Need An Idea For A Christmas Present?

by capper

Just in time for Christmas, a zoo in Illinois has the perfect gift who has everything: Designer reindeer poop:

The Christmas ornaments for sale at the Miller Park Zoo's gift shop are partly manufactured by reindeer. Honest!

Staffers make decorations out of droppings from the zoo's two reindeer, Ealu and Rika. The droppings are dried, then clear-coated and either painted or rolled in glitter.

Zoo marketing director Susie Ohley has named the products "magical reindeer gem ornaments," and each comes with a label of authenticity. They cost $5 at the zoo gift shop.

Staffer Katie Buydos, who makes jewelry as a hobby, donated wire and beads, saying, "Susie asked me to bring some creativity to the table."

It would also make the perfect gift for the would be martyr in your family (we all have at least one). Imagine how happy the martyr would be going back to work or school after the holidays and seeing his or her friends. I can just imagine the conversation:

Martyr: So, how was your Christmas?

Coworker 1: Oh, it was wonderful! I got a lovely sweater and a new Playstation. There was hardly any blood on them at all!

Coworker 2: Meh. It was OK. I got some socks and a wallet. But the food was good. How was yours?

Martyr: Mine? Oh, sheesh, I got sh*t from my family again.

WPRI: Push Poll Gives Wanted Results

by capper

Today, the WPRI issued a statement indicating that a (push) poll that they took showed that 73% of Wisconsin residents oppose a tax increase on businesses.

In their release, they included a pdf of their results with their question, which was:

Business profits are down throughout Wisconsin and many businesses are reducing their workforce. In this environment should state lawmakers increase the tax on businesses?

Shockingly, most people said no. Of course, anytime anyone asks a question about raising taxes, the answer will be no.

What they don't do is provide all the information a person would need to make a reasoned decision.

Little things, John Michlig of Sprawled Out tells us, like the fact that most businesses don't pay taxes already, and that the tax burden being paid by businesses has been in steady decline. Or the fact that most businesses are already receiving numerous breaks from the government in the forms of TIFs, land grants, interest free loans, etc.

WPRI also fails to mention that as business taxes have been declining, the taxes paid by property tax payers have skyrocketed.

I bet they would receive a whole different answer if they asked the more accurate question of:

Do you think that they should raise the taxes on businesses or on property owners?

Michael Rosen, at Mid Coast Views, has an interesting post up about what economic measures due for each dollar put into it. The chart he has in his post shows that giving big tax breaks to companies and to the wealthy actually cost more than doing something like investing it into repairing the infrastructure. These same tax break cost more than they return to the economy:

Zandi’s analysis also shows what doesn’t work as stimulus: a variety of tax breaks for corporations and wealthy individuals which cost over twice as much as they return to the economy. Yet, these are the very breaks that Congressman Ryan and President Bush support.

I have a suggestion for WPRI's next survey. Maybe they could take a poll about whether people think, in this troubled economic time, that property tax payers and personal income tax payers should have their taxes raised to pay for wealthy CEOs.

Thankful

by folkbum

Among many, many other things, I am thankful that enough of you, dear readers, visit, read, comment, argue, [HEARTFELT SENTIMENT REDACTED TO APPEASE THE GOOGLEBOT GODS], post and riposte to make doing this for the last almost-six-years-now worthwhile.

Ironically, I will not think of you at all for the next couple of days, while I enjoy family, food, and some much-needed rest.

... adding, I'm also thankful for this.

Start the holiday season, Dad29 style!

by folkbum

Laugh it up with a good old-fashioned hooker joke (though it's the lawyer getting screwed) and guffaw your way through a genocide one-liner! Sure to be a crowd-pleaser when the fam gathers for turkey and trimmings tomorrow!

The ABC's of Market Collapse

By Keith R. Schmitz

Though the part and pieces about the current financial collapse have been swirling around the media for some time, Thomas Friedman does a good job of cogently laying out the progression of events, in this case explaining why the smartest guys in the room weren't working at Citigroup (the fine folks who currently holds my mortgage):

So many people were in on it: People who had no business buying a home, with nothing down and nothing to pay for two years; people who had no business pushing such mortgages, but made fortunes doing so; people who had no business bundling those loans into securities and selling them to third parties, as if they were AAA bonds, but made fortunes doing so; people who had no business rating those loans as AAA, but made a fortunes doing so; and people who had no business buying those bonds and putting them on their balance sheets so they could earn a little better yield, but made fortunes doing so.

