FREE WHITEWATER

Monthly Archives: July 2008

Register Watch™ for July 24th: Concrete and Mass Transit

Concrete. The lead story in the latest issues of the Register is about a settlement with contractors Mann Bros. for reportedly deteriorating concrete that Mann brothers installed beside some city streets.

It’s the sort of story that might, and should, be a lead story in a well-functioning small town’s local paper. It would probably merit some attention in any paper. It’s a front page story in the Whitewater Register.

It’s more than that, though – it’s the story anyone would want to read, and the only kind that some would insist on reading, here. If the front page controversy in your town is a story about how the concrete wasn’t poured correctly, or whatever deficiency led to this situation, then conditions must be pretty good.

The benefit of a story like this isn’t the tale it tells; it’s in the avoidance of all the other tales that might be told.

Mass Transit. Gas prices are up, and it costs more to drive. There are any number of private solutions to this problem. One would be for workers heading to the same destination in another city to carpool, or seek neighbors who need to go to nearby destinations. Government need play no role in these arrangements.

Alternatively, a community could seek grant money, matched fractionally with some of its own money, to conduct a feasibility study for mass transit in the area. The study has the advantage of assuring voters that the matter is being considered, without the messy, and far more expensive, headache of actually subsidizing a public transportation system between nearby towns.

A mass transit study in an election year of high gasoline prices – with no certainty of a real system being established — is like free advertising for incumbents.

If mass transit comes to the small and struggling communities of our area, it will be a match for the environment – it, too, will be small and struggling. When all the grant money on earth dries up, grants will become local subsidies, and subsidies will require expenditures, and expenditures will require taxes.

(Excuse me for being so blunt – when I say expenditures and taxes, I should be saying the investment of our community, in our community. Sounds better, no?)

If we ever pay for a mass transit system, then there will be someone with a business that could not run on its own who’ll line up to offer his or her services to staff and equip that system.

Daily Bread: July 28, 2008

Good morning, Whitewater

There will be a Community Development Authority Board of Directors Meeting today, at 4:30 p.m. at the Municipal Building. Here is the agenda as published for the meeting —

1. Call to order and roll call
2. Approval of the Agenda
3. Hold a public hearing at 4:30 P.M. POST-PONED UNTIL AUGUST 28, 2008
4. HEARING OF CITIZEN COMMENTS. No formal CDA Action will be taken during this meeting although issues raised may become a part of a future agenda. Items on the agenda may not be discussed at this time.
5. Approval of the June 17, 2008 Minutes
6. 2007 Year-End Audit Financial Statement(s)
7. May 2008 & June 2008 Financial Reports
8. Discussion and Possible Action on Façade Loan Program Administration Rules & Regulations
9. Business Park Marketing Committee Report and Discussion:
a. Stage II Results – Applied PhD Research
10. Presentation & Discussion – Riley/Lynd-O-Hara Property
11. Discussion on Final Report and Possible Action on Next Steps for the University Tech Park
12. CDA Coordinator
a. Monthly Activity Update
b. East Town Market Update
c. The Retail Coach Update
d. Wisconsin Center for IT Services Update
e. Business Park Infrastructure Improvements Update – Status on Corporate Drive Extension and Lot/Site
Grading
f. Invest in Your Workforce, Invest in Your Community
g. First-Time Home Buyers Education Program
13. Confirm August Meeting Date
14. Future Agenda Items
15. Presentation and Discussion Micro Loan Application, Level-Up Games
16. Adjourn to closed session at approximately 6:15PM to reconvene at approximately 6:45PM Per Wisconsin Statute 19.85 (1)(e). Deliberating or negotiating the purchasing of public properties, the investing of public funds, or conducting other specified public business, whenever competitive or bargaining reasons require a closed session and per Wisconsin State Statutes 19.85(1)(c) considering employment, promotion, compensation or performance evaluation data of any public employee over which the government body has jurisdiction or exercises responsibility.
a. Micro Loan Application, Level Up Games LLC
b. CDA Director Position
17. Reconvene
18. Discussion and Possible Action on Micro Loan Application for Level Up Games, LLC
19. Adjourn

In Wisconsin history today, on this day in 1934, two people were killed following riots at a workers’ village of the Kohler Company. According to the Wisconsin Historical Society, National Guardsmen were called to quell strike-related violence. The village was supposed to be a model of worker housing, but the Kohler Company experienced intermittent labor strife for decades.

