Category Archives: Agriculture

Jack Kingston from Valdosta to Tifton to Atlanta

You may have seen by the front page of the VDT this morning that Jack Kingston was in Valdosta yesterday morning and by the VDT editorial that he will be in Atlanta today. The VDT whines:
Why do you have to take the one politician that actually works for us?
Well, some farmers in Tifton didn’t take kindly to the main idea Kingston was pushing yesterday. Said a farmer:
I have tried working with probationers and I’ll just say that it was a very inconsistent supply of workers.
Hm, the VDT previously was of a similar opinion, an opinion that got quoted in the AJC. Maybe the VDT didn’t know Kingston was pushing HB 87, even though they sat down with him yesterday morning?

We don’t need an ALEC-organized private prison law like HB 87 to profit private prison company CCA, and we don’t need a CC private prison in Lowndes County. Spend those tax dollars on rehabilitation and education instead.

-jsq

Hitting the cartels where it hurts

Former border state governor advocates ending drug prohibition.

Gary Johnson, former governor of New Mexico, wrote in the Washington Times 5 August 2011, JOHNSON: Hitting the cartels where it hurts: Legalization of marijuana would end drug profiteering and violence

Imagine you are a drug lord in Mexico, making unfathomable profits sending your illegal product to the United States. What is the headline you fear the most? “U.S. to build bigger fence”? “U.S. to send troops to the border”? “U.S. to deploy tanks in El Paso”? No. None of those would give you much pause. They would simply raise the level of difficulty and perhaps cause you to escalate the violence that already has turned the border region into a war zone. But would they stop you or ultimately hurt your bottom line? Probably not.

But what if that drug lord opened his newspaper and read this: “U.S. to legalize and regulate marijuana”? That would ruin his day, and ruin it in a way that could not be fixed with more and bigger guns, higher prices or more murder.

As a Republican, he manages to say legalize and regulate but forget to mention tax, and he didn’t mention Jimmy Carter or Javier Sicilia calling for an end to the drug war, but he did mention (I added the links): Continue reading →

“Shelter Attendant and Animal Control Officers have been threaten by county officals” —Ronnie A. Ganas

Received 10 August 2011. -jsq
This is Ronnie Ganas’s statement which was recieved June 6th 2011, at 2:44 pm from shirley king

-Susan Leavens

It’s rather hard to read, so here’s a transcription of what I think it says. -jsq
On several events I have observed the euthanzing being falsied and redone so the amounts should be correct. This records was redone by Michelle Shultz and she was approved to tdo this illegal action by Linda Patiskie. They both know this a controled substance accountability log. The euthanzing log and the bottles have a DEA number. This act of falsifying records have been seen by other Animal Control Officers and Shelter Attendants. I do not remember dates but euthanzing logs and tracking sheets and work schule and time sheets will prove the falsifing. Linda Patiskie has full Knowlegde and approved this illegal actions.

Shelter Attendents and Animal Control Officers have reported cruelty to animals and abuse

Continue reading →

Where did your promise go, Commissioner Gary Black? —Susan Leaven

Received 9 August. -jsq
From: SUSAN LEAVENS
To: gary.black@agr.georgia.gov
Sent: Tue, August 9, 2011 4:51:54 PM
Subject: Where did your promise go? We were counting on you Commissioner Gary Black.

Dear Commissioner G. Black,

On July 26th 2011, I contacted you with anticipation of a response to matters of concern regarding Animal Protection problems in your division, as well as issues involving Lowndes County Animal Services.

On July 30th 2011, I sent a second email to your office, indicating

Continue reading →

No inhumane treatment issues other than the pot belly pig?

Received Sunday a PDF of a letter from Joe Pritchard, County Manager, to Mary Greene, GA Dep. of Ag. together with the appended cover letter from Susan Leavens. -jsq

Mr. Prichard has made many comments in reference to several of his employees; in recent news paper articles and on the evening news indirectly of course that “they” had bios opinions and even questioned my character in one article.

Mr. Prichard also informed everyone there were no inhumane treatment issues other than the pot belly pig. Well I believe in this document from County Manager Joe Prichard to Ms. Mary Green with Department of Agriculture animal protection says otherwise. I believe Mr. Prichard’s recent statement to the media was though our investigation we found no wrong doing… lets list them here.

