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By Jeff, on February 1st, 2011%
Per this AJC article, yesterday Bobby Franklin made his yearly hara kiri. As he has done at least one other time since I have been watching, in addition to at least once between 2004 and 2008, he made one of the most dangerous and least successful parliamentary moves available – he challenged the ruling of the Chair (Speaker Ralston).
GPB doesn’t have video archives yet this Session, but here’s what went down, so best as I have determined so far:
Last year, both the House and the Senate passed SB 1, Senator David Shafer’s Zero Based Budget Act. After the Session was over, Governor Perdue vetoed this bill.
Last week, in a VERY rare move, the Senate voted to override that veto, and did so unanimously, 52-0-6. They only needed a 2/3 majority, or 38 votes (there are currently 36 GOP Senators).
That same day, upon learning of the Senate’s veto override, Speaker Ralston let it be known that the House would not take the measure up, but would instead push its own ZBB measure, Rep Steven Allison’s HB 33.
Yesterday, the House got the veto override, and apparently th Speaker assigned it to the Rules Committee. I don’t know exactly what transpired next, but it ended with Rep Franklin making an EXTREMELY politically boneheaded move – the aforementioned challenging of the ruling of the Chair.
Here’s the problem:
Per Article III Section V Section XIII(d) of the Ga Constitution (emphases mine):
During sessions of the General Assembly, any vetoed bill or resolution may upon receipt be immediately considered by the house wherein it originated for the purpose of overriding the veto. If two-thirds of the members to which such house is entitled vote to override the veto of the Governor, the same shall be immediately transmitted to the other house where it shall be immediately considered. Upon the vote to override the veto by two-thirds of the members to which such other house is entitled, such bill or resolution shall become law. All bills and resolutions vetoed during the last three days of the session and not considered for the purpose of overriding the veto and all bills and resolutions vetoed after the General Assembly has adjourned sine die may be considered at the next session of the General Assembly for the purpose of overriding the veto in the manner herein provided. If either house shall fail to override the Governor’s veto, neither house shall again consider such bill or resolution for the purpose of overriding such veto.
In other words, per the Constitution of the State of Georgia, Rep Franklin was absolutely technically correct in challenging the rule of the Chair, if a political idiot.
And the Speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives has apparently violated the Constitution of the State of Georgia.
Like it or not, Bobby Franklin was (technically) absolutely correct.
By Jeff, on January 27th, 2011%
Yesterday, the House Press Office released a press release from State Rep Matt Ramsey about an immigration bill he was about to drop. Before we even saw the bill, based on nothing more than the press release, both Jason Pye and Jim Galloway came out against this thing knowing it would be horrible.
In his update, Jason points to Supreme Court decisions that block one part of HB 87, as it is now officially known, specifically lines 216-229:
16-11-202.
217 (a) As used in this Code section, the term ‘illegal alien’ means a person who has come to,
218 entered, or remains in the United States in violation of federal law.
219 (b) A person who encourages, entices, or induces an illegal alien to enter into this state,
220 where such person knows or recklessly disregards the fact that such person being
221 encouraged, enticed, or induced to enter into this state is an illegal alien, shall be guilty of
222 the offense of encouraging an illegal alien to enter into this state.
223 (c) For a first offense, a person convicted of encouraging an illegal alien to enter into this
224 state shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by
225 a fine not to exceed $1,000.00 or imprisonment not to exceed 12 months, or both. For a
226 second or subsequent conviction of encouraging an illegal alien to enter into this state, a
227 person shall be guilty of a felony and, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by a fine
228 of not less than $5,000.00 or more than $20,000.00 or by imprisonment of not less than one
229 or more than five years, or both.”
But there’s more to this bill – much more. It truly is a Bobby Franklin bill on Steroids, so let’s back up and explain why.
Continue reading UPDATED: A Bobby Franklin Bill On Steroids
By Jeff, on January 26th, 2011%
Last year, State Rep Allen Peake (R-Macon) was one of the primary driving forces in the effort to get the “evil scourge” of texting while driving banned, even though we already had distracted driving laws on the books that applied to the situation.
