If you decide to visit Nathan Deal’s Facebook page, you better be prepared to heap him with fawning praise. Otherwise expect any comment or even question, no matter how factual or polite to get deleted in short order and your posting privileges to the page revoked. Now I understand blocking people that go on pages and use profanity, are belligerent, or just for purposes of trolling. But I do not understand deleting comments or questions that are polite and completely within the bounds of normal discourse. I am speaking of very reasonable questions and comments and candidate should expect from citizens. Is this honestly the way Deal want’s to respond to voters by simply blocking them and deleting their comments?
I also wanted to point out neither of his opponents seem to be deleting comments anywhere close to this degree. On Jason Carter and Andrew Hunt’s Facebook pages the Deal faithful are there in full force.
Governor Deal is also rather vain it seems. On his Facebook page the photo taken has him either wearing a lot of make up or has been severely photoshopped or both. I will give him a pass on that though given his advanced age and the fact that he is running against a much younger and more energetic candidate. Nathan Deal’s struggles with all these ethics issues have aged him well beyond his 72 years. The expression, rode hard and put up wet comes to mind so no shame in trying to photoshop out some age spots I suppose.
I realize Nathan Deal probably doesn’t even know the password to his Facebook page and it was created and is maintained by his campaign staff, but the fact that he has such a cowardly campaign staff reflects poorly on Nathan Deal. Last night when I posted my questions and comments I made a mental note that there were 64 comments on the most recent post. Today I just took a screen shot and if you look at the bottom you can see it now shows View 41 more comments. That is a lot of deletions. Twenty Three comments were deleted. You can see many orphaned comments with replies by the Deal faithful to people who no longer appear in the thread as proof.
Some criticism managed to slip by the censors if you look hard, but by and large all dissenting comments I saw last night have been deleted en masse. As I stated earlier my comments were not hateful, and some were simply questions. A comment from a veteran and many others is also now gone that were there last night. Apparently unless you tow the line and praise Nathan Deal you are not welcome. I think Nydia Tisdale might understand better than most people how quickly Nathan Deal can rescind an invitation. She was the videographer assaulted at a Republican rally in Dawsonville, GA recently by a very thuggish cop after Ralph Hudgens put his foot in his mouth and was recorded by Tisdale. Suddenly she became persona non grata very quickly. It appears Nathan Deal has very thin skin.
Here are a few observations I gathered from his Facebook page.
- All the Commenters I saw were white
- All the commenters I observed were older. The youngest I saw were around 50 and most appeared to be well over 60. Not a great sign.
- The #1 issue seems to be getting rid of the evil Democratic Common Core conspiracy that is meant to destroy the schools apparently. They really seem to hate common Core. (even though Sonny Perdue and Deal support it)
- The #2 issue of importance was reintroducing prayer at school football games
- You read more comments about Obama and Jimmy Carter than Jason Carter. You would think Obama and Jimmy Carter are Deal’s opponents instead of Jason Carter who is far to the right of either of those two.
- Did I mention they really hate common core? Because even on a post of Nathan Deal with some UGA football players, Common Core dominated the comments and they added Bill Gates and Michelle Obama in on this massive conspiracy. But I also got a strong feeling few if any actually understood what Common Core actually entailed. They knew they should hate it but didn’t really understand what they were hating.
To the left is just a small sampling of some comments. I will let the comments speak for themselves since I do not think any commentary is needed.
Common Core is far too complicated to go into here but I think it is important to remember the leading champion of Common Core in Georgia was former Republican Governor Sonny Perdue and Nathan Deal has continued that support. I will not take a position in this article either in favor or against Common Core for one simple reason. I do not know enough about it to make a reasonable assessment and I will not blindly support or attack something until I learn the facts myself and not simply rely on rhetoric and opinions. Too many people fail to do their own due diligence and rely on groupthink or misinformation instead of simply researching the facts.
