Labor Day has arrived and signals the 'end of summer' as nights get chillier and children and grandchildren go back to their respective schools.  Ideally, we will enjoy a luxurious fall season with leaves ablaze and many beautiful days before snowflakes once again arrive.

Labor Day was formally decreed across the United States in 1894 by then President Grover Cleveland.  The new federal holiday was swiftly approved by Congress and has been with us since.

Labor Day has, like so many special holidays, lost a lot of its meaning for many people.  For some, it is simply another three-day week-end.  For others, it is the time when the Muscular Dystrophy fund drive is hosted by Jerry Lewis, and so on. 

I have never been a member of organized labor, unless by accident during my six-week 'career' at the Estwing hammer plant in Rockford, IL in the early 1960s.  I have friends who were and still are members of unions.  I have many acquaintances who were and/or are members of unions.  My feelings about the labor movement tend toward the position that they were very important during the later years of the Industrial Revolution and during the early third of the 20th century.  Since that time, I am convinced that unions, in general, have lost the essence of what made them so dominant during those times.  Child labor laws have curtailed that practice.  Employers have come out of the dark ages in most cases and recognize they must treat their employees as humans who are part of the reason for the success or failure of their business.

Among the strongest unions today is the SEIU (Service Employees International Union) run by Mr. Andy Stern.  He has proved to be a consummate organizer and is one of the brightest people in organized labor today of which I'm aware.  I see entities such as 9 to 5 with the soon to be held referendum that would bind employers in Milwaukee to offering sick leave for all employees.  These organizations tend to signal the changes that have been occurring in our country.  The strongest union is one that organized workers in the 'service' sector.  The old United Auto Workers (UAW) struggles with the malaise felt throughout that industry.  Coal miners no longer have the clout that once was theirs.

I see the Democrats in Congress still carrying the water for labor with such things as the open vote effort that would certainly favor organizers and quiet the opposition.  Political power changes hands periodically and that has a great deal to do with the ebb and flow of organized labor.  Labor organizations still have the ability to mobilize tens of thousands of 'volunteers' to get out the vote.  Republicans can only stand in the shadows and lament that they do not have similar clout.

I wonder where organized labor will be in a decade or two or three.  I don't know but I do recognize that change will continue at the same or a faster pace.  Will organized labor find ways to make inroads in India or China?  Will those governments permit such organizing?  If the government of China permits organizing, I wonder at what cost to the workers?  Will unions in the U.S. come together to maintain a level of strength that many have already lost individually?  If so, where will the new leaders come from?  I doubt that heavy industry will be the source of leadership; it more likely comes from the service sector of our economy given the massive shifts in employment in our country.

At any rate, I trust you will have or have had a very pleasant Labor Day 2008.

You and me are really great people.  Why is that?  Well, we seem to help bail out just about everything that bangs on Washington's door.

A short time ago, the sub-prime mortgage companies received their bail out; likely the first of their bail outs since Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are still in the throes of that mess.

Now the automobile industry is in the queue for what yesterday was about $25 billion and today has already climbed to $40 billion according to the press.

Is this a proper use for the tax dollars that are extracted from each of us?  Should we be funding these bail outs for industries that essentially have gone bad because of their own doing?  If you or me were responsible for these 'disasters', we'd probably step up to the plate and take what was coming to us.  But we didn't force people to be too gullible and let people sell them homes they couldn't afford.  We didn't cause the oil price jump because we didn't approve new refineries for thirty years or drill for new fields of oil?

If any of us should be paying 'the price', it seems that the finger of blame needs to be pointed at Washington and the people we send there to represent us.  That group has caused these issues to surface through favors to those putting money into their campaign accounts.  That group has caved in to the environmental groups that are fanatical to the extreme in their pursuit of the ultimate goal they espouse.

Oh, that's right.  We are to blame because we continue to return the same people to Washington in spite of what they do and don't do.  We don't require any 'reparations' for their actions.

Maybe we all need to get a little more involved and a little more vocal starting with our upcoming local elections.  Too may of us simply shake our heads and fume; we really need to be more active in our precincts and districts and villages or cities, and in our counties and states.

I saw a quote in the past few days that went along these lines:  "Too many people have died for our freedoms for us to not vote."

Why is it that at the bottom of too many discussions about rate increases or tax increases we find a series of initials?  It apparently isn't enough that we are forced to deal with the MATC.  We also are saddled with the MMSD.

The Metropolitan Milwaukee Sewerage District (MMSD) hit our village and other taxing entities with a significant increase in capital expense contributions that it requires from its 'customers'.  Its 'customers', of course have no other options.  So like other communities, Germantown has had to 'pony up'.  We've been depleting the sewer fund reserves to the tune of nearly $1 million each year over the past three years, and our reserves are going down as the result.  The idea of a reserve is that there will be adequate funds available in reserve if needed due to some unforeseen situation. 

The long and short is that we'll likely face an increase in sewer charges due to these charges laid on us by MMSD.

MMSD, like MATC, is governed by an appointed board.  These eleven people include village/city officials, elected representatives, and others whose names seem to always be involved in such appointed positions.  You and I do not have any representation on the MMSD board over which we exercise even indirect control.  The citizens of Germantown should, by now, be resigned to our fate...except there has to be a better way.

