Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

This blog is on the move.

As almost all the other AJC blogs have already done, my blog is relocating to a different piece of online real estate. I’m not moving far, and if the only way you read my blog is by clicking a link from the home page, you won’t notice any difference until you arrive.

But if you have my blog bookmarked or new posts delivered through an RSS feed — and I highly recommend doing one or both, for the sake of your convenience and my page views — you will need to adjust your settings. Starting Thursday, April 4, the new coordinates will be:

Blog: http://www.ajc.com/weblogs/kyle-wingfield/

RSS: http://www.ajc.com/rss/weblog_entries/kyle-wingfield/

Don’t bother clicking those links before Thursday morning. There won’t be any there there.

Once there is, and you arrive to see it, you will find a new registration requirement before you can comment. If you are active on the sports blogs, or entertainment blogs, or Political Insider, or just about any ajc.com blog …

Continue reading You say goodbye, and I say hello (the blog is moving) »

As Georgia prepares to battle for our rightful access to more water, it seems Tennessee is preparing to defend itself. Apparently, the state’s leaders have even enlisted Andrew Exum, a veteran of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars and native Tennessean who blogs about “small wars and insurgencies” at Abu Muqawama, to design its strategy.

Exum begins by outlining what he believes to be our natural line of attack, and his plan for defending against it:

The first course of action in the face of Georgian aggression is a static defense. The main avenue of approach for any Georgian invasion force would be I-75. About a mile past the state line, the highway splits into I-24 heading west into Chattanooga and I-75 northbound heading toward Knoxville.

There’s a bend in the highway where all northbound cars must slow down as they turn west toward Chattanooga. It’s a natural place to construct an L-shaped ambush. I’d place .50-caliber machine guns on the north side of the split, in the …

Continue reading Fightin’ words from them water-hoarders up north »

It appears we have an ethics bill.

Speaker David Ralston just confirmed from the House side what the AJC had heard from senators earlier today. Namely, that the two sides, urged along by Gov. Nathan Deal, agreed in the wee hours of Thursday to a compromise between the two main* ethics bills they each passed earlier in the session.

The text of the bill has not yet been made available publicly, but the compromise appears to have been chiefly along two grounds:

First, the House agreed to drop its insistence on a ban on one-on-one lobbyist gifts to legislators and accept the Senate’s preference for a cap — albeit a cap of $75 rather than $100. In exchange, the House won more carve-outs it included in its original version of the bill, HB 142. Those exceptions include gifts (think meals) provided by lobbyists to entire caucuses, the nature of which is subject to approval by each chamber’s ethics committee, as well as allowances for spouses and staff members to accompany legislators …

Continue reading Ethics bill isn’t perfect, but it is progress »

One by one, the field gets smaller. Some advance, while others don’t. Long-shot dreams are realized, while some sure-fire bets fall by the wayside.

Yes, the Georgia legislative session is winding down.

Hey, I couldn’t have been talking about basketball in Georgia this time of year. (Thanks for nothing, Bulldogs, Yellow Jackets, Panthers, Eagles, Bears, and any other Division I schools I left out.) But if you read the foregoing and thought of the usual kind of March Madness, feel free to discuss how your brackets are doing in the thread below. I hope they’re doing better than mine; they almost have to be.

Or use the thread below to talk about whatever else is on your mind.

– By Kyle Wingfield

Continue reading March Madness, Georgia-style »

The Oscars are this weekend and, as I’ve seen only one film in the running for Best Picture (”Argo”), I can’t give you the slightest hunch as to who will win the big award. (Insert joke here about just how reliable my gut feelings are.)

If getting to the movie theater with two small children weren’t so hard, I’d like to have seen some of the others — especially “Lincoln” and “Zero Dark Thirty.” I’m sure I’ll see them at some point, even if it’s at home.

