On hiding politicians who violate ethics laws
Updated at 11:10 p.m.: This was just posted by my AJC colleague James Salzer:
A couple of years ago they changed the name of the Georgia Ethics Commission to the Government Transparency Commission. Tonight the Senate passed a last-minute amendment that allows the “transparency” commission to seal the records in some cases against politicians and delay reporting some violations. Nothing like the 40th day – and night – of a session at the Georgia Capitol
Find the largesse in HB 875, a fishing license bill.
Updated at 10:07p.m.: In very volatile speech, state Sen. Steve Thompson, D-Marietta, all but accused House Majority Leader Larry O’Neal, R-Bonaire, of collusion with banks to block a bill – SB 448 – that would free some developers in Georgia of making good on loan guarantees that are sold by banks to other lenders.
A compromise was eventually reached, contained in SB 129. But not before Thompson had his say. “I hope they pay for it one day. Because they’re fixing to ruin some people who built our state,” Thompson said. “I haven’t called a name. if you can’t figure it out, come see me.”
Thompson noted that the House majority leader – i.e., O’Neal – was on the board of directors of a major bank in Georgia. He also raised O’Neal’s role in the passage of a tax exemption passed for his client, then Gov. Sonny Perdue a few years ago.
We have no way of getting in touch with O’Neal as we write this, but invite comments from him or his friends.
Updated at 7:45 p.m.: The House Rules Committee just stripped out the sections of SB 469 that would ban demonstrations at or near private dwellings, in order to permit the bill to come to a vote tonight.
The remaining portion of the bill requires unionized employees to renew annually permission to deduct dues from their paychecks. The bill exempts educators, law enforcement and – with yet another amendment – firefighters. Debate will be limited to one hour, but passage is likely.
Union forces here aren’t pleased, but say the remaining provisions of SB 469 are likely to be moot, since they run afoul of federal requirements.
The Georgia Chamber of Commerce sends this, from spokeswoman Joselyn Baker:
“Based on our work with legal experts and the US Chamber, we believe that the other two provisions you refer to – workplace notice and paycheck protection – will be legally upheld if challenged.”
The anti-protest provision of SB 469 originally included only union activities – but nonetheless resulted in an odd alliance of labor organizations and tea party forces. “Sometimes the good guys win,” said Debbie Dooley of Atlanta Tea Party Patriots.
Updated at 7:10 p.m.: Here’s what we’re told is the deal intended resolve the passage of HB 954, the bill to shorten the period during which a woman can seek an abortion:
The House will agree to the Senate amendments protecting doctors against civil suits, and offering an exemption for “medically futile” pregnancies. But yet another amendment would require that before a fetus is declared non-viable, a woman would have to seek out a second opinion.
Original:Two pieces of hot legislation just got a last chance in the final hours of this legislative session.
SB 469, the bill that now bans all protests at private dwellings, has been recommitted to the House Rules Committee, which gathers at 7 p.m.
More important, HB 954, the bill to shorten the period during which a woman can seek an abortion, is now going to a House-Senate conference committee. House conferees are Doug McKillip, R-Athens, the bill’s sponsor; House Appropriations Chairman Terry England, R-Auburn; and Donna Sheldon, R-Dacula.
Both bills will likely be racing against a settlement on HB 347, the bill that will determine how Georgia repays the federal government $780 million borrowed for unemployment benefits.
When that bill passes, the Legislature will be in a mood to go home.
- By Jim Galloway, Political Insider
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187 comments Add your comment
Ronnie Raygun
March 30th, 2012
6:47 am
When will these idiot Cons pass a “stand your ground” law in Georgia? These bribed and paid for conservative legislators make me feel threatened every time they are in session.
catlady
March 30th, 2012
6:50 am
Any word on when our “legislators” are going to take up the IMPORTANT problems Georgians have?
IF I did my job so poorly, I’d be fired.
Jenn
March 30th, 2012
7:06 am
To those who say government doesn’t create jobs: I believe there was a Buy American bill that went nowhere, but would have required the state to buy American and buy in-state goods whenever possible.
The session could have also focused on eliminating tax breaks to companies that then turn around and outsource jobs abroad.
