Speaker Summariestag:www.speakersummaries.madisonforum.org,2008://82008-11-23T01:04:13ZMovable Type 3.33Bob Konceraktag:www.speakersummaries.madisonforum.org,2008://8.2592008-11-23T00:52:55Z2008-11-23T01:04:13ZBob Koncerak was our guest speaker for Saturday, November 22nd, 2008. Bob Koncerak is EVP/CFO of Touchmark National Bank and Touchmark Bancshares, Inc., based in Norcross, Georgia. Bob has nearly 25 years of banking, capital markets and financial services experience...
Bob Koncerak (clip 1, just under 29 minutes)
Bob Koncerak (clip 2, just over 40 minutes)
Richard Daly]]>
Louie Huntertag:www.speakersummaries.madisonforum.org,2008://8.2352008-04-28T21:32:29Z2008-04-28T21:33:11ZMadison Forum member Louis Hunter spoke to members and guests at the breakfast meeting Saturday, April 26, 2008. His topic was The Federal Reserve – Part Two. All money is debt based money. Government issues a treasury security to the...
Madison Forum member Louis Hunter spoke to members and guests at the breakfast meeting Saturday, April 26, 2008. His topic was The Federal Reserve – Part Two.
All money is debt based money. Government issues a treasury security to the Fed and they hypothecate it into Federal Reserve Notes. The hypothecation is a multiple of 94%.
Each time this new money is created and spent, it is re-hypothecated another 94%. (Each Deposit becomes another basis for the creation of new money. This occurs millions of times each day. The money supply grows each time, and in the process, devalues the money already in the system and in your wallet, savings account, and overall wealth).
About two years ago, the Fed quit publishing the M3 figure which is the amount of money flowing in the system. When they stopped reporting this figure, the total amount in circulation was estimated to be $10.3 trillion. Private companies and individuals have been watching and counting, and the figure is now estimated to be $13.5 trillion, a 30% increase.
By the way, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced two weeks ago that they were going to ask Congress to sell abut 400 tons of their gold reserves. The excuse is to balance their books. Why? Because the world has figured out that they don’t have to play this game anymore, and they can use the Euro or their own sovereign currency and will completely destabilize our markets, costs of living, and money supply. If the IMF is allowed to sell this gold, which was taken by nationalizing our private gold back in 1933 and carried on their books at $42 an ounce, they will use the paper currency to balance their books with about half, and they then plan on investing in major multi-national corporations with the rest. By the way, the sale of the gold will increase the supply so that the price will go down, and they will then use newly created Federal Reserve Notes (FRNs) to repurchase the gold, and the process starts all over again.
Moving to the IMF – IMF and World Bank were created at the Bretton Woods meeting that is basically where the U S admitted that we had more redeemable FRNs in circulation than we had gold to redeem them with. WE WERE BANKRUPT! And, the world wanted to be paid.
Let’s look at the relationship of the Fed to the IMF. Basically, the Fed is the local branch of the IMF and the IRS is the collection agent for both.
We have a Fed Chairman and a Treasury Secretary. The Fed Chairman is the alternate to the IMF Board, and the Secretary of the Treasury is councilor to the IMF. He takes no oath of office and is not paid by the U S Government. These two positions are the connection to the international banking system that is responsible to no government, is a private corporation, and when a nation enters this type of arrangement, the nation has no sovereignty (The Law of Nations). The World Bank is not a branch of government.
The loss of sovereignty has been upheld in court in the case of Dunhill of London vs. the Republic of Cuba, which states that “it is a sound principle that when a government joins a corporation – it takes on the character of its association.” This has also been upheld in the case of Novak vs. World Bank.
Again, the U S is a voting shareholder and has waived its sovereignty!!!
WHAT DOES THE IMF DO?
The IMF basically sets the exchange rate of currencies around the world. They monitor the float. The dollar went to the float in 1976. The Fed prints and the IMF sets its value.
Their job is to maintain balance of values so that the world monetary system can be used to exchange capital over here for capital over there. The IMF sets the exchange rate by using a “Special Drawing Right”. The SDR is a formula that the IMF has for “weighted average of major accepted currencies”. This formula has no real value and is currently being revamped. They will fail, as they have in the past, because the currency has no real value.
Think of the SDR as a credit card which is basically a bill of exchange. Understand that a credit card has no value. You cannot say it is worth a dollar value in coin or currency. But, you can exchange it for something of value. That is the way all fiat currency works. It is worth an agreed upon value, but the paper itself has no worth or value.
Don’t be fooled by the paper in your wallet that says it is a dollar. A dollar is specifically, per the Constitution, 371¼ grains of pure Troy silver. Try to exchange an FRN for a silver dollar. It won’t happen.
Again, the IMF regulates the values of the different but accepted currencies.
The IMF uses FRNs in its loans, and countries which accept them accept it as part of their base.
Loaning to foreign countries was allowed under the Edge Act of 1917. This allowed the National Banks to loan to a sovereign nation. The receiving country had to accept the terms of the bank and make the FRN part of its monetary basis.
The IMF is an international debt system. Not hard to figure this one out, it’s the Fed on an international basis.
In 1968, the SDR replaced gold. The debts of the U S went from being debts of pure gold to an SDR, which is basically a bank entry. Imagine the other nations of the world and how ripped off they must have felt.
The gold that the IMF had was gold that was nationalized by FDR in 1933. It was illegal to own gold. There was not enough to cover the outstanding FRNs, the stock markets, or securities. The gold was collected by the U S government and was then turned over to the IMF for pennies on the dollar.
At this time, all gold contracts were repudiated. A contract that specifies repayment by our government in gold was declared null and void and from that point on ignored.
The international community went nuts and forced the gold to be used to settle international commitments to avoid wars. Due to the lack of complete reimbursement, countries were thrown slowly into economic crisis. Who was the first to fail, and what was the outcome? Germany and the rise of Hitler. The country had hyperinflation and was a total shambles economically. Hitler seized on the moment of weakness and quickly took over with the help of financiers from the U S and the international banking communities. Remember Warburg of Germany, and Prescott Bush. Ford continued to supply trucks and parts to Germany and Hitler long after we entered the war. This means that our soldiers fought longer than necessary, since Hitler could keep the necessary machines to fight with. This is treason for the sake of profit.
Keep in mind that all money is debt based. The creation comes from a debt instrument, and any so called “economic growth” is actually an increase in the volume of debt in circulation.
The debt is never designed to be paid off. Unfortunately, the consumer and business bear the risk of currency fluctuation. Not governments.
Governments that try to withdraw from the IMF must pay off their debt, and they find out this is impossible. Mexico has collapsed several times under the strain of this debt-based monetary system.
THERE IS NO SOLUTION TO THE EQUATION!!!
You ask how is this legal? Because Article 9 of the IMF Charter says that “the IMF is not subject to judicial process in the U S.” The Fed is private, and the IMF is autonomous. The U S is a shareholder in a corporation and has no sovereign rights, including the right to oversee, and there is no resolution to the equation for extracting ourselves from it, but possibly war.
In Mendaro vs. the World Bank: Page 619 - the judge ruled “that the member owes a duty entirely to the bank and no other authority”.
The Secretary of the Treasury is an officer of the bank. He is a corporate governor. Check your money. The contract exists with two signatures.
Louie Huntertag:www.speakersummaries.madisonforum.org,2008://8.2322008-04-10T19:29:45Z2008-04-13T19:30:46ZFormer Cobb Commissioner Louis Hunter addressed Madison Forum members and guests at the regular breakfast meeting on Saturday, March 29, 2008 on the subject of The Federal Reserve. Mr. Hunter opened with a quote from the U.S. Constitution, Article I...
Former Cobb Commissioner Louis Hunter addressed Madison Forum members and guests at the regular breakfast meeting on Saturday, March 29, 2008 on the subject of The Federal Reserve.
Mr. Hunter opened with a quote from the U.S. Constitution, Article I Section 8…”The Congress shall have the Power To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures; That means that Congress was given the authority to print the money, to coin the money. That’s probably the single biggest issue in his mind, that if we could fix it, we could fix what’s wrong with the country.
He quoted from Thomas Jefferson…”If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation, and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent that their fathers conquered.” That one line in the Constitution, he said, was put there because they understood what happens when you give away the right to print and control the money.
“The Fed is a non-elected body, and do not believe for a second that because the president appoints the head of the Fed that the President has any control over it. Currently and for the last 95 years, our monetary system has been run by the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve Act was signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson just before Christmas of 1913. This act was to supposedly stabilize and provide elasticity in giving sound monetary policy to our money supply. Hardly the case! The Federal Reserve was the desire of the elites of industry and banking, most notable J.P. Morgan and John D. Rockefeller. They had a desire to see the money supply grow in order to fund their individual needs to grow they respective businesses. At that time the money supply was strictly tied to the price of gold. The Gold Standard had served the country well to hold down inflation and keep the economic growth measured and controlled. It was, and is, impossible to legitimately inflate the money supply when the price is tied to precious metals. There were no boom and bust cycles (the dot com bubble and the current housing crisis). The Fed came into play after the public learned the truth about fractional reserve lending and made a run on a couple of New York Banks. Basically what fractional reserve lending says is; I’m the bank. I’m going to take your money in as a deposit, and I’m going to loan that money back out with a reserve requirement which is now about 10%. So I can take your $1,000 and loan back out, with interest, $900. The problem with that is that it’s newly created money. This was the impetus needed for President Wilson to sign the Fed into being. Note that one of the gentlemen who was present at the meeting to define the law enabling the creation of the Fed was Paul Warburg of the same Warburg family tied to Nazi Germany (also of today’s UBS Warburg). The Fed or central bank was not new to America or the world. Alexander Hamilton had set up the first central bank only to have Thomas Jefferson rise up against it and dismantle it after 20 years. In 1816 the central bank was again brought back to life, and Andrew Jackson staked his entire re-election campaign on the promise of “rooting it out of existence”, and he did just that upon his re-election. The central bankers of the day tried to crush the economy of the U.S. in order to maintain their control. These men did not care that there would be mass unemployment and at that time starvation if they were successful in their ploy. Thankfully they were not. In 1834 the return to the gold standard stabilized the economy, and the U.S. enjoyed the then longest peace-time prosperity in the country’s history. With a gold standard the government is held to spending only what it can take through taxation. There can be no deficit spending thereby ensuring no debt. Taxes can be the only source of funding and the invisible theft of inflation is non-existent. Inflation is an invisible tax on your money.
After a 20-plus year run of unequaled prosperity, Lincoln left the gold standard in order to fund the civil war with FIAT currency called greenbacks. This was the small crack that the bankers of the day needed in order to get the central bank once again rammed down America’s throat. After the war and the complete failure of the central bank of the day along with the FIAT currency called greenbacks, the country returned to the gold standard in 1879. Once again growth and the economy stabilized with the country averaging 4% growth for the next 20 years. Confidence had been restored in the system, and businessmen were comfortable that the system was strong enough to take risks and prosper. It was during this time that Morgan and Rockefeller sent their men to Jekyll Island to create the FED. The 4% growth was, in their minds, not enough to fund their businesses and egos. Clearly a money supply that was inflatable would allow them to monopolize their industries if they knew it was coming before their competitors did. Sadly, Wall Street got involved in the push, calling the FED the “Lender of Last Resort” and using the ominous wording of that phrase to scare Wilson into signing it into being. Lender of Last Resort is you the taxpayer. You guarantee that banks will not fail. Unfortunately banks should be allowed to fail just like manufacturing plants, computer companies, and anyone else who uses poor judgment in the operating of their business. Failure of a bank would hurt a few, but the lessons learned would strengthen the remaining banks’ lending principles, ensuring that most would be very strong. Imagine knowing that no matter how poor your business acumen you could always count on the taxpayer to bail you out. Risk becomes less and less scary and you would continue to repeat your mistakes. At least that is what the banks have done.
The Fed is a system made up of 12 member banks with an oversight Board of Governors. The board is comprised of seven members appointed by the president. Even under this scenario Wall Street soon had massive influence over the Fed just like today. Let’s talk about how the Fed and Wall Street control your money supply. The Fed has three distinct tools that it uses to maintain its control.
1. The Federal Open Market Committee – FOMC – oversees the purchase and sale of government securities. They have 100% discretion in this area. There is no government oversight or audit to oversee this Private business handling government securities. Each time the Fed takes securities and deposits them into their account, through the miracle of Fractional Reserve Lending they can multiply the value by up to 90%. This is creation of money and inflates the money supply, thereby debasing or devaluing the existing money supply that already exists in circulation. Remember that each time this money is deposited in another bank down from the Fed, it can be in turn loaned out at 90% of its value again. This happens at each deposit and at each bank. Your government does not mind this process as it allows them to pay for all the special projects and pork they want without having to ask for a tax increase. Remember, they have just stolen some of the value of the money and wealth that you hold by devaluing your existing money. And, luckily for the elected officials, the rise in prices that are the result of inflating the money supply can occur several months, maybe up to 24, down the road, and they can then be blamed on weather or some phenomenon on the other side of the world. This is happening right now. The world is losing faith in the dollar due to the incredible pace that we have printed the money. By their knowing that the purchasing power of the money they hold is being debased, they will, and are, turning away from the dollar causing it to fall even faster, and this results in higher commodity prices. You pay more because your money is worth less.
2. The discount rate – This is the amount that the Fed charges its member banks (most of them) to borrow money short term from the so called discount window. Lower rates here mean lower loan rates to the pubic. Keep in mind that once these banks borrow money and put it on their books, they can loan it out at 90% of its value again, and each time it is deposited again, so can that bank. That is new money each and every time a deposit is made and that is inflation…Get it? The money you hold is devalued every time this happens.
3. Reserve Requirements – This is the amount that the Fed requires of its member banks to keep in reserve for its depositors in case they want to make a withdrawal. Too many folks wanting their money and you have a run on the bank. Bad, bad, bad. Again, remember that the lower the reserve requirement, the more money that can be loaned and the greater the inflation of the money supply and the less that your money is worth that you currently hold!!
4. Finally, and the most important…The Fed has the right to print the money. From its inception the Fed began printing more money than it had gold to back it up with. Remember, at this time the Fed was charged with maintaining a stable supply of money, and immediately the money was not worth what its face value said it was. Don’t forget the dollar of the day was redeemable in gold coin.
Within a very shorts period of time the Fed moved to only honor the fact value of the money with a 40% backing of gold. This allowed the money supply to be inflated by 2.5 times its original value. Again, inflation robbed folks of the value of the money they already had. Sadly, the debasement continued. The Fed was then allowed by law to create checkbook money. This was just another step of inflation, since it was creating another form o the same money already in existence. One thought, when I tell you that the reserve requirement for banks to have is 10%, this means that 90% of your money is guaranteed by nothing, NOTHING!!
Once again, Fractional Reserve Lending works like this...
The Federal Government prints a security for $100, and the Fed takes possession of it, creating out of thin air a deposit on their books of $100.00. The Fed by law only has to reserve $10 or 10% of that deposit. They can now loan out to member banks $1000 who only have to reserve $100 or 10%. This gives them $10,000 to loan out into the economy and dramatically inflates the money supply all the while debasing the current dollars in the system. This is all new money and is only worth what the public thinks it is worth. It has no base value. Keep in mind that more money chasing fewer goods drives up the price of the goods. Price increases are the result of the inflated money supply. Always remember that!!
Here is the next loser portion of this system Those who get the new money first are able to benefit the most, since the money they have just received and that has just been created is still valuable at current rates of exchange. It has not been devalued yet. Amazingly, once it is spent it is losing value from that point on. Why? Because, more money has entered the system and is chasing the same goods as before. Purchasing power has gone down. This is a transfer of wealth and power from one segment of the economy to another due to the actions of the Fed. Those who benefit first and most are the federal government, big banks, government contractors, and anyone closely associated with the federal government. While all of this is happening, guess what, the increase of new money is allowing banks to loan more money and take more risks. This, in effect, drives down interest rates, and it sends the wrong signal to investors. What you have is an unsustainable investment boom. Look around and you can se what I mean. This cycle is what causes economic disasters like the “great depression”. During the WWI the government went off the gold standard again, ad the amount of government debt went from $1 billion to over $27 billion. As always this huge increase in the money supply triggered high inflation, and the Fed had no choice but to halt its actions of inflation. Interest rates doubled in 18 months. This quickly slowed the economy and, in the early 1920s, the economy once again roared out of the gate. Inflation was returning but was slower to appear, and the economists of the day just missed it. This bubble bursts, and the stock market crashed in 1929. Speculators had borrowed heavily to invest in the market and overnight it lost one third of its value. Speculators defaulted, and banks failed. The depression was here and, due to fractional reserve lending, the depositors saw their money evaporate into thin air.
A change in the presidency ushered in the Roosevelt era. When his “New Deal” failed to jump start the economy, Roosevelt declared a 4-day bank holiday to let banks gather themselves. The outcome of the 4-day “rest” was the FDIC. This was done to create confidence in the banks again. The bottom line was that the depositor could feel safe investing in an institution that had the government backing the first $100,000 in deposits. In reality, it was the same old fame. The FDIC only had reserve requirements of ½ of 1%. It was all an illusion. When and if it was necessary the Fed would create the necessary FRNs to meet the demand requirements. By 1933 the gold standard was on its last breath. FDR was spending billions on projects and the billions were simply being printed to meet the need. The restriction of the money supply by the gold standard was hampering Roosevelt’s plan to save us all.
At this point Roosevelt removed the gold standard and confiscated the gold from the public. All gold was required to be turned in to the government. It was illegal to own gold.
WWII once again saw us go to war and fund it with FRNs. Flat money. This further destabilized the money supply and clearly the United States was the cause for world concern. The entire world needed to come together to create a global inflationary system. The world’s financial leaders met in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire under the direction of economist John Maynard Keynes. Here they decided on a system that had gold AND inflation. Under this system, the dollar would be redeemable in gold but only for foreign official institutions, central banks, and foreign governments at the rate of $35 an ounce. All other currencies had fixed exchange rates with the U.S. dollar and would be redeemable in U.S. dollars, not gold. It was doomed from the start! Governments will always inflate and did; remarkably they never demanded the gold. The temptation was just too great! They were drunk with their own fiat currency. But wait, the Vietnam War and huge social programs were cause for concern, and foreign governments started cashing in their dollars for gold. We were $18 billion short in reserves. Our nation declared bankruptcy to the world.
Enter Richard Nixon. In 1973 Nixon suspended all gold redemption. Bretton Woods and the semi gold standard were now history. The dollar was now allowed to float with no fixed value. This was a very uncertain time in the world. There were no more checks and balances against inflation, and no U.S. budget has been balanced since then. Inflation is at 300% and growing annually.
Jump to the recent past of the Clinton era. During that time, 1993, the head of the Banking and Finance Committee, Rep. Henry Gonzales, called for an independent audit of the Fed. He also wanted all meetings taped. President Clinton’s response to this request was that “he was afraid the reforms would undermine the market’s confidence in the Fed”. That is where Fed reform ended. In 1995 the Mexican government almost totally devalued the Peso. Fed Chairman Greenspan lobbied the Congress and Clinton for a $52 billion bailout. In actuality the truth was that there were several large American banks that held $26 billion in Mexican debt. As usual you the taxpayer bailed out the poor judgment of the Fed member banks.
Unfortunately, you hear the Fed talk about being the “inflation fighter” when, in reality, they are the single cause of inflation that exists today and throughout history. Until we have a stable precious metal backing the money supply there will be money creation of legalized counterfeit. Our savings will never gain in value until we have a stable money supply. Businesses will continue to experience boom and bust cycles until we stabilize our monetary system. Government spending will continue to grow at unthinkable rates unless we hold them to only the money thy tax us for. The invisible tax of inflation will disappear.
This country now has debt and entitlement programs that require $75 trillion to pay off if we stop adding people to its roles right now. It is mathematically impossible to pay this off under current actuarial tables. Keep in mind that all money in circulation is debt-based money. If we pay off the debt there will be no money. We get our money from the Fed with the IOU from our government – YOU!
Louie Huntertag:www.speakersummaries.madisonforum.org,2008://8.2282008-03-09T12:07:18Z2008-03-19T12:08:17ZLouie Hunter, former Cobb County Commissioner, spoke to Madison Forum members and guests at the regular breakfast on Saturday, February 23, 2008 on the subject “Transparency in Government”. Mr. Hunter began by saying, Ronald Reagan asked a guy one time;...
Louie Hunter, former Cobb County Commissioner, spoke to Madison Forum members and guests at the regular breakfast on Saturday, February 23, 2008 on the subject “Transparency in Government”.
Mr. Hunter began by saying, Ronald Reagan asked a guy one time; “What’s the problem with the American voter? Why don’t they get involved, why don’t they vote, why don’t they question? Is it ignorance or apathy?” The guy replied; “I don’t know, and I don’t care.”
Mr. Hunter said it’s time to know, and it’s time to care, and it needs to go outside of this room. We’ve got a government that’s unresponsive at almost all levels. And you see it every day in almost everything we do. One of the groups Mr. Hunter lobbies for is Americans for Tax Reform out of Washington, DC. Grover Norquist is the head of the organization. Hand pick by Ronald Reagan, which Mr. Hunter said, puts him pretty much near John Wayne and Elvis, and God as far as his heroes to run the thing. Grover has dedicated his life to absolutely stopping taxes where they are. Grover has been doing that for a long time, and, on the federal level there has not been a tax increase, largely because of his actions, since 1994. It is a good thing that he is there, and Mr. Hunter said he is very fortunate to represent them and be in Georgia trying to be a go-between and convince folks that No New Taxes is the only way to go.
