The State Budget: From Bad to Much, Much Worse

First thing you should know is that the $650MM problem was "reduced" to only $525MM by simply NOT paying $125MM in State debt, which will be rolled over for payment in the next biennium. So we begin with a problem, if you intend to be around Wisconsin and paying taxes 3 years from now.

We also have another "beginning" problem: the assumption that revenue-projections from taxes are going to hold up. If the current credit-crisis works its way down a bit further the State could be in trouble. Similarly, on the spending side, if the price of petroleum holds at its current levels, the State's budget for asphalt and motor fuel is pure fantasy.



But it gets worse.



The "remedy" found another $125MM to roll into the next biennium by delaying school-aid payments.



The "remedy" drains another $66MM from the rainy-day fund and spends it.



The "remedy" (by fiat: Presto! Change-o!) reduces the required cash-on-hand required balance by another $40MM.



The "remedy" pisses away $4+MM which should be used for "Real ID". No real ID this biennium, folks. Oh, and by the way--the "remedy" would also put nails in the REAL ID coffin by prohibiting expenditure of the other $21+MM budgeted for that purpose.



There IS a seeming reduction in spending of $69MM--but it's money that the State is not obligated to spend, nor HAS the State spent the money--so it's "money we really didn't have to spend in the first damn place" which will be called "spending reduction."



(That, folks, is like budgeting in Marcy 2008 for your 2009 vacation and then cancelling the budget item in June 2008....you didn't spend the money!!)



THEN...



They will spend $50MM on roads, by issuing MORE DEBT. So they took out $50MM (above) and then re-spent it--but like the first item, it's going to be more debt for the NEXT biennium...



AND...



They will push $25MM in County roadbuilding/maintenance from THIS biennium to the NEXT biennium. The potholes will have grandchildren, and the taxpayers will have MORE debt.



The State will allow locals to tax elder-housing (targets: Lutheran Home, Villa Clement, and the Congregational Home, among others.)



(A minor point: in order to effect some administrative changes in retired-police-and-fire health insurance pay, the State authorizes THREE positions--at a cost of $100K/year/position. Nice work if you can get it, folks...)



(Another minor point: the "remedy" will force all school districts which offer 4-year-old kindergarten to offer it to ALL 4-year-olds, not just some. Do you see footprints of WEAC?)



Then there's the re-financing of the tobacco deal.



Way back when, McCallum patched HIS leaky budget by selling the State's tobacco revenues. (That is something he should not put on his resume, folks...)



At any rate, the tobacco companies paid the State and the State then made its payments on the bonds issued to give McCallum the money he needed.



NOW the State wants to re-fi that deal and extend its annual debt payments another 12 years. But in order to do that at a better interest rate, the STATE will guarantee the payments--where before, the bond-holders had assumed the risk that the tobacco companies would pay, now the State TAXPAYERS assume that risk.



$200 million or so this year, yes--but then, if RJR or Marlboro goes BK, guess who pays? (Hint: get a mirror and look square into it...)



And to top it off, the net present value of the income from the settlements is REDUCED by $80MM or so over the next 30 years. The "remedy" puts you on the hook and cleans $80MM from your pockets for the privilege.



What a country! What a State!!



The "remedy" will also spend an additional $18.5MM or so by putting child-care providers on retainer instead of paying them for services actually delivered. In other words, the State will pay providers based on "expected" child attendance, rather than ACTUAL attendance.



Then there's the WallyWorld tax hike. The State will hit up WallyWorld for $18MM or so by dis-allowing rents/lease payments to "related entities." There are a lot of highly technical provisions in the legislation--but it's entirely possible that this provision will affect a lot more entities than just WallyWorld. In any case, this is a sop to the UFCW and deserves separate consideration--if it deserves consideration at all.



Finally...

Under the Old Budget, the State would have $52MM in the bank as of the close of the budget year. Under the "remedy," the State would have only $1.5MM in the bank. Hell, that's a ROUNDING error. We could still be overdrawn--not to mention the nuclear-bombs left for the next biennial Charade and Smoke/Mirrors game.

Speaker Huebsch should simply resign. This is abominable, disgraceful, and immoral. This is the kind of crap that would place any private-sector employee in Club Fed for fraud.

Now it's LEGAL?

Oil Price: The Iran Factor?

Vox takes it a step further.

We mentioned that Iran may experience the tender love of cruise missiles in the near future.

Raimondo observes:

The markets sense it, too, which is why the price of oil keeps climbing to record levels.

Frankly, while I think that Raimondo has three toes over the 'loony line' (read his linked post and form your own opinion), there's a lot to be said for the theory that oil is "war priced."

Belling has been confused (as am I) about the 'straight-line' increases in spot bbl pricing. That simply doesn't happen (albeit there are exceptions.)

