Quote of the Day - From David Brooks?

The Consevative Columnist Gets One Right:

The president says he will allow White House staff to appear before Congress, but not in public, not under oath and not with a transcript. The president apparently expects his supporters to rally behind the sacred cause of No Transcript. In time of war, he’s decided to expend political capital so that his staffers can lie to Congress without legal consequences.

Ziegler Hall of Shame Part 1 - Democrats

I have been tossing the Judge Ziegler controversy around in my head for a few days, and there is one question that I just don't seem to be able to answer:

Why does she still have such a long list of endorsers?

A quick recap:

As a Judge in Washington County, Ziegler has repeatedly and blatantly flaunted judicial ethics. Time and again she has ruled on cases where she has a substantial personal economic interest. The most outrageous being cases involving West Bend Savings Bank. Her husband sits on the board of the bank (a paid position), they lease office space to the bank, and have recieved more than $3 million in loans from the institution (Progressive Majority has the details). Yet she did not recuse herself from more than 70 cases before her.

She also has heard arguments for United HealthCare, in which she owns stock worth more than $50,000.

In fact, Progressive Majority has dug up at least 121 cases incolving companies that she owns a total of more than $300,000 dollars in stock that have come before her, yet she has not a single recusal.

So, we know that Annette Ziegler does not have the ethical make-up to be on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, a body that should be investigating her lapses.

Why then, does she still have a long list of endorsers? I would like to encourage those in the blogosphere to contact the people she has listed as endorsers and find out if they stand by her ethical decisions.

Here is a list of Democratic elected officials that have endorsed her unethical behavior. Contact them today. Also, remember when they are up for election that they condone unethical behavior in judges.

Democratic:
Sheriffs
Barron - Thomas Richie
Bayfield - Robert Follis
Dunn - Dennis Smith
Langlade - William Greening
Milwaukee - David Clarke
Oneida - Jeff Hoffman
Pepin - John Andrews
Pierce - Nancy Hove
Polk - Tim Moore
Portage - John Charewicz
Rusk - David Kaminski
Taylor - Bruce Daniels
Trempealeau - Richard Anderson
Wood County - Tom Reichert

DA’s
Barron - Angela Holmstrom
Burnett - Kenneth Kutz
Clark - Darwin Zwieg
Crawford - Tim Baxter
Douglas - Dan Blank
Jackson - Gerald Fox
Langlade - Ralph Uttke
Milwaukee - John Chisholm
Rusk - Kathleen Pakes

I will follow up with Republicans and local Judges. I will be contacting my local officials, please contact yours.

Urge them to put out a public statement refuting Ziegler's lack of ethics.

The Northwestern Gets it all Wrong (An Open Letter)

Dearest Oshkosh Northwestern,

Look, I understand you are just trying to appear fair and balanced - but you messed it all up again. I'm sure you are all bright enough to really get it, so let's look at what today's editorial should have said.

In this, you made the point that Mark Green's illegal money transfer is the same thing as a Doyle donor being indicted for diverting contributions to the campaign. You surmise that both are corrupt.

Seriously, Democrats, Republicans both: Each of your top party people have been in or are in hot water.

This is not true. Let's look at the facts of these cases.

Mark Green, HIMSELF, decided to illegally transfer federal money into a state account. When he was told that it was against the law, he PERSONALLY flaunted the law and took the matter to the State Elections Board. They declared that he was, in fact in violation of the law. Mark Green agreed that he had in fact violated the regulation PERSONALLY (or why would he have agreed to the sanction).

Meanwhile - a contributor to Gov. Doyle, without the campaign's knowledge, launched an alleged scheme to give money to the campaign by paying his relatives. It is the contributor - a private individual - not a member of the campaign that may have violated the law. Neither Doyle nor any of his campaign staff were implicated (many stories mentioned that the Doyle campaign was cooperating in the investigation). It is not illegal for Doyle to accept donations. None of the donations were over a legal limit per person. All alleged illegal activity occurred before any money entered the Doyle campaign and they had any control over the situation.

The difference is stark and clear. In the Mark Green case, he PERSONALLY made the decision to break the law and flaunt it with lawsuits. Gov. Doyle has done nothing illegal, and is assisting in the prosecution of a contributor.

