Book Club and Dancing with Athens -- and Oconee -- Stars

Oconee County Democratic Committee member Dr. Patricia Priest has worked hard on this event and has also continued work with the book club.

Woven brightly,

Daniel J. Matthews, Jr.

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To: oconee@yahoogroups.com
From: ppriest@charter.net
Date: Sat, 7 Feb 2009 21:46:48 -0500
Subject: [oconee] Dancing with Athens -- and Oconee -- Stars

First I wanted to send a reminder that the book group sponsored by the
Oconee Democrats will meet Thursday, February 19th, at 6 at Five Points
Deli on Epps Bridge Parkway to discuss "Three Cups of Tea." It's a
great, uplifting book. You can pick it up at Books Galore in
Watkinsville -- with a 25% discount. As always, newcomers are welcome.

I'm also writing to let people know that tickets are now on sale for
"Dancing with Athens Stars" -- the very fun March 1st show at the
Classic Center that will benefit Project Safe.

Oconee's own Courtney Gale (working with Ron Putman, who teaches at
Freedom of Movement in Oconee) is among the stars who will s-t-r-e-t-c-h
beyond their comfort zone to take on a rather daunting challenge.
She'll be competing against other brave folks such as State Labor
Commissioner Michael Thurmond, Tennis for Life director Stacey Venker,
music producer John Keane, UGA Law School dean Paul Kurtz, WUGA's News
Director, Mary Kay Mitchell, and 6 other impressive folks in our
community vying for the coveted "Judges' Favorite" award (meted out by
judges Suzanne Yoculan, Dr. Mark Wheeler -- and a real judge, Steve
Jones) and for the "Audience Favorite" award, which she and her partner
will win if they get the most votes -- at one dollar per vote. You can
vote early, too, via on-line voting.

I'll paste in those details about tickets and voting below. It was
great fun last year -- I promise! And in these hard economic times, the
rates of domestic violence rise and donations to and grants for
non-profits are down, so these funds raised will be put to very good
use. I promise that, too.

Sincerely,

Pat Priest

-------------------------------------

Tickets are $15, and all proceeds go directly to provide services for
victims of domestic violence.

Purchase tickets in person or by phone (706/357-4444) at the Classic
Center box office on Thomas Street Mon - Fri 10AM - 6PM and Saturdays
9AM - 1PM ----- or 5-7PM on the day of the show.

You can reserve tickets on line, too:
http://purchase.tickets.com/buy/TicketPurchase?organ_val=1539

Tickets will be held at the Will Call table inside the theater.

All seats are general admission.

You can begin voting for your favorite star even now. You can see all
the wonderful and deserving participants and perhaps decide to vote for
several couples at Project Safe's web-site:
http://www.project-safe.org/Dancing-with-the-Athens-Stars.html

__._,_.___

Video message from President Obama

Hey, I just watched a video of President Obama speaking directly to Americans about the need for immediate action on the economy. Watch the video now: http://my.barackobama.com/recoveryvideo Thanks! --------- A user has sent this message from BarackObama.com. The sender's name, email address, subject and message have not been verified.

Transferable Development Rights Educational Summit Feb. 22

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Oconee County Democratic Committee will be hosting an Educational
Summit on Transferable Development Rights 5 pm Sunday, February 22nd at
the Oconee County Library in Watkinsville. This will be a non-partisan
event featuring Dr. Russ Page talking about preserving agricultural
property in the southern rural part of the county in exchange for denser
zoning in the northern suburban section of the county. Everyone is
invited regardless of party affiliation or residency. For more
information call 706-769-1131.

Oconee Democratic Committee plans TDR confab Feb. 22

Transferable Development Rights is a difficult to grasp concept where essentially one end of Oconee County would give up its right to build on its land for the other end to be able to build at a higher density than is allowed currently by zoning and planning. The Oconee County Democratic Committee distributed and discussed the report put together by activists and developers to try to begin the process of possible putting this in place for Oconee County. At 5 pm on Sunday, February 22nd at the Oconee County Library (if available)in Watkinsville the Oconee County Democratic Committee will host a meeting to help foster understanding of this complex issue with the possibility of Dr. Russ Page and Wayne Provost if they are willing and available to discuss this issue.

Newton County has begun the process of of beginning this with the help of Rick Pruitz. There are other examples in Georgia such as the Chattahoochee Hills community in Fulton County and to a much lesser degree the Orange Twin development in Clarke County.

SPLOST Ballot Language

Lee Becker informs us about what will be on the next SPLOST ballot March 17 here in Oconee County.

-------- Original Message --------

Subject:	SPLOST Ballot Language
Date:	Wed, 04 Feb 2009 22:39:18 -0500
From:	Lee Becker <lbbecker@mindspring.com>
Reply-To:	lbbecker@mindspring.com
To:	lbbecker@mindspring.com

Dear Friends,  The ballot language for the March 17 election shows the wish list that  
voters will see when they cast their votes on the next SPLOST.  
The financial reports released to the Commissioners on Jan. 26 tell a  
lot about what has been done with money from the current SPLOST--
and  what has not been done.  
Details, as usual, are http://www.oconeecountyobservations.blogspot.com/  
Lee  --  Lee Becker  
Blog: www.oconeecountyobservations.blogspot.com  Web: http://lbbecker48.googlepages.com/   

FW: Meeting- Commissioner Kelly Girtz

Couple of cool local Democratic committee activities

Woven brightly,

Daniel J. Matthews, Jr.