So get your Persian rugs early, folks.

Yoo Hoo!!! Abp. Dolan!!!

We note that Governor Doyle has never met an abortion restriction that he favors....

The latest pro-choice Catholic politician called out in this year's edition of the "Communion Wars" is Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.

Backed by the bishops of the state, Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City publicized his request that Sebelius refrain from the Eucharist in his weekly column for today's edition of the archdiocesan newspaper, The Leaven

Of course, there are always Legislative proponents of "Plan B," some of whom claim Catholicism as their faith.

HT: Feddie

The RIGHT Way to Do Gas-Tax Holiday

Unlike some who think that adding to the national debt is just fine, Paul Ryan actually can add and subtract.

Wisconsin’s 1st District Congressman Paul Ryan introduced legislation today that would impose a one-year earmark moratorium and strengthen the paychecks of American families. With the savings from this break in pork-barrel spending, Congress would provide some relief at the pump this summer and make much needed investments in our nation’s infrastructure. “The Gas Tax Relief and Earmark Moratorium Act of 2008” was unveiled at today’s Joint Hearing before the House Budget Committee and House Transportation Committee, which focused on financing infrastructure investments.

...With the revenues saved from the earmark moratorium, his bill would replenish the Highway Trust Fund, a critical source of funding aimed to strengthen our nation’s infrastructure. The Gas Tax Relief and Earmark Moratorium Act would go a step further by shoring up the fund’s projected shortfall for the coming fiscal year.

This is called "responsible governing."

HT: Stepping Right Up

Obama's Intense Campaign in 60 States

(Above is Obama's new lapel-pin, HT Ace of Spades.)

Must be a helluva campaign.

Obama tells us that he's been in 57 States and has "one left to go," but staff tells him that he cannot go to Alaska or Hawaii.

So if he gets to the "one left to go," and two remain un-visited, Obama is telling us that the US of A has 60 States.

He must be counting Palestine. No embittered Bible-quoting types there, although there are a LOT of gun-owners.

Hmmmmm.

First Amendment for All, Including Churches

This should be interesting, and a slam-dunk.

Christian pastors should stop censoring themselves in fear of an "unconstitutional" 1954 provision in the IRS code that has threatened to eliminate their church tax-exempt status if they speak out against positions held by political candidates, urges a leading legal alliance.

The Alliance Defense Fund today announced a new initiative that will challenge the IRS ban on political comment from churches and their pastors.

...Before 1954, churches freely evaluated the politicians of the day on moral issues without fear of retribution.

That year, Democratic Sen. Lyndon Johnson amended the tax code to add the threat of IRS action against churches if their pastors mentioned the positions of specific candidates from the pulpit, the ADF said.

...the prosecution of such limits has been based on religion, because the same restrictions do not apply to other tax-exempt groups, including civil leagues; labor, agricultural, or horticultural associations; business leagues; chambers of commerce; real estate boards; boards of trade; and other groups

It's about time churches regained the right held by the AFSCME and WMC, no?

Lock and Load?

Maybe you'll read this Saturday or Sunday. Then again, maybe not.


There is considerable speculation and buzz in Washington today suggesting that the National Security Council has agreed in principle to proceed with plans to attack an Iranian al-Qods-run camp that is believed to be training Iraqi militants. The camp that will be targeted is one of several located near Tehran. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was the only senior official urging delay in taking any offensive action. The decision to go ahead with plans to attack Iran is the direct result of concerns being expressed over the deteriorating situation in Lebanon, where Iranian ally Hezbollah appears to have gained the upper hand against government forces and might be able to dominate the fractious political situation. The White House contacted the Iranian government directly yesterday through a channel provided by the leadership of the Kurdish region in Iraq, which has traditionally had close ties to Tehran. The US demanded that Iran admit that it has been interfering in Iraq and also commit itself to taking steps to end the support of various militant groups. There was also a warning about interfering in Lebanon. The Iranian government reportedly responded quickly, restating its position that it would not discuss the matter until the US ceases its own meddling employing Iranian dissident groups. The perceived Iranian intransigence coupled with the Lebanese situation convinced the White House that some sort of unambiguous signal has to be sent to the Iranian leadership, presumably in the form of cruise missiles. It is to be presumed that the attack will be as “pinpoint” and limited as possible, intended to target only al-Qods and avoid civilian casualties. The decision to proceed with plans for an attack is not final. The President will still have to give the order to launch after all preparations are made.

---Phil Giraldi, American Conservative.

About "Devout"

One of the other tired and inane MSM memes is to insert the qualifier "devout" before the adjective "Catholic." It's generally a setup, like using scare quotes. Proof? Ever see the word used as a qualifier of "Methodist"? "Baptist"? "Jehovah's Witness"?