Dearest Northwestern, I would hope that you would clarify this point in a future issue.

I will be holding my breath.

Sincerely,

-jef-

P.S. You also insinuate that there has been pay-to-play casino deal with the Troha contributions to Doyle. This is also untrue. There is no casino deal in Kenosha, and many feel the deal is as good as dead. If you check your own reporting, you will see that the only politician that has gone pay-to-play with Troha is Republican Paul Ryan:

The latest investigation into Troha involves a deal he signed in 2005 with JHT Holdings, the conglomerate he used to own. Under the deal, his consulting firm was to receive money each year until June 2010 if federal lawmakers passed a measure easing truck hauling regulations.
...
Officials for Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, and Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., confirmed the lawmakers offered the amendment. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., signed a letter to Young and Oberstar and one to the Federal Highway Administration supporting the amendment.
...
Troha and his family and friends have given $58,802 to Ryan since he first ran for Congress in 1998, records showed.

To recap - as of the publishing of this editorial:

1. Mark Green has admitted (by agreeing to the settlement) that he attempted to violate Federal Campaign Finance law.

2. Paul Ryan accepted money from Troha and helped pass a law that resulted in an immediate profit for Troha. Ryan felt so guilty about it, he donated the money (therefore also admitting guilt).

3. Gov. Doyle has been accused of no wrongdoing, his campaign has aided in the investigation and Troha has seen no benefit from the contributions to the campaign.

Yet, Democrats and Republican are equally guilty?

My breath is still being held.

A Question of Priorities

A story on the Northwestern's website:

Community raising funds for puppy's surgery
Bones broken when dog
was hit by van

An east-side Green Bay puppy's fate lies in the balance as the community rallies to raise money needed for surgery after a van hit her last week.

Pepper, a 9-month-old Lab-Springer mix, bounded out through a door not latched securely on March 14 and ran into the street to visit the neighbor children.
...
Veterinarians at Animal House Pet Clinic, 3171 Voyager Drive, Bellevue, stabilized Pepper, but she would need to go elsewhere for more high-tech surgery, which will involve plates and pins on both hind legs. The surgery could range from $2,000 to $5,000...
...
Kelly Winters, a west-side resident and self-professed animal lover, heard about the dog on Monday and sent out a series of e-mails to her "animal-loving network of friends."

"I started getting immediate responses," Winters said, adding that she'd gotten several of her friends to commit to a small financial contribution by the end of the day.

While I cannot fault these kind residents their feelings for the injured puppy, I find myself thinking back to a story I recently posted as I read this:

Twelve-year-old Deamonte Driver died of a toothache Sunday.

A routine, $80 tooth extraction might have saved him.

If his mother had been insured.

If his family had not lost its Medicaid.

If Medicaid dentists weren't so hard to find.

As you think about the poor puppy's suffering, also reflect on the community at large. Where are our priorities?

Kinda Says It All...

The MJS sums up the entire Judicial race in 2 sentences:

The judicial ethics code says a judge must withdraw if his or her spouse is a director of a business involved in a case. Since 2004, Ziegler has handled two dozen cases involving West Bend Savings Bank, where her husband, J.J. Ziegler, is a director.

Are there any other questions?

Sick Day Payouts in the Private Sector?

Sick day payouts are almost non-existent for private sector employees, said John Metcalf, director of human resource policy for Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce.

From this article in the MJS.

I have not done an in-depth study on this, but here is my personal experience:

Both of the full-time hourly employers that I have worked for in the private sector have allowed sick-day payouts. The difference being that they were in the same year.

If I was alotted 5 sick days in 2006, and only took 1 - I was payed out the remaining 4 in cash at the end of the year.

I do not have this benefit now. After I switched from an hourly position to a salary position, the perk was removed. However (and this is the key here...) it was replaced with a different benefit.

That way I did not lose in total compensation, I actually improved.

That is the rub in this discussion. If we take this benefit away, and we want to keep good people in place, what are we going to replace it with?

The American way is supposed to be fair pay for fair work. We offered these employees a position with defined benefits and wages that made up a compensation package. We cannot change those rules part-way through employment and after years of service.

