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.

Montoya Joke-Free Zone

It’s good to see that the folks who wun NASCAR’s website have a sense of humor.

Facebook Acquires Glancee

Interesting.

Facebook has scooped up another startup in its path toward mobile dominance. This time, it’s Glancee, an ambient location-based service that competes with Highlight.

Making the Phone Calls Stop

I think the GOP is targeting likely Republican voters in its most recent round phone calls, so I think next time they call (which should be in about 30 minutes) I will tell them I intend to vote for a Democrat. That will make me not a likely Republican voter, and they will stop calling. Then maybe they will stop harassing their supporters.

Honestly, the phone calls are the reason I stopped contributing to the party or any particular candidate. If you donate once, you get on a donor list and they call you (weekly, it seems) to get you to donate more, even if your donation was small.

I know they say that these calls are effective, but they are full of crap. And it’s repulsive that the same folks who passed “no call” legislation have no problem using telemarketing for their own benefit.

Mommy Falk

Um, no thanks. It’s creepy when politicians want to be our parents.

Falk likened the state to a broken family. Sometimes, she said, it takes a mother with a firm, strong hand to bring it together again.

“We need a mom and I’m anxious to be that mom and bring us back together,” Falk said.

Dr. Shaq

Good for him.

(CNN)—Shaquille O’Neal has donned many monickers during his basketball career, including Shaq Fu, the Big Aristotle, Superman and Shaqtus. This weekend, he will add “Dr. O’Neal” to that list.

The former NBA player will graduate from Florida’s Barry University on Saturday with a doctorate degree in education focusing on organizational learning and leadership.

“This is for my mother, who always stressed the importance of education,” O’Neal said. “I am proud to have achieved a doctoral degree and wish to thank my professors and Barry University for helping make this dream a reality. I’m smart enough to know that, even at my tender age, my pursuit of education is never finished.”

Employment Perspective

Something to think about.

If the same percentage of adults were in the workforce today as when Barack Obama took office, the unemployment rate would be 11.1 percent. If the percentage was where it was when George W. Bush took office, the unemployment rate would be 13.1 percent.

We Are

Why yes… I do have a book of poetry written by Leonard Nimoy. Thank you for asking. Here’s a sample:

And now
at last,

We are.

Whoa.

FDR’s Power Grab

It’s very interesting to listen to FDR justify his proposed usurpation of the power of an equal branch of government. In doing so, he uses the spectre of the crash of ‘29. Some things never change.