State Sen. Jon Erpenbach Digging into Bait and Switch at DOT for Free Voter ID's.

So it wasn't our imagination? It looks like our trusting Republican politicians who were so concerned about the integrity elections and "voter fraud," are already gaming the system to suppress the vote. Big surprise. Cap Times:

An internal memo from a top Department of Transportation official instructs workers at Division of Motor Vehicles service centers not to tell members of the public that they can obtain voter identification cards free of charge -- unless they know to ask for it.

The memo, recently obtained by The Capital Times, was written by Steve Krieser and sent to all state Department of Transportation and Department of Motor Vehicles employees on July 1, the same day employees were to begin issuing photo IDs in accordance with a controversial new Voter Photo ID law adopted earlier in the year.

"While you should certainly help customers who come in asking for a free ID to check the appropriate box, you should refrain from offering the free version to customers who do not ask for it," Krieser writes to employees. Krieser, who was recently promoted to executive assistant to the DOT secretary, instructs staff that customers should "self certify" their eligibility for the free ID. They can do that, he writes, if they meet the documentation requirements; if they are at least 17 years old; if they have checked the correct certification box on the new forms; and, most significantly, if they are "asking for a product that is available for free issuance."

I'm glad Sen. Erpenbach is following up on the DOT's current policy . Here's Jon's letter: 

Department of Transportation: Secretary GottliebIt has been reported in the Capital Times, that in a memo from Steve Krieser, Department of Transportation (DOT) staff has been instructed not to help eligible citizens obtain a free, state issued identification card for purposes of voting. I find this action unacceptable and paramount to a “bait and switch” tactic. Helping people obtain a free ID card to vote should be no different than any other service the Department of Transportation offers as an agent of the people of this state. This is a job that has been assigned to your Department by the Legislature and one we expect you to do without prejudice. Please assure the Legislature that your Department will do the job we have tasked and provided funds to be completed, regardless of the beliefs and partisan affiliations of your senior staff.-JON ERPENBACH

Meanwhile, the GAB is attempting to help groups get out the vote:

The Government Accountability Board has opened a Speakers Bureau and is now accepting requests from groups for staff speakers to get the word out across Wisconsin about the new Voter Photo ID Law.

“Organizations that work with people who may need help getting a photo ID to vote can go to our website and request a speaker,” said Kevin J. Kennedy, Wisconsin’s chief election officer. “The Government Accountability Board does not have the resources to help every individual voter who needs to get a photo ID.  We can, however, provide organizations with the tools and knowledge to get the job done.”

Elections Division Administrator Nathaniel E. Robinson said, “Because a birth certificate is required to obtain a state ID card, the time to get a proper ID for voting purposes is now rather than at the last minute before the 2012 February Primary.”

The Speakers Bureau request form is available on the Board’s website.

For Ryan, it's the old "hide behind your kids ploy."

I was casually checking out the great coverage of the Janesville Labor Day Parade at Rock Netroots, when I came across this amazing "hide behind my kids" ploy used by Rep. Paul Ryan. I nearly spit out my coffee:

I walked about half the route in step behind Paul Ryan and heard plenty of boos and jeers for him and saw individual spectators holding anti-Ryan signs along the Main Street parade route. I also noticed significant areas of spectators that did not acknowledge him at all … Speaking of Ryan, he was pushing a baby stroller during the event, which I think shows extremely poor judgment on his part if he believes in his own fear mongering rhetoric. 

As you can see by the screen capture, there's Paul waving behind the person in a blue shirt, and he's pushing a stroller.

Remember, Ryan referred to the labor protests in Madison … as riots similar to those going on in Cairo, Egypt … So why would he subject his young children to that potential for harm if that's what he really thinks of labor? 

Here’s a glimpse of those "union thugs" and "rioters" ruining Ryan’s ceremonial appearance at what soon could be the last gasping breath of labor.  

