So, why didn't the troops applaud?

There were a lot of applause lines in the President's speech Tuesday night, but the troops at Fort Bragg didn't applaud.

Why not?

Just following orders, the Republicans say.

They were asleep, the Democrats say.

Probably still worth Bush's time to have the photo op, but next time you can bet there will be a different set of orders.

Washington Post story.

Things Could Be Worse Dept.

Minnesota's state fiscal year ends on June 30, just like Wisconsin's.

But there's a huge difference. In Wisconsin, if there's no new budget by July 1, government keeps operating at the same level until the new budget becomes law.

In Minnesota, the government shuts down.

With 12 hours to go, there was no agreement yet. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports.

WORD FOR THE DAY: Racino. That's one of the sticking points. And what's a racino? A racetrack with slot machines, of course.

UPDATE: Minnesota government shutting down. Story.

And the winner is ...

The Xoff Files, blog of the week on MKEonline.

I'd like to thank all of the little people who helped make this possible. I'll never forget you. You really, really like me.

Apparently our get-out-the-vote campaign was effective. The website reports that every vote cast on the final day was for the Xoff Files, which was already leading before that.

The machine delivered.

This award and $3 will get me a latte, I am told.

StemPAC: A new tool in the struggle

Fight Back for Stem Cell Research

For nearly five years, the promise of stem-cell research has been held hostage by ignorance and ideology. Hope for our loved ones has been delayed, and suffering has been needlessly prolonged, because of the power of a small group of political extremists.

It's time to fight back. It's time to take a stand against irrational federal and state laws that hinder stem-cell research. And it's time to go on the offense against the politicians who support such laws.

StemPAC is being formed right now to help lead this fight. If you would like to learn more, or want to help in this effort, please:

1) Send a letter to your Senators today;

2) Tell your story: Why do you support stem cell research?

3) Volunteer to help with StemPAC

4) Tell friends about StemPAC

Keeping it simple, stupid

Steven Pizzo at Alternet writes:

Virtually all of George W.'s behavior in office can be explained by one single event: being saved. Complexity had driven George to drink. In simplicity he found peace, self-confidence and salvation.

"Suddenly life's complications, choices and confusions were culled down to a handful of easy-to-understand instructions. Life's once-intimidating blank canvas was transformed to a paint-by-numbers set. He now not only knew what the picture was, but all he had to do was not mix his colors to end up with a perfect painting every time.

"So here we are, five years after electing un-curious George to the highest office on earth. He has been true to his evangelical mindset, not just in his adherence to his Christian faith, but in his public policies as well. It is that behavior that has led the press to call him stubborn.

"Global warming, stem cell research, war, Terry Schiavo, evolution -- each are issues about which volumes have, and will, be written. But George W. will not -- cannot -- be moved by a single word. Being saved taught Bush that the key to keeping his personal demons at bay is to narrow the flow of information to a trickle. Establish certainty -- the simpler the certainty, the better. Keep it simple, stupid. Then don't just stick to that certainty, but evangelize it. Others must be saved, too. "

There's more. Read it here.

Plasma TVs are new "Welfare Cadillacs"

You won't be seeing a plasma television set in any state building anytime soon.

Plasma TVs have become a symbol of extravagance to public officials -- and perhaps the public -- in Wisconsin.

If you doubt that, consider the avalanche of criticism over the plans of WisconsinEye -- the state's answer to C-Span -- to install a plasma TV in the offices of all 33 State Senators. (I don't know what they were going to do for the Assembly; no one there has piled on yet.)

State Sen. Cathy Stepp, a Racine Republican who's in a targeted seat next year started things rolling with a press release and letter to State Sen. Dale Schultz, GOP majority leader, declaring that, "I will not, under any circumstances, allow a plasma television to be installed in my office." That was good for a pretty big hometown news story.

Schultz quickly said that Senate offices will not get plasma TVs . "There are not going to be monitors in our offices," Schultz told Republican senators before they went into a closed-door session to resume work on the proposed state budget, the Journal Sentinel's political blog reported.

Gov. Jim Doyle jumped in, too, using it as a launching pad to attack the Republican state budget: "What a cruel irony that on the same day that the Senate is preparing to adopt a budget that would cut education by $400 million, they are considering giving themselves 33 plasma TVs. If the Senate goes through with this, it just shows how seriously out of step they are with average Wisconsin families.

"I agree with Republican Senator Cathy Stepp, who blew the whistle on this contract: most Wisconsin citizens can't afford plasma screen TVs for their own home - and there is no reason we need to give them to Senators. Instead of focusing on how they can get plasma TVs for themselves, Senators should be focused on passing a budget that protects education and freezes property taxes," Doyle said.

WisconsinEye, for the record, is a non-profit organization which has been raising money and negotiating for five years in hopes of beginning its live coverage of the legislature. The plasma TVs would not have been paid for by the taxpayers. But no matter; that is totally irrelevant in the heat of the moment.

So, you may wonder -- especially if you don't live in southeastern Wisconsin -- how did plasma TVs become the symbol of excess in government?

The Muskego-Norway School Board gets the credit, or blame.

After a building project supported by a 2001 taxpayer referendum was completed, some money was left for furnishings and equipment, and one of the things it went for was to buy eight 42-inch plasma TVs for the Muskego High School cafeteria at a cost of $51,000.

When they were installed in March, some taxpayer eyebrows were raised, and complaints were made to the school board and to talk radio, where it became a cause celebre.

After the uproar subsided, the school district decided to keep the TVs, since they could be sold only for a fraction of what they cost. But school officials took steps to assure taxpayers nothing like that could ever happen again. Journal Sentinel story.

So, when word surfaced of the plan to put plasma TVs in State Senate offices surfaced, the officeholders freaked. Not coincidentally, Stepp's district includes Muskego.

In days of old, conservatives loved to complain about "welfare Cadillacs" driven by people on the dole, or tell stories about the woman in the checkout line with a cartful of T-bones, paid for with food stamps.

If only we hadn't "ended welfare as we know it," the neocons could rail against the welfare recipients with plasma TVs. Instead, they're having to turn their attention to government spending -- and sometimes that hits a little too close to home.

Introducing Wonkster -- Napster for policy wonks

Just what I was hoping for.

Now you can get the same policy papers members of Congress often use to get up to speed on an issue -- for free.

The Center for Democracy and Technology has created an online database of Congressional Research Service reports.

I don't think you'll find me at that site very often, since I try very hard to stick to my self-imposed rule of one fact per item I post on this blog -- no more, no less. A second fact often confuses people, I've found, and sometimes even offers conflicting information. What kind of self-respecting blogger would do that?

Anyway, you can find the CRS reports at Open CRS.com. Here's the Washington Post story about it.

Mark Green wants 'victory' in Iraq

It sounded at first, from the headline below, like maybe Rep. Mark Green was declaring victory in Iraq. That wouldn't be a bad idea. Sen. George Aiken of Vermont offered that suggestion about Vietnam when the US was stuck in a quagmire -- "Declare victory and get out."

But, actually, Green is declaring, it appears, that he is part of a "Victory in Iraq" caucus in the Congress. What will constitute a victory? Does he think we will "win" before the 2006 election for governor?

Or is he just standing by his man, President Bush? (Might not want to stand too close. A Capitol Opinion poll done a week ago found Bush with a 44-52 favorable-unfavorable split. But the negatives include 41% who said their opinion of W was "strongly unfavorable." Let's hope for more Green photo ops with the Pres.

This from the June 28 Green Sheet, his e-mail campaign newsletter

DC Update: Victory in Iraq

Hopefully, you are planning to tune in tonight (or already have) to listen to President Bush discuss the situation in Iraq. It is once again in vogue with liberals and their friends in the media to attack our efforts to make our nation and world a safer place though a democratic Iraq.

As we've reported in the past, Mark was in Iraq about a month ago and saw for himself both the progress being made and the challenges that remain there. Most importantly, Mark reported back that too many of our brave men and women in uniform are frustrated that their successes are largely ignored by the press while every setback is given ample attention.

Now, some in Congress have gone so far as to set up an "Out of Iraq Caucus" with the sole intent of forcing the President to pull our troops out of Iraq without regard for the consequences. Mark's counter to this misguided effort? He and Rep. Joe Wilson have formed the "Victory in Iraq" Caucus to give he and his colleagues another avenue to show support for our troops and the good work they are doing in Iraq.

Canada legalizes same-sex marriages

This remarkable story from the National Post, Canada's answer to USA Today, by Alexander Panetta. (Emphasis mine, of course. Makes you wonder what that Charter of Rights has that our Constitution and Bill of Rights doesn't have.)

OTTAWA -- It was fought in courtrooms, in legislatures, in street protests, and one of the most turbulent debates in Canadian history was settled Tuesday with a vote in Parliament.

The House of Commons voted 158 to 133 to adopt controversial legislation that will make Canada the third country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage.

Several liberals marked the occasion by invoking the memory of their party's philosopher king, Pierre Trudeau.

It was the late liberal prime minister who decriminalized homosexuality in 1969, and whose Charter of Rights and Freedoms became the legal cudgel that smashed the traditional definition of marriage.

Barely two years ago, the Liberal government was still fighting same-sex couples in courts across the land.

It changed its tune amid an onslaught of legal verdicts in eight provinces that found traditional marriage laws violated the charter's guarantee of equality for all Canadians.

"(This) is about the Charter of Rights," Prime Minister Paul Martin said earlier Tuesday.

"We are a nation of minorities. And in a nation of minorities, it is important that you don't cherry-pick rights.

"A right is a right and that is what this vote tonight is all about."


PHOTO CREDIT: (canada.com/Joseph Lee)

Feingold: Give us candor and clarity on Iraq

Senator Russ Feingold on The Huffington Post:

"With the country listening, the President had the chance to finally give our troops and the American public some sense of when he believes this conflict in Iraq will be over and when our brave men and women in uniform will come home. Instead, the President urged us to remember the lessons of 9/11. But it is with those lessons in mind that I oppose the Administration's current approach to Iraq. The President keeps talking about staying the course, but what the American people really want is candor and clarity about where this course is taking us."

50 states plus 72 counties for Feingold?

The most likely reason Sen. Russ Feingold won't run for president in 2008: His pledge, which he has kept faithfully since taking office in 1993, to visit all 72 Wisconsin counties every year for town meetings.

He held his 900th Sunday in Winnecone. It is great for keeping in touch with the folks back home, and his annual presence in every nook and cranny in the state no doubt helped him in his relatively easy re-election campaign last year.

But Feingold also talks about a 50-state effort for Democrats to win the presidency.

Seventy-two Wisconsin counties and 49 other states sounds a little ambitious, even for Feingold. Florence County, Wisconsin and Chickasaw County, Mississippi? Pity the scheduler -- or the candidate -- who tries it. Do you think the Wisconsin voters would give him a reprieve for a year in 2008?

MoveOn commercial on Iraq features Hagel

MoveOnPAC has started to run a new television commercial on the Iraq war, featuring quotes from a Republican Senator, Chuck Hagel.

To see the ad -- and contribute to keep it on the air, if you are so inclined -- go to MoveOnPAC.org

The old double standard, still at work

The question of whether tax money should go to support child care centers continues to be an issue for Republicans in the Wisconsin legislature.

They have managed to be on both sides, depending upon whose ox is being gored, or whose program is being funded.

When the budget for Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC) was approved Tuesday, Rep. Suzanne Jeskewitz, a Menomonee Falls Republican, blasted the budget, which raises the tax levy more than 6%. But she zeroed in on a $1.24 million allocation to subsidize child care centers on each of the MATC campuses, challenging it as a misuse of tax dollars, the Journal Sentinel reported.

It's been an issue since the Legislative Audit Bureau took a look at MATC in 2003 and its audit mentioned, almost in passing, the child care centers operated by MATC. Costs were increasing (no surprise) and $1-million was budgeted for 2002-03.

When the audit was discussed at a legislative committee hearing, some of the Republican lawmakers like Jeskewitz and State Sen. Carol Roessler, who co-chaired the audit committee, questioned why MATC would be spending money from the property tax levy for child care. State Sen. Alberta Darling chimed in, too.

Why spend tax money to subsidize child care? asked the GOP.

After it was explained that the award-winning centers both provide child care for children of students and serve as learning labs for people in MATC's early childhood program, things settled down a bit.

But the MATC administration has used those comments from GOP lawmakers to go after the program and seek to cut budgets for child care. A $300,000 cut was proposed last year but eventually restored. But the struggle on the issue is ongoing.

So imagine the surprise of MATC students and faculty members when the Republican-run Joint Finance Committee, in one of its middle of the night sessions, put $1-million in the budget to operate a private, non-profit child care center in Milwaukee.

The money will go to the Next Door Foundation, which apparently had raised enough money to build its new Educare center, but not enough to operate it.

The Joint Finance Republicans, of course, were in no mood to increase spending, so that million dollars had to come from somewhere. So they cut $1 million dollars for at risk children from the Milwaukee Public Schools budget and gave it to the Next Door Foundation to run its center. (This was an extra million taken from MPS, in addition to the $40 million cut they had already imposed.)

The Next Door Foundation has a good reputation for providing needed services to children in the central city. That's not the question.

But the decision left some MATC faculty and staff members scratching their heads. Why isn't it an issue to give tax money for a child care center in this case?

Could it be the Republican connections of the Next Door Foundation board? Some conspiracy theorists at MATC certainly think so. The board is made up of some well-connected people, to be sure, many of who give to GOP candidates. But I will leave it to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign or Common Cause to use the pejorative words. They see BRIBE written on every dollar that goes to a candidate, and there are plenty of them in this case.

Whatever the reason, it is a total about-face for the Republicans. It should take some of the heat off the programs at MATC, but judging from Jeskewitz's comments Tuesday night, the GOP hasn't gotten the word out that it is now for tax-subsidized child care.

Republicans take no prisoners

Being a member of the Republican majority in the Wisconsin Legislature must be akin to being a citizen of Singapore, where public caning is a punishment for even small infractions.

State Sen. Mary Lazich of New Berlin wandered off the GOP reservation Tuesday, saying (it seemed) like she could not vote for the state budget she voted for as a member of Joint Finance not too long ago. Story.

The budget hasn't changed, but Lazich says she has more information now than she had at 6:15 a.m., after one of those infamous all-night sessions, when a punch-drunk committee exhausts itself and finally passes something before falling asleep. And she thinks it spends too much.

The problem for the GOP is that two other Senators, Mike Ellis and Robert Cowles, already have said they will vote no on the budget. That leaves 16 votes, but it takes 17 to pass.

State Sen. Dale Schultz, the majority leader whose job is to herd the cats in his caucus, didn't go off on Lazich, presumably because he still hopes to get her vote. (Those who flip sometimes flop back, after all.)

But Speaker John Gard let it rip. "It's like she's actually working for Jim Doyle," Gard said of Lazich. "She wants people to believe she was sleeping while the committee was actually voting on the budget." (Cut her some slack. Maybe she was sleeping. It was 6:15 a.m)

Lazich fired right back, saying Gard should "do a better job of leading" and questioning whether "John Gard actually approves of this level of spending. It's up to the Senate to do better." In other words, Gard and the Assembly GOP screwed up.

Lazich already is in trouble with her party's right wing because she supported Schultz for majority leader, who the conservatives see as too moderate. Worse, she said she had voted for Schultz's conservative opponent, Scott Fitzgerald. She ended up taking a lot of heat, especially from talk radio, and stepped down from her role as assistant majority leader.

On her latest maneuver, Lazich nemesis Charlie Sykes of WTMJ radio says: "However you feel about the budget, this is pathetic. . . Bottomline here: she votes for the budget in committee, says she didn't know what she was doing, and flip-flops when it comes to the floor. The term "Pulling a Lazich" has officially entered the political lexicon.

For Democrats, there is nothing like a ringside seat. Wouldn't you like to be a fly on the wall in the Republican Senate's closed-door caucus on the budget today?

UPDATE: Conservative blogger Dennis York gives Lazich more than a few lashes. Link

Grover Norquist, live and uncensored

From the Washington Post's Names and Faces:

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) became a target in the latest round of political rhetoric when Republican strategist Grover Norquist referred to him last week as "the nut-job from Arizona."

At the College Republicans convention in Arlington on Friday, Norquist also referred to Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) as "the two girls from Maine," according to the Dallas Morning News.

Norquist backed away from his "girls" comment yesterday, telling The Post's Brian Faler that he did not mean to be derisive. "It was not meant that way. We were talking to a bunch of college kids," he said.

As for McCain, Norquist said he "misspoke" and added, "I meant to say gun-grabbing, tax-increasing Bolshevik."

Mark Salter, a senior adviser for McCain, issued a statement that said, "John McCain hasn't spent five seconds in his entire life thinking about Grover Norquist. He's not going to start now."

NAS publishes the "Milk Bomb Secret"

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the government's suppression of a scientific paper warning of threats to the nation's milk supply, and how a terrorist could get toxins into the milk we drink.

The government called the paper "a roadmap for terrorists" and persuaded the National Academies of Science to withhold publication, scheduled for May 30.

After further review, NAS published the paper on Tuesday. Dr. Bruce Alberts, the academy's president, said that the academy decided on publication only after meeting with Health and Human Services officials and considering the potential danger. He wrote an online editorial posted with the paper.

"All of the critical information in this article that could be useful to a terrorist," Dr. Alberts wrote, is "immediately accessible on the World Wide Web through a simple Google search," today's New York Times reports.

I wrote earlier of parallels with the 1979 case against The Progressive, when the government stopped publication of an article, "The H-Bomb Secret." Then, as now, the article eventually was published, in large part because all of the information it contained already was public.

Terrorists who want to know how to poison the milk supply can go here to read the paper.

Previous post,"Threats to America's Dairyland: Toxins in the Milk, The H-Bomb Secret."

Bush speech drinking game

This from William Rivers Pitt at Truthout:

"Tonight should be interesting. If I were still in college, I'd propose creating a drinking game based on this speech. Drink a beer after every lie. Drink a beer every time Bush says "freedom," or talks about September 11 as if those attacks had anything to do with Iraq. Drink two beers after every wildly unrealistic assessment that has no basis in fact. Drink a beer and a shot every time he says "Nukular." Two beers, a shot and a kick to the head every time he thanks the troops around him for the sacrifices "we" know must be made. Anyone still standing after ten minutes wins a Kewpie doll."

Walker: 'County exec duties' call

This sounds like a parody, but it is the real thing. Scott Walker, on his campaign blog, pretending that a taxpayer-financed trip on a Harley, to every media market in the state, is something he's required to do as part of his county exec job. So he'll "have to be off the campaign trail for a few days."

How dumb does he think people are? Here's my earlier take on "Scott Walker's Free Ride."

---

Walker for Governor Blog
June 25, 2005
County Exec Duties

From Saturday, June 25 through Thursday, June 30, I will be riding around the state on the trusty Harley-Davidson Road King. It is our part of our 2005 Executive's Ride to promote tourism attractions in our county - everything from the parks, to the zoo, to the lakefront, to the state fair to Miller Park to Miller Brewing Co. About 50 bikers are going with on the entire trip and many more are meeting us in each city.

Since the ride is an official function, I will not be spending time on the campaign trail this week. Look for word from the blog next week and from updates from our blog staff while I am out on the road.

In addition to raising awareness our tourist attractions, this year we are also raising support for the families of our men and women in uniform. Details on the ride can be found here.


- Scott

UW: Last Kiss on campus

When i first saw that headline on the news release online, I thought the anti-sex caucus in the legislature, not content with banning birth control, had introduced a new bill to get at the root cause of pregnancy: Kissing.

Turns out, thankfully, it was something else:

This week, Lakeshore Entertainment, the production company that made the Oscar-winning film "Million Dollar Baby," will shoot several scenes on campus and downtown for its new movie "The Last Kiss."

David Clarke: Shut up or lose your stripes

Just in case you thought Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke didn't have a sense of humor:

The deputies union doesn't like the way Clarke has been making promotions, giving people temporary promotions that he can then take away if they don't toe the line and march in lockstep with him.

One of the deputies who had been temporarily promoted to sergeant testified before the Milwaukee County Civil Service Commission against a new promotion system Clarke wanted to put into place.

What happened next? You probably guessed this. The day after his testimony, the sergeant was given a choice by Clarke -- take a demotion or resign. Pretty funny, huh?

At least, those are the claims in a lawsuit filed against Clarke by the union, as reported in the Journal Sentinel.

Incredibly, Clarke's response was to attack deputies and blame them for the mistaken release of a convicted murderer last week. "It would be more helpful if the Deputy Sheriffs' Association board would . . . work with me on matters of mutual concern, such as making sure prisoners aren't improperly released," he said.

Nice try, sheriff, but the buck stops at your office. The prisoner was released on your watch. How about taking some responsibility and showing some leadership, instead of engaging in the finger-pointing for which your friend Scott Walker is famous?

Poll: It was a mistake, but made us feel more secure, so let's stay in Iraq for the long haul

As President Bush prepares to address his fellow Americans, here's what a Washington Post/ABC News poll finds his fellow Americans are thinking:

*** Going to war in Iraq was a mistake (51-48%)

*** The war has contibuted to the long-term safety of the US (52-46%)

*** The US will need to keep troops in Iraq for at least a few years longer (62%, including 23% who think it will be five years or longer.

*** The number of US troops should stay the same (44%) or increase (16%).

Here's the whole thing. Read it and weep.

Wisconsin's image and economy at risk, pioneer stem cell researcher warns

Jamie Thomson offers direct, candid view of anti-research efforts

Wisconsin is in danger of being known as the home of some well-meaning but backward yokels who are anti-science, if the state persists in taking action to prevent or stifle embryonic stem cell research.

The results? "(O)ur state's economy will be left behind ...Restrictive legislation in the area of stem cell research will create a perception that this state is generally hostile to science. Technology companies will locate in other states, and top faculty candidates will go to other universities."

Who says so?

James (Jamie) Thomson, the UW-Madison biologist who was the first scientist to isolate and culture human embryonic stem cells. Thomson's breakthrough put Wisconsin on the cutting edge of stem cell research. But it also set off some controversy and repeated attempts by conservatives to pass legislation to stop it.

"The current attempts at legislation here are known nationally, and the response in the scientific community outside this state ranges from bewilderment to contempt," Thomson said in a letter to legislators.

In a remarkable, candid exchange with the sponsor of a bill to restrict the research, Thomson said:

"I was born and grew up in the Midwest, but subsequently studied both on the east and west coasts. I therefore know first hand that there is a strong impression on both coasts that the middle of the country is an intellectual void.

"If a T.V. sitcom takes place in either L.A. or New York, and the writers want to introduce a character that is a well-meaning yokel, they often put a T-shirt on him with "Wisconsin" printed on the front to establish his character.

"It has been a great source of pride to me that the publicity surrounding human embryonic stem cells and its universal association with Wisconsin has helped to remove that T-shirt.

"Please be absolutely clear: any legislation that impacts basic science that is more restrictive than current federal legislation will only help put that T-shirt back on."

And you thought researchers were ivory-tower eggheads who can only write scientific papers?

Thomson's letter was prompted by an e-mail to legislators from State Rep. Steve Kestell, sponsor of a bill to ban cloning, including therapeutic cloning for stem cell research, which has passed the Assembly and is in the State Senate this week.

Kestell urged lawmakers to read an online interview with Thomson at MSNBC. His message:

---

From: Rep.Kestell
Sent: Friday, June 24, 2005 3:14 PM
To: *Legislative Everyone
Subject: James Thomson Cloning Interview
Importance: High

Dear Members of the Legislature,

I have attached a link to an interview that Dr. Thomson gave to MSNBC this week. It is fascinating reading and clearly shows that Dr. Thomson is an honorable man who has given great thought to the ethical questions surrounding his work.

I encourage everyone to read the entire article and pay extra attention to his remarks about Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (cloning). Dr. Thomson understands the implications and also expresses a concern that has been recently denied by representatives of our own University, that once a cloned embryo is created for research purposes, it is virtually indistinguishable from any other embryo and could be implanted.

Dr. Thomson goes on to talk about the overdone hype used by proponents (and opponents) of research and encourages honest discussion rather than deception.

In this interview, Dr. Thomson talks about separating the debate over cloning and other forms of stem cell research - This is exactly what AB 499 allows us to do.

Rep. Steve Kestell

---

Thompson said he meant nothing of the sort:

"In my recent MSNBC interview I tried to give an honest assessment of the state of stem cell research. It troubles me that my words could be used to support a ban on a particular area of research that many scientists find promising. I merely attempted to point out that in going forward, separating the issue of using existing frozen embryos that would otherwise be discarded, from the issue of nuclear transfer or so-called therapeutic cloning makes public policy sense, as there is a remarkable degree of public consensus on the first issue, and considerable public disagreement on the second issue. However, banning an area of research is another matter entirely.

Thompson closes with this personal observation:

"On a personal note, I am saddened and disappointed by my state legislature. A few years ago, California surpassed Wisconsin in dairy production. Now, although stem cell research is most strongly associated with Wisconsin, my own state legislature seems determined to make sure that stem cell research follows a similar trajectory. I just returned from a national stem cell meeting in San Francisco with over 2200 stem cell researchers, and it is no accident that the organizers chose California over Wisconsin as their meeting site.

" Although I know stem cell research remains controversial in our state, I do still hope that our state legislature can find a way to help the research go forward and ultimately benefit the people of Wisconsin. Creating legislation that is more restrictive than federal regulations is not the way to do it."

That's the warning from a leader in the field. Is anyone listening?

UPDATE: Kestell backs off a little. In response to Thomson's letter, Kestell sent a letter to lawmakers making it clear he was not suggesting that Thomson supported Kestell's anti-cloning bill, although his language could have left leggies with that impression. He also took a shot at Thomson and UW for what he calls "faulty and misleading testimony and heavy-handed lobbying."

Kestell may be enjoying the publicity, but, as Brian Clark correctly notes in a story on WisBusiness.com, Thomson -- Time magazine cover and MSNBC interview notwithstanding -- is usually a private person. It is highly unusual for him to take on this public debate, which is an indicator of how strongly he feels that Wisconsin is making a huge mistake.

Quote, unquote

"They've got a brand new facility down at Guantanamo. We spent a lot of money to build it. They're very well treated down there. They're living in the tropics. They're well fed. They've got everything they could possibly want." -- Vice President Dick Cheney.

Primary, Green challenges for Doyle?

John Nichols at the Capital Times can hardly contain his glee that the left wing -- in Democratic Party, Green Party, independent or all the above -- may challenge Gov. Jim Doyle next year.

Nichols thinks (hopes, actually) that Doyle may get both a Dem primary challenge and a Green opponent in November.

He dismisses Black's musing about a run as "little more than a summer flight of fancy," since Black is a Democrat who may want to continue his political career and eventually run for the State Senate.

But the Greens "already have a solid statewide network of activists, a track record of running credible fall campaigns and a disdain for Doyle's compromises that guarantees they'll place a gubernatorial candidate on the 2006 ballot," he says.

"When all is said and done, it is extremely likely that Doyle will face a Democratic primary challenger in September 2006. And that opponent, even if he or she is unable to match the governor's campaign fund, will win a solid vote from Democrats who - while they might ultimately vote for Doyle in a November contest against a conservative Republican - will want to register their disappointment with a Democrat who too frequently has governed like a cautious and conservative Republican," Nichols says.

Well and good, it's a free country, anyone can run, bring it on, etc. etc.

But Nichols fails to address one nagging question that should bother Democrats, liberals, and even far-lefties: Will those challenges, while allowing the self-proclaimed keepers of the "progressive" flame to feel good, perhaps siphon enough votes from Doyle to elect a Republican.

If Nichols thinks Doyle has "governed like a conservative Republican," wait until he sees a real one in the governor's office. Let's hope that is not 2007. Nichols column.

