Bush League Math

Congratulations! 3 Brazilian Hits in October @ On The Border Line.net

Great news! Last month our "friends" over at www.ontheborderline.net had 3 brazillian hits on their web site. The number of unique visitors for the month also increased 30%. Since the site originated in September 2004, the had at least a gazillian brazilian hits. It's good to see them wish everyone a heartfelt "Thank You" to all their visitors from the fruit basket of America, from sea to shining sea, from Roswell, New Mexico to the grave site of Joe McCarthy in Appleton, WI.
However, it saddens us to see they have once again forgotten to thank the evil Dr. DRATSUM. We all know he is the reason for their success. With out his humble guidance, mentoring and virtual digital examples, they would just be a bunch of redneck economists typing about the joys of Ayn Rand in the middle of the night..

Unique Blogs Hits
That said, here's a little more granularity to the site numbers. The first chart shows the obvious upward trend the hits they are getting on their sight. Analysis shows that 90 percent of those hits are the result of their attack dogs chasing off new members who don't agree with them.

Average OTBL Group Intelligence Level

The next graph shows that the more unique hits they get on their site, the lower the combined OTBL-group intelligence level. At this pace, by the end of the year, they will be burning their copies of "Fountainhead" and reading President Bush's favorite book "The Little Goat." If they keep the same trend going, they'll be able to read "The
Little Goat" upside down. Soon they will be able to discredit that "liberal" theory that two heads are better than one. You go boys...

WPT Addresses the Meth Problem

WPT Headline: We've heard a tremendous response to the power of "The Western
Front" the first story in Frederica Freyberg's series on "Meth in
Wisconsin." This story will repeat in our Sunday play of "In Wisconsin"
on Sunday at 5:30 P.M.
And the series will continue with stories in each November episode of "In
Wisconsin."
- "Addiction," with a focus on the use and speaking to former addicts.
Some are incarcerated. Some have children. (7 PM Thursday, Nov. 10)
- "Doing Battle," offers the perspectives of law enforcement officials at
the local, state and federal level. (7 PM Thursday, Nov. 17)
- "The Fix," looks at some possible ways to deal with a problem which one
law enforcement official says he "can't arrest his way out of." (7 PM
Thursday, Nov. 24)
All episodes will repeat the following Sunday at 5:30 PM.

Wisconsin Public Television

He Stoops To Conquer...

Bush's Popularity Reaches New Low
58 Percent in Poll Question His Integrity

By Richard Morin and Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writers

Friday, November 4, 2005
For the first time in his presidency a majority of Americans question the integrity of President Bush, and growing doubts about his leadership have left him with record negative ratings on the economy, Iraq and even the war on terrorism, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows.
On almost every key measure of presidential character and performance, the survey found that Bush has never been less popular with the American people. Currently 39 percent approve of the job he is doing as president, while 60 percent disapprove of his performance in office -- the highest level of disapproval ever recorded for Bush in Post-ABC polls.
----
Gee...I wonder why?----

"Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the president to explain to us what the exit strategy is."

George W. Bush, 1999,
regarding the Kosovo War

Big Oil Slick...

Today in Labor History: November 5 -- Eugene V. Debs Born

1916: Everett, Wash., massacre, at least seven Wobblies killed, 50 were wounded and an indeterminate number wound up missing.

1855: Eugene V. Debs - labor leader, socialist, three-time candidate for president and first president of the American Railway Union, born.

Labor leader, radical, Socialist, presidential candidate, Eugene Victor Debs was a homegrown American original. He formed the American Railway Union, led the Pullman strike of the 1890's in which he was jailed, and emerged a dedicated Socialist. An idealistic, impassioned fighter for economic and social justice, he was brilliant, eloquent and eminently human. As a "radical" he fought for women's suffrage, workmen's compensation, pensions and social security -- all commonplace today. Five times the Socialist candidate for president, his last campaign was run from federal prison where he garnered almost a million votes.