Iraq and Afghanistan

The Register Guard of Eugene Oregon published an editorial, the type of which you can see in just about any newspaper. It caught my eye because it was brief, to the point and contained some basic stats which I found interesting.

For the first time since President George W. Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq in 2003, an entire month has passed without a single U.S. soldier dying in a conflict that has claimed the lives of 4,474 American service members.

The U.S. military is preparing to pull the last troops out of Iraq by the end of the year in accordance with a 2008 security agreement between the two countries. But there is troubling talk in Washington and Baghdad of extending that deadline to have U.S. troops remain longer in Iraq.

While Iraq was becoming less lethal, 67 U.S. troops died last month in the Afghanistan war, making August the deadliest month for Americans in the longest-running war in U.S. history.

Obama should also continue — and expedite — the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, site of a nearly decade-long war in which this country has invested $1 trillion, 10 years of effort and the lives of 1,754 U.S. troops.

I'm tired of the BS from Washington about withdrawing troops which usually comes with the disclaimer that the date could be postponed. What do the guys on the ground in Iraq think? Are they of the opinion that we're doing something worthwhile there? Or are they cynical and angry?

I suppose it's a good sign, no it definitely is a good sign that no fatalities happened in Iraq last month. My sincere prayer is that it may continue like that and somehow the government will do the right thing by the end of this year.

Afghanistan is another story. What in the hell has been accomplished there at such a cost? Was it all about Bin Laden and the Taliban? I doubt it, but whatever else it is, some strategic balance of power in the region or whatever, I say that's enough. Let's get out of there.

Unfortunately, as the August deaths indicate, it's going in the opposite direction. What do those troops think? Is the idea that the U.S. is policing the world in order to make it safer something that sustains them? Bush and Bush supporters always said that, but do people still think that way?

The op-ed I linked to made the point that in order to heal the economy at home we need to stop spending so much on these wars. That may be true, but to me there's a more important reason, a more human reason to end these ill-fated endeavors. We have young Americans dying over there and I honestly cannot see for what.

As has been said many times in defense of pacifist and non-intervention arguments, the best way I can see to support the troops is to bring them home, every one. We can spend some of that money on VA hospitals and PTSS clinics. We can invest in education and vocational programs for these young volunteers.

This is how we can make America strong.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.
(cross posted at Mikeb302000)

How Fox News Created a Fear Mongering Lie about Teamster Pres. James Hoffa.

It has all the earmarking's of a Fox News hit job:

Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa vowed on Tuesday that he will "never apologize" for standing up for American workers, even in the face of considerable criticism for a Labor Day speech in which he targeted Tea Party politicians and urged supporters to "take these son-of-a-bitches out."

And it is, with a fancy bit of video editing. Below, I've put together how Teamster's James Hoffa's speech morphed into what has been interpreted by Fox pundits as a violent bloody threat to kill tea party members. Hoffa was talking about voting....




Here's Ed Schultz with Teamster President James Hoffa:

Ryan calls protesting citizens, "the new norm." Ah, I think they're trying to tell you something Paul?

Think Paul Ryan is going to cake walk his way into office this time around? Just because he has a high national profile doesn't guarantee his districts support this time around. Good for Greenfield residents who had the courage to really tell Ryan how they felt. TMJ4:

Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan had to walk through and talk over protesters Tuesday during a public appearance in Greenfield.

3 people were arrested and 20 in all were removed from Klemmer's Banquet Center for disrupting Ryan's speech. Outside the building both pro and anti Ryan demonstrators marched around the area and chanted.

Like Ryan said in the clip nonchalantly, "Protests are something that are here to stay, I think." Funny, it wasn't like this a year ago Paul.



Fox6:

Onion predicted economic collapse by Bush.

Loved this piece then, love it now. Found it cleaning the clip file out, and thought it applied even better today. Bush tours the US disaster area.....

Finally Robert Reich with how we got here, the economic story, and what we can do about jobs.

