Trust is key for conservatives
At the state Republican convention in Savannah, national party chairman Michael Steele asked the young to stand.
About 50 did. No further invitation is needed, he told them. You are here and now given license to work actively to expand the party.
The gesture was as much for the elders as for the young.
Just as the GOP has to demonstrate seriousness about attracting minorities who share the party’s core beliefs, it’s vital, too, to educate the next generation.
There’s Ronald Reagan. And then … Nobody comes to mind.
Start young.
Generations of young environmental activists started out as first graders who were taught that recycling is a moral imperative. Environmentalism and “Kodak diversity,” both important certainly, have become foundational beliefs primarily because the media and educators gave them moral primacy — just as they once did to love of country and a belief in American exceptionalism.
When environmental indoctrination conditions a nation to passively accept global warming as real and as a license for government to dictate how we live and work, the school-day lessons of responsible stewardship have morphed into left wing political action.
Diversity, too, is magnificent, an aspirational virtue of a multi-cultural society. When, however, it becomes a license to discriminate against individuals or entire states as Congress has done, it likewise has morphed into something a democratic society never intended.
Conservatives really do need to focus on the young and what they are taught. Every effort to reform schools should be to put parents in charge.
It’s why, too, conservatives under the Gold Dome should schedule sessions for interns and aides when policy experts are invited to educate legislators. That should be an active, ongoing effort to build a durable majority.
Essential to success is mutual trust. Politicians have to trust voters and stop playing “no is yes” and “tax is fee” and “crisis is our chance to control your life” games.
Two gubernatorial candidate speeches from Savannah go to the issue of trust.
One is from State Rep. Austin Scott of Tifton, a long-shot vowed to be a “servant leader” and declared:
“I have never done business with the state or any political subdivision. . . I have never participated in a government retirement plan … I will not appoint anyone to the Board of Regents [of the University System of Georgia] who contributes more than $1,000 to my campaign … those seats are not for sale.” He promised, too, to expand transparency in government. State Sen. Eric Johnson of Savannah promised a campaign built on trust: “Who do you trust with our principles … Who do you trust to do the right thing when nobody is looking?”
He expounded on his beliefs and promised “to focus on the next generation — not the next headline or the next election.” Continuing: “As a person, I serve a higher God. I am accountable to Him.
“As a public servant, I serve the Constitution. That holds me accountable to you.”
Core principles. Trust. Teach and outreach. That wins Georgia — and the country.
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99 comments Add your comment
Algonquin J. Calhoun
May 18th, 2009
7:24 pm
What a bunch of code-talking, racist bulls$&*!
ByteMe
May 18th, 2009
9:05 pm
Heh. Hehheh. Heheheheheheheheh.
I especially loved the line “Every effort to reform schools should be to put parents in charge.” Hahahahahahahaha.
Clearly Jim is living in the ’50’s still. Ask any teacher and they’ll tell you that the majority of public school parents are not involved and do not have the desire to be involved in their kids’ schools. In fact, many teachers — and school administrators — FEAR parents getting too involved, because parents today want to coddle their kids and protect them against too much homework or too much discipline.
This is the best the GOP shill has to offer, huh? Not impressed.
Bill
May 18th, 2009
9:55 pm
Jim,
I read you every time you are in the paper. Your columns over the past several weeks have been at best, STRANGE. You would really be well served to take a step back and see what you really are – an American or just a partisan. I really believe it is the latter. Your columns run on, are not coherent and have multiple points within one paragraph. I am always looking for an alternative viewpoint, but I just do not know what is going on with you…….
Regards,
Peter
May 18th, 2009
10:41 pm
Things that make you go……….. hmmmmmmmmm……..
“Just as the GOP has to demonstrate seriousness about attracting minorities who share the party’s core beliefs, it’s vital, too, to educate the next generation.”
WOW …….did this thought happen while brushing your teeth….a moment they call ????
clyde
May 19th, 2009
6:17 am
Trust a politician? Surely ye jest.
Churchill's MOM
May 19th, 2009
6:41 am
We all know what Bill Clinton wants, our next President.
In an unusual attempt to forge an alliance between two of the most prominent families in American politics, John Coale, a Washington-area Democratic donor and onetime adviser to Sarah Palin, urged the conservative Alaska governor to use her political action committee to help retire the presidential campaign debt of Hillary Clinton.
Coale, a wealthy trial attorney and the husband of Fox News talk show host Greta Van Susteren, approached Palin with the improbable plan in February while in Alaska with his wife, who was taping an interview with the former Republican vice presidential nominee.
An outspoken Clinton supporter during the Democratic primary who switched his allegiance to the GOP ticket for the general election, Coale made his case to Palin at the Iron Dog snowmachine competition in Fairbanks, where Todd Palin was competing over Valentine’s Day weekend. His broader aim, say Palin camp insiders, was to help Palin develop a relationship with the former first family that he thought could bolster the polarizing governor’s standing with Democrats and independents.
Palin was amenable to getting acquainted with the Clintons but was skeptical of using her PAC to help the former first lady.
She expressed concern to aides about Coale’s request that weekend and a few days later directed Meg Stapleton, an Alaska-based campaign aide, to tell Coale that she would not help retire Clinton’s debt.
“While we appreciate your efforts and recognize that a friendship with the Clintons is appropriate, the governor believes (and I concur) that using SarahPAC to pay down Hillary’s debt is not a prudent use of the money,” Stapleton wrote to Coale in a Feb. 17 e-mail, a few days after he made his pitch to the governor. “Contributors who chose between heating their homes and sending in a contribution because they believe in Sarah would be crushed.”
But GOP sources say that in conference calls and e-mails with Palin advisers over subsequent weeks, Coale continued to raise the prospect of using SarahPAC to help Clinton, who was once public enemy No. 1 among the very Republicans who are Palin’s most ardent followers.
“He thought the Clintons could rein in some of the Democratic firepower aimed at her,” said a dumbfounded Republican privy to the discussion who advocated fiercely against the idea.
A former Clinton aide hadn’t heard of the plan but deemed it “not rooted in anything that would touch on reality.”
Coale conceded that he urged Palin and her advisers to consider helping Clinton, but he said it was part of a larger campaign to align the Alaska governor with prominent women in politics, including Republicans Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina, both of whom are prospects for elective office in California.
“It was a women thing and not a Hillary thing,” said Coale, who was angered at what he saw as sexism aimed at Clinton during last year’s campaign and who has long taken an interest in promoting female politicians.
He sought to minimize just how much Palin could have done, noting that the PAC could give only $5,000 to help with Clinton’s debt — a modest sum, given the former first lady’s $2 million-plus campaign debt.
But Coale is candid about his efforts to create an unlikely bond between the ultimate Democratic power couple and the Alaska duo that so many liberals revile, noting that he had pushed the Clintons to get to know the Palins.
