Here's the press release:

ATLANTA, GA. – House and Senate Democrats today challenged Georgia’s Republican Leadership to clean up the financial mess they’ve created through their mismanagement of Georgia’s finances, ignoring Democrats’ proposed solutions, and trying to balance the budget on the backs of our educators and children.

“After a two week recess, the Governor and Republican leadership have figured out what Democrats have known for a long time,” said Rep. Calvin Smyre, Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus. “Eight years of Republican leadership has steered our state in the wrong direction. They created special tax shelters for friends and killed local control. They are responsible for the largest tax increase in 25 years and now they are jeopardizing our children’s future.”

From Senator Blutarsky, Clemson coach Dabo Swinney suggests taking on Georgia in a spring exhibition game instead of just boring same-team-scrimmaging.

I say heck to the yes!

Obviously, we'd want something very similar to normal spring game rules - QBs off limits, etc.

Count me in. And, of course, we could use the money.

There's a good read in the Sunday paper today, with Jim Thompson taking legislators to task (using frequent chicken analogies) for their posturing on UGA's proposed budget cuts.

What the legislature is doing, as JT points out, is blatant political posturing, accomplished by sanctimoniously accusing the Board of Regents of, well, political posturing. But as Thompson points out, in this Regents vs General Assembly battle, the legislators made the rules, and the Regents followed their instructions for budget cuts to a T.

Don't hate the player, hate the game. Except that in this case, the General Assembly was both the opposing team and the referee and they still managed to end the first quarter down by a touchdown and a safety.

Thompson:

Ok, so he may or may not be a birther. I really don't care; President Obama has more than enough people to handle the spittle-laden ravings of the birther crowd.

You know who doesn't have people to defend them from people like Paul Broun? Um... kids who live in poverty.

Yeah, Paul Broun was one of 13 House members who voted "no" on a resolution which expresses the House's support for the National School Lunch Program. The NSLP, by the by, helps folks in a couple of different ways. First, obviously, it provides free or low-cost meals to needy kids - around 30.5 million a day. Secondly, it provides a way to keep American farmers in the black by providing a market to absorb farm surpluses.

Because all budget cuts all the time makes Jack a dull boy. Let's look at Arkansas, where "Democrat" Blanche Lincoln faces newly-announced Democrat Bill Halter. B-but wait, Matheny, why did you put the quotes around Lincoln's party affiliation and not around Halter's?

Good question. Maybe it's because Lincoln's up on the teevees (as opposed to the webbertubez) with an ad proudly talking about how she voted against the public option and cap and trade, two signature pieces of progressive Democratic legislation. Here's the spot:

Yeah, I think it might be, just a leeetle. Per Galloway, now that Nathan Deal has stepped down from Congress, effectively forestalling what might be an embarrassing ethics probe into his bidness dealings, our Congresscritter, Paul Broun, is free to jump on the ethical high ground.

Y'know, since it won't affect his former colleague.

I've had this one on my mind for a few days, so here are my final thoughts on this, until it raises its ugly head again.

First of all, to the rescue groups out there, don't gloat, don't celebrate. Please get to work. A lot of folks have a lot of skin in this game now that didn't a few weeks ago. We've got a lot of work to do, and a lot of honest brokering to do. The ball's in your hands, time to put it in the end zone. Now's the time to work with the wildlife people and make sure you're doing everything in your power to help this program work as well as possible for everyone.

To the wildlife folks, it's time to prove that you've got skin in the game too. This is policy now, so you've got two choices - wring your hands and rant, or roll your sleeves up and make this thing work the way it's supposed to work. You can be part of the process or not, but when the process comes up for re-evaluation, the folks who have contributed to the effort are going to be more credible sources of its efficacy than those who haven't.

Last week, I took Republican gubernatorial candidate Karen Handel to task for announcing an ill-conceived budget-balancing scheme. Simply put, she wants to make up for the state's consistent structural deficit by firing close to 8,000 state employees.

Today, the Banner-Herald takes their shot, and they've got a pretty interesting angle - some of those employees, anticipating a Handel administration, might decide to jump before they're pushed. And since Handel herself has yet to put out any details beyond "fire a bunch of hard-working people," we might be risking our storehouse of institutional knowledge.

Here's an interesting example:

You may have read Rep. Ron Stephens' guest post last week on why we should raise the cigarette tax in Georgia. Now, from fellow blogger Jason Pye, the rebuttal.

It's not necessarily one of those issues that falls squarely on party lines. Johnathan favors it, as does Stephens, so there's a progressive and a Republican. On the other hand, I oppose it, as does Hillary, and, of course, the aforementioned Jason Pye.

Draw your own conclusions.

Because it's all over the ABH today.

Blake's got a piece on the changes to the ordinance proposed by Kelly Girtz and Kathy Hoard. Long story short, they're reasonable. Ditch the feline leukemia and AIDS tests, as well as the microchipping, to save money. They also want to create an evaluation panel that gives everyone a seat at the table - wildlife folks, rescue folks, veterinarians - to make sure things are working to spec. And, here's the one that's going to get some people angry, $10,000 in vouchers to help rescue groups offset the costs of sterilization.

Okay. Before your head explodes, please note the following quote from Blake:

The $10,000 would come from an unspent $100,000 fund earmarked for the Athens Area Humane Society to take in feral cats for the county. The humane society broke the contract last year to become a no-kill shelter.

Earmarked. As in already budgeted. Please don't misinterpret this.