I challenge one or more of the current crop of candidates for state positions to pledge their best efforts to change this system.  Every appointed board in the state should be subjected to thorough review to determine if direct elections are a more appropriate way to determine those who'll be seated.  We have heard that some are willing to look at the mechanism for governance of the State Technical College System.

There really must be a top down review of every similar entity in Wisconsin, and it ought to be very rigorous...not simply a 'lip service' group convened with foregone conclusions from day one!

Cigarette Taxes...

The state raised cigarette taxes to $1.77 per pack and promptly budgeted/spent all the new money that would bring in.  The only problem is that this 230% increase in the tax rate only generated a 48% increase in the tax money received!  Now, we're stuck with a lot of people circumventing the tax entirely by buying cigarettes out-of-state or over the Internet.  And, we have added to an already staggering budget shortfall.

Makes a lot sense, huh?

~~~~~

Clean Air Act Gone Wild...

One of my favorite agencies, the EPA, has decided that it now has free rein over so-called greenhouse gases.  This came to pass as the result of a 'namby-pamby' U.S. Supreme Court decision last year that didn't go quite far enough to ward off this rampant agency.  EPA has now released its Advanced Notice of Proposed Rule-making, an ANPR in the jargon, and this is astonishing.  EPA would regulate airplanes, trains, ships, boats, tractors, farm and mining equipment, lawn mowers, garden equipment, portable power generators, fork lift trucks, construction equipment and logging equipment.

EPA estimates that more than 500,000 new permits will be required.  Among the supposed new requirements are these:

• Lawn mower standards:  "...each application could require a different unit of measure tied to the machine's mission or output-such as grams per kilogram of cuttings from a 'standard' lawn for lawn mowers."
• Truck speed standards:  "Speed limiters are generally available on new trucks or as a low cost retro-fit..."
• Single family homes become polluters:  "...we believe that small commercial establishments...and indeed, a large single-family residence could exceed this [CO2 pollution] threshold."

All of this means that our taxes go up exponentially since the EPA will be forced to grow staff and facilities to handle this new found mission.  And, it means that we'll all pay more for products and services.

And, none of this was ever the intent of Congress nor has it had the opportunity to inject itself to this point.

~~~~~

Compact Fluorescent Bulbs...

Regular, nice old incandescent light bulbs (starting with 100 watt bulbs) become illegal to manufacture in 2012.  The National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA) points out that this means we can forget about spending 20 cents or so for the old bulb while buying the new CFLs for something on the order of $3.00+ (remember that these are usually subsidized today).

While CFLs save energy, they have costs associated with them that make all this really questionable:

• The average lifetime is not 10,000 hours, but "up to 10,000 hours"
• The energy savings and lifetime of CFLs has been exaggerated in some applications
• The CFL only achieves the claimed efficiency if burned continuously for long periods
• If left on for only 5 minute periods, the CFL will burn out just as fast as an incandescent bulb
• CFLs dim over their lifetime and do not deliver what is promised

And, we're adding mercury to the environment which supposedly will be handled by proper disposal.  Yeah, sure!  How many of us has disposed of a burned out CFL improperly already?  How is that ever going to be policed?

~~~~~

Clean Water Restoration Act...

The EPA is back again.  The original Clean Water Act of 1972 had gotten to be very broadly interpreted under various EPA rulings.  "Navigable waters" had morphed into isolated wetlands, dry lake beds and drainage ditches, for example.  Now, two Democrat members of Congress have introduced the bill named in the title.  It would replace the phrase "navigable waters" with the phrase "waters of the United States"  This means "all waters subject to ebb and flow of the tide, the territorial seas, and all interstate and intrastate waters and their tributaries, including lakes, rivers, streams (including intermittent streams), mudflats, sloughs, prairie potholes, wet meadows, playa lakes, natural ponds and all impoundments of the foregoing".  Reason magazine, August/September 2008

If this bill were to pass in its current state, it would very likely result in massive new regulations for boaters, fishermen, hunters, and even conservationists.  This act would leave it to the courts to decide what constitutes "waters of the United States".

Thanks to Ronald Bailey for writing the article "Feds in a Fishbowl" in Reason.

~~~~~

Anti-Meat Campaign...

Finally, from the Heartland Institute, this on global warming activists' latest efforts.  They are launching new efforts to restrict meat production and consumption, building on prior efforts to restrict various agriculture activities that supposedly would reduce 'greenhouse gases'.

More on this can be found on the worldchanging.org website.

If we continue to have a ban on drilling more oil, we won't be able to buy meat anyway, so maybe this isn't as bad as I first thought.

Maybe we really do have too many crackpots in Congress...or too many people are being paid through campaign contributions and don't have the commonsense necessary to sort out the good from the crazy.

This subject has been visited before, and, unfortunately, will probably be visited again before we've achieved the proper result.

The Journal Sentinel editorialized on August 8th about the new Wisconsin voter registration system...delivered more than two years after the deadline and with cost overruns (but who is surprised with that outcome).  The editorial opinion was that photo IDs for voters were simply to be taken off the table now that this system was up and running.

On August 12th, an article appeared citing two different organizations for apparent violations in registering voters that had resulted in criminal referrals.  Those two organizations are the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) and the Community Voters Project.  ACORN leaders were quoted as saying then that they had found between 200 and 300 improper voter registrations cards turned in by their workers.

