A Unique Perspective on the Marrige Debate

From Kos:

I had never thought to broach the argument this way - it seems like a logical winner to me!

This business of "changing the definition" is utter horsesh*t. Why?

At one time, women and blacks were not allowed to vote or serve on juries.

Over time that changed. Blacks were allowed to vote and serve on juries. Women were allowed to vote and serve on juries.

No one changed the definition of "jury." No one changed the definition of "vote." The words still mean the same thing. A jury is still what it always was.

And marriage will still be marriage.

Look What's Still Out in Cyber Space...

Glory days....

Remember what was and could be again!

Quotes of the Day - Fightin' Dems Edition

John Edwards on jobs and poverty (from a Bob Herbet column in the NYTimes):

He believes, as do most Democrats, that the minimum wage must be raised, and that many more workers should be given a real opportunity to organize and bargain collectively. "Unions helped move manufacturing jobs into the foundation of our middle class," he says, "and they can do the same for our service economy."

Harry Reid on the GOP politization if Iraq:

Democrats have struggled to counter the GOP's snappy slogan, and only now is the party leadership charging that a slogan is not a plan. Senate Leader Harry Reid is expected to say on the floor today, "The Republicans in the Senate stand alone in insisting on 'no plan and no end.' It isn't a position shared by the American people."

Keep speaking the plain truth and we will win!

This was a great project:

I was proud of my company to do it, and was glad to be part of the crew and organizing committee:

Refugees find hope in new home
Couple given key to Habitat house in Neenah

NEENAH — Four years ago Nezira Zolota and her husband, Bajro, left their home in Sarajevo and came to this country after having lost everything but their lives.

Caught in the crossfire between Serbia and their native Bosnia, they were held for a year in a concentration camp where prisoners regularly were beaten and raped.

"When soldiers took us to the camp they gave us two shopping bags and a couple of minutes to gather up whatever we wanted to take with us," Nezira said Tuesday. "We didn't have anything."

Standing in the kitchen of their new Habitat for Humanity house, she tried to explain how different her life had become.

"Now I've got friends and they're really good to me, and I'm not scared," she said. "I think everything is going to be OK. I have my own house."

Moments later, the Zolotas were outside for the dedication ceremony organized by the Greater Fox Cities Area Habitat for Humanity, surrounded by friends, relatives and the volunteers from J.J. Keller & Associates who worked side by side with the Zolotas building the home that became theirs Tuesday afternoon.

It was a familiar moment that never fails to impress John Weyenberg, Habitat's
executive director.

"When you can change someone's life by simply putting some hands together to build a home, it's amazing the gratification you get from the job," he said. "The smiles on their faces say it all."

The new two-bedroom Zolota home, located on Division Street, is the latest of 71 Habitat houses constructed since the group was founded in 1993. It is also the second one constructed in partnership with J.J. Keller & Associates in recent years.
To get the project under way, a $50,000 donation was presented to Habitat from the John J. and Ethel D. Keller fund of the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region. In addition to the financial support, more than 70 employees volunteered their time and contributed an additional $2,600 to help the Zolotas achieve their dream.

The impact of these efforts greatly impressed Neenah Mayor George Scherck.

"What's really important here is building hope, building dreams, building homes," he said. "That takes compassion, commitment and dedicated citizens like the Kellers with a vision for the future of this community."

Today's Birthdays - Irony Edition

From the NYTimes 'On This Day' - guess who shares a birthday today?

59 - Meredith BaxterActress (''Family Ties'')
59 - Michael GrossActor (''Family Ties'')

Ironic..

Oh yea, and Happy Birthday to Jean-Paul Sartre - he'd be 101. His obit is here.

Something I Have Never Thought Of:

From Sivacracy via Altercation:

While everyone is getting all worked up about the abandoned Al Qaeda plot to release chemical weapons in the New York City subway system, this might be a good time to remind ourselves that there is a very good reason that terrorists prefer guns, bombs, and fuel-filled airplanes to chemical weapons: they rarely work and the never work well. Chemical and biological weapons have killed maybe dozens of people in the past 10 years. While bombs and guns have killed millions. Bombs and guns are cheap and easy to get. They are easy to hide. They kill very efficiently and effectively. And they terrify just fine, thank you. Let's get something clear here, chemical weapons are in fact "weapons of minor destruction." To group them in with nuclear or even conventional weapons as a real threat to crowds of people is just plain dishonest. At best, it's overly influenced by science fiction.

