Category Archives: Ethics

Most corrupt state sells public education to Waltons

Amendment 1 results And it wasn’t even close: 2,152,091 to 1,526,959 (58.50% to 41.50%). Lowndes County went for the Atlanta-power-grab “charter school” amendment 18,606 to 17,619 (51.36% to 48.64%). The voters of Georgia just sold their children’s educational birthright for a mess of slick brochures.

Amendment 2 results The other ALEC amendment, on multi-year contracts, passed by an even wider margin: 2,241,621 to 1,275,809 (63.73% to 36.27%). Lowndes went for it 20,205 to 14,414 (58.36% to 41.64%).

Apparently Georgia voters will vote for any old thing that’s submitted to them as a constitutional amendment.

Esau sells his birthright for a mess of pottage Congratulations, ALEC and Wal-Mart! You’ve demonstrated money talks and slick brochures sell. This was even better for you than ALEC’s so-called anti-immigration law which the legislature passed and that actually devastates Georgia agriculture for the profit of private prison company CCA. This time you got the people of Georgia to vote directly against their own best interests to the benefit of school privatizing corporations in Virginia and Michigan!

Boo Georgia voters. You’ve just given the most corrupt legislature in the country the ability to commit you the taxpayers to contracts for decades. And you’ve just traded your children’s educational birthright for a mess of slick paper.

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Vote No on Amendment 1 —LAKE WALB Ad

John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange The WCTV news report didn’t mention something else LAKE has done about the Tim Golden use of a LAKE video without the required attribution: LAKE paid for a TV ad on the same WALB market as Golden’s ad. That LAKE ad is still playing today: watch the news and football on WALB in Valdosta and Hahira.

Bikram Mohanty is a man of integrity running for Georgia state Senate.

Creative Commons Attribution license The incumbent Tim Golden’s attack ad misuses a video I took of Bikram Mohanty, without the credit its YouTube license requires.

Tim Golden voted to put on the ballot an amendment that could siphon off your local tax dollars for charter schools, even if your school board doesn’t want them.

Vote for integrity; vote for Bikram Mohanty for Georgia state Senate, Vote No on Amendment 1 on Nov. 6th and vote No for Amendment 1.

This WALB ad, like the WCTV news interview, is another rare instance of the LAKE politburo deciding LAKE would go on record as an organization, so I was speaking for LAKE.

TL;DR: If you want to use LAKE materials, cite the source.

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Tim Golden campaign admits using LAKE video without attribution —WCTV

Greg Gullberg WCTV WCTV got Tim Golden’s campaign on record admitting it used a LAKE video without attribution. Golden’s spokesperson claimed (erroneously) that they didn’t need to cite the source. As you can see below, that’s not what the license says.

Greg Gullberg wrote for WCTV last night, Valdosta Man Takes Legal Action Against GA Senator Over Use Of Video,

John Quarterman, Lowndes Videographer A videographer in Valdosta is taking legal action against Georgia District 8 State Senator Tim Golden.

John Quarterman says video he shot was used in an “Attack Ad” against Senate candidate Bikram Mohanty without his permission.

“A video posted on Youtube that clearly says that attribution is required. And there’s no attribution, no sources sighted, and he didn’t ask permission. That’s mis-use of our material,” Quarterman said.

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Vote No on Amendment 2 —Charlie in Peach Pundit

Let's cut to the chase on what Charlie wrote for Peach Pundit 18 Oct 2012:

Georgia needs significant ethics reforms. There needs to be greater transparency for those who do business with the state. Trust must be restored. Good governance must be demonstrated.

Paying slightly higher rates for a few more years is a small price to pay to avoid giving away 20 year favors to today's patronage class. Vote no on this amendment. That is the best way to save Georgians money.

Georgia is the worst state for legislative corruption. Do we want those legislators committing us financially for 10 or 20 years? If knowing it's an ALEC bill wasn't enough for you, maybe this will be. Vote No on amendment 2.

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ALEC’s “our state legislators” behind multi-year GA constitutional amendment referendum

Ronnie Chance Look who sponsored Georgia Senate Resolution 1231 which put the second referendum question on the ballot! Two of ALEC’s “our state legislators”, Senators Ronnie Chance of the 16th, and Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers of the 21st, are among the sponsors (Chance is the first sponsor).

SourceWatch’s ALEC Exposed found Ronnie Chance on ALEC’s International Relations Task Force. Rogers himself told CBS News how much he values ALEC, Who is ALEC? By Mark Strassmann and Phil Hirschkorn 30 June 2012. Rogers spelled out the same thing ALEC itself told me: it considers people like Chance and Rogers “our state legislators”. “Our” as in belonging to ALEC, not representing you the voters and taxpayers.

