Georgia's new god crazy Republican legislature

[southernhybrid]

For the first time in 130 years, our Georgia legislature has a R majority and here are some things on their agenda.

Sunday's AJC ( sorry I don't have links ) reported that the first piece of legislature that these guys would easily pass is a law ( which of course will be challenged ) allowing the 10Cs to be placed in courthouses and other publically supported places. Pandering to the base, I guess.

This morning I read this new legislature wants to make it more difficult to get a divorce, including mandatory waiting times and mandatory counseling. But wait there's more. We seem to have some new Ds that are as nutty as Zell Miller. Maybe nuttier.

One of the new Ds wants to draw up a bill to punish an adulterer in a divorce proceeding by giving all of the financial assets of the marriage to the innocent party. Why? Because the 10Cs prohibit adultery. :eek: What's next, I'm wondering.

[Plognark]

Link?

I mean, sounds 100% plausible, but i'd just like to see an article :)

[southernhybrid]

Link?

I mean, sounds 100% plausible, but i'd just like to see an article :)

You would make things difficult, wouldn't you?
;) Here;'s a link (http://www.ajc.com/today/content/epaper/editions/today/news_146ed206e24b02dd00e9.html)
for today's article. I'm not sure if I can find the one for Sunday. I get the print edition, hate the website and it require registration, which many of you hate.


A Senate bill introduced Wednesday would extend the waiting period from 30 days to six months for an uncontested divorce of a couple with children, and to four months if no children are involved.


n the House, state Rep. Nikki Randall, a Macon Democrat, filed a bill that would prohibit a divorcing man or woman from receiving any marital property if he or she committed adultery. The adulterer would be required to attend 12 hours of marital counseling before the divorce would be final.

I'll see if I can find some more and post them.

[southernhybrid]

Just for the skeptics. (http://www.ajc.com/sunday/content/epaper/editions/sunday/news_140e8ddce3bb707300a4.html) ;)

GOP leaders are asking religious conservatives to be satisfied with legislation mandating a 24-hour wait for women seeking an abortion and perhaps a bill declaring the legality of publicly displaying the Ten Commandments, or at least one that would force the state attorney general to defend in court local governments who insist on doing so.

I think there was another article. Let me look more.

The very frustrating website doesn't seem to match all of the print edition. Here's a quote from today's print edition. I think there was more in the Sunday print edition as well.

In the house, state Rep. Nikki Randall, a Macon Democrat, filed a bill that would prohibit a divorcing man or woman from receiving any marital property if he or she committed adultery.......


Randall said she decided to tackle the issue of adultery because it is specifically prohibited in the Bible's Ten Commandments. "If we're going to be moral, let's be moral across the board."

We really have some crazies in our House this time around.

[Brian63]

"If we're going to be moral, let's be moral across the board."

Indeed. USDOF Proposal to Amend United States Constitution to conform to Biblical principles regarding marriage (http://whitehouse.org/dof/marriage.asp) :D

Really, if anything, divorce should be made as easy as possible. If a couple wants to stay married, it should be because they are in love and want to remain together, not because it is too legally and financially distressing to get a divorce. They have it ass-backwards.

Actually, I have been warming to the notion that government should get out of marriage altogether. [/derailment]

Brian

[RufusAtticus]

southernhybrid,

The Randall bill is a good one. Republicans will probably not vote for it and it can be easily used to show that they are not 10-commandment politicians.

[Styrofoam]

Just one more reason to get out of this state and get to California. San Fransisco, here I come!

[DaMan121]

One of the new Ds wants to draw up a bill to punish an adulterer in a divorce proceeding by giving all of the financial assets of the marriage to the innocent party. Why? Because the 10Cs prohibit adultery. What's next, I'm wondering.

Arent they supposed to be stoned to death?

[southernhybrid]

southernhybrid,

The Randall bill is a good one. Republicans will probably not vote for it and it can be easily used to show that they are not 10-commandment politicians.

Why is that? Could you be more specific. I'm missing the point you're trying to make here.


Really, if anything, divorce should be made as easy as possible.

I totally agree and I'm a very a happily married person. I went through a divorce during the 70s, when I had a young child. People with children do not rush into divorce, and they don't need government to help them make that decision. The motivation for these bills seems to be a religious one.

[Seeker630]

for Southern Hybrid:

I'm originally from Michigan. I got divorced there in 1994. They have long had the 6 month mandatory waiting period if children are involved. I don't know if there is any set period if there are no children. But at any rate, in the Detroit area (where I'm from), the court dockets are so backed up due to sheer volume of cases that it would have taken nearly that long even for a relatively amicable divorce.

[JGL53]

Just one more reason to get out of this state and get to California. San Fransisco, here I come!

No shit? If you want to die under a collapsed building or bridge, it's THE place to live.

[Hazel-rah]

This is especially ironic considering Guvnah Sonny just made a speech talking about how people want less government in their lives: link (http://www.ajc.com/thursday/content/epaper/editions/thursday/news_146ed276e24b815e004a.html)

The state's first Republican governor in 130 years said government should provide a basic safety net for its citizens. Beyond that, he said, people want government to "leave them alone."

"We don't want a busybody government --- a boss --- that butts into our lives every chance it gets to tell us how to work, how to play, where to live, and so on and so on," Perdue said in his prime-time address on Georgia Public Broadcasting.

[RufusAtticus]

Why is that? Could you be more specific. I'm missing the point you're trying to make here.