Quote of the Day - Stem Cells

REPULSIVE:

Just hearing about Mark Green's comments on why he's against stem-cell research made me sick to my stomach. Being against something that can help people financially and health-wise is a slap to the face of mankind. He should be ashamed of himself and drop out of the governor's race immediately.
Mary Goldsmith,
Appleton

DPW/Joe - Leadership On Equal Rights

Editorial: Wineke's leadership

A Cap Times editorial, June 15, 2006
OK, so Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chairman Joe Wineke is not a metrosexual.

The former state senator representing rural Dane and Green counties maintains his reputation as a beer-and-brats kind of guy who has little time for fashion statements or the latest trend. Indeed, he would probably be a competitive candidate for a "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" makeover.

But Wineke has met the highest standard of sophistication better than any of those high-flying Democratic Party leaders in San Francisco, Miami or New York.
U
nder Wineke's leadership, Wisconsin Democrats are the only state party organization in the country that has taken an official stance against an anti-same-sex marriage amendment.

Wineke backed that stance up at the state Democratic Convention in La Crosse over the weekend, when the chairman personally introduced Mike Tate, the manager of the Fair Wisconsin campaign. Fair Wisconsin is spearheading the effort to defeat the attempt by legislators to amend the state constitution to discriminate against gay and lesbian couples.

Tate predicts that when Wisconsin votes on the issue this fall, it will become the first state in the country to reject such an amendment.
The uncompromising position taken by Wineke and the Democratic Party which has not lost a presidential or U.S. Senate election in two decades and which now controls every significant statewide partisan office will certainly help.

Wineke's leadership on this issue is helping to put the amendment vote in the proper perspective. What is at stake here is not an issue of sex or sexuality; what is at issue is a basic question of fairness. And if there are still any doubters, Joe Wineke will be more than willing to explain it to them over a brat and a cool one.

Published: June 15, 2006

Happy Birthday, New Deal!

Today in History:

President Starts Recovery Program, Signs Bank, Rail and Industry Bills;
Wheat Growers Will Get $150,000,000
He Calls Recovery Act Most Sweeping Law in Nation's History
'Million Jobs' By Oct. 1

Assuming unprecedented peacetime control over the nation's economic life, President Roosevelt placed in operation today his sweeping program for recovery from the depression.

Within two hours he signed acts of Congress giving him control over industry, power to coordinate the railroads, and authority to start work on a $3,300,000,000 public works program, and then began the active administration of these and other major measures.

In signing the National Industrial Recovery Act the President declared that it was "the most important and far-reaching legislation ever enacted by the American Congress," and said that it "represents a supreme effort to stabilize for all time the many factors which make for the prosperity of the nation and the preservation of American standards."

Flip Flop Goes Rep Kaufert

Taken from Xoff:

Kaufert record contradicts his explanation

This from State Rep. Dean Kaufert, R-Neenah , explaining why he voted against bringing an ethics reform bill to the Assembly floor:

I want to set the record straight. I supported SB1 and helped move it through the committee process so it could be considered for a floor vote. The Joint Finance Committee, which I chair, overwhelmingly approved SB1.

The bill faltered before the full Assembly, failing to get a majority vote. Several members took the unusual step of circumventing leadership and trying to force the bill to a vote on the floor.

Pulling motions, as we refer to them, are violations of the democratic process meant to embarrass the leadership. As a rule, I never support such backhanded attempts to thwart the process, even if it means voting against my own proposal.

Nice try. But then how would Kaufert explain his vote to violate the democratic process and "embarrass" his own leadrship by voting to pull a concealed weapons bill [2001 AB-675] from the Rules Committee? The record:

2001 AB-6750

2-26-02. A. Rules suspended to withdraw from committee on Rules and take up, Ayes 75, Noes 24 Roll call.

That's the problem with having a record. You often meet yourself coming from the opposite direction.

Today in History - Quayle Hunting Edition

1992
Vice President Dan Quayle erroneously instructed a Trenton, N.J., elementary school student to spell potato as ''potatoe'' during a spelling bee.

