Vang Charged

As most know by now, Chai Saoua Vang was charged today. It is going to be interesting to see the defense on this one. There was a hint that there may be some sort of insanity defense. Additionally, if Vang's lawyers play the race card, this is not going to help white-Hmong relations in Wisconsin.

Any kind of traditional defense lawyers could have made for Vang seems shot with the revelation that Vang initially lied about what happened, and with the appearance of several holes in his story. His lawyers are well known to pull out the stops in defense of their clients, so I suspect that this will indeed get ugly.

If it does get ugly, I recommend this article for all in Northern Wisconsin. Keep in mind, if anger begins to build, that just because they are not like you, Hmongs are not your enemies. In fact, they may be the most loyal allies the United States has ever had, and they still pay a price for that. Many of the older Hmong in your community may yearn for their homeland, a place they can never return to. Vang is an isolated person whose actions were an isolated incident. Much of the Hmong community has come out in the past week to stand with the victims, not with one of their own. If you feel anger during this case, direct it to its natural source-the defense lawyers (said firmly with tounge in cheek).

Umm, yuck

Next time you think you have the worst job in the world, think of these guys. They're over their heads in crap.

European self loathing

Europe is not only figuratively killing itself, it is literally killing itself. Limping along with a birth rate of 1.5, Europe is slowly becoming a Muslim continent. Along with that has come all of the expected friction between native Europeans and the new immigrants. Not satisfied with slowly exterminating itself, The Netherlands is now speeding up the process. A hospital in The Netherlands has announced that it has begun to euthanize those "incapable of deciding for themselves whether they want to end their lives," in accordance with a new law, and that includes infants.

Europe has long been where "Progressives" decide that abortion is good, euthanisizing the terminally ill is good, but the death penalty is bad. Now they can say that euthanising fully born babies is good. Nevermind the contradictions. Europe "gets" it. The rest of us are just too damn simple. After all, any sensible person knows that those incapable of deciding to end their own lives need someone else to pull the plug for them, and that those who kill others deserve to live long lives.

Europe has become the Goth kid everyone knew in high school. You know the type, they walk around mightier than than thou, hating everyone, but really loathing the hell out of themselves. Misery loves company, and there is nothing Europe would love to see more than us going down the drain with them. Well, we played Europe's hero enough during the 20th century. It's on its own now. And it isn't going to be pretty to watch.

What the hell was she thinking, or Mama She's Crazy

Okay. We have one smokin' hot young teacher. We add in one 14 year old boy who must have been thinking he's luckiest sumbitch on the face of the earth. Result: another student-teacher sex scandal. I don't know about anyone else, but my first thought and my last thought on this case is always "What the hell was she thinking". Because of that, I'm going to entertain the possibility she was loony at the time, which is the case it sounds like her lawyers will present. But even if it proves true that she was insane at the time she did this, don't feel sorry for her. There is only one person to feel sorry for, the unluckiest sumbitch on the face of the earth, her soon to be ex-husband.

(Image found at ABC Action News, Tampa-St. Petersburg)

Political Silly Season

It's that time that comes around whenever an incumbant president wins re-election: Political Silly Season! Who's going? Who's staying? Who's going to take over that open position? Personally, I shy away from the political season, but I do have one prediction now that Tom Ridge has resigned. Tommy Thompson will declare that he is not interested in becoming Tom Ridge's replacement. Then he will do everything in his power to get the position. He may even hint to the media that he's interested. Then he'll say he's thinking about coming back home to Wisconsin to run for Governor. Then he'll again say he was never interested in the position of Homeland Security Secretary when it is apparent he didn't won't get it. Then he'll stay on at the Department of Human Health and Services. Then he'll resign in a year to run for Governor of Wisconsin. Then the bird flu will break out shortly after Tommy leaves the Federal Gub'mint. And Tommy will kick back and drink a beer.

Grrrr!

I have a series of posts I want to write tonight to get me back in the
rhythm of conservative thought, but Blogger is being thoroughly
uncooperative. I'll keep trying, but if I don't succede, I will catch
up tomorrow.

Number 4

I've watched the Packers as long as I can remember. One of my earliest memories is of watching a Packer-Viking game with my dad in 1979. I made my parents buy me football cards in 1980, 4 years before I start collecting baseball cards, and baseball was my true love. When I go into Wisconsin bars, restaurants, and supper clubs, I always get a kick out of the old pictures of Lombardi's Packers. The pictures are a little crusty now, and they always make me think of the great memories they must provide to the owners. When I become a crusty old man, this will be my crusty old picture. I'd post it here in the blog, but I don't want to fool around with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's copyright.

