Peg's speech...

Highlights from Peg Lautenschlager's speech in LaCrosse this weekend include her mentioning that Wisconsin's "Internet Crimes Against Children unit is the very best, making more arrests of Internet predators than any other state in the nation."

She earns highest marks for keeping her campaign promises to protect the environment...

"We have aggressively enforced laws to hold polluters accountable, obtaining hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines and restoration monies. We have fought to stop discharge of all sorts into our lakes and rivers and streams. And we have fought horrible legislation which has undermined our state'’s environmental laws.

"But we have done more.

"We have fought the bush administration‚’s weakening of mercury admissions standards, its invalidation of clean air act compliance rules, its rollback of new source review regulations, and its failure to regulate ballast waters which bring invasive species to the Midwest. And with my progressive-minded colleagues like Elliot Spitzer, I have taken on the powerful and joined an historic law suit to combat global warming."

Peg is one of ten state Attorneys General that are suing the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for failing to regulate new power plant emissions of carbon dioxide, the major contributor to global warming.

"Standing up for the protection of Wisconsin'’s clean air and natural environment is a critical responsibility," she explained in April of this year when the suit was filed. "Once again the federal EPA is failing to carry out the Clean Air Act. No less than our children'’s health and the fate of the planet are at stake - so I am proud the states are taking action to ensure that EPA does its job."

The suit further objects to the EPA failing to set adequate standards for sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, power plant pollutants that contribute to soot, smog, acid rain and higher levels of respiratory disease.

Peg is running for reelection on the strength of a notable record of measurable legal accomplishments... detailed in her LaCrosse speech. I last saw her in person in Madison on January 4, 2005 at the first session of the People's Legislature. She briefly spoke to more than 1,000 people in a packed hall. Her head was bald and she wore no wig. She was fighting breast cancer with chemotherapy, another battle she eventually won...

I look forward to seeing her again on Wednesday, June 14 when she visits Door County. She will speak to the Door County Board of Realtors at a noon luncheon and attend a public reception in her honor from 6 - 8 PM at the Compass Coffeehouse in Fish Creek.

Tracking the convention

Looking for links to live blog posting from the 2006 Wisconsin Democratic Party convention reveals the following:

• WisPolitics 2006 Dem Convention Blog
• The Doyle-Lawton 2006 Blog
• Daniel Cody's Left on the Lake

The Battle for Water...

It's not just Bechtel in Bolivia. The efforts to privatize everything from the media, to historic landmarks, prisons, schools, public lands and even the voting system that controls our democracy has made significant gains in the "business" of providing municipal water within the United States.

In neighboring Illinois things are getting ugly. Several towns that once thought it was smart to cut their expenses by placing the responsibility for municipal water supplies in the hands of private companies have changed their minds. Angry citizens with huge monthly bills payable to RWE, a German firm aptly named American Water has communities up in arms...

"About 15 percent of America's water business is now in private ownership," says Chicago Tribune reporter E.A. Torriero in a May 28, 2006 article. "Those ranks have tripled in the last decade as cash-strapped cities seek ways to upgrade aging water systems by turning to private firms."

But now, a half-dozen Illinois communities - Pekin, Champaign, Urbana, Homer Glen, Orland Park and Bolingbrook - are bent on forcing Illinois American to the bargaining table, joining in a battle that Peoria has been fighting for 7 years.

American Water, once an "American" company was purchased by RWE in 2001 for $7.5 billion. They now have 1,800 operations in 29 states: Arizona, California, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia - plus three Canadian provinces, serving 18 million people and generating $2.2 billion in revenues.

In Illinois grassroots groups are forming reports Torriero, "...to exchange battle plans, hold rallies and plot strategies. Busloads of angry suburban residents descended on Springfield this spring, demanding legislative help."

"The backlash has split towns, torn apart councils and spawned court fights that landed in state supreme courts," says Torriero.

E.A. Torriero's article in the Tribune, "Pressure turned up in the war on water - Towns push to make service public again," provides a wake up call for Wisconsin communities struggling to balance their budgets.

"Water for People and Nature: The Story of Corporate Water Privatization" is a power point presentation developed by the Sierra Club's Corporate Accountability Committee as an educational tool for interested citizens and activists wishing to learn more about water privatization issues and for use by communities mobilizing to prevent corporate privatization of their water services and resources.

