Northwoods View is Moving!

I've got an exciting announcement - the Northwoods View is finally moving to its new home on the web.  Blogger has been good to me but there are still a wide variety of limitations that I need to remove to be truly effective as a political commentator/blogger.

By moving this blog I'll have more flexibility to cover events in real time (like the gun show later today), do a wider variety of things like video posts, podcasts, and other formats, and offer more interaction with my readers (one of the features that is on the coming soon list are forums and email newsletters).

The new address is http://northwoodsview.info.  Be sure to update your bookmarks / RSS subscriptions.

ACTION ALERT: Protect What Little Prosperity We Have Left

It seems that today the Democrats, especially Obey and Kagen, have no idea how an economy grows and prospers. They seem to think that excessive government spending and being lapdogs to the Wicked Witch of the West is going to bring us all prosperity, peace and joy.

What it is going to bring us taxes, depression (both emotionally and fiscally) and an unprecedented dependence on government. Pretty soon the government is going to decide what insurance you have to buy, what doctor you can see, what medications you can take and what color your underwear is going to be.

Think I'm messing with you? I am not messing with you. (Sadly ripped off from Glengary Glenross). Obey and Kagen voted for the new health care bill which will raise taxes and reduce benefits.

Here's a brief economics 101 lesson - in a capitalist society prosperity comes from the creation of profits through business activities. Companies employ people and pay their wages/salaries. These people then go out, spend the money with other companies who then pay their employees.

Economics is a cycle - profits flow freely from company to person to company to person over and over again. When you raise taxes on companies or people (or both like this current Congress, which is the opposite of progress, likes to do) you reduce the profits that can flow onto the next company and therefore the next person.

Second lesson in economics - if you spend more than you earn, bankruptcy will eventually follow. As Charles Dickens wrote in David Copperfield, "Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pound ought and six, result misery.".

Sustainable growth and spending, at least in the real world, comes from taking in money and then spending less than we take in.  Consider this paragraph from the CBO's analysis of Obama's 2011 budget proposal.

Under the President’s budget, debt held by the public would grow from $7.5 trillion (53 percent of GDP) at the end of 2009 to $20.3 trillion (90 percent of GDP) at the end of 2020, about $5 trillion more than under the assumptions in the baseline. Net interest would more than quadruple between 2010 and 2020 in nominal dollars (without an adjustment for inflation); it would swell from 1.4 percent of GDP in 2010 to 4.1 percent in 2020. - CBO Analysis, page VII

People, it's time to wake up and stop being sheep following a wolf in shepard's clothing.  We need to exercise our own critical thinking skills because I now that we all, being intelligent people, have them.

A republic in which its citizens take no action to prevent government injustice is just as bad as a dictatorship.  Stop being slaves to the media and take part in this action alert - it's the first step to exercising your few remaining rights as an American citizen.

Action Alert Details
Write a letter to Congressman Obey (7th district) or Congressman Kagen (8th district).  Tell them a little bit about yourself and any financial hardship you have suffered during these last two years that we were supposed to be getting "change we can believe in".

At the end of the letter, copy and paste in this text (if we all have the same message we will be able to be more effective).

Congressman Obey/Kagen, as a voter within your district I am asking that you put a stop to excessive Washington spending before our country goes bankrupt from the overwhelming debt load.  Vote no to the health care reconciliation bill and allow Republicans to participate in the debate.

Make sure you change the name to the appropriate Congressman.  I'll be posting a comment with a link to my letter soon as I finish writing it.

Addresses
Congressman Dave Obey

First Star Plaza
401 5th Street, Suite 406A
Wausau, Wisconsin 54403-5468 

Congressman Steve Kagen, MD
333 West College Ave.
Appleton, WI 54911 

First YouTube Appearance - Why Dan Mielke Does not Deserve to be a Republican

Well I finally took the leap and recorded my first YouTube video.  Check it out and let me know what you think.

Mielke Continues to Embarrass Himself, Republican Party in Losing Primary Battle

I've written countless times about the not so appealing candidate Dan Mielke.  In fact, I've written about him so much that I should change the name of this blog to The Mielke View.  But try as I might I cannot escape this topic when there are so many gems to report on. 

During the Americans for Prosperity event Mielke and Rachel Duffy got into an argument.  Mielke was, in my opinion, knowingly stating materials that misrepresented Sean's position on gay marriage - something both Sean and I oppose.  Rachel, from the accounts I have received, wanted Mielke to remove the materials and when he didn't she got a bit feisty and tried to remove one of the false signs.

That's when Mielke "violently grabbed" her arm (as reported by the WisPolitics blog here).  Now let me remind you that Rachel is neither a large frightening person or a physical threat being 8.5 months pregnant.  I don't care what the deal is - you never lay your hand on a woman, especially a pregnant woman.  I think that this is just another tactic of Mielke playing double agent for the Democratic party and trying to hurt Sean's campaign against Obey.

Later Mielke called 911 - why?  Because he got in an argument with a woman half his size and twice the man that he is (the last part being my personal opinion which I feel is widely shared).  His stated reason from the WisPolitics blog is "I was not trying to create an incident. My goal was not to turn this into a political thing".  I can smell a rat here.

I think that Mielke called the police, who left without arresting anyone, so he could generate some publicity and further damage the Republican party.  In fact, I am going to do some digging to see if I can come up with any connection between Obey and Mielke because I have a strong sense that Mielke is simply running to hurt Sean after Sean won the district endorsement.  To me, this speaks strongly of a Mielke-Obey connection somewhere (perhaps donors in common?).

In other news, Mielke is alleged to have violated campaign law.  Get that story here.

Life Doesn't Have a Reset Button

So here I am listening to the Chatterbox WAV file from the Grand Theft Auto 3 video game because well... I'm a geek like that.  It's a mock talk radio call-in show and one of the "callers" was talking about how her son's dog got hit by a truck and how he was frantically looking for the reset button.

"Life doesn't have a reset button."

There is really some wisdom here.  There is.  Especially when we apply that quote to the health care debacle that we currently face.  People may not realize it but we are at the edge of a massive piece of legislation that strips away our freedoms, promotes immoral behavior and will alter our lives forever.

We've been debating health care since the Clinton days.  And we still haven't found a better solution than the one we currently have.  With recent and numerous examples of foreign people coming here for important procedures it seems that we have a damn good system.

So why are we in such a rush to change it?  I say we take this massive piece of legislation, break it down into manageable chunks and debate each one individually.  There is no hard and fast rule that says we need to pass it all at once like a giant kidney stone.  Let's break it down, examine it, and pass the pieces that make sense.

Remember that life doesn't have a reset button.

Sean Duffy Now Official Candidate of the Republican Party

It seems that some in the Party leadership are a bit late in spreading the news about Sean Duffy's endorsement victory.  I just received this press release in my Inbox this morning after having covered this yesterday.  Maybe now Mielke will finally exit that race after seeing that his poisoned poll did not succeed in swinging delegates to his side.

It won't surprise me one bit though if he (Mielke) turns his attentions to outright attacking Duffy.  I think it will play out to be something like "If I can't have the 7th District seat then no Republican will".  It will be interesting to see as we head into the summer months how this soap opera of a campaign will play out.

-----------------------------------------------------------

7th District Republicans Endorse Sean Duffy

Ashland DA now official candidate of the Republican Party

WAUSAU—The Republican Party of the 7th Congressional District held its caucus on Saturday, March 6.  The caucus voted to endorse Sean Duffy as our official candidate to take on Appropriations Chairman and 41 year incumbent David Obey in November.

The results were as follows for those delegates endorsing a candidate: 

Sean Duffy: 406 delegate votes

Dan Mielke: 78 delegate votes

"I've never seen the party more energized and unified," said 7th Congressional District Chairman Mike Monson.  "I'm confident that Sean Duffy and his message of fiscal responsibility and job creation will lead us to a historic victory this November."   

--30--

 -------------------------------------

Another Thing Republicans Are United Against

This last Saturday marked the revelation of one more thing that Republicans in Wisconsin's 7th Congressional District are nearly united in opposing:  Daniel Mielke.  At last Saturday's caucus Sean Duffy won the endorsement with 84% of the delegates in attendance voting for him.  84%.

And this was only Republicans - the same people that Mielke's poisoned poll revealed to be overwhelmingly supporting him.   So where was Mielke's "overwhelming support" on Saturday when such an important vote was taking place?

They actually were eliminated by a technicality - you see, imaginary people cannot vote at these votes (just like in the general election). 

This is yet another indicator that Mielke will not make it to the general election.  At this point, Mielke can continue to try to attack the party, Sean, and the voters but he has about as much of a chance of getting elected as I do in this election.

Mielke, face it - it's over.  You had your chance.  Now it's time to let someone else take a shot at Obey - someone who can actually beat him.

Score One for the Reasonable Guys

Ever since that useless health care summit a day or two ago I've been avoiding the news.  When I checked back in with my news reader again today I found hundreds of headlines that all said the exact same thing - summit was more show than substance.

At least the Republicans who were at the summit got a chance to speak out without being filtered.  McCain called the President out on the broken campaign promises and Paul Ryan, Republican Representative and Ranking Budget Committee member makes a very strong argument for decentralizing health care insurance and is set to blast the Democrats about before Obama steps in to silence him.

The Health Care Pony Show

It's no small surprise that many people in this country believe that the health care summit being held today is going to amount to anything substantial or allow the Republican party to finally have a say in a process they have been largely shut out of.

No, instead it's a chance for Obama to show some toughness on the camera.  Consider this exchange between McCain and Obama:

Spirited debate unfolds at health care summit - CNN.com

McCain, who lost to the president in the 2008 race, said candidate Obama had pledged eight times that the health care debate would be conducted in the open and televised by C-SPAN.

Instead, McCain said, the legislation was "produced behind closed doors ... with unsavory deals."

Obama tried to break in, but McCain asked to be allowed to finish.

After McCain was done, Obama seemed to flash some anger when he said, "We're not campaigning. The election is over."

I don't think that McCain was trying to campaign for the presidency here - I think he was trying to hold Obama accountable for his promises, something that Obama is apparently not used to.  Overall Democrats are going about this the wrong way - they are ignoring the voters, operating behind closed doors and preventing the Republicans from participating and doing the jobs they were elected to do.

Obama also seemed to take a shot at Cantor, the House Republican whip, who stacked the voluminous House and Senate health care reform bills on the table in front of him.

The president called the display "props." "These are the kinds of political things we do that prevent us from having a conversation," Obama said.

I think that instead of our President taking shots at people who come prepared to the meetings he should be listening to and addressing their concerns.  I know that if I was a politician going to a meeting about health care reform I would want to bring both bills with me so I could reference them during the meeting.  It's not "props"; it's being prepared.

Finally, there is this gem of a paragraph from the article about Pelosi:

Spirited debate unfolds at health care summit - CNN.com

Pelosi on Wednesday declined to give any specifics about how Democrats will proceed on the health care overhaul. She also sidestepped questions about Democrats' plans to use a controversial parliamentary shortcut to bypass GOP opposition and pass a health care bill.

Why is it that the Democrats want to keep the American people in the dark about this stuff?  Why not televise the debates throughout the entire process?  Why not release summary statements of the effects and disadvantages of the bill?

If I was a politician, and I'm not... yet, I would want to be up-front and honest with the people I was elected to represent.  No hiding behind procedure, no bullying the opposition and generally trying to make real compromises with the opposition. 

Now not every single line in the health care bills are bad, in fact I find great convenience with the page numbering and the date references.  Seriously, there are some good things that may come of this:  we may finally be able to crack down on insurance fraud, we may be able to finally eliminate frivolous suits so that doctor's don't have to order so many tests and we may finally be able to allow insurance companies to more effectively compete with one another, driving down the cost of premiums and increasing the quality of coverage.

Heck... who am I kidding?  The Democrats are in charge...

Mielke Identifies Reason Why Sean Duffy Will Win The Primary

Mielke For Congress

Sean Duffy is an Attorney, his father is an attorney, his grandfather was an attorney and a judge, his brother is an attorney and a judge.

Dan believes that attorneys serve a valuable and necessary part of our society. But Dan
also realizes that 43% of congress is already made up of attorneys. "There is a danger in
having too many attorneys in Washington. Sean was raised to think and reason like an
attorney. To insure a fair and impartial balance of thinking in the legislature we need
representations from all walks of life . Presently we are seeing the danger in too many
attorneys in Washington. The bills being voted on are confusing and legalistic in nature,
often leaving way too many legal loopholes and hidden agendas which come out after the
bill has passed. Bills need to be simple and clean without so much legalese in them. This is
why our founding fathers were concerned about the harmful influence lawyers could have
if they became too powerful in congress."

It seems that Mr. Mielke believes that since 43% of Congressman are attorneys that we shouldn't send another attorney, even a successful and respected one like Duffy, to Washington.  I'm going to leave this statement alone for just one second while I touch on one that I think is important.

First, the job of Congress is to pass legislature (aka laws).  In order to be effective at writing new laws one must first understand the old ones, right?  I mean, how can we create something if we don't understand what that something is?  If Mielke got sent to Congress he could, unwittingly, introduce legislation that would be struck down by the courts as illegal - or worse yet, let the Democrats pull on over on him. 

He said that 43% of Congressmen are lawyers and the Democrats have the majority so I say let's fight fire with fire.  Now coming back to Mielke's comments here lawyers are paid to argue the facts, present their case and persuade others.  Extremely similar to the role of politicians in Congress. 

Politicians in Congress must also argue the facts, present their case and persuade others in other to get legislation to pass.  Now that Sean has been raised to think like a lawyer, someone who makes a living persuading others, I would think that he would have mountains of experience over Mielke. 

In fact, experience is very abundant.  Duffy has been in office for four terms as a DA - an elected position.  What experience does Mielke have serving in public office?  I will give you this - he certainly knows how to lose an election.

Mielke Has a Snowball's Chance

Time Magazine – Republican Surprise: 10 More Scott Browns « Sean Duffy for Congress

In a normal year, Wisconsin Democrat David Obey, the powerful head of the House appropriations committee, would not have to worry. But normal years do not bring challengers like Sean Duffy, a successful district attorney who also happens to be a former star of MTV’s The Real World (the Boston season), a champion lumberjack competitor and an ESPN commentator. Obama won Wisconsin’s 7th District in 2008 by a decent margin, but Bush managed to win 49% of the vote in the largely Democratic district in 2004. Obey does not seem ruffled by Duffy’s harping on his role in the stimulus or statements that Obey is helping to create a “greater crisis” in terms of deficit spending. In fact, the Congressman’s campaign website isn’t even up and running yet. With plenty of media attention, strong fundraising and a very fresh face — he wasn’t even born when Obey first took office, in 1970 — Duffy will likely win the Republican primary, barring a surprise showing by the self-proclaimed Tea Party candidate Dan Mielke. Of course, that would mean facing the third longest-serving member of the House in the general election, a man whose smallest margin of victory in 18 elections was seven points.

I think it is safe to say that Daniel Mielke has no chance at winning the primary.  I mean, how many people are going to be willing to send a farmer up against Obey - especially one who has already lost once against him? 

In 2008 I was a Republican volunteer manning my county's headquarters.  During that election cycle Mielke's campaign appeared from the outside to be in a state of disarray.  All the materials, in my opinion, looked like they were made at home on a cheap inkjet printer.

Mielke's message didn't resonate with voters either - he failed to carry a single county during the 2008 election against Obey.  Not one single county was willing to say "Yes, I want Dan Mielke to represent me in Congress".  Now let's fast forward to today's race.

Mielke and Duffy are squaring off in a primary - something that Mielke did not experience in 2008, at least not from my perspective.  Now Mielke has to face a successful attorney in a primary, and one who is extremely well funded.  Duffy is getting national recognition, not to mention being the first House challenger to be endorsed by Sarah Palin.

What has Mielke been up to?  Not much... a Google news search for Daniel Mielke's name does not turn up anything that is very interesting, most of his mentions are alongside of Sean Duffy's mentions.  Conclusion:  Duffy is making news while Mielke is trying to be in the news.

A lot of people are saying that this is going to be an interesting primary but I don't see it happening.  I'm going to say that Mielke has as much of a chance as winning this primary as Congressman Ron Paul had of winning the 2008 Presidential primary.

To the anonymous commenter from the other day... please, wake up and take a look at reality.

The Reality of Mielke's Campaign

National Review Online – Could Obey Be Coakley’d? « Sean Duffy for Congress

Q: What does Senator-elect Brown mean for your race?

A: If Scott Brown can win in a state that President Obama won by 26 points, I can win in a district that Obey won by just 20 points against an unknown, underfunded challenger in the Democratic landslide of 2008. It means there is not a single Democrat in the country who is safe. And, as the author of the failed stimulus bill, David Obey will be at the forefront of the debate about jobs, the economy, and wasteful government spending. If he continues to tax and spend our country into bankruptcy, he’s going to get Coakley’d.

I think the above statement - the first sentence of the A: text - sums up Mielke's campaign very nicely. "Unknown, underfunded" are not two adjectives that describe a successful campaign for Congress.  The sad part is that Mielke had to have known before filing his candidacy papers for this race that he was repeating the same mistakes he made in 2008.

Sorry Mr. Mielke, but a political career is not something that just anyone can have.  From one campaign loser to another, please just go home, lick your wounds and figure out what you did wrong.  You can try again when you learn your lesson from your mistakes.

Walker Campaign Spokeswoman Jill Bader Statement on Walker's Plan to Bring 250,000 Jobs to Wisconsin

The following is a press release on Walker's plan to bring 250,000 jobs.  You don't see proposals like these coming from Barret or anyone else.  In fact, the Democrats are so afraid of this proposal that they are going to do everything they can to discredit it. 

Wauwatosa – Walker Campaign Spokeswoman Jill Bader today released the following statement on Scott Walker’s plan to bring 250,000 jobs to Wisconsin

“Under Governor Doyle, Wisconsin has become a tax hell that’s bleeding jobs monthly – last year alone we lost 170,000 jobs and that number will continue to grow unless we fundamentally change the way government functions.

When you see that over 250,000 people are out of work in Wisconsin, and the approximately 20% of our citizens who are underemployed or have given up on finding family supporting jobs it’s not only clear we need to reverse the Doyle-Barrett job killing proposals like combined reporting, but we must also jumpstart an aggressive plan to bring these jobs back to Wisconsin like Scott Walker has laid out.

Beginning on Scott’s first day as governor and in every single day in office he will be working to lower the tax burden on families and employers, and ease regulations on businesses to get government out of the way the bring back 250,000 jobs to Wisconsin by the end of his first term.”

Click here for more information more information on Walker’s plan for job growth: http://www.scottwalker.org/press-release/2010/02/scott-walker-unveils-plan-bring-250000-jobs-and-10000-new-businesses-wisconsin

If you have a job, and want to keep it, vote for Scott Walker come November. If you like to be unemployed, vote for anyone else.

Prevent Doyle 2.0 from Being Elected

This morning when I checked my email I found a message in there that scared me.  Obama's political machine has arrived in Milwaukee to set up shop and get Tom Barret, aka Tom the Taxer, aka Doyle 2.0 elected.  Haven't we had enough of Obama's Chicago style politics by now?  Haven't we had enough of the broken promises, the empty speeches and the overall lack of results from his administration?

I know one thing is for certain - we don't need more Obama politics in Wisconsin.  If we are going to take back our state we cannot allow Doyle 2.0 to be elected.  The last thing we need is for our state to be run like the federal government - into the ground.  If Doyle 2.0 takes office we can expect more of the same that we had for the last 6 years.

I've had enough.  Enough of the increasing spending, enough of the increasing taxes and enough of fat cat liberal politicians mortgaging our grand children's futures, distorting the truth and taking us for granted.  It's time we teach Madison that we will not sit idly by.  We will fight.  We will demonstrate.  And we will elect Scott Walker as our new Governor come November.

Mielke's Poisoned Poll

Northwestern Wisconsin congressional race headed for Republican primary | FOX 21 Online

But if Duffy is getting the limelight, Dan Mielke says the GOP is trying to force him off the stage, despite being the party's candidate in the last election. Mielke says he’s been excluded attending, speaking at, or handing out literature at Lincoln Day dinners. Mielke says he’s been a lifelong Republican, and wonders if he’s ruffled the GOP’s “feathers a little bit."

The socially conservative Mielke commissioned a poll of 7th Congressional District voters, and the results show him leading both fellow Republican Duffy and Democrat Obey. Mielke says he's in the race to stay, and that means a contentious Republican primary before Obey faces the winner in the general election.

