The most beautiful season of the year is upon us. Cool nights, spring water-clear days, the promise of fall color, the indentured servants at the Experimental Work Farm bringing in the last of the Jade and Roma II green bean harvest while the Squire quaffs a chilled sauvignon blanc. Revenue League golf tournament coming up Thursday, then our beloved Green Bay Packers preview the NFC Championship Game.
On Tuesday morning, the Las Vegas oddsmakers (may have changed by the time you read this) actually had the Saints up 4 points on the Green n' Gold. I'd take that bet! Those are better odds than Obama filling the House chamber with anyone above the rank of page.
I hope President Obama gives a good speech. Something about how there's one thing the federal government can't screw up and that is the pro football game so I'm outta here.
My expectation is that the speech will be more Edward Everett, the stemwinder who consumed two hours preceding Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg -- maybe not as long but as little noted nor long remembered. It is one of those speeches to which, let's hope, the Republicans offer no response. Unless it's from Tony Siragusa on the sidelines. He could give a cogent response in 15 seconds. I don't care if he's on Fox Sports, not NBC. Fat Tony to give the response or fuhgeddaboudit.
Hail Mary, full of grace
Talk about throwing long! The New York Times implores Obama the Rhetorician to pack a government picnic basket full of liberal goodies. Tax Peter to pay Paul for an infrastructure bank to invest in mind-boggling projects. Extend unemployment compensation to infinity and beyond. Build bridges to nowhere and to everywhere. Hire teachers, park rangers, community center bingo callers, poetry writers, and federal grant expediters. Buy shovels and hire people to lean on them. Sing Happy Days Are Here Again. Exhume John Maynard Keynes from his crypt and put him on a tractor. Speed the plow. [New York Times: "Washington must engage in vast job creation," 9-4-11]
Vast! Vaster! Vastest!
On the same Sunday editorial page, the Times separately encourages the state of California -- that too-big-but-failing-anyway state on the Pacific coast -- to enact "The California Dream Act" (I merde you not):
to allow undocumented [Blaska translation: "illegal"] immigrants to receive state-financed college scholarships and loans.
Do you have to be crazy to be a New York Times editorialist or just a liberal Democrat? Can't they connect the dots?
'It's their job to encourage unrest'
A non-union teacher asks the hard questions:
Why should payroll clerks in school district offices do the job of collecting union dues money and then cutting and sending the union their monthly checks (all on the taxpayers' dime) so that they could turn around and tell me just how bad I had it? It's their job to encourage unrest, discontent and unhappiness amongst the rank and file ... [That] has encouraged adversarial interactions with administrations.
Your Squire has been saying this for years. Is anything more ridiculous than a Madison teacher wearing the designer sackcloth of victimhood? Time for teachers to act like professionals instead of oppressed coal miners.
Lookin' like a fool
... with your pants on the ground. I need to get a dime for every time some liberal fool plays the race card when I encourage teen-aged boys to just say no to pants crack. Great column in this morning's State Journal (buy a copy) from a Chi Tribune writer.
If you're wearing saggy pants, it's like wearing a sign saying "Do not hire this person. Let him ask the NAACP and ACLU for a job. They won't hire him either."
Among those legislating against saggy pants are a Florida state senator who, due to a healthy helpin' of melanin, "isn't subject to the same guilt suffered by white liberal journalists and Democratic policy wonks." Blaska does not suffer from that ailment, white though his epidermis regrettably may be.
Who is trulie lamentable?
A Twitter tale of two elected officials as recorded by their successive tweets to WisPolitics:
- @GovWalker: Cut ribbon 4 expansion of Seymour Dairy Products. Matt joined me on tour & we sampled some of their amazing blue cheese.
- @JulieMLassa: Saw the play "The Lamentable Tragedie of Gov Scott Walker" at the Madison Broom St Theater last night. Very funny. Great job Doug & cast.
- @GovWalker: Joined thousands of Nat Guard members from across US @ reception @ HD Museum.
Obama is knock, knock, knocking at the door
Selective investigation
The Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism threw open records requests at State Rep. John Nygren in an effort to find nefariousness in his bill limiting automobile injury awards. It is Nygren's effort to help motorists hold down insurance costs.
Why didn't the liberal advocacy journalism group dig into what prompted Gov. Jim Doyle and the Democrats from slipping into the budget the jury award increases in the first place, which were supported by that reliable Democratic poodle, the trial lawyers? Can you say "liberal bias"?
I asked Kate Golden of the Center that very question.
On Fri, Sep 2, 2011 at 1:00 PM, David Blaska wrote:
Did the Center make a similar request of Gov. Jim Doyle or the relative legislative leaders in 2009 who slipped into the budget the increases?
On September 2, 2011 at 2:09:34 PM Kate Golden responded:
Hi David, Thanks for writing. No -- as you know, the story focused on the 2011 bill. Best, Kate
On September 2, 2011 at 7:47:53 PM David Blaska responded:
Darn!
Crazy people will obey this rule?
Not quite getting it. UW-Madison is banning concealed firearms in its classrooms. A thought exercise: if just one student or instructor at Virginia Tech had been carrying, you think the carnage might have ended right then and there? Crazy people and criminals are not going to comply with some damn ordinance.