The left loves to say that we are “behind several other states” when it fits their agenda like AB 157 (the Wisconsin Safe Climate for anything other than Business Act).

“I mean there are 10 other states that have already done it why are we so far behind!”

But when a conservative points out that 48 other states have conceal carry for law abiding citizens, they dig in their collective heels and wail that “we don’t want Wisconsin to become the “wild west” do we?”

AB 157 is BAD for Wisconsin.

My favorite quote today about AB 157 was: “Scientists continue to amass data showing the disastrous ecological and economic consequences of global warming pollution,” said Shahla Werner, Ph.D., Director of the John Muir Chapter of the Sierra Club.

You’d think with a Ph.D. she would know that the “data” she is talking about in this press release is hypothetical data NOT actual data!!!

Big difference! Maybe she should stop trying to get crappy legislation through the State House and do a little reading about the subject she should know something about.

Mount Kilamanjaro - Tanzania, Africa - still snowy. Photo by Neil Modie, January 2008

But the better image is the one Kate put together over at Small Dead Animals (don’t ask me I just read the blogs I’m not the one naming them!!)

Well it looks like it is official Wendy Christensen (Caledonia’s Village Clerk) has filed the necessary paperwork to run for Racine County Clerk!

For all of the sorted details head on over to Caledonia Unplugged and get the full scoop!!

Press Release: Assembly Bill 157 not the Answer


“We should all protect our natural resources,” said State Rep. Jim Ott. “However, AB 157 will have no impact on reducing global temperatures, but it would have a significant and negative impact on Wisconsin’s economy.”


“As recently as the late 1970s and early 1980s scientists and the media were talking about the possibility of an approaching ice age,” said Ott. “Imagine if lawmakers had rushed in and mandated all sorts of changes based on that assumption?”


This is why we love you Jim!!

State Rep. Spencer Black can’t even get the facts correct in a 5 paragraph press release how can the people of Wisconsin even think that the 15 pages of “climate” legislation is worth the paper it is written on?

In the press release it states “carbon dioxide pollution, the main cause of global warming” had they done any research at all they would find that H2O, not CO2, is the “main cause” of global warming; CO2 only contributes about 2-10%.


Next he states that “We have an obligation to act before we see severe damage to our environment, our economy and our quality of life”

Really? A longer growing season here in Wisconsin would be bad? Fewer deaths due to cold weather would be bad? (BTW you do know that more people die due to cold weather than hot, right?) A longer tourist season would be bad for the economy of Wisconsin? What exactly would be wrong with a warmer Wisconsin…assuming we are getting warmer? Have they looked at any of the recent stats about the global climate over the past few years? We are down about 0.3 degrees…oh my!

Lastly, one must only read the first paragraph of the legislation to understand what is going on here. From AB 157:

The people of the state of Wisconsin, represented in senate and assembly, do enact as follows:

SECTION 1. 15.347 (5) of the statutes is created to read:

15.347 (5) GREENHOUSE GAS MANAGEMENT ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE COUNCIL.
There is created in the department of natural resources a greenhouse gas management environmental justice council consisting of at least 3 members, appointed by the secretary of natural resources from nominations received from environmental justice organizations and community groups, representing communities that have the most significant exposure to air pollutants, including communities with minority populations and communities with low−income populations.


So that is what this is all about…more government bureaucracy and “help” for minority and low-income populations from the state DNR.

But it gets better…you see this bill isn’t as cut and dry as it would seem

286.23 Emission limits and reduction measures.
(2) REQUIREMENTS CONCERNING RULE PROMULGATION.
(b) Ensure that activities undertaken to comply with the rules will not have a disproportionate impact on communities with low−income populations.

So this means even though areas that are “run down” may have a higher out put of CO2…we can not force them to fix it to meet the state requirement under this bill but we would then be able to force other businesses and/or producers of “green house gases”* to further reduce their output in order to make up for these low-income areas.