I'm sorry Mr. Mielke but I don't trust any polls commissioned by any candidates. I'm sure that if I polled 10 of my best friends that I would find that I am leading both Mielke, Duffy and Obey in the race for the 7th Congressional district and I'm not even a declared candidate.

Why should we trust a poll that was commissioned by a candidate?  The notion of truth in this country has become synonymous with who ever pays the bill.  Therefore, since Mr. Mielke paid the bill the pollsters have a responsibility not to the truth but to Dan Mielke.  This includes only polling Mielke supporters with a few non-supporters thrown in to make it look legit.

In fact, the title of the document that reports the results says "Polling Results of the 7th Congressional District Produced for the Dan Mielke Campaign".  Note the key phrase "Produced for the Dan Mielke Campaign". 

I also take issue with a paragraph in this document that is highly subjective, emotionally charged and overall not conducive of a scientific method.  The paragraph copied from the document verbatim follows.

It is doubtful that Duffy will be able to overcome this strong of a lead by Mielke.  But it is possible that an aggressive fight between Mielke and Duffy could hurt Mielke's run against Dave Obey, if Duffy's supporters choose to vote for Obey over Mielke.  We see this as unlikely, but it could happen if emotions run high during the primary race.

For run thing, Mielke is not going to have a run against Dave Obey despite what this "poisoned poll" says.  Second, it is still too early to say that Duffy is definitively going to lose the primary.  He's not - not with the qualifications he has over Dan Mielke.  I know I would rather have a successful DA in Congress than an organic farmer who's lost every election in the last 5 years that he has run in.

Finally, the last issue I have with this poll is that it polled 35% Democrats and only 37% Republicans.  I know that if I was being polled and the questions were asking me to compare two Democrat candidates against a Republican candidate that I would show strong support for the weaker Democrat candidate in hopes of making the general election easier for the Republican candidate.
 
Click here to read the results for yourself and you will see how one sided this poll really is.

Another Politician That Gets It

The Daily Press - Ashland, WI > News > Political newcomer Sean Duffy eager to battle Dave Obey

"There are several messages," he said. "First off, we need to bring fiscal sanity and responsibility back to Washington," he said. "We have a debt that is $12 trillion. We had a deficit last year of $1.4 trillion. This year we are looking at $1.3 trillion. We are mortgaging our children's future; we need to balance our budget. We can't keep spending, there are dire consequences for our children."

Maybe it's just me but looking over the campaign messages of all the candidates that I will have the opportunity to vote for in November the only ones I see with values that most align with Wisconsin are the conservative Republicans.  Perhaps the effects of higher taxes and higher spending for the last however many years are finally catching up to us and people are getting a rude wake up call.

Perhaps people are just tired of the arrogance of the Democratic party.  In the 2008 election cycle I worked with people in Wisconsin's 8th congressional district and came across quite a few videos of Rep. Kagen's arrogance and disregard for the voters.  Working in the 7th congressional district I see the same thing with Obey.

I don't know about you but I think that the person who signs the check would ultimately be responsible for how the money is spent.  The easiest way to prevent the administration from making poor spending choices: DON'T GIVE THEM THE MONEY IN THE FIRST PLACE YOU IDIOT!

People - Grow Up!

Chris Matthews "Forgot He Was Black" Comment Sets Internet Ablaze [VIDEO]

Despite posts to the contrary, Matthews was not seeking to make a racially derogatory comment in any respect, but perhaps he should have chosen his words more carefully. Later on in his ruminations, he himself goes on to say: “It’s so hard to even talk about; maybe I shouldn’t talk about it, but I am. I thought it was profound, that way.”

Here we go - another media circus about another reference to skin color.  When the $%^& are people going to grow up and stop making such a big deal over these things?  If we keep making a big deal about racist remarks then racism will never go away!  Besides, should we as adults be mature enough to not let the opinions and remarks of other people affect our emotions?

I think that anyone who wants to make a big deal about someone making a remark about a person's skin color is immature, unreasonable, and unwilling to let go of the past where the real racism was.  As a political blogger I'm used to having people say and write some very mean things about me.  I don't let it bother me - I sure don't lose any sleep over it.

Face it people - as far as mature responsible adults go the race card is a dead card.  God created us all equally and we all bleed red so if someone makes a remark you don't like you ignore them like any other mature adult would do.  In fact, when I watched the following video I simply laughed and clicked on to the next one - if though our President is making anti-white statement after anti-white statement.

I'm sorry but if no one calls President Obama on racist comments than no one else should be called out for them either. I thought we all wanted equal treatment for all in this country, not special treatment for some and worse treatment for others.

Mielke Having Hard Time Selling Voters

It appears that, at least according to campaign finance reports, that Daniel Mielke is having a difficult time selling his story to the voters.  In the summary report from the FEC it is stated that Mielke has total receipts of $366,863 with $332,750 of that total amount coming from his personal contributions.

Mielke so far as had to contribute 90.7% of his total campaign funds while only raising 9.1% from individual voters and less than 1% from the party committees.  For those that don't know the Republican Party will fund candidates that it believes has a strong chance to beat a Democrat incumbent.

Looking at these hard numbers really paints an interesting story.  First, it says that Mielke's story is not resonating with the voters.  Second, it shows that Mielke is almost completely self-funding his campaign.  Finally it shows that he does not have the ability to raise funds to generate needed cash to kick up the campaign in high gear to challenge Obey.

