Author Archives: admin

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

13,727 Voted in Lowndes County Georgia by 26 Oct 2012

A record
1,783 people voted Friday, bringing the total to
13,727 who have voted in Lowndes County Georgia
in the first two weeks of early voting:


Daily and 13,727 Total voting in Lowndes County Georgia by 26 October 2012

Date Daily Total
October 15, 2012 1,636 1,636
October 16, 2012 1,225 2,861
October 17, 2012 956 3,817
October 18, 2012 643 4,460
October 19, 2012 1,433 5,893
October 23, 2012 1,449 9,173
October 24, 2012 1,363 10,536
October 25, 2012 1,408 11,944
October 26, 2012 1,783 13,727
Data courtesy of Tiffany Linkswiler, Lowndes County Board of Elections.



Somewhere around 25% of registered voters have already voted.
But there are plenty more voters out there.

You can still vote

today (Saturday), during extended voting hours next week,
or on that great election day, November 6th.
Several recent elections here have been decided by less than 100 votes.
Your vote counts!

-jsq

Library open records request 2012-10-26

The most-organized open records response ever!
Well, that we’ve asked for, anyway.
Sure, sometimes local government bodies deliver a three-ring binder
of papers.
Sometimes they deliver a CD.
Sometimes they deliver on a USB stick.
Nobody ever delivered all of the above.
OK, I brought the USB stick and the scanner (not pictured),
but look at that CD lying on top of the really thick binder:
the CD contains everything that’s in the binder,
and that saved us a lot of scanning time.

Thank you, Kelly Lenz, Patrick Spurlock, and Tom Gooding!

It will take a bit of time to process all this information; stay tuned.


Kelly Lenz, Library Director, Tom Gooding, Attorney


Kelly Lenz, Library Director, Tom Gooding, Attorney

Left to right:
an extra item,
the four architect presentations,
the “bible” of what the new library should be (the thick binder and the CD),
and agendas, minutes, and board packets (the other two binders).

Picture by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),

at South Georgia Regional Library, Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 26 October 2012.

I know of at least one open records request somewhere else that,
two years later and counting,

Continue reading →

Voted in Lowndes County Georgia by 25 Oct 2012

There was a dropoff in the first week of early voting,
but it picked back up last Friday and this week.
Daily and Total voting in Lowndes County Georgia by 25 October 2012:


Daily and Total voting in Lowndes County Georgia by 25 October 2012

Date Daily Total
October 15, 2012 1636 1636
October 16, 2012 1225 2861
October 17, 2012 956 3817
October 18, 2012 643 4460
October 19, 2012 1433 5893
October 23, 2012 1449 9173
October 24, 2012 1363 10536
October 25, 2012 1408 11944
Data courtesy of Tiffany Linkswiler, Lowndes County Board of Elections.

Somewhere around 20-25% of registered voters have already voted.
But there are plenty more voters out there.
You can still vote

today, Saturday, during extended voting hours next week,
or on that great election day, November 6th.


Several recent elections here have been decided by less than 100 votes.
Your vote counts!

-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