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.

Deer hunter murders and the fall out

I’m displeased by some of the coverage of the deer hunter murders in Northern Wisconsin. It started with this AP story, which was written in such a way as to suggest that those hunters who were killed an injured may have started the firing. It was followed by this headline at CBC News: Five killed in shootout among deer hunters. This story is very young yet, but it seems straight forward. The suspect got angry, and started mowing down the victims. Had the victims started the incident, it would seem that the suspect would be seriously injured or dead because the numbers were not in his favor. Instead, he tracked them down through the woods and shot them one by one.

I can see this story spinning wildly away from the facts. Anti gun and anti hunting types are going to jump all over it. It seems CBC News and Joshua Freed at the AP have already started down that path. At work, I’ve already heard one liberal claim that the suspect’s rifle was an automatic assault rifle, which it was not. I’ve heard another liberal claim that if were shot at first, he’d have done the same thing as the suspect. How stupid the buzz around this story could become is yet to be determined, but early indications are that it’ll be very, very stupid if the story has legs.

Wisconsin deer hunter murders, Update

KSTP-TV in the Twin Cities seems to have done the best job in covering this story. They were the first to report hard details of the murders, including the name of the suspect, Chai Soua Vang. Direct links at there website are tough to score, so I'll instead refer to this article at the Minneapolis Star Tribune (registration required).

We will certainly learn more details of this case in the coming days. Right now, it is difficult to understand what could cause someone to try to kill 8 people after being told he couldn't hunt on private land in a tree stand that wasn't his. The Wausau Daily Herald has this eerie article today on the difficulty Hmong have understanding American hunting. Just one snippet:

The difference is that in Laos, regulations requiring hunters and anglers to buy licenses and adhere to bag limits didn't exist. And sometimes Hmong people don't realize how many rules exist.

One would thing "do not hunt on private land without permission" and "do not kill people" would be universal rules that everyone understands.

Update:
Go to the homepage for more information. Jiblog.

Wisconsin Deer Hunters Hunted

Fox 6 News out of Milwaukee just reported during half time of the football game that someone is inetentionally shooting deer hunters in Sawyer County, which is about an hour and a half due north of Eau Claire. I'm trying to find out more about this, as I know several people who have cabins in that area of the state. I'm tempted to speculate, but I'm going to resist that urge until there is more information. All I'll say is that my first concern is that far northern Wisconsin has been a haven for radical eco-terrorist groups of late. More to come.

UPDATE:
Those I know are not answering phones right now. WTMJ out of Milwaukee reports that this may be over a dispute over hunting on private land. Early info link here. WTMJ is reporting that their information is second hand, but much more likely than my first fear, thankfully.

UPDATE:
5 dead, 3 injured, 1 man arrested.

Sigh

I've got a problem. I feel so dirty. I whored myself today by nominating Jiblog in the 2004 Weblog Awards for best blog ranked in the 500-1000 range in The Truth Laid Bear's ecosystem (#641). I'm somewhat ashamed, but at least I was not so arrogant to nominate the site for best blog or anything.

If Jiblog were to become a finalist (big if), please vote for the site (voting won't begin until December).

I'm so embarrassed.

NBA-National Brawl Association

This was bound to happen, and now it has: An ugly brawl courtside between NBA players and fans. There is one man who is ultimately responsible for this. He has had praised heaped on him for years for being a marketing genius. He has lauded for solving the differences between the have teams and the have not teams. Now he is due his just criticism for the disintegration of the NBA. That man is, of course, David Stern.

I used to be an NBA junky as a kid. I knew everybody in the NBA and their stats. I'd go out on the playground and pretend I was Sidney Moncrief or Terry Cummings (I'm a Bucks fan, give me a break). For me, there was nothing better than a Lakers-Celtics game in the spring time. Then an interesting thing happened. The greatest basketball player to ever lace up a pair of shoes that graced his own name came along, Michael Jordan. At first, this was great for the NBA, because most successful teams still played fundamentally good basketball. Then some of the previous greats started to retire. The NBA was faced with a future that sat squarely on joyriding shoulders, and they rode Jordan for all it was worth. I'm surprised they didn't rename the league the NJA during this time. The NBA got very rich riding Jordan.

Stern's brilliant marketing started a cancer in basketball, though. To many young kids, basketball was no longer a team sport. They didn't care about assists. They didn't care about shooting percentages. All they cared about was 35 points again and slamming a basketball with flare. From this generation we were to expect the next round of superstars. We haven't really gotten one, though. Why?

Even though Jordan could carry his team, he was still a team player. The current generation of NBA players are not team players. In fact, they are the most selfish athletes any sport has ever seen (with the possible exception of the PGA). These guys do not care about their team. They do not care about winning. They do not care about the communities they play in. All they care about is being the lead highlight on Sports Center, making big ching, smoking weed, and getting laid. This can be directly tied back to Stern's marketing of the NBA as an individual sport back in the 1990's. The cancer has spread its way from the NBA to college basketball, where it is almost unheard of for talented ball players to stay in school past their sophomore year, when if they did, they could actually enter the league as polished, mature professionals. It has spread back to high school basketball, where the talented kids know that if they play selfish ball and average 50 points a game, they'll get their payday without ever having to grace a college basketball court, cutting the maturity of NBA players even further.

