Foreword

I’ve been doing lots of thinking lately. I mean a LOT of thinking. I’ve been engaging in a lot of thinking lately because I haven’t spent my time watching ANY of the presidential debates. None. I consider the debates to be nothing but a circus sideshow designed to lure me away from working on something productive for me and my life, and so far, I don’t believe I’m missing anything of any substance.

What have I been doing instead? Listening to books-on-CDs. Not fictional crap. Not political history crap. Not biographies of presidential candidates crap.

No, I’ve been listening to books that feed my mind business and life philosophies. You’d be amazed at what you can learn when you step-out of the political mishmash (of, again, crap) and take-on the challenges of listening to the ideas and philosophies of non-political people.

One such book I just finished listening to for the first time was the 1938 book by Napoleon Hill called “Think And Grow Rich.”

It is not a book that will show you how to “get rich quick.” It is a book chock-full of lessons in morality, lessons in business, and, especially, lessons in how to control your own mind.

The book should have been more aptly titled “How to Control Your Mind So That It Helps You Get Rich”, whether that “richness” is richness in life, richness in monetary wealth, or richness in whatever goal you would like to achieve.

It’s a challenging book to read, and a pretty challenging book to even listen to, not because it’s boring, but because as each new idea and viewpoint is revealed, I found my mind spinning-off into a thought process relating to what I just heard and then I had to reel my mind back-in to focus on the next nugget. (If you buy it on CD, I advise using a remote-controlled CD player to work through it because some parts you want to stop-rewind-play to listen to over and over again due to how poignant the subject matter is.)

(By the way, lest I leave you bereft with the benefit of being able to acquire the “book” version, the copyright protection for Think And Grow Rich expired sometime in the past few years, and I found a PDF version on the Web which you can have access to by clicking and saving it on your computer here.)

There were several amazing things I derived from my first “listen” to the audio version. Several things that apply to our current economic and political times.

The book was published just after the Great Depression ended. Lots of the conversation is all about what led up to it, what happened during it, and what people were faced with during the time of the Great Depression.

The parallel in the times it covered compared to today’s times is uncanny with what people were screaming about back then, and what they’re screaming about today.

Here’s one excerpt that I laughed my butt off at because it’s so fitting to today’s political environment:

(Page 121): “Just to keep the record simple and understandable, I will add that these capitalists are the self-same men of whom most of us have heard soap-box orators speak. They are the same men to whom radicals, racketeers, dishonest politicians and grafting labor leaders refer as “the predatory interests,” or “Wall Street.”

See anything familiar in that excerpt? “Grafting labor leaders” of the 1920s are today’s union bosses. “Dishonest politicians” of the 1920s are, well, like they’ve always been in EVERY country on the planet: Dishonest low-lifes.

“Predatory interests” and “Wall Street” of the 1920s are what the ignorant “Occupiers/Newt Gingrich Supporters” of today scream and whine about with regards to “Wall Street” and “venture capitalists.”

If you can pull yourself away from the political debate circus for long enough to immerse yourself in “Think And Grow Rich,” your mind will be a lot better for it and you will find yourself thinking a whole lot better about yourself and the world around you. (Of course…you actually have to have a mind in order to do this. Some of you folks have allowed your brain to become nothing but a reflection of what happens in the political world and your cortex has melted away.)

And, now…the feature presentation…
Read the rest of this entry »

The Basics of State Tax Dollars

Which costs more, a dollar of private money or a dollar of state government tax money? While this question may provoke you to think of an age-old question like “Which weighs more, a pound of gold or a pound of chocolate?”, and subsequently you jump to the conclusion that a pound of gold weighs the same as a pound of chocolate and a dollar in the private sector is equivalent to a dollar of public sector money, that leap would be incorrect.

What’s the difference? A whole lot, actually. For the subject matter at hand, I am going to focus strictly on the state tax dollars since this is a discussion centered around what the state legislature does with state tax dollars (however, the same logic presented can be easily applied to county and school tax revenues with different tax rates).

The Georgia state sales tax rate is 4%. This means that for every taxable product purchased for delivery within the geographical boundaries of the State of Georgia, each dollar expended on buying those products requires an additional $0.04 of private sector capital money to be paid to the state of Georgia.

The state income tax rate is a sliding scale from 1% to 6% as a cap. For ease of calculation purposes, assume that the average income tax rate is 6% as a conservative number.

Though I know there is not a 50-50 split in revenue derived from sales taxes and revenue derived from income tax rate, let’s assume there is just to get this analysis going (Note: Yes, I know there are other taxes and fees, etc. but these are the two primary ones for state revenue tax dollar generation).

Taking the average of 4% sales tax and 6% income tax rate, we get an average rate of 5%. What does this mean? It means that for every dollar of economic activity generated by the private sector in Georgia, the state will collect 5 cents ($0.05) on top of each dollar spent for itself. ‘Economic activity’ being some form of purchase or earnings that occurred.

Which…means that in order for the state to receive just one dollar of tax revenue, there had to have been $20.00 of economic activity that took place within Georgia.

