Boots & Sabers

The blogging will continue until morale improves...

Month: May 2017

McCabe to Run for Guv?

It’s kind of funny that McCabe has been held up in the media as an impartial government watchdog for years despite his obvious liberal bias. Now, at least, he admits his bias.

Former Wisconsin Democracy Campaign executive director Mike McCabe said Wednesday he’s mulling a gubernatorial campaign in response to a letter from 190 Wisconsinites urging him to run.

McCabe said he’s willing to run, but cautioned that an announcement wouldn’t come until after Labor Day and would depend on his supporters helping to organize a campaign.

“Obviously a lot of pieces would have to fall into place to make that happen,” McCabe said in an interview. “It’s not something that I’ve been planning for. So I really have to take the coming weeks and months to be able to pull everything together. That’s not something that can all be figured out today or this week.”

McCabe, 56, is founder and president of Blue Jean Nation, a nonprofit that engages citizens to challenge the political establishment. He was a founding member of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, which tracks campaign finance in the state, and served as director from 2000 to 2015. He previously worked for the Madison School District, Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance and three Republican legislators.

McCabe said he doesn’t know if he would run as an independent or a Democrat, but acknowledged that it would be difficult to run a third-party campaign.

Transportation Plan in the Works

It looks like the trial balloons are floating.

Here’s some of what Kooyenga has discussed:

  • Applying the state’s 5% sales tax to gasoline, which could bring in up to 10 cents per gallon at current gasoline prices in the Milwaukee area. Unlike the current flat gas tax, the sales tax on gasoline could rise —  or fall —  as fuel prices go up and down.
  • Eliminating 4 to 5 cents of the state’s 32.9-cent-per-gallon gasoline tax, which would soften the overall tax increase on drivers.
  • Making significant cuts to income taxes as part of a plan to move to a 4% flat tax over many years. “The long-term goal is to say we have a flat tax,” Vos acknowledged.
  • Cutting roughly $300 million of the $500 million in borrowing for roads contained in Walker’s two-year budget bill. That means that over the next two years much of the new money being raised would go for debt reduction rather than for additional road projects — a potential sticking point for road builders who have been seeking more money for highways.
  • Reducing the state-mandated markup on gasoline prices from its current level of 9.18% over the average wholesale price to something lower, such as 3%. That could help shield drivers from cost increases from the new taxes, but this provision will be controversial and likely draw opposition from some Wisconsin retailers such as convenience store chain Kwik Trip.
  • Repealing the state’s minimum wage standards — known as the prevailing wage —  for workers on public works projects such as road and bridge construction.
  • Cutting about 180 Department of Transportation engineers who were added to the department’s payroll in 2013. Their work would likely be picked up by private-sector engineers.
  • Applying to the federal government for permission to place tolls on certain state highways.

Obviously, we need to see the actual plan before spending too much time on it, but there are some good things in here. I like the repeal of prevailing wage, cutting staff, cutting income taxes, etc. I don’t like tax increases or toll roads. What bothers me the most is that except for the prevailing wage proposal, there isn’t anything in here that addresses the causes for high spending. Wisconsin still spends more on roads per mile than comparable states. Why? What about questionable requirements that drive up costs (roundabouts, art work, bike lanes, etc.)? What about wasteful spending on mass transit? Before legislators spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to squeeze more transportation taxes out of Wisconsinites, they need to address the causes of the bloated spending.

But we’ll see… Kooyenga is a smart guy and a solid conservative. I expect that the full plan with have more good than bad.

Protect free speech on campus

My column for the West Bend Daily News is online. Here you go:

There has been a virulent strain of anti-free speech fascism developing on our college campuses, and on too many campuses, this fascism has been nurtured and encouraged by the very faculty and staff that are charged with expanding minds.

The most recent high-profile example of this trend happened at the University of California, Berkley, over the past few weeks. A group of fascists rioted in order to prevent conservative firebrand Ann Coulter from giving a speech on campus. Under the threat of violence and Berkley officials’ unwillingness to control the rioters, Coulter cancelled her speech.

This has been happening to invited speakers who do not espouse leftist political beliefs at campuses all over the nation. In March, students at Middlebury College in Vermont shouted down American Enterprise Institute political scientist Charles Murry, pulled the fire alarm, banged on the walls, and assaulted a female professor. Berkley was the scene of more riots back in February when pro-free speech (not conservative) provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos was scheduled to speak. The fascists set fire to trees, attacked bystanders, and forced the speech to be cancelled.

