Jim Wooten's Wrong Thinking

Jim Wooten gives us his “Right Thinking” on Friday, March 17, 2006 that again shrills plenty of right wing talking points and foolishness across the South. I've admittedly started enjoying tackling his "thinking".

Today the AJC allows Mr. Wooten to tell his readers much malarkey. His comments are followed with my views and a few resources. I do think I could crush him with some more time but I do have other tasks. He gets paid for his "work".

Headline on proposed widening of I-75 between I-285 and I-575: "Will 23 lanes be enough?" Good question. Better make it 27. By 2030, traffic on that section of highway is expected to increase from 347,000 vehicles per day to 401,000. The Smart Growth crowd thinks that highways cause congestion — meaning, I suppose, that if we don't widen it, the projected 401,000 vehicles won't materialize.

Actually Mr. Wooten these cars might not materialize if Smart Growth concepts were implemented. Alternative transportation is just one of several ideas! They have several approaches yet planning is a critical part of whatever solutions are out there. Smart Growth, and other such organization as well, has apparently reasoned through the available data and learning. This is seemingly beyond your ability if all you've done is twist a mischaracterization from what they've suggested. My do you enjoy a straw man!

Georgia wins Kia. Marvelous. Cost $400 million. Had the state been willing to forgo another $312 million, the entire corporate income tax could have been eliminated, benefiting every business in Georgia.

The annual revenue of the state has averaged $15 billion for the last few years. The tax is only 6% on income generated within the state of Georgia. I hope you’d expect your Big Mule buddies to make up the difference individually rather than doing so on the backs of the working man? Or do you follow the increasingly tainted Grover Norquist's "drowning theory"?

HBO's new series is one guy "married" to three women. And why not? Once marriage is something other than one man-one woman, all options are in play.

Polygamy began with certain Mormon groups but has been banned for ages. It is still in Utah and a few other locations via some “fundamentalist” Mormons. Maybe at least they watch decent TV? Why don't you contact Mitt Romney as he can explain when the LDS quit the practice of polygamy? Romney is not big on "Big Love" either. "Help! Mom! Hollywoods in my Hamper!" author Katherine DeBrecht might need some help with her next kiddie crusade Jim?

Want to know how far out national Dems have drifted? Senators should allow a vote on U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold's resolution to censure President Bush for wiretapping suspected terrorist calls to people in the United States. Let's see how many Democrats are willing to associate themselves with Feingold's nuttiness.

Nuttiness? Although one poll had more Americans favoring censure than not a Rasmussen poll still had 38% favoring censure. There are plenty of smart and reasonable folks across the political spectrum that know Bu$h violated the law. On warrentless wiretaps, torture, etc. Russ Feingold show us that he is courageous not nutty. And are 38% of Americans nutty?

No, no, no, Steen Miles of Decatur, state Senate author of a resolution to honor Jane Fonda. It's when Democrats are in power that resolutions honor Fonda. When Republicans are in power, as they are, it's Ronald Reagan.

Senator Miles husband did two tours in Vietnam and he supported her idea. Her now deceased brother came home from Vietnam yet he never recovered mentally. Her daughter and son-in-law are in the Middle East now with their military commitments so Mrs. Steen is caring for their children. Read the Senator’s speech for yourself where she withdrew her resolution after being asked to do so by Jane Fonda. Jane Fonda's work to reduce teen pregnancies and donating her money and time to various worthy causes can’t cover her for something she has apologized for over and over? I thought you wingers believed in forgiveness? Incidentally, did you serve in the National Guard after Vietnam Jim Wooten? How many family members of yours are serving in the military now?

By CBS' reckoning, a prime-time production depicting couple- and group-sex at a teen party is educational because it "featured an important and socially relevant story line warning parents to exercise greater supervision of their teenage children." Educational? The back-to-life Federal Communications Commission's not buying the message-to-moms line. Every station that carried it, all 111 of them, is fined $32,500 each. Government can't change the anything-goes culture at once. But it can with a thousand affirmative efforts, like this.

Jim Wooten knows the FCC is headed by political appointees. The latest Chairperson, Kevin Martin, has a strong tradition of conservatism and was a darling of the anti-indecency crowd. The FCC also seems to get most of their complaints via the Parents Television Council. Estimates are that 99% of the complaints come via PTC. This organization has ties to various conservative groups with their own L. Brent Bozell (William Buckley’s nephew!) also being the founder/leader of the Media Research Center. It is odd that Mr. Bozell can be non-partisan when he is at PTC and not so when he is at MRC! Almost as odd as the apparent fact that Fox has most of the filth. Where’s the outrage Vanity Hannity and … While I agree that plenty of junk is out there on the airwaves, the fact is that your beloved market forces are at work here. Scold the corporations that control the GOP maybe? Also, I thought parents were responsible for making the right decisions for their kids? School choice is cool and smart and ... but parental control over the media in their own homes isn’t realistic. Government can hardly do anything right according to you wingers yet now you’ve got them tasked to “change the anything-goes culture”. Aren’t you supposed to be sort of a Libertarian Jim?

A "Jim Wooten Watch" might be a good blog for somebody with talent and time. In the meantime I'll try to do what I can to help out. Peace ... or War!