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Monday, October 20, 2008
A fear that Georgians ‘will not vote their Christian values’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Possibly, you don’t think that emotions are running high this presidential season.
Then, just possibly, you haven’t read the recent prayer campaign of Al D. Marks, vice chairman of the Hall County Republican party.
Wrote Marks, on the county Republican web site:
This is the scariest election I can remember. I’m 67 years old and have voted for the last 48 years. I cannot remember when the issues and stakes have ever been higher! If you are to believe the polls, we are about to elect a President of the United States of America, who was raised a Muslim, professes to be a Christian, has extreme left-wing affiliations and is an admitted socialist.
I was raised to believe in Christian values - and I’m afraid many Christians in this country are confused right now by the “pie-in-sky” promises and the charisma of Barrack Hussein Obama and will not vote their Christian values.
During World War II, there was an advisor to Churchhill, who organized a large group of people to pray for the safety of England. They dropped whatever they were doing at a prescribed time and collectively prayed for one minute. This had an amazing effect - the bombing stopped. There is now a group of people organizing the same thing in this country. If you would like to participate each evening:
And spend one minute praying:
- for the well being of the United States of America and our troops;
-for our leaders to have the wisdom to lead us through these troubled times;
that we make the right choices in the upcoming election;
that the Bible will remain the bases for the laws governing our land;
and that Christianity will prevail in the U.S.
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Chambliss, Isakson push for a quick ACORN inquiry by Bush administration
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
U.S. Sens. Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson on Monday joined seven other colleagues — presumed to be Republican — in urging Attorney General Michael Mukasey to “launch an immediate investigation” into whether the liberal group ACORN has committed voter fraud.
Republicans, including both members of the presidential ticket, have slammed Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama over the non-profit — suggesting his campaign has closer ties to the group than it’s been willing to admit.
ACORN, formally known as the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now, has been accused of submitting false voter registration forms in several states.
ABC News has this up:
The FBI has picked up the scent of suspicious registrations from this embattled get-out-the vote group but is apparently proceeding with less than full-throttle enthusiasm. ACORN said federal agents have not contacted it, and the bureau is looking into reports of bogus registration cards in states like Nevada rather than investigating ACORN itself.
One factor constraining the FBI may be a reluctance to get involved right before the election in the high-profile — and deeply partisan — controversy over ACORN’s efforts to sign up voters.
Think of a letter to the attorney general as an effort to help the FBI overcome that reluctance.
“These widespread allegations of voter fraud against ACORN are serious and disturbing. It is imperative that we investigate any acts of criminal activity quickly and thoroughly,” Isakson said.
Said Chambliss, who is up for re-election in two weeks: “Recent allegations that ACORN has been engaged in practices to defraud the American public and trample on our most sacred right to choose our leaders requires a thorough and complete investigation and prosecution, where appropriate, to the fullest extent of the law.”
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According to Democrats, Chambliss out-performing McCain in Georgia
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A poll just dropped by Democracy Corps, an outfit led by strategist James Carville, says Saxby Chambliss is doing better in Georgia than John McCain.
But not by much.
Here’s the standard warning: This is a survey generated by a partisan source. Read it not for accuracy, but to understand what Democrats are doing and why. Do not ingest if pregnant or use while operating heavy machinery.
That said, the survey, conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, is worth perusing. If the Democracy Corps web site is acting up, as it was earlier this afternoon, click here to see a PDF of the original memo.
The poll assumes a 26 percent turnout by African-American voters, which at this point seems conservative.
Democracy Corps puts the presidential race in Georgia at:
— John McCain: 46%
— Barack Obama: 44%
— Ralph Nader: 2%
— Bob Barr: 2%
While Barr isn’t doing particularly well here, 2 percent is certainly enough to cause trouble for McCain.
In the U.S. Senate race, Chambliss is doing slightly better, possibly because only the Democratic and Republican candidates were named in the survey — Libertarian Allen Buckley was omitted.
Democracy Corps puts Chambliss at 48 percent and Martin at 44 percent. Chambliss does well with voters on many issues, including Iraq. But when it comes to the economy or “special interests,” the Republican suffers — obvious to anyone monitoring TV ads in the race.
One also wonders if Carville, who advised Zell Miller during his 1990 campaign for governor, before he latched onto Bill Clinton, might be fishing for business again in Georgia.
Democracy Corps presented voters with a hypothetical 2010 gubernatorial match-up between former Gov. Roy Barnes, a Democrat, versus Secretary of State Karen Handel, a Republican.
The result was Barnes at 49 percent and Handel at 35 percent.