Roughly 9 months after being passed and more than 6 months after being in effect, cops are reporting that “it’s difficult to enforce the no-texting law” and that in at least some jurisdictions in Middle Georgia – including both Houston and Bibb Counties – few, if any, citations or even warnings have been issued. Note that Bibb County is where part of Allen Peake’s own district lies.
And yet we now have three Democrats – Rahn Mayo of Atlanta, Mickey Stephens and Craig Gordon of Savannah, that have introduced HB 67 because they don’t think fellow (may as well be, due to his NannyStatism) Democrat Allen Peake went far enough. HB 67 is their effort to mandate that hands free devices be used when talking on cell phones in cars.
Here’s Rep Peake’s problem: their logic is simply the next logical step of his own. After all, if Government Our Savior must protect us from the “evil scourge” of texting while driving, should it not also protect us from the “evil scourge” of even holding a cell phone while driving?
Because Rep Peake was so adamant in pushing for the texting ban, he has lost all moral authority in saying that we should not also pass this mandate, as again: this mandate is simply the next logical step.
Oh, and the vast majority of those in the Assembly, both Democrat and Democrat Republican, are no better. Of the four votes on the texting while driving ban last year (the bill that eventually passed), there was not a SINGLE ‘NAY’ vote in the two votes in the Senate, and only 19 consistent ‘Nay’ votes in the two votes in the House. (The second House vote picked up an additional 5 Nay votes.)
Because these 11 current State Reps were consistent in defending this aspect of individual liberty and responsibility, I’d like to publicly commend them and list their names here. Much kudos to each of the following:
Stephen Allison
Tim Bearden
Charlice Byrd
Bobby Franklin
Michael Harden
Mark Hatfield
Billy Horne
Sean Jerguson
Tom McCall
Jay Roberts
Martin Scott
So we already see some of the Hell Alan Peake and his fellow Nanny Statists have wrought – of 236 legislators (the vast majority of whom where in the Assembly this time last year), only 11 (plus the Freshmen) have any moral authority whatsoever to block HB 67. Any of the rest who block this bill or vote against it show their hypocrisy – and honestly, I would MUCH rather have hypocrites here than have this bill see the light of day on Governor Deal’s desk.
But what is one next logical step beyond HB 67? Well, I don’t want to give Rep Peake any ideas, but his colleagues in Arkansas and New York are now trying to ban both texting while walking and having earphones while walking.
See, wouldn’t it simply be so much easier to leave these issues alone and prosecute people who actually harm another person?
By Jeff, on January 11th, 2011%
Earlier today, the AJC’s James Salzer came out with a report with the headline “GOP ends year with massive cash advantage”.
The report contained this little nugget:
The party reports followed the trend of much of the past decade: the state GOP raises more money and has more money in the bank most years.
Allow me to explain that little nugget, or at least one component of it, and tie it to the title I chose for this post:
I believe most people would agree with me that the GOP has clearly been running a LOT of candidates over the past decade. Indeed, within the past decade, the GOP has taken over the State Senate, the State House, every Statewide Constitutional Office, and – I believe – a majority of partisan local elected offices. You don’t do that without running at least that many candidates, and the GOP has had candidates that have lost their elections, leaving a Democrat in office (or, in rare circumstances this decade, allowing a Democrat to replace the Republican).
Why is this significant?
Because if you dive into Chapter 21 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated and examine Chapter 2, Article 131, you will find that per subsections (b) and (c) of this code section, at least 50% of a candidate’s qualifying fees to right back to the Party they qualified with. In other words, let’s say the filing fee for Governor is $5,000 – which is fairly close. That means that for every Governor candidate that files to run as a Republican, the Republican Party of Georgia gets a $2,500 kickback. Similarly, if the qualifying fee for County Commissioner is $200 (and I have no idea what the fees are at that level, just throwing out a number), for every single candidate that decides to run for County Commission as a Republican, the local Republican Party gets a $100 kickback.
