January 2010
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Interstate Insurance Sales

By Jeff, on January 21st, 2010%

Obviously, the issue of interstate sales of insurance is at play in the current race to replace John Oxendine as Georgia’s Commissioner of Insurance and Fire Safety. Gerry Purcell is for interstate sales, while per this tweet from him, pretty much everyone else in his race is against it. Monday evening, I broke the press release of Stephen Northington, one of Purcell’s competitors for the Republican nomination for Insurance Commissioner, giving his reasons for being against the bill currently in the Georgia Senate that would allow interstate sales.

Any long time reader of this site knows that insurance is my weakest policy area. Much like calculus, I simply do not understand it at all.

But I do understand the Constitution, and that is the basis of my own position on this issue.
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5 comments   2010 Campaigns   , , ,  

Teacher’s Bill of Rights

By Jeff, on January 21st, 2010%

Amidst the wide variety of bills dealing with education currently floating through the General Assembly is one in particular that stands out as a cut above the rest. Its goal is simple: to give teachers basic protections they have been wanting for a very long time. Many of the issues it attempts to correct were issues I personally experienced in my year in the classroom, and this would certainly have been a very welcome law then.

The bill in question is State Senator Judson Hill’s SB 307, the “Teacher’s Bill of Rights”. Yes, it is clearly an election year ploy designed to curry favor for Republicans among a very large voter bloc in Georgia – teachers – but it is something that has been genuinely needed for quite a while, and I would rather it be passed as an election year ploy than not at all.

So what are teachers’ rights, per this bill?
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2 comments   Commentary   ,  

Raise the Roof!

By Tim Nelson, on January 21st, 2010%

The Senate opened debate Wednesday on a plan to raise the nation’s debt limit by $1.9 trillion!

This will put it in perspective.

Visual Aid

Why does our federal Government show some leadership. Develop a budget that saves 10% of the incoming tax dollars, puts 15% towards paying down current debt, force it’s agencies to become hatchet men letting go of dead weight and dead programs.
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One comment   Editorial, National

Water Savings and Conservation Act of 2010

By Jeff, on January 21st, 2010%

I was specifically requested to read SB 311, David Shafer’s Water Savings and Conservation Act of 2010, and give my comments on it, so here goes:

I have no problems at all with the first two things listed as findings of the General Assembly – that local governments cannot account for roughly 18% of “surface water removed for public use” and that a significant factor in this water loss “is due to aging, faulty, or poorly maintained water infrastructure”. Those two appear to be basic facts to me, from what I have heard from talking to a variety of people across the State, including some who work in local water departments.
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One comment   Commentary   ,  

Religion and the GOP GAGOV Candidates

By Jeff, on January 21st, 2010%

Ray McBerry seems to want to make the intensely personal issue of religion a campaign ploy, so let’s humor him for a moment, shall we?

Ray mentioned his religion three separate times in Tuesday night’s debate. I honestly don’t recall any of the other candidates mentioning theirs a single time – which is what prompted this post. You see, Ray seems to think that by constantly telling you he is a Christian, you will think that none of the other candidates are, and if that is one of the major things you vote for a person based on that he will get your vote. What Ray leaves out is that from what I can tell, he is a member of an ultra-conservative fringe sect, the likes of which make even the stereotypical “Independent Baptist” church look hedonistic. Indeed, he sent this guy to speak for him at the Plains Tea Party. (In Ray’s defense, he and that guy have since had a falling out a couple of months ago. There have also been reports of him being at various PeachPundit gatherings in bars, yet simply not drinking himself, and I have been told he does not have a problem with Sunday Sales.)

I can tell you from personal experience that one of the things Austin Scott said he liked best about the South Ga leg of his Walk of Georgia was that he was close enough to home to go to his own church on Sundays, and several times he reported being invited to attend churches near his route while he was walking in other parts of the State.

I can also tell you from personal experience that Jeff Chapman prays over his meals, even in public restaurants when meeting someone for the first time.

And while I wanted to mention those two, they are not the real subject of this post. No, for this post I want to look at someone who is so dedicated to his religion that he will travel literally halfway around the world to further its message, yet is comfortable enough with his own religion that he does not feel the need to mention it at every appearance on the campaign trail.

That man is Eric Johnson.
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3 comments   2010 Campaigns   , , , ,