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Archive for the ‘Georgia’ Category

I keeping hearing the hook from rap anthem “Self Destruction” when I think about Obama’s concerns for our community.  With elements of Kennedy’s “Ask not what this country can do for you” classic speech, President Obama and his lovely family will outline the formula for better living for those who care about themselves and how we carry ourselves.  However, that same rap hook applies to the self-destruction of the GOP.  

The GOP is working hard to marginalize themselves and doing a fine job.  Alienate Blacks with attacks on Obama, Steele and Powell…check…alienate Hispanics and women with attacks on Sotomayor….check…alienate centrists by pushing Specter away and preparing to attack McCain and the few remaining moderate GOP senators if they voted for Sotomajor’s confirmation….check and checkmate.  You just guaranteed defeat in the midterm elections.  

If the GOP purifies their rank and file, those voters pushed away will natural hang in the center or join the Blue Dog division of the Democrats.  The Blue Dog selection of the Democrat team could therefore grow large enough to counterbalance the far-left urban ultra-liberals and give President Obama the opportunity to be more corn-fed Kansas populist than Chicago rural liberal.  We must remember that Obama created his statewide appeal in Illinois by connecting with the country folks down state. 

While the GOP is counting on the big spending from the White House helping them during the mid-term elections, America might actually like Obama and the Democrats more as the White House slides toward the center.  Cover the children’s eyes because the sight of a dying elephant could traumatize them for life.     

Michael Steele has some elephant-sized EKG paddles in his hands but I don’t think he can get pass those who are in denial about what when wrong in the past or those who don’t want new congressional candidates to be more Sen. Isakson smooth and less Fox News bitter. They could pick up three House seats in Georgia just by reading this blog. 

The House Minority Leader John Boehner recently said what…I can’t believe it…no he didn’t…he told the truth.    

Boehner: ‘Digging Ourselves Out of a Deep Hole’ – George’s Bottom Line

“We’re digging ourselves out of a deep hole,” he admitted.  “We took it in the shorts with Bush-Cheney, the Iraq War, and by sacrificing fiscal responsibility to hold power.”  Boehner also acknowledged that the GOP hasn’t done a good enough to job shaking the “party of no” label. 

Rep. Boehner outlined his positive strategy turning things around but I think he needs some fresh face with encouraging vibes.  Michael Steele should consider the following a personal gift from me: in Georgia, getting Austin Scott,  Deborah Honeycutt into the correct congressional races would be your best spot at picking up seats by pulling voters from Blue Dogs.

As the Republicans taught the Democrats in the 90s, voters are reluctant to vote out incumbents from the party controlling the power in Washington.  The GOP can’t win any congressional races in Georgia without producing Obama and dare I say Palin like popular, fresh candidates.

We know that traditionally Organized Labor and the Trial Lawyers controlled the Democrats with money and the Faith community and big business did the same for the Republicans.  Obama got most of his money from the people so after all this bailout stuff he should do what the people want if he wants a second term.  (And I am not sure he actually does.  Maybe he wants to change the whole game with sweeping reforms without concern for reelection..walking away on top of the game like Jim Brown.  Is that the secret deal he cut with Hillary?)

What would happen if the faith community created a third party?  Who would be left in the GOP?  Hear me: embrace some less bitter GOP candidates now or suffer the consequences.

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Handel and Helen at GOP State Convention

Handel and Helen at GOP State Convention

Helen Block Adams (HBA) sits down with Georgia Secretary of State and Candidate for Governor Karen Handel at high noon on Friday.  I bet HBA will have all the candidates for governor before the end of the year. 

In my opinion, a party that seems stagnate could use some fresh blood with a woman perspective for governor and/or congress (stay tune for something big…hopefully.)  You have the Nathan Deal crew, the Eric Johnson crew, the Ox crew, and the Austin Scott youth crew before you get to the drama on the Democratic side. We will see.  The GOP should learn that you get more people with honey than cutting them down and the Dems need to learn that our community won’t always be marshalled around.

Listen online

http://www.newsradio1230.com/

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My sister just got back from business in South Africa and is heading back next week.  While looking at her African safari pictures, I see that her truck was near a Gnu or wildebeest.  I can not stand the sight of those things because I was chased by a goat coming from midget football practice.  I was coming from practice; not the goat but I am a Worth County and Albany State Ram…talk about your irony.  Also, I am not a midget and as a moderate Democrat I should refrain from using un-P.C. terms like that one. Forget P.C. unless you are talking about Panama City Beach; Little League was called midget football in my day.

So, I don’t like Gnus (if that is the plural) because that goat chased me and wildebeest look like those pictures of the devil from church while we were growing up.  You see the devil on his throne of evil looking like those ugly things the big cats of Africa chase.  One night I when to sleep and woke to hear on one of the smart people TV channels that the largest migration in history is the annual movement of wildebeests.  There is no away I am stepping foot on an African safari and I am careful at Wild Adventures in Valdosta and Chehaw Park in Albany.

