WeeVote Violates Code

As Glass Houses aptly points out in a comment to the article about Bonnie Ketterhagen in the March 22nd edition Standard Press, the WeeVote candidates are now in violation of State Code (just like last year) for adding pink fluorescent streamers that blow in the wind to their yard signs: http://lab.southernlakesnewspapers.com/?p=8566

Glass Houses was kind enough to add a link to the pertinent Wisconsin Administrative Code section below:

Trans 201.16 Political signs.
(1) Definitions. "Political sign" means a sign erected for the purpose of soliciting support for or opposition to a candidate or a political party or relating to a referendum question in an election held under the laws of this state.
(2)Exemption. A political sign which would otherwise be subject to the permit requirement of s. Trans 201.07, is exempted if all of the following conditions are satisfied:
(a) The sign does not exceed 32 square feet in surface area.
(b) The sign is erected entirely on private property with the property owner's consent.
(c) The sign is erected less than 45 days before the election for which it is intended and is removed within 7 days after the election except that a sign erected before a primary election may remain in place until 7 days after the next following general election if the sign solicits support for a candidate, political party or referendum question that is before the electorate in both the primary and the general election.
(d) The sign does not contain flashing lights or moving parts or in any other way fail to conform with s. 84.30 (4) (b), Stats.
(e) The sign is not erected in a location where it constitutes a traffic hazard.
History: Cr. Register, July, 1983, No. 331, eff. 8-1-83; am. (2) (e), Register, July, 1996, No. 487, eff. 8-1-96.

WeeVoter Late to the Parade

Some folks are just late to the parade as exemplified in this letter to the editor from Ms. Catherine Theilen published yesterday in the Standard Press website: http://lab.southernlakesnewspapers.com/?p=8685

She criticizes BASD School Board member Larry Anderson for not using Gubnah Walker's "Tools" to twist the thumbs of our local educators to the full extent possible and ONLY saving the citizenry $1.7 million dollars. How selfish and vindictive can the WeeVoters get with their punitive and myopic Tea Party agenda?

She then goes on to say "My suggestion is put the whole district on Obama care." What does that even mean? Does Ms. Theilen know? Does she mistakenly believe that means free healthcare provided by the federal government leaving taxpayers off the hook? My strong suspicion is that she has been the willing, but unknowing consumer of vast amounts of disinformation and likely knows little to nothing about Obamacare.

But the most entertaining and revealing part is that she turns her ill-informed ire on us wayward pamphleteers advising us as follows: "A helpful hint to the people putting political literature on car windshields: please stop.  You are in violation of Burlington city littering ordinance #200-2 sections A & C."

It's NOT Working Walker!

Thanks to the Siren we have an excellent chart that shows plain as day what miserable failures Scott Walker and his "tools" are. Wipe it clean in 2014!

Remember, the Great Republicon Recession started in September 2008, so Wisconsin was holding its own with respect to job creation until Walker took office in December 2010 with his empty promise to create 250,000 private sector jobs.

Can a WeVoter Yell at Someone in Bunny Ears?

A Warren of Lit Droppers

Once again, the WeVoter Poobah Bonnie Ketterhagen just isn’t making any sense. She calls the distribution of campaign leaflets “disrespectful”. What on earth is disrespectful about exercising democracy on public property? Nothing! http://lab.southernlakesnewspapers.com/?p=8566

And threatening to have her Tea Party minions “watch, patrol, police and monitor” these public places for citizens distributing informational literature is just another petty attempt to bully and intimidate. It won’t work, bullies need to be stood up to and called out.

Besides that, just try and yell at someone in BUNNY EARS!

Ten Years After Bush-Cheney Time Bandits & War Criminals

Remember? 12 years ago about this time of year in 2001, before 9/11, Dick Cheney was holding his secret energy task force meetings. Only the Dickster and the fossil industries were allowed to attend or know what was discussed, the public and any other groups were excluded and the content kept secret through executive privilege.

Under a Freedom of Information Act request the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch was able to get three small documents from the conclaves that inadvertently happened to be at the State Dept. and therefore had to be released under the law. These three little documents speak volumes about the agenda of the Cheney Administration.

Public Education is Patriotic!

Healthy public education is a founding principle of our democracy. Our Founders knew that it was vital to nurturing liberty, the pursuit of happiness and justice for all.

In 1784, Thomas Jefferson put forth the Northwest Ordinance, pertaining to the northwest territories of our young Republic, OH, MI, IN, IL and WI. It set aside the 16th Section of every township for the purpose of public education. The proceeds of the sale of this land at $1 per acre was put toward funding public education. This was the first national education law in the world! Public education is a foundational value of our more perfect union, that the citizens of a Republic, a representative democracy must be educated if they are to be free to govern themselves.

To honor and preserve such a system is a core patriotic value. To tear such a system down is not conservatism in the American way, but rather in the British imperial way, when only the eldest sons of the masses, if they were fortunate, might learn the craft of their fathers and only the Aristocrats, whose yoke we threw off with our Revolution were allowed to be truly educated.

The People couldn't be allowed to become educated under the old, pre-revolutionary British imperial way our they might decide they wanted to, and were capable of, governing themselves. To the aristocracy that was unacceptable, the People were to be Ruled! The shot fired around the world shattered that old system and brought forth the freedom of equal rights, self determination and self governance through the informed consent of the citizenry. An informed consent that requires an educated public.

