Charter Fails to Fix Problems in Plan

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* NEWS RELEASE *

Wisconsin PEG Channels Oppose Charter Cable’s Plan to Move Channels

The Wisconsin Association of PEG Channels (WAPC) today informed representatives of Charter Communications that it has rejected Charter’s proposed memorandum of understanding that the company hoped would make its channel realignment plan more palatable to WAPC and bring WAPC and its members to Charter’s aid in its effort to promote the plan to communities.

“Charter’s package of very limited concessions did not begin to address the severe harm its channel realignment would have on PEG stations and Charter’s analog subscribers,” said Mary Cardona, Executive Director. In May, Charter informed WAPC of its plan to move local public, education, and government (PEG) access channels from their present locations on the analog tier. Under the plan, basic and expanded basic subscribers would need to rent a digital converter box in order to continue to see PEG channels, unless they own a QAM-capable digital television.

After a series of meetings and an exchange of proposals between Charter and WAPC, it was clear no agreement could be reached that would not result in a significant loss of PEG channel viewership. “Cities and school districts have invested millions of dollars in these channels that now reach every cable subscriber. Unfortunately, Charter can only be certain that digital cable subscribers will continue to see these channels under its plan – and that’s only slightly over half of its customers,” stated Cardona. With cable penetration averaging 66% nationwide, only a little over one-third of local residents might be able to see the PEG channels in the future.

“Charter’s plan is premature. Consumers have not yet transitioned to digital television in enough numbers. Like broadcast stations, which also serve the local public interest, PEG stations should remain on the analog tier until Charter’s cable system goes entirely digital or until 2012, whichever comes first,” said Cardona. “WAPC’s members cannot stand with Charter and promote a channel realignment plan that is clearly not in the public interest.

”Residents who are unhappy with Charter’s plan to move PEG channels to the digital tier can call their local PEG access station or register a complaint with Jim Rabbitt, 608-224-4965 (1-800-422-7128), at the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection, 2811 Agriculture Drive, Madison, 53708-8911.

Milton Ethanol Plant Still Smells

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A neighbor of the United Ethanol Plant in Milton has launched a sign campaign to protest the sight, smells and violations of the industrial behemoth near his home.

Racks Up 170 Violations:
“United Ethanol cares about their neighbors," Dori Lichty, plant spokeswoman, wrote in an e-mail to The Janesville Gazette. "That's why we are installing a new $2 million, multi-chamber RTO (regenerative thermal oxidizer). That's why we have all the new RTO pieces on site so we can begin construction as soon as the DNR permit is approved."

That's interesting, except the neighbor......

JG Excerpt:
Dorn doesn't believe the plant's statements. He believes the plant wants to install the new equipment to increase its production capacity, he said.

In fact, the new equipment will increase the plant's capacity, but not beyond its allowable limit, Lichty said.

Certainly…..at this point…..we wouldn’t want to break any laws now would we……why…..….that would be violation………..number 171.

Pulling The Politics Out Of Committees

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Monday's Janesville city council meeting began with the approval of the new FEMA flood maps. The open meeting somehow evolved into a confusing discussion over property tax assessments versus equalized value assessments. It seems that houses damaged in a floodplain can be saved even if the repairs are higher than 50% of the equalized value, so long as they raise the house out of the floodplain. This is odd because in Janesville it appears there are no such compromises offered for repair or remodeling costs of houses not in a floodplain. They simply condemn it.

Another discussion transpired over developing a new application and appointment process for city hall committees.

JG Excerpt:
Bill Truman was enthusiastic about the applications, and he said that the council typically received a name and no other information about the candidates they were expected to approve.

"Who appoints the committee on committees?" City Manager Sheiffer asked.

Appoint? Why appoint? Just use a hat.

"Put a letter out there that we’re looking for five or seven people for this committee for appointment. Have them come in – put their names in a hat just like we do for our names on the ballot. The first seven people (chosen) – you’re on the committee. It would be fair and there would be no politics in it or nothing" – Councilman Bill Truman

A few people chuckled at Truman's statement of honest and blunt transparency. However, there’s nothing funny about stacking committees with friends and screening others out simply for personal reasons, politics or because they don’t think quite the same way. What better way to shape an outcome then to have all your buddies and family appointed by one person or even a few. The truth is, Councilman Truman's suggestion was absolutely right on. I wasn't laughing.

Two other councilmen appeared wanting to over-complicate matters with a formal application questionnaire and screening process. One suggested the question “why do think you’re qualified to be on the committee?” deserves the answer, "what are the qualities of disqualification?" To be fair, people have the right to know that before they apply.

But what are the qualifications to be on a committee? Other than being a resident in the City of Janesville – none. And that’s the way it should be. And other than to make sure applicants are of sound mind (and not a felon) and would swear under oath to an understanding that no conflicts of interests exist – no questions need to asked. After an applicant meets those basic qualifications, their initiative to apply is reason enough to make them the most qualified candidate. Their names should be placed in a hat and chosen first come, first serve. No need for final approval.