The hypocritical part is that I like snakes, another biblical icon of the devil.  Tom from Thomasville use to worked with me in Rep. Bishop’s office and I remember him from his time as a campus leader at Fort Valley State.  In college, we could listen to stories Tom got from old wise people all night long.  When we would ask what’s up in the Valley, Tom would say that a little boy ran on the porch to tell his grandmother that there was a snake behind the barn in the high grass.  The grandmother told the boy that there was no problem if the snake was behind the barn and the boy was there on the porch.  Grandmother said, “Don’t be concerned with the snake in the grass, you need to be worried about your own Black ___.” 

When you think about it, the boy might have been right because the snake behind the barn today could be in the house tonight.  People function under the mindset to trust and fear certain things and groups.  Candidate for Governor Eric Johnson wrote a detailed essay a few years ago about the history of the relationship between Blacks and the two major political parties.  Yes, the GOP was started to stop the expansion of slavery because slaves would do jobs without pay in new territories that new immigrants from Europe wanted to be paid to do and the Democrats (or Dixiecrats) fought for most of the last century to keep the Black restrictive laws in place.

At the end of the day, political parties change for the better, for the worst, and then back again—the same can be said about individuals, groups and races.  What’s Gnu is that our fears and concerns of the past might have been unfounded or no longer relevant (the defense mechanism of the wildebeest must be being ugly and running scared in large groups.)  I should leave this along before I write that the same can be said about the extreme elements of both ends of the political range.

But, when you thing about it the Gnu GOP just wants survival in the jungle just like the cool snakes on the Democrat Team.  I hope President Obama’s African and American DNA helps him sort out what’s what.

History of GOP according to State Sen. Eric Johnson http://www.pickensgop.org/gagop_history.html

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Georgia Senator Johnny Isakson, a member of the Senate subcommittee on Africa, is visiting the troubled Dafur region of Sudan.  I am still surprised that Isakson is one of the most conservative members of the Senate yet serves with a cool listening ear and compassion mindset rather than the vibe of some of his colleagues.  And people wonder which leader the GOP should model the next generation of policy makers after.

I hope he comes back with the idea of getting more peanut-based food paste from Georgia and dry pasta to help than staving region in the short-term while get a market opportunity for our farmers and producers.  In the long-term, exporting farming techniques and equipment developed at Fort Valley State and U.G.A. to that suffering part of the world could assist in our antiterrorism efforts—bread rather than bullets.  But, we still have the bullets—don’t sleep on the eagle with the olive branch in one talon and the arrows in the other.

Isakson should be briefing Agriculture Secretary Sanford Bishop about the opportunities for southern agriculture to help heal the world while creating jobs here but the Obama White House passed on Georgia.  (For those who thing the current president won’t be criticized by moderates or African American would not condemn African genocide and support of terrorism.)   

http://www.ajc.com/services/content/printedition/2009/05/27/isakson0527.html

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Georgia Rep. Paul Broun is a bright guy and physician who for some unbeknownst reason insist on being somewhat nutty on the Hill.  I met Dr. Broun a few years ago when he was running to replace the late Rep. Charlie Norwood.  I thought his runoff opponent Jim Whitehead was a quintessential southern political leader; Whitehead put you in the mind of an aging, wise coach.  

Some Republican political operatives in Georgia should have their heads examined because Whitehead played football at the University of Georgia yet wrote off Athens—“dog gone,” literally.  He had Black managers in his tire company who worked themselves up in the operation but the Whitehead campaign never used them in ads or had them working the community—in other words, win without Black support so you won’t need to listen to their liberal agenda for the next two years.   Newsflash: Not all Blacks are liberals and those people whispering in your ear are not helping.

So, Broun keeps coming up with a constant diet of far-right conspiracy theories or faith-related legislation that feeds a certain element but does not help his party with moderates nor help address the economy recovery.  He is better than this because his father was a well-represented Georgia legislative leader.  His father’s legacy is so strong that the Black community in Athens backed Paul over reasonable Whitehead.  How you like me now? 

 

Of course, Broun is safe from a Democrat challenger but his latest legislative idea of making 2010 the year of the Bible might bring out a GOP candidate who is about the business of governing rather than stirring conflict and division.  Would 2011 be the year of the Quran and 2012 the year of the Torah?  I am a moderate and I will be at church on Sunday but a resolution like Broun’s can’t pass until there is a constitutional amendment to declare one faith the official faith of America and Broun knows that.   

Our community needs reasonable Republicans more than just another Democrat.  

