FlyOver County

Iluminati of Wisconsin Lead Recall Effort

2012-01-18T16:31:00.002-06:00

Fitchburg Mayor's Marital Trouble Puts City at Risk

2010-09-07T19:31:00.002-05:00

Yes that's right, the Mayor's front yard needs mowing. What's that mean? It means the Mayor is sleeping on a cot at the Appliance Pros.

It's time for Jay Allen to go. His marital problems are a distraction the city can't afford.

How Much We've Progressed

2010-06-14T18:43:00.000-05:00

HIGH
SCHOOL -- 1957 vs. 2010
Scenario 1:

Jack goes quail hunting before school and then pulls into the school parking lot with his shotgun in his truck's gun rack.
1957 -
Vice Principal comes over, looks at Jack's shotgun, goes to his car and gets his shotgun to show Jack.
2010 -
School goes into lock down, FBI called, Jack hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counselors called in for traumatized students and teachers.

Scenario 2:

Johnny and Mark get into a fist fight after school.
1957 -
Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up buddies.
2010 -
Police called and SWAT team arrives -- they arrest both Johnny and Mark. They are both charged with assault and both expelled even though Johnny started it.

Scenario 3:

Jeffrey will
not be still in class, he disrupts other students.
1957 -
Jeffrey sent to the Principal's office and given a good paddling by the Principal. He then returns to class, sits still and does not disrupt class again.
2010 -
Jeffrey is given huge doses of Ritalin. He becomes a zombie. He is then tested for ADD. The family gets extra money (SSI) from the government because Jeffrey has a disability. Scenario 4:

Billy breaks
a window in his neighbor's car and his Dad gives him a whipping with his belt.
1957 -
Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college and becomes a successful businessman.
2010 -
Billy's dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy is removed to foster care and joins a gang. The state psychologist is told by Billy's sister that she remembers being abused herself and their dad goes to prison. Billy's mom has an affair with the psychologist. Scenario 5:

Mark gets a headache and takes some aspirin to school..
1957 - Mark shares his aspirin with a school buddy that has a headache also.
2010 - The police are called and Mark is expelled from school for drug violations. His car is then searched for drugs and weapons.

Scenario 6:

Pedro fails high school English.
1957 - Pedro goes to summer school, passes English and goes to college.

2010 - Pedro's cause is taken up by state. Newspaper articles appear nationally explaining that teaching English as a requirement for graduation is racist. ACLU files class action lawsuit against the state school system and Pedro's English teacher. English is then banned from core curriculum. Pedro is given his diploma anyway but ends up mowing lawns for a living because he cannot speak English.

Scenario 7:

Johnny takes
apart leftover firecrackers from the Fourth of July, puts them in a model airplane paint bottle and blows up a red ant bed.
1957
- Ants die.
2010
- ATF, Homeland Security and the FBI are all called. Johnny is charged with domestic terrorism. The FBI investigates his parents -- and all siblings are removed from their home and all computers are confiscated. Johnny's dad is placed on a terror watch list and is never allowed to fly again.
Scenario 8:

Johnny falls while running during recess and scrapes his knee. He is found crying by his teacher, Mary. Mary hugs him to comfort him.
1957
- In a short time, Johnny feels better and goes on playing.
2010
- Mary is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces 3 years in State Prison. Johnny undergoes 5 years of therapy.

Barak's Bullshit Bingo

2010-05-31T10:50:00.003-05:00

Thanks to Tammy Bruce and bigfurhat:

Keep Ancient Lands, Your Storied Pomp!

2010-05-16T20:29:00.005-05:00

Shut up and Listen!

2010-04-12T18:15:00.002-05:00

Harry Reid is a JERK!

2010-03-08T18:30:00.000-06:00

More Disgrace Added To The Growing Pile...

2010-02-22T18:31:00.003-06:00

Not that it mattered anyway...The Chinese still squealed like stuck pigs.

One of the great human symbols of peace is treated like garbage in his exit from the white house after meeting with the ONE.

These Two Quotes Were Meant To Be Side By Side

2010-01-06T19:57:00.001-06:00

I always loved the Duke

Born to Pose

2009-08-02T15:20:00.003-05:00

Thanks to Ace of Spades for sharing this pic

Some peope are born to help. Others to....

Justice Ginsburg Said What?

2009-07-09T19:15:00.003-05:00

Q: If you were a lawyer again, what would you want to accomplish as a future feminist legal agenda?

JUSTICE GINSBURG: Reproductive choice has to be straightened out. There will never be a woman of means without choice anymore. That just seems to me so obvious. The states that had changed their abortion laws before Roe [to make abortion legal] are not going to change back. So we have a policy that affects only poor women, and it can never be otherwise, and I don’t know why this hasn’t been said more often.

Q: Are you talking about the distances women have to travel because in parts of the country, abortion is essentially unavailable, because there are so few doctors and clinics that do the procedure? And also, the lack of Medicaid for abortions for poor women?

JUSTICE GINSBURG: Yes, the ruling about that surprised me. [Harris v. McRae — in 1980 the court upheld the Hyde Amendment, which forbids the use of Medicaid for abortions.] Frankly I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don’t want to have too many of. So that Roe was going to be then set up for Medicaid funding for abortion. Which some people felt would risk coercing women into having abortions when they didn’t really want them. But when the court decided McRae, the case came out the other way. And then I realized that my perception of it had been altogether wrong.

Q: When you say that reproductive rights need to be straightened out, what do you mean?

JUSTICE GINSBURG: The basic thing is that the government has no business making that choice for a woman.

Q: Does that mean getting rid of the test the court imposed, in which it allows states to impose restrictions on abortion — like a waiting period — that are not deemed an “undue burden” to a woman’s reproductive freedom?

JUSTICE GINSBURG: I’m not a big fan of these tests. I think the court uses them as a label that accommodates the result it wants to reach. It will be, it should be, that this is a woman’s decision. It’s entirely appropriate to say it has to be an informed decision, but that doesn’t mean you can keep a woman overnight who has traveled a great distance to get to the clinic, so that she has to go to some motel and think it over for 24 hours or 48 hours.

I still think, although I was much too optimistic in the early days, that the possibility of stopping a pregnancy very early is significant. The morning-after pill will become more accessible and easier to take. So I think the side that wants to take the choice away from women and give it to the state, they’re fighting a losing battle. Time is on the side of change.

Kudos to Newsbusters.org as the only entity reporting on this

Wow! ??

2009-06-29T19:32:00.001-05:00

Fill Out The Hurt Feelings Report Please.....

2009-06-23T20:20:00.002-05:00

From our Friends at moonbattery.com

Drenched in blood of slavery-A history lesson

2009-06-23T20:11:00.002-05:00

Drenched in blood of slavery

Shared via AddThis

New Obama Spoof From Our Friends at JibJab

2009-06-21T14:49:00.000-05:00

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Even Dick Durbin Can't Explain Away This One...

2009-06-17T07:28:00.000-05:00

From Newsmax.com

Sen. Durbin Sold $115,000 of Stock After Briefing

Tuesday, June 16, 2009 12:57 PM

By: Jim Meyers

Sen. Dick Durbin, the Democratic Party's Whip, unloaded more than $115,000 worth of stocks and mutual fund shares as the U.S. stock markets plunged last September.

The Illinois lawmaker's 2008 financial disclosure statement reveals that he sold mutual fund shares worth more than $42,000 on Sept. 19, the day after then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke urged congressional leaders to come up with legislation to aid financially troubled banks.

Also on Sept. 19, Durbin bought $43,562 worth of stock in Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway Inc., Bloomberg News reported.

By October 2, he had sold investments worth $116,000 and invested nearly $100,000 in Berkshire Hathaway.

The Standard & Poor's 500 Index had dropped 4.7 percent on Sept. 15 after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and the government-engineered takeover of Merrill Lynch & Co.

By the end of October, the index had fallen more than 22 percent.

Durbin spokesman Joe Shoemaker told Bloomberg that the senator did not capitalize on anything Paulson and Bernanke told congressional leaders at the Sept. 18 meeting.

Congressional Leadership At It's Finest!

2009-06-11T18:58:00.000-05:00

The Ten Cannots

2009-06-11T18:50:00.001-05:00

You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot help little men by tearing down big men.
You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn.
You cannot build character and courage by destroying men's initiative and independence.
And you cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they can and should do for themselves. William J. H. Boetcker (1873 – 1962)

Might As Well Be Newsweeks Cover

2009-06-07T16:46:00.003-05:00

This isn't Newsweeks real cover, but a National Review Parody.

Some Movie Line Fun!

2009-05-29T20:31:00.000-05:00

This Should Be The Official White House Portrait

2009-05-23T12:25:00.002-05:00

Credit picture: AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast

What I'll Most Remember About The Obama Administration

2009-05-08T20:27:00.003-05:00

Whether he's in office for four or eight years, this is my vote for the most representative moment of the Obama Administration: "One big photo-op that terrorized an entire city"

Treasury Bond Auction "Problems"

2009-05-07T13:31:00.002-05:00

Wall Street extends losses on bond auction woe
On Thursday May 7, 2009, 1:57 pm EDT
Buzz up! Print NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks extended losses on Thursday, pulling the Nasdaq down almost 3 percent, after a government bond auction drew a poor response and investors worried the rising costs of capital could hamper the economy's recovery.
All indexes were at session lows, with financials, technology and materials sectors among the top drags
-----------------------------
This was always the "Bull in the China" shop for both Bush and Obama's deficit laden economy. The idea that the world's investors would continue to buy more and more Treasury debt at lower and lower rates of returns was absurd. Soon the Treasury will ask for a bailout with no one left to do the bailing.

What You Can Expect From a Fitchburg Mayor Jay Allen

2009-04-05T15:06:00.003-05:00

From Isthmus Magazine back in October 2008

Fitchburg uses interim zoning power to block man's plans
Vikki Kratz on Thursday 10/09/2008

Allen: 'We need more intense use to make the rail stop viable.'

Rod Bruner has been trying to sell a five-acre parcel of land in the town of Madison for years. Now, he's finally found a buyer — and just in time. Bruner, who lives in a nursing home, is in ill health, and wants to leave something for his family.

But the city of Fitchburg, which has an annexation agreement with the town of Madison, is trying to stop Bruner's deal.

"They're giving me a bad time," says Bruner. "They want to build a railroad station there, with high-rise condos. They really have no right whatsoever to do it."

Bruner's land is in the Southdale neighborhood, which is bordered by Ski Lane, Rimrock Road and the Beltline. The city of Fitchburg, which will annex the land in 2022, has developed a neighborhood plan for the area that calls for higher-density, mixed use and a rail line.

"The reason we want a neighborhood plan is because there are some major problems there," explains Fitchburg Ald. Jay Allen. "It's a low-income neighborhood, and there are issues that have developed."

