Friday, April 28, 2006

Bucher, van Hollen and Batman

I have been critical of both Republican candidates for Attorney General because they both make it so easy.

Paul Bucher blathers on about raising revenues for the DOJ while what passes for Republican leadership is trying to cap revenue. Then he said he delivered a letter to the current AG, but he really didn't. He held it up for cameras near her office and then published it. Meanwhile he promises to spend money like a drunken sailor to recreate task forces and new offices which duplicate other efforts already underway.

Van Hollen, in the meantime, has made terrorism the main plank in his platform. His release yesterday to clarify his statements from earlier in the week only made him sound more harried.
Terrorism is a psychological strategy for gaining political/social ends by
deliberately creating a climate of fear among the civilian population.
Terrorists come in all stripes and shapes, and are both domestic and
foreign.

He then goes on to list the Wisconsin brand of terrorist.
On November 22nd, 24th and again on December 24th of last year, someone placed
pipe bombs in a parking ramp in Madison.
• In 2004, Rajib Mitra was sentenced
to 8 years in prison after my office successfully prosecuted him for hacking
into and disrupting the Madison police radio system. Mitra disrupted the police
radio system up to 21 times between January and August 2003.
• On October 9,
2004, someone caused two power transmission towers in Oak Creek to fall by
loosening and/or removing several bolts from the base of the towers. This
knocked out power to 17,000 customers, including Mitchell International
Airport.
• Between 1984 and 2000 the US Navy’s Project ELF (Extremely Low
Frequency) - was shut down five times by activists who damaged the 28-mile-long
transmitter antennae by cutting down the poles that support it. I should note
here, that as District Attorney of Ashland County I handled prosecutions of
demonstrators accused of trespassing or damage to Navy equipment at the Clam
Lake ELF site.

Nevermind that MPD made clear the pipe bombs were not about terrorism. Nevermind that the Elvish terrorists he describes were American citizens protesting a program they felt was immoral. The Mitra case, while serious, had more to do with a need for attention than any evil intention.
...a psychological strategy for gaining political/social ends by deliberately creating a climate of fear among the civilian population.
That sounds a lot like crying "Wolf" and using the T-word to get elected.

Bucher and van Hollen don't want to be AG. They want to be Batman, a super crimefighter, saving Wisconsin from scourges they can't talk about. They both ignore Wisconsin's long heritage of Consumer Rights and Protections as well as the AG's duty to protect the resources of the state in their care. If you give a child a hammer, everything he sees needs to be pounded. Give these two a lectern and everything they see needs to be arrested.

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