(Another) Republican DA (and eager Van Hollan defender/supporter) on trial for felony...

I guess it isn't just Winnebago County....

Bayfield Co. DA to stand trial on felony misconduct charges

Suspended Bayfield District Attorney H. Craig Haukaas will face arraignment in January on charges of felony misconduct in office and conspiracy to entice a defendant to commit bail jumping, a state judge ruled Wednesday.

Haukaas appeared in Bayfield County Circuit Court before Douglas County Circuit Court Judge George Glonek for a motion hearing and preliminary examination to determine whether there was enough probable cause for Haukaas to stand trial.

The two counts stem from an investigation by special prosecutor Guy T. Ludvigson into allegations that Haukaas conspired in a secret deal with public defender Joe Crawford between October and November 2003 on charges against Crawford's client, Joseph Soulier.

This is the weird part...

The criminal complaint, filed on Oct. 31, alleges that Haukaas and Crawford arranged for Soulier to leave Wisconsin for three years in exchange for dropping the three misdemeanor charges. After a Nov. 4, 2003 status conference, Soulier was released on bond and was supposed to return for a Dec. 9, 2003 court appearance.

Does this really happen? It sounds like a bad movie where the lawman takes you to the edge of town with a warning not to come back...

Is that really in society's best interest?

Anyway, it turns out that Haukaas was quite the Van Hollen cheerleader. There was the $500 donation, the quote defending Van Hollen from his own mistakes in the DA's office:

“This ad by the Falk team is a desperate display of politics. It further victimizes the surviving family members, something Van Hollen was able to avoid when he got Newago to agree to plea guilty without going to trial. The Falk team should be ashamed of themselves.”
Bayfield County District Attorney Craig Haukaas

Gerald Ford, James Brown and the History of Funk...

A witty aside from a review of a recent Fishbone show...

"James Brown got to go to heaven for Christmas," declared Fishbone singer/saxophonist Angelo Moore after the very first song at Harpers Ferry on Wednesday. The veteran funk/ska/punk band owes an obvious debt to the late Godfather of Soul and paid homage by quoting his songs and mimicking his showmanship throughout the night. No mention was made of Gerald Ford, whose impact on the development of funk was less profound.

Good to hear Fishbone is back out on the trail. I was supposed to see them in 2002 (Aug 9th - the day after my birthday) in Milwaukee. I didn't make the show, wouldn't you know I received $500 in needed car replacements for my birthday that year when the radiator of my Jeep died.

Anyway, here's one of my favorite Fishbone songs - I'm sure James Brown would approve. (I won't presume to speak for Pres. Ford.)

Another reason we will miss Peg...

AG releases opinion on domestic pratner benefits in Madison...

Click here.

The Consequenses of Poorly Funded and Managed Services:

I hope the investigations are thorough and the punishments complete. All the way to the chief executive of the county. It is time for him to take responsibility for his irresponsible management.

State inspectors declared all patients at the Milwaukee County Mental Health Complex to be in immediate jeopardy after discovering that a second person was starving and neglected at the facility last month, a new report shows.

The state inspection was prompted by a Journal Sentinel investigation detailing the starvation death of Cindy Anczak, 33, at the Wauwatosa complex.

When state inspectors arrived after the story appeared, they learned of a 65-year-old man who had lost 44 pounds in three months. The patient was suffering from dehydration and weakness when he was transferred to an acute medical care hospital. He also had been overmedicated.

Happy Birthday, Stan!

Marvel Comics' Stan Lee turns 84 today!

Edwards is in the Pool...

Something to look forward to tomorrow:

When Mr. Edwards announces, with a round of morning talk show interviews and a press conference in the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans, he will become the third Democrat to enter the race formally.
...
Understandably, candidates are going to do what it takes to get publicity. Mr. Edwards’s aides said they chose this slow-news time of year, and the backdrop of New Orleans neighborhoods ravaged by Hurricane Katrina, in part to command the maximum amount of attention. Camera crews will be permitted to film Mr. Edwards as he helps with the cleanup efforts.

