The AJC has a story about the GOP establishment becoming less than comfortable with John Oxendine’s campaign.

Georgia’s Republican establishment is showing signs of discomfort with the prospect that John Oxendine will be the party’s nominee for governor, despite his popularity with many voters and status as early front-runner.

I am quoted in the story, but I think my most important point was left out.

We are facing a Republican leadership in the state that is privately whispering at a ferocious rate that John Oxendine is going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, vulnerable nominee should he get the nomination.

But these same men knew exactly what Glenn Richardson was doing and who too. These are the same men who did nothing after his attempted suicide, though to be fair, I agreed. It took the former Mrs. Richardson making the whole thing so embarrassing for the Republican leaders to make them do anything.

If not even the attempted suicide could force these men to have a come to Jesus meeting with the Speaker of the House, what the hell do we expect them to do with John Oxendine? They’ll just sit around and pray the political fall out from John Oxendine’s fall from power does not affect their own electoral chances. And hell, one of them is term limited anyway.

I guess MARTA is just keeping up its racially insensitive history. I mean, you take the red line to go to the Braves’ stadium. So now the yellow line will go to Doraville.

Doraville has a high Asian population and they don’t like that the yellow line goes there.

This is so stupid I can’t believe I’m even writing about it. Professional race pimps are, I am sure, aghast that MARTA would randomly assign colors to its lines to make them less confusing to people. The rest of us are just happy for the change.

“Historically, it has had a derogatory intent,” said John Park, an attorney with the nonprofit Center for Pan Asian Community Services in Doraville, just down the hill from the Marta station. “It physically paints a very unattractive picture. I don’t consider myself ‘yellow.’”

Park and other Asian activists plan to meet Friday with MARTA CEO Beverly Scott. They hope MARTA will change the line’s name from yellow to gold.

Good grief. It is a wonder anyone can get anything done on the planet with all the professional offense victims running around complaining.

On the upside, I never knew Doraville had such a high Asian population. Now I know where to go to get good Chinese food.

Yet John Oxendine waits till he needs earned media for his governor’s race to order a hearing on this matter:

a Georgia Department of Insurance investigation of one of the nation’s largest title insurers suggests consumers should check out their policies. The department has accused Texas-based Stewart Title Guaranty of violating Georgia insurance laws more than 600,000 times from 2003 to 2007. In many cases, those violations led to Georgia consumers paying more than they should have, according to charges against the company….

Stewart said it has tried to work closely with Oxendine’s office on matters raised during a 2006 market conduct exam but has gotten no response from the state. It called the timing of the most recent allegations “peculiar given that the exam has been dormant for two years.”

I’m buying a house now, and I bought one 7 years ago and Title Insurance has more than doubled in that time.

A few weeks ago, I posted on a proposal that would expand Georgia’s DNA database that was introduced by State Rep. Rob Teilhet (D-Smyrna). The proposal would require anyone arrested of a felony to submit a DNA sample.

Bob Barr has weighed in on the legislation, HB 1033, and finds some serious constitutional flaws:

A person arrested for an alleged offense has not yet been proved to have done anything wrong. He’s had no day in court, no chance to defend himself, and been afforded no opportunity to challenge the charges against him. Arrest in our state as in many others, can rest on a foundation no stronger than a fellow citizen’s opinion; perhaps one bearing a grudge. All those important, time-honored and constitutionally-based limits on government-coerced evidence are undercut by forced collection of a person’s most private information at the start of the process rather than at the end.

While Rep. Teilhet obviously has read the current law in Georgia regarding collection of DNA samples from felons (since his proposal refers to the existing statute), perhaps others who might support his bill are not yet familiar with the already-extensive database of DNA information maintained by Georgia. For example, anybody convicted of a serious offense of a sexual nature, as well as anyone incarcerated for a felony or those on probation for serious offenses, is already required to give their DNA to the state.

Teilhet, like other DNA-database advocates, attempts to sooth his critics by claiming the legislation he pushes provides adequate protection against improper use or dissemination of the DNA information, and for removing the information if a person is not later convicted. Closer examination of the current law and of Teilhet’s proposed expansion of it, however, shows clearly the “protections” are inadequate. Information collected now or under Teilhet’s legislation would be available to virtually any law enforcement or prosecution agency requesting it. And, removing the information from the database if the person is later exonerated depends solely on the person himself having the knowledge and resources to seek such remedy, rather than being the responsibility of the government itself to correct its mistake.

