Lets not forget that tomorrow there is a very important election…these people have more of an impact on your day-to-day life than any national candidate!!!
So GO OUT AND VOTE!!!!!
Here is who I will be casting my ballot for in tomorrow’s Spring Election:
State Superintendent of Instruction
Rose Fernandez – www.changedpi.com
Justice of the Supreme Court
Judge Randy Koschnick - www.koschnickforjustice.com
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This will look like an uncontested race but there is a write in candidate so…
Kathy Burton – www.burtonforcaledonia.blogspot.com
Curt Woodward - www.woodwardfortrustee.com
John Leiber – www.johnleiber.com
Sorry about that so here is the week in review:
Monday, December 8, 2008
A big thank you to all of you that contributed to the Arthritis Foundation, because of you I was able to raise $475!!! Now I know that it was short of my goal but in tough times you just have to face facts!
The Las Vegas Marathon was a perfect race for me the weather was great for running (50 degrees and overcast) and due to the training I was able to put together a new personal record…even after completing 4 other marathons this year!! My time was 4:45:05.
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A big thank you to Keith over at Government BYTES! For this one: Farm Subsidy Database!
Racine County received $3,877,000 in USDA subsidies in 2006.
Have fun!
Name that Place
Last week was pretty easy with those nice big blue roofs and CU got it right they are Culvers!
Name this Place:
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Woodward announces for Caledonia Village Trustee, vows to run aggressive campaign to earn seat
I know that the Obama camp (set up behind the fictitious “office of the President Elect”) is saying that Obama is clean but a shooting star in the Democrat party, out of Chicago, with ties to the Governor, an unrepentant domestic terrorist, and a felon (can you say Rezko?) can not be as clean as he has stated.
Think about it…the guy that will soon be president has gone to a church and has been baptized, married, and had his children baptized by a pastor that says “God da** America!” but then claims that “that isn’t the pastor I knew.”
How long before the ties between the Chicago machine and Obama really come to light?
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Interesting…New Scientist: Hot landslides may have set off mystery wildfires
Obama calls for Blago to resign…What?!?
Democrats don’t do that!
What is going on here?
Have I lost my mind?
Yeah…Obama isn’t part of the Chicago machine…and I’m an Olympic Sprinter.
The auto bailout is still on the table…would someone just kill the damn thing!!!
Silent e does some math for us:
“In 2007, Toyota sold 9.37 milion cars world wide.
They MADE 17.7 BILLION dollars.
In 2007, GM sold 9.37 million cars world wide.
They LOST 38.7 BILLION dollars.
We’re talking bailout WHY?”
Excellent question…can you say UAW?
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Name that Country:
I need to give credit once again to CU for hitting this one out of the park! I just want to know how CU figured it out?!?!
The country was Luxemburg!
On my 1-10 scale this week’s country is only a 3.
I thought Obama was the “Change” candidate:
Obama picks Daschle to spearhead healthcare
Clinton for Sec. of State
Holder as Attorney General
Richardson as Commerce Sec.
Orszag as Teasury Sec. (although I like this one!)
Same old names not a lot of “change” here.
Senate says NO!
UAW not willing to work a deal…no bailout.
I do have a big question though…shouldn’t the auto execs have done this years ago? You know what I mean…say NO to the UAW?!?
Look at that…a whole weeks worth of posts…hmm…maybe this is how I should do it regularly! LOL!!!!
It seems our ‘friends’ over in the Green Party (let me remind you that their Presidential candidate is Cynthia McKinney – and here and here) want to re-write the constitution, they even go so far as to say that the current format for Congress is incorrect – granted you have to understand how the Electoral College works to say that but that is their insinuation.
So once again how does the Electoral College work?
Each state is given a number of Electors equal to the number of Congressman and Senators that represent the State. Each state has 2 Senators. The number of Congressmen is determined by the population. Therefore states that have a greater population have more Congressmen and therefore are weighted heavier in the Electoral College (i.e. California has 55 Electoral votes and Iowa has 7)
Now how the Electors are divided is up to the state. Currently 48 states do it the old fashioned democratic way -- winner takes all. That means the winner of the popular vote in the state wins all of the electoral votes.
