NOT the law-bomb lobbing Bob Loblaw Law Blog.

So it looks like Jim Martin has beaten Vernon Jones in the Democratic runoff to become the guy that Saxby Chambliss will beat in the fall. Here's the best part- Vernon Jones couldn't even get close to a majority here in his own county. Just goes to show you what a crappy CEO he is. If the Democrats had managed to unite on one opposition candidate to run against him last time, he wouldn't have won IMHO.

Speaking of the county CEO, Burrell Ellis has beaten the race baiting idjit Stan Watson to become the next DeKalb County CEO. Stan Watson is the racist idjit who sent this flyer to black voters and this flyer to white voters. Give me a break.

Having seen the two really bad candidates lose, it's time for bed...

Apologies to those of you not living in DeKalb County. You can ignore this post.

State Rep Mike Jacobs is hosting a community meeting on county government reform. He's working on several pieces of legislation that would make changes to county government that would remove some of the power that the county CEO holds and place it back with the commission at large. Right now, the CEO wields quite a bit of power over the commission, including the power to set the agenda at meetings, and to veto actions of the commissioners. This has led to quite a bit of controversy, as the current CEO Vernon Jones has shut down several actions that held popular support.

The meeting announcement from Rep. Jacobs after the cut..
( Read more... )

If you live in DeKalb County, the county commissioners have a surprise for you.

A new proposed ordinance that would take effect January 1, 2008 (the "Inefficient Plumbing Fixtures Replacement Plan") will require owners of homes/commercial buildings built before 1993 to:

Replace all toilets with ultra low flow toilets (1.6 gallons per flush)

Replace all showerheads with low flow showerheads (less than 2 gallons per minute: the proposed ordinance states both 2 and 2.5 as the limit for showers, but 2 is stated after 2.5)

Replace all lavatory faucets with low flow faucets (less than 2.5 gallons per minute)

Replace all kitchen faucets with low flow faucets (less than 2.2 gallons per minute)

Commercial property owners must do all of the above, but additionally:

Replace all urinals with ultra low flow urinals (1 gallon per flush)

It will be illegal to:

Sell any property unless it has been completely retrofitted. Sellers must pay for and provide a certificate of compliance to the buyer.

Get water service from the county without providing the certificate of compliance (if you've purchased the property after 31 Dec 2007).

Home owners that don't follow the new ordinance will end up in court and subject to fines. Real estate agents (both buyer and seller agents) who don't notify their clients of the new ordinance will also get hit with fines.

This ordinance will be up for a vote on December 27 at the County Commission meeting (item F4 on the agenda). The Atlanta Board of Realtors is trying to get the word out about this. Please contact your commissioner and CEO Jones ASAP, and come to the commission meeting tomorrow night.

PDF of the complete ordinance

Hat tip to Charles Watson of TuckerNorthlake.com for the heads up.

Update: To be technically accurate, 1.6 GPF toilets aren't "ultra high efficiency". The EPA classifies toilets as "high efficiency toilets" if they use less than 1.3 GPF.

Tags: dekalb, georgia

From yesterday's AJC:

Whiskey drinkers have a shot at becoming connoisseurs by participating in a four-part tasting series leading up to the May 5 Kentucky Derby. The series will be conducted by Chris Brown, a fifth-generation descendant of George Garvin Brown, the founder of Brown-Forman, one of the country's first legal distillers. Master distillers from some of the leading American whiskey brands will also be present. Special bar snacks will be provided to go with the shots.

Where: Atkins Park Tavern
What/When:
Part 1: The American Whiskey Trail (7-9pm 22 Feb)
Part 2: Tennessee Whiskeys (7-9pm 22 March)
Part 3: American Rye Whiskeys (7-9pm 12 April)
Part 4: Kentucky Limited-batch Bourbons that weren't covered in Part 1 (7-9pm 3 May)
Cost: $25 per tasting
Reservations: 404-876-7249


I've already signed up for it. Anyone else interested?

Edit: I guess I should point out that this is at the original Atkins Park Tavern, in VaHi.

