Thinking Right

By Eric

August 3, 2007 8:11 AM | Link to this

It isn’t the academic standards that are the problem with Hope, it is the wealthy families who could EASILY afford college but send their kids using Hope, while other kids who have families that CAN’T pay, sit and watch.

By Richard

August 3, 2007 8:18 AM | Link to this

Yeah, right. Blame CNN for whatever news is out there that you don’t like. And for all the news you do like, I’m sure it’s thanks to Fox.

Typical blow-hole conservative.

By Typical Georgia Redneck

August 3, 2007 8:22 AM | Link to this

Truth be told, nothing is more excitin’ to a Georgia redneck than the sight of nekkid schoolchildren.

It’s our English blood, I guess.

By RCH

August 3, 2007 8:26 AM | Link to this

In order to eliminate grade inflation and other problems..

Lets try this. All individuals are eligible for the Hope Scholarship. You pay, you may attend, and at the end of the semester those with an aggregate grade point average of a “B” will be reimbursed the tuition. Fair and simple.

By jbmlaw

August 3, 2007 8:29 AM | Link to this

Good morning all. I’m delighted to hear that Grady hired a top-drawer firm like Troutman Sanders to “review” its governance plan. Certainly all bankrupt beggars should hire attorneys to answer the critical “mother may I” questions. Hiring attorneys is what makes the world go ’round. It proves that the hirers are important and serious people. Everyone reading this blog ought to go out and hire an attorney today.

Good to hear that corporate welfare is strong for hospitals and luxury resorts in Georgia. I assume our leftist friends will be pleased that some portion of their $183 2006 income tax payments are going into the pockets of medicrats and developers.

Gloria B-T is wrong – the worst thing that can be witnessed upon anyone is government-paid “reformers” (Analchord, is that sentence grammatically correct? I used a collective noun that appears, at first blush, plural.) God save us from do-gooders.

I propose a new motto for one of my alma maters (Analchord, should that be alma materi?): University of Tennessee – putting athletes into prison stripes for 50 years.

“Obfuscation” is charge levied only by lawyers in their attempt to keep people from looking at the obvious. This is the second thing they teach you in law school, how to “control the question.” Magnify the irrelevant to a point where people ignore the big picture. Related essay, on our leftist friends and their contribution to intelligence, in today’s WSJ: http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110010421 I think I ought to demand WSJ pay me for all my references to their wisdom. Maybe they ought to hire an attorney.

By Rod

August 3, 2007 8:30 AM | Link to this

So, Atlanta City Councilwoman Gloria Bromell-Tinubu thinks “Slavery is the worst thing and homelessness is the second-worst thing that can be witnessed upon anyone.” I’m sure a few rape and torture victims would care to disagree with her.

By Ronnie B

August 3, 2007 8:33 AM | Link to this

HOPE’s no joke. It gets kids into college, but if they’re not already prepared, then they’re either gone or they’re paying tuition on their own dime.

The real “joke” is the under-performing, failing and provincial public school system. There’s something wrong when those who can most afford college (Walton, Peachtree Ridge, North Gwinnett parents) have the schools available to their kids that best prepare them for HOPE, while the families who need it most, have the worst schools to prepare them for HOPE (or lack thereof).

By kco

August 3, 2007 8:36 AM | Link to this

HOPE scholarships are middle-class entitlements. They are enabled by the state-funded and heavily advertised gambling business. The Georgia Lottery is a sneaky tax on the poor.

The Georgia Lottery provides no money to elementary education, yet 47% of Georgia is functionally illiterate. People without basic life skills are easy prey for get-rich-quick schemes at $2 a shot, and people who buy lottery tickets by definition have poor money management skills. They wouldn’t know how to manage the money if they won.

Government should not be in the gambling business unless everyone is allowed to do it. The Georgia Lottery should be abolished.

By Redneck Convert

August 3, 2007 8:41 AM | Link to this

Well, I reckon they’ll be griping about my white socks and dress pants next. You just can’t please some people when it comes to clothes. They change the fashion just so the clothes makers can make more money.

I say get rid of this Hope scholarship but keep the lottery. All you get when you send these boneheads to colledge on my dime is a educated idiot. My buddy Jim Earl pretty well summed it up last night. He asked how you get a UGA grad off of your porch. The answer is you pay him for the pizza.

I don’t want to have my tax money going to pay for Grady and the doctoring of Those People. Keep the paying in Fulton and DeKalb county. They started this librul mess and they can keep it. It must be run by a bunch of colledge grads. It don’t take a Einstein to figure out if people don’t have no money and no insurance they ain’t going to pay, so you go broke. You just can’t get around Private Innerprize. Its better to know you are going to make money before you start up a business. I don’t see nothing in the Constitution that says people have the right to get doctored just because they are sick or dying. Leastwise I know my friend jbmlaw will agree with me.

We don’t need no big hotels on Jekyll. Just as long as they keep the trailer hookups. We need to get back to the days when you could set up your trailer there and cook on a oil barrel and throw your garbage in the ocean. Instead of making things nice for a bunch of libruls and rich people. Anyway, nobody goes there anymore. Its too crowded.

I say round up the bums and make them fix the roads. They say they ain’t got no homes. Well, all they got to do is get a job and they would have one. If they would do road work we could probly rent them a tent or something like that.

Well, I got to be making my rounds. All the bars have ordered extry for the weekend on account of the thirst of the Baptists on Saturdays and Sundays. They are a hard drinking Godly bunch. I hope tftt is back on his meds today. He sure cussed up a storm yesterday. Jim Earl says its the Gay Rage, and I guess he is right. For a minute I thought tftt and that WTF guy was going to get a hotel room. Anyway, everybody knows the English is wired kind of funny. It takes all kinds, I reckon. Just as long as they don’t try to get married and make my marriage worthless.

By Carlie

August 3, 2007 8:45 AM | Link to this

Eric, just because the wealthy can afford to send their kids to college without HOPE doesn’t mean the wealthy kids shouldn’t be able to get it. How would we judge who can get HOPE? Should it be based on a parent’s income? What about the wealthy kids whose parents will not pay for college for one reason or another? They are then screwed if the government says their parents have enough money to pay so they can’t get HOPE. Plus, even if the parents would pay, why should they have to pay extra just because they can? It’s not their fault that others don’t make the money they do.

