Welcome, young fellow! The ideals we share will never grow old
Bloggers convinced me. Good commentators need not be journalists.
They do, however, need to be able to write well enough to communicate a point of view.
When Editor Julia Wallace first suggested throwing open the search for my replacement to the Internet universe, I had reservations. Not because I thought this job required a newspaper background. Not, either, because of any doubt that people of other disciplines or professions are equally proficient at expressing ideas clearly. My concern, instead, was that we’d not wind up with the real deal, with an honest-to-goodness conservative.
Blogging has opened my eyes. It’s taught me that there is a wonderful array of incredibly interesting and knowledgeable people who have opinions that they ably express and defend. It’s taught me, too, that on the Internet some intelligent people amuse themselves pretending to be something they’re not — conservative, to be precise. Without the body of published work, my fear was that we’d get, quite unintentionally, a pretend conservative.
We didn’t. My replacement, Kyle Wingfield, a Wall Street Journal editorial writer, is the real deal. This post is in good hands.
I know. I was involved from the start.
Almost 200 people expressed interest through an online process. They wrote sample columns. They identified more topics, half state, half national, that they’d pursue. The best responses, most all of them worthy of publication, came in answer to the question: “What makes you a conservative?”
Most all of those who expressed interest have jobs and are in professions — the law, for example — that involve client relationships. Out of respect for their privacy, their responses to that question or others are not to be published.
The question came at what is clearly a time of reflection for conservatives. We have to decide what we believe, what we want to do with government, and how to fashion a message that appeals to a nation perilously close to tipping into statism and dependency.
It’s not an easy task. The conversation has to start with Kyle’s generation — he’s 30 — and with those who are younger. We have to grow them away from the temptation to surrender freedom for security.
My generation had the legacy of grandparents who had survived the Depression and parents who were forced by world war to define America’s role in the world and their obligation to defend freedom. They gave us luxuries — intact families, bedrock values of hard work and thrift, opportunities to get the educations they were denied, and a belief in America’s greatness and its special place in the world.
With their stories ringing in our ears, my generation of Georgians was instinctively conservative. We believed in ourselves and in America.
Citing the Depression-era generation and the World War II generation and using their values as reference points can seem awfully dated to those who came of age under the tutelage of Vietnam- generation-protesters-turned-professors.
The challenge then for Kyle’s generation is to find the voice that will inform those to come of America’s enduring specialness and of the freedom that comes with self-reliance and personal responsibility. That is the nation, built on strong families, with the character to survive wars and depressions. Liberty is the reward for weaning ourselves from dependency.
Kyle’s pitch and mine will most certainly be different in terms of strategy and message. On some policy issues, we may disagree.
On core principles, however, his conservatism is mainstream Georgia. He knows the carpet mill and its people. The Dalton native knows their goodness and wants for them the opportunities in a free-enterprise system that he has been given. That is his conservatism.
Getting the selection process down to Kyle meant bypassing scores of highly capable and accomplished conservatives. Public Editor Matt Kempner and I read them all, narrowing the field to 62. Why 62? Because that many commanded attention. For us, it was a fantasy trip — a fantasy in the sense of imagining the possibility of hiring a conservative columnist who could write with authority on issues that would arise within their areas of expertise.
There were retired or former military officers up to the rank of general. There were people accomplished in business and finance. People who had successful careers in politics. A dozen or more were lawyers, including a former dean. About a dozen were current or former journalists. About that many have doctorates or are nearing the end of doctoral programs. They came from think tanks and from the blue-collar ranks. Their passion is to argue the conservative message. Some of those have agreed to submit occasional columns.
In consultation with others, including Publisher Doug Franklin, Wallace and Editorial Page Editor Cynthia Tucker, the list was narrowed to 25 and then to 10. The final 10 were interviewed and asked to submit two columns, one on a topic of our choosing and one theirs. Those columns were posted online for reader feedback. While online commenting can sometimes descend into sport, readers took the invitation seriously.
From that point on, a commonly recurring question was: “What did readers say?”
Ultimately it came down to three. For them — two were not working journalists — there was an additional assignment and group interview. They were asked to write a column, which was given to a professional editor otherwise outside the selection process. The final three rewrote based on that guidance.
The result is Kyle. Check him out. Check us out.
I retire in three months. And we get better.
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69 comments Add your comment
Dusty
April 4th, 2009
1:18 pm
Oh Jim, you have made me want to cry! This Kyle better be GOOD! He’s got a high measure to reach. We need you. We need that strong belief in America and the strength to express it. Now, don’t forget your occasional column. I will be looking for it. My heart is sad..but…have a GOOD TIME, my journalist friend. Enjoy!!
ByteMe
April 4th, 2009
1:25 pm
We have to grow them away from the temptation to surrender freedom for security.
And yet you were a HUGE proponent of the Patriot Acts I and II, because Bush wanted it.
Just Nasty & Mean
April 4th, 2009
1:42 pm
JIm, et al,
As I have said before, you are a true conservative–one that doesn’t even have to think about his/her position on a subject. It is just “there”. Conservatives are for individualism and freedom–things that build this country. If you look at the Constitution, conservatives are the defenders of it—not the ones that want to change/add/delete/modify it.
You have been a freedom fighter, Jim. Surrounded and outnumbered by the “other side”‘ at the AJC, you have stuck to your beliefs…and expressed them oh-so-well.
Thank you, trusted friend. Thank you.
