Van Wanggaard - Job Expert

Oh, please..........Wanggaard says Sen. Lehman isn't doing anything, nor are any democrats in Wisconsin's legislature. But, he can create jobs......well, he should be able to create a few. It seems he had no problem taking a medical retirement package from the police department for a car crash in 2000 and then go on to take a job as a county supervisor for one.

Silly me but I thought the requirements for taking a medical retirement meant that there was NO JOB available that you were able to do after said medical event or condition. That would mean that there was no desk job for him at the police department?

I only ask since he seemed to have no trouble working as a county supervisor and running quite a few special events and serving on many committees. And, wasn't there that nasty little bit about him taking a courier business away from poor guy and he (Wanggaard) used his position as head traffic honcho to assist in that devious endeavor?

It would seem to me that the best job creation programs Wanggaard has done so far is for himself. While collecting tax dollars for an injury that was supposed to prevent him from being able to work.

My head just spins at the idea of someone taking the biggest piece of the tax pie he can fit on his plate while boasting of how horrible taxes are on us.

BTW, is that called double dipping? I'm so confused when it comes to these republican definitions of *fiscal responsibility* and *ethics* and *work*. Evidently, their def.s are a bit off from mine.

Things To Be Thankful For - Not Being A Teabagger

Just think, there but for the grace of God, you too could be ignorant, callous and obnoxious! From Think Progress. org http://thinkprogress.org/2009/11/23/tea-heckle-woman/

Happy Thankgiving.

Thanks, Keith

I spotted this over at Folkbum's rambles and rants and had to repost it here. Do go there and post your thanks to Keith R. Schmitz for spreading the humor.

I've been feeling a lot like this lately........poor Kay.

Who are the big spenders again? It's all so confusing.

Feingold Launches "Spotlight on Spending" Series
Regular Feature to Highlight Ways Congress Can Cut Wasteful Spending, Reduce Record Deficit Begins With Feature on $300 Million for a Broadcast to Cuba that Nobody Tunes Into

Read about this and other wasteful (not to mention totally silly) government spending here at Russ' site.

When I read this I couldn't help but think "who the hell ever thought this was a good idea?"..turns out it was a Reagan brain fart. That's not shocking, however, it is pretty shocking that no one stopped it by now. I do understand that it's one of those things democrats are afraid to address since we're all constant targets of false claims of not being tough enough on communism. So, Reagan put this in way back in the early 80's and we've spent how much? math hurts my head........but, since it was Reagan and he was a very big R republican I'm quite sure that some of the right wing that cruise Kay's would be willing to defend this use of tax dollars.

Another thing he is going to spotlight is those damn C-17 aircraft that no one seems to want but the vendor and congress. I'm a bit hazy on why we are buying military equipment the military didn't want in the first place. When the Pentagon says it doesn't want them and the White House is in agreement with Pentagon and you've got both D's and R's voting for buying them I think things are a bit more FUBAR than anyone wants to admit.
Okay, I'm really not that hazy. (I just like the word hazy). The reality is that there are jobs that are going to be lost in some congressional and senatorial districts and some votes for incumbents may be at risk over this. But, if this is a government jobs program could we please have these people do work everyone can agree on? Oh, say, something to do with not depending on foreign oil type jobs?

Perhaps there might be a few post public service jobs waiting for certain members in congress at those vendors' office buildings that are being taken into consideration also? Nothing says patriotism like voting against the best interests of your country in order for you to make some big bucks after office.

Holy Crap

When I read things like this I wonder what the hell is going on in the GOP.

Former Gov. Tommy Thompson says the Senate version of a health care bill is "another milestone in achieving meaningful health-care reform," despite his concerns about some aspects of the proposal.

For the amount of money spent by the GOP and their minions fighting against health care reform it sort of makes one take pause to see Thompson agree that indeed the bill ain't so bad after all.

Personally, it doesn't go anywhere near as far as I would like to see, but it is a step.

Weapons of Mass Murder Should Be Illegal

It’s time make hand guns like the Fort hood shooter used illegal. These weapons are easily concealed, highly powerful and with high capacity, easily interchangeable clips they allow a shooter to spray hundreds of bullets in a few minutes and reload in seconds. They are weapons of mass murder, serving only evil and have no legitimate purpose whatsoever. In fact their only purpose is to kill people, lots of people, quickly.