By Jblack

August 3, 2007 8:48 AM | Link to this

Hey Ronnie,

If your are looking for what makes schools like Walton, PR, and NG so good at preparing kids for college and Hope look no further than the % of parents that are members of and attend PTA meetings. It is amazing how much better schools preform when a united group of parents keep constant watch over the school. I lost all respect for Frank Ski when I heard him complain about having to sit through a PTA meeting before his kid’s kindergarten graduation. In the end the difference between high performing schools and low performing schools is the involvement of parents.

By Jerry Pardue

August 3, 2007 8:48 AM | Link to this

Jim: Thanks for your “Hopelessy Unscholarly Standards” opinion in todays AJC. Apparently Karharine Ruse,the Bethesda Elementary “TEACHER” doesnt understand what GPA stands for. <70=D, 70-79=C, 80-89=B,>90=A. Grade Point Average, or GPA uses elementary math skills that this elementary teaches doesnt understand. Gee..what a suprise!

By E. T.

August 3, 2007 8:48 AM | Link to this

If I live outside of Fulton and Dekalb Counties and have to be sent to Grady, I pay. If I live in Fulton and Dekalb Counties and go to Grady I get free care. The Grady Board is in trouble because of the paying patients? Don’t think so. Let the patients who caused this mess pay.

By Analchord

August 3, 2007 8:48 AM | Link to this

What are life skills? We breath. We drink. We eat. We trick women into letting us feel them up. (Hey, how’d THAT get in there?).

The point is that there are no life skills that aren’t bio-magnanimously endowed by the creator. Hasn’t anyone noticed how oxygen just happens to be ubiquitous? Please.

‘muff said.

By Bob

August 3, 2007 8:51 AM | Link to this

Most really WEALTHY families don’t use the hope scholarship… and as Jim said, poorer students who qualify receive the scholarship. If you can’t qualify to get it out of high school, you probably wouldn’t have it long anyway… rich or poor.

Also - the state should provide the same benefits to ALL Georgians. My family is not what I call wealthy but we do make a comfortable living. I know plenty of “less fortunate” families who have chosen to have one member of the family stay home with the kids, or whatever other determinatioon that could cause a family to have less money.

I also know people who choose to work for less pay because they like their jobs. Should they have more benefits than someone else? I think not!

By RCH

August 3, 2007 8:52 AM | Link to this

kco

“The Georgia Lottery is a sneaky tax on the poor.”

I wish all taxes were like this. You don’t play, you don’t pay!

By Joey

August 3, 2007 8:55 AM | Link to this

So the Attorney General, the head of the Department of Justice and chief law enforcement officer of the Federal Government, admits to being intentionally evasive under oath and that’s ok with you because Senators Biden and Schumer obfuscate too. Wow. Your sarcasm is so persuasive. I suppose I shouldn’t expect to read critical analysis in your column of someone on the right that doesn’t devolve into an a lambasting of those on the left.

By June

August 3, 2007 9:04 AM | Link to this

College should be free for everyone. There should be parity among the quality of education provided by public universities (if one university can excel, then they all can) and the only entrance requirements should be either a high school diploma or a GED.

In short, getting in shouldn’t be hard, but getting out should. Those that can’t hack it will fall by the wayside. Those that can will end up with a college education from which all of us will benefit via a more productive economy.

By JL

August 3, 2007 9:08 AM | Link to this

Fair warning to state officials: If Grady doesn’t survive, many of us or our loved ones won’t survive either. It’s the only Level I trauma center in the region, a top training facility for doctors who go onto other hospitals and security for Georgians who need critical emergency care. In addition, Grady treats indigents that, if Grady closes, will end up crowding other emergency rooms in the region making the wait that much longer for everybody else.

By Disgusted

August 3, 2007 9:13 AM | Link to this

Why, then, would the Jekyll Island Authority offer even a dime in incentives, much less a $10 million rent break, to one of the nation’s largest developers?

I think I know the answer to that one, Jim — windfalls, greed, payoffs, relationships, strippers, … Why we continue to give business the ability to contribute to, meet with in private and provide gifts/trips to and throw parties for government officials is beyond me.

By gtfan

August 3, 2007 9:14 AM | Link to this

eric It isn’t the academic standards that are the problem with Hope, it is the wealthy families who could EASILY afford college but send their kids using Hope, while other kids who have families that CAN’T pay, sit and watch.

It’s based on grades, not family income. The wealthy families are paying all the taxes supporting the poor ones already, what are you complaining about.

Besides, once your 18, you’re an adult. And anyone can get Fed Subsidized, Unsubsized loans, and Grants all the while the loans aren’t due until after you graduate.

I’ve been out for 5 years, and I’m still $15K in student loan debt.

By Ken

August 3, 2007 9:20 AM | Link to this

I can’t understand for the life of me why people hate HOPE so much. Sure it gets a lot of idiots into college that end up just wasting money, but it also results in far more successes. Each Georgia Tech graduate for example will end up contributing MUCH more to the local economy than the roughly $40,000-$50,000 that their education costs the state. Then you have the nursing students at Kennesaw/Merser/WGA, the pre-med students everywhere, business students at State and UGA, etc. There are tens (hundreds even) of thousands of extremely bright Georgians who would not have made it to where they are today without HOPE.

Also consider the huge and very rapid expansions that are occurring at Georgia Tech, GSU, and Kennesaw to name a few. At Tech for instance, our campus is on track to have doubled nearly every ten years since HOPE was founded. It is my belief that the increase in quality and quantity of students at Tech during that time period is responsible.

Considering that the HOPE program is entirely funded by the lottery, I think people really just need to quit whining about it.

By Adam

August 3, 2007 9:20 AM | Link to this

Eric @8:11 …the wealthy families who could EASILY afford college but send their kids using Hope, while other kids who have families that CAN’T pay, sit and watch.

