Wisconsin's Taxpayer's Bill of Rights

As is my M.O. today, everyone in the Wisconsin blogosphere is beating me to everything I wanted to post about. One of those items would be the new blog by state Assemblyman Frank Lasee. I have linked to it in the blogroll, and you can also go to it here. Lasee's blog is primarily dedicated to the Tax Payer's Bill of Right's (TABOR). If you do not yet know much about the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, head on over and learn.

John Giese on giving life every chance

John Giese, father of the young woman from Fond du Lac who survived rabies, called into the Charlie Sykes show today to discuss giving life every chance. This was brought up in the larger context of the Terri Schiavo situation, and Giese gives a powerful testimonial via his daughter's experience on why Terri should be given every chance to live. Listen to it.

Michael Schiavo snaps

From the St. Petersburg Times:

"To make comments that Terri would want to live, how do they know?" Schiavo said of the members of Congress who want to keep his wife alive.

"Have they ever met her?" Schiavo said. "What color are her eyes? What's her middle name? What's her favorite color? They don't have any clue who Terri is. They should all be ashamed of themselves."

Well, let's turn that one around. How do we know that she wanted to die, Michael? You and your family are the only ones who have ever heard her say so. There is also quite a bit of benefit for you if she does die. You can finally marry the woman you've been sleeping with for years. There is also that little matter of money that you may inherit. There is no reason any logical person should believe you without at least a little doubt (but more likely a lot of doubt).

Schiavo also challenges Jeb Bush and President Bush to come down and visit his wife. I know they won't-the vocal liberals out there would charge that it was all political, and neither Bush would want to make a difficult situation worse. I think if either did visit Terri, it would be one of the greatest moments of their term of office, though. But that's just me.

Tammy Baldwin, feminist

You would think that if there ever were a case that feminists would be worked up over, it would be the Terri Schiavo case. After all, here we have a disabled woman whose cheating husband is trying to put her to death, despite evidence that she is far from being brain dead. They aren’t worked up over it, though. Why? Fear that there may be repercussions for abortion if they stand in the way of medically killing anyone? Sacrificing the one in order to sacrifice the many? Who knows. I guess we’ll have to ask one of them ourselves.

So Tammy Baldwin. Why aren’t you in Terri Schiavo’s corner? (Scroll down to the nays).

UPDATE
Kevin at Lakeshore Laments has filled me in on Baldwin's answer to the question:

“I believe that Terri Schiavo's wishes should be respected. And I believe the Florida courts have done a thorough job of determining what those wishes are. Congress has no business inserting itself in the middle of this family tragedy.

Now every American family has cause to fear that their most private decisions might be reviewed or reversed by Congress. Terri and her entire family are in my thoughts and prayers.”

Though I'm choosing not to go into the "why" in this particular post, I can actually see the reasons why this might be a consistent position for Baldwin. That still doesn't mean that I think it is right.

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House passes Schiavo bill

I know that there is a lot of debate going around even conservative circles about whether this congessional action is a good thing in the long run, but it has passed the House 203-58. The fight for Terri Schiavo's life is by no means over, but Congress did the right thing here, IMHO.

All the more reason to cheer for UWM on Thursday

UW Milwaukee is the Cinderella team of the NCAA tournament, so it isn't too tough to cheer for them. A current Fox Sports poll has them leading as the most surprising Sweet 16 team with 61% of the vote. Well, there is more reason to cheer for them against Illinois. 15 years ago, UWM coach Bruce Pearl, then an assistant with Iowa, reported recruiting violations on the part of Illinois. This story is already getting plenty of media play, and expect national media to pick up on it. Because of that, Pearl and UWM may face a very hostile crowd at the AllState Arena on Thursday.

If Pearl and his UWM Panthers do receive a hostile reception on Thursday, I'll feel terribly for them, but I would expect nothing less of Illinois fans. It will make it all the sweeter when the Panthers send the Illini home for the school year and advance to the Elite 8, though.

Update
It's going to be a wild week of accusations (See also comment from Underscorebleach below).

Drudge's Terri Schiavo audio

If legit, and I'm assuming at this point that it is, this is difficult to listen to knowing the fate cast for Terri Schiavo by her husband Michael Schiavo and Judge George Greer. She can audibly interact with people, even though she cannot communicate per se.

In the name of fairness, Drudge is leaving the authenticity of this tape open for listeners to decide. I've been very tentative to endorse the reports that Terri tried to say "I want to live," and I'm hoping Drudge puts this audio up at his site so more people can decide because if legit, I'm willing to believe those reports now.

My opinion is becoming more and more solidified. Florida is perverting "right to die" in this case. Badly. Very badly.

Update
My View of the World, reliable as always, has the audio. Go listen. Now.

Drudge audio of Terri Schiavo responding to father

Drudge is reporting that he'll have audio of Terry Schiavo responding to her father after her feeding tube was removed on Friday. To listen live pick a feed off of the top of Drudge's site.

The House of the Rising Sun-found

One of my favorite songs is the House of the Rising Sun. The LA Times reports that the Rising Sun, that famed New Orleans house of ill repute, may have been found beneath a run down parking garage.

Schiavo and the money issue

From the transcripts of Larry King Live, March 18, 2005:

KING: You're not -- it didn't cost you anything. This is not something where you're looking to save money?

M. SCHIAVO: No. There's no money involved. We need to move on from that question. That question has been asked me 50 million times. There is no money!

Well, actually, there is a money issue here, and it may play a pretty significant role in Michael Schiavo's decision. Unfortunately, there has been little or no investigative reporting that I've seen on how the money from Terri's medical malpractice suit has been spent and how much remains. Clearly, if there still is money remaining, it would become Michael's upon her death. It would not be his if she died or recovered. Additionally, if there is no money remaining, that also could play a part in Michael Schiavo's efforts.

If anyone knows of any investigative reporting on this, please send it to me. This ($$$) seems to me to be the keystone in this entire issue.

The Straight Dope Message Board-grab the pulse of your local Liberal

A few years ago, before I became aware of blogs, I used to cruise about a few message boards to get my fix on political issues. One of my favorites was the Straight Dope Message Board. In fact, it was the SDMB that helped me realize that my beliefs were not at all in line with that of the Democratic party. Sadly the SDMB went to paid subscriptions. Since I did not really feel like paying to get tag teamed by liberals, who have a 5 or 10 to 1 advantage over conservatives at that site, I gave up on it. As a conservative blogger, I do enjoy going back and viewing the "Great Debates" board from time to time, though. When I get into a rut, that board always does a great job of firing me up and giving me new sources of inspiration.

The slogan of of the Straight Dope, which is a column in the Chicago Reader by Cecil Adams, is "Fighting Ignorance Since 1973." Unfortunately for Cecil, the SDMB "Great Debates" board does more to propagatee further ignorance than it does to fight. While not nearly as far out there as places like the Democratic Undergound, I'm sure the two share something of a common audience.

John McCain, America's arbiter of trust

This morning on ABC's "This Week," John McCain said the following:

"It just seems to me they can't be trusted...What do we need to do? It seems to me that we ought to seriously consider ... a law that says all professional sports have a minimum level of performance-enhancing drug testing.''

McCain may or may not be correct, and that's not what I'm here to debate. My problem is that he seems to view himself as America's self proclaimed judge of who is worthy of trust. Add into that his overly healthy ego, and you have a Republican that I don't trust myself.