Former President Bill Clinton placed a friendly call to Palin after the election, and Coale sought to use that as an opportunity to play matchmaker.
He said he tried to set up a visit between Bill Clinton and Palin in Alaska earlier this year when the former president traveled to Asia, but Clinton wound up traveling there through Europe.
Stapleton, the Alaska governor’s aide, said the Palins were open to working with the former president on Alaska-related policy issues such as seafood or arctic climate change, but not on anything political.
It may not have mattered. Clinton spokesman Matt McKenna said Coale suggested that the former president and Palin get together, but the former president’s office declined.
“With these people from the opposite side, I’m trying to turn down the volume a bit on the attacks,” Coale said. “The more people meet each other and actually talk to each other, the volume will come down.”
Pam Pryor, a Washington-based Palin adviser, defended Coale, calling him a “networking hound” who was only trying to help connect friends.
“There’s a real difference between setting up bipartisan friendships and politics,” said Pryor, a Republican and former Capitol Hill aide.
Palin allies lament that Coale’s efforts with the Clintons are symptomatic of a chaotic post-election period.
First, there were gossipy stories both before and directly after the presidential election that featured anonymous John McCain aides mocking Palin as a know-nothing diva — accounts that left the governor and her small inner circle wondering who their true friends were outside Alaska.
Without trusted and experienced hands to help manage the governor’s political affairs, hundreds of letters stacked up in Palin’s garage, many of them invitations to events. If nothing else, the governor needed a political entity to at least pay for the postage for the replies.
Coale, who accompanied Van Susteren to Alaska immediately after the election when the Fox News host traveled there for a post-mortem interview with Palin, helped fill the void by offering to help set up her PAC.
Soon after the PAC began operating in January, however, a series of embarrassing miscommunications took place
Palin was invited to and seemingly accepted invitations to events in the “Lower 48” but then wound up backing out when her Alaska-based staffers said they knew nothing about the plans. Palin allies say that in some cases, event organizers let it be known that the governor was coming when she had not actually confirmed her appearance.
Advisers say the Palin camp was paralyzed by divisions between state-based advisers who wanted Palin to focus on Alaska, with an eye on restoring her political standing in the state ahead of a potential reelection campaign, and those who wanted her to capitalize on her celebrity and take a higher profile in national politics.
Coale fell into the latter camp, according to sources.
“He would say, ‘She needs to get out and travel the country,’ and we would say, ‘No, she needs to govern Alaska,’” recalled an adviser in the Alaska-first camp.
With only occasional departures, Palin has now settled on focusing her energies at home. While Palin recently joined a group of top Republicans in a well-publicized effort to rebuild the party, it came only after questions were raised about her absence. But advisers indicate that she’ll weigh in only on Alaska-centric issues such as energy.
And of the thousands of invitations she gets, Palin plans to attend only out-of-state events that have an Alaska hook.
“As we’ve been trying to make clear, the governor is entirely focused on Alaska and not on the national scene,” said Stapleton. “That is to the frustration of some who have their own political ambitions for her.”
Palin has set up a Twitter feed that is almost exclusively focused on Alaska issues and canceled a scheduled appearance at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner after a spate of floods hit Alaska.Todd Palin, however, still attended the dinner as a guest of Fox News and was escorted by Coale and Van Susteren.
Asked about Palin’s decision to keep her focus on Alaska, Coale replied: “They’re doing whatever they’re doing.”
He said after helping to get the PAC off the ground he had limited his involvement and denied that his diminished role had anything to do with his Clinton plan or the scheduling miscues.
“I’m friends with Todd and Sarah — I’m not advising them politically,” Coale insisted.
Some top Republicans who are sympathetic to Palin understand her short-term political imperatives at home — her approval numbers have fallen considerably from last year, when McCain would often defend her against critics as “the most popular governor in America.” They compare her to an incredibly gifted athlete with raw skills but no coach to help her develop a pro game.
“What she really needs is somebody who has good political sense to move to Alaska,” said a Washington-based Republican who wants her to succeed. “And until that happens, she is going to continue floundering.”
Dick Cheney
May 19th, 2009
6:50 am
Dick Cheney is 68, white and bitter. He is the Republican Party today.
The Republican Party has no serious wing other than the Cheney wing. The moderate wing of the Republican Party is distinguished by the fact that it does not exist, and yet it is still shrinking.
Arlen Specter, senator from Pennsylvania, recently left the Republicans for the Democrats, and Jon Huntsman, the Republican governor of Utah, is joining the Obama administration as its ambassador to China.
After Huntsman’s appointment was announced last week, article after article said he had been one of his party’s “leading” candidates for the presidential nomination in 2012.
Leading candidate? With the possible exception of Salt Lake City, you could fire a cannon down the main street of any city in America at high noon and not hit a person who had ever heard of Jon Huntsman.
Everybody has heard of Dick Cheney. True, a Washington Post headline last week said: “As Cheney Seizes Spotlight, Many Republicans Wince.” But a wince can sometimes be mistaken for a spasm of ecstasy.
Cheney has many pluses. He is very, very good on TV. (People who don’t like what he says overlook how good he is at saying it.) He is calm, articulate and often courageous. Who else but Dick Cheney would have the guts to go on “Face the Nation With Bob Schieffer” and say “in terms of being a Republican, I’d go with Rush Limbaugh” rather than Colin Powell?
After that, Maureen Dowd wrote: “Cheney, who had five deferments himself to get out of going to Vietnam, would rather follow a blowhard entertainer who has had three divorces and a drug problem (who also avoided Vietnam) than a four-star general who spent his life serving his country.”
To which the Republican wing of the Republican Party replies, “Yeah? So who wouldn’t?”
One of Cheney’s greatest attributes is that he revives the whole “Daddy Party vs. Mommy Party” argument that has bedeviled Democrats for decades.
Republicans say they are the Daddy Party. They are strong and will protect us from communists, terrorists and people who want to take away our guns. Republicans say Democrats are the Mommy Party. They say Democrats care only about social programs for the poor, don’t care about national defense and don’t understand terrorism.
Bill Clinton described the dilemma in December 2002 by saying: “When people feel uncertain, they’d rather have someone strong and wrong than weak and right.”
Cheney offers a clear choice. He is for waterboarding to save the United States from terrorism. He is a Daddy Party kind of guy.
True, President Obama gave the go-ahead for the military to shoot three pirates last month. But Cheney actually shot a guy in the head once. How Daddy Party can you get?
And why do you think Barack Obama has been so busy recently trying to cover his right flank? Now he doesn’t want to release torture pictures, he is in favor of military tribunals and he is not planning to reinstate a ban on assault weapons anytime soon. He also is not joining the attack on Nancy Pelosi, who apparently knew all about waterboarding (but insisted it be done with Evian).