I hate posting so much print copy, but this is good, better than the stuff Reich has to come up with on the talk circuit. By ROBERT REICH: 

THE 5 percent of Americans with the highest incomes now account for 37 percent of all consumer purchases … the middle class doesn’t have enough purchasing power to keep the economy going without sinking ever more deeply into debt — which, as we’ve seen, ends badly … prone to great booms and busts. Even if by some miracle President Obama gets support for a second big stimulus … Pump-priming works only when a well contains enough water. During periods when the very rich took home a much smaller proportion of total income — as in the Great Prosperity between 1947 and 1977 — the nation as a whole grew faster and median wages surged. We created a virtuous cycle in which an ever growing middle class had the ability to consume more goods and services, which created more and better jobs, thereby stoking demand. The rising tide did in fact lift all boats.

Periods when the very rich took home a larger proportion — as between 1918 and 1933, and in the Great Regression from 1981 to the present day — growth slowed, median wages stagnated and we suffered giant downturns. It’s no mere coincidence …  when the nation’s total income peaked in 1928 and 2007 — the two years just preceding the biggest downturns.

Enabled by the flow of women into the work force … (In the 1960s only 12 percent of married women with young children were working for pay; by the late 1990s, 55 percent were.) When that way of life stopped generating enough income, Americans went deeper into debt.  

We might have enlarged safety nets — by having unemployment insurance cover part-time work, by giving transition assistance to move to new jobs in new locations, by creating insurance for communities that lost a major employer. And we could have made Medicare available to anyone.

Big companies could have been required to pay severance to American workers they let go and train them for new jobs. The minimum wage could have been pegged at half the median wage, and we could have insisted that the foreign nations we trade with do the same, so that all citizens could share in gains from trade. We could have raised taxes on the rich and cut them for poorer Americans.

But starting in the late 1970s, and with increasing fervor over the next three decades, government did just the opposite. It deregulated and privatized. It cut spending on infrastructure as a percentage of the national economy and shifted more of the costs of public higher education to families. It shredded safety nets. (Only 27 percent of the unemployed are covered by unemployment insurance.) Fewer than 8 percent of private-sector workers are unionized. More generally, it stood by as big American companies became global companies with no more loyalty to the United States than a GPS satellite.

Meanwhile, the top income tax rate was halved to 35 percent and many of the nation’s richest were allowed to treat their income as capital gains subject to no more than 15 percent tax. Inheritance taxes that affected only the topmost 1.5 percent of earners were sliced.

Most telling of all, Washington deregulated Wall Street while insuring it against major losses. In so doing, it allowed finance — which until then had been the servant of American industry — to become its master, demanding short-term profits over long-term growth and raking in an ever larger portion of the nation’s profits. By 2007, financial companies accounted for over 40 percent of American corporate profits.

Some say the regressive lurch occurred because Americans lost confidence in government. But this argument has cause and effect backward. The tax revolts that thundered across America starting in the late 1970s were not so much ideological revolts against government — Americans still wanted all the government services they had before, and then some — as against paying more taxes on incomes that had stagnated. Inevitably, government services deteriorated and government deficits exploded, confirming the public’s growing cynicism about government’s doing anything right.

Some say we couldn’t have reversed … Germany has grown faster than the United States for the last 15 years, and the gains have been more widely spread. While Americans’ average hourly pay has risen only 6 percent since 1985, adjusted for inflation, German workers’ pay has risen almost 30 percent. At the same time, the top 1 percent of German households now take home about 11 percent of all income — about the same as in 1970. How has Germany done it? Mainly by focusing like a laser on education (German math scores continue to extend their lead over American), and by maintaining strong labor unions.

THE real reason for America’s Great Regression was political. As Marriner S. Eccles, a former chairman of the Federal Reserve, described in the 1920s, when people “with great economic power had an undue influence in making the rules of the economic game.” Yet the rich are now being bitten by their own success. Those at the top would be better off with a smaller share of a rapidly growing economy than a large share of one that’s almost dead in the water.