My name is Jib, and I am a Netscape user

I've had some nice conversations with people about browser preferance via Jiblog. Despite all efforts by some, I think I shall remain a Netscape man. About two or three years from now, when everyone is bitching about IE and Firefox, and Netscape becomes "cool" again, I'm swatting y'all off the bandwagon. (Inspired by this anti-Netscape thread).

Jiblog reading list

My parents have done a lot for me in my life, but I think that one of the most important things they did was to foster a love of reading in me. The way they did this was by telling me that if I wanted a book, they'd buy, period. I'm sure that at times this was a bit of a sacrifice for them because while we had all the necessities, there were times when I know there wasn't much left over for things above and beyond that. I'm amazed that they still fortify that love of reading in me today. Every year Mrs. Jib and I receive Border's gift cards from my parents (as I've referenced below, Mrs. Jib is an avid reader as well).

So far this year, work and blogging have backed me up on my reading. Since this has been a somewhat quiet weekend, I'd like to share my book backlog with all of you. If you've read any of them, I'd love to hear your comments.

1. Rome Wasn't Burnt in a Day, Joe Scarborough
2. Because He Could, Dick Morris
3. "When is Daddy Coming Home?": An American Family during World War II, Richard Haney
4. Blog, Hugh Hewitt
5. Reagan's Revolution, Craig Shirley
6. We Blog, Paul Bausch
7. Uncle John's Unstoppable Bathroom Reader, (cut me some slack, they're entertaining!)
8. Life and Times on the Mighty Santeur, Clara Anderson. (No link, published by a small Northern Wisconsin press after the author's death)

I've just finished 4 by Brett and Bonita Favre, which is an excellent read if you are a Favre fan. I'm also "in progress" with Colossus by Niall Ferguson. It has been an airplane book for me.

Lefkow murders solved in West Allis?

It seems that during a routine traffic stop in West Allis yesterday, the man who murdered the mother and husband of US District Judge Joan Lefkow committed suicide. A press conference was just held on the topic, and authories gave few details. The Chicago Tribune has more.

ADDITIONAL
Holy crap! When posts get lost, they really do continue to exist! This post is obviously over a week old. It got hung up in Blogger the morning that West Allis police first announced they thought they had cracked the Lefow case, and it just kicked out tonight. Wow. Blogger must have re-opened email posts.

Congrats UW-Milwaukee

Congratulations to the UW-Milwaukee men's basketball team. Color me impressed. Next up, number one Illinois.

Jiblog note to certain liberal readers (not all)

Hello liberal Jiblog readers. This is a message for some of you, but not all of you. Those of you that I can actually have an intelligent conversation with are off the hook.

Here's my issue. I am not a big music fan. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy music. Every karaoke bar that's ever heard me belt out Piano Man knows that much. I just don't seek out music, or make the time to listen to it. Because of this, this whole iPod craze is making me feel very left out. I believe that I am a member of the minority group of musically disinclined Americans. Because of this, I cringe at all of the iPod discussion that I see and hear. I feel that my civil right to be "part of the in crowd" is being violated by all of this iPod talk. Will you help out an oppressed minority by banning the iPod, or maybe just outlaw any discussion of iPods (they are sold by fat cat corporate America, after all). And hey, ACLU? Message me. Let's talk lawsuit. Trial lawyers, you too. I see a big class action, punitive damages award that you can collect 70% of. After all, iPod is clearly taking advantage of our young. They are put out by Apple, for cripessake! Kids love apples! If you can score on tobacco, alcohol, and fast food, I know you all can score on iPods.

(This post is written with tongue so firmly in cheek that Jib may not be able to speak for a week.)

Best of luck, Mr. Kasparov

I read last week that Gary Kasparov was retiring from chess to become more involved in Russian politics. I had two thoughts-he's either 'in'' with Putin or "watch your back, Gary." It appears that "watch you back, Gary," is the proper advice (from Opinion Journal, HT Lakeshore Laments):

This is a time for ambition. Victory in Ukraine and the reshaping of the Middle East are only the latest symbols of how democracy is dominant in the world today economically, militarily, and morally. We must leverage this ascendancy to set a global agenda and end the era of complacency and concession that is embodied by the United Nations. In politics as in chess, or in the military or in business, when you have the advantage you must press it quickly--or lose it. For the first time in history, we are in a position to checkmate tyranny. Momentum is largely on the side of democracy.

This is not yet the case, alas, in my home. Russia is in a moment of crisis and every decent person must stand up and resist the rise of the Putin dictatorship. Russia boasts too many generals and colonels in politics and too few thinkers. (Even Russia's chess players are in decline, a symptom of the larger malady.) I hope my vision and ability to think strategically can be of help to my native land. We must act now to unite and to create real democratic opposition to the Putin regime. I can now offer not only my name and my advice, but my active participation.

I hope that Kasparov is as deft a political tactician as he is at chess, because Vlad Putin plays KGB style.

Reagan audio

I have a small collection of historic audio. Among the files I have are FDR's speech to Congress following Pearl Harbor, George W. Bush's speech to Congress on September 20, 2001, and Bush's impromptu speech at Ground Zero. The one file I've spent literally hours looking for was Reagan's "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" I finally found it. It seems that GOP.com actually has a nice collection of Reagan soundbites.

The money behind campaign finance reform

I'd be remiss if I did not link to this good article at Tech Central Station on Friday. To make it short and sweet, I think most people who supported Messrs McCain and Feingold's campaign finance reform bill did so because they did not trust the big money behind a lot of political campaigns. If you are one of those people, it may also be useful for you to take a look at and question the big money that pushed this bill with $123 million dollars.

Schiavo

Perhaps I am just too simplistic of a man, but it seems to me that if you are unhooked from medical machinery and it takes a week for you to die, then that medical machinery is aiding a physical process, but not keeping you alive. What's next? Do we start unhooking people from their dialysis machines? Maybe shut off people's pace makers? Close the valves on the oxygen tanks of emphysema sufferers? I honestly don't have the words for what Judge George Greer and Michael Schiavo are perpetrating in Florida. This is a disgusting, slow, cruel murder.

Geopolitcal maneuvering in Southeast Asia

It appears that Condoleeza Rice will be endorsing Japan for a permanent spot on the UN Security Council. Japan is certainly deserving, but in the big picture this would seem to be part of a giant chess game going on in Southeast Asia right now. China is starting to feel their oats, and everyone is starting to maneuver themselves in order to protect themselves/reign China in. Ultimately, how this plays out is completely dependent on China. I sometimes can't help but feel that the world is slowly hurdling towards war in Southeast Asia. This is one of those posts I hope I'm wrong about. I just hope that history students hundred of years from now look back on the events of today and say, "why couldn't they see it coming?"

Not so banner

Capital Times cartoonist Mike Konopacki, whose politics have been discussed here before, recently helped Tom Link with his newest banner (photo at link) in Madison. You see, Link, like Konopacki, is out there on the lunatic fringe of the Democratic party, and he is known for hanging banners protesting the war and George W. Bush on a building he owns in the city. Together, Link and Konopacki crafted a yellow ribbon banner. At the top and bottom of the banner, it says "God Bless Torture." They are trying to be cute. I'm waiting for their first attempt at substance. Where is the banner protesting honor killings? Where is the banner protesting UN soldiers raping women in third world countries and sexually harassing their own female employees? Where is the banner protesting China's attempts to subjugate free Taiwan?