The Republicans need a person who knows how to attack. John McCain never seemed comfortable in that role. When McCain would mention Obama during his campaign speeches and people in the crowd would yell “Off with his head,” McCain would actually try to calm them. Cheney would have said: “Why stop with his head?”
Dick Cheney is the voice, the face, the spirit and the guts of the Republican Party today.
He’s tanned, he’s rested and his approval ratings can only go up.
The Republicans could do worse in 2012. And probably will.
Ga Values
May 19th, 2009
7:10 am
Looks like I’ll be back to paying a fee and interest. I guess credit cards are like the lottery, the middle class takes advantage and the low pays.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/19/business/19credit.html?_r=1&hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1242730999-WA3V5nFMCE38YexJcuTPdg
Brad Steel
May 19th, 2009
7:45 am
You need to limit the length of the post too many self-absorbed blowhards.
Redneck Convert
May 19th, 2009
7:47 am
Well, I think we’ve proved to voters they can trust us. If we get back into office they can trust us to cut taxes for the rich so we can have Trickle Down. They can trust us to cut money to help the welfare programs and Those People to the bone. They can trust us to build up the Army and go looking for a fight. They can trust us to put good Conservative judges on the court to make sure things don’t change to the librul way of thinking. They can trust us to get rid of these civil rights laws and get back to the way things use to be back in the good old days. They can trust us to put God back in charge of the country and move good Christian pastors into the front lines of our fight against the heathens and atheists. We got a long track record that proves we will do all this every time we get in.
Wooten is dead right about the schools. We need to stop them from teaching our kids about being patient with people that don’t think like we do. Back in my day all the teachers talked about how the Commies would line us all up and shoot us if they got a chance. They taught us that the librul way of thinking is the Commie way of thinking. They taught us we shouldn’t mix Whites and Those People in the same schools. Or even let them talk to each other. We had Law and Order back then and we need it back today.
And that’s why people are moving their kids out of the godless public schools. They need to make sure their kids leave school thinking just the way they think and don’t get exposed to all this claptrap about equal rights and having respeck for others religion and such. We need to get rid of the public schools and use the taxes to pay for private school that the parents choose.
So the voters can trust us to do the same things we’ve always done. Vote Republican if you want to go back to the good old days. Have a good day everybody.
George American
May 19th, 2009
7:48 am
Mr. Wooten thank you for pointing out that republicans need to take charge of elementary education. The questionable “theory” of evolution needs to be balanced with possible alternative theories.
As it stands right now, liberal teachers and educators indoctrinate our children with the liberal agenda.
Copyleft
May 19th, 2009
7:54 am
“As it stands right now, liberal teachers and educators indoctrinate our children with the liberal agenda.”
Also known as the truth. Sucks, doesn’t it? (grin)
Yes, we should be teaching alternatives to evolution–like fairy magic! And alternatives to actual physics, like “intelligent falling.” Or alternatives to geography, such as the flat-earth theory. And maybe we should include an alternative sex-ed program: “Stork Delivery.”
What wonders our children do be lurnin’ then, huh?
clyde
May 19th, 2009
8:08 am
Religious people have always taught alternatives to science.Why would anyone expect them to change?
George American
May 19th, 2009
8:27 am
Copyleft,
Please do not key my truck. I expect you get very angry when you see a fish proudly displayed on a bumper, no?
Also, please keep your contempt for my Christian and American believes to yourself.
Northern Sympathizer
May 19th, 2009
8:30 am
George American-Go learn about evolution so that you will understand that it is not a “questionable theory”. My kids are not going to have the truth withheld at the behest of the dangerously uninformed.
Jim-The GOP needs to move center on environmentalism. I strongly suspect this will occur.
Big Bucks GOP doing the Lords work
May 19th, 2009
9:01 am
Americans were promised a reward for rescuing the nation’s banks. In
return for all those bailouts, the banks essentially granted stock
options to the government — a potential jackpot for taxpayers once the
crisis blew over.
But now banks, eager to get Washington out of their hair, are pushing
to undo those investments as quickly — and cheaply — as possible. If
the Obama administration acquiesces, billions of taxpayer dollars could
be left on the table, The New York Times’ Eric Dash writes.
At issue are so-called warrants that the government received from the
banks last autumn, when the financial world was teetering. Like
options, warrants give their owners the right to buy stock at a set
price over a certain period of time, in this case, 10 years.
Now, with many banks itching to return their bailout money, the
warrants are raising some thorny questions. What are these investments
worth? Should the government drive a hard bargain, or let the banks off
easy? Should it maximize profit for taxpayers, or minimize pain for
banks?
Chris Broe
May 19th, 2009
9:03 am
This is as close to a manifesto that you’ll ever read from Wooten, (until his book, “Why Johnny can’t resist asthma attacks or read”, comes out). He’s included major touchstones of traditional conservatism: vague criteria, (love of country, responsible stewardship, and american exceptionalism), nostalgic justification of failed governing premises, and an amazingly lucky swat at global warming. Wooten’s teaser for his book comes from the preamble of the Bush Memoirs, of course, which themselves are stolen verbatim from JFK’s ghost writer’s third novel. I can’t believe Wooten thought I wouldn’t spot the thesaural revisionism with which he disguised those ideas. Never use a thesaurus when you’re declaring secession. Never. (and never hack voice, tone, or structure. If you don’t feel it, it can’t be truth, and you’ll fail. Always set the proper mood with couching phrases that come from the gut. If not, you’re finished. This is another C paper. I don’t know what I’d do if I wrote at Wooten and Barr-Bookman’s level. or the woman to woman blog, but then I repeat myself….close parenthesis.
2 Ausin Scott of Tifton: I never knew a political speech like that was possible. You must have written it. The politician that writes for himself has “I am not a crook, I did not have sex with that woman, and no new taxes” as a client. You did manage Nice symmetry, Short sentences. Simple syntactical gestures. All the wrong words: “As a person I am accountable to God, or G-allah. (or Allah, or A-God.) But as a public servant, I serve the constitution, the bill of rights, the preamble to the constitution, the Gettysburg Address, and parts of Lincoln’s second inaugural address, and to every word that cometh from the mouth of Clarence Thomas’s better angels, and I am accountable to you or 2U or U-tube.” If I ever ran for office, and I was handed those words to say, I would fire everyone responsible and wing it on the spot at the podium. Good luck with your campaign, Austin Scott. You lose. You don’t expect anybody to throw money away on your campaign after saying THAT do U? We trust alright. We trust that you’re a plunker, and you couldn’t possibly know what you’re doing. Get a writer, fool.
The Democrats are going to be in power a long, long time thanx 2 the trickle down ignoramus theory. Conservative Editors have set in motion a new right wing conspiracy to “fiddy-cent” Lady Liberty, and the disciples of American Exceptionalism, (dressed up like T-baggers), stomp the GOP yard with it like so many white lawn ornaments trying to be black. I’d rather swear allegiance to a Lewinski in the Rose Garden than to a wanker like Austin Scott of Tifton and his speechwriter/rhodes scholar debate champion guy person thing.