On August 20th, Sue Edman, Executive Director of the Milwaukee Election Commission raised the total count of election workers forwarded to the DA to a total of 39.

This all points to the simple fact that voter photo ID is appropriate; in fact it is an absolute necessity.  Even with the focus having been placed on these registration organizations, they are still sending through cards that are sufficiently questionable as to warrant the district attorney's office investigating.

Beyond this, we still have same day registration that permits even greater levels of election fraud to be foisted upon those of us who are properly registered and qualified voters.  It is very possible, since the voter organizations have the records of names registered, that people can be corralled to vote using one of those false names.  Without photo ID, that is significantly more easily accomplished.

Wisconsin had among the slimmest margins to be found in the country in our last major election.  Every indication is that this will be the case in this year's Presidential election, too.  If only 1% of the registered voters are invalid, they can easily swing the results given the voter apathy that exists even in Presidential races.  The numbers of registered voters always is considerably higher than those of actual voters.

Photo IDs will not keep citizens from the polls.  That is a bogus argument.

Most of us understand exactly what has been going on for years.  Activist groups seek out the potential voter most likely to represent their political interest.  There are far more liberal activist groups than conservative activist groups.  These groups stop at little, not even the law in these instances it appears, to get their chosen people registered and out to vote.  Cigarettes were the pay-off in a fairly recent Milwaukee election with the 'voters' recruited from the Rescue Mission.  Slashed tires were another ploy aimed at the Republican Party in another recent election.

Much of my group of acquaintances is conservative (surprise, surprise), and virtually all of them recognize that this activity is most often aimed at electing liberal candidates.  When was the last time you can identify a story about illegal voter registration tied to conservatives? 

It is way past time for voter photo ID!

I have fallen behind with the pieces concerning the candidates for the Assembly seat being vacated by Sue Jeskewitz.  Lo and behold, a fellow Blogger in the Menomonee Falls NOW group whose name is William Weaver has posted these responses on his site called 'Hunting Season'.

Never one to duplicate another's good work, please click here for his compilation.

My thanks to Mr. Weaver.

Oregon has had government involved in health care for quite a few years.  The state electorate also approved the concept of state sanctioned suicide several years ago.

Recently, the board that reviews the medications that are approved for state residents made a determination that was controversial...in my mind if no where else.  The board, in essence, said that, given the cost of a certain medication, it would approve suicide for this patient but would not approve use of the medicine given its relative newness and the lack of convincing data as to the outcome.  It had essentially set a price on the human life involved.

Today I read the story concerning Denver Children's Hospital and heart transplants in infants that use the heart from another infant that died a 'cardiac-related death'.  This differs from a heart harvested from a brain-dead infant in which that heart is beating until removed from the donor body.  A decision has been made that the donor that has been pronounced dead and has been in that state for only 75 seconds, is a valid heart donor for purposes of this new program.  The earlier line that had existed required death be determined only after some five minutes during which time the heart did not re-start itself.  In this instance, the length of time a person had been deemed 'dead' had been reduced to assure that the harvested heart had a decent chance of functioning in the new body.  The three cases in which this approach has been employed resulted in three infants alive today.  The decisions to withdraw life support were made by the parents in all three instances.

We know so much more today than we did a decade ago.  We can do things from a medical perspective that were impossible then, and these procedures have become commonplace now.  We are, in this area, pushing the envelope as it has never before been pushed.

I know there are at least two sides to these issues.  I have good friends whose daughter lives today because of transplanted organs that were available on a timely basis.  I can't even begin to comprehend being placed in the middle of such decisions, and I earnestly hope that never befalls me.

And this leads to my general question:  Is there a line we dare not cross?  If so, where is or was that line?  Am I comfortable with an appointed board making life and death decisions about me?  Who among us can claim the right to make such a decision?  How do medical ethicists deal with these kinds of issues?

I don't profess to have the answers to these questions.  If you do, and you're willing to share, I'd appreciate your comments.

Had there been any doubt as to the political stripes of Rep. Sheldon Wasserman (D) who is running against Sen. Alberta Darling (R), it appears this news might put that to rest.

The Obama Campaign for Change will open a campaign office in Glendale, WI at the Glendale Square Mall at 6:00PM tonight.

Scheduled to appear at this opening ceremony is Rep. Sheldon Wasserman who, as I recall, has worked diligently to cast himself as a conservative Democrat.

Barack Obama has staked out such a huge chunk of liberal turf, I don't see how a self-avowed conservative candidate of either party could get anywhere near that campaign even if he felt strongly that Obama had to be our next president.  That would especially be the case given the moderate John McCain as a second choice for a conservative Democrat mind.

Maybe Rep. Wasserman isn't quite the conservative he wants us to think is the case.  Maybe the state Democrat party has put the clamps on him and is forcing this submissive position.  After all, it seems this is one of the most, if not the most, hotly contested seats from the Democrat perspective this season.

Draw your own conclusions.

Bus Instead of Drive...

The Riteway/WCCE bus to and from the State Fair is a great deal in my estimation.  I have become a convert after this my third year of using this service.  A pleasant ride down and back.  Buses every half-hour.  Clean.  Relatively inexpensive.  And, discounted State Fair tickets courtesy of All American on Mequon Road in G'town.

