Home > Thinking Right > Archives > 2007 > March > 09 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USPeachCare, Iraq pullout, Bobby Brown
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Thinking Right’s free-for-all Friday. Pick a topic:
• Nancy Pelosi Democrats have their surrender plan in place. Language to be added to a funding bill would require U.S. combat troops to skedaddle from Iraq by the fall of 2008 — or just in time to avoid any prospect that a Democratic president might actually have to manage a war.
• Bad news for PeachCare. Bailout funds are in the Iraq surrender bill. President Bush has to veto it. Get used to these games. Those who control Congress are determined to put one of their own in the White House.
• Memo to Lovejoy commuter rail backers: Amtrak’s Chicago-Washington train is on time 11 percent of the time. The late-show problem exists throughout the Amtrak system. The reason? Freight-hauling railroads own most lines and tracks are congested
• Clip-and-save headline from ajc.com: “More bad news for Bobby Brown.” He’s Whitney Houston’s bad news.
• Life without parole is the death penalty for jurors who don’t have the stomach for it. Die fast or die slow. Morally, there’s no difference.
• The state Senate has passed legislation increasing penalties for making, possessing or distributing fake IDs. It remains a misdemeanor for the under-21 crowd using fake IDs for booze, but for others the punishment is up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $100,000. Here’s a bleeding-heart contest: How long will it take for the law to be declared “unjust” because some violator was two days past 21 or “didn’t know” the ID was fake? About a month after the bill’s signed, I’d say.
• Take and apply when and where you see fit: “We apologize.”
• First Prize in the contest to deprive terrorists of any weapon that might be used against us goes to … Georgia growers of the popular turfgrass SeaIsle Supreme. UGA proposes to license it to overseas growers. Georgia growers, who paid $25,000 for licenses, object. And for good reason too, as Soperton grower Phillip Jennings explains: “We have put too much money into it to allow countries friendly to terrorists to have this grass.” If those suckers get their hands on the Valencia peanut, we’re toast.
• A Russian journalist, Ivan Safronov, who planned to write about alleged Russian plans to sell weapons to Iran and Syria via Belarus “falls” to his death from a fifth-story window. His apartment is on the third. We live in a dream world, both as journalists and as Americans, largely unaffected by the evil that others elsewhere routinely confront. Our “bravery” is going to jail to protect a source; theirs is pursuing a story that could get them killed.
• President Bush should keep his veto pen handy. The Senate agrees to allow airport screeners to form unions. No union should exist in any agency with national security responsibilities.
• Bicycling’s a marvelous sport. But hand it to Roswell Mayor Jere Wood to demonstrate how to make a bicycle an alternative to a car for commuting purposes. He traveled 21 miles from City Hall to the Capitol Tuesday “with a police escort while someone else transported his suit,” according to the news account. Metro Atlanta mayors wanted to make a political statement. They did.
• But for the fact that I’m married and Georgia’s Constitution prohibits same-sex unions, the mega-millionaire lottery winner and “gone fishin’ ” truck driver Eddie Nabors would be awfully attractive, in the Anna Nicole Smith-billionaire J. Howard Marshall II sense. We wouldn’t actually have to live together. Or nothing. Just fish and spend.
• Two state House bills that attempt to address the use of red-light cameras to gin up revenue have promise. House Bill 77, as revised, would divert 75 percent of the revenue, after installation and maintenance costs, to a state trauma network and would require a traffic engineering study before they’re installed. Another, HB 590, would lower fines from $70 to $35. Pass both (if legislators are determined not to ban them altogether). No financial incentive should exist.
• Local governments throughout the state did a neighborly day’s work in sending crews and equipment to help tornado victims in Middle Georgia. DeKalb CEO Vernon Jones, for example, sent seven sanitation employees and equipment to help in Americus.
• Jim Wooten is the associate editorial page editor. His column appears Fridays, Sundays and Tuesdays.
Permalink | Comments (260) | Post your comment | Categories: Column
Comments
By Realist
March 9, 2007 8:08 AM | Link to this
No talk of my candidate for president, Newt Gingrich? Finding out that he’s a hypocrite was very dissapointing this morning. Not to mention refreshing my memory about him talking of divorce to his cancer sick wife. If not him then who? Romney’s my pick I guess.
By Brian Curtis
March 9, 2007 8:09 AM | Link to this
And with his commentary on the death penalty, Wooten finally forfeits any credibility he may have had among libertarians. Who else but a big-government Republican would so casually trust the state with the power over life and death itself?
Thank goodness for the “surrender plan”… maybe now we can start fighting terrorism effectively for a change, instead of getting our soldiers maimed and killed needlessly.
And the latest reason for trying to deny workers any power at all? “National security.” See, if your job is important, then it’s essential that you have no rights whatsoever! Now it’s not just doing blatant favors for management… it’s “to fight terrorism.” Good thing THAT excuse came along.
By Shar
March 9, 2007 8:11 AM | Link to this
Mr. Wooten! A week that has seen Libby’s conviction, the Walter Reed scandal, PeachCare’s door swing shut, sadness and sacrifice serving the bus crash victims and a polyglot assortment of other highs and lows, and the best you can get grumpy about is local hacks being clownish and the sportive appeal of the MegaMillions winner? Are you mellowing or just restricting your reading to the back pages?
By Reece
March 9, 2007 8:19 AM | Link to this
Oh geez, where to start with this.
Jim say’s that he’d form sone kind of union with another man. Hypocrite, you’d scream at the top of your lungs if two people wanted to have a real union based upon love, not money. Go Coulter yourself Jim, you’ve just shown us all the true Renamblican message.
Jere Wood( and others) rode bicycles from the Roswell area to the capital to promote bike safety.
“We apologize”, two words you’ll never hear from our Dolt-in-Chief for all the incredible harm that he’s done not only to our nation but to the world.
Jim picks at another straw(man) about public transportation with the Amtrak reference. Redneck, idiot, racist.
I’m 99.998% opposed to the death penalty, the one exception being Bobby Brown. So we agree on that one. Proving the old adage that if you put a chimpanzee in front of a typewriter for long enough he’ll write a novel.
By SC
March 9, 2007 8:20 AM | Link to this
If you’re going to compare Lovejoy to other train systems, then compare apples to apples. Chicago’s Metra (the commuter rail line which would be comparable to Lovejoy) had an on-time performance of 96.4 percent overall for 2006. Being against commuter rail is fine, but be honest with your data and comparisons.
