Saxby Chambliss: Seriously?

Saxby Chambliss, Republican Senator from Georgia, today responded to Defense Secretary Robert Gates' proposed defense budget with this statement: the Obama administration is "willing to sacrifice the lives of American military men and women for the sake of domestic programs."

Mr Chambliss, if you are going to criticize the President, and there are things he can and should be criticized for, please do so after checking facts and do so in an semi-informed manner. You criticize this budget because of the call to cut the F-22 Raptor program. Obviously this will cause a loss of jobs in Georgia, and will impact your constituents. HOWEVER, to claim that this budget cut will result in the deaths of American troops is fear mongering and unfounded. If anything, the budget recommendations take troops out of harm's way by significantly boosting funding for unmanned aerial vehicles and shifting troops away from Iraq. Please, sir, criticize where criticism is due, but do not make yourself look like a fool by spreading worthless, partisan propaganda.

To Mr. Obama

DNA Evidence Frees Black Man Convicted Of Bear Attack

What Do You Think of Augusta Public Transit?

Let 'em know.

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Please complete the survey by March 31, 2009.

Georgia Changing Requirement for Life Without Parole

The Georgia House voted unanimously to allow prosecutors to more easily seek life in prison without parole. The current law requires prosecutors to try for the death penalty first. Although there was talk of an amendment to allow death penalties without unanimous jury verdicts, that craziness did not make it onto the bill.

Wounded Soldiers Hooked Up in Augusta

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Well, There It Is

It took two months, but President Obama finally said something he shouldn't have. Maybe comedians don't have to worry too much about Bush being out of office...

You're Welcome America

Yeah, we've been taking it easy lately. But so has the big dub.
Don't miss Will Ferrell's show tonight on HBO at nine.

Worst. President. Ever.

When's the last time you were shocked by anything George W. Bush or his Justice Department did? Or by anything published in Newsweek? Well, dear, dear readers, check it out. W's John Yoo and company okayed (and seven years later- three months before Bush left office, unokayed) attacks on U.S. apartment buildings and office complexes. Surprised? Anything to get those terrorists who might do something crazy- like attack a U.S. apartment building. And, of course, it's always handy to reneg on that freedom of the press thing in times of trouble, such as the kind that includes attacking the homeland. Oh and of course more surveillance on citizens. Christ in a cave, this is a bad one.

Attorney General Says No More Federal Raids

Obama promised that there would be no more federal raids on marijuana dispenseries in states that allow medical marijuana. Here Eric Holder confirms that what Obama said goes. Congratulations, States' Righters. And enjoy your freedom, glaucoma sufferers and chemotherapy patients who will not longer be arrested for filling prescriptions.

Global Warming Hits the Fan

Lescaux Cave Drawing photo from Discovery.com


Ok, now it's getting real. Sorry about all the birds and bees and whatever else that's dying. Sorry polar bears, drowning in the Artic versus starving is a tough way to go. All of that is sad, but extinction isn't new. This is new. Cave paintings are starting to mold over because heat has stifled the air's circulation in the cave. Cave paintings are probably the best thing we have on Earth. The pyramids are new compared to this. We're the generation that breaks them? We're the ones who can't be trusted to watch the house? You know, in the fight between caveman and astronaut, I used to pick astronaut, but I doubt any of them can paint. Booo.

Fly Clear?

For $200/year, your fingerprints, and a scan of your iris you can now skip the long and dreadful lines to get through security at over 20 airports nationwide. Sounds wonderful. Nothing better than giving up your most personal of identifying information to some random private company. That information will most likely be given to the government, and who knows who else will get their hands on it. Conspiracy theories aside, what happens when everyone starts getting these things? You know what would really cut down waiting time at the security line? The ridiculous security theater. No, my 7oz shampoo is not a bomb. And if my 3oz bottle of shampoo that you actually let me keep was a bomb, I'm pretty sure that ziploc bag would not contain the explosion. Give me a break America. Let's spend the money where it counts...

Get Ready For Higher Taxes

Taxes will be going up. And not because Barack Obama is some tax and spend liberal. The government offers us services such as a military to defend us, highways, and social security, but how does it pay for these things? Taxes. This should be news to nobody. So when we ask the government to start offering us more in the way of services, why do we get scared of having to pay more taxes? The government taxes the people so it can spend money on them. Tax and spend should not be an insult. It's what the government does. And according to Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, Kent Conrad (D-ND), the government is going to need more revenue if it is to continue to offer services that Americans demand.