Future Drop-Out?

Soon after arriving, I had an experience that has haunted me since.  I do not mean to be offensive, but I suspect some will be offended.  I heard a man hollering and saw, some distance ahead, a mother and son (about 5 years old).  All were well-dressed and neat in appearance.  They were working on some problem the son was having and the son had dropped a near-life size Spiderman game prize on the street while this went on.  That father was furious that 'Spidey' was on the street (although the street was clean and dry for a street).  The mother, who had been quiet until the hollering began, also commenced to scream and berate the boy.  The boy looked bewildered and then began to cry, only provoking more hollering and the use of epitaphs that refer to one's mother derogatorily.  Both mother and father used this term in addition to telling the boy that he was "stupid".  Then, the father, apparently having done his duty, turned and left to go back in the direction of the inner fairgrounds eating his 'blooming onion' while the mother and son walked toward the exit on 84th street.  Mom continued to berate the son verbally.  I didn't see any physical involvement.  There was no intervention by fairground security if they were even aware.

This was a 'stomach-turning' display.  There is no other way to describe it.  It was so out of the ordinary for me that I was dumbfounded.  It was over very quickly for me (except for the images in my mind) but the little guy lives in that world 24/7.

Frankly, this immediately brought to mind another drop-out at the age of fourteen or so adding to the woes of the Milwaukee Public School system and society some nine years from now, if it takes that long, and if he survives that long.  What kind of future does that young man have if he continues to be raised and educated in his current environment?  Where did society take the wrong turn that created the environment that produced Mom and Dad?

Economic/Political Indicator?

There seemed to be less lugging of mops and brooms and other 'fair goodies' this year than last.  The hawkers had smaller audiences, if an audience at all.  I saw two political party booths: Democrat and Libertarian.  I may've missed the other major party's booth but I don't know where it was.  If it is any consolation, neither were over-populated at the time I passed them.  To think the people were all at the other party's booth is, however, to be naive.  I saw one Obama button being worn and that was by a person who had boarded the bus in West Bend.

That was it for this year's fair experience other than to say the weather couldn't have been better.  We again saw Rhonda and her husband performing at Rupena's renewing a friendship of my wife's.  I guess my overall experience of the fair was over-shadowed by that early encounter with the highly dysfunctional family.  That was a 'downer', to borrow a term from a younger generation, that I'll carry for some time.

Is 'perversion' too strong a term?  I don't think so.

The EPA has turned down attempts by the State of Wisconsin to relax the ill-conceived S.E. Wisconsin requirement for 'reformulated' gasoline even as we are virtually in full attainment.  That was probably dwarfed by comparison to the decision it announced that it was denying the State of Texas' request for a cutback on the amount of ethanol required to be blended with gasoline.

There is a radio commercial playing in our market that is sponsored by the ethanol lobby that makes the case, in essence, that we, who question the use of corn to make ethanol, are over-reacting and need to check our facts.  I am angered every time I hear that commercial, including this morning as it played while I was shaving...with a blade.  That could've hurt!

The simple facts are being ignored by the EPA, Congress and the President.  And, these aren't stupid people.  This is intentional ignorance.  Our food prices are going up, and it is caused in part by the insistence that ethanol be blended with gasoline even as us taxpayers pay the price for the ethanol support being paid on every gallon.  The other part of the increase is obviously that caused by the fact that Democrats have so far refused to relax their stance against oil drilling here and now.

Back to ethanol.  It is causing many cattle ranchers to reduce their herd size because they can't afford the feed to grow them for market.  The prices for chicken and beef are rising at a rapid pace.  I looked at flank steak a few days ago since it always used to be a relatively lower priced cut of meat.  That is a thing of the past.  I bought chicken breasts a few days ago and was astounded at the prices I saw on the packages.

I know that my mileage with reformulated gas is less than it was before that edict; about 10% worse.  I know that ethanol is much less efficient in terms of the energy it generates than is gasoline.  So, I am burning more and getting less.  A double-whammy in our part of Wisconsin.

The EPA stated that there was "no compelling evidence" that the mandate for ethanol is causing "severe economic harm".  That had to have been spoken by a federal employee who is reimbursed for his or her mileage...from our tax dollars  These people simply have no contact with reality, or manage to suppress the lessons they really learn in order to be a "dutiful servant of the people".

As if all this isn't enough to put me into a deep funk, I am confronted with the idiocy that is called political campaigning where people talk about wind power, sun power, and bio-fuels while not mentioning oil or coal or nuclear power.  How in the world are we supposed to leap forward a decade or more when technology is not yet even available to soften our landing?

We are in real danger of becoming a third world nation if the current policies are not changed and changed quickly!  Our economy simply cannot withstand the political assault it is under.  And this is not a political assault from another country...it comes from within.

So, I don't think calling the EPA the Environmental Perversion Agency is much of a reach. 

And I, for one, am very, very tired of the elected people we all put into office forgetting who it is they represent, and what it is we want.

Governor Doyle heard from his Wisconsin-based study group on carbon footprints, wind generators, etc., etc. a few days ago after it spent 16 months studying the 'problem'.  He recently defended his participation in the Midwest Regional Greenhouse Gas Reduction Accord Advisory Group (the acronym MRGGRAAG just doesn't work for me, by the way) by saying that the various regions across America have to get to work on the issues surrounding us without regard to what others may or may not be doing.

