Chamblee54

PG received the following letter yesterday. He suspects a mistake. A certain person named Flap Jack sends a letter to his nephews and nieces, and tells them it is from Santa Claus. At the same time, Mr. Jack sends PG a christmas card, showing Santa in a hideous fashion statement. Apparently, PG got the letter intended for New York State, and no one knows who got the greeting card.
Greetings from the North Pool. You read that right – We’ve re-named it, temporarily. It’s been unusually warm at the North Pole this year, and things have been melting for the first time since I’ve lived here, which has been quite a while. And it’s been raining, instead of snowing.
So things are pretty wet. No one’s been skating in months, because where there used to be ice, there’s mostly water now – Lakes of it. The polar bears love to belly-flop in and swim, but the water’s a bit cold for the rest of us, and we’re used to cold! Some of the hardier elves have built a motor boat (from the plans for a toy boat, but bigger) and taken up water skiing, wearing candy-striped wetsuits. The speeding skiers and the galumphing bears are not always a happy combination, but it’s very funny to sit in the house and watch the action.
Speaking of the house, there’s suddenly a lot more of it. You may remember that, as the snow piled up year after year, we just built more and more floors onto the top of the house, and ended up with scores of basements and sub-basements. Now, with so much of the snow gone, I find I live in a huge tower. It’s not really a problem; each floor was once the main floor, so each one has a front door. It’s just a matter of remembering that yesterday’s ground floor may be today’s second, and taking a good look before I step out what I THINK is the door. That first step can be, as they say, a lu-lu.
Of course, the house suddenly being 80 storeys tall (and counting), rather than just two or three, support is a concern. My Architecture Elves (Impei, Frankl Oyd, and Bowhouse) were right on the job, adding ever-taller flying buttresses, although they do argue quite a lot about the style. McDonald’s offered to install some giant yellow arches to hold things steady, but I still resist corporate sponsorship of my operations.
Anyway, it started snowing again the other day, so we’ll hope it was just some natural weather thing, and not something that people have to – you know – agree to fix. There’s no land under the snow and ice here, you know, so if the North Pole goes, it’s just gone. And then where will I be?
I hope you’re enjoying your Winter weather, and being good for your Mom and Dad, and to each other. I’ll see you soon.

PG believes, with all his heart, that the holidays have gotten tooooo serious. With people fighting over which greeting to give, what we need is some humor. The following true story comes courtesy of Andrew Sullivan. Mr. Sullivan (or his helper) is also the source of the Punjabi christmas. White trash xmas is from the youtube search engine. The decorated celebrities were found in an empty locker at a bus station.
A man walks into a bar.He wears a charcoal gray suit, a charcoal hat, charcoal socks, black leather shoes, and a silver Porsche watch on the wrist of the hand that carries a rather large briefcase, which he carefully sets down before straddling a stool and addressing the bartender. “A Knob Creek Manhattan, up,” “Sure thing, buddy.”
As the bartender turns his back to mix the drink, the contents of the briefcase are emptied, and when he returns, serving the drink on a square napkin, he sees spread out on the shiny wooden bar top a miniature piano, a tiny piano stool to scale, and atop it a little man, 12 inches tall, playing faint music that sounds like Brahms’ Piano Concerto 2 in B flat major.
“Well I’ll be damned,” the bartender says. “Where did you get a little guy like that?” He hunches over to scrutinize the musician more closely. “Look at those long, tiny fingers!”
The man, having gulped half his drink, says nothing, but the bartender presses him, and finally he erupts. “It’s a long story,” the man says. “But it all started with this magic lamp.” At this he reaches back into the briefcase, produces in his diminutive hands a small, golden lamp, and shoves it toward the bartender, who yanks the towel from his waist and begins polishing.
POOOF! When the smoke clears, a genie is revealed hovering in the air between the man and the bartender. “You’ve got one wish,” the genie demands. “Use it or lose it.”The bartender stammers. “I’ll be,” he says, feeling rushed. “Well I guess I wish for… I wish for… I wish for $10 million bucks!” POOOF! The genie is gone.
The bar is quiet, except for the faint sound of Brahms rising from the bar top, and the bartender, regaining his composure, starts to worry. “Hey, what about my wish,” he says. “Nothing happened.”
But that very moment, over at the open door, a fluttering is heard, and then a quack, and in waddles a duck, followed by a second duck, and a third — and soon the bar is filling with a badelynge, a bunch, a brace, a grouse, a whole flock of quacking mallards. They stream in without end. “Now wait just a minute,” the bartender cries. “I see what’s happening here! I didn’t wish for a million ducks! I wished for a million bucks!”
The man sighs knowingly. “Do you think,” he said, “that I wished for a twelve inch pianist?”