The people on city hall committees should be comprised of a continuous and randomly chosen cross-section of the general population, and serving on a committee should be no different than serving on a jury. Regular folk with regular concerns who want to help make a positive difference. Once they fulfill all committee duties in good faith, their name should go back into the hat to serve on other committees, if they so choose. But if you're looking at their education, employment background or whether they're experts in the field, hire a licensed professional or a consultant.

Truman said pulling names out of a hat was the "old gamble approach." Perhaps it is, but in this case, it’s the safest bet.

Once again, I have to give some of the council members high marks for trying to prop up Janesville’s antiquated if not minimalist form of government with additional community involvement.

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In other council business, the city council unanimously passed the new landscape approval ordinance which appeared to be a hastily written expansion of the noxious weed ordinance. There were no provisions or interest expressed on sustainable landscaping or environmental concerns. Just another slam dunk document ordaining the city bureaucracy another opportunity to assault our privacy and property rights. Oddly, Janesville residents don't seem too concerned over any of this unless it directly involves their wallet.

Trust Ryan's Bridges To The Future?

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As reported by Thomas Rollcall for the past week in Congress and published in Monday's Janesville Gazette.

Bridge Inspections:
Members passed, 367 - 55, a bill to upgrade bridge inspections standards for state and local authorities who oversee the safety of highway bridges in the United States. A "YES" was to pass a bill (HR 3999) requiring states to put their riskiest bridges first in line for repairs.

Rep. Paul Ryan was one of the 55 voting against the bill. Cost? Does it really matter? It is estimated at $7 per American over the 2008-2012 period.

Why do I get the nagging feeling that Ryan would have voted "Yea" for upgrading bridge inspections in Iraq.

Mrs. Krupp Goes To Washington

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* PRESS RELEASE *

PLEASANT PRAIRIE, Wisconsin - In a step that vastly separates herself from her Democratic rivals, Marge Krupp, the Democratic candidate for Wisconsin's First Congressional District finished two days of successful endorsement meetings with high-profile groups in Washington D.C. last week. As part of her pledge to run a full-time, professional campaign to reclaim the First District for Wisconsin's working families and seniors, Krupp's trip is seen as proof of the viability of her campaign and the validity of her fundraising ability. Krupp said of her Washington trip, "we have a Democratic candidate running against Paul Ryan that is not just more of the same," Krupp charges, "actively seeking the endorsement of these groups and individuals is one way we're putting together a winning campaign for November." Krupp has raised more that $100,000 dollars since her entry into the race last year.

While in Washington, Marge Krupp met with a variety of groups representing different causes. They included EMILY's List, The United Food and Commercial Workers, The Sierra Club, The National Women's Political Caucus, NARAL, The Brady Campaign, Council for a Livable World, Feminist Majority, AIPAC, American Association of Justice, Women's Campaign Forum, Citizens For Global Solutions, and the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare. Krupp also met with members of the Wisconsin Congressional delegation, including Representatives Obey, Kind, and Baldwin. Krupp said of these meetings, "Our campaign is looking for a different approach for this fall as opposed to falls previous, different on everything from fundraising to campaigning and meeting with these individuals is definitely a step towards that direction."

Krupp is hoping to earn the endorsement of all of the groups she met with and the support that those groups can provide in workers for the fall primary and general election. Krupp confidently summed up her effort in D.C. by saying, "You haven't seen anything yet."

For more information, please visit her web site at Krupp for Congress

Getting Loopholed Out of Benefits

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The July 24th edition of the Janesville Gazette headlined a story titled Benefits denied for LSI, which attempted to give an explanation of sorts as to why the federal government denied offering an extension of unemployment and education benefits to laid off workers of a local GM support company.

At the core of this argument is the question of whether global competition was responsible for the announced closings of the Janesville GM plant and if not, therefore, workers of independent logistic's companies don’t deserve help.

JG Excerpt:
Typically, TAA status is granted on a case-by-case basis when workers are displaced by global competition. Whether the GM plant’s product has been adversely affected by global competition likely will be decided this fall.

Somebody is still undecided on whether Janesville GM was adversely effected by global competition? Also, in a supporting article titled “Loophole keeps TAA benefits flowing for workers at Lear”, the Gazette reinforces the same idea.

JG Excerpt:
Lear workers, however, will get TAA benefits even though they have been laid off for the same reasons as their counterparts at GM and LSI

What does all of this mean? Several things. For one, it means that instead of the Gazette writing that a improper technicality in due process known as a “loophole” is responsible for denying benefits, they write the benefits in a negative presupposition, that some workers are receiving them because of a “loophole.” Secondly, the newspaper fosters animosity and divides the nervous community further by implying that undeserving workers are receiving loopholed benefits, yet are able to hold up the local union as the incompetent wheel and target of those loopholed out of benefits. Thirdly, if government decides that Janesville GM was not effected by forces of global competition, this could have a long ranging adverse effects on future benefits for all workers tied into the local GM factory. This triple twist of spin I believe, fits the newspaper's program, and catapulted this story into the headlines of the front page.