Mr. Hunter said, as is always the case, you can prepare and plan all you want to, and then on the day you come to make your speech, the newspaper hands you a gift. It’s HB938. It’s about transparency. It’s about taking your money and doing something with it that’s good for you. The bill says; “We want Franchise Fees to be called a Franchise Tax. Because that’s what it is. It’s not a fee. It doesn’t help the entity charging it. They’re collecting it for municipalities, and they’re handing it back to the municipalities... There’s a small problem there. Number one, it’s not called a tax. He said he thinks if it’s a tax it should be called a tax. And a fee is a tax all the time. This fee, this tax, is being charged in unincorporated areas. That money is still going to the city. So, the unincorporated folks are being charged the fee, but the tax is being spent by the city. So the unincorporated Georgians are getting nothing for the tax. That’s taxation without representation. That’s wrong. That’s government without a soul. That’s why we had the big tea party back a couple of hundred years ago.
Mr. Hunter said we’ve got to get involved, because this is what’s happening to your money and your government. It’s not that the character of the people doing it is wrong or bad. It’s just the way it’s always been done. No bureaucracy on the planet has ever decided to intentionally make itself smaller. It’s not going to happen unless we do it. Grover Norquist rides these legislators like crazy. He stays in them. He sends them letters saying you took the no tax pledge. What you’re doing is raising taxes.
Mr. Hunter said Republicans in Georgia are doing a pretty good job of talking about lowering your taxes, but we not have a $1.00 a pack Sin Tax that a Republican has proposed. That’s a tax increase. If you nibble on the elephant long enough, you’ve eaten the whole elephant. You’ve had tax increases all over. You have to be careful.
We have a one cent state wide potential for referendum on gas tax. That’s a tax increase. The only way that works is if you get the option to lower your taxes at the same time you get the option to raise your taxes. Why don’t we look at expenses and try to cut these things and put the money where it belongs? We continue to throw millions and millions and billions, with a b, at education to just stay right at the bottom. It’s not about money. It’s about what we do as people and how we get motivated to change the system. We’ve got areas all over the country spending $10,000, $12,000, and $15,000 per kid. They score the same thing, within a point or two, every year. Money is not the issue. Money is just where the power is. That’s why people stay in the hunt for it all the time.
Mr. Hunter said one of the other groups he is working for is Georgia Link, which is the largest lobbying firm in Georgia. They asked him to come on board and help with DeKalb County. DeKalb County is trying to keep their people and their tax dollars. The Dunwoody people want their own city, and they want it bad. They’ve gone after the legislators who have just asked questions about where they are going to get the money, and how much is it going to cost. Mr. Hunter said he has no problem with people representing themselves. But he has a problem with them doing the exact same thing to get the leadership of their community that they’re trying to leave the other community for. Dunwoody doesn’t like DeKalb County because DeKalb County collects all this tax over here and spends it over there. They don’t like that, and Mr. Hunter doesn’t blame them. So what they’ve done is “we want to make a City of Dunwoody”. That’s fine. Got no problem with that. What have they done? They went out and got their facts to fit their model, to fit their opinion. Patrick Moynihan said one time: “You’re entitled to your own opinion, but you’re not entitled to your own set of facts.” The facts are the facts, and they get in the way sometimes. Mr. Hunter said when he sat down and started looking at their proposed budget, what they had done was misrepresented the facts. They had made them fit exactly the mold they needed them to fit so they could beat the legislators over the head and get passage of their bill. That’s wrong. When they finally looked at it – a quarter million dollar first year budget surplus to being six million dollars in the hole, not including legal fees that are going to come the minute they are incorporated, because the way the bill is written they would get more taxes in that one little area than all other DeKalb cities put together. That’s wrong. That’s government without a soul. That’s making it fit what you want it to fit, so government works for you and not the whole. That’s wrong. We’ve got to stop that. It’s time to take our government back into our hands and make them responsible to our needs. Mr. Hunter said when they went to committee on this issue (they killed it last year, it came back this year) his group won seven to five. It never made it out of committee. Never got on the floor for a major vote. Now there is a state rep from South Georgia who’s been convinced that he voted incorrectly. So Tuesday, the 26th, in this same committee that’s supposed to hear other issues, he’s going to ask to change his vote. But, the Dunwoody group has been such a pain about it that the committee chairman has said if it goes seven-six – he’s the tie breaking vote. It would be six-six with his vote. He said he’s going to vote it up and out. He’s tired of dealing with it. That’s wrong. That’s hard to do when you’re sitting there, and you know they’re going to beat you up, and you know they’re going to write bad things about you, because one of the proponents of the City of Dunwoody is Dick Williams, the bow tie wearing guy on Georgia Gang. He’s a good guy, but guess what, he owns the Dunwoody Crier which is the newspaper of record in Dunwoody. That’s where the City of Dunwoody would have to place their legal notices. Dot, Dot, Dot, Connect, Connect, Connect. He’s going to make a lot of money on that. That’s wrong. That’s taking your money and spending it for personal gain. Mr. Hunter said they will fight the battle again, and if they lose that vote, if everybody chickens out and it gets to the floor, his group will line up the votes, filibuster, whatever they’ve got t do. Not because they care for Dunwoody having self-rule. That’s a good thing, because the smaller the government, the better it is. But because it’s just wrong to do it that way.
Mr. Hunter said there is a way to get around all the people, and all the fiefdoms, and all the little kingdoms people have made for themselves. It’s called transparency in government. Grover Norquist has said that this is his single biggest issue until he dies. He wants this done, and Mr. Hunter said he is going to help him do it. By hook or crook it’s going to get done. They are going to start talking to folks all over. Transparency in government is the only way to make sure your money is being spent in the way that it should be spent. And they are asking that each government – education, school board, county government, city government, state governments, and federal government put every check that is written of our money – it’s not their money. They don’t make a widget to sell to get their money. They take it from us. And they’ll take our property, or lock us up if we don’t pay our share. It’s our money. We need to see where it’s going. They want a searchable database on the Internet that every day is updated with every check that is written. And you think - that is a huge undertaking. It’s not. We got legislation from Tom Coburn, and believe it or not, this is how politics makes strange bedfellows, Barack Obama. And every check that is written by the Federal Government for over $25,000, it’s on line. You can go search it and see where it went. Google and Yahoo have said they will participate in helping with the technology to be sure the data base is totally searchable, that it’s really there. Checks are written in numerical order. You can find them. They can’t get around that. It’s an easy way for you to see where your money is going.
Now the other issue, said Mr. Hunter, is where the money is coming from. He said he wrote a column for James Magazine which is a magazine published by Insider Advantage. He started looking into something called the insurance premium tax. It’s 4.75% of every premium in the state of Georgia is collected. The Insurance Commissioner is against it. $411,000,000 of our money is collected and sent back to the state of Georgia. They keep 1% and send the rest back to the cities and counties. He said, did we think the cities and counties are going to help get rid of the insurance tax? Once a year they get a big multi-million dollar check that they get to put in and spend any way they want to. It’s like the franchise fees. It’s being collected, and we don’t even know it’s being collected, and they don’t want to get rid of it. Their pat answer is; how do we replace it? He said he sat in committee and heard Earl Earhart say: we need to do this, and they said yea, but you’re going to cost us money. He said cut spending. Boy, what a great idea. It’s not that hard. They spend money that’s ridiculous. Mr. Hunter said Cobb County lists this fee correctly on the bills. All the cities of Cobb are doing it correctly. He said, this is a fiasco when there is $411,000,000 taken that most folks don’t even know they paid.
Mr. Hunter said these are folks all the way down line. This is the poorest of the poor who are paying this tax because they have to have a car to get to their job. If we are conservatives, and want to be considered compassionate conservatives, we could start right here in Georgia by cutting $411,000,000 out of the budget, and saying, guess what, we don’t need it. We’re going to leave it with you. It’s not a lot of money per household for folks at the lower end. They may have one car and one insurance policy. But, give them the $50. Let them spend their money where they need it most. And quit sending my money all over the county or all over the state, and letting them spend my money on things that don’t benefit me. Taxation without Representation. He said he hates to sound as if he is hung up in 1776, but that’s what it is. That’s why they wrote our Constitution the way they wrote it. It is as evident today that they knew what they were talking about as it was back then. We’ve got to get control of our spending.
One more little thing about the insurance tax, he said, that is just mind boggling. There’s something called, believe it or not, called the Retaliatory Tax. It’s a charge against the insurance industry for doing business in other states that have a lesser insurance premium tax. So, if theirs is 2% and ours is 4.75%, you have to pay an additional 2.75% to retaliate against them when you’re doing business with them in that other state. Now what is that? That’s wrong. That is a tax on business for doing business out of the state. And it has driven the insurance industry out of the State of Georgia. AFLAC, started here, created here, flourished here, provided tons of jobs here; National Headquarters – Nebraska. Come on! Average job in the insurance industry if $43,000 a year. That’s middle income. That’s the backbone of the economy. That’s where the taxes are paid. That’s where everything that works about our system starts, is in that level of income. And, we ran ‘em off. Because 30 years ago the people in power then decided this is another pot of gold. This is another place we can go and get money and spend it on the things that keep us in power. If you rob Peter to pay Paul, Paul’s always going to vote for you. You can count on it. Write him a check, buy the vote. It’s time to fix it. It’s time to get involved. Don’t be ignorant, don’t be apathetic. We have to understand that these things are not happening by accident. They happen by a very well funded, highly interested group of individuals. They get in our wallet, they attempt to take away our sovereignty. They do everything they can to benefit themselves. Mr. Hunter said he didn’t want to say people in government are bad people. They’re not. It’s a tough job. He said he got out because he was losing his business and his family, and you can’t do that. You have to be older and pretty much financially independent to do it, or you’re going to suffer. It’s right in front of us just as plain as if they put a billboard up and said; we’re stealing your money. They are taking our money and spending it unwisely or incorrectly.
The system is broken. The system has got to be fixed, and we can do it at the ballot box. Cobb is doing a lot of things right, but there area places we can find and fix, and help. Go to our elected officials as voters, and tell them we want transparency. Tell them we want to see every check that’s written on line. When that happens; if we can get that done at the state level, there’s 9 ½ million auditors in the State of Georgia. Every night we can get on line and audit the state’s finances, and the county’s finances, and the city’s, the school board. Texas does it down to the pencil. Every day – update. They know where the money goes. If you don’t think that will keep your elected officials thinking about buying this lunch on the state, because tomorrow it’s going to be on website. Somebody’s going to see it. Do we really need to have this getaway for the weekend? Because if we do, it’s going to be up there. Every check we write is going to be there. Somebody’s going to see it and question it. Better have your ducks in a row. That’s good government. That’s government of the people, for the people, by the people, and not with a few elected elitists who want to stay in control and stay in power. It’s not hard. It’s not expensive. The State of Texas went on line almost immediately. It cost about a quarter of a million dollars. On a state level. The information’s already there. We’re already writing the checks. We know where the revenue’s coming from. It’s coming from the income tax premiums, franchise fees, and all that. Put that up there, too. Let people see where the money’s coming from, so that they know where they’re losing their bucks each month. It’s not wrong. It’s not asking your government to do something for you. It’s you’re turn. It’s the right thing to do. It’s the responsive thing to do. If a corporation doesn’t keep their books, they get in trouble. They go out of business. If you don’t keep your books right, you lose your house, you lose your car. Be smart. Require the same thing of your government.
Mr. Hunter read something Kelly McCutchen of the Georgia Public Policy Foundation put in his weekly newsletter. “We might hope to see the finances of the Union as clear and intelligible as a merchant’s books so that every member of Congress and every man of any mind in the Union should be able to comprehend them, to investigate abuses, and consequently to control them.” That was written by Thomas Jefferson in 1802 to the Secretary of the Treasury. Controlling expenses. You do that every day. When you get paid, you pay your bills. You spend too much, you don’t pay, you lose things. The government needs to lose things. They need to cut expenses. They need to cut it back. If they don’t, we’re so far down the road to ruin, Mr. Hunter said, that he’s not sure we can get back. The last estimate he saw from the Federal Budget website, we need 53 trillion dollars right now to finance the obligations of the folks who are in the system right now. 53 trillion dollars. It’s mathematically impossible. The Federal government doesn’t keep their books like you keep your books. When you go to apply for a loan or you do a debit and credit, you have to show your long term debts as well as your short term debts and your monthly overhead. The Federal government has the luxury of saying we’re not going to carry Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid on the books. That really enhances the bottom line when those long term liabilities don’t appear. You take away 53 trillion dollars of long term liability; well, OK, we’ll just run on a nine trillion dollar deficit. Just a nine trillion dollar deficit? But every time someone’s born, and every time someone turns 65 they start collecting a check. They start running a tab. That’s wrong, folks. We’re printing the money to do it. We have no backing of our dollar. That’s why it’s dropping like a rock. Everybody’s understanding that across the world. China’s sitting there with 1.4 trillion dollars in cash, and with the amount of money we’re printing each day to pay this huge debt, they’re losing probably 10% to 12% a year. The Inflation rate is somewhat tied to the cost of goods. But it’s much more indicative of the amount of money they’re printing each day to monetize the debt. That’s wrong. We have Five Hundred Billion Dollars a year in interest being paid. We don’t even touch the principle. We can’t go on like this. It’s got to stop. And, it’s got to stop pretty soon. Or we’re going to have another Bretten Woods Agreement, especially where the United States declared bankruptcy in the late ‘50s. They got together with all the other major financial countries. And said; we’ve been issuing our dollars based on gold to this point, and we don’t have enough gold to cover it. So we’re going to quit backing it with gold. We’re just going to keep printing the paper, but we’re going to hang on to our gold. That’s wrong. That’s government without a soul. That is using you and you’re children, and your grandchildren, and your great grandchildren to pay for stuff right now so that Paul gets to re-elect his people all the time. We’re all Pauls in some way – Peter and Paul. Don’t let them do this. Call them. These people will respond to letters and phone calls. And it doesn’t take a lot. If you get a switchboard in a legislator’s office that gets 30, 40, 50 calls, they think the roof’s caving in. Be one of those 30, 40, 50 calls. Don’t let them get away with it.
Mr. Hunter said he is very proud of our Congressional delegation for voting against this ridiculous stimulus package. A hundred and sixty some odd billion in a $13 trillion plus economy. It’s robbing Peter to pay Paul so Paul will vote for them in an election year. That’s all it is. It doesn’t matter. It’s gone in a whisper. It doesn’t make a difference. Don’t let them fool you. Over a hundred billion of that basically was just printing the check. The real benefits that are coming from that are about $40 to $50 billion dollars worth of depreciation, acceleration, and things like that, that will cause big business to spend real money that has long term job effects which means each job creates dollars to go into the economy. $30 billion is going to non-taxpayers. They decided they should make us believe they weren’t going to give this money to illegal immigrants, like the tried to make us believe they were going to fund the fence on the border. Then they put it in Homeland Security and decided; we’ll fund it if necessary. The government is broken, folks. Not to be too dramatic, we’ve got to fix this. We’ve got to get on the ball. Our kids paying for this for the rest of their lives in taxes, and at some point it will cease to exist. The monitory system will collapse on itself, and they’ll go back and de-value, and we’ll have hyper-inflation and a lot of problems.
One more example of government creating another entity that’s just out of control is the Department of Education. It’s terrible. It’s about 20 years old. It’s annual budget is $600,000,000 a year. It’s just floors, and floors, and floors of people, and they don’t really know what they’re doing. They’re doing their little thing on their desks, giving eight hours work for eight hours pay, but they’re not fixing the education system. They’re not doing anything but picking your pocket. Our Representatives have voted the right way, and fought some of these battles, and done a really good job. But, if we don’t do something. And, we’re the people to do it. Don’t leave here and say: that was pretty good, where are we going for lunch. Go home and make a list. Look up where your legislators are, who they are, and what their phone numbers are, and call these folks. If they’ve done a good job, tell them. If they’ve done a bad job tell them. A couple of pats on the back go a long way. They will have more armor for the next fight, and they may be fighting your fight. And that’s important, because there’s a very few people that get up every morning and say I don’t care what anyone says, I did this to get elected. This is what I’m going to stand on, and this is how I’m going to vote. Take your government back,
Bill Byrnetag:www.speakersummaries.madisonforum.org,2008://8.2252008-02-26T14:16:26Z2008-02-28T14:17:15ZBill Byrne, candidate for Cobb County Commission Chair, spoke at the regular Madison Forum luncheon on February 11, 2008. He said that about a year ago he decided to run again for Commission Chairman As he began to get back...
Bill Byrne, candidate for Cobb County Commission Chair, spoke at the regular Madison Forum luncheon on February 11, 2008.
He said that about a year ago he decided to run again for Commission Chairman As he began to get back into business and participate, tiied to fix things without a whole lot of success, tried to change some things with a whole lot of frustration, he decided that if you can’t change the system, you’ve got to provide an alternative. As he spoke to a number of various groups of different interests, he had to make himself known again. It was very important to him to say this is how I feel, but it was much more important to know how we feel. So, getting the feedback was most important, so see if his feelings, concerns, and reservations were shared by anybody, let along a majority. Over that year, he began to realize there re five major issues in this county. There are two that are county-wide. There are three others, and depending on where you are in this county is dependent upon which is most important. Depending on which group you are talking about, that can change as well. Those are the five issues, he said, he wanted to talk about today, because he sincerely believes that’s what the campaign is going to be abut in this primary season. Cobb County is going to have to make decisions, because he and Sam do not agree on any of the five. Mr. Byrne said there are reasons for that. There are justifications for that.
Mr. Byrne said he would have to define for us what Mr. Olens’ views are on these five issues, since Mr. Olens was not present. Most of them have been very well documented, but when you are telling a group what someone else thinks, you have to be factual and honest about it. He said he brought documentation he would refer to as he went through the process, and as he goes through the process, he would ask a constant question. He said he didn’t want us to answer the question; he just wanted us to energize our thought process about that issue at that time, in time. Think about what he is talking about, because he is sure that 75% of what he will be talking about, we don’t know about. And there is a reason for that. So, the question he will be asking us throughout the presentation is: Do you know that?
Mr. Byrne said the first two issues are universally of concern throught the county. The first is water. The second is immigration. He said immigration surprised him. He know there were pockets of concern, but he never realized the extent of that concern was countywide. There are three difference counties inside Cobb County, depending on where you are. They are geographically and politically divided. They make up our voter base. The other three issues are transportation, growth management, and taxation and spending.
The first is water. Mr. Byrne said we are In the third year of a five year projected drought in Cobb County. We just finished the third year. The year 2008 is projected to be worse than last year. In ’09 even worse, before it begins to get better. It’s not his opinion, although it is his viewpoint. The second fact is that the State of Georgia is the only state in a 16-county southeastern region that does not have a single natural lake. Every lake inside the State of Georgia is man-made. To give an example of the water sources that metro Atlanta and south Georgia are relying on. Because what happens in south Georgia is extremely important in metro Atlanta. The Chattahoochee River begins in a spring in the north Georgia mountains and flows through our state. The Flint River begins in a spring at the end of a runway at Hartsfield=Jackson Airport and provides the volume of water necessary to south Georgia for agricultural uses. The two rivers come to a common point in southwest Georgia to form the Apalachicola River that flows through the panhandle of Florida into the Gulf of Mexico. Lake Allatoona, main source for Cobb, for Paulding, for Douglas, and for Cherokee Counties. Managed by the Corps of Engineers. Serviced by Cobb-Marietta Water Authority – not Cobb County. They are the wholesale provider of water treatment plant, purification plant in Cobb County. Cobb County buys its water from the Cobb-Marietta Water Authority. Paulding County gets 100% of its water from the Cobb-Marietta Water Authority, Cherokee County and Douglas County proportional, and even the City of Atlanta to some degree. The Cobb-Marietta Water Authority is enormously important in this debate. Lake Lanier, man-made, is organized and controlled by the Corps of Engineers as well. It services the majority of the counties and jurisdictions south of Cobb. Every time you hear the debate about the three states at war with each other, legally, for the last 20 years, it’s over the Chattahoochee River and Lake Lanier. It has zero impact on us, because we don’t get anything from either one. Our water comes from Allatoona. Mr. Byrne said, as he speaks to us, the lake is at 38% capacity. In January we were two inches below the norm for January. In February it hardly rained a lick in almost two weeks. The projections of the drought for 2008 are very real. The government in the State of Georgia passed legislation. It was the first thing accomplished in this general assembly. It’s useless and they think they have resolved and solved our problem. They’ve created eleven water planning districts all across the states, put Cobb in a 16-county, political boundary district where their one sole purpose, over a three year period of time, is plan and evaluate the program. Mr. Byrne asks, what have we been doing the last three years? Plan and evaluate? We should have had that long before now. He says that is telling him we are going to plan and evaluate and not do anything for thee more years. What has Cobb County done to plan for this? Absolutely nothing. There is no water management plan within the Cobb County government, let alone the Cobb County water system. We are reactionary to what happened to us, not plalnn9ing, and evolving, and adjusting to crises. More importantly, the Atlanta Regional Commission, our planning agency that includes a 10-county metropolitan Atlanta area has absolutely no water resource management plan. Governor Barnes, in the last year of his administration, created the North Georgia Water Planning District. He recognized the potential problems and the realistic viewpoint that traffic and air quality were not going to be the determining factor for the quality of our growth, but the quality and quantity of water to sustain us all. He created that agency within 16 counties. His problem. - he didn’t fund it.
