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House votes to leave in March, return in June

House votes to leave in March, return in June

By Aaron Gould Sheinin | Friday, February 6, 2009, 09:50 AM
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The state House just voted unanimously to split the 40-day legislative session into two parts, which lawmakers hope will give them flexibility to deal with whatever economic stimulus package comes from Washington.

The House voted 165-0 to meet three days a week through March 25 and then return in late June. The General Assembly is constitutionally required to meet for no more than 40 days a year, although those 40 days do not have to run consecutively.

House Majority Leader Jerry Keen (R-St. Simons) said Senate leaders have also agreed to the change, although that body must approve the adjournment resolution before it takes effect.

This, Keen said, allows the Legislature to be “responsive to things that may or may not come down from Washington.”

Congress is debating a $800 billion to $900 billion economic stimulus package, which by some estimates could send $5.6 billion in additional federal dollars to Georgia for education, Medicaid, infrastructure and more.

State lawmakers, meanwhile, are consider an amended budget for the current fiscal year that must find $2 billion in savings, as well as a budget for the year that begins July 1 that seeks even deeper cuts.

Going to a three-day work week — the House and Senate would convene Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday — slows down the clock and allows budget writers and Congress more time to figure out what money is available.

“All of us see the news and read the newspaper,” Keen said. “We have worked very hard with the Senate to craft a schedule to let you know where we are but at the same time allow us enough flexibility to respond to what may or may not happen in Washington.”

Committees, especially budget-writing panels, would likely continue to meet on Mondays and Fridays, Keen said.

March 25 would represent the 35th day of the session, under the adopted resolution, and returning June 27 would give lawmakers five full days before the beginning of the next fiscal year July 1.

“If we leave and things change, this will allow us to come back in a five-day period,” he said. “It gives us a lot of flexibility and options in terms of what we do.”

OCHO #22 is OUT & I have a Poem in it

OCHO #22: Dear America Don't Be My Valentine , guest edited by Miguel Murphy, is out. I am thrilled to have my poem "Meeting Judy Bloom" in the issue. I am also very thrilled to be among such talented writers as Brent Goodman, C. Dale Young, Matthew Hittinger, Charles Jensen, RJ Gibson, Jeremy Halinen, and Blas Falconer.


OCHO #22: DEAR AMERICA DON'T BE MY VALENTINE

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Poetry Creative Writing poetry gay

Update on LW Limited Edition Chapbook

Exciting and fun news regarding Limp Wrist's limited edition chapbook.

Karen Chase, Ellen Bass, and Dorianne Laux have all agreed to write a blurb for the chapbook. I'm stoked.

Limp Wrist Raffle Extended

Donate to Limp Wrist before 3/30/09, and you are automatically entered to win some of the items you see above. (Items will be given away in groups of three.) All donations are TAX-DEDUCTIBLE and fund the Limp Wrist scholarship.

Here's the donation breakdown:
$5 = 1 Chance
$10 = 3 Chances
$20 = 5 Chances
$45 = 10 Chances
$200 or More = You pick the three items you want. Plus, you'll receive a mention in Limp Wrist.


AND for fun:
If I raise $1,000 by 3/30/09, I will create a Youtube video of me doing Dolly drag. Silence to the peanut gallery-- even though I am crazy for Dolly, I don't spend my weekends in Dolly drag.

CLICK HERE TO MAKE YOUR TAX-DEDUCTIBLE DONATION!

WHY DO I WRITE ~ Virgil Suárez

WHY DO I WRITE ~ Virgil Suárez



For the last decade I have been writing a failed novel in which the main character dies and then comes back. The book is so hoaky that I could hardly contain my laughter and self-ridicule . . . but every morning I try another attempt, and when that doesn't work, I jump on my Yamaha 1100 Classic cruiser and head into the woods of South Georgia, just to clear my head, but for years now, every morning, I write a couple of good poems on the way over and back, so upon my return, I simply unwind by writing a few new poems. I have been doing this for years now. The bike has thousands of miles and I have to say I have seen more of South Georgia than I have of the god foresakened city in which I work, I love small, country town. I love open air drive ins build over the roofs of country stores. I love trailer parks from Hell. I love the junk yards. It is the junk yards that call me everytime I pass one and I have to stop. MUST stop and I take pictures of these old cars, and rusty machines: tractors, towing machines, bulldozers, cheery pickers, camp mules, etc . . . .

Looking at junk, at refuse, inspires me to write more poetry. I am currently working on a book of new poems about the Open Road, about the mulching (as Harry Crews would call it) of America, the desolation, the waste, the gargantuan consumption . . . it's all there between cheap beer and Twinkies. The dough of the cupcake is the Devil's soft, gooey insides . . . the poems keep coming. It's as if I suffer from a leaky spiggot of words . . . and suddenly, during a riding break yesterday, I am stopped under some oak trees watching a woman and a little boy crossing the street that it hits me: What Else Is There? What is better than this life of words? Nothing, says the horny male wren that's perched on a STOP sign at the crossroads of this fucking town!