Honestly.
Big Bucks GOP doing the Lords work
May 19th, 2009
9:03 am
Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have formally asked the Federal
Reserve for permission to repay a combined $20 billion in federal
bailout money,
Diogenes
May 19th, 2009
9:04 am
Good morning, Jim,
You’re quite right: “There’s Ronald Reagan. And then … Nobody comes to mind.” Other than trying to perpetuate the stale legends of Reagan, the Republicans have nothing to offer.
Big Bucks GOP doing the Lords work
May 19th, 2009
9:04 am
American Express, the credit card and travel services company, said
Monday that it planned to eliminate 4,000 jobs, or 6 percent of its
work force, as the weakened economy causes higher customer defaults.
Munch
May 19th, 2009
9:05 am
George American’s little fantasy world, filled with sky fairies, magical Gardens, and women crafted from clay and a spare rib (yum) is a lovely reflection of Wooten’s fantasy that the GOP will somehow become the party of youth in some foreseeable future.
The GOP’s intellectual foundation went on life support around the time St Ronnie started to lose track of his marbles. The latest Gallup poll shows that the only segments of the population where the GOP has not lost substantial support is amongst old people and God-botherers like George. Though to be fair, support for the GOP amongst blacks did not decline! It held firm at a sold 6 %.
Until the GOP does something other than scream “NO!” at every attempt to move this nation forward, it is doomed to irrelevance, a sad rump holed up in backwoods hamlets and evangelical cult houses.
Big Bucks GOP doing the Lords work
May 19th, 2009
9:06 am
Sony Corp. said on Tuesday its money-losing mobile phone joint venture
with Sweden’s Ericsson will likely seek at least 100 million euros
($135.5 million) in funds by March.
findog
May 19th, 2009
9:06 am
Dear Jim,
Diversity was once the melting pot of America that made her great. Now as Caucasian, heterosexual, Christian, males of European decent we are everything wrong with the United States. Add to that our veteran status and we would soon be sent to the politically correct gulag until our reeducation had us affirm that reverse discrimination will right all wrong if not for the constitution. That is what to fear in a far left fringe Supreme Court nominee…
Copyleft
May 19th, 2009
9:07 am
George American…
“I expect you get very angry when you see a fish proudly displayed on a bumper, no?”
Not at all! Because I’ve got a much superior Darwin Fish on mine. (www.evolvefish.com)
“Also, please keep your contempt for my Christian and American believes to yourself.”
Make up your mind. Because MY beliefs are the American ones… your nonsense about teaching children superstition in place of actual science seems more appropriate to, oh, let’s say certain Middle East theocracies.
Mister Earl
May 19th, 2009
9:21 am
Yeah, quit apologizing! Stand up, GOP… Be proud!
Be proud that you:
- destroyed our economy
- destroyed the housing market
- created millions of foreclosures
- crashed the stock market
- erased millions of jobs
- outsourced/shipped millions of jobs overseas
- wasted trillions of dollars in Iraq
- killed 4200+ soldiers in Iraq
- gave trillions of dollars to banks, no questions asked
- spied on Americans
- tortured
Way to go guys!
Woo-Hoo!!
Go Republicans!
- neoconartists
the War for Oil in Iraq?
torture?
TARP?
the highest unemployment rate in decades?
Larry Craig, Mark Foley, and David Vitter?
While pretending to claim the moral high ground?
Katrina?
$4 a gallon gasoline?
Alberto Gonzales?
They haven’t admitted anything nor apoligized at all.
Why have we lost so much ground in Afghanistan?
These are just a few of the things the Republican Party did to America, without shame or remorse.
We will not forget…
and I am not a Democrat, I am an American.
- vigor
The Washington Post
Davo
May 19th, 2009
9:23 am
Michael Steele…what a joke! Not only have the GOP lost the ability to lead, they have also lost the ability to reason. The simple fact of the matter is that republicans cannot enlist new members into the party without ditching the old ones..namely the christian ‘conservatives’. The lesson to be learned here is to not hitch your idealogy to a political party and expect to stay in the majority. I’m not sure the GOP has the guts to abandon what amounts to it’s only source of support…this probably is the end of their machine. Hurray for the Libertarians I say.
Speaking of reason…this guy from SC usually gets it right…IMO.
Bipartisan Disasterby Jack Hunter on May 18, 2009
“The term “financial security” is usually used to describe economic well being. The term “national security” is used to describe foreign policy or domestic protection. But what if actions taken in the name of “financial security” actually weakened our economic well being? ”
http://www.takimag.com/blogs/article/bipartisan_disaster/
@@
May 19th, 2009
9:27 am
Well, Jim, having spent my formative school years in California, my teeth were cut on conservation and recycling. Still do it to this day — habitual.
How then, did I end up a conservative? When I discovered that government licensed recycling businesses, after all my effort, were hauling the crap off to the landfills anyway and nobody really cared.
Outta sight, outta mind but I FEEL GOOD.
Your morning jolt: A go-go, GOP county pitches a tax hike | Political Insider
May 19th, 2009
9:32 am
[...] Some opinion: Jim Wooten declares that trust is the key for conservatives. [...]
Chris Broe
May 19th, 2009
9:37 am
So the chicks who opened recyclable beer bottles with their mouths in the sixties are now saying they cut their teeth on conservation? I suppose the new generation girls gone wild will say they pierced their hoohaws for the tincture swab industry, because that makes even less sense. “Doctor, why is there medicated douche?” Shut up, Lulu, and hold still.
1stGeorgiaPeach
May 19th, 2009
9:42 am
The Republicans need to “shut-up” . . . and go about there business quietly. Stop belittling each other. Strength can be found when bickering stops and work behind the scenes becomes the focus. Boot the news media out and get to work. Stop over-analyzing everything (what you need to do to build the party, etc.). It makes you looking disjointed . . . unorganized . . . a falling apart organization. Of course, the liberals would be doing exactly the same thing if they were in the conservatives shoes . . but they are too stupid to figure that out so Repubs stop playing into their hands. Let them make idiots out of themselves (i.e., Pelosi, Franks, Reid) and all you have to do is sit back and enjoy it.
@@
May 19th, 2009
9:52 am
So where ‘ya been Poli-Wally….off doodlin’?
clyde
May 19th, 2009
10:23 am
Modern Conservative history only goes back as far as Reagan.
Elephant Whip
May 19th, 2009
10:25 am
Copyleft:
Your usually on the left, but now you’re sounding a bit fascist. Your beliefs (or your understanding of the facts as you see it) are not the only beliefs Americans are allowed to have. And you attack someone with the same hostility you criticize in others.
