Two European Commentaries

Michelle Malkin has collected links about two European commentaries discussing the history between Islam and Christianity. The global conflict of our time is religious and adequate responses to the provocations require grounding in the basics of theology and history. The two essays have induced Muslim outrage which indicates they achieve a level of accuracy to be worth reading in their entirety.

Robert Redeker: The reactions caused by Benedict XVI’s analysis of Islam and violence highlight the underhanded maneuver carried out by Islam to stifle what the West values more than anything, and which does not exist in any Moslem country: freedom of thought and expression.

The Koran is a book of unparalleled violence. Maxime Rodinson states, in Encyclopedia Universalis, some truths that in France are as significant as they are taboo. On one hand: “Mohammed revealed in Medina unsuspected qualities as political leader and military chief (…) He resorted to private war, by then a prevalent custom in Arabia (….) Mohammed soon sent small groups of partisans to attack the Meccan caravans, thus punishing his unbelieving compatriots and simultaneously acquiring the booty of a wealthy man.”

There is more: “Mohammed profited from this success by eradicating the Jewish tribe which resided in Medina, the Quarayza, whom he accused of suspect behaviour.” And: “After the death of Khadija, he married a widow, a good housewife, called Sawda, and in addition to the little Aisha, barely ten years old. His erotic predilections, held in check for a long time, led him to ten simultaneous marriages.” A merciless war chief, plunderer, slaughterer of Jews and a polygamist, such is the man revealed through the Koran.

A key concept to understand is that in Islam, the prophet Mohammed is understood to be a human male and nothing but a human male. He is, however, a man claiming to be chosen to reveal the absolute truth of God and questioning the source of his verbiage is forbidden. Historian Egon Flaig’s essay is an excellent review and reminder that the real world has a long past.

German Professor Egon Flaig (via Malkin): The incredible speed, in which in 90 years an Arabian empire spanning from the south of France to India developed, with no single conqueror guiding the expansion, is unique. … If "enthusiasm" could do such a thing - what was its source? The answer is simple: martyrdom. … The concept of a martyr is fundamentally different in the two religions. Christian martyrs imitate the passion of Jesus, passively submit to torture and death; Muslim martyrs are active fighters. Decisive for the warriors' acceptance of death was the firm promise of eternal salvation for those who die for the faith (surah 4, 74-76).

The Democratic desire to treat Islamic violence as criminal violence completely misses the “root cause” of the problem. The behavior we must confront is simply not arising from criminal motivations.

Just Use Butter

Ok, it’s like I was walking through the break room and all of a sudden I realize my health is threatened. It isn’t second hand smoke because my government loves and cares for me and won’t allow co-workers to try and kill me with those icky, icky fumes. But it was nearly as bad. My co-worker is making microwave popcorn --- butter flavored!!!

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health: Although much remains unknown regarding the toxicity of flavoring-related chemicals, employers and workers can take steps to address working conditions and work practices that place workers at risk.

I mean, if trial lawyers are saying I’m at risk the danger must be real, imminent and horribly bad. After all, why are attorneys offering their help for free?

Butter Flavoring Lung Injury - Dot Com: A component of artificial butter flavor is the chemical diacetyl. It is used for aroma and taste in butter, some cheeses and snack and bakery products. … If you have developed an injury or disease due to working with artificial butter flavoring, please click here … We will review your claim for free and without any obligation on your part.

And the Unions, they know something must be done quickly to stop the spread of “popcorn lung”. We are talking emergency rules so there must be an emergency, right?

Unions Seek Action on 'Popcorn Lung': Aug. 31 – Frustrated by inaction at the federal level, two labor unions last week asked California to issue emergency rules protecting workers from exposure to diacetyl, a chemical flavoring tied to a rare lung disease.

In the meantime, until the government and the lawyers and the unions can reestablish the safety of microwave popcorn, just Use Butter Damn it. Wisconsin is still the Dairy State!

Different Speaker – Same Message

Those darn political events sure are unpredictable. A few days ago in the immediate aftermath of Hugo Chavez insulting America at the UN, I found the UW Madison invitation to one of his key cronies to serve as a keynote speaker a bit distasteful. Apparently plans have changed at the last minute.

Schedule: KEYNOTE: Gar Alperovitz, Author of America Beyond Capitalism.(We are sorry to say that Caracas mayor Juan Barreto is unable to attend the convention due to recent political events.)

Hard to pinpoint the exact events forcing the change in plans, but Chavez didn’t make any new friends with his defiant and condescending rhetoric last week. On the other hand the Venezuelan media and bloggers are saying Juan Barreto went over the top with his actions and outbursts on the local scene. For whatever reason then, the change in speakers will not allow the audience to hear the socialist Mayor of Caracas say things like this:

Juan Barreto: “I have no problem signing a decree to regulate housing prices. … If someone in Caracas has five homes and refuses to sell at the regulated price, we'll implement an expropriation decree for the public good and pay the owner what the apartment is really worth.”

Speech of Metropolitan Mayor Juan Barreto: “We did not come to fight. But we will not let verbal criminality, media irresponsibility, and the glassy eyes of a putrid middle class coarsened by money to cash in on the people consent. … People know their tiny faces, the new face of the old politics covering the old face like the mask of Pharaohs, of buried mummies. We will rule them. People are the ones who govern; not the putrid elite, not the same old rotten people, not the neo-liberalism with its old and new faces.”

Instead they have the chance to hear a University Professor say things like this:

The Wealth of Neighborhoods: “Ultimately, however, Bush’s promise of an ownership society is an empty one. In exchange for ownership, we receive increased risk while the wealthy and corporate interests benefit, as in his Social Security privatization plan. In Bush’s world, everyone gets a little piece of the pie, but at the cost of giving the wealthy extremely large helpings”.

The New Ownership Society: "Just beneath the surface of conventional media concern, the groundwork is quietly being laid for a powerful new strategic initiative: a progressive "ownership society." … The basic principle at work in municipally owned real estate development is that appreciation of land should be turned to public advantage."

The speakers and their styles are very different, but the message the UW Madison Havens Center is selling is exactly the same. The right to individual private property is much less important than the right of communal authority to determine the public good.

Intel Chairman Blasts Healthcare

Is there any doubt our healthcare system delivery system needs work?

Intel Chairman Craig Barrett: "The (health care) system is out of control, it's unstable, it's basically bankrupt, it gets worse each year and all we do is tinker around the edges when what we need are major fixes."

Major fixes will require technology improvements in information tracking and operational efficiencies. It is interesting to note that Democrats tend to view government subsidized healthcare as an employment source for the population.

TCS Daily: The bottom line is that Kerry only did well in states where job losses occurred, and where they could be cancelled out by healthcare employment growth. None of this would matter if we were talking about most other large, ubiquitous industries - like, say, grocery stores. However, it is very curious given that our healthcare industry is either dominated by government spending - through Medicare, Medicaid, and hospitals subsidized with tax dollars - or by government regulation and market interference.

When a primary goal of an industry is to provide jobs then the incentives for efficiency are proportionately weaker. Is there any surprise the operational ease of healthcare and the operational ease of government services lag behind the rest of the economy?

RIP Safia Ama Jan

Muslim activists for Islam riding by on motorcycles successfully assassinate Safia Ama Jan, Provincial Director of Afghanistan’s Ministry of Women’s Affairs. She was a middle aged woman, unarmed and unguarded on the street, so it was not an especially difficult murder to accomplish. The killers are probably on their knees in prayer somewhere, waiting for the adrenaline rush to subside while chanting their obedience to the will of Allah.

Street Murder: Ama Jan, who was in her mid-fifties, was a "very dedicated woman", said an official with the women's ministry in the capital Kabul. Ama Jan had served as the head of the province's women's affairs department since shortly after US-led troops overthrew the Taliban in 2001.

The United Nations drafts a talking point saying they are “appalled” by the senseless murder which only illustrates how they have no sense of the real problem at all. If you recall, the UN can not even agree on a definition of terrorism. The Taliban, however, knows the definition and how to utilize it effectively.

Killed in a Burqa: A Taliban commander, Mullah Hayat Khan, said Ama Jan was killed because she worked for the government. “We have told people time and time again that anyone working for the government, including women, will be killed,” he said by telephone from an undisclosed location.

The silence from US based women’s rights groups may be understandable since they are probably exhausted from their recent meetings and workshops on how to end Middle Eastern violence. Giving PowerPoint presentations to achieve peace is fraught with dangers, such as a suddenly weak wifi signal during the projected cost in dollars slide.

NOW and CODEPINK Work to End Violence: On Sept. 20 the National Organization for Women and CODEPINK will cosponsor Women for Peace Day at Camp Democracy. NOW President Kim Gandy and Medea Benjamin, cofounder of CODEPINK, will kick off the day with speeches at 9:30 am. Throughout the rest of the day, there will be a variety of workshops and discussions concentrating on ending the violence in the Middle East.

Amidst the frantic details of her busy schedule, however, Laura Bush finds the time to notice this most recent civilian death by the followers of the prophet.

White House: Ama Jan's brutal killing is further evidence of the threat posed by terrorism - and of how the struggle to end terrorism is also a struggle to preserve the fundamental rights and dignity of women. The oppression of women is central to the Taliban's vision for Afghanistan. In the weeks following September 11, Americans were shocked to see the images of Afghan women living under the Taliban regime - denied the right to work, the right to move about freely, and the right to be educated. As Ama Jan's assassination shows, five years later, Taliban fighters still cling to their repressive worldview.

RIP Safia Ama Jan.

UW Researcher Discusses Stem Cells

As the Governor’s campaign seeks to distract the public from the ethical failings of his pay to play administration, they will probably focus on the few issues they hope will pull undecided voters into their fold. As their flagrant State Election Board manipulation demonstrates, Jim Doyle has a win at any cost mentality and that means playing to the fears of the sick and elderly with promises of false hope.

Stem cells a political wedge issue: Lois Anderson, a "card-carrying, lifelong" Republican from Madison, isn't sure who to vote for this November in the race for governor. The reason: stem cells. Anderson would normally support Republican candidate Mark Green, whose opposition to much embryonic stem-cell research is shared by her Christian Reformed church. But the 79-year-old woman's husband has Parkinson's disease, for which stem cells could become a cure. Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle favors the research, pioneered at UW-Madison eight years ago.

The Wisconsin State Journal has an excellent interview with UW Madison researcher James Thomson whose work created and pioneered embryonic stem cell research. His working knowledge of the field is important to any logic based discussion on how society should proceed with exploring the biochemical basis of life. A few very select items from his long commentary:

James Thomson's views on research: The political process and the press have so hyped expectations that people expect to see these therapies in the next couple years. (That's) not going to happen. When anything brand new like this wants to enter the clinics, it takes a long time. I can't remember exactly how long it takes for, say, the drug industry to go from discovering a drug to getting it into clinics. But it's like 20 years; it's not a year or two. That's for a well-proven kind of therapy, a small molecule. For cell-based therapies, people should anticipate that they will ultimately work. But there's going to be a long, hard series of events that have to occur before we get them to work.

If you think about diabetes, you live a long, productive life with Type I diabetes. Nonetheless, at the end of your life, there's fairly significant complications and your life expectancy is much reduced, even with the best therapy today. Nonetheless, if you introduced a cancer to a person, so that they got pancreatic cancer, that kills you pretty quickly. You want to be really, really sure that the thing you introduce doesn't create a worse condition than what you're trying to cure. In the case of diabetes, I believe this will be ultimately successful. But there'll be an awful lot of safety testing required before this actually gets into patients.

Thomson repeatedly compares work on embryonic stems cells to recombinant DNA, gene therapy and fetal tissue transplants but the success of DNA has been in diagnostics and biochemistry research techniques, while the human therapeutic benefits of injecting genes or transplanting cells have shown marginal success at best. What the public needs is responsible leaders to tell them the truth. There are no instant answers to the problems of disease in the stem cells, and it is cold and callous to offer the false hope of quick cures to 79 year olds with Parkinson’s or needle mailing mothers of diabetic children.

UW Law School Hosts Chavez Crony

There are conflicting opinions in America about if we have real enemies or not.

Venezuela, Iran initial 29 agreements: "Welcome to Venezuela, where Iran is loved. We welcome a remarkable leader - the leader of a heroic people and a revolution friendly to the Venezuelan revolution: the Islamic revolution," said President Hugo Chávez Sunday noon when welcoming his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the Simón Bolívar International Airport.

The alliance between Iran and Venezuela has been cemented. The hostility of the religious dictatorship of Iran towards America has been well known since the day Democratic President Jimmy Carter decided to allow the Islamic revolution. The hostility of the socialist dictatorship of Hugo Chavez is apparent to anyone paying attention.

July 30, 2006: “Let's save the human race, let's finish off the U.S. empire," Chavez said. "This (task) must be assumed with strength by the majority of the peoples of the world."

It is against this background that the Law School of the University of Wisconsin has invited an agent of Hugo Chavez and given him a stage and an audience.

Local Democracy: This Autumn, September 28 through October 1, gather with community organizers and pro-democracy activists in beautiful Madison, Wisconsin, to share and learn from these and other important democratic successes.

Juan Barreto, the Mayor of Caracas, Venezuela will be in Madison to stand along side Madison Common Council President Austin King, and discuss ways to counteract American influence on the rest of the world. The sponsors include UW Madison Havens Center and Madison based Liberty Tree Foundation. A bit of background on the keynote speaker:

Juan Barreto: The mayor of Caracas, a man by the name of Juan Barreto, recently exploded out of control on TV, insulting his colleagues in a Stalinist-type of demonstration that left viewers horrified. … The exercise of government, in Chávez's Venezuela, has been converted in a competition among gangsters, to see who are the most corrupt, the most uncivilized, and the most destructive.

Madison is a nuclear free zone so please leave all atomic bombs at home.

What if Kathleen Falk Wins?

If Kathleen Falk wins the Wisconsin Attorney General election, what can we expect? The future can not be predicted with total accuracy but trends and tendencies can be determined by looking at comparable situations. Something like California.

Calif. sues 6 carmakers in global warming suit: Lockyer, a Democrat, said the complaint states that under federal and state common law the automakers have created a public nuisance by producing "millions of vehicles that collectively emit massive quantities of carbon dioxide."

The Democratic Attorney General of California actually files suit in Federal Court this week against Ford, General Motors, Toyota, Chrysler, Honda and Nissan. The environmentalists in the Democratic Party are completely serious about being anti-car. Individual freedom of movement is the absolute antithesis of government control of their subjects. Lockyer, however, may have gone a bridge to far in going after Big Auto.

Nuisance Lawsuit: When companies are accused of breaking state law, then it's understandable when the state attorney general files a suit against them. That's a key role of a state's top cop. But it's reprehensible when an attorney general uses the powers entrusted to him to launch what can best be described as a political witch hunt against companies that are out of favor.

The lesson of the tobacco litigation is that public power can coerce big dollars from business, but it helps when the business has individually observable problems, like Aunt Jenny with cancer. The problem with going after personal transportation is that the theory of human induced global warming being bad for the planet is still a theory, and a completely wrong theory in terms of catastrophic predictions. Kathleen Falk, however, is a true believer environmentalist and she will absolutely want to sue any business she believes harms her concept of perfect nature.

2006 Car Free Challenge September 22 - October 5, 2006. Reducing your car use is the most significant action you can take to benefit the environment.

Thanks to our 2006 Sponsors. Alliant Energy, City of Madison, Community Car, Dane County, J.H. Findorff & Son, Fiore Companies, Home Savings Bank, Insty Prints, L'Etoile Restaurant, Madison Gas & Electric, Planet Bike, Trek Bicycle Store of Madison, UW-Madison Transportation Service.

Official sponsors of the 2006 Car Free Challenge include Dane County (Kathleen Falk) and the City of Madison (her hand picked mayor). One more time, the environmentalists in the Democratic Party are completely serious about being anti-car and, whenever they can, they will use the courts to advance their agenda.

Rising Star: Attorney Maistelman

Thanks to Wisconsin’s Freedom of Information Act, Attorney Michael S. Maistelman, working for the re-election campaign of incumbent Democratic Governor Jim Doyle is caught in writing, encouraging three Democratic appointees to the State Election Board to rule against Republican challenger Mark Green’s right to use all of his legal campaign funds. It is an example of pure political hardball that would have made Lyndon Johnson proud.

Badger Blogger has a collection of the local reaction and Red State picks up the story nationally with a good review of the wildly partisan election board decision that started this story.

In early January 2005 Congressman Mark Green transferred money from his congressional campaign committee account to his gubernatorial committee. This had been previously allowed by the Wisconsin State Election Board … However, after Green made his transfer the Board, dominated by Democrats, passed Emergency Rule ElBd 1.395 on January 29, 2005. The rule applied retroactively to prohibit Green from spending the money.

Yesterday, the Board, on a party-line vote, demanded that Green disgorge the cash. They did so in spite of a well-reasoned memorandum from its Counsel, George Dunst, arguing that the rule could not apply to Green.

Attorney Maistelman, with the expressed approval of the Doyle campaign, urges the board to apply their brand new law retroactively specifically to gain political advantage. This is the same Attorney Maistelman that in today’s Journal Times argues the City of Racine has absolutely no right to apply an ordinance retroactively against his client.

Attorney Mike Maistelman: However, Maistelman said the key issue was that Jackson had already applied for his license and the city had no right to change the rules for him midstream. "You can't make us jump through hoops that don't exist," Maistelman said. He compared it to someone who applies for a dog license. The city would have no right to then decide not to grant licenses for that particular dog breed.

There is a school of thought that a good lawyer says what he is paid to say regardless of truth, justice, laws or logical consistency. It is probably this total lack of internal principles that earn Maistelman one of Campaign & Elections Rising Stars 2005 awards, and his prominent place in the Jim Doyle inner circle. Pay to play and paid to say are clearly quite compatible.

Another Liberal Understands the Problem

Every now and then a true liberal suddenly finds the need to acknowledge there are problems with current liberal evaluation of the world. Sam Harris wrote a book critical of all religion and the effect of the feedback has altered his thinking. Hat Tip to the Prairie Pundit for pointing out this recommended read.

Head-in-the-Sand Liberals: But my correspondence with liberals has convinced me that liberalism has grown dangerously out of touch with the realities of our world — specifically with what devout Muslims actually believe about the West, about paradise and about the ultimate ascendance of their faith.

The truth is that there is every reason to believe that a terrifying number of the world's Muslims now view all political and moral questions in terms of their affiliation with Islam. This leads them to rally to the cause of other Muslims no matter how sociopathic their behavior. This benighted religious solidarity may be the greatest problem facing civilization and yet it is regularly misconstrued, ignored or obfuscated by liberals.

What other people believe is a problem when those other people believe that killing gains divine favor and eternal reward. It is a really big problem when those other people have access to the means of mass murder.

A Political Observation

Driving through eight states just two months before a congressional election, Lola and I see plenty of roadside campaign signs, but I don’t recall a single one which said Republican or Democrat. The design was almost always a BIG LAST NAME for this elective office. Most of the time the candidates’ first name was listed and about over half had some simple slogan.

There was a time when signs would read “Smith – DEMOCRAT for the job” or “Jones – REPUBLICAN for some office”. I may be reading too much into the absence of party affiliation but clearly the people running the campaigns don’t believe either party is producing warm fuzzy feelings in the voting public.

Tennessee Road Trip Soundtrack

The 2006 new Camry Tennessee road trip is officially over after 2,195 miles on the long flat roads of the Mississippi River floodplain, to the crest and plummet pathways through the ridge and valley Appalachians. A lot of good things happened but the music is worth remembering.

Memphis has been pouring money into Beale Street for twenty years and the crumbling brick buildings are now completely gone and the neon is bright and abundant. There is good music in the clubs but my favorite place remains the band box of Blues City Cafe. The black poverty of south Memphis is still quite close and the bums and rascals and petty con artists are everywhere, but Lola and I have no concerns on late night downtown streets and our upper floor hotel room looks out over miles of the big river.

We check out Soulsville USA, also known as the STAX Museum of American Soul Music. Tina Turner’s stage dress and Otis Redding artifacts are worth a glance but it is Isaac Hayes’s 1972 "Superfly" Cadillac that triggers true desire. I want it and I want to drive its gold plated, white fur, teal blue opulence. Drive it real slow up and down McLemore Avenue with Sam and Dave or Booker T and MG’s playing from the speakers on a summer night.

In Nashville we skip the tourist zone and head for the gulch. We eat Texas BBQ while a county band plays their versions of the current corporate template. The singer songwriter takes pride in the one tune he got recorded by some “hat act”, with some airtime on WSM. It’s the classic tableau: getting stage time for a dinner crowd while trying to find the right solution to the fame and fortune formula.

Later on at 12th and Porter the other Nashville rocks the night. The building retains the big garage doors from some original purpose, but now a cavernous work bay is painted black from floor to ceiling and Atomic Blonde is pounding out seriously loud and furious emotions. Four young women choose this town to form a band with the dream of following “in the footsteps of rock goddesses like Janis Joplin, Chrissie Hynde or Debbie Harry.” Kendra controls the dynamic with her drum beats and Dacia commands the audience with her vocal presence. Amazing how a little head banging clears the mind.

The birthplace of authentic American country music is the region on the backside of the eastern mountains, away from the culture of the eastern seaboard cities. Lola and I are in Bristol for the Rhythm & Roots Reunion which has attracted around 40,000 people to listen to the hundreds of musicians. Of the two performers we specifically came to hear, Jim Lauderdale didn’t bring a band and Junior Brown apparently fired his long time drummer the night of the show. Professional to the core, however, they both show up on time and perform.

A band from Louisiana called The Red Stick Ramblers emerges as our favorite new discovery, and it is a pleasure to hear established masters like the Seldom Scene and the Del McCoury Band in person. We want to buy a recording of Chet O'Keefe and the Farmers Co-Op but Chet tells us they haven’t had enough money to do one yet. He hopes some sort of deal will come together this November. There may well be a deal because there is always a deal for the talented and the driven. We live with our ears tuned to the vibrations of the world, it is a fundamental aspect of our nature, and the exceptional flourishes are always captivating.

Vacation Break

Lola and I are taking the new Camry on a weeklong road trip through Tennessee so blogging will be light.

A Mao Memorial

Thirty years ago Mao Zedong died quietly in bed after years of ill health. He was 82 years old and under the 27 years of his communist dictatorship, somewhere between the population of Illinois and the population of Illinois plus Wisconsin combined, died as a direct result of his leadership. It is a legacy the current Chinese government would just as soon ignore.

30th Anniversary of Mao's Death: The Chinese government is not holding any official events to mark the anniversary. Observers say Chinese leaders want to avoid stirring up bitter memories about Mao's 27-year rule, widely considered responsible for claiming tens of millions of lives.

The core concept at the heart of Mao’s vision for government and society is the “iron rice bowl”. The idea that the responsibility of government is to take care of all the needs of the population, in return for their complete obedience.

Iron Rice Bowl: The Iron Rice Bowl is a Chinese idiom referring to the system of guaranteed lifetime employment in state enterprises. Job security and level of wages were not related to job performance - but adherence to party doctrine played a very important role.

Iron Rice Bowl: In the cities, the Communists steered industrial production toward heavy industries and formed state-controlled unions. Workers were promised the "iron rice bowl" of lifetime employment, housing, health care, pension plans and education for their children.

The belief in the nanny state government is still actively pursued in the west, even as Mao’s successors are busy dismantling this discredited system and introducing personal responsibility, at least in the non-political sectors of society. Time Magazine, in their non-judgmental liberal way, include Chairman Mao in their top 100 leaders. There is one passage, however, that paints an image worthy of remembering.

Time Magazine: Mao Zedong loved to swim. … despite the pleadings of his security guards and his physician, he swam in the heavily polluted rivers of south China, drifting miles downstream with the current, head back, stomach in the air, hands and legs barely moving, unfazed by the globs of human waste gliding gently past.

A most fitting memorial image of one more tyrant expelled into history.

Be Quiet: Blackout Period

Because subliminal political ads are still legal in John McCain’s America:
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Thanks for protecting us from political free speech Russ Feingold.

Eminent Domain: Wisconsin is currently in the blackout period mandated by the McCain/Feingold campaign finance law. Because Senator Kohl appears on the primary election ballot, permission is needed from the federal court to air grassroots lobbying ads mentioning his name, even though the radio ad has nothing to do with elections. Wisconsin Right to Life officials risk jail terms if the radio ad is aired without permission by the federal court," said James Bopp, Jr. counsel to WRTL.

Freedom of speech in the Bill of Rights? What a quaint idea. Enlightened reformers like John McCain and Russ Feingold would prefer that you ask the federal government to engage in speech concerning politicians. We wouldn't want people getting informed around election time.

Because subliminal political ads are still legal in John McCain’s America:
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Thanks for protecting us from political free speech Russ Feingold.

More Biotech Dollars to Dane County

Another Biotech Company announces plans to move its facilities and money to Dane County. Could it be that tax dollar central is poised to become the new economic engine for the entire Dairy State?

Caden Biosciences, Inc. Receives a $5.85 Million Series A Financing: Caden Biosciences, Inc., a life sciences tools and services company developing assays for the high-throughput screening of allosteric modulators of G-Protein Coupled Receptors (GPCRs), has closed on a Series A Preferred Stock financing led by Baird Venture Partners (BVP), the U.S.-based venture capital affiliate of investment firm Robert W. Baird & Co. (Baird). BVP was joined in the financing by new investors including Venture Investors, The State of Wisconsin Investment Board, and IllinoisVENTURES, LLC., as well as existing investor Vanderbilt University.

Pete Shagory of BVP and Paul Weiss, PhD, representing the interests of Venture Investors, will join the company's Board of Directors. The company also announced its plan to relocate its headquarters to Madison, Wis.

G-Protein Coupled Receptors are … well … OK the wikipedia explanation: “a protein family of transmembrane receptors that transduce an extracellular signal (ligand binding) into an intracellular signal”. The key is that the chemistry of life involves an interaction between molecules outside of cells and molecular pathways inside of cells. There are a whole lot of people trying to figure out how to get rich by finding something that fixes the biochemistry when life breaks down into disease.

Biotech support pays dividends: UW-Madison's prowess in biotechnology research is a chief reason. The Institute for Scientific Information ranked UW-Madison No. 1, by research citations, in biotechnology and microbiology. Businesses are being created from the university's research. Businesses are also locating here to take advantage of the university's expertise, to tap into the educated labor force the university is producing and to take advantage of the cross-pollination that a burgeoning biotechnology community can provide.

There are big dollar reasons why Doyle is using Stem Cell Research against Green.

The Final Decision in Mexico

The Mexican Tribunal with the constitutional role of determining the winner of Presidential elections reaches a decision on the last allocated day. Conservative Felipe Calderón is declared the winner over Socialist López Obrador with the margin of victory certified at “a razor-thin .55 percent of 41.6 million votes cast”. The political civil war of two party systems has spread to the immediate south in dramatic style.

Mexico's Calderon is president-elect: Just six years ago, many Mexicans were euphoric after Fox's historic election victory ended decades of one-party rule, but this year's vote reopened deep class divisions that have undermined Mexico's new political system.

The massive leftist movement lead by Obador is very much intact and angry.

Protesters defiant as conservative wins Mexico: In speeches foreseeing the adverse ruling, he has begun to transform his claims of fraud into an active challenge to the legitimacy of the country's institutional order. Calling Mr Calderón a "usurper", Mr López Obrador has floated the idea of forming a parallel government "of the people to rival that of the political mafia and white-collar criminals".

American Progressives, still bitter after losses in 2000 and 2004, are projecting their Marxist march of history paradigms upon this developing nation, regionally divided between an industrializing north and agrarian but resource rich south.

In Mexico, a Class War Looms: "Fraude!" "Rateros!" (Fraud! Thieves!) they screamed, as the judges were escorted by military police to their expensive vehicles. López Obrador had long accused the seven judges of bowing to Fox government pressures in exchange for personal benefit--three of the TRIFE members are expected to be promoted to the Supreme Court in the coming Calderón administration.

There is little doubt that trouble in Mexico has immediate reverberations in the United States and there is hope the new administration will focus on more than simply keeping the wealthy elite comfortably safe above the impoverished multitudes.

Still room for wisdom: What's needed is some real evidence that a Calderón presidency will reach beyond the traditional business-elite constituency of the PAN party that both he and Fox represent. The failure to create jobs sends millions of Mexico's poor across the border to work illegally in the United States. The failure to create hope turned the teachers' strike in Oaxaca into an uprising complete with uniformed guerrillas and AK-47 rifles.

The failure to gauge the depth of the anger in the hearts of poor Mexicans has left an opening for Lopez Obradór. If he were a wise man, he would cede the election and use his constituency in an orderly way to demand attention to the needs he claims to understand so well. If he were a patriotic man, he would end his aggression against Mexico's institutions.

If new President Calderón is wise, he will be restrained in response to the incessant emotional provocations of the left while listening very carefully to the lamentations of the poor.

Day After Labor Day Report

The day after Labor Day finds the economy of Wisconsin moving forward into the future. Some folks are working on sugar coating molecules and some folks are working on turning sugar into alcohol. Good thing too, because the Dairy State ain’t quite as dairy as we used to be.

New Way To 'Sweeten' Key Drugs Found By UW-Madison

Wisconsin's Newest Ethanol Plant Opens in Boyceville

Because subliminal political ads are still legal in John McCain’s America:
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Thanks for protecting us from political free speech Russ Feingold.

Labor Day YOYO

The President of the Wisconsin AFL-CIO David Newby offers his thoughts on Labor Day in a Capital Times editorial.

Securing the common good: It should also be a time to reflect on what unionism is all about: Solidarity - an injury to one is an injury to all. That is the basic principle of the labor movement, the understanding that we're all in it together. And let's remember why our government was formed: 'to promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.

Jared Bernstein from the Economic Policy Institute summed it up well in a recent article, saying it's YOYO ("You're On Your Own") vs. WITT ("We're In This Together"). For years the right wing has been promoting a YOYO vision for America. The entire Bush domestic agenda is based on the YOYO principle.

What a nice bouncy little acronym, YOYO – (You’re On Your Own). It is a marvelous image, the individual subject to the ups and downs of life without support other than the string that manipulates him from the master’s hand. To bad it is not entirely accurate. When the left claim the purpose of government is “to promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity”, they mean the purpose of government is to provide the general welfare.

Those of us on the right believe that the general welfare and the common good arise from the blessing of liberty within the rule of law. To say an individual is free to benefit from their personal decisions and labor does not mean that person is without support. It is the rule of law, and especially the restrictions on the power of taking, that promote and secure the blessings of liberty. The success of America arises from the voluntary actions of citizens and not the mandatory obligations to group and government, class or party.

We’re in this together as free people and not as functional sub-units of some larger sub-class. Social justice is achieved at the individual and not the group level. History is full of examples that huddling together for common defense is useful for short term threats but useless against the sweeping tides in human events. It is time the labor movement properly honors the past and then adapts to the present reality by working for the preservation of individual rights within the law.