Read more about Eugene V. Debs
Wikipedia biography
Debs Personal History site

Qutoes That Don't Want You To See @ On The Border Line . Net

FA Hayek on US Public Education

"It is important to recognize that general education is not solely and perhaps not even mainly, a matter of communicating knowledge. There is a need for certain common standards of values, and, though too great emphasis on this need may lead to very illiberal consequences, peaceful common existence would be clearly impossible without any such standards. If in long-settled communities with a predominantly indigenous population, this is not likely to be a serious problem, there are instances, such as the United States during the period of large immigration, where it may well be one. That the United States would not have become such an effective "melting pot" and would probably faced extremely difficult problems if it had not been for a deliberate policy of "Americanization" through the public school system seems fairly certain."

-- FA Hayek

JPN Note: Hayek is one of the chief economists who pushed the free market economic theory that is held so dearly by the bloggers at www.ontheborderline.net. It's doubtful that you will find the above quote on their site. Below are two links that might provide you with more info on Hayek. The first link is to an OTBL post. The second is to the Wikipedia Hayek bio.
1. Diamond In The Rough
2. Wikipedia profile

Pen & Ink Jambs: No Child Left Behind

No Child Left Behind: What Do The Real Conservatives Think?

It appears that President Bush's No Child Left Behind program is not being lovingly embraced all across the nation. Below is a recent editorial from one of the nation's leading conservative daily newspapers.

NEW HAMPSHIRE school officials despise No Child Left Behind, and no wonder. For the first time, they are being held to very high standards, and everyone knows when those standards are not met.

Normally we don't buy excuses from education bureaucrats who complain that their students are not learning. Too often the students are not learning because of the bureaucracy's failures. But when it comes to No Child Left Behind's rigid standards, the bureaucrats have a point.

There is no doubt that New Hampshire public schools need improvement. Only 40 percent of eighth-graders scored at or above "proficient" in reading in the last National Assessment of Educational Progress tests. Only 35 percent scored at or above proficient in math. But No Child Left Behind, through which bureaucrats in Washington order bureaucrats in New Hampshire to achieve large yearly gains in test scores, is not the right tool for fixing this problem. Too few New Hampshire students know what they are supposed to know because the public schools don't provide the proper incentives for improving student performance.

"We have been state average, or slightly above state average. However, that has not been good enough for the federal government," Dover Superintendent John O'Connor complained on Tuesday. Well, why has the state average been good enough for Dover?

That kind of complacency is why Washington took action. Unfortunately, it was the wrong action. Now education officials are scrambling to meet Washington's goals instead of exercising the kind of creative reforms that might have come had Washington devolved all educational responsibilities to the states.

Check out the New Hampshire Union Leader

Pssssst...Hey Over On The Border Line. Did You Hear TABOR Died In Colorado?

Public Schools Win; Pot Holes To Be Filled; Unsafe Bridges To Get Repaired; Regressives Weep On The Borderline

The Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (TABOR) is dead in Colorado, Joe Stengel told more than 40 small-government activists and conservative lawmakers from around the country in a national conference call Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Colorado voters approved Referendum C, which suspends TABOR surplus-tax refunds. The five-year timeout will allow tax revenues to grow so much that the TABOR cap eventually will be no cap at all, said Stengel, the Republican minority leader in the Colorado House and a leader of the opposition to Referendums C and D.

Denver Post coverage of TABOR-related vote results.
Referendum C coverage of TABOR-related vote results.
Referendum D coverage of TABOR-related vote results.

Editorial Distraction

Editor’s Note: In a letter appearing in the Oct. 27 N R Oracle written by Bob Mudslingski aka MTF aka Mulish aka Muchlinski the Fraudulent aka Whatever Other Name You Can Query At The OTBL Web Site, one paragraph states: “I wish I could also send you photos so you could recognize them when they show up at your school board meetings. Just check the post office for mug shots.”

