Jay Bookman

By hillbilly ragger

June 26, 2008 7:33 AM | Link to this

Do they complain that you’re “liberal?” Really?

If memory serves, I think the prevailing view among the half-dozen WATB wingers who post here is that you’re some kind of Stalinist. Or maybe a “fascist,” if they’ve read the Doughy Pantload’s latest.

Because, like, you think the SCHIP program shouldn’t be gutted. And that vanity wars that drain trillions of dollars from our Treasury probably aren’t a good idea. Crazy stuff like that.

By Charles

June 26, 2008 7:35 AM | Link to this

I don’t think I’m offended by Mr. Bookman’s blogs - I think better terms are ‘bewildered’, ‘perplexed’ or even ‘amused’ at his thought process. But I guess when you are indoctrinated into the mainstream press viewpoint of bashing anything Conservative and pushing the Socialist agenda of the New Democrat Party your mind gets warped beyond recognition.

By GodHatesTrash

June 26, 2008 7:48 AM | Link to this

You’re in Georgia, Jay, a state proud of its idiot past. What do you expect from the state that leads the nation in high school dropout rates?

Think of it - you are printing a newspaper for a populace where over 40% of the natives can’t even make it through high school - a Georgia high school!

By reebok

June 26, 2008 7:58 AM | Link to this

Jay, I think you’re liberal only in comparison to the foaming-at-the-mouth fringe who think Rush Limbaugh is a prophet and Dubya is a great President. Anywhere outside the hyper-conservative echo chamber of the deep South, you’d be considered a raving…uh…moderate. IMHO, as the kids say.

By Observer

June 26, 2008 8:08 AM | Link to this

Jay, although I rarely agree with you - in fact, I find most of your positions laughable - I have only been offended by you once. Yesterday. I found your defense of prior administrations’ respect for the law to be one of the worst examples of intellectual dishonesty I’ve ever seen.

Even though we will rarely agree politically, I think you are probably a fairly intelligent person and as such, I found yesterday’s column to be truly offensive.

As strange as this sounds, you should be proud of the beating you take from conservative posters like me on this board because it means you are continually bringing us back for more. Isn’t that your job?

By Copyleft

June 26, 2008 8:13 AM | Link to this

What you have to understand, Jay, is that the fanatics of the far right don’t CARE that this is the Opinion section.

They simply want all liberal voices silenced, here and everywhere. They honestly think that open debate and argument is a BAD thing, and that the nation would be better off if everyone thought and behaved exactly the same way.

By Dusty

June 26, 2008 8:13 AM | Link to this

I tell you what, Jay. You get all the liberal bloggers off of Wooten’s blog and perhaps we could rid your place of all conservatives.

But conducting a blog and expecting everyone to think like you is….unrealistic and void of free speech (something oft mentioned by liberals as they complain bitterly and constantly in many places).

You know the old saying: If you can’t stand the heat, don’t go in the kitchen. And don’t set up a blog either.

By bobby b

June 26, 2008 8:14 AM | Link to this

Jay who? Never heard of him!

By ThaMan

June 26, 2008 8:14 AM | Link to this

I’m never offended that someone is liberal. Especially a so-called journalist. I expect it. I just don’t think you are completely factual. You seem to only quote sources that agree with you. If you found some opposing information, you ignore it.

By Copyleft

June 26, 2008 8:20 AM | Link to this

He’s not saying “nobody should be offended by my liberal views.” He’s saying “Only idiots come to the Opinion section and are then outraged to find OPINIONS.”

For example, the various brain-dead posts about “How can you claim to be objective,” or “Do you really call yourself a journalist,” or “No WAY is this fair and balanced reporting.”

Duh—it’s the OPINION section. Get it?

By Observer

June 26, 2008 8:21 AM | Link to this

Copyleft, you suggest that conservatives wish to silence all liberals yet it is the liberal wing of the democratic party trying to pass the “Fairness Doctrine” in order to silence conservative talk radio. I’m confused - are you playing the part of the pot or the kettle?

