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I've only been inside the Fox Theatre one time in my life and I had a feeling then that it was a magical place. My cousin and I went to see Jeff Foxworthy tell some You Might Be a Redneck Jokes sometime around 1994 when we were in high school. Don't hold it against me please. I've always wanted to go back to the Fox at some point although I just haven't had the opportunity.
I got directed to a fascinating story this morning about a man named Joe Patten that lives in an apartment hidden in the Fox Theatre. Over the past hour, I've clicked on story after story after learning that the Fox Theatre wants Mr. Patten to sign a new lease which could terminate his stay at the Fox.
Patten, formerly the theater's technical director, has lived in a 3,640-square-foot apartment rent-free for 30 years. The lease, signed in December 1979, said he could remain there for life.
That lease could be terminated if Patten became permanently disabled for 180 days or more and a panel of three doctors said he should be hospitalized. The lease also could be terminated if Atlanta Landmarks, the nonprofit that runs the Fox, does so by a two-thirds vote.
That's what happened at a closed meeting Monday afternoon.The board issued Patten a new lease, one that says he can live there "as long as he is able."Vella said that means "when Joe needs significantly more care," such as live-in aide.
I'm not sure about the legality of forcing a new lease upon him if he had signed a lease allowing him a life long agreement. A group of folks have started a wonderful Facebook page titled Save Joe the Phantom of the Fox in support of allowing Mr. Patten to stay in the Fox under his current agreement.
theater
Elder care is a touchy subject. However, I believe that we must honor the wishes of the individual to live how they choose. As we grow older we should be able to enjoy our lives. In this case it appears the Fox would not even exist today without Mr. Patten's tender care of this facility over the past thirty years. A new lease reeks of ageism as Mr. Patten appears to be in good health and has plenty of friends and family willing to assist him. We also learned that originally that someone associated with the Fox essentially sent Patten a letter saying he needed to leave. The decision to ask Mr. Patten that seems cold and callous. Furthermore, the Fox theater seems to have created a public relations nightmare.
We will keep you posted as this story progresses. In the meantime we hope you will join the facebook page and learn more about Joe Patten.
(another one of our PE candidates. Paul Broun was a surprise winner a couple of years back in a special election. Let's send him home. - promoted by admin)
Paul Broun, Jr. recently visited Athens, GA, for an America Speaks Out Town Hall and spread his wild conspiracy theories. Athens is a progressive city in GA, home to R.E.M., the B-52s, of Montreal, DJ Dangermouse. It also hosts the University of Georgia. The fact that Broun Jr. represents this community is an utter embarrassment to all Georgians and Americans. I feel compelled to share today about how we can fight together to defeat him in November.
Jon Soltz cofounder of VoteVets.org is a tireless advocate for our men and women in harm's way. He knows they are not threatened by a lack of Top Gun style air to air jet fighters. Soltz a vet himself says, "we didn't have enough body armor, we didn't have enough armored trucks." Today on MSNBC News Live with David Shuster Jon Soltz debated Georgia Congressman Phil Gingrey on more F22 spending.
Phil Gingrey fearmongers about the Russians and the Chinese in order to push his pro F22 agenda. Not to mention he brings up the inevitable loss of jobs as an excuse to not cut military spending. You can use that excuse for every necessary reform we have to push through, and Republicans have and will. Conveniently when it's not about military spending they don't worry about the jobs. Soltz doesn't let the jobs argument go though, he says F35s are made in the same building, and the jobs will remain if we buy the appropriate (and much cheaper) planes.
The State of Georgia does not have the same lax campaign finance laws as Alabama. While on The Kudzu Vine earlier tonight, the hosts discussed some campaign contribution issues going on in their state.
These contributions had to be returned by the Oxendine campaign.
Well today,
Interestingly the contributions in question were tied to PAC's run by Alabama's Donald V. Watkins.
Campaign records filed with Georgia show Oxendine's campaign received payments totalling $120,000 from 10 Alabama PACs in the fall and winter of 2008. The AJC traced all of those PACs back to either a post office box or the address of the Alamerica Bank, which is co-owned by Watkins.
Alabama Secretary of state records show Watkins co-founded a bank with Yancey's father, who used to run State Mutual. Alabama Secretary of State records list Watkins' son, Donald V. Watkins Jr., as the chair of all the PACs. He did not return calls for comment. Watkins said his son simply served as an administrator to the PACs.
