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DEL.ICIO.USBook a loving look at South that’s gone
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In a world that bulldozes its history and has an attention span that likely could be measured in milliseconds, a most remarkable reminder that the pleasures of time and place are to be savored has just come to life in an ambitious book called “The Paper Boy.”
Its author is Smyrna native and City Councilman Pete Wood, who with Lillie, his wife of 46 years, has undertaken a project so ambitious and unique that it’s a wonder anybody ever had the time or discipline to take it on.
The book’s appeal is, in the larger sense, limited to families whose roots are in a city where, as a young boy, he delivered The Atlanta Constitution, starting during World War II.
What Wood’s done in “The Paper Boy” is mentally walk the streets he traveled as a boy and talk about the lives of the people who occupied the houses he passed. As he talks, reflecting first on a boy’s memories and then on the lives and the directions he came to know over the next six decades, we are introduced to the mosaic of lives and relationships that gives meaning to time and place.
The result is a book that is of historical and genealogical interest first. But in the detail, and in the interconnection of lives, Wood presents a different and fuller picture of a Georgia that was one that I suspect Atlantans and even Southerners of this generation will never know.
It is so rare in metro Atlanta, or increasingly anywhere in the South, that people stay put in one place long enough to know their neighbors well, much less to know the lives of their parents and children, that it simply boggles the mind to imagine that somebody could do this for a whole town.
Wood focuses primarily on families who lived in Smyrna between 1938, his earliest memory of people and place, and 1951, when he graduated from high school. The 1940 census put its population at 1,440, about the current size of the farming communities of Rochelle, Broxton or Tennile, and half the size of the city of Adairsville. Smyrna’s 2005 population was 45,755.
Researchers at the Atlanta Regional Commission have gathered data from census reports that provide a glimpse of our mobility. Among a 2000 population of 38,266 in Smyrna, 24,850 had lived in a different house five years earlier — 13,960 in a different county in Georgia and 8,565 in a different state. It’s the same throughout metro Atlanta.
As the region changes, the center moves and so does our orientation, so that we come to think of place as teams and brands. Mobility engenders rootlessness, family lives as snapshots with no beginning or end.
That is a real change for the South, a region where families were attached to land and neighbors were each other’s family historians because their lives and families were woven together over generations. It was nothing, therefore, to talk of the living and the dead as part of the same story, and to fix the events in their lives to houses, seasons, work or to the landscape, creeks, rivers or other distinguishing landmarks.
That world is mostly gone everywhere. Atlanta, and the small communities around it, were once such a place. Now, however, most of the reference-point places, like the one-room schoolhouses in rural Georgia that have gone back to nature, are given over to change, to skyscrapers and condos and Wal-Marts. The paperboys, too, see homes but not people — and when they see people, they make no connections to families or place.
Every community and every passing generation should have the opportunity to see itself, as Wood saw and writes about, one tiny sliver of metro Atlanta. He saw it as a paperboy learning people and the skills necessary to succeed in life.
Over the decades, as a banker, as a founding trustee of the hospital authority that built Cobb General and as a founding trustee of what is now WellStar Health Systems, and as a city councilman and member of First Baptist Church of Smyrna for more than 70 years, he saw the same families through joys and hardships, through wars and good times. From those vantage points, paperboy to community leader, he saw the richness and the detail of a people and place that one day will exist as high-rises and mini-mansions, with the new designed to look old.
The old place has gone, but Wood has kept their stories.
The first house on the north side of Bank Street? Oh, that was occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Talmadge Pharr Westbrook. Let me tell you where they came from, what happened in their lives and what happened to their children. The paperboy knows.
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Comments
By KO
November 7, 2006 08:06 AM | Link to this
And so we let you go to war in Iraq to oust Saddam or find non-existant weapons or avenge 9/11 or fight terrorists who only got there after we did or as cover to change the fabric of our Constitution or for lower prices at The Texaco or…?
There are still a few hours left before the polls open, sir. There are many rationalizations still untried.
And whatever your motives of the moment, we the people have, in true good faith and with the genuine patriotism of self-sacrifice (of which you have shown you know nothing), we have let you go on making it up as you went along.
Unchecked and unbalanced.
Vote.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15595139/
By Bob Willis
November 7, 2006 08:18 AM | Link to this
Nice piece, Jim; I grew up in and near Atlanta in the same period. Nostalgia’s still nice. Such topics don’t come along often enough; if only they did, you could be spared the task of defending the indefensible: i.e., the Bushies.
By time for the truth
November 7, 2006 08:26 AM | Link to this
* VOTE GOP TODAY*
KEEP THE LEFTIST CUT AND RUN SCUM AT BAY
Bye Bye fat demoNcrat turgid slob Taylor, you lied like a Klinton and you LOST!!
KEEP THE SENATE AND HOUSE GOP in Georgia and D.C.
Spit in the eye of far left corrupt liars like Pelosi and Reid.
By Bill Clinton
November 7, 2006 08:28 AM | Link to this
“They can’t run anything right,” countered former President Clinton, taunting Republicans about the war in Iraq, the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and even the scandal involving the House page program that complicated GOP efforts to win two more years in power.”
Vote.
By @@
November 7, 2006 08:29 AM | Link to this
Jim: You have delivered some shocking news for your daily poster, the Rednecks Al Qaeda. That poster’s mind is so teeny tiny that it can’t accept the diversity that makes up today’s south.
Anyway, I enjoyed the paperboy story. My older brother, who I adored, was a paperboy. Everyday the papers were delivered to our house and he paid me 25 cents to help him tri-fold, throw a rubber band around the paper and put it in plastic if rain threatened. We sat on the back tailgate of the family station wagon, I pushed the papers forward and he threw. I was too little to throw, he said I might fall off the tailgate if I tried.
He was known by everyone in our small California town and racked up on gifts of money on holidays. My bonus was a trip to the pool hall. I had to wait on the front bench, feet dangling, for the black licorice rope that only they sold. Have you ever seen a six year old girl smile after eating black licorice Jim?
One of the saddest days of my life? He got a scooter. No room for little @@. He gave me a raise to help him fold. Compensation for the loss of my position…on the tailgate.
By Robert Novak
November 7, 2006 08:31 AM | Link to this
“If Democrats succeed, it will be for two reasons:
The first is an arrogant and politically tin-eared Republican establishment in Washington. In the handling of key issues such as the occupation of Iraq, the response to Hurricane Katrina, and a meaningful follow-through on Social Security reform, the White House displayed incompetence.
Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, Republicans encouraged practices (such as earmarking in the appropriations process) that let corruption run free. When scandal hit, they handled it badly, particularly in the most recent case of disgraced former Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.). They also went to great lengths to alienate their base on the issue of immigration reform, and they created an issue for Democrats in the form of embryonic stem-cell research. Recall that federal funding for embryonic research received a vote on the House floor only when the House Republican leadership made a deal with moderates in order to pass their budget in 2005.”
By Camus
November 7, 2006 08:37 AM | Link to this
Is the prospect of today’s election outcome too depressing to address today, Jim?
Regardless of affiliation, I urge you all to go vote today.
By Watta Load
November 7, 2006 09:05 AM | Link to this
Nice piece Jim…this sounds like a good read.
I’m not a native but have been around long enough to be considered one. If you wonder around the area enough you can still find some of the old Atlanta.
I’m actually working on a photo essay project about the many cemeteries that dot the landscape all over Metro Atlanta, especially the northern part. I’ve explored many of them, often in the shadow of a Buckhead mansion, and it is like going back in time.
By DebbieDoRight
November 7, 2006 09:08 AM | Link to this
Camus: Jim is not even here, he’s on vacation in Europe. He proabably voted earlier.
By harold
November 7, 2006 09:17 AM | Link to this
what is this the oprah column?
looks like somebody had a really long flight.
