Hurricane Links

If anyone is interested a Mississippi blogger friend of mine Two Dogs has links at his site with footage and info from TV stations in Jackson Miss. They have footage from their news chopper. They did send their new chopper down to the Gulf Coast so they have footage in the hardest hit area. I am putting these links up in case someone is looking for info on people they know in the region. I hope this may help.

So if anyone is looking for info on towns or friends and family in the area. Go here click on the links

I still haven't heard anything about my Friend Linda please keep her in your thoughts.

Regards
GBfan

UPDATE: Heared from Lori, Linda and her family are doing well even have a Jenny for power Kiln is pretty much gone. They had to go all the way to Baton Rouge for food and gas but at least it could be found. Thanks for all your prayers and happy thoughts. At least a little bit of good news from that part of the country.

The Art of Operating an Automobile

Do you remember the first time you drove a motorized vehicle. For me it was a mini-bike at the age of 9. I remember to this day the anxiety that I felt when it was my turn. I straddled the mini-bike, sat down on the cushioned seat, grabbed the throttle, twisted the handle, and off I went down the road. There was a turn only about 40 yards down the road and I had to take a 90-degree left turn. That's easy I thought, just turn. I failed to realize that I was still accelerating and was under what I would learn later in life, Isaac Newton's 2nd Law of thermodynamics First Law of Motion. That is an object in motion will tend to stay in motion, unless affected by an outward source. In this case, I had a moment of anxiety as I wondered how to slow down. Since I was accelerating I was holding on tightly and that action actually caused me to tighten the throttle and proverbially, floor it. While this was going on I negotiated the turn and figured out that I could apply pressure to the brake with my left foot and at the same time, let up on the throttle. Now that I knew how to drive it, it was exhilarating and the anxiety vanished. I had learned to drive that mini-bike without a lesson from anyone.

Why the nostalgia of learning to drive? Let's consider what happens when one first drives an automobile. First the act itself requires a lot of trust on the government’s part. With a typical 25 hours of combined classroom and behind the wheel training, the government allows over 100 million of us to drive. This intrinsic trust, which is granted by the government, is at minimum a radical one. Let's examine. An automobile contains a gas tank that on impact can has the same strength as 3 sticks of dynamite. Additionally, the capacity and potential of using a vehicle as a battering ram is capable of hurtling through side walk crossings at up to two miles a minute. They are actually giving this responsibility to everyone who can pass the minimal requirements to get a drivers license. In this respect, there is an underlying unstated official assumption about human nature. That is that nearly all people are competent and responsible. Universal motoring proves that. Almost all auto mishaps are accidents, and while there are seemingly a lot of those, the actual fraction of mishaps, when help up against the stupendous number of possibilities for mishap, is quite small.

Notice how quickly people learn to drive well. Early failure is efficiently corrected, usually self-corrected, because the terrific motivation of staying alive and in one piece steers driving improvement. If the grand theories of Comenius and Herbart about learning by incremental revelation, or those lifelong nanny rules of Owen, Maclure, Pestalozzi, and Beatrice Webb, or those calls for precision in human ranking of Thorndike and Hall, or those nuanced interventions of Yale, Stanford, and Columbia Teachers College were actually as essential as their proponents claimed, this libertarian miracle of motoring would be unfathomable.

We only need consider the intellectual component of driving. It isn't all just hand-eye-foot coordination. First-time drivers make dozens, if not hundreds, of continuous hypotheses, plans, computations, and fine-tuned judgments every day they drive. They do this skillfully, without being graded, because if they don't, organic provisions exist in the motoring world that will punish them. There isn't any court of appeal from your own stupidity on the road. Think of licensing, maintenance, storage, adapting machine and driver to seasonal and daily conditions. So you see, when carefully analyzed, driving is a impressive a miracle as walking, talking, or reading, but this only shows the inherent weakness of analysis since we know almost everyone learns to drive well in a few hours.

Given this example of capability of man to learn complexity, why is it that our schools are limiting the learning potential of students? Why are we offering curriculum that neither challenges or demands? Why are we selling the human mind short? Why are curriculum standards spiraling down?

Frederic Bastiat said in "The Law":

Self-preservation and self-development are aspirations common to all men, so that, if each person enjoyed the free exercise of his faculties and the free disposition of their products, social progress would be continual, uninterrupted, and unfailing.

But there is another disposition that is also common among men. It is to live and to develop, when they can, at the expense of one another. This is no rash charge, nor is it an expression of a morose and pessimistic state of mind. History bears witness to its truth: its annals are filled with accounts of constant wars, mass migrations, acts of clerical despotism, the universality of slavery, commercial frauds, and monopolies.

Thus developed the greatest monopoly of all time, government education. We neither have the right to exclude ourselves or our properties from its insidious reach. Under the threat of confiscation of property and incarceration we comply. If we want our children to experience new means and conventions of driving, how can the government schools raise expectations of it's students? How can parents, who are stuck in the monopolistic structure of government education, change how their confiscated dollars are spent? We need to either demand more from our schools or go elsewhere with our dollars. One of the only means we have for reformation of this monopoly is through the education of facts, accountability of administration, exposure of union and administrative motives, and the ability to stand up and fight for what our founding fathers created for us.

When we consider our assumptions about human nature that keep children in a condition of confinement and limited options, we need to reflect on driving and take lessons from it's experience.

Carnival of the Badger - coming soon!

Don't forget to get your submissions in, people. Don't make me choose one myself!

Hey everyone I need an "ask"

Hey there everyone I need a favor from you all.

Remember the lady Linda I wrote about in that silly little post about restaurants in Kiln Mississippi a couple of weeks ago. Well she lived right in the area where the eye wall came through and at the moment we haven't had contact with her since yesterday. Her sister is very worried lots of dead and injured in that area and they are cut off due to the highway being washed away.

What I am asking for is, Happy thoughts or prayers or how ever you send love for Linda and her family. She is pretty special lady and a fellow blogger and a fellow American so that makes her one of ours. I have talked to some of my blogger friends who live in Mississippi and even as bad as they have it they are all worried about Linda.

So if you could do this for me I would owe you all one. Plus if anyone wants to leave a message over at linda's blog it would really help her sister Lori. They are Twins and are pretty tight so she is really hurting too.

I will let everyone know any news I get.

Regards,
Chris aka GBfan

Psst! You! Come over here.

(Whisper) Go to Dennis York's blog. He isn't unretiring, but he does have a new post up. It's an open letter to the victims of hurricane Katrina.

I May Be Showing My Ignorance...

...but at least I didn't say "gas" and "bubble" in the same sentence.

4-Block World

Tom McMahon's site is a daily must-read for me. With a tagline like "The Strategy of Bingo. The excitement of Chess." how can you not just fall in love with the guy? Anyway, his latest 4-block world thingy is about Charlies Sykes. Actually made me laugh out loud.

By the way, I also credit Tom McMahon with getting me hopelessly addicted to Sudoku.

Sowa Still AWOL

I have made simple and repeated requests of the Justin Sowa campaign to forward me information on the candidate's resume. All have gone unanswered.

Mr. Sowa is running in Wisconsin's 1st Congressional District against Paul Ryan.

I have gone easy and been nothing but polite to this point, but I am getting ticked off at the silence coming from the Sowa campaign.

This is from his campaign website:

The USAPatriot Act has done almost nothing to help protect average citizens from another terrorist attack. Instead what it has done is violated the civil liberties that we hold so dear. If elected, I will work to remove the worst portions of this law, like the ability of the federal government to look at what books you check out of the library, and their ability to secretly search your home, with no one knowing, while keeping those measures that make sense.

I challenge candidate Sowa, or anyone else for that matter, to show me one person who's civil liberties have been violated by digging into library records. Truth of the matter is folks we have been almost 48 months without attack on our soil. The Patriot Act is working, and it is working well.What the Patriot Act does people is allow us to go after terrorists using much the same rules in which law enforcement attacks organized crime, or should we treat them with kid gloves as Jamie Gorelick would of had us?

There are plenty of issues our there Mr. Sowa, why don't you pick one that has some teeth to it, instead of knit picking Feingold's playbook.

Oh, and answer the simple requests of voters in your district before they get really ticked off and start making a real stink.

Plenty of Blame to Go Around

It was hard for me to decide what kind of tone I wanted to use while discussing the recent crash that occurred on Hwy 33. I’m sympathetic to the family of the elderly couple who died. I feel bad for the families of the others. Ultimately, there are things that have to be said by members of this community, and they aren’t pleasant. So if I offend, then perhaps I’ve touched a nerve.

More than once in the past week, I’ve heard the phrase, “They were in the wrong place at the wrong time.” Of course, the statement was referring to the elderly couple who was driving home from the Marshfield clinic. The problem is that the Mr. and Mrs. Bretschneider were in the right place at the right time. The driver was licensed, he was sober, he was on the correct side of the road. If anyone was in the wrong place at the wrong time, it was Timothy Beck and the occupants of his car.

