Oconee County, GA Politics

Wonder what Zell Miller would have to say about this? *Georgia Democrats highlight "Tax and Spend Republicans" with GOP tax of the day* *ATLANTA – *Georgia Democrats are putting the spotlight on the dark corners of the Republican tax plan by featuring the GOP tax of the day on the state party's website. Each day, the Democratic Party of Georgia will post a new example of one of the over 175 goods and services to be taxed under Speaker of the House Glenn Richardson's tax scheme. "We think it's vital that the people of Georgia know exactly what the Republicans want to do to pry more money out of hardworking Georgians," said Democratic Party of Georgia Chair Jane Kidd. "Unfortunately, with over 175 new taxes in this scheme, I don't think we can get to all of them before the legislative session ends." The Democratic Party will post one new taxable good or service each day until the Republican tax plan (HR 1246 and HB 97...

The following shows the email exchange between Tim Bryant of NewsTalk 1340 WGAU AM in Athens and the Kathy Prescott and Grady Thrasher of Athens FAQ (who are opposed to the NBAF coming to Athens. While opposed to NBAF in principal because of lack of infrastructure and roads specifically to the area at Milledge and Whitehall, I do not blame Bryant for not wanting to let the opponents of NBAF carry on with copious follow up questions. While the NBAF opponents may have completely legitimate arguments and relevant follow-up questions, they do themselves no favors by making enemies in the media. I doubt that Thrasher and Prescott will be back on Bryant's four day a week interview program anytime soon. The following is from their email release of the back and forth between Bryant, Prescott and Thrasher, along with some folks in North Carolina. Convoluted would be a polite assessment of this clusterf*ck. Dear All, Thanks to all of you that have signed the petition. And to all of you that ...

I had the numbers wrong but the equation right as far as guessing where the various members of the Oconee County Board of Commissioners would vote in whether to allow restaurants outside of the municipalities the ability to pour beer and wine with meals. The standard calculus now goes with Horton and Hale voting no and Luke and Norris voting yes and Chairman Davis casting a tie breaking vote in the affirmative allowing restaurants to pour beer and wine with meals. I would not cast their votes in stone exactly yet, but we are supposed to see in April with an actual vote after the requisite public hearing and tweaking of the ordinance. I am somewhat surprised that the county-wide ordinance is less restrictive than the one working well in Watkinsville. There will be rampant rumor mongering and name calling between now and April. I will do my best to separate the fact from fiction from now until then.

Oglethorpe Democrats present Foot Soldiers for Civil Rights Program The Oglethorpe County Democrats are proud to present a special program in honor of Black History Month, “Donald L. Hollowell: American Freedom Fighter.” Dr. Maurice Daniels, co-director of the University of Georgia’s Foot Soldier Project for Civil Rights Studies, will present a short documentary film and discussion of the life of Donald L. Hollowell, best known as the chief counsel for Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter in the landmark lawsuit (Holmes v. Danner) that opened the doors of UGA to black students. The program will take place Thursday, February 28, 7:00 PM at the Oglethorpe County Library. Free and open to the public! For more information, call 706-743-3792 or visit www.oglethorpedemocrats.org

For Immediate Release: February 22, 2008              Contact: Martin Matheny                  678-278-2108 (o)                  706-461-0439 (m)                  martin@georgiademocrat.org     Official Democratic delegate numbers for Georgia   ATLANTA – The Democratic Party of Georgia released the final, official delegate breakdown for Georgia today.   The numbers are:     Senator Barack Obama Senator Hillary Clinton Statewide At-large Delegates 13 6 Statewide Pledged Party Leaders/Elected Officials 7 4 Congressional District 1 2 1 Congressional District 2* 3 2 Congressional District 3 ...

It was a wet Thursday afternoon at Athens restaurant Harry Bissett's New Orleans Cafe when former U.S. Senator Wyche Fowler took time out of his busy day to join a small group of very dedicated Democrats from Oconee County for a lunch and conversation. Fowler has been teaching a class at the UGA Law School and has deep ties to the community. Dr. Neil Priest recalled Fowler's encyclopedic knowledge of the hymnal. I was asked by the former ambassador of Saudi Arabia to recount his announcement before running for Senate involving the such notorious bands as the Bar-B-Que Killers and Eat America at the 40 Watt Club many moons ago. Fowler peppered the spicy meal with lots of anecdotes ranging from deserts the size of France in Saudi Arabia to carrying Castro's machine gun in Cuba while the recently resigned strong man drove him around his island. During the meal former US Congressman Don Johnson came up and talked briefly to Senator Fowler about the forthcoming conference of f...