Mark Shea:

Is everybody (or at least every Catholic) devout? It would appear so, judging from MSM and blogosphere usage of the term. So, for instance, it turns out Michael Moore is a "devout Catholic" despite the fact that he holds some rather important aspects of the Church's teaching in contempt and tells absurd lies in order to score political points.

..."Yes, Jenna Jameson's work in XXX films is controversial, but she is a devout Catholic." Message: Only a Pharisee could express skepticism about the term "devout" here or state the fact that Jesus never said, "Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin some more!"

Similarly, if you are a politician whose devotion to the sacrament of abortion is so extreme that you cannot even muster the gumption to oppose sticking scissors in a newborn's brain, all you need do is have yourself photographed wearing ashes and follow it up with stern blaring about the Primacy of Conscience. Say something like, "My oath privately between me and God was defined in the Catholic church by Pius XXIII and Pope Paul VI in the Vatican II." That way, you can equate doing whatever the hell you like with fidelity to the Tradition! You're devout!

But I can't help having the sensation that this is not what's happening with the word "devout." It's not a word so much used by Catholics as about them. [True.] Indeed, the paradox of the word is that those who use it to describe themselves are almost invariably either rotters, former Catholics, or both. There's something strange about a person who announces "I am devout!" just as there is something either creepy or laughable about a person who announces (in a serious, not flippant manner) "I am humble!" Really devout people are too busy living life to go around reminding everybody they are "devout."

It is helpful to remember the etymology: "Devout" is from Latin "devotus," ="to vow."

Avowed Catholics do not ever, ever, shilly-shally on abortion, nor ESCR, nor gay "marriage."

Keep it in mind...

The Problem With "Retraining"

There is a standard response from the Glitterati (and not-so-Glitterati--see G W Bush, e.g.) to those who object that their jobs are being offshored.

That response is "Get re-trained, get a degree, become part of the New Society" --or whatever they call it these days.

Really? Then perhaps the Atlantic's latest issue will be of interest. Or perhaps not.

Dreher quotes "Professor X," who writes an essay in the Atlantic--a fellow who teaches at two small Northeastern Colleges--both of them 'last resort' institutions. (You know the sort--there are at least two in the Milwaukee area.)

There seems, as is often the case in colleges, to be a huge gulf between academia and reality. No one is thinking about the larger implications, let alone the morality, of admitting so many students to classes they cannot possibly pass. The colleges and the students and I are bobbing up and down in a great wave of societal forces -- social optimism on a large scale, the sense of college as both a universal right and a need, financial necessity on the part of the colleges and the students alike, the desire to maintain high academic standards while admitting marginal students -- that have coalesced into a mini-tsunami of difficulty.

Dreher goes on to ask the right questions.

Prof. X says the whole system, premised on a false egalitarianism, is to blame here. One key question this excellent essay raises by implication is this: if quite a lot of Americans are incapable of doing college work, what does that do to the Thomas Friedmanesque understanding that in order to compete in a flattened, globalized world, US laborers are simply going to have to get retrained and better educated? What if there are natural limits to their ability to expand their cognitive skills? What then?

Re-train for what? Pharmacy? Brain Surgery? Hell, these folks cannot write a 5-page essay including footnotes...

The supposition... is the belief that cognition, and improving cognitive skills, is simply a matter of running people through a diploma mill -- and the conviction that anybody who wants to succeed in school badly enough can

The converse, of course, is to examine the actual abilities of many 'college graduates' we see these days. It amounts to a denial of reality by many people. See also my post on high school problems here.

I happen to know a number of teachers, all of whom are of good heart--and many of which cannot spell, cannot write a sentence, and cannot distinguish in argumentation. But they are "degreed," therefore Worthy.

One doesn't have to go too far to encounter college grads (or college students) who cannot make change without a register-calculator.

Who are we kidding?

G K Chesterton on Bill Maher

Of course GKC had something to say about that affair.

IT is not by any means self-evident upon the face of it that an institution like the liberty of speech is right or just. It is not natural or obvious to let a man utter follies and abominations which you believe to be bad for mankind any more than it is natural or obvious to let a man dig up a part of the public road, or infect half a town with typhoid fever.

The theory of free speech, that truth is so much larger and stranger and more many-sided than we know of, that it is very much better at all costs to hear every one's account of it, is a theory which has been justified upon the whole by experiment, but which remains a very daring and even a very surprising theory.

It is really one of the great discoveries of the modern time but once admitted, it is a principle that does not merely affect politics, but philosophy, ethics, and finally, poetry.

--Browning

HT: VeniSancte

"Your Cellphone Told Us Where You Are....and With Whom"

Oh, yes, it CAN.

