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DEL.ICIO.USAt long last, a plan for war on gridlock
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Give it to David Doss of Rome, former chairman of the state Department of Transportation. The 10-year transportation proposal that surfaced last week is imaginative. It’s bold. And it’s the first real indication that congestion relief is driving this train.
A great frustration with transportation planning has been the lack of promised relief from the grueling ordeal of traffic gridlock. We’re pelted with expositions that advocate “alternatives” to roads, like last century’s rail, or elaborate public transportation systems that require costly equipment and operators — to take you where they go when they’re running.
Meanwhile, gridlock is the continuing result for the most flexible and personal means of transportation that provides travel freedom and mobility to all but a handful of Georgians.
This really goes to the concept of government’s role in our lives. Policy-makers should observe how we choose to live and get about — and then use tax revenues to identify and fix the obstacles diminishing the quality of our lives. Each of us, in traveling daily throughout metro Atlanta, can identify the fixes, whether it’s an intersection that doesn’t work, an exit that backs up into the interstate, or too much traffic for design capacity.
All are fixable — but, instead, we have layers of committees drafting 30-year plans that promise more of the same.
At some point, Georgians should expect and demand more. Status-quo gridlock is not an option.
The “big idea” transportation plan Doss is promoting addresses some of the state’s crucial needs, getting across North Georgia, from I-85 to I-75 and on to Alabama, for example. It addresses, too, the dead-stop gridlock on the Downtown Connector.
And it addresses the capacity problem, with a network of toll lanes around metro Atlanta. The goal is to reduce congestion by half in a decade. The proposed projects would be financed with tolls and with a 10-year, 1-cent sales tax statewide, which would generate an estimated $22.2 billion.
No tax plan of this magnitude will come out of the Georgia General Assembly, pending a yearlong examination of the state’s tax structure and competing needs. So, at best, the transportation proposal is just a conversation-starter for now.
But it has potential.
The state does need to have an open debate, with all cards on the table, about the worsening mobility problem — and how to fix it statewide. The proposed tax, substantial as it is, doesn’t scare me. What does is that this generation of leaders will fail to deliver the quality of life the next generation deserves. Wasting time and money on “solutions” that move a handful of people here and there are deadly to any prospect of building a basic system to serve Georgia.
While significant parts of it, like operating subsidies for intracity bus systems, raise red flags, the proposal is visionary — and it would serve the needs of the next generation. Killing the Northern Arc without offering an alternative way to get pass-through traffic from I-85 to I-75 was shortsighted. Killing many of the expressway projects around Atlanta, such as the Stone Mountain Tollway, was shortsighted. Both put neighborhood politics over the next generation’s mobility and, therefore, its well-being.
While I once dismissed as wasteful the efforts of the good ol’ boy legislators to four-lane Georgia, I’ve now come full circle. The neighborhood politics that have furthered gridlock in metro Atlanta convince me that the time to put in infrastructure is before people arrive. Once subdivisions develop, politicians lose their will. Capitulation is easy. Necessary projects get abandoned.
The proposal Doss brings would pump $3.6 billion into completing the 17 existing four-lane corridors, giving Georgia 3,150 miles of four-lane highways, putting 98 percent of the state within 20 miles of a four-lane.
Georgia should indeed leap ahead on transportation planning. It needs a state plan that involves the governor and legislators, one that brings congestion relief to metro Atlanta. It needs a plan with components chosen on a cost-benefit basis so that projects are forced to compete. Publish the list, along with a timetable for completion. No games. No agendas — except to get us moving.
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Comments
By CJ
March 6, 2007 8:06 AM | Link to this
Wooten wrote, “…the most flexible and personal means of transportation that provides travel freedom and mobility…”
I continue to be impressed with the rhetorical twists that commentators from the right will come up with to make their bad ideas sound virtuous. “Transportation that provides travel freedom” is a patriotic sounding way of saying, “I love my car” or “we don’t need no stinkin’ government subway” or “I don’t want those people living in my neighborhood” or “I don’t give a $hit about global warming” or “I have a great idea about how private companies can make a buck or two using public assets.”
More of the same, with tolls, is exactly what this “imaginative” proposal is offering.
By Where's the data?
March 6, 2007 8:14 AM | Link to this
Jim, for years you have trumpeted the need for transportation solutions to be based on quantifiable congestion relief data. You’ve lavished praise on the Congestion Mitigation Task Force, which recommended that the region’s funding allocation formula give 70% weight to congestion relief. You’ve cited statistics from travel demand models ad nauseum to “prove” that highways work and commuter rail is a waste of money. You’ve demanded accountability and proof from ARC and GDOT that transportation investments are cost effective.
And yet, now you enthusiastically support a “pie in the sky” proposal which includes a maglev train from Kennesaw to Savannah? Where are the ridership projections justifying your support? A tunnel bypassing the Downtown Connector? An interesting concept worth consideration, but where’s the analysis beyond a couple of pages extracted from a self-serving report by a conservative think tank? The Peachtree streetcar? An idea I fully support, but the feasibility report is still a work in progress. Four lane highways in south Georgia? Please show me the economic impact studies which demonstrate that these will be wise investments.
Why the double standard? Just because an idea originates from David Doss, who partakes of the Wendell Cox kool-aid as frequently as you do, still doesn’t mean that it’s “cost effective” or provides “meaningful congestion relief”. Let’s put the pom poms back on the shelf until we know more.
By jbmlaw
March 6, 2007 8:24 AM | Link to this
Good morning all. The subject essay has a single brilliant idea that defines the fault line we’ll see on the blog today. The conservative view: “This really goes to the concept of government’s role in our lives. Policy-makers should observe how we choose to live and get about — and then use tax revenues to identify and fix the obstacles diminishing the quality of our lives.” The leftist view is that the sheep need to be retrained, and that our bureaucrat betters are the ones who need to lead the retraining. In the debate of whether the government is the master or the slave, I always affirm the government should be the slave.
By Curious Observer
March 6, 2007 8:26 AM | Link to this
Yet another boondoggle in the offing. It would funnel money into downtown, but somehow the outlying areas that really need traffic help get short shrift every time. The people who already have MARTA services want wider highways and streetcars, while suburbia gets placed on a tertiary list for road projects and on a blacklist for MARTA train services. The talk is always about relieving traffic throughout the metro area, but the action always focuses on the downtown and midtown areas.
Go look at the traffic mess on GA 400 at the North Springs station of an example of the dominant attitude of the planners toward suburbia. Vehicle traffic from the station can go only one way—north. The urban-centric planners don’t want any vehicles clogging up their own highways. A little further south, you will encounter a toll road. If the north side wants a freeway, it must be paid for by tolls. But if other areas want expressways, somehow the funds are never absent.
Now go further north to Holcomb Bridge Road and GA 400. The southbound exit narrows from four lanes to one in the space of 200 yards, and even that one lane has to find a way to move even further left into a through traffic lane.
To the one-cent tax I say no, thank you. We’ve seen the work of the traffic planners. It’s all about midtown and downtown, although they certainly don’t mind collecting our money to fund their pet projects.
By Norman
March 6, 2007 8:33 AM | Link to this
Jim commented “Policy-makers should observe how we choose to live and get about — and then use tax revenues to identify and fix the obstacles diminishing the quality of our lives.” I assume that Jim’s natural conclusion is that we all choose the car. Frankly Jim that just ain’t so. There are ever increasing numbers of the next generation who are tired of the 1950’s and 60’s automobile dependent approach to transportation. Ironically, it is government subsidies and policy makers that have all but eliminated transportation freedom by dumping all of our limited funds into more concrete concentration camps called interstates.
Jim further states, “Each of us, in traveling daily throughout metro Atlanta, can identify the fixes, whether it’s an intersection that doesn’t work, an exit that backs up into the interstate, or too much traffic for design capacity.” Why can’t you invision something grander than synchronized traffic lights? Our traffic woes are not going to be fixed with timing and bigger intersections. Our interstates are at capacity. It is not going to get better. We need to invest our dollars in real transportation alternatives, real freedom. I want to live in an Atlanta and Georgia where the only things that I will have to invest in for transportation is a rail pass and a few Delta tickets for vacation. I am tired of my pickup. My boots are choosing the train.
