Received 15 July 2012. I hope to have time to watch all these videos. -jsq
This is information from the word on the streets of Valdosta, Georgia and the half I am told has not been told. We the people have a right to know what is going on in our beloved community and no American Citizens should live in fear in 2012. What say you?
THOSE PUSHING the TSPLOST have bungled the job despite their gargantuan $8 million war chest. They have muddled their message (is it congestion relief or a jobs program?) and even managed to fumble the project list. Cobb voters don't know whether they're voting for a rail line or a bus line. And even though the proposal now specifies the latter, the overwhelming suspicion is that if the TSPLOST passes they'll be stuck paying and paying and paying for the former instead.
Better to vote down this TSPLOST and hope and pray that it also fails region-wide, than possibly come back in two years with an improved project list that can get the public's buy-in. As it is, the bulk of the Cobb projects on the current list would likely be on a future local Cobb road SPLOST list if there were no such thing as a regional TSPLOST. Which begs another question: Why should Cobb abdicate control over its road program to the Atlanta Regional Commission or a regional roundtable in the first place? Who knows better than Cobb residents what our transportation needs are?
What do you think? Does GDOT in Atlanta know better than we do what we need around here?
Among likely voters surveyed by SurveyUSA for 11Alive News, across the state, 48% said they would vote against T-SPLOST and 36% said they would vote for it if the primary were today; 16% were still undecided. The margin of error was 3.4%.
But look at the details. The big No regions are Atlanta metro and northwards (see Question 1). In our Region 11 it’s Yes 41%, No 33%, Not Certain 26% so there’s work to be done. Do we want to end up stuck with projects we don’t need after Atlanta votes down its region in a referendum that was designed to pass in Atlanta?
My favorite is question 6:
How likely is it that the state government would properly handle the funds if the transportation tax increase is passed?
In region 11, Very 17%, Somewhat 24%, Not Very 25%, Not At All 21%, Not Sure 14%. Trust problem, GDOT?
Politifact Georgia's Terry Lawler examined a T-SPLOST supporter's assertion that there can be no Plan B if voters reject T-SPLOST July 31st and found that claim mostly false. I don't think he went far enough: we can change the legislature in this election, and a new legislature can come up with an entirely different plan.
PolitiFact Georgia read the state House of Representatives bill that was passed in 2010 to allow the referendum. In the last one-third of House Bill 277, there is a sentence that confirms that point.
"If more than one-half of the votes cast throughout the entire special district are in favor of levying the tax, then the tax shall be levied as provided in this article; otherwise the tax shall not be levied and the question of levying the tax shall not again be submitted to the voters of the special district until after 24 months immediately following the month in which the election was held."
Why are we still arresting people for pot?
Do we need to feed the private-prison-industrial-complex that bad?
Nobody here profits by this racket (at least we hope they don't)
other than illegal drug dealers.
It's time to legalize, tax, and regulate.
America is at a tipping point when it comes to the politics of pot.
Never in modern history has there existed greater public support for
ending this nation's nearly century-long experiment with cannabis
prohibition and replacing it with a system legalization and
regulation. Moreover, state and local politicians beyond the
‘Beltway bubble’ for the first time in many decades are responding
to this sea change in public opinion, even if their colleagues in
Washington are not. From Rhode Island to Texas, from New York City
to Chicago, lawmakers are finally acknowledging that being pro-pot
reform equals votes. The question is: Why isn't Washington getting
the message?
I hear somebody asked about Georgia Power's Construction Work in Progress (CWIP) stealth tax charge to customers for Southern Company's new nukes at Plant Vogtle. Maybe some of these candidates for the Public Service Commission could help get Georgia Power and SO to stop suppressing solar and wind in Georgia, maybe even to lead the way.
Thanks to everyone who came out to our Political Forum on the Georgia Public Service Commission. We had a great turnout, and learned a lot about the 2012 candidates for the PSC.
This is a statewide election, so please share this video far and wide with your friends. The primary election will be held on July 31, and the PSC will also be on the ballot in November.
Participants in last night's forum included (from left to right) Republican Matthew Reid and Democrat Steve Oppenheimer, who are both challenging incumbent Republican Commissioner Chuck Eaton in District 3, and Republican Pam Davidson and Libertarian David Staples, who are running against incumbent Republican Commissioner Stan Wise in District 5.
