Olbermann on the Death of Habeas Corpus

Click here.

US Carmakers Are Not Burdened by Labor Alone:

According to a recent report, inefficient design adds $2,400 to the cost of a car:

Side-view mirrors show Detroit’s problems
Report puts a number on Asian advantage over big U.S. automakers

It’s no secret that like companies like Nissan and Toyota are outrunning their American rivals, but now a new study has put a number on the advantage Asian automakers have over Detroit’s Big Three.

U.S. automakers make an average of $2,400 less per vehicle than their Japanese counterparts because of less-efficient purchasing and manufacturing procedures, according to a study by the Harbour-Felax Group, an industry consulting firm based in suburban Detroit.
...
By restructuring through layoffs and plant closures, GM and Ford are not focusing on the root cause of their problems, Felax said. One large U.S. automaker, which Felax declined to identify, makes 81 different types of wing mirrors, while its Asian counterpart Honda only makes two, she said. By using more common parts and processes, U.S. carmakers can close the gap with their rivals, she said.

“You can cut labor, but at the end of the day you can’t cost cut your way to competitiveness,” Felax said, adding that automakers need to share components between their vehicle brands to save money, especially commodity components that will not have a major impact on a car buyers' purchasing decision, like wing mirrors or batteries.
...
Felax calculates that for every component that is shared between vehicle models, automakers stand to save between $1,000 and $1,500 dollars per vehicle.

“So if you multiply that saving by the volume of vehicles made by any one of these companies you can see there’s a potential for saving billions of dollars,” said Felax. “GM still produces the largest volume of product of any other carmaker, and this is an issue over which they have total control” — as opposed to the vagaries of consumer tastes and gasoline prices.

Wal-Mart Workers Stage a Walkout!

From Businessweek via MSNBC:

For months, politicians and activists have been saying that the low prices at the world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart Stores, come at a tremendous cost to its low-paid employees. They point to lawsuits that contend the company discriminates against women and forces low-paid employees to work through lunch breaks and after their shifts, without extra compensation. Wal-Mart has also been boosting its political contributions to stop initiatives aimed at forcing the retailer to raise pay and benefits.

Now, as Wal-Mart rolls out a new round of workplace restrictions, employees at a Wal-Mart Super Center in Hialeah Gardens, Fla., are taking matters into their own hands. On Oct. 16, workers on the morning shift walked out in protest against the new policies and rallied outside the store, shouting "We want justice" and criticizing the company's recent policies as "inhuman." Workers said the number of participants was about 200, or nearly all of the people on the shift.
...
The protest wasn't led by any union group. Rather, it was instigated by two department managers, Guillermo Vasquez and Rosie Larosa. The department managers were not affected directly by the changes, but they felt that the company had gone too far with certain new policies. Among them were moves to cut the hours of full-time employees from 40 hours a week to 32 hours, along with a corresponding cut in wages, and to compel workers to be available for shifts around the clock.

In addition, the shifts would be decided not by managers, but by a computer at company headquarters. Employees could find themselves working 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. one week and noon to 9 p.m. the next. "So workers cannot pick up their children after school everyday, and part-timers cannot keep another job because they can be called to work anytime," says Vasquez.

In addition to scheduling changes and reduction in hours, workers are now required to call an 800 number when they are sick. "If we are at an emergency room and spend the night in a hospital and cannot call the number, they won't respect that," says Larosa, who has worked at the store for six years. "It will be counted as an unexcused absence."
...
The scheduling changes, which have been rolled out in Wal-Mart stores around the country in recent weeks, are a sign that the retailer is acting on ideas outlined in an internal document that was leaked last year. In the memo, a Wal-Mart executive said it would find ways to rid its payroll of full-time and unhealthy employees who are more expensive for the company to retain.

Wal-Mart executives have recently told Wall Street analysts that the company wants to transform its workforce from 20 percent part-time to 40 percent. Recently, it was also reported that older employees in some stores who had back and leg problems were barred from using stools on which they had sat for years.
...
What's next at the Hialeah Gardens store, where store managers have had to pitch in to keep the store open? Is this the first step to forming a union at the store? That's unlikely, given the fate of previous attempts to unionize store employees. When employees in Jonquière, Que., Canada, voted last year to unionize, Wal-Mart shut the store. Vasquez says the workers haven't really talked about their plans, beyond getting the company to change its practices. "At this point, we just want to be heard," he says.