By mo
March 6, 2007 8:38 AM | Link to this
I guess I can vent about this on this forum. See, I live in West Cobb, and the traffic situation here can actually be laughable.
See, we have two-lane streets close, and including our neighborhood. The problem is that every patch of land is being developed with new homes, but the street remains… a two-lane street.
Take Stilesboro Road, for instance. The traffic on the street is so much during rush hour it rival large, multi-lane highways in other counties. But it is a two-lane street.
Now, guess what? They have built some large churches, plus now they’re building a strip mall… on a two-lane street.
Can anyone make any sense of this?
By Redneck Convert
March 6, 2007 8:48 AM | Link to this
Well, I see them two boys give a 2 and a 4 yr. old pot and they was staggering all over the place. Its a shame what happens these days. It was good the boys got put in jail. They should be. Wasting good stuff on little kids when the rest of us would cut off a arm to get our hands on stuff that powerful.
I don’t want to pay no more taxes. If Those People want streetcars let them pay for it theirselfs. And I don’t care how long it takes people to get downtown. Besides, wider highways would just bring more of Those People up here to north Forysth county. And its unAmerican to charge people tolls to drive on highways they already payed for. All they would do is add x-press lanes and rob decent people of space to drive on.
I see jbmlaw is on his rant again about how bad guvmint is and how it should be our slave. He can’t seem to make up his mind. One minute he wants to get rid of guvmint and the next one he wants to use it to make our living easier. And it won’t be long before TFTT chimes in and starts talking about the black criminals and such and calling Debbie crackpipe. Dusty will top it off with a rant about cutting and running. And Van and Markus and John D. will all start cussing and throwing out names for people.
I would get off this blog if it wasn’t so innertaning. Its better than watching the crazies at that state place down in Milledgeville. Where Van and Markus and John D. and Dusty and TFTT will wind up soon.
By Shar
March 6, 2007 8:51 AM | Link to this
The focus of your piece is on the congestion-relieving elements of the proposal, but the majority of the tax dollars raised would be directed to projects outside of the metro area to four lane existing roads, pave dirt roads and improve other travel infrastucture. A great deal of the metro planning involves toll roads and are dependant upon private investment. This is not a recipe for a coherent, cost-effective transportation plan.
Most tellingly, you assume that everyone is like you - a suburbanite who works in the city of Atlanta and who chooses to drive a car to work. Not true. When the decision to locate is made, advantages (bigger house, more yard, better schools, etc.) and disadvantages (long commute) are weighed by the individual. Choosing the suburban option increases demand for more development, which in turn spurs greater congestion. Now the commute has become so arduous that suburban Atlantans want the rest of the state to kick in so that they can keep their advantages but decrease their disadvantages.
I chose to live intown, to have a small house and yard and to work hard with to improve my neighborhood school so that my husband and I do not lose two hours of our lives together every day. I fought the developers’ effort to run a six lane highway right through my back yard. You can dismissively call this “neighborhood politics”, but I do not believe that my property rights should be second to your desire to drive your very own car where you personally want to go. Cars do not necessarily benefit “all but a handful of Georgians” - the emissions from your long commute are inflicted upon us all, and the less affluent make do with “last century” options - which incidentally are what keep cities like New York and Washington passable.
A sales tax is highly regressive, meaning that those who cannot afford to buy and operate a car would have to pay for you to more comfortably use yours. And lessening the commute disadvantage will only spur even more development, making yet more congestion. Just look at the pattern with school building, where suburban schools are designed for huge enrollments and are forced to open with additional trailers.
I would be willing to help finance an effective public transportation system because I would benefit from it in terms of environmental impact and because such a system is expandable as demand grows. Plus, it would give commuters a real “commute alternative” - twenty minutes to get close to their destinations or an hour and a half to get there directly.
Repeatedly in your column you have espoused taking responsibility for the consequences of personal choice, for strengthening property rights, for not permitting government to overreach its ability to intrude into private lives. I believe that this proposal is in direct contradiction to all of the above, and not worthy of support.
By Southern Democrat
March 6, 2007 8:52 AM | Link to this
Mo, I totally agree. Politicians on both sides of the aisle have been beholden to developers for a long, long, long time. We need better planning (or maybe just planning?) for all our cities and towns and we need to invest in public transportation. Mr. Wooten’s ideas lead to one result: Los Angeles.
By Van
March 6, 2007 9:05 AM | Link to this
I would settle for just correcting all the engineering malpractice.
I never understood why at 285 and US78, you merge onto 285 from the left lane.
I can not understand how anyone can design the 285 and GA400 intersection and sleep at night.
Going northbound on the connector, when you get to the 75/85 split, it seems illogical, go left for 85 and right for 75.
By Brad
March 6, 2007 9:07 AM | Link to this
CJ gives a perfect lefty wingnut example of the attitude of we know what’s better for you than you. If you want to drive to the mountains, forget about it. Wait for a tour bus. If you want to drive halfway across town to buy sashimi grade tuna at the Dekalb farmer’s market, wait for a train or hoof it. It’s nothing short of amusing watching the Left tell others how they should live, especially if it has anything to do with the fallacy of global warming. Once the truth begins to unravel about it after the Gore frenzy dies down, we will realize we have been duped again just like three decades ago when global cooling was all the rage. http://www.canadafreepress.com/2007/global-warming020507.htm
What we should really be focusing on here regarding gridlock is the amount of influence greedy developers have on local politicians. This horrible economy we’re in under W and this miserable housing slump we’re in under W sure have ruined a lot of suburban backyard views.
By melo
March 6, 2007 9:09 AM | Link to this
Well, as ususal, Jim and your right wing friends are silent on the WALTER REED scandal! Head in the Sand crew, no doubt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thats whats on the news right now. Is it a LIBERAL conspiracy or what. SHAMEFUL & INCOMPETENT RIGHT WING PRESIDENCY
By Jozef Goj
March 6, 2007 9:17 AM | Link to this
Whether in a bus, car, truck or van the journey time can be significantly reduced by a road system that allows all commuters to reach their destination without stopping.
When you have a crucial bridge or bottleneck to negotiate this becomes even more important. Furthermore in the event of a blockage on any road, and this goes against all current politically correct thinking, if the blockage is screened off correctly the vehicles passing that blockage should go past it faster not slower! If you have two lanes reduced to one then the traffic has to travel past the restriction at twice the speed to maintain vehicle flow rates.
Go fast to go slow and go slow to go fast?
No this is not a puzzle. But when you get in a car and drive it helps if you do not have to stop till you get were you want to be!
The major problem is the roads infrastructure is designed to slow you down. This is called world’s best practice and it has been wrong for over 80 years.
Our intersections are designed to keep you driving safely without stopping.
If the road infrastructure cannot achieve free and uninterrupted vehicle flows no technology will help!
The solution to traffic jams is not the size of the road but the ability of an intersection to work correctly.
Traffic lights just stop traffic, roundabouts are for light traffic and freeway intersections are fundamentally flawed. They fail under heavy traffic as they also only work with light traffic. Why do you ask? Because you enter and exit all traffic from one lane.
At www.ubtsc.com.au we have models of intersections that work at 100 percent efficiency.
They allow all vehicles entering an intersection to exit that intersection left, right or ahead without stopping all day every day without fail. Yes even during the worst peak traffic you can imagine.
It’s called Liquid Flow and its only limitation is the maximum speed a road can be traversed safely. Mathematically vehicle speeds go from zero to infinity.
None of this is worth anything if government at all levels dismisses it as too expensive! It isn’t.
Think outside the square for solutions and look for the positives of what this means.
Imagine being able to cross town in peak hour traffic without stopping at a single intersection.