Beth Bond from Southeast Green moderated the media panel featuring Kristi Swartz from the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Walter Jones from Morris News Service, and Jonathan Shapiro from WABE.
Georgia Interfaith Power & Light hosted this forum. Co-hosts included 14 local environmental, religious, and advocacy organizations, including Southeast Green, Georgia WAND, GA Sierra Club, Civic League of Regional Atlanta, Glenn Memorial UMC Environmental Committee, GreenLaw, Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance, Common Cause, League of Women Voters, Georgia Watch, Ryan Taylor Architects LLC, Sustainable Atlanta, Regional Council of Churches of Atlanta, Inc., Trinity Presbyterian Church Sustainability Committee, and the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.
The Icelandic partner of Visa and MasterCard violated contract laws when it imposed a block against credit card donations to the secret-spilling site WikiLeaks, a district court there has ruled.
The Reykjavík District Court ruled that Valitor, which handles Visa and MasterCard payments in Iceland, was in the wrong when it prevented card holders from donating funds to the site. The court ruled that the block should be removed within 14 days or Valitor will be fined the equivalent of about $6,000 a day.
WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson told the Associated Press that it was “a small but very important step in fighting back against these powerful banks.” He said other lawsuits are ongoing in Denmark and Belgium.
The fine isn’t nearly big enough, and of course Valitor is appealing.
“This is a significant victory against Washington’s attempt to silence WikiLeaks,” WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said in a statement about the win in Iceland. “We will not be silenced. Economic censorship is censorship. It is wrong. When it’s done outside of the rule of law it’s doubly wrong. One by one those involved in the attempted censorship of WikiLeaks will find themselves on the wrong side of history.”
“Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” —Benjamin Franklin, An Historical Review of the Constitution and Government of Pennsylvania, 1759
History found old Ben to be on the right side. It will find the same about Julian Assange. Which side are you on?
All candidates for the Georgia Public Service Commission at a forum tonight, 7-9PM 12 July 2012. GA PSC is the body that says Georgia Power can charge its customers for cost overruns for the new nukes at Plant Vogtle; the new nukes that will suck up even more water and are already sucking up lots of money through the stealth tax Construction Work in Progress (CWIP) charge on Georgia Power customer bills. GA PSC did require Georgia Power to buy 50 MW of solar, but that’s pennies compared to the dollars Georgia Power and Southern Company are shovelling into that pit by the Savannah River. Who will stand up and say enough nuclear is too much, and let’s get on with solar and wind?
Tonight, GIPL is joining forces with 14 local organizations to host a Political Forum with this year’s candidates for the Public Service Commission.
We’re having technical difficulties with the live web stream. We hope it will be up and running tonight, but if not, the debate will be posted online this week. You can check this website tonight at 7pm for live web streaming, or watch our twitter feed @GeorgiaIPL for updates.
When: Thursday, July 12, 7 – 9 p.m. Where: Glenn Memorial UMC’s Auditorium/Sanctuary 1660 N. Decatur Road Atlanta, GA 30307
All four challengers in the 2012 race have confirmed their attendance. Participants
The air is, after all, a bigger body than any body of water, and one that affects us all. A judge in Texas agreed that air should have the same legal protection as water.
Last May, a group of teenagers filed a series of lawsuits seeking to force the federal and state governments to take action on climate change. A key argument made in the lawsuits is that the atmosphere is a public trust — or, as described in one brief, that it is a “fundamental natural resource necessarily entrusted to the care of our federal government … for its preservation and protection as a common property interest.”
Yesterday, a state district court judge in Texas agreed.
Key issue from the plaintiffs' press release:
In deferring to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality's (TCEQ) decision to deny the Plaintiffs' petition for rulemaking while other ongoing litigation over regulations ensues, the Judge concluded that the TCEQ's determination that the Public Trust Doctrine is exclusively limited to the conservation of water, was legally invalid. …
Which is not only good for air, but indicates that water already is legally a public trust.
1. Introduction: Review of News Paper Published Information http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8vg98vdrxs