WeVote Burlington is a local affiliate of the Tea Party, which has a national agenda of tearing down our public institutions of education and replacing them with private, for-profit schools that will not serve te public equally. The Ketterhagens, the Koldeways and Mrs. Miller may think this agenda is worthy of advancement through our community's school board, but their moral compass is misdirected and they’ve got their flag turned upside down.
http://burlingtonareaprogressives.blogspot.com/2012/11/ketterhagens-snake-strangled-banner.html

Furthermore, existing board member Phillip Ketterhagen has scapegoated our fellow citizens who teach, referring to them as cattle who need to be hit in the head with a 2x4. Yes, I understand it’s a metaphor, but metaphorically speaking that makes Ketterhagen the equivalent of a bully, berating and threatening our communal family with physical abuse . . . metaphorically of course!
 http://burlingtonareaprogressives.blogspot.com/2012/06/i-have-it-from-reliable-sources-that-tp.html

Our board of education should be a panel to nurture the best interests of our community, our children and our democracy, not a club to be wielded in beating down our family members, friends and neighbors to advance a narrow, radical, self-centered and, in the American way, unconservative political agenda. We mustn’t let our community turn into a dysfunctional family by electing two more tea partiers, Julie Koldeway and Norma Miller to act as enablers for the bully on the board.

We need sound, knowledgeable stewards of the public trust to nurture the health of our schools, both fiscally and educationally. That's why this citizen is voting for Larry Anderson and Jim Bousman for BASD board on April 2nd!

 

WeVote Candidates Refuse Debate

I've just gotten word that the Standard Press is NOT going to have a candidate forum because the WeVote PAC school board candidates have refused to participate. To me, this repeated refusal by the Tea Party candidates, Julie Koldeway and Norma Miller, to face the local press, to face their opponents and most importantly to face the public, the voters, and to answer questions SPEAKS VOLUMES!

I say repeated, because Julie Koldeway had already refused to participate in a public forum sponsored by the Standard Press that was to be held before the primary election. That forum unfortunately was cancelled due to a severe winter storm.

This fear of confronting the public appears at times to border on paranoia with perhaps the absurd notion that the Standard Press might be part of the "liberal media" and out to get the WeVote folks by twisting their words as exemplified by their grand poobah Bonnie Ketterhagen in this Standard Press article where she copies her comments to the WeVoters as documentation stating; “Below is a copy of the email I sent to the Standard Press after they submitted questions and requested an interview with us. If what appears in this week’s edition is different, you will know the truth.” http://lab.southernlakesnewspapers.com/?p=8244&t=Partisan+politics+marks+School+Board+election

I find it interesting that for a Standard Press article published a year or so ago about the WeVotes, Bonnie Ketterhagen and Julie Koldeway both refused to answer questions unless they were submitted in advance, so that they could carefully craft their answers and respond in writing. It's a pattern now and it's obvious that the local tea party people are afraid of something, maybe it's just saying something stupid.

However, the other two candidates, Larry Anderson and Jim Bausman were both willing and eager to participate, to state the cases for their candidacies and answer to the citizens of the Burlington Area School District.

So will it be candidates that are willing to stand forth, be open and up front about themselves and their positions, or those that fear brightlight, questioning and the potential exposure of their group's agenda before the public? The choice is yours Burlington. Vote on April 2nd (or before if you'll be away over spring break!).

Norma TP Miller Not Qualified

Burlington School Board Candidate and Tea Partier, Norma Miller in letter published in yesterday's Standard Press opinion section, said; "Right now we spend 85 cents out of every tax dollar on staff wages and benefits. That means 15 cents out of every tax dollar is spent on our children."


Ah NO, it does NOT! That statement alone demonstrates why she is not qualified to be on the Board, with regard to both her attitude toward our teachers and by her lack of understanding of how the funds to support our students are applied.

Apparently, Ms. Miller doesn't understand that the teachers are there for the students. That's not only completely misguided, it's unprofessional and disrespectful. How else are the students supposed to get educated? Education is a people intensive effort, not just in BASD, but in the schools all over our nation. Of course the bulk of the funding goes to teachers and other staff. They are what makes a building a school!

And her notion that only the remaining 15% goes to the children is equally absurd. That 15% goes to run and maintain district facilities. Like the teachers, are not the buildings also for the students? Of course! But apparently Ms. Miller believes that an ediface is more important than an educator to your children's and granchildren's future and that of our community.

I guess by her way of thinking we can cut costs by 85% and give our children nice buildings where they can stare vacantly at an empty blackboard and magically educate themselves.

I my opinion, Norma Miller offers little prospect of good stewardship over our schools or our future citizens!

The Tea Party is a Cancer!

How can you tell the Tea Party IS A CANCER? Because an investigation of the TPs by the National Cancer Institute and the National Institutes of Health reveals it's a synthetic concoction funded by the Tobacco and Fossil Industries. Its' safe to breathe around the TP asstroturf, just don't Inhale.

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/16042-focus-false-spontaneity-of-the-tea-party

Coniver Walker's Budget - Our Elderly & Disabled

A Budget is an expression of Moral Values or the lack thereof. Monday March 4th 9:30-11:30, Gateway Tech - Madrigrano Auditorium, 3520 - 30th Avenue Kenosha. Come hear a discussion of the impacts of Walker's proposed budget on our elderly, our disabled and those who care for them.

Wealth is Like Helium, it Stagnates at the Ceilium!

We often hear money and wealth compared to the physical properties of water. Money is "Currency" it has "Liquidity" or can be "Frozen". We have cash "Flow", we "Pump" or "Pour" money into things, markets get "Flooded", we spend it like "Water", "Float" loans and get "Drained" until we've taken a "Bath", are "Underwater" and have no "Solvency". We even store it in "Banks"! And yes, despite 30 years of evidence to the contrary, there are still those foolish enough to believe that if we allow enough wealth to accumulate at the very top, it will "Trickle" down on to us. Yew!

There is a reason why the failed Trickle Down metaphor of Supply Side Reaganomics is more like Voo Doo than Physics. Because when it comes to wealth accumulation, money isn't like water at all. Money is like HELIUM!

Water seeks its own level, the lowest level possible. But wealth naturally gravitates upward like helium. Left to its own devices, most of the wealth in any society will accumulate at the top, from which point the concentration will drop precipitously as one looks downward toward the bottom, where it will exhibit a vanishingly diffuse presence. They say it takes money to make money and it's true. So if you ain't got much money, you'll never make much money, unless you're the rarity that defies the physics and performs the feat that's called "Beating the Odds".