You won't see them. Those who loathe their own nation have trouble seeing beyond that to some of the bigger problems in the world. It is unfortunate that some old hippies never grew up like most of their friends did. That's why their rhetoric sounds like it was written by a 15 year old.

Iraqi Anger

This is, in a way, encouraging:

More than 2,000 Shiites marched Friday through Baghdad, with some breaking into the Jordanian Embassy and raising the Iraqi flag atop it, to protest the alleged involvement of a Jordanian in Iraq's single deadliest suicide bombing — a Feb. 28 attack south of Baghdad that killed 125 people.

The breaking into the embassy is disappointing, but the fact that Iraqi's are identifying foreign suicide bombers as a big part of their problem, and making their voices heard by the governments ruling the nations those bombers come from can only be a good thing for the Middle East. It puts pressure on the governments of the region to stop their subtle support for the terrorist groups that back these misguided suicide bombers.

Argh!! Frickin' frackin. $%#& Blogger!

Had to get that out. Of course, this will be the first of several posts Blogger won't eat.

Obesity related deaths to save social security

I honestly thought that this was a ScrappleFace story at first.

An apology and a toast

Sorry posting has been light the last two days. Life has intervened on blogging. I'd like to wish everyone a Happy St. Patrick's Day by offering you a green beer, on me. If it looks crooked, it's because you've already had one too many. I'm hoping to be back en force later Thursday. Earlier if this little rumor of a coup in Syria turns out to be true (HT Brainpost)

Senate slow down

Heh. Harry Reid says that he'll slow down business in the Senate if Republicans choose the "nuclear" option and amend Senate rules to allow court nominees a full floor vote after a simple majority in committee.

Our Senators, doing less, getting into our business less.

What's the downside here? Give 'em hell, Harry!

(For the record, I know the downsides. A guy can fantasize, though, can't he?)

Mrs. Jib, book reviewer

Mrs. Jib is generally leary of the internet. I also know that she would not be interested in the vigorous debate that most blogs partake in (including this one). Not because she couldn't do it, because she can be quite feisty, but because that kind of thing just doesn't interest her as much. I'm determined to get her to blog, though. My latest tact is to try to get her to become an amateur book reviewer. She is an avid fiction reader. So avid that a few years ago, she gave up on buying books because she read 'em faster than she could afford them. Instead she has made liberal use of inter-library loan, reading 90 books last year (yes, 90).

If you see me start pumping a new blog that reviews books, I beg, nay, plead, go there in spades!!!

The Big Dig...

...is a disaster waiting to happen. This is one item I hope I'm very wrong on, but I'd do everything in my power to avoid driving in that thing. Everything about that project in Boston reads like a History Channel documentary on engineering disasters.

A final look back at MSNBC inspired traffic

First, I'd like to thank MSNBC for one final time for the attention. As a stat watcher, I'm still kind of mesmerized by the bell shaped curve created by an MSNBC link. It went up on Wednesday. It didn't peak until Friday. If we treat 50 visitors per day as a Jiblog average, then MSNBC contributed to approximately 1000 hits to Jiblog. No small feat, and better than the early returns predicted. Just the same, it is interesting to note that a MSM entity venturing into the world of blogs has a smaller impact than a big blog like Instapundit or HughHewitt.com would.

Correction
I had invented a word, mesmeric, on accident. Spelling is now correct. The only reason I note this is because "mesmeric" makes me giggle, so I'm preserving it.

Advice to Capital One-drop the superheroes

Capital One currently has a commercial featuring superheroes who come to the aid of a woman who lost her credit card. Spiderman snidely comments to the woman that with Capital One she's protected from fraudulent charges. Problem is, Spiderman sounds like a snively little @#$%. The lovely Mrs. Jib and I both want to kick the crap out of the little wussy. We now rush to turn the channel whenever this commercial because Spidey grates on our senses. We are also developing a bit of anger towards Capital One for subjecting us to him. For the love of God, Capital One! Can this commercial!

Congressional hearing on steroids, baseball

I've been holding off on criticizing the House's hearings on the use of steroids in baseball because I can't actually believe they are moving forward with it. Now I don't have to criticize it, because National Review sums it up nicely:

The hearings would come after the horse has left the barn and the barn door has already been closed behind it, since the steroids scandal had been building for years and now has finally been dealt with by baseball in the form of a stricter testing policy.

You're a day late and a dollar short on this one, kids. Give it up before you make fools of yourselves.

Don't be lulled to sleep, Democratic blogs

Senator Russ Feingold's post at MyDD is up at the Daily Kos as well (HT Boots & Sabers). After reading the comments, I'm concerned that blog readers on the left, if not blogs on the left, are willing to be lulled to sleep by Russ Feingold on the issue of the FEC regulating blogs. This is one issue on which the left and right in the blogosphere needs forge some sort of a common front. If one end of the blogosphere's political spectrum goes wobbly on this, it'll give the FEC cover from which they can clamp down on the political speech of bloggers.

By the way, if you haven't done so already, head over to the Online Coalition and sign the letter.

Around the horn, 3-13-05

Boots & Sabers has a full day of good posts on FEC regulations, university diversity, UW's University Health Services offering the morning after pill via phone prescriptions, the Wisconsin Future Conference, concealed carry, and the latest from Greg Borowski.

My View of the World has audio of this morning's Brookfield press conference as well as a synapsis of Sunday Insight.

For those of you who enjoy NCAA pools, check out the Dummocrats pool.

The World According to Nick has two good posts on a James Sensenbrenner town hall meeting in Wauwatosa, and the conversation he had with Sensenbrener afterwards.

Welcome MSNBC readers

Lullabye (Goodnight Dan Rather) can be found here. For regular Jiblog readers, this post will remain at the top of the page all day. New posts can be found below.

Gunman opens fire at church meeting in Milwaukee suburb

There is not much out there on this story right now. A gunman killed 4, wounded 8, and killed himself at a church meeting at a Brookfield hotel. See more here. Any further posts on this story will be at the Badger Blog Alliance.

A solution for Ikea

As some of you have probably read, Ikea found itself in between a politically correct rock and a hard place this week over the lack of women in their illustrated assembly instructions. For a small fee, I have a solution for Ikea that I guarantee will offend no one.

Notice the lack of distinguishing features. This is an androgynous, culturally bland, boring stickperson. It cannot even offend the Amish (no face) or people with disabilities (does it have one leg or two?). And it is at the peak of my drawing abilities, so Ikea, for a consulting contract, I'll update all of you manuals.

Update
I've been sent a cease and desist letter by the National Association of Green Stickpeople (NAGS). Apparently, this illustration may be found offensive by their members. Sorry Ikea.

Update II
Oh yeah, forgot something.

Beer

Rather inspired

I must be the biggest dunce in the world. The genius of Dan Rather's 'Courage' sign off just struck me! If I want to be a perennial undercard to the big blogs, I need a catchy, one word sign off to every post here at Jiblog! Look out Instapundit, here I come (to forever be in your shadow).

Beer.

Yet another case for concealed carry

Let me start by saying that I'm whispering this post, as Mrs. Jib and I do not see eye to eye on this topic.