PG just finished page 559 of “The Secret History”. Usually there is a 400 page limit, but this book has a reputation.
It is the first novel by Donna Tartt, born December 23, 1963 in Mississippi. She was educated at Bennington College in Vermont, where she met Bret Easton Ellis. Miss Tartt got connected with the right agents at the right time, and got an advance of an estimated $400,000 for her first novel.
PG remembers the buzz when it was published in 1992. Several novels by Jay McInerny and Bret Ellis had already passed before his eyes, and the concept of an unknown author getting a six figure advance got PG’s attention. The novelty wore off, and had been forgotten until an afternoon recently at the Chamblee library. “The Secret History” was waiting on the shelf, and PG decided it was time.
TSH is the story of six Greek scholars, their esoteric professor, and the redistribution of matter. The setting is a small liberal arts college in upstate Vermont, assumed to be modeled on Bennington. The well financed students do not behave. This is taken to extremes in the first scene of the story, when one of the Greek scholars is pushed off a cliff to his death.
The narrator is a California transplant named Richard Papen. He is stumbling through life, and winds up in a cult of Greek scholarship. The other five students take him into their clique, though not without a few secrets. Good times are had the first semester, until a long winter break. When the clique is reunited in spring, things are different.
PG is not an critic or a scholar. A college library can show you essays about the themes in this story, and they would bore PG. TSH is a story, with characters, plot, sex, drugs, and murder. For once the blurbs are accurate, the pages keep turning on autopilot. The amorality on display is as chilling as a Vermont winter ( bear in mind, PG has never been north of Westchester County NY, in the summer. Living in Atlanta is not complete without Yankees talking about how cold it is in the winter).

The Tiger’s Wood Tiger Woods tale gets more and more twisted. PG got a notice from blogger’s central that another post was required, if he wants to keep his blogging license.
The Fishwrapper pastes in a story from Associated Press about Eldrick. It seems as though Tiger Woods was voted Athlete of the Decayed Decade. There was no mention what sport this prize was for.
The PuffHo HuffPo chimes in from some concern from Charles Barkley. It seems that the non role model has been trying to get in touch with Mr. Woods, who has changed his phone number. “On a show that airs Sunday on news network HLN, Barkley and filmmaker Spike Lee worry that Woods isn’t taking advantage of the invaluable advice that can only be offered by friends who are used to the spotlight. “You should reach out to your celebrity friends when things go bad,” Barkley told The Associated Press in a phone interview Tuesday. “They’re the only people who understand what it’s like.”
Mr. Barkley knows what it’s like. Last year, in Arizona, Mr. Barkley was arrested for DUI. “The officer, who wrote the report said, “He told me that he ran the stop sign because he was in a hurry to pick up the girl I saw get in the passenger seat. He asked me to admit that she was ‘hot.’ He asked me, ‘You want the truth?’ When I told him I did he said, ‘I was gonna drive around the corner and get a b–w job. He then explained that she had given him a ‘b–w job’ one week earlier and said it was the best one he had ever had in his life.”
Spike Lee, who is not shy with the media, also weighed in on the situation. (Kayne West was busy). “He’s insulated. If Charles Barkley and Michael Jordan can’t get to him, and those are his boys, then other people are making bad moves.”.
“Those are his boys”. The dude gets around.

The wars in Iraq and the Stans have been fought at almost no apparent cost to the average citizen. It is a different story for our soldiers and their families, who have paid and paid and paid. The people in Iraq are not doing too well either.
The Republican idea of supporting the war is to call for tax cuts. There was a tax cut before the invasion of Iraq, a move which may be unique in history. The national debt has ballooned, and the interest on this money gets bigger and bigger.
It is not just money that some do not want to give up. The RNC that arrived at the PG house last week mentioned this. Question 13 was “Are you in favor of reinstituting the military draft, as Democrats in Congress have proposed?”
It has not always been like this. In World War Two, paying taxes was seen as patriotic, a needed part of the war against the Nazis. Today, the conservatives are offended at the idea of paying for wars.
HT to yglesias/thinkprogress for the video.

