A Breath of Fresh Georgia Political MSM Air

Hope sproings eternal that there will once again be good, readable, analytical, political writing about Georgia that reflects the mood of the contemporary political scene, and not just chronic geezer-rambling about something someone felt 30-years ago. From Walter Jones at the Morris News Service, an unusual reporter in that he actually gets out of the office every now and then to place a finger to the winds (of change).

House Minority Leader DuBose Porter of Dublin admits now that the Democratic Caucus was too shocked to formulate a strategy for leveraging what remaining power it retained as a voting bloc of legislators.

"It took us a year or so to realize we weren't in the majority," Porter quipped recently at his fundraising reception in an Atlanta watering hole frequented by Democrats, Manuel's Tavern. Democrats squawked when the Republicans changed the legislative rules, underfunded the per-pupil school formula and toughened eligibility for the HOPE scholarship.

Other than a few lines in news stories as the loyal opposition, though, all their noise amounted to little. The only real horsepower they could muster on the floor of theHouse and Senate was to withhold the super majority required to pass the handful of constitutional amendments the GOP kept introducing.

Then came the 2006 election. It swept Democrats into the majority in Congress, which infused the Georgia party with a sense of possibility.

Read on here.

Off The Bus #1

... in which the Atlanta blogosphere joins me on a Huffington Post-related ride. Enjoy!

It's Election Day In The 10th. Draft Wyc Orr!

Is the thought of checking a box next to a Dale Cardwell or a Vernon Jones just not doing it for you as the Democratic U.S. Senate choice from Georgia in '08 -- to challenge Saxby Chambliss? Hopefully you'll have a chance to check for Wyc Orr, a prominent N. Georgia Dem lawyer and former State House Rep.

Jon Flack, founder of the comprehensive GA political blog, Tondee's Tavern (and my sometime partner in Internets communication crimes; he pops up here, in white shirt, and in this video here) has started a Draft Wyc Orr for U.S. Senate campaign. Mainstream media has already taken notice. You can sign the draft Orr petition here.

Jon is one of those amazingly rare types who does not mess around; dude just gets 'r done -- with minimal lip flappage. And he seeks opinion and input from those around him to make any effort of his even that much better. I can easily picture Jon in Washington one day. He'd be an terrific communications person, Chief of Staff-type for any Georgia politician. They'd be lucky to have him.

On the matter of Wyc (Where do our GA politicos get these names: Wyc, Saxby, Newt??? Jeez.)... while messing with live streaming of the North Georgia Democrats' For The People Rally recently, Orr's fiery, booming rhetoric jumped through even the techno cluster-fuck I was totally immersed in at the time. The guy has all the makings of a genuine leader with a genuine message and mission. He makes Vernon and Dale look like school boys by comparison.

Orr seems he could be a formidable challenge to the spectacularly unspectacular Saxby, too. I look forward to getting to know this possible Democratic candidate, and possibly helping do some Internets for him too.

If you're in the 10th, go vote today. For James Marlow. Run James run! Win James win!

Nice Ride!

From the James Marlow For Congress blog:

(Athens) Standing before a group of Tenth District voters and members of the Georgia press corps today, James Marlow offered Jim Whitehead a free ride to a meaningful debate anywhere in the district. In the past week alone, Whitehead skipped two significant debates - the Athens Press Club debate on June 6 and the Atlanta Press Club/Georgia Public Broadcasting debate yesterday.

Who's says politics cain't be funny?!

Bloggers Just Rock! Do It On Live Small TV

We made a little Georgia politico-techno mashup history yesterday at the For The People rally with those wacky N. Georgia Dems. Managed to stream the event live via broadband for the whole freakin' planet. I can safely say we were the first to bring Dale Cardwell (below) to a global audience.

(At one point, we had 36 viewers watching!) Blog for Democracy live-blogged the event, and has some great snaps of the production team, complete with one producer and her fat butt.

Ustream.tv, the online service we used to make the rally live, has simply amazing customer service. They weren't able to help us get that annoying hum outta the line (that was on my end, and Lordy knows the Verge New Media staff was generously calling-in expertise and time to help too), but they were there, live, to email back and forth with and take our calls. What a company! They've got extraordinary vision for the future AND amazing, responsive customer service. Snap the heck outta some shares if they ever go public.

