Radical Georgia Moderate

Okay, I know we sort of had a quote of the day with Just For Kerry shooting off his mouth on Meet the Press, but I couldn’t resist using this one as well. Some west Cobb County residents are pissed (login) about the prospect of a Super Wal-Mart being erected near their homes:

As she drives through her neighborhood in northwest Cobb County, Teresa Stendahl points to a home with chickens scraping about in the back and another where the new owners decided to keep the four sheep and the dog that came with the property.

“That’s what makes the area unique,” Stendahl said. “That is what preserves our lifestyle. That is what preserves the flavor what we have now and what keeps us from being east Cobb.”

Ha, I live in East Cobb. And it sucks just as much as she said it does.

Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post sent a not-so-veiled threat toward moderates such as Rudy Giuliani who would consider seeking the GOP nomination in ‘08. Its Post Opinion > Books section offers a scathing review of former New Jersey governor Christine Todd Whitman’s book It’s My Party Too: The Battle for the Heart of the GOP and the Future of America, which urges the GOP to adopt a fiscally conservative but more socially moderate platform (quit gay-bashing and playing to the far right on abortion and religion).

The Rockefeller wing of the GOP is dead. No matter how much lipstick Whitman applies, she will not be able to resuscitate the cadaver. And, if she and her movement’s dotty survivors decide to lead one more charge and promote the 2008 presidential candidacy of fellow lefty Rudy Giuliani — they’ll learn that the heart of the GOP will not forego Republican ascendancy by succumbing to the liberal agenda of these social engineers.

The civil libertarian wing of the Republican party is dead (see: the Patriot Act, imposition of religious dogma on secular institutions). The anti-federalist/state’s rights wing of the party is dead (see: No Child Left Behind). If you look at the spiraling national debt and, in my state, a budget that appears as though it will have $1 billion tacked onto it by the end of the legislative session, you can safely say the fiscal conservative wing of the Republican Party is dead too. So, what happened to the conservatives in the Republican Party? Anybody else think Democrats could make headway on an anti-federalist, pro-local government platform?

There’s a part V and a part VI to the Kossack’s research efforts on uncovering the Gannon/Talon/Plame/Pentagon connections. The collaborative effort is fascinating, whether it pans out or not. It’ll be a week or two yet before we know because there are so many tangents and leads to follow. There’s already at least one private investigator involved.

This has already been covered by Steve and Decatur Guy, but I thought I’d drop in my two cents about Dan Thomas’ smoking ban bill which is gaining steam (login) in the state Legislature. Most of where people are taking issue with the ban is it outlaws smoking in restaurants and [maybe] bars. It is a public health issue, both to bar and restaurant patrons but particularly to wait staff. The flip side is, the legislation reeks of moral policing and government unrightfully telling private businesses how to operate. There’s no perfect answer, because someone is going to be pissed off no matter what. Because second hand smoke is a public health issue, I don’t mind seeing a ban in restaurants and most other places, but to take it out of bars is to take the last public haven for smokers away. I think the legislation should be modeled after DeKalb County’s ban, which still allows smoking in bars. If an establishment’s sales are 51 percent alcohol or higher, there can be smoking. Otherwise, no.

That said, from a political perspective, I wouldn’t mind seeing the Republicans pass a total ban and then have hell to pay with smokers, civil libertarians, and tobacco farmers in 2006. They like their tobacco in rural Georgia, if you’ll recall. Not only do they like it, they make a living on it. Banning smoking becomes a very anti-business position.

Most of this has already been discussed in the comments sections of the other two posts, just thought I’d write a summary of where I’m at with it.

UPDATE: I somehow missed this line in the AJC article the first time I read it:

The bill, as written, exempts standalone bars, but Thomas said he might consider striking that exception.

Depends totally on what is meant by standalone bar, I reckon. Does that mean a 51 percent rule? If so, I could live with the legislation if that provision remains in. Not that anyone is asking me.

Jesus, it’s no wonder he lost. I’m ripping off this Political Wire post in its entirety because it’s the only way to get the point across. If they tell me to take it down, I will:

Quote of the Day

“I think polls today are almost irrelevant, and I just don’t pay any attention to them.”

— Sen. John Kerry, on Meet the Press, noting the polls were wrong about his chances in the Democratic presidential primaries.

Of course, earlier in the interview Kerry used polls to prove the impact of the Osama bin Laden video released just days before the election. “I believe that 9/11 was the central deciding issue in this race. And the tape — we were rising in the polls up until the last day when the tape appeared. We flat-lined the day the tape appeared and went down on Monday. I think it had an impact.”