The remaining 2 states, Maine and Nebraska, use a Congressional Method. This means that the winner in each Congressional district wins that Elector and the popular vote getter in the state wins the two Senate Electors. This is both democratic and representative. In my opinion I think this method makes the most sense these days and should be implemented on a more broad scale.
The first candidate to 270 Electoral votes wins!! It is really that simple.
Since the Electoral College is based simply on the Congressional Formula the Green’s claim that the Electoral College was created to “expressly increase the power of the slave states” seems rather asinine!
So what do the Greens want?
Well unlike what the democrats have been calling for – popular elections (meaning that those of us in ‘fly-over’ country would mean nothing and all the focus would be on the large population centers) the Greens are calling for Proportionate Elections.
What are those you ask? Well that would be the warm and fuzzy determination of elections. For example: If Wisconsin split 50:40:10 the Electoral Votes would be divided 5:4:1 for the respective parties.
So what do you want? Should we preserve the republic as it has stood for over 200 years or should we rewrite the Constitution? Or should we chuck it all and move to a more “fair system” that includes other parties across the board?
Racine County…
Clerk
Republican – Wendy Christensen
Democrat – Theresa Cotton-Kendrick
Democrat – Lisa Van Koningsveld
Treasurer
Republican – Elizabeth Majeski (inc.)
Register of deeds
Republican – Jim Ladwig (inc.)
District Attorney
Republican – Michael Nieskes (inc.)
State Assembly:
61st District
Democrat – Robert Turner (inc)
Libertarian – George Meyers
62nd District
Democrat – Cory Mason (inc)
Libertarian – Keith Deschler
63rd District
Republican – Robin Vos (inc)
Democrat – Linda Flashinski
66th District
Republican – Samantha Kerkman (inc)
Democrat – Mike Orr
Democrat – Larry Zamba
83rd District
Republican – Scott Gunderson (inc)
Democrat – Aaron Robertson
State Senate:
22nd District
Republican – Benjamin Bakke
Democrat – Robert Wirch (inc)
US Congress:
1st Congressional Seat:
Republican – Paul Ryan (inc)
Democrat – Paulette Garin
Democrat – Mike Hebert
Democrat – Marge Krupp
Democrat – John Mogk
Libertarian – Joseph Kexel
You read that correctly it seems that research done at the University of California has concluded that the decision to participate in the electoral process is partially genetic in nature!!
Science Daily: Political Participation Is Partially Rooted In Genetic Inheritance
“These findings are extremely important for how we think about political behavior,” said Fowler. For example, it is widely known that parents and children exhibit similar voting behavior, but this has always been interpreted as learned behavior rather than inherited behavior.
According to Fowler, “We are not robots – the genes just seem to make it more likely that some of us will respond to our social lives by getting involved in politics.” Fowler also cautioned that there is no such thing as a ‘voter gene’: “That idea is just silly. Complex social behaviors are the result of hundreds of genes interacting with hundreds of social factors – these results are really just the tip of the iceberg.” (emphasis added by gopfolk)
If you needed any other reason to vote for Lou...this quote about KRM from Diane is precious!
“I don’t think a referendum’s necessary. I think there’s been enough evidence, enough proof.”
Well Diane…I don’t think we need an election on April 1st either…we should just put Lou into your place…There has been enough evidence to show that you have not been really good for Racine...I think that is proof enough.
Lou has launched a website for his campaign…go check it out at Lou4Racine.com!!
I’m behind you Lou!!
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!!
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.”
What (s)he thinks of me (and any of you) for voting for Hillary (that still leaves a nasty taste in my mouth…ugh!!!):
"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!"
...AND...
"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!"
So what say all of you?
Is staying home because your guy has no chance of winning sending a message to the winner?
Would the founding fathers be proud of my co-worker for sitting on his(her) hands and not voting?
Is voting in an open primary in Wisconsin tantamount to “tampering” with an election?
Is it more “honorable” to stay home and not vote?
How do all of you that crossed over feel about your “immoral” act?
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?
Well I thought for sure that Romney would win Iowa and that the poll numbers were just inflated due to last minute media hype of Huckabee. I even thought that Huckabee would even come in third…well folks I was wrong.
I was right when it came to my co-worker…who I hope is reading this right now…Thompson didn’t stand a chance. As of 9:51 PM CST good ‘ole Fred is in third (10 points behind Romney who came in second!!!) and is slowly loosing ground to the fourth place candidate, McCain.
