UWW/Churchill prediction

Later today we should find out whether or not the University of Wisconsin Whitewater will still host Ward Churchill on March 1. While UWW is generally a fairly cautious institution, I believe they will still host Churchill. Barring any major threats of violence, of course. One major reason I believe this is because I think they will get full support from the Whitewater Police Department, or at least the administration of the WPD. I have no supporting facts for this, just hunches based on what I know about the community. If the threat of violence is mitigated, the University will have little cover for cancelling the speech, despite the fact that Churchill's credentials and scholarship have come into question.

Update
Hunch blogging is fun when you are right.

Dick Morris on Condi for President

10 years ago I'd have never thought this, but I can't read enough Dick Morris. He has some good analysis in this piece on Condi today. Never thought about it before, but Rice probably would be Hillary Clinton's biggest foe for the Presidency.

Novel idea

A Judge in Yemen challenges terrorists to theological debates. If the terrorists lose, they must renounce violence after they get out of jail. The Judge is undefeated thus far.

Ward Churchill "Defiant"

Reuters today covers an unapologetic speech by Ward Churchill. The speech is a 'more of the same' type of a speech, but one Churchill quote sticks out:

"Nowhere in there did I justify the killing of innocent people," he told Reuters. "Those words are not there."

Technically, Churchill's right. Instead he grossly perverted the meaning of innocent:

Well, really. Let's get a grip here, shall we? True enough, they were civilians of a sort. But innocent? Gimme a break. They formed a technocratic corps at the very heart of America's global financial empire – the "mighty engine of profit" to which the military dimension of U.S. policy has always been enslaved – and they did so both willingly and knowingly. Recourse to "ignorance" – a derivative, after all, of the word "ignore" – counts as less than an excuse among this relatively well-educated elite. To the extent that any of them were unaware of the costs and consequences to others of what they were involved in – and in many cases excelling at – it was because of their absolute refusal to see. More likely, it was because they were too busy braying, incessantly and self-importantly, into their cell phones, arranging power lunches and stock transactions, each of which translated, conveniently out of sight, mind and smelling distance, into the starved and rotting flesh of infants. If there was a better, more effective, or in fact any other way of visiting some penalty befitting their participation upon the little Eichmanns inhabiting the sterile sanctuary of the twin towers, I'd really be interested in hearing about it.

By Churchill's own definitions, about 300 or so innocent people died on 9-11 (firefighters, service workers). Everyone else was fair game. If this is what UW-Whitewater wants to be associated with, so be it. In that case, as a UWW Alumnus, my money will never be associated with the university again.

What a mess

Greg Borowski and Tom Kertscher are back in the Journal Sentinel today with another story on the folly that is Milwaukee's Presidential election. What a mess.

Borowski and Kertscher take great care to look at duplicate names in this report. I would caution against only using duplicate names as the threshold for a vote being questionable. I'd be curious to see how many, if any, dead voted in this election, as well as people who do not reside in Milwaukee.

James Rowen & Elitism

This article by James Rowen slipped by me on Monday when it was published at Wispolitcs.com, but fortunately I caught the second time around when it was published at OnMilwaukee.com. James Rowen, amongst other issues with his piece, perfectly encapsulates why Democrats are finding it so hard to win elections these days. It's because of their haughty elitism.

I should step back at this point. Rowen was not so perceptive as to actually write an article that would cause the Democratic party to look within and address its ample problems. Instead, it was his own arrogant attitude which allowed those of us on the outside of the Democratic machinations to see how party opinion makers truly think:

Want to know how and why erroneous information could get entered on registration cards? There are people in our less-than-wealthy city -- and this is a fact that may have escaped suburban politicians like GOP state Rep. Jeff Stone as he lectures Milwaukee about how to conduct a proper election -- who don't write or spell well.

And

When I was in a long line of people at City Hall waiting to vote absentee, the couple behind me could not read the small print on the forms. I loaned them my cheap, drugstore magnifying reading glasses, and they passed the glasses down the line where a half-dozen more people were grateful to use them.

The couple was elderly. They did not speak the Queen's English with perfection. They appeared to be low-income. They did not know that non-prescription glasses are available at the local Walgreen's, though at $10 or $12, the glasses might have been out of their reach. Without them, I can guarantee you that their forms would have been a mess, and perhaps, would have shown up as someone's Voter Fraud Exhibit A.

Let's break this statement down a little bit. Rowen wants to play class warfare here, and he continues to use it throughout the article, claiming also that it is just too much trouble for the poor to get identification. The only reason the Democratic party isn't a completely broken and irrelevant organization is because they fear monger on the basis of age, wealth and race. So Rowen, instead of making the simple point that some people just aren't good readers and writers, links wealth to one's ability to read or write well. That is one of the most condescending statements I've ever seen. Instead of honestly and intellectually looking at the problems in Wisconsin's current election law, Rowen decides to blame it on poor, Democrat constituents being too ignorant to fill things out correctly. This is the kind of tripe that, along with basic moral issues, that drove me away from the Democratic party in college, and which helped me learn that Conservatives were not the evil monsters I'd been hearing from all corners.

Rowen's elitism is not the only problem in this article. A larger problem is Rowen's spin. At least that's what I'm attributing it to-spin. It could be a disconnect from reality, it could be a failure to intellectually understand his opposition's position. I trust that Rowen, who tells us in the article "...I have a masters degree in English," is smart enough to see where Republicans are coming from, so it has to be spin. Let's start with this fantasy:

The GOP-er's dream scenario is that investigators can connect election-eve tire slashings, incomplete or erroneous voter documentation and sloppy decision-making by overwhelmed poll workers to a hidden Democratic Party bunker behind a secret door in City Hall.where Democratic Mayor Tom Barrett oversaw Fraud Central like a crazed Wizard of Oz.

What? I understand that Rowen rhetorically wants to make Republicans look like bogeymen here, but come on. It does not take a lot of effort to see that Republicans do not see the tire slashing incident and voting problems in Milwaukee as some sort of single conspiracy directed by some evil genius Democratic mastermind. In fact, I've not seen the two connected in any way other than as examples of the overall disregard Democrats seem to have for fair elections these days. Next, let's watch Rowen cover for a prank:

The tire-slashings damaged a parking lot filled with vans rented by Republican election workers. It was stupid and criminal behavior, but let's also remember that it was a prank that got out of hand.

Rowen goes on to compare it to an earlier case in Milwaukee when E. Michael McCann went easy on some Rocky Horror Picture Show devotees who got out of control. There is no comparison here. This was much more than a prank. It was a deliberate attempt at disenfranchisement, and to back that up, let me quote Lavell Muhammad from the criminal complaint: "We got ‘em, we got ‘em. They’re not going anywhere now." If you or I were to pull a prank that resulted in the death of someone, make no mistake, we'd face felony charges. These 5 deliberately set out to disable the vehicles Republicans were going to use to transport poll workers and voters. Felony charges sound just about right.

I initially disregarded Rowen's piece because what he writes is so transparently partisan. In this piece, he's just not on the right side of history, and the way he sells out to the Democratic Party and condescends to a Democratic constituency is just one more example of why more and more of the country is turning away from the Democratic party

UW Whitewater may cancel Churchill speech (or not)

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports this morning that the University of Wisconsin Whitewater may yet cancel the Ward Churchill speech scheduled for March 1:

Churchill is scheduled to speak at 7 p.m. March 1 at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater's Hamilton Hall. In the past few days, UW-Whitewater Chancellor Jack Miller has received e-mails asking him to cancel the talk as administrators at Hamilton College in upstate New York did last week, said Brian Mattmiller, university spokesman. Churchill was invited to Whitewater by the Native American Cultural Awareness Association as part of the group's Native Pride Week and by the college of Letters and Sciences. Mattmiller said the chancellor is weighing whether Churchill's speech would pose a threat to the safety of the campus. Miller has ordered that no state funds be used to sponsor Churchill's talk.

This does not mean that a cancellation is a sure thing, and even if the University cancels, Churchill may still find himself in Whitewater:

Howard Ross, dean of UW-Whitewater's college of letters and sciences, said Monday that he and members of the Native American Student Association have had three meetings with Jack Miller, the UW-Whitewater chancellor, in hopes of being able to bring Churchill to campus.

Ross said he has read a number of Churchill's writings, and he supports Churchill's visit. If the university cancels the talk, Ross said, he will be working with others to bring Churchill to an off-campus spot.

Doug Kiel, president of the university's Native American Support Service, said several other professors, including professors at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, have contacted them to say they are in support of Churchill's visit.

The standard line for cancellations of Churchill speeches thus far has been on safety concerns. The vice president of the student group bringing Churchill to campus has no such concerns:

Angela Miller, the Native American student group vice president, said she did not think Churchill's talk would pose any threat to security.

