our rural Dems, whose districts could possibly stand to benefit, at least superficially, voted Yes. On the first vote, as you recall, Curt Thompson and three other Dems walked rather than vote Yes. Curt walked again, so it must be those other three…..

Yes, there’s Michael Meyer von Bremen. There’s George Hooks. They didn’t walk again, they voted Yes. But wait….JB Powell walked again!!! Where’s that third vote coming from??

DOUG STONER??

Doug Stoner from Smyrna?

Doug Stoner from Cobb voted for Private Cities? Voted to empower developers and weaken environmental controls?

Interesting. Very interesting. We’ll remember that. Senator Stoner, consider yourself “On Notice.”

So.

All in all, a very good day. Our chapter had a fine showing and did a great job – we were truly a credit to our organization. We were knowledgeable, credible, and powerful spokespeople for the issues we care about.

Thanks to all of you who made it out – what an amazing contribution to your community.

Our work this day made me proud to be a Democrat.

Young Democrats of Atlanta do Crossover Day

2007-03-27T23:16:00.001-04:00

The Gold Dome wasn't as crowded for Crossover Day as one might expect, but the Young Democrats of Atlanta came ready to fight - more than can be said for certain legislators, but I'll leave the naming of names to Emily. We had a great turnout and we had fun baking cookies for the Good Democrats...

...and distributing them to hungry and tired legislators...

...which is not to say that everyone who needed to get the cookies got them, but I do know at least one state representative who assuredly did NOT get cookies.

We did call out several friends of ours on a variety of issues, including our good friend Curt Thompson from Gwinnett (who gave some Sith lobbyists a literal run for their money at one point today!) and Robert Brown...

...as well as some less friendly folks (Judy Manning is DEFINITELY not the first person I wanted to talk to, but Atlanta Young Democrats are troopers, we even called out Harry Geisinger a couple of times!)...

OK, OK, just kidding, we didn't actually call out Nancy Schaefer, thank God! (No, really, it wasn't just the camera, her eyes REALLY WERE glowing red...) But you get the point, and so do the other groups fighting the good fight in Georgia - we're all business at the Capitol, and we definitely put "Stop the Madness" on OUR Sonny Do list. Thanks to everyone who came out!

Carol Hunstein Revisits Nasty 2006 Campaign (U2be)

2007-03-14T08:04:00.000-04:00

Carol Hunstein came and visited the North Fulton Democrats last night and talked about that Georgia Supreme Court election last year that set new standards for a) nastiness, b) sleaziness, and c) _______ (sorry, can't think of a noun that means "an election where the challenger is stupendously unqualified to fill the contested seat").

Young Democrats of Georgia Murphy Reception (U2be)

2007-03-13T05:57:00.000-04:00

Georgia Democrats in the know know that the young people in the party are a big reason why the Democratic Party in Georgia is still in the game, still fighting, still stayin' alive (sing it!). Two weeks ago Tuesday we had our 2007 Murphy Reception, which is our biggest fundraiser and visibility event of the year, and thanks to everyone who came out, especially DPG chairwoman Jane Kidd, as well as all our many friends in the metro Atlanta area. The rock star of the evening, though, was our 2007 Friend of the Young Democrats (and surely a lifetime honorary member), Georgia AFL-CIO President Richard Ray. Billy is fond of saying "I <3 Richard Ray" and I don't think there's a Democrat in the state who would disagree.

Atlanta Young Democrats big winners in DPG elections

2007-01-28T23:59:00.000-05:00

There's been a lot of talk about a "new era" after the Democratic Party of Georgia elections on Saturday, but the real story was how the Young Democrats of Altanta gained not one, but TWO voices on the DPG executive committee! Georgia, meet your new 5th Congressional District Chair and your new 13th Congressional District Chair...

Will Curry and Nikema Williams have made a habit of working actively to promote the Democratic cause in Georgia - Will did a great job running the Young Democrats of Georgia Youth Voter Alliance program this past election, and Nikema set new standards for diligence working a state house campaign over the summer. Atlanta Democrats were ready for a change, and that's exactly what Will and Nikema are going to bring to the Democratic Party of Georgia. Even DPG Secretary Steve Leeds was on hand to congratulate Will...

YOUTH POWER!

Virgilio Perez Pascoe, DPG Rock Star (U2be)

2007-01-28T09:23:00.000-05:00

After an ABSURDLY LONG day at the Democratic Party of Georgia officer elections (so long that it was officially recorded as such in the minutes), and quite a bit of dust had settled, Georgia Democrats were left with a new rock star, a completely fresh and new person untouched by the patina of political dust that naturally collects on you in this business - Virgilio Perez Pascoe.

Forsyth County Democratic Party Chair Jon "Blog Star" Flack nominates Virgilio Perez "You Da Man" Pascoe

I have to admit - Virgilio was such an unlikely hero that I didn't even get a picture of him until he graced the Young Democrats after-party with his presence! But clearly Virgilio is ready to work with us wee ones, and I for one am ready to hand Virgilio the "Woohoo!!!!" award. He took a minute after enjoying a well-earned beverage to talk about what he'd like to get started on...

(Extreme apologies for the ambient noise, damn those Manuel's patrons!) Young (and otherwise) Democrats, get ready for Constituent Group Services like you've never seen before!

There is a difference: you lie

2007-01-25T10:02:00.000-05:00

Man oh man, I almost forgot what a double-edged sword it is to get in the newspaper. Publicity? Yay! Sounding like a retard? D'oh! Ah, well, there was a lot of information to cover in a short amount of time, and we're all very grateful to Kevin Duffy for reporting on a serious and growing political force among young Georgians. Let it shine, let it shine....

For those of you who haven't yet seen, the Young Democrats of Atlanta and of Georgia are featured in today's AJC: Underdog role OK to Young Democrats. You'll just have to trust me that my witty repartee sounded much cooler in context, and while I'm not sure how I feel about being defined entirely by drinking Guinness and backpacking in Ireland (did he just call me an elitist? o es que soy más macho?), I suppose there are worse things to be identified with.

Like telling tall tales to reporters! The real tough nugget to swallow in the article comes from our counterparts on the other side of the aisle. You see, Republicans want that "liberal mainstream media" to present things in a "fair and balanced" way, and by that they mean, "throw in some of our hot air for good measure."

So far, the Young Dems are not much of a force, according to Jason Shepherd, chairman of the rival Young Republicans of Georgia.

"This is the first time I've heard of any concerted effort by Young Democrats to get out for the candidates," Shepherd said.

Attempts by Young Repubs to set up a debate and a softball game with the Dems have failed, he said, which is a shame because "I don't think there's too much difference, except party allegiance, between the two groups."

Not much of a force, eh Jason? Tell that to Chip Pearson and his water-killing SB510. And don't act so surprised that Kevin Duffy wants to write us up, you knew this was coming. Don't you remember your Buckhead Young Republican newsletter from September '06?

Yesterday, the Buckhead and Atlanta YRs were contacted by Representative Harry Geisinger and Steve Schultz who is running for the seat held by retiring GOP Rep. Paul Jennings. Both of them need help this weekend for get out the vote and spreading their message.

These campaigns are being HEAVILY targeted by the Democrats and we will be competing in the districts with teams of Young Dems going door-to- door as well!
...
Sincerely,
Jason Shepherd
Chairman Emeritus, Buckhead Young Republicans

First you've heard indeed! Ah well, must've been so busy adding flash animation to the website for it to really stick in your noggin. But if you want to debate the issue, that's fine. C'mon, it'll be just like last time! Don't you remember?
Look at that, right there on the Atlanta YR website: four of our finest Young Dems debating four of yours. Sorry we never got back to you on the paintball game in '05, buddy, but you really don't want to put weapons in our hands while you're raiding children's health care.

