Yesterday, during the 3rd Annual Crossover Day Live Blog, I made an announcement that shocked some who were with us:
SWGAPolitics.com is dead.
SWGAPolitics.com has been a grand experiment for me, a life changing one. I took a concept from my mind and made it one of the most well known political blogs in the State of Georgia, and in the process I assisted in both helping to further political causes I supported and helping to defeat political causes I opposed. I gained many great friends, and created some epic battles with new foes. One of the best of friends was my partner here, Tom Knighton.
But the experiment is over, and effectively has been for several months now.
This was a decision many months in the making, one that honestly should have been made several months ago. Indeed, I was tempted to write this post on the night of the 2010 Primary Elections, as that was the last time I was able to devote the time to this site that it needed to be what I really desired of it. But there was a need for it through the 2010 General Election, and so we continued. However, it finally got to the point where we had posted a single post in a month – and it had been more than a month since Tom or I had written an original post here. That, to me, is a sign of a dead blog, and this post is only making that official.
Tom has been active in building TomKnighton.com, and is a regular contributor to UnitedLiberty.org. He also has a new site going online next month, Laws-n-Sausages, which will be a more balanced blog with himself, 2 liberals, and 2 conservatives talking about the issues of the day.
As many of you know, I am the Legislative Director for the Libertarian Party of Georgia, and I also am the Executive Editor at GeorgiaLegislativeWatch.com. I maintain JefferySexton.com, and will begin writing a bit more there on basically anything I feel like writing about, which right now is mostly my job search. The primary reason I haven’t been able to be as active here is that my career is finally picking up, and I leave to concentrate more on it while continuing to fulfill my role in advising the LP-Ga on legislative matters.
We shut down this site not looking back, but forward. There is a great future in the liberty movement, one that both Tom and I will continue to work towards. I hope you will join us in the fight and on our new projects.
To all of the friends and allies we’ve made over the last two years, thank you. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you.
Your son is traveling through your hometown peacefully. He has never committed a crime and is the ideal son. Suddenly, with absolutely no warning, you are thrust into a coma for weeks. When you awaken, you learn your darling son was killed in the same tragedy that placed you in the coma and you have missed his funeral. You also learn that as a result of your injuries, you will never walk again. You learn that the tragedy was committed by someone in your country illegally. You vow then and there to bring justice to your son, whatever the price.
Now, what is Justice? In America, rational citizens see it as presenting their case before a court that a person has committed a crime before a court, and having that court determine the guilt or innocence of a person based on the facts presented. If guilty, justice is served by some form of punishment – anything from a fine to jail time to even capital punishment. Any of these are allowed for even a crime that results in death, depending on the circumstances.
But others don’t see Justice that way. They take the Mosaic command of an ‘Eye for an Eye’ literally, and demand death when a death is caused. They find the person they feel has committed the crime, and they impose their own sentence their own way.
The tragedy I referred to above is both very real and a very real tragedy. Unfortunately, it has a direct implication for the debate surrounding illegal immigrants in this country.
You see, the above tragedy is the basic story of the Inmans, whose son Dustin was murdered in a traffic accident nearly 11 years ago. It was this tragedy and others like it that led to the foundation of the organization that bears their son’s name – the Dustin Inman Society. Many of its followers have similar stories of tragedies befalling them because of the criminal actions of an illegal alien. Indeed, a good friend of mine told me last night that he agrees with the DAS because he was hit in a hit and run accident where he believes the driver was an illegal.
Here’s where the tables get turned:
I wasn’t just speaking of the Inmans in the scenario above. For more than a decade, we as a nation have been firing missiles into other countries suspected of housing people we call terrorists. Throughout that time, we have accepted “collateral damage” as being perfectly ok because “they’re terrorists”. The problem is that just as the vast majority of Americans simply want to live their lives in peace, so do the vast majority of people throughout the world – even those with a different religion from us. There are firebrands and radicals of ALL stripes and colors who would use violence to further their cause, and no people is immune to this.
The problem is, what we call “collateral damage”, someone who lives where that missile detonated calls their “ideal son”. The person we killed was someone’s loving brother, husband, friend, father. And like the Inmans, they have vowed to bring Justice to their loved one. Because they do not have the tradition of Liberty that we in America have, they immediately work towards what their law allows – murder for murder. Because we did not care about “collateral damage”, neither do they. Indeed, because we do not care about “collateral damage”, they seek to CAUSE “collateral damage” to prove a point to us.
The tragedy I began this post with is indeed a tragedy. But if we are to address the problems surrounding it, we CANNOT allow ourselves to indulge our pain. We MUST think about the issue as rational adults, and we MUST present a solution that works for ALL involved. An emotional knee jerk response, be it “no amnesty” or “kill the infidels”, will only make things far worse, and will only delay our healing.