We intended to post those mug shots, but there was such a long line at the post office trying to get mug shot copies, we decided to use these mug shots instead. The above statement makes those in question appear to be criminals or -- even worse -- Viking fans -- which they are not. The men in the mug shots were taken into custody after being caught drinking numerous bottles of Blogger Lager outside the arch at Stone Pine in the middle of the night. During the arrest, they began to quack bloggerese about black helicopters leaving the area in the middle of the night, men wearing black t-shirts with a skunk emblem, tour guidebooks for Roswell, New Mexico falling from the night sky, something about the password being "Mississippi" and a mouse in a beer bottle. The only names these two would give were Dr. Bob and Dr. Doug. Since they would not shut up, the arresting officer had to duct tape their mouths. After the booking process, they made bail and then asked to be dropped off at the school board meeting. We regret the editing error and encourage future letter writers to refrain from over stressing the truth when referring to those with wingnut opinions and fruit cake conspiracy theories.

Borderline Blogger Defends Himself In Parking Ticket Court

"Your Honor, Tte evidence that there are objects which have been seen in our atmosphere like black helicopters, and even on the terra firma in the Stone Pine neighborhood, that cannot be accounted for either as man-made objects or as any physical force or effect known to our scientists or the results of math equations gone wrong on the OTBL web site, seems to me to be underwhelming... A very large number of sightings have been vouched for by persons whose credentials -- many who use "Dr." before their name -- seem to me unimpeachable. It is striking that so many have been trained observers, such as police officers and airline or military pilots or sanitation workers or paperboys or drunken patriots coming home from hot tub parties or retired liberal professors all jacked up on too much coffee. Their observations have in many instances... been supported either by technical means such as radar or, even more convincingly, by... interference with electrical apparatus of one sort or another...and sometimes a convenient lamp post. So where I park my saucer seems to be nolo contendo at this stage of the trial."

Dr. Parkingmetersarelarceny

Hudson Municipal Traffic Court

Wear What Local "Conspiriologists" Wear

Don't leave Stone Pine without it...

On your next trip to Mississippi or Roswell, New Mexico, before you lift-off from the www.borderline.net conspiracy launching pad in the black helicopter in the middle of the night, make sure you are wearing one of these shirts. They are out of this world and endorsed by one-world governments throughout the universe. You'll stick out like a socialist butterfly at any collectivist gathering you attend. Your comrades will be impressed -- or else! Do we need to say it?...one size fits all!

Quotes They Won't Post @ On The Border Line.net

"From the saintly and single-minded idealist to the fanatic is often but a step."

--FA Hayek

FYI: FA Hayek is the author of "The Road to Serfdom" and a major source of the cut-n-paste quotes used to rationalize the fanatics at www.ontheborderline.net. Clearly, they've taken the step...

Today In Labor

October 31
1971: Int’l Alliance of Bill Posters, Billers & Distributors of the United States & Canada surrendered AFL-CIO charter and disbanded.

November 1
1835: Nation’s first general strike for 10 hour day; Philadelphia.

1918: Malbone tunnel disaster in New York City; scab motorman crashes train during strike, 97 killed, 255 injured.

1972: United Stone & Allied Products Workers of America merge with United Steelworkers of America.

November 2
1909: 150 arrested in IWW free speech fight, Spokane, Wash.

1920: Railroad union leader and socialist Eugene V. Debs receives a million votes for President while imprisoned.

$10 Million In Campaign Contributions Help The Drug Companies Keep The Word "Free" Out Of Their Trade

This was sent in from one of our readers:

A car company can move its factories to Mexico and claim it's a
Free Market. A toy company can outsource to a Chinese subcontractor and claim it's a free market. A major bank can incorporate in Bermuda to avoid taxes and claim it's a free market.

We can buy HP Printers made in Mexico. We can buy shirts made in Bangladesh. We can buy Oysters from Japan. We can purchase fish eggs from Russia. We can by Biscuits or flu vaccine from England. We can purchase almost anything we want from many different countries.