Galloway Wins Daily Double

Just over a year ago, the Capital Times, the Progressive and the UW Madison Havens Center arranged for George Galloway to come speak in Madison specifically because of his grandiose opposition to the war in Iraq. At the time, Patrick Barrett, administrative director of the Havens Center states: “Despite growing opposition to the war, the debate seen in the media and by the "political elite" is still one-sided, skewed in favor of the war”. In the mind of Madison liberals, the national media has just been to pro-war.

Today Galloway is meeting with the terrorist group Hamas and voicing his continued “appreciation of the Lebanese and Palestinian resistance men in facing the Israeli aggression” and is also being singled out for praise on the latest Al Qaeda video. That’s major props from two Islamic Jihadist religious terrorist groups in one day. Bill Wineke of the Wisconsin State Journal expressed some doubts a couple months ago and today should serve to reinforce his concerns.

Wasn't George Galloway Our Liberal Guy?: “he was hailed by many of us in the liberal camp as a politician with conscience. This week, he's suggested he can understand why someone vehemently opposed to the war might assassinate Blair. Which goes to show why all of us, liberal or conservative, ought to be a little careful about embracing nutcases who happen to agree with us on one issue or another.

Convert or Die is the danger to the west and it is about time western liberals stop pretending that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Signs of maturity in the Democratic Party leadership would be to expel the “nutcases”, denounce crackpot 9/11 conspiracy theories and condemn the excesses of hate speech from their supporters. Saudi Arabia lost control of the Jihadist frenzy they enabled and the western left is on the verge of loosing control of their emotionally hypercharged activists.

Dealing with the Facts of History

The debate about terrorism is highly emotional and while the anti-war left is dominated by pessimism, the anti-terrorist right is more defined by frustration. The right is not so much filled by optimism but rather a belief that facts are what they are, and in time the truth of history will win out and validate the hard decisions and harsh consequences.

The Path to 9/11: what this film also does is set the record straight on a number of events that the Clinton administration has previously tried to whitewash or ignore. That is the real reason why the left is going nuts over this. It wants to blame everything on Bush. Thus in its twisted logic, it cannot stand to see any criticism of Clinton whatsoever.

Furthermore, they will go nuts when confronted with the truth that the Patriot Act was necessary in order to get various government agencies to share vital information with each other. They will go nuts when the depiction of historical events end up making the case for airport profiling. In other words, this film will force them to specifically articulate what tools they wish to employ in order to keep this country safe. That seems to make them uncomfortable for some reason.

Where the left is at a disadvantage is that this information age has preserved in unprecedented detail, accessible records of the activities of our immediate past and, for the moment, we are still free enough to keep the accounts from being suppressed. In that regard it is interesting to see how even the archetypal progressive paper the Capital Times is being forced to deal with reality.

Diplomacy, not threats: The interesting news from the Middle East is that Israel, concerned about the prospect that Iran might eventually use its nuclear project to develop a rudimentary weapon of mass destruction, has established a top-level unit that has allegedly been charged with ensuring that the Iranians never develop operational nuclear weapons. That's reasonable. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has suggested that Israel is a "blot" on the planet that ought to be wiped away.

The editorial staff of Wisconsin’s most partisan newspaper acknowledges there is a real threat from Iran and there are “reasonable” steps that should be taken to counteract and prevent the danger. Admitting a problem exists is always the necessary first step. The paper goes even farther in conceding: "Ultimately, the Iranians may refuse to negotiate in good faith". This epiphany is something the progressives are still resisting and the conclusion they draw is that the threat is to Israel, so Israel should solve it. The United States should restrict our “meddling” to opening embassies in Damascus and Tehran for meetings over tea and crumpets.

Today in Testing

I am not sure if Kim Myong-chol is a variation of our own Kevin Barrett, but North Korea gave him a PhD just like UW Madison gave one to Dr. Conspiracy. Most sources refer to him as Kim Jong-il’s “unofficial spokesman” so it is worth notice as he writes today about the Dear Leaders intentions.

Why Pyongyang is going nuclear: Unlike the other so-called "axis of evil" states, North Korea is a nuclear-weapons state and has the will and capability to torch urban US. … Since his country is now a member of the nuclear club, Kim has lost any appetite for talks with the US. His interest is in how to settle the long-standing scores of the Korean people with the US.

Other sources term Kim Myong-chol a “freelance propagandist” but the party line being peddled is a specific threat to nuke US cities. During the missile test frenzy last July, there was speculation all this bellicose rhetoric is mostly for internal consumption, but why then play it out in the world press? While the Nork’s seem intent on testing media response the United States is doing testing of its own.

US carries out subcritical nuclear test: The United States says it has carried out a subcritical nuclear experiment successfully at an underground test site in Nevada - the 23rd such test since 1997. …The administration said the subcritical tests do not involve nuclear explosion because they are designed to "examine the behaviour of plutonium as it is strongly shocked by forces produced by chemical high explosives".

Maybe its time to put a NukAlert on the Christmas list and remember the good news about nuclear destruction is that:” Simple measures taken immediately after a nuclear blast, by a trained public, can prevent agonizing death and injury from radiation.”

Universal Healthcare in California

Our good neighbor to the northwest has thoughts about a grand social experiment.

California Adopts HillaryCare: The California Assembly passed a bill on a party-line vote yesterday that would eliminate private health care and force Californians into a single-payer state-run medical system. … Hillary Clinton tried to foist the same system onto the entire country, and the nation reacted by ending forty years of Democratic domination in the House. Perhaps the same result could come from this irresponsible social engineering project. When people start to understand that they just created a DMV for health care, California voters may just revolt against the entrenched Democratic power structure.

Ok, technically this is just a house vote which mirrors similarly styled legislation approved by previous incarnations of the state Senate, but it begs the meaningful question: Should Schwarzenegger allow the will of the people to destroy not only a healthcare system but also the entire State economy? I say go for it Arnold, because the inherent strength of our Federal Republic system is that these utopian fantasies can be played out and fail on a local basis prior to being adopted by the country as a whole. I am all for field testing before roll out.

Don't Worry - Be Happy: According to a spokesperson from Kuehl's office, SB840 won't cost the state a penny. It will, in fact, save state and local governments, which now provide services to the uninsured, an estimated $900 billion in the first year.

Again, technically this may be true since it is the private sector which will pay the “additional 8 percent on the payroll tax that businesses pay and a 3 point hike on the state income tax”. State Senator Sheila Kuehl (D) Santa Monica says care would improve under her proposal but universal healthcare is not and never has been about individual health. Socialized medicine is entirely about mandating that you must pay someone else's medical bills.

Money Trails Don’t Lie

There is a lot of straight talk coming from Bush Administration officials recently. Other bloggers are discussing how Donald Rumsfeld is naming names as he calls out the American media for their unhelpful activities. It should also be noticed that Stuart Levey at the Treasury Department is also on going on record without any ambiguity.

Blunt Talk: "Iran is like the elephant in the room if you will ... they are the central banker of terror. It is a country that has terrorism as a line-item in its budget," said Stuart Levey.

Banks Warned: "What I think we're likely to see and what I'm going to try to make happen is you're going to see banks around the world — and you're already seeing banks around the world — ask themselves the question, 'Do I want to be Iran's banker?'," Levey said.

“You've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya punk?” The politicians have clearly given the green light to the employees to screw diplomacy and get to the point. The world is complex but not necessarily indecipherable. As our head of the Treasury Department’s newly-created Office of Intelligence and Analysis says: Money trails don't lie. True enough.

Wisconsin’s Sobriety Checkpoint Decision

Interestingly, “Medieval folklore distinguished four successive stages of drunkenness, based on the animals they made men resemble: sheep, lion, ape, and sow”. Those were days before blood alcohol concentration became an objective benchmark to support the subjective assessment of inebriated behavior. Behavior, responsible or not, is the true issue with drinking and driving, and in the four way primary race for Wisconsin Attorney General, the topic of Sobriety Checkpoints is an important and defining issue.