The neighborhood is isolated by the Beltline, lacks public transportation and has a rising crime rate. "The town of Madison does not have the infrastructure or the resources to handle the issues," says Allen. "It's only going to continue to deteriorate."

Fitchburg's neighborhood plan requires buildings be at least three stories, with ground-floor retail and underground parking. Bruner's proposed deal — to Kelly-Moss Motorsports for a one-story building and a large parking lot — does not mesh with it.

"Should we be putting in buildings that are not part of this plan and are just going to have to be replaced?" asks Allen.

Fitchburg also plans to eventually use Bruner's land for a commuter rail stop. "We need more intense use to make the rail stop viable," says Allen. "We have to make sure we're not building junk."

Under the annexation agreement, Fitchburg has the right to establish interim zoning in Southdale, effectively stopping development there. The city has passed an ordinance to do so, which bars land-use and zoning changes.

Bruner's attorney, Mark Hazelbaker, believes the city is not allowed to ban both kinds of changes: "They can't do that under the law."

Rick Rose, public works director for the town of Madison, says Bruner's proposed use for the site meets the town's current zoning regulations. But he also says Fitchburg is within its rights.

"We agreed to do a Southdale neighborhood plan. We can't really fight it." Bruner, he says, "kind of got caught between a rock and a hard place."

Hazelbaker hopes to persuade Fitchburg to let the development go forward, especially since it will be 14 years before the land is annexed and likely even longer before a rail line goes in. "We're talking about a very, very long timeline for Jay [Allen]'s vision to come about," he says. "We think it's unfortunate to keep the land vacant until then."

JAY ALLEN CLAIMS TO BE A LIBERTARIAN IN HIS THINKING. HE IS FAR FROM THAT. HE IS A BIG GOVERNMENT, NANNY-STATE DO-GOODER WHO WILL RUIN THIS CITY IF ELECTED.

Soon To Be Stapled to Phone Poles in Madison

2009-04-05T14:50:00.001-05:00

Inside the Obama White House...

2009-03-30T18:09:00.000-05:00

Fitchburg Deserves, Gets Better

2009-02-24T14:10:00.001-06:00

So due to a serious error on the part of City Clerk Staff, and the bad luck of the draw, Marc Jones is out of the Fitchburg Mayoral Race. While I’m no fan of Mr. Jones, I have sympathy because the process was seriously flawed. It’s my belief that all three candidates: Jones, Jay Allen and Mark Vivian should be allowed on the April Ballot, but that won’t happen.

Fitchburgers do now at least have a better choice. Mark Vivian is the best qualified, having served in the post as late as 2003.

Fitchburg deserves Mr. Vivian, but again, the primary process was severely tainted.

They Want What Madison Has???

2009-02-20T14:13:00.002-06:00

So His Highness, King James Doyle the Lesser thinks the rest of Wisconsin want’s a statewide smoking ban shoved down its throat so “it can have what Madison has”. Does King James have any clue how much contempt most of the rest of the state has for Madison?

Dumb & Dumber In Fitchburg Mayoral Race

2009-02-20T13:07:00.002-06:00

So the Mayor’s race is down to dumb and dumber, and I will have to vote for the least offensive candidate.

Don’t Fitchburgers’ deserve better than this?

In April we get to choose between the know-it-all small business operator, whose wife doesn’t want him to be Alderperson let alone Mayor. Whose two “great” ideas in the past year were buying a dump of an old school that sits outside the city limits, and whose colleague spent his own money to hire a lawyer to kibosh it, and spending a gazillion dollars to study having a city of 23,000 start a Parking Utility!

Our other choice is the don’t-know-much but I know we need to work together small business operator who has no ideas, lives in the past when Fitchburg was barely urban and mostly rural, and runs gas stations where credit card pay at the pump customers are accused of driving off without paying by his crack staff of minimum wage paid “lackeys”.

Can I write in Clauder?

ANCHORBANK DOOMED?

2009-02-20T12:39:00.001-06:00

It’s very clear the folks in FlyOver County will soon see the current (and continuing) financial crisis hit home. Anchorbank is in serious trouble, and will either fail outright, or be absorbed by US Bank. It’s clear who’s at fault: The current and long time management continues to make poor decisions when it comes to commercial lending and real estate development.

The fact that Doug Timmerman has been forced out, and his chosen heir (his son, Mark) is probably on his way out the same door, is too little too late.

It’s really sad. Long time employees of the federal savings bank, and there are many of them, have seen the portion of their retirement fund made up of a generous Employee Stock Ownership Plan, shrink to almost nothing in a very short period of time. Anchor, which is a notoriously low paying employer, continues slap the face of its hard working staff in new ways year after year.

I'm From The Government And I'm Here To Help You...

2009-02-13T07:21:00.004-06:00

Thanks to the Anchoress

Barron's Has The Truth About The Financial Crisis

2009-02-08T16:25:00.003-06:00

Barron's has the scoop on the 2008 Financial Crisis, and it dubunks all the bull roar spouted by Democrats during the 2008 Election Campaigns:

CONTRARY TO A VIEW POPULARIZED DURING THE 2008 presidential election season, the current economic crisis was not the result of deregulation.

The Bush administration made many mistakes, but deregulation was not one of them.

Not only was there no major deregulation passed during the past eight years, but the Bush administration and a Republican Congress approved the most sweeping financial-market regulation in decades.
The bipartisan Sarbanes-Oxley Act was enacted in 2002 to prevent corporate fraud and restore investor confidence after the collapse of Enron and WorldCom. It failed to prevent the accounting fraud and influence-peddling scandals at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. And even after those scandals were widely understood, regulators sent Fannie and Freddie back into the market to continue buying subprime loans, lending and borrowing with implied taxpayer backing...

Check out the whole editorial and learn the truth, and stop believing these lying thieves that control the government in Washington.

Answers to Questions About a Library for Fitchburg

2009-02-07T17:50:00.002-06:00

Does Fitchburg Need a Library?
No
Can Fitchburg Afford a Library?
Yes
Would A Library Give Fitchburg Better "Identity"?
Probably
Is The Chosen Location The Best Site?
Probably
Did The City And Library Board Go Overboard With The Building Design?
Yes
Can The Annual Budget Estmates Be Cut To More Reasonable Figures?
Yes
Should The City Rely on Federal Stimulus Funds To Build The Library?
No
Will Fitchburg Have A Library In 2010?
No

The Saga Continues.

I'm Embarrassed This Jackass Represents Wisconsin

2009-02-06T20:14:00.002-06:00

Eco-Friendly Liberals Treat Capital Like Toilet

2009-01-22T18:38:00.002-06:00

Thanks to Noel Shepard at Newsbusters.com for making this public

Why Isn't Our Crack MSM On This Story?

2009-01-15T07:44:00.001-06:00

From our buds at Newsmax.com......

U.S. Military: Mexico Collapsing Under Drug Violence, Corruption
While the United States fights two wars in the Middle East and Central Asia, its southern neighbor is in a state of violent collapse, according to a new U.S. military study. A war between drug cartels and the Mexican government has cost thousands of lives, creating a situation potentially more dangerous than Iraq right on America’s doorstep.
FULL STORY

Quick Alzheimer's Check

2008-12-07T16:39:00.000-06:00

Quick Alzheimer’s Check

The following was developed as a mental age assessment by the School of Psychiatry at Harvard University. Take your time and see if you can read each line aloud without a mistake. The average person over 40 years of age cannot do it!

1. This is this cat.
2. This is is cat.
3. This is how cat.
4. This is to cat.
5. This is keep cat.
6. This is an cat.
7. This is old cat.
8. This is fart cat.
9. This is busy cat.
10. This is for cat.
11. This is forty cat.
12. This is seconds cat.

Now go back and read the third word in each line from the top down and I bet you cannot resist passing it on.

Is Time Magazine Joking?

2008-11-15T09:51:00.002-06:00

I Suspect More of This Will Happen...

2008-11-14T07:34:00.000-06:00

Evil on a Minneapolis Campus
By Gary Larson
Years ago youthful thugs murdered a young man for his high-priced sneakers. Decent, law-abiding folks wondered again What Is This Country Coming To? In another case, not long ago in Minneapolis, a youthful thug was murdered for his designer sports jersey. Evil happens, its very banality -- as political philosopher Hanna Arendt wrote in 1963, coining the phrase "the banality of evil" -- is taking on the mantle of practically normalizing once unthinkable events in a civilized American society.

On election night in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a blue state, comes a criminal horror story short of murder, but no less disturbing. It happened at Augsburg college, a private liberal arts school named after a place in Germany the reformer monk Martin Luther served in the 1500s.

After taunting 18-year old freshman Annie Grossmann for wearing her McCain-Palin campaign button at an election night get-together, and "getting in her face," four women beat her for political views which, obviously, they did not share. Grossmann took verbal abuse at the party, then left for her dorm after it was clear, about 10 p.m., that her candidates had lost. She was followed by the four women into the shadows of a nearby skyway.

There she was beaten. The four women, all black, called Grossmann a "racist." She knew none of them. Nor did they know her, to her knowledge. It was that damn campaign button that evidently caused their frenzy. Their earlier taunts proved that. They were, Grossmann said, "rubbing her face in Obama's win."

I've met these people!

2008-11-06T13:27:00.000-06:00

Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

You Don't Have To

2008-10-31T07:28:00.000-05:00

I'm Sorry I'm Late

2008-10-29T18:38:00.002-05:00

By Any Means Necessary, Part II

2008-10-29T07:09:00.001-05:00

From KXTV, Channel 10 in Sacramento, CA

SONORA, CA - The California Republican party is asking the secretary of state to investigate an organized voting campaign involving developmentally disabled adults in Tuolumne County.

As many as ten clients of the Thumbs Up! adult care center have already cast absentee ballots under the supervision of center director David Simerley, and nearly all of them were for Barack Obama.

"We all registered to vote and we all sat together as a group and went over our ballots and voted," Simerley told News10.

Among those voting was Michael Rascon, 56, whose father described him as having the mental capacity of a 5-year-old.

"What kind of people would do this to somebody like that," asked Sam Rascon, who discovered his son had registered and voted only after seeing him with an Obama button last Thursday. "He wouldn't know one candidate from another."

News10 spoke to Michael Rascon at the Thumbs Up! center about the election. When asked which candidate he'd voted for, Rascon answered "the black man." He was unable to remember Obama's name.

Simerley said the absentee voting followed field trips to both local Republican and Democratic party headquarters.

"When we register people to vote, we try to be totally non-partisan," Simerley said. He insists he exerted no influence over his clients despite the fact nearly all of them voted Democratic in an otherwise Republican county.

"I think maybe Obama would appeal to people with disabilities," he explained.

Clients interviewed by News10 agreed that Simerley had allowed them to choose their candidate freely although Simerley filled out the ballots for those who can't read or write. One client said he voted for McCain.

