With His Plant Closed and Out of a Job, Letter Writer asks, What "if the Wealthy Fall?"

Isn’t if funny/strange how Republicans like Rep. Paul Ryan and County Exec. Scott Walker want to give more tax cuts, in the belief that it will create permanent jobs, when the days of long term employment have been declared dead. Where have these elites been for the last year? I suppose there's still some security clinging to the "free market" philosophy like a child's blanky, but isn't this a little extreme? There is comfort in numbers, no matter how small I guess, but it makes a person look so out of touch.

Despite all of there current failures, Republicans have at least succeeded in convincing a few sheeple that nothing is more important than acquiescing to the whims and dictates of our corporate friends. They may not be promising anyone a long lasting career in the U.S. economy, but they will lull you into a sense of false security, like the following letter to the editor writer in the Wisconsin State Journal:

Be grateful for the wealthy

Are you worried yet? Has the wealth of our nation fallen to the point that we 1 can't rely on taxing the wealthy enough to equalize our economy?

If the wealthy fall, whom then can our government rely on for revenue? Whom can we rely on for jobs? I have never been wealthy but have always strived to be. Due to a plant closing, I am in the midst of losing everything. Should I blame the wealthy?

Actually I blame our government, which tries to make everything equal for all by
confiscating wealth from the successful and giving it to those with less. I'm suffering, but I am not foolish enough to believe that taking someone else's money is somehow going to make my life better again. Once all the wealth is gone, then what? Will our nation be better when we are all poor and unemployed? We will all be equal.

"When all the wealth is gone?" It's amazing just how much power the poor have in this country.

Why Isn’t Anyone Trying To Recall Milw. Cty. Executive Scott Walker? This Guy is Nuts!

Milwaukee County is in need of a lot of help, but you wouldn’t know it by listening to Scott Walker. No, really, we were in a recession and suffering from huge unemployment numbers.

Tax holidays and property tax rebates have always sounded good, but intentionally put off necessary change and progress. It’s a band aid promoted by single issue conservatives who think tax cuts for people with declining incomes or who have no job at all will somehow get them to buy more “things.” Hey, I have an idea, let’s give the jobless and nervous employees a holiday from the state sales tax so they can buy “stuff.” Then go after these same people for living beyond their means. It’s a circular argument that has somehow won these Republican zealots elections over the years.

Isn’t it time to give these purely philosophical lawmakers their walking papers? A recall election is not only called for, but should be part of an instinctual survival mechanism in all of us.
JSonline reported this appallingly irresponsible attitude from the peoples public servant, Scott Walker:

The clash over who gets to decide what federal stimulus money Milwaukee County should formally seek or accept erupted Friday, with supervisors saying they might take matters into their own hands so the county doesn't get shortchanged. County Executive Scott Walker's criteria for federal aid he would consider taking are so restrictive that they could eliminate virtually all projects, Supervisor Patricia Jursik told Cynthia Archer, one of Walker's top aides. Walker refused to nominate any county projects for stimulus aid in a preliminary round, saying he believed tax cuts would work better to revive the economy.

Think about it. These are tax cuts for a public fearful of losing their jobs and draining their bank accounts. Useless tax holidays have proven to be historically ineffective. It has been used in the past to supposedly get people to go out and buy “stuff.” But instead, that money is usually used to paying off bills or saved for a rainy day. Walker and fellow ideologues refuse to learn from history.

Walker has said that he would not submit projects for funding that didn't fit his criteria and would not allow staff to help supervisors with other project applications. Walker banned county administrators from participating. He also forwarded a list of 18 road projects for possible stimulus funding last month without consulting the board.

After all, why would Scott Walker need the input of others on the board when he knows what’s best for all of us? It’s a real pain in the ass when others are always questioning your authority? Right Scott?

If Milwaukee County misses the chance to normalize it’s crumbling infrastructure and at least retain the current job levels in the private and public sectors, voters have no one to blame but themselves for not kicking this repressive county dictator out of office.

Quick Pod Takes Your Picture without a Strangers Bad Aim

I saw this and thought, YES!

NY Times:

It’s a stick to which you can attach your camera to take fairly steady and flattering self-portraits on the go. The basic Quik Pod — essentially a monopod with a handle — costs $34.95 and includes a clip, wrist strap, carrying bag and a bubble level to ensure your shots have a flat horizon. A new, heavier, 4-foot digital single-lens reflex model for larger cameras is also available for $49.99. Both can be found at quikpod.com.

