Kentucky Stomper Charged With Fourth-Degree Assault

Almost enough said.

State Assembly candidate refuses to answer questions for local newspaper

Molly McGartland, Republican candidate for the Wisconsin 20th Assembly District, has refused to answer any questions for the Bay View Compass newspaper’s candidate questionnaire. In contrast, her opponent, incumbent state Rep. Christine Sinicki, did submit answers to their questions. Questionnaires Sinkicki, McGartland, Jon Richards (D) and his challenger Crista Burns (R) for are in the current issue of the Compass.

The story is not yet online. A link shall be provided when it becomes available.

As a former newspaper man and once-and-future candidate, I find it very offensive when candidates at any level refuse to talk to the media. Like it or not, the media is our source of information on important topics like elections.

Disclosure: I have been a newspaper publisher and independent media activist, and have written extensively for the Compass. My profile of the renegade country band God’s Outlaw appears in the Nov. 2010 issue.

What are the long-term effects of hyper-polarization?

What are the long-term effects of hyper-polarization? This is an open question, one that I do not have an answer for. Hyper-polarization is my term for the increasingly caustic political environment that seems to exist at the moment in the United States. It seems that it is becoming or has become difficult to get things accomplished without first going through great convulsions of political purity tests. And it seems nearly impossible to reach any sort of compromise if people are running for office and promising that in fact tbere will be absolutely no compromise. One guy is running for Congress on that pledge. What is the point of that approach? How do you expect to lead, govern, or legislate if you are not willing to make some even minor compromise?

That must make life at home very difficult. “What would you like to do for dinner tonight?” “I want pasta, with red sauce, and NO ANCHOVIES.” “Okay, I kind of wanted a cream sauce–” “I SAID NO ANCHOVIES!!” “I was going to suggest scallions, actually.” “RED SAUCE OR THE KIDS GO HUNGRY.”

Etcetera.

We have protesters getting beaten, dissent being stifled, people of all colors and views being hated. I just wonder, where are we going? Where does this lead to? And when so we say “enough”?

Perhaps at the Rally to Restore Sanity. Calm, sanity, and rational thinking are all sounding awfully nice right now.

(cue personal attacks and hyperbolic vitriol in 3… 2… 1….)

O! What a storm that was

A very large tree limb fell on a pickup truck on Kinnickinnic Avenue in Bay View. It punctured the windshield, and I hope no one was hurt.

A smaller but still very significant branch—at least 10′ long—fell in our back yard. Needless to say, our dog will be very happy about this, just as soon as I can get it cut into slightly smaller pieces.

I hope folks are okay down in Racine County, where they apparently had a tornado. We get our eggs from the Jones Family Farm, which is in Racine County. Hope they’re okay, too!

Let’s be careful out there.

Woman pushed to ground, head stomped on, by Rand Paul supporters

There are few words that are appropriate for this, other than “TOTALLY UNACCETABLE,” which must be written in huge capital letters.

Rand Paul has yet to condemn this—which is exactly what he must do.

Update 1: Mr. Paul has condemned the attack. How about you, Mr. Halbert?

And the men who did this—you just committed assault.  Better get yourselves a lawyer.

Update 2: The assailant has come forward. He is Tim Profitt, the now-former Paul campaign Bourbon County coordinator. And he has been served with a criminal summons. Justice may yet occur.

The Onion skewers Ron Johnson

In a sense, you know you’ve arrived when The Onion is making fun of you.

“My Opponent Knows Where Washington Is On A Map; I Don’t, And I Never Will”

Do enjoy!

OBTW: Hopefully this won’t get him too many votes.

The almost-last garden harvests of 2010: Beans, radishes, and a carrot.

Save for brussels sprouts, the months of October and November mark a close of the growing season for Wisconsin gardeners. (Unless you have a hoop house, but that’s another story. Next year!)

(Brussels sprouts are usually the last thing that I bring in. They are not harvested until the day after the first frost. The frost mutes the sprouts’ bitterness, making them much more palatable. This year I decapitated the stalks at about a knee-high level. This to prevent them from growing high, thus devoting growth to the sprouts. We’ll see in a month or so how they turned out.)

Anyhow, I harvested several pounds of bush beans today, and accidentally pulled up a ball carrot in the process. While the placement of the carrot in that spot was accidental, its leaves stood tall among the bean plants.