See ya around…..
Oh the irony
April 4th, 2009
1:46 pm
“you are a true conservative–one that doesn’t even have to think about his/her position on a subject.”
Yes, that is the definition of a true conservative.
Just Nasty & Mean
April 4th, 2009
1:55 pm
Oh the Irony: It is called “basic principles and values”–something liberals just wouldn’t understand.
Tina
April 4th, 2009
2:21 pm
“I have seen the segregation and inhumanity that result from being unable to stop immigrants from coming to your country, but managing to stop them from working in your country and integrating into your society.” Kyle Wingfield, AJC.
This isn’t even a sentence. Is it some kind of joke? What an embarrassment and shame for the AJC. Don’t you have copy editors anymore? Nobody looked at this and said, hey, this isn’t just honkingly grammatically wrong; it doesn’t make any sense at all, and we should fix it since we’re using it to introduce a new editorialist to a major daily newspaper?
Or is something else going on?
Wingfield’s sample essays had a bit of content, but they didn’t explain much; they didn’t express coherent points-of-view, and they were riddled unforgivably with errors. Is literacy now too much to ask of someone under 50? What were the other criteria for the job, then, besides the ability to write and communicate ideas? Is mentioning Dire Straits really going to appeal to “the youth”? Hmm.
It is bad enough that the hiring process — a “Survivor-like” contest — smacked of contempt for conservatism itself. If, at the end of it, you get someone who cannot unpack a thought or abide by basic rules of grammar, then the process smacks of something else, too: setting up a straw-man to stand for conservative values.
And no, I didn’t apply and get rejected. I just expect journalists to be able to write as well as ninth-graders and express themselves as well as bright college freshmen. It doesn’t seem too much to ask.
Fundad
April 4th, 2009
2:22 pm
The one thing missing in public dialogue today is just plain old common sense. I certainly hope this new guy has it because it is what guides us conservatives to our particular form of political ideology. “It just makes sense”.
McGroots
April 4th, 2009
2:29 pm
ByteMe: I thought exactly the same thing.
I have no doubt that Jim is at his core an “honest-to-goodness conservative”. He just fails to apply his principles and logic properly to reach a sensible conclusion.
I believe this is rooted in a blinding principle that overrides his “honest-to-goodness” conservatism…not-so-honest and ill-willed partisanship.
Given a choice between faithful dedication to conservative principles or stubborn opposition to anything-Democratic Party, the latter always wins out. The two are not mutually exclusive.
Perhaps this young fellow will bring a fresh and not-so-jaded perspective to his new post.
Sharecropper
April 4th, 2009
2:36 pm
Oh, great. Just what Georgia — near the bottom in any empirical education or economic model — needs. Another babbling, bobblehead, kneejerk, predictable wingnut who wants more of the same and is not about to be dissuaded by the facts. Let’s just keep on a’going back to 1945, when Ga. Power was king, darkies knew their place, and trashy white folks — meaning those who believed in the Constitution — could be ignored. One day Georgia will mature enough to be embarrassed by such trivial pandering by the folks at the AJC. Assuming the same wingnuts can keep the AJC in business long enough.
AmVet
April 4th, 2009
2:58 pm
Enjoy your autumn years, Jim.
I found most of your opinions sadly lacking, but that is the great thing about this country. We’re all, like it or not, in this together.
And it is fitting you go out with the same intentional myopia you’ve posited for way too long:
“The question came at what is clearly a time of reflection for conservatives. We have to decide what we believe, what we want to do with government, and how to fashion a message that appeals to a nation perilously close to tipping into statism and dependency.”
Reflection?
That’s it?
Not acknowledgment of the countless debacles and endless corruption?
Not reinvention to the point of relevancy?
Not contrition?
Two consecutive nationwide electoral humiliations and staring a third straight in the eye and nary a clue on how to right the floundering ship called The Hijacked GOP…
Daedalus
April 4th, 2009
3:22 pm
Welcome Kyle. I guess.
If you are going to follow in Jim’s footsteps, here are the basic rules:
Everything inside 285 is bad, morally corrupt and offense to god-fearing Georgians.
Taking tax dollars from metro Atlanta to fund rural and suburban counties is good. Taking tax dollars from north Fulton to fund projects in south Fulton is very bad. Unfair. Really. We should create a new all-white county out of north Fulton and call it Milton. Or maybe South Forsyth.
Allowing metro Atlantan’s to tax themselves (and spend their tax money in metro Atlanta) is bad. Very bad.
Allowing MARTA to use more than 50% of its tax revenues on operations is very bad. In fact, its socialist and part of a communist plot. Even though it doesn’t cost the State a dime.
Transit, in any form is evil and is only acceptable if it pays for itself 110% (note this rule does not apply to roads).
Public infrastructure (schools, libraries, roads, transit) should spring forth wholly formed from the ground without one cent of tax dollars.
The less you make the more taxes you should pay.
Only Christians have a sense of morality. Atheist and agnostics are astonishingly evil people. The only thing that keeps human beings from killing each other is their belief in Jesus Christ. The rest of the religions are very misguided souls and will burn eternally unless they accept Jesus.
Abstinence only education is the only sexual education our children need.
Gays and lesbians should be ostracized and under no circumstances should they allowed to be able to adopt children, live together with any kind of legal sanction or leave each other property in their wills.
Science is bad. Really really bad.
If that Darwin fellow were not already dead he should be indicted for crimes against humanity.