Helium released into a room will float up to the ceiling and stop there. On its own helium has no impetus to move back downward, other than the very weak force of diffusion along concentration gradients. Similarly, wealth concentrated in the top strata has no reason to move downward from the ceiling and since there is vanishingly little wealth below, there's no force to generate any dynamism in the system. And there's certainly no impulse for wealth at the top to invest itself in the interest of gaining more wealth from below, there's simply not enough of it there to make it worthwhile and generate the energy to do so.

Wealth is like Helium, it Stagnates at the Ceilium! (I've just renewed my poetic license). By September 2008, after three decades of Reaganomics, this was the state our Plutonomy had finally come to, with the vast majority of wealth concentrated at the top, the circulation collapsed, resulting in the Great Republicon Recession.

If however, instead of settling for stagnation, a force is introduced to push that helium downward, like a ceiling fan, it gets distributed more evenly throughout the room and inevitably returns to the top through dynamic flow and its property of buoyancy. Similarly, money circulated downward ($9.00 Minimum Wage, Revitalizing our Infrastructure, etc.) will flow back upward as it is used for purchasing. And unlike helium wealth can grow, so now there is momentum to invest that money to attract some of the wealth from below, which is now in more plentiful supply. And so the strength and volume of the circulation grows. And that circulation my friends, is called an "ECONOMY"!

School Vultures

Don't let the Vultures Write Your Laws!

Below is a link to Fact Sheet on Special Education Vultures from Disability Rights Wisconsin. See what a disaster these Vultures have caused in other states. Don't let them infest our state and feed off our our public schools!

http://www.wi-bpdd.org/whoweare/bpdd2013legpolicy/School%20Vouchers%202013.pdf

Tell Governor Walker not to stand for segregation of disabled students and the Education Profiteers supported by the self-serving owners of Walmart and Amway (the Walton and DeVos families) and their wholly owned legislature at the fascist American Legislative Exchange Council (fALEC).

http://www.capwiz.com/dawn/issues/alert/?alertid=62392491&type=ML

Straight Shooter

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a SLAVEHOLDING State

Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States reads, IN FULL: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." Was the Second Amendment negotiated to allow the Southern Slaveholding States to continue policing of their large slave populations once the new federal government became responsible for the military? Read on and follow the link at the end of the article.

The Bloody NRA enablers typically leave out the first half of the sentence. It's inconvenient for their purposes, which is make money for their sponsors by selling lots of guns. But it is just ONE sentence, meaning it's just ONE thought, not two separable statements. When they do confront the entire sentence, the Bloody NRA would have us believe that the Second Amendment was created to allow us to overthrow a tyrannical government. However, it makes no sense that our founders would refer to a domestic insurrection to overthrow the government as a "well regulated militia". Well regulated by whom? On the contrary, it seems to refer to a militia capable of putting down such a rebellion or a foreign invasion and preserving our Constitutional government. And the type of Constitutional government that our founders devised for us provides for a peaceful means of changing the government. THAT is the whole point!

Furthermore, the Supreme Court while upholding the second amendment has affirmed the right of Americans to keep and bear arms to protect themselves and their homes. Never have they affirmed the right to keep and bear arms for the purpose of overthrowing the government. NEVER! While I'm not totally unsympathetic to the idea that a tyrannical government might need to be opposed if one ever arrose, there is no way that citizens will ever have the type of weapons that are, and will be in the future, available to the government. Nor should they! It's been illegal to own a machine gun since the 1930's because they present too great a threat to public safety. Is that an infringement? Yes. Is it Constitutional? Yes. Is it reasonable? You're damn right it is! How many mass muders have been commited by Gunmen equipped with fully automatic weaopns in the U.S. since the 1930's? Almost ZERO. Proof that reasonable gun control laws work, even with respect to criminals.

You can't resolve the language "Well Regulated Militia being necessary to the Security of a Free State . . ." with the ability of the General Public to own any type of "Arms" ever to be devised by man. There's nothing Well Regulated about that! And remember, the Constitution doesn't say "firearms", is says "Arms", which can be interpreted to mean ANY Weapon, when of course the founders meant muskets capable of firing up to 3 rounds a minute in the hands of well trained militiamen. Hardly a major threat to public health and safety. As a Strict Constitutional Constructionalist and dogged adherent to original intent (NOT!), I insist on the right of all Americans to keep and bear all the muskets, lead balls, wadding and powder horns they can carry! RAMRODS ALL AROUND!

So was the Second Amendment designed for We the People to overthrow our own government? I don't see any evidence for that. It certainly isn't claerly stated as such. However, below is a link to an article that makes a compelling case that it's intent was to allow the Southern Slaveholding States to continue the policing of their slave populations once the right to raise armies passed from the states to the Federal Government and Congress under the new Constitution. And despite the Bloody NRA's Predictable Profit Inspired Protestations, that hardly represents a reasonable or moral underpinning for the alledged right of the General Public to own military style weapons of mass murder in Post Emanicipation Proclamation, Post Civil Rights, Modern America. 

Interchangeable magazine clips were designed for the military for maximum firepower on the battlefield. They have No Legitimate Civilian Use. Ban them NOW!

http://truth-out.org/news/item/13890-the-second-amendment-was-ratified-to-preserve-slavery

And Again! Merry Christmas from the Bloody NRA

From Mr. Gunman's Christmas Eve Massacre Note: “I still have to get ready to see how much of the neighborhood I can burn down and do what I like doing best — killing people,” Well Mr. Gunman, enabled by the Bloody NRA, picked the right mass murder tool, the military style AR-15 Bushmaster assault weapon with an arsenal of high capacity, interchangeable magazine clips!

