Bloglanta

So, The Georgia House wants to give Zell Bryan Miller a statue.  Bravo!  They should.  They should authorize a statue of Governor Miller.

Mr. Miller was not only among Georgia’s finest Governors, but it was as Governor that Mr. Miller was at his finest as a public servant.  He was worse both prior to and after he left the house on West Paces Ferry rd.

Prior to being Governor, Mr. Miller was among the longest serving Lt. Governors ever.  He worked for Lester Maddox, supported segregation, and created a bitter rivalry with then Speaker Tom Murphy that he could not get over until he was Governor.  After leaving office, he went into the United States Senate and became an advocate for unfettered Presidential Power.  His efforts have now come home to roost.

Mr. Miller’s time as Governor, however, was a time of excellence, and in making the statue… and the plaque that will surely go with it, is those days from 1990 to 1999 that should be remembered.

Governor Miller appointed Justice Leah Sears Ward to the High Court.  He made Justice Charles Weltner the Chief Justice.  He appointed Thurbert Baker to be his floor leader and then Attorney General.  He worked to bring the Olympics here, tried to change the flag to something we could all live with and created the lottery to fund the HOPE Scholarships.  All this while keeping the Budget in check, building up rainy day supplies, and making serious efforts to reform the way government worked in Georgia.  In short, he was a very strong conservative southern Democratic Governor.  He even gave Bill Clinton’s nomination speech.

It is a shame what age and Washington D.C. living can do to people. Mr. Miller’s service in Washington coincided with a wholesale strengthening of his religious faith.   The sincerity of that faith is beyond doubt, but the changes in policy it caused Senator Miller to advocate are dubious.  Senator Miller believes the government has a right to intrude into people’s lives to ‘protect them’ from themselves.  He believes in a nearly unfettered executive branch, and believes that we should have gone into Iraq.  He regrettably drank the Bush kool-aid.

It’s worth remembering the Governor who did great things and kept government from intruding in our lives.  Let us honor Democratic Governor Zell Miller.

Some of my blogging friends have been doing quotes of the day lately. I spotted this jewel in today’s AJC:

Milton, a community of horse farms, golf courses and mansions, decided to become its own city last year in order to limit growth and its effects.

Dear Milton,

If you wanted to limit growth, why would you become a city? You’ve just created a new layer of bureaucracy that you have to support on your own. And the city council is going to deal with budgeting issues every year. To solve those issues, they need tax revenue. To get tax revenue, they will from now to forever have to worry about the community’s economic development.

Your real misfortune was not that you are located in the northern sticks of Fulton County. Oh no. Your misfortune comes from the 1983 Georgia Constitution. From the New Georgia Encyclopedia:

Counties are allowed to provide:

—police and fire protection

—garbage and solid waste collection and disposal

—public health facilities and services, including hospitals, ambulances, emergency rescue, and animal control

—street and road construction, including curbs, sidewalks, and street lights

—parks, recreational areas, facilities, and programs

—storm-water and sewage collection and disposal systems

—water utilities

—public housing

—public transportation

—libraries, archives, and arts/sciences programs and facilities

—terminal and dock facilities and parking facilities

—codes, including building, housing, plumbing, and electrical codes

—air quality control

—planning and zoning

These supplementary powers address citizens’ demands to improve and maintain the state’s quality of life. Cities and towns have long offered these services, but they were seldom seen outside the urban environment.

What does it all mean? It means every county can effectively be a city. It means every city will forever be dysfunctional because their ability to grow, and their ability to provide effective and efficient services will be hampered because county governments are already providing municipal services.The change in the Georgia Constitution was made because — like the god damn babies they always have been and always will be — Georgia’s rural and suburban citizens wanted to have their cake and eat it, too. “Waa! I want my bucolic setting, and I want my municipal services, too! And keep my taxes low, while you’re at it!”

Now, Milton, you are among those suffering the consequences. Tough luck.

Fellow metro Atlanta citizens, you reap what you sow. You associated the City of Atlanta with crime, corruption, and a generally unbucolic setting. Rather than doing something about it, you decided it better to vote with your feet and run away from the problems. That’s not how problems go away. It should be no suprise that they follow you when you vote with your feet.