By JAY BOOKMAN

June 26, 2008 8:21 AM | Link to this

I don’t expect everyone to like me or agree with me, Dusty. All opinions are treated alike in this space, as long as they are expressed with a bare minimum of civility. Nobody’s trying to run you off or silence you or take away your right to express yourself. Nobody has even hinted at such a thing.

By James

June 26, 2008 8:23 AM | Link to this

I think the real problem is one of balance. Occasionally, Wooten or a guest conservative gets an op-ed but by and large the Atlanta Journal and Constitution is a liberal leaning paper. You see it in everything from its overwhelming number of liberal editorials, to voting recommendations to even the way it “titles” some of its headlines.

I wonder if the “Fairness Doctrine” comes back for talk radio that it will include newspapers ?

By Copyleft

June 26, 2008 8:25 AM | Link to this

If giving equal time to opposing viewpoints would “silence” talk radio, then I wonder: just how feeble ARE talk radio’s arguments?

By Dusty

June 26, 2008 8:31 AM | Link to this

“You’re at McDonald’s. That’s what they serve there. Get over it.”

That’s an invitation to stay?

I guess ‘civility’ is in the eye of the beholder.

By Righty

June 26, 2008 8:31 AM | Link to this

With such Socialist Democrats as Jay Bookman, Cynthia Tucker and Terrence Moore, is it surprising that the subscribership and readership for the AJC has been on a steady decline for years, in a region that has experienced such rapid growth?

It would be nice to have an alternative outlet to obtain the news in published form.

By WFC

June 26, 2008 8:36 AM | Link to this

We haven’t had a genuine conservative politician since Barry Goldwater died. A true conservative does NOT run-up the federal government debt as W and the sainted Ronnie did. No way!

Most rational people hold a combination of liberal and conservative beliefs. I’m an economic conservative and social liberal most of the time.

I believe that the $3 billion a week that we are pouring down the rat-hole in Iraq (and into the hands of politically well connected contractors) would be better spent on health care for Americans, border security, education, and infrastructure repair. Does that make me liberal or conservative?

By Bosch

June 26, 2008 8:36 AM | Link to this

A few Democratic Congresspeople call for the Fairness Doctrine to be reinstated and the whole wingnut population goes ballistic - I guess because Rush told them too.

Come on people, be honest, if you can.

The Fairness Doctrine will never be reinstated - but the wingnut population makes it seem that the bad evil liberal Democrats are trying to censor them. I guess when you have nothing else to go on, you have to find that little thread to hang on to.

By James

June 26, 2008 8:37 AM | Link to this

To Copy:

Your argument is ludicrous. It’s just the opposite and you know it. Talk radio is supported by the people who listen and participate. Tell me why hasn’t liberal talk radio succeeded? They have tried again and again.

By Politics Aside

June 26, 2008 8:37 AM | Link to this

I’m offended by the conservatives who are offended by the liberals who find it necessary to remark about the offended bloggers.

First, most of the offended replies to you, Jay, come from the same two nitwits from Wooten’s blog using mulitiple ID’s. They are peppering your blog with names like Tim and Sally and fifty other ID’s. I cant believe you are falling for it.

Bookman, listen, man, do not respond to trolls. Dont. They’re spamming criticism. It’s not even part of their own political makeup, it’s simply automated partisanship.

Bookman, you are traveling down a very dangerous road. You really must be new to blogs. Blogs have a very short shelf life before trolls find them. Now, you’ve apparently been fooled by the IP adress being different from the troll’s multiple ID’s. Well, many trolls blog from work where they get access to computers on different lines, also, many trolls pay for mulitiple lines of access into their own home just for this very purpose.

Do not reply to trolls. If someone wants to make a point by point challenge to your assertions, and respectfully come to a different conclusion based on insights, then fine. They win the discussion, or they lose, depending on what the reader decides, based on the merits of the debate.

