One week after President Obama made a stop in the Peach state to speak to a disabled American veterans group, former governor Sarah Palin brought her celebrity crazed road show to Atlanta.  Palin was campaigning for Karen Handel– one of the participants vying for the republican nomination for governor of Georgia.  Jim Galloway gives us the lowdown on some odd imagery at the Palin event:

The crowd is packed in a ballroom of the Hotel Intercontinental in Buckhead – though the fire marshal hasn’t yet been summoned. Probably between 1,500 and 2,000. The Huckabee event for Deal drew about 700.

The Huckabee event probably did not include Huckabee impersonators. The Palin event does. There’s a woman here in a red suit, brown hair piled on top, with glasses.

The Huckabee event probably did not include Huckabee’s head on a stake, held aloft for all the crowd to see. The Palin event does, with wig and glasses.

What’s that? I asked. “A disembodied Sarah Palin head. In a good way,” said Handel spokesman Dan McLagan. “Maybe ‘disembodied’ isn’t the right word. A Sarah Palin head.”

Maybe disembodied is another one of those folksy terms like Mama Grizzly.  I would imagine if this were an event for Barack Obama– and there were an image of an Obama floating head perched high atop a poll– that image and the event would immediately be castigated.  Those with the head would face charges of idolatry, and Barack Obama would be eviscerated for tolerating idol worshiping.  Not Palin.  She continues to astonish all those who possess an ounce of intelligence, by her ability to hold no substantive views, yet accumulate plaudits for her unconventionality.  Were I Karen Handel, I’d be very leery of the poison Palin endorsement– considering how well it work out for the last few she endorsed.

Maybe this time will be different.  Perhaps the big, disembodied head just might swing the tide to Handel’s favor.

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It should come as no surprise that GOP politics in the south borders on fear and pandering.  This ad does nothing to dispel that notion.

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President Obama was in my city Atlanta Monday to deliver a speech to the Disabled American Veterans. The speech detailed the end of combat missions in Iraq. What struck me most was not the speech itself–the writing has been on the walls for months regarding the cessation of hostilities in Iraq–it was the scurrying of one high profile democrat into the cracks. Democrat Roy Barnes–who happens to be running for another term as governor of the state–was hundreds of miles away at an already scheduled appointment.   The timing is very odd.

It’s totally possible Barnes didn’t want to breathe in the perceived toxic fumes the president is giving off right now.  Especially in a state like Georgia, where most democrats don’t seem to have the stones to stand up for policies they trumpeted during the campaign of 2008. And it wouldn’t be the first time a democrat running for governor ducked the president.

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Here’s an update to my earlier post about health care legislation– and the upcoming lawsuit being pursued by several state attorney generals.  Watch Georgia attorney general Thurbert Baker give his reasons for not joining the suit below:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

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It is March Madness time!  I’m not talking about the health care morass.  I am talking about one of the purest, most exciting forms of athletic prowess and achievement we enjoy in America.  Exceptional college basketball is just the appetizer– as most people enjoy the thrill of the underdog knocking off the over-dog– with a shot at the buzzer.  Ah, the beauty of sports.  Unfortunately, I am not doing a bracket this year.  The thought of getting my ass kicked again by a pubescent child was just too much to bear this year.

I am here to give you my favorite spots to watch the perfect sporting event, in my last two stomping grounds.  First up, our nation’s capital, where I lived just a few blocks from the White House– and once saw James Carville’s dog take a crap (he did not scoop it).

Washington, D.C.

Rhino Bar and Pumphouse

Two things in the man’s lexicon that are golden on game-day:  Drink specials and televisions.  Lots of them.  In fact, they have huge HD screens, so you’ll always be able to see what’s what during the game.  Plus, it’s located in the Georgetown section of Washington, a good area to be in during March Madness because of the energy and activity.  If you’re in the District, I highly recommend checking out the tourney here.

In Atlanta, there are so many places to enjoy yourself on game day.  My choice:

Stats

Stats is a serious sports bar, and a sports aficionado’s dream.  The food is excellent, the atmosphere is energetic, and the screens are everywhere.  And I haven’t even mentioned the beer taps at your table.  Pretty awesome.  Located conveniently in Downtown Atlanta, Stats is the spot to hang out with other hoop heads and have a good time.

Try to come up with a good excuse to skip work, and enjoy the games.

