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June 7, 2005
The cesspool of ethics in Georgia has over runneth! You really do have to hold your nose when you read about state Senator
Charles Walker who was convicted on 127 of 137 counts in federal court on June 3, 2005. You can read all about it in the June 4th edition of
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The sorry details of fraud start on the front page. What is really astonishing is that the voters in Augusta re-elected Walker in 2004 even though this investigation was already boiling by federal prosecutors. WHAT were those voters thinking? Walker has been suspended from the state senate and a special election will be called so voters can try again to find somebody honest to represent them.
The last two paragraphs from the AJC’s article (on page A10) are ringing a huge clanging bell:
“Bill Bozarth, executive director of the government watchdog group Common Cause Georgia, said the verdict makes clear that the state needs stronger ethics standards for its elected officials.
“It’s not really a victory for anybody when a public official is convicted of this level of misconduct,” Bozarth said. “From our point of view, it points out that good ethics laws would have been able to address this kind of conflicted behavior long before it became criminal.”
It is embarrassing, my friends, to live in a state where ethics is a third-rail subject for more and more of our elected officials. Governor
Sonny Perdue should have had 100 percent of support in the legislature for his Ethics Reform Package, but he did not.
You can check this link to House Bill 48, which describes the Ethics legislation we will operate under come January 9, 2006 when the “watered down” bill becomes effective. It is 36 pages
long. http://www.legis.state.ga.us/legis/2005_06/fulltext/hb48.htm
To my mind there is no gray area where ethics can flourish. You either have ethics or you don’t. It is just like being a little bit pregnant. You either are or you aren’t! My friends, we need to GRILL our elected representatives on the subject of ethics. Fry them up good! Let them know that voters will NOT tolerate dishonesty and fraud. Otherwise, “Welcome to Georgia, Home of the Emperor’s New Clothes Ethics Laws.”
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Join Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper on the annual “Hike the Chattahoochee River Headwaters” on Saturday, June 25, 2005! This hike will be lead by Naturalist
James Sullivan, Chattooga District Ranger, and will explore the Low Gap Creek, the Chattahoochee, and Double Culvert Branch. The group will travel from Poplar Stomp Road downstream on Low Gap Creek to the confluence with the Chattahoochee River, downstream along the river to Double Culvert Branch and up it back to the road. The hike is only about 2 miles, but it will be all cross country travel, meaning no trails and possibly some pretty rough going and stream crossings. Hikers will be carrying lunch and water. Please wear stout hiking shoes, long pants, shade, sun screen and bug spray. The entire trip should take about 5 hours and plans may be amended depending upon weather conditions and water levels. The group will be taking its time in the rough terrain and stopping often to enjoy the river.
Meeting place will be at 10 AM at the DNR check station on Poplar Stomp Road, 3 miles north of GA 75alternate. Directions: Travel north on GA 75 through Helen to Robertstown, turn left on GA 75alt, cross the bridge and turn right on Poplar Stomp Road.
F or more information or to sign up, please contact:
Birgit Bolton, Programs Coordinator and Legal Support, Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, 3 Puritan Mill 916 Joseph Lowery Blvd., Atlanta, GA 30318. Phone: 404.352.9828 ext. 24 Fax: 404.352.8676,
bbolton@ucriverkeeper.org.
Please become a member of Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper. It's easy, all you have to do is go to
www.chattahoochee.org
and use PayPal.
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For all interested residents and business owners in Peachtree Corners, the United Peachtree Corners Civic Association is hosting a meeting on Monday, August 29, 2005, to explore the pros and cons of incorporating Peachtree Corners as a city. It is currently a part of the unincorporated section of western Gwinnett County. The state legislature has opened a two and a half year window whereby areas that are within the prior three-mile proximity to another municipality may incorporate if their citizens so desire. There are many parameters for such an action and UPCCA will try to explore the whole subject. The meeting will take place at Simpsonwood Conference & Retreat Center, 4511 Jones Bridge Circle, at 7:30 p.m.
As of this writing, we can expect to see the following folks attend to help us see all sides of this issue: Sen.
Dan Weber, Sen. David Shafer, Rep. Tom
Rice, Commissioner Bert Nasuti, Mayor Lois Salter of Berkeley Lake,
Eva Galambos from the Committee for Sandy Springs, and Planning Commissioner
Rico Figliolini. Should be a very interesting evening.
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My friends, I hope you have appreciated the other fine columnists at The Weekly Online who are so kind as to send us their work. If you need a horselaugh to set you up and get you going, click on
Ned Hickson, who is every bit as funny as Dave
Barry. Ned writes with the same kind of dry deadpan. His column makes you want to talk back to him, which I sometimes do! His many fans around the country, and not just in Oregon where he is based, are waiting for his Web site to go live and for some savvy publisher to pick up his first book of wacky Ned Hickson humor. Personally, I think he is funny as a busted crutch. We’ll keep you apprised of any interesting developments.
The Weekly Online posted 344,403 hits in May 2005. Surely out of all those folks somebody knows somebody at St. Martin’s Press or some other good publishing house and they will pass the word about all Hickson’s fans waiting for a BOOK.
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We had a corker thunderstorm today in Atlanta, part of a wet weather pattern of late. The honeysuckle is lush and my deer friends were sighted in the backyard again, munching that sweet Southern vine and the new leaves of the young trees. Just so they don’t get the hostas, which they looove! It is hard to gauge when the rain will actually remove the Grant’s deer repellent and then my garden will become an open salad bar. My deer friends know the exact moment when everything is safe to eat. Ah, it is what it is!
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Hope all is well. Thanks for reading.
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