Thinking Right

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

February 13, 2009 8:08 AM | Link to this

Good morning all. Great and unusually diverse set of topics today, Mr. Wooten. Henry County shows how the world has changed for the worse. There once was a time that a government, any government, would be pleased to receive all who wished to associate with its citizenry, taking it as a vote of confidence in the county administration. Perhaps there is a flaw in the Henry County tax system, one that funds schools through property taxes, but blame for that structure surely is not attributable to those who wish to avail themselves of the services of the county. When necessary services are provided by a monopoly, e.g., schools, we should not be surprised that the controllers behave as the worst monopolists.

Chief Bolton may be a micro-manager. The only people who concern themselves with such things as “comp time” are those who superciliously supervise the efforts of others. Or perhaps he is in the wrong field – many of us work because we enjoy working. Sounds like he stays away because he doesn’t enjoy the work.

A drop in the number of weather-related deaths would be competent evidence of global warming. Far more people freeze to death than die from heat-related matters, every year. So if we see a meaningful drop in weather-related deaths, it could be true. And of course we could not tolerate a drop in human misery, especially if it were attributable to global warming. If there is less misery, there is less need for the controllers.

So Leahy wants a “truth” commission. What is so new or different about National Socialists wanting “show trials,” to punish their domestic “enemies” for political crimes? I bet Leahy does a heckuva goose step. (If he were an honest man, of course, he would simply propose legislation to make specific acts illegal. My contingent prerequisite advises it will never happen.)

The Mueller furloughs are a gamble. A Board’s first duty is to shareholders, to protect the investment. Normally furloughs are used for a known period, to allow retooling or similar projects. The company risks that a large number within its loyal, trained workforce will move on with their individual lives. Usually the better employees among the furloughed are the ones most likely to obtain new employment elsewhere, and a company is able to recall only its dregs. It sounds like Mueller believes the “stimulus” is unlikely to bring any meaningful improvement to the broader economy, or that the “stimulus” will not stimulate new business formation otherwise, and that Mueller will be able to recall its employees whenever Mueller is good and ready. Not a good sign.

If we are not going to use GTMO for anything useful, like controlling the truly dangerous Islamists captured on battlefields, why not make that facility the new repository for the worst of the worst domestic criminals, the “Brian Nichols”-types of the world?. Isolated from the rest of the world, in spirit-sapping heat, our equivalent of the old Soviet Arctic archipelago. Of course, only the incompetent would change the current use of GTMO.

The clear lines over the “stimulus” bill will be valuable to Republicans. The animating stimulus for voters last November was TARP, and the voters voted for “change” due to their collective revulsion to the big spending. The “change” the voters sought was not “the same, except more so.” By giving taxpayers a “stimulus” bill best described as “TARP on steroids,” the democrats risk rejection in 2010, and deserve it, for ignoring the obvious will of the people. My guess is the democrats are gambling voters won’t remember the “stimulus” by 2010. Conservatives need to ensure the voters are assisted with their memories. By the way, if “new program” provisions of the current “stimulus” bill are renewed – and when have government programs ever not been renewed, except under a republican congress?– the 10 year cost rises to $2.8 trillion, or 10x the amount actually spent under TARP 1 (the government actually spent only about half the authorized amounts.) Wanna bet on whether the democrats will pump $2.8 trillion down the rat hole?

The Atlanta airport is itself a government monopoly, and a source of graft for the controllers. We need another airport on the north side, controlled by an unrelated group. Open the field to competition, in every area – best service through security, best prices for restaurants therein. Of course the controllers would oppose such a radical idea as a competitive market for air services. No room for graft.

The Georgia Lottery is a state-sanctioned monopoly. Monopolies are not good for markets. The jbmlaw suggestion is to abolish the state prohibition against gambling (would that require amending the Constitution?) and allow counties to license it on whatever terms each county wishes to do so. If Clayton County wants casinos to fund its kindergartens, let it do so. If Gwinnett wishes to prohibit all forms of gambling, including the Georgia lottery, allow it to do so.

G*d save us from the morally-upright politicians advocated by Gov. Blago. I prefer the flawed-who-learned-from-their-mistakes (e.g., George W. Bush) to the perfect pedantic know-it-alls (e.g. Jimmy Carter.) The Meredith Wilson song “Sadder But Wiser” goes through my mind here, for reasons unrelated to the specific lyrics.

By Mid-South Philosopher

February 13, 2009 8:12 AM | Link to this

Good morning, Jim,

I have been away from the blog for a while, laboring to shore up this “Obama economy.” Can’t wait to get my “stimulus”!

Once, again, the issue of school vouchers has taken the number one position in the “Thinking Right” blog, and, once again, I challenge those who favor school vouchers to “come all the way out of the closet” and help us really “reform” schools.

To wit:

What I am calling for is getting the government “totally” out of the schooling process other than mandating attendance of children under 18 at some “accredited” private school and providing the self-mandated stipend that we as society feel that we must contribute. In other words, truly making the education of one’s children…a “choice” determined by “parents” (if you can find them) and the education providers in a privatized setting!

Now my “Reformist” friends in education will not agree with this. You see, they don’t want to have to deal with the “bubbas and brothers”! They want to relegate “that group” to the good old “public schools”, while Suzy, Jimmy, Katrina, Becky, and Bob “Beautifulchildren” all go to the private schools with a taxpayer subsidy.

So, to all “Reformists”, either embrace “true” school reform or “give it a rest”!

By Will

February 13, 2009 8:25 AM | Link to this

Mr. Wooten:

The Clayton County parent referenced in your opinion article this morning is being punished for falsely swearing to a sworn affadavit, a felony in Georgia. This is hardly “doing the right thing” She does not reside in Henry County, where public education is partially funded by resident-funded taxes.

