Oconee County, GA Politics

ABC News: Rice Again Rules Out 2008 White House Run

I wonder if Rev. King knew this was what would come to pass on his career. MLK Day of Service

Good morning, North Georgians! I woke up in the wee hours recently, and caught an American University presentation on C-Span 2, which dealt with E-Activism. I thought about you when I learned the following: 7% of us (online) consider ourselves political activists.... and of that 7%, 70% of us have taken direct political action online. We are called 'influentials' as a result of our direct political action. I am writing you to ask you to take that leap into direct political action this morning. Athens-Clarke County has been placed in real jeopardy by recent legislation submitted by Republican State Senator Ralph Hudgens which would split our tiny Democratic county in half, and have him, and another Republican representing us from adjacent Republican Counties! Under the proposal, Athens-Clarke County would be divided into two Senate districts. All of Oglethorpe County and half of Madison County would be moved from the 46th to the 47th District, and Walton County would be m...

But do you think Sonny will listen? OnlineAthens.com | Letters to the Editor | Irene Budoff: Redistricting bill shows limited power of voters 01/16/06

Congressman Barrow donates his frequent flier miles to get a few more soldiers home OnlineAthens.com | News | Barrow to donate frequent-flyer miles 01/16/06

Welcome Back Young Dems! I hope everyone had a great break. The first meeting of this semester will be this Wednesday, January 18 at 6 PM in room 350 of the SLC. We have a really ambitious semester ahead of us and will be using this semester to kick of our three main priorities. These include YDG Convention 2006, Issues Campaign in Athens and Campaign Match-up for 2006 – we will have more details and overview on Wednesday, but we are really looking forward to an active and progressive semester. Also, as you probably are aware, the Georgia Legislative session began last Monday and the Republicans have already begun to pull some funny stuff. Please pay attention in particular to a News Release below from our Athens Democratic Representatives regarding proposed maps to change the way Athens is districted. We have a HUGE semester ahead of us – please come out Wednesday and help us kick it all off! Democratically Yours, Yvonne Williams President - UGA Young Democrats ivyskid@uga.e...

When the Washington Times is reporting from Dawsonville, Georgia about how your campaign is in trouble, you know Ralph Reed is having a bad time. In Ga., Abramoff Scandal Threatens a Political Ascendancy

Maybe they played loud enough for him to hear (OK I admit, this was a tasteless and cheap swipe at him and I should apologize. He has done a lot of good work for those who have hearing impairments. But I do think he should do a much better job of listening to his constituents regardless of his hearing ability. In the limited times I have seen Rep. Smith speak he would always be first to make fun of his own hearing situation as much as anyone ever would, so I guess I crossed some unspoken line of compassion and decency, so on behalf of all Democrats, I apologize. Smith would also rail against Democratic attempts at redistricting, I wonder what he will say about the current attempts at pushing thorugh another unneeded reapportionment). Next time you see our esteemed State House representative ask him what his favorite Rolling Stones song is. I bet it is "Under My Thumb" Another year, another pile of gifts | ajc.com

gwinnettdailypost.com

OnlineAthens.com | Opinion | Redistricting proposal just a political move 01/15/06

Terry Tillman: Grievances Against king george - Yahoo! News

I salute and commend our all-volunteer- firefighters but recognize the fact that eventually we will have to start hiring more full-time professional firefighters soon. OnlineAthens.com | News | Oconee to stick with volunteers 01/15/06

Our veterans deserve a whole lot better than what we are doing to them at the "Big Park." Almost everything concerning the new park including and especially the name - the Oconee Community Complex - has been an utter fiasco for our proud county. Why wallow in such mediocity when we have done well in the past and can do it again in the future? I took my son to the John T. Brannen building of the Herman C. Michael park and looked at the photo of recreation direction John Gentry shaking hands with U.S. Secretary of State Condi Rice and wondered what he would think of all the malfeasance and hand-washing over this corrupt series of blunders. Our local leadership fails us now more than ever, when we need someone to accept responsibility over the mistakes and to correct them, not give some namby-pamby excuses about how there is no connection between the committee and the government. Fine, great, get on with the more important details. One, the design sucks and should be scrapped. J...