Ronald Reagan should be on $1, $5 and $10 bills and schoolchildren should be required to pray for him(and to Jesus) in school. Everyday.
Science is bad. I know I said this before. But its really bad.
All college professors hate consercatives and they should all be fired and Sadie Fields and the Christian Coalition should be allowed to screen every single applicant.
Immigrants are bad. Legal, illegal. It doesn’t matter. They are bad and should be banned from the soil of Georgia.
The Civil War was not about slavery. Blacks loved slavery and were very upset when the D@%# Yankees won the war and that traitor Lincoln freed them.
There. That should be enough fodder for your first dozen columns.
Take your thinking cap off and start writing.
Your cretinous (Re)public awaits.
sane jane
April 4th, 2009
3:24 pm
“If you look at the Constitution, conservatives are the defenders of it—not the ones that want to change/add/delete/modify it.”
That’s rich, says the homos who can’t get married.
Robert
April 4th, 2009
4:04 pm
Actually, Tina, that is a sentence, just a God-awful tortured one. It is so fitting that a WSJ columnist gets a job with a bush-league newspaper heading for bankruptcy because of the economic disaster his “conservative” idols’ policies spawned. Maybe when the AJC folds, he can go back to the WSJ and write more of its pro-Wall Street drivel.
catlady
April 4th, 2009
4:55 pm
Treakle is treakle.
jt
April 4th, 2009
5:46 pm
He sounds like a real conservative. Not a republican like Jim.
TW
April 4th, 2009
6:06 pm
Perhaps this would be a good time to define ‘conservative?’
Maybe a good time to denounce what the likes of hannity, rush, and the moron ‘w’ have done to the ideal?
Churchill's MOM
April 4th, 2009
6:21 pm
Why hire a BOY to do a WOMAN’S job? Hope he will write about our next President every week. Let’s give him a chance to prove he is a CONSERVATIVE not a Republican hack.
JDE
April 4th, 2009
7:02 pm
TGFJW…Thank God for Jim Wooten all these years. Although Kyle will be outnumbered 3-1 at least the AJC is not replacing Jim with another liberal. So we’ll take what we can get. TW and Sharecropper, you 2 are a couple of idiots!
@@
April 4th, 2009
7:58 pm
Kyle is 30, Jim?
It’ll be impossible for the liberals to call him an old fuddy-duddy with his head stuck in the 50s.
He, however, can call the liberals here, old hippies whose ties died with the 60s.
Best of Luck, Kyle! Here you will encounter off-the-skids libs who have cured me of the few remaining vestiges of liberalism I held.
They are beyond reason.
Enjoy your retirement, Jim…..you’ve earned it.
Man! have you earned it..
Bud Wiser
April 4th, 2009
8:49 pm
I see that Ambling Veterinarian dropped by to regurgitate his usual bile. The ignorance and self flagellation from these morons is what make them what they are. I guess visits from idiots is part of the job.
You have been a mainstay, Mr Wooten. Good luck and good fortune in your future.
Bud Wiser
April 4th, 2009
8:52 pm
Daedalus is just a pi$$ poor Xerox of Ambling Veterinarian, who, rumor has it, is still out chasing rabid dogs with a bacon biscuit and a warm blanket to wrap them in so they will like him.
No on else does.
From the content of his scratchings, I’d venture a guess he has already been bitten, and infected.
Several times.
getalife
April 4th, 2009
9:16 pm
Good for you Jim.
So, we have Kyle Wingnut to answer this simple question:
“PITTSBURGH COP KILLER FEARED OBAMA GUN BAN ”
Now where in the world did he get that idea?
Wingnuts,
Geez.
@@
April 4th, 2009
9:41 pm
Getalife:
“PITTSBURGH COP KILLER FEARED OBAMA GUN BAN ”
That’s hearsay from a friend. He had also lost his job and was stressed out about it.
The guy was clearly unbalanced. He was rejected by the Marine Corp for throwing a lunch tray at an officer.
What has happened to you, Getalife?
SharonH
April 4th, 2009
9:53 pm
Welcome Kyle. You have big shoes to fill but I have some tips for you and you will be up to Jim’s speed in no time:
1. Criticize all Democrats except Zell Miller.
2. All things Atlanta are bad: sound the death knell for the city of Atlanta twice a year.
3. If someone criticizes Bush, respond with Jimmy Carter no matter what! If things get really sticky then point out that Abraham Lincoln was a Republican, that usually shuts ‘em down.
4. You are to write a column on unwed births quarterly. Be sure to highlight the statistics for African-Americans.
5. The cardinal rule: Everything is the fault of our declining moral values which the liberals caused. Even the declining moral values of conservatives are the fault of liberals.
Just remember these tips young feller and you’ll do fine.
@@
April 4th, 2009
10:43 pm
….and maybe, Getalife……just maybe, the guy in Pennsylvania recalled Obama saying those backwards Pennsylvanians wanted to cling to their guns out of fear.
Maybe?
