Thinking Right

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

February 26, 2009 8:17 AM | Link to this

Good morning all. Chairman Ann is in top form today, recommend to all conservative friends. The hot question in much of the political world today is, “in which of the 57 states was the automobile invented?” Jim and I share a different concern – the engine that drives America, or at least used to.

The state of Americans’s knowledge of economic history is dismal. Perhaps half of Americans, perhaps more, do not realize the Great Depression was merely a never-ending set of policy missteps by politicians. Whereas every prior depression was over in a year or so – and there has been a depression approximately every 25 years in American history – the 1929 stock market decline triggered something new and different – government intervention, which led to an economic collapse that did not alleviate for 15 years. The intervention had four elements:

1) Curtailing imports (Hoover)

2) Raising income taxes on corporations and on wealthy individuals (Hoover and Roosevelt)

3) New levels of government regulations constraining business activities (Roosevelt)

4) Massive augmentation of government managed individual welfare programs. (Roosevelt)

Curtailing imports Under Hoover, the Smoot-Hawley tariffs, intended to encourage Americans to “Buy American” had the unanticipated effect of provoking retaliation all over the world, and causing a collapse of international trade.

Raising income taxes Hoover, in the Revenue Act of 1930, and subsequently Roosevelt, in several different statutes, determined that reining in the deficit had to be a high priority of the fiscal agents of government, and each increased taxes substantially. The unanticipated side effect of sucking capital out of the private economy was that businesses were not thereafter able to expand or hire, and entrepreneurs lacked investable funds to commence new ventures.

New levels of government regulations While there was no specific private corporate misbehavior that led to the stock market decline in 1929, the financial panic triggered thereafter by the interventionist government activity persuaded the overlords of the need for expanded government controls over private enterprise. Thus the Securities Act of 1933, Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and many others, which collectively had the effect of making corporate formation and market reaction far less dynamic.

Massive new welfare programs As the government depletion of private capital dried up the traditional funding sources for church welfare and relief programs, the government determined to replace the private welfare with an alphabet soup of programs. The unanticipated side effect of such impersonal sources of relief was abatement of the “shame/pride” incentive for individuals to provide for themselves.

Fortunately for all, the Empty Suit is a student of American history, and has formed his program in full knowledge of the mistakes of the past. Thus the democrats’s plan, which has four components:

1) Massive augmentation of government managed individual welfare programs. (The “Stimulus”)

2) New levels of government regulations constraining business activities (cap and trade, and offshore drilling prohibitions)

3) Raising income taxes on corporations and on wealthy individuals (lapse of the Bush tax cuts, thus imposing the largest tax increase in the history of the world), and

4) Curtailing Imports – “Buy American”

Change we can believe in. For the next 15 years.

By Big Bucks GOP

February 26, 2009 8:31 AM | Link to this

After how well Bush Economics worked for the last 8 years why would anyone want to change it?

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

February 26, 2009 8:35 AM | Link to this

Dear Bucks @ 8:31, you’re right, and yet the democrats did, in 2006. One year later unemployment started to rise, now up 60% from the days of republican control, and the stock market has tanked, down about the same amount. Change we can believe in.

By REPUBLICANS EVIL TIME IS UP

February 26, 2009 8:39 AM | Link to this

JIMBO THE REPUBLICAN BIMBO WHY IS IT GOOD FOR THE GOP LEADERSHIP TO SEND JOBS OVERSEAS TO INDIA CHINA AND PAKISTAN,AND OBAMA IS GOING TO TAX THEM FOR LEAVING AMERICA AND TAKING AMERICAN JOBS,BUT YOU EVIL NAZI REPUBLICANS DONT EVER MENTION HOW YOU ALL ARE SHIPPING AMERICAN JOBS AWAY!

P.S.I SAY TAX THE HELL OUT OF A AMERICAN COMPANY THAT MOVES OVERSEAS AND TAKES AMERICAN JOBS WITH THEM,IF YOU DONT AGREE THAT MEANS YOU ARE A TRAITOR JUST LIKE THE REST OF THE EVIL GOP!

By Churchill's MOM

February 26, 2009 8:44 AM | Link to this

Jim let’s get back on topic, Why is the press after our gal Sara?? She never got a chance. Wonder what Dusty was drinking yester day? She sure made a fool out of us real Conservatives.

Gov. Sarah Palin (R-Alaska) believes that the media deliberately tried to bring her down during her vice presidential run.

As part of an interview with conservative filmmaker John Ziegler for his new film out this week, Palin said she believes the media made a decision that “we’re going to seek and we’re going to destroy this candidacy of Sarah Palin’s because of what it is that she represents.”

“Obviously something big took place in the media,” she added. It is “very frightening, I think, what the media was able to get away with, this go around.”

Palin suggested that unbalanced media coverage posed a threat to democracy.

“This is for the sake of our democracy that there is fairness in this other branch of government, if you will, called the media,” she said. “It is foreign to me the way some in the mainstream media are thinking.”

“There have been lies told, there have been reputations trashed, there have been children that have been harmed,” she continued.

Looking back on her interview with ABC News’ Charles Gibson, in which Palin seemed unsure of how to define the Bush doctrine, the Alaska governor said she was disrespected in a way that another candidate would not have been.

“I’d have to say there would be much more respect shown to the subject, yes,” she said.

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

February 26, 2009 8:52 AM | Link to this

Dear Evil @ 8:39, THE NAME IS SMOOT HAWLEY - LEARN IT, LIVE IT, LOVE IT.

By ron

February 26, 2009 8:59 AM | Link to this

Good morning,Why work?—We work so the CEO’S and the major stockholders can live in a luxury that the rest of us can only imagine.We work so there’s enough money to pay the huge salaries and bonuses.That’s why we need to work.Of course ,that’s only part of the reason,but it really IS part of the reason.

Dear Ragnar,—-Somewhere back in my misspent youth I seem to remember reading that insider trading had a large part in the Crash of “29.It was so rampant that no one trusted the market.

By Redneck Convert

February 26, 2009 9:04 AM | Link to this

Well, it’s the end of the world. We’re turning into a commie country. Pretty soon I’ll need to wait a half a day to get a Dr. to check my pile-on cyst on account of all the welfare bums lined up to get free care on my dime. And people like me that make high income from beer truck driving will be paying taxes thru the nose. We ain’t never going to get Trickle Down this way. Just wait till Raghead and Dave R. start squealing about the high tax rates. They’ll be filling up this blog and there won’t be any room for anybody else.

I think us good Southren folk need to break off from the U.S. of A. and form our own country. We could get rid of all the welfare then and maybe put Those People back in their place. We could haul all the illegals in our pickups up to the Northren border and dump them. I think Sarah and Bobby would make good leaders of our new country. If we can afford the $150,000 to buy her a new wardrobe and maybe send Bobby to one of the fancy public speaking courses.

Anyhow, Wooten got me all down in the dumps this a.m. I ain’t got the heart to say anything else. Good bye, U.S. of A. Hello, Southren States of America. Have a good day everybody.

By DD

February 26, 2009 9:07 AM | Link to this

What do you know about work, Putin Wooten? The only thing you contribute to this world is your worthless blog and dumb articles. You call that work? HA!

