The Hawks lost the game last night, but they've clinched something far more valuable: respect.

(Full article and comments)

The New York Times has set about painting all those Southerners who voted for John McCain as racists. The Atlanta area is at the very epicenter of the conservative-liberal seismic shift. Yet the Times didn’t think the Atlanta area important enough to explore for its story. (Full article and comments)

Former boy band-er Nick Lachey is 35 on Nov. 9, and happy he no longer has to answer his ex-wife’s difficult questions—chicken or tuna?

 

Nearly washed-up actor Leonardo DiCaprio hits the big 3-4 on Nov. 11. His birthday wish? To reclaim his “king of the world” crown.

 

Calista Flockhart (pictured) is 44 on Nov. 11. Who knew Indiana Jones' hardest challenge would be to get this girl to eat?

 

Demi Moore, role model to cougars everywhere, is 46 on Nov. 11, which she’ll no doubt spend with her much-younger hubby, 30-year-old boy toy Ashton NoTalent.

 

We suggest Nancy Kerrigan take cover when Tonya Harding makes a birthday wish. She’s 38 on Nov. 12.

 

Retired MLB slugger Sammy Sosa marks the big 4-0 on Nov. 12. Gift ideas? We hear he’s partial to corked bats and steroid prescriptions.

 

The soon-to-be-unemployed Condoleezza Rice is 54 on Nov. 14, the same day Prince Charles turns 60. Come to think of it, have you ever seen them in the same place at the same time?

 

 Photo: Evan Agostini/Getty Images

(Full article and comments)

"There may be nearly a half million outstanding ballots in Georgia alone, and thousands more in other states — including the one with the largest turnout, California — that are still being counted." (Full article and comments)

Now that Barack Obama has made history, the president-elect can look forward to a long line of important issues vying for his attention once he takes the oath of office in January. But I'm hoping he'll elect to yield his considerable influence to affect some change before Inauguration Day in two key areas.

First and foremost, of course, I hope he'll reach out to those voters who did not vote for him, either out of genuine political differences, racial prejudice or brainwashing from the likes of Hannity, Limbaugh, etc. In the less than 12 hours since Sen. Obama gave his first speech as president-elect, I've received a number of distraught e-mails that are frankly disturbing in their level of vitriol. I'll be addressing that issue more directly in my Stop the Presses column in this weekend's issue of The Sunday Paper.

But almost as important, I call upon President-Elect Obama to pull some strings over at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and get "Doonesbury" back in the paper immediately. As you may have heard, cartoonist Garry Trudeau submitted a batch of comic strips in which Obama is named president. (Syndicated daily strips are usually turned in a few weeks in advance.) The AJC opted to pull the strip, placing it on hiatus this week, and resume running it Nov. 10.

Let's give Atlanta's monopoly daily the benefit of the doubt that this move wasn't politically motivated; the AJC endorsed Obama, after all. Even so, it's a baffling move, if not an unexpected one. After all, the AJC already segregates "Doonesbury" (along with the poorly drawn and execrable conservative strip "Prickly City") to another part of the Living section, away from the Comics page, fearing that its readers aren't sophisticated enough to process comic strips that espouse political opinions next to crap like "On A Claire Day." (No matter that "Get Fuzzy," for one, also addresses political matters via Bucky the Cat's right-wing rants. Heck, even "Brewster Rockit" had its title character run for president of the galaxy--why not segregate that one, as well? And "Mutts" pursues a clearly leftist pro-animal agenda. Maybe we should separate the Comics section into "right" and "left"-leaning strips. And don't even get me started on having to find the Business section just to read "Dilbert.")

Since those AJC customers who want to read "Doonesbury" are already forced to take the extra step of seeking it out, one can safely assume that most folks who do read it are sympathetic to its leanings. And posters to "The Vent" notwithstanding, I think even those innocent naifs who stumble upon the strip by mistake are probably smart enough to recognize that it is a work of fiction.

Now that the results are in, and Obama has indeed won (to absolutely no one's surprise), the AJC should run the three strips readers have missed so far. It shouldn't have insulted its readers' intelligence in the first place. (Full article and comments)

Video shows two alleged members of the "new" Black Panthers wielding a night stick to scare away anyone who looked like they weren't voting for Obama at a polling station in Philly. I say "alleged" because although they are black and they are wearing militant garb, we don't know if they are actually members of the Panthers or just wannabes. Not that it matters much when it comes to wielding a deadly weapon at a polling station. Does Philly not have any cops?  Here's the video made by a University of Pennsylvania student as posted on politico.com:
(Full article and comments)

If Obama wins, it won’t be by the landslide that so many have predicted. The thing that will be most astonishing to many of those on the left is the very thing that history should have prepared them for: the loud election-day voice of the silent majority. (Full article and comments)

Although she holds a personal belief that abortion should be used only in cases where pregnancy threatens the life of the mother, lately we have heard increasingly about how Palin has never sought to legislate on that belief in Alaska’s statehouse. (Full article and comments)

Join Stephanie Ramage for PBS election night coverage on the Georgia Public Broadcast System's TV channel 8 and WABE 90.1 FM or streaming live at www.gpb.org/election. 
(Full article and comments)

"I will close the Guantanamo Bay prison and ban torture...There is great need for American leadership in the world, and I understand that only by exercising that leadership with grace and wisdom can we be successful in safeguarding our interests."
(Full article and comments)