Fresh Political Pickins From The Peach State

Breaking News without a lot of details at this hour.  WXIA/11Alive News said during their morning newscast that the Obama administration will be granting waivers to 10 states, including Georgia, from the requirements of No Child Left Behind.  The rationale apparently will be that it is too reliant on standardized test scores.  Somewhere in Cherokee County, John Konop is doing his happy dance.

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As a longtime sufferer of chronic insomnia, I developed the 5:30 rule, which states that if I’m awake for any reason at 5:30 AM, it’s time to get up. So if you see me at the Capitol today, you can’t say you weren’t warned.

In celebration of Georgia Day 2012, from 9 AM to 3 PM today in the Georgia Capitol, Secretary of State Brian Kemp will display Georgia’s copy of the Declaration of Independence and Georgia’s royal charter dating from 1733. Today is Georgia Day.

On January 18, 1777, the Continental Congress met in Baltimore, Maryland and ordered that copies of the Declaration of Independence be printed and sent to each of the 13 states. The states were directed to make the Declaration a part of their official records. Georgia’s copy was officially entered into the records on March 2, 1777.

“Some states entered the Declaration into their official records by pasting the printed copy in their record books. Other states, including Georgia, created an official record by hand-copying the Declaration into the state’s record book,” said David Carmicheal, Director of the Georgia Archives.

Today, the Declaration is protected with Georgia’s other “birth documents”: the Royal Charter that created the colony in 1733, and Georgia’s 1788 ratification of the U.S. Constitution, the document that made Georgia a state. All are kept in a high security vault where a constant temperature and humidity are maintained to ensure their long-term survival.

Rep. Mark Hatfield (R-Sideshow) will be holding a press conference to challenge the alleged “birth document.”

Our friends at Atlanta Unfiltered are raising questions about what the hell CloudFlare is and why it hates Georgia blogs. They’re raising other questions, but we can’t link there for now because of that CloudFlare garbage. Check back occasionally.

Gwinnett County School Board Chair Louise Radloff was thankful that the State House failed to pass a Constitutional Amendment on state charter schools yesterday. “I’m not sure where it will go, but I’m very thankful for the legislators who voted against it,” Radloff said. “I’m for public education, and that means public schools.” State Rep. Jason Spencer (R-Fixin’ to whip Hatfield) wrote his constituents that “The charter school movement is predominantly isolated in the Atlanta metro area with some bipartisan support. Many of the rural school systems in Georgia could wither on the vine if this amendment passes.”

State Reps Ed Setzler, (R-Cobb), Rich Golick (R-Cobb) and Matt Ramsey (R-Peachtree City) have sponsored legislation to postpone this year’s TSPLOST vote in order to pass a Constitutional Amendment said to be necessary to allow the TSPLOST vote. The measure would also allow counties to join together to fund regional transportation needs through a multi-county SPLOST or opt-in to proposed regional SPLOST measures.

Senator Charlie Bethel (R-Dalton) has introduced legislation to lengthen the time allowed for the prosecution of sex crimes against minors. The State House passed a measure to create a study commission on sex trafficking. Congratulations to Rep. Buzz Brockway (R-Hates Runoff Elections) for co-sponsoring this in the House and Senator Renee Unterman (R-Buford) for sponsoring it in the Senate.

Propeller Airports has submitted the only bid to privatize Gwinnett County’s Briscoe Field.

Yesterday I received an email that State Rep. David Casas (R-Gwinnett) was holding a conference call to switch his endorsement from Newt Gingrich to Mitt Romney, questioning “Speaker Gingrich’s Unreliable Leadership.” No word on whether Gingrich questioned Casas’s unreliable endorsement.

GDOT’s sucker Lexus toll lane in Gwinnett County set a record high toll of $4.70 yesterday.

Yesterday, two former Atlanta Falcons players testified in support of the Return to Play Act, legislation to enact standards for youth athletes thought to be suffering from concussions. Also testifying was a former high school cheerleader made ditzier by a cheerleading accident.

“There’s one thing to be able to play with a sprained ankle or some type of injury, but concussions is a whole ‘nother ball game,” said [former Falcons Defensive Tackle Buddy] Curry, speaking before the legislative committee.

Piedmont Hospital Neurologist Dr. Robert Gilbert said the dangers of head injuries, especially for teenagers with still-developing bodies, cannot be understated.

“We often see patients who may have had repeated injuries early in life when we didn’t have any criteria, and they’re beginning to have earlier memory and processing problems as an adult,” said Gilbert.

The Bank of America tower in midtown Atlanta was sold on the steps of the Fulton County Courthouse on Tuesday. #Occupy Atlanta did not show up to stop the foreclosure auction.

Mitt Romney appeared in Atlanta yesterday. Newt Gingrich will visit Carrollton later this month.

