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March 06, 2006
Scary News From The GA Legislature
Guest post from Curt:
Here's some info on what's going on with the Georgia General Assembly. I'm really disturbed...I am now counting the days until they all go back home & stop addressing the most unimportant items possible.
Their two big issues over the last two weeks has been abortion and the creation of new municipalities. On the abortion front, the Senate has passed three laws: One forces women seeking an abortion to pay to have an ultrasound before the procedure can be done - this dovetails with their earlier new law requiring a "waiting period." The second law protects pharmacists who refuse to fill prescriptions for the "morning after" pill. The third one is less objectionable, but seems to be a smokescreen for future abortion action. This last bill would charge a criminal with two deaths if they kill a pregnant woman. Republican officials acknowledge that their goal is to force a Supreme Court test to see if the new appointees will overturn Roe v. Wade. Their actions are similar to those in other Republican Legislatures, such as South Dakota.
The other big issue this week is a bill to create two new cities in metro-Atlanta. This follows the successful fight last year to create a city of Sandy Springs. The rationale is "local control." What it really comes down to is that in many metro counties, richer parts of the county help support poorer parts. The rich people don't like that, so they want to create their own cities to spend their money in their already-affluent parts of the county. It seems the whole idea of pooling money for the greater good is under attack in metro Atlanta.
The other big issue on the horizon is, of course, immigration. There are several bills making their way through committees to punish undocumented workers and, surprisingly, the companies who hire them. It will be interested to see how hard legislators push to punish Republican business-owners who speak out against immigrants, but use them as cheap labor.
To keep up with local news, I'm following:
The Atlanta Journal Constitution
The AJC's Political Insider blog
Bill Shipps' column
Georgia for Democracy (though they don't seem to be very consistent in updating)
Peach Pundit
Posted by tedf at March 6, 2006 04:50 PM
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