The economy cannot possibly get out of its current doldrums without a strategy to revive the purchasing power of America’s vast middle class. Reviving the middle class requires that we reverse the nation’s decades-long trend toward widening inequality. Moreover, an economy is not a zero-sum game. Even the executive class has an enlightened self-interest in reversing the trend; just as a rising tide lifts all boats, the ebbing tide is now threatening to beach many of the yachts.

As the historian James Truslow Adams defined the American Dream when he coined the term at the depths of the Great Depression, what we seek is “a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone.”

A Tale of Two Ryan's. Follow the "Leader" Economics

This amazing piece by Ezra Klein will explain a lot about the contrarian nature of Paul Ryan and the Republican Tea Party. Ryan is an unintentional hypocrite? Maybe.

It has become common today for Republicans to deride the very concept of stimulus as absurd, to mock Keynesian economics as an ivory-tower fantasy, and to oppose temporary tax cuts as a recession-fighting measure. But during the Bush administration? All that was orthodox conservative policy.

In 2001, Grover Norquist called a national sales-tax holiday “exactly the kind of immediate stimulus our shell-shocked economy needs now.” Norquist went on to quote George W. Bush’s chief economist, Glenn Hubbard, saying we needed stimulus “sooner rather than later.” Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) introduced a bill to that effect.

Around the same time, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) held a hearing in which he invited Kevin Hassett, a conservative economist based at the American Enterprise Institute, to make the case for a fiscal stimulus. “The economists who studied this were quite surprised to find that fiscal policy in recessions was reasonably effective,” Hassett testified. “It is just that folks tried a first punch that was too light and that generally we didn’t get big measures until well into the recession.”

Ryan was delighted by his answer. “That is precisely my point,” he replied. “That is why I like my porridge hot. I think we ought to have this income tax cut fast, deeper, retroactive to January 1st, to make sure we get a good punch into the economy, juice the economy to make sure that we can avoid a hard landing.”

So not only was it non-controversial that deficit-financed stimulus spending was an effective and desirable way to fight economic downturns, but it was taken as obvious by Paul Ryan — Paul Ryan! — that the big danger was that you did too little. Now, of course, Ryan takes the initial stimulus’s inability to fully combat the recession as evidence of the policy’s failure, even though we now know the recession was deep enough that standard calculations — the sort of calculations Hassett was referring to in his testimony — would have argued for a stimulus of more than $2 trillion.

So what happened?

Some say the explanation for all this is obvious: Republicans want the economy to fail ... How much clearer can it be?

I don’t believe this sort of behavior is quite that cynical. Psychologists and political scientists talk often of a phenomenon known as motivated skepticism. The idea, basically, is that we believe the evidence and arguments we want to believe, and reject ideas and information that undercut our preferences.

My favorite study in this space was by Yale’s Geoffrey Cohen. He had a control group of liberals and conservatives look at a generous welfare reform proposal and a harsh welfare reform proposal. As expected, liberals preferred the generous plan and conservatives favored the more stringent option. Then he had another group of liberals and conservatives look at the same plans, but this time, the plans were associated with parties.

Both liberals and conservatives followed their parties, even when their parties disagreed with their preferences. So when Democrats were said to favor the stringent welfare reform, for example, liberals went right along. Three scary sentences from the piece: “When reference group information was available, participants gave no weight to objective policy content, and instead assumed the position of their group as their own. This effect was as strong among people who were knowledgeable about welfare as it was among people who were not. Finally, participants persisted in the belief that they had formed their attitude autonomously even in the two group information conditions where they had not.”

I tend to think there’s much more motivated skepticism in politics than outright cynicism, much less economic sabotage. But it’s a distinction without a difference, at least so far as policy outcomes go. The bottom line is this: Until quite recently, both parties supported the idea that you combat bad economies with stimulus spending. Now, during an extremely bad economy, the Republican Party has completely abandoned that position. That has left them without plausible solutions — the GOP talks now of things that have very little role in boosting short-term demand, such as deficit reduction and regulatory reform — and has left the Democrats without the votes to pass anything. And that’s left the country deep in the hole. 

