Thinking Right

By Redneck Convert

March 7, 2009 8:50 AM | Link to this

Well, me and Wooten don’t see eye to eye on this one. I say let them gamble all they want down at Underground. Even tho it’s a Sin it will bring in alot of tax money and keep the people in the statehouse from doing what us Libraritarians and Republicans fear worse than death. Raising taxes.

Anyhow, it will mostly be Those People doing the gambling and who cares about them? They’re already the ones keeping the lottery money coming in.

Well, I ain’t got more time to spend here. I got to scurry around to get ready for the big race down at Hampton tomorrow. Me and Jim Earl and Joe Bill and little Sonny Zell George will be there when the gates first open. I’ll miss Sunday worship down at the Church of Holiness, but God will forgive me. Even God loves NASCAR.

Have a good day everybody.

By Glenn

March 7, 2009 9:25 AM | Link to this

Actually I had the distinct honor of posting the first comment this day, and I can assure you that very considered and clever that comment was, but a conspiracy of the AJC’s flawed servers and my own stupid opinions together conspired to deprive you judicious readers of the purest nonsense. It’s for the better of your souls.

By Chris Broe

March 7, 2009 9:27 AM | Link to this

Wooten’s concern about gambling’s collateral damage to our society is very moving. Imagine the crime at Underground Atlanta. Perhaps we should put video gambling in Iraq, where the collateral damage cant possibly get any worse. Then we can tax it to pay for the war.

Better yet, put video gambling in the Afghan border mountain caves with Pakistan. This will corrupt Al Queda, and maybe Osama Bin Laden gets knifed in a mugging outside his cave. Of course they’re so poor in Afghanistan, the gambling casinos use buffalo chips.

Video Gambling……could…….WORK!

You see, good Altanta, when Wooten embraced the War in Iraq, he lost the credibility of his persuasion. Indian tribes? Tribes? The Kialegee Tribe ended up in Oklahoma the same time the Choctaw Tribe did. First, mr. wooten, tell me about the tribes in Iraq. Did you know how many different tribes there were when your party started bombing their children for patriotism? How else can we support the troops without collateral damage? Shock and Awe. Choctaw Indians with roots in Alabama too, were sent to Oklahoma along with the Kialegee Indians. Smart Bombing…. Smart Death Marching… Happy Trails of Tears to you, Wooten.

Everything is connected. The plan you embraced with your God and your Flag was to Shock and Awe the Iraqi Tribes, killing thousands of civilians who never heard of Al Queda or 911. Then it was to start shooting at everything that moved for three or four years. Then let John McCain walk around an Iraqi market free as a bird and safe too if you don’t count the fact that he was surrounded by the Third Army.

Fiddleedee, Wooten, Your words are as hollow as a didgeridoo. If you served a purpose, mr wooten, it was to ruin the dignity of the last refuges you hide behind:. The flag. religion. Any moral courage. Perhaps there is still a last refuge for you: ignorance about smart bombs. “Hey, I’m not a rocket scientist, how was I supposed to know about smart bombs and stuff.” Maybe your ignorance about the state of state, the people in it, their hopes and dreams, and their own tribal habits in 2009 will deter all future journalists from attaching their news hound noses to the rear ends of all the constituents you sold-out to.

Jklol

By Glenn

March 7, 2009 9:34 AM | Link to this

Hey, lay off the didgeridoo, lest the reference boomerang on you, stick and bindle.

By Jackie

March 7, 2009 10:05 AM | Link to this

Typical Repub diatribe; “…starve the government - it is too large therefore reduce taxes - and complain about the services being rendered.”

When on questions their plan(s) to resolve our everyday problem, the Repubs IMMEDIATELY revert to talking points or name-calling.

The Repubs seem to think that OUR lying eyes and lying ears can not comprehend what THEY trying to do. Keep telling the same lies, over and over and over, hoping that those that fail to pay attention will believe the content of their pronouncement.

The economy is falling apart and at least 15% or the population is either unemployed or underemployed, yet the Repubs have the courage to maintain their talking points. Surprisngly some that have been affected by this economic tsunami believe that the government is becoming Socialist because they want to help the GENERAL population.

By GayGrayGeek

March 7, 2009 10:12 AM | Link to this

Jackie, of course the Republican’t’s are against anything that will help Just Plain Folks. Because every dollar that might go to help, you know, “Regular People” is a dollar that will not go to BIG BIDNESS.

And, as we all know, the Republican’t’sNeocons/Paleocons in the U.S. think that BIG BIDNESS is the Solution To All Ills. And tax cuts, too, otherwise The The Terrorists Win!.

