Not sure what happened, but we’re back online now.

I’ll issue refunds to all of you soon enough.

Reminder that tonight’s the night!  Come join us for tonight’s Peach Pundit Roadshow, the 2012 Wild Hog Supper Edition.

The Roadshow is Pundit’s occasional social event in which people who almost never agree with each other get together and have a beer. It’s also the place where pseudonyms become faces, thus making the declaration Godwin’s Law less necessary.   (Wikipedia: Godwin’s Law)

Everyone’s invited — and you too!  And bring a friend if you have one.

Where:  Max Lager’s, 320 Peachtree Street Atlanta, probably upstairs

When:  Tonight — Sunday, January 8th,  7 PM until it’s over

Parking:  SunTrust Plaza parking is across Peachtree Street, as well as a surface lot.

I’ve added Uphold Liberty, a blog maintained by Paulding County’s Ron Davis, to our blogroll.

We haven’t updated that in a long time. So if you want your blog added or know of one we missed, please leave a note in the comments.

Actually, it doesn’t sound crazy at all, and just might save Georgia taxpayers some money. Below is a letter from Sandy Springs City Councilman Gabriel Sterling to hold the Presidential preference primary and the partisan primaries on the same day. It would save the Counties the cost of holding two elections in one year, and might get Georgia a bit more national attention in the Presidential nomination process next year -or at least, no less than we have received in the past. It’s worth discussing, in light of Secretary of State Brian Kemp’s announcement tomorrow.

And does anyone know why we have these two election on separate dates?

Dear Georgia Colleague,

I wanted to take a moment to share an idea with you that could potentially save every county in Georgia, and therefore their taxpayers, money next year.

Being 2012, we are scheduled to have a Presidential Preference Primary and a General Primary. My question, and one also asked by many I have talked to, is “Why”?

For as long as I can remember, we have had these two elections separate out of tradition. Many believe that Georgia separated the two so that local Democrats would not have to share the same ballot as the national Democrats. But if we combined the General Primary and the Presidential Preference Primary to the same day, it would save millions of taxpayer dollars across all 159 counties of Georgia.

Here are a few examples of costs for countywide elections in Georgia (numbers from a quick gleaning of published reports):

Athens/Clarke County: $52,000
Cobb County: $400,000
Fulton County: $980,000

I know that every Georgia county has been looking at cuts to their budgets. Here the State Legislature and the Secretary of State can help them out.

I write this knowing that the Secretary of State has been given the ability to set the date of the Presidential Preference Primary. This was done so Georgia could be in the mix to have an impact on the GOP nominating process (as President Obama appears will avoid any serious primary challenge). In 2008, we had the earliest Presidential Preference date in decades -on February 5. Generally, we have held our Presidential Primaries in early March. However, in none of these has Georgia played a major role on the GOP side.

There are new rules in place from the Republican National Committee governing the nominating process. The traditional early states (Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina) may hold their nominating processes in February. Any other state may hold their caucus or primary in March, but only if they apportion delegates proportionally. So if a candidate receives 25% of the vote, they get 25% of that state’s delegates. Any
remaining states wanting to keep the traditional “winner take all” for delegates, must hold their events in April or later.

Here is the GOP Presidential Primary and Caucus calendar as of today:

February 6: Iowa Caucuses
February 14: New Hampshire Primary
February 18: Nevada Caucuses
February 28: South Carolina Primary
February 28: Arizona Primary(in violation of RNC rules)
February 28: Michigan Primary (in violation of RNC rules)
March 6 (Super Tues):Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas,
Vermont and Virginia Primaries, Colorado and Idaho Caucuses

By March 6, the GOP nominee will likely be pretty clear. If Georgia is forced to dilute its delegates by proportional representation, that will handicap us at the National Convention. So why would we do that? The Legislature has already moved the General Primary date once to July 31. Why not move the date again to June 12 or 19? There is no other state having a primary or a caucus on that day. Georgia would have the sole media
attention. Further, if the nomination is still in doubt, we would have the single largest group of delegates to fight for of any state left.

If you asked the County Commissioners in your area, I am sure they would appreciate the help in easing their budget burdens …no matter how many dollars we are taking about.

For this to work, the Legislature, Governor and Secretary of State must work together. Saving a few million taxpayer dollars in these tight budgetary times is something I’m sure we all could agree with.

If you have any questions for me, please feel free to email me at Gabriel@GabrielSterling.org.

Thanks,

Gabriel Sterling
City Councilman
City of Sandy Springs
www.GabrielSterling.org
www.Facebook.com/GabrielSterlingGA
www.Twitter.com/GabrielSterling

PS: This proposal is my own opinion. It is not meant to reflect the opinion of the City of Sandy Springs or any of its officials other than myself.

Just moving things around on the server this evening. Let me know here if you run into any problems with the site.