A service called World Tracker lets you use data from cell phone towers and GPS systems to pinpoint anyone’s exact whereabouts, any time — as long as they’ve got their phone on them.
All you have to do is log on to the web site and enter the target phone number. The site sends a single text message to the phone that requires one response for confirmation. Once the response is sent, you are locked in to their location and can track them step-by-step. The response is only required the first time the phone is contacted, so you can imagine how easily it could be handled without the phone’s owner even knowing.

Once connected, the service shows you the exact location of the phone by the minute, conveniently pinpointed on a Google Map. So far, the service is only available in the UK, but the company has indicated plans to expand its service to other countries soon.

Doesn't say anything at all about "on/off" functionality on the target phone, either, does it?

And just in case you're involved in...ah...conversations which you'd like to keep...very private, it gets worse:

Dozens of programs are available that’ll turn any cell phone into a high-tech, long-range listening device. And the scariest part? They run virtually undetectable to the average eye.

Take, for example, Flexispy. The service promises to let you “catch cheating wives or cheating husbands” and even “bug meeting rooms.” Its tools use a phone’s microphone to let you hear essentially any conversations within earshot. Once the program is installed, all you have to do is dial a number to tap into the phone’s mic and hear everything going on. The phone won’t even ring, and its owner will have no idea you are virtually there at his side.

It ain't just Jules Verne any more, folks.

HT: Schneier

Sieze the Car of the DUI? No.

This may be a landmark--Mathias, a prosecutor (or two) and I agree that siezure of a DUI's vehicle is not a matter of justice.

Mathias:

As awful as the crash that killed Jennifer Bukoksy, her daughters, and left a family friend critically injured was, a proposal to seize cars owned by third-offense alcohol and drug-impaired drivers won’t prevent such crashes in the future, and would have an unfair impact on their families.

I admit the idea sounds appealing, but cars are not just used by the individuals whose names are on the title. Cars take children to school, families to the grocery store, and spouses to work. Such a law would pose an even greater hardship on families living in rural areas where public transportation options are spotty to non-existent

Mathias' combox, indirectly quoting Brad Schimel, Waukesha County DA:

Waukesha DA Brad Schimel told the Journal Sentinel that seizures are difficult to administer, raises costs for local communities, and just doesn’t prevent these drivers from getting behind the wheel again anyway

Prosqtor, an ADA in Winnebago County (who was a Milwaukee County ADA until recently):

There is a possibility of vehicle seizure on 3rd and subsequent OWIs now, but it's rarely used. For one, there's often a lien on the vehicle, making seizure and title transfer difficult (Is Milwaukee County going to pay off liens to have a clear title for a seizure?); also, where would the county/city/town place the seized mid-80's Cutlass Classics taken from drunks?

I think they're on the right track about increasing the penalties; the real solution, however, may be to sentence people to closer to the maximum. Minimum sentences did nothing to stem the flow of drugs through our communities, and were eventually replaced; similarly, pedophiles don't stop their behavior because there's a 25 (or 5) year mandatory minimum for what they're about to do.

There's a RadioRanter who does early-AM time in Milwaukee who is absolutely in love with the idea of "siezure." Listening to his rant this morning confirmed my suspicion that siezure is not really a "justice" issue--it's a "revenge" item.

Let's go with Prosqutor's idea. Go max on the sentencing (and increase the sentence's years, while we're at it, in the new legislation.)

Leave the cars to rust with their OTHER owners: the spouse.

The Narcs in Atlanta

One hopes that this sort of crap is limited to Atlanta.


A former Atlanta police officer testified Thursday that narcotics officers routinely lied under oath when seeking search warrants, a practice that led to police killing a 92-year-old woman.

Former Detective Gregg Junnier told a Fulton County jury that detectives would tell judges that they had verified their informants had bought cocaine from dealers by searching them for drugs before the buy took place.

"I have never seen anyone searched before they go into the house, I’ve never seen that done, even though officers always swear to it," Junnier said. "It’s done that way in 90 percent of the warrants that are written."

But it wasn’t just lies to get the warrant to search Kathryn Johnston’s home that made Junnier uneasy, he said. He had an inkling something was wrong when he and Officer Jason R. Smith were leading the narcotics team to the front door. He said the northwest Atlanta house differed from the informant’s description.

"I said, ‘Man, this doesn’t look right,’ and he said, ‘I know,’ " Junnier testified. " ‘I said what do you want to do.’ He said, ‘Hit it.’"

A minute later, Johnston was lying on her floor, dying.

[...]

He said the chance to seize a kilo (2.2 pounds) of cocaine also drove the officers, who normally made arrests for much smaller amounts.

In the raid, police fired 39 shots. Junnier was shot in the face, chest and leg. Two other officers were also wounded. Investigators determined Johnston had fired one round from a revolver; the officers were shot in their own crossfire.

Junnier described entering Johnston’s house: "She was still alive. She was gasping for air. I heard … the order to cuff her."

Later that day, he said, the cover-up began.

HT: The Agitator

Mystery Quotation About MS-NBC

Here's the story. YOUR assignment, should you accept, is to guess the identity of the person who made the statement. This tape will NOT self-destruct in 30 seconds....

The [deleted] points to MSNBC hosts Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann as culprits. Though he says he personally likes the men, citing a 25-year-old friendship with Matthews, he thinks their shows are deplorably one-sided.

[Deleted] says he takes no issue with Matthews and Olbermann being [deleted]. His problem, he says, is that they offer no counterpoint

“It has become a completely shameless, one-sided, personal attack-oriented evening network. The great news organization [helmed] by Brian Williams portrays itself as fair and balanced. …

(Editorial deletions provided to enhance your gaming experience.....)

Give up?

See Newsbusters.

CHICAGO Paper Exposes State of Wis Corruption?

Why a CHICAGO newspaper runs this before it shows up in the Milwaukee papers?

Politics improperly influenced the decision to hire a top state lawyer after former Gov. Tony Earl helped a friend's nephew get the job, a hearing examiner has concluded. The tainted hiring cost taxpayers $346,000 in recent legal settlements paid to two qualified internal candidates passed over for the job as the state's top unemployment insurance lawyer, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press under the state open records law.

Seems that Earl left a close pal in DWD, who engineered this hire, ignoring darn near every process safeguard in sight. One big one:

Bergan broke department policy when he did not perform reference checks on LaRocque. Other panelists wanted to find out why he was let go from CUNA Mutual Group in 2002 and was leaving his current job at a law firm.

Wonder if that $350K was budgeted?

HT: Owen

Build Trucks! Schneider Lowers the Limit

Schneider Trucking just announced that their rigs will be limited to 60 MPH on the highways, to save fuel.

OK.

But imagine the roads as a conveyor belt moving X pounds of goods. If one slows the conveyor belt, the only way to move the same amount of goods in the same time period is to increase the number of carriers moving goods.

Voila! More trucks, more trailers.

"...Where Every Child Is Above Average..."

Well, that landis not YOUR land...nor mine. Dreher quotes Charles Murray:

The good news is that educational romanticism is surely teetering on the edge of collapse. I am optimistic for three reasons. First, the data keep piling up. It takes a while for empiricism to discredit cherished beliefs, but No Child Left Behind may prove to have done us a favor by putting so much emphasis on test scores and thereby focusing attention on how hard it is to budge those scores. Second, we no longer live in a romantic age. Educational romanticism was born of forces that have lost most of their power, and façades collapse when the motives for maintaining those façades weaken. Third, hardly anybody really believes in educational romanticism even now. No one but the most starry-eyed denies in private the reality of differences in intellectual ability that we are powerless to change with K-12 education. People are unwilling to talk about those differences in public, but it is a classic emperor’s-clothes scenario waiting for someone to point out the obvious...

...The fourth-grader who has trouble sounding out simple words and his classmate who is reading A Tale of Two Cities for fun sit in the same classroom day after miserable day, the one so frustrated by tasks he cannot do and the other so bored that both are near tears. The eighth-grader who cannot make sense of algebra but has an almost mystical knack with machines is told to stick with the college prep track, because to be a success in life he must go to college and get a B.A. The senior with terrific SAT scores gets away with turning in rubbish on his term papers because to make special demands on the gifted would be elitist. They are all products of an educational system that cannot make itself talk openly about the implications of diverse educational limits.

The obvious fact (to all except the money-suckers who depend on "education" to make a living, or the "starry-eyed" who are living on a different planet, founded by Rousseau...):

Murray argues that research decisively shows that with the rare exception of the worst urban schools, family environment is the only thing that really moves test scores one way or another. Otherwise, they're fairly fixed.

Dreher natters on about meritocracy, aristocracy, and "what to do about this."

For openers, we could acknowledge that ALL work, honorably done, is good.

...It is surely better to live in truth than dwell in the therapeutic fiction that all kids are capable of being above average in school, or that everyone should go to college...

Sulphur, Says Headless

Our local scientific-sort, Headless, identifies sulphur as the culprit in the warm/cool cycle.

Following World War II, the economies of the West grew rapidly, fueled by coal and petroleum that dirtied the atmosphere. So dirty, in fact, that drastic measures were taken to clean up the air. Laws were passed that mandated catalytic converters, low sulfur coal and fossil power plant smokestack scrubbers. Clean air followed. But other nations, such as China and India, got into the act, fueling their economic growth with coal and petroleum, which dirtied the air again late in the 20th Century.

He supports the theory with data and charts, and relates it to the volcanic activity in the early 1600's (causing the Little Ice Age), etc.

