All The News That's Fit To Print (By Us, Anyway)...
EDITOR'S NOTEFor the 70 or so of you who knew there was a Discussion Board available on the Political Vine, it has been permanently taken down.
Back in January, when I first launched this new site, I was pumped-up about the possibility of having a "real" discussion board available to my readership. A place where intelligent and intellectual discussions about a variety of political topics would occur.
But, I forgot one little thing. Republicans, when given the option of anonymous debate, can only resort to childish games and posts that do nothing but annoy grown-ups who are interested in sensible issue discussions. I say "always" because that is exactly what occured back in 1998 on the
Bill Shipp Website board. And, it is exactly what occured for several years on the
Gwinnett Citizen discussion board.
The posts amounted to nothing much more than a bunch of trite and irrelevant blustering that was along the lines of (literally)
"You suck!"..."No, YOU suck!"...."No, your candidate sucks!"..."NO, YOUR candidate sucks!!"...and, so on. (What's kinda interesting is that the very same ghosts from the Shipp discussion board were also posting on my Website...)
The thing I wonder about is where will all of those anonymous posters, some of whom are currently sitting as elected Georgia state senators, representatives, and recently hired government bureaucrats...wherever will they go to express their thoughts now?
Oh well. That's their problem. I'm tired of babysitting the kiddies.
Bill Simon
Editor
Golly! Johnny DID Sign It!There are now 36 co-sponsors/sponsors of the
Fair Tax H.R. 25 in the United States House of Representatives.
Rep. Jim DeMint (SC-4) and Rep. Walter Jones, Jr. (NC-3) and Johnny Isakson (GA-6) all signed-on to the bill September 3, 2003.
Speaking Of the Fair TaxThe U.S. Senate candidate who knows the legislation backwards and forwards will be
kicking-off his campaign this Wednesday, September 10.
Herman Cain will be appearing at the Georgian Terrace Hotel in downtown Atlanta (directions below), along with
Jack Kemp. The two will address supporters during a breakfast from 8:30-9:30. Immediately following, the two will hold a joint press conference in Conference Room IV.
DRIVING DIRECTIONS to The Georgian Terrace HotelFrom south of Atlanta and Hartsfield International AirportFollow I-85 north into Atlanta. Once in the downtown area, take exit 249D (Peachtree Street/Pine Street) to the right. Stay in left lanes of exit ramp and go to traffic light at Peachtree Street. Turn left on to Peachtree Street and drive three blocks to the corner of Peachtree Street and Ponce de Leon Avenue. The Georgian Terrace Hotel is on the right, directly across the street from the Fox Theatre. Continue through the traffic light and enter the hotel's auto entrance and parking garage on the right.
From north of Atlanta on I-75/85Follow I-75/85 south into Atlanta. Once in Downtown area, take the 10th Street/14th Street exit off the interstate (exit on the right). Continue on the long exit ramp until you get to the traffic light at 14th Street and turn left on to 14th Street. Continue on 14th Street for six blocks until you get to the intersection of 14th Street and Peachtree Street. Turn right on to Peachtree Street and travel south 11 blocks to the corner of 3rd Street and Peachtree Street. Continue on Peachtree Street, through the traffic light at 3rd Street and you will see The Georgian Terrace Hotel on the left, directly across the street from the Fox Theatre. Enter the hotel's auto entrance and parking garage on the left.
For more info, contact
Nicole Barry, Press Secretary at Cain for U.S. Senate. Office: (404) 366-8101. Fax: (404) 366-8102, or on the Web at
Cain For US Senate.
MEMORANDUMTo: Bulldawg Nation
From: Bill Simon (ME, Tech '83)
Re: Skule Stuf
-----------------------------------------------------------
Hey, folks, did any of you happen to take a gander at the latest study released by
U.S. News & World Reports on the nation's colleges?
It seems that, quite contrary to all of the claims I've heard over the past three years about
UGA really becoming as challenging a school as
Georgia Tech, UGA is still a few light years behind Georgia Tech. But, instead of me merely stating such things, I will back it up with proof from the US News study:
1) For the 5th year in a row,
Tech was ranked 9th among the nation's top public universities, and
37th among all universities, both public and private. UGA has the distinction of being
59th among all universities.
2) For the middle-50% of the 2002 class of entering freshman (i.e., 25th to 75th percentile), the SAT/ACT scores for Georgia Tech ranged from
1250 to 1430. Contrast that with UGA's
1110 to 1300 and a clearer picture emerges. Tech's standards are not in decline as has been claimed by UGA grads of late.
3) It has been recently claimed by UGA grads that "UGA is a lot tougher to get into than Tech." Wanna bet? The
acceptance rate (i.e., the ratio of folks getting accepted divided by the total folks applying) for Georgia Tech was
59%, while UGA's acceptance rate was
65%...a higher number which directly indicates that UGA is
easier to get accepted to than Tech.
4) And, the final (and, most interesting) statistic to compare between the two schools is the
percentage of graduates who enter the job market in a field related to their major. At Georgia Tech, within 6 months of graduating,
91% of the graduates found a job in a field related to their major. At UGA, this statistic was
56%.
So, while I do understand that taking such courses like "Mastering The Art of Hosting A Kegger," "Hedge-Clipping for Dummies," "Vince Dooley Is God and Other World Religions," "Game Day Tailgating Etiquette"...and, the most recent curriculum addition, "Running Down The Airport Up-Escalator" were a grand way to spend 4 years of your life (or 5, or 6, or 7...), a little over 50% of the grads will have skills that employers are interested in. Hey, but if you had a perfect attendance to every football game, that should certainly earn you some bonus points on the resume...