Wake Up Ohio warns of "...a creeping shift toward proprietary claims on our Commons. This creep has most recently manifested itself in attempts by the large telecom companies to lobby for the privatization of the Internet. The Ports uproar... Now Exxon-Mobil is using its record windfall profits to fund junk-science to smear what scientists across the globe know for certain, that the earth is warming and American fossil fuel consumption leads the sorry list of probable causes."

Home for Christmas...

"I just remind everybody," Feingold said in New Hampshire this weekend, "Democrats were in the majority in the United States Senate when we voted for the Iraq war and we passed the USA Patriot Act. It's not enough to be just in the majority. You have to stand for something."

The New Republic's Michael Crowley says, "Feingold may emerge as the only 2008 Democratic candidate who voted against the Iraq war: Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, John Edwards, Joe Biden, and Evan Bayh all supported the 2002 war resolution, while governors Tom Vilsack of Iowa and Mark Warner of Virginia are hawkish-sounding centrists."

This weekend Feingold said what so many Americans are waiting to hear... "Why are so many Democrats too timid to say what everyone in America knows? It's time to redeploy the troops. It's time to bring the troops out of Iraq. I say bring them home by the end of the year."

Crowley explains why... "Feingold has not called for the United States to get out of Iraq "right now." But he is the only major congressional Democrat to set a specific withdrawal timetable. The impetus for his proposal was a trip he took to Iraq in February with a small Senate delegation that included, of all people, Hillary Clinton. Feingold had never visited Iraq before, and he was appalled by what he saw there. "We couldn't stay overnight in Iraq," he said recently. "We couldn't drive from the airport to the Green Zone. When we went to the Green Zone, the helicopters had to go just over the palm trees so they wouldn't get shot down. We never got to go out to see the rest of Baghdad, because they couldn't take us out safely. We wore flak jackets and helmets in the Green Zone. And people are worried about chaos if we leave?"

What's wrong with Russ?

"...too aggressive, too principled, too committed to the Constitution," and that scares the hell out of many Democrats says the Cap Times in an essay that mourns the lack of an opposition party. Republicans in Wisconsin are doing their part to make it easier for centrist Democrats to appear to be left leaning by moving their party ever further reich right.

Last week at their Appleton convention they passed Resolution 25 that urges the GOP "to withhold all promotional and financial support of those candidates that do not consistently subscribe to this overall conservative agenda, be they incumbent or new candidates." Anita Weier reports, "It also urges the party to 'actively and vigorously' seek out candidates for office who 'will go in this conservative direction, and respect the wishes of party members.'"

That direction includes 32 other right turns like...

• Resolution 2 supporting concealed carry,
• Resolution 4 in support of the death penalty for "heinous crimes,"
• Resolution 7 in support of the Patriot Act and NSA spying on phone and Internet use both overseas and in the United States,
• Resolution 8 supporting TABOR aka the Taxpayer Protection Amendment,
• Resolution 14 that seeks to pass a "paycheck protection act" that will further cripple unions,
• Resolution 15 that supports using the state constitution to take away freedom based on sexual preferences by defining marriage as between one man and one woman,
• Resolution 29 that defends the use of "In God We Trust" on the nation's money and
• Resolution 31 that calls for ending the state's Stewardship Fund.

Let's see, God, Guns, Gays... we're good to go!

Feingold just won't stop speaking out... here's his recent commentary on the Judiciary Committee’s Handling of the Constitutional Amendment on Marriage:

“Today’s markup of the constitutional amendment concerning marriage, in a small room off the Senate floor with only a handful of people other than Senators and their staffs present, was an affront to the Constitution. I objected to its consideration in such an inappropriate setting and refused to help make a quorum. I am deeply disappointed that the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee went forward with the markup over my objection. Unfortunately, the Majority Leader has set a politically motivated schedule for floor consideration of this measure that the Chairman felt compelled to follow, even though he says he opposes the amendment.

Constitutional amendments deserve the most careful and deliberate consideration of any matter that comes before the Senate. In addition to hearings and a subcommittee markup, such a measure should be considered by the Judiciary Committee in the light of day, open to the press and the public, with cameras present so that the whole country can see what is done. Open and deliberate debate on such an important matter cannot take place in a setting such as the one chosen by the Chairman of the Committee today.

