Georgia: More Democrat Legislators Thinking About Switching Parties

She is one of at least two House Democrats from Valdosta who are considering making a switch. Rep. Ellis Black, D-Valdosta, confirmed Friday he is also weighing moving to the GOP, complaining the national Democratic Party “has gotten too far to the left and certainly much further to the left of what Georgia is.”
Three House Democrats have switched parties since the Nov. 2 election. Those defections left the House split among 111 Republicans, 68 Democrats and one independent. The Republicans now have their largest majority since Reconstruction. For the GOP, reaching 120 members in the House would be huge as it takes that many votes to pass proposed constitutional amendments or to override a gubernatorial veto.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

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Georgia: State Rep. Switches Parties to GOP

State Rep. Alan Powell, who represents District 29 in Georgia, is no longer a Democrat.
Powell switched to the Republican Party on Monday, saying he believes that he can get more done for his district as a member of the GOP than as a minority Democrat.
On his Facebook page and on his Georgia House of Representatives website, Powell now lists his party as Republican.

Independent Mail

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Georgia: Republicans Lead Top 5 Statewide Races

Image via Wikipedia

13WMAZ's political reporter Randall Savage gave his take on the results: "These poll numbers look very good for the Republican party as a whole but four of the five major races in the state of Georgia are within the margin of error and could be headed for a November 30th runoff, especially in the governor's race where Nathan Deal has 49 percent, Roy Barnes at 39 percent and Libertarian John Monds has 8 percent. So they could be out on the campaign trail, that is Barnes and Deal, on Thanksgiving, instead of having turkey at home" 

13 WMAZ

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Georgia Voters: Obama Depression Likely to Increase Crime

Eighty-four percent (84%) of Georgia voters say it is at least somewhat likely that increased crime in their communities is due to the poor economy. Fifty-nine percent (59%) say it is Very Likely in a new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the state.

Just 10% say it’s not very likely the increase in crime is related to the economy, and two percent (2%) say it’s not likely at all. Five percent (5%) aren’t sure.

—Rasmussen Reports

Georgia Senate Election Map

Source: CNN

Saxby Wins!

Georgia Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss handed the GOP a firewall against Democrats eager to flex their newfound political muscle in Washington, winning a bruising runoff battle Tuesday night that had captured the national limelight.

Chambliss' victory thwarted Democrats' hopes of winning a 60 seat filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. It came after a bitter monthlong runoff against Democrat Jim Martin that drew political luminaries from both parties to the state and flooded the airwaves with fresh attack ads weeks after campaigns elsewhere had ended.

Minnesota—where a recount is under way—now remains the only unresolved Senate contest in the country. But the stakes there are significantly lower now that Georgia has put a 60-seat Democratic supermajority out of reach.

With 92 percent of the precincts reporting, Chambliss captured 58 percent to Martin's 42 percent. Chambliss' win is a rare bright spot for Republicans in a year where they lost the White House as well as seats in the House and the Senate.
Breitbart

Last Georgia Senate Poll: Chambliss at 50%, Martin 46%

Chambliss, 50%
Martin, 46%
Undecided, 4%

Southern Political Report

Georgia: Chambliss Leads by 3

Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss holds a narrow lead over Democrat Jim Martin in the Dec. 2 Georgia Senate runoff, according to a new Politico/InsiderAdvantage poll.

The poll shows Chambliss leading Martin by 3 percentage points, 50 percent to 47 percent, with 3 percent of respondents undecided. The first-term GOP senator's lead is within the poll’s four-point margin of error. The Politico/InsiderAdvantage poll surveyed 523 likely voters on Nov. 23.

The poll numbers are almost identical to the general election results, when Chambliss fell just short of the 50 percent necessary to win the seat outright on Election Night. He led Martin 49.8 to 46.8 percent, with a Libertarian candidate taking three percent of the vote.
Politico

Georgia Congressman Speaks Out Against Obama Paramilitary Group

"That's exactly what Hitler did in Nazi Germany and it's exactly what the Soviet Union did," Broun said. "When he's proposing to have a national security force that's answering to him, that is as strong as the U.S. military, he's showing me signs of being Marxist."

Obama's comments about a national security force came during a speech in Colorado about building a new civil service corps. Among other things, he called for expanding the nation's foreign service and doubling the size of the Peace Corps "to renew our diplomacy."

"We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we've set," Obama said in July. "We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded."

Associated Press

Germany: No to NATO Including Georgia

Do you support or oppose Georgia’s accession into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)?

Support	26%
Oppose	58%
Not sure	16%

Source: Infratest-Dimap / ARD
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 1,000 German adults, conducted on Aug. 19 and Aug. 20, 2008. Margin of error is 3.1 per cent.

59% of Americans See Russian Rape of Georgia Threat to National Security

The majority of Americans (59%) regard Russia’s ongoing invasion of neighboring Georgia as a threat to U.S. national security, but less than a third (31%) believe the United States should take any diplomatic action against Russia.

A similar number (33%) say the United States should not take diplomatic action against Russia, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey taken Monday night. A plurality (36%) remain undecided.

