So what’s your favorite?
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 10.26.12
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Whitewater’s work week ends with a mostly sunny day and a high of forty-six.
On this day in 1881, a famous shootout:
On this day in 1881, the Earp brothers face off against the Clanton-McLaury gang in a legendary shootout at the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona.
After silver was discovered nearby in 1877, Tombstone quickly grew into one of the richest mining towns in the Southwest. Wyatt Earp, a former Kansas police officer working as a bank security guard, and his brothers, Morgan and Virgil, the town marshal, represented “law and order” in Tombstone, though they also had reputations as being power-hungry and ruthless. The Clantons and McLaurys were cowboys who lived on a ranch outside of town and sidelined as cattle rustlers, thieves and murderers. In October 1881, the struggle between these two groups for control of Tombstone and Cochise County ended in a blaze of gunfire at the OK Corral.
On the morning of October 25, Ike Clanton and Tom McLaury came into Tombstone for supplies. Over the next 24 hours, the two men had several violent run-ins with the Earps and their friend Doc Holliday. Around 1:30 p.m. on October 26, Ike’s brother Billy rode into town to join them, along with Frank McLaury and Billy Claiborne. The first person they met in the local saloon was Holliday, who was delighted to inform them that their brothers had both been pistol-whipped by the Earps. Frank and Billy immediately left the saloon, vowing revenge.
Around 3 p.m., the Earps and Holliday spotted the five members of the Clanton-McLaury gang in a vacant lot behind the OK Corral, at the end of Fremont Street. The famous gunfight that ensued lasted all of 30 seconds, and around 30 shots were fired. Though it’s still debated who fired the first shot, most reports say that the shootout began when Virgil Earp pulled out his revolver and shot Billy Clanton point-blank in the chest, while Doc Holliday fired a shotgun blast at Tom McLaury’s chest. Though Wyatt Earp wounded Frank McLaury with a shot in the stomach, Frank managed to get off a few shots before collapsing, as did Billy Clanton. When the dust cleared, Billy Clanton and the McLaury brothers were dead, and Virgil and Morgan Earp and Doc Holliday were wounded. Ike Clanton and Claiborne had run for the hills.
Google’s daily puzzle asks about a constellation, with a television-show hint: “What constellation is home to the star that shares a name with a fictional blood-clotting disease and a television show that aired from 2000-2005?”
City, Corporate Welfare, Government Spending, Press
Ceaseless Press Errors About the So-Called ‘Innovation Express’
by JOHN ADAMS •
There’s a recent story over at the Daily Union that repeats a prior distortion about thousands in public funds for a bus to cart a few private workers of multi-billion-dollar Generac to their homes far outside Whitewater after work. The whole proposal is an exercise in crony capitalism. I’ve written about the mistaken use of public funds for private, cash-flush Generac before.
This program has relied primarily on public money.
(See, for example, A Local Flavor of Crony Capitalism, A little consistency would be in order, A Generac bus by any other name, The Generac Bus and Bottom-Shelf Messaging, The Innovation Express Generac Bus: ‘Public Transit Is Not Expected to Make Money,’ and The City of Whitewater’s Draft Budget: Crony Capitalism.
The current DU story is false, and even more dishonest, than one that came from that paper months ago.
This Month’s Errors. The October story states that “[t]he Whitewater Common Council continued its 2013 budget review process….” and then describes supposed item after item of actual discussion from the meeting.
Here’s how the reporter describes discussion of the ludicrously-named ‘Innovation Express’ bus:
The second policy issue Clapper said the council had to decide upon was the continued funding for the “Innovation Express” bus service. He noted that the bus service started earlier this year and has been funded primarily by Generac Power Systems, although the company has received financial support from both the city and University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.
Clapper said funding the bus service in 2013 would cost an estimated $15,000.
That’s entirely false: City Manger Clapper never said during the session that (1) the bus was primarily funded by Generac or (2) stated the dollar-amount of funding during his open-session remarks.
That is, these two statements were never uttered during the session: they’re a fabrication, a false reconstruction, of what was actually said at the meeting.
Readers can see for themselves, in the full video of the session:
Common Council Meeting 10/23/2012
Why doesn’t Clapper say during the meeting that Generac primarily funds its own bus? Presumably because it doesn’t primarily fund its own bus. This reporter had Clapper declaring something he never said at the 10.23.12 meeting.
April’s Errors. In April, I wrote about how a news story at that time concealed the large, public cost of the project:
One newspaper’s account of the ten-month cost of this service is false and misleading.