Chip Rogers Guess who sponsored the bill that put the charter school amendment on the ballot, HB 1162 in its Senate form? Chip Rogers. And who sponsored the companion bill that would suck money out of public schools and give more per pupil to charter schools, using our local tax dollars, HB 797 in the Senate? Chip Rogers. And House sponsors Jan Jones (R 46th) and Edward Lindsey (R 54th) of both bills are also ALEC’s “our state legislators”.

I don’t always agree with Adam Smith, but when I do, I quote The Wealth of Nations from 1776:

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Quitman 10+2 trial set for December

George Boston Rhynes notes a trial date of 10 December 2012 has finally been set for the Quitman 10+2. They were arrested back in 2010 for alleged voter fraud. Their “speedy trial” has taken so long that one of them has died.

The governor did convene a committee that ejected them from the school board in January. After repeatedly going to Atlanta, after Georgia Association of Black Elected Officials (GABEO) held its general meeting in Quitman, after Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp came to Quitman to hear complaints about the handling of the Quitman 10+2 case and recent irregularities involving the Brooks County Board of Elections, members of the Quitman 10+2 were finally reinstated on the school board 9 October 2012. Yet their “speedy trial” has been delayed for two full years, all the way until after this year’s election.

Here’s the video:

Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution:

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.

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Solar yes, nuclear expansion no —David Staples for GA PSC

After he spoke at last Thursday’s Political Forum, David Staples said something interesting out in the hall and I asked him to repeat it for the video camera.

Here’s the video, followed by a transcript.

Video by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 18 October 2012.

Here’s the transcript:

I think right now we need to look at solar. The two new nuclear reactors probably shouldn’t be built right now. You look at the wholesale power rate curves, and where it’s most expensive, and it’s during peak hours. Wholesale power is 50 cents a kilowatt-hour, and the electric companies are buying at wholesale rates, What do we need to offset that with? We’ve got something to do that with: solar. The cost has come so far down that that’s something we should be spending our money on rather than than building nuclear reactors right now.

Solar PV costs dropped 50% last year.

Southern Company’s new nukes continue to run farther over budget.

If Denmark can do it maybe Southern Company and Georgia Power should stop manufacturing buggy whips and help get Georgia on the solar train.

Staples is on record for solar and as he says ethics matter: all the incumbent GA PSC members have taken campaign donations from people closely associated with the industries they regulate, (including Stan Wise) and Staples has apparently only accepted donations from clean sources.

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TV ad by Steve Oppenheimer for GA PSC

According to Ted Terry,

We are the first PSC campaign in over a decade to go up on the broadcast airwaves!

Here’s the video:

About those rate hikes: Georgia Power hikes prices for gas and nuclear, then complains about solar and We can charge you even if it’s cancelled! —CWIPped Georgia Power

About the GA PSC incumbents all accepting campaign contributions from people closely associated with the industries they regulate.

Steve Oppenheimer is on the record as wanting more energy efficiency and renewable energy (including solar energy).

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Animal shelter violations in Chatham County

Some of an animal shelter story coming out in Chatham County sounds familiar.

Mary Landers wrote for SavannahNow 20 October 2012, Savannah Chatham Animal Control Shelter cited for violating state rules: Local professionals call shelter’s care “inhumane”

The county-funded Savannah Chatham Animal Control Shelter was found to have repeatedly violated animal protection requirements in two state inspections last month, and its practices are being criticized as inhumane by four local animal professionals.

One professional criticized the shelter not only in writing, but also by revoking the shelter’s permission to use her veterinary license. The Chatham County Commission says it’s dealt with the problem. We’ll see.

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We can charge you even if it’s cancelled! —CWIPped Georgia Power

Steve Willis An excellent article about the problems with Georgia Power’s new nukes on the Savannah River gets at something you may not know: they can charge you for them even if they’re cancelled!

Steve Willis wrote for the Georgia Sierran Oct./Nov./Dec. 2012 page 5, Overruns, Uncertainty Plague Vogtle Expansion,

If Southern Company abandons this project, the CWIP law not only allows Southern Company to keep all of the CWIP payments legally extorted from customers, but allows them to keep CWIP fees in place or even increase them until all their costs and profits have been fully recovered. Due to the run-away cost overruns, the CWIP charge on your monthly bill is already more than three times what Southern Company confidently claimed it would be at this time when they presented their case to “your” Georgia legislature in 2009.

And that 2009 legislature rubberstamped CWIP so it appears on your Georgia Power bill as Nuclear Construction Cost Recovery Rider. Willis reminds us that the 2 nukes already at Plant Vogtle were projected to be four nukes for $600 million and ended up being two for $9 billion.

Everyone has heard the saying “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.” If the Vogtle expansion costs balloon, as many analysts expect, it will cost

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