Immigration

Doyle Invites Bush to Campaign

Madison - After Scott Walker cleared the way for a Mark Green run against Governor Doyle, Doyle has invited President Bush and Vice President Cheney to campaign for Mark Green in the gubernatorial race this summer and fall.

"With so many republicans constantly defending the slightest negative comment directed toward Bush and Cheney," said Doyle, "I thought I would ask them to put their money where their mouth is... and I'll even give them the money."

Governor Doyle has offered to pay the way for Bush and Cheney to campaign for Mark Green between now and the November election.

Doyle continued; "the minute anyone questions the war in Iraq they are accused of supporting terrorists blowing up American cities, as if that is the only other possibility - war in Iraq or destroyed US cities... nothing in between.

"I could spend my millions of campaign dollars on direct mail and advertising, but then I thought I could just use it to pay for Bush and Cheney to join Green on the campaign trail. This way, every time anyone sees Mark Green, Bush and Cheney will be in the same frame of video or the same picture in the papers.

"With Republicans so testy anytime we question the Bush Administration, they should have no reason not to openly welcome Bush and Cheney's constant presence on the campaign trail during this election.

"Mark Green has been a Bush ally in D.C., and I think it's only fair that when people think of Mark Green they think of George W. Bush... that is... unless those on the right have some problem with Bush that I somehow missed while they were busy calling me a terrorist for questioning the slightest thing about his administration."

Support the Troops

So that's why there are more right-wing blogs than lefties!

Or why over 50 veterans are new Democratic candidates for Congress this fall. New GOP veteran candidates... count them on one hand.
List. Read about it here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here... to name a few.

Feingold Kindly Asks for Apology

Milwaukee/New York - The Junior Senator from Wisconsin, Russ Feingold, appeared as the guest live via satellite on last nights The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Senator Feingold used this forum to kindly ask for an apology from President Bush for wrecking the Senate mountain bike.

October 25, 2001 Senator Feingold made the bold move of asking the Senate gym to stock a mountain bike to be shared among the Senate for fitness and recreational purposes. There was quite an opposition to the proposal, as he was the only one riding mountain bikes in the Senate at the time. Regardless, Feingold was able to get his mountain bike, despite the fact that there was no one else asking for one.

As years went by the popularity of mountain biking began to increase, with greater demand amongst his Democratic colleagues. By late 2005 nearly half the Senate was using the mountain bike on a regular basis, and promoting the fitness of biking to their constituents back home.

December of 2005 it was discovered that President Bush had been using the Senate mountain bike without telling any of the Senators, ignoring the fact that the mountain bike was meant exclusively for Senators. When the story broke the President was defiant, telling the press that he was the President and therefore he could do what he wanted with the mountain bike.

Early 2006 the President's fortune took a turn for the worse. While out riding the bike he accidentally crashed into a telephone pole, causing serious damage to the bike. Feingold has been visibly upset about the bike he first started talking about in 2001, which now requires serious repairs. Last night on The Daily Show, Feingold formally asked the President for an apology.

Within minutes of Feingold asking the president to say he was sorry, Cheney and others began appearing on Sunday morning talk shows that were forced to air at 11:30 pm Wednesday night. Right wing bloggers threw a collective fit online.

Republicans are claiming that the President did not do anything wrong and that it really is no big deal that the President rode the bike into a pole. They have called Feingold's request for apology outrageous and overreaching, pegging all his supporters as "liberal moonbats."

Interestingly, the first polls have begun to appear this morning after Feingold's request for apology. American's appear to favor an apology from the President by a 46 to 43 margin. Despite the fact that more American's favor apology, the right wing has continued their blitz to call these 46% of Americans "liberal moonbats" and completely ignoring all the polls indicating their position is actually of the minority.

Quote of the Day

"You've done a heckuva job, Scotty."

-Speaker Gard to Scott Jensen upon retirement.

Blog Summit to be Live Blogged

Waukesha - Wisconsin area bloggers have apparently entered an introspective stage in the lead up to the first annual Blog Summit to be held here in Waukesha this weekend. There has been a notable uptick in blog posts related to the subject of blogging ever since the Summit was announced.

