Blog for Democracy

Humorous Observation/OPEN THREAD

I forget where I read/heard this first so apologies to whoever thought of it but… Alvin Greene is running a more spirited campaign than Michael Thurmond.

OK, not too funny if one is a Democrat.

To give this thread a little more weight, here is my prediction for Democrats in November… I used to think we’d safely retain both chambers (possibly even adding seats in the Senate), but now I think at best we will hold on but just barely. 52 or 51 in the Senate and maybe ~220 in the House. A little frightening to think how even more emasculated we’ll become. Honestly though, I’ve long ceased caring about our national prospects.

Here at home; Roy is our only statewide who could win. Ending up with no statewides in 2011 wouldn’t shock me.

Thurmond: See above.

Porter: She has an outside chance if she can start hitting Cagle hard soon but a Democrat defeating an incumbent Republican in Georgia is tough enough when it isn’t a Republican year.

Hodges: If your campaign implodes shortly after the primary, everyone leaves and you don’t want to do call time…yeah.

Sinkfield: Whatever.

Powell: Wasted all this year when he could have laid the groundwork for his campaign in an uncontested primary, just started in earnest recently, has a campaign manager who, allegedly is still teaching HS full time…in short, things don’t look good.

Martin/Moffett:  Who?

I don’t think Marshall will lose but if he does, wouldn’t be surprising. Don’t even want to think about the legislature.

Maybe I’m being a little pessimistic but let’s face it, November is going to be even more brutal for us than it has in recent years.

OPEN THREAD!!!!!

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18 responses to “Humorous Observation/OPEN THREAD”

  1. JMPrince Avatar
    JMPrince

    Very Unfunny TV you really don’t dare watch, (likely because no one wants to read it either): The Max Keiser Report: This one on the dangers & extend of a Deflationary environment.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BaDbK9jFts&feature=player_embedded

    More & the latest here: maxkeiser.com/category/max-keiser-videos/

    While I might largely agree with much of the analysis? I may not go along with all of their thoughts about what needs to be done. More about crony capitalism writ large though. JMP

  2. JMPrince Avatar
    JMPrince

    They Did it. But they’ve got the louder megaphones telling people that they did not. Hence, propaganda rules. Which is one reason why we should never relent in reminding people of it. JMP

  3. Ed Avatar
    Ed

    We didn’t make them is part of it.

  4. JerryT Avatar
    JerryT

    What I want to know is, how come Dems have to pay the price everywhere you look for the bad economy, but Republicans who are in charge in Georgia don’t?

  5. JMPrince Avatar
    JMPrince

    Once again I’ll repost this as it’s a.) an Open Thread and b.) I find Eds repeated censorship of it deeply humorous. This is comedy, right? It was posted late last night & gone by morning. Along with another one word post with a financial link. And it bears repeating too. Censorship? Always deeply funny & welcome everywhere Ed is, right?

    “I just wanted to state before the day is out that this post is the typical kind of whiny nihilistic ill-informed & stupid defeatist clap trap we’ve come to expect from Ed. And sure Ed, you can censor & disappear this comment too, just like my last ones. It’s nevertheless true. Even if no one hears it enough”. JMP

  6. Ed Avatar
    Ed

    Also I have more or less resuscitated my bonsai. The leaves have stopped falling off and serenity shall soon come my way again.

  7. BEZERKO Avatar
    BEZERKO

    Tax cuts for the wealthy do stimulate something, investment in foreign economies.

    From TPM:

    What the wealthy did with their tax cuts
    September 9, 2010, 12:31PM

    According to the the U.S. census US capital investment in foreign countries has gone from $1.3 trillion in 2000 to $3.2 trillion in 2008 while at the same time the Bush tax cuts which overwhelmingly went to the wealthy cost 1.3 trillion per politifact. So the wealthy essentially took their tax cuts, intended per the Republicans to spur U.S. jobs, and invested them and more in foreign countries, not the U.S..

  8. BEZERKO Avatar
    BEZERKO

    No we didn’t, at least not that I’m aware of. And it’s not just about the words, it’s more importantly about the ideas the words evoke. Words also hide or obscure truths. We need someone who knows what they’re doing to train spokespeople all over the country and then book them on television and radio.

    I think one of the first mistakes that Obama made that got his first term off to a bad start was chosing John Podesta to lead the transition team who then chose Rahm Emanuel to be the chief of staff, another mistake.

  9. Juliana Avatar
    Juliana

    Graham, well good luck.. I lived in NJ a long time and saw exactly what the gaming industry attracted and how it “shared” the wealth. It attracted business from folks least able to afford gaming and the wealth wasn’t shared, it was siphoned off into corporations that don’t pay their fair share of taxes in the first place.

    I’m a bit shocked that this is the tactic of the Ag Commissioner and not focusing on food safety and management of resources, given our problem with water and all.

    How about we get Sunday beer sales first.

  10. Gunner Avatar
    Gunner

    Didn’t we already do that? I think the problems lies much deeper than to just “train our people on how to talk”/

  11. BEZERKO Avatar
    BEZERKO

    We would do better if we had a communication network and had someone like Drew Westen or George Lakoff train our people on how to talk. Westen wrote a nice article on what has gone wrong and what should have been done to stop this from happening. Lakoff wrote a nice follow up to Westen’s piece.
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/drew-westen/what-created-the-populist_b_699960.html

    http://www.cognitivepolicyworks.com/2010/09/02/the-cry-for-democratic-moral-leadership-and-effective-communication/

  12. Graham Avatar
    Graham

    Juliana,

    Many industries have been hard hit by the economy and have had to figure out how to adjust to more difficult times. The answer for making horse racing work isn’t in government subsidies, it is in figuring out how to an operation smarter, and one solution on how to do this also comes from New Jersey. Monmouth Race Track in New Jersey cut its horse racing days in half to 71 raising attendance 12 percent and wagers 38 percent. This strategy reduced costs and increased revenue. Long-term subsidies like the ones you reference in the article will keep anything less efficient than it can be (though it can be a great way to help something like green energy become cost competitive in the short term) and is not what Senator Powell is advocating. Senator Powell advocates giving the people of Georgia a choice as to whether to allow horse racing as is done in 38 states. The Republican Party is divided among social conservatives and less government conservatives. This issue receives strong support among the second group of Republicans as well as among independents especially in rural areas where Democrats especially need to do better. I hope more Democrats think about issues that will divide Republicans and pick up support because the reality is that if we aren’t aggressive in winning votes, the dangerous results Ed predicts will come true.