Do you want a truck stop in Farmington? How about another convenience store? What about a convenience store complex with 28 pumps for passenger cars, 6 pumps for diesel trucks, three other buildings for retail/office space, and 190 total parking spaces? Well that is the proposal soon to be considered by the county government! A request for rezoning from A-1 to B-2 is posted at the corner of Branch Road and US441. The proposed 14.22 acre development consists of a large retail complex (see the picture below). The Planning Commission meets January 17th at 7:00 p.m. in the county courthouse. All of us need to be there to voice our disapproval of this rezoning request and the proposed development. The Future Land Use Plan for Oconee has reserved the southern third of the county for agricultural zoning. The county government must be held to this plan and not allowed to parcel out land for business development in southern Oconee when other regions of the county have the necessary infrastructu...

You would think Chomsky would blast the Republicans, and of course he gets around to it, but the first couple paragraphs are pretty damned indicting criticism of the Demcratic party. AlterNet: Chomsky: 'There Is No War On Terror'

National Priorities Project - Cost of War

There was a horrible race riot in Atlanta in 1906 . It lasted over several days in September a mere century back and the following is from Rich Rusk and the Moore's Ford memorial committee (MFMC) about some racial reconcilliation efforts going on in Georgia: All manner of STAR and Coalition to Remember the 1906 Atlanta Race Riot events start up this January. Where is all this headed? I just got our scholarship and talent show materials to our seven area high schools...and am running to keep up. Please read this entire email - these events are fascinating. But first.... MFMC meets on Jan. 21: It appears that 10 a.m., Saturday, January 21 is the least worst time for our annual meeting. Kirklyn and Margaret will not be able to attend, however. I will try to get their views on several issues prior to this meeting, and will email our agenda and minutes for Nov. 22 on Monday, with hard copies to follow. This Saturday meeting will allow Michael Hill and Cathi Watkins and MFMC offic...

Now Tom DeLay thinks he can control your television too. Tom DeLay doesn't want his constituents to know about the $1 million Russian tycoons gave to a shadowy front group called U.S. Family Network, which was run by a former staffer. That's because the Washington Post discovered the Russian money was donated allegedly to influence his vote. So, when Public Campaign Action Fund and Campaign for America's Future began running a TV ad - with your support - that educated people about this Russian money, DeLay threatened to sue any TV station that aired it. Click here to demand they put the ads back on the air! The TV stations got scared and pulled the ad - even though FactCheck.org has said that everything in the ad is true! DeLay's bullying has backfired (mostly) and the story of Tom DeLay's strong-arm tactics has been all over the news, including on national television, and has spread far and wide on the internet. Yet the people of Houston are still being denied th...

Published on Friday, January 13, 2006 by the Chicago Sun Times Blogger Buys Presidential Candidate's Call List by Frank Main One of the nation's top political bloggers purchased the cell phone records of former presidential candidate Gen. Wesley Clark on Thursday to demonstrate the growing privacy concerns highlighted in a Chicago Sun-Times story last week. Wouldn't it be interesting to know who [Sun-Times columnist] Bob Novak was calling in the month that [CIA agent] Valerie Plame's name came out? How about [U.S. Attorney] Patrick Fitzgerald's phone calls? John Aravosis, publisher of AMERICAblog.com John Aravosis, publisher of AMERICAblog.com, said he bought Clark's records for $89.95 from celltolls.com. Aravosis said he obtained a list of 100 calls made on Clark's cell phone over three days in November -- no questions asked. Aravosis, whose liberal blog is critical of the Bush administration, said he called Clark's cell phone Thursday to make sur...

Domestic Terrorists Attack Freedom of the Press NEW YORK--On December 31, 2005 the editor of the Columbia City Paper in South Carolina returned from a trip to find that someone had attempted to burn down his house. "Someone had taken all the jackets out of the hall and thrown them on the stove," Corey Hutchins told the Associated Press. "They turned the stove on and threw liquor bottles on the fire. Then they went upstairs and set fire to my bed, and came back down and threw library books on the fire on the stove." Fortunately for Hutchins his arsonist was less than fully competent. His home sustained only minor fire and smoke damage. He noticed something disturbing. "Nothing was stolen. No money, no computers, guitar equipment." Columbia police believe that the fire was set to send the scrappy alternative newspaper's editor a message. "You have any enemies?" Hutchins recalls the police officers on the scene asking. "I paused, said I wa...