The Georgia Chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans said it will fight the state's decision to erect a monument at the summit to honor Martin Luther King Jr. and his 1963 speech that makes specific mention of Stone Mountain.
The group said the state law that created Stone Mountain's state-run memorial association defined it as a "Confederate memorial." Here's a taste:
Furthermore, the erection of a monument to anything other than the Confederate Cause being placed on top of Stone Mountain because of the objections of opponents of Georgia's Confederate heritage would be akin to the state flying a Confederate battle flag atop the King Center in Atlanta against the wishes of King supporters. Both would be altogether inappropriate and disrespectful acts, repugnant to Christian people.
Meanwhile, this summer, state Rep. LaDawn Jones, D-Atlanta, called for a Fourth of July weekend boycott of Stone Mountain Park, to protest the flying of the Confederate battle flag at the memorial site.
This morning, Jones has
that, we think, endorses the MLK monument at the Confederate memorial. A snippet:
My personal opinions aside, the state representative in me says that the solution must be tempered by the urgency of the movement and the people involved. In 2015, the urgency of Georgians was not enough to remove the flags nor was the support for keeping the flag strong enough to prevent the monument proposal....
Of course there is also concern that this monument becomes another back-handed compliment that doesn't go far enough -- like the current Georgia flag, which, too, was once a Confederate flag. However, my many discussions with the people in charge of this mountain makes me optimistic that the decision was made in consideration of equity for all Georgians and not to hold on to the vestiges of hate.
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The fight over Gov. Nathan Deal's signature legislative proposal is headed to a new phase.
He is hosting a pow-wow with state lawmakers who supported his school takeover proposal at his Buckhead mansion on Thursday in hopes of getting them all on the same page next year when the fight over the legislation heats up.
The proposal, known as the Opportunity School District, would allow the state to seize control of perennially failing schools. It narrowly mustered the two-thirds legislative support it needed to pass the Legislature this year, but it must still be approved by voters in a referendum next year.
That's where a newly-formed advocacy group called "Georgia Leads" comes in. The organization, headed by former Deal campaign manager Tom Willis, is raising money for the fight ahead.
Willis billed the Thursday event as a "policy discussion" about the next phase in the fight over the proposal.
"With our polling and advertising partners in attendance, we plan to share with you our vision for the road ahead and collect feedback from you as to the response you have received in your district over the summer months when discussing OSD with your constituents," he wrote.
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Former Georgia Supreme Court justice Hardy Gregory is advising wariness when it comes to Gov. Nathan Deal's push to expand the high court from seven to nine robed characters, according to the Daily Report. From the legal news site:
Gregory acknowledged that adding only two justices might not change that dynamic a lot.
But he contended that more justices may undermine the clarity of the law, as more justices means it's more likely cases would be decided with more separate opinions, generating confusion instead of unity on the law.
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One of our number broke down the contrasts presented by the two Republican presidential front-runners, who nearly bumped into each other this past weekend in Gwinnett County, in today's premium edition:
Carson's jokes were mostly at his own expense, about his poor childhood and bad grades in school. The former neurosurgeon did not mention other candidates by name. In denigrating the new health care law, Carson referred to it as "the so-called Affordable Care Act" instead of its colloquial name, Obamacare.
Read the full thing for a special appearance by a former local radio star from "The Other Guys." He's a Trump fan.
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At Trump's rally in Norcross, the real estate mogul had a brief meeting with the parents of Dustin Inman, the 16-year-old killed in a traffic accident with a man living in the U.S. illegally in 2000. The Mexican national is still at large.
Billy Inman said Trump's controversial comments about immigrants committing crimes have helped raise the profile of causes like his -- the Dustin Inman Society advocates for tougher immigration laws and enforcement -- and he was impressed with the man in person:
"I've been on the fence, been looking at him [in the presidential race], and I thank God for all he's done. What he's done in one day, families like mine across our country have been trying for decades, tried to bring attention to."
Added Inman:
"He told me wife that she was a beautiful lady. More than once. And told her to take care of me. But he did tell me to take care of her, too."
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As GAPundit Todd Rehm notes this morning, state Sen. Burt Jones, R-Jackson, was on hand for the Trump rally as the second state lawmaker to back Trump.
Jones got a shout-out from the stage, but did not speak. State Sen. Michael Williams, R-Cumming, who was the first to endorse Trump, gave a brief warm-up speech talking about his successful campaign against "the establishment" for his seat.
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Down in Perry, Trump and Carson were dominating "the Peanut Poll," the straw poll -- with peanut shells -- at the Georgia National Fair. In tallies through Sunday, Carson led with 2,927 votes, to Trump's 2,699. In third place was "undecided" with 607, followed by Marco Rubio with 442 votes.
On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton (507) has an early advantage on Bernie Sanders (289). We'll see if Tuesday's CNN debate in Las Vegas shakes up the race.
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Over the weekend, Politico.com declared Common Core the winner in its battle against tea party forces:
"The few states that have rolled it back, when you look at what they've actually done, the standards they are using are 95 percent the Core standards. It's what we know needs to be taught," Melinda Gates said last week. She's the wife of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, whose foundation has been heavily involved in promoting and implementing the standards.
As Common Core becomes more commonplace in public schools (and in many Catholic schools), some prominent Republicans concede they've lost their battle. Take former Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona. As governor, she signed an executive order banning the use of the words Common Core by state agencies, though the standards themselves were still firmly in place. She wrote in a recent column on the Fox News website that implementation of the standards is "succeeding
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