There is a move in the Democratic party of Georgia to introduce radical, Biblical bills, which they know are too radical for the Repubulicans. This is one such bill. There will probably also be a democratic bill that would ban all abortions. They want to demonstrate that the Republicans can talk the talk but they cannot walk the walk.

[Hazel-rah]

There is a move in the Democratic party of Georgia to introduce radical, Biblical bills, which they know are too radical for the Repubulicans. This is one such bill. There will probably also be a democratic bill that would ban all abortions. They want to demonstrate that the Republicans can talk the talk but they cannot walk the walk.
Boy, that's playing with fire. Brilliant if it works, but there will be plenty of rabid fundies who won't get the joke.

[socratoad]

This is especially ironic considering Guvnah Sonny just made a speech talking about how people want less government in their lives: link (http://www.ajc.com/thursday/content/epaper/editions/thursday/news_146ed276e24b815e004a.html)

Butcha just don't understand, the beloved Guvnah means less guvmint doin thangs for people, but mo guvment doin thangs to people.

[southernhybrid]

There is a move in the Democratic party of Georgia to introduce radical, Biblical bills, which they know are too radical for the Repubulicans. This is one such bill. There will probably also be a democratic bill that would ban all abortions. They want to demonstrate that the Republicans can talk the talk but they cannot walk the walk.

Do you think any bill is too radical for the Rs? :D I assume that you are suggesting that Randall's public comments were meant as sarcasm. Interesting approach.

I'm not sure if these tactics are helpful or just sending mixed messages. After so many members of the Georgia Black Caucus sold out last year and supported the marriage ammendment, I'm not so sure that the Dems in Georgia are much more progressive than the Repubs.

Thanks for the clarification Rufus.

[RufusAtticus]

Do you think any bill is too radical for the Rs?

Anything that touches their money.

[Stephen_BostonMA]

In the house, state Rep. Nikki Randall, a Macon Democrat, filed a bill that would prohibit a divorcing man or woman from receiving any marital property if he or she committed adultery.......So then if both spouses committed adultery, would their combined assets go to the state? :rolleyes:

[Aravnah Ornan]

This is especially ironic considering Guvnah Sonny just made a speech talking about how people want less government in their lives: link (http://www.ajc.com/thursday/content/epaper/editions/thursday/news_146ed276e24b815e004a.html)That statement must have been in the newly discovered language of Conservonics, whose chief grammatical rule is to call everything the exact opposite of what it is. Some examples of that rule in action are Republican references to reduced government spending, a humble foreign policy, a strong dollar, and "equal rights, not special rights."

[maddog]

#782 . . .the newly discovered language of Conservonics, whose chief grammatical rule is to call everything the exact opposite of what it is. Can I use that? :notworthy

[dettus]

Anything that touches their money.

so true...i like this tactic

[Aravnah Ornan]

Can I use that?Please do, and thank you. :)

[TheGreatMaw]

Hey. So cool to be a part of this board. Thanks for letting me join.

Georgia has seen a shift from a historic democratically run government to a republican one. This is big news since georgia hasnt had that in 130 years. The big support i believe is coming from the church as the republicans represent the god fearing right. Perdue is instituting a lot of "faithbased" initiatives that give me the willies. The previously mentioned adultery law is just one of many that i believe will be coming down the pipe. I work for georgia state government in corrections and there has been a lot of downsizing but there will definitely be more legislative morality coming down the pipe. I see it in my agency in that they gutted the counseling department and there is a "faith based" program now for offenders taught by state staff. I question how much of this blurs the line between church and state. Anyway. just adding my two cents.

[lpetrich]

That "Department of Faith" proposal is excellent, but it lacks one big thing: polygamy. It can state that "a marriage shall only be between one man and at least one woman, with no upper limit on the number of women in each marriage."

It can also allow sex between men and their female slaves/servants/employees, as implied by some of the stories of the patriarchs in Genesis, IIRC.

[Seeker630]

I see it in my agency in that they gutted the counseling department and there is a "faith based" program now for offenders taught by state staff. I question how much of this blurs the line between church and state. Anyway. just adding my two cents

Hi there. I spent 6 1/2 years working in a large jail system. Under this program you refer to, how do they handle non-christians? Not just atheists, but anything other than Christians? I remember that when people were 1st booked into the system, there was a line on the booking card on the back that asked what religion they were. (I'm retired now and I don't know if they still do that). I can honestly say I never saw a single one that said atheist or agnostic. The vast majority of them said they were Christian. We did get a couple of Jews once--but that was some immigration thing--not really criminal. And the occasional black Muslim.

[TheGreatMaw]

Thanks for the reply seeker.
I havent actually seen the faith based program in action where i work because it is being "piloted" in prisons and not in the diversion center i work in. I dont know how they handle the non christian but like you, i rarely encounter a prisoner who is not religious in some aspect. I think the idea is that the prison system is wanting to get church groups involved in finding these people places to live when they get out and jobs, etc. Sort of a post release program with local churches involved. In my 11 years working with volunteers of various description from local churces, it has been my experience that they have no problem coming and praying with these people, but they don't want to do much else for them. I dont see these churches tripping over themselves trying to find these people jobs and housing because, quite frankly, i dont think they want to look over on the next pew in church and see an ex-con sitting there. I do no that the prison system is instituting some form of "christian dorm" for prisoners but they have to meet certain requirements (such as remaining disciplinary free, no rules infractions). I dont know all the particulars but i can find out more.