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

February 26, 2009 9:10 AM | Link to this

Dear ron @ 8:59, more likely it was the leverage of investments that caused the stock bubble, and it was a bubble. There is no “inside information” that can create a bubble, although there probably was a widespread belief that there was inside information that caused outsiders to bid values beyond reason. The bubble brought all back to reality. Until the government determined to “help.”

By Peter

February 26, 2009 9:15 AM | Link to this

Hey Jim, where is your solutions ? You have zero, Republican’s have Zero, and the economy after 8 years of Republican’s is in the toilet.

Jim, you and Republican’s take zero responsibility for the mess your president created, and the entire Country has suffered greatly.

Time for you to ACTUALLY GO TO WORK…….. Time for REPUBLICAN’S to GO to WORK for a change, instead of living off the billion’s of the Bailouts, and Tax cuts that started with George Bush.

Republican’s don’t work they scam, are greedy, and continue to rip off American Citizens that want to work.

Go to work Jim……. Use your brain in a positive way for a “CHANGE”……. come up with solutions……..

Your Cheerleader days are over Jim……. Time to make a Positive contribution to America for a “Change” !

By thogwummpy

February 26, 2009 9:22 AM | Link to this

Notice how the “worship the poor as gods” Left chooses to ignore the elephant in the room again (like omitting Saddam’s provocations from discussion on the Iraq war) when it comes to the economy? It’s as if the subprime borrowers [who lied in legions about their income] had nothing to do with getting subprime loans—-the very thing which eroded our credit system and by extention, the entire financial sector. OH….the credit crisis was “Bush’s fault”—-but again, notice that such indoctrinated sheep can’t say specifically what Bush alledgedly did? (even though on 6 occassions he proposed measures to rein-in the problem before the housing bubble burst, and each time Chris Dodd killed it in committee) Liberals, you’re gonna hate what historians say about you down the road!

By Davo

February 26, 2009 9:24 AM | Link to this

Ya JW, dump the republicans and go to work…for the libertarians.

But your right…Yet another way to gouge me for someone elses poor decisions.

By Peadawg

February 26, 2009 9:25 AM | Link to this

Jim you for got something…why worry about our mortgage payments? I’m on a state salary…why not go buy a $300,000 house? No worries…Obama will pay my mortgage.

This is really a sad time in American history. No more responsibilities, no worries. Now I can go on a spending spree and buy houses and cars I know I can’t afford…all because I know Obama will bail me out.

By zeke

February 26, 2009 9:35 AM | Link to this

The democrat liberal socialist are the same old, same old class warfare nuts who give away massive amounts of other people’s money to buy votes from the dregs of society! When all these radical groups realized they could control those of us who work, risk and persevere and become successful, providing for ourselves and family, they immediately began all these foolish voter registration programs, take down all limits on voting, even promote illegals voting and other voter fraud! Acorn is proven to violate the Constitution, and actively registering dead people, people in several different districts and illegals! BUT OBAMA AND PELOSI AND REID STILL GAVE THEM $5 BILLION OF OUR HARD EARNED MONEY TO FURTHER THEIR VOTE BUYING! WE HAVE GOT TO INSIST LIMITS ON WHO CAN VOTE! SOMEONE RECEIVING MONEY FROM THE GOVERNMENT THROUGH SOCIAL SECURITY, WELFARE, MEDICARE, MEDICAID, ADC OR ANY OTHER PROGRAM CANNOT BE ALLOWED TO VOTE ON TAXING OTHERS TO INCREASE THOSE PROGRAMS! 18 YEAR OLDS CANNOT BE ALLOWED TO VOTE! IF THEY ARE NOT MATURE ENOUGH TO DECIDE WHETHER TO DRINK OR SMOKE, HOW CAN THEY INTELLIGENTLY DECIDE TO VOTE? ONLY EXEMPTION WOULD BE THOSE IN THE MILITARY! IF THEY CAN FIGHT AND DIE FOR THE US, THEY CAN VOTE, SMOKE OR DRINK! TO VOTE FOR THE HOUSE YOU MUST BE 25, FOR SENATE 30 AND FOR PRESIDENT 35! IF YOU HAVE TO BE THOSE AGES TO HOLD THE OFFICE, YOU SHOULD HAVE TO BE THOSE AGES TO VOTE FOR THOSE OFFICES! IF ALL THESE IDIOT PROGRAMS PROPOSED BY OBAMA, PELOSI AND REID ARE ALLOWED TO BE PUT IN PLACE, THE USA AS A GREAT COUNTRY IS LOST! WE WILL LOOK LIKE THE USSR, CHINA, CUBA AND OTHERS! WHAT A SHAME!

By Big Bucks GOP

February 26, 2009 9:48 AM | Link to this

UBS, the embattled Swiss bank, announced Thursday that its chief executive, Marcel Rohner, had resigned and named Oswald Grubel, a former top executive at Credit Suisse, to succeed him.

The change came as UBS is struggling with client defections, huge losses from ill-fated market bets and a tax-evasion inquiry in the United States.

“I will do all I can to bring UBS back on a profitable, successful track,” Mr. Grubel said in a statement. “I am convinced that the Swiss financial center requires the presence of more than one big global bank.” He becomes the fifth executive to run UBS since it was created through a merger 11 years ago, Bloomberg News said.

UBS has been caught up in a major controversy surrounding its handling of U.S. tax fraud investigations. American authorities have been pressing UBS to divulge the names of tens of thousands of American clients, drawing sharp criticism from the Swiss, who say disclosing the names would violate Swiss law.

On Mr. Grubel’s appointment, Dirk Becker, a banking analyst at Kepler Capital Markets, said “UBS is now in a similar situation to the one Credit Suisse was in six years ago, and the hope now is that he will be the man to bring UBS back to life.”

By Big Bucks GOP

February 26, 2009 9:49 AM | Link to this

Tribune Company will not be putting its landmark office buildings in Chicago and Los Angeles on the block this spring as expected, because of the weak real estate market and the media company’s bankruptcy filing.

By Big Bucks GOP

February 26, 2009 9:50 AM | Link to this

Federal officials provided new details of its plans to shore up major banks in the event of a sharper economic downturn and convert the government’s preferred shares into common bank stock. But some analysts raised questions about the administration’s projections.

By Big Bucks GOP

February 26, 2009 9:52 AM | Link to this

Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley said Wednesday that they would cut back on their spending on golf tournaments after lawmakers on Capitol Hill assailed Northern Trust of Chicago for lavish spending.

By Big Bucks GOP

February 26, 2009 9:53 AM | Link to this

A Florida hedge fund manager accused of scamming as much as $350 million from investors has seen his bail set at $5 million by a New York judge.

By Big Bucks GOP

February 26, 2009 9:54 AM | Link to this

General Motors said Thursday that its cash reserves plummeted to $14 billion as it reported a $30.9 billion loss for the year. The car maker also said it expects auditors to cast doubt about its viability.

By Big Bucks GOP

February 26, 2009 9:55 AM | Link to this

A former municipal banker at Bear Stearns pleaded guilty on Wednesday to fraud involving hospital financing that is part of a wide-ranging probe of government corruption in Illinois.

By Big Bucks GOP

February 26, 2009 10:01 AM | Link to this

Ford Motor executives have opted to cut their pay by 30 percent for the next two years and will suspend bonuses for salaried workers this year, the automaker told employees in a memo.