The few among you who voted in 1983 had the chance to keep counties as counties and cities as cities. You were sold a tax-hungry sham. You could have kept Atlanta within its city limits. And you could have had a chance to have some power of your own in seeing Atlanta’s problems fixed — complete with a more powerful way to vote: by kicking out dirty politicians.

Let the City of Atlanta expand its borders, and its balance of power will shift faster than you can say “gentrification.” Stop forming new cities and counties — you will solve nothing. You will cause more problems for yourselves. You will try to not grow, which will force your fellow crybabies to move further out and settle more of the countryside. And they will clog your roads. And you will have no money to widen your roads that you worked so hard to avoid having to widen.

Today, you take your municipal services for granted, and you pretend that you pay more in taxes than you get back. Your utilities and infrastructure, which were built to allow you to live out in the middle of boringland, are expensive. No matter to what extent federal and state governments subsidize your infrastructure, you ultimately pay for these things with your taxes. People of Pretend-Milton County: You reap what you sow.

Congratulations on creating your own problems.

Atlanta has a law enforcement problem. Two major incidents have occurred in the last month that show at a minimum a disconnect between the Police and the communities they serve. All this as crime in general is on the rise. In the city, a gun fight broke out between an elderly woman and three police officers trying to serve a warrant. Officers were shot and the woman was killed.

In Dekalb County there have a been an unusually high number of incidents. 12 civilians have been shot by police over the last year. In both cases, the FBI has been called into investigate. The federal government is seen as being more independent than local authorities.

That we need law enforcement is obvious. We make laws and we want them followed. The police need community help and support to do that. Unfortunately, in some parts of the community, the criminals are more respected than the police. The demographics in these situations are similar. The civilians have all come from lower income, less educated backgrounds and have been people of color. In both the Fulton and Dekalb County cases, civil rights abuses have been alleged, but that’s where it gets hazy.

The problem is that no one is willing to define which civil rights have been violated. One would assume that fourth amendment issues come into play here, but no one ever comes out and says so. There also seems to be an odd racial overtone here. It’s odd because Dekalb and the City of Atlanta both have people of color as a majority of their populations and governments. The Atlanta Police Chief is African American as are the District Attorneys, State Attorney General, and Chief Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court. It’s difficult to argue that a system controlled at all points of power by African Americans is prejudiced against the community, yet those accusations seems to be floating just under the surface.

So then what’s going on? There at least two key factors. One is police corruption. The other is that we’ve transcended race here but not social class in terms of values.

Every act of police corruption is beyond heinous. Every time a police officer speeds, runs a red light, or engages in any abuse of authority, we all suffer. They are manifest representations of the state and carry the power to kill in the name of the state. Because the state is ordained by us, we ipso facto, ordain each of those killings. That is why the calls for civilian review boards, vigilant DA enforcement, and tough accountability standards are absolutely necessary. When a police officer acts above the law, they should be swiftly and severely punished. Good cops are crazy to protect bad ones. Do that and you get Sidney Dorsey.

It’s also why Dekalb and Fulton County need to make sure that all public safety officers (EMTs and Firemen too) need to be paid above the metro average. Too many experienced good officers are being lured away to new cities and to the state where the pay is easier and the job is less dangerous.

With more money should also come more accountability and training. Most people are not the enemy. Most people are grateful for police officers. Officers need to understand that they serve and are beholden to us, and not the other way around. The better the attitude of the officers, the more cooperation and support they will get. They deserve our support, but they do need to earn it everyday.

It’s hard for them to earn that support in communities that don’t support the law. We make the laws. We elect the people who make the laws and we have a remedy to change them. We cannot then attack officers who uphold the law. In some of the same communities where crime is the worst, the police are attacked even as they attempt to enforce the law. They are not getting community support. Hard to enjoy the rule of law when people won’t back up the people who back up the law.

We need to seriously and quickly address these issues. There are pretty high stakes. Part of the reason that Baltimore and Detroit have had trouble attracting new business and economic development is the perception of crime. The reports of the Federal Government and the Grand Jury need to be thorough, honest, and swift. Civilian Review Boards need to be implemented. Police Chiefs need to publicly commit to community policing and an honest courteous force. Mostly, however, we need to respect and work with officers so that their success is vested to our comfort in our communities.

If we can do this, Atlanta will be a more attractive place for people to visit and in which businesses can relocate. That will strengthen the tax base and make it easier for governments to provide services and help people strengthen their community.