What little I do know after a quick visit to the official Common Core website seems to suggest they are trying to provide a national standard that all students should be able to meet regardless of where they live in the country. This is certainly the norm in all other countries with high performing students. Certainly we would want a 9th grader in Georgia being taught as rigorous a math, history, or science class as 9th graders from other states. But given all the hatred of Common Core I am curious to hear specific complaints that I seem to be missing. Feel free to enlighten me in the comment section on why so many people hate Common Core with such a passion.
Table of Contents
Latest Polls Have Nathan Deal Very Worried
In the most recent 11 Alive Survey USA poll Jason Carter is leading Nathan Deal 45% to 44% while Andrew Hunt the Libertarian candidate polled at 4% and 7% are still undecided. Recently, many Deal operatives have in fact gone to Andrew Hunt’s Facebook page and have tried to scare his supporters into voting for Deal by claiming Hunt is a secret agent for Jason Carter. Never mind the fact that with an election this close there is almost sure to be a runoff and a vote for Andrew Hunt is most certainly not wasted. But you can sense the desperation behind this recent spurt of attacks. Andrew Hunt is most certainly not an agent of Jason Carter and he has a lot of very good ideas that I think would likely attract most of Deal’s supporters and some of Carter’s as well if he had the amount of campaign donations to blitz the TV’s and get his message out.
Unlike Carter or Deal who likely don’t ever even visit their Facebook pages, Andrew Hunt will answer questions and concerns directly in the comments daily which is a very commendable thing. Luckily Hunt will be participating in the debates so he may gain even more traction. I think a substantial amount of Republican voters in Georgia are not thrilled at the prospect of reelecting a governor like Nathan Deal who is so “ethically challenged”. Aside from all the scandals there is also the inconvenient statistic that Georgia ranks 51st in the country in unemployment.
Nathan Deal appeared at a new Charter school opening in Atlanta today with rapper Ludacris. If you click the link you will see Deal enter the room first to a somewhat muted response. His campaign worker can be seen frantically waving his hands in the air to try and elicit louder applause for Nathan Deal. A few seconds later Ludacris makes his entrance sand the room erupts. He should have brought his wife along since she apparently can determine just from looking at them which will attend prison and which will go to college. Here is a collection of Deal quotes which may explain why the applause was somewhat muted for him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dV5VQ52vbpA&channel=GAJournalist
I have made no secret of my disdain for Nathan Deal on this website. I think he is incompetent and will likely be indicted by the FBI sooner or later over ethics charges that go back to his time in Congress. Here are just a few of the highlights of why I pray that Georgia will elect either Andrew Hunt or Jason Carter this year courtesy of Better Georgia an Athens, GA based watchdog group.
BAD BUSINESS
- The Pawn Shop: Gov. Deal lied to voters about his 90 percent ownership of Wilder Outdoors. Instead, he let his daughter and son-in-law take the blame for the failed business. Then, he sold the failed business to a California sex shop owner who has a track record of turning pawn shops into sex shops.
- The Junkyard: Gov. Deal audited his biggest competitor, stuck them with a $74 million tax bill, then made millions “selling” the company his failing business. And now he conveniently refuses to collect the tax.
- Jets and Helicopters: Gov. Deal illegally funnelled campaign cash to companies he owned and failed to disclose.
STRONG-ARM TACTICS
- The First Ethics Chief: In the middle of her investigation of criminal charges against his campaign, Gov. Deal used the power of his office to fire ethics chief Stacey Kalberman and stop subpoenas from being issued. A Fulton County jury found in favor of Ms. Kalberman and awarded her more than $1 million – a bill taxpayers had to pay.
- The Second Ethics Chief: Gov. Deal replaced Stacey Kalberman with Holly LaBerge, a ladder-climbing bureaucrat who was not a lawyer and had no experience leading an ethics agency, but who he believed he could control. Then, even after she shut down the investigation, he used his staff to pressure her to settle his case with no more than a slap on the wrist.