Survey-gate: day 70

Leschke still won’t answer ethics survey while her campaign is run by antireform special interest groups

OSHKOSH – Winnebago County Democratic Party Chair Jef Hall today called on Republican candidate for the 54th Assembly district Julie Pung Leschke to stop her stalling tactics and finally answer a six question survey on ethics reform.

Seventy days ago, the August 6th Oshkosh Northwestern editorial called on all candidates to return a survey circulated by three clean government groups, including the League of Women Voters. To date, Leschke has refused to respond to the survey. In that August 6 editorial, the Northwestern said:

“What’s up here? Why did these three people avoid giving answers? Is this an indicator of how they will act if elected to the 2007-2009 term in the state Assembly?...The bottom line here is that constituents are entitled to know where political candidates stand when the issue is a statewide survey prepared by non-partisan interests. With few reasonable exceptions, candidates who don’t answer six survey questions probably shouldn’t be in office in the first place.”

In an October 2 televised Eye on Oshkosh debate, Leschke called the questionnaire a “special interest survey”, despite the fact that it was issued by an organization in which she claims membership. She went on to state that she left a name for herself as a reformer during her time on the county board, which was cut short when she quit during her second term.

As a result of refusing to answer the survey, Leshke has earned the endorsement of the anti-reform organization, Wisconsin Right to Life. Furthermore, the anti-reform group, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC), is running corporate attack ads for Leshke targeting Democratic candidate Gordon Hintz.

So far, WMC, the Wisconsin Realtors Association, and All Children Matter, a group that supports taxpayers funding private schools with no oversight, have spent an estimated $70,000 supporting Julie Pung Leschke’s campaign. All this is money that does not need to be reported to voters.

“In three weeks, Oshkosh has a decision to make,” said Hall. “Oshkosh will either vote for Gordon Hintz for leadership for a change, or for Julie Leschke and her special interest pals in Madison whose measures attacking local control have lead to the unfair garbage fee on Oshkosh property owners.”

Leschke has often called herself a reformer in her partial term on the County Board. However, while on the board, Leschke voted against resolution 54-72000 on July 25 2000 which added an advisory referendum to the ballot calling on the state legislature to pass meaningful campaign finance reform. The advisory referendum went on to have the support of more than 92% of the voters in Winnebago County.

“It’s simply irresponsible for Leschke to call herself a reformer when her record indicates she not only opposes campaign finance reform, but is comfortable with unregulated large corporate and special interests bankrolling her campaign,” said Hall. “Oshkosh needs leadership for a change. We need Gordon Hintz in the Assembly.”

All Quiet on the Blog Front...

Sorry about the sparce posting, but I am trying to get people elected....

Help out today!

Bush Sqirms on North Korea... July 10, 2006!

Click Here.

Hintz returns PAC donations

From the OshNW:

Hintz returns PAC donations
By Bethany K. Warner of The Northwestern
Democratic candidate for the 54th State Assembly district Gordon Hintz said last week he returned campaign donations from political action committees and will not accept any PAC funds for the remainder of the campaign.

Hintz said he made the decision to return nearly $2,500 in PAC contributions because he wanted to be free of any "special interest appearance."

"When you're in a competitive race, plenty of people I've never talked to before are
sending you checks," Hintz said. "There's probably a price to pay with that and I started growing increasingly uncomfortable with that."

Among the returned contributions is $500 from U.S. Senator Russ Feingold's Senate Committee, $500 from the American Federation of Teachers Wisconsin and $500 from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers along with smaller contributions from other groups.

Hintz said he never spent any money received from PACs. One in-kind contribution from Progressive Majority Wisconsin was reimbursed.

Kagen is Going to Win...

From Wispolitics:

The latest poll conducted by Maslin's firm in the race showed Kagen holding an 8 percentage-point lead over Gard in mid-September with a margin of error just more than plus or minus 4 percentage points. The survey was of 600 likely general election voters in the district. Another poll from the Dem-leaning Mellman Group, released around the same time as Maslin's, showed Kagen with a 4 percentage-point lead over Gard.

As part of its strategy, Gard's camp has declined to release internal polls or comment on polling data. Ulm did not comment on Gard's specific standing in the polls during the WisPolitics event.

