If Waiting For CAFE - It's Too Late

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Wednesday’s Janesville Gazette posted an article in their editorial slot written by the Dallas Morning News about the consequences of post peak-oil.

Over a Barrel Excerpt:
"I am sorry to say this, but we are headed toward really bad days," a prominent energy economist told Time magazine last week. That was no alarmist talking. It was Fatih Birol, the chief economist for the International Energy Agency, an oil industry organization whose annual World Energy Outlook report is widely considered a reliable indicator of petroleum supplies.

This was a reasonable perspective, but considering that the high price of oil and not an actual physical shortage of it prompted this warning, I was left with the notion that this message was just another shot at expanding domestic oil drilling. Which is something I believe would have zero impact on lowering prices.

But more importantly, if the Gazette editors, their Janesville readers, the local UAW including corporate GM give this short message any real urgency, and not the speculation it may be built on, they had better not wait for the democratic Congress or Sen. Russ Feingold to bully them with CAFE standards into saving themselves - by then it'll be too late.

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Some Amusing Sound Offs

JG Sound Off:
On Smokers: To all Wisconsin smokers, as of Jan.1, stop buying lottery tickets. That will help offset the tax increase we unfairly have to pay. Lets not help out others who don’t care that we’re being extorted and harassed. -- anonymous

Let me get this straight. You want cigarette smoking lottery ticket buyers who can’t break their nicotine addiction to suddenly find the willpower to stop their gambling habit? – just so you don’t help others. Oh, well of course!

JG Sound Off:
On City Budget: Let’s review; city faces $1 million dollar budget shortfall. Reported in the Gazette, city puts $1 million in escrow for aquatics facility, which only a few people want, I might add. Mr. Scheiffer, do any idea lights go on? -- anonymous

According to some in Janesville, you’re taking it out of context. Haven’t you had the time to sit down and educate yourself by watching the Janesville budget hearings and learning sessions televised on public access JA-12? Oh, I’m sorry – I forgot. The Janesville city council went out of their way to deny those prying contextual cameras and microphones into the room. If they say you have it all wrong – thank them.

JG Sound Off:
On Christianson Column: Brian Christianson’s sinister disrespect and sarcastic attitude (Page 8A, Nov. 5) are disgusting. – anonymous

I actually feel slighted by this. I don’t know about the disrespectful part, but the sinister sarcasm and the disgust are nearly complimentary around here and something I thought I had locked down all to myself.

Our World Bought Out By AT&T

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State politicians including democrats(who woulda thunk it) have not only failed to mount a challenge to AT&T’s video policies on behalf of Wisconsin consumers, they avoided any systematic changes that would have protected the public from service and billing abuse. The list of cable consumer sell-out legislators is as follows.These legislators fought on behalf of AT&T to reject the following consumer protecting provisions.

WAPC Excerpt:
· Required video providers to maintain customer support call centers in Wisconsin. (JOBS)

· Required incumbent cable operators to maintain their local franchises until a competitor arrives so that enforceable consumer protections would remain in place where there are monopolies.

· Required a 10-year limit on the length of state-issued franchises (the law passed grants licenses in perpetuity with the right to transfer to any company without state review).

· Required video providers to follow local ordinances regarding the placement of TV equipment (AT&T's "refrigerator boxes") in city rights-of-way if the location of that equipment would have a negative effect on nearby property values.

· Required continuing free cable TV service to schools and public buildings.

It should be noted that sell-outs Lehman and Sullivan crossed over to support the following defeated PEG protections.

SA4 – Would have allowed municipalities with access channels to collect up to a 1% PEG fee on video revenue to support local programming and would have required local cable providers to honor PEG support provisions in local agreements until expiration.

SA10 – Would have allowed PEG stations to earn revenue through ads.

SA16 – Would have required PEG channels to be carried on the local broadcast tier, companies to pay the cost of converting the standard PEG signal to their format, and would have required PEG channels to be carried at the same technical quality as other commercial channels.

It's heading for the Governor and it seems like there's no reason for him to veto the will of the legislature unless he can apply some fancy scalpel incisions. AT&T must be laughing all the way to the bank - what a disgrace.

Two ways to contact the Governor.
Governor's office: 608-266-1212
E-mail: Governor Jim Doyle (e-mail generator) http://www.wisgov.state.wi.us/contact.asp

Competition At The Core Of High Prices?

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The editor at the Beloit Daily News believes government is not responsive to the peoples needs. To that I can agree, but the needs he mentions are high price and cost problems that have snowballed as the consequences of the drive to create wealth free of government interference.

HERE'S WHAT he thinks may turn voters' heads for 2008:

Election 2008: They still don’t get it:
* The price of gasoline and household energy.

* Rising prices for groceries, airline tickets and all the other items tied to energy/transportation costs.

* Continued stagnation in wages for workers. And those demoralizing frequent reports about how the super-rich are enjoying the best times ever.

* The migration of manufacturing jobs to other countries.

* The soaring price of sending a kid to college.

* The persistent whining for bigger government budgets, and spending that consistently rises at above-inflation rates.

* The pain of mortgage payers as adjustable rates set higher.

* Declining values for home sellers.

* Debt-ridden Americans who no longer can use their homes as ATM machines.

* The government's duplicitous performance and unwillingness to seal the borders.

* And, perhaps most important, the growing cynicism as Americans sense the politicians don't really care about them, that the political class is, (1) in it for themselves, and (2) a more-or-less wholly owned subsidiary of the rich and powerful.

I would have thought nothing of this editorial had I just not finished reading their take on Wisconsin's legislative action pertaining to the cable competition act.

Nowhere in the list of voter's concerns is the mention of Social Security, the Iraq War or health care, things the government and politicians can actually do something about.

According to the editorial, it’s all about high prices and costs in energy, food, outsourcing, education, home values, debt and airline tickets!! – consumer goods and business activities running unfettered according to faux free-enterprise market principles supported at it's core by none other than competition. Competition, the key word and ingredient espoused by newspaper editors, economic analysts and other "educated" capitalists as the golden road to lower prices. You can't have it both ways.

But after reading this, I can only guess the editor believes the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer is not a problem, it's just those damn demoralizing reports that report it.

Other than restoring America's respect and trust throughout the world, particularly in the middle-east and South America, I don't know what any presidential candidate can do to lower market prices.

This editorial message can't be serious if the author really believes government should intervene in free enterprise to lower prices - so long as it doesn't involve Social Security, health care or taxes.

Rip Rap

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First there was this headline last week.
Army has record low of new recruits
Congress has failed to bring our troops home and Bush and Cheney have not been impeached. The Army has record low level of new recruits – Congress has record low ratings, even lower than Bush. No relationship?

Then this.

Military lowering standards Again. Just what we need. Why don't they raise the standards and allow only volunteers from colleges and universities instead of recruiting crackheads willing to trade their weapon for the next fix?

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Bush: Obstructing Democracy
Bush’s approval rating is down to 24%. He’s doing this all by himself. Congress is down to 11% approval, but nearly half of Congress is Republican.
There's only two ways congressional performance will improve. One, vote out the Republicans or number two, over-ride Bush obstructionist vetoes. Either way, I guarantee congressional approval ratings will go up.

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Start Demolishing Homes
Greenspan says to cut home inventories. Good ol' supply and demand free-market principles here. Some actually believe no one would deliberately manipulate supply in the name of profits. While other knuckle-heads think it ain't a free market unless you are free to manipulate.

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Two Debates I'd like to see

Mike Gravel vs John McCain - These two loons would provide the most entertainment by far out of all the candidates. No script needed.

Dennis Kucinich vs Ron Paul - Kucinich is one of my favorites and Paul seems to have his head on straight about Bush and the Iraq war, although his tax policy is all wrong. These two would provide a good old fashioned issue oriented debate. So far, I've got the Democratic field down to five - Edwards, Obama, Kucinich and Clinton......and the 800 lb. Al Gor-illa.

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Dog Park Owners Upset
You can read the story here, or just take my word for it and sign the petition....... please....pretty please.

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I’ve been hearing enough about whether or not the “gender card” will be an issue during the presidential campaign, that if it wasn’t – it is now.

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9-11 An Inside Job?
As much as I criticize the inept MSM and the Bush Administration, I never believed 9/11 was an “inside job” although the collapse of WTC Building No. 7 did seem suspicious. Here’s a Webpage that seems to make one of the better cases against the findings of the 9/11 Commission Report. It's not your average "truther" site.