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0509/22832.html 

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While speaking at the Georgia GOP State Convention recently, RNC Chairman Michael Steele’s statements included:  

The chairman said he had inherited leadership of a party that was “stuck in a 1980s philosophy, using a 1990s strategy to win campaigns.”

The Republican demand for orthodoxy and purity, Steele said, risks making the party irrelevant to “the changing heartbeat of this nation.”

“We can no longer be afraid that to open up, to invite someone in, diminishes us. I don’t know how that works,” Steele said. “If you are true to your convictions, to your core, why are you so afraid to share that?” 

Before he when to Savannah, Steele should have swung by southwest Georgia so we could sit on the porch, sip some sweet tea, eat a few locally produced Nether’s Pork Skins (made by a guy from my church) and I could have hooked a brother up with what’s what. 

I would have explained to Steele that the South dominates his party now and those southerners are accustom to have things their way most of the time.  If we are talking about 10 political points, they want their ranks in line on 9 points and the missing point can’t be the pro-life issue.  The faith aspect makes abortion non-negotiable. 

The GOP doesn’t need to let anyone “in;” that is not necessary.  Steele needs to help them understand that elections are won with coalitions i.e. Reagan Democrats.  Those coalitions are built on situations and circumstances of mutual benefit. 

The GOP took power in Washington in the 90s because large numbers of faith-oriented, patriotic heartland Americans (Rs and Ds) supported them on faith issues, strong defense and what seemed like their commitment to fiscal restraint.  The Democrats seem sincerely committed to addressing the kitchen table issues that current families are handling—Rs and Ds.   

I would have told brother Steele that he could win some contested races in the congress next year if the grassroots of his party understood that sometimes non-Republicans support GOP candidates who are experts or advocates for the major issue in those voters’ lives.  It is that simple.

For example, Georgia farmers agree with most of the Georgia congressional delegation on agriculture issues and USDA programs.  In southwest Georgia, Republican farmers reluctantly vote for Rep. Sanford Bishop while southeast Georgia Democrat farmers support Republican Jack Kingston.  It is all about the wallet in Georgia on agriculture, military bases, veterans, and transportation spending.

While the Democrats welcome “outside” support, Georgia GOPers are don’t understand that outsiders are there for different yet important reasons.  Could the allied forces have won World War II without Stalin and the Russians? 

I would have told Steele that my friends and I were cheering for him when he ran for the Senate in Maryland and that he will always have a home in the community if his party decides he should be elsewhere.  That’s how we roll.  Finally, I would have said that like private schools and churches, some of the grassroots people in his party join with the understand that most of the people there were….well, you know.  Hey, is that the reason I when to a Black college?  That Kumbaya Obama stuff is a sweet concept but in the meantime, you get in where you fit in down here and some of his party members join….you know..and they know too.

If moderate and centrist Democrats can coexist in a big party with the San Fran crew, then Steele’s party can do likewise or send the centrists right over.  We can call them the Red Dogs.

“Red Rover, Red Rover, send Condi, Colin and Maine’s senators over.”

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It’s nice to have friends from across the political and social spectrums because discussions and debates bear fruit and we mutually grow.  Some people have a hard time putting their minds around the idea that what you knew as “this” has changed to “that” and what you thought about your group has changed also.

In politics, some Republican officials and operatives don’t seem to realize that their divisive techniques of the past has turned off the sensible center and changes are needed are they will become an anachronism.  If your numbers are falling at an alarming rate, don’t stand around waiting for the masses to come back around or for the other guys to fail.  In the South, we prefer conservative and moderate politics to liberal politics but the extreme elements on the right are abrasive and unjustifiably arrogant.  Pelsoi, Reid and congressional Democrats have similar traits on the left but not to the offensive level.  

In the middle of all the drama, we have President Obama and his wide-eyed collection or hodgepodge of supporters who simply wanted public officials to confer and arrive at logical conclusions to move the nation forward.   There are Republicans who swear that all Democrats are ultra liberals yet the Georgia congressional Republicans work with their Democrat colleagues.  If the Democrats of Georgia allowed the Blue Dogs to consider and support President Bush’s policies then the Republicans of Georgia should do the same with Obama initiatives. 

From childhood playgrounds to the halls of Congress, southerners have a long history of being friends with people who are different when it is convenient then getting amnesia when it is convenient.  The D.C. axiom goes “we have no permanent friends or permanent enemies; just permanent interests.” 

The interests of my community are better served if we diverse our political portfolio while certain stock is low.  Mark my word: that stock won’t stay low. To my Republican friends, I will caution you one last time to make a comfortable place for moderate thought inside your party as the Democrats did with the Blue Dogs or you will have a party of extremists who the public in general find off-putting.

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Thunderstorms are immiment, but I’m still headed to the beautiful city of Savannah for the Georgia Republican Convention.                                  