@@
April 4th, 2009
10:49 pm
This is OFF-TOPIC, but interesting:
From publicagenda.org:
“How effective do you think each of the following proposals would be in terms of improving teacher quality?” Percent who say “very effective:”
Reducing class size — 76%
Preparing teachers to adapt or vary their instruction to meet the needs of a diverse classroom — 63%
Increasing teacher salaries — 57%
Requiring teachers at the secondary school level to major in the subjects they are teaching — 55%
Increasing professional development opportunities for teachers — 41%
Requiring new teachers to spend much more time teaching in classrooms under the supervision of experienced teachers — 35%
Requiring teachers to earn graduate degrees in education — 24%
Requiring teachers to pass tough tests of their knowledge of the subjects they are teaching — 21%
Tying teacher rewards and sanctions to their students’ performance — 13%
Eliminating teacher tenure — 12%
Reducing the regulations and requirements for teacher certification — 8%
Relying more heavily on alternative certification programs — 6%
@@
April 4th, 2009
10:59 pm
Last one, I promise.
Q: Given a choice between two schools in otherwise identical districts, which would you prefer to work in?
The school where student behavior and parental support were significantly better?
Elementary school teachers 83%
Secondary school teachers 83%
The school that paid a significantly higher salary?
Elementary school teachers 16%
Secondary school teachers 15%
Q: Given a choice between two schools in otherwise identical districts, which would you prefer to work in?
The school where administrators gave strong backing and support to teachers?
Elementary school teachers 81%
Secondary school teachers 76%
The school that paid a significantly higher salary?
Elementary school teachers 19%
Secondary school teachers 23%
So money’s NOT the answer.
Curious Observer
April 5th, 2009
8:04 am
Forget the egregious lack of parallelism in that oft-quoted sentence–the infinitive phrase linked to the participial construction. We no longer expect college graduates to learn such things. After all, even English professors are no longer taught it in this dumbed-down world.
No, let’s just be grateful that the choice is not Ragnar, jbmlaw, etc. At least we’ll be spared the repeated references to Dr. Williams and Ayn Rand.
A. E. Wise
April 5th, 2009
8:09 am
Jim, as a long-time reader and casual acquaintance, we wish you well. I have run across quite a few 25-40 year olds who have gotten beyond the “party line” fed them by University professors and tainted “history” books to reach their own conclusions and Kyle may be one of those. I certainly hope so and that I will continue to see and hear your opinion on things for the limited time I have left.
deegee
April 5th, 2009
8:51 am
I read young Kyle’s essay, link below. He needs a crash course on the proper use of coordinating conjunctions. His sentences will make more sense if he can master that concept. Not a great reflection on the Georgia education that he touts. Aside from that, it sounds like he is feeding on Eye of Newt soup.
http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/stories/2009/04/05/newcoled_0405.html
D. Silver
April 5th, 2009
9:27 am
Ah, another right wing fanatic, boy are we gonna bust you up, young fella. No more foreign wars, no more foreign military aid, no more welfare payments and peace bribes to Israel and Egypt, no more tax give aways to fat cats like Blackstone Group, Goldman Sachs, and the rest of the New York City crooks. Cancel the F-22, the F-35, the V-22, new aircraft carriers, new subs, new surface vessels, and The Future Combat System, they are a waste of my money. Those should be your values as a conservative, but of course they are not. You will be just another mouth piece for the existing powers what be, like all the above mentioned.
D. Silver
April 5th, 2009
9:36 am
Well, from its words and picture, as suspect the new boy has the Atlanta gay and fishy smelling community all atwitter.
norman ravitch
April 5th, 2009
10:17 am
By all means let us have conservative opinion in the Journal-Constitution. But let it be conservatism based on reason and reality, not on paranoia and ultra-nationalistic fascistic fears and delusions.
Chris Broe
April 5th, 2009
10:32 am
If readers had to weather any of Kyle’s samples in those you published a while ago, then conservatism isn’t just dead, it’s cremated, and it’s soot scattered over the snow-job of Wooten’s yellow journalism.
The whole idea of a replacement for the booted Wooten is moot. The world reads pixels, not papyrus, Mr. Wootankhamun…. or should I say Wooten-common? The concept of a daily newspaper laying rain-soaked in the driveway, steeped in racial derision, (I didn’t know 70% of single moms are black, Mr. Wooten), is as dead as the soggy blogs it tried to foster.
It was different for the last generation of newspaper readers. The kids would grab the comics, the wife would note the one day sales, but the conservative dad would sit alone with another cup of coffee and loiter in his own chauvinism with touchstone absolution from Wooten’s cyclical text, (not to mention all the soft porn in the lingerie ads).
Worse, Wooten conspired with corrupt members of our assembly to engineer social and legislative change worthy of fascism itself. Wooten wove a hell so entrenched in gender/race glass ceilings, impenetrable good-old-boy networks, and corrupt revenue allocation, that it’s a wonder a Thomas Paine like me hasn’t emerged and ghost-written an army of pseudonyms all proving the feathered quill more powerful than the lunatic fringe….. oh yeah……never mind.
Epitaph for Wooten’s career: He abused the sacred duty of any journalist to exorcise learned personal prejudices, and failed to respect the separation of church, state and press.
PS: Bookman and Wooten both need to leave the AJC.
Did you know that Bookman plays golf?. He goes around the golf course saying, “Yeah, I’m an excellent driver, yeah…..excellent driver, yeah…yeah…I’m an excellent driver, yeah….” he’s the rainman of the all-wet AJC.
Jklol
Dick Tuck
April 5th, 2009
11:46 am
The new columnist will have to swim upstream against a new Thinking Right set-up that is so furtively yet blatantly screened by AJC lefties that it’s fixed against conservative bloggers, who will quit the site almost as soon as they discover it.
