Paul Ryan is a FRAUDSTER!

The following article was composed and contributed to the BAP Bog by a local citizen, Tom Dona Rosa who has done his homework. Thank you Tom!

Each year for a number of years citizens living in the First Congressional District have received from Congressman Paul Ryan an Annual Report on the Unites States Government with the Great Seal of the Congress of the United States on it. The Report represents itself to be a an Annual Report similar to a Corporate Annual Report. We all know that Corporate Annual Reports must be a truthful and an accurate representation of the Corporation at the time that it was issued. So why would this Annual Report be any different? WOW is all I can say!! I had glanced at the others and filed them, but this one I looked at more closely and to my utter shock found out that it is a TOTAL misrepresentation of our Government’s finances!! It is in essence a FRAUD upon us because it intentionally misrepresents the income and expenses of our government!!!

For starters Paul Ryan claims that the payments to the Social Security Trust Fund and other similar programs, Medicare, Federal Unemployment, and of all things the Railroad Retirement Fund are part of the Government’s Revenue!! He calls them “Social Insurance Taxes” as if there is such a thing. It would be like Governor Walker claiming that the payments to and income earned by the Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS) is part of the income to the State of Wisconsin!! Now people know that the money that goes to the WRS for public employees pensions is NOT income to the State of Wisconsin but money being set aside and invested to pay the pensions when those public employees retire.

Vulture Vos & the Educational Profiteers

Photo Obtained from Root River Siren Blog

This following piece was contributed by Susan Hickman.

Yes, Robin Vos wants to promote vouchers so that “for profit” and private schools can use our tax dollars and this video was his set up. 90% pure lies. http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2013/apr/14/robin-vos/wisconsin-assembly-speaker-robin-vos-says-1-4-scho/   Yes, this is alarming but there is more.

Welcome to the latest advancement to education, the Common Core Standards. There were two major new models for school improvement that could have been considered for nation-wide school improvement. To understand, please take a moment to look at the 21st Century Skills model http://www.p21.org and you will see a beautiful educational model. It includes innovation, technology, the arts, global understanding, team work, history, and more. 

Mark Belling, of far right radio fame, recently referred to a member of the Milwaukee governing body as a "bitch".  Not the first time he's shown that he is incapable of expressing his views without using bathroom stall language.  Here's my letter I just sent to his boss at Clear Channel. Had someone at MSNBC said it about one of their right wing favorites, the far right would be screaming for blood.

It is my understanding that Mr. Belling referred to a a member of the Milwaukee governing body as a "bitch".  He may have danced around the borders a bit, but the implication was clear.  This, of course, was not the first time that Mr. Belling has shown his lack of ability to express his views without the use of offensive street language.  

Let me remind you, sir, that Clear Channel does not own the airwaves.  They are owned by US, the American people.  Your company merely leases space. 

Bonnie's got BAP's Bunny Ears Burning!

 Bonnie's got BAP's Bunny Ears Burning! 

Local illiberal and WeVoter Poobah Bonnie Ketterhagen continues to supply loads of Tea Party entertainment value to the local scene! At last Saturday's Burlington Area School District open house and again at Monday's school board meeting she complained about the distribution of leaflets during the recent school board race, which her candidates lost handily. Please see page 4 of the April 11, 2013 edition of the Standard Press. For background on this issue, please refer to the following Standard Press article: WeVote Leader Takes Issue with Fliers

Without providing any reasoned argument as to why our rights should be infringed, other than she doesn't like it, Bonnie wants the board to adopt a policy banning the distribution of informational fliers on BASD property. "Please stop all postings," she said. "Just say no." "The board has opened a floodgate of possibilities," said Ketterhagen. "This is not a free speech issue. It is a property rights issue. It is not litter. It is a trespassing issue."

Not a free speech issue? Trespassing on public property? HELLO! Whose schools are they anyway? They're OUR schools, they belong to ALL of us! Which I suspect is the thing the Tea Partiers object to the most. How can you trespass on PUBLIC property? And this is an election we're talking about here, probably THE most sacred act of our Republic!

Senator Soundbyte Rides Again!

Senator Ron Johnson (R-Chamber of Commerce) is living proof that you can be dumb as a post and get elected if you have nice hair, a pretty, marry into money and stick to canned sentences no more than 10 words long. He's now among a dozen dip-schmidts in the Senate who threatened to filibuster ANY new arms control legislation including the expanded background checks favored by the vast majority of American citizens and which were at one time even acceptable to the Bloody NRA.

I hope he and his puppet-masters are ready to have their noses rubbed in blood like naughty dogs when the next Sandy Hook happens. Please read more at the Root River Siren blog: http://rootriversiren.blogspot.com/2013/04/mr-victims-of-government-wont-allow.html

Ya hey da Republicon "tought" fer da Day

And now your Republicon "thought" for the day
Courtesy of Senator Frank Lasee
A miles long sulfide trench is A-Okay
But them windmills is bad da envirnmunt der-hey!

http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/article/20111011/GPG0101/110110429/Wisconsin-wind-turbine-moratorium-sought-by-Sen-Frank-Lasee-R-Ledgeview
  Hey http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/article/20120308/GPG0101/203080569/Wisconsin-Senate-kills-windmill-siting-legislation-Frank-Lasee-blames-Democrats-Dale-Schulz   HEY! https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2013/03/02/state-senator-frank-lasee-introduces-bill-to-protect-health-and-safety/   Whadda jerk der eh?