There’s a lot legislators can do to create or protect jobs. It’s just so hard when they’re soooo busy serving the interests of Georgia’s corporate lobbyists, there’s not enough time to serve the people of Georgia. Whoopsies!
Georgia Pundit – Georgia Political News for March 30, 2012
March 30th, 2012
7:36 am
[...] at the Senate rope line before the two convened with a state trooper for a prayer meeting. Senator Steve Thompson (D-Marietta) suggested House Majority Leader Larry O’Neal was working with bank…, the developers v. bankers bill, and that O’Neal’s service on a bank board presented a [...]
honested
March 30th, 2012
8:04 am
Another legislative session, another set of laws that will either be defeated in court or be viewed as so backwards and egregious that our state will be too embarrassed to enforce them.
This is the 10th session under rethug control, and no improvement in the lives of Georgians yet.
Capitol Idea
March 30th, 2012
8:07 am
Republicans need to get busy re-writing the science textbooks as well given that they don’t need scientific studies and facts in making their determinations.
Truthbe
March 30th, 2012
8:34 am
All these lying dishonest politicans should be tarred and feathered and thrown out of office with all their pensions and retirement benifits taken away. You can start with the liar-in chief Obama, Reid, Pelosi, Schumer, Luger, Hillary Clinton. Hey democrat supporters how about that scam “obamacare”. Remember when the liar-in chief said that obamacare would save us money and cut the cost? NOW the dishonest idiots at the CBO say that obamacare will cost and EXTRA 1.7 TRILLION DOLLARS
td
March 30th, 2012
8:42 am
honested
March 30th, 2012
8:04 am
And you have known for 10 years that the state will not improve and go backwards but you still chose to stay. What does this say about you?
Truthbe
March 30th, 2012
8:47 am
The entire Democrat Party (sorry excuse me I met the new socialist party) are a bunch of perverted liars with an agenda that will “transform” America into a third world Country. And all you Obama supporters should be ashame of yourselves. Yes even you African Americans. This President wants to give away 7 Alaskan Islands loaded with Oil to Russia, give American First Defense Missles Codes to Russia, gave Billions and Billions of taxpayers dollars to the Muslim Brotherhood,PLO,Hamas,and Hezbullah. Obama and HIllary gave this money to them thru the State Department, also Obama and HIllary signed behind your backs a UN Small Arms Treaty that takes away your Second Amendment legal gun owning rights. All this without Congressional vote or support. Obama is breaking the LAW according to the U.S Constitution. Impeach the traitor Obama and Hillary and throw them in jail.
Ben
March 30th, 2012
9:01 am
Truthbe, you are insane. Like, certifiable. I’m horrified of what happened yesterday and what the Republican leadership have tried to pull.
At least we get to watch all the conservative lose their minds when Obama wins a 2nd term.
Thank God the rest of the country is more rational than our backwater state.
Shameful.
bronson
March 30th, 2012
9:07 am
@truthbe
Don’t forget his cooperation with extraterrestrials and the role he plays in alien abductions.
td
March 30th, 2012
9:17 am
Why can you libs just not admit that Obama is a European Socialist and he wants to take this nation to their form of government?
GaBlue
March 30th, 2012
9:18 am
Question:
Why do Republican men hate women?
Just curious. Is it a mother thing? Did their Mommies give them aggressive enemas when they were children? (I heard this is not uncommon in Texas.) Can anyone shed light on this irrational hatred?
td
March 30th, 2012
9:19 am
Truthbe
March 30th, 2012
8:47 am
Amen brother. You will never convince the African Americans of this because they are blind and the White socialist already know it and are in full agreement with the plan.
