Posted on Mon, Jan 5th 2009 at 08:01 PM by Patrick Dorwin

Supreme Court Candidate, Judge Randy Koschnick filed his nomination papers with the Government Accountability Board today with over 3,500 signatures.

Supreme Court Candidate and Jefferson County Circuit Judge Randy Koschnick today filed over 3,500 nomination signatures with the Government Accountability Board.

“I am honored by the large number of people all over Wisconsin who helped me gather nomination signatures, and grateful for their time and effort,” Judge Koschnick said. “After speaking with many of these volunteers, as well as other people across the State, I am convinced the voters of Wisconsin are ready for a change on their Supreme Court. I have every confidence that the organization we have assembled and the energy and commitment I’ve seen statewide will carry us to victory on election day.”

Judge Koschnick is still trying to get Justice Abrahamson to sign a clean campaign pledge, so far she refuses.

Abrahamson supporters will be quick to point out that as an attorney, Judge Koschnick was the defense attorney for Ted Oswald, I suggest you point them to First Freedoms Foundation letter to the editor on this issue. It won’t change the opinions of the liberal Abrahamson supporters, but it will help those being fooled by them to see the facts.

On another note, it sounds like Judge Koschnick will be paying a visit to the next Drinking Right on January 13th.

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Posted on Mon, Jan 5th 2009 at 11:01 AM by Patrick Dorwin

Could you imagine getting into an argument with a family member that escalated to you stabbing them?

Father suspected of stabbing son during argument
A 47-year-old man remains in police custody this morning after being suspected of stabbing his son in the back during an argument on the city’s north side yesterday.

Milwaukee police said this morning that the father and son, 20, were arguing in the 3300 block of N. 21st St. when the stabbing occurred. Police responded about 4:40 p.m.

We hear about this sort of story so often, but in your personal life, could you imaging being so angry with a member of your own family, that you would try to kill them? I couldn’t imagine getting that angry with a stranger unless it was self defense, but as is the case in this story, a man stabbing his own son… I just can’t even imagine such a thing.

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Posted on Sun, Jan 4th 2009 at 09:01 PM by Bruce

At a “spiritual and political rally” this evening at a church on Chicago’s south side, controversial appointee to Barack Obama’s vacated senate seat Roland Burris absorbed “warm words of support and prayers” from hundreds of supporters.

Illinois Congressional Representative Bobby Rush called Senate Democrats’ expected forthcoming rejection of Burris’ appointment “the last bastion of plantation politics.”

Despite condemnation of Burris’ appointment by the man whose seat he seeks to fill, according to a post at the Tribune Companies’ collective website, Burris told AP Radio today that he “feels support from Obama.”

Mr. Burris embarks upon a trip to Washington on Moday to sell Senate Democrat leaders on the concept of seating him.

In raw video broadcast on Chicago WGN-TV’s “News at Nine” this evening, which has not yet been posted at their website, Burris, in comments to supporters at the rally, referred to himself as “a young man, ready to serve the state of Illinois [in the Senate.]”

Roland Burris is 71 years old.

The allegations of racism against his detractors notwithstanding, shouldn’t Burris be disqualified for his delusional behavior?

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Posted on Sun, Jan 4th 2009 at 12:01 PM by Patrick Dorwin

Barack Obama’s choice for Commerce Secretary, Gov. Bill Richardson has pulled himself out of the nomination process. Richardson, a former presidential candidate himself, has been caught up in a pay-to-play investigation.

h/t: Michelle Malkin

Background on the pay-to-play scandal:

From Michelle Malkin
A federal grand jury is investigating whether a financial firm improperly won more than $1.4 million in work for the state of New Mexico shortly after making contributions to political action committees of Gov. Bill Richardson (D). The probe focuses on whether the governor’s office urged a state agency to hire CDR Financial Products.

The probe is in a highly active stage at a time when President-elect Barack Obama has chosen Richardson as his nominee for secretary of commerce, according to two sources familiar with the investigation.

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Posted on Sun, Jan 4th 2009 at 09:01 AM by Patrick Dorwin

UPDATE: Mother and child recovered safely, suspect still on the run

WISN TV 12 reports:

Glendale Police Chief Thomas Czarnyszka said authorities found 11-month-old Breonnah Vann and her 28-year-old mother, Carlista English, at a Wauwatosa hotel.

Police said they are both doing fine.