It is unfair, it is un-American.

A Few Reasons I'm Glad Kagen Won...

The first few paragraphs of a Post-Crescent Story:

U.S. Rep. Steve Kagen plans to introduce legislation in Congress later this year for universal health care coverage.

His announcement to seniors at the Thompson Community Center on Friday came after he told them that he and U.S. Rep. Jason Altmire, D-Pa., have introduced a bill to repeal the Medicare Part D late enrollment fee.

The bill, if approved, will be the first step to reform health care, he said.

Seniors who qualified to enroll in Medicare Part D but missed the May 2006 deadline and do not fall into a special enrollment period, pay 1 percent of the national average premium multiplied by the number of months they delayed enrollment.

"You shouldn't be fined for what the government can't explain to you," Kagen, D-Appleton, told a group of 30 seniors in attendance.

Additionally, Kagen said he has called on U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt to grant Wisconsin a waiver to let SeniorCare continue.

NYTimes - 'Voter Fraud' is a Code Word:

In its fumbling attempts to explain the purge of United States attorneys, the Bush administration has argued that the fired prosecutors were not aggressive enough about addressing voter fraud. It is a phony argument; there is no evidence that any of them ignored real instances of voter fraud. But more than that, it is a window on what may be a major reason for some of the firings.

In partisan Republican circles, the pursuit of voter fraud is code for suppressing the votes of minorities and poor people. By resisting pressure to crack down on “fraud,” the fired United States attorneys actually appear to have been standing up for the integrity of the election system.
...
There is no evidence of rampant voter fraud in this country. Rather, Republicans under Mr. Bush have used such allegations as an excuse to suppress the votes of Democratic-leaning groups. They have intimidated Native American voter registration campaigners in South Dakota with baseless charges of fraud. They have pushed through harsh voter ID bills in states like Georgia and Missouri, both blocked by the courts, that were designed to make it hard for people who lack drivers’ licenses — who are disproportionately poor, elderly or members of minorities — to vote. Florida passed a law placing such onerous conditions on voter registration drives, which register many members of minorities and poor people, that the League of Women Voters of Florida suspended its registration work in the state.

The claims of vote fraud used to promote these measures usually fall apart on close inspection, as Mr. McKay saw. Missouri Republicans have long charged that St. Louis voters, by which they mean black voters, registered as living on vacant lots. But when The St. Louis Post-Dispatch checked, it found that thousands of people lived in buildings on lots that the city had erroneously classified as vacant.

Contractors (Mercenaries) in Iraq

History and information in this must-read article.

Unbeknownst to many Americans and largely off the Congressional radar, Blackwater has secured a position of remarkable power and protection within the US war apparatus. This company's success represents the realization of the life's work of the conservative officials who formed the core of the Bush Administration's war team, for whom radical privatization has long been a cherished ideological mission. Blackwater has repeatedly cited Rumsfeld's statement that contractors are part of the "Total Force" as evidence that it is a legitimate part of the nation's "warfighting capability and capacity." Invoking Rumsfeld's designation, the company has in effect declared its forces above the law--entitled to the immunity from civilian lawsuits enjoyed by the military, but also not bound by the military's court martial system. While the initial inquiries into Blackwater have focused on the complex labyrinth of secretive subcontracts under which it operates in Iraq, a thorough investigation into the company reveals a frightening picture of a politically connected private army that has become the Bush Administration's Praetorian Guard.

Sheriff Clarke as a Democrat?

Here is a quote I came across:

"While I’m a Republican and Sheriff Clarke was elected as a Democrat"

That's from a commercial recorded with Gehring and Clarke - he can't even say he is a Democrat.

Oshkosh School Board Candidate Becker: Teach Intelligent Design in School

He responded to a question on the OshNW forum:

A question was posed on the general thread about the inclusion of "intelligent design" in the science curriculum.

My position on that issue that is that if we are going to actually make sure that are students are "well rounded" that we need to offer all the possibilities and let the students make the decision as to which is the most plausible. I for one can appreciate both possibilities and while I believe that intelligent design was the "Genesis" of the universe, we must make sure that all possibilities are offered.

Please remember this anti-science view when you vote.