By Nota Freeloader

February 26, 2009 10:08 AM | Link to this

Tired reading about the lazy freeloaders on the taxpayers backs? Read about this great american citizen:

http://www.macon.com/198/story/632114.html

By ZEKE

February 26, 2009 10:13 AM | Link to this

THE SO CALLED SWISS TAX FRAUD INVESTIGATION IS A GOVERNMENT SOCIALIST SCAM! MOST OF THESE PEOPLE THAT HAVE THESE ACCOUNTS ARE NOT AVOIDING TAXES ON THE MONEY THEY MADE IN THE US! WHAT THEY ARE TRYING TO DO IS AVOID THE ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS INCOME TAX THAT THE SOCIALIST IN WASHINGTON HAVE PUT IN PLACE ON THEIR EARNINGS OUTSIDE THE US! FIRST THEY HAVE TO PAY TAXES IN THE COUNTRIES WHERE THE INCOME IS EARNED, THEN THE US SYSTEM WANTS TO TAX THEM AT THE US RATES IN ADDITION TO THAT WHEN THEY BRING THOSE PROFITS BACK TO THE US! STUPID! ANY WONDER THAT FOREIGN COMPANIES ARE BUYING US COMPANIES! THEY HAVE THE MONEY AS THEIR HOME COUNTRIES DO NOT DOUBLE TAX THEM ON MONEY MADE OUTSIDE THAT COUNTRY! SO, INSTEAD OF BUD BUYING THE FOREIGN BREWERY, WE LOSE A BLUE CHIP AMERICAN COMPANY TO ONE WHO HAS THE CAPITAL BECAUSE OF OUR STUPID TAX POLICIES! LET OBAMA AND THE DEMAGOGS PUT THESE SOCIALIST PROGRAMS IN PLACE AND WHO WILL INVEST THEIR MONEY WITH THE KNOWLEDGE THAT THEY WILL BE PENALIZED FOR EVERY DOLLAR THEY MAKE? NO ONE! NO INVESTMENT IN PRODUCING JOBS OR INCREASING THE ECONOMY! THE GOVERNMENT CANNOT PRODUCE JOBS, ONLY TEMPORARY JOBS WITH MAKE WORK PROJECTS FUNDED BY TAXPAYERS! KHRUSCHEV WAS INDEED CORRECT WHEN HE STATED, ” WE WILL NOT ATTACK YOU, WE WILL DESTROY YOU FROM WITHIN!” INDEED THE SOCIALIST ARE DOING EXACTLY THAT! WAY TO GO DEMOCRATS! GOODBYE USA!

By Peadawg

February 26, 2009 10:20 AM | Link to this

By Nota Freeloader February 26, 2009 10:08 AM | Link to this Tired reading about the lazy freeloaders on the taxpayers backs? Read about this great american citizen:

http://www.macon.com/198/story/632114.html

I wish Obama encouraged more people to be like this man and not ask for handouts!

By Howard

February 26, 2009 10:27 AM | Link to this

Jim…is this any surprise?? This country has been leaning towards far-left socialism for years. Republicans could have stopped all this crap when they had power but nooooo…they had to try to “get along” with the Democrats…which is akin to being friends with the Mafia. Islamic terrorists need not do a thing to hurt this country…just sit back and allow the greatest threat to America in its history…the Democrat Party…to do the job for them. Also the years and years of dumbing down the USA education system and instilling political correctness has resulted in a lazy, dumb, shiftless class of moronic citizens who are woefully and ignorant and indifferent to what Herr Obama and his dictatorship are doing to this country. Heard an old saying on the old “Rifleman” TV series which fits this country right now, ironically. Mark asked his “Pa” if a people could lose their town. Lucas said, “Yes…and if people become too lazy and ignorant of just who is running their country, then they can lose a nation.” We’re gone Jim…like Ralph Kramden said…we’re on the moon!! It will take a world calamity like a war to rescue this country. We’re in the 30’s folks and guess what came at the end of that decade?? WW II!! It got us out of a depression…which is where this far-left and evil and despicable man and his gang of outlaws are taking us…but at what costs???

By ron

February 26, 2009 10:36 AM | Link to this

Dear Redneck,—-The value of an education beyond the 2nd grade cannot be ignored.The Southern States tried an end run already and failed miserably.They’ve now only voted thenmselves out of the union temporarily.This Democrat majority will pass in 30-40 years and the South will rise again.In the mean time there’s Jindal,who is now focusing on $140 million that is partly for volcano monitoring.He’s a good conservative.

By ButtHead

February 26, 2009 11:01 AM | Link to this

I like the CEO salary cap, but it does not go far enough. If a CEO does not show a profit, in a publicly owned company, then his salary show also is adjusted accordingly. This should also be true for Congress and the Senate; if we are losing money then they should not get a check or bonuses. There should also be a mandatory retirement age for them. The government takes in an average of about 50 billion a day 365 days a year, if you can’t balance that budget then you don’t deserve to get paid. By the way Obama’s net tax plan, 39.5% do you really believe that any dimacrats in congress and the senate will pay their fair share… NOT

By Jake

February 26, 2009 11:16 AM | Link to this

Lots of middle class people, including myself, just lost 40-60% of their accumulated life savings (401k’s and home equity) due to limitless greed of rich capitalists and a Republican administration that failed to regulate the obvious excesses and protect us. I don’t see how the current ‘socialist’ regime can do more than take away the other half. And at least some of it will go to the needy this time instead of to the greedy!

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

February 26, 2009 11:21 AM | Link to this

Dear Jake @ 11:16, you err - you lost your wealth due to government interference with the free market. FNMA, FHLMC, CRA, and the “largest tax increase in the history of the world” - all democrat programs - destroyed us all.

By Yep

February 26, 2009 11:23 AM | Link to this

Just because the republicans made mistakes for a number of years certainly does not justify spending away our great grandchildrens’ future does it? Someone has to exhibit a modicum of RESTRAINT!! This current administration is going through our lifetime of savings and futures in a matter of 100 days and blaming it on the economic crisis.

Spend wisely democrats, not like drunken sailors on payday. We need some of these programs, but certainly do not need to expand entitlement programs!! If we do temporarily extend entitlements, make sure they go to citizens not the 12-25 million illegals that are sucking out this countries life-blood.

Let’s all get off the crack and get on track!

By ron

February 26, 2009 11:25 AM | Link to this

Dear Ragnar,——With Hamas hamming it up with Obama,how long before their new found wealth rockets into Israel?Sorry,that’s the best I could do.

By atlin83

February 26, 2009 11:28 AM | Link to this

Oh my God, Jim, you’re right! If our (measly) unemployment, healthcare, (infrequent or not-normally-needed) baseline legal aid, and retirement are baseline covered by government assistance, why would we need to work?

Maybe, just maybe, because we’d still need a place to live. And to support the needs of our families that wouldn’t be fully (or partially) covered by the government, such as education (particularly college). Or because we are - value judgements aside - a nation of consumers, and we want (sometimes even need) stuff that we don’t have. Or because we want to have more money and invest, even if we’re doing okay.

Just because the government proposes to support a baseline way of life for those who currently reside below it does not mean that all Americans will want to live it. There are many facets of most of our lives (the fortunate among us) that would not be supported by government aid, and that we would refuse to give up. This is why people would continue to work.