Atlanta hippies held a drum circle to protest Southern Company’s construction of two new reactors at Plant Vogtle, claiming that the company failed to “look at the lessons learned from a plant that melted down and caused several reactors next to it to meltdown.” Having toured Vogtle’s new construction, I can assure you that Georgia Power has indeed learned all the right lessons from all the nuclear incidents of the last 30 years.

Columbus, Georgia will begin breaching several dams to restore whitewater through downtown. This will be the world’s longest urban whitewater run and the southernmost major rapids in the United States. Senator Josh McKoon (R-Columbus) doesn’t know it yet, but will be hosting a Peach Pundit road trip to Columbus for the opening of the run. Also included in the trip will be a screening of Trading Places, one of McKoon’s favorite films. No word on whether Jamie Lee Curtis is McKoon’s favorite actress.

Alabama is considering lowering legislative pay from the current level of $49,500 per year.

Savannah and Charleston have each been awarded $2.5 million in federal funds toward port development. South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley will veto the state legislature’s psychotic rage measure to revoke the permit granted for deepening the Savannah River to allow better access to the Port of Savannah.

Electric car con men manufacturer Fisker Automotive are laying off 66 workers after the blocking of drawdowns against the remaining $336 million of the original $528.7 million in federal funding.

McDonald’s will be selling the Shamrock Shake nationwide this year, perhaps prompted to expand the green lucious goodness by Jack in the Box breaking the bacon barrier with it’s new bacon milkshake.

Rep. Ed Lindsey (R-Historic Brookhaven) has introduced legislation to rename the Buckhead area of Atlanta to “Simpson” in recognition of the greater historical claim to the name held by the Town of Buckhead in Morgan County. No word on his constituents’ reactions.

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Today’s Courier Herald Column:

We’re in the post mortem stage of the recent battle over the Susan G Komen Foundation and their contributions to Planned Parenthood.  As is predictable in how these skirmishes occur, the pro-choice forces supporting Planned Parenthood were quite ready for their successful counteroffensive, and had from the beginning decided to send a message to other charities who may consider de-coupling from working with the organization.

They had also made it clear from their initial offensive launched Thursday morning that their trophy would be the scalp of former Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel.  Handel resigned Tuesday – accepting no severance from the non-profit – so that the Komen organization may resume its mission in the way it sees fit.

The curious note from this episode involves a charge that is of a pot and kettle variety.  When Planned Parenthood released their talking points, chief among them was that they were shocked and disappointed that Komen would politicize their mission by having the gall to stop giving to one of the most polarizing organizations in this country.

The reality is that Komen chose to politicize the issue the day it made the unfortunate decision to partner with Planned Parenthood, and they were aware of it.  One of the reasons they reached out to Handel was to get a better understanding of problems they were having not only with fundraising, but also due to delivery issues because of their entanglement with Planned Parenthood.

The amount of money was small, but raw dollars and percentages are irrelevant when battling over “single issues”.  “It’s the principle” is not only a rallying cry, but a reason to stop debate and discussion.  And in the process, if a well meaning third party charitable organization must be held hostage or even destroyed while others use them as their battleground then so be it. [click to continue…]

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Georgia’s auto and auto-supply industry received another boost today as Governor Nathan Deal announced today that Tenneco will expand production in Hartwell, boosting employment by 350 jobs.

“Tenneco is an important player in the automotive industry, and we are pleased they have expanded their presence in Georgia,” Deal said. “Georgia’s comprehensive logistics system and skilled workforce are two of our many key selling assets because they give companies like Tenneco easy, efficient access to their markets as well as a world-class workforce.”

Tenneco is one of the world’s leading designers, manufacturers and distributors of emission and ride control products and systems for the automotive original equipment market and aftermarket. The company is expanding existing lines and installing additional production lines at its Hartwell manufacturing facility, where automotive shock absorbers and struts are produced.

Hart County has been a Georgia Certified Work Ready Community since 2009, indicating that the county has a ready pool of labor specifically trained for a range of positions, including those in the manufacturing industry. Tenneco has called Hart County home since the 1960s, and already employs a mix of more than 750 full and part-time workers at its Hartwell facility.

This comes less than two weeks after another announcement of 178 new jobs at an auto-related manufacturing facility in Dublin, GA.

As a disclaimer, I should note that I spent the better part of my childhood in a Tenneco family, as my father worked for several divisions of the company over his career, including Newport News Shipbuilding, which has since been spun off.

Insert gratuitous Porsche link here.

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Columbus Mayor Teresa Tomlinson has expressed some misgivings about the regional TSPLOST in which her city will vote.

“I wouldn’t want to tax the citizens of this county unless it was absolutely necessary in addition to what they already pay, so I’m sure it’s going to be a hard sell. That’s why you see all the elected officials proceeding so carefully,” said Columbus Mayor Teresa Tomlinson.