(Caution: Headless is a nuker, thus looks askance at coal-fired generation.)

Rush Failed. The Hildebeeste Is Out

From "the Other McCain," quoting Lawrence O'Donnell of HuffPo:"

A senior campaign official and Clinton confidante has told me that there will be a Democratic nominee by June 15. He could not bring himself to say the words "Hillary will drop out by June 15," but that is clearly what he meant. I kept saying, "So, Hillary will drop out by June 15," and he kept saying, "We will have a nominee by June 15." . . . The Clinton campaign has not lost its grip on reality.

Oh, well. One dragon vanquished, one to go.

Shirley Denies She Exists

Wiggy found a doozy, from Screechin'Shirley, the "Mommy, May I?" judge.

The polls show that activist judge has no meaning to anyone. Nobody knows what activist judge means when they say it, and for the listener it doesn't have any meaning. When you say somebody's an activist judge, what you're really saying is I don't like that particular opinion. I think the people who use it think it's a slur and it will ultimately take on their connotation.

That from the Condescending One who ignores Wisconsin's 25th Amendment while prescribing precisely when, where, and under what circumstances one may actually defend themselves.

Actually, Shirley, when you look in Webster's under "Activist Judge," they have your picture instead of text.

Dave Obey: Screw the Troops (Again...)

Ol' Davey, a pretend-"Catholic," shows more of his colors.

After a flurry of last-minute number changes, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Dave Obey (D-Wis.) unveiled a three-step process Tuesday for the House consideration of an emergency $183.7 billion wartime spending bill, possibly as early as this week.

...Regarding Iraq, the bill is expected to call for the administration to immediately begin a withdrawal with the goal of removing troops in Iraq from a combat role by December 31, 2009

That last provision will, of course, draw a veto from the C-in-C, (or get stripped out in the Senate), meaning that Dave Obey is threatening the payroll of active-duty troops.

I can't believe that THIS cretin actually represents Stevens Point.

HT: Redstate

Malchine Ethanol Money

Followup on our recent post regarding Mr. (and Mrs.) Malchine, Corn-A-Holers and farmers, and recipients of over $800,000.00 in Federal crop subsidies...

(By the way, that $800K does NOT include Federal subsidies for Badger State Ethanol, the Malchines' investment, nor does it include any tax credits for same.)

Seems they like to cover the bases.

There's the matter of the $500.00 contribution to DarthDoyle from Doris Malchine. That one was the subject of a complaint filing--Mrs. Malchine didn't fill in all the blanks on her donation card.

Malchine & wife also contributed to Lazich, Gunderson, Brett Davis, Turner, McCormick, Gard, and Vos.

Owen wondered why DarthDoyle won't let go of Big Corn. Binversie suggested that the Farm Bureau could make life difficult for Jimbo if he crossed them.

I suggest that there are a lot of rabbits running for cover...

And the rabbits dined well on the lettuce during election years.

What's Feingold's Price?

Maybe Rusty's looking for a new job.

From the Spectator blog:

The true believers among superdelegates committed long ago; now it's a patronage auction for the crafty wheeler-dealers

Hmmmmmm.

Mr.Linebarger of Milwaukee

Little-known fact.

"Cordwainer Smith" is the pen-name of a well-respected science-fiction author. (The Dead Lady of Clown Town, Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons, etc.)

His real name was Paul Linebarger, Ph.D., a Milwaukee native, godson of Sun Yat-sen, professor of Asiatic studies at Duke and Johns Hopkins, Colonel of the Army, spook, and author of Psychological Warfare, THE standard text on the topic, still used today at US military academies.

I have no idea whether Linebarger Terrace is named for him.

Zachary's Law

Mark Benson may well give the State of Wisconsin's residents a gift: a tough, no-nonsense DUI law.

Two years ago, I had occasion to visit with Rep. Mark Gundrum on the issue of Wisconsin's joke-DUI law, which provides for little (if any) jail-time for repeat offenders. Stories of 5, 6, 7, and more DUI convictions followed by 3 years in prison (or Huber in/out) are and were all too common.

At that time, the Legislature was re-doing the law. The new law passed.

Obviously, THAT was ineffective. But that will be between the Leggies and their consciences, I guess.

(There were no citizens with pitchforks and torches making loud and persistent noises about .....whatever.)

Now, there's an online petition for new legislation which offers judges like Lee Dreyfus, Jr., NO alternatives, NO 'escape' provisions--and puts repeat DUI offenders off the road, period.

Sykes covered it, and Patrick is hosting the petition.

Let's see if Zachary's Law gets enacted by our Leggies. It is, of course, too late for the Bukowskys, but there are 4 million OTHER Wisconsin residents at risk.