AND…in actuality, that extra dollar that goes to the state means that someone in the private sector actually had to spend $21.00 of their money to purchase $20.00 worth of goods/services/earnings, and also contribute $1.00 to the state in taxes.

What is the relevance of all this? It is to give you and, especially, the legislators, the meaning behind the numbers that appear on a budget sheet. It means that for every dollar you are asked to spend by some Chamber of Commerce lobbyist about some “great new idea that we need for economic development,” consider that in order for that idea to be a “great investment for Georgia,” it has to directly produce at least $21.00 of economic activity just to break-even on the deal.

And, if all the investment does is “break-even” on the economic investment, there might be a better, more profitable use for those funds that need to be explored. Here’s a thought I’m just going to, you know, put way out there: How about giving money BACK to the taxpayers???

Now, so you’ll have an easy way to figure-out what the breakeven point must be for every investment of “State-Dollars”, use this simple formula: 21 x State-Dollars = Absolute Minimum Economic Breakeven Point of State Dollar Investment.

Call this The Rule of 21®. Because it takes $21 of economic activity to just breakeven on each dollar invested in state tax dollars.

So, for the heck of it, let’s apply the Rule of 21 to some “real-world” examples.

Example #1: Go Fish!

In 2007, then-Governor Sonny Perdue sold the legislature on a deal to invest $19 million in state tax dollars to build an infrastructure of boat ramps and fishing museums to attract multi-million dollar fishing tournaments to the state.

Now, I recall a conversation at the time of this legislation I had with a member of the state house. As I recall, the number he told me that Go Fish! would generate for the state was the order of $250-$285 million of new economic activity over 10 years. Hmm…was that a good investment of state tax dollars?

Let’s use the formula (that would have applied then as it does today since the sales tax rate was 4% then, as was the maximum average income tax rate 6%) we now have: 21 (times) $19 million = $399 million in total new economic activity that would have to be generated just to breakeven.

Good, sound, “conservative” investment, eh? Doesn’t look like it to me. $399 million is $114 million more than the predicted maximum number of $285 million of economic activity this investment was supposed to generate.

Now, the economy tanking aside (which killed the ROI on Go Fish!), there’s the well-known Murphy’s Law of Government which needs to be taken into account before any decision is made by government: “If anything can go wrong, it will do so in triplicate.”

So, this is what we have with that $19 million investment into Go Fish!: 1) An investment that was never there with even a breakeven ROI. 2) Taxpayers who have to keep paying for the Legislature’s inadequate ability to properly apply basic sound principles of financial management.

Example #2: CAPCO

CAPCO is a newly reborn idea of legislation to enable insurance companies to receive tax credits for money they would be paying to the state revenue department, but instead they divert this money to some venture capital firms to use to invest to generate economic activity on behalf of the state. And, whatever profits derived from those ventures would be kept by the venture capital firms, and the ONLY benefit the state might see would be the resulting economic activity from which they would derive either sales tax revenue or income tax revenue from the jobs created, or a combination of both forms of tax revenue.

This news article written by James Salzer of the AJC in late December 2011 provides some good background info on the bill.

This is the legislation in question (it’s long to read, but if you read that first link above that is James Salzer’s AJC write-up, and then read the bill, you’ll understand it a little better.

If you go down to Section 3(d)(1), you’ll find this statement: “The aggregate amount of investment tax credits to be allocated to all participating investors of Georgia business investment companies under this Code section shall not exceed $125,000,000.00.”

What does this mean? Well, it means that if there is a cap on the total amount of tax credits granted to all participants of $125 million dollars, then that $125 million is, essentially, state revenue tax dollars being diverted into multiple venture capital funds with no oversight worth a crap (and any claims that there are are poppycock because we all KNOW from experience that this state’s legislature cannot see fit to supply the real State Ethics Commission with the amount of money they need to enforce compliance of ethics laws, so how will the state provide qualified oversight of a $125 million investment fund? They won’t, and anyone claiming they do will be exposing themselves to be a pathological liar.)

SO…oversight issues aside, what happens when the Rule of 21 is applied to this “economic investment?” Let’s see: 21 x $125 million means that the absolute minimum breakeven point in NEW economic activity that must be generated by this investment is $2,625,000,000. Or, to write it more simply $2.625 billion dollars in new activity.

State Rep Ben Harbin sponsored this legislation. Frankly, I am interpreting this legislation from Harbin to…basically be a cry for help…help in the form of someone performing an electoral intervention for him. Help in the form of someone (ANYONE) qualifying to run against him and kicking him out for trying to overtly set-up nothing but a crony-capital scheme to screw the taxpayers of Georgia.

Because with a breakeven point required of $2.625 billion, it would frankly be a better investment for the state to take those $125,000,000 and invest it in gold bullion because THAT has a higher chance of increasing in value than the generation of $2.625 billion in economic activity from the likes of whoever Harbin’s pals are with the Georgia Chamber of Commerce who convinced him that this would be a keen idea for the taxpayers of Georgia.

Hell, if the state had invested the $19,000,000 it wasted in Go Fish! in 2007 in gold when it was an average of $650 per ounce, it would have been a way better payoff than throwing it into an unprofitable venture like Go Fish!