The remaining 50% goes to the appropriate elections supervisor “to be applied to the cost of holding the election”.
Right now we’re under a MASSIVE budget crunch – $1.2 BILLION, at a low end, at the State level alone. And yet we allow the political parties of this State to treat something so important as an election as nothing more than a fundraiser for themselves, even though it is costing both State and local offices MILLIONS of dollars to run these elections?
My friends, this should not be!
I have written this bill in an attempt to correct this wrong. You’ll notice that ALL this bill does is direct that 100% of the filing fees paid by candidates go to the appropriate elections supervisor to pay for the cost of the election. This means that when this bill passes, two things will happen:
1) Elections supervisors – including the Secretary of State’s office – will have twice as much money coming in from candidate filing fees, which means their budgets can be reduced by a corresponding amount from the general budgets of the appropriate governing body. This will save the State at LEAST $50,000 every four years in Statewide candidate filing fees alone – and that is assuming that only one Party submits a candidate in each of those ten races. A more likely number for Secretary of State’s office savings can be conservatively calculated as follows:
There are 238 members of the General Assembly, each with a 2 year term and a $400 filing fee. This means $800 over 4 years, and even assuming that every single candidate runs unopposed, that is $800 x 238 = $190,400.
A conservative estimate for the average Statewide office filing fee is $2,500. There are the following offices: 5 PSC Commissioners, Governor, Lt Governor, Secretary of State, Superintendent of Schools, Attorney General, Insurance Commissioner, Agriculture Commissioner, Labor Commissioner. 13 x $2500 = $32,500
I’m not sure how US Congress/US Senate races fit in here, so for a conservative estimate I will not include them.
Even without DC-based elected offices, we have a conservative estimate of $222,900 over 4 years, or $55,725 per year – and remember, this is double the current amount.
2) No longer could political parties use the single most important aspect of being an American citizen as a fundraiser to further their own private agendas. No longer would a candidate running on a platform of reforming his Party be forced to pay a kickback to the very Establishment he is seeking to overturn. No longer would a Party be tainted by accepting the money of a candidate it didn’t really like to begin with.
No longer would our elections be sold.
By Jeff, on November 15th, 2010%
Today marks the unofficial opening og the 2011-2012 session of the Georgia General Assembly, the day when bills begin to be pre-filed. According to Rob Miller on Facebook, State Rep Bobby Franklin was at the Dome at midnight waiting to file 21 bills and 8 Constitutional Amendments.
And that means that the work lives of the unsung heroes of the General Assembly are already picking up. These are the people whose names the public – and even many activists – will never know.
These are the secretaries, technicians, and record keepers that are the true backbone of the Dome. The shared staff of many of the legislators, the staffs of the House Clerk and Secretary of the Senate, the technicians that keep all the websites, video feeds, and computers working, the janitorial crews that keep the Capitol and Office Building complexes looking pristine, and the security teams who do their best to ensure the safety of all who enter the complexes.
On this unofficial start of the Session, I simply want to extend a heartfelt “thank you” to these and any others I missed. I know many of you work year round, but I also know your “spring training” begins today, and I want you to know that your hard work is GREATLY appreciated by this watcher/activist.
By Jeff, on October 18th, 2010%
Note from Jeff: The following is from Ray Boyd, who earlier this year was planning to use $2 million of his own money to run as a Republican for Governor but was blocked because he refused to sign the GOP’s Soviet-style Party Over Principle oath. I’m on my Blackberry right now and will add the links in a few minutes.
October 18, 2010
To my fellow Georgians:
There is one attribute that is interwoven in every action that every individual undertakes in life: ethics. To expect positive ethical conduct from every human being is a utopian dream, but to expect positive ethical conduct from our elected and appointed public servants should be a standard.
We the people of this great nation and state have the power to implement, fix, or amend any law, rule, or regulation that exist– including the Constitution of the United States of America. We the people are to blame for the ethical depravity in our government by not holding our public officers accountable. Too many of my fellow Americans do not realize the magnitude of our individual power. I will not continue to sit idly by as Georgia is plagued with the infectious affliction of unethical conduct, and I ask that you do not sit idly by, either.