HB 1033 is a constitutional wolf in sheep’s clothing and should not become law.

Teilhet’s bill should be killed and voters should remember his assaults on basic constitutional protections in November.

You all know where I stand on the ideological spectrum both socially and fiscally. So let me talk to my own kind for just a minute.

Dear social conservative/Christian groups opposed to Renee Untermann: are you out of your ever living mind? The sheer dumbassery by which you guys are attacking Renee Unterman’s legislation suggests you have ceded your right to comment on any social issue due to total ignorance of the real world beyond your gated communities and country clubs.

Are you freaking serious?

Kyle Wingfield is on the money on this one.

Do you guys even practice what you preach anymore?

Let me tell you, I’m on a city council in Georgia where I see the effects of sex slavery first hand in a burgeoning “asian spa” industry. And there are kids being kidnapped against their will and forced to work in these places. And they have the crap scared out of them. They are told that they will be arrested and thrown in jail if they say anything. So they don’t. They don’t seek help. They don’t escape.

Why?

Because in fact they will be arrested. And you guys want to keep it that way.

So you don’t think 14 year olds should be having sex. You say they can’t consent. If someone has sex with a 14 year old, you want that person arrested. But if a 14 year old is forced into sex slavery and prostitutes themselves, all of a sudden you think they can consent and should be arrested?

Your opposition disgust me on this. Shame on you. Shame on you.

We must part ways on this issue. And I hope the Georgia Legislature will pass Senator Untermann’s legislation. I am opposed to prostitution on legal and moral grounds. It should remain illegal. But the propensity of the evidence shows that minors engaged in prostitution are more often than not victims themselves and not willfully engaged in prostitution.

We must eradicate human trafficking — a significant growth industry in Georgia. This legislation will help both to discourage trafficking and rescue children trafficked. It needs to be adopted and signed into law.

The facts of this case are atrocious. What the hell is wrong with Houston County?

In Harrell’s case, she was ticketed for speeding along Interstate 75 in Houston County and opted to contest the $162 ticket, according to the case summary. However, when she arrived at State Court for her court date, she learned that anyone pleading guilty to a traffic violation had to post a bond twice the amount of the ticket, the summary said.

She decided to pay the fine, the judge accepted the plea and imposed a 12-month suspended sentence, which would end once she paid the fine, the summary said.

She was required to complete paperwork for the private probation company and told she would also have to pay a $25 supervision fee to the probation company, according to the summary. She left the courthouse, withdrew cash from an ATM, returned and was taken by a Sentinel employee to the clerk’s office where she paid the $162 fine. She was not asked to pay the $25 service fee, the summary stated.

But a warrant was later issued for her arrest after a Sentinel probation officer received a report that she failed to make the $187 payment. Harrell was arrested at her Clayton County home in July 2005, jailed over the weekend in Clayton County and then transported to Houston County, Pearson said.

Harrell was released from jail and all charges were dropped once Houston County received a faxed receipt showing she had paid the fine, according to the summary.

The lady sued and the Fulton County State Court denied her the right to a trial by jury. The mass arraignments in traffic court are bad enough, but then to arrest her for failure to pay when she had in fact paid is disgusting.

After this and then especially after this bit of nonsense, I thought I’d put up last night’s poll asking which band John Oxendine had tweeted out that he had seen at the Super Bowl.

The Oxendine campaign wants you to know that John Oxendine did not twitter nonsensically last night suggesting he was watching the Rolling Stones instead of the Who. Seriously.

Got that? It never happened. The Ox had no interest in the game whatsoever once he realized UGA was not playing Michigan State.

Oxendine twice during the “Big 5″ debate mentioned Georgia had a lot of similarities with Illinois. And from the state that taught us the “Chicago Way”, we have this gem:

CHICAGO (AP) – The Democratic nominee for Illinois lieutenant governor has dropped out of the race less than a week after winning the nomination amid a political uproar about his past.
Scott Lee Cohen announced his decision Sunday night at a Chicago bar.

