JMac's out of town, so I'm doing the morning roundup. Buckle up.

• The Planning Commission reaches comity with Jittery Joe's over that darn parking lot. The Mayor and Commission has to vote on it, but it looks like everyone's reasonably happy. Let's all have a cup of something and celebrate.
• Jim Thompson points to HB 1405 as an example of the world gone loco - Republicans passing tax hikes. 1405 creates a groups of political appointees and economists to fix our state's revenue problem - i.e., they're going to recommend tax increases. The fascinating part to me is the rule under which any legislation would be passed.
• You guys mind if the Georgia Music Hall of Fame crashes here for awhile? I can dig it. Over Wuxtry, even better!
• Goodbye Gordon Brown, hello David Cameron. Or maybe not. The UK has its first hung Parliament since 1974. Read a lot more here.
• I found half a bottle of Diet Dr. Pepper in a rental car once. This is better.
• Light posting today, as both JMac and I are on the road.

Hillary's a little annoyed, and rightfully so, about BB&T's gift to UGA, a ten-year, $1.5 million grant that will provide, among other things, a free copy of "Atlas Shrugged" to every incoming UGA student.

Here's the thing. You're an eighteen-year-old, just out on your own in one of the coolest college towns on the planet. Chances are, you're going to be spending a lot more time downtown annoying the crap out of me with your drunken antics, than holed up in your dorm room reading Ayn Rand's pedantic proseltyzing. Or, if you're the overachiever type, you'll be, you know, studying for class. All in all, this "gift" is going to fall somewhere between the free t-shirt from the credit card company and a $5 coupon to Bed Bath and Beyond in terms of usefulness to your average student.

Although, if you hollow a book that thick out, you can hide all sorts of contraband from your RA. So, you know, added value.

Ray McBerry has certainly created a bit of a poopstorm lately. Dustin's gearing up for litigation already, I think. If you're behind on your "marginal major-party candidates for Governor" news (and shame on you!), then here's the brief recap.

McBerry has more or less threatened to sue bloggers and other media types for defamation if they so much as utter anything about allegations that he had an improper relationship with a former student who was, it should be noted, 16 years old.¹ Galloway wrote it up, and as far as I can tell, most of the heavy lifting has been done by Jeff at SWGA politics. If you want the details, go check them out.

Ok, I'll jump on the writing-about-food-carts bandwagon, but to be honest, it's not something I've followed closely. Hillary, and more recently, my cohort here, have written about it.

So, understanding that I know next to nothing about the issue, I'm posing an open question: Why is (or why should) a food cart be treated any differently than the booths and whatnot I see on College Square on just about any nice day?

Your input is encouraged.

David Poythress is up on TV, so is Roy. (More on that later, I promise.) Thurbert is off doing whatever it is Thurbert does, and DuBose is travelling the state on a shoestring, a smile, and a record of accomplishment a mile long. Carl Camon and newly-minted candidate Randall Mangham are... well, I'm not sure what they're doing exactly, but does anyone really care?

It's all very interesting, sure, but there's another Democratic primary going on that's a lot more fun to watch, and a lot more likely to yield a winner on June July 20th instead of a runoff. Meet the guys who want to be your Democratic nominee for Attorney General, Rob Teilhet and Ken Hodges.

This is a race to watch for the inside-baseball political junkie types. Here's why:

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: