My Morning Wooten

Guns and butter edition.

Imagine that. The Second Amendment is real. We can keep and bear arms. Now let’s agree that when a gun is used to commit a crime, the problem is with the shooter and not with the weapon.

Have some straw with your man, Jim. Or are you actually insane enough to advocate removing stricter sentences for crimes perpetrated with a gun? What exactly does the N.R.A. have on you?

Before Barack Obama tries his skills of persuasion on a bad guy who threatens us —- Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, no preconditions —- he should test them on a seriously bad guy who doesn’t —- Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe. Today’s runoff election there is an international joke. Fearing for his life, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has withdrawn. The U.S. can sputter in outrage, but our obligation is to deal with the bad guys whose existence threatens us.

Like Saddam Hussein?

Two state senators of substance, one D, one R, opt out of the Gold Dome Games. Michael S. Meyer von Bremen (D-Albany) —- a former minority leader and one of two Democrats whom Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle allowed to chair committees —- qualified this week to run for a vacancy on the Georgia Court of Appeals.

This surprises and saddens me greatly. Rep. Meyer von Bremen was one of the few fresh voices under the Gold Dome.

Headline: “Former president willing to help Obama campaign.” The former president is Bill Clinton. Help? Make Hillary the food taster.

Whooo! That's a real knee slapper, Jim. I can't decided which is funnier - the implication someone may try to poison Senator Obama or that we would all be better off if Senator Clinton were dead. High comedy there.

Jim Durrett, executive director of the Liveable Communities Coalition, writing in support of the Beltline rail project, reflects the ancient view that those of us who live beyond I-285 are all trying to get to Atlanta’s downtown. Writes he: “We’ve spent the past 40 years building suburbs that are beginning to look unsustainable at $4 a gallon.” We of the “suburbs” are neighbors, not dependents, and when the state devises a transportation plan that moves us where we need to go, instead of just to Atlanta’s downtown, or in a circle around it, we’ll sustain ourselves just fine. Boss, we ain’t your young’uns.

And we of the "city" are your neighbors, not your suckling teat. So you won't mind if we ask you to pay to park at places like Doraville and Chamblee MARTA station will you, Jim? All those Gwinnett cars must jam into the Marta lots just so their occupants can catch a cab back outside the perimeter.

The Justice Department’s inspector general says recruiters improperly used “political or ideological” considerations to find and hire conservative interns. Ideology can be considered in recruiting political appointees, but not otherwise. Justice officials should get more sophisticated in screening to hire conservatives. Anybody doubt that colleges and employers look for the codes in applications and essays to achieve diversity? Ideological diversity is important, too

The report concludes that quality standards were sacrificed solely for the sake of ideological purposes. In other words, what conservatives have for decades bleated against regarding affirmitive action. The difference this time it is their people seeking favor for the sake of "diversity". How quaint.

Oh and Jim, the Inspector General didn't just find it "improper". In two cases, the report concluded the action was possibly illegal.

Selah.

Perspective

From Elenanor Clift.

If Hillary were elected and re-elected president, it would mean the presence of a Bush or a Clinton on every ticket from 1980 to 2016—36 years

Since 1775, Americans have had a distaste for monarchs. They practically vomit at the idea of dynasties. It's simplistic but compelling.

Wallace vs Clinton, Part Infinity

Chris Wallace asking Newt Gingrich and Jane Harman about his infamous Clinton interview:

Bush had eight months but Clinton had eight years.

Stop it. Just stop it.

I Never Voted For Bill Clinton

Not a long essay but a random thought.

I didn't vote for Bush or Dole or that weird gnome from Texas either, so you figure it out.

It's twisting my soul but I am starting to regret not voting for Mr. Bill. At the time, I was much more ideologically inclined and couldn't bring myself to vote for such a political animal. The final straw was when he made it well known he would not commute the death penalty of a mentally retarded man. It was cold, calculated political move. Not a moral one and it turned my stomach.

Now, I look back at welfare reform, NAFTA and many other issues of his watch and realize more and more I agree with his moves during those eight years.

As I look back at events of the past 6 years, particularly Katrina, I keep asking myself, WWBD? What would Bill do?

Sure, a lot of what he would have done would have been through the prism of cold political calculus. But given today's climate, I think I could forgive even the most political beast.


Cross posted at Radical Georgia Moderate

The Brilliance Of Clinton

Mr. Bill of course. Not Hillary.

"For people in America who are a part of my political tradition, our great sin
has often been ignoring religion or denying its power or refusing to engage it
because it seemed hostile to us. For ... the so-called Christian right and its
allies, their great sin has been believing they were in full possession of the
truth,"

Via The Daily Dish