More farm-fresh opinion and erudite commentary, no additives except for a twist of lemon and a dash of Angostura.
Hooray for John Shabaz
One of the great jurists. Is Gentleman John (aka "Hang 'em high") really 76 years old? Still honest to a fault. I remember when he represented Waukesha in the State legislature (he was eventually minority leader) and told the local teachers union how screwed up they really were.
A great friend of Lyman Anderson, mentor to Tommy G. Thompson (believe it or not). Life of any party. You've got to read the full (it's brief) Associated Press story, but this is what got me cheering:
AP: So, it's obviously important to you to find someone with a conservative leaning?
Shabaz: Listen, that isn't my job at all. Now you're talking like the Capital Times. I thought you folks were professionals. There's nothing in the cards like that at all. That's a figment of your imagination and I don't like to see this in print, but I like people to at least be straight shooters when they're interviewing me. That's not in the cards at all.
Give credit to the Wisconsin State Journal for running it.
I remember how churlish my hyper-partisan alma mater was when Reagan selected John for the federal bench in 1982. "Unqualified," was one of the kinder words. All Judge Shabaz did was eliminate a horrific backlog and make the Western District of Wisconsin one of the exemplars.
Great minds thinking alike
John Torinus is Wisconsin's version of that old sober sides, David Broder. Here is Torinus with another take on why governors should choose the DNR secretary.
There is the danger of the big money in politics playing a role where it doesn't belong. To my mind, though, bureaucratic aloofness and inertia is a greater danger.
Here is one more for the road: if you are an environmentalist (aren't we all?) don't you want the DNR Secretary at the table when the governor is writing his budget?
My old haunts
Sure enough, the Dane County Board wants to raise its pay from $7,000 to $8,200 - a 17% increase. The board chairman's annual salary would increase from $24,000 to $28,000. I helped beat down the last pay increase two years ago. The kind of year they had, they should ask for a do-over. Can you think of one solid accomplishment in the past year? Me neither. In response to Tuesday's Wisconsin State Journal editorial, which against sounds the klaxon for a smaller County Board, my friend Bill Richardson writes:
Here's a simple plan to reduce the size of the Dane County Board of Supervisors while simultaneously rewarding board members who consistently voted for the necessary needs of the county at an efficient and frugal cost to the taxpayers. The "Frugal Fourteen" voted against the series of senseless, outrageously expensive, and irrelevant motions brought by Katherine Falk, Progress Dane and especially, Mr. Kumar.
Examples? The Billion-dollar boon-doggle for trains, trolleys for Madison, paid for by all the county residents who will never use it. Spending $25 million in taxes to buy county land that "might be developed in the future" thus immediately removing it from the tax roles while raising our taxes.
Stealing money from human resources so the criminals in jail can be "treated like guests." Pretending they control foreign policy and congress by wasting time, money on bring the troops home now and Impeachment fantasies. Legislating felons and illegal aliens as a 'protected class' of victims that landlords must accept as tenants and neighbors -no background checks, no SS numbers asked for.
Keep supervisors Bruskewitz, Downing, Gau, Hanson, Jensen, Kostelic, Martz, Ripp, Salov, Schoer, Suslick, Wendt, Wiganowsky, and Willett. Raise the salaries for the supervisors who have been working for the taxpayers and toss the tax and spenders!
Covering all bases
There is a reason why the presumptive First Gentleman (somehow, that does not fit Bill Clinton) on Tuesday invoked the "Swift Boat" analogy, which is Dem-speak for "unfair when you do it to us." Bill was trying to rescue Hillary Clinton in the wake of her Olympic-quality windsurfing. (John Kerry, get outta the way!) YouTube today is what The New York Times editorial board was in, oh, say, 1904.
Who is this Nabilcy?
Why does this fellow plague me like a cryptozoite (a malarial parasite at the stage of development in which it inhabits bodily tissue before invading the red blood cells)? Who is this burr under my saddle? This lamprey around my gills, this fluke in my gut?
It is at times like this that I call in Ruben Mamoulian, my most trusted ally. It is because I love him that I have kept things from him. (I know that has hurt him in the past.) That is why, at this moment, he is the only one I can really trust.
Ruben, see what is under this Nabilcy's fingernails and report back to me. In particular, does he have flagella or cilia that enable him to move about? Is he motile? Whatever you do, don't let him near Well #5!
Kyle, get your own nutrients!
That's Blaska's Blog!
More hyperlinks per square inch! So rich in fiber! (Hey, Nabilcy, get your own!)