- Friends, Family and Donors: The Georgia nursing home industry is one of the largest contributors to Gov. Deal, so when they asked for a big rate increase, he was more than willing to go along – so willing that he removed two State Health Department Board members when they refused to go along. This is only the most recent example of Deal using strong-arm tactics to create jobs for political convenience or to appoint his big donors to the most powerful boards.
FAILED LEADERSHIP
- Dining at the Ritz While Georgia Froze: On January 28, while Gov. Deal lunched at the Ritz Carlton, thousands of Georgians became stranded on icy roadways as snow began falling. Instead of taking responsibility, Gov. Deal blamed his failed response on the weatherman, falsely claiming that the storm was not predicted.
- A Broken Promise of Job Creation: Gov. Deal said that job creation was the most important priority for his administration. But after four years with Gov. Deal in charge, Georgia has the highest unemployment in the nation, and more than 1 in 4 of our children live in poverty – more than many Third World countries.
- Standing in the Hospital Door: Five hospitals have closed on Gov. Deal’s watch, including four in rural Georgia. While nine Republican governors have worked to provide greater access to health care in their states under the Affordable Care Act, Gov. Deal has taken an extreme position to block the full benefits of the law in Georgia. His lack of leadership has hurt hospitals and the communities they serve.
The Effects of Social Media on Elections
A large part of the electorate are completely unaware of the Facebook pages for candidates at all. Fewer still follow the twitter wars by the political junkies. For those of you that use Twitter, here are some of the more active has tags for Georgia Politics. #GaPol #GaGOP #GaDems #GaGov #GaSen
I would guess 99% of the people on twitter are political junkies with their minds made up long ago. The endless tweets will likely not change anyone’s mind and it completely futile. But still the tweets keep coming and it is at least somewhat entertaining. The same applies to Facebook, Tumblr, Youtube, and so many others. Elections at the end of the day are pretty much unchanged besides the technology of the voting machines. You still have to get your message out there and hope enough people agree with your message to go to the polls and vote.
If you haven’t registered to vote there is still time. Please consider registering and voting against Nathan Deal. Both Andrew Hunt and Jason Carter are viable alternatives. You can register for free on this website. You can also go to your local county board of registrars’ office or election office, public library, public assistance office, recruitment office, schools and other government offices for a mail-in registration form.
If You are a Republican….
Please think long and hard before you blindly vote for Nathan Deal. He is not a true Republican. He has taken Georgia to the bottom in nearly every category. Rural hospitals are closing, we have the highest unemployment in the entire country. You know just how bad it is when people in Mississippi are now saying “Thank God for Georgia!”. Nathan Deal has been a disaster and he will continue wreaking havoc on the Peach state while he continues to collect his $10,000 month income from Copart while refusing to collect the $74 million in taxes Copart owes to Georgia. I am not suggesting you switch your party allegiance by any means, but please understand that Nathan Deal is simply a very bad governor that needs to be sent packing.
I am so glad you wrote this article. I was actually undecided and had several of my questions deleted on Deal’s facebook page. Actually, I almost always vote Republican but with Deal’s record and ethics charges it made me iffy to vote for him again. I asked about the unemployment figures and then an hour or two later went back to read an answer and it was gone. Then when I tried to write it again I couldn’t. Does that mean I am blocked? I have never been blocked before so not sure. No place to leave comment now or reply to comments either but I can still read the page. Well, at least I am no longer undecided. If Nathan Deal can’t even allow questions Andrew Hunt has my vote. And if it goes to a runoff I will vote for Jason Carter. I will not vote for that crook again. What do they say about fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.
Thanks very much for your comments. And yes, it means Deal blocked you from his page. His tactics on Facebook will likely backfire and result in many people either voting against him or sitting it out.
Just imagine how much more Georgia’s job numbers would suck without all those low wage jobs created. I don’t think the employment numbers give credit for new jobs where people are simply moving from one state to another either. Many of Georgia’s jobs have been poached from other states.
