27 MAR 07: ISN'T THIS CHOICE?
Today is an important day in the Georgia General Assembly. Bills have to pass at least one house by today's 30th day of the 40-day session, or they're dead for the year. It's known as "crossover day" - or if your favorite bill fails, it's "crossed-off day."
State Senator Seth Harp may not be a happy lawmaker on this crossover day. His proposal for a local-option vote on Sunday alcohol sales is stuck in the Senate Rules Committee, and the chair won't let it out for a vote. I never realized the Georgia Capitol had its own version of a "drunk tank."
But there's another bill in the legislature which has been promoted much more. It's the one referred to in commercials, which claim Georgians have NO "real choice" in cable television service. It's for those of you who are still a part of the Bruce Springsteen "57 channels and nothing's on" generation.
The commercials direct you to a web site for "TV choice," promising details on a proposal to save you money on cable TV bills. It turns out to be the work of a political group called "TV4US," which is based outside Washington. So it wants choice in Georgia, while it chooses to have its headquarters hundreds of miles away....
TV4US explains on its web site the goal is threefold: "new choices, better service and lower costs." But this may sound odd to people in Columbus, where three cable companies compete against each other already. If there was a "March madness" discount sale, I admittedly missed it.
The call for "video competition" seems aimed more at smaller Georgia towns, which have only one cable provider. Of course, they also might have only one grocery store - so do we need a state law requiring Piggly Wiggly to expand?
If you smell something fishy in what TV4US is doing, the list of "coalition members" may provide a clue. It has several minority organizations - and one big business named AT&T. First it gobbled up BellSouth. Now it may want to knock Ned the Knology Guy right out of his basket....
A legislature-watcher from CapitolImpact.com told GPB's "Lawmakers" last week AT&T is the driving force behind the "cable TV choice" bill. It apparently wants to offer cable service all over Georgia, and may want to go around local governments to do it. I wouldn't expect its "new choices" to include live coverage of city council meetings.
But this proposal to let AT&T offer statewide cable television raises plenty of questions in my mind....
+ Isn't the switch to digital television in a couple of years requiring cable companies to offer new choices, anyway? I mean, who heard of "The Tube" until a couple of years ago?
+ Don't people in cities with one cable provider already have TV choice? It's called the Dish Network....
+ Won't the growth of broadband Internet service and video streaming provide a different kind of alternative to cable TV? Who needs someone else's channel when you can build a cartoon collection from YouTube.
+ Would statewide cable TV service risk putting community-owned cable franchises in small towns out of business? I can hear the ads for it - "Cingular is now the new AT&T. And AT&T is becoming the new Wal-Mart."
E-MAIL UPDATE: Let's move on to a Columbus church which is on national cable TV every week....
Mr. Burkard,
I don't know much about the church business but if I understand correctly you are a church going man. Maybe you can shed some light on this for me. I am wondering why a church would have two wealthy men as the officers of the " Not For Profit" organization. I would have assumed that if a church had a CEO it would be the pastor. However, according to the Secretary of State for Georgia's web sight.... Mike Patrick is the CEO (Carmike Theaters) and Spud Warr (Warr Grading) is both the treasurer and secretary of Cascade Hills Baptist Church Incorporated. Interestingly enough when I attended Cascade Hills Church back in January, Mr Warr was invited to tell of the benefits he had experienced since he began to tithe to Cascade Hills. It almost seemed that the message was "if you tithe like I do then you can be rich as well". However, at the time I had no idea that Mr Warr was tithing to his own corporation. I must say I really don't understand the church business can you help me understand?
Thanks,
Mark Hall
Yes, I am a churchgoing man - and I've gone to Cascade Hills a few times in recent years. In fact, Spud Warr led a Saturday afternoon Bible study group I attended. Now I feel guilty about not leaving a dollar bill in that envelope, at the front of the room.
But I never realized until this e-mail arrived that Mike Patrick is the Chief Executive of Cascade Hills Church. That would explain why the sanctuary feels so much like a state-of-the-art theater, right down to the comfortable seats....
Some churches divide the executive duties, with a church board running the week-by-week operations and hiring a Pastor. It frees the Pastor to focus on being a minister - and the more time Bill Purvis has to find funny stories, the better he sounds on "Real Time."
I can see why a church would want people with business experience overseeing the finances. They're more likely to know if someone isn't dividing by ten properly, in tithing....
The church I regularly attend teaches what Cascade Hills does, when it comes to tithing. If you tithe, God will bless you. Note I didn't say you'll be rich. Go back to what I went through with a sports business last year, and you'll find it doesn't always work that way.
I don't know the arrangement at Cascade Hills, but members of many church boards don't receive any salary from the tithes. They're volunteers who hold "board meetings" once a month or so, to review how things are going. If they're not going well, there could be changes - such as the always-controversial move of bringing in a drum set.
However Cascade Hills operates its organization, it must be doing something right. The latest "Columbus Community News" shows it has 7,500 members. Saint Anne Catholic Church is second in size in Columbus, at 4,655 -- and it serves free bread and wine to members all the time.
We hope that helps settle some things -- and another church pastor tops our look at Monday headlines:
+ Phenix City minister Johnnie Robinson was sworn in as a new Russell County Commissioner. Governor Bob Riley selected him to fill the seat of Ronnie Reed -- so the Governor may think Russell County needs intervention from someplace higher than Montgomery.
(Ronnie Reed declared he was "disappointed" that Governor Riley did not reappoint him to the commission seat he lost in a court challenge. Reed should be familiar with this concept from way back when he burglarized that Columbus business. It's called probation....)
+ Georgia state measurements showed Columbus had the most polluted air in the state - even worse than Atlanta. Next time, I guess I'll have to keep the doors closed while I clean dust from the kitchen.
+ Fort Benning reported two wildfires on post - yet continued with its "prescribed burning" program in other areas. Critics of the Bush administration would find parallels with the current Iraq strategy....
+ Instant Message to the Louisiana State women's basketball announcers: Congratulations on making the Final Four Monday night. But go ahead, say it - Ketia Swanier of Connecticut is from Columbus, GEORGIA. You didn't have to stop with "Columbus." [True/WWL-AM] I don't think the state of Connecticut even has a Columbus.
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