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Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Rough treatment of the Speaker’s tax plan: ‘Creating and encouraging mediocrity’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We haven’t dwelled on the huge rift that’s developed between House Republican leaders and the Georgia Municipal Association over Speaker Glenn Richardson’s tax plan.
But the chasm is large, and growing wider every day.
On Wednesday, the House Democratic Caucus met in the community room of the Central Presbyterian Church across the street from the state Capitol.
Fifty-five of 73 lawmakers showed up — an impressive fraction. The speaker’s bid to do away with all property taxes took up much of the conversation — and we were told after the fact that House Democrats will offer up a counter-proposal sometime before the Legislature convenes in January.
Among the detritus on the tables used by the Democrats were two elaborate, full-color brochures from the GMA, laying out the influential organization’s objections to Richardson’s proposal to shift the state toward a sales tax on an expanded list of services.
The language of the literature was not restrained.
“Pay More, Get Less. Some ‘Great Plan’” was the title of the larger publication.
On the first page was a summary of three talking points:
“1. The plan removes local funding decisions from the hands of local citizens and local officials and places them in the hands of state politicians in Atlanta.
“2. The plan is not a tax cut and will be a tax increase for many Georgians.
“3. The plan seeks to force all local governments and school districts to provide a median level of service — creating and encouraging mediocrity.”
It’ll be a long time before these two sides shake hands.
Approved calls and responses will be issued on site
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
D.A. King, the bane of illegal immigrants in Georgia, is organizing a rally in support of Neil Warren, the Cobb County sheriff who started a program of checking the passport status of all guests of his jail.
You’ll remember that Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson latched onto Warren in October, specifically because of the Cobb County policy.
The rally is scheduled for 3 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 8 on the Marietta Square.
Very much into message control, King has issued some specific instructions:
“Your sign must have a positive message and be directed at thanking the sheriff. No other agenda welcomed and will not be allowed.
“I have a permit from the Marietta police and have given them my word that we will follow the rules to which I agreed. Signs should read simply, ‘Thank you, Sheriff Warren,’ or ‘We support Sheriff Warren!’ or ‘Neil Warren proves enforcement works!’
“In place of a placard/sign, please bring an American flag. Only American flags will be allowed!”
And bring the kids. “We are told that Santa Claus will be taking orders in Glover Park directly across the street from out assembly,” King notes.
The tale of Huckabee and the castrated rapist
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The good news for Republican Mike Huckabee is that the media and other presidential nominees now understand that he’s a serious candidate.
The bad news is that the new favorite of conservative evangelicals — Jerry Falwell Jr. endorsed Huckabee today — is just now getting the kind of scrutiny he needed to put behind him four or five months ago.
Below is the crucial segment of an Associated Press retrospective of Huckabee’s years as lieutenant governor and governor. There’s a certain Arkansas strangeness to it, on multiple levels:
Huckabee has consistently understated his role in the parole of rapist Wayne DuMond, who had been convicted in the 1984 rape of a distant cousin of former President Clinton.
Two months after taking office, Huckabee stunned the state by saying he questioned DuMond’s guilt and that it was his intention to free the rapist, who had been castrated by masked men while awaiting trial.
Huckabee said then he had “serious questions as to the legitimacy of his guilt” and acknowledged later that he had met with DuMond’s wife about the case while he was lieutenant governor. Two months after ascending to the governor’s office, Huckabee met with the woman again.
The ex-governor now blames his predecessor for making DuMond parole eligible — Jim Guy Tucker commuted a life-plus-20 years sentence to 39 1/2 years — but distances himself from his role in DuMond’s release. Huckabee met privately with the state parole board, and two members have said he pressured them for a vote.
“He made it obvious that he thought DuMond had gotten a raw deal and wanted us to take another look at it,” former board member Charles Chastain said in 2001. “Some board members who were usually very tough about letting people out … (later) voted in favor of him, and seemed eager to.”
On his campaign Web site, Huckabee says the parole board was made up entirely of Democrats appointed by Clinton and Tucker.
It doesn’t mention that Huckabee reappointed board member Railey Steele days before he voted with three other members to set DuMond free. DuMond was later convicted of killing a woman in Missouri and died in 2005.
It makes you wonder if some brains leave more distinct fingerprints than others
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Senate Brain Fingerprinting Technology Study Committee meets this morning down in Gray, Ga.
And no, we didn’t know they left smudges, either.
“Brain fingerprinting” is the name offered up by its inventor, a fellow named Lawrence Farwell of Iowa.
In simple terms, it’s a next-generation lie detector that measures brain waves like an electroencephalogram. That’s an EEG to you laymen.
The CIA apparently helped fund its development. A suspect is fitted with a sensor-laden headband and shown a series of flashing pictures on a screen.
If an image — a picture of a crime scene, for instance — is familiar, the suspect’s brain triggers a response somewhere within 300 and 800 milliseconds.
“So far, they haven’t been able to find anyone who’s been able to fool the test,” said the committee chairman, John Douglas (R-Social Circle). Here’s a link to a PBS video on the topic.
Douglas inherited the chairmanship of the study committee from state Sen. Jim Whitehead of Columbia County, who left the chamber last year for an unsuccessful run at Congress.
Advocates of brain fingerprinting want legislative approval so that the technique can be used in criminal proceedings. Douglas said the machines have already been used in Iowa and Missouri — in one case helping to free a man, and in another case resulting in a conviction.
The GBI is to testify at today’s hearing. We won’t be there, but we understand the agency isn’t quite convinced of the merits of brain fingerprinting.
The committee could make a final decision regarding legislation on Dec. 14, when it meets at the Marietta Conference Center.
But if the matter is still in doubt then, we suggest a three-month field test at the state Capitol, using 236 guinea pigs — er, lawmakers — as willing test subjects.
