1/07/2006

On The Border Whine...

Two Bobs and a Doug

It's always great news when I open up the new editions of the Hudson Star Observer andthe New Richomnd News and see a letter by Bob Muchlisnki or Bob Baumann. It's not just because their letters are alwlays so well written, articulate, informative and humorous, it because I know I will be able to click on to the ontheberline.net blog site and read the some more whiney OTBL "why's-everybody-always-picking-on-me" posts. Remember, the "doctors" at OTBL have all taken the hypocritical oath.

This week is no exception. Bob M. has a letter in both the Hudson and New Richmond papers. You can tell these letters are very effective at exposing the hypocrisy that oozes throughout the OTBL blog site. The OTBL'ers can't counter with facts so they rely on personal attacks. There's at least two posts that point out that Bob M's wife is an art teacher in Hudson who makes an estimated $57,000. Ok and the point is?
And then she will get retirement beneftis...and the point is?

Followers of the OTBL, if they haven't figured it out by now, should know that their message is basically a three-chord redneck song: public school teachers get paid too much, their union is evil and everybody is against our obviously perfect platform. Below are a couple of interesting excerpts from the current OTBL posts:

Under the heading posted by N. Onimous: HSO/Hudson Teachers’ Union Continue to Show Agenda:

"Hudson Star Observer editor Doug Stohlberg, along with Bob Baumann and Bob Muchlinski continue to show their agenda of belittling and taunting the concerned citizens of the Hudson School District.

First let us set the record straight. Mr. Stohlberg has had a history of taking sides in the education debate in Hudson. At one time he even contacted school officials PRIOR to the printing of certain letters to the editor in order to print a rebuttal from the officials WITH the opposing letters! Does this sound like an unbiased editor?

So Doug Stohlberg and his paper are a JOKE. He can't even follow his own rules in the very first week he talks about them! I would recommend that people who have concerns about government run education voice their concerns ontheborderline, because the HSO will allow for vicious personal attacks from the spouses of NEA Union Members to go unchallenged."


I find it interesting how the OTBL posters of right-wing propaganda pumped out by the likes of the Heritage Foundation or the CATO Institute or Rush Limbaugh or Ann Clouter or a variety of reactionary, regressive, redneck blog sites, can expend so much energy on calling anybody biased. Of course, at OTBL, it's their way or the highway. It's also interesting that they are experts at a running a community newspaper and how much work goes into a teacher's job -- when none of them have apparently never done these jobs. The have found their niche of confusing their cheap, trash talk with free speech.
---

Also under the heading posted by N. Onimous: On and on and on goes the Art Teacher’s Husband...

"Another week of the HSO and another letter by Bob Muchlinski, who happens to be the husband of Mary Muchlisnki. Mary is an Art Teacher at the high school making a combined salary/benefit package of $57,600+(est.). As it stands right now, the taxpayers of the state will have to amass $1.5 Million in order to cover Bob and Mary's pension and healthcare costs when she retires early at 55. But this is only a current estimate. I'm sure it will go up in the future.

Anyway, Bob wrote a serious letter this week, void of his usual sarcasm (see full letter). You see Bob has a couple of different personalities and you don't know if he is going to go Beep! Beep! or play on the emotions of the readers. Either way his letters are always good for a laugh. Per usual Bob received the premium placement from his friend Doug Stohlberg."


Does anybody get the feeling the N. Onimous is a little off-balance and jealous of Bob M. and his wife. Did you readers know that the OTBL'ers have even done posts that pick on Bob M's daughter. They are real, credible professionals over there. If we refer to them as the "dark side," there are definate reasons.

Do any of you readers have any guesses as to who is N. Onimous? If so, put your guesses in the comments to this post. (I personally think it's the OTBL admin. You'll see N. O. spliced inbetween admin posts and in the same time frame.) In this post, NO is complaining about where the HSO places its letters to the editor. Must be the vast left-wing conspiracy creeping into Hudson. 45 years ago, when Doug Stohlberg was my Pee Wee couch, I didn't noticed any of those conspiratorial leanings. After watching about 20 episodes of Twilight Zone during the SciFi networks marathon last weekend, I guess I should have see it then.

Maybe these OTBL'ers should checkout what the Hudson city workers get paid and their retirement packages. That would be an interesting comparison. Does anybody have any figures on this?

