The Political Vine

By Bill Simon - Editor

SandySpringsNOW-NonCompliance.pdf
To view the following document, you will need Adobe Acrobat. Click on the image to download the latest version of Abobe Acrobat.
Click Here to view.
Click here to download

Friends of David Greenspan, Inc-Non Compliance.pdf
To view the following document, you will need Adobe Acrobat. Click on the image to download the latest version of Abobe Acrobat.
Click Here to view.
Click here to download

The PV Is Turning Into A Blog...

Just so you folks will know the Internet lingo, the Political Vine has not been a "blog", but a newsletter.

A "blog" is the short-form of Web Log...take off the "We" in "Web" and you are left with "blog." (Of course, if you happen to be a lawyer who works for any number of Georgia's state agencies, you probably don't know what a "log" is, much less a "blog." But, fear not, because you probably won't be able to navigate the Web without someone filing an Open Records Request with your agency that informs you what a "log" is and how to "surf" the Web.)

So, over the next few weeks, I am working on changing the format over to a Blog-format.

What does that mean for you? Two main things: 1) I will be updating the site more often with entries as the story-of-the-day moves me, and 2) YOU will be able to interact with me and others via the capability of responding directly on the Website with your comments or disagreements with what I write.

See, you don't have that capability now...and, for those of you who have sent me e-mails as a form of "interacting", well, you will be able to interact better, I believe, because your comments will get posted where you choose to post them. (But, you can still e-mail only if/as you wish).

Of course, the fact of changing the format to a blog format also means that your e-mail inbox will not get crammed with the site updates as they have in the past. You will, for the most part, have to visit the PoliticalVine.com website to see what new things are happening. However, I think I will have the capability to send out "Alerts" and such when there really is a need for an Alert...like, whenever the Ralph Reed campaign actually tells the truth about something, THAT will be quite the Special Alert type of event.

Oh...also...you will also notice that the writing style will change on the blog format. Rather than me writing in the "third-person" format, you will see more of "I" and "me". However, on occasion, I will revert back to third-person because that is the recommended writing style of people in the business world, and I like to keep my skills honed.

The ETA on the format change will be by the end of December. One thing I am keeping will be all of the old stories in an "archive" format for easy recall...some of that stuff was just too funny to let slip by into Internet oblivion.

Looks Like Athens Will Be The First City for A Casino

Rumors have it that the Athens [Georgia] Chamber of Commerce will have Lt. Gubernatorial Candidate Ralph "Gimme A Yo' Eleven!" Reed as the headliner for their annual fundraiser.

Ralph will be talking about how the Athens' Chamber of Commerce can best utilize their PAC money in getting the State Legislature to tweak the laws governing casino-style gambling so that a "river walk" type of casino development can be built in downtown Athens.

Tom Wyatt, VP of Government Affairs with the Athens Chamber had this to say about the upcoming event with Ralph: "This is just SO exciting!" Wyatt gushed/oozed with obvious fascination with the one-time resident of Athens. "I am going to start standing in line for a photo-op with Ralph 6 hours before the event! I can hardly wait to hear what Ralph's plans will be to allow Athens to be the very first city in Georgia to build a casino!"

Calls to the Casey Cagle campaign for Lt. Governor for a comment on this upcoming event went unanswered.

Attendees will get to plunk-down $150 to munch on a dinner of filet mignon, lobster, potatoes, green beans and cheesecake catered by some hole-in-the-wall wine joint south of Athens.

District 1 Runoff - Sandy Springs

Did you hear the one about the guy who claimed he was this, that, and that over there, but, it turns out that he really isn't all that he claims?

Allow me to introduce the voters in the Runoff Election of District 1 to David Greenspan. Greenspan is running against political neophyte Oz Hill.

Greenspan has quite the impressive resume...until, that is, one bothers (i.e., me) to spend approximately 8 minutes checking-out his own online resume...and discovers more puff than substance.

Take, for example, Greenspan's claim that he is the "President" of the SandySpringsNOW Foundation. What is that, you might ask?

Well, it is nothing, actually. It is a non-profit group started by Greenspan in July of 2004 that has accomplished NOTHING and, from the looks of it, was created for the sole purpose of giving Greenspan the title of "President" of something that does nothing and accomplishes nothing.

In fact, if you check the Website of SandySpringsNOW Foundation, you will see that there has been no activity since October of 2004 when there was a note placed about the upcoming "grand opening" on November 4, 2004.

Also, when you check the Georgia Secretary of State's Website on Corporations and enter "SandySpringsNOW" in the slot, you get the result that the last time the corporate registration was paid was August of 2004...and, its' current status is "Non-Compliance". Which means, it is not currently a valid corporation. Which means, he is "President" of a nothing entity! (Note to Josh Shorr of the Greenspan Campaign: Please note that I have taken the liberty of printing the status as it exists now and saved it as a PDF file that people can download and view...just in case you try to claim otherwise about the status).

This is not the only problem I see with Greenspan. See, Greenspan claims that he is a big "finance" guy and he would be able to work magic on budgets and all sorts of financial stuff within the City of Sandy Springs.

Funny thing is, he cannot maintain simple financial payments on entities in which he has direct control of now, so, why should you be trusting him to maintain anything with the City of Sandy Springs?