Stern sold out the NBA in the 1990's. In doing so, the sport developed a cancer that has spread through out all of its levels. I'm not even going to go into this summer's disgrace at the Olympics, because that speaks for itself. Stern is ultimately responsible for charting the path for the NBA that resulted in Ron Artest in the stands, punching fans last night. It's time Stern fixes the NBA, or it's time he goes. The sport has a choice. It can take a short term hit in its popularity, and make the fixes necessary to put the game back on track, or it can witness more of these ugly events and watch its popularity slowly atrophy, at which point it will be a much longer climb back to the top of the mountain.

Watch for tornados, Mr. President

I've not invested very much of my time in reading about the Clinton library, but I did glimpse a picture of it the other day. My first impression was that it looked like a mobile home on steroids, and then I quickly passed it by. I'm not the only one who noticed the similarity. Head on over to Blogs for Bush (soon to be GOP Bloggers) to see what I mean.

Is this a problem or an opportunity?

U.S. News & World Report this week reports on a new impending crisis for the Federal Government: Half of the government work force can retire in the next five years. Now I enjoy U.S. News & World Report, but where they see a problem, I see an opportunity. As a conservative, I'm firm believer that the smaller the Federal Gub'mint is, the fewer problems it can create. One of the biggest impediments to shrinking government, though, is how to reduce the employment rolls. If you try to shrink the government without shrinking the employment rolls, you've done nothing. Laying off government employees is bad news for a politician, though, even in the best of economic times. So how do you shrink government without committing political suicide? Easy. You let the payroll reduce itself.

Right now we are looking at a once in a generation opportunity. Half of the government payroll will be set to retire in the next five years. Now is the time to combine and or eliminate positions. It is a painless way to make government more streamlines and more efficient. For those of us who believe in small government, this has to be acted upon now. Government by its very nature only gets bigger and bigger. We are being served a demographic gift on a silver platter right now. This is a natural opportunity to shrink government before it demographic demands cause its inevitable swell again.

Now for those of you who are not conservative and say that decreasing the government payroll will only lead to poorer government services, I'll split the difference with you. Government jobs do not always attract the most talented of employees. Want to change that? Entice better workers with better pay. I'll bank half of the savings from reducing the work force, and I'll give you the other half in better pay in targeted jobs. That's not very conservative of me; in fact, every conservative bone in me screams to bank the whole thing. I recognize that government service does stink, though, and I'm willing to make the effort to improve a necessary evil.

Pizza Delivery Boy Union #666

Look out America, your friendly local pizza delivery boy may be unionizing. While I do think your average pizza delivery dude gets a bit screwed on mileage and insurance, does anyone really think that this is a good idea? Domino's will have to come out with a new slogan: "30 minutes or less. Maybe. Our contract with the drivers allows us up to 7 hours to deliver your pizza." And do we really want the Hoffa family's hands in our pizzas? Think about it. You get your pizza 3 hours after you order it, its cold, and all of the pepperoni's have been picked off of it. So you exercise your God given right to complain, and 20 minutes later a guy named Vito tries to drown you in a bucket of marinara sauce.

Another perk of being Union is near absolute job safety. Do we really want to give that to 17 year old pot smoking boys? They are vile and disgusting creatures as it is. The last thing I'd want to do is take way any small amount of fear they had about losing their jobs.

I'm going to put this story in my "damn, we really do have it too good in the United States" file.

Look out R. Lee, Private Pyle is not well

I just received this late breaking news from Col. Ollie:

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Vincent D'Onofrio, star of "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," was back in a hospital Tuesday after fainting for the second time in a week.

D'Onofrio was hospitalized for two days last week when he fainted after rehearsing a strenuous scene that included climbing for the New York-based NBC drama. He had been expected to return to work Tuesday.

sBut he fainted again late Monday at his home and returned to the hospital for further observation and testing, series spokeswoman Pam Ruben Golum said.

For the record...

...intelligent blogging will return to this site, and soon.

What's wrong with me?

I propose something bold and noble like a Wisconsin Alliance of bloggers, and I have to go follow it up with killer duck billed platypuses.

Okay, I know what's wrong with me. I think duck billed platypuses are funny. Especially the killer variety.

Killer Duck Billed Platypuses

I have another piece of advise for sure fired, honest to goodness, worthless traffic to your site. Today's lesson: Use infrequently used word combinations. My choice example here is killer duck billed platypus. People are weird, and they search for the weirdest things. Just today I was searching for killer duck billed platypuses, only to learn that Google has only found one instance of that exact search thread. Therefore, I am set to become THE AUTHORITY on killer duck billed paltypuses. I anticipate this driving an extra 1 to 3 really weird people to my site per year. Ya know what? Maybe its better to stick to misspells and porn names to drive traffic. (Special thanks to Think Quest for the pic)

Wisconsin Alliance?

I was bumming over at Hugh Hewitt's site tonight (again, my eternal thanks to Hugh for a small link before the election), and I started to really look at his links. "The Rocky Mountain Alliance" "The Northern Alliance" "South Dakota Alliance". Why is there no formal Wisconsin Alliance? I'm not saying that we'd be a force that would get our own special place over there, because some of those blogs are full time jobs. What I am saying is that there are a lot of very good to excellent Wisconsin blogs that I've had the pleasure to encounter in the last 6 months, and it would be rather cool to be under some sort of Wisconsin umbrella. Any thoughts?

More adolescent Jiblog humor!

Okay, its official. The election has turned my brain into total and complete mush. The best material I can pump out is immature humor and cheap thrills. Having said that, onto today's cheap thrill and immature humor.

