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Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Hutchins takes a shot at Lewis
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Rev. Markel Hutchins, who’s challenging Rep. John Lewis in the Democratic congressional primary this summer, found fresh ammunition to use against the incumbent after Lewis announced he was dropping his support for Sen. Hillary Clinton in favor of Sen. Barack Obama.
Lewis’s decision to back Clinton, a friend, over Obama, potentially the nation’s first African American president, proved that he was out of touch with his district, which overwhelmingly backed Obama in the Georgia primary, Hutchins said.
Lewis’s switch to Obama, however, showed that Lewis is also a typical Washington political opportunist, Hutchins said.
“After nearly a month of suggestive posturing, denials and confusion, it became clear that Congressman Lewis has spent too much time in Washington and too little time listening to his constituents,” Hutchins said in a statement.
For his part, Lewis said Wednesday that he plans to run an aggressive campaign against Hutchins.
Democrats to put themselves in front of House speaker’s tax plan
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
House and Senate Democrat leaders, plus state party officials, will assemble at the Capitol on Thursday to announce their opposition to House Speaker Glenn Richardson’s plan to shift Georgia away from school property taxes — by expanding the reach of the sales tax.
If they hold together, Democrats could deny Richardson the two-thirds majority he needs in both chambers in order to get the measure on the November ballot for the required referendum.
Look for them to focus on the 174 new services that a sales tax would include — from haircuts to ATM withdrawals to car repair — to make up for the property tax revenue that now flows to school systems.
Budget tales: How a parking deck became a foray into China
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Last year, Gov. Sonny Perdue nixed $2 million lawmakers had approved in the state budget for a parking deck in Gainesville.
In the typical, round-about-way these things happen at the Capitol, at least some of the money may go to promote Perdue’s launching of a China economic development office when he travels there next month, according to our AJC colleague James Salzer
It’s only $2 million in among $20.5 billion. But it’s one of those seemingly minor issues that typically hold up passage of budgets at the statehouse.
The money Perdue killed for the parking deck was in the fiscal 2008 budget, which began last July 1. When the House began taking up the mid-year changes in January, it left the $2 million cut alone.
But the state’s economic development agency said it needed the money. So the Senate put the $2 million back in the budget.
House leaders said they weren’t told anything about how the money would be spent, and besides, it didn’t fit with the Senate’s often-repeated budget principles that the mid-year budget be used for school enrollment growth and emergencies.
House leaders — and Salzer — finally got a list this morning of how the money would be spent. About $250,000 would go to upgrade the Georgia.org web site. More than $500,000 would go to promote a biotech conference next year (including a “golf event”) and $250,000 would be spent on the launch of the state’s new China economic development office, including “significant expenditures” for advertising, public relations, marketing.
As part of the launch, Perdue is leading a group of business leaders on a trade mission to China as part of Delta’s inaugural flight to Shanghai.
House Appropriations Chairman Ben Harbin (R-Evans) said the economic development agency has already committed to spend much of the money it wants added to the budget. But little of what the agency wants to do, Harbin said, sounds like an emergency that demands immediate funding.
“We appreciate the work the department has done,” Harbin told Salzer. “None of these meet the criteria of an emergency or critical need. That’s why we are asking these questions. If these are emergencies, we are willing to work with them.”
Senate Majority Leader Tommie Williams (R-Lyons) responded, “It’s not a lot of money considering all we are doing to try to recruit businesses to Georgia. It sounds like legitimate places to spend it, in the correct fields. I don’t know why the House should oppose the funding.”
Studying ‘Terminator’ battlefield possibilities at Georgia Tech
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This is a little offbeat, but Ronald Arkin of Georgia Tech is mentioned prominently in an AFP piece today on the battlefield use of killer robots — seriously, “gun-toting” robots — by the U.S. military:
“Robotics systems may have the potential to out-perform humans from a perspective of the laws of war and the rules of engagement,” he told a conference on technology in warfare at Stanford University last month.
The sensors of intelligent machines, he argued, may ultimately be better equipped to understand an environment and to process information. “And there are no emotions that can cloud judgment, such as anger,” he added.
We did a little Internet searching — and came up with this Arkin paper on “Governing Lethal Behavior: Embedding Ethics in a Hybrid Deliberative/Reactive Robot Architecture.”
Happy reading, science fiction buffs.
A TV tale of the EPD director and the chairman of the state DOT board
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Dale Russell at Fox 5 had a piece on Tuesday in which he said Carol Couch, director of the state Environmental Protection Division, overruled her own staff and federal regulators to give developers permission to build on top of an intermittent stream near Lake Lanier. For a local Walmart.
One of the developers was Mike Evans, chairman of the board that governs the state Department of Transportation. Couch’s decision eventually was set aside. Here’s a link to the video.
Schaefer says she may jump into 10th District race
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
U.S. Rep. Paul Broun may be picking up another opponent in the Republican primary this July.
State Sen. Nancy Schaefer (R-Turnerville) just told us that she’ll decide “in the next few days” whether to enter the race.
This is important because it would force a three-way geographic split in the 10th District congressional contest. Broun hails from Athens. House Majority Whip Barry Fleming, who announced last summer, draws his support from Augusta.
Schaefer currently represents northeast Georgia, which provided Broun with much of his surprise margin of victory in last year’s special election to replace the late Charlie Norwood.
Schaefer also does extremely well among conservative Christians, another point of support for Broun.
“We’ve had a poll run. We have quite a large group that has asked me to run on several occasions,” Schaefer said.
And the poll? “It was pretty favorable,” she said.
Democrat Bobby Saxon has also announced his candidacy for the 10th District.
Put it on. Put it all on.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
They roasted Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle last night.
All right, they didn’t roast him. They held a match under his feet until his toes got warm.
Since the collapse of the great Cracker Crumble, that irreverent and often ribald fund-raiser for the Georgia Press Association, the place of humor in local politics has been a touchy thing.
Tuesday night’s $100-a-seat cause was sufficient — TEAM Georgia raises money for highway safety initiatives and a scholarship for children who are victims of drunk drivers.
But it’s clear that even Senate chairmen, with bills and causes of their own at stake, were hesitant to poke fun at their boss in public. A non-politician, local radio voice Rhubarb Jones, got the largest laugh.
Listing what Cagle must avoid if he’s to become governor in 2010, Jones included, “No secret divorces in Paulding County.” Not something any lawmaker with legislation in play at the state Capitol is at liberty to say.
The lieutenant governor himself may have put on the most entertaining show. He walked in with a Great Dane — no, we’re not sure why — and immediately stripped off his shirt and tie to reveal a referee’s zebra togs.
Because he thinks of himself as the peacemaker between House Speaker Glenn Richardson and Gov. Sonny Perdue, that’s why.
During dinner, Cagle stepped behind a video screen to change back into a shirt and tie. But the screen was backlit. So the audience — the portion that was paying attention — was treated to the silhouette of the lieutenant governor doing a reverse strip-tease. Into a brown suit.
Take our word for it. Cagle may be many things, but he’s no Gypsy Rose Lee.
Still, for morality’s sake, it is somehow an encouraging thing to watch a politician put his clothes on in public.
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