By time for the truth
November 7, 2006 09:20 AM | Link to this
I had a job as a paper boy in the sleepy leafy commuter town in Surrey where I grew up. I still vividly recall walking down to the newsagents every morning carrying my Daily Mirror paper bag which was the only ‘tool of the trade’ one needed. I had to walk through the sometimes slightly spooky footpath that cut through the graveyard of the local 12th century Norman church just down the road from my house. Come rain or shine from when I was twelve years old I did my paper round before I went to school.
The couple who owned the newsagents were Mr and Mrs Knight and the shop was called Knights. It was a typical small shop selling sweets and cigarettes and a limited range of tobacco products. All the paper boys and girls had to be there by 6.45am at the latest to ensure delivery by 7.30am. Slightly later on Saturdays and Sundays of course.
I delivered to offices and shops and houses and blocks of flats - the same papers to the same places everyday. There were about 10 national English dailies back then, some have have now gone, some have merged with other titles. And on Thursdays - the heaviest paper day of the week I delivered the Surrey Herald, the weekly local paper. Plus there were the weekly childrens comics and weekly and monthly magazines.
Sometimes I ended up marking up my own papers which I got paid a little extra for if the Knights were running late. They only allowed trusted employees to do this of course. I eventually graduated to two paper rounds - happily both fairly close to each other and requiring my bicycle. This provided the werewithal for the bi-weekly visits to go watch Chelsea Football Club play at home at the old Stamford Bridge. A train and tube journey into south west London.
Over the years I worked for every paper shop in town, even being given my own bicycle with large saddle bags by W. H Smiths who had a huge operation and their papers (and my round) were delivered all over town - a couple of miles away in the stockbrocker belt which was more time consuming.
Its light at 4am in England in June, so summer deliveries were always in daylight, the gloomy pitch black winters always required a torch to see. Back in the late 1960’s and very early 70’s no one ever stole newspapers from outside doors with no letter boxes.
Every Christmas I used to get a ‘Christmas box’ from many customers a few days before Dec 25th - usually just a pound or two, sometimes a bit more, but it added up from the paper round I was doing.
When I got older I did a “milk round” - which was helping our local milkman with his deliveries on his electric milk float. This paid a bit more each day but took several hours so was limited to school holidays and weekends. I ended up doing a milk round in the huge millionaire estate that John Lennon, Englebert Humperdink, Gilbert O’Sullivan, Cliff Richard and many other celebs lived on. Gordon Milne, Tom Jones’ and Humperdink’s manager lived up there - he had a menagerie of live tigers and other exotic animals in a big cage.
Lennon and Ono had a daily delivery of goats milk. There were life size colour cardboard pictures of them at the foot of the stairs of their mansion. Once their Rolls Royce swept past us unimportant peasants as we drove into their long drive on our bright orange Unigate milk float.
Life was much simpler then as I meandered through my own “Home Counties” version of The Wonder Years.
By Ad nauseum
November 7, 2006 09:32 AM | Link to this
tftt, nobody here cares about your stupid story or England or you. Go tell your story to Katie or Oprah.
By Republican Voice
November 7, 2006 09:34 AM | Link to this
Hey time for the truth - why don’t you go back there - and stay?
By Markus
November 7, 2006 09:38 AM | Link to this
Looks like our resident Ahole liberal ID jacker is at it again on TFTT. How pathetic.
Atlanta and it’s suburban parts are not southern and haven’t been for decades. I have lived in a lot of areas, and Atlanta seems more northern than southers where everyone is in a hurry 7x24, neighbors don’t talk, fights in Wal Mart stores over a toy on Black Friday, and just general rudeness. The only difference I’d say Atlanta has with say Philadelphia is that nobody up there freaks out when snow is forecasted.
But why are we talking about this? We need to talk about more important things the AJC talks about, like why there aren’t more African Americans in country music. I mean come on, that’s important stuff!
Hey Bill Clinton-
Yeah I heard about your snide comments yesterday joking about a “terrorist” around every corner in Bush scare tactics. Yeah man, that’s the exact attitude you had that cost us 3,000 lives five years ago after those islamogoons were allowed to learn how to fly here under your watch. No Peckerboy Clinton, America doesn’t need you cowardly war loser Jackal democrites running this nation giving in to islamofascist terrorism. Now it’s time to go vote straight “R.” Blow it out your @sses, liberal neostalinist pig democrites.
By Redneck Convert
November 7, 2006 09:39 AM | Link to this
Well, I voted—twice! I drove up to Floyd County and was still on the rolls there. Then I went back to Forsyth County and voted there. I hope all you Republicans will vote early and often.
My buddy Jim Earl has been working on a poem. He’s kinda downcast. Has been ever since he put his head thru that BBQ joint wall on his Harley. Anyway, he calls it “Armageddon,” and I promised I’d put it on this here blog.
Sonnet: ArmageddonWhat dark clouds loom on Wooten’s blog today!
JMBlaw and Dusty seem depressed.
Van sulks, and even Barbara seems fey,
TFTT and Realist, repressed.
But view the sunshine on the leftist side!
See Dana, Rednecks, CJ sport and gambol;
Hear JK and the Chazman waxing snide,
While Curious Observer sneers and rambles.
Poor Markus is despondent, and he curses;
It’s hard for him to concentrate on work:
What use to labor under such reverses,
If Liberal and getalife will smirk?
At once embittered, raging, and morose, he
Foresees the rise to Speaker of Pelosi.
By time for the truth
November 7, 2006 09:47 AM | Link to this
F_ off you pig ignorant inbred knuckle dragging yankkkee bigots!!
A simple, utterly non-contentious post, entirely in keeping with Jim’s wistfully reflective topic for election day and the mutant American (clearly NOT real Americans of course) scum on here still cannot STFU!!
By time for the truth
November 7, 2006 09:50 AM | Link to this
Markus
these vermin aren’t REAL Americans - as I just pointed out - they’re just bitter illegals who are angry they cant vote LEGALLY today as I can!!
We should make this board open to only REAL AMERICANS!! rednekkks NAMBLA and its ilk are not true Americans!!
By Watta Load
November 7, 2006 10:01 AM | Link to this
I was loitering in a gallery near Union Square in San Francisco in October 1980 and saw a hand drawn piece by John Lennon…just an abstract self portrait on a white background…$10000 was the price…
Man I wish I had had that kind of money then…
Sorry…I’m enjoying the nostalgia..
By The Way
November 7, 2006 10:09 AM | Link to this
Now, @@, THAT was well written! Bravo! See? If you write about what you know and are true to your own heart, then you shine.
Message to my minions of wannabe’s: I know it’s fun to try to fool the trolls into thinking that I am the one who is impersonating their I.D.s, and yes, it is funny that they fall for it every single time, proving day after day, over and over, the risks associated with mixing animal husbandry and the missionary position, but can we go one day without tweeking the trolls pointy noses? Thank you.
I mean this is election day, where all good men forget their differences and pay homage to the birth of our nation and the wisdom of the founding fathers, who knew the pitfalls of the unchecked war powers of a king, and the injustices of no habeus corpus, and the bitter frustrations of being taxed without representation, (which is the actual situation that our lobbied congress has evolved into).
We pay. Foreigners die. Global Corporations prosper.
Perhaps it was Cheney’s last interview a few days ago with George Stephanopolous that inscribed the GOP’s epitaph: “We thought the American People were stupid”.
By Chazman
November 7, 2006 10:15 AM | Link to this
I agree with Markus. Someone had to hijack Time For The Trash’s ID. Because in that post, there is not one insult hurled or juvenile name calling. So it couldn’t have been The Trash.
F_ off you pig ignorant inbred knuckle dragging yankkkee bigots!!
See, this is the real Trash. You can tell by the classless rants.
By Van
November 7, 2006 10:16 AM | Link to this
How interesting to see the reactions of the various bloggers.