I’ve got my mini digital tape recorder, my note pad and plenty of business cards in an effort to meet and greet each of the Gubernatorial candidates, the Honorable J.C. Watts, Republican National Chairman Michael Steele, and Herman Cain. I’m expecting to hear and see a different tone that exudes diversity and open mindedness with an emphasis on re-energizing their core values. Let’s see what happens. Stay tuned for further updates throughout the weekend.

If you’re my Facebook friend, you can get the information much quicker.

Oh, and I intend to count the number of ‘people of color’ in attendance.

Peace.

Helen

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But it sometimes turns out that national and state leaders in the same party came to realize that not all members of the other party are evil, wrong, and all together scum of the earth.  I am going to break my arm patting myself on the back for having friends and associates from all over the political spectrum.  While we get heated in discussions, all of us are well-intended Americans who want the nation to succeed.  The question becomes “how do we get there.”  

At times, the Democrats want to mother the people and kiss their boo boos while the Republicans want to be the tough discipline-oriented father types.  In the Georgia congressional delegation, they must be making secret pacts in the House and Senate cloakrooms that say, “colleague, I actually like you but you know we must mix it up in public to keep the party faithful pleased…you understand, right.” 

When the GOP ran the White House, both houses of Congress and Georgia state government, they had a swagger and attitude that would have made Caesar and Napoleon envious.  Their control over the federal government is gone for now but they still have that swagger.  To many of them, they weren’t wrong in policies and actions; the voters were charmed and mislead by the brilliance of Obama and his bottomless moneybag.  Huh? 

Watch the Republicans who honesty say, “my bad, we got off track.”  Those self-reflecting leaders are keepers and they are the one who know that party politics is secondary to fixing our economy and our place on the world stage.  These guys also realize what the hardhead can’t see or hear: President Obama is about America more than being about the Democrat Party—remember the diehard Democrats really wanted Hillary or Edwards before the masses (including non-party people and new voters) stood up and said “Obama..Obama.”  

That observation means Obama can take consult from conservatives and moderates who seek to rein in spending and debt after this orgy of stimulus/recovery spending. Those who pull Obama to the center will be credited with not waiting until the next election to take action and the center will acknowledge their prudent decisions. 

PIC-0082

Whom am I fooling with that fantasy talk?  And if the leaves of this magnolia tree outside my window turn into hundred dollar bills, I can take a LL Bean dufflebag full of money to SunTrust.  It is not going to happen because major party operatives benefit from the fighting and drama but read the actions of the Georgia Senators and congressmen.  When was the last time you saw then really working hard to get rid of a member from the other party—okay, Congresswoman McKinney.   

And if you want to go on the “Listening Tour,” you should also listen to the people who did not vote for you, understand why they did not and engage them in a healthy dialog.  That’s what the Blue Dog Democrats did; they listened to the center and some conservatives and secured enough support to be Blue in otherwise Red areas.  Can you say emulate?

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To Jeff Sexton at SWGA Politics blog

 

Jeff: Did I just come home from church to see that Carlton Fletcher gave you and your blog mad love in his Sunday column in the Albany Herald?  Wait just a cotton-picking minute; your meteoric blog just stepped in the game and already Fletcher is commenting on you. 

 

Fletcher…Albany State Grad Fletcher…we when to the same college Fletcher…never read ProjectLogicGa.com produced by ASU grad me Fletcher.  I tip the Panama hat I worn to church today (actually I got it in Ecuador) to you and SWGA Politics for the nod Fletcher gave you guys.   And Carlton Fletcher was right about having a deep detailed newspaper in one’s hand—I still can’t believe that the AJC is not available in south Georgia anymore.  When he wrote that he was not going to bank on the depth of reporting from anyone whose job description includes “getting your makeup right,” was he talking about you or the TV news reporters he mentioned.  Lewis Grizzard is smiling on the other side about that line. 

 

Fletcher’s article about “Bright Flight or White Flight” from Albany into Leesburg is an instant classic.  In Worth County, we welcome those working in east Albany who seek a quieter community.  Whom am I fooling; those kids (Black, White and Brown) with the booming car stereos are about to drive me into the rural area of Worth County. 

 

If Fletcher reads this, he should tell Candace the Herald’s circulation department that I am again sorry for fussing about my paper not being in the box this morning; the thoughtful delivery person tossed it in the garage because someone who likely doesn’t read has been stealing my paper lately.  The communities of Isabella,  Acre and Ty Ty are starting to look pretty good these days.  

 

I am no where near anybody’s journalist…I am just a guy venting and waiting for Sawgrass and the NBA to come on the tube.

 

http://www.albanyherald.com/main.asp?SectionID=5&SubSectionID=33&ArticleID=1576

  

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first ladies

For Mother’s Day, some mothers need a Dyson Ball vacuum cleaner to make their lives easier and other mothers need an exercise ball to make their lives longer. But, I remember my father saying that Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day were not as important a being nice everyday—that’s the last part of the jazz standard My Funny Valentine.

