You Gotta Hate That

Tancredo does the hard work of dropping out of the race, swallows his pride to endorse Willard and still doesn't get the picture on the story.



G'bye Tom. We hardly knew ye. No. Really. We hardly knew ye.

Uncontested?

It looks like four one-candidate alder races in April and a one candidate mayoral race as well.

According to city clerk Judy Walton, the election looks like this so
far based on papers that have been filed:

--Mayor Sandy Decker, 143 W. Main St., will seek a second two-year term.

--First district alderman and council president Mason Braunschweig, 590 W. Main St., will seek a second two-year term.

--Fourth district alderman John Sornson, 249 Franklin St., will seek reelection for a two-year term.

--Former mayor and alderwoman Janis Ringhand, 412 Fowler Circle, will run for the second district seat. Current second district alderman Fred Juergens, 401 Badger Drive, has not filed papers yet, but he said he won't seek reelection.

--Third district alderman Tony Wyse, 112 Grove St., has not filed papers yet, but said he plans to seek office again.

--Judge Thomas Alisankus will seek reelection for a four-year term.

Candidates must file papers with Walton by 5 p.m. on Jan. 2 at city
hall, 31 S. Madison St.

I talked with Heidi Carvin last week and we may have only one candidate for the three open seats on the School Board as well. Not so very auspicious is it?

Add to that the fact that Steve Eager isn't running for re-election to District 1 Supervisor and there may not be a need for any candidate forums in the Spring.

Update: It looks as if Karen Aikman will be making a run for her former seat in the 3rd District against Tony Wyse.

Update 2: Janis Ringhand will be busy this Spring running for the Supervisor seat vacated by Steve Eager as well as for 2nd District Alder.

Supervisor Needed

From The Gazette comes a release from the County Board Chair:

Evansville area resident needed on county board

If you want to be a supervisor on the Rock County Board, here's your chance.
A press release from the county:

Richard K. Ott, Chair of the Rock County Board of Supervisors, is seeking persons interested in filling the vacancy in Supervisory District 1, formerly represented by Steve Eager.

District 1 includes the City of Evansville and Ward 1 in the Town of Union. Town of Union Ward 1 covers the area to the south and west of Highway 14, as well as an area between Highway 14 and Cemetery Road, south of Bullard Road. In addition, Ward 1 includes an area to the east of Highway 14 bounded by the Dane County line, Highway 59, and Franklin Road.

State statutes provide that the county board chair, with the confirmation of the county board, is to appoint a person who is a qualified elector and resident of the supervisory district to fill the vacancy. The person appointed will serve the unexpired term until the April 2008 election.

Chair Ott asks that individuals interested in being considered for appointment send him a letter listing their qualifications and expressing why they want to be a County Board Supervisor.

Letters should be sent to:
Richard K. Ott, Chair County Board of Supervisors Rock County Courthouse 51 S. Main Street Janesville, WI 53545

Deadline for submittal of letters is 5 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 11, 2008.

Don't Hide Your Light Under A Bushel

It's time to cut loose! Time to rock out! Time for HANDBELL HERO!

C'mon, Charlie! Hire A Ghost Who Can Spell.

Sometimes even those Pulitzer Prize nominees need to be reminded. The rule for words ending in "Y" is to drop the "y" and add "ies" when making a plural.

THE NANNY'S TARGET DONALD DRIVER
By Charlie Sykes
Story Created: Dec 20, 2007

Even Google Has Its Limits

Some poor soul has wound up on my site twice today because they were searching for "fat lady in hot tub." I'd feel sorry for them but this ain't that kind of blog.

However, if you follow the link that comes up you wind up here. All of that leads me to wonder* if it's Scooter himself doing this search or if it's JBvH. The question remains. Why didn't Scooter plead? He was never that bad a judge of his chances before.

(*Hey, if Frau Bucher can wonder if sundry and various local bloggers are Leo Burt, I can do a little wondering, too.)

Seasonal Disturbance

Campus Police were called to the Memorial Union yesterday to break up a scuffle in the lobby following a Chess Club meeting. Several of the students were bragging about their respective proficiency and a shoving match broke out in the entryway by the news stand.

The police report that it was just another case of Chess nuts boasting in an open foyer.

I apologize. I really do.

The Things You Never Expect To Read

Brittney's little sister is preggers. That? I expected, sort of.

She's keeping the baby. That? I expected

Mom's Christian Parenting book is delayed? That's to be expected.

Not with the boyfriend anymore? I expected that.

"Jamie Lynn plans to raise the baby in her home state of Louisiana "so it can have a normal family life."" Man, I never saw that coming.

Hot New Tech Site

Just in time for Christmas giving. Etch-A-Sketch Technical Support

The Hall of Fame

The Worst Terror Plot Ever! No. Really. C'mon, No Kidding.

Remember when this was a big story? We were supposed to run in circles and genuflect toward Dick Cheney's man-sized safe, for he is the only one to keep us safe.

How did that all turn out? Oh, yeah. One acquittal, six mistrials. Nevermind.

Life Is Fragile

Hold it gently in your hand. Burnish it to a warm glow. Cherish any moment you can share with another.



