And $17 Million later...

Wouldn't it be great if Abbott Labs actually decided to build in Kenosha County?

Even now, Pleasant Prairie is giving away the farm, but still no commitment from Abbott Labs.

The Village of Pleasant Prairie taxpayers have spent $17 million attempting to attract them, and even today, Abbott Labs will not make a commitment.

$17 million for a village the size of Pleasant Prairie is boatload of cash. Plus, the state has committed money to helping develop the land for Abbott. Millions of our tax dollars sits in the hands of the Kenosha Area Business Association, waiting for Abbott to make a move. Think of what this money could be doing for Wisconsinites, instead of sitting and waiting on Abbott Labs?

As much as I like to beat up on the government in Pleasant Prairie, clearly these guys are doing everything in their power to make this happen for Pleasant Prairie.

Just last night, the village board approved rezoning the land for pharmaceutical and health care use only. Basically, this protects anyone else from coming in and undercutting Abbott Labs. They are now protected- still no commitment from Abbott.

As stated in the Kenosha News today, this is not a normal practice for the Village to do-

"In this village, we have typically rezoned land for development only when we have had the final, detailed development plans and the final construction contracts on the table."

The problem here is that the reputation of Abbott Labs proceeds them. Just ask the folks in Antioch, Illinois. Those folks also believed that Abbott was going to bring thousands of jobs to their area also. Well over 10 years later, Abbott is now trying to sell the land. Or perhaps they have already sold it- that was a couple of years ago.

Either way, Antioch did everything that Pleasant Prairie is doing now- then they got punched in the gut after spending millions.

The question is, how long of a wait is reasonable for Abbott to make a decision? It has already been two years.

This is prime real estate sitting on I-94. That land could be used for so many other developments.

How patient should taxpayers be until they start demanding answers from Abbott?

Well, we are two years in and counting.

The Huckabee collapse continues...

I know that one of the national poll triumphantly declared Mike Huckabee as polling ahead of Giuliani nationally yesterday.

All I can say is that the polls in Iowa are telling a different story.

The combined poll numbers by Real Clear Politics showed Huckabee with a +8 lead two days ago, which I highlighted in this post.

Yesterday, polling averages showed Huckabee down to a +5.5 point lead.

Today, Huckabee is down to a +3.8 average polling data lead.

Just last week, Huckabee had at least a +13 lead. Huckabee's numbers are going in the wrong direction.

Romney, McCain and Paul are moving up.

Here is a link to a chart where you can track the Iowa numbers more closely. The chart is clearly showing drop in support for Huckabee.

Yes, I am a numbers geek.

I have been fascinated with numbers for years. I think they tell a powerful story.

Still even with my fascination with numbers, polls never tell the entire story. Polling numbers can be wrong. Pollsters can be wrong. We should have learned that from the 2004 elections as the media declared John Kerry the victor.

Polls only show a trend, they cannot predict the outcome.

There is one pollster I trust above all others, that is Rasmussen. Their numbers have most closely matched the finally outcome in many tight races. In 2004, they final numbers were within .5% of the actual results, calling Bush the winner. No one else was anywhere near this close.

As of yesterday, Rasmussen only shows Huckabee with a +1 advantage.

You can track Rasmussen's daily presidential numbers here.

For those on the Democrats side, Rasmussen is reporting that Clinton has made a comeback in Iowa and across the nation. She now leads in Iowa by +4 and nationally by +18.

Fire at White House Executive Building

Fire at White House Executive Building


I am a little curious on how long it will take the liberals to start accusing Cheney of starting the fire on purpose to destroy sensitive documents.

I am pretty sure the Congress will insist on a full Congressional investigation with possible impeachment charges to follow.

After all, it was Cheney's ceremonial officies!!!!

UW bombing, 37 years later...

Just within the last year, I met a gentleman at work who went to UW shortly after the bombing in 1970.

An event that he bitterly recalls as he speaks of the current anti-war movement.

Over the last several weeks, the anti-war movement from the 60s and 70s in Wisconsin has gotten some blog attention.

Then just yesterday, in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ran a story about a current official still looking for Leo Burt, who is still a fugitive from law. The lead did not pan out.

Interestingly, Jessica McBride is pointing out the remaining remnants from that era and their influence on today's Wisconsin lefty blogosphere.

