Archive for the ‘Coca Cola’ Category

The beating that GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain took Tuesday in Las Vegas is about to have its effect. From the Associated Press:

Detroit — Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain is redefining his tax plan to allow some deductions, abandoning the zero-exemption feature of his “9-9-9″ plan, which has helped win headlines but would have meant a tax increase for more than four-fifths of Americans.

After sharp criticism over his one-size-fits-all plan from Republicans and Democrats alike, Cain was set Friday to propose exemptions for businesses investing in “opportunity zones” as a way to give an economic jolt to rundown neighborhoods. He’s also proposing new tax brackets to reflect different income levels.

Up to now, Cain has touted a plan to scrap the current taxes on income, payroll, capital gains and corporate profits and replace them with a 9 percent tax on income, a 9 percent business tax and a 9 percent national sales tax. But the plan seems to be …

Continue reading Your morning jolt: Herman Cain to redefine his ‘9-9-9’ plan »

If you’re looking for Herman Cain’s new campaign autobiography, head for a book store in some Democratic enclave.

I bought what may have been the last $21 copy of “This Is Herman Cain! My Journey to the White House” (Threshold Editions) in Cobb County, after a three-hour search.

Herman Cain, a Republican presidential candidate, speaks at the Values Voter Summit in Washington on Friday. Stephen Crowley/NYT

Even in metro Atlanta, the place where Cain hangs his black cowboy hat, Republicans are in a mad dash to figure out who this fellow is.

The surging GOP presidential candidate, of course, was raised in Atlanta. Yet Cain left soon after graduating from Morehouse College in 1967, and didn’t re-establish himself in the metro area until 2000, after a far-flung business career.

Despite a 2004 run for U.S. Senate, a brief career as a radio talk show host and innumerable tea party appearances, Cain’s private life hasn’t been an open book — until now.

As literature, campaign …

Continue reading Numbers, guns and God: Things you didn’t know about Herman Cain »

If you’re looking for a copy of Herman Cain’s campaign autobiography, head for a book store in some Democratic enclave.

I bought what may be the last copy of “This Is Herman Cain!” in Cobb County, after three hours of searching.

:Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain signs a copy of his book, "This is Herman Cain! My Journey to the White House, " on Thursday at a book store in The Woodlands, Texas. AP/The Courier, Karl Anderson

The surging GOP presidential candidate was born in Memphis, but raised in Atlanta. Yet he left soon after graduating from Morehouse College in 1967, and didn’t re-establish himself in the metro area until 2000, after a far-flung business career.

So there’s much that even his hometown doesn’t know about him.

More later, but a couple points about the book:

– For a man born in 1945, at the leading edge of the Baby Boomer era, the most notable word missing from Cain’s 222-page life story is this: “Vietnam.” Not there.

Immediately after graduating …

Continue reading Your morning jolt: Herman Cain, Vietnam, and his dad’s gun »

Coca-Cola’s top dog on Monday told the Financial Times that, thanks to an antique tax code and political infighting, the United States is becoming a more hostile place to do business than China:

Muhtar Kent, Coke’s chief executive, said “in many respects” it was easier doing business in China, which he likened to a well-managed company. “You have a one-stop shop in terms of the Chinese foreign investment agency and local governments are fighting for investment with each other,” he [said].

And Washington gridlock? “There’s too much comfort. We need more needles to stick in politicians.”

Kent made his remarks at the Clinton Global Initiative conference. See the FT video here.

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Apparently, a certain former political figure has no plans to return to elective office. Bloomberg reports that former Democratic attorney general Thurbert Baker has been hired by the debt collection industry to help fight new restrictions in several states:

DBA International, the debt-buying industry’s …

Continue reading Your morning jolt: Coke chief says U.S. becoming more hostile to business than China »

Just as Father’s Day weekend began, Denis O’Hayer over at WABE (90.1FM) posted two versions – one long, one short – of an interview with U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Marietta).

Gingrey sits on the House committee that last week grilled Tony Hayward, the BP executive, about the oil spill in the Gulf.

U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Marietta)/AJC

First, there was the matter of that apology from U.S. Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), who declared – and then undeclared – that BP was the victim of a White House “shakedown.”

Did Gingrey agree?

“I don’t. I think I understood the point he was trying to make, but I think he was off-base on that, because quite frankly, the CEO of BP, Tony Hayward, met with the president, and the suggestion was made that an escrow fund be created – a $20 billion escrow fund, to be administered by a third party.

“If he agreed to that, then he agreed to it. Certainly that’s what it appeared to be. I would not call that a shakedown, and I don’t think anybody held a gun to …

Continue reading Your morning jolt: Blow that well to Kingdom Come, says Phil Gingrey »

While examining the Atlanta mayoral race yesterday, I picked up a call from a friend who was more interested in the Republican contest for governor.

The topics merged when I was told that state Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine had figured out a way to neutralize many of the Democratic votes that come out of the city year after year after year.

It’s very simple. You pave over them, by building another interstate through Atlanta’s east side, roughly parallel with the current Downtown Connector.

Manuel’s Tavern, of course, would deserve its own exit.

With a laser pointer, Oxendine explains his thinking in a video on his campaign web site, at about the 4:30-minute mark:

Oxendine’s Transportation Solution from Team Ox TV on Vimeo.

Says the Ox:

”One thing we’ve got to address is the [Downtown] Connector. Everyone agrees the Connector is beyond capacity.

“You cannot widen the Connector. Some people say we should double-stack it. Some people say we should tunnel under it.

“I …

Continue reading Your morning jolt: Think about a new interstate through east Atlanta, says Oxendine »

About 130 lawmakers, city and county officials, lawyers, lobbyists, developers and corporate heavyweights gathered in the basement ballroom of Gov. Sonny Perdue’s house this morning for a private briefing on where Georgia takes its fight for water from here.

Gov. Sonny Perdue after water meeting.

A federal judge last week stunned the state’s political and business community with his decision that the U.S. Corps of Engineers had lacked authorization for releasing more and more water from Lake Lanier for the support of metro Atlanta and its growth.

Asked why the “stakeholders” meeting had been closed, Perdue spokesman Bert Brantley said the purpose of the gathering was “open, candid conversation. We also went through legal strategy that we won’t get into publicly. The legal strategy is the most important. We don’t want to tell Alabama and Florida.”

In other words, lawyer-client privilege was extended to a roomful of metro Atlanta’s most powerful and well-connected. “These are …

Continue reading Perdue picks Georgia Power CEO to lead state water fight »

We’re told that Vice President Joe Biden will be in Atlanta on Bastille Day, July 14, for a fund-raiser intended to benefit both the Democratic National Committee and a future Barack Obama re-election campaign.

Bring your liberty caps and knitting.

Speaking in Augusta on Thursday, Secretary of State Karen Handel, the GOP candidate for governor, in essence took up the arguments that Democrats (and city and county officials) have made over the last two years. Perhaps trying to get ahead of the county tax bills that have already started going out.

This from the Chronicle:

True tax reform, Ms. Handel said, is more than making cuts at a state level that force counties and school boards to shoulder the burden of recouping lost revenues.

“That’s not tax reform,” she said. “That’s called a shell game.”

Atlanta’s oldest and largest corporate giant has found itself entangled in the volatile politics of Venezuela and its president. The country’s health minister has banned the sale of …

Continue reading Your morning jolt: VP Joe Biden will come to Atlanta for a July fund-raiser »