Mayor Tomlinson said there are eight transportation projects on the regional list for Muscogee County that would get funding through the TSPLOST but she’s been getting different estimates on the return of our possible tax investment.

“I’ve heard everything from Muscogee County would contribute 65 to maybe 70 percent of that money and only get back 52 percent of it so there is the possibility there is a wide disparity that money we collected here was not staying here,” said Mayor Tomlinson.

Tomlinson neither supports the measure, but she continues to raise the question of whether her area becomes a donor to other counties under TSPLOST.

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The first Tuesday in February is Firefighters’ Recognition Day in Georgia. In celebration, they threw a fire hazard in both sides of the Capitol.

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…and family on the arrival of a new baby boy.

All I know at this point is that Mother and son are doing well.  Kyle is probably still Kyle.

Name has not yet been disclosed, but I think I know where this is going.  Baby boy Wingfield already has an older brother named Charlie. It’s only a matter of days before we see Icarus Wingfield on the original, long form birth certificate.

Welcome baby Wingfield.  Only 21 more years until I can buy you a beer.

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Former Governor Sonny Perdue has taken a break from Go Fishing Yourself  Checking In On His Family That He Appointed To “Oversee” The Port Of Savannah political retirement to endorse Doug McKillip in the GOP primary.  The two have a special bond, as Perdue once served as Senate Majority Leader as a Democrat, and McKillip spent a few hours as House Minority Leader before hearing that the GOP caucus had cookies.

The Athens Banner Herald has the deets:

“McKillip is a man of deep faith and (a) sincere conservative,” Perdue said in a news release. “He is the Republican I trust to represent our conservative values in Atlanta, and I am proud to endorse him in his re-election.”

Perdue, who led state Senate Democrats before becoming Georgia’s first Republican governor in 130 years, praised McKillip’s 2010 party switch during a talk last week at the University of Georgia, calling it “courageous.” McKillip crossed the aisle just weeks after House Democrats elected him their No. 2 leader.

“I am proud to have the support of Governor Perdue,” McKillip said. “Sonny knows first hand the importance of faith in our lives. He knows like I do that it is up to us, through our hard work and conservative values, not the government, to turn this state and our economy around. I thank him for his support.”

This is what democracy one party rule looks like.

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House Bill 636, sponsored by Rep. Mike Jacobs (R-Brookhaven Ashford) and Rep. Tom Taylor (R-Dunwoody) passed out of the House Governmental Affairs Committee today with a do-pass recommendation by a 9-6 vote. The bill sets up a vote of citizens of parts of unincorporated North DeKalb on whether to incorporate as a new City of Brookhaven Ashford. Rep. Ed Lindsey proposed the name change from Brookhaven to Ashford. I suspect it will be changed back in the Senate.

Predictably, Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver (D-Decatur) offered several amendments to stall the incorporation effort, which were handily defeated.

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In a surprise to no one with even a borderline concept of reality, Secretary of State Brian Kemp has announced that President Barack Obama will remain on Georgia’s Presidential Preference Primary Ballot.  From his press release:

“After careful consideration of Administrative Law Judge Michael Malihi’s initial decision and all record evidence based on the criteria set forth in this process, I find that the Respondent, President Barack Obama, meets the State of Georgia’s eligibility requirements. President Barack Obama’s name shall remain on the Democratic Party’s 2012 Presidential Preference Primary ballot.”

Several of our reality challenged friends here stated that Malihi was a Muslim in response to his ruling last week.  One can only guess that they will now descend on Athens to check out the Madrasa where Brian Kemp obviously went to school.

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Today’s Courier Herald Column:

The issue of funding for state sponsored charter schools is moving front and center at the capitol this week.  An attempt to restore local funding to schools chartered by the state is slowly beginning to move through the general assembly in the form of a constitutional amendment.

The Georgia Supreme Court struck down the previous law requiring contributions from local school boards to state sponsored charter schools, claiming it violated the Georgia Constitution’s provision providing local governments with ultimate control over decisions regarding K-12 education.  Given that the schools were chartered by the state and not local school boards, the court ruled that the state had no right to require local systems to provide the local contribution the student’s school would have received had they attended the local non-charter school.

State charter schools have been one of the most broadly supported school choice options, often crossing party lines in uniting suburban Republicans with inner city Democrats.  Yet institutional resistance remains from the education community, pressuring lawmakers to vote against moving the amendment to voters on the November ballot.

Lawmakers at the capitol speak of getting phone calls from their local school board members in opposition of the amendment.  They argue that they are the people elected to determine education policy and funding as a matter of local control.  Allowing the state to charter a school in their community and then require it to be funded is moving control to Atlanta and away from voters.

Charter school advocates counter that you cannot get more local than groups of parents who are making the best decisions on how to educate their children, and if they believe there are better options than those provided by the local school board, then they should be supported with not just state funds but their local component as well. [click to continue…]

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