Is Huckabee crashing already?

The following is my opinion and observations.

A little over a week ago, Huckabee had a pretty substantial lead in the Iowa polls. His average was about +13.5.

As of today, Huckabee's average is now down to 8%.

In fact is the latest single poll conducted just yesterday by Insider Advantage, Romney was already back up by +3.

Just like in 2004- Huckabee seems to be following the same path as Howard Dean. From what I remember, Howard Dean peaked about 3-4 weeks before the Iowa caucus. About 2-3 weeks out, Dean's lead was down to single digits. By about 1 week out, Dean's lead was gone. By election day, Dean was way behind and fell to third in the polling. We all know what happened after that. Complete collapse.

To you Huckabee supporters, the signs are not good.

To you Romney supporters, this is good. Romney needs a good showing in Iowa, followed by a decent size victory in New Hampshire to launch him forward.

To you Thompson supporters, this is good. Thompson has dedicated himself to Iowa and will remain there for the most part until election day. This will drive his numbers up, possible to a second place showing. Thompson needs a decent showing in Iowa to continue.

To you Giuliani supporters, never fear. Giuliani never intended to win Iowa. Giuliani appears to plan on showing big on Feb 5th- when all the big guns are voting. Possible Florida is where he plans on really starting the steam roller before Feb 5th. However, it may all backfire. We will see.

To you McCain supporters, pray. No seriously, just pray. Unless something unexpected happens in the next few days, you might need a miracle. McCain does not appear to be showing any strong support in any state that I can see. I could be wrong. Pray that I am wrong.

To the Paul supporters, gosh, I love you guys. You are by far the most enthusiastic bunch out there right now. Who knows? Anything can happen in politics.

On this same note, the Democrat race in Iowa has also shifted. Clinton seems to have stopped the bleeding and as of today, Obama is back to only a +1 in the polls. That is within the margin of error.

I believe that the Clinton folks may have gotten the message that Hillary will still have to work to become the nominee. Nobody is going to hand her the nomination.

Edwards is doing even better in Iowa. However, a second place finish will not do, unless it is very close. Edwards needs to win Iowa- he seems to be trailing in the other states by a wide margin. He needs Iowa.

Government spends too much money

I don't care how many ways our government tries to spin it, Wisconsin government spends too much money.

A recent survey done by WPRI shows that a walloping 62% of Wisconsinites believes their government is flat out spending too much money.

I am not sure how our government can continue to justify this type of majority of people feeling that the government is spending too much money and yet, they continue to raise taxes, so they can spend more.

Surely our government recognizes that our state is running a deficit right now and yet they continue to spend more and more.

Governor Jim Doyle cannot balance a budget.

In fact, I am not sure if he really wants to balance the budget.

In the next few weeks, Governor Jim Doyle will stand up in front of our state and once again make the claim that he balanced the budget. He will also make the claim that Wisconsin families are better off because of his leadership.

Democrat legislators will nod their heads in agreement and applaud, never once paying attention to how Wisconsin families really feel about their government.

Clearly, Wisconsin families believe their government is spending too much of their money.

So how do we fix this problem?

How do we finally get through to our government that we have had enough?

Ultimately, we as taxpayers, get the government that we elect.

Clearly we continue to elect officials that promise to stop spending taxpayer money frivolously, but who never follow through on that promise.

As voters we have known for years that we have this problem. Yet, when election season rolls around we blindly believe an ad we see on television or even something we read in the newspaper.

We let these same politicians convince us that the most important issue during the election is stem cell research or something similar. We let these politicians convince us that we HAVE to publicly finance stuff like stem cell research, even though the private firms are more than willing to continue to do it.

It is almost like we put blinders on and refuse to see what is really happening.

What would really be really interesting is see what area of government the taxpayers feel our legislators are overspending on.

Is it education or health care or perhaps an "all of the above" answer.

What I do know is that until we are willing to hold our government accountable during elections, this vicious cycle will never end.

"Paygo" is gone

Where did "Paygo" go?

I don't know, ask the Democrats.

What is Paygo?

Paygo is a commitment made to voters by the Democrats when they took over after the 2006 elections to offset any new spending or tax cuts with either tax increases or cuts in spending.

Not even one year into their own rule of pay as you go, the Democrats have to break their own commitment they made to the country.