Earlier Xoff take on the subject

Sensenbrenner spars with constituents at town meeting in Pewaukee; with audio

Rep. F. Jim Sensenbrenner, who's been all over the national news in recent weeks, both for his extreme views and for his extremely offensive behavior, brought his act home to Pewaukee Sunday night.

Sensenbrenner's town hall meeting drew some constituents with questions, and at least one blogger, but apparently no one from the news media. (If any of this has been reported, I haven't seen it.)

Here's the report, via DailyKos.com The audio clips are of poor quality, although #2 is better.

Sensenbrenner Yells At Constituents (With Audio!)

by ColdFusion04 [Subscribe]
Sun Jun 26th, 2005 at 22:17:44 PDT

Tonight I hauled all the way over the remote outskirts of Congressman Sensenbrenner's district (Pewaukee, WI) for a Q & A session. It took me 50 minutes to get there through a construction zone on a Sunday night (Which I'm sure was perfectly intentional on his part). And, not surprisingly, there were only 15 people there due to the time and location.

But it was all worth it, because I got to yell, "POINT OF ORDER!" during a lively debate on Gavel-Gate. (Audio below)

Sensenbrenner was unapologetic for his premature gaveling of the June 13th Patriot Act hearing. In fact, he was snippety for almost the entire evening.

Rest of story and audio

Scott Walker's ethics problem

Today's Capital Times editorial has this to say about Scott Walker's treatment of the State Elections Board:

His approach to the investigation of this complaint, which could bring a felony charge, ought to raise serious concerns regarding the man who wants to be governor of Wisconsin. Walker's actions suggest he does not respect the agency that is charged with keeping politics clean and above-board in Wisconsin. Any politician who plays such games, and who displays such disrespect, has an ethics problem that Wisconsinites should take seriously.

Rumsfeld says: You want a timeline? How about this: 5, 6, 8, 10, 12 years

Rumsfeld said Sunday the insurgency "could go on for any number of years."

"Insurgencies tend to go on five, six, eight, 10, 12 years," Rumsfeld said. "Coalition forces, foreign forces are not going to repress that insurgency. We're going to create an environment that the Iraqi people and the Iraqi security forces can win against that insurgency." Detroit Free Press story.

Rumsfeld on Feb. 7. 2003, to U.S. troops in Aviano, Italy: "It is unknowable how long that conflict will last. It could last six days, six weeks. I doubt six months." More optimistic quotes,

Public doesn't buy Cheney, Condi spin on Iraq

Perhaps President Bush needs to find something new and different to say in his speech to the nation Tuesday night on Iraq. The old stuff isn't working:

"A new ABC News/Washington Post poll out this morning finds that many Americans differ with accounts of the Iraq war offered by two top Administration officials, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

"According to ABC News' Jon Cohen, "public views are largely at odds with Cheney's assessment of the strength of the insurgency in Iraq: While Cheney said in an interview in late May that it's 'in its last throes,' only a quarter of Americans agree. And while Rice said success in Iraq 'will be a death knell for terrorism as we know it,' again only about a quarter of the public believes that defeating the insurgents in Iraq would do a great deal to defeat terrorism more generally, beyond Iraq's borders.'"

"These views from a new ABC News/Washington Post poll come amid some broadly negative public views of the war in Iraq. In an ABC/Post poll in early June, 58 percent said they disapproved of the way George W. Bush was handling the situation in Iraq and more than six in 10 felt the U.S. is bogged down there. President Bush plans to address the nation on the war on terrorism and the situation in Iraq tomorrow, the one year anniversary of the handover of power to an interim Iraqi government." -- From The Note, ABC News

Supporting the troops,shortchanging veterans

Funds for Health Care of Veterans $1 Billion Short
2005 Deficit Angers Senate Republicans, Advocacy Groups

By Thomas B. Edsall
Washington Post Staff Writer

The Bush administration, already accused by veterans groups of seeking inadequate funds for health care next year, acknowledged yesterday that it is short $1 billion for covering current needs at the Department of Veterans Affairs this year.

The disclosure of the shortfall angered Senate Republicans who have been voting down Democratic proposals to boost VA programs at significant political cost. Their votes have brought the wrath of the American Legion, the Paralyzed Veterans of America and other organizations down on the GOP. Story

Big Brother wants you to be all that you can be

The Defense Department has hired a private marketing firm to create a database of college students and all high school students ages 16 to 18, to help the military identify potential recruits in a time of dwindling enlistment in some branches, the Washington Post reports.

"The program is provoking a furor among privacy advocates,"" Jonathan Krim reports. "The new database will include personal information including birth dates, Social Security numbers, e-mail addresses, grade-point averages, ethnicity and what subjects the students are studying."

Why stop there? With the Patriot Act, the government can also find out what books students are reading and make them part of the data base. Someone reading "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" might be interested in flight school, while a student reading "The Monkey Wrench Gang" should probably be detained and tortured, or at least re-educated about environmental issues like global warming.

And wouldn't this data base come in handy if and when the draft is reinstituted? AP poll: 70% oppose draft.

On another note, it shouldn't be too long before the data is compromised and their identities are stolen and sold. Want to be 18 again? Here's your chance. Post story.

UPDATE: Sen. Russ Feingold and others ask Defense Secretary Rumsfeld to knock it off and quit collecting the info on young people. Release

Cloning: Letting the pro-disease, pro-suffering caucus frame the issue

The pro-disease, pro-suffering, pro-early death, anti-science caucus in the Wisconsin legislature is winning another fight.

Their latest effort: A bill to ban "cloning," which passed the Assembly last week.

Those pushing the bill are the same coalition of narrow-minded zealots who would deny women access to birth control, let alone abortion.

They call themselves "pro-life" and argue that life begins somewhere around the time a couple goes on its first date, or, as Margaret Wertheim wrote in the LA Weekly, "Life begins at 'Want a Cigarette?'"

So, naturally, they oppose embryonic stem cell research.

No matter that such research has the potential, most agree, to find cures for an array of diseases, including Parkinson's, juvenile diabetes, Alzheimer's and more, as well as treatment for people with spinal cord injuries.

Embryonic stem cell research, in the long run, could enhance, improve, prolong and save the lives of people who are now long-suffering. It is not a magical cure-all, but the underlying basic research could have widespread ripple effects we can't even imagine at this point.

But the zealots press on and, as is the case with abortion, have far more influence in the Wisconsin legislature than they should. Two-thirds of the people in Wisconsin support embryonic stem cell research, according to a number of polls. But human cloning is another matter, and the opponents have been able to frame it as a debate on cloning when it is really about stem cell research.

Lawmakers continue to dance to the tune of Pro-Life Wisconsin and Wisconsin Right to Life. But why let them frame the debate? Let's call them what they are: Pro-Disease Wisconsin and Wisconsin Right to Suffer.

Their latest effort is passing a state law to ban cloning -- not just cloning of human beings, but therapeutic cloning, which create more cells for research, not more people.

Supporters of the bill argued that if we allow therapeutic cloning, it will open the door to cloning people, and the next thing you know, we'll have a whole posse of John Gards running around. (Actually, Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton suggested Spencer Black clones, never thinking that then he could run for gov and lt. gov at the same time. See JS blog. )

Matt Sande, legislative director of Pro-Life Wisconsin, said any difference between reproductive and therapeutic cloning is "illusory. The only difference," he said, "lies in the intended use of the embryo."

"There are a lot of people out there who would love to clone babies," State Rep. Steve Kestell, the Republican who sponsored the bill, says. Wis. State Journal story.

That may be true. However, it's already illegal to do that. Alta Charo, professor of law and bioethics at UW-Madison, said the Food and Drug Administration already has acted to restrict reproductive cloning. UW-Madison is implementing a set of ethical guidelines developed by the National Academy of Sciences to regulate the use of cloning in research.

Instead of banning all cloning, Charo said, legislation should focus on reproductive cloning.

"To ask for more," Charo said, "is to halt basic research, is to sacrifice the diabetic children, the paralyzed veterans, the surgically maimed breast cancer victims, the skin- scorched firefighters and the declining elderly of the present for a future that is neither certain nor imminent."

This is not a partisan issue, although most of the opponents of the research are Republicans. Fifty GOP members of the U.S. House defied the President recently to vote for expanded federal funding for stem cell research, for example.

State Rep. Gregg Underheim, a free-thinking Republican, gave the Assembly a chance to make human reproductive cloning illegal, if that's what's really worrying them. He offered an amendment to do that -- to ban cloning people but allow stem cell research using therapeutic cloning to continue. That reasonable amendment failed, to no one's surprise.

As they have in the past, Wis. Manufacturers and Commerce President Jim Haney, Mark Bugher of University Research Park and Tom Still of the Wisconsin Technology Council joined to urge the Legislature not to ban therapeutic cloning. It's noteworthy are that all three are Republicans.

"While we oppose on moral and ethical grounds human embryonic cloning for purposes of reproduction, carefully regulated therapeutic cloning for the purposes of medical research and the development on new diagnostic and therapeutic treatments and drugs is worthwhile and ethically defensible," the three wrote in a memo. "Any effort to ban therapeutic cloning would chill stem cell research in Wisconsin, which pioneered this science, and send the disturbing message that Wisconsin does not welcome responsible, ethical research conducted by our top scientists."

The bill is in the State Senate this week, where the outcome is less certain.

If it does survive the Senate, Gov. Jim Doyle, who is anti-disease, anti-suffering, and anti-early death, says he will veto the bill.

Sunday's editorial in the Journal Sentinel put the issue in understandable terms. In case I haven't, you might want to go there.

JAMIE THOMSON INTERVIEW. MSNBC offers a long Q-A with Jamie Thomson, the UW-Madison researcher who is on the cutting edge of stem cell research. State Rep. Steve Kestell, sponsor of the anti-cloning bill, and WTMJ talker Charlie Sykes, who opposes cloning, want you to read it. So do I. There are quotes that -- lifted out of the interview to stand alone -- can be used to bolster arguments on both sides. But there is also some good general information, including graphics on the first page that show, step by step, how stem cells are harvested. Link.

Adding insult to injury: Jeb Bushkeeps playing politics in Schiavo case

Cartoon by Ann Telnius via cagle.com

I said after the autopsy report that we should let Terri Schaivo rest in peace. But Jeb Bush has changed the rules. Here are two reactions:

Leonard Pitts: Jeb Bush's shameful vendetta

By Leonard Pitts Jr.

WASHINGTON - Malcolm X used to speak of the need to get freedom "by any means necessary." Apparently, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush feels the same about the need to get Michael Schiavo.

Mr. Bush directed the state's attorney to open an investigation into whether Mr. Schiavo delayed in calling paramedics when he found his wife, Terri, passed out in their bathroom before sunrise on Feb. 25, 1990. The pretext for this is that over the years, Mr. Schiavo has given conflicting estimates of the time he found his wife. He's said 4:30 a.m., he's said 5 a.m.

So let's see. It's the sleepy hours before dawn. You find your wife passed out. And you check the clock?

No. You panic, you try to revive her, you call 911. That Mr. Schiavo did so in a timely manner has never been at issue before and, in any event, seems established to a medical certainty.

When paramedics arrived at the Schiavo home at 5:52 that morning, they found Mrs. Schiavo in a state of ventricular fibrillation - an irregular heartbeat. You can't live in a state of "v-fib" longer than 15 or 20 minutes.

Nor can it be coincidental that Mr. Bush acted the day after an autopsy report knocked down many of the theories most cherished by those who questioned Mr. Schiavo's stewardship of his wife's medical care.

Had she been abused? No.

Did she react when she "saw" her parents? No. She was blind.

Was there hope of recovery? Dr. Jon Thogmartin, the medical examiner who led the autopsy team, was unequivocal. "No amount of therapy or treatment would have regenerated the massive loss of neurons," he said.

But Mr. Bush would have us believe Mr. Schiavo, for some Machiavellian motive yet to be revealed, stood over his stricken wife for an hour before calling help.

What is it with Mr. Bush? Doesn't he have a government to run? Ribbons to cut, backs to slap? Does he need a hobby? Maybe a night job?

You'd think presiding over a state of 17 million citizens would be more than enough to keep a fellow out of the pool halls. But apparently, Mr. Bush has time on his hands.

I can understand the pain of Terri Schiavo's parents and siblings, their inability to believe their daughter irretrievably gone, even their hostility toward the husband who made a decision they would not - likely, could not - make. But Mr. Bush's behavior has been simply inexcusable.

Not that he hasn't had accomplices. He's had plenty. From the Florida Legislature to Congress to the White House, arrogant and opportunistic lawmakers missed not a trick in the effort to substitute their judgment for that of Mrs. Schiavo's doctors and husband. Never mind that they undermined the U.S. Constitution, the judiciary and the whole concept of spousal rights in the process.

Pity Michael Schiavo. He's had his motives and character questioned at every step along the way, had to put up with calumnies flung by religious zealots and wild-eyed conspiracy theorists unable to believe that all he wanted to do was keep a promise to his wife.

But in some ways, the transparent emptiness, the self-evident pettiness, the very personal nature of this latest assault, especially coming when it does and from such a lofty office, makes it the lowest blow of all. It's a punch in the groin after the bell has rung.

Is Florida really such a paradise that the governor has time to indulge a vendetta against a single citizen? Did they clean up the Everglades without telling me? Fix the schools without issuing a memo?

Mr. Bush, if he has a shred of decency, should be ashamed of himself. He should apologize to Mr. Schiavo. And he should leave the poor man alone.

Pitts is a Miami Herald columnist. This column was published in Sunday's Baltimore Sun.

---

An editorial from the Register-Guard, Eugene, Oregon:

Never mind what he says. Florida Gov. Jeb Bush apparently believes, contrary to every shred of physical evidence, that Michael Schiavo is guilty of first-degree murder in the death of his wife, Terri.

Not wanting to fall into the trap of long-distance diagnosis based only on watching a video of Governor Bush's news conference, we won't suggest that he's taken leave of his senses. But he has clearly succumbed to the Dark Side of the Political Force, and the result is hideous to behold.
Moments after the Pinellas County medical examiner finished delivering an exhaustive autopsy report last week definitively concluding that Terri Schiavo suffered severe brain damage with no evidence of other injuries, Bush called for a new investigation of her death. The governor understands full well that his every utterance in the Schiavo case gives him priceless national exposure. He now wants a prosecutor to look into the 15-year-old circumstances surrounding Schiavo's initial collapse.

Inspector Bush wants to know why Terri's husband, Michael, seems fuzzy about when he called 911 upon discovering his unconscious wife on the floor outside their bedroom Feb. 25, 1990. Michael Schiavo insists he summoned paramedics immediately, at about 4:30 or 5 a.m. Records indicate the 911 call was placed at about 5:40 a.m.

This discrepancy might be worth revisiting if Bush had a scintilla of new information to suggest that previous analyses of the timeline were inadequate. But he doesn't have diddly.

Michael Schiavo has never claimed to be certain of the exact time he called 911. He wasn't wearing a watch. He was understandably frazzled and under enormous stress.

More important, if Michael Schiavo really had waited between 40 and 70 minutes before seeking help, medical experts have consistently testified that there is little chance Terri would have survived. Last week's autopsy results only strengthen that assessment.

Finally, and Governor Bush knows this better than most, these circumstances have been examined repeatedly during extensive litigation, including a medical malpractice suit. No evidence has ever surfaced suggesting that Michael Schiavo delayed seeking medical help for his wife.

In fact, the actual evidence in this case has exonerated Michael Schiavo of the vicious accusations leveled by Terri's parents and Bush's supporters. Those baseless allegations include charges that Michael strangled, beat or otherwise abused Terri. If anyone is guilty of abuse in this case, it's Governor Bush, whose relentless persecution of Michael Schiavo has been nothing short of indecent.

The only potential crime under Florida law for which the statute of limitations hasn't already expired in the Schiavo case is intentional homicide - first-degree murder. But Bush disingenuously says he isn't accusing Michael Schiavo of any wrongdoing, just seeking answers to lingering questions.

Yeah, right. Here's another lingering question: Will this shameful political grandstanding hurt Jeb Bush's aspirations to higher office? If life were fair, it should.

Via MyDD.com

GOP Sen. Hagel: We're losing in Iraq; Legion members give him a standing O

The Omaha World-Herald reports:

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. - More than 200 Nebraska American Legion members, who have seen war and conflict themselves, fell quiet here Saturday as Sen. Chuck Hagel bluntly explained why he believes that the United States is losing the war in Iraq.

It took 20 minutes, but it boiled down to this:

The Bush team sent in too few troops to fight the war leading to today's chaos and rising deaths of Americans and Iraqis. Terrorists are "pouring in" to Iraq.

Basic living standards are worse than a year ago in Iraq. Civil war is perilously close to erupting there. Allies aren't helping much. The American public is losing its trust in President Bush's handling of the conflict.

And Hagel's deep fear is that it will all plunge into another Vietnam debacle, prompting Congress to force another abrupt pullout as it did in 1975.

"What we don't want to happen is for this to end up another Vietnam," Hagel told the legionnaires, "because the consequences would be catastrophic."

It would be far worse than Vietnam, says Hagel, a twice-wounded veteran of that conflict, which killed 58,000 Americans. . .

. . ."The point is, we're going to have to make some changes or we will lose, we will lose in Iraq," he told the legionnaires.

At the same time, he said, he wants President Bush to win, and he believes that the United States cannot pull out anytime soon.

The legionnaires gave him a standing ovation at the end of his speech. Carl Marks of Omaha, a Korean War veteran, said: "It sounds like he's conflicted . . . like a lot of us."

Quote, unquote

If the flag needs protection at all, it needs protection from members of Congress who value the symbol more than the freedoms that the flag represents."

--Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., whose district includes the site of the former World Trade Center, after a Republican said the World Trade Center victims wanted a "yes" vote on a flag-burning amendment.

Falk Talk: Watching the little things

Dane County Exec Kathleen Falk celebrates her 54th birthday today -- how else but with a fundraiser?

The e-mail invitation is noteworthy in that it takes an extra precaution against getting into legal trouble with elections officials.

Anyone who's ever been in a campaign that caught heat for inadvertently mailing, phoning or e-mailing a government office will understand and appreciate this disclaimer:

Please Note: This list has been designed not to include government e-mail addresses. If you receive this at a government office we apologize. Please inform us right away so we can remove that address and, if you wish, please provide a nongovernmental e-mail address to which we can send FalkTalk. Thanks again.

For years, candidates mailing invitations to lobbyists during the period when lobbyists can't legally donate have included a note to say something like, "We thought some of your clients might be interested in this; if so, please share this information with them."

The difference, of course, is that candidates are mailing the lobbyist list on purpose.

Born on the 4th of July: The long journey home

Ron Kovic is a Marine veteran of Vietnam who has been paralyzed from the chest down since 1968, when he was wounded in combat.

His book, Born on the 4th of July, and movie of the same name brought the war and its aftermath home to millions of Americans.

In an introduction to a new edition of his book, Kovic relates his experience to what is happening today, in Iraq and in U.S. veterans hospitals:

"I have watched in horror the mirror image of another Vietnam unfolding. So many similarities, so many things said that remind me of that war thirty years ago which left me paralyzed for the rest of my life. Refusing to learn from our experiences in Vietnam, our government continues to pursue a policy of deception, distortion, manipulation, and denial, doing everything it can to hide from the American people their true intentions and agenda in Iraq. The flag-draped caskets of our dead begin their long and sorrowful journeys home hidden from public view, while the Iraqi casualties are not even considered worth counting--some estimate as many as 100,000 have been killed so far.

"The paraplegics, amputees, burn victims, the blinded and maimed, shocked and stunned, brain damaged and psychologically stressed, now fill our veterans hospitals. Most of them were not even born when I came home wounded to the Bronx V.A. in 1968. The same lifesaving medical-evacuation procedures that kept me alive in Vietnam are bringing home a whole new generation of severely maimed from Iraq.

"Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which afflicted so many of us after Vietnam, is just now beginning to appear among soldiers recently returned from the current war. For some, the agony and suffering, the sleepless nights, anxiety attacks, and awful bouts of insomnia, loneliness, alienation, anger, and rage, will last for decades, if not their whole lives. They will be trapped in a permanent nightmare of that war, of killing another man, a child, watching a friend die ... fighting against an enemy that can never be seen, while at any moment someone--a child, a woman, an old man, anyone--might kill you. These traumas return home with us and we carry them, sometimes hidden, for agonizing decades. They deeply impact our daily lives, and the lives of those closest to us."

Read it all at AlterNet.org

Three things about Iraq

Yes, it's part of that great liberal media conspiracy, but the New York Times nails it in an editorial today, "Three things about Iraq."

1. The war has nothing to do with Sept. 11.

2. The war has not made the world, or this nation, safer from terrorism.

3. If the war is going according to plan, someone needs to rethink the plan.

The entire editorial.

Can you say lawsuit?

"We want [Gov. Jim] Doyle to instruct them to fire Barrows.-- Assembly Colleges Committee Chair Robin Kreibich, on the saga of Paul Barrows, a UW-Madison administrator who received salary while on a seven-month leave of absence, then returned Monday to a $150,000 a year job before being demoted to a $72,881 salary and being placed on paid leave on Thursday. He'll be on leave while the university investigates conduct that could lead to his firing.

"I understand, but respectfully disagree with, those who are calling for the immediate termination of Dr. Barrows without due process. ... the university must follow very specific rules regarding the protection of an employee's rights."--UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley. See Wiley's statement from Thursday: http://www.news.wisc.edu/11305.html

Wiley is saying what should be obvious even to the most hard-headed legislators. Fire Barrows now, without due process, and the UW is inviting the mother of all lawsuits. Far better to have the trial before the hanging.

Keeping gays in their place

From T-shirt Humor.com


OK, now that we've got your attention, there is a very informative piece from Stateline.org, the news service sponsored by the Pew Foundation, on the Alliance Defense Fund -- the evangelical law firm retained by Assembly Republicans to make sure no gay state employees get health benefits. It's worth a read just on the theory that you should know your enemy.

"The Alliance Defense Fund has been very effective at finding local conflicts that symbolize a bigger fight and using those local conflicts as an opportunity to make a larger statement," said Charles C. Haynes, a senior scholar for the First Amendment Center. They have become the "go-to organization" for religious conservative activists, Haynes said.

Some of us have suggested that the firm may be a little far out there, given that Alan Sears, the group's leader, has suggested that cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants may be gay. Earlier post Hence the illustration above.

Time capsule: "Aid and comfort to the enemy"

From Eric Alterman's "When Presidents Lie"... . In the chapter on LBJ and the Gulf of Tonkin, and how Sen. J. William Fulbright was treated when he started going after President Lyndon Johnson for the lies he told which led to escalation in Vietnam:

"In April [Fulbright] went before the Newspaper Publishers Association and announced his fear of America's "arrogance of power," comparing the nation's "overextension of power and mission to [that] which brought ruin to ancient Greece, Napoleonic France, and to Nazi Germany."

(This prompted Senator Goldwater to call for the Arkansan's resignation, over his deliberately having given "aid and comfort to the enemy.")

Which brings us to ...

Karl Rove, 2005, speaking about Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, for using a Nazi comparison in describing abuse of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay:

"Has there ever been a more revealing moment this year? Let me just put this in fairly simple terms: Al Jazeera now broadcasts the words of Senator Durbin to the Mideast, certainly putting our troops in greater danger. No more needs to be said about the motives of liberals."

David Corn on Rove: "Not just a hypocrite, but a thug."

SIGN A PETITION ASKING THE PRESIDENT TO FIRE ROVE.

And, finally, a column by Mark Leibovich in the Washington Post, "The Comparison That Ends the Conversation,"listing some of the other times the Nazi comparison has been used in the Senate.

Sensenbrenner town hall; y'all come

Big Jim Sensenbrenner (Big F. Jim doesn't have the right ring), champion of the Patriot Act, the flag-burning amendment, cracking down on the judiciary, and most other schemes to limit our civil liberties, will be in Wisconsin for a town meeting Sunday night.

Here's your chance to sound off:

The Town Hall is open to the public, but it is especially important for people in the 5th Congressional District to attend and tell their Big Jim their opinions on the PATRIOT Act.

It's at 7 p.m. at Pewaukee City Hall, W240 N3065 Pewaukee Road, Pewaukee, WI 53072.

Of course, if he doesn't like what you have to say, he's been known to just end a meeting, pick up his gavel and go home, as he did in Congress on June 10.

Vote Mofo

Mofo merchandise

Texas Gov. Rick Perry's "Adios, mofo" comment into an open microphone has spawned a whole line of products using variatons on the theme. This is part of the get-out-the-vote effort.

Sorting out the governor's race: Spencer Black vs. Mike Ellis?

State Rep. Spencer Black, the Madison Democrat who says he's being encouraged to run for governor as an independent, sounds like someone who is a long ways from doing that.

The Capital Times reported Thursday that some unidentified liberals, unhappy with Gov. Jim Doyle, had asked Black to run, and he was considering it. I predicted that Black was smarter than that -- and too good a Democrat -- and would not want to help elect a Republican governor by taking votes from Doyle.

Friday's Wisconsin State Journal reports:

"Black acknowledged any move against his fellow Madison Democrat could hand Republicans a political wedge they could use to regain the governor's office in 2006, a critical factor he said he needs to consider.

"I need to ask, 'What is the best way to advance the causes and issues I'm concerned about?' " Black said. "I'm not at all convinced that running for governor is the best way to do that."

Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton, whose core constituency is many of the same liberals who think Doyle is too moderate, also spoke up.

Lawton said Democrats' top priority should be to take back some legislative seats. Republicans control the Senate 19-14 and the Assembly 60-33.

"Both (Black) and we would be in a far better position to govern well if we had a whole group of legislators like him," said Lawton, who praised Black for advocating for stronger environmental protection, collective bargaining rights and women's reproductive rights.

Meanwhile, some moderate Republicans (Didn't think there were any, did you?) are telling State Sen. Mike Ellis of Neenah that he should run for governor. Bob Williams and Bill Kraus, who engineered the stunning Lee Dreyfus upset in 1978, think Ellis is the kind of candidate who could do it. Even Ed Garvey and Mike McCabe, who don't like anybody very much, said good things about Ellis. Isthmus Editor Marc Eisen promotes the idea in a column.

YESTERDAY'S XOFF POST: "Dissident lefties look for spoiler to run against Doyle as independent."

UPDATE: Conservative blogger Dennis York is having none of this Ellis for governor talk. Read his post, "Mr.Irrelevant: Mike Ellis Battles Oblivion."

Free plugs

Three items of note for Milwaukeeans in the next few days:

MEET THE GOVERNOR. Gov. Jim Doyle holds a town hall meeting to discuss the state budget on Friday, June 24, from 1:45 to 3 p.m. at West Milwaukee Middle School gymnasium, 5104 W. Greenfield Ave. To reserve a seat or learn more, contact the governor's Milwaukee Office: e-mail milwaukee@wisconsin.gov or call (414) 227-1883.

MEET THE POLICE CHIEF. Milwaukee Police Chief Nannette Hegerty is the featured guest at a special WisPolitics.com luncheon in Milwaukee on Monday, June 27, at 11:45 a.m., at the University Club, 924 E Wells St. Cost is $19. RSVP to Jim Greer: greer@wispolitics.com or 608-850-6884.

VOTE FOR THE XOFF FILES. This blog has been nominated (God knows by whom) for Milwaukee blog of the week on MKEOnline. If elected, I will not serve, but in case you'd like to vote, here's the link.

Jensen didn't invent system, but took it to new heights

Charlie Sykes has big news. Scott Jensen was not the first Assembly speaker to do political work or use his caucus staff to help in campaigns. Tom Loftus, a Democrat, did it too, Sykes reports in excruciating detail on his blog, Sykes Writes.