They meet, coordinate drink coffee, and go home. The is no master plan from the North Georgia Water Planning Agency. Government failure from the state, the regional, and the county level is rampant. Conservative Republicans have failed their constituencies. So, today we are in the middle of a crisis, and no one knows what to do about it. What’s Cobb County’s reaction to it? We basically oversimplified two things. First of all the governor issued an order of conservation that all counties, including Cobb, but water use by 10%. Cobb County did that. It was one of the few counties that was able to do that and comply with the law. That’s pretty easy to do in November and December when we re not watering our lawns, washing our cars, and filling up our swimming pools. But we did it. And, secondly, the Board of Commissioners, to their credit, said we are going to put in a system where the more water you use, the more you are going to pay for it. Mr. Byrne said he encouraged that, he agrees with that. Good policy. But, he said, we cannot conserve our way out of this problem. The State of Georgia, the ARC that Sam Olens is chairman of, have made these statements: “Growth is not the problem with our water. It is not the cause of the problem”. But they don’t carry it further. That factually accurate is realistically false. If you’re looking at the big picture, within the Chattahoochee, Lake Lanier, and Allatoona at their maximum capacity, water is plentiful. In functional, realistic, everyday terms, half the water we have, by law is sent south. We can’t use it. It is sent sough to Alabama and Florida. We have 50% of our capacity to sustain our growth. When you have that condition, the density and the population can only be sustained by a certain amount of water. When you cut your lake level in half, and say that’s all I got 20% of it is unusable. It’s used for filtration. It’s below the inlet in which water leaves the dam. You can’t get to it. You can’t use it. So, in reality, we’ve got 30% capacity from Lake Allatoona with which to sustain our quality of life and expand it through growth. We cannot conserve our way out of this problem, and growth has to be evaluated. And we have got of visit our policies and make the necessary changes, because what we have is a limited resource in which to sustain ourselves. Mr. Byrne said, in his viewpoint, Governor Purdue, Lt. Governor Cagle, Speaker Richardson, Sam Olens, and the ARC have totally failed us. This isn’t a new issue. We’ve known about this. We’ve completed three years of drought, three years of discussion, three years of debate, and what are we going to do about it? We are now in our fourth year, and we’re still studying the stuff. That’s not leadership. That’s not problem solving. That’s not serving constituencies. That’s avoiding making the difficult decisions. Mr. Byrne asked – what makes him different from Sam Olens? In 1997, at the Atlanta Regional Commission and to the Board of Commissioners, he made a very detailed presentation on two issues. One was water. And, he said to them that we needed to change our focus. That our water supply can be determined by volume, and that volume should determine our growth policies. We can no longer accept and attract and welcome in everyone as if our utilities were endless. He said we aren’t going to find any new water, so we’ve got to create new water. He offered two concepts. The Board of Commissioners in Cobb said we don’t have the problem. We don’t have the resources to address it, so we’re not going to support it. Without their support, the ARC was very kind and let him make his presentational put it into committee, and it never got out.
Mr. Byrne said we need to create regional retention ponds along our major drainage basins. A retention pond is designed to catch water, hold water, and dissipate it through percolation and evaporation. It’s a manner in which you control storm water runoff. His proposal was to put in a concrete or asphalt floor within a regional retention pond so it would
T percolate and minimize the evaporation for when we have major storms, pump that water into dump trucks, carry it to our water treatment plants, pur it into our system. That’s where all the water in our lakes comes from. Why are we allowing this resource to go unused? Depending on the month or year in which we generally get 50 inches of rain in this area, we can capture 26% of that in other than closed areas. Secondly, and they are now doing this in Orange County, California, convert waste water into drinking water. We came close. In our of our treatment plants, the northwest treatment plant, we put in the necessary technology to change waste water into what’s called gray water. And, we pump that to various recreational facilities, including Cobblestone Golf Course, and we irrigate the fairways and the greens with it. Gray water is a waste product from solid waste. And, he said, we need to install the technology to turn gray water to drinking water. What are our options? Two additional sources of water in addition to what we have. The technology is in place to do it. The political will is not. What are we going to plan for? What do they have to study that they don’t already know? Do you know where Allatoona it? Do you know where that water comes from? Let’s get past that. Lanier. What happens if we lost Lanier? The Federal Court ruled last week against Georgia and for Alabama and Florida. We have to continue sending half our water to them. If we don’t address the issue of growth, if we lost Lanier, do you think the rest of the region is going to let Allatoona sit over here untouched? The General Assembly wants to charge out with weapons loaded and take water from the Tennessee River in Tennessee. They just never asked Tennessee about it. That’s the kind of leadership that you elected and sent down to that big black hole called the golden dome. Mr. Byrne said that kind of leadership terrifies the living hell out of him. We cannot conserve our way out of this problem. But we can manage the problem. ‘Water should determine our growth policies. Our growth policies shouldn’t determine the amount of water we need to sustain us.
Mr. Byrne’s second issue is transportation, which, he said, is equally important. First, he addressed an article in the Marietta Daily Journal of December 16th in which Sam Olens says; ’Cobb, metro Atlanta growth is coming at a heavy price’. Mr. Byrne says Mr. Olens is right. We are paying a helleva price for the growth in this county. He quoted a portion of the article: “Let’s not forget that, thanks to the foresight of Olens and the rest of the Board of Commissioners, a new reservoir, built jointly by Cobb and the City of Canton, is coming on line this month.” Three lies. They know better. In 1995, Cecil Pruitt, the then-mayor of Canton, came to Mr. Byrne at ARC with a plan for a reservoir and asked if he would jointly support his presentation to the Cobb-Marietta Water Authority. They went through about six months of evaluating his proposal. The Cobb-Marietta Water Authority, in 1996, adopted the concept of that reservoir. Twelve years later, it’s completed and filling up as we speak. It won’t be ready next month. It will be two years before the reservoir fills up if it’s a normal rainfall year. It isn’t. It won’t. It’s not going to be there. They know that. Sam Olens wasn’t even an elected official, and the Board of Commissioners never had anything to do with it. The Cobb-Marietta Water Authority did, and does. Mayor Cecil Pruitt did. Mr. Byrne said he helped him. He said he didn’t do it, he endorsed it. $100,000,000 later we have a reservoir. 25% of the financial obligations belong to the City of Canton. 75%, $75,000,000 belongs to the taxpayers of Cobb.
Earlier, Mr. Byrne said, he talked about how Governor Purdue, Lt. Governor Cagle, and Speaker Richardson failed us miserably on water. The only thing they’ve done worse is transportation. They don’t have a clue about how to deal with that issue. But they’re full of proposals. GDOT, Georgia Department of Transportation, is a bureaucratic nightmare, a totally incompetent agency. He said, show me one road in five years that GDOT has started, let alone finished. Not one. About a year ago Cobb County approved a SPLOST. In November, at a forum sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce, that was discussing transportation issues, Mr. Byrne said he asked the DOT Director who was representing the County, what is out SPLOST going to do for us in Cobb County. The Director said that the SPLOST would raise about $800,000,000 in local funds, and when we use that with matching funds from the state and the federal government, we will have about $1.3 billion to spend over a 10-year period of time. Mr. Byrne asked the director; how is that going to impact the county, and how is it going to solve one single problem we have just to keep up with the growth. There was no answer from the man who was going to manage these funds. Mr. Byrne asked the director if they had a transportation master plan for the county. The answer was no, they have a list of projects and a line item fund to expand and improve existing corridors and fix intersections. Mr. Byrne asked, we don’t have a master plan for transportation purposes in this County? The answer was no. Does ARC have one? No. How about GDOT? No. How about the State of Georgia anywhere? No. Do we know what we are going to do in the next ten years with that money? Yes, we’re going to widen roads. Are we going to fix any problems? No. We’re going to accommodate the growth that’s projected to come here over the next ten years.
Water, transportation. What’s Sam Olens’ response to that over at ARC? They are our transportation planning organization. Their proposal is this: Acknowledging that we don’t have a master plan and that we’ve got a problem, Sam Olens is proposing that we have a regional tax for regional transportation purposes in our region. Tell that to people and they say – he never said that. Mr. Byrne said, yes he did and showed the press release from the ARC with Sam Olens’ signature endorsing a regional tax for regional transportation purposes. Mr. Byrne said, what does regional mean? It means they want our money to fix other people’s problems who don’t have their own SPLOST programs. And, with our 4% sales tax, our educational SPLOST, transportation SPLOST, and a regional tax, how much more are they going to take from us? And, Mr. Olens’ focus is to fix the transportation corridor that serves Atlanta, Fulton, and DeKalb Counties. Mr. Byrne asked, where did he come up with that idea for concern? Mr. Byrne said is wasn’t Mr. Olens’ idea. It’s the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce’s idea. They drafted the legislation. They sponsored the legislation. They had press conferences acknowledging that. Sam Olens, Mr. Byrne said, is their spokesman. They knew they couldn’t come to Cobb, or Cherokee, or Gwinnett, or Douglas, or Paulding with a tax proposal from the City of Atlanta. It has to come from ARC with Sam Olens as their spokesman. Mr. Byrne said he promises he will do everything he can to kill that proposal.
Mr. Byrne said, as we talk right now, four different tax proposals are in the General Assembly sponsored by the Governor, the Speaker, or the Lt. Governor. He said the last time he checked the majority in the Assembly were Republicans and all talking about tax increases. Who is representing our interests, here?
But, Mr. Byrne said, to get back to water for one issue, because he’s talking taxes, what is Sam Olens’ proposal to Cobb County’s conservative nature? Mr. Olens says “we cut our water consumption by over 10%; we cut our revenues by over 10%. I want to raise your water rates to offset the loss of revenues.” Mr. Byrne said that is the proposal on the desks of the commissioners. Because we have done what we were asked to do.
Mr. Byrne said transportation is going to kill us. A national study shows our region to be the second most congested traffic, behind Los Angeles, but catching up. What’s our response to that? Increase taxes. What are we going to do with them? We don’t know, but let’s increase taxes. Do we have a master plan? Not yet, but let’s get the revenue first. That’s not good. We should justify the need. Just this weekend Casey Cagle came our with a proposal. He wants to have a state-wide permanent tax in which local governments can say, we’re going to have a SPLOST Program, list the projects, the amount we need, and if passed by the voters, the county gets to keep 80%. 20% goes to the state to do with what they want. Mr. Byrne said not in this state, not in this county, not for this boy. Didn’t Mr. Cagle have an R beside his name when he ran for office?
Mr. Byrne said, in 1997 he talked about transportation big time. And at that time there was proposed a master plan for transportation purposes, redesigning a regional transportation corridor that also included a light rail system that began at Mars Hill Road and Lost Mountain Park to pick up the traffic from Paulding, Polk, Floyd Counties coming in to Cobb through Roswell all the way over to Lawrenceville on the TGA 120 corridor. MARTA would come up GA 400 and intersect at a regional transfer station which they had already projected to do/ And in the 41, corridor a light rail system from Marietta to a CIE Community Improvement District covering the Galleria area, a major employment center, to Town Center CIE, a major employment center. A monorail elevated to serve those two groups, along with a regional network of roads improvements to resolve and solve our problems then, but redefine our growth policies for today, ten year later. The ARC adopted the policy unanimously. Even Mitch Scandalakis, and Bill Campbell, the two he had to work with in his administration, endorsed it. It never happened. If we had done that in 1997, what would be the debates today, eleven years later? How would that have influenced our growth management policies of today? Mr. Byrne said he also presented to the ARC a southeast region high speed rail concept throughout the southeast, first to go from Atlanta to Chattanooga. That was killed as well. That’s now renovated and coming back to Cobb County and coming back to the State of Georgia.
Wm Byrne asked; what’s his proposal? The ARC concept is high density mixed use development, therefore he is opposed to it, no matter where, but particularly in Cobb County. He will fight that. He will oppose anything ARC proposes. He opposes what he calls the Cobb 750 proposal, the land use plan that minimizes Cobb County’s projection of no more than 750,000 people in our county. We’re at 680,000 today. If the water, sewer, bridges aren’t in place, don’t develop. What happened in Chase development with infrastructure; infrastructure had to be in place to control development. Six cities are for high density only. For the rest of Cobb, low density, residential, period. We’ve got to return to the conservative values of limited governmental control spending, reduce taxes and fees. That’s the policy. Control what you have, based on the infrastructure available, rather than providing infrastructure for just about everything.
Fourth topic, spending and taxes. In the five years Sam Olens has been chairman, our property taxes have increased an average of 40% in this county through reassessment. That means some are higher, some are lower, but the average is 750%. To increase the use of CCT by increasing their fees by 40%. In one year alone Cobb upped spending by 19%, $127,000,000. Where did they get it? It’s called tax increases, fee increases. Largest single increase in the history of the State of Georgia, according to Charles Bulloch, University of Georgia political scientist. Our tax digest, $1.7 billion. Where did that come from? Property tax reassessment. What is Mr. Byrne’s proposal to all of that? Dramatically different from what we have. Several of his proposals include tax cuts, three of them. And they start and end with property taxes. Working with our local delegation, he will work to exempt all property taxes on private recreational property serving recreational homeowners associations. He will work to exempt all inventory taxes on business operations. He will work with the local delegation to tax reassessment at a yearly basis of no more than 5% a year. Rather than the unlimited amount on a yearly basis, and will work to reduce the millige rate every year in office, just as he did the ten years he was in office.
The issue of immigration is controversial. Most of the opposition to the work of Sheriff Warren comes from GALEO. Mr. Byrnes said his proposals are several, one of which is something he could do as chairman that Sam Olens refuses to. The first four are nothing that he can do. The first is to establish English as the official language of Cobb County. Secondly, complete the approved wall. Expand the number of border patrol agents, expand the numbers of ICE agents, and prosecute the companies that are violating the law. And, cease all the monies to sanctuary cities like Berkley, California. What he said he can do at a local level, he would support the existing laws that allow the sheriff to address immigration at the local level and expand training for police officers so that the Cobb County Police Department can do the same thing. Sam Olens refuses to do that. We can help, support, and expand the abilities to address the immigration laws in the County. Why isn’t Sam Olens prepared to do that? He is a part of an organization that he joined in 2005, called GALEO. This is an open borders, full amnesty organization which was funded and founded by 100 people and corporations, all Democrats. Headed by seven elected Democratic officials and Jane Fonda. That’s the group Sam Olens joined. He showed the press release and newsletter welcoming Mr. Olens into the fold.
Mr. Byrne said Mr. Olens’ stand on growth is mixed use, high density growth at all costs for all reasons. Mr. Byrne’s proposal is to put a limit as to the amount of people we can handle in our county. On transportation, Mr. Byrne said he passionately believes that water, sewer, roads, and bridges have to be in place first before growth is approved. Invest in them first, manage growth second. Reduce spending, control the size of government, and cut taxes. Focus your law enforcement assets to managing effectively the federal laws as they deal with immigration. Those are the five issues that the debate is going to be about this summer. We are going to have a clear choice. It’s our choice. This is our county. This is our home and business. What do you want it to look like? How do we want it managed? And who do we want to answer to us.
Sam Olens’ focus and issues are on special interest groups that have raised a quarter of a million dollars to campaign this summer. Every single major builder, developer, supplier, contractor, architect – you name the special interest group, that’s his agenda. It’s to comply with their wishes, their needs. The Atlanta Chamber, the Cobb Chamber, the growth community. The people mean nothing.
Where is the people’s voice? Who is going to represent us? We’ve got the choice, we’ve got the opportunity. Mr. Byrne says take it seriously, and he hopes we make the right decision.
Dale Cardwelltag:www.speakersummaries.madisonforum.org,2008://8.2222008-01-26T11:43:39Z2008-02-11T11:46:39ZDale Cardwell, Democrat candidate for U.S. Senator, Georgia, spoke to Madison Forum members and guests at the regular breakfast meeting Saturday, January 26, 2008, with emphasis on his proposed “Health Care Program”. Mr. Cardwell began with some background information. He...
Dale Cardwell, Democrat candidate for U.S. Senator, Georgia, spoke to Madison Forum members and guests at the regular breakfast meeting Saturday, January 26, 2008, with emphasis on his proposed “Health Care Program”.
Mr. Cardwell began with some background information. He has lived in five southern states. He was born in Kentucky, and lived for some years in Alabama. He went to Western Kentucky University, because it had and still has one of the best Journalism Programs in the United States. He worked his way through college as a DJ on local radio stations.
He started his career in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, at Fort Campbell. He said his first real taste of journalism, trying to make a difference, was in 1985 when the Gander, Newfoundland air crash disaster happened. 285 Fort Campbell servicemen were killed in that crash, on a return flight from a peacekeeping mission in the mid east. A day or so after, he said, he received a call from a young lady who was 18 years old, and her fiancé has been on that plane. She told Mr. Cardwell that she and her fiancé corresponded via audio tape. She had just received his last tape in which he said that he and all his service friends were terrified of flying this particular charter jet that was rickety. They felt it might crash at any time, and they were petrified about it. Mr. Cardwell said he got the tape, and listened to it; and that night it was the lead story on every major news cast in the United States, including CNN. Since he was working at an independent station, he could parlay that story to every outlet. He said that what was important about putting that story on television was that it created a moratorium on the way the military transported soldiers, and they stopped using charters for a year while they examined what went wrong. They found that Aero Air was a sub type of carrier that should not have been transporting troops. They increased the standards. And today, there has not been a major military disaster since then; because a little 18 year old girl had the courage to stand up and say – wait a second, this isn’t all about rah rah. This is about real people losing their lives because somebody was cutting corners.
Mr. Cardwell said his mother and father were both hard working people. They taught him some really simple values that he used to think everybody shared. But, he said, the older one gets the more one realizes they are more and more rare. His Mom and Dad believed that if you work hard, and you keep your shoulder to the wheel, and you keep your head down and do the right thing, you can expect a few things in life. You can expect to be able to put food on your table. You should be able to expect to put shoes on your kids. And you ought to be able to expect to be able to afford a family doctor. Today, he said, in 2008 we’re getting into a society where a lot of those things cannot be accomplished simply because you keep your shoulder to the wheel and your nose to the grindstone and do what’s expected of you. And, he said, he thinks that’s a big problem.
Mr. Cardwell has spent 23 years as an investigative reporter. He said nobody ordains you as an investigative reporter. You start by what he calls pulling the string. If you have a natural curiosity about the way things work, you start pulling that string, and that string will pull more thread, and pretty soon you’re unraveling something. And that’s the way he approached his job for 23 years. He said he had the privilege of breaking some major stories simply because he had this curiosity that would not let him rest. He said he is a fiscal conservative. He cannot stand the thought of the government writing a bad check. He and his wife cannot write bad checks. He’s not sure why the government thinks it’s OK to write a bad check. He does not understand why the government thinks it’s OK for one half of our debt to be owned by foreign countries, like the Chinese, the Japanese, and the Koreans. He does not hear politicians talking about that, and it’s scaring the fire out of him that they won’t talk about it. He said he believes strongly in accountability. A few of the things he was able to accomplish as a reporter, with the help of good people who were willing to stand up and make a difference. He was the guy who broke the story that Bill Campbell was using contractor money to go all over the country and gamble. A lot of people couldn’t stand that the station put that out, and there was huge pressure on Channel 2 not to print that story. He was the guy who broke the story that Sid Dorsey was using deputies that worked for the public to go and staff his private security jobs all over the metro Atlanta. Dorsey called him every name in the book, said it wasn’t true. And then later on he broke most of the stories that led to the fact that Dorsey was convicted of killing Derwood Brown. Dorsey said Mr. Cardwell was a racist, that it wasn’t true. And then, about four months ago from his jail cell he admitted it was all true. Mr. Cardwell is the guy who exposed the fact that Jackie Barrett had invested seven million dollars that belonged to the public in Fulton County with a guy named Byron Rainer, who was a rogue agent from Florida who had been terminated by Metropolitan Life. He’s the guy who exposed the fact that Zell Miller, when he left the governor’s office, pocketed $140,000 that the legislature appropriated for the maintenance of the mansion. Zell thought no one would know it, so he put it in his pocket and goes to Washington. He had to disclose his income when he became a Senator. And on a little bitty portion of the form he wrote $140,000 extra governor money. Mr. Cardwell said that’s the reason we don’t hear much from Zell these days, because he knows that if he starts to talk pretty loudly, that’s going to come back to haunt him. He said he calls himself an equal opportunity accountant. If Governor Purdue was flying around the state in a helicopter that belongs to us, and he was taking his son to football games in Gainesville, it was wrong. Mr. Cardwell told the story. Governor Purdue paid the money back, and the Attorney General said the Governor can’t use that transportation for his family any more. Mr. Cardwell said he believes strongly in standing up and telling what’s right and what’s wrong.