This is a repost. The incident described here took place January 12, 2008. It could have been today, yesterday, or tomorrow. It happened to someone somewhere today.
Our motor culture likes to drive fast. Being in a hurry is only part of the problem. Drivers get a charge out of driving faster than conditions allow.
Reckless driving is not seen as a sin or a character flaw. When was the last time a preacher did a sermon on driving courtesy? Considering the reputation preachers have for bad driving, it would be rank hypocrisy. Which never stops a pulpit pounder from ranting about sex or drugs. Why is safe driving not seen as a moral issue?
Open letter to the lady in the SUV.
You were behind PG on Johnson Ferry Road, between Peachtree Industrial and Ashford Dunwoody. You were following too close, and wandering from side to side of the lane, as if to tell him, drive faster. PG was going the speed limit and was not in the mood to violate the law. It was a two lane road, and there was no need to go faster.
After the first red light, there was about two hundred feet of an extra lane. You sped around PG, and got in front to turn left onto the next segment of Johnson Ferry.
You had an SUV, and bumper stickers from Emory, William and Mary, and the Human Rights Campaign Fund. PG chooses not to advertise on his vehicle. If PG donated money to a lame outfit like the HRCF, he would be quiet about it.
The next section of Johnson Ferry was a two lane road with a 35 mph speed limit. This road was built before the subdivisions and apartments, back in an era when 35 mph was moving pretty fast. There is a bridge at the bottom of the hill over Nancy Creek, which is kinda rough and broken up. PG likes to slow down a bit before crossing it.
PG looked ahead, and you had driven fast until you came to a car ahead. You seemed to be following it a bit too close. If there had been a need for a sudden stop, you might not have been able to stop your SUV in time.
The light at the top of the hill was green, and we went on through to the light at Peachtree Dunwoody, across from the hospitals. You were in the middle lane, and PG was in the right lane, next to you at the light.
All that type A driving had done you no good. The tailgating, the unsafe passing, the weaving from side to side…. all that did was make your fellow drivers nervous. You still wound up in the same place. You put the lives of others in danger, and you did not gain a thing.
If you need to be somewhere earlier, leave your residence earlier.