Translation, Gards polls are the same or worse...

Help Steve Kagen anyway you can here.

A History of American Disenfranchisement

The NYTimes has a great article on this here.

The House of Representatives struck a major blow against democracy last month. It passed a bill that would deny the vote to anyone who shows up at the polls without a government-issued photo ID. The bill’s requirements are so onerous and inflexible that they could prevent millions of eligible voters without driver’s licenses — who are disproportionately poor, minority or elderly — from casting a ballot.

With that vote Congress joined a growing number of states that are erecting new barriers to voting. Republican-dominated legislatures and election officials have adopted absurdly difficult registration rules. They have removed eligible voters from the rolls with Katherine Harris-style purges, and required voters to buy ID cards to vote, a modern form of poll tax.

These new voting laws are disturbing, but they should not be surprising. The story of American voting is usually told as one of steady expansion: constitutional amendments extending the franchise to freed slaves, women and 18-year-olds, and Supreme Court rulings and federal laws eliminating voting obstacles for Southern blacks. But racial and religious minorities, women and the poor have historically had to fight not just to get the right to vote, but to stop it from being taken away.

America has a hidden history of disenfranchisement. It has operated, as a Harvard professor, Alexander Keyssar, recounts in his valuable history, “The Right to Vote,” on the expected lines of class, race, ethnicity and religion, and often for partisan gain. Right now, we are in another period of what Professor Keyssar calls “backsliding.” Minorities and the poor — and everyone who cares about American democracy — have to stand up for a principle that should by now be beyond debate: universal suffrage.

Long before the Constitution guaranteed women the right to vote in 1920, some women had already had the franchise and had it taken away. New Jersey, which gave women the vote in its state Constitution in 1776, disenfranchised them in 1807. Pennsylvania, which let blacks vote after the Revolution, took away their right to vote in the 1830’s.

Immigrants were another common target of disenfranchisement laws. In 1840, New York — which, like most states, did not require pre-Election Day registration — adopted a registration law that applied only to New York City, aimed at the growing Irish Catholic population. The lower classes were another target. In the 1800’s, New Jersey adopted “sunset laws” that required the polls to close before factories let out for the day. In the 1800’s and early 1900’s, many states took the vote away from “paupers.”

Disenfranchisement was often motivated by partisan politics. In the South, at the end of Reconstruction, white Democrats pushed through poll taxes and literacy tests to reduce the black Republican vote. In the North, it was Republicans putting up the barriers, like New York’s 1921 constitutional amendment imposing a rigorous literacy test, aimed at keeping hundreds of thousands of Yiddish speakers from voting.

Poll taxes and literacy tests are unconstitutional today, but the forces of disenfranchisement have come up with creative new methods. In 2004, the Ohio secretary of state, Kenneth Blackwell, ordered election officials to reject any voter registration form that was submitted on less than 80-pound paper. The edict disproportionately hurt poor and minority voters by interfering with registration drives aimed at them.

This year, Florida adopted new rules for voter registration drives that were so onerous — and carried such draconian punishments for mistakes — that the League of Women Voters of Florida announced that for the first time in 67 years it would not register voters.

Election officials are still wrongly purging eligible voters from the rolls. Four years after Ms. Harris’s error-filled purge of felons, her successor as Florida secretary of state developed another error-filled felon list. She abandoned it only after news media pointed out that, oddly enough, it included 22,000 blacks, a group that votes heavily Democratic, but just 61 Hispanics, a group that tends to vote Republican in Florida. Just last week, a court struck down another error-filled voter roll purge, in Kentucky.

The voter ID laws that have been enacted recently have been set up not to verify voters’ identities, but to stop certain groups from voting. Georgia’s law — whose sponsor was quoted in a Justice Department memo as saying that if blacks in her district “are not paid to vote, they don’t go to the polls” — required people to pay for voter ID cards, until the courts held that to be an illegal poll tax. When it took effect there was not a single office in Atlanta where the cards were for sale.

The current wave of laws began after 2000, when the presidency was decided by just 537 votes. With today’s closely divided electorate, there is more strategic value than ever in disenfranchising people who fall into groups likely to support the other party. To a disheartening degree, this new wave is supported almost entirely by Republicans and opposed only by Democrats.