More than half the schools in Henry County have been built in the last fifteen years. Even so, there are more than 7000 students being educated in trailers in Henry County this morning because of severe overcrowding due to significant growth in enrollment.

If you were a member of the Henry County Board of Education, how would you explain to the Henry County parents of children in trailers how you could voluntarily accept students for enrollment who do nbot live in Henry County?

About school vouchers, Senator Johnson has said that state funding will come with no regulation of private schools. Sounds like part of the reason our banking industry failed to me. Lack of government oversight and regulation.

Do you know if my tax dollars will be allowed to go to private schools that prohibit enrollment based on physical or mental impariment? How about those that prohibit enrollment based on sex or race? How about academic achievement? Will a private school be allowed to keep receiving state taxes if the private school does not demonstrate academic achievement as measured in a comparable manner by public schols? Will the state require any of the rules of public schools (testing, certification, etc) for private schools? If not, how will anyone ever know if results are comparable. That would be like the Braves and Mets playing baseball where the Braves are allowed three strikes, three outs, nine players, etc and there are no rules or regulations governing play for the Mets. The fact that the Mets would most likely achieve better results in this game would hardly be significant would it?

By Churchill's MOM

February 13, 2009 8:26 AM | Link to this

Jim it’s good to see you have that home page link problem fixed.

What’s up with our girl, Sara Palin? Has she dropped out of the news?

I don’t understand why people have childeren if they can’t afford to pay for their school. I would never send a child to the Athens public school system especially when Athens Academy is just across the street.

Well I’m off to have lunch with my sister in Augusta, you’ll have a great day..

By Big Bucks GOP

February 13, 2009 8:33 AM | Link to this

I hate the Dems, look at what they took out of the give away bill, everything was taken away from big business, is that fair?

Losers

• Big Business took a big hit. The compromise bill dramatically trimmed back a tax break that would allow unprofitable businesses to collect tax refunds by offsetting five years of former profits against more recent losses. The Senate version of the stimulus included all businesses, big and small.

But House-Senate negotiators agreed to limit the break to small businesses with annualized gross revenue of less than $5 million.

“We had a very large number of clients who were very far down the road of having their tax returns prepared and were ready to file so they could get this money and put it to work,” said Clint Stretch, managing principal of tax policy at Deloitte Tax. “They are pretty crestfallen.”

• The housing market will have to wait for another day for its government help. Home builders and Realtors pushed for a $35 billion tax credit to support home sales. The heart of the package was a $15,000 tax credit to buy a new home, included in the Senate bill.

But it was eliminated from the stimulus in the House-Senate compromise. Instead, an existing $7,500 tax credit for first-time homebuyers was expanded to $8,000 and extended to the end of 2009.

• Teetering U.S. automakers were blocked from double-dipping on government aid. One of the last acts of the Bush Treasury Department was to funnel billions toward some of the Detroit automakers to keep them afloat through the New Year.

Senate allies sought to give them another boost with a tax credit, worth $11.5 billion, for consumers who purchase a new car. That provision was scaled back in conference to just $2 billion and covers only sales and excise taxes.

• Liberal family planning and women’s health advocates, whose push for money to help distribute contraceptives to the poor was ridiculed by Republicans, were left with nothing to show for their efforts.

The provision they sought allowed states, through Medicare, to provide “family planning services and supplies” as well as routine health checkups, including cancer screenings, to low-income women.

States already can do that, but they need to get a government waiver first. Removing the waiver hurdle would allow more states to provide the services — a change the Congressional Budget Office estimated would cost about $550 million over the next 10 years.

It made it into House legislation but was stripped after President Barack Obama objected to the political distraction it created.

By Curious Observer

February 13, 2009 8:46 AM | Link to this

Our friend mid-South seems to put a lot of faith in SACs certification of schools. If he had been through the certification process a few times, as I have, he would know what a fraud it is. It doesn’t even look at the quality of education provided. Instead, it focuses on such peripheral aspects as leadership structure, the size of libraries, adherence to teacher certification requirements (thus keeping the university schools of education in business), and budgetary stability.

tudents themselves don’t even get interviewed, nor do the invading inspection hordes examine such features as how many graduating students go on to college or launch successful careers. It’s a nice racket for the accreditation body, and it’s certainly generous supplementary income for visiting teachers who serve on SACs boards.

Otherwise, I’m not ready to put our public schools up for private ownership bidding, for all their faults. The private business model simply doesn’t work for schools. Note that the advocates of vouchers never specify what should happen to the less desirable students in such a system. In short, they want a state subsidy for the private education of their own children, but they’re ready to consign all the rest to oblivion.

The entire voucher movement is based on an illusion anyway. With few exceptions, private schools turn out graduates who are no better educated than their public school counterparts. I know—I’ve taught graduates of both kinds of schools at the college level. Faculty members of both private and public schools are generally the least bright of their college classes. They have reached what they see as the pinnacle of success once they take a teaching job—a job that the most educated and innovative college graduates won’t touch. We fill the faculty ranks with C+ college graduates, then wonder why our public schools perform so poorly.

If you really want to reform the schools, start by wiping out the stranglehold of the colleges of education over teacher qualification. The rest will follow.

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

February 13, 2009 8:50 AM | Link to this

Dear MidSouth @ 8:10, good morning, overall your plan is brilliant, I’m in. But I agree with friend Curious @ 8:46, I don’t know why you would vest any controlling power in SAC – overlords are overlords, without regard to who cuts their checks – and I would allow the market to regulate all. If SAC provides a useful service, the smarter schools would market using the SAC detailed reports.

Dear MOM @ 8:26, too late to do you any good, but I heard a 20 minute interview with Magna Sarah yesterday on the Michael Medved radio show. And she is a performer, had a detailed blueprint for the coming republican majority.

Dear Bucks @ 8:33, is there anything to stimulate production in the “stimulus” or does it have only consumptive welfare remaining?