The State of Georgia has set an execution date for Carlton Gary. December 16 is scheduled to be his date with the gurneygoinggone, in Jackson, GA. Mr. Gary is said to be the “Stocking Strangler”, who terrorized Columbus GA in 1977 and 1978. Not everyone agrees with the verdict.
Carlton Gary was born December 15, 1952. ( His birthday is the day before the scheduled execution). He met his father once, when he was 12. His mother was poor, and often got relatives to care for her son. As Carlton Gary got older, he became familiar with law enforcement.
In 1970, there was an elderly lady strangled and murdered in upstate New York. Mr. Gary was involved. Later DNA tests indicate that Mr. Gary was the 1975 killer of Marion Fisher in Syracuse NY.
On August 22, 1977, Carlton Gary escaped from Onondaga prison. On September 15, 1977, Mary Willis “Ferne” Jackson was strangled to death with a nylon stocking. Between this date and April 20, 1978, six more women were raped and strangled with stockings. All were elderly white ladies, most of whom lived in the affluent Wyntown neighborhood.
— Ferne Jackson, 60, of 2505 17th St., killed Sept. 15, 1977.
— Jean Dimenstein, 71, of 3927 21st St., killed Sept. 25, 1977.
— Florence Scheible, 89, of 1941 Dimon St., killed Oct. 21, 1977.
— Martha Thurmond, 69, of 2614 Marion St., killed Oct. 25, 1977.
— Kathleen Woodruff, 74, of 1811 Buena Vista Road, killed Dec. 28, 1977.
— Mildred Borom, 78, of 1612 Forest Ave., killed Feb. 12, 1978.
— Janet Cofer, 61, of 3783 Steam Mill Road, killed April 20, 1978.
During this time, Carlton Gary was busy robbing restaurants. He was caught, and sent to prison in South Carolina. He escaped in 1984. At this time, the police in Columbus were working on a lead in the Stocking Strangler case.
“Police in Columbus hoped against hope that a lead they were developing in the long, dragged-out case of the Stocking Strangler would pan out. A .22 Luger handgun had been stolen from a Wynnton house at the time of the murders. An anonymous caller called the owner of the gun and said, “The police have the gun you had stolen from you.”
That gun owner reported the call to the Columbus police. At first they were baffled. They did not have that gun but could police in another area have it? Detectives put out a nationwide teletype asking if anyone had it. No other police department did. Two Kalamazoo, Michigan clerks went painstakingly through their records and found that the weapon had been registered at their shop in 1981. Detectives tracked the gun down to its current owner who said he had purchased it in Phenix City, Alabama from Jim Gary. The police interviewed Jim Gary who said he had gotten it from his nephew, Carlton Gary.
Detectives then discovered that Gary had recently escaped from the South Carolina prison where he was serving time as “Michael David.” That made their job especially urgent. If Gary was the Stocking Strangler, elderly women were in terrible danger.
Fingerprints of Carlton Gary were matched to prints found in the home of victim Kathleen Gary. Then Columbus police were contacted by investigators from Phenix City who were looking for suspected robbers and cocaine runners, one of whom was known as Michael David…
On the early morning of May 3, 1984, acting on a tip, a S.W.A.T. team went to a Holiday Inn in Albany, Georgia. Carlton Gary was in a room with a woman. When that woman came out of that room to go to an ice machine, S.W.A.T. members asked her to come to a room for questioning. She agreed to cooperate with authorities and told them that Gary had a gun on the nightstand.
Trying to decoy him into opening the door, she went back to it and knocked but ran away before he answered it. Gary opened the door, saw the police, and tried to shut it but officers kept it open with their shoulders. Then the team swarmed into the room and captured him…
True to his pattern, Gary confessed to having been at the homes of the Wynnton area victims but denied raping or murdering them. His accomplice, Malvin Alamichael Crittendon had done that. “I did the burglaries,” Gary explained, “and Michael killed the old ladies.”
Crittendon existed and was located by the police. He denied taking part in the Stocking Stranglings and police could find no evidence to connect him to them.”
In August 1986, Carlton Gary went to trial. The state would not give the defense any money to hire investigators or expert witnesses. The star witness for the state was Gertrude Miller, who had been attacked, in similar fashion to the other victims, but survived. Mrs. Miller identified Carlton Gary as the attacker. On August 26, 1986, Carlton Gary was convicted of the murder of Florence Scheible, Martha Thurmond, and Kathleen Woodruff. He was sentenced to death the next day.