The opposition should be bipartisan. Disenfranchisement undermines not only American democracy, but also the whole idea of America, by illegitimately excluding some people from their rightful place in it.

Abraham Lincoln understood this. In 1859, after Massachusetts Republicans pushed through a requirement that immigrants wait two years after becoming citizens to vote, a group of German-Americans asked Lincoln what he thought of the law — which mere partisanship should have led him to support. “I am against its adoption in Illinois, or in any other place, where I have a right to oppose it,” he responded. “Understanding the spirit of our institutions to aim at the elevation of men, I am opposed to whatever tends to degrade them.”

A Property Tax Freeze Story...

Many candidates at the state lever (Gov, Senate, Assembly, etc) are talking about how they have cut property taxes.

What they always fail to mention is that they do not levy property taxes.

These taxes are levied by youth local governments, School Districts, Cities, Towns and Counties.

These state-level candidates talking about cutting property taxes forcing these cuts to governmental bodies that are slaves to these master's whims. They make decisions from on high in Madison with blatant disregard to the individual budget situations of these institutions.

They neglect to mention that they will feel no pain as a result of these actions. It is not their budgets.

It reminds me of a story/joke I was told as a child:

One day 2 brothers, one obviously older than the other walk into a dentist's office.

The older brother walks up to the person at the desk and says, "I need a tooth pulled, and my family doesn't have much money, so I want you to do it without any novacaine or anesthetic."

"Wow," says the lady behind the desk, "you sure are brave! Where is the tooth."

Turning to his younger brother, the older brother says, "Show the lady, junior."

Remember when your local city, town or county goes into budget deliberations this fall, that we are doing the best we can.

And remember that the pain is coming from the Republican Senate and Assembly.

That said, if you are a part of my Winnebago County Board District, please contact me at anytime with your opinions/suggestions.

A Blast From the Past...

Here is the full story.

The US Government has announced that it will release $95m to North Korea as part of an agreement to replace the Stalinist country's own nuclear programme, which the US suspected was being misused.

Under the 1994 Agreed Framework an international consortium is building two proliferation-proof nuclear reactors and providing fuel oil for North Korea while the reactors are being built.

In releasing the funding, President George W Bush waived the Framework's requirement that North Korea allow inspectors to ensure it has not hidden away any weapons-grade plutonium from the original reactors.

President Bush argued that the decision was "vital to the national security interests of the United States".

Julie Pung Leschke's full quote

Someone put it together here:

Diebold on Winnebago 17

The Northwestern has published news and an editorial in support of my Diebold resolution. I have them over on my Winnebago County Board Blog.

Clarification of Yesterday’s Press Release

Clarification of Yesterday’s Press Release
Pung-Leschke’s Quote and the Total Statement from Fitzhenry

OSHKOSH – Winnebago County Democratic Party Chairman Jef Hall today issued the following correction and clarification of yesterday’s Press Release “Pung-Leschke admits she’s a quitter”.

“After reviewing the tape of the Eye on Oshkosh debate, I misquoted Republican 54 Assembly Candidate Julie Pung-Leshke’s response to a question asking why she quit the Winnebago County Board short of her full term in 2001.” Hall stated.

Pung-Leschke’s actual quote was “I did not realize what sort of challenge being on the county board would be.”

“If she was not up to the challenge of the Winnebago County Board, how will she handle the atmosphere in Madison?” Hall asked.

Hall also wanted to include the entire statement regarding Pung-Leschke’s candidacy for the 54th Assembly from Oshkosh Northwestern Managing Editor Jim Fitzhenry.

In a blog post dated Jan 17th, 2006 Fitzhenry analyzed Pung-Leschke’s candidacy with this statement:

Julie Pung Leschke, Republican:
Upside: Leschke is articulate, was among a group of supervisors fighting for change on the Winnebago County Board and she's got impeccable family and GOP connections. She may have already lined up important support from party regulars to support her campaign.

Downside: How many average housewives have an extra $300,000 grand in the cookie jar to start a bank? Leschke left the county board tired and frustrated by former board Chairman Joe Maehl. Could she stand up to the much bigger bosses in Madison?