Eric, its a MERIT based program not designed as another welfare giveaway. You libs who always want to fix our woes always overlook the positive effects of incentives. If your family is unable to afford college and you want to attend, study and earn the benefit instead of “siting and watching”. If “sit and watch” is your mode of operation then you are probably not college material anyway.

By Gonzalez Must Go

August 3, 2007 9:20 AM | Link to this

Mr. Wooten’s sarcasm notwithstanding, Gonzalez’s lying to Congress is only the tip of the iceberg. He oversaw the replacement of U.S. Attorneys specifically for the purpose of influencing elections. He fired attorneys that investigated Republican officials, hired attorneys that conducted unwarranted investigations of Democratic officials and used the others to investigate election fraud that didn’t exist in order to give a false impression to the electorate.

He’s a crook, and impeachment should only be the beginning. Alberto Gonzalez, the head law enforcement official in the country, belongs in jail.

By FYI

August 3, 2007 9:25 AM | Link to this

GMG at 9:20,

This new law wouldn’t help on the State level, but the first couple of paragraphs from the NY Times might make you feel better —

“The Senate gave final approval Thursday to a far-reaching package of new ethics and lobbying rules, with an overwhelming majority of Republicans and Democrats agreeing to improve policing of the relationship between lawmakers and lobbyists.

If President Bush signs the bill into law, members of Congress would face a battery of new restrictions. The legislation, approved by the Senate on a vote of 83 to 14, calls for bans on gifts, meals and travel paid for by lobbyists and makes it more difficult for lawmakers to capitalize quickly on their connections when joining the private sector.”

By Curious Observer

August 3, 2007 9:28 AM | Link to this

Those who believe college entrance should somehow be universal and college graduation should be selective have no understanding of the way academic institutions work.

It starts with the money, viz., the more students you keep, the more money you have.

This principle has a pernicious effect on academic standards at colleges and universities. The college faculty finds itself under pressure to nudge as many people as possible over the passing line. And woe be unto you if you’re a faculty member who adheres to rigorous academic standards. You will find yourself out of favor with the administration very quickly.

For all the good it has done, the Hope Scholarship program has also helped to weaken academic standards at Georgia’s colleges and universities. The lax high school standards that allow practically everybody to graduate with a B average or better have a cascading effect. Can’t read, write, or perform basic arithmetic operations? No problem—the colleges and universities will offer you remedial courses. After all, they need the money that your continued enrollment brings. Can’t do well in college-level classes? You can count on the administration to frown on those teachers who insist on holding the line on what constitutes minimal academic performance at the college level.

So go ahead and pretend that the Hope program exists in isolation and that loose standards for qualifying have no effect on anything that comes afterwards. I’ve been there and done that. I know how the University System operates. If most Georgians thought through the implications of a loosy-goosy Hope program, they would be clamoring for restrictions and supporting those high school teachers who refuse to award a B merely because Johnny might not qualify for Hope otherwise.

By Analchord

August 3, 2007 9:31 AM | Link to this

I wonder if Ken Star thinks Bill Clinton was obfuscatin’.

By RCH

August 3, 2007 9:37 AM | Link to this

Curious Observer,Ken

Try my thought at RCH@ 8:26

By Analchord

August 3, 2007 9:40 AM | Link to this

Grady stands as a monumental posterchild for man’s inhumanity to man. What is Grady? Better yet, What Isn’t Grady?

Grady isn’t a place for the sick or injured to go to get medical treatment because it’s too expensive to treat them.

Man is just too high maintenance. We simply cant afford Man and his well being.

The creator can endow us with rights, because those rights are free. If the Creator had to pay for them, then we wouldn’t have them. (now would we?)

Burn Grady down. Put up a gambling casino. Put up a srip bar. But dont pretend to put up a hospital and then treat the untreated like they’re untreatable.

‘muff said. (strip bar callback)

By Ken

August 3, 2007 9:41 AM | Link to this

gtfan,

Actually you have to be 23 to be considered an ‘adult’ under the FAFSA rules. I haven’t qualified for enough loans to pay for my education for the last 4 years, and have had to get parent backed loans (all unsubsidized).

Now that I’m 23 I’m considered an ‘independent’ student, and I finally get grants and subsidized loans. There are other ways to can be considered independent, but they involve things like having kids or getting marriage.

By Jim's a Cherry Picker

August 3, 2007 9:41 AM | Link to this

Jim,

Cherry Picking at it’s finest! You are truly a giant in this field.

Regarding Grady’s secret meeting on the public’s dime, do you mean like the Bush Administration? How many “secret” meetings has it had?

Regarding the big development in DeKalb…are you suggesting that business take a back seat to government planners?

Regarding Jekyll…sounds like corruption to me. Are you suggesting that governement not serve business in that manner? Because there’s a bunch more where that came from.

Who reviews your work over there?

By rv

August 3, 2007 9:49 AM | Link to this

Woot, are you clueless to urban development? The idea behind dense development is to put people’s homes, jobs, and other destinations (recreation, shopping, schools, etc) closer together, ideally within walking distance or on transit lines (and yes, local buses, not just express buses, do count as usable mass transit, despite the impressions of most car-coddled Atlantans). In column after column you rail against density, advocating low-density land use patterns that force more and more people into their cars and onto the roads and freeways. It’s a self-perpetuating problem, and it needs to be viewed in the long-term, not just the short term. A high-density development may spur new auto traffic in the short-term, but its long-term ramifications are an increased number of trips made on transit or on foot. You can find example after example of dense development in other cities, and find evidence of the benefit it brings. Many of these same cities suffer terrible traffic, but that’s due to America’s decades-long legacy of fallacious, Federally subsidized ideological auto-centric development patterns. The real mistake is in expecting every American to own at least 1 car and to build the country accordingly.

