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Friday, February 2, 2007
Vouchers, transit alert, Sen. Obama
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Thinking Right’s free-for-all Friday. Pick a topic:
• This week’s AJC look at how drivers cope with long commutes identifies the problem of creating a useful mass transit system: Briarcliff Road to Sandy Springs, Alpharetta to Duluth, Barrow County to Alpharetta, Locust Grove to Morrow, Cobb County to Atlanta, Cherokee County to Perimeter Mall, East Cobb to the airport. You get the picture. A handful here, a handful there. Now design an affordable transit system. We missed that bus about 60 years ago.
• State Rep. Bobby Franklin (R-Marietta) proposes to ban those infernal cameras to ticket motorists who dash through caution lights. Here’s a suggestion: Require a roll-back in property taxes equal to revenue from the red-light tax. If the purpose is safety, the cameras shouldn’t be used to generate revenue for cities and counties.
• Hmmm. “Macaca,” when used by a U.S. senator with presidential ambitions, is a crime warranting public execution. When a U.S. senator with presidential ambitions declares Barack Obama to be the first African-American candidate who is “articulate and bright, and clean, and is a nice-looking guy …,” the excuse-makers pour forth. Imagine the reaction if a Republican, say former U.S. Sen. George Allen of Virginia, had used the same language as Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.).
• President Bush signs an executive order requiring each agency to have an appointee acting as gatekeeper to analyze the cost and benefits of proposed new rules and regulations and to make certain agencies act on his priorities. Absolutely. Gov. Sonny Perdue should do the same. There’s nothing radical about applying cost-benefit analysis to proposed laws and regulations. Congress and legislatures should, too.
• Did anybody notice that Fulton County just sent out 3,500 summons to potential jurors in the Brian Nichols case using current voter lists. Of those, 630 were returned as “undeliverable.” Wonder how many of those voted less than 3 months ago.
• Legislation to exempt the older-than-65 population from state income taxes is good policy, if … if it is part of a plan to eliminate the state income tax altogether. If it causes something desirable to happen that wouldn’t otherwise — the repopulation of rural Georgia, for example, with self-supporting people who have money and who need services and not jobs. Otherwise I’d exempt, say, one-income married couples younger than 30 with children younger than 10. Their need is greater.
• The correct number may not be 9, as proposed by state Rep. Barry Fleming (R-Harlem) in his bill to allow the imposition of the death penalty with less than unanimous jury agreement, but his bill should pass. A unanimous verdict of guilt would still be required, but some jurors flatly opposed to the death penalty do lie to get on the panel. Their deceit shouldn’t succeed. Let’s compromise. Ten of 12.
• No wonder radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr appears to be reining in his supporters. He thinks he’s won. Here, in Congress, not there.
• Men don’t matter. The Atlanta Women’s Foundation touts a fund-raiser with this question: “How would you stretch $28,000 into $40,500?” It explains: “The average salary for a woman in Georgia is just $28,600, yet the basic budget for a family with one parent and two children in Atlanta is $40,500.” A hint: Get married. Another: Marry a man who will pay child support. Another: Raise the minimum wage to a sum sufficient to eliminate men from the equation altogether. Another: Don’t have the first or second child with deadbeats. Just some helpful suggestions.
• State Rep. David Casas (R-Lilburn) has a poison pill for the Senate-passed bill to provide scholarships, or vouchers, for special needs children in public schools. He’s introduced legislation to apply a host of regulations to private schools that take public school children. Democrats are perfectly capable of sabotaging choice without Republican help. Several efforts were rebuffed by the Senate.
• I too would join Democrats in opposing Gov. Sonny Perdue’s proposed constitutional amendment to limit lottery spending to HOPE and pre-k. The Legislature should never create a trust fund, a lockbox or a constitutionally protected kitty that limits the ability of future governors and legislators to set priorities and apply the state’s resources to the state’s needs.
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