FOLLOWUP: Harvey Persons' Veto Vote Post

As you may recall from my last post, I predicted that the Douglasville council members would overturn Harvey Person's veto for the Sunday Sales vote, (drum roll please)...I was right!  YES!  First prediction on the new blog comes true!  OK, it was a quite easy prediction to make, so I'm not really impressed either.  The council members also decided to overturn the other veto, which will go into effect May 26, which is to allow for pouring hours to be extended on Saturday night.  The Douglasville Patch does a MUCH better job of expounding upon this than I am going to attempt.

Now, we only have to wait another 3 years to find out if my other prediction, that Persons will not serve a second term, will come true.  I'm sure you're all about to explode with anticipation.  

Oh...and in a completely unrelated...but fun to imply relation...the pictures from Harvey Persons' accident...in a parking lot...with a pole...from February...have been released.  

Harvey Persons is OUT (of office and touch)

All politicians lie.  All politicians mysteriously change their mind after they get elected and are no longer needing to raise funds or win votes.  Harvey Persons, mayor of Douglasville (my home city), is no exception to this.  He recently vetoed referendums to allow the people of Douglasville to vote on Sunday sales of alcohol at stores and to extend pouting hours for restaurants.  You're probably thinking, "So what?!  He was elected to make decisions for his constituents and this is the Bible belt, where rewriting of the Bible to make the Sabbath on Sundays , drinking any alcohol is a sin even though Jesus drank alcoholic wine, gluttony is not a sin, and dancing will send you to hell."  And I agree with you 100%!  He was elected by the people of Douglasville, who voted for his platform, some of which can be found here.  Wait...you didn't click on that last link, so I will quote the relevant part:

"7. Do you think there should be a vote on Sunday package sales allowed? Why or why not?"


"Harvey Persons: I personally do not favor Sunday package sales of alcohol, but feel that there is substantial public opinion to allow it to be placed on the ballot and allow the citizens to decide. The facts for both sides need to be presented and the citizens need to decide this issue."

Wait...did we just read that correctly??  He said he thinks the people should decide.  So why did he veto the referendum?  Oh, that's right, because instead of talking to Phil Miller (the sheriff of Douglas county) or Chris Womack (the police chief in Douglasville), or reading an actual study he would go on the word of a H.E.A.T. officer he did a ride along with.  Now, don't get me wrong, that officer sees drunk drivers everyday, he sees alcohol related auto accidents and deaths that would make anyone never want to touch a drink again.  But that doesn't mean that the officer's perception is reality.  I work in Healthcare IT, so to me, the most important thing in the hospital is clinical computer systems and the access to internal systems.  But that is not reality, it is just my perceived reality.  The most important thing in hospitals is correct diagnosis, access to doctors, etc, etc, not some clinical system that let's the doctor know the person scraped their knee in the 8th grade and had 2 stitches.

Let's also keep in mind that Villa Rica (1 very close city over) allows Sunday sales of alcohol.   So what Persons has actually done, is increase the incentive for a person to drive to another city, and give that city the tax revenue of Sunday sales.

My prediction:  The city council will override Person's veto.  The citizens only need 5 in favor of overturning the veto from the council members votes on May 21, (all 7 originally voted for the referendum).  Persons will not be a mayor for a second term, although he may not run again anyways, he isn't exactly a spring chicken.  In November, the citizens of Douglasville will vote in favor of allowing Sunday sales and extended pouring hours, and Douglasville, along with the rest of Georgia, will slowly emerge from the stone age.  After all, we did finally get rid of the incredibly racist state flag a few years ago.

Let me introduce myself...

So this blog is really meant as more of a joke than anything else. It is basically a blog about me making predictions, 97% of which will never come true, and the 2.99% that do come true will have been obvious at the time. But that 0.01% of my predictions that weren't obvious and do come true, will hopefully land me on CNN or Foxnews as an expert in the situation. I will also take some political stance on things that will one day, most likely prevent me from running for office. I named it "Oracle of HOTLanta" because I live near Atlanta, and all the locals hate it when you call it HOTLanta, therefore I have decided to embrace the name. The oracle part is more of an inside joke, really. I use to be an Oracle DBA, but oracle also is someone that you seek advice through or someone who is considered a medium. Hopefully you get the joke...if not, you're dumb.