Conclusion

Truly fiscal conservatives know there is always a cost to capital investment, whether it is private money or whether it is public tax dollars. Enough of the analysis and decision-making based on flowery language and promises of “job creation” by chamber of commerce snake-oil purveyors. Apply the Rule of 21 to every potential state government “investment for economic development” to see if the proposal is practical at all.

Leave the “job creation” to the private sector. Let the private sector KEEP more money, and we’ll create more products and more services that people will find useful enough to buy, and we’ll create jobs the old-fashioned way: by demand for useful goods and services.

Rumors have it that Republican candidate for president Newt Gingrich has now, officially, superseded his previous “dumbest thing” he ever did (i.e., sat on a couch with Nancy Pelosi whining about his belief in human-perpetrated global warming) with a brand-spanking NEW “dumbest” thing ever done.

And, his National Campaign Director Michael Krull thought it’d be so cool to share this by posting it on the Gingrich Facebook Wall on Saturday, December 24th at 6:28 PM. Here is the entire post and the highlighted paragraph PV takes issue with:

———————————————————–
“By now you’ve likely heard that our effort to gain access to the primary ballot in Virginia was not successful. This was not due to a lack of effort by our volunteers, but the cumbersome process in Virginia.

We are exploring alternate methods to compete in Virginia – stay tuned.

Going forward, we will be as in-front of the process as possible and with the help of our grassroots volunteers we will make all other deadlines.

Newt and I have talked three or four times today and he stated that this is not catastrophic – we will continue to learn and grow. Remember that it was only a few months ago that pundits and the press declared us dead after the paid consultants left. They declared that the decision not to compete in the Ames Straw Poll would mean that Iowans would ignore us. Some will again state that this is fatal.

Newt and I agreed that the analogy is December 1941: We have experienced an unexpected set-back, but we will re-group and re-focus with increased determination, commitment and positive action. Throughout the next months there will be ups and downs; there will be successes and failures; there will be easy victories and difficult days – but in the end we will stand victorious.

To help achieve that outcome we each need to spend the next 24 hours enjoying our families and friends as much as possible. Enjoy their company. Be grateful for them. Gather strength from them. The promise of a better future for our family and friends is the reason we are committed to rebuilding the America we love.

May the spirit of the season fill each of you. Merry Christmas.

Michael Krull
National Campaign Director”
———————————————————–

PV Says WTF? Really, Newt? You’re going to compare your failure to get on a ballot with “December 1941″…presumably, December 7th, 1941, perhaps?

Lest we at the Political Vine jump to any conclusions, let’s consider the possibilities:

1) Was it a surprise “attack” of Virginia’s Republican Party’s Rules that prohibited Newt Gingrich from getting his name on the ballot?

2) Were any of Newt Gingrich’s campaign volunteers gunned-down by any kamikaze aircraft and/or volunteer members of OTHER presidential campaigns working to get their candidate on the ballot with enough signatures?

3) Did torpedoes dropped from flying aircraft explode and sink any SUVs piloted by Newt’s volunteers criss-crossing the state trying to get signatures before the deadline?

4) Will the date that Virginia announced that Newt’s name will not be on the ballot be the “Day of Infamy” or the “Day of Stupidity” for the Gingrich campaign?

5) Could it have really been the Germans who bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and then they emigrated to Virginia, became Republicans, and ambushed Newt Gingrich when he tried to get his name on the ballot?

PV could go on and on here, but we’re not historians, we’re political satirists (and this stuff just writes itself).

Newt Gingrich Fans, pay attention to this question: If Barack Obama had said ANYTHING remotely resembling this kind of moronic, puerile analogy, would you have jumped all over him, Yes or No?

And, if the answer is “Yes”, but you don’t utter a peep concerning Newt’s use of this ridiculous “analogy,” then that makes you a potential candidate for being rather…intellectually dishonest yourself.

Newt’s fascination with repeatedly putting his own feet into his mouth aside, it is especially poignant to PV that not too long ago, a Newt supporter (in reference to the then-unraveling Herman Cain campaign) told the PV that “any candidate that cannot run their campaign effectively should not be President”…and, PV wonders if that theory applies to their own candidate now who could not acquire 10,000 registered voter signatures to get his name successfully on a state’s ballot?

Ya know, if you cannot find 10,000 registered voters, how the heck are you going to find 10,000,000* of them???

In a recent online article that exposed the fraud perpetrated by CNN when they claimed Ron Paul “abruptly ended” the interview with CNN reporter(sic) Gloria Borger last week, Newt offered his brilliant(sic) insight into the matter about Ron Paul’s newsletters: “But he’s sufficiently ready to be president? It strikes me it raises some fundamental questions about [Ron Paul].”

PV Sez: Same “fundamental questions” go for you, too, Newt.

PV Prediction: This year, the PPP will not decide the GOP candidate…the Republican Convention will actually be a real convention (complete with delegates/alternates being wined, dined, bribed, extorted, and whatever else people can do to secure a nomination). Count on bedlam and flotsam.