Jozef Goj CEO UBTSC Pty Ltd
By Uber Atlantus
March 6, 2007 9:21 AM | Link to this
Two word solution to all our traffic problems: Flying Cars. But, the wheel bound auto industry and the aircraft manufacturers want to maintain their respective turfs, so they work together to stifle all debate and sabotage any work being done, much like the oil industry has stymied work on alternative fuels for years. People have even been known to suddenly disap
By Brad
March 6, 2007 9:21 AM | Link to this
Walter Reed indeed. You leftie wingnuts are just getting a whiff of what your wonderful universal healthcare under government would be like. It makes no difference who’s in control of Washington. It’s all about government. I’ve seen the incompetence and horrid conditions of base hospitals and VA hospitals for decades. Do you wingnuts think Reed is isolated? By the way, how come not one democrat prior to now, especially during congressional election 2006, mentioned anything about outpatient at Reed? Phonies.
By time for the truth
March 6, 2007 9:37 AM | Link to this
WHY I HATE BLACKS
Come on crackpipe - please please puke up another glorious racist hissy fit like yesterday loveykins. That was pure magic!!
Yesterday I saw John Gibson interview this young self styled asian supremacist, kenneth eng, on why he hates blacks, and whites and even fellow asians. as you can see below his published reasoning is as moronic as anything crackpipe, inbred rednekkk or rednekkks NAMBLA has ever puked up on here:
Why I Hate Blacks:
Here is a list of reasons why we should discriminate against blacks, starting from the most obvious down to the least obvious:
• Blacks hate us. Every Asian who has ever come across them knows that they take almost every opportunity to hurl racist remarks at us.
In my experience, I would say about 90 percent of blacks I have met, regardless of age or environment, poke fun at the very sight of an Asian. Furthermore, their activity in the media proves their hatred: Rush Hour, Exit Wounds, Hot 97, etc.
• Contrary to media depictions, I would argue that blacks are weak-willed. They are the only race that has been enslaved for 300 years. It’s unbelievable that it took them that long to fight back.
On the other hand, we slaughtered the Russians in the Japanese-Russo War.
• Blacks are easy to coerce. This is proven by the fact that so many of them, including Reverend Al Sharpton, tend to be Christians.
Yet, at the same time, they spend much of their time whining about how much they hate “the whites that oppressed them.”
Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t Christianity the religion that the whites forced upon them?
• Blacks don’t get it. I know it’s a blunt and crass comment, but it’s true. When I was in high school, I recall a class debate in which one half of the class was chosen to defend black slavery and the other half was chosen to defend liberation.
Disturbingly, blacks on the prior side viciously defended slavery as well as Christianity. They say if you don’t study history, you’re condemned to repeat it.
In high school, I only remember one black student ever attending any of my honors and AP courses. And that student was caught cheating.
It is rather troubling that they are treated as heroes, but then again, whites will do anything to defend them.
Aside from eng’s p!ss poor reasoning on the subject of blacks he has puked up equally deranged sh!te on whites and asians
http://news.asianweek.com/news/viewarticle.html?articleid=33bdb64c5b346a69bab3a2d448603596
http://news.asianweek.com/news/viewarticle.html?articleid=7db9bd5343504d52fa065fef122fc04d&thiscategoryid=172
Clearly the most disturbing thing about this utterly bewildered asian nazi type and his rantings is the fact that little if anything was said in the leftist party of hate medai about his racist screeds on whites and asians … only when he said he hated blacks (in print) was he meaningfully exposed/targeted by liberals and fired from this poxy small circulation riceburning rag!! So its seemingly reasonable to infer that these days its quite OK to say you hate asians and whites but not that you hate blacks!!
Until we Americans get over this disgusting racial pandering to ONLY blacks this country will sadly but deservedly remain racially polarised as the shameful liberal pandering to blacks continues unchallenged!!
eng, the deranged self styled “god of the universe” was quite unable to state credibly or convincingly on live TV why he hated whites or asians … and he simply reiterated the points posted above about blacks … he came across as a doltish hateful very angry asian skinhead. but way more articulate than our very own crackpipe and a bit more articulate than the nonentity far leftist osama obama though!!
if it weren’t for the fact that these days the knuckle dragging liberal speech police try their damndest to force folks into worthless, poisonous leftist rehab for using the fa ggot word I’d gleefully call eng a badly bewildered asian fa ggott!!
By getalife
March 6, 2007 9:50 AM | Link to this
Of course, Jim will not write about Walter Reed
None of the wingnut blogs deal with reality.
Brad,
You are an idiot. The doctors and nurses are doing great work with our wounded troops.
If you read about Walter Reed or watched the hearing, you may get a clue before you spew.
Geez.
By DebbieDoRight
March 6, 2007 9:51 AM | Link to this
Walter Reed is a disgrace. Everyone knows that. I wonder if it would’ve been mentioned in any of Jim’s last few blogs if a Democratic regime was in power? I bet if it was Clinton who was president, Jim would’ve brought out the big guns to blast an inefficient, corrupt, establishment run by the Democrats!
I wonder why he is so reticent to do the same thing with the Republicans? Thinking Right inddeed, it should be called Not Thinking At All.
By Kevin LaPhem
March 6, 2007 9:54 AM | Link to this
Cycling is the only to simultaneously reduce traffic and human induced global warming.
By time for the truth
March 6, 2007 9:55 AM | Link to this
this is the anti-white screed … as usual posted links dont always ‘work’ on here …
Proof That Whites Inherently Hate Us
Kenneth Eng, Nov 24, 2006
White people hate us and will always hate us. Here is a simple list of evidence, going from the most obvious down to the least obvious:
How many American films feature Asian heroes who are not stereotyped? If someone makes a negative comment about a black person, all of the whites get hopping mad. Make a negative comment about the Asian race and nobody cares. Most Asians know that everywhere we go, white/black/Hispanic people hurl racist remarks at us. I have already received about 10 racist remarks in the past three months and I have only been out of my home a handful of times. In 1982, Vincent Chin was killed by two white people, Michael Nitz and Ronald Ebens. Both murderers went free, as the judge claimed that they were not the type of people who deserved to be in prison. Chai Vang righteously killed six white people after they approached him with guns first. Unlike the “men” who murdered Vincent Chin, brave Mr. Vang was sentenced to life. Asian civil rights activities receive virtually no media attention. Yet Rosa Parks was pretty much honored as a hero just because she refused to give up her seat. This is curious because Vincent Chin died to defend his race. Why hasn’t he been given an award?It is quite naďve to think that all of this can be explained by claiming that whites are not “enlightened” or that whites lack awareness of our issues. It is even more immature to think that things will get better if only we continue to protest peacefully through lame marches and letters to the producers of (insert any American TV show here). Animals, through evolution, are intrinsically developed to detest organisms that are different; the obvious reason being that conformity to a certain level increases the chances of a species’ survival. Since humans are part of the animal kingdom, it should be no surprise that whites have evolved to hate Asians, who have a strikingly different appearance than them. Furthermore, we do live in an age where “political correctness” and anti-racism are in vogue. Why then, are there virtually no Asian heroes in the media? This is solid proof that we are enemies in the eyes of the Aryans. If even in an epoch where equality is an important matter they still do not treat us as equals, then what hope is there that they will ever treat us equally?
More importantly, why should we care? We vastly outnumber them. When you have a disobedient child, you do not give him gifts to make him abide to your will. You show him the cane.
By Michelle
March 6, 2007 10:05 AM | Link to this
Hey DumbA@S: The title of the article was “Why I Hate Blacks” — why would “little if anything be said in the leftist party of hate media about his racist screeds on whites and asians”? Did the person mention hating whites and asians in his post? You are the epitome of stupid and you have a foul mouth. I hope your mother washes your filthy mouth out with soap, and a fist, and maybe some nunchucks.
By time for the truth
March 6, 2007 10:08 AM | Link to this
@ Kevin ecowhacko PHLEGM
time for the truth reasonably suspects you are the deranged car hating nutter harold in disguise again!!
using cycling for daily commuting in and around the metro area is utterly unrealistic for most people. the ONLY place you can go ride a bike is on the silver comet - and that is packed with demon seed brats and fat wimmin who cant cycle properly. it goes nowhere of any practical use to most folks - so its purely recreational.
if you wnat to cycle everywhere go live in red china and enjoy the catastrophic pollution that is amusingly choking the commies as they provide walmart with all their cheap crap!!
