Fraley’s Daily Takes

John Nichols wasn’t at the taping this week, but they found another liberal to play the race card.

Yet again, I had something to say about that.
I also didn’t rhyme like Stu Levitan, my aging Hippie counterpart, but I was still able to make my points about Obama’s ‘Energy Plan You Can Fit in Your Pocket’ (TM), Paris Hilton, The Packers’ PR woes, the Veepstakes, and Louis Butler’s continuing love affair with criminal defense lawyers.

And James Wigderson makes some good points analyzing the show over at FoxPolitics.net.

Breaking…

Workers registering Milwaukee voters for a liberal group turned in hundreds of fabricated forms and many more that were incomplete, raising fears among Republican Party leaders of fraud at the polls.

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now fired about a dozen canvassers and alerted the commission to most of the problematic forms. The election commission’s director, Sue Edman, said the workers lost their ability to register voters, and the commission is making sure no incomplete or fabricated forms are entered into the voter database.

Six canvassers have been referred to the district attorney’s office for potential criminal charges, she said.

Of course, imposing stricter requirements on voting, such as requiring voters use a photo id to prove their identity and address would be disenfranchisement, right?

What about the voters whose votes are countered by fraudulent votes at the polls. Are they not disenfranchised?

According to Edman:

Between 1,500 and 2,000 of the registration forms submitted were incomplete while “maybe a couple hundred” were clearly fabricated, she said.

“It was obvious to us that some of them were just making up information to complete the cards,” Edman said.

If any fake registration makes it onto the poll lists, there is no check at the polling place. You just say you are the fabricated voter at the preregistered address and you get a ballot.

Yet, liberal interest groups and their enablers in the media and blogosphere will continue to deny that election tampering is a problem.

And so it continues…

Bruce at BadgerBlogger has broken a heck of a story.

Several weeks ago, BadgerBlogger was sent a photograph of a worker emptying the waste by-product from a maintenance machine into one of the storm sewers located on the access road into Discovery World at Pier Wisconsin, just off of Harbor Drive, and steps away from Lake Michigan. The storm sewer shown in the photograph is just adjacent to the entrance to Discovery World’s underground parking garage.

An investigative chain-of-events ensued, with e-mails being circulated among high-ranking members of city and county government, an offshoot of BadgerBlogger’s inquiries. Various county supervisors and Milwaukee County Parks officials set out to answer the question: Who is this mystery employee, what is this machine he’s operating, and why is he emptying its waste directly into a city storm sewer?

At the same time, through industry experts, BadgerBlogger confirmed that this past June, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) purchased a Tennant model M20 ride-on floor scrubber for its recently developed Lakeshore State Park, just south of Discovery World. The machine, a staple in many manufacturing facilities, was purchased for the sole purpose of cleaning goose feces off the walkways in the area in and around the state park.

BadgerBlogger confirmed that the DNR maintains an office for the state park within the Discovery World complex, and furthermore had struck a deal with the museum to allow the DNR to store the machine in a space in the Discovery World parking garage, in exchange for the DNR using the machine to clean the parking garage floor on an “as needed” basis, as a courtesy to the museum.

Meanwhile, back in county government, the e-mails continued to circulate; one by one, county officials sought to dispel the possibility that the person in the photo was a county parks employee. Then, last Friday, BadgerBlogger obtained an e-mail sent to County Supervisor Gerry Broderick (who represents the area around Discovery World at the county level) by Discovery World President and CEO Joel Brennan. In the e-mail, Brennan (among others) in writing identifies the person in the photo as a DNR employee.

Noted conservative columnist Robert Novak has just retired immediately after having been diagnosed with brain cancer.

Robert Novak has announced his immediate retirement following the diagnosis of a brain tumor, a prognosis the Sun-Times’ political columnist describes as “dire.”

“The details are being worked out with the doctors this week, but the tentative plan is for radiation and chemotherapy,” Novak said.

The compassionate leftist netroots (you know, the moveon.org, dem underground activists who make up Obama’s fundraising and messiah-fawning base) offer their compassionate takes for all to see.

• Who knew spewing lies and hate could actually kill you? Instant karma’s gonna get you.
• Tony Snow didn’t have an epiphany - I doubt a grouchy prick like Novak will either
• We are all mortal, and we reap what we sow…nuff said.
• Ya know, I really, really hate being this way, BUT, GOOD F%$#ING RIDDANCE!!

That’s just the tip of this iceberg.

I share the same disgust for anyone who had the same kind of sentiment to Senator Kennedy’s diagnosis.

Disgusting.

Our thoughts and prayers to Mr. Novak and his family.