So aside from party allegiance, there is a difference between the two groups, Shep. Many differences, in fact, and that helps us sleep at night. We don't want to shaft working families just so those of us with trustfunds can save a few hundred bucks a year on taxes; we don't want to endanger our environment and drinking water so our tycoon friends can whip up a new townhouse "enclave;" we don't need automatic assault rifles with silencers to hunt wildlife that voluntarily walks in front of cars (what kind of shots are you, anyway?); and we don't tell fibs to reporters when we haven't got a leg to stand on, Shep. Tsk, tsk.

Now let's go win one for the Gipper!

The DPG chair candidates head-to-head, from a Young Democrats perspective

2007-01-22T22:14:00.000-05:00

Hello Young Democrats! It’s two and a half months after Georgia Democrats got creamed seven ways to Sunday – do you know who’s running the Democratic Party in this state?

For the less wonky among you out there – yes, all two or three of you – who may have vaguely heard something about this upcoming event known as “DPG officer elections”, I will attempt to overview the four candidates (plus one unworthy of consideration) running for the position of chair of the Democratic Party of Georgia. It actually matters this year, because the statewide elected officials who called the shots for 137 years (and, it will be noted, traipsed merrily along with us in this handbasket we find ourselves in) have gone to meet that big Diebold machine in the sky. More importantly, there is a real chance that the next party chair will turn to Young Democrats to do some of the heavy lifting to get this shipwreck afloat again.

For a bit of background, dear Young Democrats, first let me tell you a bit about the current chair, Bobby Kahn. edit: well, turns out maybe I wasn't wonky enough to get this right the first time, so I'm trying again... Bobby Kahn got his job back in the brave old days of yore (oh, 2002, how we do miss thee) when Democrats still ran things in Georgia (well, at least the House). He was good at being in charge, and he was good at making our people vote the way they needed to vote, and that was generally a good thing. He didn’t need the Young Democrats, and truth be told he wasn’t real fond of us anyway (although he did come speak at our 2005 YDG convention). Next thing we knew Republicans were whooping it up at the Gold Dome like Mark Foley sitting at his desk writing sexy e-mails to those adorable little pages. Everything changed, except that Bobby Kahn and the rest of the DPG still didn’t think too much of Young Democrats, even though they really needed us. Then the 2006 election happened, and Chairman Kahn decided that reading several blog posts a day from people who hated him wasn’t really his cup of tea, and so here we are. And so, without further ado, I present the Saviors of the Democratic Party of Georgia:

Mike Berlon, current chair of the Gwinnett County Democratic Party and several other things as well. There are various wonky reasons why various wonky people like Mike, but I believe these arcana will likely bore you, my tender little Young Democrat reader. The reason many Young Democrats have gotten on board with Mike is simple: he got on board with Young Democrats a while ago. He’s come to several of our events, and he also worked with a dear friend of ours, Adam Stevens, before he unexpectedly passed away last March, and he showed us we really mattered to him by personally attending Adam’s memorial and remembrance gathering. He also came to the Young Democrats of Georgia retreat in December, no small thing considering he drove three hours to Augusta to spend the evening with us. So when Mike tells us he wants to get us involved in the Georgia Democratic Party, a lot of us believe him.
Jane Kidd, former State Representative and State Senate Candidate, from the Athens area. Again sparing my wide-eyed readers the ongoing drama playing itself out on the blogosphere, Jane Kidd is the other candidate who knows and loves Young Democrats. While she has not had the relationship with us here in the metro area that Mike has, the Young Democrats at UGA have always been a major part of her campaign strategy and volunteer effort in the area, and she has come to our state convention to share some of her positive experiences with us. Jane will look out for Young Democrats and listen to us wherever she ends up, and her loyal UGA volunteers are supporting her.
Carol Jackson, former State Senator from White County, a place that can be kindly described as “far away”. Now, it turns out that there just aren’t that many Democrats period up there in Tennessee (ok, that’s an exaggeration), let alone Young Democrats, so she hasn’t had the opportunity to get to know us until she began her campaign for chair. Carol likes the Young Democrats – if nothing else, she likes the YouTube videos we’ve put together of her – and she’s always nice to me. I feel like Carol would be welcoming of us as chair, but I don’t know that she’d seek us out like Mike and Jane have and would.
Jim Nelson, former candidate for Congress. Jim’s a preacher, and he’s probably got the most “inclusive” stands on issues – allow me to stereotype us for a moment and say that rank-and-file Young Democrats like that. Jim’s a nice guy, and you can’t hear him speak without liking him. That said, I think Jim is the least attractive real candidate from a Young Democrats perspective, only because, well, he doesn’t know as much about us and what we do. Jim’s a guy most Young Democrats haven’t seen or heard of unless they’re really wonks in novice clothing.

And last, and coincidentally least…
Hattie Dorsey, current First Vice Chair of the party. Some of you may remember when I called last year a “fucktastrophe” (which the Party rightfully gets a lot of blame for), and as I have yet to hear or see Ms. Dorsey anywhere, including events that the other four previous candidates came to, and as Ms. Dorsey was in a position of leadership and never showed an interest in Young Democrats even though she’s in Fulton County, I feel confident in saying that, in my not-so-humble-at-all opinion, Ms. Dorsey would continue to completely ignore Young Democrats (and everyone else, if I may editorialize yet again) as Chair.

And so there you have it, my precious little Young Democrats, the nutshell version of the most important thing going on in Georgia Democratic politics right now. In the end, we Young Democrats will be ok as long as Hattie Dorsey doesn’t get elected. Mike Berlon and Jane Kidd are the front runners right now, and I feel good about both of them (although I’ve personally endorsed Mike, for some of those wonky reasons I alluded to). The election is Saturday; come to the Young Democrats party at Manuel’s after the elections and celebrate having a place at the DPG table.

Thinking Left about the DPG candidate forum

2007-01-20T21:10:00.000-05:00

After more than a century of the governor running the Georgia Democratic Party, history was made today - real candidates sat down in front of an audience of rank-and-file Democrats in Atlanta, in a smoke-free room, and faced the issues confronting the party in Georgia.

Any candidate who didn't come and wasn't in the hospital (Miss Angela Moore, I'm talking about you), don't bother showing up next Saturday either.
James Quarterman seems not to have gotten the "big tent" memo. I hope his "one message one agenda" plan leaves room for those pesky little aberrations known as "differences of opinion" in our party of Stepford clones.
Irony mavens were treated to the sight of a lot of white people trying to talk about how allegedly diverse this party is.
Twilight Zone Benson, playing the "grassroots" drinking game, passed out cold long before we even got to the chair races. Come on people - saying "grassroots" five times in three minutes is a crappy substitute for telling us how you're actually going to DO it.
Sorry, Jane Kidd - I'm trying to focus on those things that work right, like you said, and I'm not coming up with much. Mike Berlon said there were all kinds of problems with the Georgia Democratic Party - what was he talking about?
In a rare break with the hallowed tradition by which everyone at these things asks stupid questions, we actually got a few zingers. The question on whether or not the chair candidates would tell the "wrong" candidate in a two-person primary to drop out was great.
Winfred Dukes is all about using cash for candidate recruitment. That worked so well last year, huh? And we have less money this year - what's going to happen now, I wonder?
It was nice to see that everyone generally brought their games to a higher level for this event - much more of substance was said than was on display even last Saturday at the Cobb County breakfast.
"For those candidates in rural Georgia, do you expect any problems running the party from outside metro Atlanta?" Jim Nelson: "No." 'Nuff said.