The total cost is $128,310. The actual public cost to support Generac is $68,005 in state and federal money, and $15,000 in funding from the City of Whitewater and UW-Whitewater. That’s a total of $83,005.
It’s simply not true that Generac’s portion of $26,058 is a majority of the cost — it’s not even a match for the public portion of the cost. Reporting the ‘local sponsorship cost’ (Generac, Whitewater, UW-Whitewater) conceals the true burden on taxpayers to support Generac.
Publishing big companies’ and local officials’ talking points isn’t reporting — it’s stenography.
In April, reporting that Generac paid most of its own way was false. It still is.
Months later, there’s not even a ‘local sponsorship cost’ dodge. That song-and-dance is gone: now it’s just an utter falsehood.
Journatic, but Worse! Readers will recall Journatic as a company that ‘processes news’ for American papers by having foreign scribes in the Philippines or other places re-work press releases so they look like local news stories. It’s cheaper for papers than hiring a real reporter here in America, and sometimes they don’t even bother to tell their readers who’s actually doing the ‘processing.’
I certainly don’t fault people abroad for taking these jobs – it’s probably a better living than others in their home countries, and a chance to work on English-language skills.
For the Americans who hire Journatic, however, I’ve considerable criticism: you’ve degraded the news to mere processing.
Imagine, though, when people who live here do no better – and perhaps worse – than low-wage workers in cramped quarters halfway around the world. Do reporters care so little about what they do that they’ve reduced it to mere processing, filled with errors or lies, and poorly written on top of it?
An American community deserves better than this.
One can guess, like clockwork, that a local news and sports website will repeat these press errors about Generac’s paltry contribution unthinkingly. There’s no effort to reason well and write truthfully – it’s just one person cribbing off another, pushing whatever party-line they feel they need to advance.
In this way, the local sites are worse than anything from abroad – at least the low-wage workers from abroad aren’t fawning scribes afflicting our own community.
Unsolicited Advice to Local Officials.. These gentlemen who are writing or regurgitating our local news are next to useless to local officials: they’re simply not industrious enough to write accurately and well. They’d much rather buck leaders up than speak truth to power, but their bucking up is mostly mucking up.
If leaders want to succeed they’ll have to do it on their own, by their own better standards, than the low expectations a local press sets for them. They’ll have to write their own solid presentations, on their own sites, and speak their own words, to meet those better standards.
If one is looking for quality, while in public office, one’s on his or her own – the local press won’t help politicians in a way that matters.
43rd Assembly District
A Libertarian’s View of the WI 43rd Assembly Race: Official Candidate Biographies
by JOHN ADAMS •
Here’s a quick listing, from their legislative webpages’ (rather than campaign websites’) biographies. The differences in style are evident. I’ve started here because these descriptions are more ordinary, less eye-catching, than what one sees in their campaigns. These are the biographies one writes in a quiet moment, so to speak.
Representative Evan Wynn is a retired Master Sergeant from the U.S. Army. He served in the military for a combined 22 years, first as a Marine, then as a paratrooper in the Army. He was stationed in over 30 countries around the world during his career, including a combat tour in Iraq. He retired in 2006.
His awards include the Legion of Merit, Bronze Star Medal, Meritorious Service Medal with 2 Oak Leaf Clusters, the Army Commendation Medal with 4 Oak Leaf Clusters, the Army Achievement Medal with 8 Oak Leaf Clusters, the Humanitarian Service Medal, the National Defense Service Medal (1 Star), Iraqi Campaign Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Parachutist Badge, Air Assault Badge, And the Australian Parachutist Badge.
Representative Wynn is a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (the VFW) serving as Post Commander in Whitewater and the 1st District Senior Vice Commander. He is also a member of the American Legion, the 82nd Airborne Division Association, and the Disabled American Veterans Post #39. He also serves as the President of the Whitewater Breakfast Kiwanis club.
He is a member of Faith Community Church in Fort Atkinson, and has been happily married to his wife, Annette, for over 20 years. They have one daughter, Michelle.
Representative Wynn represents the 43rd Assembly District, which covers the City of Whitewater, and most of western rural Rock County. He was first elected this past November and is serving his first term.
In the legislature, Representative Wynn serves on the Assembly Colleges & Universities Committee and Education Committee, and is Vice Chair of the Veterans & Military Affairs Committee.