Shar
March 30th, 2012
9:20 am
Well, another appalling session of the Georgia State Legislature. These paid-for corporate shills skittered around the huge issues of educational failure and budgetary collapse and went for the throat of whatever group didn’t pay them enough to leave them alone. I used to work with a group that prided itself on getting the unemployment tax reduced multiple times, assuring legislators that there was far too much money just sitting in the fund and that corporations didn’t need to put in more. Now, who pays for those giveaways? Not the corporations that got the breaks, but the unemployed who were assured that the money would be there. Women now have to carry fetuses they don’t want, that are a danger to their own health, that arise from sex that is forced on them or that are malformed – and who made this call? Rich white old men, who demand that women go for second opinions even as they ignore the advice of doctors trying to explain the effects of the legislation on their patients. As for education, this bunch of self-obsessed company boys and girls have introduced a constitutional amendment calling for state-run charter schools, paid for with public money, that will be under the complete control of themselves – not education professionals, not parents or taxpayers, just legislators from other districts than those where the schools are placed, thereby circumventing any accountability. The legislators, deprived of getting their corporate friends’ hands in the property tax cookie jar, will now be able to fix that by awarding sweetheart contracts on school real estate, curriculum, providers and charter management companies, shoving them down local throats while sanctimoniously claiming “choice” and “for the children”.
Meanwhile, they gutted any attempt to cut down on the incessant payoffs they enjoy or the effort to improve “transparency” and Georgia’s dead-last ranking on legislative openness.
A disgusting, worthless bunch of parasites, almost all of whom are now on their way to various lobbyist-paid resorts to recover from the strain of stuffing all that money into their own pockets, leaving wreckage behind that will have to be cleaned up through the judicial process.
td
March 30th, 2012
9:24 am
GaBlue
March 30th, 2012
9:18 am
The better question is why do women that do not have a good conservative man want the government to take care of them? Why can they not take care of themselves? These Democratic women (single mothers with children) are the same people that are the vast majority of the poor, they are the ones that raise the vast majority of children that do not complete HS and the vast majority of children that end up in prison. Why can they not see that what they are doing is ruining the nation?
Michael #1
March 30th, 2012
9:24 am
TD, has your Dr checked you for paranoi lately? If not you might want to set up an appoitment. Can you spell Westly Woods?
td
March 30th, 2012
9:27 am
Shar
March 30th, 2012
9:20 am
You could not be farther from the truth if you tried.
SteveSwimmer
March 30th, 2012
9:28 am
Speaking of ethics: Thanks to Rep. Paul Broun and his ilk, here, in Georgia we placed number 50 in ethics. Lowest in education; but, very proudly number 1 in incarceration rates.
After assessing transparency, accountability and anti-corruption mechanisms in all 50 states, the investigation by the Center for Public Integrity, Global Integrity and Public Radio International (PRI) decided the state of Georgia came in number 50, dead last for our entire Great Nation.
In Georgia, we were, for eons, majority staunch “yeller dog” Democrats, and no Republican representation was wanted. That is, until…, uh-oh: here come the Negroes.
Oh yes, then, ethics be damned, the White majority sent their “yeller dog” to the pound; and, with a giant whooshing sound found themselves new born Republicans.
Georgia is the long time home and major incubator for many of the most avid racists in the world. To this day the Georgia constituency knows full well our politics, while mostly hidden in polite company, is rife with racism.
Certainly, it does not take a PhD in Logic to plainly see: Georgia racists are all Republicans; and, Republicans who are not racists are in bed with the racists. Small wonder Georgia is dead last in ethics.
Today, our Republican majority, headed by our Gov. Nathan Deal, commands the largest prison (per capita) population in the world with over 1000 incarcerations per 100,000 people living here (by comparison, Minnesota imprisons 300 per 100,000).
With racists firmly in control, young Black males are 6 times more likely to be Georgia state prisoners than their White counter part. Yet, we all know: the Black kids are simply not that bad. How ethical is that?
Today, soaring incarceration costs have the budget cutter politicos saying: Well golly gee…, after all, we now realize we really don’t need to put all these non-violent people behind bars, we can use drug rehab programs for most of those now incarcerated and save oodles of money.
Good idea? What do you think? Of course, no such thinking was permitted audience until, ethics out the window, Gov. Nathan Deal’s family controlled major rehab interests.
Yes, there can be no question we have serious ethical problems; and, when it comes to the likes of Gov. Deal, Rep. Broun and their fellow travelers: well…, small wonder Georgia is dead last when it comes to ethics.
