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The city of Kennesaw, which prides itself as the spiritual home of the Second Amendment, is a little less strident when it comes to the First Amendment.
The city council tonight is to vote on whether to allow an Islamic prayer center to install itself in a shopping center off U.S. 41. As you can see in the video clip above, Mayor Mark Mathews has said the council has never, ever approved such a zoning. Unless, according to the Marietta Daily Journal, it was just this summer:
The mayor’s fall-back argument is that because Muslims have daily prayers, and have services on Friday, the storefront mosque would play havoc with secular shoppers forced to navigate a parking lot that is mostly empty -- every day of the week.
We are not certain, but we presume that, should this zoning go through, the city council will impress upon the new tenants the importance that Kennesaw places on gun ownership and the right to bear arms. The city has long required heads of households to own a gun – unless they don’t want to.
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The deep racial rift that divides residents of Ferguson, Missouri echoes in Georgia. And for a hint why, look no further than the Hicks Evaluation Group poll conducted over the weekend.
The poll found that 81 percent of black residents believe the local police are more likely to use excessive force against a minority than against a white person. Only 17 percent of whites felt similarly.
There was a similar racial split when it came to the decision not to indict Darren Wilson, the white Ferguson officer who shot and killed Michael Brown. Black voters overwhelmingly disagreed with the decision not to charge Brown, while white voters resoundingly agreed. And those numbers held regardless of political views.
“Simply put, black and white voters in Georgia see the police in general and Ferguson specifically in very different ways," said pollster Fredrick Hicks. "In this survey, it’s not about income, gender or even political affiliation. It’s about race.”
One factor that met more favorable reaction: Some 64 percent of all respondents support their local police departments equipping themselves with assault rifles, tanks and other military-grade equipment.
The statewide autodial survey was conducted statewide on November 29th and 30th using autodial/IVR technology. Registered voters were randomly selected and called. The survey results are based on 717 completed responses. You can find the crosstabs here.
The findings may not come as a surprise to some leaders. Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed said last week that "what happened in Ferguson could happen anywhere in the United States."
The difference for Atlanta, he added, was that "answers would be forthcoming."
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Attorney General Eric Holder will get a chance to offer some of those answers tonight in Atlanta.
He'll be appearing at a town hall at the Ebenezer Baptist Church with the state NAACP, which is urging Holder's Justice Department to complete its federal probe into Michael Brown's slaying.
State chapter president Francys Johnson bills the event with Holder as a chance to have a "larger conversation about what kind of future we want for our sons and daughters."
Says Johnson in an email to supporters:
The truth is since the unjust Grand Jury announcement, nearly 100 African Americans have senselessly died to violence within our communities. Indeed, the No. 1 cause of death for young black men ages 15 to 34 is murder. Who's committing the murder? Not police. Other Black men. We need to talk about the militarization of our civilian police; the appropriate use of force; the deep chasms of mistrust between the police and those they serve and protect. Yet we need to talk about our communities proximity to violence as producers, consumers, and purveyors of it.
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State Rep. Mickey Channell, who heads the powerful tax-writing committee, will retire in January.
The Eatonton Messenger reports that Channell, a 22-year veteran in the state Legislature and chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, cited health reasons in his decision to step down on Jan. 15 - three days after the start of the session.
Channell was a long-serving conservative Democrat who switched parties after the GOP takeover of the House in 2005. He represents a south Georgia district that's centered on Greene County, and an election to fill his seat will likely be held early next year.
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Todd Rehm over at Georgia Pundit sends word that former state Sen. Bob Guhl, who represented the 45th district from 1993-2002, has been moved to hospice in Social Circle.
Guhl and his family are in our thoughts and prayers.
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The Marietta Daily Journal reports that it has been unable to obtain an interview with U.S. Rep.-elect Barry Loudermilk, R-Cassvile. The newspaper has heaped blame upon Loudermilk's campaign spokesman, the barb-tongued Dan McLagan.
But in fact, geography may be to blame. The population weight of the 11th District, given up by U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Marietta, is weighted toward Cobb County. Which likes its members of Congress homegrown. The newspaper endorsed Bob Barr in a primary runoff, but the outcome wasn’t close.
Loudermilk, on the other hand, hails from Bartow County, which hasn’t – so we’re told by the congressman-to-be – hasn’t fielded a congressman since William Harrell Felton in 1890. Or his widow, Rebecca Felton, who served a single day in the U.S. Senate in 1922.
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