The standard model extends to 18 inches and closes to 7.5 inches. It weighs 3.5 ounces and attaches to any camera with a standard tripod adapter.

While there’s nothing quite like asking a stranger to take your photo in front of a bubbling fountain in a distant, sun-dappled piazza, sometimes it’s easier just to whip out a big stick and snap away while letting the natives enjoy their own afternoon reveries.

Thank You Free Market Republicans, No Competition and No Newspapers.

So this is what a predominantly free market, small government system looks like? Have you noticed the disappearance of our competitive business climate? I have, and I don't like it one bit.

In the last 2 years, in electronics alone, we've lost CompUSA and Circuit City. If you've ever want to shop for a TV, stereo, car radio, computer, camera, DVD, CD, software, game or cell phone, your choices have been narrowed down to Best Buy or a possible local outlet lacking the low prices and buying power of a chain. That in turn means we all end up paying more. But that's all right, it's the free market. It's a self adjusting competitive climate. The flourishing market can be rated right up their with your best orgasm.

I have decided to give up on brick and mortar purchases when it comes to the above mentioned goods and services. I will never be shoved into submission by the bully on the block, and I will never give in to the Milton Friedman philosophy. He once said, "Concentrated power is not rendered harmless by the good intentions of those who create it." Well, we've concentrated power, Best Buy, the banks that are to large to fail, now what?

How about the arts? Wisconsin State Journal:

The Madison Repertory Theatre has officially closed its doors. "We are not going to be producing theater again," said artistic director Trevin Gay. Friday was his last day on the job. The Rep first announced dire financial trouble at the end of January. It canceled the remainder of its season — without issuing refunds to season ticket holders — and did not renew space in the Overture Center’s Playhouse. The (Rep) has been around for 40 years.

And newspapers? This Wisconsin State Journal Cartoon Said it all:

The Republican/conservative world vision has taken down the their enemies one by one. Newspapers, competition, unions, public schools and college funding, corporate regulations and dissenting viewpoints from a more diverse media ownership.

Next thing you'll know they will be telling us the founding fathers didn't really want a federal government at all.

Colbert Aggressively Takes On Rush, Hannity.

Stephen Colbert took a well deserved shot at Rush Limbaugh. In unusually strong commentary, Colbert must be just as repulsed as we are over this self inflating master of the ego trip. You will be cheering by the end of this piece.

Goodbye Wall Street Talk Show Geniuses, Jon Stewart Again Does What News Media Should Have, Expose These Hacks.

Comedy Central's Daily Show is working overtime to expose the truth behind an uncritical news media. In this clip, Jon Stewart proves how idiotic it is to listen to these financial carnival barkers. And that goes double for Jim Kramer.

Obama's Economic Heatlh Care Solution: The Speech

Bigger than any tax cut imagined by Republicans, restructuring health care will change the economy. Here are the highlights (to keep under 10 minutes).



According to MicCheck.org:
Wisconsin family health insurance policy premiums will increase 83 percent and cost more than $24,000 by 2016 if nothing is done to change the health care system, a new report found.
Citizen Action of Wisconsin released the report, entitled “The Cost of Doing Nothing: Wisconsin,” from the New America Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based nonpartisan health policy institute created in 1999.

If nothing is done, family health insurance premiums, which already cost over $13,000 per year will increase to $17,937 a year in 2012 and to $24,291 in 2016, the report found. by the employer and employee. By 2016, a family health insurance policy in Wisconsin will cost 45 percent of median household income. At the same time, required family contributions for employer-based health insurance are expected to increase 106 percent from $2,907 in 2008 to $5,989 in 2016.

Wisconsin’s economy lost as much as $1.9 billion because of the poor health and shorter lifespan of the uninsured in 2007, Carpenter said. That equates to close to $4,200 per uninsured Wisconsin resident. On a national level, approximately $207 billion was lost in 2007, aid Elizabeth Carpenter, co-author of the report. “The economy that is being sacrificed (in Wisconsin) is just about as much as it would cost to make sure everyone has affordable health coverage,” Carpenter said.

