No Runny Eggs

Here are, in my view, interesting, noteworthy columns and articles from the past week that I highly recommend (You will note that on occasion, I do not endorse the opinions of the author and may point that out. Despite my disagreements, I still feel the piece is worth a read).

Democrat candidates play down party

“One New York Democrat proclaims that he proudly opposed the federal government’s health care overhaul plan. Another one pledges, in the finest Tea Party spirit, to oppose any future financial bailouts. Still another has rolled out three Republicans in three separate commercials, all vouching for his credentials. But there is one word you will not hear mentioned in any of these campaign advertisements: Democrat. ”

The fired Congress

“Some companies have a policy that once someone is fired, they aren’t allowed back on the premises out of fear they might do further damage to the company. It’s too bad Congress doesn’t have the same policy. Because before they’re replaced in January, all of the Democrats who are put out of a job in November will be able to come back and rob the nation blind.”

The rise of black Republicans

“One might think the resurgence of black Republicans, coming as it does at a time when a black Democrat is president, would rate more than a feature story or two in the national media. But that would conflict with the liberal meme that Republicans are racist.

Many liberals also say Republicans are anti-immigrant, even though Hispanic Republicans are poised to win a Senate seat in Florida (Marco Rubio) and gubernatorial races in New Mexico (Susana Martinez) and Nevada (Brian Sandoval).”

A letter from a Republican to Hispanics

“First, a message to those of you here illegally: You may be very surprised to hear this, but in your position, millions of Americans, including me, would have done what you did.”

Regulatory tsunami hurts job growth

“Regulations coming out of Washington, D.C., are impeding job growth and moving the United States away ‘from a government of the people to a government of the regulators,’ the head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce says.”

Five Societal Trends That Signal Our Nation’s Decline

“Each of these five trends taken separately could be viewed as a serious problem but not necessarily a signal of national decline. However, when these problems are considered collectively with their cause and effect and interrelationships, it becomes apparent why we are facing a society-transforming tsunami that our nation as a free market democracy is nearly powerless to stop — no matter how many millions of dollars our government throws at these problems.”

Is hate speech protected?

“The Supreme Court is now hearing the Snyder-Phelps case and the outcome is important for all Americans. With the rise of the internet, cyber-bullying and threatening behavior has become a plague upon the land. Kids are committing suicide because they are humiliated on the net and anyone can be targeted by sick individuals. Inflicting emotional distress on another human being is just a mouse click away.”

Shocking: Bigoted White Tea Party Woman Beats Petite Black Female Reporter

“I’m sorry, I got that wrong. Stupid me. I’m never going to make it in this business. It was actually a big black liberal woman who whaled on a petite white conservative female reporter last weekend.

Whew, thank God I corrected myself because we all know that if a hulking honky Tea Party mama with dragon nails had smacked down a svelte progressive black female reporter (and on film, no less) it would have caused a media firestorm.”

Here is the Appleton Post-Crescent article I discussed on WISN today while filling in for Mark Belling:

“Federal law makes sewage overflows illegal. Yet they frequently happen and mostly without the public knowing.

In all, about 9.1 billion gallons of untreated sewage-contaminated water — enough to fill 457,000 backyard swimming pools — were released into the environment by 276 villages, cities, counties and sewage districts on 1,198 occurrences statewide since Jan. 1, 2006, according to data collected by the DNR and analyzed by The Post-Crescent. The wastewater overflows happened in 58 of the state’s 72 counties, including throughout the Fox Valley.

The state’s biggest by far came from one source: the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewage District, which provides sewage service for 28 municipalities, including Milwaukee, through a shared pipe system. The district reported nearly 8.5 billion gallons of overflows, mostly into Lake Michigan, since the beginning of 2006, when the DNR began organizing the data electronically.”

And here is the CRG news release mentioned on today’s program:

NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release                                                                            
October 3, 2010
For Further Information Contact:

Chris Kliesmet, 414-429-9501

Unelected Boards Create Campaign CashBarrett Example Yields Over $150,000 in Board Contributions

Citizens for Responsible Government (CRG) has long analyzed and reported on the drawbacks of unelected boards, particularly those with the power to unilaterally impose taxes.  The CRG audit and online database of Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC) Board spending and the well-publicized shortcomings of the Metro-Milwaukee Sewage District (MMSD) Board highlight a lengthy list of perceived problems with unelected boards given broad regulatory power as well as taxing power without direct voter representation.

CRG began an investigation and analysis of MMSD due to citizen outrage over recent flooding and basement sewage back-ups.  Initial findings suggested that these failures are largely due to governance issues at the City of Milwaukee and on the MMSD Board level rather than operational issues at MMSD.  Further investigation of political actions and involvement within MMSD revealed significant contributions from MMSD Board members to the politicians that appoint them.

For example, MMSD Board members contributed almost $10,000 to Tom Barrett campaigns with $4,000 being contributed in 2009-2010 election cycle alone.  Every MMSD Board who contributed gave at least $100, six gave at least $250, five gave at least $500, and three gave over $1000 with one donor exceeding $2000 and another exceeding $3000.

As a result, a pilot project was undertaken to analyze and understand the relationship between political contributions and appointments to boards such as MMSD. The City of Milwaukee and Mayor Barrett were chosen as the initial study example based on the large number of appointed boards the City has jurisdiction over as well as the large number of mayoral appointees to those boards.

The study methodology required compiling a partial list of mayoral board appointees by Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett to 92 boards during his tenure as mayor (list is partial as a complete list of past appointees do not exist – spouses were included on list). This list was cross-indexed against contributions to Barrett campaigns from 7/1/2000 to 6/30/2010 obtained from databases maintained by the City of Milwaukee and the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.  The entire tabulated data set may be downloaded at www.crgnetwork.com/shared/Barrett Board Appointee Contributors Worksheet.xls.