The Constitution of the United States is an historic guarantee of individual freedom. It has served as a beacon of hope, an example to people around the world who yearn to be free and to live their lives without government interference in their most basic human decisions. I took an oath when I joined this body to support and defend the Constitution. I will continue to fight this mean-spirited, divisive, poorly drafted, and misguided amendment when it comes to the Senate floor.”

Russ would be proud of these two young people from Wisconsin, honored among 30 Point Scholars for 2006 with scholarships from The Point Foundation.

Brittany Bjurstrom: As a founder of her school's first-ever Gay-Straight Alliance in a suburb of Milwaukee, WI, Brittany worked to forge a safe environment for students of all sexual orientations and gender identities, while facing vandalism and harassment from multiple fronts of her community. She will enter Wellesley College, in Boston, Massachusetts, this fall.

Johnanna Ganz: Johnanna is from a small, quiet town in Northern Wisconsin. Johnanna came out during her senior year, and encountered intolerance at home and at school. Kicked out of her house at 18, Johnanna managed to find her way to college, where she has continued to thrive. She studies Art History and Women's Studies at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota.

In Washington and also in Madison...
Polling recently conducted by Peter D. Hart Research Associations shows the Federal Marriage Amendment, scheduled for a Senate vote the week of June 5, ranks dead last for voters on a list of priorities on which they want Congress focusing and that voters have strong concerns about changing the Constitution. Commissioned by the Human Rights Campaign, the polling also shows strong opposition to changing the Constitution among independent, senior and Catholic voters.

"Voters want Congress focused on fixing America's challenges, not creating more," says Human Rights Campaign Political Director Samantha Smoot. "The numbers show that Americans want Congress working on affordable health care, the ongoing war in Iraq and passing new ethics and lobbying laws, not changing the Constitution. Senators and Representatives should take these numbers as a sign that this political ploy will backfire at the polls."

Kagen Campaign 8th CD breakaway

Not many people know that Dr. Steve Kagen is also an accomplished bike racer. Cycling is a tough, demanding sport that mixes equal doses of teamwork with a demand for solo performance. Watching the three Democratic candidates in Wisconsin's 8th CD contest, especially Wall and Kagen working together for the common good, has been encouraging to everyone who intends to see John Gard return home in November... err Peshtigo, Sun Prairie... where does Gard really live anyway?

When Gard failed to show up for a well planned 8th CD debate in Sturgeon Bay a few weeks ago everyone, including Terri McCormick his Republican opponent in the primary, spent the evening deconstructing a range of his issues from the current White House administration's lies and failure in Iraq to Gard's efforts to block stem cell research and ethical campaign reform in Wisconsin. Gard probably made a smart decision, choosing to record a no-show in Sturgeon Bay rather than race that day, only to get dropped by the pack.

In every bike race strong contenders are tempted to break away, sprinting off the front of the peloton, then going it alone to maintain and extend their distance from the pursuing melee of the pack. When that racer is an Anquetil, a Merckx or a LeMond they have an unusual combination of strength and endurance built upon years of training. Dr. Kagen is proving to be that kind of contender and he has just broken away from the pack...

The Washington, DC, newspaper Roll Call reports that Dr. Steve Kagen now holds, "a commanding lead over his two Democratic opponents." The article refers to a poll conducted by Fairbanks, Maslin, Maulin and Associates that shows Kagen leading his opponents with 46% support of the likely voting Democrats surveyed. Former Brown County Executive Nancy Nusbaum trails with only 20% support and business consultant Jamie Wall garners a scant 3%.

Perhaps the most telling figure in the poll, though, is Nusbaum's high negative rating, particularly in her base of Brown County. Nearly half of likely Democratic Primary voters in Brown County have an unfavorable opinion of Nusbaum. Brown County will account for 35 percent of the primary vote.

In contrast, Kagen has 59% support in his home county of Outagamie and his strongest supporters are women, particularly those over 50. The poll also shows that Kagen has potential for continued growth. His experience as a local doctor and his well formulated plans to reform health care are squarely in line with voters across the district.

What I like to hear are the voices of so many of my Door County Republican friends who are now telling me they are "Independents" - a sure sign that they are freeing themselves up, getting ready to vote "smart" instead of loyal, looking for progressive leadership regardless of party affiliation.

Top 10 stories...

Concerned that some issues continue not to receive sustained media attention or slip off the radar screen, the United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI) has unveiled a new list of "Ten Stories the World Should Hear More About."

In a similar vein I'd like to ask readers to post your own nominations for Wisconsin's most important but least covered news stories of the year so far.

Divine Strake?

...an odd name for the return of big bomb blasting at the Nevada Test Site. The planned event, now set for June 23, will set off a 700-ton ammonium nitrate and fuel oil bomb (like what was used to blow up the Oklahoma City Federal Bldg.) that opponents claim will kick up radioactive fallout left in the soil from previous nuclear bomb testing conducted from 1951 to 1992. A fifty-mile shock wave followed by a 10,000-foot mushroom cloud may also revive other sleeping giants, launching a new wave of Godzilla sci-fi and hours of TV replay. Maybe it will rain...

OK, so what's a strake? "A device for controlling air flow over an aircraft. A strake is also a part of a boat or ship used for generally the same purpose in water rather than air. It is a strip of planking in a wooden vessel or of plating in a metal one, running longitudinally along the vessel's side, its bottom or between them on the turn of the bilge," explains GlobalSecurity.org (a site that tried to spawn 4 simultaneous pop-up windows so I won't link to it).

The real Divine...

And I thought it was a DIVINE typo but it's worse. It's part of a plan of DIVINE inspiration. The pop-up spawners above report, "DIVINE STRAKE is one of several 'DIVINE' efforts under the Hard and Deeply Buried Target Defeat (HDBTD) program. DIVINE WARHAWK consists of deep underground operational tunnel facility defeat demonstrations using advanced weapons at the White Sands Missile Range. DIVINE HELCAT was a 2004 reconstitution exercise to determine reconstitution time for the C3I tunnel facility at Nevada Test Site (NTS). Also in 2004 planning began for DIVINE HATES, which is a WMD production and storage tunnel complex functional defeat effort."

A Heritage Foundation for the left

Peter Baker, Washington Post Staff Writer reports today...

"After national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley delivered a speech unveiling President Bush's new national security strategy, departing audience members were handed glossy, red-white-and-blue booklets titled "Integrated Power: A National Security Strategy for the 21st Century."

"The booklets, however, outlined not Bush's strategy but that of the Center for American Progress, a three-year-old left-of-center think tank and refuge for Clinton administration alumni. Rather than issue a paper and hope it would be noticed, the center dispatched aides to personally deliver its rebuttal."

Baker explains the Center devotes 40 percent of its budget to communications. "It has its own blog, television booker and a campus affiliate that sponsors publications, speeches and a national tour with the bands Foo Fighters and Weezer."

"This is a new kind of model," says Lee Edwards, a Heritage fellow. "This brings new meaning to the term 'advocacy think tank.' It's gone where no think tank has gone before."

Ed note: I have been getting their e-mail newsletters on a regular basis... full of gritty facts that turn around a specific theme that lends sharp focus to each release.

Funded by George Soros, and affiliated with the Open Society Institute.

Bombs away... but first a few questions.

Mixed messages abound regarding who has built, is building or threatens to build atomic bombs. In 1946, following the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the US had a stockpile of 6 atomic bombs. By the late 1950s the number had risen to well over 5,000. In the next ten years the development of nuclear warheads proceeded to skyrocket to more than 30,000...

The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists says, "As of January 2006, the U.S. stockpile contains almost 10,000 nuclear warheads. This includes 5,735 active or operational warheads: 5,235 strategic and 500 nonstrategic warheads."

How many does it take to be really, really and absolutely 100% safe?

Back in 1998 a study by the Brookings Institution reported that, since the start of the Manhattan Project in 1940, the US Government has spent $5.5 trillion (or five and a half million million dollars) on nuclear weapons up to the end of 1996 - 29% of all US military spending and nearly 11% of all US government spending on nuclear weapons through the 56 years.

While we worry about Iran building a bomb... the United States is spending more today for nuclear weapons testing and design than during the height of the Cold War. Here's a map of where the active nuclear weapons facilities are located in the US...
But who is profiting from this pointless expenditure?

Amer Industrial Technologies, Inc. (AIT) - AIT designs, engineers, and manufactures steel components for Nuclear Applications. 25 Years of Experience, Quality, and Project Management. Think Amer for Nuclear!
COGEMA, Inc. - Since its inception in 1982, COGEMA, Inc. has been offering total nuclear fuel cycle services to support the U.S. nuclear community. The COGEMA Group is proud to count the majority of the United States nuclear utilities amoung our valued customers and is present at a number of Department of Energy sites.
Duke Cogema Stone & Webster LLC - Duke Cogema Stone & Webster LLC is comprised of three partner companies -- DE&S, COGEMA, Inc. and Stone & Webster -- and a number of respected subcontractor firms. The consortium provides full-scope services required by DOE, including design, construction and licensing of a mixed oxide fuel fabrication facility; the fabrication of mixed oxide fuel; and the irradiation of that fuel in commercial nuclear reactors.
Framatome ANP, Inc. - As part of a worldwide team, Framatome ANP, Inc. designs and fabricates nuclear fuel, control components, and incore detectors. It also provides fuel-related engineering and analysis services associated with the nuclear fuel cycle, and field services for inspection and repair of fuel and related components. It is also actively involved in the back end of the fuel cycle in a number of areas, including spent fuel storage and disposal. An AREVA and Siemens company.
GlobalEnergyJobs - GlobalEnergyJobs is focused on the world's energy industry including: oil and gas exploration & production, refining & marketing; power & utility; pipeline transportation; engineering & construction; service & equipment; chemicals & petrochemicals; geothermal; alternative energy; fuel cells; solar; wind; nuclear; cogeneration; mining; professional services; energy banking and information technology.
Savanna River Site (SRS) - SRS was constructed during the early 1950s to produce the basic materials used in the fabrication of nuclear weapons, primarily tritium and plutonium-239. In 1989, SRS began lifting the veil of secrecy under which the site had traditionally operated. SRS focuses on three mission areas associated with products and services essential to achieving the Department of Energy’s (DOE) goals: Nuclear Weapons Stockpile Stewardship, Nuclear Materials Stewardship, and Environmental Stewardship
Thorium Power, Inc. (TPI) - Radkowsky Thorium Fuels (RTF) and the Plutonium Burning Fuels, which are the only known means of preventing commercial nuclear power plants from producing nuclear weapons usable plutonium, are the most effective method to permanently dispose of existing stockpiles of weapons usable plutonium and produce electricity. Thorium Power owns the patent rights to these fuels.
Westinghouse Electric Company, LLC - Westinghouse, part of the BNFL Group, provides nuclear services, nuclear fuel, and nuclear systems & projects.

And what about India and the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)? We signed an international agreement along with 187 other countries, which prevents us or any of the other signators from providing nuclear technology and fuel to countries that have not endorsed the NPT.

When President Bush arrived in New Delhi in March, India had the capacity to produce six to 10 nuclear weapons per year. Under the tentative nuclear agreement reached before the president departed, India would be granted permission to produce more than 30 nuclear weapons per year.

Why has legislation been introduced to weaken US nonproliferation law and allow the US to provide nuclear technology and fuel to India, even though India has not signed the NPT Please urge your Rep. to Vote against HR 4974, the US - India nuclear agreement because it is a bad deal for nonproliferation.

And then there's the question of North Korea.

When Did You Decide You Were Heterosexual?

CNSNews.com reports... A "Heterosexual Questionnaire" distributed to students at Port Washington High School in Wisconsin has prompted outrage. Among other things, students were asked, "If you have never slept with someone of your same gender, then how do you know you wouldn't prefer it?" According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, the survey -- approved by two teachers -- was distributed by a student organization last month, one day before the national Day of Silence, an event advocating acceptance of homosexuals. The school principal and the head of the local school board said the survey was inappropriate and was given to students without permission. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported that some of the questions were intended to make heterosexuals understand what it's like to homosexual: Those questions included: "What do you think caused your heterosexuality?" and "When did you decide you were heterosexual?"

Please leave the acting to equity professionals...

The Wisconsin Assembly's Committee on Campaigns and Elections is made up of Representatives Freese, chairperson, Gundrum, vice chairperson and Representatives J. Wood, Vos, Travis, and Kessler.

Chairman Freese put on quite a show battling for a higher standard of ethics. Let's call him the good cop, fighting for much needed campaign reform and stronger powers of enforcement. He even went so far as to threaten bad cop, John Gard and his minions with resigning from his leadership position in the Assembly if his committee's campaign reform bill, SB 1, was not brought up for a vote.

Yesterday this keystone cop-out performance came to a close. Many of these wooden actors took their bows and left the stage, left the theater, knowing their checks will remain safely in the mail. No fear! With a tough election ahead most Republican Assembly legislators can count on having all of that Illinois cash and other special interest contributions continue to flow into their campaigns - with no questions asked.

