11 Alive reported today that U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson (R-GA) won’t be running for Governor in 2010. Or was it 2008? Now I am confused.

Oh well, they fixed it before I could post this. I sure am glad I captured it when I saw it. Johnny’s looking a little weather-worn if you ask me.

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While I was born in the 1960’s, I am a product of the 70’s. I grew up listening to a wide range of music and I think growing up during that time period allowed me to develop some very eclectic tastes when it comes to music.

I was sitting here tonight and I read that Cher is returning to perform in Las Vegas in May. I think that is awesome. I remember sitting in front of the television set every week to watch Sonny & Cher. I can still hear “Gypsies, Tramps, & Thieves” playing on the 8-track player in our pickup truck as we drove down to Willow Beach to go fishing. Man, those were the days.

Cher, and her music, seem timeless. In fact, I think she sounds just as good or even better on some of her recent albums than she had at any other point in her career. She’s pretty hot for a senior citizen too, if you ask me. Go ahead and laugh at me. I don’t care. I would rather listen to Cher than some of the other stuff coming out of recording studios these days.

Cher’s “Hallf Breed” album has a very warm spot on my iPod, and every time I hear the songs from that album my mind wanders back to days when life was much simpler and the world didn’t seem like such a large place. If I had the time (and the resources) I would be purchasing the best Cher tickets Las Vegas has to offer. That’s one show I wouldn’t want to miss.

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Three years ago, Lisa Clark, then 37 years old, married her 15 year old “boyfriend”. Since then, she plead guilty to statutory rape, the Georgia legislature worked hard to close the loophole that allowed such a thing to take place, Governor Sonny Perdue signed the legislation into law, and now it’s time for her to be released from prison.

Lisa Lynette Clark will walk out of Metro State Prison a free woman on Friday.

The 15-year-old boy she married in late 2005 is now 17 and their child is 2 years old.

Clark and her husband can legally be together now that he’s 17. But his grandmother, Judy Hayles, who’s been against the union from the start, said the teenager is ambivalent.

How much you want to bet, no matter what the grandmother of the boy says, he will be back with her in a very short amount of time? I think it’s safe to say that the next time we hear about Lisa Clark it won’t be about the custody battle over the child she had with the boy, but the fact that she’s pregnant again.

I just hope we, as taxpayers, don’t have to pay for this one too. If it ends up that we have to, maybe we can just buy her some camping gear and send her to the North Georgia mountains for a few months?

Related Posts:

Cradle Robber’s Baby Stays Put
Child Molester May Lose Her Child
Gov. Perdue Closes Embarassing Loophole
Lisa Clark Pleads Guilty
Woman Thinks Child Molestation Is Not A “Real Crime”
Lawmakers Finally Getting Their Act Together
Release Her. Now.

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I have serious issues with people when they complain about “normal” things. It’s normal (in our area) to have only two people confirming id’s. It’s normal to have a line out the door, especially if voter turnout is heavy. It’s normal for their to be empty polling stations while id’s are being checked. These things are normal.

People just have to have something to bitch about. Why do people always see long lines at a polling place as a bad thing? They should be thankful they have the right to vote in the first place.

Numerous problems resulting from lost keys to computer glitches were reported by voters wanting to cast their ballots in the Metro Atlanta area Tuesday.

The Secretary of State’s office fielded about 100 calls from concerned voters by 10 a.m., most complaining about precincts without enough voting machines or lines that were too long.

Oh, boo hoo, that’s what happens when people actually turn out to vote. You end up waiting. I’m sure some locations do have issues, and I don’t doubt that many locations will have problems, but waiting in line is not one of them. I bet they’ve waited longer in lines at Disneyland or even the bank on payday.

At Inman Middle School in Virginia Highland, some voters complained to 11Alive News that they had to wait for an hour-and-a-half due to a bottle neck brought about by identification checks.

That’s bullshit. Plain and simple. Sure, it takes an additional moment or two while they compare the name on your id to the name on the terminal, but that’s the price you pay to make sure the vote being cast is a valid one. The “bottle neck” as they called it was brought on by the number of people who all showed up at the same time to cast their votes.

The Secretary of State’s office received numerous complaints, all before 10 am. Hmm… Probably because a great number of people decided to vote before work, rather than during a break, lunchtime, or after work. For the record, I went to vote at lunchtime just to see how busy it was. I was in and out in about 10 minutes.

Poll workers at the school had just two computer terminals — one of which keeps crashing — to check ids against their voter registration lists. The lists were not on paper but on the two computers.

Crashing computers are a definite problem. They were probably running Windows. heh. I think it would have been prudent for them to have a paper backup of the voter records, to confirm id’s, like they have had in the past. I wonder why they went paperless this year?

“I’m very concerned about what’s going to happen in November because I know there’s a large turnout now but they’ll be a bigger turnout in November,” said Tony Lavorgna. “I just think people are going to get discouraged and some people may not even vote or just leave.”

If high voter turnout will discourage people from voting, and they choose to leave, that’s their problem. Maybe next time you could spare a little more time out of your day to excercise your right to vote. Our Constitution guarantees you a speedy trial, not a speedy polling place. Get over it. If you needed more proof that our society is becoming more “me, me, me” oriented, you’ve got it.

If I can’t get in and out of my polling place quickly, you have a problem.

If you can’t confirm my id in under a minute, you have a problem.