Mr. Cardwell said what he has learned from 23 years of going behind the lines of power and big government and brought people the real story was his passion. For as long as he can remember he has been passionate about telling people the truth, and he has been passionate about making a positive difference in people’s lives. So, when he started seeing what was going on with our government years ago, he saw this gulf continue to grow between what our national politicians tell us what they are going to do and what they actually do when they become elected. It’s almost like a side show. It’s like a circus atmosphere in Washington where they keep us entertained with craziness and silliness, and brinkmanship, when all the time they’re back here doing something in common. They are taking care of the giant corporations that pay their way to Washington. That’s not job one, that’s job 98%. There’s very little difference between the Democrats and the Republicans when it comes to taking care of their benefactors.
Mr. Cardwell showed charts prepared by the Center for Responsive Politics as of 2006. Of the three hundred million Americans, less than one-third of one percent contributes $200 to a political candidate running for anything. American people don’t contribute to elections. They don’t think they have to. And, says Mr. Cardwell, they shouldn’t have to. He thinks it’s awful that our government is for sale. So if ordinary people don’t contribute to elections, who does? Almost three-fourths of all money given to candidates for elective office comes from giant business. Mr. Cardwell worked for Cox for 12 years, and for big business most of his life. He said Cox is a good outfit. They make good money and work hard. Their number one goal is to put cable boxes in everyone’s house. Their goal is not to take care of Dale Cardwell’s family. Their goal is not to see that his retirement stays solvent, so they, and all other corporations, are paying to have their business interests taken care of in Washington.
Mr. Cardwell said, when he was considering running for office, he read an article about Saxby Chambliss in Georgia Trend Magazine. Senator Chambliss was asked if he had always had a passion for this – a burning desire on his part for this work. Mr. Chambliss replied that he had never thought much about politics, had never seen himself as a Democrat or a Republican. But a group of businessmen came to him in Moultrie, and said they thought he would make a good congressman. He ran for Congress in 1990 and lost. Then he ran again in 1994 and won. In 2006 Saxby Chambliss returned $26 million dollars of our tax dollars to Colquitt County to pay back those business people who came to see him to try to talk him into running for office.
Mr. Cardwell said he didn’t get any of that $26 million. He said he didn’t want any of that $26 million. He wants the government to take less from him. He doesn’t want the government to redistribute what they take from him to someone who can influence a legislator in Congress. Now, he said, here’s the scary part. What we are not hearing from the Democrats and we’re not hearing from the Republicans is that the money they are spending in Washington today does not belong to them, and it doesn’t even belong to us. It belongs to the Chinese. It belongs to the Koreans. It belongs to the Japanese who are more than glad to issue a credit card to our country. Almost 50% of the debt that we owe held by the public is owned by foreigners. So, what happens if we start doing something that the Chinese, the Koreans, or the Japanese don’t like? What if they decide to call in the debt? Is that going to influence our President - Democrat or Republican? Is it going to influence what we do in terms of foreign policy because they are afraid we will have the rug pulled out from under us. The Democrats and the Republicans are not telling us about this. We’re talking about taxes and tax incentives. And we’re talking about a way to stimulate the economy. He said it’s making him physically ill. We are a barge going down a river, loaded with iron ore. All our families are on this barge. And the water is close to coming over the side. It’s raining. So what Congress has decided to do is put a canopy of iron ore on top of our heads to keep the rain off of us. He said he wonders if that iron ore is going to cause the barge to go under. He is afraid it will. Congress is not sending us a $600 rebate on our taxes. What they are going to send us is a credit card check issued by the Bank of China, and we’re going to cash that check, and we’re going to spend it. And, you know who is going to pay it back, our grandkids. It’s like we are raiding the Christmas closet of our grandchildren. And we are sharing all the gifts that belong to our grandchildren. And, nobody will tell us the truth about it. He is fed up with it. He can’t stand that they are not telling us the truth about that.
Mr. Cardwell said he is proud to be an American. He has been proud of his country ever since he learned we had a Pledge of Allegiance. We are of the opinion that we are the number one nation in the world. We are number one in some ways. We’re the number one economy in the world. But, look where we have fallen because of our political leadership. When you take a look at things like economic trends, prices, energy, labor market, science and technology, education, quality of life, public finance, we are 16 our of 28 industrialized nations. Nobody is telling us that story. Nobody’s telling the truth. If you listen to the non-partisan Concord Coalition, they will tell you we’ve got serious problems. We’ve got a $9 trillion dollar debt. He does not believe we can grow our way out of this. The Concord Coalition says we would have to have 75 years straight of double digit economic growth to reduce the deficit we have. We can’t grow our way out of it. If the politicians tell us that all we have to do is grow our way out of it, they’re lying. They’re telling us what we want to hear, not what we need to hear. The Democrats and the Republicans will not quit spending. They want to tax and then they want to spend. They continue to insist on spending money we don’t have. Growth can help. It’s important to support the economy, and it’s important to have a growing economy. The reason we cannot fundamentally grow our way out of this is: today, there are 3.3 workers for every retiree in the United States. In 1960 there were five workers for every retiree. In 2040 there are going to be 2.2 workers for every retiree. We’re becoming an inverted nation. We’re becoming a nation of fewer workers and more retirees. The path we are on today, as far as Social Security and Medicaid are concerned, is not sustainable. We’ve got to stop spending money we do not have. It’s that simple. That’s the hard message that people need to hear.
Mr. Cardwell said he does not believe the SCHIP plan is the way to solve our health care issues. That’s not the answer. Here’s the inconsistency of our seated Senator. He voted against the SCHIP because he thought that parents who make $46,000 a year in Georgia and other places should not get help from the government for health care. He said he could see some reasoning behind that, but there is a problem with that. The same Senator, four months later, supported and voted for a farm bill that gave corporate welfare to people who make a million to two and a half million dollars a year profit. It’s because that’s the group of people who came to him in Moultrie, GA and said we think you ought to run for office. Mr. Cardwell said he doesn’t believe in corporate welfare. He does. There’s this mistake that he was doing this for the mom and pop farmers in Georgia. Folks, there are no mom and pop farmers left in Georgia. It’s Monsanto. These are giant corporate farms that are headquartered in Nebraska, and they lease huge tracts of land in Georgia. And the regular farmers that are left in Georgia can’t compete against them, because they are getting these Federal subsidies to come in here and buy and lease land.
Mr. Cardwell outlined what he wants to accomplish as a U.S. Senator. He said in his 23 years traveling around the Southeast, he has spent a lot of time in small towns in Georgia. There are two Georgias, one inside 285, and one outside of 285. He said he covered a tornado in a little town south of Villa Rica during the 2004 Presidential election cycle. About four houses were wiped out, and one house was not that bad. That family had everyone over for dinner that night. That’s the way neighbors help each other in places like that. He said he learned so much about politics that was an education in one night. He learned that the everyday Georgian wants three things from the Federal government. They want to be left alone. They want to Federal government to stay out of their pockets, and they want to Federal government to enforce the law. That’s what they want, and that’s what he said he plans to give them. The problem, says Mr. Cardwell, is that Saxby wants to give us everything we want, and then he wants to talk the talk. He’s a borrow and spend Liberal. He talks rhetoric that sounds conservative, but when it comes time to approve all those budget bills that get higher and higher, he’s right there voting for them. Somebody’s got to stand up and say so,. It’s got to come to an end.
Mr. Cardwell said he wants to secure our borders. He thinks it’s an abomination that six and a half years after 9/11 we still don’t know who’s coming across our borders. He said we can track a cow from Nova Scotia and know where its calves are. We know what happened to them, but we don’t know where people are when they come across our border. And a lot of people who came here legally, their visa expire, and they don’t go home, and we don’t know where they are. It’s got to stop. And, this is another inconsistency. When he saw Saxby Chambliss support and co-write the amnesty bill with Ted Kennedy, and he was so proud of it, Mr. Cardwell thought – why did he do that? All he had to do was use his reporter’s skills and find out where his money comes from. His money comes from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce which wants the border to stay open. They want the influx of cheap illegal off-the-books labor to come in. He calls it off-the-books, rocket fuel for a false shadow economy. The average American family is making $1,000 a year less today than seven years ago. Mr. Cardwell said he is a capitalist. He believes in a free market. Everyone knows that an economy can only work inside a model that everyone agrees to go by the rules. He said what we are doing is bring this off-the-book labor from a place where they don’t have to go by our rules. The industries don’t have to follow the rules that support supply and demand in the United States. We’ve got to get back to following the rules for supply and demand. We’ve got to secure our borders. It’s a travesty that they will not secure our borders. He said our ports are wide open, and they won’t do it because a very small number of people that control a significant amount of capital in our country will not let it be done. And, he said, they control the politicians through their purse strings, Somebody’s got to stand up and say so and do something about it.
Health care, he said is a work in progress. His first thought is that our model is upside down. We have these insurance companies that basically act as stock brokers. They collect our money and put our money in the market. They don’t want to release the money, because they make less money when they do. Therefore, we have a process whereby preventive medicine is just not what we do. We don’t encourage people to go to the doctor at least once a year. We don’t encourage people to get colonoscopies or mammograms. We don’t encourage people to take care of themselves or give them any kind of incentives to do so. What we do is hang on to their money until they become chronically ill, and then we release the money. It’s an upside down system. What would be workable, says Mr. Cardwell, is for the government to use its clout to go to a Blue Cross Blue Shield or Humana. To say why not try a test case for two years in a specific geographic area. The government could make certain that the company would not lose profits for two years, and wants the company to at least try to invert its pyramid and spend money on the front end, because we (the government) theoretically feel that the company would make more money on the back end by keeping its clients healthy. The company gets to make more money, because it’s not spending money on chronic care. He thinks that’s something Congress ought to get up the nerve to try to do. But the reason they can’t do it is because the insurance companies that control Washington have a price point. They’re comfortable with the fact that there are still enough paying American families that can afford that price point. And so they are insisting that the price point does not move. In the meantime, we have 47,000,000 Americans who are not insured, and who cannot be insured. And here’s the sad part about the rhetoric you hear. You hear people talk about should we have universal health care or should we not. We already have universal health care, said Mr. Cardwell. It’s called the Emergency Room. It is the illegals, he said. And the taxpayers are paying for it. And that’s another reason we have to secure our borders. In 1850 we had a horrible form of slavery. Well, he said, in 2008 we have another form of economic slavery. The problem is these people who violate our laws and come across our borders, and then are hired illegally by industries. The companies have the best of both worlds. They don’t have to house these people, they don’t have to pay for their health care, and they don’t have to educate them. Who’s doing all that? We, the taxpayers are. Somebody’s got to stand up and put an end to it, and do something about it.
The other idea, he said, came to him from a man who is an attorney and sold life insurance for years. And it sounds workable. The man said; we’re spending so much money o Medicaid every year in chronic care. If a person has diabetes we won’t build a ramp for them to get to their house, but when they fall and break their leg and have to have the leg amputated, then we build a ramp for the wheelchair. It’s just not smart. The man said, what if we had a deductible. What if we had a Federal insurance program where the Federal government provided $5,000 a year to every American for preventive care, to go to the doctor, to do these things. But, then at the $5,000 level, private insurance kicks in. You have to have a private insurance plan where after the Federal government pays $5,000, you have to go to private insurance. The gentleman Mr. Cardwell talked to said it would accomplish two things. First, health care premiums would drop precipitously, because insurance companies, their biggest expense is paying first dollar out. They don’t want to pay for preventive care. And number two, it would only require one form to fill out, because the Federal government would be the insurer. And everybody would have access to that. That’s another thought. It’s another idea that’s out there. Mr. Cardwell said he likes it in one regard. He doesn’t believe the government should take over health care. He doesn’t believe in a single payer universal health care system, because there’s no cost control. We see what happens when the government takes over an entitlement program. On the other hand, he doesn’t like a pure private insurance solution. Mitt Romney’s plan in Massachusetts sounds great on paper. Force everyone to pay for insurance. Premiums go down. Well, here’s the problem. As a reporter for 23 years, he said he can’t tell how many stories Clarke Howard and he did stories on families where both spouses were working and sometimes had an extra job. And then they had a child who had Leukemia, and they would go sit in the family’s living room and hear them talk about how the health insurance company wouldn’t pay the claims. They have a policy and paying their premiums, and they’re denying claims? So, looking at the Massachusetts model, the common denominator for all those people he and Clarke did stories on was that they didn’t have any political power. They couldn’t force those private insurers to pay for the coverage that these people had bought. So what’s going to happen if we add millions of poor Americans to this insurance plan and force them to pay it? They may pay the premiums, but the private insurers are not going to pay for the coverage. They’re going to bring in all that money, but they’re not going to pay coverage. Mr. Cardwell said he believes it has to be a public-private partnership. We have to find a way to keep the market involved in order to control costs. But we also have to find a way – and this is number one, to insure children. We have to find a way to make certain that children, up to the age of 18, are covered with health care coverage. It’s smart money, because it saves us money in the long run, and they don’t wind up in the emergency room.
Those are a few of the things, he said, that we need to be talking about. Things we need to be hearing Senate candidates debate. And you’re not hearing at all.
Ron Sifentag:www.speakersummaries.madisonforum.org,2008://8.2182008-01-14T15:30:02Z2008-01-28T15:31:06ZRon Sifen, candidate for Cobb County Commission District 2, addressed Madison Forum members and guests at the regular luncheon meeting on Monday, January 14, 2008, on the subject “Cobb at a Crossroads”. Mr. Sifen began by saying that the challenges...
Ron Sifen, candidate for Cobb County Commission District 2, addressed Madison Forum members and guests at the regular luncheon meeting on Monday, January 14, 2008, on the subject “Cobb at a Crossroads”.
Mr. Sifen began by saying that the challenges of tomorrow are going to be very different from the issues we have dealt with in the past. The decisions we make in 2008 are really going to define the future of Cobb County. Cobb County has grown dramatically in the past few decades. Cobb County is almost completely developed out at this point. We’re almost fully developed, so future development is really going to involve redevelopment at higher density throughout the County. He said that’s going to present some real issues. The County is really going to have to clearly define where we can accommodate higher density development, but also, clearly define where we can’t. We just don’t have the infrastructure to support higher density development.
Urban planners, Mr. Sifen said, tell us the solution to all our problems is to urbanize the suburbs. According to them, suburbs cause traffic, they cause disease, they cause obesity, they cause global warming. They cause anti-social behavior, fear, unfriendliness, and virtually any other absurdity they can think of. There is a huge issue of whether we should urbanize the suburbs.
Mr. Sifen said, let’s take a look at what is urban and what is suburban. An example of urban development would be Manhattan. In urban you have a lot of different types of land uses all mixed together and very compact, and they’re laid out in a grid type of road network that is an integral part of urban development. In suburban development, you have something very different. Instead of all the development being very close together, you’ve got space between all the buildings. You have a separation of land usage. You’ve got certain areas that are residential. You’ve got certain areas that are for shopping. You’ve got other areas that are for offices, and others for industrial. Your suburban neighborhoods tend to be single family detached homes on individual lots. That’s the character of most suburban neighborhoods, and relatively low density, so we have relatively large lots. You don’t have a grid type road system. You have a few main arterial roads, but most of the streets are not through streets. One of the benefits of that from a suburban perspective is that it allows the neighborhoods to retain their residential character.
We can see how this all relates to Cobb County, Mr. Sifen said, by logging on to AtlantaRegional.com, click on land use. On Envision 6, there is a Power Point presentation. Slides 19 through 28 are unified growth policy maps. On the map showing an 18-csounty area, the commission shows different kinds of land uses. We have mega corridors going along the major highways showing the most intense development in the entire region. Next in intensity would be urban development, and then suburban, and then rural.
The Cobb corridor of intense development extends between I-75 and Cobb parkway and between Cumberland and Town Center, which might be able to accommodate very high intensity development. But this corridor is about five to six miles wide. So, it extends about two and a half to three miles on either side of I-75. It takes up a pretty good chunk of Cobb County. Mega corridors are the most intensely developed areas in the region. High intensity development of mixed use high rise residential and office towers are appropriate. Mr. Sifen said two or three miles east of I-75, going into east Cobb is in the Rib Ranch area and beyond. The commission is planning for a future that is Manhattan style, very intense redevelopment for Cobb County.
The next area is projected to be future urban. This is less intense mixed use than mega corridor. Town Center type of development is appropriate along with medium density residential-like town homes and small lot single family residential homes. Mr. Sifen said, between urban and mega we are taking more than half of Cobb County. Every square inch of District 2 is either mega or urban. He said he does not agree with extending urban development all the way through basically all of east Cobb. And that’s what is being projected by the Regional Commission.
Mr. Sifen said, urban planners tell us that the way to alleviate traffic is that urban development will alleviate traffic. That’s based on the concept of the grid road system. Mr. Sifen said there are two major flaws with the idea that we can urbanize Cobb County. First of all, Cobb County is pretty much developed out. We’ve already developed as a suburban county, and we’ve developed with a suburban road network, so it’s unfair to the 600,000 who have already decided to live in a suburban county. We didn’t choose to live in Manhattan. We didn’t choose to live in mid-town Atlanta. It’s unfair to have the government tell us – we’re going to urbanize your neighborhood. The other thing is, we don’t have a grid-type road system. We have a suburban road system. There is no way to retro-fit an urban road system over Cobb County. We can’t tear new roads through your neighborhoods and everyone else’s neighborhoods. We need to figure out hoe to plan the best road improvements that we can, the best traffic improvements that we can, and plan future development in a way that recognizes that we have the suburban road network that we’ve got, and we’re going to have to make that work.
That’s the crossroads we are at, Mr. Sifen said. Are we going to urbanize Cobb County, or are we going to recognize that we are a suburban county with a suburban road network, and we’re going to have a suburban future that preserves the low density residential neighborhoods that we’ve got in most of the county. Accommodate high density growth where we can accommodate it, but basically recognize that we are a suburban county, and we’re going to maintain this as a suburban county.
Right now, Mr. Sifen said, redevelopment has been a big issue in Cobb County. We cannot continue down a path that says redevelopment is a panacea that justifies ignoring the zoning code and the land use plan, that justifies ignoring the adverse impacts on nearby neighborhoods, that justifies ignoring the traffic consequences that occur on our roads and our infrastructure, that justifies adversely impacting on our water supply. Redevelopment has its place. We need to plan redevelopment that is compatible with the infrastructure and does not adversely impact other neighborhoods. Nowhere in Cobb County is the problem with redevelopment that does not consider these impacts more evident than in District 2. He gave one example. There was a zoning case a couple of years ago where the developer wanted to squeeze so many town homes onto a piece of property that the fire department comment said that if certain units catch on fire, the department is physically obstructed from getting to the fire to put it out. The commission approved the development with a four to one vote. Mr. Sifen said, we can’t continue down a path where we say that higher density redevelopment is such a panacea that we’re not going to consider the impact on public safety. So, that’s part of where we’re potentially headed with redevelopment in Cobb County. Are we going to redevelop this county at a rate where we’re urbanizing and densifying the county, or are we going to stop and look at who we are and what we are, and say, yes, we have areas where we need to redevelop if the redevelopment is reasonable. We’ve got places where we can accommodate hither density development. But the bottom line is we’re going to preserve the suburban character of Cobb.
Higher density without the infrastructure to support that density will make our traffic worse, not better, and it will change the fundamental character of our neighborhoods. So, Cobb County is at a crossroads. The decisions we make in 2008 are really going to define the character of Cobb County in the future.
D A Kingtag:www.speakersummaries.madisonforum.org,2007://8.2172007-12-10T15:28:21Z2008-01-28T15:29:28ZMadison Forum member and Dustin Inman Society founder D A King addressed members and guests at the regular luncheon meeting Monday, December 10, 2007 on the subject of ”Illegal Immigration-Illegal Employment”. Mr. King said it is impossible to talk about...
Madison Forum member and Dustin Inman Society founder D A King addressed members and guests at the regular luncheon meeting Monday, December 10, 2007 on the subject of ”Illegal Immigration-Illegal Employment”.
Mr. King said it is impossible to talk about illegal immigration without talking about illegal employment. It’s not fair, it’s not right, and it’s not accurate.
If there were no illegal employment, we would have very little illegal immigration...
He said that right now young men and women are on our borders literally risking their lives to do the job to which they are sworn – that is secure our borders. They are intentionally under-funded and under-staffed and under-equipped. So, he said, he hoped whenever we think about illegal immigration and illegal employment we would remember there are young people on our borders risking their lives. He said he stood on the border and watched at one Border Patrol agent with one sidearm was literally teased by five illegal aliens who had just come over the fence on which he was leaning. They split up in the effort and with the full knowledge that only one of them would get caught and the other four of them would somehow get away. Mr. King watched them spread out and watched the young agent try to corral these people. He said he wanted desperately to help the agent, but could not, because it is illegal for an American citizen to try and help a border patrol agent. You cannot touch somebody who is in this country illegally. You can point them out to a radio patrol and let them know the location of illegal aliens.
Mr. King thanked the forum members who attended the rally to thank Sheriff Warren held on the 8th. He said there weren’t nearly as many people as should have been there, but he was grateful to the ones who did attend. He said the MDJ reported it as “dozens” of folks came to thank the Sheriff. He said dozens was neither accurate nor fair. He told us what we can do to help. Mr. King said he gave up his job, he spent his savings, he refinanced his house twice, and he sold his stock for this cause. He works at it all day every day. He said he wished he did not know what he knows. He would much rather go back to the normal life he had four or five years ago. But, he says, he does know, and he knows we are making a difference, and he knows we can do a lot more.