The Virginia Tech shooter fired 170 rounds in 9 minutes and left 32 people dead and 30 more people horribly injured. The Fort Hood shooter fired 100 bullets in 3 minutes. He had high capacity magazine clips with 20 rounds per clip. With a gun in each hand that’s 40 rounds before he has to reload and he reloaded more than once which only takes seconds when exchanging clips. Frankly, with barrages like that I’m amazed they both didn’t kill more innocent people.

If either of these shooters had to reload more often and spend more time doing it they would have been quickly overwhelmed by the crowd of people who were their intended victims. But these semiautomatic guns stack the deck entirely in the favor of the mass murderer.

If you want to have a revolver or a deer rifle for self defense and sporting purposes, fine. Can these weapons also be misused? Of course, but they don’t place the kind of overwhelming force into one person’s hands that these weapons of mass murder do. You say it’s your constitutional right to own weapons of mass murder? You’re wrong, you can’t own machineguns, grenades, bazookas or a host of other arms either. That is because they serve no legitimate non-military purpose while delivering much too highly concentrated destructive force, endangering public safety. Anyway, when the Second Amendment was written a very skilled musketeer could manage at most four inaccurate rounds per minute. Reality has changed with the times.

And for those of you naive enough to think you need these kinds of weapons as hedge against a tyrannical government. Think again. Look at the resistance in Iraq. They quickly found that fighting the American military with guns was a sure way to die. That’s why they resorted to tactics like car bombs and IEDs. Thinking you’d fare any differently with your little pistol is plain foolishness.

Yes, people kill people and with these weapons of mass murder one person can kill lots of other people in a few seconds. The only people who think we need these guns are the profiteers who make and sell them, their lobbying arm the NRA, gun nuts and just plain nuts. Of the 14 worst mass shootings in the last 40 years 7 of them have been here in America. This time we need to actually do something and rid ourselves of this kind of dangerous garbage before it happens again.

Republican Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker announced he planned to print fewer ballots than were printed for the 2000 presidential election or the 2002 gubernatorial election.
(Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Oct. 13, 2004)

If the idiot wins the repub primary for Gov. do you think he'll have any at all printed for Milwaukee county? Or maybe just select neighborhoods and cities will get an overabundance? I'm thinking the city of Milwaukee may be a few short......I'm just sayin' he's not real popular there right now. Few more job cuts and crazy statements and he's going to have to be busing in teabaggers on election day.

United Healthcare Against Reform But For Penalties

Yet another reason for me to hate United Healthcare, the health insurance company selected for me by my employer, largely because Wisconsin is not a competative health insurance market. 75,000 UH employees and that's just one insurance company!

Gee, do you think there's a little overhead cost there for our healthcare system? The entire U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which runs the Medicare program for 100,000 million Americans has only 60,000 employees! Yeah no public option AND higher penalties for people who don't become customers in the custody of their monopoly. Nice. I wish I could fire their ass.


From Friday's Democracy Now! http://www.democracynow.org/2009/11/13/headlines

Insurance Giant Recruits Employees to Oppose Public Option
The nation’s largest health insurer is recruiting employees to lobby against congressional proposals for healthcare reform. Newly released emails show UnitedHealth Group wrote 75,000 employees this week to ask them to lobby their senators against inclusion of a public insurance option in the Senate healthcare bill. Form letters provided to employees also call for imposing higher financial penalties on Americans who choose not to buy health insurance.

They Call It Faux News For A Good Reason

I Still Love & Miss You, Dad.

George Nelson
April 5, 1921 -- November 19, 1987

My dad used to tell my mother and me that he enlisted before the US officially entered the war so "he could get a good seat". He went in in 1938, he was 17. He also said that the first time they told him to dig a foxhole he refused since he figured he'd be on a ship and wouldn't need to be able to dig fast........then they opened with live ammo and he had to bribe the guy next to him with his only $20 to let him jump in his foxhole. They remained close friends all of my father's life after that day.
My dad (on the right, holding drink and looking half-sloshed...one of his favorite expressions) had his time in before the war ended but he figured that he needed to stick it out to the end. And, he did. He gained a permanent appointment to Chief Petty Officer. He was proud of that.

