Badger Blogger

I want to just take a second to thank the Milwaukee Brewers for a very entertaining season. You made the past few months fun again. Who would have thought that during the football season, we would still be watching Brewers games?

This young talented team has many wins ahead of them. With people like Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun, the Crew will be a force to be reckoned with in the years to come!

The coaching situation… Achilles heal leaps to mind.

An Achilles’ heel is a fatal weakness in spite of overall strength, actually or potentially leading to downfall. While the mythological origin refers to a physical vulnerability, metaphorical references to other attributes or qualities that can lead to their downfall are common.

Yep.

It’s late in the third quarter of the Packer game, and I hate sitting through commercials. I scan the HD tier of my cable package to see what else is on. And then, it hits me: HD-Net, the High-Def channel owned (at least partially) by Mark Cuban, is running a special entitled: “R. Kelly as Mr. Showbiz - The Light it up Tour“. Like watching a car crash, I am strangely fascinated. I bounce over to the channel briefly, and there’s the now 40 year old Kelly, unbelievably blingified, backup chorus in tow, performing to a packed house of bumping and grinding fans at Oakland’s Paramount Theater earlier this year.

(more…)

Todays edition of Warbird porn looks at what is probably the ugliest aircraft to ever claw its way into the air, the A-10 Thunderbolt II, of as it is better known, The Warthog!

The Warthog is a slow, but very maneuverable ground attack aircraft that is literally built around the most powerful gun that has ever been used on an airplane, the GAU-8 Avenger, a 30 MM cannon that fires 3,900 rounds per minute.

In the late 1960’s, the Air Force began looking to replace it’s existing ground attack aircraft, the propeller driven A-1 Skyrader and the A-7 Corsair II. The winner of this competition was the A-10, named Thunderbolt II after the WWII fighter, P-47.

The A-10 is an extremely heavily armored and durable. the pilot is protected from fire by a 900 lb. titanium “bathtub” that is able to absorb 20MM cannon rounds, and the airframe its self can withstand 23MM high explosive rounds. Add a redundant hydraulics system AND a mechanical back-up system, the A-10 is actually designed to fly with one engine, one tail, one elevator and half a wing torn off!

The design of this aircraft is aesthetically ugly, but it is also a brilliant design. With the large straight wings and down turned wingtips, the A-10 is able to work from shorter and rough fields. These wings also have 8 under-wing hard points that can carry a variety of bombs, missiles and electronic sensors. Another odd feature of the A-10 is the placement of the large engines, but this is also part of the planned brilliance. The engines are shielded from each other by the body, so if one engine is hit, the other engine will probably survive, and since the plain can fly on one engine, the pilot can make it home. Also, with the engines being mounted above the horizontal stabilizer and between the twin vertical tail plains, the heat signature is greatly reduced, protecting them from heat seeking missiles.

Because of the wide straight wings and low speed maneuverability, the A-10 is able to loiter over a battlefield. The normal cruise speed is only 300 knots, and a maximum of 450 knots. The A-10 is able to hang over the area waiting to hit its favorite targets, tanks! Although they are deadly against any ground target with it’s bombs and missiles, the primary weapon of the Warthog is the tank busting GAU-30 Avenger Cannon.

The GAU-8 Avenger, 30 MM Cannon
The GAU-8 is a massive cannon, it is a Gatling gun style with seven rotating barrels. The Avenger is just under 20 feet long and when fully loaded, weighs in at just over 4,000 lbs. The gun is mounted slightly off center, this allows for the barrel that fires is along the center axis of the aircraft. Each round fired generates a massive 10,000 lbs. of recoil, and if the barrel is not on the center line of the aircraft, it would actually turn the craft off target, but as it is, the aircraft does experience a speed loss when the gun is fired. This gun is accurate at up to three and a half miles.

The 30 MM cannon shells fired by the GAU-8 are almost a foot long and caries up to 1,350 rounds with a normal 4:1 mixture of 15 oz. Armor-Piercing Incendiary and 13 oz. High Explosive Incendiary rounds.

That 15 oz. PGU-14/B Armor-Piercing Incendiary round has created a lot of controversy, it has a depleted uranium kinetic energy penetrator. This is basically a high density bullet encased in another bullet. Each of these rounds contains about two thirds of a pound of depleted uranium (DU) coated in aluminum, and when the round hits the armor of a target, the DU core, being much more dense than the armor is able to penetrate and once inside of the tank, the heat generated causes a fire that will either kill the occupants or detonate ammunition or fuel causing the vehicle to explode. Even a single round it capable of destroying any main battle tank used today.

Let’s take a look at the A-10 Warthog!

Watch the A-10 in action

Online Videos by Veoh.com

This “Watchdog” report has some substance. MPD overtime has long been in need of serious scrutiny. It is not the coppers who are at fault here, and I don’t read that in the article. Even the aldermen seem to understand the problem this time. In fact, a civilian in the Budget Office points to the real problem with police overtime as he refers to something I’ve been saying for a long time, “It’s the deployment, stupid!”