Many of the job announcements have been relocations in the past. There have been some new ones, like Mando in Meriweather County, but others have simply been businesses relocating from somewhere else. Opening retail stores and fast food joints won’t recoup the jobs lost in IT and other high paying wages.we train the employees of the Kia Plant in LaGrange at state expense. We build the thing 7 miles from the Alabama border and many of the suppliers land in Alabama, Chambers County not to mention the workers.
Deal simply seems in over his head. In congress all he had to do was vote as he was told. He is simply not a leader. All his businesses were failing but rescued once he had power and influence. I am a Republican but will not vote for Nathan Deal. I might have to hold my nose and vote for Carter. Hell at least he wants to help the middle class and he can’t be worse than Deal.
Very true and thanks for that info. I did not know about LaGrange. Many if not most jobs “created” under Deal have been low skill and low wage. All the other states have lowered their unemployment rates now so they have less jobs that need to be filled. So of course since Georgia is last at 51st in unemployment we should be at the top of the list for getting people hired. We have the largest percentage of unemployed after all.
Just for shits and giggles I went to the Deal facebook page and posted this exact question: “Is it true that comments and questions are being deleted and people being blocked if they criticize Governor Deal like this article claims” I included a link to this page. It stayed up a total of around 10 minutes and was deleted and I was blocked. I am guessing they have some very over eager college Republican volunteer types.
I am not surprised in the least. They are like some weird cult where only their version of the “gospel according to Deal” is allowed. Ask a question or post a link to any inconvenient facts about Deal and expect to be blocked.
I’ve reached a new low, banned from Governor Deal’s Facebook page. The straw that broke the camel’s back was concerning a reply to a post of if the Governor supported common core. I pointed out that the only candidate in the race the supported the ban was Andrew Hunt. The sarcastic comment of two words “Snow Jobs” on a post concerning job creation numbers probably didn’t help. At no time did I use foul language, just ask some pointed question like “How many cents have been wrung from Copart?” I thought they were all valid campaign issues. Thanks Governor Deal for a transparent and open campaign.
Ron Gosnell
Ron Gosnell
Well your comments won’t be deleted here. And I honestly do not know enough about Common Core to offer an opinion one way or the other as I stated in the article. You are correct that Andrew Hunt is against it and I hope you have visited his Facebook page. There was an obvious organized campaign by Deal operatives and supporters to go on Hunt’s Facebook and try to scare his voters into voting for Deal. Meanwhile, any comments on Deal’s page referencing Hunt were immediately deleted and blocked.I suggested to Andrew Hunt that he start blocking these obvious Deal operatives who are simply using negative campaign tactics to win votes.
It is hard to tell whether you have greater disdain for Nathan Deal or for those of us who have disdain for his enthusiasm for Common Core. You admit that you know little about it, yet you make light of those who’ve taken (quite a lot of) time to research Common Core beyond its own promotional web site.
It seems that you and Governor Deal are actually on the same page! Unfortunately, that’s where he gets his info too. And why he is so sorely misinformed about the standards and about the problem his position poses to his own reelection.
It is a mistake assume that Common Core opponents are all uninformed, far right, fringe goof balls. Actually, we are a growing bi-partisan movement and we are not in it because of politics, we are in it because Common Core is detrimental to children, teachers and public education.
The “standards” themselves were never validated and they ignore decades of research. The claims that they will raise student achievement are vapor, pure wishful thinking. But often repeated by a well-funded PR machine.
The developmentally inappropriate standards were written by non-educators and the states were pressured to adopt them – for hundred of millions of dollars during the pit of the recession – before the standards themselves were even completed. At the time it probably seemed like a better idea than teacher lay-offs.
There was no Legislative approval/adoption process in Georgia. Our taxpayers were saddled with an enormous, yet unknown fiscal burden on the signatures of Sonny Perdue and Kathy Cox. You see, a fiscal note has yet to be provided for Common Core, and Race to the Top funding ended in Sept. So we have NO idea what this unproven, unfunded mandate will ultimately cost us.