“Just For Kerry” is a reference to John F. Kerry’s initials, if you didn’t already know that. Sid has used the phrase often since the election ended. Really, I plan to get off the national politics bent after this. I know I said I’d keep it mostly local here. But it’s like watching a train wreck sometimes. I know I’m wasting my time, but I can’t keep my eyes off it.

The neo-cons, I think, view Iraq as an experiment to see if democracy would be contagious in the Middle East the way communism and fascism were contagious in Asia in the first half of the 20th century… the premise being if democracy spreads in the Middle East, countries can get wrapped up enough in the same materialism U.S. consumers are wrapped up in, and be too distracted by it all to hate us. I reckon being a slave to stuff and reality TV is marginally better than being a slave to a delusional third-rate secular dictator who only thinks he has weapons of mass destruction (yes, our propaganda was that good!).

The resignation of FCC chairman Michael Powell, who was pushing for relaxing media consolidation rules, is old news, as is the subsequent news that President Bush would quit pursuing media ownership deregulation. What caught my eye just now was this line in the New York Times article (login) regarding the second piece of news:

Relaxation of the rules had been advanced by most of the broadcast television networks and many large media companies, including the News Corporation, Tribune, the Gannett Company and The New York Times Company.

I like how they listed News Corp first to make it look the worst, but you’ll note that bastion of liberal thought, the New York Times Company, is also on the list. Just goes to show they’re all in for a buck and really couldn’t care less about what shows up on the front page as long as it sells.

Ted Turner, of all people, wrote a good essay about the dismal state of corporate media that’s been making the rounds lately, even though it was published last summer. It’s sort of hard to swallow considering he tried to consolidate his empire just like the rest of the corporate whores focused purely on making money, but it still contains some fascinating information.

Keep your eyes on SusanG’s diaries over at Kos (starting with this thread and this thread). There might be some real shit breaking over there. Jeff Gannon, of Talon News (the guy who was printing White House press releases word-for-word), could end up at the center of a bona fide conspiracy. Some of the Kossacks think they’ve found proof Talon News is a propaganda mill operated by the Pentagon, and that CIA agent Valerie Plame’s name was leaked through “Talon News.” Makes sense that the Pentagon would do it, since the Pentagon under Bush has spent four years emasculating the CIA. If that’s true, then high-ranking officials of the Pentagon are guilty of treason. Real treason. As in, treason people would have been executed for 100 years ago. And this guy Gannon, whose only journalistic training is a two-day seminar, curiously also has White House press credentials, and is frequently acknowledged by the White House press secretary Scott McClellan. This thing could snowball way up. Or, it could go nowhere. We’ll see.

UPDATE: Some background on Talon over at Media Matters.

UPDATE 2: Added “Gannongate” to the title of this post because it’s catchy.

UPDATE 3: After I wrote, “Or, it could go nowhere,” I should have written, “Or, this could be a CIA black-op meant to seriously fuck with everybody, but especially the Pentagon.” This quote by MeteorBlades was catchy :

[W]e ’60s-’70s activists used to joke that we were being too paranoid about government spies and agents provocateurs in our midst. When the Freedom of Information Act made it possible to see files kept on us by the FBI and other government agencies, we discovered that we had not been paranoid enough.

Disinformation - the purposeful creation and sneaky delivery of falsehoods for political gain through apparently credible sources - has long been a useful tool of governments seeking to gain advantage over other governments, particularly, but not exclusively, in wartime. As we learned from Operation Mockingbird, those “disinformed” include not just foreign governments but a nation’s own citizens. In an October 1977 article published by Rolling Stone magazine, Carl Bernstein reported that more than 400 American journalists worked for the CIA.

UPDATE 4: See also part III, which contains some more discussion about leads, and part IV, which gives an overview of where the research is and where it’s going over the next couple of days.

…but this bad boy has really come through today.

Cheese Toast + Chicken Noodle Soup

If we were really making the chicken noodle soup, this would lose its “quick and easy” distinction. So, get yourself a can of chicken noodle soup and put it aside. Then get some bread, butter, and sliced cheese (I’m using regular Kraft singles here, but it works with nearly anything). Spread some butter on the bread, then put a piece of cheese on top. Bake at 350 degrees. I cooked three pieces for about 12 and half minutes. At around ten minutes into cooking (for three pieces), start checking the cheese to see how brown it is. Take it out when it looks like the picture. Cook the chicken noodle soup according to instructions on the can (I like the Progresso, even though what’s pictured here is traditional Campbell’s condensed… not as good, but you work with what you’ve got).

UPDATE: Dylan reminds me I forgot to mention you should remove the wrapper from the individual slices of cheese. My God, that could have been a liability nightmare. Thanks Dylan.