Lest you think that such behavior is confined to the coasts, Madison and Milwaukee was the scene of similar actions when conservative public speaker Ben Shapiro came to Wisconsin last year. When Shapiro spoke at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, students organized to shout Shapiro down and prevent him from speaking. Over at Marquette University earlier this year, Marquette’s faculty was caught trying to sabotage the event by reserving seats for the speech as fake students in order to prevent actual students from attending. Such lying is apparently condoned by Marquette’s staff.

Protests on college campuses are nothing new. In the classical liberal tradition, college is a place for students to have their minds stretched, their beliefs questioned, and their prejudices challenged. Protesting for and against various causes and pushing against authority is part of the American college tradition. But what is going on now on college campuses is something different and vile.

Instead of merely protesting or offering a different viewpoint, liberal fascists on campus are acting -often

violently – to repress the speech of people with whom they disagree. That is not expression. That is oppression.

In years past, college administrators and faculty were often the most ardent defenders of free speech and would take necessary actions to defend and protect others’ right to free expression. Unfortunately, for too many colleges, those days have ended. Too often, we see college administrators and faculty either refusing to defend anyone except fellow leftists and, as in the case at Marquette, actively work to suppress anyone who would challenge leftist orthodoxy.

State Representative Jesse Kremer (R-Kewaskum) has introduced a bill titled the “Campus Free Speech Act” to attempt to force public college administrators to do what they should have been doing all along – defend free speech on their campuses. The bill would require the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents to develop and implement a system wide policy to defend the free expression of ideas. The policy must continue to allow protests, but would punish students who repeatedly attempt to quash the free speech of others.

In a perfect world, the legislature would not need to step in and require the Board of Regents to take action to defend free speech. In a perfect world, UW officials at all levels would so honor and cherish the right to free speech that they would marshal every weapon at their disposal to protect and defend people who are speaking their minds – however contrary to their own beliefs. But as we all know, the world is not perfect, and we must continue to push back the forces of oppression and fascism. Kremer’s bill is a necessary step to protect free speech for everyone precisely in the place where diverse viewpoints should be celebrated.

Inquest Jury Recommends Charges

Bearing in mind that only the prosecutors get to present to an inquest jury so they only get one side of the story, it sure does appear that something went terribly wrong at the jail and someone is responsible for this man’s death.

An inquest jury Monday issued an advisory verdict that probable cause of a crime exists in the death of Terrill Thomas in the Milwaukee County Jail a year ago.

The jury found probable cause of a crime in the actions of seven jail officials under a felony statute prohibiting abuse, neglect and ill-treatment of inmates.

Now it will be up to District Attorney John Chisholm to decide if any criminal charges are warranted in the April 2016 death of Thomas, a 38-year-old with bipolar disorder who was deprived of water and a mattress during seven straight days at the Milwaukee County Jail run by Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr.

Gluten Found in Meth

You’ve been warned.

PORTLAND, OR — Health experts have today warned that meth found on the streets of Portland has tested positive for gluten, a protein composite normally found in several types of grains, including wheat, spelt, rye, and barley.

Action on Gluten has been set up to help meth users avoid “hidden gluten”, and to get drug dealers to offer a much safer gluten free meth for the tweaker communities of Oregon.

The organization believes they can successfully eliminate gluten from meth completely within a year, ensuring a much cleaner form of crystal and a brighter future for children who love meth.

Action on Gluten spokesperson Simon Krueger explained, “Gluten is not only dangerous, but also highly addictive. When added to meth, an otherwise fairly safe drug, the consequences can be deadly.”

Lefty Lawyer Announces Run for Wisconsin Supreme Court

It looks like the Democrats have found a candidate early this cycle.

Madison attorney Tim Burns today announced he will run for the state Supreme Court next year, when conservative Justice Michael Gableman would be up for re-election.

Burns, who said his legal practice focuses on challenging insurance companies on behalf of businesses and consumers, said he was inspired to run because he has watched the judiciary’s fairness and impartiality getting chipped away over the last several decades due to judges being aligned with special interests and “radical philosophies.”

I got a kick out of this.

Burns also said he does not plan to self-fund his campaign, saying he disagrees with that approach to running for office.

“It doesn’t comport with my notion of democracy,” he said. “It worries me because it sends a message that only rich folks can be in elected office.”

In true Democrat fashion… he’ll only spend other people’s money on his own ambitions.

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