In order to fix the massive AMT problem, they have to waive the Paygo rule-

Michael Barone- Real Clear Politics

The paradox is that the same Democrats who want to increase top-bracket income and capital-gains tax rates are desperately eager to spare relatively high earners from the AMT -- so desperate that Senate Democrats agreed to waive the "paygo" rule they reinstated when they took control.

Paygo requires that a tax cut be offset by a tax increase or a spending cut of corresponding dollar amounts. But when the Senate early this month passed its $50 billion AMT "patch" exempting 230 million taxpayers from the AMT for one year, it waived the paygo rule.

House Democrats are simmering, but they will probably have to go along. There's a process argument for waiving paygo, which is that future AMT revenues are fictitious because no Congress will allow the tax to go into effect. But it's nonetheless embarrassing for Democrats to renounce a rule they adopted as a guarantee of their fiscal responsibility.

The reason Democrats risked this embarrassment is that the AMT tends to fall on voters in places with high state and local government spending and taxes -- Democratic places like Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Maryland and California.

continued...

So either the break the Democrats break a promise or they raise taxes on $230 million Americans.

Either way, they will be seen as having miserably failed.

Got milk?

Someone just emailed this to me-

Political Science Simplified


DEMOCRATIC
You have two cows.Your neighbor has none. You feel guilty for being successful.

REPUBLICAN
You have two cows.Your neighbor has none. So?

SOCIALIST
You have two cows.The government takes one and gives it to your neighbor. You form a cooperative to tell him how to manage his cow.

COMMUNIST
You have two cows.The government seizes both and provides you with milk. You wait in line for hours to get it.It is expensive and sour.

CAPITALISM, AMERICAN STYLE
You have two cows.You sell one, buy a bull, and build a herd of cows.

BUREAUCRACY, AMERICAN STYLE
You have two cows.Under the new farm program the government pays you to shoot one, milk the other, and then pours the milk down the drain.

AMERICAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.You sell one, lease it back to yourself and do an IPO on the 2nd one. You force the two cows to produce the milk of four cows. You are surprised when one cow drops dead. You spin an announcement to the analysts stating you have downsized and are reducing expenses. Your stock goes up.

FRENCH CORPORATION
You have two cows.You go on strike because you want three cows.. You go to lunch and drink wine.Life is good.

JAPANESE CORPORATION
You have two cows.You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk. They learn to travel on unbelievably crowded trains. Most are at the top of their class at cow school.

GERMAN CORPORATION
You have two cows. You engineer them so they are all blond, drink lots of beer, give excellent quality milk, and run a hundred miles an hour. Unfortunately they also demand 13 weeks of vacation per year.

ITALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows but you don't know where they are.While ambling around, you see a beautiful woman.You break for lunch. Life is good.

RUSSIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.You have some vodka. You count them and learn you have five cows. You have some more vodka.You count them again and learn you have 42 cows. The Mafia shows up and takes over however many cows you really have.

Why would the Democrats travel down this road again?

Apparently, it was not enough that John Kerry looked like a flip flopper on 50% of the issues, the Democrats have decided that the entire party should look like a bunch of flip floppers.

That is what is will take for the Democrats to actually impeach VP Dick Cheney.

One of the reasons the Democrats believe that it is wise to impeach Cheney is because of what the VP has said about Iran.

Adding to the sense of urgency, the members argue that "recent revelations have shown that the administration including Vice President Cheney may have again manipulated and exaggerated evidence about weapons of mass destruction -- this time about Iran's nuclear capabilities."

During the 2006 elections, one of the Democrat's main themes as a party was to get troops out of Iraq and that the real threat to America was IRAN.

Let's just examine for a moment some of the RECENT comments made by the Democrats two front running Presidential candidates had to say on Iran-

Hillary Clinton on January 18,2006-

I believe that we lost critical time in dealing with Iran because the White House chose to downplay the threats and to outsource the negotiations.

Did Hillary actually accuse the President's administration of downplaying the threats from Iran?????

Now, Tammie Baldwin and her comrades believe that the threats from Iran were exaggerated.

Even more recently, Presidential Candidate Barack Obama this to say-

Barack Obama March 7, 2007-

Obama said global leaders must do whatever it takes to stop Iran from enriching uranium and acquiring nuclear weapons. He called Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad "reckless, irresponsible and inattentive" to the day-to-day needs of the Iranian people.