As Christmas Eve dawned in Webster, NY Mr. Gunman set a trap. When fire fighters responded to the fire he set, he shot four of them with his Bushmaster .223-caliber rifle, the same type of semiautomatic weapon used in the school mass murder shooting 10 days earlier in Newtown, Conn. http://burlingtonareaprogressives.blogspot.com/2012/12/again-ban-weapons-of-mass-murder-again.html He murdered two volunteer firemen and severely wounded two more before engaging in a shootout with police and then blowing his own brains out.

“He was equipped to go to war to kill innocent people,” the Webster police chief, Gerald L. Pickering, said of Mr. Gunman.

When will we outlaw weapons of mass murder like the AR-15 Bushmaster and the high capacity magazine used by the mass murderer du jour in Aurora, CO, Newton, CT, Webster, NY? Oh yeah, we already did it was called the Assault Weapons Ban, but the Republicons gleefully let it expire in 2004 as required by their puppet masters, the Bloody NRA, the lobbying arm of the gun manufacturers that works feverishly to ensure their profits. It’s NOT REALLY about the 2^ndAmendment, it’s about the money.

I'm not against people having guns, but high powered, highly concealable guns with high capacity, easily interchangeable magazine clips that allowed the Virginia Tech mass murderer to spray 170 rounds in 5 minutes are not weapons of sport or self-defense. The only thing they are good for is mass murder. No one needs one and no one should have one, let alone Four, three, one!

For crying out loud, give us a chance, at least make'em have to stop and RELOAD!

Which brings up a good point, actually. It’s not the guns so much as the magazines that are the problem. I'm convinced that interchangeable magazines should be illegal to manufacture or sell in the U.S. They were designed for the military specifically so that soldiers can reload quickly, which is what makes them so dangerous to public health and safety in the hands of civilians.

There is no non-military use for these items. Simply limiting the capacity of these clips to 10 rounds as was the case under the old assault weapons ban and as is proposed by Sen. Feinstein will not do much good because a killer can still reload in seconds.

Only guns that have internal magazines that require reloading rounds one at a time, like revolvers should be legal. And those magazines should be limited to 10 rounds max. Those types of guns are perfectly suitable for self-defense and hunting. Nothing more is needed and anything more is a much too substantial threat to public safety.

I honestly believe that if these mass murderers knew they could only kill a few people on their way out, it just wouldn't provide the "glory" they're looking for. They might just not bother with it if we take all the fun out of it for them. Anyway making them less deadly and protecting public safety while preserving our 2nd Amendment right to bear arms, reasonably would be a very good thing.
 
Machine guns have been illegal since the 1930's and these mass murderers aren't using machine guns. Not because they wouldn't want the ability to kill even more people during their rampage, but because they are not easily available like the next best thing for Gunmen, military style, semi-automatic assault weapons with high capacity interchangeable magazines. It's time to make them illegal too!

Again!? Ban Weapons of Mass Murder . . . AGAIN!

I'm just updating a post to the BAP blog from July 20, 2012, for crying out loud. Literally! Please, I don't want to have to ever do this again, again.

http://burlingtonareaprogressives.blogspot.com/2012/07/ban-weapons-of-mass-murder-again.html

When will we outlaw weapons of mass murder like the AR - 15 Bushmaster and the high capacity magazine used by the mass murderer du jour in Aurora, CO Newtown, CT? Oh yeah, we already did it was called the Assault Weapons Ban, but the Republicons gleefully let it expire in 2004 as required by their puppet masters, the Bloody NRA.

I'm not against people having guns, but high powered, highly concealable guns with high capacity, easily interchangeable magazine clips that allowed the Virginia Tech mass murderer to spray 170 rounds in 5 minutes are not weapons of sport or self-defense. The only thing they are good for is mass murder, no one needs one and no one should have one, let alone Four three!

For crying out loud, give us a chance, at least make'em have to RELOAD!

Student Achievement - It's the Poverty Stupid!

I've been having a running "discussion" (AGAIN!)  with some Cult of Con Indoctrinants over at
http://freeracine.blogspot.com/ who insist on blaming Racine Unified (where I was educated, thank you!) generally and the teachers specifically for the poor student achievement. They think doing away with RUSD is the answer. I have been arguing, as I have in the past, that if one only looks at where these types outcomes prevail, it is pattently obvious that it is the result of concentrated poverty and all the social ills that go with it. Well that doesn't fit with the Cons Pre-Set Blame & Belief Buttons, so they will hear none of it.

As it happens I was listening to Wisconsin Public Radio (one of our crown jewels!) the other day and what do I hear? The Forward Institute has just released a study that shows School Report Card scores issued by the Department of Public Instruction are closely linked with poverty (Who Knew!). AND that Wisconsin's public schools out perform charter schools even when adjusting for the poverty of the students. http://forwardinstitutewi.org/ Take THAT would be Educational Profiteers!

Of course in true Con fashion and unable to address the substance of the study, they immediately attacked the source. But I suppose some must close their minds to "conserve" what's in there.

Press Release Excerpt: Currently more than 4 in 10 school age children in Wisconsin are defined as poor or “economically disadvantaged,” up from about 2 in 10 a decade ago. A student from a family qualifying for “free or reduced price lunch” is considered economically disadvantaged for the purposes of DPI scores – over 350,000 children in Wisconsin schools.

Based on data from the new Department of Public Instruction (DPI) Report Cards, our study showed a clear link between low Report Card scores and economically disadvantaged students who already have significant barriers to educational prosperity. Those schools with higher numbers of economically disadvantaged students had significantly lower scores on the Report Cards.
The study results show that nearly half of the Report Card score variation from school to school can be explained by the variation in poverty levels from school to school.

Since higher enrollments of economically disadvantaged students are a significant factor in the scores on the DPI Report Card, current proposals to tie school funding and teachers’ salaries to Report Card scores would unfairly punish schools in high poverty districts. As the study clearly shows, a very significant factor affecting Report Card scores is poverty, something which is outside the control of teachers and schools.

The data also revealed that contrary to the assumptions that non-traditional charter schools would be more effective through creating competitive choice, Wisconsin’s public schools significantly outperformed charter schools overall. This finding was especially evident in those schools with high poverty enrollment.