BEHOLD the power of SMO (Social Media Optimization)

2007-01-15T22:02:00.000-05:00

As we speak, the words "Social Media Optimization" are becoming the new internet buzzwords - everyone is trying to figure out how to get random people to pass their message around. We busy YD Atlanta bees are working on all aspects of SMO - from content generation and distribution to making it easy for people to add our posts to link and content aggregators and such, like del.icio.us. Well, tonight we are PROUD to unveil the linkability of our posts in all its tasty goodness. See all those neat little icons under this post? Those are all one-click add-this-post-to-my-links or whatever else these services do for you. That little combo box is just like the icons, except that it encompasses just about every bookmarking service on the planet, all in a neat little space. Try it! If you don't use a bookmarking service, well, now might be a good time to sign up, because we're starting a trend here.

YD Atlanta. Now that's moving you forward.

Meet Will Curry, new Fulton County DP secretary (U2be)

2007-01-15T17:32:00.000-05:00

Last month, our very own Young Democrat of Atlanta Will Curry was elected as Secretary of the Fulton County Democratic Party, and he took a few moments to talk about his new position...

Will joins several YD's of Atlanta in the Fulton County Party serving as post seat holders, as well as Page Gleason as Executive Director. Will brings a strong work ethic to the position, as well as the hip coolness that only Young Democrats can provide. Go Will!

Cheryl Williams, DPG Second Vice Chair Candidate (U2be)

2007-01-10T19:06:00.000-05:00

For those of you who haven't noticed the pattern yet, if you're running for something and you want to get on the Internet, come to a Young Democrats of Atlanta meeting. Cheryl Williams came down from Gwinnett to talk to us at Manuel's last Wednesday...

It's not too late for certain other candidates who haven't sought out the crucial YD endorsement (that's where we buy you a beer) to come to us; our next happy hour is coming up on the 18th, although I won't be there to do the video honors.

Divide by Zero

2007-01-03T12:59:00.000-05:00

A short time ago, a good friend pointed me in the direction of this (registration required, sorry - I recommend BugMeNot), promising the ultimate divide-by-zero error in the form of "Jesus was a very bad Christian." For those not big up on computers, a divide-by-zero error is just that - an instance in which a computer is asked to divide something by zero and freaks the hell out because that's, you know, not possible. I'm sure you see how this is very similar to the assertion that Jesus, the source of all Christianity and the paragon of its virtues, was a "very bad Christian." If we were all Windows machines, that statement would likely cause us all to throw up a Blue Screen of Death. If we were all Macs, we'd likely get the Spinning Beach Ball of Death, or that really nicely designed screen that explains in several languages that something has gone really really wrong. If we were all Linux machines, we'd all... uh, I don't know... spit out a long and detailed report of what happened that requires a lot of programming knowledge to even begin comprehending? What do Linux boxes do with that sort of thing? And don't tell me "They don't crash..." I'm making a joke.

Records, of course, much like computers, are made to be broken. In that spirit, I give an even greater divide-by-zero. Oliver North wrote a piece for Fox calling Bill Clinton on the carpet for law-breaking, which is, on its own, a pretty big act of chutzpah. That's not all, though. Oliver North, the man central to the selling of arms to Iran (an enemy of the United States) in order to illegally finance war in South America, is shocked - SHOCKED! - that Bill Clinton admitted on national television to authorizing the assassination of one Osama bin Laden. You may remember the rather heated exchange between Clinton and Chris Matthews - we on the left were proud of our boy for standing up to the widely spread falsehood that he was too busy enjoying Oval Office blowjobs to pay attention to bin Laden and al Qaeda. In that exchange, Clinton said "I worked hard to try to kill him. I authorized a finding at the CIA to kill him. I got closer to killing him than anybody has gotten since."

The US government is not allowed to authorize assassination. There are executive orders that forbid it. That it's pretty much winked at does not excuse the fact that Clinton did admit to breaking that prohibition. I would much rather see Osama bin Laden captured and prosecuted in a court of law than with his brains blown out from a thousand meters. Either way, he'll end up dead (I'm being realistic, here), but with the former we make a statement about how we do things, what justice is. Hell, with the latter we make a statement about how we do things, but I prefer the other statement. Still, the boundless hypocrisy of anyone on the right picking at Clinton's attempts to rid the world of the man they themselves hold up as the purest embodiment of evil since Hitler (well, used to hold up, at least) turns my stomach. To hear it coming from a man who helped in the creation of a massive criminal enterprise to further antidemocratic war in South America is far worse. North even goes so far as to compare Clinton's authorization of assassination attempts against bin Laden with Pat Robertson's call for attempts against Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. Subject A> Terrorist leader responsible for the deaths of thousands of US and other citizens. Subject B> Repeatedly democratically elected head of a foreign government, routinely labeled a "dictator" ("tin-horn dictator," to use North's words) because he's a staunch leftist and isn't playing along with US economic interests. The intellectual dishonesty is staggering.

The brain seizes up.

Ctrl-Alt-Del.

2006: Georgia Democrats by the beverages

2006-12-26T22:16:00.000-05:00

January 9: Georgia Democrats start off with a well rounded Glenn Richardson, with lively tannins and a nutty finish.

January 18: Republican legislators chug Beck’s Dark as they eviscerate Martin Luther King’s legacy with SB 84.

~February 20: Chuck Pearson staggers into a Natural Resources and Environment committee meeting and swears on his friend Jack Daniels’ grave that stream buffers are Bad for Georgia.

February 27: The Sith spike Andrew Young’s Crown and Coke with roofies, prompting him to sign on to Wal-Mart’s P.R. offensive.

March 8: Chip Rodgers and Nancy “Darth Vader’s Wife” Schaefer smirk as SB 529 passes the Senate, sending undocumented laborers running to the liquor cabinet for solace in their friend Don Julio.

April 1: Chuck Pearson wakes up with a serious hangover after SB “Die, Stream Buffers, Die!” 510 loses 30-139. Upper Chattahoochee River Keeper celebrates over a few pints of Sweetwater 420. YDAtl heads out for margaritas.

April 9: Mark Taylor and Cathy Cox elect to snub the Walk for Women’s Lives; their campaign managers assure them that Stella Artois is pro-choice and hanging out with her is just as good.

May 17: Cathy Cox’s campaign staff makes a strategic investment in Steel Reserve before concocting the infamous gay marriage position statement.

May 18: Taylor Trolls toast pints of Sweet Georgia Brown while Atlanta Public Affairs starts the line for shots of 151.

June 25: YDAtl members volunteering at a freezing, rainy PRIDE festival beverage booth discover that Peels are really quite tasty beverages.

July 14: Reports surface that Greg Hecht has morphed from “Give ‘Em Hecht” to the Incredible Imploding Candidate by pulling the mother of all cheap shots; Bobby Kahn keeps sippin’ on gin and juice.

July 18: Ralph Reed, in an alternate dimension conceived after my third martini, chokes on one of his poker chips and dies. Sharon Beasley-Teague hits like skunked Coors Light. Shyaam Reddy finds out that he will not play in Bud Bowl 2006.

August 9: Greg Hecht cries in his Terrapin when the asskicking he so richly deserves hits home.