By Reece
March 9, 2007 8:25 AM | Link to this
Realist,
I sincerely hope that you and the rest of the Renamblicans nominate Nutty Newty. Not only do I then get a Democratic president, we get that result and don’t have to spend $500 million. Newt’s nomination would be the worst Renamblican defeat since Barry Goldwater.
By Edwin Williams
March 9, 2007 8:31 AM | Link to this
Don’t all of you folks think that today’s headline about Newt is a hoot? I mean really, who in this universe did NOT know that already. I’ve heard him confess that personally a dozen times at least. The next thing they’ll tell us is that Ted Kennedy is a drunk and Donald Trump is a cad!
By Reece
March 9, 2007 8:35 AM | Link to this
SC,
When you make a call for honesty from The Wootenanny, you’d do as well trying to dam the Mississippi River with 7 toothpicks. He’s taking all of his honesty clues from the Chimp-in-Chief and Scooter (He’s in the Jailhouse Now)Libby.
By One
March 9, 2007 8:36 AM | Link to this
Reece Nutty Newty I love it!!! And yes, that would practically seal the deal for a Democratic president!!
And WTF? is Dubya thinking…denying funding for our children. What happened to No Child Left Behind? Lying ba$tard…..sick children cannot be taught!!! So we son’t leave them behind in the classroom, we’ll just leave them to all get sick and stay sick! This is what you all elected….you should be ashamed!!!
By Reece
March 9, 2007 8:37 AM | Link to this
It’s All Bill Clinton’s Fault®
Just wanted to get the first Clinton deflection in there.
By Edwin Williams
March 9, 2007 8:38 AM | Link to this
Brian Curtis - the hypocrisy here is palpable. You will sanction abortion on demand and yet decry the death penalty? I’m pro-choice with limits (no abortion after 4 months except in exteme circumstances). However, think about the Jessica Lunsford case. Certain crimes just cry out for the death penalty. He made a very arbitrary decision about life and death. At least a judge and jury are forced by law to deliberate! Absolutes in any situation are bad, but options in exteme cases should always be available.
By H.O. Lionel
March 9, 2007 8:43 AM | Link to this
I have to admit that I’m unfamilar with the place, so someone please enlighten me as to what it is about Lovejoy that warrants a commuter rail line over any other location? Is there a large commuter population there vs. rest of the metro area?
By jbmlaw
March 9, 2007 8:43 AM | Link to this
Good morning all. Ms. Pelosi will be unable to get anything other than a clean Republican-type defense bill through the House. She has too many moderate democrats who desire re-election. Americans still want to win the war, not give the terrorists a timetable to victory. I credit Ms. Pelosi with sufficient political smarts to avoid poll disaster in 2008. And none of those moderates care a fig about PeachCare, because that will not make or break an election for any of them.
The anti-death penalty crowd prefers the slow torture (of imprisonment without potential for parole) for the evil ones; unlike the leftists, we conservatives just don’t have the stomach for torture. But I will take this opportunity to apologize to all axe murderers for the torture inflicted on them by our leftist brothers.
Jim, you’ve gone wobbly! There was a time when good conservatives (e.g., guys like me) decried the mere existence of government papers as a requisite for citizenship. Now we merely object to the form and/or forgery of same.
I appreciate Jim’s recognition of Safronov, and I fear President Bush has inaccurately judged the character of his good friend Mr. Putin. In my church we don’t kiss copperheads.
The Senate’s airport screener bill ought to be named the “Max Cleland union honorarium” act.
Only Jere Wood would find a way to have to purchase carbon offsets for a 20 mile bicycle ride.
There is an Ann Coulter joke latent somewhere in Jim’s Eddie Nabors one-liner, but I think I am too dim to find it.
Vernon Jones, and the people of Dekalb County, deserve our admiration for their willingness to help out our distressed brothers. No joke, I was unaware of the offer of help, and I wish to add my respects.
One day this week the blog had a lot of theological exchanges. An extraordinary essay on religion and war today, http://www.opinionjournal.com/taste/?id=110009766, for the willing.
By Brian Curtis
March 9, 2007 8:43 AM | Link to this
Edwin: No hypocrisy at all, once you recognize that a fetus is not the same thing as a living, breathing person with all the rights of a person.
And no, I don’t trust the government with the power they already have, still less the power to kill people.
By Edwin Williams
March 9, 2007 8:44 AM | Link to this
Newt won’t run in the end because he doesn’t want to be savaged by hypocrites like Hitlery and Jesse and other liars, fornicators and jerks. For the Democrats EVER to attack someone for adultery when they have elected Presidents like FDR, JFK, LBJ and WJC, it is too much for color TV! Newt is still the best idea man the Republicans have, so he will be out there with his ideas, but he’s way too smart to actually run.
By Reece
March 9, 2007 8:45 AM | Link to this
One,
I’m please that I could provide you with a chuckle on this lovely Friday morning.
You ask “what is Dumbya thinking”, clearly there’s more intellectual capacity in the dried apricots over on the corner of my desk.
By One
March 9, 2007 8:49 AM | Link to this
Run, Nutty Newty, Run!!!!!
By Brian Curtis
March 9, 2007 8:49 AM | Link to this
Fortunately, Democrats seldom run on a “family values” platform, so the hypocrisy really is one-way.
By Neo-Con Artist
March 9, 2007 8:52 AM | Link to this
jbmlaw says: “Americans still want to win the war, not give the terrorists a timetable to victory.”
jbmlaw— there is no “win” for America in Iraq… it’s the Iraqis’ country, not ours, remember? Any “win” will be because the Iraqis decide to stop killing each other in order to attain power, and how do you think that’s ever going to occur?
By zeke
March 9, 2007 8:53 AM | Link to this
NO UNIONS IN GOVERNMENT JOBS, PERIOD! Better yet, no unions at all! They are just a socialist plot and should have no power whatsoever! Apologize for slavery when the African nations that captured and sold their people into slavery, and still do, apologize for causing slavery to exist! Hopefully the voters will see the democrat ploy for what it is and throw all of them out next election! Passenger mass rail transit will not work until ther are dedicated high speed rails for use only by those systems! Then it will only work if safe, efficient AND SELF SUPPORTING WITHOUT SUBSIDIES AND WITHOUT TAXING THE GENERAL PUBLIC!!!!