Simerley said his voting campaign also involved developmentally disabled adults not directly under his care. Tuolumne County clerk Deborah Russell confirmed Simerley took out 25 voter registration cards in January, but she could not say how many had been returned.

Russell said she's asked the district attorney to investigate the specific complaint by Sam Rascon that his son was manipulated.

California Republican party leaders are calling on Secretary of State Debra Bowen to conduct a broader investigation of Simerley's activities, according to the party's communications director Hector Barajas.

When asked about it on Tuesday, Bowen had not yet heard of the complaint. "The situation's never arisen," Bowen said.

She explained there is no prohibition against developmentally disabled adults voting without a court order declaring them incompetent.

Simerley defends his actions despite complaints from Sam Rascon and other parents of his adult clients. One parent actually tore up her son's absentee ballot before it was mailed.

"Our mission is to help these people become valued, respected citizens," he said. "And one of the most important things is to vote."

News10/KXTV
Copyright 2008 / All Rights Reserved

Soaking Off Ma & Pa Allows Anarchists To Fight The Good Fight?

2008-10-27T11:51:00.000-05:00

Chris Ricker in today’s Wisconsin State Journal gives a good insight as to how the flakes disrupting both political party conventions this year can do what they do. The 22 year old is the “prime suspect” in last month’s “terrorist threat at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, MN and had his stuff searched at the home of his parents in Blooming Grove, WI. Officers searched but did not remove anything from the house.

The guy clearly has no job, soaks off his parents, and runs around the country committing his anarchistic duties in the name of God knows what. His parents could put a stop to this by throwing his sorry butt out, and making him grow up!

More Fitchburg History To Preserve

2008-10-26T18:38:00.000-05:00

History Of Schools Kept Alive
Fitchburg Is Recognizing The Rural Schools That Existed Until The '60s.

Wisconsin State Journal
Saturday, November 3, 2001
William R. Wineke Wisconsin State Journal

There's something about a one-room school that seems romantic today;the passage of time has erased memories of freezing outhouses, inadequatelibraries and teachers only slightly better educated than those they taught.

The one-room and two-room schools that served the people of Fitchburg from1851 to 1964, when elementary schools in the area were consolidated and yellowschool buses replaced balloon-tired bicycles as the principal means ofconveyance for the city's children, didn't seem all that romantic to thethousands who attended them.By 1964, the schools of Fitchburg had come a long way toward modernization;they had indoor plumbing and their teachers had actually graduated fromcollege.

The schools weren't without amenities. Fannie Steve, a circuit-riding musicteacher, showed up periodically to teach singing and rhythm. Frances Kimmey, acounty school supervisor, also appeared occasionally, striking unwarrantedterror in the hearts of youngsters who assumed that, because she was thesupervisor she must have special disciplinary powers.

About once a month or so, the circulating library would send over a box ofbooks for recreational reading. Any student interested in reading had alreadygone through every book in the school's permanent collection -- it didn't takethat long.

There was nothing unique about the 10 one-room schools in Fitchburg; mostrural localities were home to similar schools, schools located within walkingdistance of one another because they were built in a day before automobiles.

But, Fitchburg has now recognized the schools by placing memorial plaqueson the properties where they once stood. The Fitchburg Historical Society, theDane County Cultural Affairs Commission and the city of Fitchburg financed theeffort.

Many of the buildings have either been destroyed or converted to otheruses, but visitors can at least take a peek at the physical location ofschools that educated thousands of boys and girls who went on to becomecommunity and state leaders.

Here is a list of Fitchburg one-room schools:

* Lakeview School at the intersection of Highways MM and B was thecommunity's first school. For the first 10 years, students were taught in alog structure owned by the Sanford family. A school building was erected in1855 and named for its view of Lake Waubesa. The school was built next toGett's Inn, a stage-coach stop. The school closed in 1930.

* Oak Hill School, on Highway M, west of Fish Hatchery Road, was thecommunity's first school house. The original brick building collapsed in awind storm, however, and a frame wood building was built on the site. Theschool was closed in 1949 and the building moved to Oregon, where it helpedrelieve crowding in the consolidated school.

* Stoner School, 6063 Vroman Road, was organized in 1850 and named afterthe first white settler in the area, John Stoner. The original building cost$265. It was replaced in 1927 by a 32-foot square building that is now aprivate residence. The school closed in 1964.

* Prairie View School, 5012 Highway M, also began its existence in a logbuilding. It was replaced by a frame building and, when the school closed in1926, the school was moved east, just off Highway MM, for use as a privateresidence.

* Swan Creek School, Highway MM and Lacy Road, operated from privatequarters from 1855 until a school house was built in 1859, about aquarter-mile south of the present location. A new school was built in 1889and, in 1925, when Swan Creek closed, the building was moved to Irish Lane andconverted to a private residence.

* Syene School, 5146 Lacy Road, was organized in 1860 and its firstbuilding burned about 1910 (records aren't clear on the exact date). Theschool was consolidated with the Oregon School District in 1952 but thebuilding was used for a first- and second-grade classroom for several years,before it was sold and converted to a private residence.

* Dogtown-Fish Hatchery School, 5574 Lacy Road, was organized in 1860 atthe northwest corner of Fish Hatchery and Lacy roads and was later relocatedon Lacy Road and called the Fish Hatchery School. The school had threebuildings before it closed in 1962. In 1989, the Gorman family relocated andrestored the one-room building at 5443 Whalen Road.

* Camp Badger School, 6048 McKee Road, was authorized in 1857. The currentbrick building that occupies the site -- now occupied by the FitchburgSerenity Club -- was built in 1927. The school closed in 1964 but was used bythe consolidated Verona Area School District for several years.

* Maple Corners School, 1941 Fitchburg Road, was organized in 1864 andnamed after the many maple trees planted in the vicinity. In 1955, a concreteblock addition provided the school with indoor plumbing and a furnace. Theschool closed in 1964.

I Need to Preserve This Article Before It's Gone Forever

2008-10-26T18:26:00.001-05:00

The Old Churches of Fitchburg

By Carole Kinney

Fichburg residents have been going to church for more than 160 years. Actually, in the earliest pioneer days, the church often came to them.
Back then, Fitchburg was a sparsely populated township that was roughly two-thirds Protestant and one-third Catholic. Catholics held the earliest remembered religious services in Fitchburg, beginning in 1844.

Priests said Mass at George and Catherine Fox’s log cabin, which once stood to the south of where the Oregon Correctional Institution stands today. They also met the faithful at Andrew and Mary Jane Kinney’s log cabin, on what is now Irish Lane.

Andrew and Mary Jane Kinney's log cabin

Bishop Henni
Among these pioneer priests were Father Martin Kundig of Milwaukee; Bishop John Martin Henni of Milwaukee; Father Maximilian Gaertner of Sauk City; Father Francis Etschmann of Madison and Father Adelbert Inama of Roxbury.
Pioneer families also attended services in Madison at what would become St. Raphael parish.

The first sermon in the Oak Hall area of Fitchburg was preached in the home of Robert Salisbury in 1845 by the Methodist circuit rider Rev. Hawks. A Methodist Church was built at Oak Hall in 1897, one-fourth mile south of the intersection of Fish Hatchery and M, on the west side of Fish Hatchery. The church was in existence for a short time, then merged with one in Oregon.

Rev. Matthew Fox arrived in Fitchburg in 1845 and conducted Presbyterian services in homes and a log school house near the intersection of Highways MM and B at Lake View. Rev. Fox was one of the first Protestant ministers to preach in Wisconsin. He and his father, Wm. Maine Fox, helped establish many of the early Protestant churches in Dane County.

In 1855, Hugh Cathcart gave a parcel of land on the NW corner of Irish Lane and MM to the Presbyterians for $1.00 - as long as it was used for church purposes. Rev. Matthew Fox built the Lake View Presbyterian Church there in about 1855. He was a great great uncle of Anna Fox who currently lives at Fox Hall on Highway M and is now 101 years old. The church was well attended by Fitchburg and Dunn township families.

By 1856, much of the land in Fitchburg had been purchased from the government, and settlers were establishing farms in all parts of Fitchburg. That year, Barney and Ann McGlynn sold 2 acres of land on County M for $1 for construction of a Catholic church.

St. Mary's Church and rectory were completed in 1857. Beyond the parsonage was a barn for the pastor’s horse and buggy, with the rest of the lot used as a cemetery. The church site was west of the gateposts of the present Oak Hill Correctional Institution. Parishioners came from the towns of Fitchburg, Dunn, Rutland and Oregon.
The congregation outgrew its modest frame building, and moved in 1886 to a new church not far away in the village of Oregon. The old St. Mary's Church building in Fitchburg was dismantled. A few gravestones of pioneers mark the site of the old church and graveyard today.

In 1873, Fitchburg Presbyterians began attending services in Oregon. The Syene Methodist Society acquired their building and moved it to Highway MM and Lacy Road. The church became known as the Swan Creek Church, and it was used until about 1928.

St. Mary's Church

Lutheran Mission Church
The Lutheran Mission Church was established in 1898 by Rev. E. F. Sherbel. It was located near the south end of the old village of Fitchburg, on Wendt Road in southwestern Fitchburg. About 1925 it was sold to Wesley Wilson. The church was converted into a house and it is still there.
From the 1930s to the 1950s, there were no known congregations of any denomination meeting in Fitchburg, undoubtedly because automobiles had become common, allowing people to travel to Madison, Oregon and Verona to worship.

In the 1960s, the migration of congregations out of Fitchburg began to reverse, as congregations outgrew their buildings in Madison and families moved into suburban housing developments. New congregations also formed, new churches were built and nearly a dozen religious communities are active in Fitchburg today.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Carole Kinney is a member of the board of directors of the Fitchburg Historical Society. Her paper on old churches and cemeteries of Fitchburg, from which this article was adapted, was presented to the society Oct. 16, 2005.

Glenn Beck Presents The Obama National Anthem

2008-10-26T17:58:00.001-05:00

ala Joe the Plumber.....

2008-10-25T10:03:00.002-05:00

People Get Ready......

2008-10-23T19:45:00.000-05:00

Trick or Treat

2008-10-23T19:13:00.002-05:00

Announcing The 401-K(eg)!

2008-10-22T17:55:00.000-05:00

If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in Delta Airlines one year ago, you would have $49.00 today. If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in AIG one year ago, you would have $33.00 today. If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in Lehman Brothers one year ago, you would have $0.00 today.

But, if you had purchased $1,000 worth of beer one year ago, drank all the beer, then sold the aluminum cans for recycling, you would have received $214.00.

Based on the above, and given the state of today's financial world, the best current investment plan is to drink heavily & recycle. It is called the 401-Keg. A recent study found that the average American walks about 900 miles a year. Another study found that Americans drink, on average, 22 gallons of alcohol a year. That means that, on average, Americans get about 41 miles to the gallon.

Makes you proud to be an American!