A group called Conservatives for Patients Rights is spending $20 million on a massive radio and television ad campaign to fight new health care reform as outlined by President Obama. The group’s head, the right-wing millionaire Richard Scott, is spending $5 million of his own money on the effort. [POLITICO] Scott is the former CEO of Columbia/HCA Healthcare. In 1997, Scott was forced to resign from the company amid fraud charges. HCA then admitted “to bilking various government programs and agreed to pay a total of $840 million in fines and penalties.” The fraud settlement was, at the time, the largest in U.S. history.

Claim V. Fact: The Richard Scott group says new health care reform limits choice: “Imagine waking up one day and all your medical decisions are made by a central national board. Bureaucrats decide the treatments you receive, the drugs you take, even the doctors you see.” That isn’t true. In reality, the president’s plan outlines “eight principles of any overhaul, including letting patients stick with their own doctors and health care plans, reducing insurance premiums and guaranteeing that Americans will have a choice of health plans and physicians.

What Americans Want: Americans overwhelmingly favor new health care reform. A recent CNN poll found 72 percent favor “a program that would increase the federal government’s influence over the country’s health care system in an attempt to lower costs and provide health care coverage to more Americans” while a Fox News poll found 66 percent of Americans agree that it is “the responsibility of the federal government” to “make sure all Americans have health care.” [CNN/OPINION RESEARCH CORP POLL] [FOX NEWS/OPINION DYNAMICS]

Jared Bernstein Defends Against Idiot Democrat Sen. Evan Bayh

Sen. Evan Bayh has always given me the creeps, with his strange unemotional android like appearance, but he picked a great time to pick the "small fight" to distract from the other more pressing economic changes Obama wants to push through. MSNBC should have asked economic advisor Jared Bernstein if the protests aren't just a misdirection play by Republicans to snare the more idiotic free market Democrats. They didn't.

Ranting Rabid John McCain Panicky Over Earmarks and Losing Election

The following is a short compilation of clips showing a sneering John McCain losing it over earmarks, which is essentially 1% of the budget. I would hate to see how he would react to an emergency. What an ugly mean spirited angry individual.

By the way, just off to the side of the first clip is big business zealot Rep. Paul Ryan and surprisingly, Sen. Russ Feingold. Feingold would appear to have a problem picking friends who either didn't just try to divide the country portraying Democrats as terrorists, or enablers of more of the same free market voodoo economics. A big mark against Russ.

Rush, Who Advocated Messing Up Democratic Open Primary Elections, Whines Dems Might Do the Same! Republican Projection?

In what has turned out to be one of my favorite features, with an unlimited number of examples, David Shuster's Hypocrisy Watch shines a light on the simpering mouth piece of the Republican Party, Rush Limbaugh. Rush's feeble attempt to tamper with elections, Operation Chaos, tried but failed to get conservatives out to vote for easy to defeat Democrats in the states with open primaries.

Oddly, now Rush worries that the "socialist party of terror" might try the same tactic in Republican open primaries. This is another example of "projection," where Republicans are under the false impression that Democrats are even remotely similar to them. I don't know of one Democrat who would waste their time voting for any Republican, strong or weak, to swing an election. But it does expose how crazy and desperate these ideologues are.

Guns Cost Billions of Dollars Socially, Guns To Everyone in Montana and N.H. May Secede

Gunguys.com continues to follow the nightmarish decent into gun rule hell, and the insane Republican attempts to portray everyone as a possible threat. Remember, Barack Obama hung out with terrorists. At a time when these barbaric conservative right wingers are whining about a taxpayer stimulus and Democratic overspending to restore our society, they’re blowing millions of dollars a day on gun injuries. Tens of Billions a year. But guns are fun…

The University of Chicago Crime Lab has issued a new report, “Gun Violence Among School-Age Youth in Chicago." [1] The Chicago Tribune, March 3, 20009, reports:

“The social costs of gun violence in Chicago total about $2.5 billion each year, according to a report released Tuesday by an academic group formed to research effective ways to reduce violent crime … used interviews, focus groups, police data and social research to characterize factors underlying Chicago's escalating murder rate. Expanding upon previous research that every crime-related gunshot wound causes around $1 million in social costs, the report's four authors calculated the annual cost of gun violence at $2.5 billion, or $2,500 per Chicago household.” $2.5 billion dollars just for Chicago. Imagine how much gun violence is costing our entire country.

