Archive for September, 2011

When he spoke in Cobb County this morning, the first thing Texas Gov. Rick Perry did was to congratulate the U.S. military and President Barack Obama on the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S.-born Muslim cleric living in Yemen.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said much the same thing in a prepared statement:

“The killing of Anwar al-Awlaki is a major victory in our fight against Islamist terrorism and proper justice for the numerous attacks and plots he inspired or planned against America.

But in New Hampshire, rival GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul, the Texas congressman, told MSNBC that al-Awlaki’s death is nothing to celebrate:

Said Paul:

“No I don’t think that’s a good way to deal with our problems. He was born here — Al-Awlaki was born here, he is an American citizen. He was never tried or charged for any crimes. Nobody knows if he killed anybody. We know he might have been associated with the underwear bomber. But if the American people accept this blindly …

Continue reading Ron Paul condemns assassination of U.S.-born al-Awlaki »

Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Friday pointed to Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent’s assertion that the United States is becoming a tougher place to do business than China.

Without citing Kent by name, Perry said:

”When a communist country has less bureaucratic red tape than America, we might just be on the wrong track.”

Perry’s Cobb County speech before the Georgia Public Policy Foundation was his first as a presidential candidate in Georgia.

The Texas governor only cited a portion of the Coke executive’s complaint. Perry did not address Washington gridlock, which – along with an antiquated tax code – was offered by Kent as a reason for business uncertainty in the U.S.

With many Mitt Romney supporters in the room, the Texas governor also took aim at his rival, the former Massachusetts governor.

“I knew when I got into this race that I would have my hands full fighting President Obama’s big government agenda. I just didn’t think it would be in the Republican primary,” Perry …

Continue reading Rick Perry takes up Coke CEO’s complaint — but not by name »

Texas Gov. Rick Perry heads for Cobb County this morning, where he’ll deliver what’s being billed as his first domestic policy speech as a presidential candidate — and accuse rival Mitt Romney of governing Massachusetts the same way President Barack Obama has governed the nation.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry will be in Atlanta today. AP/Joe Burbank

Shannon McCaffery of the Associated Press has been slipped some highlights of Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s 10 a.m. address before the Georgia Public Policy Foundation:

“As Republican voters decide who is best suited to lead this country in a new direction by stopping the spending spree and scrapping Obamacare, I am confident they will choose a nominee who has governed on conservative principles, not one whose health care policies paved the way for Obamacare,” Perry says, according to prepared remarks….

Perry contrasts Romney’s plan with the medical malpractice reform he signed as governor of Texas, and argues that both Romney and Obama have …

Continue reading Your morning jolt: What Rick Perry will say this morning in Cobb »

Just up at the Washington Post website:

The Obama administration is escalating its crackdown on tough immigration laws, with lawyers reviewing four new state statutes to determine whether the federal government will take the extraordinary step of challenging the measures in court.

Justice Department attorneys have sued Arizona and Alabama, where a federal judge on Wednesday allowed key parts of that state’s immigration law to take effect but blocked other provisions.

Federal lawyers are talking to Utah officials about a third possible lawsuit and are considering legal challenges in Georgia, Indiana and South Carolina, according to court documents and government officials.

- By Jim Galloway, Political Insider

For instant updates, follow me on Twitter, or connect with me on Facebook.

Continue reading Feds consider challenge to Georgia’s illegal immigration law »

Immediately after Secretary of State Brian Kemp announced March 6 as the date of Georgia’s 2012 presidential primary, he was button-holed by Maria Saporta, the Atlanta business writer.

Saporta is also the chairman of the debate committee for the Atlanta Press Club – which is already fishing for local partners to sponsor a Georgia debate of the GOP presidential candidates.

“We’re looking into the possibility of holding a Republican presidential primary debate in Atlanta before Super Tuesday,” Lauri Strauss, executive director of the Atlanta Press Club, quickly confirmed over the phone. “We’ve been putting the feelers out for a national broadcast partner.”

Strauss said the club has already had conversations with Atlanta-based CNN and Fox News. (If you remember the first tea party rally at the state Capitol, you’ll know that Fox loves to play in CNN’s front yard.)

Strauss also said she and others have been consulting with Kemp, Gov. Nathan Deal, and state GOP …

Continue reading Now that Super Tuesday is set, press club wants a GOP debate in Atlanta »

The topic of the morning is the mnemonic device – that little trick of memory that allows us, or forces us, to associate a little thing with a larger thought.

GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain, derided as a pizza salesman with little political experience, may be demonstrating that he knows something more important than policy – at least as far as campaigns go. Cain is proving himself to be a master marketer.

Take a look at the video clip below from Channel 2 Action News. This is a catch-up piece – Cain makes no news. But after he and reporter Lori Geary are booted from the Four Seasons Hotel in Atlanta, a sidewalk interview turns up two passers-by who are able – 13 months before a general election – to connect a recently obscure candidate to his “9-9-9” policy:

The idea is easily understood: A 9 percent corporate tax rate, a 9 percent personal income tax rate, and a 9 percent national sales tax.

The implications of Cain’s pitch – selling a new, 9 …

Continue reading Your morning jolt: Herman Cain and the power of ‘9-9-9′ »

So says Errin Haines of the Associated Press:

Secretary of State Brian Kemp will announce that Georgia will hold its presidential primary on Super Tuesday, officials at the state Capitol have [said].

The two people who are familiar with the decision said Kemp informed the state’s top elected officials on Wednesday that he has decided on March 6. The officials asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to pre-empt the announcement expected Thursday.

State lawmakers gave Kemp until Dec. 1 to set Georgia’s primary day. But the Republican National Party has asked states to submit their primary dates by Saturday.

Republican National Committee rules forbid any state other than Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina from holding a primary before March 6. States that violate RNC rules are subject to losing half their delegates to the Republican Convention in Tampa, Florida, next August.

Already, Missouri has set its date for Feb. 7, and Arizona and Michigan …

Continue reading From AP: Georgia presidential primary will be March 6, 2012 »

Democrat John Barrow made his way to Atlanta this week to argue for his own survival – to explain why he and other people of the middle in Washington don’t intend to follow Tyrannosaurus Rex and the passenger pigeon into oblivion.

“I’m not at all in danger. I can tell you that wherever I go, there are people who approve of my approach to the issues,” said the Georgia congressman who, for the moment, lives in Savannah.

U.S. Rep. John Barrow, D-Savannah/AP file

As of two years ago, Barrow – simply by his survival – became a man worth a series of capital letters: The Last Surviving White Democrat in Congress from the Deep South.

In August, the Republican-controlled Legislature made yet another attempt to end Barrow’s political career, by redrawing his 12th District in southeast Georgia so that it no longer includes Democrat-laden Savannah – and creating a largely rural district packed with Republican voters.

Republicans have forced him to call the movers before. …

Continue reading Marked for extinction, John Barrow begins his fight for survival »

The Florida GOP has set phone lines blazing with news that it will defy the Republican National Convention and hold its presidential primary on Jan. 31.

Secretary of State Brian Kemp just announced that he’ll announce at 11 a.m. Thursday the date of Georgia’s 2012 presidential primary.

Place your bets on one of four Tuesday’s in March, beginning with the 6th.

On Saturday, the executive committee of the Georgia Republican party quietly – and unanimously – shifted its delegation allotment system from winner-take-all to proportional, state GOP chairman Sue Everhart confirmed this afternoon.

“We changed our rules to be a proportionate state, and that allows us to go in March,” Everhart said. “I don’t know what dates [Kemp] is looking at.”

The RNC had declared that all states in which a victorious candidate wins all delegates (Georgia has 76) must wait until April 1 to hold a primary – an attempt to maintain the drama and keep voters engaged beyond the first …

Continue reading Why you should place your bets on a mid-March presidential primary in Georgia »

Cobb County, it appears, has hung onto much of its youth. Paulding County is downright juvenile. But certain areas of north and south Fulton, not to mention Buckhead, are looking a little gray around the temples.

The Atlanta Regional Commission today released the map below – an assessment of age trends in the 20-county region. Bright red areas indicate where the senior population has exploded. Insert your own personal geezer joke here.

Deep blue marks the spots where young people rule:

The stats on which the map is based, along with more demographic maps, can be found here. From the ARC:

The data show that the Baby Boomers, defined as those ages 45 to 64 in 2010, now make up 25 percent of the region’s population, making them one of only two age groups that experienced an increase in its percentage of the total population since 2000. The other age group to experience such an increase are those 65 and older.

- By Jim Galloway, Political Insider

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Continue reading Where metro Atlanta’s seniors have circled their wagons »