Author Archives: admin

Solar up 50% over last year in Germany


July in Germany

wasn’t a fluke:
solar PV electricity production in Germany is up 50% over last year.
Maybe we hould consider a Feed-in Tariffs (FIT) in Georgia like that in Germany.
Unlike the Construction Work in Progress (CWIP) charge on Georgia Power
bills for nuclear power people won’t get for years, if ever, FIT charges
only apply after solar power is flowing.

Bloomberg Businessweek via AP 5 November 2012,

German solar power production up 50 pct on year
,


The German utilities’ industry association BDEW said Monday the
solar power output rose to 25,000 gigawatt hours in the January to
September period, from 16,500 gigawatt hours a year earlier.

It says solar power’s share in the country’s electricity production
rose to 6.1 percent from 4.1 percent. Wind power gained slightly to
8.6 percent from 8.0 percent. Biomass plants accounted for almost 6
percent.

It says all renewable energies combined accounted for about 26
percent of electricity production over the first nine months.

Germany decided last year to phase out nuclear power by 2022 and
replace it with renewable energies.



If you’re tired of Georgia Power and its parent Southern Company
pouring your customer and tax dollars down that nuclear pit near
the Savannah River, or if you’d just rather have solar or wind power,
you can send in your CWIP charge as a separate check, with a note on it.
Even if you’re not a Georgia Power customer, you can

contact them or Southern Company (or the GA PSC or the legislature)
about this.

-jsq

Charles Darwin won 16% against Paul Broun (GA-10)

Occupy Athens, which a few weeks ago couldn’t draw more than a few
people to its General Assembly, has pulled off some electoral theater
seen nation-wide:
write-in candidate Charles Darwin drew 16% of the vote against
evolution-denier Paul Broun in Congressional district 10.

Natalie Jennings wrote for the Washington Post 9 November 2012,

Charles Darwin earns nearly 4,000 write-in votes against Ga. Rep. Broun
,



Darwin, who was the original proponent of the theory of evolution
and died in 1882, got nearly 4,000 write-in votes against the
incumbent Broun, according to the

Athens Banner-Herald.
Broun, a
physician, is a creationist who in September said evolution was
based on “lies straight from the pit of hell.”

And here’s part of what one of Occupy Athens wrote online today:

Continue reading

What people are interested in having their pennies spent on —Gretchen Quarterman

Received yesterday on

Allocate resources in a yearly budget?
-jsq

As I was out campaigning, it was interesting what people are


interested in having their pennies spent on. Many want better
sidewalks and safer places to ride their bikes. One Valdosta police
officer particularly commented on the dangerous bike riding
conditions (especially on North Oak Extension). Many in the
un-incorporated areas want increased fire protection and it seems
that everyone better drainage (and I don't mean simply open ditches
for rain water) and still others would like to see some soccer
fields.

It seems like we should be able to do some prioritizations and then
save up for these things. I guess that will be up to the new
commission chairman and members and they will have to figure out how
to move forward without a SPLOST immediately in 2014.

Personally, I'd like to see a public accounting of how the previous
SPLOSTS were spent. And not in big categories, but the actual
details… But that's just me.

-Gretchen Quarterman

-jsq

Challengers made statehouse incumbents work in south Georgia



Hardly-funded insurgents led by Haley Shank put a scare into turncoat south Georgia statehouse
incumbents.
What would happen with well-funded candidates?

As we’ve already seen,

in new district 177 Dexter Sharper (D)

won 2 to 1 over opponent J. Glenn Gregory (R).
(All election data in this post is from
GA Secretary of State.)

Conversely, Jason Shaw (R-176) ran unopposed, perhaps because
he is the least offensive of the incumbents (he voted
against HB 1162
that put

the Atlanta-power-grab “charter school” amendment
on the ballot,
although

he did vote for HB 797

that will funnel more of your local tax dollars to charter schools
imposed by Atlanta even if your school board doesn’t want them).

Other south Georgia statehouse incumbents, all Republicans, had
challengers, all Democrats.
All the challengers opposed Amendment 1.
Haley Shank did best, in District 173 against Darlene K. Taylor,
8,324 to 12,048 (40.86% to 59.14%).

Next was

Continue reading

Allocate resources in a yearly budget?

Received today on

SPLOST VII lost
. -jsq

After reading this post, a question came to mind. Have we the
citizens of Lowndes County


actually been encouraging our elected
officials to be fiscally irresponsible with public funds by allowing
SPLOST to continue? if elected officials had to allocate resources
in a yearly budget, we may actually encourage our officials to
allocate resources towards public projects that would be desirable
by the public rather than a priority in pthe minds of our elected
officials.