Alabama Secretary of State records, reported under the Alabama Fair Campaign Practices Act, show nine of the PACs received just one donation each in the last two months of 2008 - a $14,000 payment from "Admiral Life Insurance Company of America, P.O. Box 33, Rome, GA, 30162-0033."
An article in today's AJC focuses on contributions made by Special Assistant Attorney Generals (SAAG's)
Here's the lead from that story
Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker's office has paid more than $173 million in the last five years to private lawyers to handle state business, and many of those attorneys or their firms have contributed to his re-election campaigns.
The attorney general, who is a Democratic candidate for governor in 2010, said his office is short-staffed and that the state can't keep up with all its legal work without hiring private attorneys. But critics say the hiring of private lawyers, known as special assistant attorneys general, creates a financial incentive for lawyers and firms to contribute to an attorney general's campaign to secure or retain business.
The eight lawyers who were paid the most for SAAG work during the past five years collected $22.7 million from the attorney general's office. Since 2001, those lawyers, their law firms, colleagues and immediate family members have contributed nearly $200,000 to Baker campaigns, an AJC review of campaign records found.
"if we truly want to stimulate the economy, there's no better place to do that than defense spending."
Saxby Shameless is at it again. So he's all for frivolous defense spending, but votes against the GI Bill and votes not to protect our troops with adequate armor. However, Saxby advocates spending on millions on a wasteful jet as the key ingredient to getting our economy back in gear.
You just can't say anymore about this it is so laughable.
1. Yesterday as a blogger was such a mad rush. I woke up to the news of Larry Langford's indictment and never looked back. Well, back to business as usual. I imagine Larry will be back in the news today. He will probably announce that Birmingham is building something so that they will come. What I don't know, but it could be anything. Perhaps a good day to announce putting the United Nations in Birmingham? Carol Smitherman, don't break out your Mayor Cap anytime soon.
2. The Morning Blues should not last all day as this is the day us election junkies have been waiting for. The Georgia U.S. Senate runoff concludes today with a vote. Jim Martin will either be victorious in getting rid of Saxby Chambliss or we will have to endure another 6 years of Saxby Shameless. Expect a low to moderate turnout in the State of Georgia. I wouldn't expect this race to be called until late as Martin will certainly keep it close.
3. Mr. Obama is meeting with Governors today in Philadelphia. Why are we calling him Mr. Obama? Isn't he still a Senator or heck he is going to be the President? Can we just call him Barack?
Anyways 40 Governors will be at the meeting to discuss what can be done to rev the economy back up. Bob Riley will be there with Medicaid on his agenda. No, Artur Davis you did not get the invite to that meeting. badump tish
I got an email from the Martin campaign this morning with this important request
Due to the Thanksgiving holiday, our campaign must buy our remaining television ad slots by the end of the day tomorrow. That means you have just a short time to dramatically affect our campaign. The more support we have from you, the more we'll be able to reach voters all across Georgia.
I just got a question from an avid reader as the best way to help (from way out of state) in the Minnesota recount and/or the Georgia Senate runoff. I would first say that I am committed to the Georgia Senate runoff and have not paid as much attention to the Minnesota Senate recount.
I did get an email from Democratic Gain with suggestions of how to help in either of these or the Louisiana runoffs. I would suggest that you send them an email if you can phone bank from out of state. I think they mostly need folks on the ground for the Minnesota Runoff recount.
Donations (if you can afford to) are another good way to help even if it is just a couple of dollars.
Interested in helping Democrat Jim Martin beat Sen. Saxby Chambliss in the Georgia run-off election on December 2nd? There are travel stipends and supporter housing available. Interested people should email volunteer@martinvictory.com.
The Minnesota Democratic Party is looking for volunteers to make sure every Minnesota vote is counted between Democrat Al Franken and Sen. Norm Coleman. The recount is scheduled to begin on November 19th. Gas stipend and supporter housing is available. Interested folks should email efought@dfl.org for more information and should also list out availability from start to end, full contact information, whether you have a car, and whether you need housing.
And, because Hurricane Gustav messed up the election calendar, there is a special general election in the Louisiana 4th (Shreveport area) between Democrat Paul Carmouche and Republican John Flemming. The election is December 6th and they need some boots on the ground to help turn this red district blue. Interested folks should email the campaign directly at info@carmoucheforcongress.com or call (318) 703-3711.
