Archive for the ‘Poll Position’ Category

The “buycott” of Chick-fil-A on Wednesday produced what the company will only describe as an “unprecedented day” for business. Today, we get the counter-protest (it was announced first, but arrives second) in the form of a “kiss-in” by gay couples angry about remarks made by company president Dan Cathy.

Will it be as successful?

Boycotts have a revered place in American history as an effective form of protest, in large part because of the role they played in the civil rights movement. Lately, however, the tactic’s record is much more spotty. Looking at one list of current boycotts, I don’t see many, if any, that I’d count as successful.

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Now, a “kiss-in” isn’t exactly the same thing as a boycott; I have no idea how many of the reported 15,000 people nationwide who say they’re participating in …

Continue reading Poll Position: Will today’s Chick-fil-A ‘kiss-in’ be successful? »

OK, folks, it’s once again time to declare.

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Tuesday is T-SPLOST day across the state, and by late Tuesday/very early Wednesday we should know whether it passed in any of the state’s 12 regions, including the 10 counties of metro Atlanta.

If you’re not up to speed on what this is about, well, I can only assume you don’t live in Georgia and/or have just been released from several months of solitary confinement. I don’t have much more to say about it that I haven’t said in the past: see here and here for the many pieces I’ve written about T-SPLOST.

If you don’t want my opinion, check out the AJC’s compilation of reporting about what the 10-year, $7.2 billion sales tax would mean for transportation infrastructure and traffic relief in metro Atlanta.

Continue reading Poll Position: What’s your vote on the T-SPLOST? »

This week brought new revelations in one of the most shocking scandals to hit a university in some time: the sexual abuse of multiple children, over many years, by former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky. The new information, contained in a report released Thursday by former FBI director Louis Freeh that was commissioned by university trustees, details the lengths to which Penn State officials went to keep Sandusky’s actions from being made public — enabling him to prey on more young people for another 14 years.

From ESPN.com’s article about the report:

“Our most saddening and sobering finding is the total disregard for the safety and welfare of Sandusky’s child victims by the most senior leaders at Penn State,” said [Freeh] …. “The most powerful men at Penn State failed to take any steps for 14 years to protect the children who Sandusky victimized.”

After an eight-month inquiry, Freeh’s firm produced a 267-page report that concluded that Hall of Fame coach [Joe] …

Continue reading Poll Position: Proper penalty in Penn State abuse scandal? »

While the T-SPLOST vote rightly gets most of the attention, the July 31 primaries will also feature a number of ballot questions for both Republican voters and Democrats. We’ve covered a few of them in previous Poll Positions, and today we’re going to resume that series with a bang. No, really.

The third question on GOP primary ballots will read:

Should active duty military personnel who are under the age of 21 be allowed to obtain a Georgia weapons carry license?

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The question dovetails with a Senate bill (SB 493) sponsored by Bartow County’s Barry Loudermilk in this year’s session. That bill passed the Senate with a broader impact, lowering the carry license from 21 to 18 for anyone who passed a firearms training course within three months of applying. A

Continue reading Poll Position: Carry permits for soldiers under 21? »

While we await the trial of George Zimmerman for fatally shooting Florida teenager Trayvon Martin, another sure-to-be high-profile case involving self-defense and a killing arose in Texas.

Last Saturday in Shiner, a small town best known to the rest of us for the beers that bear its name, a father beat to death a man whom he caught sexually assaulting his young daughter. CNN.com has the details:

According to the Lavaca County Sheriff’s Office, the 23-year-old father and his family were enjoying a barbecue last Saturday at their ranch on Shiner’s outskirts where they keep horses and chickens.

His young daughter had gone off toward the barn, to feed the chickens, the child’s grandfather — who isn’t being named, to protect the identity of his granddaughter — told CNN affiliates KSAT and KPRC.

Then her father heard screaming and ran. He found a 47-year-old man in the act of sexually abusing his daughter, according to Sheriff Mica Harmon.