Cartoon of the Day:

WI State Elections Board: Republicans Are Lying to You

The full press release is here.

Wisconsin Elections Have No ‘Integrity Problem’ News Release Falsely
Claims Voter Registration System is Down

MADISON, WI – The Republican Party of Wisconsin’s claim that the Statewide Voter Registration System (SVRS) is broken is false, an Elections Board official said today.

“We can provide public officials and elected representatives with the facts,” said Kevin Kennedy, executive director of the State Elections Board. “Claims such as these undermine the public’s trust in Wisconsin’s election system.”

The Republican news release called the SVRS a “voting system,” and said
the State has already spent its budgeted $27 million on the project. Neither is true.
...
Kennedy said the party’s claims of systemic voter fraud are unsubstantiated.

“It is irresponsible to claim that voter fraud has resulted from use of the SVRS,” Kennedy added.

What????

No Heroes until April 24th?

LWV on VoterID

Here is the release.

Here are excerpts:

...
Let’s put this issue to rest before wasting the paper and ink: this proposal would not improve our elections, but would prevent citizens from voting. Recent studies and common sense say the Legislature should kill this proposal immediately.

Allegations of widespread voter fraud do not hold up to investigation. There is no record of voters acting en mass to misidentify themselves or vote multiple times.
...
The New York Times1 recently confirmed common sense fears: requiring photo IDs to vote keeps people from the polls. The United States Election Assistance Commission (EAC) has decisive statistics verifying that minorities are most affected by this barrier to voting. We have long understood that poll taxes and literacy tests are unfair: they keep specific, targeted populations from voting and lead to a farce of democracy in which only some are represented. Photo ID requirements work the same way.
...
Those with low incomes or disabilities have the most difficulties obtaining an ID. Students and other mobile populations have a difficult time maintaining current IDs. These voters should not be punished.
...
Requiring a photo ID to vote is a proven method of keeping voters from the polls. That is a loss our democracy cannot afford.

A History (and Irony) Lesson For Our Republican Friends...

I found this to be the ultimate in irony as I was reading over my regular internet news stops.

New York Times - On This Day:

1854 - About 50 slavery opponents met in Ripon, Wis., to call for creation of a new political group, which became the Republican Party.

The Wheeler Report:

RPW: Assembly to Take up Photo ID

...the state Assembly announced today it will vote Thursday on a constitutional amendment that would require a Photo ID to vote.

The day before the Republican Party could have been celebrating its birth as an anti-slave, pro-rights institution. It concluded that the highest priority it has is removing the vote from as many poor, indigent, elderly and minority voters as possible.

Try as you might to spin it. This is the result of VoterID.

Leibham, Stone and Courtney should be ashamed of themselves.

And they should learn some appreciation for history.

If Voter ID and the Gay Marriage ban is what Wisconsin Republicans consider to be their priorities, they are no longer descendants of the activists that first met in the Little White School House 153 years ago today.

Don't worry, Wisconsin. The Democratic Party of Wisconsin is ready to take up their fight. It may have been the Republicans that fought slavery 150 years ago, but it will be the Democratic Party that stands for the rights of all Wisconsinites now.

I would like to thank the Wisconsin Senate in advance for picking up where Gov. Doyle's defense of voting rights through veto left off.

The Republican Party in Wisconsin once made history, now they are on the wrong side of it. Bigotry loses, plain and simple.

Gov Doyle Stands Firmly for Fairness

Gov. Jim Doyle said he supports letting the city of Madison and other local governments offer health benefits to their employees' gay and lesbian partners through a state plan.

Doyle has already proposed in his budget extending health benefits to the domestic partners of all state and University of Wisconsin System employees.

In a letter to Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz on Tuesday, Doyle said he supported a change that would allow the city of Madison and other municipalities that use a state health plan for local governments to offer more domestic partner benefits to employees.

"I would also support a change in state law so that the domestic partners of municipal employees who obtain health insurance through their municipal employer through the (state plan) could access this program," Doyle wrote.

The State of American Healthcare: Boy Dies of Toothache

Twelve-year-old Deamonte Driver died of a toothache
Sunday.

A routine, $80 tooth extraction might have saved him.

If his mother had been insured.

If his family had not lost its Medicaid.