It is my father that instilled the idea that war was a horror on mankind and only to be an absolute last resort. He had thirteen confirmed kills and it bothered him to the end of his life. It was one of the last things he talked about before his death. He wondered about the families of the Japanese soldiers he had removed from the world. He never once said a bad word about any people of Asian or German descent. Not once. He said he figured that most of them got dragged into it and you couldn't sort that kind of thing out in the air or on the ground. And, after the war you wouldn't be able to sort that kind of thing out in most cases. He believed in giving everyone a chance to prove their character before judging them.

Dad was a yellow dog democrat all his life. Including the time he was in the service. In his words he said he "figured that democrats cared more about the everyday man and woman". He thought they were less likely to go to war. He liked Ike and talked about the military-industrial complex and how much he felt betrayed by some of the big companies that made so much money on the war. He voted Stevenson.

My dad's favorite war story: I was sitting in a bar in Shanghai and a midget came up behind me and bit my ass. When I turned around to start to chase him someone else stole my money off the bar. He refused to tell my mom what he was doing in a bar in Shanghai. I still have the silk embroidered table cloth he bought there. It's huge, gold with red phoenix type birds embroidered on it. Never been used. Everyone was afraid to ruin it, me included. Maybe I'll turn it into a wall hanging? Dad would like that. He also confided in me that he bought a kimono but to never tell my mom! I never did. (they weren't married when he was there anyway.....so, his secret was safe with me. However, I did ponder who got it many times over the years.)

When they started broadcasting film on the nightly news from Vietnam you could see him holding back tears at times.

God Bless all the men and women who have served, are serving and will serve our ideals, our freedoms and our land.

Please be kind and don't post comments that would be derogatory towards my father or any veteran. I will ban you forever for that.

Printers...arggghhhh

Almost two hours screwing around with my printer before I resorted to calling my son. Then I called my son. Kept him on the phone for just over an hour. It still won't scan.

The only good thing from this experience is when I told my son I was about to cry or scream or smash the damn HP C5580 into tiny bits he informed me that so many people have problems with printers that UWM (he works in Help Desk for UWM students) that UWM actually has a printer department. Imagine that, a whole department dedicated to helping people with printer issues.

Okay, so I'm not alone. I don't know why but that made me feel much better.

Tomorrow it's off to buy another printer/scanner/copier. Not another one of these big, expensive photosmart HPs with a mini monitor, either. Give me some old school, no frills........

Scott Walker Using UW Campuses to Raise Campaign Cash?

Well, I have to say I really don't think there's that much college cash to go for. At least as a parent I have found most college students are broke all the time.

....unless, of course they're going out to party.

Then somehow money magically appears in their pockets - oh, wait that would be their parents money.

Anyway, you can read about Rep.s Vruwink and Schneider requesting an investigation into illegal fund raising on UW campuses by Scott Walker at WisPolitics.

Honestly, what a douche if he's involving college students in illegal activities. That speaks volumes about his character.

Health Care Reform Passes---women still lose

A Democrat, no less, decided to add very restrictive language into the bill to control any federal money used for abortions. I wonder if there are any restrictions on the feds paying for Viagra? Yeah, didn't think so.........

On the up side, there is now going to be available to people making less than $16,245 for an individual and $33,075 for a family of four access to medicaid. Which is something decent. I was expecting the cap to be much, much lower.

Paulie the Parrot Ryan just lost his doughnut hole, another big plus for seniors.

Small businesses win big with $25 billion in tax subsidies in help to offset the cost of offering their employees health benefits. So, all you small business yahoos can please shut the hell up now. Or thank the democrats.

Republicans are still out there telling seniors they're going to loss benefits from Medicare. These morons need to start using olive oil on their faces instead of make-up so all the egg won't stick.

Most remarkable to me is that the tea baggers must be very confused people since it was the republicans who fought hard against giving states the right to institute single payer plans themselves. How do you reconcile saying you hate the feds are sticking their noses into state's business and then go support the exact thing? Cognitive dissonance must be in pandemic proportions in the righties minds. Oh, never mind, nothing new there, I guess.