Destroying the Labor Parade from within....

The Wausau Labor Day Parade saw two Republican Tea Party politicians participate, dispite knowing they weren't welcome by the labor council. And just like a cancer killing its host from within, State Sen. Pam "guns" Galloway and Rep. Sean Duffy marched with union members as though they belonged there.  

WSAU: It received national attention, the Marathon County Labor Council deciding not to include republican candidates in its annual parade ... republicans marched, and the reception was enthusiastic, but mostly unpleasant.

Republican State Senator Pam Galloway and Congressman San Duffy showed up. They marched with a large group of supporters, and heard some cheers ... but a decidedly democratic crowd lined the Wausau Labor Temple at the end of the route. As Duffy's people passed, many turned their back and faced the other way. They also chanted "recall Walker" until he turned the corner.

Besides chants, union supporters raised posters along the route. Those included slogans like "unions help all workers" and "walker your pink slip is coming." When republican candidates came by they held up signs saying "shame."

From WEAU:

Democrats received a more warm response. Rep. Donna Seidel and her campaigners lead the parade, as she posed as the parade marshall ... They chanted "this is what democracy looks like" and raised signs saying "enough is enough vote democrat."

Seidel said "This is about workers and what workers have done to make the middle class of America strong and to make all of our state and country really stronger than ever before."

Perry challenges Obama with a slice of Real America...

Paul Fanlund/Cap Times put this Republican Tea Party list together that should bode well for job creation and the American Dream:

The governor of Texas has vaulted ahead in polls for the Republican presidential nomination in recent days by taking positions like these:
• Evolution is "just a theory that's out there."

• Scientific consensus on climate change is "all one contrived phony mess that is falling apart under its own weight."

• All top jobs in his administration would be filled by abortion foes.

• It's time to "turn America over to God" for Him to fix.

• Social Security is a "Ponzi scheme" and it and Medicare are unconstitutional.

• Gay Americans are "part of Satan."

• Actions by the Bush-appointed chairman of the Federal Reserve are "treasonous."

• President Obama is not sufficiently American or does not necessarily love his country.

Yeah, Family supporting income...how rare!! Thank you Governor.

Supposedly hiding with his family somewhere safe from the protesters, while the state tries to celebrate labor under the hell Scott Walker created, the governor couldn't help rubbing his bullshit in a little: 

Governor Scott Walker issued the following statement on Monday morning about Labor Day:

This is extremely important to highlight on Labor Day as we move forward with our plan to ensure we have an economic climate that allows the private sector to create 250,000 new jobs by 2015. "While our state and national economy have suffered over the past few years, I am optimistic about our future. When I hear stories about people who find jobs that provide a family supporting income, it reaffirms my belief that by working together we will get Wisconsin working again.

That's right, "a family supporting income" is now something we're just hearing stories about now, and not something we could expect for our labor. 

Labor Day is not the day to put aside differences!

Rep. Donna Seidel and Sen. Pam "guns" Galloway give their opposing views on marching in Labor Day Parades. Seidel thankfully gives no ground to Galloway's callous disregard history and the future of labor.

From WPT's Here and Now:

Thanks to You Republican Tea Party Dummies, We're Losing Labor and the Middle Class.

The private sector has seen much better days, when more people were in unions, got higher pay, received comfortable retirement benefits and sustained a strong middle class life style.

But union bashing, "right to work" laws, global competition and Wall Street pretty much killed those glory years. But its economic twin, the public sector, remained stable and unionized. And for those politicians who enriched the private sectors bottom line with cheap labor and neo-liberal trade policies, the public sector represented a surviving part of the middle class. It was time to attack.

