SWGA Politics

How the left is blowing it on the environment[ December 31, 2009 – 8:00 am]by Tom Posted in » Editorial

I’m kind of weird.  You see, I’m a Libertarian environmentalist.  You see, I tend to be against a lot of these environmental controls, like cap and trade that won’t actually do anything except hurt the economy and raise prices but do nothing to actually help the environment.  When it comes to climate change, I’m skeptical on the causes, but it’s kind of irrelevant to me.  I like having clean water and clean air.

But there’s an angle in changing people over to enviromental action without regulating them into it. Read More …

Attorney General Candidate Ignores Basic Principles of Justice[ December 31, 2009 – 6:51 am]by Jeff Posted in » 2010 Campaigns

In the American judicial system, we have a presumption of innocence until a prosecutor successfully proves guilt beyond a reasonable doubt to a jury of our peers. We have things like due process, probable cause, and warrants. We have a Constitutional protection AGAINST illegal search and seizure. Heck, we even have a basic right to privacy.

Rob Teilhet wants to do away with all of this though, in an attempt to keep us “safer”. He wants you to be forced to provide your DNA to cops when they arrest you, with no warrant and no probable cause. It is scary when ANYONE does this – but an Attorney General candidate???
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2009 Top Stories: Most Viewed Issues[ December 31, 2009 – 5:24 am]by Jeff Posted in » Year In Review

So far this week, we’ve looked at Bill’s, Tom’s, and my own most viewed posts of the year. Today, we turn our attention to the most viewed issues of 2009.

A couple of the issues here were actually surprising to me, though others have become a large part of what we write about here. Some issues peaked earlier in the year, but maintained enough views to earn a Top 10 spot on this countdown, while other issues started out slow and gained traction as the year wore on.

Without further ado, the Top 10 Most Viewed Issues on SWGAPolitics.com for 2009 were…
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You Know What Happens To Football Teams That Do That?[ December 30, 2009 – 9:31 pm]by Jeff Posted in » Editorial

Patience.

It is one of the most difficult virtues to master. There is just so much that has to happen right now! So much that we want right now! So much that has to be corrected right now!

Patience is the key to pragmatism, at least as far as being a pragmatic liberty activist goes. YES, there are grand travesties all around us, and YES, these travesties need to be corrected.
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Jeff’s Reflections on 2009[ December 30, 2009 – 1:27 pm]by Jeff Posted in » Year In Review

Wow. 2009 is just about over. We’ve seen quite a bit happen this year. We’ve seen one of the top 3 most powerful politicians in the State drop out of the GAGOV race under the auspices of his health, only to have the rumor come out later in the year that it was actually over a sex scandal. We saw another of the top 3 most powerful politicians in the State admit to attempting suicide, and fall from power with the revelation weeks later that he had threatened to beat his ex-wife. The chaos caused by that double whammy led to a near-total shakeup of the Republican leadership in the State House of Representatives. We’ve seen several constitutional officers announce their intentions to run for Governor of this State, including the Commissioner of Insurance, the Secretary of State, and the Attorney General. We’ve seen several members of the General Assembly announce plans to run for various statewide offices.

In the 2009 session of the General Assembly, we saw the influence of the Georgia Power lobby with the sweetheart deal whereby the General Assembly took on the role of the Public Service Commission and allowed Georgia Power to charge its customers for its profits on a facility that hasn’t even been built yet. We worked to prevent a blatant money-grab by the State in the form of a new “Super Speeder” law, but failed – and that law goes into effect Friday. We were able to stop a gross violation of privacy in the form of the Prescription Drug Monitoring Act, and we saw an epic battle between State Senators Preston Smith and David Shafer where Smith almost directly quoted George Orwell’s 1984 in speaking against the bill. I ran live blogs of both Crossover Day and Sine Die, and this is something I hope to be able to continue to do, as it was an absolutely crazy yet amazing experience.
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Charity to tyranny[ December 30, 2009 – 8:00 am]by Tom Posted in » Editorial

It seems innocent enough.  Let’s take care of the poor.  I mean, who could oppose that?  I certainly don’t.  The vast majority, on some level, are in favor of helping those less fortunate than they are.    People hit hard times, and can use a helping hand, so this is something most of us can agree to, right? Read More …

2009 Top Stories: Jeff’s Most Viewed[ December 30, 2009 – 6:40 am]by Jeff Posted in » Year In Review

Continuing with our 2009-closing Most Viewed series, here is the list of my own most viewed stories…

10. Deal. Real. Crook.
9. Could This Be The Beginning Of The End For The Ox?
8. Casey Cagle, ‘Monica Lewinsky’, and John Oxendine
7. SWGAPolitics.com Interview with Austin Scott, Part 2: Democratic Candidates and The Question
6. (Mike Keown vs Lee Ferrell) vs Sanford Bishop
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Project VoteSafe Approved by USDOJ[ December 30, 2009 – 5:37 am]by Jeff Posted in » Legislation

During this past session of the General Assembly, a new voting law was passed to allow people who have protective orders issued or are residents of a family violence shelter to shield their residence data on voter rolls. As I mentioned when I first wrote about this in May, this is a VERY good law, and genuinely needed to help protect people who have been abused. News has come out this morning that this law has been approved by the US DOJ under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act and can now be implemented.

Prior to this law being passed (by the General Assembly, not the Secretary of State), people who have been abused could be relatively easily tracked every time they registered to vote. After all, as long as you know a person’s first initial, last name, and date of birth, you can go to this site and get their address and all State and Federal districts they are in. You also need to know the county they live in, but so long as you know that they are in Georgia, you can do a brute-force attack and look through every single county if you are not sure about exactly where they are.
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Tom’s reflections[ December 29, 2009 – 2:00 pm]by Tom Posted in » Editorial

This year has been quite a year.  To sum up the stories of the year, from my perspective, is truly a daunting task.  I’ve taken a moment and thought about it, and I’ve realized that my perspective has primarily been dealing with the City of Albany.  The city that I love, and the government that I’m not to fond of, have certainly kept me busy. Read More …

The hardest part of being a Libertarian[ December 29, 2009 – 8:00 am]by Tom Posted in » Editorial

Everyone thinks that being a Libertarian is easy.  After all, we’re all about freedom and doing what you want so long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else, and that’s absolutely true.  But there’s a downside, one that many will not think of and one that may not ever be any easier.

You see, being a Libertarian, or any freedom loving American, sounds easy on paper but far, far to many who claim the title of hipocrits of the first order. Read More …