First, guys, go visit the Virtual Bartender. Ask her anything, and if she understands you, she'll do it (fairly clean, but you still may want to watch your back if at work).

Second, if this story is true, I really chose the wrong college. Free beer? 'Dems student fees I can handle.

Jacques Chirac, dork head

Jacques is shooting off his mouth again. A couple of my favorite quotes:

“Well, Britain gave its support but I did not see anything in return. I’m not sure it is in the nature of our American friends at the moment to return favours systematically.”

M Chirac's version of favors remind me of the mafia.

In other remarks that will sting the Bush Administration, he again outlined his vision of a “multipolar” world in which a united Europe would be equal with the US, and mocked Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defence Secretary, for his division of Europe into old and new.

Wanting to be equal and being equal are two very different things. If Europe ever unshackles its economy (ahem, ditch Socialism) and builds and army that wouldn't get its ass kicked in a Wisconsin country bar, then there will be this so called "equality" As long as we have to clean up Europe's own back yard, no equality.

“It is like that nice guy in America — what’s his name again? — who spoke about ‘old Europe’. It has no sense. It’s a lack of culture to imagine that. Imagining that there can be division between the British and French vision of Europe is as absurd as imagining that we are building Europe against the United States.”

I'm going to ignore the lack of culture thing-its way to easy to go after (bathe, Frenchmen!). Instead, I like the "absurdity" of the French and Brits not seeing eye to eye. Yeah, I forgot about the love that flows back and forth across the British Channel.

Dork

Inspired by recent posts at Stuff and Things and Such and The Blonde Intellect, I decided to head on over to Dictionary.com and look up the word dork. Usually there is good humor to be found in definitions of slang words. So I went here in search of comedic gold. I warn you, don't click on that link. I learned that there is a second definition for dork, a definition which will never allow me to be so flippant with my usage of the word ever again.

If you are so brave as to check out that link, try reading something with multiple usages of the word dork without giggling. The sophomoric humor value is priceless. I feel like I'm 14 years old all over again.

Uh-oh. European diplomacy at work

Am I the only who saw that European diplomacy has gotten Iran to agree to halt its nuclear program, and then wondered if Europe secretly agreed to supply Iran with all of the components it needs to complete its nuclear program in exchange for this “halt”?

<>I guess it’s good that Carter and Clinton weren’t involved. We’d have gotten the halt of the program from their diplomacy, too. After we promised to build the damn thing for them.

Using scripture to support gay marriage or If we can't uphold one part, why uphold any part?

This morning I stumbled across a column by Howard Troxler at the St. Petersburg Times. To make his long story short, Troxler uses the "let he who is without sin cast the first stone" argument. Using the Bible very loosely and haphazardly, Troxler argues that heterosexuals have no moral footing for not allowing gays to have access to gay marriage, or as he calls it, a "civil contract". I find so many things either wrong or offensive about Troxler's column that I do not know where to start.

Let's start with his words "civil contract". If Troxler wants to discuss the roots of today's marriage crisis, that might be a good place to start. Too many people do not take there vows seriously because they see marriage as little more than a public contract which can be made and broken at the will of one or both of the parties to the contract. Marriage at its roots is more than that, though. Marriage is rooted in religion, and within that religious context, marriage is the union of two souls before God. Not a civil union, but the actual joining of two souls before God. When people treat there marriages this way, it becomes a much more personal, serious institution. Anything you do to your spouse, you are also doing to yourself. People who view marriage as little more than a civil contract as Troxler does tend to have little regard for marriage, which leads me to my second point.

Early in the article, Troxler tosses adultery into the face of heterosexuals, as if to say that you heterosexuals are the bigger problem for marriage. He's so close to right on, but yet so far off. Adultery is a problem for people who see marriage rooted in God as well as people who see marriage as a civil contract. It is easier for those in the "civil contract" category to step over that line, though, because for them there are fewer consequences to their actions. Had Troxler, in this part of his column, stopped and said, fine, you want to ban gay marriage? Then clean up your own house and work on stemming the adultery problem, I'd have been on board with him. Instead, Troxler begins using scripture well out of context to say Sinner, though has no right to comment on anyone else's sin.

Troxler tells us he was raised Methodist. I suspect he never studied his faith in depth in his youth, and also that he no longer practices his faith, because he spews out a lot of half correct items of Christian doctrine. First, he tries to place sins in some sort of hierarchical pecking order, when the Bible says that all sins are equal before God. I particularly liked this paragraph:

Of course, Jesus said a lot of other stuff, too. Rich people almost certainly won't go to heaven. They should give away their money. We should turn the other cheek to those who seek to hurt us. We should clothe the naked and feed the poor and house the homeless.

We also should pray in private, without beating our breasts loudly and rending our garments in the streets like hypocrites.

Good stuff. Like rich people almost certainly won't go to heaven. Jesus actually was making the point that it is more difficult for the wealthy to get into heaven because of the trappings of wealth. When you are poor and have nothing, sometimes faith is the only thing you have that is your own, whereas the rich can very easily place themselves at the center of their universe and ignore their faith. I have no problem with his next two sentences, but I enjoy the fourth one about praying in private. I enjoy it because non-believers enjoy using that one to try to shut up believers all the time. To my understanding, that exchange in the Bible refers to those who feel the need to outrageously display their faith, those for whom the display of faith is more important than their actual faith. Used in the context that Troxler does in the column, it would render null and void any statements in the Bible about helping others find God. In fact, it would turn Jesus entire ministry into one great big sin.