"Our campus is pretty tame," she said. "What he had to say about the World Trade Center victims is much more upsetting in New York than it would be in Wisconsin. Just because someone doesn't like what is being said doesn't mean that that person doesn't have the right to be heard."

I wonder if Ms. Miller's opinion is echoed by the Whitewater Police Department. This is a campus, after all, that rioted in 1996 after a Packer game. While the Whitewater Police Department does not have jurisdiction over campus, it will certainly need to increase staff and possibly contribute to security that day. If Ross were to succeed and get this moved off campus, the the city will need to shoulder the full cost of security.

UW Whitewater is typically a pretty conservative campus, so it would not surprise me if this talk does get cancelled. If it does not, though, the University should have to reimburse the city for any and all additional security costs, even if the costs are for an event fully off campus.

UPDATE:
Yahoo searchers, please see the main page for updates to this story as they are available.

It's cold and lonely here at Jiblog

Ouch! My TTLB ranking has literally plummeted of late. Assemblyman Lasee recognizes a number of Badger Blog Alliance blogs, but not Jiblog. WisOpinion.com puts up a list of Wisconsin bloggers from the right, center, and left. No Jiblog. The child (Badger Blog Alliance) is about to surpass the parent (Jiblog) in visits and page views. My ego is dented a bit here. I can hear the wind whistling through the broken Windows XP, and the blogroll creaking in the cold February air.

To the Party of Seven (actually, the party of three-haven't seen four of you around much lately): Has the site been suffering since I went to work on the Badger Blog Alliance? Is my work just not good? Am I a little too sassy? Am I fat? (see Boots & Sabers for a reference point on that last one).

Was the GoDaddy ad really a bad ad?

Depends on how you are defining "bad", I guess.

Here's why I ask. According to Ad Age, the general feel is that this ad created buzz, but in the long run is not going to work well for GoDaddy. Well, is my case unusual, then? I'm an individual who may be in the market for a domain soon. Prior to this commercial, I had no idea who GoDaddy was or what they did. Now they have carved a place in my brain and they actually have a chance to sell me on their service, which is what they are buying with that ad-the chance to sell me. They didn't have that chance before this commercial.

Tasteless? Perhaps. Effective? Maybe.

Sources for this post:
http://www.adage.com/news.cms?newsId=44265
http://www.bobparsons.com/

Jonah Goldberg at Northwestern February 28th

...and Ward Churchill will be at UW-Whitewater on March 1st. UWW College Republicans, I know a couple of you have visited this site in the past. Any thoughts on/capacity to bring Goldberg to campus on March 1 to address the conservative Warhawk community?

Deep Throat

I typically scorn the "who is Deep Throat" debate as a waste of time. This afternoon, I posted a short bit meant to deride the Deep Throat gossipers by claiming the Pope was Deep Throat. Then I pulled it after an hour because I thought it was in poor taste. Now I see Kathryn Jean Lopez at The Corner is going to get all of the credit for that one. Grrr.

Guess where I'm going to be on March 1?

Ward Churchill is going to be right in my backyard that day (Hat tip Boots & Sabers):

Ward Churchill, the University of Colorado professor whose remarks comparing the victims of the World Trade Center attacks to a World War II Nazi war criminal, is scheduled to speak at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater on March 1, a university spokesman said. Churchill, chairman of Colorado's ethnic studies department, was invited to Whitewater by a group of Native American students.

If this is an open event, I plan to be there with bells on. I do not plan to make problems. I wish no harm on Mr. Churchill. I must take part in this event, though. I've read some of Mr. Churchill's stuff, and I was not impressed with it. Some of the revelations of this past week did not surprise me in the least, and now that I have the opportunity to see the horse's ass in person, I simply must go.

UPDATE
Oh, but this is a tough call. UWW will also have a showing of the Vagina Monologues that night. UWW's College Republicans have a meeting that night. I wonder which event they will attend before their meeting?

Email Deep Throat

Heh. Thanks to ol' Howie Kurtz, you can now email Deep Throat, I guess:

Howard Kurtz: Yeah, but it would have ruined some of the best scenes in the movie if he was just Throat327@yahoo.com.
Thanks for the chat, folks.

Goodness, gracious. What if that had been some poor fool's real email address.

Clawback

I am concerned about clawback on private social security accounts. Not because I think the Bush proposal will result in it, but because I think Democrats will legislate clawback into private accounts down the road in order to fund whatever pet projects there isn't any money for down the road.

Feminism and the Middle East

I'll be the first to admit that I can be a bit hard on feminism. This is not because I am opposed to the ultimate goal of feminism, but rather because I find the positions of the feminist movement wildly inconsistent and merely political. In my humble opinion, the movement has long since ceased to be about equality for the female gender and is now about the accumulation of political power. The silence of the feminist movement during the Clinton scandal was irritating, but the silence of the movement over atrocities committed against women in the Middle East is infuriating. To me, this is proof positive that the feminist movement is no longer about gender equality. Last week, I discussed how this applied to a year old story of a Palestinian woman who was almost murdered years ago because she became pregnant out of wedlock. Today, this column puts it in words I could only hope to.

Women are third rate citizens in certain parts of the Muslim world. Those women face miseries that American women of all generations have never faced. There should be rage on the part of feminists. Instead, there is silence. There is silence because Islamic fundamentalists are George W. Bush's enemies, and apparently even if your political enemy's physical enemy isn't your friend, you still don't wage your own just war against them.

I'm sure that my opinion on this is wide open to criticism from the feminist view point, but I don't really care. Out of political concerns, the feminist movement is selling its own ideals down the river. Once they find back the spines of the women who preceded them, they'll have proven me wrong. Until then, we'll watch as the legal domination of females by males seeps first into Canada, and then on into the United States, all because of politics.

It's Official (follow up)

There was a nice little exchange going on in the comments section of the "It's Official" post directly below, so I think this is a post worthy of a quick follow up. First, the picture I paint of Russ Feingold as the Democratic nominee for President should be qualified a little bit. Feingold does face numerous hurdles before he gets to 2007. First, he's the Junior Senator from Wisconsin. That is a role that makes it a little bit more difficult for him to acquire the high profile needed to become the Democratic nominee for President. Second, Feingold's homespun, grass roots style works well in Wisconsin, but can it translate to the national level? Third, he is a very liberal senator. Fourth, the Democratic party is such a mess right now that it seems that only the biggest demagogue can make it through their primaries. It is not a sure thing that he will even end up running, let alone be able to capture the nomination-far from it, in fact. The one thing that concerns me is that the default position of Republicans in Wisconsin has been to underestimate Feingold, and here's why it concerns me that national Republicans will do the same.

Feingold and McCain. McCain and Feingold. Both have ambitions to become President. Both seem to enjoy working together. Both have a built in mechanism to keep their name out in the press. As Owen at Boots and Sabers points out, they are working on new campaign finance bill. They may believe in this bill, but it also serves to keep McCain-Feingold on everybody's lips for another couple of election cycles. This helps Feingold maintain his national identity and overcome that little junior Senator from Wisconsin problem. As for his homespun, grass roots style, I think that is the root of why Republicans underestimate him, but it is effective. I consider Ann Althouse to be a pretty reliable representative of the "middle", or those voters who aren't straight ticketers. She's already on Feingold's band wagon. (Read why here). As for Feingold's liberalism, he's not a Kerry liberal. He's more of a classic liberal who breaks party lines on "principle", and that is something the average voter respects. And as for the nature of the Democratic party, the war for the heart of that party has only just begun. Howard Dean looks to become the DNC chair, but don't think that means the party is going to hell in a hand basket. Hillary is tracking hard right, Feingold's playing classic liberalism, and Dean, with everything he represents, is about to be put in a position where everything he represents can be repudiated from within the Democratic Party and with Republican help from the outside. The Democratic party is going to look very different in four years.

Now don't take this as me being a Feingold supporter. What I am saying is that if you are conservative and/or a Republican, put your first impressions of Feingold away and re-examine him. Otherwise we may have an unpleasant surprise on our hands come 2008.

It's official

We can finally put away our prognostications on a Russ Feingold run for President in 2008. If Feingold can build the momentum, he'll be in the running:

I'm trying to be one of God knows how many Democrats who are going to get out there and try to help turn this thing around...If at some point people say, 'Hey, we think you ought to run for president' (and) it's a serious thing, I'm going to listen. I would only run if I honestly believed that I was the guy that really could win, that I was the person who was the best candidate to run.

There isn't a politician worth his/her salt alive that doesn't think they are the best person for a higher political office, especially the Presidency. Wisconsin, you have one and a half senators for the next 3 years, because Russ Feingold has road bed to lay for a Presidential run.

It is possible that "making Wisconsin a red state in '08" could be a little more difficult than originally thought.

(Cross posted at the Badger Blog Alliance)

Disenfranchisement or laziness?