Continue reading →

Prison slave labor infects beef with rat feces

In case you thought prison slave labor didn’t affect you, watch Mike Elk on Democracy Now today, New Exposé Tracks ALEC-Private Prison Industry Effort to Replace Unionized Workers with Prison Labor:
“more than 14 million pounds of beef infected with rat feces processed by inmates were not recalled, in order to avoid drawing attention to how many products are made by prison labor.”
Is this what you want for yourself and your children? If not, it’s time to stop ALEC crafting state laws to lock people up and then exploit them as slave labor.

We can start by not accepting a private prison in Lowndes County, Georgia. Spend those tax dollars on rehabilitation and education instead.

Update 9:35 AM 6 Aug 2011: Fixed the links to the Democracy Now story. Thanks for catching that, Barbara!
Here’s a bonus link to the story in The Nation.

-jsq

PS: This post owed to Cheryl Ann Fillekes.

Okra and Workforce Development @ VLCIA 19 July 2011

People keep mentioning the okra gift, and George Rhynes was kind enough to video it for his blog, K.V.C.I., so here it is.
  1. I suggested to VLCIA as I earlier did to the Lowndes County Commission that they hang up a clock so people can see how much more time they have to speak. You can see Crawford Powell lurking in the doorway. Joyce Evans was also in the hallway at this VLCIA meeting. That’s 2 out of 3 voting Lowndes County Commissioners. Maybe VLCIA will get organized enough to find chairs for them next time.
  2. I pointed out Project Excel is the private prison CCA wants to build in Lowndes County, and I still owe VLCIA a letter about why I think that’s a bad idea.
  3. Finally, I gave new executive director Andrew Schruijer a present. Crawford Powell suggested it was potatoes. Nope, this time it’s okra! Picked it myself that morning.
Here’s the video: Continue reading →

Motion to table and vote, Nottinghill on Cat Creek @ LCC 13 July 2011

Newsflash: Lowndes County Commission does right thing about rezoning!

Commissioner Raines expressed puzzlement as to what to do about rezoning for Nottinghill on Cat Creek since he thought the previous day that there was a deal between the developer and the neighbors, but it turned out there was not. Commissioner Powell recommended tabling until next meeting so the developer and the neighbors could try again to work something out.

Commissioner Powell made a motion Continue reading →

Nottinghill on Cat Creek by Mr. Nijem and discussion @ LCC 12 July 2011

Speaking for the Nottinghill rezoning request on Cat Creek Road, Bill Nijem said it was nothing like Glen Laurel. Nothing like repudiating your work of last year….

Commissioner Richard Raines thanked Nijem for sitting down with the neighbors.

As David Rodock wrote in the VDT the next day, Citizens speak against Cat Creek crowding: Disapprove of the proposal to build residential areas

Bill Nijem, representative of the applicant, brought forward information demonstrating his client’s willingness to work with neighbors, in that lot sizes were increased by 20 percent and that the average lot size would range from a minimum of 12,000 square feet to 20,000 square feet. Nijem also reminded commissioners that the applicant was willing to install any necessary buffers or fences to prevent children from playing in the neighboring fields and would have water and sewer installed with his own financial resources.
Carolyn Selby reminds me that Mr. Nijem didn’t say Continue reading →

Not clear houses are more important than agriculture —John S. Quarterman @ LCC 12 July 2011

If somebody puts a subdivision next to your field, beware of trash, and the same if you buy a lot in it. For that matter, why do we need more houses?

Some of what I said:

To expand a little bit on that subdivision next to our west field, one of the builders continued to push trash into our field until I had to sue him for trespass in Superior Court to get him to stop.
I meant to say in Magistrate’s Court.
I called code enforcement multiple times and they did nothing to help stop it. Now that there’s a new fire chief perhaps things are better, but anybody who’s got a field nearby might want to watch for that.

Anyone who hopes to buy houses in the subdivision might want to watch to see if there are any dumpsters in there, because the subdivision near us, the trash was buried in the yards; you can ask anyone who owns one of those lots.

As far as needing houses for Moody, there are usually ten houses for sale in that subdivision, and roughtly 10 or 15 more that are for rent. So it’s not clear we actually need more houses.

As far as lot size, this is the same issue as came up last year with Glen Laurel on Old Pine Road. … The room was filled with people for the same reasons that you’re hearing now. At that time the commission decided to say ….

You can see for yourself what happened in May of last year: Continue reading →