Published July 18, 2013
Jimmy Carter is on a roll. He’s already made headlines this week on the George Zimmerman verdict (the jury had it right, he says) and uncapped campaign spending (“legal bribery”). Now, Der Spiegel, a German news magazine, reports that during a private Tuesday meeting at the Carter Center in Atlanta, the former president was deeply critical of federal surveillance programs brought to light by Edward Snowden.
Via a UPI translation: “America has no functioning democracy at this moment,” Carter said at a closed-door event in Atlanta covered by a German newsmagazine. No American outlets covered the event, but the quote published by Der Spiegel is in line with opinions Carter has expressed previously.
“He’s obviously violated the laws of America, for which he’s responsible, but I think the invasion of human rights and American privacy has gone too far,” he told CNN. “I think that the secrecy that has been surrounding this invasion of privacy has been excessive, so I think that the bringing of it to the public notice has probably been, in the long term, beneficial.”
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On Thursday afternoon, an unusual press release rolled in from state Senate President pro tem David Shafer, a Republican who hails from Duluth. The top dog in the Senate offered praise to the far-away Worth County Board of Education for reversing a new policy that would have forced 57 children of military parents out of its school system: “Our men and women in uniform should never have to be concerned about the stability of their children’s education, especially when considering the unpredictable nature surrounding their military duties. “Georgia is proud to be home to so many bases of our nation’s military forces -- not just for reasons of patriotism, but because these bases are vitally important to the communities that host them.” The background: The Worth County school system, like every other one in Georgia, is financially pinched. The Marine Corps Logistics Base is in adjacent Dougherty County, but the Worth school system had been allowing children from the base to attend - until this week, when it abruptly told parents that it could no longer afford to carry them, according to Fox31 down in southwest Georgia. Why would a Duluth senator care? Because even though another round of base-closings was rejected by Congress this summer, a reduction of the number of bases required by a shrinking U.S. military is inevitable. Unfriendly acts will be remembered and could have repercussions elsewhere in Georgia. *** The Georgia Federation of Republican Women opens a weekend conference at the Waverly Renaissance Hotel in Buckhead this evening. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas is the headliner. Earlier this week, Cruz announced a mid-August trip to New Hampshire, increasing speculation of a 2016 presidential run.
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U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, will be in Atlanta for an Aug. 27 fundraiser. The location, a private residence, has yet to be announced.
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Over at Atlanta Unfiltered, Jim Walls says that Real PAC, a political committee run by “close associates” of Gov. Nathan Deal, has taken in at $302,500 since 2012 without reporting it: Major benefactors of the committee, Real PAC, include health-care interests seeking tens of millions -- even billions -- of dollars in business with state government. One donor, WellCare of Georgia, gave Real PAC $50,000 on the same day that state Medicaid officials said they planned to extend WellCare’s $1 billion-a-year contract for two years. Donors were discovered by searching expenditures by other PACs.
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David Pennington announced his entry into the GOP race for governor too late to be required to disclose his campaign contributions this month. But he said in a dispatch that he’s “donated a large amount from my own pocket so I could show a commitment to this campaign.” The Dalton mayor wouldn’t bite when we asked how much that was. But his campaign disclosures show he hasn’t been shy about spending the money he’s made running an insurance firm on some favored -- and surprising -- candidates. He’s splashed around thousands of dollars since 2006 supporting GOP candidates like former insurance commissioner John Oxendine, former school superintendent Kathy Cox, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and the Georgia Republican Party. In 2010, he sided with Secretary of State Karen Handel by favoring her with a $250 donation, but crossed party lines to give $1,520 to Democrat Carol Porter’s unsuccessful run at Cagle’s seat. Most surprising of all, though, were three donations he made between June 2009 and May 2010. They totaled $1,000 and the name on the check was Gov. Nathan Deal, the man he now seeks to unthrone. Obviously, Pennington’s had a change of heart since then, and his campaign is built around the argument that Deal isn’t conservative enough. The response from the governor’s camp? “Even our opponents have to acknowledge Gov. Deal is doing a good job.”
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State Rep. Calvin Hill, R-Canton, sends word that he’s been diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia. He remains in the isolation ward of the Northside Hospital bone marrow transplant unit. “They do not allow any fresh plants, flowers or even fruits or vegetables in here,” he notes.
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While the bill is currently stalled in the House, Stateline.org notes that the U.S. Senate version of immigration reform would put increased financial pressure on state governments: Previous immigration packages included substantial money to help states pay for new costs. The last major rewrite of the country’s immigration laws in 1986, for example, doled out $4 billion. Even before adjusting for inflation, that is 80 times as much as the $50 million in this year’s Senate package. The $4 billion in the 1986 bill helped states defray costs for providing health care, English classes, public benefits and civics classes that were necessary as a result of the immigration overhaul. It enabled 3 million unauthorized immigrants to stay in the country legally. The $50 million in the current Senate bill would set up a pool for states to compete for money to help immigrants become citizens. The bill would also help states offset the cost of housing prisoners in the country illegally. But there is no large aid for states, even though the law could prompt up to 8 million people to apply for legal status.
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The AJC’s Politifact Georgia today takes a look at this claim by interim state Democratic chairman Nikema Williams: “Georgia is nearly 50 percent Democratic and (the Republican majority) diminished our voting strength to 32 percent through gerrymandered maps.”