As a general rule, I avoid discussing religion. I am not a biblical scholar, I'm just a little Lutheran who spent a lot of time in church as a youth, and who treated my biblical study as seriously as I did my school studies. When I see crap like this from Troxler, I always want to see someone smarter than myself dissect it and take it apart piece by piece. Sometimes my frustration gets to the level that I cannot help but do it myself, even though their are many much more versed than myself who could do it better.

I love fall. Daytime temperatures cool, and the evenings are crisp. Evenings are wonderful for a fire, a hay ride, or a Friday evening high school football game. Smells of wood burning and pies baking waft in the air. The holidays are just around the corner, and no one has yet overdosed on their trappings. Despite all of this, I really f'n hate raking leaves. 

Porter Goss

I've been out of the news loop for two weeks now, so I'm finding it a little tough to comment on this, but the Washington Post is claiming that Porter Goss has already lost control of the CIA. Is that humanly possible? The guy just got there. Could it be instead that he took over a CIA that was already a complete mess, and he's culling out the weeds? Of course, the Post would never spin the story that way, not when the integrity of bureaucracy is at stake.

Thank you

I wanted to put our a thank you today to J.Rice and RPM for extending me gmail invites. I learned that those invites go into your bulk folder when sent to a Yahoo email address, so I unfortunately never saw the one from J.Rice a few months back. As for RPM, it's nice to see an opposition voice around here that's civil and willing to offer an invite like that. The two of you may be this site's most prolific commentors over the past five months, and I thank you for that as well.

Guilty

Good. That's all I have to say about that.

Hallelujah

The Peterson trial will (hopefully) be over in less than a half an hour. Thank you, Lord. I just have one question, though. What will Greta Van Susteren talk about every night on Fox?

Arafat Obituary

This is the best Arafat obituary I've seen.

Arafat and the missing Palestinian funds

Here's your Nobel Peace Prize winner for ya.

Bluetopia

So, the whiny liberals of the blue states want to pull their states out of the Union, eh? Well, good for them, I hope they do it. I like Missouri and Ohio, and I’ll gladly relocate to accommodate their new state of Bluetopia. Don’t get me wrong, I love Wisconsin, but I really would love to see the system put in place by the United States of Bluetopia. I’d love to see it because this is what I envision:

The first course of action for the U.S.B. would an all out war on poverty and homelessness. Bluetopia would show great compassion on the poor, this is without doubt. The first thing they would do is close all of the low cost housing and replace it with expensive new condos or fashionable housing. After all, urban renewal lifts property values, and that just has to help the poor. Next, Bluetopia would eliminate all public conduct laws. No more would the homeless be held down by the man. They could now urinate and defecate on public streets without fear of jail time, where they’d get a warm room and a warm meal for the night. And don’t forget about the masturbation. The homeless have it rough-where’s a guy to release a little pressure if he doesn’t have a home? Public masturbation would be a beautiful expression of personal sexuality, so not only would it be legalized, it would be encouraged in Bluetopia. Next, free needles for all the poor! This would be particularly important because Bluetopia would rush to decriminalize drugs, and with cheaper, legal drugs flooding the streets, they’d need the free needle program to head of a boom HIV cases. Oh, and don’t forget, free condoms for everyone. Since housing for the poor would be and issue with all of the new urban development, the homeless would be allowed to sleep in libraries, city halls, and the produce aisle at the Organic Food Mart (Piggly Wiggly would be outlawed in Bluetopia). The truly troublesome homeless-that small minority that isn’t alcoholic, drug addicted, or mentally-ya know, the ones who have just hit a bad stretch, they’d be deported to ‘Jesusland’. Those folk just don’t need the help the way the rest do.

Next, all medical care would be free. Some people just can’t afford insurance, so therefore everyone should have equivalent health care. In Bluetopia’s Blue Shield program (no Blue Cross, as the word “cross” will be banned in Bluetopia), if you get a cold, you simply need to fill out 144 pages of paperwork, and then make an appointment with your government health care representative. 6 weeks later, when you have your appointment with the rep, you’ll then set up an appointment with a doctor. The appointment will be another 10 weeks out. Once you actually get to your appointment, you’ll find out that your rep actually forgot to make the appointment, so you’ll have to go through the entire process again. After, that is, you spend three days on the phone getting the run around by government health reps. When you finally get to see the doctor, he’ll tell you that he is very concerned about a large growth he sees, so he’ll set you up for an MRI and then emergency surgery. In 16 months, when you get your MRI, they’ll cancel your emergency surgery which was scheduled for the following year, because your cancer is terminal. If only it had been found sooner.

Abortions would be exceedingly rare in Bluetopia. Sex Ed for children would begin in pre-school. Teachers would show them instructional videos by the top porn stars of the day. The children would then practice putting condoms on bananas, and each would leave class with their very own box of Spongebob Squarepants rubbers. If this didn’t bring down the teen pregnancy rate, it would be okay. After all, the waiting list for an abortion would be approximately 15 months. After the waiting list hit 8 months, though, the Supreme Court of Bluetopia will rule that a woman has the right to choose what’s right for her body or anything that’s ever been inside her body. This would clear the way for post birth abortion. It’s a simple procedure that is absolutely painless They simply shove a turkey baster up the nose of the woman’s post fetal tissue and suck the brain matter out. No pain for the woman whatsoever. In an interesting aside to the Court’s decision, women would also have the right to abort the genitalia of any man they ever had sexual relations with.