What is missing in all this rhetoric?

Our environment is globally-dynamic.  Remember the Mount St. Helen's ash clouds moving around the earth?  Do we see any continuing issues from that eruption other than (possibly) in the immediate vicinity?  How about forest fires?  Our small local, state or regional efforts to solve the perceived ills of the globe might be likened to the effort to drain Lake Michigan with a thimble.  The dynamic environment is pouring water into the lake all the while we're trying to empty it with our thimble and we think we're having a noticeable impact?

This is yet another vestige of the climate change/global warming/global cooling group.  There still is no scientific proof behind the myriad suppositions.  Nothing has changed since the last time we discussed this other than for the rhetoric to have been dialed up by the Gore groupies. 

Just as the United States threatens its own economy by thinking it needs to establish the magical 'cap and trade' marketplace when China and India and the emerging economies in the rest of the world ignore the issue, it is equally as damaging to Wisconsin and the Midwest to think that it can solve the 'problem' in the face of much greater odds.

Just because John McCain was unwise enough to voice support for a national 'cap and trade' plan for campaign purposes alongside Barack Obama, it still isn't true.  Al Gore notwithstanding, this is bunk...but I repeat myself.  I far and away prefer the 'preaching' of Representative Jim Ott (an accomplished professional meteorologist and student of the sciences).

The Governor's medicine threatens the patient far more than the perception of a 'problem' that has yet to be proved. 

Have I lost my mind?  I hope not.

My concern is this:  With gas prices dropping and now at the mid $3.80s per gallon, will we lose our impetus to keep the pressure on our elected officials to get more drilling going and to relax the myriad rules on new refineries?

We are a strange group, we humans.  We got used to paying $4.20 per gallon for regular for a week or two and now we're "saving" nearly $.40 a gallon.  We forget very quickly that only a year or so ago we were paying a dollar or more less for our gas.

We seem to forget that we were upset over ethanol and its impact on our mileage and on our food prices.

We seem to forget that reformulated gas is costing us more and causing lower miles per gallon.

Are we going to meekly go about our daily business now until prices go back up?  Are we going to give our politicians a 'free pass'? 

Are we going to let the presidential candidates avoid dealing with this issue...even though they'll make promises that'll probably be forgotten in a week or two?

Are we going to demand that our state representatives push hard to get the ethanol lobby off our backs?

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel featured an editorial this morning concerning the possibility that Germantown will pursue the secession effort from the Milwaukee Area Technical College district.  They spoke of 'outreach' by MATC and re-established their position that Germantown should remain in the MATC district.

The 'outreach' they spoke of consisted of the appointment of Victor Rossetti (then Superintendent of Germantown Schools) to a MATC Board vacancy, meetings held with Germantown officials, contribution of laptops to the library and a couple of 'free' programs.

This so-called 'outreach' seemed a lot like a feeble attempt to head off an embarrassing situation.  The addition of Mr. Rossetti did nothing to alter the course of MATC.  It continues to be, in my opinion, an out-of-control institution that answers to no one.  Germantown pays millions annually and we are supposed to take thirty laptops and shut our collective mouth.

The editors finally get to the last paragraph of this piece where they seem to catch a glimmer of a major reason for our angst.  They state, "And our guess is that until MATC does something to reduce its tax levy, not only will Germantown's efforts continue, but other communities may also start seriously considering secession."

The school board is scheduled to discuss this subject tonight.  I hope that it moves with all deliberate speed to push the secession from MATC.

The people have spoken; loudly and clearly.  There is now a roughly two-thirds majority across all political lines that want oil drilling and refining capacity increases to commence immediately.  That two-thirds majority has had enough of the 'fluff' that passes for 'bipartisanship' in politics today.  That two-thirds majority fills its tanks every week and is very cognizant of the sacrifices it has been forced to make while its elected representatives in Congress dither.

Demagoguery has run rampant...even more so than has come to be the usual level of demagoguery in Washington, D.C.  We witness the daily back and forth of polite name-calling that passes for bipartisanship.  I have yet to be able to understand why it is that conservatives almost always end up on the wrong end of the 'bipartisanship stick'.  Why is it that a conservative-driven effort is demagogued by the liberals but a liberal-driven effort is almost always labeled a 'bipartisanship' effort?

Now we see an almost amazing display of partisan chutzpah with Nancy Pelosi's pronouncement yesterday that the Republican efforts to increase drilling are "a hoax" designed to take the peoples' minds off other Republican problems.  Even the poorly-equipped Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, has softened his rhetoric in the face of public sentiment.  But not the erstwhile Nancy Pelosi who is re-elected by her ultra-liberal San Francisco district by super majorities in the 70%+ range.

Nancy Pelosi will continue to be a member of Congress for so long as she wishes, and needn't give a whit about the will of the people...other than for the ultra-liberals in her home district.  How are these 'reigns of terror' to be dealt with under our constitution?  By the sacking of Nancy Pelosi as the Speaker of the House by the Democrats who elected her to that position.  Even Steny Hoyer would seem good by comparison!