I am going to have a big announcement tonight on the radio at 10:06 p.m.

In particular, if you are a member of the General Assembly, you might want to tune in to AM 750 tonight or go to http://wsbradio.com.

Stay tuned.

With post election “fishing trips” and holidays, we realize a few of you may have missed some of the recent changes around these parts. We’ve said goodbye to some familiar faces (pixels?) who have decided it’s time to move on, and added a new casts of characters who have agreed to join us for a few months and see how things fit.

The new folks we’re adding are all now accounted for, and as such, here’s a list of the current roster for those of us who have front page posting privileges.

The old folks:

Clayton Wagar, Publisher
Charlie Harper, Editor
Jason Pye, Associate Editor
Buzz Brockway, Associate Editor
Ron Daniels, Contributor, Historian, Ghostbuster
Chris Huttman, Contributor
Clint Murphy, Contributor
Pete Randall, Contributor

Erick Erickson, Editor Emeritus 

And the new folks:

Theresa Garcia, Contributor, Columbus GA: Theresa Style
Mike Hassinger, Contributor, Political consultant and former political reporter
Ed Hula, Contributor, Blog for Democracy
Keith McCants, Contributor, Peanut Politics
Johnathan McGinty, Contributor, Beyond The Trestle
Obi’s Sister, Contributor, Obi’s Sister
Nathan Smith, Contributor, GOP Activist

Brandon Howell, Intern, “Has yet to bring me coffee”

Click the links above to check out the introductory posts from our newest additions, and take the opportunity to make them feel at home.

Yes, this signifies as a slow start to a slow Monday.   But, I’ve finally succumbed to the Twitter.   You can find me there, like Facebook, under the name IcarusPundit.   Here, I’ll be Charlie going forward.

A couple of quick housekeeping items:

Pye is on a fishing trip this week.   Clint is on a longer one.  Others, including myself, have short work weeks combined with some light travel.  Then, we all have a holiday weekend.    Real news will likely be few and far between, but we’ll post what we can find when we can.   

In the mean time, the contributors who are around will have a bit more leeway than usual to post non-Georgia Political material.  We’ll see how that goes.

We’ve still got a couple of new contributors who should be showing up any time.   Our current roster should be complete by next week.

As for anything  else, OPEN THREAD:

My name is Theresa Garcia and I’ve been politically active from the age of 3. My mother is so excited about this new writing gig that she may post a home video of me (age 3) and my dad going door to door campaigning for my “Uncle” Jack’s city council race just to prove that she helped to jumpstart my love for politics. And she did have a lot to do with it. I’m a true “Rush Baby” as my granddaddy and my mother both listened to him every day at lunch and I used to ask for them to turn it on if they happened to forget. I loved the intensity of Limbaugh’s voice when things weren’t going the way he wanted them to and I loved hearing all about Congress, the Senate, and the White House. Heck, at the age of five, I cried when Bill Clinton beat Bush Sr.  My favorite subjects in school were always government and English, so it’s really no surprise that I write about politics.

Most recently I was the Campaign Coordinator for Josh McKoon’s State Senate race and a staffer for Mike Keown in the 2nd Congressional race against Sanford Bishop. Those experiences are some of the greatest I’ve ever had and I have plenty of  stories to share. I have been blogging since 2005, politically since 2008, and my blog (Columbus, Georgia: Theresa Style) is located here.

I do view my love of politics as some sort of sickness at times. I almost feel like I should be sitting in some sort of “Political Addiction” meeting. With only 5 days since the Midterms, I am still experiencing what I can only define as withdrawals. After 17 months of being on the campaign trail, I keep waking up feeling the need to raise money, put out campaign signs, and attend a “meet and greet coffee” with the candidate. Politics in my home town of Columbus seems to have smiled on me, much to the dismay of the general public, with a couple of run-off elections, so the season is not quite over for me. Three more weeks!!

I bring a unique view to Peach Pundit. Not only do I bring a Southwest Georgia voice, but I also bring a 20-something, politically incorrect, Hispanic female perspective. I welcome constructive criticism, open-minded discussion, and varying points of view.

I’m excited about being here and looking forward to the feedback and discussion I know is right around the corner.

As Erick Erickson has faded into black, and I have assumed the keys to this fine establishment, I just wanted to take a moment to update our readers on what they can expect going forward here at Peach Pundit.

Starting today, we’ll be adding new contributors.  We’ll feature one new person each weekday this week and most of next.   This will be the largest addition we’ve had since the inception of Peach Pundit, yet small enough that I believe we’ll preserve the character and characters that make us unique.

In the recent weeks, we’ve had Erick, Chris Farris, Jace and Tyler make their exit, so there was a clear need to reload.  In addition, we are going to get back to our roots where we are the place to discuss Georgia politics, with all sides and political parties represented.   We also recognize the need for fresh faces and opinions.  As such, while many of the new contributors do comment here on occasion, we have looked mainly beyond our commenting community for our new stable of writers.