He accuses me of having a selective memory, of pretending Tom Loftus or Wally Kunicki or Shirley Krug or others in the Democratic leadership never did political work or used their staffs for campaign help.

I don't dispute that. It was an open secret for years, to anyone working in or covering the Capitol for the news media, that the caucuses did political work, especially at campaign time.

So, Charlie asks, what is the big deal now all of a sudden?

The caucus scandal became a scandal because the leadership in both houses took it to the extreme.

There is a difference between shaking down lobbyists, as some legislators are accused of, and helping some candidate in the hinterlands run for office.

And there is a huge difference between a legislator raising money, or a caucus staffer helping plan a fundraiser or prepare a list for the legislator to call, and putting someone on the state payroll to the tune of $65,000 a year to do nothing but raise political money full-time. That's what Scott Jensen, Steve Foti, and Sherry Schultz are accused of. They don't even deny it; they just say that was part of their jobs.

I can tell the difference between that and whatever Tom Loftus did.

If he levels with himself, Sykes can, too.

Jensen didn't invent the system, but he took it to new heights.

Here's my earlier post on the subject, which set Sykes off.

Paul Ryan's risky scheme

The New York Times called it "a sketchy proposal" to change Social Security.

USA Today's editorial called it "a shell game" and said that "for every one part substance, the plan contains nine parts gimmick."

Another USA Today story said it was a victory for the "free lunch bunch" in the Republican Congress. "You must eat your spinach before having dessert, and this plan only offers dessert: the personal retirement accounts," Rep Jim Kolbe , an Arizona Republican, said.

". . . critics say there is not enough money to make the plan viable," The Washington Post reported. " About 130 million Americans who pay into Social Security and are under 55 would be entitled to personal accounts. Excluding interest owed on borrowed Social Security funds, the cash surplus from Social Security taxes this year will leave enough for an average of $434 available for each account."

But Rep. Paul Ryan, the Wisconsin Republican who is one of the sponsors of this half-baked scheme, accentuates the positive in an opinion column, also in USA Today. (Was there anything but Social Security news in the paper on Thursday?)

It's all about using the Social Security surplus only for Social Security, Ryan says, and not using it to plug other budget holes or deficits. The money will be safely invested in Treasury bonds, Ryan says. Maybe, just to be doubly sure, those bonds could be put into Al Gore's Social Security lockbox.

Ryan at least is out front on this issue and willing to take some risk and some heat. Meanwhile, Rep. Mark Green, the Green Bay Republican who's busy running for governor, hasn't heard yet that Social Security is under discussion this year. Green has had not a word to say.

Is Wisconsin becoming a theocracy?

United States Christian flag

I was tempted to say, "God only knows."

But that would be wrong.

Here is Jim Rowen's take on the subject, from an opinion piece in the Capital Times:

Republican leaders in the Wisconsin Legislature, taking their cues from Wisconsin Right-to-Life and other powerful organizations on the far right, are leading the state toward a fundamentalist Christian theocracy and away from the state and federal constitutions. . .

Only the veto power held by Gov. Jim Doyle and perhaps by the courts . . . stand between the free-thinking and open society we know, with a strong First Amendment separating church and state, and the eradication of America's tradition of religious tolerance.

Insanity in action -- again

As I pointed out the other day, Albert Einstein said it: "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result." What a waste of time. It's a good thing the state has no real problems that need attention.


THURSDAY, June 23, 2005, 4:42 p.m.
Another voter ID bill sent to Doyle

Madison - The Republican-controlled state Assembly sent Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle a bill today that would require voters to show a photo ID at the polls, marking the third time in two years the Legislature has passed such a measure.

The free market at work

A Glowing Reception
Bush travels to nuke plant to tout nuke subsidies, is well-received

Wednesday, President Bush became the first commander in chief in 26 years to visit a nuclear power plant in the U.S. (The last time, you may recall, was when President Carter visited Three Mile Island after the accident there. Good times, good times ...)

Bush used the occasion to state unequivocally, "It is time for this country to start building nuclear power plants again." It's been more than a quarter-century since the last nuke plant was approved and built. What's the impediment?

"The last effort at building reactors was such a catastrophe that no industry nor Wall Street financier is going to touch this technology without a guarantee that taxpayers will be on the hook," said Paul Gunter of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service. To that end, Bush's much-touted energy bill offers the industry millions in taxpayer dollars, in the form of tax subsidies, loan guarantees, and "risk insurance," whereby taxpayers rather than private investors assume the risks of investment. Behold, the power of the free market!

--From Grist.org. Go there for sources and related articles

Anatomy of Durbin's political firestorm

Here's a fascinating look at how the conservative spin center and message machine went into action to make Sen. Richard Durbin's life a living hell after he got carried away with his rhetoric. Political Wire.

Chicago Tribune story explains how the GOP did it.

Now let's see how well the left responds when Karl Rove goes way over the top. Washington Post column on Rove saying liberals sympathize with the enemy.

NO APOLOGY ON ROVE, WHITE HOUSE SAYS. LA Times story

Dissident lefties look for spoiler to challenge Doyle as independent

So the murmurs and mutters about a left-wing challenge to Gov. Jim Doyle finally are said aloud. State Rep. Spencer Black, D-Madison, says some mysterious, unidentified people have approached him about running against Doyle.

Black won't say who they are, except that they are "people who are reformers, who are unhappy with Jim Doyle's record on a number of issues, and who believe that we've lost our way as a state." [ Ed Garvey, Mike McCabe, the People's Legislature, and who else?]

And what better place to plant the story than the Capital Times, a frequent critic of Doyle on the left?

Interestingly, Black says he is being encouraged to run as an independent, not as a Democrat, even though he has long-established Democratic credentials.

What does that say? It says the campaign would not be about actually trying to win the governorship and change the direction Wisconsin is going. Spencer Black is no Jesse Ventura, although they have the same hairdo. (That's a joke, Spencer.)

It means the disgruntled Democrats (or whatever they are) will not make an effort to turn the Democratic Party of Wisconsin leftward, because the way to do that would be to challenge Doyle in the primary.

It means that the Deep Throat lefties are looking for a candidate to be a spoiler -- a Ralph Nader who might siphon off enough votes to cost Doyle the election.

If they don't like the direction we're headed now, wait until they get to know Gov. Mark Green or Gov. Scott Walker. Four years of one of them, with a Republican legislature, and you won't recognize this state.

David Callender's story does point out that, "Doyle has used his veto pen to block Republican efforts to limit abortion rights and access to contraceptives, impose new restrictions on voting, and bar civil unions for gays and lesbians." (Not to mention concealed carry, the property tax freeze, and a dozen others.)

Spencer Black is a reasonable, decent person who is in politics for all the right reasons -- not for personal gain or fame, but to move a political agenda that improves the quality of people's lives in Wisconsin.

He says he hasn't even started to assess whether to run for governor. When he does, he is likely to come to the conclusion that helping to elect a conservative Republican as governor in 2006 will not make this a better place to live, and will do real damage to many of the people Black got into politics to help. And the Capital Times will probably swallow hard and agree that the thing to do is to try to move Doyle to the left, not elect a Republican. Capital Times story.

My earlier take: Disgruntled Dems should recognize Doyle is their last, best and only defense.

UPDATE: "Sorting out the governor's race: Spencer Black vs. Mike Ellis?" Link.

A conservative view on flag burning

This from Owen, at Boots & Sabers, one of Wisconsin's conservative blogs:

A constitutional amendment that would allow Congress to ban flag burning passed the House yesterday, and congressional leaders said it has a strong chance to clear the Senate for the first time, sending it to the states for ratification.

Yes. I oppose this. Our flag is a very important symbol of our country and deserves the same respect that one would show our country. At the same time, respect for our liberty is an order of magnitude more important than any symbol.

I support the right of anyone to burn, tear, shred, or piss on our flag. Liberty has a price. This is a small part of the sum.

Check out the reaction from his readers, too.

Cracking down on flag burning; it's about time

Well, praise the Lord. The House of Representatives, led by our own F. Jim Sensenbrenner, has voted once again to do something about the outbreak of flag-burning in this country.

I don't know about your neighborhood, but there are parts of Milwaukee I hate to walk through, for fear of getting scorched by one of those flaming flags. They seem to be everywhere. And the closer we get to the 4th of July, the more flags they burn.

It's a relief to know we are on the way toward fixing that -- if the U.S. Senate can get its head out of its behind, get its priorities straight, and do the right thing for once.

The House has voted for a constitutional amendment on flag burning seven times now, but the Senate has never given it the two-thirds vote it needs. Maybe this is the time. Then, all of the states would get to have a referendum on flag burning, giving the yahoos something to get excited about when they go to the polls, besides voting against gays, poor people, liberals and other assorted trash.

It's the will of the people, Sensenbrenner says, and, "While our courts have authority to interpret the constitution, the American people should and must have the ultimate authority to amend it."

That "majority rules" theory usually isn't applied to the constitution, but it does have some appeal. Maybe we could have a constitutional amendment preventing anyone from interfering with stem cell research, since a large majority supports that. Unlike flag-burning, some people are actually doing stem cell research.

Wisconsin Republicans Mark (The Man Who Would be Governor) Green and Paul (Who Would be Senator) Ryan both voted with Sensenbrenner for the resolution. Tom Petri, who frequently seems to be the only Republican in our delegation with a conscience, voted no, along with all four Democrats -- Baldwin, Moore, Obey, and Kind. Story.

---

If the Supreme Court hadn't ruled that a Texas law against flag burning was unconstitutional, there wouldn't be any need for the constitutional amendment.

Just to make sure the judicial bases were covered, though, Sensenbrenner was one of a small group of Congressmen who had a private meal and meeting last week with all nine Supreme Court justices, a move Roll Call termed "highly unusual." Roll Call said the only agenda appeared to be "creating better relations between the two branches of federal government."

"Despite the strong possibility that the first vacancy in 11 years looms and a host of other critical issues are facing the federal judiciary, the justices hosted the meeting, although attendees said they were not seeking to make a pitch on any particular topic. Instead, lawmakers said, it was merely an attempt at getting to know each other better,"Roll Call said.

One smart move in that direction was leaving the two Texans, Rep. Tom DeLay and Sen. John Cronyn, at home. Both have threatened to impeach judges, burn down the federal courthouses, or something like that if judges don't shape up. (Do we need a constitutional amendment on threatening judges?)

Anyway, among those attending, besides F. Jim, were Sens. Reid, McConnell, Frist, Durbin, and Specter.

Quote, unquote

"Adios, mofo."-- Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R), quoted by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, picked up by a live microphone after being interviewed by KTRK-TV.

"The station aired the clip, and included the fact that Perry called later to apologize." -- From Political Wire

Sunshine patriots get new hats

The desert camouflage hat, worn by our troops in Iraq!

The hat (available in S, M, L, and XL) will cost you $22.95.
The irony (XXL only) is free.

-- GREG BEATO at Wonkette. (Click here for ordering info)

Just doing our jobs, Jensen & Co. say; raising money full-time on taxpayers' tab

You have to give them credit for trying, I guess, and for doing exhaustive research and making creative arguments.

But the latest claim by lawyers for Scott Jensen, Steve Foti, and Sherry Schultz , the Republicans charged with felonies in the caucus scandal -- that the three were just doing their jobs -- is simply incredible. WisPolitics story.

Jensen was the Assembly speaker, Foti the GOP majority leader, and Schultz an Assembly staffer. They were indicted in 2002, and have been trying to postpone the inevitable ever since. So far that has worked pretty well. October 18 will be the three-year anniversary of their indictments, and a trial is nowhere in sight.

Foti has left the legislature, and Schultz is off the state payroll. But Jensen continues on his merry way, as a key member of the Joint Finance Committee that put the state budget together.

Jensen simply has no shame. The latest argument from his lawyer goes something like this: "Jensen, Foti, and Schultz were just doing what they were supposed to be doing -- that part of their jobs was to elect more Republicans to office. So of course they were doing some campaign work in their Capitol offices. What's your point, prosecutor?"

The basis for that claim is a 1986 report prepared for Common Cause in Wisconsin by Gail Shea, a former employee of the State Elections Board. Shea's report says that "Legislative campaign committees hire consultants for a variety of purposes . . . In some cases the consultants are nationally known political experts, but most often they are politically active individuals from Wisconsin or legislative staffers, either currently on the state payroll or on leave from their legislative jobs."

"It is important to keep in mind that the legislative campaign committees claim they fill a role very similar to a political party," Shea's report says. "Their purpose is to elect partisans to their respective house of the Legislature."

Jensen's lawyer claims that means there are no limits on what an elected official can do at taxpayer expense, apparently.

Lest we forget, one of the felony charges against Jensen, Foti, and Schultz is that Schultz worked full-time, on the state payroll, paid $65,000 a year by taxpayers, and her full-time job was to raise money for Republicans. Jensen hired her and stashed her in the Republican caucus office, on Foti's payroll.

That arrangement went on for almost four years, so taxpayers paid Schultz $250,000 in salary, plus a great benefit package probably worth another $50,000 over that period. That is not penny ante corner-cutting. That is grand larceny.

It is quite a leap from Shea's memo to the conclusion that it would be legal to operate a full-time political fundraising operation in your Capitol office, at taxpayer expense. If that is legal, why on earth does any campaign or political party pay anyone? They could all be state employees, merrily working to elect their bosses or others in their party. That's their job, right -- elect more Rs or Ds.

Jensen, Foti and Schultz made much the same argument in a brief filed in December 2002 -- and failed. Story. The only thing that has changed since then is that someone dug up the Shea memo in the Legislative Reference Bureau.

But if attorney general opinions don't have the force of law, it doesn't seem like a Common Cause memo will either.

I am beginning to wonder whether any of the caucus defendants -- Jensen, Foti, Schultz, ex-State Rep. Bonnie Ladwig, or ex-State Sens. Chuck Chvala and Brian Burke will come to trial in my lifetime -- or in theirs. The public has mostly forgotten what they were ever charged with to begin with. Presumably, although the wheels of justice grind excruciatingly slowly, they will turn some day.

They say that justice delayed is justice denied. In the caucus scandal, it is the defendants who delay, delay and delay. In Jensen's case, it is the public, and his constituents, who are being denied the opportunity to find out whether they reelected a felon to the Assembly in 2002 and 2004.

Original criminal complaint.

Latest filing

UPDATE: Jensen didn't invent system, just took it to new heights. Link to later post.

Here's an idea: Privatize concealed carry

Just when you thought State Sen. Zany Zien couldn't get any farther off plumb, along he comes with a new version of his bill to put more guns on our streets -- and in cars, stores, churches, parks, bowling alleys, on buses, and almost anywhere people gather.

He calls it concealed carry. It's supposed to make you feel safer. Right.

Wisconsin law enforcement groups almost unanimously opposed his bill last time around. It passed anyway, but Gov. Jim Doyle vetoed it. So now Zien has fine-tuned it, he says.

One big change: Instead of county sheriffs having responsibility for doing background checks and issuing permits to carry the weapons, Zien proposes farming that job out to another group, a law enforcement organization or maybe private security firms.

Sounds perfect. Who would you rather have handing out concealed weapons but the folks who do security at K-Mart?

Story

Walker quietly takes a back seat

Milawaukee County Exec and gov wannabe Scott Walker went to St Louis Tuesday, presumably at our expense, for the Base Realignment and Closure hearing, but he really had no role and didn't testify.

So Walker basically flew to St. Louis to do interviews with Milwaukee news media and look like he was doing something to try to keep the 440th Airlift Wing at Mitchell Field.

A month ago, Walker had the perfect opportunity to ask the Commander in Chief about it, when President Bush landed at Mitchell and Walker was there to greet him. It was just a few days after the plan to close the 440th was announced, but Walker didn't speak up. May post.

He didn't get to say anything officially in St. Louis, either, but apparently didn't mind.

The Journal Sentinel reports:

"A minor flap arose Monday when U.S. Rep. Mark Green of Green Bay, who like Walker wants to replace Doyle, wrote Kohl complaining that only Democrats gave oral testimony. Green was not at the hearing.

"Kohl, in response, told a reporter that the party affiliations were a coincidence and praised the bipartisan effort to retain the 440th.

"Walker, a Republican, nodding in agreement as Kohl spoke, said he "completely supported" the lineup of speakers.

Seems like it would have been hard for Green to speak, since he wasn't there. Was he trying to get Walker on the program? Doubtful. Or was he just complaining that Wisconsin's voters have elected a governor and two U.S. Senators who are all Democrats?

Water, water everywhere? Is there a lake in Waukesha's future?

NOTE: The US and Canada, with Gov. Jim Doyle in a co-pilot's seat, are getting closer to an agreement governing how far Great Lakes water can be exported.

The issues have been extremely contentious on both sides of the subcontinental divide in eastern Waukesha County, pitting Milwaukee, with a surplus of fresh Lake Michigan water, against Waukesha, where decades of water overuse and the current barrier against piping water over the divide threatens Waukesha's rapid development.

Think the fight over freeway expansion touched off a bigtime urban-suburban, Milwaukee-Waukesha battle? The impending struggle over water rights in the region could make the freeway fight look like patty-cake.

---

A guest post by Jim Rowen, longtime journalist, political activist, and public policy analyst/advocate who now describes himself as a Milwaukee political and environment writer.

Though its formal release is still a few days away, drafts of a re-worked US-Canadian agreement governing large users of Great Lakes waters were obtained and reported on last week by The Waukesha Freeman and The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

The agreement will require strict water management across the entire Great Lakes basin, which includes portions of Wisconsin close to Lakes Michigan and Superior, along with seven other US states and two Canadian provinces, the papers reported in separate stories.

The draft agreement will be considered at two public hearings this summer in Wisconsin. To be adopted and implemented, the agreement must be approved without revision by the eight states, the two provinces, and both the US Congress and the Canadian parliament, so implementation is a long way off, and, also, let's say, iffy.

If it were to collapse through disagreements among states, provinces or the two countries' legislatures, the current US-Canadian agreement that has been in place since 1985 would remain in force. The key provision of the current agreement is that no community outside of the physical boundaries of the Great Lakes basin may divert water across the boundary if the governor of any one state objects.

Diversions out of the basin mean water is permanently lost to its Great Lakes' source. Net losses to the basin weaken the entire Great Lakes ecosystem, and in the 20 years of the current agreement, only two diversion applications have met the approval of all eight Great Lakes states governors .

With the Great Lakes under serious pressures from invasive species, growing population, pollution and falling levels from global warming's evaporation, (despite what George Bush's know-nothings say, the planet is warming up, and inland bodies of water are going to drop in depth accordingly), preventing net losses to the Great Lakes has been a key constant in both the current agreement and changes that the Governors have been drafting.

A constant concern about if and when to ever approve diversions out of the basin is avoiding the establishment of precedents that would literally open the floodgates to diversions for far away, dry states and even foreign countries: an earlier effort to remove water from Lake Ontario in Canada by tanker ship to Asia actually set off the current effort in 2001 to modify and strengthen the agreement.

So the entire matter is of profound importance to everyone in Wisconsin, and to the water-dependent lifestyle and economy - - from shipping to tourism to agriculture to the food and beverage industries - - across the entire Great Lakes region.

The proposed rewritten agreement, while apparently suggesting diversion and withdrawal procedures more structured than the mere nay-saying of a single state, also seems to set the stage for easier diversions, according to the early news reports, because new language in the draft expands the pool of communities that are allowed to apply for diversions or to otherwise be permitted withdrawals currently prohibited.

The drafters believe the current one-state-veto rule may be too arbitrary, so they are proposing what they feel are reasonable laws and procedures that could pass muster in court or under new international trade agreements - - possibilities that are at best speculative.

The poster area for new diversions and withdrawals, if the draft as reported on in local media were to be adopted, is the City and County of Waukesha just west of Milwaukee and Lake Michigan - - including areas now barred from obtaining Great Lakes water because they
are out of the basin.

Some of these Waukesha communities ignored conservation practices as they sprawled out, draining their groundwaters at an alarming rate, and in some cases leaving them facing expensive costs to treat and cleanse the deep wellwater that remains.

Under the proposed agreement, all of the City of New Berlin, because the Great Lakes basin boundary literally runs across that city, will be considered in the basin as a so-called 'straddling' community. This is new language added by the agreement's drafters.

If adopted by all the governing bodies, New Berlin would be able to obtain Lake Michigan water without a formal diversion procedure, and would only require the approval of the state of Wisconsin for such a withdrawal.

The City of Milwaukee currently sells Lake Michigan water to the City of New Berlin for use in its eastern, in-basin portion.

The City of Waukesha is completely out of the Great Lakes basin. It is on the western side of the subcontinental divide. It is not a straddling community -- but the agreement's drafters -- which includes a team from the Wisconsin DNR - - have cut Waukesha and other communities in Waukesha County that are completely outside the basin a break with additional, new, pro-diversion language.

The drafters have created another new category -- straddling COUNTIES -- whose municipalities are eligible to apply for exceptions from the no-diversion-outside-the-basin rule because some of their county is in the basin, and some of the county is outside. Eastern Waukesha County makes the entire county a straddling county under this definition, so municipalities in Waukesha County can apply for diversions even if, like the City of Waukesha, the applicant municipality lies outside the basin.

That means that if adopted, the new agreement would allow the City of Waukesha to apply for a diversion, with some restrictions.

Those restrictions include: Having a water conservation plan (it's not clear what conservation means, or whether standards will be spelled out), presenting a finding that there is no other reasonable source of the water that is being sought (again, whether "reasonable" is spelled out is unknown), getting all eight states to approve the diversion application (always a big hurdle, and a carryover from the existing agreement), and finally, making a pledge to return the water to the source tapped to minimize the out-of-basin losses.

That means Waukesha would have to pipe back wastewater for treatment, presumably to the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District, in an amount equal as to what was piped in from Lake Michigan as fresh water, minus reasonable consumption.

In the past, Waukesha has said it wanted 22 million gallons of Lake Michigan water daily -- a substantial diversion.

Waukesha officials in April, anticipating the upcoming agreement review proposal and finally recognizing their past water overuse, announced they were working on a conservation plan that would, by 2020, save 20% of its water use.

Unless specific conservation standards are added to the final US-Canadian agreement, that plan may suffice to support a diversion application.

Waukesha has grumbled about the cost of the water return requirement, citing also the potential damage to the Fox River watershed if Waukesha's treated wastewater were no longer released there and were sent to the MMSD and Lake Michigan instead.

That wastewater now flows to the Mississippi River, and the Gulf of Mexico - - which is not part of the Great Lakes basin.

Also consider that the MMSD is concerned about the millions of dollars in new capacity it would have to add to receive and treat Waukesha's return flow.

So the area and the entire Great Lakes basin is poised to discuss these interwoven issues at public hearings that will take place during a 60-day comment period most likely running through the end of July or early August.

Politically, the greatest benefit would redound to Waukesha County Executive Daniel Finley if the final agreement helps Waukesha move a diversion application forward, especially if it contains wiggle room over the return flow issue. Finley has made obtaining Lake Michigan water the centerpiece of the 'regional cooperation' agenda he has pushed as hard as he argued for freeway expansion.

New Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett has sent mixed signals on the water issue. On the one hand, he has strongly supported the return-flow requirement (even though the majority of MMSD commissioners he appoints would have to wrestle with the cost and capacity issues).

On the other hand, Barrett has agreed to explore with Finley whether an eventual sale of Lake Michigan water to Waukesha through the City of Milwaukee's water utility's pipes - - if allowed and approved under a rewritten US-Canadian agreement - - could result in so-called 'tax-base sharing.'

That process would transfer money to Milwaukee -- on a formula yet to be conceived -- based on development in Waukesha fueled by the infusion of Lake Michigan water.

Many conservationists believe that years down the road, and regardless of whether a diversion for Waukesha is ever approved, the eventual return flow cost to Waukesha that is almost certain to be in the final US-Canadian agreement will be too great for the Waukesha to bear.

That, in turn, will force Waukesha to find less-expensive alternatives.

Those options include enhanced water treatment, drilling new, shallow wells in Western Waukesha and blending that water with water needing the enhanced treatment, adopting aggressive conservation and recycling processes now and not waiting for incremental water savings by 2020, and embracing effective Smart Growth practices.

In other words, cutting edge water and land use stewardship.

Gov. Doyle has been firm in his opposition to a US-Canadian agreement that would enable parched western states to obtain Great Lakes diversions, but has been less firm when discussing possible diversions for communities close to a Great Lake, such as Waukesha.

On the precise question of a diversion for Waukesha, Doyle's office was recently non-committal.

It's unclear whether Doyle wants a US-Canadian water agreement with steep barriers to diversions and stronger conservation standards, or whether he wants an agreement that encourages Waukesha to apply. The draft as reported by the Freeman and Journal Sentinel
suggest that straddling, fast-growing communities like New Berlin are going to come out winners.

Doyle is the co-chairman of the governors' organization that has drafted the US-Canadian agreement proposed revisions, and also faces re-election in 2006, so if there is a hot seat in this unfolding process, Doyle will be on it.

There is a school of thought in the political world that says Michigan's Governor Jennifer Granholm would turn her state's traditionally anti-diversion sentiment into a veto for Waukesha-type application, but like all things in politics, that's iffy, too.

Such applications would move to an approval stage years down the road, by which time Granholm may be long gone from office.

Or another state may find itself with a strong environmentalist flatly opposed to diversions, making it more likely that Waukesha will find the conservation route its most reliable alternative.

And there are plenty of good reasons that all users of Great Lakes water should strive for greater conservation, regardless if they live in or out of the basin, in a straddling city or county, or just come to the region to boat and fish.

Three Wisconsin papers have editorialized on the recently-leaked draft agreement, focusing on the diversion issue, its statewide implications, and, of course, the impact on Waukesha.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Green Bay Press-Gazette called for strong, anti-diversion language, while the Waukesha Freeman hailed the openings for Waukesha communities in the draft's new language.

You can read those editorials through the links below:

JOURNAL SENTINEL: Water diversion has a price . Link.

WAUKESHA FREEMAN:Waukesha should be allowed to tap into water. Link.

GREEN BAY PRESS GAZETTE: Don't bend rules on Great Lakes water. Link.

Supporting the troops

This Boston Globe story reminded me of a little ditty the Marines in Vietnam used to sing about battalion supply:

We ain't got it,
We ain't gonna get it,
And we wouldn't
give it to you anyway

Marine units found to lack equipment
Corps estimates of needs in Iraq are called faulty

By Bryan Bender, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON -- Marine Corps units fighting in some of the most dangerous terrain in Iraq don't have enough weapons, communications gear, or properly outfitted vehicles, according to an investigation by the Marine Corps' inspector general provided to Congress yesterday.

The report, obtained by the Globe, says the estimated 30,000 Marines in Iraq need twice as many heavy machine guns, more fully protected armored vehicles, and more communications equipment to operate in a region the size of Utah. The whole story.

Quote, unquote

The mantra for Fox News is that we only hear the bad news (about Iraq). I was over there (in February), and we don't hear enough bad news. -- U.S. Senator Russ Feingold, who called the Iraq war an "amazing mess."

Do Democrats demonize Christians?

I prefer to denigrate and demonize all religions equally, but one Republican Congressman accused Democrats of singling out Christians for abuse. Wisconsin's David Obey took offense, and business on the House floor stopped for 45 minutes. Read all about it.

UPDATE: It was Obey's proposal to put Congress on record against "coercive and abusive religious proselytizing" at the U.S. Air Force Academy that touched off the fireworks. Obey eventually got an apology. AP story.

Sign a petition to tell President Bush:Stop obstructing stem cell research

I'm not a big believer in petitions, especially online petitions. But this appeal from Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colorado, moved me to share it with you. She is the co-author of the stem cell research bill passed recently by the House.