Wisconsin is one of only 11 states which by statute, protects citizens from police stops without reasonable cause to believe the driver has committed a violation of the law. Democratic challenger Falk and Republican candidate Bucher have both come out in favor of removing this protection, specifically to allow police searches of individuals in the general traffic flow. Bucher has a legitimate history of supporting aggressive policing and is being true to his values. Falk has political consultants and has never met an expansion of government power she does not like. Falk, after all, thinks Kelo is a wonderful decision and a similar Supreme Court decision legitimizes this police power nationally.

Republican candidate J.B. Van Hollen rejects attempts to change existing law.

“Yet, unlike Paul Bucher and Kathy Falk, I do not favor new laws that treat repeat drunk drivers the same as first time offenders. I also oppose the Falk-Bucher push for mandatory random roadside traffic stops. Their effectiveness is questionable, at best. I also believe they take away the presumption of innocence, clearly reflect a liberal, big-government philosophy, and are not a wise use of scarce law enforcement resources.”

There is a trade off between safety and freedom and our comfort level with police checkpoints indicates where we believe that balance point should exist. Freedom to travel without government inspection and permission is our historical tradition, and this tradition has been destroyed in commercial air travel and is under threat in personal car travel. I reject all arguments that attempt to equate the two because commercial and personal activities are fundamentally different.

The rational for police checkpoints are all variations on the greater good theory. The logic always goes that at some point, at some dollar value, society should be better if individual freedoms are restricted. The question is what value of safety is gained in exchange for the loss of our freedom. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety is an excellent source of information and it appears realistic to claim at the very most a 20% reduction in alcohol related fatalities with checkpoints.

In other words, trading away our freedom leaves at least 80% of the problem intact, and as Van Hollen emphasizes, there are ways to achieve these same results without surrendering our right to drive without random and arbitrary government interference.

Trifecta

Hey! It’s the weekend. A very good weekend.

Matt Kenseth wins it: Matt Kenseth stormed to his second straight Nextel Cup victory in Saturday's Sharpie 500 and became the first driver since Dale Earnhardt in 1987-88 to win the Bristol night race in back-to-back seasons.

Kenseth clinches Chase spot: Matt Kenseth continued his momentum-building run toward the Chase on Saturday night, pulling off a weekend sweep at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Last three races: Michigan Cup – Win, Bristol Busch – Win, Bristol Cup – Win.

Trifecta!!! We Believe.

Understanding the Correct Threat

Anti-war conservative writer Steve Sailer is making an argument that Iran simply isn’t a threat that merits the level of concern being expressed in the west. To his credit, he has done the research and compiled extensive and detailed lists of exactly what military equipment the Mullahs possess.

The Iranian War Machine: So they've got 6 good MiG-29s, 30 Soviet Su-24s, and 35 pretty good Chinese planes. In contrast, Israel, for example, has "555 combat aircraft (90 probably stored)." And, of course, Iran is missing most of the components of post-1979 air supremacy, such as AWACS-style flying command posts and stealth planes.

Look, Iran was deterred, fairly successfully, by Saddam Hussein's post-1991 House of Cards regime. That's one of the reasons the President's better-informed father and the younger, more sensible Dick Cheney left it stand in 1991.

What the Iranians have been investing in are, intelligently enough, missiles and, presumably, nuclear weapons development, which makes a lot of sense if their military strategy is to deter attack. Iran hasn't started a war with anybody since, at least, the middle of the 19th Century.

The Iran-Iraq War 1980-1988 was classic military vs. military warfare and Iran showed no great tactical genius, other than the ability to exchange massive casualties with the enemy. In that sense, Iran is not a military threat to the United States or Israel or maybe even Iraq. Unlike 1930’s fascism, however, massive ground armies are not the threat the Islamic Republic poses to the world, so comparative inventories of tanks and artillery are meaningless.

The Mullahs want dominion over the Muslim world and eventually an entire world united under the one permissible and true faith of Islam. If the 1980’s taught the Mullahs anything, it was that conventional war will not achieve those goals. The levels of government below the leadership have bright and highly educated people, like University of California - Berkeley educated Mohammad Jafar Mojarrad, who understand global economics and the requirements, conventions and mutual agreements that keep the 21st century towering far, far above all previous economies built by man.

Fluff Talk On Property Taxes

Oh surprise, surprise, surprise: both major-party candidates in Wisconsin's gubernatorial race -- Democrat Jim Doyle and Republican Mark Green -- said that they will run on platforms emphasizing a "property tax freeze." Pardon me if I’m not filled with overwhelming enthusiasm because all campaign talk about property tax relief is simply flaming Barbara Streisand.

Governor's Race And Property Taxes: According to the non-partisan Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance, property taxes have increased an average of 4.5 percent each year during Doyle's term. Last year was the lowest in recent history, with an increase of 2.3 percent. Doyle accomplished the modest increase by greatly increasing the funding for schools by more than $900 million. He essentially bought down the property tax with money from the state's transportation fund. Doyle argued that he provided relief without harming education.

Real change requires real change and meaningful property tax relief requires transforming it into a finite sales tax, payable over time. Imposing an open ended obligation on land ownership is wrong and stare decisis does not make permanent indebtedness to the state correct. Wisconsin voters still have the lingering flavor of TABOR and the bitterness should clue people that the direction to take is not attempting to limit spending, but rather to limit an individual’s obligation to pay.

What should America do?

The nuclear chess game heats up and the DANEgerous Roundup of articles is worth review, especially this tidbit. “This morning, Germany agreed to sell Israel some new submarines and to finance part of the purchase price. The new submarines can stay under water far longer than Israel's existing subs, and can deliver missiles with nuclear warheads.” Since everyone is brainstorming I thought I too would release of few rough and unpolished thoughts.

What should America do?

1. Pull all United States Troops out of Europe and tell Europe they are on their own to deal with their future. If the left believes our troops aren’t needed in the violent parts of the world, they certainly aren’t needed in happy peaceful little welfare states.

2. Give Iran a training bomb. Something really big with motion detectors, GPS sensors and most importantly, dual controls like any state of the art training vehicle. The Mullahs can then have their pride of ownership but if they get dangerous, then we take back control.

3. Give one to Saudi Arabia too. Maybe they can build a shrine around it and make even more money off the tourists.

4. Declare any advocacy of Jihad a hate crime and designate any words written or spoken in support of Jihad an explicit exception to 1st Amendment free speech. Prosecute and incarcerate violators.

5. Have Condi Rice authorize the Sierra Club to make official trips to Moscow and Beijing with a PowerPoint presentation about how atmospheric radioactivity doesn’t stop at political borders. Allow them discuss how carbon dioxide has the potential to burn up the planet.

6. Have the American Cancer Society and the American Heart Association update and revise all literature about the dangers of second hand smoke to include the dangers of second hand radiation.

7. Have the Department of Education revise approved lessons plans so that instruction emphasizes the importance of wind sails and ox carts to pre-industrial economies and the self esteem that comes from raising your own food.

8. Quit whining about the lessons of the 1930’s. The marketplace of free ideas has effectively said “no thanks” and the customer is always right.

9. Immediately release grant funding for non-electric blogging research.

10. Update the Endangered Species List to bring it in line with reality.

Begging the State for Land

During the refinancing debate about the Overture Center, Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz tells the editors of the Capital Times: “I believe in city ownership”. There is no reason to doubt that all of the Kathleen Falk wing of environmentalist Democrats absolutely believe in de facto government ownership, period.

Plan involves better use of site of Hill Farms building: In a first for the state, officials are working on a plan that would make it the developer on a project designed to make better use of the sizeable parcel of land where Hill Farms State Office Buildings now stand. State officials - with a nudge from the environmental group 1,000 Friends of Wisconsin - unveiled a concept at Monday's Plan Commission meeting that calls for redeveloping the approximately 21-acre site on Sheboygan Avenue and Segoe Road, much of which is now parking lot.

You may recall 1,000 Friends of Wisconsin is the group Cieslewicz founded because the Nature Conservancy was not allowing him to politicize the environmental movement to the degree he desires. It was this political environmentalism that captured Falk’s attention and convinced her to have him elected Mayor.