By lazermike

February 13, 2009 8:53 AM | Link to this

“Horror of horrors, a Clayton County parent has been placed on five years’ probation, fined $1,000 and ordered to perform 100 hours of community service for moving into her sister’s home in Henry County so her son could attend classes there.”

I read the story, and wasn’t she convicted for NOT moving to her sister’s home, but swearing under oath that she did? I guess Jim wants to make his little point, but it’s clearly not illegal to move to another county to attend schools there.

By Peanut Man

February 13, 2009 9:16 AM | Link to this

How much did Saxby Chambliss take from Peanut Corporation of America and what did they get for it?

By cc

February 13, 2009 9:17 AM | Link to this

don’t all of you know that we are not supposed to criticize the President in any way during the time of war? anybody that says anything negative about president obama, no matter how true, is actually for the terrorists, don’t you know that? that’s what i’ve been told for the last 8 years as we watched somebody who you wouldn’t make the water boy on the football team screw this country up royally. and why all the whining about government spending? just a couple of short months ago, i didn’t know a single georgian that was concerned with unlimited and thoughtless spending. why the concern now? i’ll tell ya, because people put a political party first before what’s best for America. too many people in georgia are republicans first and Americans second. that’s wrong. a patriot is not someone who cares about their country only when their country is or isn’t in office. a patriot is consistent, not bipolar.

By Ga Values

February 13, 2009 9:24 AM | Link to this

last week the talk around the “Busisnessman table” the topic was” What is our school system going to do, to cover a multimillion shortfall? “I went an got a copy of the audit, made 50 copy of the Administrative salaries and travel, and handed out the copies..problem solved. Public schools waste too much on overhead. Our School Board literally did not know how much they were paying administrators.

By Big Bucks GOP

February 13, 2009 9:32 AM | Link to this

Some of the nation’s large banks, according to economists and other finance experts, are like dead men walking, The New York Times’s Steve Lohr reports.

Among those who are taking this sober view is Nouriel Roubini, a professor of economics at the Stern School of Business at New York University, who has been both pessimistic and prescient about the gathering credit problems. In a new report, Mr. Roubini estimates that total losses on loans by American financial firms and the fall in the market value of the assets they hold will reach $3.6 trillion, up from his previous estimate of $2 trillion.

“The United States banking system is effectively insolvent,” Mr. Roubini said.

There are caveats, of course: None of the experts’ research focuses on individual banks, and there are certainly exceptions among the 50 largest banks in the country. Nor do consumers and businesses need to fret about their deposits, which are federally insured.

For its part, the banking industry bridles at such broad-brush analysis. The industry defines solvency bank by bank, and uses the value of a bank’s assets as they are carried on its books rather than the market prices calculated by economists.

By Pecan cluster

February 13, 2009 9:32 AM | Link to this

My old mama used to say a dose of salts would cure just about anything. Granny Wooten’s cure is vouchers … or paving any outdoor surface.

I head an organization (in the private sector) and I get to work as many hours as I want for the same low price.

“Believe passionately enough in anything and the evidence you see will confirm it.” That goes for those who deny global warming, too, Jim. I still don’t understand this one. I am a conservative, yet on this issue, I think what’s the conflict about? People on both sides should be able to agree that it’s better to err on the side of caution and that less pollution is a good thing and should be our goal. Right, or am I missing something? Yes to nuclear and yes to cleaner forms of energy for transportation and power.

Patrick Leahy needs a boot up it.

I agree with most of the rest of it, except the gamblizing. You would decry nanny government, except in areas where you and others who think like you are the nannies.

By Big Bucks GOP

February 13, 2009 9:33 AM | Link to this

Lawmakers put a provision in the final version of the economic stimulus package that will make it less attractive for troubled banks to merge, but could restore billions of dollars in tax revenue.

By Big Bucks GOP

February 13, 2009 9:34 AM | Link to this

Goldman Sachs denied a CNBC television report on Thursday that it had convened an “emergency” meeting of top investors earlier this week, prompted by worries Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner’s bank rescue plan was not viable.

By Big Bucks GOP

February 13, 2009 9:35 AM | Link to this

Wells Fargo, the fourth-largest U.S. bank, on Thursday increased the size of its previously reported fourth-quarter loss by 7 percent because of new investment losses.

By Big Bucks GOP

February 13, 2009 9:36 AM | Link to this

To get his public-private investment fund airborne, Timothy F. Geithner may have to offer generous terms to induce financial institutions to sell toxic assets and private investors to put up capital,

By Big Bucks GOP

February 13, 2009 9:39 AM | Link to this

Charter Communications, one of the nation’s largest cable television operations, said on Thursday that it would file for bankruptcy by April 1 as part of an effort to handle billions of dollars in debt.

By Big Bucks GOP

February 13, 2009 9:40 AM | Link to this

The American International Group’s financial products unit, which brought the firm to the verge of collapse with bad bets on credit-default swaps, is being investigated by British prosecutors for possible criminal conduct.

By Glenn

February 13, 2009 9:41 AM | Link to this

Good morning, everyone.

Heavens, Mr. Wooten, I scarcely know where to begin on your very first bullet-point, the one concerning Ms. Tanja Revette Hale’s efforts to do her best by her child. Let me start with an old observation made by, I believe, by the late Mr. Justice McReyoolds: that schooling is not so much a right as a duty imposed upon the individual in the interest of the State. Sorry.

There are many reasons to want to school a child, and most of them are good. Which are yours, Mr. Wooten?

One reason, one purpose, might be sheer necessity, the continued existence of the Place. A rather barren prospect, but hopeful, in its way.

An opposing idea would let the young run free. Wouldn’t that be grand, in its prospect? Beautiful young children, girls and boys alike, running free through presumably green summertime fields?

No. So unless we’re the fatherless mother of fourteen we come to the prospect of commonly caring and decent people wishing to make provision for the common care of immature mammals of their own kind, of children who cannot fend for themselves. Hence, Mr. Wooten, the Common School ideal.