This is the typical person Democrats say is disenfranchised by election laws that ensure the validity of our elections (from the Star Tribune):

In the final days of last year's presidential election, Nick Hauer still hadn't registered to vote. But on Election Day the 19-year-old Roseville resident cast his first-ever ballot.

"It was really quick," he said, adding that he probably wouldn't have voted if not for Minnesota's same-day voter registration.

If Minnesota did not have same day registration, who would really be disenfranchising who here? The government certainly wouldn't be disenfrachising anyone. Hauer would have had the same opportunity to register that everyone else in the state had. The only person that would have kept Hauer from voting would have been Hauer and his own laziness.

<>The lack of proper respect given to the voting process by the left has chapped my hide since at least 2000, when I wrote a letter to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, scolding those who could not take voting seriously enough to take the time to fill out their ballots correctly. An excerpt:

<>What is this lesson? The right to vote is not a right to be taken lightly. Millions upon millions of our very own relatives and ancestors have died to protect this right for us. We are not to treat the act of casting our ballot in anything less than a serious manner. If, after all that our veterans, living and deceased, have done to preserve this right for us, we cannot take the time to correctly fill out a ballot, whether it be punch-card, computer-scanned or absentee, then our vote does not deserve to be counted.

It does not deserve to be counted because we have not lived up to what those who came before us sacrificed to give us the right to choose our own leaders.

Change the words so I'm talking about voter registration, and I still stand by what I said then. Too many people in this country take for granted rights that others in the world yearn for but may never get.

(HT: The American Mind)

Feminists, the Middle East needs you. Really, I'm serious.

I am not one who is above taking the occasional shot at feminists. I believe they served a very important role for women once upon a time in this country, but I believe their role has become more and more corrupted as feminism became a career. If feminists care to prove me wrong about this, then I have a challenge for you. Read this story and then tell me we shouldn't be doing whatever is in our power to spread freedom and republican or parliamentary democracy across that region.

For those of you who don't click links, let me introduce the story and give you a little flavor. It is the story of a Palestinian woman who got pregnant before she was married. Think that was tough on a woman in the 1950's Bible Belt? Try the Middle East. Their they kill the woman for the honor of her family.

Twenty-five years later I see these images again as if time has stopped. I was sitting on a rock, barefoot in a grey dress. I had lowered my head, unable to look at him; my forehead was on my knees. Then suddenly I was running and on fire and screaming. There were women, I remember, two of them, so I must have climbed over the garden wall and into the street. They beat at me, I suppose with their scarves. They dragged me to the village fountain; I felt the cold water running on me and I cried out with pain because it burnt me too. I heard women wailing over me. "The poor thing . . . The poor thing . . ." I was lying in a car. I felt the jolts of the road. I heard myself moan.

The author is alive because her brother in law botched the killing. The woman was then placed in a hospital where she was given no medical care. She was expected to die. If not for an aide worker who was able to smuggle this woman to Europe, she would have.

The above story is more than a little bit dated, but I just happened upon it today and was revolted by it. My father raised me to have great respect for women, and he instilled a strong defense of women mechanism deep inside me. This story is just one in a long line of stories about the atrocities Muslim men commit against Muslim women. Feminists should be falling over one another in defense of their Middle Eastern sisters, urging the liberalization of that region at all costs. I suspect if a Democrat were President right now, even a womanizing one, they would be. Sadly, their silence is deafening.

Before you scroll down...

...let me just say I that I'm a bit burned out right now. Serious blog topics will return soon, I promise. Making fun of terrorists who kidnap action figures never gets old, though.

More doll carnage in Iraq

*WARNING**GRAPHIC**


AP-Sad news came out of Iraq today as the world learned of the failed mission of US soldier John Adam. Adam, captured Tuesday by shoplifting 11 year olds, had an objective of freeing three blonde women, all named Barbie, from their captors in Sadr City. Once Adam was captured, the Barbies' captors took out their anger on them, beheading them with a dull 9 year old girl.

Army medics recovered the three Barbies' late in the day Wednesday. They are hopeful they can reattach the Barbies' heads with a little known Apoxie treatment, allowing them to live normal lives until their arms and legs fall off. Sadly, the doctors do not believe they can do anything to alleviate digestive problems created by the Barbies' abnormally narrow waists.

Driver on Favre: He's "hanging 'em up"

The Journal Sentinel is reporting on an interview Donald Driver gave to Sirius NFL radio this morning in which Driver said he believes Favre is retiring. One quote from this interview is particularly interesting:

I think he was trying to wait until the draft, and I think coach Sherman wanted to know right before free agency because there are a couple of quarterback free agents that they want to look at if Brett decided not to come back. I think they forced him to make a decision. When you force one of the greatest quarterbacks in the NFL to make a decision, he's pretty much going to let you know that he maybe is just hanging 'em up.

Uh-oh. I think the Packers were fair to ask Brett for a decision by the draft. They have a job to keep this team as competitive as possible, and if they go along assuming Brett will be back and then he retires in June, they are already a year behind. Just the same, if the story becomes "Sherman's pressure on Favre led to retirement," Sherman may as well resign now because he'll be crucified until the end of the 2005 season, at which point he will be fired.

TABOR-Tax Payers' Bill of Rights

I have a real brief thought tonight on TABOR tonight, and if I still think it is an interesting topic later in the week, I'll go into greater detail in a new post.

This thought started to bubble in my head during my many hours on I-94 this weekend. With rumors floating that TABOR doesn't have enough support to pass right now, I started thinking about this at a basic marketing level (I studied marketing in college in addition to history). Tax Payer Bill of Rights is a very powerful statement. When you are trying to pass a very solid piece of legislation that your political opponents want to kill through scare tactics, you have fend off those scare tactics with the facts and with words that garner support amongst the masses. The words "Tax Payers' Bill of Rights" are those strong words. They send a strong and clear message to people who feel crushed by the tax burden in this state. When you shorten those words to an acronym like TABOR, you lose that emotional attachment that a potential supporter may develop with your legislation. I'd be willing to bet my house that most Wisconsinites have no clue what TABOR is, but that most would automatically support a "Tax Payers' Bill of Rights" (Mrs. Jib would not let me make that bet, by the way). It is just basic marketing. I don't believe TABOR ever generated the general interest needed to pressure legislators to get it done, and I think part of the reason is it was never marketed or sold to Wisconsinites effectively.

Re: Two queries to the blogosphere

Milwaukee talk radio host Charlie Sykes posted the following two questions to the Wisconsin blogosphere. Below each question are my personal thoughts.

Query One: Why no interest in Doyle's handling of school choice in the blogosphere?

Answer: Personally it hasn't been a lack of interest. Until a couple of months ago, my blogging was much more national in nature. This site was started in June, and much of my blogging from June through November dealt with the election, terrorism, and the war, which are three areas I'm very comfortable with. Wisconsin politics, sadly, were not as high up on my radar screen. As I try to bring myself very quickly up to speed on local topics, I've chosen to bypass topics that I didn't think I had given enough thought to yet. This was one of them, unfortunately.

Query Two: What's the next step in promoting the new -- very active -- WI Blogosphere? I'm open to suggestion. The MSM will ignore this development as long as they can, but that shouldn't deter us.

Answer: This is a difficult question for me because, at the urging of a few others, I set up the frame work of the Badger Blog Alliance (everyone else's participation made it into something unique), and I feel like I should have a big vision for it that I can share with everyone. Instead my policy has been to pretty much leave it alone and let the other great Wisconsin bloggers, who so enthusiastically came on board, help set the tone for the site. To be honest, I was caught off guard by how quickly it all came together a couple of weeks ago. It is a very small part of the vibrance of the Wisconsin blogosphere, but it is a place where we can join our voices together and make a little bit more noise than we can individually (hopefully).

So, having said all of that, I do have a couple thoughts on promoting the Wisconsin blogosphere. The first is the easiest for me to work on. The Badger Blog Alliance needs to be refined more by me so that it really becomes a portal for anyone who wants research and opinion on Wisconsin news and politics. The links need to be more robust and defined, and I need to do some footwork to get the site more exposure than it already has. If we can get the site acting like a portal, then it becomes a central clearing house which will make it easier for people to access all of our sites, making the Wisconsin blogosphere that much more difficult to ignore. Eventually that will mean moving the site off of Blogger and making its graphics much more crisp and professional, but that's another story for another time.

Secondly, we need to reach people who normally may not visit blogs. The only way to do that is through traditional media, and most outlets would just as soon pretend we don't exist. NBC 15 out of Madison had a story about blogs on their 10 o'clock news on Sunday night, and they managed to make the Wisconsin blogosphere look like the driest, most boring piece of fluff you can imagine. They also went out of their way not to bring up any of the vibrant Wisconsin blogs (read conservative) that people really would want to read. Perhaps it would be a nice segment for your show if once a week or once a month you had a small panel with a couple of Wisconsin's biggest and best bloggers. Choose a topic which those couple of bloggers could prepare for ahead of time, and maybe do a 20 minute Wisconsin blog panel. I'm not going to be so presumptuous as to recommend any more than that, because radio is not my career and there may be very good reasons that this isn't a good idea, but I think that there are several very eloquent bloggers who would do a great job for your show, and they would do a great job in making the Wisconsin blogosphere even more legitimate in the eyes of those who would ignore us. I'm thankful for everything you've done for us, so just take this one as a brainstorm type thought.