By Dusty
March 6, 2007 10:22 AM | Link to this
Time for the Truth @ 9:37 & 9:55,
What is your problem? I haven’t read that much bigoted, dismal, prejudiced, objectionable material in a long time. Why do you fill up space here with such trash as that?
By Camus
March 6, 2007 10:27 AM | Link to this
Brad,
Typical nonsense from a wingnut. Walter Reed is in fact a good example of what happens when you PRIVATIZE a government service that was once a shining jewel for the healthcare of veterans. Walter Reed is not run by the government; it was outsourced to a company called IAP, which is run by a couple of Shotgun Dick’s cronies from Haliburton.
Nice try, though. Clearly, you would rather deflect criticism from the cr@ppy treatment our injured vets are receiving from the “support the troops” administration. Too bad the facts contradict your so-called ‘argument’.
By time for the truth
March 6, 2007 10:28 AM | Link to this
@ braindead panderer michelle
the anti-white article was published last year, THREE MONTHS before the anti-black article. the anti-asian article entitled WHY I HATE ASIANS was published in mid-january … but yet just a few days after the anti-black article was published in late Feb this asian nazi is fired. so he gets to puke up in print his hate for whites and asians … but then almost immediately he says he hates blacks in print he’s fired!! such liberal pandering to blacks is beyond nauseating!!
MY POINT STILL STANDS LOVEYKINS!! Your pathetic hateful racially dishonest drivel is hilariously dishonest and utterly ignores the UNDENIABLE point about the blatant divisive pandering to blacks … yet nothing is said/done about his hate speech about whites and asians!!
Why I Hate Asians
Kenneth Eng, Jan 12, 2007
It seems like an odd title for an article written by an Asian Supremacist, but there are very good reasons why I hate many of my own kind.
The first thing I hate about Asians in America is how so many of them want to suck up to whites. I have had fistfights and verbal altercations with many who discriminated against me and my people. Sadly, however, the Asians who witness or hear about these battles often hate me for being “hypocritical,” and tell me that “two wrongs don’t make a right.” Do these sycophants think it’s “cool” to mindlessly side with whites and blacks? Is it not enough that we have to fight against discrimination? Now we have to fight amongst ourselves as well?
The second thing I hate about Asians is how little pride most of them have. This may be the result of societal brainwashing, but whatever the cause, it must stop. I am repulsed when I see Asian guys speak with British accents in an attempt to sound sophisticated. British people can’t be all that sophisticated if they don’t yet understand the concept of dental hygiene. I am also sickened when I hear Asian people imitate Negro slang in an endeavor to sound “ghetto.” Am I supposed to be impressed that such a person emulates the attitude of a supposed slum resident? More importantly, whatever happened to being yourself?
The third thing I hate about Asians is how apathetic many of them are in terms of honor these days. If I saw an Asian being stereotyped in a movie theater, I would immediately stand up and shout incessantly at the screen so that none of the white audience members could enjoy the film.
When I saw a white man yelling at an old Asian woman a few months ago, I walked up to him and hollered slurs right back in his Aryan face. But most other Asians, I am disappointed to say, would rather just chuckle at their own stereotypes on screen and ignore the problems of their brethren. At the risk of sounding corny, whatever happened to the days of the samurai? When honor meant more than life? Whatever happened to the age of Sun Tzu when we used to kick a*?
Don’t get me wrong. I love the Asian race, but every race has its inferiors.
By time for the truth
March 6, 2007 10:31 AM | Link to this
Dusty
the links I posted didn’t ‘work. so I posted the actual Asian Week articles… the point is blatantly obvious to anyone … the disgustingly divisive double standards about treatment of blacks versus treatment of whites and asians!!
By Jim's a Cherry Picker
March 6, 2007 10:35 AM | Link to this
Jim!
Put in infrastructure before the developers!!!!
That’s Communism buddy. Socialism at the least.
I’m proud of you for taking an different view, but essentially there’s no fix for Atlanta in building more roads. More roads lead to more drivers and more drivers lead to more congestion. The HOV lanes don’t work because they fill up just as easily as the others. So what’s the point?
The trains of yesteryear that you seem fixated on dismissing are really the answer. I hate for you to have to hear that, but it’s true.
Don’t ride them if you don’t want to, but simple math will tell you that the more folks who do, the less that are in the mix on the surface streets and interstates. The less folks in traffic, the less opportunity for congestion.
Driving is for suckers. Besides being horribly inefficient and costly, it’s dangerous. More than 1700 people died while driving in Georgia in 2005. That’s more than died from terrorist attacks in the entire in America that year. I don’t believe anyone has ever died on a Marta train.
What’s your plan for saving all those precious lives?
By Brad
March 6, 2007 10:36 AM | Link to this
Getalife, do not put your words in my mouth. I never said the doctors and nurses at Reed are doing a bad job caring for our troops. What I said was there is incompetence and horrid conditions at base hospitals and VA hospitals. That’s from an administrative point of view as well as my own personal point of view. Have you ever had to care for an elderly relative that had to go to the VA for medical care? Obviously, you have not. Getalife, do you and your wingnut pals know that Walter Reed is slated for closure in 2010 due to base realignments as closures are called? I thought you wingnuts wanted our bases closed and replaced with United Nations and NATO outposts. Finally getalife, I notice neither you nor any of your other wingnut pals here had a thing to say about why no congressional democrat mentioned anything about Reed prior to now. Universal healthcare will be this nation’s biggest socially bureaucratic nightmare problem fix since Johnson’s Great Society.
By jm
March 6, 2007 10:40 AM | Link to this
Of course Mr. Wooten left out some of the fairly simple choices to help ease traffic congestion. Flexible work hours and telecommuting. While I realize not every company can support these two options, I think those that can should look at them. When I was working in D.C., one program the feds used to ease traffic was to have employees in certain agencies work the following:
8 9 hours days 1 8 hour day ( which usually ended up a 9 hour day) every 10th day off.
Contrary to what you might think, not everyone chose to have that day off a Friday or a Monday.
By Brad
March 6, 2007 10:42 AM | Link to this
Cycling is the only to simultaneously reduce traffic and human induced global warming.
You first LaPhem, especially in 28 degree sleet in January or 95 degree heat in July. Let me know how it works out for you.
By deegee
March 6, 2007 10:50 AM | Link to this
The “outer perimeter” that was proposed back in the sixties/seventies? was on the map for years. That was the time to build the road when it traversed cow pastures. Of course politicians lose their will knowing that their constituents stand to lose the most important investment they will ever make when a “parkway” runs through their neighborhood.
The only way I would vote in favor of an outer perimeter constructed in a populated area is if ALL commercial development subsequent to the signing of the law is banned along the edge of the “parkway”. Then you will have a road and not a developers’ windfall courtesy of your local state and county politicians.
By Brad
March 6, 2007 10:55 AM | Link to this
Camus, I hate to break the late news to you, but the military and government outsource just about everything because they don’t produce or build anything themselves except service. Those generals and G14 civilians ultimately ran Reed, not Halliburton. Who do you think washes clothes and provides lenins? In any event, someone had to do the dirty work the government couldn’t do. Who do you think provides surgical supplies? Who do you think provides the food service? Who do you think washed clothes? Halliburton having to do with bulding 14 is about as blind an argument as one can make on the bigger picture of government bureaucratic red tape. Now since none of your other lefty wingnut friends could answer this, give it a wag: why no mention of Walter Reed by congressional democrats prior to now?
By Dusty
March 6, 2007 10:56 AM | Link to this
Time for the Truth,
Are we discussing any “racial” topics and epitaphs here this morning? NO.
Why did you bring it up with obnoxious reprints of someone obviously prejudiced and hateful? Other than stirring up a lot of hate, I don’t see why you do that. Is that what you are trying to do?
I think we are the most equal country in the world where good will can be enjoyed. Don’t work against it.
By jacksonwolff
March 6, 2007 10:57 AM | Link to this
TFTT-
What does any of what you posted have to do with this article?
Do you ever comment on what the rest of us are talking about?