On Tuesday, all over the state, people had the opportunity to vote for Public Service Commission.  Of the over 3,500,000 eligible to vote, only 225,000 showed up.    It is amazing that even when an election DIRECTLY effects the pocketbook, we still don’t come out.

One volunteer who was working the polls yesterday cried because only 16 people hit his precinct all day.  16.  Some counties averaged as low as 11 voters per precinct.

In the metro area, Dekalb County did the best.  They turned out an average of 84 voters per precinct.  Frighentingly, Dekalb and Fulton turned out the same number of voters (Roughly 15,900 for each country), but Fulton has nearly twice the number of precincts and voters registered.  They averaged 47 voters per precinct.  Cobb did slightly better with 51 voters per precinct. and Clayton had 53 voters per precinct.  Remember that the polls were open for 12 hours yesterday.  That means in Fulton County there was less than one voter every 15 minutes.

The true patriots voted yesterday.  Regardless of party, regardless of the race,  We know there are only 225,000 dedicated Georgians and Americans.

Why list who won?  You don’t care… and that’s just sad.

You Should Vote Tuesday, December 5.

Yes.  This Tuesday.  It’s run-off day here in Georgia.  Polls are open from 7 AM until 7 PM and your vote matters not only to your fellow citizens but directly to your pocket book.  The big race is for Georgia Public Service Commission.  These are the folks who decide how much you pay for electricity and other services.

This is a statewide election between Chuck Eaton and  David Burgess.    Both men have not been the best candidates.  Eaton’s website indicates he thinks he can do something about our natural gas prices, which the PSC no longer regulates.  He’s worried the prices have gone up and yet at the same time he wants more of the market solutions that have brought us our current problems.  Still he has pledged to take no money from the industries he regulates.

Burgess is chair of the PSC and has taken industry money.  Still he’s the more experienced of the two.  He has 24 years of experience working in the utility regulation field.  Burgess, however, has voted with the Utilities against keeping rates lower repeatedly.  Yes, eventually if the cost of raw materials goes up and if the demand goes up, price needs to move to meet it.  However, Burgesses financial connections to the industry create a cloud through which his true motives are tough to discern.

Ultimately, voters have to decide how vigilant they are willing to be.  If they are willing to do the work, they should re-elect Burgess and hold his feet to the fire.  Make him use his knowledge and contacts in the industry to leverage greener, more cost-effective output.  Let’s just hope that Georgians are willing to pay enough attention.

After all, in the long term, the more green we put into our energy system, the more green we’ll all have in our wallets.

Now that Sonny has been re-elected, he can do a lot more things without having to worry about fighting all the same battles. Apparently, that may include the Lovejoy line! For those of you who have forgotten, The Lovejoy Line from downtown Atlanta to Lovejoy (at the southern most point in Clayton County) was supposed to already be up and running! Now, apparently, they’re supposed to be ready to go by 2009.

The problem is that Sonny has already proved himself fickle and fey on support for the line. He looks south, sees committee chairs who might throw tantrums and backs down. Certainly more pressure from Metro Atlanta will not help. But Metro pressure from another city might help and that’s Macon.

Yes, Macon. The City in the center of the state has long term prospects tied up with the Lovejoy line. According to planning done by the GDOT, the Lovejoy line is a first step toward building commuter rail to Macon. Macon has a lot to gain. They have several tourist spots which are underutilized and commuter rail would bring scores of day trippers eager to get out of the traffic and Atlanta for a day and enjoy a more traditional southern city. The rail could provide the kind of re-birth that has driven Chattanooga.

Macon, along with Griffin, Warner Robins, and other smaller cities would provide the non-Atlanta political muscle to get regional rail moving quickly. Once started, this would also likely give momentum for the Brain Train, which the state desperately needs.

Pressure for these trains need to come from both ends of the line and from the people who will be the riders on them, and with a complete Republican sweep, the farther they live from Atlanta, the better.

In the final analysis, people should vote for Mark Taylor to be the next Governor of Georgia.  He is more likely to develop regional rail.  He is more likely to fully fund educational progress in this state.  He’s more likely to veto silly bills from the legislature, and PeachKids is a good idea.  He’s better than the current Governor.