Okay so I'm getting moving again on my state diaries. That takes me to Georgia. McCain won the State of Georgia by a 52-47 margin and just over 200k votes.
The Dems gained Six points from their 2004 showing.
Obama won a handful of more counties than Kerry in 2004. He increased margins in Democratic counties and came closer in Atlanta republican counties like Gwinnett county. Obama also had a modest increase in Clarke County (University of Georgia). I would like to do a diary on how much better Obama did across the country in college towns.
We have an opportunity like no other to continue our good works of this election and send Jim Martin to the U.S. Senate from Georgia.
How sweet a sound it would be to send Saxby Chambliss to defeat in December.
From Chambliss's campaign spokesperson Michelle Grasso in The AJC .
"The profile of the race went up in the last few weeks. We'll be getting some extra hands and we will need them"
Grasso said she did not know how much a runoff might cost, but said new contributions for their campaign began arriving Wednesday after word got out that a runoff might be in the offing.
I think the next four weeks are going to be highly interesting and highly competitive," Chambliss said from his Cobb County office.
Democrat Jim Martin, who now has 46.7 percent, was holding his own press conference miles away in downtown Atlanta. Libertarian Allen Buckley won a crucial 3.4 percent of Tuesday's vote.
"We're in a runoff," Martin said. "The runoff race begins right now."
I believe we have a shot at picking up this seat if we band together and take full aim.
We still have absentee votes to come in from Fulton County. This should benefit Martin and possibly lower Chambliss from his 49.9 perch.
Karen Handel grandstanded to say that the Dems were Grandstanding on asking for some concessions in early voting. Handel is the Georgia Secretary of State that has been very dogmatic in her role as the chief election official.
I believe that I accurately described Handel earlier in the week as a political hack.
Secretary Handel is extremely pleased with early voting turnout and how the overwhelming majority of Georgia's county election offices prepared for and managed the early voting process. Two million Georgians voted early, nearly 90 percent in person with photo ID. This historic turnout will ease pressures on the state's 3,000 precincts on Election Day. County election officials will now spend Saturday, Sunday and Monday making critical final preparations for Election Day, and the Secretary of State's office will deploy election monitors and technicians to assist them.
At the same time, Secretary Handel is disappointed that a handful of elected officials, political party organizations, activist groups and media outlets used this occasion to politicize the early voting process. Their failed attempts to find fault with the Secretary of State's role in election oversight through grandstanding, patently false allegations and biased reporting revealed their desire to create confusion and chaos among voters to further their political agendas.
Jim Martin has a real chance to beat Saxby Chambliss in the Georgia U.S. Senate race. A new research 2000 poll shows Martin and Chambliss in a dead heat.
Saxby has a slim one point lead 47-46.
However, we have a likely runoff on our hands as all polling pretty much shows Libertarian Allen Buckley at a steady 5%. Georgia has that crazy 50 +1 rule that would require a runoff if no candidate crosses the 50% threshold.
I have been reading as much as I can get my fingers on tonight and it looks like when the good book of the election 2008 is sealed, the DSCC will have spent $5 million in the State of Georgia.
I believe that if that is the case we will have done no worse than have forced a runoff. Just a quick comment. Gooooooooo Jim
Florida extended early voting hours through the weekend. We should thank Florida Governor Charlie Christ for being non-partisan in this decision. Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel, had the same opportunity to do the right thing and she choose to instead act like a party hack.
When it comes to actions by elected officials and voting, you should always err on the side of making it easier for the voters to cast their ballot. Instead, Handel believes that extending early voting hours would be a logistical nightmare. Does she have any idea what Tuesday will be like?
I've heard numerous first hand accounts of the long lines in Georgia early voting places. For example, voters in Clayton County have had to wait in excess of three hours to count their vote. First, let me applaud these citizens for taking part in democracy. Waiting three hours for the right to vote should be commended.
However, three hours this week might turn into 10 or 12 hours on Tuesday. Well over 1 million voters in Georgia have voted early. I believe that extending voting hours would have been a way to encourage voter participation. Telling the voters that hours cannot be extended is tantamount to telling them that we don't care if everyone has the right to vote. Their is no valid reason for not extending early voting hours.
Hopefully, when Karen Handel comes up for re-election voters will remember that she denied them extended early voting.
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