The Citizen Newsletter

The Conservative Voice of Henry County

Issue # 364

August 25, 2012

AJC Letters

Lying seems to be viewed as standard

The reason for the T-SPLOST defeat is not that the public mistrusts government with money. We don t trust anything we hear from anybody with something to gain from lying: from Atlanta teachers cheating on test scores, to Emory University lying, to Joe Paterno hiding sex abuse in his coaching staff. Today s presidential race only adds to our cynicism. The principles and staffers lie about everything, and when caught, say well, its only politics as if lying is okay from people we expect to lead. It seems our entire population is adrift in a sea of pollution. We have a generation of adults in business and government who come from family (and education systems) that no longer teach values and standards. As a result, abhorrent behaviors are viewed as standard. We also have concluded we don t trust anybody around money because they will find a way to get a chunk of it for themselves, family and friends. HARRY WATERBOR, CANTON

In This Issue:
Page Feature 1 2 2 3 3 4 6 6 8 8 10 11 Lying Viewed as Standard Smith & Barham Win Runoff Mathis Extends Thanks Beach House Grille Fayette Commission: Clean Sweep Bo Moss: Golf Tourney Fundraiser Institute on the Constitution

NO PENALTY for T-SPLOST Defeat Attitudes Toward Public Schools Schools: Problematic Bureaucracy

Georgia Charter School Amendment Anecdotes Are Meaningless

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Tommy Smith & Gary Barham Win Republican BOC Runoff Races
PROOF OF RIGHT. Posted by JOANIE SCOTT

Photo: Joanie Scott with Tommy Smith

Today the voters of Henry County decisively chose former Hampton Mayor Tommy Smith as their Republican candidate for Chairman of the Henry County Board of Commissioners over Incumbent BJ Mathis. Smith captured the race by exactly 1,900 votes over Mathis in a turnout of over 11,000 voters. He will now face Democratic Candidate Carlotta Harrell in the November General Election to determine who will become the next Commission Chairman. Also victorious tonight was Gary Barham who handily won the District 3 Commission seat over businessman Bill Toney. Congratulations to both of them for running a respectful campaign. Gary Barham will now face Democratic candidate Sandra Vincent in the November General Election to determine which will be the next District 3 Commissioner. In the meantime, keep your yard signs up for Tommy Smith, Gary Barham, and Bo Moss. On to November!

MATHIS EXTENDS THANKS

"I WANT TO SAY A HUGE THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO WENT OUT TO THE POLLS TODAY AND VOTED FOR ME. I APPRECIATE YOUR SUPPORT MORE THAN WORDS CAN SAY. ALTHOUGH THE ELECTION RESULTS DID NOT END UP AS WE WOULD HAVE HOPED, I AM A FIRM BELIEVER THAT GOD'S RESULTS ALWAYS END UP RIGHT. I HAVE PRAYED MUCH THROUGHOUT THE CAMPAIGN FOR GOD'S WILL TO BE DONE IN MY LIFE. I KNOW HIM AND I KNOW HE HAS A BETTER PLAN FOR MY LIFE. I CAN TRUTHFULLY SAY IT WILL BE NICE TO NOT LIVE MY LIFE UNDER A MICROSCOPE ANYMORE AND I AM EXCITED ABOUT WHAT LIES AHEAD. I CAN ASSURE YOU THAT LEAVING A PUBLIC ELECTED OFFICE IN DECEMBER ISN'T THE END, IT'S THE BEGINNING OF SOMETHING NEW AND SOMETHING BETTER. I HAVE BEEN DOWN A SIMILAR PATH BEFORE AND GOD OPENED DOORS TO ME I WOULD HAVE NEVER DREAMED OF, BUT IT TOOK LEAVING THE OLD BEHIND AND ALLOWING HIM TO LEAD ME TO THE NEW. HE WILL NEVER DO THAT IF YOU ARE HOLDING ON TO OLD. SO THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT, AND YOUR FRIENDSHIP, AND KEEP WATCHING. GOD IS DOING SOMETHING GOOD! BTW MY HUSBAND SAYS HE'S THE WINNER IN THIS! HE IS HAPPY ABOUT NOT SHARING HIS WIFE'S ATTENTION WITH 210,000 PEOPLE!" ~BJ MATHIS

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BEACH HOUSE GRILLE. Folks this is where you will find some of the best eats. Your search for
real, melt in your mouth pulled pork barbeque, the best burgers, or chicken wings ends HERE. All meats are fully cooked to your liking on the Green Egg smoker/grill. WOW. You won't eat another fried anything after tasting Beach House Grille's menu.