The Journal Sentinel editorial board on Friday ran this editorial in which they assert that government needs to do more to protect judges from those who "menace" the system. The two solutions they offer? The Federal Government paying for security systems at the homes of judges and security improvement at court houses. I agree with government being responsible for better security at court houses, although that would not have prevented what happened in Atlanta today. I disagree with the Feds paying for security at the homes of judges, as a security system is a cost that judges should be able to sustain on their own with their salaries. The Journal Sentinel misses the obvious third solution, though. Legalize concealed carry. And not just for judges, a thought that Charlie Sykes raised on his show Friday. Legalize concealed carry for all who meet the legal requirements.

Mrs. Jib believes that this would make police work more dangerous, and one of the last things she wants is to worry about her officers more than she already does. Her concern falls through a crack in logic, though. The person who jumps through all of the government hoops to legally carry a concealed weapon is not going to be flippant about it and risk losing their ability to do so. The people that police would need to worry about are the ones they already have to worry about-those who illegally carry guns. At least with concealed carry, law abiding citizens, including judges and their families, have a chance to protect themselves at the time they are assaulted instead of becoming a part of a police murder investigation later.

The most unfortunate thing about the Journal Sentinel's suggestions and mine is that none of them would have likely prevented the murder of Judge Lefkow's family or the murders in Atlanta. Both were exceptional events. Even a security system would not have prevented Bart Ross from gaining access to Judge Lefkow's home; it would have only given her husband and mother a few moments of warning, and unless they had guns in their home, both would still have been vulnerable to an armed intruder. In Atlanta, the suspect took the gun off of a deputy, and the only solution to that is compromising courtroom safety by taking guns away from those responsible for protecting those in the courtroom, making everyone vulnerable to the individual who can sneak a firearm into a court.

Update
Blogger Beer has more on concealed carry in Wisconsin.

Fuming at SI's Josh Elliott

Let me open with the closing line of Josh Elliott's latest at CNN-SI:

And as I shudder at the thought of the collective fury of Wisconsin's Internet-savvy citizenry, I bid you farewell until next Thursday...

Shudder you should, Josh.

For those of you who aren't big link clickers, I'll summarize. Elliott pushes the panic button on the Packers while taking a look at Brett Favre's decision to play another season. I calmly read Elliott's column until the next to last sentence of the article:

Because the fact remains: Favre last led the Pack to the Super Bowl in 1997, and there's increasingly little to suggest that he'll ever take them back there again.

Frankly, Josh, I'm not sure that I'm confident of your NFL analysis skills.

Now, before Jiblog readers get their hackles up, I will say this-no diehard Packer fan believes next year will be an easy season. This team has problems that can be directly attributed to Mike Sherman's decisions as GM. But I still think Elliot is wrong, at least for next year. So I will now take up my soapbox and refute what I see as the weaknesses in Elliott's thought process.

Elliott focuses on two major points-that the loss of Rivera and Wahle on the line will further erode Ahman Green's effectiveness, and that the loss of Darren Sharper will render the defense impotent. Let's look at what he has to say about Green and the line first.

Indeed, Green took a major step backward last year (1,163 rushing yards, 4.5 yards per carry, 10 total TDs) from his '03 star turn (1,883 yds./5.3 ypc/20 TDs), despite running behind one of football's three best offensive lines. Having lost starting guards Mike Wahle (Carolina) and Marco Rivera (Dallas) and center Grey Ruegamer (who started 11 games a year ago) to free agency, it's folly to think Green's numbers will improve.

There is no question that no team would want to lose guards of the quality of Wahle and Rivera. It is a bit of a stretch to think that there is not enough talent left on the line to get Green back over the 1200 yard mark, though. Back in the days when I was a kid wondering if I'd ever see a Packer run for 1,000 yards in a season, 1,183 was an impressive number. These days, it's almost pedestrian. A big part of the running game's problem last year was injuries to the running backs. I don't think Green was full speed for much of the year, and Najeh Davenport was never 100% all season. With a healthier Green and (hopefully) his heir apparent Davenport back and healthy, this offensive line can still produce a healthy running game. What we are looking at is replacing one guy on that line. The Packers have two good centers in Mike Flanagan and Scott Wells. Flanagan can probably move back out to tackle if Clifton or Tauscher can move inside to guard. Kevin Barry can pick up the slack at the other guard position, leaving the team looking for a passable right tackle. While you want every guy on your line to be an all pro when they are protecting Brett Favre, this is still a very manageable situation. As long as Green stays healthy, his productivity should improve this year, meaning that there will not be a collapse in the running game that Elliott uses to predict dangerous Favre risk taking.

The second issue I have with Elliott's article is the importance he places on the departure of Darren Sharper:

Meanwhile, Sharper's departure only sinks an already-bad Green Bay D further into the muck; last year, the Pack had the NFL's 25th-ranked defense in total yards allowed and against the pass, and gave up 23.8 points a game (up from 19.2 ppg allowed in '03). Their pass rush is terrible, their linebacking corps is middling, and their secondary is in tatters.

It pains me to criticize Sharper because I liked the guy, but losing him is not going to be the end of the world. Sharper was at his best when he was in the defensive backfield with a likely future hall of famer, Leroy Butler. After Butler retired, Sharper became the default leader on that defense. Problem is, I never saw him lead. The quality of his play steadily declined after Butler's retirement, and his tackling got worse and worse. Last year was a good preview of what this defense would look like without Sharper. Elliott makes the mistake of looking at Sharper as the two time Pro Bowler. That isn't the Sharper the Packers lost. The Sharper the Packers lost was an injury prone guy with a tackling problem who was at best an average safety. He's a hole to plug and nothing more. The Packers now have a defensive coordinator who is a known, quality talent. While this defense won't scare anyone in 2005, I actually think it will be marginally better than it was in 2004.

Now, if we assume that my analysis is correct, then the Packers are a team that will have maintained the status quo from 2004 to 2005. Normally, that'll get you killed in the NFL. The Packers have the luxury of playing in the NFC, though. Last year they were the number 3 team in the conference. With the departure of Randy Moss from the Vikings, they will probably remain the number 3 team in the conference. In today's NFL, if a number 3 team in a conference catches fire late in the season, they become a serious threat to win the whole thing. If Elliott wants to run this article back out before the 2006 season, I might not disagree with him. As for 2005, he's flat out wrong as long as this team stays reasonably healthy.

Churchill plagiarized? Who'da thunk?

At the risk of over using this, if it looks like a skunk, walks like a skunk, and smells like a skunk, it's probably a skunk.

I know I've said this before, but the real scandal about Churchill being invited to campuses to speak is that if the students at these universities academically conducted themselves as Churchill does, they'd get tossed out of school. Churchill's speech certainly is hateful, but the actions of schools like UWW are irresponsible.

Condi v. Hillary in '08: Making my head hurt

The consequences of a Condi-Hillary Presidential battle royal in 2008 is starting to make my head hurt. Hillary is David Copperfield to Bill's Harry Houdini; already she's begun to triangulate, moving to the President's right on some issues like immigration, and towards the center on issues like abortion. Now we learn this at Drudge tonight about Condi: "...mildly pro-choice on abortion."