In a death penalty case, there are a lot of reviews. This is especially true for a high profile case like this. Evidence has come up which indicates Carlton Gary is not the stocking strangler.
DNA testing was not used during the trial. After the trial, the body fluids from the crime scenes were destroyed as a bio hazard. ( This evidently was not done in Syracuse). It is not possible to compare DNA from Mr. Gary to what was found at the crime scene.
The following quote is from a Vanity Fair article about the case: “Even though DNA-testing techniques had not been invented at the time of the stranglings, investigators did possess an older method for testing semen that could be very effective: secretor typing. Most people, about four-fifths of the population, are “secretors,” meaning that in their saliva, semen, and other fluids they secrete chemical markers that give away their blood group. A “group-O secretor” would be someone from the common O blood group whose semen contained a relatively large amount of the relevant marker.
The tests carried out on semen collected from the murder scenes of Ferne Jackson, Florence Scheible, and Martha Thurmond indicated that the stocking strangler was a “non-secretor,” whose body fluids contained only tiny traces of the group-O marker. As for Carlton Gary, the police took a saliva sample from him after his arrest. It revealed that, together with some 40 percent of the population, he was an O secretor.”
The star witness, Gertrude Miller, seems to have a few flaws as well. She had identified several other men as being her attacker, some of whom looked nothing like Mr. Gary. The trial was in 1986, when the murders had been committed in 1977-78. A commenter in a Columbus internet forum named “former Wyntown resident” says: ” I personally knew one of the “witnesses” well and she is a Hystrionic Personality Disorder who interjected herself in this appalling travesty of justice solely for the attention. She obviously presented well enough in court but I knew beyond a doubt she lied- she concocted the story of an encounter years after it allegedly took place.”
The last victim, Janet Cofer, had a bite mark on her breast. A impression was taken of this mark, and a model of the teeth marks produced. The teeth in that model do not match Carlton Gary.
The fingerprints were not photographed “in situ”, or in the original location. They had been lifted and transferred to file cards. There is no tape of the interrogation. The detective, Mike Sellers, wrote the only record of the interrogation at his kitchen table at 4:30 am, after interviewing Mr. Gary. The tape of the discussion was destroyed.
A British journalist named David Rose came to Georgia to write about the death penalty, and got caught up in the case. He wrote a book, The Big Eddy Club, about the case. Two Vanity Fair articles are by him.
Unless something happens to stop the process, Carlton Gary will die on Wednesday. While he is no choir boy, there is doubt that he is the stocking strangler.
Update The Georgia Supreme Court issued a stay of execution on Wednesday, helpfully before the 7pm deadline. The Supremes voted 5-2 to order Muscogee County Judge to hold a hearing to consider DNA tests. PG was under the impression that the fluid samples from the crime scene had been destroyed. Other evidence in this case has been said to be destroyed or lost, only to turn up later. ( i.e., the mold made from the teeth marks). PG has too much free time these days, and was going to go to Jackson to witness the scene outside the prison. He went to the 11 alive weather radar to check the weather, and saw a headline announcing the stay of execution. Update: “The State of Georgia executed Carlton Gary by lethal injection at 10:33 p.m., Thursday, March 15, 2018. He offered no last words, refused his last meal and rejected a last prayer.”

1. FOR HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE – SIMPLY CUT YOURSELF AND BLEED FOR A FEW MINUTES, THUS REDUCING THE PRESSURE ON YOUR VEINS. REMEMBER TO USE A TIMER.
2. FOR A BAD COUGH, TAKE A LARGE DOSE OF LAXATIVES. YOU’LL BE AFRAID TO COUGH.
3. AVOID ARGUMENTS WITH FEMALES ABOUT LIFTING THE TOILET SEAT–USE THE SINK.
4. AVOID CUTTING YOURSELF WHEN SLICING VEGETABLES BY GETTING SOMEONE ELSE TO HOLD THE VEGETABLES WHILE YOU CHOP.
5. A MOUSE TRAP PLACED ON TOP OF YOUR ALARM CLOCK WILL PREVENT YOU FROM ROLLING OVER AND GOING BACK TO SLEEP AFTER YOU HIT THE SNOOZE BUTTON.
6. YOU ONLY NEED TWO TOOLS IN LIFE – WD-40 AND DUCT TAPE. IF IT DOESN’T MOVE AND SHOULD, USE THE WD-40. IF IT SHOULDN’T MOVE AND DOES, USE THE DUCT TAPE.
7. IF YOU CAN’T FIX IT WITH A HAMMER, YOU’VE GOT AN ELECTRICAL PROBLEM.

There is now a facebook group, “I don’t care if it offends you, I’m saying MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!”
Merry Christmas used to be a greeting of good will. It meant, I am happy that you survived the year, have a nice holiday. It was not an in your face gesture, designed to express a religious opinion.
Christmas used to be a time of peace on earth and good will towards men. There were parties, gift giving, and holiday time from school and work. The religious part has always been there, but if you wanted to ignore it you could.
Now, the Jesus Worshipers want it all. The fact that our culture is dominated by Jesus worship is not good enough, they want it all. And they don’t care if it offends you. Peace on earth and good will towards men are for weaklings.
We don’t know when Jesus was born. Some scholars say he was born in the spring, but it was a long, long time ago. When the early Christians were trying to convert the Romans, they decided to have a birthday celebration for Jesus at the time of a pagan holiday. It is the winter solstice, the time of renewal at the end of the year. It is an ideal time for a religious feast.
Many people, PG included, have been hurt by Jesus. Jesus worship is an aggressive religion, and if you don’t agree, you can expect to be insulted and humiliated. As society becomes more and more secular, the Jesus worshipers get more aggressive. Many people have come to see the birth of Jesus as something to be mourned, rather than celebrated.
PG used to enjoy saying Merry Christmas. To him, it was a greeting of good will. Now, it is taking sides in a nasty fight. Maybe the proper thing to say is have a nice day.
And now for something completely different. PG found this recently, and it is not original to him. If you really need a link to the original, we will look harder.
When I was young and impressionable, I heard the Co-Adjutor Archbishop of Bombay preach on the subject of Christmas.
He made the point that the adjective “merry” actually means “to be showing the influence of alcohol”, that is to be at least partially drunk. So to wish someone a Merry Christmas is really to wish them a Drunken Christmas.
And he went on to point out that as drunkenness is a sin, and moreover it is illegal to ply an infant with alcohol, a “merry Christmas” not only treats the birth of Christ as an occasion for sin, it also excludes the guest of honour Himself from the celebration.
That is a perversion of the meaning of Christmas — yet how often do we hear “true Christians” insist on saying “merry Christmas”? Why don’t they just wish the world happiness and joy?

