Here we go again: Republican Rep. Ott wants to spend $250 million taxpayer dollars year on ineffective tough Drunk Driving Laws & build 17 300 bed facilities costing $236 million. “You’ve got to start somewhere."

You may have heard the conspiracy theory about FEMA prisons being built to house Republicans who dare defy the orders of our imperial president. I'm not making that up. Now we’re finding out the idea itself has roots in the conservative agenda, where crime and dissent is met with harsh mandatory jail and prison time.

Instead of treatment and the recognition of drunk driving as a disease, Republicans want to lock em up.

This is all part of the father figure disciplinary authoritarianism that has characterized the current Republican Party.

The first paragraph of this Wisconsin State Journal story lays out a frightening plan:

Measures that would boost penalties for drunken driving would cost $250 million a year and send thousands more people to jail or prison, according to estimates provided by state agencies that would be charged with implementing the proposals. The state also would need to spend $236 million to build 17 300-bed facilities to house the expected increase in people serving time for drunken driving, the Department of Corrections estimates. Those estimates don’t include the extra costs to counties whose jails would house offenders serving sentences of a year or less.

And the treatment centers relating to the rehabilitation of alcoholism…anything? Republican were outraged over the imagined FEMA detention camps for conservatives because Democrats beat them to the punch, and targeted the wrong people. Republicans want to lock up citizens, starting with alcoholics. To them, Wisconsin drinkers are basically criminals, who need to be captured and punished. It’s that simple, and quite costly.

Rep. Jim Ott, R-Mequon, acknowledged that the cost estimates are daunting. But he said they fail to take into account any reduction in drunken driving that might be spurred by harsher penalties. “The deterrent effect needs to be taken into account; otherwise there’s no point in doing it,” he said.

Evidence should guide legislation and there isn’t any that indicates criminalizing the offenses stops the behavior, state Rep. Jill Billings said. “We have to include treatment,” she said. “What we have to do is change behavior, not just punish.” A majority of those caught driving drunk their first time self-correct, said Billings, who helped build La Crosse County’s OWI court when she sat on the county board. Imposing mandatory jail time on offenders could create long-term effects.

“They could lose their job. And what does that do to the family?” she said.

Rep. Jim Ott is unmoved.

Rep. Jim Ott, R-Mequon, the bill’s co-author, recognizes the common addiction to alcohol but notes those people “aren’t addicted to driving.”

That’s Jim Ott, the former weather man and brain trust pushing this public jailing program. 

But would Ott's solution work? Not really, and only temporarily. Read this mid-80's research here, an early 2000's report here, or more recently here, from the Gainesville Sun:

Tougher punishments may not be effective in deterring people from driving drunk, according to a study by University of Florida researchers. Increases in the minimum jail time keep few drunken drivers off the road and don't significantly prevent fatal car crashes, according to the study, researchers wanted to find out if stricter regulations deterred people from drinking and driving and if the number of accidents would drop in the population as a whole. "We found out that's not the case," he said.

In order for stricter penalties to work, people need to believe they will get caught, Wagenaar said. While sentences don't deter drunken drivers … Wagenaar said that doesn't mean jail isn't a useful punishment. 

Health care rationing a good thing say Republicans...if it saves money & protects doctors and hospitals!

Warnings of health care rationing and death panels by the Republicans Party has turned out to be more of the same, "projection." Bureaucratic meddling only works if you're a Republican.

It’s actually something Republicans have had in the works for some time, and it's something they've rationalized as a good thing. Perhaps “rationalization” should be mentioned more often when describing conservative contradictions.

Anytime State Sen. Glenn Grothman is involved, with tag along former bad weather man Rep. Jim Ott, you know somebody’s going to get hurt or die.

Both want to ration a doctors advice, by not requiring physicians to fully explain a patients treatment options as declared by the state Supreme Court:

Post Crescent: Doctors would not be required to give patients as much information about alternative treatments available to them under a Republican-sponsored bill on a fast track … reaction to a 2012 Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling that said a doctor’s “informed consent” duty includes telling a patient about medical tests and treatments that may be appropriate for a patient’s symptoms, even if the doctor doesn't believe the patient has the underlying condition or disease. Ott/Grothman said the 4-3 Supreme Court ruling was likely to increase medical costs and result in “defensive medicine.”

And who knows, may even save a life or two? The health care industry doesn't like it so...there’s nothing worse than “defensive medicine.” 

Patient’s aren't the focus of Ott and Grothman, oddly enough. These are our supposed representatives,right? So how horrible is the current standard, and why does it need to be changed so quickly? 

Their proposal would change the law from a “reasonable patient standard” to a “reasonable physician standard.” The law currently requires a doctor to inform the patient about the availability of all alternate, viable medical modes of treatment and the benefits and risks associated with those, with some exceptions. The current law doesn’t require doctors to overwhelm patients with details that may not be important, it simply requires they be given information they would want to know.

Democratic lawmakers oppose the measure, saying the current law protects patient rights. “The consumer being given knowledge is a good thing, particularly when you’re making decisions about your own body,” said Democratic state Rep. Dana Wachs.

And like everything done by Republicans, who often complain when Democrats are in power that not enough time was given for a full debate and public input, “Ott is moving quickly on the bill.” 

Rep. Jim Ott on Drunk Driving or Guns? "Do we just sit back and say we have to live with this?"

Let’s take a look at the car/guns analogy again, shall we?

We already know cars were never invented to kill people, but guns were. We know cars require detailed registration by their owners, while guns don’t.

And finally the old argument; we know that cars kill people, just like guns do, so "should we ban cars too?"

Former TV weather man State Rep. Jim Ott and Sen. Alberta Darling have just blown their argument against tougher gun regulations, and didn't know it. And I’ll bet conservative low information voters won’t even notice. 

Check out this amazing upside down statement from Rep. Ott, keeping in mind Sandy Hook and the argument Republicans and the NRA are making against tighter common sense gun regulations.

Two of the dumbest people in government!

AP: (Ott and Darling) say they will try again this session to criminalize certain first-time offenses, make a third offense a felony and establish mandatory minimum sentences for drivers who cause crashes.

"We continue to have so many outrageous crashes in Wisconsin," Ott, of Mequon, said. "Do we just sit back and say `we have to live with this' or are we going to try to do something?"

Sound familiar? That’s what supporters of tougher gun regulations are saying after Sandy Hook, and just the opposite of what the NRA and Republican gun nuts are saying. So, should we just sit back, and where are all the car/gun comparisons now? 

Jim Ott and Alberta Darling blew it, showed their deceiving hand, and exposed their hypocrisy to the rest of our gun loving country.