Which Constitution Does Paul Ryan Uphold?

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"So, we used to hear this kind of talk in the past, we're hearing it alot more these days. It's this sort of notion that the Constitution is a living, breathing, fungible document. (that) It’s words are really sort of obsolete, the principles behind it are yesterday, principles, we need new ones. The whole notion comes from this, sort of the fact that they question the original basis for it, which in the Declaration of Independence, it says that our rights come God and nature's God, from nature and God, not from the government."
-- Rep. Paul Ryan, Jan. 6, 2011

This begs the question: Which Constitution does Ryan uphold? The original text, which by the way the republicans deliberately omitted sections from in their phony house exercise to demonstrate their fidelity to it, or the evolved one that has been fungibled with 27 amendments over the course of 220 years?

And, if Ryan and the GOP really believe our rights come from God, why didn't they grandstand a reading of the Holy Bible in the House instead?

But I don't believe what Paul Ryan said should be taken too lightly. If Ryan or other congressmen do not believe in or uphold all the amended sections enacted by a majority of previous congresses and states, they should be removed from office. According to his interpretation, the modern fungibled Constitution he swore to uphold in his oath as a member of the House of Representatives is not the one he claims to believe in today.

Related: Caffeinated Politics GOP Helped Prove Constitution a Living Document

Can Knilans Survive The Kris Kringle Test?

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Remember the movie, "Miracle on 34th Street" where a branch of the federal government, the U.S. Post office, was called into a courtroom and asked to supply evidence for the existence of Santa Claus. They proceeded to dump bags of mail filled with millions of letters on the judge's bench all addressed to a Santa Klaus everyone understood was living - on the North Pole.

Can lawmaker Joe Knilans survive the same test? What is the address the U.S. Post Office recorded and recognizes to deliver Knilans' mail in the 10 days prior to being sworn in? What address does his current Wisconsin driver's license show?

JG Excerpt:
The network (NPR) reported that because Knilans has been sworn into office, the attorney general's office would likely pass on it's findings to Republican leaders in the state assembly to determine if Knilans is qualified to serve.

They mean pass on their duty to uphold the law. Why do we need an attorney general if they're willing to give the decision to a political cartel? Wisconsin is going down the tubes...fast.

I also don't buy into the argument that everyone knew Joe lived outside the 44th district or knew fully what that meant going into election day. It was not general household knowledge and it can be said that those who knew he lived outside the district assumed by the time he was sworn in, that he would be living inside the district. They assumed they were voting for a lawmaker - not a law breaker.

Audio - Andrew Beckett Reports

Capital Times - Declare The 44th vacant, hold special election.

Glenn Beck No Longer Tolerated In New York City

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I saw this report first at Democurmudgeon's Blog about Glenn Beck being tossed out the door in the nation's largest media market, New York City.

WOR (710 AM), one of the city's two biggest talk radio stations, said this morning it is dropping Beck's syndicated show as of Jan. 17 and replacing him with a familiar New York name: Mike Gallagher. "The reason is ratings," said WOR program director Scott Lakefield. "Somewhat to our surprise, the show wasn't getting what we wanted."

This is a strange coincidence. Just last week the Janesville Gazette's tinfoil hatter Dan Conry, was explaining exactly why people like Glenn Beck (or himself), don't last too long in the Big Apple.

Dan Conry Show Excerpt:
"I grew up in a democratic household, I grew up in a very liberal city. I grew up in a very liberal background. You don't exist in the city (NY) that I lived in if you're a bigot, if you're a racist, if you're a homophobe, if you have no tolerance for anybody."

They can be nice and blame it on low ratings but I think Conry's explanation, who by the way has first hand experience on this, is what really is at the root of Beck's departure.

Sound Off Excerpt: Gazette's anonymous column)
On WCLO talk-show host
Two suggestions for him. First, he should investigate the school districts' revenue shortage; second, please stop calling elected officials Irish pals, buddies, partners or my friends.