There are so many questions that come up in situations like these. Where were the parents? Where did the alcohol come from? Why was this 16 year old hanging out with 19 and 25 year olds? Why did they get in that car? Why weren’t they wearing their seatbelts? How did they consume all this alcohol in a public park and no one saw them? And after the accident, why are people saying “kids will be kids” and not blinking an eye when the roadside memorial has been turned into an advertisement for cheap American beers?

There is plenty of blame to go around. I’ll dish some out.

Parents of the driver and passengers and of high school kids who drink in general: I blame you. I blame you for not knowing where your kids are. I blame you for either not knowing your children were drinking or for not stopping it if you knew. I blame you for not instilling in them the sanctity of life and respect for their bodies. I blame you for giving your children a weapon more powerful than a gun whose speed and weight give it the ability to kill in a moment of bad judgment. I blame you for letting your child drive illegally.

Friends: I blame you for being weak. I blame you for not tattling on your friends who you knew were drinking alcohol because even though your tattling might save a life (or 5), you were too worried about looking cool. I blame you for not applying the lessons you learned in your endless DARE presentations to real life. I blame you for not learning the lessons from the last drunk driving accident your school experienced. I blame you for thinking you’re invincible. I blame you for thinking that you are grown-ups at 16 and that the rules don’t apply to you. I blame you for being insensitive schmucks and memorializing your friends with beer cans.

West Bend/Newburg/Saukville: I blame you for not paying attention. When you see drunk kids in the park, I blame you for not calling the cops. I blame you for not opening your eyes to the drinking problem here in our town and everywhere else. I blame you for making the lives of teenagers so cushy that they can go out drinking on Thursday night. I blame you for not leading by example. I blame you for not demanding that West Bend high schools have some serious alcohol counseling.

But most of all, I blame you, Timothy Beck: I blame you for your reckless behavior. I blame you for drinking underage then getting into a car and driving it into the car of the 18 year old who, because he was sober, was able to regain control and help clear the wreckage you left on the road after you rammed your weapon of destruction into the car of the innocent Bretschneiders. I blame you for searing the image of your dead body and those of your friends into the mind of that 18 year old survivor. I blame you for leaving one friend behind who will be forced for the rest of his life to live with the anger and disgust this community feels for your actions and those of your friends. I blame you for dying so that you don’t have to bear the grief, guilt, and devastation of your actions.

Ultimately, I hope that this tragedy is a wake up call to our community that our kids need some serious help, or at the very minimum, a little supervision. I hope that instead of raising their glasses to the victims, kids will put them down. I hope that it will become less uncool to say no to alcohol. I hope we won’t have anymore of this “wrong place, wrong time” stuff. I hope something good can come out of this tragedy. But the sad part is that I don’t think anything will.

$3 a gallon

I just heard on the radio gas is up to $2.99 a gallon out there, thank God I filled my tank Sunday evening.

So much to speak about here. I understand Katrina will push up prices, but she just blew ashore yesterday for cryin out loud. Tell me the actual cost of fuel went up that quick? Not on your life!

I'm the biggest capitalist pig I know, but these Oil companies are really scum. They are sitting on record profits and delight in any opportunity to jack up prices.

So what shall we talk about? Have you altered your driving patterns? Have you changed any plans due to transportation costs? How crappy the Bush energy bill really is? So much to rant about.

We are not driving anywhere so may as well complain about it!

Incest, Sodomy, and the Constitution

When Lawrence v. Texas was decided in 2003 (the case saying a law prohibiting homosexual sodomy was unconstitutional), Justice Scalia warned that the holding meant a whole host of our laws might be unconstitutional as well. Liberals cried foul over comparisons of homosexual sex to incest, polygamy, and bestiality.

Well, it seems that Scalia was right. Numerous suits have been filed challenging just these sorts of laws. At this point, none of them have fallen, but the only real question is when, not if.

In June, the 7th Circuit, the appellate court covering Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana, ruled that Wisconsin's incest law is not unconstitutional. While this is encouraging, the reasoning was not. The broad language used in Lawrence certainly does suggest that any sort of private consensual sex between adults is unconstitutional. How did the 7th Circuit get around this? They said that Lawrence did not specifically discuss incest. While this is true, it is painfully clear that the 7th Circuit was trying to find some way to limit the broad, expansive language in Lawrence, even though Lawrence clearly does apply if the opinion is to at all be taken seriously.

Whether a law banning consensual gay sex is good policy or not is a different question from whether such a law is unconstitutional. The Lawrence decision was a travesty, and has the makings of the foundation for a whole new set of "liberty" rights defined by the moral preferences of a majority of Supreme Court Justices. This is why our Courts are so important, and why we on the right must be vigilant in spreading a vision for the rule of law.

A law prohibiting incest is not unconstitutional because neither the text, intent, or structure of our Constitution in any way limit a state's ability to regulate private consensual sex between adult siblings. Whether this law is good or not is something that we the people have the authority to decide. Let's hope John Robert's Supreme Court understands this more than our current Court.

9,000 Buckies

In a cool but utterly useless example of nanotechnology, chemists at UW Madison have created a Bucky Badger so small that you could fit 9,000 of them on the head of a pin.

No hurricane here

I know there were hurricane warnings up for the "Big Easy" this weekend, but they weren't talking about this Big Easy, everyone. Our bar is still open for business (no throwing beads at the ladies, though.)

Let the Pontification Begin

As the decision on the 440^th Airlift Wing nears, let's get a little debate going here.

Question:

If the 440^th is closed, does it effect the 2006 Wisconsin Gubernatorial Race or not? If so, who's the winner / loser?

Carnival of the Badger

Okay guys, we're hosting the Carnival of the Badger, volume III. I'll be handling the submissions - email them to badgercarnival@gmail.com (they're being forwarded to my personal email).

I'll expect to see submissions from each and every BBA member. Otherwise, I'll pick one from your blogs myself, and they won't be the ones you'd have picked yourselves.

You've been warned.

Oh, and this is the Carnival of the Badger, not the Carnival of the Conservative Badger, so naturally our liberal cousins are welcome to submit their posts.

Is this guy from Wisconsin?

"Chaplain, you know what we need is a better beer prayer."

Another one someone in the area may wan to blog

One of BadgerBlogger's regular posters, Andy, passed this along to me and I thought that it may be fun for a Sauk county Blogger to cover it...Hey Lance, aren't you in Baraboo?

Fighting Bob Fest

Who Volunteers to Live Blog This?

PRO-SADDAM MP JOINS ANTI-WAR DEMO [Byron York]
Fresh from his boffo performance before the United States Congress, the pro-Saddam British MP George Galloway has announced plans for a speaking tour of the United States. Starting September 13, Galloway will appear in Boston, New York, Madison, Wisconsin, [emphasis added] Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles before ending his tour, on September 24, in Washington, where he will speak at George Washington University. That same day, Galloway will speak at the antiwar rally scheduled to be held on the Ellipse, organized by the group United for Peace and Justice and the communist organization International ANSWER. Galloway's representatives tell NRO that some of his speeches will be free, while at others there will be a "small admission charge."

Byron York tells us Mr. George Galloway will be making a show in Madison. Welcome to Wisconsin Lord Haw-Haw!

Updates
8/26/2005: HT to Dummocrats for this Capital Times article.

In an introductory speech in Madison for antiwar British politician and author George Galloway, actress Jane Fonda is making her first public statement against the occupation of Iraq.

Fonda is scheduled to give her 20-minute introduction to Galloway, a Member of Parliament, at the Wisconsin Union Theatre Sept. 18 at 7 p.m. She is also scheduled to speak the following night in Chicago as Galloway continues his national speaking tour.

Appleton Area Restaurant Help

Anyone know of a restaurant on the west side of Appleton/Grand Chute or near Greenville where one can get a good to-go order of perch on a Friday night? I'm looking for a place that has either a menu online, so I can order over the phone on my way there.

I would prefer it is a restaurant not shackled by the smoking ban (had to throw a little politics into the post to make it BBA worthy. ;-)), but at this point, I just need some perch.

Thanks!

Carnival of the Badger

Make sure you check out the Carnival of the Badger today, hosted Wigderson Library & Pub.

Relevant Stories: Paper vs. Paper.

Here are resources one can refer to enlighten themselves on the Insurance Company vs. Papermaking Companies up here in the Fox Valley.

Here is a general summary of the situation from the Milwaukee Journal. Essentially it says the paper companies and their insurers are squabbling over the exact amount each of them is to be responsible for. The paper companies have local legislators on their side.

Here is a 2001 story from the Green Bay Press Gazette. it is an overview of how each involved paper company is involved and what it was expecting the impact to its bottom line would be. Note

Mark Wilde, a financial analyst who tracks the paper industry for Deutsche Banc Alex Brown Inc. of New York, said the company has reserves for the cleanup and has some insurance, but that "we really don't have any way to see how this insurance coverage will hold up until it is tested."

Hultgren, of Appleton Papers, said insurance will not provide significant relief for any of the paper companies.

Hmmm.

This story ran in the Appleton Post Crescent and appears to be a version of the Press Gazette Article above. Though there are differences. This article uses about $300 million for cleanup costs, the more recent Journal Article linked to above puts the costs at minimum of $600 million.

Here is the first article from an interested party. This story comes from the Insurance Journal.

"The premise is unconstitutional," Englund said. "Federal and state constitutions prohibit state interference with existing contracts. It is well within the province of legislators to prospectively tell insurers how to behave in the future. But to go back into contracts and either modify or take sides when there is a dispute in contract terms is unprecedented here in Wisconsin. [emphasis added]"

Now, I have yet to read or post advocacy from the papermakers but this is beginning to sound like an affair for the courts to settle. Since when does the legislature get involved with a contract dispute?

Don't worry, the papermakers will get their say.

This will be updated as I find more.

Is This a Fair Summarization?

Thus sayeth the JS Online blog

The lobbying numbers also preview one of the biggest fights in the fall session of the Legislature: The no-holds-barred battle between papermakers, who want insurance contract laws rewritten to make their past insurance companies pay more to clean up PCB pollution in the Fox River, and the insurance industry.

Is it a fair summarization of the nature of the battle between insurance companies and the paper mills to say "...battle between papermakers, who want insurance contract laws rewritten to make their past insurance companies pay more...".

What are the arguments both sides make? IIRC Kevin from Lakeshore Laments (and correct me if wrong, Kevin) stated on Lakeshore Laments this is essentially correct; the paper companies are trying to retroactively change the rules.

The little bit of googling I have done so far seems to be rather slim pickings.

Why can't we question their Patriotism #2 ?

A movement is forming in Milwaukee School Board to limit the access of United States Military recruiters. This Movement is lead by school board member Peter Blewett.

About 60 people, including several long-term anti-war activists, attended Tuesday night's meeting of the Milwaukee School Board's Rules and Policies Committee


This is the same old we "really" support the troops crowd, trying to attack the military every chance they get. Maybe the students that the WEAC teachers at MPS produces are not smart enough to listen to a recruiter and not be taken in. But I have faith that the majority of these "Young" adults (their not children at that age folks)can make this decision after weighing the pros and cons. Its funny the left loves the rights and safety the military protects but they sure don't what "their" children to serve.

So I once again ask "Why cant we question their patriotism?"

One final thought why are 60 people out of how many Thousands of MPS parents getting so much attention from the MPS board and the MJS?

Regards,
GBfan

Update: Hmmmm, I guess I really should read B&S before I post these things lol. Owen has got this covered lol.

Annointed?

Back to the political blogging.

Late yesterday I received a column in my e-mail. The column is from Kerry Thomas up in far reaches of Wisconsin, Vilas County. He is growing frustrated with the GOP in this state over its seemingly far from neutral stance in a nomination process. This relates to the contest brewing over the 8th District Congressional nomination.

To Wisconsin's Voters and My Fellow Republicans:

Has the Republican Party in Wisconsin become just another political patronage party? As a loyal Republican, it pains me to have to write this. But for the long term good of my party, I feel I have no choice.

The impetus of this came from a "Forum in the Park" event held in St. Germain on August 23. Begun as an event to showcase Congressman Mark Green and his gubernatorial bid, the list of invited Republican speakers, candidates all, grew to include Assemblyman Dan Meyer, Attorney General candidate J.B. Van Hollen, Jean Hundertmark, candidate for Lt. Governor, and Assembly Speaker John Gard, who is now a candidate for Wisconsin's 8th Congressional District.

Notably absent from the guest list was Assemblywoman Terri McCormick, who is also a candidate for Wisconsin's 8th Congressional District. Remember, the Republican Party has an official policy of neutrality when it comes to fellow Republicans competing for elected office. [emphasis added]

Visit Kerry's website for the complete column.

Wagner not running

Bad news for those trying to draft WTMJ afternoon talk show host Jeff Wagner to run for Milwaukee County District Attorney. I just caught him at lunch saying that while he wouldn't rule out the right elected office in the future, this isn't a job he'd give up radio for. He also thanked everyone out there who was encouraging him to run.

Milwaukee County's loss, but a positive for the rest of us out here in the sticks who enjoy listening to Wagner's show.

Wisconsin Oriented Websites.

Alert: Some self promotion going on here.

Anyway. I want to alert the Wisconsin web surfer to two Wisconsin oriented sites that have popped up in the recent past. The first one mentioned I brought online about a week ago (or so) and the second has been online for sometime but radically updated a couple of months ago.

The first one is: The Wisconsin Skier.

Why have I created this website?

Simple, to serve those of you who love to ski but can not afford frequent trips to the ski havens. Yes, we all want to ski in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, California, Vermont, New York, Europe, Canada, South America etc; but not all can afford frequent trips to those areas (even annual or less frequent trips may be out of line for many of us). For many of us, skiing means heading to one of the hills in Wisconsin or in this Upper Midwest.

No doubt, those of you who ski frequently in Aspen, Whistler, Mad River, etc; look down on our puny hills. Yes, I understand our hills are small and our runs short, but it is all we have and for those who have not been to a ski haven it is just fine.

The main vision I have is for those of who spend most of our ski dollars here in the Upper Midwest have a place where everyone understands our situation. We want to hang with those who understand that a person's first run down Big Bear is an accomplishment and not saying "Oh Big Bear is just a green run at the XYZ Mountain in Colorado".

The second one involves a choir some friends and I hosted last fall. The University of Santo Tomas Singers in Wisconsin Website. The concert was wonderful and the UST-Singers did themselves, the Philippines, the Fox Valley, and Wisconsin proud.

Back to our originally scheduled programming.

Carnival of the Badger post due today

Don't forget to submit your post by tonight if you want to be included in this weeks Carnival of the Badger.

Today's Required Reading...

...besides my column, I mean.

My man Ben Bromley, with whom I played church league softball until shoulder tendonitis sidelined me for a season, on our growing habit of banning things for our own good.

His conclusion:

Hey, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. And then ban 'em.

And you'll just have to read it to find out what that means.

The Beat Goes On

Limit one tax, and they'll find another way to get our money.

BARABOO - Tuesday Baraboo City Council members gave first approval to a fee that would generate money for Baraboo Public Library expansion or building improvements.

The $415 fee would be tacked on to building permits for new residential dwellings. It would not apply to permits for home improvements such as the addition of a garage or porch.

...

City officials may consider additional impact fees in the future. At a budget meeting earlier this month, council members directed Fire Chief Kevin Stieve to commission a study exploring the use of impact fees to build a new public safety complex for the police and fire departments.

Editorial Freedom? Not in Racine.

The following editorial letter was sent to the Kenosha News, Racine Journal Times and the Burlington Standard Press. It was printed as is in the Kenosha and Burlington papers. Steve Lovejoy at the Racine Journal Times refused to print the letter and asked the writer, Bob Geason of Burlington, to make changes.

Not Telling the TRUTH

When I was much younger my Mother taught me that not telling the truth is called a LIE. Let's start counting the lies from our Current Governor and his local snake oil salesmen.

The Budget: Anyone that has seen the warm and fuzzy WEAC ad's proclaiming their bought and paid for Governor as a walk on water kind of guy. Doyle did NOT lower the gas tax. The Republican majority finance committee did that.

WEAC and the Governor's next lie: Eliminating the Wisconsin Tax on Social Security. AGAIN never a part of the Governor's budget but put into the budget by the Republican majority finance committee.

Another really big lie: $458 Million in NEW school spending is a cut. This lie is being spread not just by the Governor but Bob Wirch, Bob Turner, John Lehman and of course WEAC. The TRUTH would be a really big THANK YOU to Cathy Stepp and Robin Vos for the additional $11 million of new money for the RUSD

How about the lie that the Governor doesn't want to disenfranchise some people by requiring a Photo ID to vote but he has no problem disenfranchising those same Grandma's from getting there cold medicine. I guess we file that BIG LIE under disingenuous or a really big hypocrisy.

The "non truths" just keep coming from the current Governor and his snake oil salesman Turner, Lehman and Wirch. Remember these lies when it comes time to REPLACE the "non truth tellers" .

The following note was sent to Mr. Geason by Steve Lovejoy of the Racine Journal Times:

Bob,I remember getting this now.

Sorry, but you're the one who's shading the truth here. The fact is Doyle signed the budget which contained both the gas tax reduction and the elimination of the Soc. Security tax.

