Free Republic

VILLA RICA, Ga. — Roy Barnes has a solution to the economic crisis in Georgia. According to his website (www.roy2010.com), one of his first acts as governor will be to "retrofit every state building and public school in Georgia for clean, efficient energy consumption - this includes the use of low-flow toilets and the expansion of our sewer systems where necessary. These projects will reduce the state's energy and water costs in the long run, while putting Georgians back to work right now." Barnes apparently believes that a combination of savings from water conservation and government spending on potty programs...

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Atlanta-AP -- The Georgia state flag, whose symbolism was initially meant to satisfy everyone, will be retired today after being flown for only two years. Georgia Governor Sonny Purdue plans to sign a bill to take down the controversial flag and replace it with a simpler design. When the 2001 flag was introduced it was considered a political masterstroke. It shrunk the Confederate battle cross and incorporated the symbol in a small montage of older Georgia flags.The flag was quickly voted the nation's ugliest by a group of flag experts. School children couldn't draw it. Around the state Capitol, it...

It was good to see a smile on Gov. Roy Barnes' face in Wednesday's paper. It looked a bit forced, but he's a courteous and disciplined man, and grace in adversity is probably largely a question of manners. He lost the election massively, and it's easy to forget his strengths in the clatter and dust. He actually tried to do some needed things, despite the way critics have demonized him. He's very smart. He loves Georgia and knows the state well -- and he's shrewd about history, government, banking, law, the machinery and lore of politics and other things. He...

Gov. Roy Barnes said Tuesday that he knows why he lost his re-election. He says it all comes down to the old Georgia flag. "There's no question in my mind about it," he told Channel 2 in an exclusive interview. "And I realize now and I realized it at the time (the flag was changed). I was hoping that we had moved past it."Although he had a $19 million campaign war chest to present his political agenda, he said it was not enough to overcome the flag issue."When you have an issue like that, advertising may not be able to...

Georgia's governor is doing a lot of crowing about why his state was selected over South Carolina for a DaimlerChrysler plant.In the middle of a political campaign, Gov. Roy Barnes is now saying that DaimlerChrysler officials raised the issue of the Confederate flag. The company denies it, but there is definitely some fire from which the verbal smoke is coming.The story broke last weekend with Barnes telling The Atlanta newspapers that the automaker was aware of controversy in South Carolina. He revealed that the NAACP sent a letter to DaimlerChrysler urging the company to reject the state as a location...

ATLANTA - It was a tough choice for legislators when Gov. Roy Barnes challenged them a year ago to change the state flag: face his wrath by voting against him or vote with him and risk a potential voter backlash in the elections of 2002.Most backed the change. A few who didn't felt his anger when he stripped their pet projects from the budget. Now some who voted with Barnes and face November challenges are raking in grants from the governor's emergency fund that could help their re-election bids.The governor's chief adviser, Bobby Kahn, contends the grants have nothing to...

Yes, it's here. TGIED. But there's still time to check the mailbox, fax machine and TV for those late sucker punches that began flying last Friday afternoon.The big one, of course, was Gov. Roy Barnes' burst of TV ads aimed at Sonny Perdue, accusing him of helping "a coldblooded cop killer."Perdue said Barnes was trying to hurt him because he's the front-runner in today's GOP vote for governor. Linda Schrenko and Bill Byrne said Barnes was actually trying to help Perdue by improving the state senator's standing among undecideds. That may be over-thinking the situation.But if not, imagine the possibilities...

Jekyll Island -- For two hours, the protesters waited in the sweltering heat, with little shade except that cast by a small forest of old state banners with the Confederate battle emblem. As noon approached, a dark SUV escaped the nearby resort hotel and breezed by the dockside parking lot. It was what they'd been waiting for, and a handful rushed to the rope that separated them."Boo!""Traitor!"Gov. Roy Barnes had been "flagged." Again.For more than a year, this dogged band of protesters, connected by the Internet, has greeted the governor at nearly every public event in which he's participated.The flaggings,...

<p>DOUGLAS -- Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor was flagged yesterday.</p> <p>Taylor, in town to speak to more than 400 participants in a regional Senior Olympics, was greeted by at least 30 former state flags with their Confederate battle emblems in a show of resentment over a lack of a public vote in adopting a new flag last year.</p>

(Atlanta-AP) -- A campaign video released by GOP gubernatorial hopeful Sonny Perdue depicts Governor Barnes as a giant rat. The video is called ``A New Day Dawning: One man's lust for power drives another man to set Georgia free.'' It will be sent in limited release to Republican supporters and be available free on Perdue's Web site. Parts of the video may be used for TV commercials. In the ten-minute video, Barnes wears a crown, gnaws at the state Capitol and climbs Atlanta skyscrapers. He is also shown stuffing himself with wine and fruit at the governor's mansion. Several...