I would be less hard on the first part of this conga line and was just an excuse to kick off the rest of the action, but it is obvious that this house of cards fell under the weight of greed and incompetence and lack of rules and regulations.

Alexander Orlowski: The Aftermath

by capper

Over the last two days, I've written of the life and the way-too-early death of Alexander Orlowski, an inmate who died from an accidental drug overdose at the House of Correction.

So what happens now?

As I mentioned yesterday, the Alexander's parents, Gary and Patti Orlowski, have a claim against the county, as a precursor to a lawsuit for the County's negligence in ensuring his safety. County Board Supervisor Mark Borkowski, whose district includes the HOC, feels that the Orlowskis have a pretty good chance of winning any lawsuit.

The Orlowskis realize that a lawsuit won't bring their son back. But they also feel that those responsible should be held to some sort of accountability.

The inmate that "sold" the Methadone to Alexander, Samuel Fitzpatrick, is facing charges of reckless homicide, under the Len Bias Law.

Despite a continuous series of crises at the House of Correction, including massive overtime payments due to being excessively short staffed, Alexander's death, and a damning audit done by the feds, Superintendent Ron Malone was fully endorsed by County Executive Scott Walker for reappointment after the elections this spring. After a lot of argument and delay, and with a lot of lobbying by Walker and his Chief of Staff Tom Nardelli, the County Board finally affirmed the reappointment.

All of this, only to have Walker throw Malone under the bus in the 2009 budget proposal, in which the County has decided to take the House of Correction, the Community Correctional Center, and the work release program and put it under the auspices of the Sheriff's Office.

Supervisor Borkowski told me that he has problems with the way that Walker and Nardelli so strongly commended Malone for supposedly turning around the HOC after the audit, only to turn on him months later with the budget proposal. The cynical side of me believes that Walker was planning for a long time to dump Malone, and thought it better to just keep him for a few more months than to put someone else in his place until he could foist the whole mess onto Clarke. I also recall Supervisor John Weishan arguing against the transfer of the HOC, stating that it would only allow Walker to walk away from the mess he created, without holding him accountable.

Clarke wasted no time and went down there to check things out. It does not appear that Malone did a lot to fix things after all, if one can believe Clark that is. His reputation appears pretty questionable as of late. I do know from inside sources that Clarke has already kicked Malone out of his own office and took it as his own.

It is questionable on what kind of effect that this change will have on things. Vanessa Allen of the Public Policy Forum had written a post a while ago, raising some interesting questions on how this might effect sentences issued by judges and other issues.

Borkowski told me that while he has no confidence in the current administration, he is not so sure that Clarke will actually improve things. He described the switch as being a panacea to the HOC's woes, but thinks it could turn out to be more of a placebo.

Borkowski goes on to point out that there might be some strife at the HOC between the COs and the Sheriff. One must concur when they think of all the lawsuits that were filed by the deputies' union. Clarke lost almost every one of them to boot.

It is also important to remember that Clark, about three or four years ago, lost a major lawsuit alleging that the Sheriff's Office and the Milwaukee County Jail were infringing on people's rights due to filthy living conditions and extraordinarily long waits, just to get booked. Clarke's incompetence cost taxpayers millions of dollars on that one alone.

For what it's worth, I have mixed feelings about the change.

Part of me agrees that it is only logical that the Sheriff's Office and the HOC be combined, since their work is already fairly symbiotic. It should help things go smoother and eliminate a level of unnecessary bureaucracy.

I do have concerns with putting the Sheriff in charge of 48% of the tax levy. Given his propensity of getting sued and losing those lawsuits, is it really wise to give him a chance to pick up even more lawsuits and lose more of our tax money?

Overall, I do think that while it is unfortunate that Walker will again get off without being held responsible for the disaster he created at HOC, that the merger is a good thing. It just points out that we need to get Walker and Clarke out of office, and put in people with at least some rudimentary understanding of what's going on and how to do things the proper way. And the sooner we do that, the better we will all be for it.

Third Verse, Same as the First

by folkbum

The headline campaign next spring for Wisconsin Supreme Court. Again. And, again, Tom Foley is the man to see thereabout. There seems little doubt that the script for Judge Randy Koschnick will be the same, mostly, as that pursued by now-Justices Ziegler and Gableman. No doubt there will be back-up from the Greek chorus that is WMC.

One of these days we'll get an original campaign.

The Death of Alexander Orlowski

by capper

Yesterday, I told the gentle reader about the life of Alexander Orlowski, a young man that died while incarcerated at the House of Correction.