Rumors have it that a multi-agent special investigative squad assembled by the FBI in August 2011 is here in Georgia because of a certain straw that was laid on the camel’s back in June 2011 at the Georgia State Ethics Commission, and broke it.

First published by Jim Walls over at Atlanta Unfiltered tonight, Walls reveals that there appears to have been some kind of federal investigation into Governor Deal’s finances over the past year.

However, that really isn’t the most interesting part of this story. Walls has a document up that is a Memo to File written by Georgia Office of The State Inspector General (“OIG”) that is a conversational transcript of what former (politically-dismissed) State Ethics Commission Investigator Sherilyn Streicker told the OIG on August 29, 2011. (NOTE: In case that copy of the memo vanishes from Walls’ site, here is a backup copy of the OIG Memo)

In this Memo, several fascinating things are revealed:

1) Sometime between February 2011 and June 2011 (when her job was “conveniently” eliminated by the State Ethics Commission), Streicker and Executive Director Stacy Kalberman met with the FBI. (Note: It has previously been claimed around the Gold Dome by sources close to Deal that Kalberman was lying in her story to the AJC back over the summer regarding the FBI having any interest at all with the Deal ethics’ investigation. This OIG Memo proves those claims to be undeniably false now and that Kalberman had met with the FBI regarding Deal’s case.)

2) According to the OIG Memo, Streicker and Kalberman met with three members of the Commission on May 3, 2011 after their regularly scheduled meeting (Kent Alexander, Josh Belinfante, and Kevin Abernethy) to discuss the draft subpoena for getting Governor Deal’s records.

3) Ethics Commissioner Kevin Abernethy (appointed by Lt. Governor Casey Cagle via the Committee on Committees), when handed a copy of the draft subpoena reportedly “turned white and said he didn’t want any part of this [investigation into Governor Deal]“ when Kalberman and Streicker discussed the issue with him.

4) Streicker then describes the encounter with then-Chairman of the Ethics Commission Patrick Millsaps regarding the draft subpoena where Millsaps “came across as hesitant about our investigation [into Governor Deal's finances.]“

PV Sniffs The Air: You folks smell that? It smells like an investigation needs to be opened, not on Deal, but on then-member (and Chair) of the State Ethics Commission Patrick Millsaps, as well as current Chair Kevin Abernethy to ask the following questions:

1) In the AJC article published on June 16, 2011, there is a paragraph describing then-Chairman Patrick Millsaps reaction to the draft subpoena in a meeting with Millsaps on May 3: “We were given something on the Deal case,” Millsaps said of the May 3 meeting. “I probably didn’t look at it too much.”

Golly. REALLY, Mr. Millsaps? Why didn’t you “look at it too much?” What kind of people do we HAVE as our “ethics commissioners” if they don’t bother “looking” at things like DRAFT SUBPOENAS????

2) Someone needs to ask Kevin Abernathy exactly what part of his job description does he not get when his response to being handed a draft subpoena to review is “I don’t want any part of this” (AND “turning white” as if in sheer horror and fear?)

In short, Ladies and Gentlemen, this matter now officially stinks to HIGH HEAVEN in Georgia.

AND…these questions that need to be asked of Millsaps and Abernethy should NOT be asked by any investigator at the state level (because AG Sam Olens is charged by the Georgia Constitution to act as legal counsel of the State Ethics Commission and cannot adequately conduct an investigation on his own client while representing the People of Georgia via his oath of office) but by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Why should these questions be asked? Because the manner in which events happened (i.e., Kalberman introduces the subpoena idea, and within a few weeks, a plan is concocted to fire staff and push Kalberman out so that no resources exist for the investigation into the Governor’s financial activities) points directly to a deliberate conspiracy between Patrick Millsaps and the Governor’s peeps to shut down the Ethics Commission’s investigation into Deal’s financial doings.

That multi-member FBI squad came to town in August. You can bet this kerfuffle at the State Ethics Commission in May-June of 2011 was the straw that broke the camel’s back with the U.S. Attorney’s Office of The Northern District of Georgia.

OH…one other thing…a piece of advice for the US Attorney’s Office and the FBI: If you’re tracking interesting money flows, make sure you make a note to look into the state PAC committee disclosures of Governor Deal’s Real PAC when they are filed in January 2012 and throughout 2012.

Who is John Wilkinson? Now that the Lt. Governor has endorsed him, this is a fair question.

Sometime in the past few days, a mail piece hit the district that accuses Wilkinson of voting Democrat in ’4 out of the last 7 primaries.’ The Wilkinson campaign has spent the last 24 hours vociferously protesting what the mailer implies, as well as blaming their opponent, Rick Austin for being responsible for it.

We’ve seen the mailpiece (PeachPundit.com has a copy uploaded to it), and this is not a piece from Rick Austin’s campaign. The Austin campaign uses Stoneridge for their campaign mail, and, in addition to the stark difference in quality between this anti-Wilkinson piece and Stoneridge’s work, the postmark for the hit piece is for a permit holder in Tucker, Georgia.

Stoneridge would NEVER (ever) pass-up an opportunity to promote themselves via their eponymous postmark. So, the Wilkinson campaign should stop accusing the Austin campaign because they were not the source, and any more accusations just makes you look dumb and dumber.