Here's AFL-CIO's Stephanie Bloomingdale with her take on the frontal assault on labor in Wisconsin:



The great quote going around the blogs, from Uppity Wisconsin, to MALcontends, is this great observation:

Former GOP staffer, Mike Lofgren:

Having gutted private-sector pensions and health benefits as a result of their embrace of outsourcing, union busting and 'shareholder value,' the GOP now thinks it is only fair that public-sector workers give up their pensions and benefits, too. Hence the intensification of the GOP's decades-long campaign of scorn against government workers. Under the circumstances, it is simply safer to be a current retiree rather than a prospective one.

If you think Paul Ryan and his Ayn Rand-worshipping colleagues aren't after your Social Security and Medicare, I am here to disabuse you of your naiveté. They will move heaven and earth to force through tax cuts that will so starve the government of revenue that they will be 'forced' to make hard choices' - and that doesn't mean repealing those very same tax cuts, it means cutting the benefits for which you worked.

HP TouchPad $99 in Labor Day BLOWOUT Sale.

I feel really sick right now, because I really, really, really wanted one of these now discontinued HP Touchpads, but the $400 price was ridiculous. Well this Labor Day sale was enough to shock the senses. The price also made it impossible to obtain. With only 14 to sell, "while quantities last," I sadly had to give up on this deal. It wasn't a misprint folks;

Having not read the sales ad completely, I rush to the store (American TV, Madison) to try and buy one. Wrong day. Labor day only, not the day before. The clerk told me over fifty customers were waiting in line to buy one when they opened the doors. Another 300 or so followed. Guess the sweet spot for touchpads was $99.

I'm blogging this as a way of venting.

Postal Service Funding Health Care Benefits 75 years in Advance!! Over Regulation?

When you hear how dramatically bad the Postal Service is doing financially, many think it’s another reason why government can’t do anything right. They would be wrong.

The bizarre requirement to fund its health benefits fund 75 years in advance…that’s right 75 years ahead of schedule, is the real reason.

CNN: The U.S. Postal Service does not have the money to meet an obligation to a retiree health care trust fund coming due at the end of the month, but if there's a default, officials promise no interruption in the mail, the payroll, or payments to suppliers … spokeswoman Yvonne Yoerger … "We are required to make this $5.5 billion dollar payment into the future retiree health benefits fund … the fact is, no other government agency, and few corporations in the private sector are required to fund retiree health benefits 75 years out."  One answer is to adjust those mandated payments.

She acknowledged the basis for the advance payments were mandated in 2006 because lawmakers wanted assurances the Postal Service could cover benefits for its future pensioners.

But 75 years funding in advance? Who the hell thought that was a good idea…Democrats?

Tuesday, congressional lawmakers will address the matter in a hearing on postal operations.

She said "We want to have the pre-funding mandate eliminated, and have the money already paid into it used for those purposes" of covering health care benefits for future retirees. She said, "We've overpaid into our retirement funds, and we'd like some of those overpayments refunded and used for future funding."

This great ad tells the whole story in 30 seconds:

Walker's "Brown Bag Lunch" YouTube series viewed by...hundreds. Apparently no one's listening to him either.

I've watched a few of Gov. Scott Walker's YouTube Brown Bag Lunch's, and yawn, they're all the same. It's really like listening to the same broken record over and over. But Walker isn't deterred. When asked about attracting more than a few hundred viewers:

Walker: "I suppose if I was "more" obnoxious, or something, maybe they would (watch)."

Besides the nonstop propaganda contained in his responses to citizen questions, perhaps Walker has a personality problem. Here's a sample from WPT's Here and Now:

Labor Day Message from radio wind-bagger Vicki McKenna: "Don't let anyone tell you, you don't OWN your own labor."

The Daily Caller's Ginni Thomas, Justice Thomas' wife and ideological twin, features "leaders" (there's that authoritarian term again) from around the country, like...Vicki McKenna?

Vicki's message on Labor Day is, "own your own labor" (new slavery), is a powerful one for the corporately backed tea party supporters (Americans for Prosperity). Sadly, Vicki McKenna's message is an inadvertent warning that those same supporters, their kids and the whole middle class, are about to become 21st Century slaves. Bottom line: who the hell thinks like this?