Sean Duffy, on the other hand, has raised 99.8% of his total cash from individual contributions.  Digging deeper we see that Duffy raised an average of $850.43 from each of the 164 individuals who contributed to his campaign.  People don't spend that much money on something they don't believe in.

In comparison Mielke was only able to garner contributions from 30 people for an average of $1,112.37 per contributor.  Not only does Duffy gather more individual contributors than Mielke but the average is also lower.  This says, at least to me, that Duffy is gaining more traction with middle class and lower middle class working people than affluent citizens like the crowd Mielke solicits from.

A History of Failure

Since 2004 Dan Mielke has not won a single election.  In my research I have come across hard evidence concerning three different elections that Dan Mielke has participated in and soft evidence (a news piece at Fox News) for the Town of Linwood (population roughly 1,000).

Dan Mielke has lost all four elections.  This guy has been told by the people on four separate occasions that they don't want him.  Let me explain...

In 2004 Dan Mielke ran for Wisconsin's State Assembly District 70 against Vruwink (Democrat).  The results of that election as reported in the 2005 Wisconsin Blue Book were 18,120 for Vruwink and 10,622 for Mielke.  In percentage terms, Mielke only got 36.95% of the vote.

In 2006 Mielke ran for the Portage County Executive, a position that he claimed he was instrumental in creating, on a write-in campaign.  A write-in campaign!  Meaning that Mr. Mielke couldn't be bothered to qualify for the ballot any other way.  Needless to say he lost, only gaining 21% of the vote.

In 2008 Mielke ran for Congress against Dave Obey, a long time incumbent and well entrenched Democrat.  I would say it was a case of David vs. Goliath, only with David being a mosquito and Goliath winning single-handedly.  Mielke only gained 39% of the vote in that election.

Mielke's average for these three elections was 32% of the vote.  No matter how many re-counts you ask for you are not going to win with only 32% of the average vote.  No matter how many times I look at the contenders in this year's Congressional match-up I don't see Mielke going to Washington. 

The guy just doesn't get it - the people don't want him.  They have said so at least 3 times in the last 6 years and one unconfirmed time.  However with Wisconsin's open primary law I feel that some Democrats may vote for Mielke in the primary to give Obey a shoe-in. 

A Politician That Gets It

Scott Walker is a politician that gets it.  He understands what is important to us and what we need, as a State, to thrive in this new economy.  The tax and spend strategies that have become the hallmark of the Democrats has lead to Wisconsin being one of the worse states to do business in.



In November, let's get Wisconsin back on the right track. I'm urging you to vote for Scott Walker for Governor.

We Wanted Hope... This is What We Got

Cartoon of the Day



Thanks to the Lakeshore Laments blog for this one...

Dan Mielke: Is He or Isn't He a Politician?

It's not small secret that I have Google Alerts setup for all participants in the 7th Congressional District race, including Dan Mielke.  This morning I found this little gem in my alerts folder and I just had to point a few things out.

In the first quote below, Mielke goes on to stress that he's not a politician, he's a concerned voter.  Nothing wrong with that per se but let's look a bit deeper.

Farmer seeks rematch for congressional seat | Superior Telegram | Superior, Wisconsin

“I’m not in this for the politics,” Mielke said. “I’m in this because I am one of those voters and I’m frustrated and … I’m a strong Constitutional supporter and really, the idea behind government elected officials, is that they’re supposed to be of the voting public. They’re not supposed to be some professional that was put in place, and went to school and was trained to be some politician. So I’m kind of the anti-professional politician.”

Now let's take a look at the next quote from this same article.

Farmer seeks rematch for congressional seat | Superior Telegram | Superior, Wisconsin

“I’m more of a tea party, give-us-our-country-back politician I guess you could say,” Mielke said. “I don’t believe in career politicians. They should be doing they’re tour of duty and getting out of the foxholes and get back into life.”

Did any one else catch the immediate contradiction, the obvious waffling with identity.  Is he a politician?  Is he a concerned citizen? 

Perhaps it's this lack of conviction that led to his miserable performance against Obey in 2008.  As a conservative watching this race unfold I can honestly say that sending Mielke out to do battle against Obey would be one quick ticket to another Obey term. 

Barret: The Disorganized Candidate

When I ran for city council in my community, I had things organized.  I had a system in place for identifying likely voters, I had mailing lists, walking lists and campaign literature neatly stacked and organized.  I even had a website with my cell phone number all over it (and people used it).

Is there any question that a gubernatorial race is a much bigger affair than a city council race?  I would hope not!  But Barret doesn't seem to get that message.  In a WSAU blog post that was shared with me via email it is evident that Barret doesn't have his game together.

The post went on to explain the lengthy search that the news room went through to locate campaign contact information.  They tried searching for Barret on Google and could not find a campaign website.  They tried the yellow pages, other news agencies, and finally they found a phone number.

A phone number... that was all.  No issue statements, no press releases and no information.  No schedules, no addresses for sending contributions to and no hint of a credible campaign to be found anywhere.

If this is how Barret is taking the race, which is well underway, how much attention is he going to afford to the job if he somehow wins the election?  Wouldn't we rather have someone we know is organized and ready for the task?