By Any Means Necessary

2008-10-20T18:56:00.002-05:00

Mentally challenged man says his vote wasn't right
By Jennifer Emert WALB, Albany, GA
October 14, 2008

ALBANY, GA (WALB) - There are allegations of voter fraud, as a Dougherty County family claims the vote of a mentally challenged relative was stolen.

They say the adult day rehab program where Jack Justice attends took him to vote, without the family's permission. What's worse is Justice says the person helping him wouldn't cast the ballot for his choice for President.

Jack Justice has been voting since he turned 18. Typically his family takes him to their neighborhood precinct. This time Primus Industries, his adult day rehab program, took him to vote. His family was shocked, but what shocked them more was that Jack claims that his aide commandeered his vote.

"They told me to vote for Obama, I said no I wanted to vote for McCain," said Jack Justice, a voter.

Jack Justice says the person helping him, selected Obama's name. His sister says the family is often asked to sign a permission slips for trips, but for this they were never notified.

"No permission slips, no nothing, he just came home and said he had gone," said Nancy Justice, Jack's sister.

We questioned election officials about the procedure, who say they recall the group coming in to vote and an aide was helping the individuals, but they must sign an oath that they'll cast the ballot however the voter prefers.

"So it plainly says the person should tell the person how they want to vote and then they help them mark it," said Carolyn Hatcher, Dougherty County Elections Supervisor.

Election officials say they can't follow people into the booth to see what happens. We contacted the Albany Area Community Service Board who oversees Primus Industries. They say they do their best to protect the safety, treatment, and care of the individuals in their programs. They also said they'll look into the allegations and conduct an internal investigation if necessary. Nancy Justice is just upset the incident happened.

"For me it was kind of pushing it to the limit there to get him to vote for someone in particular who they wanted him to vote for," said Nancy Justice.

Election officials say the family's only option is to file a challenge to the election results. The Justice's are considering their options.

Some People Should NOT Be Allowed to Vote

2008-10-16T15:00:00.001-05:00

From ABC's 20/20:

HOW TO START EACH DAY WITH A POSITIVE OUTLOOK

2008-10-05T16:55:00.000-05:00

1. Open a new file in your computer.
2. Name it ‘Barack Obama’.
3. Send it to the Recycle Bin.
4. Empty the Recycle Bin.
5. Your PC will ask you: ‘Do you really want to get rid of ‘Barack Obama?’
6. Firmly Click ‘Yes.’
7. Feel better?

GOOD – Tomorrow we’ll do Nancy Pelosi!

Joe Biden's Debate Lies

2008-10-03T07:12:00.001-05:00

From ACE

JOE BIDEN’S 14 LIES LAST NIGHT

1. TAX VOTE: Biden said McCain voted “the exact same way” as Obama to increase taxes on Americans earning just $42,000, but McCain DID NOT VOTE THAT WAY.

2. AHMEDINIJAD MEETING: Joe Biden lied when he said that Barack Obama never said that he would sit down unconditionally with Mahmoud Ahmedinijad of Iran. Barack Obama did say specifically, and Joe Biden attacked him for it.

3. OFFSHORE OIL DRILLING: Biden said, “Drill we must.” But Biden has opposed offshore drilling and even compared offshore drilling to “raping” the Outer Continental Shelf.”

4. TROOP FUNDING: Joe Biden lied when he indicated that John McCain and Barack Obama voted the same way against funding the troops in the field. John McCain opposed a bill that included a timeline, that the President of the United States had already said he would veto regardless of it’s passage.

5. OPPOSING CLEAN COAL: Biden says he’s always been for clean coal, but he just told a voter that he is against clean coal and any new coal plants in America and has a record of voting against clean coal and coal in the U.S. Senate.

6. ALERNATIVE ENERGY VOTES: According to FactCheck.org, Biden is exaggerating and overstating John McCain’s record voting for alternative energy when he says he voted against it 23 times.

7. HEALTH INSURANCE: Biden falsely said McCain will raise taxes on people's health insurance coverage -- they get a tax credit to offset any tax hike. Independent fact checkers have confirmed this attack is false

8. OIL TAXES: Biden falsely said Palin supported a windfall profits tax in Alaska -- she reformed the state tax and revenue system, it's not a windfall profits tax.

9. AFGHANISTAN / GEN. MCKIERNAN COMMENTS: Biden said that top military commander in Iraq said the principles of the surge could not be applied to Afghanistan, but the commander of NATO's International Security Assistance Force Gen. David D. McKiernan said that there were principles of the surge strategy, including working with tribes, that could be applied in Afghanistan.

10. REGULATION: Biden falsely said McCain weakened regulation -- he actually called for more regulation on Fannie and Freddie.

11. IRAQ: When Joe Biden lied when he said that John McCain was “dead wrong on Iraq”, because Joe Biden shared the same vote to authorize the war and differed on the surge strategy where they John McCain has been proven right.

12. TAX INCREASES: Biden said Americans earning less than $250,000 wouldn’t see higher taxes, but the Obama-Biden tax plan would raise taxes on individuals making $200,000 or more.

13. BAILOUT: Biden said the economic rescue legislation matches the four principles that Obama laid out, but in reality it doesn’t meet two of the four principles that Obama outlined on Sept. 19, which were that it include an emergency economic stimulus package, and that it be part of “part of a globally coordinated effort with our partners in the G-20.”

14. REAGAN TAX RATES: Biden is wrong in saying that under Obama, Americans won't pay any more in taxes then they did under Reagan.

Stock Market Terms for the Neophyte Investor

2008-09-30T19:14:00.003-05:00

BULL MARKET -- A random market movement causing an investor to mistake himself for a financial genius.
BEAR MARKET -- A 6 to 18 month period when the kids> get no allowance, the wife gets no jewelry
VALUE INVESTING -- The art of buying low and selling> lower.
P/E RATIO -- The percentage of investors wetting their pants as the market keeps crashing.
BROKER -- What my broker has made me.
STANDARD & POOR -- Your life in a nutshell.
FINANCIAL PLANNER -- A person whose phone has been disconnected.
MARKET CORRECTION -- The day after you buy stocks.
CASH FLOW-- The movement your money makes as it disappears down the toilet.
WINDOWS -- What you jump out of when you're the sucker who bought Yahoo @ $240 per share.
INSTITUTIONAL INVESTOR -- Past week investor who's> now locked up in a nuthouse.

What Glass Ceiling?

2008-09-21T16:01:00.003-05:00

How Sarah Palin Killed The Bridge to Nowhere

2008-09-19T15:07:00.003-05:00

1. August 2005 – Earmark for the bridge, $223 million in federal money became part of the highway bill. It sparked a controversy and was removed. The $223 million became “non-restricted” federal funds and could be used for other projects.

2. December 2005 - Under a bizarre formula, only $100 million of the formerly earmarked funds were still available for a bridge, and a total of $300 million would be needed in state funds to complete any bridge. Then Governor Frank Murkowski ordered the project to proceed. The Alaska State Department of Transportation declined to move the project ahead until all monies for it had been appropriated. Because no state money had been, the bridge project remained on hold.

3. December 2006 – Sarah Palin is sworn in the new Governor of Alaska. She asks for a status of the bridge project after hearing second guessing from her transition team. The report was drafted without a recommendation, but the advice was the federal funds would be better used on other projects.

4. 2007 – Palin decides there are too money other transportation needs throughout the state, and moving ahead with the bridge would make it impossible to complete those other projects. She at this point in the analysis decided to kill the bridge and use the federal funds else where on the most needed projects as determined by transportation officials.

She did kill the bridge, she did not, however send any money back to Washington. Although she has never claimed that, and would argue Alaska was just getting its fair share of Transaportation dollars like the other 49 states. The liberals seem to be upset about a state governor accepting federal highway money. Clueless.

Don't Vote For Him! He's Gonna Die!

2008-09-16T07:13:00.001-05:00

At a time when McCain is rising in the polls, MoveOn.org Political Action makes the point that if Republican John McCain wins in November, he’d be the oldest first-term president ever.

Moreover, “If McCain got sick while in office, the leader of the free world would be Sarah Palin—someone with no foreign policy experience and a domestic agenda more extreme than George Bush's. Voters deserve to know how likely that might be,” MoveOn.org said in an email message urging voters to watch the latest installment of liberal propaganda from Robert Greenwald’s Brave New Films.

Read the whole article by by Susan Jones at CNSNews.com

How Democratic Politics Really Works

2008-09-09T19:34:00.004-05:00

According to John Fund in the Wall Street Journal, Democratic Party Operatives are landing in Alaska by the dozens to try to dig up dirt on Republican V.P. Candidate Sarah Palin, Alaskan Governor.

If this is the way Democratic Politics really works, it's no wonder they can't win a national election.

Average Americans are catching on to the conspiracy to destroy McCain/Palin.

This is and will continue to blow up in their faces.

I Love Sarah

2008-09-07T20:40:00.003-05:00

Badgers Show Their Mettle

2008-09-06T18:09:00.003-05:00

After a less than stellar start to today's non-conference football game at Camp Randall Stadium, the Badger Football Team scored 51 unanswered points and blew out the less than Thundering Herd from Marshall University.
Next week it's a hugh showdown with the Bulldogs of Fresno State in Raisin Land.

Final Score: Badgers 51 - Marshall 14

Stand Up, Stand Up and Fight!

2008-09-06T17:58:00.001-05:00

If you find faults with our country, make it a better one. If you're disappointed with the mistakes of government, join its ranks and work to correct them. Enlist in our armed forces. Become a teacher. Enter the ministry. Run for public office. Feed a hungry child. Teach an illiterate adult to read. Comfort the afflicted. Defend the rights of the oppressed. Our country will be the better, and you will be the happier. Because nothing brings greater happiness in life than to serve a cause greater than yourself.
I'm going to fight for my cause every day as your president. I'm going to fight to make sure every American has every reason to thank God, as I thank Him: that I'm an American, a proud citizen of the greatest country on earth, and with hard work, strong faith and a little courage, great things are always within our reach. Fight with me. Fight with me.
Fight for what's right for our country.
Fight for the ideals and character of a free people.
Fight for our children's future.
Fight for justice and opportunity for all.
Stand up to defend our country from its enemies.
Stand up for each other; for beautiful, blessed, bountiful America.
Stand up, stand up, stand up and fight. Nothing is inevitable here. We're Americans, and we never give up. We never quit. We never hide from history. We make history.
Senator John S. McCain, September 4, 2008

Obama May Bring Criminal Charges Against Bush

2008-09-04T12:21:00.003-05:00

Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden said he and presidential hopeful Barack Obama could bring criminal charges against the Bush administration if they are elected in November.

“If there has been a basis upon which you can pursue someone for a criminal violation, they will be pursued,” Biden said during a campaign stop in Florida on Monday, ABC News reported.

