Being Liberal in East Cobb County

East Cobb County, Georgia. One of the wealthiest parts of Georgia. Newt Gengrich’s old Congressional District. Ralph Reed’s base of support for the Lt. Governor’s race. McMansion paradise – new ones are constantly being built wherever you drive. A conservative politican’s wet dream, and its where I both work and live.

Sometimes it’s not easy being liberal in East Cobb.

Ok. A lot of the time it’s not easy being liberal in East Cobb.

Example – My Weight Watchers meeting on a typical Friday in January. The person in front of me, lets call her Barbara, is talking about how her daughter is a columnist for the Marietta Daily Journal to another old lady, lets call her Lynne. Here’s an approximation of the conversation -

Lynne: I love your daughter’s columns!
Barbara: Well, they can be a little controversial sometimes. People either love her or hate her.
Lynne: I bet she gets a lot of letters from those liberals.
Barbara: <laughter>
Lynne: I’m serious, they don’t know what’s right.

Then other people chime in about liberals. And there I sit, partly dumbfounded this conversation is happening in my f’n Weight Watchers meeting, partly pissed off because I had a bad weigh in, and about to pass out from, well, waking up too early. This wasn’t the GOP county housewife’s meeting, (although it coulda been), it was a Weight Watcher meeting. [Out of respect to my meeting leader, she wasn't in the room for this conversation.] That’s just a typical conversation in East Cobb.

I was sure to let Lynne see me on the way out, and backed up so she could read my wacky liberal bumper stickers before hightailing it back home.

Another conversation from a few weeks ago at my Weight Watchers meeting revolved around Rosie vs. Donald, and how sorry they felt for Donald since Rosie was out to get him. “But that’s how those lesbians are.” I almost walked out after that comment.

I certainly do wish that I lived in a more progressive part of town – like by UUCA, for example. But it’s impossible and impractical. Impossible because of money – for some unknown reason, I live in probably the cheapest apartment complex out of anybody I know and its still a very nice apartment, safe neighborhood, etc. Impractical because I work in even more east cobb than where I live. So for the foreseeable future, I’m stuck here. So to all the people who suggest I move, I suggest you pay me, then I’ll think about it.

Until then, though, I’ll be the most liberal person in this county. When I move I bet the per-capital-progressivism will diminish greatly. I know there are Democrats in east cobb, heck, even a few liberals too. But we’re drowned out by the mass of conservatism that haunts the county everywhere you turn.

One Corps = Cool

As part of the continuing Edwards LoveFest 06 (Only one day left!) I not only joined One Corps, but started up one for Atlanta Progressives!

So you Atlanta Progressives who support Edwards, go to http://blog.johnedwards.com/chapter/608 and join up!  I plan on oodles-o-service and action, so you should too!

One Corps looks like a combination of grassroots political action and community service organization.  I think its going to be a revolutionary way to do politics, and I look forward to being a part of it!

Heh. Irony.

The day I decide I’m going to support Edwards, someone from the Kucinich campaign finally contacts me and asks if I want to be the Georgia state coordinator again.

That tickled me. I had already decided when K-man announced that I wouldn’t support him, because I think I’ve mellowed from the insane!liberal I was in College, and that I was still burnt out from the 04 campaign and didn’t want to be state coordinator again. Kucinich inspired me in 04, without a doubt. But the inspiration just isn’t there this time around. It wasn’t a very well run campaign – it took a lot of bitching to get anything other than t-shirts (which, we had oodles of for some reason) and K-man himself only came for half a day, after months of prodding on these nationwide state coordinator conference calls.

But I have to admit, going back and reading all the emails during the campaign (I kept them in an Outlook folder) made me slightly nostalgic. I sent along some names and help to the guy who contacted me (I worked with him last time) and wished him well. I would love for K-man to get some national press this time around, because he does have good ideas. But he’s not the inspiring candidate this time around. He’s the candidate of anger – anger over the Iraq War, anger he didn’t win in 04, etc. I want to be inspired, and Edwards is doing that.