I’m sorry, but it’s still necessary. So let’s better it, rather than reject it.

By Big Bucks GOP

February 13, 2009 9:41 AM | Link to this

Midway Games, the maker of the Mortal Kombat video-game series, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Delaware.

By Big Bucks GOP

February 13, 2009 9:42 AM | Link to this

John Rich, one-half of the song duo Big & Rich, is climbing the country-music charts with his release “Shuttin’ Detroit Down,” venting his frustration over the plight of auto workers and Wall Street bailouts.

By "Charles", The Original

February 13, 2009 9:45 AM | Link to this

But it’s the death penalty still?

Fess up Jim. You and I support a straight life-without-parole alternative to the death penalty. But in your mind, jurors play so many games nowadays that it’s just as well that Georgia legislators give prosecutors a straight life-without-parole alternative to the death penalty. It’s a slow and costly alternative, but it’s the death penalty still, a meal at a time, spread out over decades.

In my mind, prosecutors play so many games nowadays that it’s just as well that the Georgia legislators proceed toward abolishing the death penalty. Straight life-without-parole is a slow and costly alternative, but it chains down the total depravity and vengeance of man…

In the experience of life itself, nature provides air, heat, etc., to nourish all human beings; the innocent, guilty, male, female, rich, poor, red, yellow, black, white, old, young, bond, free, believers and disbelievers without exception. There’s a meal at a time spread out over decades. And at any moment without the agency of the State, we come face to face with eternity.

By Headinthesand

February 13, 2009 10:02 AM | Link to this

“Believe passionately enough in anything and the evidence you see will confirm it. Some 305 species of birds are wintering over about 35 miles farther north than they did 40 years ago, according to an Audubon Society study, thus confirming global warming. Forty years is a speck in time.”

The converse is true as well, Jim. If you believe global warming is hooey, you can offhandedly dismiss any evidence to the contrary — from the Audubon Society or anywhere else — and claim that the people who disagree with you are blinded by their “passion.”

By Glenn

February 13, 2009 10:03 AM | Link to this

To the community:

Why do we seek to educate a child?

By BS Aplenty

February 13, 2009 10:04 AM | Link to this

The time is right for providing more options for ALL parents through the use of school vouchers. I’ve repented and cleansed my soul of the thinking that the public schools are, at least, keeping kids off the streets. The truth is that we need to lift up all boats and this can be the way. Those who are scared that certain segments cannot compete in such a competitive environment have not looked at the dismal performance of minority public schools. Can’t get much worse.

“Affirmative action” is any forum is dead. Long live educational freedom.

By Goo-Goo cluster

February 13, 2009 10:16 AM | Link to this

To continue and improve the species?

By Chris Broe

February 13, 2009 10:32 AM | Link to this

Buy! There is a confluence of triple bottoms in a moderate term low. If we’re betting on 2010, then 2009 is getting on (in dead cat bounce years) . There’s a lot of money out there. So, I’m calling this the bottom and we see Dow 10K in the spring rally.

Doesn’t that sound stupid? You should hear Jim Cramer. He’s waltzes people right in there and then waltzes them right back out again. Real Blazing Saddles. He should not be allowed, as a virtual institution of trading, to discuss stocks that way. He should go on QVC. It’s part of this new economic era of no trust. Jim, you’re fired.

Now there happens to be a beautiful match to the triple bottom theory occurring right now, and if you look at the horoscopes on this one: Never fight the fed. Never try to catch a cat that died fighting the feds. If there are dead cats, then there are witches. I like the odds here.

The lore behind the language chosen to describe chart harbingers reveal man’s fractal nature, that is, he’s like a particle that has direction and spin, and that which man envisions, like a stock chart, necessarily conforms to the same relative motion inherent in the pariticles forming the structure of the universe. We don’t understand the structure of the universe or of ourselves, but the math matches, sometimes, and if we can trust the math, then we can trust the market, and the banks, and Vegas.

Bob Dole really did discuss Erectile Disfunction and then leer at Brittany Spears with his dog. That happened. Now that’s trust in our institutions. The markets soared. This is a new era. The zeitgeist has changed. Listen to it. Yes, the zeitgeist is the little voice in your head. It’s in and from all of us, cant you see? Every one on the planet sending out our electromagnetic signals, and what you are hearing is the Aurora Borealis of Collective Consciousness in an atmosphere of humanity. We naturally make a human field of consciousness the way our planet’s liquid core makes a magnetic field, in fact it is probably on earth’s magnetic field that our thoughts travel. We exist in the sun’s atmosphere, not the earth’s. The earth’s atmospheres is totally dependent on the suns, and a necessary result of the sun.

Zeitgeist explained: You can discern the zeitgeist. It’s our prayers and our hopes for ourselves and mankind. And we’re all telling each other where the trust is, and how to rely on it. Here’s proof of the zeitgeist: Pick your nose. Hear that? That’s me and about ten million other people telling you how disgusting that is. Listen. Now scratch your balls. Hear that? That was all 6 billion of us. Listen: Look at the flag. Hear that? That’s the sound of the guns. March to it. Be an American. Love your country enough to trust your neighbor as you earn his trust.

We have to America our way out of this, America.

“Don’t catch a falling knife” the most ridiculous idea i ever heard. . “Don’t catch a falling star” makes more sense.

I hereby change the zeitgeist this way: Lets all say, “Dont catch a falling star” instead of “Dont catch a falling knife”. All agreed say “neh”. NEH!!!!

The Knights Who Say Neh have spoken. It’s law.

By DB, Gwinnettian

February 13, 2009 10:37 AM | Link to this

“a Clayton County parent has been placed on five years’ probation, fined $1,000 and ordered to perform 100 hours of community service for moving into her sister’s home in Henry County so her son could attend classes there. The woman, Tanja Revette Hale of Rex, has also been ordered to pay $1,200 in tuition costs to the Henry school system.”