To look tough in the war on terror, Presidential Candidate Barak Obama even went so far as to say that he would bomb Iran, if necessary-

Barack Obama Sept. 25, 2004-

U.S. Senate candidate Barack Obama suggested Friday that the United States one day might have to launch surgical missile strikes into Iran and Pakistan to keep extremists from getting control of nuclear bombs.

Now, you would think that with a little common sense, the Democrats would figure out that these statements by their own leaders are pretty incriminating against their own Presidential candidates.

But just in case that is enough evidence to go ahead and start impeachment proceedings against their own Democrat leaders at the same time they are attempting to impeach Cheney, here is some more evidence-

Nancy Pelosi-

One that immediately comes to mind is Iran, which is a proliferator, an exporter of terrorism to the Middle East, a threat to its neighbors, [and] is developing weapons of mass destruction.

Hum? "developing weapons of mass destruction"?

Hey, she said it, not me!

My guess is that we could find tons of Democrats who have made statements about Iran's threats.

Of course, we could also look at the statements made by the IRANIAN leader-

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

The president of Iran again lashed out at Israel on Friday and said it was "heading toward annihilation," just days after Tehran raised fears about its nuclear activities by saying it successfully enriched uranium for the first time.

Really the Democrats have to know that this stuff will come back to haunt them.

They can once again claim that the Administration misled them.

Holy cow, they have already used that excuse once.

Would the American people believe that the Democrats would be so stupid as to fall for this again?

An even if they were that stupid to fall for it again, would the American people then trust the Democrats to keep them safe when they cannot even read the intelligence reports they receive every single day?
Better yet, are the Democrats so stupid as to continue to pursue this when they know that their own top two Presidential candidates would get creamed because they are pursuing a vendetta?

The Democrats that are pushing this all but admit they are doing this because Clinton was impeached for far less, in their minds-

They argued that "a Democratic Congress can show that it takes its constitutional authority seriously and hold a sober investigation, which will stand in stark contrast to the kangaroo court convened by Republicans for President Clinton. In fact, the worst legacy of the Clinton impeachment -- where the GOP pursued trumped up and insignificant allegations -- would be that it discourages future Congresses from examining credible and significant allegations of a constitutional nature when they arise."

Clearly the Democrats believe that it is payback time and they have a very short period of time left to get the Republicans for what they did to their hero, President Bill "drop 'em drawers" Clinton.

Apparently these Democrats are so vindictive that they would even hurt their own presidential candidates by pursuing this. Based on the comments their own candidates have made about the threat of Iran, they would get hurt in this vendetta.

Should be interesting if Pelosi even let's them continue forward with this.

We will see.

Ryan Grant: Clearly he does not do it for the money

I have become a huge fan of Ryan Grant. In today's MJS, there is a piece on the struggles this young man has had to face in order to make it in the NFL.

The young man is only 256 yards away from 1000 yards this year. He will only have started in half of this year's games.

Wouldn't it be great if he made it to 1000 yards? Surely the man does not get paid much more than the league minimum- he was pulled off the practice squad in New York.

The Packers have found a running game. Grant has found a home in Green Bay's backfield.

Packer fans have found a running back we can cheer for.

Welcome to the Dark Side

I always feel guilty every time I complain about the winter weather.

Not today.

Welcome to the Dark Side, Patrick.

I have had enough of this white stuff to last me the rest of winter.

Can you hear me now?

For years, taxpayers have been screaming for help in Wisconsin. Maybe now they are finally getting the message.

The LaCrosse Tribune is asking:

Is a taxpayers’ rebellion coming?

Mike Huebsch is correct when he stated:

“I think they (taxpayers) are being punished,” Huebsch said.

Maybe a rebellion is in order.

After this post, we all know what is happening in Kenosha.

It is time for us to rise up and make sure our legislators finally hear us on the tax issue.

Checks and Balances

Sure, the Congress cannot manage to pass simple legislation as they are required to do, but they can carry out a vendetta against Cheney.

The Madison Times-

U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Madison, and two other senior members of the House Judiciary Committee have called for the immediate opening of impeachment hearings for Vice President Richard Cheney.

