Hooray for Thurbert Baker, Attorney General of Georgia, for his ruling which requires full public dislosure of the complete bid information for the Georgia and Atlanta tax payer participation in the NASCAR Hall of Fame and the recent ill-fated Super Bowl bid.

And, for the sake of fairness, hooray for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution for hanging in like a bulldog to force what appears to be another huge cover-up into the light of day.

According to the ruling by Mr. Baker, Governor Perdue and Mayor Shirley Franklin have just three days to produce the full documents they have been so busy trying to hide from the public.

They have the right to appeal the decision. In our view, to do so would lead to further culpability and an insult to the citizens of both Atlanta and Georgia. They are not above the law.

This is just another example of the behind the scenes maneuvering by the "Usual Suspects" and the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce. These firms which we regularly document in our commentaries are gradually becoming known to Georgians in all sections of the state. Many of them are having individual problems operating either within the law or the bounds of arrogance. Some previous members of this cartel have already bitten the dust and others seem headed that way. Atlanta's economic stupidity is becoming a topic of conversation.

The people are beginning to know them for who they really are.

If these people would spend as much time practicing the wonderful art of marketing and working in creative competitiveness as they do in conjuring up schemes to prop up their ill fated ventures and social engineering, they'd be far better served and so would all of Georgia.

Sonny and those who support him are going to have to carry this image in the 2006 campaign. This includes the folks down the ticket who won't speak out for sunshine in government. Perdue's silence on secrecy has been deafening. Sonny can't deny the public record nor the money he has accepted from the usual suspects who are part of the Atlanta Chamber. There is an old saying that goes something like, "By those that you run with, so will you be known."

Many millions of tax dollars were secretly pledged by Perdue with no authority whatsoever to do so. We don't know exactly how much until we see the documents. What we do know is, the figure is staggering and worse, in one of the bids (if not both), he even offered to refund the sales tax the rest of us under-privileged Georgians have to pay.

No wonder Perdue pushed so hard to get a tax increase (also in a clandestine behind-the-scenes deal made to get the needed votes by trading away the Fair Vote on the 1956 state flag); he needed the money to soothe the selfish interests of the downtown Atlanta elite.

Where are the members of the Georgia Legislature? Isn't this something that should be investigated? Are there any legislators left in Georgia with the integrity and intestinal fortitude to stand up and fight such plainly blatant abuses of power?

For me, I'm going to ask my legislators what they're doing. If they're wilting under the mantra of party over principle, we need to know it and expose them for what they really are, enablers to a more and more seemingly corrupt government.