The first thing we can do as a citizen and an aware voter is to appreciate the power that a simple letter to the editor in the local newspaper makes. People have told him that when they write letters they don’t get published, so they quit doing it. Or they say they don’t have time to write, or they don’t know what to say. Mr. King says a letter to the editor is a very, very effective tool. It carries a lot of weight. He says one of the first things an elected official does every morning is either read the opinion page himself or gets a report from a staffer that he has had read the opinion pages. Mr. King said what he is begging us to do is begin to write regular letters to the editor. Some newspapers you can get in every two weeks. Some newspapers you can only get in every 30 days. The Atlanta Journal Constitution, you may not be printed more than every 30 days. You may not send them a letter more than about 150 words. When you send a letter to the editor, no matter how long it is, put your name, your address, and your telephone number. He said this is basic stuff. As an example, the MDJ reported dozens of people turned out to thank Sheriff Warren. Dozens didn’t tell the story to those who were not there. He spoke of Jerry Gonzalez is someone on the far, far left and runs an organization called The Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials. Jane Fonda is one of his founding friends and high donors. Jerry is sending around a very gleeful e-mail this morning (12/10) expressing his pride that only a few people (his words) according to press accounts, came to the rally to honor Sheriff Warren. These things have to be countered. He begged us, is we live in Cobb County, when we get home, whether it’s 50 words, or 100 words, send a note to the Marietta Daily Journal at least challenging or disputing the term “dozens”. Or if you were there, outline what a successful event it was, if you think it was. Mr. King said he thought it went very well. He said he knows the Sheriff was very moved. Mr. King said to please begin to send these letters on a regular basis to keep the subject alive.
Tim Leetag:www.speakersummaries.madisonforum.org,2007://8.2202007-11-12T20:26:33Z2008-01-28T20:27:27ZCobb County Commissioner Tim Lee, District 3, Northeast Cobb, spoke to Madison Forum members and guests at the regular luncheon meeting Monday, November 12, 2007. Mr. Lee said he feels there should be a constant input from all sides of...
Cobb County Commissioner Tim Lee, District 3, Northeast Cobb, spoke to Madison Forum members and guests at the regular luncheon meeting Monday, November 12, 2007.
Mr. Lee said he feels there should be a constant input from all sides of the spectrum of whatever topic we are talking about, and he is pleased to see that thoughtful debate and discussion regarding the issues is one of the primary sentences in the Madison Forum’s platform.
Mr. Lee gave some background concerning how he got to be a commissioner. He didn’t just wake up one morning and decide that he wanted to do this. He was the president of his homeowner’s association about fifteen years ago. He became that because he failed to show up for a meeting. Someone nominated him. He said he’d think about it. Next thing he was elected. He did that for about ten years. During his first six-eight years, he very rarely came before the County Board of Commissioners. Most of his input was with the Coty of Marietta. The City annexed areas around his neighborhood through about seven different pockets throughout the years, so it is now on three sides. So his involvement with zoning and with government was with the City of Marietta. As a county resident he can’t vote in city elections, so he had to develop a relationship with people that his only area of influence was when he was able to convince them to believe that his perspective was the right thing to do. It was a completely different group from the ones currently there.
He said he got involved through a very bad zoning on a hill behind him in the city. That’s where he learned a 50-foot buffer which could be penetrated for utilities included storm water management. He never thought of storm water management as a utility. But they created a 50-foot buffer and then installed a storm water pond in it. He met John Moore, the other city attorney, when Moore represented Wilmot Williams to annex East Park. He worked with a lot of the representatives on that. That was the first time he went to the Cobb County Commissioners because they wanted to annex the Park to the city, and his group was saying: no, it needs to stay in the County. He said Sprayberry High School doesn’t have any trailers, and it’s primarily because a lot of the land they were hoping to be fed into the school is now the City of Marietta. He went to see District Commissioner Olens who wasn’t interested in providing any density over 2.5, and they wanted, obviously, more than that. That’s why they were going to the City. That took about ten months and was covered a lot in the newspapers, and that’s how his name got exposed.
Then Chairman Byrne decided to run for governor, Commissioner Olens decided to run for chairman, and Mr. Lee was approached to run for commissioner. He told them absolutely not. But, as fall came on he was bombarded with calls from people saying you’ve got to do this, there’s no one else. He told them the business community has to support him financially, his boss has to say it’s OK, and his wife has to say it’s OK. The business community offered financial help, his boss’s father had been a commissioner, so he said go ahead, and his wife said it must be a calling, so go ahead. So he ran. He said clearly most of the district didn’t know who he was. His neighborhood knew him, and he was known in the City of Marietta. But, he said, if he was going to do it he had to do it right. He asked God for guidance saying he couldn’t do it by himself. He needed someone to help make it happen. And, although we may not always like the answer, sometimes asking God for direction is what we should always do, and His direction to me was to go ahead and do this. And, He gave me the strength to get though it. Mr. Lee said it was one of the more difficult things he had ever done in his life. He said he would choose raising three kids again over doing this.
He said he has learned a lot. He remembers sending an e-mail to his staff saying he would be in the office from 7:00 to 8:30 a.m. every morning. That’s enough time to get everything done. Don’t worry about it. Well, it’s not. This is a part time job with a full time schedule. It pays miserably. He said Chairman Byrne gave him some good advice when he was first elected – “do not let your regular business suffer”. Mr. Lee said he has a few times, and it has come back to haunt him. Speaking about Veterans Day, he said he was at four events prior to Sunday. When Sunday came he had to be in his office at home making money so he could pay the rent.
Mr. Lee says he is a guy that can’t remember anything. As a result he relies heavily on being able to refer back to his notes, refer back to conversations, and refer back to tape. And as a result he never, ever will lie to anyone, because he just cannot remember what he lied about. He said he may tell us what he believes, maybe based on wrong information, but he will never knowingly lie.
Mr. Lee said he was elected by very few people. Voter apathy is miserable. 30% of the people didn’t agree with him, but, he says, he represents everyone. He said he tries to do the best job he can with what he has in front of him, and with the staff he has, and with the friends he has. He holds quarterly meetings with leadership groups and with homeowners. He has five homeowners groups. Northeast Cobb is primarily built out, but his district has the most homeowners groups of all the districts. Commissioner Gorham’s district is growing, so it doesn’t have as many. District 3 has grown, so it has them. So he meets quarterly with the homeowners groups. Feeling that the leadership are the ones getting input from their groups, and they are bringing that information, he works with them. He sits with the leadership group and they develop goals. Every year they go away on a retreat, and they set Commission goals. He said his goals are established by his homeowners groups. Some stuff he has put together. The homeowners know that he has the ability to set policy or set a goal for the County every year. So they provide ideas. He uses them as a sounding board for new ideas and new concepts as well. He said he tried to be productive with relationships as much as he can.
Mr. Lee said he wanted to make it absolutely clear that he, personally, supports 180 percent everything our Sheriff, Neil Warren, is doing. Mr. Lee said he knows the Sheriff is a good guy, and he knows he needs more money. But, everything he is doing at the jail is an incredible challenge to keep it from just imploding, along with his wonderful staff. Me. Lee said he stands at Mr. Warren’s side in support of all he is doing. He is doing a great job, and people are talking about him in all the right ways, in his mind.
Mr. Lee said that water is a whole discussion, and he is learning more about water than he cared to. He said state legislators are having a meeting on November 27th at 8:30 a.m. in the Main Library in Marietta. There will be people from the Corps of Engineers, and from Atlanta to give them specific solutions. At the latest legislative session, on the 9th of November, they indicated that their goal was to get specific solutions, because their goal is to go to the Governor in December to get funding for dredging. This is our local delegation trying to get input on what can be done at Lake Allatoona, which is our priority, so they can get the funding, if any is necessary, or even if they can get a commitment for the funding that comes from the legislature.
Mr. Lee said his son, who is a senior at George Washington University, has a job at the Pentagon working for Veterans Affairs. His wife recently took a job at MUST Ministries, and her job is to make sure there is enough food there. Mr. Lee is on the Board of MUST, and one of the issues that came up is what they are doing specifically for homeless veterans. Turns out there is an incredible amount of veterans who are homeless. There is an incredible amount of need to make sure that somewhere in our consciousness we are mindful that not only are there veterans who are struggling, but there are a lot of homeless vets that we are turning our backs on, and as we come in to Thanksgiving and Christmas, we take that into consideration. In conjunction with that, there are a lot of serving military who have family here that may have a water heater that’s broke, or may have grass that needs cutting, or may have a car that needs the oil changed. We talk abut the veterans, and July 4th wouldn’t be here without them, but what about the families back home who are taking the kids to soccer on their own, or fixing the house on their own, or taking care of the lawn on their own, or dealing with all the family crises that we do collectively that they can’t because a spouse is away. He encouraged us to take them to that place where you go when you contemplate what you do, and see what can be done in your area of influence for (a) veterans that are homeless, and (b) the families of those who are currently serving that might have special needs that we as a community can take care of on a Saturday afternoon instead of watching Georgia whip on other teams across the southeast. He said he feels that these are two important issues that are being overlooked, and he feels these are issues the Madison Forum should be mindful of as well.
Pat Headtag:www.speakersummaries.madisonforum.org,2007://8.2192007-10-27T20:24:38Z2008-01-28T20:26:07ZCobb County District Attorney Pat Head spoke to Madison Forum members and guests on the subject of The Death Penalty at the regular breakfast meeting Saturday, October 27, 2007. Mr. Head said he has had the opportunity to try many...
Cobb County District Attorney Pat Head spoke to Madison Forum members and guests on the subject of The Death Penalty at the regular breakfast meeting Saturday, October 27, 2007.
Mr. Head said he has had the opportunity to try many death penalty cases, and so he thought there might be some things to talk about in that regard, about the death penalty, because a lot of people don’t know about the death penalty in Georgia.
He asked how many people believe the death penalty is appropriate in certain cases. He said there are a lot of people who don’t, and we have arguments about that, and additionally, even though most of the audience raised their hands, when it comes down to the point of saying, could you actually vote for it, what has been found is that there are a lot of people who support it, but they can’t actually vote for it when it comes down to them. His analogy for that is how many of you wear cotton? So you support the cotton industry, you wear cotton. How many of you will pick it? There’s a big difference in supporting and doing.
But in that regard, Mr. Head said, we have the death penalty debate, and some people say it’s a human rights violation. But, it’s sort of a human rights violation to go out and murder someone. The victim was deprived of his or her human rights. People say it’s not a deterrent. Well how do we know? He said it would appear to him that when we impose the death penalty and actually carry it out he can guarantee it deters that individual from committing another crime.
Opponents say there are other ways to protect the public. Well, there are, but that’s not the purpose of the death penalty. The death penalty is imposed as a punishment. It is the ultimate punishment for the most heinous of all of our crimes. They say it is used against the mentally retarded. That is absolutely false, because if you have an IQ below 70, the death penalty cannot be imposed by any of the 50 states, and there are only 36 that impose the death penalty. They say it is used against juveniles. Again, that’s not true. It is not imposed on anyone who is under the age of 17. In fact, Georgia is now 18. They say it’s used against one race more than another. That is true. There are more white people on death row than any other race. They say it’s only used against the poor. That’s not exactly true. But think about the social economic level when the death penalty is applied. It could well be because of somebody’s social attitude, because of their lack of abilities, they don’t have a lot of money. Those individuals who are motivated, who have the ability to go out and earn an income, who really want to improve themselves, who are achievers, and therefore have money. They are less likely to do the violent crimes than those individuals who have failed with themselves, as we just had in the Stacey Humphries case, goes out and murders two people because he needs money to make a truck payment. So perhaps there is perhaps some ability there to say it is used against the poor, but it’s because some of those individuals are the masters of their own demise. They say it’s used when the family of the victim does not want it used. That’s true, but we should not let the opinions of the family dictate what we are going to do as a punishment in any of the crimes. And, they say there’s an alternative. It could be life without parole. Mr. Head said he didn’t know what we have observed over the last 40 or 50 years, but his observation has been that when people don’t like something, they start getting it changed. And they go to the Constitution. And, we have amended the Constitution many times. Life without parole may not necessarily mean life without parole. In fact, what does it really mean? Life means, today, that you’re eligible for parole consideration after 14 years. However, that’s been changed this year. If you commit a murder after July 1, 2006, that has moved to 30 years before you’re eligible for parole. It doesn’t mean that you will be paroled. It simply means there is as consideration for it. Life without parole says you’re not eligible for parole. Right now in the Georgia Constitution, Article V, Section 2, Paragraph 2, it says; notwithstanding any other provision of this paragraph, the State Board of Pardons and Parole is going to have the authority to pardon any person convicted of a crime who is subsequently determined to be innocent of said crime, or to issue a medical reprieve to an entirely incapacitated person suffering from a progressively debilitating terminal illness, or parole any person who is age 62 or older.
Mr. Head discussed what a capital case is and when one can impose the death penalty. Under Georgia law right now, a person convicted of the offense of murder should receive the death penalty or imprisonment for life. In Georgia we don’t have first degree murder, which is what we hear on television a lot. We have malice murder which means you intended to kill a person. That you went after the victim with malice aforethought. The degree of malice can be instantaneous, so there’s not a designated period of time in which you have to think about it. And, the other offense is felony murder. That is if you are in the commission of an inherently dangerous felony and somebody dies, that you didn’t intend for them to die, but nevertheless they die. Suppose someone goes in to rob a store, and the attendant pulls a gun and shoots at the robber. He misses the robber but hits one of the patrons. The patron dies. The robber is guilty of felony murder, because it was his actions that caused the death of some individual.
A person convicted of the offense of rape is punishable by death or imprisonment for life, or life without parole, or life or imprisonment for not less than ten or more than 20. That also has gone up to 30 years.
Aircraft hijacking is a death penalty crime as is armed robbery. Treason is a death penalty case. But, irrespective of what the law says, the reality is – not necessarily.
Under Coker v The State it says that in order for us to get the death penalty, in order for us to ask for the death penalty, there has to have been a death. Somebody had to die. In other words, you can’t get the death penalty unless there has been a murder. In Cobb County we have had several death penalty cases.
Virgil Presnell was tried in 1976. The government decided he didn’t get a fair trial as to punishment, so he had to be re-tried and re-sentenced in 1999.
In 1977 Jack Potts was given the death penalty. He also had to be re-tried and re-sentenced in 1990.
Brandon Jones. In 1979; he had to be re-tried in 1997. He is still on death row. His co-defendant, Roosevelt Solomon, also tried in 1979, was executed in 1985.
Fred Marion Gilreath killed his father-in-law and his wife. He actually took a shotgun and blew her head off and then tried to set the place on fire. He was executed in 2001. His daughter and son didn’t have anything to do with him for years. But one day, he was driving down the road by Jackson, and he said whatever motivated him, he turned into the prison and visited with his father, and they started a relationship again. He actually went to the Board of Pardons and Parole and asked them not to execute his father.
Nicholas Ingram, 1983. He was executed in 1995. James Cook died in prison in 1996. Lawrence Jefferson in 1986; the federal government has just overturned his punishment on appeal. That’s on appeal in the 11th Circuit. Marcus Williams, 1993. Demarcus Sears, 1993. George Henry, 1994. Andrew DeYoung, 1995.
Cobb County has tried several cases since then, but up until this year, Stacey Humphries, 2007, it is becoming more and more difficult for juries to impose the death penalty. The change from 1995 to 2000 was the change in the law that allowed jurors to consider life without parole. When that occurred it became a compromise. Prosecution asks for the death penalty, they have the choice of life, life without parole, or death; and jurors compromise on life without parole.
What are the procedures for the death penalty? Prosecution has to be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt the existence of statutory aggravated circumstances. There are ten of those: Prior conviction for murder, rape, armed robbery, or kidnapping; the murder was engaged in the commission of another capitol felony; it created a great risk of death to more than one person in a public place, such as setting off a bomb to kill a person and other people were put at risk; or if you are shooting at someone in a public place and somebody dies. The murder was committed for the purpose of receiving money or other monetary value. The one that is used most is – the offense of murder, rape or armed robbery, or kidnapping was outrageously vile, horrible, or inhuman and that it involved torture, depravity of mind or an aggravated battery to the victim.
Mr. Head said he doesn’t know all the facts of the latest murder which involved a Game Stop store where the manager suffocated because of paper wrapping, but if it is shown that it was an intentional act, that they intended this man to die, to suffocate and die, then that will be a case that will be strongly considered for the death penalty.
The death penalty cases that we have pending – Michael Buttram committed his crime in 1999. Howard Lewis McDougal committed his in 2000. Craig Michael Moore committed his in 2002. Patrick Wayne Morris, Philip Ray Bailey, and Chad Michael McClure were co-defendant in a murder committed in 2002. The status of those cases – Michael Buttram was tried. The jury gave him life without parole. McDougal was tried. The jury gave him life without parole. Craig Michael Moore was tried. He received life without parole. Patrick Wayne Morris, Philip Ray Bailey, and Chad Michael McClure ended up entering a plea, and they were given life.
Since April 2003, Lawrence Rice committed two murders in 2003, Andrea Muhammad, in 2003, set her girlfriend, significant other, whatever you want to call her. Doused her with gasoline and set her on fire. Stacey Humphries committed his crime in November 2003, and Joshua Druper committed his crime in April 2004. The status of these is still on trial except for Humphries who received the death penalty in September 2007.
There are 38 states that authorize the death penalty. In 2005 (the latest Bureau of Justice statistics) said that 65% of those receiving the death penalty had prior felony convictions, and interestingly, 8% of those has prior homicide convictions. Those statistics were the same in 2003 and 2004. For some reason, that is a constant statistic. In 1998, 48 women were sentenced, in 2005, 52 women were sentenced. Of those statistics, whites are 56%, blacks are 42%, and others are 2%. In Georgia those percentages are 53% white, 46% black, and 1% others. Texas led the nation in executions in 2006. There were 53 executions nationally. Texas had almost half of them - 24. 45% of the executions were in Texas. Again, the percentages 60% white, 40% black. Georgia had three executions in 2005, and none in 2006. There were 3,254 people were under sentence of death at the end of the year 2005. Of those 52 were women. The youngest was 20. The oldest is 90. In 2005 there were 128 inmates in the United States sentenced to death. California led the nation with 23. Florida had 15. Texas 14, and Alabama 12. That 128 is the smallest number since 1973. From 1977 to 2005 there were 7,320 people sentenced to death. 14% were actually executed. 4% died of other causes. 37% received another disposition, and 45% of those remain on death row.
So, what does it mean? In 1976 Virgil Presnell raped a 10-year old girl and murdered an 8-year old girl. He kidnapped them from Russell Elementary School in west Cobb, and literally held the 8-year old face down into a stream so that she drowned. They found leaves and bits of stick in her lungs. 23 years later he was re-tried and he was re-sentenced to death. After 23 years you had a 10-year old victim who had to come in and remember everything that had occurred to her. She’s testifying now at 33, and testify again abut the incident. You had the victim’s parents who had to relive the death of their child. And then you had to use the resources of the state, manpower, and time in relocating the old witnesses. Mr. Head said he didn’t know how his audience felt, but he thinks this is wrong to have to go back and try a case after that many years. There are problems with the federal government and problems with Georgia’s government.
The problem is the appeals process. The murder is committed, the defendant is arrested, and then it takes three months to 18 months to indict him. In the Super Bowl killing, Ray Lewis was indicted and tried. He was acquitted. All the evidence suggested that he had something to do with those killings. However, the District Attorney in Fulton County had pressure from both the media and the Mayor because the individual was a professional football player and they wanted him to play football. So they asked and pressured him to indicting quickly before they had finished their investigation. When they went to trial they actually had detectives taking the stand, and the Assistant DA who was trying the case didn’t know what the detective was going to testify about. They would ask questions, and the detective would say –“that wasn’t me. I don’t know.” And the reason was they went too fast. When you indict a case, you’ve got to be 90% ready to go to trial. Otherwise, the defense will file a demand for a speedy trial and you’re going to be caught with your pants down. So that’s why it takes three to 18 months. In an arraignment somebody comes in and says what they are really charged with, and in a death penalty case they start filing motions. In a death penalty case they will file anywhere from 120 to 150 motions. Those things have to be heard. It takes six months to 48 months to hear all the motions, because the judge has to make decisions. It takes four to eight weeks, in some cases, to get a jury selected and try the case. In the Humphries case it took four weeks. The defendant is convicted. He files a motion for a new trial. It takes three months up to a year to get a transcript. Tokars was tried ten years ago, and he is in the Federal System, and he was given a life sentence here in Georgia, and we have not heard a motion for a new trial yet. It’s still pending. So his appeal process has not even started. The motions are heard, and then there is an automatic appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court. It is docketed. We have 20 days for them to file their brief. We have 20 days to respond. And they will set it for oral argument. That takes another three to five months. After oral argument it will take another two to five months to issue their opinion. We’re already up to 56 months. That’s almost five years. Hopefully it’s affirmed. It it’s not, we start all over. But if it is affirmed then they start the habeas corpus petitions. First you’ve got to have an attorney. Under Georgia law you don’t get an attorney appointed for you to file habeas corpus petitions. So that can take several months for that to occur. They will file for immediate review to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Court will take some time, six months minimum, in order to deny the motions. You then file state habeas corpus petitions, then the docketing. It finally gets assigned to a judge and they will schedule hearings on the habeas. It takes three to five months for that to occur. The judge will take the information given to them under advisement. Mr. Head said they had a case where the judge heard all the information and then sat on it for five years before he made a decision. It that’s denied, it is also appealed to the Georgia Supreme Court. If that appeal is denied, which can take six months to a year, then, it is appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. That can take another six months to a year. An execution date is set. They will file for a stay. They’ll file the Federal habeas in the District Count. The U. S. District Court will take another year or two years before they issue their opinions. Another habeas appeal to the 11th Circuit. An appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, another 12 to 18 months. And, a new execution date is set if they have affirmed it all the way to that point. Then there are last minute habeas issues that are filed. They generally are minor issues that can be heard within a couple of months. They file for a stay of execution with the Georgia Supreme Court. If that is denied, then they will file for clemency with the Pardons and Parole Board. If that is denied, they will file for a stay of execution with the United States Supreme Court. And, if all the applications for stay are denied, then finally there will be an execution. See how long that takes, 19-25 years. They just convicted Stacey Humphries. Mr. Head said he did not believe Humphries would be executed in his lifetime.
