Top Of My Head

Scott Walker says he won’t talk to anyone, but he will take a phone call from “David Koch” co-owner of the Koch Industries I mentioned here yesterday.  He was punked by Ian Murphy (from Buffalo Beast) who was posing as Koch.

Walker thinks he has this in the bag.  He’s even planning on stopping the Democrats direct deposit pay in order to get them to come home.

Check out the video at Crooks and Liars.  When I find the link to the actual video by Buffalo Beast, I’ll post a link to it.

Walker sure does sound like he’s in Koch’s pocket.  Something I alluded to in yesterday’s post.

I say we recall him and all of the Republicants.

Walker won’t negotiate and remove the ban on collective bargaining. This is not only wrong, but it is making a mockery of our great state. I saw an article on Huffington Post and now I know why he isn’t backing down.
His largest campaign contributor – Koch Industries – is anti-union. They, also, have the most to gain by the passage of this bill. The bill will “allow the state to sell or contract out any state-owned energy asset in no-bid deals with private corporations.”
Walker is going to sellout our state much like Scott McCallum did when he sold our tobacco settlement for pennies on the dollar.
I’m pushing for a recall of Walker and his bad ideas.
Who’s with me?

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We’ve all seen the news stories this week. In fact, the entire nation has seen the shame brought upon our great state by our Republican legistlature and Governor.
Our state is the birthplace of national unions and our newly elected governor wants to eliminate the right of the majority of our public workers to collective bargin. I say majority because Walker has left out police officers and fire fighters. Lucky them.

Our public workers are not fat cat CEOs. These people represent working families of this state. I’m for public workers paying for 12.6% of their health care, but half of their pensions is a little too tough. Still, there wouldn’t be quite is outrage if the governor and his elected hunchmen didn’t go too far and try to take away their bargaining rights. Eliminating collective bargaining isn’t going to create jobs or save the state money.
Walker and his cronies are shocked and surprised at the outrage, but they haven’t backed down.

That’s what happens with our Wisconsin Republicans – they just want to forge ahead and claim that they care about their constituents. I think the protests are proving that they could give a care about any of us.

One last thought, I’d like to point out from personal experience just how little public workers make compared to those of us in the private sector. A few years ago, I was searching for a new job and the Racine Police Department needed a data analyst. My resume fit the job perfectly and I didn’t apply. Why you ask. Because it paid $11,000 less than what I was all ready making. This is a perfect example of how little our public workers get paid vs those of us in the private sector.

Call your Senators and the Governor – tell them that you support our public workers.

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The way the media made last November’s election sound, you would think that our newly elected officials were actually going to do the right thing. Instead, the people who were elected promising to bring jobs to Wisconsin passed the bill lowering the standard for the minimum auto insurance – a passing that will not actually lower anyone’s premiums. There was nothing in there that said the insurance companies would actually have to lower rates.
I’m mad because I have carried extra insurance for years. The raising of the minimums meant good news for me. If I am injured in an auto accident, I’ll be covered by my own and by the offenders insurance. The minimums that were in place were such that in the case of a serious accident, I shouldn’t lose my house if I can’t work. Well, no more.
Thanks a lot, elected officials. Thanks for nothing.
That’s the bad news.
The good news is in Washington a bipartisan effort rejected an extension of the poorly named Patroit Act.
Both the White House and the GOP leadership are upset by this, but I don’t care. It needed to be done.
Now, let’s move on to creating some jobs!

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In the news this morning is an article – rumors of which I’ve been hearing about for months – that Harley Davidson wants to move their operations to another state.  (The rumors I heard was they were moving to Canada.)  At issue is the company’s desire to “cut millions of dollars at the factories that build the bikes”.  According to the article, they plan on making their decision within the next two months.

Also, according to the article “The company, he (Harley chief executive Keith Wandell) said, would also be open to incentives to keep the 1,630 manufacturing jobs in Wisconsin.”  I’m sure those incentives include tax breaks paid for by us – the taxpayers of Wisconsin.

And, is Harley-Davidson suffering?  Are they about to go broke?

Not according to their financial report:

“Harley-Davidson, Inc. (NYSE: HOG) reported second-quarter 2010 income from continuing operations of $139.3 million, or $0.59 per share, compared to income of $33.4 million and earnings per share of $0.14 from continuing operations in the year-ago quarter.”

Granted, sales of Harleys are down, but with the economy suffering as it is – isn’t that to be expected?  Harley-Davidson is the best motorcycle in the world.  Their sales will bounce back.

I don’t want to see 1,630 of my fellow Wisconsinites to be out of jobs, but do we really want our state to bend over and give incentives as a bribe to keep them here?