You are correct that he did not propose them - but neither did he veto them. The GOP-controlled finance committee COULD NOT have enacted them without Doyle's signature.

As to the education funding, the GOP budget version did increase school spending by something like one percent. Using his veto powers Doyle increased the amount earmarked for schools by something like 2 or 2.5 percent.

That's the truth, Bob.If you want to rewrite your letter and have it square with the facts we'll be glad to run it.

The Racine Journal Times is apparently unwilling to print anything that does not run the same as their slanted view of events.

Bob's latest reply:

Steve,

I might be wrong but from other letters printed are opinions of the writer and not held to the same journalist standards of proof we expect from the news media.

With that in mind it seems you want me to give credit to Doyle when how I phrased my opinion is correct as stated.

So to get my opinion printed I must give credit for the act of signing. I was not aware that to get an opinion printed it had to be the truth according to Steve Lovejoy. That smacks of censorship.

According to figures the school new money was 8.6% NOT 1% and RUSD increase was more like 11%. As I did NOT mention percentages but simply the TRUE FACT 450 million in NEW spending is NOT a cut. A fact that the Kenosha News called Kreuser on the carpet for and gave him a DART for that lie.

The fact that my letter was printed in the Burlington Standard Press and the Kenosha News in it's entirety without first the word count editing I was required to do (something that seems to slip by with the more liberal point of view) and now the "TRUTH ACCORDING to LOVEJOY" brings into focus your attempt to censor my opinion.

I realize this letter will probably get any future opinion of mine banned from getting printed in the Racine Journal.

Fascinating insight we have here into the editorial page of the Racine journal Times. Lovejoy says he thinks the figure of 1% increase for schools is accurate. If My Lovejoy had done any research at all he would of understood Mr Geason's figures were 100% accurate on everything he wrote. My guess is Steve Lovejoy has been reading the slanted articles in his paper for too long.

Why can't we question their Patriotism?

Why can’t we question their Patriotism?

I was just wondering when did this rule that we couldn’t question the patriotism of Liberals/Moonbats/Progressives start?  When they have chosen sides with the Islamofacist forces that seek to destroy us, doesn’t that by definition make them unpatriotic?  They scream they support the troops while doing everything they can to make sure we lose the war the troops are fighting.   The MSM doesn’t report on the good things we have accomplished in Iraq and goes out of its way to make sure bad news runs 24/7.  At what point are we going to start calling a spade a spade?

Read the Rest at Spotted Horse


Regards,
GBfan

Cutting it Off at the Pass

Cross-posted at Lakeshore Laments by Kevin.

Finally, a smart move by UW Administrators.

University of Wisconsin System President Kevin P. Reilly is calling for the Legislature’s Joint Audit Committee to authorize an audit of the university’s employment policies and practices as a complement to a study underway by the UW System Board of Regents.

“I want the people of Wisconsin to have every confidence that their public university system respects and properly invests in the employees who serve UW students, campuses and communities,” Reilly said. “A review by the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau would reassure the public and strengthen actions that the Board of Regents, the chancellors, and I will take following our own thorough look at employment policies and practices.”

Reilly requested the audit in a letter sent Tuesday to Audit Committee co-chairs Sen. Carol Roessler and Rep. Suzanne Jeskewitz. A nonpartisan audit could provide additional information for those interested in learning more about the university’s employment practices following last month’s suspension of the granting of administrative “back-up” appointments and the Regents’ review, Reilly said.

The Board of Regents will address its review of employment policies and practices at its September meeting.

“I look forward to a long-term, productive, and trustworthy relationship with the public and the Legislature,” Reilly said. “When I took office last September, I pledged that the UW System would be open and transparent in all that it does. I remain committed to those goals, and I will see to it that constructive changes are made.”

Asking for their own audit is a smart PR move because it shows two things:

1) They have a problem, and they want to see it dealt with.

2) It’s better than having the Legislature request one - which seemed very likely to happen.

MWW or the Gretta Van Sustern Syndrome.

Many of you may of heard the expression, “Driving while black”, it has not been unheard of for black drivers to be pulled over for simply driving in the wrong neighborhood.

Well we have a new syndrome out there called, “Missing While White”.It goes on and on, Natalee Holloway, Jon Benet Ramsey, Jennifer Willbanks, Audrey Seiler (remember her from UW Madison?), and now we have a missing model from Columbus, Julie Popovich.What do all of these missing women have in common? Pretty. Young. White. Tons of publicity.

Every time I see these stories my heart reaches out to the families. I see the media harp on the story night after night after night and I get mad. Why? It makes me thing of kids like Alexis Patterson, do you remember Alexis Patterson? She vanished en route to her school on 5-3-2002. Why has Alexis not gotten the same publicity of these other women? She’s innocent, cute and black.

Apparently the media only goes into full blown frenzy over missing white girls, it is disgusting. Do not kids like Alexis deserve just the same amount of attention?

Of course they do. But I guess missing girls like Alexis Patterson do little for Gretta's ratings so they get no coverage. Watch this Julie Popovich thing folks, she will be the next Natalee.

Convenient Capital Security

I was appalled and grateful at the same time for the security at the Wisconsin Capital. I was grateful for the convenience of it all. No metal detectors to go thru. No restriction on access to the building: all the doors were open during most business hours. It was absolutely no problem to bring a small jackknife with me in my pocket. In fact, I think I could have brought my whole Leatherman in on my belt and I know I could have brought in without a search my backpack. There would have been no objections. All very nice for convenience.

I was appalled at the lack of security tho when you think about the possibility of it being a target for a foreign or domestic terrorist. I will not go into specifics, but from all appearances it would be child’s play to blow the place up. Could it be a target? If buses are enough to blow up in England, why not a Capital with all three branches of gov’t?

I was informed that security was tighter just after 9/11. Then there were complaints. It’s time to accept a little inconvenience to keep our Wisconsin gov’t and Capital safe.  

Also Posted at Wild Wisconsin

This SunTimes article is worth your time.

MARK STEYN SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST, Wrote a wonderful piece on how Cindy Sheehan is really hurting the Democratic party.

Take the 5 minutes to read this he makes some really good points about how are Military Personal are not the "Children" the lefty/Moonbats/Progressives try to paint them as.

Regards
GBfan

Drink liberally

In this spirit of liberal patriarch Teddy Kennedy, our 'blue' friends in the Wisconsin blogosphere are starting a "Drinking Liberally" club in Milwaukee. It is a cute idea. Blue Milwaukee bloggers can debate the pros and cons of raising the beer tax to pay for social programs while they drink beer. As the Guiness commercial so eloquently puts it, Brilliant! Unfortunately for us red Wisconsin bloggers, we are not concentrated enough in urban areas for this to work. But liberal drinkers, do take one word of advice from us conservatives who gathered at the State Fair-be safe and use Milwaukee's public transit.

Re: Belling on Photo I.D.

Mike, over at Cooler Near the Lake, didn't care for the Belling column on Photo I.D. I linked to here last week.

Here's Mike's full post. No dogpiling, now - Mike is a full supporter of photo I.D., and one of the best conservative Wisconsin bloggers out there (outside the BBA, of course). He just thinks Belling is way over the top, and unnecessarily so.

I happen to agree that many of Belling's statements were over the top, but that's Belling's schtick. He's always over the top. He's also a very good and funny writer, which is why I read him. I get my serious political commentary elsewhere.

Mike's blog, for instance.

Enabling the poor and elderly via voter ID

In today's OpinionJournal, John Fund brings us an interesting thought from former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young:

Andrew Young, the former Atlanta mayor and U.N. ambassador who spoke at the rally, believes that in an era when people have to show ID to rent a video or cash a check "requiring ID can help poor people." He noted that Georgia is deploying a mobile bus to issue voter IDs and allowing groups like the NAACP to arrange for it to go to specific sites.

Democrats are hell bent on opposing voter ID verification because of the odd chance a poor or elderly person may be unable to get an ID. If the Democrats are truly the party of the little guy, though, shouldn't they be doing everything in their power to get ID's into the hands of the poor and the elderly? After all, it is virtually imposible to function in society today without an ID. What better way to enable the downtrodden than to get them ID's via voter registration programs? An ID for these individuals would be the first step to helping them become functioning, successful members of society.

Hello? Governor Doyle? Care to justify your opposition to voter ID now?

Feingold on Meet the Press

Sen. Feingold was on Meet the Press this morning. He again laid out his "non-deadline deadline" for leaving Irag.

David Gregory (subbing for Tim Russert) then proceeded to quote at least three leading Dems, including Hillary, all of whom said that setting a deadline was a really bad idea.

Feingold's response? He said they all were intimidated by the White House.

That's it, Russ. Just call your critics cowards. That oughta get you a lot of support from your party.

