My Morning Wooten

We're gonna have some fun today.

Oh, yeah, Shirley, sure. Cut the check. Atlanta taxpayers and utility customers are at the limit of their tolerance on taxes, and therefore the feds should cut a check. People want to know, she told a U.S. Senate committee, “why didn’t the federal government help us more?” The Atlanta mayor also thinks Georgia should raise the gas tax to help. Don’t tax me; tax thee to help me. Spend.

Hey Jim, I'm a spending-hawk too. So, instead of carping the same old line about "tax, tax, tax", tell me your list of spending cuts and let's get to work. Maybe we can start with Chastain which Atlanta subsidizes and is enjoyed greatly by many a freeloading suburbanite. I bet we can come up with a whole list of cuts composed only of services cherished by many a Cobbite and Gwinettian.

Oh, goodness. Barack Obama’s in trouble with the lefties. He smokes. Cigarettes. He can’t be president. Hillary declared the White House a smoke-free zone in 1993.

Next - the political perils of toe-picking.

Wall Street Journal reporters generally know what they’re hearing when conducting interviews about taxes, business and the economy. The outlook Barack Obama offers “appears like a return to an older-style big-government Democratic platform skeptical of market forces,” news reporters write. Change. To yesterday. But then those who have listened to him already know that.

Darn that liberal media! They've even managed to brainwash some fine conservatives into the belief that this election is too important for the old scare mongering. Wait a minute...

Raul Castro, in what is being called his “boldest break yet from socialism,” directs state companies to develop a salary structure that pays hard workers more than slackards. Pay for performance. What a novel idea. One day even the teachers unions in this country will take the bold break from socialism. The view of the National Education Association is that merit pay “undermines the collegial relationship among teachers.” It will in Cuba, too, when the loafers discover that the performers have bigger paychecks. They’ll either work harder or organize.

We always knew those shepherds of our children were really communists! Organized labor has always been a front for infilitrators of the Red Menace! Send the company men to the coal mine to root out those troublemakers!

Seriously though. If you haven't noticed the right's predilection for rolling out the golden oldie called the "red scare" this election cycle, you aren't paying very close attention.

Hmmm. Would we prefer to have the third term of George W. Bush, as Obama refers to the McCain candidacy, or the second term of Jimmy Carter, as McCain describes an Obama presidency? Easy call.

Actually, most of us prefer living in 2008 with all its possibilities. Most. Not all, but most.

But it’s true. The effort by Gov. Tim Kaine of Virginia to restore voting rights to felons is an effort to kick up the Democratic vote. Except for former state school Superintendent Linda Schrenko and former state Rep. Robin Williams, both Augusta-area Republicans, all the people in jail are Democrats, wrongly convicted, too. I’m sure of it.

Yes, yes. Nothing but Democrats packed into the hoosegows. Enron. Duke Cunningham. Scooter Libby. Jack Abramoff. Etc., etc., etc. Lord, how the Democratic Party will swell when felons are allowed to vote!

Pike Family Nurseries has to be kid-friendly. Its former CEO is one.

Huh? An ironically childish riposte regarding the former executive's arrest for sexual battery (must be a Democrat!)? Well, at least we get a little criticism of a local company by the AJC - more than we ever hear about a certain sugar water slinger.

Selah.