Badger Blogger

CNN.com - Publisher: ‘Blog’ No. 1 word of the year - Nov 30, 2004
A four-letter term that came to symbolize the difference between old and new media during this year’s presidential campaign tops U.S. dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster’s list of the 10 words of the year.

Merriam-Webster Inc. said on Tuesday that blog, defined as “a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments and often hyperlinks,” was one of the most looked-up words on its Internet sites this year.

Reposted Tuesday, November 30, 2004, 21:13:05
Tomorrow December 1st is the deadline to get back on the No Call List, so I am reposting this information.

The Wisconsin No Call List is only active for two years, if you signed up when it first came out, you must sign up again or you will start getting the spam phone calls again, here is a link to the No Call list Renewal page

When Lisa Artison and the Milwaukee Election Committee ‘forgot’ to count a few hundred ballots on Election night, imagine what would have happened in a case like this:

Recount ends in tie
A legislative race in Montana provides the latest evidence that one or two votes can make all the difference.

A two-day recount of a state House of Representatives race in Lake County, Mont., ended this evening in a tie, leaving open the question of whether the Republicans control the House or whether the GOP shares power with Democrats.

According to an Associated Press report, both Rick Jore, the Constitution Party candidate, and Democrat Jeanne Windham garndered 1,559 votes. The initial count, certified in the statewide canvass last week, had Jore winning 1,559 votes to 1,557, and a tentative recount tally yesterday had Jore with just a one-vote margin of victory.

The result of the race is being watched closely because it will determine control of the state House.

Also:

Washington state, voters elected a new governor by a similarly razor-thin margin. Washington’s secretary of state today certified the results, which put Republican Dino Rossi in the governor’s mansion over Democrat Christine Gregoire. A recount gave Rossi a 42-vote victory out of millions cast.

Current Gov. Gary Locke said today a hand recount should be done of the entire state. An additional recount would have to be paid for by the Democratic Party.

I first ran into this at Instapundit.com

I think Brian Williams just put a huge target on his back, just asking Bloggers to fact check his every word looking for the next Rathergate.

Mr Williams should remember is was a Blogger (PowerLineBlog.com) that discovered the truth about the “Bush documents” that brought Rather down.

Brian Williams may surprise as NBC’s anchor - Media - General
When a fellow panelist mentioned that bloggers had had a big impact on the reporting on Election Day, Williams waved that point away by quipping that the self-styled journalists are “on an equal footing with someone in a bathroom with a modem.”

This is long in coming! I picked this up at Powerline Blog

Power Line: Coleman calls for Kofi break
In tomorrow’s Wall Street Journal, Senator Norm Coleman declares: “Kofi Annan must go.”

HINDROCKET adds: See also this item from today’s Washington Times:

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said yesterday he was disappointed in his son for accepting payments from a key contractor in the oil-for-food program for more than four years longer than had been previously acknowledged.

Kojo Annan, 31, had been employed from 1995 to 1997 at Cotecna Inspection SA, a Geneva-based firm that had been inspecting humanitarian goods imported by Iraq with U.N.-administered proceeds from its oil sales. He served briefly as a consultant until 1998.

But the younger Mr. Annan continued to receive as much as $2,500 a month from Cotecna until February 2003 as part of a “no compete” agreement, according to chagrined U.N. officials, who have said for years that the payments ended in late 1998.

“Naturally, I was very disappointed and surprised, yes,” the secretary general told reporters yesterday morning. “I understand the perception problem for the U.N., or the perception of a conflict of interest and wrongdoing.”

Yes, well, as Norm Coleman points out, it isn’t just a perception problem. Putting the most favorable construction on the U.N.’s admission, Kojo Annan lied to the organization and concealed the fact that he was receiving up to $30,000 per year from the principal firm that inspected “humanitarian” goods shipped under the Oil for Food program-goods that were often substandard, if not non-existent.

As a lawyer, I find the “non-compete” payments intriguing. What unique skills or proprietary information did Kojo have that made a non-compete appropriate? What extraordinary circumstances warranted a four-year non-compete-an unusually long term-given that Kojo only worked for Cotecna for two years, from age 22 to 24? What was the geographic scope of the agreement, and what activities was Kojo prohibited from carrying out? What did Kojo actually do during the four-year term of the non-compete?

Or, more bluntly: what is the evidence that this was a legitimate non-compete agreement, rather than a bribe? And if it was a bribe, what was Kojo Annan in a position to deliver to Cotecna?

Okay, so where is the bad economy Kerry/Edwards told us about? The fact is, the economy has been strong and continues to be.

US economy grows 3.9% in third quarter
Strong consumer spending and business investment and a slightly lower than previously reported trade deficit meant the US economy grew at a 3.9 per cent rate in the third quarter, the Commerce Department said.

The upward revision from the 3.7 per cent advance estimate was above consensus expectations and represented a rebound from 3.3 per cent growth in the second quarter.

Core personal consumption expenditures inflation, excluding food and energy, the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation, was unchanged at a 0.7 per cent rate in the quarter - the lowest reading since the 1960s.