To me, a sweet part of this Mother’s Day is seeing my sister Michelle Obama as the first lady and first mother in the White House.  I don’t think we really appreciated grace and intelligence of her predecessor Laura Bush, who was the smartest person in the room at the end of the day and actually advised her husband more than we know.  Without her balancing Cheney, bad could have been worst.

In farmland, we are always looking for residual benefit—wheat straw becomes office furniture; peanut shells become kitty litter; and swine waste fertilizes hay fields.  I knew this time last year that we would have a woman as president or a minority woman as first lady/mother and the residual benefit would be of epic proportions.

Michelle Obama is like the Cosby Show’s Claire Huxtable come to life and the residual benefit of young people seeing what motherhood should be like should encourage better parenting and family planning, and should advocate staying childless for those who are not up to the task.  I know, I know, that some of these people having all of these kids don’t think logically about their choices and that brighter people actually have few children because parenthood is hard.  

We hear appropriations this and grants that but real moderates and conservatives would figure out away to sincerely and tactfully say “ask not what this country can do for you but ask what can you do for this country..what you can do is stop being overconfident about your ability to raise productive, law abiding citizens because if you half-raise children, they could end up dead or in prison shackles.”  

 I never understood Toni Morrison’s Beloved—the book or the movie; but, I did get that a slave woman killed her baby rather than see it grow up to be a slave.  We have creditability issues in my neighborhood because the same people who are rightfully upset about slavery are not equally upset about criminal actions that youth in prisons. 

 How did I go from Mother’s Day to slavery to prison?  Easy, because after things settle down with the economy, Michelle Obama is going to start encouraging underachieving folks to be better and do better in their personal lives—in addition to the current Obama family examples.  She will be doing what southerners elect conservatives to do and if she is successful she would be improving America at a nominal cost. At that point, the far-right would be in real trouble so they better get on the ball and get some positive mother candidates because Hillary and Michelle on it but it is not a competition; it is a mission. 

Georgia might have a woman governor and should have a woman in congress and that could be a good thing if their natures provide the residual benefit of positive motherhood that First Ladies Clinton, Bush and Obama are giving.

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The bloggers walk around as if they have all the answers and are never wrong.  Well, I am frequently wrong—some would say more often than not. 

 Where do we go from here—we being our community?  Actually, the Blue Dogs are the key because expanding their numbers and grassroots movement could create a comfortable home inside the Democrat Party for centrists and moderates. “Vacillate” is a word I got from listening to President Bush 41 and it is not a synonym for moderates.  The Blue Dogs who stood with President Obama last year during the campaign will live or die politically with his/their policies and that is cool but don’t vacillate when talking with conservatives back home.  The Blue Dogs who never supported Obama and the Democrat ticket (Rep. Jim Marshall) should consider becoming independent. 

If the GOP wants to take some Blue Dog seats, produce candidates in those districts with a fresh appeal and energy.  But, I am starting to see that the stimulus money has made Blue Dogs palatable to otherwise conservative state and local officials.  

As of today, GOP candidate Wayne Mosley in Georgia’s 12th Congressional District is the only viable candidate in our state against a Blue Dog.  Austin Scott would be the logical opponent to conservative Democrat Jim Marshall but no one is encouraging him to run for the congressional seat rather than governor.  Why–because old school conservatives want to teach more than listen to the people.  (See: Rush Limbaugh)  If they would listen a little they could learn that our community would turn on Democrats who benefited from the Obama wave last year but “vacillate” back to the right when it is politically convenient.  

 Secretary Jack Kemp is gone and will be missed because he was the favorite Republican of my crew in the pol sci department at my HBCU.  Kemp was right; we need a comfortable home for Black conservatives (and there are a lot of them).  If the GOP keeps purging the ranks of moderates, Black sheep will become Blue Dogs and even the south will turn blue.

UPDATE: I did not know that Dres from Black Sleep made an Obama remix last year.  From the golden age of hip hop, Black Sleep was down when music mattered and artist were mindful of their impact on the community.

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While reading the Albany Herald today, I recognize the picture of Teacher of the Year candidate Jordan Cambron of Alice Coachman Elementary in Albany as a young man with in-laws in my neighborhood in Sylvester, Georgia.  It might be a stretch but we are claiming him just like the assorted PHDs, grad degrees, military honors and major college graduates from my street.  

To play Six Degrees of Separation, Cambron teaches at Alice Coachman; Coachman was the first African American woman to win an Olympic gold medal; Wiley Brown of the 1980 NCAA National Champion Louisville Cardinals (who grew up across the street from me and honed his basketball skills on my backyard dirt whole court) would have been an Olympian if President Carter did not boycott the Moscow Games.