If there are too many people in line and I can’t cast my vote in my allotted time, you have a problem.

Who knows what that problem will be too. Once they decide to explode about being disenfranchised, you’ll need a couple self defense products to make sure you come out all right.

See a pattern here? Sure, there are going to be glitches and there are going to be problems, but don’t forget what’s important here. We’re choosing the candidates from each party that we think are the best for the job of President. We’re not waiting on dinner reservations here. This isn’t some contest to see who wins a free t-shirt. Why not take a few moments out of your day and vote. And don’t worry if it takes longer to vote than it does to take a pee. Just. Vote.

I hear the campaigning is quite heavy among the candidates this weekend. Heck, my neighbors put up a Ron Paul sign today. Ouch.

Anyway, I just want all you candidates (all 6 of you) to know something. The first one of you who shows up at my door this weekend and asks me for my vote, gets it. How’s that?

Oh, but don’t bother showing up during the Super Bowl unless you’re bringing the steaks, the tv, and the plasma mount.

In a rare event we seldom see in high profile cases, a known killer has actually plead guilty to the crime.

Wearing shackles, a bullet-proof vest, and an orange jail uniform, Georgia drifter Gary Hilton, 61, has just entered a guilty plea to the murder of UGA graduate Meredith Emerson.

The guilty plea came just three hours after a 23-member grand jury in Dawson County handed down a true bill indictment of murder against Hilton.

During a hearing that got underway just after 1 a.m., District Attorney Lee Darragh read the murder indictment and said Hilton had signed a plea of guilty in exchange for avoiding the death penalty. Investigators told Hilton that he could make such a deal if he were to lead them to Emerson’s body, which he did earlier this month.

It’s too bad deals like this have to be made just to learn the truth about what happened to someone. Hopefully the investigators in the other cases they suspect him in can get convictions there as well so those families can have some closure.

Since our snow the other day, the temperature out here at our house has not risen above 39 degrees (and that was for a short time today). The low each night has been in the mid-teens, which is very good for killing of any of the bugs that may have survived the first two cold spells we had this winter.

We still have about a quarter of an inch of snow in parts of our backyard, which has kept the kids very happy the past couple days.

Tonight they are calling for freezing rain in North Georgia. Oh joy. I would take 6 inches of snow anyday rather than freezing rain. Have you spent an evening listening to the trees snapping and cracking as the ice accumulates. Not fun I tell you.

I guess it could be worse, they could be lining people up with medical id tags because it was so cold. Okay, I’ll shut up now.

Well, for the second time in three days, we’re getting snow. It’s not a lot yet, but it has been snowing for about an hour and we have over a quarter of an inch. The temperature is just now down to the freezing point, so we should see more accumulation than we did last time.

The other day we only got about three-quarters of an inch for the whole day, so we’ll see what happens today. We’re hoping for about 4-6 inches, but some people think we’re crazy. I guess all I need now is some leather home theater seating and I will be set if we get “snowed in” right?

Last night, the weatherman on the news said the “winter weather” would arrive after dark. Earlier today another one said it would hit by rush hour. It started about an hour ago.

The problem is they called for snow, only in the mountains. We are supposed to get freezing rain and sleet, that’s it. I knew I should have invested in that truck bed liner when I had the chance. At least it would have protected the bed of the truck from the elements.

It’s been getting colder and colder and the snow has been falling heavier and heavier for an hour now.

Let’s hope it doesn’t stop for a while. If we’re going to have wintery weather, I would much prefer something the kids can run and play in for a while.

A few weeks ago, Vinny and I discussed a country commissioner from Georgia who used the term ‘wetbacks’ during a commission work session.

Commissioner Bill Head said at the time, that the county needed more space in the criminal justice system because “of all the criminals moving in from Atlanta, and all the wetbacks coming up from down south.” Members of the Hispanic community called on him to apologize, and some even wanted him to resign. He refused. He has yet to offer any apology, and he definitely will not backpedal on this subject at all.

Many people in the community, while they feel his comments were racist, do not fault him for not apologizing, in fact, he has a ton of support in the community, because he is sticking to what he said. He is not backing down, and he is not changing course.

Sad thing is, now he is not seeking re-election.

Two-term Commissioner Bill Head, a Republican, said on Friday he will not seek re-election when his term ends this November.

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Head was the subject of controversy in December 2007 when he used the term “wetbacks” to describe illegal immigrants during a Board of Commissioners work session.

Head said that the county needed more space in the criminal justice system because “of all the criminals moving in from Atlanta, and all the wetbacks coming up from down south.”

The term “wetback” is a reference to a person who crosses the Rio Grande, the river that forms much of the United States’ border with Mexico.

Members of the Hispanic community from county and state organizations, as well as students from area schools, came to the next county commission meeting to protest the comment, and call for Head’s resignation.

Head did not apologize, saying the term was meant for illegal immigrants in general, and was not a racial slur. He noted that an anti-illegal immigration effort under President Dwight Eisenhower had been called “Operation Wetback.”

His decision to leave public office was made long before he made the comments, as he is leaving for medical reasons. I bet he’s going to take some time off, relax, maybe do some home improvements, and fade away into Carroll County history.

Maybe the fact he knew he was leaving office gave him the courage to make the statement and stick with it, who knows. I do know he has been a great county commissioner and everyone, including the Hispanic community, is better off from him having served in public office.

Enjoy your retirement, sir.