Doyle’s Inferno May 29, 2009
Posted by The Underground Conservative in Democrats, Gov. Jim Milhous Doyleone, Republicans, Spending, State Budget, State Government, State Legislature, Taxes, Wisconsin.comments closed
Good morning, Wisconsin.
The Joint Finance Committee just voted to send taxpayers in the Badger State to yet another level of Tax Hell.
In a session that ended at 5:30 a.m., the JFC hit state taxpayers over and over again, turning Wisconsin taxpayers into the Last of the BOHICANS (“Bend Over, Here It Comes Again!”).
Oil tax? Check. Yet another hike in the cigarette tax? Check. Increasing the recently passed hospital tax? Check. Expanding it to ambulatory surgical centers? Check. Raising the income tax? Check.
Oh, some other goodies in there as well
- Drivers’ licenses for illegal aliens. What part of “illegal” don’t they understand?
- Releasing 1,000 convicted felons into the communities to, as Democrats claim, “get jobs, pay taxes and stay out of trouble.” Yeah, right. A great number of those to be released are drug dealers. You really think they are going to get a job and pay taxes? Guess what lifestyle they are going back to. Easy money.
- Easing tracking of child sex offenders.Only the ones considered by the so-called experts as dangerous would still receive 24/7 GPS tracking. Other child sex perverts would get tracking devices that would check in once a day. How many children are at risk during the time when the sex pervert isn’t being monitored? Oh yeah, that’s right. Democrats are “for the children.”
- Pork, er, earmarks Too many to list individually, but here’s a sample: $5 million for the Bradley Center Sports and Entertainment Corp. $50,000 for a playground in the Town of Beloit. $25,000 for the Root River Education Center in Racine. $20,000 for a pedestrian path in Rock County. We have pedestrian paths. They’re called sidewalks.
- Auto insurance mandates. Democrats don’t think you are paying enough for auto insurance, so mandated coverage will result in higher rates for Wisconsin drivers. That’s a tax increase, in reality.
- W-2 will be completely overhauled, with the provision that welfare benefits being cut off to parents whose children are not attending school removed. Essentially, W-2 is being gutted and made worthless. Wisconsin as a magnet for bums and freeloaders for welfare with Rolls Royce welfare benefits is on its way back. Or, as the bumper sticker puts it: Work hard. Millions on welfare depend on you.
- QEO: Gone. Say hello to skyrocketing property taxes as local school districts raise salaries and benefits without any semblence of control.
That’s in addition to what the JFC approved in the Memorial Day Massacre over the weekend:
- In-state tuition in the University of Wisconsin System and Wisconsin technical colleges for illegal aliens.
- Taxpayer-provided benefits for domestic partnerships, including homosexuals, for state employees.
- Garbage tax increase.
- Mandating prevailing wage for all projects receiving any public funding, a big, wet, sloppy kiss to the unions.
- Unionizing home health care workers.
Via the MacIver Institute, here’s the Secret Budget Deal.
Yes, Secret Budget Deal. As the MacIver Institute notes:
70 percent of the entire GPR budget in one, sweeping, secretly-negotiated omnibus motion, on which no public hearing was held.
New taxes. New fees. New fund transfers. New mandates. New policies.
Funny, we can’t remember a lot of these items being discussed at last week’s Doyle/Pocan/Miller press conference. The media focused on the layoffs and furloughs which account for just a small fraction of what’s being done to cover the ever-worsening budget deficit in Wisconsin.
That’s because they weren’t. And with the sleepy, lapdog Drive By Media being its old reliable self, nothing was reported until after it became a fait accompli.
MacIver also points out a grievous “Oops!” moment in the haste to release dangerous felons into Wisconsin communities, ostensibly to save money:
From the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau analysis:
It should be noted that under the bill, while offenders subject to a special bulletin notice are ineligible for the sentence adjustments, other sex offenders would be eligible. During his budget testimony before the Joint Committee on Finance, however, the Secretary of the Department of Corrections indicated that the intent of the proposed language was to exclude all sex offenders who are required to register on the sex offender registry.
Oops.
In their zeal to gut a law that makes prisoners serve their full sentences, the Doyle Administration ‘accidentally’ included sex offenders in the list of those who get a break.