If Medicaid dentists weren't so hard to find.

If his mother hadn't been focused on getting a dentist for his brother, who had six rotted teeth.

By the time Deamonte's own aching tooth got any attention, the bacteria from the abscess had spread to his brain, doctors said. After two operations and more than six weeks of hospital care, the Prince George's County boy died.

Read the rest here, and tell me again about American Healthcare being the best in the world.

AARP: SeniorCare a Better Deal the Medicare Part D

Like we didn't know that...

Rejecting SeniorCare would be a mistake.

It would result in higher costs for nearly all of the folks who are enrolled in the program now. They're getting a better deal from SeniorCare than they would from Part D, according to an analysis by AARP Wisconsin.

It would be a mistake for the federal government, too. The AARP analysis also showed that the federal government saves about $25 million a year through those 105,000 people picking SeniorCare instead of Part D.

Am I too old to go on spring break?

Snow Removal

The Northwestern has a nice editorial about neighbors helping neighbors through the recent snow:

Oshkosh logged nearly a foot of snow over the last few days. Not exactly conducive to travel.

But snowstorms also are opportunity to bundle up, grab a shovel, gas up the blower and help out a neighbor who may have no choice but hunker down.

Especially if you live next door to an elderly or disabled citizen, take the opportunity to help.

Knock on his or her door, introduce yourself and offer to clear a path on his or her behalf.

I actually have a story that is the exact opposite of that...

I was out shovelling my sidewalk Sunday morning (and for those of you who don't know, I am a large young man), when the little, upper middle-aged woman who lives next door to me stopped by and asked if I wanted to use her snow-blower.

Not quite helping your elderly neighbors, but appreciated all the same. Sometimes it is nice to remember that assisting neighbors can go in all directions.

U.S. economy leaving record numbers in severe poverty...

An informative article here:

The percentage of poor Americans who are living in severe poverty has reached a 32-year high, millions of working Americans are falling closer to the poverty line and the gulf between the nation's "haves" and "have-nots" continues to widen.

A McClatchy Newspapers analysis of 2005 census figures, the latest available, found that nearly 16 million Americans are living in deep or severe poverty. A family of four with two children and an annual income of less than $9,903 - half the federal poverty line - was considered severely poor in 2005. So were individuals who made less than $5,080 a year.

The McClatchy analysis found that the number of severely poor Americans grew by 26 percent from 2000 to 2005. That's 56 percent faster than the overall poverty population grew in the same period. McClatchy's review also found statistically significant increases in the percentage of the population in severe poverty in 65 of 215 large U.S. counties, and similar increases in 28 states. The review also suggested that the rise in severely poor residents isn't confined to large urban counties but extends to suburban and rural areas.

The plight of the severely poor is a distressing sidebar to an unusual economic expansion. Worker productivity has increased dramatically since the brief recession of 2001, but wages and job growth have lagged behind. At the same time, the share of national income going to corporate profits has dwarfed the amount going to wages and salaries. That helps explain why the median household income of working-age families, adjusted for inflation, has fallen for five straight years.

These and other factors have helped push 43 percent of the nation's 37 million poor people into deep poverty - the highest rate since at least 1975.

The share of poor Americans in deep poverty has climbed slowly but steadily over the last three decades. But since 2000, the number of severely poor has grown "more than any other segment of the population," according to a recent study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Every Monday at 9:01 PM...

.. I can't wait until Heroes is on next Monday at 8:00 pm.

Results Are In... (Oshkosh City Council)

Bryan L. Bain 2846 22.23% Tony Palmeri 2112 16.49% Meredith Scheuermann 2021 15.78% Jessica J. King 1842 14.39% Bob Cornell 1762 13.76% Mark C. Nielsen 1322 10.32% Kent Monte 885 6.91% Write-in 14 0.11%

The top 6 go on. The top 3 in April become Council Members.

Picture of the Year...

Read the caption here...

or

A float depicting U.S. President George W. Bush being spanked by the Statue Of Liberty passes by during the Rose Monday carnival parade in Mainz, western Germany, on Monday, Feb. 19, 2007. Thousands of spectators attended the traditional street carnival parade in the state of Rhineland-Palatinates's capital. (AP Photo/Bernd Kammerer)

Buses at the Jail

I sent an email to Sheriff Brooks with some questions about safety at the bus pickup outside the jail.

