Here's a great way to get rid of Wal-Mart...

and maybe get back some of our good union grocery stores!

The way I see it now, unionizing Wal-Mart is an even bigger win-win now.

Peeved Wal-Mart closing Quebec store

http://www.madison.com/tct/opinion/index.php?ntid=30503&ntpid=0

Last week, for instance, they announced that they're closing the Wal-Mart store they recently opened in Quebec, Canada, apparently because the workers there had the temerity to join a union.

Another Great Reason to Recycle.....

I know I am not always the best at this when I am on the road, but I promise to get better...

The low water bottle recycling rate also impacts the overall recycling rate of all plastic, or PET, products. That's fallen from 53 percent in 1994 to 19 percent in 2003.

Plastics should be recycled so that less petroleum — a finite commodity — is consumed, Franklin says.

"The environmental impacts are in the drilling of the oil," she adds, noting that burning fossil fuel also releases gases that many scientists tie to global warming.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5279230/

Imagine: 500 Miles Per Gallon

It is possible now, according to Newsweek's Fareed Zakaria:

Here's the math (thanks to Gal Luft, a tireless—and independent—advocate of energy security). The current crop of hybrid cars get around 50 miles per gallon. Make it a plug-in and you can get 75 miles. Replace the conventional fuel tank with a flexible-fuel tank that can run on a combination of 15 percent petroleum and 85 percent ethanol or methanol, and you get between 400 and 500 miles per gallon of gasoline. (You don't get 500 miles per gallon of fuel, but the crucial task is to lessen the use of petroleum. And ethanol and methanol are much cheaper than gasoline, so fuel costs would drop dramatically.)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7037844/site/newsweek/page/2/

This is something to get behind - reduce our reliance on foreign oil and increase our demand for domestic farmer's crops.

Great blog post....

...Even though it is a made-up story, it is 100% right on:

http://www.thepoorman.net/archives/002789.html

Don't Blame Wal-Mart....

Robert Reich in the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/28/opinion/28reich.html?th

Excerpts:

But isn't Wal-Mart really being punished for our sins? After all, it's not as if Wal-Mart's founder, Sam Walton, and his successors created the world's largest retailer by putting a gun to our heads and forcing us to shop there.

We can blame big corporations, but we're mostly making this bargain with ourselves. The easier it is for us to get great deals, the stronger the downward pressure on wages and benefits. Last year, the real wages of hourly workers, who make up about 80 percent of the work force, actually dropped for the first time in more than a decade; hourly workers' health and pension benefits are in free fall. The easier it is for us to find better professional services, the harder professionals have to hustle to attract and keep clients. The more efficiently we can summon products from anywhere on the globe, the more stress we put on our own communities.

The only way for the workers or citizens in us to trump the consumers in us is through laws and regulations that make our purchases a social choice as well as a personal one. A requirement that companies with more than 50 employees offer their workers affordable health insurance, for example, might increase slightly the price of their goods and services. My inner consumer won't like that very much, but the worker in me thinks it a fair price to pay. Same with an increase in the minimum wage or a change in labor laws making it easier for employees to organize and negotiate better terms.

Long time no blog....

Sorry! Just a few quick links and a sentance that I thought I'd never say....

Bob Hebert on the continuing saga of "Extrordinary Rendition" - yet anothe policy that makes me ashamed of my government:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/25/opinion/25herbert.html?th


The great Paul Krugman on "What's the Matter With Kansas" (great book!) and the debate on Social Security:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/25/opinion/25krugman.html?th

We have to keep fighting this!

And last of all - a sentance you may have never thought you's hear, but is 100% true:

"The new Willian Shatner CD is AWESOME." I picked it up last night and have been enjoying it since.

A horrible choice...

I cannot believe the audacity of the Bush administration (I am further amazed by this daily) nominating Negroponte for head of Intelligence. Here we have a person who looked past evidence of massacres in Central America - will he be place in charge of looking past the next WMD claims?

Write your Senators - I will be writing mine.

Here's some background:

http://thinkprogress.org/index.php?p=263

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6968346/#050217

I just finished...

"The Pleasure of My Company" by Steve Martin.

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=ba6xKxLAO7&isbn=0786869216&itm=4

It is amazing.

A little adult, but really funny....

This Gannon thing is crazy....

Some Democratic Senators Are Now Reluctant to Push for "Jeff Gannon" Investigation

http://www.buzzflash.com/peyser/05/02/pey05042.html

Now, it is a little easier for Boxer to be a bulldog, because she did get the 3rd most votes in November of any American.