Now, let’s turn our attention to the claim of the ’4 out of 7′ elections. Here’s an idea…let’s look at Wilkinson’s voting record direct from the Stephens County Board of Elections.

There are several ways to count-up primaries, and everyone has their own opinion on what counts as a real, defining primary (“defining” as in defining whether or not someone is a true Republican or a true Democrat) and what doesn’t.

For years, people in the state of Georgia would split their political preferences and tend to vote more conservative for Presidential elections, and more liberal for state-representation offices. Thus the reason why it took several cycles after Bush won in 2000 to get a majority of Republican officeholders in Georgia.

The point of this is, voting R or D in Presidential Preference Primaries (PPP) is not always considered to be a relevant indicator of whether a voter is a true R or a true D.

SO, if, in looking at Wilkinson’s voting record, one ignores the PPPs, you get the following primary elections and how he voted:

1996: D
1998: No Vote
2000: D
2002: D
2004: D
2006: R
2008: R
2010: R

A more correct wording of the “4 out of 7″ claim would have been “Out of the last 7 primary elections in which Wilkinson voted, he voted Democrat in 4 of them.”

BUT, infinitesimal parsing of the language gets a little wordy and that creates a problem because the reader of the mail piece starts to get a headache as they try to interpret what you’re trying to say.

To be fair to the Wilkinson campaign, let’s see what happens when you put the PPPs into the mix:

1996: D
1998: No Vote
2000 PPP: No vote
2000: D
2002: D
2004 PPP: No vote
2004: D
2006: R
2008 PPP: R
2008: R
2010: R

With these results, if we were writing the mail piece, it would read “Out of the last 11 elections, John Wilkinson chose to vote Republican in only 4 of them. So, if he’s a Republican only 36% of the time, what kind of person is he the other 64% of the time?”

Now, of course, to be fair, one should ask what Rick Austin’s voting record is, right? Here’s his voting record. As you can see, there isn’t a “D” to be found anywhere in Austin’s voting record.

Back to Wilkinson’s voting record, it is very curious as to why Wilkinson remained a voting “D” until 2006. Perdue won Georgia in 2002. At that point, if you have been leaning to the conservative side of the aisle, you go ahead and switch before the next cycle in 2004.

Wilkinson didn’t switch. He remained a Dem voter in July 2004, and a reasonable assumption would be because he still wished to lend support to the Tom Murphy-controlled State House in 2004 and to vote for Democrat state senators to try and take back the state senate from Republican control.

And he likely voted D in the General Election on 2004 as well (i.e., John Kerry for President, Denise Majette for US Senator).

SO, the point of this exercise is that Mr. Wilkinson does not appear to have very long-standing, deep roots for the Republican Party and its’ principles.

WHICH, getting back to the real reason why Casey Cagle would be endorsing Wilkinson is because Wilkinson does not have a long-standing, strong Republican bearing. Perfect candidate for Cagle to use for his own personal, political purposes.

According to his Website, Duke Blackburn worked for 20 years in “Georgia government” and retired in 2009. On his Website, he states that he “knows how government works.”

In 2006, he threw his support behind Mark Taylor (D) for Governor by not only contributing $250.00 to Taylor’s campaign, but also adorning his front lawn with Mark Taylor for Governor signs.

Now, while there will be those of you who declare “Oh, that was 5 years ago! He wants to be a Republican now. Let’s hug him and welcome him in!”….ehhhh, not so fast.

Blackburn appears to have retired from government in 2009, and has no evidence of ever demonstrating any knowledge of, or interest in, Republican politics. He has no record of anything remotely resembling a right-wing conservative mind.

As for the endorsement by Casey Cagle, Cagle clearly sees someone who he can easily influence and manipulate. He sees Blackburn as merely a lump of undefined political clay, ready to be molded into whatever kind of Republican Casey needs.

Now, as it turns out, Cagle and Blackburn do both share a similar past: They have both contributed to Democrat Mark Taylor. We referenced the $250 contribution Blackburn gave Taylor in 2006 for his Governor’s campaign.

In 2006, in the Lt. Governor’s primary between Casey Cagle and Ralph Reed, the Reed campaign unearthed Casey’s contribution of $1000.00 to Lt. Governor Mark Taylor in the 1999-2000 time frame. (The AJC’s Jim Galloway wrote a column about it which does not appear to be on the Web any longer…)

As far as the qualifications for Mike Crane go (Blackburn’s opponent), Crane has a documented history of many years of Republican activity, not the least of which most recently was his winning the Republican run-off in August 2010 for Congressional District 13, and then challenging Democrat David Scott in the General (Crane lost…very tough district for a Republican to win).

So, Mike Crane has proven Republican chops. That, apparently, is something Cagle doesn’t want to have to face in a senator in his chamber.

Final Comment on Blackburn: Nothing personal to him, but, when a ghost (i.e., someone who has no Republican form prior to qualifying) shows-up to qualify for office as a Republican, you gotta wonder if he’s doing it because he’s a person who believes in the principles of the Republican Party, or is he doing it because he just thinks that’s the best way to win?