August 30: John Lewis and Jim Martin wow the YDAtl crowd sipping on merlot at Vinocity.

September 19: The Big Guy takes a (presumably) big piece of advice from noted politician Sam Adams and decides child molesters ought to fry.

October 29: The AJC knocks out Jim Wooten with a few caipirinhas, long enough for them to get a clue and endorse Mark Taylor.

November 7: Gail Buckner falls flatter than a pint of O’Doul’s. YDAtl toasts Jan Hackney with champagne before hitting the chardonnay.

November 23: In another alternate dimension, conceived by the YDAtl New Orleans think tank over hurricanes, John Oxendine suffocates from sucking up to all those HMO’s. “I wish I could quit you!” rings true.

December 24: The Ghost of Christmas Future shows Sonny Perdue what a jail cell looks like. The Ghost of Christmas Past knocks back some egg nog after looking at 2006.

December 25: Greg Hecht’s heart grows three sizes after another dose of Southern Comfort.

You Know What You Doing (U2be)

2006-12-14T07:50:00.000-05:00

You get joke! Main Screen turn On!

Yes, as a matter of fact all your base ARE belong to YDAtl - as Emily says (to the North Fulton Democrats, who very graciously invited Emily to come speak at their meeting on Tuesday), we tried something that few YD chapters nationwide have tried with Jan Hackney's race, and it paid off. Even though Berry Harry (how about a Hawaiian punch, assclown!) won the race, we achieved our goals and made a difference in the race. Our members had a great time canvassing (and drinking, which Emily didn't talk about so much ;-) and we really came away with some great skills (and the greatest YouTube video in history courtesy of Shelby). So in 2008, we will Move Zig. For Great Justice!

HOT lanes and other stupid ideas for fixing Atlanta’s congestion

2006-12-13T21:51:00.000-05:00

I’ve apparently been hiding under a hobbit-sized rock since 1993, because until NPR highlighted Minneapolis’ experiment with these not-so-new “high occupancy toll” lanes this morning, I had no clue they existed or that they were in line to be the Next Big Thing to give cities an excuse to pass on actual public transportation. Everyone - Washington, Virginia, and D.C., among others – is looking at these suckers like lobbyists at a Tom Delay vending machine.

The basic idea of these HOT lanes is pay-to-play. There are gradations of sophistication – the lanes in Minneapolis have variable pricing depending on how many people are using them at any given time – but in the end it’s like putting a little Georgia 400 next to, above, or below, the roads that the rest of us schmucks are currently stuck with. You pay some money, maybe $8 – sixteen times the 400 toll – and you drive carefree while everyone else suffers.

I’m glad I mentioned Georgia 400, because to me it’s a great example of how silly the idea that more roads – toll, elevated, underground, strewn with flowers, or otherwise – are going to solve ANYTHING is. That Buckhead extension, that monstrosity that anyone who has had to slog through at rush hour knows is a real threat to sanity – didn’t even exist until 1993. That $.50 toll didn’t keep the road from getting completely out of control in a decade and a half. Sure, we could raise the toll, but that would just make 75 and 85 that much worse.

What boggles my mind about these HOT lanes is that the whole goal is to make them expensive enough so that the people who use them will have a free and clear ride. How is anything solved by building special lanes that only rich swine, like Sonny Perdue who can give himself a tax break whenever the hell he feels like it, actually use? Even better, many observers have rightly worried that these lanes could doom the already anemic car pools and their associated lane to oblivion.

A sure sign that something is Bad for the Public is when a conservative ultra-libertarian mouthpiece like the Cato Institute gets on board. Public transportation is like kryptonite to these fools, like Ted Kennedy is going to accost them in some dark alley and make them ride MARTA.

On the bright side, researching this topic led me to a hilariously stupid paper by some people running a rag styling itself Reason.org. It’s 84 pages long, longer than “Ways George Bush Screwed Up America”, so of course you won’t read it, but it’s worth noting their four recommended projects (I quote):

A network of express toll lanes added to the entire freeway system instead of the currently planned (but only partially funded) set of HOV lanes. These priced lanes would also function as the guideway for regionwide express bus service.
A double-decked tunnel linking the southern terminus of Georgia 400 with I-20 and later with the northern terminus of I-675, providing major relief to the Downtown Connector (I-75/85),
the most congested portion of the freeway system.
Extension of the Lakewood Freeway eastward to I-20 as a tunnel, and westward to I-20 as a
freeway, providing an additional east-west corridor and new access to the airport.
A separate toll truckway system, permitting heavy trucks to bypass Atlanta’s congestion in
exchange for paying a toll; a portion of this system would be tunneled below downtown.

Can we say “OMFG on a popsicle stick”? (That’s before you read the part about where this costs $25 billion.) The bottom line, kids, is that there are crazy, horrible fools out there who wouldn’t recognize a transit solution if it said “23 Buford Highway” and smacked them something righteous. ROADS ARE NOT THE ANSWER and only YOU can convince the people running Atlanta of that simple truth.

Doug Stoner stops by YDAtl on the DPG chair circuit (YouTube)

2006-12-07T08:23:00.000-05:00

State Senator Doug Stoner (who happens to be my Senator) stopped by the Young Democrats of Atlanta at our monthly meeting at Manuel's last night to talk about those pesky rumors that he's thinking of running for chair of the Democratic Party of Georgia...

In another welcome development, Doug (a former Young Democrat himself) wants us to be more than just "work an event" people. First Mike Berlon, then Doug... I think they be on to somethin', cap'n!

(Disclaimer: I'm supporting Mike Berlon for DPG chair, who was the feature of our previous YouTube video, but obviously Doug gets credit for coming to our meeting to visit with us, and as one of his constituents I happen to think Doug is great...)

Being a Judge Looks FUN

2006-12-06T14:52:00.000-05:00

Nothing big. Small funny to bring to your attention for the smile I hope you get.

In his 8-1 majority decision in Lopez vs. Gonzalez, Justice Souter responded to the government's argument thusly, "there are a few things wrong with this argument, the first being its incoherence."

Doesn't that make you want to be a judge? I often wish I could respond like that to various complainants in my life!!

For extra credit - guess the lone dissenter. You don't even need to know the case.

Here's the NYT coverage of the case which, in fact, was about deporting immigrants, legal or otherwise, for drug crimes classified by federal law as misdemeanors.

Mike Berlon puts youth on the agenda; youth put him on YouTube

2006-12-03T23:40:00.000-05:00

This weekend, the Young Democrats of Georgia held a retreat at Magnolia State Park to discuss how we're going to spend $250,000 in grant money that has the power to totally transform how Democratic politics in Georgia work. In a sign that times may finally be changing, DPG chair candidate Mike Berlon made a special effort to join us and address our group. Young Democrats, particularly our own Atlanta chapter, have been working supremely hard to shed the image of cute little kids who drink and complain - we're adorable kids who drink, complain, and work hard like nobody's business, and we're finally getting our props! Mike had some great things to say to us, not least of which was that the much-needed grassroots effort is going to include us - yay...

(So I decided to follow Shelby's footsteps and try this YouTube thing. Clearly a steadier hand on the camera is needed!)

So the bottom line is that finally, we're on the radar for the people running the party around here, and that right there is all the reason I need to get behind Mike 100% and hope like heck the state committee understands what positive change he'll bring to the DPG. Leaving young people out of the action is a mistake Mike won't repeat.