And Happy 33rd Birthday to Doogie (Neil Patrick Harris)!

A Sham Hearing on Voting Machines

I small write-up on my County Board blog. More to come.

How to Deal With Coulter

Once again, Altercation has better letter writers than I do...

Name: Rich Gallagher
Hometown: Fishkill, NY
Dear Eric,I thought about Ann Coulter while I was watching Mel Brooks on 60 Minutes on Sunday night. He had this to say about responding to a demagogue: "Hitler was part of this incredible idea that you could put Jews in concentration camps and kill them. And how do you get even? How do you get even with the man? How do you get even with him? There's only one way to get even. You have to bring him down with ridicule. Because if you stand on a soapbox and you match him with rhetoric, you're just as bad as he is. But if you can make people laugh at him, then you're one up on him. And it's been one of my lifelong jobs has been to make the world laugh at Adolf Hitler." Perhaps the rest of us should just shut up about Coulter and leave it to Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert to deal with her.

From DailyKos:Wisconsin Dems Unite Against Civil Unions and Marriage Ban

There is a great Kos diary about Mike Tate's great speech at convention last weekend, including this gem:

"When the person you choose to spend your life with is dying, the last thing you should ever, ever have to think about is whether you have enough legal documents to see them in the hospital," Tate told the crowd. "That's not how we treat people here in Wisconsin."

Click here for the rest.

DPW Platform is Online

As adopted in convention last weekend.

Click here to access.

"Congratulations on doing a great job of diverting hostile fire away from the leader."

...from an email from the President's Office to FEMA Director Micheal Brown after Katrina:

The September 2005 e-mail reads: "I did hear of one reference to you, at the Cabinet meeting yesterday. I wasn't there, but I heard someone commented that the press was sure beating up on Mike Brown, to which the president replied, 'I'd rather they beat up on him than me or Chertoff.' "

The sender adds, "Congratulations on doing a great job of diverting hostile fire away from the leader."

Here is the story - here is the email.

Quote of the Day - Company Town Edition

...but that neglects the relationship formed over time when children follow parents into a factory, when executives' and line workers' sons play on the same football team.

From an editorial in the NYTimes:

It comes as little surprise to anyone nowadays that the deep bonds between company and company town are only as strong as the former's share price, measured by fiscal quarters rather than generations. Still, there is something sad about the spurned affection of a community for its company, the way residents of Newton, Iowa, feel about Maytag.

As Monica Davey reported in The Times last week, Newton must bid farewell to the appliance maker that has defined it since Maytag was founded there in 1893. To a big-city native, it may sound quaint that Newton crowned a Maytag Queen or has washing machines in its history museum, but that neglects the relationship formed over time when children follow parents into a factory, when executives' and line workers' sons play on the same football team. It ignores how much pride people derive from their jobs, even unglamorous ones.

Maytag was bought by its rival Whirlpool in March, and 4,500 Maytag jobs will be lost as operations are merged, both at the headquarters and in factories in Newton and other towns. The cuts will be offset by 1,500 new positions for those willing to move to Whirlpool locations, especially in Michigan where the company is based. But Maytag the company is now gutted and replaced by the hollow marketing concept of Maytag the brand.

Shoppers probably won't notice, but Newton and the laid-off Maytag workers everywhere will feel a void. The economy is growing fast, but American workers are downbeat, and Maytag helps explain why. Jobs can be replaced, but the sense of safety and security cannot. The brand lives on, but the identity is gone.

Kaufert Chickens Out, Fitzgerald Curses

Funny blog entry from the JSOnline - Seems our Republicans are scared of a judge:

Fitzgerald flunks 'live microphone' test

State Supreme Court Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson made a surprise visit Tuesday to the Joint Finance Committee, but she didn’t get quite the response she’s used to from legislators.

When she walked in the room, committee co-chairman Sen. Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) – in front of a live microphone – uttered a four-letter word that starts with “S” and is something you wouldn’t want to step in. His comment was broadcast over the Internet and on internal radios throughout the Capitol.