Bobby Jindal

Yeah, Obama had his first "State of the Union" address last night (it wasn't technically a State of the Union address, but whatever), and sure it was pretty good, and I should talk a little bit about it, but I can't get over Bobby Jindal's response on behalf of the Republican Party. I mean, this is the guy the GOP appears to be grooming for a Presidential run, and, I'm, well, you know, ummmm, here's Rachel Maddow's take on it....gahhhhh

Marijuana Bill Introduced in California

A California Assemblyman has introduced a bill that would legalize marijuana in the state and let the state tax it in a similar manner to alcohol. This comes in response to the budget crisis California has been facing. I've been preaching this all along. Granted, marijuana can be grown more or less undetected at home, but if passed, it could seriously increase California's revenue.

Aren't the Republicans the Ones Usually Doing This?

President Obama, today, has officially instructed the Treasury Department to begin implementing tax cuts for 95% of all Americans. According to Obama, average families will start bringing in an extra $65 per month by the first of April. Go ahead and mark up that green check mark under promises kept.

Dance Off of the Century!

Stephen Colbert throws down the gauntlet on Late Night with Conan O'Brien...

North Dakota House Passes "Personhood" Bill

The North Dakota House of Representatives recently passed a bill identifying even a one-cell embryo as a human being. Rather than calling it an anti-abortion bill, they are calling it a "personhood" bill in an effort to mask what it truly is. The final wording of the bill more or less gives full legal rights to anything carrying a human genome. This could be interpreted to mean that every time a person spits, or bleeds, or ejaculates and cells die that person has committed murder. It also would make abortion, or even the morning after pill for that matter, murder. The last time I checked though, a single cell didn't have a heartbeat, or brain waves or fingers and toes to wiggle or legs and arms to flail. The thing I find almost sad about this bill is that it's probably not really designed to pass as a real law. It seems to be designed to get passed and then challenged through the courts in an effort to overturn Roe v Wade. North Dakota, you make me sad. How about instead of putting so much effort into anti-abortion efforts, you put some real honest effort into working to reduce unwanted pregnancies in the first place? Let's be honest here: we all know abortion is ugly, but sometimes it is necessary, because as much as you may not want to admit it, a would-be mother's life has value too. Dare I say more value than a heartless, brainless, armless, legless clump of cells?

High Speed Rail?

The Obama administration may be seriously looking at investing in a high speed rail system in America. All I have to say is it's about time!

Why Can't Augusta Have a News Blog Like This?

The Atlanta Progressive News covers an anti-death penalty group's appeals to the Georgia State Legislature. Augusta is represented in the House by Barbara Sims, Quincy Murphy, Henry "Wayne" Howard, Hardie Davis, and Gloria Frazier. Senators are J.B. Powell and Ed Tarver.

(APN) ATLANTA - A coalition of Georgia religious and human rights activists led by Georgians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (GFADP) spent Tuesday, February 17, 2009, asking state lawmakers to put the death penalty on hold in Georgia, improve indigent defense, and to oppose an effort to allow non-unanimous jury decisions in death penalty cases.


State Sen. Vincent Fort (D-Atlanta) and activists urged lawmakers to place a moratorium on all executions while the State studies potential blind spots in the system.




Fort said he filed a moratorium bill Tuesday, adding "further studies are necessary to make sure the State is doing its job" of protecting the innocent. The bill information is not yet available online as of press time.


"We should demand that we have a system where mistakes are held at a bare minimum," he said.


The Georgia General Assembly is also considering two bills that anti-death penalty activists say are harmful.


SB 42 would do away with the Georgia Public Defenders Standards Council (GPDSC), a group that assures people who cannot afford legal defense are provided adequate and effective legal representation, and replace it with a single director appointed by the governor.




"This will dramatically weaken legal support for poor people," Sara Totonchi, chair of GFADP, said of SB 42 during a press conference at the State Capitol.


Activists say the GPDSC is well-designed but it was not been able to serve effectively because state lawmakers have been unwilling or unable to fully fund it.


Another bill, HB 32, would allow non-unanimous juries to issue a death sentence; this is the reintroduction of a bill Atlanta Progressive News also covered last Session.