Despite the ambitions of planners, planned communities — whether from government or private industry — will neither address nor alleviate any number of ordinary human concerns and grievances.

What’s the weather supposed to be like? If you’re the National Weather Service, you’d say 83 degrees with patchy fog. If you’re the Farmers’ Almanac, you’d say “stormy weather.”

Libertarians: The Time for Liberty Video

The Libertarian Party’s presidential candidate, Bob Barr, has his own channel on YouTube, as do many candidates and parties.

There are more libertarians, by far, than registered members of the LP. Whether in or outside the LP, libertarians are united in a conviction that liberty is the foundation of a well-ordered community.

Here is a video from the Barr campaign’s channel, entitled, The Time for Liberty. It includes quotations and clips from some of the men & women who advocated zealously and tirelessly for fundamental American freedoms.


more >>

First Amendment Under Attack in Memphis, TN – Part 3

When an official attacks the lawful speech rights of a citizen, he opposes his self-interest, in career, in an inflated view of himself, or whatever limited need, against the very liberty of a fellow citizen.

He rationalizes – usually in the most feeble, embarrassing way – that his needs are the needs of all the community.

An American community – a true and well-ordered American community – respects and defends the liberty of every citizen against the selfish transgressions and expediency of others, even if those others are public officials.

Officials in Memphis may not understand this now, but we who exercise these lawful Constitutional rights will not yield them.

Best wishes to the defenders of free speech in Memphis.

John Adams, adams@freewhitewater.com

First Amendment Under Attack in Memphis, TN – Part 2

Readers to Free Whitewater know that officials in Whitewater, WI conducted a months-long search to learn the identity of an anonymous blogger, only to confront the wrong man!

When apparently thin-skinned officials in Memphis try to overcome the Constitutional right of anonymous free speech, they should and must be required to provide a compelling reason.

They have offered nothing, but even something will not be enough – tissue-paper stories about what “seems” to be true, or asinine “risk assessments,” would be children’s excuses.

A justification so broad that it is useful anytime is legitimate at no time.

First Amendment Under Attack in Memphis, TN – Part 1

A noted Memphis blogger, and a resident of Whitewater, both alerted me to official transgressions against First Amendment rights in Memphis, TN.

Another Memphis blogger, an anonymous critic of police leadership failures in Memphis, is facing a lawsuit from the city and its police director, designed to force an ISP to divulge his or her identity.

Why the lawsuit? We don’t know, because the director refuses to provide a reason.

The absence of an explanation is itself revealing – legitimate policing can almost always offer a clear explanation for its actions.

Here is the blogger’s website –
http://mpdenforcer20.blogspot.com/
Here is a Memphis editorial questioning the lawsuit –
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2008/jul/25/editorials-blue-crushing-free-speech/

Daily Bread: July 25, 2008

Good morning, Whitewater

There are no public meetings scheduled in the city today.

The National Weather Service predicts a chance of showers and 86 degrees. The Farmers’ Almanac predicts that “the heat stays on!” and that temperatures climb “into the 90s.”

The Farmers’ Almanac predicts events not just a year ahead, but in multi-day clusters, where the multi-day prediction could mean either conditions duplicated over each of a few days, or the weather over the whole multi-day span, from beginning to end. You can guess that whatever was closer to the actual weather was the one the would insist that they meant all along.

In Wisconsin history on this date, in 1999, the first Brewer — Robin Yount — was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in a Brewers’ jersey.

From Wired, there’s a story on four women who made a significant impact on science, decades apart, each with a connection to July 25th:

July 25: In science and technology, spheres of society where women are woefully underrepresented, this day in history offers a bountiful exception. Here are the milestones:

In 1865, “James Barry,” the first woman physician in modern times, compelled to disguise herself as a man in order to practice her profession, dies.

In 1920, Rosalind Franklin, the unheralded co-discoverer of DNA, is born.

In 1978, Louise Joy Brown, the world’s first test-tube baby, is born.

