Daniel Cody - “Left on the Lake”

Sen. Russ Feingold is speaking at an event held by the Institute of World Affairs next Tuesday the 31st in the Union at UWM.

More details are on their website.

They’re asking people to register early, so if you want to get in on a smallish audience with the Senator to hear his views on combating Anti-Americanism abroad, this is a good chance.

I’m glad people are starting to finally wake up to the fact that there are more pressing issues facing our country than private retirement accounts, Terri Schiavo, and the christian right’s hot button issues.

Six in ten Americans say the president does not share their priorities, while just 34 percent say he does - the lowest numbers for Mr. Bush since the eve of his first inauguration….

… Although he’s spent months on the road campaigning for Social Security reform, Mr. Bush still gets only a 26 percent approval rating for his handling of the issue and the public remains skeptical about his signature plan for private Social Security accounts. - CBS

Local judge ignores Constitution, choosing instead to force his religion on someone:

An Indianapolis father is appealing a Marion County judge’s unusual order that prohibits him and his ex-wife from exposing their child to “non-mainstream religious beliefs and rituals.”

The parents practice Wicca, a contemporary pagan religion that emphasizes a balance in nature and reverence for the earth.

Cale J. Bradford, chief judge of the Marion Superior Court, kept the unusual provision in the couple’s divorce decree last year over their fierce objections, court records show. The order does not define a mainstream religion. - Indianapolis Star

Can you imagine if a judge had imposed a similar but opposite restriction on a Christian family that forced them to keep their kid out of a Baptist church?

Not only would Fox News pundits be screaming bloody murder about ‘activist judges’ and attacks on Christianity, but every politician from the local county supervisor to the President would be calling on this judge to step down.

But no one is really raising a fuss about it, which says a lot about how much many people value ‘religous freedom’ when it isn’t their own religion that needs defending.

With Bush’s numbers continuing to tank on the issue, this is what the social security ‘debate’ is coming to:

President Bush, facing an uphill battle on Social Security in Congress, worked Tuesday to persuade moderate Republicans to resist pressure from constituents and support his ideas for changing the nation’s retirement system. - AP

I can just hear the President now: “Heck Senator, totally ignore what the people who elected you think and support my plan. Do you think those ordinary people should influence how you vote? Hah! They aren’t even any of my, err, ‘pioneer’ supporters!”

But then again, Bush has continually ignored the mainstream issues affecting the vast majority of American’s, so why should he expect Congressmen and Congresswomen to do any different? When 7 in 10 people disagree with how you’re handling an issue, and yet you press on in spite of that, it shouldn’t be labeled ’steadfast’ or ‘resolute’. It should be labeled what it is, ‘out of touch’, ‘bull-headed’, and ‘arrogant’.

You may have heard that Senate Republicans are going to bring one of Bush’s judicial nominees to the floor this week, which will get filibustered by Democrats, which will cause the GOP to change the rules to allow an ‘up or down’ vote, at which point Dems have said they’ll slow down Senate business to a crawl.

While the whole thing is an unprecedented attempt at a power grab by the GOP, and specifically Majority Leader Bill Frist who’s pandering to the utlra right wing so he can get the GOP Presidential nomination in 2008, they’re trying to play it off as if they’re just following the rules, when in fact they’ve been guilty of filibustering judicial nominees themselves.

But, like I said, now that they’re in power, and it’s their nominees who are getting held up, well thats just not right! So they’re going to try to change the rules of the Senate.

Now changing the rules isn’t such a bad thing if you follow the rules to change the rules in the first place. Most of us would refer to this as ‘playing by the rules’.

The problem is you need 67 votes in the Senate to change the Senate rules, which makes sense, and if the Republicans had 67 votes in the Senate to change the rules to not allow filibusters anymore, I’d say rock on, you have the votes, do it.

However, they don’t have 67 votes to change the rules to get rid of the filibuster. Not even close. But the ultra-conservatives are pushing hard to get their equally ultra-conservative judges rammed through the confirmation process, so Sen. Bill Frist is just going to ignore the rules and tell everyone only 51 votes are required to change the rules, and if you don’t like it well that’d too bad, because he just changed the rules. neener neerer.

Most of us would refer to this as ‘cheating’. That is, when there are a known set of rules but someone chooses not to play by them to tilt the odds of success in their favor.