Oh yes, everything would be peachy keen in Bluetopia. Only electric cars would be allowed. Once the Bluetopians figure out that their air is no cleaner than it was because demand on coal electricity plants has risen, they’ll simply import their electricity from those dirty hounds in Jesusland. The tax rate for the richest of the rich is merely 98%. The poorest receive a $40,000 tax refund. Bluetopian corporations are allowed to do business with anyone in the world, as long as they themselves only buy from other Bluetopian companies. Made in Bluetopia stickers abound, as outsourcing is solved by requiring all companies selling their products in Bluetopia to make their products in Bluetopia-unless the work is dangerous or dirty, in which case it is okay for the work to be done in Jesusland. Unemployment would be solved, as the government will employ 95% of the work force. Saying mean things would be abolished as hate speech. Much of the new government employment will be through the Department of Social Consciousness, which determines what people can and cannot say after they say it. All prisoners will be sent to private prisons in Jesusland, because good Bluetopians just do not want that kind of riffraff in their back yards. The military will be abolished in Bluetopia, as will alcohol and smoking cigarettes, while the legalized prostitution, marijuana, and cocaine industries thrive. Yes, my Jesusland friends, we will truly be envious of the Bluetopians as we watch their private jets fly over our Neanderthal heads in Jesusland.

Ummm...

Arafat is dead. I think. J.Rice, they found the Swiss Bank accounts. Probably.

I'm going to try to avoid speaking ill of the dead, except for this: One less blight on the face of humanity.

All this has me now thinking of another blight on humanity-Fidel Castro. I ended up studying Castro's Cuba in great depth in college, and Arafat's passing brings to mind many discussions of what we can expect when Castro goes. There are a few rosy scenarios, but most scenarios are not rosy for U.S.-Cuban relations.

Having said that, don't expect a radical change with the Palestinians. The rosy picture will be the exception we are hoping for but probably won't get.

Jesusland?

I'm a regular reader of Moxie. I enjoy her sharp wit. She has been all about "Jesusland" lately, though, and I had no idea where the hell she got it from. Now I do. Ann Althouse covers the Jesusland thing a bit. Apparently there is an email going around with a map of Jesusland (see here). Now I get where Moxie has been going with her Jesusland posts. Frankly, I find this a bit repulsive. But then again, I find the American left repulsive.

In a similar vein, I had the pleasure of seeing the communications of some lefties I know following Kerry's concession speech. I can only think of one word to describe what I saw. Vapid. And the left wonders why their political footing is as stable as quick sand right now.

Moss Doubtful

Randy Moss is on the Viking's injury list as 'doubtful' for this Sunday's game against the Pack (which I am going to miss because of my devotion to wife and friends. Drat!). Yeah, I believe that. Randy Moss will be trotting out onto the field on Sunday, and he won't look very injured.

Reuters changes mind

Yeah, who'd of thunk it, huh? Arafat must be Lazerus, because now Reuters reports that he ain't dead anymore.

Firefox Question

I see an increasing number of readers use Firefox, so I have a question for you. I currently use Netscape 7.2 and I love it. I've been one of about 12 loyal Netscape users from day one, and some of their releases previous to 7.0 were brutal. 7.2 is very stable and has a number of Firefox's features. Can you give me reasons I should change to Firefox? I can see why someone would want to change from IE, but Netscape just seems too similar for me to justify the switch. Still, I have an open mind. Sell me on Firefox, please. Email me at ojibway7rj-at-yahoo-dot-com or use the comment section below.

Arafat

Reuters is reporting that he has died.

Hey, they're stealing our term!

Liberals have taken to calling themselves "Progressives". Robert M. Lafollete and Teddy Roosevelt (questionably) were two founders of the Progressive feast, if you will. And they were Republicans. The liberals' hijacking of the english language to cover up what they truly are makes me ill.

Blogs and earning respect

Retired journalist Eric Engberg wrote a smug little piece at CBS.com today about the blogosphere. In a nut shell, he looks down his nose at the blogs for their coverage on election day, most notably the coverage of the exit polls. I'll give Engberg this, he is correct in his assertion that the blogosphere handled the exit polls poorly. Engberg misses the big picture, though.

Many blogs seriously f'd up on Tuesday. As the exit polls began to leak out, they reacted. One of the advantages to blogs is that they are a free marketplace of ideas, one that is very self correcting-over time. Unfortunately, the blogosphere, in the short term, can also compound an error. That is what we saw on Tuesday. The exit polls numbers leaked, and people either got very excited, or they panicked, depending on which side of the issue they were on. They wrote of their panic. Then they read some of their peers, and they became more panicked. Meanwhile, the MSM, which has had experience with the exit polls in the past, and which learned their lessons from 2000, was a steady rock, reporting news without the extremes created by the poor exit poll numbers. It was a big day for the MSM-they did almost everything right (almost-more later). It was a bad day for the blogosphere. Its strong point, reactiveness, was it's biggest weakness.

Here's the big picture that Engberg misses though. Journalism is not the hallowed profession he tries to portray it as being. The entire article is his pride speaking. The fact is that journalism really is a very low profession. For much of it's existence it has been little more than what we now call tabloid journalism. Somewhere during the 20th century, the American media made strides towards becoming respected. By and large, it succeeded. The problem is, the news media also became very homogeneous as well. Most news rooms are liberal, and their news comes out with a severe liberal tilt now. The days where you could by two newspapers in order to get both sides of the issue came to an end in the name of this respectability. Unfortunately, that means almost all the news came from one particular viewpoint. It is my opinion that it is for this very reason that Vietnam became the mess that it did. Liberals bought into the anti-Vietnam mindset hook, line, and sinker. There were few places that a person sympathetic to what we were doing in Vietnam could go to get an alternate opinion. Once flooded with the anti-Vietnam line from the media, the public support for the war evaporated. Things began to change for the established media when Fox debuted and the blogosphere developed. They had an opposing view point to deal with now, and they are not happy.

