Like We Aren't In the Biggest Crisis Since The Great Depression

In further proof that the General Assembly could care less about the state's dire economic straits or the well-being of any state employees--aside from the ones who now run their separate-but-equal budget offices--House lawmakers have moved forward with threats to impeach Attorney General Thurbert Baker.
AJC's Political Insider has the details here.
This is an unsurprising move from the chamber that convened until almost midnight on last week's Crossover Day to make up for 29 legislative days of getting nothing done.
So now House lawmakers want to tie up another legislative day or two--they only have nine left--by staging a show trial to make sure every Georgian knows how upset they are about the President's health care reform package.
As if we couldn't tell already.
But bill resolution author Rep. Mark Hatfield, R-Waycross, (you can't make this stuff up!) tells the AJC that he is "not concerned with the politics of the situation."
I assume that must be because the entire situation is politics.
Get back to work General Assembly, this state of people who are suffering through higher-than-the-national-average unemployment is losing patience with your posturing.

Kidd Takes the Floor

Here is a picture that goes along with tomorrow's stories about state Rep. Rusty Kidd, I-Milledgeville, taking the well to pass legislation and raise hell.

Lucid Idiocy Exposes the Green Door Committee

And he has pictures too!

Some of y'all might remember state Rep. Rusty Kidd, I-Milledgeville, talking during the special election about some unknown committee that does all the real budget writing for the State of Georgia. It may have sounded like some kind of election year mumbo jumbo at the time, but the Telegraph's Travis Fain stumbled upon the end of the rainbow today and found the committee's secret meeting spot.
Read all about it here.

Who'd a Thunk It

In news that anyone could've guessed, but few took the time to actually find out, the AJC is reporting that in this time when no state department or agency is safe from drastic budget cutting, legislators' own budget is rising.

...under the original budget lawmakers approved for this year, spending on the House, Senate and joint legislative operations jumped more than 20 percent from 2003.

The story says the rising budget is due in part to increases in legislators' per diems (not sure if that spelling is correct) and the creation of separate budget offices for each legislative chamber.

Kidd Passes his first bill

State Representative Rusty Kidd passed his first piece of legislation through the house Wednesday.
Kidd authored House Bill 1310, which--with the utmost efficiency (see the link)--amends the Official Code of Georgia Annotated to allow the Brain and Spinal Injury Trust Commission to solicit federal funds.
Mr. Modesty, Kidd didn't mention that anything special had happened when I interviewed him Thursday about Crossover Day and his perception of his first session, so far.
I read it on Tom Baxter's Twitter feed this morning:

Rep. Rusty Kidd passes his first bill. Says dad Culver is looking on with pride "from somewhere."

Lessons from the Healthcare Debate

If we've learned anything from the healthcare debate in Washington, I think it is that the American Republic is unable to consider a complicated issue without reverting back to the most base of reactionary behavior.
To illustrate my point, I'll link you to two stories describing scenes from the final days of the healthcare debate: This post appeared in the AJC's Political Insider blog about racist taunts hurled at U.S. Congressman John Lewis last week; and here we have an aftermath story from the Washington Post detailing a spat of attacks and threats against Democratic Congresspersons before, during and after the healthcare vote Sunday.

"It was surprising and alarming to know that people, when they have so many opportunities for expression in this country, that somebody would resort to a brick."

It's amazing to hear about these kinds of reactions from people on an issue as innocuous as healthcare reform--and I say innocuous because this is an effort (at least initially) to open healthcare to more people. You'd hope debate would grow this intense when the government is thinking about sending its military to some foreign land or when lawmakers decide to write legislation that lets corporations send the country's manufacturing base to another part of the world.
As I posted sometime a long time ago--and yes it is sad that it takes me this long to read a book--I have been reading Rolling Stone Editor Matt Taibbi's "The Great Derangement" about the growing divide between Americans of opposing political view points. Well I finally finished the book last night and although I don't feel Taibbi did a good job of reporting his purported observation--going to the ideological fringes of society will undoubtedly illustrate your point, but does little to prove the depravity is seeping into our societal DNA--his thesis is definitely valid and a good primer for what we're seeing from this healthcare debate.
I think the healthcare overhaul has been a total failure in the sense that it could have been a conversation about expanding a sector of the economy that can't be easily outsourced to somewhere else. If the debate could have been couched as an effort to encourage Americans to get a medical education so as to train enough doctors and nurses to put federally-subsidized medical clinics within reach of every American, I think it would not have become this black hole in which bureaucrats are throwing taxpayer dollars by the bundle. I think that more accurately describes the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Like Taibbi in his book, I'm not sure where I'm going with this, but I know where I'd like to end up: A place where we can calmly talk over our differences, come to the best conclusion possible and then forget our differences and move forward on making the best America possible.
I get the feeling that may be too much to ask.

The power of the gavel and those who wield it

Picture of former Georgia House Speaker Tom Murphy by the Associated Press

Now that health reform has passed its latest hurdle, newspapers' feature writers are getting in on the action.
The Washington Post has this interesting story about the history and symbolism behind the three gavels House Speaker Nancy Pelosi used to signal the final moments of the health care debate in the nation's capital this weekend.
The article also gives some insight into the history of the gavel in the United States and its meaning in modern politics.
Those of you in Atlanta can go to the Capitol Museum on the top floor of the state Capitol to see one of the gavels used by the state Speaker of the House, which looks like a wooden Foster's Oil Can on a stick to me. Now that we know all this, I'd be interested to know a little about the wooden block that is struck by the gavel, ie. is it made of a certain kind of wood?, how often is it replaced?, etc.