She is a safe Senator from A depply blue state. That said, I am glad she is there!

Too cool not to mention....

A pair of paintings from the famed series depicting dogs playing poker fetched nearly $600,000 at auction Tuesday.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6976660/

Krugman gets it...

...the Democratic Party is not dead and Dean is not a radical.

In fact, by taking on Social Security, Mr. Bush gave the Democrats a chance to remember what they stand for, and why. Here's my favorite version, from another fighting moderate, Eliot Spitzer: "As President Bush embraces the ownership society and tries to claim that he is the one that is making it possible for the middle class to succeed and save and invest - well, I say to myself, no, that's not right; it is the Democratic Party historically that created the middle class."

For a while, Mr. Dean will be the public face of the Democrats, and the Republicans will try to portray him as the leftist he isn't. But Deanism isn't about turning to the left: it's about making a stand.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/15/opinion/15krugman.html?th=&pagewanted=print&position=

When will we stop calling these "isolated incidents"

and call them what they are, systematic torture encouraged and condoned from the top?

Judge advocates - uniformed legal advisers known as JAGs who were assigned to a secret war crimes task force - repeatedly objected to aggressive interrogations by a separate intelligence unit at Camp Delta, where Taliban and al-Qaida suspects have been jailed since January 2002.

But Pentagon officials "didn't think this was a big deal, so they just ignored the JAGs," a senior military source said.

The military lawyers' actions had never been disclosed and are the first known cases of lower-level officers resisting interrogations at the Cuban camp that might constitute torture. Some officials called them "unsung heroes" for risking their careers by crossing senior officials who approved the techniques.

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/politics/10889627.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

We find the same behavior towords prisoners in Afganistan, Iraq and Cuba. It goes back as far as when they stripped the 'American Taliban' and took pictures of him taped to a gurney.

Hoods and leashes do not just 'appear' in these prisons - someone had to requisition and bring them in.

This is a disgrace.

This is a great point.....

Most important, making energy independence our generation's moon shot could help inspire more young people to go into science and engineering, which we desperately need.

Sadly, the Bush team won't even consider this. It prefers cruise missiles to cruise controls. We need a grass-roots movement. Where are college kids these days? I would like to see every campus in America demand that its board of trustees disinvest from every U.S. auto company until they improve their mileage standards. Every college town needs to declare itself a "Hummer-free zone." You want to drive a gas-guzzling Humvee? Go to Iraq, not our campus. And an idea from my wife, Ann: free parking anywhere in America for anyone driving a hybrid car.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/13/opinion/13friedman.html?th

Stewart Rieckman makes some good points about the worst of our Oshkosh Blogs...

here:

http://www.wisinfo.com/northwestern/news/columns/stories/columns_19802842.shtml

However, I would like to point out that in my participation in these blogs, I have always used my own name. I have always provided links to the information I was referencing. And I backed up anything I said about someone with their acual words.

I agree with Mr. Reikman that there is a problem with nameless bomb-throwing, and I have had several lobbed at me.

I, however, am proud of, and stand by the questions I posted, the stands I took and the information I have provided.

All done in my own name and with the ability to contact me either publicly on the blog or privately via email.

When blogging is done in this matter, I believe it is a very usefull tool. When it is not, Mr. Reichman is right to call it "intellectual trash."

I know there may be questions about my Esslinger letter....

Here is why I care about his statements on minorities and women:

http://www.jef4wi.com/jefsfamily

Reverse Robin Hood in the White House Budget....

On one side, the budget calls for program cuts that are small change compared with the budget deficit, yet will harm hundreds of thousands of the most vulnerable Americans. On the other side, it calls for making tax cuts for the wealthy permanent, and for new tax breaks for the affluent in the form of tax-sheltered accounts and more liberal rules for deductions.

The question is whether the relentless mean-spiritedness of this budget finally awakens the public to the true cost of Mr. Bush's tax policy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/11/opinion/11krugman.html?th

Paul Krugman for President!!!!

City Finances are in Great Shape

Editorial: Voters have chance to join winning team

http://www.wisinfo.com/northwestern/news/opinion/stories/opinion_19754478.shtml

This may be the press quote of the year....

"The issue here is whether someone with connections to male prostitution was given unfettered access to the White House and copies of internal CIA documents. For a family values administration, that's pretty creepy," said John Aravosis, one of the bloggers chasing the story.