Also, reconcile this with your principles. Doesn’t the idea of restricting development based on the fickle and failing funding of local, state and Federal transportation departments seem like an ill prospect? That’s an awful lot of government control, based on the idea of taxing a populace (of which you are part) that vehemently fights the idea of government recieving any dollars that won’t be spent inside the picket fences lining its yard. Sounds like a failed prospect already - if we can’t adequately fund our roads because we’ve already built them far beyond sustainability, wanting more of the same and then restricting the area’s development, population, and ultimately economic potential seems like a bad idea. It’s a built-in economic drain that will lead to blight, population loss, and ultimately collapse. And the ‘burbs will get it first - they were founded around woefully inadequate road networks from day one, and their residents continue fight for more of the doomed status-quo.

The idea that Sandy Springs is “dense” is laughable. When you consider mile after mile of strip malls and ranch-style homes on 1-acre lots dense, you must be from the farm.

By Analchord

August 3, 2007 9:50 AM | Link to this

Regarding Jekyll, what Wooten is saying is that without the rent breaks the developers want there’s no way that they’ll be able to destroy the coral and other natural wonders that lay just offshore.

Now, if you want to join al queda and the greenpeace commies and stop profiteering by blight, then I’m reporting you to Homeland Security, sir.

By fed up

August 3, 2007 10:01 AM | Link to this

Eric, if you don’t like the way HOPE works, don’t buy lottery tickets. Otherwise just bud out. Just because my wife and I have worked our BUTTS off and made the TOUGH decisions does not mean that we should be punished for that. There is enough punishment for success built into the tax code as it is, thank you very much.

HOPE is available to anyone regardless of income, so there are no poor families watching my kids go to school on the HOPE, unless they are too stupid to qualify themselves… In that case, they aren’t college material anyway.

My kids put up with enough dolts in public school as it is, they deserve to be around kids who can at least tie their own shoelaces in college.

By Charles

August 3, 2007 10:17 AM | Link to this

Quote from former Atlanta City Councilwoman Gloria Bromell-Tinubu: “Slavery is the worst thing and homelessness is the second-worst thing that can be witnessed upon anyone.” Except that people who aren’t mentally ill make choices that take them to homelessness, while slavery is inflicted upon them. Simply feeding and housing vagrants solves nothing and invites more. The need is to move them to self-reliance, if that’s what they want. Otherwise, move them off the street.

Jim Wooten, How long must I educate mentally deficient so-called integrationist leaders such as Gloria Bromell-Tinubu? Most so-called integrationist leaders in the African American community do not understand what power is or they have simply sold the masses into volunteer slavery for money and security. They mistakenly call it self reliance.

It’s obvious that the major problems facing African Americans are abject ignorance and a lack of institutions capable of meeting the basic needs of the masses. It matters not whether African Americans are homeless or the head of a major corporations belonging to groups other than African Americans. The problem remains the same for both; plain abject ignorance and the lack of institutional power.

It is not the responsibility of Europeans to service the basic needs of African Americans. That responsibility lies at the door of those so-called educated integrationist leaders with the disposition of Gloria Bromell-Tinubu.

African American integrationist leadership responds to the problems of homeless African Americans, and African Americans in general, as if the people left outside of the European system of power are Europeans.

Here is what I am referring to. Let’s look at the homeless problem from reverse angle. Let us suppose that Africans had gone to Europe and captured Europeans and inflicted murder, back and mental breaking trauma upon them; it resulted in the enslavement of Europeans for four hundred thirty years.

So consequently in America today, we have a tremendous European homeless problem. African Americans have built the most powerful nation, economically and militarily, in the world. Most African Americans are doing well while their elite are seeking global conquest.

European integrationist leaders decided to forgo freedom, and decided to integrate with African Americans. Europeans don’t have businesses and institutions to meet their basic needs, food, clothing, shelter, employment, education, etc. In the European mind, he/she believes that African Americans should meet the basic needs of Europeans. They think that is self reliance.

Now the proper stage is set. If Gloria Bromell-Tinubu said, “simply feeding and housing African American vagrants solves nothing and invites more. The need is to move them to self-reliance, if that’s what they want. Otherwise, move them off the street.” Her statement without question would be correct.

African Americans would have a nation, business and institutions, which is real power to meet their basic needs. Why would African Americans be homeless? I would reason that they made choices that took them to homelessness.

You would have to be the biggest fool in the world, or just plain ignorant, PhD and all, to make the same charge toward powerless Europeans. African Americans would have the power to make any undesirable European homeless for whatever reason or desirables gainful employment.

Simply stated, Many African Americans today are homeless, confused, and stupefied because they have made terrible choices with respect to integrationist leadership. They and their children are paying the painful price.

By Lex Luthor

August 3, 2007 10:22 AM | Link to this

Wooten,

Are you stating that children who go to public schools that are pathetic should be bared from the HOPE? Here a student who got straight As based on what was required of them should be inelligable for HOPE? Your statement is one of short sighted ignorance. The student can’t help it if Trig is only taught on even numbered years.

By Lee

August 3, 2007 10:24 AM | Link to this

So our Lt Gov threatens for the state to take over Grady unless Fulton/Dekalb get their sh1t together. That’s not a threat. That’s what they are hoping and praying will happen. Shift their mis-management onto the state taxpayers.

Make HOPE a reimbusment program where the student pays their fees up front and then gets reimbursed based on the grade earned. You could prorate it; A = 100%, B = 90%, c = 80%. This would do several things: it would eliminate the pressure at the high school level to inflate grades, it would encourage students to take the harder classes in order to get better prepared for college, and it would place a financial incentive on the college student to attain better grades.

No more of this “I’ll go to college for a year and see how it works out. It’s no money out of my pocket” crap.

By Jackie

August 3, 2007 10:27 AM | Link to this

Alberto Gonzalez should be impeached. This action would be the beginning of a cleaning of the swamp that is the Dubya regime. If any other attorney were to assume the position that Mr. Gonzalez holds, he would either resign or bring charges against most of the players in Dubya’s house of cards. Dubya exerted executive priviledge in the case of Pat Tillman. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff - Richard Meier - knew about the account a less than a week after the event, yet, he said it was not his responsibility to make this information known because it was an Army responsibility. How many of those folks that support these criminals believe that bald-face lie? Rumsfeld maintained tight control over the military and in turn reported to his fellow criminal, Dick Cheyney. The military currently have a case against a National Guard LTC concerning Abu Ghraib. The irony of this trial is that EVERYONE says that he had no operational control over those soldiers who commited the crimes and that he was only in-country several days when the event occured. Yet, he was brought up on charges for not controlling the situation. Criminals, obfuscation, lies, throwing injured Vets on the street by denying proper medical care, theft of our tax dollars. The list is only partial as this one pony circus has committed so many crimes, they are almost too numerous to mention. All those supporters should speak up loudly and defend Dubya and his fascist cabal.