New Hampshire is 5 days away…will the polls prove to be correct again and McCain win the state? God I hope not!
My first response is not a chance in hell. Especially when the Politico is reporting that there is a good possibility that Fred will soon be out of the race…yes, I know that Fred is denouncing this report and saying that it is not true but look at reality he is trailing (by a lot…10+ points) in every major poll.
If Fred comes in first it will be a miracle and his analysts should be praised…if he doesn’t come in first and his analysts truly do have numbers that show him winning Fred should fire every last one of them.
Is it any wonder how we became one of the highest taxed states in the Union? When we can’t figure out how to put together a simple Voter Registration System…mind you one that has now cost us over $24 million!!!
Here are the highlights of the Legislative Audit Bureau’s findings…but I would encourage you to read the full report. There is a lot more here than meets the eye!!
The media and some politicians wonder why we don’t trust government…this is one of the reasons!
Well it looks like the great people of Georgia would like to forget her too!!! Fox News Story.
Rep. Mike Jacobs is supporting a resolution in the Georgia State House to have the 20 mile stretch of I-285 that currently bears the name the Cynthia McKinney Parkway stripped of that name and replaced with the old name, Memorial Drive.
Cynthia, after loosing her Congressional seat (again) in a Democrat primary in 2006, moved across country to California and is being courted by the local Green Party as a potential Presidential Candidate! Only in California can a nut job like Cynthia be courted!
Personally I hope that this resolution passes and Georgians can move forward knowing that the legacy of McKinney is gone. While I find it amazing that they would have re-elected her in 2004 they did the right thing in ousting her once again in 2006.
I have to say that I am not too surprised that the following people are out --
CNN.com: GOP hopeful Tommy Thompson abandons presidential bid
Tommy is a down home folksy type of guy…someone you might like to hang out with around the backyard keg…not really the guy you’d want in the White House! I wish Tommy all the best and still hope that maybe we can convince him to run against Russ Feingold….now that would be a race worth watching!!!!
AP: Karl Rove to resign at end of August
While Mr. Rove is considered “the architect” he has also been a lightning rod. Democrats have made Rove the most hated man in the GOP and I have great respect for the guy because he has not let that disrupt his ultimate job…getting Republicans elected. Unfortunately Republicans and Conservatives don’t see eye to eye on everything as was made abundantly clear in 2006.
Mr. Rove has done his part and now he can sit back and wait for the next big fish. Unfortunately for Mr. Rove the Democrats will see him coming from miles away this time.
Good luck Tommy and Karl.
My wife and I attended the State Fair yesterday and had the opportunity to look at both the Democrat and the Republican booths and we noted a couple of unique items related to the straw polls offered by both parties.
First off the Republicans were using the straw poll as a mini fundraiser asking for participants to contribute a quarter for their vote. No one was turned away if they didn’t have a quarter but it was a great idea. We did not note anything like this at the Democrat booth.
The second thing that jumped out at us, and the most startling, was the way the poll was being conducted. Republicans used solid containers to conceal how others had voted, while the Democrat’s used see through containers that exposed the vote for everyone to see. Now this might not seem that strange but when you consider that human nature is to side with a winner the Democrat poll is going to be slanted.
What do you think…should we know how the majority is voting before we vote?
I was on another site today and I noticed that there are still a lot of people out there that would love to see term limits placed on Congressman. This is an issue that is debated as a resolution every year for the GOP.
I for one believe that there are term limits in place already…they are called elections. Every 2 years for your Representative and every 6 years for our Senators we have to head to the polling place to cast our votes for these people. If you believe that the elected official is a bum then you really have to work hard to oust that person from their seat. It can be done. Incumbency is not a guarantee for reelection but it is definitely an advantage.
Placing term limits on legislators I believe is redundant. They are one of many, meaning that their vote does not count more just because they have been there for 2 dozen years. A Freshman Senator’s vote counts as 1 out of 100 just like Ted Kennedy’s.
Arguments for Executive offices’ can be made and I usually agree with those.
In a time when it is hard to find good Congressman why would we want to put in place a system that would only ensure that there is fresh blood in the seat every so many years versus ensuring that we vote for and elect good quality candidates.
