Vote Anti Incumbent

The conservative blog thepatriotcaucus.net has an overview of the candidates for office of Governor of Georgia who are running as Republican candidates and sizes them up to see who would be a conservative-minded Governor.  The blog post is interesting to read.  Interestingly the post includes a frank assessment of Georgia Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine. 

“Several scandals and questions of objectivity have followed John Oxendine throughout his tenures as Insurance Commissioner.  Previously, state election commission investigations revealed that Oxendine, who wields regulatory power over all insurance companies in Georgia, received $120,000 during a reelection campaign through 10 Alabama-based political action committees set up by Donald V. Watkins, a director of Admiral Life Insurance Co. of America and State Mutual Insurance. Both companies are headed by prominent businessman Delos “Dee” Yancey III and are run out of the same building in Rome.  The problem (and John has no excuse to have not known about it since he was up for another reelection) is that individual PAC contributions are limited to 12,000 per person.  However, since all of these PAC contributions were funneled into one account controlled by a single businessman, the $120,000 contribution was illegally obtained.  Per the Atlanta Journal Constitution , the Ox campaign initially denied any wrongdoing, but announced within a few weeks, that they were returning the money.  (Oops, caught red-handed and tries to “buy” his way out).

Another “awkward” incident for John occurred in August, 2009.  His father, Judge Oxendine, hired Wayne Reece, a political consultant and fellow board member (with the Judge) of the Warm Springs Rehabilitation Development Fund to work on John’s campaign, at the tune of almost $400,000 that was later discovered to be allocated from the WSRD fund.  The WSRD Board determined that both John Oxendine and Wayne Reece tried to conceal the payments.  Another “awkward” scenario (in my opinion) lies in the fact that Ivy Oxendine (John’s wife) has been working with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia (BCBS of GA), worked her way up to the corporate office in Atlanta and has served as President of the Middle Georgia Association of Health Underwriters as well as State board member of the Georgia Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors.  Kudos go out to Mrs. Oxendine for a successful career.  However, my dilemma is in John’s track record as regarding investigations and fines of insurance companies within Georgia.  With a little research, you will note a pattern where John Oxendine has extended fines against insurance companies in excess of any fines (and they are very few; look for yourself) levied against BCBS of GA.  A little favoritism?; hard to honestly call without some direct evidence, which is truly tough to dig into without strong inside sources.  However, it is my opinion, based on the scandals referenced and the “awkward” situations during John’s tenure as IC, that principles are not his best suit and that is a personal attribute that I demand of my legislators at all levels.”  from blog thepatriotcaucus.net

Ethics commission seeks info in Oxendine probe - AJC.com

I have read these type comments about John Oxendine before but they seem to be coming more often. I think he may be another Sonny II type governor, but I surprised to see the conservative blog be so frank about one of their candidates.

I came across this site, We Are Change Atlanta and see they also have a channel on YouTube for We are Change Atlanta.  Watch the video on their Youtube channel about Vaccination laws in Georgia / Swine Flu / Take Action.  I did already have the vaccine myself but agree with them that governments should not force citizens to have it.  The video is excellent and I encourage you to see it and sign up for their channel.  It is not only about this one issue but others also. They are keeping an eye on government actions and making them accountable, and that is a good thing.

This from Bloomberg on Oct 9, 2009:
A survey found 64 percent of voters disapproving of the way Republicans in Congress are doing their jobs, with 25 percent approving. Also, 53 percent had an unfavorable opinion of the party in general, while 25 percent rated it favorably.

The performance of Democratic lawmakers was disapproved of by 56 percent, with 33 expressing approval. For the party in general, 46 percent expressed disapproval, 38 percent approval.

COMMENT: Wow, living in Georgia, you would never have guess this poll result.  Of the people I come in contact with, about 95% it seems are strongly Republicans and strongly anti anything Obama does. At least in Georgia, but not apparently not the country.  Very big disconnect.

Why is that?   I would suppose religion and talk radio. That is my guess.  Georgia people say they are religious, it is the central theme of their life.  Another central theme is they are Republicans, and they HATE Obama and Nancy Pelosi with the passion of a revival preacher.  The two themes seems to merge into one.  All religious people would have to be Republicans in their view.  If one were to put Democrat on their facebook profile, lord help them.  Your closest friends would snarl at you.  You must be a heathen if you are a Democrat and worse.  Independents like myself are suspect and fare not much better.   They say you don’t have VALUES.  At least not their values.

Atlanta is the home to CONSERVATIVE talk radio across the dial.  Neal Boortz is based here.  Sean Hannity lived here and had his radio show in Atlanta for years before moving to NY and starting his TV show. Russ Limbaugh is most people’s hero and you can hear his show in the background when in the presence of service contractors up to corporate VPs.  On a recent day I spun my car radio AM dial around and picked up Neal Boortz, Russ Limbaugh, Laura Ingle, Mark Levin, Glen Beck, Michal Savage and Dennis what’s his name the former comedian. Oh, there is the public radio station for a counter balance. They play contemporary music most of the time.

To continue the Bloomberg article says:“President Barack Obama’s approval rating has held at 50 percent over the past two months of high-intensity debate on health care and other issues,” said Peter Brown assistant director of the Hamden, Connecticut-based university’s polling institute. “And while the spotlight is on the president, Republicans are taking a public-opinion pounding.” The survey of 2,630 voters was conducted Sept. 29-Oct. 5 and has an error margin of plus-or-minus 1.9 percentage points.

COMMENT: I would swear they are making this stuff up.  What planet are they on?  Certainly not planet Georgia.   From Georgia it seems like an error margin of say, 95%.

The WSJ today reports a large increase in starts for residential properties.  Home construction climbed in May far above expectations, with single-family starts rising a third month in a row and giving more evidence of stability in the housing sector.
>Yet, Senator Senator Johnny Isaacson of Georgia has a propasal to give a large tax break to anyone who buys a home this year.  First time homeowners already can get a $8000 credit for buying a house this year.  But Isaacson wants a higher tax credit for anyone who buys a house this year.  You must understand Isaacson servered as president of his firm Northside Realty of Atolanta for 20 years because becoming a Senator to fight for the real estate builders and developers.

With housing starts jumped 17% we do not need more stimulus Mr. Isaacson. If you live in Georgia, please contact your senator and advise you are against this.  And next election please vote against this self centered puppet of the real estate industry.

Here in Georgia, which will vote their primary on Super Tuesday, hardly anything being heard from the Presidential candidates.  Rudy Giuliani was in Atlanta a couple of weeks ago, but I have heard no TV or Radio ads. No buzz at all.  I did see Ron Paul homemade banner on the GA 400 overpass yesterday. That’s about it.  Actually it is kind of nice. We will enjoy the silence while we can.