These are just a couple of thoughts. In addition to these, we all need to make sure we keep the momentum we've had the past couple of weeks rolling. If we don't, we become easy for the mainstream media to ignore, and our collective and individual influence wanes.

Back with optimism

Just a real quick note to say that I'm back, and I'm back with a lot of optimism. Witnessing the elections in Iraq on TV was incredible. People here whine if voting is the slightest bit inconvenient for them; in Iraq, people literally walked miles and risked their lives to vote, and they celebrated that. It really makes a person take stock and look at how much we take for granted in the United States today. People can not be asked to make any effort to vote except to show up. Because of that, we undermine the credibility of our own elections. In another country half the world away, one that has not been as free as our own, the appreciation for and the effort put into voting truly puts us to shame.

Beer Blogs for Bush

As a Blogs for Bush member, I would be remiss if I did not point out this picture from the walls of the Leinie Lodge. That would be the president holding a signed Leinie's canoe paddle. I knew there was a reason I liked this guy.

Payola scandal hits brewery hard

Leinenkugel's is obviously a Jiblog reader, and they appear to be cracking down after the great Jib payola scandal. This is what I found when I made my pilgrimage today-a crackdown. (I still sweet talked my way into a third)

Blech

Okay, truck stop blogging sounded funny in my head at the time. Upon further review, not so much. Blogging has already proven I should never become a photographer. Let's now rule out stand up comedy.

The latest and greatest rage in blogging

As promised earlier today, in the spirit of tireblogging, oil change blogging, and cabbage blogging, I bring you the latest and the greatest blogging movement of them all, truck stop blogging. Yes folks, where else can you fill up your gas guzzling SUV, buy a slurpy, a hot dog, and a dirty magazine, even shower, and still blog at the same time.

Truck stop blogging 2

That's right, truck stop blogging. I was going to rest area blog, but then I realized that there are no side benefits to rest area blogging to a straight married guy like myself. Instead, I find myself with a full tank of gas and a handful of corn nuts. Make no mistake abou...uh, I gotta go. My car is being assualted by lot lizards.

An all new blogging rage

You probably think you've seen it all in the blogosphere by now. First there was Instapundit's tireblogging. Then there was Althouse's cabbage blogging. Watch this space early this evening for an all new style of blogging that surely will be the rage in the days and weeks to come, if I live to tell about it. (Cue dramatic music, fade to black).

I'm easy to amuse

I admit it. In a social setting, I can be as sophisticated and intelligent as anyone. In the privacy of my home, the simplest things amuse me. One thing that has amused me greatly since I started blogging is the topic of odd links to one's blog. I've discussed it here before. For a while, I received a number of hits from Google searches on a certain soft core p*rn star that I named in a satirical post. Today I have a new one which kind of takes the cake. I was watching the Badger Blog Alliance's traffic report today, and I saw a link from a site called d*min*tion-dot-com. I didn't dare click back to it at work, so when I got home today, I checked it out. Sure enough, there was the Badger Blog Alliance and a member or two linked to in a political forum on a site dedicated to d*min*tion. More power to 'em, and I'm glad that the Badger Blog Alliance is helping inform them, but I never thought I'd see that in the site's web stats.

* are in place because I don't necessarily want misguided hits to Jiblog now. Last thing I need is to wake up one morning tied to my ceiling fan with knots that haven't even been named yet. :-)

Maggie Gallagher

All joking aside (see post below), revelations that Maggie Gallagher was contracted to promote the marriage initiative is going to have a much deeper affect than the Armstrong Williams story. Williams was not really the mainstream columnist that Gallagher is. As an amateur political commentator, it is more than a little disappointing to see that Gallagher would do something that casts everything that she has written on marriage into doubt, even if those are legitimately her opinions.

Flash! Disclosure by Jib of Jiblog

AP-In the wake of the news that Armstrong Williams was paid to defend the No Child Left Behind Act, and Maggie Gallagher's $21,500 contract with the Department of Human Health and Services to promote President Bush's marriage initiative, another conservative writer has come forward with another stunning admission. "Jib" of the weblog Jiblog came forward today with his own startling disclosure.

"The dominos are starting to fall, and I feel that I must come forward before some enterprising reporter begins to dig into my past. In the past, I have promoted Leinenkugel's as the greatest beer on God's green earth. I'm ashamed to admit that the Leinenkugel's Brewery has provided me with free beers at their hospitality center in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin."

While Jib claimed that there was no direct association between these free beers and his support of the brewery, the AP has learned that a bartender at the old Leinenkugel's Brewery hospitality center once provided Jib with more than the publicly allotted 2 free beers. It has also been learned that Jib has frequently drank with Leinenkugel employees in the past, raising further suspicions of how deep his ties with the brewery really are. Rumblings out of the city of 13,000 are that Jib was even seen having a beer at the hospitality center with brewery President T.J. "Jake" Leinenkugel one afternoon in December 2003. More as this story develops.

Homeward bound, I wish I was...

...wait, I am! Jiblog goes on the road again this weekend, only this time I'll be blogging from one of my favorite places in the world, where the weather never gets me down-the Chippewa Valley. I'm excited about heading home, seeing family and friends, and arguing politics with my dad after a few drinks.

More news on Milwaukee election problems

After this is all said and done, and we've finally fixed the problems with Wisconsin's election laws, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Greg Borowski may be the expert to go to for any scholars looking to write a book on the issue. Borowski has been the Journal Sentinel's point man for this story, and he's back with another story on Milwaukee's election problems today. Let's skip the lede and go straight to the heart of the story:

The newspaper’s review, the most extensive analysis done so far of the election, revealed 1,242 votes coming from a total of 1,135 invalid addresses. That is, in some cases more than one person is listed as voting from the address. Of the 1,242 voters with invalid addresses, 75% registered on site on election day, according to city records.

This would be an example of the incompetence of Milwaukee's Election Commission, an incompetance that an earlier Journal Sentinel article shows may be occuring in other Wisconsin election commissions. Having said that, let's take a look at what the Mayor's Chief of Staff has to say on the matter:

Barrett Chief of Staff Patrick Curley said the newspaper’s findings underscore the need to improve the handling of elections, particularly large-turnout ones that strain the system.

Curley said he believes the problematic addresses - less than 1% of those who voted - are a sign of procedural problems in the Election Commission office, not widespread fraud.

“The process is what we’ve charged the election task force with,” Curley said. “Obviously, improvements are needed.”

Well, yes and no on that "not widespread fraud" part. There is a two part problem here, and I hope that individuals like Curley can follow the 'nuance', if you will. These 1200 votes are clearly signs of incompetence. So is the failure to verify 80,000 voter registrations immediately after the election. The fact that 75% of the 1200 bad addresses were same day registrants, that is an indicator of fraud. So are the bad addresses that were discovered prior to the election. So too may be the 8,300 (or 10,000, depending on the numbers your trust) same day registrations that were so illegible they couldn't even be mailed. For now, there is a clear line of demarcation: Election officials are guilty of incompetence, and possibly a large number of voters participated in fraud. Unless they have something to hide, government officials in Milwaukee need to stop dodging the fraud issue, because that isn't being leveled at them. Instead, they need to clean their house, because it is their incompetence which has made the fraud by voters possible.

(Cross posted at the Badger Blog Alliance)

Drew does creationism

Since I've put all of my time tonight into playing with a blog template, I have nothing prepared f0r Jiblog. I feel like I'm going before a teacher without having completed my homework. So tonight I take the easy way out. Drew at Darn Floor posts on the topic of evolution in a couple of posts. I'm not sure I could have stated my own opinions better, so check out his thoughts on the matter.

Minimum wage hike brings dignity?

The city of Eau Claire is now joining the 'in' crowd and looking at raising the minimum wage in the city. Not much of a new story their; since bleeding hearts in the city of Madison started looking at raising the city minimum wage, local politicians all over the state have started jumping on the bandwagon. What makes this story different, though, is this little snippet:

A higher minimum wage would bring dignity to some people’s lives, allowing them to earn enough to eat and find a good place to live without public assistance, said council member Kerry Kincaid.