I'm trying to stay positive. But, it's hard to do when you lose a hardy public option because of the party of gNOp is peeing their pants and having hissy fits at the idea of our country making any progress while a democrat is president....

Insurance Industry Idiots

I know this is long, but try to read to the end for the full picture.

My mother passed away in June of 2008. I informed the government ( they did not request a death certificate and actually were the ones who told me not to worry about sending them anything), General Motors (also did not request any documentation), the utilities (said I could fax them), phone company (said I could fax them), Time Warner (who said they would only accept a certified death certificate presented by me in person at one of their offices--I told them to accept the one I just faxed or none at all) and the insurance company. She had no life insurance and the only insurance outside of health care (GM and SS) was with American fucktardsFamily Insurance on her house and car. I sent them a certified copy of her death certificate along with a letter explaining the ownership of the property (property transfer occurred several years prior to her death).

At that time, around the end of July, they said the home owners policy wasn't due until November and that the car insurance wasn't due until later. In October of 2008 I sent them a check for the full amount of the one year premium of the home owners policy my mother had taken out. I figured it was all about the same in terms of cost of replacement, etc etc. Didn't feel like shopping around. Was still pretty depressed and all that.

This September I received a letter from American fucktardsFamily Insurance addressed to my mother. They were canceling her home owners policy. Let me tell you what was in the letter, my comments are in red per usual and emphasis is mine:

As do all insurance companies, we have standards *oh, they have standards alright--insurance fricken standards are all over the news all the time* which help us determine whether we can provide insurance in individual cases. To our regret, we have concluded that we must ask you to secure insurance coverage from another source. Coverage will continue until 12:01 a.m., standard time, at the address shown in the policy on 11/15/2009 at which time the date all coverage shall cease.

We feel you are entitled to know the reason for our decision to terminate this insurance. *Really? How nice of them. I'm sure my mother is so pleased that they are willing to tell her why they have decided to drop her after only 16 months after her death. A mere 15 months after they got her death certificate!*

We are unable to continue coverage under this policy as the credit information we received indicates the named insured is deceased. *Credit information? Are they serious? A death certificate and a check from me and the informational letter weren't....what? read? acceptable? believable? But, they'll take it from the credit bureaus word?* We offer our condolences to your family. *Sensitive, eh? Because they didn't at the time I had all the exchanges with them via phone and snail mail once say they were sorry for our loss.* This does represent a substantial change in the risk, as the insured dwelling is no longer owner occupied. If this information is not accurate, please contact your agent to update your information. *Well, it is owner occupied, as it has always been owner occupied from the time it was purchased. As I explained to them over a year ago. With documentation!*

This action does not imply that you are uninsurable, nor does it prevent you from obtaining other insurance.*Huh? She may still be insurable? For what? A death insurance policy in case she comes back from the grave?* You may be eligible for coverage through American Family Brokerage, Inc. blah blah blah...........on and on. *So, I guess they have some lesser insurance lacky type companies they turn you over to, for a commission no doubt, for cases just like this one?*

But, oh, yes, there's a big but in this yet. But, I got the renewal reminder for her car insurance last month after I got the above letter. I tore it up. I have no idea how the car was insured or in who's name for the last year. And, at this point I don't even care. I didn't need it so I just don't care.

But, again...........there's more. Yes, it couldn't just end with us going to State Farm and getting different insurance last month. (I have to say I found it touching that the State Farm agent tried really hard to keep a straight face as we were showing him all this. Personally, I would have lost it and laughed out loud.) Nope, it didn't end there with American fucktards Family. Late last week I got yet more stuff addressed to mom. This time it was a customer service satisfaction survey from JD Power and Associates on behalf of American fucktards Family Insurance. They even specified that she needed to use her PIN. Only, she didn't have one. I would know since I took care of all her business the last couple of years..........yee gods, any question of why insurance companies are fucked up should be answered now.

I'm actually thinking about filling it out as if I were her responding from beyond the grave. Mom would love if I did that. Really, she would. Maybe I will. Maybe I'll add some cigarette ashes and say they're in lieu of a signature since she was cremated. Think that would get the point across for once and for all?