An Amber Alert was issued for their abduction Sunday morning. The suspected abducter is still on the run and police are looking for him.

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Posted on Sun, Jan 4th 2009 at 09:01 AM by Patrick Dorwin

This is off our normal subject matter and a little late, but I just want to voice my support for Israel and their current actions against Palestinian terror. Something that many that oppose Israel’s actions refuse to accept is that the terrorists of Hamas have been attacking Israeli citizens for years. Since 2001, when Hamas took power in Gaza, they have fired 4,048 rockets and 4,040 mortar shells into Israeli population centers, including 1,750 rockets and 1,528 mortar shells in this past year. There are about 1 million Israeli citizens in range of these rocket and mortar attacks.

There was a cease fire earlier this year, in which only 11 rockets and 15 mortars were fired, but in the last two months of the year, 486 rockets and 309 mortars were fired into Israeli cities. So it is not Israel that escalated this conflict, it was the Palestinians, and now it is time for Israel to protect its citizens by knocking out Hamas.

For those that oppose Israeli incursion into Gaza, ask your self, how many attacks and murders would you accept from a street gang against your neighborhood before you demanded that police go after the street gang? Would you think 800 acts of violent crime in the past two months would be acceptable? Why do you think Israel should accept 800 explosions from rocket and mortar fire in the past two months?

My hope is that Israel is able to wipe out Hamas, and so far, at least two of the major leaders have been killed. Hopefully with the new ground offensive, they will be able to take out more terrorist leaders and leave Gaza soon, but they can not leave until security is established.

More details on the numbers I used can be found from the Intelligence & Terrorism Information Center

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Posted on Sat, Jan 3rd 2009 at 12:01 PM by Patrick Dorwin

A few days ago, I was scanning the news and a story of a child molester got me thinking about Milwaukee’s most notorious released child sexual predator, Billy Lee Morford, a 4 time convicted pedophile and registered Chapter 980 sexually violent person. Morford is still living at 2803B S 9TH PL on Milwaukee’s South Side. This is more than two years after we were told he was in such frail health that he would not survive to be a danger to more children.

JSOnline
Morford didn’t appear in court to hear Wagner grant his discharge, owing to what his attorney said was failing health. A doctor quoted in court records said the longtime habitual sex offender, who is now 60, probably has less than a year to live because of myriad diseases including kidney and bladder cancer, dialysis, heart disease and an undetermined lung problem. Those conditions, and the treatments required by each, have limited Morford’s functions so much, Dallet said, that not even the state-consulted experts who believed Morford might have been likely to reoffend think he retains the ability to do so.

More than two years ago, we were told he was close to death, so not a threat, anyone else feel lied to?

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Posted on Sat, Jan 3rd 2009 at 09:01 AM by Patrick Dorwin

The first open line of 2009… darn, how long will I keep writing 2008? Oh well, no topic, just enjoy sharing whatever is on your mind.

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Posted on Thu, Jan 1st 2009 at 01:01 PM by Patrick Dorwin

On New Years Eve, the city of Fond du Lac had two fatal house fires. In honor of these tragic deaths, let us all check our smoke alarms. Make sure the batteries are good and it is in working order. If you don’t have a smoke detector, you can buy them for under $15 and if you can not afford one, you can call the Milwaukee Fire Department Smoke Detector Hotline at 414-286-8980 and they will even come out and install it for you.

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Posted on Thu, Jan 1st 2009 at 11:01 AM by Bruce

It was a year to celebrate your Wall Street savvy if you were an investor in one of the two Dow 30 Industrial Components that showed a gain in value in 2008.

With their meteoric rise in value last year, upstarts McDonald’s (+5.6%) and Walmart Stores (+17.9%) introduced themselves to shoppers who had previously viewed the companies as virtual unknowns.

“I’ve seen that funny looking yellow ‘M’ many times while exiting the interstate, and I’ve always kind of wondered what it was all about,” said Madeline Winters, a software engineer from Aspen, Colorado.

Read the rest of this entry…

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Posted on Thu, Jan 1st 2009 at 10:01 AM by Patrick Dorwin

Good news on the crime fight: Milwaukee killings fall to 23-year low

In the past year, with a new crime fighting strategy brought in by our new Police Chief Ed Flynn, murders in Milwaukee have dropped to a number we haven’t seen since 1985. And from last year along, we dropped from 105 to 71, that is a 32% drop, and the historical high was 168 in 1991.