Physician, heal thyself.
eagle scout
May 19th, 2009
10:30 am
Trust….Har De Har Har!!! As long as Dick Cheney and Rush Limbaugh remain the face of the republican/conservatives there will be no trust from anyone who has an ounce of common sense! Then throw into the mixture the religiously insane Huckabee, and a dash of the fake hip hop jive of Michael Steele and what have you got? a recipie for disaster!
Trust?? I wouldn’t trust these clowns to run the shake machine at the local Dairy Queen!
Billy Bob
May 19th, 2009
10:32 am
Young Republicans are springing up everywhere, Jim, in Georgia and elsewhere and for good reason. They see the benefits of traditional family structures in their own lives, hard work that gets you where you want to be, a positive outlook on life and a decided independent thought process mindset that of a nature prefers limited government intrusion. They reject political correctness, preferring to exercise their own intellect on all matters including the environment, healthcare, energy and other matters of national import.
They think, therefor they are Republican.
They believe in the power of individuals and the usefullness of good government. They recognize the attempt of some to abuse government to control lives and enslave the spirit of man. We think Clarence Thomas, Ronald Regan and Newt Gingrich are on the right track.
But there is more to be done.
EB
May 19th, 2009
10:33 am
Austin Scott is a dumb rich kid with more skeletons in his closet than the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta. The sooner he’s proven irrelevant, the better.
eagle scout
May 19th, 2009
10:53 am
Billy Bob … Hate to be the bearer of bad tidings, But Ronald Reagan is dead!!!! He ain’t on any track! Left or right.
Newt Gingrich? Clarence Thomas? Oh yeah, Clarence “Slapppy” Thomas has a lot of ideas as long as Anton Scalia writes them.
And Newt Gingrich, well, let’s put it this way Billy Bob…to put Family and Newt in the same context kind of leaves a credibility gap there…Don’t you think!
Copyleft
May 19th, 2009
11:05 am
Elephant: Nah, I’m just not going to sit still for any reactionary fool who tries to claim the title “American” for his own personal beliefs and lock out everybody else by default.
That kinda garbage won’t fly.
SwedeAtlanta
May 19th, 2009
11:06 am
I couldn’t agree more…..trust is key….but Republics are going to have to start acting with integrity before people will again trust them. People trust the Republic party only to rob the public treasury, start and promote endless wars including wars of choice, leave a major and historic U.S. city to drown, promote the interests of the wealthy over the majority of other people, put narrow social issues ahead of broad policies that benefit the nation, etc.
As to Billy Bob’s assertion that Young Republic are springing up everywhere all I can say is ROFL. Studies done in the past year indicate that the overwhelming majority of young people reject the world view of the Republic party. They support protection of the environment, universal healthcare, promotion of the common good over the wealth of the few, support equal rights for gays and lesbians, support social justice such as doing away with the death penalty while at the same time protecting a woman’s right to choose.
All I can say is go for it. I would welcome a time when the Republics could be looked upon as people who could be trusted but I’m not holding my breath.
Dusty
May 19th, 2009
11:07 am
Dear Jim Wooten,
As usual, you give us good sensible ideas. I hope leaders in the GOP are listening. If we lose completely the “love of country and a belief in American exceptionalism” as you put it, we are in real trouble. While we may “teach” our young people about those qualities, the best way to do it is by example.
Obviously, you have upset older liberals. Love and belief? Not their thing! Seems every morning the usual crackpots are waiting for your words with their disagreeable behavior. A bunch of old cranks! Then comes Churchill’s Mom with DNC reruns. RedNeck acting like an ignorant funny boy who exemplifies conservatives when he is a big time “comic” lib. Chris Broe “playing” editor, Munch as fairy grinch godmother. Some even think that science is being taught from the Bible in school which is a pure fable.
Honestly, Jim, is there some kind of blog repellent for twisted mentality? I think I will talk to my scientist daughter to see if she can get some research started along those lines. Sounds like a worthwhile project to me (even as she laughs!).
Ga Values
May 19th, 2009
11:13 am
Billy Bob 10:32
Where is your list of Georgia Republicans who fit your list of CONSERVATIVE values?? Is Saxby Chambliss at the top of the list?
eagle scout
May 19th, 2009
11:15 am
Dusty .. While you are talking to your scientist daughter about research, I’ll see if my daughter a human behavior psychologists has room on her couch for you!
Although she practices in Colorado … It may well be a worthwhile trip for you.
retiredds
May 19th, 2009
11:16 am
Jim, you are right. Trust is what the Republicans need. However, it will take many years of offering sound programs, good economic policy (not trickle down Reagonomics, a failure), and being honest with the American people. I can only speak for myself, but the Republican party as it stands today has betrayed its principles, is too narrowly focused (abortion, heterosexual marriage, and tax cuts). The world is changing, and has changed faster than your party can adjust. You have lost my trust because of the lies and fraud of the last administration (Iraq, WMD’s, smaller govt., balanced budgets, etc. etc.). So, Jim, I am sorry to say that I’ll give the Reppublicans 10 years to see if they can earn my vote. Until then, no way. And also Jim your couching your real agenda, anti conservation and anti-diversity, were your real message under the cover of a laudable title. Too bad many voters, the majority now, see through the smoke screens that you and your party put forth. So, again, when you can speak to the real issue of Trust without hauling in your negative and hopeless agenda, you might win some converts.
BSRadar
May 19th, 2009
11:27 am
Mobys everywhere.
“I used to be a Republican but..”
gimmeabreak
retiredds
May 19th, 2009
11:49 am
BSRadar, gimmeabreak, have voted Repub in the past but never claimed nor registered in the party of elephants.
Leon
May 19th, 2009
11:51 am
Politicians have to trust voters and stop playing “no is yes” and “tax is fee” and “crisis is our chance to control your life”
That’s numbers 1, 2 & 3 from the Republican playbook Jimbo. And if you’re going to “trust voters” it’s got to be ALL voters not just the narrow minded 20% the GOP has left.
DannyX
May 19th, 2009
12:10 pm
College graduates are abandoning the Republican party. In the last 10 years college grads that claimed to be Republican went from 47% to 37%.
No wonder Republicans do so well in the south. No wonder the star of the party is now Limbaugh. It makes so much sense now, brain drain.
Good Republicans are now trying to rally the base. Speaking of which, any recent news on Obama’s birth certificate?
RetLTC
May 19th, 2009
12:12 pm
Diversity, too, is magnificent, an aspirational virtue of a multi-cultural society. When, however, it becomes a license to discriminate against individuals or entire states as Congress has done, it likewise has morphed into something a democratic society never intended.
Very good Jim. Like the state of Georgia and it’s racial profiling and persecution of Latino immigrants in Georgia.
Mac
May 19th, 2009
12:20 pm
When I was a kid even Republican national leaders were in favor of reining in pollution. Why is it that Wooten and Rush want more of it?
