Thinking Right's weekend free-for-all. Pick a topic:

> The year's great irony is the rush of Democrats to Barack Obama on his promises of "change." Think about it. Nothing more terrifies liberals than the prospect of change from the failed policies of the past. Education. Social Security. Health care. You name it. Propose something other than growing government and cultivating dependence and they freak out. Real change that is an alternative to Big Government gets them squirrelier than the discovery that the new family next door drives an SUV with an NRA bumper sticker.

> House Speaker Glenn Richardson's tax-swap proposal —- a portion of the property tax for a new tax on services —- is a loser for Republicans. Want to get dispirited Democrats off the mat in Georgia? Push this proposal. Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, offers this warning: "Calling for an expansion of the state's sales tax to include what appears to be a telephone book listing of services is a move that harms ... the taxpayer and is likely to cause great contention if passed." A good leader doesn't invite his followers to walk into a political ambush with sharpshooters from the Left on one side and from the Right on the other.

> Give Dunwoody the right of self-determination. In a metropolitan area, people should be able to control their space. The decades-long abuse of Sandy Springs by remote politicians convinced me flat-out that people in a metro area can never be secure in their homes if they can't.

> Crime stories I love: Indictments for violating the public trust —- in this case, U.S. Rep. Rick Renzi, an Arizona Republican, accused of using his office to enrich himself in a complex federal land swap. And prison for white-collar criminals —- a Ponzi schemer in California, 81 years old, was sentenced to 28 years in the slammer for his role in ripping off $190 million from victims in 25 states. Stealing from people who put their trust in you is nearly unpardonable.

> One area where Republicans under the Gold Dome promise to make important strides is education. The majority should most assuredly pass State Sen. Eric Johnson's SB 458, which would give vouchers to parents of students in chronically failed schools and in a system that loses accreditation. The latter may include Clayton County. The Senate should pass, too, Rep. Jan Jones' House Bill 881, which would give charter school organizers a state-level way around foot-dragging, kill-the-competition local school boards and would make it clear that the money follows the child. Local control means parents, not another level of government.

> State Rep. John Lunsford (R-McDonough) has a fine idea, too. His House Bill 854, filed last year to deal with financial information that unions would be required to file, has been amended. The new language: "No public funds shall be disbursed, either through contract or grant, to any organization which engages in lobbying." The halls and the committee hearings are filled with people on the public payroll lobbying people on the public payroll for more of somebody else's money.

> AJC columnist Bill Husted's computer advice applies to government as well, especially on housing. The president promises to veto a Democratic bill that would change bankruptcy law to allow a judge to cut mortgage interest rates and reduce what's owed. It would also provide $4 billion to allow local governments to buy and refurbish foreclosed properties. The headline on Husted's Sunday column? "Avoid programs that 'fix' what isn't broken."

> What? The drought is not part of an end-of-time cataclysmic event? No. Climatologist Doug Lecomte of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration checked the books and found that drought is a frequent visitor hereabouts. It spent three years here between 1980 and 1982 and five years here between 1985 and 1989. Then there was the visit in the early 1930s and in 1924. All told, the past 325 years have featured more than a dozen droughts. The lesson: Don't panic. Don't be arbitrary or stupid with rule-making. Plan, manage and store water. Droughts come and go.

> Jim Wooten is the associate editorial page editor. His column appears Fridays, Sundays and Tuesdays.

jwooten@ajc.com