The news marketplace is no different than any other marketplace. It is at its strongest when their is competition and diversity. We are moving back towards a time of diverse viewpoints in the news. Many people cringe when they look back at the days of very political newspapers, when each city had at least one Democratic paper and one Republican paper. I applaud it. Were the papers of the 1800's over the top? Without a doubt. That doesn't mean it will over even can be today, because the market is larger and more vibrant. It is better for people to be able to read, listen to, or watch multiple viewpoints and come to their own decisions than it is for them to be spoon fed the one viewpoint.

The blogosphere disdains the media because of its homogeneity. The MSM disdains the blogosphere because of its inroads into their hallowed profession. The fact is they both really need each other right now, and will be made better because of their competition. The Eric Engbergs of the world see their life's work diminished because others who have not put in the sweat are doing it as well, if not better. The blogosphere should probably recognize that it is not holier than thou, and susceptible to the same mistakes that MSM, only they don't have the experience the MSM does in catching those mistakes. In the end, though, the blogosphere is a piece of the news media pie now, and a very worthwhile piece for the public.

Broad mandate, political capital, et al

As we speak, Donks across the country are complaining that this election provided Bush with a broad mandate. That's fine. It is almost their sacred right to try to sooth their wounded prides by down playing the beating they took. It doesn't change the fact that Bush won a larger percentage of the vote than their most recent 2nd term President. It doesn't change the fact that Bush is the first president to win a majority (51%) since Bush Sr. in 1988. Finally, it doesn't change the fact that Republicans solidified leads in both Houses of Congress.

Bush does have political capital to spend right now, and he has to start spending it quickly. He has two years to accomplish whatever he wants to accomplish in his second term. Why two years? Two reasons. First, as he gets into year three, he starts to become more and more of a lame duck, and it is difficult for any lame duck President to get Congress to step out on a limb for him. Secondly, he is only guaranteed these leads in Congress through 2006. After that, the leads could grow, they could fall, or they could disappear completely. Bush has to be bold for the next two years and get as much of his legislation introduced as possible. This is all the more reason for him to not be the "uniter" that Donks howl that he should. Under their vision of a uniter, Bush policies would be gutted by compromises and held up until that third year. Better to try to convert a few Democrats to your side to accomplish something than to try to build some broad consensus that leads to ineffective legislation.

Bush's entire presidency will be summarized by these next two years. It is going to be interesting to see if he lives up to the greatness some of us see in him.

In re a woman's control over her own body

The following is something I jotted down after reading Thomas Friedman's post election column.

Women want control over decisions that affect their bodies. I have no issue with that. In fact, I say hurrah to that. My concern is for the bodies that they carry inside of themselves. Women have a responsibility to look after the welfare of those little bodies, and abortions of convenience are the ultimate abdication of responsibility to those small, helpless bodies.

Dowd

Maureen Dowd from a recent column:

"He'll be a lot more aggressive in Iraq now," one Bush insider predicts. "He'll raze Falluja if he has to. He feels that the election results endorsed his version of the war." Never mind that the more insurgents American troops kill, the more they create.

Well, not if you keep killing 'em. Eventually you'll run out of insurgent wannabes.

That is one of the worst pieces of logic I've ever seen, the whole "the more we kill, the more we create." That's patently untrue. Eventually the other guys say, "hey, umm, life is kinda boring, but it's better than a bullet through the head. Maybe I'll do something else today besides insurging and stuff, like maybe take up chess."

A Word or Two on the Re-Election

It's been a hell of a week. I went to bed on Tuesday feeling a little sick. While I made the point here to temper the exit polls, I was personally bothered by them. Then I had to go to bed shortly after the early returns started coming in. As I sat in bed, I continued to watch the returns until I realized I wasn't falling asleep until I turned the TV off. Even then, I was still finding it very difficult to sleep. I had slept for 4 hours when the lovely Mrs. Jib called me to make sure I got up and made my 6 am flight. Her first words? "He's one electoral vote short." That made my heart leap into my throat because in my tired stupor, I thought it meant Kerry had won. By the time I got to the airport, I was feeling much, much better. CBS radio was already saying Kerry should concede. While I was somewhere over Colorado, he did.

There was so much I wanted to comment on over the past week, but events simply conspired against. I felt smug for no getting outwardly bent out of shape by the exit polls while a lot of blogs did. My prediction of 4 point victory was close to the actual margin. In the airport a anti-Bush British woman caution Kerry supporters against socialized medicine, telling them how this "free" health care gets paid for, and how her husband would have died if he had had to wait for his kidney transplant in Britain instead of here. Bush had some great quotes in the past week("political capital" and "reach across the aisle") that I wanted to expand on. On top of that, we were still basking in the glow of all the traffic that came along with Hugh Hewitt's generous link to this blog.

The business trip to Las Vegas was very successful, though, so I really shouldn't complain. It was my first trip to Vegas, and I was really not very impressed with the city. Give me a Cleveland and a Minneapolis, and you can keep Vegas.