The blog post can be found here:

http://oshkoshpolitics.blogspot.com/2006/01/rating-54th-district-candidates.html

Your vote counts... (if it is counted)

Shawano County DA Decided By One Vote

Pung-Leschke admits she’s a quitter

Pung-Leschke admits she’s a quitter

During televised debate, Julie Pung-Leschke admits she didn’t realize government service was “going to be that much work”

OSHKOSH – During Monday night’s televised Eye on Oshkosh debate, Republican Candidate for the 54th Assembly Julie Pung-Leschke admitted that when she was on the Winnebago County Board she quit on her constituents because she didn’t realize that it was a lot of hard work. Pung-Leschke resigned four months before her term was up, leaving her constituents unrepresented.

“I can’t believe she said it!” said the stunned Winnebago County Democratic Party Chair Jef Hall. “She actually said she didn’t realize how much work it was going to be, all the while asking us to vote her into the State Assembly, a role even more time consuming than the County Board.”

During last night’s televised debate, Leschke was asked why she quit the county board. Leschke responded, “I didn’t know that it was going to be that much work.”

“When you take your oath of office, you don’t have your fingers crossed. There are no take-backs in public service,” said Hall. “When you make a commitment to your constituents, you don’t just quit on them when things get too tough for you.”

According to the Oshkosh Northwestern Managing Editor Jim Fitzhenry’s January 17, 2006 blog posting, Leschke didn’t quit to spend time with her family, a common excuse for politicians when things get tough. Rather, she quit because she failed in her efforts to reduce the size of the board. Fitzhenry’s stated in his blog: “Leschke left the county board tired and frustrated by former board Chairman Joe Maehl. Could she stand up to the much bigger bosses in Madison?”

What wasn’t discussed during the televised debate is Pung-Leschke’s history of quitting jobs. A few years ago, she quit her job as the Oshkosh Symphony Director after just six weeks, but she brags about the role on her literature.

“I’m baffled as to why she even put the symphony on her literature,” said Hall. “Was the Oshkosh Symphony just a resume builder for her? Six weeks? You can’t even grow corn in six weeks!”

Watching Gordon Hintz & Julie Pung-Leschke on Eye on Oshkosh

Some thoughts:

1. Leschke says she is against all public financing. Will she accept the grant?

2. SB1 is dead. The session closed without passing it.

3. She mentioned me as the reason the Northwestern did the story on her not answering (here is the link). She won't admit she doesn't want to answer.

4. She doesn't know if she would have supported a minimum wage hike - she never thought about it? I wonder why?

5. She won't answer how to provide healthcare, she doesn't want to pay for it - because she can afford it.

6. Are seniors really leaving WI - no, they are not. Wisconsin's population is rising.

7. She can't follow how funding works?

8. Leschke is anti-death penalty - hold her to it.

Leschke Goes Negative First:

From the Hintz campaign:

Hintz Campaign: Team Leschke Goes Negative
10/2/2006

CONTACT: Gordon Hintz
(920) 279-1870 (cell)

Interest groups attack Hintz in effort to preserve legislative rubber stamp

OSHKOSH- With more than five weeks until the November 7 election, two of the largest special interest groups in the state are running television and radio advertisements attacking Democratic candidate Gordon Hintz and supporting establishment choice Julie Pung Leschke.

“I must be doing something right if my opponent has two of the biggest corporate interest groups in Wisconsin attacking me five weeks before the election,” said Hintz. When you challenge the status quo and offer real leadership for a change to people in Oshkosh, the special interest groups in Madison start running scared. And when they run scared, they run negative ads.”

Because the ads run by the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce and Wisconsin Homeowners Alliance are “issue ads” they are unregulated under existing campaign finance laws and can be purchased directly with unlimited corporate money.

“If anyone wants to know what’s wrong with the system, they should just take a look at how special interest groups are trying to buy this election,” said Hintz.

The Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) is one the major or organizations that backed the attack on local control that has led to the City of Oshkosh’s garbage fee and the proposed county sales tax. Their legislative agenda is matched almost word for word by Republican Candidate Julie Pung Leschke’s literature. WMC is also on record opposing campaign reform. Voters in the 54th Assembly District have been waiting more than 57 days for Julie Pung Leschke to answer an independent survey on reform.

Hintz, who has been outspent by Pung Leschke 4-to-1, said voters can expect more of the same corporate involvement in the remainder of the race. The Wisconsin Homeowners Alliance purchased more than $20,000 worth of television ads in the 54th District.