Cincture of Protection
I weave the cinture of protection
from the nine threads of life:
Peace of mind
Truth of speech,
Timeliness of action
Success of deed,
Prosperity of work.
Health of body,
Courage of spirit,
Compassion of heart,
Wisdom of soul.
These nine threads be my belt wherever I walk

From Celtic Devotional,
Caitlin Matthews

The Naughty List

Nobody is surprised that Jose Canseco is on Mitchell's List. No one is surprised that Ozzie Canseco isn't.

Slammer weighs in on Gagne on another post.

Eleven past and present Brewers? And yet Selig continues his denials. Frankly, I'm speptical.

I think the biggest surpise is Turnbow. I thought these were called performance enhancing drugs.

Now they've announced that Madonna is headed for the Hall of Fame but she's not on the list. I'd have bet money on that one.

Distressing News

Fans of Terry Pratchett know him as a pointedly funny writer who is truly prolific. Now he's facing a challenge that few will face, a rare form of early-onset Alzheimer's. His message to fans shows that his humor is still intact. It ends:

PS I would just like to draw attention to everyone reading the above that
this should be interpreted as 'I am not dead'. I will, of course, be dead
at some future point, as will everybody else. For me, this maybe further
off than you think - it's too soon to tell.I know it's a very human thing to say
"Is there anything I can do", but in this case I would only entertain offers from
very high-end experts in brain chemistry.

Take A Minute. Take A Walk.

Go ahead. Put on your boots and take a quick walk to the other side of the street. Turn back to look at your house.

See the fond memories wafting up from its roof? Feel the warmth of all you've done there, all you've saved there, all you've shared there?

Now remember that it would take a fire fewer than ten minutes to take it all away and that a fire can double in size every minute. That means that in the five minutes it might take your local VFD to dig out the hydrant the fire will have grown by 32 times the size it might have been if you'd taken the time to help a neighbor do the job now.

For yourself and for your community...dig out the hydrants now.

Whadda'ya Think?

43 saves for the year or 60 Day DL by May 10th?

Unfortunate URLs

You should have someone else look at that before you send your check to the hosting company.

h/t The Chief (New on the blogroll)

It's Possible To Be Absolutely Correct and Still Not Have It Taken Well

Paul's use of an idiom is taking away from his message. A bike rider on an uncleared road is a hazard, to themselves and to others. Quite possibly they are well-intentioned but they are still a hazard.

To the bike riders in this week's storm and to Paul I offer the axiom.

No matter how good your cause nor how pure your heart, some days the dragon is going to win.

It's Not...

It's not how much a man makes that his worth is measured against. It's not how much he hoards or spends. You measure the worth of someone to society by how much they give back.

Thank you, Brett.

I Can't Believe We Missed It

Some of you already know that a commenter, James Buss, on Owen Robinson's blog, Boots and Sabers, was arrested after making immoderate comments that were perceived as viable threats against teachers.

I'm still torn over whether Owen did the right thing or not. It would be easy to make a case on either side and a lot of folks have been. I'm not sure how I feel about his actions although I'm fairly certain that I'd roll over just as easily as he did. It just feels a little icky to give someone else up that smoothly, though. I mean, Peter is quoting Rev Niemoller in defense of tater chips and Owen is giving the "Ole" swoosh of his cape for free, political speech.

That Buss was wandering around out on the fringe of rational thought seems to be a safe conclusion. Even Frank Lasee only wants the teachers to be able to do the shooting in our schools. There are those making a lot out of Buss' service as a Union officer and trying to make him out to be some sort of mole for the Left (whoever they are.) They even point out that Buss tried to make his post look as if it came from a conservative by inserting misspellings and bad grammar. (We knew it wasn't true because he hadn't capitalized enough words to be a true righty-nutbar.)

In all of this no one pointed out that he may have been a true self-loathing conservative. Goodness knows there are enough of those running around right now. (Don't anybody read that to say that all conservatives hate themselves. That's not what I said and you know it.) You've got family values types out having gay sex. You have Evangelicals swallowing hard to endorse a pro-abortion, anti-gun serial adulterer. And, locally, you have our own easiest target, a journalist who hates what reporters do, a small-government, anti-teacher government-paid teacher who rails against the excesses of the trial lawyers while sharing a household with one who (some say) is one of the state's most powerful trial lawyers. There's the textbook definition of "internally conflicted."

So, that's a lot more words on top of a bunch already written. Most of mine don't add a whole lot but they did help me work through my thoughts and that's what this blog started out to be. But there is one thing that I think I can add that everyone seems to have missed. These things always endure longest when they have a catchy title or handle. We remember Teapot Dome and Watergate and Whitewater while a thousand smaller scandals have fallen by the wayside. So that the object lessons of this little escapade are not forgotten I propose that we christen it with a snappy moniker all its own:

"The Tale of Buss and Boots"

And A Child Shall Lead Them

The NYT tells us why a candidate shouldn't rush to tell someone what he thinks they want to hear.



“Who is your favorite author?” Aleya Deatsch, 7, of West Des Moines
asked Mr. Huckabee in one of those posing-like-a-shopping-mall-Santa
moments.

Mr. Huckabee paused, then said his favorite author was Dr.
Seuss.

In an interview afterward with the news media, Aleya said she was
somewhat surprised. She thought the candidate would be reading at a higher
level.

“My favorite author is C. S. Lewis,” she said.