Fresh Political Pickins From The Peach State

Obviously the big story today is Tornadoes in Oklahoma, which I don’t have the capacity to rhyme (CNN)

the rest of the news after the jump: [click to continue…]

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So over the weekend there was the GA GOP convention, and at that convention the GA Young Republicans decided to have a straw poll about the Senate race.

Some folks are bound to be thrilled with the results, while others may feel a twinge of pain about how well their preferred candidate did. Here are the results as linked to in the Morning Reads as well as mentioned by Jim Galloway.

Karen Handel, 42 votes;

Jack Kingston, 21 votes;

Paul Broun, 14 votes;

Phil Gingrey, 9 votes;

And David Perdue, 3 votes.

Straw polls have no real statistical value but boy did Handel wallop the other guys. Feel free to discuss in the comments, but remember to pace yourself. We still have 14 months left in this marathon.

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If you’re a software engineer, programmer, entrepreneur, or all around tech geek then you may be interested in the National Day of Civic Hacking. Which sounds like a whole lot of fun to me.

From the press release.

“National Day of Civic Hacking will bring together citizens, software developers, and entrepreneurs to collaboratively create new solutions using publicly-released data, code and technology at events all across the nation.”

In effect the goal is to crowd source solutions to government problems. Kinda like when AIDS researchers turned to the video game community for help.

Full press release here.

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The following was sent from new Georgia Republican Party Chairman John Padgett:

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This Week’s Courier Herald Column:

What do you get the political party who has everything?  Figuring that out, in a sense, was really the purpose of the Republican state convention this weekend in Athens.

Sure, the official overriding reason was to elect a new Georgia GOP chairman and a slate of other officers.  John Padgett of Athens came out on top of the four way contest to succeed Cobb County’s Sue Everhart, a three term chairman who was term limited.  Michael McNeely, Chairman of Georgia’s Black Republican Council, was elected to the position of First Vice Chairman.

Gone are the days when the forces from the “Pat Robertson” crowd battled those of “the establishment”.  These days, everyone seems to be battling the establishment without any sense of irony that the 2,000+ delegates who traveled to Athens and donned stickers proclaiming to be “RINO hunting” were, by definition, the establishment themselves.

And yet, while coalitions of social conservatives, Tea Partiers, Ron Paul inspired liberty caucus revolutionaries, and members of various affiliated groups attempted to gain enough votes to elect their members to positions of authority, it was not lost on at least one highly influential member of the party where the real battle remains. [click to continue…]

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If we had an award for “traveled farthest” among our front page contributors, it would probably belong to Nathan Smith.  He manages to attend most of our metro-centric events despite being able to see Tennessee from his house.  It’s the same kind of work he devotes to the GA GOP, where he currently serves as 1st Vice-Chairman to the 14th District.  Here and there, he is known for fairness as he tries to give all candidates and issues equal time and a fair hearing.  And today, the kid is a year older.  Please join me in wishing the kid from way up there in North Georgia a happy birthday.

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Georgia

Super Republican BJ Van Gundy makes some news at the GA GOP convention, but it wasn’t a Chairman’s race victory.

The GA GOP convention is over and there is a whole slate of new Officers.

All four senate candidates oppose immigration reform.

SPLOSTs aren’t all that bad, Cobb is getting three new bridges.

President Obama came to Atlanta yesterday to give the commencement address at Morehouse.

The Georgia Young republicans had a straw poll for the Senate race at the convention this week. Karen Handel had the clear lead.

Georgia Power is going to start selling energy produced from renewable biomass.

National/International

The Associated Press CEO is not amused by the Department of Justice.

Which scandal will really be Obama’s Watergate?

Good luck flying to Alaska anytime soon.

Tom Price was on This Week yesterday to talk about the different scandals of last week.

North Korea is crying for attention again.

Russia is still mucking things up.

Hopefully this is accurate and Boko Haram really is falling apart.

Everything Else

You might want to check that power ball ticket.

Get ready, they’re coming.

Toilet Paper to counter radical ideology?

The GA GOP aren’t the only ones leaving Athens after this weekend.  UGA baseball coach Dave Perno will be gone today as well.

Update 9:03 am : After watching Morning Joe, there’s another failure of the administration to support a free press.

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BJ may have lost the GAGOP chairman’s race, but he was the talk of the town after assisting an Athens police officer with a man who was on drugs:

As he helped a Hilton Garden Inn guest with directions near the lobby doors Thursday evening, an Athens-Clarke police officer said a man sprinted past him, ran to the reception desk and then tried to burst through the locked doors of the hotel’s administrative offices.

The man, later identified as 21-year-old Julian A. Rios, then ran to the concession area of the hotel on East Washington Street and tried to break through the glass doors of a cooler, according to a police report. The officer grabbed Rios as he again tried to break into the cooler. He noted in his report that Rios had a “blank stare” and was sweating.

Witnesses said they had earlier seen Rios running in circles inside the hotel’s parking garage.

BJ was rewards for his assistance:

After joining in the fray, Van Gundy remembers feeling the man’s breath on his arm and thinking he might get bitten.

Van Gundy’s efforts were rewarded.

While at the convention, he pulled out a junior officer’s sticker badge, peeled it off and slapped it to his jacket lapel.

He was sporting his badge this weekend. Way to go, BJ!

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Let the shenanigans begin.

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Hey everyone, don’t forget there’s a Road Show in Athens tonight. What better way to kick off the convention than with us?

What: ROAD SHOW!

When: Tonight

Time: 7pm to 9PM

Where: Dirty Birds, 312 East Washington Street, Athens GA

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Ga Tech is offering an online Master’s Degree program for a cool $6k. The program immediately garnered national attention. 

Morehouse decided to allow Kevin Johnson to speak during commencement exercises. His privilege was rescinded when criticism from him of Obama surfaced. And speaking of El Presidente, he will deliver the keynote on Saturday. (Side note to any college administrators: I want an honorary degree and I received all As in my public speaking classes in college. Just saying….)

Also, the Georgia Board of Regents adopted a draft policy that outlines the mission statement for each school, the first time that’s been done in decades, apparently. I can’t find a link at the moment.

UGA head honcho Jere Morehead announced a plan to re-structure the administration starting on July 1. The move will see more info flowing out of, and in to, his office.

Emory’s Rollins School of Public Health got a nice $2 million donation to endow a chair for cardiovascular research. The school <3s the O. Wayne Rollins Foundation.

I saw this Facebook note from Calvin Smyre:  ”I’m on a coffee break from an all-day Fort Valley State University (FVSU) Presidential Search & Screen Committee (PSSC) meeting to review candidates for President of “The” FVSU. Because of my love for FVSU I’m committed to selecting the best candidates to forward to the Chancellor & University System Board of Regents for them to appoint the next President. As you can see I’m spending my BD indoors. The PSSC wanted to sing Happy BD & I said oh noooo!” He added his FVSU family made him feel “special.” (Allow me to add: happy birthday to Mr. Smyre).

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Late yesterday, here at the PP Bunker, we received a flood of press releases with various flavors of righteous indignation on the ongoing fight to repeal the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare). Said releases appear after the fold, in alphabetical order, just to be fair.

And updates will be added as needed.

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