“Special interest groups are backing the status quo and are looking for a rubber stamp in the Assembly. Oshkosh needs an independent leader who will listen to residents and fight for Oshkosh instead of selling out to corporate interest groups,” said Hintz.

Reynolds' Rules

From the rules Sen Reynolds want followed to debate:

Audience Reaction.
The live audience will be prohibited from applauding or making noise during the forum and may not do anything visible or audible to express support or opposition to any candidate during the forum.

Cameras.
Outside of professional photographers or camera crews representing news media, no one in the forum hall shall be allowed to use any camera or video cameras during the program. If someone attempts to violate this rule, the moderator will stop the forum and ask the person to refrain from using his or her camera. The forum will not continue until the person has removed the camera from the forum hall. If the person refuses to abide by the rules, moderator will tell the person that they are trespassing on private property and will ask them to leave. If the person refuses, the moderator will discontinue the forum until the person leaves or removes the camera from the forum hall. If the disruptive person continues to use their camera/video camera, the moderator has the authority to end the forum.

I'm not sure it bodes well for a politician who is afraid of people and cameras...

Doyle v Green - Healthcare in one sentance each

Doyle:

Doyle's ultimate goal is to ensure all children in the state are covered by allowing families of any income to buy into BadgerCare.

Green:

The centerpiece of Green's plan is providing state tax credits for health savings accounts.

Seems a simple choice to me. Here is the full article.

Walmart Political Contributions:

Over the past four election cycles, the giant retailer has been steadily boosting its contributions to state and local politicians, just as such politicians have been taking on bigger roles in deciding key issues concerning the company's operations, from the local minimum wage and required health-care benefits to zoning for big-box retailers.
...
Wal-Mart gave a total of $326,875 in the 2000 election cycle, $431,017 in 2002, and $857,179 in 2004, according to research by the Institute on Money in State Politics, a nonpartisan, nonprofit research organization based in Helena, Mont. For the 2006 election cycle, the company has given $644,655 so far and seems to be on track to hit a record for political contributions.
...
Adding in money for ballot initiatives and other local issues brings the total of Wal-Mart state giving so far this cycle to $1.25 million.
...
Wal-Mart says it's become necessary to step up its contributions. For two decades it largely shunned politics because company founder Sam Walton didn't believe such activities benefited his customers. In fact, Wal-Mart didn't hire any lobbyists or establish any political action committees until 1998.
...
Today, Schwarzenegger has at least two more bills sitting on his desk that are targeted at Wal-Mart. One of the bills would require big-box retailers to conduct an economic impact report before opening large stores. Another would force large retailers to pay the legal fees of communities that win cases challenging zoning ordinances in court. Wal-Mart has sued towns with such ordinances in the past—Fresno and Turlock have won their cases and other towns have lost. But the huge legal bills that piled up during the court fights have scared other municipalities.

"The question now is: Will the governor succumb to the financial influence that Wal-Mart and the Walton family are trying to exert over his administration with their multimillion-dollar donations, and neglect a cry for help from small cities, small businesses, and workers?" asks California state Senator Richard Alarcon, who authored the latest bills.

...and then there were 36

My toughts on the County Board reduction are at my Winnebago County Board Blog.

Republicans: You Can't Vote Without a Birth Certificate or Passport

Rene Crawford has the details here.

If Roe Overturned, What Would Gossett Do?

Republican Attorney General Candidate J. B. Van Hollen asserted today that were Roe overturned, it would be up to local prosecutors to enforce Wisconsin's existing ban on abortion:

Van Hollen: State law prevails without Roe
Madison -- If the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion were to be overturned while he was attorney general, Republican attorney general candidate J.B. Van Hollen said Wednesday that the state would need to enforce a Wisconsin statute that criminalizes abortion.

But, Van Hollen said local prosecutors, not the state Department of Justice, would take the lead in such cases. While the department would provide guidance to prosecutors about what should be enforced, "I wouldn't overstep my bounds," Van Hollen said to the Dane County Public Affairs Council Wednesday morning.

Here is a question for Winnebago County DA Candidate Gossett. Where do you stand on this? Will you be waiting outside of doctor offices ready to prosecute? Will you introduce the Winnebago County DA's Office into a woman's personal decisions?