If (and this is a big if) we see a Hillary-Condi matchup, we could be in for a redefination of politics not seen since the 1960's. Can you imagine the possibility of Hillary giving lip service to the religous right on abortion and Condi going after the feminist vote with some mild pro-choice rhetoric? I'm not sure if the reshuffling of the political spectrum would be permanent, but it would make for a wild election.

If Drudge is correct on this, Condi's "mildly pro-choice" stance will either torpedo her chances of making it through the primaries, or we are watching these two women playing politics at a very high level at a frighteningly early stage in the presidential election cycle.

Update
Here is the Washington Times article that Drudge's flash referred to. In the article, she defines her view on abortion as libertarian. I'd say "Federalist" might be equally appropriate. Libertarian probably scores her more political punch, though.

Hep cat Jib a trendsetter...

...or so I'm claiming. Captain's Corner has another lyrical ode to Dan Rather, this one set to Oh Danny Boy.

MSNBC redux, or Odd traffic patterns

The other day I briefly discussed the surprisingly low amount of traffic a link at MSNBC brought here. Now that the link has been up for its third day, it is time to review this issue.

I stand by the fact that an MSNBC broadcast and link do not lead to a lot of traffic. I'm sure that there is a wide variety of reasons for this, including MSNBC's lower viewership, the disconnect that still exists between television and the web, etc, etc, so it would be unfair of me to expect this to be equivilant to an Instapundit link. I am noticing an odd pattern, though. Usually with a link from one of the major blogs, you see an immediate spike of traffic. The first day is always the biggest, and by the 4th or 5th day, you are almost back down to your normal traffic level. This MSNBC link has behaved differently. Since the Connected Coast to Coast site acts like a blog, with content sliding down the page as new content is added, you'd expect a similar pattern. Instead, on the first night when the link to 'Lullabye' was timely and pertinent, traffic was disappointingly slow. Yesterday traffic picked up, which could be considered normal given that the original link was placed on Wednesday evening. Today the traffic should have begun to slow again, but it is actually a little heavier than it was at this time yesterday.

MSNBC, you have me baffled.

Feinblog

Interesting. US Senator Russ Feingold does a little blogging (HT Righting Wisconsin). What better way to quell the blogstorm than to say, "hey, I'm one of you," which is patented Feingold. I'm still not buying what he's selling. I intend to remain fully riled until the FEC has settled on its new rules so no one is even tempted to over extend their regulatory power. Senator, while I appreciate your attempt at calming words, I am going to retain my healthy skepticism of what is going on here. If it looks like a skunk, walks like a skunk, and smells like a skunk...

Update
Heh. Looks like I'm not the only one who is riled up. Although I think Paul does 'riled' better than I do.

Digital camera bleg

I am a camera manufacturer's dream. I am convinced that there is a fine photographer deep down inside me if I just get the right equipment. So this is what I'm thinking. I own a Canon EOS Rebel. I actually do take pretty good pictures with it, but then again, it is tough to screw up with that camera. I'm thinking about buying a Canon EOS 6.3 MP Digital Rebel this summer. I've narrowed down on this camera because I can use my existing lenses with it and it is within my price range. Anybody familiar with this camera? I'd like to hear your opinions.

4

It's good to have ya back for another go 'round.

UW Whitewater fundraising

I received a phone call tonight from a pleasant young woman at the University of Wisconsin Whitewater. From the moment I picked up the phone, I could tell she was nervous. She started by asking to confirm information about Mrs. Jib and I. Once we finished that, she broke into the pitch that I knew was coming: The read off a script, will you donate to the University pitch. I felt bad for her, so I went easy on her. My response?

"Due to the recent Ward Churchill speech, I will not be donating to the University for the foreseeable future."

At the mention of Ward Churchill, she could not get off the phone fast enough, even stumbling over "Thank you." I'd have to speculate that she's gotten an earful multiple times about him.

I have mixed feelings about saying no. She was specifically asking me to donate to the funding of the new College of Business building as well as to scholarships. Since I'm a grad of that college, I'm happy that future students will not have to attend classes at Carlson. Just the same, I did not see anyone from the Business College standing up and saying, "Why are we hosting a man who is trying to legitimize the killing of 3,000 people who are just like the kids we are trying to educate?" Given that, saying no was my little way of expressing my displeasure with my alma matter.

Witnessing what one has wrought

It seems that Judge George Greer is going to see to it that Terri Schiavo's feeding tube comes out and that she dies a slow, inhumane death of starvation. If all efforts are exhausted and the Judge is successful at ensuring Terri's death, I hope he stops by her room daily to see the consequences of his actions. Of course, we all know that he won't.

Sorry for the silence

I tried posting several times today, but Blogger wasn't playing ball with me. One, which I emailed, is lost somewhere in the etherworld. In the last week I've convinced Mrs. Jib that we should get DSL and set up a wireless network. I'm not sure I can convince her that I need to move off of Blogger. Yet.

Good luck, Cards!

Good luck to the Chi-Hi girls' basketball team tomorrow at state. As a former Cards athlete, I'm rooting for ya.

Where's the bounce?

Sean at The American Mind brings up a good point that I originally wasn't going to mention out of the fear of being ungrateful. Namely, after a mention on MSNBC, where's the traffic bounce?

That's okay, though, because it was cool to get a mention on a cable news network. It is interesting to note that an Instalanche or a Hughicane or Sykesclone (sorry, that's the best nickname I could think of for a Sykes link) all result in a bigger traffic bounce than a mention and link from the nation's number 3 cable news network.

Good luck catching up to CNN and Fox, guys. Meanwhile, I'll be sitting over here in a corner trying to get over my John McEnroe complex.

Lullabye (Good Night Dan Rather)

To the tune of Lullabye (Good Night My Angel) by Billy Joel

Goodnight, Dan Rather
Time to leave your desk
And save these questions for another day
I think I know what you've been getting at
I doubt you know what we've been trying to say
I promised I would never watch you
And you should always know
Wherever you may go
No matter where you are
Blogs never will be far away

Goodnight, Dan Rather
Now it's time to quit
And still so many things you want to say
Remember all the lies you spun at us
When we were choosing our next president
And like a dog who’s gotten rabies
They’re putting you to sleep
The water's dark and deep
Inside the ancient book
Lies’ll always be a part of hist’ry

Goodnight, Dan Rather
Now it's time to leave
And dream how you’ve damaged your legacy
Someday your eyes may cry
And if you sing this lullabye
Then in your heart
There will always be a part of me

Someday we'll all be gone
But lullabyes go on and on...
They never die
That's how your
Big lie
Will be

Update
Welcome Connected Coast to Coast viewers. I'm keeping this post at the top of the site tonight for all of you, but feel free to look around.

Jiblog on TV

Much thanks to Jeff Jarvis and Connected: Coast to Coast for mentioning Lullabye (Goodnight Dan Rather). I guess it pays to have a song stuck in your head. And to have the annoying habit of making up new lyrics to songs. But one thing, guys. It's Jib-log. Short i. Heh. Jibelog. Mrs. "Jibe" got a kick out of that.

To see the video, head on over to Jackson's Junction.

Mount St. Helens cam

With Mount St. Helens getting getting ornery again, don't forget to check the volcano cam. The cam shows a static image which is updated every 5 minutes.

Goodbye dial up

Hello DSL! This is nice!