By melo
March 9, 2007 8:54 AM | Link to this
* Life without parole is the death penalty for jurors who don’t have the stomach for it. Die fast or die slow. Morally, there’s no difference*
Nope, not morally the same in my opinion. Only God has the power and authority to kill.
Newt Gingrich is human after all.Nothing new here i guess, just a reminder that even Republicans are not some super humans from outer sapce!!
Somebody mentioned Mitt Rumney, the mormon to be the only one left. Maybe yes, the only one who is not ultra liberal on the Republican side. But that mormon thing hangs over his head because i know he likes to have more than one wife(thats the religious practice folks-don’t let him hide behind a finger) although in public, he has to potray himself differently for political reasons. He is fronting in many respects, like Hilary does so well. Rudy is as liberal as they come. If he wins the nomination for the Republicans,Obama would be the centrist and i could’nt be happier because Obama would be a shoo-in.(they, Obama and Rudy will have to split the gay vote-no kidding) May be Mccain then, but than age wise, he may well die in office! Either way, the race is decided already for the democrats if these Republican candidates remain in. The only credible salvation, Jeb Bush. But then America is not ready for a Monarchy!!
By Morris
March 9, 2007 8:55 AM | Link to this
Brian Curtis - If you feel “national security” is a bogus reason to deny government national security employees a union, how about unions for the military, CIA and FBI agents, and other similar front line positions? Is that a stretch?
By Neo-Con Artist
March 9, 2007 8:57 AM | Link to this
“Newt won’t run in the end because he doesn’t want to be savaged by hypocrites like Hitlery and Jesse and other liars, fornicators and jerks. “
Correct, Edwin Williams… it’s only fair that we hold Newt to the same standards that you Republicans held for Sen. Gary Hart back in 1986. Remember, he was unfit to run for the presidency simply because he had a “mistress” outside of his marriage.
Y’all started this whole “family values” thing and made it too narrow for most Americans to try to fit into!
By Erin
March 9, 2007 8:57 AM | Link to this
“Die fast or die slow. Morally there’s no difference.” Does that mean the abortion debate is over? After all, what’s the moral difference between ending an unwanted pregnancy and sentencing a child to die slowly from abuse and neglect? Oh, that also means the right decision was made in the Schiavo case. Thanks for clearing all that up, Jim.
By Jack
March 9, 2007 9:07 AM | Link to this
A U.S. Marine squad was patrolling north of Fallujah when they came upon an Iraqi terrorist, badly injured and unconscious. On the opposite side of the road was an American Marine in a similar but less serious state.
The Marine was conscious and alert and as first aid was given to both men, the squad leader asked the injured Marine what had happened. The Marine reported, “I was heavily armed and moving north along the highway here, and coming south was a heavily armed insurgent. We saw each other and both took cover in the ditches along the road.”I yelled to him that Saddam Hussein is a miserable lowlife, and he yelled back that Ted Kennedy is a good-for-nothing, fat, left wing liberal drunk.” “So I said that Osama Bin Laden dresses and acts like a frigid, ugly, mean-spirited lesbian! He retaliated by yelling, Oh yeah? Well, so does Hillary Clinton! “And, there we were, in the middle of the road, shaking hands, when a truck hit us!
By Jim's a Cherry Picker
March 9, 2007 9:08 AM | Link to this
*I have no choice but to move forward and say that you cannot accept…perjury in your highest officials.”
So says the Newtster, evidently referring to the peoples who run this country…that they shouldn’t be a-lyin’ to us good folks.
Except when they’re Republicans who say they “can’t remember”.
Isn’t that right Jim?
It’s ok for Republican’s to lie, because they’re fighting the good fight?
Isn’t that right? Republicans can lie and be corrupt and all that good, fun stuff, because they’re Christain and all.
Just come out and say it. All this beating around the bush you’re doing is kinda nauseating.
After me…Republicans…Can….Lie. It’s ok. It’s allright.
There, there. It’s going to be ok.
Whew.
By Neo-Con Artist
March 9, 2007 9:09 AM | Link to this
Reece, I like how you’ve registered that Republican trademark — making any money off that thing yet?
By Redneck Convert
March 9, 2007 9:09 AM | Link to this
Well, I’m right sorry to hear Wooten is a prevert. Talking about marrying another man. Us GA rednecks have been knowed to turn to a sheep or a horse or two, or maybe a kid in a pinch, but never another man. That would make us preverts too.
I see old Newt is telling everybody he had a affair while he was in charge up there. Glad to learn he wasn’t gay. Heck, if a man can’t fool around oncet in a while its a pretty sorry world. I hope it wasn’t one of them interns. They are just a bottle looking for a cork.
Me and my buddy Jim Earl was talking last night about the death penalty. We say life without parole is for wimps. We need to put the needle to them all. Sooner or later there won’t be nobody left to commit crimes. Everybody will be dead. You can’t kill nobody when you are dead. Heck, I would be willing to use my beer truck to help haul away the bodies if the prison people need some help. Maybe one of the warehouse forklifts too.
Well, we got a NASCAR weekend coming up. Me and Jim Earl has laid in a stock of beer and plenty of pork rinds. Everybody have a good weekend.
By TFTrealTruth
March 9, 2007 9:11 AM | Link to this
By Jim Wooten | Friday, March 9, 2007, 06:54 AM
The Atlanta Journal-ConstitutiThose who control Congress are determined to put one of their own in the White House.
And thanks to the wingnuts, fringe lunatics, and neo-cons on the far right wing of the republican party, they probably will, Jim. Mainstream America and moderate republicans sent a message to the right wing in 06. Unfortunately the folks dwelling on that wing of the party are too damn dumb to realize that it was them who caused this. Just watch Jim. These right wing imbeciles will hook their wagon to someone that will once again sabotage the party and alienate the very voters that rebelled against them in 06. No candidate that smells of the “religious” right, neo-conservatism, or the miscellaneous nativists and xenophobes that found a home on the right wing has a snowball’s chance in hell of winning in 08.
By One
March 9, 2007 9:12 AM | Link to this
Reece So true, so true!! I am soooo ready for ‘08!!
By Jim's a Cherry Picker
March 9, 2007 9:12 AM | Link to this
And Jim,
RE your cherry pick on Amtrak in Chi-town…why don’t you do an article on something closer to home?