Your article inflates your point beyond usefulness. Your real issue is with subsidy to those you don’t consider worthy. And you oppose any increase to this subsidy, or additional subsidies. But to state that Americans no longer need to work because the government is increasing subsidies is absurd - most of us have (or want) houses, cars, Nintendo Wiis, college educations, nice food, etc - all things that fall beyond the scope of the aid the government is willing to provide.

By Marc

February 26, 2009 11:31 AM | Link to this

This is typical me-first baby boomer ultra Republican crap.

Because of your policies, I’m going to have to pay for your entitlements and get less than I’m due. I don’t get a pension (like you) because your generation got snickered into believing big business gave a whoop about America. You know what I get? Maybe 75% of social security and maybe a match of my 401K if big business deems it doesn’t have an impact to the bottom line. I’m GOING to have HIGHER taxes, LESS inflation adjusted income when benefits are included, and LESS sources of retirement income.

Unlike you, I really am on my own. So before you sail off into the sunset with all of the great things that your predecessors gave you, keep in mind that you, your clownish policies and beliefs, and you inability to sacrifice anything of yourself made America much worse off.

The fact that you still don’t get it, and are so wrapped up in rhetoric is baffling. Somebody HAS to pay for this stuff. Raise taxes and pay for this stuff.

…and your 250,000 argument is just stupid. There’s plently of incentive at 40% tax rate as witnessed by the nineties which burgeoned with entepeneurism.

By Steven Daedalus

February 26, 2009 11:37 AM | Link to this

Isn’t fun to watch the Right squirm and wallow like a bunch of pigs in heat, in my 61 years I don’t think I’ve ever had more fun. Squeal, squeal, Piggos.

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

February 26, 2009 11:39 AM | Link to this

Dear Churchill’s Mom @ 8:44, you may appreciate this essay by Dr. Sowell in praise of Magna Sarah

Dear ron @ 11:25, your word play is better than mine today, well done.

By williebkind

February 26, 2009 11:40 AM | Link to this

How many have seen democrats and republicans get elected into the house or congress as middleclass and leave extremely rich? I suggest your answer should be “ALL OF THEM”!

I have the most confidence that Obama will be a real wealthy man by the time he leaves the whitehouse.

I hear there are those that make millions each year but what I want to know is what do they do with the money that is left over after they have all they want and need?

I believe capitalism the way to go but I do believe we are over paying some. I heard on the radio this morning that college graduates make an average of one million dollars a lifetime more than those without a degree. Well judging from the mess we are in now I would settle for some High School graduates and AA degees to run the country for a while. It could not get any worse!!!

Well, I am a product of public schools.

By Sickof the Lies

February 26, 2009 11:55 AM | Link to this

Dear Ragnar, Name one change the Democrats made between taking the majority in 2006 and the election in 2008 that directly led to the economic downturn. Just one will do.

By Hillbilly Deluxe

February 26, 2009 12:22 PM | Link to this

So people haven’t been “moving and hiding income and assets” for years? Industrial production hasn’t been moved overseas for years?

By Chris Broe

February 26, 2009 12:22 PM | Link to this

Obama will expect people to hold themselves accountable. Our economy’s inherent cycle of boom and bust can be used to justify a War on Poverty.

Poverty is real. Opportunity is real. War is real. Obama’s position is that Trust is not real. Our elected officials, on every level, represent ideologically-derived resource allocation . That defines America better than the flag. We fight wars to preserve our entrepreneurial side more than we do to preserve our flag. Our property is properly festooned with our flag, but our freedoms drape our collective humanity

. Wooten doesn’t respect the collective humanity inherent in any earned citizenship. His melange of manifestos smears the diapers of the 70 percent of black babies who cause single family homes. This means that 70 percent of Wooten thinks that the nanny state is a black state within a black state. Wooten eschews these unquenchable dead beats. Wooten thinks that our GNP is our security. I think that our love of liberty is our security. By that difference and to the extent of that difference is how far Wooten has migrated away from our country’s civil and legal progress.

Wooten proposes to defray, defraud, and deny the learning curve about our rights as American Citizens to control our future. Wooten uses hard work and personal responsibility as both the ideology and the basis for all regulation. He still insists on couching every issue with slogans worthy of infecting mob mentality. . He thinks all those flag-draped coffins morally form the legal basis for further probes against our walls of liberty. Wooten would have to believe that way in order to construct the arguments he presents in today’s blog.

Wooten, you come across today like a teetotalling grandma making a toast or even a president making foreign policy hiccups: “I said there’d still be a lot of hard work in Iraq.” (the man truly was ground from an idiom mill).

As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy.” Abraham Lincoln (1858)

By Sharecropper

February 26, 2009 12:28 PM | Link to this

This latest by Wooten is a drive-by column, nonsensical at best and absurd at worst. He has a job — why, I do not know — and in typical right wing bobblehead ranting seeks to pile on those who don’t. And, my god, Obama wants to raise taxes on people making more than a quarter of a million dollars a year! I have never figured out why the wingnuts love rich people so. Is it envy? Sucking up?

And to think the AJC is actually looking to add another kneejerk bobblehead. More’s the pity. As the country turns center and left, the AJC turns hard right. Might help explain your abysmal performance as a newspaper: you have lost your audience in more ways than one.

By Peter

February 26, 2009 12:31 PM | Link to this

Here we have REPUBLICAN’S in action…………

Growing hate groups blame Obama, economy

(CNN) — Don Black says he despises Barack Obama. And he says he believes illegal aliens undermine the economic fabric of our country.

A cross and swastika are burned at an event called Hated and Proud in Nebraska in July 2008.

Black, a 55-year-old former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard, isn’t the only person who holds such firm beliefs, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which today released its annual hate group report.

The center’s report, “The Year in Hate,” found the number of hate groups grew by 54 percent since 2000. The study identified 926 hate groups — defined as groups with beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people — active in 2008. That’s a 4 percent jump, adding 38 more than the year before.

What makes this year’s report different is that hate groups have found two more things to be angry about — the nation’s first African-American president and an economy that is hemorrhaging jobs. For the past decade, Latino immigration has fueled the growth of hate groups.

So Hate Groups are really are part of “Republican Family Values”..

Please note they are mostly in the “Ignorant South” a Republican Strong hold………..and they blame most on Illegal Immigration….something BUSH did basically Zero about………

So talk about calling the Kettle Black……. Republican’s did zero about the problem, something that has been going on the ENTIRE BUSH ADMINISTRATION….and the Ignorant Republican’s want to place that blame on Obama…….

Gee I guess he is at fault……. WHY because he is 1/2 Black !

This is a Typical Republican Ignorance yet at it…yet again !

Republican’s a do nothing but waste money with their Greed agenda….then the SPIN is Obama is at Fault……..HA HA HA !

That’s Right Jim…..Keep them stupid..the Republican WAY !

By BoneHead

February 26, 2009 12:35 PM | Link to this

Sickof the Lies, Here is just 1 thing, Pelosi and Reid have not let 1 republican bill even make it to the floor. And in a bi-partisan effort they locked out ALL republicans from TARP discussions. Boy I am not sure how much more transparency I can take. I am still waiting for the TARP bill to go online for 48 hours BEFORE a vote is taken… OOOoopppps did they forget that promise also?