For willfully defrauding a school system? Sounds about right to me; compassionate, even.

Vouchers amount to welfare for a product that can’t break what amounts to a 10 percent national market share.

If private schools can’t compete they should be allowed to fail. Right, Jim?

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

February 13, 2009 10:40 AM | Link to this

Dear cc @ 9:17, “, i didn’t know a single georgian that was concerned with unlimited and thoughtless spending” I think we would all agree that, until now, we had no idea with unlimited and thoughtless spending was. It takes a democrat to really define those terms.

Dear Bucks @ various times, you are doing the Lord’s work, documenting those killed by the expiration of the Bush tax cuts. The economy is collapsing from injury inflicted by the Pelosicrats.

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

February 13, 2009 10:47 AM | Link to this

Dear Glenn @ 10:03, good morning. I like Goo-Goo’s answer @ 10:16, as it works for both individual (parental) and collective (societal) perspectives. And it may be fully sufficient, as all other explanations or justifications seem less noble.

By DB, Gwinnettian

February 13, 2009 10:51 AM | Link to this

“give prosecutors a straight life-without-parole alternative to the death penalty. It’s a slow and costly alternative, but it’s the death penalty still, a meal at a time, spread out over decades.”

Yes. Yes. Yes.

And take the next logical step.

Take the death penalty out back and shoot it. It needs killing. in its modern, now-and-forever incarnation, it does absolutely nothing of value save

a) feed sick fantasies of those who should not be fed; and

b) siphon tax dollars into the hands of the legal profession.

I bet 90% of supposed death penalty advocates (including our President) know I’m right, even if they won’t say so in public. It’s high time they did.

By Jeff

February 13, 2009 10:54 AM | Link to this

So if people get vouchers to go to school, are children are going to be smarter? Are teachers are going to be paid more and presumably do a better job? With vouchers, are parents going to help their children with their homework more? Are vouchers going to make children read instead of playing video games? Will vouchers reintroduce important subjects into school like world history, civics, home econ (things like how to balance a checkbook and make yourself some food), music and the arts, and more foreign language choices? Will vouchers make math scores comparable to those in states where the public school system is not an embarrassment? Will vouchers deliver buildings without wheels?

Once again, Republicans suggesting a “fix-all” for an extremely complex problem, typical. The tragic part is, you had 8 years of Bush and gave us the “no child left behind” fiasco. What could be more socialist than that? You have teachers who stand in front of the class telling your children “if you are unsure, guess C.” With education like this, I have every bit of confidence that the US will overtake Germany in exports within the next half decade! (NOT)

I don’t know why you people have such a hard time helping your children excel in the classroom. You need a government program to offer you a choice? Then you accuse people who merely want more public funding to improve our current system “socialists.” It’s obvious none of you were taught civics where ever you went to school, because you have no idea what socialism is.

Those of you who can’t afford a good private school expecting the government to give you assistance to send your children to a “better” school… you need to pick yourselves up by your boot straps, get a second or third job, take a loan, sell that second or third car and enroll your darlings at one of the many outstanding private schools in the state including Wesleyan, Westminster, Darlington, and many others. Maybe you should sell your house and buy a home in a neighborhood with a decent school system. Otherwise, don’t expect people like me, who CAN afford to send their children to private schools, to bail you out with education welfare. You are the last people in this state who deserve assistance.

By Chris Broe

February 13, 2009 11:06 AM | Link to this

Listen: Pick your butt. Hear that?

By Sam

February 13, 2009 11:24 AM | Link to this

Jeff you need your arrogant azz slapped into next year. I bet Mr. “CAN afford” truth be told, doesn’t have a pot to pee in. You can tell the posers from a mile away on this blog.

By Dominic Hughes

February 13, 2009 11:27 AM | Link to this

The “embittered left” is getting bigger every day. A recent Gallup Poll shows that a majority of Americans are in favor of some kind of investigation of Bush administration practices in firing US attorneys, domestic spying and torture. PERCENT FAVORING SOME KIND OF INVESTIGATION Firing US Attorneys: 71% Domestic spying: 63% Torture: 62% You don’t have to be “embittered” or a “lefty” to prefer that the rule of law applies to everyone. A true conservative would realize that.

By MChammer

February 13, 2009 11:34 AM | Link to this

Thank you Dominic Hughes. You nailed it. Most of these so called “conservatives” on this blog are anything but conservative.

By Jackie

February 13, 2009 11:59 AM | Link to this

To give one insight as to the extent of the alleged criminality in Dubya’s administration, has anyone noticed that Mr. Gonzalez is unemployed?

Many others who supported and contributed to Dubya’s policies have been given golden parachutes, i.e., Fred Fielding making $15,000 per week as a consultant to a commission reviewing the policies and practices of Dubya’s administration.

It appears Mr. Cheyney has made enough in his “blind trust” as to not be concerned about finding a job. His KBR/Halliburton ties appear to be lucrative.

By Chris Broe

February 13, 2009 12:09 PM | Link to this

Buy! There is a confluence of triple bottoms in a moderate term low. If we’re betting on 2010, then 2009 is getting on (in dead cat bounce years) . There’s a lot of money out there. So, I’m calling this the bottom and we see Dow 10K in the spring rally.

Doesn’t that sound stupid? You should hear Jim Cramer. He’s waltzes people right in there and then waltzes them right back out again. Real Blazing Saddles. He should not be allowed, as a virtual institution of trading, to discuss stocks that way. He should go on QVC. It’s part of this new economic era of no trust. Jim, you’re fired.

Now there happens to be a beautiful match to the triple bottom theory occurring right now, and if you look at the horoscopes on this one: Never fight the fed. Never try to catch a cat that died fighting the feds. If there are dead cats, then there are witches. I like the odds here.

