Category Archives: Law

Support plummeting for charter school amendment

Support for the charter school amendment,
previously falling, is now dropping like a rock.
Saba Long wrote the Saporta Report 15 October 2012,

Latest polls show the Charter School Amendment vote will be close,
but the actual poll results, when compared to previous polls,
including those before T-SPLOST lost by a landslide,
say Amendment 1 is going down in flames.


Georgia Charter School Polls 2012-10

That poll conducted 4 and 5 October showed 34.2% saying they would definitely
vote no and 18.06% saying probably no.
That’s 52.26% No, which is far higher than

26.2% only a month before.

The pollsters, HEG-GPS, say,

Re: October 4-5 Charter School Amendment Survey,
15.35% responded Probably Yes and only 9.30% said Definitely Yes.
That’s 24.62% Yes,
far down from the 48.3% Yes of a month before.

Yet only 23.12% responded Unsure,
which is hardly changed from 25.5% a month before.
It sure looks to me like this is not just undecideds switching to No.
It looks like a lot of formerly Yes votes are switching to No.

It looks even worse compared to T-SPLOST.
Two weeks before the 31 July Primary election,

Continue reading →

Vote No on the charter school amendment —J.C. Cunningham for GA House District 175 @ 30Club 2012-10-22


J.C. Cunningham for Georgia House district 175 @ 30 Club 2012-10-22
J.C. Cunningham, running for statehouse district 175,
says vote No on the charter school amendment.
At the 30 Club Political Forum at Serenity Church School Monday,
he was asked about differences from his opponent, and

he answered:


Vote No on the charter school amendment —J.C. Cunningham for GA House District 175

Political Forum, 30 Club

Video by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 22 October 2012.

This amendment was put on for
one reason and one reason only,
because there are powers that did not get their way
and it was strictly for money-grubbing, for-profit charter corporations
that would further take money away from
our Department of Education.

J.C. Cunningham’s opponent, the incumbent Amy Carter,

only showed up at one of the four local candidate forums
in Lowndes County.
However, she voted both for

HR 1162 that put the referendum on the ballot
and for

HB 797 that will suck up more money per pupil for charter schools than
for public schools, taking the extra out of our local tax dollars.

We know where J.C. Cunningham for district 175 stands:
against the charter school amendment.

-jsq

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.

-jsq

Vote No on the charter school amendment —Teresa Lawrence for GA House District 174 @ AAUW 2012-10-24


Teresa Lawrence for Georgia House district 174 @ AAUW 2012-10-24
Teresa Lawrence, running for statehouse district 174,
says vote No on the charter school amendment.
She was asked about it
at the AAUW Political Forum at Valdosta High School Wednesday, and

answered:


Vote No on the charter school amendment —Teresa Lawrence for GA House District 174

Political Forum, Deborah Van Petten, President (AAUW), Dr. Jim Peterson, Moderator

Video by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),

Valdosta High School, Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 24 October 2012.

I believe we should vote no for the charter school amendment.
We have a means of passing it at the local level
to approve charter schools now, and I don’t believe
we need to give that decision over to the state level.


Ellis Black
Teresa Lawrence’s opponent, the incumbent Ellis Black,

did not show up at any of the four local candidate forums
in Lowndes County.
However, he voted both for

HR 1162 that put the referendum on the ballog
and for

HB 797 that will suck up more money per pupil for charter schools than
for public schools, taking the extra out of our local tax dollars.

We know where Teresa Lawrence for district 174 stands: against the charter school amendment.

-jsq

Videos of candidates @ AAUW 2012-10-24


Welcome
After the fourth and final candidates forum,

moderated for AAUW by Dr. Jim Peterson last night at VHS,
the statehouse candidate attendance report card is:

Incumbents:
Ellis Black (R 174) 0 of 4, Amy Carter (R 175) 1 of 4, and Tim Golden (R Sen-8) 1 of 4.

Challengers: Teresa Lawrence (D 174) 4 of 4, JC Cunningham (D 175) 4 of 4, and
Bikram Mohanty (D Sen-8) 4 of 4.

Open seat 177: J. Glenn Gregory (R) 4 of 4, Dexter Sharper (D) 4 of 4.

