“Betty” (above) and “Wilma” were brought into the Walton County Animal Shelter last week by a man who said he found them both running loose, but no owner has come forward and their holds have expired. We know both are spayed thanks to the vet who put tattoo ink in their incisions. They get along great with each other and seem fine with other dogs. “Betty” seems a bit too interested in cats and probably isn’t suitable in a home with cats.
The girls weigh about 65 pounds each and are available for adoption today.
Check out “Dozer,” a little low-rider, who looks to be a mix of Basset Hound and Lab or German Shepherd.
The name fits this low-rider shepherd very well. He sits so politely at his kennel door waiting for that leash and thinking, “Let’s go outside! Let’s go outside!” Once the leash is on him, he may not know exactly where you are going, but he’s going! He’s a confident and sure boy, but likes attention and interaction with his human friends. In fact, being a bit vertically challenged and low to the ground, he likes to jump up to get a little bit closer to landing licks and kisses on your face! Perhaps he’s getting a bit tired of being cooped up, so he’s real happy to be out and about.
He’s a confident guy with other dogs and doesn’t hesitate a moment to jump in the fray and play. If the other dog doesn’t want to play right away, he squats down (as if he could go any lower!), shuffles, and playfully barks saying, “Come on! Let’s play!” He is on the dominant side, but we didn’t see any aggression or mounting.
There’s a good chance he was an indoor dog and already housebroken, as he so patiently sat by the door, and not-as-patiently pawed the door for a potty break outside! His collar is a nice, new red; his coat, skin, ears and eyes are all so clean! He’s pretty stout with his short legs and is of a great weight at 54 pounds.
Georgia Politics, Campaigns & Elections
Senate 2014
Congressman Phil Gingrey continues to look at a Senate run in 2014.
Gingrey was asked whether he intended to run while speaking to members of the Cobb Legislative Delegation at the Coverdell Legislative Office Building in Atlanta.
“The answer is I’m thinking about it, but I’m undecided at this point, but I am thinking about it, and I guess you could use the phrase ‘checking the boxes’ and ‘kicking the tires’ and making sure that we’re not making that decision hastily,” Gingrey said. “The election is 16 to 18 months away, but obviously we are seriously thinking about it, but I can’t tell you exactly what my deadline is in regard to making a decision.”
Democratic State Senator Steve Thompson is considering a run for the United States Senate in 2014.
The MDJ also confirmed that a group of metro Atlanta business people have approached Thompson, the dean of the Georgia Senate, asking him to run for senator on the Democratic ticket.
“I may be able to give them a bigger dose of the truth in the U.S. Senate than they can take,” Thompson said. “A little hard truth during this next campaign would be exactly the thing that the people of the state of Georgia need.”
Kelly Loeffler, mentioned as an “Atlanta Dream” candidate for the GOP nomination has all but taken herself out of the race
Atlanta Dream co-owner Kelly Loeffler is flattered to be mentioned as a possible U.S Senate candidate, but right now her life is all-consuming.
Loeffler, who is also vice president of investor relations and corporate communications at Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), has been mentioned by Republican insiders in Georgia who would like to bring new names into the 2014 race for Senate to succeed U.S. Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-Georgia). The U.S. Senate race also is expected to open up a series of congressional seats as well.
“Our endeavors here at ICE, and my work with the Atlanta Dream is fairly consuming,” Loeffler said Thursday morning in a brief telephone interview. “It is not something I have envisioned.”
Loeffler did say she has a “strong interest in politics,” but she has not thought about running for public office.
“I’m fully engaged with my work at ICE, and I have very little bandwidth for other considerations right now,” Loeffler said. “My commitment to ICE and to what we are doing here is first and foremost.”
By the way, Loeffler is married to Jeff Sprecher, the founder and CEO of ICE; and she often travels with him nationally and internationally.
Although Loeffler seemed to dismiss the idea of running for the U.S. Senate at this time, she did not rule it out altogether.
“I’m 42,” she said. “I feel like I’m still early in my life.”
Ethics Reform
From right, State Representatives Matt Ramsey (R-Peachtree City), Donna Sheldon (R-Dacula), Chair Rich Golick (R-Smyrna), and Calvin Smyre (D-Columbus) were part of the House Rules Subcommittee that gave HB 142 its first public hearing.
Here’s your sixty second summary:
- The main issue over which there is disagreement is the definition of lobbyist, which in its current form is widely agreed to cast too wide a net, limiting the rights of ordinary citizens to lobby on their own behalf or as volunteers.
- Because of the difficulty of narrowly tailoring the definition of lobbyist, a new draft will be released as soon as possible.
- The Subcommittee will meet likely next week to review a new draft that attempts to ensure no impediments to free speech by citizens, while requiring registration for those who are intended to be registering
- After Subcommittee, the bill will go to the full Rules Committee, acting as a committee of substantive jurisdiction, meaning it will discuss the content of the bill.