What? This would "bring dignity" to people's lives? I don't think it will. Ignoring the ripple affect something like this would have on small businesses and the number of people they could afford to employ, let's look at it this way. This minimum wage employee will gross an additional $3848 a year. That's about $320 a month, gross. $320 (gross) a month does not buy a whole lot more dignity. What about the dignity of those people who started out in a minimum wage job and worked very hard to get themselves good job reviews and raises over the years. Suddenly they find that they are minimum wage employees again, or that all of their hard work means that they are $.15 above the minimum wage, above people who are coming into entry level jobs with no experience what so ever. I know a person who in the early 1990's entered the job market later in life, and she worked hard to get herself up to a nicer wage, and every time she started to feel proud of her work, the minimum wage was raised and she found herself making what entry level workers made all over again. There was no pride in that. It did nothing for her "dignity". It gave her no desire to work hard and get ahead.

There are some very principled arguments against raising minimum wages. This is not meant to be one of them. This was an argument against a stupid statement by a local politician.

An ancient library lost to posterity is found?

In a story that is exciting to a history geek such as myself, the Sunday Times (of London) reports that a lost Roman library of Herculaneum may still exist under a layer of volcanic soot and rock from Mount Vesuvius. From the article:

All knowledge of the great house was lost until 1738, when workmen sinking a well shaft encountered a mosaic floor. It was too deep to excavate; instead, over the next 20 years under the supervision of Karl Weber, a Swiss military engineer, a network of tunnels was hewn through the debris clogging the great peristyle, the atrium and the Olympic-sized swimming pool. Cartloads of treasures were brought to the surface, destined for the art collection of the King of Naples.

Throughout this time, mingled with the sculptures and glassware, workmen retrieved what looked like lumps of coal which they unthinkingly dumped in the sea. It was not until 1752 and the discovery of an intact library lined with 1,800 rolls of papyrus, that the excavators realised that what they had been throwing away were carbonised books. The site has since been known as the Villa of the Papyri.

While the rolls of papyrus were unreadable due to the carbonization, modern technology, namely multi-spectral imaging, allows for us to see the words long lost to antiquity:

Booras’s tool was a digital camera sensitive to a far wider spectrum of light and which could range deep into infra-red wavelengths.

When he and his wife Susan, a fellow researcher, applied a filter that allowed only infrared light of 900-950 nanometres into the camera, the long-lost texts reappeared.

The ink had apparently retained a characteristic that made it absorb infrared light differently from the surrounding burnt papyrus.

The events of history have left huge gaps in Western knowledge. The burning of the library at Alexandria was a terrible tragedy for human knowledge. In this case, tragedy has preserved texts that otherwise would have detoriated by now, and modern technology allows us to read texts that possibly have not been read in 2000 years. May the Herculaneum society be successful in efforts to find a second library on the site.

A very Wisconsin weekend

As I sit here on a quiet Sunday, I'm thinking back on a weekend that I'm not sure I'd have experienced many places outside of Wisconsin. It started when the lovely Mrs. Jib and I went out on a triple date with a couple of her co-workers and their spouses. At 5:30 on Friday we drove to Madison for an evening of dinner, a comedy club, and drinking (with a DD), knowing full well that getting home was going to be a challenge. After an evening of plentiful laughs and beer, our trip home took double the time it normally would due to 6 inches of unplowed snow on highway 12. Saturday morning was all about digging out from 10 plus inches of snow. Saturday afternoon, Mrs. Jib and I entertained another set of our couple friends, and we whittled the day away with beer and board games because driving was out of the question. Today there is a second cleaning of drifted snow on the docket, and more beer.

Dealing with snow while drinking beer. Very Wisconsin. Possibly also the title of my autobiography.

Beer

I just haven't been myself over here lately. It has been forever since I've spoken on one of my favorite topics-beer. I'm sure my party of 7 enjoys God's nectar, and I just haven't been meeting my readers wants and needs of late. So here we go. I've always said that beer is good for you, as long as you don't over do it (frequently). I worked at the greatest brewery in the world, Leinenkugel's, and I learned that a cut from a broken bottle could be cleaned with fresh beer, and it seemed that it would heal faster than a cut that was left to its own. Still, liberals have been whining about beer and other alcoholic beverages for years (Binge drinking=4 drinks in one evening. I call that a good start). To liberal hand wringing, I always quote Benjamin Franklin: "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." I'm also fond of this line from Cliff Claven on Cheers:

Well you see, Norm, it's like this...A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo. And when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members. In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells. Now, as we know, excessive intake of alcohol kills brain cells. But naturally, it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine. And that, Norm, is why you always feel smarter after a few beers.

A joke, right? Au contraire, monfraire. A recent study indicates that moderate drinking makes the mind sharper. This would fit well into Clavenism. That's why you should read more about this in my new book, "Booze, Cigars, and Gracie-Why George Burns Lived to be a Damn Old Man." (Nod to Kevin Nealon for my blatant theft of his comic stylings on that last line).

The battle for resources: man's past, man's future

The Christian Science Monitor takes a look at the growing likelihood that the world's major powers will soon butt heads over access to oil. There is a phrase that is bandied about frequently in this era: "the end of history." As much as I'd love to see it, I think we are going to learn in the near future that history may have paused for a little while, but it is back with a vengeance.

History is marked by battles for resources. Since World War II, most wars have been over ideology. It is easy to fool oneself into thinking that those days are gone. They aren't. China is a very hungry, very large nation which is going to be trying to secure oil resources to meet needs that one day could be much larger than our own. It is uncertain whether the earth's oil fields can meet the world's needs as former third world nations like China attempt to leap into the first world. What does this mean to us? Well, it could mean several things. It could mean that the world is facing terrible global economic crunch as demand rises much faster than supply. It could mean that major economic powers find themselves in armed conflict over petroleum resources. Or it could mean that the nation that pioneers an widely available, cheap form of alternate source of energy will be the leader in the world's future economy. If it is us, believe me, we won't seriously dedicate ourselves to it until we are in crisis, but once we get there, no one will do it better.

Which of these three paths will we travel down? I'm not going to venture to guess that. There are too many decisions to be made yet, too many variables that we cannot account for. Just don't think that we are anywhere near the end of history.

UPDATE
Before anyone starts to think I'm turning into an environmentalist or radically turning to the left, I will say that I'm still skeptical about our current alternative energy options. Take hydrogen, for example. Read this article in Popular Science for reasons why hydrogen is more hype than realistic option.

January 21st, back to basics

Here we are on the evening of January 20th. There is a certain euphoria amongst all Republicans, myself included. Our guy, George W. Bush, has taken his second oath of office. Hope fills our horizon. But I'm going to be the party pooper who begins the hangover. Tomorrow we revert to politics as usual. In fact, expect it to be worse than usual. Democrats know that if four years from now there are whispers about this being a great presidency, then they are almost doomed in '08. They are going to be doing everything in their power to bring down this President. They are undoubtedly going to try to slap some sort of scandal onto his Presidency. Quick, name the last two term President who didn't have a major scandal tossed at him in his second term. If you said Dwight Eisenhower, you would be correct. There has been a lot of speculation as to why second terms never seem to pan out the way they were intended, and one of the least played reasons is that the political opposition sees it as essential to destroy a second term President. If that President gives them a reason, they'll do it, too. I'd actually say that this may be a weakness of Presidential term limits. A second term President is like a game of whack-a-mole. The opposition can pound away without having to fear facing this person in an election again. The great Presidents can rise above the politics and leave a long term, positive mark on the United States and the world. The average or bad Presidents are consumed by it. We shall soon see which George W. Bush is. I'm betting on great, but I know that there are a lot of people who disagree with me, and they are going to be doing everything in their power to ensure it.

Innauguration Day and a cheesy congratulations

Today President Bush will be sworn in for his second term, and I was trying to think of a snappy way of congratulating him on his victory. I considered highlighting some of his most notable quotes from the first term, but anyone can do that. Instead, I want to highlight one of his lesser known quotes, spoken in Appleton early in 2004:

I read this and I wasn’t quite sure — it says that Wisconsin cheese is being sold in France. (Laughter.) That’s a good cheese.

No, Mr. President, you're "a good cheese". Congratulations, and may you help America achieve historic gains in your next 4 years.

Great Logo

I love this. A friend of Patrick from My View of the World came up with this as a logo for the Badger Blog Alliance. I'm now going to screw up my entire template by trying to work it into my sidebar.

Dirty bomb threat in Boston?

In a story that bares watching, officials are investigating a possible radiological bomb threat against Boston. This is an odd story which for now should be taken with a grain of salt by the general public, bit it is also a oddly fascinating story of a Mexican tipster, smuggled Chinese and Iraqis, and potentially serious terror threat.

A distinction between fraudulent and incompetent

With the Wisconsin blogosphere covering the Milwaukee same day voter registration problem very well, there is one important distinction I'd like to make between fraudulence and incompetence. The Milwaukee Election Commission-incompetent. It is inexcusable to send voter verification cards out two months after the election. Some (I stress some) same day registrants-fraudulent. And I direct you here for an example of that potential fraudulence.

(Cross posted at Badger Blog Alliance)

Muslims are, occasionally, terrorists? What?!