The report provided further support for the Fed’s case that the economy has picked up, after an earlier soft patch, and that with inflation under control it will be able to raise rates at a measured pace. Investors see another quarter point increase to 2.25 per cent as likely when the Fed meets later this month.

More good news posted at Boots and Sabers

Robust consumer spending on cars, furniture and food helped power U.S. economic growth forward in the third quarter at a faster pace than previously thought, the government said on Tuesday, while underlying inflation was the tamest in decades.

The Commerce Department (search) said gross domestic product (search), which measures all goods and services produced within U.S. borders, grew at a 3.9 percent annual pace in the three months from July through September, up from the 3.7 percent estimated a month ago.

That beat Wall Street economists’ predictions that the third-quarter advance would be unchanged at 3.7 percent and marked the sixth successive quarter GDP has expanded at a rate exceeding 3 percent, implying healthy and sustainable growth.

Source

My God! What has Civilized Society come to? Barbaric! What’s next, parents get a free 30 day trial, if hey don’t want the kid, bring it in and we’ll “take care of it for you”?

My Way News
A hospital in the Netherlands - the first nation to permit euthanasia - recently proposed guidelines for mercy killings of terminally ill newborns, and then made a startling revelation: It has already begun carrying out such procedures, which include administering a lethal dose of sedatives.

The announcement by the Groningen Academic Hospital came amid a growing discussion in Holland on whether to legalize euthanasia on people incapable of deciding for themselves whether they want to end their lives - a prospect viewed with horror by euthanasia opponents and as a natural evolution by advocates.

In August, the main Dutch doctors’ association KNMG urged the Health Ministry to create an independent board to review euthanasia cases for terminally ill people “with no free will,” including children, the severely mentally retarded and people left in an irreversible coma after an accident.

Mark Belling has reported that the Milwaukee Teachers union is planning a “sick-out” on Thursday, December 2. This would of course be against the law. Now that their plan has been exposed, let’s see if they follow through with it.

Edit: Tuesday, November 30, 2004, 18:51:01
This great piece was written by Cindy Tucker of LaFayette, Ga and was originally printed in The Chattanoogan.com. I’m glad to give credit to the work I enjoyed so much, it was a very moving article

I heard this on the Sean Hannity Show today and HAD to have it!

We listen to talk shows and Fox News.
We tear up when we hear the national anthem.
We drive SUVS and fly business class.
We go through drive-thrus, have mortgages, and shop at Wal-Mart.
We attend BBQs, football games, fire hall meetings, and places of faith.
We believe life is precious and marriage is sacred.
We believe there are some things worth dying for.
We have the utmost respect for those who lay their life on the line defending our freedom and protecting our streets.
We believe religion is not a philosophy but a way of life.
We raise our children as best we can.
We’ll help anyone who really needs it, and not blame others for our own bad choices.
We read our Holy Books.
We pray because we know wisdom comes from God, not man.
We go about our lives quietly as we care for our families.
We might not have time to demonstrate, but we make time to vote.

We expect the values we teach our children to be respected in our schools.
We expect people to say what they mean and mean what they say.
We expect to work hard and earn the just rewards of that labor.
We expect to be able to watch a football game with our kids and not have to worry about the content of the half-time show.
We expect terrorists and those who harm the innocent to be punished.

We are farms, ranches, small businesses, and town squares.
We are BBQs, baseball games, fishing holes, and civic clubs.
We are little league games, piano recitals, Bible Studies, and car pools.
We are grandfathers in Iwo Jima, fathers in Vietnam, and sons and daughters in Iraq.
We are fly-over country.
We are the red states.

CNN is reporting today that Tom Ridge is leaving. This was expected.

NAACP president Kweisi Mfume is leaving the organization, I wonder if it has anything to do with the IRS investigation about to start on their tax status?

I heard Charlie Sykes mention this one today, I had to look it up and share, it’s a great read!

OpinionJournal - Outside the Box
A prescient friend among serious Democrats explained last week what was wrong with his party and how it had contributed to liberalism’s defeat on Nov. 2. He believes a growing majority of Americans simply don’t trust Democrats because Democrats don’t trust Mr. and Mrs. America to make sound decisions for themselves and their families.

Blue-collar Americans believe liberals are anti-Christian and seek to suppress all public expression of religious beliefs, including school prayer. That they are amoral-or, as Irving Kristol once said, a liberal is someone who thinks it is all right for an 18-year-old girl to perform in a porn film so long as she is paid the minimum wage.

Liberals see themselves as self appointed Robin Hoods, but they are seen by red-county Americans as taking from the productive and giving to the indolent. They look down on average Americans as misguided and too dumb to know what is good for them and their families. Since such people are unlikely to make the right decisions, a wise government must do it for them. And of course the bigger the government, the better.

