H/t commentor LAMH36:
First lady Michelle Obama debuted on the 2014 campaign trail Monday in Georgia, where Senate candidate Michelle Nunn is working to pick up a key seat for Democrats.
The open Senate seat is a critical battleground in the national fight for control of the Senate, in which Republicans must gain six seats to win the majority. Businessman David Perdue has relentlessly tried to tie Nunn to President Barack Obama, who did not win Georgia in 2008 or 2012.
Mrs. Obama made the trip to boost voter turnout for Nunn among independents, minority and women voters. She told a large crowd gathered in a recreation center just steps from the Martin Luther King Jr. Historic Site in Atlanta that Nunn and Jason Carter, a Democrat running for governor, can win in November if just 50 Democrats per precinct who voted in 2008 and 2012 cast ballots this year.
“Barack won because record numbers of women and minorities and young people showed up to vote. But then when the midterms came along and too many of our folks tuned out,” Mrs. Obama said. “That’s what folks on the other side are counting on because when you stay home, they win.”…
Mrs. Obama’s visit was designed to pump up a voter registration effort led by the state party. Georgia Democrats have been hoping that an increase in out-of-state residents and a growing minority population would help them regain power after Republicans claimed every statewide office in 2010.
That year, in a competitive governor’s race, the Democrat lost by about 259,000 votes. Democrats are hoping that by use of targeted voter registration and outreach efforts, including contacting voters who only vote in presidential years, they will be able to make up the difference. In addition, they are working to reach an estimated 800,000 eligible voters who are black, Hispanic and Asian that for one reason or another are not registered.
And a change in early voting could also help lift Georgia Democrats in November. DeKalb County, one of the largest sources of Democratic votes, plans to add a Sunday to its early voting period, which would be the first county in the state to do so, according to state party Chair DuBose Porter. In 2012, DeKalb County alone represented just over 13 percent of Obama’s vote in Georgia.
“Democrats believe that the easier you make it for people to participate in their government, the better,” Porter said, adding he hopes every county does the same. “We’re for expanding the franchise to make sure that democracy actually works and we know when we do that a true reflection of the state will be represented.”
The Dangerman
It’ll be a nightmare!
/Foxnews Viewers
On another topic, and I know this won’t be popular, but I think the Ray Rice thing swung from too soft to too harsh (thus, basically, he was set up by Goodell like a golf ball on a tee with the initial soft penalty). Yes, the video was ugly, but if you cheer for Ben Roethlisberger, well, one, shut the fuck up, and, two, you should be thankful there was no video there.
Dude should have been given the 6 game suspension, been able to keep his job, and let the criminal process run it’s course (see Vick, Michael). Maybe this WILL look like Vick in the end and someone else picks him up…
ETA: Moderation! I don’t see any magic words but now I’m getting my money’s worth!! Viagra, Cialis, Poker…
ETAA: Actually, I rather suspect Rice has played his last down in the NFL.
Little Boots
should be fun, soon.
Little Boots
no responses?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7uC5m-IRns
Steeplejack
Just checking to see if FYWP has a problem with me, or if it was just the thread downstairs.
Steeplejack
@Steeplejack:
Okay, either it’s me or FYWP is having a late-night meltdown. Steep out.
Little Boots
I love the idea that I can be moderated.
and I kind of like johnny.
Little Boots
johnnie, people like me are what make blogs like this interesting.
when we go to sleep, these blogs go to sleep.
Violet
I guess it wasn’t just me, then. I kept changing up words I thought might be the problem to get past the moderation censor.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Little Boots: Some of us don’t sleep, the blog never sleeps.
Steeplejack
@Little Boots:
Great song!
I think everyone was being moderated for a while. I went back to a thread from this morning and was even moderated there.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Steeplejack: But look at Dangerman’s comment, it looks like there was no moderation. Those forbidden words, my virgin ears!
Phylllis
Our tv market is Augusta GA (so we get GA and SC political ads, woo hoo!); Nunn has been running some pretty effective ads regarding Perdue’s disastrous time with Pillowtex in Kannapolis NC.