I don’t have a hard time believing what happened on 9-11, but what I find nearly as nauseating was our government's reaction to it under the misguidance of George W. Bush - that remains extremely difficult to accept.

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Peak Oil and the long emergency?
Worry about the cause to high oil prices and the worthless dollar? Forget all that, we got something far more pressing to worry about going into the final year of - Peak Bush!

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Last week, Phony Phox News claimed Rudy Guiliani was so tough on crime the mob refused to “rub him out.”
Rudy tough on crime
Ruthless Rudy.....just too funny.

The truth was, three out of five NY crime mob bosses thought Rudy was just soft enough that it's better for them he is kept alive.

School Rainy Day Fund Used For Taxpayer Storm

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I've been deliberately quiet on Janesville teacher negotiations for a couple of months now, but this weekend's Gazette editorials were just too good too ignore.

JG Editorial excerpt:
And, as board member Bill Sodemann noted Monday, voters in November did say “Yes, charge it to me.”

Sodemann was a little more than half-right. He must have forgot about the large minority of nearly 10,000 residents (including myself) who thought the referendum was excessive. Even though this referendum passed and Sodemann was the only school board member at the time defending taxpayers with more choices for a leaner and more balanced referendum, people have short memories soon after they sign up for a balloon mortgage.

JG Sound Off Excerpt:
Thumbs down to Bill Sodemann, especially to the remarks of, “They did say, “Yes, charge it to me” on the school referendum of $70 million. No more referendums should be voted on from now on. If so, charge it to Bill Sodemann. -- anonymous

I don’t blame this person, and it’s not often I would bother to defend a card carrying Republican like Sodemann but he had little to do with the referendum passage, neither did Cullen or Rashkin, those two weren’t on the board at the time. Look at the others, they're the ones who pushed for increasing the school tax burden exclusive from benefiting the teachers.

But he is still a member of the board and people expect the brokers (school board) including the I told you so Sodemann, to continue to work on their behalf to lower the charge card bill.

I now wonder how many teachers would have supported the frilly school expansion had they known they would be paying considerably more than the average taxpayer to pay for it.

"Who would have known that the school “rainy day” fund the teachers helped build through small but accumulating sacrifices over the years would actually be used not for school budget and operational expenses but as a taxpayer rebate fund used to alleviate a fiscal crisis partially inflated by the referendum they supported?"

The Janesville Gazette only rubs salt into the wound with their apparent satisfaction that the balance fund has not been used for the sake of those overpaid teachers.

JG Editorial Excerpt:
But that wouldn’t be wise. Using that money to pad pay would only compound the problem during the next contract, when teachers will want still higher pay. Soon, the fund would be depleted.

We all know that teachers, their living expenses and health care are immune to inflation, much better to reduce the taxpayer anticipated $103 tax increase down to $74. That's a whopping $29 annual savings!

JG Editorial Excerpt:
Despite public claims otherwise, we sense that JEA leaders really want mediation. That way, they can tell members they went as far as they could to get the best possible deal.

Barf! You know something, the Gazette editors are pulling the same crap they did on Judy Robson. No matter what happens at this late stage in the negotiations, blame those (union) leaders because although they did not request mediation, the other guys (school board) did, they (JEA) must be "ineffective" because it went this far.

The Gazette, through their editorial power and anonymous column are able to transform the people who voted for increasing taxes onto themselves suddenly into a group of angry tax stingy citizens who say enough is enough, now that the teachers contract is in the picture. These are very common distortions used to divide teacher support and then conquer.

In addition, had Robson and her democratic colleagues not fought off the Gazette’s GOP state assembly budget back in July, schools would have gotten millions less in state aid. Instead Robson hung in there and became "ineffective" trying to pad that pay.

Doyle Blinked - Robson Blamed

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The article in Saturday’s Janesville Gazette by Stan Milam titled “How will new leader change Senate?” was just more proof of both the partisan and gender gap that still exists in American politics. Milam’s article spent little time on the titled subject, finally stretching 3 sentences of the final paragraph about expectations from the new majority leader Decker, and spent most of the story misjudging and bashing former majority leader Judy Robson.