Also, in our view, the last thing this state needs is another ex-government bureaucrat. Because, the only thing bureaucrats know how to do really well is create and manage the red-tape processes the rest of us just grit our teeth and grimace about every time we interact with a state agency.

Mitch Seabaugh served SS District 28 for a long time as a very solid conservative Republican. To replace him with someone whose principles no one really knows anything about is just asking for a lot of trouble.

Rumors have it that the skirmish that made headlines all over the state between Lt. Governor Casey Cagle and the senate GOP caucus leadership in the waning days of this year’s General Assembly is now being fought in hand-to-hand combat in two battle theaters: The State Senate District 50 and State Senate District 28 run-offs to be held this coming Tuesday, December 6.

Lt. Governor Casey Cagle has endorsed two candidates in these run-offs:

1) Recently endorsed John Wilkinson in the 50th in his run-off against current State House legislator Rick Austin. (Source: online news article)

2) Recently endorsed Duke Blackburn in the 28th district, in his run-off against Mike Crane. ( Source: Blackburn’s website)

Now, an inattentive observer of the Lt. Governor’s involvement in these two races might not think much beyond the fluffy hug-fests stuffed into press releases as to the reasons why Cagle would be making moves to make endorsements in two special election races in which all 4 candidates are running as Republicans.

But, when attentive observers look more closely at the LG’s endorsements, there is an indication of a deliberate strategy of a personal political gain behind the endorsements.

During the original skirmish (i.e., during the birth and rise of ‘Beth Merkelson’), one of the rumors was that Cagle was very close to cutting a deal with Minority Senator Robert Brown whereby if enough Republican state senators abandoned the GOP caucus structure put in place in November of 2010 (in which the LG’s authority was removed from making committee assignments), and these GOP senators voted with the Democrat Caucus, the LG would regain a ruling majority, which would allow him to re-write the Senate Rules and declare himself King of the Hill.

At the time of the skirmish, PV did not believe the rumor regarding Casey joining forces with Robert Brown. There was no evidence, soft or hard, at the time.

However, with these two current-day endorsements in particular, the original rumor is now looking more and more plausible because it would explain why the LG is making these moves now, and nothing else comes close to explaining it.

Every year, America sets aside a special day — Veterans Day — to thank its veterans for their service and sacrifice. And well we should.

Originally known as Armistice Day in America and Europe, the occasion commemorated the signing of the armistice between the Allies (in particular, America, Britain, and France) and Germany at 11:00AM on November 11, 1918 — the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of that year. The armistice marked the end of World War I which came to be known as the “war to end all wars.”

Later, in America, the name was changed to Veterans Day and each year across the country thousands of parades, festivals, and celebrations of every sort are held in honor of our nation’s veterans. And during many of these celebrations, two minutes of silence are observed beginning exactly at 11:00AM in honor of our nation’s fallen heroes.

There is a saying, “Freedom is not free.” That is especially true of America’s freedom. To gain a bit of perspective regarding our nation’s sacrifice in the name of protecting our freedoms, one need only consider the number of soldiers killed in battle: Revolutionary War (1775 — 1783) 25,324; War of 1812 — 2,260; Mexican War (1846 — 1848) 13,283; Civil War (1861 — 1865) approximately 640,000; Spanish-American War (1898) 2,893; Philippines War (1899 — 1902) 4,273; World War I (1917 — 1918) 116,708; World War II (1941 — 1945) 408,306; Korean War (1950 — 1953) 54,246; Vietnam War (1957 — 1975) 58,219; Persian Gulf War (1990 — 1991) 363; Afghanistan War (2001 to date) approximately 1,800; Iraq War (2003 to date) approximately 5,000.

Further, the number of American soldiers wounded in battle often far exceeds those killed: Revolutionary War (1775 — 1783) 8,445; War of 1812 — 4,505; Civil War (1861 — 1865) 418,206; Spanish-American War (1898) 1,637; Philippines War (1899 — 1902) 2,840; World War I (1917 — 1918) 204,002; World War II (1941 — 1945) 670,846; Korean War (1950 — 1953) 103,284; Vietnam War (1957 — 1975) 153,356; Persian Gulf War (1990 — 1991) 357; Afghanistan War (2001 to date)
approximately 5,000; Iraq War (2003 to date) approximately 15,000.

Many of those wounded in action suffer permanent disabilities or are permanently disfigured.

However, honoring veterans isn’t only about recognizing the number killed or wounded in action. It’s also about recognizing their sacrifices which come in many forms: time away from home and family; the missed milestones in children’s lives such as graduations, recitals, awards banquets and sporting events; enduring the rigors of deployment or the horrors of battle; and the homesickness among so many other sacrifices.

When Daddy joined the US Army at the outbreak of World War II, he was 22 years old. He had seldom been away from home. One day he stepped on a train in Parkersburg, West Virginia, waved goodbye to his mother through the window, and didn’t return for three and a half years. He sailed halfway around the world to serve in lands as foreign to him as if he had landed on another planet. He served in New Guinea, the Philippines, and numerous islands in between. And when it was all over, he spent 33 days at sea crossing the Pacific Ocean in an LST — landing ship tank — small vessels designed to transport soldiers from troop ships to the beach, not to sail across the open ocean. Now that is sacrifice.