For the political addicts out there, here's a quick link to the SoS website with the live election returns. Only 26 minutes until the polls close in GA..

There are several constitutional amendments on the ballot this election:

Amendment 1: To restrict the use of eminent domain. “Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended so as to prohibit the use of eminent domain by certain non-elected authorities and to prohibit the contested use of eminent domain except for public use as defined by general law?”

I support this. It's not worded as well as it could be, but it's what we've got. The Institute for Justice has endorsed this amendment as "some of the nation’s most complete protections from eminent domain abuse".

Amendment 2: To protect the traditions of fishing and hunting. "Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended so as to provide that the tradition of fishing and hunting and the taking of fish and wildlife shall be preserved for the people and shall be managed by law and regulation for the public good?”

This is a silly amendment that states the obvious, but I'll probably vote yes on it anyway.

Amendment 3: To authorize the General Assembly to dedicate revenue from special motor vehicle license plates. “Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended so as to authorize the General Assembly to provide for special motor vehicle license plates and dedicate the revenue from such plates for stated purposes, including dedications for the ultimate use of agencies, funds or non-profit corporations where it is found that there will be a benefit to the state?”

This is a big NO. The state should not be in the business of fundraising for private organizations, especially now that political groups (like GA Right to Life) are coming out with their own license plates. The state does already do this with some plates (like the wildlife tag), but that is in violation of the state constitution. Making it legal doesn't change the fact that this is without a doubt an area the government has no business being.

Tax Referendums

I used to vote for all tax cut referendums. But I've thought about it and realized that spot tax cuts only lead to spot tax increases elsewhere. Overall government revenue isn't going to decrease- the legislature will just find other places to get money to make up for it. So there are now only a few times I'll vote for spot tax breaks. Still, I could see voting either way on most of these, so your mileage may vary here, and I'm not really going to argue much over them.

1: To expand the ad valorem tax exemption for farm equipment. "Shall the Act be approved which expands the ad valorem tax exemption for agricultural products and equipment to include certain additional farm equipment held under a lease purchase agreement?"

No. It could be argued that this is ok, since it's just giving leased equipment the same treatment as purchased equipment, but I'm still iffy on it.

2: To expand the ad valorem exemption for veterans organizations to include organizations which refurbish and operate historic military aircraft for educational purposes. "Shall the Act be approved which expands the ad valorem tax exemption for veterans organizations to include certain additional nonprofit veterans organizations which refurbish and operate historic military aircraft for educational purposes?"

No. This is a tax cut for a legislator's specific pet project.

3: To expand the ad valorem tax exemption for property of charitable institutions. "Shall the Act be approved which grants an exemption from ad valorem taxation on property owned by a charitable institution which generates income when that income is used exclusively for the operation of such charitable institution?"

No.

4: To provide a homestead exemption to certain residents who are senior citizens with respect to state ad valorem taxes. "Shall the Act be approved which provides a homestead exemption for senior citizens in an amount equal to the actual levy for state ad valorem purposes on the homestead?"

No.

5: To provide a homestead exemption for the surviving spouse of a peace officer or firefighter killed in the line of duty. "Shall the Act be approved which provides a homestead exemption for the full value of the homestead with respect to all ad valorem taxes for the unremarried surviving spouse of a peace officer or firefighter who was killed in the line of duty?"

Yes. Firefighters and other peace officers get paid next to nothing (if they get paid at all) for risking their lives.

6: To provide that a surviving spouse shall be entitled to a continuation of the base year value under a base year assessed value. "Shall the Act be approved which provides that with respect to base year assessed value homestead exemptions, the surviving spouse of a deceased spouse who has been granted such a homestead exemption shall receive that exemption at the same base year valuation that applied to the deceased spouse so long as that surviving spouse continues to occupy the home as a residence and homestead?"

Yes. There's no reason for a home's value to be recalculated when someone dies for purposes of that year's homestead exemption.

In the election for state Supreme Court, you have a choice between Mike Wiggins (R) and Carol Hunstein (I)(D). Here's what you need to remember.... Wiggins has never been a judge. He may be a smart lawyer, but he's never had to judge a case. Shouldn't he get a little experience before he runs for Supreme Court?

