In case you missed it last night, Glenn Beck had State Senator Erpenbach on to defend the HUGE tax increase to those in Wisconsin. You can find the entire transcript here but these are some of my favorite parts:

GLENN BECK: I apologize to the people in Wisconsin, but believe it or not, I actually hope this passes, because, by bankrupting your state, it may be the best chance we have to prevent the other 49 states from making the same ludicrous and disastrous decision.

Jon Erpenbach is a Wisconsin state senator who supports the proposal. Hello, Senator, how are you, sir?

JON ERPENBACH, WISCONSIN STATE SENATOR: Hi, Glenn.

BECK: You`re going to convince me this is a state tax cut?

ERPENBACH: Well, it is. It actually is a tax cut. Glenn, listen to me.

BECK: Your taxes for a family will be about 20 percent of your family income, 20 percent, and that`s for the state. That`s higher than the federal in most cases.

ERPENBACH: Glenn, you can`t take the entire state budget and everything else, with the tobacco tax, and lump it all together with Healthy Wisconsin.

BECK: Oh, of course not.

ERPENBACH: You have to look at it separately.

BECK: Of course you do. That way you don`t realize that you`re paying 20 percent to the state.

…

BECK: I have 30 seconds. Let me just ask you this. Illegal aliens are going to get health care. If you have a company that is paying these people off of the books and they get health care, will you prosecute the companies for paying people off the books?

ERPENBACH: Well, I would hope that a company isn`t doing anything illegal in the state of Wisconsin...

BECK: Hope...

(CROSSTALK)

ERPENBACH: At the very least, if you`re an illegal alien and you have a job, you`re going to be paying for your own health care, just like I am.

BECK: I guess that`s a no. Thank you very much. That`s the "Real Story" tonight.

On GreenBayPressGazette.com you will find the following column: 'Madison Math': Make sure a cut is a cut written by State Representative Karl Van Roy (R – Hudson.)

The following analogy is great and I for one am going to use it everyday!

If you ask your boss for a $3 an hour raise and he agrees to give you $1, is it fair to tell your friends and relatives your boss just stuck it to you and gave you a $2 an hour pay cut?

Telling people you were cut something that you never had in the first place is the scam of "Madison Math." It's not just misleading; it's dishonest. (emphasis added by gopfolk)

AP: Atlantic tropical storms have doubled

There are a group of researchers actually saying that there is a noticeable change in the number of tropical storms and hurricanes seen in the Atlantic in the last 100 years and that the “increase” in these storms is largely blamed on “man-made” global warming.

For those of you that actually pay attention to this issue it is worth noting that former IPCC hurricane scientist and current Science and Operations Officer for NOAA’s Hurricane Center, Chris Lansea, has labeled this research as “sloppy science” pointing out that “The doubling in the number of storms and hurricanes in 100 years that they found in their paper is just an artifact of technology, not climate change.”

Let us be really honest here, do you actually believe that we were able to see, and count, every tropical storm and hurricane in the Atlantic before that advent of satellite technology? There are a few of the blind “consensus” scientists saying that aircraft flights were enough to detect the storms back in the day…but those didn’t even begin until the 1940’s and surprise, surprise when these flights began to take place more storms were detected!

The Atlantic covers 1/5 of the Earth’s surface and is 41 million square miles…do you really think that planes could have detected all of the storms in the ocean? Enter into the picture satellites…and amazingly enough we detect even more storms!

May be these “scientists” should write a more realistic paper titled: Technology brings about more devastating storms to the world. At least their conclusions could be supported by their data!

From today’s Investor’s Business Daily Opinion section:

Tempest In a Teapot

Posted 7/25/2007

Global Warming: A private firm's downgrade of its hurricane forecast raises an obvious question: If scientists can't get near-future projections in a limited area right, how can they predict the climate decades from now?

A reasonable response is: They can't. But the global warming climate of fear did not blow in on the soft breezes of reason, but by the storm winds of emotion.

Forecaster WSI Corp. said Tuesday that the season ending Nov. 30 will bring 14 named storms, six of which will grow into hurricanes, three of them major. WSI's initial forecast was for 15 named storms, eight hurricanes and four majors.

Why the change? "Because," said WSI forecaster Todd Crawford, "ocean temperatures have not yet rebounded from the significant drop in late spring."