Give readers more credit. We know nonsense when we read it. There are liberal trolls over at Wooten’s doing the same, “jim’s a moron” hatespeak that the pointed heads are doing over here.

“Bookman’s an idiot”, is a troll. Any use of the word “disease, sick, twisted, whine, pinko liberal, terrorist”, is prima facia evidence of hacked rush and hannity. Dont read it. It’s spin spam.

Spin Spam. S** and Span Spin Spam.

Dont reply to trolls. Ever.

By Bosch

June 26, 2008 8:45 AM | Link to this

James,

Why has liberal talk radio failed? I guess it’s because we don’t like to sit around and listen to old fat guys talk about how they hate everything. When we listen to the radio, we like to hear music not hate speech. But maybe, that’s just me.

By Just Nasty and Mean

June 26, 2008 8:50 AM | Link to this

Jay, et al,

What us conservatives find so amusing about liberalism is that is it so obvious liberalism doesn’t work.

Please, show me a liberal program that has success: The war on poverty from the 60’s? Social Security? Welfare? The socialist unionized state of Michigan? Clayton County schools? The city of Atlanta? Lithonia?

These are all bastions run by liberals and they are all utter and miserable failures.

What confounds self-sufficient conservatives is: Where is the evidence—-ANYWHERE liberalism works.

How can one continue to espouse a position when all empirical evidence proves is doesn’t work?

That’s why we read your column. We’re looking for some sign liberals can think logically. That’s all.

By Greg

June 26, 2008 8:52 AM | Link to this

A Conservative: believes in individual FREEDOM and personal responsibility, economic capitalism, family, secular AND Christian education; supports his country even when it makes mistakes; sees the glass as half-full; tends to be pro-life; is optimistic about his country (Reagan’s great gift); accepts logical argument as a component of political action not emotion, and adheres to conservative values when a new course of action is unclear.

What are Liberals all about?

By hillbilly ragger

June 26, 2008 8:54 AM | Link to this

Copyleft @ 8.20, that’s a point I make sometimes but it bears expanding a bit. I think there’s a whole generation, now, who literally do not understand the difference between news stories, news analysis, and opinion pieces.

To them it’s all pretty much the same thing. If you’ve had your “news” served up to you online by a decade of Drudge and two decades of Rush, then there’s virtually no line whatsoever between reporting and opinion.

And to Righty @ 8.31, the oft-repeated RW curse that “you Librul newspapers are dying!” is a little ridiculous, given that right-wing papers like the Moonie Times never made money to begin with, and are seeing their circulations drop off like EVERYONE in the dead-tree paper business.

Put another way—if the AJC should be increasing circulation due to the region’s supposed dramatic growth, and it isn’t because it’s so gosh-darned liberal… why haven’t you right-wingers started a new dead-tree paper and made out like bandits?

By SJ

June 26, 2008 9:02 AM | Link to this

Jay, I think a lot more people agree with your point of view than is apparent from the comments, at least in Atlanta. This city is an island of blue in a sea of red and as such it only makes since that the most liberal part of our state has a liberal leaning news organization. Your blogs do take a beating from the right-winger’s but that has more to do with closed-minded people who freak out anytime someone does not see the world the same way they do. Keep up the good work and don’t let the blinded cultural warriors stop you.

By James

June 26, 2008 9:03 AM | Link to this

To Bosch:

Then don’t complain about conservative talk radio or listen to it. And if we change enough minds through reasoned debate to cost you votes that’s the way it works.

By SJ

June 26, 2008 9:04 AM | Link to this

Jay, I think a lot more people agree with your point of view than is apparent from the comments, at least in Atlanta. This city is an island of blue in a sea of red and as such it only makes since that the most liberal part of our state has a liberal leaning news organization. Your blogs do take a beating from the right-winger’s but that has more to do with closed-minded people who freak out anytime someone does not see the world the same way they do. Keep up the good work and don’t let the blinded cultural warriors stop you.

