lotstodo

Will, I'm not saying that vouchers are the end all be all. What I am saying is that the state of Georgia spends MORE per student than fully 1/3 of the states, yet ranks lowest in graduation rates. That's a huge red flag. It doesn't take a mathematical genius to tell you that spending more money alone does not work. I am not, as you will note by the $11,345 figure advocating spending less. I am saying that for decades the politically expediently thing to do as a candidate for office is to say that you will spend more on education. I am simply asking why, what on, and how will that help our

The school bus leaves at 7. The school bus leaves at 7. The school bus leaves at 7. Maybe I won't forget next time.

Unfortunately what makes the process so "difficult" is cooking the books. We have some of the weakest reporting requirements in the nation, and absolutely no established process to police the accuracy of the reports until the candidate is caught otherwise with their hand in the cookie jar or is turned in by a disgruntled employee or "contributor" who didn't get what he thought he paid for. And then if there is an ethics investigation, it is stonewalled until after the election. And before anyone starts, that is not a partisan statement, every durn one of them plays the same game, and the mo

In 2005, Georgians paid 7 percent more of their personal income toward K-12 education than the national average, yet we were 48th in graduation rates that year. In 2008 Georgia ranked 7th highest in the nation in percentage of per capita income spent on public education, but ranked 49th in graduation rate. Twenty one states including seven in the Southeast have consistently higher graduation rates yet spend less per pupil than Georgia. That poses the question, why do we expect increased spending to solve the problems in the Georgia educational system, when history tells us otherwise? Isn't

I suggest that you read the report as written, not as you wish it to be. Do you deny that private insurers have a different set of requirements from public insurers and that that is why their costs as a percentage of income are higher? Do you deny that facilities costs, premium collection costs, and interest expenses are paid by other federal Programs, "off the books" of Medicare and Medicaid, and that neither have capital requirements or taxes to pay like private plans do? Do you deny that private insurers offer a wide array of policies and services, hundreds in some states, and that this

Now why did y'all negatively rate this post? Other posts, absolutely, but this post was strictly informational and answering a voter's concern. Fair is fair. I gave you one back Deadeye.

I wonder if any candidates would consider actually posting them here? It would be an opportunity for some accused here of being in a single industry or special interest group pocket to prove their accusers wrong, at least from a financial support standpoint.

It may not be an opinion per se, but it is a false comparison using misleading statistics perpetrated by proponents of a Single Payer healthcare system. I quote from a Price Waterhouse Coopers Healthcare Cost Study where we find that it isn't a fair comparison at all: Medicare administrative costs as a percent of total costs are estimated to be approximately 5 percent as compared to an estimated 13 percent for private plans. To start, they enroll very different populations with different costs per enrollee. On a per capita basis, Medicare monthly costs are about $750 per beneficiary comp

Would this be a bad time to say "Go Buckeyes"!? Just askin'.

Pure Genius!

I know we have some problems currently in the DA's office with timely prosecutions and with conviction rates, but I'm not sure how much of that can be blamed on the DA personally. If Mr. Lane needed help solving these problems, he certainly hasn't been very vocal about it. In fact he seems perfectly happy to stand on his record. However, I'm willing to give Chad a try and see if we can get some improvement. I'm afraid that Mr. Donovan has shown me all I need to know about him in another thread here, and I won't be casting my vote for him under any circumstance.

Have you been out of the country or something for the last two years? Tommie's record of voting as a fiscal conservative and for the interests of the citizens over the interests of the RBMD's ®Shurpip has been impeccable. One of his first acts was to make poor ol' Don Powell declare "I've been screwed". You gotta love that. Tommie has my vote.

Congrats Subby!

The new rules apply only to those who conduct renovations for compensation. You can do what you want with your own, single family, non rental property unless you "know" that it has lead paint. Unless and until they have cameras in every room of your house, screw 'em. Use reasonable precautions when disturbing areas that may be painted with lead paint, such as sealing off the immediate area to keep the dust from getting into the rest of the home (including air vents), wearing Tyvek coveralls and a respirator, carefully cleaning up dust and chips, wetting it, disposing of it in well sealed

I took a date to see Planet of the Apes in 1969, but I think that even that was a second run movie. Yes ladies, I now realize that far better movie choices existed that year, but not that weekend at the drive-in. <wink wink>

Maybe we caught them on an off night, but the tea most definitely had that made from concentrate taste. It didn't stop me from really liking the place though.

Maybe we will get a little more convention business that was scheduled for Gulfport, but beyond that, I don't see a lot of impact unless the Government somehow manages to shut down all offshore operations, then natural gas would become completely unavailable and gasoline would be rationed and outrageously expensive. The folks that resettled in Atlanta and Houston were for the most part urban dwellers, not coastal dwellers, and the spill won't actually destroy homes and shut down municipal services unless it is combined with a severe hurricane. Even if it does, beachcombers will most likel

Big Shout Out to J-Rod's Diner! The Catfish was so good last night it should be added to the every day menu. The veggies were cooked to perfection, and that Bleu Cheese Cole Slaw, are you kidding me? That stuff was out of this world. I sometimes like more spice in my greens and black eyed peas, and I prefer iced tea made from scratch, but that's just a personal thing and I will most definitely be back. Did I mention the Corn Bread? Good, Good, Good! Where did y'all get my wife's grandmother's recipe? Did I mention it was Good?

Yup. I was actually run over by a "peloton", just this side of Rockmart. The Mrs. and I were leisurely riding as far right as practical when we heard "ON YOUR LEFT" a half a second before I was in the weeds with several scratches, a twisted ankle, and a whopper bruise on my leg. Thank Goodness I was in back and the Mrs was riding in front of me. The S. Head had the brass ones to say "didn't you hear me say 'on your left'"? I asked him if that was just to tell me where the impact was going to come from. He apologized after a few minutes of trying to fix his own bike, and his friends tel

Well I haven't seen it before.

Why SG, you already know how he is going to get the money. He is going to get it from the "special interests" Special Interest: ˈspe-shəl ˈin-tə-ˌrest A political phrase intended to imply everybody but the audience without regard to the actual identity of the audience or the implied interest group.

The vigilante comment aside, I am growing more inclined to agree with an extension of the Splost. My first knee jerk reaction to any tax is No, No, a thousand times No. But there comes a time when the day to day services we expect from our County and City Governments will be negatively impacted by further loss of revenue, and hard choices have to be made. I am more and more inclined to agree that we have extracted all but a political minimum of fat from the budget, and will have to decide what services to end if we don't allow some stabilization of revenue, at least in the short term, and S

Maybe we should see what his political positions are first before we paint our wagons. He has been fighting a loss of political will and an ambivalence, if not outright resistance, on the part of the Obama administration since he took his job in Afghanistan. That doesn't mean he is a Republican or a Democrat, just a keen observer, an excellent military tactician, and an astute judge of character. Anybody regardless of political leaning can see that Obama's agenda is keyed on domestic policy, and he finds foreign policy to be little more than a distraction from his goals. I look forward

The 2010-2011 Budget was based on expected revenues, not money in the bank. If they didn't anticipate this drastic a reduction in revenue, which I am not so sure they did, then they will have to revisit the present budget. What will most definitely be affected is the 2011-2012 budget, which has not even been thought about. A 20% reduction in revenue on top of the last three years reductions could be devastating.