The AJC has put Mosquito pellets in Jim Wooten’s swimming pool, while the staff lounge poolside mulling their Mojitos, watching notional rednecks, and readership, fall away.
Fools.
Train Wrecked Liberalism
April 5th, 2009
11:59 am
Conservatism is dead. Blah blah blah. How many times are you mindless left wing hysterics going to keep saying the same bull squeeze? It sure is great seeing all the hate from the disgusting modern left on this blog. I’d like to give a special nod to D. Silver’s 9:27AM: cancel all our military and, I suppose, turn our entire national security over to the UN. Brilliant! Yeah, let’s see one of you moonbat prophetic pathetics on the mindless left run a successful campaign on THAT platform.
Anyway, let’s see what the Teleprompter In Chief is up to – all 17 teleprompters being used overseas especially. See if you can make any sense of this:
“PRAGUE – Declaring it “matters to all people everywhere,” President Barack Obama promised on Sunday to lead the world into a nuclear-free future, giving a hawkish edge to a peacenik pursuit even as North Korea upstaged him with the launch of a long-range rocket that theoretically could carry a warhead.”
And then this:
“But he said the United States, with one of the world’s largest arsenals and the only nation to have used an atomic bomb, has a “moral responsibility” to start taking steps now.”
And then this:
“Make no mistake: As long as these weapons exist, we will maintain a safe, secure and effective arsenal to deter any adversary, and guarantee that defense to our allies,” he said.”
Yeah okay, whatever. I’m sure he had the glazed-eyed walking left wing zombies lapping up his every word.
But Newt sure knows how to lay it out:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich told “Fox News Sunday” that he would have disabled the long-range missile before North Korea launched it, saying too many people “do not appreciate the scale of the threat that is evolving on the planet.”
“One morning, just like 9/11, there’s going to be a disaster,” Gingrich said. “I have yet to see the United Nations do anything effective with either Iran or North Korea.”
Reacting to President Barack Obama’s speech in Prague, Gingrich called the plan for a Global Summit on Nuclear Security a “wonderful fantasy idea,” saying Russia and other nations can’t be trusted.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CAN I GET AN AMEN???
Next up, you just have to wonder about the sanity of liberals and the modern left. Case in point, a New York Times OpEd columnist who essentially lays out the premise that Conservatives are evil, dark, and dangerous because they are against Obama’s policies. No, you cannot make this kind of stuff up. He says:
“As the comedian Bill Maher pointed out, strong language can poison weak minds..”
Anyone who comments about Bill Maher commenting on strong language has just lost any credibility. Maher, as you may remember, essentially said Cheney should be dead.
And then there’s this jewel:
“Chuck Norris, the preeminent black belt and prospective Red Shirt, wrote earlier this month on the conservative blog WorldNetDaily: “How much more will Americans take? When will enough be enough? And, when that time comes, will our leaders finally listen or will history need to record a second American Revolution?”
And then this clown goes on to show his paranoia and typical left wing hysteria over guns:
“At the same time, the unrelenting meme being pushed by the right that Obama will mount an assault on the Second Amendment has helped fuel the panic buying of firearms. According to the F.B.I., there have been 1.2 million more requests for background checks of potential gun buyers from November to February than there were in the same four months last year. That’s 5.5 million requests altogether over that period; more than the number of people living in Bachmann’s Minnesota.”
Awe, someone give this clown a box of Puffs. And this is the kind of garbage that Nannypants wants to save with federal bailout funds? Okay, so the moonbats say Republicans/Conservatives are going to lead a revolution. I say that the Liberals/Democrats are going to grow a fascist state of control over everyone, from thoughts to cradle to grave, that would make Hitler look bad. So liberals, when is the first book burning?
The link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/04/opinion/04blow.html?_r=1
Dusty
April 5th, 2009
12:04 pm
Chris Broe. PoFo nomo
It is Sunday so I will try to be nice. You don’t make it easy.
Bookman does not care for your babblings. You were banned there. It is his blog. Grin and bear it.
Jim Wooten is going part time. He has given us good conservative ideals with excellent editorials. If you don’t like it, too bad. Your wandering words of non requested critiques makes you look like a jealous jumble of disorganized dissent.
Sorry about you, PoFo. Your talent with words is being wasted.
Ga Values
April 5th, 2009
12:55 pm
The AJC actually has a conservative writter, Bob Barr. Hope the new kid is a real conservative not a “Republicans are always right writer” like Jim has been.
Tootie
April 5th, 2009
1:06 pm
Kyle – Welcome!!! I was a huge fan of your writing while you were at The Red and Black in Athens. Could you republish the editoral regarding the “MRS Degree Requirements.” It had a lovely conservative slant.
People will tell you that the AJC is too liberal or conservative but I’ve found it is pretty balanced. I love the paper. Good luck in your quest for the truth!
Train Wrecked Liberalism
April 5th, 2009
1:26 pm
“People will tell you that the AJC is too liberal or conservative but I’ve found it is pretty balanced.”
One Conservative editorial board member among the rest being liberals. Yeah okay. I guess one of those Sunday morning “news” shows with four liberals and one conservative at the table is balanced as well.
Some more Sunday follies:
“A Government-funded charity was at the centre of a row last night after a magazine it publishes for children appeared to depict Christians as Islamaphobes who regard Muslims as terrorists. In a cartoon strip, a boy wearing a large cross around his neck is shown telling a friend that a smiling Muslim girl in a veil looks like a terrorist. He later confronts her and shouts: ‘Hey, whatever your name is, what are you hiding under your turban?’”