By kco

August 3, 2007 10:28 AM | Link to this

RCH

I agree. The best things in life are tax-free.

By RCH

August 3, 2007 10:30 AM | Link to this

Lee

What took you so long? See RCH @ 8:26. It is a great idea, which means it doesnt have a chance.

By Van

August 3, 2007 10:31 AM | Link to this

In my day, when you were accepted at a college, if you were not capable of handling college level courses, you were required to take “Dumb-bell” courses. These were required before you took any of the 100 level courses.

Those in the “Dumb-bell” courses were few and there was a stigma about having to take them.

Does HOPE pay for these remedial courses? If it does, why?

By deegee

August 3, 2007 10:31 AM | Link to this

“Metro Atlanta’s greatest mistake is allowing density beyond the carrying capacity of roads.”

There is even greater density between the ears of the people that vote time and again for more roads. Every county wants development because they want the tax base. You aren’t going to change that. Why not plan light rail and mass transit into the development instead of more freakin roads? From the looks of it, we are now going to have to fix the crumbling roads we have in place before we build any new ones.

By JDW

August 3, 2007 10:31 AM | Link to this

Wooten, even you can’t seriously believe that Gonzales is anything but an incompetent toady.

By JDW

August 3, 2007 10:33 AM | Link to this

Wooten, even you can’t seriously believe that Gonzales is anything but an incompetent toady.

By JDW

August 3, 2007 10:33 AM | Link to this

Wooten, even you can’t seriously believe that Gonzales is anything but an incompetent toady.

By Just an FYI

August 3, 2007 10:35 AM | Link to this

I just received an e-mail from Governor Sonny Perdue’s office in response to my e-mail requesting that the State get involved with Grady. Here’s an excerpt from the Governor’s reply:

“I am aware of the challenges facing Grady, and am closely monitoring the situation. As you are aware, the dedicated men and women of Grady provide critical services to Metro Atlanta residents. Losing Grady, particularly the trauma services provided there, would be a blow to Georgia and would likely overburden other hospitals in Metro Atlanta. Grady’s important role in our community is evidenced by the fact that the State of Georgia is the largest provider of Medicaid dollars and is an annual contributor to the Indigent Care Trust Fund. We are pursuing federal matching funds for Grady and will partner with Grady as they continue to offer uncompensated care to consumers in Metro Atlanta.

While we continue these efforts, we hope that the Grady Board will strongly consider reorganizing the corporate structure of the hospital to reflect current hospital trends. As recognized by the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, every other urban hospital authority in Georgia has become more financially stable by updating their corporate structure. During Grady’s self-examination, we will continue to evaluate the proper role for the State to play in the long-term health of Grady, including our continued efforts to find funding for a trauma care network in the state.”

By Adam

August 3, 2007 10:38 AM | Link to this

Lex Luthor @10:22 Are you stating that children who go to public schools that are pathetic should be bared from the HOPE? Here a student who got straight As based on what was required of them should be inelligable for HOPE?

Where do you get that out of Jim’s essay?? If someone gets striaght A’s as you say then they qualify. It doesn’t matter if Trig is taught every other year. All they have to do is apply themselves, make the grade and they qualify. What’s so hard to understand here? Even if someone attends a poor performing high school it should be all that much easier to study and rank among the top tier of the rest of the dummies in that school.

Is there anything you Collectivists don’t whine about?

By Jackie

August 3, 2007 10:42 AM | Link to this

The State University System of North Carolina has an “open-door” admission policy; they will let you in if you can get out. They accept some students at the flagship, UNC-Chapel Hill - with “D” average. The community colleges do not require SAT to get in an each school in the system is required to accept the grades from the Community College system. You can leave a state community college with your associate degree and transfer to any college within the state. North Carolina is considered to have one of the best education systems in the country.

By Peaches

August 3, 2007 10:47 AM | Link to this

Always fun to see how the wingnuts get around to “fascist” as their ultimate epithet.

By Lily Toad

August 3, 2007 10:55 AM | Link to this

How nice to be middle class and blame homeless people for making bad choices. That would never happen to me, or my family, because all our choices in life have been good choices. How about the wife who CHOOSES to stay home with the children and not work who gets locked out of her house when her husband gets a new girlfriend? Did she make a bad choice? How about a Vietnam Vet who was never treated for post-traumatic stress? Did he make a bad choice to not dodge the draft? How about the man who gets laid off due to his corporate employer being bought out by another company and takes a lower-paying job and his house is foreclosed after he missed three house payments because he’s gone through his savings account? Bad choice because he worked for a company for 20 years and is now 55 and no one will hire him at comparable pay?

By Jackie

August 3, 2007 10:56 AM | Link to this

@Charles

I take offense at your characterization of African-Americans and their homelessness. You premise is based on a supposition, that being one of ignorance and lack of institutions to support them. Are those folks with mental disorders ignorant? Statistics show that the majority of folks in a state of homelessness have mental disorders. The lack of institutions to support people and the lack of power thereof is not a fault of the folks in need of the service, don’t you think? Having made a choice to participate in the “mainstream” is not causation for many of the problems visiting many people. I would argue, outside of mental impairment, the biggest problem most of have is the enormous pressure of just making a living.

By time for the truth

August 3, 2007 10:56 AM | Link to this

As usual Ann Coulter is 100% correct about the flaccid joke of a fa ggot Edwards who was so despised by voters it couldn’t even win its own state against Bush in 04. That mouthy shrill waddling heffalump Edwards’ is noisily married to needs to STFU too!!