Here is the post. I'll keep up with any reply.

Monte is Again Online, Just With Content Missing and a Big Lie Added...

As a follow-up to yesterday's post about Oshkosh Council Candidate Kent Monte, it seems he is back up online.

However, he seems to have removed several of his posts - and added a bit of a logical puzzle.

As I mentioned yesterday, his blog seems to often traffic in rumor and innuendo, however after the blog shutdown of yesterday, many of the controversial posts seem to be nowhere to be found...

On his blog, he explains his offline time as:

the "glitch" that prevented my site from being viewed on Saturday night. It has been resolved (although I am not sure how)

However, in a comment on my little blog here, he explains:

I didn't change anything with my site and it was "repaired" this morning. It was not planned nor intentional for it to have gone off line sometime between Saturday and Sunday. I did get it fixed as soon as I became aware of the problem. Blogger assures me that it should not have happened and will not happen again.

Well, Kent, which is it? Was it something that was resolved miraculously in a way that you do not know, or did you work with Blogger to fix it? It clearly cannot be both.

Did you lie to everyone on your blog, or just to my readers here?

Also, if you note the timelines of past posts on the side of my blog, I have been using Blogger for almost 3 years now. I have never seen my, or any other blog, spontaniously require you to be part of the blog's inner circle to read it. That needs to be something that is selected by the blog owner.

Kent, where did the posts where you spread false innuendo about current council members go? If you are going to put a false story out there, be resolved enough to stand behind it or correct it, not just delete it as if it never happened.

Where is the post where you falsely claimed that a competitor took money he did not? Where is your explanation of why you went on WOSH to question another candidates integrity and intelligence?

What are you going to do once your are elected? Ask the clerk to go back and change the minutes of meetings if you are not happy with what you said or how you voted?

Kent, if you cannot stand by your word and get your story straight on these little blogs, what will you be on the Council Dias?

This is an odd way to get elected...

... shutting down public information.

above is a screen grab from Kent Monte's Blog site. Kent is a candidate for Oshkosh City Council who has been documented with posting and spreading rumor and innuendo. His blog has a regularly been criticized because of his habit of publishing attacks on councill members and community leaders before he has all the information, then editing or deleting the posts when it is pointed out to him that he is wrong.

It seems that now, Monte feels the best way to get elected is to not allow anyone not approved to view his website and therefore his opinions on the city and it's future.

You know, it may be the smartest campaign move he has ever made.

What do you know, you can ride an Oshkosh Truck to BFE?

Egyptian government, Oshkosh Truck ink deal
OSHKOSH — Oshkosh Truck Corp. Wednesday announced the company won a contract from the Egyptian Ministry of Defense to supply 30 medium tactical trucks.

The trucks will be specially designed to meet the ministry's logistics and transport requirements.

Oshkosh Truck, which is the parent company of Pierce Manufacturing with operations in Grand Chute and the Town of Menasha, said the contract, valued at $4.9 million, is the first major international order for the model line.

C'mon Ziggy, Can't You at Least Give Us Global Warming?

In a past post, I highlighted all the ways that Manitowoc's Bob Ziegelbauer parts from the Democrats that he caucuses with and claims to be a part of.

I can understand that, many of them are issues that really boil down to ones on political views. He happens to be swimming against the political Democratic mainstream, but I guess he could make his own argument.

But, now he is against established science:

"I am not one of those who is rushing to join the bandwagon of accepting as indisputable fact that we have man-made global warming that puts the planet in jeopardy," Ziegelbauer said. "I think that's grossly overstated and most importantly, far from scientifically decided.

"These proposals in the name of a global warming crisis are troubling especially because they use the hysteria to justify a massive government intervention into the day-to-day lives of our community and I find that especially threatening to our future prosperity as well."

The bill in Wisconsin comes after Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle called for creation of a global warming task force. Doyle also has proposed spending $30 million on additional renewable energy sources including solar, wind, hydrogen, biodiesel and ethanol.

Come on Ziggy, are you going to come out against evolution next?