Clean sweep of the Fayette County Board of Commissioners

Congratulations to Chuck Oddo, David Barlow and Randy Ognio! Since my election, we have replaced all five slots. I saw that Eldrin Bell and BJ Mathis both lost. Tim Lee did pull off a narrow victory in Cobb. ~ Steve Brown

Here are the five commissioners who will be serving beginning 2013. STEVE BROWN and Allen McCarty are the two on the right. The Take Back Fayette County PAC got them elected in 2010 and now we have been successful in defeating all 5 of the incumbent commissioners from 2010 who were not listening to the citizens.
HTTP://WWW.THECITIZEN.COM/ARTICLES/08-21-2012/OGNIO-SWAMPS-INCUMBENT-HEARN-BARLOW-DEFEATS-HUDDLESTON-2-FAYETTECOMMISSION-POST

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Range of factors made runoffs tough on incumbents Julianne Thompson, a co-chairwoman of the Atlanta Tea Party Patriots, sees another message in Tuesday's results: Voters just don't trust government. The Citizen: While former incumbents are blaming the economy and a general anti-incumbent sentiment for their losses they still don't get it. The incumbents removed from office portrayed the reasons so many people do not trust government. They showed we cannot trust the people IN government to conservatively represent us.

Henry County Commission District 1 Golf Tournament Fundraiser September 17, 2012 9:00 a.m.
Bo Moss, Republican Nominee for Henry County Commissioner in District 1 is holding a Golf Tournament Fundraiser at Cotton Fields Golf Course. With Special Invited Guest, Congressman Lynn Westmoreland. Lunch will be served after the game. For more information contact Bo at BO@WILLIAMBOMOSS.COM or call 678-447-2281 Cotton Fields Golf Course 400 Industrial Way McDonough, GA 30253

Surprise: Penalty is ZERO for TSPLOST failure

Posted on August 23, 2012 by TRICIACLEMENTS. FAILURE/
HTTP://TRICIACLEMENTS.WORDPRESS.COM /2012/08/23/SURPRISE-PENALTY-IS-ZERO-FOR-TSPLOST-

By Ron Sifen

Most people agree that one of the reasons that the TSPLOST failed was because government lost the trust of voters. TSPLOST supporters want to believe that all of the distrust is only because of the Ga. 400 toll debacle. They refuse to admit that voters figured out that most of the money was going to projects that would not

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help to reduce traffic congestion on our roads. The projects list also contributed to the increased distrust of government. Many people were appalled that the TSPLOST contained a penalty for voting against it. Some people were intimidated by The Penalty into voting for the TSPLOST. But many voters found The Penalty to be even more reason to distrust government and the TSPLOST itself. In reality, The Penalty only involved one pot of money, and there was no penalty for most transportation projects. But TSPLOST proponents, including many government officials, repeatedly played The Penalty card to try to scare and manipulate voters into voting for the TSPLOST. In many cases they used misleading wording that made it sound like it would impact all future transportation projects. We were repeatedly told horror stories of the devastation that local government budgets would suffer because of The Penalty. I kept telling people that The Penalty was tiny compared to the financial consequences of approving the projects list. It turns out that The Penalty was even smaller than I thought. I learned a few days ago that The Penalty for every jurisdiction in the Atlanta region will be ZERO. Let me repeat that: The Penalty for every jurisdiction in the Atlanta region will be ZERO. The Local Maintenance and Improvement Grants is an annual pot of money that is available for distribution to all jurisdictions in Georgia. It is my understanding that each jurisdiction s allocation is based one-third on population and two-thirds on centerline miles of eligible roadway. Each jurisdiction can submit applications for amounts up to its annual allocation. Throughout the state, the overwhelming majority of LMIG funds are used by local governments for resurfacing roads. In the past each jurisdiction would simply submit a list of eligible projects that met the criteria for LMIG funds, and they would get the money. Now, in the nine regions that rejected the TSPLOST, each jurisdiction has to demonstrate a 30 percent match. So, let s figure out what this means by looking at how The Penalty will impact Cobb. Cobb s annual LMIG allocation is approximately $3 million. That means that in order for Cobb to get the $3 million it must show that it will spend at least $900,000 of its own money on the projects that qualify for LMIG funding. Essentially, that means that in order to get the $3 million, Cobb must now show $3.9 million of qualifying projects. But it turns out, that Cobb already spends far more than $3.9 million every year on qualifying projects. Therefore, the effective Penalty for Cobb adds up to a total of ZERO dollars. And this is also true for every jurisdiction in the Atlanta region. The Penalty for every jurisdiction in the Atlanta region will be ZERO. The Penalty could hurt some of the poorer counties in rural Georgia who depend on LMIG for virtually all of their resurfacing. In the Atlanta region, every jurisdiction already spends more than the 30 percent match on qualifying projects, so the amount of additional funds that they will have to pay is ZERO. Let s not forget other manipulations, like claiming the TSPLOST would alleviate traffic congestion, but only by defining alleviate traffic congestion as meaning increasing the hypothetical number of people who could reach a given point within 45 minutes. They wound up admitting that the TSPLOST projects list would have an insignificant impact on reducing commute times.