The hypocrisy of the sick and twisted increasingly desperate, hilariously and deservedly fading fast in the polls sleazy hatepig Johnnyboy I shamelessly exploit my wife’s cancer Edwards knows no limit. This puffed up self important sad sack sneers at fellow cut and run lefty leeches who suck up Murdoch money but yet Edwards itself gobbled up well over $800,000 of Murdoch money for a poxy book few morons ever even read. Edwards then lies through its dissembling $1200 for a haircut teeth about donating the 800K to charity. This shameless living large in a multi million dollar mansion grasping ambulance chaser, now on some perverted pandering poverty tour is supposedly even returning a small donation by just 3 Fox employees. This is the fanatical hate speech ‘price’ this worthless lying far left slimeball is paying for being rigidly controlled by the treasonous appeasing scum of moveyourbowels.org and other venal hate America G SOREos slush funds.

I see very predicktably that the Aryan Nations’ sexual plaything inbred rednekkk has puked up more of its homo obsessed lies about its conservative betters. Watch out inbred - you’ll have every used up Bwarney Fwank rent boy chasing ya for free crystal meth moonpies and RC Cola.

Who is this sad deranged racebaiting cow who equates slavery with homelessness? Must be another knuckle dragging black racial spoils feminazi whose sullen shoe size IQ would never ever allow it to even fill out a HOPE form - let alone become a beneficiary.

Anybody who gives the middle finger to hectoring vermin like Chuckee Scum-er, the always lying DUI killer Kennedy, P.GFY Leahy and the rest of the demoNcrat senate liars and cowardly abuse of power lynchers is a national hero.

That collapsed bridge in the People’s Republic of MN is the perfect (retrospective) metaphor for the yellowbellied anti- military gigolo - three bandaids and I’m outta here - Kerry’s beaten easily by Bush in 04 campaign.

It is with deeply nauseated ambivalence that I note that I actually agree with Curious Observer this morning - at least on one topic. The unremitting dumbing down of educational standards and feverish grade inflation is not only undermining tertiary education in GA - it is also harming the nations’ economy as this evil practice is being perpetrated/replicated across the fruited plain. As teeeeeechers and either deadbeat and especially smug self absorbed parents are slavishly in denial about the pathetic plummeting levels of literacy and numeracy - let alone reasoning, analytical and science/history/geography knowledge and skills etc of their precious 17-18 YEAR OLD car driving/wrecking brats that emerge “triumphant” from an ‘exit’ exam (that ludicrously allows repeated attempts to pass) 14 year old math and 16 year old English.

Leading to the now legendary bumper stickers that proudly celebrate

MY GERMAN SHEPHERD/C OONHOUND/ LABRADOR/DOBERMAN IS SMARTER THAN YOUR HONOUR STUDENT

By deegee

August 3, 2007 10:59 AM | Link to this

HOPE is just what it says it is. It’s the hope that students will seize an opportunity and be successful. There are plenty of statistics on how many students flunk out. Graduation rates don’t really measure the rate at which students that were marginally qualified for college made a success of themselves through hard work and determination. What is wrong with giving the opportunity to as many as possible? Can anyone of us, except maybe Van, admit that we were completely prepared for every challenge we faced in life? Sometimes people surprise themselves. Give them the opportunity.

By Jackie

August 3, 2007 11:02 AM | Link to this

@Peaches

Should I have included you in that list and should they be labeled neo-facsists?

By jbmlaw obfuscates

August 3, 2007 11:04 AM | Link to this

jbmlaw wrote, “‘Obfuscation’ is a charge levied only by lawyers in their attempt to keep people from looking at the obvious. This is the second thing they teach you in law school, how to “control the question.” Magnify the irrelevant to a point where people ignore the big picture.”

jbmlaw ought to know. He proudly practices obfuscation every day on this blog.

By Shar

August 3, 2007 11:07 AM | Link to this

Good Morning to all: The scandal of HOPE is not in the number of students who qualify, it is the number who lose the scholarship within the first two semesters. Inflating grades and dumbing-down curriculum covers the inadequacies of the sending high school while duping students who believe themselves to be high achievers, only to be hit with rigorous standards that they are unprepared to meet. If Georgia’s high schools were held accountable for the rate of their students’ loss of HOPE scholarships, rather than their rate of HOPE eligibility, perhaps parents would be motivated to press for better college preparation.

Eric, the greatest source of revenue for the University system is tax money. Georgia taxpayers fund far more of the operating expenses of the University than do tuition payers. Therefore, rest assured that the ‘rich parents’ you so resent are, in fact, paying a huge chunk of the education costs for the children of lower earners. What HOPE has done is to entice high-achieving Georgia students to stay in-state for college. This has served to improve the academic level of the University while these are there and to encourage them to remain in Georgia as adults. Many, perhaps the majority, of these students will atend graduate school, where their savings through HOPE will underwrite tuition. They and their families have to plan far in advance for this, not “sit and watch”, and all concerned have to work hard through high school and college to force schools to provide adequate preparation and to achieve excellence in those higher standards. Those who make the HOPE system work are not being given anything, nor should they be.

By Charles

August 3, 2007 11:08 AM | Link to this

Jackie,

The only person on earth who would agree with whatever you said without being deceitful is a Negro, a mental slave.

Most black people in America are homeless without the help of white people.

No human being can be respected under such circumstances, the mentally ill or otherwise.

Even African American children understand it. They may not be able to express it verbally. They act it out in the streets, school, etc.

Please!

By Charles

August 3, 2007 11:12 AM | Link to this

Bringing you the Story behind the Story, the News behind the News. Hoping to convince you that reality is usually scoffed at and illusion is usually king, but in the battle for the survival of Western civilization it will be reality and not illusion or delusion that will determine what the future will bring.

Radio Liberty is hosted by Dr. Stanley Monteith.

www.radioliberty.com

By time for the truth

August 3, 2007 11:13 AM | Link to this

that should actually read …

That collapsed bridge in the People’s Republic of MN is the perfect (retrospective) metaphor for the cowardly yellowbellied anti- military gigolo John three bandaids and I’m outta here Kerry’s beaten easily by Bush in 04 campaign.

sorry for any misunderstanding.