---

"Last month, the House overwhelmingly voted for the stem cell legislation I authored with Rep. Mike Castle. This bipartisan victory made it clear that stem cell research transcends political party and ideology.

"The public is fed up with the agenda of the Republican leadership and its clear lack of concern about the challenges facing ordinary Americans. This is a rare opportunity for Congress to do something that could lead to the saving of lives and making our nation - even the world - a better place.

"You have already heard heartfelt stories from my friends and colleagues, Reps. Lois Capps and Jim Langevin, on how stem cell research could help them and their loved ones. Many of you have shared similarly moving personal stories about how stem cell research could make a difference in your own lives. You have spoken. Members of Congress have spoken. Now it is time to demand that our voices be heard and answered.

"The vast majority of Americans who support stem cell research are anxiously waiting for the Senate and the President to do the right thing and expand the federal policy now. We are working with our Democratic and Republican allies in the Senate to pass this proposal. But President George Bush, the very man who has crowed about "obstructionism" whenever Democrats refused to rubber stamp his agenda, continues to stall the process with his unconscionable veto threat.

"That President Bush would use his first veto in five years to squash the hopes of millions is virtually unimaginable. That is why I am asking you today to join me in petitioning him to stop obstructing the clear will of the people:

Sign the petition

"The House has already debated this issue. You have already heard arguments for stem cell research put forth eloquently by Lois Capps and Jim Langevin. This is about saving people's lives, not about partisan politics. Now I want to share with you just one of the stirring stories the DCCC members shared with us:

"I will fight for SCR expansion for many reasons, but for my step dad, Marty, in particular. He is perfectly healthy, thank goodness ... because he spends his two days off caring for his Alzheimer's stricken mother and for his recently paralyzed son. Both are severe cases that necessitate home care. His son is only 24 years-old, and became a quadriplegic after breaking his neck in a motorcycle accident. It will be a year in July since he's been home. My step brother cannot hug his little daughter, and it is heartbreaking. To think that he could die from something like a bed sore, I just cannot understand how people justify fighting against SCR. To the opposition, I say come look at my step dad's mother, who has to be monitored constantly so she doesn't wander off, who can't remember who she is. Look into the eyes of a woman who cries because she wants to go home to her mother, who's been dead for 50 years. Look at my step brother, a once strapping young man who is now withered, who has to fight to breathe on his own. Look into the eyes of his three year-old little girl, who has to visit "Daddy" because he can't come home to play with her. Look at my step father, who deserves some good news, or at the very least ... some relief from the worry that he could lose either of them at any moment. Look into his eyes and tell him there is no hope, because I cannot. This is for Marty." -- Tanya Bennitt, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

"If that does not persuade you, nothing I can say will either. There are millions of these stories, from every town and city in America. Tell President Bush to remove the "roadblock" and withdraw his veto threat - stem cell research must be funded:

Sign the petition.

Better late than never: Bush to go to Vietnam

It won't be quite the same as it was in the 1960s or even the 1970s, when George W. Bush was protecting Alabama's Crimson Tide from the Communist Red Tide.

Hostilities ceased 30 years ago, so it should be safe landing for the nation's Chickenhawk-in-Chief when he goes to Vietnam in 2006.

Details from the press pool briefing, via Wonkette:

From:XXXXX@list.whitehouse.gov On Behalf Of White House Press Releases
Sent: Tuesday, June 21, 2005 11:42 AM
Subject: POOL REPORT #1, 6/21/05

Pool Report No. 1
June 21, 2005

President Bush’s meeting with Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai

Oval Office

With a large, boisterous anti-communist demonstration going on outside the front gates of the White House, one of the largest pools in recent history waited outside the Oval Office for 45 minutes while Bush and the P.M. (first from Vietnam to visit the U.S. in 30 years) talked for about 50 minutes inside. The Vietnamese photogs took pictures of each other and the sprinklers dousing the South Lawn. Curiously, they paid little attention to Miss Beazley, the first lady’s Scottish terrier, freely roaming the patio.

As the pool crowded into the office, Bush said there would be two statements and said the two men talked about the economic relationship, Vietnam going into the WTO, security, mutual cooperation in the war on terror, the fight against HIV/AIDS and returning the remains of U.S. soldiers who fought in the war. Bush announced he will go to Vietnam in 2006 when it hosts the APEC meeting. Consecutive translations.

The prime minister, with his own translator, read a prepared statement and said his visit shows the U.S./Vietnam relationship has “entered a new stage.” He noted this is the tenth anniversary of diplomatic relations and said his country’s 80 million people offer a “huge market for American businesses.” He said he is building Vietnam into a “strong country with wealthy people and a democratic society.”

After his statement, aides immediately ushered pool out -- clearly no questions were wanted. And there was nobody seated on either sofa.

Note: Cell phone went off while the P.M. was speaking. The president stared straight ahead. Another cell phone went off in a second event later in the Old EOB and Bush later made a point of mentioning to an aide that he was irked. The aide told the sound technician with the offending device that that cell phones not on vibrate are rude.

Ann McFeatters
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The Toledo Blade

Legislative Republicans run a tight ship; That means no talking among the crew

The state budget comes to the floor of the State Assembly today for action.

Excuse me while I yawn.

It will be a long day, and maybe a long night.

But in the end, the existing budget package, put together by the Joint Finance Committee, is the one that will be passed.

There will be no amendments. Republican members won't even offer any. Democrats may offer 100 or more, but the 60-39 GOP majority will reject them all.

[UPDATE: OK, I was wrong. Two amendments passed, one to clean up some drafting errors and another to speed up the cut in taxes on Social Security from five years to three. Story on passage ]

If they stick to their usual game plan, the Republicans won't even debate the Democratic amendments. They'll simply let the Democrats talk, then vote them down. (Dems, however, will get the Repubs recorded on a series of roll calls that could hurt the Rs politically in '06.)

What's most unusual about the process is that the budget that the Assembly will pass has not been changed by the Republican caucus, either. Assembly Republicans got their marching orders that the Finance budget was to be the budget. If you wanted something changed or added and didn't get it done in Finance, where Republicans rule 12-4, you were out of luck.

It is not clear just when that plan was shared with the caucus members. There are reports that some figured it out too late and now are stuck with the Finance version.

In the past, the Finance version of the budget would have been discussed in the GOP caucus, where noses would be counted on amendments, and a substitute version, incorporating all of the caucus-approved changes, would be introduced. Many legislators would have a "bottom line" on some budget provision that had to be included to insure their votes.

But that's no way to run a railroad, the current GOP leadership says. This budget is moving ahead full throttle, and those who are unhappy had best stay off the track.

In part, that's the tyranny of having such a big majority. The GOP leaders don't need every last vote. With 60 members, they have 10 votes to spare. Two Republicans have already announced they will vote no, but it doesn't really matter. This train has left the station.

Shut up and vote

The "shut up and vote" technique was used recently by Assembly Republicans when they passed a bill allowing health care professionals to refuse to perform certain procedures on moral or religious grounds -- even if that might harm or kill the patient.

Stacy Forster of the Journal Sentinel wrote, in the newspaper's Capitol blog:

"The Assembly considered the bill for more than five hours, but Republican sponsors refused to answer Democrats’ questions about the bill and its intent. Democrats repeatedly tried to engage Republicans in the debate, but were consistently rebuffed. Author Rep. Jean Hundertmark (R-Clintonville) responded to questions about an early amendment, then clammed up.

“This has been an interesting discourse today,” Rep. Christine Sinicki (D-Milwaukee) said sarcastically before a vote was taken.

"It was the same strategy Republicans employed during an all-night “debate” last March over a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex and civil unions in Wisconsin. Although Democrats spoke all night, the amendment’s author, Rep. Mark Gundrum (R-New Berlin), spoke only before the final vote, and wasn't even in his seat for much of the night. "

Shut up in caucus, too

Then there is the question of whether the Republican members get to talk even in their own secret caucuses.

State Rep. Jeff Wood is someone who doesn't take up a lot of time on the Assembly floor. In fact, until last week he had been in the Assembly for two and a half years without ever making a speech.

His maiden speech certainly got a lot of attention, though, as an angry Wood complained about being prevented from speaking his piece in the GOP's closed caucus. The issue was yet another in a series of bills in which the sex-obsessed Puritans -- oops, I mean Republicans -- tried to interfere in other people's lives. This time it was to ban the morning-after birth control pill from UW campuses.

This time, the usually silent Wood was the only Republican speaker, and he blistered his own leadership -- for which he was reportedly taken to the woodshed afterward.

Jeff Wood's maiden speech

From Stacy Forster and the JS Capitol blog again:

Here are portions of his remarks (you can also listen to mp3 audio of the speech):

“A lot of our members said, if you don’t support this bill, you’re not really pro-life. I personally find that kind of offensive. I’ve always voted pro-life, I consider myself very pro-life, as much as anyone in this body.

In fact, I was born - despite maybe my youthful appearance – before Roe v. Wade and I was adopted right after birth. I found out about twenty-five years later, that the woman who put me up for adoption had an abortion a few years later. There's no doubt in my mind that if Roe v. Wade had happened a few years earlier, I wouldn’t be here.

“Another thing I heard in caucus is that people wanted to avoid this vote and they didn't want to take it on the floor. I want to make it very clear, I’m not shying way from this vote, I would never ask for a vote not to be taken on the floor. That's one of the things I don't like about this body: Sometimes when we don’t feel like we have the votes, we try to hide from that and don't come to the floor. It’s part of our responsibility to take a public stand on an issue if we believe in it.

“Some might wonder why I’m bringing up these things that were said in (secret) caucus. While these things were being said in caucus, when I put my name on the list to respond to them, I was told, 'We didn’t have enough time, we had to talk about the budget now.' I've been here two and a half years, I’ve never gotten up to speak on a bill…I passed bills and I never felt the need to get up and give rhetoric on other bills knowing full well it wasn’t going to change the vote. But on this one, I feel like I was silenced in caucus.

“And not just me, but this has happened in the past. Last year, now-Sen. (Glenn) Grothman was silenced by our leadership in caucus. I stood up to defend him. This year, another member of (Republican leadership) tried to silence (Republican Rep. Scott Suder of Abbotsford). And I stood up to defend him.

“What happened today, I wasn't just silenced. The 50,000 people that I represent were told we didn't have enough time to hear what I had to say. After all the speeches I’ve listened to on this floor…I’ve spent what seems like half my life listening to (Democratic Rep. Marlin Schneider of Wisconsin Rapids) telling me how evil I am, I just think that was way out of line....

“I want make it clear to the members of this body and (to GOP leaders) especially: You can have your opinions, you can disagree, you can disregard anything we have to say, but don’t you ever try to silence my constituents again.”

Wood left the floor soon after and was reportedly berated in the hallway by a handful of his Republican colleagues. On the final vote, he was recorded as voting against the bill, which passed 49-41.

Ah, the give and take of the democratic process. It's a joy to watch.

A CONTRARY VIEW. Conservative blogger Dennis York offers a different take, in which the Dems are duping the news media. At least he doesn't blame it on the liberal-leaning media.

Who's that reading over your shoulder? Not to worry, Green says, it's Uncle Sam

So, who took out that book about Osama Bin Ladin?

Who wants to know?

The FBI.

Sounds like some far-fetched scenario a paranoid lefty or the ACLU would dream up to try to discredit the Patriot Act, doesn't it?

The thing is, it really happened in Washington state.

That was just one of 200 cases in which law enforcement officials have asked libraries for such information, the New York Times reports.

And 40% of the libraries responding to a survey said that library users had asked about changes in practices related to the Patriot Act, and about 5 percent said they had altered their professional activities over the issues; for instance, by reviewing the types of books they bought.
The House passed an amendment last week to restrict the government's power to snoop on your reading habits. Thirty-eight Republicans supported the change, even though the Bush White House was unhappy about it.

Three Wisconsin Republicans -- Mark Green, F. James Sensenbrenner, and Paul Ryan, voted against the change. Earlier post.

Green's running for governor, so he may have more chances than the others to explain why he thinks Uncle Sam should be able to snoop in your library records and read over your shoulder. Can't wait to hear it.

FEINGOLD: MAKE IT SAFE: Sen. Russ Feingold, the only one to vote against the Patriot Act, and who was re-elected big time in November, makes the case in the Denver Post for the Security and Freedom Enhancement Act (SAFE), designed to provide the checks and balances that were missing from the Patriot Act when it has hastily passed just six weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks. Feingold op ed.

UPDATE: Wisconsin State Journal weighs in with an editorial.

UN haters unite; it excites the base

And you thought the Bush White House didn't think much of the United Nations? That's why he's trying to send John Bolton there, isn't it?

The Republicans in the House of Representatives outdid Bush the other day, passing a UN "reform" bill that goes so far the President has disavowed it. Chances of Senate passage are slim, so Bush probably won't be put in a sign-or-veto position.

The bill calls for 46 changes in the way the UN operates, and would cut the US funding for the UN in half unless it complies by 2008.

So what's going on? The LA Times reports: Unlike Bush, said a senior GOP congressional aide who requested anonymity when discussing political matters, the lawmakers face reelection next year, and criticism of the U.N. "plays well with the [Republican] base."

And Mark Green has a primary for governor. He voted yes. No surprise there.

In fact, all four Wisconsin Repubs -- Green, Paul Ryan, Tom Petri and F. Jim Sensenbrenner -- were among the UN-bashers who voted for the bill. The state's four Dems -- Tammy Baldwin, Gwen Moore, Dave Obey and Ron Kind -- opposed it. (Do you ever feel like Wisconsin's 4-4 split means we don't have much to say about the outcome of bills?)

LA Times story

Quote, unquote

"If Frist issued them a clean bill of health, we implore them to get a second opinion."

-- Lexington Herald-Leader, in an editorial titled, "Political Malpractice," to ex-patients of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN), noting his Senate floor diagnosis of Terri Schiavo's condition was completely wrong.

Hat tip to Taegan Goddard's Political Wire

Making progressivism patriotic

David Kusnet writes in The New Republic of a commencement speech U.S. Sen. Barack Obama delivered at Knox College, a small campus in small-town Illinois, recently:

"All Obama did was make the best case for liberal politics in recent memory, with a panoramic view of American history that made public investment in job training and new technologies sound like the logical descendents of the Civil Rights movement, the New Deal, the Progressive Era, the abolitionists, and the American Revolution.

"Unlike most contemporary liberal orators, Obama avoided a numbing list of the government programs he supports, grim indictments of the social injustices he lamented, or cumbersome quotations from the heroes he invoked. Instead, he emphasized two ideas that Franklin Roosevelt, John Kennedy, and Martin Luther King used but that today's liberals have foolishly ceded to Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush: individual responsibility and American exceptionalism."

The speech.

The New Republic article.

Belated birthday gift for Fighting Bob

It came three days late for his 150th birthday celebration, but the downtown post office in Madison is now named for Robert M. "Fighting Bob" LaFollette.

Rep. Tammy Baldwin sponsored the bill, which became law on Friday, according to her announcement.

When it comes to guns, boys will be boys -- Ban on export of .50 caliber weapons fails

If someone told you that a weapon capable of piercing a rail car carrying hazardous materials or bringing down a commercial airliner had been purchased by al Qaeda, you would want your government to do something, right? Well, despite these alarming facts, in the U.S. you can still obtain a .50 caliber sniper rifle more easily than a handgun and export of these weapons to countries that are not our allies continues today.

The .50 caliber sniper rifle is in a class by itself. The U.S. Army handbook on urban combat states that .50 caliber sniper rifles are intended for use as anti-materiel weapons, designed to attack bulk fuel tanks and other high-value targets from a distance, using “their ability to shoot through all but the heaviest shielding material.”

If you've ever heard a .50 caliber round in your vicinity, you won't forget it. They are loud, high-powered, deadly and terrifying. If one hit you in the arm, it would knock you down, and maybe tear your arm off. You might bleed to death before anyone could treat it. If it hit you in the trunk, you would almost certainly die.

A few facts:

.50 caliber sniper rifles were designed to attack parked or landing aircraft, armored personnel carriers, rail tank cars, bulk fuel storage, and concrete bunkers. They are powerful enough to puncture armored limousines.

The rifles have effective ranges up to 2,000 yards -- more than a mile.

The .50 caliber ammunition is the largest round available on the civilian market. Highly destructive armor-piercing, incendiary, and explosive rounds are easily available.

It's not something you'd want to sell to terrorists.

But an attempt to ban their export and sale to countries who are not U. S. allies failed in the House last week by a vote of 278-149. The National Rifle Association and their allies opposed the ban, of course, saying there were plenty of laws in effect already. (Ever heard that before?)

The split in the Wisconsin delegation, surprisingly (at least to me) was not along party lines, but by gender. All six men -- Republicans Mark Green, Paul Ryan, F. James Sensenbrenner, and Tom Petri and Democrats David Obey and Ron Kind -- voted against the ban. Voting for the amendment were the two Democratic women in the delegation, Gwen Moore and Tammy Baldwin.

Felons to get voting rights restored in Iowa

This seems to have escaped any notice in the Wisconsin media, but our neighbors in Iowa are about to restore voting rights to about 80,000 ex-felons.

Iowa has had one of the most restrictive laws in the country, requiring ex-felons to petition the governor to have their voting rights restored. Once Gov. Tom Vilsack signs the order on July 4, Iowa will be the same as Wisconsin, where voting rights are automatically restored once a felon has completed his/her sentence, including probation or parole.

According to the Right to Vote Campaign, which works to reverse laws preventing felons from voting, 14 states automatically restore voting rights to felons after they are released from prison; four states restore rights after ex-felons complete parole; and 18 states do so after they complete their prison sentence, parole and probation.

Voting by felons who will still under state supervision is one of the "voting fraud" claims from last November's election in Wisconsin. Two hundred ineligible felons apparently voted in Milwaukee. There is no system here to keep track of who is ineligible to vote because of felony convictions. Unless the person is in jail, it's the honor system on election day -- and it is almost impossible to prove that a felon on supervision knew that it was illegal to vote. Lacking that, there is no prosecution.

Photo IDs, by the way, would not help a bit. The felons who voted illegally didn't use phony names. They just voted.

Which brings me back to a question I asked long ago: Instead of spending time, energy and money dreaming up some Rube Goldberg system to keep felons off the voter list, why don't we just let them vote once they are not in confinement? Fourteen other states already do that.

Vilsack pointed to research showing that ex-prisoners who vote are less likely to end up back in prison. "When you've paid your debt to society, you need to be reconnected and re-engaged to society," Vilsack, a Democrat, said -- at a news conference, where he was joined by Democratic and Republican legislators who had pushed for the change.

Imagine that.

The NY Times story.

Manic McBride hearts the Journal Sentinel

Jessica McBride, late of the Journal Sentinel, now a UW-Milwaukee journalism lecturer and conservative/Republican apologist, gives her "take" on the Bruce Murphy tell-all about the JS in Milwaukee Magazine.

Her endless, unblinking defense of the newspaper, its editors, and anything else Murphy might have criticized reads like some speed-fueled piece when Hunter Thompson was wired up and fired up at the same time.

She loves that newspaper so much it's hard to imagine why she left. The only thing missing is a positive review of the JS cafeteria.

And she's really, really hot about being quoted by Murphy.

See for yourself on her blog, McBride's Media Matters.

Here's my earlier post on the subject, "Inside the Journal Sentinel, where talk radio calls the tunes."

Making sense of the state budget for schools

When is an increase actually a decrease?

That's what Gov. Jim Doyle and the Democrats have been debating with legislative Republicans about since the Joint Finance Committee finished its work on the state budget.

It's confusing, to be sure.

But two Journal Sentinel reporters, Alan Borsuk and Amy Hetzner, have teamed up to offer the most understandable explanation I've seen of what the numbers really mean.

Their Sunday story

Quote, unquote

So, the Texas Legislature decided it's OK for gay couples to be foster parents, but only if they're not married. I would explain what message that sends, if only I understood it. -- Molly Ivins

Juneteenth Day -- 140th anniversary

Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States.

From its Galveston, Texas origin in 1865, the observance of June 19th as the African American Emancipation Day has spread across the United States and beyond.

Today Juneteenth commemorates African American freedom and emphasizes education and achievement. It is a day, a week, and in some areas a month marked with celebrations, guest speakers, picnics and family gatherings. It is a time for reflection and rejoicing. It is a time for assessment, self-improvement and for planning the future. Its growing popularity signifies a level of maturity and dignity in America long over due.

In cities across the country, people of all races, nationalities and religions are joining hands to truthfully acknowledge a period in our history that shaped and continues to influence our society today. Sensitized to the conditions and experiences of others, only then can we make significant and lasting improvements in our society. © 1996-2005 Juneteenth.com.

Father's Day:What have you done for YOUR Dad?

-- Cartoon by Ann Telnaes

New Gitmo prison? What's wrong with the old one?

Rumseld says Guantanamo is a paradise. Link.


Halliburton to build $30-million Gitmo prison

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Halliburton Co. unit will build a new $30 million detention facility and security fence at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where the United States is holding about 520 foreign terrorism suspects, the Defense Department announced on Thursday.


The announcement comes the same week that Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld defended the jail after U.S. lawmakers said it had created an image problem for the United States. Story.

Swimming upstream on medical marijuana bill

Despite a Supreme Court ruling taking away states' rights to legalize the medical use of marijuana, and a House vote this week refusing to protect medical users from federal prosecution, a bill is being prepared for introduction in the Wisconsin legislature to allow its use.

It will have at least one Republican vote, if it ever gets to the floor. State Rep. Gregg Underheim of Oshkosh is the lead sponsor of the bill. He introduced a similar bill last session but it died in committee.

In fairness, Underheim is not the only Republican willing to stick his neck out on the issue. Last session, 10 Democrats (no surprise there) and two other Republicans -- Terry Musser and Eugene Hahn -- signed on as Assembly co-sponsors.

Underheim, who had a small cancerous growth removed from his prostate in 2002, told the LaCrosse Tribune his own experience with cancer got him thinking about the possible medicinal benefits of marijuana. The drug can reduce nausea in patients undergoing chemotherapy and stimulate the appetites of AIDS patients, among other benefits, said Underheim, who has headed the Assembly's Health Committee since 1995.

This isn't exactly breaking news, since Underheim had announced awhile back that he would reintroduce his bill. It bubbles up now because of recent action on the issue, which prompted USA Today to do a story about seven states where bills are in the works, including Wisconsin.

Underheim said he hopes to get a hearing and a floor vote this session, but admits passage is unlikely. Pushing it is swimming upstream in light of recent federal action, but this may be one of those issues which gradually wins favor over time and eventually passes in some future session. That's happened on any number of issues in the Wisconsin legislature, including -- believe it or not -- legalizing bingo.

Underheim's bill would let doctors “recommend rather than prescribe … advise rather than prescribe,” he said in a Capital Times interview, but access is the problem, “In other states you allow people to grow it themselves, and I was reluctant to take that step in Wisconsin. But if it's going to be available, we've got to create access for it."

The Wisconsin State Journal, which has decades of anti-drug credentials, editorialized last week in favor of the House amendment to protect patients from prosecution if their states have legalized medical use of marijuana, and urged Wisconsin's eight House members to support it.

But when the vote came, all four Wisconsin Republicans -- Mark Green, Tom Petri, Paul Ryan, and F. Jim Sensenbrenner -- voted no. The state's four Democrats -- Gwen Moore, Tammy Baldwin, David Obey and Ron Kind -- supported the amendment.

"When Right to Life speaks, GOP listens"

From the Journal Sentinel Capitol blog:

"If proof of Wisconsin Right to Life’s clout is necessary, look no further than the bill regarding the rights of health care professionals to refuse to perform certain procedures on moral or religious grounds.

"There were 25 groups that were registered as having lobbied on the bill: 18 opposed it, four were neutral on the issue, two were undecided, and just one that was for it: Wisconsin Right to Life.

"The bill passed the Assembly on Tuesday with a 60 to 33 vote, with 6 lawmakers not voting.

"The Assembly considered the bill for more than five hours, but Republican sponsors refused to answer Democrats’ questions about the bill and its intent.Democrats repeatedly tried to engage Republicans in the debate, but were consistently rebuffed.

"Author Rep. Jean Hundertmark (R-Clintonville) responded to questions about an early amendment, then clammed up.

“This has been an interesting discourse today,” Rep. Christine Sinicki (D-Milwaukee) said sarcastically before a vote was taken.

"It was the same strategy Republicans employed during an all-night “debate” last March over a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex and civil unions in Wisconsin. Although Democrats spoke all night, the amendment’s author, Rep. Mark Gundrum (R-New Berlin), spoke only before the final vote, and wasn't even in his seat for much of the night.

--By Stacy Forster

House Republicans: "Hoaaaa!" for F. Jim

This incredible report is from a Washington Post story:

One of the most contentious security issues is on the domestic front, the president's call for Congress to renew 15 provisions of the USA Patriot Act that are set to expire at the end of the year. A hearing on the Patriot Act last Friday ended in turmoil when Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (Wis.) became irritated by a stream of criticism of the administration and gaveled the session to an end.

Sensenbrenner, under heavy criticism from Democrats, acknowledged during a 16-minute defense on the floor starting at 9:10 p.m. that he had "adjourned the hearing in a manner inconsistent with the spirit of comity that has and should continue to inform committee deliberations." But he said he had "exercised great patience" in the hearing. Turning to the Democratic side, he said,"I will not be deterred by malicious attacks or minority obstructionism."

"This grossly unfair and distorted depiction of my conduct demands correction," he said. Republicans leapt to their feet and showered Sensenbrenner with applause and cheers of "Hoaaaa!"

Then Tom DeLay jumped in as a character witness:

Sensenbrenner was responding to a resolution of disapproval proposed by a committee Democrat, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (N.Y.). The panel's ranking Democrat, Rep. John Conyers Jr. (Mich.), said he was stunned during the hearing by Sensenbrenner's "hostility" toward lawmakers and witnesses. "I've never, ever experienced a witness being stopped dead in mid-sentence," said Conyers, a 40-year congressman.

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) sat across the aisle from Sensenbrenner as he spoke and later issued a statement calling Sensenbrenner "well respected" and saying that his work on the Patriot Act has been "conducted in a fair, bipartisan, and comprehensive manner." Republicans killed Nadler's resolution.

Original Xoff post, one of many, on the subject.

"Direct assault on the right to privacy by Wisconsin GOP"

OK, Wisconsin gets some attention from a big-time national blog. Makes you kinda proud.

DailyKos

More bad poll news for the President

By M.e. Cohen at HumorInk

Bush's support on major issues plummets in New York Times/CBS News poll. Read it here

Inside the Journal Sentinel, where talk radio calls the tunes

Well, Bruce Murphy's tell-all Milwaukee Magazine piece about his three years of angst at the Journal Sentinel has a little something for everyone. We'll all have our favorite parts.

WTMJ talk show host Charlie Sykes can bask in the fact that Murphy devoted an entire section to him, labeled, "The Sykes Syndrome." Sykes was already complaining about it on his Sykes Writes blog Thursday, and no doubt will devote some air time today to criticize Murphy's characterization of talk radio. But inside he's got to be gloating.

(Mark Belling, who barely gets a mention, is probably thinking up new ways to attack the paper and get its attention. He must be fuming.)

There's a lot of debate in political circles about how much influence talk radio really has. I'm one of those who say it's overstated. Sykes' listenership is perhaps 4% of the potential adult listeners in the area. In the afternoon, Belling on WISN attracts about 3%. (The way ratings are reported in the Journal Sentinel, ironically, make their audiences seem bigger. Sykes may have 4% of the radios in Milwaukee tuned to his show, but that is a 16% share of the people who actually have a radio on. The newspaper reports the higher number.)

Their clout is magnified, of course, by word of mouth. But that's just the tip of the iceberg.