While trying to find the source of the above merry quote, this popped up. Some times a full length quote is the way to go.
It’s hilariously ironic that Boggs would use a Christmas tree as a means of combating the “war on Christmas.” After all, the Christmas tree has distinctly pagan roots and stands mostly outside of Christian tradition. Indeed, there was a time when Christmas itself was a controversial subject among Christians, many of whom wanted nothing to do with a celebration that hearkened back to the pagan festivals of old (if we’re going for accuracy, the Persian god “Mithras” is the real reason for the season). If anything, Ms. Bogg’s Christmas tree has the opposite effect: it reminds me that early Christians were a fairly opportunistic bunch, and would happily co-opt pagan celebrations if it meant that they could save a few souls (see: Easter).
That aside, the yearly outrage over the “war on Christmas” reminds me of one of the things that really bothers me about contemporary conservative evangelicalism, namely, it’s tremendous hostility to religious pluralism. “Happy Holidays” is a fundamentally inclusive greeting. It’s a way of respecting non-Christian Americans and acknowledging the fact Christmas coincides with other religious holidays equally worthy of respect (like Hanukkah, for instance). When someone wishes you “Happy Holidays,” they are saying something roughly the same as this: “I’m not sure what your religious beliefs are, but whatever they are, I hope you enjoy the holiday season as much as possible.”
This is the furthest thing from “offensive” that I can imagine, and yet, there are many Christians who are apoplectic about the change. From what I can gather, the offense comes from the fact that they have to share the holiday. It’s not enough that Christmas and Christianity are in every other way privileged above other religious celebrations, no, we have to actively avoid acknowledging the existence of other religions. “Religious freedom” for them isn’t the right to practice as they see fit, it’s the “right” to banish every other religion from the public square, or something to that effect. It probably isn’t my place to say this (since I’m not the ultimate arbiter of right belief, or something), but the stunning lack of charity and understanding inherent in this approach to other religions and other people strikes me as a pretty clear-cut example of what Jesus specifically asked us not to do.