But the question now is this: How was Alexander allowed to die? The long answer short is that he was caught in the perfect storm of personal problems, bureaucratic incompetency and political influences.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported in April 2008 that another inmate, Samuel M. Fitzpatrick, sold some methadone pills to Alexander, who eventually overdosed on these pills. The article goes on to mention that Alexander and Fitzpatrick were both drug addicts, but does little else to give the reader any further in-depth look at why Alexander died.

As I mentioned yesterday, Alexander was a drug addict. To complicate the matter, he also had Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. This meant that Alexander really never had a chance to fight his addiction unless he had some enforced sobriety and a lot of support.

Due to his addiction and mental illness, Alexander was often in trouble with the law. He was caught a number of times burglarizing houses and businesses to pay for his habit. He has a criminal history that includes burglary, breaking and entering, trespassing, resisting arrest and possession of a controlled substance.

When he was finally sentenced to the House of Correction, his parents report that they actually felt relief. They thought that at least they knew where he was, and that he would be relatively safe, as opposed to be out on the streets somewhere, doing God knows what, to support his habit.

At first, the Orlowskis were correct. Alexander responded well to the forced sobriety. He became more of his old self and would often write or call home. He became more focused on improving his life and earned his GED just weeks before he died. He kept telling his parents that he missed them and couldn't wait to get home. He asked them to delay Christmas until he came home.

Alexander, due to going to school, and then getting a job in the kitchen, was put into a dorm know as Z-2, or Zebra 2. When I worked at the HOC, I worked in that dorm. It was one of the hardest dorms to work in. Most dorms at HOC are large rooms where the correction officer would have an unobstructed view of almost the entire dorm. Z-2 is different than the rest. It is two smaller rooms divided by a hallway. The dayroom is behind the officer, instead of in front of him or her. The shower is off the dayroom and cannot be seen from the desk at all. Even if the officer was constantly patrolling the entire dorm, there would be plenty of opportunity for the inmates to get into all sorts of mischief. On top of it all, at night, when the main lights are off, it is very dim and difficult to see.

When I worked there, all but the most strictly controlled medications were kept in a locked footlocker and the officer was responsible to administer the medications. I believe that since I worked there, the policy was changed and a nurse was supposed to administer the medications, but rarely with the officer there to help supervise to make sure the inmate took the medicine, and didn't palm it or cheek it. Due to the bustle, the poor supervision and the dimness, it would still be easy for an inmate to cache his medication, either for later use, or more commonly, to sell for canteen (chips, soda, candy, etc.)

When the powers that be transferred Fitzpatrick into Z-2, Alexander was doomed. According to what the Orlowskis learned from the investigation, Fitzpatrick was known to deal his medication. As the paper reported, Fitzpatrick somehow was able to get a doctor to prescribe a large dose of Methadone. Methadone is commonly used to treat heroin withdrawal, but has become the drug of choice to replace Oxycontin as a pain reliever. Oxycontin was replaced due to its high demand as a way to get high among inmates.

Fitzpatrick was being given 14 tablets of Methadone, twice a day. It makes me wonder if there was any safety mechanism in place for medication review. While I am not a doctor, that seems like an unusually large amount of Methadone to give anyone, just for pain.

Anyway, it did not take long for Fitzpatrick to declare himself open for business and found a more than willing customer in Alexander. Likewise, it did not take Alexander long to build up a supply for himself. A supply large enough to turn out to be lethal.

On the day that Alexander died, he was supposed to get up for work, but when the officer went to wake him, he sat up, then quickly fell back in his cot and back to sleep. The officer sent an alternative in his place. Later that morning, Alexander was snoring loudly enough to have other inmates complain to the officer, and still nothing was done. Some even expressed concern that something was wrong with Alexander, but it still took hours before the officer called for medical help to come to the dorm.

Without being privy to the actual investigation reports, or talking to those that were there, I am hesitant to state definitively why there was such a long delay in summoning help. The officer might have thought that Alexander was malingering, wanting to take the holiday off from work. Maybe the officer wasn't trained very well. Maybe the officer was just not a good officer. We all work in fields where some people are better at their jobs, and some are worse at them. At that time, due to Scott Walker's budget cuts, officers were being forced to work many hours of overtime, and maybe the officer was just extremely tired and not performing his duties as he should have.

I don't know if we will ever know for sure what else happened that night. Fitzpatrick is scheduled to go to trial in January, and maybe some answers will come out then.

What I do know is that not only did the HOC not give the necessary care and supervision to Alexander was alive, they dropped the ball after his death.