Gee, I can’t imagine WHY anyone would think otherwise:
“A federal judge sentenced Navy signalman Hassan Abu-Jihaad to 10 years in prison on Friday for sending classified information about his fleet’s travel plans to a terror-supporting website. Abu-Jihaad served on the destroyer Benfold. He was charged after British authorities found the fleet’s plans on a floppy disk in a bedroom drawer of an Azzam Publications official in 2003. Investigators later discovered that Abu-Jihaad purchased videos from Azzam Publications, which prosecutors say recruited mujahideen and raised money for the Taliban in Afghanistan and for Chechen rebels.”
“By leaking classified information about U.S. Navy ship movements and outlining theirperceived vulnerabilities to attack, Hassan Abu-Jihaad was trying to help foreign terrorists replicate the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole. It is hard to say which aspect of his crime is the most serious. Abu-Jihaad betrayed the trust his country placed in him by granting him access to classified information, when he released it to a website that advocated violent jihad against the United States. Hassan Abu-Jihaad is a traitor, and he should be sentenced accordingly.”
Yeah let’s close down Gitmo and free all those innocents in there and let then run around America, right liberals?
“Following his 2004 indictment, a Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) officials challenged the allegations against Abu-Jihaad. Abu-Jihaad “was very surprised to hear he might be connected to anything related to terrorism,” CAIR-Arizona Executive Director Deedra Abboud told the Los Angeles Times. “He’s now scared he might get picked up for something he can’t imagine being a part of.”
Right.
And finally, what’s a Good Sunday without Newsweak liberals touting the end of Conservatism/Christianity/Whites/Heterosexuals/. This weak, it’s about Christianity.
The End of Christian America
The percentage of self-identified Christians has fallen 10 points in the past two decades. How that statistic explains who we are now—and what, as a nation, we are about to become.
By Jon Meacham | NEWSWEEK
Published Apr 4, 2009
From the magazine issue dated Apr 13, 2009
Can you see the liberals like this mouth breather jumping up and down in joy over America turning Muslim, or Atheist?
Train Wrecked Liberalism
April 5th, 2009
1:37 pm
Post note on the gun hysteria of mindless liberals. The Daily Kooks’s Markos Moulitsas blamed Glenn Beck for the Pittsburgh killings:
“This appears to be an inevitable result of the bad economy, a conservative movement circling the drain, feeling betrayed, isolated, and defeated, and the rampant eliminationist talk from right-wing nutjobs on the radio and TV. I know Barb blogged this below, but it’s important to see the aftermath of right-wing hysteria, because this is likely just the beginning. Unless the Becks (and Beck-wannabees) walk back from that ledge, they’ll be to blame for more atrocities of this sort.”
No word from this moron about the California cop killings a couple weeks ago. I wonder why that is?
Chris Broe
April 5th, 2009
1:38 pm
The Heart of Shock and Awe is still beating: Michele O simply wowed ‘em at the G20. American Goodwill is at an all time high because Camelot looks good on everybody and the world wants peace. We elected the future, by some miracle.
Isn’t it time for Conservative’s Ascension into Heaven yet? Is that a holy day of obligation now that Newt is catholic?
Jklol
Train Wrecked Liberalism
April 5th, 2009
1:45 pm
“Hope the new kid is a real conservative not a “Republicans are always right writer” like Jim has been.”
And GA Values, I surmises you liberals have NEVER thought that Democrats are ALWAYS right or anything. When was the last time we heard one peep from you liberal Democrats over your Democrat run Congress and especially Obama?
Hark? Are those crickets I hear chirping in the distance?
Chris Broe
April 5th, 2009
2:02 pm
Contrast Laura Bush’s diplomatic aplomb to Michele O’s: Laura Bush was a frostbitten embarrassment.
If someone tells you that they’re a conservative, then ask them if they’re armed. (Warning: Do not try this at home as nearly all shooting incidences are domestic related). Watch as that conservative someone then shows their limitations: There is no Conservatism but War. There is no Church but State.
There is no freedom but hope.
Twitter: The Constitution Lives!
Now that Newt is a Catholic, is Flag Day a holy day of obligation?
Dusty
April 5th, 2009
2:55 pm
Dear Chris Broe Pofo nit-twitter…
Did you say Michelle got her outfits at Goodwill? Let me go back and read that one again. Oh no…. it was American goodwill at….or something. Hmmm…I was sure….nevermind…
Michelle Obama’s diplomacy? You mean “I finally found ONE thing I like in America.” ??? At least, Michelle did not tell the queen that she was the one thing Mrs. Obama found she liked in the U.K. I guess we can be thankful for that.
Laura Bush was gracious to one and all. I guess you don’t know what that means, nit-twitter… Figures.
(Nit-twitter is a nice name. Means you know how to (k)nit and twit at the same time.) Oh well…..
clyde
April 5th, 2009
3:11 pm
Chris Broe,Nearly all shooting incidents are domestic related.Can you tell me where you found that information?I’ve never seen that mentioned before.
Diogenes
April 5th, 2009
3:20 pm
Good afternoon, Jim,
You claim these as your values and your background:
Citing the Depression-era generation and the World War II generation and using their values as reference points can seem awfully dated to those who came of age under the tutelage of Vietnam- generation-protesters-turned-professors.