I’m sorry you have to go so far afield to find something negative to say about rail.
If you’d like to do something on me, I’d be more than willing to help. I returned to Atlanta in Nov of 05, and have driven to work a total of seven times since then. Thats one less car in traffic and 20 less miles a day of gas wasted.
C’mon…do a positive story. All you report on is the “bad” news.
If you can call that reporting. It’s really more like hatchet work. Political spin…that’s what it is.
By CJ
March 9, 2007 9:14 AM | Link to this
Memo to Jim Wooten: Unless you’re prepared to institute the draft (and you’re not), the war in Iraq is unmanageable. It’s simple arithmetic. Even after the so-called surge is complete, we’re still short 350,000 troops or so. At the same time we’re jeopardizing NATO operations in Afghanistan where Osama bin Laden and friends are having a resurgence. Remember that guy?
On the fake ID penalties, they’re draconian and yet another demonstration of racial politics from Georgia legislators. Our representatives attempt to do absolutely nothing about the demand side of the illegal immigration problem, where they can actually have an impact, since the criminals on the demand side are their (our) friends and neighbors.
By Realist
March 9, 2007 9:15 AM | Link to this
Dammit Jim, did you knot take your vitamins before you wrote this?!! These liberals are having a field day on your weak arguments! Dammit!
By Neo-Con Artist
March 9, 2007 9:15 AM | Link to this
Zeke says: “Better yet, no unions at all! They are just a socialist plot and should have no power whatsoever!”
Yeah, much better to go back to the good old Depression days with child slavery and 100-hour work weeks… who do you think paved the way for you to spend time sitting on your arse posting garbage on a blog? You ingrate.
By Jack
March 9, 2007 9:15 AM | Link to this
Brian Curtis. If a fetus is not a living thing why are you charged with 2 counts of murder if you kill a pregnant woman?
By Reece
March 9, 2007 9:16 AM | Link to this
NeoCon Artist,
It’s a shame that I didn’t think to register it myself, I’d have made billions over the last 10 years.
By Edwin Williams
March 9, 2007 9:17 AM | Link to this
Neo-Con Artist - Gay Hartpence himself started that argument, and was caught by the Miami Herald, no conservative newspaper. He challenged the press to follow him around. He was just plain dumb on every level that I can think of in that situation. Making that argument is both sophmoric and vacuous. The hypocrisy was in the main-stream press’s decision to excuse Clinton from the very beginning. He turned out to be indescrete and out of control. At least FDR, LBJ and JFK had some sense of discretion, if not true morality.
Erin - NO there is no moral difference in any kind of murder. Comparing abortion to the death penalty is really just pathetic. An innocent child is an innocent child whether ripped from the womb or allowed to die from neglect. I have always taken the position that abortion should be allowed but limited because certain circumstances are just unavoidable. But by four months, a woman should know and have made that decision long ago. I do not know ONE conservative who would find any moral difference in partial birth abortion or killing a three month old. Your argument is rather vapid because it is like saying killing a person with a gun is worse than poisoning that person because one was quicker. Dead is dead and taking a life requires a proper penalty. Wooten made a perfectly valid point. You are sentencing a person to die quickly or slowly, but the result is the same!
By Mike
March 9, 2007 9:18 AM | Link to this
NP and the Dems are on the right track. How in the H… can we call Iraq a War. That is nothing but a conflict! Why are we there. The enemy WAS in Afganistan. It cowardly to pick on a country you already beat down,because you can’t find the enemy who F….us up. Our LEADERS are not interested in doing what is right for the country just making money and lying
By Neo-Con Artist
March 9, 2007 9:19 AM | Link to this
Melo- I like what you say:
“Obama would be the centrist and i could’nt be happier because Obama would be a shoo-in.”
Obama in ‘08!
By Reece
March 9, 2007 9:21 AM | Link to this
Jack,
As someone that would and perhaps will vote for Hillary Clinton, I’ve just one thing to say about your joke.
That’s funny, I don’t care who ya are.
By TFTrealTruth
March 9, 2007 9:22 AM | Link to this
By Jim Wooten | Friday, March 9, 2007, 06:54 AM
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution• Two state House bills that attempt to address the use of red-light cameras to gin up revenue have promise. House Bill 77, as revised, would divert 75 percent of the revenue, after installation and maintenance costs, to a state trauma network and would require a traffic engineering study before they’re installed. Another, HB 590, would lower fines from $70 to $35. Pass both (if legislators are determined not to ban them altogether). No financial incentive should exist.
Jim, I’ll bet you a dollar to a donut hole that if this passes, you won’t see anymore cameras going up period. This was a revenue grab of the first magnitude from day one. Remember the ones where the selling company actually had shortened the time between yellow and red? There sales guys were even pitching this to prospective buyers as a revenue producer. Furthermore, if you took the “confiscation” (i.e revenue) incentive out of the biggest boondogle in American history, the “war on drugs” you’d probably have alot more careful and judicious waging of that war. Reality bites at times. And it is an indusputable reality that anytime financial gain is interjected scrupples and ethics are the first things that fly right out the window.
By Neo-Con Artist
March 9, 2007 9:23 AM | Link to this
Edwin: “I have always taken the position that abortion should be allowed but limited because certain circumstances are just unavoidable.”
Sounds Pro-choice to me, Edwin — you’re really a good guy even though you seem to buy into most of the Republicans’ dictates.
By Peggy
March 9, 2007 9:26 AM | Link to this
Jim Wooten is an idiot. What a shock. I may need another cup of coffee to get over it.
By Neo-Con Artist
March 9, 2007 9:29 AM | Link to this
Reece, I think I’ll try to register a few other slogans myself:
“Cut-n-run!”
“Freedom is on the march!”
“We’ll be greeted as liberators!”
“We have to fight them over there!”
“Withdrawing our troops will only embolden our enemies!”
“It’s a slam dunk!”
And I’m sure there’s a few others, but I need to get a coffee refill now…
By Edwin Williams
March 9, 2007 9:30 AM | Link to this
I apologize right now for the typo, I really did mean to write GARY Hartpence. I did not mean to disparage any gay person by comparing him or her to such a base, venal and hypocritical twit! Most of the gay people I know are quite open and above board and quiet sophisticated and refined. I am sure like every other group there are exceptions. I do not hold the same line on gays as many conservatives, that is why I am supporting Giuliani.