As an example, take the very organization his campaign is organized under, Friends of David Greenspan, Inc.. Again, if you go click on the link above to the Corporations and type in "Friends of David Greenspan", you will pull-up a page that shows that Greenspan hasn't paid his annual corporate registration since 4/26/2004...over a year ago. (Note #2 to Josh Shorr of the Greenspan Campaign: Please note that I have also taken the liberty of printing the status of this Greenspan-controlled entity as it exists now and saved it as a PDF file that people can download above and view...just in case you try to claim otherwise about the legal status of this entity).

Now, most everyone outside of this race will be sitting there wondering what I personally have against David Greenspan. I don't have anything personally against Mr. Greenspan, but I do have a wish to make sure that everyone who is elected to public office is QUALIFIED to serve in that capacity.

And, quite frankly, if one cannot take care of maintaining basic financial responsibilities in their own little world, I don't think they should be trusted to manage something as major as whatever Greenspan thinks he's qualified to manage when it comes to the new City of Sandy Springs.

But, I don't live there...so, if you vote for him, don't come crying to me when FUBAR happens with the finances in your new city government. I spent a total of 8 minutes breezing through just a couple of things on his political resume...wonder what else in his history is he not being completely honest and above board about? Hmmmmmmmmm...

Speaking of People Unqualified To Serve Politically...

A few weeks ago, I issued a Political Boxers which had as the very last story a couple of paragraphs about Congressman Tom Price and his vote on CAFTA, the Central American Free Trade Agreement. Now, when you read what CAFTA stands for, preface the word "Free" with a whole lot of gagging noises because that is exactly what a lot of you will do when you learn exactly what CAFTA is all about.

CAFTA, like NAFTA in the early 1990s, is all about "globalizing" American businesses with its most immediate neighbors on this continent.

If you are a business owner in the U.S. and you start selling goods and services to buyers outside of the U.S., you are "globalizing" your business. Did you have to reduce the price of your goods/services to get that business? No? Didn't think so. How about the quality? Did you have to reduce the quality of your output to get that sale? No, again? Huh...

But, when the U.S. Congress votes to "globalize" American goods and services, it is an entirely different process that happens. When our "leaders" (sic) in Congress talk about "globalizing" American businesses, what they are really talking about is reducing the standards required by outside businesses to do business here in America.

Not quite following me? Allow me to offer a real world example. One section of CAFTA describes the reduction of standards as they apply to the importation of medical and dental personnel (i.e., doctors, nurses, et al.) from Central-American countries:

"Each Party (Nation and State) shall endeavor to ensure that any (authorization and licensing) measures that it adopts or maintains are . . . (b) not more burdensome than necessary to ensure the quality of the service, and (c) in the case of licensing procedures, not in themselves a restriction on the supply of the service."

My source for this extraction for the CAFTA legislation was Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum...a rather conservative Website.

Congressman Charlie Norwood (R-GA), a dentist by trade, had this to say about the CAFTA legislation back in July 2005:

"It seeks to simply dump our medical and dental care safeguards, in the interest of making an extra buck for a handful of international investors who seek to bring in low wage foreign medical professionals."

What does all this mean, boys and girls? Well, to those of you in the medical profession, it means that all those board certifications and licenses you now hold are essentially useless when compared to what CAFTA opens-up for your competition. Your competition from other countries will not have to face the "burden" of qualifications required for YOU to practice medicine in the USA. Ain't that grand?

And, how did Congressman Tom Price, M.D. vote on this legislation? He voted in favor of it, of course.

The man who campaigned last year as the guy who would lookout for YOU, the medical professional...the MD...the man/woman currently wondering why the F#$@ you're not earning enough money to payoff your student loans or make any kind of money you expected to make after spending 8+ years of gut-wrenching time training to be the best in your field...yeah, you...Price voted in favor of lowering the standards required for foreign doctors to come work here in America...competing against your prices and your quality of medical care.

Oh, and to those of you who sit around and pine about how your vote doesn't count in the world, would you like to know the margin that CAFTA passed the House of Representatives by in July of this year? 217-215. Had Mr. Price simply bothered to READ what he was voting on before he listened to what the crowd of Republican "leaders" (again, sic) clamored about the legislation, maybe...just maybe he could have prevented this disaster to our medical care that will happen. Who has time to worry about Hillary-Care when our own Republican-led Congress and El Presidento is busy selling our standards down the river?

The fact is, Tom Price has a BIG problem when it comes to 1) reading what the legislation actually says, and what the effect of the legislation will actually be, and 2) relying on what someone else tells him is in the legislation before voting for it. This has now been proven twice...once back when Price was a state senator who voted for the Zamarippa Amendment that allowed illegal aliens to be granted driver licenses, and now CAFTA.

Frankly, I'm not interested in being represented by someone who only follows what his caucus leadership tells him to support, OR, what his "President" tells him to support.

There is more to CAFTA than this impact on the medical care in the U.S., but this is reason enough for Tom Price to be FIRED for not knowing what the heck he was voting for. Dr. Charlie Norwood knew it...why didn't Dr. Tom Price bother to listen to Dr. Norwood?

Now, if you're ticked enough...I mean, REALLY ticked-off enough to raise a stink about this with Representative Tom Price, give his District Office a ring at 770-565-4990. Or, call his Washington D.C. office (202-225-4501) and ask him to explain why any medically-trained professonal would have voted in favor of lowering the standards required to practice medicine in the United States?

Bill Simon - Editor