Steeplejack
@BillinGlendaleCA:
His comment was moderated. All the naughty words were added after he said, “ETA: Moderation!” Upon editing after moderation, in other words.
I sent Anne Laurie an e-mail, and I think she went through and released everybody from these two most recent threads.
PurpleGirl
I’ve been having problems with refreshing the page. Finally I was able to see comments.
TheMightyTrowel
Hello from Dubai emirates lounge where the advocate is censored but this click bait trash gets through. FSM bless that WaPo headline writer for getting Politico and Peak Strawman in the same headline.
Anne Laurie
@Steeplejack: Actually, I came back here, checked the dashboard, found 23 comments in moderation “waiting for spam check” and released them all. Still haven’t seen your email, but no doubt Eudora will deliver it later in the morning…
FYWP has been weird for me for the last couple days, this site takes forever to reload when every other site pops up as quickly as usual, and now this problem. There was a WordPress upgrade towards the end of last week, which I refused to go near, but I suspect some of the chewing-gum-and-binder-clip kludges are working themselves into new shapes, with or without my/our permission…
Amir Khalid
@The Dangerman:
I said this in the earlier thread on this topic: the lifetime ban should be the NFL’s punishment for the first domestic-violence offence. What kind of human being needs to be told that beating anyone unconscious, let alone your wife, is a horrible crime?
JordanRules
@Amir Khalid: Merely devils advocate, I think he should be in jail and I am wondering…
What type of job should he be allowed to have? And what does that say about those jobs and the rest of us? Where should he be allowed to seek redemption, or should that not matter? Does a job where you are allowed (heck, almost supposed) to hit someone unconscious make any difference in educating someone about this?
Goodell should have to resign. I see many unresolved threads from this episode and hope they are dealt with thoughtfully and lead to better understanding, punishment and prevention of DV.
Anne Laurie
@Amir Khalid:
Unfortunately, as others have said already, it’s complicated by the fact that this is a guy whose profession involves inflicting violence on other human beings. It can be argued that he’s been trained to respond this way. I don’t agree he should get a pass, but I can see the issue where a guy who’s been taught to “always hit back, harder than they hit you” might have an in-the-moment problem remembering “… but only other professionals, and then only on the playing field” as the second half of that rule. Especially, you know, after suffering a predictable level of head trauma, with subsequent erosion of impulse control, as part of his professional career… which has now, abruptly, come to an end. (At least until the media circus moves on.)
Amir Khalid
Medical Daily.com did a story on the top five countries in health care, citing International Living’s Global Retirement Index, and guess who came in third.
Anne Laurie
@Amir Khalid: Just found this linked on SBNation:
Of course, Keith Olbermann is notoriously an unserious, hysterically overreacting person…
Amir Khalid
@JordanRules:
Ray Rice must surely be fit for something in life besides hitting people.
When I said that the first time, another commenter replied to say that high-school football players often grow up in an atmosphere where, as a privilege of their star status, their violent tendencies are condoned. Ultimately, any meaningful change would need to start there, with their families and communities realising that violent tendencies are unacceptable in any sphere of life including sports.
Granted, it’s a bit late to start teaching that lesson only when player has made it to the pros. But a small elite group is easier to police in this regard than America’s huge university sports system, or a nation of high-school players. So one could start there, and say, “Being a violent person off the field is beyond the pale for the NFL.” And hopefully the lesson filters down.
Amir Khalid
@JordanRules:
I almost forgot to add, Ray Rice should pay any applicable criminal penalties for his conduct regardless of what the NFL does with him.
Amir Khalid
@Anne Laurie:
I’m aware that Olbermann is known to overstate his case, but he’s not doing that here.
JordanRules
@Amir Khalid: That makes sense, thanks for the sincere reply.
I’m thinking both happening in tandem would be more helpful – NFL sends the message that its beyond the pale and we work on our young athletes.
Continuing with this thread tho…
I know he is fit for something else, but why subject others to that (you deal with this dangerous dude, not us; why do I as a women have to work with him at my “regular” job and not 250 pound men) and not figure out what needs to be done to help him rather than “punish” him with a job apparently fit for abusers and the rest of us and valued less? I also worry that he gets a job with a lesser profile and the number of anonymous victims pile up like usual in communities where law enforcement has been known not to care as much.
