chrisishardcore.com

When Hollywood Strikes

I saw the new Harrison Ford movie Firewall the other day and while the movie was pretty good yet a little unbelievable, British bank robbers have pulled off a crime in a similar vein. The interesting part is that the movie doesn't even come out until March 31st there, which may be why the British press doesn't mention the seemingly obvious parallels to the movie in any of the stories I've read.

Nobody Asked For Dunwoody...

...But we're getting it anyway. I hear even Dick Williams is a little confused about the rush to create DeKalb's great unwanted city. I think Democrats have a great opportunity in Dunwoody -- one that didn't exist in Sandy Springs, because there may actually be a collective WTF moment. DeKalb County's services are unparalleled, and though Dunwoody residents aren't exactly fans of CEO Vernon Jones, they helped create him. No Republicans ran in the 2000 election to replace term limited CEO Liane Levetan, and the DeKalb GOP endorsed Vernon in a multicandidate field which helped him win a contested primary and runoff.

Since the new Republican mantra for state government seems to be "trust us", you won't find anything about Dunwoody's borders, unless you want to read a boring bill full of exciting Dunwoody border information like plus or minus, to a point in Land Lot 378; thence continuing on the DeKalb/Fulton County line and Tract: 212.14,BG: 2,2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012. I do this work for you so you don't have to.

Anyway, below you will see a picture of the Dunwoody City Council districts, as proposed by Dan Weber. You can click on the picture to see an exciting Google Map where you can zoom in and out to find your house and see if you're included in Dunwoody.

Weber also has bills to alter Chamblee and Doraville's boundaries, essentially swallowing up Northern DeKalb whole by the cities. One big difference between North DeKalb and North Fulton, though: we haven't asked for this. In fact, I understand a surprising number of respondents to a survey put out by North DeKalb's Senator and Representatives responded that they wanted to stay put (which is why Dunwoody's boundaries stay north of 285). I would guess cosponsors Sen. Eric Johnson (Savannah) and Tommie Williams (Lyons) don't want me drawing up bills to alter Vidalia and Hinesville, so what gives?

Hillary Boosterism

Wow this is a really really good poll for Hillary. I'm surprised it hasn't made the rounds yet. Possibly because it is A) good for Hillary and there aren't many Hillary boosters in the blogosphere and B) bad for Wesley Clark and this unhealthy obsession refuses to die a graceful death in the same blogosphere.

True American Hero

Just remember, the guy pictured below has millions of dollars and yet he and his wife will be eating where they always eat on Valentine's Day...Wendy's.

Very Important Story

Critics Say Perdue Education Budget Hurts Old, Disabled.

There are so many things wrong with that headline. Critics in this case would be THE FACTS. Perdue promises to do a number of things in his budget, like provide at home care for needy seniors which could keep them out of expensive nursing homes (which the state would pick up the tab).

The only problem is that he only funds the at-home care for six months in what is a twelve month budget. Six months ends before January, when the legislature would reconvene, so an expensive special session could be required to fix this political ploy, especially if tax receipts don't come in at the amount the governor's office assumes will be available.

Somehow, the editors of the AJC let Dan McLagan get away with saying whatever he wants again and again. In this case, responding to Dubose Porter's point that Perdue has fully funded election year gimmicks aimed at getting him re-elected -- like $100 gift cards for Georgia teachers who wouldn't have to buy classroom supplies with their own money if Perdue fully funded QBE (which he doesn't, despite the AJC's glowing coverage of his education budget), McLagan says "Some of these folks [Porter] don't understand how things work as well as our folks do."

That is just utter b.s. It wouldn't go over if the AJC were a serious paper, if the editors weren't so in favor of Perdue's re-election, and if they had the balls to publish critical stories of the incumbent governor even though their own internal polling shows he is likely to win.

James Salzer is a serious reporter, and time and again he has done quality objective reporting that just so happens to show Perdue in what is not the most favorable light. And his editors have rewritten his stories and in this case buried it -- it isn't linked anywhere, I had to search for his name to find it.