In the last four years, public school budgets have been cut by over $1 billion, while in 2012 alone, Wisconsin taxpayers provided $143.6 million to charter schools, the highest amount in state history. These fund increases did not translate into charter school performance over the three years of Report Card data collected. The Report Card data indicates public schools continue to better educate Wisconsin children than the non-traditional charter schools. Charter schools are underperforming at the core level of their mission – student excellence and achievement, without the taxpayer accountability of public schools.

These findings are important, especially as policy makers look for ways to provide the best educational opportunities for Wisconsin’s children while being mindful of the economic burdens on struggling families. Based on the high rate of Wisconsin school children living in poverty and the clear effects of poverty on education, this study recommends policymakers enhance educational opportunities for our children, and save taxpayer money by redirecting educational funds to the schools most effective at meeting the current needs of Wisconsin children, Wisconsin’s public schools.

GOPsters Admit to Voter Supression

Former high-ranking GOP leaders in Florida have admitted to efforts, including passing laws, to suppress the vote of American Citizens who tend not to choose Republicons at the polls. Furthermore, they've admitted that preventing voter fraud was just used as an excuse for their traitorous voter suppression schemes: http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/14740-former-gop-leaders-in-florida-admit-to-voter-suppression

Gubnah Scott Walker is of course following the GOPster lead on voter supression right here in good ol' Wisconsin, once the land of clean and transparent politics, the nations laboratory for democracy.

On top of his uneeded photo ID voter supression scheme, a solution in search of a problem, he now wants to eliminate Same-Day-Voter-Registration. The problem you ask? Why it's too popular!

The Gubnah: "States across the country that have same-day registration have real problems because the vast majority of their states have poll workers who are wonderful volunteers, who work 13-hour days and who in most cases are retirees," "It's difficult for them to handle the volume of people who come at the last minute. It'd be much better if registration was done in advance of election day. It'd be easier for our clerks to handle that. All that needs to be done."

You see? It's because it works for a lot of Wisconsin's Citizens. People with time constraints, who might move more often and have more difficulty getting off work and traveling to city hall to get registered than certain other people. If so many people weren't using this option it wouldn't be a problem. Of course the poll workers say it isn't a problem now and did anyone hear about any big problems here in Wisconsin on election day? NOPE!

Walker is in lock step with Robin Vos and Glen Grothman, one of which is batshit crazy and both of whome are staunchly committed vote supressors. http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/walker-calls-for-changes-to-sameday-voter-registration-rules-hk7n9e8-180010171.html

Once again we see a Republicon solution in search of a non-existant problem, making it patently obvious that the REAL GOPster goal is to make it more difficult for some people to vote. The Republicon war on democracy wages on!

Death Panel Anonymous Nonsense

I got an anonymous (chickenshit) letter in the mail with nothing but the above photocopy of an ominous article. The envelope included a return address of 3030 30th Ave. #14 Kenosha, but who knows if that is real, a stupid oversight by Mr. Anonymous or simply more bull shit. It didn't take me long to identify the source of the article as the National Review, a well known GOPropaganda and fear mongering rag. Again with the "Death Panels" silliness!

It also didn't take me long to find a scholarly article on the UK's plan to improve the quality of life and services provided to patients who are at the end of their lives so they can die with dignity and hopefully at home. See below. I read it and it's a good plan, thoughtful in it's goals and well intentioned.

http://www.commonwealthfund.org/~/media/Files/Publications/Issue%20Brief/2011/Jul/1527_Gray_Englands_approach_endoflife_care_intl_brief_v2.pdf

So I asked the question; why must the Cult of Con faithful (and their ideological minders at the likes of FuxSnooze and the National Review) see everything through a lense of dark and sinister (and whacky) conspiracy theories? My friend Steve Sullivan gave me the answer: Because they are dark and sinister conspirators themselves -- and if they were in power, that's the way they'd run the world. And have in the past. It's called "projection."

Couldn't have said it better myself. Death Panels - Sheesh!

Ketterhagen's Snake Strangled Banner

The photograph above was taken on the observance of Veteran's Day, November 12, 2012 at the residence of local Teajadists Phillip and Bonnie Ketterhagen. They are flying their American flag upside-down presumably as their response to the Expressed Will of the American People last Tuesday when President Barack Obama was comfortably re-elected.

Maybe they could also try stamping their feet and holding their breath until our democracy is thwarted in their favor. I guess in certain circles it's only "Freedom" when YOU GET YOUR WAY!

But judging by the results of last Tuesday's re-election of President Obama, our first openly gay Senator Tammy "You're Damn Right" Baldwin, the rejection of Mitt's tripling down on the failed trickle-down voodoo economy and the "legitimate rape" agenda, the votes on gay marriage and other progressive victories, it seems the Ketterhagen's have the wrong flag inverted. The Stars and Stripes should be waving proud with the blue on top!

It is the co-opted flag of the venomous Tea Party that should be flapping head over heels. (or should I say, rattling-tail?) Demographics is destiny and the TP would do best to take their angry, old, out of touch, reactionary agenda and slither off into the grass (or should I say astroturf?) from whence they first reared their head.

Why aren't we Trumpeting Voter Fraud!?

Courtesy of the Burlington Area Progressives, the following is a guest editorial by Cayman Island based vulture capitalist Rich Whiteman and Republican strategist Juan Percente'

After all the voter suppression efforts by our Republican Party, why aren't we trumpeting "voter fraud!" like bull elephants to provide cover for the war on voting activities as justifiable by the vast leftwing conspiratorial menace? Our challenging, caging and intimidating voters, limiting early voting, making ballots 10 pages long to slow down voting in crowded wards, under-allocating voting machines, making brown citizens stand in line for SEVEN HOURS and denying them chairs and bottled water, these actions by Republicans and our surrogates like True The Vote just look mean, nasty, underhanded and un-American if they can't be squared with the immanent threat of a stolen election and a thwarted democracy. So where are the covering cries of fraud? How the hell are we supposed to justify our photo ID voter suppression scheme if we don't keep screaming real loud!?