BUT, heaven help the elderly who dare to buy their prescription drugs
from a Canadian or Mexican pharmacy. That's called un-American!
And you think the pharmaceutical companies don't have a powerful lobby?
Think again!

Please forward this to every person you know over age 50.
Maybe this issue should come up in the next election!
Forget the 50 -- send it to everyone.

We're all in this boat together.

Progressive Heroes: Former NR Mayor Billy Smith Dies

Former New Richmond mayor and all around good guy, Billy Smith, passed away Saturday. He was mayor of between 1988-1996. My wife and I used to stop and talk to nice long chat with the mayor at the Shamrock on St. Paddy's day a decade our so ago. I remember one of us spilled green beer on the other's shoes. It didn't matter them and it doesn't matter know. It's the thought that counts...

Our world needs more mayors like Billy Smith who put the community on the front burner and politics in the back of the junk drawer.

Visitation for former New Richmond Mayor H.W. "Billy" Smith will be from 4 to 8 p.m. today,Tuesday Nov. 1 at Beebe Mortuary and for an hour before the 11 a.m. funeral Wednesday, Nov. 2 at Immaculate Conception Church in New Richmond.

St. Paul Pioneer Pressobit

Do You Feel A Draft Coming On?

Uncle Sam wants you – even if you’re 42 years old

The Defense Department quietly asked Congress on Monday to raise the maximum age for military recruits to 42 for all branches of the service.

Under current law, the maximum age to enlist in the active components is 35, while people up to age 39 may enlist in the reserves. By practice, the accepted age for recruits is 27 for the Air Force, 28 for the Marine Corps and 34 for the Navy and Army, although the Army Reserve and Navy Reserve sometimes take people up to age 39 in some specialties.

See what Army Times has to say about it...

OnTheBorderLine.net Bloggers Call 9-1-1

Dr. Junkyarddog and his wife, Dr. Luke, were out walking and Dr. Luke suddenly clutched her heart (they actually do have a heart) and fell to the sidewalk. Dr. Junkyarddog unlaced his shoe phone (they don't all wear slip-ons -- some can actually tie their shoes) and called 9-1-1.

The Operator said "Where are you?"

Dr. Junkyarddog said, "We were walking and Dr. Luke is on the sidewalk on Eucalyptus Street."

The operator said, "How do you spell that?" and the phone seemed to go dead. The operator kept shouting for Dr. Junkyarddog. She could hear him panting (afterall, he is a junk yard dog).

Then he came back on and said, "I dragged Dr. Luke over to Oak St, that's O-A-K."

...so that's why they all call themselves "Dr." at www.ontheborderline.net!

Quotes of Note: JUDGE SAMUEL A. ALITO JR.

"As the president mentioned, my mother will be celebrating her 91st birthday next month. She was a pioneering and very dedicated public school teacher who inspired my sister and me with the love of learning."

JUDGE SAMUEL A. ALITO JR.,
SUPREME COURT NOMINEE

Read the full transcript of President Bush's announcement.

Executive Session Documents Leaked From New Richmond School District

At the October 26 meeting of the New Richmond school board, I asked the board about four school district-related documents currently posted on the www.ontheborderline.net web site. After first reading these documents, my view was that these documents contained information dealing with personnel issues and ongoing business negotiations concerning the school district. Considering the sensitive nature of these documents, I was curious about the following:

1. Had the documents been officially released to the public by the board and/or district?
2. If not, who had access to these documents?
3. If these were leaked, what steps is the board and/or district taking to stop the leaking of sensitive information to the public?
4. What is the penalty for releasing sensitive documents to the public without board approval?

I brought copies of the documents to the meeting. These documents were copied and distributed to board members. Some members said they had seen the documents posted on the web site. Others said they heard the documents were posted but had not actually seen them on the site. All members seemed to be aware of the document posting.

Board president, Lester Jones, told me my questions would be investigated and he would get back to me with the findings as soon as possible.