Overtime is a necessary evil in police work. A street cop doing his/her job cannot avoid overtime. Even if a street cop didn’t work one minute of time beyond his/her regular 8 hour tour of duty, citations and arrests will result in court-related overtime which is beyond the control of the Police Department. What is within the control of the Police Department is the manner in which officers are deployed to fight crime, and putting officers out on 8 hour overtime “initiatives” is a waste of overtime money. It was a waste of money when the Department did it back in 2003, and it was a waste of money this past summer. Even though some crime went down over the summer due to the “summer initiative”, a much greater reduction in crime could have been achieved for much less money and the citizens in each Police District would have received much more accountability from their respective Police District Captains. All it would have taken is for the Police Department administrators to realize that their idea of deploying officers out of the Police Administration Building under a “central control” type operation is flawed and to accept what has been proven to work and reduce crime significantly - a District-specific operation involving proper staffing of officers in each Police District sufficient for each District to deploy its own “strike force” under the direction of its own supervisor and overseen by its own Police District Captain who would have the authority to use these officers to address crime trends in his/her own District. But then perhaps this is something just too simple for some police administrators with a Masters Degree to understand.

Last week I talked about the newest sexual predator to be released from custody to live among the families of Waukesha in two posts:

Waukesha gets it’s first official released Sexual Predator

Waukesha’s Sexual Predator

Today, the paper has more information on the release of Dennis Marth. Most released sex offenders cost about $35,000 a year, and as they offender gets a job and becomes more self sufficient, this cost goes down. But with Marth, it will be different, Marth is in another league, he is a Chapter 980 Sexually Violent Person, the worst of the worst.

This man is so dangerous to the public, that he must be accompanied by two state-financed escorts whenever he leaves the house. The cost to the taxpayers, for Marth living in a nice home on a quiet suburban street, will be about $65,000 per year. Proponents of releasing these perverts will point out that this is cheaper than housing them in the Sand Ridge Secure Treatment Facility, but when at Sand Ridge, they aren’t watching your children play in the neighborhood, they aren’t watching them walk to the bus stop every morning, there is more than a bracelet tethering them to a place that keeps the children safe.

Last weekend, I took a drive to where Marth will be living, it is on a nice quiet street with a lot of children in the neighborhood. Marth will be living close to one exit of this quiet neighborhood that only has only two streets that connect to the major street heading into the downtown area, and the other exit from the neighborhood is several blocks south, so this is clearly a much traveled stretch of road for children going to school. I would imagine that the corner a few houses from his home would be a busy school bus stop as well. This seems like an area full of young families, and while I was there for a few minutes, I seen numerous children. There is also a park type area behind his house, leading to a large parking lot and a golf course just to the south. Below, you can see a map of the area and a picture of the house.

Home Sweet Home

Last question… If a man is so dangerous that he needs not one, but two taxpayer paid escorts whenever he leaves the house, why the hell is he out of jail?

The Brewers blew it again, and with the Cubs win, the Brewers season is over.

Th-th-th-that’s all folks!

Someone forward this post to Sheboygan County Circuit Judge Timothy M. Van Akkeren. A 16 year old girl was raped near down town Milwaukee at a very busy intersection. Once the rapist had his victim in his control, he took her to a secluded location and perpetrated his horrible crime. This Judge Van Akkeren, is what can happen in an instant, when evil people gain control of their victims.

Suspect sought in sexual assault
Milwaukee police are seeking a man suspected of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl after abducting her at gunpoint as she waited for a bus to school.

The girl was waiting at a bus stop at N. 27th St. and W. Juneau Ave. about 6:30 a.m. on Thursday when the suspect approached her in an older model, mid-size, two-door vehicle. It was turquoise in color, according to police.

He exited the vehicle and took the girl at gunpoint to the side of a nearby building, where he sexually assaulted her. He demanded money but did not obtain any, according to police.

The suspect was described as an African American male, about 23- to 28-years-old, 5-feet-8-inches and with a medium build. Police said he had short hair and about three to four days of beard growth. He was wearing a black pull-over hoodie and black pants. He was armed with a handgun.

If this can happen at a busy intersection, just imagine what a pervert can do to a child in a park with plenty of hiding spots.

We have added a new feature here at BadgerBlogger, it is a new Tips line that will allow you to send us an email for news tips or story ideas.

First let me outline how this will be used. We will look into every suggestion, but that does not mean we will run each submission. No tips will ever be posted until we confirm that the story is accurate and in line with the theme of this blog, and be interesting enough for a wider audience. No suggestion is guaranteed to be posted, it will be posted at our discretion. All tips will be fully credited to the tipster, or if you wish to remain anonymous, we will respect that as well.

So if you know of a politician up to something questionable? A judge with an outrageous decision? Do you have a news story that the media isn’t touching on? Perhaps BadgerBlogger.com can shine the light of truth on the situation.

The Tipster link is, and will remain on the right sidebar. If you would like your tip to be directed toward Bruce, Glen or myself, please specify that.

Civic leaders are welcome to use this address for press releases or other contact.