 What shocked me about the article on Cambron is that he is the only male teacher at this urban school.  Readers of this blog know that I think diversity and exposure are good things.  So, I was trouble to hear of young boys and girls, many from single-parent households, who only encounter one male teacher in the whole school.  Chuck D of Public Enemy say, “when a man is in the house; the bull _______  stop.”  That statement is not always the case because I know some really successful people who grew up with no father at home and I know some families where the father ruin the household vibe.  It is always better for kids to see positive men and women at home, at church, at school and in the community. 

 Cambron came into teaching after being a policeman; he chose to address problems with young people in a positive and encouraging way early before negative behavior developed. 

In the down economy, people need to desperately cling to their sources of income that puts bread on the table.  However, many so-called teachers are going through the motions to “stay paid” and make retirement.  If you have a community filled with teachers who are the opposite of Cambron and the other teacher of the year candidates, you will have in time a community of unemployable young adults who wonder why the public school system failed to reach them. 

I like nice things which cost money (overseas trips, dinners with an engaging lady, E-Class Benzes) but I seldom considered teaching school when I was/am “between opportunities” because factories and plants are the important but teaching and training the next generation is essential and should not be taken nonchalantly.  When an industry considers a community, the dog and pony show from the Chamber of Commerce helps but industrial managers want to see the school records—do you have a developed labor force that can do these jobs?

Knuckleheads in the community will always run up to public officials and staffers to complain, “Why you all don’t bring no good high payin’ jobs down here?  I can’t fed no five kids with no minimum wage.”  Of course, the officials want to ask what this citizen has done in preparation for work and did the complainer consider the budgetary information covered in high school econ class when planning a large family.  I should stop now before I say something…….

Hats off to Cambron, my brother Andrew and the other men strong enough to deal with those “challenging” lower grade children.  I might get broke but I can’t get broke enough to face that Herculean task—what money I did make would likely go to legal defense for going off on those little monsters.  Okay, I am kidding because most kids want to learn but that worst 10% will frail your nerves.

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The Obama Administration just showed me something; the ability to adjust and respond to outcries.  In the South, we were disappointed when Congressman Sanford Bishop did not become Agriculture Secretary and no real southerner was appointed to the new cabinet.  

 

President Obama recently nominated Krysta Harden of Mitchell County, Georgia, to serve as the USDA assistant secretary for congressional relations.   Cool.

 

Krysta grew up in a farming family here in south Georgia and has a well-developed knowledge of the relationship between ag policy, the farm and Capitol Hill.  As chief of staff for former Georgia Congressman Charles Hatcher, she was wise in hiring me as a legislative assistant.  Cool.

 

The Obama White House just got a few southern cool points back and Georgia crops just got a little sun on them.

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baker1

Georgia’s Attorney General Thubert Baker wants to be Georgia’s next governor. He has won statewide several times and has the respect of the law enforcement community.   Some people would say that a person like him….you know…a Democrat..could not win a red state.  Those same people said a skinny guy with a funny name from Chicago; you know.  

 

Again, I wish half the people running for governor would find a nice congressional race but people must follow their hearts and guts.

 

Pundits shouldn’t start with that liberal gibberish because Georgia’s top lawman is always centrist or moderate at least.  

 

 

http://www.thurbertbaker.com/

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Augusta Area Morning Show host Renee deMedicis posted an interesting article about political machines and I decided to reply.

 

http://wnrr.wordpress.com/2009/02/24/morning-show-renee-political-machine/

 

 

Renee: Your article on political machines provided valuable insight into the “smoke filled rooms” of American politics—it’s a dirty game.  Is the tail wagging the dog because people who make a living from political election fights want heated races (no pun intended) just to “stay paid.” 

 

In Georgia, any Democrat in the know can name the famous machines around the state from the last 40 years.  Retired teachers, coaches, military veterans, funeral home directors and barbers have long turned their community status into “side money” by getting out the vote or endorsing candidates.  “If Mr. Blank says this candidate is good, let’s put the guy in there because Mr. Blank would not back any junk.”

 

My GOP friends who get involved in campaigns around the state know GOP candidates hate the idea of “street money” or the famous stuffed envelopes.  The GOP in the South doesn’t need this practice because they have more energetic volunteers than they can use. 

 

But, I think your article would have been more complete if you fairly acknowledged the conservative machines that served as the catalyst for the Right: the faith community’s involvement in politics.  When the elite of the GOP realized that Pat Robertson had millions of supporters in his database, it was on like popcorn. 

 

Again, is the tail gagging the dog because a GOP candidate knows that answering the right (pun intended) questions on the right questionnaires brings the machine into the mix.  The “right” machine is a thing of beauty to see when it’s fully engaged and usually anything in its path will soon be in trouble.