The links to the posted documents are:
10/18: Breaking News From New Richmond
10/26: Looking, looking, look what I found.

Document Access Discussed
During the regular session of the October 26, the board had a ranging discussion concerning access to, and release of, documents to board members and the public. Apparently,the topic was put on the agenda because of an incident where board member Bill Brennan Jr., accompanied by a member of the public, came to the school district office, removed bills and copied them. There was no question that Brennan, as a board member, has the right to view the billing documents. However, in this specific case, there was non-billing information of a confidential nature that should not have been viewed at this time by a non-board member of the public.

Brennan said he came to the district office with the citizen, because that person said they were intimidated by the process of getting copies of information from the district office. Board member Deanna Cook-Shannon told the audience that if they felt intimidated about getting information from the district, they were free to contact her and she would gladly help them with the process. Her sentiments were echoed by other members of the board. Cook-Shannon also pointed that most private businesses have a standard approval process for the release of information to the public and even company employees.

The board debate and discussed what the policy should be and it was eventually assigned to committee for farther discussion and review concerning the current board policy and legal interpretations.

Answers To My Questions
On October 28, I had a phone conversation with Board President Lester Jones. He provided me with answers to the questions I raised at the open forum on the October 26 meeting. He told me all of the documents I asked about should not have been released to the public. Neither the school board or the superintendent had authorized these documents to be released. Jones said the only people who were formally distributed copies of these documents were Superintendent Hitchens, the seven board members and the board's legal council. He said these documents had been inappropriately leaked to the web site.

When asked what the penalty is for a board member who has leaked sensitive information to public, Jones said there are a number of options. Those options include: censure, legal proceedings and/or a recall. He said the matter is currently under investigation.

A Watch Dog Survey
As a self-appointed watch dog of the www.ontheborderline.net web site, I thought it would be interesting to do a survey of how the current New Richmond school board members are viewed by the OTBL bloggers. The survey was simple and consisted of doing a search of the OTBL site with their site-provided search engine. I did the search on the seven members of the New Richmond board: William Brennan, Jr., Deanna Cook-Shannon, Greg Demulling, Greg Gartner, Lester Jones (president), Judith Remington (vp) and Chris Skoglund.

I got hits on all board members in my search. I classified the hits into three categories: positive, neutral and negative. The positive hits said good and favorable things about the board member. Neutral hits all fell into the category of straight reporting of elections result tallies. Negative hits were those where the board member was clearly characterized in an unfavorable and/or unflattering way.

I found a total 15 mentions of current board members in posts and comments: 6 positive, 4 neutral, 5 negative. Three members were only mentioned once and these were neutral. Jones (3 times) and Cook-Shannon (2 times) made up the five negative mentions. Brennan (5 times) and Remington (1 time) made up the six positive mentions.

And The Winner Is...
Getting 33% of the 15 mentions of NR board members, Bill Brennan was by far the leader of the pack. When it comes to focusing only on positive comments or posts, with his 88% of take, Brennan nearly brought home all the bacon. Clearly, Brennan is the OTBL'ers darling when it comes to the New Richmond school board. If fact, on January 22, 2005, an OBTL'er named him that day's "Ray of Hope."

Below are the posts I collect in my survey. I left out the neutral posts and included only the positive and negative posts. Feel free to review them.

William Brennan, Jr.. All of these were classified as positive.
10/30: New Richmond Still In Turmoil
10/12: New Richmond Referendum Effort
10/4: What's Our Capacity
7/25 School Board Having Problems? Get a Shrink.
1/22: Today's Ray of Hope

Deanna Cook-Shannon. Both were negative.
9/25: 10 People Screwing Up Wisconsin
7/25: School Board Got A Problem? Get a Shrink

Lester Jones. All three were in the negative category.
10/30: New Richmond Still In Turmoil
10/26: Looky, looky, looky What I Found
7/27: Son of School Board Problems

Judith RemingtonOne favorablele; the other neutral.
10/21: Ah, ah, ah, Not So Fast

There was one neutral post on Greg Demulling, Greg Gartner and Chris Skoglund. All concerned election results.