By Jim Jr

March 7, 2009 10:44 AM | Link to this

New voter registration - 3 to 1 advantage Democrats to Republicans - life is good

By Dusty

March 7, 2009 10:46 AM | Link to this

Well, Glenn, I am glad you are here this morning. This blog needs more sensible conservatives. Jim Wooten wants to keep the contagious casinos out of Georgia for good reasons.

First, no need to change Underground into more of a rat hole than it already is. Don’t add “cheese” to the environment.

Second, the people who “enjoy” small time casino gambling are often the ones who need to keep what little money they have. If casino machines did not make money (take it away) why would anyone install them to make a profit? The losers drop their money in the machine. The crooks take it out. Don’t make Atlanta the crooked city of Georgia. As Jim noted, others will follow.

We note that our libs are all for any vice that pays: our undercover cutie RedNeck, Jackie the joker, GGG from Canada and PoFo Broe the Babbler ! No surprise there. Anything for a liberal dime! Just like Dems in Washington.

By Wilbur

March 7, 2009 11:17 AM | Link to this

Mr. Wooten;

You and Mr. Limbaugh are write. We Republicans are proud and don’t need no handouts from the govenments. There plenty of educations without no one payin for us to go. I finished 10th grade which plenty enough for anyone and my wifes done got her ged dipoma. Both got us good payin jobs and don’t need no welfare. Couple of paymjents behind on my picku truck but plan to get some part time work when the fair comes to town. Don’t want no one payin for ourn doctors. 10 teeths enough for anyone. Need them commandts put back to schools. You tellm the old librourals that we is right.

By Dusty

March 7, 2009 11:41 AM | Link to this

Dear Wilbur,11:17

RedNeck Convert already has the “redneck” routine cornered. Try something else for your undercover operation. One phony “redneck” is more than enough.

By Glenn

March 7, 2009 11:50 AM | Link to this

No seriousy, Pseudo-Dusty PoFo Shameless One:

I mean, you know about these things, and obviously you believe that Georgia should know, so ipso facto, man, what are we supposed to know?

By Dusty

March 7, 2009 12:11 PM | Link to this

Dear Glenn,

I am for real. It is easy. I don’t think VICE is good for people. Others think differently. Pay the price for vice and get rich is what they say. Some never learn. Casino gambling is a perilous petty Ponzi scheme for the poor person.

What say thee?

By @@

March 7, 2009 1:05 PM | Link to this

Jim, if my vote were to count, which obviously it doesn’t, I’d say “NO!”

The cost is too high. Here’s a little additional somethin’ as to why SC did away with video gambling:

(((South Carolina banned video poker terminals in 2000.

When Nova Scotians were considering a similar ban in 2005, the Toronto Globe and Mail paid South Carolina a visit to see why the state had dropped the game.

“It was everywhere,” State Sen. Wes Hayes told the paper. “It’s the crack cocaine of gambling. We had bankruptcies, we had suicides … It was out of control, and the people of South Carolina were sick of it.”

Wouldn’t want that kinda suffering and death on my conscience!

But then I’m not a dim pusher who’s also addicted to the payout from “machines”.

By Bob Ichter

March 7, 2009 1:11 PM | Link to this

Who is to say what a “vice” is? If someone wants to gamble or buy beer on Sunday, they should be able to….this is a “free” country, right? What if I define going to church [ read- gathering of ignorant and superstitious people following the precepts of ancient myths, and administered by child molesters and adulterers] as a vice? How would you fools feel if someone called bible study a vice? I believe subscribing to these backwards beliefs engender an inability to ba a “critical thinker” and do WAY more harm than someone buying beer on Sunday.

By deegee

March 7, 2009 1:31 PM | Link to this

JW says, “The major story of this legislative session, then, is the recession and the real prospects that Congress and the Obama administration could manage it into a depression.”

How come when we were attacked by Al Qaeda in 2001 the Republicans claimed it was all Bill Clinton’s fault although Bush had been in office for the greater part of a year? Yet we have a <60 day-old Obama administration that inherited a recession and a nasty bank insolvency problem from the Bush administration and the Republicans seem to think it’s all Obama’s fault. Isn’t that a little bit weird?

By fed up

March 7, 2009 2:50 PM | Link to this

What’s weird is that the Obama administration continually whines “we inherited this mess”, news flash, he knew what he was “inheriting” when he ran for office. He’s making a bad situation worse. Trying to do too much at one time. He needs to concentrate on the economy, get Turbo Tax Tim’s help in place and stay in Washington and be engaged in the process rather than hopping on Air Force One every other day as though he’s still campaigning.

Now on topic, I say a resounding “no” to video gambling anywhere in Georgia. Most of the people that will play will are the people that don’t have a pot to pi$$ in or a window to throw it out of. I have a lot of friends and family in 2 states in the midwest where they have put in boats on the river for gambling. The people that are on these boats day in and day out (for the most part) are unemployed and living on food stamps and every other government program stuffing their money into these machines, smoking their cigarettes while their children are not getting anything of what they need or what they should be getting with the government money. If people in Georgia want to gamble it’s a short ride west or east to do it.

By JUDY

March 7, 2009 3:33 PM | Link to this

YES I WANT IT I AND A LOT OF PEOPLE WOULD LIKE IT. THEY SHOULD GO TO ANY CASINO AROUND IN OTHER STATES AND SEE THE CARS FROM GA. THAT MONEY COULD GO HERE SO OUR TAXES WANT GO UP. LISTEN TO THE PEOPLE. ASK THE PEOPLE OF GA

By catlady

March 7, 2009 3:34 PM | Link to this

fed up: we all know McCain and H. Clinton “won” the election. That poor guy, Obama, thought he was going to win when he started running. Then, as the mess unfolded, it became clear that the “winner” was going to be the “loser”. He was “pot committed” and could not very well back out.

On topic: nothing else should be put in Underground. We should not encourage tourists to hang around that area any more than we already do. And, while I have nothing against betting activities, we have plenty of them available for folks. You won’t catch me wasting any money on lottery tickets. If I spend a dollar on food, I know I am getting food (well, that might not be a good analogy). If it could be guaranteed that I would get my dollar back, I might play the lottery. However, if you are guaranteed to get your money back, it isn’t much of a “gamble” is it? I guess I want what the buyers of stocks expected—a sure thing.

By Glenn

March 7, 2009 4:56 PM | Link to this

Dusty,

On the off chance that you, in person, are posting:

I’ve sent a total of one post today. The rest is owing to the drag queen’s yacking to itself to fill Jim’s vacuole.

So, not me. If you ask me, the proposals for Underground always have been ludicrous. I treasure the music I heard down there in the ’70s but I can’t pinpoint how the venue was the muse. Still, Underground’s a good challenge. We could do worse than to judge local politicians by their respective prescriptions for Underground Atlanta.

What I don’t like is Jim’s suggestion that the longstanding ban on Sunday alcohol (well, excepting corn whiskey) is somehow a moral “legacy”. Of what does it speak, then?

By Glenn

March 7, 2009 4:59 PM | Link to this

Dusty,

On the off chance that you, in person, are posting:

I’ve sent a total of one post today. The rest is owing to the drag queen’s yacking to itself to fill Jim’s vacuole.

So, not me. If you ask me, the proposals for Underground always have been ludicrous. I treasure the music I heard down there in the ’70s but I can’t pinpoint how the venue was the muse. Still, Underground’s a good challenge. We could do worse than to judge local politicians by their respective prescriptions for Underground Atlanta.

What I don’t like is Jim’s suggestion that the longstanding ban on Sunday alcohol (well, excepting corn whiskey) is somehow a moral “legacy”. Of what does it speak, then?

By Michael H. Smith

March 8, 2009 10:51 AM | Link to this

Nice lesson Professor Wooten, however, I’m not so sure the correct student body received the benefits of your lecture. The awareness of future Governors and others who appoint members to boards and commissions should pale in comparison to our own acuity. As you have so duly noted, upon this occasion and others, the perennial distractions that blossom in the people’s legislature, among them, Sunday alcohol sales and other forms of gambling serve as pertinent examples of wasted legislative time. The debate, which many seem to have missed, is not in question of should alcohol be sold or should gambling be allowed in the State, for those matters have been settled: We have both. Only their limits remain in political contention: Remarkably if not even more abhorrently given to our Representative’s squabbling. Your noble call for a decisive vote will never materialize. The people of Georgia long ago lost their right of true sovereignty, whereby we could terminate legislative distractions and Representative’s squabbling.

Agree or agree to disagree Professor Wooten, ballot initiative and referendum has its’ proper place in our “Misrepresentative Government”, as the founders and framers of our State Constitution realized back in 1776.

~

In 1776, Georgia delegates gathered in Savannah to draft a new constitution. One of the changes that was made was a requirement that the new constitution could only be amended when petitions signed by a majority of voters in each county called for a convention. Though the process was never used and ultimately deleted from the constitution it [Georgia] was “the first state” to establish a process that recognized the true sovereignty of the people in controlling their constitution.

http://www.ctconcon.com/history-initiative-referenda.html

~

“We stand for applying the Constitution to the issues of today as Lincoln applied it to the issues of his day; Lincoln, mind you and not Buchanan, was the real upholder and preserver of the Constitution, for the true Progressive, the Progressive of the Lincoln stamp, is the only true constitutionalist, the only real conservative.”

Theodore Roosevelt, 1912

http://www.teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=1126

~

A Governor’s agenda and legacy or that of our legislators, even of our courts and any of their respective appointees should never overrule the agenda and legacy of a sovereign people, in whose hands all the chips should remain.

By Bill Shipp

March 8, 2009 1:11 PM | Link to this

In 1932, the federal courts affirmed gangster Al Capone’s 11-year prison sentence and heavy fine for income tax evasion. He was sent to Alcatraz and then the Atlanta pen before he was given his freedom to die of advanced syphilis.

How times change. Seven decades later, the feds determined Wall Street whiz Tim Geithner owed more than $34,000 in back taxes. Geithner said his tax problems were “an embarrassment,” but President Barack Obama appointed him just the same to a Cabinet post. He was easily confirmed by the Senate to be Treasury secretary, of all things, and told to overhaul the country’s ailing financial system.

Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle was not so lucky. The president tapped him for secretary of health and human services. He would guide the administration’s universal health care package to passage. During a perusal of Daschle’s background, however, a nosy government guy discovered that the former Democratic leader owed a bundle in long-overdue taxes. Daschle withdrew his Cabinet nomination.

Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson was on his way to becoming commerce secretary, then pow! A corruption investigation shot him down. Superstar government wonk Nancy Killifer withdrew her name as nominee for the new and powerful performance officer’s post. The reason? Unspecified tax problems.

Just as we started to wonder how many more geniuses would be disqualified from federal service in Washington, look what happened in Atlanta.

State auditors discovered that 10 percent of the members of the Georgia General Assembly were state tax evaders.

Of course, Georgia’s grand troika - Gov. Sonny Perdue, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and House Speaker Romeo Richardson - decided that Georgia’s tax-evasion list of 22 state senators and representatives should be kept secret. The Georgia public had no right to know the names of its tax-cheating public officials. “Redacted” was the word of the day in the state Revenue Department.

You and I might not be shown the same courtesy of having our deadbeat tax records sealed. You and I are not “special people.” We are not privileged legislators or connected insiders. We are not eligible for protective treatment from the tax collector.

Ethics doesn’t have much meaning in Washington or Atlanta or several other capital cities. Corruption in government has become so commonplace that we hardly notice news accounts of $50 billion investment frauds or multimillion-dollar bonuses paid to executives with lousy performance records - or the tax-evasion habits of career government types who ought to know better.

No wonder so few of us wince when we read that our government has decided to suspend half of our constitutional rights or that the General Assembly is eager to approve public payment for Georgia Power generators that haven’t even been built. Or that wiretaps, searches without warrants and arrests without due process are just part of the way we do business nowadays. Call it the Desensitization of America.

► Stories of Georgia’s tax-evading public officials are not without their irony. Just as we calculate that a high percentage of our population are habitual tax-law violators, other official charts show that Georgia has one of the highest imprisonment rates for all offenses in the country.

► More Georgia residents are sentenced to probation than in any other state. That’s what happens when the prisons are full and you don’t have any more room to house the guilty parties.

Perhaps no connection exists between the public official-tax offenders and street-level drug dealers or cat burglars. However, one cannot help but wonder if a state that winks at criminality among its public-servant class does not also encourage lawbreaking at lower levels.

In other words, your state legislator ducks out on paying his share of taxes, and hardly anyone says “boo.” If you or I are caught stealing gas and credit cards, shouldn’t we just be able to go in and plead “embarrassed”?

By johnjeagan

March 8, 2009 1:42 PM | Link to this

Say Jimbo, are you gone to EVER write a follow up story on Marcus Dixon? You remember him don’t you. The rapist and mence to society you thought should be locked up. Come on Jimbo, write something!

By Glenn

March 8, 2009 2:11 PM | Link to this

Michael H. Smith,

Thank you for that pristine portrait of TR. No seriously, I mean thank you.

By Glenn

March 8, 2009 2:18 PM | Link to this

Bill Shipp, a man after mine own heart…

By Michael H. Smith

March 8, 2009 2:48 PM | Link to this

No problem Glenn, I’d take the thought as expressed in any use of the term irregardless. That is why I provided a link to the entire unadulterated TR speech, which includes the quote used.