Because my membership in the Packer fan club stretches back to 1979, I experienced my fair share of misery. By 1991, I had given up on Packer quarterbacks. I had always wanted a Packer jersey up to that point, but I had sworn off Packer quarterbacks as the name and number on it. When the Packers acquired Brett Favre, I remember blurting "who the hell is he, and why did they blow a first rounder on him," to my dad. Hell was still a no-no at that time. Dad, a Raider fan, just said, "don't let your mother hear you talk like that." I can remember cursing under my breath when Don Majkowski got hurt and Favre first broke into the line up, completing his first pass to himself on a batted pass. He seemed special, but I was very guarded. I'd been hurt by the likes of Don Majkowski, Randy Wright, and Lynn Dickey. Still, Favre was one of the most exciting quarterbacks I had ever seen. He fully won me over, though, in the last game at County Stadium against the Falcons. It was then I knew he was the real deal, which is why the picture linked above will be the picture on the wall when I'm a crusty old grandpa.

We Packer fans have beeen extremely fortunate. We've had two of the greatest quarterbacks in the game's history. I feel fortunate to have experienced Brett's entire career. On some game days I find myself gasping for breath when I think of the post-Favre era. The guy is a pleasure to watch play, and he is a good guy off the field. In fact, watching his maturation off the field has been almost as enjoyable as his maturation on the field. Tonight, on the occasion of his 200th consecutive start, I reflect on the fact that we have a very finite number of games left in which to enjoy the play of Brett Favre. And I would like to thank Ron Wolf for bringing him to Green Bay, and I'd like to thank Brett Favre for bringing us all along for a terrific ride on his back.

The hunter murders, the Hmong, and a stronger Northwoods

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel today looks into the cultural differences that separate the Hmong and the white hunting communities in Northern and Central Wisconsin. It's an excellent article which illustrates why conflicts occur between the two groups. It was the final lines of the article that brought to mind a little recent history:

Meanwhile, Hmong leaders in Eau Claire, Milwaukee and Minneapolis-St. Paul have begun talks on educating Hmong and longtime Wisconsin hunters on each other's cultures.

"This is something that we all should take a look at," said Joe Bee Xiong, of the friendship association in Eau Claire.

The topic it brought to my mind was Chippewa spear fishing. The Chippewa are a prominent if invisible minority in Northern Wisconsin. Beginning in the 1970's, the Chippewa bands in Northern Wisconsin began their fight for the right to spear fish in what is called the ceded territories, which is roughly the area north of Highway 29. By the 1980's they had won the right to spear fish in the courts, and when they began to practice their rights in the late 80's, all hell broke loose. A lot of walleye fishermen and resort owners were very, very upset that the Chippewa would be spearing walleye, period, but even more upset that it was being done during the spawn. For many years, the boat landings on lakes the Chippewa speared were very, very ugly places to be. This was mostly because the protestors understood neither why the Chippewa had this right, nor that they had a common interest with the Chippewa in conserving resources. For 6 years or so, the spring nights turned ugly, and Wisconsin was fortunate no one was killed. Then things seemed to calm down, almost inexplicably.

The protestors, in my opinion, never really came to understand why the Chippewa had these rights. What they did come to see was that they and the Chippewa had a common interest in ending the ugly protests and also in conserving resources. The court rulings ended up giving the Chippewa some influence in conserving the waterways of Northern Wisconsin, and their muscle proved invaluable in halting copper mines which could have harmed water quality as well as native fish species.

What does this have to do with the Hmong and white communities in Northern/Central Wisconsin? The Hmong community is a large and significant minority in the North, and also very visible. They have only begun to melt into the larger communities in which they live, however. Hmongs tend to live in very homogeneous neighborhoods. The larger communities as a whole do not really understand the Hmong communities yet, and the Hmong communities do not fully understand the white communities, either. Language barriers are part of the problem. Limited interaction is another. What occurred last week in Sawyer County is a terrible tragedy, and Vang should be held fully accountable for his actions, regardless of whether or not the hunters hurled racial taunts at him. If there is any silver lining to this cloud, it is that the white and Hmong communities now have a point of contact for communication and improved understanding: Hunting. With any luck, outdoors organizations in Wisconsin will develop programs which will further this communication. This interaction should be a good starting point for understanding between the two communities, and also mutual acceptance. It is a process that will have its hiccups, but which should create a stronger Northwoods as the talents of individual Hmong find a larger and larger role in the community.