So says Jim Meyers at Newsmax.com

Let me translate liberal speak for you.. " Whether or not there is a basis on which we can pursue them for criminal violations, we will pursue.....to playcate our liberal looney leftwing base..."

How Low Can MSNBC GO?

2008-08-30T13:46:00.003-05:00

Here's how low....

Hats Off to Bill O'Reilly and the Factor on Fox News

How Serious Is Madison About Mass Transit Solutions?

2008-08-22T08:31:00.000-05:00

So gas is $3.65/gallon, Downtown parking costs a fortune and demand is exploding for mass transit options. So what is the City of Madison’s response to questions about expanding one of the few park-and-ride lots in the city at Dutch Mill Road?

“There’s no time line yet, but it won’t happen in 2009” says Mick Rusch, Marketing and Customer Service Manager for Metro Transit.

I’m sorry but you have public land adjacent to the existing lot that just needs to be paved, and striped, and we can’t get it done for two years, and maybe not even then.

We are not serious in this way to serious about itself city about helping people get around, and contribute to solving the energy crisis with attitudes like this.

Where’s the mayor, county exec, governor on this.

FIND A WAY TO GET IT DONE!

Buyer's Remorse

2008-08-21T14:52:00.001-05:00

So now the Democratic National Committee is reviewing the nomination process for their party’s nominee for President.

Hmmm.

Couldn’t be because of buyer’s remorse could it?

Nah…..

Snob

2008-08-21T14:17:00.003-05:00

Kelly's Grille In Fitchburg No More?

2008-08-20T12:24:00.002-05:00

OK, so Kelly’s Grille announces before Memorial Day that it will be closed for the summer to remodel. It’s now August 20^th, and there are no signs of life whatsoever. When is the truth going to come out about what’s happening with this business establishment? Is Kelly’s closed for good? Those of us in the neighborhood would like to know.

A good clue: they let their web site domain name expire.

What Denver Wants, Denver Gets

2008-08-20T10:19:00.001-05:00

William Moloney at The Rocky Mountain News has a great article on the Europeanization of the Democratic Party. Here’s an excerpt:

Out of this turmoil (the 1960’s) there emerged a powerful body of left-wing opinion and activism that turned the old national consensus upside down. Rejecting Henry Clay’s “my country - right or wrong,” the left substituted “my country - always wrong.” More extreme elements declared their country to be the most oppressive society in history - racist at home and imperialist abroad - while discovering sublime virtues in genocidal tyrants from Mao Tse-Tung to Pol Pot.

While this raging ideological virus infected in varying degree a wide range of American institutions - e.g. media, academia - its principal victim was the national Democratic Party.

In less than a decade the party that boldly sponsored the Berlin airlift, the Marshall Plan, and the NATO alliance went from the confident activism of the hawkish John Kennedy - “pay any price, bear any burden to assure the success of liberty” - to the “Blame America First” defeatism of George McGovern - who aptly themed his 1972 acceptance speech as “Come Home, America.”

I’ve focused several blog entries about what Denver can expect next week when the DNC show comes for a four day engagement. I’ll just end with this statement: Denver wanted this, and they’re going to get a big dose of it.

Obama's Greatest Shortcomings

2008-08-20T09:10:00.002-05:00

Obama’s Greatest Shortcomings, according to Dean Barnett at the Weekly Standard:

“…a preening narcissism, a fondness for platitudes, a tendency to whine and a potentially fatal lack of substance.”

Any arguments?

Chinese Reality

2008-08-19T13:04:00.000-05:00

Normally I don’t read the Miami Herald site, but Glen Garvin has a spot on take on the Chinese handling of the Olympics, especially the realty they put forth over television to the world.

NBC and the IOC are complicit in the fraud being perpetuated on us all. It’s time for the athletes to start demanding the site selections not be driven by politics. I would favor a permanent set of revolving sites: Paris, Athens, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Sydney.

Do Americans Have Contempt for the Executive Branch?

2008-08-19T12:56:00.001-05:00

I have reached the conclusion that we, U.S. Americans have contempt and disdain for the Presidency. Why else would we support the nomination of, and potentially vote for someone so unqualified for the job?

Folks, you who support BO for President need to answer the questions I’ve put below, before I will even begin to take you seriously:

1. What in Obama’s past history makes you think he can steer the Ship of State?

2. How can you support a candidate now, who’s grasp of the truth is somewhere between Slick Willie’s and Tricky Dick’s?

3. The archaic definition of hope is trust. Why should I trust someone who withholds the facts about his background, upbringing, and record?

4. Explain to me how a Chicago hack politician of the first order, who chose his home, wife, friends and church for political reasons, has any sense of a moral code whatsoever?

5. Why would any sane individual support a candidate who’s economic policies are just socialism disguised as “change”, who’s energy policy was a joke when Jimmy Carter first introduced in 30 years ago, and who’s foreign policy ideas can best be described as capitulation and appeasement?

I can go on, but I won’t. I’ll just slide back under my rock with my head shaking from side to side.

Denver Short on Limos

2008-08-13T14:46:00.002-05:00

Denver’s Channel 9 is reporting there aren’t enough limousines to shuttle the limousine liberals around during the Democratic National Convention to be held in two weeks. I guess Al Gore will be the only one there driving a Lexus Hybrid. More hypocrisy from the People’s Party!

The Truth and Nothing But About Tire Inflation...

2008-08-07T08:49:00.002-05:00

See John McCormack at the Weekly Standard’s posting. It’s the truth about Obama’s lies about tire inflation and oil savings.

Tony Snow's Special Message

2008-07-24T13:29:00.001-05:00

I never commented on Tony Snow’s untimely death, but now is the time. Of all the things you can say about Mr. Snow, the one that no one can dispute is that he was a man of deep and undying Faith. I dare you to read this and not choke up. Rest in Peace good man.

'Blessings arrive in unexpected packages, - in my case, cancer. Those
of us with potentially fatal diseases - and there are millions in
America today - find ourselves in the odd position of coping with our
mortality while trying to fathom God's will. Although it would be the
height of
presumption to declare with confidence 'What It All Means,' Scripture
provides powerful hints and consolations.

The first is that we shouldn't spend too much time trying to answer
the 'why' questions: Why me? Why must people suffer? Why can't someone
else get sick? We can't answer such things, and the questions
themselves s often are designed more to express our anguish than to
solicit an answer.

I don't know why I have cancer, and I don't much care. It is what it
is, a plain and indisputable fact. Yet even while staring into a
mirror darkly, great and stunning truths begin to take shape. Our
maladies define a central feature of our existence: We are fallen. We
are imperfect. Our bodies give out.

But despite this, - or because of it, - God offers the possibility of
salvation and grace. We don't know how the narrative of our lives will
end, but we get to choose how to use the interval between now and the
moment we meet our Creator face-to-face.

Second, we need to get past the anxiety. The mere thought of dying can
send adrenaline flooding through your system. A dizzy, unfocused panic
seizes you. Your heart thumps; your head swims. You think of
nothingness and swoon. You fear partings; you worry about the impact
on family and friends. You fidget and get nowhere.

To regain footing, remember that we were born not into death, but into
life, - and that the journey continues after we have finished our days
on this earth. We accept this on faith, but that faith is nourished by
a conviction that stirs even within many non-believing hearts... an
intuition that the gift of life, once given, cannot be taken away.
Those who have been stricken enjoy the special privilege of being able
to fight with their might, main, and faith to live fully, richly,
exuberantly - no matter how their days may be numbered.

Third, we can open our eyes and hearts. God relishes surprise. We
want lives of simple, predictable ease, - smooth, even trails as far
as the eye can see.... but God likes to go off-road. He provokes us
with twists and turns. He places us in predicaments that seem to defy
our endurance; and comprehension - and yet don't. By His love and
grace, we persevere. The challenges that make our hearts leap and
stomachs churn invariably strengthen our faith and grant measures of
wisdom and joy we would not experience otherwise.

'You Have Been Called'. Picture yourself in a hospital bed. The fog
of anesthesia has begun to wear away. A doctor stands at your feet, a
loved one holds your hand at the side. 'It's
cancer,' the healer announces.

The natural reaction is to turn to God and ask Him to serve as a
cosmic Santa. 'Dear God, make it all go away. Make everything
simpler.' But another voice whispers: 'You have been called.' Your
quandary has drawn you closer to God, closer to those you love, closer
to the
issues that matter... and has dragged into insignificance the banal
concerns that occupy
our 'normal time.'
There's another kind of response, although usually short-lived an
inexplicable shudder of excitement, as if a clarifying moment of
calamity has swept away everything trivial and tiny, and placed before
us the challenge of important questions.

The moment you enter the Valley of the Shadow of Death, things change.
You discover that Christianity is not something doughy, passive,
pious, and soft. Faith may be the substance of things hoped for, the
evidence of things not seen. But it also draws you into a world shorn
of fearful caution. The life of belief teems with thrills, boldness,
danger, shocks, reversals, triumphs, and epiphanies.

Think of Paul, traipsing through the known world and contemplating
trips to what must have
seemed the antipodes (Spain), shaking the dust from his sandals,
worrying not about the
morrow, but only about the moment.

There's nothing wilder than a life of humble virtue, - for it is
through selflessness and service that God wrings from our bodies and
spirits the most we ever could give, the most we ever could offer, and
the most we ever could do.

Finally, we can let love change everything. When Jesus was faced with
the prospect of crucifixion, he grieved not for Himself, but for us.
He cried for Jerusalem before entering the holy city. From the Cross,
He took on the cumulative burden of human sin and weakness,
and begged for forgiveness on our behalf.

We get repeated chances to learn that life is not about us, that we
acquire purpose and satisfaction by sharing in God's love for others.
Sickness gets us part way there. It reminds us of our limitations and
dependence. But it also gives us a chance to serve the healthy. A
minister friend of mine observes that people suffering grave
afflictions often acquire the faith of two people, while loved ones
accept the burden of two peoples' worries and fears.

'Learning How to Live'. Most of us have watched friends as they
drifted toward God's arms, not with resignation, but with peace and
hope. In so doing, they have taught us not how to die, but how to
live. They have emulated Christ by transmitting the power and
authority of love.

I sat by my best friend's bedside a few years ago as a wasting cancer
took him away. He kept at his table a worn Bible and a 1928 edition of
the Book of Common Prayer. A shattering grief disabled his family,
many of his old friends, and at least one priest. Here was a humble
and very good guy, someone who apologized when he winced with pain
because he thought it made his guest uncomfortable. He retained his
equanimity and good humor literally until his last conscious moment.
'I'm going to try to beat [t his cancer],' he told me several months
before he died. 'But if I don't, I'll see you on the other side.'

His gift was to remind everyone around him that even though God
doesn't promise us tomorrow, He does promise us eternity, - filled
with life and love we cannot comprehend, - and that one can in the
throes of sickness point the rest of us toward timeless truths that
will help us weather future storms.
Through such trials, God bids us to choose: Do we believe, or do we
not? Will we be bold enough to love, daring enough to serve, humble
enough to submit, and strong enough to acknowledge our limitations?
Can we surrender our concern in things that don't matter so that we
might devote our remaining days to things that do?

