http://www.bootsandsabers.com en owen@bootsandsabers.com Copyright 2012 2012-02-08T18:58:55+00:00 http://www.bootsandsabers.com/index.php/weblog/permalink/wisconsin_dead_last_in_donating_to_gop_presidential_candidates http://www.bootsandsabers.com/index.php/weblog/permalink/wisconsin_dead_last_in_donating_to_gop_presidential_candidates#When:18:58:55Z Shocking? Not only did Democrat President Barack Obama outraise the entire 2012 Republican presidential field through Dec. 31, 2011, $582,000 to $529,000, but a Smart Politics analysis also found Wisconsin to be dead last nationally in per capita donations of $200 or more to GOP candidates. Not at all. I suspect that I am like most people in that there’s only so much time and money I’m willing and able to fork over to support political campaigns. With the 2010 election, the 2011 recalls, the 2012 recalls, and all of the other local races in the past two years, we’ve been in campaign mode in Wisconsin 100% of the time for over a year now. For most Republicans in Wisconsin, keeping Walker in office is just more important now than worrying about the presidential primary, Politics, Politics - General, Politics - Wisconsin, 2012-02-08T18:58:55+00:00 http://www.bootsandsabers.com/index.php/weblog/permalink/cone_of_silence http://www.bootsandsabers.com/index.php/weblog/permalink/cone_of_silence#When:03:25:17Z This is crappy. Nearly all of Wisconsin’s Republican state lawmakers signed an agreement not to comment publicly about redistricting discussions while new G.O.P.-friendly maps were being drafted. The pact was included in documents released in a lawsuit challenging the maps’ constitutionality. Redistricting is an overtly politcal act. While I think it acceptable for the party in power to craft constitutional districts that may favor them, it is deplorable that such a veil of secrecy should be employed. Politics, Politics - Wisconsin, 2012-02-08T03:25:17+00:00 http://www.bootsandsabers.com/index.php/weblog/permalink/gab_limits_challenges http://www.bootsandsabers.com/index.php/weblog/permalink/gab_limits_challenges#When:02:51:37Z Ummm... Wisconsin’s elections agency ruled on Tuesday that it would not accept help checking recall petitions from groups including the tea party organizations GrandSons of Liberty and We the People of the Republic. Government Accountability Board Director Kevin Kennedy said the board would not change its methods in the middle of the process and could not accept such information from sources other than the targets of recalls. So let me get this straight… if I find my name fraudently signed to a petition, I don’t have any grounds to challenge it? I have absolutely no recourse to prevent the theft of my identity? That ain’t right. One would take note that the GAB, in every circumstance, has taken the position most in favor of fraud and not in securing the integrity of our electoral process. If one is to err, one would hope that it’s usually on the side of integrity. Politics, Politics - Wisconsin, 2012-02-08T02:51:37+00:00 http://www.bootsandsabers.com/index.php/weblog/permalink/fitzgerald_to_challenge_enough_signatures_to_stop_recall http://www.bootsandsabers.com/index.php/weblog/permalink/fitzgerald_to_challenge_enough_signatures_to_stop_recall#When:21:19:34Z Now we’ll see what the GAB does... Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald says he plans on challenging enough signatures on recall petitions to stop any election. Fitzgerald said Tuesday he will also make a number of other challenges, including arguing that newly drawn legislative boundaries should have been in play for the collection of the signatures. Law, Politics, Politics - Wisconsin, 2012-02-07T21:19:34+00:00 http://www.bootsandsabers.com/index.php/weblog/permalink/entire_school_staff_replaced http://www.bootsandsabers.com/index.php/weblog/permalink/entire_school_staff_replaced#When:04:05:06Z Wow. Now that’s a response. Updated at 10:25 p.m. ET: The Los Angeles Unified School District is replacing the entire staff of Miramonte Elementary School following the arrest of two teachers on lewd conduct charges last week, Superintendent John Deasy told parents at a meeting Monday night, the Los Angeles Times reported. Positions will be filled by qualified teachers and other workers already on a placement or rehiring list, the Times report stated. But the displacement of the current staff could be temporary, according to the report. I didn’t say it was a good response, but it certainly got everyone’s attention. Politics, Politics - General, 2012-02-07T04:05:06+00:00 http://www.bootsandsabers.com/index.php/weblog/permalink/70000_approved http://www.bootsandsabers.com/index.php/weblog/permalink/70000_approved#When:03:54:21Z It seems that the DOJ is catching up with demand. WAUSAU (WAOW)—The Wisconsin Department of Justice has been swamped with requests for concealed carry permits. Since the law went into effect in November, the DOJ reports it received over 80-thousand permit requests and approved nearly 70,000. Firearms, Politics, Politics - Wisconsin, 2012-02-07T03:54:21+00:00 http://www.bootsandsabers.com/index.php/weblog/permalink/no_mere_exercise_in_payback http://www.bootsandsabers.com/index.php/weblog/permalink/no_mere_exercise_in_payback#When:02:16:31Z Charles Lane in the Washington Post nails it. For public-sector unions, the Walker recall is no mere exercise in payback. The unions, upon which Democrats depend heavily for funding and foot soldiers, say Walker must be ousted and his reforms reversed for the sake of the middle class. Progressive values — even democracy itself — are in mortal danger. Actually, the opposite is true. The threat to such progressive goals as majority rule, transparent government, a vibrant public sector and equality comes from public-sector unionism. I had supposed that Walker’s victory in 2010, along with the victory of Republicans in both houses of the state legislature, entitled the people’s choices to make policy until the next election. I had not realized that Wisconsin’s voters were allowed to elect representatives to do everything except change the rules on collective bargaining. “But Walker never campaigned on curtailing union rights!” his opponents cry. What rule of American democracy says that public officials may do only what they explicitly promised before taking office, and nothing else? By that logic, President Obama could be impeached because he opposed an individual mandate to buy health insurance during the campaign, then supported it in office. Of course, collective bargaining in the public sector is inherently contrary to majority rule. It transfers basic public-policy decisions — namely, the pay and working conditions that taxpayers will offer those who work for them — out of the public square and behind closed doors. Progressive Wisconsin has a robust “open meetings” law covering a wide range of government gatherings except — you guessed it — collective bargaining with municipal or state employees. So much for transparency. Even worse, to the extent that unions bankroll the campaigns of the officials with whom they will be negotiating — and they often do — they sit on both sides of the table. Read the whole thing. Politics, Politics - Wisconsin, 2012-02-07T02:16:31+00:00 http://www.bootsandsabers.com/index.php/weblog/permalink/not_all_recoveries_created_equal http://www.bootsandsabers.com/index.php/weblog/permalink/not_all_recoveries_created_equal#When:01:46:39Z Ah yes... The economy grew at 4.5% in 1983, with a few quarters of growth north of 8%. In 2011, meanwhile, the economy grew just 1.7%. In just one month—September 1983—the economy added more than a million jobs. For the full year, the economy added almost 3.5 million jobs, a trend that continued into 1984, an election year in which Reagan captured 49 states in a landslide victory. Obama can claim job growth of 1.8 million in 2011. A welcome comeback, but still tepid by comparison. Looking ahead to 2012, Obama could replicate the 243,000 jobs created in January over each of the next 11 months and still not approach Reagan’s total for 1984 of 3.9 million. Economy, Politics, Politics - General, 2012-02-07T01:46:39+00:00 http://www.bootsandsabers.com/index.php/weblog/permalink/eat_more_lizard http://www.bootsandsabers.com/index.php/weblog/permalink/eat_more_lizard#When:00:54:00Z Yum. Puerto Rico, plagued by iguanas for years, is taking a violent stand against the ubiquitous reptiles. The government is proposing an iguana eradication project that would both eliminate the long-time nuisances, and bolster the territory’s lackluster economy by exporting the reptiles’ meat for as much as $6 a pound. “That is a lot more than chicken,” said Daniel Galan Kercado, secretary of the Department of Natural Resources. “It has great economic potential. The reptiles have cost the U.S. territory hundreds of thousands of dollars annually by sunbathing on San Juan’s airport runways and disrupting traffic; causing power outages by building nests near power plants and wrecking building foundations by burrowing holes underneath them. Foreign Affairs, 2012-02-07T00:54:00+00:00 http://www.bootsandsabers.com/index.php/weblog/permalink/norovirus_outbreak_in_dane_county http://www.bootsandsabers.com/index.php/weblog/permalink/norovirus_outbreak_in_dane_county#When:00:02:58Z I blame Scott Walker. An unusual string of norovirus outbreaks has hit Dane County, including a suspected new outbreak of the foodborne illness in a church group, a health official said Monday. Off-Duty, 2012-02-07T00:02:58+00:00