Not included in the survey were these posts mentioning Superintendent Dr. Craig H. Hitchens. Both were negative.
7/25: School Board Got A Problem? Get a Shrink
1/3: The TABOR Attack

Who Is The Leaker?
You can make your own speculations about were the leaks are coming from in the New Richmond school district. I want you to be aware of the situation. These types of leaks can be damaging to school board and administration credibility and can have expensive legal ramifications that get paid for by the tax payers. Of course, damaging the credibility of the school board members and the administration is a huge, bold, underlined and in capital letters bullet point on the OTBL'ers agenda.

If you pay attention to the OTBL web site, you will quickly notice nothing gets published that reflects positively on public schools or public education. The site administrator controls what gets published in the posts and the comments to the posts. When I participated on the OTBL web site, nothing I submitted to be posted was ever posted. All of it was information favorable to public schools and public education. Likewise, if you pay attention to want happens to a post commenter who dares disagree with the anti-public education discussion of the day, you will quickly see they are attacked and labeled "socialist," etc.

Here is a good example of the "intellectual" piling on that takes place when a newcomers dares defend public education. It's titled Motivations and Referendums. That my challenge and join the OTBL web site. Participate in it and add your comments of agreement and disagreement. See how long it takes the "intellectuals" to pull the noose around the concept of "debate." Once you take a few shots in the comments gallery, e-mail or try posting something the puts public education is a positive light.

Ponder this...In 1635 the Boston Latin School was established. This boys grammar school was supported by the town of Boston and is considered the beginning of public-funded education in the United States. In 1848, Karl Marx published the Communist Manifesto as an outcry of tthe exploitation of the working class. We all should know that Marx called upon "the workers of the world to unite and revolt against their oppressors, to abolish private property and free enterprise, and to form a kind of workers' community in which everyone would have an equal share." There was nearly a 200-year of public education tradition in the United States, before Marx published his Manifesto. You will notice the OTBL'ers don't let the facts of history get in their way, when it comes to attacking, labelinging and slandering those that don't agree with them. You will also notice that, in additional to ignoring history in the framing of their regressive attacks, they are also the advocating the elimination of the minimum wage. I guess the ultimate free market they advocate is were the vast majority of society works for free and call their bosses "Master."

From my observation of the workings of the New Richmond school board, the seven members consist mainly of citizens dedicated to working for a better future in a rapidly changing world. It's easy for the participants of the OTBL website to attack those not embracing their anti-community, anti-public educationion agenda. It must be a pretty miserable hobby to sit behind those "hood" names and bully the hardworking, dedicate members of the local community...

Don't get me wrong, I am a firm believer in minimizing the use of executive sessions in public meetings and I believe that the freer the information and the easier it is to access information, the better. At the same time, I understand there is a need to hold back information concerning personnel issues and delay the release of a variety of school district business-related information that includes union contract negotiations, land acquisitions and competitive bidding.

After the regular session of the October 26 board meeting, on my way out of the building, I thought I saw frequent OTBL poster BobZ off in a corner talking with board member Bill Brennan. You don't suppose BobZ was leaking the news to Bill that he was up for another OTBL "Ray of Hope" award?

James P. Nelson

Wellstone Still Speaks

"Now is the time for progressives to thrust forward new ideas and new leaders. People yearn for a "politics of the center" -- not "the center" so widely discussed by politicians and pundits in Washington but rather a politics that speaks to the center of people's lives: affordable child care, good education for children, heath security, living-wage jobs that will support families, respect for the environment and human rights, and clean elections and clean campaigns."

Senator Paul Wellstone
The conscience of a Liberal

Get started...

La Crosse Tribune: Feingold disucsses "Scooter," Iraq & the Patriot Act

The following article was submitted by one of our readers. It was written by Reid Maghey of La Crosse Tribune. It appears in the Sunday, Oct. 30 edition.