It is true that high energy prices are partly responsible for killing off sales of gas guzzlers of all brands, but that was no reason to announce the closing of the Janesville GM plant. And true, they build large SUV’s in Janesville, but SUV’s are a concept, that they happen to get poor gas mileage is more a strike against the internal combustion engine than against the concept OR the hard working people supplying parts and support for the factory.

That gasoline prices are high it has been said, is a direct result of global competition for oil. Despite high gasoline prices, GM has not cut off all SUV production in the United States. Obviously, there are more reasons than the high cost of fuel as to why GM decided to close the four plants in North America. If another reason was to cut costs, for what reason other then to compete with the competition? And it was global competition to blame in a more obvious sense decades ago when the American car manufacturers failed to compete when oil was cheap.

JS Online excerpt:
Rising oil and gas prices have resulted in a permanent shift away from large SUVs and pickups, GM Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner said in a conference call. The inability of oil suppliers to keep up with rising demand for energy worldwide means current prices will be the norm going forward, he said.

This should come as no surprise that in nearly every story related to the GM announcement, both corporate officials, politicians and the traditional media have blamed surging fuel prices for the closings. Except one.

The Paul Ryan Paradox

It so happens that the Janesville GM plant resides in the congressional district of which Republican Paul Ryan has been representing for the past ten years. With this close proximity oddly enough, he still is able to seize the workers frustration as an opportunity to distance himself from the causes of their blight. For this, he is the one exception to the rule who would rather blame the federal government and congress. And he's right. This beginning in 1994 with the Republican “Contract with America” and culminating into Ryan's first eight years in the GOP-led Congress of which he voted "Yea," on policies that led us to where we are today.

So he politicizes it -- expected in a political year -- and works it into his shtick of running as a change candidate within the status quo against a congress with low approval ratings. What is totally absurd is that he is able to exclude himself. Sure, Ryan can point fingers and blame government for the high prices of the free markets and the job losses, everybody does - it's the popular thing to do. So long as we never blame his votes on trade agreements, globalization or issues regarding the free markets.

Rep. Ryan’s position on the TAA benefits issue will likely influence the federal position that will ultimately decide whether the plant closing here was a result from something other than global competition, if true, the workers will get nothing.

The Gazette and Paul Ryan - what a mess they've weaved.

Rip Rap

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Ich Bin Ein Obamer
What an exhilarating feeling it was for a change to see over 200,000 people waving American flags and applauding an American citizen in a foreign country, instead of stomping our flag or burning the president in effigy.

Chicago Tribune Excerpt:
"I know my country has not perfected itself. At times, we've struggled to keep the promise of liberty and equality for all of our people. We've made our share of mistakes, and there are times when our actions around the world have not lived up to our best intentions." -- Barack Obama

The famous sociopathic gasbag Rush Limbaugh melted down into a full-jacketed spasmodic attack when he heard Obama opine that America is not perfect.

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Grumpy McBush Dares Obama, Then Whines

An advisor for the McCain campaign, former Senator Phil Gramm, recently said, "nation's leaders, not its people, were whiners."

Chicago Tribune Excerpt:
Besides, it's his own fault that Obama is getting so much attention. For weeks, McCain has been practically taunting his opponent into visiting Iraq--making it that much more newsworthy when Obama actually did.

I have never seen a credible presidential candidate repeatedly whine and make stuff up about his opponent as McCain has done.

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Republicans Gone Wild In Alaska

What’s wrong with Alaska

Longtime Alaskan Republicans Exposed

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Young Republicans Attempting To Resurrect GOP Of Old

It just goes to show, being old has nothing to do with age, but in politics it has plenty to do with going back to the way things used to be. After what this country has been through in the past eight years, I'd think people want something different than to go backwards to the kind of policies that brought us to this point.

Not the Young Republicans though. They want to return to the roaring 80's and the time of Ronald Reagan. That is their idea of change.

Washington Post Excerpt:
"I'm focused more on solutions than partisanship," Cameron says. He began working for Gingrich's nonpartisan group last month, pushing the former House leader's "Drill Here. Drill Now. Pay Less" campaign to advocate for drilling off the coast of Florida and in other domestic oil fields.

Get a load of that. "Focused on solutions" working in Gingrich’s non-partisan group.

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Death Of The Internet

Excerpt:
The plan is to convert the Internet into a cable-like system, where customers sign up for specific web sites, and then pay to visit sites beyond a cutoff point.

This is coming. We've got corporate worshipping elitists posing as legislators who lay awake at nights licking their chops over the idea of a multi-tiered internet.