The best defense, Mr. Head said, is delay, delay, delay. That is the tactic that is being used in death penalty cases. In fact, just last week, an execution that was scheduled was delayed on October 23. The reason they stopped it was because the U.S. Supreme Court is going to listen to an argument that lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment. When we ha the electric chair, we had dozens of groups fighting against the legislature and fighting in courts trying to convince everybody that the electric chair was cruel and unusual. And they suggested that Georgia should go to lethal injection. After many years, they finally won. The legislature changed the punishment and said, fine, we’ll have lethal injection. And as soon as they did groups turned around and started fighting lethal injection, saying that’s cruel and unusual. The bottom line is the death penalty is cruel and unusual punishment. And, that’s their argument. He said he was sure, hopefully not in his lifetime, but there’s as good chance it will, that the death penalty will stop being used in the United States. It’s coming/
Executions by state since 1976 - Georgia ranks 7th in the nation with 40. Texas had 405. 1976 is the benchmark when the U.S. Supreme Court stopped all executions and then in Gregg v Georgia, they came back and said as long as you have some criteria, and that’s where our statutory aggravating circumstances came in. The Supreme Court said as long as there is some basis that distinguishes this case from other cases, and the jury had to find that, then, the death penalty is legal again. At the present time there are 103 inmates on death row in the state of Georgia. In 31 years there have been 40 executions. Three of them came from Cobb County, Roosevelt Solomon, Rickey Ingram, and Fred Marion Gilreath.
So, what can we do? There are some things that need to be changed in the law. Federal and state habeases need to be filed at the same time. At the present, Mr. Head said, before he can get into the Federal courts he has to exhaust all his state remedies. Everything he can do under state law has t be done, and then he can start filing in the Federal system. In Texas they run on the same track. As son as you’re finished with the Supreme Court in Texas, the state court, then whatever Federal appeals, whatever state appeals you’re going to file, you have to file them at the same time. We need to change the time period. The habeas corpus petitions – all of them – need to be filed within one year from the state Supreme Court decision. Habeas says you are wrongfully holding the body and whoever files it, it gives them the right to challenge not only the Constitutional issues, but any defects that may have occurred in the trial itself. The petitioner says, I’ve had my rights denied, and the habeas is the vehicle to take it into court and have the court review it. A bigger problem is – there needs to be a mandatory time for the cases to be heard. Habeas corpus petitions need to be heard by the court within 180 days of filing, and, the judges need to make a decision, and they need to make that decision within 180 days. The decision needs to be made and filed within 180 days of the case being heard. The way to get it changed is to contact your legislator.
Cobb County Commissioner, District 4, Annette Kestingtag:www.speakersummaries.madisonforum.org,2007://8.1992007-10-08T16:13:54Z2007-10-16T16:14:59ZMadison Forum Speaker – Annette Kesting Ms. Kesting said her district is one of the largest districts, covering Powder Springs, Austell, Mableton, and parts of Marietta and Smyrna. She said there were many topics she could speak on, but she...Madison Forum Speaker – Annette Kesting
Ms. Kesting said her district is one of the largest districts, covering Powder Springs, Austell, Mableton, and parts of Marietta and Smyrna.
She said there were many topics she could speak on, but she chose quality of life and the water issue. She said there are a lot of things that go on around Cobb County that the Commissioners see each and every day, and sometimes she agrees on a lot of issues and sometimes she disagrees. She said she did disagree about the development near her on Macland Road.
Ms. Kesting said we have a lot of issues that are going on around code enforcement. She receives a lot of calls from the week ordinance to eight to ten cars parking in one driveway, to abandoned houses. They ask her what they should do about these things. She mentioned that in an ordinance just passed a homeowner is allowed to have four cars parked on the driveway, and they are not allowed to park on the grass. When she gets a call from someone who has the car limit, but needs to park a business car, for instance, she tells that person to call the Economic Development Unit, come into the office, and apply for a special land use permit. This will be reviewed by the Board of Commissioners. Also, in the case of abandoned houses, the process is a long one. The County has to contact the owners of the home, sent a certified letter stating that the home has been abandoned; the grass is up to 12 inches, they need to cut the grass. Even though people get upset at the delay, the County has to wait until the owner contacts the County. If there is no response the Board then decides whether to take action or try again to contact the owner. She said she takes beatings about things that go on in her district. She said her district has been overlooked for many, many years, and she gets a lot of calls about “our streets need to be paved. She talks to DOT, and manages to get that taken care of.
In response to questions about the Board passing the development C165 near Lake Allatoona with what looked like an unfunded mandate for the improvements, Ms. Kesting said the Commissioners have their meetings behind closed doors about different type issues, it’s that they set their goals on how they want the layout to be, and when Commissioner Thompson has spoken to Helen about that issue, they both agree they have different issues done different ways with the screen buffer and all that. Other than that Joe would not have made a motion to approve that. He cares about quality of life and water, they all do, and she said she does too. But they have made issues about how they want things laid out. It’s not that they just voted, that they didn’t care about the constituents, or didn’t care about the river. They recalled back and did it over again. When asked if voting for development without the stipulations that the developer pay for improvements was going to be a trend, Ms. Kesting said they were looking into that.
In response to a question regarding a commissioner’s vote that a non-profit group, which never pay property tax, should be exempted from paying for improvements to build because the cost would be too high, and having that burden fall on the tax payer, Ms. Kesting responded that behind closed doors, since she has been a commissioner for three years, a lot of times politics plays a part in what goes on behind closed doors. She said, some of the commissioners might agree, and some might disagree with it, so where are we at with that? And sometimes it’s who they want to help. That’s just the game of politics. She said she goes through that every day.
In response to a question regarding the slowness of the state in moving forward on transit programs the time spent on continued studies, Ms. Kesting said she believes further studies are a waste of time. She said she campaigned on transit, she has surveys on transit, and she gives town hall meetings every other month especially for District 4’s need for transit. She has spoken with the Chairman and the other commissioners about transit. She says she is the only commissioner who needs transit in her district. Some of the commissioners don’t want transit in their districts. She said she spoke with Chairman Olens about transit and he said they need direct calls about transit. Everyone’s speaking up about transit now, but when she campaigned about transit no one wanted it. She said when she lived in Pittsburgh, all they had was transit. She said she believes they are wasting time and offered to look into the budget to see how much has been spent getting consultants to come and tell us what we need in transit, but she feels they are not moving on transit. She says she is the only commissioner who talks about transit.
In response to a question regarding rapid growth in Cobb County and how to manage it, Ms. Kesting responded that she has tried to meet with the Board of Education and with other commissioners regarding development and its impact, but, she says, no one wants to meet with her. She says she is very pro-active and out in the community every day knocking on doors. She talks to her homeowners, and they say the same thing – what can they do to work together on this. But we are not getting anywhere with this. She spoke about the proposed development at Macland Road near Lost Mountain. She said she knocked on about 200 doors, and her constituents all said they did not want the development because of the traffic. They have McEachern. They have Paulding. They have Dallas Highway. Still that was passed. It should not have passed because of the congestion up and down that way. And they are still fighting me behind that. She said, politics is played that way because of who they want to help, and this is what she is up against. And so they go around her and get the three votes, and that should never have happened. And that’s more traffic on top of traffic. She said, this is life; this is what she goes through.
There was general discussion regarding transportation problems including infrastructure, the fact that we have three bus systems working in the county, many of which travel less than full. Ms. Kesting said part of the problem is lack of communication among the various agencies. A suggestion was made that the county acquire smaller buses. Ms. Kesting said she would try to get support for that.
A question was asked regarding the accountability of county agencies and their unwillingness to respond in a timely manner to complaints about such things as code violations. Ms. Kesting said her response to her constituents who call is to do a three-way call to resolve a situation or to make a promise to respond to the caller within a day or two. And she makes a follow-up call a week later. She said every commissioner is different, but that is how she handles her constituents. She said it depends on the relationship a commissioner has with code enforcement. When she calls code enforcement they know to move and they e-mail back and forth until the problem is solved. She said the commission is a part time job, but she is there every day and keeps on top of what happens in her district.
When asked if she had some feel for who might be opposing her in the next election and what the issues might be, Ms. Kesting responded that she was to busy taking care of her constituents to think about who might oppose her. She said it’s a four-year term, and anyone in the world can run for it.
In response to a question about the problems transportation problems related to developments and the lack of alternate routes in and out of various areas, Ms. Kesting said it is a problem, but the infrastructure is already there. Someone should have thought about that 10 or 15 years ago, but no one did, so there’s nothing they can do. She said that looking for alternate routes is a good idea and working with Paulding and Dallas would help, but it is hard sometimes to gat all the parties to work together. Traffic from Paulding and Dallas hits at Macland Road, so it is up to Helen and her to decide what can be done from Macland to Powder Springs to Cumberland Homes. What they’ve come up with is expanding the road. She said Paulding and Dallas didn’t want to participate in the study they had, so, there again, communications. She said we all have to work together. It doesn’t matter what party you’re in. But down here no one wants to work together. But, she says, she is all about working together and bringing people together. But hen they come together it’s not about playing politics, it’s about doing what the taxpayers want to get the job done. But, she says, we’re not even moving. We’re just standing still. We’re not going anywhere.
In response to a question about the water level in Lake Lanier and what she sees happening in the next six months, she replied; it will still be the same. We need rain. Nothing’s going to change, we need rain. When asked if they are looking for alternatives to finding water, she said there had been a meeting that day, and
would have another one next week, so she couldn’t say anything about that. She gave a phone number to call for tips on how to survive this water problem. The number is: 770-419-6244.
In response to a question about Cobb’s immigration problem, Ms. Kesting said When she drives through the 16 ARC mobile home communities all you see is Hispanics, and it makes her wonder if there is some type of connection somewhere. She said some things you can’t just throw you hands up and say forget about it, which she doesn’t do. She says she has some concerns about a lot of things done here in Cobb County and she thinks its time for us and her, as commissioner, to bring the stuff to the light here in Cobb County as to what is going on here in Cobb County, and dealing with the tax – property taxes and all that, it’s a lot that’s going on. There’s something wrong somewhere.
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Madison Forum member Karl Schwelmtag:www.speakersummaries.madisonforum.org,2007://8.2002007-09-29T16:15:33Z2007-10-16T16:16:44ZMadison Forum Speaker – Karl Schwelm Mr. Schwelm said he was more than apprehensive about making this presentation, but he feels he must. The discussion today is about Islam. He said you can’t begin a fair discussion of Islam without...Madison Forum Speaker – Karl Schwelm
Mr. Schwelm said he was more than apprehensive about making this presentation, but he feels he must. The discussion today is about Islam. He said you can’t begin a fair discussion of Islam without starting with the Bible, because Islam starts with the Bible. He picked up the story in Genesis. At about 500 years old, Noah had three sons. The only one who is important is Shem. He was righteous and he was blameless. He was a pure man. What is happening in the Genesis story is that Adam and Eve had the opportunity to be pure. They sinned, and sin entered the world, and God is about to end civilization and restart, and he’s picked this blameless person named Noah. And so, Islam recognizes Noah. In the 600th year there’s this flood. When it’s all over and this boat ends up on Ararat – the Christians say, and another mountain Islam says. So, we’re picking up the mutual story. This is where it’s coming together.
This line of Shem lived in Mesopotamia – that’s modern day Arabia. And then from that line comes a gentleman named Abram. Again Islam recognizes Abram as Abraham. But Abram has a wife Sara, which becomes Sarai. In this story, because Abram does not truly listen to God, he hears that I’m going to give you a son who will populate the earth. 25 years go by, and nothing happens. He’s quite old, and so is Sara. So, they have an Egyptian servant named Hagar who comes there to be with Abram, and so Sara says we need a child to carry on, not a servant, to be a child of you. So Hagar has a child, and that child becomes Ishmael. So Ishmael is the start of Islam. That’s the lineage. Then comes Isaac. That’s where the Bible and Islam start to part.
When it comes to – God’s speaking to Abraham now. I want you to take your son and sacrifice. So he takes his son, Isaac out. In Islam you take your son Ishmael to this mountain, you’re to sacrifice your son. And because you are faithful, that act of courage and faith in this being - God, then the child was not sacrificed, obviously. But from Ishmael came the Muslims, and from Isaac came the Jews. In Christianity, it talks about Ishmael – a wild donkey of a man. His hand will be against everyone. He will live in hostility to all his brothers. But it is guaranteed that I will make you a nation. And that same guarantee was given to Isaac.
You mention history – well, history is his story – God’s story. This nameless - you can’t put your hands on - being who created all of us. We are living God’s story. Mr. Schwelm said he was trying to be balanced about this, but this is God’s story and has both of these in it. He said it’s a very heavy topic. It’s not about hatred toward Muslims, because Muslims need more love. If we say – kill you – we get nowhere. Revenge and all that just doesn’t get anywhere. We’re just like you.
However, Mr. Schwelm said, let’s just stop for a moment and see what’s going on in America. There’s a recent poll of Islamic youth in America, that says 26% of Muslims in America say it’s OK to kill Americans. That’s 26% of all the Muslims who live in this wonderful country and enjoy all its freedoms say it’s OK to kill Americans. How can that happen? That’s a huge major thing that’s going on
So, he said, if we go back – the Arabic word for God is Allah. We start – God Bible-God Quran, and there’s where the differences come. The Quran says Jesus is in heaven. And so, to educate us a little bit about this gentleman called Mohammad. He said he would present this man without judgment. Mohammad was a very interesting person, not learned – illiterate. But a very caring, very meticulous, very obedient person. And searching, like people who try to do the right thing all the time. He was unusual, even for his own culture. So, they make him as sort of the final prophet. God revealed his final message to humanity through Mohammad and the angel Gabriel.
When Mohammad was on this earth polytheism was all around him. People worshiped wood, and things. His children grew up in that environment, and the city they lived in worshiped the moon god. He said it’s interesting that Ishmael and Isaac - the crescent from the moon god is part of the Muslim symbol. . There’s some polytheism in Islam.
For Christianity, Jesus was the final prophet. They acknowledge Jesus. They acknowledge that Jesus lived. They acknowledge that Jesus did miracles. They do not acknowledge that Jesus was crucified. Islam acknowledges that somehow, in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus was raised up to heaven to be with Allah, and that Jesus’ image was superimposed on one of the other people, and that person was crucified. So the Quran is what the majority of the people think. Submission to the will of God is basically the message of it. They say that Islam is the oldest of the monotheistic religions, and that this Quran codifies the whole religion. They acknowledge Abraham. They acknowledge Moses. They acknowledge Jesus. And they acknowledge Mohammed. Mohammed is the seal, who seals all the prophets. Christians and Jews are called people of the book, but they have been deceived. The words have been changed. The words have been manipulated. They have altered the meaning and placement of words in the holy text.
So there are five pillars of Islam. There’s a declaration of faith that there’s no God but Allah. They acknowledge prayer as a pillar, and that’s five times a day. The focus is Mecca. It’s interesting that initially, before Mohammad and his men conquered Mecca, the focus was Jerusalem. They prayed towards Jerusalem. They are very generous people. Wealth is held in trust. Muslims should give 2.5% of their wealth. They fast on Ramadan. Everyone should make a once in a lifetime pilgrimage to Mecca.
They have Articles of faith. Mohammad does not preach a unique faith but summed up all the prophets’ revelations. That is why there is so much in this book the Quran of the Bible.
The Muslims say that the words in the books of the Christians and the Jews have been distorted, and so the revelation had to be sent one more time, making Mohammad the seal of the prophet in the Quran. There will be a day of resurrection where God will hold every individual accountable for his or her actions. So, Mr. Schwelm asked, does this so far sound any different from the Bible? It doesn’t and it couldn’t.
Israel is a remos political system. It’s a socio-political religious system ordered on earth, and Muslims are to strive to bring this about. So it crosses the border. And that’s when we begin to separate from Christianity. You’re in it. You’re of it, and it’s all around you. It runs the government. So, currently religious groups are working to bring non observant Muslims back to active practice, and to make conversions of others. Many of the Muslims just want simply to live a good moral life.
Muslims will allow religious pluralism, but only after they subjugate other religions. Once they subjugate you, it’s OK to have your only religion, as long as they are in charge. As long as you’re not Islamic, you are basically given three choices; become a Muslim, you can become a dhimmi -a non Muslim under their influence and pay a tax, or you are given the choice of death. So, you will convert, you will pay a tribute, or you will fight. This is where the Bible and the Quran deviate.
A quote from the Quran “But when the forbidden months pass then fight and slay the pagans wherever you find them, and seize them, and belabor them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem of war, but if they repent in regular prayers and practice, then open the way for them, for Allah is al giving and merciful.”
So, Mr. Schwelm said, even in the Old Testament, a god told them to go in and take it. He sent them into the land of Canaan and fought Malachites by name and the giants by name and, and then at some point they had to learn to live with those around them, because they couldn’t kill them all. In Islam, you’re supposed to kill, conquer all these other people. In the Quran they are to kill and crucify. They will cut off hands and feet, or alternate sides cut off, or have then put out of the land. Such will be their degradation in this world and in the hereafter.
Quote from the Quran; “Remember the world inspired the angels with this message, I am with you. Give firmness to these believers. I will instill terror into the hearts of these unbelievers. Smite ye above their necks, and smite all of their fingertips off of them.”
“Prophet, rouse the believers to the fight. Twenty among you patient and preserving will vanquish a hundred. If one hundred will vanquish a thousand of the unbelievers, for these are the ones without understanding.”
Mr. Schwelm said, that’s what’s going on with what we call the radical movement. These people gather one, two, ten, a hundred. They’re patient. A person he knows met with some young people 20-some years ago. They are on their plan. They have consumed. He said we will see France totally gone, and none of us will depart not having seen Islam completely take over England. This person, Mr. Schwelm says, is sure that this country will be overcome. That Islam will take over.
There is salvation, but there is no guarantee of salvation. Their Allah really is disinterested. He made man from a clot, and, of course, God made man from the dust. And there seems to be this total dispassionate disinterest. There’s no relationship with this higher being for the Islamic people. And so, if you do good in life, it’s kind of a deeds, works sort of thing. The Muslim people tell me that in their interaction, there’s a line. You get your right foot into the goal. You’re not at the goal. Somewhere in that transitioning time you get to whatever Heaven is, he whimsically decides you don’t get there, you just don‘t get there. So the only guarantee of salvation, to Islam, is to die in Jihad. So, as a former teacher, Mr. Schwelm said, he understands the concept of store and pour. You pour in the times tables, and they regurgitate. Friends he has met from Persia have said, Karl, 1979, Shah is gone, Ayatollah comes in. 1970 to this year, all the children who were born since then – 28 years ago. 75% of the people of Iran, what have they had poured into their heads? They’ve been indoctrinated that way. And even so they’re got significant problems over there. It’s no wonder they’ve been able to find fighters. If you’re a guy, and you’ve been promised 72 virgins, then it might be OK. Your parents are going to get some money. Go kill somebody in the hjame of Jihad. This is another deviation from our Christian values. We don’t openly advocate lying, but the Quran OKs lying. It’s this duality of the reality, so our interactions with these wonderful Muslim people may or may not be real. These people may be friends with you, but at what level. However, it isn’t the Quran. It’s OK to lie. It’s kind of a Machiavellian thing. It’s bad if you treat a fellow Muslim like that, but not anyone else.