Only these seven Republicans had the courage to stand along side ALL of the Democrats in the Assembly yesterday to vote "Aye" in hopes of a move toward ethical campaign reform: Albers, Davis, Hines, Lasee, McCormick, Ott and Pettis. The motion to bring SB1 to a floor vote failed 51-45. Where were those four missing Republican votes that would have given Wisconsin citizens a means to investigate all of the dirty money that is ruining our democracy?

Look to the Wisconsin Assembly's Committee on Campaigns and Elections - the ones who fought so hard to bring SB1 to the floor for a vote. The nay voting committee members included Freese, Gundrum, Wood and Vos - the four Republicans. The aye votes included members Travis and Kessler - the two Democrats.

In the final fight scene Freeze froze... a shabby actor with a bad script. Broadway investors with fists full of money may keep this show running for a few more months, but with a hot summer ahead, people will be raising an abundance of tomatoes in preparation for November.

Natives are restless...

"It's clear that the legislature has the votes to pass ethics reform, but the leadership is afraid to bring it to the floor," says Ed Garvey. Hear him introducing Wisconsin Democracy Campaign's Mike McCabe at the Capitol this morning, who then speaks to protesters, followed by Nino Amato and Rep. Mark Pocan - all demanding an Assembly vote on the campaign reform bills passed by the Senate. SB1 combines the State Ethics and Elections Boards as originally envisioned by the People's Legislature in their first assembly more than a year ago. Click to read highlights on the protest posted by Dave Callender in the Cap Times.

While Rep. Steve Freese (R) continues to wring his hands in frustration, I can't help but note that he was also responsible for altering the original bill as approved by the Senate. Endorsed 28 - 5 and then blessed by Gov. Doyle, Freese and his committee members then added in additional capacity to investigate local elected officials instead of keeping the powers of the new agency limited to monitoring only state legislators. IMHO the wave of indignation that followed became a means to effectively stall out the clock...

While Freese says the amendments for locals could be removed, he also says, wiping away those pesky crocodile tears, that he thinks the bill is dead for this session. Whew! That was close... Pocan threatens a filibuster!

Support Wisconsin Citizens' Right to Breathe Clean Air

Big Tobacco, the Wisconsin Tavern League, and their allies in the State Senate are making a last ditch effort to pass legislation that will take away your right to breathe clean air.

Assembly Bill 414/Senate Bill 202 would overturn 26 local smoke-free ordinances and prevent communities from protecting their citizens from secondhand smoke in the future. This legislation would expose Wisconsin's citizens to more secondhand smoke. This bill will be voted on Wednesday - please take action today. Fill out this on-line form to e-mail your State Senator. Urge him or her to oppose AB 414/SB 202.

Learn more about SmokeFree Wisconsin - a single issue organization whose mission is to promote effective tobacco control policies that will protect nonsmokers from secondhand smoke; prevent the initiation of smoking, especially among children; and ensure that there is a well-funded, comprehensive and effective statewide tobacco prevention program.

I just sent this letter to legislators using the form above...

Dear [Lawmaker]:

I am writing to strongly urge you to oppose AB 414/SB 202 or any attempt to limit the ability of local governments to protect us from the dangers of secondhand smoke. AB 414/SB 202 would put smoke back on the menu in many parts of the state.

When do you stop trying to take local control away from citizens and their elected officials? There is a pretty bad record accumulating in this regard. Voters will be informed in November and hold you accountable.

Voters in the City of Appleton just voted to keep their 100% smoke-free ordinance by an overwhelming 57%. Three weeks later, some in the legislature want to pass a state law that overturns this vote, along with 25 other local policies around the\nstate.

Your constituents are keenly aware of the health harms caused by secondhand smoke. The 4,000 chemicals in secondhand smoke, including ammonia, arsenic, and carbon monoxide are especially dangerous for our children, the elderly, and people exposed\nto secondhand smoke every day at work.

I urge you to reject this last minute attempt to undermine public health in Wisconsin by exposing more residents and workers to secondhand smoke. The legislature should enact a law that protects all workers and patrons from secondhand smoke - not less. State government certainly should not hamstring local leaders who are willing to enact meaningful protections.

Please vote no on AB 414 and SB 202.