One group is a little nostalgic and the other group of folks, are a bit bitter.
Why is that, is this the main difference between the two opinions? Is one group optimistic and one group pessimistic? It can’t be that simple can it?
Have we become a nation that only sees things in black and white , good and bad, right and left?
With this look back, those times did have moral and ethical boundaries that are sadly missing today. Back then as TFTT said, no one would steal the paper from the front door. Today, you turn your back for 15 seconds and your car is gone.
Where I grew up, in sunny California, back then we had milk dairies in the neighborhoods - in fact the neighborhoods grew up around them. The workers at those dairies did not mind us kids hanging around the feed lots - today the lawyers would be all over them.
By Curious
November 7, 2006 10:16 AM | Link to this
Dear Cheney’s Mother, I’ve always wondered: Was Satan any good in the sack, or did he just knock you up and leave the money on the table?
By Dana
November 7, 2006 10:20 AM | Link to this
Hey - I liked TFTT’s walk down memory lane! It was a nice change from his normal vitriol. Didn’t know you were a Chelsea man, T, my opinion of you just went up a notch!
Happy voting day everyone. Make sure you think before you choose!
By Dusty
November 7, 2006 10:24 AM | Link to this
Who’d a’thought it, RedNeck a poet?
Well, he isn’t but he doesn’t know it.
There ‘s a lot of things he doesn’t know,
Like… American citizens are not the foe.
He talks like a jerk which he really is.
His phony Southern has lost its fizz.
Go vote, Rednecks, and play the fool,
We know you’re just a liberal tool.
By Curious Observer
November 7, 2006 10:26 AM | Link to this
Ah, yes, Wooten, those were the good ol’ days—when black people knew their place, poor people starved, and comfortably esconced white people rejoiced about it all.
Some of us are old enough to remember those times about which Mr. Wood waxes nostalgic—times of separate water fountains and lavatories for “colored” and white people.
Give us a break from this crap. But then, that’s what conservatives do—look backward to the old ways of living, and that’s where they would love to take us. That’s why they’re called conservatives. They want to live in the past and to ignore the real problems facing our society.
By @@
November 7, 2006 10:35 AM | Link to this
The Way: Thank you for the compliment. Delivering the news is what I do best, and I’ll take your encouragement to heart.
Thanks again! :-P
I’m off to vote….REPUBLICAN.
By Dana
November 7, 2006 10:36 AM | Link to this
Curious -
You MIGHT have a point, I do tend to think conservatives have agendas, however, I think your paranoia this morning is a bit over the top! Give it a rest! Else you will lend creedence to more blathering from the righteous right…
When you were a child, were YOU aware of all the “crap” around you? I wasn’t. Perhaps I was lucky, I’m too young (wow, I like saying that!!!) to recall segregation. I grew up in fully integrated schools. Did I see ignorance and discrimination? Yes, I didn’t understand it, I thought it was just mean-ness untill I was older. And I’m not going to feel guilty that I was lucky enough to grow up thinking the world was a good place - I wish I still felt that way.
By time for the truth
November 7, 2006 10:40 AM | Link to this
Watta Load
My oldest friend back in England lived in Weybridge High St. His father (now long deceased) ran the local chemists and was a pharmacist. John and George who also then lived on the same estate I mentioned (before George moved to Henley on Thames) used to come into the chemists often. My friend’s father knew them well enough to get an old black and white official Beatles photo signed by the fab four and gave it to his son. It’s still one of his most treasured possessions - circa 1965. He won’t ever sell it.
Pete Townshend many years later often came into our family tourist trap shop/cafe/off licence etc down in a fishing village in Cornwall when he was on holiday, as did Harrison a few times. My next door neighbour in England at one point was Jimmy Page’s mother - I learned a great deal about Led Zep, got several free albums etc - I even met Jimmy’s daughter a couple of times. Jimmy’s first real very serious love was Jackie deShannon - he actually followed her to California - to no avail (a rather sad personal story, the details of which are not for here). There’s a somewhat cryptic song about this on Led Zep III.
By Joshua
November 7, 2006 10:46 AM | Link to this
I couldn’t find the book on Amazon. Who’s the publisher?
By time for the truth
November 7, 2006 10:46 AM | Link to this
Dana
I am NOT actually a Chelsea man … not these days … but I supported them for a while whilst at school.
I never post “vitriol” - just the unvarnished truth! …grin.
Crapman
I posted a simple recollection of simpler times - of growing up in the ‘Home Counties’. Then the usual sneers appeared, literally within minutes, so I simply mirrored back the abuse.
By holdingAJCaccountable
November 7, 2006 10:55 AM | Link to this
Re: “In a world that bulldozes its history…” Just found that statement a little ironic, as (in broad general terms) it is conservatives who do the least to “conserve” history (free market and progress and all of that).
I’m not even saying they’re wrong for that…maybe it’s perfectly legitimate that thousands of mom and pops meet their demise so that the masses can by take full advantage of the global economy and buy Chinese goods at low prices at Wal-Mart and other big boxes. (I can’t say I’d prefer my computer to be hand-made with the precision of a Swiss watchmaker, and spend 5 times the cost, that’s for sure)
It is however a little ironic that “conservative” business principles cause the least “conservation” of our way of life…not wrong…just ironic
By The Way
November 7, 2006 10:57 AM | Link to this
I was fired from my paper route in 1960. I delivered via bicycle, a red Murray that Santa left 4 me. It wasn’t my fault.
I could carry 100 newspapers on my bike with the various baskets I had jerry-rigged and pouches I had mickey-moused, not to mention the multi-pocketed vest I had duck taped and strung together with wire and gum.
I was proud of how accurate I could throw an incriminatingly folded newpaper from a moving bike. Some customers would actually applaud me as I glided by, struck by the beauty of a ballistics and trajectory. Sometimes, if the wind was right, I could get as many as seven newpapers airborne and on target. (look ma, no hands!)
Then, one day, at the bottom of a steep hill, all alone at the end of a cul-de-sac, was Old Lady Schlink. She was a avid gardener and had rows of roses forming a labyrinthian maze in her front yard. She was very hard to spot as she stooped and bowed weeding and pruning…..
….they say that if I had been going even two MPH slower, her rib cage might have held together better……it was very hard for me, learning the miseries of life on the lam at age 9. I never knew that neighborhoods had extradition treaties….
By Van
November 7, 2006 10:58 AM | Link to this
Curious Observer,
I think you are a bit biased -
In the 50’s people that were poor, managed to get by and were proud of getting by - How do I know, I was one of them -
Single working mother raising two boys - My older brother and I were not aware how poor we were.
BTW, growing up I never saw a drinking fountain marked in any way - and yes, we did have blacks, mexicans and asians in our schools. In fact, everything was going along okay until ‘65
By Chazman
November 7, 2006 11:02 AM | Link to this
Does this really surprise anyone:
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking into the possibility of voter intimidation in the U.S. Senate race between Sen. George Allen, a Republican, and Democratic challenger James Webb, officials told NBC News.
State officials alerted the Justice Department on Tuesday to several complaints of suspicious phone calls to voters who attempted to misdirect or confuse them about election day, Jean Jensen, Secretary of the Virginia State Board of Elections, told NBC’s David Shuster.
State Democratic Party counsel Jay Myerson said in a written statement issued by the Webb campaign that he believed Republicans are behind an orchestrated effort to suppress votes for the Democratic challenger.
Now, none of you on the right can really say the republicans wouldn’t really do this kind of thing. Want proof:
James Tobin, the former New England Regional Political Director for the Republian National Committee, was found guilty on December 15th, 2005 of two counts: Conspiracy to commit the commission of interstate telephone harassment and Aiding and abetting the commission of interstate telephone harassment. He was acquitted of a third count, Conspiracy against voters’ rights. Tobin faced up to seven years in prison and $500,000 in fines.