By Ben

August 3, 2007 11:13 AM | Link to this

I don’t get the Gonzalez thing. The attorneys in question have a little note in their job description that says they serve at the pleasure of the President. To me, that means he can fire them for any darn reason he feels like.

As far as HOPE and the lottery, anyone breaking themselves to play the lottery every week isn’t going to succeed in college. And it’s not a tax on the poor. If that’s what you call a tax, then why is it that I can’t just decide not pay my other taxes?

A B average in a Georgia high school is not very tough. Anyone who has the intelligence to succeed once they are at college can easily get the B average in high school if they have any motivation at all. And the instant that HOPE becomes need-based instead of merit-based is the instant I start calling my state representative to get the entire program shut down. The last thing this state needs is more incentives for people not to try to better themselves.

By Blind Homer

August 3, 2007 11:14 AM | Link to this

First, there is some benfit to just attending college, even if they eventually flunk out. Second, the flaw with the reimbursement plan is coming up with $2000-$5000 (will 1st semester grades be final in time for 2nd semester tuition payment?) up front is a huge hurdle for poor people. Third, there are a lot of federal scholarships and grants that are tax funded and need-based. Leave HOPE alone, just keep raising the bar to counteract the rampant grade inflation.

By RCH

August 3, 2007 11:17 AM | Link to this

Deegee When you have paid the tuition through hard work and sacrifice and the only way you will get it back is a 3.0 GPA, many marginal students will surprise themselves. See RCH@ 8:26

By Charles

August 3, 2007 11:18 AM | Link to this

Don’t get me wrong Jackie,

I know it’s difficult when you have been deceived by your own people. It is the most difficult problem to overcome.

Most Negroes have been completely stupefied by our integrationist leadership, the mentally ill and the so-called sane.

By time for the truth

August 3, 2007 11:20 AM | Link to this

@ Charles the bewildered snivelling moron

your increasingly severe mental handicap becomes more and more self evident each time you post your nazi like doltish unhinged drivel.

your puerile ‘argument’ (being extremely generous here) does NOT even slightly benefit from child like internal coherence.

By Shar

August 3, 2007 11:23 AM | Link to this

I meant to add a remark suitable to convey my contempt for Alberto Gonzales, but all I can think of are the immortal words of Auntie Em: “Almira Gulch. Just because you own half the town doesn’t mean that you have the power to run the rest of us. For twenty-three years I’ve been dying to tell you what I thought of you! And now… well, being a Christian woman, I can’t say it!”

Just substitute one A. G. name (or even title!) for another, and change the years to months, and you’ll have my feelings perfectly.

A question for Mr. Wooten: Why do you feel that Mr. Gonzales’ actions are somehow justified by those of Mr. Schumer and Mr. Biden? That kind of justification was not accepted in the schoolyard, much less in what passes for adult dialogue. If you wish to excuse his actions, please focus your defense on something other than the shortcomings of others.

By Charles

August 3, 2007 11:24 AM | Link to this

Jackie,

Just as the integrationist Negroes sold the Negro masses into integration aka volunteer slavery; the elite white people are selling the masses of white people into the New World Order, slavery.

www.radioliberty.com www.iotconline.com www.thepatriots.us www.chuckcoppes.com www.freedomadvocates.org www.infowars.com www.deliberatedumbingdown.com www.expendableelite.comwww.senatornancyschaefer.comwww.spychips.com www.911truth.orgwww.augustreview.comwww.spychips.comwww.truthtellers.org www.moralityinmedia.org

By RCH

August 3, 2007 11:28 AM | Link to this

Blind Homer

Again, here we have the opportunity to prove how serious you are about college. Tell me that you cannot save 2 to 5 thousand by the time the child turns 18. You are really not trying. The University will automatically credit your college reimbursement at the end of the semester in time for the next start of classes.

Many of these other grants and scholarships can be used for graduate school.

With this plan in place you will not have to worry about grade inflation, weighted classes, etc..

By Charles

August 3, 2007 11:31 AM | Link to this

By time for the truth,

Come out of that fantasy world. Here is some help. Most of the people on these websites are white people.

Maybe they can talk some sense into you.

www.americandeception.comwww.worldaffairsbrief.comwww.gregpalast.com www.ccir.net www.williamhkennedy.com www.patholiday.comwww.thepowerhour.comwww.jerryesmith.com www.dickmorris.comwww.antichips.comwww.beareroflight.comwww.gregpalast.com www.moralityinmedia.org

By Aquagirl

August 3, 2007 11:32 AM | Link to this

What is wrong with giving the opportunity to as many as possible?

Lots of things. If you’re spending a bunch of HOPE money that would be better off spent elsewhere, you’re wasting money. There are undesirable institutional effects as well.

fed up’s kids endured idiot classmates for twelve years, they don’t need to endure them the first year of college. And I’d love to hear from a Professor who teaches English 101. Extra time spent grading papers of idiots or listening to complaints of entitled students distracts from teaching those who are trying to learn

RCH and others have it right, make it an open program, with payback requirements if you fall below a certain average. Institute a minimum SAT score if you’re going to have standards.

And yes, Van, HOPE pays for remedial/dumbell classes. See Curious Observer’s excellent 9:28 post for why that’s happening. People really should think about how HOPE is affecting our educational system overall, instead of just shrugging it off as free money that came from lottery-addicted fools.

By Curious Observer

August 3, 2007 11:36 AM | Link to this

If TFTT agrees with me, then I must have put forward a perfectly boneheaded idea. I apologize for my stupidity and inadvertent racism, and I promise to disagree with this putrid piece of trash in every future post.

By Charles

August 3, 2007 11:37 AM | Link to this

Jackie,

If you are an African American, I won’t be able to provide African American websites that will be beneficial to you. If I did so, the integrationist Negroes facilitated by the federal government will attack them with the same venom as they did Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association.

Those will have to suffice for now.