The committee was in the midst of discussing whether to trim more than $100,000 from the Supreme Court's $50 million two-year budget. A federal grant that pays for setting standards for court interpreters is expiring, and Abrahamson has asked the state to pick up those costs. Some committee members said the court should be able to find money to cover those costs within its existing budget.

Abrahamson’s presence heightened the tension over the issue, and the committee ended up taking no action on the matter Tuesday. It will likely consider what to do with the courts when it resumes its deliberations Thursday.

During Tuesday’s debate, Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Madison) asked to speak to Abrahamson since she was in the room. Rep. Dean Kaufert (R-Neenah), the other committee co-chairman, denied that request because of the precedent it could set. Then, with a sheepish smile, he quickly added, “But we’re glad she’s here.”

Block the Vote...

From today's NYTimes - Republicans nationwide are using the same tactics Mark Green is using in WI to keep people from voting:

If there was ever a sign of a ruling party in trouble, it is a game plan that calls for trying to win by discouraging voting.
The latest sign that Republicans have an election-year strategy to shut down voter registration drives comes from Ohio. As the state gears up for a very competitive election season this fall, its secretary of state, J. Kenneth Blackwell, has put in place "emergency" regulations that could hit voter registration workers with criminal penalties for perfectly legitimate registration practices. The rules are so draconian they could shut down registration drives in Ohio.
Mr. Blackwell, who also happens to be the Republican candidate for governor this year, has a history of this sort of behavior. In 2004, he instructed county boards of
elections to reject any registrations on paper of less than 80-pound stock — about the thickness of a postcard. His order was almost certainly illegal, and he retracted it after he came under intense criticism. It was, however, in place long enough to get some registrations tossed out.
This year, Mr. Blackwell's office has issued rules and materials that appear to require that paid registration workers, and perhaps even volunteers, personally take the forms they collect to an election office. Organizations that run registration drives generally have the people who register voters bring the forms back to supervisors, who can then review them for errors. Under Mr. Blackwell's edict, everyone involved could be committing a crime. Mr. Blackwell's rules also appear to prohibit people who register voters from sending the forms in by mail. That rule itself may violate federal elections law.
Mr. Blackwell's rules are interpretations of a law the Republican-controlled Ohio Legislature passed recently. Another of the nation's most famous swing states, Florida, has been the scene of similar consternation and confusion since it recently enacted a law that is so harsh that the Florida League of Women Voters announced that it was stopping all voter registration efforts for the first time in 67
years.
Florida's Legislature, like Ohio's, is controlled by Republicans.
Throughout American history both parties have shown a willingness to try to use election law to get results they might otherwise not win at the polls. But right now it is clearly the Republicans who believe they have an interest in keeping the voter base small. Mr. Blackwell and other politicians who insist on making it harder to vote never say, of course, that they are worried that get-out-the-vote drives will bring too many poor and minority voters into the system. They say that they want to reduce fraud. However, there is virtually no evidence that registration drives are leading to fraud at the polls.

But there is one clear way that Ohio's election system is corrupt. Decisions about who can vote are being made by a candidate for governor. Mr. Blackwell should hand over responsibility for elections to a decision maker whose only loyalty is to the voters and the law.

Quote of the Day - Value Voters Edition

From Maureen Dowd in Today's NYTimes:

As a Times reader who sometimes e-mails me put it: "The 'values' voters turn out to be opinion voters. They believe that God hates homosexuals, that superstition trumps science every time, that all those foreigners ought to be sent back where they came from, and that all government programs are wasteful and immoral, except, of course, for the government programs which benefit them. Those are opinions, not values, and willfully ignorant opinions at that."

Hintz on 'It's Your Law'

Democratic Candidate for State Assembly Gordon Hintz will be on 'It's Your Law' with George Curtis.

"It's Your Law" can be seen at the following times on Oshkosh Cable Channel 2.

Monday: June 12, 8:30pm

Tuesday: June 6 and June 13, 4pm

Wednesday: June 7 and June 14, 5pm

Friday: June 9 and June 16, 6pm

Sunday: June 11 and June 18, 5pm

Newsweek CW Headline Says It All...

Iraq's a bigger mess than ever, Iran's digging in its heals on nukes. What's "the decider" focusing on? The same-sex marriage issue.

MSNBC First Read on Republican Troubles and Distractions....