If any of you got to see more of the nominees, let’s hear which of them you think deserves the award. Or any of the other awards. Or, take this cue to swap YouTube links, talk baseball (the Braves’ Grapefruit League season is officially under way!) or hoops, or what have you.

– By Kyle Wingfield

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Continue reading And the Oscar goes to . . . »

OK, I give up. After watching the championship hopes of both the Georgia Bulldogs and Atlanta Falcons die on the same end of the Georgia Dome’s field in less than two months, I’m finally on board with tearing that place down. Either that, or figure out a way to shorten that end of the field by 10 yards when the fourth quarter begins.

I’m kidding. Sort of.

Programming note: I’ll be blogging and tweeting about the president’s inaugural address today. There’ll be a separate post for that, which I’ll publish around 11 a.m.

Until then, feel free to treat this as an open thread for commenting on all the matters you didn’t get to discuss over the weekend. And for those of you who are frustrated with the short time frames for commenting lately, know that a solution will be in place soon. If you spend much time on the sports blogs, you’ve already seen that change there. I’m not sure when we’ll make the transition on the opinion blogs, but it’s supposed to be soon.

– By Kyle …

Continue reading After latest loss, down with the Dome! »

I may as well bow to the reality that y’all will spend the entire weekend talking about the election regardless of what topic I write about, so here it is: Your weekend-before-the-election open thread.

The rules still apply — it’s an open thread, not a no-holds-barred thread — but otherwise, have at it.

– By Kyle Wingfield

Continue reading The weekend before Nov. 6, what else would we talk about? »

Not for me; I’m already married. My brother is, too, but next week he and his wife will have a special second marriage ceremony in her hometown: Shangrao, China.

Late September/early October of a presidential-election season is not the time of year I’d have picked to be away from work for a week and a half. Among other things, I’ll miss the first debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.

But it’s important to them, and to me, that as much of our family as possible is there to celebrate with them. So you’ll have to find someone else to parse that debate with. (Not to worry, I’ll be back for their second debate and the vice-presidential debate, and everything that comes after that. But commenting will be in moderation starting now, and until I return.)

In the meantime, wish them luck as a couple — and all of us luck surviving that 14-hour-plus flight. And I’ll see y’all back here when I return on Monday, Oct. 8.

– By Kyle …

Continue reading Gone weddin’ »

It’s been a few weeks now since I started putting all comments in moderation (roughly) between the hours of 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. That has worked out well, I think, and I’m not planning to change that anytime soon. In the spirit of compromise, however, I’m going to experiment with something this weekend: an open thread.

I’ve never done an open thread, which I’ve seen other bloggers use as a way for readers to talk about whatever topic they choose. It would probably make more sense on my blog if I were stricter about keeping comments on-topic, but I do have a reason for doing it: I’d like to keep commenting on-topic for my Sunday print column, which I typically post here on Friday evenings.

So, here’s what I’d like to try: On Friday afternoons, I’ll post the open thread for the weekend, on which y’all can keep talking politics, swap YouTube links, talk sports, whatever — as long as you continue to follow the rules, I don’t care which topics you address. My request from y’all is …

Continue reading Here goes nothing . . . »

The tone, attitudes, language and lack of civility on this blog’s comments thread have become unacceptable lately. I don’t know if it’s because of the heat, or because it’s summertime and some of you are juveniles with more time on your hands than usual, or something else. But it’s got to stop.

I have tended to allow a fairly rowdy discourse during the nearly three years I’ve run this blog, with only a scant set of basic rules (which still apply) and intermittent crackdowns on those who break them. The deterioration into comment-thread wars over the past week-plus, however, have convinced me that this is no longer adequate. (Don’t bother looking for the discussions in question; I have removed more than 200 comments from various threads in recent days.) This blog, like all AJC blogs, particularly Opinion blogs, is intended to be used for civil discourse.

The following rules are effective immediately:

1. Anyone who comes onto the blog with personal attacks and little to nothing …

Continue reading Here’s the deal »