And you know it too, they’ll make up whatever excuse it takes, but most likely will promote it’s necessity on matters of national security. That always works. If they don’t put a tollbooth on the information highway, they’ll break it into at least two worlds, one for shoppers and traditional media services, and one for bloggers, watchdogs and everybody else who don’t conform to their ideas of freedom.

Information Clearing House:
The little guys on the Net will fall likes flies; Bloggers and small website operators will die a quick death because people will not pay to go to their sites and read their pages.

If there’s one thing the traditional media hates is that simple web pages and blogs like this one are on an equal access footing with them. They hate it that folks, regardless of their income, can access this page without paying an extra dime. But most of all, they hate the atmosphere of equality and the First Amendment of the Internet -- the governing principle of "net neutrality," which prevents telecommunications corporations from rigging the Web so it is easier to visit sites that pay for preferential treatment.

Capital Times Excerpt:
June 13, 2006 - Siding with the telephone and cable company lobbies, and against consumers, were Wisconsin Republicans Mark Green, Paul Ryan and Tom Petri. Also voting the wrong way was Wisconsin Democrat Ron Kind, a so-called "new Democrat" who frequently splits with his party on issues of interest to corporate donors.

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Venezuela, Russia Form Energy Alliance
Why is it that old cold war KGB rooskies get the cherub-faced socialist Chavez for an oil partner and we get this?Why is it we'll bed down with terror-fascist states halfway around the world, but we won’t even talk to Cuba or Venezuela from as close as 90 miles away? Before Iraq became the worst blunder in modern U.S. history, our bungled relationship with Cuba held that distinction followed by this administration's mishandling of Hugo Chavez.

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McPig: John's Problem With Women

Alternet Excerpt:
McCain is ignorant about pay equity, wants to overturn Roe v. Wade and likes to brag about his "sexual conquests" and visits to a strip club.

Janesville Manufacturing Jobs Reduced To A Memory

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It's beginning to look like Janesville no longer exists in a vacuum. A headstone memorializing the closing of a plant formerly known as Gilman Engineering sits in the front terrace of a parking lot across the street from the Thyssen Krupp building on Delavan Drive in Janesville.

JG Excerpt:
ThyssenKrupp, the local manufacturer best known in Janesville as Gilman, announced in May that it would close the plant and eliminate more than 160 jobs.

Gilman Memorial
This can't be a good sign. Before headstones like these start popping up all over Janesville, the city administration better get right on it with a new ordinance addressing the height, size, placement, material and mounting system utilized for keeping them properly anchored.

Below, is a photoshopped tombstone on which I took the liberty to write the epitaph for the Janesville GM factory.

Wisconsin Republicans Vote Against Domestic Oil Production

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Another week has come and gone without the Democratic-led Congress able to wean the country off of foreign oil and force oil and gas companies to “use or lose” the lands they have leased from the federal government. The bill H.R. 6515, also requested that Alaskan oil cannot be exported.

The Hill Excerpt:
In addition to requiring energy companies to either drill on 68 million acres of approved and leased lands or vacate their leases, the new Drill Act also included language to speed up the leasing of 20 million acres in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, to reconstitute the ban on the foreign export of Alaskan oil and to urge the president to facilitate the completion of oil and gas pipelines from Alaska.

The three Wisconsin house republicans helping stall energy legislation and voting against the "Drill Act" were Sennenbrenner, Petri and Ryan.

Free Republic Excerpt:
A similar partisan dynamic is stalling energy legislation in the Senate, where Democrats and Republicans are at a standstill on a measure (S 3268) to tighten regulation of energy futures trading. Democrats acknowledge the measure is only a short-term, partial solution to the rising cost of gasoline, but Republicans have threatened to thwart action on the bill, unless GOP members are allowed to offer amendments that would open new areas for oil drilling.

In the House, nearly all Republicans and eleven democrats voted “no.” As record gas prices continue to soak family budgets and leave municipalities in dire straits, Republicans have found an excuse why not to drill and why not to lower gasoline prices. They found their excuse by opposing the democrats plan, and are willing to exploit those misconceptions for the sake of their corporate donors and political careers.

Obnoxious Ordinance Amendment Should Be Uprooted

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Friday’s Janesville Gazette contained a public notice on Page 9A from the Janesville City Administration about an upcoming city council meeting for the purpose of amending the city’s noxious weed ordinance.

The original ordinance known as Ordinance 8.56 Noxious Weeds can been seen below as it appears on the Janesville City Website.

In the public notice as printed in the Gazette, the "new" ordinance and its sections take up nearly half a page in small font newsprint. The city writes up a short description of the amendment as follows......

Ordinance No. 2008-413
An ordinance repealing and recreating the noxious weed ordinance so as to permit City approved Natural Landscaping with penalties, injunctive relief, and other remedies as set forth….