You had to see this one coming. Since 9-11, it has been very un-PC to even say Muslim and terrorist in the same sentence, even though Muslim terrorists are the highest profile terrorists in the world today. If you couldn't say the two words together, you certainly couldn't tell a fictionalized story where Muslims are terrorists. Hollywood has gone out of its way to avoid portraying Muslims as terrorists, instead portraying terrorists primarily as white Eastern Europeans, Germans, Irish, or Americans. 24, Fox's premier anti-terrorism series finally ran out of bad guys, and fictionally portrayed Muslim terrorists this year. That warm and cuddly group CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) immediately got up in arms (no pun intended). To help assuage CAIR's concerns, Fox is making available to its affiliates PSA's which portray Muslims in a very positive light.

Here's a recommendation for CAIR: Work a little more on the "Islamic" side of things. Worrying about a fictional story accomplishes much less in the long run than ending the barbarism being perpetrated by immoral representatives of the Islamic faith who practice terrorism. Are terrorists a small minority of all Muslims? Yes. They are also just as dangerous to Muslims as they are to white, black, and brown Americans. Clean up your backyard, CAIR.

Time to 'move on' in Wisconsin?

Normally my stance on the comments section of this blog is "what happens in the comments stays in the comments." I'm going to make an exception today because RPM, a blogger who I frequently disagree with, but whose opinion I respect, made a comment which I think is fair but deserving of a response. In response to the post "Possible Massive Voter Fraud in Milwaukee", RPM had the following to say:

Aw come on, Jib. Get on with life now. Your guy won. No questions asked. Give up the whining already. I know you wanted W to win Wisconsin just as much as I wanted Kerry to win Ohio.

But none of that happened. So enough already.

Let's start thinking of what needs to be done by the President to make him 'legendary'. Not about the voting.

If anyone, it is Kerry and his supporters who should be whining about voter fraud and stuff. Not you and yours.

I can see how this can seem like a case of sore winnerism. Our guy won the election, and here we are complaining about the fact that we think he should have won in Wisconsin, too. That's really not what is going on here, though. There is probably nothing that can be done to change the results in Wisconsin at this point, no matter how loud the Wisconsin blogosphere is about this. I think most of us realize this. There are two things that are at play, though. First, a lot of us are concerned about the dramatic slide that is occurring in the legitimacy of Wisconsin elections. This started quietly in 2000 when a Democratic election worker was caught trying to buy the votes of Milwaukee area homeless people with cigarettes. There is also a great deal of concern about Wisconsin's very lenient voter registration laws. These laws, which make it excessively easy to register to vote in Wisconsin, also make it excessively easy to commit voter fraud. It would be nothing for someone from Illinois who has a summer home in Wisconsin (and there are a lot of these individuals) to register in the area of their summer home and vote in Wisconsin as well as Illinois. The laws also make it easy for anyone to show up the day of the election, register to vote at an address of a vacant lot or a business, and get away with it. On this count, I was sounding the warning bells before the election. Additionally, we watched as Milwaukee (heavily Democratic) allowed over 5,000 very questionable voter registrations to stand prior to the election. We watched as Milwaukee insisted that it needed over twice as many ballots as it had eligible voters. We've seen Milwaukee's disregard for justice when vans rented by Republicans to take voters to the polls were rendered inoperable with slashed tires, and no one was brought up on charges. Now we watch on as Milwaukee shows an utter disregard for its responsibilities, and does not verify its same day voter registrations, allowing the votes to stand long enough for the election to be certified, even though the ineligible votes could have been of a large enough quantity to swing the election. We cannot change any of this that is in the past, but we are beginning to feel besieged by what we feel is a corrupt Democratic establishment in this state. By trumpeting this story and applying pressure to the principles, we can help halt this slide towards corrupt elections that we've been watching. If we are quiet on this story, the Wisconsin media will not pick up on this story, and Wisconsinites will go to the polls in 2006 and 2008 ignorant of these issues, and nothing will be done to shore up our ailing electoral process.

A secondary issue that plays into this is a sense equality, of fairness. There is legitimate doubt about what is going on here in Wisconsin, primarily in Milwaukee and, to a lesser extent, Madison. Despite this legitimate doubt, nobody outside of Wisconsin is paying any attention to it. Instead, the story is a Democratically spun fairy tale out of Ohio, which is less than legitimate. We don't want the spotlight per se, but we do think that if the story was a legitimate one for the media to drone about, then they should be paying a lot more attention to what is going on here in Wisconsin than what happened in Ohio. But they're not, they are ignoring it. The results of the election in Ohio were never in doubt, despite efforts on the part of the left to find a Democratic vote under every rock. This story coming out of Milwaukee means that foul play may have very well turned the election results. Whether "our guy" ultimately won or not, it leaves a sick feeling in your stomach when you realize that foul play may have changed the results in your state. Even if you are one to believe that there was no foul play at all, you still have to be disgusted at the outright incompetence.

But given all that, RPM, if you would like to see me talk about what needs to be done to enshrine Bush in the legions of Great Presidents, I'll be happy to go to work on that, too :-).

Kerry Criticizes voting irregularities

John Kerry today criticized voting irregularities during a speech in Massachusetts. A key quote:

"In a nation which is willing to spend several hundred million dollars in Iraq to bring them democracy, we cannot tolerate that too many people here in America were denied that democracy," Kerry said.

Kerry must then support the thousands of voters created from scratch or raised from the dead to enjoy American democracy in Wisconsin and Washington, because he made no mention of those irregularities.

Rosemary Kennedy passes away in Wisconsin

When you leave town for 8 days, it's tough to keep up on the local news. On January 8, Rosemary Kennedy, eldest sister of John, Robert, and Teddy, passed away at a Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin hospital.

The story of Rosemary Kennedy is a rather sad one. It can be tempting to serve the story up as a condemnation of the Kennedys, but it is really a story of how the mentally disabled were treated poorly and hidden from society right up to the 1980's. Read the link above to learn a little bit about Rosemary Kennedy's life.

No Stolen Elections?!

On January 5th, an organization called No Stolen Elections! presented the office of Russ Feingold with an 800 letter petition, asking Feingold to fight against voter fraud, most notably in Ohio. Now No Stolen Elections! does not pretend to be a bipartisan organization. In this article on Znet, founders Steve Cobble and Charles Shaw open by saying the following:

Let's start with the conclusion: We encourage people to work for regime change at home all day on November 2nd, Election Day, and then prepare to return to the streets on November 3rd (and perhaps beyond), at predetermined, symbolic, convenient locally-chosen sites.

So it is safe to say that Cobble and Shaw are not exactly Bush supporters. In fact, given that they went to the "People's Legislature" in Madison to collect signatures, it's hard to take them seriously at all. Just the same, in their ZNet article, Cobble and Shaw claim they were inspired to prevent another stolen election aka Florida 2000, stating:

A right-wing cabal stole an election, partly in the dark of night, partly in broad daylight.

If they were legitimately upset by Florida in 2000, then they should be down right outraged by Wisconsin in 2004, where in the dark of night, Republican rental vehicles were vandalized, and in broad daylight, large numbers of unverified votes were counted in Milwaukee County. Of course, they won't be, but one of their stated goals was that "We must also prepare to defend the vote." Here's their chance to "defend the vote". In fact, give them a little encouragement. Go to their feedback page and ask them to petition Sen. Feingold to open investigations on Capital Hill into voting irregularities and foul play in Wisconsin. After all, if their purpose is completely upright and honest, they should be even more outraged at election fraud here in Wisconsin as perpetrated by Democrats than they were by the "irregularities" in Ohio or in Florida.

And by the way, if you do not recognize Cobble and Shaw, I'll give you brief bios. Cobble has dabbled in writing, doing several pieces for The Nation, as well as working as a political director for the Rainbow Coalition and as an advisor for the Kucinich campaign. Shaw, on the other hand, is the Editor of Newtopia Magazine, which is self described as "A Journal of the New Counterculture." Well, now would be a nice time to see if the "new counterculture" holds consistent values or, if they are just like the mainstream culture they disdain, holding values of convenience.

Disclaimer: It is only with more than a little bit of indigestion that I give this organization any free publicity. I have no doubt that they will find nothing wrong with what has happened here in Wisconsin. I decided it was worth giving them the coverage only because they should be challenged to live up to their own publicly proclaimed desire to "defend the vote".

(Cross-posted at Badger Blog Alliance)

Possible Massive Voter Fraud in Milwaukee

It is becoming apparent that the election was not as clean in Wisconsin as we had all first thought. The vandalism of vans the Republicans had rented to take voters to the polls not withstanding, it now seems that there was huge problems with same day registration votes in Milwaukee County. For more detail, see the coverage at My View of the World and Boots & Sabers. In a nut shell, the election board must send out address verification cards immediately after the election to people who registered at the polls. Instead, they waited 2 months. On top of that, 75,000 people registered at the polls. Almost 10,000 of those had illegible cards which could not be verified. That does not include any of the cards which will be coming back from non existant addresses. Bush has won this election, but it now appears possible that Wisconsin really was a red state in 2004. He had a lead in some polls going into the election, and he lost by a little over 11,000 votes. The fraudluent vote count in Milwaukee could conceivably have more than made up that gap.