When our faith flags, He throws reminders in our way. Think of the
prayer warriors in our midst. They change things, and those of us who
have been on the receiving end of their petitions and intercessions
know it. It is hard to describe, but there are times when suddenly
the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, and you feel a surge of
the Spirit. Somehow you
just know: Others have chosen, when talking to the Author of all
creation, to lift us up, - to speak of us!

This is love of a very special order. But so is the ability to sit
back and appreciate the wonder of every created thing. The mere
thought of death somehow makes every blessing vivid, every happiness
more luminous and intense. We may not know how our contest with
sickness will end, but we have felt the ineluctable touch of God.

What is man that Thou art mindful of him? We don't know much, but we
know this: No matter where we are, no matter what we do, no matter how
bleak or frightening our prospects, each and every one of us who
believe, each and every day, lies in the same safe and impregnable
place, in the hollow of God's hand.'

Tony Snow

Wisconsin Picked Second in Preseason Poll

2008-07-24T12:27:00.001-05:00

From the Big Teneleven Conference:

Ohio State picked to win Big Ten football title

Big Ten Conference

PARK RIDGE, ILL. - The Big Ten Conference announced today that Ohio State has been selected as the preseason favorite among members of the media attending the conference’s football media day.

Wisconsin was chosen to place second, while Illinois was selected third.

The Big Ten announces only the top three teams in its preseason poll.

Wisconsin was selected second in the preseason poll after finishing fourth last year. The Badgers went 5-3 in conference play and 9-4 overall under Bret Bielema, who is entering his third year. Wisconsin returns 17 starters this season, including tight end Travis Beckum, a 2007 first-team Walter Camp All-American.

Look Out Denver PD!

2008-07-24T10:10:00.000-05:00

From Gatewaypundit comes word that Denver Firefighters and PD have learned of a house in Denver where protesters are stockpiling urine to use to throw at law enforcement officers during the upcoming Democratic Convention. Must be a pleasant place to live; of course I’m sure the smelly protesters don’t mind as they probably don’t believe in bathing anyway.

Ask and Ye Shall Receive

2008-07-23T07:39:00.002-05:00

This says it all. It's what Madison surely wants, and maybe the rest of the country too. What will we want four years from now.... just wondering.

The Sweet Illusion Of Socialism
By TERRY SATER | Posted Tuesday, July 22, 2008 4:30 PM PT

The underlying issue of the 2008 election makes this a watershed moment in American history, too important to shrink from full and frank debate or allow emotional appeal to cloak party platform DNA.

In April, when Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., was asked if presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama was a Marxist, he replied:

"I must say, that's a good question . . . I will tell you that during this campaign, I've learned some things about him, about the kind of environment from which he came ideologically. And I wouldn't . . . I'd hesitate to say he's a Marxist, but he's got some positions that are far to the left of me and I think mainstream America."

It was a good question, but there is a broader one: Will America hold to the principles of capitalism and free enterprise or will it embrace elements of socialism, Marxism and communism? Those are our choices.

We must have the intellectual honesty and moral courage to debate the choices plainly, by proper definition and without equivocation or censorship. Words matter. The left avoids any use of the terms "socialism" or "Marxism." Conservatives have been intimidated into using childish euphemisms such as "nanny state."

Webster's dictionary defines "socialized medicine" as "medical and hospital services for the members of a class or population administered by an organized group (as a state agency) and paid for from funds obtained by assessments, philanthropy or taxation." We should call it that, rather than "universal health care."

In May, two House Democrats called for nationalization of the U.S. oil industry. A June Rasmussen poll reported that 37% of Democrats liked the idea. Webster's defines "communism" in part as "a theory advocating elimination of private property" or "a totalitarian system of government in which a single authoritarian party controls state-owned means of production with the professed aim of establishing a stateless society."

In 2004, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., said: "We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good." She could have easily quoted Karl Marx, who said: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need."

The Fairness Doctrine, favored by many Democrats, sounds wonderful, but it ironically disguises the ultimate objective: silencing conservative speech. Why not just call it the Kill Conservative Talk Doctrine?

We've come far from promises of "a chicken in every pot" to Barack Obama's June 3 declaration that "the chance to get a college education is the birthright of every American." When did it become a birthright?

In his 1982 book, "The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism," Michael Novak noted that many who have lived under socialism would find it hard to believe "that other human beings would fall for the same bundle of lies, half-truths and distortions. Sadly, however, illusion is often sweeter to human taste than reality. The last Marxist in the world will probably be an American nun."

"The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism," said Norman Thomas, a U.S. Socialist Party presidential candidate in the 1940s. "But under the name of 'liberalism,' they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day, America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened."

If it is to be, let's do it with our eyes open, aware of every ponderous step.

I understand why a person wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth when promised "entitlements" or income redistribution or care whether it is called liberalism, progressivism, socialism, Marxism, communism or "change." We at least should know whether it is a gift horse or a Trojan horse, or a combination of the two.
Sater writes a monthly column for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, where this article first appeared.

Number 89!?

2008-07-14T12:15:00.004-05:00

Madison has sunk to number 89 on Money Magazines list of the top 100 best small cities in America. Fargo, ND actually beat it out. Remember the 90's when Madison basked in the glory of so many top 10 lists? That day is long gone now, and may never return.

This Video is a Riot

2008-07-12T09:11:00.001-05:00

Why You Don't Want Government Run Health Care

2008-07-08T12:43:00.008-05:00

We’ve all heard the jokes about the Canadian Health Care System. You know, like the one about the deceased man that received the letter confirming a surgery appointment, but if “you’ve expired in the mean time, be sure and let us know right away”.

Well most of the jokes and stories are true, and now the fine folks at the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest have started a web site called BigGOVHealth.org where you can confirm your worst fears about where we are headed with “universal health care”. Check it out, and get educated.

Peeyew!

2008-07-08T12:02:00.005-05:00

From AOL News:

Tributes to U.S. presidents have come in all forms -- take the Washington Monument, the Kennedy Space Center and the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, to name a few. And soon, if a San Francisco group has its way, there could be the George W. Bush Sewage Plant, according to The New York Times.

Whether it is successful or not, the group wants supporters to participate in a "synchronized flush" when the new president is inaugurated on Jan. 20 to send a flood of water toward the plant. Read the full story at nytimes.com.

Seriously, these people need to get lives.....

Obama's Real Patriotism Problem

2008-07-01T09:40:00.003-05:00

Read Jonah Goldberg’s blog entry from today’s USA Today on-line. JG consistently hits homers with his commentary about modern American liberalism.

http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2008/07/obamas-real-pat.html

No More Cancer?

2008-06-30T12:00:00.001-05:00

Scientists to test if cancer cure can work in humans

Updated Sat. Jun. 28 2008 3:30 PM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

American researchers will soon start a human trial to determine whether a treatment that can eradicate cancer in mice will do the same in people.

The treatment will transfuse specific white blood cells, called granulocytes, into patients with advanced forms of cancer. The granulocytes will come from healthy young people with immune systems that produce cells that have high levels of anti-cancer activity.

In the animal studies, white blood cells from cancer-resistant mice cured all lab mice who had malignant tumours. The cells have also been able to kill cervical, prostate and breast cancer tumour cells in Petri dish tests.

"All the mice we treated were 100 per cent cured," lead researcher Dr. Zheng Cui told CTV News. "So that was very surprising for us."

Cui, an associate professor of pathology at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in North Carolina, will announce the study Saturday at the Understanding Aging conference in Los Angeles.

Granulocytes account for about 60 per cent of all white blood cells in the human body. The scientists already know, via a small study of human volunteers, that granulocytes from people under the age of 50 are most effective at killing cancer cells.

The study will begin with 22 cancer patients for whom conventional treatment has been unsuccessful. The researchers say that they will know within three months if the treatment will work in humans.

Cancer researchers worldwide will be watching the tests closely.

"Certainly in the mouse, being able to do these things is quite remarkable and very exciting," said Dr. Ronan Foley of the Juravinski Cancer Centre in Hamilton, Ont. "Oftentimes when it is translated into the human situation it doesn't work as well. But that doesn't mean it isn't going to work."

With a report from CTV medical correspondent Avis Favaro and senior producer Elizabeth St. Philip

I will be keeping my eye on this story, as I imagine many others will also. It’s amazing I didn’t read this in the MSM first.

Bush Derangement Tour Coming to Mad City!!!!!

2008-06-25T09:39:00.002-05:00

The BDS tour bus is coming to Madison on Tuesday July 15, 2008. Believe it or don't these George Soros funded wackos are spending 10,000 gallons of diesel fuel to send this bus on a nationwide campain against a guy who isn't running for anything.

Read all about it at

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/30458_28_Tons_of_Bush_Derangement_Syndrome

Obama Is Trying to Deceive or is Just Unaware of the Most Basic Facts....

2008-06-25T08:12:00.002-05:00

Dean Barnett at the Weekly Standard has hit a home run with his post “OLD WHINE IN OLD BOTTLES”:

..Once again, this month Iraq is on pace to have 375 civilian casualties and last month had 506 civilian casualties. It takes a peculiarly strong disregard for the facts to insist that the 2008 figures are worse than the 2006 figures, as the Obama campaign persists in doing.

You have to wonder whether Obama is trying to deceive or is just unaware of the most basic facts. Me, I'll be consistent--I'm going with the latter option as I have throughout the campaign. Obama is a supremely conventional thinker with a paucity of intellectual curiosity. Rather than taking the time to figure out what's really happening with a given situation, he simply repeats clichés. For instance, he has repeatedly lamented on the campaign trail that Iraq caused us to take our eye off the real fight, which was in Afghanistan. As president, he promises to return the focus to Afghanistan where it ostensibly belongs.

This has become a classic lefty whine, one that predates even the Kerry campaign. Of course, Obama's just mouthing pretty sounding the words. Does anyone really believe President Obama will send more troops to Afghanistan? Or let's put it this way--if he does have plans to alter our effort in Afghanistan, his website is strangely reticent on the topic. BarackObama.com doesn't even list "Afghanistan" as one of the 24 issues that it calls out for special attention. Afghanistan ranks as such a low priority for the Obama campaign, it doesn't even get mentioned as one of the website's "Additional Issues,"…..

Americans especially the left have become lazy in their thinking about National Security. The success of late by the Bush Administration in Iraq, Afganistan, and at preventing another terrorist attach on American soil could lead to success for Obama in November.