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What you didn’t know about Bob Barr
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The New Yorker has an excellent, straight-forward look at the Libertarian presidential candidacy of Bob Barr, the former Marietta congressman.
The piece is lengthy, but includes this gem:
Barr attended Georgetown Law at night and, in 1978, moved to Atlanta to practice criminal law. He was aggressive and took risks. Once, fearing that policemen might harm a client, an accused cop killer, on an airplane, he hired another plane and flew behind them. When the brother-in-law of Baby Doc Duvalier, the Haitian dictator, was apprehended in Puerto Rico on drug-smuggling charges, Barr and his law partner, Ed Marger, flew to Port-au-Prince to help. (“Ed and I were sitting on this couch in this beautiful residence with Baby Doc and his wife, and all of a sudden this big rat runs across the room,” he recalled.
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The SCLC wants a river of people to march to the state Capitol, 48 hours before Election Day
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference is pulling together what it calls a “massive” get-out-the-vote march that will send a river of people to the state Capitol only 48 hours before Election Day.
“We’re looking at 20,000 people at the low end,” said SCLC spokeswoman Keisha Ray.
Organizers intend to draw on Atlanta University students to generate much of that number. Details can be found here, but participants are being asked to assemble early Sunday afternoon at Herndon Stadium on the Morris Brown College campus.
The march down MLK will finish with a two-hour rally at the Capitol.
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A hint of renewed Obama emphasis — including a memo warning others away from Georgia volunteers
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
That video sent out this weekend by the Barack Obama campaign includes a hint — but only a hint — of increased activity in Georgia by the Democratic presidential campaign.
The message from campaign manager David Plouffe is devoted primarily to touting Obama’s fund-raising success. But Plouffe also says this:
“You might have seen we’re now competing aggressively in the state of West Virginia, where we think we have a great chance to win. We’ve seen polls tightening in places like Georgia and North Dakota. So, we’re always on the lookout for expansion….”
Apparently there’s been some tension over body-grabbing in the final days of the presidential campaign. But the Georgia chapter of the Obama campaign thinks itself close enough to winning the state that it has been able to persuade other groups to keep their mitts off.
Here’s a portion of an Oct. 7 e-mail that we’re told was sent out by the Democratic National Committee:
Please immediately ensure that any and all staff recruiting voter protection volunteers in your state are abiding by the following rules:
Within your own state, as long as you’re not running headlong into your own state’s GOTV recruitment program, go hog wild.
In reaching into other battleground states, HANDS OFF. Flat-out. Every time you send an email to a volunteer who’s already signed up in another battleground, you create confusion for the volunteer and work for the other battleground’s voter protection team to fix the damage. Any further reports of volunteer requests aimed at another battleground will not be treated kindly. To avoid any confusion at all, Georgia, North Dakota, and most definitely Michigan are still battlegrounds.
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More back-and-forth on the Fair Tax, and a bit of history
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Over the weekend, Republican incumbent Saxby Chambliss issued a defense of himself and the Fair Tax in a 30-second spot that also takes a shot at Jim Martin, his Democratic rival in the U.S. Senate race. See it below.
One thing about the Fair Tax has always puzzled — the claim that it would abolish the Internal Revenue Service. Now, if this is because the IRS is all about the income tax, such a statement might be literally true.
But does anyone believe that there wouldn’t be some sort of federal institution to oversee millions of cash registers collecting trillions of dollars in sales tax — and that this institution wouldn’t be as intrusive or picky as the IRS?
Also, in the above ad, Chambliss accuses Martin of supporting the largest tax increase in state history, which is true.
The tax increase dates back to 1989, when the state sales tax was raised from three cents to four cents on the dollar. The increase amounted to $687 million, and was the first tax hike in 18 years.
The largest portion of the increase went toward education.
The 1989 hike was accompanied by a $95 million rollback in property taxes. Which means that Martin and Chambliss have a little something in common.
Chambliss complains that anti-Fair Tax ad aimed at him, paid for by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, ignores the fact that a national sales tax would be accompanied by the elimination of other taxes.
Zell Miller, then lieutenant governor, supported the tax increase, after he was able to win an exemption for food. State Reps. Roy Barnes and Johnny Isakson opposed it, though Isakson argued for a mixture of budget cuts and increases in the tax on alcohol and tobacco. Martin, who’d also been a member of the House since 1983, voted for it.
The sales tax increase was initiated and approved by Gov. Joe Frank Harris, who ran on a no-new-taxes pledge in 1982, but declined to repeat the promise in 1986.
Perhaps the most interesting tidbit in this bit of history: Tom Perdue, Harris’ chief of staff, resigned his position shortly after Harris won his second term.
Perdue is now the chief strategist for the Chambliss campaign.
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