The pawn broker and owner of a cleaning supplies company won the nomination Tuesday. Since then, it has become widely know that he was accused of abusing his ex-wife and holding a knife to the throat of an ex-girlfriend.

The girlfriend herself had been charged with prostitution. He also admits using steroids in the past.

Since this has nothing to do with Georgia Politics, let’s just consider this an OPEN THREAD:

Support for Unterman’s child prostitution bill from the AJC Kyle Wingfield:

Studies of Georgia’s child sex industry indicate that these children often are trafficked. A Future Not a Past, a statewide project of the Juvenile Justice Fund, says half of the girls prostituted in Georgia are brought here from another state.

Add the safe assumption that some Georgian children are forced into prostitution, and it’s clear that a majority of these kids are sex slaves.

Treating the children as victims does not diminish the criminality of pimps, gangs and “johns” exploiting them. Their roles will remain illegal, and police will still have reason to intervene in these situations. If the bill needs to be altered to make that clear, so be it.

For her part, Unterman argues that her bill would aid the prosecution of exploiters.

“It’s much easier to take a child into custody and put them into a secure, therapeutic facility and get them to talk to us,” she says. If you first handcuff children and throw them in jail, on the other hand, “they’re not going to rat out that pimp.”

Speaking personally, what’s most disappointing here is hearing such loud opposition in the name of Christianity.

Umbrella groups oppose the bill, but coalitions of churches are begging legislators to act. They’ve also formed organizations like Street Grace to help sexually exploited children. My family’s church is one of them.

Another participant is North Avenue Presbyterian Church — which, statistics tell us, sits amid a hotbed of child exploitation. While pledging to work with others to resolve differences on the legislation, North Avenue’s urban ministries coordinator, Phil Cobb, says the imperative is to help the victims.

“In Scripture, and in the Christian faith, there is a theme of justice, and providing a voice to those who are victims of injustice is a clear theme throughout the Bible,” says Cobb.

“For us, once we found out this was happening, we felt like we had no choice but to answer the call.”

The Who played the Super Bowl Half Time show. But we all know Oxendine tweeted that it was some other band playing, before someone made him delete it.

Who did the Ox think it was?

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In case you’re not already familiar with it, check out That’s Just Peachy, a site that has become a daily read for me. It’s in vain of the Drudge Report, but a Georgia bent to the news and links to blogs, newpapers, radio and television outlets across the state.

Just thought I’d pass it along.

Comment using the console below or via Twitter using the hashtag #gagang

A race is brewing in Forsyth.

JOSH SHORR ANNOUNCES CANDIDACY FOR FORSYTH COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS, DISTRICT THREE

CUMMING, GA – Today, Josh Shorr announced his intention to seek election to the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners in District Three.

Shorr, a long-term resident of Forsyth County, holds his juris doctorate and is a Certified Financial Planner.

“As a successful businessman and a Certified Financial Planner, I am uniquely qualified to ensure our county reaches new heights while also eliminating unnecessary spending and maintaining a budget,” said Shorr.

“Our elected leaders are stewards of our taxpayer dollars,” explained Shorr. “They have a responsibility to guarantee the efficient delivery of essential services and that our residents enjoy the highest quality of life possible—but, they also have a responsibility to protect taxpayers from an unnecessary tax burden.”

This morning I attended a breakfast hosted by the Georgia Tech College Republicans. The meeting was held in Room 216 of the Capitol where Georgia Tech CR Chairwoman Kristen Greig introduced me to the rest of the GATech CRs and gave me the latest issue of The Conservative Buzz (their newspaper). The crowd was about 30 and many legislators stopped by to pay the CRs a visit including room sponser Rep. Austin Scott,  State Rep. Jay Neal, State Rep. Tom Graves, State Rep. Mike Coan, State Rep. Melvin Everson, State Rep. Tom Knox, State Sen. Ralph Hudgens, State Sen. Lee Hawkins, and many more.One of the purposes of the meeting was to help the Georgia Tech College Republicans fundraise and go to CPAC this year. The Georgia Tech College Republicans are a group of energetic and passionate Republicans who will play a significant role in the upcoming General Elections. The Georgia Tech CRs are fortunate to have a leader in Chairwoman Greig, who has a drive and vision for success for the Republican Party.