Norquist Is Right on I-94/8-Lanes

OK, that's ONE TIME that I agreed with Norquist.

"WisDOT's proposal to widen I-94 from six lanes to eight lanes from Mitchell Interchange to the Illinois border should be rejected.

"Instead, the State of Wisconsin should resurface the existing facility, thus extending its use for many additional years and saving a billion or more of taxpayers dollars.

..."As for the widening, the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) states "existing travel times within the corridor are not currently encumbered by congestion - reductions in travel time will be minimal.'"

Norquist also addresses what the State DOT calls "functional deficiencies" in various on-off ramps.

As I understand it, this proposal is a long-term one---that is, it might not be implemented for at least 10 years, or perhaps 20.

Anyone who has traveled I-94 to Chicago knows that there is ZERO 'congestion' on that road until one gets about 10 miles into Illinois. In fact, typical cruising speeds on the Wisconsin segment are 75MPH.

Of course, there MAY be some "congestion" in the next 10 or 20 years--but there's no sign of it yet. And frankly, the RoadBuilders will be around in 10 or 20 years, allowing an expansion at that time, IF it is necessary.

So far, it is not.

HT: Jo Egelhoff

Stop Ethanol: "Going Nowhere"?

Moonbattery reports.

Rep. John Dingell (D-MI) is regrettably chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee. The reason he opposes lightening up on new ethanol requirements is priceless: it could "lead to unintended consequences."

Too bad clowns like Dingleberry didn't think of unintended consequences before they started imposing biofuels in the first place.

When people get hungry enough, the boondoggle will end. Similarly, gas will eventually become so expensive that the restrictions on drilling that have been imposed to appease envirowackos will be lifted. It might take a large mob of villagers closing in on Capitol Hill with torches ablaze, but it will happen.

One of the quotations in the story came from Bob Dineen, who is the president of the Renewable Fuel Association.

A former member of the Board of Renewable Fuels is a fellow named Malchine--a Wisconsin farmer who died recently.

Mr. Malchine was the President of Malchine Farms.

Malchine Farms snatched over $800, 000.00 in Federal crop "subsidies" from 1999-2006.

At least the Malchine family is recycling those dollars into Congressional pockets. How very green of them.

Falk Steps Up

The right thing to do.

Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk has written letters of apology to be sent to the family of murder victim Brittany Zimmermann and her fiance, in response to a disclosure last week that a call to the 911 center was made from her phone around the time she was killed, but was not returned as is normal protocol.

Falk's speculation that 'returning the call would not have prevented the murder' is most likely accurate. At the same time, there's no excuse for this procedural screwup.

McCain: Continuing to Snatch Defeat....

It's possible that John McCain will win the election in November.

But it won't be because of his ability to learn lessons. Here he is, quoted by the Ace of Spades:

“We get in this kind of a circular firing squad on immigration reform in the Congress of the United States," McCain said, "and the lesson I learned from it is we’ve got to have comprehensive immigration reform.”

Sooooooo......

Who's that Constitution Party candidate?

Win XP SP3

Yah, so it's on the MS update site--meaning one should go get it, right?

About 90 minutes from hitting the "install now" button to completed re-start.

Like watching a garter snake swallow a woodchuck.

And my desktop is medium-strong: Pentium 3, 2 Gig memory.

Be prepared to read a novel or two, folks.

Fund-Raising Blues, Bishops?

Welborn, quoted by Leonardi:

I have always wondered how long it would take for those in leadership to see the big picture: That if you, as the primary teacher of the people in your diocese, accommodate ...as I say, if you accommodate, hedge and stay silent, how can you expect the people you lead to act differently? Simply put. if you’re going to accommodate, we are, too, and you abdicate your moral authority to stand up there and call us to sacrificial fidelity, no matter what the cost.

Not to mention, if you ignore or even discourage faithfulness to liturgical and catechetical directives from Rome in your diocese, you abdicate the moral authority to lay guilt trips on us about our duty to support the work of the diocese. You can ignore? So can we.

Amy's a little late to the game--but then, she doesn't live in Abp. Weakland's playpen.

I've always said that "obedience is transitive." When the Bishop(s) actually do what they are required to do under obedience, the laity do the same.

No different, really, from parenting, in principle.

Time Mag Partly Correct: the Un-Dead Lefty "Catholics"

CWN reminds us that, Time Magazine to the contrary, the Left-ish "Catholics" are the un-dead.

Sometimes in malls and parking lots we come upon those demented women pushing strollers containing dolls instead of babies, which they pathetically invite us to admire. The American Church has its own Tenders of the Flame who croon to and cosset that lifeless dummy which is Liberal Catholicism. Most Catholics are prepared to dismiss or ignore the importunities. When the Tender of the Flame is a bishop, or a seminary rector, or the chair of a theology department, however, and the Catholic is question is seeking a good that only the apparatchik can dispense, the supplicant may be inclined to humor his superior by playing along with the fantasy. For this reason the 1960s project will remain part of our lives in spite of its lifelessness.