You live, you fuck, you write. And then you DIE. Cheerful thoughts all, but it sure does help to keep the machinery of writing poetry truly well-oiled. As for the in-progress fiction, well that's it's own 7th Level Hell.
What was that Ishmael Reed line: oh yeah, WRITIN' IS FIGHTIN'!!!

State Representative Calvin Hill is Pointing His Finger

I'm going on mini-tirade. I ask that you read all the way through. Please and thanks!

A powerful state lawmaker believes Georgia’s university system must not be too bad off financially if it can afford to employ experts in such subjects as oral sex and male prostitution.

Rep. Calvin Hill (pictured to the left) (R-Canton) said the university system has resisted accepting the budget cuts that nearly every other part of state government has absorbed as lawmakers fill a $2 billion hole in the budget.

Meanwhile, he said, Georgia State University is touting its faculty as experts on issues that are outside what he believes to be the university’s mission.

“I’m saying we all need to pull together and when we have things that are extraneous and outrages, which I don’t think should be discussed with our tax dollars, maybe some of this will come to mind when we have to make budget cuts,” said Hill, vice chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. Click here to read the rest of the AJC article. I owe a thank you to friend, poet, and blogger Robin Kemp for sending this info my way.


Dr. Mindy Stombler is one of the professors who has Senator Hill pointing his fingers. I checked out Dr. Stombler's course offering for Fall '08 and Spring '09, and I am here to tell you that she did not teach Blow Jobs 1101 as the AJC article would make it seem; however, Dr. Stombler did teach multiple classes of SOCI 3156: Sexuality and Society.

What is this Sexuality and Society course? I'm glad you ask. Here is GSU course listing for Sexuality and Society:

Social construction and social control of sexuality. Examining trends in sexual attitudes and behaviors across the life course and how they are influenced by social interaction and social institutions. Topics may include sex research methods, representations of sexuality, sex education, sexual health and infection, sexual violence, and the commodification of sex.

I think people from the 700 Club would even admit that course description sparks some interest. I also know, as student who attended Georgia State University, that Sexuality and Society is a very popular class, and it fills quickly. I have only heard positive reviews of the course. If Rep Hill wants to talk money, I hope he realizes a class that fills each semester equals money. I think Dr. Stombler should invite Rep Hill to audit one of her classes, since Rep Hill wants to criticize. The Capitol is only a couple of blocks from GSU, so it isn't like it would be out of his way.


I want to share information on Dr. Stombler's research because I find it interesting.

"Her latest research project involves unraveling the power dynamic embedded in the practices of oral sex, particularly cunnilingus, and connecting conceptualizations of cunnilingus to public discourse (particularly messages about oral sex sent through music and other media). Key questions include how people view cunnilingus and how individual and public conceptualizations of cunnilingus are mitigated by race, gender, class, and sexual orientation," and I have pulled this from her faculty page at GSU.

Also, according to her faculty page, Dr. Stombler did a three-year study of Black and White Fraternity Little Sister programs that focused on the different ways that men exploited women in these organizations and the different ways the women resisted exploitation. All thanks to Google for your being able to read an article titled Resistance in Sweetheart and Little Sister Programs, which was written by Stombler and Padavic. Maybe I should mail a copy to Rep Hill; however, I doubt it would be do any good, and I'd rather use my stamp to send the article to someone who would actually read it and have an intellectual conversation about it.

I want to read what Dr. Stombler is currently writing up. Her current project is writing up her results from a second three-year study of gay fraternities that focuses on how men in gay fraternities negotiate the dual identities of being Gay and being Greek. Now, I think it would be stupid to question if Senator Hill wants to know about this study. I'm not a betting man; however, I would bet that Senator Hill doesn't even know that gay fraternities exist. OHHHHH....... maybe we could talk a gay fraternity into asking Senator Hill to pledge. Or, here is an even better thought: a gay fraternity could name Rep Hill a honorary member.


Rep Hill needs to turn his finger to the Governor's recommended continued cuts to the QBE education formula that go to operate schools, the elimination of 10 conservation rangers and 18 staffers at the Environmental Protection Division, cuts for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation crime labs and arson investigators at the Georgia Forestry Commission, reduction of case workers at the Child Protective Services Division, the closing of four prisons, and elimination of nurses in Georgia's schools. And that, my friends, is just the beginning of what I think are important issues.

Representative, quick wasting taxpayer's money by spending time "investigating" and talking about distinguished GSU professors when you could be working on some of the issues I listed above and many other.

Sunday Eye Candy ~ Jessie Pavelka