Algonquin J. Calhoun
May 19th, 2009
12:26 pm
Dick Cheney needs to face a World Court for his crimes against humanity! I know Republinazis love him for his torturing ways but justice demands he be tried and sentence carried out!
eagle scout
May 19th, 2009
12:27 pm
Seen on the “Vent”…..
“America is so safe under Obama that Cheney finally came out from his undisclosed hiding place!”
Author unknown….but, very observent!!!!!
Glenn
May 19th, 2009
12:30 pm
This may be my favorite Wooten Column ever. I hang on every word. If y’all tire of taking on Jim, you might want to come after me, as I’ll defend this piece.
Mr. Wooten begins with a paradox: How can it be that a young person be conservative? Think about that, please. It’s pretty odd, in that young persons mean to grow forward, rather than to recollect that which might be conserved, the past.
Yet Wooten has a considered answer to the question of how young people, in spite of themselves, might become conservative. His answer is to get them young, and to impel them toward conservativism by dint of compulsory education enforced by law. As Wooten puts it: “Conservatives really do need to focus on the young and what they are taught.”
And yet this is not, strictly, the “Conservative” position; rather, it is the Prpgressive one. I capitalize “Progressive” so as to refer to the fundamentally liberal notion of collective Progress, of the progress of a whole people, as distinguished from an individual soul.
Probably most of you will think this post weird, but in terms of antiquity it’s anything but strange. What Jim Wooten is doing is an attempt to temporize his craft’s presumptions with those of an older age he doesn’t understand very well.
“Conservatism”, traditional Western Thought, rejects the notion of “Progress” as a delusion of those who promise collective betterment in the interest of their temporary power of decision.
Jim Wooten is no Conservative. He’s a Republican.
lkudg
May 19th, 2009
12:50 pm
HEY DICK – spector left the repubs to RETURN to the dems
Mac
May 19th, 2009
12:54 pm
I thought Glenn retired when Ragnar and Dusty did. Welcome back. You have Wooten pegged. Can I have a side of voucher with that compulsory Republican education outside government schools?
Goldwater
May 19th, 2009
12:56 pm
“WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama’s new fuel and emission standards for cars and trucks will save billions of barrels of oil but are expected to cost consumers an extra $1,300 per vehicle by the time the plan is complete in 2016. Obama on Tuesday planned to announce the first-ever national emissions limits for vehicles, as well as require an overall or industry average fuel efficiency standard at 35.5 miles per gallon.”
Forcing us all to buy ecobox death traps for our families by forcing car companies to build them; cap & trade causing our utility bills to skyrocket and the loss of millions of jobs; we can’t drill our own resources to get off foreign oil and all they want us to do is stick a windmill and solar panel in our back yard and drive a sardine box on wheels; controlling banks, even private ones; wanting to control PRIVATE company pay; not providing funds to close the Guantanamo Bay prison; House Speaker oversteps here bounds by taking on the CIA, *and* her approval rating is plummeting, from 51% in January to 46% in March to 39% now (yeah how do you ‘thirty nine percenters’ out there feel now? Does that phrase sound familiar liberal moonbats?); PrezBo seriously considers keeping Bushie illegal wiretapping, wants to back off on re-negotiating NAFTA, hides ‘torture’ pictures from the DNC media, and other Bush-esque things.
Change for the better, change for the worse, or more to the point, ANY change at all other than for the worse for our economy? America deserves the government it elects.
Glenn
May 19th, 2009
1:05 pm
Yeah, Mac. Of course. Consider a done deal.
@ Glenn
May 19th, 2009
1:16 pm
Your return has brought credibility back to the political debate.
Demosaur
May 19th, 2009
1:20 pm
Goldwater: if you are going to love driving around in a Prius, you are going to love why:
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/environment/pouring-cold-water-on-global-warming-14299972.html
Note how the wingnut Gorebots have gone from Global Warming to Climate Change. Enjoying these near record low May temperatures? Now, nobody ever said cleaning up the air, water, and recycling were a BAD thing. But, when you have mindless masses wanting to CONTROL you because of THEIR belief, then that’s a problem that needs to be pushed back. Next up, and you watch for it, will be Global Cooling, circa-1977. Follow the money on this Global Warming BS.
Algonquin J. Calhoun
May 19th, 2009
1:29 pm
Honestly, Jim, is there some kind of blog repellent for twisted mentality? I think I will talk to my scientist daughter to see if she can get some research started along those lines. Sounds like a worthwhile project to me (even as she laughs!).
I would expect your daughter to have intimate knowledge of what’s repellent, since she is the spawn of one so disgustingly repugnant in so many ways. By the way, a bunsen burner and a beaker does not a scientist make. Krusty, more than likely your homely daughter cleans the floors at some Emory labs. And krusty, it really hurt me when i was left off your litany of crackpots. Please correct this oversight immediately.
DB, Gwinnettian
May 19th, 2009
1:36 pm
ecobox death traps
Noted, and added to the very long list of conservative phobias.
Glenn
May 19th, 2009
1:37 pm
Why don’t we just knock this off, consider “education”–whatever that expression mean when it’s not in the clutches of the self[special]-interests–a thing of the wilds, undomesticated, and procede to certify competence jointly wherever we find it, regardless of how it was achieved?
Were we to do this we’d not only recognize the reality of such powerfully educative forces (as this) all around us, but we’d save a lot of money by rejecting the presumption that the young must be co-located by age and taught certain agreed-upon things according to their annuity. We’d lose also the equally obnoxious presupposition that we can ever decide for the next generation that which that generation must learn in order to deal with challenges unforeseen.
We might regain our Democracy, and save a lot of money. That would make both Dr. Franklin and Mr. Hamilton happy indeed.
RT
May 19th, 2009
2:06 pm
Hey Jim, if the Republican Party has a problem with attracting youth, maybe that’s because there is a void of young voices allowed to speak. How old are you? What do you or the less than 50 “youth” who stood up at the convention know about young people? Here’s an idea – ask them what they think! Ask them to speak! Involve them in your message and your ideas, and maybe they will invite a friend…
Shar
May 19th, 2009
2:07 pm
Glenn, mon vieux, a voice of reason redux. How nice to see your name shimmering once more.
As for the educated savage savant idea, although it did Mr. Lincoln more than proud, I’m afraid that folks with his brain and heart are few and far between. I’d hazard a guess that wild sustenance produces better salmon than people, at least in quantity.
Dusty
May 19th, 2009
2:13 pm
Aw Glenn
You’ve gone to preaching and prompting again. Always up the right alley but invaded by smog. When you get California straightened out (which only an earthquake can do), maybe you will return to Georgia and get to work.
Actually, I am still believing that education takes second place in life, only less than good parental guidance. The two were synonymous in my life and hopefully and seemingly, in my children’s lives.
But you are the one to keep the “collective betterment” system in order, so keep up the good work. Jim says tell ‘em the good things of government and you say teach ‘em the right way. I hope both of you win with wonder.