By Jackie

March 8, 2009 3:55 PM | Link to this

The Repubs that WERE IN CHARGE and now working on their talking-points.

They are honing their skills in extrapolation, conflation and outright lies to try and help themselves at the next election cycle.

Wonder how it’s working?

By Dusty

March 8, 2009 4:58 PM | Link to this

Dear Glenn,

I am trying to find the source of your joy in some of these posts.

You like Michael H. Smith because he is a “constitutionalist” as I assume was T.R.. In other words, because some citizens want alcohol sales on Sunday, we should just say “Sell on Sunday”. Don’t we need to be sure that is a majority? (I don’t care one way or another.) Even the Constitution does not let us run wild if we decide that is our choice.

Bill Shipp speaks firmly for a Democrat. He’s against tax cheats. Aren’t we all? But I understand that there are LEGAL reasons why Georgia’s tax cheats in the Gold Dome cannot yet be published. I believe a few of them have been convicted and named.

I certainly agree that tax cheats everywhere should be treated the same. But Shipp taps Obama gently on the hand while aiming big guns at Georgia legislators. Whom do you think is the most impressive? Obama’s “forgiveness” or Georgia’s catch but not publish politics? Shipp should be making the big bruhaha over the president, not a few locals.

Demo Shipp also concludes that our Republican dominated Georgia government “winks” at non taxpayers but imprisons lesser criminals. Well, we have a tax list and we’re checking it twice before publication. Right? The police are not as patient for good reason.

But then Shipp throws in the old Demo (What terrorists?) line about Homeland Defense. Sorta like….I don’t like this war and I aint gonna have anybody listening to MY phone conversations and it aint Constitutional.

If Shipp cheats on his credit card and tries to plead “embarrassed”, that may work with Obama but it does not work in Georgia. That is why we WILL get the list of tax cheat politicians as soon as they can prove it in print.

Good try for a Democrat, Bill Shipp. If you had jokes, you’d be as good as RedNeck Convert. He’s a Democrat too.

By dave

March 8, 2009 5:59 PM | Link to this

Change is here… so how’s that working out for you?

By Michael H. Smith

March 8, 2009 6:13 PM | Link to this

Fear not Dusty, it is no where near anything easy to just wildly put an amendment on the ballot, even in states that do have I&R. As noted, it originally would have taken a majority of the registered voters in every county of this state signing on to amend this state’s constitution.

What amazes me is that so many who say they don’t really care about alcohol sales, or gambling or other issues etc. of a continuous contentious nature, suddenly show such a great concern when the thought of allowing the people to speak directly on their ballots to amend what is their constitution on any given issue which is brought to the public fore. It is understandable why our entrenched politicians would fear so greatly giving up some of their governing power, though, it is very remarkable how some so willingly abide subservient to the very legislative gridlock of their often voiced complaints. Maybe we just like to complain about inaction when what we are really saying is we want more inaction, even when it produces the wrong results. That way we’ll have something more to complain about?

Perhaps a bit of research on ballot initiative and referendum states would be of use. Thankfully, not every ballot initiative and referendum state is like California, as information that can be found from the link below confirms.

http://www.iandrinstitute.org/statewide_i&r.htm

By Glenn

March 8, 2009 7:39 PM | Link to this

That’s a really studied and funny parody, PoFo. I’m flattered, and you should be too.

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

March 9, 2009 8:44 AM | Link to this

Good morning all. While we await today’s essay, I would respectfully share the Saturday WSJ had an interview with John Key, Prime Minister of New Zealand. The interview is bizarrely relevant to Jim’s essay condemning unconstrained government spending, which masquerades as an essay on prospective gambling at Atlanta Underground.

Minister Key is smarter than the average bear. Rather than join the Obamaniac spending spree, Key is making New Zealand lean and competitive.

His strategy is that when the economy rights itself - and despite the madcap leftist spending and regulating spree it will eventually right itself, just later rather than sooner – he wants New Zealand to be the most competitive economy in the world.

My forecast is that New Zealand will be the new Hong Kong. Czech President Vaclav Klaus is my favorite world leader, but Key gets second place with a bullet from me.

By Chris Broe

March 9, 2009 8:52 AM | Link to this

Yes, very funny, only it weren’t me. I posted once on the casino gambling thread @ 9:27. I don’t visit Bookman’s Woman2Woman blog either. You Steinbecks can write anything you want. Don’t care.

Cancer Update: Wife has thousand mile stare now. Which I totally don’t understand because in 26 years of marriage she had put only 7 miles on that treadmill/valet in our bedroom. That’s like a foot a day.