Police Chief Edward A. Flynn said that targeting neighborhoods where violent crime is concentrated played a role.

“The primary goal was to disrupt crime and to disrupt the environment where crime has been most stable,” Flynn said. “We understood that if we could do that effectively, we could have a substantial effect on the amount of deadly violence that was related to that crime.”

All violent crime, which also includes rape, robbery and aggravated assault, was down 9.5% in Milwaukee over the first nine months of the year, the most recent data available.

Nonfatal gunshot victims were also down, from 459 last year to 420 this year, so kudos must go out to all of our First Responders, from police to fire and paramedic crews, to the EMT’s and emergency room staffs that are able to save people that only a few years ago would have died.

I know a way we could reduce the number of murders in Milwaukee even more, but that would require the criminal (in)justice system to hold criminals to account BEFORE they murder. How many time do we read about street thugs that get caught over and over again in possession of a gun? If you are already a felon and get caught with a gun, why in God’s name would a judge release them? Do they honestly think they won’t be back on the streets with another gun within days? How many murders will we read about in the new year that are committed by someone that is already under supervision for past gun crimes, instead of being in jail, so the innocent citizens are a little safer? But that would require changes in the attitude with the district attorneys and judges… I won’t hold my breath.

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Posted on Thu, Jan 1st 2009 at 08:01 AM by Glenn D. Frankovis

What is the most shocking part of this story in today’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel?

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Posted on Wed, Dec 31st 2008 at 09:12 PM by Patrick Dorwin

We have been sort of half joking about a government bailout of failing newspapers, but it is creeping closer to reality. if you think papers are slanted now, just wait until liberals start paying them off with our tax dollars… Talk about a watchdog becoming a lapdog, not that they have been much of a watchdog lately.

Government aid could save U.S. newspapers, spark debate

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Posted on Wed, Dec 31st 2008 at 04:12 PM by Patrick Dorwin

Whoa, this is a stunning story from Great Britain, an ambulance crew was dispatched to a disabled man that called 999, their version of our 911 system, he said he thought he was having a heart attack. Before the crew arrived, the man collapsed, but did not hang up the phone, so the 999 staff was still recording the call when the ambulance crew arrived.

Instead of rushing to the mans aid, they talked about his run down home and then discussed whether or not they should bother to resuscitate this disabled man… The decision was no. They then talked about what their story would be and decided to tell authorities that the man was dead before they got there, then allowed the man to die.

Thank God this was caught on tape, there is no telling how many lives have been saved by the arrest of these two men… And how many have already been lost because these two “played God” and decided that others didn’t deserve to live. As I have said before, I hope there is a special corner of hell for people that prey on the elderly, disabled and children, and I hope these two end up there… Soon.

Ambulancemen ‘decided dying man not worth saving’ (link includes video)

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Posted on Wed, Dec 31st 2008 at 08:12 AM by Patrick Dorwin

Zach, from Blogging Blue has thrown his hat into the ring for a seat on the South Milwaukee School Board. While I don’t agree with him politically, he shows a passion for his beliefs and is willing to fight for them.

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Posted on Wed, Dec 31st 2008 at 08:12 AM by Patrick Dorwin

I thought we would open things up to allow everyone a chance to reflect on 2008 and look ahead to 2009. Please share with us your reflections, predictions, resolutions or other thoughts this New Years Eve.

As for me, I will probably expand on these in the comments section, but to kick things off:

Reflections on the past year, for me personally it was a good year. I made some great new friends, including many as a result of this blog. I have a job that I love (shh, don’t tell my boss), although some of the people I work with can be a real PITA (you know who you are!) . This summer I got to spend a week with my parents and my sister that I haven’t seen in about 10 years, and got to meet my two nieces for the first time. Except for an emotional election season (which lasted WAY to long), I would say it was a good year.

Predictions for the new year, on some of my predictions, I truly hope I am wrong… For the good of the nation, I hope the new administration has success in the future, but I fear with the even bigger spending programs promised, I fear for the US economy. With the government printing money like crazy in an effort to prop up companies that are failing, yet not addressing the root causes, our economy will continue to suffer, unemployment will continue to rise and it is only a matter of time before inflation really takes off.

Also with the new administration, I think much needed things like domestic oil drilling will continue to be banned. Although Democrats finally made a show of opening the possibilities of domestic production, now that the election is over, I would be shocked if they did not reinstate the bans that they used as a political tool.