By Chris Broe

February 26, 2009 12:37 PM | Link to this

Bookman wrote half an article. His Reagan expose should have been accompanied by a tax-raising comparison. Reagan raised taxes during every year of his presidency except the first and last. (1980 and 1988).

Reagan laughed about it later, “‘Well, I thought I’d get $3 in spending cuts for every $1 in raised taxes. I got the taxes, but congress spent more.”

C+

By Leon

February 26, 2009 12:41 PM | Link to this

Rag,

You can’t be that ignorant or such a right wing blind loyalist (cultist) to understand that GLB (which Clinton signed as I’m sure you’ll remind everyone) was the means with which Wall Street used to build its house of cards. Why else would an insurance giant stand on the brink of failure unless it had been dabbling in the business of sketchy, under regulated mortgages which were being bundled and sold as so much snake oil? GLB in 1999 got us where we are now and the resurrection of all the Smoots, Hawleys et al in 2006 would have changed none of that. Also our resident senility expert JW said a couple of things that prove how completely out of touch he and his dear GOP ilk are.

To call the situation our country is in now “the bummer economy” reveals his complete and utter lack of his grasp of its severity. Also aren’t wealthy Americans, who are “directed toward moving and hiding income and assets” in fact criminals? Or do you consider them compassionate conservatives?

By Ben There

February 26, 2009 12:53 PM | Link to this

Why work? Funny. The communists in the USSR were asking themselves that exact same question. But this short read says it all about how absolutely STUPID the American people are to not question this INSANITY by the modern lib left Dems in Washington:

February 26, 2009

WHEN he officially unveils his bud get today, President Obama is ex pected to call for an end to the Bush tax cuts - but only for “the rich.”

That’s, well, rich.

Indeed, observers on both the right and left agree that there’s no way he can meet his goal of halving the deficit without raising taxes.

So while the president has promised that families making less than $250,000 a year won’t see their taxes go up “a dime,” don’t hold your breath.

Now, it’s true that the average worker will get $13 a week this year from the stimulus plan, dropping to $8 next year.

But how does that stack up against the Bush tax relief that Americans are likely to lose? Do the math: This year, the Bush tax cuts should save Americans an estimated $205 billion. Divide that by 142 million workers and it averages $27 a week in every pocket.

Looks like average Joes lose. And that’s true, even down the income ladder.

Democrats like to claim that most of the Bush tax relief goes only to the wealthy - implying that scrapping it won’t hurt others. But maybe they should ask the breadwinner in an average family of four making about $42,000.

The Treasury Department has estimated that the Bush tax cuts would save such a taxpayer just over $2,300 this year - more than $44 a week. If Obama winds up ditching the cuts for him, he’d be worse off, just like the “wealthy.”

Even if Obama works money miracles and doesn’t hike taxes on anyone but “the rich,” there’s still cause for huge concern.

Many of the folks who report $250,000 or more in income are hardly fat cats: They’re hard-working small-business owners who pay taxes on their revenues via their personal income-tax returns.

In fact, in the top two income-tax brackets - the ones Obama proposes to squeeze most heavily - a full 80 percent of filers report small-business income.

Over the last 10 years, small businesses created 60 percent to 80 percent of the nation’s net new jobs. By socking it to their bottom line, the president’s new tax move will dry up the nation’s most fertile source of employment - just as more and more Americans are looking for work.

So let’s get this straight: Obama’s big stimulus is a worse deal for workers than the Bush tax cuts he’s sacrificing to pay for it.

The tax hikes will slam small-business owners and discourage the entrepreneurship and risk-taking our economy needs.

And by signaling that Americans can expect tax hikes down the road, Obama encourages sensible people to bank their stimulus checks and save for the leaner days ahead - undermining the whole purpose of the massive spending.

Sounds like he should have left well enough alone.

That’s change? I don’t think so.

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

February 26, 2009 12:59 PM | Link to this

Dear Sicko @ 11:55, good question, two actions come to mind quickly, even excluding the wasteful TARP passed almost entirely on the strength of leftist votes:

(1) Nancy Pelosi’s declaration “that the Bush tax cuts are dead” – that imposition – by inaction - of the largest tax increase in history is a real financial loss for businesses. Businesses suddenly have to pay more taxes in 2010. Contrary to the prejudices of leftists, businessmen do plan ahead. The US is now a service-based economy, and the only raw material in the product is human capital. There is only one way to reduce costs, to pay the new higher taxes.

(2) A minor action followed shortly, the increase in the minimum wage, thus making a layer of employees less than cost effective. Of course, the good news here is that the only people who lost their jobs due to the increase in minimum wage were the poorest and least skilled among us.

Perhaps not so peculiarly, the minimum wage increase had the quicker effect – those people were gone six months after the law was passed – note the 1% spike in the six months immediately after passage. The “tax increase” however is the more powerful change, and will continue to ripple through the economy for the next year, and for an extended period thereafter (because the government’s theft of capital will make private expansion far more difficult.)

Dear Pofo @ 12:22 “Regulation is critical to the health” You’ve got to be kidding. Like saying a pulmonary embolism is necessary to health. Why do cultists have so much faith in the genius of $40k/yr bureaucrats?

By Don That

February 26, 2009 1:02 PM | Link to this

So, the Obama Tards are going to raise taxes on individuals corporations and create revenue of about a trillion. Now let me get this straight: the job providers in this nation are going to be punished and be expected to create more jobs with less money in their pockets. Can anyone else see the INSANITY of this? I suppose all those poor and lower income people will now be coming out of the wood work to start companies, create jobs, and invest in them. Can’t wait to see how it works out for you mindless emotion-driven Obamabots!

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

February 26, 2009 1:06 PM | Link to this

Dear Leon @ 12:41, “You can’t be that ignorant or such a right wing blind loyalist (cultist) to understand that GLB (which Clinton signed as I’m sure you’ll remind everyone) was the means with which Wall Street used to build its house of cards.” Well, actually, that is my field, and I am so ignorant. I charge you with a logic disconnect. Your “house of cards” featured not a single merger tolerated by the new freedom in GLB prior to the collapse of the fraudulent mortgage securities. The enablers were FNMA and FHLMC, pushed by the bank regulators who issue separate performance ratings under CRA - strictly a government driven bubble. The merger freedom under GLB has been used since the collapse, to try to use bank capital to rescue the leftist-managed securities “non-bank” banks.

By Peter

February 26, 2009 1:17 PM | Link to this

Yes we should cut taxes……In fact why have taxes at all……….

We should make sure the Grand kids pay for our generation !