Salzer has uncovered a case where Perdue is blatantly playing budgetary games to curry favor in an election year. But Salzer is just one reporter, and I can only wonder how much Perdue's budget would stink if the paper devoted an entire investigative staff to combing through it making sure it adds up.

Instead, the AJC buries real stories, labels people that point out facts "partisan critics" and prints whatever smart ass quote Dan McLagan cooked up playing poker with his housemates the night before. Serious journalism in this state takes a further hit, because if you don't think the lesson Democrats (or future Republicans) have learned for when they return to power is to try and get away with whatever they can from a cowed press, you're fooling yourself.

R.I.P. Hackett

So, Paul Hackett has dropped out of the Ohio Senate Primary. Here was a guy who was never very progressive. He ran in a special election where he was the only Democratic Candidate for Congress in a six month time span, and in a district with a Democratic performance of about 35% he almost pulled it off, but largely because his status as the only Democrat on the ballot in the entire USA meant he could raise national money against an awful Republican candidate -- who is now in Congress despite her awfulness.

After he lost a special election for Congress, albeit an impressive loss, his online supporters, who were way more liberal than he was, encouraged him to run for US Senate in Ohio. The only problem is that a true progressive candidate, an incumbent Congressman from the Cleveland area named Sherrod Brown was already running. Something like 60% of Ohio's Democratic primary voters live in the Cleveland area. Less than 10% live in Hackett's Cincinatti metropolitan area.

So this guy basically had no chance. It would be like a little known Democrat from Brunswick running against John Lewis in a statewide primary in Georgia. The money dried up for Hackett, and Democratic Senate leaders probably did tell potential donors "Don't waste your money. This guy is going to lose the primary, and the Congressman who is going to win anyway needs your money to take on the Republican."

Folks, that is politics. When some netroots opinion leader with 1,000,000 readers tells them to give money to Joe Lieberman's primary opponent, is that dirty politics? Nope. It's just politics. When Senate leaders have a preference it's the same thing -- just politics. Don't like it? Well give your money to someone else. But it's your money, and a donor who hears that he shouldn't give to Hackett and then doesn't is exercising his rights -- it's his money afterall, not the netroots' ATM.

Is Hackett's withdrawal and retirement from politics some sort of defeat or wake up call to the netroots movement? They can choose to interpret it that way, but it would be a mistake. The new online movement has had limited success changing conventional things about politics that have always been true -- winning a tough Presidential election or a Senate seat Democrats don't usually hold are two good examples, and two lessons learned in '04. They have had some great successes in other areas, like putting a focus on special elections and combining limited resources to make a big difference, like in Hackett's special election.

If I had to guess, I'd say past political performance, which is based in large part on the ability of a candidate to acquire resources to win an election -- which is based primarily on previous election results in a given district, will be of minimal importance in special elections, because the activists on a state or national level will be able to marshall resources in a highly focused manner.

This is a huge development, and with Herseth, Chandler and Hackett we've already seen two examples of Democrats winning in districts they don't normally carry -- and then getting re-elected in a regular election, thus altering the political performance going forward. Viewed through a narrow spectrum, a lot of emotion was invested in Hackett, and when he didn't win it was almost as big of a letdown as Kerry's loss for many people. But over the next 10 years there will be lots of special elections, chances to expand the field slowly but surely in general elections, and eventually a Democratic President.

The netroots movement, of which Hackett has been a symbolic figurehead, will have influence ranging from minimal to enormous in these events. Looking back in many years things will have changed for the better because of the contributions and sacrifices that have yet to be made. If people want to throw all of that away because Paul Hackett made a smart decision to exit a costly primary he couldn't win, then go ahead. But they'll regret it.

Quote of the Week

Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal, a Democrat, said the accident wouldn't keep him from going on a bipartisan hunt with Cheney. "I would be proud to hunt with the vice president — cautious, but proud," he told reporters. link.

We need more Democrats who can fire off a quote as humorous and unoffensive as that.

Comments Feed Added

I have added a comments RSS feed to this site, available in the column on the left. Sorry I've been lax on updating, I hope things will pick up as the legislative session picks up a bit.