And for those Republicans who want to vote for Wiggins just because he has an (R) after his name, consider that even Republicans like and have endorsed Hunstein... Mike Bowers, Oscar Persons (Gen. Council of the GA Republican Party), Wendell Willard (chair of House judiciary committee), etc, etc. Even crypto-Republicans like Zell Miller endorse her.

I forgot a couple.

Sec. of Education: David Chastain Yes, I'm voting for the Libertarian. Denise Majette shouldn't be allowed anywhere near an elected office again. She's completely unqualified. And, like a ferret around shiny objects, Majette will run for any office that's availible. Kathy Cox has actually not done a bad job, but her push to remove evolution from science textbooks shows she's one egg short of a dozen. While I disagree with some of David's political ideas, his plank of making the Sec. of Education an appointed education professional rather than an elected political official sounds like a good idea to me.

Georgia House 85th district: Stephanie Stuckey Benfield (D-Decatur) She's the legislator to thank for the fact that you can now buy high gravity beer in Georgia. And she's open to potentially loosening or removing completely the regulations that prohibit out of state wine shipments to Georgians. She's also worked to reduce property taxes.

I'm not particularly happy with many of the candidates running this year, so I'm not endorsing several races. I take a little different view of some races than many of my fiscally-conservative friends. I'm fiscally conservative, but I'm also socially liberal. In my opinion, these two things go together very well. I think that there are a limited number of areas the government should be involved in, and regulating what people do on their own time in their own homes is out of their jurisdiction. I think the recent focus of the government on the ten commandments, gay marriage, and flag burning is a complete and utter waste of time and money. And so I can't support any legislator who runs for office on a platform of "vote for me and I'll ignore real issues while bloviating about things that don't matter one bit!".

The quick crib sheet for people in the 4th District: Write in Loren Collins for Congressional District 4.

Secretary of State: Karen Handel. She's fiscally conservative and not a nut on social issues. Say what you will about her backpedaling on some issues during her campaign, this is politics and in order for her to get elected she has to appeal to voters. She's already made her real opinions clear, IMHO.

Attorney General: Thurbert Baker. His opponent makes silly statements like he will "stand up to the ACLU to stop them from preying on Georgia’s communities" He's on the record as equating gays with pedophiles. And he wants to spend state money to defend any government in Georgia who decides to post the ten commandments on public property. I think the state has more important things to focus on, as well as better ways to spend the public's tax dollars.

State Supreme Court: Carol Hunstein. Her opponent Mike Wiggins is ex-Homeland Security. He's an advocate of his own flavor of judicial activism. He's never been a judge. He's too socially conservative. And he's pro-"giving the president whatever powers and tools he needs to do whatever he wants". Plus, some of his under-the-board campaign activities are highly distasteful. And did I mention that he's ex-Homeland Security?

House Rep, district 4: Loren Collins (write in candidate). Let me make a plea for people to consider Loren. First, Catherine Davis is never in a million, zillion, zillion years going to win. Hank Johnson has this in the bag. But Hank's main platform was "I'm not Cynthia McKinney". While that's a great platform for the Democratic primary, he has yet to really expand beyond this for the election. Loren is a fiscally conservative, socially liberal candidate. In fact, he may actually be the candidate I most support this year, and certainly the one I'm most excited about voting for. His website is: www.voteloren.com. Just remember to write his name down and take it with you to the polls to make sure you spell it right. And besides, don't you want to see how write in candidates work with our new electronic voting system? :-)

State Senate district 41: Steve Henson (D-Tucker). He's a good guy, and his the postcards his opponent has been mailing me get more and more amusing (implying that allowing illegal aliens to drive will cause you to die in a horrible car crash and that Henson apparently supports child sex slavery). Auman isn't even a serious candidate- he ran simply so voters would have a choice, his campaign mailings are all funded and mailed by the state Republican party, and he doesn't even have a website. The Republican party is insulting the intelligence of voters in my district if they think that people will vote for someone just because there's an "R" after his name on the ballot.