This blog will remain political in the coming years, although the raw material won't be as plentiful to mine as it has been, so expect more humor, satire, and general commentary. And perhaps one of these days I'll finally develop the patience to actually proof these posts before they get. Thanks to everyone who has visited Jiblog over the past 4 1/2 months, and I hope we can continue to inform and entertain you.

We're back

Ollie and I are back, if any of you missed our presence. I know we missed commenting, especially with all of the great news of last week. Unfortunately, our web access was almost non-existant for the duration of our trips. Posts will begin to trickle in this evening and over the course of the week.

Okay, Poli-junkies

Let the games begin. The first states have been called (Yahoo has a nice tracking map). Enjoy the evening.

Traffic Tips

I'm a geek, I admit it, and I study my site stats. I don't know much more than the fact that a Hugh Hewitt will do more for your site's traffic than coming up with the meaning of life. But if you are desperate to bring in the web search traffic, here are two ideas, although I don't completely endorse them.

1. Misspell newsworthy words. The Bekaa Valley, for instance. I spelled it wrong (Bekka) on accident, and I became the number three search on Google for those mentally incapcitated such as myself. Many people are poor spellers. Get a good misspell on Google, and you have instant traffic.

2. Randomly name a hard core or soft core porn star. I was feisty one night a few weeks ago, and I wrote a blue humorous piece. I named a soft core porn star in the piece, and since then I've been getting hits from people searching for her. Here's the catch on that one: They probably don't care to read what you have to say; they visited hoping to find nudie pictures. This one will bring traffic, but probably not traffic you really are looking for.

Now, sit back, enjoy a drink or 7, and wait for election tallies to come in.

Note to the regulars

Posts are going to be irregular until Sunday. I'll be here until bedtime tonight, and then tomorrow I'm off bright and early to Las Vegas. I'm going to have long days ahead of me, but I'm going to try to post daily. Ollie was off to Vegas today; if I know Ollie, they had to bathe him in Spaten Light when when the exit poll numbers first came out to bring down his fever. I'm not sure we'll hear from Ollie here until sometime next week. Just the same, stop by, maybe check out the archives, and look for posts from Jiblog: Vegas.

Dr. Jib's Election Stress Remedy

I have remedy for traumatic election syndrome, and it is what I am practicing tonight. First, read lots of Jiblog, and stay a long time. Next, once you've read all 5 months of Jiblog, back slowly away from your computer, and press the power button. 97% of you Windows users won't even experience problems by doing this. Now, leave your desk, grab your coat, and go home. Once at home, begin drinking heavily. Once you've drank enough, all exit poll numbers blur into numbers you want to see. This next step is the most important: Crawl into bed at 7 pm. Finally, get up at 2 am to see who won.

Now this is my plan because I have a 6 am flight, but I suspect it will work for many of you as well.

The Exit Polls

I love the crew at National Review, but they aren't accomplishing anything but the creation of a lot of indigestion for themselves and their readers with their neurosis over the exit polls right now. By the end of the night, half of those exit poll numbers will have been stood on their heads.

Relax, guys. I know your business is commenting on this stuff, and mid-day is a tough time to find things to discuss about an election less than half over, but you've got to let go of these early exit poll numbers. The is unbecoming of you.

Donk pollster predicts Bush Victory?

Over at The Hill, Kerry pollster Mark Mellman predicts a Bush victory with over 51% of the vote (HT Blogs for Bush). It is an unusual article, though. There is so much spin in it that despite the prediction, Mellman thinks he'll be smiling come tomorrow. Why, is he voting for Bush?

Rather than excerpt it, I think it is better that you read it in its entirety.

Heard on the street

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is live blogging the election today, and it is there where I get this humorous anecdote from Holly Radtke, a 20 year old UW Madison student:

I just want it to be over with. I don't really like politics...

What is Holly studying at UW Madison?

...I'm a poli sci major.

She must be on the football team.

Michels v. Feingold, again

I'm on board with Jonah Goldberg's "Republican operative types":

Still, some Republican operative types are saying that not only will Daschle lose today, but so will Russ Feingold.

Me too.

Miscellaneous Thoughts

Is their anyone out there that loathes, hates, despises "GOTV" as much as I do? I just can't stand it-not getting out the vote, just those 4 letters. Every time I see I first think it's a TV station. STOP USING GOTV, PLEASE! If there is one thing I particularly look forward to, it is not seeing those four letters for another four years.

Hey everyone! Here's your conclusion over here! Jump to it! It is tough filtering through the crap today, because there are way too many people jumping to conclusions they shouldn't yet. I'd start citing examples, but go to ten websites on your own, and you'll see plenty of examples.

Milwaukee Election News

WTMJ radio is reporting that 30 Republican vans, which were to be used today to give voters rides to their polling places, had their tires slashed overnight. No word yet on whether they will be able to get the vans on the road yet this morning.

It is a little sad and pathetic that the very people who claim Republicans try to suppress the vote turn around and slash the tires of vehicles which will be used to transport voters who otherwise may not be able to get to their polling places.

In other Wisconsin news, WTMJ radio is also reporting that the Madison headquarters of the GOP was vandalized last night.

Someone shoot me please

All of my Republican support is out of the office, so the Dems are all shooting off their mouths. I'll be satisfied come tonight when they are licking their wounds, but I can't take 'em on all on my own.

Somewhat stunned

I'm sitting here, over hearing all of the morning conversation going on around me. The topic of one of the conversations went to the election, and this is what I heard:

"Who d'ya thinks going to win?"