One of a candidate’s greatest assets is a group of fired-up individuals who will work hard for them. Georgia’s Republican candidates should do their best to harness the fire within the younger generations in the GOP. The Georgia Association of College Republicans is the place to start and the Georgia Tech college Republicans are more than willing to help. I encourage everyone to talk with this group of CRs and visit their website, as well as other CR groups around the state in order to spread the message of the Republican Party.

We have an internal dispute on this one here at Peach Pundit.

I’ve bee calling for this for a long time.

Gov. Sonny Perdue will announce plans today for a major restructuring of state government that would make four constitutional offices appointed, rather than elected, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has learned.

Perdue’s plan, which would require approval of voters in November, would allow future governors to appoint the state’s insurance, labor and agriculture commissioners, as well as the state school superintendent.

I think this is a good idea. At the end of the day, the Governor is largely held responsible for each of these issues, but they are outside his areas of power. Giving him the power to appoint these people in a cabinet form of government will give the Governor, already held politically accountable in these areas, the power to actually substantively affect the areas.

That said, this is a fair point — why now? Why wait till the end of his administration to propose a major upheaval? I guess it could be said he did not want it viewed as a power grab, but still, fair question.

Yesterday over at RedState I wrote some more about John Oxendine’s attacks on Lynn Westmoreland due to Westmoreland’s refusal to endorse the guy. For background on this read this post by Icarus, which should disturb all the conservatives on here.

That a guy like the Ox has the temerity to attack a real conservative like Westmoreland through Georgia Public Television is beyond the pale.

One of the commenters at RedState noted that “this is why it is dangerous to be a blindfolded party guy”. This goes to a larger point I’ve made for some time.

A lot of the people who initially surrounded Oxendine were people willing to back him because he’s been the longest serving statewide elected Republican. The people who surrounded him were party guys first and all things second. They had and have little sensical policy positions, but are all about winning at all costs.

Much like the dogs that catch the cars, they’d be run over should they win the primary or, God forbid, bet elected.

Oxendine is a Republican. If you put your blindfold on, I guess that might be good enough for you. But if you take off the party blindfold and look at the guy, it’s kind of hard to see any lasting principles beyond his loyalty to himself.

I suspect a steady drumbeat of stories will start coming out — particularly from insurance executive around the state who all share the same story. They had business with the Ox. He called to tell them he was personally handling the business. Then he said his staff told him the insurance executive had promised a donation and the staff wanted the Ox to follow up with it.

That story is whispered about too commonly across the state among those in the insurance industry. We’ll see if there is any truth to it. I suspect the Ox, in pissing off Lynn Westmoreland, has fatally wounded his own campaign.

Good riddance.

Clayton, Icarus and myself are at The Beacon’s Big 5 gubernatorial debate. Live-blogging begins soon. You can watch online here.
Photos from the event here on Flickr

The State Senate, having solved all other pressing issues facing Georgia, has passed legislation sponsored Chip Pearson that would protect individuals from having a microchip implanted on their person. No, really, they seriously took this up today:

State senators are moving to protect Georgians from being implanted with a microchip without their permission.

The Senate voted 47-2 on Thursday to approve a bill banning the practice without consent. Doing so would be a misdemeanor considered assault and battery.

Even with permission, implantation could only be performed by a doctor. Anyone who has a microchip implanted without their permission would be entitled to sue for damages.

Sen. Chip Pearson, who sponsored the bill, says it’s a proactive measure aimed at anticipating technological advances that may infringe on people’s rights. Sen. Vincent Fort, one of the two senators who opposed the bill, says it’s a “solution in search of a problem” and a waste of time during the state’s budget crisis.

It would be funny if it weren’t so sad. I can’t buy beer on Sunday, but at least I won’t have to worry about the Mark of the Beast. Thank you, Georgia General Assembly!

I cannot tell you how many times I’ve heard legislators say that they think there are so many other pressing issues that a particular bill isn’t worth taking up. So, what about this? Is this actually a pressing issue facing Georgians? Is the federal government, led by the Kenyan-born Barack Hussein Obama, forcing us to have microchips implanted now?

Gah, just please go home.