The Hudson Star-Observer must be doing something right, if it can piss off people on multiple sides of the issues. As the local school board races heat up, remember that the OTBL'ers are not interested in improving public education -- they want it dismantled. They want the union busted and they want your tax dollars to pay for their kids to go to private schools. It's a clear-cut agenda.

Although I've never met Bob B. or Bob M., my hat is off to them for their excellence in letter writing and their dedication to keeping the torch of truth burning bright as they hold back the evil darkness that lerks ontheborderline.net.

The OTBL Blog Newsroom

1/05/2006

Pen & Ink Jab: Bill of Rights?

Quote to Ponder: Making Technology Work For All Americans

"The essence of technological and economic progress is the use of more ideas, skills, and knowledge in the production process and less manual labor and physical resources, thus improving productivity, the ultimate source of real incomes…. Technology can increase productivity, [which is] simultaneously displacing labor and providing the means to improve the incomes of those who remain employed. By improving productivity, technology lowers costs in the affected industry and throughout the economy…. Technology can expand markets and produce a higher rate of growth in output and employment, which could have the net effect of increasing both income and employment…."

"Some analysts believe that prosperity caused by a more knowledge-intensive economy could be even better and more equitably shared than it was between 1945 and 1973, when it was fueled by the civilian applications of technology developed for military purposes, supportive macroeconomic policies, massive improvements in higher education because of the GI Bill, and strong domestic and global demand…. "
[An important factor of technology] is the increased knowledge base of the whole economy brought about by the new technology…. Similarly, the organization of work within and between companies and countries requires new kinds of skills, especially quantitative, abstract learning, interpersonal, communicating, and problem-solving abilities that put a premium on the knowledge and skills needed to most effectively adapt and use advanced technology."

Ray Marshall
Former US Secretary of Labor

Fundraiser for Hudson's Junior Cyclocross star Bjorn Selander

The Bjorn Selander Cyclocross World Championships fundraiser will be held January 7th from 5-9 pm at Alwins Northside Service, 413 6th Street North, Hudson, WI.

For more information on the event, visit www.alan-usa.com


By Steve Medcroft

Euromedia Group, the U.S. importer of Alan Frames, Barbieri cycling accessories, Ked Helmets and GSG Clothing, will be hosting a fundraiser to help Alan Factory Team junior Cyclocross star Bjorn Selander make the trip to the Netherlands for 2006 Cyclo-cross World's. Scheduled January 7th at Alwins Northside Service in Hudson, Wisconsin, Euromedia president Paul Schoening says the fundraiser is one way that supporters and friends of the young phenom can help with his continued development.

Selander was a discretionary pick for the World's Teams; he missed the automatic (and fully funded) selection when TIAA-Cref rider Danny Summerhill edged him out for both the USGP lead and the December 10th Elite Junior National Championship in Providence, Rhode Island. “Bjorn had bad luck at nationals,” Schoening said. “With 1 1/2 laps to go Summerhill crashed into Bjorn and pushed his derailleur into the spokes and tore it off. Danny waited, showing true class as a first year Junior.” Selander, the 2004 Elite Junior National Champion, had traded the USGP lead with Summerhill throughout the 2005 season and, in the Liberty Cup, an invitational held the day after nationals that featured every newly-crowned national champion and a select field of invitees, came eleventh; ahead of (among others) Tour de France star Chris Horner.

Without the funding of an automatic selection, Selander needs to come with about $4,000 to cover the World's trip. “Bjorn is paying his own way to Euro Camp with our assistance, but has no funding for the World's trip,” Schoening said. “So, considering we have a bunch of great people and sponsors supporting our team, we decided to organize a local fundraiser and donate the proceeds to Bjorn's quest for World's.”

Schoening is inviting anyone close enough to Hudson attend to the dinner. Those who wish to support the cause but are not close enough to attend the dinner, Schoening says you can provide cash or product donations to be silent-auctioned at the event. Failing that, Schoening can accept Paypal donations addressed to euromedia@comcast.net (Attention: The Bjorn Selander World Fund).

1/04/2006

Borderline alcoholics...

Ludwig von Miser the bartender asked Mr. Bill PhD, "Do ya know da difference between a On The Border Line blogger and a box of rocks?

"Is the difference the fact the a box of rocks doesn't put 'PhD.' after everything it writes?," answered Mr. Bill PhD.

"No. A box of rocks will sometimes tip," explained Ludwig.

Mr. Bill PhD. asked, "Do you know why a box of rocks will leave a tip?"