Sincerely,
Steve Kastner,
Editor and Publisher...
Door County Compass
The Wisconsin Progressive

Hail to the Chief

Charlie Savage, Boston Globe Staff reports on April 30, 2006...
Bush challenges hundreds of laws
President cites powers of his office

WASHINGTON - President Bush has quietly claimed the authority to disobey more than 750 laws enacted since he took office, asserting that he has the power to set aside any statute passed by Congress when it conflicts with his interpretation of the Constitution.

Among the laws Bush said he can ignore are military rules and regulations, affirmative-action provisions, requirements that Congress be told about immigration services problems, ''whistle-blower" protections for nuclear regulatory officials, and safeguards against political interference in federally funded research. More...

In case you missed it...
'The March for Peace, Justice, and Democracy'
Organizers say over 300,000 people demonstrated in New York City on Saturday, marching for 30 city blocks demanding an end to the Iraq war. Since the media blinked past it with, at best a mention of the "tens of thousands," you may wish to read a full report by Tom Engelhardt that paints a larger picture of the, "20 packed blocks of demonstrators - bands, puppets, signs by the thousands, vets by the hundreds (if not the thousands), huge contingents of military families, congeries of the young, labor, women, the clergy, university and high school students, raging grannies, radical cheerleaders, and who knows who else - an enormous mass of humanity as far as the eye can see and probably another 10 to 15 blocks beyond that."

Our own Donna is having making trouble in Florida...
Students at the University of Miami are hunger striking to demand that Miami President, and former Clinton cabinet member Donna Shalala honor the right of campus janitors to form a union. This hunger strike is ongoing and follows on the heels of a two-week hunger strike by janitors at the university. They need your support.
Send a letter to Shalala.

Fighting the Protestant Ethnic

It started with another random discovery... The Attack of the Viral Campaign Ads and proceeded to an e-mail message containing the lyrics to I'm The Decider (Koo-Koo-Ka-Choo)

I am me and Rummy's he, Iraq is free and we are all together
See the world run when Dick shoots his gun, see how I lie
I'm Lying...

and of course I clicked the link... only to be amazed and delighted at the effort put forth in creating this little masterpiece of multi-media. And, at the bottom of the page I see a another link... a white rabbit dissappears and I am quick to leap in pursuit, vanishing down the rabbit hole--->

Are you a designer, comic, filmmaker, or activist with a creative idea that could become the Internet’s next big viral success story? If so, we invite you to enter the Contagious Festival, an ongoing web competition and talent search. You simply create an account, upload your project to the official Contagious Festival server and watch the live rankings to see if your entry is contagious.

Each month, the entry with the most traffic wins the “People’s Choice Award” and a panel of esteemed judges awards a “Jury Prize” based on originality, creativity and best social commentary.

Be forewarned: this is called viral marketing because it is contagious, symptomatic and may cost you the better part of at least one work day as you pursue all of the many creative entries in this ongoing festival... You may never shake the infection - it's monthly!

But then... it's Sunday, so enjoy!

Multi-media

This animation illustrates the failure of...
The Nuclear Bunker Buster - Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator as an effective weapon and explains the threat to life and health for millions of civilians that lie within the scope of impact and the range of resulting fallout.

With apologies to the Beach Boys...
Adam Kontras has created "Lets Bomb Iran!" - including sing-along lyrics.

And then there's the latest from TooStipidToBePresident.com, Camp Redemption.

The following commentary on the mainstream media may help to explain why indies are driven to create their own info-tainment...

News that should grind your gears
By Barb Ickes - Quad City Times

The corrupt former governor of Illinois (how liberating to say so) isn’t finished lining his pockets with taxpayer dough.

George Ryan’s $16,419 monthly pension reportedly will continue until at least November. That’s the earliest a state board can get together to decide whether the convicted felon loses the state benefit.

Despite being found guilty of fraud, racketeering, obstruction and lying to the FBI, Ryan is likely to collect at least another $98,514 before he’s cut off. And there’s no guarantee he will be cut off.

Taxpayers should be outraged. But most people won’t be. They’re too caught up in the latest news about Natalee Holloway, the Alabama teenager who disappeared in Aruba a year ago.

I don’t get it.

Our money is being ripped out of our hands every time we unscrew the cap to the gas tank. We’re paying almost three bucks a gallon, but there’s no good reason for it. You know how we know there’s no reason? Because the big oil companies are posting record multibillion-dollar profits.

