That’s right, today is December 25th, and that now means it’s Jason Pye’s birthday.

As you wind down your Christmas celebrations, please take a moment and wish our resident Libertarian and Peach Pundit Assistant Editor a very happy birthday.

Though I’ve been trying to start the rumor that he would be turning 45 today, he claims it’s his 30th. Regardless, he’s been celebrating for a week, and I hope being snowed in gives him one more day of Pyepalooza.

Happy Birthday Jason!

Common Cause Georgia has launched their own blog, found here.  We’ve added them to our blogroll for future reference.

Common Cause describes themselves as follows:

Common Cause Georgia is a non-profit, non-partisan citizens’ lobby organization.  We believe that by banding together, citizens can make a difference.  We throw a spotlight on issues that affect all Georgians.  We work to strengthen public participation and to ensure that the political process serves the public interest, rather than the special interests.

 Our purpose is clear: make public officials and public institutions accountable and responsive to citizens. Common Cause Georgia has more than 3,000 members and supporters across the state.

We welcome another voice promoting open, honest, and ethical government into the blogosphere.

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.

I really enjoyed reading this list.

I’m going to make you click the links so Thomas Wheatley and Scott Henry can eventually cut back working street corners to part time.

But be sure you do, so you can find out who won some nifty new titles, like the “It’s not hypocricy when I do it” award.”

And if you liked our live blog poll question of “Which would win in a fair fight, Judson Hill’s hair or Randall Mangham’s moustache?”, you won’t be disappointed by their recipients (with photos of the champion follicles!)

So click here, have a laugh, and do your part to keep Wheatley off the streets.

….and let’s just go ahead and warn you about some non-family friendly language (unless your surname is Soprano.)

I’m taking a much needed mental break from Peach Pundit for the weekend, (and possibly most of next week as I’ll be traveling on business). I’ll try to post a fantasy football update over the weekend, but that’s about all I’m willing to commit to right now. (Preview: Karen Handel’s team ROCKS.)

So, if you need some good reading material, I’ll suggest the following:

Ted Sadler over at ProjectLogicGa has a great (non-political) take on dating and marraige. It’s a great read.

And BlueDogDemocrat over at LeftOnLanier wrote an excellent Thanksgiving message that’s quite political, yet quite appropriate. With permission, I’m reposting in its entirety, but click the link to acknowledge the author via his page view count:

We here at Left would like to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving, but first you have to read my post.

I couldn’t sleep last night, so I watched old movies on Turner Classic Movies. Now, these are really old movies. I happened to catch the musical “1776″. Why this was on I have no idea, maybe because there was a scene where Franklin argues for the turkey to be our national bird. That would have sure changed Thanksgiving as we know it. If you have never watched this show, I highly reccomend it. It has great scenes such as John Adam’s quote saying, “Its a revolution, we are going to have damn well offend someone.”. It also has Franklin saying, “Rebellion is only illegal when used in the third person.”. Of course it was not either of those two quotes that inspired my insomnia or this post; however, it was their fervent debate on independency that reminded me to be thankful today.

It seems to me we have lost some of these debate skills as of late. Oh there is still debate, but we have lost respect for the other side. As I reviewed the comments of this site over the last year, I was saddened to see the petty name calling and the misinformation that was being used in the name of debate. One commenter went so far as to question a man’s Christianity over a disagreement on politics. How did we evolve into this species? How did we lose so great an art as to debate the issues at hand?

This Thanksgiving, I challenge you to be thankful for our ability to freely debate. Be thankful for a country that allows both the ability to praise and criticize our leaders. Be thankful that our forefathers did not waste their time debating to see George Washington’s certificate of live birth, but yet saw fit to birth for us a country with freedom.

We here at Left on Lanier would like to wish a Happy Thanksgiving to all Americans: To the leaders of the republican party who declare their patriotic love for these United States, but spew forth their hatred for the people of this great land; To those who consider themselves democrats, but yet fail to stand on principle in order to avoid a fight; To the liberal who tolerantly advocates intolerance toward all those that disagree; To the conservative that accepts the status quo because the battle is just too hard to win; To the Christian who can remember the law, but fail to see the grace and love of Jesus Christ; To the Muslim who has been unjustly persecuted, but fails to call out those who persecute unjustly; To America, a land of bounty which calls forth it’s citizens to lead and not be led.

This is the time for a new American dream: A dream that our fore fathers were inspired by, a dream that transcends life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We are Americans because we understand the fundamental principle of humanity to leave this world better than we found it.

This Thanksgiving be challenged to take up this calling. Fight for what you believe, but fight to make this world a better place.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you all have an excellent weekend with your family, your visa card, and/or your favorite football team.

And, of course, GO DAWGS!

I’m updating the Peach Pundit blogroll. Dead links and blogs that haven’t been updated in awhile will be removed.

Let me know if you want to be linked.

We’ve added them to the blogroll.

Some don’t let it go so easily. 

(Warning, non-southern lady like link language).

Jim has been off the AJC’s political insider for a few days, and now they are reporting that Jim is with his family in Oklahoma after the passing of his mother.  Our thoughts and prayers are with Jim during this time.

I thought the Fresh Loaf was in the blogroll. Apparently not. But it is now.

We’ve got a new Georgia blog to add to the blog roll.

It’s called Politics4Kids.

Dr. Jay tells me that mom does the typing while his son dictates. That is so freaking awesome!

To prevent further spamming of the comments, which have all been purged, there is a new anti-Snuggles blog up and it is by someone on the left.

Tondee’s Tavern is one year old today.

Friends, Foes, Georgians, Patriots, and fellow bloggers,

This is good news. He was apparently just abducted by Dennis Kucinich supporters or Forest Hill Road activists. Mostly the same thing.