Look our ideas suck, our money bombs failed us, demographics are going to swamp us, we sure as hell aren't going to get all hopey changy and adjust to reality, what choice do we have but to suppress oppositional voters? We need to get serious people!


O.K. so here's the deal, in Wisconsin Obama won the election by a mere 205,205 votes, well within the margin for theft so why aren't Republicans making our case? Look, the polls were open for 13 hours on Tuesday, right? And conceivably one dedicated brown lefty fraudster (BLF) could cast an average of one vote per hour. By the way we know that their brown lefties because our efforts to challenge and prevent this scurge of voter fraud always focus exclusively on minority voting districts that vote democratic, so it just stands to reason.

Of course the BLF would have to move to new polling stations and register with different properly forged documents at each location before casting each vote, but that's totally doable! Sure they could just vote under somebody's name who is already registered and save some time, but then at least one of these legit voters would certainly have already voted, would vote later or be known by someone at the poll, which would blow the whole operation out into the open. And if BLFs have one genious (besides music and dance of course) it is the ability to maintain complete operational secrecy with their soul brothers, sisters, hombres and latinas. No reward ever offered would be sufficient to break their loyal bonds and expose their conspiracy. Wait, we have offered substantial and widely publicized rewards for penetrating and exposing this dark conspiracy, yes!? What!!? NO!!??

Well anyway, using a cutting edge analytical technigue called math, we've divided the 205,205 vote margin of victory by 13 hours and found that it would require only 15,785 conspirators in our fair state to accomplish this nefarious crime! To thwart the will the people! (Yeah, you know which people)

We know that minorities already turnout to vote at rates that far exceed those of other groups, right? So how can we doubt the dogged determination of the BLFs to vote not only once, but multiple times? Surely our fair state was being quietly crisscrossed on Tuesday by hoards of BLFs, individually and on busses, (many of them from that notorious BLF enclave, Chicago) secretly  and unnoticed, stealing the election from good and decent people! (Yeah, you know which people)

What we can't figure out is how they always know just how many votes they're going to need to make sure that their herculean expenditure of time, money, effort and resources doesn't fall short. Because even BLFs do not have limitless supplies of those commodities. That's a puzzler we're going to have to work on, but we know there's an answer somewhere, because those BLFs are crafty devils aren't they?

Rich Whiteman - Juan Percente'

Cult of Con Prophets

A number of Cult of Con Indoctrinants that I've ecountered here and elsewhere on-line over the last several months made emphatic predictions about what they considered to be the inevitable outcome of last night's close and hard-fought Presidential election. You know who you are.

I still don't understand if this GOPredilection for prediction & prognostication is because they actually believe they can foresee the future. Or if it is that they feel that if they say the right incantation, they can influence the future and make it so.

Either way, it seems it is time for a reality check of their faith-base ideology and their belief in the power of magical thinking.

Or perhaps they just didn't squint hard enough.

WI GOP Poll Watchers Mislead by Fearless Leader!

NOTE: The bullet list immediately above is a power point slide from a recent Romney Poll Observer training session in Racine. Note that the trainees are directed to sign in not as representatives of the Romney Campaign or the GOP, which they clearly are, but as concerned citizens. This little but of subterfuge must have a purpose, like allowing them to pack more of their people into a polling station as the Chief Election Inspector has a right to limit the number of reporesentatives of any one group at her polling place.

The latest in a long line of Republicon dirty tricks and tampering with the sacred right of American's right to vote is seen here in the Romney Campaign's inaccurate and deceptive poll watcher training right here in Wisconsin: http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/10/31/1114071/wisconsin-election-officials/?mobile=nc

Seems Republicon poll watchers are being given inaccurate and incomplete information about who can vote and what proof of residency is sufficient to excercise the right on which ALL OTHER RIGHTS of Americans stand, the right to vote.

They're also telling their poll watchers to lie when checking in at the polls, to not identify as a Republicon or a representative of the Romney Campaign. That of course will give the GOPsters and the Romney campaign plausible deniability when one of their volunteers, amped up on the Cult of Con voter fraud mythology, goes ape shit, intimidates voters and disrupts the polling place because someone gets to vote that they don't believe should, based on the bad information they've been fed by the campaign. Ya know, kinda like what went on in Racine back in June.

Republicons can't win on the merit of their values and ideas. That's why they lie, hide (or change) their agenda during elections (aka Gubna Romnesia & Scooter Walker) and perenially engage in efforts to mislead voters on who, what, when, where and how to vote in order to supress legitimate voters who don't like to vote for Con artists.

Are these the illegal aliens the republicans are always so worried about?

Low Dreck Lynching

Top Photo Lynch Truck Center Hwys 20 & 36

Bottom Photo Wanasek Corp Hwy 11 & 36 Bypass

BUSINESSES THAT SPREAD LIES DON'T DESERVE YOUR BUSINESS!



Republicons truly are the party of dirty tricks and low down tactics. Every election year we see the GOPster misinformation swing into gear, misleading targeted democratic leaning voters (minorities) on when, where and if they can vote, purging them from the voter rolls and other acts of skullduggery.

Here we see two Burlington businesses playing along with the coordinated campaign of dirty Republicon tricks.

The posters read "$10,000 FINE FELONY CHARGES 3 YEARS BEHIND BARS" and "WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD COMMIT VOTER FRAUD?"

Of course the answer is, other than Robin Vos' estranged wife, almost no one. Wide spread voter fraud is a nutty conspiracy theory. It just doesn't happen and the logistics of pulling it off year after year without getting caught are so mindboggling that you have to shut your brain off to even begin to believe in it. Fortunately for the party bosses their ideologically blind followers are really good at doing just that when given their marching orders.