McGee and two other participants — Republican National Committee regional political director James Tobin and GOP consultant Allen Raymond— have been found guilty of criminally violating federal communications law.
And this is the best part:
Most tantalizingly to Democrats, evidence filed in Tobin’s trial in December shows 22 phone calls from Tobin to the White House between 11:20 a.m. Election Day, two hours after the phone jamming was shut down, and 2:17 a.m. the next day, four hours after the outcome of the election was announced.
Democrats charge that these phone calls and the RNC payment of Tobin’s legal fees suggest possible White House involvement or knowledge of the phone jamming plan. RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman was at the time serving as White House political director.
Pitiful…..
By Dusty
November 7, 2006 11:03 AM | Link to this
Hey,
I like all these nice stories of growing up and hometown memories. As tis said,”they warm the cockles of our hearts.”
Liked your good times with your brothers,@@. I bet you were a match for them every time.
Time for the Truth gave us a nice view of life in the UK.
Many of us are most fortunate to have a happy childhood with the blessings of caring people. It is always good to hear those stories.
By holdingAJCaccountable
November 7, 2006 11:21 AM | Link to this
To ByTheWay: You should have had one more basket…with a snail darter in a little aquarium. Then they couldn’t have touched you, as you would have been a rolling “federally protected wetland”.
And who’s to say Old Lady Schlink wasn’t constructing her elaborate maze as a hideout of enemy combatants? You very well may have been the first casualty of the “War on Terror” but your sacrifice is truly noted.
By White Jesus
November 7, 2006 11:46 AM | Link to this
Van wow! BTW, growing up I never saw a drinking fountain marked in any way - and yes, we did have blacks, mexicans and asians in our schools. In fact, everything was going along okay until ‘65
Tell us how you Really feel. Vote Republican everybody! Van and all the like -minded klansman will be thankful!
Oh and Van..in the coming last few years of your life..be prepared for a real Shocker when you meet me!
By Markus
November 7, 2006 11:50 AM | Link to this
“Damn it feels good to be a gangsta.”
Yeah I did my good deed for the day. Fortunately, I didn’t need to defend myself from police roadblocks, “suppressing” questions via phone, snafued ambiguous phone calls that said my precinct was closed or changed voting to tomorrow, snapping German shepards at vote precincts, “suppressing” exit-pollster questions, gargoyles guarding polling entrances, and those God awful horrific “intimidating” questions like “where’s your ID?”
No sir. It was smooth sailing on my end… straight R’s. In any event, I stumbled on this link last night and printed a copy out for my wait this morning (which wasn’t much). Now for anyone who likes to challenge me on how I like to compare communism, Stalinism, Marxism, and Socialism with the Pelosi neoleft in this nation, then you have to look no further than right into the beast’s mouth:
http://www.cpusa.org/article/view/758
Straight out of the Liborat playbook.
By Markus
November 7, 2006 11:55 AM | Link to this
Communist Jesus-
“Vote Republican everybody! Van and all the like -minded klansman will be thankful!”
Once again an idiot libocRAT tries to bring up racism where there clearly is none.
But folks, if you REALLY want to support islamofascism, be sure to vote Demoncat! Our fascist enemies will love you for being so “open minded” to their causes!
By jbmlaw
November 7, 2006 11:56 AM | Link to this
Good morning all. Interesting topic, nice to get away from politics, for just a day anyway. Although I grew up in a large Southern city, my parents grew up in a community of 100, and I had the blessing to spend much time with my grandparents. Today I suppose people would be horrified that my cousins and I regularly rode in the open back end of Granddaddy’s Chevrolet truck for 0.2 miles, so we could buy penny candy at the local store. Sunday afternoon was always the community softball game, and they even allowed 7-year-olds to bat and run the outfield. The local high school was the physical center of the community, and the small church was the heart. We had the traditional creek, where Mom was baptized when she was a little girl, but where we could now swim. We had the large oak tree on the edge of the hill, and due to erosion there was a 10-foot long section of root four feet above ground, our “tightrope.” We would swing in an old tire. I even rode a baby bull when I was seven years old; he threw me which was funny, but when I climbed on again he ran me into the apple tree, and that was not funny. My kids never enjoyed such experiences, and I feel for them.
By The Way
November 7, 2006 12:11 PM | Link to this
Our Suffrage has Baggage and is Hostaged.
“Benedict Arnold” can be rewritten as “Can Rent Diebold”. (anagram predicted by Nostradomas)
They would have hanged Benedict Arnold if they would have caught him, (and his dreary cadre of cheek-cyst troll support).
I like that they would have hanged Arnold and his toad-stool trolls.
I like that real good.
By CJ
November 7, 2006 12:11 PM | Link to this
I too think more highly of TFTT as a result of his wistful posts today. All the name dropping has me feeling especially nostalgic.
It turns out that I have connections to classic rockers as well. Remember the song, “Billy, Don’t be a Hero”? I knew a kid in school who met the mother of the drummer who played in that band.
What about “Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting”? Remember that oldie but goodie? My cousin lived next door to the singer’s great aunt. Turns out that he’s now living in St. Louis working as a truck dispatcher…my cousin that is…I don’t know what happened to the singer. Anyway, it’s a rather sad personal story, the details of which are not for here.
By Ditzty Malloy
November 7, 2006 12:13 PM | Link to this
It was very difficult for me growing up. Being Jewish made me the natural enemy of many of my Southern neighbors.
Being different made me choose to do many things in my life that I’m not proud of. I became a Democrat and was an active homosexual. I was a rebel, a devil.
But things got better for me. I became active in “Jews for Jesus”. I went through Rev Haggards gay conversion program, most importantly I became a Republican.
It feels all tingly being involved with all you wonderful people. Thank you all for accepting me into your Kingdom. I raise my hands and wave sideways with you.
By jbmlaw
November 7, 2006 12:16 PM | Link to this
Some good stories on here today. My compliments TFTT, have you ever thought of writing something like the book Jim described? You can tell a story well.
By The Way
November 7, 2006 12:16 PM | Link to this
I take umbrage that our suffrage has baggage and has been hostaged.
Can Rent Diebold. That’s an anagram of Benedict Arnold. Nostradomus predicted this would happen.
If they would have caught them, they would have keelhauled Benedict Arnold and his trolls and then hanged them all from the highest yardarm.
I like that they would have hanged Arnold and his dreary cadre of troll support from the highest yardarm, (after keelhauling them, of course).
I like that real good.
By The Way
November 7, 2006 12:25 PM | Link to this
I’m going to vote today at the polls, but I’m taking a hidden camera and microphone with me. Two years ago, I would have captured institutionalized fraud and slight of hand at the GOP rats nest that housed the stuffed-ballot Diebold Boxes of Lies.
I coulda sold that to the networks for millions, and could now be a KING!
By Blaney
November 7, 2006 12:33 PM | Link to this
I used to go out and get the paper off the driveway when I was a kid growing up right here in Atlanta. We used it to line the bottom of the bird’s cage. My folks and the bird died a long time ago so there is no good reason to have the paper delivered any longer. Besides, I don’t live there anymore so I can’t pick it up. We also had a cat once who lived outside so we didn’t need papers for him. The alcoholic next door poisoned him though. Don’t remember his name or the cat’s. This happen to anybody else?
By Stay Put
November 7, 2006 12:39 PM | Link to this
To the person who said he voted twice, I sincerely hope that was a joke, but just in case it wasn’t, I have forwarded your comments to a friend of mine who is an attorney for the ACLU and she has assured me that she is looking into pulling the voting registers for Floyd and Forsyth counties in order to cross reference them. She said if someone is indeed registered in both counties and that person did vote twice that he/she will be prosecuted. If you were serious, thanks for turning yourself in.