Congress needs to “investigate the whole mess” related to “phony evidence to justify a war” in the wake of Friday’s indictment of the vice president’s chief of staff, U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold said Friday in La Crosse. But that might not happen because Republicans control both houses of Congress, and any committee chairman who dares to call hearings won’t be a chairman for long, the Wisconsin Democrat told reporters.

I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby Jr., the top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, faces charges of obstruction of justice, perjury and making false statements in the investigation of who leaked CIA agent Valerie Plame’s name to the press in an effort to discredit her husband, diplomat Joseph Wilson. Wilson, a critic of going to war with Iraq, had questioned Bush’s assertion Iraq had sought nuclear material from Niger.

Feingold said he remembers President Bush saying Iraq was trying to buy components of weapons of mass destruction from Niger and Feingold believed it didn’t make sense, based on what he knows about Africa.

Feingold was in La Crosse speaking at the Wisconsin Library Association convention, where he was welcomed as a hero for his opposition to the USA Patriot Act. Librarians oppose parts of the law that allow the FBI to view library patrons’ borrowing records and gags library staff from ever talking about it if it happens.

“You are warriors, warriors in the effort to protect our freedoms as we combat terrorism,” Feingold said.

Both the Senate and the House have passed bills that change parts of the Patriot Act, but Feingold said only the Senate version protects libraries and addresses civil liberties concerns.House and Senate leaders will reconcile the two bills in coming days, and Feingold said he’s told Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, “I’m going to be a difficult man” if the Senate version isn’t the final version of the bill. “I will use every option to block any bill that doesn’t fix problems with the Patriot Act,” he said.

Asked by a librarian about Supreme Court nominees, Feingold said Harriet Miers called to consult him before Judge John Roberts’ nomination, and before her own nomination. “There was no reason to believe she was ready to be on the Supreme Court,” said Feingold, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Feingold has been exploring a run for president in 2008, and was asked by a librarian whether he’d rather be president, a supreme court justice or both. “What I’ve always wanted was to be a senator from the state of Wisconsin,” Feingold said, getting a big laugh for dodging the question. After the speech, a librarian with whom Feingold attended school gave him a hug and reminded him that even in those days, he wanted to be president.

La Crosse Tribune

Conservative columnist wonders if it's time for the President's daughters to go to Iraq

“All of you understand that sacrifice is essential to winning war, and this war will require more sacrifice, more time and more resolve.”

President Bush, in his speech Tuesday, October 25 to the Joint Armed Forces Officers’ Wives Luncheon
---
Cindy Sheehan put it this way when she was camped outside Bush’s Texas ranch in August, trying unsuccessfully to get a meeting with him: “(I)f the cause is so noble, when are you going to send your daughters over there and let somebody else’s son come home?”
---
Conservative columnist Roger Smith writes, “Given the President’s speech last week, I think that question is worth asking, though not quite the way Sheehan put it. The Bush twins are adults (they are 23), military service is voluntary in this country, and it is not the place of the President to “send” his daughters to Iraq.”

Read the full column taken from the New Hampshire Sunday Union Leader.

Where's The Money? Chuck Chvala

Ex-state Senate leader could face 5 years in prison

It's not about political party affiliation, it's about corruption...$$$$

Madison - Former state Senate Majority Leader Chuck Chvala (D-Madison) pleaded guilty Tuesday to two felonies for having a state worker campaign while on state time and for illegally funneling cash into the election fund of a fellow Democrat in 2000.

Read more in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

The Mission @ above the borderline

If you're just tuning into this blog site, welcome! If you've been here before, you have an idea what we are about. We are an opened-mind billboard aimed at focusing on progressive issues and concerns. We are pro-education and pro-community and we believe to improve the future of everybody in this country and world, we have to start investing today.

On this site you will find a wide range of information and ideas. From art and poetry, to local, state, national and international politics and news to book reviews, original humor and satire, we try to incorporate insight and interest here.