Baraboo Troops Ship Out

They're on their way to Iraq.

The 125 soldiers from Baraboo and Reedsburg-based Charlie Company C will join the rest of the 2nd Battalion, 128th Infantry today. Including other battalions, 560 soldiers will leave for Camp Shelby. Military officials haven't disclosed their deployment destination for security reasons.

I got a few pictures at a little send-off rally yesterday morning - maybe a hundred people gathered around Baraboo's courthouse square to wave goodbye.


Crowd shot.


This woman set herself up away from everybody else so people could see her posters.


The troops were on three buses - you can see a few of them on top of this one, waving to the crowd. The Boo News had a much better picture, but it's not online.


Sorry these aren't better - we could see troops standing up in the buses.

I walked once around the square and didn't see any protesters. Glad for that. We do have a relatively loud anti-war crowd up here, but if they showed at the send-off, they left their signs at home.

Sorry to say I don't know any of these soldiers personally. We'll be praying for them and for their families.

Fantasy Football Owners Needed

I have four openings left in my fantasy football league. It's free (we're all cheapskates around here), on NFL.com, and the draft is Monday night at 7:30 pm CT. I really, really need to fill those spots. So if you're interested in some fantasy football or know someone who is send me an e-mail at sean--at--theamericanmind--dot--com. You don't even have to be available for the live draft. Just rank your players beforehand. It's fun, you'll play against some really smart webloggers, and if you beat me you can trash-talk me for a whole year.

UW Audit of Employment Practices Requested

I've been covering (and demanding for) this for months, and it looks like it's going to happen.

We are writing this letter to respectfully request that the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, under your leadership as Co-Chairwomen, consider performing a comprehensive audit and review of the UW-System employment policies to determine exactly how many convicted felons are still employed by the UW despite their criminal convictions. Many taxpayers, students, and parents are deeply concerned about the UW’s policy of allowing convicted felons to maintain their employment within the UW despite their criminal backgrounds and they also deserve to know exactly how many serious felons are being employed by the UW.

The letter is signed by 9 State Reps. One had to have been blind to what's going on at the UW to not see this was coming.

Also, you can guess, given everything else (Barrows, back-up jobs for housekeepers), it's not going to end with just the number of felons on staff.

Belling on Photo I.D.

All of the things for which a photo ID is required are things for which there is a reason to prove you are who you say you are. We can’t, for example, have some loser checking a video out of Blockbuster without making sure he isn’t using someone else’s identity as a means of stealing the tape. According to Doyle, however, stopping the same guy from voting in someone else’s name is not worthy of the same protection.

Read the whole thing.

Only in Wisconsin tornados

You don't here quotes like this from Oklahoma twisters:

Lenny Peaslee, executive chef at the Stoughton Country Club, said the twister tore the roof off as about 40 people took refuge in the basement.

"We were ... hiding behind the bar," he said. "We had beer, anyway."

Bad Weather

Tornadoes and strong thunderstorms are passing through Southern Wisconsin. If any readers have any reports and/or photos I'd love to post them on the BBA. Just don't do anything stupid and put yourself in danger. E-mail me at sean--at--theamericanmind--dot--com.

Re: Feingold

Yeah,Best of the Web's catch was good enough I thought I would post it in full.

Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin is calling for a withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of next year. From a Feingold press release:

. . . It's almost as if talking about completing the mission in Iraq has become 'taboo,' said Feingold. It's time for senators and Members of Congress, especially those from my own party, to be less timid while this Administration neglects urgent national security priorities in favor of staying a flawed policy course in Iraq. We need to refocus on fighting and defeating the terrorist network that attacked this country on September 11, 2001, and that means placing our Iraq policy in the context of a global effort, rather than letting it dominate our security strategy and drain vital security resources for an unlimited amount of time.

But here's what Feingold had to say just last week, according to a report in the Daily Globe of Ironwood, Mich.:

Post 911, the administration published a list of countries where al Qaeda was operating. Iraq wasn't even on it.

Now, it's the number one training ground for terrorists from around the world. Our nation's security is at stake and it's time for Congress and the administration to level with the American people, and develop a policy worthy of our brave men and women in uniform.

Has Feingold changed his mind since last week? Or does he believe the U.S. military should not be fighting terrorists in their No. 1 training ground?

Re: Feingold

Top item in today's Best of the Web.

Heh.

Badger Blog Alliance is the Blog of the Week

Congratulations to all of the BBA posting members, and a special thank you to all of our readers. The BBA won over half of the votes in the mkeonline Blog of the Week contest. It has been great to see this community of bloggers grow this year, and it is very gratifying to see that you, our readers, appreciate what we are doing here.

Sorry Lance, but I'm going to remove your previous post. This one is a nice replacement for it, though.

Re: Feingold

Sean at TAM speaks for me:

Feingold really wants to run for President and has given himself plenty of room to wiggle out of his headline grabber:

While Feingold is proposing a deadline for American troop withdrawal, he says it can be a flexible deadline.

"It's a target date," he said. "If we believe we need a little more time we may have to continue [in Iraq].

Feingold outline three possibilities:

"One, we achieve our goals in the timeframe and we are able to bring our troops home. "Two, we make progress but not quite as fast as hoped and we might need flexibility. Or three, things might get much worse and we might decide that we simply can't achieve our goals. But at least a time frame measures how we are doing."

So Feingold wants a deadline to kiss up to the MoveOn.org Bush-bashing anti-war activists while trying to remain realistic. It's a deadline but not really.

Call Russ tell him how wrong he is.

If you want here is the list of contact numbers for Cut and Run Russ. Please call the office that is near you and tell them how disgusted you are with the Senators actions. Let them know how you feel. Please be polite and keep your heads (its hard when your this upset but please do).

But let C&R know that he isn't going to BS his way through this, This act isn't old Russ being a maverick. It is Russ stabbing our troops in the Back, Its Russ giving Aid and Comfort to the enemy.

Please Call and Send Emails and even take a few Moments to Drop a snail mail letter. Russ has chosen which side he is on. Lets let him know he isn't going to get away with it.

Remember you can be angry but be polite.

Regards
GBfan

If your a not a Wisconsin Resident call anyway. What C&R is doing effects us all.

Also posted at Spotted Horse

Carnival of the Badger

The first ever Carnival of the Badger is up over at The World According to Nick. Go check it out.

Ok time to start fighting "Cut and Run" Russ

A small first step is to go to the MJS and vote no in this poll. I don't want the paper to be able to use even a silly unscientific poll to say Russ is right. My blood is up this is nothing more than giving Aid and Comfort to our enemies. Its funny when they taught me the Chain of Command in Boot Camp, I don't remember where in the chain from little old me to the Commander in Chief that the junior moonbat senator from Wisconsin got to set Military and foreign policy.

You know this will be played up in the Arab news papers and be one more thing to worry Iraqis who are sitting on the Fence. Doesn't C&R Russ remember we already have a history of leaving allies hanging in that part of the world. Standing by when the Shia rose up against Saddam in 91 .

Why hasn't Senator Feingold asked for a time table for Afghanistan? Russ is spitting on everyone of our soldiers who have died in this cause. But I guess if Russ is going to ally himself with the Dean/Kos wing of the party he should get used to saying "Screw Them".

While your at it C&R Russ why don't you ask for a timetable to get troops out of Germany and Japan since we are still there after 60 years.

So go vote let Russ know we are not going to let him get away with this.

Regards
GBfan

Live from the Racine Sheehan Protest

I attended the Cindy Sheehan protest vigil in Racine this evening. There were 16 adult-type people, and 2 little kid type people walking around in circles holding candles and small signs.

Also in attendance were myself, my friend Frank and a reporter and photographer from the Racine Journal Times.

Highlights:

• Two cars drove by and honked their horns.
  
• One car pulled up to the corner with his window down, a protester shouted out to him, "Stop the war", the driver responded, "Finish the job"

Uh that's about it. What can I tell you, it was nothing. 0.00018% of the population showed up for this, and no doubt it will be front and center on the Journal Times in the morning. A bigger crowd than this shows up at Starbucks every morning between 7:00 and 7:15am.

I spent a great deal of time speaking with the Journal Times reporter. He was not at all interested in my name and said the two of us showing up would not be mentioned in his story. He did indicate he had hoped there would be a contingent of Anti-Cindy protestors show up so he would of had a better story.

This was nothing more than a way for moveon.org to keep this story on the front page of papers all over the country, it worked too, I went down and covered it.

Feingold goes Deaniac

Tomorrow Russ Feingold will become the darling of the MyDD and Kossites (if he isn't already). Tomorrow he will also doom his presidential bid before it even begins:

Sen. Russ Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat, will call Thursday for the withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Iraq by Dec. 31, 2006.

Feingold, who is exploring a run for the presidency in 2008, told U.S. News: "I believe I am the first senator [to set a deadline]. It says: Here is the date by which we ought to finish the mission."