By spaceman109
March 9, 2007 9:34 AM | Link to this
hmmmm…..interesting that, thus far, jim has had nothing to day about the scooter libby verdict; perhaps he is too personally devastated to do so at this time.
so i shall fill in.
i thought it notable that for the longest time, the defense team had said that vp dick cheney would testify for his former aide. but when it came time for the deal to go down, cheney bailed. in my opinion, he turned his back on his former aide. i can hazard some guesses as to why he did not testify; feel free to check as many as you think apply.
*he realized that the prosecutor was unlikely to kiss his backside.
*he realized that the prosecutor was unlikely to ask him the sort of candyass puffball questions that he hears when interviewing on talk radio.
*he was aware that he could possibly face inconvenient questions which he could not answer without invoking the fift amendment.
*he thought himself way too special to answer questions in front of a jury composed of the great unwashed.
one also notes the shrieks of outrage from the right wing over this verdict and the associated demands that president bush immediately pardon libby. the president rightly realizes that it would be seriously improper for him to pardon libby before the legal process plays itself out. also, to pardon someone is to admit that such person committed a crime. i wonder if that has previously occurred to the right-wingers who are frothing at the mouth while they wail for a pardon.
i shall get down from my soapbox now :)
By Edwin Williams
March 9, 2007 9:40 AM | Link to this
Neo-Con Artist - what too many of you lock-step, talking-point liberals do not understand is that there are NO dictates made upon conservatives or Republicans. We are held together by a common belief in personal responsibility and freedom, within the limits of the law. I would remind you that my position of limiting abortion is opposed diamentrically by almost all Democrat office holders and fascist organizations such as NARAL. I get as much grief as them. I will remind you that Governor Casey of Pennsylvania was not allowed to address the Democrat convention because he held pro-life positions. The Republicans have always allowed “pro-choice” people to address their conventions - e.g. Colin Powell, Condoleeza Rice, Rudy Giuliani, Christine Whitman. The diversity of views in the Republican party on social issues is much greater than that of the Democrats. What unites us as a party is the fact that we are not SOCIALISTS with a lust for government power and a belief that only we can make basic economic and educational decisions for the masses because they are just too stupid to do it for themselves. If you take away economic freedoms and the right to fail as well as succeed, then basic civil liberties will not be far behind, and neither will grinding poverty!
By Neo-Con Artist
March 9, 2007 9:41 AM | Link to this
“i shall get down from my soapbox now “
No, please do go on, Spaceman!
By Writer's block
March 9, 2007 9:41 AM | Link to this
Didn’t W pardon Newt for his affair?
By Reece
March 9, 2007 9:44 AM | Link to this
Spaceman,
Here’s the URL for an interesting piece regarding the possible Presidential pardon. Essentially, if Bush pardon’s Scooter(watch your butt)Libby, he’ll be doing so in violation of DOJ guidelines. Of course breaking the law has never stopped Bush and his cabal of criminals.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17507199/site/newsweek/
By One
March 9, 2007 9:45 AM | Link to this
Obama in ‘08!!!
Our LEADERS are not interested in doing what is right for the country just making money and lying
The TRUTH!!!!!
Obama in ‘08!!!
By JK
March 9, 2007 9:47 AM | Link to this
Spaceman, you are mistaken. The other day Mr. Wooten suggested that Mr. Libby be pardoned for his crimes because… I forget, but it has something to do with it not really being a crime if THIS administration does it, because afterall, only THEY care about the safety of America.
By Reece
March 9, 2007 9:48 AM | Link to this
Also interesting to note is that Wootenanny has had a bad week. The Libby verdict on Wednesday must have unhinged his mind even more than usual. He’s gotten his legs spanked here on ThinkingBlight two days in a row.
By Grampus
March 9, 2007 9:48 AM | Link to this
All of you are a bunch of hypocrites over this “had an affair” business. Only the count of dikwads claiming to be the father of Anna-Nicole’s baby is higher than the number of affairs attributed to JFK. Everyone still seems to think he walked on water. JFK - like attributes are glowingly applied to Barack Obama. Should Obama decline the honor? John Edwards goes out of his way to look like JFK’s equally lecherous brother RFK. FDR had a life long affair. Do we need to put an asterisk by his name? Ike supposedly had one while he was running the war in Europe. God knows Jimmy Carter needed to have one bad, but typically the best he could manage was lust. Three-quarters of the population have probably had an affair. That’s no excuse, but is Newt any less credible now with his admission than those who preceded him? At least he freely admits it instead of lying like an self-centered adolescent and making us feel his pain for three wasted years.
By For the Record ...
March 9, 2007 9:50 AM | Link to this
Life imprisonment is “slow torture” and death is preferable? Any data from death row inmates to back up this view? Should we give them the option? Surely all of them would choose death over the slow torture of life imprisonment — right, Mr Wooten? It would also save the state lots of money (interesting fact for you “conservatives” who never loved a human being more than a dollar bill: it costs more money in appeals to execute someone than it does to incarcerate them for life.)
And those of us who oppose the death penalty do so because we have no “stomach for it”? Perhaps the most searing moral and ethical question a human being can consider — should the State have the power to put people to death — and you reduce it to a matter of “stomach.”
And you wonder why people consider Southerners to be ignorant fools …
By Edwin Williams
March 9, 2007 9:51 AM | Link to this
Writer’s block - no one had to pardon Newt for his affair. He did not lie under oath or soil anything in his office. He never committed a crime. Clinton on the other hand committed perjury on several occasions. For sarcasm to work, there must be an element of truth to it. Here there is NONE!
By harold
March 9, 2007 9:54 AM | Link to this
uh, it aint the pelosi withdrawal plan. it’s the oringal bush exit stargetry: the “blame the democrats” plan.
harold called it years ago: His exit stratergy was he wood just tread water until he could blame democrats. he did and now he is.
youll notice the guy still have no exit plan. quite the opposite actually. he is just making believe he will send 10s of thousand more US people to die and to kill 10s of thousands more of iraqi people when all he is really doing is playing poker to invoke his actule exit stratergy: blame the democrats for the failure
there’s always been a federal bailout for the misadventures of dubya whatever they may have been throughout his whole life. now the bailout is the half of the federal he doesnt own: blame the democrats
By abc
March 9, 2007 9:59 AM | Link to this
Wooten, some of your comments today are just plain stupid. I hadn’t thought you to be so silly before.
