For the past two years state legislators attempted to get Sunday liquor sales approved for Georgia. Georgia is one of three states that do not allow Sunday sales, Connecticut and Indiana are the others. Each year the bill has gained momentum and this year is no different.

The state legislature convened this week for their 2009 session. Already the bill to approve Sunday sales has been filed in the Senate with the House to soon follow. The main opponent is Governor Sonny Perdue. He doesn’t drink, he’s proud of that and he will veto the bill.

According to the AJC there is more support for the bill than ever. Lt. Governor Casey Cagle says, “He will not stand in the way,” of the bill. Last year Cagle helped stall the bill in the Senate.

As long as Perdue is governor this bill will not pass. Conventional wisdom is that there is not a 2/3 majority that is needed in both houses to overturn Perdue’s veto. With the state facing a $2 billion budget gap, you’d think they’d be looking wherever possible to find money. Granted having liquor sold on Sunday may prove to a negligible increase in revenue. However, the fact that grown adults cannot go to the store and buy liquor on Sunday seems downright comical. As one friend pointed out, you can drive to a bar or restaurant, drink and then drive home; but you can’t go the store, drive home sober and drink at your home.

The legislation, if passed, leaves it up to voters to decide if they want Sunday liquor sales. The added the revenue alone make the choice an easy one. I think we’ve all grown up enough to have a little sauce on Sunday if we want.

From the AP by way of CNN.com:

Mayor Jack Ellis has converted to Islam and is working to change his legal name to Hakim Mansour Ellis.

Ellis, 61, a Macon native who was raised Christian, said he became a Sunni Muslim during a December ceremony in the west African nation of Senegal.

I realize this isn’t Atlanta-specific, but Macon is just a brief trip down 75 and this is fairly big news for the state.

Only recently, Keith Ellison became the first Muslim elected to Congress, so a practicing Muslim holding a public office seems noteworthy. Additionally, I don’t know if there’s a ton of precedents for politicians changing religions while in office, but this caught my eye.

Now Macon isn’t as big a city on the national or international stage as Atlanta is, but the news got me thinking: what if the mayor of another city, like our own Shirley Franklin, made a similar conversion? What would the reaction of the populace and the punditocracy be?

For what it’s worth, religion really isn’t a major factor in who I do or don’t vote for, but this being “the South”/”the Bible belt” I can see this story dominating news cycles throughout the weekend.

So I’ll leave my earlier questions above for the commenters but also ask this: when (if ever) is a person’s religion a factor in their ability to serve their city/state/country in a position of authority within the government?

The topic has already hit the blogosphere. What do you think?