So, they’re waiting for Mohammad to come. Jesus came the early Christians spread out. In 570, Mohammad is born in Mecca in a small tribe, the Koresh. Unfortunately, dad dies quickly; mother dies soon after, so he’s an orphan and gets bounced around. He gets a lot of time with the Christian grandfather. But, in that swirl of being on the caravan trade route, he meets a lot of Christians. He meets a lot of Jews. And he sees what is swirling around this, this theism. You go to the next town, and they worship some stick, the next town they worship the sea, the next town whatever. He sees all this and it troubles him – all this polytheism. We would refer to him as a sort of go to guy with a great future, because he partakes from all these caravans. They he is first befriended and then given the opportunity to marry a much older woman who owns this caravan business – she’s 40 he’s 25. They have a really god life together. They have sons and daughters. Unfortunately, all the sons die. The daughters live on, and the most famous daughter is Fatima. 40 years later he’s in a cave. He’s a very introspective person. In this case he has an experience. He hears this voice and sees this vision – an angel, and he’s extremely troubled because he’s fearful. In most every experience with an angel in the Bible, the angel says – Be Not Afraid. This angel does not. So he goes on back and talks to his wife and his mentors and they believe it’s the angel Gabriel speaking to him. Mohammad is told that now he is the new prophet, because the words of the people of the book, Christians and Jews, have been corrupted. And that’s why he’s the seal of God’s revelation to mankind. When Mohammad starts preaching, people know him. He’s illiterate. People say – who are you? A prophet can’t talk in his own home town. Jesus suffered the same thing. Mohammad is persecuted. Like the early Christians, these people were persecuted, so they went to Medina where there were people more like them. So Mohammad got followers and they raided the caravans to fund their growing religion. Mohammad doesn’t live all that long. After he dies is the beginning of the Sunni, Shiia split. There is huge turmoil over who is going to carry this on. There’s a nephew, Ali, who tries to get power, but he doesn’t, so his followers follow him off, and that’s the Shiia. The majority of the people, the Sunni, chose more of a leadership person, rather that a genetic biological leadership, the Caliphs.
So time went on and words began. The 2nd or 3rd Caliph, Othman, has the Caliph before him murdered and takes over. Then he takes all the scraps of paper, all the tidbits of what Mohammad had said, and by the time he is assassinated by Ali in 656, he has asked everyone to write down what they think Mohammad said and sent it to him. He reads through it. He decided what Mohammad said, and burned the rest. So, there are no Dead Sea Scrolls. And Ali only got to go five years, and they he was murdered. So, initially on the Sunni and Shiia fought all the time, and then for a long, long time they didn’t fight at all. Just recently, when we did Iraq, they went against each other.
Regarding women, Mr. Schwelm quoted Mohammad through Othman’s words, and said, in his mind, every American woman should be highly against Islam. “Women lack common sense, because their minds are deficient.” “Women are like a field, a tilth. Your wives are a tilth for you, so go into your tilth when you like, and do good before hand for yourselves, and be careful of your duty to Allah, and know that you will meet him and give good news to the believers.” In the Quran he spoke about mothers and seemed to respect them. It talks about women and protecting women, but its kind of an odd way of protecting them that they do. And then they decide that a women’s testimony is worth only half of that of a man. “Call in to witness from among your men, two witnesses, but if there are not two men then one man and two women from among those whom you choose to be witnesses so that if one of the two errs, the second of the two may remind the others.” “A daughter’s inheritance is half that of a son’s.” And Quran tells husbands to beat their wives. “The good women are therefore obedient, guarding the unseen as Allah has guarded. Admonish them, leave them alone in the sleeping places, and beat them, and then if they obey you, do not seek a way against them. Surely Allah is high and great.”
Mr. Schwelm said, his experience with women, he had the one wife, he was celibate until 25, they did 15 years together, and then he starts marrying women at the cyclical rate (that’s a military term), ends up with 12 wives, only one of whom is a virgin. There’s a dispute about her age, but she’s probably six years old when he married her, did not consummate until nine years old because of her physical inability. In the Quran it explains how he could do that. The Quran gives men the right to have four women, so he limited the rest of the people to four wives, however, if they sacked a city or a caravan and the plunder was something you wanted, and they were under your right hand, that didn’t count as a wife. That’s different.
This is a deviation from the Bible, “There is no law of righteousness of Allah”. In other words, he did not lay down any sort of Ten Commandments. There are lots of different rules that come out in the Hadise. “Allah has no affection or feeling for any creature. Allah does not make covenant with man. Allah can and does change his mind.” So, Mr. Schwelm said, if a Muslim was giving this presentation about Christians, this is what he would say: “Christians are permissive, dugs, sex, pornography, and alcohol. America is decadent colonial power that practices world economic control. America is a blind supporter of Israel against her Arab, Muslim neighbors. Western Christian women are out of control as evidenced by the way they dress. Westerners do not value life as seen by their support of abortion and euthanasia. Families in the west are broken up and fragmented by divorce and children who lack respect for their parents. America is irreligious as seen in the absence of public prayer.” Mr. Schwelm said there is truth in every one of those statements. None of those are defensible.
Mr. Schwelm quoted a friend from former Islam, “The time for a naive look at the world is over. We must open our eyes to see if the real cause of terrorism is hate. Hate is a belief. Who and what is being hated.?.
Mr. Schwelm spoke about his friend, Captain Chick Burlingame, who was the pilot of Flight 77, and trying to imagine how his friend was trying to handle the hijacking to keep everyone safe, because no one had ever faced anything like those guys faced that day. He said the Marine side of him wants to respond, the human side says, when does the violence end? It never ends. But, there is great hope in that the President of Iran is not really respected. There is hope for humanity.
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Sue Everhart, Republican Party State Chairmantag:www.speakersummaries.madisonforum.org,2007://8.1982007-09-10T16:11:55Z2007-10-16T16:13:06ZMadison Forum Speaker – Sue Everhart Noting that the Madison Forum has Democrats, Republicans, and Libertarians as members, she said she would try to be as non-partisan as possible. Ms. Everhart said that no matter what our political affiliation is,...Madison Forum Speaker – Sue Everhart
Noting that the Madison Forum has Democrats, Republicans, and Libertarians as members, she said she would try to be as non-partisan as possible.
Ms. Everhart said that no matter what our political affiliation is, we all love America, that’s why we are here, in groups like the Madison Forum. She said when she dies she hopes her eulogy will begin – Sue Everhart loved God, loved her family, and loved her country. And the job she is doing now as State Party Chairman is not a paid position. It cost her money. She wore out one car running for the position, and she is trying to wear out another car trying to keep the position. She said she ran because she could see the Republican base was beginning to feel a little or a lot disenfranchised from the higher ups in the party. They felt they were not being talked to, explained to, except at the time of election. She was elected May 19th and since then has traveled 7,900 miles. This is a big state. She has spoken to as many as 500 and as few as ten. If they call, she goes and helps to get them organized if they need it. She has been well received, and it’s good to be able to get the word out about the Republican Party. She talks mostly about grassroots. She is the grassroots chairman. She said if we don’t believe it, she is getting ready to put on her first fund raiser October the 15th, and the speaker will be Jeff Foxworthy. You don’t get much more grassroots than that, and he graciously agreed to attend. She said she thought it would be good to have some fun to kick off the campaign season and hopes everyone would be able to attend. It will be a lot of fun, and she needs the money. It takes a lot of money to run the Georgia Republican Party.
Noting that Tuesday is September 11th, she feels, from reading newspapers and watching TV that it’s almost like we forgot 9/11. She pointed out that when many of us were children, our dads were in Viet Nam, and we walked away from that war, and look what happened. Some of our dads and grandfathers were in Korea. We walked away from that war, and look what we’ve got now. Maybe we can say Bush got bad information and probably he did get some bad information. She said she has spoken to two people recently who changed her mind about staying the course. She pointed out that this is her opinion, not the Republican Party’s opinion. A neighbor or hers is from Iran. He said the leaders of Iran and Iraq are not doing this because they want their countries to be better. It’s all about power, who can have the most power. In Iraq, each group wants all the power. She said that bothers her, because she doesn’t ever want America to have a leader who wants it for the power. She said it could be as small as Michael wanting to form the Madison Forum. If he had done it for the power, it would not have been successful. You cannot be successful if you do something just for power. Then, she said, she met with the Israeli Consul. She asked why these people would strap bombs to their children and wives and send them out to blow things up. She said she couldn’t comprehend killing others for no reason. The Consul replied that most of the inhabitants of the Far East are descendents of the Ottoman Empire, and that was the way they ruled, pillaging, raping, and killing. It’s bred in them. They just don’t understand our way. The Consul told Ms. Everhart that the U.S. made a mistake when they disbanded the army. A lot of Iraqis were in the army because it was a way to support their families. You put several thousand people on the streets with guns who know how to use them. They get bored and with time on their hands, and they go out and use them. It was not factual. It was just an opinion of someone who lived in that area. Ms. Everhart said to the Consul, we have Americans who say there was no Al Qaeda in the area before. The reply was ‘you’ve got to be kidding.’ They were there. It was a training ground. They had the most inhumane leader. Israel was almost dancing in the street when Hussein was captured. He had not hectored them, but he was so close. He could be a threat if he had wanted to expand. To leave now, Ms. Everhart said, we would leave in shame. We don’t know if we are ever going to win this war. We are never going to get them to think like we do. But maybe we could come up with some sort of government. But, if we walk out, the strong group will take over and there will be blood in the streets. As good Americans we want to protect our shores. We haven’t had any attacks since 9/11, so maybe it is working.
She noted how this group and many others just rose up all of a sudden about immigration. Immigration was not a new thing. President Franklin Roosevelt made a speech in 1930. He was saying that immigrants were welcome if they speak our language, pay taxes, and obey our laws. At that time he was speaking about the Chinese who had been brought in to build the railroads. But others were using Mexicans as farm workers. Then the depression hit, and there were not enough jobs, and Americans got pretty cruel to immigrants. This year we didn’t feel that our Senators and Congressmen were listening to us about the immigrant situation. And look how we all responded. It was not only a Republican issue; it was a Democrat issue, too. She said she didn’t think the Democrats were any happier with their leadership over immigration than the Republicans. And look what happened. Across the nation voters spoke up and said we are not going to re-elect you if this does not change. And, it was a quick turn around. If we had had the same uprising when prayer was taken out of the public schools, she said, she dare say prayer would be back in the public schools.
Ms. Everhart said when you just sit back on our front porch, having your iced tea, and you complain to your neighbor about government, and that is all you do, you haven’t done a thing to help America. All you’ve done, if you’re a Republican, is talk your neighbor into not voting Republican. It’s up to us to make America a better place to live. She said she is getting damn tired of hearing people complain and do nothing. And, she has heard a lot of it over the last few months. She said she gets complaints from everybody. She even gets complaints from the dog because she’s never home. She said she ran for this job to make a difference to the Republican Party. She is going to bust everything she can bust to make this party successful. There are a couple of House Rep seats that will be hard to hold. There are a couple we think we can win. Over in the 8th District we’ve got a Congressional seat that has a mighty fine gentleman running for it. She thinks it’s winnable. She thinks, with work, Saxby Chambliss can be re-elected. But, it’s going to take all Republicans to do their jobs to get the job done. She cannot do it by herself. She will not take sides in any race. She said she knows who, right now, she would like to see President of the United States, but she won’t tell anybody. She might change her mind. Ms. Everhart said she will not ever endorse in a race between two Republicans in a primary. She says she was only elected to take the person the Republicans decided on in the primary and get that person elected. It is up to us to make our voices herd at the ballot box in the primary, and then her voice will be heard loud and clear at the election.
Ms. Everhart said this is going to be, in her opinion, the most important election in our lifetimes. We have really got to think hard when we go to the ballot box at the primary and vote, not because he’s your neighbor, not because you like him. If we have not got good leadership in Washington this country is going to have a real hard time. She thinks it’s going to be hard to decide. The Libertarians have their candidate, the Democrats will have theirs, and the Republicans are going to have theirs. She thinks it will come down to who gets out and works the hardest and puts the shoe leather on the street. It’s going to be a door to door campaign. Of course, a lot of money is going to be spent, but it is going to take everybody in this room to decide who we want to be President, and to go the primary in February, and then when we do have our candidates, get out and work. She said she quit walking neighborhoods, but there are still things to do, such as phone calls, and mailings. Also, personal notes. They don’t only have to be notes to someone in Georgia. We could write to someone on our class reunion list who lives in California and let them know how we feel, here. She said she just thinks that hard work will bring America back to the way it was.
Ms. Everhart said she was watching the History Channel recently that had a program about Rome, and it said Rome destroyed itself from within. It became corrupt and power hungry, and it was talking about all the other countries that did the same thing. They lost their power because they became corrupt from within. And we are the only ones that can change from being corrupt from within. When Ronald Reagan was elected, how many of us had a computer? Even when Bill Clinton was elected, how many of us had computers? Now you don’t know how many people you influence. She said she gets messages forwarded from many people. We have a strong voice with the computer, and we should let that voice be heard.
Ms. Everhart said she can’t do her job by herself. Nobody can. The RNC, the Democratic National Committee – it’s going to take everybody working every day. And don’t moan and groan because there’s one issue you don’t like. She thinks there are conservative Democrats. Just because in Washington they don’t do everything you think they should do, are you going to turn them away? She tells everyone, your children did not do everything you wanted them to, but you did not turn them away. So, speak to your politicians. You have already learned that you have a voice. But most of all, she wants us all to remember to be a good American. She said we don’t remember Pearl Harbor Day any more. Probably if we asked any school children when is Pearl Harbor Day, they wouldn’t know what we were talking about. But that was a terrorist attack on our country, and there probably weren’t any more people killed on that day as on 9/11.
Ms. Everhart told of a visit to Ground Zero in New York. She took a cab to the site. New York is a noisy city. It takes up a whole block, and across the street is Century 21, one of the largest high end discount stores, where every tourist in the world goes. She got out of the car and went across the street to the site and wondered – what is wrong here? Taxis don’t blow their horns, people don’t yell. It is just silence there. People whisper. She said she thinks all of us need to spend a day at Ground Zero, and should remember that we enjoy the fruits of the labor of others, and let’s never forget those guys over there fighting. Remember we have all those kids in Iraq fighting and dying. But those kids chose to go. We don’t have the draft any more. Maybe they are better Americans than we are. They chose to fight. Let’s us fight for them. She closed by saying all she has to say is - be a good American.
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State Senator Chip Rogerstag:www.speakersummaries.madisonforum.org,2007://8.1972007-08-13T16:08:47Z2007-10-16T16:10:46ZMadison Forum Speaker – Chip Rogers Mr. Rogers said that last year he introduced a resolution that got almost zero recognition, he’s not sure it will get a lot of recognition this year - SR 400. This is a resolution...Madison Forum Speaker – Chip Rogers
Mr. Rogers said that last year he introduced a resolution that got almost zero recognition, he’s not sure it will get a lot of recognition this year - SR 400. This is a resolution that would require law makers to take every single dollar spent by government, put it on the Internet, and make it searchable. He said he believes that government will never get a grasp on total spending until the people understand what the money is being spent on. He said there are a lot of roadblocks between wanting to do this and actually doing this, but if they could pass this resolution and get it on the ballot, it would require that every single dollar spent, state and local, would be put on the Internet and searchable so that we, as taxpayers, would know exactly what our money is being spent on. He said strangely enough, the effort to do this is coming from the far left and the far right. He said he asked the gentleman from the far right who contacted him why people on the far left want this. The gentleman replied that they believe that if we actually get all this money on line people can see that we’re not spending enough on certain areas, and we can spend more. He said this is a good measure and he hopes that it will get some support this year.
Mr. Rogers said that SR 20 is a resolution he passed last year. He has mentioned it in this Forum before, and he hopes it will get some continued support. It passed through the Senate 44-6. This would limit the growth of the State Budget from year to year, and it would be limited by inflation plus population growth. There are factors for emergencies. Whatever money comes in, beyond inflation plus population, would go into the reserve fund until that fund met 10%, which is what government ought to be doing as a fiscally responsible state. Beyond that the money would have to be returned to the taxpayer before being used to pay off debt. He feels this is the fiscally responsible thing to do. Georgia really has no spending limits. The budget went up by 9% last year. He said that’s wrong. The average Georgian didn’t get a 9% raise, so the government shouldn’t get a 9% raise. The bill passed the Senate with massive bi-partisan support. It is currently sitting in the House. It needs a constitutional majority which is 120 out of 180, our help as taxpayers will be needed on this. He said this bill has been tried on a number of occasions, but never before has it had even a hearing. Mr. Rogers was able to get it out of the Senate, so we are well on the way to make it happen.
SB 16 is Mr. Rogers’ dog fighting bill. He said this is dear to his heart, and he has been working on this for three years. He says Thank God for Michael Vick who has maybe given the resources necessary to make this become law. He said there was a large bust in south Cobb County year or two ago in which they confiscated in the six digits of cash on site. This industry is a large criminal enterprise, and we should put a stop to it. Georgia is one of two states that doesn’t have a penalty for dog fighting. No civilized society should have dog fighting occur.
Mr. Rogers said that last year the Senate passed a bill – SB38 – which would require someone to have a driver’s license in order to buy a car tag. The immediate response was good. A number of car dealers reported that, strangely enough, people were showing up at their dealerships and dropping off vehicles because they didn’t have a license to drive. He said those who profit from this criminal behavior quickly found a way around it. He said he would be meeting with the Secretary of State this week to try to find a way to close the loophole that they figured out. What they are doing now is advertising to people who cannot get a Georgia driver’s license to actually incorporate themselves, and then as a corporation they can get a tag without having to have a driver’s license. It costs about $300-$400 to incorporate, so it does become a little more expensive. He said hopefully, they will have something by the upcoming session to stop this nonsense.
Mr. Rogers addressed what some may be referring to as the GREAT plan. It is Georgia’s attempt at a massive tax overhaul. He said we desperately need a massive tax overhaul, regardless whether we think this is the way to go. When you think about all the different types of taxes and fees and other sorts of nonsense that we pay it adds up to 80 or 90 different ways we are taxed by the state. He said he chairs the Finance Committee, and all they do is tax legislation. He said he thinks most people don’t know how many ways they are getting taxed, and that is why he thinks we need to start focusing efforts on a more efficient flat fair tax system.
Mr. Rogers quoted James Madison who wrote a paper on the issue of property on March 29, 1792. Mr. Madison said …”This term (speaking of property) in its particular application, means that “dominion which one man claims and exercises over the external things of the world, in exclusion of every other individual.” In its larger and juster meaning, it embraces every thing to which a man may attach a value and have a right; and which leaves to every one else that like advantage”.
Mr. Rogers says Madison points out something extremely important here that we hardly ever hear talked about in American politics today when we talk about rights. Madison points out an important truth, and that is, a right cannot exist at the expense of someone else, and rights are individual in nature. We have not a collective right to anything. We do have, as American citizens, individual rights. And we cannot have a right that requires a duty on someone else. Mr. Rogers says when he hears people say they have a right to housing, no you don’t, because that would mean someone would have to give you their house. You have a right to a job, no you don’t. That means someone would have to give you their job. You have a right to buy something, no you don’t, because that means someone has to sell you something. Those are not rights. But a right to property, once you’ve paid for it, is a right, Madison points out.
Mr. Madison goes on…”In the former sense, a man’s land, or merchandise, or money is called his property. In the latter sense, a man has a property in his opinions and the free communication of them. He has a property of peculiar value in his religious opinions, and in the profession and practice dictated by them. He has a property very near to him in the safety and liberty of his person. He has an equal property in the free use of his faculties and free choice of the objects on which to employ them. In a word, as a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights. Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions.”
Mr. Rogers said that brings us to the issue of taxation of property. We need to ask ourselves as we go down this road, shall we tax property? Is taxation of property based upon a value, not determined by the true free market, but rather some bureaucrat suggesting what it be worth? Rezoning a tax based not on one’s ability to pay, but again on what a bureaucrat suggests our property may be worth, which may result ultimately in the taking of that property if someone doesn’t have the ability to pay. Would we consider this an excess of power that James Madison wrote about? He said he thinks that’s important.
Again, Mr. Madison…”Where there is an excess of liberty, the effect is the same, tho’ from the opposite cause” In other words, Mr. Rogers said, where an excess of power prevails, we have no liberty. Where we have an excess of liberty we certainly have freedom.
Mr. Madison…”Government is instituted to protect property of every sort, as well that which lies in the various rights of individuals, as that which the term particularly expresses. This being the end of government, that alone is a just government, which impartially secures to every man, whatever is his own.”
Again, said Mr. Rogers, the government is there to secure for us, not to take from us.
Mr. Madison…”A just security to property is not afforded by that government, under which unequal taxes oppress one species of property and reward another species: where arbitrary taxes invade the domestic sanctuaries of the rich, and excessive taxes grind the faces of the poor; where the keenness and competitions of want are deemed an insufficient spur to labor, and taxes are again applied, buy an unfeeling policy, as another spur; in violation of that sacred property, which Heaven, in decreeing man to earn his bread by the sweat of his brow, kindly reserved to him, in the small repose that could be spared from the supply of his necessities. If the United States mean to obtain or deserve the full praise due to wise and just governments, they will equally respect the rights of property, and the property in rights; they will rival the government that most sacredly guards the former; and by repelling its example in violating the latter, will make themselves a pattern to that and all other governments.”
Mr. Rogers said, now we come to the question that faces Georgia today. That is the lawmakers are going to look at a complete, total change in the way they tax the citizens of this state, or those who happen to travel through our state, or those who happen to be here, but are not citizens. And to construct a just and fair tax system, they must first determine what shall be taxed and what shall not be taxed. Mr. Rogers submitted that it should be universally accepted that a right should not be taxed. Once it has been determined that a right should not be taxed, and that question has been answered, then they move on to step number two. Americans have a right to property. No such right to an income exists, or a right to purchase a television or by any other manner which requires someone else to give or do something for you. A right cannot place a burden on another person. Once this determination is made on what is eligible for taxation, a fair and just tax system should ensure that those transactions which shall be taxed are taxed in a non-discriminatory manner in a transparent system that is as light as possible and equally applied to all. Such a system shall include at its core, and this is very important as they figure out what kind of system do we want, the most efficient collection mechanism possible within the guidelines that have been described. Finally, the tax rates that are applied to this fair flat transparent system should be the function of determining the minimal level of taxation necessary to provide for the constitutional functions of government and no more.