Note to political campaigns and workers: Please do not attempt to use this to smear your political opponents, everything will be researched and if you are found to be attempting to “use us,” you and your candidate will be held responsible.

This one’s for you! Go ahead and talk about anything you think needs discussing.

About a month ago, Badger Blogger received a tip that the mayor of Burlington, Claude Lois, was awarding city contracts to companies which he and several other Aldermen in Burlington owned. We started working the story, and in several interviews, we discovered that Ellen Gabler, one of the new “Watchdog” reporters at the Journal/Sentinel, was already working the story. Frankly, that was fine with us. The deeper we got into the story, the more we realized there was some pretty “unusual” stuff going on in Burlington government. In addition to being the Mayor of Burlington, Mr. Lois is a real estate developer down in Illinois. He’s a pretty powerful guy. While we often criticize the J/S around here, we’ll be the first to admit that they have deeper pockets than we do.

In the story, published in this morning’s J/S, Gabler reveals that Lois’ companies were, in fact, awarded floor coating contracts involving various city facilities. There are some fascinating things which Gabler does not report in the story, however.

Badger Blogger obtained copies of the two competing bids for the Burlington Water Works project. One contractor, Floorcare USA of Waukesha, quoted three different systems of varying qualities, ranging from $ 8,300.00 to about $ 11,000.00. Lois’ company did come in with a lower quote…. around 30 days after Floorcare’s quote for their lowest quality system, and quoted to the exact same verbiage and specifications, even though the project specs had never been published for public bid. Draw your own conclusions.

When Lois’ company ran $ 2,800.00 over their initial bid on the project, unlike most contractors, who would be forced by the customer to eat their misquote, Lois’ company was cheerfully paid. Badger Blogger has in its possession a copy of the check request, where in a handwritten note, a city employee tells the controller the “extra money was for additional grinding”. Wow, $ 2,800.00 is a lot of extra grinding, especially since floor preparation was already built into the original quotation.

Ultimately, the $ 11,122.00 paid to Lois’ company for the project was more than Floorcare USA’s quotation for their best system - almost twice as thick. Which is interesting, given that insiders tell Badger Blogger that the Water Works floor, completed just a little over 2 years ago, is already failing and needs to be replaced. Like the concrete staining on the Riverwalk project, also undertaken by Lois’ company, which has become a source of embarrassment to many residents of Burlington, the Water Works floor is apparently failing far earlier than its intended life cycle.

Oh, and how is it so easy for contractors to get paid on cost overruns (on municipal projects being performed by companies owned by the mayor) in little ‘ol Burlington, WI? One other thing Ms. Gabler left out of the piece… The Budget Officer / Treasurer in the City of Burlington is none other than Bridget Lois, Mayor Lois’ daughter. Might explain why that word “incestuous” keeps popping up in Gabler’s story.

In his Sept 26, 2007 The Marquette Warrior blog, John McAdams has a very interesting post regarding the racial disparity issue as it relates to the Criminal Justice System and specifically the Governor’s Commission to address this issue. This is a very detailed scientific study of the issue to include statistical information as one would expect in such a study. I will also add that it is a study which acknowledges victims as well as offenders. (You may remember from my past posting - and Professor McAdams detailed posting on his blog - on the Gov’s Commission meeting at MATC, that Professor McAdams and I seemed to be the only two people who gave testimony which included speaking out on behalf of victims and that Professor McAdams was somewhat dismissed by members of the Commission who took issue with information he provided from his yet to be published study.)

A few days ago it was reported that Ned Yost would be back next season, but last night, after the Cubs had lost and in a game that we did have a chance to win to draw within one game of the Cubs, Yost brought in a no-name pitcher to throw one pitch, and intentionally beam Albert Pujols in retaliation of Prince Fielder being hit earlier. Yost denies he ordered this “hit” but there isn’t a person around that believes that, of course it was intentional, and it started an inning that blew the game wide open with a 4 run inning and led to another Brewers loss.

Yost made a stupid move (AGAIN) and this one might get him suspended for the rest of the season, and just might cost him his job.

This is good news.

Walker: Pension probe may uncover crimes
Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker said today it appeared crimes were committed in connection with the county’s pension “buyback” program that’s now the subject of an in-house investigation.

“We think some of them are potentially criminal,” Walker said of the buybacks, in which some employees were able to boost their pensions by purchasing service credit based on short stints in part-time or summer jobs worked years or even decades earlier.

Related Articles:

• Another pension scandal brewing in Milwaukee County
• Pension Scandal II — County to seek refunds
• Pension scandal figure, Sue Baldwin has another case thrown out of court
• Pension scandal probe… But not a criminal probe

But I wonder who it is? Maybe somebody who is celebrating his birthday by working on his day off… again? Maybe somebody who had a “really crappy day” yesterday?

Here’s hoping today is better for you, Patrick. Happy Birthday to a blogger who cares deeply about his community. And we all know, the best birthday gift you could hope for is another Brewer victory, combined with another Cubs loss. Go Marlins.

Looks like the UAW has ended its two-day strike against GM. Be careful Ford and Chrysler, the UAW can still get its members to do just about anything… without even thinking about it.