Philosophy : The Science of Free Will

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From the in-box:

Last Friday marked the last day of the Georgia General Assembly’s regular legislative session.  Over the last three months, we asked you to take action on several issues being considered by the legislature.

Thank you to the thousands of Georgia Environmental Action Network subscribers who took a few minutes to send a message to their state representatives and state senators.  Below is a summary of what happened on those issues and whether they remain alive for next year:

Cut More Trees For Less - SB 164: On Wednesday, April 1st, legislation sponsored by Senator Don Balfour, that would have expanded billboard companies’ ability to cut down and remove trees along roadsides was defeated in a close vote when the conservation community prevented the bill from obtaining the 91 votes it needed for passage.  The vote was 74-89. A motion to reconsider the bill passed quickly afterwards, but the bill was never brought up for another vote on the last day of the session.  SB 164 was sent back to the House Rules committee, where it can be brought up for debate again next year.

Don’t Get Stuck Paying Your Neighbor’s Water Bill - HB 158: Legislation to require new multi-family buildings to put a water meter on each unit rather than one water meter per building passed the House easily and passed out of the Senate Regulated Industries & Utilities Committee, but failed to make it out of the Senate Rules Committee.  Friendly attempts to amend the bill onto other legislation failed.  HB 158 remains alive for consideration next year.

Keep Treated Sewage From Being Injected in Our Drinking Water - HB 552: Rep. Terry Barnard led the charge to extend the current moratorium on injecting treated sewage and surface water into the Floridan aquifer, a critical source of drinking water for Georgians living in the coastal plain, for another five years.  The bill has been sent to the Governor’s desk for his signature.

Get Me Out of This Traffic- SB 39, SR 44, HB 277, HR 206, SB 120, SB 200: The Senate passed legislation to allow regions to let voters approve a penny sales tax for listed transportation projects while the House passed legislation that would let voters approve a statewide sales tax increase for transportation.  Unfortunately, negotiations to hammer out a compromise broke down at 11:00pm during the last day of the session.  Further, legislation to allow MARTA more flexibility in how it uses its current and reserve funds on operations & maintenance failed.  However, both chambers approved legislation to rearrange state agencies to give the Governor, Lt. Governor and Legislature more control over transportation revenue and road-building.

Exemptions from Clean Water Protections - SB 155: The House and Senate passed legislation, sponsored by Senator Chip Pearson, that provides a definition for the smallest, most temporary streams created only from rain and snowfall and then exempts them from 25 foot buffers from development.  Conservation groups argued to clarify the definition, but attempts to amend the bill failed.  SB 155 now heads to the Governor’s desk for his signature.

Pay Now for Nuclear - SB 31: Legislation to create a new funding scheme for the construction of nuclear power plants, sponsored by Senator Don Balfour, passed both the House and Senate.  The legislation has been sent to the Governor for his signature.

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Baracknophobia: Hannity, Bachmann, And Beck Terrified Of Obama (VIDEO)

"the mid-term election are coming up in 20 months... pace your rage!"

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From the inbox:

The following bills have passed the Georgia General Assembly and are awaiting the Governor's signature.  GAE has monitored and advocated either for or against (and offered an alternative) to each piece of legislation represented.  On the last day of session, many of the bills became vehicles for legislative initiatives that may not have had a chance of passing on their own.
 
Please contact the Governor and request that he signs the following legislation:
 
HB 243 - The original proposal eliminated the 10% stipend for all National Board Certified Teachers. We were able to get the bill amended to allow teachers who already receive the bonus to continue receiving it. However the funding is contingent upon yearly funding by the General Assembly. Governor Perdue still has discretion over line item veto in the FY 10 budget and could possibly veto HB 243.  Therefore we strongly encourage you to contact the Governor and ask him to support the budget line item for National Board Certified Teachers as passed via House Bill 243.
 
HB 251 - Public school student allowed to attend another school within the district provided permanent classroom space is available and parents assume responsibility and cost for transportation.
 
HB 149 - "Move on When Ready" Act - Public school students given the option to attend community college or technical school to complete work for their high school diploma.
 