The newspaper editors, who Murphy say consider Sykes an adversary, are unduly influenced by what he says -- especially when the paper itself is a target of his criticism.

This from Murphy's article, writing about the editors:

"Sykes’ impact on them is extraordinary. [Managing Editor George] Stanley would assign story ideas based on what he’d heard on his morning commute. [Editor Marty] Kaiser has invited Sykes to write occasional columns for the paper. Stanley drove off the freeway one morning in order to call the radio show and argue over how he had been characterized by Sykes."

So Sykes sometimes drives the newspaper's agenda. Murphy says Sykes' criticism of the paper, expressed by listeners, caused the paper to go hog-wild about so-called election fraud.

The answer to the question about how much influence the talkers have is that they have as much as you give them -- and the paper gives them too much. They don't only make editors nervous; they rattle politicians, too -- as they intend to do. And they make Republicans more nervous than Democrats, because most of the people who listen are part of the Republican base.

The talkers didn't elect Scott Walker county executive, but they helped. The newspaper, not radio, deserves the credit (along with Bruce Murphy himself at Milwaukee Magazine) for starting the snowball rolling that rode Tom Ament out of office. The talkers certainly helped encourage Glenn Grothman to challenge Mary Panzer, but they didn't beat her, Grothman did, once they got him into the race. And they turned up the hea on Senate Republicans until they dumped Mary Lazich from a leadership spot.

But, try as they might, they couldn't get David Clarke past the mayoral primary, and despite non-stop attacks on John Kerry and Jim Doyle, George W. Bush and Scott McCallum both got their asses waxed in Milwaukee County, which is still solidly Democratic. Walker's election in the aftermath of the pension scandal was an anomaly, not a sea change.

In many campaigns and public offices, Sykes and Belling are a distraction. If you are on their hit list, you are going to remain there, and no amount of talking and gnashing of teeth will change that. If you're a Democrat, or even a moderate Republican, forget about appeasement. My advice to campaign staffs, candidates, and elected officials is not to listen. Keep the radio off.

Listening will do nothing but agitate people and waste time. I've had a pretty good compliance rate, and if they do listen, they don't talk to me about it. That's a blessing in itself.

The Journal Sentinel editors might try (a) coming to work a little earlier, since Sykes doesn't even come on until 8:30, or (b) tuning to an easy listening station. We'd all be better off for it.

---

The Riemer Coverage

Now for my favorite part of the article.

I've already said the talkers didn't elect Scott Walker as county exec the first time, and I don't think they did the second time, either. But Sykes helped Walker more than I realized against David Riemer last year. (Disclosure: I was Riemer's consultant, so I know much of this firsthand from the outside.) Here is Murphy's report from the inside:

The 2004 election featured a face-off between Republican Scott Walker and Democrat David Riemer. The newspaper gave it little coverage, compared to the mayoral race, and the standard assumption was that editors saw Walker as a shoo-in. In fact, both races ended up having similar margins. But the undercoverage of the county race hurt Riemer because a challenger most needs a chance for the issues to be discussed.

County reporter David Umhoefer, one of the newspaper’s best, was frustrated by his handcuffing. It was a repetition of how the paper had undercovered the county during the pension scandal.

One issue getting scant coverage was Riemer’s charge that Walker hadn’t dismissed top aides eligible for lump sum pension payments. In an appearance on Sykes’ TV show, I suggested that the issue could be a potent one in the campaign.

I hadn’t researched the issue since it was clear the paper had so little interest in the campaign. But when I got back to the newsroom, I proposed doing a story. The response was lukewarm, but I went ahead. I soon documented that three aides could earn huge lump sum “backdrop” payments ranging from $480,000 to $1.1 million. Stanley got excited about the story only after I let him know that the Walker administration had been stonewalling me regarding data I requested; the newspaper jealously guarded its right to get government records. So the story was slugged to run Saturday, three days before the election.

On Friday afternoon, I was summoned for one of those meetings with Kaiser and Stanley. They looked grim. They had on their stone faces. Kaiser had gotten an e-mail from a Walker campaign operative trying to head off the story. The e-mail argued I was biased because of the comment I made on Sykes’ show.

Given that I had made no value judgment on the show regarding Walker’s handling of the backdrop and given that I was the reporter who brought down a Democrat, former County Executive Tom Ament, with my earlier pension story, it was hard to see how an accusation of bias could stick. The story was strictly factual, and Kaiser and Stanley saw no weaknesses in the reporting. But they decided to hold the story until after the election. The newspaper’s image was more important than serving readers and potential voters.

Afterward, Stanley took me aside for a chat. At such times, he could exude a fatherly charisma that was compelling. The newspaper, he explained, had to be careful about its image, had to protect its tremendous credibility with readers. “It’s not because of anything we’ve done, it’s something we’ve inherited,” he noted.

As an example of that clout, he pointed to the Ament pension scandal. He said he had read my story in Milwaukee Magazine, then gave it to Kaiser, and they agreed that the newspaper must cover it. Their banner-headlined barrage, of course, ultimately brought Ament down.
It was a strange conversation. Stanley was using the example of the paper at its worst, when it failed to cover one of the biggest stories in recent history, to demonstrate its clout. He was telling the reporter who broke this story to feel good about the newspaper once again failing to print a pension story.

The picture he painted was not of a paper that fought to break the news but of one that decided which of the stories it was handed was worthy of being printed. “We’ll just get Sykes attacking me and Marty because we’re such big liberals,” he added, mocking the label he found so infuriating.

An exchange with Stanley

Murphy's story on Walker's pension problems finally ran -- two weeks after the election. I sent the following e-mail to Managing Editor George Stanley and Editor Marty Kaiser:

-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Christofferson
Sent: Saturday, April 24, 2004 11:10 AM
To: George Stanley; Marty Kaiser
Cc: Dave Umhoefer; Bruce Murphy
Subject: County executive race coverage

I know that other media are asking questions about the Walker pension story that ran almost two weeks after the election.

I want you to know what I am saying about it, rather than hearing someone else's interpretation of what I have said.

I have not questioned the newspaper's motives in holding the story until after the election. I have not suggested that the decision was because of the MJS' endorsement of Walker, or that it was an attempt to influence the election.

I have said that David Riemer first raised the issue on March 17 (which was reported), and that Bruce Murphy began asking questions about the issue on March 29. I believe he wrote a story on April 1. No story ran until April 18.

My belief is that what happened with that story is indicative of how the newspaper chose to cover the county executive race.

It appears that a decision was made early on that the race would not be competitive and therefore not worth a lot of effort or ink.

If someone were to compare coverage of the mayor's race and county executive's race, my guess is that the ratio of the number of stories and column inches given the two would be on the order of 10 to 1.

It is true that the county exec primary was not competitive, in that it was clear which two candidates --- Walker and Riemer -- would advance to the general.

But after the primary it had the potential to be a competitive race. In fact, soon after the primary I wrote a long e-mail to Marty Kaiser, making that argument. We started about 60-40 after the primary, but Riemer moved 30 points (from 7 to 36) in three weeks of TV before the primary. There was a chance he could close the gap in the general. Deciding it was not competitive, and not covering it, could be self-fulfilling, I said.

I never got a response, and coverage did not change much if at all. The newspaper focused on the mayor's race, with an occasional mention of the county exec election.

When a race is not covered, a candidate's only recourse is to spend money to communicate with voters -- something your editorials always bemoan when discussing the influence of money on elections.

I am not claiming that Riemer would have won if you had given the race more coverage. But I have no doubt that if the exec race had even half the coverage of the mayor's race, it would have been a closer race. Even on April 6, many people did not know who Riemer was. Scott Walker was not well-known county-wide in 2002, but your intensive coverage guaranteed that people knew both candidates and their positions on key issues. That was missing in 2004.

So, no conspiracy theories here. I think the decision not to run the last pension story simply reflects the paper's lack of interest in the race compared with the mayor's race.

It was disappointing. I suspect that raising it now will not help my relations with you in the future. But I think it is important to say.

Thanks.

Stanley's response:

Bill:

Frankly, the story you are peddling strikes me as nothing but the typical and predictable sour grapes of a losing campaign. I remember very well when you took the exact opposite position just before the last mayor’s race as the paper closed in on the Figueroa story. We haven’t changed our standards one bit since then and you know that. If your candidate or his opponent had the same troubles with finances, double-charging for trips, etc. as in the mayor’s race, they would have generated as much ink and received the same play. You know that, too. But you’re worried your future business could be hurt after backing a losing candidate, so you’re trying to pass the blame and point fingers. Sorry, you won’t get any sympathy here.

---

My second e-mail:

George:

I'm surprised and disappointed that you have made this personal.

You are still in denial.

I contacted Marty Kaiser about coverage concerns in mid-February. That was long before the paper went on its wall-to-wall coverage of financial problems and campaign finance reports.

When I raised the issue, I was talking about the fact that you had daily coverage of issues and exchanges between the mayoral candidates, and seemed to be covering every nuance of that race, while virtually ignoring the county exec race.

I am not "peddling" any story. I am simply stating the facts -- you had the information and had a story written before the election on Walker's pension problems, but chose not to run it. I have not speculated about why or claimed that you were trying to influence the election. I have simply stated the facts.

It is true that I weighed in with you when you intended to run a story about the Figueroa story on the Friday before the election in 2000. There was a difference, however -- your story was not true. It was about a suit you said would be filed on Friday. My argument was that if it was not true it would do irreparable harm, and that you should wait a day to see if the lawsuit was actually filed. It was not, as you know. I think you made the right decision and saved the newspaper a lot of embarrassment.

The Walker story, of course, was true. That is a big difference.

Finally, just for the record, no one in the world expected Riemer to win that race. If anything, that campaign enhanced my reputation among people who know anything about political campaigns. I have more work than I can handle.

I am not blaming you for the outcome of the election or "pointing fingers." Again, I am letting the facts speak for themselves. And you have offered no explanation for your decision to hold the story. If there is one, that could certainly clear the air.

Stanley's last word:
----- Original Message -----
From: George Stanley
To: Bill Christofferson
Cc: Dave Umhoefer ; Bruce Murphy; Marty Kaiser
Sent: Tuesday, April 27, 2004 9:02 AM

Subject: RE: County executive race coverage

You’re the one in denial

---

OK. I didn't expect "sympathy" but I had hoped for an adult response.

The newspaper won't get any sympathy here, George, now that its dirty laundry is being hung out to dry on websites that are read by people in the news business across the country.

After all your appeasement, Sykes will still go after you in the morning. I just hope he doesn't call you a liberal. It would give liberals a bad name.

Insanity in action

State Senate Republicans have passed a bill requiring photo IDs to vote for a third time. Gov. Jim Doyle has vetoed it twice and has made it clear he will veto it again. Story.

"I don't know why they keep wasting everybody's time," Doyle said. "They can keep sending me the same bill over and over again. They're going to get the same result."

Which brings to mind Albert Einstein's definition of insanity: Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

Bush's problem -- standing on his own

Ron Fournier, the AP's national political correspondent, offers an insightful analysis of President Bush's post-election problems -- it's all about him now.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Fearing that President Bush's political problems may become their own, Republicans in Congress and elsewhere are beginning to yearn for the good old days of seven months ago, when he had somebody to run against.

Voters were worried in November about the economy and the war in Iraq, but they didn't take it out on the incumbent on Election Day. They are now.

Bush's poll ratings are among the worst since he took office, declining in virtually every category since his win over Democratic Sen. John Kerry. From his handling of the economy, foreign policy and the war in Iraq to his job approval rating and voters' assessment of the country's direction, the president's political scores are in serious decline.

One reason is that voters are no longer judging him in comparison to Kerry. Bush, like other second-term presidents, is facing the prospect of lame-duck status. He's up against his own record, in a sense, and that's never an easy task.

"In a vacuum, all the dissatisfaction is put on the White House," said GOP consultant Charles Black, who argued that Bush should draw more attention to upbeat economic numbers. The Bush campaign succeeded in its 2004 strategy - to make the election a referendum on Kerry and not the incumbent. Now, every day is a referendum on Bush.

Read the rest

In the belly of the beast: Bruce Murphy on the Journal Sentinel

How the Journal Sentinel decides to cover -- and not cover -- the news. After three years on the inside, a reporter tells the real story.

That's how Milwaukee Magazine teases the story by its new editor, Bruce Murphy, in its July edition.

Here's how Jim Romenesko describes it on Poynter online, a journalism site:

THURSDAY, JUNE 16, 2005

What can happen when a newspaper hires a city mag writer

That writer might return to the magazine and tell readers what goes on inside the daily's newsroom. Bruce Murphy was recently rehired by Milwaukee Magazine after working three years at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. At the paper, he writes, "top editors drive the agenda, middle editors worry about their dictates and reporters take turns being confused and demoralized. Against all odds, good stories -- and an occasional great one -- get written, but you can't help but wonder why the paper can't be better. The answer begins in the chaotic mess of the newsroom." Link to story

It's the Milwaukee connection in action. Jim Romenesko once wrote the "Pressroom Confidential" column for Milwaukee Magazine, reporting on inside goings-on in newsroom over at 4th and State. He's since moved on to internet fame, writing about the media online for The Poynter Institute, a school for journalists, future journalists, and teachers of journalists. He also has his own site, the Obscure Store and Reading Room, where he collects offbeat stories.

This will keep newsroom buzzing for a few days.

Terri Schiavo, R.I.P.

The autopsy is over. Terri Schiavo was brain dead and blind. No treatment could have even remotely improved her condition. She was unaware and incapable of recovering. The damage to her brain was irreversible.

Now, can we let her rest in peace?

Threats to America's Dairyland: Toxins in milk supply, H-bomb secret

Move to suppress scientific paper on threats to the milk supply
is reminiscent of attempt to stop publication of H-bomb article

Here's a frightening scenario, although one that has gotten surprisingly little attention here in America's Dairyland, where milk trucks roll along the farm-to-market road system:

...[A] terrorist, using a 28-page manual called ''Preparation of Botulism Toxin'' that has been published on several jihadist Web sites and buying toxin from an overseas black-market laboratory, fills a one-gallon jug with a sludgy substance containing a few grams of botulin. He then sneaks onto a dairy farm and pours its contents into an unlocked milk tank, or he dumps it into the tank on a milk truck while the driver is eating breakfast at a truck stop.

This tainted milk is eventually piped into a raw-milk silo at a dairy-processing factory, where it is thoroughly mixed with other milk. Because milk continually flows in and out of silos, approximately 100,000 gallons of contaminated milk go through the silo before it is emptied and cleaned (the factories are required to do this only every 72 hours). While the majority of the toxin is rendered harmless by heat pasteurization, some will survive. These 100,000 gallons of milk are put in cartons and trucked to distributors and retailers, and they eventually wind up in refrigerators across the country, where they are consumed by hundreds of thousands of unsuspecting people.

It might seem hard to believe that just a few grams of toxin, much of it inactivated by pasteurization, could harm so many people. But that, in the eye of the terrorists, is the beauty of botulism: just one one-millionth of a gram may be enough to poison and eventually kill an adult. It is likely that more than half the people who drink the contaminated milk would succumb.

. . . it takes a while for botulism to take effect: usually there are no symptoms for 48 hours. So, based on studies of consumption, even if such an attack were promptly detected and the government warned us to stop drinking milk within 24 hours of the first reports of poisonings, it is likely that a third of the tainted milk would have been consumed. Worse, children would be hit hardest: they drink significantly more milk on average than adults, less of the toxin would be needed to poison them and they drink milk sooner after its release from dairy processors because it is shipped directly to schools.

And what will happen to the victims? First they will experience gastrointestinal pain, which is followed by neurological symptoms. They will have difficulty seeing, speaking and walking as paralysis sets in. Most of those who reach a hospital and get antitoxins and ventilators to aid breathing would recover, albeit after months of intensive and expensive treatment. But our hospitals simply don't have enough antitoxins and ventilators to deal with such a widespread attack, and it seems likely that up to half of those poisoned would die.

That disturbing analysis appeared in the New York Time s on May 30, written by a Stanford University professor, Lawrence M. Wein. Wein and a graduate student, Yifan Liu, spent a year on a study of how the milk processing and delivery system could be subject to a terrorist attack. Americans, Wein points out, drink 6 billion gallons of milk a year, so the potential for tampering is enormous.

Wein and Liu prepared a scientific paper on their findings, intended for publication in the online journal, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on May 30 -- the same day Wein's op ed article appeared in the Times.

The online version was posted briefly, in a password-protected area of the NAS journal's site, but quickly taken down at the request of the Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS). An HHS official called the paper "a road map for terrorists."

NAS, a private, non-profit society of scientists and engineers chartered by Congress to advise the government on science and technology, agreed to delay publication.

'A road map for terrorists'

Stewart Simonson of HHS claimed the paper provided too much detail on potentially vulnerable areas of the milk supply, processing and distribution systems and argued that its publication "could have very serious health and national security consequences." He called the paper "a road map for terrorists."

The Academy issued a statement saying, "In response to an HHS request, PNAS and the NAS have agreed to take another look at the PNAS paper in question.""Under standard PNAS policy, the paper was originally evaluated for scientific merit and potential biosecurity issues," the statement noted. A NAS spokesman said it was committed to publishing the paper, but was "taking time to review it at a higher level of the Academy."

That further review apparently is continuing, and the paper has not been published.

Although the announcement made it seem as though publication would simply be delayed, it would not be surprising if the paper were classified and never made public, at least in its entirety.

That is true even though, in all likelihood, there is nothing in the paper that is not in the public domain already. The authors simply collected the material, assembled and analyzed it, and drew some conclusions. Wein, ironically, is barred by the rules of the NAS journal from discussing his paper before it is published.

"This is a classic example of the conundrum we face," Gerald Epstein, a biodefense expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said in an interview on National Public Radio. "The pieces of information in the paper are not secret, and the type of analysis the researcher goes through isn't magical. " The paper may help someone reach the conclusion faster, but the conclusion is no big surprise, he said.

Holding up publication, after preview copies had been sent to journalists, is like "shining a huge spotlight onto it by doing a very unusual act," Epstein said. Saying it would be published and then withholding it greatly increases its exposure.

"The conclusion that any paper that might conceivably be of use to a terrorist should not be published, would shut down society," Epstein said. "We wouldn't publish road maps of cities, we wouldn't publish the periodic table, we wouldn't print math textbooks any more."

The paper was intended as a warning, to tell the Homeland Security Agency, HHS and others that the milk supply could be vulnerable to attack.

The overreaction, unfortunately, is predictable.

When Tommy Thompson was leaving office as HHS secretary, his comments that the nation's food supplies were vulnerable to terrorist attacks made him a target of criticism, even though he, too, intended it as a warning. But that was relatively minor.

The H-Bomb 'Secret'

The parallel that comes to mind is the 1979 case involving The Progressive magazine, published in Madison, Wisconsin, in the heart of America's dairyland.

The magazine, like NAS, had an article prepared for publication but circulated a few advance copies to experts.

Titled, "The H-Bomb Secret: How We Got It, Why We're Telling It," it was about how a hydrogen bomb works.

The article, by a freelance writer and activist Howard Morland, was based entirely on information available publicly. Morland and The Progressive wanted to show, in part, how ludicrous, ineffective and unnecessary some of the secrecy surrounding the nuclear weapons program was. Secrecy had been invoked by the government, in the name of national security, to keep Americans from questioning the nuclear arms race, the magazine argued.

The advance copies set off a firestorm and sent the U.S. Department of Justice running into federal court, where -- to everyone's shock -- the government obtained a court order restraining the magazine from publishing Morland's article.

It was an unprecedented case of prior restraint which flew in the face of the First Amendment to the Constitution. But conservative District Judge Robert Warren, a former Wisconsin attorney general appointed by Richard Nixon as he was leaving office, took the government at its word. This was dangerous stuff, too dangerous to publish. First Amendment be damned.

"I'd want to think a long, hard time before I'd give a hydrogen bomb to Idi Amin," Judge Warren declared, although the article would do nothing of the sort, as even he came to realize.

The government had described the article as "How to Make an H-Bomb," and said it would give the recipe to terrorists worldwide and lead to nuclear proliferation. It was not a how-to article, of course, any more than Wein's article is a terrorist manual on poisoning our milk.

The whole case had an Alice in Wonderland quality to it. The defendants -- Morland and the magazine's editors -- were gagged from discussing the article's contents. Many of the legal briefs and documents filed in the court case were classified, censored, and excluded from the public record. The defendants and their lawyers had to be cleared to read some of the documents. Sometimes the lawyers were not allowed to tell their clients what was in the filings. Judge Warren, at one point, issued a secret opinion that the defendants were not permitted to read.

Meanwhile, the government stamped "classified" on documents that had been public, and even closed a library where some of the newly-secret documents had been on public display the day before.

The Progressive eventually prevailed when the essentia lH-bomb information -- the "secret" in the article -- was sent to newspapers by a California "hobbyist" researcher, Chuck Hansen, who independently found many of the "secrets" in the public domain and sent a letter to newspapers outlining his findings. Hansen's letter was published by the Madison Press Connection, a strike newspaper, and later by others.

That gave the government a graceful way to drop its case, saving itself the embarrassment of a reversal after having to make its arguments in front of judges who had heard of the Constitution.

And Idi Amin never got his H-bomb.

The H-bomb article was a conflict between freedom of the press and national security. The milk paper is a conflict between scientific freedom and national security.

If the nation could survive the H-bomb secret, it should be able to handle publication of Professor Wein's paper on threats to the nation's milk supply.

Coverage:
CNN
AP
NYTimes op ed
Sciencentral News

UPDATE: "NAS Publishes the Milk-Bomb Secret."

Sensenbrenner drunk with power?

F. James Sensenbrenner

Here's the link to ThinkProgress.org with a several-count indictment of F. Jim.

Being objective, I gave him the benefit of the question mark.

Perfect for the job

People find each other, they say. So it should come as no big surprise that Philip Cooney, the White House staffer who lost his job after the disclosure that he was "editing" scientific reports until they were unrecognizable, has found a new job -- at Exxon.

A match made in heaven.

Mother Jones blog has more.

House votes to ban snooping on reading habits; Three Wisconsin Republicans disagree

WASHINGTON (AP) - The House voted Wednesday to block the FBI and the Justice Department from using the anti-terror Patriot Act to search library and book store records, responding to complaints about potential invasion of privacy of innocent readers.

Despite a veto threat from President Bush, lawmakers voted 238-187 to block the part of the anti-terrorism law that allows the government to investigate the reading habits of terror suspects.

The vote reversed a narrow loss last year by lawmakers complaining about threats to privacy rights. They narrowed the proposal this year to permit the government to continue to seek out records of Internet use at libraries. Full AP story.

WISCONSIN VOTE: Three Wisconsin Republicans-- Mark Green, Paul Ryan and F. Jim Sensenbrenner -- voted to allow the government to continue to investigate what you read. Tom Petri voted for the amendment, along with the state's four Democrats.

Quote, unquote

"Like the new Pope and the old Pope, Bush claims to be a missionary for 'the culture of life.' Although when he was governor of Texas, he oversaw the execution of 136 people on Death Row. Must be a recent convert." -- Will Durst in The Progressive.

News Flash -- Green votes against DeLay!

Rep. Mark Green, in a rare show of independence from his sugar daddy, Tom DeLay, voted with Rep. Dave Obey Tuesday to take $200-million out of the budget for NASA, in DeLay's district, and use it instead to provide help for local police to combat methamphetamine, fund anti-gang programs and buy new equipment.

Green, who's in debt to the tune of $29,000 in political contributions from DeLay's political action committee, votes with him 91.1 per cent of the time.

But this time he was one of only 21 Republicans in the House to jump ship and vote with Obey. Obey's amendment failed on a 230-196 vote. DeLay, who's pretty good at counting noses, probably knew he had all the votes he needed and gave Green a pass.

As lame duck Green begins to disengage from Congress and position himself as a candidate for governor, he may declare some other "independence" from DeLay and the GOP leadership. But you can bet his vote is in DeLay's pocket when he needs it.

Story

Repubs continue to roast, eat their own

You gotta love it. Wisconsin Republicans, in a time of political prosperity for their party, can't stop bashing one another.

When you read this piece trashing State Sen. Robert Cowles, bear in mind that it appears on the website of the Coalition for America's Families, the wingnut group that ran the anti-Doyle ads bashing gays and immigrants. And ask yourself (a) what could provoke this kind of personal attack, and (b) whether a recall or primary challenge could be in the works.

Cowles' sin was to vote against the budget that came out of Joint Finance and offer some criticism. In terms of Capitol rhetoric, it was in the moderate range.

"They got quite a game going on,"Cowles said of his committee colleagues, referring to the major spending motions rushed through during the last budget meeting that ended shortly before 7 a.m. on June 10. "We needed to stop and not be acting in the middle of the night, get all the data and make decisions."

"I was under enormous pressure," Cowles told WisPolitics, saying it was possibly the most partisan pressure he's ever felt. He said he was being urged by majority Republican members to "just go along with it." But Cowles was having none of it, and joined the committee's four Democratic members in opposition. "I wasn't just going to suck this in,"he said. "If I voted yes, that would have been the end of it. The budget would have had no substantial discussion in our caucus," he said. "This way, the fiscal conservatives will have another opportunity."

So Cowles finds himself under fire for being TOO fiscally conservative, from the same group attacking Doyle for being too liberal. No pleasing some people.

In a lighter vein, GOP Chair Rick Graber also gets a going-over in this amusing post on BuckyReport.com. Graber should be able to beat this governor, Bucky says, since he beat the last one, Republican Scott McCallum.

Great minds think alike

Steve Kelley in New Orleans Times-Picayune

Or maybe it's warped minds that think alike. I hadn't seen this cartoon when I posted this quickie earlier:

Jacko, meet OJ

Unverified reports are that Wacko Jacko, having been found not guilty, is enlisting O. J. Simpson to help him to look for the real child abuser.

Sensenbrenner to Conyers: F. U., 2

Wisconsin's leading light in the House, Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner (R-Suburbia) doesn't like to hear hostile witnesses testify about abuses of the Patriot Act. He made that quite clear with his high-handed action to end a hearing, take his gavel and go home last week.

Rep. John Conyers (D-Michigan), who had lined up the witnesses that sparked F. Jim's temper tantrum, has been holding his own "forums" to give people a chance to talk about issues on which Sensenbrenner won't even schedule a hearing. They are run like hearings, but have no official standing except as a vehicle for people to express their views.

But F. Jim doesn't not only doesn't want people saying things he disagrees with in his presence. He doesn't want them to do it even if he's not around to hear it.

The Hill reports that F. Jim, the Judiciary chair, has pulled the plug on Conyers' forums, declaring that from here on no Democrat on the Judiciary Committee will be allowed to use a hearing room.

Read it and weep , for the loss of free speech rights in the Capitol itself.

Scott Jensen's photo ID

From the Journal Sentinel Capitol blog, by Steve Walters:

Kreuser rips Jensen at Democratic convention

State Assembly Democratic Leader Jim Kreuser, of Kenosha, may get the prize for the most stinging line of the state Democratic Party convention, when he attacked Republican Rep. Scott Jensen's push to require all voters to produce a government-issued photo ID to be able to cast a ballot.

"Scott Jensen already has a photo ID -- it's called a mug shot," Kreuser declared.

In 2002, Jensen was charged with three felonies for allegedly directing Assembly aides to campaign on state time. He was one of five legislative leaders -- two Senate Democrats and three Assembly Republicans -- charged with crimes as a result of the most widespread probe of Capitol corruption ever. Of the five, Jensen is the only one still serving in the Legislature. His newest trial date is early next year.

Urban archipelago

The Capital Times' John Nichols, writing in The Nation, says our urban centers are almost the only bastion of progressive policy these days, and highlights efforts by Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and other mayors to put progressive ideas into action on a local level.