The folks in the Janesville administration are overstepping their bounds once again into the peaceful enjoyment of private property ownership. Through the use of wryly written legalese they have been able to present the full amendment as a loosening of restrictions when in fact it is a tightening of control with stiffer penalties and fewer options for the home owner and gardener. And instead of presenting natural landscaping and its techniques as an extension of artistic expression and individual sanctuary, they present it to the gardening taxpayer as a controlled expansion of weeds.

Although the existing laws appear to have been reasonably successful enforcing voluntary compliance in weed abatement, the entire amendment appears to be authored with the same intent as the city's landlord/nuisance ordinance. That is, for the city to trespass onto private land and remedy the situation with confrontational enforcement if necessary. But the worst part is probably this.

Amendment Notice Excerpt
5. This section shall not apply to properties owned by governmental entities or where federal, state or local regulations provide otherwise.

Well, Wisconsin's Park Place would like its taxpayers to obey strict rules regarding the growth of noxious weeds and tall grass but exempts itself from the same.

So while you’re out there on your hands and knees pulling and bagging thousands of garlic mustard sprouts from your yard and spraying dangerous herbicides and other poisons that eventually find their way into the Rock River and groundwater aquifiers, the city’s own parks and right-of-ways of garlic mustard and dandelions are packing their bags full of seed just waiting for the next windy ride into your yard.

The public hearing for this so-called noxious weed amendment is scheduled for July 28th at 7 PM in the council chambers at the Janesville municipal building.

Let's Cap-And-Trade Drunk Driving?

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Most states already have legal limits of Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) for individuals but under this plan, the state government would also create a system in which an aggregate cap is formulated based on the driving population and the number of all DUI offenses and the limits of blood alcohol concentrations recorded in past violations.

As an example, every person over the age of eighteen would get a single .06 Blood Alcohol Concentration allowance certificate (BACAC) every six years. After six years of good driving without alcohol related driving violations, he would receive another .06 certificate that can be added to the previous allowance for a total of .12. After six more years, another certificate and so on. If you never drink, you can sell your certificate(s) to those unable to meet their limits. Sounds great, huh? Some could accumulate many certificates if they’re wealthy, say up to a limit of .54 BACAC’s. The .06 certificate cap could eventually be lowered over time to further reduce drunk driving. As certificates are turned in for violations, they are retired and the aggregate of allowable violations is reduced.

For instance, if you’re trying to open that tenth bottle of Guinness by folding your cell phone over it to twist the cap off and you happen to come to an abrupt and jarring air-bag collision into the rear end a state trooper on the shoulder of I-90, no worry. Just whip out your .24 allowance certificates after the .21 breathalyzer results and you’re free to go with a simple failure to stop ticket.

Okay, let me first explain here that before you write my name in for Governor, I would hope that you consider this idea of drunk driving cap-and-trade intellectually indefensible and morally bankrupt, if not just plain silly. But no more so than the Emissions Cap-and-Trade schemes offered by certain politicians for reducing corporate smokestack pollution.

I’m bringing this up because this is exactly how emissions cap-and-trade works. What it really does is allow others to break the laws of limitations without circumspect or punishment, but only if they have money. On the surface it is meant to create a system to provide financial incentive’s for reductions in let’s say, drunk driving, by assigning a cost to all drunk driving damages inflicted on society and state using mathematical formula’s and ratios. The clincher of course is that cap-and-trade, exactly like the commodity it is designed to limit, requires damages and fines against violators of the system anyways.

Taken seriously, cap-and-trade for any pollutant, be it greenhouse gases or drunk driving can be easily corrupted by individuals who purchase and retire certificates and hence drive up the price of the remainder according to the law of demand.

The point is, why bother with this circular path of declining capitalization if the intended results can only be achieved through enforcement and punishment anyways?

The Politics Of Fear

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Swamp Excerpt:
Atlantic Monthly's Jeffrey Goldberg wrote in an article called "Obama, the New Yorker and the Death of Humor," said the cover was "exceedingly funny. If people don't get it, screw 'em. It's not a magazine's job to protect presidential candidates from misinterpreted satire." He suggested that the Obama campaign could have gone along with the cover and its ridicule of right-wing portrayals of their candidate, instead of protesting it.

Drilling For Votes And Profits

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President Bush lifted an executive ban on offshore oil and gas drilling yesterday, putting more pressure on Congress to address oil company calls to open more federal land for domestic energy exploration.

Our Rep. Paul Ryan jumped on this as another opportunity to bash Congress again in the third person!

Bonus Video: Watch A U.S. Congressman Shill For Big Oil



According to Ryan, drilling in ANWR alone will generate $200 billion in tax revenue and royalties. Big Oil profits? Off the charts!! But how is that supposed to bring our prices down? American oil will be sold to the highest bidder, and if it’s Americans doing the buying, we will be buying our own resources from OURSELVES, creating a revenue pie to be sliced up by Big Oil, taxes and royalties - royalties the GOP would like not to return to American consumers, but to private companies for research and development. And THIS is IF we’re lucky. Instead oil from ANWR will not fill American gas tanks, but will more likely be sold to foreign interests. You can bet the profit sharing will remain the same. Where are the lower gasoline prices? Well, they're not in Ryan’s plan.