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Once this became widely known, TSPLOST was dead, based on its merits (or lack thereof). The TSPLOST was sold to us based on reducing traffic congestion on our roads. Voters rejected the TSPLOST when they realized that it would not reduce traffic congestion on our roads. Government officials put together a projects list that would not reduce traffic congestion, and then government officials pounded voters with misleading information. Now these government officials wonder why voters don t trust them. Voters are tired of being manipulated and mislead. And now we learn that The Penalty is ZERO.
Ron Sifen of Vinings is president of the Cobb County Civic Coalition.

Are you concerned about the future of America? Do you worry about the erosion of liberty as the government grows larger and more powerful? Are you troubled by the moral decline you see around you? Are you wondering if there is anything you can do to help restore the American Constitutional Republic? If asked by your children or grandchildren, would you have difficulty explaining the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights?
If you answered Yes to any of the above questions you are invited to participate in the

Restoring the Foundations of the Constitution of these United States WHAT: IOTC is a twelve (12) part lecture series presented on DVD by John Eidsmoe, a Constitutional attorney with degrees in theology, law and political science. WHERE: Crossroads Christian Church, Parkland Center 3287 Highway 42, Stockbridge, Georgia 30281 WHEN: Begins Sunday, September 9, 2012 and will meet each Sunday night through November 25, 2012 TIME: 5:00p.m. - 6:30p.m. HOST: Pastor Ken Davidson, Senior Pastor of Crossroads Christian Church Co-Host: Larry McNorton, Director of High Point Christian Academy/Constitution Party Representative

Institute on the Constitution

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*This is free seminar, however if you wish to have your own student workbook the cost is $35.00 to IOTC.
Seats are limited for this lecture series to about 60 persons, so please call Pastor Ken Davidson at 770.634.0578 or Larry McNorton at 404.395.2903 to reserve your seat and workbook.

Restoring the Foundations of the Constitution of these United States

Institute on the Constitution Schedule/Lecture topic

Lecture Number 1

Date September 9, 2012

Time 5:00p.m. 6:30p.m.

September 16, 2012

5:00p.m.

6:30p.m.

September 23, 2012

5:00p.m.

6:30p.m.

4 5

September 30, 2012 October 7, 2012

5:00p.m. 5:00p.m.

6:30p.m. 6:30p.m.

October 14, 2012

5:00p.m.

6:30p.m.

October 21, 2012

5:00p.m.

6:30p.m.

October 28, 2012

5:00p.m.

6:30p.m.

November 4, 2012

5:00p.m.

6:30p.m.

10

November 11, 2012

5:00p.m.

6:30p.m.

11

November 18, 2012

5:00p.m.

6:30p.m.

12

November 25, 2012

5:00p.m.

6:30p.m.

Topic A Biblical View of History, Law, and Government The Discovery, Settlement, and Evangelization of America The Religious Beliefs of the Founding Fathers The Founding Fathers Five Fold Formula 1776 1789: From Independence to the Constitution An Overview of the Constitution: Preamble; Article I An Overview of the Constitution: Article II and III An Overview of the Constitution: Article IVVII An Overview of the Constitution: The Bill of Rights; the First Amendment An Overview of the Constitution: Amendments II - XXVII An Overview of the Constitution: The Crisis of the Constitution: From Biblical Absolutes to Evolutionary Humanism Reclaiming the Constitution: A Victory Plan for Restoring Our Constitutional Heritage