The Orlowskis told me that they were notified of Alexander's death by a detective with the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office. Then they heard nothing again until the detective came back a few weeks later with Alexander's personal effects. Not once did they hear from Ron Malone, the superintendent of the HOC. Nor did they hear from any of the assistant superintendents or any other staff member of the HOC. Nor did any of these people return their phone calls.

Nor did they hear from Scott Walker, who is Ron Malone's boss.

County Board Supervisor Mark Borkowski, whose district includes the HOC, did talk to me about this case. He told me that he felt terrible about what happened to Alexander, but that "the damage was done and no magic will bring him back." He did add that if this is "how the County deals with grieving parents, he is ashamed to part of it."

The Orlowskis did hear from the inmates. Many of the inmates called and wrote to the Orlowskis. The told them how Alexander was respected among the others, not only for his art talents, but because he was just a likable kid. They told them how they tried to get help for Alexander, but had their efforts rebuffed by the correction officer.

Were the inmate lying to the Orlowski, just to make themselves look better or to assuage their own feelings of guilt? Maybe. Or maybe they felt that Alexander was definitely treated unjustly, and wanted someone to know. Either way, it is not often that inmates will go to that kind of effort for another inmate. That alone tells me that Alexander was one of those people that could reach out and affect people, no matter who they were.

The Orlowskis have filed a claim against the county, stating that "the county was grossly negligent in the hiring, training and supervision of employees at the House of Correction." A claim is the precursor to a lawsuit. Borkowski told me that from what he has learned of this case, he thinks that they have strong grounds and a good chance of winning.

Tomorrow, we will look at the future of the HOC, and what some pending changes could mean.

US Citizen Jailed in Israel, Condemns Gaza Blockade

Update: BBC: One Gaza border crossing opened

Kidnappings, killings, terrorism, piracy, employment of the tools of militarism; all of this is kind of a downer after the election of president-elect Obama.

Bear in mind that these deplorable actions described and committed against real, living human beings are being done by arguably America's closest ally: Israel.

[Pictured above is Mairead Corrigan-Maguire, Nobel peace prize laureate, who was part of the recent breaking of the siege of Gaza, by the Free Gaza movement Ship Dignity.]

It's a story attracting scant attention in the American press, as Israel's blockade of over one million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip continues obstructing food, fuel and other humanitarian supplies from entering an area Israel decided to cordon off from the world.

Darlene Wallach, an American peace activist, remains jailed in the Masiyahu Prison near Tel Aviv, arrested days ago for fishing off the shores of the Gaza coast that Israel denies is under blockade.

The Free Gaza Movement, a group dedicated to breaking "the siege of Gaza .... (and raising) international awareness about the prison-like closure of the Gaza Strip, ... (and upholding) Palestine's right to welcome internationals as visitors, human rights observers, humanitarian aid workers, (and) journalists," maintains its mission to break the blockade and bring attention to the routine Israeli kidnappings, killings, and terrorism of innocent Palestinians and international human rights activists.

Israel is currently blocking all journalists from entering Gaza, a move that has drawn the condemnation of free speech and free press organizations. See Foreign Reporters’ Group Fights Israeli Prohibition on Entering Gaza (NYT).

Unlike many of the huge problems facing the incoming Obama administration, this problem has an easy solution: Halt the billions in annual subsidies to Israel unless it stops its militaristic enterprise in the occupied territories.

As an anonymous writer commenting on Israeli human rights violations wrote a few years back: ‘Israel cannot be half-humanistic and half fascist.”

Democracy Now's Amy Goodman reports:

McIlheran Watch: Moron Talk Radio

by folkbum

Saturday morning at 8:25 AM, the now-ritualistic email from Milwaukee Journal Sentinel "right-wing guy" Patrick McIlheran shows up telling me his Sunday column will be devoted to talk radio's panic over the "fairness doctrine." The fairness doctrine, for those thankfully oblivious to recent right-wing blather, was the rule governing the public airwaves suggesting that when one side of an issue dominates broadcast opinion, the other side ought to be allowed a rebuttal. The policy was repealed decades ago.

The idea frightens talk radio radio hosts, as well as it should, since by the hosts' own admission, they often will purposely keep the objects of their attack off the air even when the victims try to call in and offer their side of the argument.

However, the fairness doctrine is not coming back. President-elect Barack Obama does not support it. There are no bills pending in Congress, which, frankly, has better things to do. TNR reporter Marin Cogan couldn't find anyone willing to go on or off record suggesting the doctrine's return is anything but fantasy. The last time anyone introduced the idea, it barely got out of draft form. It's just not going to happen.

