Heard on the Radio

I was listening to Randi Rhodes today and she's a liberal but like myself she was railing against the handouts that go to big business and the wealthy. Everyone is concerned about giving money to the poor and the unemployed but if you tell government you're going to open a factory and the government says "how much do you want". It's ridiculous! Give me $1 million dollars and I'll go into business. But us little guys can't get deals like that. In Wisconsin look at the money that was thrown at Mercury, GM (went under anyway), Chrysler (closed the plant), Talgo (moving), and this is the short list. That is our money that went to pick winners and they missed on a few occasions.

The President Blows it on the Debt Limit

The President gave a press conference yesterday where he was getting close to being on track but in the end he failed again. As I see there are 2 choices in dealing with these Republicans (keep in mind that these guys voted to raise the debt limit many times but now they are not going raise it), first is he could just agree and let the country go into default and take the country back to 1929 when we had much less of a social safety net than we have today. Just maybe when there are people on the streets because they don't have anything we can finally have an adult discussion about how the economy should work. His other choice is to walk into congress with $300 billion in budget cuts. Where is going to get that? Shut down the wars and bring the troops home. Cut the military force by 50%. Redeploy the navy to US coastal ports. Cut the defense budget by about 50%. Cut funding for all new weapons systems. Force the Republicans to vote on that. The country will not be left defenseless. We can cut our military 50% and still have more military than most countries, especially the ones that we are likely to go to war with.

Michelle Bachmann and Farming

Now Michelle Bachmann is backing away from any ownership of a farm in Wisconsin. I would think that anyone running for President, especially as a Republican would play up their roots as farmer. Aren't farmers the kind of conservative, family values, rugged, independent, individuals that the Republicans count as their own? Yes, farmers get subsidies. She should be up front about it. Say something like "I do oppose these subsidies but I'm not going to turn them down" or she could admit that the image of the farmers is not what the general population has. Family farms don't exist without subsidies whether it is price supports, crp payments, government purchases, disaster payments, or planting regulations farmers get government money and then complain about government payments to others. The press just never talks about how much government money farmers are getting.

Mineral Point/ Junction Road Update

Once again the Mineral Point/ Junction Road/ County M intersection shows a lack on planning among the government entities involved. The current plan is to rebuild the intersection resulting in the elimination of the building that houses Steve's Liquor. The reality is that there is just not enough space that doesn't have buildings on it to solve the problem. What to do about this problem. Well some government body approved the building of a cell phone store on the East side of the intersection. This makes absolutely no sense for a number of reasons. First it will narrow the area that can be used to reconstruct this intersect without the demolition of a brand new building. Second why do they need a new building? There are plenty of vacant retail locations available on Madison's Westside. It is really quite astonishing that there is so little thought about the increased traffic that will use the intersection especially just weeks after the controversial rebuild plan was announced.

Justice Prosser

After winning a tight election to the supreme court, Justice Prosser has allegedly assaulted a fellow judge. People are calling for his resignation, that is not going to happen. He could be impeached, again not likely. He has lost the support of the Governor (a little bit) who would appoint the replacement (pressure on the Justice might work). It looks like we will be stuck with the Justice for the foreseeable future.

The Recalls

I was asked over the weekend why I don't have a recall Walker bumper sticker. My response has shocked many. I believe that recalls should be rare and that they should be for someone who has done something that rises to the potential of being illegal. So, I don't agree with these recalls. The Republicans campaigned on the agenda that has caused people to be upset with them. The time for a recall was the last election. I had several people comment that they didn't think that would pass everything or that they didn't know what they were going to do. Jefferson described the dangers of an uninformed electorate, I think that we are finally seeing that electorate. This is a fact that is shown in the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) civic literacy quiz. The quiz results are bad even among groups who should know better (elected officials).

Since we are going to have the recalls I will vote in them, all the while disagreeing that they should take place.

Subsidies

Michelle Bachmann says that she didn't benefit from $30,000 in State and Federal money to her husbands clinic or in the hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal money to her father in laws farm (she is a partner). This defies logic. The State money was used to train employees. Come on Michelle you are supposed to be a business woman. Great the money was used to train employees, or stated another way it was $30,000 that you didn't have to spend. How is this not a personal benefit? With the farm she reported income. She can say that it went to her in laws , but without these subsidies would the farm have been profitable enough to have paid her income? It is unlikely. She would end such programs. I agree that we should end farm subsidies and set price by public trading. Such a program will no doubt lower farm income and quite possibly the price of food. That is what farm subsidies do, the artificially increase the price of farm commodities. Michelle Bachmann really needs to study the issues of what government pays for.

On another note she has interest in a farm in Wisconsin yet has never mentioned the unfair nature of the Eau Claire rule in setting (government) milk prices.

Also, isn't ironic that the person most opposed to health reform owns a clinic?