Last night the lovely Mrs. Jib hosted a little gathering here at the homestead. She's a fine hostess, which is good because I was itching to play with my new service. The spread she made and the bevy of hoppy goodness took the edge off. I'm back now to discuss the topics you all come here to read about. Like duck necrophilia. If you have the courage to click that link, make sure read all the way down to the squirrel necrophilia, and try to not envision it. And try not to laugh.

Social security, private accounts, et al

I'm going to venture into a topic about which I am uncomfortable with my knowledge-social security. So, having said that, I fully welcome a good fisking if I'm wrong.

Ann Althouse wrote twice in the past two days about Mitch McConnell's failure to answer Tim Russert's question, "What does private personal accounts do to fix the solvency problem?" She notes that no one has a short answer. Well, I'm going to take a crack at it.

Private personal accounts don't fix the solvency problem. They are a preperation for the invariable insolvency of Social Security. That is the 800 pound elephant in the closet that no one wants to talk about.

It seems clear that there are two ways to keep the pay as you go social security system solvent. Jack up social security taxes and/or raise the retirement age so you have to pay fewer people. The private account plan assumes that doing so would be a difficult burden on seniors, on the economy, etc. So what do you do? You plan for the day when social security isn't there anymore by getting people to save/invest. By starting private accounts now, you allow for a healthy tansition period before there is an actual crisis. During this transition period, you allow people to build the alternate means of their retirement.

Now, why will Republicans not flat out say this? Because Democrats can use it as a massive scare tactic. They'd be screaming in the streets, "The Republicans want to destroy social security and take away your retirement!" Those who would be most frightened would be those that will be long gone by the time Social Security reaches insolvency, though.

Given that, why won't Democrats go on the offensive? Because they fear the plan may actually make sense, especially to younger voters. They can't use the facts as a stick to bludgeon the Republicans. They need Republicans to present the 800 pound elephant to the public so they can bludgeon them with rhetoric.

Okay fair readers, give me your criticism.

Means to an end

I have a quick question here. Let's say I were to print a weekly tab of Jiblog's posts, and I sold those for a nickel. Would I then be a 'legitimate' print media outlet?

Wisconsin: An open hunting season on domestic cats?

This hasn't exactly been a hard hitting weekend at Jiblog. That isn't going to change with this post.

It seems a hunter in Lacrosse wants the state to have an open hunting season on domestic cats:

The 48-year-old firefighter from La Crosse has proposed that hunters in Wisconsin make free-roaming domestic cats an "unprotected species" that could be shot at will by anyone with a small-game license.

Now I'm no cat fan, despite being a cat owner. I'm also a supporter of hunters. But this is just a bad idea. I know that it isn't uncommon for hunters to take a shot at a feral cat when small game hunting, but opening small game hunting up to domestic cats is going to create an all new set of problems as people sue hunters over the destruction of their animals, or the first time some little girl watches a hunter obliterate her beloved pet and her dad gets in an altercation with the armed hunter.

Update
I so beat The Corner on this story

The New York Times and sports psychology

The New York Times, in an apparent effort to shore up the hometown Yankees, takes a look at sports psychology. Their conclusion? Loose knit teams (Yankees) are able to better handle tough times than tight knit teams (Red Sox). Heh. Well, that's good, because it seems the Yankees have the adversity of choking against the Sox last year to overcome.

Just the same, you have to admit the Yankees are a threat to win it all every year. As Bill "Spaceman" Lee said: "You take a team with 25 assholes, and I'll show you a pennant. I'll show you the New York Yankees."

Andrea Haberman

Today's column by Mike Nichols in the Journal Sentinel is a must read (via Sykes Writes). I commented last week on a Nichols column on Haberman, along with a link to the heartbreaking story in the 9/12/01 Journal Sentinel on Andrea. Her father's letter to Nichols is heartbreaking as well.

Sgrena story in the European press

If you are inclined to believe the dispatches in the European press that claim that US forces intentionally went after Giuliani Sgrena's car because she writes articles critical of the war for a communist paper, you may want to stop for 30 seconds and check out Captain's Corner and Little Green Footballs. Tough to believe that vehicle was shot at 300 to 400 times.

Update
Okay, scrap all of that. Per My View of the World, the image of the vehicle isn't really the image of the vehicle.

Update II
Okay, I need something of value added to this post. The Christian Science Monitor looks at military checkpoints in Iraq from both sides.

Jib finally joins the 21st century

After much hemming and hawing, the lovely Mrs. Jib and I finally decided to rearrange our phone arrangements. This will allow me to drop my dial up and go with DSL, so today is my last day on that wonder of the 1990's, dial up internet service. Posting on Monday night may end up being a little dicey as I fully expect technical difficulties. I may have more difficulties on Thursday when my new Wi-Fi router comes into the local Best Buy and I go wireless. How sweet it is! (Envision a 2 foot tall wooden Jib running through the grass with a laptop. Fade to black).

If you need help trying figure out what a Jib looks like, add one part Topher Grace, one part Kevin Bacon, and one part Tom Glavine. Mix, strain, and serve on the rocks. Or so says Mrs. Jib.

Overheard about town

I've overheard variations of this around the area a half dozen times this week: "Ya know what? When you really listen to him, what he says makes sense." And what is this in reference to? Ward Churchill's speech at UW Whitewater. All I can do is shake my head.

Beware the Ides of March

Not every March 15th is bad of course, but as a former superstitious baseball player, I wish there were more readers of Shakespeare in Iraq. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani is promising (via GOP Bloggers)a new government by the 15th. All in all, positive news. I believe Rich Lowry said at The Corner shortly after the elections that Iraqi politics were probably going to be rough and tumble, with a lot getting hammered out right at deadlines, when no one thinks a consensus is possible. Hopefully those words will be prophetic come the Ides of March.

Update
Lowry on Iraq (from The Corner).

Bizarre Reuters headline

Captain's Quarters discussed this topic this morning, but I can't help but comment on it. Reuters was beyond sloppy this morning in their coverage of the Giuliana Sgrena story. Not only did they spell reporter wrong, they also got the entire story factually wrong in the headline. Sgrena, the reporter, wasn't killed. An Italian secret service agent was. Odd.

Doggy suicide

The Independent is reporting today on a rash of doggy suicides in Dumbarton, Scotland. 5 dogs have recently jumped off of a bridge in that city, and experts are trying to determine if there is some sort of an optical illusion which is tricking the pups into jumping.

Personally, I think that somewhere in Dumbarton there is an evil, smug looking toy poodle that is the leader of a dog cult. It sits on its owners lap, shaking that nervous shake of toy poodles, chortling at the thought of these dogs proving their loyalty to him, the dogsiah of the Branch Dogvidians.

Then again, they may have just been really dumb dogs.

New Netscape release

Netscape has released a preview version of their new browser Netcape 8.0. I'm very excited about trying it, but I won't. They admit that this preview version is buggy, and I don't have the heart to replace my very stable 7.2 with it.

Sorry, Firefoxers. I just never really took to your browser. It crashed more than Netscape did, and that has been my #1 pet peeve since the days when you couldn't use Netscape 5.x for longer than 5 minutes without it crashing.

Potty blogging

Does the post below constitute potty blogging?

The great debate: Mens' or womens rooms, which are dirtier?

Ann Althouse, in this post on uni-sex bathrooms, makes the following claim:

The simple reason is that a bathroom used by men is dirtier. It doesn't have to be, but it is! Get your act together, guys! It's a wonder women are willing to live with you at all.