Yeah, Dan. What's up with that? Much better to use names your army of screaming lunatics can relate to, such as those people, gay people-liberal-drug addict-drunks, left-wing socialists, communists, Marxist morons, union thugs, etc., etc. First of all, the Sound Off comment is a complete farce most likely sent in by one of Conry's supporting interlopers or Conry himself in an attempt to straw man and defuse the outrage he fueled by demonizing and stereotyping anyone who doesn't agree with his right-wing idiot-ology. Others suggesting Conry "tone it down" are merely saying "hey, it's okay to be a morally bankrupt class-war-waging psychopath, we can relate, you just don't have to tell everybody." I say Conry should just be his own natural self.

The only thing worse than a raging bigot at the mic is a phony raging bigot at the mic.

MLK Commemoration At Blackhawk Tech

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Just a little reminder.

The Martin Luther King Commemoration event is this Saturday, January 8, 2011, 3pm – 5pm, at Blackhawk Tech, on Martin Luther King Rd, between Beloit and Janesville.

Legislator's Basement Digs May Not Meet City Code

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UPDATED 2:00 PM

WKOW Excerpt:
A Janesville official said the basement residence of a newly sworn-in state lawmaker will be checked to ensure it meets building codes.

Rep. Joe Knilans (R-Janesville) represents the 44th Assembly District, even though he was unable to vote for himself because Knilans did not live in the district. Knilans said he is leasing a basement room in the 44th District in order to satisfy residency requirements. The basement room is in the Winchester Place home of Knilans' brother, Janesville city council candidate Michael Knilans.

City assessor records describe the basement as unfinished, and Janesville's building and development services manager, Gale Price said he wants to verify the room has required exits, windows and fire safety features.

In this recent Gazette article, Knilans sounds like he's attempting to pre-empt anyone from holding him accountable by reshaping any legitimate inquiries as little more than playing "gotcha" politics.

Complaint Excerpt:
11. That if Knilans is required to vacate his basement residence due to building code deficiencies, he will not have been a legal resident of the 44th Assembly District for ten days prior to taking office as required by Wis. Stat. § 6.02.
12. That the State of Wisconsin has a substantial interest in maintaining the integrity of its public offices and ensuring that representatives to the State Assembly maintain a legal residence in the district they represent.

View entire complaint here.

How The Janesville Gazette Can Help Rock County

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This is absolutely crucial. Start publishing the truth.

Become an "Ambassador of Truth."

Stop rearranging and diluting articles and rewriting titles, headlines and stories to advantage your own social, political or economic agenda. Stop being a marketing firm for the republican party. Stop becoming the front man for political operatives and don't allow yourselves to participate in personal smear campaigns. Instead, expose them. The truth will always win. You are supposed to be a newspaper, isn't it time to start acting like one?

When a Fortune 500 company requests $225,000 in a forgivable loan for "restructuring" from modest Janesville tax payer coffers, investigate for five minutes on your own and report your findings without omission. Tell taxpayers that they are a publicly held company with $460 million in cash on hand at least a few days before the public hearing. It might not have changed the outcome. But tell the truth, so I don't have to.

When a politically active business collective demands that government stay out of their business yet forms an economic development group with strong governmental "connections" to help leverage their private projects - Tell people the truth, so I don't have to.

If government officials make a decision to protect the people or the environment, or don't approve a request for taxpayer assistance to billionaire developers - don't slam them for being "anti-business." Defend government for staying out of businesses way. Promote means-testing and hardship qualifiers for venture capitalists and entrepreneurs like they do for individuals requesting welfare assistance. If they are gaming the system - expose them - even more so if they're wealthy. Start promoting private venture capital and bank loans for for-profit enterprise. Don't mix or confuse pro-business with pro-jobs. They're not the same. Wean yourselves off of government assistance and privileges and become an agent for the free markets. Start telling the truth, so I don't have to.