The father stopped the alleged abuser, then …

Continue reading Poll Position: Was a Texas man right to beat his daughter’s attacker to death? »

Today we’ll continue our series of ballot questions for next month’s primary and look at a query that will face Democratic primary voters. As reported by Peach Pundit, the fourth question on Democratic ballots will be:

Should Georgia reduce sales taxes on Made in Georgia products so as to support the growth of small businesses in our state?

From a political standpoint, this is a fascinating concept for a party doomed to be a  legislative minority until at least the next redistricting in 10 years: Democrats aren’t often associated with tax cuts; this runs counter to Georgia Republicans’ stated goal of flattening and simplifying the tax code (although it fits perfectly with what they’ve actually done); and it carries a whiff of populism and whatever the state version of nationalism is.

Continue reading Poll Position: Lower sales taxes on Georgia-made products? »

In keeping with the series that began last week, the second question on Republicans’ July 31 primary ballots reads as follows: “Do you support ending the current practice of unlimited gifts from lobbyists to state legislators by imposing a $100 cap on such gifts?”

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As much as I’ve written about ethics reform, I have not done a Poll Position question about this issue. No time like the present, right?

For background, you can read here, here, here and here, among other columns. But the gist of the issue is that, unlike almost every other state, Georgia does not limit gifts from lobbyists to legislators. We do have some pretty strong transparency laws, which at least allow us to see who is getting what, from whom. The question is whether transparency is …

Continue reading Poll Position: Should we cap lobbyist gifts at $100? »

Last week, the executive committee of the Georgia GOP approved five questions to be placed on the party’s July 31 primary ballot. Ballot questions from the Democratic Party of Georgia are forthcoming. So, if you vote in this summer’s primaries, the T-SPLOST won’t be the only policy question you get to tackle.

The most surprising question to come out of the GOP concerns casino gambling. The question will read:

Should Georgia have casino gambling with funds going to education?

It will be the first time in 20 years — since the referendum that paved the way for the lottery and, in turn, the HOPE scholarship — that the issue of gambling has been on Georgia ballots. This one won’t be binding but the result, and how it comes to be used by policy makers, will be very intriguing. All the more so because it’s unclear who wanted the question put on the ballot: casino friends or casino foes.

Continue reading Poll Position: Casino gambling for education? »

Facebook goes public today, listing shares on Nasdaq at $38 apiece; if you want to buy, trading of stock listed as “FB” commences at 11 a.m.

So, do you? Do you want to buy Facebook stock at that price?

On one hand, there is precedent for highly anticipated tech listings that soared and have not (to date) flamed out. Google of course comes to mind: The search-engine company went public in August 2004 at $85, more than doubled in price by year’s end, and has been trading lately in the $600s — more than seven times its IPO price.

Of course, Google has a way to make money, and lots of it. Facebook? Well, the numbers would indicate it’s at least as good a moneymaker as Google was circa 2004. But there was ominous news this week, when GM said it was pulling its paid advertisements on Facebook because it didn’t think they were effective.

Continue reading Poll Position: Is Facebook stock worth the asking price? »

A day after President Obama endorsed the concept of same-sex marriage (but, notably, no policies to legalize it), the Washington Post reported that, as a teenager in boarding school, Mitt Romney once forcibly cut the longish hair of a fellow classmate who was “presumed” to be gay. The story has since been found to have a number of problems: Two sisters of the alleged victim (who died several years ago) claim the depiction of him is “factually incorrect,” and one says she had never heard of the incident (which, of course, doesn’t necessarily mean it didn’t happen); one of the Romney classmates quoted about the incident now says he didn’t actually witness it.

As if to confirm that juvenile behavior by juveniles is not a partisan issue, a blogger soon posted an excerpt from Obama’s “Dreams From My Father” in which he describes behaving rudely toward an unpopular female classmate. (The posted excerpts don’t refer to his age at the time, but the reference by Obama to her being in …

Continue reading Poll Position: How much of a candidate’s life is fair game? »