Darrell Ehrlick is braindead

This “journalist” writes that state Senate Democrats, Kathleen Vinehout in particular, are guilty of a dereliction of duty by fleeing the state instead of allowing Walker’s union busting bill to pass, and then attempts an apples-to-apples comparison of state senator to welder, grocery clerk or any other job.

Ehrlick accuses Senate Dems of stooping to Walker’s level by refusing to show up and negotiate, and even pulls out “two wrongs don’t make a right.”

Democrats did what they had to do or else this “budget” bill with massive implications unrelated to the state budget would have been rammed through with little debate or public input.

Does Mr. Ehrlick think the members of the Assembly offering amendments to the bill are in dereliction of duty? The bill is going to pass the Assembly unchanged anyway. Following Ehrlick’s logic, we should be happy the Republicans are allowing amendments to the bill at all, they won the last election right?

At the end of Ehrlick’s piece he brings up Vinehout’s “plagarism” incident from last year. If Ehrlick is too stupid to understand the concept of politicians using speech writers and the like, he doesn’t deserve a column, even in the Winona Daily News. Maybe the Winona Post will take you Darrell.

I hope you have a google alert set up for your name, Darrell Ehrlick.

Wisconsin Unions

Apologies for the lack of content during what has been a very important couple of weeks. I’ve been working long hours. Making time and a half for the overtime…thanks unions.

Celebrating National Marriage Week: Day 5, Ron Johnson

It’s day five of National Marriage Week. Talking about Senator Ron Johnson isn’t exactly “celebrating” in light of his typical, career politician, Republican point-of-view, but National Marriage Week won’t be worth celebrating until everyone can celebrate it.

In Ron Johnson’s expert opinion, possibly due to his private sector experience working for his father-in-law, traditional marriage has been around “for thousands of years … and I just don’t see any reason to change that.”

Johnson’s inherited industry, plastics, hasn’t been around “for thousands of years” but he was still pretty psyched about the holographic cards promoting his candidacy last summer.

Ron Johnson wants the government out of his life…but squarely positioned between two people of the same gender who love each other, and want to be treated like everyone else. Yet Johnson believes liberals are standing in the way of freedom, and health care is the greatest threat to freedom in his lifetime. That’s not even hypocrisy, it’s stupidity.

Celebrating National Marriage Week: Day 4, those affected

Happy National Marriage Week Day four!

Today we’ll look at the personal stories of those affected by state and federal gay marriage bans. A few years ago Illusory Tenant put together these examples of gay and lesbian couples from a New Jersey Supreme Court case;

From Lewis, et al. v. Harris, et al., a 2006 decision of the New Jersey Supreme Court, here’s a few of the godless reprobate plaintiffs that are hell bent on destroying our civilization:

Alicia Toby and Saundra Heath, who reside in Newark, have lived together for seventeen years and have children and grandchildren. Alicia is an ordained minister in a church …

Mark Lewis and Dennis Winslow reside in Union City and have been together for fourteen years. They both are pastors in the Episcopal Church.

Diane Marini and Marilyn Maneely were committed partners for fourteen years until Marilyn’s death in 2005. The couple lived in Haddonfield, where Diane helped raise, as though they were her own, Marilyn’s five children from an earlier marriage.

Karen and Marcye Nicholson-McFadden have been committed partners for seventeen years. … [T]hey are raising two young children conceived through artificial insemination, Karen having given birth to their daughter and Marcye to their son.

Suyin and Sarah Lael have resided together in Franklin Park for most of the sixteen years of their familial partnership. … They live with their nine-year-old adopted daughter and two other children who they are in the process of adopting.
Cindy Meneghin and Maureen Kilian first met in high school and have been in a committed relationship for thirty-two years. They have lived together for twenty-three years in Butler where they are raising a fourteen-year-old son and a twelve-year-old daughter. Through artificial insemination, Cindy conceived their son and Maureen their daughter.

The horror … the horror.

Last week Blogging Blue had the compelling story of a 19 year old Iowan raised by two women, who were finally allowed to marry in 2009 when the state’s Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage. Some in Iowa have been attempting to regress, even before the court’s decision was made, offering amendments to the constitution similar to Wisconsin’s unfortunate and hurtful amendment.

Real people are affected by our state’s discrimination. If the government is going to be involved in the business of marriage, it needs to treat everyone equally. The Constitution of the United States is pretty clear on that.

Celebrating National Marriage Week: Day 3, our unfortunate leaders

Day three of National Marriage Week in Wisconsin focuses on our elected leaders, and the harm their policies have done to gays and lesbians in the state.

Governor Scott Walker, during his tenure as Milwaukee County Executive, vetoed a measure that would have simply studied the idea of domestic partnership benefits for county employees. Eye on Wisconsin rightly called the act “blowing a right wing dog whistle” while campaigning for the Republican nomination for governor. Putting politics over people accounts for many rungs on Walker’s career ladder.

Emily Mills notes the hardships Walker and his ilk inflict on the citizens of Wisconsin “…by spreading a message of discrimination and rejection that bleeds through society as a whole.”

During Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch’s campaign, she compared Wisconsin’s domestic partner registry to allowing people to marry dogs. The registry only grants couples roughly one-fifth the rights of a married couple, but a reasonable assessment of the registry clearly isn’t capable given Kleefisch’s rhetoric. Her social positions are so extreme when she became Walker’s running mate, her “issues” page was taken down and became a link to Walker’s, which featured no overt anti-gay sentiment.

Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald brags on his campaign website about being “lead author of the constitutional amendment…defining and protecting marriage in Wisconsin as a union between one man and one woman.” That unfortunate amendment is nothing but an example of all the bad democracy can accomplish.

Steve Hanson at Uppity Wisconsin notes “Julaine Appling and her group [Wisconsin Family Council] have not been satisfied with denying marriage rights to gay and lesbian couples in the state, but are now also fighting the ability of couples to have other legal rights if they are state employees.” WFC will find a willing partner in Governor Walker. The camps appear to be buddy-buddy, if Appling’s praise of Walker’s economic agenda is any evidence.

At this point it should be clear that Republicans in Wisconsin value anti-gay discrimination as an asset on the campaign trail.

Join the celebration — National Marriage Week, For Everyone.

Celebrating National Marriage Week: Day 2

It is now day two of the eight day National Marriage Week. To clarify, the group behind National Marriage Week doesn’t seem to have a anti-gay or far right agenda, other than offering strictly right-wing sources on their newsroom page. They are not very scientific in their pronouncements, but a cursory view of the site doesn’t reveal anything in the way of hate.

The problem is with the Wisconsin Family Councils of the world latching on, groups promoting hate under the guise of “values.” These self-described “values” groups align themselves with Republicans, who preach a mantra of limited government. However these groups advocate a government rooted in their own personal morality, which is anything but limited government.

The advocacy arm of WFC, Wisconsin Family Action, advocates “religious freedom,” but that’s the only kind of freedom they advocate. Given their way the group would ban gambling, pornography and stem-cell research and take away woman’s right to choose. So much for limited government.

Limited government is not legislating who may marry who. After a court ruling in favor of Wisconsin’s unfortunate ban on gay marriage and civil unions, Julaine Appling, president of WFC says, “We are even more committed to defending marriage” as if  she were part of a noble battle. Ms. Appling is only serving to oppress gay and lesbian people across our state who only want what she thinks she advocates — the benefits of marriage.

If you don’t like gay marriage, don’t get gay married. And if you have a blog, or if you twitter, join me in celebrating National Marriage Week, for everyone. Spread the word about the right-wing’s hypocrisy on limited government and marriage. Blogging Blue, Whallah, Illusory Tenant and Blue Cheddar are all doing it.

Celebrating National Marriage Week

I hope you’ll join me, along with hate monger Julaine Appling, president of hate mongers Wisconsin Family Council, in celebrating National Marriage Week this week.

Governor Scott Walker is celebrating. In fact, he issued a National Marriage Week proclamation at the request of aforementioned hate mongers.

Of course this blog and the governor’s hate crew will be celebrating National Marriage Week for different reasons. Pretty Important is of the belief that two people who want to marry should be able to marry, regardless of gender. We believe the Constitution of the United States of America requires that blind eye toward gender if the government is to be involved in marriage at all.

Wisconsin Family Council/Action (depending if they are overtly lobbying for discrimination, or not so much) are using National Marriage Week to promote their hateful, anti-gay “values.” Appling touts the benefits of a stable marriage with blinding ignorance to the feasibility of such a setup. Apparently unfamiliar with “correlation does not equal causation” Appling offers scenarios in which individuals and society as a whole are better served via traditional marriage while disregarding all other mitigating circumstances.

The most feeble-minded statement is a figure on the amount spent in America (supposedly $112 billion) on “unwed childbearing.” Appling neglects to clarify if that is money spent privately or by the government, or if the expenditure would be made regardless, given 100% “wed childbearing.”

Of course we shouldn’t expect too much intelligent thought from these people. National Marriage Week runs February 7-14… 8 days.

Happy National Marriage Week for everybody, everybody!

Wisconsin Patriot Coalition is very, very confused

First, Wisconsin Patriot Coalition issued a press release in support of voter ID. Typical backwards thought from the right, but certainly not surprising. Republicans in Wisconsin blame previous failure at the polls on fraud alone, completely ignorant to the effects of their poor public policy.

A few days later the group is at it again, touting the benefits of “stripping away unnecessary and burdensome regulation in this state.” This doesn’t mesh at all with their position on voter ID.

Despite a clear lack of evidence of voter fraud, much less fraud that would be prevented by ID, the “Patriots” advocate legislation that is not only unnecessary when coupled with the lack fraud evidence, but would cost the state millions and be burdensome, especially to rural citizens.

WPC’s intellectual void is evidenced further in the title of the aforementioned press release. The group “Congratulates Governor Walker on Clear Vision Expressed in State of the State Address.” Walker’s address was a substance-free affair, though the state faces glaring budget problems which need to be addressed.

There’s nothing patriotic about disenfranchising your fellow citizens, but in light of the ignorance detailed above, who could expect an informed name from the group?

Wisconsin Republicans can’t count to one

In his State of the State address, Governor Scott Walker accused budgeters of “an addiction to one-time federal dollars.” Addiction requires repetition, which is inherently not present in “one-time federal dollars.”

Walker followed up the statement by saying the federal funds, “are no longer options.”

Thanks for the info, Captain Obvious.

Undeterred, RPW 1st Vice Chairman Brian Schimming, stepping into the shoes of lead stuntman Reince Priebus, says  ”no more relying on one time federal stimulus dollars” to balance the state budget.

Apparently the Republican Party of Wisconsin can’t count to one.

PolitiFact Wisconsin

Arbitrarily assessing an arbitrarily selected excerpt using arbitrary criteria and assigning an arbitrary rating.