I started this site in May 2005, after I was kicked off of the www.ontheborderline.net (OTBL) web site located in Hudson, WI (or Nazi, WI as the OTBL'ers have referred to it). The OTBL'ers present themselves as guardians of the community. They can say many things -- but their actions are another. Unlike the OTBL'ers, we debate their agenda while they prefer to attack anyone who does agree with them. Part of our mission here is to keep an eye on what they are saying and doing. A link to their site is located to the right just below the eyeball. We encourage you to check out their site. Sign up and take part in their idea of "debate."

You are free to comments on any post on this site. You are also encouraged to join us and contribute information by getting posting rights or by e-mailing us info that you would like to see on here. Notice the links down the right side of blog. There's a big variety: local schools, newspapers, periodicals, blogs, state and national information sites, media, etc. There are some pretty cool sites to check out there and the list is always growing. If you have other sites to add, let us know. There's an e-mail link to the right above the eyeball that you can use to communicate with us.

Blog on!

Two Bulls

Here are some descriptions on how different segments of society deal with bull.

FREE MARKET ECONOMICS: You have two cows. You sell one and force the other to produce the milk of four cows. You profess surprise when the cow drops dead. You put the blame on some nation with cows & naturally that nation will be a danger to mankind. You wage war to save the world and grab the cows.

WWW.ONTHEBORDERLINE.NET ECONOMICS: You buy what you assume are a bull and a cow over the Internet. You then set up an Internet site to sell the milk and calves you will be producing. This allows you to work out of your home and stay up all night blogging in your boxer shorts. On the night the cow and bull arrive, you lead them into the OTBL club house and wait for the miracle to free-market economics to happen. Since you took delivery during the night -- because you do everything in the dark -- you never noticed that you got two bulls instead of a bull and a cow.

Every night you go out to milk the cow in the dark, but the cow isn't producing anywhere near what is needed to meet the demand coming in on your internet site. In the meanwhile, all your friends have moved to Mississippi where the milk price supports are much higher. So one night, after another unsuccessful milking of the herd, you go back to the house, finish the last of your Blogger Lager, load up the big ugly truck, round up the family and move to Mississippi. When your wife and kids ask why, you tell them that dairy farming is a lot of bull and the pastures are greener in Mississippi -- except you can't tell the difference in the middle of the night.

REALITY ECONOMICS: You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull. Your herd multiplies and the economy grows. You get a check from the government for milk supports. The value of your land increases beyond your wildest dreams. City folks start moving in and building houses where you family has farmed for the last 125 years. The only people not noticing this housing boom are members of www.ontheborderline.net. Your kids all go to college, learn how to program computers, move far away, forget you ever existed, start up an internet blog site to complain about teachers, unions, public schools and communists taking so much of their income that they are only able to take the kids to Disney Land twice a year and Roswell, New Mexico every other year. Eventually they forget what the difference is between a cow and a bull, let along where they came from and start believing Mississippi is the most progressive state in the Union.

With no kids left to work the farm, you sell the land, buy a motor home, say to hell with the price of gas, hit the road, hit the casinos and stay overnight in Wal-mart parking lots. You try to spend all the money before your kids, their spouses and kids are forced to move back home because their computer programming jobs have been outsourced to India and the only jobs available pay a minimum wage that hasn't changed in 10 years. But through your connections with the cart retriever at the Wal-Mart where you park your motorhome, you are able to get your kids jobs at Wal-Mart that pay even more then minimum wage.

Things are cramped in the motorhome. Over time all the kids and their spouses eventually get hired at Wal-Mart. Thanks to the hardwork and sweat of 10 year olds in Central America, you kids are able to buy large tents cheap at Wal-Mart and are soon able to get a piece of dirt in the park next to Wal-Mart. Once again, the whole family is back together in the traditional family unit. Now, if a big dust storm would come, it will be just like the good old days during the Great Depression.