I think that Edwards has done all the right things for a Presidential run in '08. He saw the return to economic populism that was building in '04 (and was maybe just a little too far in front of it).

Note - Just as he was just a little bit in front of the 'Daily Show' movement by announcing his '04 run on the show.

But, time and circumstance has caught up with Mr. Edwards. I think his message of two Americas becoming one is exactly what we need and want to hear in '08.

By announcing in New Orleans, the heart of the Republican failure in both economic and governmental mis-management and failure shows that he was right all along. There is no better fishbowl for his message of hope amid the ruins of our economy.

Go get 'em John!

A Sad Milestone...

The latest deaths also brought the number of U.S. military members killed since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003 to at least 2,978 — five more than the number killed in the Sept. 11 attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

A little disappointed...

Colbert did not have the entire Decemberists, just the incredibly talented guitarist.

Framton was quite the surprise...

Well, here is the coolest Decemberists song, split in three:

Part 1:


Part 2:


Part 3:

A View from the Den...

Well, I received my email from the Mark Green campaign today.

The headline said:

From the desk of Mark Green

How's the view form the den, Mark?

Watch Colbert Tonight...

He will be doing a 'shred off' against the Decemberists!

On Pinochet

Remember the words of perhaps my favorite political thinker, Joe Strummer:

As every cell in Chile will tell
The cries of the tortured men
Remember Allende, and the days before,
Before the army came
Please remember Victor Jara,
In the Santiago Stadium,
Es verdad - those Washington Bullets again

The whole song is here.

John Nichols Sells Out Progressive Ideals, Calls for Petri to Join Dems

This kind of chaffes my hide.

I enjoy Nichols' writing for the most part, but I have seen him speak several times where he says that the Democratic Party is not pure enough, that we are the lesser evil and need to become more Progressive...

Yet, his new solution is to have Petri, who stands firmly against collective bargaining and overtime, for the PATRIOT Act, voted for all of Bush's tax cuts, called Medicare Part D the 'greatest domestic legislative accomplishment of 2003' and stands firmly with Bush on the war; join the Democratic Party.

Petri can go ahead and join the Greens with Mr. Nichols.

Newsweek CW Wraps Up 2006 For Bush in a Sentance...

Bush
Last year's CW said, "Nowhere to go but up." Once again, he confounded expectations.

John Gard is Trying Somethng Different in Retirement...

"I've had opportunities to go other places, but I really want to live in northeastern Wisconsin," he said.

2 Quick Lunch Hits

Eric Boehlert on the various conservative bloggers pushing more and more war:

the 101st Fighting Keyboardists

Here is a must read: American whistleblowers are subjected to torture conditions and detention in Iraq.

Former U.S. Detainee in Iraq Recalls Torment

American guards arrived at the man’s cell periodically over the next several days, shackled his hands and feet, blindfolded him and took him to a padded room for interrogation, the detainee said. After an hour or two, he was returned to his cell, fatigued but unable to sleep.

The fluorescent lights in his cell were never turned off, he said. At most hours, heavy metal or country music blared in the corridor. He said he was rousted at random times without explanation and made to stand in his cell. Even lying down, he said, he was kept from covering his face to block out the light, noise and cold. And when he was released after 97 days he was exhausted, depressed and scared.

Profound Thought of the Day:

From a NYTimes Article on why no one is defending Bush anymore...

But when a politician makes likability a substitute for authority, his opponents make hatred a substitute for opposition.

A Dark Day...

Today in History:

2000
Republican George W. Bush claimed the presidency 36 days after Election Day; Democrat Al Gore conceded defeat.

...

p.s. - Happy Birthday Steve Buscemi

Muhammad Yunus' Nobel Lecture

Click here for the entire lecture. Hat tip to Playground Politics.