My New years resolution to you, the readers of BadgerBlogger.com is to rededicate myself to this blog. I know that over the past month or so, I have slacked off. As I said, the election season was an emotional time, and when it finished, I was a bit burned out, but with the ringing in of the new year, I will refocus on what I love to do, and that is to ferret out news in Wisconsin and provide the alternative viewpoints that you the main stream media can not, or will not provide. And to do that, I will need your help my friends, because this blog isn’t about Bruce, Glenn, Roland and myself, as our tagline says, it is about “Covering Wisconsin the way the media won’t & Covering the media, the way they fear!

Now lets hear your thoughts!

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Posted on Wed, Dec 31st 2008 at 07:12 AM by Patrick Dorwin

I want to send a special shout-out to Wendy, the much better half of Boots & Sabers blogger Owen (I’m sure he would agree with me).

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how frustrated I was that some of the elderly and disabled folks I work with are being sent out in the cold without proper winter clothing. These are vulnerable people living in group home settings or have home health aids that just aren’t taking the extra few moments to bundle people up before sending them into the bitter cold we have had already this winter. In the posting, I mentioned that buy a bunch of gloves and carry a small blanket in the van so people can have a little something to put across their laps to fend off the cold. In response to this, Wendy has given me some of those great fleece blankets that are just the right size to spread across the lap of someone in a wheel chair and some gloves, to pass out to my clients that need a little extra protection from the cold.

I bumped into my boss last night and he mentioned the post I made on the 15th, I then told him about Wendy’s thoughtful gift and we both agree that Wendy is just awesome! On behalf of those soon to be warm elderly and disabled people of Milwaukee, I send you our thanks Wendy, and I hope you and yours had a wonderful Christmas.

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Posted on Tue, Dec 30th 2008 at 01:12 PM by Bruce

Here you go.

This is one genuine, non-copyrighted photo of the Madison skyline, which I took from Olin-Turville Park on my way to the office this morning. I’ve even cropped it to fit almost perfectly into that spot where your “place holding” photo of downtown Minneapolis is now.

This required me to leave for work about 15 minutes early, fight the Beltline traffic (there was none, because I’m pretty certain I’m the only person working in Madison this week) and detour approximately 6 miles outside of my normal commute. I even got to briefly enjoy Madison’s Holiday Fantasy in Lights, although admittedly, they would have looked far more impressive at night.

The photo is yours for the taking, no strings attached. In fact, any of you can use it for any purpose you care to. I’m not stingy.

By the way - I just checked the price of a round-trip flight from Hartford/Bradley International (BDL) to Madison, WI (MSN) with no advance notice, traveling tomorrow, out and back the same day, via Northwest Airlines. The price? $490.22, plus taxes and fees.

The good folks at PLC Technology Group, LLC could have sent a peon with a digital camera to snap that elusive “non-copyrighted photo of the Madison skyline” they so badly desired for under $550.00, and the employee would have been home in time for dinner.

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Posted on Tue, Dec 30th 2008 at 10:12 AM by Patrick Dorwin

The battle lines are being drawn for the next State Supreme Court race, this race is for the seat held by the very liberal Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson.

This past weekend I had the chance to spend some time chatting with Seamus Flaherty, a senior adviser to Judge Randy Koschnick. We will be talking a lot about this race in the months to come, so take the time now to familiarize yourself with the records of these judges, Koschnick is clearly the better choice for Wisconsin.

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Posted on Tue, Dec 30th 2008 at 06:12 AM by Glenn D. Frankovis

Here’s another piece of outstanding journalism worthy of a pulitzer prize. In this shocking revelation, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Gina Barton writes about the great disparity in violent crime between young blacks and whites and, of course, you can guess why this is happening. Lack of jobs and opportunities caused by the shift of federal money away from cities. Yup, Homeland Security has sucked all the money away from crime fighting and prevented cities from making their neighborhoods and streets secure like they were back in the good old days of the late 80s and early 90s when the Brothers of the Struggle and other notorious gangs were literally turning inner city streets into killing fields.

Of course she cites the studies of some professor who obviously has his finger on the pulse of the problem. Don’t they all? Well, now that Obama is going to be leading us down the path of salvation, maybe all that Homeland Security money will be rightfully returned to the cities and we can go back to the good old 80s and 90s.

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