I have many concerns about many of the messages being sent and am keeping an open mind. The root of this ugliness eventually has to be dealt with, that we know at least.
raven
Fucking bed in the Holiday Inn, Savannah sucks. On the upside the Starbucks opens at 5:30!
Mike J
Meanwhile, the NCAA cut two years off the post season ban for the kiddie fuckers in happy valley.
Skerry
Just got home from a sleep study in a Baltimore hospital. The tech let me know last night that it was being video recorder in case I “ray riced” him
tybee
@raven: @raven:
i think i see your problem, you’re supposed to be sleeping on it, not having carnal relations with it.
in any case, t’was a pleasure meeting you last evening and next time you’re in the area we’ll have to arrange some sort of seafood harassment in your honor.
qwerty42
@raven: …Savannah sucks…
I always had a good time there. Just back from a friend’s place on the marsh. Always makes me think I should move back. Where are you? Downtown? South side?
raven
@tybee: I really enjoyed meeting you folks!
Betty Cracker
@The Dangerman: I suspect you fret over the fate of Rice in vain. 1) The criminal justice system has already run its course and deemed that Rice should have counseling in a diversionary program with his record expunged if he doesn’t get into further trouble in the next year.
2) While Goodell suspended Rice “indefinitely,” he will almost certainly be reinstated, probably after a six-game suspension to comply with the hastily redrawn rules. The Ravens cut him loose, and if Rice were a nobody, he might actually lose his multimillion-dollar-a-year job as an entertainer for KO’ing a chick, but he’s a Pro-Bowler. Someone will pick him up. The Raiders are probably already on the horn.
aimai
@Anne Laurie: Uh…no. People are always responsible for their actions and always expected to be conscious of the size of their opponents and the setting of their actions. You might better argue that someone who expresses extreme violence on the field should need a lot of triggering events (game day prep, sounds, the feeling of being surrounded by other big guys, the feeling of being on the field) to react “spontaneously” and violently. An elevator would 100 percent not be such a triggering space.
But in any event all these crappy excuses for a totally bog standard form of extreme domestic violence abuse are absurd–if the guy had spontaneously clocked a five foot nothing, 100 something pound OWNER of a corporation he’d have been serving time by now. Why are our standards for domestic violence–committed by public milquetoasts and by celebrity assholes alike–so different? People step on my feet, or push me, all the time and I don’t haul off and knock them unconcious and no one thinks I should be able to. Why all the excuse making for this potential killer of women?
aimai
@JordanRules: Actually–law enforcement often cares more when the status of the abuser has been lowered to something that doesn’t overawe or enthrall them. Sports figures are one of the groups that law enforcement seems to have a hard time policing. In any other less glamorous and masculine a job, or less high paying, he might have gotten a stiffer sentence.
kc
Yay, Michelle!
dww44
No doubt this is a dead thread, but wanted to throw in my two cents worth about the possibility of electing Democrats in Georgia. Today, Daily Kos polling shows Nunn down 6 points (47 to 41) to Perdue.
However, there is a real GOTV ground game by her campaign of which I am a member/volunteer. We are now focusing on neighborhood canvassing to TARGETED voters. This week the young campaign guys down at the local office (they are paid and of the 3, 2 are from Texas) are beginning weekday neighborhood canvassing and I’m out in the field from 5 to 8 p.m. this evening. In hot and ultra high humidity worked the streets both Saturday and Sunday, all in working class, (mostly, but not all) African American neighborhoods. Nunn herself showed up here to canvass on Saturday for a while and then went elsewhere in the state to do the same.
One other important factor, Nunn is running an upbeat campaign with a positive message, albeit a very centrist one. Perdue, however, is running a very negative one with his primary message being that he will vote to repeal Obamacare and that he would also vote to shutdown the government and not raise the debt limit. As far as I know he has no ground game, but being a GOP’er in this state means you don’t have to have one.
Anyways, we Dems are working hard for Democrats;we just need more of us.