But gun crazy conservative Republican whack jobs aren’t stopping this madness, to the contrary, they are going to give everyone a gun. Go to hell Uncle Sam….

Montana legislators want to opt out of federal firearms regulations. [1] The Associated Press reports:

Under a proposed law before the Legislature, firearms, weapons components and ammunition made in Montana and kept in Montana would be exempt from federal regulation, potentially releasing some Montanans from national gun registration and licensing laws. The legislation could also free gun purchasers in the state from background checks. The bill, [2] HB 246, titled the "Montana Firearms Freedom Act", would also allow for the manufacturing, sale, and use of silencers. It passed the House last week with a solid vote of 64-36. All the Republicans voted in favor of the bill, as did 14 Democrats.

Every year in Montana over a thousand people are denied a firearm purchase thanks to a NICS background check. So now the legislators want to say to these people - that's okay, we aren't doing those background checks anymore, go get your Made in Montana gun. Montana has a firearm death rate that is above the national average and they want to make it easier to get a gun? Under Federal regulations if you've been convicted of a felony or subject to a restraining order you can't own a gun. Montana legislators don't care that they are giving felons ungoverned access to firearms?

The sponsor of the bill says the issue is not about firearms but rather this is an issue of state rights. Montana pro-gunner Gary Marbut adds: “The primary purpose is to set up a legal challenge, but also to say we have a lot of really good people in Montana who do the right thing.”

Shouldn't Montana legislators be working to keep guns away from dangerous people, not making it easier for them to get guns?

But Montana is not the only state heading over the cliff. [3] Over in New Hampshire:

The New Hampshire state legislature took an unbelievably bold step by introducing a resolution to declare certain actions by the federal government to be completely totally void and warning that certain future acts will be viewed as a “breach of peace” with the states themselves that risks “nullifying the Constitution.” And what would trigger New Hampshire's secession from the United States?According to [4] HCR 6: Further infringements on the right to keep and bear arms
including prohibitions of type or quantity of arms or ammunition. So, if Congress passes an Assault Weapons Ban, all powers previously delegated to the United States of America by the Constitution for the United States shall revert to the several States individually. Any future government of the United States of America shall require ratification of three quarters of the States seeking to form a government of the United States of America and shall not be binding upon any State not seeking to form such a government.

On a slightly lower level of insanity, [5] in Tennessee

Sen. Doug Jackson, D-Dickson, has filed legislation that would ban the sale of “microstamped” firearms and ammunition, calling them an infringement on the Second Amendment right to bear arms. Called the “Second Amendment Protection Act,” the bill would outlaw sale of firearms and ammunition that are laser engraved, or microstamped, to identify the buyer of the firearm or ammunition after it has been shot.

Microstamping uses lasers to make microscopic engravings on the firing pin of a gun. Microstamping will greatly aid law enforcement in investigating homicides and other gun crimes. California has already adopted this technology.

"Microstamping would lead to the establishment of a registry or database of gun-owners who are guilty of nothing more than owning a gun," the senator noted. “A firearm registry is a preamble to gun confiscation."

The right wing, Republican fringe party and ditto heads are clustering under rocks all over the country in what appears to be a not so veiled attempt to promote social instability and revolt.

Who needs a job when you got your guns?

Diebold Machines Dropped Votes, Did Not Log "Operator Interventions"

The headline: New CA SoS report confirms findings of 'Humboldt Transparency Project', discovers even more egregious failures in widely-used Diebold voting counting system

The source: Bradblog.com:

California Secretary of State Debra Bowen has released a remarkable 13-page report [PDF] of her office's investigation into how the Diebold/Premier GEMS software silently dropped all votes contained on 197 ballots from Humboldt County, California's November 2008 general election.

The report shows that this version of GEMS not only deleted a batch of ballots without any request by --- or alert to --- the elections staff, but also failed to note the deletion in the system's audit log.

The report also points to other startling deficiencies with Diebold/Premier's software: "Key audit trail logs in GEMS version 1.18.19 do not record important operator interventions such as deletion of decks of ballots, assign inaccurate date and time stamps to events that are recorded, and can be deleted by the operator."