That being said,  Taylor is running a lousy campaign.  He never mended fences with Cathy Cox.  His idea for eliminating parole is crazy.   He has not talked about how he will fund his new initiatives and he never put the muscle behind registering the 100,000 new voters he challenged Georgians to register.

Still, unlike the current Governor, he has not lost 3 car plants.  He did not promise a regional train line and fail to put his political muscle behind it, nor did he have his friends in the legislature pass a law specifically designed to benefit him.  He was always for changing the flag and did not deceive the people who elected him after he won.

There is also the larger sense.  Sonny Perdue has no vision.  That’s why his campaign is based on “What’s on Your Sonny Do List”?

That’s followship, not leadership!

Georgia needs a strong hand at the helm.  Roy Barnes was certainly bombastic, loud, and perhaps even a little arrogant, but he had a vision and a plan.  Perdue won precisely because he didn’t have a plan.  His has been a governorship of minding the store not making it stronger and more vibrant.

Mark Taylor wants improved educational access to schools, affordable prescriptions, and comprehensive health care for all Georgian Children.  Like it or don’t like it, but the guy has an agenda.  You know what benchmarks he’s using and how to measure them.  He believes he knows how to make Georgia better and that confidence alone sets him ahead of Perdue.

This is a ‘Throw The Bums Out’ area of electoral politics. The Public Service Commission oversees regulated monopolies and utility services in Georgia. They tried deregulating Natural Gas and everyone’s bills skyrocketed. People whom they regulate are allowed to donate money to their campaigns, so occasionally, you just have get new blood in there. Firing the old blood will even get us a new Commission Chair and Vice Chair!

David Burgess is the current chair and district 3 representative (Fulton, Dekalb, Clayton) and has supported many of the rate increases and expansions of fees sought by Georgia Power. While we do need more electricity, and while it is important for Southern Company to remain profitable, limiting junk fees on consumers is important. The price ought to be the price. Building another nuclear plant in Georgia may be the right thing, but a persuasive argument is yet to be made. Burgess, as chair of the commission, has not pushed for that. Instead, Voters should choose Chuck Eaton. Eaton will consider steps to lower natural gas costs, to improve the port of Savannah for improved fuel delivery, and require utilities to become more efficient. He’ll also have the chance to work in tandem with Bobby Baker to really have a consumerist approach to the commission and ask tough questions before giving Georgia Power the okay to issue the bonds to build a new power plant Georgians would have to pay for whether it ever runs or not.

In the district 5 race, Dawn Randolph represents some great new blood. First, she is not taking any Utility money nor donations from their executives. Second, she has a firm commitment to generated re-newable energy solutions in Georgia. Lastly, she has a firm commitment to an open process. Right now, deals are made in private meetings to which the Public is unwelcome. Randolph will end those. She has tremendous experience managing local government agencies and has a background in energy and environmental issues. She’s the right choice.

Georgia has a Republican Legislature, Governor, and State School Superintendent. With everyone playing for the same team, things should get better, right? They haven’t. We spend less per pupil now on education than we did 4 years ago. More kids are dropping out than ever. They’ve repeatedly tried to cut arts funding in the schools. Teachers are leaving the profession like mad.

Clearly Kathy Cox is not the answer. This does not even begin to address the silly mistakes, nor her plans to run for Congress (most likely against David Scott).

That makes David Chastain the easy choice. He wants to change the Superintendent’s role so that the State School Board makes the hire. There would be strict professional qualifications and the appointment would run across gubernatorial terms. He also wants Charter schools to be easier to start and dissolve so that successful ideas work quickly and we can stop ones that don’t. Chastain also wants to seek some ways to make the Superintendent’s office more responsive to local needs rather than being the top down office he has perceived it to be from both Democrats and Republicans alike.

Chastain has thought carefully about his plan. He’s vetted it with education professionals. He wants to follow what more successful states have done.
We should support him. (And if you need one more reason? At least his plan does not start by quoting Whitney Houston.)

Labor Commissioner Mike Thurmond has been amazing at his job.  Georgia’s Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund has the best bond rating in the nation.  It’s the most solvent and Thurmond has been able to increase the amount we can pay those folks who are getting laid off from Ford and GM.  He’s also worked to lower the burden on Georgia’s companies and keep Delta flying.  He’s successful and he still wants the job.  Let’s let him keep it.