Geekery abounds for ambitious Young Dems

2006-12-01T20:18:00.000-05:00

As I prepare to turn over the reins of ultimate power to Aaron, your new Communications Chair and Electronic Overlord, I find myself on a rollercoaster of hope and panic as I contemplate what's next. I'm hopeful that smart, enterprising Young Democrats like ourselves will keep coming up with creative and effective new strategies for reaching out to voters, recruiting more volunteers, and raising the capital we need for our efforts. With all of my newfound "free time" that should really be devoted to my dissertation, I look forward to playing with some of the new internet toys that we might find useful in the future while Aaron keeps the information ship steaming ahead. But at the same time, the technology options becoming available are coming at such a fast and furious pace, it's almost overwhelming, and I don't know how to keep up with it all, let alone pick the winning horses. Notice the lack of a new website at the end of my tenure? Thank all of the terribly interesting but overwhelming options in web CMS software and my total techno-ADHD, among other things. *Sigh*

Staving off a bad case of the Mondays after a good Thanksgiving holiday, I came across a few tools that I think ought to be given a look by the more digitally inclined (read: likely to survive) Young Dem as we start gearing up for 2008.

Mobile video.
Why mobile video? Because the news cycle is getting faster and faster, and MSM is more inclined to bring us pictures of burning buildings, car crashes, and shootings than things of more relevance to political activism absent a visual hook. But when the hook is there, watch out: look at the rapid implosion of Redneck George Allen's campaign after his macaca-moment. That required a dedicated intern driving all over hounding him with a camera; a group like ours would do better to rely on the shorter-commitment but more-highly-distributed resource of members with cameraphones, methinks.

On the evenings of the primary and general elections, there was much buzz about "live blogging," and some of us bloggers even got invitations to sit at candidates' parties and blog about...well, God knows what, perhaps who was wearing what, who was getting drunkest, and what people thought about election returns. On election day, however, I thought it'd be more interesting to try live video blogging -- partly because I thought I would have a new cameraphone in my possession by election Tuesday that would enable a negligibly short upload/posting delay. That didn't happen, obviously, but ever-present broadband connections and video clips from pocket-sized digital cameras can still enable a group to put timely video content online relatively quickly, and we got 4 videos uploaded to YouTube in about 10 hours; not bad, considering we were also working.

Enter Veeker, a tweaky-named new website that quickly takes any video clip you send from your registered cellphone and slaps it up on your Veeker feed, player, and page -- and it sure has the folks over at Personal Democracy Forum all worked up. Partnering with YouthNoise, Veeker put together a large collection of cellphone videos documenting young people's impression of election day. The PDF folks talked it up quite a bit -- "Veekers "Veek The Vote" received over 750 mobile video messages from Americans using the video camera in a mobile phone to show the world where they stood on Election Day (thats a lot compared to Rock the Votes 24 submissions and Video the Votes 96)." -- so I signed up and got me one o'them Veeker thingies. To the right there you can see the one I've stuck on my personal website to give it a test drive. Once I was a member and started watching the Veek the Vote campaign, I was underimpressed; judging by the voice behind the camera, they only hit such an impressive number of submissions through the energy-drink-fueled video message compulsion of a few extremely motivated kids (interns, perhaps?). And while I like the flash player widget -- it does look like exactly the kind of blingy crap the yout's of today are happy to paste up on their MySpace page -- after playing with it for a while and comparing it to the alternatives, I'm not so sure how useful it can be to a group like a YD chapter. Your Veeker player shows on the first row the video clips ("veeks" for video peeks) you have, and in rows below that, the latest veeks from your friends. As you can see, I have no friends, but in my and Veeker's defense, this is still a new service with what appears to be very few users (and finding them is less than friendly; while you can search for people by name -- first OR last, searchign for my full name actually doesn't find me, sadly -- or email, the Veeker site currently lacks the social components of other sites, like browsing by interest or public Groups that can be used to aggregate veeks by content). There's also no way, as yet, to create an account (and thus a customized Veeker feed) based solely on an email address (say, for a group like YDAtl that doesn't have a particular cellphone number), so each new webmaster would have to build a selective group of friends whose feeds will appear in our player. Update: I was wrong: you needn't register a cellphone to view Veeks and make connections, so YDAtl now has its own account. You try keeping up with the rules of all these different websites while modeling 3D shear crack deflection. VeekerPlayers might start popping up all over MySpace pages any day now (what the hell do I know, I thought a YDAtl MySpace page was a terrible idea a year and a half ago because "that site is going nowhere"), ~~but without further development for groups, I consider that experiment a write-off of a few precious dissertation hours.~~ and we'll be ready for it. [Now that I've woken up to the fact that we might be able to form a group of Veekers for mobile media campaigns, I'm much more favorable to Veeker compared to the YouTube/BlipTV blog options below because there are less intermediate steps and fewer security issues.]

Other blogging tools, such as Postie for Wordpress blogs, can take a video or picture message sent by email from a cameraphone and put it on your website directly -- though there are still some bugs in the implementation (I can only get videos to show up as links and not embeds, due to necessary Wordpress security precautions), and of course there's the platform-specific nature of such tools. More generally, Blip.tv and YouTube, where we have video hosting accounts, can both accept cellphone videos by email, albeit in a less secure manner than Veeker or Postie, using a secret email address that only certain people are supposed to know; there's no verification built-in of the sending address(es), so anyone that discovers your secret email can upload videos to your account (holy upskirt disaster, Batman!). Those sites can then be configured to upload your video (and message text, if desired) automatically (say "automagically" again and I'll kick your teeth in), though the annoying boilerplate text from your cellular provider will show up in the post as well (Postie can detect and eliminate that crap; perhaps there are other workarounds possible).

Perhaps more useful would be to simply set up a thumbnail gallery of latest videos in your sidebar or on your MySpace page, like this obnoxious thing right here. ~~In this arena, YouTube has one clear advantage: unlike Blip.tv, which only provides code for embedding feeds of your own videos (as far as I can tell),~~Another correction: Both BlipTV and YouTube allow you to show a list of videos identified with a specific tag -- in the case to the left, "youngdems." This approach allows your friends and members to upload relevant videos that will show up on your website without them having direct access to your YouTube/BlipTV account; on the downside, anyone can tag their video of anything with any tag they want (holy upskirt disaster, Batman!), so judicious selection of tags is key. Using simply "yda" instead of "youngdems" gives you a whole series of these mildly brain-damaged Turkish schoolboys dancing around before you ever see Jane Fleming kick Republican ass on Fox News. If YouTube would enable feeds from moderated groups, we'd be in like Flynn. Who the hell is Flynn, anyway?

On the downside of YouTube, self-proclaimed "IT Git" and active netroots media entrepreneur Mike Seyfang warns share-friendly groups like ours to eschew YouTube for alternatives like BlipTV due to YT's more restrictive licensing conditions. Pretty good advice from someone who's using Windows Live Spaces, *cough*MySpacecopy*cough*. :-P) BlipTV's sidebar widget is also much, much cleaner than YouTube's and doesn't require an iframe; I only used it here due to the dearth of "youngdems" videos on BlipTV (read: it's just us so far).

Putting the Fun back in Fundraising.
Hoo-boy was that just about the cheesiest thing I've said on this blog in a long time, but it does, if lamely, convey an important part of another nifty internet widget I recently read about.

