Gonzo Lawmakers - Day 16

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.

* Falling behind again. Time to catch up. This episode aired last Wednesday.

* I've been told that what I've been calling an orange juicer is actually a "reamer". Fitting somehow.

* Budget passed committee! Much rejoicing in the land! This is the amended budget which is what is needed to carry us all the way to the end of the fiscal year on June 30.

* Once again every agency must cut 8% except, wait for it, here it is, education. It only gets cut 4% despite the fact it makes up half the budget.

* Ben Harbin needs a shave again. Come over to the dark side, Ben! Grow the goatee!

* We are so desperate for revenue we're counting on the fraud investigators at Revenue to turn over rocks and discover cash.

* We're not going to borrow from the HOPE fund to soften the budget blow. Education wins again!

* Design build projects for the DOT. This is going to be hard to explain. Essentially, it means more federal money can flow our way. And a Republican just said "stimulus" without coughing up a fur ball.

* We changed the name of some building. The changed the name from "facilities" to "finance". This bill brought to you by the letter F.

* Oh boy. Here comes the Harbin comment that caused quite the stir last week. He called out former Secretary of State Karen Handel for not furloughing employees. They don't have tape of the committee meeting. According to the AJC's Aaron Gould Sheinin, there were a few gasps when he made the comments.

* Current SOS Kemp is explaining why furloughs are tough because it would mean cuts to essential services.

* We're going to raise the retirement ceiling for janitors, lunch ladies and bus drivers. Not everybody in education wins. Actually they are raising the amount of money they will receive. So, education wins again!

* More retirement crap. Lots of house cleaning.

* Cigarette tax time. Which means lobbyists. Hide the children! Pictures of degenerate smokers in a bar. It looks like the Righteous Room. Now we get a lobbyist from the convenience store folks who looks weirdly like Ben Stein. He says south Georgia convenience stores received a boost in sales when Florida raised their tax. I can testify to that. I stock up before going to the Sunshine State.

* Mary Perdue visited Scottish Rite to visit with sick chilluns. She's promoting something called the Bearable Hugs campaign. DCSS has something called a Fatherhood Program Manager. What's up with that? And what does he have to do with giving sick kids teddy bears?

* Keocia! Doing a walk and talk. This kid has a future in the biz.

* Mike Jacobs, every young Democrats dream boat, is back with his bullying bill. He wants to transfer bullies to different schools. He had to transfer out of his party to avoid bullying, so he's familiar with the topic.

* Bill to allow vets to attend school while waiting for GI Bill payments to start.

* And continuing with the veterans theme, the bill to limit military recuriters activities on school campuses. Of course it's sponsored by a Democrat. Sometimes they make it too easy. John Douglas (R-Crazyland) is talking about pigs dressed up are still pigs and Nan Orrock looks like the wants to emasculate him.

* Lawmaker Flashback! 1984 and we're talking about expanding MARTA. They were trying to get Gwinnett, Cobb and Clayton to join the system without paying a late penalty. Of course some Cobb yahoo, says thanks but no thanks. 26 years later and we are still dealing with this crap.

* Rep Calvin Smyre (D-Smooth Operator) is hosting a fund raiser for Haiti and everyone is "strongly encouraged" to attend. Jerry Keen is even encouraging Republicans to sign checks to Clinton! (It's the Clinton-Bush Relief Fund)

* Ricky Bevington and her Book of Doom! Irregularities on standardized tests. Potentially indicating cheating. January was the coldest month since 1985. She's seriously going to start talking about locusts next. Finally, some good news. Mitsubishi is hiring 200 workers down in Pooler.

* Tomorrow is the week in review! And that means we get to see what Tom Crawford is wearing! For now, that's a wrap!