Through the years, he seldom spoke of the war. Quiet humility is his nature after all. And it is the nature of many from his generation that has come to be known as the “greatest generation.” I’m proud of his service. I’m proud of all Americans who’ve served our nation honorably. And I’m proud to be a veteran myself.

So, this Veterans Day, be proud of America’s veterans and be proud of America. And never apologize for America’s greatness. After all, we earned it. And for that, don’t forget to thank a veteran.

Mark Mathews is the current mayor of Kennesaw, and is running for reelection this Tuesday, November 8th.

First elected as mayor in 2007, he started his term in January 2008.

According to his reelection Website, he states the following as part of his business resume:

“1989-2009: Mathews Carpet Company – a company started by his parents in 1974. In 2001 MR Mathews, Inc. was created to purchase the business, Mathews Abbey Flooring, providing all types of flooring products and services to the residential, commercial, and new construction markets. Forced to close business due to economic downturn.”

A more accurate statement (and, truthful one at that) with regards to being “Forced to close business due to economic downturn” would have been “Filed bankruptcy in 2009 as a result of economic downturn.”

See, Ladies and Gentlemen, there is a difference between merely “closing a business” and a business filing Chapter 7 Bankruptcy. One denotes the act of merely ceasing operations after settling all debts…while the other one denotes a legal filing to a federal court to officially tell 44 some-odd creditors “Hey…ummm…sorry, we ain’t gonna pay you what we owe” to “close” the business.

So, if he’s not accurate in his description of what actually happened to his business, one might wonder if it really went bankrupt due solely to an “economic downturn” OR…could it be because Mathews was spending too much of his time playing mayor and dealing in the “fun” of politics rather than keeping his eye on his business enterprise?

Also in 2009, Mathews and his wife had to personally file for bankruptcy. (We are not in any way implying or inferring anything negative with regards to the character of Mark Mathews or his wife.)

HOWEVER…in referencing the actual filing (a 23 Megabyte PDF file should you choose to open or download it), there are significant instances of the taxpayers of several government jurisdictions being left on the hook for Mathews’ tax debt.

Specifically:

- City of Marietta: $2286.53 (Page 31 of 83 in PDF)
- City of Marietta Section 8 Housing Authority: $2003.43 (Page 39 of 83 in PDF)
- Cobb County Tax Commissioner: $626.00 (Page 40 of 83)
- Cobb County Tax Commissioner: $1553.32 (Page 40 of 83)

All told, Mark Mathews (via himself and MR Mathews, Inc) has left several Cobb County-based municipalities $6,469.28 in the red and OTHER taxpayers having to foot his tax bills (by having to pay higher taxes on their tax bills owed)

Now, the 2nd-term seeking mayoral candidate just happens to be one of the big, Big, BIG proponents of next year’s T-SPLOST. You know, that little vote that will require all Kennesaw inhabitants the additional responsibility of paying 1% more in sales tax on everything they buy in Cobb. Yeah. Mathews is in favor of you paying more taxes so that he can have a hand in spending on your behalf.

Councilman Tim Killingsworth, Post 2 is running for reelection to the Kennesaw City Council. He is also known to be a tight ally of Mark Mathews.

On October 24th, there was a candidate forum held by the Kennesaw Patch (an online local news site that is owned by Huffington-Post).

Here is a link to a PDF version of the transcript.

It is interesting to us that Councilman Killingsworth, at Time Marker 7:32 states “We haven’t raised your taxes, and we don’t plan to do that anytime soon.”

Then…at Time Marker 7:45, Killingsworth answers the question of whether he supports the T-SPLOST vote next year by saying “I would have to say I do support it.”

So, for Killingsworth’s mind, maybe there’s a distinction in his mind of what constitutes “anytime soon” and intending to push (along with Mathews coordinating) for passage of next year’s T-SPLOST vote to…do what? Oh, yeah. RAISE TAXES.

PV’s Conclusion: Frankly, in our opinion, the existence of Mathews’ two bankruptcies (personal and business defaults) are not the direct issues here.

What should be important in this case is the following:

1) Mathews had an obligation to be truthful as to why his business “closed.” It’s easy to blame the downturn…but, not everyone has gone out of business due to the downturn. AND, filing a bankruptcy is NOT the same thing as “closing a business.”

2) The failure to pay nearly $6500 in various taxes to the City of Marietta (hey, Thunder has deep pockets to cover this default, right, Thunder?) and the Cobb County Tax Commissioner’s office (hey, Tim Lee and Helen Goreham will cover for Mathews in a heartbeat…they’ll just raise the rest of our millages, right?).

No, defaulting on taxes should immediately disqualify anyone from “serving” the people. We hope that come the Election Night of November 8, the voters of Kennesaw disqualify the reelection of Mark Mathews.

Last week, we issued a Poll to the Vine readership consisting of this one question: ” If a person running for public office has a bankruptcy of any type in their background, should it be disclosed?”