  13. BEZERKO Avatar
    BEZERKO

    Again, America Left is in Atlanta on AM 1310 the King. Listen live: http://www.am1310theking.com/

  14. Juliana Avatar
    Juliana

    Well I hope it isn’t the planned horse racing scheme.

    Take a look at what is happening in NJ first, here is a recent article and the facts and losses are pretty bad. This isn’t the revenue solution so folks think it is. Keep in mind Christine is an R and in theory should be in favor of the “free market”. The problem is that it isn’t free when the state is subsidizing it to the tune of 25%.

    http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local-beat/New-Jersey-Rolls-the-Dice-on-Casinos-and-Horse-Racing-98949679.html

    “The numbers speak for themselves,” he told NBCPhiladelphia. “We’re down over 25 per cent over the last two years and I hear some people in town say ‘well, don’t panic.’ Well, when do we panic? At what point do we panic?”
    At the same time, Christie said he wanted to get the state out of the horse racing business which would have dire consequences according to Anthony Perretti of Perretti Farms in Upper Freehold, NJ.
    The Governor’s plan to end subsidies to the horse racing industry and either close the standard bred harness racing track in the Meadowlands, or lease it to the horsemen themselves, would spell the industry’s “death knell,” according to Perretti.
    “We cannot competitively function in this state without a proper racing program,” Perretti told NBCNewYork, and he added Perretti Farms, with its 25 full time jobs, “shuts down–guaranteed.”
    There is more bad news for the racing industry.
    Governor Christie made clear he is ready to let the casino industry walk away from its $30 million a year subsidy of racing purses that state officials have all but required in past years in order to keep the tracks afloat.
    “Absent significant changes in the way Atlantic City is governed and run we can no longer ask an industry in decline (casinos) to support an industry that’s also in decline (horse racing).
    “At the simulcast facility at the Meadowlands, occasional gambler Ken Treitler looked up from his racing forms to disapprove of the Governor’s intent to either sell off or close the track because the subsidies cost the state millions too much.
    “The Governor says we’re subsidizing a lot of things like teachers, firemen, police and I don’t agree with him on any of that,” said Treitler.
    However, he admitted attendance is not what it should be and “I think something needs to be done.”
    But in order to further protect what is left in Atlantic City, Governor Christie said he will not approve of video slot machines that could help save the Meadowlands track, as many North Jersey legislators have been asking for in recent years.
    The slots installed at the Yonkers Raceway across the river in New York are generally credited with helping save that track, which is also a harness racing facility (those slots are also believed to have been a contributing factor in the decline of Atlantic City’s casinos).
    And then there’s Xanadu.
    The $2 billion, all-but-completed entertainment and shopping “experience” with its own indoor ski slope sits like a white elephant next to the New Jersey Turnpike on the edge of the Meadowlands complex.
    And it’s what Christie called his “Number One problem.”
    “You have essentially two choices that you’re confronted with now,” said the Governor, “make it work or tear it down.”
    Christie said he would prefer to make it work, adding he would be willing to pledge some of the sales tax receipts that come to the state once it opens as a sort of subsidy to whatever developer takes it over.
    Christie, a Republican, insisted the state would have to get an ownership position in Xanadu.
    “We have to become owners,” the Governor said.

  15. Graham Avatar
    Graham

    Ed,

    I am working full time for JB Powell.

    Look for a fairly big announcement tomorrow that should help JB Powell’s chances in the election.

    We did get started late, but we are running 200 mph now and I think folks are noticing.

    Graham

  16. Ed Avatar
    Ed

    My mom killed my bonsai.

  17. Juliana Avatar
    Juliana

    I give Mary Squires and Darryl Hicks a better than average chance, but beyond that I think it’s too early to tell.

    There is so much out of pattern with this cycle that we’ll likely be talking about the results for a long time.

    Meanwhile there are still Primaries going one.. NY and DE are today.. will be interesting to see those results.

  18. Steve Golden Avatar
    Steve Golden

    Sadly, I don’t think you’re completely wrong. Being an ass, sure, but wrong, no. I’m not really sure what Roy needs to do at this point, but even with all of this ethics stuff, he’s sinking fast. I guess more GOTV? Door knocking? Hell if I know, because his PR is spot-on IMHO.

    Carol knows what she’s doing, but I agree she will need to publicly hit Cagle hard on his dalliances. That, and half of what she has on him is tied to Deal, so if Georgia doesn’t buy the truth about Raw Deal, than she’s SOL too. Whatever happens, I hope to the sweet sweet Lord Carol will run for something again in 2 years. I love that woman.

    As for Michael– he just needs to run a more public campaign. We know who he is, mainly because we saw him speak in Athens. But he needs to bring that energy public, or else people will just as soon go for Isakson (who looks more like the Crypt Keeper in his ads than any sort of human being).

    The rest of them—well, sorry. It’s not necessarily *you*, you’re running in a crap year. No money. No Democrats. No incumbency. It’s a crap situation, and yes, some candidates have compounded their misfortunes all by their lonesome.

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