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Funny Video About Health Care

The following video, while done in jest, adequately sums up the general feeling about Obama in my opinion.

Scott Brown Wins Race for Senate

Last night voters in Massachusetts told Barack Obama where to shove his health care plan by electing Republican Scott Brown to the Senate.  The media is acting like this is a big deal and a huge upset.  I don't know why though - any one with an ounce of common sense knows that if politicians don't represent the way the voters want them to then they are going to get replaced.

Voters are sick of the Democrats disregard for their opinions.  People don't send politicians to Washington to have them ram some mangled piece of legislative excrement down their throats - they send them to Washington to represent them.

The country is finally waking up to the shortcomings of the so-called "Party of Change" that they are starting to take action and do something about it.  If the Democrats don't wake up to reality, and it is a very good chance that they won't, then come November we are going to see a major shift into the right at almost all levels of government.

However, we are not out of the woods yet.  There are still several methods that Democrats can use to continue to undermine the American people on the health care bill.  First, Nancy Pelosi could reverse her position and accept the Senate bill as is.  Second, the Democrats could keep demanding re-counts until they win.  Third, the Democrats could stall the seating of Scott Brown until after the health care bill is passed.

However, I think even the Democrats would realize how much of political suicide either three of those options would be.

Barret Says Jobs Are No. 1 But Won't Give Specifics

Tom Barret, that Democratic runner for the governor's job in Wisconsin, and a member of the same party as Doyle, the governor that failed Wisconsin, has said that job growth is his top priority.  And that is pretty much all he said in an article published on the LaCrosse Tribune.

Great... do you want a cookie Mr. Barret?

Mr. Barret gave few details about he intends to use the governor's office to create more jobs in Wisconsin.  In fact, I think he only gave one details - he's going to give tax credits to companies that create jobs.  Again, the idea is applaudable but there is the other side of the coin that needs to be examined.

Rather than reduce taxes on just the big corporations let's cut government spending.  This will allow taxes to be lowered across the board for both individuals and corporations which will give people more money to spend.  The more money people spend the more the state collects in sales tax revenues.

In fact, the sales tax revenue could more than make up for the difference in income tax revenues.  After all this country does not save well and if we have money we are going to spend it.  

Also, if taxes are reduced across the board companies have more money to invest in growth.  This allows companies to grow at their own pace rather than hire a bunch of people, collect the tax credits and then lay them all off.

I'm Sick of Taxes

The following blog post is a letter I am preparing for the Antigo Daily Journal.  In case they did not publish it I wanted to post it here to make sure that people had the chance to read it.  Post your feedback below.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Dear Editor:

I'm sick of taxes.  Furthermore, I'm sick of taxes being raised.  At all levels of government it seems that officials are all to eager to tax us into bankruptcy.  If a politician would offer up a plan to fix the issues with our country, state, county and city without raising our taxes I would be ecstatic.

Raising taxes is an easy way to plug a budget gap.  It allows the politicians to avoid having to make cuts and risk not getting re-elected.  It's also a coward's way of addressing the issues.  Rather than correct the symptoms politicians seem content to hide the symptoms.

Except Scott Walker.  He has the courage to propose budgets and solutions that do not include a tax raise.  In fact, when he was elected Milwaukee County Executive he promised to spend taxpayer dollars as if he was spending his own money... a promise that he has continued to fulfill to this day.

Scott Walker was also able to save almost $200 million in tax payer dollars with his 2010 budget.  This is a significant demonstration of his ability to work hard to find solutions that do not include a tax hike - unlike Democratic challenger Tom Barret.  In fact. Barret's final budget required furlogh days for police officers. 

I don't want a governor that is going to use those kinds of tricks to appear to solve problems.  I want a governor that will bring real solutions to real problems to the table.  I want a governor that will stand by his promises to not raise taxes. 

Sincerely,
Jesse Seymour

Why Should Obey Care About Us?

Dave Obey is at it again, this time trying to spend money on a neighborhood in Rhode Island.  Did we elect him back before I was even born to the Representative for Rhode Island?  I guess Wisconsinittes back then thought, "You know, we have plenty of Representatives and Rhode Island could use an extra one.  Let's give them Obey."

You see, our sky rocketing unemployment rate doesn't merit the attention that some struggling neighborhood in Rhode Island does.  That's why Obey went to visit to see how the federal government could spend more money there. 

This is yet another example of how Obey has turned his back on us.  We need to stop giving this guy a job.  Let's pretend that you owned a company and had an employee working for you that was concerned about everything except what you hired him to be worried about.  What would you do?  I would fire the employee and replace him with one that I could trust to focus on the items I want him to focus on.

Well that wayward employee is Obey - and we are his boss.  Nancy Pelosi is not his boss.  President Obama is not his boss.  Harry Reid is not his boss.  We are Obey's boss. 

In my opinion Obey needs to be replaced or retired.  The guy is certainly old enough to retire and nobody wants him around anymore.

Check out this quote from the WSJ:

"The only real opportunity you have to prevent something stupid from happening is to have the protection of the staff who know the most about these programs and can fight something if they think it smells," Mr. Obey told reporters, while trying to explain why he won't be disclosing earmarks in spending bills despite the promises made by Nancy Pelosi while lambasting Republicans last year. Instead, Mr. Obey declared that he and his staff would vet the earmarks themselves and then disclose them all in the Congressional Record some day. -- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118169705674733307.html

What that says for those playing the home game is that Rep. Obey and the people he hires, the ones that owe their livelihood to him, not us, will be vetting all expenditures.  And this was posted back on June 13, 2007!