We take a look at why Obama is doing well in Wisconsin, revel in the declining crime rate in Milwaukee and Nichols praises Obama for solving the energy crisis and for strengthening the dollar.
Oh, and I make an incredibly astute pro wrestling reference.

Good grief, even liberals have to agree this is getting a bit silly.

They think ‘The One’ has already ascended.

This excerpt from a report on Obama’s upcoming public rally in Germany.

“It is not going to be a political speech,” said a senior foreign policy adviser, who spoke to reporters on background. “When the president of the United States goes and gives a speech, it is not a political speech or a political rally.”

True enough. But as one reporter noted:

“But he is not president of the United States.”

Yet the media love bombs continue.

Still waiting for one of the Big 3 anchors or one of the tools at Hardball or Countdown to note the irony that the opponent of the surge in Iraq can now safely go to Iraq and complain about the need for a surge in Afghanistan…

Does use of the word ‘thug’ have racial overtones?

James Rowen says absolutely, and in all cases.

At least one self-described “hard-boiled” righty blogger can’t stop playing the race card.

That’s the only conclusion you can come to when “Thug” - - a word that worked itself into the local vocabulary following particularly violent crimes, and especially during former Ald. Michael McGee’s legal troubles - - suddenly becomes Holloway’s middle name, too.

Apparently on at least one right-wing blog from the south Milwaukee suburbs - - and so far I’m not seeing anyone on the conservative side of the blogosphere take the race-baiter to task - - Holloway’s ‘crime’ was supporting a sales tax increase, in a public policy debate, at the Milwaukee County Board.

Which he chairs, as the Supervisors’ elected leader.

In other words, where he does his job.

Yes, readers outside greater Milwaukee and beyond, this is part of the heavily-racialized public debate that is endured here.

The blogger, “No Runny Eggs” [yes, that is the blog’s name], wrote this:

“Charlie Sykes has the text of a press release from Milwaukee County Board Chair Lee “Thug” Holloway purporting to claim that, even with a 1-percentage-point increase in the sales tax in Milwaukee County, it would still be “cheaper” to shop in Milwaukee County than in surrounding counties.”

That’s playing the race card?

Weak.

Perhaps there are other reasons Steve at No Runny Eggs calls Holloway a thug?

It has nothing to do with taxes, or race.

Rowen owes Eggleston an apology.

For what it’s worth, you can blame Joe Wineke for this post.

At yesterday’s taping of WisOpinion: The Show, the Chairman of the State Democratic Party said my website sucked and he razzed me for not updating it for a month.

No news there. Between a labor-intensive new project (more on that below) and a pending move, I’ve been busy and uninspired to post here.

That changes today.

Yesterday, the Wisconsin Institute for Leadership, the free-market/pro-liberty group for which I serve as executive director, issued a press release. In it, we urged Wisconsinites to ask the Governor to call for a special session to end the Minimum Mark Up Law.

[Madison, Wisc.] Gasoline prices in Wisconsin could be dramatically reduced if the state’s arcane Minimum Mark Up Law was repealed. The Wisconsin Institute for Leadership (WIL) is urging Governor Doyle to call a Special Session of the state legislature next week to reduce gas prices here.

“This is a dumb law that hurts families in Wisconsin,” said WIL Executive Director Brian Fraley. “With gas at more than four bucks a gallon, now more than ever, our elected officials should move to repeal this law or explain why they support this constraint on the free market.”

Well, the folks at the liberal One Wisconsin Now got their undies in a twist and tried to deconstruct WIL’s motivation for addressing high gas prices in Wisconsin. They accused me and members of the WIL board of being motivated by our association with one particular lobbyist in Madison.

News flash for the folks at One Wisconsin: I first worked in Madison’s Capitol in 1992. Since then I’ve hired, worked along side, worked for and in many cases worked against just about every politically-involved moderate and conservative up there.

Nice attempt to change the subject, guys. Clearly, liberal special interest groups do not want to address ways to lower gas prices in Wisconsin. Yesterday, OWN proved once again that paranoia and a five minute Google search is a dangerous combination. Their accusations are unfounded and untrue and are based on the same flimsy intellectual foundation as their support for a $15 billion takeover of health care in Wisconsin (the largest would-be state tax hike in the history of the United Sates of America.)

Back to the point: The fact remains that the minimum mark up on gasoline is a free market impediment that costs Wisconsin consumers. Period.

And WIL vows to fight for free market, pro liberty policies whether liberal interest groups like OWN like it or not.

I’d like to thank Joe Wineke for the kick in the pants and the folks at One Wisconsin for providing wild accusations that served as the subject matter for the post.