"Tough to say."

"Yeah, it's really a crapshoot. Who'd ya vote for."

"Well, I would've voted for Bush, but someone told me that he'd get to appoint a bunch of judges in the next 4 years. I'm not letting Dubya do that."

"So you voted for Nader?"

"Well, no. Someone else told me a vote for Nader is a vote for Bush, so I made sure my wife and I were in agreement, and I voted for Kerry."

I then began gnashing my teeth and pulling out my hair. Bush can make an appointment, but Congress has to approve it. We've all seen what the Dems in Congress do to hold up appointments of judges. That should not even be in the top ten list when it comes to making a decision for President. Congress has too much power over that decision.

Starting to really bother me

Okay, my recent voting experience is really starting to bug me now. Somebody give me their best pitch as to why we needed to make voting easier? I voted for the first time in 1995, I was required to show ID and proof of residency then and you know what? It wasn't difficult then. On top of the ease with which I voted in 1995, I left the polling place feeling good that voting, which I take very seriously and treat solemnly, was safe guarded from fraud. Voting today left me with a tremendous unease over how safe the vote is from fraud.

If anyone is interested, this is a letter I wrote (top letter) following the 2000 election to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. I've feared for some time now that many people just don't take voting seriously enough, and the easier we make this, the less serious people are going to take it. Pretty soon voting will be like ordering lunch at McDonald's, and that disturbs me-not because I think any certain people shouldn't vote, but because the more effort someone puts into to doing something, the more seriously they treat it.

Heightened Awareness Today

Everyone is rightfully extra vigilant today for anything they see that may be suspicious, and for good reason. Col. Ollie is flying today, and I know he has his eyes wide open. Well, that extra vigilance sometimes leads to humor. I was listening to WTMJ 620 AM in my car this morning before the polls opened, and traffic reporter Tom Carr reported that a citizen had reported a vehicle with a suspicious package in the front seat. The police located the vehicle and pulled it over. What was the suspicious package they found? It was a container/receptacle for goat semen.

My deed is done

I cast my vote first thing this morning. In fact, I got to my polling place 20 minutes before it opened. There was no line yet, so I sat in my car, listening to the morning news. Ten minutes before the polls opened, I got out of my car to walk up to the building, and was a little stunned to see a line half a city block long. By the time the polls opened, the line was over a city block long. I'll give the poll workers credit, though. It was a very quick and efficient process, although it still bothers me to no end that I did not have to show ID or proof of residence. All I had to do was state my name and address.

As I left, WTMJ NBC-4 out of Milwaukee asked me to participate in their exit poll. I told them to bugger off. I kind of regret that a bit now. If NBC screws up their Wisconsin exit polls, I could be partly to blame.

Election Eve

Tonight is the quiet before the storm, the Christmas Eve of poli-geeks. There is a swirling excitement about tomorrow's activities, the ultimate American expression of freedom. There is also a calm weariness setting in, as we are all exhausted by campaigning season which we know is almost over. Hopefully.

Tomorrow we will impatiently wait as we see the red and the blue and the purple states pop up on our TV screens. One by one they'll be unwrapped, and we'll see their results. The pace of results will pick to an almost intoxicating pace, with the excitement of millions of voters reaching a crescendo. Then the anti-climax will set in as we get our first glimpses of who won this hard, long campaign. About half of the population will be disappointed with the lump of coal that they find in their political stocking, and a little more than half will be overjoyed, having gotten just what they wanted. With any luck, the season will be over as we go to bed on Tuesday night. The politicos are weary, and they could get ugly the day after Election Day otherwise.

Jib, a racist?

This guy at watchingthewatchers.org seems to think I'm a racist because of my humorous tag line to this site, and because I think that elections should have, gasp!, standards. I also love his low expectations for the poor & minorities, because when I say that we need to have standards in elections, he automatically thinks that means the poor and minorities cannot meet those standards. I don't believe that for a second. Stupidity crosses all political, economic, and ethnic lines. Click the link to see the grenades he lobs at me. My response is there and also below:

Hmm, I must be really confusing for you then, considering I'm 1/4 Chippewa Indian, my father and his 11 brothers and sisters are 1/2 Chippewa, and my grandfather, who escaped from a Catholic boarding school and developed roots in Northern Wisconsin, was full blooded. I come from about as poor as it gets. I'm in the first generation of my family that didn't grow up in poverty, and for most of us (myself and my cousins), it wasn't by much. So you can take your "veiled racism" and stick it back from whence it came.

In addition, I have no idea where you get that analogy between my tag line, which is meant to be humorous (and also to rile uptight, humorless commentators such as yourself), and what is written in my site, and come up with the fact that I’m racist (or a “veiled” racist). Nowhere do I say anything about suppressing poor or minority votes. My point is that there need to be standards in order for any election to have legitimacy, and by standards, I mean proof of residency and properly filled out ballots. I don't care if you are rich, poor, red, white, green, blue or back, Democrat, Libertarian, or Republican, if you don't have proof of residency or if you don't fill out your ballot correctly, and your vote is still counted, then there is no credibility in the process because it becomes ripe for fraud.

A Great Big Thank You

Col. Ollie and I would like to thank Hugh Hewitt's site for the link. We are frankly flummoxed by the number of hits. Let us know what you think of Curly's Curse in the comments section.

Curly's Curse

As best I can tell, this humble little blog coined "Curly's Curse". When Bush wins on Tuesday, this "Curly's Curse" will have proven itself.