The challenge then for Kyle’s generation is to find the voice that will inform those to come of America’s enduring specialness and of the freedom that comes with self-reliance and personal responsibility. That is the nation, built on strong families, with the character to survive wars and depressions. Liberty is the reward for weaning ourselves from dependency.
It is incomprehensible to me that one can claim those values and call himself a conservative. Those are the values of one sensitive to the humanity, individuality, and dignity of all men, not just a select few. These are the values of one who wants social equity of treatment with legal and political equality for all men, not just a select few — in short, liberal values, traditional liberal strengths. Claiming to hole those values while calling one’s self a conservative is a pervasion of the principles which makes all of us members of the universal brotherhood of humanity.
Wackoman
April 5th, 2009
3:48 pm
Good luck Jim in all that you do. I have thoroughly enjoyed your writing for many years.
I am sure that Kyle will be a great addition to the paper. Nice job by all with the selection process.
Excuse me while I do a weapons check here at the Wacko Casa.
Wacko
Jackie
April 5th, 2009
3:59 pm
@Dusty,
Michelle Obama may not have the same taste that meet YOUR qualifications, therefore, you should put yourself in a position to be First Lady of the USA.
Why not start your campaign today on this blog?
Dusty
April 5th, 2009
4:08 pm
Diogenes,
Obviously, you know nothing about conservative Republican values. We truly advocate the principle which makes all of us members of the universal brotherhood of humanity. A FREE humanity that is. Republicans are workers and people of faith and usually the producers of large companies with the most workers.
You insinuate the old propaganda that Republicans favor the rich while neglecting the poor. That is usually associated with the liberal version that tax cuts are given to the rich. The fact that overtaxing the people who create work will make less jobs for people who are willing and looking for work. That principle seems to be lost on people like you.
The kind of equity you want is a definition of communism. Everyone is equal in all things and if they are not, then MAKE them equal. That is not freedom when someone forces that choice for you, RICH OR POOR.
Go your merry liberal way. Lose your power to be free. Let someone decide about your income, your healthcare, your government and your business if you are allowed to have any. You will be as unadultered as a new born baby and someone will take care of you.
That is not for me. I like self supporting freedom and I wish it for all people. I am a conservative Republican.
Dusty
April 5th, 2009
4:18 pm
Dear Jackie, 3:59
I have never wished to be “first lady”. I am quite satisfied to be the first lady of my household.
Also,I have never said that I found only one thing I liked in America. There is too much here for which I am thankful. I wonder about people who can find only one American thing they like.
There is no admiration from me for those who express such sentiments. Michelle is one of them. Maybe you are too. I happen to think this is the greatest country in the world.
Chris Broe
April 5th, 2009
5:00 pm
Nascar setting up for a killer finish!
Chris Broe
April 5th, 2009
5:21 pm
Clean your gun, Clyde.
Jackie
April 5th, 2009
6:24 pm
@Dusty,
Sounds like you have never been a minority subjected to the harsh and unconstitutional treatment of segregation and Jim Crow laws!
If you have, then you would understand EXACTLY what Michelle meant by that statement.
To give YOU some insight, did you know that Michelle’s father is from Georgetown, SC? Do you believe a man of his generation coming from the Palmetto state enjoyed the freedom and privilege of not being singled out for unfair treatment because of the color of their skin?
Until you begin to understand the pernicious effects of this vile treatment from the majority community, your argument has no validity!
Captain Freedom's Immortal Soul
April 5th, 2009
6:25 pm
Well, THE Captain and the Jesus Daddy up here (you know, Jesus’ real baby daddy, not that Joseph cuckold) were having quite a chuckle at the outcome. The betting pool that St Peter runs (you think that book is just of NAMES?) had the strong odds laying that Ragnoid was going to run a successful scam and trick ole Jim into hiring a fake conservative. Sure, old Ragweed ran a good game, but in the end no one could be fooled that anybody was that smitten with Ayn Rand (who is btw living waaaay downstairs, if you catch THE Captain’s drift).
And Dusty, dear dim demented Dusty…Big Guy just laughed a loud one (you know that thunderstorm today) when he read that crack about Wooten going part time. Big Daddy said if any human could put in less effort than Wooten does now and still keep a job, he sure never saw it.
Anyway, THE Captain is pleased to know that a Real Godly Right Thinking White Christian is taking over the Wooten slot. It would have been tragedy to let that slice of wingnut welfare go to a fake conservative like Ragnit.
Gotta go now. Big Guy’s son gets all uppity this time of year, even worse than around his pretend birthday. Look for some random smiting of people with pigmented skin…Binghamton was just the start.
Redneck Convert
April 5th, 2009
7:06 pm
Well, I see he’s still up there, read to listen in if I say a prayer and mention a few Sins I’ve done. So I set around with that sheep and the little girl on my soul, and nothing I can about it without him blabbing all over the place. I thought Captain Freedom was going to come back down here. Leastwise, he hinted that way.
Anyhow, I agree it’s good Raghead wasn’t hired. There ain’t enough column space for somebody like him.
Have a good night everybody.
Chief Wiggum
April 6th, 2009
12:23 am
I guess I find it amusing that the AJC has a contest to hire what appears to be the only conservative writer they’ll have. It’s sort of a “token conservative”, and I find that rather sad. I guess I know what I’m getting with the AJC, which is why I stopped home delivery a few years ago, after a year of taking the paper at home.
