Lobbyist Cash + Politicians = Corruption

Simple math, Huh?

It's almost impossible to do any reading on politics here in the great state of Georgia these days without having to wade through the rapidly filling republican sex/money swamps caused by Speaker Richardson's resignation. The guy quit before he got charged with anything that might land him in the jug and it sure looked like he had the fix in for his buddy Burkhalter. That's up in smoke and now every republican member of the Animal House at the gold dome wants to sit behind the speakers desk come January 2010. Fellas, there's only one chair so it looks like you'll have to take turns. Just be sure to take some cell phone snaps to remember the event.

Since the republican's are sucking all the air out of the room with their endless meetings and pronouncements, you'd never know that their democrat brothers and sisters are stirring the pot as fast as they can. The democrat chick in charge, one each Jane Kidd climbed up on the ceremonial holier than thou soapbox to whine about how the republican house caucus should allow democrat members of the house to cast votes for the republican speaker. What!? Ms. Kidd, it's the republican caucus, not the democrat caucus. I'm trying to remember how the democrats did things when they ruled this state for the 60 or so years before the republicans took over and I can't remember Tom Murphy saying "Aw shucks, them there republican members of the house are a nice bunch. Why don't we let them cast votes in our caucus to see if I'm going to keep my speakership?" If you really, really, really think that would be the way to select the next speaker of the Georgia house I want to let you know that you're sounding more like a Libertarian than a democrat. That, by the way, is a compliment.

Anyway, the title of this particular post is "Lobbyist Cash + Politicians = Corruption" and the spark that started this particular thought train came from Blake Aued over at OnlineAthens.com and post he put up yesterday about lobbyists and good ol" King Roy. Nice read.

Some of the salient facts he cited were related to the kinds of investments made by various and sundry outfits here in Georgia that apparently successfully curried favor with King Roy and brought about windfall profits. One that caught my eye was:

quote: "- Barnes took in $16k from his former law partner who advised Copeland Glenn, a Minnesota based company that does Medicaid work, and he gave them $100 million in state contracts (more than they asked for). This led to a study that demanded changes to the way Georgia accounts for Medicaid spending." end quote

Think about that Kids. King Roy's former law partner representing Copeland Glen ponies up $16,000 dollars and Copeland Glenn gets a contract for $100 Million for Medicaid work. That's way better than a 6000 to 1 return on their investment. It seems that Georgia politicians aren't just for sale, they're for sale at salvage pricing. I kinda understand the mentality, after all they're not trading their money for favors, they're trading OUR money for favors.

So how does the citizenry of the great state of Georgia solve this seemingly intractable problem of deep seated corruption from both republicans and democrats? How do we weed out these self serving politicians and find some representatives that might be inclined to look after working for their constituents and not themselves? Simple really. Vote Libertarian.

That's right, instead of voting for which ever brand of corrupt career politician is currently representing your district, you could vote for the Libertarian candidate. A guy or gal whose political indoctrination consisted of watching "Mr. Smith goes to Washington" a couple of times and who sincerely feels that something must be done. Oh, wait a minute, I forgot that here in the great state of Georgia you can't just vote for a Libertarian candidate for Georgia House or Georgia Senate because they can't qualify to get on the ballot thanks to Georgia's 1943 Jim Crow Ballot Access laws brought to you by the democrat party. And maintained by the republican party ever since they grabbed the reins of government as well as the purse strings. It's been a rigged game for the last 66 years and I've yet to hear a peep out of Ms. Kidd, or any other politician on that topic.

That leaves the citizens of Georgia one way to bust down the gates and bring change to Georgia. Vote for Libertarian John Monds for Governor in 2010. By law, if John Monds can get 20% of the votes in the 2010 race next November, the petitioning requirements are null and void and the floodgates will be open for a seething, roiling, mass of Libertarian candidates looking to challenge the 140 or so republican and democrat incumbents who never have an opponent for their statehouse jobs in 2012. Tongues will wag, fingers will be pointed and change will come to Georgia.

Vote for Smaller Government, Lower Taxes and More Freedom! Vote John Monds for Governor! Vote Chuck Donovan for US Senate! Vote Libertarian!