Just over half (51%) also believe that John McCain is the best equipped of the two major presidential candidates to handle a similar crisis in the future, while 36% (WTF?) believe Barack Obama is the better of the two to deal with this kind of situation.
—Rasmussen Reports

Russian Rape of Georgia Grows in Scale

Russia battled Georgian forces on land and sea, reports said late Sunday, despite a Georgian cease-fire offer and its claim to be withdrawing from South Ossetia, the separatist Georgian province battered by days of intense fighting.

Russia claimed to have sunk a Georgian boat that was trying to attack Russian vessels in the Black Sea, and Georgian officials said Russia sent tanks from South Ossetia into Georgia proper, heading toward a strategic city before being turned back.
—My Way News

Russian Invasion Pushes Past Disputed Territory into Heart of Georgia

Russia expanded its attacks on Georgia on Sunday, moving tanks and troops through the separatist enclave of South Ossetia and advancing toward the city of Gori in central Georgia, in its first direct assault on a Georgian city with ground forces during three days of heavy fighting, Georgian officials said.

The maneuver — along with bombing of the Georgian capital, Tbilisi — seemed to suggest that Russia’s aims in the conflict had gone beyond securing the pro-Russian enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia to weakening the armed forces of Georgia, a former Soviet republic and an ally of the United States whose Western leanings have long irritated the Kremlin.
—New York Times

Russia Continues Slaughter

YOUR PICTURE GALLERY IS NOW LOADING... In Nogir, North Ossetia, friends and relatives cry over the coffin of an ethnic Ossetian who was killed in Tskhinvali during the armed conflict between Georgia and South Ossetian separatists. A distraught Georgian woman is comforted by her husband in Gori, which is near the border of the breakaway province of South Ossetia. Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili (R) and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner visit Gori to examine damage resulting from the ongoing conflict. Mr Saakashvili, centre, was later whisked away amid fears of an air attack in Gori, where dozens of Russian warplanes have launched raids. The French foreign minister (not pictured) also took cover. Georgian tanks drive on the outskirts of Gori on their way to the South Ossetian front line. Both Russia and Georgia have accused each other of continued attacks after Georgia called for a ceasefire. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev speaks during a meeting with Russian politicians at the Kremlin. Russia says its forces have entered Georgia from the breakaway region of Abkhazia.

NATO Betrayal of Georgia

Above: Russian dictator Vladimir Putin

As a Russian jet bombed fields around his village, Djimali Avago, a Georgian farmer, asked me: “Why won’t America and Nato help us? If they won’t help us now, why did we help them in Iraq?”
—Times of London

Georgia, Russia Battle for Control of South Ossetian Capital

Georgia said on Friday its forces were in control of the capital of the breakaway region of South Ossetia, but rebels said Russian armored vehicles had entered the northern edges of the city.

"Tskhinvali and the heights around Tskhinvali and the majority of the villages in South Ossetia are under the control of Georgian forces," Georgia's pro-Western President Mikheil Saakashvili said in a televised address.

—Reuters

Blood in the Caucasus: Why is it Happening?

Political map of Georgia, with recognized boundaries.




Map of ethnic groups in Georgia and its environs.

You can see why there is so much trouble. Boundaries do not match the reality on the ground. There are so many ethnic groups in the region that this situation has the potential to turn into an epic disaster.
Click on the map to enlarge.

Top 20 Party Schools

1. University of Florida, Gainesville, Fla.
2. University of Mississippi, University, Miss.
3. Penn State University, University Park, Pa.
4. West Virginia University, Morgantown, W.Va.
5. Ohio University, Athens, Ohio.
6. Randolph-Macon College, Ashland, Va.
7. University of Georgia, Athens, Ga.
8. University of Texas, Austin, Texas.
9. University of California-Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, Calif.
10. Florida State University, Tallahassee, Fla.
11. University of New Hampshire, Durham, N.H.
12. University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa.
13. University of Colorado, Boulder, Co.
14. Indiana University, Bloomington, Ind.
15. Tulane University, New Orleans, La.
16. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Ill.
17. Arizona State University, Tempe, Ariz.
18. University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tenn.
19. University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Ala.
20. Loyola University-New Orleans, New Orleans, La.

Source: Princeton Review

Georgia: Saxby Chambliss Has Strong Lead in Senate Race

Georgia Trends: Chambliss vs. Jones
Date	Chambliss	Jones
07/17/2008	59%	29%
06/26/2008	57%	30%
06/04/2008	56%	33%
05/06/2008	58%	30%
03/20/2008	56%	30%

Georgia Trends: Chambliss vs. Martin
Date	Chambliss	Martin
07/17/2008	51%	40%
06/26/2008	52%	39%
06/04/2008	52%	36%
05/06/2008	54%	33%
03/20/2008	51%	33%

—Rasmussen Reports

Rasmussen: McCain Leads by 9 Georgia

Georgia Trends: McCain vs. Obama
Date	McCain	Obama
07/17/2008	48%	39%
06/26/2008	53%	43%
06/04/2008	51%	41%
05/06/2008	53%	39%
03/20/2008	53%	40%