* limited to carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, and sulfur hexaflouride

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PRESIDENT WASHINGTON!!!!

On this day in history, February 22:

1732 – George Washington, 1st US President, born

1819 – Spain ceded Florida to the United States

1854 – 1st meeting of the Republican Party, Michigan

1856 – 1st National meeting of the Republican Party, Pittsburgh

1872 – 1st National convention of the Prohibition Party, Columbus, OH

1879 – 1st Woolworths’s opens in Utica, NY

1889 – North and South Dakota, Montana and Washington were admitted to the Union

1900 – Hawaii becomes a US territory

1924 – The first presidential radio broadcast from the White House made by Coolidge

1932 – “Teddy” Kennedy, Senator D-MA, born

1935 – Planes were no longer allowed to fly over the White House

1968 – Jeri Ryan, Actress, born

1971 – Gilbert Brown, Defensive Tackle, born

1980 – The US Olympic Hockey Team defeats the Soviets 4-3 at Lake Placid

AP: Wolves to be removed from species list
Are they no longer an animal?

AP: Pakistan opposition parties to ally
Isn’t this head line one big oxymoron?

AP: Obama wins global primary
I didn’t know that this election cycle had gone global!?!

Reuters: Total lunar eclipse turns Moon red
I hope it turned it back again!!

Reuters: USDA unsure if Calif. cattle case isolated to plant
You know it’s bad when the government doesn’t know that cattle are not plants!

I am having an ongoing debate with a co-worker about her (him) not voting and my cross over vote.

Here are the pertinent parts of our many e-mails…you decide if my co-worker has a point.

Why my co-worker did not vote:

“I'm not voting for Hillary, because I'm not convinced she is the most beatable candidate and I think it's wrong and immoral.

I'm not voting for McCain, because I don't support him, yet, and I want him to know that.

I'm not voting for Huckabee, because although he is my favorite candidate and I support him, I do not want to increase the Republican base that is voting. I want Republican voter turnout to be low (which it may likely be due to those voting for Clinton anyways). So, perhaps my choice is more diluted because of that reason. Yet, my mind is made up.

Therefore, my vote is not to vote, because I want to make a point to McCain that he needs to think long and hard about his next steps if he wants the Republican base to support him. I want him to know that I'd rather not vote at all than to vote for him if he stays the current course. Maybe a vote for Huckabee does that, but I don't think so. I think a vote for Huckabee shows that I'm going to vote Republican no matter what; whereas; a no-vote says... maybe not so much.”

"Once again - not voting is more of a civic duty than tampering with the election. The founding Fathers would be turning in their graves if they knew people were casting dishonest votes - they should all be ashamed of themselves and should have no say about the state of politics or what policies are originating out of Washington since they consciously tampered with an election bringing down the respect of America to that of a 3rd world country
- Good Job!"

"There is no difference between not voting and voting for a candidate you don't want to win. None. Except one is a bit more honorable. You can say it's not tampering, but we all know it is, no matter what shade of gray you want to call it. It was an immoral thing to do and shame on you!"

It seems that the “left leaning” group One Wisconsin Now is a little upset with Judge Michael Gableman’s campaign and have filled a complaint (way back in December) with the Judicial Campaign Integrity Committee but the Wisconsin State Journal is reporting on it just this last weekend.

They claim that the Gableman campaign violated the judicial ethics code which states in part “a candidate for a judicial office shall not knowingly or with reckless disregard for the statement’s truth or falsity misrepresent the ... present position or other fact concerning ... an opponent."

So the question is “what did the Gableman camp say that violated this rule?”

In a fundraising letter the following was written Louis Butler “provided the deciding vote to overturn a sexual predator decision by a circuit court, resulting in the release of the predator into Milwaukee County.”

Here are the facts:

In a case of Richard A. Brown, Louis Butler voted with the majority, in a 4-3 ruling, that ordered Brown to be released into Milwaukee County.