 

Senate McCain knew that those groups would work hard to keep a Democrat out of the White House—millions of dollars for ads and volunteer hours but Obama still won because the people use the election as a referendum on President Bush.  My friends on the right say the people were mistaken, fell personally in love with charming Obama, McCain was not a real conservative or the message was mishandled.  My GOP friends who are real concluded that they got away from core conservative values, the people wanted the Dem way for awhile or Obama might be right (I mean correct). 

 

If we are going to have a “fair and balanced” discussion about American politics, let’s admit that the left and right have political machines and wizards behind those “grassroots” machines are often big corporations for the GOP and big unions for the DNC.  To be honest, the faith community works sincerely regarding abortions, illegal immigration, school vouchers, and morals but the party bosses in D.C. want their numbers to win elections then satisfy big campaign donors with regulatory reduction…hence, the origins of our current economic crisis.  It is all about welfare; on the side street for the Dems and on Wall Street for the GOP.

 

Finally, many Democrats are strong in their faiths but they are guided by the compassion of the Beatitudes rather than the commands of the Ten Commandments.  Of course, moderates like me think about both.  Ultra-liberal compassion is well intended but the government can rescue everyone and the natural selection of the jungle means people sometimes fail.  While almost no one wants to see hungry and homeless children, the role of government is limited by the practicality of economics.  The same concept should apply to financial system recovery.     

 

Yes, political machines on the right exist because they rode Newt and President Bush to death to get the investments they made in the GOP rise to power; the dividends were not stuffed envelops like the Dems but regulatory freedom.  If Newt had a chance to be Newt back in the 90s, American would be a much better place today.

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Votings Rights Act

Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue recently filed a brief in a Texas case before the U.S. Supreme Court regard the pre-clearance requirement of the Voting Rights Act.  Perdue referenced the Obama election to question the need for future federal oversight.

 

After the 1990 Census, the surge of GOP members in the Georgia congressional delegation was a result of putting Black voters into federally mandate Black districts.  Blacks and Whites can work together in the Georgia General Assembly because this 90s collaboration blindsided White Democrat congressmen from Georgia who had a functional relationships with the Black community.  

 

Was it the price of progress to see certain members retire in their prime while others when down swinging?  I was fond of Thomas, Darden, Hatcher, Ray, Roland, Jenkins, Jones and Barnard.  Bishop and Kingston rode that wave into the big leagues and they are good people but the polarization from redistricting means a MOC can win reelect while ignoring a sizable part of his constituents. 

 

The election President Obama does not mean the end of racism; we have it in my neighborhood because Blacks can be big time racists too.  At Albany State University, we studied the Voting Age Population requirements of the Voting Rights Act.  The GOP was smart to realize that a congressional district can be Black friendly with 51% Black adults—not Black voters, just adults.  Of course, Black voter apathy means many of those voters are not registered.  So, you get Black districts where GOP candidates have a fighting chance and more importantly the contiguous districts are so White that the GOP candidate (Black or White) can win easily.  (We should not assume Black voters are Democrats and White southern voters are Republicans; also, conservative voters can be Democrat moderates who are just over the line.)

 

In southwest Georgia, the Black community loves Sanford Bishop for his services and many Whites like his responsiveness to regional issues (pork).  While Kingston is okay with the Black community in southeast Georgia, some of his GOP colleagues function under the mindset that those who constantly vote against me should be ignored.  Georgia congressional Democrats don’t ignore GOP constituents outside Atlanta because they can write campaign checks and that is the mother’s milk of politics. 

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Shirley Goodnest and Marcy

Shirley and Marcy  

A mom was concerned about her kindergarten son walking to school. He didn’t want his mother to walk with him. She wanted to know that he was safe.

So she asked a neighbor if she would please follow him to school in the mornings, staying at a distance,
She said since she was up early with her toddler, it would be a good way for them to get some exercise as well, so she agreed.

The next school day, the neighbor and her little girl set out following behind Timmy as he walked to school with another neighbor girl he knew.  She did this for the whole week.

As the two walked and chatted, kicking stones and twigs, Timmy’s little friend noticed the same lady was following them as she seemed to do every day all week. Finally she said to Timmy, ‘Have you noticed that lady following us to school all week?  Do you know her?’  
Timmy  replied, ‘Yeah, I know who she is.’
 
The little girl said, ‘Well, who is she?’
‘That’s just Shirley Goodnest,’ ‘and her daughter Marcy.’

‘Shirley Goodnest? Who the heck is she and why is she following us?’ ‘Well, every night my Mom makes me say the 23rd Psalm with my prayers, ‘cuz she worries about me so much. and in the Psalm, it says, ‘Shirley Goodnest and Marcy shall follow me all the days of my life’, so I guess I’ll just have to get used to it!’