Journal Sentinel coverage of the story is here.

CORRECTION
The election in Wisconsin was decided by a little over 11,000 votes, not 18,000 as previously stated.

(Cross posted at Badger Blog Alliance)

When Daunte needs a sta-p-ler, He's the rubber band, man!

Dirty Harry

Wow, I always knew there was a reason I liked Clint Eastwood:

Then, the Republican-leaning actor/director advised the lefty filmmaker: "But, Michael, if you ever show up at my front door with a camera - I'll kill you."

From the context, his tounge was firmly in cheek, but still, who dares cross Dirty Harry?

Free wifi at the OC airport. Woo hoo!

Should be an interesting day

It'll be interesting to see how much traffic hits the Badger Blog Alliance through The American Mind's links today, and also via Darn Floor's mention on the Charlie Syke's show. As for me, I've got to fly. Literally. I'm hoping their is Wifi at John Wayne Int'l airport, but if not, I look forward to a) getting back home, and b) reading the blogs of Sykes' panel to see their thoughts on their experience today.

Charlie Sykes and the Wisconsin bloggers

It was a great hour for the Wisconsin bloggers invited to talk with Charlie on his show on 620 WTMJ in Milwaukee. Big congrats to Darn Floor and Dummocrats for their on air "link". For live blogging notes on the show, check out Badger Blog Alliance. There are some great Wisconsin blogs, and I'm sure they'll be receiving more and more notice in the months to come.

Keep checking out Sykes Writes to see if Charlie ends up linking to additional Wisconsin bloggers.

Sykes on Wisconsin Bloggers

Again, head on over to Badger Blog Alliance for notes on Charlie Sykes' hour on blogging (AM 620 WTMJ).

Badger Blog Alliance live blogging Sykes' show

Badger Blog Alliance is going to be live blogging Charlie Sykes' segment on Wisconsin bloggers. Head on over there to see the live blogging, or go to the link below to listen to the webcast.

Black Sheep

Okay, I know others have made this comment, but I can't resist doing so myself. It is bizarre how much the 2004 Washington Gubernatorial election came to resemble the David Spade/Chris Farley movie Black Sheep, what with dead people voting and all.

Pain of Packer loss muted

I stumbled across this story while looking for news on the weather back home. I don't have the words to do it justice, so just read it for yourself. I can't feel as bad as I did about Sunday's Packer loss given Christopher's story.

Sykes to host segment on Wisconsin bloggers

Charlie Sykes is going to be hosting a segment on Wisconsin bloggers Thursday at 10 am central time. The following is a repost from the Badger Blog Alliance:

Congrats to Blog General. He, along with the Owen at Boots & Sabers, Patrick at My View of the World, Kevin at Lakeshore Laments, Badger Pundit, and The American Mind. Give a good show everyone.

It sounds like the segment will begin at 10 am central. For a webcast, go here.

You have no idea how jealous I am right now.

Kid Rock to perform at Bush twins' Inaugural Party?

I'll be the first to admit that I've been too busy indulging myself in a nasty case of homesickness to be as up on the news as I normally am. This story about the possibility that the Bush twins invited Kid Rock to play at their inauguration party has has hit me from multiple sources, though, and I think any controversy around it is silly. I realize that I may be a touch more socially liberal than the median conservative, but not that much. It is not like Kid Rock was invited to play at the President's official Inaugural Ball; he was (supposedly) invited to play at the party being thrown by the President's 22 year old daughters. It is non-controversies like this that make many Americans feel that conservatives are stodgy, dull, and repressive. I have to disagree with the likes of Kathryn Jean Lopez.

Yes, I know all about Kid Rock's lyrics. Yes, I'm also quite familiar with the lyrics that refer to Barbara Bush (actually, quite a visual if you ask me, and I love 'Bar'). And I do understand how a portion of Bush's base could be offended by Kid Rock's lyrics. Sometimes, on some things, you just have to chalk it up to kids (Jenna & Barbara) being kid (fans).

California Dreaming, on such a winter's day

Okay, everyone's sick of me whining about California. I'm going to wrap up my California weather report with a few general thoughts.

1. I walked out of my hotel room this morning to sunny skies. I was stunned to learn that I was looking at a snow covered mountain that wasn't all that far away. The skies had been so low that I didn't even know it was there until the skies cleared.
2. This storm was weird. I showed up in Southern California as it did. The first stage had native Californians telling me to be careful on the roads because people slide around a lot in the rain. I was a bit stunned by this as it rains much harder than this during the Wisconsin summer, and handling a vehicle in those rains is not overly difficult.
3. What made this unique was that it just kept raining steadily. If it weren't for the fact that this continued for 4 or 5 straight days, the rain would not have been a problem at all.
4. Much of Southern California is little more than the rain gutter of the Southern Californian mountains. This is a very beautiful corner of the world, and I understand why so many people flock here, but when you choose to live in an area whose beauty is the result of its dangers, do you really deserve to complain when the worst happens? I'm willing to admit that Wisconsin, although beautiful, does not have the gorgeous vistas of Southern California. Outside of the occasional tornado, blizzard, or flood, Wisconsin is quite safe, though, and that's a trade out I'm willing to make.
   

Keith Olberman was great...

...back in his glory days on ESPN Sports Center. Now he's just a smug jag with a low rated show. Clearly, California is getting to me, because I was sitting in my hotel room tonight watching Olberman's show. In the rare instances that I watch Olberman, I anticipate that I will think he's an idiot, so he doesn't get me very riled. Tonight was different. Olberman was talking with someone from Time magazine about the Armstrong Williams issue when he began to ruminate on whether Williams was the only person on the payroll. It was then that Olberman wondered aloud how some of the better put together websites were able to stay afloat. Olberman's remark was anything but off hand. He was clearly taking a cowardly swipe at blogs, attempting to muck up a little mud from the Williams affair and then fling it at bloggers. I can agree that what Williams did was unethical, and that he deserves the fall out that has resulted, but to make an unfounded claim like Olberman did was just plain unprofessional.

I can almost feel sorry for Olberman. Here's a guy who thinks himself to be quite the Einstein. He's also a guy who was cutting edge and cool once upon a time-when he was teamed up with Dan Patrick on ESPN. Now here he is. The blogs are nipping at his heals. The blogs are cutting edge and cool, and he has a flailing talk show. I can understand where Olberman's bitterness comes from (especially if you add in the Kerry loss). That doesn't excuse him, though. I suspect that if I made an assertion that Olberman was on, say, Barbara Boxer's payroll, I could be open to a libel suit. Fortunately, Olberman's daily audience is about as big as Jiblog's, so that really shouldn't be an issue.

And speaking of dirty weather

When I get back to my beloved Wisconsin, it is forecast to be six degrees below zero. Lovely.

P.S. I love you

As a post script to my previous post about this nightmare of a trip, I miss the lovely Mrs. Jib painfully bad.

California Nightmare

Sorry for the lack of posting, but this has been the trip from hell for me. My flight in got all horked up, and I arrived very late and at the wrong airport. They initially lost my bag (quite the accomplishment given it was originally a direct flight). I was therefore shot on my first full day of the trip. Day 2 went reasonably well until I lost my cell phone. On Sunday I was not only frazzled because the lack of a phone was going to be problematic this week, but I start to feel under the weather. At the end of Sunday, I got good news, though. My cell phone was found. Now I'm getting meeting cancellations. Plus I'm sick. On top of that, it has been constantly raining out here. Unbelievable.

I am counting my blessings, though. I've seen video of a horrific landslide that has killed at least two. People's homes are being swept away. Their cars are being swept away. I still have my health, and my home is back in home sweet home Wisconsin.

I want the Daily Show canceled

From Atlhouse (I'm too tired to find the original link):

"I didn't know that if you wanted a show cancelled, all you had to do was say it out loud."

So said Jon Stewart, on last night's "Daily Show," about the cancellation of CNN's "Crossfire."

Really? If so, I want the Daily Show canceled. Or am I just not elite enough to effect that change?

Soggy Southern California

This is the California weather I hear people rave about it? It stinks! The weather for the next 4 or 5 days is comparable to Wisconsin in April, but worse. My weather jinx lives on.

I will be posting during my California trip, but I'll be posting when I can, so expect seeing posts pop up at the oddest of times.

Ugh, O'Hare

I have thus far avoided flying out of O'Hare. Until this trip, that is. So knowing that my trips and and bad weather go hand in hand, Chicago got a mere 9 inches of snow last night, and O'Hare has gone heywire. Over a thousand flights have been cancelled. I somehow think my 4:40 is going to become a 9:40. Drat!