The new commanding General in Iraq was in the news yesterday with statements of how military efforts alone won’t end the strife there. Don’t you read the newspaper? There are 24 million people in Iraq, and there have been 655,000 Iraqis killed. That’s approximately the population of the U.S. during the Civil War, and about the same number of deaths. Are you so heartless that you don’t care? You’d rather proceed as we have? You think this war has been well ‘managed’?
The moral difference between life without parole and a death sentence is obvious. Your statement on that is just plain idiotic. One allows one to live, albeit in a restricted environment that won’t allow them to cause harm to others; the other removes life from them, which violates one of the 10 Commandments.
By harold
March 9, 2007 10:00 AM | Link to this
nomrally a bike commooter will drive sometimes to do a clothes xfer. since roswell mayor does not work in the capitol in atlanta, he has no suit there.
the police escort is indeed the statement: asshats in cars who think they own the roads make bicycling to work hazardous. an enitrely corrupt DOT who will never pave bicycle lanes because they dont want people otu of cars also maeks it very hazardous. the whole point was there should be the possibility of riding a bicycle to work WITHOUT an absurd polie escort
you knwo how long the marietta riders took to get to the ATL? < 1 hour. that’s faster than you can drive there during traffic. if it weren’t incredibly unsafe due to the motor vehicles and the a-sholes driving them, thousands upon thousands of people could be bike commuting from vinigns smyrna and marietta to downtown atlanta
but, no, dipsheet old white men are too scared of that, so the bike facilites will never get built
By Jeff
March 9, 2007 10:01 AM | Link to this
Edwin:
Agreed. For example, I am a Republican simply because I support those things and no Democrats will. I do not support government recognition of gay marraige simply because it would be yet another expansion of government, and I believe that the only direction government should grow is SMALLER.
The trouble is that NONE of the current Presidential candidates is anywhere NEAR a Thomas Thorn, or even a Jack Ryan.
This is my plea: Someone - I DON’T CARE WHICH PARTY - PLEASE give me a Thomas Thorn. If you can’t give me Thorn, PLEASE, AT LEAST give me a Jack Ryan!
By Edwin Williams
March 9, 2007 10:01 AM | Link to this
For the record - YOU are the ignorant fool and a bigot to make such a statement about Southerners. And I would remind you that Bill Clinton is one as well. He’s one of your heroes, remember? Also, I would remind you that George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, George Washington Carver, Martin Luther King, Jr., Eudora Whelty and Margaret Mitchell were all Southerners. I guess you are confusing the rest of us with AL GORE and JIMMY CARTER!
By Edwin Williams
March 9, 2007 10:04 AM | Link to this
Reece - the law on this issue is the Constitution of the United States of America. The president has an absolute right to issue pardons, despite “guide-lines” by the DOJ. Just ask Mark Rich!
By harold
March 9, 2007 10:06 AM | Link to this
NASCAR IS A MARVELOUS SPORT BUT KEEP THAT S** OFF THE ROADS. ROADS ARE FOR PEOPLE TO GET PLACES.
PRIORITY #1: PEDESTRIANS
PRIORITY #2: BICYCLES
PRIORITY #3: BUSES
PRIORITY #4: OTHER PUBLIC TRANSIT
LOWEST PRIORITY: PRIVATE MOTOR VEHICLES
By getalife
March 9, 2007 10:07 AM | Link to this
The Iraq disaster is w’s disaster and should end under his failed Presidency.
The intellectual cowardice to blame the Dems is pure wingnut.
There are many cuts to American aid .Peachcare is just another casualty of the Iraq disaster.
By Reece
March 9, 2007 10:07 AM | Link to this
I’m somewhat surprised to see that Jim Wooten hasn’t come back with one of his “When I’m King of America” retorts. That’s the true fantasy of most of these NeoCons, right?
By time for the truth
March 9, 2007 10:07 AM | Link to this
The greasy verminous Brazilian filth rioting for leftist HATE AMERICA tv cameras need to feel the bone crunching wrath of a righteous rainforest of police truncheons on their prominent extra thick doltish foreheads. The ONLY way to deal with thuggish cowardly hateful leftist anti-American rioters is to mercilessly beat them. Then tear gas them, and maybe try and wash some of their leftist bile off with a strong bleach solution from extra powerful water cannons and then just leave these commie creep vermin for local rabid dogs and armed muggers to prey on. Naturally this almost kid glove treatment makes superb urban jungle footage for the Discovery Channel!!
The virulently anti-black sickster inbred rednekkk is obviously a clear target for prosecutors as a hapless beneficiary of false state issued ids … how else could a gibbering retarded racist extra chromosomed mutant numbskull get daily access to the internet?
Still no news of the corrupt incarcerated felon Billy bigot Campbell in the federal big house!! Will he eventually get a jail house slot on lard arse Oprah to confess all about his bigoted anti-white attitudes while his snout was deep in the ATL trough for EIGHT long venal years of grab whatever we can get and run with it to the casino??!!
Knuckle dragging thuggish leftist unions have NO part to play in a modern society. Leftist unions and socialists should be banned and forcibly deported immediately!!
Partial birth abortion is something the bestial liberal scum are predicktably DEEPLY PROUD OF!!
Newt would make a superb president!! Just think of ALL that poisonous unremitting unhinged liberal hate if he was elected!! We patriotic clear thinking conservatives gotta pay these perfidious lice ridden sick pinko bed wetting punks back for eight years of treasonous scum sucking Bush hate!!
Time to properly carpet bomb the backward genocidal Persian Hitlers in Iran … while a squadron of Blackhawk gunships circle Tehran with the loudspeakers noisily playing an acid house remix of A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall
By JK
March 9, 2007 10:08 AM | Link to this
Harold nails it at 9:54. JK nods in complete agreement. Whatever happens, this administration’s only true consistent strategy on anything, foreign, domestic, economic, or adulterous, is to blame Democrats. “Personal responsibility” is only a noise they make, kind of like a poot. JK’s nose crinkles in disapproval.
By Edwin Williams
March 9, 2007 10:09 AM | Link to this
abc - funny how you libs misquote the 10 Commandments when it is useful to do so, but you don’t want them displayed or taught in school because it would promote religion. Please give me a break on the hypocrisy. What you are saying is that you have more sympathy for the perpetrator than the victim. Remember, the murderer gave his victim NO CHOICE. At least when people are sentenced to death it is after a trial and the decision is made by a jury. If made the argument that sometimes innocent men or women are convicted, then some of us might by it. Your argument is one of very misplaced values and compassion. Have some compassion for the innocent party first.