The Republicons have to keep the sinisterly intended myth of wide spread left-wing voter fraud conspiracies alive in the minds of their base. And so they lie to their own people. How else will they be able to justify voter ID laws that are uneeded by anyone except the Greedy Oligarch's Party who need them to prevent minority citizens from voting if they hope to remain both a viable political party AND a party of backward thinking angry old white men. Demographics are not on their side, so they lie and try to enact new Jim Crow laws.

But this is about more than denying American citizens their right to vote based on race, pushing through unnecessary and costly bureaucratic rules. It's also about voter intimidation and supressing the vote. They're trying to make going to the polls a scary thing for people who might be unsure about exaclty what the rules are and how to avoid running afowl of them, people who might feel like they've been targeted by authority figures before and fearful that they will again. Again we're talking about minorities who have a legitimate right to vote, but might not be sure if that run in with the law they had when they were 17 disqualifies them to vote. And if it does, well better safe than sorry, why risk a fine, a felony charge and jail time to cast one vote, right?

If the Republicon Party really believed their own talk of perennial wide-spread left-wing voter fraud they wouldn't spend their money on signs, they'd offer a big reward for catching or infiltrating the fraud conspirators leading to arrest, prosecution and punishment which would be a huge deterent to potential future offending conspirators. But they don't do so, because they know that the reward would go uncollected and that would expose the fallacy that must be maintained in the minds of the Cult of Con indoctrinants. If the rank and file started questioning the voter fraud article of faith, just imagine what else the faithful might start to second guess with regard to the Gospel of Con!

Not only is this coordinated effort at intimidation and misinformation aimed at fellow citizens un-American, it's down right nasty. But just as importantly it's purely dishonest. And why would you trust a business that posts lies right on their front lawns to deal with you honestly and fairly? These businesses do not deserve your business, don't give it to them!

Lynch Sales 763-7500. Wanasek Corp 763-3561

Vos' Snake Oiled DeMOCKeracy

Do you think you have freedom? Do you think you're governed through the informed consent of the citizenry as the founders intended? Do you think your state legislator represents you and your neighbors? Well, do you know that lobbyists from global corporations are voting in secret along with your Republicon State Legislators across the country on laws to rule you from your statehouse!? That’s not democracy. That’s not a Republic, it’s a crassly selfish betrayal of what America is supposed to be.

Here in Wisconsin, State Assemblyman Robin Vos is the state chair of the lobbyist group the American Legislative Exchange Council and he is sworn to enact ALEC’s corporate agenda laws, in many cases nearly word for word from the ALEC draft model legislation. Laws that infringe on your Constitutional right to seek redress for grievances in a court of law in front of a jury of your peers. Among other things, these laws are designed to prevent you from suing a car dealership when they sell you a lemon or when a landlord (like Robin) decides to keep the security deposit for your college student’s apartment.

Robin Vos has been bribed with expenses paid ALEC “scholarships” to be wined and dined in a sunnier clime while being “educated” in the ALEC way. And Mr. Vos has been using his forked tongue ever since to sell their secret snake oil sauce on issues like tort reform, free market fundamentalism, voter fraud, the privilege to pollute and privatization for the fun and profit of the few. Don’t swallow this venomous brew, don’t even step in it!

Those ruled in the interests of others are not free. If you believe in America’s founding principles of freedom and self-determination, please watch The United States of ALEC documentary by the respected journalist Bill Moyers: http://www.democracynow.org/2012/9/27/the_united_states_of_alec_bill and demand an end to this traitorously secret legislative process.

Be a patriot, stop Robin the shill who represents global corporations that have no allegiance to you, your city, county, state or even your country. Vote for Democracy!

Ashes to Dust

Take a good long look at the brilliant ash trees this fall. It will be among your last opportunities. Although their amazing colors don't last long and plummet with the the first wind or rain, they are among the most spectaular and unique of autumn shows. Ranging from bright, uniform yellows to shimmering, almost psychedelic dark purples to yellows, sometimes even on the same leaf, these beauties will be sorely missed as they vanish from our landscape in the coming years. The emerald ash borer is here and dispite our best efforts, nothing is going to stop it, the genie is out of the bottle. It just makes me very sad. Thanks a lot uncheched globalization.

Another Flawed TP Swipe at Public Education

Last week's Standard Press once again included a vindictive and venomous letter attacking on our public servants by a cohort of the local TP brigade. This time it was Wayne Raisleger, who derided the Burlington Area School District Board of Education and the Citizens that came forward on August 27th to vote their community conscience and support to zero tax levy increase approved by the Board. As if further cutting would have made any difference with regard to Mr. Raisleger's compaints about student standardized test multiple choicing!

We all know that the number one indicator of student success is parental involvement. Yet Mr. Raisleger blames the supposedly sub-par WKCE test scores on the school board and the teachers instead of those who actually took the test (some students) and their key supporters (parents). This of course ignores the fact that Burlington High School's ACT test scores continue year after year to be above the state average, (Standard Press - 9/6/12, page 6)  in a state, which along with its neighbors Iowa and Minnesota, lead the nation in ACT Scores. This result is characterized by Wayne as "poor student achievement". If Wayne likes other district's results better, then maybe he can get their students to take BASD's testing instead. I hear that the students from inner city areas in Wisconsin with high poverty, unemployment, hopelessness and all the social ills that accompany those conditions can be had for testing on the cheap. And Mississippi students? Why they're as free of charge for testing as they are from quality inculcation!

Raisleger called a school board member a "union shill", derided members for executing their constitutuional right as citizens to sign petitions and went on to claim that "it is generally acknowledged that K-12 systems are failing in America." Based on the above, Mr. Raisleger is probably completely unaware that the only places were this is "generally acknowledged" are the self-indoctrinated minds of those who consume FuxSnooze and AM radio GOPropaganda.