Whatever's the matter with Kansas, it's not the matter with Lawrence, he reports. The university city has just elected a progressive mayor.

Nichols' article.

Green losing two primaries

Poor, poor pitiful Mark Green, as the late Warren Zevon might say.

First Scott Walker releases a poll claiming that he is leading Green in the race for the Republican nomination for governor of Wisconsin.

Now I read that Mark Green is losing the race for the Democratic nomination for New York attorney general, too. A Siena College poll has him trailing Andrew Cuomo.

Maybe Green would do better if he focused all of his attention on one race.

Or maybe not.

Gore as fiery eco-evangelist

Photo: www.meaus.com/


"Al Gore, once derided by the right as a stiff, wooden Ozone Man, is now recasting himself as the fiery, headstrong Climate Avenger -- a blunt and passionate spokesperson about what he calls "a collision between our civilization and the earth." He is currently in negotiations to play a starring role in a big-budget, feature-length documentary on climate change.

"Last Saturday in San Francisco, the self-described "guy who used to be the next president of the United States" delivered an hour-long multimedia presentation on the scientific evidence of global warming to hundreds of guests crammed into a tent for the culmination of the city's five-day-long U.N. World Environment Day celebration. The audience, peppered with celebrities, members of Congress, U.N. officials, and dozens of mayors from around the world, erupted into a standing ovation when Gore wrapped up his quasi-evangelical call to action.

"Thrusting his fists skyward, he rattled off the seemingly insurmountable challenges civilization has overcome in the past -- slavery, communism, restricted suffrage, segregation, disease, apartheid -- and roared, "So now we are called to use our political institution, our democracy, our free speech, our reasoning capacity, our citizenship, our hearts, and talk with one another, reason with one another, see the reality of this problem, act as Americans, and understand that it's a different issue than any we've ever faced." Then the crescendo: "We have to make our stand!" he thundered. "This is our home! We must keep our eyes on the prize! Help solve this problem!"

Read the rest in Grist magazine's Muckraker.

Let's keep this quiet

But the Xoff Files has just learned that today is not only Fighting Bob LaFollette's 150th birthday, but also F. James Sensenbrenner's 62nd.

The two do have something in common besides a birth date -- a penchant for giving long speeches. The difference? People liked to listen to Fighting Bob.

As Gaylord Nelson reminded the John Birch Society when it objected to his plans for an April 22 Earth Day, on the grounds that it was Vladimir Lenin's birthday, with several billion people in the world, and only 365 days in a year, a lot of people, both good and bad, will of necessity share the same birthday. "St. Francis of Assisi, whom many believe to be the first environmentalist, was born on April 22," he said. "So was Queen Isabela. More importantly, so was my Aunt Tillie."

Today is also Olympic champion Eric Heiden's birthday, the Wisconsin Historical Society says.

Should Scott Walker pull the plug on campaign?

Jim Rowen thinks so. In a Milwaukee Insight piece on WisOpinion, Rowen says the accumulation of negative publicity about Milwaukee County's problems are too much for Walker, the county executive, to overcome.

Hat tip to Folkbum, who likes to call Walker the Tosa Ranger.

Porn star has a date with the Pres

Mary Carey on FlagDay

Am I hallucinating, or what?

Porn star Mary Carey was to be among the guests at the Republican National Congressional Committee dinner tonight, featuring President Bush.

Just ask yourself what the chatter would be on talk radio in the morning if Ms. Carey had attended a Democratic event. (Remember the Whoopi Goldberg trashing? Of course, that was about speech.) Story.

MUCH MORE ABOUT MARY from Radar magazine online. whatever that is.

"Voter ID Could Unfairly Target Some" -- Duh!

That is an actual headline (except for the Duh!). Here's the story.

Finally, some actual data on who might be most affected by requiring photo IDs to vote.

The UW-Milwaukee Employment and Training Institute did the study, which found:

Among black males between ages 18 and 24, 78% lacked a driver's license, the largest percentage of any demographic in the study. Other groups in which a majority lacked a driver's license were black males of any age (55% lack a license); Hispanic women of any age (59%); and black women, Hispanic men and Hispanic women between ages 18 and 24 (all between 57% and 66%).

By contrast, only 17% of white men and white women of voting age in Wisconsin lack a driver's license.

You don't have to be a genius to figure out that the groups most likely to be disenfranchised are those who vote heavily Democratic.

Yes, the bill would let them get a different kind of photo ID from the state. But the fact remains, that it would create one more barrier for those people if they want to vote. Advantage: Republicans.

All of the "voter fraud" talk is a mere smokescreen. The photo ID bill is pure, partisan power politics at work.

Flag Day

Too many people, liberal and conservative, Republican and Democrat, and shades of everything in between, have fought and died to protect the ideals this country -- and its flag -- are supposed to represent.

Don't let the conservatives take it away from us.

It's our flag, too.

"F. James Sensenbrenner -- and I mean it"

This DailyKos posting has a lot of good information on what our boy has been up to, and you gotta love the title.

Mark Green ducks most big issues, but just loves that war in Iraq

You can pretty much count on Rep. Mark Green to sidestep or swerve to avoid an issue when he knows he's on the opposite side from the voters.

He's had nary a word -- encouraging or discouraging -- to say about President Bush's plan to privatize Social Security accounts. The Bush "reform" plan gets more unpopular by the day, and Mark Green gets quieter.

Green voted with Bush, Tom DeLay, the evangelicals and the pro-lifers against expanding embryonic stem cell research, even though 50 House Republicans voted for the bill, which passed.

But Green reads the papers and the polls, and he knows that a solid majority of Wisconsin voters support stem cell research. So when he was asked about his position on a proposal in the legislature to ban the use of any state money or facilities for embryonic stem cell research, Green didn't have a position. The proposal is very similar to what he supported on the federal level, but no matter. He ain't talking.

Thank God there's the Iraq war, something Green can support without hesitation. He's been an enthusiastic supporter from the start, and even this week, while other Republicans were beginning to express their doubts, Green sent out a "Don't-worry-be-happy" column, based on a recent two-day visit to Iraq.

It was easy to be for the war at the start as the country united behind the troops and the President. It is a little harder now, with the latest polls showing more Americans oppose the war and think it was a mistake.

A resolution, with at least one Republican sponsor, is being introduced in the House, calling for a timetable for withdrawal of US troops. Wisconsin U.S. Senator Russ Feingold will introduce a similar resolution in the Senate today.

Green couches his support for the war in terms of support for the troops and praise for the job they are doing.

Feingold had this to say:

"While I was in Iraq in February, I was able to witness firsthand the truly amazing resolve all of our troops in Iraq. I cannot describe how very proud I am of all of those who serve. It is with that trip and those soldiers in mind that I will introduce a resolution tomorrow that calls on the President to clarify the objectives and timeframe of the current U.S. mission in Iraq, including a timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops. And I will work with my colleagues to hold the Administration accountable for meeting our goals and achieving clear standards of success.

We owe our brave servicemen and women a concrete timetable for achieving clear goals, not vague, open-ended commitments. Having a timetable for the transfer of sovereignty and having a timetable for Iraqi elections have resulted in real political and strategic advantages. Having a timetable for the withdrawal of troops should be no different."

So Feingold, too, supports the troops. That is not the question. The question is, do you support the war and the way George W. Bush & Co. is waging it, with no end in sight?

Green may argue, or even believe, that Iraq won't be an issue in the governor's race. And it may not be, on the surface. But it will another in a series of positions he's taken that will help voters decide whether he shares their values, beliefs, and priorities.

Hmong project victim of hypocrisy

One of the casualties of last-minute action by the Joint Finance Committee was a proposal for the state to pay half the cost of a Hmong cultural center in Madison.

The committee, dominated 12-4 by Republicans, voted 10-6 to delete the project from Gov. Jim Doyle's budget. Just can't do it, they said. Short of money. Too much borrowing already. Can't honor every ethnic group. Etc.

They could, of course, manage to vote for an amendment with a lot of pet projects (projects is spelled P-O-R-K) for specific communities and legislative districts. But this Hmong project was just too much to ask.

What makes that line of reasoning amazing is the fact that in the last budget the Republicans had voted for a middle-of-the-night amendment by then-State Sen. Gary George to put in $5-million for a Hmong center in Milwaukee. No discussion, no plan, no explanation, and no real proposal, even. But they needed George's vote.

Doyle vetoed that $5-million appropriation.

Then the Building Commission spent $100,000 to do a complete study. It held 10-plus public listening sessions, more than 50 meetings with Hmong leaders, including a Hmong leaders summit with 250 attendees in Milwaukee. That resulted at 50-page study, with a complete business and fundraising plan. The Hmong community asked for a 50% match, and pledged to create a facility that could support itself with no tax dollars.

That was the plan killed by Joint Finance.

Doyle called the decision "short-sighted" and an insult to the people who worked long and hard to present a responsible plan. Sometimes, it seems, 3 a.m. backroom deals are the way to go. That's a shame.

Happy 150th to Fighting Bob LaFollette

Robert M. LaFollette

Who risked his reputation and his political career in his fight to keep this nation out of war.

UPDATE: A TRIBUTE from the Capital Times and contributors, ranging from Tammy Baldwin to Gaylord Nelson.

Feingold wants plan to end Iraq war

This item from a blog called MyDD, makes the case:

"The country has decided that the Iraq war was not worth it

It has high praise for Sen. Russ Feingold's introduction of a resolution calling for a timetable for withdrawal.

Mark Green, meet Walter Jones

I was going to write about this, but Wonkette saved me the trouble with this post:

US Troops Are Freedom Toast

Walter Jones, the North Carolina congressman who gave late-night monologists and Francophobes the gift of "freedom fries and "freedom toast," is now calling for a withdrawal of troops from Iraq. On This Week, he said that he looks at the number of troops lost and wounded and "I just feel that the reason of going in for weapons of mass destruction, the ability of the Iraqis to make a nuclear weapon, that's all been proven that it was never there." The administration has, of course, nixed the idea of a schedule for bringing the our forces back. Ironically, if Jones were less adverse to European nomenclature, he might be able to use his re-branding acumen to help the administration out of this PR nightmare. Over there, a "troop withdrawal" is also known as a "French victory."

ON THE OTHER HAND. . . Meanwhile, Wisconsin Congressman Mark Green, the man who would be governor, issued a column about how great things are going in Iraq. "From Baghdad to Falluja, from U.S. troops to Iraq's new security force, signs of progress abound," Green says. His column is titled, "Signs of progress spring forth in Iraq."

Of numbers and snowflakes

Two unrelated columns, linked only in that they are thoughtful and insightful. How often do you get two of those in the same day?

David Broder on how the number 58, which keeps popping up in a recent national poll, has serious implications for the Bush administration. Link

Ellen Goodman on how the "snowflake" children obscure the real issues about what happens to embryo, and who is responsible for them once they are created. Link

Perusing the paper

BABY FACE MICHELS. A new study reports that voters prefer candidates with mature looks to those who seem a little baby-faced. One of the examples used in the study -- Baby Face Tim Michels v. Mr. Maturity Russ Feingold. No wonder Michels lost -- with a nickname like Baby Face Michels, they thought he was a criminal. Craig Gilbert's Journal Sentinel story.

KOHL HAS MONEY. WHO KNEW? Here's a news flash. When you compare the personal finances of Wisconsin's two U.S. Senators, you'll find that Herb Kohl has more money than Russ Feingold. Who woulda thunk it? One interesting comparison: Last year, Kohl's weekly income was more than Feingold's annual income. Story.

Dean gets it right

Lynn Sweet in the Chicago Sun Times, reporting on Howard Dean's weekend visit to the Rainbow/PUSH convention on Sunday:

Republicans want to demonize Dean, and his "white, Christian'' remark seems to only highlight the success the GOP has had within the evangelical community.

To counter this, Sunday afternoon, Dean talked about the Bible, Jesus, respecting people who disagree with you and the persuasive power of deep convictions.

It came out right.

"Let me remind those Republicans,'' he said, that the Bible mentions helping the poor "3,000 times. I have not yet seen gay marriage mentioned in the Bible. That is a Republican issue.''

Fighting Ed is fighting mad

Fighting Ed Garvey, who apparently was named heir to Fighting Bob LaFollette when the rest of us weren't paying attention, is really steamed about the Democratic Party convention last weekend.

You can read the rant yourself, but as near as I can determine I stand accused of telling the Dems to ignore the progressives, because they have nowhere else to go. I guess I was out of the room when I said that, because it's news to me. (My memory isn't perfect, but I think I would recall saying that. Did I suffer a small stroke, perhaps? Brain fart?)

What I did say -- although maybe I was too subtle in my post on Friday -- is that it would be a mistake for disgruntled lefties to sit on their hands or back an independent or third party candidate, which would probably elect a Republican.

Here's the Garvey "analysis":

"The problem with the Christofferson theory is that the very people he takes for granted are the door-knockers and enthusiasm-builders. For a Democrat to win, he or she must have the enthusiasm of the progressives. Tell them they are irrelevant and they will sit on their hands. "
The problem with that "analysis" is that I didn't say progressives are irrelevant. To the contrary, in the convention post-mortem below I called for the new state chair, Joe Wineke, to reach out and involve progressives and activists who supported his opponent, Jeff Rammelt.

It is Garvey, who seems to want progressives to sit on their hands, who is telling them someone said they were irrelevant. Self-fulfilling prophecy? I hope not.

Garvey's main gripe is that the convention and the party are in the hands of those he calls "the centrists."

Here's the thing: There were only 795 delegates at the convention. Probably three times that many people have participated in the Garvey-organized People's Legislature.

If I do my math correctly, it seems to me those disgrunted, dissatisfied, disenchanted, disappointed and disgusted dissidents (take that, Spiro Agnew!) could easily take over the party, if they put half the energy into that enterprise that they do into complaining about it.

Don't moan, organize.

Convention post-mortem

UPDATE: Fighting Ed Garvey is fighting mad about the convention. Xoff's response to Garvey's rant.


Thoughts after watching the Dem state convention from a safe distance:

-- I always discount convention straw polls because delegates are quite far from the mainstream, out there on the left bank somewhere. The results usually have nothing at all to do with who will win a primary. (Ask Tom Barrett, who won two straw polls for governor.)

This should have been Peg Lautenschlager's crowd, the hardcore liberals and activists who are her base. That's why I predicted that she would feel at home, get a great reception, and come out of the convention energized and thinking she must be winning.

She did get a great response from the crowd Friday night, by all reports, including a couple of standing O's, as she called herself an activist over and over.

But for Lautenschlager, the incumbent, to lose a straw poll, even by a small margin, to Kathleen Falk, who hasn't even decided whether to run, has to be devastating. It might be the wakeup call she needs to reevaluate her plans to run for re-election. She told the Journal Sentinel Friday night she was in for keeps, but every day, that looks more and more like a bad decision.

I said earlier this week that her campaign might peak at the convention. But if she couldn't even carry the convention delegates, it may have peaked some time ago and has already started on the downward slope.

-- Presidential straw polls mean even less, as ex-President Alan Cranston can attest. The then-Senator from California won it in Wisconsin in 1984, but some guy named Mondale won the nomination. Favorite son Russ Feingold, who probably won't end up running in 2008, won the day, but more telling, perhaps, was Hillary Clinton's second place finish, with about twice the vote of John Edwards or Bill Richardson -- and 12 times the vote of John Kerry, who got 5. That's 5 votes, not per cent. His percentage was 1.7. The caravan moves on.

-- Joe Wineke's comfortable 3-2 win as state chair was no surprise. He started with a good base and worked hard at it. His first move should be to reach out to the most rabid Jeff Rammelt supporters and give them a place and a voice in the party, to keep them in the fold. Wineke's a scrapper (some would say an attack dog) who loves to mix it up, and probably can't wait to go a few rounds with GOP Chair Rick Graber, who gets far more media coverage than he deserves. Linda Honold, who moves from chair to vice-chair, will provide some good continuity.

-- Congratulations to Scott Walker, Milwaukee County exec, chosen by Dem delegates as the candidate they'd most like to run against for governor next year. Walker beat Mark Green handily, 55%-40%. Walkman's been boasting about how he leads Green in his own poll of GOP primary voters; we'll see if he brags about this one. Democrats probably recall that no one from Milwaukee has been elected governor since 1940. Before Green gets too excited, another factoid: Wisconsin has never elected a sitting Congressman as governor.

WisPolitics, which conducted the straw poll, has full results and more.

Know-nothing Mark Green

For a guy who wants to be governor, Congressman Mark Green doesn't seem too up on the issues.

He's already refused to take a position on President Bush's Social Security plan because no bill has been introduced. "I haven't had much of an opportunity to look and see what that actually means," Green said. So how could Green possibly know what he thinks -- especially when he knows what he thinks is in sharp disagreement with most of Wisconsin's voters, who oppose Bush's position.

Now, the Journal Sentinel's Craig Gilbert writes, there's a big issue looming in next year's governor's race -- embryonic stem cell research. It's another case where Green, who voted recently against a House bill to expand stem cell research, knows he is at odds with the majority of the voters.

Gilbert reports:

Green campaign aide Mark Graul, when asked about a recent proposal by some GOP lawmakers in Madison to ban the use of state resources and employees in research that destroys human embryos, said Green had not studied it or taken a position on it.

Isn't that convenient?

Credit where credit isn't due

The Racine Journal Times was profusive with editorial praise this week for State Sen. Cathy Stepp, who, the newspaper said, saved the Racine school district from $9.5-million in cuts -- just by nicely asking the Joint Finance Committee.

As is often the case, it wasn't quite that simple.

Gov. Doyle actually provided the money for Racine Unified School District in his budget. In budget talk, the money is "hold harmless" payments from the state for students who moved to a Racine charter school when it opened three years ago. All Joint Finance did was leave it alone.

Stepp's predecessor,then-State Sen. Kim Plache, is the one who fought hard in 2001, with a divided legislature and a Republican governor, to get it into the budget to begin. Doyle has continued the practice since taking over the governor's office.

Stepp gets the credit -- a clever move to get this in the paper a couple of weeks before she will likely vote for one of the most damaging budgets ever to public education. Her friends on Joint Finance revealed Thursday that they will cut Doyle's public education budget by a devastating $480-million.

---

Stepp is not the only one to pat herself on the back for something someone else accomplished, it appears.

Sheboygan Alderman Bill Stephen writes about State Veterans Affairs Secretary John Scocus writing a letter to the editor praising State Sen. Joe Leibham, R-Sheboygan, for Leibham's "work" on four veterans issues passed by Joint Finance as part of the state budget.

Leibham's "work" consisted of voting, along with the other 15 members of the committee, when the items passed unanimously. The items in question were submitted by Gov. Jim Doyle as part of his budget.

Stephen's column.

Puzzling response on pot decision

-- Larry Wright, Detroit News


You just never know. I guess the import of the Supreme Court medical marijuana ruling got right by me. I thought it was bad news.

The New Republic is happy with the ruling, calling it "a reason to celebrate."

And Kathleen Parker, a columnist I almost never agree with, is unhappy. "Stop beating up on the terminally ill," she says. Link.

Go figure. What am I missing?

This should help offset that "liberal bias"

Front-Runner for Public Broadcast Job Is Former GOP Chair

By Paul Farhi
Washington Post Staff Writer

A former co-chairman of the Republican National Committee is the leading candidate to take over the agency that funds public broadcasting, sparking new concerns among broadcasters about conservative influence over National Public Radio and Public Broadcasting Service programming.

Patricia de Stacy Harrison, a high-ranking official at the State Department, is one of two candidates for the top job at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and is the favored candidate of the CPB's chairman, Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, according to people close to the search. The CPB is a congressionally chartered agency that directs taxpayer funds to PBS, NPR and hundreds of radio and TV stations.

The whole story.

Lautenschlager: Proud to be an activist

No doubt about Atty. Gen. Peg Lautenschlager's message: She's an activist AG. In fact, she described herself as "an activist attorney general" 16 times in her Friday night speech at the state Democratic convention, the Journal Sentinel reported.

She told the newspaper she is "very happy with where" (her campaign) is now," and sees nothing that would stop her from running for re-election, although many Dems think her campaign operation is weak and have doubts about whether she can overcome a drunken driving arrest and a forfeiture she paid for misuse of a state car.

The convention delegates gave her two standing ovations, the JS reported.

Earlier, from WisPolitics convention blog:

AG Fired Up to Run Again

As media and politicians alike continue to question her political viability and future as a candidate, an energetic and politically-charged Peg Lautenschlager seized the attention of the convention -- delivering a heated speech to a roaring crowd, blasting critics and conservatives for labeling her an activist attorney general.

"Do they want a passive one?," she asked.

"If an activist attorney general is one who emphatically believes that now is the time for the war on all public employees to be over - than I am an activist attorney general.

"If an activist attorney general is one who takes tough stands on women's rights, global warming, against the underfunding of child left behind and who calls the law as I see it... consequences and conventional wisdom be damned... I am an activist attorney general.

"I look forward to continuing to serve as your attorney general"

=======================================================
Funny, but I can't remember anyone attacking her for being an activist. Probably just missed it.

More on F. Jim, the Hanging Judiciary Chair

Wonkette checks in with this:

Sensenbrenner Ain't Even Trying to Hear Democrats

Here is what we know about Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner: He's the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, he's wary of free speech, and he could totally give Judge Judy a run for her money. Seriously, at this morning's Judiciary Committee Hearing on the Patriot Act, he was treating colleagues and witnesses like they were small-claims doofuses arguing over some $50 deal gone awry -- no one could get a word in edgewise. Alas, what makes for good TV doesn't always make for good democracy. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz says Sensenbrenner violated the Rules of the House when he ended the meeting abruptly and unilaterally. Sensenbrenner seemed unconcerned with any breach he may have committed, however, and left the room with a swagger in his step and a triumphant bounce in his magnificent chin. — GREG

(earlier post below)

Sensenbrenner abruptly shuts down hearing

UPDATE: One of the Democrats on the Judiciary Committee, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, issues a press release and video clip, saying: “What happened today was not only an attempt to silence Democratic Members of Judiciary, it was a silencing of Democracy in America.” Link.

=======================================================

This from BuzzFlash, one of those left-wing sources F. Jim Sensenbrenner wishes didn't exist. Read the whole story here.

GOP House Judiciary Chair Uses Pinochet Tactics to Abruptly and Unilaterally Shut Down Hearing Into Abuses of the (Un)Patriot Act, Because He Was Afraid the Truth Would Come Out.

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS

This morning, House Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner, Jr. (R-WI) unilaterally and arbitrarily shut down committee hearings on the reauthorization of the Patriot Act without comment or issuing a statement. Sensenbrenner gaveled the committee hearings in the middle of witnesses testifying about human and civil rights abuses at Guantanamo Bay, racial profiling of individuals of Middle Eastern descent, prolonged detentions of Americans after September 11th and other abuses.

The suppression of free speech and testimony in the congressional committee in charge of protecting our civil liberties shows the Republican’s power grab has no limits and no decency. The irony was not lost on anyone.
=====================================================

Here's another report from Mark Williams at www.Dembloggers.com:

This morning Rep. Sensenbrenner, the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee was leading a committee hearing looking into the renewal of Patriot Act.

Mr. Sensenbrenner decided that he didn't like the tone of the meeting and simply got up and left but not before he criticized the witnesses who came and gave their testimony to the committee.

After he left the microphones were switched on and off while the Democratic members of the committee continued to discuss the renewal of the Patriot Act. Video of Sensenbrenner's lecture, adjournment, and aftermath with criticism from Dem committee members.

Culture wars coming soon to a school near you?

SpongeJohn GardPants

If I thought our leader SpongeJohn GardPants wouldn't hear about it anyway, I wouldn't bring this up.

But, since it's in the New York Times, it's probably not a secret that the battlefield over gay rights has moved into some public school classrooms.

One target is sex education programs that actually mention homosexuality -- as though it had anything to do with sex. Oh, the horror!

The other is after-school programs that bring gay and straight students together to share experiences and concerns and maybe get to understand one another a little better. Apparently there is some concern that the straight students might be infected with homosexuality if there are any handshakes involved.

The lunacy is spreading. And you won't be surprised to hear that our old friends, the Alliance Defense Fund, is busily engaged in making our school safe for straight students.

"This spring, in one instance of the conservative response, the Alliance Defense Fund organized its first national Day of Truth for high school students uncomfortable with the National Day of Silence, an event sponsored for nine years by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network to protest discrimination in schools," the Times reports.

"We needed to present a counter or Christian perspective," said Mr. Johnson, whose event attracted participation by 340 schools."

What is the Christian perspective on discrimination in the schools? Pro-discrimination?

The Alliance Defense Fund may ring a bell with you because it is the group that GardPants and his allies engaged to represent the legislature in a lawsuit, opposing any benefits for domestic partners of state employees. One of the Alliance's bigwigs is the one who suggested that SpongeBob SquarePants might, in fact, be gay.

The school culture wars are spreading rapidly, the Times reports. With the GardPants-Alliance Defense Fund connection, Wisconsin is probably not far behind.

Lautenschlager spin control falls short

Spivak and Bice write today about the coming departure of two key staffers to AG Peg Lautenschlager, first reported here on Thursday.

There's a lot of spin offered by Lautenschlager's team, most of it unsuccessfully. It's hard to make a believable case when, as S&B reveal, late Wednesday afternoon the AG's people had denied that anyone was leaving.

Late Thursday afternoon, her office announced staff changes in a press release.

I'm tagged by the Spice Boys as taking my cue from the governor on this. I guess once you work for Doyle you are permanently incapable of any independent thought. He apparently exercises some kind of mind control.

But I don't need Doyle to tell me Lautenschlager's campaign is in deep trouble, or how disastrous it would be to lose the AG's office. That, believe it or not, is what motivates me to keep pushing on this issue. As Tommy Thompson found out, having an AG of the opposite party across the hall can make life very difficult. The fact that the GOP is running the legislature makes it worse. And, contrary to the Cap Times' line, AG is a partisan office. I want the Democrats to keep it.

Disgruntled Dems should recognize Doyle is their last, best & only defense

As Wisconsin Democrats gear up for their state convention in Oshkosh this weekend, there are, as usual, some who are disgruntled over Gov. Jim Doyle's record and performance. Mostly, it's that he has not been liberal enough to suit them, especially on taxes/spending (the budget, in other words) and environmental issues.

"After all these years of waiting," the refrain goes, "we finally elect a Democrat as governor and then we're still disappointed. What's the difference?"

Whether it was by design or accident, a recent Doyle letter to his supporters and donors took on that very question.

Let's allow Doyle a little space to make his own case:

"And just what difference does it make that today I am Governor of Wisconsin?

"As you are painfully aware, Republicans who control both houses of our Legislature have a dramatically different set of priorities.

"Allow me to give you just a few quick examples.

"In the past session Republicans passed and sent to my desk legislation that would allow almost anyone to carry concealed weapons almost anywhere -- in shopping malls, playgrounds, crowded theaters or county fairs.

"I was proud to stand with our law enforcement professionals when I vetoed this dangerous assault on public safety.

"The Republican majorities also passed vindictive legislation to undermine collective bargaining rights and tilt the scales against working people. They tried to eliminate 4-year-old kindergarten and reverse our commitment to smaller class sizes.

"And ignoring the wisdom of past leaders of both parties, they tried to slash Stewardship land preservation by $245 million and force the state to sell off land it currently protects for future generations.

"Each time I vetoed these assaults on Wisconsin values and common sense.

"But each of these threats remains active today, as do cynical attempts to distract voters from real issues by redefining marriage again or confusing our Constitution with reckless fiscal policy like the so-called Taxpayers Bill of Rights.

"Time and again, I have simply had to stand firm on principle -- despite the political costs.