Each of the new folks have been granted a trial run, with the hope and expectation that there’s a mutual fit.  I am confident each brings something unique to the table that will benefit our community.  Please do your best to make them feel welcome, treat each with respect, and where necessary, help them understand any inside news such as Huckabee winning his last primary or Paul Broun’s inability to get sworn in.

Each of our existing and new contributors has been given a written policy of expectations.   Soon, we will also publish an often asked for guideline/policy for commenters.   We hope to remain a site where comment moderation is used sparingly, and that those commenting will continue to do a good job of policing ourselves so that the heavy hand of a moderator is seldom if ever required.

One of the things that Erick and I share is that when we each started here, we did it for fun.  With increased visibility comes responsibility, and I’ll confess that it’s less fun for me than it once was.  I still apparently enjoy it enough to do this for free, however.   As for the rest of you, I hope it is a place, and remains a place, where you can find humor.  Often, the topics are serious, and the issues are real.  But as we seek to incorporate a greater variety of opinions and perspectives, it is my hope that humor will remain the common ground.

Finally, I want to once again thank Erick for the often thankless task of starting this blog with Clayton and keeping it going well beyond when it ceased to be fun for him.   He’s leaving behind a great little place here, and with these changes and any more to come, my mantra remains the same:  I’ll try not to screw this up.

I have an announcement to make. Set your clocks for 7pm ET this Friday.

In my ongoing quest to become competent enough to maybe one day sit behind a certain golden microphone, I’ve kept guest hosting here in Macon.

On Friday, however, I’ll be headed up to Atlanta to sit in for Herman Cain on his radio show. WSB, the station, which also happens to presently be the most listened to talk radio station in the country, is now not just giving me 50,000 watts to abuse, but an FM station as well.

That’s right — the show is simulcast, i.e. causing liberals to cry out even more about those awful conservative talk radio guys taking over.

Consider this an open thread.

Yep, stealing the headline from Jim Galloway. I hope he won’t mind. He’ll have to find me if he does.

The sun will rise in the East shortly, and then some workers in Fulton County and possibly Gwinnett will total the last remaining absentee ballots. More than likely, my candidate for the top of the Republican candidate “did not win”.

I’ll be taking some of my own advice that I’ve given others here at various times, and taking a break before commenting on yesterday’s election, or the November one. I have a lot of “real” work to catch up on, and hopefully a short trip when that is under control. Regardless, I’m out for about a week or so.

A few of you will miss me. Others, not so much.

In the mean time, congrats to those who did win tonight. I’ll see you guys later.

As you can tell, I’m tired of talking about the runoff.

Consider this an open thread.

For those of you who have not heard, my book is coming out in two months. Some of you have emailed to ask why my front page postings have been lighter than normal, both here and at RedState. Well, now you know — I’ve been writing, just not here.

You can pre-order Red State Uprising: How to Take Back America right here via the RedState Store at Amazon.

Below are the opening paragraphs (subject to editing) to give you a flavor of what the book is about. And yes, the first chapter is a denunciation of the GOP’s failures over the past decade. I have a hard time intellectually attacking the Democrats for stuff the GOP did without also beating up the GOP. So my co-author, Lew Uhler, and I take them both on and provide some ideas to fix the problems.

Here’s the opening:

They’re all terrible. All of them. Democrats. Republicans. The so called “leaders” of both parties do nothing but compromise away our freedoms. The good guys are few and far between and need reinforcements.

Ask yourself a simple question: when is the last time the Democrats ever compromised in favor of the free market? Can’t think of one? That’s because it rarely happens. It’s always the Republicans who compromise in favor of big government.

George W. Bush gave us steel tariffs in Pennsylvania, No Child Left Behind, the prescription drug benefit, TARP, and the auto bailout. His father before him gave us his lips on which we read a lie. They, like so many other Republicans, paraded around in conservative’s clothing while having little in common with actual conservatism.

The Republicans gave us progressivism (read up on Robert LaFollette and Teddy Roosevelt). The Republicans gave us the Environmental Protection Agency. Heck, Republicans gave us Earl Warren, Nelson Rockefeller, Dede Scozzafava, Charlie Crist, and the list goes on and on and on.

The Democrats, by contrast, have given us over to European socialism, degenerated our moral society, destroyed the nuclear family, never met a race they didn’t bait, and mushroomed the GOP’s spending programs.

For too long the Republican Party has decided to be the Democrat-lite party, and the American voters in 2008 decided to just go with the real thing. Turns out, there is a difference between the Republican Party and the Democrat Party. While both may be terrible, the Democrats are worse.