The White House didn't return a call asking how someone using an alias was given daily clearance to enter the White House.

http://www.nydailynews.com/02-10-2005/news/gossip/story/279466p-239417c.html

Not Political - Just an Odd Story....

Kinda adult, but as a Rugby fan it is interesting and scary...

http://www.thisislondon.com/news/articles/16449119?source=PA

A must see....

www.tardart.com

If it won't work in the financial growth from 1940-today, it just won't work.....

http://finance.senate.gov/press/Bpress/2005press/prb020105.pdf


Today, U.S. Senator Max Baucus said that a Social Security proposal being seriously considered by the Bush Administration would have pushed seven million seniors into poverty this year, had the plan been in effect since the Social Security program began in 1940. Baucus is ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over the Social Security program. This information was contained in a new report Baucus requested from the non-partisan Congressional Research Service (CRS).

Currently, there are 3.5 million seniors who are living in poverty in the U.S. The report indicates, however, that 10.5 million seniors would be in poverty this year if the plan being seriously considered by the White House had been initiated in 1940, the first year in which Social Security benefits were issued.

Baucus noted that, currently, about 10% of our seniors are living in poverty. If this proposal had been in place since 1940, 30% of our seniors would now be in poverty.

Great Quotes...

(Fun Stuff)

I have always said my favorite movie quote is "I don't want to die without any scars." from Fight Club (In my opinion, a movie filled with inspirational quotes).

Not a politician has come up with a quote just as good....

"Frankly, I can't get used to this face, and I don't think I ever will get used to it. But we are men and we don't make a big deal over our scars."
Viktor Yushchenko, newly inaugurated president of Ukraine, on living with a face disfigured by poison during his campaign

What a great sentiment overall. If you don't get beat up a little, literally or figuratively, have you really lived?

If you can't take it, should you be in the fighting sphere?

Private Social Security accounts not automatic cure-all

By M. Kevin McGee

http://www.wisinfo.com/northwestern/news/opinion/stories/opinion_19564971.shtml

Here is a great way to look at the fallacy of private/personal accounts.

I really think that we are not serious about our current national money crunch.....

"Thanks to aggressive fiscal and monetary stimulus, the United States is consuming about 6 percent more than it produces, resulting in a $600 billion trade deficit last year. To finance this extravagant overconsumption, America is in effect selling off claims on its future income, in the form of U.S. Treasury securities that are purchased by the rest of the world."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43145-2005Jan27.html?referrer=emailarticle

Racism and Social Security...

By using blacks' low life expectancy as an argument for privatization, Mr. Bush is in effect taking it as a given that 40 or 50 years from now, large numbers of African-Americans will still be dying before their time.
Is this an example of what Mr. Bush famously called "the soft bigotry of low expectations?" Maybe not: it isn't particularly soft to treat premature black deaths not as a tragedy we must end but as just another way to push your ideological agenda. But bigotry - yes, that sounds like the right word.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/28/opinion/28krugman.html?th

Esslinger on Racism....

One of the many reasons I do not support his candidacy for Oshkosh Mayor.

http://www.wordexchange.net/eyeonoshkosh/racism.htm

Politically Correct Racism
(editorial submitted by Paul Esslinger, Feb. 03, 2003)

The following letter I’m sure will upset some people (liberals), but I wanted to touch on something that has been in the news lately, affirmative action, which I call politically correct racism. I’m sure I’ll even be labeled a racist, but that’s usually what happens when liberals don’t like what you say, it just defaults to “you’re a racist.”

I watched with interest the latest edition of Eye on Oshkosh, with Chancellor Wells as the guest. I was very pleased with what the Chancellor had said about the involvement of the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh in regards to the Meritor/AxelTech situation. It is obvious the Chancellor is very concerned about the workers, the potential losses of employment for the City of Oshkosh and, of course, the university. Therefore, the majority of the show (about 25 minutes of the 30 minutes) was great.

Now I have had the great pleasure to meet Chancellor Wells. He has a great many attributes: He is intelligent, he takes his job very seriously, and has not only opened the doors of the University to the community, but has opened the doors to his office directly. He also realizes that the City of Oshkosh and the university need to work hand in hand with many issues like the possible development of the riverfront near the university.