Hardie Davis is now the Senator from the 22nd District.

Davis won Tuesday’s special election runoff with 5,801 votes, or 55.48 percent, to opponent Harold V. Jones II’s 4,655 votes, or 44.52 percent. Davis replaces Ed Tarver, who quit the seat last year after President Obama appointed him U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Georgia.

But when, exactly, Davis will step into his shoes is uncertain. Because no one won a majority in the Jan. 5 special election, Augusta’s legislative delegation has been short a senator since the General Assembly convened Jan. 11. Davis has already missed the first 10 days of the 40-day session.

Under customary practices, Richmond County Board of Elections Executive Director Lynn Bailey said, Davis would likely be sworn in a week from Friday. The elections board should have Tuesday’s results certified Thursday or Friday. Then it would take another week for the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office to prepare the oath of office documents and send them to Augusta.

Davis, though, said he’s hoping to get the process streamlined so he can be sworn in Monday in Atlanta. He hasn’t missed anything major in the Senate so far — only votes on three minor bills — and he said he’s eager to delve into issues involving the state’s $1.25 billion shortfall, education funding and protecting the Medical College of Georgia.

Today is Tom Graves birthday. Happy Birthday Rep. Graves. I hope you’ve had a great day.

Mike Evans, the man who Graves once risked his political future for, has decided that Tom’s present should be Evans’ endorsement of Senator Lee Hawkins. There are two paragraphs in his press release that will almost make me miss Mike Evans. Almost. I’ve decided to add my own commentary to them, as a lovely parting gift for Mr. Evans:

As you know, I have never shied away from calling out President Obama, Speaker Nancy Pelosi or other Washington liberals for their damaging policies. (except when I am getting paid with your local tax dollars to get me some damaging Obama/Pelosi stimulus money) I am 100 percent in support of bringing stronger, effective, conservative leadership to Congress.

…

Thank you to all my friends for the support you have given me in the past. I now urge you to join me in supporting Lee Hawkins in the same ways you have supported me (you know, buy giving me money because my consultant told you I was the only one who could raise money. Yeah, about that. Sorry.)

Sincerely, (I have no idea what this word means, but I’m told it’s customary to put it here)

Mike Evans

So, Mike Evans drops out of the race to earn a living. His job is being a lobbyist. His current political ties are in transportation. Jeff Mullis, is the Chair of the Senate Transportation Committee. Mullis is officially remaining neutral, but has hosted a meet and greet for Hawkins, and Mullis’ aide, Kailor Gordy, has gone from the Mike Evans campaign to Lee Hawkins “with the support of Senator Mullis and Mike Evans”.

O.K., we get it. It’s politics. Or at least, the politics of money. Evans will most likely be lobbying transportation issues, and he doesn’t want to cross Jeff Mullis. Mullis meanwhile, has already tried to push a horrible candidate on his constituents, and has been resounding rejected by them, thus his “official” in name only neutrality. Watching him dressed like a Christmas tree at the Walker County GOP dinner with Evans and Kemp stickers as ornaments was somewhat amusing. Watching the results come back incredibly lopsided against his chosen candidates was much more so.

That same Walker GOP dinner was the first time I had ever heard Tom Graves speak. For the Evansbots who constantly have accused me of being Tom’s plant on these pages, you should know that prior to that evening, we had only met once, at the State Convention in Savannah. I didn’t catch his name when we were introduced, didn’t know who he was, and only later was told I had been chatting with Tom Graves. We weren’t exactly best friends.

But as this race has developed, I have been able to watch and listen. I have learned more about him and his character. And I have found the elusive qualities of someone who can actually articulate true conservatism in a positive, uplifting manner, as opposed to the all to common angry and bitter diatribes we too often settle for today.

And though I remain ever cynical, I am willing to bet that in Tom Graves we have a future GOP superstar who will not only admirably talk the talk, but walk the walk.

There are many fine candidates remaining in the 9th Congressional GOP primary, I will not be able to vote for any of them, though I will encourage my friends and relatives who can to vote for only one: Tom Graves.

I am not delusional enough to think that Rep. Graves would have rather had my endorsement for a birthday present than that of Mike Evans. But mine is what I have to give, and today, I offer my support to Tom Graves.