The Wisconsin Bloggers' Network

I've thought on the topic of a Wisconsin network of bloggers this weekend, and what follows is little more than an electronic brain storm. This is not something that I see coming fully into fruition before the New Year.

Anyway, on to the thoughts. In my mind, any kind of network would really be seed for more refined networks/alliances/coalitions down the road. Because of that, I think a large, inclusive umbrella would be called for. Blogs could be of any political persuasion, and could have any mix of content, with one exception: Members would have to have an interest in and a proven record of talking about current events. Otherwise the door is wide open to anything from e-journals to sex blogs, and I would like to see there be some content theme in addition to the Wisconsin bond. I'd also propose that any potential members have a minimum of one month's worth of content. This is because the list will be much easier to maintain if it doesn't have to be culled regularly. By bringing Wisconsin bloggers together under a big umbrella, I think it will create the opportunity for smaller, tighter groups to form.

Now, to the issues I haven't yet come to a firm opinion on. First, should this just be a free standing set of links that everyone cut and copy code to include on their member sites, or should there be a new central blog for this? I'm not personally sure I can maintain two separate sites myself, at least not for the next 6 months or so. Next, this venture needs to have a nice collection of member sites before it even reaches its birth. If it starts with about 8 to 10 member sites, then it has a chance of growing a bit. If it starts with just 4 sites, this thing is going to be pretty flat. Finally, I need to bone up on some technical things before this goes anywhere, because I'm not exactly sure where to start, code wise.

Finally, here's where I would need help. I know of about 6 Wisconsin blogs, most of which are linked to on the left side of this page. Two of those sites are quite a bit bigger than the rest of us. I would need anyone who is familiar with other Wisconsin blogs to post them in the comment section, because we will need to do a little PR to bring members to the table, big and small. I'd also like to see a good brain storm list of names for this to be put in the comment section. I'd also like to see a little discussion on my thoughts in this post, because I am in no way committed to anything yet. Participation in the comment section will help determine whether I decide to put forth the effort to tie this whole thing together. I know 3 or 4 of you would be interested in joining a Wisconsin blog network, but I'm curious to see how much effort everyone really wants to put into this. I'll do the heavy lifting, but I want to make sure that there is going to be good, active participation from everyone.

Okay, that's where I am right now. I anxiously await the thoughts of others.

Happy Holidays to All

The holidays are upon us. We are in the midst of everything we look forward to and everything we dread all year long. I hope you and yours had a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving, and I hope Christmas brings you much love and many happy memories.

(Disclaimer: Jib fancies himself a budding photographer. He also fancied himself the next Joe DiMaggio.)

Where Jib was the last 3 days

This is Jiblog's Mecca. I share with you the fountain of God's Nectar.

Yawn

This site has been too serious this week. I wish I could call on Col. Ollie to lighten things up, but I believe he's on his way to a big polka festival right now. Perhaps I'll go on down to my Mecca, the Leinekugel's brewery, knock back a couple of free Honey Weiss's at the Leinie's altar at the hospitality center, and rediscover my funny bone.

Nice thing to see

I've been keeping up on the Vang murder story all week, and one of the things that I've noticed creeping into news coverage is the insinuation that racial relations in Northern Wisconsin are not necessarily good, that there may be tension between the white and Hmong communities, etc, etc. I lived in that part of the state for the first 18 plus years of my life, and although the area is pretty white, I haven't really bought into the racial tension story line. This morning I saw something that reaffirmed that a bit. The lovely Mrs. Jib dragged me out to do some dreaded Black Friday shopping in Eau Claire (Jiblog's on the road this weekend). After we finished shopping, we stopped at a McDonald's and had some breakfast. Next to our table were several tables of elderly white gentlemen. At the table next to ours, there were only two of these men, and one got up to get some wild rice for a friend. While he was gone, two Asian women sat down at their table. When he got back and saw they were sitting there, they started to profusely apologize and get up. The man replied, "Oh no, by all means, you two are welcome to sit with us. We've got room here. And you're women. We all like women." This seemed to set the women at ease a bit, although they still got up and chose another booth. It would have been very easy for this guy to have grunted at them, displaying an over all cranky demeanor. Instead, the other guy at that table engaged them in conversation even after they moved.