Read the whole excellent article at http://www.theweeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/015/264gvntg.asp

Episcopal Church Involved In Making Anti-Republican Video

2008-06-21T17:16:00.003-05:00

Watch this piece of trash for yourself, and get as angry as I did...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiQJ9Xp0xxU

Read more about who's responsible from the friends at Newsbusters.org

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/ken-shepherd/2008/06/20/episcopal-church-thanked-end-republican-bashing-viral-video

Kennedy "Behavior"

2008-06-18T08:39:00.000-05:00

Ronald Kessler has an interesting reminder of the saga of Rosemary Kennedy, sister of John F, Robert F, and Edward M.

Anyone who grew up in Southern Wisconsin has knowledge of the St. Coletta School in Jefferson, where Rosemary “lived” after being exiled there by her Father Joseph, the Kennedy Patriarch.

I believe Joe Kennedy was a truly evil man, and the whole Kennedy clan has the stain of this evil on it in some way or another. The family is absolutely cursed.

See the entire article at Newsmax.com

http://www.newsmax.com/kessler/Rosemary_Kennedy/2008/06/17/105127.html

More Hybrid Vehicles Mean More Training for Emergency Workers

2008-06-17T13:05:00.002-05:00

Thanks to KBTX.com in Bryan/College Station Texas

Posted: 6:07 PM Mar 6, 2006

Last Updated: 6:07 PM Mar 6, 2006

Reporter: Toni Harrison

The cost of gas these days has some new car buyers lining up for cars with hybrid technology. Most hybrids deliver more than 45 miles to the gallon, but their popularity has created an unexpected challenge for emergency response teams.

"There's several things that you have to worry about with hybrid vehicles, of course the power source, you're dealing with anywhere from 144 volts to 600 volts," said Jeremy Riley of the Bryan Fire Department.

Officials say about 60 volts of electricity is fatal; most hybrids carry more than 250 volts.

When using rescue equipment in an accident, like the jaws of life, cutting a hybrid in the wrong place could be fatal.

"They could be killed or at the very least hurt real bad," said Riley.

Emergency workers are trying to keep up with the technological advances in new vehicles and hybrid training sessions are popping up everywhere, but nothing beats hands-on experience.

"The best training sometimes is actually being out in the field cutting on these vehicles and that's a bad place to have to learn about it," said Riley.

The fire academy at Texas A&M's Brayton Fire Training School is now offering lessons on how to properly cut hybrid vehicles.

"We had to change the procedure that we had when we train people to deal with vehicle extraction, so it adds another step, another precaution," said Jason Cook of Texas Engineering Extension Service.

Some local firefighters have already attended hybrid training. With the growing popularity of these gas friendly vehicles, that number is only going to increase, because as more hybrids hit the road, more accidents involving hybrids are sure to follow.

I have nothing against Hybrids, but those out there that think they are the answer to high gas prices, aren’t looking at the whole picture.

Look Out Denver!

2008-06-16T10:14:00.003-05:00

From the Associated Press:

DNC convention committee faces $15 million shortfall

Posted: 11:33 AM ET

The DNC's host committee is facing a possible monetary shortfall.

DENVER (AP) — The host committee for the Democratic National Convention faces a possible shortfall of $15 million, complicating logistics for the August event and forcing it to abruptly postpone a media walkthrough of the site scheduled for next week.

The Democratic National Committee has asked the cash-strapped panel to raise $40.6 million by Monday to finance the event. Last month, the committee said it had just $25 million in cash, and it has failed to meet each of several fundraising deadlines since signing a contract with the DNC last year……

Last week, Denver city auditor Dennis Gallagher sent a letter to Mayor John Hickenlooper saying taxpayers are concerned they may get stuck with the tab if Denver can't come up with another $15 million by Monday.

"I have people buttonholing me in coffee shops, corralling me along the 16th Street Mall, even stopping by my house asking how the city will be able to afford the convention if the fundraising

efforts fall short," Gallagher wrote. "Specifically people are asking me if Denver will have to use tax dollars to back-load any financial shortfall or even if the city is planning to use bond money to subsidize any shortfall."......

Here’s my question: Why doesn’t the money soaked and now anointed Obama campaign foot the bill?

Fitchburg Police Officer Uses Deadly Force

2008-06-16T07:58:00.003-05:00

While the rest of the county jumps to conclusions about the shooting by a Fitchburg Police officer of Juan Manuel Avalos-Cisneros early Saturday Morning, I prefer to support the officer and wait until the investigation is over with.

The initial facts lead me to believe the shooting was justified. Any other opinions are welcome and will be listened to here.

When I Vote.....

2008-06-16T07:45:00.003-05:00

From www.bookwormroom.com

When I vote against Obama on November 4, 2008:

It won’t be because Obama wants to withdraw from Iraq, which I think will weaken America’s interests beyond repair, it will be because I’m a racist.

It won’t be because Obama thinks that a nuclear Iran is no threat to the Western World, it will be because I’m a racist.

It won’t be because I think it’s an incredibly stupid idea for the most powerful nation in the world to approach evil totalitarian dictators as a supplicant, it will be because I’m a racist.

It won’t be because I hate the idea of a President who will subordinate America’s interests to the UN (as he inevitably will), it will be because I’m a racist.

It won’t be because Obama has the thinnest resume ever in the history of Presidential candidates, it will be because I’m a racist.

It won’t be because I think Obama’s Leftist connections (Ayres, Dohrn, Soros, Pfleger, Wright, etc.) show him to be either stupid about or complicit with an agenda antithetical to basic American values, it will be because I’m a racist.

It won’t be because Obama consistently chooses as advisers people who have opted for the wrong side in the completely binary debate about Israel’s right to exist, it will be because I’m a racist.

It won’t be because Obama wants to socialize American medicine, which I believe will destroy the high quality of medical care available to most Americans, it will be because I’m a racist.

It won’t be because Obama wants to gut the military and reduce us to a nation with a big target painted on our collective backside, it will be because I’m a racist.

It won’t be because Obama wants to gut the Second Amendment and destroy Americans’ Constitutional right to protect themselves from foreign and domestic enemies, it will be because I’m a racist.

It won’t be because Obama has already announced loud and clear that he will support activist judges who place their “feelings” above the law, it will be because I’m a racist.

It won’t be because Obama supports judicial decisions creating a right to gay marriage, when I think that decision is one for the voters, it will be because I’m a racist.

It won’t be because Obama’s announced that he will dramatically increase taxes, putting the slow, inflexible, ill-informed government in charge of what should be a quick-reacting, knowledgeable marketplace, it will be because I’m a racist.

It won’t be because Obama’s record in the Senate (albeit short and undistinguished) has been so liberal he makes Teddy Kennedy look like a reactionary, it will be because I’m a racist.

It won’t be because Obama’s an open-borders kind of guy, it will be because I’m a racist.

It won’t be because Obama has shown himself to be a scarily slow thinker and speaker when released from the teleprompter (which really doesn’t bode well for those cozy private chats with Ahmadinejad, Jong-Il, and Assad), it will be because I’m a racist.

It won’t be because Obama’s wife clearly loathes America and everything it stands for, despite the fact that she’s done pretty well out of it, it will be because I’m a racist.

It won’t be because Obama was affiliated for more than 20 years with a church that preached white hatred and began to care only when it looked as if it would affect his campaign, it will be because I’m a racist.

It won’t be because Obama was good buddies with Tony Rezko, and other sleazy characters (showing again that Obama was complicit or a singularly bad judgment of character), it will be because I’m a racist.

It won’t be because Obama’s a compulsive liar who clearly thinks we in the public are too stupid to catch up with his lies, it will be because I’m a racist.

It won’t be because Obama’s campaign has proven to be fly-paper for every two bit troofer and anti-Semite in America, it will be because I’m a racist.

It won’t be because Obama’s promised already to start down the totalitarian path of purging his predecessors through criminal prosecutions, it will be because I’m a racist.

Get The Picture?

2008-06-13T14:28:00.002-05:00

I live in Wisconsin, which hasn’t had Death Penalty since eighteen freeking something or other. For all of you out there in the many states that do reserve the right to put to death heinous criminals:

Via the AP:

ELYRIA, Ohio (AP) — A judge in Ohio says the state's method of putting prisoners to death is unconstitutional because two of three drugs used in the lethal injection process can cause pain.
Lorain County Common Pleas Judge James Burge said Tuesday the state's lethal injection procedure doesn't provide the quick and painless death required by Ohio law.
Burge said Ohio must stop allowing a combination of drugs and focus instead on a single, anesthetic drug….

Here is a picture of the “Judge”, James Burge, taken in his office in Lorain, Ohio which says it all and then some.

Push More Drilling!

2008-06-13T14:02:00.002-05:00

We need to push all politicians at the Federal level into allowing more oil drilling in the US, especially Democrats, who are the lead obstructionists. It is asinine that oil producers who are willing to risk capital and sweat searching for oil here are legally prohibited from doing so by rich idiot politicians and ecocrats. Go to Drill Now, Pay Less and sign the petition.

I did.

http://www.americansolutions.com/actioncenter/petitions/?Guid=54ec6e43-75a8-445b-aa7b-346a1e096659

More Liberal Hypocricy

2008-06-13T13:18:00.003-05:00

Countrywide's Many 'Friends'
by Daniel Golden Jun 12 2008
Senators Dodd and Conrad are among the government officials who scored V.I.P. loans from C.E.O. Angelo Mozilo. An exclusive Portfolio investigation.