We need an adult conversation about immigration, and it needs to include the areas where we ourselves have caused the problem. I pray that this conversation can happen soon.
Libertarians are not extreme. In fact by most people’s definitions we would be extremely moderate. Of course most Libertarians would say that saying this damages our street cred. But let me explain.
I think that the idea of taking our money and giving it to the banks is extreme. I think the idea of taking our money and giving it to the car companies is extreme. I think the idea of taking our money and giving it to insurance companies so they can continue to jack up health care costs is extreme.
I think that spending a trillion dollars a year to be the world’s police is extreme when regardless of what you think of our foreign policy, we simply can’t afford it. And considering our war on terror actually creates more terror than it stops, it seems….. extremely…………………….extreme.
I think it’s extreme that we know that our society safety net, medicare, social security, etc… has over 30 trillion dollars in unfunded liabilities , and is unsustainable, yet we continue to pursue these types of social programs when the facts clearly show that these programs do more to increase prices on health care and do nothing to alleviate poverty.
So we have forced people to have insurance, in order to be able to afford health care, which benefits the insurance companies and special interests but clearly does not benefit the average American. You can look at it as a micro-manager and say we must be able to afford insurance, but that would be EXTREME because common sense tells you to isolate the root of the problem and it is obviously government’s involvement that has made health care unaffordable.
Telling people what they can grow, or put in their body, or how to regulate their diet…. is extreme.
The idea that the government is going to tell you who you can or can not marry, or what religion you should or should not practice is extreme when neither is government’s business.
Libertarians aren’t extreme………our government is extreme.
A facebook friend emailed me this morning and asked me about the procedure to recall an elected official in Georgia. Since I know that Georgia election law does not have a true “citizen initiative” procedure – which is why you don’t hear of any “Proposition X” out of Georgia – I was skeptical that we even had the ability to recall an elected official.
But fortunately due to my work with Equal Ballot Access, I knew just where to look – OCGA Title 21, Elections.
It turns out there is an entire Chapter of the Official Code of Georgia devoted to “Recall of Public Officers”. (Side note before I get into this: I am NOT a lawyer, this is simply my own personal analysis (re:opinion) of legal code publicly available. For genuine legal opinions regarding this or any other law, please consult a member of the State Bar of Georgia.)
The grounds for recall are laid out in OCGA 21-4-3:
(6) “Failure to perform duties prescribed by law” means the willful neglect or failure by an official to perform a duty imposed by statute.
(7) “Grounds for recall” means:
(A) That the official has, while holding public office, conducted himself or herself in a manner which relates to and adversely affects the administration of his or her office and adversely affects the rights and interests of the public; and
(B) That the official:
(i) Has committed an act or acts of malfeasance while in office;
(ii) Has violated his or her oath of office;
(iii) Has committed an act of misconduct in office;
(iv) Is guilty of a failure to perform duties prescribed by law; or
(v) Has willfully misused, converted, or misappropriated, without authority, public property or public funds entrusted to or associated with the elective office to which the official has been elected or appointed.
Discretionary performance of a lawful act or a prescribed duty shall not constitute a ground for recall of an elected public official.
(8) “Misconduct in office” means an unlawful act committed willfully by an elected public official or a willful violation of the code of ethics for government service contained in Code Section 45-10-1.
Emphasis mine, to illustrate that even within finding grounds for a recall petition, the person or organization behind such an effort would more than likely have quite a legal fight just to get the petition to be allowed. (Procedure for the official in question contesting the recall petition is detailed in OCGA 21-4-6.) [Continue Reading]
For some more Southern-oriented Christmas humor, here’s one that for me, it just aint Christmas until I hear. Here’s another that I just found but is nearly as good. In case anyone is interested, both of those two will be in Atlanta the weekend after my birthday next month, and tickets to that concert would be a REALLY good Christmas/birthday present…
Libertarian Party Co-Founder David Nolan, who died Sunday, would have turned 67 years old today. His one birthday wish was that people donate to the Advocates for Self Government. Several people in the Liberty movement are using the FB event he created as a way to honor his life, and I also wanted to promote the idea here.
Also, it was about a month ago that the Pepsi Refresh Grant for the Special Needs Playpark in Leesburg stalled out, reaching as high as the high 20s/low 30s – it needed to be in the Top 10 to win. HOWEVER, because it was in the Top 100, it got automatically rolled over to this month and actually started in the number 1 position.
