The Real Georgia Gang

I know you're itching to survey the political scene in Georgia, but you sure don't want to turn on that icky TV and have Dick Williams' little bow tie annoy the bejeezus out of you. Try a Georgia Politics podcast with your morning grits and iPod, instead. This podcast episode includes -- me! And chatter about: Sonny, GA Republican squabbling, The 10th Congressional special election, and New Media impacting the local political process. Enjoy.

Blog entry about New Media turned into quickie column for Georgia Political Digest too.

Clone Your Blog Posts! Make Millions Doing It! Work From Home! Easy Money! HaHaHaHaHa!

Podcast For Georgia Political Digest

Here's my latest Georgia Political & Policy Digest editorial as a podcast: At The AJC It's Do As We Say, Not As We Do. Assorted other local and politically-flavored podcasts of mine are available through GAPN here. Thanks so much, Rusty and Amber, for podcasting this via the GAPN.

GAPN and GPPD -- two homegrown, Atlanta online organizations I'm very proud to be associated with! Insert big Rebel Yell here.

SoCon07

Click To Play

No, the AJC didn't bother to show, as I casually mention today in the Georgia Political Digest, but Amani Channel for MyUrbanReport was there to package the SoCon07 goodies. And MSM thinks we still need their sorry ass...

SOME FUN FOR U: All the cool kids are a'Twitter. Find out just when your posse wakes-up and has their morning coffee, etc. HT to NewMediaJim.

Bad PR Firm, Bad

Edleman, the massive PR agency with clients like, oh say... Wal-Mart, the second (?) largest corporation in the history of capitalism, has admitted, finally, to their ethically dubious behavior. In a nutshell, and you can click yourself into a mia culpa frenzy reading all about it on your own time, Edelman created phoney sites and blogs and world f-ing tours and a host of other $$$-generated smoke and mirrors for their bestest client, Wal-Mart.

Seemed the smarties in the blogosphere, as opposed to the general public, weren't too confused for too long. (I mean...duh... what were they thinking? That people would seriously believe there was a genuine, grassroots, pro-Wal-Mart effort afoot in the land? Do we LOOK stupid here in the blogosphere?!) And guess what, folks got pissed and called 'em out. Imagine that.

I, too, got caught-up in the whole fake Wal-Mart PR campaign, a practice refered to as "astroturfing," when my editorial for The Georgia Political Digest ended-up on the Georgia Families For Wal-Mart site. It's still there. I asked Edelman today to remove the editorial until the whole campaign/site is made more transparent. (UPDATE as of 12:05pm EDT: they did.)

I stand-by my editorial direction in the article. I like Wal-Mart, and plan to shop there when the new intown store opens tomorrow in my 'hood. (Shit, I'm a single working mom; we're programmed to love Wal-Mart due to our historically slim budgets alone.) I just don't like being used on a highly un-transparent site.

Technorati tags: Wal-Mart, Edelman, PR

Genetically Modified Wal-Mart

Don't know about you, but I'm going to speculate in corn futures. Wal-Mart wants to sell ethanol. Or E85 as it's called for commercial purposes. This is most cool, and could alter the kind of vehicles we purchase and what kind of emmissions we spew. Lord knows, I'm spewing now in my gas guzzler, and sometimes even I feel a twinge or two about it. If something safe, affordable and roomy came on the market that utilized E85, and I knew where a couple of E85 stations were close by, would that affect the kind of vehicle I drove? Absolutely.

My new neighbor, Wal-Mart, has already affected something on me, and if they can soften up my kinda rigidity, then they're doing something right. I wrote about my Wal-Mart miniphany (mini epiphany) this week in the Georgia Political Digest. Read full op/ed here.

From the CNN/Money story:

More than 5 million vehicles on U.S. roads today can run on ethanol - a renewable fuel that comes from corn - as well as gasoline. General Motors, Ford and DaimlerChrysler recently announced plans to double their annual production of so-called flex fuel vehicles to two million cars and trucks by 2010.

tags: Wal-Mart, ethanol, Georgia, gas, gas prices, cheap, corn futures, business