But that hasn't stopped the right from believing it will--just as they seem to believe that Barack Obama is coming for their guns.

I didn't care about the column when I got the email, and didn't even pay attention enough to read it. But McIlheran followed up on his column with a blog post that picked up on the line from his column that really explains everything. See if you can spot it:

This, as Brian C. Anderson told me, would kill talk radio as we know it [. . .]. Anderson has written about this, in the New Criterion along with Adam Thierer, his co-author on a new book on the subject.

Yes, friends, someone is out there trying to sell a book opposing the fairness doctrine. Like Hugh Hewitt's How Sarah Palin Won the Election ... and Saved America, a book on the return of the fairness doctrine is a book about an imaginary thing, and won't sell very well unless the authors' allies can really gin up the fear for them. Bravo, authors Anderson and Thierer, for working the market like pros. Boo McIlheran, for shilling for them.

The Life of Alexander Orlowski

by capper

In four days, it will be Thanksgiving Day, the kick off to the holiday season. Most of us are already preparing for the day. Some of us are looking ahead to stuffing ourselves on turkey, stuffing, yams and pumpkin pie. Some of us are looking forward to a day of football. Some of us are looking forward to gathering with friends and/or family, some of which we haven't seen for a long time.

Some of us aren't so lucky. Gary and Patti Orlowski wish that they could have their whole family over for Thanksgiving feasting, football watching and having good times. But they can't.

Their son, Alexander Orlowski (pictured at lower right), died last year, on Thanksgiving morning.

I wrote a post about Alexander's death last year, one of many posts I wrote about the problems and disfunctionality at the Milwaukee County House of Correction. Alexander was the inmate that passed away due to an overdose of prescription medication while serving his sentence at the House of Correction.

Not too long ago, I received an email from Patti Orlowski, Alexander's mother. She told me that she had done a search on her son's name, and had found my post. She also wrote that she and her husband have been struggling with getting any answers from HOC on their son's death, and having a difficult time getting things changed so that something like this doesn't happen again.

We started to correspond, and eventually I was able to meet the Orlowskis one evening for a cup of coffee, and they told me about their son, and the problems they've faced since his passing. With their permission, I will share their story, and Alexander's story, with you today and over the next couple of days.

Today, I want to just talk about Alexander's life.

Too often, I hear people on the radio or the TV, or read in the blogs, that anyone that is incarcerated is a "thug." It doesn't matter who the person is, what they did or why they did whatever crime they committed to get arrested in the first place. It is much easier to condemn and dehumanize that person, than try to understand them. I personally think that many of these people are subconsciously afraid that they will recognize themselves or someone they love in these people if they look to closely at them.

Alexander had a pretty normal start to life. He came from a blended family, meaning that Patti and Gary both had children from other relationships before getting married. Between the two, they have four children, including Alexander, who was the baby of the family. Gary works in sales and marketing. Patti was recently laid off from Reiman Publishing in Greendale.

Their family is much like any other middle class family in the suburbs. They have had moments of great joy. They've had times of great sorrow. And they have great pride and love for all of their children.

The Orlowskis told me that Alex was a really good boy early in life. They told be that he was very creative and artistic. They had shown me some of the artwork Alexander did while at HOC. These were just pencil and paper drawings, but one could just see the talent he possessed. They told me he was very popular with the other inmates who would "hire" Alex to do drawings for them to send home to their loved ones. They would give Alex a prearranged amount of canteen (chips, candy, soda) for his work.

When Alexander was in the third or fourth grade, some early signs of his future problems started to manifest themselves. He had a hard time studying and staying focused. He went through an assessment and was found to have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

By the time he was in middle school, the ADHD was in full swing, and Alexander was prescribed to take Dexadrine. The medication had mixed results. While he was managing at school, he was starting to show an increase in behaviors. He was often caught up in lies as he tried to cover up things that he did on an impulse, but still knew was wrong. Things like saying he was going over to a friend's house, but then go off to someplace else, like the mall.

In high school, Alexander's behaviors grew increasingly more serious. Friends turned him on to drugs, including alcohol and marijuana. If you have known anyone with a mental illness, whether or not they are under doctor's care, you already know that adding street drugs to the mix is a dangerous recipe for disaster. The mentally ill person feels temporary relief from their problems, and are more likely to develop an addiction. This is what happened to Alexander.

