Fun With Unnecessary Censorship

Why Don’t You Blog More?

I’m busy.

Owen on WTMJ 620

Owen will be on WTMJ radio tonight from 10ish to midnight with John Mercure. Listen here.

He is multi-tasking tonight, as just a short time ago he played “On Wisconsin” with his daughters’ school bands.

UPDATE FROM OWEN: Playing with my girls was the highlight of my night If you have thoughts, comments, insight, criticism… whatever. Feel free to email me or comment. I’m online.

Vote Today

Yes… today. If you live in Wisconsin and are eligible to vote, get to the polls and make your voice heard.

Update from Mayor Sadownikow

The mayor of West Bend has a very informative column in the Daily News today. Here’s a key part:

One of the most challenging topics of the past 12 months has been in the area of unfunded liabilities. Until recently, I did not fully appreciate the negative impact these expenses can have on an organization, if left unchecked.

  For us, unfunded liabilities mostly take the form of Post Retirement Benefits – benefits paid to employees after they retire and no longer work for the city. As of Jan. 1, the yearly budget is required to contribute approximately $550,000 per year in this area. That number grows by about 20 percent annually due to the number of employees retiring and the anticipated increases in health-insurance costs. This means in about four years we could be paying more than $1 million per year toward these expenses, which is more than we invest in street repairs. These types of uncontrolled increases are simply unsustainable for our city.

  As a result, we’re calling on the leaders in all areas of city operations to step forward and take on the challenge of coming to a consensus on the future of West Bend. We will need the community, the council, and leaders from both our union and nonunion employees to recognize that the future financial viability and flexibility of the city of West Bend hinges on difficult choices we make today. We can no longer pretend this issue does not exist.

There’s still a lot of hard work to do.

Nobody likes a bully

It’s true, they don’t. My column for the Daily News is online. It’s called, “Nobody likes a bully.”

Vote Tomorrow

Don’t forget to vote tomorrow. If you’re looking for your voting place and sample ballot, go here and put in your address.

As I said in my column last week, if you support Walker, then vote for Walker.

Barrett Bucks Unity Partay

This made me all warm and happy inside.

MacIver News Service | May 7, 2012

[Madison, Wisc…] With a comfortable lead in the polls heading into Tuesday’s Democratic Primary election in the gubernatorial recall, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett has reportedly decided not to participate in a special “Unity” rally planned for Wednesday night.

The move has left some union activists crying foul and a Republican spokesperson hopeful it is a sign of disunity among the coalition of liberal special interest groups who oppose Governor Scott Walker.

The DPW announced the cancellation on their facebook page.

“The time for celebrating is when we beat Scott Walker on June 5th,” read the DPW post. “So instead of uniting in celebration at the Capitol now, we need to unite in action all across the state. Please help us defeat Scott Walker by clicking the link below and signing up for a volunteer shift.”

Former Fitchburg Mayor Jay Allen, a supporter of Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk, also took to Facebook to explain why the rally was actually cancelled.

“The Democratic Party of Wisconsin has pulled out of the event because Mr. Barrett has decided not to participate,” Allen wrote.

Kohl Angles for New Arena

I hate it when I end up agreeing with Ed Garvey.

As the political uproar over Walker’s goofy priorities comes to a close, everything seems just a little too quiet. Now what? Well, the next issue will be the use of taxpayer dollars to build a new arena to help Herb Kohl. Kohl, you may remember, got elected to the Senate in 1988 in large measure because he saved the Bucks from moving out of state. Now he has a different song, and it is off-key if you ask me.

As we have been predicting, Kohl wants Milwaukee and Wisconsin to build his team a new home. (The Bradley Center was a gift from Jane Pettit, so now it is time for the taxpayers to give Herb another gift. Or is it?)

TV Stations Forced to Put Politicial Advertisement Info Online

The stations have a point. If I were going to advertise on TV, I’d check the rates given to politicians and push for those rates too.