An added bonus.  My new favorite beers:  Celebrator and Sam Adams Doppelbock.  Check it out:

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So Ben Roethlisberger decided to show the sleepy little town of Milledgeville a good time huh?  I don’t think it turned out quite like he expected. Roethlisberger is a man, who by all rights enjoys all of the trappings of a superstar athlete and quarterback.  Money and fame are symptomatic of his celebrity, possibly the reason why he’s become synonymous with bad boy irresponsibility.  Roethlisberger, the 29 year old quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers, is embroiled in a sexual assault case, based upon allegations of a 20 year old college student.  I’ll dispense with the how could Ben have put himself in this situation again, and get to the crux of the matter:  This case is more about the alleged guilt of an NFL superstar, then it is about his possible victim.  Reading various media reports and bloggers, I get the sense that the outrage lay not in the actual act (alleged crime) that occurred, but more with Roethlisberger’s mental capacity.

A terrific case can be made (and is quite successfully by a blogger here)– that apologies are being made for Big Ben– and his alleged behavior is akin to adolescent frat boy shennanigans not criminal pathology:

To keep partying like a frat boy when you’ve got much bigger responsibilities would have been irresponsible…. Ben clearly is.

Surely the pattern here alone with Roethlisberger has to startle people.  But this seems to me more about criminal deviancy, than boorish jocular antics.  I’m trying to be careful not to convict Ben, but recognizing the severity of these allegations, and the affects it may have on these young women, is more important than any lesson he could learn from this.  Annie Shields summed it up nicely:

When an athlete is accused of sexual assault there’s usually no shortage of voices expressing doubt about the allegations. This case, however, is different. Now that Roethlisberger is at the center of his second sexual abuse scandal in nine months, commentators have been forced to revise their typical skeptical responses. As it turns out, the classic approach of discrediting or blaming the victim doesn’t play as well the second time around, so, instead of maligning the quarterback’s 20-year-old accuser, many in the media have simply ignored her.

I don’t know if it’s fair to criticize how the media is treating this situation.  They may, in their quest to be non-judgmental, refuse to vilify Mr. Roethlisberger– or convict him in the court of public opinion before the facts of the case are made public.  But they probably shouldn’t totally dismiss the claims of this young woman either.  Ignoring them and her sets a dangerous precedent for women who fall prey to deviants, and ensures their silence in cases such as this.

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Sometimes I think the state of Georgia exists in a plastic bubble, aimlessly drifting in an airless vacuum.  This is from the dumb things politicians spend their time on file:

Tuesday, the House State Planning & Community Affairs Committee reported out a resolution that says the General Assembly nor the people of Georgia “consider themselves bound to comply with the orders of any presidentially appointed czar.”

House Resolution 1146 is sponsored by two candidates for Congress; state Representatives Clay Cox and Bobby Reese.

Where the hell do I live?

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I read a great piece on the boy wonder of  shady Georgia politics, Ralph Reed yesterday.  Reed apparently had decided to run for the open congressional seat vacated by Republican John Lindner.  We can now all take solace in the fact that lil’ Reed has decided not to run:

Former Christian Coalition architect Ralph Reed, who is known to be considering a possible bid in Georgia’s open 7th district, announced Tuesday that he’d make his future plans known on Wednesday. But multiple Georgia GOP insiders said Tuesday afternoon that they believe the former lieutenant governor candidate will simply be announcing that he will pass on the Congressional contest.

According to one source, Reed, a well-known conservative voice who lives in the 7th district, has not reached out to key supporters in Georgia about running for Congress. Others pointed out that his trip to New York on Monday for a Fox New appearance isn’t the move of a would-be candidate getting his team together ahead of a Congressional campaign announcement.

Many are the sins of Mr. Reed.  Most of them are too numerous to recount.  But let’s try.  Here, here, and here.

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If you come to Savannah, you’re gonna be eating.  Most likely, something battered and fried. And the president did eat.  A lot.  That’s why I love Georgia.  The president also talks about the economy at Mrs. Wilkes’ Dining Room.

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Not only did the month of February bring the ATL it’s first significant snow of the year, we were treated to an inexplicable breakout of Wild Kingdom through the city streets.

I can’t wait to see what the month of March has in store for the city.  Probably a visit from the legendary “Tree Man.”

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