The lore behind the language chosen to describe chart harbingers reveal man’s fractal nature, that is, he’s like a particle that has direction and spin, and that which man envisions, like a stock chart, necessarily conforms to the same relative motion inherent in the particles forming the structure of the universe. We don’t understand the structure of the universe or of ourselves, but the math matches, sometimes, and if we can trust the math, then we can trust the market, and the banks, and Vegas.

Bob Dole really did discuss Erectile Disfunction and then leer at Brittany Spears with his dog. That happened. Now that’s trust in our institutions. The markets soared. This is a new era. The zeitgeist has changed. Listen to it. Yes, the zeitgeist is the little voice in your head. It’s in and from all of us, cant you see? Every one on the planet sending out our electromagnetic signals, and what you are hearing is the Aurora Borealis of Collective Consciousness in an atmosphere of humanity. We naturally make a human field of consciousness the way our planet’s liquid core makes a magnetic field, in fact it is probably on earth’s magnetic field that our thoughts travel. We exist in the sun’s atmosphere, not the earth’s. The earth’s atmospheres is totally dependent on the sun’s, and a necessary result of the sun’s.

Zeitgeist explained: You can discern the zeitgeist. It’s our prayers and our hopes for ourselves and mankind. And we’re all telling each other where the trust is, and how to rely on it. Here’s proof of the zeitgeist: Pick your nose. Hear that? That’s me and about ten million other people telling you how disgusting that is. Listen. Now scratch your balls. Hear that? That was all 6 billion of us. Listen: Look at the flag. Hear that? That’s the sound of the guns. March to it. Be an American. Love your country enough to trust your neighbor as you earn his trust.

We have to America our way out of this, America.

“Don’t catch a falling knife” the most ridiculous idea i ever heard. . “Don’t catch a falling star” makes more sense.

I hereby change the zeitgeist this way: Lets all say, “Dont catch a falling star” instead of “Dont catch a falling knife”. All agreed say “neh”. NEH!!!!

The Knights Who Say Neh have spoken. Buy!

By Chris Broe

February 13, 2009 12:22 PM | Link to this

There is a confluence of bottoms on Bookman’s blog, too.

By DB chickencoop

February 13, 2009 12:31 PM | Link to this

Well it looks like Nanny Pelosi is in a big hurry to get the “stimulus” package passed with a few Rinos behind it. Hurry up Nanny - that’s what we should call her from now on. She needs to get going on her European shopping trip! Damn the future of this nation and how in the HELL we are going to pay for this pie in the sky socialism (and it’s inevitable Carter-era inflation) and just go spend money in Europe. How un-Democratic - even for a hollow-eyed old dried up liberal hippie.

PS: that plane crash is Obama’s fault. Just as the mindless libtards told us that plane crashes were Bush’s fault because “the buck stopped at his desk” and the FAA.

HURRY, FELLAS, LET’S VOTE, I AM OFF TO ROME! Fri Feb 13 2009 09:18:52 ET

Rep. John Culberson, TX claims the “stimulus” bill must be urgently voted on today — because Speaker Nancy Pelosi is leaving at 6:00 PM for an 8 day trip to Europe!

Culberson made the charge on Houston’s KSEV radio.

Pelosi is hoping to lead a delegation to Europe; there’s a meeting with the Pope and an award from an Italian legislative group.

Calls to Pelosi’s spokesman went unreturned.

By DB chickencoop

February 13, 2009 12:36 PM | Link to this

It’s funny listening to a libtard moonbat like Jackie still whine about the Bush administration when right under her nose there has been Democrat resignation after resignation after cabinet withdrawal for questionable lobbying and tax evasion. But, that’s the mindset of a liberal, isn’t it? Throw stones in a glass house. We should all be used to their double standards and hypocrisy.

By DB chickencoop

February 13, 2009 12:42 PM | Link to this

By the way, speaking of libtard Democrat hypocrisy, what happened to all that blithering blather from the left who said that dissent was good; speaking out against policies is being patriotic. Listen to these people now: those speaking against Obama and Pelosi are “Betraying” them; right wing “hate” radio of dissent should be shut up. Damned pathetic hypocrites.

By Chris Broe

February 13, 2009 12:47 PM | Link to this

Is Cheney still in the country? I thought he fled to Dubai.

He’s left the country divided between the haves and the half-wits. (the dirty rat).

And now that Blackwater has been banned from Iraq, the same way I’ve been banned from Bookman’s blog…..

The Woman to Woman blog banned me once………………..once.

By Chris Broe

February 13, 2009 1:06 PM | Link to this

Leave it to Wooten to define LIfe Without Parole in the most disheartening of terms.

There is justice and Jim Wooten is satisfied as long as a person dies a meal at a time. Jim. Take a vacation. Trust me. Trust the zeitgeist. A sex on the beach is in your future.

Gamblize-up. A coined word. Give that coin to the one armed bandits, and give the rest to the left lane bandits. What if the left lane bandits joined the one armed bandits and they lobbied to allow cellphone lottery games while we drive? It……could…….work!’

Someone mention Darwin lately?

Specter and Collins and Snowe. oh my.

Blagojevich is like a pubic hair that wont rinse off. (Seinfeld)

By Dominic Hughes

February 13, 2009 1:08 PM | Link to this

I’m glad that chicknecoop doesn’t have a double standard. He recognizes that the Dems are guilty of tax evasion and lobbying sins, and I’m sure he also acknowledges the criminal activities of the Bush administration. To do otherwise would be to indulge in a hypocritical double standard.

By Chris Broe

February 13, 2009 1:19 PM | Link to this

The bird’s changing migratory routes have followed the shift in earth’s magnetic field which also is a cyclical wave.