His drug usage quickly escalated to include heroin, which is highly addictive in itself. To support his habit, he did what most addicts do, he started resorting to crime to get money to pay for it.
He started stealing from his parents. They would find money, jewelry, alcohol and other things coming up missing. Alexander also started to break into people's houses to steal from them.

His behavior also escalated. He was quick to become enraged and was punching walls. He was disruptive in school. He was bounced from school to school. He attended Greendale High, Greenfield High and an alternative high school. He never graduated from any of them.

He was also getting into trouble with the law. He was arrested for disorderly conduct, possession of a controlled substance and underage drinking.

He was involved with various agencies, often through Children's Court. The agencies included Running Rebels, Southwest Key and the Matt Talbot Recovery Center of Milwaukee. While he was in each of these programs, Alexander did much better. He was able to get off of the drugs and the alcohol, and became the sweet boy that Gary and Patti knew he could be.

Unfortunately, the support he received from these groups were not infinite, and soon after being discharged from them, Alexander would end up with the wrong people, in the wrong neighborhoods, doing the wrong things again.

When Alexander was 17 years old, he overdosed on heroin. He would have died that night, except that Garry noticed that Alexander was experiencing breathing problems and called 911. He was in St. Luke's Hospital's ICU for a month due to respiratory distress and a strep infection in his blood, all from the drug use.

When he became an adult, Alexander had been charged three times for breaking and entering. He was finally sentenced to the House of Correction. His parents actually felt relief when he was sentenced, thinking at least they knew where he was and that he'd be safe. We'll talk more about that tomorrow.

For now, I would just ask the gentle reader to reflect on their lives, compared to the Orlowskis. Most of us have, just like the Orlowskis, I'm sure, a fairly normal life. We get up, go to work, come home to our families. For those with children, we spend time playing with them, helping them with homework, and telling them that we love them.

But just like the Orlowskis, one never knows when something can happen to turn our worlds upside down. Some forms of mental illness, like any other illness such as diabetes or heart problems, are hereditary, so there might be a clue ahead of time. Many times, there is no such indication, and unless you already have an understanding of mental health issues, it can be very alarming and frightening, because your loved one is acting so bizarrely, so dangerously and you don't understand why.

I have worked with the mentally ill in one way or another my entire professional career. It still saddens and angers me when people with a mental illness are still being stigmatized by society as a whole. Mental illness is just that, an illness. We don't treat diabetics, cancer patients or people with asthma like second-class citizens. We shouldn't treat the mentally ill that way either.

This also reminds me of something I was told during my first week working at the HOC. The sergeant in charge of training us kept reminding us that the inmates are people too. They are someone's brother, father, son, sister, mother, daughter, aunt or uncle. And they could be anyone of us. All it takes is one mistake, one bad decision, or even one bad break in luck, and any one of could end up incarcerated. The point he was trying to make is that we didn't necessarily have to like the person, or even respect them, but that they still should be treated with respect anyway, because they are people too.

Alexander's story also reminded me of an old saying. It goes, "There but for the grace of God, go I."

Blogs to Read

by folkbum

Michael Caughill's bewheeled alter-ego, Elliot Stearns, is having some sort of contest. I am not entirely clear on the rules, but it seems to me like his goal is to get a whole lot of people to link to him. I think he may have gotten that email that says Bill Gates will give him a free laptop (funny, because he uses Macs, and I commend him for that) if 200 people link back to him or something.

I don't know. It's probably on Snopes. It sounds like he's going to trade that laptop in for magic back-scratchers to hand out to all of his fans, though. I don't know if they will be as cool as this one, but a boy can dream, can't he?

But I will take this opportunity, though, to point out a few new local liberal blogs that have come to my attention. They're not all new, but they're at least new to me.

• Leonel, "ramblings of a queer mexican trekkie"
• Brew Cityzen, "He was a fattish but active man of paralyzing stupidity, a mass of imbecile enthusiasms—one of those completely unquestioning, devoted drudges on whom…the stability of the Party depended. - George Orwell"
• The Reasonable Progressive, "This is nothing but dead white male bashing from a PC thug. It's women like you that keep the rest of us from landing a husband. - Miss Hoover, The Simpsons"
• Bradley D. Schmock, "Compassionate Badger"
• Wisconsin Truth Watch
•  Looking in Your Garbage, by "mrbossman"
• Lane Ellen, "Exponential"
• The Blue Revolution

And one that's less local, the Democratic Governors Association has a blog now, too. One of these days when I get some time to readjust the sidebar, I will add them to the blogroll, too. In the meantime, click through and enjoy.