The reason this particular location is sending the city to the state begging for the land is because it's a perfect and crucial fit for their model New Urbanist neighborhood. The Hill Farms State Office Building is across from the newly constructed but slow selling mixed use Weston Place Condominiums, and also across from the parcel they successfully stopped Whole Foods from developing as a grocery store with surface parking. Most importantly, it is somewhat close to railroad tracks which they believe possess magical lifestyle transformational powers for the 3.5 mile commute between Hill Farms and the Capital Square.

As Falk aims for statewide political power, this is a handy reminder of the difference between environmentalists and conservationists. The later want clean surroundings and areas preserved for recreation. Environmentalists want to change the way we live and they want to do this by government control of society.

The Cieslewicz Credo: "There's nothing that's environmentally friendly about large-lot developments".

In other words, small is better than big and none is best of all in terms of private land ownership. Falk’s Democrats are philosophically against the traditional American dream and the rest of Wisconsin should be paying attention to the heavy handed style of government with which her team operates in Capital City.

Just Inside the Safe Side of Physics

Yesterday, Matt Kenseth wins his third race of the 2006 Nextel Cup season and solidifies his position as 2nd in the points standings. With three races left to qualify to compete for the season title, a second championship is very much in achievable reach. After the race, the Cambridge, Wisconsin native explains how he achieved the win at the end.

Winning team interview: I just drove it right on the edge of the right-front. I was loose off a little bit when I was on the right-rear, but I just made sure I didn't drive in too hard and skid the right-front so I had something for the end.

In other words, Matt repeatedly takes 3,400 pounds of automobile running at slightly over 200 miles an hour into a turn with enough precision that the centrifugal force is focused on the right front tire, to the point where only the edge of the tire makes contact with the pavement, and short of the point where that last edge of contact slides across the surface. Every one of us can turn a car but very few of us can balance that turn just slightly inside the safe side of physics.

There is a lot being written about the lack of American “will” to succeed but I don’t believe courage and ability has withered away from the American character. I just think it has not been sufficiently required … yet.

Smart Managers of Public Money

The economy seems be doing just fine and most state legislatures seem to be benefiting from the “unexpected revenue”. Most, but not all.

Most states reporting big budget surpluses: For first time since Sept. 11, 2001, the vast majority of states reported that they saved an average of 10 percent of their budgets, one of the highest percentages of unspent money in decades. The $57 billion in unexpected revenue has afforded states an opportunity to find all sorts of creative ways to spend and save their cash, according to a report released last week by the National Conference of State Legislators.

All but five states -- Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin -- reported surpluses this year. … The report notes that year-end balances are widely considered one of best indicators of state fiscal health.

The budget in Wisconsin is a mess, and since only the disingenuous and inept would blame the problem on the economy, there must be another factor.

National Conference of State Legislatures: "Not only do we have the rebounding economy to thank for this, we also should applaud the diligent work of state legislators across America who have been smart managers of public money," said NCSL President Steve Rauschenberger, an Illinois senator. "State legislators have learned from the budget crisis of the early part of the decade, as we can see by the prudent choices they're making now."

Ahhhh! The key seems to be legislators able and willing to make “prudent choices”. Of course it is hard to change an entire team, so maybe the thing to do is to change the manager.

Just Forget Tammy, Dave

In the last 10 days the Dave Magnum Newsroom puts out five press releases and each and every one is about trying to get incumbent Tammy Baldwin (D) to debate him. Now I am going to vote for Dave, just like I did last time when he lost 63% to 37%, but please, please, please give the debate mania a rest.

The Wisconsin 2nd Congressional district is gerrymandered for the Democrats and the Madison liberals love Tammy. She has nothing to gain from talking with a 37% loser, and in the unlikely event challenger Dave goads her into some verbal faux pas, it will make no difference. The Democrats are going to vote Democrat even if their candidates are busted for drunk driving, bid rigging, double voting or campaigning at work. Being petulant about an opponent ignoring you is not a positive sign of leadership, Dave.

Dane County is growing and there were 90,370 votes for Bush this last election. This is roughly 2,000 more votes than went for Magnum in the entire 2nd district in 2004. These are vote totals that can help tip statewide races towards Green and Van Hollen. If Magnum wants a meaningful role in the Republican Party of Wisconsin, he needs to identify the areas of frustration within our district and come up with a positive message to get the private sector to come out and vote. Above all, he should be realistic about the money and votes stacked against him and stop wasting any time and resources on frontal attacks of entrenched positions. In other words, just forget Tammy and simply work for what you believe.

The Kathleen Falk Mailer

A Kathleen Falk for Attorney General mailer arrives today and the following sentence is worth noting. “There is no office more important when it comes to protecting our environment, our rights, our communities, our families and our future.” On Kathleen's list, the “environment” is primary and “our rights” secondary. I would dismiss this as an arbitrary compellation of equally important values, however, everything in Falk’s past words and actions leads me to believe this is a true reflection of her values.

Any tough talk about fighting actual crime, e.g. Taking the Fight to Gangs, is merely necessary election posturing and even these attempts to appear serious boil down to having task force meetings and government programs to address bad behavior.

Falk’s also pledges creating Operation Take Back Our Towns, a task force comprised of school officials, the Superintendent of Public Instruction, law enforcement agencies, parents, and community leaders designed to prepare effective, localized solutions to the gang problem. Falk also pledges to make sure Wisconsin is a full participant in, and beneficiary of, the many national programs designed to address the problem of youth in gangs.

Democratic controlled Milwaukee continues to see “the largest percentage increase in murders of any large city in the nation between 2004 and 2005 – an increase of 40%, outpacing the national average nearly tenfold”, which she pledges to address by being in Milwaukee one day a week, for meetings.

Those of us living in Dane County and paying attention to her leadership understand that when she places “fighting sprawl” first on her list of “issues that matter”, she is completely serious in her belief that the American economy of home, yard and car is the wrong direction for Wisconsin. There is no reason to believe her priorities will change in a Statewide office.

Talking Buys Time

OK, it has been 73 days since Lola and I last heard Ben Sidran play live and outside in the Wisconsin evening air, so tonight it is Jazz at Five on the Capital Square. The 10 piece Latin Jazz group Madisalsa follows with Santana styled rhythms and one excited youth blurts out: “This is so Madison; there is no other city like it”. More mature adults converse about the stupidity of criminals, the folly of trolley and the impact of taxes on the poor.

In Tehran, the Chinese Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai has a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqch to express Chinese regrets the United Nations took so long to stop the horrible fighting in Lebanon. It is speculated the Chinese are advising the Mullahs to say the right words on the world stage, because simply put, talking buys time. The leadership of the Islamic Republic is not stupid and their spending is not dependent on tax dollars. Their dreams are of grander things than simply looping in circles and time, after all, is what it takes to achieve visionary goals.

The Clock Ticks in Mexico

While many are making the case that Israeli political handling of the war in Lebanon is an unmitigated disaster, with Hezbollah strengthened locally and also specifically with Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army in Iraq, another potential instability has been simmering all summer long to our immediate south.

The Mexican Presidential election last July still has no declared winner as the Federal Electoral Institute is reviewing claims of election fraud in the close race. The Tribunal must conclude their investigation by August 31st and declare the winner by September 6th. Leftist supporters of trailing candidate López Obrador are claiming massive fraud and planning widespread protests if events don’t go their way.

Massive and Systematic Election Fraud: “Taqueo and Saqueo” These preliminary recounts demonstrate mainly two kinds of fraud: “taqueo,” or the stuffing of ballot boxes with false votes as if putting extra beans inside a taco, and “saqueo,” or “looting,” that is, the disappearance of legitimate ballots cast.

Mexican law allows for investigation of any challenged votes, but the investigative tribunal is refusing Obrador’s grandstanding attempt to force a recount of every single vote in the country. Since the point of grandstanding is to impress an audience, the popular socialist is doing his best to make sure his audience comes out to applaud his performance.