Setting a hard date for withdrawal. Nice. Russ, why don't we just start beheading our supporters in Iraq now and save the insurgents the trouble come January 1, 2007? Even John Kerry wasn't so foolish as to make a proposal like this. Talk about being stuck in Vietnam. Feingold apparently wants to deliver a Christmas gift to the American people-live network coverage of airlifts out of Baghdad as insurgents flood into the city. Yep, that should be good for the poll numbers. Feingold is apparently taking presidential politics courses at Howard Dean University.

Urinal Outliberals Itself

Can ANYONE give justification as to why this is worthy of a news break?

Vigil tonight in support of Cindy Sheehan

Racine - A candlelight vigil will be held at 7:30 tonight at the Martin Luther King Jr. statue at the intersection of State St., Marquette St. and King Drive in support of a vigil being held outside President Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas, by a mother whose son was killed in Iraq.

The mother, Cindy Sheehan, who is from California, began her protest Aug. 6 and has vowed to stay until the president meets with her. Her son, Army Spc. Casey Sheehan, was killed in Iraq last year.

The Rev. Glen A. Halbe, organizer of the Racine vigil, said the event was being held in conjunction with similar events in Kenosha, Milwaukee and others across the country that were being promoted by the liberal Web site www.moveon.org. Organizers asked participants to bring candles.

So the Urinal is now pimping the moveon.org crowd? Did I just see the last shred of credibility leaving town??

BBA GOTV

Today's the last day to vote for the BBA in this week's mkeonline Blog of the Week contest. For those who have voted, thank you. If we win, we will continue to write quality posts here at the BBA. If we don't win, we'll b frcd 2 abrviate a lt of stf her @ da BBA, N nobdy wnts tht.

Vote!

Racine Unified School Pedophile

Steven Wayne Bachmann, a teacher at McKinley Middle School has been busted in a child porn sting. They found no evidence of porn on his school computer.

How is it this freak can still get paid for six months? Additionally, he was charged two months ago and we are first hearing about this now? Does not the Racine Paper have someone who checks police reports?Journal Times Story here.

Carnival of the Badger Reminder

Just a reminder to Wisconsin Bloggers, Get your posts submitted for this weeks Carnival of the Badger.

Looks like we have hosts for the next few weeks, so let's get in there and make a big initial splash!

For Your Blogging Pleasure...

...BBA Sound Effects!

For a Slow News Day...

...a non-news story.

Is Walken going to run?

There is actual news going on today. Click over to JSOnline's Daywatch, and look at the first two stories.

Awww, Man...

Dennis York Announces Blogging Retirement

Of course, this may only intensify the speculation as to who he (or she) was.

Now That's Direct Democracy

I'm sort of all "mind-numb" on this idea.

A state lawmaker is proposing a constitutional amendment that would give voters the power to override the governor's veto.

Sen. Tom Reynolds, R-West Allis, said Friday he will introduce a measure that would allow voters another chance to directly enact legislation that has been vetoed by the governor.

Reynolds said the proposal is in response to Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle's veto of several Republican-backed bills, including Friday's veto of a bill to require voters to provide photo IDs before they can cast ballots.

"This constitutional amendment gives the people of Wisconsin a direct say in whether a bill becomes law rather than allowing the governor to obstruct important legislation," Reynolds said in a statement.

The amendment would give the Legislature the authority to put a vetoed bill up for a statewide vote to override the governor's veto. The proposed amendment would have to be passed by the Legislature in two successive years before it would go to voters for approval. As a result, the earliest such a measure could take effect would be in 2007.

I'd like to see more details on Reynolds idea before it goes any further than this early planning stage he has now. Truth be told, this could bite both sides. While conservatives are celebrating a 'public override' of a photo ID bill, they'd then have to swallow hard and take it on every minimum wage increase (or God-forbid "Living Wage") that could be passed (and vetoed) by a potential Democratic-controlled state legislature and GOP Governor.

Plus, what are the rules to say which bills get passed on to the statewide referendum process instead of just the regular override process set up in the current state constitution?

Too many question marks if you ask me.

Welcome RealDebateWisconsin

This is a little bit tardy, but I wanted to save it for the start of the work week. I'd like to welcome new posting member RealDebateWisconsin to the Badger Blog Alliance. RDW has had quite a meteoric rise in popularity, and it is good to have that voice posting here at the BBA. RDW also won the mkeonline blog of the week contest recently (have you voted for BBA yet?), which goes to show that his young blog is already well accepted by the Wisconsin blogosphere.

As an aside to this welcome, Kevin was correct last week in his assessment of where we are going here at BBA. While we always welcome great voices from the southern and eastern parts of Wisconsin, we really would like to see some good blogs sprout in areas like Lacrosse, Stevens Point, Wausau, Superior, etc in order to better live up to this blog's name. If you know of really good blogs that originate from markets we don't represent much yet, let me know by sending an email to ojibway7rj-at-gmail-dot-com. If you are from those areas and would like to start a blog, by all means let us know and we'll blogroll you, and then show us what you have at your home blog for several months.

Found this in my email today

Hello,

My name is Nathan and I am from New London, WI. I am the chief editor of GOPInsight.com and am currently creating the internet’s first republican search engine/portal. I am writing you because I stumbled across your blog and wanted to share some information with you. One thing is that we have a Wisconsin Republicans Yahoo Group that you may want to become a member of and maybe even push on your website. The group was started sometime back but we haven’t gotten many people to join as of yet. Wisconsin has a big year ahead of us next year and we need to work together to get Doyle out of office!! The url to the Yahoo Group is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RepWisc/. Please feel free to join and tell your friends as well.

Some of other groups you may be interested in are:

Mark Green for Gov. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/govmarkgreen/ - This group is brand new.

GOP Blog Alliance http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GOP_Blog_Alliance/ - A little older but great members!

I don’t know if you will join these groups but even if you don’t …. I would like to keep in touch so that we can work on making Wisconsin a Red State (OFFICIALLY).

He ends with this - I know at least a couple of BBAers have been following the voter fraud thing pretty closely:

Oh … one last thing … I am looking for someone who knows a lot about the Voter Fraud that took place in Milwaukee and Racine to submit a guest entry at GOPInsight.com. We need to keep reminding people that laws need to be changed so elections can be fair!! If you are interested please let me know!! (We are also looking for a few more team members if you are interested … it’s all volunteer blogging though)

God Bless,
Nathan Fietzer
GOPInsight.com

COMING SOON!! The Grand Old Portal ---- http://www.GrandOldPortal.com – Launching August 29th 2005!!

Racine Schools cut sports anyway

Remember this past April, one week after voters decided to vote down a Racine school referendum, the administration started using children to go door to door and even used 3rd graders to take petitions home to force another spending referendum? They claimed that if the second referendum didn't pass, they would cancel all of the sports and the people of Racine were gullible enough to knuckle under and vote themselves a tax increase.

Now, just a few months later, we learn that even after getting the tax increase and a big increase in state funding, they are canceling 11 sports and activities anyway... Suckers!

This is the same school system that a few months ago spent over $1 million on an outside consultant to ask teachers what their dream classroom would look like.

The Journal Times Online
Freshman girls' volleyball, boys' and girls' junior varsity track and varsity reserve football will be among the sports sidelined in the Racine Unified School District this coming year.

Eleven sports teams - mostly at the junior varsity level - and middle school intramurals will be eliminated as the district makes more than $120,000 in budget cuts to the athletics and activities budget.

Hat tip goes to someone on the radio, I just heard a little piece of the story, it was probably Sykes, but I'm half asleep and don't remember

cross posted at BadgerBlogger

Jim "Bingo" Doyle needs a new nickname.

Well we all know for the third time today, Governor Doyle put his veto pen to the Voter ID bill. Every question, every concern he has raised has been addressed in the bill. He just likes the fact that fraud favors him.

In that spirit I shall now call The Gov, Jim "Noid" Doyle.

Milwaukee Talkstar

If anyone has been following the WISN Milwaukee Talkstar competition, the winner has finally been named...That was the good news.

The bad news, Daily Kos fans have been swarming over to sway the vote... The worst news, it worked.

Update on Chief Justice Abrahamson & the Sexual Predator issue in Milwaukee

The news I posted about Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson and the unethical comments she has made on the Milwaukee Sexual Predator issue has a new twist. A local elected official (and frequent poster at BadgerBlogger) has contacted the Chief Justices office to get answers. Check the latest developments and more audio at Badger Blogger.

I'll say this for Governor Doyle...

...if he hadn't vetoed the photo I.D. bill again, I don't know what I would have written about today.

Photo ID Bill Vetoed for Third Time

Well, it was Friday.

Bring on the Amendment Process.

I'll have more on this and other developments on my blog later.