By Neo-Con Artist
March 9, 2007 10:11 AM | Link to this
“but is Newt any less credible now with his admission than those who preceded him?”
No, but Newt pressing forward with impeachment for President Bill during this time might just label him one big, fat hypocrite — all’s we’re saying.
At least Rudy can say that he wasn’t urging impeachment based on an illicit affair during the same time as his own illicit affair was occurring… score one point for Rudy as a non-hypocrite.
By harold
March 9, 2007 10:11 AM | Link to this
Memo to Roads of Atlanta’s Planned Expansion Repeat Splost (RAPERS) backers:
Commuters using private motor vehicles alone are on time 0% of the time, which is 11% less than commuter rail.
By Reece
March 9, 2007 10:12 AM | Link to this
Edwin,
Reading the entirety of your posts confirms that idea that you’ve become addled by too many bible-thumpings to your head. Go on back to your TaliBaptist enclave and worry about something important…like making sure that demon rum may never be sold on Sunday.
By abc
March 9, 2007 10:12 AM | Link to this
What hypocrisy? The 1st Amendment plainly states that government won’t endorse any specific religion, nor impede any individual in the right to practice one. It has nothing to do with liberal vs. conservative (misnomers if ever there were any), nor Democrat vs. Republican.
By Neo-Con Artist
March 9, 2007 10:13 AM | Link to this
Must be feeding time at the zoo:
The greasy verminous Brazilian filth rioting for leftist HATE AMERICA tv cameras need to feel the bone crunching wrath of a righteous rainforest of police truncheons on their prominent extra thick doltish foreheads. The ONLY way to deal with thuggish cowardly hateful leftist anti-American rioters is to mercilessly beat them.
Someone please feed the little beasts already!
By Bob Newhart
March 9, 2007 10:15 AM | Link to this
Let’s see, it’s April 1st when the AJC ceases to make itself available in print form to most of the state. Is that when they are “rightsizing,” Wooten out of a job, too? I can’t recall.
By abc
March 9, 2007 10:16 AM | Link to this
…and it’s pretty difficult to misquote something as simple as ‘Thou Shalt Not Murder’. The topic was the moral difference between a life sentence and the death penalty. The difference is obvious; that you take it as an opportunity to lash out against so-called liberals simply illustrates to me your inability to think clearly.
By WascoGuy
March 9, 2007 10:17 AM | Link to this
Bailout Peachcare?
What a joke. The Georgia GOP overspent their federal funding and went crying to Congress to fix Georgia’s overspending.
Its time the Georgia GOP show some accountability for its spending and — Wooten you are a complete hyprocrite on this issue. If this had happened when the democrats controlled the statehouse you would be criticizing them for their lack of fiscal accountability. Once again you show that you’re nothing but a rank partisan. I think you should drop your ‘holier than thou’ attitude —- it just makes you look silly.
By Edwin Williams
March 9, 2007 10:18 AM | Link to this
Jeff - recognition of gay marriage is no more an expansion of government authority than changing the stop light color for go from green to chartreuse. That argument on its face is silly. If one is opposed to gay marriage it is ONLY for moral reasons. I will make no judgment on those opinions because they are valid ones which people have a right to hold. I just think on that particular issue, many Republicans are wrong because it won’t change anyones nature or “morality.” Even Rush Limbaugh is for “civil unions.” That’s fine with me because a rose by any other name ….
By Barbara
March 9, 2007 10:18 AM | Link to this
Jim, I gotta admit, these are pretty lame today. I was hoping you’d do something on the Brian Nicols case and why we have to wait for the state to get more money in order to defend him? I just don’t get it at all, and it really p** me off. But if I have to pick one of your topics, I guess I’ll say I certainly agree on the traffic camera funds. I like having traffic enforcement, but I don’t think any kind of traffic enforcement should result in a gain for the agencies issuing the tickets. Keep in mind, however, that’s coming from someone who got a speeding ticket this year :-)
By Bob Krispy
March 9, 2007 10:20 AM | Link to this
Reece, Talibaptists. Funny. They will be successful in keeping Sunday alcohol sales blue law in place. But that’s just my literal and inerrant opinion.
By Goldie
March 9, 2007 10:21 AM | Link to this
“Personal responsibility” is only a noise they make, kind of like a poot.
Amen, JK — the Republicans really mean “blame it on Clinton” when they speak of taking responsibility. Seems to be what comes outta their mouths next, once they even say the word.
By Edwin Williams
March 9, 2007 10:24 AM | Link to this
reece - you must not be reading my posts very thoroughly or you would not have made the quite STUPID statement you just made. I do believe that this is the first time in my life I have been accused of being a Bible-thumper. Please don’t call people names when you don’t know them. All I can say is that I named my dog “Reese”.
By Goldie
March 9, 2007 10:30 AM | Link to this
Please don’t call people names when you don’t know them.
Sounds like good advice for everyone here, including you, Edwin.
By spaceman109
March 9, 2007 10:30 AM | Link to this
hey jk :)
thanks for pointing out the article from the other day…i missed it owing to other pressing matters.
it is sad to see the once-sharp analytical skills of jim wooten fade into nothingness. to call this trial nothing more than insider politics is 42 exits past bizarre. ex-president clinton committed perjury in court and that was horrendous; according to jim, these charges against libby were nothing more than one washington gang against another? perhaps jim conveniently forgot that special prosecutor fitzgerald was nominated to his federal prosecutor post by a republican senator from illinois and then named special prosecutor for this case in 2003 by acting attorney general comey.
perhaps jim thinks it perfectly okay for scooter libby to commit perjury and obstruction of justice (what sp fitzgerald called “throwing sand in the face of the umpire”) for the greater glory of this administration.
reece… thanks for that link about the doj guidelines regarding pardons. one should note that these are guidelines and not set-in-stone rules.
and just to quell any speculations about my political leanings…i like to take the opposite side of a debate to see what kind of person is on the other side. can this person debate an issue thoughtfully? or do they prefer demonization and name-calling like some regular posters on this blog?
i take the same approach to those bloggers that bill parcells took on t.o., who he referred to as “the player”. i will refer to bloggers who resort to demonization and name-calling as “that blogger” since they do not deserve to be named.