By SaveOurRepublic

February 26, 2009 1:18 PM | Link to this

I can’t state it enough folks…the GOP “leadership” consists of “RINO”/Neocons, whose allegiance is to the Globalist Elite & their agenda. True (paleo)conservative values do NOT embrace massive government spending/empowerment/growth, the Central Banking Cartel & their fiat currency, foreign entanglements & fallacious (so-called) “free” trade (NAFTA, CAFTA, GATT, etc.) which have dismantled the U.S. manufacturing base & enabled mass “insourcing” of H-1B workers (displacing Americans). Neocons like “Jorge Boosh” & “Juan McAmnasty” are NOT real conservatives, but use quasi-rhetoric to deceive (well meaning) Americans.

http://www.jbs.org

By Sickof the Lies

February 26, 2009 1:30 PM | Link to this

Rag, So you are trying to tell me that Pelosi TALKING about a tax increase that was 4 years away from being implemented when she said it and an increase in the minimum wage were enough to knock the wonderful Bush economy off it’s tracks????? These two things led to the current issues with the banks, unemployment, housing and the stock market. You really believe that??? No, you don’t, neither of us do; you just can’t back up your partisan rhetoric. I’ll ask again, name one actual change (law, signing statement, etc) made by the Dems that actually occured between 2006 and 2008 that led to the end of the glorious times of the Bush economy. Just one example will do. Either put up or shut up partisan hack.

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

February 26, 2009 1:32 PM | Link to this

Dear Peter @ 1:17, you are almost there. To protect the grandkids, we need to abolish all non-military spending, as that is entirely waste.

By Jake

February 26, 2009 1:50 PM | Link to this

Dear Ragnar @ 11:21 - That’s just the repub spin on reality. This disaster is a housing bust with unregulated greed in the mortgage loan and mortgage backed securities industries as the root cause. The CRA and Frank and Dodd, popular to Repub spewings, never required anyone to make a single sub prime loan, did not create ninja loans or interest only ARM’s, nor securitize them. The mortgage loan companies created them and the banks soon copied, and Bear Sterns was the first to securitize CRA loans in October 1997. While this greed was destroying the world economy, the gatekeepers like Greenspan, Dugan, and Bernanke (all republican/Bush appointees) didn’t do a thing to protect us from the consequences. Ad the damage was done from 1997 to 2007 wheh repubs controlled both the Senate and House (except for the 49-50-1 Senate of 2001-2003) I’m afraid your apparently capable mind is blinded by party dogma. Tell me, do you also think Cyndi Sheehan cost American lives or was it actually Bush who put the troops in harm’s way?

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

February 26, 2009 2:07 PM | Link to this

Dear Jake @ 1:50, you err in your benevolent view of regulators and CRA. And your screed on greed suggests you are also unfamiliar with Adam Smith. For a quick tutorial, I would recommend Dr. Williams’s recent essay, “Economic Miracle.” ]( http://townhall.com/columnists/WalterEWilliams/2009/02/18/economic_miracle?page=full&comments=true ).I’ll admit I wish our leftist brothers had some fundamental economic literacy, but I suppose this is smart man’s burden.

By Peanut Man

February 26, 2009 2:14 PM | Link to this

How much did Saxby Special Interest Chambliss take from Peanut Corporation of America? What did they get for their money?

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

February 26, 2009 2:14 PM | Link to this

Dear Jake @ 1:50, I should also add that Dr. Sowell’s recent essay, “Upside-down Economics” mirrors the arguments I have made on this blog for the past six months. Proof that he is a bright fellow.

By Q

February 26, 2009 2:16 PM | Link to this

wow, the bashing on this blog. whew….

hard to find a rational healthy dialogue to follow.

By Jason

February 26, 2009 2:18 PM | Link to this

This Ragnar fellow’s a strange bird. He’s like the kid in school who took gym class way too seriously. I guess some people are just really insecure and constantly need to prove themselves worthy. What an unfortunate burden to carry.

By Q

February 26, 2009 2:18 PM | Link to this

wow, the bashing on this blog. whew….

hard to find a rational healthy dialogue to follow.

By @@

February 26, 2009 2:27 PM | Link to this

(((The day will come when entrepreneurship in America is directed toward moving and hiding income and assets, where enterprise is capped at $249,000 yearly, and where industrial production is shipped overseas, forcing Obama-Reid-Pelosi Democrats to find yet more creative ways to control economic activity.)))

‘Ya know, Jim, you’re absolutely right. The problem with leftists is that, because their options are so limited, they assume everyone else’s are as well. Not so! (for now, that is)

My annual contract is up for renewal at the end of this month. I’m bailing……not on the kids! I’ll still be working with them and for them full-time.

I’m bailing on the government’s ability to tax my services while at the same time, robbing of another victim.

Could be I’m just HOPEFUL, but I think I’ve been witnessing the leftists choking on Obama and the Marxist’s reality pill. Buyer’s remorse, albeit a bit late.

Heck! Even a horse has the good sense to work a “jackass” pill out of their mouth. but then a crafty “horsekeeper” always has a solution.

Dissolve the pills in strawberry Kool-Aid mix and water. I’m told some dimwitted jackasses (the only attribute I give Obama) will slurp this right out of the bowl.

GiddyUp you beasts of burden! Don’t make Obama take the whip to you!!!!!!

By Peter

February 26, 2009 2:35 PM | Link to this

Hey By @@

HA HA HA…….HA HA HA………..HA HA HA……..

SPIN BABY SPIN…….

‘Ya know, Jim, you’re absolutely right. The problem with leftists is that, because their options are so limited, they assume everyone else’s are as well. Not so! (for now, that is)

(CNN) — Don Black says he despises Barack Obama. And he says he believes illegal aliens undermine the economic fabric of our country.

A cross and swastika are burned at an event called Hated and Proud in Nebraska in July 2008.

Ok HA HA HA……..so Hate some more !!!!!!!!

Get out your White Hood ……… HA HA HA……..HA HA HA……..

I guess you heard that on the RADIO ! Your Fat radio pusher with the drug habit !

HA HA HA……. HA HA HA………… HA HA HA……..!

By Dusty

February 26, 2009 2:46 PM | Link to this

Well, OK, the sky is falling! Run for your lives!

I don’t think this moaning and wailing is going to do any good. We know Democrats are absolute jerks when it comes to running the country. One month of the present administration is enough to make one regurgitate. But….we are stuck with it so get going. Be practical at every turn. But first..

Tell your governor that you do not like handouts which have to be repaid later with interest. Be independent.

If you are out of work for some time, take anything you can get. MCDONALDS if need be. Minimum wage is better than nothing. Clean up your yard or that of your neighbor. Somebody might pay you to do theirs.

Can’t make house payments. MOVE to something smaller or cheaper. Smarter people realize this is necessary.

Sooo you lose “face” and prestige! Taking handouts from the government is a much bigger loss of self esteem than lowering the cost level of personal expenses. The habit forming pleasure in the “handout syndrome” is a danger to the freedom of our civilization. You become slaves to those who supply your needs.

Well, that is enough “preaching” for today. I am doing something fun…drawing up a Peachtree Road Race design. Of course I won’t win but it is a fun thing to do. At least I won’t complain about THAT to the AJC. They are sponsoring the race as usual. So cheer up, all you grumpy keyboard wizards. You too can face tomorrow with some joy if you try.

By Chris Broe

February 26, 2009 2:56 PM | Link to this

Idea for Peacthree T-shirt: The t-shirt should read, “I’m with the pert, pouting one”.

By Peter

February 26, 2009 3:02 PM | Link to this

Hey Dusty…….Cool stuff………

“Well, that is enough “preaching” for today. I am doing something fun…drawing up a Peachtree Road Race design”

I am going to do the same !

I have run many of these ! Been down to group 1A…… I actually have run the Atlanta 1/2 , and a full marathon as well.

Best of luck to you on your design !