Lord knows I do not read the Catoosa County News newspaper on a regular basis, and could not have told you if it even was owned my Morris or just subscribes to syndication of their editorial writers. Their Atlanta writer Walter Jones takes on the powerful local legislator and chair of the House Appropriations Committee in Watkinsville Republiucan Bob Smith in his campaign to derail the Board of Regents with countless controversial Constitutional adjustments he thinks can be hammered through this remaining half session of the legislature. Good luck Representative Smith, I do not share your confidence in trying to do to the Board of Regents what Speaker of House Glen Richardson tried to do to local control of property taxes and countless "un" Fair Tax proponents have tried to do the IRS. Professing one's ignorance of the local media does not do one any favors in the eyes of the public or even your voting constituency.

Local soil scientists want to stay put in Watkinsville working at the USDA's J. Phil Campbell Sr. Soil Research Center instead of having it fall to Federal Budget constraints for FY 2009.

Lee Becker hits a homer with Attorney General Thurbert Baker while County Attorney Daniel Haygood continues to ignore requests to open up the sewer probe. Dear Friends, The Georgia Attorney General's office, as part of its mediation program to handle citizen complaints, has asked Oconee County to respond to my complaint about the County’s denial of access to the Selection Committee reviewing bids for the upgrade of the Rocky Branch sewage treatment plant. In the meantime, I received a letter from County Attorney Daniel Haygood again denying me again access to a second meeting of the Selection Committee and to documents produced by that Committee. Haygood has an interesting argument. He said the Committee reviewing the bids is not the Selection Committee called for in the Request for Proposal. Basically, if it walks like a Selection Committee and quacks like a Selection Committee, I’m inclined to believe it is a Selection Committee. For details, go to my blog at ht...

Bill Yarbrough is the current vice chair and is past chair of the Oconee County Democratic Committee. He is also a referee in high school and college football, as well as a realtor and flower shop owner.  He is on the Oconee County Planning Commission and Board of Elections. In this instance, he will be talking about the new voting districts and other political and electoral details. Woven brightly, Daniel J. Matthews, Jr. To: oconee@yahoogroups.com; katemail@bellsouth.net From: ppriest@charter.net Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2008 15:52:12 -0500 Subject: [oconee] Bill Yarbrough to speak on election-related issues The Oconee County Democratic Committee is pleased that Bill Yarbrough, a member of the Board of Elections in Oconee County, will be our Fourth Sunday speaker this month. Bill recently updated the committee about the new polling districts, and we immediately thought that other people would find his behind-the-scenes comments informative...

The oh-so familiar J. Phil Campbell Sr. Agriculture Station on State Route 53/Experiment Station Road may cease to function after the new 2009 budget of President George Bush is adopted with the new fiscal year. This erosion experiment center will be a huge loss for the federal, state, county and municipal governments. Perhaps Gainesville State College can acquire the property for the ever-expanding needs of their growing and still-way-over-populated Oconee County campus across the street. While they should connect Bishop Farms Parkways North and South, because of wetland protection they will not without huge amounts of tax dollars. The proposed exit for the backside of the campus off 441 is way down the road of things the DOT is going to do in this county. We could sure use some sidewalks/bikepaths along Hog Mountain Road and all of Experiment Station Road.

Apparently the KKK is there protesting day laborers or some such something

Will this last? When will another entirely inappropriate development come along to make South Oconee County less rural and more congested>

I urge everyone interested in making sure Democratic nomination is delivered to front runner Senator Barack Obama and not given to Hillary Clinton in superdelegate shenanigans to follow the steps and fill out the forms necessary to run as a regular delegate. Attend the training and get your Democratic friends to attend the congressional district conventions in April. The following was lifted off the website of the Democratic Party of Georgia. The training for our 10th district is in Augusta March 1. Delegate Selection On Saturday, April 19th, 2008, all 13 Democratic Party of Georgia Congressional Districts will assemble to elect Delegates to send to the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado, August 25 - 28, 2008. Delegate Candidate Training Workshops will be held throughout the state every Saturday between January 26, 2008 and February 23, 2008. Prior to attending a Training Workshop, download and review the 2008 Georgia Delegate Guide and Application (click to downlo...