The bloated ranks of speakers and panelists continues to hemorrhage as several bloggers blogged about their feelings on the diversity of the individuals on the agenda. With blogs bringing about a semi-public status to certain individuals and giving them a feeling of credibility and even celebrity, they are now eager to scratch this itch with a more traditional public forum.

Not willing to shirk their ideas, however, several blogs have pledged to live blog the Blog Summit. Right off the Shore came out first, promising to offer comments throughout the day. Letters in Bottles upped the ante, promising a live blog with no more than 10 minutes between posts. While Owen from Boots & Sabers is on the panel, Jed will be live blogging to Boots & Sabers from the audience.

The Recess Supervisor was excited saying, "The live blogging will probably be much more interesting than anything anyone has to say. These people are blogging for a reason; I can't imagine they'll be very good at public speaking."

Dennis York thinks it will be quite useful for anything Jessica McBride has to say. McBride has noted that she is going to stay the course of her blog, not allowing for any questions or comments to her remarks. Instead, it will be left to the live bloggers to offer feedback, which McBride will be reading with her laptop while on the panel, then allowing her to respond in person in real-time to anything any of the live bloggers have said.

Jeff Mayers from WisPolitics has expressed some concern over the trend. "I am worried that everyone might resort to reading and posting to their blogs while we cease any and all conversation. The only difference between any other day and our blogging would be the fact that we'll be sitting in the same room."

State Representative Mark Pocan will likely provide the first fluke of the event, quickly approaching Elliot Stearns and asking him if he's seen Murderball under the assumption that he is a liberal.

Some have expressed disappointment in the event due to some notable absences. Ragnar Mentaire has said he won't attend due to Bill Christofferson's vacation. "I was hoping to see Bill and Sykes duke it out a la Al Franken and Bill O'Reilly at that one panel discussion, but with Bill out of town I just don't see any reason to attend."

Others have said that it was a poor excuse for Ragnar and that he just didn't want to give away his identity. And while the Recess Supervisor has expressed interest, other anonymous bloggers like Max Power are not planning to attend.

This has lead to some minor outcries, with accusations that anonymous bloggers are hiding something and are not credible bloggers. Power responded saying, "if anyone wants to question my credibility I would simply refer them to my post on Government Choice as a sample of my infallible and hard-hitting blog. Besides, most of us already know the identity of many of these anonymous bloggers."

The first of its kind in Wisconsin, no one really knows how this is going to go off in the end. In the meantime, Max Power is urging people to stay tuned to his blog, where he will be live blogging about the live blogging at the Blog Summit. "I hope to bring to the people a bloggers perspective on the bloggers perspective on the Summit."

Until the Summit, one can only expect a continued uptick in the number of blogs inanely blogging about blogging and the blog summit.

who?

Wheeler/WisPolitics Server Crash

Cyberspace, WI - Just one day after what many expected to be the last day of session, both The Wheeler Report and WisPolitics servers have crashed. The web sites were brought down by a combined strain on website hosting demands as well as the server's visiting traffic. Original reports of a Denial of Service (DoS) attack were unfounded, and both Wheeler and WisPolitics have reported that they are working on the situation.

After a legislator is able to push a bill of their own through the assembly, it is typical for them to issue a press release informing the district and its newspapers of the bill's massive significance and the huge impact it will have on their constituents. With so many local media establishments statewide, offices often turn to Wheeler and WisPolitics as a clearinghouse to help disseminate the information.

Thursday, March 9, 2006 well over 150 bills were acted on between the State Assembly and State Senate. Each of these bills had their own special purpose that was of critical importance to the district of their respective authors.

Friday morning a crushing blow of press releases were flooding into the Wheeler and WisPolitics offices for publication. While overwhelming at times, the two seemed capable of handling the workload. Things suddenly crashed when district residents throughout the state began flocking in large numbers to the website so they could learn of the major changes facing them as a result of the earth-shattering legislation passed last night.