Therein lies the terrible conundrum for voters. We’re not choosing the lesser of two evils. We are choosing between the assorted evils of two lessers. The problem is compounded by a very simple fact: there are no betters than these two lessers. No third party is or will ever be viable. The deck is stacked against them.

Contrary to what we may say and the polemical frustration conservatives too often are forced to express about the Republican Party, there remain very real differences between the two parties—life and death differences that cannot be underestimated or ignored.

It is easy to say both parties are appalling. They are. It becomes very difficult to figure out what to do about it. There is, however, a starting point. As bad as you or I may think the Republican Party is, at least it will not sell us down the river to our nation’s enemies. At least it will more often than not support businesses and individuals against the government. At least it will support you working for yourself over you working to give money to someone else.

There are real differences, but too often Republican leaders try to find ever shrinking common ground with the left, than make a stand on opposing ground fighting for free people and free markets against the leviathan of government. With the rise of the tea party movement, conservatives must unite to clean up the Republican Party. If they don’t, voters will keep rejecting Republican pseudo-socialists in favor of authentic socialists.

We’re a week away from a primary. Emotions are high. We get that.

Just because you feel strongly about your candidate or a point, does not mean that you can post the same comment (or in today’s case, a youtube link without text or description) across NINE threads.

JDW is no longer with us. His/her posting rights may be restored after the primary.

Mayo, True Grit, and a few others take note. Make your point, once, in an appropriate thread. Pasting the same note over and over across threads will not be tolerated. And threadjacking will be on a tighter leash for the next week as well.

Also, anyone posting a link to an outside site without any context as to what that link contains will have that comment sent to the trash.

These are the rules. Live with them or you’ll go away for a while.

For those in the races for Insurance Commisioner, Commissioner of Agriculture, State School Superintendent, Labor Commissioner, Public Service Commission, Secretary of State, and Attorney General, we’re looking for statements from you.

In order to get your 750 free words on Peach Pundit, we need to receive your statements by midnight, tomorrow night.

For details, check here.

Except for a few minor details:

1. I didn’t string the story out to drive traffic to Peach Pundit.

2. I didn’t use it to sabotage a campaign two weeks before the election.

3. I’m not the one claiming I had sex with a legislator and then refusing to talk about it while talking about it.

It’s one thing to want your party to take steps to clean itself up. It’s an entirely different thing to want to make yourself the star of the show by bragging you banged a hot chick running for Governor right before the election.

Oh, and nobody paid me.

I guess Jim doesn’t get shades of gray. Must be a Republican.

We’ve promoted Ronald Daniels to the front page of Peach Pundit. Having unceremoniously promoted Tyler to more than just an intern, we need someone else now to fetch us beer and cigars. Tyler’s gotten a big head with the promotion and all that.

Let the hazing commence.

So you might have heard a little something about me being on television a bit more regularly. It starts tonight.

7:00 p.m. ET on CNN you can tune in to John King, USA and I’ll be there live from Atlanta.

I’ve been dying to tell you all for a while and this explains why I haven’t been around much lately. I’ve been busy.

Erick Erickson Joins CNN’s Roster of Political Contributors
Erickson to Appear Regularly on John King, USA, beginning March 22

Prominent conservative commentator and RedState.com editor Erick Erickson will join CNN as a political contributor, it was announced today by Sam Feist, CNN political director and vice president of Washington-based programming. Erickson will appear weeknights on John King, USA, which launches Monday, March 22, as well as provide perspective and commentary to other programs across the network.

“I grew up in Dubai and then in rural Louisiana as an obsessive news junkie. CNN was the only place to go for nonstop news,” said Erickson. “Joining CNN is like coming home and being in Atlanta makes the decision right for me and my family.”

“Erick’s a perfect fit for John King, USA, because not only is he an agenda-setter whose words are closely watched in Washington but as a person who still lives in small-town America, Erick is in touch with the very people John hopes to reach,” said Feist. “With Erick’s exceptional knowledge of politics as well as his role as a conservative opinion leader, he will add an important voice to CNN’s ideologically diverse group of political contributors.”

Erick Erickson currently serves as editor-in-chief of RedState.com, a property of Eagle Publishing, Inc. Under his leadership, RedState.com has become the preeminent right of center community online. Prior to leading RedState.com, Erickson practiced law for six years and managed a number of political campaigns, and he currently serves as a member of the Macon, Georgia city council. He studied political science and history earning a bachelor’s degree at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia. Erickson also earned his juris doctorate from Mercer’s Walter F. George School of Law.

CNN Worldwide, a division of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner Company, is the most trusted source for news and information. Its reach extends to nine cable and satellite television networks; one private place-based network; two radio networks; wireless devices around the world; CNN Digital Network, the No. 1 network of news Web sites in the United States; CNN Newsource, the world’s most extensively syndicated news service; and strategic international partnerships within both television and the digital media.

-30-

For more information, visit www.CNNPressroom.com.