By Buy Danish
November 7, 2006 12:42 PM | Link to this
JW,
Thanks for today’s topic! And thanks to TTT, @@, BTW, and jmblaw for their reminiscences. I look forward to other stories from paper boys and their tailgaters.
Van is right in pointing out the contrast between the optimism of the conservative posts counterpoised with the pessimism of the enlightened liberals.
How remarkable it is that “Curious Observor” and others are unable to find nostalgia in memories of the South. Clearly resentment runs through their veins, and there is no goodness to be found anywhere.
Perhaps they should read “To Kill a Mockingbird” (or if they are too dull to read, they could see the movie). Like BTW’s story, it even has an episode about an old lady and her roses - but as I recall for that you need to read the book.
By Jim's a Romantic
November 7, 2006 12:46 PM | Link to this
Hi Jim,
I’m often struck by the conflicting ideologies that conservatives often have, and today’s column is a good example of that: capitalism & progress vs. longing for the “old ways”.
You cannot have both, yet time and time again folks on the right try to claim them both. Capitalism is about making money and moving forward. And we can’t live a life like the Cleaver’s did if we are moving forward, because that lifestyle is too inefficient and expensive. We can’t share their values either, because June would be horribly upset by the though of the Beaver watching Britney Spears butt on his own HDTV flat panel in his room, while listening to Snoop Dogg wax eloquient about ho’s and crusing MySpace for babes.
Capitalism is about change, progress and moving forward, regardless of destruction of astethic value. And although we miss them, it doesn’t do any good to long for simpler times. It sure doesn’t do any good to complain about how Democrats are dragging down the culture, when it’s really profit motives of corporations doing it…those ballet dvd’s don’t sell to well at Wal Mart now do they?
Btw, in commeration of today’s retaking of the House of Representatives by the Democrats, I won’t post the Contract. I don’t believe they’ll do a better job of running this country, but hopefully some of the blatant corruption and hypocrisy will be placed in check for a while.
By White Jesus
November 7, 2006 12:46 PM | Link to this
Marcus da Wigger MC..
“Quit your crying heffa..we don’t need all dat”
He’s the type of inbred that has a subwoofer behind the seat of his Ford pick-up..playing 80’s rap around his “homies” and rockabilly music when his “b***” (mom) is in his “hoo-ride”.
Did I’s brake it down fa yu da way yu and yo wigger homeboys say it. Waddup Truf!
By Monarch Hames
November 7, 2006 12:49 PM | Link to this
Paper “boys” on bikes while blacks children ran from dogs and ropes and the shotguns. This is the thing that should be written about the south that is still not gone today
By Watta Load
November 7, 2006 12:49 PM | Link to this
TFTT,
You grew up around the greatest musicians ever.
My kids get to grow up near the ever-medicated Bobby Brown and someone named “Ludacris”.
By jbmlaw
November 7, 2006 12:50 PM | Link to this
Dear the way @ 12:11, so long as we are doing anagrams, NOTICE THE LEFT = ELECTION THEFT
By White Jesus
November 7, 2006 12:53 PM | Link to this
Buy Danish,
I would love to hear from our Black friends on here as well. Tell us about those good ol days in growing up in the South in the 20’s, 30’s, 40, 50’s, 60’s….Its so long ago I’ve forgotten how good they had it!
By jbmlaw
November 7, 2006 12:55 PM | Link to this
Also, ELECTION THEFT = ENTICE HOT LEFT
NOTE, LEFT ETHIC = ELECTION THEFT
By getalife
November 7, 2006 01:01 PM | Link to this
What is this trip down memory lane crap?
It is election day, get out and vote.
By J
November 7, 2006 01:05 PM | Link to this
“In a world that bulldozes its history and has an attention span that likely could be measured in milliseconds…”
It’s official: irony is now dead in Jim’s column.
Seriously, this is the same Jim Wooten who takes every opportunity to bash in-city dwellers as out-of-touch elitists while praising the suburbs as where “real Georgians” live, and who denigrates every transportation proposal that doesn’t involve paving 18 lanes over what’s left of Atlanta.
I live in the suburbs because that’s where my wife and I could afford a house, and I hate it. You have to drive everywhere, I lose an hour of my life every day just commuting, it’s impersonal, it’s sterile, and it’s exactly the same as suburbs everywhere else. I’d love to live in the city, but the government in this state (at all levels, R’s AND D’s) would rather figure out new ways to make people drive even further than to get average folks back into the cities. And the business lobby is there to whore them up with campaign cash, ensuring that they’ll pave and suburbize our future.
Sorry Jim, but the “liberal elitists” you so hate are the ones who want to live in places where they can know their neighbors, walk to get groceries, and not live with a car surgically attached to their butt. Sure, city living is far from perfect (I have fond memories of the crack dealers from my time in Grant Park), but at least there’s a place with people who are trying to salvage history by saving magnificient homes and buildings and who are trying to build liveable communities, not sterile subdivisions.
Jim, until you can figure out how to reconcile your old-time nostalgia with your pave-over-everything mentality, please shut up about this topic.
By Van
November 7, 2006 01:10 PM | Link to this
Jim’s a Romantic,
I think you are confusing capitalism and greed.
While I do agree with you about living like the Cleaver’s, that was way to idealistic.
But, some of the older ways of living are still good today.
Living within your means - If you can’t afford that 42” HDTV for your bedroom, don’t buy it.
Working hard to advance in your job - nowadays it is easier to find a new job instead of working your old one.
Just as examples -
By Ethic RIGHT
November 7, 2006 01:13 PM | Link to this
In Fla you can cast your ballot for Mark Foley today!
Tom Delay is the way in Texas!
And Rev Haggard can vote against gay marriage today!
LMAO
By White Jesus
November 7, 2006 01:20 PM | Link to this
Time for the Truth = Ho Hit Ferret Mutt, The Remit of Truth
Gay Marcus = YMCA Sugar
Dumb Van = Ivan Do It
Buy Danish = A BUSY HIND, Hid By Anus
By White Jesus
November 7, 2006 01:22 PM | Link to this
White Jesus = JEW USE THIS
By pos
November 7, 2006 01:26 PM | Link to this
Laura Ingraham has asked her listeners to call the Dem Voter protection hotline — and they are now being flooded with calls from crank callers.
By CJ
November 7, 2006 01:38 PM | Link to this
Buy Danish @12:42 “Thanks for today’s topic! And thanks to TTT, @@, BTW, and jmblaw for their reminiscences.”
What about my reminiscences Lady Danish? Your palate for music is clearly unrefined, and your lack of respect for the well-connected is painfully obvious. I expected more from you, fine lady.
By Van
November 7, 2006 01:51 PM | Link to this
Is there any lefties out there that are optimistic about anything?
The left is so angry about something - I guess they don’t like it being a minority.
By DebbieDoRight
November 7, 2006 01:56 PM | Link to this
Working hard to advance in your job - nowadays it is easier to find a new job instead of working your old one.
Speaking as someone who was an intern at Lucent Technologies, it doesn’t pay these days to stay at one job too long. There is no such thing anymore as “company loyalty to employees”.
In the good ole days if the company was in dire straits the very LAST THING it did was to lay off their employees. Now it’s the first thing they do……then they give themselves raises.
By Chazman
November 7, 2006 02:04 PM | Link to this
Van - the right is never, ever angry about anything. They were never angry when Clinton was president. Never complained. Rush, Hannity, O’Reilly, Savage, etc are never angry. They’re always so nice and respectful. Not to mention TFTT. Always respectful and classy. Yes, republicans are the model party.
By the way, here’s one liberal who didn’t vote straight D’s. I cast a vote this morning for Congressman John Duncan, TN (R). He was one of the few R’s who stood up against the Iraq war from the beginning. He said it would be too costly and we would be there for years. He’s said it from day one and he was rewarded with a D vote today.