Activists say if the bill becomes law, Georgia would become the first state with a hybrid system that factors in the jury and judge's decision.


"Split jury decisions don't show a weakness in the criminal justice system," Totonchi said. "They show strength and fairness. They are evidence that jurors are taking their duty seriously, carefully weighing the evidence, and making the system operate as it was intended."


GFADP also argues the inevitable, protracted constitutional challenges to such a law would cost taxpayers millions of dollars, tie up the courts, and further delay already drawn out death penalty trials, appeals, and reversals.


"What is so important about the rush to kill people in Georgia," Edward DuBose, chair of the Georgia conference of the National Associated for the Advancement of Colored People, asked. "We stand opposed to any deal that would reduce the number of jurors, especially in a state holding innocent people - people who have been on death row for 20, 30 years."


Meanwhile, a bill moving quickly through the General Assembly could slow the number of death penalty convictions.


SB 13, sponsored by State Sen. Preston Smith (R-Rome), would give district attorneys the option of seeking a life without parole sentence without first having to seek the death penalty to obtain it. The bill is also co-sponsored by State Sen. Kasim Reed, currently running for Mayor of Atlanta.


Current rules dictate that the only way to keep a convicted murderer in jail forever is for the district attorney to seek the death penalty or to obtain a murder conviction against someone who already had a violent felony conviction.


SB 13 unanimously passed the State Senate on February 03, 2009, and received a favorable report from the House Non-Civil Judiciary Committee on February 11, 2009.


A similar Senate bill failed in a conference committee last Session after lawmakers could not come to an agreement on the non-unanimous juries legislation, which the House wanted attached.


Since 1973, 129 inmates have been exonerated from death row, including five in Georgia. While DNA evidence has played a significant role in these exonerations, faulty eyewitness testimony has been to blame for putting innocent lives on the line.


Troy Anthony Davis has been on Georgia's death row since 1991 after a jury convicted him of the 1989 murder of Savannah police officer Mark Allen MacPhail. The prosecution used only eyewitness testimony to obtain a conviction.


But since the original trial, seven of nine witnesses have either changed or recanted their testimony. In light of the recantations, groups like GFADP and Amnesty International say there is far too much doubt to execute Davis and that he should be granted a new trial so the new evidence can be heard.


Martina Correia, sister of Davis, said Tuesday her brother's case represents the problems that already exist in the system.


"We believe in a higher standard for the justice system," Correia said. "The standards that are trying to be imposed should really disgust all of us."


State Rep. Stephanie Stuckey Benfield (D-Decatur), who spent at least two years trying to reform eyewitness identification procedures through the General Assembly, said Tuesday there has been progress without legislation.


Working with various law enforcement agencies, Benfield said the Georgia Public Safety Training Center has developed a course on eyewitness identification as part of its training for all officers.


"I hope we won't see injustices like Troy Davis again in the future," Benfield said.


Correia urged other Georgians to stay informed on these issues. "If I stand out, it's because too many of us stand back."


"This is bigger than the death penalty, this is bigger than Troy Davis," Correia added. "This is about a system unseen. We can fight and be a voice for the voiceless."


Stay with Atlanta Progressive News and Atlanta Progressive Blog for updates on these bills and others.

Gitmo Guard Speaks Out

Brandon Neely, a former guard at Guantanamo Bay, came forward a couple of years ago with his story and it is now being released. Obviously, based on his account, everything at Gitmo was on the up and up. That's why they all acted the same and treated the prisoners the same before and after the Red Cross showed up. Or not.

Change I Can Believe In

I'm still giving Obama a year before I judge...

If You Didn't Notice, I'm Back

I just returned from a six week trip to France and Spain. The trip was wonderful and I met a lot of great people while I was over there. I'll be departing again in the not too distant future, so don't get used to me being back.

Like, How Many Times Can She Say Like?

I don't know why this is newsworthy but here I am commenting on it myself anyway, so whatever. Apparently Bristol Palin (yes that's the expert-on-what? daughter of at-this-point-politically-irrelevant-also-ran Sarah Palin) thinks that teen abstinence is not realistic. Could America's right have finally found its safe sex education spokesperson? Well, no. Probably not. She says teen abstinence is unrealistic, but also wants to share her story so that teens might think twice about having sex. So, basically, this interview was pointless, and thus so was this blog post. And the answer is eight, if anyone actually went and read the article.