By Dusty

February 26, 2009 3:05 PM | Link to this

No POFo Broe Broe..pert as in expert is a no no. Cool, calm and conservative is better. Are you running in the race or running from your creditors?

By Dusty

February 26, 2009 3:09 PM | Link to this

Well, thanks, Peter. My design is going to be “peachy keen” (if I get it in on time!) My sons race sometimes but I have a “walking knee” that refuses to run so I don’t argue with it. Hope your design comes out GOOD!

By Redneck Convert

February 26, 2009 3:17 PM | Link to this

Well, I always wondered where they got those stupid designs for the road race t-shirts. Now I know. That’s my opinion but it’s very true.

By Jake

February 26, 2009 3:22 PM | Link to this

Dear Ragnar: Big differnce between encourage and require. Please riddle me this. Why didn’t those mortgage loan companies and banks use their relationships with builders to get affordable single family housing built in the CRA zip codes? Clearly that was the intent of the CRA, put people in $80,000 homes with low fixed interest rates they could afford. Instead they made a conscious business decision to meet CRA regs by putting people in mortgages they knew they couldn’t afford. Why? Because it was simpler and much more profitable to get 2-3 points up front on a sub prime that you knew you could dump on Freddie and Fannie. BTW, only about 1 in 4 of the non-performing/foreclosed loans were made by CRA fully regulated banks, they were only half as likely to make sub primes compared to the industry as a whole. As recently as yesterday the Fed’s Duke and OCC’s Dugan, republicans both, are saying CRA loans are a small part of the problem, with Duke actually suggesting more CRA loans would be a good thing. You think SunTrust made a lot of ninjas? The bust has been largely exurban, not inner city where the CRA’s were made. And lastly, and probably most importantly, who required the banks and Wall Street firms to invest so heavily in mortgage backs? Few of the failures have been from the actual loans, more from companies like Wachovia that had too much invested in the related securities. I deal in reality, not party biased spin. I couldn’t help but notice your arguments and the Sowell piece you reference, are not encumbered by any such facts.

By @@

February 26, 2009 3:22 PM | Link to this

Peter @ 2:35:

I can see by your hysteria, that you don’t like having “resources” taken from you.

Good!

….on that we can agree.

Two down (make that three) my neighbor’s in the process of downsizing his business to 2 employees that will allow him and them to make income, although un-reported. Wait…..that makes five.

Obama’s “dingleberry” will be left hanging from your non-productive a*. Hope the pressure doesn’t exacerbate your hemorrhoids, buddy.

Me? I wouldn’t know about such things except to say I’ve heard the bleeding can stain.

By Chris Broe

February 26, 2009 3:29 PM | Link to this

Sarah Palin woulda lost on Jeapordy, baby, ouooouoo

Sarah Palin burned her shout-out, squandered her poll-the-audience, and wasted her call-a-friend. The only thing left of Sarah Palin is the Tau of Palin. She’s got cult-icon appeal. Where nothing is real. Raspberry jeers forever!.

Sarah Palin is beautiful, and ultimately someone I’d have a beer with. I’m certain I could resist the urge to shake up the bottle of beer and spray her t-shirt with it , but only because that’s the litmus/rorschach test of whether or not a guy IS that F’ing into you. and I am that F’n in to Palin, man.

I’m F’n in to Palin.

By Dusty

February 26, 2009 3:32 PM | Link to this

Dear RedNeck Convert,

You are just mad ‘cause they don’t make T-shirts out of flour sacks like your ma did.

Why don’t you draw up a design? How about a peach with a “wooly bear” on it? That lil’ fuzzy caterpillar has a red neck just like you. I wonder if most worms have red necks (or if most rednecks have worms)?

By @@

February 26, 2009 3:33 PM | Link to this

Oops! correction to my 2:27:

robbing them (the government) of another victim.

By Shawny

February 26, 2009 3:43 PM | Link to this

Flat Tax. Just do it.

But do it on income, not consumption. With the tax on consumption, there will be supressed buying, putting us right back into the recessed economy.

Then there is no place to hide the money, no way for the super rich to pay less (on a percentage basis) than me. Make it fair and get rid of the IRS.

By @@

February 26, 2009 3:48 PM | Link to this

…and just let me add this little part, within Jim’s column…..a part that jumped out at me when considering Nancy Pelosi’s recent statement that “birth control will help the economy.” Then there’s Obama’s assertion that unwanted children are a BURDEN.

(((The yearly cost of health care in this country is $2.4 trillion and rising.)))

(((We are racing toward the day where citizenship becomes an entitlement)))

Anyone wanna take a guess at what’s coming next?

That’s right! I’m about to forewarn everyone of the democrats’ intention to implement population control so as to eliminate the burden on society and the government’s budget. The practice of population control will further limit future sources of income.

There will no longer be liberal slices of the pie. Leftists will be lucky if they get a sliver, but then there’s always kool-aid as a dietary supplement. Lemon-aide flavor should go down well.

By @@

February 26, 2009 3:52 PM | Link to this

Shawny:

I’m with you on the Flat Tax. It’s easy and most timely solution to what ails us. The part I like best is that it robs the barrons (politicians) of their power.

By Peter

February 26, 2009 3:56 PM | Link to this

Hey Dusty …..Thank you !

by @@….for a guy who has been self employed since 1985…….my personal logic is…….

I gotta make it on my own, by my hard work, by saving for that rainy day, and by changing with the times.

The last 8 years got us where we are today…… I had never been a fan of George Bush…..and think he has teamed up with the true anti Christ……Dick Cheney !

So if folks cannot realize the policy of those past days got us here today…..well….seems like they are the ones wanting a hand out, starting with Wall Street and Corporate America !

Me…. I gotta get up and get going each day to make my own way……that to me is what America is about, what it offers me, and why I feel Blessed to be here with an opportunity !

I grew up in the northeast, and learned early on……no excuses…..one makes his or her own luck , and it seems to work best when your attitude is helping folks.

I am not happy about all that has been going on with the hand outs……. but we do need to help the less fortunate.

My other big issue is Killing is Killing no matter what the age…..so War is not really something I believe in. Yes Bin Laden should have been exterminated………he attacked America, and killed American’s !

So I am pi$$ed about the made up Iraq War….especially the cost plus contracts, along with the ridiculous spending it entailed……and the continued cost to Americans !

I also think the Greed from Wall Street, and the CEO’s in general, have been a thorn in the working man / woman’s side……we all know the sending of jobs over seas is a direct result, of their desire to bilk the system, and their own companies.

I cannot tell anyone I believe Corporate America is actually pulling for American’s……It is the few at the top, who don’t really care what happens, as long as they get paid like the super stars of sports, and the music industry !

By @@

February 26, 2009 4:28 PM | Link to this

Peter:

We need to help the less fortunate? Absolutely, that’s why I will continue to do my job, teaching disabled children. That’s why I’ll continue to work with the United Methodist Women at my church whose “soul” purpose is aimed at community outreach. The first six months of our fundraising and membership dues will go to a local shelter for battered women. An ongoing effort is collecting and dispersing clothing to a shelter which sells the clothes at a minimal price, taking the proceeds and injecting them into a local food pantry which gives the food to needy families. It’s all non-profit.