But if this energy crisis is a matter of national urgency as Rep. Ryan seems to insist, he should have been first in line to sponsor legislation to nationalize our energy resources and demand his PAC interests to expand energy production on the 68 million acres they have. He should also pressure Bush to open the Strategic Oil Reserve if he really believes his own rhetoric. Anything less is political posturing.

This Youtube video along with his Roadmap are nothing more than diversions to keep voters and his challengers off-course, occupying their time debating a novel instead of his past history in Congress. Ryan is slick.

But all of this brings me back to our current White House administration and their energy plans for America. Remember.........

Wikipedia Excerpt:
In his second week in office George W. Bush created the task force, officially known as the National Energy Policy Development Group (NEPDG) with Dick Cheney as chairman. This group was supposed to “develop a national energy policy designed to help the private sector, and, as necessary and appropriate, State and local governments, promote dependable, affordable, and environmentally sound production and distribution of energy for the future."

It turns out, America HAS an energy policy. To this day, the details of the Energy Task Force are "secret," unfortunately the results are not. Just because the policy is a complete failure, doesn't mean there wasn't one.

I recall discussing at the kitchen table back in early 2001 how many of us thought “Oh, we have an oilman for president, he’ll take care of our energy needs,” or recall how the invasion of Iraq will eventually help open new supplies and bring gasoline prices DOWN - just like ANWR.Jokes on us.

50 Percent Rule Will Take Away A Hundred

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As if victims of the recent floods need to worry about anything else.

JG Excerpt:
Those properties have “grandfather” status, and they’ll keep it—unless a home sustains damage that’s 50 percent or more of what it’s worth.
The towns and county will use these steps on a case-by-case basis to decide who can salvage their homes and who can’t.

They’re using current labor and material replacement costs of the repair and restoration against the tax assessed value of the home, not the replacement cost value. That’s real fair. Who would argue with that - right?

But you don’t have to have an act of God make you a victim of this misguided and oppressive rule, as many homes in Janesville have fallen by the wrecking ball for no reason other than the local government applying their math to your budget.

In short, the rule applies to homeowners even if they don’t request help from FEMA or are victims of the flood. But if it’s any consolation, you’ll be in plenty of company. Remember, go along to get along....even if you have to move along.

At The Bottom Of Wisconsin's Business Climate

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Thursday’s Janesville Gazette ran the Buchen/WMC written offensive against American values and free speech rights on their opinion page. The article was no different than the one posted in the Capital Times and almost lost my attention except for one small detail. You see, the Gazette opinion page print copy posts a category title at the very top of each written perspective. For instance, their own newspaper editorials are categorized as “Our Views” and letters to the editor are titled “Your Views,” syndicated columnists and others as “Other Views.” Instead of listing the perspective written by the private citizen Buchen under something like “Lobbyist Views” or “Other Views,” the Gazette posted it under “State Views,” thereby giving it a more official and credible stature than it deserved.

Perhaps I’m being a little too sensitive here, but considering the Gazette is owned by a WMC board member, it obviously could have been much worse. They could have titled it “God’s Views.”

Just a few days earlier, the Capital Times editorialized their views on the WMC.

Capital Times Editorial Excerpt:

WMC Winning Race to the bottom
WMC, once a credible group, turned into a destructive entity years ago. In the 1980s, as the traditional link between corporations and the states in which they were located began to fray, WMC abandoned its long-term commitment to growth and progress in Wisconsin. It opted, instead, for strategies that provided short-term rewards to investors, most of whom do not live in the state. Those investors favored "race-to-the-bottom" economic strategies -- in which corporations reject any commitment to workers and communities in order to skip from state to state, and ultimately from country to country, in search of situations that allow them to shift the tax burden to working families, pollute at will, eschew public health and safety regulations, lower wages for workers and cut benefits.

This is consistent with, and expands on the idea that joining the WMC could hinder rather than enhance one's business prospects. Easily one the best newspaper editorials on the WMC. A must-read.

Team Garin Collects 2,800 signatures

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Paulette Garin officially declared her candidacy for the U.S. House of Representatives in Wisconsin’s First Congressional District. Her campaign submitted 2,800 signatures to the State Election Board, 1,800 more than needed to place her name on the fall election ballot.

Garin Blog Excerpt:
2008 is the year we unseat our GOP incumbent in the 1st CD. We will never have a better opportunity to attach him and his voting record to the failure of our president and his failed administration. While it is energizing to bash our GOP incumbent, ultimately, it is not about him. It is about us. It’s about the future. What do we want? What do we value? And what are we willing to sacrifice in order to achieve it? -- Paulette Garin

Read more on Garin's campaign update here.