And the audio booth dude at the Georgia Mountains Center there in Gainseville was just as kind and patient with us bloggers as anyone could ever be, which is considerable when you think of how many backs have, quite literally, been turned dismissively on some of us as soon as we dare say, "I blog." Thanks so much, master audio dude, for helping us patch-in.

A fine, seriously NEW media time was had by all! Thanks to GAPN for posting the release today too.

Je Suis Tres Peturbed

Wonder me this… if I sent Sonny a podcast of my precious little APS rising second-grader speaking French with that fabulous tres authetic accent she now has, thanks to her brief stint of foreign language training with a real teacher, would he consider returning funding for elementary school foreign language classes back to the budget?

Precious Angel really did learn a ton of French last year, more than I ever did as a high schooler in the South Carolina public education system, I can safely say. (Yeah, yeah. I hear ya… “that’s not saying much!”)

I promise to make Sonny’s podcast more, uh, respectable than this one here. But it only comes in English because I, again, was a product of the public educational system, and I never did learn me up no foreign languages. But hey, at least I can blog.

Of White Boys, Beer, Legs and Lipflap

Despite my best effort to screw-up this first attempt to broadcast live broadband TV, I managed to make a few minutes worth. Alert the media! They're not going to be happy to hear that you don't need networks of TV stations, staffs herded by a megalomaniacal hierarchy, microwave trucks, satellites, 100K cameras and a 401K plan to make live TV occur anymore. Heck, I just borrowed a mic from Rusty, used my kid and Shelby The Rocket Scientist for PAs, and voila... live shows and a pony for everyone!

If you're into white guys' pale legs sitting around rapping about GA politics, this is the show for you. It's all up hill from here at least.

The Real Georgia Gang

I know you're itching to survey the political scene in Georgia, but you sure don't want to turn on that icky TV and have Dick Williams' little bow tie annoy the bejeezus out of you. Try a Georgia Politics podcast with your morning grits and iPod, instead. This podcast episode includes -- me! And chatter about: Sonny, GA Republican squabbling, The 10th Congressional special election, and New Media impacting the local political process. Enjoy.

Blog entry about New Media turned into quickie column for Georgia Political Digest too.

Clone Your Blog Posts! Make Millions Doing It! Work From Home! Easy Money! HaHaHaHaHa!

Old Media Noticing New Media In Georgia Politics

(This post cross-posted at Peach Pundit too.)

With the 10th Congressional being one of the few political shows in town, in the country for that matter, won’t be long before Big Media notices all our Little Media efforts here in Georgia, just as the Athens Banner-Herald has. Especially if Marlow makes it to a runoff on June 19th. Then the big guys will be all over us, trust me, because we can then, and only then, say that New Media is likely impacting the political process in the Peach State. Likely.

I caution anyone to use extreme caution when believing a word out of a political advisor’s mouth right now about new media. Not only do they tend not have a clue about new media as a whole, they don’t have a clue about the impact of new media on voter behavior. So when people make statements like this from the OnlineAthens story:

Unless a (newspaper) story’s written about it, the people viewing it (an online video) probably know how they’re going to vote anyway,” (Emil) Runge said.

…trust that they’re pulling statements out of their as* book of facts.

No one, at this point in time, has a clue whether a “traditional” print story about a YouTube video will impact voter behavior or not. Just as no one has a clue whether watching a YouTube video will translate into feet to the polls. There simply is no data right now to support any kind of “new media” political reality.

Let’s hope that some of our fine Georgia (national?) pollsters will seize the momentum of this special election on June 19th to get out there and gather us up some good, hard data on whether or not “new media” influenced not only:

a.) how people voted.
b.) But also did new kinds of media get folks off their butts and actually out of the house to vote at all?

In the meantime, don’t believe any hype coming from “traditional” campaigns on any side about what the Internet vs. traditional media will or will not do for them. They simply don’t know. Anyone trying to dazzle you with statements about the impact of any kind of media on politics right now is simply flying by the seat of their (old media advice) pants.

Georgia Dems Meet New Media

The Georgia Democratic Party's annual Jefferson-Jackson dinner was a place to not only see John Edwards' hairdo up close and personal, it was also the place to find out just how Georgia politicians are using social media.