In 1984, cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya becomes the first woman to walk in space.

An online article provides more information on each.

Libertarian Barr’s Tactical Confusion

Much has been made of LP presidential nominee Bob Barr’s focus on criticism of Senator McCain as a way to attract otherwise Republican voters.

(McCain’s likely judicial picks are just one source of complaint.)

It’s a backwards tactic – if Barr wants to attract voters on the right, he needs to show that he can critique the left. To attract one group, he needs to contend skillfully against its opposite.

Barr may not see this, and its one reason that he may not – on election day – exceed the traditional libertarian share of the vote.

Daily Bread: July 24, 2008

Good morning, Whitewater

There are no public meetings scheduled in the city today.

The National Weather Service predicts patchy fog and 81 degrees. The Farmers’ Almanac predicts that “the heat stays on!” and that temperatures climb “into the 90s.” It’s just another reason to reject long range planning of complicated events.

Tomorrow, Friday, June 25th, a Brat and Burger Fry will take place at Pete’s Tire Service, Highway 12 East, in Whitewater from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. in support of the Relay for Life.

On this day in 1911, Yale archaeologist Hiram Bingham located Machu Picchu, a lost city of the Incas. Questions about the find continue to this day.

Local News After Public Access Cable Changes, Part 2

We have a city website and city newsletter, a news and sports website that often reproduces city announcements, and a weekly local newspaper that does the same.

(The Royal Purple showed only slight inquisitiveness under its outgoing staff.)

There is seldom any background, any description of how people actually conduct themselves, from these media.

Solid conventional reporters would offer that information, because it lets residents know how incumbents (and those who benefit from incumbents) actually conduct themselves.

These three media offer a sanitized account of events styled, ironically, as proper or professional. It’s ironic because serious professional reporters would offer more.

Incumbents are bolstered from these three media, so much so that they often confuse an entrenched incumbent’s view with the very truth of life itself.

Who will present a more complete view? If Whitewater didn’t have blogs, there’d be no other independent, published view. We have two local municipal/political blogs, to my knowledge: Conservative Thoughts from Whitewater, and Free Whitewater.

Other than that, it’s status quo-bolstering.

While it may seem to be a good time to be an incumbent, but it’s also an opportunity for blogging.

Local News After Public Access Cable Changes, Part 1

I am not sure how many people watch public meetings on our cable access channel (Station 13), but the number is sure to be smaller after the cable provider moves the station to a different channel.

(This was a decision of the cable company and not our local station.)

Fewer viewers overall will surely mean fewer viewers for Common Council or Planning Commission meetings.

This will leave Whitewater with less direct access to government proceedings, with more reliance on secondary sources to learn about events.

(Videos on the city website are an imperfect substitute for an accessible TV channel.)

Daily Bread: July 23, 2008

Good morning, Whitewater

The National Weather Service predicts patchy fog and 80 degrees. The Farmers’ Almanac predicts hot weather, followed by thunderstorms.

In American history today, Wired reports that in 1956 “a Bell X-2 rocket plane sets the record for fastest speed by an aircraft, reaching Mach 2.87, or more than 1,900 mph, 60,000 feet above the dry lake bed at Edwards Air Force Base, California.”

The Wired story details American success at setting speed records during that decade.

We’ve lost the excitement of that era, and our government space program that is a descendent of these speed records is mired in uncertainty and delay. Private efforts, though, are producing interesting results.

Maryland’s Waxing Tradition of Wrongful Over-Reaching

Months ago, I wrote about former Gov. Schaefer of
Maryland, who disgraced himself and his state by trying to intimidate lawful political protesters.

I asked if something like that could happen in Whitewater, knowing at the time that is was possible. Sure enough, officials in Whitewater went down that path.

What’s happened in Maryland, though, since the Schaefer Administration?

More of the same, under a different administration (now itself out of office.)

Among the Maryland officials’ actions – classifying as a possible security threat Quakers who were trying to get a prisoner off death row.

These actions in Maryland represent a failure of judgment, and abandonment of useful, conventional, legitimate policing in the community interest.

Here’s the link to a story on events in the Old Line State:

http://www.reason.com/blog/show/127636.html