So a few weeks back, we were introduced to Daniel Blackman, who’s running for State Representative for House District 61 (which covers East Point and Southwest Atlanta). Aside from his Obama-inspired/ripped website, there’s now talk that Blackman isn’t even qualified to run! I’m still researching the truth (if there is any) behind this, but I received the following e-mail from someone calling themselves “Atlanta Voter”:

[Daniel A. Blackman] has only lived in the District for SIX MONTHS, but state law requires all candidates to be residents of the District for a full year before Election Day.

Mr. Blackman resides at 543 St. Johns Avenue, SW, Atlanta, GA 30315, a new construction home that was only built in January. He did not purchase his house until January 15, 2008. He just registered to vote in the district on January 7, 2008. The only time Mr. Blackman has voted in the 61st District was the primary on February 5, 2008.

When he signed up for this election, Mr. Blackman swore under oath, in a signed affidavit, that he had lived in District 61 for at least a year. He acted unethically in his very first political act. How can a person with such shaky morals honestly represent us in the General Assembly?

If there’s any truth to this, has it been brought up to the local media? (Answer: of course not.) I sent several e-mails to Blackman’s campaign for a chance to refute this issue, but I haven’t gotten any replies. Blackman is also running against Ralph Long, III, Tony M.L. McCann, Keisha Waites, Paul Lockhart Sr., Kelley Jackson and Edith Lapido.

Since today is BOTH Super Tuesday AND Fat Tuesday (thx, Amber) I thought that I should solicit photos of folks voting, wearing their “I’m a Georgia Voter” sticker or wearing beads and purple, gold & green.

Obviously cell phone use is permitted at polling places, but I’m sure most of the folks who read this blog are armed with cameras or could snap pics outside the school/church/government building where they voted.

Here’s me:

Feel free to link to your own Primary Election Day or Fat Tuesday pics in the comments.

Stay safe out there.

i am going to go ahead and warn you, iwill be talking about race in this post. i am going to be honest and clear in what i think. this may even include what some people might call ‘playing the race card.’ i want to get that out there up front so that if you are offended by that you can go ahead, scroll down to the comments and tell me what a communist i am without considering what i have to write.

just kidding.

the genesis for this post is the discussion that came about in annie’s post just a few down from it titled “i thought i was fearless.” it’s perhaps the most commented on post since i have been writing for the atlanta metblog which at least tells me that somebody is interested in the topic. if you haven’t read it and the ensuing comments i would encourage you to do so as it may make this post a little more understandable.

assuming that you didn’t follow my instructions here is just a tiny bit of background - annie posted about being afraid to take marta home from the dome/phillips arena station one night; frequent commenter bti questioned her about whether her fear might be racially motivated and the whole thing took off from there.

keep with me, this background is really important to the meatier discussion that is going to follow.

ok, final piece of background is on where this author comes from. first, i am a white male. second, i am a daily user of marta. several months ago i made a decision to ditch my car and take marta for my commute from north ormewood (near the zoo) to alpharetta (you can read about the decision here) and have been riding it ever since (for a running commentary of my marta adventures check out here).

okay, that’s the background, now for the meaty racial stuff after the jump -
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I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

I haven’t been posting all that frequently lately and there are good reasons why, I promise. Lots of things have been happening for me and I’ve been travelling and cauht up in all of that and blogging tends to move to the backburner pretty quickly.

Well, I’ve graduated from grad school and I’ve accepted a job in Raleigh as a senior research scientist in a really good research lab. I’m moving just after the New Year. This means two things in particular. First, I’m leaving the city of Atlanta, which I love, for the Research Triangle, which everyone tells me is great but it can’t be as wonderful as Atlanta. Second, I’m no longer going to be writing here at the Metroblog, because I’m leaving Atlanta.

I’ve been here pretty much since the beginning (well, one week after it started I joined). My first post mentioned that it was run-off election day and pointed out the beauties of Krispy Kreme. Don’t worry. I’m not going to recap my tenure here at the Metroblog. Over 400 posts is too much. I’ve enjoyed writing about this city that I love and enjoy. I hope that you have enjoyed reading what I have had to say.