PS…. AJ @ 1:29
Sorry I left you off the list of cranks. Surely you deserve first place. But you assume incorrectly. My daughter is not at Emory and even Emory does not have PhDs cleaning floors. Sorry ’bout that, scrub-a-dub, but there are other jobs in life besides cleaning.
JLK
May 19th, 2009
2:16 pm
RT, actually Wooten is a good buddy of the Buckhead Young Republicans and one of their favorite speakers. You know, the Beamer-driving, fashionably-clad yuppies who “supported” the war and the troops by remaining safe in their offices and IKEA-furnished Buckhead apartments while calling Cindy Sheehan a traitor. Don’t think there are no under 50 Republicans — there are plenty.
As for “trust,” who is Wooten kidding? The only trust the GOP will get now is from people who — like a woman who stays with an abusive husband because he says he’s sorry — believe what they want to believe, no matter what reality tells them. You might say they have “hope.”
Billy Bob
May 19th, 2009
2:21 pm
beagle scat & Legion
Care to reference that source on college grads and their political preferences?
Billy Bob
May 19th, 2009
2:32 pm
Glenn, et.al.
Reading your gibberish mostly amuses in its inaness. I liken your writing to painting by numbers. You have great things to say as long as Hamilton, Jefferson, Lincoln or Wooten have stated it first.
However, in your defense, you always meet the prescribed minimum number of words. I admire that.
Pete
May 19th, 2009
2:36 pm
Billy Boob is back, still sticking his ig’nant foot in his mouth/anus. Rip him a new one, Glenn.
Glenn
May 19th, 2009
2:36 pm
No, no, no. I’m so glad you brought that up, Shar, the implication of autodidacticism, as I’d meant to add a brief paragraph decrying such but wanted not to run too long. I don’t advocate the audidacticism of Franklin or Lincoln. Indeed, both those men worked against a child’s ever having to experience such a thing. What I’m implying, by contrast, is that by freeing education from captivity to the wilds we will now have–in an urbanized nation not to be confused with remotest Kentucky circa 1815–by freeing education and its “educands” we will gain in return access to innumerable opportunities gleaned from our landscape and our people. Our people.
To me this does not imply any sort of French atavism or Russian anarchism. We–we mature people of good will–can structure it. We even can structure it with reliance upon professionals.
I can prove it possible, Shar: Consider the Baden-Powell organizations worldwide, beginning with our own Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts.
The question is: How much will we rely upon Big Mother for our daycare?
Glenn
May 19th, 2009
2:41 pm
Hi, Dusty,
As you evidenty distinguish education from child-rearing, and associate the former with Emory University, I’ll remind you that His Holiness the Dalai Lama, during his last visit to our campus, reminded the professoriat that the Latin word “education” means, literally, breast-feeding.
Laura
May 19th, 2009
2:43 pm
If this is what the GOP has to offer then I am completely unimpressed. No wonder it is a party in severe decline. It is old, moldy and out-dated and refuses to accept it. Sad. And funny. Very funny.
Shar
May 19th, 2009
2:57 pm
Baden-Powell originated the Boy Scouts organization and was not American although J. Gordon Low, a Savannah native, certainly was. Girl Scouting is derivative much like your writing.
Glenn
May 19th, 2009
3:03 pm
Dusty,
There’s method to my madness. Whither the children in the event of next natural disaster, which I predict will occur along the Newport-Inglewood Fault in Southern California, but which may occur anywhere at anytime, owing to either natural or “technological” disaster. What becomes of such children?
They get evacuated, of course, but does FEMA have sufficient plans for the continuation of their education following such an event? FEMA had not such plans following Hurricane Katrina; the Agency’s interest lay solely in the relocation, and not in the continuing education, of school-aged children.
Do you see what I’m getting at? We no longer can count on the presupposition that the education of the young depends upon their co-location and continuity. What’s bright in this prospect is that we no longer have to do so; we can do better, for less. Technology is key, but it is not as essential as is our change of thinking.
In every state now going bankrupt and thereby throwing itself upon the mercy of the American taxpayer, old-fashioned notions of brick-and-mortar schooling are breaking the bank.
I’ll say it again: we can do better, for less.
Glenn
May 19th, 2009
3:05 pm
Shar, et al,
I care not whether my writing is derivative. It’s what I believe. I dare you to name my derivations.
Please, just listen and respond.
Prisco
May 19th, 2009
3:15 pm
I listen, and yet all I hear are office noises.
cc
May 19th, 2009
3:41 pm
anybody that doesn’t believe there can be global warming or even global cooling, is dumb enough to believe the earth has a thermostat. and just for the conservatives out there, and i’ll type slow, the earth does not have a thermostat. and p.s. ronald reagan screwed the economy and this nation up almost as much as that last dimwit some people called a president.
deegee
May 19th, 2009
3:55 pm
Did anyone catch that Michael Steele speech? He must have reiterated a dozen times during the speech that he is not going back and saying anything else about the past. You can’t MAKE him go back and talk about the past. It’s done, it’s over except when you want to talk about Ronald Reagan. Then it’s okay. From now on it’s all about the future of our country and how Barack Obama is screwing it up. The next Michael Steele speech is sure to include some novel ideas on how the Republican party would do it differently, and I am so sure that speech is coming post haste.
Dusty
May 19th, 2009
4:09 pm
Dear Glenn,
First, my reference to Emory was made to Mr. Algonquin, not you.
Second: Did Shar call you a Girl Scout? (I think you are a nice lil’ Boy Scout!!)
Third: I think that states in earthquake prone areas whould make their own plans for the education of children in emergencies. The folks on the San Andreas fault would make earthquake plans and the people on the sandy coasts of South Carolina could plan for hurricanes. Flood states the same if that is possible in such situations.
Fourth: As I see pictures of thousands of refugees huddled in barren areas such as those fleeing in Pakistan or Sri Lanka, I believe their first thought is food, shelter and safety. Same for Darfur and other refugee areas. Education is primary to development but only if you are alive.
JC in Powder Springs
May 19th, 2009
4:28 pm
You can trust Congressman Foley with your teenage boy. You can trust Rumsfeld when he sends our troops to get killed in Iraq looking for wmd’s. You can trust Bush to bail out Wall Street crooks with hundreds of billions of tax dollars. You can trust Cheney to cut secret deals with Haliburton. You can trust Chambliss to cover up the explosion at the Savannah sugar plant. You can trust Perdue to give Jekyl Island away to his developer buddies. To hell with trust! How about some integrity?
williebkind
May 19th, 2009
4:29 pm
If the conservatives wants to win the hearts and minds of young people they must offer free sex lifestyles, abortions, drugs, biased media, and a college degree by a known liberal college or/and simply give up the core values of conservatism like Notre Dame.