Local candidates: 4 of 4 for every one of them,

Gretchen Quarterman (D) and Bill Slaughter (R) for Lowndes County Chairman,

Chris Prine (D) and J.D. Yeager (R) for Lowndes County Sheriff,

John Gates (R)
and
Demarcus Marshall (D)
for Lowndes County Commission District 4,

Justin Cabral (R)
and
Jason Cain (D)
for Solicitor General.

Here are

videos of the entire forum.


Candidates Forum at VHS by AAUW, Deb Van Petten President,

Videos by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 24 October 2012.

Videos of the previous 3 forums:

Continue reading →

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:

Continue reading →

Softbank’s Son to install solar in Japan: watch out, Georgia Power!

The same Masayoshi Son who shook up Japan’s Internet market

and is about to do the same in the U.S.
is moving to modify Japan’s power market from nuclear to solar.
Watch out, Georgia Power and Southern Company!
If you don’t get a move on, Son-san will eat your lunch, too.

Mariko Yasu wrote for Bloomberg Businessweek 23 June 2011,

Softbank’s CEO Wants a Solar-Powered Japan,


Masayoshi Son
Billionaire Masayoshi Son made a fortune taking on Japan’s phone
monopoly. Now he aims to shake up its power utilities after the
worst nuclear crisis in 25 years. The 53-year-old chief executive
officer of Softbank says he will build solar farms to generate
electricity, with support from at least 33 of Japan’s 47
prefectures. He’s asking for access to transmission networks owned
by the 10 regional utilities and an agreement that they buy his
electricity. No other company has secured unlimited access to the
those transmission networks. The utilities would not comment.
Japan’s main business organization, the Keidanren, called for
“careful analysis” before any drastic change in the power system
took place.

If Japan ever felt ready to back Son’s ambitious plan, this is the
moment. Radiation has spread across at least 600 square kilometers
(230 square miles) in the northeast since the Mar. 11 earthquake and
tsunami led to meltdowns at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant.
Outgoing Prime Minister Naoto Kan said in May he will rethink a plan
to increase atomic power to 50 percent of the nation’s energy output
from 30 percent. Renewable energy already accounts for 10 percent,
according to Japan’s Agency for Natural Resources and Energy. Son
wants to see that tripled by 2020. “The question is how this nation
is going to survive after cutting nuclear power,” he said at a
government panel meeting on June 12.


Complacent Georgia Power and SO, you maybe don’t think he can do it?
NTT probably thought that, too:

Continue reading →

Candidates ready @ AAUW 2012-10-24

Here’s a picture of candidates waiting to speak at last night’s
AUUW forum.
None of the incumbent state legislators showed up.
All of the challengers did,
along with all the candidates for local offices.


Front row: John Gates,
J. Glenn Gregory, Gretchen Quarterman, Teresa Lawrence, J.D.
Yeager, Justin Cabral
Second row: Dexter Sharper, Demarcus Marshall, Bill Slaughter,
Chris Prine, Jason Cain
Third row: Bikram Mohanty, J.C. Cunningham, AAUW organizer
Missing: Tim Golden, Amy Carter, Ellis Black
Picture by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge
Exchange
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 24 October 2012

The videos should be up later today. are up now.

-jsq

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.

-jsq

Candidates again tonight @ AAUW 2012-10-24

Will any of our incumbent state legislators show up this time?
Their challengers have spoken every time.

AAUW logo
7PM tonight is the last time to see all the local candidates in one place:
Wednesday 24 October 2012,
Performing Arts Center, Valdosta High School, 3101 North Forrest Street, Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia,

AAUW presents a Political Forum.
This one, unlike some previous ones, is advertised on the sponsoring
organization’s website
(although oddly not on its
facebook page)
and
in the VDT calendar.

So far, Ellis Black (R 174) 0 of 3, Amy Carter (R 175), 1 of 3, and Tim Golden (R Sen-8) 1 of 3.
Challengers Teresa Lawrence (D 174), JC Cunningham (D 175), and
Bikram Mohanty (D Sen-8) all spoke at 3 of 3.
Videos of the previous forums:


Candidates at 30 Club forum at Serenity Church

Candidates at Homebuilders Association Forum at Rainwater Conference Center

Meet the Candidates by Chamber of Commerce at VSU


vote
Don’t forget

to vote,
today, tomorrow, Saturday, or on that great election day, November 6th 2012.

-jsq