But what is really misguided and off the mark is Mr. Raisleger's pronouncement that "These divergent trends (teacher pay/student test scores) were perptuated in the tax levy passed Aug 27 and would only be accepted in a public sector organization." A claim he esentially repeated with "The ugly truth is that, given their job performance, all five (non-TP Board Members) would have been sacked if they held similar positions in the private sector". Seriously? Any casual observer of the private sector in recent, greedy and deregulated times would immediatly recognize the falacy of this Cult of Con profession of faith. This study of CEO pay versus corprorate performance by Forbes adeptly documents the failure of the god of free market forces in America today: http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2012/0423/ceo-compensation-12-company-earnings-highest-gravity-defying-pay.html

FORBES EXCERPT: Our report on executive compensation will only fuel the outrage over corporate greed. In 2011 the chief executives of the 500 biggest companies in the U.S. got a collective pay raise of 16% last year, to $5.2 billion. This compares with a 3% pay raise for the average American worker. Go the link above Mr. Raisleger and you will see a graph illustrating an inverse relationship to private sector CEO pay and coporate earnings. So much for the sanctified purity of the private sector.

What is especially disturbing about this three decade long redistribution of wealth from the stagnating/declining American middle class to the ruling political/corporate class, is that these outrageously disgusting and often undeserved tributes to the CEO elitists are subsidized by America's citizens through their tax contributions as documented here: http://www.ips-dc.org/reports/executive_excess_2012

EXCERPT - Among the findings:
•Of last year’s 100 highest-paid U.S. corporate chief executives, 25 took home more in CEO pay than their companies paid in federal income taxes.
•The CEOs of these 25 firms received $20.6 million in average total compensation last year. That’s a 24 percent increase over the average for last year’s list of 2010’s tax dodging executives.
•The four most direct tax subsidies for excessive executive pay cost taxpayers an estimated $14.4 billion per year—$46 for every American man, woman, and child. That amount could also cover the annual cost of hiring 211,732 elementary-school teachers or creating 241,593 clean-energy jobs.
•CEOs have benefited enormously from the Bush tax cuts for upper-income taxpayers. Last year, 57 CEOs saved more than $1 million on their personal income tax bills, thanks to these Bush-era cuts.

In recognition of the derisive nature of his pontifications, and the baseless nature of his Cult of Con professions of faith, Mr Raisleger has earned BAP's covetous Forked Tongue & Fangs Award.
Way to go Wayne!

There Goes Lyin Ryan

John Heckenlively penned this parody of Roy Orbison's Crying back in 2010and asked me to record it. I was about to dust off the mp3 file in response to Lyin' Paul Ryan's selection as Mit-the-Twit's VP, when I got a link from John to the video he'd just finished. I'm no Roy Orbison with an 8 octave range, but here after long delay is Ryan Lying.


John Heckenlively - Lyrics, Compilation
Sean Cranley - Vocals, Mandolin, Accoustic Guitar, Bass Guitar
Caelyn Cranley - Drums

America, Don't Buy Paul Ryan's Snake Oil!

FACT: Ryan claims to be a deficit hawk
FACT: Clinton left us with a budget surplus to pay off the debt
FACT: Ryan voted for the unfunded Afghan war
FACT: Ryan voted for two Bu$h tax cut with no off-sets
FACT: Ryan voted for the unfunded Iraq war
FACT: Ryan voted for the unfunded Medicare Part D
FACT: More the 1/2 our debt was run up during the Bu$h Admin
FACT: Ryan helped Bu$h do it every step of the way
FACT: Ryan is NOT a deficit hawk
FACT: Ryan is a hypocrite and a liar

Scott Walker to Speak in Climate of Denial

One of the best known living liars rides to the rescue of those who lie for a living. August 9th Scott Walker who professional GOPropagandist Joe Bast describes as “the nation’s most influential and successful governor.” will speak at a $150 per plate fundraiser in Chicago to celebrate the 28th anniversary of the Heartland Institute. By my estimation that means that if he speaks for 45 minutes the attendees will have paid $3.33 per lie!

The fundraiser is necessary due to the drop off of donors who objected to Heartland billboards that compared people who accept the mainstream science of human-induced climate change to the unibomber. but what do expect from scumbaggy shills like Heartland and Scott Walker?
http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2012/06/heartland-institute-and-scott-walker-join-forces

In case you're not familiar with the Heartland Institute, they are the Chicago based PR-opaganda firm that for years worked for the tobacco industry to deny and sow doubt in the minds of the American public that cigarettes cause cancer. Of course we all now know without question that cigs cause malignancy.

These days the Heartland Institute is on the payroll of the fossil industries and is one of the major merchants of doubt in the malignancy that is climate change denial. They also dabble in promoting the conversion of our children into perpetual revenue streams for the education profiteers and in bashing and scapegoating our teachers to advance their corporatist "free-market" (yeah, right) anti worker agenda. In light of the above it won't surprise you that the Heartland Inst. is tied to the "free-market", I mean fascist American Legislative Exchange Council (fALEC) where global corporations secretly write and vote on the laws that will rule you from your statehouse.

You can learn more about these shit heads and how they're literally making it their business to run ourlives, including right in in Wisconsin by following this link: http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Heartland_Institute

SOURCEWATCH EXCERPT: Leaked documents show that the Hearland-Institute is planning to spend $612,000 supporting Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and four GOP Senators in their probable recall elections in a pro-Walker campaign they are calling “Operation Angry Badger.”
In the leaked documents Heartland wrote: "The recall elections of 2012 amount to a referenda on collective bargaining reform at the state level, making them of national interest. Successful recalls would be a major setback to the national effort to rein in public-sector compensation and union power." The documents propose a $612,000 campaign to include print ads, mailers, web ads, and blog posts that would promote the "successes" of Wisconsin Act 10 and portray Wisconsin teachers as overpaid and schools as underperforming.

Can you say "quid pro quo" Scotty? One again we witness Scot Walker's uncanny and scummy ability to be on the big money-driven, immoral, unethical and un-American side of every issue he touches! But then we already knew that Walker is up sainthood among the money-god-worshippers in the Cult of Con.