By The Way
November 7, 2006 02:06 PM | Link to this
Ouch! Debbie’s retirement plan at Lucent went from $70 per share to a buck. I know a comic, Tommy James, who started out with me, and who quit his job and sold his Lucent stock right before the tech crash. He headlines all over the country now. Check out his website. Tommy James.
By Jim's a Romantic
November 7, 2006 02:08 PM | Link to this
Hi Van,
Yeah, that’s the Ward Cleaver way to look at it, but it doesn’t work that way. If people all across America were suddenly able to distinguish between the things they wanted and needed, then our economy would break.
The whole idea is to get people to buy things they don’t need. And in order to do that, billions of dollars are spent each year to get us to fear not having that thing.
What was the Prez’s advice to America after 9/11? “Go Shopping”.
And to answer your question about being optimistic about anything, the answer is yes. I’m optimistic that most Americans are beginning to see what a bunch of idiots are running this country.
By getalife
November 7, 2006 02:14 PM | Link to this
FBI Investigating Voter Intimidation In Virginia…Numerous Voting Machine Problems Reported…Voters Delayed In Tennessee, Indiana, Ohio, Florida…KY Poll Worker Charged For Allegedly “Choking” Voter…GOP Congressman Chabot Turned Away At The Polls….. to be continued.
Told ya it would be a mess. The gop are not going out quietly and are pulling out all their dirty tricks.
Remember when adults would tell their children to play by the rules and obey the law.
Those days are history thanks to the gop.
By Campaign Lawyer
November 7, 2006 02:15 PM | Link to this
Jim:
In light of the ridiculous on-going rhetorical and legal controversy over requiring proper government-issued photo i.d. to vote in Georgia, I think the following AP wire article would make a wonderfully instructive subject for one of your columns. Please share this article with your editor, Ms. Tucker, who seems to think there is no ballot fraud in America; as a former Republican congressional campaign manager, I can assure her that she is wrong and that and that such fraud largely concentrated in precincts dominated by poorer Democrats. To the extent that voter i.d. is a partisan issue, it is a result of local Democrat operatives and affiliated organizations trying to game the system
I trust the 11th Circuit and/or the U.S. Supreme Court will have upheld the constitutionality of the Georgia voter i.d. law by the 2008 general elections. The integrity of our democratic system requires no less.
FYI, in addition to South Carolina, Florida has a picture i.d. voting requirement, too. Only in Georgia is this seen as a conspiracy to disenfranchise minority voters.
“S.C. Governor Turned Away by Poll Worker Nov 07 1:13 PM US/Eastern
“By JIM DAVENPORT Associated Press Writer
“SULLIVANS ISLAND, S.C
“Even the governor needs the right ID to vote in South Carolina.
“Gov. Mark Sanford learned that lesson the hard way Tuesday _ he had to make a second trip to his Sullivans Island polling place because he forgot his voter identification card the first time. The poll workers, following the rules, had turned him away.
“I hope my luck turns,” Sanford said. “Yesterday, I had the eye issue, today I was absent-minded and didn’t have my voter registration card.”
“The first lady’s identification was in order, and she was allowed to vote, said poll Manager Bob Crawford at the Sullivans Island Elementary School. But the governor showed a driver’s license with a Columbia address the first time, and that didn’t cut it. He said Sanford came back about 90 minutes later and cast his ballot.
“Sanford has had a tough few days.
“The Republican, running for a second term, burned his eyes under bright stage lights on Sunday and had to skip campaigning on Monday to go to the doctor and recuperate.
“Sanford’s eyes were red and watery as he stood in line at the voting site on Tuesday, but he said, “It’s behind me and the prognosis is good.”
By time for the truth
November 7, 2006 02:34 PM | Link to this
It seems remininsences are a good way to distil how one sees life. Living a twenty minute walk from the River Thames - nowhere near any potential flooding - but close enough to avail oneself of the pleasures is something you can take for granted.
I also vividly recall cycling down to the river with friends and going swimming regularly in the summery months back when the water was clean enough to do so - its not now. It was a bit cold but nice and sandy. There was a travelling funfair that used to set up twice a year by the river for almost a week. There were two bridges in the town side by side over the river - an old one closed to traffic from the war built by the Americans for tanks etc and a new one for more modern traffic. There were a couple of locks on the river in each direction for boats to go up and down old father Thames and the river towpath which was used by barges over 150 years ago now was the perfect place to walk or cycle. Almost as far as you wanted to. Up to Kingston on Thames, the county town of Surrey and to Hampton Court and the Palace. Picnics by the river were a frequent part of local life when I was a kid.
Naturally there were several pubs either down on the river bank or very close to it. And Sunday lunches with the family dog there to feed crisps to are a fond memory sitting outside in the beer garden watching the boats go by. Rowing clubs and folks fishing and messing about in little dinghies … wonderful memories.
Up the road a few miles were several heathlands, woodlands and commons, like Esher Common which anyone can walk on with free parking. In England most open land you can walk on with your dog, even off the lead with no fear of being shot or prosecuted for trespassing. Our semi-detached house backed onto to the main wooded and grassy public areas which was a paradise for young kids to play in. All just about five minutes walk from the town centre and all the shops.
I often used to pass the very house that Oliver Cromwell signed King Charles’ death warrant in on the way to one of the riverside pubs. When you got older - 16-17, (legal age is 18) getting into a pub ordering a beer was the ultimate peer test. In some pubs it was easy - some not. We had Shepperton Studios not too far away - where they made the Bond films etc.
A while after I left one of my schools a new teacher arrived - she was married to a member of Status Quo.
Escape to London was easy - about a 30 min ride on a train on a commuter line and Heathrow barely a 40 min drive.
By Jim's a Romantic
November 7, 2006 02:48 PM | Link to this
bahahahahahahahaha…
And in the spring mummy would make us meat helmets and we would play tag with the wild ferrets by the old Southhampshire Locke. It was quite relaxing, really.
hahahahahahahahahahhahahahah
By DebbieDoRight
November 7, 2006 02:49 PM | Link to this
Campaign Lawyer: If the south, (especially georgia & mississippi) hadn’t originally played every dirty trick it had in the books to stop LEGAL u.s. citizens from voting, perhaps they wouldn’t need to fight so hard for “voter identification” now.
By Campaign Lawyer
November 7, 2006 02:49 PM | Link to this
FYI, for the first general election, the State of Indiana is implementing a new voter i.d. law that requires a driver’s license or i.d. card issued by the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles. Like South Carolina, the voter’s registration address and the address shown on the Indiana-issued photo i.d. must match, or the voter will be turned away. The state’s BMV offices have issued over 2,000 licenses and i.d. cards for purposes of voting today and yesterday. Would-be oters are permitted to go to the head of the BMV waiting lines so that they may still vote today.
By Curious Observer
November 7, 2006 02:50 PM | Link to this
Why do people who claim to have lived such idyllic childhoods now harbor such despicable political philosophies?
Is it that once confronted by the real world, they recoiled and developed their hatred of fellow human beings?
I’m sure that Hitler, if resurrected, could regale us with wonderful stories about painting postcards on the streets of Vienna. And his equally twisted admirers would no doubt express their admiration for his knack of telling a story.
Next, I expect to be entertained by childhood stories of the bombastic Markus and the embittered old Realist.
By DebbieDoRight
November 7, 2006 02:53 PM | Link to this
Ouch! Debbie’s retirement plan at Lucent went from $70 per share to a buck
No luckily for me I was just an intern. But I saw a lot of “lifers” who had been with the company 20+ years when it was AT&T screwed over big time.
By Campaign Lawyer
November 7, 2006 03:00 PM | Link to this
Somewhere on Auburn Avenue, a great man is spinning in his crypt. Past civil rights violations are not a justification for voter fraud in the here and now. Period. Organize, mobilize, register and vote for your the candidate. And bring your photo i.d. for future elections.