The House Dems are frightened to death by the power of Nancy Pelosi.  So much so, in fact, that they willfully ignore their own constituents who are part of that two-thirds majority.  Unless and until the other Democrat members of the House of Representatives feel the real passion of their constituents on the subject of oil drilling and refining capacity, nothing will happen to improve prices at the pump on a long-term basis.  We have five of those people in Wisconsin.  We also have two Democrat Senators who might just seek a meeting with Nancy Pelosi to express their concern...if they have any real concern about what you and I pay for our gasoline.

The all too short and simple explanation is this:  they don't care about you and me except when we cast our votes.  And, they have come to understand that they'd have to commit some horrific act in order to be defeated after serving two terms in office.  They couldn't care less about you and me because they are beholden to Nancy Pelosi for their committee appointments and they know that she can influence their campaign funding situation come election time.

That is another thing that is problematic.  Our Members of the House of Representatives are in constant campaign mode.  They are campaigning for re-election even before being sworn in for the next term to which they've just been elected or re-elected.  The reverse problem exists with our Senators; they know that we have short memories so they can easily vote against our will for four years and then 'straighten up and fly right' for two years to get re-elected.  It has happened so regularly that we could nearly do away with re-election and simply wait for retirement to open a seat.

Now, we are looking at the very real possibility that the President and both houses of Congress will be under Democrat control.  We are looking at the very real possibility that both houses of Congress will also be 'veto proof' if the Democrats sweep as they suspect they will.

This seems to me to be too great a price to pay for the reminder that we shouldn't ever be so silly as to permit this to occur.  But...it seems we never learn.  It seems we love to be taught the same lesson over and over again.  It must be akin to our need to push on a sore spot or bite down on the tooth that aches.

The latest count on the race to replace Sue Jeskewitz is now standing at five.  Randy Melchert (R) and Jason LaSage (R) have been involved in our Assembly "Debate" series as you know.

The additional filed candidates are:

Ms. Charlene Brady (D), a Germantown resident who is currently serving on the Washington County Board of Supervisors

Mr. Torrey Lauer (D), a Germantown resident

Mr. Dan Knodl (R),  Germantown resident who is currently serving on the Washington County Board of Supervisors

We hope to obtain the agreement of the three additional candidates to participate in the Assembly "Debate" Blog series that has begun.  If one or more decide to do so, we'll ask them the same questions already published and print a 'catch-up' Blog to get all five on the same topics from that point forward.

There is still time for another candidate or two if I remember correctly.  I believe that July 8th is the final date for the Declaration of Candidacy filing.

We should have a spirited discussion as we move toward the primary election in early-September.

MATC has now ended the suspense.  Whew!  It has officially increased its tax take by the 4.9% that it miraculously managed to get down to from the original 'straw man' of 6.4%.  This codifies the fact that MATC's appetite for tax dollars has risen by some 30% over the past five years.  MATC's leadership, if it can be called that without demeaning the word, just can't seem to understand that, while it is impervious to the wants and needs of the citizenry it serves, it really has permitted its reach to exceed our grasp.

MATC strikes me as an iceberg looking for a ship to sink.  It is floating along with the tip showing while the bulk of the 'bloat' lies just under the waterline, out of sight and, too often, out of mind.  Until it hits the ship of taxpayers yet again.  The taxpayers on this 'ship of fools' have finally come to understand, at least in Germantown, that they would be better-served if they were permitted to disembark from the current ship that continues to be victimized by the MATC iceberg...year after year after year after year!

That disembarkation is, however, contingent on so many disparate factors as to seem nearly unachievable.  First and foremost is that failure to make the petition to the state technical college board seeking a move from MATC to another contiguous tech college district renders all the other points moot.  If that is filed, then we wait and see what the august state tech college board members decide is to be our fate.  The last such application was made in 2004 and was denied.  That doesn't necessarily mean that this petition would suffer the same fate...but it is probably a decent precursor.  The only other successful action of this nature involved Germantown's petition to be moved into the MATC district back in the early 1970s.  (Ironic, isn't it?)

Back to the basics, however.  This rate of increase could've been far better controlled if the governing board for MATC were subject to re-election.  It isn't.  It is subject only to the parochial appointment desires of MATC.  Talk about a great deal, huh?  If I'm going to be governed by someone, I'd love the opportunity to pick the person without any outside interference over things such as how effective they'd be in administering their responsibilities.  If I 'accidentally' picked someone that was in lock-step with my positions and goals, could I possibly be faulted?  Sure, but it would be meaningless because no one could do anything about it except maybe move away to escape.

Maybe more to the point, I could've used the euphemism of a polar ice mass, a glacier, grinding everything in its path into submission.  Pretty soon there'll be nothing left here to tax.  It'll have been destroyed by the taxes rendered.

I guess the good news is that you can't tax the same dollar for more than 100 cents, so there is some ultimate end point.  Yet, there are so many taxes being levied against each of our dollars that we get less and less while everything costs us more and more.

Maybe, IF we pursue the change in tech college districts, and IF the state tech college board approves, we can rid ourselves of MATC President Cole, his board and his kingdom of fire-breathing dragons that burn everything of value they can identify in their domain.

I believe a full scale audit of that institution is called for and I believe one or more of our elected officials at the state level needs to pick up that banner and carry it high for all to see.  This is way past the point of being mere Blog fodder, although it sure has been good for that!