The inevitable reversal of the earth’s magnetic field, ( so that north is south and south is north), and east is west and west is east, is a natural phenomena and it could easily cause global warming. Any different electromagnetic face we show the sun’s atmosphere will have tectonic-grade consequences.

We’re sitting ducks for any change in the effect of the sun’s atmosphere on the earth. It’s not easy being green.

By Miss Landers

February 13, 2009 1:19 PM | Link to this

Last night CNBC aired an objective, 2-hour documentary called “House of Cards”. The subject is the mortgage meltdown and how it contributed to the financial problems that we are now experiencing. The documentary will air again on Sunday evening at 9:00pm. On Monday morning please come to the Wooten blog prepared to discuss the documentary. Extra credit will be given to those that can complete a sentence using the proper definition of credit default swap, mortgage backed security, and cdo.

Class dismissed.

By Jackie

February 13, 2009 1:23 PM | Link to this

@ DB chickencoop

I don’t recall any whine in my posting about criminal activity of Dubya’s administration.

You fail to comprehend that a felony is breaking the law and criminal and civil penalities are associated with those activities.

I see you are good at calling names and concern yourself with tax errors of some of those in the Obama administration.

Did these people pay taxes and penalties required by law?

Secondly, have you ever had penalties and interest charged to you by tax issues?

I do hope that your answer is as forthright as your sophomoric and disingenuous as your previous post.

I TRULY await your response!!!

By Chris Broe

February 13, 2009 1:28 PM | Link to this

That’s just it, Miss Landers, you had the floor, and you dared not try to define a credit default swap, and I don’t blame you.

By Chris Broe

February 13, 2009 1:41 PM | Link to this

Buy! There is a confluence of triple bottoms in a moderate term low. If we’re betting on 2010, then 2009 is getting on (in dead cat bounce years) . There’s a lot of money out there. So, I’m calling this the bottom and we see Dow 10K in the spring rally.

Doesn’t that sound stupid? You should hear Jim Cramer. He’s waltzes people right in there and then waltzes them right back out again. Real Blazing Saddles. He should not be allowed, as a virtual institution of trading, to discuss stocks that way. He should go on QVC. It’s part of this new economic era of no trust. Jim, you’re fired.

Now there happens to be a beautiful match to the triple bottom theory occurring right now, and if you look at the horoscopes on this one: Never fight the fed. Never try to catch a cat that died fighting the feds. If there are dead cats, then there are witches. I like the odds here.

The lore behind the language chosen to describe chart harbingers reveal man’s fractal nature, that is, he’s like a particle that has direction and spin, and that which man envisions, like a stock chart, necessarily conforms to the same relative motion inherent in the particles forming the structure of the universe. We don’t understand the structure of the universe or of ourselves, but the math matches, sometimes, and if we can trust the math, then we can trust the market, and the banks, and Vegas.

Bob Dole really did discuss Erectile Disfunction and then leer at Brittany Spears with his dog. That happened. Now that’s trust in our institutions. The markets soared. This is a new era. The zeitgeist has changed. Listen to it. Yes, the zeitgeist is the little voice in your head. It’s in and from all of us, cant you see? Every one on the planet sending out our electromagnetic signals, and what you are hearing is the Aurora Borealis of Collective Consciousness in an atmosphere of humanity. We naturally make a human field of consciousness the way our planet’s liquid core makes a magnetic field, in fact it is probably on earth’s magnetic field that our thoughts travel. We exist in the sun’s atmosphere, not the earth’s. The earth’s atmospheres is totally dependent on the sun’s, and a necessary result of the sun’s.

Zeitgeist explained: You can discern the zeitgeist. It’s our prayers and our hopes for ourselves and mankind. And we’re all telling each other where the trust is, and how to rely on it. Here’s proof of the zeitgeist: Pick your nose. Hear that? That’s me and about ten million other people telling you how disgusting that is. Listen. Now scratch your balls. Hear that? That was all 6 billion of us. Listen: Look at the flag. Hear that? That’s the sound of the guns. March to it. Be an American. Love your country enough to trust your neighbor as you earn his trust.

We have to America our way out of this, America.

“Don’t catch a falling knife” the most ridiculous idea i ever heard. . “Don’t catch a falling star” makes more sense.

I hereby change the zeitgeist this way: Lets all say, “Dont catch a falling star” instead of “Dont catch a falling knife”. All agreed say “neh”. NEH!!!!

The Knights Who Say Neh have spoken. Buy!

By Steven Daedalus

February 13, 2009 1:43 PM | Link to this

We are going to need to rename Wooten pretty soon, I suggest a contest, my entry would be Half-Truth Wooten.

By Hillbilly Deluxe

February 13, 2009 2:07 PM | Link to this

Did the Clayton County woman actually move into her sister’s house or did she just say she did? The answer to that question will clear up everything.

By Miss Landers

February 13, 2009 2:11 PM | Link to this

I won’t give it away but if you understand what a credit default swap is you will understand why an insurance company like AIG needed to be rescued by the government.

By Ike Godsey

February 13, 2009 2:42 PM | Link to this

I wonder if Miss Landers has a nice rack.

By Mid-South Philosopher

February 13, 2009 3:15 PM | Link to this

To: Curious Observer@8:46 and Ragnar Danneskjöld@8:50

Sorry that I am just responding to your earlier posts, but someone has to go about the business of generating the “fodder” for this $787 billion “stimulus” bill that has just “passed through” the Congress (the analogy, “passed through”, is right).

My earlier post on education reform, of course, was a bit of sarcasm for which I am widely appreciated.

In reality, I believe that we, the taxpayers, have a responsibility to contribute to the schooling of the progeny of our citizenry. While we didn’t enjoy any of the pleasures of getting them here, we certainly can’t have a bunch of folks growing up ignorant and running things…oh, wait…I forgot about the Georgia General Assembly!

In reality, I believe in school vouchers. I believe that every parent should get a school voucher in the amount of the school taxes that said parent has paid. Those, who don’t pay, get no voucher.