"I've stopped their cynical efforts to force my mother to produce a photo I.D. to exercise her right to vote -- despite the bumper sticker appeal and talk-radio obsession with new voting hurdles.

"Instead, I've laid out a comprehensive program to improve the way our elections are conducted top to bottom -- through improved voter lists, better technology, better training and additional resources to guarantee that nobody will be forced to wait hours in line.

"And instead of their so-called property tax "freeze" that would devastate our schools and local services, I've crafted a responsible freeze to contain property taxes while continuing to invest in the cornerstones of our civic life.

"In contrast to their bumper sticker posturing, I've provided balanced budgets and a balanced approach to getting our economy moving again.

"Of course, their ability to pander on poll-tested fads is matched only by GOP eagerness to cater to powerful patrons or fringe zealots far outside the mainstream.

"For example, zealots in the Legislature also are trying to surrender Wisconsin's place at the forefront of stem cell research, crushing hope for those who need cures while driving away some of the best jobs of the future.

"And while lawmakers have increased their own pay seven times and $6,500 since the last increase in the minimum wage, Republicans played games for months to delay or prevent a meaningful increase in the minimum wage.

"Clearly, there are two very different visions of where we go from here.

"I know you understand what a very different place Wisconsin would be right now if we didn't have a Democratic governor with the power to block this radical agenda."

That's quite a list. Education. Stewardship. Collective bargaining rights. Guns. Minimum Wage. Voting rights. Stem cell research. Voting rights. Gay partnerships. TABOR.

The list will get longer when the Republicans have finished their work on the state budget, and Doyle's veto is the only thing to prevent dozens of other bad ideas from becoming law. He's had to do some heavy lifting and spend political capital -- and there's more to come.

Yes, most of it is playing defense. His detractors complain that he hasn't introduced a lot of progressive legislation, like restoring the public intervenor, that would go straight to some legislative committee's bottom drawer.

But before Democrats talk of sitting on their hands in 2006, or half-heartedly supporting Doyle, or even flirting with a third-party candidate, they need a reality check.

For now and for the foreseeable future, Doyle is all they've got.

Like him or not, Jim Doyle is the only thing standing in the way of a total takeover of this state by the right-wing extremists who control both houses of the legislature.

There is a remote chance the Dems could pick up four seats and take control of the State Senate, but that is a monumental undertaking and everything would have to fall into place. The Assembly, where the GOP margin is 60-39, is a long-term project.

So we've got the governorship, if we can keep it. Those who think there would be no difference between Governor Doyle and a Governor Walker or Governor Green should hope they never get to find out. It would not be pretty, and it would take a long, long time to undo the damage.

Who you calling a filibuster, Buster?

This depressing news from Taegan Goddard's Political Wire:

Defining Filibuster

A new poll found that 61% of Americans could not describe or define a "filibuster," while 4% identified it as a medical procedure and 2% said it was a sports team.For those still unclear, the Senate web site has a good backgrounder.

Kind of makes you want to use the nuclear option.

An idea whose time hasn't come

A proposed constitutional amendment by State Rep. Marlin Schneider, D-Wisconsin Rapids, will go to the Assembly floor after a 3-3 committee vote. If approved by the legislature twice and then by the voters, it would extend State Senate terms from 4 years to 6, and State Assembly terms from 2 to 4.

State Rep. Steve Freese, R-Dodgeville, said he supported it because the voters "are tired of the campaigning all the time."

Some people are tired of campaigns. Others are tired of legislators looking out for themselves instead of the people who send them there. And some are just tired of their legislators.

I'd love to run the referendum campaign against this one if it ever gets on the ballot.

Is Michael Jackson the reason Bush's push on Social Security is failing?

Well, you wouldn't think so -- unless you were a Fox News interviewer with a chance for a one-on-one with the President.


By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Thursday, June 9, 2005; 1:24 PM

Thanks to Fox News's exclusive interview with President Bush yesterday, the leader of the free world is now on the record when it comes to John Kerry's Yale grades, Laura Bush's presidential aspirations and -- yes -- the Michael Jackson trial's effect on public policy discourse.

Who wants to talk about that messy war in Iraq, or the Downing Street Memo? Not Neil Cavuto, Fox News executive, anchor, commentator and Bush campaign contributor.
Read the rest

Lautenschlager losing key staffersas her campaign continues to struggle

UPDATE: NICHOLS WEIGHS IN. John Nichols of the Capital Times calls on Dems to unite behind Lautenschlager this weekend. She's done a good job, he says, and has always been very popular with Democrats. Kathleen Falk should either get in or get out of the race, Nichols says. He doesn't mention whether he thinks Lautenschlager can win next year, which is the main reason many Dems think she should step aside. Nichols and others say the issue is her independence. Actually, it is her electability and what it will do to the Democratic party and progressive politics if we lose that important office. Nichols column.

UPDATE: LAUTENSCHLAGER SPIN CONTROL FALLS SHORT. Friday Xoff post
=====================================================

Beleaguered Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager, beset by problems, down in the polls, and short of cash, has another woe to add to her list -- the planned departure of two key staff members.

Lautenschlager continues to insist that she will run again and win re-election next year, all indications to the contrary. But she is about to lose both her campaign manager and her spokesman in the AG's office, and neither will be easy to replace.

In Lautenschlager's world view, polls don't matter, the money will come later, and she will be rehabilitated with the voters after personally prosecuting the high profile case against Chai Vang, charged with killing six hunters.

Lautenschlager's problems are both personal and political. A highly-publicized drunk driving arrest, complete with video, was very damaging. The way she handled it compounded the problem. And a rash of stories questioning her use of a state car added to the misery.

Those problems all pale in comparison with her diagnosis of breast cancer, followed by surgery and chemotherapy. That kind of challenge puts politics into perspective, and she was determined to do her job, illness, bald head, and all. That gutsy performance undoubtedly helped her, but did not erase the very real political problems she faces.

WisPolitics reported on an April poll, done by a number of Democratic groups, in which respondents gave her only a 23 per cent positive rating against 34 negative. (With only 5% "very positive" and 18% "very negative.")

That is starting in a pretty deep hole, although Campaign Manager Michael Murphy gave it his best spin: "As we all know, the only poll that really matters is the poll on Election Day. Peg is working towards 2006 and she is going to raise the money she needs to win."

Her fundraising up until then had been anemic, although she was predicting people would have a more positive view when they see her next report in July, covering the last six months. But there is little evidence she has raised any substantial money, and the potential entry of Kathleen Falk into the race has probably made many Democrats sit on their wallets until things become clear.

In January, Lautenschlager hired Scot Ross, a Wisconsin political veteran who had been research director last year for America Coming Together (ACT), as her communications director in the Justice Dept., to shore up that office and try to turn the corner on media coverage.

Ross is leaving, but being patient while a search for his replacement continues. He's wanted for some time to establish a non-profit research organization to help move the progressive agenda in Wisconsin, and presumably is going to do something along those lines.

Murphy, whom Lautenschlager hired this spring as campaign manager, also is looking to leave soon for another political job, as yet unspecified. Murphy has had the unenviable job of overseeing Lautenschlager's fundraising and defending her prospects.

No one is irreplaceable, of course. And nothing is insurmountable. (How about a chorus of "Climb Every Mountain"?)

But Lautenschlager faces a very steep climb. She will probably get a positive reception at the Democratic state convention in Oshkosh this weekend. But she has been in politics long enough and has enough savvy to recognize that the folks in Oshkosh are not the general electorate. Her campaign may peak in Oshkosh.

For her own sake and the sake of Wisconsin's progressives, she should take a hard, realistic look at whether she can win this race. There is no sign she has done that to date.

Anti-Doyle ads pulled

UPDATE: Reality check by WISC-TV News in Madison finds the commercial misleading. Report.

A negative television commercial attacking Gov. Jim Doyle has been pulled by its sponsor, the Coalition for American Families, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin said late Wednessday afternoon.

The commercial falsely claimed that Doyle wanted to raise hunting and fishing fees to pay for health benefits for domestic partners and lower tuition for illegal immigrants.

The Democratic Party wrote TV stations in Milwaukee, Madison and Green Bay on Wednesday asking them to stop running the commercial because it was false. At 3:15 p.m., the party said, the Coalition told the stations to stop airing them. The ad just started to run on Monday and was to run at least until the end of next week.

“The Coalition for American Families got caught using blatantly false information in their ads,” said Kim Warkentin, Executive Director of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. “We hope that this sends a message to these shadowy, anonymous groups that this kind of dirty politics will not be tolerated in Wisconsin.”

An earlier post on the ads.

Morning-after pills, the Army way

While pro-pregnancy forces (time we re-frame the debate) try to stop the University of Wisconsin clinics from dispensing morning-after birth control pills to students, Stars and Stripes reports that Army hospitals routinely make them available on request.

We can only hope that W and his evangelical posse don't find out.

Stars and Stripes story.

Meanwhile, an Assembly committee voted to ban the pills from UW campus clinics. Pro-Pregnancy Wisconsin release

Amnesty International and the G-word

Editor Matt Rothschild of The Progressive says Amnesty International is under attack by the Bush administration's biggest guns. Why?

"Amnesty International, along with Human Rights Watch, Human Rights First, the ACLU, and the Center for Constitutional Rights, has been performing a vital service in drawing attention to the illegality of the Bush Administration policies: the indefinite detention of tens of thousands of people without charge; the grotesque torture of some of them at Abu Ghraib, Bagram Air Force Base, Guantanamo, and elsewhere; and the murder—yes, murder—of more than two dozen detainees at the hands of U.S. soldiers, guards, or interrogators." Rothschild column.

WAS THE GULAG CHARGE A MISTAKE? Howard Kurtz on the G-word in the Washington Post.

Our "economic ecosystem"

Watch for the Journal Sentinel, which basically introduced the idea in the first place, to continue to gush over a regional economic development strategy designed to bring growth to "Milwaukee" -- in the broader sense of Milwaukee.

"Milwaukee" encompasses seven counties in this plan, on the theory that everyone benefits even if the development and jobs go somewhere else.

Michael Grebe, speaking for the Greater Milwaukee Committee (chaired by Journal Communications President Steve Smith), told a Waukesha County audience that the idea is "to strengthen the region's 'economic ecosystem create jobs, lower unemployment, foster an entrepreneurial spirit, attract venture capital and lower taxes."

Everybody wants to be for cooperation and pro-development, so the skids may be greased for this one. Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett is already on board.

But, as one urban friend noted this morning, the counterfeit "ecosystem's" progress will need plenty of new highways and fresh water to succeed, while the real ecosystem gets paved and drained. But the steamroller is already started up. Story.

Another of my friends likes to say that "Repetition is the mother of learning," as he tells you something he's already said. In that spirit, here is an earlier post on the subject, titled, "Spare us the Milwaukee-suburban lovefest." Link.

Study finds Milwaukee doesn't exist

Here's a piece of bad news for the new regional effort to brand Milwaukee: A new study of city sustainability apparently has concluded that Milwaukee doesn't exist.

"San Francisco, Portland, Ore., Berkeley, Calif., and Seattle took the top four spots in a new ranking of 25 U.S. cities based on sustainability practices," the online environmental magazine Grist reports. A Bay Area green group. SustainLane, created the list after scrutinizing the metropolises based on 12 criteria, including air quality, transportation, green building, and land use. Detroit was second to last and Houston the big loser."

Madison came in right in the middle at #13.

And Milwaukee was not even included, for reasons no one bothered to explain. The cities chosen were 100,000 or more population (except Santa Monica, which got an exemption because they liked it, apparently.) But Milwaukee, several times the size of Madison and some of the others, didn't rate a look.

The worst part is this quote on the group's website: "There is an old saying: "If it isn't measured, it doesn't exist."

So what's their message to Milwaukee?

Here's the site, where you can see what they had to say about Madison. Link

Maybe Dean is on to something

The usual Republican demographics on display (see next post)

Hold page one!

Wonkette strikes again:

Dean Outs Republicans

Truly shocking news out of California, courtesy of Drudge:

In S.F., Dean calls GOP 'a white Christian party'

In other news, NOW members described as 'liberal feminists'! College professors called 'intellectuals'! NASCAR fans turn out to be 'middle class Americans'! SKY TOTALLY BLUE!!!!!

Developing!

It's always something

As if the news weren't bad enough, with violence erupting in Iraq, the Middle East, and Uzbekistan, General Motors laying off 25,000 workers, North Korea building nuclear weapons, and more -- just when you think things couldn't get any worse, you open today's newspaper and discover:

-- Some high schools are getting flawed diploma covers from their supplier, with graduation ceremonies looming. Just imagine!! Read the 28-inch story yourself here.

-- Whitefish Bay residents have an ever bigger problem -- weeds are growing in the median!! You can find out the details in this 22-inch story, plus photo, here.

As my mother used to say, "There's always something to take the joy out of life."

Election fraud in Town of Herman

Did you know there are places in Wisconsin where you not only don't need an ID to vote, but don't even need to register? In some small towns and rural areas, you just show up and sign the voter list to get your ballot.

It's the "Friends" version of voting. Everybody knows your name. (A reader correctly points out I meant "Cheers.")

Now comes the news that the Town of Herman, in Shawano County, had a discrepancy of nearly 25% between the number of votes cast and the number reported. George W. Bush was credited with an extra 100 votes.

And photo IDs would not have helped one whit.

No one's screaming voter fraud about the 25% discrepancy. It's human error. In Milwaukee, where the Republicans say it must be fraud, the discrepancy is about 2.5%. Story

History repeats itself

Does this sound familiar?

"He was one of those rare men who believed almost to the point of mental illness in his own righteousness.

[The President] "believed in fact that his will and spirit were informed by the will and hope of a people and even of God. He talked of his 'sympathetic connection which I am sure that I have with' all American citizens, and said: 'I am sure that my heart speaks the same thing they wish their hearts to speak. I will not cry "peace" so long as there is sin and wrong in the world,' he went on. 'America was born to exemplify that devotion to the elements of righteousness which are derived from the revelations of the Holy Scripture.'

"He is probably the only American president to have held to this belief with quite such conviction, with no sign of self-doubt. It is a trait more associated with crusaders than politicians."

The president in question was Woodrow Wilson as the U.S. entered World War I, described by John M. Barry in The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History, a non-fiction bestseller which somehow found its way onto my fiction-heavy reading list.

BUSH OUT OF TOUCH. Yesterday's ABC News/Washington Post poll could give Bush some reason for self-doubt, with a solid majority saying they disagree with his priorities and positions on a wide range of issues.

Shameless free plug

I am told by a reliable but unnamed source that the second edition of The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Government has just come off the press.

I don't usually plug stuff, and don't have any advertising, but the co-author, Melanie Fonder, is the governor's press secretary. Who knows, maybe she could turn out to be a source some day.

So if you buy one, say it's for someone else, so you don't look like a complete idiot. (I don't know what that says about the authors. Takes one to know one? I know you are but what am I? Etc.) Amazon.com link

So, Sheriff Clarke, just what are you today?

What a remarkable treatise by Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke, entitled, "How One Becomes A Republican."

Clarke, who pretended to be a Democrat to get elected sheriff, has never come out as a Republican. As I read this, he still isn't willing to say it. (It's not "How I Became a Republican," you'll note.)

He tells us how Condoleeza Rice switched parties (She didn't like Carter's war in Afghanistan. Does she still think Bush gives better war?)

Rice's father became a Republican, he claims, because Democrats were trying to prevent him from voting. (If he's still alive, it it time to switch, since the GOP is trying to suppress black votes today.)

And then we get this drivel:

"I see some parallels with my own introduction into politics. President George W. Bush inspired me. Although I never had connections to any political party, I have been shaped by the conservative values that my mother and father instilled in me. Virtues like character, integrity, loyalty, faith, courage, patriotism, responsibility and commitment. Virtues are defined as a “beneficial quality.” My parents reminded me that virtues are fixed and unchanging.

I naively believed that the Democratic Party welcomed minorities. I was terribly mistaken. I didn’t fit their stereotype. I don’t blame black underachievement on racism; I favor self-reliance over government social service programs. They want all blacks to think alike. They want blind allegiance, even for things I don’t believe in. Sorry. I was raised to think for myself. I show blind obedience only to God.

What I’ve learned from Republicans is that joining the Party is only symbolic. Being conservative really means having a core set of beliefs and sticking by them, even in a sea of critics. Sort of like what President Reagan and Rev. Rice stood for. Come to think of it, that’s what my parents meant when they told me that virtues are fixed and unchanging.

And he concludes, believe it or not, with Lincoln freed the slaves. Read it yourself

So, this raises some interesting questions, some of which I raised in my earlier post, "David Clarke is no Zell Miller, and it's not because he's black."

Such as, if Clarke was inspired by George W. Bush, why didn't he have the courage to say that when he was on the ballot, masquerading as a Democrat? For a guy who preaches about personal responsibility and moral courage, he sure seems a little weak in the intestinal fortitude department -- not to mention honesty.

And how would he have any idea how welcoming the Democratic Party might have been, since he never took the first step in that direction to find out, despite the urging of many in his campaign?

David Clarke is a fraud who got elected under false colors and still isn't able to say directly, when writing in praise of Republicans, that he is a Republican himself.

The more things change ...

... the more they stay the same.

Two pieces of evidence:

1. The announcement today of the formation of a new, self-described centrist organization to have an impact on Madison politics. It's called the Common Sense Coalition. I still have good recall of the 1979 mayor's race in Madison, when a new organization sought to play a key role. It was called the Common Sense Coalition.

2. Today, the 40th anniversary of a court decision giving married couples the right to use birth control (!), the decision is still under attack from the religious right and right-to-lifers, who say it led to all sorts of things, like a right to privacy and eventually to Roe v. Wade. And here I thought birth control prevented abortions. After 40 years, get over it.

"Most Will Be Mentally Ill at Some Point"

Click on chart to enlarge


Well, this story goes a long ways toward explaining some election results, not to mention how the legislature operates.

NY Times story

A dose of Durst

New feature at The Progressive website: Quick quips from humorist Will Durst.

Today's sample:

Quite a shock to find out the identity of Deep Throat. For those of us who lived through Nixon, it seems like only yesterday the White House was lying to cover up a bungled mission. Oh wait, it was only yesterday. Link.

Stem cell resolution coming? They say yes

I hope you're not getting bored with the stem cell issue, because I have no plans to quit writing about it. It is truly one of today's cutting edge issues, and one that needs to be resolved.

Although people and groups on both sides of the abortion issue have taken positions on stem cells, the issue is not as clear-cut, even for the churches, the AP's Richard Ostling reports. Unlike abortion, on which emotions run high 30+ years after Roe v. Wade, the stem cell issue may have a shorter run. We can only hope.

Two very different opinion pieces I read yesterday reach the conclusion -- for very different reasons -- that the stem cell debate may not be long-lived, and that resolution may be coming.

Tom Still, president of the Wisconsin Technology Council, believes that ethical guidelines are making it more difficult for opponents of embryonic stem cell research to win the argument. He points to votes in the Congress and Wisconsin's Joint Finance Committee as evidence that public officials may be getting in step with public opinion.

And Still says guidelines from the National Academies of Science also take the edge of the arguments. Those guidelines include:

--Stem cell donors (couples who have created excess embryos at in vitro fertilization clinics, or egg and sperm donors) have provided consent, acknowledging that their embryos may be used to produce stem cells.

--Donors are not paid.

--Donors are informed they have the right to withdraw their consent at any point before a stem cell line is derived.

--Donors are informed that research involving their stem cells may have commercial potential, but they will not have in any financial benefit.

--Researcher should not ask fertility doctors to create more embryos than necessary for reproductive treatments.

--Each institution involved in stem cell research should create an advisory board to oversee the work.

"Those guidelines (which are essentially identical to what’s already taking place at UW-Madison) are inspiring confidence among policymakers who fear that practices used in some nations might become the norm here," Still says. "It may also explain why recent polls have shown that two-thirds of Americans support human embryonic stem cell research, so long as it takes place under ethical guidelines."Still's article on WisBusiness.

Meanwhile, science writer Rich Weiss at the Washington Post writes that scientific advances may be what changes or even ends the debate.

Weiss reports:

In recent months, a number of researchers have begun to assemble intriguing evidence that it is possible to generate embryonic stem cells without having to create or destroy new human embryos.

The research is still young and largely unpublished, and in some cases it is limited to animal cells. Scientists doing the work also emphasize their desire to have continued access to human embryos for now. It is largely by analyzing how nature makes stem cells, deep inside days-old embryos, that these researchers are learning how to make the cells themselves.

Yet the gathering consensus among biologists is that embryonic stem cells are made, not born -- and that embryos are not an essential ingredient. That means that today's heated debates over embryo rights could fade in the aftermath of technical advances allowing scientists to convert ordinary cells into embryonic stem cells.

Obviously, that is some time in the future, if it comes true. But Weiss knows his subject, and offers a new perspective as we continue to wrestle with this contentious issue. Weiss column.

GOP eating their own -- again?

It's hard for Democrats to imagine this, but State Sen.Mary Lazich is in trouble for not being conservative enough.

The right-wing of the party has been upset with her for some time over things like voting for the "wrong" (read more moderate) majority leader candidate -- and then lying about it, which was ill-advised.

She has not been enthusiastic about the so-called Taxpayer Bill of Rights, and has committed other sins only a wingnut would recognize. She's called a RINO (Republican in Name Only) by WTMJ's Charlie Sykes.

Will she be the next victim of intra-party bloodletting? The right wing took Mary Panzer out of the State Senate in a primary, and now Dennis York, a conservative Madison blogger who writes like he's in the know, says there may be a January recall for Lazich. Link.

Wouldn't that be loverly?

'Nixon Henchmen Lecture Us on Ethics'

Cartoon by Tim Menees, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Read Martin Schramm column in Newsday:

"Richard Nixon's ex-convicts - who did jail time for their crimes against democracy and then profited from their crimes by writing books and becoming celebrities - returned to work one more con. "

(Hat tip to Talking Points Memo)

Needed: A pro-cure movement

Newsweek editor Jonathan Alter asks: Who will take the lead to put together a "pro-cure" movement to support embryonic stem cell research and its potential to fight disease?

Short piece and worth a read. Good question. Link.

Hey, you can't say that!

This license plate was revoked, but you can buy it on e-Bay, with starting bid of $5,000

Wonkette has the story.

Who's funding the anti-Doyle campaign?

A new anti-Doyle television commercial begins today, hoping to make people who hunt and fish think their license fees will go to pay for benefits for gay partners of state workers.

The tone of the ad, featuring two fishermen, is light. But the message is not subtle: Doyle wants to raise your taxes and fees to give money to GAYS!

More of what we are coming to expect from the Coalition for American Families, which first ran a racially-charged TV spot making it sound like Doyle wanted to spend hundreds of millions to give tuition breaks to illegal immigrants, then followed up with a radio commercial bashing both immigrants and gays.

The new spot has almost nothing to do with reality.

Hunting and fish license money goes into a segregated fund at the DNR to pay for -- guess what? -- costs related to hunting and fishing, not some health insurance plan like GayCare.

The domestic partner benefits proposed by Doyle already have been eliminated from the state budget by Joint Finance.

But why let the facts get in the way when you can play gays off against hunters and fishermen? Patrick Marley's Journal Sentinel story has more.

The story doesn't tell you who's funding this new group, headed by former Republican State Chairman Steve King. The organization, which had been inactive since the 2004 election cycle, when it ran negative commercials against two Democratic state senators, came back with a splash a few weeks ago.

When the first ad began running, King said the group was spending "tens of thousands" of dollars on it. Actually, the four-week television buy in the state's three biggest media markets (Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay), is costing hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The ads are clearly not intended to influence the state budget. If you take their advice and call Jim Doyle to tell him "no new taxes," it's not going to have any impact on the budget. These ads are all about beginning to try to weaken Doyle in advance of his reelection campaign next year.

So who's footing the bill? The group doesn't have to disclose its donors, although there is nothing to prevent King from doing so.

One of the first names to come to mind when Democrats hear about this kind of activity is Terry Kohler, the wealthy right-winger who, with his wife, Mary, have given hundreds of thousands of dollars to conservative causes. It would be surprising if the Kohlers were not donors to King's group.

But who else? Persistent Capitol rumors last week pointed to bankers, Realtors, and Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC), although all of them will deny it if you ask.

In a release titled, "Watergate Lesson #1: Follow the Money," the Wisconsin Democratic Party says: "It is time for groups like the Wisconsin Realtors Association, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, and the Wisconsin Bankers Association -- who commonly fund these types of ads -- to condemn this racist and despicable ad campaign. Their notable silence about these ads to date is rather revealing."

King's Coalition for American Families can provide cover to such groups, whose members might not support such a divisive advertising campaign, and shield the groups from having to take any responsibility -- or any heat -- for what they're doing.

Given WISN radio talker Mark Belling's ongoing problems with the Hispanic community after using a racial slur on his program, with threats to boycott the station and Belling's advertisers, imagine the wrath that might be directed by Latinos against businesses who would pay for the anti-immigrant commercial. Or consider the pressure the gay community could bring.

So the well-funded, anonymous campaign merrily rolls along, with few questions asked and none answered.

Even Mike McCabe, the head of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, who's usually quick to come to a full boil of outrage, seemed muted in his quote in the JS story. "The public should be suspicious and skeptical when they're bombarded with ads from groups with motherhood-and-apple-pie-sounding names telling them what they should think about the state budget," he said.

You don't think the Democracy Campaign is paying for the ads, do you?

Watch the ad
Script

Curb your Deep Throat enthusiasm

Larry David, creator of Seinfeld and "star" of HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm, tells of his encounters with Deep Throat in an op ed in the NY Times.

A joke, and a wedge of stem cells

-- Larry Wright in the Detroit News


"Oh, what's the big deal about Deep Throat?" Bush told his advisers. "I was in her fan club years ago!" And in related news, today he fired the Number Two official at the FBI. -- David Corn, Washington editor of The Nation.

But seriously, folks, read his column about whether stem cell research can be a wedge issue for the Democrats. David Corn blog.

No safe nuclear disposal, no more nukes

While President Bush continues to try to rejuvenate the nuclear power industry, at taxpayer expense, of course, a NY Times story Sunday dramatically illustrates why that vision remains problematic.

There is still no safe, long-term method to dispose of the deadly waste generated by nuclear power plants, and we keep producing more of it every day.

With the proposed Yucca Mountain site looking more like it won't happen, the latest great idea is to keep the waste in storage casks around the country. That is reminiscent of the pipe dream 25 years ago that the waste would somehow be fused into glass cubes that you could safely just tuck under your coffee table.

Some of the waste is so deadly and has such a long half-life that it needs to be kept out of the environment for 250,000 years. Storage casks just won't cut it.

The message to the government and the industry must be clear, and apparently needs to be repeated: No safe disposal? No more nukes.

NYT story.

Post-Memorial Day mopup

Today's e-mail brought two things I wish I had recieved in time for Memorial Day. But I'll share them now and not wait a year.

From a Marine comrade, a moving photo tribute to Vietnam vets.

And from a political friend, a Chickhawk update:

"The excellent web site, The New Hampshire Gazette, hosts the Chickenhawk Database, which defines a Chickenhawk as follows: Chickenhawk n. A person enthusiastic about war, provided someone else fights it; particularly when that enthusiasm is undimmed by personal experience with war; most emphatically when that lack of experience came in spite of ample opportunity in that person's youth.

"Based on that, let's remind ourselves of just how few of our leaders (and proponents of the Iraq war) ever actually wore the uniform themselves when given the opportunity.

The Chickenhawk Elites:

George W. Bush; President. Yes, he allegedly did hard time in the steaming jungles of Alabama, but there's not a thinking person in the country who actually believes he fulfilled his military obligation. Sorry, he's the Chickenhawk in Chief.