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Obama is not Messiah

Let’s see: State Rep. Austin Scott is running for Governor but some Georgians consider him yellow for siding with former Governor Roy Barnes and those flag-changing Democrats.  Scott gets into a brouhaha with Black members of the General Assembly regarding a resolution honoring President Obama. 

 

This situation sounds convenient (mutual benefit) to me.  Scott gets some “cred” in the white hood (bad choice of terms) and the Black legislators get “cred” in Black hood for fighting the good fight.

 

The resolution sounds flowery to me and using “unimpeachable” and “vision” crossed the line for the full House.  (Could you see the Democrat members voting for a similar resolution if McCain won?   

 

http://www.legis.ga.gov/legis/2009_10/search/hr673.htm

 

On the Albany T.V. news last night, Scott said they are always playing the race card.  “They” being the Blacks in the General Assembly is going to become “they” all Blacks globally in the media.  During the interview, a framed sign from the “Boot Scott” for flag changing could be seen on his office wall.   It was there like “Dewey defeats Truman.”  This whole situation is a cool calculation on Scott’s part but I still think he would be better off taking Jim Marshall’s congressional seat.

 

This drama ends a week that included President Obama’s appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and the president discussing his NCAA basketball bracket.  At first, I thought the Leno visit was wrong but he mostly covered policy matters; the Special Olympics comment regarding his bowling was clearly a gaffe.  The president is still a regular person so he gets to share the national interest in the “big dance” despite Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski’s joking comment that he should focus on the economy.

 

Obama doesn’t have a Messiah complex but it seems some of his supporters (don’t think followers) might.  MLK, RFK and Malcolm X worked hard to keep the Black community from seeing them that way because they were not the Messiah and any movement focused on one person could end with the loss of that person.  “I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight, that we as a people will get to the Promise Land.”

obama-beer2

Let Obama be Obama: a real, regular dude.  Did you see him at the NBA game sipping that cold beer?  The Messiah turned water into wine (not Coors) but I had better leave that alone before I write that Messianic prophecy on the Second Coming doesn’t mention chilling at the Wizards’ game.  He went to see the Wizards rather than the football team from New Orleans—the Saints.  Is it a sign of the antichrist or a sign that some folks are as nutty as a fruitcake? 

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In college, the jam band “The Time” served as a perfect complement to Prince; the two acts pushed each other like Larry Bird and Magic Johnson.  After success as producers of several Janet Jackson albums, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis said something while receiving a lifetime achievement award that will always stay with me.  Lewis said thanks to the people who believed in them but more importantly thanks to those who did not because they provided the producers’ catalyst for success. 

 

Bird and Johnson step on the national stage during NCAA March Madness in 1979.  I picked Louisville to win the 2009 championship because a guy who grew up across the street from me started on their 1980 championship team; I am loyal like that.   Wiley Brown would have taken Olympic gold if President Carter did not boycott Moscow Olympics because the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan.  The 1980 Louisville Cardinals, the 1980 national football champion Georgia Bulldogs and those Afghan nuts proved that it’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.

 

The teams not playing in the NCAA tournament this year missed “the big dance” because they lacked wins over quality opponents.  My gut feelings told me that Barrack Obama was not quite ready for the presidency after his win in the Iowa Caucus and that a win in New Hampshire for him would make voters think he was untested and green.  When Hillary Clinton got emotional into that café and spoke from her heart, she stepped her game up and elevated Obama’s game to the presidential level.  I always said Clinton verse Dole should have been Elizabeth against Hillary; and the current first lady is the real senior policy advisor.

 

I believe in quality opponents–the loyal opposition, divided government, arch-rivals, nemesis, worthy adversary.  Competition brings out the best.  The philosophers in my church parking lot think today’s Black youth are soft because they did not face the racial strife we did.  Let kids be kids but put down the game controller and rake the yard.  I am not going into that “all that does not kill you makes you stronger” stuff because I am not for near-death experiences.

 

I think members of Congress without quality opponents tend to get “nationalized,” content and soft.  Without opposition, they rubberstamp the dictates of the national party.  House Minority Whip Eric Cantor was correct to say that congressional conservatives must pull President Obama to the center and insist on budgetary constraints.   That attitude is much better than conservative partisans who want the nation to struggle under Democratic leadership so they can win future elections.

 

What if Herman Cain beat Blue Dog Democrat Rep. Jim Marshall last November?  Cain would be having monthly meeting with President Obama to outline his objections to White House proposals and programs.  Since Cain won’t leave his successful empire to be a House freshman, GOP Georgia state representative Austin Scott should reconsider his run for governor and beat that Blue Dog who never supported Obama.  How does Marshall vote for liberal Nancy Pelosi for speaker but never said he voted for less-liberal Obama for president?  

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