Beware the Ides of March

Just sayin’.

Under Cover

Huh, whodathunk?

They are the Republicans of Dane County, a small spot of crimson in a region overrun with blue. 

Making fun of Republicans is a beloved tradition in these parts, like going to the Farmers’ Market or taking offense at the student section at Badger games. But how many of us actually know any?

Last month, I set out to acquaint myself with as many local Republicans as I could by going undercover into the Dane County GOP. For weeks I attended the local party’s events: I gave my real name, answered personal questions honestly, and tried to keep an open mind. Mostly what I did was listen.

What I found is that Republicans in Dane County are warm, generous, thought-provoking, and at times outrageously offensive — just like lots of other people I know.

I have found the inverse to also be true.  When I engage liberals on a personal level - even when they know me to be a conservative - most of them are kind, decent folks.  There are exceptions, of course. 

Hat tip Spring City Chronicle.

Citizens Not So United

LOL.

Citizens United, the group at the center of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark campaign finance ruling, has asked a Wisconsin group to stop using its “Citizens United” name in a petition protesting the decision.

A lawyer representing Citizens United sent a letter last week asking the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign to change the name of its “Citizens United Against Citizens United” online petition and Facebook group.

Both were started to protest the court’s January ruling that corporations can spend unlimited amounts of money to advocate for and against federal candidates.

The letter, signed by attorney Wyatt Durrette, Jr., of Richmond, Va., warns the name violates the group’s trademark covering the term “Citizens United.” It tells the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, which advocates for campaign finance reform, to stop its use and to “destroy all writings and/or other articles” with the name.

Mike McCabe, director of the Madison-based Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, said he laughed when he received the letter but was taking it seriously. He said his group was soliciting legal opinions about whether it needs to change the name and will respond by Friday, as requested.

Should there Be a Stigma to Abortion?

I admit that I find stories like this intensely troubling.

One hundred thousand people have watched Angie Jackson’s abortion. Late last month, Jackson posted a video of herself to YouTube, recorded after she took RU-486, a medication used to end pregnancies. “I found out about a week ago, Saturday, that I was pregnant,” the 27-year-old mom from Florida explains in the two-and-a-half minute clip. “For a variety of reasons, including very high health risks for me, I’m having an abortion. Right now.” Jackson also tweeted her experience, detailing the cramps and bleeding she experienced.

Jackson says in the video that she wants to “demystify abortion,” to show it’s “not that bad, not that scary.”

There was a time when everyone seemed to agree that abortion should be rare.  Now we are moving into an era where women are practically bragging about it.  It’s a disgusting moral stance.  For example, take this snippet:

Like one woman who terminated a pregnancy when she learned her baby would have Down syndrome. “I don’t look at it as though I had an abortion, even though that is technically what it is,” she told the New York Times. “There’s a difference. I wanted this baby.”

Bullshit.  She didn’t want that baby.  She killed it.  She wanted a baby that didn’t have Down syndrome.  Perhaps next time she will want a son instead of a daughter.  Will she make the same choice?

Or this:

That same year T shirts with the straightforward declaration “I had an abortion” made frequent appearances at pro-choice walks and rallies after Planned Parenthood sold them through its Web site. “People are upset to be confronted by a real person who has had an abortion as opposed to thinking about it as an abstract issue,”

I don’t know anyone who opposes abortion who thinks of it as an abstract issue.  In fact, when I was pro-choice (yes, there was a time), it was an abstract issue for me.  Now it’s anything but abstract.  Frankly, those who brag and celebrate the fact that they had an abortion are repulsive to me.

Neumann Delivers Petitions Opposing Health Care Bill

Good for him.

Republican candidate for governor Mark Neumann delivered more than 5,000 petitions to the Milwaukee office of U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.) on Monday from people who say they are against the health care bill before Congress.

Neumann carried the petitions, stacked about two feet high, into Moore’s office Monday morning, and then told reporters that the health care bill will mean higher taxes and more government spending.

He also said that he supported a draft state constitutional amendment that he said was likely to be introduced by State Sen. Joe Leibham (R-Sheboygan), which would preserve choice and private health care options in Wisconsin.

As governor, he said he would take steps to try to block a health care bill from taking effect in Wisconsin.

ACORN Still Acorn

Even under another name.

Affiliates of the once mighty liberal activist group ACORN are remaking themselves in a desperate bid to ditch the tarnished name of their parent organization and restore federal grants and other revenue streams that ran dry in the wake of a video scandal.

The letters A, C, O, R and N are coming off office doors from New York to California. Business cards are being reprinted. New signs with new names are popping up in front of offices.

The breakaways are trying to shed the scandal that emerged six months ago when videos showed some ACORN workers giving tax tips to conservative activists posing as a pimp and prostitute. But while their names are different, most groups have kept the same offices and staff.