By Camus
March 6, 2007 10:58 AM | Link to this
Brad,
Hey, that’s a good one about converting all our bases to UN installations. But you forgot to mention the black helicopters and the evil Soros-funded Global Zionist conspiracy. You’re just not trying hard enough.
Plus, you left out the crack about having health care delivered by the same people who run the Post Office. That’s a knee-slapper that always gets the wingnuts chuckling.
You’re a imbecilic robot Brad. Try thinking an original thought, just once.
By getalife
March 6, 2007 11:10 AM | Link to this
Brad,
Nice rant but stick to Walter Reed.
I know it is American welfare that you wingnuts hate but love Iraqi welfare.
I have been in our hospitals, not VA and I can tell you that it is very costly.
BTW, I am far from a wingnut.
By Camus
March 6, 2007 11:11 AM | Link to this
Brad
Despite feebly asking twice “who do you think washed the clothes” and wondering just who “provides lenins (sic!)”, thank you for highlighting the government’s penchant for outtsourcing services that they handled so well for so long WITHOUT OUTSOURCING!
The Walter Reed issue is just the latest example of the insane policy of allowing for-profit companies to run our public services. In almost every instance, the cost to government (that means you, taxpayer) goes up, and quality of service suffers. The only winners are the guys who run the companies that win the contracts.
It has happened repeatedly — in Iraq, with schools, prison management, even the local Atlanta water management. In every instance, privatization has been a failure by every measure except for the profits accrued by the contract winner.
As for the Democrats silence on Walter Reed before the 2006 election… Well, I suppose if they had used their secret time machine to allow them to read the Wash Post article that appeared six months after the election, that argument might hold water. But alas, even if there had been lock solid proof before the election (a big if), you would have declared that it was only “playing politics with our troops” or some such robotic cr@p. Even now, you are more concerned with how this issue makes your beloved president appear than you are with the disrespect heaped upon our injured vets. You really should be ashamed, but I suspect you have lost the capacity for shame by now.
But points for an earnest effort, Brad. Your hours of Hannity listening have you well-programmed. Too bad about your inability to think an original thought.
By time for the truth
March 6, 2007 11:11 AM | Link to this
@ Dusty & jacksonWOOF
BOLLOCKS!!
The subjects on here are NEVER always just the article of the day. As you damn well know!!
When I see you two smug hypocrites SIMILARLY attack those commenting on the Walter Reed topic which EQUALLY HAS NOTHING to do with the Atlanta traffic topic of the day… then I’ll have a teeny bit of respect for your thus far missing intellectual honesty!!
After yesterday’s despicable racebaiting by crackpipe on here and a live exclusive TV interview of the asian racist eng early yesterday evening its a perfectly fine topic for debate.
when one of our resident racial panderers explains to me how for THREE MONTHS anti-white hate and for several weeks anti-asian hate is quite acceptable but yet almost immediately anti-black hate is unacceptable … in this supposedly hate free society then I’ll “listen”.
By Jim's a Cherry Picker
March 6, 2007 11:12 AM | Link to this
Dusty,
Just think of TFTT as our own text-only version of Coulter.
Hate, insult, hate, insult, hate, insult, hate, insult.
By Barbara
March 6, 2007 11:14 AM | Link to this
Captain Freedom,
“O Captain Freedom, Captain Freedom, wherefore art though Captain Freedom?”
By Translator
March 6, 2007 11:22 AM | Link to this
By the way, how come not one democrat prior to now, especially during congressional election 2006, mentioned anything about outpatient at Reed? Phonies.
Translation: “I do not now, nor have I ever given a darn about how the wounded soldiers are cared for. And if you say you do, then you’re a liar. Wanting soldiers to come home before being maimed doesn’t count. In the past 24 hours, I heard something on talk radio I must now repeat all day to prove how smart I am.”
By jacksonwolff
March 6, 2007 11:22 AM | Link to this
no realistic person has ever said that this a hate free country.(as evidenced by you)
you just seem to go WAY off track to what everyone else is talking about.
you have a blessed day
By time for the truth
March 6, 2007 11:34 AM | Link to this
I am simply pointing out YET ANOTHER sickening example of blatant racial pandering to blacks in this country!!
I don’t want a “blessed” day … what the fook does that bollocks mean anyway!!
And you’re absolutely right, I do hate leftist/black racial pandering!!
Ann Coulter - aside from her dogmatic religious zealoutry - is an hilariously refreshing breath of fresh air!! She’s a national treasure with a superb natural ability to make any sensible clear thinking wise folks laugh at appeasing hypocritical leftist scum!!
Right - Jim’s an arselicker??!!
By jacksonwolff
March 6, 2007 11:38 AM | Link to this
yeah,yeah,yeah.
hypocritiacal leftist scum, blahblahblah. Same rant every day.
you have a blessed day anyway.
Jesus taught me to turn the other cheek.
By newherointown
March 6, 2007 11:39 AM | Link to this
To Dusty @ 10:22am
You know that TFTT is your son. I guess that is your inept way of defending him…
By DebbieDoRight
March 6, 2007 11:40 AM | Link to this
Clown, what race baiting did I do? Why is it that every time someone, (deservedly), gets on your large, english, as#, about your misdeeds and your multiple personality disorder, you brig MY name into it? No matter WHAT it is, you drag me into your vindictive hate filled diatribe. Copy and PASTE exactly what I said, Sir Shi#-A-Lot Sh#t For Brains, and show me WHERE I brought up any race baiting. That’s YOUR claim to fame, not mine.
I don’t have to make racial slurs at people, or use MULTIPLE ID’s AND TALK TO MY SELF to gain attention.
Clown!
By DebbieDoRight
March 6, 2007 11:43 AM | Link to this
Translation: “I do not now, nor have I ever given a darn about how the wounded soldiers are cared for. And if you say you do, then you’re a liar. Wanting soldiers to come home before being maimed doesn’t count. In the past 24 hours, I heard something on talk radio I must now repeat all day to prove how smart I am.”
Too funny!!
By jacksonwolff
March 6, 2007 11:46 AM | Link to this
BTW TFTT, how WOULD you solve the traffic problems of Atlanta and Georgia as a whole?
By Brad
March 6, 2007 11:59 AM | Link to this
Camus, the last time I checked, those conditions at Walter Reed were going on long before the congressional elections of 2006 and elsewhere as I mentioned. If you can prove me wrong, please do so. Back to outsourcing, exactly what part of base realignment and budget cuts did you not understand? What part of government employees still at the helm at Walter Reed as they have always been do you not understand? I will not waste further time on a privatization vs. government debate with you. If you think the US Postal Service is run more efficient with better quality than UPS (hah!) and if you think the VA is run better and more efficient than an HMO (hah!), if you think the City Of Atlanta runs Hartsfield more efficiently than a private firm could without shady deal contracts (hah!), then good for you. I will move forward with the original topic of this blog post, which is overdevelopment and traffic woes in the ATL. Finally Camus, if I fatfingered or mispelled a word or something above, I’ll let you know that I really don’t care. So please spare me your condescending lefty wingnut attitude that is all too common on blogs and forums.
By time for the truth
March 6, 2007 12:05 PM | Link to this
more vile lies from crackpipe - or else its just smoked another bad rock this morning … your despicable post yesterday about outlet mall shopping, and Forsyth county and hysterically imagined “murder” with your racist body being dumped in the river by “white boys” was UNDENIABLY disgusting racebaiting.
as for your sick and twisted puke @ multi-ids … unlike many lefty turds on here I do NOT need to hide behind multi-ids … but keep on vomiting up your paranoid bollocks its freaking hilarious!!
jackson WOOF
the best and easiest way to solve the traffic problems in ATL/GA is to ban ALL yanKKKees and uppity northern blacks like crackpipe from either driving through the state or living here. Removing ALL illegal mexican types who cannot drive or who cash their insurance in after buying car bumber playes would also massively improve things!! … huge I hate yankkkees and crackpipe types smirk
By getalife
March 6, 2007 12:10 PM | Link to this
Libby found guilty on 4 of 5 charges.
cheney needs to resign.