Lopez Obrador strikes out: Angered by the Federal Electoral Tribunal's unanimously rejection of his calls for a full recount of some 41 million ballots, defeated presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has urged his supporters to step up the protests, clogging up downtown Mexico City, occupying toll booths on federal highways and blocking access to several major banks and the Finance Ministry.

Admittedly, poor Catholics without military weapons are a different scale of threat from Jihadist Muslims with Iranian munitions, but assembling and agitating large crowds is fraught with unpredictable dangers. Freelance journalist Kenneth Emmond writes that Obrador is going to be a long term fixture in Mexican politics, and the best case scenario may be for him to remain the outsider activist.

Lopez Obrador: a fixture on Mexico's political scene: Indeed, a political victory for Felipe Calderón and a loss for López Obrador might be the best possible formula for making a better Mexico — a kind of political division of labor. In this scenario, President Calderón would be in charge of political stability — negotiating among the parties, putting forward proposed legislation and, one hopes, convincing the majority of legislators to support the reforms, budgets, and sundry other laws that constitute the nation's business.

Meanwhile, López Obrador, still leader of the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) but on the outer fringe of the formal political process, would focus on creating real change, using his gifts as self-appointed legislative watchdog and master of the maxi-demonstration. He'd keep a watchful eye on the key issues in front of the people from the point of view of social justice — and make sure that President Calderón keeps his hands clean!

The worst case scenario is Russian weapons via Venezuela ending up in the hands of “activist” protesters, not satisfied with simply hanging around outside banks and Federal buildings.

Has Condi Fallen From Grace?

Rick Moran at Right Wing Nut House tallies up the political fallout as the war in Lebanon pauses briefly to let both the self proclaimed humanist elite, and the murderous Hezbollah Muslims feel triumphant in the moment.

Winners and Losers: CONDI RICE. By some accounts, Rice was a hindrance to the Israeli war effort. She apparently insisted on the temporary truce following the Qana tragedy and reportedly advised against any massive incursion by the IDF into southern Lebanon. For this, she was widely criticized in the Administration; so much so that her deputy handled the shuttle diplomacy between Beirut and Tel Aviv following Qana and she was marginalized to the point of being banished to the UN to work on the cease fire resolution. We know how that turned out. Rice lost prestige in the Administration because she has temporarily lost the trust of the President. And that makes her a big loser.

Wasn’t it last year about this time the draft Condi for ’08 mania was peaking? Lawrence Auster at View From the Right reduces liberalism down to the phrase: We’re guilty, AND nothing can ever harm us. Well we are not perfect and privilege and prosperity can be as transient as life itself, but you never get the feeling Dave Zweifel and his comrades believe there is a larger danger beyond a few misguided individuals.

Business Growing Outside of Madison

Wisconsin State Journal Headline: Commerical building is strong in suburbs.

Let’s read this again: “Commerical”, ostensibly from the modern English root word Commer, meaning a British manufacturer of commercial vehicles founded in 1905 and surviving for years largely by building military trucks. For a moment, I thought the socialist High Road COWS had found a way to lure defense manufacturing jobs back into Dane County, but it turns out only to be typo.

The point of the story is that there is more commercial building going on outside of the city limits, than underneath the jurisdictional thumb of the People’s Republic of Madison.

Fitchburg was Dane County's No. 1 spot - outside Madison - for commercial construction starts over the past 12 months, with $72 million worth of major projects. For a city that's one-10th the size of Madison, Fitchburg alone had enough new offices and stores going up to equal more than one-fourth the value of Madison's nonresidential building starts during that time period. … Crook also credits the favorable tax climate and aggressive business development office in the city of 22,000 along Madison's Southwest Side.

Verona and Middleton are also seeing business growth and while the article doesn’t come out and say the City of Madison’s active interference with private business is a disincentive, it is not hard to believe that keeping business expansion a business operation rather than an exercise in social justice, tends to make working with the surrounding communities more attractive.

Russian Jet Fighters to Venezuela

Control of the skies is a huge advantage against ground armies such as those the Americans defeated in Iraq and the Israelis are fighting in Lebanon. Any country dreaming of military parity with the elite armed forces on this planet can not help but desire a state of the art Air Force, so Hugo is going to buy one.

Russian Arms For Hugo Chavez: But, more importantly, in a deal the United States tried to block, Chavez successfully ordered 24 of Russia’s latest jet fighters and 53 helicopters during his time in Moscow. This is on top of the 40 helicopters and 100,000 Kalashnikov rifles the Venezuelan military had already ordered in an earlier transaction from Russia that go to make up the $5 billion in arms Chavez may eventually buy.

In the article, Dr. Stephen J. Blank of The Strategic Studies Institute of the US Army War College remarks that “Venezuela probably cannot begin to maintain or even operate this arsenal”. This assumes that Russian military technicians and advisors aren’t part of the deal. I suspect Hugo Chavez is shrewd enough to purchase the extended warrantee and service agreement for all of his new machines. After all, when money is no object then why settle for less than the best? To keep the Chavez threat in perspective, it is good to review the most recent public data for United States Oil imports.

Crude Oil and Total Petroleum Imports Top 15 Countries: The top five exporting countries accounted for 70 percent of United States crude oil imports ... . The top sources of US crude oil imports for May were Canada (1.868 million barrels per day), Mexico (1.576 million barrels per day), Saudi Arabia (1.457 million barrels per day), Venezuela (1.169 million barrels per day), and Nigeria (1.075 million barrels per day).

If Chavez makes a “business decision” not to ship oil directly to America, the consequences will immediately and adversely ripple through our economy. If Chavez makes this decision subsequent to or in coordination with an Iranian closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the economic consequences would be multiplied. I believe, that deep down inside Putin hates the Muslims but Chavez, like Raúl Castro, is an old school communist and thus a perfectly acceptable client for all the Russian military merchandize Hugo wants to buy.

Decision Time About Lebanon

John “McQ” McQuain has been updating his post about this confusing day in the hot war between the country Israel and religious army Hezbollah. The morning starts with a decision to go fight person to person and ends with waffling indecision about whether to entrust the security of the state to the United Nations, in order to avoid that bloody hell of ground to ground combat. The anguished thought process of the Israeli leadership is captured in emails McQ is posting from Israel.

The situation in Israel tonight has become extremely confused, verging on the chaotic. Government ministers, like the foreign minister and prime minister, are publicly feuding. The government is saying that the assault into Lebanon will definitely be rolling tonight while it has simultaneously implied that it intends to accept the cease-fire resolution. Leaders of Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are demanding to be unleashed while leaks from some government members hint that they have no confidence in the military. The media has now surged into the battle with highly contentious columns and editorials.

There appear to be two basic and competing schools of thought. One argues that Israel cannot defeat Hezbollah without incurring unacceptable losses and re-occupying parts of Lebanon, thereby winding up in a counterinsurgency situation. The other school of thought argues that the price of accepting a cease-fire that leaves Hezbollah intact is much higher than the cost of war.

It is the same quandary the entire Western World is trying to resolve because the West no longer has accepted guidelines for suppressing a religion. The war on terrorism is, and has always been, conflict with a religious doctrine that is well financed, well armed, effectively stateless and aggressively hostile. The very concept of forceful persecution of religious belief runs counter to the value we assign freedom of thought, but persecution and suppression is going to be necessary for any lasting peace and safety.

I have no faith in the United Nations and their past performance merits none. For the moment, however, Western aversion to prolonged violence seems willing, yet one more time, to let third party individuals have a go at creating peace. Of course, there will be no lasting solution as long as Jihadist Muslims have military weapons in addition to their intolerance and false understanding.

Time Out After Narrow Escapes

Arrgggghhh!!! …. Muslims continue brainstorming about creative ways they can murder large numbers of people for the divine glory in killing and dying, and the Capital Times believes there is a whole lot of propaganda going on but only from the other side. The people who scare me are the ones convinced they absolutely know the truth.

Time to spend time at The People's Cube to escape all this righteousness.