I'm Am Smart. I Went To Collage.

by folkbum

Everyone else is doing it. Here's us:

The Facts Are These

by folkbum

Apparently, ABC--like FOX and Showtime before it--has decided that Bryan Fuller's twisted sensibilities have no place on television. Sadly, I enjoy those sensibilities more than just about anything else on TV in recent years.

The present victim is "Pushing Daisies," which is as fun an hour of TV as I've seen in many years. Like "Wonderfalls" and "Dead Like Me," the two previous victims, it takes place in a world just different enough from our own to be familiar, though with bizarre supernatural tendencies. Actually, the tone of "Daisies" leans significantly more toward the odd, which might be part of why normal people like you won't watch it. I, however, will miss it dearly when its gone.

It's even more frustrating, in fact: Last year, the strike-shortened season meant a promising sub-plot involving Paul Reubens (playing, fittingly, a sewer-dwelling necrophile) was simply abandoned. This year, the writers were developing a couple of other plots--one involving a long-lost daughter and one involving a long-lost father--that also seem like they will be left without resolution.

Well, at least "Reaper" will be back soon.

This Pirate Thing is Getting Out of Hand

by folkbum

A little while ago, I had the pleasure of sitting down to interview David HB Drake, Milwaukee institution and folksinger, for a short profile to run in next month's Bay View Compass. Among the other yarns he spun, he told me how he fell into his "Graybeard the Ancient Mariner" character, who is not a pirate (real pirates didn't live to have gray beards, he told me) some 20-odd years ago.

He was way ahead of the times, since pirates didn't really come back into fashion until Johnny Depp donned the mascara for them Disney films.

However, Dave told me that the pirate films had been a boon to him and his character, and that, among other things, he's taken to writing an advice column in Pirates Magazine ("America's first full-color pirate magazine," they boast).

Now, I don't want to do anything to take business away from Good Folk like David HB Drake or anything, but it really seems to me like some of these kids growing up on the Johnny Depp movies are just taking things a little too far. Maybe Disney and the American pirate press need to dial it down a little, eh?

More heads I win, tails you lose

by folkbum

Among the more frustrating lines of argument from conservatives in Wisconsin and beyond in the last week or so, as Barack Obama's administration is starting to take shape, is that Obama's hiring of people like Tom Daschle (for Health and Huma Services) or Eric Holder (for Attorney General) or Rahm Emmanuel (for Chief of Staff) is not really "change." This is because these folks have previous experience in Washington--Daschle as Senate Majority Leader and Emanuel and Holder in the Clinton Administration. (See complaints by, for example, him and her, though that's by no means the end of it.)

What makes it heads-I-win-tails-you-lose is that the conservatives get to whine and moan about how Clinton-tainted appointees are the opposite of what Obama promised to bring to the White House, which is a fresh, new direction. These "same old Demmie power brokers" may be the best in their field (and most able to accomplish what Obama wants by working closely with Congress), but because we know their names, they're not "change." That's heads.

Tails is that before Obama's election, and before more names were out there than just Emanuel's, the complaint was that Barack Obama was a product of the corrupt Chicago political machine, and that the people he brought with him from Chicago couldn't be trusted, either. In fact, the right was all over David Axelrod (just named Senior White House Advisor) and Emmanuel as being products of that Chicago machine. (See one of he above bloggers hating on Chicago here). Had Obama brought more people with him from Chicago, you know that complaint wouldn't have had to morph into "not change" and could have just stayed "corrupt Chicago."

Clearly, the only way to please the conservative worrywarts would have been for Obama to plop open the Norman, Oklahoma phone book and start calling people at random. Of course, that would probably be cause for them to resurrect that stupid "experience" argument again--and no matter what happens, it's good for Republicans.

Moral Boosters

By Keith R. Schmitz

If anything the Bush administration has been hypocritical and disingenuous from day 1, so why expect anything different in the twilight of this disaster?

Now Bush wants to shove under the door rules to grant sweeping new protections to health care providers who oppose abortion and other procedures on religious or moral grounds.

First off, isn't the conservative crowd big on so-called conditions of employment?

This very much points out their ala carte approach that made them very poor sales people for the concept of morality, sort of like the laugh riot that ensues when Chuckles the radio clown tries to dispense it.

Bush was less interest in affording these kind of protections to government whistle blowers, probably because they were seeking to abort certain Bush policies.

Stuff like this were the building blocks of a basement level approval rating, and a reminder why their inanity will not be missed.