By Brad
March 6, 2007 12:14 PM | Link to this
If anyone wants to catch a glimpse into the future of a utopian turned dystopian society run by lefty social wingnuts who want to control our healthcare system and living arrangements as well as transportation arrangements, rent the 1976 classic Logan’s Run.
By Jim's a Cherry Picker
March 6, 2007 12:16 PM | Link to this
Hate to bust your bubble TFTT, but…
Coulter suffers from an extremely severe case of negative self-esteem that she overcompensates for by attacking others. The visciousness of her attacks is a direct correlation to the pathalogical nature of her negative self-esteem. Kinda like Hitler.
My guess is she’s a nightly crier, breaking down while staring in the bathroom mirror, only moments after killing the last man to service her…most likely a racial minority with a stereotypically large “feature”.
I think if I were to meet her, I’d only have to say something along the lines of “Jeez Ann, you gaining weight? That dress makes your butt look big,” and she’s wither away to nothing in about a week.
By Van
March 6, 2007 12:17 PM | Link to this
DebbieDoRight,
Careful, you will have to go into rehab if you use Shi#-A-Lot or Sh#t For Brains. But remember, I did not call you a Shi# or a Sh#t.
By Camus
March 6, 2007 12:21 PM | Link to this
Thanks for the education Brad…
So, your contention is that the horrible conditions at Walter Reed have been well-known for a very long time, yet it took an article in the Washington Post last month to get the administration to do anything about it.
Thanks for admitting that the Bush administration — like most of today’s so-called conservatives — do not give a tinker’s damn about the welfare of the men and women of the armed forces. That the Bush administration cares only for its image and the perception that they actually support the troops.
As far as Walter Reed goes, once IAP took over, there was a rash of experienced people leaving the hospital because of the policies implemented by IAP to increase their bottom line. This is all too typical of the way privatization works.
And I only condescend to you because you are an imbecilic robot. Your posts prove this even if we ignore the typos.
Now go ahead and focus on how to make the traffic jams bigger. The way the government treats veterans is clearly just an inconvenient issue in your view.
By Southern Democrat
March 6, 2007 12:22 PM | Link to this
Mark the date. I agreed 100% with one of Dusty’s posts.
By Michelle
March 6, 2007 12:25 PM | Link to this
Why won’t someone take that miserable little man(?) to a doctor for some medication? Why do his friends(?)continue to allow him to go on and on endlessly about nothing? Sad little man, please seek help. I would suggest that you might have rabies, in that case, you will need to get a series of painful shots, (hee hee), but it will cure you of the foaming at the mouth disease.
Remember God loves you, you sad, sad, pathetic little man. Even if no one else in this whole wide world does, God loves you.
By jbmlaw
March 6, 2007 12:27 PM | Link to this
Dear jm @ 10:40, good argument. I would advocate pushing the Federal government out of Atlanta, maybe into Clayton County so they would still be near the airport. Traffic was great on President’s Day.
By Camus
March 6, 2007 12:34 PM | Link to this
If anyone want to catch a glimpse of what happens when a talking pig meets a spider who can spell words in her web, rent the 1973 classic Charlotte’s Web.
Just like the inexplicably venerated Reagan, Brad allows a Hollywood movie to define his worldview. It’s just a story, Brad, an entertainment. Try living in the real world, fantasy boy.
By Curious Observer
March 6, 2007 12:45 PM | Link to this
Ho Hum! Another lying, dissembling, job-destroying neocon headed to prison with the conviction of Scooter Libby. Maybe he can become a bunky buddy of Bob Ney. My guess is that half of the neocons contributing to this blog have already been to prison and gained qualifications to advise Libby.
By DebbieDoRight
March 6, 2007 12:47 PM | Link to this
Sybil: If I jumped off a bridge would you do it too, (please oh please!!!)
Jerk Off — I’m done taking out the trash; go stalk someone else.
By Cut the Hate Talk
March 6, 2007 12:48 PM | Link to this
Jim, I’m appalled by the amount of hate talk you allow on your blog. I encourage you to screen material for hate talk and remove blogs that are filled with it. Keep the blogs on topic.
By CJ
March 6, 2007 12:54 PM | Link to this
This plan is not visionary. This plan is putting bandaids on a bigger problem. Since Georgians have never had a good alternative to taking their cars, they are not receptive to the concept. MARTA is a bad solution to taking car, horse and buggy, or Segway, so it doesn’t count. Building more roads will only encourage more driving and conjestion.
The only plans I have given support to so far are to 1) bypass I-75 and I-85 around and away from Atlanta’s city center. 2) Rapid rail connecting Georgia towns. 3) Burying the Downtown Connector and turning it into a bypass rather than a main thruway.
By getalife
March 6, 2007 1:01 PM | Link to this
So now the hate party supports a criminal administration that outed a CIA operative.
Merry Fitzmas!
By CJ
March 6, 2007 1:03 PM | Link to this
CJ at 12:55 should not be confused with CJ at 8:06. Two different people.
By CJ
March 6, 2007 1:03 PM | Link to this
The CJ at 12:54 should not be confused with the CJ at 8:06. Two different people.
By Lord Doom
March 6, 2007 1:27 PM | Link to this
Curious George,
Prisons are filled with idiots and the liberals who make excuses for them. You should know, because based on your anally clogged up blogs you’ve obviously been there.
By melo
March 6, 2007 1:35 PM | Link to this
TFTT,JBMLAW AND JIM WOOTEM
THE SCOOTER IS GOING TO JAIL
ONE DOWN, A COUPLE TO GO
By rarringt
March 6, 2007 1:35 PM | Link to this
Afternoon all,
Cut the Hate Talk said:
Jim, I’m appalled by the amount of hate talk you allow on your blog. I encourage you to screen material for hate talk and remove blogs that are filled with it. Keep the blogs on topic.
Clearly you’re mistaken. As Jim, jbmlaw, van, TFTT or Markus will happily tell you, just below that layer of bile and vitriolic classist, debate supressing, racist / sexist/ antisemitic, and plain ol’ mean spirited nastiness, exists undeniably clever and forthright political discourse.
All one needs to do to really see the sagacity of such visionary posts is agree with the ideologically extreme views of the author. If you can’t see or appreciate that, well gosh, you’re just not Thinking Right.
By melo
March 6, 2007 1:45 PM | Link to this
Prisons are filled with idiots and the liberals who make excuses for them-Lord Doom You have been there because you obviously know from experience, not by reading a book!! And that makes u a a liberal, just like most of us on the BLOG,
HAHAHAHAHEHEHEHE
By Lord Doom
March 6, 2007 1:57 PM | Link to this
Melo out,
Was Doom talking to you? Probably so if your using multiple IDs! Liberals are a gay cancer on this earth. There is nothing Doom has in common with feces.
By Dusty
March 6, 2007 2:09 PM | Link to this
Ho hum…back to the subject de jour…gridlock, roads, trains, rapid transit…BUT..I am not a road planning engineer soooo I bring you Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken..
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
And sorry I could not travel both
and be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no one had trodden black,
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
By rarringt
March 6, 2007 2:10 PM | Link to this
Doom said,
Was Doom talking to you? Probably so if your using multiple IDs! Liberals are a gay cancer on this earth. There is nothing Doom has in common with feces.
Perfect example of my point. What Doom actually meant (in the Bushian sense) was that the lack of personal, governmental and societal accountability, especially within the environs of the left wing, has left Thinking Righters with the distict impression of self-marginalization, which can at best only be perceived as a waste.
Did you see the insight there, Hate Talk?
By Devastator
March 6, 2007 2:11 PM | Link to this
Dusty,
Please get a life.
By melo
March 6, 2007 2:13 PM | Link to this
There is nothing Doom has in common with feces. Well this ‘feces’ communicates and is communicating with you now. That makes us 2,you and mwa, common with each other!!
HAHAHAHEHEHE
By Brad
March 6, 2007 2:18 PM | Link to this
Camus, once again your arrogance only overrides your Bush hate. I see you like to read the Washington Post. So do I. Remember me telling you to look at the bigger picture of government care facilities? I know right now you leftie wingnuts are fixated on Walter Reed, but as I originally posted, government healthcare for our military personnel has been less than great for the decades. That’s not news to anyone who knows it up close and personal.