Most groups have PayPal accounts for accepting donations and dues from their members and supporters. Some groups even have systems that integrate payments with their website, perhaps even with a catchy graphic widget to track fundraising progress, like the CampaignWindow CMS does. For the rest of us, there is now ChipIn, a free, simple, and most importantly, easily dispersable fundraising tool that can hook up with your existing PayPal account or, if you don't have one, send you a check a make a direct deposit to your bank. Unfortunately, selecting the option to have payments go directly into your PayPal account results in the same per-donation transaction fee ($0.30 + 2.9%) as the old-fashioned PayPal donation buttons, so if 100 people give you a buck, you'll only end up with $64. I'm trying the ChipIn account & mail-me-a-check approach with the current Chickensuit campaign to see what kind of may or may not apply in that case; ChipIn's website is disappointingly vague about what will happen to fees after their "introductory period."

Again, this is not a giant leap in electronic financing at its core, but what might make it much more successful for groups like ours is that little "Copy" button in the middle of the widget. Go on, click it -- and then copy the text it gives you and paste it on your MySpace, Facebook, or Friendster page, your website, or your blog. In seconds, supporters of yours that have more MySpace bling than money can help your campaign not by donating but at least by propagating your fundraising widget throughout their pimped-out world. So, if you want to help me fulfill my vision of a YDAtl Rapid Response Team ready to mock Sonny Perdue's SonnyDo list of ways to screw average Georgia families, won't you ChipIn to the Perdue Chicken suit campaign?

MySpace, OMGWTF.
Perhaps MySpace is not the biggest waste of server space in the world, after all; I'll admit it, I was wrong. TechSoup presents a few interviews on how nonprofits are utilizing MySpace to raise awareness. I'd already realized before I saw that article that the problem with YDAtl's MySpace efficacy wasn't in MySpace, it was me: I wasn't using MySpace properly, because let's face it, 32 is old these days, and I just didn't know what I was doing in there. For instance, my first reaction to YDA's MySpace userpic campaign was rather cynical, though that probably had more to do with disappointment with the content of the SMS text messages they kept sending me promising me a "surprise" when I voted. However, the results were impressive: Tony Cani showed screengrabs of how quickly the "I Voted" image started popping up on friends lists like Whack-a-moles, so that when other people logged in on November 7th, they were assaulted by ever increasing numbers of reminders to get to the polls and vote. Turns out, it was a brilliant campaign, because it was brilliantly simple.

Copy. Paste. Repeat.

That right there seems to be the key to social sites like MySpace. I find so many of these profile pages visual affronts to human dignity for precisely the same reason they can be effective streams of communication: kids on MySpace love to share graphics, videos, and anything else they can quickly embed in their profile or comments with a Ctrl-V and Submit. That's why something like the ChipIn widget is such an exciting new idea. You might argue that no messaging campaign should be put on the social web without including a way to distribute the underlying code, not if it's going to be maximally effective. If the YDAtl MySpace page is to generate a buzz, we're going to have to chum the water with HTML bling...we're just going to have to invent a 25th and 26th hour in the day to keep it up.

---------

So, with that voluminous Christmas List of e-goodies, I bid y'all farewell. I hope you find some good ideas in there, and the time, oh precious time, to implement them. Good luck, Young Dems, it's been real.

LOL.

What a shock: Matt Drudge plays fast and loose with the truth

2006-11-29T01:27:00.000-05:00

Most of you are probably familiar with Matt Drudge and his bullshit right-wing spin. Most of you probably don’t read him, either, which is why I want to provide this latest “Drudge Retort”.

Recently (yesterday!), Matt Drudge dredged up some links so he could plaster a headline about how NOAA “blew it” on their 2006 hurricane predictions. At no time does Mr. Disingenouous even so much as allude to the reasons cited in his main article for the calm Atlantic season – namely, that Saharan dust off of Africa was greater than usual, and also that El Nino created vertical wind shear that helped keep Atlantic storms weak this year.

What Mr. Matt “Sensationalist Paparazzo Assclown” completely and predictably failed to mention is that the east Pacific forecast was also wrong – on the low side. Less than 12-16 named storms were predicted; there were 18. Less than 6-8 were forecast to become hurricanes; 11 did. El Nino changed some things, but it didn’t change the water temperatures. The last hurricane, Sergio, was the strongest hurricane on record for so late in the season – November 15th, mind you.

Oh, and let’s not forget the western Pacific. The western Pacific typhoon season claimed the lives of thousands of people in China and the Philippines. Ironically, Drudge flunkie Breitbart carried a story blaming global warming on an unusually active and destructive typhoon season. The Atlantic has been quiet for weeks now, but today, right now, a typhoon in the northwestern Pacific Ocean is bearing down on the Philippines, forecast to attain winds of 125 knots before landfall, the equivalent of a Category 4 hurricane. In case you forgot, this is NOVEMBER. The hurricane season ends THURSDAY.

The bottom line is that, as much as Drudge and his sleazy sources want to believe, the slow Atlantic hurricane season was NOT, in ANY WAY WHATOSOEVER, a repudiation of the idea that global warming is destroying our world. Just look at the latest NOAA sea surface temperature anomaly data:

See that? The water around Greenland, the cold water that’s supposed to be sinking to drive the Gulf Stream, is substantially warmer than usual. It’s been like that for months now. Fortunately the Gulf Stream doesn’t matter as much to us as it does to those Brits across the pond, who are living in a horribly freezing miserable climate except for the warmth provided by the Gulf Stream; don’t think, though, that the hyperbole of that movie The Day After Tomorrow is all BS, because it isn’t. The data tells the truth no matter what self-serving hypocrites like Drudge say otherwise. I hope Drudge lives on a coastal area so he’ll drown when the tides rise.

Young Democrats in ’06: A+

2006-11-19T20:30:00.000-05:00

While 2006 was a bad year for Georgia Democrats, it didn’t stop Georgia youth from making waves up and down the ballot. Your Daddy’s Democrats didn’t call all the shots this year, and the next generation of leaders started stepping up to the plate.

The first, and probably most obvious, area where young Democrats made their voices heard this year was on the blogosphere. Young people powered the explosion in popularity of blogs, so it’s no surprise that they eventually found their way into the world of political blogs and got noticed. Andre Walker is only the best example of young people attracting the notice of the staid political establishment and the media; Georgia Politics Unfiltered has been loved and hated in 2006, but it has been read like few other political blogs in Georgia. From Atlanta Public Affairs to the Dekalb Young Democrats (and, of course, this blog), young people have had an unprecedented platform to express their opinions and have been heard.

In addition to blogging, young people have gotten their hands dirty working on Democratic campaigns across the state. Virtually the entire Jim Martin campaign staff was composed of young people, with Jim’s children and Jane Bradshaw among many others helping to make the race against Casey Cagle unexpectedly close. Young Democrats also played crucial roles in the campaigns of Guy Drexinger, Mark Taylor, and Gail Buckner. The Young Democrats of Atlanta took a bold new approach to recruiting volunteers by focusing on Jan Hackney’s campaign for Georgia State House, district 48, and other metropolitan Young Democrats chapters, as well as the Young Democrats of UGA, set new standards for bringing young volunteers into the world of Democratic campaigns. Yellow Dog Consulting brought a healthy dose of youthful energy and determination to the sedate world of campaign consulting, and the Young Democrats of Georgia brought strategic vision to bear on reaching out to disaffected potential young voters.

Furthermore, Young Democrats have begun to find their way into party leadership. 2006 saw several Young Democrats of Atlanta elected as post seat holders in the Fulton County Democratic Party, and ex-president Page Gleason serves as executive director of the party. Other young people have found leadership positions and respect in the Democratic parties in Dekalb, Cobb, and Gwinnett counties. Tahir Duckett has ably served as field director for the Democratic Party of Georgia, and other young Democrats serve on the state Democratic committee. When decisions are made in our party, we young people have a voice!