That's right. The Diebold/Premier vote tabulation system in question, not only fails to record all events accurately, and sometimes at all, it also allows for anyone with access to the system, to completely delete audit logs, covering the tracks of any tampering that may have occurred, at any time, on the system.

Any of these flaws, the report concludes, "appears to violate the 1990 Voting System Standards to an extent that would have warranted failure of the GEMS version 1.18.19 system had they been detected and reported by the [federal] Independent Testing Authority [ITA] that tested the system."...

Read more HERE...

Lend Me Your Earmarks: The Truth Behind the Hoopla

It's so nice to have an alternative to the Republican spin-machine-o-lies. It's also amazing just how truly deceptive they have become over the years. Only a compliant, unquestioning press could have allowed these carnival barkers the ability to gain even an ounce of credibility.

Keith Olbermann takes a look at the phony Republican outrage (are you listening Russ Feingold?), and Frederica Freyberg of WPT's Here and Now gets the scoop from Rep. David Obey.

According to Obey, "I must say I get a kick out of some of the Republican critics who privately squawk at me because we have cut earmarks to the bone, and then publicly cry crocodile tears about them. It's enough to give hypocrisy a bad name."

Duke Energy CEO Makes Sense About Cap and Trade, Rachel Maddow Doesn't

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow went off the deep end when she interviewed, and attacked, Duke Energy's CEO Jim Rogers. It's true citizens are dying from the pollution pumped into the atmosphere from the coal industry, but for the last century it was a normal externality of the energy industry as a whole. Change is needed, but Rogers made some good points about a more gradual change in the Obama cap and trade policy, while Maddow wanted revenge. Oddly, Rogers is a Democrat, former consumer advocate and a global warming believer, and wants to limit the amount of pollutants just like everyone else.

I'm not giving him a complete pass, but what was needed here was a civil discussion, not a close minded liberal rant against a coal industry CEO. Better luck next time Rachel.

Limbaugh Blubbers at CPAC. GOP's Loss Leaders Sells Out to Rush.

David Shuster Keeps Trying to Get Republicans to Denounce Rush Statement

David Shuster has some fun trying to get Sen. John Barrosso to denounce Rush's "I hope Obama fails" comment. I want to see more of this.

Obama's Policy Budget Spending Details. Republicans, would you dare watch the video below?

Countdown with Keith Olbermann spelled out just how the Obama budget money would be spent. It's a forward looking policy, one the Republicans will fight to their deaths to stop. Wouldn't that be great. But heck, their circular firing squad is already getting the job done for us.

Republicans, Like Bill Kristol, Ignore Future Economic Landmines. Hume: "..equally poor, or unequally rich?"

Want proof the Republican philosophy just doesn't get it about long term solutions that avoid future pitfalls? I witnessed this classic explanation from Bill Kristol about what he considers "wastefull" government spending on Fox News Sunday.

Kristol: "...huge government programs that have nothing to do with the recession. His energy proposal, cap and trade, his health care proposal..they have nothing to do with getting us out of the recession."

Fixing America's health care mess should be our number one priority. Fixing it will help bring the entire economy back into balance. And who wants to wait for another spike in gas prices.



Chris Wallace complains that the $1 trillion raised by increasing taxes on the wealthy is something Obama should apologize for, as he redistributes wealth.

But here's my favorite back and forth, between Brit Hume and Juan Williams:

Hume: "Remember this, the share of income taxes paid by the higher income people over the years hasn't gotten smaller under the Republicans, it's gotten larger."

Juan: "..because they're earning more money."

Hume: "That's what you want, isn't it? I often feel that Democrats and liberals would rather have everyone equally poor, rather than unequally rich!"

Rush, Tucker Carlson and the CPAC Mob Analysed

This is a great piece by Rod Dreher, an editorial columnist for the Dallas Morning News and author of "Crunchy Cons. " His commentary on the recent CPAC get together, and dissection of conservativism is right on the money. Dig…

CPAC: White kids on dope

Ah, to be an anthropologist at CPAC, where the kids was smokin' th' political crack. From the WaPo:

[Tucker] Carlson got in a bit of a dust-up with the audience when he spoke Thursday. Arguing that conservatives need to put more effort into digging up facts and rely less on opinion and punditry, he noted that the New York Times, a favorite target of conservative wrath, at least cares about spelling people's names right.