For the last few weeks, congressional Republicans have been consumed with matters that have divided their party (immigration), allied themselves with Democrats (protesting the FBI's raid of William Jefferson's office), or been largely out of their control (continued violence in Iraq). But this week and the next, they're turning to issues that bring most of them together: gay marriage, flag burning, and the estate tax.

Today and tomorrow, the Senate will debate a constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union between a man and woman, with a vote expected on Wednesday. Later in the week, the chamber will take up repealing the estate tax. And next week, the Senate will consider a constitutional amendment prohibiting the burning of the American flag. None of these measures is expected to pass, although some kind of compromise could be reached on the estate tax. But, as we wrote last week, passing legislation really isn't the point -- rather, it's to rally a largely demoralized GOP base to turn out for the November midterms.

The $64,000 question, of course, is whether these measures -- and even other ones -- will do the trick. An AP/Ipsos poll last month found that 45% of conservatives disapprove of Bush's job performance, 65% of them disapprove of Congress, and 31% want Republicans out of power. And in the last NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, Democratic voters indicated they were much more interested in the midterms than their GOP counterparts.

"How many bunkers could a bunkerbomb bust, if a bunkerbomb could bust bunkers?"

Quote from Henry Rollins on the US/Iran situation....

Joe Manske Announces DA Candidacy

Manske to run for district attorney
A third candidate announced he would run this fall to become Winnebago County District Attorney.

Oshkosh lawyer Joseph J. Manske announced his intentions to run as a Democrat in the race for the seat now held by William Lennon. Lennon announced he would not seek re-election.

Manske is currently a private attorney representing clients in both civil and criminal cases. He also has some experience in prosecution through the Outagamie County District Attorney’s Office.

Manske through a press release said he intends to concentrate on communication both with victims and those being prosecuted.

Interesting Profile of Scot Ross

Scot Ross is running for Sec of State. He has, in the past, lost almost 250# and recently ran his first marathon.

The story is here - a nice read. The sort of pleasant stories that seem to be missing from politics today.

What's the Matter With Kansas?

Seem's to be looking up to me....

TOPEKA, Kan. - The former chairman of the Kansas Republican Party jumped ship in a big way Tuesday, switching his affiliation to Democrat amid speculation that he would become Gov. Kathleen Sebelius' running mate.

Johnson County Elections Commissioner Brian Newby confirmed that Mark Parkinson, the state GOP chairman from 1999 to 2003, came to the office and switched his party affiliation shortly before noon.

Parkinson's name has been widely circulated as Sebelius' choice for a running mate as the Democratic governor seeks a second term. Current Lt. Gov. John Moore — another former Republican — is retiring when his term expires in early 2007.

Sebelius spokeswoman, Nicole Corcoran, would not comment about Parkinson, but said an announcement of the governor's choice of running mates was scheduled Wednesday not far from Parkinson's home in Olathe, a Kansas City suburb.

"Traditionally, you do see that the first stop would be in or around that person's home base. It would be safe to assume that she would be choosing someone from the Johnson County area," Corcoran said.

Parkinson didn't immediately return calls seeking comment.

Johnson County District Attorney Paul Morrison also switched parties from Republican to Democrat to challenge Attorney General Phill Kline, a Republican, in the November election.
Republican House Speaker Doug Mays said he was disgusted by Parkinson's lack of loyalty to the party that made him chairman, but he isn't surprised by the rift.

The Republican Party, which has dominated Kansas politics since statehood, has shifted to the right in recent years and it inevitably will shift back to the left, he said. Instead of defecting to challenge one another, though, Republicans need to find common ground, he said.

BLOCK the Vote...

The NY Times on efforts to lower voter turnout (Mark Green's specialty)...

In a country that spends so much time extolling the glories of democracy, it's amazing how many elected officials go out of their way to discourage voting. States are adopting rules that make it hard, and financially perilous, for nonpartisan groups to register new voters. They have adopted new rules for maintaining voter rolls that are likely to throw off many eligible voters, and they are imposing unnecessarily tough ID requirements.