Some highlights:

By giving us this prize, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has given important support to the proposition that peace is inextricably linked to poverty. Poverty is a threat to peace.

World's income distribution gives a very telling story. Ninety four percent of the world income goes to 40 percent of the population while sixty percent of people live on only 6 per cent of world income. Half of the world population lives on two dollars a day. Over one billion people live on less than a dollar a day. This is no formula for peace.
...
Poverty is the absence of all human rights. The frustrations, hostility and anger generated by abject poverty cannot sustain peace in any society. For building stable peace we must find ways to provide opportunities for people to live decent lives.
...
We get what we want, or what we don't refuse. We accept the fact that we will always have poor people around us, and that poverty is part of human destiny. This is precisely why we continue to have poor people around us. If we firmly believe that poverty is unacceptable to us, and that it should not belong to a civilized society, we would have built appropriate institutions and policies to create a poverty-free world.

We wanted to go to the moon, so we went there. We achieve what we want to achieve. If we are not achieving something, it is because we have not put our minds to it. We create what we want.

What we want and how we get to it depends on our mindsets. It is extremely difficult to change mindsets once they are formed. We create the world in accordance with our mindset. We need to invent ways to change our perspective continually and reconfigure our mindset quickly as new knowledge emerges. We can reconfigure our world if we can reconfigure our mindset.

I believe that we can create a poverty-free world because poverty is not created by poor people. It has been created and sustained by the economic and social system that we have designed for ourselves; the institutions and concepts that make up that system; the policies that we pursue.

Poverty is created because we built our theoretical framework on assumptions which under-estimates human capacity, by designing concepts, which are too narrow (such as concept of business, credit- worthiness, entrepreneurship, employment) or developing institutions, which remain half-done (such as financial institutions, where poor are left out). Poverty is caused by the failure at the conceptual level, rather than any lack of capability on the part of people.
...
A human being is born into this world fully equipped not only to take care of him or herself, but also to contribute to enlarging the well being of the world as a whole. Some get the chance to explore their potential to some degree, but many others never get any opportunity, during their lifetime, to unwrap the wonderful gift they were born with. They die unexplored and the world remains deprived of their creativity, and their contribution.

He also goes in to the idea of social businesses, and even a social stock market. Read it all.

A Must Read

Waxing America on the Cheese War

I agree 100% - Cutting benefits for elected officials will only allow the wealthy to run

Left on the lake has a great explanation here.

I discuss a full vs part-time legislature here.

I assume there will be a large fiction section...

Big names, big dollars in Bush library bid
Baylor, SMU, Dallas pull out all stops for site that can be economic boon for host city

DALLAS — For a president, it's a place where his legacy is polished and set on display for posterity.
For the host town, a presidential library can mean an instant tourist attraction and a shot of economic vitality.
Three Texas universities are hoping to land the George W. Bush presidential library, and each is calling in its own heavy hitters and Bush backers to try to make the case.

Oshkosh Northwestern Does Follow-up on Poverty in Winnebago County

Here is the story. Below are some highlights:

One year after a special two-part series in The Northwestern, "Living on the Edge: The Peril of Poverty," recently released statistics show the number of people living in poverty is on the rise in Winnebago County. In fact, an additional 4,100 residents saw their incomes slide enough over the past two years to be considered living in poverty.
...
The U.S. Census Bureau's 2005 American Community Survey, which was released in October, reported that more than 15,500 individuals in Winnebago County, or 10.4 percent of the county's population, were living in poverty based on federal guidelines. That 36.1 percent increase means 4,100 more county residents are now living in poverty as opposed to the 11,000 the U.S. Census Bureau reported in 2003.
...
For a family of four, the federal poverty line for 2006 is an annual income of $20,000. But in Winnebago County, the cost of living for that same family is more than twice that amount. Penn State University's "Poverty in America" project determined the living wage in Winnebago County for a family of four is $42,356.
...