What we do know is that there is not one shred of empirical data to indicate that these standards will do anything to improve education or promote critical thinking. In fact, the removal of 50% of Classic Literature from previous standards, suggests that they will actually reduce the development of critical thinking. And oh, the math…miserable kids, miserable parents, miserable teachers. Math has become a subjective writing project in which accurate computations take a back seat to cumbersome process.
Does this sound like sound educational or fiscal policy to you?
Do you remember voting for Governor and hoping he would do great at making national policy at the NGA? Didn’t think so. Because the NGA does not have a grant of Legislative authority to make national policy. And Governors are elected to be executives within a state, not representatives in a private organization of Governors.
That is just the very tip of this treacherous ice berg. Parents who have kids in the middle of this Titanic experiment are taking this pretty seriously.
You and Governor Deal might want to consider doing the same.
A few links to help you in your research:http://www.allianceforchildhood.org/sites/allianceforchildhood.org/files/file/Joint%20Statement%20on%20Core%20Standards_(418%20).pdf ; http://bit.ly/1f9WZHM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/06/18/the-common-cores-fundamental-trouble/ ;
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/09/17/four-common-core-flimflams/ ; http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/09/23/1331735/-Common-Core-Conflicts-With-Special-Education# ; http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Journals/LA/0891-sep2011/LA0891Research.pdf ; http://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/common-core-standards ;
http://dianeravitch.net/2013/07/05/robert-shepherd-common-core-requires-teaching-abstract-skills-not-content/
https://heinemann.com/shared/onlineresources%5CE02123%5CNewkirk_Speaking_Back_to_the_Common_Core.pdf
I have no disdain at all for people who oppose or support common core as long as they know their stuff. What I have disdain for are people that make wild and baseless claims from both sides which muddies the dialogue. I was very honest in saying I do not know enough about the issue to offer an informed opinion.I did make fun of some of the tin foil hat claims as you should as well since it lessens your side. I am also open to learning more. I have studied and taught in Asian and European countries which have systems not unlike our common core and they are one of the main reasons why those countries are able to achieve such consistently high results all over the country from small rural towns to large cities. So as a rule I have learned to appreciate the value of high national standards. I also know local BOE’s and Superintendents are more often than not incompetent or not up to the task. Let’s remember that common core is a standard not a curriculum. American individualism can at times take us to great places but it can also result in school results all over the spectrum from state to state. I firmly believe in compromise and in hearing all the valid arguments from both sides before I make up my mind on an issue. You do your side no good with all the obvious self-righteous anger. If you want to gain support I suggest toning down the snark and educate me and others why Common Core is bad and leave the negativity and insults out of your post. The job of snarky curmudgeon on this site is already taken.
I wanted to add that the main focus of this article was comments being deleted and people being blocked on Nathan Deal’s Facebook page. Since many of those deleted comments are from people just like you that oppose Common Core I would at least hope you would appreciate my effort to make this known to the public since normal media would never cover a story like this.
http://www.salon.com/2013/12/16/keep_fox_news_out_of_the_classroom_rupert_murdoch_common_core_and_the_dangerous_rise_of_for_profit_public_education/
I too was deleted back before the last election because I challenged Deal with Common Core. As a mom who dealt with the developmentally inappropriate nonsense and saw my very bright daughter reduced to tears every night, along with the data mining (asking of very personal questions), my children are now out of the public school system .. For the first one in my life, I’m voting for a Democrat just to give GA public school children a chance at possibly a brighter future.
Thank you for more confirmation. Some people have accused me of lying or simply making it up. I saw and documented the number of comments removed over a 4 day period before I wrote this article just to make sure. Comments that are laced with profanity or vulgarity certainly should be deleted but actual questions about education or political questions being removed is completely different and is a sign of weakness and cowardice by the Deal campaign. Only happy thoughts and praise it seems are allowed.