Somehow I knew you’d place the brunt of the blame on the Iraq war and Corporate America. Funny thing though……it’s American corporations that make up the bulk of funding for the private school where I work — equipment, supplies, scholarships galore. Government funding not welcome there. Our methods of teaching are far superior to anything they have to offer so we take a pass on their “expertise”.

The government does next to nothing to help the unfortunate in this country. They’d lose “the promise” of votes if they did. Eleven trillion has been spent to date on the war against poverty with very little to show for the money or effort expended.

It just keeps on keepin’ on.

By IC Atlanta

February 26, 2009 4:41 PM | Link to this

Peter can you come rake my yard later. It is all Bush’s fault and will always be Bushe’s fault. I guess you didn’t learn how to think for yourself along the way. You and the other idiotic myrmidons of the left are set on destroying America.

Thanks.

Ron Paul should be President now. We would all be better off.

By SaveOurRepublic

February 26, 2009 5:06 PM | Link to this

IC Atlanta @ 16:41 - Absolutely correct re Dr.Paul…one of the last few honest & (100%) Constitutionally adherent individuals on “Crapitol sHill”!

By Algonquin J. Calhoun

February 26, 2009 6:09 PM | Link to this

Jim, we weren’t on the wrong road when we spent billions in iraq? It wasn’t socialism when Bush bailed out his buddies on Wall Street? It wasn’t wrong when the United States indulged in torture? America is, at long last, back on the path of righteousness. I support the president. Of course, many in the great state of Georgia are upset that a black individual is leading this nation. Too bad! The Reich has been defeated and it’s time for you and the bitter Republinazis to show some loyalty to your country. Your people got us into this mess and you’ve forfeited any right to disparage how we recover. It’s a new day!

By Buzz G

February 27, 2009 8:18 AM | Link to this

The time has come to re-read Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged”.

By Bill Moser

February 27, 2009 8:29 AM | Link to this

Why Work HARD should be the title. I used to work hard to generate a $400k income in my S-Corp, but no more! By 2011, trust me, it will fall below $250k, and I’ve used my ingenuity to figure out how to slash costs, and put it on autopilot. Now, I work less, hang out at a local cigar lounge with a bunch of guys like me watching movies on the big screen complaining about the new cigar tax. I’ve been going to Costa Rica to spend my disposable income while familiarizing myself with how ex-pats move their cash, and live comfortably in paradise. I found huge American communities with American Doctors near San Jose. As soon as our son goes off the college, it’s pura vida for us…adios amigos!

By Bill Moser

February 27, 2009 8:37 AM | Link to this

Why Work HARD should be the title. I used to work hard to generate a $400k income in my S-Corp, but no more! By 2011, trust me, it will fall below $250k, and I’ve used my ingenuity to figure out how to slash costs, and put it on autopilot. Now, I work less, hang out at a local cigar lounge with a bunch of guys like me watching movies on the big screen complaining about the new cigar tax. I’ve been going to Costa Rica to spend my disposable income while familiarizing myself with how ex-pats move their cash, and live comfortably in paradise. I found huge American communities with American Doctors near San Jose. As soon as our son goes off the college, it’s pura vida for us…adios amigos!

By metoo

February 27, 2009 9:53 AM | Link to this

If the only reason you do anything in life is for money you are a loser. Thank God our Police, Firemen, Soldiers, Teachers, etc don’t think this way!

By N.J.

February 27, 2009 1:35 PM | Link to this

Wooten, you have missed your true life calling as a clown.

Republicans consider themselves the party of “Personal Responsibility”. What this actually means is that whenever they are in control of government and their economic ideas result in catastrophe, they say that someone ELSE is “Personally Responsible” for it.

For the last eight years, Republicans have had their shot. The LARGEST tax cuts in history, a total of 2.1 trillion, so large that the government had to BORROW more money than the entire annual federal budget at the time the tax cuts were given in order to give it. They almost doubled the federal budget during the last eight years, and both during Bush’s first term, the Republican controlled congress passed spending bill after spending bill, and the president did not utilize the veto ONCE during that period, when Republicans went on a spending spree like drunken sailors. It was not until 2006, when the Democrats took over Congress that Bush started threatening to veto ANY Democratic bills that raised spending (48 threats to of veto in 2007 alone.. with 9 actual vetoes), so every wasteful penny of government spending in the last eight years was based on the TRUE Republican policy of “Borrow and Spend”

Reagan was no better. He lowered taxes but did so by BORROWING money to do it and saddling not the wealthy, who benefited most from the cuts, but the working poor and middle class with the debt.

Uneducated and totally unobservant conservatives spout drivel they do not even understand, simply by repeating stock idiomatic phrases in the Wootenese tongue. For example.

Definition:

Socialism - Anything a conservative does not like. As children, this is usually applied to foods. ie, Socialist broccoli.

Definition:

Class Warfare - Anytime the rich are trying to soak the working poor and middle class and need someone to blame it on. A diversionary term.

No political party has engaged more in class warfare over the last 28 years than the Republican party. They have engaged in the largest transfer of wealth in human history… from the poor and middle classes, to the top two percent.

They claim this two percent has someone EARNED the right to this wealth transfer, but in fact, this top two percent contributed very little to the total American economy. Even a minimum wage Wal Mart worker contributes more.

The average, minimum wage worker’s labor earns no less than 187,000 dollars a year for his employer.

The average person in the top 2 percent does not add MULTIPLES of their income to their bosses bottom line, but more often than not, less than 50 percent more than their own salaries, and many times, they barely make enough to pay their own salary by their own productivity. The average person earning 250,000 dollars a year yields about 383,000 dollars in productivity.

In 1979, before the “great neo-con revolution” the top twenty percent of income earners owned about 16 percent of ALL of the wealth in the United States. This still made that top 20 percent of earners very well off economically. The bottom 80 percent owned about 86 percent of all of the wealth in America.

Today, after three decades of relative neo-con conservatism, the sitution is exactly reveresed. The top 20 percent now own 86 percent of ALL the wealth in this nation, and the bottom 80 percent owns only 16 percent of all the wealth that exists in all forms.

Class warfare…it has been an economic GENOCIDE committed by the twenty percent on the bottom eighty percent. The bottom 50 percent have ZERO wealth at all. They contribute the most to the economy in productivity, but they do not share in single red cent of that productivity.

Iy your annual income is LESS than 110,000 dollars a year you are part of that BOTTOM 80 percent and NOT part of the top 20. And NOTHING you do will get you into that top 20 until the tax laws are altered to prevent the top 20 percent from sucking the life out of the bottom 80 percent.

The conservatives like Wooten are about their normal prevarication routines.

98 percent of small businesses, the REAL engine of the American economy will get tax CUTS ,not tax increases from the Obama economic agenda.

As usual Republicans like Wooten, the TRUE elitists, favor the wealthy aristocracy of CEO’s and bankers, and will do anything to allow them to keep their wealth, while denying benefits and TRUE competition from those small businesses that earn LESS than 250,000 dollars a year, like the local small business from Gwinnett county that just steam cleaned my carpets. His best year he earned 80 thousand. Obama’s plan will TRIPLE his tax cuts, but that is not the Wooten plan. The Wooten plan prevents this small business from benefiting from the Obama tax plan, so that the huge corporate conglomerate can put this small local business OUT of business.