Archive for the ‘Sanford Bishop’ Category

Andrew Young, the former mayor and U.N. ambassador, thinks the Atlanta Public Schools system needs an honor code – and not just for students. From Mark Winne of Channel 2 Action News:

From the Channel 2 web site:

“The cheating speaks to the character, and that’s where the failure is,” Young says. “This is a time for us to decide what we want to do with our school system.”

Young told Winne he was casual friends with [former APS school superintendent Beverly] Hall, but never close to her. Young says Hall was too isolated in her position as superintendent, “but we’re the ones who isolated her.”

***
Early this week, Monica Pearson of Channel 2 Action News popped up on the island of Maui to interrupt former school superintendent Beverly Hall’s Hawaiian vacation. On Wednesday, it was the turn of 11Alive’s Karyn Greer. She didn’t get much, either. From the 11 Alive web site:

Greer: I want to ask you, people are very, very upset back home. People were saying …

Continue reading Your morning jolt: Andrew Young says APS needs an honor code »

Just got off the phone with former House Democratic leader DuBose Porter to ask him about his appearance in Macon last week on behalf of mayoral candidate Robert Brown, the former leader of Senate Democrats.

Current Georgia congressional district boundaries/DOT

“I think the world of him,” Porter said. But Porter’s presence stirred some speculation that the former candidate for governor might also be kicking the tires on a run against U.S. Rep. Austin Scott, the rookie Republican from Tifton.

Porter said, no, he’s not running. What’s more, he thinks Macon may not be part of Scott’s 8th District come 2012. Porter says he’s hearing a great deal of talk that the Republican-controlled Legislature next month could hand Macon and its mid-state Democratic environs (Fort Valley, etc.) over to U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop and the 2nd District.

In return, the heavily Republican city of Thomasville near the Florida voter – which is now in Bishop’s district – would be …

Continue reading Talk of a Macon-for-Thomasville swap in redistricting »

The bad news this morning for GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain is that he’s lost yet another staffer in Iowa. From the American Spectator:

Former Des Moines Tea Party leader Charlie Gruschow has resigned from Atlanta businessman Herman Cain’s presidential campaign, the third resignation from Cain’s Iowa staff in recent days.

… Gruschow had been quoted in a Sunday article by Politico saying he was “optimistic” about the Cain campaign in Iowa.

***
The good news for Herman Cain is that, here in Georgia, he’s still got juice. The former radio host and pizza magnate edged to the top of the annual straw poll conducted by Republicans who gather in Cobb County each Fourth of July. From today’s Marietta Daily Journal:

Joe Dendy, Cobb GOP chairman, said results for the straw poll put Cain at 43 percent, compared to only 14 percent for Newt Gingrich, 13 percent for Michele Bachmann, 10 percent for Rick Perry, eight percent for Mitt Romney, five percent for Tim Pawlenty, 3.5 …

Continue reading Your morning jolt: Herman Cain loses another Iowa staffer, wins Cobb straw poll »

The killing of Osama bin Laden is sure to have some impact on President Barack Obama’s poll numbers and – by extension – his chances for re-election.

No doubt the first survey will come by day’s end.

But another measure of the political import of bin Laden’s death can be found in the fact that, in their former celebratory statements, Republicans by and large declined to offer the Obama administration credit for the trackdown. At least not by name.

There were a few exceptions. President George W. Bush was generous. U.S. House Speaker John Boehner leavened his praise for Obama by issuing similar congratulations to Bush.

But most prominent Republicans said nothing that might be used by a White House resident who just announced his re-election bid.

From U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Marietta:

“It is testament to the unwavering courage and tireless efforts of our men and women in uniform and the intelligence community that the last 9 years, 7 months, and 20 days have …

Continue reading Your morning jolt: How to celebrate Osama bin Laden’s death — without mention of Barack Obama’s name »

State Labor Commissioner Mark Butler thinks that extending unemployment benefits to 99 weeks – at no cost to the state – is a step toward the creation of a permanent entitlement.

And maybe a state full of loafers.

State unemployment continues to hover above 10 percent. Right now, there is $175 million available to Georgia to extend unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless. All that would be required is legislation to accept the money.

In an interview with Denis O’Hayer of WABE (90.1FM), Butler – the state’s first Republican labor commissioner — said he is not personally inclined to seek the money.

Listen to the entire interview here. Said Butler:

”I think it’s just a philosophical difference about whether or not – or how long – unemployment benefits should run. Currently, it goes to 99 weeks. This would shorten that by 20 weeks.