Hey Governor.  Want to make a quick boost to the economy?  Push to legalize same-sex marriage.  Washington state estimates that same sex marriage boosted spending in the state by 88 million dollars.  Iowa?  Somewhere between 12-13 million.  New York?  A whopping 259 million dollars. Not only would it generate a lot of revenue, but it would also give you credibility with the actual, real "not-just-in-name-only" libertarians out there and totally confuse your left wing opposition.  OK, I know that about 90% of those that call themselves "libertarians" really aren't, but it's a thought.  And think of how it will confuse us "liberals"  Call the Koch brothers and see what they think.  Since it won't affect their efforts to turn Wisconsin into a resource rich third-world nation, they probably won't care.

The Goods on the WeVote Burlington Part I

American Majority Rally - Madison 2011 with
Their Hero the Late GOPropagandist Andrew Breitbart

Perhaps you've heard me before say things like our communities, civility, rationalism, our educators and not only our public schools, but our public institutions generally, are under attack by the combined forces of greed, selfishness and short-sighted ignorance. While some of you are no doubt aware of what I’m referring to, others may have dismissed it as mere paranoia.

Well now I’ve got the goods on the WeVote Burlington Tea Party and the big money, American’s-for-Plutocracy national agenda behind them and their attempt to take over our local school district. http://americanmajority.org/majority-2/its-time-for-new-leaders-in-our-education-system/

EXCERPT: One of the groups that joined the New Leaders Project is We Vote Burlington. Activists in a local group led by Bonnie Ketterhagen attended an American Majority training and decided to bring some change to their own school board. They recruited two new candidates for the school board elections, trained them using American Majority’s campaign resources, and helped them to victory in the Spring of 2012.

Chicken products vs. byproducts.

Andy Mitchell

9:21 PM  -  Public

The Republican party--the party of small government, the party of the power of the individual to make their own decisions, the party of "keep government out of my medicare"--continues to serve people chicken crap and try to convince them it's chicken salad.  In Kansas, women that go to their doctor to discuss abortion will be read a script by their health care provider that is (1) mandated by the government and (2) false.  Here in Wisconsin, a doctor's written prescription that was discussed and agreed upon in the privacy of a closed exam room can be overruled at a crowded public counter if the pharmacist objects to distributing it.  That's right...if he objects to the medication and the use, he can legally refuse to give it to you.  And the list goes on.

The White Wash Won't Work Walker!

Empty GM Plant in Janesville Wisconsin

Even with the white wash, It's Not Working Walker!

Wiscosippi's Gubnah Walker would have you think that all is on the mend in the Badger State and we're on our way to sunshine, roses and his promised 250,000 jobs. In a state that has gone from 11th to 44th in job creation under little Scooter's rule, nothing could be further from the truth.

(Psssst, Scooter, dampening consumer demand in a 70% consumer demand driven economy in the middle of the Great Republicon Recession by attacking public worker job, benefits and retirement security was one major brain fart, even for you!)

Vulture School Vos - Robbinhood in Reverse

Robbin "School Vulture" Vos, vassal to the feudal American Legislative Exchange Council (fALEC) stated yesterday that he is open to Grothman's proposal of tax credits for families to send their kids to private schools. Of course he is! It's another fALEC connived way to destroy the arch enemy of the Cult of Con, public education, while rewarding the rich!

Think of it! No longer will those kids in places like Mequon and Greenfield have to suffer the indignation of mingling with the student bodies at high schools the likes of Homestead and Whitnall that have poverty rates approaching single digits! 

NOTE, I tried to post this to facefook today and include the link to the Root River Siren Blog where there is a post on this issue and I got the following response from facebook: 
"The content you're trying to share includes a link that's been blocked for being spammy or unsafe:"

Tea Leaves

Congratulations!

Whether you stood up to run for office and serve your community, organized, donated, leafleted, canvassed, phoned, wrote a letter, addressed postcards, refused to be intimidated by false accusations, wore bunny ears, or simply paid attention and voted, Thank You!

You stood up for our children and grandchildren, our community, for civility and rationalism, for our educators and not only for our public schools, but for our public institutions generally, which are under attack by the combined forces of greed, selfishness and short-sighted ignorance.

Well done. E Pluribus Unum Baby!

WeeVoter Candidates Even Refuse Interviews

If you haven't yet had a chance, grab a copy of last week's Standard Press and read the sidebar on Page 6. It recounts the exhaustive attempts by the paper to get the WeeVote endorsed candidates to grant interviews to the paper and present their views and ideas of what they would like to do if elected to the BASD Board.

It was noted that candidates Larry Anderson and Jim Bousman readily agreed to participate, and their contemporaneous answers to the questions posed are included in last week's edition.

The WeeVote candidates on the other hand at first agreed to answer the same questions posed to the other responsive candidates, but only if presented to them in writing. The Standard Press agreed, but told the WeeVoters that they would have complete the process in approximately one hour as the responsive candidates had done. Even this was unacceptable to the WeeVoters as they began refusing to communicate with the Standard Press to confirm or deny their willingness to participate, even when offered a more generous response time, better suited to their . . . sensibilities.

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'