"NOOOOOOO," arose a moan from some in the crowd.
Carlson: "I'm merely saying that at the core of their news-gathering operation is gathering news."
Crowd: "NOOOOO . . ."
Carlson: ". . . finding facts and bringing it to people . . ."
Crowd: "NOOOOO . . ."

Verily, that's the way to bring the party back: blame the media. I talked to a conservative the other day who assured me that Obama's success is entirely a creation of the lying biased media, which tricked people into voting for him. The unpopularity of Republican policies has nothing to do with it.

Rush Limbaugh: "We can take this country back," the radio host told the assembly. "All we need is to nominate the right candidate."

It's no more complicated than that Yep, it's just that easy. No need to return to first principles and recalibrate policies to account for new realities. Just find a better messenger for the same old same old. You begin to see why nobody inside that bubble could grasp what a flop Bobby Jindal's reheated Republican mush of a speech was going to be ahead of time.

Rush: "Let me tell you who we conservatives are: We don't see groups ... We don't see victims. We don't see people we want to exploit. What we see -- what we see is potential … We believe that person can be the best he or she wants to be if certain things are just removed from their path like onerous taxes, regulations and too much government."

This is a comforting lie. It is Rousseau conservatism: the idea that man is born innocent, but corrupted by society, or government. Remove the chains of government, and man will return to his natural, good state, which is one of limitless possibility. This denies two bedrock truths of philosophical conservatism, which are that 1) human nature is fallen, and 2) man must learn to live within limits. A conservatism that is not founded on a conscious recognition of those two truths is a false conservatism, and has a shaky foundation from which to criticize liberal utopianism.

Rush: “President Obama has the ability -- he has the ability to inspire excellence in people's pursuits. He has the ability to do all this, yet he pursues a path, seeks a path that punishes achievement, that punishes earners and punishes -- and he speaks negatively of the country. Ronald Reagan used to speak of a shining city on a hill. Barack Obama portrays America as a soup kitchen in some dark night in a corner of America that's very obscure. He's constantly telling the American people that bad times are ahead, worst times are ahead. And it's troubling, because this is the United States of America.”

Got that? Any attempt to grapple in a public way with the sins and failings of America, the errors that got us into this ditch, is to be seen as unpatriotic. We must ever keep before us the America Idol, and the power of positive thinking.

Rush: "The freedom we spoke of earlier is the freedom, it's the ambition, it's the desire, the wherewithal, the passions that people have that gave us the great entrepreneurial advances, the great inventions, the greatest food production, the human lifestyle advances in this country, why shouldn't that be rewarded?"

Pure, uncut Progressivism. It's astonishing, really.

Rush: "Conservative intellectuals, the Declaration of Independence does not need to be redefined and neither does conservativism. Conservativism is what it is and it is forever. It's not something you can bend and shape and flake and form. [Applause] Thank you."

Because, what, it was handed down from Sinai? One hardly knows what to say to this. Do they really believe politics is dogmatic religion? They must.

Rush: "So there will be different factions lining up to try to define what conservatism is. And beware of those different factions who seek as part of their attempt to redefine conservativism, as making sure the liberals like us, making sure that the media likes us. They never will, as long as we remain conservatives. They can't possibly like us; they're our enemy. In a political arena of ideas, they're our enemy."

This ideologically-driven right-wing Rousseauism, with Leninist overtones about the Enemies of the People? If so, then count me as an Enemy, because I want nothing to do with it, as I recognize it as simply a crudely politicized form of philosophical liberalism

Here's a comment following the article above:

John: "The Republicans are now formally and institutionally committed to lunacy, which is why I, though a registered R , will not vote for that party in the forseeable future"

Obama's Evil Like Robin Hood, and Fox News says Biden is "Gafftastic"

So what do they call the new GOP? The party of GAS (Grasping At Straws).

LIberal Activist Judges Bad, Conservative Activist Judges Good says Supreme Court Nominee Randy Koschnick

Can someone explain this to me: In the major media, a Democratic spending bill is bad until it is approved by the fiscally conservative Republicans. Even though the Republicans ushered in a world wide economic collapse with laissez faire capitalism, deregulation and an ownership society for the upper 2 percent of Americans, we still need their stamp of approval? Why? The same is true for Supreme Court Justices.