State Representative Bob Smith may be exacting revenge on Oconee County resident and Board of Regents member Donald Leeburn's proclivity for controversy and fights, but that is the only reason I can fathom for trying to reign in the governing body of Georgia's schools of higher education. The Banner-Herald institutional editorial makes a strong case for Smith's grandstanding and largely impractical reaction to the fact he was last to learn about the Medical College of Georgia opening a satellite campus at the Navy School property in Normaltown on Prince Avenue. Admittedly the Board of Regents is a largely unknown and anonymous organization with a lot of power to set policy, and needs some more democratization in their governance, but Smith's bill opens up all Georgia public college students to more exploitation and less bang for their educational buck.

Welcome to the new person in command at OCHS. One thing she will do for sure is teach those kids to pronounce HOW-Stun COunty

This was sent to me by an attorney who knows what she is talking about: I strongly and wholeheartedly oppose the siting of the National Bio and Agro Defense Facility in Athens. Please come out to the meeting on Wednesday, February 13th at 7pm at the Presbyterian Student Center on Lumpkin Street. Kathy Prescott and Grady Thrasher of FAQ will be there to hand out some information my law firm has gathered to help you understand why having this compound in our town is a very, very bad idea. Hillary Clinton won't have it on Plum Island because that's too close to where people live. And Plum Island is a mile and a half off Long Island, with no pedestrian connections. Don't let the federal government play around with foreign incurable diseases in the heart of our Classic City. No amount of money is worth that risk. (And, you know, the way our university and local officials are acting you'd actually think there was a lot of money coming in from this proposed bio-terror lab...

AGENDA CITY OF WATKINSVILLE February 13, 2008 CALL TO ORDER QUORUM CHECK MINUTES APPEARANCES 1. Scott & Tammy Miller – Beer & Wine Pouring License – 20B Greensboro Highway- Big Easy Café 2. Sean Hogan (for Doug & Julie Crowe) – building permit – 160 sq. ft. sunroom addition to existing residence at 143 New High Shoals Road. ADMINISTRATION 1. November & December Reconciliation Reports MAYOR’S REPORT CITIZEN’S COMMENTS OLD BUSINESS 1. Consider Subdivision Regulations 2. Consider Acceptance of Deed of Gift (Southwire Company) NEW BUSINESS 1. First reading of Amendment to Personnel Manual 2. First reading of Text Changes to Zoning Ordinance 3. Arbor Day Proclamation (Councilwoman Purcell) ADJOURN

Obviously I am not the most objective person to make this assessment, but I concur with Blake Aued's article here , but if the Oconee Democratic Committee is more concerned with bike rides and district member mapping matters, than say, ACTUAL CANDIDATES FOR OFFICE , then they have no hope to ever regain even a toehold on local political matters. The Republicans such as Jim Ivey and Melvin Davis are making things easier for Oconee County Democrats, but if no real candidates come forward soon, then the local Democrats can have all the book clubs and meetings without any real or tangible success. They need to have someone more active, serious and better organized than the last-minute and extremely poorly run campaign of their current chairperson against the current state legislator last time around.

Lee Becker bounces Board of Commissioners' comments continually creating controversy and contentious context for cascading governmental failure on many different levels. Keep it up Lee and read his blog as well..... Dear Friends, The controversy over the retreat that the Oconee County Board of Commissioners held in Madison on December 7 without giving 24-hour notice and the decision of the County to close the bidding process for the Rocky Branch sewage treatment plant upgrade has brought out fissures on the Board that were in evidence at the January 29, 2008, meeting. The story in the Athens Banner-Herald  about the January 29 meeting gave a sense of those differences. A close examination of the comments, however, gives a fuller picture of how differently members of the Board view the controversy. Commissioners Chuck Horton and Margaret Hall made pretty strong statements criticizing the way the issue had been handled. Commissioner Don Norris was unapologetic, a...