Two U.S. senators, two former Cabinet members, and a former ambassador to the United Nations received loans from Countrywide Financial through a little-known program that waived points, lender fees, and company borrowing rules for prominent people.Senators Christopher Dodd, Democrat from Connecticut and chairman of the Banking Committee, and Kent Conrad, Democrat from North Dakota, chairman of the Budget Committee and a member of the Finance Committee, refinanced properties through Countrywide’s “V.I.P.” program in 2003 and 2004, according to company documents and emails and a former employee familiar with the loans. Other participants in the V.I.P. program included former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Alphonso Jackson, former Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala, and former U.N. ambassador and assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke. Jackson was deputy H.U.D. secretary in the Bush administration when he received the loans in 2003. Shalala, who received two loans in 2002, had by then left the Clinton administration for her current position as president of the University of Miami. She is scheduled to receive a Presidential Medal of Freedom on June 19. Holbrooke, whose stint as U.N. ambassador ended in 2001, was also working in the private sector when he and his family received V.I.P. loans. He was an adviser to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. James Johnson, who had been advising presidential candidate Barack Obama on the selection of a running mate, resigned from the Obama campaign Wednesday after the Wall Street Journal reported that he received Countrywide loans at below-market rates.Most of the officials belonged to a group of V.I.P. loan recipients known in company documents and emails as “F.O.A.'s”—Friends of Angelo, a reference to Countrywide chief executive Angelo Mozilo. While the V.I.P. program also serviced friends and contacts of other Countrywide executives, the F.O.A.’s made up the biggest subset.According to company documents and emails, the V.I.P.'s received better deals than those available to ordinary borrowers. Home-loan customers can reduce their interest rates by paying “points”—one point equals 1 percent of the loan’s value. For V.I.P.'s, Countrywide often waived at least half a point and eliminated fees amounting to hundreds of dollars for underwriting, processing and document preparation. If interest rates fell while a V.I.P. loan was pending, Countrywide provided a free “float-down” to the lower rate, eschewing its usual charge of half a point. Some V.I.P.'s who bought or refinanced investment properties were often given the lower interest rate associated with primary residences.Unless they asked, V.I.P. borrowers weren’t told exactly how many points were waived on their loans, the former employee says. However, they were typically assured that they were receiving the “Friends of Angelo” discount, and that Mozilo had personally priced their loans.The V.I.P. loans to public officials in a position to advance Countrywide’s interests raise legal and ethical questions. Countrywide’s ethics code bars directors, officers and employees from “improperly influencing the decisions of government employees or contractors by offering or promising to give money, gifts, loans, rewards, favors, or anything else of value.” Federal employees are prohibited from receiving gifts offered because of their official position, including loans on terms not generally available to the public. Senate rules prohibit members from knowingly receiving gifts worth $100 or more in a calendar year from private entities that, like Countrywide, employ a registered lobbyist.
Senator Dodd received two loans in 2003 through Countrywide’s V.I.P. program. He borrowed $506,000 to refinance his Washington townhouse, and $275,042 to refinance a home in East Haddam, Connecticut. Countrywide waived three-eighths of a point, or about $2,000, on the first loan, and one-fourth of a point, about $700, on the second, according to internal documents. Both loans were for 30 years, with the first five years at a fixed rate.The interest rate on the loans, originally pegged at 4.875%, was reduced to 4.25% on the Washington home and 4.5% on the Connecticut property by the time the loans were funded. The lower rates save the senator about $58,000 on his Washington residence over the life of the loan, and $17,000 on the Connecticut home. The former employee says the float-downs were free. Senator Dodd’s wife, Jackie Clegg, said in a brief interview that two other lenders they checked with offered comparable interest rates. The senator’s office said Thursday afternoon that it is preparing a response. Countrywide has also contributed a total of $21,000 to Dodd’s campaigns since 1997. While a presidential candidate last year, he filed a bill to ban lenders from charging prepayment penalties and steering home buyers to more costly loans—both practices in which Countrywide reportedly engaged. He also called for criminal charges for such predatory lending. Senator Conrad borrowed $1.07 million in 2004 to refinance his vacation home with a balcony and wraparound porch in Bethany Beach, Delaware, a block from the ocean. Mozilo instructed a subordinate to “take off 1 point,” or $10,700, according to a March 17, 2004, email.Later that year, Conrad refinanced an eight-unit apartment building that he and his brothers owned in Bismarck, North Dakota. According to the former employee, the loan violated Countrywide’s normal policy of providing loans for buildings of four units or fewer. In an April 23, 2004, email, Mozilo encouraged an employee to “make an exception due to the fact that the borrower is a senator.”Senator Conrad acknowledged in a statement that he received financing from Countrywide. “I never met Angelo Mozilo,” he said. “I have no way of knowing how they categorized my loan. I never asked for, expected or was aware of any special treatment…From what we have been able to determine, it appears that we were given a competitive rate.”A spokeswoman for Countrywide, which is slated to be acquired by Bank of America, declined to comment. A Bank of America spokesman said that senior executives there “do not get involved in the origination of mortgages,” but will refer inquiring friends to the right loan programs.Mozilo co-founded Countrywide in 1969 and helped build it into the nation’s largest home mortgage lender. While interest rates were dropping in the first half of this decade, prompting widespread demand for refinances and home-equity loans, Countrywide loaned hundreds of millions of dollars per year through its V.I.P. program to politicians, government officials, business executives, entertainment celebrities and other customers singled out for special treatment. Account executives at Countrywide’s call center in Rosemead, California, handled the bulk of the loan applications, which were processed by a separate V.I.P. underwriting unit that had its own branch number in Countrywide’s record-keeping system.Jackson, the former H.U.D. secretary, borrowed $346,331 from Countrywide in June 2003 to refinance his Alexandria, Virginia, townhouse. That December, he applied for a $308,000 mortgage to buy a vacation home on a golf course in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. The loan came through on January 21, 2004, a week before President Bush named him to the H.U.D. post. He resigned in March 2008 amid unrelated cronyism allegations.
H.U.D. has wide-ranging relationships with Countrywide and other lenders. It regulates real estate settlements and closing costs, and runs the Federal Housing Administration, which guarantees mortgages.The former employee says that Jackson received discounts on both loans. Defending his transactions, Jackson said he was a Countrywide borrower long before he met Mozilo or worked for H.U.D. Asked if he received any breaks on the loans, he said, “Not to my knowledge. If I did, it certainly wasn’t discussed with me.”Former H.H.S. secretary Donna Shalala received two V.I.P. loans, for $338,685 and $202,300, in 2002. “Normally, I would not ask for special consideration toward a certain loan/customer, but the complexity of the Shalala deal calls for it,” one Countrywide executive wrote in an August 20, 2002, email, explaining that the University of Miami president was buying an interest in a timeshare. “Angelo asked me to ensure that we ‘knock her socks off’ with our great service.” On September 21, another Countrywide staffer wrote that Shalala’s loans were “ready to close…I floated both of them down to current pricing.” Shalala did not respond to messages, and an assistant at the University of Miami said that she was traveling. Holbrooke’s wife, author Kati Marton, received loans totalling $1.4 million to refinance two properties in 2002. “Look for these,” one Countrywide manager wrote in a September 27, 2002, email, alluding to Marton’s loan applications. “These loans are incredibly important to Angelo and as such they are incredibly important to us.” The next year, Holbrooke borrowed $1.2 million to refinance a vacation home in Telluride, Colorado. Countrywide waived at least 1.25 points, or $15,000. “Per Angelo, this loan is to be at zero points,” a Countrywide manager wrote in a February 20, 2003, email. Also in 2003, Holbrooke’s son, David, and daughter-in-law Sarah received a half-point discount on a $559,500 loan, or about $2,800, when they refinanced their Brooklyn high-rise co-op, and five-eighths of a point discount on a $428,000 loan, or about $2,600, when they bought the floor above it. Neither Holbrooke nor his wife and son returned messages.Holbrooke and Johnson are both vice chairmen of the private banking firm Perseus. Besides the discounted interest rates reported by the Journal, Countrywide also waived points for Johnson, a former chief executive of government-sponsored mortgage reseller Fannie Mae. In 2003, Countrywide took 1.375 points, about $13,000, off a nearly $1 million loan to refinance Johnson’s Washington home. When he borrowed almost $1.3 million in 2003 that same year to refinance a 4,400-square-foot, Southwestern-style home with four bedrooms and five baths beside the second green of a golf course in Palm Desert, California, Countrywide waived 1.875 points, or about $24,000. In 2004, Johnson borrowed $3 million to upgrade to a larger estate—a 5,875-square-foot house, with a guesthouse and pool—on the same course. Although the size of the loan exceeded Countrywide’s limit for a second home, Mozilo told an employee to “do the deal.”Brian Brooks, a lawyer for Johnson, said that he never asked for a discount on his loans, and that it is “common knowledge” that individuals of high income and high net worth receive lower rates than other borrowers. “We don’t see anything out of the ordinary here.” Widely criticized for spurring the country’s mortgage crisis with over-aggressive lending policies, Countrywide saw its share price plunge from $45 in February 2007 to less than $5 in January 2008, when Bank of America agreed to acquire the company in a $4 billion stock swap.Countrywide is reportedly under F.B.I. investigation for alleged securities fraud, and Mozilo has drawn criticism for unloading $474 million in Countrywide shares between 2004 and 2007 as the housing crisis neared. He’s defended the sales as part of his retirement planning.Additional reporting by Julia Ramey; this story was adapted from a feature in an upcoming issue of Condé Nast Portfolio.

Wisconsin and Iowa Flooding

2008-06-13T07:12:00.001-05:00

Southern Wisconsin and Eastern Iowa have been inundated with rain for over a week, resulting in bad flooding almost everywhere. Mandatory evacuations are commonplace, and some counties have crawled to a stop with main roads closed. It will take many weeks for all of the water to subside, and allow people to start putting their lives back together.

See details at Gazetteonline.com and Madison.com

Now is When You Get Worried...

2008-06-09T09:33:00.002-05:00

Now is when you get worried...

See Mark Steyns posting at NRO on-line:

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NzUyM2EzMjVmNDAxNzVjZTYyYzE5YzI1OWJjZTc0OGM=

This pretty much sums up my feelings.

"It's All About the Kids, Right?"

2008-06-05T08:20:00.001-05:00

Mike Ivey of the CapTimes.com site has a column from yesterdays posting about the Fitchburg Library. I've blogged about this before, and lamented that it will happen if the library board doesn't screw it up. I believe they have, putting forth a Cadillac in an era of $4.00 gasoline...

Mike Ivey: For the love of books
Mike Ivey — 6/04/2008 7:21 am

The most contentious vote in Fitchburg this November won't be Obama vs. McCain.
It will likely center on a referendum over building a $14-million public library that could boost property taxes by $200 annually on the average home.
With some 24,000 residents, Fitchburg is by far the largest city in Wisconsin without its own library. Heck, it doesn't even have a downtown.
But a group of citizens has been working for several years to change that. They've identified a site off Lacy Road next to the Fitchburg city hall and have put together fairly detailed plans about design, financing and operation.
"We think it could be a tremendous resource for the entire community," says Jayne Kuehn, president of the Fitchburg library board.
Still, Kuehn is realistic and knows it could prove difficult to convince residents to raise taxes on themselves -- even for something as laudable as a new library.
"If it was just a question of whether you want a new library I'm sure the answer would be yes," she says. "The issue is how do you pay for it."
Plans call for the city to borrow $10 million, with private fund-raising making up the remaining $4 million. Estimated operating costs are another $1.5 million annually.
The Fitchburg library board considered partnering with other systems but decided it wasn't feasible. It also decided not to pursue creating a branch of the Madison library since Fitchburg would lose governing control.
A survey is now being sent to all residents to get an early gauge on support.
"With construction costs rising so fast, we either need to do it now or it's probably not going to happen," says Kuehn, an attorney for DeWitt Ross & Stevens who has twin grandchildren, ages 2, who also live in Fitchburg.
It's all about the kids, right?
Full speed ahead

I've Decided Something

2008-06-04T10:31:00.001-05:00

Too many Americans are lazy. Instead of working hard for life's needs, they expect these things to be handed to them.

Too many Americans drown their problems, sorrows and failures in drugs and alcohol, instead of facing them with a clear eye and mind.

Too many Americans don't do their homework when it comes to making life's hard choices. This results in bad marriages, bad children, and bad politics.

Note that I'm not saying all Americans.... not even close. But too many are just plain............weak.