-Bill Grow

Congratulations Dexter Sharper, Demarcus Marshall, Chris Prine, and Justin Cabral!



Congratulations to Valdosta’s new state rep for District 177
Dexter Sharper who won by 67% to 33% over opponent Glenn Gregory,
who fought a spirited and clean campaign.
I look forward to Representative Sharper

meeting with the governor

and working for our community without compromise under the gold dome in Atlanta.

I’ll come back to the other statehouse races in a separate post.
Ditto the other statewide races.
Meanwhile, congratulations to some local winners below.



Congratulations new Lowndes County Commissioner for District 4
Demarcus Marshall, winning 64.91% to 35.09%
after spirited debate and much agreement
with opponent John Gates.
I look forward to Commissioner Marshall

grappling with education, jobs, tourism, and personnel

down at the county palace.




Congratulations on re-election,
Lowndes County Sheriff Chris Prine!
Challenger J.D. Yeager fought a good fight, but the voters said
63.53% to 36.47% they did not
want to go back to the previous administration.
I look forward to Sheriff Prine continuing to protect the safety of
all the citizens of Lowndes County, including those in the cities.



Congratulations Solicitor General Justin Cabral on retaining your post
51.56% to 48.44%!
Very honorable mention to challenger Jason Cain,
who canvassed himself pretty close to winning.

Congratulations Joyce Evans

Continue reading

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.

-jsq

SPLOST VII lost



Speaking of

transparency
,
Lowndes County voters defeated SPLOST VII 18,864 to 17,923 (51.28% to 48.72%).

Kay Harris in the VDT today
quoted Ashley Paulk with this reason:

The defeat came as a surprise to Mayor John Gayle but not to Lowndes
County Commission Chairman Ashley Paulk, who said he warned the
mayors of the five municipalities that if they continued to argue
over

LOST, the local option sales tax,
that voters would turn
against SPLOST in retaliation.

“I told them at the beginning if they didn’t stop arguing over
a few percent of the LOST and refused to leave the numbers as is by
taking the county’s offer, that taxpayers were going to turn against
the SPLOST,” said Paulk.

“Voters are disenchanted with the way their local governments
have gotten greedy and they’re tired of the arguments over money.
They voted SPLOST down because they don’t trust us with their tax
dollars, and it’s a real shame.”

I would agree
bickering over the
LOST pie
was one of the reasons
SPLOST lost, and add to that the opaque back-room processes by which
the SPLOST VII projects were selected.
While the library needs updated and expanded facilities,

the lack of documented decision process

for the architect

and lack of adequate explanation for that

probably didn’t help, either,
nor did
the county’s puzzling lumping of the library in with Parks and Rec.

which they later tried to clarify.

Perhaps the voters are

tired of seeing transparency be a constant source of tension.

And I’m using the library as just one example. I could equally cite the
project for a farmers market under the overpass, which I think is a bad idea
because the farmers market already has a fabulous location at the historic
Lowndes County Courthouse, and so far as I know none of the vendors who sell there
were even asked if they wanted a new location, much less the public who buy there.

At the public-not-invited
SPLOST VII kickoff speeches

the last speaker said they were not there

Continue reading

County Commission Chair Results

Gretchen's summary:



Thank you to everyone who voted for me, to everyone who helped me in
so very many ways. I was not successful in winning

my campaign,
but
I was successful in raising issues and have a lot of fun.

Final Score: GQ:16,752 BS:19,531

When the VDT called, she added:

If the chairman-elect is for good communications,
I challenge him to be transparent.

-jsq

Precincts on Election Day 2012 in Lowndes County, Georgia


Naylor

There’s an election going on!
Here are some pictures of precincts around Lowndes County today.
I’ve seen no lines, and everything seems to be flowing smoothly.
Except there are multiple reports that when people call the Board of Elections
to ask where they vote they’re getting a “this number disconnected” message.
Apparently there are ten phone lines down there but only three people
answering them, and the phone is not rolling over properly.
Given all the recent changes in precincts, this is a problem.


Ready for you to vote at Pine Grove


Sara Crow voted at Pine Grove (Clerk of Court, Lowndes County)

Around 1PM Sara Crow said she heard at Pine Grove that about 900 people had
already voted there today.


Rainwater

I’m not blogging much today because I’m out helping

Gretchen for Lowndes County Commission Chair.

If you’ve got something interesting,

send it in
;
I’m checking in frequently.

Here’s
a slideshow:


Everyone Matters, so go vote!

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

Lowndes County, Georgia, 6 November 2012.


Everyone Matters, so go vote!

Everyone matters, so go vote!

-jsq