The great thing about elections is that we, the people, are the check and balance in our system of government, not a US Representative.

I care about baseball's drug use

Perhaps I am naive, but the Mitchell report has really gotten me angry.

I know that many others are treating this with a ho-hum attitude. Others have also said that they know that there are drugs in baseball and they don't really care or they are numb to it by now.

AP-

After years of BALCO and Barry Bonds, fans like Burman are almost numb to news that yet another player took a pharmaceutical short cut. The Mitchell Report might have been bigger and more noteworthy, but its shock value wore off a long time ago.

Well, I care. I expect better. I expect these so called professionals to end this practice immediately.

I don't believe that it will end immediately, especially since we now know that there is still no way to test against the human growth hormone.

I paid good money last year to go about a dozen games, easily dropping $350 to $400. I was also planning on purchasing a package of tickets for next season. I am not sure anymore.

Even though others do not care, I have soured on the game.

If I could only see a little remorse from those accused of cheating, I could move on a little faster. Instead all we hear from these guys is denial after denial.

If Bud Selig could least attempt to be little apologetic to the fans of the game, it might be easier to move on.

So far, none of these things have happened.

Why should I dump my hard earned money into watching a baseball game, when all I can sit there and do is wonder who on the field is doing drugs?

Boo Hoo say the Democrats

Today, I am seriously getting a kick out of reading liberal op-ed journalist, E.J. Dionne.

What a riot.

Dionne makes excuse after excuse after excuse as to why the Democrats have failed to get anything done this year.

Liberal Dionne is boo-hooing about how terribly unfair it is that Democrats cannot get anything accomplished.

Of course, every single one of these excuses, Republicans are to blame for the failure of the Democrats


Real Clear Politics-

In an ideal world, Democrats would pass a lot of legislation that Bush would either have to sign or veto. The president would have to take responsibility for his choices. The House has passed many bills, but the Republican minority has enormous power in the Senate to keep the legislation from ever getting to the president's desk. This creates the impression that action is being stalled through some vague and nefarious congressional "process."

Not only can a minority block action in the Senate, but the Democrats' nominal one-vote majority is frequently not a majority at all. A few maverick Democrats often defect, and the party runs short-handed when Sens. Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Chris Dodd and Barack Obama are off running for president.

Perhaps some of these liberal editorialist are beginning to see what the rest of America has seen for months. It is a failure in leadership. Democrats have failed to prove they can lead America in a positive direction.

Global warming: Not quite the impact they were shooting for...

How many carbon credits were used for this global warming meetings?

Healthy Wisconsin just won't die

Of course the Democrats will continue to push Healthy Wisconsin.

Wausau Daily Herald-

State Senate Democrats plan to reintroduce a version of the near-universal health insurance plan for Wisconsinites early next year, Sen. Russ Decker said Thursday.

The Senate majority leader said legislators are rewriting parts of the Healthy Wisconsin bill to ease the burden on small business owners and families earning two incomes before they bring the bill back to the committee.

Unfortunately, even with the Democrats attempt to ease the burden on small businesses and two income families, there is still the problem with $15 Billion in income tax increases.

Doping in Baseball

Should Gagne be fired from the Brewers?

Should Turnbow be fired from the Brewers?

Take the poll and feel free to comment in this thread.

Baseball's dirty little secrets

Names are beginning to roll out on the investigation into steroids in baseball. 60-80 names should be released in the next couple of hours.

Rumor has it that there are MVP and All stars on the list.

The first two names have been leaked.

Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte are on the list.

Is it time to move?

Wow, the Kenosha News has pulled together this chart showing approximately how much more in taxes the average Kenosha county resident is paying this year compared to last year. Kenosha county residents this is how much your taxes have gone up in one year:

Brighton/Westosha : $348.11

Brighton/Union Grove: $324.24

Brighton/Wheatland: $382.78

Bristol/Westosha: $160.16

Bristol/Paris: $304.50

Bristol/Salem: $409.18

Kenosha/Bristol: $59.05

Kenosha: $138.13

Kenosha/Paris: $146.56

Paddock Lake: $123.94

Paris: $160.07

Even more stunning than these numbers is the amount that property taxes have gone up in Kenosha since 1998:

$1049



Kenosha has seen a 48.5% increase in property taxes in the last nine years.