There has been a lot of mention recently on Atlanta Metblogs, in passing, of the Libertarian Party and Libertarian candidates in Georgia. (You can read them here and here.) It seems our own James voted for Libertarian candidate Garrett Michael Hayes, as did a few of our readers and yours truly. I voted Libertarian pretty much across the board where I had the option.
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Today is election day, so get out therre and vote if you haven’t already! You can find your polling place here. If you don’t vote, you can’t complain. Well, you could complain, but people could comeback pretty easily with a retort of how you didn’t do anything to change it and maybe you should join the system and try and change it from the inside. But maybe you’re an anarchist or someone who just complains about everything.

I went bright and early this morning at around 8 am and the poll worker told me that they have already have around 30 people go through, so that bodes well for a good turnout (I hope). I was dismayed at one thing though. I went into the polling place with my passport and the mailing I had gotten telling me which pieces of ID were acceptable (not the first mailing, but the proper second mailing). I filled out my form with my name and address on it, handed it to the poll worker who checked for my name on the computer, and then the poll worker gave me my electronic voting card. At no point was my form of ID asked for or even pondered about. My passport stayed in my back pocket the whole time. I’m not trying to restart the voter ID law debate (any number of identification could have been asked for, including a utility bill which doesn’t have anymore proof of my person than a piece of paper with my name crayoned on it). However, it seems to me that in a time when people are concerned about voter fraud (and/or votes not counting) that some effort should be made at least to pretend to verify that the person voting is the actual voter listed on the rolls. But maybe I’m just crazy.

Yep, I received one of those nifty peach stickers this morning as i walked out the door after using Dekalb County’s advance voting. My daughter and I proceeded to celebrate getting it over with (I won’t bore you with my dissatisfaction with political choices) by downing a coffee and a muffin at Joe’s in East Atlanta. While paying for said muffin and coffee, two people asked me how I had managed to vote this morning. Three more asked about it when I went to pick up my son at Mommies Morning Out.

Why is it that so many people don’t know about the state’s advance voting option? I feel it is my civic duty to mention it here on Atlanta Metblogs. I would have posted earlier in the week if I had known how few people have heard about it; advance voting started on Monday and continues through tonight at 7:00 pm. There is no advance voting the day before the election. (That’s Monday for those of you who are a little dense.) Follow that nifty link above to see advance voting locations by county.

I am sure you all plan to hit the polls on Tuesday, but if you aren’t going to be able to make it, now you have next to no excuse. Get your butt to the polls this evening by 7:00. There was almost no wait - I had only three people in front of me, and was in and out in about 30 minutes.

Added plus? Everyone working the polling location was considerate, polite, and friendly. Much more so than I usually expect of government employees (Yes, I know there are exceptions!), and probably more than you can expect out of stressed employees on election day.

In perhaps the yawner story of the year, the AJC has released its endorsements of some races for the upcoming election. That’s not what is most laughable (though to some it probably is - actually the paper comes out and admits its “progressive political philosophy,” mentions its ‘manifesto’ and then self-basks in how “lofty” it is).

What is laughable is that in its endorsement announcement, the AJC included a statement of “Why We Endorse.” The statement itself seems almost pining for the days when newspapers were all-powerful as if Ms. Tucker is providing us with the essential history of all newspaper endorsements, but the line that really caught my eye was the following (emphasis mine):

my colleagues and I believe that endorsements of political candidates are as necessary as ever — of the surfeit of news media and the resulting information overload. With so many competing sources of information, including political ads and Web sites produced by the candidates, voters may give up trying to decipher the candidates’ stands on complex issues. Politicians rarely render complicated judgments in 30-second ads. Nor are they likely to be candid about their more controversial stances.

Highly-researched and well-written editorial endorsements can give voters that information. At this newspaper, editorial writers spend time researching candidates’ resumes and ferreting out their views. We interview most candidates in person; sometimes, when that’s not possible, we interview them over the telephone.