An equally serious friend on the other side of the political spectrum says the acrimony of the past four years may have been intensified by social issues, but it is the economic issues that are determining the outcome of elections. He believes the liberal left may actually be winning on the social issues-that gay rights and stem-cell research, for example, are trending in their direction-but that liberals have suffered a wholesale rout on their economic beliefs. They were wrong about communism (it was an economic failure), wrong about socialism (it didn’t work either), wrong about the welfare state, wrong about high taxes and government regulation of economic matters.

But what was determinative in this election was not that one party is a religious party and the other is not; nor that one party is in favor of same-sex marriage and the other is not; nor that liberals are for raising the minimum wage and gun control and conservatives are not.

What was determinative is that the two political parties view the American people very differently. The Republican Party has become the party of individualism, believing that free enterprise, market economies, and individual choices give people the best chance of a good life; that if ordinary Americans are left alone to make their own decisions, they will generally be good decisions, so they-not the government-should have the power to make them.

Conversely, the Democratic Party is the party of centralization, believing that a wise and benevolent, best-and-brightest, urban blue-county government can make better choices than those of rural, red-county Americans. This is not a new belief; it is the legacy of the 1930s (the New Deal) and the ’60s (the Great Society). It was fully reflected in John Kerry’s campaign: Taxes must rise and government must grow; trade must be regulated and limited; the 1935 Social Security system is perfect and nothing about it may be changed.

But America today is very different than in the ’30s and ’60s. Socialism is dying; collectivism is vanishing. Market economies have overtaken government-run ones around the globe. Life expectancy is increasing; inflation-adjusted median family income is up 24% in 20 years; 69% of American families own their own homes, and 52% own stocks, bonds or other financial instruments. Americans have expanded their vision and abilities and prospered; we have become an opportunity society where individualism is far more important than centralization. People want to be a part of that progress, to participate in the pursuit of happiness.

And so red-county Americans resent elitists, Hollywood, the establishment media and the Democratic Party telling them they can’t participate:

# That taxes must always be higher, never lower, because in the words of one traditional Democrat “I want the government to have the money.”

# That Americans should be protected from free trade, because lower-cost foreign goods in the marketplace interfere with higher-priced American ones.

# That you should not be allowed to invest some of your Social Security taxes in a personally owned account that will grow over your lifetime and give you some asset ownership upon your retirement, because it is a bad thing for you to have such assets.

# That allowing parents to choose the best school for each of their children is also a bad thing; you might make the wrong choice, so it is better that government make the choice for you. Or in the words of former teachers union president Keith Geiger, why should some children be allowed to “escape” from bad public schools?

Rather than applauding Hillary Clinton’s telling them last summer that their taxes must be raised because “we’re going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good,” they prefer Newt Gingrich’s observation that the Declaration of Independence’s Pursuit of Happiness includes an active verb: “Not happiness stamps; not a department of happiness; not therapy for happiness. Pursuit.”

If the Democratic Party allows itself to be defined by Ted Kennedy, Michael Moore and the editorial page of the New York Times, while Republicans, their president and their strengthened congressional majorities encourage the pursuit of happiness in an opportunity and ownership society, then Mr. and Mrs. America will make sure conservatives are in power for a great many years to come.

Mr. du Pont, a former governor of Delaware, is chairman of the Dallas-based National Center for Policy Analysis. His column appears once a month.

An honorable mention for “Idiot of the Year” award goes out to this woman…

Woman Police Say Sold Stones to Rioters Pleads No Contest - from TBO.com
ST. JOSEPH, Mich. (AP) - A woman who police say sold stones to rioters in a southwest Michigan city last year and used the money to pay her cable television bill has pleaded no contest to inciting a riot.

Yuolanda Taylor, 32, entered the plea Monday. A no contest plea is not an admission of guilt but is treated as such for sentencing purposes. She is free on bail, but faces up to 10 years in prison at her sentencing Nov. 15.

The city of Benton Harbor was devastated by two nights of rioting last June sparked by the death of a black motorcyclist during a high-speed police chase. Twenty-one houses, many vacant, were destroyed.

Police said Taylor toted rocks through a riot-wracked neighborhood, selling small ones for $1 each and bigger ones for $5. Prosecutors said the rocks were thrown at police.

Taylor told police she collected about $70 selling rocks, but quit when she got hit by one herself.

Remember when Mayor Barrett and the incompetent Lisa Artison demandad that they get 938,000 ballots (we only have about 600,000 total residents with 382,000 registered voters) claiming that the County was holding back in a racist attempt to suppress the vote. Well, the County Exec. gave in and gave them the ballots as long as the city returned the unused ballots.

Well, as expected, most of ballots were returned, about 665,000 of them at a wasteful cost of $99,750 that comes from out property taxes! Will Barrett or Artison pay for the waste that they demanded? How about the $112,000 wasted in the primaries?

How about the all of those ballots that they ‘discovered’ after the election that Lisa Artison didn’t have the competence to get counted? Will she be held accountable? of course not, Barrett doesn’t want to anger Artison’s husband, a local talk radio host on an urban station, but the rest of the counties citizens can just bend over and grab our ankles, right?

Scott Peterson’s next phase starts today, they will now decide weather cold blooded murder of your wife and child is bad enough to get the death penalty.