Could it be that the 2007 hurricane season is turning out to be as overrated as 2006? Remember last year's predictions — that we were in for a brutal spell of storms? It had been quiet, they said, and we were due for a series of Katrina-like hurricanes. But as we wrote last November, as the much-dreaded '06 season whimpered to a close, the storm year came in like a lamb and went out the same way.

For years, the Greenshirts have told us that emissions of carbon dioxide resulting from man's addiction to fossil fuel-based energy are turning the planet into a sweltering hothouse. The United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change has projected a temperature increase of 2 to 11.5 degrees Fahrenheit for the 21st century due to the greenhouse effect.

As a result, alarmists say, ice caps will melt, glaciers will thaw and sea levels will rise as much as 20 feet, causing floods and death in low-lying areas. Storms are also predicted to increase in both frequency and intensity.

To prevent this coming Category 5 cataclysm, we're supposed to shell out trillions of dollars and gladly adopt Spartan lifestyles. Instead of trying, as their grandparents did, to see how many bodies they can squeeze into a telephone booth, today's college kids are expected to see how many they can get in a Prius.

Yet the fact remains: The local weatherman can't forecast more than about 10 days out, and neither can the experts tell us how warm, or cool, the planet is going to be in 2100, 2075 or
even 2050.

Even short-term predictions have been off. James Hansen, NASA scientist, predicted a 0.45-degree Celsius (0.81-degree Fahrenheit) rise in global temperature from 1988 to 1997. But in reality (a place environmental activists rarely visit) the increase was a mere 0.11-degree Celsius.

We hope no one in Hansen's neighborhood relies on him to tell them when it's going to rain or when they'll need a coat and hat.

Setting aside the hubristic notion that alarmists know what the right temperature is, too many other factors besides the greenhouse effect influence climate for them to declare they know exactly, or even approximately, what's coming. Solar activity, for instance, is among the most powerful, as are the El Nino and La Nina phenomena.

We also question the concept of a "global" temperature. How could such a thing be measured when weather stations dot rather than blanket the Earth? Danish physicist Bjarne Andresen, a professor at the University of Copenhagen, made sense earlier this year when he said it's "impossible to talk about a single temperature for something as complicated as the climate of Earth.

"A temperature can be defined only for a homogeneous system (and) climate is not governed by a single temperature," he said. "Rather, differences of temperatures drive the processes and create the storms, sea currents, thunder, etc. , which make up the climate."

The formula for a climate of fear, though, requires nothing more than a lot of thunder and a bit of heat generated by political activists.

Last week I think I tripped a few of you up…Congrats to still unreal for getting the right answers.

sin θ = Opposite over Hypotenuse = Y/X

cos θ = Adjacent over Hypotenuse = Z/X

tan θ = Opposite over Adjacent = Y/Z

csc θ = 1/Opposite over Hypotenuse = 1/(Y/X) = X/Y

sec θ = 1/Adjacent over Hypotenuse = 1/(Z/X) = X/Z

cot θ = 1/Opposite over Adjacent = 1/(Y/Z) = Z/Y

This week we will use the same “lopsided” triangle and solve for Z (and before someone points it out) the triangle is NOT to scale!

There are just days or in some cases weeks where there is little that I want write about because I just want to scream about everything. Here are the foot notes of what’s going on in my head:

AP: Judge: Sudan owes USS Cole families $8M – WHAT?!?! These 17 families are only worth $8 million...The Sudan should pay far more for supporting terrorism.

AP: Doc won't face charges in Katrina deaths – Hope that the law suits against her also fail…she did nothing wrong!

AP: N.M. works on rodent recovery plan – Only in America would we put the lives of rodents above progress.

AP: Study: Rising temperatures pose danger – See!! Global warming can be blamed on the Indians!!!

Reuters: Forecaster cuts 2007 hurricane outlook - HA!!!! Now there is a real surprise!!! How many years does that make now? If we can’t predict the weather of a small portion of the world, how do you think we can predict the climate of the entire plant?

Reuters: Your plant just called to say ... I'm thirsty! - Just think you used to have to put your finger in the soil to tell if the plant needed watering?!?! I love technology but is this a little too far?

Press Release: Moore Statement on Today’s Minimum Wage Increase - Is she really that dumb to think that there are that many people working minimum wage jobs? Does she understand the financial repercussions this is going to have in the job market here in Wisconsin?!?!

Press Release: Lt. Governor Lawton to Take Lead on Climate Change, Energy Independence - {spit take} 60-80% reduction of CO2 emissions below 1990 levels…I have a quick solution…don’t send her to this stupid meeting…fewer politicians speaking means lower CO2 levels!! And where the hell is the energy independence?? I guess if we are living in huts, using candles, and driving horse drawn carriages again we would be independent again…Note to self buy all stock in buggy whips…they might be coming back!!!!