Now Eau Claire is removed from Rice Lake by 45 or 50 minutes or so, and enjoys much more racial diversity, but that was a positive thing to see in a town that is still pretty dang white, and which has a large Hmong population.

A hunting murder cold case from 2001 warms

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is reporting that a cold case involving a hunting murder from 2001 in Clark County, Wisconsin, has heated up a little.

According to the Journal Sentinel's report, Jim Southworth was shot in the back twice during the 2001 hunting season, and his rifle was missing. Witnesses reported seeing a silver late model truck leaving the woods that day, with three Asian men inside. Those three men have never been identified or questioned.

The Journal Sentinel reports that Vang has owned a silver 1987 Nissan truck in the past. Early reports of the Sawyer County murders also reported that he had been seen hunting with two others earlier in the day.

The Clark County murder is apparently lacking in physical evidence. If there is a connection, police may have difficulty proving it.

Bleg on Vang Murders

I'd like to know a couple of things about this story yet. First, is it true, as I've heard second hand, that this was not the first hunting season that Vang had been kicked off that property? Second, does anyone know why Vang only served 4 months in uniform in the military? Either send me an email at ojibway7rj-at-gmail-dot-com, or put it in the comment section. Thank you.

Deer hunter murders, continued

It looks like that, for the time being, Jiblog is one of the top search results for the deer hunter murders in Northern Wisconsin. Welcome to all of you coming here via the search engines, and I hope we provide you with some of the information you are looking for. Some other good sources are WCCO, KSTP, the Pioneer Press, the Star Tribune, and the Eau Claire Leader Telegram. Registration is required at the newspapers.

Probable cause statement for Vang

This is a sobering read (two parts, here and here). Personally, Vang's story seemed to have a couple of holes that weren't supported by the physical evidence, but this report pretty much puts you at the scene of the crime.

Somewhere on the net this report is transcribed and much easier to download. I read it at that mystery location this afternoon, but I cannot find it back now. If I do find it, I'll also post that link here.

UPDATE:
I found the link to the transcribed probable cause statement. This is much quicker to load and easier to read.

In re a Wisconsin Blog Network

I originally tossed out the idea of a Wisconsin blog alliance to see if it stuck. It kinda stuck. I'm going to put some thought into this over the long holiday weekend. I want to get some sort of a vision for it, and then we'll see if we can put it into practice. In the meantime, anyone who is interested is more than welcome to brain storm in the comments section. The orgy of ideas good and bad can only help, as trying to organize something like this is completely new to me. I welcome any thoughts, from a name for it to the names of Wisconsin blogs I'm not familiar with to thoughts on organizing it. On Monday I'll try to come back with a post of my own on this concept.

IE vs. Netscape vs. Firefox

I recently posted a question about whether I should switch from Netscape 7.2 to Fire Fox. Since that time I've hemmed and hawed, making no decision. Today I learned that Netscape will be releasing an all new browser that incorporates Fire Fox improvements. I'm going to stick with Netscape and test the new version on my secondary or third computer. For those few freaks like myself with an obsessive brand loyality to Netscape, I'll post my notes on the new version after its release.

Sigh (or "Gun freaks about to jump the gun")

Well, it didn't take anti-2nd Amendment types to very long to try to capitalize on Wisconsin's deer hunter murders. According to TMJ-4 TV out of Milwaukee, anti-assault rifle legislation will be introduced as early as January in the Wisconsin legislature. Hopefully the assault weapon ban which the U.S. Congress recently allowed to expire (a horrible piece of legislation) will serve as a lesson to Wisconsin's Legislature as this bill is debated next year.

Just as a reminder, "assault weapon" is a loaded political term. It sounds nasty and scary, and therefore is used in an attempt to ban as many guns as possible. Most people are willing to accept limitations on automatic weaponry, which are exceptionally deadly. The gun used in the murders in Western Wisconsin was a relatively weak rifle. If it falls under an assault weapons ban, most rifles used for sport in this state will as well. If governments can figure out how to legislate away stupidity, I'm all for it. Banning the machines used stupidly hurts no one but law abiding citizens. A ban on the SKS would not have prevented the suspect from coming to Wisconsin with it and committing this crime. What is unfortunate is that the 8 victims only had one gun amongst themselves with which to try to defend their lives.