Others who are eligible for early release under this soft-on-crime provision includes arsonists, repeat drunk driver felons, cocaine dealers, kidnappers and dozens of other unsavory convicts who are hoping to use Wisconsin’s dire budget situation to catch a break.
The JFC’s budget thoroughly guts truth-in-sentencing and once again turns the state’s criminal justice system into a sad, pathetic joke.
All of these votes have been taken either in the dark of night or over Memorial Day Weekend when few were paying attention. Charlie Sykes has an e-mail from state Sen. Glenn Grothman wondering if the Democrats might put off their fundraising golf outing to take some honest votes on these urgent matters in the light of day.
I think we know the answer to that. Not just no. Hell no. This is how totalitarian thugs operate. Brazen, without a shred of concern for the public.
What’s more, Christian Schneider has more details on the deception of the Wisconsin Extortion Association Council.
[T]axpayers be warned – this isn’t a “compromise” at all. It’s merely a stunt to make WEAC look more reasonable and squeeze you for more cash. Of course, the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee will likely give the public a full five minutes to debate this plan that was cooked up in a secret meeting last night. Open and honest government – soak it in.
WEAC has been calling for the Legislature to eliminate the QEO, which limited increases in teachers’ salaries to 3.8 percent. Not a bad deal. I’d love to be guaranteed a 3.8 percent pay raise on a regular basis.
Now, WEAC has essentially agreed — with itself, since as Schneider points out, WEAC owns the Legislature — to postpone eliminating the QEO by one year. He notes:
This new bogus “compromise” exposes many of the arguments WEAC has used over the years in favor of scuttling the QEO as complete nonsense. They have made all these high-minded appeals to the sanctity of collective bargaining and workers’ rights and how damaging it is to children to have teachers under salary caps – when in fact, they’re more than willing to throw those all out the window if it means more money for one year. This isn’t about saving the kids or about collective bargaining – it’s all about getting the most money for their members in the short-term.
Wisconsin taxpayers: the Last of the BOHICANS. Unfortunately, there is no one in Madison looking out for us.
For His Country May 25, 2009
Posted by The Underground Conservative in Freedom, U.S. Military.comments closed
On this Memorial Day, we salute the ultimate sacrifice made by Sgt. Brian Naseman of Racine, killed in action fighting jihadists and advancing the cause of freedom in Iraq.
Sgt. 1st Class Brian Naseman, 36, died Friday in Taji, Iraq, where he arrived last month as part of the 32nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team of the Wisconsin Army National Guard.
Naseman died of injuries sustained from a non-combat-related incident. The circumstances surrounding the incident are under investigation, according to a statement released by Brigadier Gen. Donald P. Dunbar, adjutant general of Wisconsin.
Naseman, a native of New Bremen, Ohio, lived in Racine with his wife, Peggy, and their two sons, Carter and Cole.
Naseman was a member of the 108th Forward Support Company that was attached to the 2nd Battalion, 127th Infantry.
He had previously deployed to Kuwait from November 2005 to November 2006 with 2nd Battalion, 128th Infantry.
Prior to his recent mobilization with the 32nd Brigade, Naseman was a full-time National Guard soldier in Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 257th Brigade Support Battalion, 157th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade.
To honor Naseman, Dunbar ordered the flags at all Wisconsin National Guard armories, air bases and other facilities lowered to half-staff beginning Tuesday and continuing until sunset on the day of his funeral service. Funeral arrangements are pending.
“With all 10,000 of Sgt. 1st Class Naseman’s fellow soldiers and airmen of Wisconsin’s National Guard, I salute his service to his community, state and nation,” Dunbar said. “I pray for the protection and safe return of all the soldiers and airmen of the Wisconsin National Guard now serving overseas in harm’s way.”
A personal note: I knew Brian Naseman. I’ve known his wife, Peggy, for about 20 years. They are among the nicest, most decent people I know. I can only imagine what the family is going through. I am proud to consider them friends.
My deepest and sincere sympathies to Peggy and the children and the rest of the family.
Dedicated to Brian and every member of the U.S. military who has given his or her life in the cause of freedom on this Memorial Day … Billy Ray Cyrus and “Some Gave All”:
No Hiding Place May 23, 2009
Posted by The Underground Conservative in Christianity, First Amendment, Religion.comments closed
Something is terribly wrong with this picture.