So the statement in the fundraising letter is in fact truthful and does not misrepresent Louis Butler’s position on this case at all. The One Wisconsin Now crowd is all hung up on the fact that, to date, Brown has not been released. That information does not change the any of the facts of the statement.

Gableman’s campaign will not be found to have violated any ethical standards.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg was quoted as saying:

"Nobody wants to sit there and say, 'Well there's no easy solution,' They want to send out a check to everybody to stimulate the economy. I suppose it won't hurt the economy but it's in many senses like giving a drink to an alcoholic."

I had the good fortune of talking with one of Judge Gableman’s schedulers yesterday…Judge Gableman will be at the Racine County Republican Lincoln Day Dinner next week (I’ll post that Invite later)…and found out that he will be in Racine today!!!

So with a little prompting from his scheduler I set up a “meet and greet” gathering today!!

Come meet Judge Gableman, candidate for the Supreme Court of Wisconsin, today:
4:00 p.m.
JavaVino
424 S Main St
Racine, WI

I guess this goes with my last post…with Romney’s endorsement of McCain…does that mean if I vote for Romney in the WI primary I’m really voting for McCain?

I’m not quite sure what to think of that…

Is anyone really going to “cross-over” and vote the other side of the ticket?

My wife told me she just might do that.

What are you going to do?

I’ve been wondering out loud to anyone who will listen and now to anyone reading this blog…how much more is Huckabee willing to take from the GOP?

I’m not the biggest McCain fan…I’m not even sure that he can win against Obama…but all that aside with Huckabee still in the mix it means that McCain needs to spend more and more money to secure the nomination and that the Party has less and less time to come together and rally around one person.

I know that Huckabee “didn’t major in math, (he) majored in miracles” but I’m sure someone on his staff has done the math and realizes that, since Romney dropped out of the race, Huckabee has only been able to secure <20% of the delegates. Since he has done so poorly he will need to secure more than 55% of the remaining delegates just to prevent McCain from getting the nomination! As well as it is mathematically impossible (miracle or not) for Huckabee to get the nomination with the remaining primaries.

Huckabee has said over and over again that he is not running for the VP spot and based on the way he is going I’m beginning to think that there is no way McCain would now even consider giving him the position anymore.

While I agree with Huckabee that I would rather have a choice not a coronation the facts are the facts…we do not have a choice anymore…McCain is going to be the nominee…numbers do not lie.

Frank Lasee is Wisconsin’s 2nd Assembly District Representative

Lasee’s Notes
February 12, 2008

Government CarAid?

Last week I wrote about the health care cost shifting that goes on because the government pays a discounted rate for medical services. This increases the cost all of us pay for on our own healthcare purchases whether insured or uninsured. Some of the feedback I got on cost shifting was skeptical (many understood it, as well).

Let’s use an analogy of car purchasing. Say a dealer has ten cars that he expects to sell for $21,000 each. When the dealer sells the ten cars for $21,000 each, he will have $210,000. After costs of sale, financing and overhead, the dealer expects to average (for simplicity’s sake) $3,000 profit for each car. The dealer plans to have an income of $30,000 from the sale of these cars after covering his costs.

Suppose the government steps in and says that owning a car is a right. Dependable transportation to and from work is essential, which, of course is true. The government creates CarAid. Under CarAid any dealer must sell cars to program recipients for $5,000 for each car. Also for simplicity, each dealer will sell three cars for this $5,000 (30% of the cars sold, same percentage as government medical programs).

If the dealer wants to make the same profit and cover his costs he will have to charge more for the seven cars he sells to non-government buyers. To make the same income, the dealer has to sell each of the remaining cars for about $28,000. Since dealers have to subsidize CarAid, the cost of a car to you just went up to at least $28,000.

Then the dealer ups the list price of all the remaining cars to $28,000 each. Now a car aggregator (like a big insurance company) comes to him and says “I have a pool of car purchasers who will buy four cars from you and we want a 25% discount or we will buy those four cars from another dealer (because he will give us a discount).” So the dealer sells them at a 25% discount or $21,000 to that pool of people. (Note that the 25% discount brings the cost back to the original sale price of $21,000.)