Out of 142 votes cast, 111 voted “Yes, it should be disclosed” and 32 voted “No, I don’t care to know.”

There was an opportunity for people to give their own insight into the subject, and the personal opinions ran the gamut (see here for opinions…by the way, the site that the Poll is on is not controlled by Political Vine in any way, and it will not be monitored).

In reviewing these opinions, as well as consulting with other people in the world of politics, we’ve come to the following conclusions about bankruptcies (you are free to disagree):

1) Not all bankruptcies are the result of a character flaw in the people who file. It does not mean the person is immoral or unethical for filing a bankruptcy (of course, if any US Senator from Georgia ever files for bankruptcy, we’ll be scratching our heads and wondering why they didn’t get enough ROI from their crony capitalist bank pals after they voted in 2005 to give the homeowner less of a chance for recovery, all the while giving more power and absolution to the banks themselves).

2) Not all bankruptcies are entirely the fault of the person or business making the filing.

3) Barring the actual attempt to defraud, defaulting on money owed to creditors is not a sign of anyone who is being inherently dishonest (the creditors voluntarily took a risk to give credit to the borrower…that is an agreement between two private parties as far as we are concerned and a happenstance of the free market).

4) However, if the person has defaulted on taxes owed to a government entity, AND….that person is a candidate for a publicly-elected office for some position at some level of government, then everyone’s pretty much in agreement that that is a sign of hypocrisy present that is not going to be tolerated for very long by the voters and taxpayers.

It is this 4th point that is crucial to understand why there’s “hypocrisy” if someone is elected to office who hasn’t paid their own tax bills. It is the reason why we felt it was necessary to expose, not only the $137,000 some-odd of current tax liens that HD 43 candidate Robert Lamutt had on his current books, but also his documented 7-year history of having liens at both the federal and state level field against him that made it relevant.

When you are elected to public office, you are, in effect, using the force of government to extract tax dollars from us to pay for your fiefdom.

And, unless you think, as an elected official, that you should be exempt from paying taxes to support your infrastructure, your failure to pay taxes means that the burden must fall on the rest of the taxpayers.

And, taxpayers don’t particularly care to shoulder your load while you are put in charge of making decisions on how to spend their money.

Rumors have it that Senator Cecil Staton is growing a bigger pair of cojones (pronounced ka-hon-ees) these days. So much so that he has taken it upon himself to invoke his title “State Senator” when he solicits new business for advertising on his radio station business.

One such incident happened several weeks ago when he called on the CEO of a large hospital in middle-Georgia, which just happened to be located in his senate district. He told the hospital decision-maker “Say, you should advertise on my radio station…oh, and I’m your state senator.”

PV Utters A “_ _ _?” (Hangman, anyone?): Wow. Essentially, Staton is playing the “Buy radio advertising from me OR else I, as YOUR State Senator, will hurt your operation, hold-up legislation, and generally make your life and this hospital live through Hell…” playing card.

That does take some cojones. AND, a certain degree of real stupidity.

Because, there is a set of written rules that the Georgia State Senate operates on, and one of them is that a member cannot invoke their title as a way of using leverage in a private business deal. Under Part Four-Conduct & Ethics, there is a slew of topics, not the least of which is 1-4.1: “(a) Senators and Senate staff shall refrain from using government positions to attain personal financial gain.”

PV Provides Some Background: But we kinda already have that experience with Senator Staton with his direct knowledge and participation in the Beth Merkelson saga near the end of the 2011 Legislative Session.

Now, another flourishing rumor is that Staton is up to his eyeballs in current debt owed to Mercer University…because Mercer apparently had a similar deal with one of Staton’s radio stations that Georgia Southern University had regarding the splitting of advertising revenue sold for the broadcast of college athletic events, and Staton owes Mercer big time.

This story from WMAZ in Macon from June 2011 describes the GSU issue whereby GSU is claiming Staton’s company owes them $52,000 in overdue radio advertising revenues.

PV suspects that Mercer University will either not return news organizations’ phone calls OR flat-out deny that any such advertising revenue is owed to them. Why? Because Senator Staton acts as one of their biggest benefactors in getting state revenue tax dollars out of the state budget and into Mercer University’s operating budget (what exactly does “private university” even mean anymore???).

PV Ponders: Golly, we wonder what Cecil Staton’s #1 Fan, Erick Erickson, thinks about a state senator using his position to attempt to extort new business while giving the middle-finger to old business that he owes multiple thousands of dollars to? Especially when it concerns Erick’s own alma mater?

Well, knowing Erickson’s incredible capacity for political myopia, PV’s pretty sure Erickson will be telling his Mercer Admin-pals that they shouldn’t worry about getting that money.

Because just as soon as Staton is successful in convincing NEW business to come-in (vis-a-vis , thinly-veiled political threats to hospitals and the like in his district), we’re certain Staton will use those new dollars to pay all of his old business debt…’cause, he’s such a good state senator isn’t he, Beth? Beth? Bethhhhhh…? Yo! Where’d that girl get to now…?

POLL QUESTION