P.S. Since I know I will get the inevitable e-mail from a UGA grad who will point out to me that "all of the past governors, our current governor, our constitutional officers, and a lot of the members of the legislature were all graduates of UGA," please allow me to answer that now: "Yeah, and see how screwed-up our state is right now? We are dead last in education for the 2nd year in a row. A budget full of too much pork. A state government bureaucracy infested with so much embedded corruption one would only need to dust-off the capitol's steps to find it...Hmmm...gee...ya suppose there COULD be a correlation there???"
Fun StuffThe Washington Post's Style Invitational once again asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition.
Here are the 2003 winners:
1. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.
2. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.
3. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.
4. Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting sex.
5. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period.
6. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.
7. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
8. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.
9. Hipatitis: Terminal coolness.
10. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)
11. Karmageddon: It's like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer.
12. Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.
13. Glibido: All talk and no action.
14. Dopeler effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.
15. Arachnoleptic fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.
16. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.
17. Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a grub in the fruit you're eating.
And the pick of the literature:
18. Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid and an a--hole.
Buckhead YR MeetingSEPTEMBER MEETING - Tuesday, September 9, 2003
The
Buckhead Young Republicans would like to welcome
Karen Handel to our September meeting to discuss her current run for the Fulton County Commission Chair slot.
Karen has considerable business and political experience. She was sworn in as Deputy Chief of Staff to Governor Sonny Perdue on January 13, 2003. Prior to joining Governor Perdue’s team, she served as President and CEO of the Greater North Fulton Chamber of Commerce. She was also a candidate for Fulton County Commission District 2, losing the race by only 5,000 votes in her first run for public office and served in Bush-Quayle Administration. She has held various management positions with CIBA Vision Corporation; KPMG, the Bush-Quayle Administration, and Hallmark Cards, Inc.
Karen served as a member of the Chattahoochee River Basin Advisory Council of the North Georgia Water District Board and on the Georgia 400 Corridor Study committee. She is a member of the Habitat for Humanity Advisory Board and Lanier Technical College Advisory Board and is active with the Republican Party.
Raised in a suburb of Washington, DC, Karen and her husband Steve have lived in Atlanta since 1994.
A representative from the
Tom Price for U.S. Congress campaign will also be giving an update.
The Meeting will start at 7:30 pm with a social period beginning at 7:00 at Rio Bravo, 3172 Roswell Road. For more info, contact Brian Cox, Chairman, at 404-893-4000 or
via E-Mail or
on the Web.
From The 'It Ain't True Department'...Rumors are that the RNC has gone offshore to hire fundraising companies based in India to perform telemarketing duties to raise money for President Bush.
Not so, according to Friday's AJC Q&A section because this question was asked specifically and answered as follows (quote marks are all "sic"):
It is "absolutely untrue," said Christine Iverson of the Republican National Committee in Washington.
She said the source of the "misinformation" appears to be a publication in New Delhi that posted a report on its Web site in January saying the Republican Party outsourced a fund-raising project to HCL Technologies, a company in India. The information subsequently has been posted on other Web sites.
Iverson said the RNC sent letters from its lawyers to the publication asking it to take the information off its site and to "cease and desist" spreading the story. It hasn't received a response, she said.
The story on the publication's site said a team of 75 people was put in place initially to work on the project out of its call centers in two cities in India. The operators were to call numbers in the United States seeking support for Bush and a donation to the Republican Party, the report said.
"We wish we could stamp this story out, because it simply is not true," Iverson said. (
Source: Colin Bessonette's Q&A, Page B2, September 5, 2003 edition of the Atlanta Journal & Constitution).
PV's Note To Michael Opitz: Don't believe everything you read on
World Net Daily. This isn't the first time a conservative Website has gotten the facts screwed-up.
In MemoriamGeneral Ray Davis, a Medal of Honor recipient, U.S. Marine Corps, died of an apparent heart attack in his home on Wednesday, September 3, 2003.
After graduating from Georgia Tech, Gen. Davis received his commission as a 2nd lieutenant in 1938 and retired as a four-star general in 1972 after serving in World War II, Korea and Vietnam. He ended his military service as assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, the nation's second-highest-ranking Marine.
Gen. Davis received the Medal of Honor for commanding troops in the 1950 battle of Chosin Reservoir in Korea. He was also awarded the Navy Cross, two Distinguished Service Medals, two Silver Stars, two Legion of Merit awards, a Bronze Star, a Purple Heart, five Presidential Unit citations and three Naval Unit citations.
The funeral service will be at 2:00 PM Monday (8 Sept.) at the First United Methodist Church of Conyers (770-483-4236). The Interment will be at Forest Lawn Memorial Gardens in College Park following the service. The cemetery is located at 5755 Mallory Road and there will be a police escort from the church to the cemetery.
A Marine Corps reception is planned to be held following the graveside services back at the Church. The timing is a bit sketchy at the moment, but we hope to start the reception as soon as we can return to the church at approximately 5:30 PM.
Semper Fidelis,
Jim Thompson
CondolencesOur condolences to
Georgia State GOP Treasurer Bob Mayzes whose mother recently passed away.
Our condolences to
State Representative and Minority Whip Jerry Keen whose father recently passed away.
