Gonzo Lawmakers - Day 18

A daily recap of the Georgia Public Broadcasting show "Lawmakers". The show airs weekdays at 7:00pm with a replay at 5:30am the following weekday.

Day 18

* I feel everything is losing steam. We're all vampires waiting for the sun to rise.

* Everybody's present. Good start.

* HR 1 failed but HB 233 passed. We're probably about to get into some weird parliamentary madness. Thank goodness Lawmakers is here to guide us.

* HR 1 is very technical but essentially it puts a cap on property assessments in the Constitution. This requires a 2/3 vote in the House and would be on the November ballot.

* Rep. Dubose Porter (D-Running for Governor): "If you want to be a part of laying off firefighters and policeman, vote for this bill." SNAP!

* HR 1 didn't reach the magic 2/3 number.

* HB 233 does the same thing but on a temporary basis therefore it only needs a simple majority and it got it. The debate was 2 hours and we're going to see more of it a little later.

* Dubose again. He claims HB 233 is unconstitutional. What a mess. Calvin Smyre, he's the D caucus leader don't ya know, claims this is an effort to cover up that the Rs don't want to pass the Homeowner Relief Grant (which already passed). That doesn't seem quite right since I remember talking to Wilson about this bill before the session even started.

* Republican response is from Majority Leader Jerry Keen. He thinks the Ds are going to have a hard time selling this at home. He's probably right.

* Live shot! We're back in the Rotunda. That makes me a little sad.

* Valerie's going to talk about the Senate Democrat bills to prevent sub-prime loans from being sold to third parties. Otherwise known as the not-a-chance-in-hell bills.

* Valerie went out and about with Sen. Vincent Fort. Field trip!

* They found a street where half the homes are under foreclosure. We're #5 in the country in foreclosures which is rougly inverse to our ranking in SAT scores.

* I love the field trips! Let's take Sen. Davis out and have him play in traffic!

* Whoops! Valerie either just had a hiccup, a burp or a run of tachycardia. She just smacked the hell out of her chest. In the process she hit her mic. I wish we had a shot of the sound guy writhing in pain.

* Pickup truck seatbelt law. This passed the Senate but word on the street is the House ain't gonna let it out of committee. The Senate Republicans are taking the opportunity to slam their House brethren.

* Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond (D-Prophet of Doom and Gloom) is updating everybody on the employment sichiation. It ain't good. The press gaggle look glazed over.

* Another consititutional amendment, this time in the Senate. Chip Rogers (R-Great Hair Land) explains this would help put extra money in the reserve to help prevent sichiations like the current one. It passed.

* More reaction to SB31 (Pay Now Nuke Later). I'm not sure why the Senate is still discussing this since it already passed. But everyone seems to want to get one last shot at this beast.

* HB 233 basement tapes. Mike Jacobs (R-Bane of Young Democrats) voice is cracking - make your own puberty joke. Rep Doug McKillip (D-Another Young'un) is wearing one bad ass gangster suit. I apologize for the fashion quips but how they look is a helluva lot more interesting than this technical crap.

* Tom Crawford time! Hey Tom! See you at Manuel's where I can introduce myself again.

* Tom's going to talk about the Pay Now Nuke Later bill. The Nuke plants won;t generate power until 2017. I would have given everything I own if Tom had started screaming, "IT AIN'T GONNA MATTER CAUSE THE MAYANS SAY WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE IN 2012!"

* Understatement of the Year: "Georgia Power is a very politically influential company".

* Tom says Sonny's gonna veto the Homeowner Relief Grant.

* I'm getting pretty tired of the poison peanut thing.

* Bye Tom

* Poll time! Shockingly 77% of people support doubling the Homestead Exemption. No vote totals. I think they realized it's not wise to publicize the totals.

* The HBCU consolidation thing is being tabled. Good. Everyone should step back and think about this thing a while.

* More "Five for Fighting". In case you forgot, these are five bills from the Democrats aimed at helping veterans. It's the same stuff covered yesterday. They just want to build a little momentum, I suppose. (I'm a little surprised we aren't seeing the Dan Weber earnest b-roll here)

* It's Georgia Day! Oglethorpe landed down near Savannah on this day in 1733.

* The first three day week ends today so we won't see Dave, Nwandi and the gang until next tuesday. Bye y'all! That's a wrap.