Shar
March 30th, 2012
9:28 am
GABlue, Republican men don’t hate women. They like them – just ask Glenn Richardson. They just like them in special ways. They like to tie them up, make all their decisions for them, cause them pain, put their lives in danger, interfere with their access to true medical information, threaten their children with bad education and child care, keep in place any and all workplace discrimination (because they really don’t need to make as much money as men anyway) and make sure they can’t protest any of this by restricting access to information on what they are doing and to the protest process itself.
Because they know what is best for women, even if women don’t think so.
td
March 30th, 2012
9:30 am
Michael #1
March 30th, 2012
9:24 am
What did I say that was not an accurate statement? Show me where I am wrong in my analysis or are you so intellectually deficient that all you can do is bash another person when they present the truth.
UGA 1999
March 30th, 2012
9:32 am
Jim, are you referring to Obama or Clinton in your message?
deegee
March 30th, 2012
9:32 am
“As far as the economy goes, unemployment is dropping and the governor has brought several large corporations into Atlanta. BTW: The government does not create jobs!!!!”
So what are you saying, td? The governor did or did not bring jobs to Georgia? If the answer is that he did, would you like to take a stab at what the jobs cost the taxpayers of Georgia? How much in tax incentives did private industry receive in order to locate in Georgia? After all, private innerprize is just fabulous in playing “The Price is Right” when dealing with goober pea governors.
Shar
March 30th, 2012
9:32 am
@td – You really cannot have it both ways, you know.
If you don’t want women raising children they cannot care for, you cannot force them to have those children. If you force them to have the children, you have to take the consequences of supporting those same kids.
What you really want is for women not to have sex outside of marriage, and then only when they want to procreate. But even you are not wacky enough to say so.
DannyX
March 30th, 2012
9:34 am
“Government Transparency Commission” Ha, ha,ha.
What a joke. Looks like the legislature gave the middle finger to the Tea Party. First they refused to strengthen ethics laws, then they weaken them.
Fear not Georgia, our state lawmakers are not resting with the worst in the country ethics title, they are going to extend their lead.
The next thing that needs to be tackled is the outdated “Government Transparency Commission” name.
td
March 30th, 2012
9:37 am
Shar
March 30th, 2012
9:28 am
If you really think conservative women do not control their conservative households then you are just plain delusional. Maybe the problem is liberal women are not strong enough to run a household?
td
March 30th, 2012
9:42 am
Shar
March 30th, 2012
9:32 am
Wrong again. I personally think you women are stupid for giving the milk away. Did you ever think when you give something away for free then all you are doing is setting yourself up for failure?
deegee
March 30th, 2012
9:42 am
The sad thing is that td has plenty of company in his or her bigoted world of libs vs cons. I’m sure that wherever td hangs, there are plenty of “amens” in the chorus of bigotry.
td
March 30th, 2012
9:43 am
Above should read giving the milk away for free.
UGA 1999
March 30th, 2012
9:44 am
deegee…”bigoted world”?? You mean like Shaprton and Jackson? Very nice.
td
March 30th, 2012
9:46 am
deegee
March 30th, 2012
9:42 am
It is now “bigotry” to speak the truth. To make statements about the logic consequences of peoples actions.
GaBlue
March 30th, 2012
9:47 am
Shar,
Yes, I am fully aware of that “special” way in which Republican men “love” women. (Ewwww, and totally creepy!) But that’s not love. It’s a different kind of hate.
td,
You could not be farther from the truth if you tried.
Shar
March 30th, 2012
9:48 am
td, the Southern Baptist Convention, powerhouse of the “conservative household” you espouse, adopted a requirement that wives in such households recognize their husbands as their ‘lords’, and that they submit to those husbands in all things.
You, in your bigoted duplicity, actually have the nerve to speak of “giving the milk away.” Yet in this very string you say that rape and incest, forms of sexual aggression that are forced upon an unwilling woman, should not be cause to terminate a pregnancy.