A pastor and his wife are facing a cost in excess of $10,000 or stiff fines for hosting Bible studies in their home without a government permit.
A San Diego pastor and his wife claim they were interrogated by a county official and warned they will face escalating fines if they continue to hold Bible studies in their home.
The couple, whose names are being withheld until a demand letter can be filed on their behalf, told their attorney a county government employee knocked on their door on Good Friday, asking a litany of questions about their Tuesday night Bible studies, which are attended by approximately 15 people.
“Do you have a regular weekly meeting in your home? Do you sing? Do you say ‘amen’?” the official reportedly asked. “Do you say, ‘Praise the Lord’?”
The pastor’s wife answered yes.
She says she was then told, however, that she must stop holding “religious assemblies” until she and her husband obtain a Major Use Permit from the county, a permit that often involves traffic and environmental studies, compliance with parking and sidewalk regulations and costs that top tens of thousands of dollars.
And if they fail to pay for the MUP, the county official reportedly warned, the couple will be charged escalating fines beginning at $100, then $200, $500, $1000, “and then it will get ugly.”
It already is ugly. When an American’s First Amendment right to exercise his or her freedom of religion in a private home is under attack by a collection of fascists, stormtroopers and jack-booted thugs, all of our rights are at risk.
Anyone see Those Lost Without ACLUe? Anyone? Bueller … Bueller … Bueller.
R.I.P., Friend May 20, 2009
Posted by The Underground Conservative in Personal.comments closed
I lost my best friend tonight:
Patches 1994-2009
Good-bye, my friend. You were loved and will be missed.
Here’s Your New Car May 20, 2009
Posted by The Underground Conservative in Auto Industry, Automakers, Barack Hussein Obama, Energy, Enviromentalist Wackos, Environment.comments closed
Via Charlie Sykes, here is the type of car Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Barack Hussein Obama wants to force us, the Great Unwashed, to buy.
Much has been written about the Insight, Honda’s new low-priced hybrid. We’ve been told how much carbon dioxide it produces, how its dashboard encourages frugal driving by glowing green when you’re easy on the throttle and how it is the dawn of all things. The beginning of days.
So far, though, you have not been told what it’s like as a car; as a tool for moving you, your friends and your things from place to place.
So here goes. It’s terrible. Biblically terrible. Possibly the worst new car money can buy. It’s the first car I’ve ever considered crashing into a tree, on purpose, so I didn’t have to drive it any more.
The biggest problem, and it’s taken me a while to work this out, because all the other problems are so vast and so cancerous, is the gearbox. For reasons known only to itself, Honda has fitted the Insight with something called constantly variable transmission (CVT).
It doesn’t work. Put your foot down in a normal car and the revs climb in tandem with the speed. In a CVT car, the revs spool up quickly and then the speed rises to match them. It feels like the clutch is slipping. It feels horrid.
And the sound is worse. The Honda’s petrol engine is a much-shaved, built-for-economy, low-friction 1.3 that, at full chat, makes a noise worse than someone else’s crying baby on an airliner. It’s worse than the sound of your parachute failing to open. Really, to get an idea of how awful it is, you’d have to sit a dog on a ham slicer.
So you’re sitting there with the engine screaming its head off, and your ears bleeding, and you’re doing only 23mph because that’s about the top speed, and you’re thinking things can’t get any worse, and then they do because you run over a small piece of grit.
Appropriately, the vehicle has been nicknamed the Smugmobile, no doubt with the smug bastard who will be forcing us to buy it in mind.
Here’s how The Christos plans on wrecking the U.S. auto industry:
DETROIT (al-AP) – Some soccer moms will have to give up hulking SUVs. Carpenters will still haul materials around in pickup trucks, but they will cost more. Nearly everybody else will drive smaller cars, and more of them will run on electricity. The higher mileage and emissions standards set by the Obama administration on Tuesday, which begin to take effect in 2012 and are to be achieved by 2016, will transform the American car and truck fleet.
The new rules would bring new cars and trucks sold in the United States to an average of 35.5 miles per gallon, about 10 mpg more than today’s standards. Passenger cars will be required to get 39 mpg, light trucks 30 mpg.
That means cars and trucks on American roads will have to become smaller, lighter and more efficient.
Eric Fedewa, vice president of global powertrain forecasting for the auto consulting firm CSM Worldwide in Northville, Mich., said the changes will make pickup trucks so much more expensive that they will be used almost exclusively for work.