(Bush beans grow about a foot high, and have several pods on each plant. Bush bean plants require no support, while “pole” beans do require a trellis, a teepee, or even tall plant to wrap around and grow on. All of the beans that I have grown were of the bush bean variety.)

While the big sack of beans isn’t that impressive, I did want you to see the ball carrot:

I have several more in a different bed, and I may harvest them tomorrow.

Last month, I pulled up a bunch of radishes.

Not bad considering that I just threw a bunch of seeds at the soil, then thinned the sprouts out about two weeks later.

Today I also brought in another red chili pepper and one sad-looking eggplant. It got about three inches long, and had a big hole in one side where something had eaten it.

The beans, radishes, and carrots, along with lettuces, a previous round of radishes, and a variety of herbs were all grown in my newest raised bed, which I built in May of 2010. That bed is filled with (free!) leaf mulch (leafmold) from the city of Greenfield. I have never had any plants grow so well as did the plants in the leaf mulch. And I think they were bigger and tasted better, too. It’s a bonanza for urban gardeners. Thanks, Greenfield!

So, soon as the frost hits, I’ll be out in the garden, trimming back the plants and harvesting brussels sprouts at last.

Ron Johnson’s lack of plans for the economy, veterans — anything — focus of new Feingold TV ad

I have to say, it’s true. Republican U.S. Senate candidate Ron Johnson has glossed over huge swaths of major issues, from the economy to veterans benefits. As he said at the UW-Milwaukee candidate forum on October 21, “I don’t believe this election really is about details, it just isn’t.”

Too bad they don’t matter to you. The devil’s in the details, Mr. Johnson.

Perhaps that’s why Senator Feingold has received an endorsement from the Green Bay Press-Gazette, the first time the conservative paper has ever endorsed him. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has joined the Press-Gazette in endorsing Feingold, as has the Oshkosh Northwestern.

It’s also the focus of this new Feingold ad that shows how despite his millions of dollars in expenditure, Ron Johnson has not told us how he will help workers or veterans. Much like Richard Nixon, Johnson’s “secret plan” would be revealed after the election—assuming he wins.

Let’s hope Johnson doesn’t plan to bomb them out of existence, as did Nixon and North Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.

I think it’s much safer to presume that he doesn’t have one.

Either way, here’s the new Feingold campaign ad, “Whiteboard.” Enjoy.

For first time, Green Bay Press-Gazette endorses Feingold

The Green Bay Press-Gazette (a Gannett newspaper) has given its endorsement to Russ Feingold, the first time it has ever done so. Their reasoning: while there was agreement with Johnson on some principles, “Johnson seemed unable to further articulate his plan for job creation — especially for the middle class — during a recent meeting with the Green Bay Press-Gazette editorial board. Basic principles of restraint are one thing; a detailed proposal to spur job creation and get our economy moving is another.”

Indeed, Johnson has become well-known for his inability to specify anything that would create middle-class jobs. Lord knows that he doesn’t need to worry about his own job security, though IllyT rightly argues that that is what Johnson is after.

It’s no wonder people are coming back to Russ Feingold. They know he’ll do us right.

Solar prominence: a good reminder of who and where we are

It’s so easy to get mixed up and lost in the political drama of the day that it’s sometimes good to be reminded that we’re not the only people in the world, or for that matter, the only things in the universe. I came across this picture courtesy of Astronomy Picture of the Day. Today’s entry shows a solar prominence, which I had thought of a solar flare. Here it is:

That is our Sun, with a solar prominence. It’s freaking huge. The Sun itself is over 109 times wider than,and 330,000 times the mass that of Earth. And we sure wouldn’t be here with out it! (Even though here in Wisconsin, we’d do okay, ya know. We’d manage. We’re used to it gettin’ cold, ya know.) And that solar prominence could easily fit an Earth or two inside of itself.

According to APOD:

The above prominence, captured by the Sun-orbiting SOHO satellite earlier this year during an early stage of its eruption, rapidly became one of the largest ever on record. Even as pictured, the prominence is huge — the Earth would easily fit inside. A solar prominence is a thin cloud of solar gas held just above the surface by the Sun’s magnetic field. A quiescent prominence typically lasts about a month, while an eruptive prominence like the one developing above may erupt within hours into a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME), expelling hot gas into the Solar System. Although very hot, prominences typically appear dark when viewed against the Sun, since they are slightly cooler than the surface. As our Sun evolves toward Solar maximum over the next three years, more large eruptive prominences are expected.

Wow.

And now back to politics as usual.