Spooner Advocate Attribution Excerpt:
The gender gap has also been played. Robson’s ouster has been compared to that of former Senate Majority Leader Mary Panzer, a West Bend Republican. That’s a twisted comparison.

But two dominant features of this twisted comparison are undeniable. One, they were both unfairly “targeted” by their party and number two, they’re both women. But there's a third, the inability to recognize leadership. But even if we ignore that, Milam says….. .

Spooner Advocate Attribution Excerpt:
Robson was sent packing as a direct result of her performance as majority leader. Panzer was targeted by her own party and voted out of office. She lost her leadership post because she was no longer senator.

This is confusing, I would guess Milam is attempting to prove Robson and Panzer were targeted for the same reasons, their performance? or … for other reasons? Because, Milam goes further….

Spooner Advocate Attribution Excerpt:
Panzer, a moderate, was called out by Milwaukee talk show hosts Charlie Sykes and Mark Belling in a relentless attack surrounding her inability to force a vote on TABOR….Panzer could have called the vote, but the measure would have failed anyways.

Sure, when party members listen to vicious talk-radio whack jobs and certifiable nuts for guidance, this is exactly what you get, clear and intelligent decision making.

Spooner Advocate Attribution Excerpt:
Hard-core GOP conservatives could have cared less if the measure passed. They wanted a roll call to identify RINOS – Republicans in name only.

The GOP listened to those whack jobs and used her refusal to bring up the irrelevant TABOR to a useless vote as an inability to perform, when just the opposite was true. But now it is a full blown war based on internal partisanship targeting Panzer’s moderation which in this case is just another word for bi-partisanship, something Republicans claim democrats lack. Very much just like Robson. Remember, Robson has been accused of giving up too much.

And this is where clueless partisans like GOP newspaper editors across the state have called Robson too liberal, ineffective and not a leader. Their attacks on her are purely ideological and an attempt to cover up their own party’s misleadership, incompetence and utter failure to negotiate in good faith. Robson and Panzer, dislodged from leadership because of performance, ineffectiveness or too moderate? They want you to think that.

Robson’s high-performance ability to cross the partisan gap put the GOP in a position they never wanted to see and were incapable of dealing with, the uncomfortable position to actually negotiate. And because Huebsch and his rag-tag team of assembly republicans couldn’t cross the gender gap either, they simply walked out. Unfortunately, all of this was misread by some of Robson’s colleagues, they viewed Huebsch’s incompetence as strength and figured surely, there must be something wrong with us.

Hostage takers only have one thing on their side, time to do nothing, and the state assembly used it to an advantage once they realized a third party, Jim Doyle was willing to step in. This is one area where State Democrats should have suggested that the Guv butt out. But they didn’t. Doyle blinked and the rest is history.

There are few in Wisconsin politics more at the top of the game, with more experience, moderation and leadership than Judy Robson. I'm not taking anything away from Decker but, state democrats made a mistake displacing her from the leadership role, they are best wise to keep her close.

Read Robson: Much To Be Proud Of
The Janeville Gazette always gets in a word to push their twisted agenda, titled this article by Robson as “Robson Remains Proud Of Her Record” assuming you swallowed their misinformation campaign against her, the Gazette would like you to believe she still remains proud, as if she did something wrong and defiantly stands against their wisdom. The Gazette pulls this stunt quite often and is actually very good at these soft distortions.

When Pork Spending Becomes Seed Sowing

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When I first heard the Wisconsin Assembly (GOP) slipped a $4 million soybean crusher for Rep. Brett Davis’s (R) district into their tightly wound and lean budget, I thought the grant was just another hand-out to some deep-pocketed developer to pay for an actual structure or machine. Stupid me! According to the Janesville Gazette, the $4 million is meant to be used for “studies.”

JG Editorial Excerpt:
Landmark has committed to matching the grant for engineering and final project studies.

Oh, well that’s different.

JG Editorial Excerpt:
When do “pet projects” have merit? The simplistic answer is when they are in your back yard.

Those taxpayer protecting conservatives over at the Gazette believe “bridges to nowhere” are bad, unless of course the taxpayers are paying for a study to build one in their own backyard.

GOP: Trick Or Treat Year Around

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Fed Cuts Interest Rate In Effort To Jump-Start Booming Economy.