The morning Journal Sentinel talks about a petition being presented to the Milwaukee Common Council today that would require all Milwaukee private employers to provide paid sick days.  Employers with ten or fewer employees would be required to provide 1 hour for every 30 hours worked to a maximum of 40 hours of paid sick time per year.  Employers with more than ten employees would be required to provide 1 hour for every 30 hours worked up to a maximum of 72 hours per year.  Unused sick days would roll over from year to year.

This petition has been pushed by "labor, educational and community organizations" according to the article with the lead organization being 9 to 5, the National Association of Working Women.  It uses a state statute that provides for what is known as 'direct legislation', and requires the petitioner to present petitions signed by 15% of the total residents of the city or village involved that voted for governor in the most recent election.

Presuming all is in order with the petitions and signatures, the city council or village board would then be required to pass it or to put it on the ballot in the next election for a binding decision by the electorate.

I do not believe that a mandated employer sick pay law is appropriate anywhere, and am not suggesting that it ought be tried in Germantown.  The article cites the food service industry, for example; can you imagine how that would affect that industry?  Can you imagine how the costs would escalate if this were to occur?  Can you think of a more 'anti-business' proposition?

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It is interesting, however, that such direct action is available to citizens in cities and villages in Wisconsin.  Someone at sometime thought this was a good approach, and it found its way into law.  It obviously has a double edge to it.  It could be employed for good things or not so good things.  What it does do, however, is place the ultimate decision in the hands of the electorate if the city or village officials chose to ignore the petitioners' demands.

Is this a necessary 'check and balance' functionality or is it simply a tool that can be misused by the few taking advantage of emotional responses from the many?  Do we destroy the concept of representative government?  Do we permit populism to run rampant?

In keeping with the protocol we have established, we'll lead with the response of Senator Darling to each question in this chapter.

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What is your position on Ethanol mandates in Wisconsin?

Darling:  I oppose ethanol mandates!  I have asked our federal lawmakers to repeal the federal renewable fuel mandate and eliminate tax credits for ethanol production.  I have also asked the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to lift the reformulated gas (RFG) blend mandate.

Wasserman:  I am against Ethanol mandates.

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Wisconsin is now listed as only the 11th highest taxed state in the union.  Is this appropriate given the services we receive?  Are there ways that taxes can be reduced further and, if so, where do you think that can be accomplished?

Darling:  For way too long, Wisconsin was among the top ten of most highly-taxed states.  Wisconsin is now out of the top ten because legislative Republicans have successfully defeated billions in Democrat-backed tax hikes over the years.  While I am pleased that our tax rank is dropping, the state must start to spend less too.

Wasserman:  Based on the services we receive, I think we could be more in the middle of the pack.  We can do that by restructuring government and eliminating unnecessary layers of bureaucracy.  We also need to stop giving tax breaks to every individual who comes to Madison with a paid lobbyist.  Instead of increasing the complexity of our tax code and favoring the few instead of helping the many, taxes should be cut across the board.  We can all share in tax breaks.

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Is the UW system working as it should or are there problems that need resolution?  If problems, what do you see those as being?

Darling:  As a proud alumna of UW-Madison, I think it is important that our UW-System remain a top notch higher educational system that is a major driver of our state's economy.  That said, there have been far too many examples where the UW-System has wasted taxpayer dollars.  Everyone remembers examples like the $26 million spent on a new computer payroll system that didn't work and the $700 per month automobile allowances for chancellors.  While the UW-System is very important to our state, it needs to eliminate wasteful spending.

Wasserman:  The overall UW system is the third largest in the country, and I'm proud of it.  I graduated from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, and I'm very proud of my education and what it's done for me.  One area of concern is the administrative system for the UW itself, which needs to be cut.

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As always, our thanks go to both contributors for taking the time to respond to our questions.  And, we again encourage readers to pose their questions for future chapters in this 'debate'.

The question for today in our 'debate' between candidates LaSage and Melchert is this:

What specific existing state programs can be cut to stop the ongoing issues of budget shortfalls?

LaSage:  The reason that I am running for State Assembly is to return the Republican Party back to being the party that stands for smaller government.  My philosophy of good government is one in which bureaucracy is reduced and local control is increased, which leads not only to a need for less tax revenue, but it returns control and ownership back to the local level, where the people that have first-hand experience with local needs reside.  So while I understand that this office carries a great deal of responsibility, it is not power that I seek, but rather empowerment for our citizenry.

Further, my core belief is that budgetary shortfalls occur because the state fails to operate like a business.  When examining a budget, a business looks at all programs that yield little value.  For example, ethanol has been proven to be an ineffective product and thus state subsidies to encourage its production should be abolished.  Gas blended with ethanol causes even more financial pain at the pump and reduces fuel economy.  Furthermore, taxpayer funded incentives to produce ethanol leads to a government sponsored heightened demand for corn, which in turn contributes to higher prices at the grocery store.  All of this for dubious positive environmental impact, as ethanol needs to be transported on trucks, which of course use gas.

Another item that needs to be addressed is wasteful pet pork project spending.  One example of such spending in the state budget would be $250,000 for a Hmong cultural center in La Crosse.  While I fully support and have worked for preserving cultural heritage in our community, this is simply absurd.  With the state's budget over 1600 pages long, examples such as these abound.