The problem I had with the Chancellor was the answer he gave when asked about why he had a problem with the Bush Administration’s lawsuit with the University of Michigan in regards to their affirmative action policy. I think the Chancellor has fallen into the same trap many have fallen into, which is we need to give minorities special treatment to get them ahead in life.
Now I thought that allowing someone to have an advantage because of the color of his or her skin, or sex was racism and sexism, isn’t it? Then why do we allow minorities to have preferential treatment when applying for jobs or college?

I’m sure the liberals are going to say, “it’s because they have an unfair advantage growing up, and that they don’t have access to good schools, etc., etc., etc.” This argument is nonsense. The business and political world have several minorities doing a great job, and not because of some ridiculous affirmative action policy, or because of some other tax-loving government program.
In Oshkosh alone we have several minorities in prominent positions, or have served in prominent positions (Eileen Connely-Keesler: Executive Director or the Oshkosh Community Foundation, Ron Montgomery: former Winnebago County Board Supervisor, Carla Craig: former Chair of the Oshkosh Chamber Board of Directors, Melanie Bloechl: former Mayor of Oshkosh, Jane Van De Hey: Winnebago County Executive) The list goes on, but I think you get the point. I’m sure these people got where they are/were because they worked their butts off, and didn’t ask for any special help.

In Wisconsin we now have a minority as the Attorney General, Peg Lautenschlager, and nationally we have several minorities in the Bush Administration.

With the global economy we have in the world, and the competition that the U.S. has, we cannot afford to ask, “what color skin do you have, or what sex are you” when applying for a job, or applying for college. Other industrialized countries don’t ask what color skin they have, or what sex they are, they find out whose the most qualified, and put them in the position.
There are some intelligent minorities that realize that affirmative is really an insult. I remember one African American on a talk show who said, and I’ll paraphrase; by having affirmative action, you’re telling me that I’m too stupid to get ahead in the world so you need to give me an advantage because of my skin color. I’ve been hearing other minorities saying the same thing.
Why can’t we just put everybody on the same playing field, and don’t give ANYONE any advantages? You should win by being the best at what you do, not because of your skin color, or sex.

If affirmative action is supposed to make things equal, then I guess some people will just be a little more equal than others are.

Torture in Iraq still routine, report says

Torture in Iraq still routine, report says
Detainees beaten, shocked by Iraqi jailers, rights group finds

Legal safeguards are being ignored, political opponents are targeted for arrest, and the government of interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi "appears to be actively taking part, or is at least complicit, in these grave violations of fundamental human rights," the report concludes.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6863916/

Does this mean we need to invade again to free the Iraqi people?

Let's go to the tally of reasons for the war:

WMD = None
Connection to Al Quaeda = None
Gassed his own people = Saddam did that when he was our ally

Freeing the Iraqi peopl is all that is left, and that is now 100% false as well.

Buyer's Remorse....

"At age 40, he suddenly pushed the bottle away. Good for him. Most people who booze their way to middle age pay a price in terms of career or family, but since his last name is Bush, all was forgotten. He boarded the gravy train two years later by buying a $600,000 stake in the Texas Rangers and later selling it for $14 million. His spectacular return was courtesy of the Arlington, Tex., taxpayers, who funded the new stadium that inflated Bush's investment (Arlington's taxpayers are to Bush as Teresa Heinz is to Kerry)."

Where was this 3 months ago?

More at:

http://www.tomahjournal.com/articles/2005/01/24/opinion/02rundiocolumn.txt

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0501230406jan23,1,5380526.story?coll=chi-business-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true

For anyone that thinks the new integrated world economy is easy......

By the Numbers: The U.S. After 4 Years of Bush

By the Numbers: The U.S. After 4 Years of Bush
January 20, 2005

Poverty Rate2000:
11.3% or 31.6 million Americans
2003: 12.5% or 35.9 million Americans

Stock market

Dow Jones Industrial Average
1/19/01: 10,587.59
1/19/05: 10,539.97

NASDAQ
1/19/01: 2,770.38
1/19/05: 2,073.59

S&P 500
1/19/01: 1,342.54
1/19/05: 1,184.63

Value of the Dollar
1/19/01: 1 Dollar = 1.06 Euros
1/19/05: 1 Dollar = 0.77 Euros

Budget
2000 budget surplus $236.4 billion
2004 budget deficit $412.6 billion
That's a shift of $649 billion and doesn't include the cost of the Iraq war.
Cost of the war in Iraq$150.8 billion

American Casualties in Iraq
Deaths: 1,369
Wounded: 10,252

The Debt
End of 2000: $5.7 trillion
Today: $7.6 trillion
That's a 4 year increase of 33%