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Milwaukee Death March

  For those still scratching their heads about why  
  the population in the City of Milwaukee continues
  to plummet, consider the following week in
  Milwaukee government:

• Unable to get even the city’s worst elected officials to agree to their cause, the National Association of Working Women attempt to force the City into a referendum mandating sick leave on the job.  The mandate, of course, would force employers to lay off staff or pay employees less to make up for the lost work hours.
   

• The Milwaukee County Board attempts a referendum to increase the County sales tax by 1%, resulting in a $130 million tax increase.  The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, apparently unwilling to read the reports of tax fund abuse in its own news pages, breathlessly approves of the referendum.  County Supervisor Lee Holloway issues a ridiculous press release contending that Milwaukee taxpayers would actually be saving money by being forced to pay more for things like cameras, apparently.
   

• County Supervisor Elizabeth Coggs immediately demonstrates why the sales tax increase isn’t necessary, by suggesting County Board Supervisors receive a $300 a month transportation stipend.  She contends that she and her fellow supervisors deserve more money because gas prices are high, despite the fact that supervisors already get free bus passes as a perk and are paid $50,679 a year for their part-time jobs.

Factor in job losses at Midwest Express, MillerCoors picking Chicago as their headquarters, and a proposed new wheel tax getting preliminary support from the Milwaukee Common Council, and you see a city crumbling under the weight of its own government.  And yet elected officials and believe they deserve raises for being successful at running Milwaukee’s economy into the ground.

Meanwhile you could hear a pin drop while a complacent and at times complicit business community continues to whistle past the graveyard.

Voter File Follies

  After Wisconsin taxpayers have sunk
  millions of dollars into a statewide voter
  database, the Government Accountability
  Board still has come up with nothing,
  according to a report in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.  The list, which was supposed to be in place by January 1st of 2006, has been a disaster, plagued by problems and cost overruns.

Last year, a state audit showed that the new voter identification system developed by Kevin Kennedy's Election Board won't be ready for the 2008 presidential primary.  The system is now two election cycles late, and without it, municipalities won't be able to determine if felons or other ineligible voters are casting ballots.  According to the audit, the state has spent $22.7 million so far - with nothing to show for it.

In 2004, the state signed a contract with vendor Accenture to compile the list.  The agreement paid the company $13.9 million to create a statewide list, with the help of local clerks.

Yet in December of 2007, Accenture was forced to cut ties with the state, as very little progress was being made on the project.  Despite not producing any list of value, Accenture was able to keep $7 million paid to it by the state’s taxpayers.

All of this has occurred under the watchful eye of GAB president Kevin Kennedy.  As Executive Director of the Elections Board, Kennedy oversaw some of Wisconsin’s most disastrous computer projects.  The state pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into the Elections Board to develop a uniform electronic campaign finance reporting database, which nearly a decade later has never materialized. 

Keep in mind that the Government Accountability Board is responsible for administering state election laws.  Earlier this year, they even made an effort to give themselves the right to regulate political speech during political campaigns – heavy responsibility for a Board who can’t even figure out how to work an Excel spreadsheet.

Global Warming Responsible for
Kidney Stones

  We’ve heard pretty much everything blamed
  on global warming – hurricanes, floods, even
  salmonella in tomatoes.  In fact, a British
  engineering professor maintains a website
  that catalogues everything that has been

attributed to global warming.

This week, researchers at the University of Texas added one to the list of absurdities – kidney stones.  According to the researchers, the U.S. could experience a 30% increase in kidney stones if temperatures rise as estimated by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.  They estimate this will increase kidney stones by 1.6 and 2.2 million cases in 2050, costing over a billion dollars to treat.

This solid research should open our eyes to what’s really going on here – the drug companies are obviously trying to warm the planet, because it’s good for business. How else do you explain the recent surge in cases of Restless Leg Syndrome and embarrassing toe nail fungus? 

The fact is that only hot air being generated is coming from University of Texas researchers.

Colorado Plan

  For Conservatives content to sit back
  and watch this election cycle from the
  sidelines, take note of what’s happening
  in Colorado.


 Well-heeled liberal activists are pumping millions of dollars into a new coordinated campaign to slime Republicans – and it appears they’re making progress.  From this Weekly Standard article by Fred Barnes:

The Democratic surge in Colorado reflects the national trend, but it involves a great deal more. There's something unique going on in Colorado that, if copied in other states, has the potential to produce sweeping Democratic gains nationwide. That something is the "Colorado Model," and it's certain to be a major topic of discussion when Democrats convene in Denver in the last week of August for their national convention.

"Colorado is being used as a test bed for a swarm offense by Democrats and liberals to put conservatives and Republicans on defense as much as possible," says Andrews. The initial results of that test are favorable. "The winds at our back here," says Andrew Romanoff, the Democratic House speaker. The Colorado Model, by nearly all accounts, is working in 2008. And it should continue to be a powerful political force in Colorado (and other states) for many years--that is, until conservatives and Republicans come up with a way to counteract it.

In Wisconsin, liberal interest groups are planning the same type of coordinated attack on Republican lawmakers.  Soon, the “Colorado Model” will be on our doorsteps, spreading misinformation about conservative candidates – unless citizens in Wisconsin are willing to take action and support conservative candidates in any way they can.