Leftism is a program for social change. But the engine that makes it go is a conviction -- a dogma, in fact -- that the desired changes are going to happen. To be a democrat (or a monarchist) means that, win or lose, democracy (or monarchy) is good. But to be a Leftist entails the further belief that Leftism will triumph. A heroic embrace of Leftism as a noble but lost cause would be a contradiction in terms. This means that Leftism is axiomatically incapable of admitting that its wishes will not be fulfilled, and that means that real-world evidence to the contrary is simply rejected out of hand.

[A neat description which explains such creatures as Prof. Ayers & Dohrn, ex-Senator Daschle, and a number of LeftyWonzo bloggers.]

Now what is misnamed "liberal" Catholicism was an inflammation of Leftist sentimentalisms fascinated with secular progress in science and social emancipation, which declared as inevitable that the Church would change in a predictable direction, making her own a democratic apparatus of doctrine-making, relaxing sexual restraints, and abandoning her claim to be a privileged transmitter of certain and unchangeable truths.

Didn't happen. A Catholic would say it couldn't happen, on the dogmatic grounds that the church which changed in that direction had by definition ceased to be the Catholic Church. That's to say, the conflict opposes a dogmatic certainty of change against a dogmatic certainty of that defined doctrine is unchangeable. This explains why Catholics regard liberals with suspicion and despair, and why conservative Catholics save their harshest words not for progressives but for self-styled moderates who say of some proposed apostasy, "The Church isn't ready to go there yet." The "yet" gives the game away.

And the madwomen with the strollers are still among us. They have seen the future and they know that it teethes, and they'll have no back-talk from you, either. Hence the disproportionate energy spent in the wrangles over symbols of progress that are relatively peripheral in themselves. The vehemence with which the music of Michael Joncas or Marty Haugen is defended against its detractors is bewildering to younger Catholics. "Look, you had it your own way for forty years," they tell the aging libs, "why are you so upset about letting us have a turn?" But of course it's not a question of "win a few, lose a few"; the future of the future is at stake. If Dan Schutte's star is no longer secure in the firmament, what about the inevitability of women's ordination or Church-approved contraception?

What, indeed?

Thus, the LeftyWonzo "Catholics" will soldier on, and will always be present, mutatis mutandis. They are given life through their appointed status, and transmit their seed through those same offices.

And there's no difference in methodology and effect from what we see in civil governance and politics.

The Director of the CIA Needs Image Consulting

Noted with interest:

Today’s Washington Post reports that Hayden was seen at a baseball game drinking Miller Lite. Can one imagine James Bond drinking Miller Lite? Of course not. There is nothing more to say about Hayden.

Either Scots whiskey, or abstain.

Maher v. Horowitz: the False Dichotomy

The moonbat Left moans that McAdams, Patrick, and others are "intolerant" of free speech, and compare David Horowitz' speech at UW-M with Maher's upcoming bile-fest.

Umnnnhhh... nice try, but no ringer.

Let's leave aside the evident difference of "sponsorship." In the case of Horowitz, there are no commercial enterprises supporting his speechifying; Maher's appearance is underwritten by a radio station and some mattress-and-refrigerator merchant.

Differences, but not germane.

At the heart of the argument from the Left (and, by the way, from Mark Belling) is the claim of "free speech." To these folks, curiously, all "speech" is sacred. It's possible that there are SCOTUS decisions which agree.

But in a rightly-ordered society, not all "speech" is sacred. In such a society, the operative principle is that "Error has no rights." Lying and/or scurrilous semi-truths are not permissible--which would make Maher's currency counterfeit, or small change, at best.

What sparks the angst from the Right about Maher (or Ayers, or Wright, for that matter) is not that they speak--but that some would dignify their bilious excreting with the mantle of "a right."

Wrong.

No matter who says so--Belling, Folkbum, the Supreme Court, or the 1st Amendment--it's not "a right." Or better defined, it is a civilly-granted 'right', but not a Natural Right. The principle that 'error has no rights' is the logical consequence of the principle that 'There is no Right to do Wrong.' Disagree if you wish, but (if you think about it) it's perilous to do so.

Civility, of course, demands that Maher be allowed to befoul Milwaukee's atmosphere with his yammerings, and most likely civility will prevail. After all, it is the Right which is unhappy with him, and the Right is inclined to grant civil deference to error unless it is immediately and grievously harmful. Maher is no longer "grievous." He's a flyweight annoyance, albeit he may lead a 4-year-old mind astray.

But that concept--civility--doesn't seem to restrain people who