“There is currently a vehicle in the General Assembly which could be used if they so chose to. And even though there’s …

Continue reading Your morning jolt: Long jobless benefits compete with employers, says labor commissioner »

Two weeks ago, a Democratic operative sent news of a curious online ad – with a link to this new web site – that he had run across at nyt.com.

It was an attack on Nick Ayers, the former aide to Gov. Sonny Perdue who made good in D.C. as the executive director of the Republican Governors Association.

The anonymous web site takes a look at a DUI charge that Ayers, at age 24, was hit with in 2006 while he was campaign manager of Perdue’s multi-million dollar re-election bid. The charge was later reduced, as these things often are in Georgia.

Without knowing the source of the attack, we let the tip pass. But the Ben Smith team at Politico.com, knowing a little more about the Internet, did not:

”We’ve tracked an anonymous site set up to attack Ayers to the IP address of a Georgia Democratic consulting firm with informal ties to former governor and losing 2010 gubernatorial candidate Roy Barnes….

An email to the site was not answered — but an IP tracking tool in a …

Continue reading Your morning jolt: Post-election intrigue and an attack on the RNC’s Nick Ayers »

From Washington, my AJC colleague Bob Keefe has this:

Democratic U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop called Internet insinuations that he was somehow involved in fraud surrounding last year’s settlement between the government and African-American farmers “one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever heard.”

Videos featuring two Georgia farmers that are being circulated on the Web by conservative commentator Andrew Breitbart hint that Bishop, of Albany, may have known about possible fraud in last year’s so-called “Pigford” settlement between the government and black farmers who claimed that a Department of Agriculture farm loan program discriminated against them.

Read the rest here. Below is one of the videos at issue. It’s pretty thin gruel:

Keefe also offers up this reminder:

Continue reading Your morning jolt: The video that has Sanford Bishop steamed »

Something to ask yourself today: Is your house, and the land it sits on, worth twice as much today as it was in 2004? Probably not.

In fact, odds are that your property is worth much less.

Even so, the state Board of Natural Resources today will agree to pay $28.7 million for 9,595 acres of Oaky Woods wilderness in middle Georgia — nearly double the cost when the state was offered the land and passed on it in 2004.

Instead, most of the land went to developers – a move that boosted the value of a nearby tract owned by Gov. Sonny Perdue. But plans to create a private city on the land went bust with the housing market. With the DNR purchase, at least the developers, Oaky Woods Properties LLC, will be able to recoup their investment – and still hold onto half their purchase.

You will be happy to know that, according to one board member, no corruption was involved. Just greed. From my AJC colleague Jeremy Redmon, who attended the preliminaries on Tuesday:

Dwight Davis, another …

Continue reading Your morning jolt: Oaky Woods at double the price in a down real estate market »

Over at The Fix, Washington Post writer Aaron Blake has an excellent, lengthy take on the games Republicans might play with U.S. Reps. John Barrow, D-Savannah, and Sanford Bishop, D-Albany, when redistricting rolls around next year.

In part:

In a Republican dream scenario, they could try to draw both Barrow and Bishop tougher districts, by borrowing GOPers from strongly Republican districts held by Reps. Jack Kingston, Lynn Westmoreland and Paul Broun.

A more likely scenario, though, is that Republicans actually shore up Bishop, potentially turning his district into a majority-black district, and use the more Republican areas of his district to help shore up Rep.-elect Austin Scott (R), who just beat Marshall next door. Once they do that, they need to decide whether they want to go after Barrow.

The GOP could strengthen Bishop by moving the heavily black parts of Macon (from Scott’s 8th district) and Valdosta (from Kingston’s 1st district) into Bishop’s 2nd district in the …

Continue reading With Jim Marshall gone, Sanford Bishop and John Barrow become the next GOP targets »

This bipartisan effort to obtain federal funding for the dredging of the Port of Savannah has some serious messaging kinks to work out.

On Thursday morning, members of the metro Atlanta business community held a kind of rally to emphasize the need for federal funding of the $551 million project. The dredging, needed to accommodate larger ships passing through the Panama Canal, has been identified it as the most economically important infrastructure project in the state.

Mayor Kasim Reed of far-away Atlanta has committed to acting as a kind of liaison to the White House, dropping these details to my AJC colleague Dan Chapman:

Reed, in an interview Thursday, said he met four months ago at the White House with one of the president’s top domestic policy advisers to discuss the deepening. He brought along Alec Poitevint, a prominent Georgia Republican and the GPA’s chairman, and Curtis Foltz, the ports’ executive director. Reed will make another White House pitch in …

Continue reading Your morning jolt: Discordant notes over Port of Savannah funding »