The Second Coming of Christ’s new regulations amount to a $1,300 tax on the purchase of a new vehicle.
The plan was praised by automakers, environmentalists and an array of politicians, but it will mean higher price tags for consumers. The new program will add about $1,300 to the price of producing a vehicle.
Obama said car buyers would recoup the money with the lower fuel costs realized under more efficient mileage standards.
“This is a winning proposition for folks looking to buy a car,” he said. “Over the life of a vehicle, the typical driver would save about $2,800 by getting better gas mileage.”
That logic, of course, coming from Someone who thinks a tire gauge is a better alternative to more domestic oil production.
An A for empty rhetoric, an F for logic.
And more Americans face the increased prospect of death on the highways directly because of His plans.
The National Academy of Sciences, Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, Congressional Budget Office and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have separately concluded in multiple studies dating back about 20 years that fuel-economy standards force automakers to build more small cars, which has led to thousands more deaths in crashes annually. Even though the standards were updated in recent years to reduce the incentive for automakers to sell more small cars by allowing different fuel-economy targets for different vehicles, the fastest way to make cars more fuel-efficient is to make them smaller.
Some safety experts worry that the administration’s green focus could reverse progress made in reducing the highway death toll. The fatality rate in car crashes reached its lowest ever in 2007 and is projected to drop even lower for 2008 — to 1.28 deaths per 100 million miles traveled.
Of course, politics rules in this administration. Tell the truth, adn you get whacked:
Obama this month withdrew the name of his nominee to lead the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, longtime safety advocate Charles “Chuck” Hurley, after an outcry from environmentalists over Hurley’s statements linking fuel-economy rules to highway deaths.
The poor guy tells the truth, and the environmentalist dingbats get his head on a platter.
Here’s the Obamamobile these extremists will be forcing us to buy — but will never buy themselves:
A Sweetheart Deal For J-Wax May 19, 2009
Posted by The Underground Conservative in Gov. Jim Milhous Doyleone, S. C. Johnson Wax, State Government, Taxes, Wisconsin.comments closed
The King of Pay For Play, Gov. Jim Milhous Doyleone, strikes again.
This time, Diamond Jim signed an executive order exempting last year exempting the Administration and Research Buildings at S.C. Johnson Wax from property taxes as historic landmarks.
In an exclusive, the Racine Post first reported the details here.
Those buildings were designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. What was not designed by Wright, who has long since assumed room temperature, was the Project Honor buidling under construction. That, too, was exemption as — steady now — a tourist and educational center.
That’s about $190,000 in property taxes the city and Racine Unified will not be collecting, thanks to a dirty deal between J-Wax, Don Doyleone and former Racine Mayor McPervert, er, Gary Becker.
That lost revenue, of course, will be paid by … guess who? That’s right. The rest of us. Those without the political clout. The Last of the BOHICANS.
Mark Belling reported this afternoon that, six weeks after Diamond Jim signed the executive order, a fat campaign contribution in the amount of $1,000 found its way into the governor’s re-election coffers. The contributor? One Herbert Fisk Johnson, president of S. C. Johnson Wax. That’s right. Johnson coughs up $1,000 to the King of Quid Pro Quo, Jim Doyle, and in return gets absolved of almost $200,000 a year in property taxes.
You can listen to Belling discuss it here.
Charlie Sykes calls what the Racine Post did “a flagrant act of journalism.”
Just another example of why Jim Doyle is the King of Pay For Play. Racine taxpayers wind up picking up the tab.
Drinking Responsibly? At What Cost? May 14, 2009
Posted by The Underground Conservative in Federal Budget, Spending, Taxes.comments closed
The U.S. taxpayer is paying Chinese prostitutes $2.6 million to learn how to drink responsibly on the job.
(CNSNews.com) — The National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAA), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), will pay $2.6 million in U.S. tax dollars to train Chinese prostitutes to drink responsibly on the job.
Referring to hookers as “female sex workers” and pimps as “gatekeepers” is Orwellian. The repeated references to “exploratory” and “exploration” were unintentionally hilarious.
The rest of it is pathetic. Namely that U.S. taxpayers are being forced to shell out money for this.
But we’re constantly told that we can’t cut one dime of federal spending.