By native atlantan

August 3, 2007 11:38 AM | Link to this

By Jblack

August 3, 2007 8:48 AM

I agree with you 100%. Parents in under performing schools do not attend PTA meetings. And for some of them, it’s just plain being lazy. BTW, I lost respect for Frank Ski a long time ago. However, I must point out that income is still a factor. We all know that in the upper class neighborhoods, the stay at home Moms are available for meetings. While in the low income neighborhoods, parents are working 2 jobs or extra shifts so their kids can eat. When do they have time to go to PTA meetings?

By time for the truth

August 3, 2007 11:39 AM | Link to this

charles - you’re a sad deranged nazi like nutter. you’re not even worth laughing at any more.

By WTF

August 3, 2007 11:41 AM | Link to this

With southern states lagging behind the entire nation in the number of high school graduates who go on to college, it would seem that any effort, however flawed, to help the region catch up with the rest of the country would be welcomed.

By Dusty

August 3, 2007 11:41 AM | Link to this

I agree with Jim’s premise today, unscholarly standards cannot be called standards. They should be called “loopholes”.

If loopholes are necessary, then those that need them should apply to technical schools or work in a job that does not require the far advances of education. If they are really “smart”, they can advance.

Fast food places need managers. Good construction workers and landscapers may start their own companies. Even when college is not the answer, there are always opportunities for the “savvy” ones.

But Jim Wooten, I disagree on one phase of your homeliness report (vagrants). The mentally ill (by way of natural disabilities) have neither chosen nor are they able to discontinue their failings.

Mental health experts have tried everything from “keep ‘em free of institutions” (throw them on the streets) or keep them in substandard understaffed institutions.

But to say that the seriously mentally ill can improve themselves is like telling the crippled to “get up and walk”. They fall.

By Analchord

August 3, 2007 11:45 AM | Link to this

The Sunnnis walked out? So did the Repudlickan surrender monkey-see, monkey-do’s walk out on a legislative session!

Surrender Sunnis! Surrender terrorists!! Surrender walk outs!!

By Charles

August 3, 2007 11:48 AM | Link to this

time for the truth,

Bringing you the Story behind the Story, the News behind the News. Hoping to convince you that reality is usually scoffed at and illusion is usually king, but in the battle for the survival of Western civilization it will be reality and not illusion or delusion that will determine what the future will bring.

Radio Liberty is hosted by Dr. Stanley Monteith.

www.radioliberty.com

By Charles

August 3, 2007 11:50 AM | Link to this

time for the truth,

Bringing you the Story behind the Story, the News behind the News. Hoping to convince you that reality is usually scoffed at and illusion is usually king, but in the battle for the survival of Western civilization it will be reality and not illusion or delusion that will determine what the future will bring.

Radio Liberty is hosted by Dr. Stanley Monteith.

www.radioliberty.com

By time for the truth

August 3, 2007 11:57 AM | Link to this

LMFAO!!!! SNIGGER SNIGGER SNIGGER!!

TOO FUNNY - TOO FUNNY

I see the graceless obsessive far left nutter peeping tom is one of those cowardly cut and run pinko scumbags who is so linguine spined it can’t even manage to be consistent with its opinions for more than even half a morning.

ludicrously even the utterly meaningless vanity of appearance(s) in cyber space is everything to peeping tom…

no wonder these scum keep losing the White House!!

signed a damn proud putrid piece of trash that so EFFORTLESSLY managed to sway the dogturd peeping tom from its sensible, pragmatic opinion on the dumbing down in skools … which incidentally is exactly what I have said on here numerous times.

hey peeping tom if I suddenly become a cut and run cowardly military hating demoNcrat will you join - or at least vote for the GOP??? … that would be the logical extension (result) of what passes for your dissembling, imbecilic gutless wanker FRIVOLOUSLY CAPRICIOUS stance … HUGE SMIRK

By Charles

August 3, 2007 11:57 AM | Link to this

time for the truth,

We know that the elite white people can’t deliver the masses of white people into the strangle hold of the New World Order, slavery. They must have agent provocateurs and minions.

That is not a laughing matter.

www.americandeception.comwww.worldaffairsbrief.comwww.gregpalast.com www.ccir.net www.williamhkennedy.com www.patholiday.comwww.thepowerhour.comwww.jerryesmith.com www.dickmorris.comwww.antichips.comwww.beareroflight.comwww.gregpalast.com www.moralityinmedia.org

By FTFORALL

August 3, 2007 11:57 AM | Link to this

RCH -

All taxes CAN be similar to the lottery tax-it is called the Fair Tax. You pay the tax when you spend at the retail level - instead of it being confiscated from you before you ever see it. See www.fairtax.org

By jm

August 3, 2007 11:59 AM | Link to this

While a college education is not for everyone, I believe everyone that wants one should be entitled to one. That being said, not everyone is ready for four year college when they graduate high school. They may have the smarts, but not the discipline. Rather than lose their Hope scholarship due to poor grades, I think students should be required to go to a two year college (and possibly receive their associates degree) before returning to a four year college. BTW, this is not intended as a knock on two year colleges, they serve a valuable role.

By FTFORALL

August 3, 2007 11:59 AM | Link to this

RCH -

All taxes CAN be similar to the lottery tax-it is called the Fair Tax. You pay the tax when you spend at the retail level - instead of it being confiscated from you before you ever see it. See www.fairtax.org

By Cobb County Guy

August 3, 2007 12:03 PM | Link to this

Ben wrote @11:13, “I don’t get the Gonzalez thing. The attorneys in question have a little note in their job description that says they serve at the pleasure of the President. To me, that means he can fire them for any darn reason he feels like.”

Let me spell it out for you Ben. It is illegal for the President and/or Attorney General (or anybody else) to hire or fire attorneys for the purpose of influencing specific investigations — whether it be to hinder specific investigations or initiate/expand a specific investigation on charges already deemed to have been groundless (ex: at least two of the recently fired U.S. attorneys, John McKay in Seattle and David C. Iglesias in New Mexico, were targeted because they refused to prosecute groundless voting fraud cases that implicated Democrats).

It is also illegal to hire or fire specific individuals to influence the outcome of elections (Missouri had one of the closest Senate races in the country last November, and a week before the election, the D.O.J. brought four groundless voter fraud indictments