Also: Garin will be hosting another listening session between 11 AM and 1PM on Monday, July 14, 2008 at the Janesville Senior Center, 69 S. Water Street in Janesville.

Zero-Sum Development Unique To At-Large Planning

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This is a little bit away from my “normal” routine, but I couldn’t help but notice a nice blog posting for a change written by one of the Janesville Gazette journalists making an excellent observation about small stores and other walkable features that usually anchor neighborhoods with a sense of community and identity - are absent from the Janesville cityscape. The writer risks authoritarian wrath by asking the simple question “why?”

JG Excerpt:
What happened to Neighborhood commerce?
We have commercial districts, sure--Milton Avenue, West Court Street, Center Avenue, East Milwaukee Street. But they're mostly made up of strip malls and parking lots, or little clusters of standalone buildings. There are no streets with sidewalks full of walk-up storefronts that give a neighborhood a central focus.

Some would have you believe that TIF district hand-outs, state grants, tax credits, zoning changes, utility perks, water and sewer give-aways, growth plans and government control have nothing to do with it. Yet, most free market “entrepreneurs” refuse to initiate their personal income venture without getting what they can from the local tax base.

The entire north side retail blow-out was city hall planned, zoned and rubber stamped consistent with city "Growth Plans." To think otherwise is absurd. Don’t be fooled, Janesville fueled this with incentives on purpose, not by accident of the free market will.

But I also would say there is more than just a relationship "stretch" between Janesville’s at-large city government and the at-large city planning and development style. There are no truly delineated community districts in Janesville with political representation bargaining for or negotiating on behalf of the district’s residents or neighborhoods. Unfortunately, without someone fighting for neighborhood (district)interests, most of Janesville's developmental growth came at zero-sum. What new growth we gained at the fringes, came at nearly equal cost and expense of what we lost inside. In Janesville, it’s a 90 year-old plan that is defended by those who know better, and by those who don't.

When the at-large city officials and their business insiders want community involvement, they commission for it in a neighborhood meeting at their request, not ours. The residents eagerly jump at their command for a sense of involvement. This “disconnect” gives nearly total control to a handful of city hall individuals who by nature do what they believe is best for the "at-large" interests of the moment, not for the neighborhood and certainly not for those facing consequential negative effects.

Because inherent to this form mirrored by the lack of democratic district representation is precisely what the Gazette writer noticed – the lack of friendly neighborhood stores and gathering places walkable from your home for that irreplaceable sense of associative interaction and identity otherwise known as "community."

Unless you enjoy living near the warm and walkable downtown like I do, you're probably in an unwalkable yet delightfully tacky suburban setting in the city. I'm not knocking it. Many like it that way.

Iraq: Bush Ignoring Their Constitution Too

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Iraq Wants Time-Table For Troop Pull-Out

Time CNN Excerpt:
It was the first time that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has explicitly and publicly called for a withdrawal timetable — an idea opposed by President Bush.

"The goal is to end the presence (of foreign troops)," al-Maliki said

Why would Bush oppose such a plan, when on May 24, 2007, he had this to say……

CBS NEWS Excerpt:
"We are there at the invitation of the Iraqi government. This is a sovereign nation. Twelve million people went to the polls to approve a constitution. It's their government's choice," the president said during a Rose Garden news conference. "If they were to say leave, we would leave."

Obviously, al-Maliki is being polite with this but, what part of GTFO does Bush not understand?

Citizens Are The Watchdogs

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Knowing that the mainstream media has become nothing more than a hired defender and surrogate for government and business, it is small wonder why fact-finding informational Web-based portals have evolved into the "new" knowledge base for involved citizens and political bloggers.

Citizen WatchDogs Excerpt:
"Modern-day technology will reinvent democracy," says Ellen Miller, Executive Director of the Sunlight Foundation, which capitalizes on the Web to shine light on the work of Congress. "It allows people to participate in huge numbers and in ways that will fundamentally challenge power structures, that will demand accountability from their elected officials."

The following group of weblinks provide a solid foundation to begin one's personal journey into the discourse of American politics. These are some my favorites.

Personal Democracy Forum Conference on Technology And Politics
Open Congress Media Mash-Up For The Real Story
Public Mark-Up Transparency In Writing Legislation
Maplight Connecting Political Contributions and Congressional Voting
Open Secrets More on connecting the Money
Gov Track Tracking Congressional Voting Records
Sunlight Foundation Catalyst for greater political transparency
Read The Bill Public Reading Access On Legislation
Open The Government Reduce Government Secrecy
On The Issues Quick Find - Easy to read
Federal Spending Know Where Money Is Wasted
Congresspedia Wiki For Congress

Wisconsin Only
Open Secrets Wisconsin Democracy Campaign
WMC Watch Eye On Chamber Of Commerce
Wheeler Report Compilation Of Daily Political News

"Watchdogs are most effective these days when they're not the only ones barking," says CRP executive director Sheila Krumholz. "Our goal is to get the data in as many hands as possible, to enlist others in making the connections between money's influence on policy."