Florida recently reached a new low when it actually bullied the League of Women Voters into stopping its voter registration efforts in the state. The Legislature did this by adopting a law that seems intended to scare away anyone who wants to run a voter registration drive. Since registration drives are particularly important for bringing poor people, minority groups and less educated voters into the process, the law appears to be designed to keep such people from voting.

It imposes fines of $250 for every voter registration form that a group files more than 10 days after it is collected, and $5,000 for every form that is not submitted — even if it is because of events beyond anyone's control, like a hurricane. The Florida League of Women Voters, which is suing to block the new rules, has decided it cannot afford to keep registering new voters in the state as it has done for 67 years. If a volunteer lost just 16 forms in a flood, or handed in a stack of forms a day late, the group's entire annual budget could be put at risk.

In Washington, a new law prevents people from voting if the secretary of state fails to match the information on their registration form with government databases. There are many reasons that names, Social Security numbers and other data may not match, including typing mistakes. The state is supposed to contact people whose data does not match, but the process is too tilted against voters.

Congress is considering a terrible voter ID requirement as part of the immigration reform bill. Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, introduced an amendment to require all voters to present a federally mandated photo ID. Even people who have been voting for years would need to get a new ID to vote in 2008. Millions of people without drivers' licenses, including many elderly people and city residents, might fail to do so, and be ineligible to vote. The amendment has been blocked so far, but voting-rights advocates worry that it could reappear.

These three techniques — discouraging registration drives, purging eligible voters and imposing unreasonable ID requirements — keep showing up.

Colorado recently imposed criminal penalties on volunteers who slip up in registration drives. Georgia, one of several states to adopt harsh new voter ID laws, had its law struck down by a federal court.

Protecting the integrity of voting is important, but many of these rules seem motivated by a partisan desire to suppress the vote, and particular kinds of voters, rather than to make sure that those who are entitled to vote — and only those who are entitled — do so. The right to vote is fundamental, and Congress and state legislatures should not pass laws that put an unnecessary burden on it. If they do, courts should strike them down.

More Evidence of GOP Heads in the Sand...

From a Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel article on the 8th CD race:

Gard said his job is to "turn off the television news" and "stay focused" on his own campaign.

More:

Speaking to the Republican faithful the other day, John Gard tried to rev up the crowd.

"This is a convention, right? Not a funeral, right?" said the Assembly speaker, who is running for Congress.

It was just a warm-up line, but it captured something in the Republican mood, with President Bush slumping, war and gas prices eating at voters and the party's conservative base upset over immigration and spending.
...
"I think enthusiasm is down," Marc Savard, the party chairman for Door County, said of rank-and-file conservatives. "People are frustrated."
...
Today, it's not hard to find Bush voters with the second-term blues.

"I'm disappointed. I thought he seemed to be a pretty strong leader. I think he's sending mixed messages, and he's not getting it done," said Judy Diedrich of Kaukauna.

In conversations here, the concerns and complaints bubble up. It's a list that pollsters can recite in their sleep: the cost of health care, the price of gas, the holes in the border, the course of the war.

When a reporter went knocking on doors in the district with Gard one day and Democratic state Rep. Tom Nelson on another, health care came up in nearly every conversation.

Local War Stories...

The Appleton Post-Crescent Covers the story of a local vet blinded in Iraq here.

Andrew Neumeyer remembers seeing life drain from the face of fellow soldier Andrew Wallace.

Neumeyer was cradling the mortally wounded Ripon man — a fellow member of the Wisconsin Army National Guard's 2nd Battalion, 127th Infantry, based in Appleton — after a roadside bomb struck Wallace's Humvee near Basra, Iraq.

Wallace's blood ran into the desert sand.

"I held him for a half-hour before he died. To me, it seemed like an eternity," said Neumeyer, 26, of Neenah. "I was giving him water. He said to tell his wife, Angela, that he loved her. I did.

"In the end, we were communicating by blinks of the eye."

Four months later, the compassionate eyes that bade Wallace goodbye were all but torn from Neumeyer when another roadside bomb sprayed shrapnel into his Humvee.

Metal shards destroyed his right eye, and severely impaired vision in his left eye. And the blast fractured his skull.

Despite his horrific injuries and the emotional trauma of witnessing Wallace's final moments, Neumeyer is upbeat and focused, ready to face the rest of his life, including his planned marriage in December.