Below this letter is a link to the Comprehensive Ethics Reform Act. This could be the most important piece of legislation that has ever been introduced in the Georgia General Assembly. It will be one of the strongest ethics laws, if not the strongest, in the nation. Georgia has the opportunity to set the standard for other states, our US Congress, and the nation as this proposed law moves us forward and upward. This bill is being sent to every member of the Georgia General Assembly and every person holding or seeking state wide offices. It will be made available to as many Georgia voters as possible.
I respectfully request that you read the attached bill or its brief summary. I then request that you ask every elected representative or person seeking office to the General Assembly to answer the following four questions:
1. Will you pledge to introduce this bill or sign on as a co-sponsor of this bill?
2. Will you pledge to aggressively support this bill?
3. Will you pledge to vote for the passage of this bill, without modification?
4. Will you pledge to pass this bill as the first order of business in January 2011?
This Comprehensive Ethics Reform Act was drafted by a lawyer with an abundance of experience in ethics legislation that knows all the tricks and loopholes of existing laws. We know we cannot trust David Ralston or his colleagues to pass a decent bill. The fact of the matter is they have no interest in requiring their ethical conduct unless we make them. In fact, they recently passed a law abolishing the “State Ethics Commission” and replacing it with the “Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission” because they thought being sanctioned by the ethics commission sounded too harsh. This is deception at its finest. The attached bill will fix this, along with many other changes that are long overdue.
We the people can achieve this objective. I beg you to do your part for your own welfare, your children’s welfare, our state’s welfare, and our country’s welfare.
God Bless You, Our State, and Our Country
Ray Boyd
We The People Advocate
Click here to view the summary of The Comprehensive Ethics Reform Act. (PDF)
Click here to view full version of The Comprehensive Ethics Reform Act. (PDF)
By No Deal Georgia, on September 29th, 2010%
Let’s get real about Deal. This candidate says he believes in fiscal responsibility, going even so far as to introduce a bill in Congress called “The Fiscal Responsibility Act.”
And Nathan Deal is by far and away the least fiscally responsible candidate running for Governor this year.
Barnes balanced the budget every year he was Governor, getting a B from the CATO institute. Nathan Deal sure hasn’t done a great job as a Congressman in balancing the budget. Now, Nathan Deal is attacking Barnes for proposing a 300 million dollar tax cut for businesses without a plan to pay for it. Really? Because, one of the biggest contributions to our national debt has been the Bush tax cuts that were pushed through with no plans to pay for them. Deal had no problem supporting that mountain of debt (over 2 trillion) added to our grandchildren. How do we know his prior fiscal irresponsibility won’t carry over into his possible administration?
Barnes spent about 15k on air travel this gubernatorial cycle. Nathan Deal spent 135k. We’re talking NINE TIMES what Barnes spent on airplanes. Of course, it’s no surprise to find that the 135k is going to a company Nathan Deal co-owns. He’s spending nine times the amount of Barnes to get the same job done. How do we know his campaign’s fiscal irresponsibility won’t carry over into his possible administration?
And, of course, at this point an entire book could be written about The Deal Financial Scandal. Deal’s Financial Scandal has more twists and turns than Chutes and Ladders. There’s a great summary up over at The Perimeter Progressive, but saying that Deal has some personal financial issues at this point would be putting it kindly. How do we know his personal fiscal irresponsibility won’t carry over into his possible administration?
The next Governor of the great state of Georgia has the legal obligation to balance our budget. But everything we’ve seen from Deal, from his prior governmental experiences to his campaign experiences to his personal experiences, shows he’s just incapable of actually balancing a budget. How do we know his fiscal irresponsibility won’t lead our state into financial ruin?
We don’t.
No Deal Georgia.