The Federal Communications Commission voted late last month to require local TV stations to put detailed information about political advertising on their websites. Such material is already required to be available to the public, but must be requested in-person at TV stations, where files are often stored on paper and fees charged for copies.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski pushed hard for the requirement calling it a “common sense” move, which had failed to pass the first time it was proposed several years ago. Broadcasters fought against certain parts of the new rule, balking at having to include specific rates for individual advertisements.

They fear including the rates will make confidential information available to commercial advertisers as well as rival stations. Don Carmichael, general manager at Green Bay’s ABC affiliate WBAY, Channel 2, called it “anticompetitive.”

“It’s also a lot of work and we’re a small station without a lot of people around to do it,” Carmichael said. “We’ll be forced to publically post our best rates, which I’m by law required to give politicians. It gives everybody else some rates to shoot at.”

Gannett Broadcasting, a division of Gannett Co. Inc., which owns this newspaper and nine others around the state, lobbied against the rule change. Broadcasters are also peeved that the new rules won’t apply to cable or other media platforms.

Axelrod: “Contract Killers”

My, my… “killers?” What happened to civility? I seem to remember leftists lecturing people for saying things like “target” and such a little over a year ago. Now calling people who are exercising their 1st Amendment right to participate in the electoral process “killers” is acceptable rhetoric? Good to know. 

“We’re not letting our foot off the pedal,” campaign manager Jim Messina told reporters on a conference call. The first ad focuses on the economy.

“We’re also going to be prepared, and I want to be clear, to respond to the attacks that we expect to continue from, not just from the Romney campaign, but from, you know, the Karl (Rove) and Koch brothers contract killers over there in super PAC land, who are going to continue to pound away on behalf of Gov. Romney,” said top Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod.

The “End of Austerity” in France

Let’s see if it works...

The Socialist candidate has promised to raise taxes on big corporations and people earning more than 1m euros a year.

He wants to raise the minimum wage, hire 60,000 more teachers and lower the retirement age from 62 to 60 for some workers.

Firearm Business Booming

Good news/bad news.

MILWAUKEE - Firearms-related businesses in Wisconsin say they are having a difficult time meeting demand from rising gun sales in the state.

Wisconsin’s gun sales follow a national trend, and businesses say the rising demand is being driven by various factors, from Wisconsin’s concealed carry law to presidential politics.

“It’s incredible,” said Steve Lauer, owner of Lauer Custom Weaponry, which manufactures firearms, firearm coatings and accessories in Chippewa Falls. “We can hardly keep up.”

The good news is that it’s great for Wisconsin’s firearms industry and it’s great to see more folks exercising their rights. The bad news is that it’s driving up prices. Ah well…

Business Journal: Wisconsin Lost 36,500 Jobs Since 2002

We’ve got a long way to go to get back.

Out of all of the states and the District of Columbia, only seven states lost more jobs than Wisconsin, with Michigan faring the worst with a loss of 433,600 jobs in the private sector. That was an 11.4 percent drop for the Wolverine State.

Wisconsin’s private-sector job loss represented a drop of 1.5 percent, which bested only 10 other states. Across the country, 32 states and the District of Columbia added jobs. The private sectors of seven states cranked out more than 100,000 new jobs during the past decade.

Texas added 1.15 million private-sector jobs during the past 10 years, putting it far ahead of the pack. The other states with six-figure increases were New York (up 340,800 private-sector jobs), Washington (up 180,700), Arizona (up 161,900), Virginia (up 137,200), Florida (up 132,100) and Utah (up 127,400).

Tomb in Timbuktu Sacked By Islamists

That’s a shame.

Bamako, Mali (CNN)—Elderly men were keeping watch Saturday over Timbuktu’s main library after Islamists burned a tomb listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The attacks Friday were blamed on Ansar Dine, a militant group that seeks to impose strict Sharia law.

The ancient city in Mali was captured by at least two separatist Tuareg rebel groups—one of which is Ansar Dine—in an anti-government uprising in the northern part of the country that began in January.

The rebels burned the tomb of a Sufi saint where people come to pray, said Sankoum Sissoko, a tour guide familiar with the place. He said the library and other heritage sites remained under threat.