State House district 82: Steve Schultz, but just barely. His website is incredibly skimpy when it comes to issues (He's for education and against taxes and traffic- that's his entire platform). But he signed the RLC's Liberty Compact, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt that he'll be a good representative.

Allen Buckley, the Libertarian candidate for Lt. Governor, has never been a fan of the Fairtax proposal. Some of his arguements (okay, one) actually make sense to me.

So he's published a new book on the Fairax. Here's the cover (I Swear I Am Not Making This Up):



I was going to buy a copy, and then I saw the cover. I'm still considering buying it, but now for a completely different reason.

I'm going to call it.

In GA:
Dem:
Martin wins Lt. Gov over Greg "Nasty SOB" Hecht.
Buckner wins Sec of State.
4th district: Johnson wipes the floor with Cynthia "Poetic License" McKinney. I'm actually going out on a limb here as only 12% of the ballots are in, and they're probably all from north Dekalb county, but I think the Cynthia haters had more of a reason to go vote than her supporters. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Rep:
Handel wins Sec of State, beating Bill "No Ethics Here!" Stephens.
Black beats Brian "Homeland Security" Kemp for Sec. of Agriculture

In CT:
Lamont will beat Lieberman.

The races are so obvious, it's really no fun at all.

The SoS hasn't linked to their own runoff results page yet, but it's here if you want to keep tabs on the returns tonight.

Georgia polls open for early voting this week. You can go here to get a list of early voting locations and their hours.

There are several important races. Here are my thoughts:

First, for those who haven't voted in Georgia primaries before, you should note that there are no party registrations. You can take either a Democratic or Republican Party ballot- it's your choice.

Now, if you're a Georgia voter, I'd like to encourage you to take a Republican Party ballot. There's an important reason for this. Ralph Reed is running for Lt. Governor. Ralph Reed, who was head of the Georgia Christian Coalition and is deeply involved in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal. Ralph Reed who will have his political machine running full force this week and next to get his supporters to the polls to vote for him.

Casey Cagle is running against him for the Republican nomination. He's a good guy. And, most importantly, he's not Ralph Reed. This is indeed an important vote, as Reed has strong political ambitions. This means that if he gets Lt. Governor, he'll be running to replace Perdue as governor in 2008. And if he gets that, he might well end up running for President.

Now, some who are stuck in the 4th district with me might wonder why they shouldn't take a Democratic ballot to vote for Hank Johnson against Cynthia McKinney. It's simple. Cynthia McKinney is incompetent. She can't do any legislative damage- hell, Nancy Pelosi won't even speak to her anymore. She's just a sideshow. Yes, her Republican opponent is very limp and won't stand a chance of defeating her. But just wait until next time to get Cynthia out. Reed is more important to defeat.

For Secretary of State, Karen Handel looks like the best choice. She's the Fulton County Commission Chair, and has done a good job there. She's also much more socially moderate than her opponent, who sponsored the Georgia gay marriage ban.

As a resident of DeKalb county with a garden and lots of potted flowers and citrus trees, the recent watering ban had me a little worried. Until I read the AJC this morning and came up with a brilliant way around the watering ban.

Go to Kroger. Buy some mussels. Put them in your garden, on your lawn, etc. Then get a federal judge to declare that your lawn must be kept wet or the mussels will die.

(for those not in Atlanta, the area is in danger of running low on water- We're in a drought, Lake Lanier is low, the Army Corps of Engineers accidentally released way too much water into the Chattahoochee over the last few months, and now a federal judge has ordered that Georgia release incredible amounts of lake water into the Hooch so mussels in a Florida river won't die. This is, of course, the latest round in the neverending fight betweeen Florda, Alabama, and Georgia over water resources.)

The governor's race is getting interesting already. Cathy Cox supporters have released Jib Jabba Mark Taylor, a video that portrays Taylor as Jabba the Hutt, passing out cash to Andy Young and wrongly taking credit for the Hope scholarship. Taylor supporters have come back with a (fairly lame) video that points out Cox's flip flopping on the gay marriage amendment.

The Internet might finally make state politics more interesting.. :-)