Sunday, April 22, 2012

Fire the Head of the Secret Service

I don't care what kind of job the head of the secret service has been doing in the wake of the prostitution scandal he should be fired. He was in charge and has clearly lost control of his agents. I don't care that these guys were with prostitutes, I care that they were likely on duty and this was a huge security breach.

Guns in School

So, a Wisconsin girl was arrested last week for bringing a concealed weapon to school. Why isn't the right in an uproar? Sure she broke the law, no permit. But that law is wrong, if you are going to allow open carry with no permit why require one for concealed? What about the expansive "castle doctrine" that is being debated now. Under this thinking there would be no way that guns could be banned from schools. This is an institution that causes many to fear for their lives. That is part of the point of the movie Bully, fortunately saner minds prevailed and the rating was reduced to PG-13 (and that might be too high). This girl was apparently being harassed and had hoped that just showing the gun would make people stop. No instead we are going to punish the victim. The bullies should be the ones going to jail. Hopefully she'll get off without having to go to jail. Of course, she'll never be able to attend that school again and given the press she might have a hard time finding another school. She'll probably be forced to go to either a private school or to an online school. Which I see as a problem if her parents do not have the means to pay for her education. We say that children are entitled to a public education but the reality is that due to the behavior of a minority of students with the tacit approval of other students and faculty many students are either outright denied this education or wind up with a poor education because they don't fit in which makes learning difficult. This bullying behavior can have long lasting effects on some of the bullied. Hopefully this girl can turn this around and become successful.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

NRA

The NRA should just drop the charade and declare themselves an arm of the Republican party. They don't invite Democrats to their convention. They don't endorse Democrats. Their talking points are untrue. They were responsible for the myth that Obama was going to be coming to your house to take your guns. This is not true, unless you think when he gets re-elected he'll be coming for you. Instead the NRA has actually taken positions which would enable Obama to easily take your guns. The whole idea of getting a permit issued by the government in order to carry a weapon just creates a list of gun owners. The NRA is also ok with hunting licenses. Once again only the criminals will be left with weapons.

Fake Democrats

Lets start this out by saying this is wrong and the election board decision is wrong. If you are going to run as a partisan you should be a member of that party otherwise run as an independent. What Republicans are saying is that if the races aren't contested we need to make sure that there is a primary. If we want to go that way why don't we go to a system where all of names are on the primary ballot and the top 2 vote getters go on to the general election unless there are only 2 candidates where the winner wins. This would of course mean that you could have general elections where both candidates maybe from the same party. Think of the Governor race or the race for US Senate. It could easily be Falk versus Barrett in the Governor race and it could be Thompson versus Neumann in the Senate race.

Time to Reconsider Afghanistan

I've been meaning to write this for a couple of days now but today's announcement that girls at a high school had been poisoned really cemented my opinion of this war. First on Sunday, John McCain was making a case for more intervention. He stated that the Taliban aren't that much of a factor and we can defeat these remaining members. Then later on Sunday, the remnants of the Taliban were able to launch simultaneous attacks in Kabul, 3 provinces, and Pakistan. Is this a movement that is nearly defeated? No, the parallel here is the Tet Offensive in Vietnam. Prior to that we were told that the North was nearly defeated. After the American people realized that we were being lied to. The same holds for Afghanistan. Our military controls the cities except of course when the Taliban decides to attack. It is time for us to leave. We installed a government that is not only corrupt but has failed to meet the needs of the people. We have tried to instill some of our values in terms of equal rights and educating girls. The problem is that the religious fundamentalists don't believe in this and control much of the local government and police. This allows the poisoning that just happened to occur and the perpetrators to go unpunished.

Maybe, if we had invaded, occupied, and run the government things might be different. It is too late to revisit past decisions, but the time is right to leave before there is anymore loss of American lives or innocent civilians.

Friday, April 13, 2012

Ann Romney not Working

I for one don't think that the comment from the Democratic party strategist was that bad, because in context she meant that Ann didn't have a clue about the struggles of the average family where most mothers and fathers both have to work and have trouble making ends meet. I would be willing to bet that the Romney's have ever had to go without, but most Americans make those decisions everyday. Whether it as simple as deciding between buying hamburger or steak or a new car instead of used.

Some wealthy people (Teddy and Franklin Rosevelt) can relate to the regular people, but the Romney's continue to say things that put them out of touch with people in a lower class. For example, when talking American cars Mitt says that Ann has a couple of Cadillacs. Even one Cadillac costs more than most Americans earn in one year, but he says it like everyone has a couple of Cadillacs.

WI Wisconsin Senate

The Republican candidates for WI Senate had a debate the other day. The most shocking thing to come out of the debate was said by Mark Neumann. He stated that all tax breaks should go away. This from who used to be the most reasonable of the candidates, but also a guy who made millions because of the tax breaks. You see Mark owns a company that installs residential solar systems. These systems would not sell as well as they do if it weren't for the fact that the owners can write off up to 40% of the cost. As you know I'm against tax breaks for corporations because corporations should not be getting a subsidized workforce, these taxcuts are different because they go directly to a individual. They allow for homes to be improved and lessen a need for new power plants having to be built.

Fitzgerald is running on his conservative values and leadership. That would be the leadership that cuts off debate and rushes votes when there is barely a quorum thus allowing easy passage.

Finally you have Eric Hovde, who is running an ad touting how much borrowing is being done. It is important to remember that Hovde worked and made millions in an industry that held this government hostage saying that they needed bailing out in order to head off financial ruin of the country. This bailout and the Iraq war really blew up the budget. The debt doesn't look that bad when you take the $6-9 trillion given to the banks and the $3 trillion spend in Iraq and take them out of the $15 trillion debt that we have. Also, he has no plan for how to solve his identified problem other than to not borrow anymore. This does nothing to solve the debt crisis and he should know this.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Neck Fusion

I see Packer Nick Collins has not yet been cleared from neck fusion surgery. Nice article in today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about the surgery and what you can do in the future. I'll admit that I was one who wondered why these guys would want to come back, but the article laid out a convincing argument that you are probably at no greater risk. If he is up to it he should play.

Monday, April 9, 2012

New Jobs at Polaris

So, Polaris is going to create 89 jobs at their Osceola WI assembly plant. This is great news for our poor economy. But, lets not forget this is the same company that sent 500 jobs from the same plant to Mexico and that they are getting the equivalent of nearly $7000 per job in tax breaks. This sounds like a great deal, for Polaris. Also, these jobs are for building heavy motorcycles. This is a small market unlike the atv jobs that Polaris shipped to Mexico. The heavy bike market is dependent on the economy (because they are expensive luxuries) more so than atv. Hopefully the economy is strong and the tax breaks worth it for the people of Wisconsin in the end.