Out in the world, there are as many good conservative writers as liberal writers. You’d think the AJC’s roster would reflect that. It doesn’t, and it goes a LONG way toward why people are turning away from the hard copy of the paper, instead choosing to pick and choose from the online edition.
Bobby
April 6th, 2009
7:12 am
One more narrow mind to post on the AJC. He talks of conservative principles. I’ve yet to hear anyone describe conservative principles other than bigotry against those who don’t have the good fortune or opportunities to advance in life as they did. Universal Health Care, for example, doesn’t have to mean a free government handout. It does, however, have to offer universal health coverage to all citizens through affordable private health insurance. It is no wonder that last week health insurers began talking about how to insure more Americans without government interference, something they could have done even when Hillary first suggested health coverage for all Americans. The health insurance industry can be part of the solution if they wish. Unfortunately the government has had to prod them to get them to look at those they leave out of the health insurance system, except through employers. Conservatives would never encourage health insurers to help insure all Americans. That takes a liberal mind set that believes in helping (not hand outs, mind you, just helping) their fellow Americans along.
Your morning jolt: Running to be Georgia’s next SOB | Political Insider
April 6th, 2009
9:13 am
[...] Jim Wooten greets the young whipper-snapper who will replace him. [...]
PoliticalMan
April 6th, 2009
9:31 am
What’s with the big search for a conservative writer. Why not place an ad on the bullentin boards of Heritage Foundation, Cato Institute, Wall St Journal, Weekly Standard, etc. Surprise, surprise, the next Jim Wooten comes from the WSJ. Maybe the new guy will tell us all what a conservative is. Hopefully he will not be totally incoherent as Jim Wooten most assuredly is. Candidate J’s submitted columns are not encouraging. They rambled and showed little insight.
It will soon become apparent whether the new guy is reality based. Or will he simply be another shrill ideologue – all good: free-markets, tax cuts, global military adventures, suffer and die if can’t pay for health care, mandated reproduction, etc. You know all that “kinder, gentler” conservatism.
D. Silver
April 6th, 2009
9:32 am
The ajc will soon be found only in the trash bin of history, with a footnote that their writers sucked eggs quite well, but could not write beyond a fifth grade level, imho. A totally worthless rag, unless you are painting a room.
Mac
April 6th, 2009
9:36 am
Kyle is a Dalton boy and UGA superstar, who went directly from college to The Associated Press, which is an impressive feat. He is a journalist and a good one. Hope he’s not making a mistake, leaving the WSJ for the listing ship that is the AJC.
Copyleft
April 6th, 2009
11:05 am
If Mr. Wingfield is a Wall Street Journal editorialist, you can be sure he’s a 100%, dyed-in-the-wool, free-market, laissez-faire, trickle-down conservative in the newly-forged “classic Reaganaut” mold.
Not that this is a good thing, mind you–but his credibility as a knee-jerk far right commentator is certainly strong enough to pass the most rigorous ideological purity check.
Rest assured, wingnuts, you won’t be getting any scary new ideas from “Kyle Right-Wing Right-Field.” He won’t have to stop and think about ANY issues… and neither will you.
D. Silver
April 6th, 2009
1:25 pm
A UGAY grad, what a joke. The only superstars in Athens are leaving, and they sure ain’t in academics. They are leaving without degree’s too, seems they fergot ta roll down the back window on their suv as they drove thru town for the last time. Mathew Satonaford, and Kissme Mariano or some such.
Rob Stone
April 6th, 2009
2:14 pm
I’ve known Kyle since he was in high school, and Jim is right, he’s the real deal. I knew him as an Eagle Scout and an outstanding youth leader who knew exactly what he wanted to do with his life and why, and his new post at AJC is the latest proof that he is exactly what he says he is and does what he sets out to do. Congratulations, Kyle! The home folks are rooting for you! And congratulations, AJC-you don’t know yet just how good a choice you made, but you will soon!
Wow
April 6th, 2009
2:58 pm
Not sure why this kid would want any part of this. You people (left and right) are bitter/angry and frankly some of you need help.
Your less interested in real dialog and more interested in just tearing people down. And you do it hidden behind a blog.
This is my first and last look at this blog. There should be a rule that if you cannot be constructive the blog will not be posted.
demwit
April 6th, 2009
4:25 pm
Funny how the AJC now has to lay off hundreds of liberals to hire a few conservatives…., like the rest of America’s progressive media.
Political Man
April 6th, 2009
4:29 pm
Wow – I think the problem for some of us is that in the effort to balance the AJC, they permit columns, namely those of Jim Wooten, to appear that are so ideologically driven as to be really incoherent. He makes no effort to deal with realities. He must be sitting at a desk reciting a mantra as he writes, or better yet, recalling some tried and true down-home sayings. Instead of looking for a so-called conservative, why not look for someone that that can look at issues with unrelenting realism. Having read some samples of the new guy, that is not likely to happen. His writings so far are scattered and are borderline nonsensical. We don’t need more of that. I’m not sure a person from UGA, more or less straight to WSJ, now at age 30 will have much perspective. I expect pure ideology.
SaveOurRepublic
April 7th, 2009
12:25 pm
Welcome Kyle. Let’s hope you don’t follow (lock-step) the phoney (neo)conservative mantra/ideals. We need a true (paleo)conservative voice, who embraces strict adherence to the Constitution, limited government, ending foreign entanglements, the fallacy of “free” trade agreements & abolishment of the (private) Federal Reserve and (un-Constitutional) income tax!
http://www.jbs.org