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2012 annual PDK/Gallup Poll Public s Attitudes Toward the Public Schools
There was the usual us and them divide in the PDK/Gallup findings; 48 percent of Americans award their own schools an A or a B, but only 19 percent feel the rest of the schools in the country merit such high grades. But 62 percent are willing to pay more in taxes in order to improve urban public schools And asked the No. 1 problem facing schools, 35 percent of respondents say lack of financial support. The poll notes stark divisions by political party. Here are highlights from the poll: On providing children of illegal immigrants free public education, school lunches, and other benefits, 65 percent of Democrats versus 21 percent of Republicans said yes. But overall, the poll found support for providing public education to these children is increasing; 41 percent of Americans favor this, up from 28 percent in 1995. Charter schools: Republicans are more supportive (80 percent) than Democrats (54 percent). However, approval declined overall to 66 percent this year from a record 70 percent last year. The public is split in its support of school vouchers, with nearly half (44 percent) believing that we should allow students and parents to choose a private school to attend at public expense, up 10 percentage points from last year. Taxes: Ninety-seven percent of the public agreed that it is very or somewhat important to improve the nation s urban schools, and almost two of three Americans (62 percent) said they would pay more taxes to provide funds to improve the quality of urban schools. Eighty-nine percent of Americans agree that it is very or somewhat important to close the achievement gap between white students and black and Hispanic students. Teacher evaluations: Americans are almost evenly split in requiring teacher evaluations to reflect student scores on standardized tests, with 52 percent in favor. But at least three of four believe that entrance requirements into teacher preparation programs need to be at least as selective as those for engineering, business, pre-law, and pre-medicine. Presidential race and education: The poll found that President Barack Obama holds a slight lead (49 percent) over Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney (44 percent) as the candidate who would strengthen public schools. Overall, 50 percent of Americans view the Democratic party as more interested in improving public education While Americans are divided on many issues regarding the direction of our education system, they stand united in agreement on some very important issues, said William Bushaw, executive director of PDK International and co-director of the PDK/Gallup poll, in a statement. Most important, it is reassuring to know that, despite the recognition that our schools need improvement, more than 70 percent of Americans do have trust and confidence in our public school teachers. ***

Problematic Bureaucracy
Money is spent on expensive technology that is unused or underused because people aren t sufficiently trained to use it or it is deemed not necessary after being purchased.

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Across the board budget cuts (vs. strategic, targeted cost reductions), operational inefficiencies and administrative overhead mean that too few taxpayer dollars actually reach the classroom. Teachers often don t receive the support they need, and many talented Americans don t even enter the profession Teachers don t receive the adequate instructional resources, materials and technology they need to tailor instruction to every student. Teachers lack access to mentors, master teachers, collaborative planning time, expert lesson plans and best practices to grow professionally by working with their peers. Teachers lack access to proven interventions for students who are struggling. Principals often lack the time to support teachers in the classroom because of paperwork and other regulatory burdens (e.g., unnecessary paperwork for central office sign-offs on field trips). Test results throughout the year are provided to teachers too late for them to re-teach subjects and fill gaps in learning before students take high-stakes exams or before the end of the year, so students enter those exams without core knowledge and skills and fall behind grade level. Teachers do not have the training and support they need to keep an entire classroom of students disciplined, focused on, and excited about learning. Central office staff and principals are not evaluated regularly nor are they held responsible for teacher or student success. Even though millions of American children are not able to read or do math at grade level, teachers are nearly always found effective/satisfactory on evaluations, because those evaluations are not meaningful, not connected to what teachers actually do and not connected to whether students learn. Meaningless evaluations leave teachers in the dark as to how they are truly performing and provide little to no guidance on how to improve. Top teachers are not properly recognized, rewarded or compensated, so they leave the profession. School boards focus on micromanaging, adult in-fighting, and complying with existing policies and procedures rather than on solving these systematic problems to create environments that support teachers and students and lead to academic achievement. School boards and committees require district staff to spend excessive time preparing for meetings and reporting to the board, rather than spending time working to directly support teachers and students. Many elected officials, who are not aware of the scope of hurdles facing these systems and/or whose campaigns were funded by special interests neglect this crisis altogether, or pass laws that attempt to fix one issue (e.g., class size reduction) but which

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inadvertently cause additional bureaucratic problems (e.g., hiring enough effective teachers to meet the class size mandate).