Munch
May 19th, 2009
5:03 pm
Hey….that bright young star that replaced Kristol at the NY Times has a sure-fire knack for attracting legions of young people.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/19/opinion/19douthat.html
AmVet
May 19th, 2009
5:09 pm
Actually Mr. Wooten has written an outstanding piece today!
Some would argue that the GOP is imploding because of its reactionary anti-science stances on a wide array of topics from abortion, to climate change to chosen wars to fiscal criminality to unbridled hubris and corruption to a disrespect for the rule of law to having religious charlatans as their close advisers.
All cloaked as conservatism of course.
But those are really the symptoms. And our brilliant and esteemed yellow journalist goes below the surface to explain this unending GOP nightmare by getting down to brass tacks.
The reason the fraud conservatives are so reviled and have gotten so humiliated in the past two elections, and conceivably several more, is this: the inference that the non-conservatives, “once (had) a to love of country and a belief in American exceptionalism”.
You ideological bigots are doomed as long as foolish men like this are believed…
Glenn
May 19th, 2009
5:14 pm
Dusty,
My main purpose was to get you, Shar and others to consider pedagogy as something independent of (costly) location.
Certainly I agree that it should be provided by states, not by the central government, but I wasn’t kidding about scoping the next major natural disaster, nor about FEMA’s planning for the next (gulp) non-natural one. Even an influenza epidemic could occasion massive evacuation, in which case the education of tens or hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren–their “individual learning plans”–would be put on hold absent far more sophisticated advance planning than we now contemplate. So my illustration, using disaster response as an example of the need for economical location-dependence, really isn’t dire or farfetched.
And no, I didn’t think Shar was calling me a Girl Scout. (In fact I’ve never been a scout at all.) Rather, I think Shar was drawing attention to Georgia as the cradle of the Girl Scouts.
Did you know that in Australia and New Zealand there are more adults than children involved in Baden-Powell organizations? It’s quite interesting. A lot of self-improvers down there.
Glenn
May 19th, 2009
5:29 pm
Excuse me: I’d meant to say “location-INdependence”.
Jackie
May 19th, 2009
7:24 pm
@ Glenn
Posted previously to welcome a reasoned conservative back to the blog.
Don’t know why it would have been taken down.
@@
May 19th, 2009
7:31 pm
I foresee resistance with applying the Baden-Powell approach in education. For
1) “In Scouting, a boy is encouraged to educate himself instead of being instructed.” and for
2) “An individual step in character training is to put responsibility on the individual.”
This one, to me, is critical for teaching: “A boy carries out suggestions more wholeheartedly when he understands their aim.”
as does anyone. Otherwise, we’re just robots following commands.
Demosaur
May 19th, 2009
7:36 pm
DB, Gwinnettian: -[ecobox death traps]- “Noted, and added to the very long list of conservative phobias.”
You mean like that phobia of an SUV and cow pharts causing the earth to warm up, errr, I mean cool off, errr, I mean rain too much, errr, I mean rain too little, errr, I mean……….
No, maybe you liberals mean that phobia of Christians you people have that they are going to take over the nation under some Sharia Law type doctrine – kinda like the Algore Church Of Global Warming, err, Climate Change, err, Global Cooling, errr……………
Northern Sympathizer
May 19th, 2009
8:10 pm
Demosaur-
You are dumber than a bag of hammers. Stop typing and go watch Hannity explain how CO2 emissions are good for us, moron!
Laura
May 19th, 2009
8:57 pm
This tired old conservative BS is so stale. No one outside the south and crazy square states cares what you racist yahoos think! Welcome to to oblivion. That’s where you will be for 2 or 3 generations….at least.
Glenn
May 19th, 2009
10:05 pm
Jackie,
Hi! Thank you, man! I really appreciate that.
And @@,
Thank you also, for considering the downsides of badenpowellism. Points taken. I’m not a strict fan, by the way, of anything other than the concept of breaking down curriculum into little bursts that can be fired, here, there and everywhere, by anybody qualified to help children fire them. It’s no knock on you professionals, you understand. I should think that you all would be kept in still greater demand than now. But that’s a big part of what I’m scoping, and in a sense it’s a prediction too, if you will.
Algonquin J. Calhoun
May 19th, 2009
10:26 pm
Sorry ’bout that, scrub-a-dub, but there are other jobs in life besides cleaning.
Not for the Godly Krusty!
Dusty
May 19th, 2009
10:35 pm
A.J.,
That’s a pretty good one for an clunker like you. Now go say your prayers and go to bed.
Brock
May 19th, 2009
10:45 pm
Hey, t’anks, Fathah Jake! Same to yooz
Ray Pugh
May 20th, 2009
12:20 pm
Dusty your buffoonery has gone too far. If I hear one more wingnut squawk about an uncharacteristically cool (month in summer), I’m gonna stab myself w/ a cancer needle. The isolated meteorological conditons of your joyless milquetoast suburb are irrelevant!
Master
May 20th, 2009
8:58 pm
Anyone following Rush around is a lost cause for mankind.The repulican party is a dead man walking.Mr Steele has to do the dirty racist work that the old boy network.Nothing he said in his last meeting with repulicans made any sence.
Michael H. Smith
May 22nd, 2009
9:06 am
“Diversity, too, is magnificent, an aspirational virtue of a multi-cultural society.”
Thanks for reminding me why I am an Independent and regrettably why we remain a nation divided by these two political party wings of one divisive bird. When this Wooten so-called “Magnificent Diversity” learns that a “multi-cultural society” stands in the way of the unifying sole principle of the American culture which forges Americanism from the crucible as E. Pluribus Unum then perhaps the only minority that shall rightly remain in need of political pandering will be the majority individual U.S. Citizen.
PB&J
May 22nd, 2009
4:18 pm
Conservatives… ah yes… those fine people who love to divide Americans and who perfected the use fear to win over many. Speaking of the fine art of employing fear, take a look at what conservative columnist David Brooks had to say about Cheney’s latest efforts in his column entitled: Cheney Lost To Bush.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/22/opinion/22brooks.html?_r=1
Michael H. Smith
May 23rd, 2009
11:51 am
Funny how the most polarizing, divisive and derisive President this country has ever seen is a liberal. Funny how liberals DIVIDE America into little ethnic GROUPS they pander to pitting one against the other and then as this current President, have the gall to say they represent the UNITED States of America. Yes very fine united dividers indeed.
The only true CONSERVATIVE recognizes without division only one ethnic GROUP in this country, the American U.S. Citizen and the rest who come here LEGALLY forsaking all past ancestral loyalties to become one, in this nation of laws.
Bruce Latimer
May 27th, 2009
3:44 pm
“passively accept global warming” based on the vast majority of scientists. I suppose it makes more sense to line up with the GOP’s actively denying global warming, based on the economy and politics. Scientists could be wrong, it is true. But if the GOP is correct on this one, it is blind luck.