Will you prosecute rape vicims? Will you introduce police officers into the bedrooms, hospitals and health care offices of Winnebago County?

The Real Record on Clinton, Bush & Bin Laden

As told by Eric Alterman:

Following the Cole bombing, Clinton counterterrorism forces started working on an aggressive plan to retaliate against al Qaeda. Their plan to strike back reached then national security advisor Sandy Berger and other top officials on December 20, 2000. But with less than a month remaining in office and the Bush team about to take over, they decided it would be wrong to take an action that would tie the incoming administration's hands. Instead they took their case to the new administration in the hopes that some version of the plan might be enacted before it was too late. CIA director George Tenet termed al Qaeda a "tremendous threat" as well as an "immediate" one, while Berger warned Rice, "You're going to spend more time during your four years on terrorism generally and al Qaeda specifically than any other issue."

Clarke, who headed the counterterrorism office, then offered up a complete Power Point presentation to Rice, promising, "We would make a major error if we underestimated the challenge al Qaeda poses." Featuring a complete set of proposals to "roll back" al Qaeda, Clarke's plan envisaged the "breakup" of al Qaeda cells and their arrest and imprisonment. He also called for an attack on the financial network that supported the terrorists, freezing its assets, exposing its phony charities, and arresting its personnel. The United States would offer help to such disparate nations as Uzbekistan, the Philippines, and Yemen to combat the al Qaeda forces in their respective midsts.

And finally, Clarke's proposal suggested a significant increase in U.S. covert action in Afghanistan with the goal of "eliminat[ing] the sanctuary" where the Taliban and bin Laden were operating in tandem. The plan recommended a considerable increase in American support for the Northern Alliance in their fight to overthrow the Taliban's repressive regime, thereby keeping the terrorists preoccupied with protecting their gains, rather than seeking new victories elsewhere.

Simultaneously American military forces would begin planning for special operations inside Afghanistan and bombing strikes against terrorist-training camps.

It was an enormous undertaking, and Newsweek quoted one official as costing out the plan at "several hundreds of millions." Instead of acting on it, however, the Bush administration decided -- as it did with the Hart-Rudman recommendations -- to lay it aside and conduct its own review. Rice did not even bother to set up a high-level meeting to discuss the issue, but instead effectively demoted Clarke through a reorganization of the NSC structure.

As power in any strong hierarchy flows downward, the rest of the Bush team was hardly more concerned about meeting a potential terrorist threat.

All through the governmental system, the issue was moved, in the words of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Hugh Shelton, "farther to the back burner."

Does Your Vote Matter?

Coin toss decides Alaska primary...

A gold-and-silver commemorative coin spun through the air Monday and landed on a sea otter pelt -- tails up -- giving challenger Bryce Edgmon the Democratic slot on the November ballot for a seat in the state House of Representatives.

Another Olbermann Smackdown

Click here

Great Cartoon - Voting Security

Potential Democratic Campaign Commercial

A Tiny Revolution thinks this would be the perfect commercial to follow Bush's remark that "when the final history is written on Iraq, it will look like just a comma"

[sad piano music]
MOTHER: [holding picture of son in uniform] This is my son James.

CUT TO:
BUSH: I like to tell people when the final history is written on Iraq...

CUT TO:
MOTHER: James was killed in Iraq last year.

CUT TO:
BUSH: ...it will look like just a comma.

CUT TO:
MOTHER: My son was not a comma. He had a wife and a son and parents who loved him.

CUT TO:
BUSH:[at Correspondents Dinner]Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be here somewhere![audience laughs]

CUT TO:
MOTHER: Now James is dead because of a war based on lies.

CUT TO:
BUSH:[at Correspondents Dinner]No, no weapons over there![audience laughs]

CUT TO:
MOTHER:A war that's made all of President Bush's corrupt buddies rich.

SUPER: Headlines—"Halliburton gets billions in contracts," "Lockheed CEO payout in millions"

MOTHER: Please vote this November, and send George Bush a message.

CUT TO:
REPORTER:Mr. President, in your speeches now you rarely talk or mention Osama bin Laden.

BUSH:I truly am not that concerned about him.

SUPER: "Vote to send a message. Vote for change. Vote Democratic."

Death Penalty In WI

Xoff has a great idea here.