For the third time, Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle today vetoed a bill that would have required voters to show a photo ID, saying it would have disenfranchised up to 177,000 elderly and poor who do not have driver's licenses or state-issued proof of identity.

"Senate Bill 42 unfairly restricts the right to vote at the expense of far too many of Wisconsin's law-abiding, elderly citizens," Doyle said. "Under this proposal, nearly one-quarter of Wisconsin's elderly population could be disenfranchised. I cannot allow that to happen."

The veto was expected, since a Doyle aide said Tuesday that it would be forthcoming. But Rep. Jeff Stone (R-Greendale) said it showed why he and other Republicans will try and amend the Wisconsin Constitution to add a requirement that voters must show a photo ID.

Stone said that changing the constitution would take until 2007, at the earliest, and be like "using a sledgehammer," compared to the relatively simple process of writing a new law with a photo ID requirement to vote.

But Doyle's repeated vetoes left him no other choice, Stone said. He will push for a vote on constitutional amendment this fall.

Remember to vote!

For all who are bored, tired, and looking towards the weekend while at work, don't forget to head over to mkeonline to vote for the BBA as your blog of the week. If we win, the Leinie's will be on me. Literally. I'm a sloppy drinker.

I'll remind everyone again on Monday when you are bored, tired, and looking back on the weekend while at work.

I don't remember the Media covering this like the Cindy Sheehan circus

In the never ending quest to shine the light on the MSM double standards I give you this.

Do any of you remember this incident, when the parents of a Medal of Honor recipient Sergeant First Class Shughart who died in the BlackHawk down battle in Mogadishu, went to the White House to receive SFC Shugharts medal the Father refused to shake President Clintons hand and told him "Your not fit to be President". Did the RNC take this man and park him outside Hope Arkansas? Did the media stick camera after camera in front of him and let him bash President Clinton over and over again. No they did not. I do remember the media hardly covering this event.

You tell me who holds the moral high ground

Regards
GBfan

Partial veto battle goes back a century

Good story by the JS's Steve Walters, on the history of the veto.

You don't suppose he got some of his info from this column I wrote back in June? Nah.

Here's my favorite part from the Walters article:

Doyle is the latest example of someone criticizing the veto powers of governors before they get that job, but who then gets elected and uses the veto power decisively. In 1991, in his first year as attorney general, Doyle endorsed a constitutional amendment that would stop governors from being able to veto individual words in a sentence - a change being revived now.

Reminded of that, Doyle admitted, 'Let's just say I see the world differently, from the position I'm in now.'

Teach Your Children

Interesting life lessons to be learned from the Racine Unified School District.

For review, in April RUSD came to the public with a referendum that was soundly defeated. Superintendent Hicks came back threatening to cut athletics as the only option to balance the budget. This had the desired effect, energizing the students to go door to door passing petitions and crying about the terrible cuts.Well it worked and the next referendum passed. (No never means no in Racine)

And now what do we get from RUSD?The following Racine Unified School District sports teams will be eliminated for the 2005-06 school year: Freshman girls volleyball - Freshman baseball- freshman football, which was a second freshman team - Limited JV golf - JV wrestling- JV swimming- Girls JV tennis- Boys JV tennis- Boys JV track- Girls JV track- Varsity reserve football- Middle school intramurals.

Well RUSD is doing a good job of teaching political science. They got their 6.5 million and they got increased spending from Governor Doyle's magic increasing decrease pen. And they took the kids and said thanks for the cash, you are still screwed, we need this money for teachers and administrative expense.

Our kids have learned a lesson about politics. They love you when you help them get the votes. After said votes are counted, then they screw you over.

Madison only the 34th most liberal city in the nation

I don't know much about the Bay Area Center for Voting Research, but given their most recent study, I'm inclined not to believe their research. In this study, they listed the most liberal and the most conservative cities in the nation. Madison was way down the liberal list at #34. Keep in mind, this is the city that may be the first government in the nation to require employers to provide paid sick leave to employees, a fringe benefit even San Francisco allows its businesses the freedom to provide or not provide. We're talking top twenty, easy, for the People's Republic of Madison.

Carnival of the Badger

Nick at the World According to Nick is looking at starting a carnival for Wisconsin bloggers called the Carnival of the Badger. He plans to hold the first one on August 18th. Head over and check out how you can participate.

Looking for Bloggers

I know I probably should go this over with Jib (and the others), but I was just wondering are there any good conservative to libertarian bloggers in or around the La Crosse, Stevens Point, Wausau, or Superior areas?

Reason I'm asking is that if we are to be a blog that truly covers the Badger State, we should be covering all of the major cities and metro areas of Wisconsin. Let's face it, we're pretty eastern side of the state dominated here, and some thoughts, quandaries, and observations from the land west of the Wisconsin River would be nice to hear ever so often.

Jib and I discussed this a bit (on the way back from getting Leinies at State Fair) and I think any suggestions from readers, or the bloggers themselves, would be appreciated.

VOTE!

Everybody needs to visit the Milwaukee Online website and vote for the Badger Blog Alliance as blog of the week!

Some months ago Blogger Beer was up for the honor and fell short. It did not help I was up against Sean, and James, so the votes anyone of us might have had were split amongst us three.

Dept of Admin Traffic.

Recall a couple of weeks ago when I asked about traffic from the State Government?

Well, that traffic (at least on Blogger Beer) is down by quite a bit. Hmmm, methinks Doilies were searching out what the commentary and reaction was on needle-aquittick.

Appleton Reconsidering.

The smoking ban.

The city council is considering a relaxation of the ban. If an establishment in Appleton earns more than half of its income via the sale of adult beverages then measure will allow smoking in that establishment.

A radio report says it was passed on up to the full city council with a recommendation to NOT APPROVE the revision.

Supporters of the ban promised the ban would encourage non-smokers to come to the bars and the promised flood of new patrons is not happening.

I do not smoke (I don't count my occasional cigars as smoking) and smoking or non-smoking does not influence my choice of a bar which is not a choice I often make.

If This Was Said Today.

Martin Luther King Jr. would be every bit as ostracized as Bill Cosby.

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

Charlie Sykes is now talking about a column in the Racine Journal Times. The solution you see, to the violence in Racine, according to the column is a strict regimen of quotas and judging by skin color. Apparently giving houses away and jobs to those who are not qualified will make Racine an idyllic city.

Planned Parenthood Video

If you haven't had a chance to see that video from the San Fransisco Planned Parenthood yet, Here's a link that's still working.

It is hi-LAR-ious. I love the pro-abstinence guy's mustache.

A Good Question

The Appleton Post Crescent asks a fine question this morning in this editorial:

What exactly do you have to do to lose your job at the University of Wisconsin-Madison?

Please Remain Calm

There's apparently a video in circulation showing, among other things, ten-year-old footage of the desecration of an Orthodox Christian Church in the former Yugoslavia.

The video footage also depicts mujahedeen forces entering an Orthodox Christian church. One combatant throws down what appears to be a vial of incense before others mock sacred items, break up the altar and vandalize Byzantine-style icons while smiling and singing. One combatant raises his rifle and fires at the cross atop the altar.

According to this story, the footage is being used as a Jihad recruitment and fundraising tool. Here's the link to the video.

I urge all Christians to please remain calm and not go rampaging off into a murderous riot over this.

A silly little kind of a Packer story link for you lol.

I first want to say I have been a bad BBA contributor but at the moment the "Political" side of my brain is as dead as my lawn I am hoping this is just the summer political version of the "Horse" Latitudes and it will pass. But I did find out some interesting stuff about Wisconsin's favorite Mississippi town Kiln and it involves what we Wisconsin people love FOOD.:)

Head on over to Spotted Horse and follow the links

Regards
GBfan

Gas Prices

JS Online: Record oil prices hurt at home, too

With little positive news to restrain oil markets, crude prices began the week by hitting a record $64 a barrel on Monday, pushed higher by concerns over Middle East supplies and refinery shutdowns in the United States.

Kinda makes you wish the war really was all about the oil, doesn't it?

Finley's salary

It seems people have their panties in a wad because Dan Finley is going to make $185k annually in his position as CEO of Milwaukee Public Museum. Frankly, when I heard that number, it seemed low. And when I read that his new salary was more than double his old one, I realized I'm not cut out for the public sector. All that stress and publicity and elections for $90k? Ugh. How is that worth it?

Peter Jennings, RIP, please

I was sad to hear that Peter Jennings died the other day. I was particularly touched because my family is going through its own bout with cancer right now, and Jennings’ death reminded me how “lucky” we are that the cancer in my family is treatable.

Still, I was more than a little shocked at just how much time ABC and NBC (and probably CBS, I don’t know, does anybody watch CBS anymore?) devoted to eulogizing this guy. How many times did we hear that Jennings’ “came into our living rooms?” Ugh. Sure he came into my living room. So did Tom Brokaw, Jay Leno, and my favorite, Kevin James, who “comes into my bedroom” every single flippin’ night at 10:30.