Kay’s Blue Racine: Politics 101 – “You can't trust people just because they say they're democrats” - Personally I think she should have wrote “you can’t trust people IF they say they’re democrats.”

To all you political geeks out there…I have to admit that I am one…I saw an interesting article last night on Fox 6 news discussing Fantasy Congress.

I’m sure some of you are already participating in it but for those that are not I’d like to introduce you to the game.

1. Go to www.fantasycongress.com
2. Sign up
3. Join a league (mine if you’d like!)
4. Draft your team of Congressmen
5. Play the game!!

It’s just that easy!!!

I have set up a private league and any of you wishing to join are welcome.

The League name is: The Right Opinion
Password is: myopinion

JT: GOP Assembly budget is disastrous for Racine by State Sen. John Lehman D-Racine

Senator, how would you describe your budget? You know, the one in which you burden the poorest in our state with monstrous taxes including the cigarette and gasoline tax and deny poor children in our community a chance at a better education. You sir, are “heartless.”

You and your Democrat friends worked tirelessly to bring socialized medicine and the enormous cost of the plan to a state that is not in need of it and at the same time exempting your friends at WEAC. That sir is “irresponsible.”

You demonize the Republicans for not supporting KRM, which you claim has broad support, but you do not support a referendum that would determine if such broad support actually exists among the citizens of Racine. That is a “blatant attack” on the taxpayers of Racine.

Senator, I suggest that before you start calling names like a child that you take a look inside and truly decide if this is really the way you wish to legislate. If it is, I suggest you get ready to lose your Senate seat.

Please welcome Former State Senator Cathy Stepp to the blog-o-sphere!

Cathy will be posting occasionally on RealDebateWisconsin, so be sure to check her out!!

Here is her first post: My Maiden Voyage

Good Luck Cathy!!

I’m sure most of us are not surprised to hear that Jim Gilmore is out of the race for the presidency, but for some I think they are surprised to hear that he was even in the race.

AP: Gilmore 1st major candidate to drop out

Gilmore was a long shot to be sure but at least he is a conservative…I’m wondering how long it will be before Giuliani and McCain drop out?

H/T to Denis Navratil of Free Racine for the following blog:

On Gender Disparities in the Justice System

Well it seems that some don't like my suggestion that racial disparites in the jail population may be caused by increased criminal activity among black people. So I will apply their thinking to the problem of gender disparities in the criminal justice system.

Of course it is common knowledge that our jails are mostly filled with males. Why are there so many men in jail relative to women? It must be sexism right? Or institutional gender bias? Or is it those all female juries? Or is it gender profiling? Why do our mostly male police officers prefer to arrest other men? Could it be that they are acting out their homoerotic fantasies by wrestling other men to the ground and handcuffing them?

As a man, I think we should take a serious look at this problem. Perhaps Governor Doyle can commission a study on the subject. After all, the gender disparity in the criminal justice system is far greater than the racial disparity.

Congrats to caledonia unplugged who got last weeks Math problem correct!!

0.59375 as a fraction is 19/32.



This week’s is all about algebra.

Solve for x…and show your work! ;^)



x^2 + x – 2 = 0



(hint: the carrot (^) between the x and the 2 means “raised to” or in other words “x^2” means “x squared.”)

… you all feel it right? That looming behemoth of taxes just waiting to be dropped right on out heads is still out there.

I’ve read over the Assembly’s budget and if I knew that the final budget was going to be anywhere close to this I would be happy but the reality is we are in for a HUGE tax increase and unfortunately there is very little the Republicans can do about it.

Republicans are already being painted as though they took a machete to the budget…just look at these headlines:

Racine JT: Bad news for Racine: Local legislator decries GOP Assembly budget proposal

Wisconsin State Journal: Budget would cut from UW System

Or how about these quotes:

Rep. Colon: “Instead they have protected the interests of big oil companies and big tobacco companies.”

Sen. Robson: “Assembly Republicans are on the verge of passing the most fiscally irresponsible, morally reprehensible budget to come out of Madison in some time.”

Rep. Kreuser: “Worst of all, despite deep cuts to nearly every important state priority, the GOP budget fails to offer any meaningful tax relief to middle class families beyond what was proposed by Governor Doyle.”


