January "Hodgepodge"

Ó  Dr. Gary D. Lemmons, January 14, 2007

At long last, this week saw President George W. Bush admitting that “the Philosopher” was right all along.  We DID NOT have enough troops in Iraq for the “occupation”!  Now, he tells us that we have to send 21,000 more to get the situation in hand.  Why do the words “too little, too late” keep running through my mind?

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It looks as though the Georgia General Assembly is bent on tax reform this term (over the next two years).  This is an admirable goal.  I just don’t know if the current crop of clowns can deal with it adequately or not.  The key is going to be to make sure that “everyone” from the poorest to the richest pays something!  Among the proposals are ideas to end the personal income tax, change the personal income tax to a flat tax, end property tax, and raise consumption (sales) tax rates.  Additionally, the notion of taxing services (i.e., mechanic, hair dresser, and mortician fees), and an array of new ways to generate revenue are being floated.

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Danny Porter, district attorney for Gwinnett County, has busted one of the wealthiest prostitution and drug rings in some time.  The “Sugar Loaf” friendly house was operated by two “ladies” over the past couple of years and was set in a gated community of millionaire dwellings.  Porter is not only going after the “ladies” but he is working the computer files kept by “the madams” and is going after some of their customers as well.  Wonder how many “pillars of the community” are nervous this morning?

Porter made headlines a couple of years ago when he investigated the Gwinnett County School Superintendent and other central officer administrators for failing to accurately report the number of crimes committed in Gwinnett County Schools.  He is a “pit bull” of an investigative D.A. Too bad we don’t have “Danny Boy” going after Usama bin-Laden!

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2007 is promising to be the warmest year in history, but there is no global warming.  That is just “liberal” hysteria.  The “tree huggers” are all excited about the environmental phenomena.  Just remember…”there is no global warming"…"there is no climate change.”  Just keep telling yourself…”there is no global warming”…”it is all a liberal hoax.”  Oh, by the way, watch out for that melting glacier!

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As reported in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, don’t think that the Georgia General Assembly lets the United States Constitution get in the way of it legislating.  Frequently, members of the General Assembly will introduce blatantly unconstitutional bills and the same will be passed by that august body.  When the laws are struck down by the courts, the legislators can always tell their constituents that they tried.

It reminds me of what my late friend Ernest Ralston, a Representative in the Georgia House for a number of years himself use to tell me.  It may not have been original with Ernest, but he is the one who said to me, “No man should ever have to watch how potted meat or the laws of the land made.”