Let The Great SC Dissing Begin

Trust the NYT's Alessandra Stanley to fire an opening shot at my ye 'olde home state. As if I could possibly have expected otherwise. I've been totally intimidated, dissed too, by seemingly scores of Ivy League women, given my dubious education credentials and pronounced accent.

It's really rather pathetic, in a Bridget Jones way. Those Ivy Leaguers of all genders could be so haughty and dismissive, and just kinda mean-girl when we used to rub shoulders in network news.

Then again, I could always drink their lipflapping, snotty, privileged, toned butts way under the table... in my day of course. And dissing SC is my territory, Alessandra. Not yours. Nobody really can do it better, if I do say so myself.

Least I can still go out drinking here in Georgia with whomever, wearing whatever, whenever I damn well feel like it, wearing only a comforter and a push-up bra maybe! Lord knows what the women of Iran won't be allowed to do next. This is sickening here. Just sickening. It knots my stomach in a billion different ways for the hell it implies. No need to wonder why I have always been an unapologetic feminist.

Bombing back to the stone age to free women from religious, nonsensical oppression? Sounds plausible, initially; but if I was for that, we'd have to start here in Georgia, given our own religion-inspired nonsensical legislation.

One other thing before you run away... congratulations to Mara Shalhoup at Creative Loafing for her Best Journalist in Atlanta award last night at the APC awards gala. She really deserves that recognition for being the hardest working, lowest-paid reporter in this city. I hope the NYT comes a'callin' for her kinda talent soon.

Sigh... I fear a total Bridget Jones kinda afternoon coming-on here for real. Bloggers must have so many self-esteem issues. Sigh... Know what could really pick me up though? Anyone got ANY good gossip from last night's APC soiree? Did anything remotely resembling monkey biz transpire without me there to blog it? Come on. The SGR needs some good 'ole schadenfreude-dirt right about now.

Gone and Done It Now

I am sooooo pissed with the Georgia State Senate and their leader from Lyons, Georgia, Tommie Williams, that I can't see straight right now. They fired a fine person, Sally Bethea, from the Board of Natural Resources on Thursday.

Why? Because she also lobbied for good, clean, viable drinking water for Atlanta, and for clean, viable rivers. And oh yeah... one other reason she was fired... she asked too many "tough" questions in board meetings. From the AJC today:

Bethea, who rankles some of the board's other members with persistent questions and strong opinions particularly on water quality issues, said she viewed her role as advocating for a healthy environment.

"I represent the people of this state who want clean air, clean water, quality of life, and you can't sit still on that board and not ask questions and not ask about potential problems, " Bethea said. "Certainly there are some good people on the DNR board who care about Georgia's environment, but the dominant voices are the voices of the growth industry who will stop at nothing to make money off Georgia's natural resources."

The full AJC story is here. My initial reaction to the news is here in Peach Pundit, where I first read about it. And the video promo I just made for Sally's organization, Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, is here.

This makes it more urgent and more critical then ever that you folks come to the fundraiser for UCR on May 10th... now more than ever does the organization need your help; not just to help clean and protect our rivers, but to protect decent, good, environmentally-minded people from our Republican-controlled Legislature.

Unbelievable...

Folks, the Chattahoochee is it. All she wrote. That's all we've got for drinking water. If we let it deteriorate into pure filth, then that's what we live with, drink, and play in -- pure filth. Like we weren't living with the filth already down there at The Gold Dome.

Help us Obi Wan Wilson... you're our only hope. Help us Obi Wan Wilson... you're our only hope. Help us Obi Wan Wilson... you're our only hope. Help us Obi Wan Wilson... you're our only hope. Help us Obi Wan Wilson... you're our only hope. Help us Obi Wan Wilson... you're our only hope.

Shit... Stormtroopers... gotta run!

The YouTubed Campaign

Here's Joe Trippi, who's now joined the Edwards' campaign, on how YouTube will impact politics and political campaigning. This vid-politics stuff is my crack! Check out PrezVid for more enabling "product." (Full disclosure: I've started the YouTube initiative for the James Marlow for Congress campaign.)

Click To Play

Jeff Jarvis of PrezVid interviews Joe Tripp at the Radio Television News Directors Association/National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas.