The other message; McKenna weaves a hyperbolic tale around a failed Capitol protest. From over estimated crowds, to a large angry mob of liberals that threatened tea party speakers to the point of requiring police protection, McKenna's picture of the bused in tea party rally on April 16 at the Capitol is pure fiction. I superimposed a few comments. It's not like the guest speakers didn't attempt to insult and agitate the crowd:



According to the Daily Caller's Ginni Thomas:

The self-described “converted conservative” helped galvanize, educate and activate the grassroots in Wisconsin during the recent battle over Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s reform agenda … McKenna had up-close-and-personal encounters with organized labor … Besides reducing tax burdens and cutting spending, one of those changes was entirely new: “shared sacrifice” by government employees. Instead of respecting the ballot box, Wisconsin’s organized left rebelled, physically occupying the state Capitol building … Their tactics ultimately failed, however, and Wisconsin voters have now rejected their agenda three times in nine months.

On Labor Day, in particular, what happened in Wisconsin needs to be told and re-told because it could happen in any state. Vicki McKenna’s Labor Day message to America:

“Don’t let anyone ever tell you that you don’t own your labor. What we have learned here in Wisconsin over these past several months is that there is a substantial group of people that somehow want to convince our citizens that they own your labor.”

Raise the Cap on Social Security, Lower the Retirement Age for Job Creation

I first learned of the idea from radio host and writer Thom Hartmann. It was so starkly different from normal discussions about saving Social Security, that it's taken me this long to absorb it. I'm still researching the idea, looking at a few other countries with lower retirement ages, but it kind of makes sense, especially when you look at the chart below. Would the balance shift and reverse the numbers of unemployed?

The Unemployed

Concealed Carry's Slippery Slope; the Castle Doctrine!

Keep an eye on the new "Mr. Crazy" in the state senate, Van Wanggaard. 

Can there ever be too much scrutiny over why a person was shot to death? State Senator Van Wanggaard (R-Racine) not only thinks so, but wants to codify it into law.

Caledonia Patch: To protect homeowners in situations like this, there is a new bill in the state legislature that would allow law enforcement to make the presumption that the homeowner is the victim. Senator Van Wanggaard fully supports the measure, commonly known as the "Castle Doctrine" because he said he wanted to prevent the victim of a crime from being victimized again by the very system designed to protect them. "There's too much scrutiny when a victim has to testify," he said.

He really did say that.

In a nutshell, AB 69 and SB 79 state homeowners have the right to use force intended to or likely to cause great bodily harm in defense of their home and the people inside. The law would also apply to a place of business and a car in the case of, for example, a car-jacking attempt. "You can't run outside and shoot someone if they're stealing the radio out of your car," Wanggaard clarified.

But to find that out would require “too much scrutiny,” wouldn’t it Mr. Wanggaard? 

My New Hero; Larry Johnson? Read his Letter in Praise of George Will's Analysis of Wisconsin's Recall Elections..

From the Columbian, WA: 

Thanks to George Will’s insightful examination of what ails America, I have finally come to see the true light.

Will’s Aug. 28 column on the lessons learned after the Wisconsin recall elections indicts labor unions, trial lawyers, and ivory towers as the greatest obstacles in America’s exceptional march toward greatness.

Though retired, I am now considering renouncing my pension and medical benefits, and throwing myself on the tender mercies of compassionate conservatism. Likewise, should I find myself crossways with monolithic corporatism, I’m certain that my plea for their ear and appeal to their sense of justice will prevail.

And as for higher education, well, apparently, as denigrated by Will, that just makes you dumber, less able to distinguish how you as an enterprising American individual can exert your personal power to effect changes on a very uneven playing field.

And as Will so ably reeled off extemporaneously on “Meet the Press” that same Sunday, every one of our current maladies, politically, socially, economically, is directly attributable to Barack Obama.

And I thank Will for his thoughtful revelations.

Larry Johnson