Local agencies that help individuals who are struggling have seen the results of the increase.

Tim Gessler, the manager of the financial assistance division at Winnebago County Department of Human Services, said an increase in the number of individuals seeking help closely mirrors the increase in the number of residents who are considered living in poverty.

In April 2006, 15,068 county residents received BadgerCare or some other type of medical assistance, a 36.7 percent increase over the 11,030 residents who received the same benefits in April 2003.

While not as large, the number of residents seeking food assistance has also increased.

Gessler said in 2005, 11,543 county residents received assistance through FoodShare, a food and nutrition program based on the federal food stamp program that helps Wisconsin residents not only purchase food, but also make healthy nutritious choices. That's an increase of 25.8 percent over the 9.175 residents who received nutrition aid in 2003.

Kudos to Today's OshNW Editorial: "What corporate income tax burden?"

Here is the complete editorial.

Wisconsin Manfacturers and Commerce (which paid for plenty of those anti-property-tax political commercials bombarding your TVs before the Nov. 7 election) has been a leading voice in the "tax hell" chant. The organization has also called for the elimination of corporate income tax burden in Wisconsin to recharge the business climate.

What corporate income tax burden?

It's no surprise the WMC's leader was quick to downplay the Institute for Wisconsin's Future income-tax analysis as slanted, emanating from a "left-leaning"
organization created by public unions and Democrat backers.

Frankly, average property taxpayers have far better standing to question the WMC's slants right now.

Yes: Wisconsin's property tax is unfair. Yes: Too much of our tax burden is borne by average Wisconsin homeowners.

But if the WMC was honest about or aware of Wisconsin's true tax problems, it would acknowledge many of Wisconsin's most esteemed manufacturing and commerce leaders don't seem to be paying a proportionate share.

If only average property taxpayers could afford to buy a TV ad explaining that one to the WMC.

I love that last line...

Moyers Speach to West Point

Read it all here:

It is impossible for soldiers to sustain in the field what cannot be justified in the Constitution; asking them to do so puts America at war with itself. So when the Vice President of the United States says it doesn’t matter what the people think, he and the President intend to prosecute the war anyway, he is committing heresy against the fundamental tenets of the American political order.

Is Kaufert Looking for a Job with Doyle?

Spice Boys have the scoop here:

"John Kerry won my district," Kaufert said of the 2004 Democratic presidential candidate. "But you've got to look beyond that. I've got to look out for my future too. . . . You've got to look out for the team, the Republican team. But after the events recently, I've got to look out for myself, too."

Translation: Kaufert's references are available on request.

Actually, Doyle probably knew that already, since his guys broached the subject with Kaufert a couple of days after he was re-elected on a 52%-48% margin.

Kaufert said a pal who is close to the guv called him to congratulate him on his victory and to ask whether he would be open to joining the administration. Kaufert's response: He'd listen to any offer but would be particularly interested in a cabinet post heading revenue, tourism or commerce. Deputy secretary would be OK, too.

The More Things Change...?

Aspointed out by the Center for American Progress:

"The recent bombings were to perpetuate the sectarian violence. In other words, we've been in this phase for a while."-- President Bush, 11/27/06, on how the recent violence in Iraq does not represent a new phase

VERSUS

"We're clearly in a new phase characterized by an increase in sectarian violence that requires us to adapt to that new phase."-- National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley, 11/27/06

Creative Legislation

From MSNBC:

SAN DIEGO - The City Council here voted late Tuesday to ban certain giant retail stores, dealing a blow to Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s potential to expand in the nation’s eighth-largest city.

The measure, approved on a 5-3 vote, prohibits stores of more than 90,000 square feet that use 10 percent of space to sell groceries and other merchandise that is not subject to sales tax. It takes aim at Wal-Mart Supercenter stores, which average 185,000 square feet and sell groceries.