Mr. Rogers said, with regard to a consumption tax, one of the things we need to recognize is that when we tax one business that is purchasing from another business, that tax is rolled into the price of a product that you purchase. When you purchased that product you’ve paid a tax. But you don’t know you paid a tax. You simply purchased a product. He said he believes business to business taxation is wrong because it does not provide a transparent tax system where you do not understand exactly how much you are paying in taxes. He believes government to government taxation is not only wrong, it doesn’t make any sense.
Mr. Rogers laid out some facts regarding our current property tax system. We have 159 counties. Each and every one has a tax commission. Each and every one collects taxes. Each and every one goes out, and on an almost arbitrary basis determines what your property may or may not be worth whenever they get around to actually doing it. The state does require that they do it on a three year period at a minimum, and that is done only for the purpose of making sure the state gets their share which is only a quarter mill. Most politicians want to spend all that money, so they want to be sure they get it. There are 180 school districts which also have the ability to tax you on your property. There are 500 cities to go along with the 180 school districts and the 159 counties. That’s a total of 830 taxing jurisdictions so far. We have an additional 422 various and sundry tax authorities which by law may not have the ability to actually tax you, but can certainly influence the taxes that are collected, such as development authorities. That brings us to a grant total of 1, 261 separate tax entities across Georgia. Now, when we think about collecting taxes for the purposes, let’s admit that for the most part taxes on property and land are collected for the purposes of education. When we think about taxes for those purposes, can anyone truly advocate that 1, 261 different tax authorities across the state of Georgia is an efficient system? Whether or not a proper system, we can argue about that. But is it an efficient system? With a current population of about nine and a half million people, property tax collects about $8.2 billion. About $142 million is from goods. How many billion are being missed from the exemption given to services not being taxed? This shows you what the millage rate has done from 1977 to about the mid-80’s. It was slightly increasing, and since that time it has shot towards the moon. The average annual increase on your property tax in Georgia is 8.3%. You can see the number of years we went well above 8.3%. That increase from 1977 to 1995 was only 6.6%. But, the increase in 2000-2005 is now 8.5%. So you can see the average annual increase on your property tax is picking up steam. Now, is property tax based on your ability to pay those taxes? Surely someone has come to you and said it’s ridiculous that my grandmother is going to get taxed off her property because some developer offered her a lot of money, and she has to sell even though she otherwise would not sell the family farm, but he’s offered a of money, and by the way, she can’t pay her taxes. Personal income rose, 1990-2005, 46.8%. Property taxes rose 176.8%.
The GREAT plan that the legislature is suggesting would eliminate all ad valorem taxes. Mr. Rogers said that when he uses the term property tax, it goes beyond just your house, beyond just your land. That would also include commercial property, the dreaded inventory tax, which is ridiculous, but also automobiles, trucks, boats, planes. In other words, as Madison said, if it is your property, under the GREAT plan Georgia would not tax it. Now, he said, how do we get to that point? Surely we would like to wave a magic wand and say we don’t need $8.2 billion dollars in spending. But, the reality is, under no circumstances can you get a Constitutional Amendment requiring a two-thirds majority vote in both bodies to pass anything like that. The plan that is on the table that has most recently been suggested is a 4% sales tax, which is what the state has right now, to be applied to the final consumption. Final consumption is very important, so we are not taxing business to business, on all goods and services combined. Mr. Rogers said the reality is that as lawmakers go through the political process, he is not sure they can get there. They might have to increase the state sales tax 1%, to 5%, and exempt some of those goods and services, or some of those services. Let’s put this in the proper context of where Georgia is right now. The reality is Georgia already taxes some services, about 30 of the two hundred some odd services that can be taxed. Florida taxes about 70 or 80 services, and they don’t have income tax, but they do have astronomical property taxes, which they are dealing with right now. Tennessee has very low property taxes and no income tax, but they do have a sales tax which is higher than ours, about 7 ½ %, and they tax about 120 of the two hundred and some services you can tax.
So the plan that is being put forth is to expand the sales to include goods and services, alike, and keep it at the same rate. When you buy a product for final consumption use, you will pay a current sales tax on the product, and when you buy a service, such as a haircut, you also will pay a tax on the haircut. Mr. Rogers said a haircut is one of the examples he likes to use, because this is low-hanging fruit. You will hear the argument that the guy who mows my lawn shouldn’t have to collect the tax, because how is the guy mowing the lawn going to collect the tax and remit the tax. A valid argument. Surely we can agree that any business that is already selling a product, collecting sales tax on that product, and remitting those taxes to the state would have no problem including a sales tax on a service they also offer. A haircut is a perfect example. If you just get your hair cut you don’t pay any sales tax. But if you get a hair cut and buy a bottle of shampoo, you will pay sales tax on the shampoo which they will then remit to the state. That collecting ands remitting mechanism is already in place. There are a number of other businesses, such as a car mechanic. At the grocery store you pay tax on a Rotisserie chicken, but not on an uncooked chicken. Grocery stores and all the retail associations are on board with this because it is a massive headache trying to keep up with what is taxed and what is not. It is more efficient to tax everything at the retail level regardless if it is a good or a service.
Mr. Rogers said the lawmakers believe that getting rid of all the current exemptions that exist, which includes groceries, would come up with enough money to offset the property tax and get rid of the property tax. And then the second question comes up. How about local control? This part of the plan has not been very well communicated. Right now many of the school systems in the metro Atlanta area operate on the use of SPLOST dollars for capital construction. Our schools are reliant on sales taxes today. The plan that lawmakers are suggesting would say that our school systems may collect all the taxes that are due using the consumption tax at the rate at which they want to have a consumption tax. They can have a SPLOST on top of what they have right now if they can get the voters to pass it by, some are suggesting a 60% margin, and those votes be held on election day and not on some strange Tuesday. They can use the SPLOST money and the consumption tax money for any purpose necessary, including running the schools. Let’s say the GREAT plan passed tomorrow. Sales tax that would be generated from that immediately passing would mean that SPLOST revenue we are currently generating would double over night. So the school systems, the county government would begin receiving twice what they are currently receiving in SPLOST revenue immediately. Because the tax on services would essentially equal the tax on goods. He said what the lawmakers were suggesting was not that the local school systems could not tax in the manner and at the level they want to tax. They would remove the requirement that the money could only be used for capital expenditures. It would say you can use the sales tax on anything you want to run your schools. All they are simply saying is that taxation of a right of an individual to own property should not occur in the state of Georgia. And any other way you want to collect taxes locally, have at it. This could include a local income tax, which is being done in some states. The message is that you can tax whatever you want as long as it is not a right. You can tax it locally, and you can tax at what level you want to tax, and you can take the money from that taxation and spend it any way you want. The only mechanism that the state will be involved in would be simply collecting the tax through the Department of Revenue which would be necessary for collecting the sales tax, and remitting it back to the place where that tax came from. So Cobb County would get every dollar that Cobb County generated in sales tax. And, one of the things that could be done; right now there is a threshold, if you are a retailer in the state, any time you have income for the month over $10,000 you have to electronically file, they would probably take that down to $1,000, which would get just about every retailer in the state. The importance of that is to know where every single dollar comes from every single retailer, and there will be no confusion as to what county, what city, what locality will be deserving of that tax revenue back.
Mr. Rogers said he comes to a group like this, and he puts out this plan, and he knows he will take some arrows on it which is fine. In general theory, he said, he is advocating that we move away from the property tax because he believes it is fundamentally wrong and in opposition to what we stand for, and lawmakers are throwing out this other plan as far as taxing goods and services as one way they can make that occur. They have not finalized the plan, despite what we read in the media. What you see on the web site - HR 900 doesn’t resemble at all what they are trying to do.
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Monday, July 9, 2007 - Sam Olens, Chairman, Cobb County Board of Commissionerstag:www.speakersummaries.madisonforum.org,2007://8.1772007-07-25T22:24:51Z2007-07-25T22:26:30ZMadison Forum Speaker – Sam Olens Sam Olens, Chairman, Cobb County Board of Commissioners, and Madison Forum Member spoke to members and guests at the regular luncheon meeting Monday, July 9, 2007. His topic was Illegal Immigration. Mr. Olens said...Madison Forum Speaker – Sam Olens
Sam Olens, Chairman, Cobb County Board of Commissioners, and Madison Forum Member spoke to members and guests at the regular luncheon meeting Monday, July 9, 2007. His topic was Illegal Immigration.
Mr. Olens said the reason he wanted to talk about illegal immigration was two-fold, first to Congress’s ineptitude, and two the fact that the county is coming forward with more code amendments. The first meeting is tomorrow, and the second meeting is the Board of Commissioners night meeting in this month.
First of all, Mr. Olens said, with regard to SB529, Chip Rogers’ bill, which kicked in July 1. This date had no meaning, because the county was already fully complying, which seemed to him sort of common sense legislation. He said back in November 2006, the county enrolled under the basic Pilot Program which is the one that verifies if your employees are legal. It took about a whole hour to do that. It was not a big issue. The County Commission also started to work with the legal Department that their contractors would be complying with SB529 to work on affidavits. So actually in January of this year contractors needed to sign an affidavit that their workers were legal. He said it was really interesting, because GDOT and the Georgia Department of Labor were working on affidavits that other local governments were then supposed to start using come July, but Cobb didn’t change its affidavit because Deborah Dance in the County Attorney’s Office did such a good job with the affidavit that it fully complied with the one the State came up with. So the county is still using the same affidavit after July of 07.
Mr. Olens said the other issue that relates to parts of SB529 is the SAVE Program. And that relates to entitlement. The issue there is that the beneficiaries of County dollars not be illegal immigrants and that they be legal residents. The county worked with the Department of Homeland Security which is like any other Federal agency. It took literally months until the County Commission could get the agreement. It was signed in June, probably about ten days before July 1. That was no delay on the county’s part. That was a delay on the part of the Department of Homeland Security. The long and short of it is that by January 2007 the county has not only had the affidavit for the employees as well as using the Pilot system, they are now waiting for the Federal Government to sign the document for the SAVE Program for entitlement.
Also, Mr. Olens said, the sheriff at this same time came forward wanting to do the 287(g) Program, which is a step in the right direction, but still not much. He said by that he meant that by doing the 287(g), and having the training that goes with the 287(g), it now means that when they finish their sentence illegal immigrants are then handed off to ICE. And then they go either to the holding cells in Gainesville or Dalton, or wherever else, before the Federal Government then actually removes them from this country. He said the reason he says it doesn’t do that much is you still have to wait until the end of their sentence. He said he is frankly not too thrilled that he gets to pay for illegal residents to be in our jails before they end the sentence. He thinks that is a waste of taxpayer dollars, but that’s the Federal rules. He said one can have a judge end the sentence and have ICE there but you’ve got to really make sure you do it well, or else they will be on the streets before ICE picks them up. But he endorses the 287(g) application. The Sheriff came forward with it. Per Federal Law the county had to sign off on it, so the Agenda Item was in the County Commission to endorse it. The cost, one again, to do that was minimal, about $2,000 for the county to be a part of the program.
Additionally, in January the County Commission amended the ordinance. Up until January of 2007 you could have up to six unrelated people in a house. Mr. Olens said he was not talking about group homes. The ordinance was amended to go from six to four unrelated individuals in a residence. He said the problem was not going from six to four. The problem was they did not tighten the word unrelated. What would happen was when folks would go they would all say they were first cousins, and if we wanted to follow the U.S. Constitution, which Mr. Olens says he chooses to do, under the 4th Amendment, the 5th Amendment, the county had the burden of proof to show they weren’t related, which meant the cases didn’t go too far in Magistrate Court. Mr. Olens said he was not criticizing the Magistrate Judges. They have to follow the U.S. Constitution. And the way it was written, it frankly did not give the proper wording to assist us with the judges. A lot of the people wouldn’t know enough to play the law game and would move, but some of the time they knew enough to play the law game and would fight and would say they were first cousins, and the county couldn’t show to the Magistrate Judges that they weren’t first cousins, so the cases would get dismissed.
Mr. Olens said they have additionally hired more persons and started a Quality of Life Unit. At first code enforcement was not really too anxious for the county to start the Quality of Life Unit, because they thought that it was making some sort of adverse comment on their ability to do their job. Mr. Olens said he doesn’t think the county has a more difficult job than Code Enforcement Officer. They don’t carry guns, they are not sworn officers, and they go up to folks to uphold ordinances. Often the folks they talk to work with them, and often they don’t. But, when you have a police officer, coming along with a gun on the shoulder, people start thinking about listening to those code enforcement officers a lot better. So, having created the Quality of Life Unit, Dale Tatum and the code enforcement folks will now tell you they are thrilled we did it, but they weren’t too thrilled at the time we started it. Mr. Olens said the Quality of Life Unit is not county-wide. They have been specifically put in our areas of higher crime. From January through July 1st they had issued 597 citations. He said there are several officers in this group, but more are needed, and more code enforcement officers are needed. Of those 597 violations, nine were felony arrests, 14 were misdemeanor arrests. In the three areas roughly that the Quality of Life Unit worked there has been a 29% reduction from January through May in residential burglaries. What the Unit has seen, along with that, however, is an increase in street robberies which is mainly African-American on Hispanic crime, because the perception or the validity is that many Hispanics keep cash on them and don’t keep bank accounts, it’s becoming a sport now to go after Hispanic individuals to rob them on the street. The Unit has done numerous things in that regard – some catch the press, some don’t catch the press. He mentioned the check cashing place at Route 41 and Roswell Street where the Unit did a hide-out and a group of Hispanics went in, got cash, a group of African-Americans chased them, and our folks chased them and caught all of them. There are a lot of things the unit is doing, far more than in the past in that regard.
The unit is also doing a lot of safety check points in high crime areas. Pretty much none of this makes the press, unless the Marietta Police Chief calls the Marietta paper and asks for the press. The county is not doing that, because, once again, the feeling is that it’s better for it to be a little bit below the radar and doing check points in certain areas than advertising each one of them, because they feel they will frankly get more arrests by not advertising them. Mr. Olens said this is just a difference between the Cobb Police Department and Marietta. He said he was not saying one is right and one is wrong. Thankfully, the Cobb Police Department has a very good rapport with the new Marietta Police Chief. The county is working far better with the Marietta Police Chief than they have done in a long, long time, and all of these check points that you see in the Marietta paper, for instance, where the City of Marietta or the Police Chief calls the paper and they cover it, in all of it the Cobb Sheriffs and the Cobb Police Departments are working this together. They are all working as a team in those areas. They have been very successful in folks that have warrants for arrest. They have been very successful with driving license violations, as you would imagine, and very successful with DUIs through those check points.
As an aside, Mr. Olens said, what the county has also been doing is starting an Hispanic initiative in Cobb, because, while they had done a very good job in the late 80’s, early 90’s in increasing the minority percentage of employees in the county to make the county employee base look more like the overall population base in the county, they were never successful in increasing the number of Hispanic employees in the county. By definition, to be employed by the county you have to be a legal resident, and for practically every position you have to be a U.S. citizen. Additionally, if you were to look at county boards and authorities, they have done a very good job in having a greater percentage of African-Americans on these boards and authorities. But they have not been successful on the boards and authorities for Hispanic individuals. But the county needs to encourage Hispanics to be on boards and authorities and to be employees of the county just as they had done 20-25 years earlier with the African-American community. You do want your work force to be representative of your county. There are no quotas, there’s no numbers, but you do overtly want to get the top quality candidate you can get, and you want to encourage the application process from all the community. The county has already been doing that over the past year.
So, what else has the county been doing? Mr. Olens said changing the six unrelated to four unrelated has helped. He said when they did the SAVE, and the Pilot, and, along with the Sheriff, the 287(g), Cobb was the first Sheriff’s Department in the State to have 287(g). There were one or two other local jurisdictions that had SAVE. And there were one or two other jurisdictions that were working with regard to Pilot. There were no jurisdictions that had both SAVE and Pilot, So, Cobb is absolutely the first in the state in that regard.
So, what are the plans for the future? In the 2007 budget, Mr. Olens said, they added more police, and in the 2008 prospective budget there would be more police. The county is going to increase that police number even more, because they want additional police officers to be a part of the Quality of Life Unit. They also plan on, once again, increasing the number of code enforcement officers to work with that Quality of Life Unit. At times the paper called that a pilot program. It’s pilot in the sense that they didn’t have a Quality of Life Unit before. It’s not pilot in the sense that it’s temporary. Mr. Olens said he plans on that unit growing and continuing. There is no prospective date that that unit goes away. He said if you look at numerous jurisdictions, that Quality of Life Unit has a lot of potential gain for the county, and it will continue in force.
Mr. Olens said, as he mentioned at the very beginning of his talk, the county has code amendments - the first hearing on the 10th, the second, and hopefully the last hearing, on the 24th. First of all, the county is creating a day laborer ordinance. When this started a couple of years ago, there wasn’t a need for a day laborer ordinance in the county, because frankly, the locations were all in the city. Now we’re starting to see some locations in the county, so they are creating a day laborer ordinance.
Secondly, they worked with Mr. Olens’ comm. Law professor at Emory on the six to four issue, the unrelated issue, and what they came up with are some changes in that area. They have passed them by the Magistrate Judges and the Solicitors Office, the County Attorneys. They wanted it to be inclusive to give it the best shot that this would work. First of all the county is going from four to two unrelated individuals relating to single family. Second, they are changing the definition of unrelated. It’s now grandparents, parents, grandchildren, brother, sister, no such thing as a cousin, no such thing as an aunt or uncle. He said, some people are going to say – this is going too far. And there are folks that are legal and living in houses that the county is going to create an illegal circumstance for. The way the county is dealing with that is permitting the filing of a temporary land use permit, so if there is a household where someone complains and where a citation is issued, and where, for instance, an aunt or uncle is there, and the Board of Commissioners to make perfect sense, temporary land use permits can be issued so the family will be in compliance with the law. Mr. Olens said it was afforded to the board, as they make this change that they still were cognizant that there needed to be some discretion when the question comes before the board in a zoning meeting. What the ordinance says is, you get 390 square feet per adult occupant. So that means, for instance, if it’s a 1200 square foot home, you have up to three. That’s not family plus unrelated. That’s if you are dealing with the unrelated, you’re then at three. That’s 390 square feet per adult, and that’s one car. Once again, let’s say you are a couple with five children, and they’re all in college and have all these cars, because they’re your children, you’re fine. If you have an aunt and an uncle there, and you run out of the scenario, you can apply for a temporary land use permit. Mr. Olens said he thinks it unlikely that illegal folks will be coming before the Board of Commissioners requesting a land use permit. Now when code enforcement goes to a house that has seven or eight, or nine cars, the county has changed the burden. The burden is the County Assessors Office says how many square feet the house exists, that’s how many cars you are entitled to. The county then gets to go to the Magistrate Count and say the house is 1200 square feet, there are six cars. They have the burden to show that there are family members consistent with the code, so the citation fits. So what the county has done, working with Mr. Olens’ common law professor from college, is craft an ordinance based on square footage of the residence, to put the burden on them that they have an exception. Code enforcement loves this because they now actually have a code on their side. There’s no one in the state that does this. Cobb is the first jurisdiction who is doing this. Mr. Olens said he can’t rule out the possibility that someone would sue the county in Federal Court; but, working out the ordinance took time because he didn’t want to just make a change and immediately find out it wasn’t workable. The goal here was literally to acknowledge that there was a problem, to acknowledge the State of Georgia really didn’t have a code that helped the county, and to work on a revision to the code that would provide that assistance. He said he couldn’t have asked more assistance from the Magistrate Judges. They met with the lawyers that the county retained. They met with the code enforcement folks. They met with all concerned to try to give us the best shot at this. If the Board of Commissioners approve it, as he hopes they will, on the 24th, it will be in effect the 24th of this month, and then the county will go forward, and code enforcement will be jumping for joy with an ordinance that makes their lives easier.
Additionally the county has made proposed changed to the code regarding exteriors. In some neighborhoods there are houses that look as if a stiff wind would tear it apart. The code changes deal with windows, decks, doors, exterior stairways. They look at some other areas before the 24th to once again provide for a better scenario in that regard.
Mr. Olens said, we all know that until the Federal Government makes moves to securer the border, it’s easier said than done. The last comment he wanted to make was that he didn’t want to leave the room having us think that by making these changes to the code he thinks he has solved the immigrant problem. He is just trying to deal with the immigration problem. He said he doesn’t see any resolution anywhere in sight Federally in this regard, but the county, in listening to individuals from our community, is trying the best they can to work within the 4th and 5th Amendments, and 14th Amendment to do some code changes that will work. And, hopefully, they will be approved on the 24th and they will work. He said the police department is spending an awful lot of time on illegal immigration, most of which does not make the paper. Most of it is task forces with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, other federal agencies, and then when the arrest is made; it goes to the Federal Court. It’s not anything we see in Cobb County. They’re Federal violations. It is a significant amount of time. He said they are trying the best they can to make it easier on the judges by having these code changes and trying to work it the best they can.
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