I will give her this much, guys have a tendency to leave the seat a little damp. Outside of that, womens' rooms are much, much dirtier. I speak from experience. From ages 16 to age 25, I was employed in retail industries in some way, shape, or form. I had to do numerous bathroom checks/cleanings, and without fail, the womens' rooms were always dirtier. And disgustingly so at times. I'll spare you all the details...unless you ask for them.

Rocky week for online media

A judge in California has ruled that Apple can force 3 online publishers to reveal their confidential sources for a story on a new product, which Apple claims violated a trade secret of theirs.

The simple genius of Captain Ed

Get a load of this line at the end of a post at Captain's Quarters:

Please note: For FEC purposes, I must ask you not to donate to John Cornyn's campaign fund while visiting his website, nor do I endorse the Senator in any re-election bid. Unless he and his colleagues take some action to reverse McCain-Feingold, I'm afraid I'll be writing this about every politician currently in office.

I think this disclosure should become standard operating procedure for the blogosphere until we receive some assurances that our speech is not going to be curtailed.

Senators extend provisions of bill

United States Senators John McCain and Russ Feingold held a joint press conference today to announce that campaign finance now extends to the internet.

In a joint statement issued prior to the press conference, McCain and Feingold said that a large network of political special interests, also known as bloggers, have had an undue influence on politics. By extending the provisions of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform to the internet, they sought to reduce this undue influence and return political power to those for whom it belongs-U.S. Senators.

“Look, we aren’t saying bloggers can’t speak. We’re not even saying bloggers can’t speak on politics. We’re just saying bloggers can’t speak on anything while in the United States!”

McCain and Feingold stated at the press conference that the only way to clean up political campaigns was to allow as few people to be involved in them as possible. They also announced a new bill they are introducing into Congress this session, the McCain-Feingold Political Office for Life because Everyone Else is too Corrupt to Live Bill.

No questions were asked of the Senators because reporters were bound and gagged.

This article was approved by the McCain-Feingold campaign finance clearinghouse.

(The above was satire. If you didn't like it, that's okay. It'll be illegal soon, anyway)

Editor & Publisher to start a blog

It isn't up yet, and they won't give out a timeline for when it will be, but it should be an interesting read nonetheless

Fun with translations

Inspired by this post by Jonah Goldberg at the Corner, I put this humble weblog's motto into Google's translator, first from English to German, from German to French, and from French back to English. Here are the results:

Jiblog it is a intellectual container of a gas this, is the beer guzzling which is chugging, a woman liking, wire of a conservative.

Heh.

Yet another reason to never vote for McCain or Feingold

Do you blog? Do you enjoy reading blogs? Did you enjoy the free speech that surrounded the 2004 election? Well, if your fed'ral gubmint has its way, look back on 2004 with nostalgia, because in 2006 or 2008, the political speech of bloggers will be regulated by the feds. (HT Instapundit). That's right, that campaign finance law that so many cheered as the way to clean up political speech is probably now going to extend to the blogosphere. Something as innocuous as reproducing a press release or a hyperlink could potentially earn bloggers fines in the future.

Blogging is the ultimate in grass roots political speech. Grass roots political speech is also a rough and tumble lot. While everyone is out trying to protect the free speech of the Ward Churchill's of the world (who hasn't had his right to free speech infringed upon yet), the feds will be putting a gag on blogs, right before your eyes.

(Cross posted at Badger Blog Alliance)

God, Politics, and the events at UWW

Owen at Boots & Sabers has a post tonight entitled God & Politics. You know you are in for something good when he opens the post with, "Here's a post where I piss off everyone." To briefly summarize the post, Owen's belief is that politics and God should not be mixed, and therefore he found the prayer at Tuesday night's vigil at UW Whitewater distasteful. I see where Owen is coming from. My faith is personal to me, and I try not to mix it into my politics or here at this site. Just the same, I watched the events of Tuesday night in person, and what I saw I did not find distasteful, and I'll go into a little detail as to why.

First I'd like to start with UWW's College Repbulicans. This was as gracious a group as I've ever seen. The ones I spoke with wouldn't even criticize the Chancellor for his decision. I felt that they were trying to keep the politics of the entire situation to a minimum. As I understand it, they had even invited the College Democrats to join them in this vigil. I also commend them as setting the entire event up as a memorial to the 9-11 victims. This, in my humble opinion, helped diffuse the politics of the entire situation by moving the emphasis off of Ward Churchill and onto the individuals who were defamed in death by Churchill's paper. Was the event opened up by individuals who are involved in politics or political opinion? Yes it was, but I even would have to credit them for not getting into it with the much more political free spreech demonstrators. On top of that, these individuals happened to be leaders of the public opinion opposed to Churchill's essay. Did attendees cheer when these individuals made points they agreed with. Yes. At no point did any of these speakers divine God or even imply that God was on their political side in this matter. The prayer at the end of the event was quite tasteful.

This was the first event I've really covered live for this site, and I was struck by the way it was portrayed in many media outlets. Hell, even Sean, Dean, and I saw things a little bit differently, but the media accounts were sufficiently vague as to make this event look like some big political rally, and that is not the feel I got from this. Given that, I can see Owen's distaste. Given what I saw with my own eyes, though, I don't.

And Owen, if you really want to piss people off, ya got to prod 'em harder. I'm not even mildly irritated. :-)

Microsoft teddy bear robot to watch kids

This morning Charlie Sykes discussed new technologies that allow parents to monitor their kids' driving habits. When it comes to technology like that, I don't really have a problem with monitoring my kids. First, as long as they are under 18, they are the parent's responsibility. Because of this, I don't believe they have an iron clad right to privacy. Second, when they are behind the wheel of a car, a parent has to be concerned not only for their safety, but the safety of others on the road. Not every kid needs to know that their driving habits are being monitored, but some do, and because of this, I have no problem with this sort of monitoring technology.

There is a type of monitoring technology that I'm not sure I would ever use with my kids (when the lovely Mrs. Jib and I finally get around to having them). That would be Microsoft's prototype teddybear robot, which monitors kids with a camera and an internet connection. Let's think about this one. Just about anything on the internet is hack-able if someone wants to crack into it bad enough. Now you are going to webcast video footage of your kids over it? This is just asking for abuse. I wouldn't even put my kids' pictures on the web, let alone webcast video of their daily lives. The last thing I want is some pervert or kidnapper cracking into my kids' MS teddybear, finding out some of their personal information, and watching video of them in their bedrooms.

On top of all that, a teady bear whose head follows your movements is just plain creepy.

The Syrian Connection

I think it's pretty obvious to most people who know anything about the Middle East that Syria is likely playing a big role in fueling the Iraq insurgency. Why is there even a shred of doubt on this? I encourage you to view the DVD, "Voices of Iraq." A couple young filmmakers handed out 150 digital video cameras in Iraq to ordinary Iraqi citizens. They told the citizens to film their lives and pass the cameras on to friends and family. The end product is nearly 90 minutes long, which, I believe, was narrowed from thousands of hours of footage. It's excellent.

Also shown in the documentary are home videos Saddam's thugs had made over the years, chopping people's hands off and such. Also, some insurgent videos, like the ones posted on Islamic Web sites, are shown. One of the videos thanks Syria for their help in fighting the infidels in Iraq.