- After Rules deals with the bill in its substantive role, Rules will act in its role as doorkeeper to the Floor of the House.
- Who knows what happens if, and when, the bill reaches the floor of the House.
- Now that we have what appears for now to be a functional Senate, the in-fighting will be between House and Senate, rather than Senate against itself.
Addressing concerns that the bill’s definition of who is a lobbyist subject to registration and disclosure requirements, Chairman Rich Golick said,
I hope I’ve made it very clear that what we’re trying to do and what we will do is guarantee that an individual who comes down here to petition their government, to speak to their representatives on their own behalf has no impediments to doing that.
However, we do want to make sure that individuals who are here on behalf of orgnizations that should be registered, are registered.
In the last week or two we had our annual nurses day, and if you’re in the Capitol there were what seemed to be hundreds of people in white coats. Those were the nurses who come in for their annual legislative day, like many other professions do. We don’t want to have a situation where those individuals would have to register as lobbyists. That is not the intent of the bill and the substitute that gets presented to the subcommittee will reflect that.
This is a first attempt at a reform, and it is a reform that comes in response to the people who spoke with a loud voice this past July by the people who spoke with a loud voice on the Primary ballots.
The other piece of the campaign finance bill, the major piece, has to do with January disclosure. There is a provision in that bill that will mandate the disclosure of contributions between January 1 and the beginning of our Session, which is the second Monday in January, and that disclosure would be more timely, within a certain number of days of the beginning of the Session.
Tea Party leader Debbie Dooley was the first to speak from the public. When it was suggested she might wish to speak from the podium, where a microphone was, she said,
I have a loud mouth. Anyone who knows me will tell you that.
I do want to praise the House for tackling ethics reform…but the provisions that you added to this bill to actually prevent grassroots organizations from the left and the right from coming here is way out of line.
I will remind you that the Capitol is the people’s house and we are your landlords. If you’re here representing the people, we are your landlords and how dare you tell us that we’re not welcome and put a closed sign on the Capitol.
As far as these grassroots organizations, everybody knows that this [bill] is retaliation. Everybody knows that a lot of these powerful lobbyist groups don’t like the influence that grassroots organizations on both the left and the right have now. We the people have begun the process of taking our house back.
I can tell you that people come to me all the time and they want our organization’s help winning elections, yet you want to charge us for coming to our house and lobby our legislators.
This is an attack on our First Amendment rights because we happen to be an organization or group, whether or not we have money or resources.
This is retaliation because we pressed for ethics reform and we went to the people.
Golick replied,
Maybe I didn’t make myself clear earlier, the intent of this bill, and what the substitute will reflect, is that these scenarios that were just described are what we don’t want to have happen, what we don’t want to infringe upon.
We are not going to go in an prevent individuals, volunteers in such organizations from coming down to express themselves.
This is a legislative process, there are certain changes [to the bill] that are going to occur. As this bill progresses, in no way are we going to go ahead and have legislation that infringes upon First Amendment rights.
Ray Newman of the Georgia Baptist Convention said,
The lobbyist definition concerns me. I’m a paid lobbyist, but many times we have pastors, we have people in our churches, who are interested in certain issues, and they come up here like one day or they talk to their legislator, and to say to them that they need to register as a lobbyist seems to me to be a stretch we do not need.
Throughout the hearing, veiled statements were made about individuals who “gamed the system” by failing to register as lobbyists while actually lobbying. These were references to Common Cause Executive Director William Perry.
Almost one year ago to the day, I posted on another website about complaints that Perry was lobbying with expired tags registration. At the time, Perry told me that he was testing the law, which allows people whose paid hours of lobbying do not exceed 10% of their work time, to lobby without registration.
The real fireworks took place between Common Cause Executive Director William Perry and House Majority Leader Ed Lindsey, who at times appeared to be cross-examining an hostile witness.
Rather than transcribe the exchange, I will post it on the website for your listening pleasure.
Parting shots were directed at the other side of the Capitol. Chairman Golick:
These bills are an example of [Leadership]. It is the only measure I have seen introduced in this General Assembly that has the force of law and provides the mechanism for enforcement of that law. Anything else is inadequate. Inadequate is kind.
You will receive a notice on the subcommittee meeting. We will endeavor to have a substitute out as soon as possible [that addresses the concerns raised by the witnesses and others]. [After going through subcommittee] this bill will go to the full Rules Committee in the Rules committee as a substantive committee of jurisdiction, then it goes to the Rules Committee in its gatekeeper role, then it goes to the floor, and then Lord knows what they’re going to do after that.
At this point, I am reminded of the old politicos’ story about a young House member who is overheard by a senior member referring to the other party’s house delegation as “the enemy.” The senior member chides the junior that “the other party is the opposition. The Enemy is the Senate.”
For other perspectives, here is Ray Henry from the Associated Press on the meeting. And here is Jim Walls from AtlantaUnfiltered.com.
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