My Morning Wooten

It's been a long time since that rock 'n roll.

But you might want to get out the fainting couch because I agree with Jim more than not. Must be the whole leap year thing.

But not on this one.

The year’s great irony is the rush of Democrats to Barack Obama on his promises of “change.” Think about it. Nothing more terrifies liberals than the prospect of change from the failed policies of the past.

What terrifies people, liberal or not, is the thought of continuing the same craptastic, ruination of the last eight years.

House Speaker Glenn Richardson’s tax-swap proposal —- a portion of the property tax for a new tax on services —- is a loser for Republicans...A good leader doesn’t invite his followers to walk into a political ambush with sharpshooters from the Left on one side and from the Right on the other.

Couldn't agree more. Then again real leaders would call for spending reform before tax reform. Does anyone think that will happen before the next Sadie Hawkins Day? Or the next? Or the next? And so on.

Give Dunwoody the right of self-determination. In a metropolitan area, people should be able to control their space.

Here's a better idea. Pass one of the township bills. Either Adelman's in the Senate or Jacobs in the house will do. As far as my thoughts on the plight of the poor abused Dunwoodians? See here.

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

I'm still not sold on vouchers. Convince me there's a way to avoid entanglements of government and religion, particularly the snake handlers and the creationists, and I might be swayed. But I love me some charter schools. Hell, even John Sugg agrees with Wooten on this one. Maybe we're all high.

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

No, Jim, it's not part of the apocalypse. Yet. Droughts do come and go but this one has been around for a while and has been significantly severe. The fact is the climate is changing. We also have been on a uncontrolled development binge for the past two decades. Combine these with, as you correctly point out, we haven't really planned, managed or stored water very well and Georgia is very close to experiencing a perfect storm of ecological disaster. But if you want to attack only one symptom of the disease go ahead. Our mutual friend the free market will eventually sort things out as people and businesses flee our great state - for greener pastures usually grow where the water flows.

You know a day where Sugg, Jim and I all start agreeing just doesn't feel right. What's Bobby Franklin up to these days? I need a good old fashion "railing against the crazy" catharsis.