When PG got his federally delivered mail today, there was a letter for his brother, GP. The yellow envelope was from The Republican National Committee, and contained the “2009 Obama Agenda Survey”. A bold warning in the corner said “DO NOT DESTROY”. The postage corner says “non profit organization.
Inside is a letter from the RNC, Michael Steele Chairman, dated “Monday Morning”. It seems as though the survey questionnaire is registered, and the answers will be known to the RNC. “You know that the liberal media elites and the Obama-Democrats are hoping you will put this letter down and do nothing”. The phrase “Obama Democrats” is used liberally.
At the top of page three, we find out that “one thing Obama and the Democrats have is lots of money”. As could be predicted, the Rebublicans want money as well. The last part of the survey is a form for donating money, either by check, credit card, or internet. It is helpfully noted that contributions from corporations or foreign nationals are prohibited.
As a public service, this blog is going to reproduce the questionnaire of the 2009 Obama Agenda Survey. The fifteen statements were followed by three options, yes, no, and no opinion.
01- Do you agree with Barack Obama’s budget plan that will lead to a $23.1 trillion national debt over the next ten years?
02- Do you believe the federal government has gone too far in bailing out failing banks, insurance companies and the auto industry?
03- Do you support amnesty for illegal immigrants?
04- Should English be the official language of the United States?
05- Are you in favor of granting retroactive Social Security eligibility to illegal immigrants who gain U.S. citizenship through an amnesty program?
06- Are you in favor of the expanded welfare benefits and unlimited eligibility (no time, education or work requirements) that Democrats in Congress are pushing to pass?
07- Do you believe that Barack Obama’s nominees for federal courts should be immediately and unquestionably approved for their lifetime appointments by the U.S. Senate?
08- Do you believe that the best way to increase the quality and effectiveness of public education in the U.S. is to rapidly expand federal funding while eliminating performance standards and accountability?
09- Do you support the creation of a national health insurance plan that would be administered by bureaucrats in Washington, D.C.?
10- Do you believe that the quality and availability of healthcare will increase if the federal government dictates pricing to doctors and hospitals?
11- Are you confident that new medicines and medical treatments will continue to be developed if the federal government controls prescription drug prices and sets profit margins for research and pharmaceutical companies?
12- Are you in favor of creating a government-funded “Citizen Volunteer Corps” that would pay young people to do work now done by churches and charities, earning Corps Members the same pay and benefits given to military veterans?
13- Are you in favor of reinstituting the military draft, as Democrats in Congress have proposed?
14- Do you believe that the federal government should allow the unionization of Department of Homeland Security employees who serve in positions critical to the safety and security of our nation?
15- Do you support Democrats’ drive to eliminate workers’ right to a private ballot when considering unionization of their place of employment?

The Republicans in the Georgia State Lesterslature have been making quite a spectacle recently. They have succeeded in making people pay attention to their antics, which in Georgia is an accomplishment.
It was reasonably common knowledge that House Speaker Glenn Richardson was a crook and a philanderer. This was ignored by most of the state. That changed one night, when he took a few pills, and called his mother to say he was ending it all. 911 got to his house in time to “save” him, but the story got into the press.
Before long, his ex wife gave an interview on TV, where she said a bunch of rude things about him, and had emails and text messages for proof. One thing the ex wife mentioned was a girlfriend the speaker had, while the speaker was still a married man. The gf was a lobbyist for a utility. The speaker had sponsored a bill very favorable to the utility, while the speaker was sleeping with the lobbyist, who represented the utility. People began to connect the dots.
Pretty soon, stories of other lesterslaters who where crooks and philanderers started to emerge. The fact was that many were Republicans, who called themselves Christian conservatives. They pushed through a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, saying that they were defending the sanctity of marriage. Their girlfriends agreed that this was a good thing to do.
The speaker has resigned his job, and if he had a family, he would be spending more time with it. The rest of the Repubs are in a quandary about what to do. It is like the scene in “Blazing Saddles” where the man wants us to keep our phoney baloney jobs.
One lesterslater, Chuck Martin, wants to elect the new House of Representatives leadership in an open vote, away from the back room deal making. ( They used to call those smoke filled rooms, but in these modern times it is probably a smoke filled parking lot.) Another representative, Wendell Williard, does not like this idea.
“I am vehemently opposed to this concept for choosing our next Speaker.It would set a dangerous and unnecessary precedent….The Republican Party has earned an electoral majority from Georgia voters. Martin’s initiative would open the door for a liberal who is a Republican in name only to win the Speaker ship with the support of Democrats. This would circumvent the electoral wishes of Georgia voters over the last five years.”
HT to Peach Pundit for this story. In the comment thread to that post, “Macho” noted
“You have the open vote in the Caucus ahead of time. Why would you open it up to the Democrats, it makes no sense. You’ve got a lot of people on here looking to destroy everything, just for the sake of destroying it.
One of the most common complaints, which I agree with, is, “The leadership forgot their Republican values and became a bunch of egomaniacal narcissists.” How is opening up the floor to negotiating with Stephanie Stuckey, Kathy Ashe and Tyrone Brooks going to encourage traditional Conservative initiatives.”
PG is an independent voter, who feels that liberal and conservative are meaningless labels. He also feels that being “a bunch of egomaniacal narcissists” is Republican values.
The photographs of Glenn Richardson were taken at a campaign party for Jill Chambers August 9, 2008. Mrs. Chambers has not been implicated in the current wave of scandals.