By No Deal Georgia, on September 27th, 2010%
First let me thank SWGApolitics for inviting me to contribute to their ongoing discussion of Georgia Republican Gubernatorial candidate Nathan Deal. I am both stunned and flattered by the interest that my recent Twitter account (NoDealGeorgia) has created, particularly since I am not in any way involved in the gubernatorial race – I’m just an average Georgian: I work a full-time job which is in no way related to politics, I volunteer frequently with my church, I am a youth group leader, I never want to work in politics, I’m not affiliated with any candidate or party, and I happen to think that Nathan Deal is wrong for Georgia.
The focus of this first post will be on integrity…and Nathan Deal’s lack of it. Regardless of party affiliation, I think that all voters can agree that integrity is an important quality in any leader.
[Continue Reading]
By Jeff, on June 9th, 2010%
Governor Perdue, on the very last day he was able to, took the ax of his veto pen to roughly 25 bills yesterday – a FAR cry from the number of bills he signed. You can see the full list of every bill he vetoed in both 2009 and 2010 here.
Among the bills he axed that have already received much attention were Zero Based Budgeting, SB 291 (State Senator David Shafer’s gun bill), the JOBS bill, and a bill that would have enticed the construction of a $1 Billion indoor ski park – at Red Top Mountain/Allatoona Lake.
What is particularly interesting about the ski park bill is that the veto of it is being DECRIED by some fiscal conservatives. Yep. The same people that got all riled up about the “Bridge to Nowhere” in Alaska are now saying that Red Top Mountain – an area nearly as hot as it is down here in SWGA – needed a ski park that givernment needed to help fund. (And no, that was not a typo moments ago..)
Now for a brief discussion on some vetoed bills I haven’t seen as much discussion on…
[Continue Reading]
By Tom, on April 30th, 2010%
I’m a cynical cuss sometimes, and I know it. Anything less than real freedom isn’t close to enough for me, and I’m vocal about it. For me though, the touchstone of a free society is how the treat firearms. Ultimately, more gun freedom will ultimately equal other freedom, come hell or high water. Yesterday, Georgia became a lot more free. Continue reading Welcome to the new world
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Nathan Deal and Fiscal Irresponsibility
Let’s get real about Deal. This candidate says he believes in fiscal responsibility, going even so far as to introduce a bill in Congress called “The Fiscal Responsibility Act.”
And Nathan Deal is by far and away the least fiscally responsible candidate running for Governor this year.
Barnes balanced the budget every year he was Governor, getting a B from the CATO institute. Nathan Deal sure hasn’t done a great job as a Congressman in balancing the budget. Now, Nathan Deal is attacking Barnes for proposing a 300 million dollar tax cut for businesses without a plan to pay for it. Really? Because, one of the biggest contributions to our national debt has been the Bush tax cuts that were pushed through with no plans to pay for them. Deal had no problem supporting that mountain of debt (over 2 trillion) added to our grandchildren. How do we know his prior fiscal irresponsibility won’t carry over into his possible administration?
Barnes spent about 15k on air travel this gubernatorial cycle. Nathan Deal spent 135k. We’re talking NINE TIMES what Barnes spent on airplanes. Of course, it’s no surprise to find that the 135k is going to a company Nathan Deal co-owns. He’s spending nine times the amount of Barnes to get the same job done. How do we know his campaign’s fiscal irresponsibility won’t carry over into his possible administration?
And, of course, at this point an entire book could be written about The Deal Financial Scandal. Deal’s Financial Scandal has more twists and turns than Chutes and Ladders. There’s a great summary up over at The Perimeter Progressive, but saying that Deal has some personal financial issues at this point would be putting it kindly. How do we know his personal fiscal irresponsibility won’t carry over into his possible administration?
The next Governor of the great state of Georgia has the legal obligation to balance our budget. But everything we’ve seen from Deal, from his prior governmental experiences to his campaign experiences to his personal experiences, shows he’s just incapable of actually balancing a budget. How do we know his fiscal irresponsibility won’t lead our state into financial ruin?
We don’t.
No Deal Georgia.