I hope I have the chance to volunteer heavily with the Georgia Edwards campaign. I know I’d love to be something of a volunteer coordinator – coordinating volunteers, getting tasks done, finding tasks for volunteers to do so they feel important – that’s one of my passions.

But I’m *so* inspired right now I want to jump in and get the ball rolling with a Georgia for Edwards campaign. I don’t think his Georgia campaign was well run – I went to a *lot* of events, and there were the Dean people, usually the Clark people, and the Kucinich people, from county democratic party meetings where they invited reps of candidates to speak to Jefferson-Jackson Dinners. I don’t think I ever ran into the Edwards level at any sort of grassroots-ish kind of events.

But I’m quite certain that won’t be the same this time around. Especially if I can help with the state campaign.

Surprise! Saddam’s about to be put to death…in 3 hours

Apparently breaking news – Saddam is going to be put to death around 10:00 eastern time.  By public hanging.

And although I agree that Sadam is for all purposes an evil man and killed oodles of people, I still stand by my opinion that the death penalty is wrong, and immoral.

Mmm. Edwards goodness.

Also check out the town hall meeting where he goes more in depth about his canidacy.

Part 1 -

Part 2 -

Part 3 -

Thats my first time trying to post ayoutube video. Here’s hoping it works!

Yup, I’m going for Edwards

Once my mind gets an idea, it builds into a momentum even I have trouble stopping. I’m going for Edwards this time around, in large part because poverty is the #1 issue on my mind, even moreso than the Iraq War to be honest. So, now introducing the banner on the right side of the screen and…

boredom with photoshop –

Hmm…presidential musings

So I’m trying to decide who to support for the 08 election.  I know its radically early, but I’m a radical kinda guy.  I’m not going to support Kucinich this time around, even though I was the State Coordinator of his 2004 campaign.

Right now I’m learning towards Edwards, who is in the process of announcing.  I used to like Hillary, but there’s a large part of me that really does not want the last four presidents to be Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton -  It kinda reeks of a political aristocracy and I don’t want that to happen.  If Hillary ran i, like, 2012 I’d support her but not this year.  I loved Obama’s 04 Convention Speech…but I don’t know enough about him yet.  And I really, really like how Edwards is making poverty is central issue – that’s one of my main issues.

I’ll probably volunteer heavily for whatever candidate I support.  Maybe not state coordinator level, but certainly involved either on the county level or higher.  I’d love to be a Volunteer Coordinator – thats the part I was best at with the Kucinich Campaign.

Jesus is pro-global warming…apparently.

Well, the AJC is reporting that the Georgia Christian Coalition has split from the national group. That in of itself is interesting, but even more so because the national group is becoming Too Liberal. Thats right! The gig is up. The Georgia Christian Coalition cares no longer for Christians, just conservative politics.

Quoting the AJC,

The Christian Coalition of America has demonstrated by their actions in word and in deed a desire to drift from our founding tenets. The Christian Coalition of America has left us, we have not left them,” Georgia chapter Chairman Sadie Fields, who led the campaign for a constitutional ban on gay marriage, said in a prepared statement.

She accused the national organization of a “drift” into liberalism, on issues such as global warming and an increase in the minimum wage. “They teamed up with Moveon.org, a liberal organization, to lobby for net neutrality, which is something we’ve never addressed,” Fields said.

So, the rabid right wing GA Christian Coalition with dear momma meglomanic Sadie Fields up top of the group (with a lesbian daughter and she still was the energy behind the Gay Marraige Ban Amendment to the GA Constitution) has decided to split because the Naitonal Chrsitian Coalition paired up with Liberal Groups. Like Move On. SO apparently, liberals can’t be Christians and vice versa. Christians are apparently pro-Global Warming, anti-Enviornment, and anti-Minimum Wage.

I *really* don’t get how Jesus would be pro-Global Warming and anti-Minimum wage. Now, if I were smarter I’d be throwing out bible verses here…I’ll leave that to the comments section.