Army Chief of Staff Peter J. Schoomaker told the committee that the reports and audits did not come to his attention, but he said it is now clear that there is a much bigger problem in military health care.
The comments from Davis and other GOP lawmakers underscored the bipartisan nature of the criticism yesterday in the first of what is likely to be a string of hearings probing problems at Walter Reed and in military health care more broadly.
Some injured troops encounter so much bureaucracy that they give up and forgo benefits to which they are entitled. “I have seen so many soldiers get so frustrated with the process that they will sign anything presented to them, just so they can get on with their lives,” [a vet] said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/05/AR2007030500676_pf.html
Now, does that or does that not sound similar to my original post? Perhaps if people like you took your blinders of Bush hate off and focus on the bigger picture of a failure of government bureaucracy, you’d understand where I was coming from. But I digress here as you are probably one of those who believes the IRS is doing an efficient job at income taxation management.
Regarding my comments about Atlanta’s traffic problem, I already gave one out in my very first post: nix the shady deals between greedy developers and local regional politicians. Perhaps if you had taken your Bush hate Walter Reed blinders off temporarily, you’d have seen it. Regarding my unorginal thoughts, you are welcome for borrowing off my original comment about Logan’s Run and twisting it into your own version in response. Yes, I know they are all just movies. Now tell me people like you don’t ultimately want to control healthcare, living arrangements, and transportation arrangements for us all. I’ll gladly point out posts here to the contrary for you if need be. Now please go ahead and make your day here and call me a name.
By For the Record ...
March 6, 2007 2:22 PM | Link to this
Dusty, I thought I’d quote some Dorothy Parker to help stop you suburban Republicans from clogging our intown roads with all your Big Car Lover’s Trysts:
By the time you say you are his, Shimmering and sighing, And he pledges his love is Infinite, undying, Women take note: One of you is lying.
By Lord Doom
March 6, 2007 2:33 PM | Link to this
rarringt,
Doom is rarringt kick your a$$!
By Brad
March 6, 2007 2:40 PM | Link to this
I thought I’d quote some Dorothy Parker to help stop you suburban Republicans from clogging our intown roads
For the Record, you don’t have to worry about that from people I know in the burbs. The Braves suck and it costs too much, the Falcons suck, the Thrashers suck, the Georgia Acquarium is too expensive and overcrowded with screaming strollers, your parking all sucks, and your water mains suck. You can have it all.
By Dusty
March 6, 2007 2:44 PM | Link to this
For the record,
Ha! Dorothy Parker, what does she know?
I have taken the car less financed! A Cavalier! And my love is infinite!! Good gas mileage! And I am not lying. I am Woman!! Go GM!!
By Dusty
March 6, 2007 2:49 PM | Link to this
Devastator,
Please get some Kultur. It won’t hurt a bit.
By rarringt
March 6, 2007 2:51 PM | Link to this
Doom said,
Doom is rarringt kick your a$$!
What Doom meant was “given the complexities and nuanced minutae present on this blog with respect to vetting opinions, I find myself somewhat vexed in formulating a cogent opinion on the subject matter.”
“But fear not, sir, I shall presently refute the fallacious portions of your argument with the poise and wit that is synonymous and in the finest traditions of the progressively (nee’ supressively) neoconservative bloggers of Thinking Right.”
heh, heh
By Amber
March 6, 2007 2:52 PM | Link to this
Brad wrote, “Now tell me people like you don’t ultimately want to control healthcare, living arrangements, and transportation arrangements for us all.”
This is the same horsesh#t I hear on talk radio and Fox News day after day. A person wants the option of mass transit, and some jerk comes along and says “people like you want to control transportation”. Brad wants to pollute the air my children breathe, but claims I’m trying to control his “living arrangements”. He wants my taxes and tolls to pay for the roads he desires, but raises hell about his taxes paying for mass transit which benefits all, including people who don’t use it.
Brainless prick.
By Joe L
March 6, 2007 2:54 PM | Link to this
Brad - Good points. Now let’s bring up WHO slashed funding for the VA. That would be shrub. At the same time that he gave the wealthy - who comprise an ultra slim portion of the military - tax cuts.
I’m guessing by all your comments you would completely support rolling back these tax breaks to adequately fund military health spending?
You are using a silly post hoc argument that because it was going on before people knew about it before. So as has been pointed out if everyone knew then you should point the finger at the Commander In Chief of the military. Or else you should get off this sad and illogical spin to put blame on the evil Democrats.
By rarringt
March 6, 2007 2:55 PM | Link to this
Brad,
But the weather is good, the people are (for the most part) nice, there’s plenty of opportunity here regardless of your interests, it’s not overpriced, the food is tasty, there’s greenery everywhere, there are no fewer than 12 universities within a two hour drive of downtown Atlanta, the music scene rocks (small pun intended), the women are beautiful, the men hold open doors, and the children…well, all children are a blessing.
Sorry you don’t like the various sports franchises, but there are worse places to be than ATL.
By For the Record ...
March 6, 2007 3:10 PM | Link to this
… and it is not required that we intowners lead relentlessly substance-addled, physically hedonistic lifestyles.
It is merely one of the perks.
(Dorothy understood.)
By Dusty
March 6, 2007 3:15 PM | Link to this
rarringt,
Such eloquence!! Do you work for the Chamber of Commerce?
By rarringt
March 6, 2007 3:33 PM | Link to this
Dusty,
:^)
By jbmlaw
March 6, 2007 3:34 PM | Link to this
Dear Joe L, your 2:54 post is false. VA funding has only increased from the Bill Clinton levels. You present a false allegation on taxes, implying that cuts in tax rates reduced Federal revenues. If you want to actually reduce tax revenues, just increase the tax rates – that will wreck the economy and simultaneously increase everyone’s incentive to play the tax games, thus enriching guys like me.
By Joe L
March 6, 2007 3:41 PM | Link to this
”. If you want to actually reduce tax revenues, just increase the tax rates – that will wreck the economy and simultaneously increase everyone’s incentive to play the tax games, thus enriching guys like me.”
Yeah the right has been trotting out this false belief for YEARS. Hell one of the few conservatives with a brain in the last 30 years labeled it “voodoo economics” for good reasons.
By Dusty
March 6, 2007 3:46 PM | Link to this
For the record,
Tis true, your intown “perks” are formidable. I mean, do you really feed the fish at the aquariuim, dazzle with modern art, googoo with baby Panda, gaga at concerts, smoke strange cigarettes and bravely “jay walk” on Peachtree? How much excitement can a person take?
But think of those outlying assets? Exciting lifetime moments on expressways, hydroponics in the basement, lovely ladies in mansions, cars for every child and a KFC in every pot.
I tell you. Dorothy, poor baby, she would have loved it.
By @@
March 6, 2007 3:54 PM | Link to this
Speaking only for myself Jim, traffic congestion is not a problem for me. I rarely find myself in it. It’s always been my choice to live and work in the same community, just south of Atlanta.
On the occasion that I do find myself in traffic congestion, I chill, become introspective, listen to classical music or enjoy the peace and tranquility I find within the confines of my own personal “Outback”.
As far as everyone else who chooses to work in the city, well………DANG, I just hit that political fork in the road.
Looking…looking! Should I take “Hellhaven Street” to my left, or “Paradise Lane” to my right.
Right blinker on and I’m outta here.
See ya’ Jim.
By GRCleft
March 6, 2007 3:54 PM | Link to this
jbmlaw,
You repeat the same false facts day after day.
With the exception of 1971, federal tax revenues increased continuously from 1962, through the time that Reagan raised taxes in his second term, through the time the first President Bush raised taxes through the time that Clinton raised taxes in 1994, all the way until 2001.
In 2001, federal tax revenues dropped for two consecutive years (for the first time in 40 years), and then began to grow again. It wasn’t until 2005 that federal tax revenues reached the level they were at in 2000, five years earlier.
In other words, you’re full of crap.