It bothers me that newsfolks like Katie Couric, Diane Sawyer, Barbara Walters, Charlie Gibson and the like so overestimate their importance in our lives. But for my generation, they are more like our parents’ friends than ours. You know, the couples that your Mom and Dad go out with once or twice a year. You know them as Mr. and Mrs. So-and-so, and you remember your Mom telling you that once Mrs. So-and-so got drunk and threw up in their car, but you don’t care because those people are irrelevant to you and your life.

That’s how I feel about TV news anchors. They are there, and occasionally I might watch them, but I don’t have a meaningful sentimentality toward any of them. My thoughts when I heard Peter Jennings died were, “Huh. That’s too bad.” And I was willing to go on with my day. Until the Today Show (which I had on for the weather and it just stayed on) decided to spend eons talking about what a great colleague he was. Which I thought was funny because yesterday, Peter Jennings was a “consummate professional” but before he had lung cancer, he was a complete asshole to work for. Hmmmmm……

It’s sad that Peter Jennings had lung cancer, and it’s sad that he died. But sadder still, is that ABC, NBC, and the rest of the MSM overestimate our interest in his life or death.

Confirmation: Abrahamson & Sexual Predators in Milwaukee

Last week I posted here and at BadgerBlogger that Chief Justice of the Wisconsin State Supreme Court, Shirley Abrahamson came to speak at the Milwaukee County Chief’s of Police Association last week. She made some highly unethical comments about the court forcing a housing facility for Sexually Violent Persons on Milwaukee County. Today, on WISN, Kevin Fisher confirmed the information I ran with several days ago. I have the post with the original text as well as audio of Fisher's reporting at BadgerBloger.com

This doesn't seem to be resinating outside of Milwaukee County, but you folks have to realize that if this court can ram this down or throats, you are next. Abrahamson's comments should send a chill down every Wisconsin citizens spine knowing that this court is willing to put the rights of a SVP ahead of your children's safety.

BBA Get-Together SCOOP!

Well, it's only a scoop in the sense that I'm the first one home, so I'm the first one to post about it. That doesn't seem very fair to the others, since I'm the least-frequent poster here these days, but I figure that's my consolation prize for having to leave so early.

So anyway, after church and making lunch for the kids, I zipped on over to State Fair. Cut a deal with the scalper opportunist entrepreneur who wanted to charge me $20 for parking on his front lawn on 84th Street: if I was back by 3:00, he'd give me $5 back. We synchronized our watches (1:30) and I was off to the Micro Brew tent.

And there they were: Jib, Sean, Owen, Kevin, John, and Steve (I think it was this Steve). If I'm forgetting someone -- and I think I am -- my apologies. [UPDATE: (with sound of hand smacking forehead): Yes, it was Dean!] It was a bit of a blur at first, and my time was limited, after all. (It really wasn't about the five bucks; I just needed to get home to the family for some quality time on the patio!)

But it was fun to meet everybody, even for a short time. When I left, they all still seemed to be pretty sober, I'm happy (shocked?) to report, in spite of the 85 degree heat combined with the many varieties of cold beer on tap.

Maybe this will be just the first of many get-togethers, so dry your tears, GBFan, you may still get your chance to meet everybody.

Re: Hiroshima

Here's a must read: Victor Davis Hanson's excellent column on Hiroshima, and where it fit in the context of events, opinions, and actions of the day.

Everyone have some fun at the get together today

I am so bummed that I cannot make the get together

as you can see I am crying like a baby lol

One good thing no one will know what I look like :)

actually considering what I look like probably a good thing for you all ;)

Everyone remember Jib has to drink my share don't let him be a slacker

Damn Birthday parties

A feeling left out
GBfan

Job tips

Laura at Dummocrats has a post about teambuilding activities you can do with (and to) your coworkers. I'm loving the Chia Keyboard. Kinda makes me wish I had some coworkers.

Ed Garvey on Hiroshima

Uber-liberal Ed Garvey has this post over at FightingBob.com, regarding the anniversary (today) of the US dropping an atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

If there is a better example of eye-rolling, heavy-sighing, shoulder-slumping, nonsensical liberalism than Ed Garvey, please do not expose me to it.

He begins:

"The first book I recall given to me by my parents was Hiroshima by John Hersey. I read it and could not stiffle my horror. We did not know then how many would ultimately die of cancer, but more than 100,000 died from the blast."

Hiroshima is, indeed, something that should be remembered with horror. If only Garvey and the left were willing to do what it takes to prevent another such necessity, I might actually take that paragraph seriously.

"Then, as if the Japanese did not get the message, we dropped another one on Nagasaki."

"As if?" They didn't get the message, Ed. The message was: surrender unconditionally. They got that after Nagasaki, which spared them a third one.

Incidentally, anybody know whether there was going to be a third one? I'll look it up later.

"We must all pause and remember this dark period. Imagine the notion of World War. Millions of people dying because leaders could not communicate."

No, millions of people died because a single, megalomaniacal and homicidal human being - Adolf Hitler - began invading his neighbors, and didn't stop until he was forced to.

And don't forget, negotiation, appeasement, and settlement were given a chance - or has Ed never heard of the Munich Agreement and Neville "Peace In Our Time" Chamberlain.

"Imagine one bomb causing hundreds of thousands of deaths because leaders could not find a method of solving disputes."

That's not difficult to imagine for any of us who grew up during the Cold War. If I can point this out without seeming snarky, it seems to me leaders did find a method of solving disputes: they used the bomb to solve our dispute with Japan, then used the threat of more bombs to prevent another major conflict throughout the Cold War era.

"We then took the lead in forming the United Nations. And 60 years later our president appoints an ambassador to the UN who does not believe in the concept. Are we doomed to repeat Hirohima and Nagasaki?"

Whatever "concept" Garvey is talking about, the UN left it behind long ago. It is a useless, corrupt organization, staffed with arrogant bureaucrats who see no difference between legal democracies and brutal dictatorships. If these are the "concepts" we are supposed to believe in, then I wish President Bush had sent someone else to the UN. Pat Buchanan, maybe.

A New Blog.

Mr. Joe Shefchik from Kewaunee County has set up a new Blogger blog. It is http://wigop.blogspot.com/ and he intends it for county party officials to share ideas and talk about things.

It was initiated yesterday so don't expect to see a whole lot there at the moment.

RPW is Planning...

A blog workshop for the next Convention.

Yesterday I talked with Tom Mooney and he informed me that Kim Jornes is working on it. Has anyone heard of or met Ms. Jornes? I'ld like to find out what they have in mind as I am sure the rest of us would.

A Meeting of the Minds.

Last night Kevin and I met for some beers, food, and... oh yeah we talked too!

Very impressive, Kevin's awareness of WI politics is impressive and not just his local area but the whole state.

It very much makes me look foward to meeting the rest of the Wisconsin blogosphere.

Thanks Owen LOL

I just crushed Charlies 8.5 insight check on TMJ thanks to Owen lol.

I swear I was right in the middle of reading B&S when Charlie asked the Question he gave it away with the Monkey fly reference.

So a public Thank you to Owen for making me look so smart lol.

Regards
GBfan

Health Care Reform

RealDebateWisconsin has a nice post about a recent health care reform proposal in Congress. Check it out here.

Wisconsin is on Drudge

But it is an odd story of a blue Big Bird in Greendale.

Wisconsin blogger gathering

Okay, it is unofficially official. There will be a Wisconsin blogger get together this Sunday at State Fair. We will be meeting at the Micro Brew Beer Tent around 1 PM. It doesn't matter if you are a reader, a new blogger, a BBA blogrolled blogger, a BBA contributor, or a politician or media personality. Stop out, shoot the breeze, and enjoy the fair with us.

Government Anonymous - A Twelve-Step Program

"Hi, I'm Lance, and I'm addicted to government."

Lileks on Bolton

James Lileks, my favorite writer, pens a description of John Bolton's first day at the U.N.

My favorite part:

There are, of course, protesters. They chant: "Hey hey! Ho ho! Bolton John has got to go! Hey hey! Ho ho!" But Bolton strides right through the crowd and enters the building, leaving the protesters stunned: It didn't work! The chant didn't work! Frantic calls are placed to ANSWER, CORE, ACORN, NARAL and the National Guild of Pronounceable Acronyms (NGPA); the leadership is informed that the magic chant has failed. Lucifer has entered the temple! Repeat, Lucifer is in the temple! Call George Soros and have him fund a new one STAT! No, that doesn't stand for anything.

Read the whole thing!

BBA in print

Charlie Sykes' column is about bloggers this week. Nice to see the BBA and others in print.