The following are selected statistics from the analysis

 Project leader Chris Kliesmet commented, “The numbers yielded by our analysis were quite surprising and perhaps more than a little disturbing.  Given that the total contributions are well into six figures and the average total contributions per donor crosses the one-thousand dollar mark, it does suggest at least a perception of impropriety that should be addressed, particularly when reviewing compensated boards.  Additionally, one must not discount the imputed value of the regulatory power wielded even by uncompensated boards.  For those seeking appointments, and there are many who covet such appointments, the regulatory power may be more highly valued than any monetary reward.  Whether by design or sheer happenstance, it is safe to say that the power to make unelected board appointments can be used as a tool to raise campaign cash and creates yet another strong argument against unelected boards.  CRG will issue updates to our investigations should our analyses continue to yield noteworthy results.”

UPDATE:While I was on the air today, Chris Kleismet of CRG tried to phone in, but couldn’t because the lines were jammed.He wanted to pass along important information.

CRG’s analysis of campaign cash contributions showed that one person, Ronald S. San Felippo gave six contributions on or about the 22^nd of each month to Tom Barrett with the last contribution made on 6/22/10. Here are San Felippo’s donations to Barrett:

1/22/10: $1,500

2/22/10: $1,500

3/22/10: $1,500

4/22/10: $1,500

5/22/10: $1,500

6/22/10: $1,500

Note the last contribution on 6/22/10

Just six days later, San Felippo was appointed to the Business Improvement District Board #2 by Barrett.

A coincidence? I don’t think so.

Kleismet also offers that a video and transcript of MMSD Kevin Schafer’s remarks saying that 2 of 4 previous sewerage overflow dumps could have been avoided by a change to legislation can be found here.

Kleismet wrote to me:

“By law they (MMSD) must start dumping in ANTICIPATION of separated sewer flows IN CASE they MIGHT come in. That means they start dumping with the tunnel often less than half full. On two occasions the suburban flows DID NOT COME IN AS PREDICTED and they dumped sewage that didn’t need to be dumped.

Why are politicians like Barrett unwilling to crusade for this change? This is outrageous they COULD have eliminated half of the overflows last year without so much as the cost of the ink for their signatures on a piece of legislative paper.

This is a huge campaign issue that Scott Walker needs to hammer on. He could use your help doing so. Please consider sending a contribution.

Here are, in my view, interesting, noteworthy columns and articles from the past week that I highly recommend:

Compare and contrast: Karl Marx 10-point program of Communism and Democrat agenda

“No federal government has damaged the American free market more than this one. No federal government has stolen more employment, more freedom, more private property — from this and future generations — than this one. No government has created more regulations, more unconstitutional dictates, more — dare I say it — slavery than this one.”

Don’t show all your cards

“If all goes well for Republicans in the midterm elections, they’ll capture the House and maybe the Senate, having revealed few specifics of what they might do in the next Congress. This makes sense. It’s the Chris Christie strategy.”

When blacks attack Obama

“I am forbidden to critique BHO and his boys on anything they say or do. Yes, if I do utter anything derogatory regarding his holiness it is immediately dismissed because of four primary reasons. Herewith are the raisons d’être of why I cannot decry señor Hussein.

Reason #1: I am white. How do I know I’m white? Well, aside from my skin color, one telling mark of my Caucasian-ness is that I have Hall & Oates on my iPod (I always set the treble up higher than the bass) and, of course, my Florence Henderson tattoo. If that ain’t white, I don’t know what is. Since I’m white I’m not allowed to disagree with Obama because that’d be hatred. It’s true. It’s science.

Reason #2: …”

The Ted Pledge

“What Republicans owe the American people is a hefty dose of plain-speaking, bold pragmatism that clearly articulates the GOP’s vision for America. Even I, your humble Motown guitar slayer, remain steadfastly locked on the vision of our Founding Fathers and am prepared to ride to their rescue with the Ted Pledge. My crowbar of logic and truth does not gently weep.”

The Five Biggest Lies about Liberalism

“Every now and then liberals like to claim that they’re patriotic. Usually around an election. Of course they’re not patriotic in the ‘wear a flag on your lapel’ kind of way. They’re more patriotic in the ‘point out everything wrong with your country and then threaten to move to Canada if you don’t win the election’ way. Which is fine. America has seen patriots like that before. They used to wear green coats and moved to Canada, right around the time the last British troops left New York on Evacuation Day.”

Quietly racking up the abortion toll

“While Planned Parenthood continues to sit on its annual report for 2008-2009, new documents found hidden on its labyrinthine website give taxpayers an insider’s look into the beleaguered abortion monopoly it is helping fund.

The shocking thing about these numbers is that they are finally dispelling the ubiquitous Planned Parenthood lie that the organization is about something other than abortion.”

Finding Reassurance for America in Baseball

“Anyone who says America is broken, dysfunctional and doomed hasn’t been to a ballgame lately. The people who come out to such sporting events aren’t just the superrich or the privileged few: They represent every economic and ethnic segment of the society. When 20,000 enthusiasts can still find the money to come out to cheer a last place team, it’s inappropriate to peddle apocalyptic visions of a nation made up primarily of the destitute and desperate.”

Toys from our youth that would be illegal today

“A while back I wrote about the Johnny Seven One Man Army rifle (a toy from the sixties that Chuck Schumer would personally ban). What other toys from our youth would the Party of Weakness outlaw in this politically correct day and age?”