Belling: Heads I win, tails you lose

by folkbum

In his column today, Mark Belling opines about Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle's chances of bolting Madison for Washington, DC, as part of an Obama administration. Belling's verdict? "50-50," he says.

Now, we long ago established that Belling's prognosticatory powers are pretty pitiful. He predicts the obvious, and when it happens, he claims victory. By claiming the odds are 50-50 that Doyle heads east, he's got his bases covered either way. But here's the part that really bugs me:

If Doyle doesn’t go, it will be because leading Wisconsin Democrats put the kibosh on the deal. A top Democratic source tells me state party leaders are telling the President-elect Obama team that a Doyle resignation in Wisconsin will be disastrous for the party here. They believe that Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton would be in over her head and could not manage the political fallout from the massive tax increases the Democrats are planning to use to close the state’s looming $5 billion budget deficit.

First, Barbara Lawton would not be any more or less "in over her head" than anyone else would be in the same position--than, in fact, Belling is likely to say that Doyle is himself. Lawton is a savvy woman, smart and tenacious. She may be less electable than Doyle, for the same reason that Jean Hundtermark was likely less electable that Mark Green: Women have a harder road to elected office than men do in this country. But a Governor Lawton would not just stand helpless while the state sinks around her. Yeesh.

However, within days of Obama's election, I heard from Democratic sources that Doyle was not particularly interested in leaving Madison. I mean, I know that when the president-elect is on the phone, you take the call. But what Belling has done here is guarantee that if my sources are right that Doyle wants to stay here and he does, the fault lies with legislative Democrats.

It's a twofer for Belling: Democrats are screwed if Doyle goes, and Democrats are screwed if Doyle stays. It reminds me of the joke among the more national bloggers, that whatever happens, it's good for the Republicans. How much does he get paid to type that crap?

Chapter 11 -- Not a Good Idea

By Keith R. Schmitz

The right wing seems to be getting way too much pleasure over the prospect of letting the automakers sink into Chapter 11 to "punish" the gall of the UAW in demanding things like good wages, health care, etc.

As if the workers are responsible for the troubles visited upon the house of Ford, GM and Chrysler. Not like it was inept, quarter by quarter focused management led to this or anything. You know, just like the same reasoning that argued the poor and minorities brought our financial system to its knees because they got access to mortgages.

But like all things wonderful in the minds of conservative, there are problems with that perspective. Why would a bailout be better?

1) The process of bankruptcy is rather distracting on a management that had a hard enough time paying attention to just running these companies in the first place.

2) Having had a client that went bankrupt and having lived that dream, I don't think that vendors that faithfully provided goods and services to the automakers should suffer, seeing pennies on the dollar or even nothing instead of payments on their invoices.

3) If handled properly, a bankruptcy should be a chance or a company to reorganize, come to Jesus and come out of this better than before. But what evidence do we have that the current management would be capable of that. Like none. What we will see will be the butcher shop spectacle of wholesale layoffs to protect bloated and undeserved executive compensation like we did in the airline industry. We will see unemployment figures leap, dragging us further into recession because of course a consumer economy depends upon consumers. The former though seems to never bother our conservative friends.

4) The bailout affords us opportunities to make the auto industry do what it should have done in the first place. From the inside of their little protective cocoon the Big Three leadership saw the world in their vision. Left to their own their instincts, they could do no different.

Now US having major ownership, reality could intrude.

Something the Bush administration couldn't do we could do now, which is provide so many strings for this money the automakers would resemble marionettes. And why not. They have already played Pinocchio.

I can just hear the Greek chorus -- "Government can't do anything right."

Some governments. There is every indication this new group will be looking to hire the best and brightest, not the connected and the corrupted as we saw over the past eight years.

Yes, the UAW will have to offer up concessions, but to put blame for the jalopy known as the US auto industry on the shoulders of the workers indicates a lack of perception. Didn't Detroit management after all negotiate these contracts? This was the Bush administration where workers usually didn't stand a chance.

This is not a time for old thinking. It is a time for bold thinking.

Things to do in Alaska when you're Ted

by folkbum

I quite enjoyed the view of Denali provided by the friendly folks at Talkeetna Air Taxi. The town itself is quaint and interesting and rumored to have been the inspiration for the town in that "Northern Exposure" show. I have a CD I like from Larry Zarella, Talkeetna-based singer-songwriter. I think I could probably settle down there, and live out my retirement from my public service job, assuming I didn't get thrown in the clink first.

So, Ted, think about it. Although, I have to say, losing your election is one wicked bad birthday present, eh?