 Date: Tue, 3 Feb 2009 12:35:43 -0500
 From: lelrod@UGA.EDU
 Subject: Meeting- Commissioner Kelly Girtz
 To: YDEM-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
 
 Hey Young Dems,
 
 Join us for FREE FOOD tomorrow (Wednesday) at 5:30 in room 250 of the Miller Learning Center for guest speaker Kelly Girtz! Kelly is a member of the Athens-Clarke County Commission, and he'll be speaking about local government and big issues of the day. Bring your friends and lots of questions for Kelly!
 
 See you tomorrow,
 
 Louis Elrod
 President, UGA/ACC Young Democrats
 

 ANNOUNCEMENTS:
 
 ATHENS-AREA DEMOCRATS BREAKFAST-The next breakfast will be on 14 FEBRUARY 2009 at 9:00 A.M. AT TRUMPS ON SOUTH MILLEDGE. This location is at The Shops of South Athens near the location of the old Bi-Lo.
 
 The speaker will be: HEIDI DAVIDSON, MAYOR OF ATHENS-CLARKE COUNTY.
 
 PLEASE MAKE YOUR RESERVATIONS BY 9 FEBRUARY. CALL OR E-MAIL us, anitabarney@charter.net, 706-543-1480 or Denise Ricks uselessandnogood@hotmail.com, 706-247-3558. I have to call in a number to Trumps on Tuesday the 10th. The $12 you pay goes directly to Trumps. That is the cost of the breakfast. When someone that has a reservation doesn't show up, someone has to pay for them.
 
 For those of you who do not want to eat breakfast, there will be a few extra chairs and you can come about 9:30 for the program.

Why we do not need a Constitutional Convention in Georgia

State Representative Bob Smith has introduced legislation to attempt to convene Georgia's first Constitutional Convention since 1787, and I think this would be the worst possible scenario for this State on any number of reasons. Smith's rationale is to rework the State Tax Code, which is fine, but why he does not introduce legislation to do just that is beyond me.

Once we open Pandora's box with a Constitutional Conversion there is no telling what ridiculous legislation will be passed. Criminalize abortion and birth control? Sure, give women and their doctors 10 years in jail for exercising control over their own reproductive systems. School vouchers? Why not, let's kill all the public school systems and make the Taliban proud with every kid having to study the Bible. Get rid of all the Halls of Fame and every State sponsored everything. You get the idea.

Basically once we start a Constitutional Convention then every crack pot idea ever introduced will have a short cut to becoming law a whole lot quicker. Georgia will be even more of a national laughing stock then it has been already. We do not need a Constitutional Convention at all. Rep. Smith should just stick with his stated goal and work on the tax code of the State of Georgia.

Sorry about the lack of posts lately - here are some Democratic happenings

I have been battling an upper respiratory infection and what little energy I could muster has been directed toward my son and his basketball team. Tomorrow I turn 46 and I am on the mend. We also have another Oconee Recreation Department game tomorrow night as well.

Former two time chair, 20 year lobbyist and twice defeated candidate Becky Vaughn will be recounting her recent Inauguration experience 7:30 pm Thursday at the Oconee County Governmental Annex off Highway 15 in the southern part of Watkinsville. Here are some excerpts of what else to expect from the meeting of the Oconee County Democratic Committee that night (the following have been lifted directly from their listserv):

As is going to be my habit, I wanted to let all of you know what will
be on the agenda for Thursday's meeting. I will be doing this about a
week ahead of all our meetings so that those of you who are inclined
to think about these things before hand will know what to think about.
My hope is that this will make the meetings as efficient as possible.

Becky Vaughn will be at the meeting to tell us about her trip to the
Inauguration. Tell anyone else who might be interested.

Russ Page is looking for groups to help educate the county about TDRs
(Transferable Development Rights). I would like to talk about the
possibility of sponsoring some event that would assist in this effort.

Also, I want to focus on the beginning planning stages of a spring
membership drive.

These are the three main topics, in addition to all the usual briefings.

Hope to see you all there! Government Annex, 7 p.m. for talk, 7:30 pm
for business.

Jonathan Veit

Hello fellow Democrats,

At the last meeting I mentioned that I would like to create a new "Political Action Committee", Jonathan though it was a good idea.

My idea is to find members who are interested in learning how to lobby at both the Federal and local level, to work at getting Democrats elected to office,
to obtain appointments to various boards, etc., and to actually go to our representatives' offices in person to inform them of our issues and what we expect
of them. This committee would have a strict Democratic agenda. I feel that we need to present our views and let the representatives know that we are Democrats and that we want change in Georgia and that we are not going away. Also, that there are more of us in the various communities that what they believe or wish to believe. I am open to any suggestions; Are any volunteers amongst you? Please advise.

Erika Ferrari