Away in manger, Jesus was...homeless?

From The Federalist Patriot 05-01 Chronicle:

"In the last [Bush] budget, we cut housing again, and that was Jesus' dilemma. In Bethlehem, his family ended up homeless. Rome was a wealthy country that left Jesus and Mary and Joseph, in a sense, homeless. He was born an at-risk baby. ... Today we are celebrating the wealthy and war, not the poor and peace." --"Reverend" Je$$e Jack$on

Ummm, Jesus was homeless? Wasn't it more a case of Mary and Joseph failing to call ahead for hotel reservations? Jesus was an at-risk baby, because a power greedy ruler was threatened by him and wanted him dead, but not because Rome cut housing. I mean really, how can the son of a carpenter during the period of Roman rule ever really be homeless.

The Reverand Jesse Jackson, buffoon.

California Dreamin'

I'm off to California later today. I'm going to piss off every libshit in site, and then maybe sip Cristal with Moxie. Okay, maybe I'll do the former. I plan to bring cigars and smoke them in public places, wearing an 'I love Jesus, but I voted for George W. Bush' t-shirt, flaunting my masculinity while taunting every feminazi in sight that their place is in the kitchen. Okay, again, maybe I'll do the most former item on that list.

Aw hell, who am I kidding. I'm going to spend my evenings dodging mudslides. Whenever I travel, I get button hooked by the weather (for the meaning of 'button hooked', please listen to "The Goat" by Adam Sandler). This week-plus looks to be no different than usual.

UPDATE

Good news! According to the U.S. Climate Prediction Center, everyone in America will share in my weather misery next week as a "once-in-a-generation" storm sweeps across the country. Sorry, but misery loves company.

Isn't it ironic?

I'm going to pass on the opportunity to be a conspiracy theorist, but it is a bit ironic that Planned Parenthood, big time pro-choice organization, gives out condoms which were shown to be among the least reliable in a recent test. It is probably because the condoms are cheap and less well constructed, but still.

Environmentalists to put humanity on endangered species list

Several environmental groups today filed a federal lawsuit against big power companies today, stating evidence that shows that all electricity generation is harmful to the environment. In other news, in the event that they win their lawsuit, the environmental groups are planning a lawsuit against all people in order to prevent them from defecating, urinating, getting sick, or dying. The environmental groups plan to present evidence that this human biological waste is devastating to the environment, especially when there is no electricity to aid in safe waste treatment. They plan on asking the courts to ban the practice of human life immediately. Then they plan to petition the Federal Government to put mankind on the endangered species list.

Okay, none of the above is true, but it illustrates my point. Environmentalists fail to understand one simple fact about our environment: We are part of it. Because of that, we will always have an impact on it, for better or for worse. I am willing to give the environuts kudos for wanting to be good stewards of the environment, but too often they don't factor into their thinking that humans will always have the biggest footprint in our environment because we are the most advanced species on the planet. This short sightedness leads them to chase initiatives that sometimes can be more harmful than the status quo.

This post was inspired by a couple of items in the news recently. The first is this story from the USA Today about the carnage electricity producing wind turbines creates amongst predatory and migratory bird populations. The second is this story out of Oak Creek, Wisconsin, where an environmentalist lawsuit has halted work on a new coal generator which is important to meeting Wisconsin's power needs.

The Chicago Tribune gets it

As I've said here on several occasions, the reason the violence level in Iraq has escalated is because the terrorists fear democracy, and a succesful election would be a major defeat for them. Give the people the power, and the support for their insurgency will begin to dry up. It's nice to see that the editors of the Chicago Tribune understand that. In an editorial today, the Trib tells us why they fear Democracy, why we shouldn't be demoralized by the increased violence, and why we should do everything in our power to make sure those elections occur as scheduled, with no delay.

Great articles for new bloggers

For any of you who are new to blogging, Evangelical Outpost has some great articles up that you should read. Your blog can be as little or as much as you want it to be, and they have some great tips.

How To Start A Blog:
Part I -- Before You Begin

How To Start A Blog:
Part II -- The Beginning Bloggers Toolbox

How to Start a Blog:
Part III -- How to Become an A-List Blogger

How to Start a Blog:
Part IV – The Art of Marketing Your Blog

Enjoy.

Al-Jazeera in Saddam's hip pocket

I don't really think this story should surprise anyone. In it we learn that former Al-Jazeera manager Mohammed Jassem al-Ali tells Odai Hussein that Al-Jazeera is his channel. While not surprising, it is disturbing. The media here in the states have allowed Al-Jazeera's reporting set the tone on many issues involving the war in Iraq, and also the larger Middle East, and here we have evidence that the managers of the network are not above cozying up with some of the most disgusting regimes in the region. Anything that comes to us from the U.S. Media via Al-Jazeera should be viewed with critical questioning and extreme skepticism. Unfortunately, is we the news consumers who have critical skeptics, because many of our media outlets have abdicated that role.

Feingold '08?

During the '04 campaign, I spoke many times on Russ Feingold. I personally like and respect the guy, even though I disagree with his politics. In the most recent election, I voted for Tim Michels, but had a RINO been selected as his Republican opponent, I would have likely broken my straight ticket and voted for Feingold (look back to the October archives for the logic on that one). Going back to '01, I thought Feingold might be in the Democratic presidential mix in '04. Today over at Badger Blog Alliance I discuss U.S. News & World Reports' Whisper that he'll be feeling things out for an '08 bid.

Free Iraqi

I've enjoyed the blogging out of Baghdad by the brothers of Iraq the Model since early on in my blogging existence. Recently, while two of the brothers were here in the U.S., the third brother Ali left a cryptic message on the blog. He now tells his story at his own site, Free Iraqi.

Still another Badger Blog Alliance update

Well, what is to my knowledge the first organized Wisconsin blogging community has breathed its first breath. Currently Jiblog, Darn Floor, and Wild Wisconsin are the founding members. For a month I dreaded going to work on the site, but now I'm getting jacked up about it. Still, the site is a little rough around the edges, but we're headed in the right direction.

Keep checking in on the site, and if you are a Wisconsin Blog that would like to participate, let me know.

Althouse

There is a certain mystery to Ann Althouse, namely, where does she fall on the political spectrum? In my meanderings, I see that some people place her to the left. Other places place her to the right, although she herself seemed a little surprised that she was up for Conservative Blog of the years. It's amusing that you can read her blog for a long period of time, enjoy her work over there, and still wonder what category to put her in.

Another Badger Blog Alliance update

I played around a little over at the Badger Blog Alliance site tonight. It isn't pretty, but a blogroll and a Sitemeter have been added. Anyone who'd like to be added to the blogroll should let me know. Also, if you know any other Wisconsin bloggers, let them know what's going on. And if you are tight with any of Wisconsin's big bloggers, work 'em for us!

Beleaguered Tom DeLay does the stand up thing

Tom DeLay, the favorite whipping boy of Democrats since Trent Lott, did a stand up thing today. He convinced his fellow Republicans to reverse their decision to soften an ethics rule which requires leaders who are indicted on felonies to step aside, despite the fact that he could potentially lose his leadership position if indicted on fundraising charges. Ethically speaking, this maneuver showed DeLay actually is ethical. Politically, it was very astute, as it takes a couple of bullets out of the rhetorical guns his opponents constantly have aimed at him.

Note on Wisconsin Bloggers Alliance

Okay, via Darn Floor I came upon this column on blogs and Wisconsin Blogs at the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram. As I come upon more and more quality Wisconsin Blogs, I think that some of this state's blogs are ready to make names for themselves. Whether this little Alliance can play any part in that is yet to be seen, but I am doing my homework, trust me. I'm thinking small to start. Probably a blogroll of Wisconsin Blogs, daily links to posts of note at the sites, and perhaps open posting to all members. I don't think I'm going to get a lot done on that front until after I get back from California, though.

Back after a short absence

Thank you to everyone for your nice comments in the Happy New Year post. Mrs. Jib and I had a nice, subdued evening. We're getting too old for the drunken, wild New Year's celebrations, anyway. We tend to just get pissed off at the amateurs around us.

I'm excited about a new year of blogging. All in all, I'm pleased with Jiblog's first 6 months, however, like Drew, I have an obsession with my hit count and my links, especially after having the rush that comes with a Hughicane (my trademarked name for Hugh Hewitt's version of an Instalanche) right before the election. I'm looking forward to an even better 2005, and I hope all of you who are regulars are still regulars here 365 days from now.

Jiblog will be going on the road at the end of this week as I head to not so sunny Southern California for an 8 day business trip. I suspect I'll be listening to a lot of AM radio as I sit in gridlock, so hopefully the evenings will be bountiful in new posts. I just hope that airport security doesn't fondle my chest during a frisk. After all, what could be more terrible than that?