Here is the best part…the budget proposed by the Republicans is basically a net zero budget. What this means is that while they are adding certain items, such as expanded school choice, they are cutting in other areas to compensate for it. This is how people handle their own budgets at home why should our legislators be any different? The Democrats are screaming now but in the end (once the compromise committee meets) they will get a portion of their tax increase that they are looking for.

I hope that the Republicans stick to their guns and hold to this budget…not only today but through the committee review that is still to come.

Good luck guys and gals!

As I have stated time and again, science is about research and knowledge, not consensus.

From Reuters: Scientists Find Clues to Ice Cap Longevity: Study

It appears that scientists who are looking at the ice caps around Greenland have noted that their previous theory related to free ice flow in the region was off by about 330,000 years! This finding shows just how resilient the ice caps really are.

What has now been determined is that the models that show rising ocean levels may not be as bad due to a faulty assumption of the Greenland ice sheet.

To all my conservative friends: This does not negate the possibility that rising global temperatures could melt this ice cap only that prior history shows that this cap is very stable and able to take temperature variations much better than previously thought.

To all my liberal friends: Consensus is not science. Science is made up of people testing theories and hypothesis. Looking at an isolated bit of data and extrapolating it out is not scientifically sound. The use of computer models are only as good as the data that is placed into it and therefore can not be relied upon if all relevant data is not considered.

In the end this is just another setback for the “man-made-global-warming” crowd.

On this day we must remember those who have gone before, those that fight for freedom now and those who will be called to service in the future. Our Nation is strong but only because a few of its citizens are willing to risk their lives to ensure the tranquility and freedoms that we all take for granted.

I’d like to say thank you to all who have served. We can never repay you for what you have done.

On this day our founding fathers signed a simple piece of paper which has been the backbone of this county for over 200 years.

May god continue to watch over this great country and bless us with continued prosperity well into the future.

Here is the Declaration of Independence:

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. —Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain [George III] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
The signers of the Declaration represented the new states as follows:
New Hampshire
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
Massachusetts
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
Connecticut
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott
New York
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
New Jersey
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
Pennsylvania
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross
Delaware
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean
Maryland
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
North Carolina
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
South Carolina
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
Georgia
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

You know just when you think that you have a good line on the environmentalist wackos they surprise you with something new.

In today’s Sydney Morning Herald you can find this article: Human greed takes lion's share of solar energy

I’m hoping that this is some sort of joke but when you see claims like “reducing the amount of energy available to them (other species) by almost 10 per cent, scientists report” you do start to worry that these people are being serious.

So I guess we should stop farming…it’s the only environmental thing to do.

The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) released its 2006 Congressional ratings on Thursday June 28th and here are how our legislators stacked up:

The Senate rankings were based on 21 pieces of legislation.

Feingold rated a 43% (Lukewarm to taxpayers); while Kohl received 19% (Hostile toward taxpayers.)

The House rankings were based on 44 pieces of legislation:

Baldwin 0% (Obviously lowest score in the house – Hostile toward taxpayers);
Green 86% (Taxpayer Hero – Why isn’t he Governor?!?!);
Kind 9% (Hostile toward taxpayers);
Moore 5% (Hostile toward taxpayers);
Obey 5% (Hostile toward taxpayers);
Petri 86% (Taxpayer Hero);
Ryan 98% (Taxpayer Hero);
Sensenbrenner 95% (Taxpayer Hero)

This gives our overall delegation an average score of 44.6% which is classified as lukewarm to taxpayers.

CCAGW also took a look at what the average Democrat/Republican in the House and Senate looked like and here is how we stacked up:

Average Senate Democrat was 15% our average was 31%...I guess we own a small thank you to Feingold for not being as bad as the rest of the Senate Democrats.

Average House Democrats rated only 9%...but our House Democrats averaged 4.75%!!! How pathetic is that!?!?

Average House Republicans rated a 46% (terrible!) but our House Republicans averaged 91.25%!!! Thank you Green, Ryan, Petri, and Sensenbrenner for your efforts to keep waste out of our government and for being a true friend to taxpayers.

For more information on CCAGW please visit them at www.cagw.org.

Last week I asked you to show me the factors of 20 and for extra credit show the prime factors of 20…jdopierala got it right. Factors of 20 are 1, 2, 4, 5, 10, & 20. Prime factors are prime numbers that when multiplied together you get the resulting number 2*2*5 = 20


This week I’m still taking it easy on you.


Please convert the following to a fraction: 0.59375