By Curious Observer
March 6, 2007 4:31 PM | Link to this
Jbmlaw is obviously an advocate of the discredited Laffer Curve, the misguided notion that cutting taxes will generate so much new business activity that the government will take in as much or more in new revenue than it sacrificed. Interestingly, the economist Laffer sketched the first graph of it on Dick Cheney’s cocktail napkin.
And it belongs in a bar, not in the real world. It will work only if the marginal tax rate is something like 99 percent. At that rate, the government will probably not be taking in any revenue anyway, for everybody will be shielding money from taxation and pursuing the black market.
But anarchists like jbmlaw love to cite it as justification for putting more money in their own pockets and bankrupting the government.
By Brad
March 6, 2007 4:36 PM | Link to this
Joe L, if you are going to lie about Bush cutting VA funds, at least lie as good as Kerry did. Your comment on Bush tax cuts for the rich was not unexpected from a lefty wingnut as well. http://www.factcheck.org/article144.html
Maybe you are screeching about the ‘09 budget for VA funding. Only a mention increased VA funding here too until 2009 is brought up. http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/02/13/vets.budget.ap/index.html
So the question of the day is that if VA funding under Bush rose, then why did service continue to slide? It’s the wonderful concept of government, leading me full circle right back to where I started here with my first post on Reed. Have a nice evening.
By Jim's a Cherry Picker
March 6, 2007 4:39 PM | Link to this
A request please…
If everyone can remember to say a quick prayer for Tim Russert tonight before you go to bed, I’d appreciate it.
He’s one of my most favoritest members of the radical left media establishment, and as far as I know, the first one to bring down a member of the Cosa Nostra.
Be careful Tim!
“Don” Cheney is still on the loose. His vengeful wrath is well documented.
By jbmlaw
March 6, 2007 4:41 PM | Link to this
Dear CRCleft @ 3:54, you implicitly acknowledge the falsehoods I called Joe L on. You suggest, apparently intentionally and with a straight face, that the Clinton recession had no effect on tax revenues, and that Bush’s “deficit causing” tax cuts were implemented in the budget before he was elected? If only Clinton/Gore had sufficient economic wisdom to acknowledge the coming recession – which even Bush saw and talked about on the stump – the Clinton crash could have been avoided. Do you leftists not realize how idiotic your static analysis sounds, when compared to the simple dynamic analysis of the post-Keynesians?
By jbmlaw
March 6, 2007 4:42 PM | Link to this
Dear Curious, you are obviously clinging to discredited socialist economics if you disparage Arthur Laffer. You should look over the trail of Chicago schoolers who have won the Nobel lately.
By rarringt
March 6, 2007 4:56 PM | Link to this
Observer,
It’s called “starving the beast,” and is the unfortunate consequence of cutting taxes without considering future consequences (another chestnut of a topic, jim).
A lot of the actions of this administration involve acting as if they had a crystal ball. Revenues would replace lost taxes. Iraqis would welcome us with open arms. Children would learn if we taught to the test, but didn’t fund NCLB. Libby wouldn’t get caught. Or Abramoff. Or Ney. Or Cunningham. Or DeLay.
Unfortunately, the “crystal ball” theory of administration may work wonders when you’re trying to sell a program, but is somewhat problematic when trying to implement it.
To jbmlaw’s point: he’s fudging a little. Among other budget line items, the VA increases were frontloaded to appear as increases, while the bottom is scheduled to fall out in 2009. Read here. http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/02/13/vets.budget.ap/index.html.
That means funding will disintegrate precisely as the troops are coming home and likely overwhelm the system.
Unfortunately, that’s the good news. The bad news is, in order to maintain the appearance of balancing the budget, most big-ticket items have been given similar treatment, causing our friends at the federal OMB to have a near-cardiac. And yes, this is all scheduled to happen after Bush leaves office.
Well, maybe we can do our parts by pawning those yellow ribbons and giving back a portion of the $300 checks that bought us off back in ‘01….
By Van
March 6, 2007 5:10 PM | Link to this
Curious Observer,
About tax revenue and the tax cuts.
Anyone with a half a brain can look up the government figures on this. As of mid February
Receipts rose a strong 13% from a year ago. Yoy(year over year) growth over the last 12 months is a tremendous 11%.
Also,
Tax receipts continue to run strong and left a -$248 bln FY06 budget deficit. Strong tax receipt growth has returned with the stronger economy, profits and income growth.
The CBO puts the deficit for FY 07 at CBO at -$172 bln. This is with a war going on.
The facts are in, cutting taxes increases tax revenue.
By jm
March 6, 2007 5:16 PM | Link to this
Not being an economist, it would be interesting to see which was more responsible for the “economic expansion” of the last few years, tax cuts or massive deficit spending by the federal government. Say what you will about President Clinton, he at least managed to run a surplus during his expansion.
By GRCleft
March 6, 2007 5:24 PM | Link to this
The Clinton recession? Somehow I thought you might say that, which is the reason I pointed out that revenues increased continuously throughout the stagflated 70’s. Blaming the so-called “Clinton recession” on revenue decreases that took place under Bush is lame.
For the first time in 40 years, federal revenues decreased two years in a row beginning with Bush’s first budget (2001). Then, Bush tax cuts took a total of five years to bring revenues back to their previous peak. This wasn’t bad luck or bad timing for Bush; it was his doing.
Let me say that I believe in the Laffer curve in certain, specific circumstances. Obviously, this idea doesn’t apply across the board. Using the theory behind the Laffer curve to raise federal revenues with tax cuts isn’t child’s play — which is why someone like Bush shouldn’t have any say in such matters.
By steve-o
March 6, 2007 5:45 PM | Link to this
Ah, transportation and Metro Atlanta. No matter how much this issue is discussed, GDOT and GA state legislators will never do the right thing. The term comprehensive transportation planning seems only to mean more lanes in this state. Throw in the home rule orientation of local and county governments as ordained by the state constitution and you have a fine mess.
rarringt
I had to show up for a brief moment for an encore of the Markus Show! I’m waiting for his grand entrance and his verbal smackdown of liberals and leftists with his ever-so-cunning wit and prose…LMFAO!!!! Heads-up for the bolded caps.
By AeroNautica0909
March 6, 2007 5:54 PM | Link to this
Metro Atlanta has major traffic problems. I’ve talked to some people that I know and they have this notion that if we have public transportation that crime will increase and it would be counterproductive. Crime is already bad in Metro Atlanta- why should we limit our transportation options and keep ourselves sitting in traffic day after day because we fear something that is already happening?
The mindset is quite amazing. Furthermore, there is a mindset by the suburbs that riding public transportation is beneath them. The suburban counties of Cobb, Clayton, Gwinnett, Forsyth, Cherokee, Henry, Fayette, Rockdale, Newton, and Coweta, need to work with Fulton and DeKalb counties in forming a metropolitan transit system complete with rails and buses. Even though the area is booming, we can attract more visitors and more money into the metropolitan area if we have viable transportation options- something that we don’t have. Such fragmented transportation systems by some counties and no systems in other counties is going to eventually cripple Metro Atlanta.
People also can’t expect MARTA to run well if only two counties are funding it. People from everywhere in the metro are utilizing MARTA yet only Fulton and DeKalb are funding it. It’s time for the metro area to start funding transportation options for the usage of everyone.
By Edwin Williams
March 8, 2007 10:24 AM | Link to this
GRCleft - the reason that revenues increased steadily, but not dramatically during the stagflation 1970s was precisely that, inflation. The reason they increased dramatically during the 1980s was that the country was prosperous because of the dramatic tax cuts. Democrats never think of “dynamic scoring” when making revenue projections. They only look at static figures, which is not only bad math but bad economics.
The problem with MARTA is actually much the same. The MARTA board complains that ridership is down, so they must raise fairs, and again, ridership goes down because they make it more cost-effective to drive, even with higher gas prices. If they would lower rates, or at least lower them for people who buy a pass for the month, then ridership and revenues will go up. It’s rather like having a sale a Macy’s. Another example would be that people use less gas when the price goes up and more when the price goes down. People buy more shoes when the price is low and fewer when the price is high. The same rule works for almost all goods and services. The real problem is that the MARTA board members have never read Adam Smith or Milton Friedman.