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Friday, October 6, 2006
Jury duty, Medicaid, green energy
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Thinking Right’s Friday free-for-all. Pick a topic:
• “If you don’t show up for jury duty [in Fulton County] nothing’s going to happen,” observes attorney Jack Martin. Consequently, 47 percent of those summoned last year didn’t. Americans — and illegal immigrants — obey laws they think are enforced.
• People in power positions — jail guards, police officers, teachers and congressmen — who take sexual advantage of vulnerables, and especially of children, should go to jail, then rehab. Or vice-versa.
• The problem with race preferences is demonstrated in a report from the Washington-based Brookings Institution identifying 40,149 refugees who settled in metro Atlanta between 1983 and 2004, ninth largest influx in the country. Some qualify for preferences, some don’t — though none has any claim to have been a victim of government-sponsored discrimination.
• When government officials have nothing to do, and no problem left to throw money at, they invent Fanplex, the white elephant facility Atlanta now has on the market for $2.5 million — or about a million dollars more than it’s worth. Few things are more dangerous to taxpayers than politicians who are going to “make” something happen in a free market with somebody else’s money.
• Ain’t No Waste, Fraud or Abuse Here Department: When Georgia started requiring proof of income and citizenship to qualify for Medicaid, beginning Jan. 1, rolls dropped by 69,635 in the first four months. About 10,000 may have been Katrina evacuees who’ve gone home, and 1,000 may have been double-counted. But it is a marvel that so many fled upon hearing that somebody cared to stop fraud.
• Osama bin Laden’s deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, calls President Bush a failure and a liar. The question arises: Would he prefer to see a “failure” and a “liar” or a success and truth-speaker win in November? That’s what I thought, too.
• Liberals throughout Georgia will surely sign up for Georgia Power Co.’s “green energy” program. That’s power generated from renewable sources, like wind, landfill methane and the hot air emanating from statehouse political debate. The premium is $4.50 per 100 kilowatt hours, atop the $8.58 customers normally pay. Editorialists should demand a professional-courtesy discount.
• The election is looking better for Gov. Sonny Perdue than the 19-point margin would suggest. Even the Sierra Club, an interest group that was described by Casey Cagle’s spokesman, Brad Alexander, as “a fringe element of the Democratic Party,” declines to endorse in the governor’s race.
• Headline: “University study finds pews not as empty as thought.” This is a study? A Sunday morning look-see might have solved the mystery.
• Well, $2.5 million is far too much, and child molestation is an abominable crime, but a guy held in prison for 22 months beyond the expiration of his sentence because of a bureaucratic snafu is owed something. A suit alleges that Fulton Superior Court Clerk Juanita Hicks and a deputy failed to notify corrections officials of his release date. Him I pay. And watch.
• A conflict of interest for those who serve on state boards is not limited to money. Any person who is active in an interest group that takes positions on public policy issues has a conflict when those issues come before a state board or agency.
• “Hello, is this the bankruptcy court?” U.S. automakers earn $2,400 per vehicle less than their Japanese rivals because of labor costs, a weak yen and less efficient manufacturing and purchasing processes, according to an industry consulting firm, Harbor-Felax Group. For workers there, this is a cruel, abrupt and unavoidable, halt to the contract excesses of the past. Painful as it is for the industry, it’s the price of managing for short-term results. This is the prime reason I fear government workplace unions. Politicians are car-industry execs of the ’60s.
• Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke says with the looming retirement of 78 million baby boomers “reform of our unsustainable entitlement programs,” such as Social Security and Medicare, should be a priority. Spending for those two programs will go from 7 percent of the U.S. economy to 13 percent by 2030. As with the auto industry, politicians have no incentive to worry past the next reporting cycle. Here’s a secret: The baby boomers’ retirement tab is a trick on illegals. Sneak in now. Get the bill later.
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