Sheboygan's Only Effective Politican Steps Up

It's a pity my "good friend" Sadie's not blogging anymore. I'd have love to hear what the bitch (as in female dog, but hey, it works the other way too) would have to say about how her owner's boss dropped the ball on this.

Thankfully, we have Joe Leibham (R-Sheboygan) to come to the rescue.

State Sen. Joe Leibham says he plans to introduce legislation to streamline Wisconsin's child enticement statutes after a judge threw out a jury conviction on a technicality.

Mitchell Pask was charged with trying to lure a girl into a Sheboygan park shelter for sex. A jury found him guilty this month. But Judge Timothy Van Akkeren threw the verdict out.

Van Akkeren says that under Wisconsin's child enticement statutes, Pask had to lure the girl into a secluded area. The shelter wasn't secluded enough to meet that burden.

Leibham, a Sheboygan Republican, says his bill will remove the secluded language from the statutes.

What's most amazing here is the silence from State Assemblyman Terry Van Akkeren (D-Sheboygan) during all this mess about the ruling. I don't know if he's too embarrassed to say anything, or he's too busy trying to protect Timmy, a relation.

Makes you wonder what the over-under is on this coming back to bite Terry in future campaigns. Probably has killed his dream of becoming the next Mayor of Sheboygan, that's for sure.

[Secret Decoder Ring on the "Insider Lingo": In case any one's forgotten..."Sadie" is Sheboygan's favorite UAW hack and former City Councilman, Bill Stephen. Stephen also served as Campaign Manager to Terry Van Akkeren's 2006 re-election bid.

Last I heard he was engaged to a legislative staffer of, you guessed it, Terry Van Akkeren!

"Sadie" is the name of her golden retriever.

Bill, care to comment for old time's sake?]

RE: Road trip

What I found so interesting in all this was the lack of any sort of relative editorial in the Sheboygan Press on this matter today.

Instead, all you have is a rather thought-out letter from of all places Concord, Nebraska, which highlights how nationally this story's gone.

The only thing close to anything regarding the event is an editorial asking for civility on the paper's online comment boards. That's fine and all, but it dismisses the reason as to why the sudden lack of civility's going on.

I don't know what's going on. Either the paper wrote all of its editorials ahead of time (something they have done in the past) and hasn't gotten around it. That however, doesn't explain today's editorial about online civility. Or, they haven't the stones to say anything at all about the decision; or they haven't the nerve to attack a Van Akkeren of Sheboygan.

Take your pick.

Road trip to dispel Judge Van Akkeren’s ruling that overturns jury guilty verdict

I took a ride to Sheboygan this weekend. I wanted to see for myself if Judge Van Akkeren's ruling that a child molester should be set free because there is no secluded areas in a park where a pervert tried to entice yet another child. You can see the video results here:

Road trip to dispel Judge Van Akkeren’s ruling that overturns jury guilty verdict