Republicans Using Georgia as Test Lab?

Alyssa Abkowitz, a reporter for Creative Loafing Atlanta has been keeping track of the machinations of the Republican (or should we say, Rethuglicans) controlled General Assembly. Not to be outdone by last years absurd laws, they are obviously using Georgia as a test laboratory to see just how much the American people will allow in their attempt to overthrow our democracy and install a theocracy.

 

With the help of Alyssa, here are some examples (in blue) with our reply (in red):

Make it easier to hand out a death sentence: One tenant of law is that it takes a unanimous jury to give a convicted killer the death sentence. A proposal by House Republicans would allow judges to impose the death penalty as long as 10 out of 12 jurors agree. “To choose the death penalty to lower the standard is absolutely absurd,” says Sara Totonchi, public policy director of the Southern Center for Human Rights. “It’s changing centuries of law and legal practice.”

Of course, it would be changing centuries of law and legal practice, that is what the Republicans did last year and the year before that and the year before that. They have worked overtime to strip away the separation of the three branches of government. They cannot stand an independent Judiciary. They do not want Jurists deciding cases on its merits and that is why they are such strong supporters of mandatory minimums, which have made African-Americans in Georgia twice more likely to be incarcerated than in any other state. According to the Georgia Department of Corrections own report, four out of ten young African-American men in Georgia will become involved with the Judicial system before they are 25. The national average is 2 out of 10. The Republicans in Georgia are doing nothing more than putting a new face on slavery.

 

 

Create “private” cities: Lobbyists are pushing hard to change state law to create “development districts,” or private cities. Essentially, these districts would let developers – not the government – charge homeowners for roads, golf courses and more in new communities. Sen. Emanuel Jones, D-Decatur, questioned the premise in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Why are we giving private developers the power to tax people? I thought that was the role of the government.”

Not too much to add here, other than Senator Jones has hit a Grand Slam with his question, and it begs an answer from the Georgia Republicans. Our question is, why do Georgians continue to put up with a General Assembly that is out of control, and continuing to erode the rights, and liberties of Georgia’s citizens?

 

 

Privatize health care: “People need monetary incentives to stay healthy,” says state Sen. Judson Hill, R-Marietta, who has sponsored legislation for tax incentives for businesses that offer individual health savings plans to employees. The idea sprang from a Newt Gingrich think tank. “Someone making $200,000 a year can afford to save $5,000,” says Alan Essig, executive director of the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute. “[But] if you ask a family of four making $40,000 a year to save 10 percent of their income for health care expenses, they won’t be able to afford anything.”

As one who is 100% disabled, and one of the longest living survivors of a mid-1960’s open-heart procedure, in desperate need of life saving procedures, I fail to see how I NEED a “monetary incentive to stay healthy.” I don’t need an incentive to stay healthy; I need help getting procedures that will keep me alive. I say to Senator Hill, WAKE UP! As for Mr. Essig, can you explain to me, or the rest of Georgians, your math equation? How does $5,000 equal ten percent of $200,000? Isn’t that more like 2.5%. Evidently, Essig thinks Georgians are just plain stupid.

 

Nevertheless, you know, he might be right, because Georgians are eating up this plate of Rethuglican lies as if it was a meal from the Big Chicken. The bottom line is that Georgians had better do something about this test lab the Rethuglicans have set up down here.

It is plainly obvious to this writer that the Rethuglican party is attempting to overthrow this democracy and set up a theocracy. They have been hijacked by fundamentalist who are neither Christian nor American. They are betting the farm that Americans (substitute Georgians for now) are either just too stupid or too damn apathetic to care. You know, they might be right.