HB 193 - School calendar based on hours, with a minimum of instructional time each day. School systems also given the option, beginning 2010-2011, to close schools on Veterans Day [November 11] to enable students, teachers, etc. to participate in Veterans Day programs.
 
SB 178 - Includes language from the BRIDGE bill [HB 400], which gives students a choice of focused programs of study and prepares them for postsecondary studies and careers.
 
HB 63 - Tax Allocation Districts (TADs) tightens the definition of redevelopment area associated with TADs-eliminates vague, overbroad  and undefined terms, limits TADs to "urbanized" areas.
 
SB 8 - Students allowed to carry auto-injectable Epinephrine and requires every school system to adopt a policy authorizing the carrying and administration of such prescriptions.
 
HB 229 - School systems to conduct an annual fitness assessment program one time each school year for students in grades one through twelve.
 
HB 371 - Allows increased  TRS investments in equities when markets are stable.
 
Please request the Governor to veto the following legislation. Click here to contact the Governor:
 
HB 100 - Tax credit program for Student Scholarship Organizations (SSOs). SSOs are Tax shelters that funnel funds to private schools depleting public school resources.
 
HB 233 - Property tax assessments capped at 3%.
 
HB 280 - Governor's initiative to start new, fully-certified math and science teachers at the same salary as a fifth year teacher.
 
Marcus W. Downs
Director of Government Relations
Georgia Association of Educators

do with it what you will.

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 It's the Consumer, Stupid

Watching media execs talk about building walled gardens around content reminds me of watching Detroit execs ten years ago spend billions lobbying the government for fuel efficiency loopholes and trying to convince consumers that gas-guzzling SUVs were the cars of the future.

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lets check

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Expert Consensus: Obama Mimics Bush On State Secrets

Is the Obama administration mimicking its predecessor on issues of secrecy and the war on terror?

 

During the presidential campaign, Obama criticized Bush for being too quick to invoke the state secrets claim. But last Friday, his Justice Department filed a motion in a warrantless wiretapping lawsuit, brought by the digital-rights group EFF. And the Obama-ites took a page out of the Bush DOJ's playbook by demanding that the suit, Jewel v. NSA, be dismissed entirely under the state secrets privilege, arguing that allowing it go forward would jeopardize national security.

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Badiou on BBC

In a BBC HARDtalk interview broadcast on 24 March 2009, Stephen Sackur talks to French socialist philospher Alain Badiou.

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Lincoln’s $250 billion estate tax plan would cut taxes for only 60 ’small businesses.’

Last week, 10 Democrats in the Senate joined all 41 Republicans in voting for a $250 billion proposal to cut estate taxes, designed by Sens. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) and Jon Kyl (R-AZ). More than 99 percent of this cost would go to the inheritors of estates worth over $7 million. Touting the tax cut in a press release, Lincoln claimed that it was “aimed at farms and small businesses.” However, according to an analysis by the Tax Policy Center, Lincoln’s $250 billion proposal would save just 60 small businesses or farms from the estate tax:

An always charged issue is how the estate tax affects small farms and family-owned businesses. We estimate that under the Obama proposal, 100 family farms and businesses would owe tax…The Lincoln-Kyl proposal would cut the number to 40.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, “almost all such estates are able to pay the tax bill without having to sell business assets.”

Another example of tax-cutting to hurt our long term deficit...

For those of us concerned about the Ocean of Debt these kinds of tax-cuts are not good policy.

As CBPP noted regarding this "say one thing do another" ideological attack from some folks:

Many of the same Senators and House members who launched the sharpest verbal attacks this week on the President’s budget or the congressional budget plans — on the ground that the deficits and debt projected under those plans are much too high — then opposed a number of the tough choices the President’s budget makes to start reducing deficits. Those tough choices include allowing many of the generous tax cuts enacted in 2001 and 2003 to expire for people at the top of the income scale, making the 2009 estates tax rules permanent rather than eliminating still more of that tax, and limiting itemized deductions for families making over $250,000 to help finance health care reform that is intended to reduce costs over the long term.

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Really Existing Socialism

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