If a deficit still exists after such review, a business would also tell each of its departments to put together proposals that cut spending across-the-board.  Upon making this directive, bureaucratic administrators will say that taxpayers' most valued programs will need to be cut.  When this demagoguery occurs, your assemblyman should call them out on it, telling them to go back to the drawing board and work harder.

In the midst of cash flow problems, a business would also look at the revenue side of the equation.  Presidents ranging from Democrat John F. Kennedy to Republican Ronald Reagan understood that tax cuts for individuals and businesses spurs growth, creating jobs that in turn yield more tax revenue.  What has worked at the federal level (when employed) should be implemented in Wisconsin.  Thus, I support a lower gas tax, as well as individual and corporate income tax rate reductions.

Finally, rather than monolithically telling citizens every program I feel should be cut, I look forward to engaging in an ongoing dialogue with district residents who can share their experiences and frustrations with state government bureaucracy and excess spending.  You can reach me on either my cell phone: (262) 573-6360, or via emailing jason.lasage@gmail.com .  By working together to put Wisconsin on the right track, our collective 24th district voice will be heard.

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Melchert:  We need to seriously consider a spending freeze for the next biennium.  A spending freeze would keep existing government offices and services in place, but would prohibit new spending.  Rep. Pridemore states that "This budget could almost be balanced with an across the board spending freeze that would allow the level of expected revenue to catch up with spending without any of the tax increases that democrats are proposing."  (http://donpridemore.com/BudgetTaxes/IsNoBudgettheBestBudget/tabid/70/Default.aspx)  A spending freeze may be unpopular, but a $2.3 billion deficit is immoral.

In addition, the budget has grown so much that we need to re-examine every dollar of government spending.  While Wisconsin is already under a form of "base budget review reporting", we need to introduce a more aggressive culture of spending restraint.  Instead of simply justifying expenses, let's require agencies to rank their spending priorities.  What expenses would each department cut if they only had 90% of their existing budget?  Would we lose essential services or would the reduction even be noticed?  Let's have a televised hearing on Wisconsin Eye as we justify to the state why we are going to spend each dollar of the $20 billion of your money.  While Jack Welch was criticized for his cost-cutting, he took GE from a $14 billion market value in 1980 to $410 billion in 2004.

By re-evaluating every dollar of government spending and implementing a spending freeze, we can restore fiscal accountability.

Are we being a bit presumptuous by having a Wisconsin global warming task force?  There is no solid scientific evidence of anything other than what our earth has always gone through.  Our emotions are being played "like a fiddle" with pictures of polar bears drowning when, in fact, the pictures were of nothing of the sort, and the fact that there are twice the number of polar bears today as were on this earth 40 years ago.  The Great Lakes were drying up at an alarming rate and today we don't know what to do with all the water that fell on us.

We are reduced to blaming both hot weather and cold weather on global warming.  We are reduced to blaming both drought and flooding on global warming.  We either have more hurricanes or fewer hurricanes, but both those phenomenons are caused by global warming.  We just had one of the greatest snow falls in any winter on record, but it is caused by global warming.

It seems as though the powers that be have succumbed to this burst of 'junk science' that we've been treated to in the past handful of years since Al Gore adopted global warming as his latest crusade.  His Power Point slide show has spawned a great deal for him...at our collective expense.  We can't drill for oil, we can't build power plants using nuclear technology, and we are burning our food as fuel while people starve around the world.  Every one of those decisions was based on politics, not on reason and certainly not on any rational approach to the issues confronting us today.  This whole movement is destroying our economy and we seem blind to that reality.

The reality is that none of us knows anything for certain.  We don't have a clue as to whether we are in a true global warming crisis or not.  It is not sound science to assume that we are in crisis because we cannot prove otherwise.  Where is the rationality to that?  Yet, that is precisely what is happening today.  We could as easily be creating a new problem where none exists today by following the "siren's song" of global warming.

This task force convenes and decides what you and I need to be doing, but it is doing so without any basis in fact.

Why is it that this task force thinks that wind turbine energy must produce 25% of our electricity before they, the task force members, will even think of permitting us to build another atomic power plant?  Have they, the task force members, stopped to consider how many wind turbines at what cost planted where will be required to produce 25% of the electricity we consume today let alone will consume in a quarter-century?  Have they performed a cost benefit analysis for nuclear versus wind-powered electricity generation?  Of course not, since that would destroy any credibility they claim to have.

How gracious of this task force to at least say they will think of atomic power before the Yucca Mountain storage facility has been placed into use provided, of course, that we build the wind turbine farms across our landscape.  I wonder what ever happened to the fears of birds flying into these huge blades?  Is concern for wildlife now being replaced on the left by the overriding concern about global warming even though it is unproved?

The task force leaders say that their intent is to compromise.  If I had the position of manufacturing something from nothing, I, too, would believe in compromise.  The other side would have to give up 50% of its position and, in return, I'd get 50% further toward my goal of this fantastic future-land where everything is balanced, where none of us uses any more than any of the rest of us on the globe...where we are in the same desperate condition as everyone else on the face of the earth.  That makes a lot of sense to me.

Why do we insist on doing these things to ourselves?