It’s Official: Ryan Will Challenge Change

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After spending 10 years in Congress reinforcing the status quo and rubberstamping Bush initiatives, Rep. Paul Ryan has officially announced he will be seeking two more years of the same.

Racine Post Excerpt:
Ryan has proposed opening domestic sources of oil to drilling and using the royalties paid by oil companies to the federal government to fund a “Manhattan Project” to develop alternative and renewable fuels to replace oil.

But we need to ask: Is cheap gasoline the goal of Ryan’s plan? If it is, how will the increased supply effect our demand? If lower gasoline prices are not the goal, why increase supply? Why must we first increase our domestic oil supply in order to wean ourselves off of the addiction? How does THAT work?

If we trade our domestic oil reserves for dollars from the highest bidder in the open market, will automakers make a car that can run on useless paper? That is what he is proposing, to sell off our national reserves of energy for the sake of profits under the guise of funding the federal government to create alternative and renewable fuels. Much like his Social Security fix, Rep. Ryan proposes yet larger government solutions driven by an insurgency of corporate legislation.

Ryan, a Republican ideologically aligned with Big Oil directives has spent 10 years in Congress failing to convince his special interests to increase energy production on the 68 million acres of land they have approval to operate on. What is any different now? Does he believe our nation’s energy crisis is a matter of national security OR a matter of earnings security?

The point here is people should be thoroughly fed up with politicians like Paul Ryan. It has become painfully obvious that signing petitions requesting him to change his votes or marching in front of his office protesting his positions have not only become fruitless, at this stage it is unfair to him. Ryan has proven he is a rigidly partisan politician with his own clearly defined agenda and unwilling to change for the sake of his contituents. Why should he betray his own principles? And why should we ask him to now?

The 1st Congressional District office does not belong to Paul Ryan, it belongs to us an it's up to us to make that change. NOW could not be a better time.

Wisconsin Court Decision Emboldens Unscrupulous Sellers

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Capital Times Editorial Excerpt:
In a curious 4-3 decision that was joined by supposed new "traditionalist" Justice Annette Ziegler, the state Supreme Court this week declared that home buyers who were lied to by the sellers can't sue for fraud.

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Even the Wisconsin Realtors Association filed a friend of the court brief in the case, telling the court that to eliminate fraud is "bad for the Wisconsin real estate market and bad for Wisconsin consumers."

DOH! Even if the Capital Times applied some contextual flair to the WRA statement, any state licensed organization that defends NO punitive damages for FRAUD should have their credentials reviewed.

But this is where right-wing business values excels. Their brand of free-market principles allows for profits earned on the knowledge that buyers are traditionally lied to. This Supreme Court decision will only embolden a seller of a problem house to hide defects because the stolen rewards are windfall if they don’t get caught. And who would want to punish that? Everyone knows……it’s the buyer who must beware. Justice (full disclosure) Ziegler and the other three confirmed this fine point of capitalism as unpunishable.

Newspaper Warns Of Union Busting Mistakes

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Wednesday’s Janesville Gazette contained an editorial titled “Union Busting Could Go Down In Flames” that went on to explain not why a union won, but how the Edgerton Fire District lost it’s case against firing three full-time firemen who voted to unionize. The editorial began….

JG Editorial Excerpt:
A sad chapter in Edgerton governance has come to a painfully obvious conclusion.

To fully understand where the Gazette Editorial Staff went with this, you have to first realize that busting a labor union is good business because in their eyes, it supposed to save money……not lose it. Why this case was so sad to the editorial staff was the fact that the Edgerton Fire District wound up paying the three firefighters nearly $600,000 in back pay and attorneys fees. No mention was made that justice prevailed for the three wronged men or that the union representation worked favorably for its members. The editors concluded.....

JG Editorial Excerpt:
But the Edgerton lesson should be clear for all local government officials. Attempts to save money by busting unions could go down in balls of flames and cost more money in the long run.

…..... if it’s not done right! Clearly, the Gazette’s editorial was more of a warning for business owners, managers or city officials against any similar sloppiness and incompetency when planning future union-busting activities.

Note: Gazette Editorial Web Link Not Available

Ten Good Things About $4-up Gasoline

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From Time, 10 Things To Like About $4 Gasoline.

1. Global Jobs Return Home
2. Sprawl Stalls
3. 4-Day Work Weeks
4. Less Pollution
5. More Frugality
6. Fewer Traffic Deaths
7. Cheaper Insurance
8. Less Traffic
9. More Cops On The Beat
10. Less Obesity

These are all good and beneficial. But if we like these things as a result of $4+ gasoline, why would we like them any less at $2 gasoline?