By NRB

June 26, 2008 9:53 AM | Link to this

Well Jay is certainly entitled to his daydreams. What I find most offensive are the official stances of the AJC, not just their editorials but liberalism colors almost all newsstories.

You’ll notice that almost all news stories in the AJC are anti-white, anti-capitalist, anti-police, pro-criminal, pro-communist, pro-illegal immigration, anti-gun. The list goes on. And thats not even the opinion section.

My issue with Jay is that he is not only a dumb liberal, but he’s a dishonest dumb liberal. Some people are braindead enough to read what he writes and treat is as gospel.

He tried trashing the FAIRTAX and has been put in his place multiple times on the issue, mainly because he outright lies in his columns about it. When asked if he would debate this issue on air with Neal or other talk hosts, he has of course declined because, as with most liberals, he would totally lose in a rational debate.

Jay I find your column amusing, much in the same way that John Sugg is amusing…as a curiousity and a peek into the mind of a deranged left winger trapped in a country he hates.

By James

June 26, 2008 10:06 AM | Link to this

Hey, hey NRB ! Politically wrong on a lot of issues Jay is but “dumb” he is not. That’s why he is so formidable. Let’s be nice. Most of the time I disagree with him but not always.

By Abomi Nation

June 26, 2008 10:34 AM | Link to this

Yes Jay is just daydreaming!

Never mind the Iraq war fiasco. Pretend the economy isn’t tanking. Forget all about the fact that the President has some of the worst approval ratings in history.

Jay should just ignore everything going on around him. Your anger towards Jay will make the last 7 and a half years disappear.

Wake up people! The fact is Jay has had PLENTY of material to write about. One disaster after another.

The problem is, most of you don’t want to face the facts, you want to divert attention. Yesterday was a prime example. Every comment was directed at Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter and Jay Bookman.

The Bush years have been a disaster. Its Jay’s job to write about the current disaster. Screaming “liberal media, liberal media” just doesn’t work all the time anymore.

By Timmy Turner

June 26, 2008 10:42 AM | Link to this

The columns Jay wrote, particularly those exposing the hypocrisy and malice of state pols never gave me reason to suspect that if/when he began blogging, he would be such a thin-skinned, goading ninny. Thought you were better than this; discovered I was wrong.

By swolf4810

June 26, 2008 10:53 AM | Link to this

Well said, Jay!

By susan

June 26, 2008 11:55 AM | Link to this

Yay, Jay!

You give expression to the liberal attitudes many people also have and agree with.

The vehemence of your haters amazes me. I have wondered since I began checking out your blog where your patience for their hatred came from.

Sometimes the hatred shifts gears and becomes truely bitter and whining in tone and that still suprises me.

Hang in there. A river far away awaits your arrival in a month or two.

from susan in Atlanta

By Hillbilly Deluxe

June 26, 2008 2:43 PM | Link to this

Mr. Bookman has never made any bones about the fact he is a liberal. I lean more to the conservative side myself (with a healthy dose of anti-establishment Populism). No big deal that’s what makes the world go around.

My criticism with comments to this blog, as well as Mr. Wooten’s, is that people don’t stick to the merits of the disagreements. Disagree all you want, refute each other’s points and arguments, slant things to favor your side, that’s fine and natural. I see nothing constructive about the constant personal attacks from both sides.

As for Rush Limbaugh, O’Reilly, Hannity,Obermann, Franken, Matthews, etc….I pay very little attention to anything any of them say. I view them as performers each playing to their respective audiences. I doubt any of them believe half what they say.

I realize that Mr. Bookman and Mr. Wooten try to let people express their opinions but I would like to see it limited to opinions on issues and not personal insults about each other. Generally people are insulting total strangers and making assumptions about people they know nothing about. You might be surprised to find people are alot more astute than you think when you get to know them even if they are 180 degrees from you on their opinion.

That’s my 2 cents……have at it.