Finally, young people placed themselves prominently on ballots across the state. Shyam Reddy ran a strong and well-funded campaign for Secretary of State, and other young people ran for numerous state house and senate seats. Young people already in office, including Representative Mike Jacobs, of the 80th district, and Alisha Thomas-Morgan, of the 39th district, held their seats easily and continue to bring a fresh new perspective to the state capitol to balance the experience and wisdom of our long-serving Democratic friends. A new generation of Democratic leadership is finally stepping into the spotlight – and the ride is just beginning.

Scorecard supplemental

2006-11-08T16:41:00.000-05:00

And now for something completely different.

American voters - D. Oh, you get a passing grade for sustaining this kind of internal animosity between factions without devolving into violence or setting anything on fire like some countries do. But at the same time, you lose points for tolerating this kind of administration without setting anything on fire. The fact that pundits get all kinds of excited about 50% turnout, and that the paltry drizzle in which about a dozen YDAtliens stood for hours waving signs is enough to dissuade people from voting for their government, makes me wonder where the hell we get off "exporting democracy" when we don't know how to use it ourselves. Anyone who did not vote because of weather ought to be tied to a chair in a small windowless room and locked in with Angry Benson after he's gotten into the gin. And Angry Benson gets a golf club.

Candidate spouses - W. The W for "Withdrew" is more of a suggestion than a grade, because there is a time and a place for you in campaigns, and it's not out front parading your opinion. I don't need to see Sonny Perdue's wife squinting at me from my TV and telling me what a swell guy he is; she was fool enough to marry the crook, so her testimony doesn't amount to squat. And Mrs. Harry Geisinger ought to watch what kind of garbage comes flying out of her stupid pie-hole, calling an honorable and dedicated citizen like Jan Hackney a "puppet" in a mailer that basically smears Hackney while bemoaining non-existent "smear" alleged against Hackney's campaign (it's not smear when you really vote to screw things up, it's called a record, you moron). Hello, irony! But if you're going to step up and make your personal opinion about your husbands part of the campaign, then you'd better be prepared to take the heat that comes with it. I'm watching you, Mrs. G. You're On Notice!

Alcohol - B-. Dear, sweet alcohol, you started off strong as a champagne toast, and when the fit hit the shan, you were quick to provide a comforting sense of numbness. But on nights like last night, you overstay your welcome and do mean and nasty things to the liver and stomach, and you seem to have replaced my brain stem with a combat boot. Extra points of for Honey Brown. Honey Brown? What's up with that? Your alternate selection of Sweetwater 420 was a fine brew on its face, but Atlanta progressives practically bathe in the stuff already. Tsk, tsk.

Renaissance Hotel - C+. You know, lots of hotels provide their guests with internet access for free, and it's ironic that you have to go to a cheaper, dare I say dodgier, hotel to have a bottle opener built into the bathroom counter where it bloody well ought to be. And allowing your bar to run out of Guinness? Booooo. Hire a few more valets, while you're at it; the parking situation is just kooky. Kudos for soft beds and big TVs though.

Karl Rove - F. Go back to math class. Your "THE math" is not reality-based. You lose, sucka!

I can't believe we lost the fucking election like this. Final election grades for pretty damn near everyone.

2006-11-08T10:25:00.000-05:00

Ask, Georgia, and ye shall receive: Welcome to your fucking handbasket.

Yeah, nationally it was a banner night for Democrats. To me that makes Georgia's pathetic Democratic performance that much more painful. Good Lord how could it happen? How could the nation be so angry with Republicans and incumbents and yet our state drools all over them like Mark Foley over a seventeen-year-old page? I didn't expect us to win all our contested races, especially with the weather – never think so. But the margins we lost by, in race after race that we thought we could be competitive in, were truly monstrous, unthinkable except for the terrible fact that they are real. I hope all of y'all that didn't help out feel great about the fucktastrophe that is now Georgia. Thanks!!!!

So here are the final grades for the 2006 Georgia campaign season:

Mark Taylor - D. Mike, Brittany, and the rest of y'all who worked this campaign, please try to take this as non-personally as possible, but NOTHING YOU DID WAS RIGHT. How do I know that? My first clue might be that as of now Mark has more than 50,000 fewer votes than GAIL BUCKNER, who barely had enough money to print those silly little stickers to slap on people at fairs, never mind run a serious campaign. Mark was our gubernatorial nominee, the person allegedly bearing our standard in this calamity bearing vague resemblances to an election – you're telling me that you can't get more votes than Gail Buckner with vastly larger amounts of money and name recognition? PLEASE. Perhaps Mark should have learned the lesson that cost Cathy Cox the primary – DON'T FUCK WITH YOUR BASE. Swing voters mean jack if you alienate your base, say by adopting some ridiculous “tough on crime” crazy death penalty stance and piss off your black voters in some cockamamie attempt to maybe get some swing voters. Your base gives you money and volunteers for your campaign, not to mention votes. Is anyone really surprised that Mark was broke and had crappy volunteer support? Mark was supposed to have a phone bank at the SEIU bus this Saturday from 11 to 6 – I got there at 4 only to find that, due to a lack of volunteers, the bank was switching over to MIKE MCGRAW of all people. Pitiful. I'm embarrassed to be a Georgia Democrat after the 19% smackdown Taylor asked for and got from Sonny Perdue.
Cathy Cox - F. At this point it doesn't really matter why Cathy evaporated on the campaign trail, or why her primary campaign sucked. Mark didn't do a damn thing to bring her or her supporters back into the fold and on board, and neither did she. In the end, they locked in a death embrace as the election plunged into the abyss, and they're both Professor Moriarty as far as I'm concerned.
Jim Martin - A-. God, this one hurt. Everyone on Jim's campaign worked like dogs for this election, and it paid off in stupendous amounts of volunteer support and money. Who knew Jim could remotely contend with Casey Cagle? His staff – Jane Bradshaw, the Martin family, Bess, Kyle Bailey, and the rest of y'all four square players whose names I should have learned but didn't – made the difference between a Mark Taylor-style debacle and the most solid effort that could be asked of a statewide Georgia candidate running against the winds of Republican change in Georgia. Jim deserved, deserved God damn it, to do better than 10% down. It still hasn't sunk in just how bad things are going to be with Casey Fucking Cagle running the Georgia Senate.
Gail Buckner - D+. Nothing personal against Gail, but she was a true wizard at not raising enough money to buy a Coke with. She didn't really earn her primary victory (admit it!) and she never got the clue about fundraising. Gail would have made a great Secretary of State but she's a bad candidate and a bad campaigner. Who knows – maybe if she had been first on the ballot one more time...
Thurbert Baker - C+. Whatever, he won his race despite those silly accusations Perry McGuire kept dredging up in his attack ads. Praise the Lord for keeping this office at least.
Denise Majette - F Wait, Denise ran a campaign? The next time you see Denise's name on a primary ballot, do me a favor and check that little box that says “FUCK NO”.
Guy Drexinger - B-. Guy ran a sort of OK campaign aside from his brilliant attack ads. Given the margins that other people lost by, I don't think his past indiscretions had much to do with anything, he just got flattened by the juggernaut unleashed by the Taylor campaigns errors.
Tommy Irvin - C+. Didn't see too much of Tommy on the campaign trail, but it appears, thankfully, that being the longest serving elected official ever does in fact speak for itself.
Michael Thurmond - C+. All I know about the campaign is that their stickers sucked. He won. Yay. And there was much rejoicing.
Jan Hackney - B-. The Young Democrats of Atlanta did a LOT of work on this campaign, and I feel like stabbing random Republican voodoo dolls because Jan lost by the same amount as in 2004. Jan didn't have good fundraising, which may or may not have been part of what doomed the campaign, but she had a volunteer family and I wish I could hug all of y'all that helped on this campaign.
Beth Farokhi - B. Bet you didn't even know Beth. She ran for a Cobb County School Board seat on a shoestring in a heavily Republican area, against a BAPTIST MINISTER, and outperformed all her Democratic friends – not that 40% would have been something to cheer about yesterday, but given that Darryl Wilson in House 45, a(nother) guy several of us thought was going to do OK against frat boy doofus Matt Dollar, was crushed 70/30, I think Beth did just fine.
David Scott - B-. An incumbent Democrat with oodles of money from God knows where in a district gifted with even more favorable precincts stolen from Tom Price's district ought to be able to beat a crazy Republican woman better than 60/40, if you ask me. Even our victories weren't very convincing.
John Barrow/Jim Marshall - A+. That's just for winning, praise Allah - I was deathly afraid that Georgia was not only going to plunge into political hell but would fuck up all the great stuff happening nationally. I think we can all be thankful for the Contract on the Bush Administration, because without that John and Jim would have lost for sure.
DNC - F. Thanks for caring about John and Jim, you assclowns. You got lucky in Georgia, luckier than you deserve.
Neil Garvin - F. Neil, running against my own Republican assclown Rich Golick in House 34, started canvassing, maybe, the week before the election. Neil, I appreciate you being on the ballot, but you ran a Denise Majette campaign.
Jane Kidd, Lauren Benedict, Danita Knowles, Dawn Randolph, Scott Taylor - WTF. All lost, all lost by margins that hurt. I hate Mark Taylor so much...
Kevin Levitas - A+. YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This and the fact that Holli Cash took back my Cobb School Board seat from the Republicans officially qualify as the Two Bright Points of Light In the Dark, Dark Night.
Ballot initiatives - F. Fuck the traditions of hunting and fishing and old geezers flying around in military aircraft. Give me some health care.
Yellow Dog Consulting - A. Page Gleason, Tim Cairl, Billy Joyner – you guys worked way, way, WAY too hard to deserve getting so crushed. Steve Sinton (6th Congressional) – lost 70/30. Melanie Eyre (House 46) – lost 75/25. Bob Roche (House 81) – lost 60/40. God Almighty, how did this happen to us? You should still hold your heads as high as anyone in this God-forsaken state. And hey, you didn't kill ANYONE – that's a victory! (Robert Bunn, shut your mouth and keep your snarky comments to yourself.)
Democratic Party of Georgia - F. ASIDE from the abject lack of leadership and direction, and ASIDE from the fact that Georgia Democrats have about a billion different splinter groups rather than a real party, the number of stories I have heard of people going to the DPG offices and seeing everyone there idly talking or playing Solitaire while one lone volunteer slaves thanklessly over mountains of legal forms is not zero. Oh, and let's not neglect to mention how GREAT candidate recruitment was! *ahem* Sorry, that was the wine talking. At least we have officially hit rock bottom, although we may be here for awhile. Hopefully we'll have a state left to defend when we have a state party again. Mike Berlon for chair!
Fulton County Democratic Party - B+. Melanie Goux, Sam Westmoreland, and company must have done something right if they managed to keep their county commission in Democratic hands while the rest of the state was collapsing around them. I'm sure there are lots of numbers to analyze before the effect of all those absentee ballot forms can be stated, but given the terrible weather yesterday, I'm going to put money on the canvass packets being a Good Idea. There was a pretty good crowd yesterday for rides to the polls at the CWA Local 3204 as well.
North Fulton Democrats - C+. Is it just me or are the CallingPost calls getting to be a little like those HeadOn commercials? No, really, I'm sure the folks up in North Fulton worked hard, it's just that every damn thing in that neck of the woods sucked as far as I know. I guess when you live within a 5-mile radius of Eva Galambos it's a stretch to hope for anything good. I think I saw a few members at the Jim Martin campaign from time to time, so they knew where the fun times were at least.
Red Clay Democrats - C. Thanks for the memories, and the $. And the $$. And the $$$. (And for bringing us John Rodgers, a good new member!)
Young Democrats of Georgia - A. I don't know yet how our Youth Voter Alliance stuff turned out, but I think that went pretty well and we reached people. We just didn't have time to follow through. 2008 will be different. Thanks Will Curry!
Young Democrats of Atlanta - A. Ok, fine, I should have recused myself from this grade, but hey, I have to include the new player in Fulton County politics in my ratings, right?? Reports seem to indicate that YDAtl did, in fact, significantly improve Democratic performance in two of the three Hackney precincts we targeted, and that counts as something to be comforted by on a night when EVERY FUCKING OTHER THING WENT TERRIBLY WRONG. Er, ahem. Sorry. The bitterness just comes out sometimes...
John Kerry - F. Stick to your day job, Mr. Comedian. And shut the fuck up.
Zell Miller - A. Georgia Assclown #1 gets an A for wasting all his time and considerable hot air campaigning in Pennsylvania for Rick Santorum and leaving us down here the hell alone. At least Zell got a stomach punch too!
Andre Walker - C. Not bad, Andre, getting mentioned in the AJC. But I have a radical idea for you for 2008 - more volunteering, less blogging. I know it sounds crazy, but it just might work.
Robert Bunn - F. Keep the “I-Told-You-So”'s to yourself, Mr. glad to be in Florida working one of the biggest campaigns in the country. Congratulations, you (presumably) won. Why bother coming back here?

Angry Benson contributed to this post.

Election day video update 4

2006-11-07T21:00:00.000-05:00

HOLY CRAP PEOPLE! YDAtl kicks ass and takes names: Precinct 19, the results phoned in are Harry Geisinger, 454, Jan Hackney, 623! GIDDYUP! A couple other, smaller precincts with words like "Country Club" in the name haven't been as favorable...but we'll see.

Video #4 includes the champagne toast at Kroger and the start of celebrations at Campaign HQ, including ruminations on Harry's true election day activities.

This is the last update from Sandy Springs; hopefully you'll see more from us from the Renaissance Hotel!
UPDATE: OUR ROOMS ARE 1010 (YDG) AND 1017 (YDATL). The party will most likely be in YDG's suite, with YDAtl's room holding bags, bikes, the unconscious, and God knows what else.

Election Day Video Update 3

2006-11-07T19:54:00.000-05:00

Between the lunch and evening visibility shifts, another round of phone banking descended into fatigue-induced giddiness. Also news from the Blackberry that Republicans were inspired to tamper with the Dem voter hotline thanks to some right-wing assclown on AM radio.

Sorry I couldn't get this online before we left at 4:00, but the champagne toast and celebration footage will follow very soon before we head down to the Renaissance. Hopefully the hotel has a good high speed internet connection for us.

Today was phenomenal, people. We have gotten such good response, and at all of the precincts we covered, Geisinger's campaign machine was nowhere to be seen; perhaps he doesn't have any friends, and his record of poor service couldn't inspire enough campaign volunteers. YDAtl and Jan's other volunteers dominated District 48. Let's hope it pays off! Data will be coming within the hour, we hear.