Conservatives Next Battle: The Charter School Amendment

Georgia s Charter School Constitutional Amendment

We will be voting to change our Constitution in November in regard to Charter Schools
If the charter school amendment passes, education would NOT be under the purview of voters or parents or the General Assembly. The enabling legislation for the charter school amendment is a bill that passed this session, H.B. 797. It graphically explains the way charter schools would operate in Georgia. You may download the bill and read it. Explain to everyone that the General Assembly would not charter schools, but an appointed commission, which would be appointed by the State Board of Education, whose members are appointed by the governor, would charter schools. Neither local boards of education nor parents of students would govern charter schools. They would be governed by the governing board of the person or business that petitioned for the charter, as stated in H.B. 797. There is no restriction that requires petitioners for charters to be instate organizations or in-state businesses or in-state individuals although H.B. 797 DOES require members of the charter school governing board to be U.S. citizens and residents of Georgia.. In fact, chartering schools has become a thriving business, with multiple businesses chartering public schools all over the country, using tax money to create, staff, operate and maintain them. Again, I repeat: parents do not govern charter schools. They are governed by the contract (charter) and can operate outside laws, rules, policies and regulations required of other public schools and beyond the reach of locally elected boards of education. There is nothing to prohibit foreign entities from funding or creating or operating charter schools . Except H.B. 797 that passed this session NOW requires petitioners to be U.S. citizens and residents of Georgia. However, in Georgia at least three Gulen schools have been operated by the Turkish Gulen movement that brought educators and staff into the U.S. on H1B visas to teach our children and those of 125 other Gulen schools scattered throughout the U.S. Another point no one s mentioning is that, ultimately, control of charter schools is in the hands of the federal government, BECAUSE state and local laws, rules, policies and regulations can be WAIVED by charter schools, but charter schools CANNOT waive federal laws, rules, policies and regulations. Therefore, the federal government has, effectively, taken control of education, which the U.S. Constitution left to the states. Subsequently, the Georgia Constitution requires locally elected boards of education to manage and control schools in their district. That will change if the proposed constitutional amendment passes November 6th and schools can be chartered by an appointed state commission on charter schools .. far, far away from parents and local control, but NOT far, far away from federal control!

~ Anne Perry and Sue Ella Deadwyler of the Eagle Forum

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Anecdotes Are Meaningless By Joel Aaron

I would soften the blow of the following post by citing a litany of anecdotes to prove it is not simply hyperbole. God knows I could. But I realize at this point in our national dialogue, those already in agreement don't need the anecdotes, to those who disagree none would matter and to the many who are truly ill informed they will dismiss any contents written in this tone because they truly don't want to acknowledge it and they'd rather concentrate on something else. Therefore, in the words of Solomon, anecdotes (and by this I mean any news headline) are meaningless, in so far as they are helpful in convincing someone of the legitimacy of your perspective.

That being said, here it goes:

People at worst no longer believe evil exists and at best have no healthy respect for it anymore and therefore have little context for recognizing an actual threat to good. I largely blame the mainline Christian church (specifically, professional ministers, with obvious exceptions to the rules) for this reality in America. We hear all the time about how this perspective is being maligned and marginalized in the public square but this is built around the reality that it has largely been absent from articulation in an effective, constructive and relevant way to the issues at play in the public square for quite some time. We may have been told "shut up! Separation of church and state!", but regardless of the inaccuracy of the statement, we were compliant in systematically and unilaterally confining truth to the "religious world". We built subsectors out of the existing industries that were dedicated to culture shaping - Christian music, film, TV rather than engaging as salt and light and dominating the craft with excellence through the existing channels. We turned our outwardly-focused denominations, with a rich, long history of permeating and defining American culture as we saw in the First and Second Great Awakenings, into inwardly-focused organizations dedicated to self-limiting our access to the mainstream conversation, i.e. church programs and church campuses, and allowed our own institutions to confine our message within walls we built for ourselves. We've gone so long in not applying truth in a relevant way to the relevant issues in the world that people no longer have a context for recognizing evil. The end result of this is national apathy. My late father saw it coming with his consistent message to the ministry community in which he worked for decades-apply truth to the real world, make it relevant, get it off the pages of a Bible and into the fabric of society, or else shut the hell up and quit glossing over The Great Commission. There, it's out there. Agree or disagree, sometimes I've just got to let the zeal out and be true to my name.
~~ Joel Aaron is CEO & Co-founder at CONVERGENCE ENTERTAINMENT LLC. Joel s mission is to empower and inspire people to embrace liberty!

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