In reality, I believe that local school boards have outlived their usefulness. If we subscribe to the notion, put forward in the No Child Left Behind” legislation that our kids are going to have to live and compete in a global economy, then all of our students should receive the same preparatory educational experience, with an equal amount of educational resources, and an equitable staff of teachers.

As for as colleges dominating the teacher preparation programs, you want that we should turn all that over to the “joke of jokes”…the Professional Standards Commission?!?

As for as SACS, Curious Observer is correct. It is largely a farce; however, it is the only agency, thus far, to take on Clayton County. Silly Sonny and Classy Kathy are like lost balls in high grass!

The brutal truth is that public schools are what roads and bridges use to be in the 1930s and 40s. Every two-bit politician is for them, but once in office, does little in their behalf.

By Dusty

February 13, 2009 3:15 PM | Link to this

Dear Jim Wooten,

I wish I could pontificate on all your vigorous and interesting subjects but I wil have to skip a few. School vouchers etc. cannot stir me because my children are all in or beyond higher education and enjoying the fruits of state institutions of vast knowledge. More fun! I am looking forward to the first PhD among my children this spring.

But I do believe children can get an education in a log cabin if they are encouraged, enlightened and have good sense/parents. We cannot ignore the likes of Abraham Lincoln.

Chief Bolton! That’s a LOTTA days off! And where’s the disappearing assistant? Where there’s smoke there’s…..DeKalb County.

Wandering birds on a range of 35 miles due to environmental changes? Puhleeeze!! They were looking for my non-Salmonella birdfeeder. Somebody tell Gore.

PATRIC LEAHY is enough to spoil anybody’s day. His idea of justice is to incarcerate every living breathing Republican and a few dead ones. I hear that his voodoo doll of President Bush is so full of pins he cannot keep it under his pillow anymore. Uh huh..

As to the * Death peanlty’s** life or death or parole, send the killers to Gitmo as has been suggested here. We can resurrect Devil’s Island. Oley!!

Collins, Snowe & Specter…. one everlasting BOOOOO to these Judas junkies. It is betrayal!

The best solution to Underground is a bulldozer.

Did I miss anything important? Oh yeah..HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY tomorrow.

By Chris Broe

February 13, 2009 3:26 PM | Link to this

Check out Bookman’s Neanderthal piece today. They must have cloned Piltdown Man when they created Bookman.

By Dusty

February 13, 2009 3:38 PM | Link to this

Chris Broe aint PoFo no mo. Why fo?? Rehab in toto was…. so so?

By Maniac is accurate

February 13, 2009 4:24 PM | Link to this

Where there’s smoke there’s…..DeKalb County.

Your best line ever, Dusty.

By catlady

February 13, 2009 5:51 PM | Link to this

Clayton County is prettty smoky, too. What will they think of next? Is there a contest going on to get the county’s name in the paper in the most negative way possible?

By Dusty

February 13, 2009 5:51 PM | Link to this

Thank you, Maniac.

By Chris Broe

February 13, 2009 5:52 PM | Link to this

The House is debating the stimulus package on Cspan today. They are basically asking themselves, Deal or No Deal.

Here is a compendium of most of the remarks. “Deal or no deal. America still has Justice and Liberty on the board, but the GOP already picked the Constitution, so there’s no way any of us can expect it 2B in our briefcase.”

Wooten is pro-vouchers. He reveals his brave new plan for our society when he writes, “Sen. Eric Johnston’s bill will allow parents to buy services from any school or system willing to take them.

Willing to take them? Willing? So the school can refuse some student they deem unworthy. Just like after the civil war, when freed slaves were allowed to get elected and win office to any community willing to take them. You know, the Lord willing and the creek don’t rise.

I’m not sure I believe deep down inside that Wooten doesn’t love his countrymen. He’s ex military. He knows the price of freedom. I think, though, he never realized he sold his patriotism for coca cola until I pointed it out.

Wooten will emerge a better writer when he’s freed of the role of Conservative Writer for the AJC. That role is now mine. There is no other writer qualified to even guest-write this column. If there is one person who thinks they can write the job away from me let him write. The AJC needs me. They are doing well in this interview process and they are tops on my short list.

I am the new conservative writer for the AJC.

By Chris Broe

February 14, 2009 8:18 AM | Link to this

Was Christ the Jewish 911? Was the whip-weilding, property-destroying Son of Man a terrorist? Conservatism meant commodities in 33 AD. Mostly cattle and produce, precious metals and currency. How much do we have to give to Caesar today, David? . What R orange juice futures today, Saul? What R pork futures? (But then I kid the holy of holies.) Jerusalem relied on Kosher Tourism and the money tourists brought. The temple was Piltdown Wallstreet, and currency brokers could make a Ponzi Pile of money out of all the Potsy’s and Gomer Pyles. Christ saw this and overreacted.

Is christ the perennial conservative? W was the last conservative, because he was only conservative to the extent that he was born again. Now, with W out burning brush, conservatism can no longer rely on Christ. I wonder if the burning bush speaks to W, too. “God wants me to invade Iraq. We know that operative of al queda met with Saddam Hussein in Rick’s Cafe in Casablanca.’” Cheney still gets to be an American? I dont think so.

Conservatism fell out of favor with the voters because none of them understood the secular aspects of conservatism. (low taxes. strong defense. Clever inventions like the phrase, “death tax”. Voters only knew they were mad at the God who spoke to W.

Conservatism is wide open. Voters now must undertake a massive effort to understand why there could be an ideology and a matching party. Why only two, then? Why only liberal and conservative? Why isn’t there also a whining party and a groping party? “The Whining Democrats passed the stimulus bill after an across-the-aisle, reach-around compromise with the groping Republicans.”

Jklol

Rushannity: Conservatism is Conservatism times two. (it’s got crunch time)