Obviously Obey is out of touch with the job he was hired to do. 

Let's fire him come November and elect a real representative who is not afraid of doing his job.

Let's elect Sean Duffy to Congress.

Obama's Appoints 10 Governors to Military Council

Thanks to PrisonPlanet.com for posting this one.  According to the website Obama signed an Executive Order that essentially creates a board of 10 governors, all appointed by Obama, to work with the Federal government to involve the military more in domestic security.

When I first read this my biggest fear was that Obama would appoint all Democrats to the council.  However the executive order (available using the link above) states that no more than 5 governors would be of the same political party. 

Ok, so then we would have 5 Democrat governors and 5 Republican governors.  Of those 5 Republican governors we would probably have 2-3 liberal Republicans and the rest be conservative Republicans keeping conservatives in the mintority.

Further in the order it states that there shall be 2 co-chairs each of different political parties.  Again a liberal Democrat and a liberal Republican would probably be appointed here. 

What about compensation?  Well the Governors would serve without compensation except for travel allowances and per diem expenses.  If this council ever meets in Guam or somewhere really really nice then eyebrows should raise. 

Finally the duties of the council, as according to the order, is to help coordinate military activities between the States and the Federal government including overseeing civil support groups.  Not that the Black Panther voter intimidation scandal was enough but now we will have them serving as a civil security force.

This quote (originally published at PrisonPlanet.com) really paints a clear picture:

“There is a definite purpose to this,” wrote one commenter on the popular Free Republic website, “The initial steps toward a domestic “Civilian Security Force” in each state, as called for by the fascisti during the campaign. It will be coordinated at the state level, under the authority of DHS and DoD and assorted agencies. The provision will be made for it to be “federalized” in an emergency, as is the National Guard.”

“This is a concrete step toward eliminating the independent authority and dissolving the sovereignty of the several States. It lays the groundwork for the end of the United States as a Republic,” she adds.

The scary part is that I'm not really all that surprised...

Duffy Showing Strong Chance to Unseat Obey

Sean Duffy, a young gun within the Republican party, is set to give Obey a run for his money in November.  Duffy is a young energetic candidate that resonates as well with retired voters as he does with twenty somethings (I should know, being 25 myself).  I've met Sean Duffy during my brief tenure with the Langlade County Republican Party and I have a good feeling if the general election is Obey vs. Duffy.

However, there is still a thorn in the proverbial side of conservatives in Wisconsin's 7th Congressional District.  Daniel Mielke, who was the Republican candidate for Congress in 2008 (and lost by a landslide to Obey), is still insisting he is the best candidate to unseat Obey.

Wait just a minute here.  According to the 2008 election results Dan Mielke failed to win a single county against Obey.  Not even one county said they wanted Dan Mielke over Obey.  Perhaps identity crisis hit and people voted for Obey thinking they were voting for Mielke?  They do look a lot alike you know...

The saying is "If you always do what you have always done than you will always get what you always got".  Do we want Obey to win another election?  NO!  Just in case you missed that here it is again... NO!

So why would we throw a candidate who already had a shot at Obey and couldn't get the job done?  I know in Wisconsin we like to stick with leaders who drop the ball a lot (how else did Doyle win the governor's office and why was Brett Favre our lead quarterback for so long?) but guess what Wisconsin?  A new age is coming.

It's time to for real conservatives to stop sitting by idly and watching politics as usual.  It's time to put some morality, decency and common sense back into the political process.  It's time that Wisconsin, from the Congress to the school board, elect real conservatives who live by real conservative (and Wisconsin) values.

So the primary is on Sept 14th.  Seems like a long time from now but believe me - this is going to be a busy summer as Mielke won't take the hint that nobody wants him.  My name is Jesse Seymour and I endorse Sean Duffy for US Congress.

Democrats Show Contempt for Public Opinion

It's no small secret that the Democrats don't care about public opinion - at least not the current Congressional Democrats or the current occupant of the White House.  Their determination to get a public health care plan pushed through the legislative process in spite of the public being against it is pretty damning evidence.

I've known about this for quite a while.  Democrats didn't fool me.  In fact I even tried to tell people that if Obama won the election they could expect broken promises and an era of government that reminds the older generation of the Carter administration.

But what really bothers me is when people still defend the Democrats to this day.  Wake up people!  They don't represent you - they use you.  Consider this quote from Kristin:

"Russ Feingold isn't listening. Wisconsinites are showing up in droves to Feingold's listening sessions to ask him to vote 'no' on a government health care takeover but he insists we're evenly split on the issue. If Feingold continues to support the current spending bill laden with special interest favors and shrouded with secrecy, he can expect a pink slip in November." –Kristin Ruesch, Republican Party of Wisconsin Communications Director

Some people at least are starting to wake up.  The Midwestern Republican is calling for Sean Duffy to easily beat Dave Obey, the king of the big spenders, in November.  I hope that when Sean Duffy is elected he will insist on open debate and allow the public to voice their opinion in a meaningful way.