Check this video out. It's fantastic.

No more pictures from yesterday

I knew when I did it that I was taking a risk. I shot pictures last night without a flash using a slow shutter speed. I didn't use a tripod. And I was cold. So every photo I took with my EOS last night is blurred. I'm really disappointed, too, because I had one shot that I thought was great. I looked to my right and I saw down a row of young women who had their candles lit and heads bowed. It was a great shot, and I got it. I got it blurry.

Back in December, I said that I finally realized that I was not a photographer. I stand by that statement.

Honor Killings in Germany

Feminists, where are you? This is a cause you should be all over.

Spotlight or ignore Churchill?

UC still has to decide what they are going to do, and that will gain some more headlines for Ward Churchill. My gut says that this UWW speech was the pinnacle of this story though. Churchill will slowly fade back into obscurity. That's a good thing, but so too has been the spotlight that has been shined upon him. I've been thinking quite a bit about the 'ignore him' v. 'write about him' debate which was made most visibly by The American Mind and Ann Althouse. I've come to the conclusion that shining the light was the better course of action, and not just because I was doing my fair share of it. If you were to look at the course syllabus for UW Whitewater's American Indian History class, you would find a Ward Churchill selection on the reading list for April 25th. I think a number of professors in Native American courses put Churchill on their reading lists because what he says fits within the constructs of how they view American Indians. They do not look at his scholarship critically. This spotlight has forced a lot of people to view Churchill's work more critically whether they like it or not. Instead of automatically passing Churchill's work off on students without an ounce of thought, thereby indoctrinating their students with some pretty caustic and not always factual stuff, a little bit of extra thought will go into putting him on the reading list.

Then again, maybe I'm just a hopeless optomist.

A thanks to Charlie Sykes

I need to take a moment to extend a thank you to Charlie Sykes. Sean and I said hello to him prior to the vigil, and Charlie was able to pronounce my last name despite having never met me and only having seen my name twice before. Sometimes it's the little things that impress you when you meet a person for the first time. First, remembering my name, and second, pronouncing it correctly, impressed me.

Head over to Sykes Writes for his experience up at the podium tonight.

Heh

I just watched TMJ 4's coverage of the speech itself. It looks like Churchill talked mostly about himself and his essay. So much for that speech on racism he was contracted to give.

Last picture until I get a roll of film developed tomorrow. It is tough to make out, but our Native American friend from the last post had company. This woman is holding up a homemade sign that reads "Stop exploitation of Native People. Don't support Ward Churchill." If you are like me, and you think that Ward Churchill is a stink that hangs over academia, think of how these Native women must feel. To them, Churchill's association with American Indians must feel like a yoke around their necks..

As people began to file in for the speech, this Native American woman made sure they knew that Churchill did not speak for all Native Americans. I mean, she gave people an earful. I think that one of the under appreciated things about this whole story is that Churchill does not have wide support in American Indian communities. His biggest support lay with radicals and academia.

At the end of the vigil, the Protest Warrior group began to mingle amongst the Pro-Churchillians. This lead to a somewhat heated exchange, with the Churchillians pulling out the typical 'fascist' name calling instead of debating on the facts.

The vigil itself was well done. Congrats to the College Republicans for putting together a very respectful event. Charlie Sykes did a great job as emcee, deftly handling chants from Churchill supporters that were designed to overwhelm the speeches, even noting the irony of that is a group of "free speech lovers" attempting to drown out someone else's speech. Speaking in the photo is Steve Nass, with Charlie Sykes appearing over his shoulder.

This is one of the last pictures I got before the darkness wreaked havoc on my aging digital camera. I had to chuckle at this guys chutzpah.

Notice the "Capitalism is Terrorism" sign. At least this guy was honest, instead of hiding under the freedom of speech cover that others did. For a number of Churchill's supporters, this is about his kookie beliefs, not about freedom of speech. In fact, it was a little ironic that anyone would demonstrate to protect Churchill's freedom of speech at this late stage. It's not like the attendees of the vigil were going to hold their candles up like torches and march down to the Hamilton Center to tar and feather the man.

This is representative of the Churchill supporters. I'm not saying all of them can remember the 60's (actually, none of them probably remember much about the 60's), but a good number of them very well could have watched the 1969 World Series. Another thing to note. At the bottom of this sign, it says [The right wing]. This isn't really an issue which should break down into left v. right. It is symbollic of the crumbling of the Democratic party that the protestors felt it did. They even felt the need to chant "fascists" during the vigil.

This is an early shot of people gathering for the candle light vigil. Note the flag in the background. That flag is actually on the property of DLK Enterprises, a company that provides the majority of Whitewater student housing. DLK has been a generous donor to the University in the past. The basketball arena is named after them and built largely with their donations. They clearly do not support the Chancellor's decision to bring Churchill to campus.

While I waited, I stepped into the Anderson Library and warmed up. This is a flyer that was posted on the bulletin board. It says, "Mr. Churchill, I will make it easy, the Nazis are in bold!" What followed was a bold list of Nazis. Below, in light grey script, was a list of 9-11 victims.

The police had sealed off the portion of the University Center that was hosting the speech. The University had help from the city, two counties, and the Wisconsin State Patrol. Things were pretty placid until dark.

This is the same group of protestors. Sorry for the fuzzy picture, but notice the message the young lady left of center is trying to convey: "I Love Men!" I'm not sure, but I think she may have gotten confused and was actually there to protest The Vagina Monologues, which had been scheduled to play tonight.

When I first showed up on campus shortly after 5, this was the scene as I approached from the west. A motley crew of Churchill supporters which was slowing down traffic as commuters rubber necked at the commotion.

Welcome to Whitewater

Note: This post was written at UWW, but had to be saved after Blogger problems.

As the sun set and the temperature plummetted, UW Whitewater played host to the most excitement the campus has seen since students rioted after a 1996 Packer Monday Night Football game. Tonight, there were no riots. Just a small, loud group of old hippies and a larger, respectful group of people who showed up for the candlelight vigil to 9-11 vicitims.

This will be a brief dispatch, as my wireless card is rapidly eating away at the battery. The pre-speech festivities have been about what I expected. The anti-Churchill crowd was large and very respectful. The pro-Churchill grouping was smaller, much older, and just as concerned about war for oil as they were about Churchill's free speech rights.

The one thing that I did not see, and which I expected to, was the College Democrats. Unless of course the College Democrats were the few younger folks who were intermingled with the older protestors. They had promoted a Free Speech Rally, and I'm not sure I saw it.

I will be posting tonight on pre-speech events. Unfortunately, it was impossible to live blog or even watch the speech. Being part of the MSM still has its perks, namely press passes.

Blogger sucks

Okay, now that I have that out of the way, I'm back from UW-Whitewater. I'll be posting my observations from the pre-speech festivities. Unfortunately, when Sean and I sat down to watch Churchill's speech on TV, we learned it wasn't on. I also learned that Blogger isn't agreeable with my laptop and the UWW Wifi. Campus channel 19 will be playing it at 9:30 if you live on campus.

If Blogger plays nicely with me, I'll be posting here for a while, so keep checking back in.

Media coverage of UWW-Churchill

Oddly enough, the Rocky Mountain News has the best media coverage of this Wisconsin event.