So the real question here is not whether Bush’s nominees deserve an ‘up or down’ vote, as with many things in life where there are disagreements, it boils down to playing by the rules. In my opinion, and the opinion of a lot of other people, including a majority of second graders who understand the concept of ‘playing by the rules’, the Senate Republicans are making a mistake by trying to cheat.

If Senate Republicans are allowed to break the rules so they can ram through judges that a small percentage of their party are pushing, mainstream Americans, the value of fairness, and democracy itself lose as well.

Just thought I’d pass this along in case anyone is interested in attending..

Governor Jim Doyle will discuss the effects of President George W. Bush’s plan to privatize Social Security at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 18, 2005 at the Washington Park Senior Center in Milwaukee.

On Thursday, President Bush is scheduled to be in Milwaukee to tout his privatization plan of Social Security. The Governor will discuss the significant impacts his plan could have on Wisconsin families.

The Washington Park Senior Center is on 45th and Vliet, about 10 blocks from my house, so I think I’ll stop by. If anyone is interested in more information drop me a line with the link at the right…

After months of investigation, two charges of voting fraud have been filed here in Milwaukee related to last years election, and to the disappointment of foaming wingnuts across the state, the charges are related to voter registration, not voting itself:

According to warrants filed by the Milwaukee County district attorney’s office, Urelene Lilly, 48, and Marcus L. Lewis, 23, both admitted to authorities that they filled out multiple voter-registration cards using fictitious information to earn money from Project Vote, which paid workers such as them $40 per day plus $1.75 for each registration above the daily quota of 24 new voters. - JS Online

As I’ve said before, the photo ID bill that was defeated here in Wisconsin recently would have done nothing to stop this kind of fraud. Yet GOP lawmakers continue to push for it by trying to get a photo ID voting provision added to the state constitution of all places.

Hopefully the people who committed the fraud are prosecuted well, and if they’re guilty they get punished.

They also found “another 100 cases in which people voted twice, or used fake names, false addresses or the names of dead people to vote.” which isn’t acceptable, but neither is it reason to change the rules. From a quick look at the state election committee website, over 480,000 people voted in Milwaukee County for President in 2004.

That’s less than 2/100ths of one percent.

I wonder if any other counties in Wisconsin can say they had less than a 0.02% rate of voting fraud? It’s unlikely we’ll ever find out.

What do you get when you cross bible belt baptists with a Democratic voting streak? You get your ass kicked out of church is what!

For many residents of this hamlet nestled in the Smoky Mountains, nothing is as important as church. That’s why nine longtime members of East Waynesville Baptist Church are so devastated after being kicked out of the congregation for, they say, supporting Democrat John Kerry’s presidential bid.

They say the Rev. Chan Chandler led a charge to boot them from the church because they supported the Massachusetts senator’s 2004 campaign -
ABC News

Obviously this guy crossed the line by not only endorsing a political candidate, but removing from his church those who didn’t vote his way. Sadly, this is part of a larger trend of ‘them vs. us’ from the ultra christian right, and a reflection of the black and white mentality that the President falls back on so often.

Hopefully the IRS pulls the tax exempt status for this church and sets an example that it isn’t OK for churches to exclude members based on political affiliation, or that if they want to they can do it without the tax breaks they enjoy so much.

Man, if this is ‘winning’, I’d hate to see how bad it would be if we were lossing the war in Iraq.

GEN. MYERS: I’m going to say this. I think we are winning. Okay? I think we’re definitely winning. I think we’ve been winning for some time.- Gen. Richard Myers April 26, 2005

Meanwhile, our trusty news outlets are keeping us up the minute on critically important stories like ‘runaway bride’, a finger found in custard, and of course, what a jokester Laura Bush is with her ‘desperate housewives’ routine.

Good news on the State level, the Wisconsin State Assembly today failed to override Gov. Doyle’s veto of a bill that would have required citizens to present a photo identification card in order to vote.

Not only would it have been unfair to the poor, elderly, and college students (none of which coincidently are key Democratic demographics) it would have been nearly impossible for poll workers to enforce. It was a 61 to 34 vote, but supporters of the bill fell short of having a two-thirds majority of 66 votes to override Doyle’s veto.

Tradgedy averted for now….