Last week, Rep. Jay Roberts dropped HB 1285, a bill designed to make it legal to bait deer with food in places that deer might not normally go, and shoot them as long as the baiter is at least 200 yards away.

Wow…that kinda reminds me of noodling, except the fish have somewhat of a sporting chance in the natural habitat of the water.

Not so with some goober being able to set-up a bait stand and entice deer to come into areas that are usually barren of such food for the sheer purpose of him/her being able to more easily kill the deer. Yeah…that’s sporting alright.

And, who’s going to pace-off the 200 yards to make sure the “hunter” (cough!-cough!) plays fair within the law?

Hey, here’s a great idea for Rep. Roberts: Let’s put a hooker in his office and see if she cannot entice him to put on her panties for a lap dance right then and there.

Marvin Olasky of the WORLD Christian Magazine takes Ralph Reed and Ralph’s primary evangelical in-kind, Dr. James Dobson, to task in his latest posting on the Abramoff-Reed affair.

Rumors have it that Ralph Reed and Grover Norquist have been subpoened in connection with an ever-expanding federal probe into the illegal money laundering and influence-peddling fallout of Jack Abramoff.

As reported by National Journal on Monday, February 13, the subpoena targets the U.S. Family Network, an organization suspected of laundering money for bribery deals with Tom DeLay and others. Reed and Norquist were included in the subpoena due to, we suspect, their involvement in laundering other funds on behalf of the Indian clients of Abramoff.

Last week State Rep. Ben Harbin (R) introduced the subject of “de-regulation” of the auto insurance industry in Georgia so that the insurance behemoths wouldn’t have to apply to the Insurance Commissioner’s office for approval on rate hikes. Harbin thinks that if you “de-regulate” something like auto insurance policies, prices will come down and everyone will be happy.

I am surprised at Ben for not knowing the difference between a “competitive marketplace” and a “marketplace of necessities.” But, since he actually makes his living writing insurance policies, perhaps he’s just overlooking these differences because it is convenient.

A “competitive marketplace” is one in which both buyers and suppliers act freely among many choices. It is one in which the buyers must be able to choose to enter the market and purchase something on their own. Auto insurance in this state is not a “free choice” thing for people to choose to buy. It is a state law that you buy and carry auto insurance.

Therefore, the auto insurance market in Georgia is a “marketplace of necessities” in that people are required to buy insurance if they wish to own and drive a car.

So, if you remove the regulation of a required market, then what’s to stop the auto insurance companies from jacking-up their rates to astronomical levels across the board? Answer: NOTHING.

I hope the legislature does not fall for the belief that all “regulation is bad” and de-regulation is the answer to everything. It’s not in this case.

A hat tip to the Real Ralph Reed Blog for their breaking news story last Friday.

The investigation into Ralph’s lobbying of Texas officials is getting closer to the bone for Ralph. Here’s the excerpt from the blog:

“Travis County Texas prosecutors on Thursday issued subpoenas to Primedia Inc. which is the parent company of Channel One. Channel One is a TV channel that airs in many school systems around the county during homeroom. Since children are forced to watch the station it offers a young captive audience that advertisers find quite desirable. In 2002 the state school board in Texas voted on “a nonbinding resolution by board member Judy Strickland urging school districts to cancel their contracts with Primedia’s Channel One education service because it subjects children in the classroom to commercials.” Despite the opposition of many Christian conservatives, Reed was being paid by Primedia to lobby on their behalf in Texas.

“Today an article in the Houston Chronicle connects a few more dots. First it is important to note that Reed was not alone in working for the company. Abramoff was the registered lobbyist for Primedia at the time of the 2002 donations…”

Read more here

If Bill Clinton or Al Gore or Insert Dem President’s Name Here was President of the United States at this time, would Republicans be just as defensive of the President Dem’s actions on wiretapping as they are now for President Bush?

Political minds want to know…post your answer/comments here.

Someone explain this to me, please: How can one “testify” to any government body, or in any legal proceeding, and NOT swear an oath to tell the truth?

This is the case with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in his appearance before the U.S. Senate panel investigating whether or not the President broke federal laws on wiretapping. He did not swear an oath…on a Bible or anything else. So, who cares what he says?

In his…“Q&A session” (which is what I’ll call it since it is not legally “testimony”) with the Senate, he stated that they only tapped international phone calls when they came from known Al-Quadia sources. Really?

If they are “known” to be Al-Quaida, do we have AWAC planes circling areas where these phone calls come from to see if we can pinpoint locations and wipe them out? Okay…well, maybe that’s classified info, but, if we’re not doing it, that’s a missed opportunity…

…the censored ads by GoDaddy were another matter entirely… 🙂

SuperBowl Ads We All Missed

Two women got ejected from the House Gallery during last night’s State of the Union speech: Cindy Sheehan and Beverly Young, wife of Rep. C.W. Bill Young (R-FL) were both ejected from the assembly because of T-shirts they wore.

Sheehan’s shirt was a protest shirt against the war in Iraq, while Young’s shirt was a T-shirt urging the support of troops. Capitol Police made no distinction between the two messages when they escorted both women out.

Rumors have it that Cherokee County Commission Chairman Mike Byrd is telling constituents in Cherokee County that “John Konop will be elected Congressman over my dead body.”

PV’s Analysis: Wow! And here we thought Mike Byrd was a pro-life guy. He’s actually willing to lay down his life for Tom Price. That’s really sweet of him.

But, more to the point, it also means Mike Byrd is more in love with Tom Price than he is with his own wife. Last year, when his wife Charlice (who is now State Rep. Byrd) was running for state rep against Gina Carr, Mike never made such utterances on the threat by Carr on his wife’s candidacy.

But now that fellow Cherokee County resident John Konop is daring to challenge Mike Byrd’s secret squeeze, Mike is willing to fight to the death on behalf of Tom Price. Ah, who says Republicans aren’t romantic? *Sigh!*

Taking Byrd’s statement and coupling it with the statement made by Mrs. Tom Price, Dr. Betty Price, in a Cherokee County forum in early December when she told Konop’s 11-year-old son that he “should be ashamed of his father” for daring to run against her husband, and we think this upcoming 6th District Primary has all the makings of an old-fashioned Hatfield v. McCoy shootout in absurdity displayed by the Price supporters.

Chuck Eaton (R) of Atlanta has decided to throw his hat in the race for PSC.  He faces fellow Republican Drew Evangelista in the primary.  If he wins the July primary, he will face incumbent commissioner David Burgess (D) in the November general election.

In an upcoming story to be published in Newsweek, details of an internal revolt by some lawyers in the Justice Department are revealed in regards to the president’s war on terror and, specifically, the illegal wiretapping activities.