Stop lying for your own personal, profit and political benefit. Stop using your printing presses to spread misinformation. Start printing the whole truth. Don't worry, the people can handle it. Of course you should apologize profusely for your past transgressions. But that could take months, so we know that won't be forthcoming. But start printing the truth and people will notice it - immediately! People are generally a forgivable lot.

Don't start telling people that Janesville streets are lined with gold - because they're not. Don't start telling people they can catch their daily quota of lunker Walleye every day from the Jackson St. bridge - because they won't. Start telling the truth and the optimism will flow naturally.

Think about it Gazette. It's never too late to make or add another New Year's resolution. Start publishing the truth. Become an Ambassador for Truth.

Note: I'm going to blow my own horn here for the second time in nearly five years. Tell your friends and co-workers about this blog. Get involved in the conversation. Bring up some of the issues and viewpoints I write about when you're with family and friends. Even better, bring up my blog if you strongly disagree with my politics and viewpoints. Prove me wrong. If others are dismissive for partisan or personal reasons, ask them where they draw their opinions from about the local media or politics. You will likely be surprised by their answers. Above all, be respectful. It might not seem like it in today's corporate marketed personal gain liar lobby environment but in the end, the truth always wins.

Greedy Workers Ruining Capitalism In Communist China

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They want better wages.

Some are holding out for increases up to 20%. That'll bring their hourly up to $1.65 an hour range for many.

Crooks and Liars Excerpt:
In China, local minimum-wage standards are rising incrementally as factory workers are increasingly eager to get a piece of the modified-capitalist pie. Beijing just announced a 21-percent boost starting in 2011, following a similar pay hike last summer, and several other provinces, like the trade hub Guangdong, have followed this trend in their recent wage reforms (though this doesn't necessarily mean that the laws will be followed).

Raising the wage floor is partially an effort to stimulate economic growth via consumption. But perhaps more importantly, it reflects the governent's concerns about escalating labor unrest, along with the private sector's anxieties about retaining workers and staving off rebellion.

Remember when senate candidate "Red" Ron Johnson said, "the climate for business investment is far more certain in communist China than it is in the U.S. here." To this day Johnson has absolutely no idea what he's talking about on nearly every subject, but ...he's our senator. Just months after that statement however, Master Lock of Milwaukee is now claiming that the business climate in Wisconsin is far more certain than in Communist China.

JS Online Excerpt:
In a new twist, however, it's China where Master Lock's costs are rising disruptively. The company has responded by pulling production back to Milwaukee, where the manufacturer of iconic padlocks was founded in 1921.

"In order to keep people in factories, they now have to pay them higher wages or they go somewhere else," said David J. Hofmann, director of the InterChina Consulting group in Washington. "This is a new phenomenon."

Salaries for managers and engineers soar even faster. China is spawning a massive urban middle class that wants cars, their own apartments and the wages to pay for them.

What? American business capitalists can't even rely on the oppressive certainty of communist governments to grow their wealth? Is nothing sacred? The apocalypse must be near.

Gazette Dirt Tops Local Stories For 2010

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Here are my picks for the top ten local stories of 2010.

1. COUNTY CONSPIRACY - Easily the top story of 2010 if not the big local story of the last decade has been the long-running smear campaign orchestrated by the Janesville Gazette and a group of county political operatives against Rock County Coroner Jenifer Keach. In what first began with politically motivated complaints to discredit the coroner, the campaign of false accusations by a handful of misguided and misinformed political pawns has grown into a full-blown personal vendetta misinformation media circus conspiracy designed to defraud county voters out of their right to elect their own coroner and by extension to eventually wrest control of all county offices away from the ballot box.  Even to the final day of the year, the Janesville Gazette continues to publish statements and allegations that have been thoroughly debunked by your favorite local blog and other independent sources.

Related reading, Law Firm Mishandled Investigation - Signs Of Conspiracy Abound and After Keach Wins primary, newspaper reveals hate for primaries.