In one of the most blatant admissions of conservative elitism and partisan politics, Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Judge Randy Koschnick doesn't seem to recognize the stark hypocrisy of his "my s**t don't stink but yours does" commentary. On Upfront with Mike Gousha, Koschnick is clear: "I'm a judicial conservative." Pretty partisan stuff, isn't it? Can you imagine his opponent, Justice Shirley Abrahamson, coming out and saying, "I'm a liberal Justice?" We'd never hear the end of it.

It's apparent that Koschnick does not understand why we have the three branches of government. Out of the three, the Judicial keeps in check the Legislative branch from passing laws that are unconstitutional. And it's a citizen who is usually challenging a laws fairness, as defined by the Constitution. So it would be suicide to say, as Koschnick does, "I believe Justices on the Supreme Court...should apply the Constitution the way that its written, and that we give deference to the Legislature when they pass a statute, rather than looking for ways to over turn that statute ... leave legislating to the legislature."

To add insult to injury, Koschnick deliberately mispronounces Abra-ham-son as A-bram-son. What else can you say, except he's an arrogant jerk.



UPDATE March 11, 2009 According to the Capital Times;

Remember John McCain's pal "Joe the Plumber," the Ohio Republican who challenged Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama on tax issues and then started showing up at rallies for Republicans McCain and Sarah Palin?

Well, Joe came to Wisconsin on Saturday for a "Defending the American Dream -- Wisconsin Summit" organized by the conservative group Americans for Prosperity.Joining Joe, whose real name is Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, on stage were conservative leaders such as Congressman Paul Ryan, R-Janesville; Wall Street Journal columnist Steven Moore; and Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance head Todd Berry.Also taking the stage were Supreme Court candidate Randy Koschnick and Superintendent of Public Instruction candidate Rose Fernandez. Here's a report on the event, which featured the announcement of a campaign to recall Gov. Jim Doyle and denunciations of President Obama for bringing "European-style socialism" to the United States.

Stan Greenberg Pummels the Smirk Off Karl Rove's Face with the Facts

I'm loving the fact that the Democrats are finally finding their voice, even if it isn't represented in Congress yet, and reminding Americans who set us up for this economic crisis. Democratic pollster and political advisor Stanley Greenberg ripped apart the snide smug rantings of Karl Rove, who appears angry and frustrated that no one seems to believe in his partisan baloney.

Katrina Vanden Heuvel drives home the biggest argument against the Republican philosophy of governing; the concept of "investing in the future." The conservative mindset is to take your profits, tax cuts and dividends now. Oh, and don't worry about legally bankrupting your own company is there's money to be made.

Military to Mom: To hell with the kids, we own you! Thanks for Volunteering Sucker!

I’ve never understood the attitude the military service has taken against soldiers families, the kids specifically, and the hardship levied upon them like a sledge hammer. What a way to treat those who’ve volunteered to serve their nation. Let’s hope Lisa Pagan has a little more luck shining a bright light on the military, and its ruthless, heartless bullying. AP picks up the story:

When Lisa Pagan reports for duty Sunday at Fort Benning, Ga., four long years after she was honorably discharged from the Army, she'll arrive with more than her old uniform. She's bringing her kids, too. "I have to bring them with me," she said. "I don't have a choice."

Pagan is among thousands of former service members who have left active duty since the Sept. 11 attacks, only to later receive orders to return to service. Soldiers can appeal, and some have won permission to remain in civilian life. Pagan filed several appeals … All were rejected, leaving Pagan with what she says is a choice between deploying to Iraq and abandoning her family, or refusing her orders and potentially facing charges.

Pagan said. "I either report and bring the children with me or don't report and face dishonorable discharge and possibly being arrested. I guess I'll just have to make my case while I'm there."

Master Sgt. Keith O'Donnell, an Army spokesman in St. Louis, said "The Army tries to look at the whole picture and they definitely don't want to do anything that jeopardizes the family or jeopardizes the children," O'Donnell said. He said Pagan isn't likely to face charges, since none of the individual ready reserve soldiers who have failed to report faced a court-martial.

Tom Tarantino, a policy associate with the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, a nonprofit group that helps veterans, said …”I'm sure what the military is telling her — and I'm not saying that this is exactly the right answer — but the fact that it is inconvenient for her husband's job is not the military's problem. It's very harsh."