You really cannot have it both ways.
deegee
March 30th, 2012
9:49 am
No, Shar. td has already told us that young studs that are sowing their oats are always going to have a group of young milk maidens that will freely give away the milk. That is where the young studs should look to relieve some sexual pressure. That’s just the way of the world, and praise the Lord for free milk!
td
March 30th, 2012
9:49 am
GaBlue
March 30th, 2012
9:47 am
What did I say that was not true?
Tom
March 30th, 2012
9:49 am
Anyone know where we will be able to go to see these “saved” babies?
Shar
March 30th, 2012
9:50 am
GaBlue, I cannot imagine why you’d think that special Republican love is creepy. It’s worked in places like Afghanistan for centuries, and you can just see how happy and advanced women are there. Their leaders promise that they are!
GaBlue
March 30th, 2012
9:50 am
td @ 9:42,
Thank you for admitting that what some people consider love is nothing but a transaction for you. That took a lot of courage!
Shar
March 30th, 2012
9:51 am
deegee, I believe the expression is ‘praise the lord and pass the ammunition.”
deegee
March 30th, 2012
9:52 am
td, there is nothing logical about your statements. They are your opinions. You have your opinions, I have my opinions. My opinion is that you are a narrow minded bigot.
UGA 1999
March 30th, 2012
9:52 am
deegee….provide a reason why you say TD is a bigot. That is a strong word just to throw out.
td
March 30th, 2012
9:53 am
Shar
March 30th, 2012
9:48 am
Show me in the Southern Baptist teachings that the man is the “lord” over the woman? You are making things up again because you can not prove it.
I could explain the theory of how a man should act to become the head of the household and what they actually means but I am sure you could not grasp the concepts.
GaBlue
March 30th, 2012
9:55 am
td asks: “Maybe the problem is liberal women are not strong enough to run a household?”
What time does your gig at The Punch Line start tonight? I want to get my tickets before they’re sold out! HAHAHAHA!
deegee
March 30th, 2012
9:58 am
Here’s your proof, UGA1999. td is making a bigoted comment about women and their political party affiliation.
“These Democratic women (single mothers with children) are the same people that are the vast majority of the poor, they are the ones that raise the vast majority of children that do not complete HS and the vast majority of children that end up in prison.”
td
March 30th, 2012
9:58 am
GaBlue
March 30th, 2012
9:50 am
Yes, I get drunk at a bar, buy a few drinks and tell you how beautiful you are and then after a couple hours of close dancing and some kissing you decide you are in “love” and take me home to give the milk away.
If you think that is love then you are a lost soul.
GaBlue
March 30th, 2012
9:58 am
td explains: “I personally think you women are stupid for giving the milk away. Did you ever think when you give something away for free then all you are doing is setting yourself up for failure?”
Question:
How much do you pay for “milk,” td? Please enlighten the ladies here, so we know how much we should be charging! Would you also include the entire pricing menu? Whole vs. skim, etc.
GaBlue
March 30th, 2012
10:02 am
td @ 9:58,
Ah, so THAT’s who you are! Thanks for the warning! Yeah, just to be clear: I’m one of the many who said, “NO THANKS, CREEP. TAKE A HIKE.”
But once again, thanks for sharing the personal details of your sick, (likely diseased) personal life with us. I think a breakthrough is near!
td
March 30th, 2012
10:04 am
deegee
March 30th, 2012
9:58 am
Is it or is it not true that the majority of single women are democratic voters? Is it or is it not true that the majority of poor people in this country are single women with children? Is it or is it not true that the vast majority of people that drop out of school is from a single parent household? Is it or is it not true that the majority of people in prison come from a single parent household?
Are these or are these not factually accurate statements?
The truth hurts sometimes but it is still the truth and does not mean that the messenger is a bigot.
Shar
March 30th, 2012
10:04 am
@td: and I quote: “Former SBC President Bailey Smith made some revealing statements when he told wives to be submissive to their husbands “just as if he were God.” Smith added that when a wife fails to meet the sexual needs of her husband, she is partly to blame if he is unfaithful to her. “
deegee
March 30th, 2012
10:06 am
LMFAO, td is such a creep. Nothing like some drunken redneck in a bar breathing their stinking beer breath in someone’s face, then sobering up and going to church on Sunday, still basking in the afterglow and praising the Lord for free milk.