By Reece
March 9, 2007 10:30 AM | Link to this
Edwin,
You spelled your dog’s name incorrectly.
By DawgBite
March 9, 2007 10:30 AM | Link to this
By Edwin Williams
March 9, 2007 8:44 AM | Link to this
Newt won’t run in the end because he doesn’t want to be savaged by hypocrites like Hitlery and Jesse and other liars, fornicators and jerks. For the Democrats EVER to attack someone for adultery when they have elected Presidents like FDR, JFK, LBJ and WJC, it is too much for color TV! Newt is still the best idea man the Republicans have, so he will be out there with his ideas, but he’s way too smart to actually run.
Well, well! Little Eddie “I am the one” Williams finally came out of hiding after getting his azz handed to him the other day about a hundred times. Welcome back moron. I’m sure it will be a wingfest of ignorance here today with you on board. Will you treat us to another of those foaming at the mouth foreign language rants that anyone can come up with using a translation program. What a dumbazz you proved to be Eddie poo. But we know, you are “the one”.
By Barbara
March 9, 2007 10:33 AM | Link to this
Oh, and another rant, since I’ve already strayed off topic this morning….. Why would the AJC do a front page (front webpage, anyway) story on the high-priced hooker and porn star, showing off the things she’s aquired with money she made on her back? I’m sorry, but that’s just got my conservative ire up!
By Po'ed
March 9, 2007 10:35 AM | Link to this
Can I just vent and say that I am p** off at our government!! In my Douglas County neighborhood they have a sign in complete Spanish regarding domestic violence paid for by taxpayers. Stop encouraging illegal immigrants to not learn English..jeeesshhh!!!!!
By Neo-Con Artist
March 9, 2007 10:38 AM | Link to this
Babara says: “Why would the AJC do a front page (front webpage, anyway) story on the high-priced hooker and porn star, showing off the things she’s aquired with money she made on her back? I’m sorry, but that’s just got my conservative ire up!”
Barbara, I said WTF myself when I saw that on the website, too! And I’m a silly Liberal — who’da thunk that?
By Edwin Williams
March 9, 2007 10:39 AM | Link to this
abc - the commandment indeed is thou shalt not murder. If you read the TORAH there are a plethora of crimes for which EXECUTION was THE penalty. I am just saying that you are picking and choosing when to quote that commandment. The hypocrisy is palpable with folks like you. And I am thinking quite clearly. I gave up sweets, land meat and alcohol for Lent! Maybe you should do the same. You also might decide to read some Plato and Aristotle before talking about logic.
By Dr.Doom
March 9, 2007 10:39 AM | Link to this
By Edwin Williams
March 9, 2007 10:24 AM | Link to this
reece - you must not be reading my posts very thoroughly or you would not have made the quite STUPID statement you just made. I do believe that this is the first time in my life I have been accused of being a Bible-thumper. Please don’t call people names when you don’t know them. All I can say is that I named my dog “Reese”.
And I named my lover here at the state pen Edwin.
By Van
March 9, 2007 10:42 AM | Link to this
Barbara,
I’ve got my eye on you. Since John D may steal Dusty from me, will you please accompany me to dinner at the Dwarf House followed by a trip to the shooting range where I will let you fire my pistol?
By Camus
March 9, 2007 10:42 AM | Link to this
Edwin Williams writes: “The hypocrisy was in the main-stream press’s decision to excuse Clinton from the very beginning.”
This really has no basis in fact at all. The MSM was utterly complicit in all the Whitewater/Lewinsky/travel office drum beating. The NY Times in particular, under Howell Raines, was the absolute leader in trumpeting every piece if minutiae (whether factually supported or not) to come out the Whitewater investigation. The Times and the Wa Post were running neck and neck to see who could print the leaks from Ken Starr’s office first. And even NPR (most notably the execreble Cokie Roberts) could not restrain their daily display of outrage at the horrible behavior of the Clenis.
No, sir, it was not the MSM who excused Clinton’s philandering, it was the 7o% of the American people who knew that it was a tempest in a teapot. Oh yeah, and the Congress that defeated the impeachment putsch.
But kudos to you, Mr Williams, for your refutation of Jeff’s brainless argument that allowing civil unions somehow expanded the power of the government.
By DawgBite
March 9, 2007 10:42 AM | Link to this
Barbara, doesn’t one of the ten commandments deal with coveting what someone else has got? Your jealousy does not become you Barbara.
By Reece
March 9, 2007 10:43 AM | Link to this
Barbara,
They run stories such as that because..it’s a new medium and the need to sell papers is the overriding idea here. That’s in part why Wootenanny has a job, honestly it would not surprise me to learn that he believes only about half of what he says. Much like Lush Rimshot and Bill O’lielly he’s in it for the circulation.
By Edwin Williams
March 9, 2007 10:44 AM | Link to this
Barbara - I just checked out the headline, and I don’t know about conservative ire, but I do find that the entire story is NOT newsworth, irrelevant and insipid. It is a shame that the AJC will run this kind of story and still call itself a serious news source. At best this belonged in the Lifestyle section as one colossal joke!
By jm
March 9, 2007 10:47 AM | Link to this
Mr. Wooten, with all due repect what this administration has been doing can hardly be called “managing a war”. I was against the invasion of iraq from the start (wrong war at the wrong time for the wrong reasons) but was willing to support the president in his decision at the time. When he decided to prance on that aircraft carrier in front of that “Mission Accomplished” banner purely for political gain while “osama been forgotten” was still on the loose, he forfeited the right to ask for “patience” in Iraq.
As for Peach Care, that’s your tax cuts at work. Those government programs that every keeps wanting cost money and that money has to come from somewhere (currently loans from China, Japan and Saudi Arabia and other countries).
By Edwin Williams
March 9, 2007 10:48 AM | Link to this
DawgBite - I don’t remember anything being handed to me. And I don’t recall you at all. I also don’t recall being gratuitously insulting and rude to someone I don’t even know. You are childish and rude and remind me of the bully on the playground who hates anyone who won’t let him win. I’ve been gone from the other blog because I have been busy and I won’t return to it because too many infantile insults are traded by both liberals and conservatives. Grow up.
By Jack
March 9, 2007 10:49 AM |