Marlow In The NYT

Well, dang. A story about James Marlow's run for the 10th Congressional from Georgia is picked-up in the New York Times. And the dude's been on the campaign trail for what... about 24 hours now? He's already got a media buzz edge on any others out there, R or D.

I wonder what role technology will play to give Marlow the votes he needs to win? Since he actually knows how to turn on a computer, unlike most Georgia cracker politicians, chances are it will put him totally in the driver's seat for this interesting race.

Who's Acting Now?

This is sooooo, uh, old school politics, masquerading as new. Trying not to giggle too much. You can supply your own expletives.

Obama or Edwards? Look To Their Vids

Obama is as flimsy as a sugary confection. Just pumped up with pretty, lite, nothing much, generic rhetoric. "The Seinfeld Campaign"-- as this dude says here. Like some kinda "lifestyle coach"... whatever the f that is.

Now Edwards on the other hand, that dude can lay it out a lot thicker, richer, and deeper. Sign that damn union card! With a rebel yell almost. Watch here. (BONUS PRODUCTION NOTE: vid-bloggers, hear how critical good audio is to this otherwise very simple clip. It's the audio, stupid. Me being the biggest stupid with audio sometimes.)

And keep a bookmark on PrezVid, my guru Jarvis' pet political project. Yes, all media bloggers need a political project we can lean on. Marlow might just be the one for me.

Now of course I gotta go see this. Hate when I remind myself of oldies I (secretly) loved. Shhhh... don't tell. (And yeah, we used to actually dress like that. Some of us.)

Quick-Mix suggestion: Run the "Rebel Yell" track under the Edwards' union hall speech for an extra power hit.

Seeds and Stems

This is a funny, but not embedable, video: Condi Saves Harlem from Kim Jong-il, via MadTV.

And James Marlow, an acquaintance from the dot bomb days, says he's quitting his position as head of Yahoo! sales here in Atlanta, to become... a politician. Says James in this email message today:

Well, the time has come for the next great adventure. After six fantastic years with Yahoo! I am leaving to run for United States Congress in the special election to represent the 10th District of Georgia.

The 10th District in Northeast Georgia is where I grew up and I hope to have a chance to bring some new energy and fresh ideas to Washington D.C. While I’ve been interested in and involved with government and politics for quite a while, this will be my first run for elective office. Now is a time when our country needs people with experience outside politics and government to step up and try to help bring some new solutions to Washington.

Website for Marlow for the 10th to be up soon. (But dude, where's your YouTube announcement???) I can't endorse his candidacy, or not, as I know James only from Internet-related matters. I have no idea what his political inclinations may or may not be... at this point. What I do know is that Marlow's got to be 100% more on the ball than the Georgia Legislature peckerwoods another James is writing about today.

And finally, whew, some good news about politics and blogging from Jeff Jarvis:

Henry Copeland of Blogads asks the panel to speculate what the technology and moment and person will be that changes politics in this campaign. Armstrong says that someone will become the Walter Cronkite of online, mashing up video with a voice. (Joe) Trippi says that money will explode; within weeks hundreds of millions of dollars will come in from people. “It totally changes the entire game, the big money, the PACs don’t matter anymore… It’s gonna be like a flood.”

DeFeo agrees that the volume of contributors will explode. He says that we are still waiting for that moment to arrive when we declare that the internet has dethroned television in campaigns. He believes that this will actually be a series of moments that add up. Ruffini says that online video is meeting a new meet; in the last campaign, you had to be a big guy to post an online video. No more.

That post in full here. And screw all those SXSW poseurs. Instead, see you at PodCamp Atlanta!!!!!! Manuel's 7pm. Let the wild rumpus begin.

Because The Political Is Social

Seems Republicans have tried their best to ruin the social inherent in the political process (beats me why), so let's just put the social and the political right back where they belong - together at last!

Angela Trigg of Trigger ID has launched a killer social media site for ALL of us politically-minded bloggers and yappers around the South. Now this is my idea of money and time well spent.

What are you waiting for?!! Jump on in and join the (beta) political reindeer games at A Donkey and An Elephant Walk Into A Bar dot com. Meet you there!

Sorry Peach Pundit, AD&E has tons more bells and whistles. Was nice while it lasted though. I take only fond memories with me. (And yeah, that's a southern gal's kiss-off.)