Vote twice, go to jail.
FYI, in Florida, in addition to checking your government-issued photo i.d., they also check your election-day sign-in signature against your electronically saved registration signature. Is that discrminatory? I believe the 1960s battle cry was “One man, one vote.” It was a good rhetorical flourish during the civil rights era, and it’s equally valid in 2006.
By getalife
November 7, 2006 03:03 PM | Link to this
Well, w is planning on sending the rest of the jobs to Vietnam.
It will be one of the first thing on his agenda whemn they return.
Time for the lies,
Shut up and go back.
Loser.
By Chazman
November 7, 2006 03:04 PM | Link to this
TFTT - went to London 10 years ago and absolutely loved it. Actually the purpose was to visit my father’s old base that he flew out of in WWII before he was shot down over Czek - Snetterton. Alot of fast cars there now, of course. Made overnite stops in Bath and other places I can’t recall. Of course did the Windsor thing, Cambridge, Oxford, Warwick castle, Westminster Abbey, St Pauls, Buckingham and the other places basic tourists would see. It’s a special place and I said then I would return, which I am currently working on now to do. When people would ask where I was from, as soon as I said Tennessee, they would say “Elvis”. And Jack Daniels, of course.
By Ditzty Malloy
November 7, 2006 03:04 PM | Link to this
At the age of 12 my son wanted to be an Altar Boy (Even though we are Jewish.) Last summer, at age sixteen, he applied for a Republican Congressional Page position. Now he wants to go to a New Life Church teen retreat.
Should I be worried?
VOTE REPUBLICAN
By Dana
November 7, 2006 03:06 PM | Link to this
J @1:05 - GREAT post! I agree completely.
Some of you seriously need a shot of humour, damn I’m glad I don’t live in YOUR gloomy households!
And, NO not all “liberals” are pessimists - well, this moderate isn’t, at least…. though some of the crap I see spewed in here (from both sides) does make me a bit disappointed. So I take a needed break - I’m telling you, (some)people in here need to get a grip on themselves!!!!
By The Way
November 7, 2006 03:10 PM | Link to this
Before you vote, and if you’re lucky enough to be reading this, know that Diebold was predicted by Nostradamus.
aw fudge, I’m sick of writing this bit.
My wife is making me vote today. It’s raining and I dont want to go. It’s not fair. I vote in Newt’s old district (all red all the time) and I was supposed to be the only one who was liberal and then She shows up as a liberal too, (sniff, blubberbabble, snort)……I love chewing gum…..I think liberals should boycott tuna……
By time for the truth
November 7, 2006 03:11 PM | Link to this
How revealing, the pathetic empty sneers still ooze out even when one is wholly non-political.
I suppose the rain today reminds me of old Albion in the autumn.
pinko observer’s twisted dishonest hate speech is hugely amusing - and (for today only) not worthy of a “proper” bite!!
By Not From Around Here, Huh?
November 7, 2006 03:13 PM | Link to this
I know that grammar, punctuation and consistent style are honored mostly in the breach by many posting members of the public on this blog, but I believe that it is still proper to refer to the capitalized proper noun, the “South,” when making mention of the southeastern region of the United States. The “south,” you say? In need of clarification, the south of what, I ask? : P
By Bemused Humanist
November 7, 2006 03:14 PM | Link to this
Dear Mr. Campaign Lawyer @ 2:15:
We have your word that there is large-scale voter fraud among poor Democrats. Care to elaborate? How much? Where? How many convictions? Was it absentee balloting (which the voter ID law doesn’t address)?
Any documented proof?
Of course, we have your word for it, and, as we all know, Republican politicos are models of intellectual and financial probity. Especially Georgian Republicans. Especially the Republican who is being investigated for mailing the “you-need-a-voter-ID” letter after a judge threw the law out.
Anyone who believes that illegal immigrants — who can’t speak the language and are so afraid of authorities that they don’t even report it when they are victims of crime — would risk a felony conviction and deportation by voting illegally is either mentally challenged or is not telling the truth.
Which is it in your case?
On the other hand, there is overwhelming evidence that tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands of Georgians, mostly elderly, rural, and poor, will be disenfranchised by a voter ID law.
Why don’t you be honest for once and admit that voter IDs are a ploy by Republicans to take away the right to vote by people who are less likely to vote in your favor? Try some honesty for once – you might find it ennobling.
You send people to Iraq to die for the Iraqi right to vote while taking away that very right from your own fellow citizens. You ought to be ashamed of yourself.
To a Humanist, the right to vote is sacred. I define “enemy” as anyone who is trying to take away my or my family’s freedom. By that measure, some unemployed cobbler minding his own business in Anbar province isn’t my enemy — but you, Glenn Richardson, and Sonny Perdue are.
More and more the only rationale conclusion viz. abominations like the Republican voter ID law is that it is time to bring the war home.
By getalife
November 7, 2006 03:16 PM | Link to this
get a grip on themselves!!!!
Now you have done it.
Bad choice of words with this crew.
By DebbieDoRight
November 7, 2006 03:18 PM | Link to this
Somewhere on Auburn Avenue, a great man is spinning in his crypt. Past civil rights violations are not a justification for voter fraud in the here and now.
If you fail to remember your history you are doomed to repeat it (paraphrased).
By Mrs. RepubLady
November 7, 2006 03:23 PM | Link to this
Attention, Faithful! Do not worry. Victory is ours, now and forever! Amen.
By time for the truth
November 7, 2006 03:24 PM | Link to this
Chazman
Its sadly no longer the England I knew and loved. But still well worth a visit. Try northern England next time -its as different culturally and physically from TN as CA is - although very obviously not in the same way. Yorkshire is beautiful, very historic with big metro cities. big market towns and small mining villages etc and the people are very friendly and very different to folks in the south east/London area. The Yorkshire Dales and Yorkshire coast are stunning and the train will take to you out to some of it - like Ilkley Moor.
I’ve been to Lynchburg twice and seen Graceland. Chattanooga is easily the best city in TN for me, I wasn’t impressed with Memphis and Nashville is very over rated.
By Pope rednecks - Amerikkka's Al Qaeda
November 7, 2006 03:36 PM | Link to this
The British Isles are exactly the opposite of the US - the farther north you go, the more ignorant, violent, inbred and uncivilized the populace….
By Peter
November 7, 2006 03:37 PM | Link to this
Hey Marcus, and all your goofy friends here……why don’t you tell us something positive the Republican party has done for America in the last 6 years…..
Please try to sound intelligent….
By Van
November 7, 2006 03:47 PM | Link to this
Pope rednecks - Amerikkka’s Al Qaeda
I guess that makes Italy enlightened then.
By Campaign Lawyer
November 7, 2006 03:52 PM | Link to this
Argumentum ad hominen is generally accepted as one of the most serious of logical fallacies, friends and neighbors. A difference of political opinion is really not any sort of justification for personal attacks, ill-considered vulgarity, or over-the-top mockery of others, even when you may hide behind the anonymity of your on-line postings.
My free advice: Don’t post anything anonymously that would embarrass your mother if she knew what you wrote. Good manners are still in style among good people, whether you are a Democrat, Independent, Republican or card-carrying Socialist.
As for my first-person evidence of voter fraud, I can cite numerous incidents of people voting twice, would-be voters registered at the address of empty lots, certifiably dead people voting, and, yes, coercive voting assistance provided to elderly registered voters in nursing homes. My personal experiences stem from northern Indiana, eastern Virginia and western North Carolina. Hell, in Clay County, North Carolina, elected sheriffs from BOTH parties were convicted and jailed for buying the votes of poor voters with $4 bottles of cheap whisky.