I know what’ll happen.  Our cash-strapped state will give in, save those jobs and the tax payers of Wisconsin will pay for the privilege of having Harley-Davidson motorcycles built in Milwaukee.

I just sent the following email to my state Senator and my state Representative. If you live in WI, I suggest you read it, steal it and send it to your Wisconsin State Representatives. Let’s get this changed. I took out the Senator’s name before posting it here. Make sure you fill in your Representative’s name and information. Also, if you don’t know who they are, go to this site, enter your address and your Representatives will appear. http://www.legis.wisconsin .gov/w3asp/waml/waml.aspx

Feel free to make any changes to the below text. Also, if you don’t live in WI, investigate your state’s laws.

Wisconsin Attorney General J. B. Van Hollen doesn’t stand up for Wisconsin Laws…

We need an Attorney General who will stand up for Wisconsin Laws. Van Hollen isn’t the guy we should have. He needs to resign, be recalled or defeated in the next election.

God Bless

I’ve been thinking about Concealed Carry. If you remember, Owen from Boots & Sabers wrote a rebuttal to the Wisconsin Coalition Against Domestic Violence press release. Then, I wrote a rebuttal to his rebuttal. Well, since then, I’ve been doing some more thinking about the subject.

First, I should mention that I am NOT against Concealed Carry. I believe that some citizens have legitimate needs to carry a concealed weapon. That is to say, I don’t believe that every Tom, Dick and Harry should be allowed to pack heat. I believe their needs to be very stringent restrictions. The Second Amendment states: “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” Well, we have a well regulated militia and, further, it doesn’t state that we can’t regulate just who those people are. Plus, I don’t believe bear arms translates into concealed carry. In the great state of Wisconsin, you are allowed to strap a gun to your hip and walk in public. Some municipalities will arrest you for disorderly conduct, just so you are forewarned.

Second, I do not like the bill as it is written. I have quite a few beefs, but I’ll only list my top four here:

• There is a $25.00 fine for failure to give a peace officer your permit when requested and the same fine amount for failing to carry said permit.

I believe if you don’t hand over your permit to a police officer, you should have your permit revoked. Period. No appeal, no getting it back. If you are responsible enough to carry a loaded weapon in the public streets of this state, then you should be responsible enough to identify yourself to a police officer when asked. Period. End of story.

No permit while carrying needs to be a much higher fine than just $25.00. You won’t even notice the fine at that small amount. The fine should be at least $100.00. We’re talking about someone who is carrying a loaded weapon, for Pete’s sake! We have a much higher fine for someone who sells cigarettes to minors!

• The permit cost of $75.00 is not high enough to cover the added cost of the new duties the Department of Justice will have to perform to ensure the proper compliancy with the new law. Plus, has anyone done a study to determine how much money will be spent at the DOJ to cover the coverage of permit carriers? Permit carriers should have to pay at least $150.00 in order to be allowed to carry a loaded handgun in public. The renewal could be less money.
• Police Officers need to be given access to who has a Concealed Carry Permit. This is not an invasion of privacy. Officers can research and discover any license you might have, why should a Concealed Carry Permit holder be given any special treatment?
• Concealed Carry Permit holders from other states are allowed to have the permit, with no background check, in our great state. Are they kidding? I’ve all ready pointed out how two states don’t even have permits – Alaska and Vermont. I barely trust our DOJ to run a proper background check, I’m going to trust a background check run in another state? No, we must perform checks on those who want the permit in our state. The only exceptions would be out of state police officers and military personnel.

Finally, I’d like to mention a fallacy that is found on many pro-conceal carry sites and blogs. The idea is that if a criminal doesn’t know just who is carrying a weapon, they won’t commit the crime. Well, I did some research and discovered that that statement is just not true. There are more, not less, murders committed in Concealed Carry states than in the five non-Concealed Carry states per 100,000 people. Further, there are more, not less, of the major crimes, such as Rape, Aggravated Assault and Robbery; in Concealed Carry States than in non-Concealed Carry states.

I’m not saying that I believe that Concealed Carry is responsible for the higher crime rates, I’m merely pointing out that being a Concealed Carry State does not mean less crime. It means that Concealed Carry is not preventing crime, despite what the pundits will try to lead you to believe.

I urge all my Wisconsin readers to take the time to actually read either the Senate’s version or the Assembly’s version of the Concealed Carry bill. Then, use your own thought process to decide if you are for it or against it. I urge you, once you’ve made your decision, to write your representative or your state senator or both and let them know exactly how you feel.

God Bless.