"Because they have a good heart and understand that is an accepted practice in the service industry," replied the bartender.

"Wrong!," screamed Mr. Bill PhD, "It's because they are a bunch of collectivist, socialist, Marxist beggars who are trying to steal the money of hardworking capitalists like myself so they have enough money to put gas in their Cadillacs to drive down to the welfare office on their way back from illegally filing for unemployment -- because I know you are laid off and getting paid cash under the table."

Quote of Note

"When people talk of the freedom of writing, speaking, or thinking,
I cannot choose but laugh. No such thing ever existed. No such thing
now exists; but I hope it will exist. But it must be hundreds of years
after you and I shall write and speak no more."


John Adams
(1735-1826)
Founding Father,
2nd US President
Source: in a letter to Thomas Jefferson, 1818

Lord of the Blogs

(One of our readers forwarded this column on blogs to us.)

From the January 4, 2006 editorial page of the St. Paul Pioneer Press

Of all the stories leading America's annual greatest-hits list, the one that subsumes the rest is the continuing evolution of information in the Age of Blogging. Not since the birth of the printing press have our lives been so dramatically affected by the way we create and consume information — both to our enormous benefit and, perhaps, to our growing peril.

What is wonderful and miraculous about the Internet needs little elaboration. We all marvel at the ease with which we can access information — whether reading government documents previously available only to a few, or tracking down old friends and new enemies. It is this latter — our new enemies — that interests me most. I don't mean al-Qaida or Osama bin Laden, but the less visible, insidious enemies of decency, humanity and civility — the angry offspring of narcissism's quickie marriage to instant gratification.

Read Kathleen Parker's column of blogs .

1/03/2006

NR Resident Changes Her Spots On The Border Line

Fans of the soap-opera sellers over at the ontheborderline.net blog will notice that former OTBL poster NR Resident has changed to Jack Bauer. Now we haven't heard from NR Resident for some time...actually since it was mentioned here that NR Resident was Connie somebody. It's hard to trace these things down, but one of dedicated readers poointed out that the writing styles are really similar for NR Resident and Jack Bauer...not to mention that all the previous posts for NR Resident turned into Jack Bauer. I wonder who it could B?

Quote of Note

"The American ideal was stated by Emerson in his essay on politics. 'A man has a right to be employed, to be trusted, to be loved, to be revered.' It does many men little good to stay alive and free and propertied, if they cannot work."

--William O. Douglas,
U. S. Supreme Court justice, Dissent,
Barsky v. Regents; 1954

1/02/2006

Dave Zien: Now It's Conceal and Carry, What's Next, Drink and Drive ?

The guy on your left is the "brains" behind the conceal and carry bill. The following is an alert he's sent to pressure Democrats to override Gov. Doyle's veto.
----------------------------
Alert from Senator Zien’s Office
Madison - 01.23.04

From Senator Zien’s Office:

Now that the Senate has successfully overridden Governor Doyle's veto of the Personal Protection Act, and the Assembly stands poised to attempt an override in the very near future, it is important to remember to whom we owe a debt of gratitude.

All the Senators and Assemblymen who voted for Senate Bill 214 did so because they believe that law-abiding citizens have the right to defend themselves against violent attack by criminals. These folks know concealed carry laws work well in 46 other states.

We should take this opportunity to recognize a number of Assemblymen who had the courage to buck their party's opposition to the right of self-defense, and vote for SB 214. The following Assembly Democrats should be commended for voting in favor of SB 214 on November 5, 2003:

Rep. Barbara Gronemus of Whitehall (888) 534-0091
Rep. Marlin Schneider of WI Rapids (is a cosponsor of SB 214) (888) 529-0072
Rep. Gary Sherman of Port Wing (is a cosponsor of SB 214)
Rep. John Steinbrink of Kenosha (608) 266-0455
Rep. Terry Van Akkeren of Sheboygan (608) 266-0656
Rep. Amy Sue Vruwink of Milladore (888) 534-0070
Rep. Wayne Wood of Janesville
............

These courageous Democrats will be under incredible pressure from Governor Doyle and their party leadership. We need to offer them thanks and encouragement in sticking to their beliefs with fierce integrity!

If you choose to express your undying gratitude to these courageous individuals, remember to be kind, courteous and thoughtful! See www.legis.state.wi.us for email addresses and phone numbers.