It is currently in the number 8 position, and in a battle to stay in the Top 10. As I said last month, this is a PERFECT way to build a needed park in Leesburg WITHOUT government being forced to steal money to pay for it. PLEASE click the above link to vote for this project AND send 103013 to 73774. Standard text messaging rates apply, though I don’t know many that don’t have unlimited texting plans at this point, and for those that have unlimited texting the vote is FREE! PLEASE do this every day for the remainder of this month!
After the drama that was Friday’s State Senate GOP Caucus meeting, don’t expect the same to happen in the House.
I said last year that this year’s House Caucus elections would be then-newly elected Speaker David Ralston’s true test, when he was up for re-election for a full Session.
He has passed that test with flying colors, drawing no opposition from within the Caucus after having drawn no challengers for his seat from his district earlier this year. Also unopposed are Speaker Pro Tem Jan Jones, Majority Whip Ed Lindsey (though he did put up a pre-emptive Facebook note, just in case), Caucus Chair, and Caucus Treasurer.
Which brings us to the only two contested races in the Caucus. Former Majority Leader Jerry “we don’t have to govern the way we campaign” Keen (yes, he actually said that), retired and his successor in the 179th was elected last Tues – a Facebook friend of mine named Jason Spencer, if I remember correctly.
The two names I’ve heard in the running here are James Mills of North Ga and Larry O’Neal of Middle Ga. Various sources descibe this as either Georgia Right To Life vs a healing between the Richardson and Ralston camps or ad conservatives vs establishment. Here’s the kicker for South Ga: If Mills wins this contest, the 5 of the top 6 Leadership positions in the General Assembly will be from North of I-20. There is also a RUMOR that there could be a third candidate, though that is just a well known RUMOR at this time.
The other open position was created when Caucus Vice Chair Jeff May decided to run for PSC. The known challengers here are Calvin Hill and Matt Ramsey, though nothing else is known at this time.
One interesting dynamic at play will be the Freshmen – the GOP has something like 20 or more new members who weren’t at last year’s Caucus elections, at least some of whom faced competition as recently as less than a week ago.
And, in the midst of all this, there will be an announcement from me tomorrow morning about some new happenings. Check back tomorrow to find out what.
As I wake up on the morning after the toughest election I’ve ever taken part in, I take stock of where the political landscape is.
On the bad side, Georgia has now elected a corrupt racist lunatic as its Governor. It has elected a man who has allowed himself to get into a position of possibly being blackmailed as its Lt Governor. It has elected a man known to sleep with lobbyists and abuse his power and the power of his friends to protect said lobbyists as its Labor Commissioner. It has voted itself into slavery by giving employers all rights in non-compete disputes.
And perhaps most devastatingly of all, it has allowed Republicans to take complete control of all facets of State Government. We are officially back to the pre-1994 days of One Party Rule in this State, with the only “difference” being the letter beside everyone’s name. Indeed, the last time Nathan Deal was at this level of State Government, in 1992 when he was still Senate President Pro Tem, he was a Democrat. Now, as Governor, the exact same man – who last time used that position to craft a deal than paid him MILLIONS from the State Treasury – is a Republican.
But there were a FEW bright spots.
Ken Hodges lost. I suspect we’ll see more of him though, possibly as soon as 2012, though 2014 is more likely.
The tax increase, Amendment 2, lost. As did Amendment 3, which would have allowed Ga to promise to pay contracts it didn’t actually have the money for yet.
And locally, Leesburg restaurants can now serve alcohol by the drink – even on Sunday.
With the elections FINALLY behind us, SWGAPolitics.com is going to “go fishing” for a few days at least. This has been an intense campaign, and I think all of us – including the commenters – need a break from politics for a few days, at least. The new Session of the General Assembly starts up in just over two months, and there are very serious issues we must now face.
When we come back, we’ll start tackling them head on, and getting back to a much more issues-centric posting style. It is something I’ve been looking forward to for several months now.
For now, go have fun doing whatever it is you do outside of politics. Rest, relax, and recuperate. We’ll be here when you get back.
One day, a man was walking by a puppy store and saw some puppies in the window with a sign “Democratic puppies. $10 each.”
A couple days later, the man walked by the store and, seeing the same puppies, saw a new sign that said “Republican puppies. $10,000 each.”
Curious about the change, the man walked in the store and asked the owner. “They’re pointing the other direction today from what they were the other day, but they’re the same puppies, you’re right about that,” said the owner.
The man left that day and came by the store a week later. He once again saw the same puppies, but the sign now said “Libertarian puppies. Inquire within.”
Curious once again, the man asked the owner about the puppies once more. “They’re still the same puppies,” said the owner, “only now their eyes are opened and they can’t be bought, no matter the price. However, they can be given away for free now, so take whichever you want.”