This from the newspaper that gave us a Voter’s Guide in which the most hard-hitting question was which TV character the candidates identified with the most. “Highly-researched?” Maybe the editorials (and most the time I question that), but wouldn’t a voter’s guide that actually had some information on all the candidates (not just the ones the AJC endorses) be far more useful to voters? Probably.

[Update] On that note, I was interested to find in one of the AJC’s endorsements a little attack on the candidate for including information on their website that was irrelevant to the job they were seeking. “[The candidate] might as well have listed her Oscar picks for all the relevance they have to the actual job she’s asking voters to award her in November.” Again, this from the newspaper that found it relevant to discuss TV characters and what “gadget” they bought recently that they couldn’t live without? Perhaps they would like to explain the relevance to those questions.

We here at the Atlanta Metroblog do not collectively endorse candidates (though no author is restricted from posting about her/his preferences in races). However, I’m sure that I can speak for all the authors when I do make one voting suggestion to the Atlanta (and Georgia) community: Before you vote next Tuesday (or earlier, if you are voting that way), examine the candidates on all sides of the aisle and make a smart, well-researched choice for the candidate that you think is best for you, your district, the courts, or for Georgia.

I tend to find most election seasons humorous rather than serious in many ways. So, I enjoyed reading about the latest issue injected into the gubernatorial campaign - the AJC’s alleged anti-UGA bias. Yep, Gov. Perdue wrote a letter defending the honor of the flagship university from a non-flattering headline about Saturday’s loss.

Other cities celebrate the successes and mourn the losses of local businesses, individuals and sports teams. The AJC takes the opposite position and — instead of boosterism — criticizes, investigates and ridicules all things Georgia.

(by “Georgia” I assume that the Governor is discussing the University of Georgia [Update] See comments on this post, the Governor meant the State of Georgia) The AJC acknowledged the letter - “Georgia can’t win every game, and we can’t get every headline just right,” said Journal-Constitution Editor Julia Wallace. “Fortunately, our avid readers, including the governor, help keep us straight.”

Nobody would argue that the AJC has the right to print what it wants to print and as a Tech student I barely have a dog in this hunt (I’m a grad student and only sort of care about the football fortunes and follies of our two schools). But I do understand the frustration with sports coverage. I never like when the Braves are on national TV because the announcers are so anti-Braves that it sickens me. I remember times in the mid-90s when Maddux would throw 8 strikes and 2 balls in the playoffs and the announcers would talk about how he was on the decline. Please. Local coverage of sports is so much more friendly to the local team. I’m inclined to agree with the Governor that it ought to be as well. This is the one place where a news organization can routinely be very openly biased. Frankly, it probably sells more papers being biased than it would otherwise.

There is also the issue of whether this matters at all in the scheme of what affects life. My base opinion is that right or wrong, in their hearts, Georgians probably care more about UGA football than they do about most of the other issues of the day. It probably affects them on a daily (or, I suppose, weekly) basis a lot more as well. You can say that this is some way of quelling the masses, but I think it still matters to people. I mean, besides Gasper the Beluga getting better (hopefully!), what else is there that we all really care about?

Mark Taylor, Lt. Governor and gubernatorial candidate, claims that if he becomes governor he will introduce legislation giving juries a death penalty option for repeat child molesters as part of his “Child Protection Act of 2007.” You can read more about it here.
As a parent, and a voter who feels that we are far too lenient on violent criminals in our state and in our country, I am all for this. Sure, it is only an election-year retaliation against Perdue’s claims that he will increase GBI manpower to seek out criminals preying on our children. But you know what? This is just the kind of stance that will buy my vote. Okay, to be honest, I think Taylor was probably going to get my vote anyway, but this really is alluring. That’s right. I said it: I think the death penalty for repeat child molesters is a good thing.

I wonder, though, what it means for a Democrat to take such a surprisingly uncharacteristic stance on the death penalty question. Is this an example of a candidate grasping for votes? Is his campaign in its death throes? Most importantly, if he wins will he follow through with this promise?