To continue the analogy…

For those of you who do not know Lou, he is a great guy that can be loud as hell when he needs to be!!! Most importantly he is running for the Racine County Board in District 3.

Yesterday at the Racine Taxpayer Association Lou had the following to say about KRM and Crime:

KRM: “I am unequivocally opposed to anything which increases the net burden on Racine county taxpayers, particularly the taxpayers of my district who already face a fairly onerous burden as it is.” Yet there is a value to building links for the broader economy. He suggested that the project be tested with buses if the public approves it in a referendum.


Crime: “The simple answer is there are no simple answers.” Crime, education and employment are intertwined. We have to make sure that dangerous people are confined, but we also have to look at expanding the local economy so that there are alternatives to crime.

Both quotes are from the JT and the full article including comments from others can be found at this link.

WAY TO GO LOU!!! Keep on fighting man!!!

MSNBC’s David Shuster has been suspended for the following:

DAVID SHUSTER: Bill, there's just something a little bit unseemly to me that Chelsea's out there calling up celebrities, saying support my mom, and she's apparently also calling these super delegates.

BILL PRESS: Hey, she's working for her mom. What's unseemly about that? During the last campaign, the Bush twins were out working for their dad. I think it's great, I think she's grown up in a political family, she's got politics in her blood, she loves her mom, she thinks she'd make a great president --

SHUSTER: But doesn't it seem like Chelsea's sort of being pimped out in some weird sort of way?

With McCain pretty much wrapping up the whole nomination for the GOP the VP hunt begins.

Those of us on the Conservative side of things want him to be sure to choose a good right winger but there are those that believe that McCain will side with another middle of the road Republican (RINO if you will).

Who do you think McCain will choose?

Here is a short list of rumored contenders:

Governor Crist
Governor Huckabee
Governor Romney
Governor Sanford
Senator Lieberman
Senator Thompson
Rep. Hunter
General Powell
Sec. of State Rice

Well maybe not yet but it could be right around the corner…

Those of us that have been looking at the Global Warming nuts and questioning their every word are once again vindicated by science. The sun, not mankind, is a more likely source for the 0.8 degree temperature variation we have seen in the last century.

This was posted on Investor’s Business Daily yesterday:

The Sun Also Sets

What kind of friend would I be if I didn’t mention what the Kenosha Republican Party is doing tonight!!!

Okay...Who’s buying the first round?

Reuters is reporting that Mitt Romney will suspend his Presidential Campaign…still developing…

Romney to suspend president campaign: party source

I’m beginning to believe some of the rumors.

Do you think that McCain and the Huckster have a “dirty deal” brewing?

I have been asked by a number of people how all this delegate stuff works and why would Romney and Huckster stick it out when they “really don’t have much of a chance.”

So here is how things shake out:

McCain needs to win @59% of the remaining delegates (@988) to secure the delegate count, not an easy task since he was only able to secure less than 55% of the delegate count on Super Tuesday.

Romney or Huckster would need to pull off a miracle needing to secure 95% and 102% of the remaining delegates respectively.

However if Romney or Huckster were to drop and pledge their delegates to the other…and all the delegates were to go to that candidate…they would only need to secure 25% of the remaining delegates!!!

The numbers are on the side of the conservatives but who would drop? Huckster? Probably not...but if he did most of his delegates would flow to Romney. Romney? Not likely…but if he did would his delegates flow to Huckster…what is the difference between McCain and him? Not much so I’m not sure if the flow would be entirely secured for him.

So that is how the numbers break down and my analysis of things…what do you think?!?

H/T The Smoking Gun

I’ve been confused before and I’ve been drunk before but even in my most drunk state I think I could tell the difference between a child and a case of beer.

Beer Before Babes