Senator Dave Zien
Chairman
Senate Committee on Judiciary, Corrections & Privacy
(608) 266-7511
--------------------------------------------------------------

Other Democrats to contact to prevent the ridiculous bill from becoming law are:

Representative Terry Van Akkeren (608) 266-0656
rep.vanakkeren@legis.state.wi.us

Representative Mary Hubler (888) 534-0075
rep.hubler@legis.state.wi.us


If you think these people are "sticking to their beliefs with fierce integrity!" you may want to
consider their real motivation, fear of the NRA.

From: The Gun Guys

“Anyone that screws us on this legislation - Democrat or Republican, Assembly or Senate - the NRA is going to work unbelievably earnestly, taking no prisoners, on this next election cycle,” Zien said of the National Rifle Association.


Sen. Dave Zien Resorts to Bullying to Keep the WI CCW Bill Alive

The picture just keeps getting worse on the concealed weapons bill in Wisconsin. Earlier this morning, we reported that Rep. Scott Gunderson, who co-sponsored the “dangerous and unnecessary” legislation with Sen. Dave Zien, actually owns a gun and liquor store, and could very well be pushing this legislation just to increase his own bank account. It’s not like there’s any other good reasons for it, considering that the people of Wisconsin don’t want this bill, and the Governor and law enforcement feel the same way.

But now Gunderson’s “partner in crime” Dave Zien is showing off how classless he is as well. In this Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel overview of the bill, he spits out a quote that, at its best, is completely out of line. We’ve bolded it for you.

The Senate sponsor of the bill, Sen. Dave Zien (R-Eau Claire), said Wednesday that senators will take up the Assembly version of the bill in mid-January. Senators will not change the bill again, Zien said.

Zien said anyone who flipped their votes would risk being voted out of office next year.

“Anyone that screws us on this legislation - Democrat or Republican, Assembly or Senate - the NRA is going to work unbelievably earnestly, taking no prisoners, on this next election cycle,” Zien said of the National Rifle Association.

We’ve said “wow” a lot about these guys, but we’ll say it again: wow. That is out and out bullying. Threatening to take out “anyone that screws us”? What happened to cultured discussion? What happened to the grace and poise that we’d hope to expect from our elected leaders? Guess that all goes out the window when you start talking about the National Rifle Association.

And just what exactly is David Zien threatening? Last we checked, he worked for the citizens of the State of Wisconsin. Was he elected by the NRA or by American citizens? He’s supposed to be a state senator, but now he’s just plain attacking his fellow lawmakers like so many of the NRA’s “jackbooted thugs.”

This is too much. When they proposed a bill that no one wanted, we wondered what their reasoning was. When Scott Gunderson said that “people who hate this bill will be helped by it, and they won’t even know it,” we just laughed, because that’s ludicrous. When we learned he owned a store that sold both guns and alcohol, we just sighed. But now, when Dave Zien barks at his colleagues like an NRA lapdog, we’ve had enough. This concealed weapons bill is wrong, unsafe, and sponsored by what we can only guess are lunatics. If Wisconsin legislators have anyone in their ranks who isn’t subverted by the NRA and their bully tactics, they’ll uphold the Governor’s expected veto.

More: Legislation, NRA, Concealed Carry, Wisconsin

November 21, 2005

Peek-A-Boo Politics

Wisconsin Doesn't Need Conceal & Carry

Support Governor Doyle's Planned Veto
Urge Your Represenatives to Uphold the Veto!

The conceal and carry bill is cowboy politics and doesn't pass the common sense smell test. Give your local sheriff and/or police chief a call and asked them if they will be urging the passage of this bill. The answer you get will be no!

Wisconsin may soon join the 46 other states that allow licensed citizens to possess concealed weapons after the state Assembly voted 64-32 early Wednesday morning to approve Senate Bill 403. Lawmakers passed the legislation December 15, after contentious debate and lengthy deliberation regarding proposed amendments.

Republicans wrote an amendment they hoped would aid in obtaining a two-thirds majority to override Gov. Jim Doyle’s promised veto. The amendment attached to the bill increases the size of gun-free zones around schools, lowers the blood alcohol limit for carrying weapons, sets harsher penalties for lying on registration forms and mandates recertification every five years for licensees.

Read more

Send an e-mail and let your representatives know where you stand on this isse:

E-mail Wis. Gov. Jim Doyle
E-mail State Senator Shelia Harsdorf 10th Dist.
E-mail State Rep. Kitty Rhoades 30th Dist.
E-mail State Rep. Andy Lamb 29th Dist.