Kagen - Ahead of the Curve on Iraq

Steve Kagen's Website

Elect Strong and Smart Leaders to Bring an End to our Involvement in the Civil War in what once was Iraq, and Win the War against Extremism. We are engaged in an Iraqi conflict projected to cost more than $2 trillion and saddle our next generation with a debt they are unable to repay. It is time to develop a smart and strong solution - other than by making war in the wrong places.

Steve Kagen - Jun 10, 2006

Though he also said the U.S. must end its involvement in the "civil war in Iraq," Kagen focused his remarks on taking back control of Congress from the "corrupt" Republican leadership this November.

Steve Kagen - Aug 6, 2006

"I agree with President Bush that the war ended in May of 2003 and we should now call it what it is, an occupation of a territory that used to be known as Iraq,'' Kagen said. "We are involved in a civil war…It has turned into a civil war. What else can you call it when 100 people a day are being assassinated in what used to be a capital city?

Steve Kagen - Nov 2, 2006

Kagen said America must acknowledge that mistakes have been made in Iraq, deploy the forces elsewhere and go after terrorist leaders in Afghanistan. "We are currently in the middle of a civil war between the Sunni and Shiite peoples," he said. "The plain fact is they don't want us there."

Steve Kagen - Nov 9, 2006

"I don't think our brave military men and women belong in the middle of a civil war," Kagen said Wednesday. "I believe Iraq is gone. It has gone the way of Yugoslavia. At the end of the day, it will be Kurdistan in the north and it remains to be seen how the Sunni and Shiite sects will solve their problems."

And now:

MSNBC - Nov 27, 2006

NBC News Monday branded the Iraq conflict a civil war — a decision that put it at odds with the White House and that analysts said would increase public disillusionment with the U.S. troop presence there.

Washington Post - Nov 27, 2006

After nearly four years of letting the Bush Administration set the terms of the national debate over Iraq, some major news organizations are finally calling the conflict there what it is: a civil war. The White House is howling in protest.

UPI - Nov 27, 2006

A number of major U.S. news organizations have begun calling the sectarian strife in Iraq a "civil war."

Touchscreen Voting on Agenda for State Elections Board

Meeting Nov 29th @ 9:30AM at the Capitol

Here is the agenda (follow links in agenda for more info)

Peg Lautenschlager Mixes It Up in the FDL 'Caged Bird' Saga

Atty Gen Peg Lautenschlager has come out in support of the classic lit piece:

Speaking as a parent, State Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager said she is opposed to a Fond du Lac family's petition asking that Maya Angelou's "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" be removed from the sophomore advanced English curriculum at Fond du Lac High School.
...
A mother, father and student oppose the book as part of a reading assignment because passages in the book describe Angelou's rape and subsequent unwanted pregnancy, said Fond du Lac High School Principal Mary Fran Merwin.
...
District policy allows any parent the right to request a book not be used. If the complainants are unhappy with the committee's decision, they can appeal to the superintendent and the board of education, Merwin said.
...
Lautenschlager said she was most concerned with the manner in which those arguing for the book's removal have framed Angelou's discussion of her rape.

"Rape is not a sexual act; it is a violent act. Rape is a vicious means by which a perpetrator uses forced sex to obtain domination and control of a victim," she said. "It happens every day in this nation, and it happens in Fond du Lac. It has happened to many Fond du Lac High School students."

Goldsmith said when the parents objected to the book, the student was immediately assigned an alternative reading assignment, but the parents decided to take it a step further and asked to have the book removed.
...
Lautenschlager said that for too long the crime of rape could not be discussed publicly and victims were further victimized because they were shunned by society's disgust of the crime.

"Denying all students at Fond du Lac High School the opportunity to read, discuss, analyze and learn from a brilliant, insightful and relevant piece of literature is just plain wrong," Lautenschlager said. "I also am the daughter of lifetime educators, and I get nervous when a small group of parents are allowed to overrule the wise judgment of educators and dictate what all of our children will learn."

Way to go, Peg!