Meanwhile, more detailed information is becoming available to show just how much you and I are paying in welfare to Wal-Mart — the nation’s richest-ever retailer.

According to the Small Business Times in Milwaukee, more than 40 percent of enrollees in Wisconsin’s health-care program for the working poor are employees of Wal-Mart.

But who cares?

There’s been another arrest in the Natalee Holloway disappearance. Stop the presses. Update the Web sites.

I don’t get it.

At least six retired military generals are aggressively pursuing the resignation of U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, based on what they describe as dangerous defense missteps and wildly out-of-hand arrogance.

And how did our president respond?

“I’m the decider,” Bush replied, confirming that a 9-year-old boy with a frog in his pocket and mud on both shoes really could outthink the leader of the free world.

But never mind that. Natalee Holloway is missing.

Anxious-looking scientists and researchers have been coming up for air in recent weeks as they study the world’s coral reefs, including those in Key West, Fla. They look anxious because their research is showing that at least 20 percent of the world’s coral reefs have perished over the past two years and 50 percent are in danger of dying.

Unusually high sea temperatures (courtesy of global warming), which also led to record hurricanes, are being blamed. The die-off includes Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, which managed to survive for 18 million years until we came along.

Scientists say the loss of coral reefs will have “a catastrophic impact on all marine life.”

But that news will have to wait.

What inquiring minds really want to know is: Did those two Aruban brothers really have anything to do with Natalee Holloway’s disappearance?

No wonder governors feel free to take what they want from us and the president unashamedly pretends like we’re not being robbed blind by big oil and Wal-Mart bloats while the coral reefs die.

Natalee Holloway, a blonde honors student, vanished on a vacation to the Caribbean a year ago.

I don’t get it.

Barb Ickes can be contacted at

(563) 383-2316 or bickes@qctimes.com.

Smoking Gun Fatigue

"We have reached smoking gun fatigue." says Swanson, founder of After Downing Street. "We have new memos and testimony every week on the war lies." See former Col. Ann Wright and David Swanson speaking to a San Diego business group about ending the war and impeaching Bush/Cheney.

McKinney Blues...

Norvel notes:

Another new reason I hate cell phones... now they're being used as weapons!

How many incidents of whacking or throwing them have taken place in the last year?

At least it didn't happen much when they first came out (and were the size of milk cartons) and weighed 2-3 pounds... sheesh... Us Americans is a violent peoples!

The manufacturers would probably make them with stun guns built in for self-defense, but too many dumb people would stun themselves accidentally when they put them to their heads to make a call, like when they accidentally take pictures of their own ears with their new picture phones!

Remembering Desmond Doss

Thanks to Russell Wallace (and CNN!) for the following:

Decorated conscientious objector buried with honors
Served as medic in World War II

CHATTANOOGA, Tennessee (AP) - The only conscientious objector to receive a Medal of Honor in World War II has been buried at a national cemetery with a 21-gun salute.

Desmond T. Doss Sr., 87, died March 23 in Piedmont, Alabama, where he and his wife, Frances, had been living with family.

A horse-drawn hearse delivered the flag-covered casket to the grave site Monday in the Chattanooga National Cemetery. Military helicopters flew overhead in a tribute formation. (Watch a final salute to one of WW II's finest -- 1:35)

Doss had endured ridicule for his beliefs but "remained true to his convictions even when it was not the most popular thing to do," said Patti Parks, a retired Navy commander and director of the Medal of Honor Museum in Chattanooga.

Doss, who refused to carry a weapon during his wartime service in the Pacific as an Army medic, was the subject of a book, "The Unlikeliest Hero," (Out of Print--Limited Availability) and a 2004 documentary, "The Conscientious Objector."

Medal of Honor Society records show he was among 3,442 recipients of the nation's highest military honor.

While under fire on the island of Okinawa, Doss carried 75 wounded soldiers to the edge of a 400-foot cliff and lowered them to safety, according to his citation.

During a later attack, he was seriously wounded in the legs by a grenade. According to the citation, as he was being carried to safety, he saw a more critically injured man and crawled off his stretcher, directing the medics to help the other man.

"He wanted to serve. He just didn't want to kill anybody," said a veteran who attended the service, Fred Headrick, 85. "Most all of them (Medal of Honor recipients) received their medal for killing someone. He received his by saving lives."

...and to Dotty Diggs for Walt Handelsman's take on Domestic Spying!