2. SENSELESS MURDERS - I'm not a big fan in making stories about murders, "top stories." I would prefer that the lives of those taken away from us much too early were celebrated to help heal open wounds. But it is with a sense of relief that the two men suspected in Janesville's most notorious murders, James Humphrey and James Koepp, have been caught and are now sitting behind bars. I've made a promise to myself when I started this blog that I would not be commenting on local crime or sex scandals unless it is pertinent to the political, media or educational context of a story. I intend on keeping that promise. A total tragedy for all the families involved.

3. REPUBLICANS WIN - The biggest political news story of the year next to the media conspiracy campaign against Rock county voters has to be the success of republicans sweeping popular democrats out of office at almost every level of government. Despite the "liberals" on the Gazette staff selecting the republican's electoral success as the top third and eight story of the year, they somehow neglected to include pictures of Joe Knilans, Evan Wynn, Ron Johnson or Scott Walker in their "Top Stories of 2010" photo collage they pasted on the front page of Friday's paper. That was strange.

4. ROCK COUNTY ECONOMY - In my book has to be the reality of Rock County's hard hit economy, rapiding declining property values, exploding number of foreclosures and joblessness. 2010 will likely be viewed as the transitional year from hope to the destitution that will settle in, by the end of 2011. The chances for Janesville ever landing a 90-year-long global powerhouse like GM with family supporting union wages are long gone. Unless something major good happens, I fully expect the decline of the local economy and wages to be the number one local story for New Year's Eve 2012.

5. TEACHERS TARGETED AFTER SCHOOL EXPANSION - After helping ramrod a $70 million school expansion down the throats of taxpayers while burying reports of long term enrollment decline, the Janesville Gazette and their drive-by supporters have turned their sights on the districts' school teachers for negotiating modest raises in a 4 year contract. Seven months ago I observed that the Gazette and their political base are closing in on victory after a decades old local "cleansing" campaign against living wages, decent benefits and organized employee unions. The battle is nearly over. In their view, the school teachers collective bargaining power is hopefully the final remnant of any leverage the working and middle class might strive for in Janesville. The more anger they can manufacture against employee wage and benefit leverage - the better. With Walker and republicans now in charge, it's all downhill from here.

6. CHILD POVERTY GROWS - Rock County has the second worst child poverty rate in the state. It stands at 20.2 percent.

7. DEFICIT SPENDING HYPOCRITES - Don't underestimate the power of Paul Ryan's hometown cronies or the ability of the local wealthy business collectives of Forward Janesville or the Rock County 5.0 to push through deficit spending government contracts of up to $1.5 billion for the interstate I39/90 expansion. With all of their corruptible candidates winning office in November, Wisconsin is now essentially a banana republic.

8. LOCAL WAGES DECLINE - Published in August by other news sources but given very little press in the Gazette media monopoly, was the report that the average hourly wage for private sector Janesville employees dropped from $23.27 in 2007 to $18.82 in 2009, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics wages.

9. WEALTHY CAPITALISTS TURN TO GOVERMENT WELFARE - As more small towns and other local communities across America face the prospect of having their modest tax revenue treasuries looted by wealthy venture capitalists and stockholder assisted corporations under the guise of job retention or creation, none have hit home as well as the time when W.W. Grainger, with $460 million in cash on hand, requested a forgivable loan of $225,000 for "restructuring" from Janesville TIF surplus funds.
Watch City Gripped By Fear Market Enterprise

10. WCLO STOOGE - I wasn't going to include this at first, but Dan Conry, Bliss Com's political radio stooge who replaced Stan Milam, has recently been making huge strides polarizing the Janesville community by cheap shotting a local candidate for non-partisan office, in Glenn Beck style. Conry regularly labels and demonizes left-wing democrats, progressives and liberals or just about anybody who disagrees with him as a Socialist or Communist and often denigrates himself in weird babbling tirades to justify denigrating his guests or callers. Expect this story to grow in the coming weeks.