Richard "Dick" Cheney; Vice President

Karl Rove; Senior White House Adviser

Donald Rumsfeld; Secretary of Defense

Paul Wolfowitz; Deputy Secretary for Defense (Head of World Bank effective June 1)

Rep. Tom "The Exterminator" DeLay (R-TX); House Majority Leader

Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-IL); Speaker Of The House of Representatives

Sen. Chester Trent Lott (R-MS); Former Senate Majority Leader; Still Cracker in Chief

Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO); House Majority Whip

Andrew "Andy" Card; White House Chief of Staff

Asa Hutchinson; Under Secretary for Border and Transportation Security

Richard Perle; Former Chair of the Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee and Chief
Architect of Iraq War

Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA); Georgia Senator who got himself elected by trashing the courage and patriotism of incumbent, Democrat Max Cleland, who lost three limbs serving his country in Vietnam.

John Bolton; Super Hawk, Bad Diplomat and Wannabe U.N. Ambassador

More Chickenhawks, in the media and the judiciary, on the site.

Happy birthday, Mr. Environment

Gaylord A. Nelson

One of the nation's living treasures, Gaylord A. Nelson, is 89 years old today.

Wisconsin governor and U.S. Senator. Protector of the Apostle Islands and St. Croix River. The genius behind Wisconsin's Stewardship program. Father of Earth Day. A principled progressive who fought for civil rights, enlisted in the War on Poverty, and stood up to Joe McCarthy, the House Un-American Activities Committee and the Nixon White House to defend our civil liberties. An earlier and outspoken opponent of the Vietnam War.

Recipient of the Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award, and honored with a place on the Richard Nixon Enemies List. A remarkable, genuine, caring human being.

Happy birthday, Gaylord.

Self-criticism is hard to do

OK, you're a newspaper editor and you get a report saying many of the stories you have been running about beach pollution wrongly blame the paper's favorite target, sewage dumping from MMSD, when the likely cause is a number of other factors.

You decide to do a story about it, even though your own paper is being criticized. Good for one point.

Who do you assign it to? The same reporters who wrote the articles that are being criticized in the report. Minus one point.

What do they do? They report the criticism, but also show some initiative and go out and dig up a few sources who disagree with the conclusion. Another minus.

There are rare occasions, and this is one, when you actually wish for a newspaper obmudsman.

Here's the report. And here is the story.

No budget action on the weekend

Members of the Joint Finance Committee take a well-deserved break after finishing Friday's heavy lifting on the state budget. They'll be back on Monday, refreshed and ready to go.

Wal-Mart health care coverup

While Wisconsin discusses whether it should take some action to make Wal-Mart pay its fair share for its workers who get their health benefits from BadgerCare and Medicaid, at taxpayer expense, (Earlier post) people in Minnesota can't even find out how many Wal-Marters there are on the state-paid health plan.

There's a bill to make that info available, but guess what? Wal-Mart is fighting it. Story

For your viewing pleasure

A Comedy Central version of where those Bush speeches and statements come from. Well worth watching. Link to video.

-- Joe Heller in Green Bay Press Gazette 

More stem cell madness -- UPDATED

ANOTHER UPDATE: NO MOTION TODAY. WisPol budget blog reports there will be no action today. Wisconsin Right to Life seems to have jumped the gun and overplayed its hand. Budget blog

In a statement, Sen. Scott Fitzgerald said the budget was the wrong place for that kind of policy issue, and that a separate bill would be introduced soon. That will allow for involvement by the public, which supports stem cell research, but right-to-life groups have a lot of clout in the legislature. They may not have had enough to get 9 votes from Joint Finance, however, which would be another explanation for Fitzgerald's decision.

-----------------------------------------------
Wisconsin Republicans continue their drive to be the most closed-minded, right wing ideologues in the country, with a new proposal now to stop or greatly restrict stem cell research.

State Sen. Scott (Gatsby) Fitzgerald says he will try to put a provision in the state budget to make it illegal to use taxpayer funds or state buildings for embryonic stem cell research, and would prohibit state employees from doing such research. Story.

Like the Taxpayer Bill of Rights proposal from last summer, Fitzgerald's idea is one that hasn't even been written down yet, but he could ask Joint Finance to vote on it today. That would conveniently prevent any public input, since the public overwhelming supports embryonic stem cell research.

UPDATE: In case you had any doubt about who's driving this issue, the WisPolitics budget blog reports: There's a light agenda today, but it could get complicated as Wisconsin Right to Life and sympathetic legislators are pushing committee members to introduce a motion that would prohibit the use of state funds or facilities for stem cell research. But a source close to the committee said while the motion could be brought up during deliberations on the Building Commission budget, there's no certainty that it will be. "Right to Life kind of jumped the gun yesterday with those press releases because nothing is even drafted," said the source. "We don't know what the motion really does, and we don't even know if there's nine votes to get it out of committee."

What's especially stupid about Wisconsin Repubs taking this hard line is that Wisconsin is a pioneer in embryonic stem cell research, on the cutting edge, and could benefit greatly from it. The research will be done somewhere. The more barriers they erect in Wisconsin, the more the money, the research, and the jobs will go to other states, which have noted the dawn of the 21st Century.

It's not fair to lump all Republicans together on this, although Assembly Republicans were almost unanimous in adopting an amendment prohibiting companies which did such research from receiving economic development tax credits from the state.

Rep. Dean Kaufert , who co-chairs Joint Finance with Fitzgerald, said he opposes Fitzgerald's idea.

"I'm holding out hope that this type of research unlocks the door to find the cure for a lot of things," he said. "I understand where people want to put a firewall between taxpayer money and private investment, but . . . there's a lot of promise and hope with this research, and I'm not going to stand in the way."

Fitzgerald and Co. are responding to the hard core anti-abortion fanatics who somehow believe that embryos are little babies waiting to be born. In fact, there are 400,000 surplus embryos which will be destroyed -- not adopted -- if the donors do not agree to let them be used for research.

Embryonic stem cell research holds the promise of improving, prolonging, and perhaps even saving the lives of people suffering from Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, spinal cord injuries, diabetes and a host of other serious health problems for people who already have been born.

Let's hope there are enough rational Republicans in the legislature to defeat this short-sighted proposal. If not, of course, there's always the veto, which Gov. Doyle will use in a heartbeat.

Smoking out Mark Green on Social Security

Congressman Mark Green has done quite a dance on the Social Security issue, despite efforts to get him to take a stand.

He's' one of the few Republicans in the House who hasn't held any public town meetings on the subject. That's probably because he knows the issue is a loser with the voters, and Green wants to be governor.

Thursday night, a group called Wisconsin United to Protect Social Security held a town meeting on the subject in Green Bay, the Congressman's hometown. Green wasn't there, to no one's' surprise. Green said he had a "scheduling conflict." (That's what Congressman Paul Ryan had when he backed out of speaking at a dinner saluting Tom DeLay.) Story.

Green's schedule conflict is that he was in LaCrosse, campaigning for governor. When the LaCrosse Tribune asked him about Social Security, he gave his usual non-answer:

Green said it is "impossible to take a position on a bill that does not exist."I can support personal retirement accounts. The great unanswered question is how they're paid for, and that hasn't been answered yet, certainly by the president," Green said. That from a guy who also said he'd "like to see the governor show more leadership." Story

The Democratic Party continues to count the number of days that Green has ducked the issue. It's safe to add another one today.

Bush's blind spot on stem cells

Michelle Cottle in The New Republic online:

While I have disagreed with this president on many (okay, virtually all) of his pet causes, Bush's opposition to stem-cell research is a policy area in which he particularly deserves to be repudiated loudly and often. . . The president's self-righteous babbling about the immoral destruction of life inherent in stem-cell research smacks of either rank hypocrisy or willful blindness.

Read the article here.

Hard to judge Clarke v. deputies dispute

So is the FBI investigating threats to Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke?

WISN-TV said yes one night, based on info from Clarke's department, but said no the next night, after his spokesperson "clarified" her earlier remarks -- after the station asked the FBI.

Here's the current version: Yes, there have been threats against the sheriff, and the FBI has investigated at least one in the past. His spokesperson: "To clarify, the sheriff receives threats on an ongoing basis. That was just one of several threats the sheriff has received. I don't want to talk about the status of the investigation of any threats, but I can tell you the sheriff received a threat just two months ago. These are something that go with the job and occur on a regular basis. WISN-TV story.

It is an issue because the deputy sheriffs' union complained that its members had been asked, during the busy Memorial Day weekend, to take time from their regular patrols and do some drive-by surveillance of Clarke's home. The sheriff was reportedly out of town. The deputies claimed Clarke was abusing his power for personal services at taxpayer expense.

We'll never know the whole story, because the union has such an intense dislike of Clarke. When he ran for office in 2002, he talked about "empowering" deputies and changing the way the department operated. That helped persuade some unions to endorse him. But the deputies union, which was backing his opponent, didn't buy it for a minute and cast an overwhelming "no confidence" vote in Clarke just before the primary.

Since then, Clarke and the union have been at each other's throats on a regular basis. The only person who's been "empowered" in the department is Clarke, the deputies say, who runs the agency with a "my way or the highway" attitude.

Relations are so bad that it is hard to know when it's a legitimate beef and when it's just more bad blood. That's unfortunate, but unlikely to change anytime soon.

(See earlier post on Clarke below, on June 2: "David Clarke is no Zell Miller, but it's not because he's black.")

Gee, Grover's upset about highway name, too

Now Grover Norquist weighs in to express his disappointment that Gov. Doyle vetoed a plan to name a Wisconsin highway after Ronald Reagan.

Norquist is chairman of the Ronald Reagan Legacy Project, which says it wants to name at least one monument to Reagan "in each of America’s counties, and in nations that were once Communist."

How about states that were once Progressive? Where does Dane County fall, on the Communist list?

Last time we heard from Grover Norquist, he was one of the speakers at the big conservativee bash honoring Tom DeLay for staying out of jail on ethics charges. It's good to know he has other interests, too, isn't it?

Green reports from 2 days of duty in Iraq

Wis. Congressman and gov wannabe Mark Green spent Memorial Day in Iraq, visiting Wisconsin troops, and brought home great news from his whirlwind two-day visit.

From WisPolitics report: Adequate supplies of reinforced armor was an issue in previous months, but Green said “there is more than enough money that Congress has appropriated” to support supplies of up-to-date technology and other armor devices for trucks and humvees.

They are a long way from home, and morale was high,” Green said of the numerous conversations he had with soldiers.

Glad to hear there is plenty of money to take care of the troops. Don't suppose Green happened to mention his vote in the House, just a few days before Memorial Day, against extending health insurance benefits to National Guard and Reservists and their families when they return from active duty in Iraq. Morale might even be a little higher if we did right by these men and women who are risking their lives.

As a member of Congress, Green didn't have to worry about health care coverage when he got back. He's got one of the best health coverage packages in the world. What, me worry?

UW's Wiley can't tell friends from enemies

Tell me what I am missing in this sequence of events:

1. Gov. Jim Doyle proposes a budget for the University of Wisconsin that cuts the overall budget by $65-million over the next two years, but also spends more in some key areas, like increasing student aid and adding faculty.

2. Republicans on the Joint Finance Committee vote to cut the UW budget another $45-million, on top of Doyle's $65-million in cuts, and eliminate many of Doyle's new spending proposals.

3. Doyle reacts to the Joint Finance action: "For the first time in 10 years, my budget includes more funding for the UW System and financial aid than for Corrections. The Legislature is poised to reverse that, and they are sending a very bad signal about the direction they are moving in. I urge them to reverse these senseless cuts and make it clear that the UW System is a priority for Wisconsin."

4. UW System President Kevin Reilly says he is "troubled and puzzled" by the committee's actions, on top of reductions of $300-million in the previous two budgets and $65-million in cuts already in Doyle's budget. "This cascading series of harsh cuts seriously diminishes the university's capacity to deliver what we all know Wisconsin desperately needs -- more baccalaureate and graduate degree holders; more high-paying jobs based on university expertise, research and spinoffs; and the resulting higher per-capita income," he says.

5. UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley praises the Republicans for not cutting as much as some of their members wanted to. "We owe them our gratitude for reducing the amount of the budget cut that would be added on to the governor's already significant proposed reduction," Wiley said in a statement. Wiley's statement is more critical of Doyle 's budget than of the Republicans who piled on more cuts.

What am I missing? Have the Republicans told Wiley that if he doesn't want his campus budget cut even more he has to play ball? This is, after all, the guy who encouraged UW officials to make campaign contributions to legislators last fall, and 18 administrators wrote checks, mostly to Republicans in key positions. Apparently those $100 checks weren't big enough; the GOP wants Wiley to do some public butt-kissing, too. Unfortunately, he seems willing to pucker up.

Recycling and waste reduction: The world view

While Wisconsin leggie Scott (Gatsby) Fitzgerald thinks our state should get out of the recycling business, mayors from big cities around the globe are in San Francisco this week for a UN environmental conference.

One of the agreements the mayors are considering would establish a policy to achieve zero waste sent to landfills and incinerators by 2040. Story

Police officer is new Election Commission head

Milwaukee Police Capt. Sue Edman, a veteran police officer, is Mayor Tom Barrett's choice to head Milwaukee's troubled City Elections Commission. Barrett is to make the announcement at a 1:15 news conference today.

Edman, 51, has spent the last 18 years of her 28-year MPD career in supervisory positions,including overseeing an overhaul of the Records Management Division and streamlining projects like tickets and violations tracking. She has recently been commander of the sensitive crimes unit and often has acted as an MPD spokesperson.

Edman has a Master's degree in public administration from UW-Oshkosh and a bachelor's degree in criminal justice from UW-Milwaukee. A graduate of Hamilton High School, she is married and lives on Milwaukee's southwest side.

Edman ran for office herself in a special election for alderman in 2002, narrowly losing to Joe Dudzik, who was reelected without opposition last year.

The executive director's post has been vacant since the resignation of Lisa Artison in March. Sharon Robinson, Barrett's director of the Dept. of Administration, has served as interim director.

David Clarke is no Zell Miller, but it's not because he's black

Sheriff David W. Clarke Jr.


As the David Clarke publicity machine begins to wind up again, perhaps it is time for a little truth telling.

After a year of licking his wounds from the Milwaukee mayoral primary, we're told Milwaukee County Sheriff Clarke is back, "energized" and ready to start offering his patented, no-holds-barred opinions on the state of the nation.

Jessica McBride's Milwaukee Insight article, based on an interview with Clarke, offers some real insights -- and not necessarily the ones Clarke intended.

Clarke, appointed by GOP Gov. Scott McCallum in spring of 2002, ran for a full term in the fall, winning a Democratic primary in September and an easy general election in November.

He ran as a Democrat, and asked me to be his campaign consultant and do his media. I only work for Dems, and he struck me as someone who would give the sheriff's department the shaking-up it badly needed. A career Milwaukee cop, Clarke was well-spoken, engaging, charismatic, and seemed like just the guy to end the good-old-boy cronyism that had existed in the department.

Clarke told me he wanted to run as a Democrat, and that the McCallum people were not happy about that. I was surprised to read in McBride's article that just the opposite was true.

McBride writes: He reveals that he originally wanted to run for sheriff as a Republican but an aide to McCallum talked him into running as a Democrat, a necessary "strategy" to win in Milwaukee County, which hadn't had a Republican sheriff in 46 years.

So my relationship with Clarke was built on a lie from the first time we met.

He won the election handily, and almost immediately began hearing the siren call of those who wanted him to run for mayor. He could have learned something from Richard Artison, the last black sheriff talked into running for mayor, who embarrassed himself against John Norquist.

Many of us who helped in his sheriff's race said no to helping him run for mayor, and suggested it was a bad idea. But he was not to be deterred. One of those who said he couldn't help him got a blistering e-mail from Clarke:"This race is going to be a war and I need to know who is with me and who is against me . . . To win a war one must shed the weak, the dull and the slothful. I'm looking to surround myself with men and women of courage and who believe in me without wavering."

So Clarke was off on his jihad against the liberal infidels.

He ran an embarrassing, inept, amateurish campaign, finishing third after barely making it onto the ballot.

But he got some attention, especially from talk radio, with a series of long e-mails challlenging conventional thinking, which provoked plenty of adulation on talk radio. While other candidates issued press releases, Clarke sent e-mails to Charlie Sykes.

The fact that he is an African-American gave him standing to say some things that needed to be said, but which no white person would ever have been able to do. I'll give him credit for that.

His finest moment may have been when he challenged a group of black elected officials and activists who were complaining about the handling of a suspect after a freeway chase, claiming he had been mistreated by deputies because of racism. Clarke took the wind out of their sales when he showed them photos of the deputies who made the arrest. All of them, as I recall, were black.

Now Clarke is back in action, blasting welfare programs and the poor. Why can't they do like he did -- grow up in a middle class family and attend private schools -- instead of whining and going on welfare?

Back to McBride's article: "Why can't I be the Zell Miller of the Democratic Party?" asked the sheriff . . . Because the Democratic Party, he says, won't have him, or politicians like him. "They can't have a black guy out there espousing conservative views because that hurts them."

He hasn't joined either party and prefers to eschew labels, but says, "Even if I joined the Democratic Party, I'm persona non grata. They will not allow me to think independently – especially a black guy doing it."

Actually, during his campaign for sheriff many of us in his kitchen cabinet urged him to join the Democratic Party, since he was running as a Democrat and complained they were not helping him. He refused repeatedly.

The problem for the Democrats isn't that he's "a black guy," although it's interesting -- and disappointing -- to see Clarke play the race card himself after criticizing others who blame their problems on their race.

David Clarke can't be the Zell Miller of the Democratic Party because he is not a Democrat. Never has been, never will be.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

I should not have been fooled the first time. Shame on both of us for that.

Our 'independent' AGs

My friend John Nichols at the Cap Times has had to stretch a bit in his column in order to get in some licks against both Gov. Jim Doyle and attorney general wannabe J. B. Van Hollen.

"Wisconsin has historically elected independent-minded individuals to serve as state attorney general. They are elected as Democrats or Republicans, but the best attorneys general are those who refuse to serve as rank partisans," Nichols writes.

That shaky premise gives him a launching pad to attack Doyle, for "working behind the scenes to undermine Lautenschlager's campaign for re-election in 2006" because, Nichols says, she has been too independent. Many think it is Lautenschlager who has undermined her own 2006 campaign, with a drunk driving arrest and misuse of her state car. But no matter.

Nichols also gives Van Hollen 20 lashes for a direct mail, red meat fundraising letter which tries to push all of the partisan buttons with Republicans to get them to open their checkbooks. Running as a partisan somehow "fouls the state's tradition" of independent AGs, Nichols says.

Who are those independent AGs we've elected, who haven't been partisan?

There's Doyle, who served 12 years before being elected governor, and gave fits to the Republican gov across the hall. Before that: Republican Don Hanaway, who inserted his own views on abortion into his representation of the state. Bronson LaFollette, grandson of Fighting Bob, who ran for governor as a strong Dem but later mellowed and spent much of his last term fighting with Dem Gov. Tony Earl. Robert Warren, an extremely partisan, conservative Republican who ended up on the federal bench. John Reynolds, a highly partisan Democrat who went from AG to the gov's office.

We could go back farther, but it wouldn't change much. It's safe to say that in my lifetime the only AGs who haven't been pretty partisan have been those who were appointed to fill in for short periods.

It's true that AGs work cooperatively on law enforcement issues with whoever happens to be in the gov's office and the legislature. Doyle, for example, worked with Tommy Thompson on a package of legal system reforms. If there has been that kind of cooperation from the current AG, either with the Democratic governor or with the Republican legislative leadership, I have missed it.

P.S. -- A direct mail letter from Peg arrived yesterday, and it certainly was non-partisan. She mentions "my Republican opponents" only once and never uses the word Democrat. She seems to be running against the special interests.

The Presidential Highway

Mark Green and Scott Walker (let's see, what do they have in common?) couldn't wait to issue press releases attacking the gov for vetoing a bill naming a Wisconsin highway for Ronald Reagan.

He was such a great man this shouldn't be partisan, the Rs say.

I guess that's why we have the FDR Highway and the JFK Highway, not to mention the Fighting Bob LaFollette Freeway.

I heard one suggestion that Doyle should have tried a creative line item veto to see if he could turn it into the Reagans Highway, including Nancy Reagan for her support of stem cell research.

It's good to know that Green and Walker have their eyes on the big picture and aren't being partisan. Isn't that refreshing?

Green upstages Walker

GOP gov wannabes Mark Green and Scott Walker will both be onstage at a Milwaukee school event Friday. But Green, who's from the Fox Vallley, gets top billing while local boy Walker is near the bottom of the cast list. Invitation.

The event is the renaming of an MPS college prep high school to honor Ronald Reagan.

Green is the keynoter. Walker, who will also speak, is listed ninth. Walker, the county executive, is listed as "County Supervisor."

Rick Marino, a member of the parents group that pushed to get the school estabished, organized the event and said Green got the top spot because he had tried hard, but unsuccessfully, to get President George W. Bush to speak at the event.

This cartoon by Pulitzer Prize winner David Horsey of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer has prompted strong reader reaction. Story.

Did Newsweek cave?

Meanwhile, Matt Rothschild, editor of The Progressive, asks whether Newsweek had the Koran story right in the first place. If so, should it retract its retraction? Read it here

Doyle names a campaign manager

Rich Judge, a Wisconsin political veteran who was the state director for Kerry-Edwards and helped keep the Badger state blue in November, begins a new assignment today as manager of Gov. Jim Doyle's re-election campaign.

Judge, 39, has been Doyle's deputy chief of staff in the governor's office since January. That, presumably, has given him a chance to learn how Doyle's government operates and to get better acquainted with some of the key players -- while giving the gov a chance to get more comfortable with Judge.

He's had his time in the pressure cooker (some would say meat grinder) as the Kerry-Edwards director in one of the battleground states, where the Democratic ticket won by fewer than 12,000 votes.

In the previous campaign cycle in 2002, Judge was field director of the Democratic Party's state coordinated campaign, running a statewide network of staff and volunteers to contact, identify, persuade, and get Democratic voters to the polls. Democrats won the governorship and attorney general's office that year, bucking the national trend.

Judge also has served in 2003 as the political director of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, has worked in both the State Senate and Assembly as a staffer, and has worked on legislative races in every media market in the state.

Before joining the Kerry campaign, Judge was a public affairs advisor at Foley and Lardner, so he has some private sector time on his resume, too. He has been commuting from Milwaukee for his gov's office job and will probably divide his time between Madison and Milwaukee for the campaign, at least until it heats up.

It's 17 months until the 2006 general election, but Doyle has a history of putting key staff in place early, as an extra precaution to separate the campaign from his public office. Susan Goodwin, who managed his 2002 race, left her position in the attorney general's office in January 2001, almost two years before the election, to join that campaign.

Katie Boyce left the governor's staff last November to become the 2006 campaign's finance director.

On the Republican side, Mark Green named a campaign manager, deputy and fundraiser in mid-May. Scott Walker has a consulting firm, but when last heard from was still bragging recently that his campaign had no full-time staff, making you wonder who does the work.

A higher, if still minimal, wage

Here's to everyone who was earning less than $5.70 an hour before today, when Wisconsin raised its minimum wage rate. You deserve more, but $5.70 beats $5.15 or anything in between $5.15 and $5.70.

And here's to everyone who helped get it done. You know who you are -- and who you aren't.

Here's hoping the voters remember, too.

Will Walker get a pass on poopy pollution?

Milwaukee County Exec Scott Walker is doing his damnedest not to get any sewage on him while he runs for governor.

It's one of those messy Milwaukee issues, where there is an enormous amount of finger-pointing about who is to blame for polluting Lake Michigan and fouling its beaches.

The easiest culprit to point at, of course, is MMSD, the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District. It has taken its share of the blame and then some for sewage overflows during major storms. Everyone loves to beat up on MMSD.

WTMJ talker Charlie Sykes gives weekly "Deep Tunnel Awards" to those he judges most full of what he insists on calling "poop," which seems a little childish. (If you can't say shit on the air, how about feces or fecal matter or excrement?)

But I digress.

Tuesday's page one headline story in Milwaukee's daily paper was "Bradford is dirtiest city beach." Its E. coli bacteria counts were too high for safe swimming 61% of the time during the last swimming season, the story said.

What it mentioned only in passing is that storm sewers owned by Milwaukee County have been cited as the main culprit for Bradford Beach pollution.

This from an earlier Journal Sentinel story last January: While sewage dumping after heavy storms contributes to beach pollution, storm sewers draining directly on the beach explains elevated bacteria levels after light rains, said Sandra McLellan, a water quality expert with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's Great Lakes Water Institute.

"The storm sewer outfalls are the primary cause for the pollution we're seeing at Bradford Beach," said McLellan, who is conducting a federally funded study of the beach. WisPolitics article.

Those Milwaukee County storm sewers carry runoff from the streets -- oil and gasoline, animal waste (Sykes would say dog poop), fertilizers, litter, and whatever else is in the parking lot or in the gutter - and dumps it on the beach. That provides nutrients for the weeds to grow. The rain also carries E. coli, a bacterium found in human and animal waste, that officials use as the standard in determining whether a beach should be closed.

So, what is Scott Walker doing about it?

Glad you asked. Nothing. Well, that's not fair. He's thinking about it. He's also trying to stay as far away from the issue as possible.

Last week, for example, a host of officials turned out for a news conference to unveil the new beach combing machine that will clean Bradford and other beaches -- paid for not by the county but by MMSD, to the tune of $50,000. Mayor Tom Barrrett, State Rep. Jon Richards, County Sup. Gerry Broderick, State Rep. Chris Sinicki, the Milwaukee Health Dept, MMSD, DNR, Parks Director Sue Black and the Milwaukee Community Service Corps were all there.

But no Scott Walker, who was presumably off somewhere running for governor. He may just have been hiding under his desk, anticipating that both Barrett and Richards would call on Walker to move the storm sewers and find funding to clean his beaches -- which they did.

Walker has not put any money in his budget to move the storm sewers, and hasn't even made a commitment to do it in the future. As usual, he is pointing fingers in several other directions and refusing to accept responsibility although the county clearly owns those storm sewers that are fouling the beach.

The state DNR is in the process of issuing permits for Milwaukee County storm sewers. Unless they get tough, you can bet Walker won't move the sewers. The Milwaukee County Parks Committee didn’t give any indication that they were going to leap into action when UWM's Water Quality Institute presented this information to them a couple weeks ago.

The county has known about this problem for months. Beachcombing helps, but cutting off the major source of pollution will produce the most dramatic improvement.

Will the DNR hold Milwaukee County accountable? Will Charlie Sykes give Scott Walker the Deep Tunnel Award this week?

Do pigs fly?

Oak Creek fight makes Washington Post

From Grist,the online environmental magazine:

Everything New Is Old Again
Wisconsin power-plant expansion could have long-term eco-consequences

The fate of a Wisconsin coal-fired power plant could augur poorly for the environment, say its opponents. At issue is what does and doesn't count as a "new" power-generating facility: Under the Clean Water Act, new facilities are subject to strict regulations on cleaning technology; an addition to an existing facility, however, is subject to looser rules. The Oak Creek power plant south of Milwaukee wants to double its capacity with a pair of new generators -- old-school pulverized-coal units rather than newer, cleaner gasification units -- which it contends is an expansion and thus subject to the looser rules. So far Wisconsin authorities and the U.S. EPA have agreed. Opponents are steamed. "For them to argue this is an existing facility just boggles the mind," said a rep for an area manufacturer. New language inserted in the preamble to the Clean Water Act by the Bush administration seems to allow for this interpretation, though, and Oak Creek is "the poster child of the worst that can happen" as a result, says attorney Reed Super.

Washington Post story