From a statistical standpoint, it is also interesting to note that certain identified precincts, usually populated by predominantly poor Democrats have abnormally high voter turn-out rates, in the range of 90 to nearly 100 percent. In any given preceinct, the attrition rate of registered voters resulting from death, movement within the precinct, movement outside the precinct, and registration lapse because of failure to vote in multiple consecutive elections is usually between 10% (very low for some very stable, small-town precincts) to as high as 40% (relatively high for some transient urban and suburban precincts). This means that a 100% turn-out of all registered voters still living in the precinct would, in reality, be something like 60 to 90% of those actually shown on the voter registration rolls; legitimate ninety percent turn-outs happen once in a generation, not very year. And I will even allow for the odd precinct or two where a local minister or other community leader has galvanized his flock, but that’s pretty darn rare, too.
As for one enlightened blogger’s comments about tightening up qualifications and formalities for absentee voters, I couldn’t agree more: we should do everything possible to tighten up the integrity of absentee ballots. Oddly, however, most of this type of naughty activity is also typically concentrated in the same precincts where election-day fraud is also predominant. Statistically, the quickest way to identify likely candidates for investigation is to cross-index the mailing addresses for all absentee ballots within a given precinct (yes, your county voter registrar does keep track of such things). If there are more than one or two absentee ballots sent to the same address (allowing for apartment or condominium unit numbers), and it isn’t a nursing home, that address probably bears some scrutiny. Sometimes, it’s a family away on vacation, etc.; many other times, someone is violating our election laws.
Yup, you only have my word (i.e. that of an anonymous blog-poster) that these things really do occur, but I would I be happy to buy you a beer at Manuel’s and tell you all about it, including some of the stupid, naughty and downright funny things that I know less scrupulous Republicans than myself have done. What sauce is good for the goose is good for the gander, and I advocate fairness for all and integrity in the process. Call me Pollyanna, but I still believe that should be the goal, and no well-intended political goals justify lying, cheating or stealing.
Sorry to leave y’all now, but I have clients who expect me to do work, even on Election Day.
By Dana
November 7, 2006 03:53 PM | Link to this
LMAO @ rednecks AAQ
What an idiot you are, but oh so loveable and fun to poke fun at!
By Mrs. RepubLady
November 7, 2006 03:56 PM | Link to this
Peter, I guess you forgot about how the Republican Congress cut Paris Hilton’s taxes, so she could keep more of her hard-earned and inherited money. It’s so important to our economy that her spending not be interrupted. They also made sure that those lower-class maids in her daddy’s hotels don’t get raises. They don’t need more money, and if they had it, they’d only spend it on pointless things like medicine for their poor, sick, brown-skinned brats. Better that nature take care of the sick little ones. Why are you so ungrateful?
By time for the truth
November 7, 2006 04:00 PM | Link to this
go hang out with Millwall, Palace or West Ham in London rednekkks NAMBLA - you’ll soon see the moronic ignorance of your statement. You’re mostly right about scousers in Liverpool and most Geordies - but overall you’re hopelessly wrong about the English north.
The general level of ignorance, self aborption, cultural cretinism and violent bigotry in the USA is actually worst of all in the North and especially NE USA - and only noticeable in the south in localised pockets heavily infested with UNWANTED yankkkee transplants!!
By The Way
November 7, 2006 04:03 PM | Link to this
The trail of votes provided by the Diebold Machines isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on.
By Peter
November 7, 2006 04:04 PM | Link to this
HA HA HA…………..that is great……
Thank you Mrs RepubLady…..I have been enlightened with humor and intelligence…….
Now that combination has been very hard to find here!
By The Way
November 7, 2006 04:05 PM | Link to this
The voting trail provided by Diebold machines isn’t worth the paper it isn’t printed on.
By Peter
November 7, 2006 04:12 PM | Link to this
HA HA HA ….time for the truth…..so where are you from……are you actually going to compare a education in the North to one in the south?????
By time for the truth
November 7, 2006 04:21 PM | Link to this
Peter
DUH!!! Obviously your English comprehension skills are close to the level of the average yankkkee … I am from ENGLAND … giant hint: read my earlier posts about my formative years in Surrey!!
By Pope rednecks - Amerikkka's Al Qaeda
November 7, 2006 04:30 PM | Link to this
Poor tftt/tommy - didn’t know that England is NOT the British Isles - Scotland is the ancestral home of the Amerikkkan redneck, a more violent stupid filthy people cannot be found in Europe, perhaps in the entire world…
By time for the truth
November 7, 2006 04:31 PM | Link to this
OFF TO VOTE REPUBLICAN VERY SHORTLY
At least GA will retain its GOP control. If the pinko cut and runners do get the house in D.C. it will be a short lived two years.
By farley
November 7, 2006 04:31 PM | Link to this
Good RIDDANCE! to the old south of hangings, burnings and other such otrocities by these people Jim Wooten longs for. No doubt some of them are still around..wallowing all decrepit in their immoral turpitude.
By Peter
November 7, 2006 04:31 PM | Link to this
Yes Time a bit snobish I guess…..ha ha ha…….no I didn’t read your earlier post!
So you are not even from America, and you feel compelled to bash the Northeast….
You can go back home now……does a day like today remind you of where you grew up?
By Dusty
November 7, 2006 04:37 PM | Link to this
Heaven help us!!
I think Mrs. RepubLady is the reincarnation of Captain Freedom.
By Pope rednecks - Amerikkka's Al Qaeda
November 7, 2006 04:41 PM | Link to this
You know, I’ve been ot of the office all day today, but even so, the redneck trash nutters on this blog, the Woo-ten Klanners and the Luckovich Losers, can’t seem to live without me.
Lord, send these heathen rednecks to Hell, in Jesus’s Name we pray.
By Van
November 7, 2006 04:45 PM | Link to this
Just looking over the reports of voting itrregularities. Most are simple operator error on the part of those setting up the machines. But all the crying is by the left over their electroninc voting machines.
I guess the republicans were too smart and fooled the democrats into getting electronic voting machines.
By Peter
November 7, 2006 04:46 PM | Link to this
Well Time for the truth seems to have found a home in the SOUTH……he has shown his true self……name calling, prejudice, and putting down places, and people he knows very little about…..
He must have been hanging poor folks back in his old country…..and feels quite at home here in Jim Wooten’s old South, where a pillow case wasn’t just for your pillow!
He longs for the grey days in Old England, and his precious life style he left behind………..
I am amazed he still lives here……..
By time for the truth
November 7, 2006 05:27 PM | Link to this
I know the north well enough (how the hell do you know what I know about the north - (you arrogant yanKKKee) - and I live in the south … and sadly the south is now increasingly full of northerners who have migrated south. Funny how southerners have NOT moved up north in similar numbers.
YanKKKees leave in droves to move south and ruin the south and leave their own liberal paradise!!
I just voted and happily the Bush Cheney car stickers and Sonny posters/stickers heavily outnumbered the demoNcrats.
Clearly childhood remininiscences are hardly a “precious lifestyle” - yet more yanKKKee dishonesty!!
By The Way
November 7, 2006 05:27 PM | Link to this
The voting trail left by Diebold machines aint worth the paper it aint even printed on.
By CJ
November 7, 2006 05:43 PM | Link to this
Van reminds us again at 4:45 that Democrats were the ones demanding electronic voting. Very astute. He’s entirely correct.
Our mistake was that we didn’t say anything about wanting our votes to be both secure and verifiable. At the time, I made the assumption that such characteristics went without saying. I assumed wrong.
By time for the truth
November 7, 2006 05:45 PM | Link to this
rednekkks NAMBLA is obviously too pig ignorant to know that the British Isles refers to Great Britain and Ireland. It is moronically redundant to cite the British Isles when referring to the porridge gobbling jocks of Scotland. Great Britain is the correct ‘designation’. Even one conversant with “the new British history” would not make such a dimwitted mistake.
By getalife
November 7, 2006 05:55 PM | Link to this
Blogstock
Go back home lies.
Bloody wanker.