In the meantime, representatives from both Wheeler and WisPolitics are urging offices to hold off on their press releases unless they are really, really important to their district. They also joked of their wish that area residents were not so eager to visit their website for the breaking news of the countless bills passed. The Wheeler representative noted that they had over 30 press releases from elected officials on their website before crashing, each of which was very, very important.

a large pair

to be able to say it:

Legislature Passes Government Choice Bill

Madison - In what is sure to be the first of many states, the Wisconsin Legislature passed a sweeping reform bill that will create the nation's first "Government Choice" program here in Madison.

Long History

Under the proposal, legislators will now have a choice of which legislative body they would like to attend. The current Assembly and Senate have been in existence for years, graduating hundreds of career politicians and sending many off to lobbying firms and corporate policy analyst positions.

However, in recent times the Wisconsin Legislature has faced a tough going with an unhappy electorate. A dark shadow has been cast over the floors of the Assembly and Senate.

Problems Abound

In recent years the dropout rate of the Legislature has grown considerably. Truancy rates are high and some individuals spend as little as 2 years in the system before abruptly leaving. Already this session, some freshman have declared that they will not be coming back next year.

With tests on issues like healthcare, energy costs, and the economy in general, Legislators have continually failed their exams. Grades continue their decline as respect for the body diminishes.

Bringing Choice

The latest solution to these growing problems has been the creation of a "voucher" Legislature. Under this proposal, Legislators can choose to instead join a privately run "legislature" that will be modeled after a Corporate Boardroom.

Proponents have said that this will create competition between the public Legislature and the private Boardroom and hopefully push the public Legislature to a higher standard.

Legislator's will have their office budget and staff budget allotments paid by the state toward the Corporate Board through a "voucher." Private investments and contributions will also be allowed to help fund this venture. Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce is currently in the process of lining up corporate sponsors for the two Boardrooms. There has been no word as of yet on the awarding of naming rights to each Boardroom.

The Boardroom has already announced that law firm Vinson & Elkins will serve as both their Legislative Council and Legislative Reference Bureau. Some have questioned the hiring of this firm because of their history of service to Enron. Hired to investigate any problems or wrongdoings, Vinson & Elkins signed off on a smooth sailing ship. Two weeks later the largest bankruptcy in United States history was filed.

Following suit, Vinson & Elkins brought Arthur Andersen on board to serve as the Legislative Fiscal Bureau and Legislative Audit Bureau. Arthur Andersen expressed gratitude, citing the great synergy their company had with Vinson & Elkins while they served as Enron's accounting firm.

Instead of a Speaker or President, a CEO will be elected from amongst the board. In the same vein, constituent are now to be called "shareholders."

Currently, the Corporate Board Room is set to be limited to 15% of the Senate and Assembly. Some have expressed concern, however, that this limit may be quickly reached and that we will be faced with a choice down the road of having to ration Legislators wishing to join the Corporate Boardroom. A small group has even expressed concern that the current public Legislature will be completely dissolved for this corporate-style leadership. Fortunately, those individuals have been ignored, quickly dismissed as freedom-haters and generally alluded to as racist.

whaaaa?

Lift The Cap!

Madison - Choice schools have decided to pull out all the stops in their final attempt to lift the School Choice Cap before session comes to a close for the year on Thursday, March 9, 2006.

In the past several weeks, groups of students from choice schools have been making the trip to the Capitol in Madison for demonstrations held in the Capitol rotunda. Students have been seen standing in silence for the duration of the school day with signs in hand asking Governor Doyle to lift the cap.

Dr. Howard Fuller, Chair of the Alliance for Choices in Education, said that "it is time to give everything we got."

Fuller was referencing a new call for students at choice schools to show their support for lifting the cap. Some have said this is a "call to arms" for the roughly 15,000 students in the program.

"We have brought every single choice school and every single choice students on board," continued Fuller. "Every day at the start of school, we will be bussing all 15,000 choice students to Madison so that they can stand silently in the Capitol holding their signs of support. Maybe then some lawmakers will understand how critical the choice program is to the education of our children.

"All we are trying to do is teach these children and prepare them for college and the real world. To make sure we teach these children well, we are going to bus them to Madison every single school day to stand in silence at the Capitol until the cap is lifted. I don't care if these children stand here until summer break. We will not crack another textbook or step foot in another classroom until every lawmaker understands just how important a child's education really is!"