Born Berlin, September 10, 1967; married; 3 children. Graduate Omro H.S. 1986; Brown Institute (MN) 1987. Assembly line operator, General Motors, Janesville. Former morning radio personality, assembly line operator, UAW shop steward, General Motors Janesville, worked on family dairy farm. Bd. member: Respite Care Assn. of Wis.;Wis. Literacy Council; Jefferson Co. Local Emergency Planning Council; Jefferson Co. Agribusiness Club. Member: Jefferson Co. Farm Bureau; Trinity Lutheran Church, Fort Atkinson; Fort Atkinson FFA Alumni; Chamber of Commerce. Former member: UAW Local 95; UAW Local CAP; UAW Public Relations Committee (chp.); Cub Scout leader Pack 137; Jefferson Co. Labor Council; Fort Fest, Inc. (chp. of exec. bd.).
Elected to Assembly 2006; reelected since 2008.
Tomorrow: A look at biographical campaign flyers, rather than official biographies, from both candidates. It’s there that one sees, even more than these reference-style biographies, how the candidates want to be seen.
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 10.25.12
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Today’s Whitewater forecast calls for a high of seventy-two, with thundershowers in the afternoon.
The Community Development Authority meets today at 5:30 PM, for part of the time in closed session, and thereafter a stated, published return to open session.
On this day in 1881, Pablo Picasso was born:
Pablo Picasso, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the 20th century, is born in Malaga, Spain.
Picasso’s father was a professor of drawing, and he bred his son for a career in academic art. Picasso had his first exhibit at age 13 and later quit art school so he could experiment full-time with modern art styles. He went to Paris for the first time in 1900, and in 1901 was given an exhibition at a gallery on Paris’ rue Lafitte, a street known for its prestigious art galleries. The precocious 19-year-old Spaniard was at the time a relative unknown outside Barcelona, but he had already produced hundreds of paintings. Winning favorable reviews, he stayed in Paris for the rest of the year and later returned to the city to settle permanently.
On this day in 1836, the first legislative session of the Wisconsin territory convened:
1836 – Belmont-Wisconsin Territory 1836 Established
On this date the first legislative session of the Wisconsin territory convened in Belmont, Wisconsin. During this first session, forty-two laws were put in the statute books. At this time, the Territory of Wisconsin included all of present-day Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and part of the two Dakotas.
43rd Assembly District
A Libertarian’s View of the WI 43rd Assembly Race: District Overview
by JOHN ADAMS •
Here’s the first, introductory post, of a series on the 2012 race for the 43rd Assembly District. This post describes the new district – a product of a decennial redistricting – with information about election results in the old district. Subsequent posts will offer the candidates biographies’, assess their positions on major issues, and their performances in election debates. (There will have been more than one debate before the election, with an upcoming in Whitewater on October 30th at the university.)
Some of the posts in this series, like this one, will have no particular ideological cast. Others will assess this election from a libertarian’s perspective. Although I’m neither a Republican nor a Democrat, like many independent or third-party voters, I’ve definite opinions on issues that I’ll make plain. Quite candidly, others’ professions of objectivity are often false, and occasionally simply a dodge from stating one’s convictions plainly. Those looking for a majority-party-line defense of one of these candidates will not find it here.
Here’s a map of the new 43rd:
As for the old district (covering much of the same area as the new 43rd), it was a district of mostly narrow margins between the candidates:
2010
Kim Hixson 9,448 47.5%
Evan Wynn 10,449 52.5%
2008
Kim Hixson 15,303 51.2%
Debi Towns 14,581 48.8%
2006
Kim Hixson 10,330 50.02%
Debi Towns 10,292 49.83%
2004
Matt McIntyre 12,796 44.4%
Debi Towns 15,960 55.4%
Even after redistricting, the new district’s precincts leaned slightly left on June 5th, 2012, despite a comfortable statewide Walker win (even greater than his 2010 win). The new 43rd was on 6.5.12 a near outlier, not a representative of Walker’s statewide results. See, in this regard, Local Implications of the Recall Results for the 43rd Assembly District.
In the end, what residents think about presidential candidates born in Hawaii and Michigan will be critical to the outcome for this Wisconsin District.
But what these candidates believe, and have done while in office, matters independently of those larger political forces.
Tomorrow: The candidates’ biographies.
City, Corporate Welfare, Green Energy Holdings, Waste Digesters
The Tech Park Board and a Waste Digester
by JOHN ADAMS •
Bad leaders and ideas often go in only one direction: from bad to worse. One sees the truth of that in the agenda for today’s Tech Park Board meeting:
13. ADJOURNMENT to Closed Session, TO RECONVENE APPROXIMATELY 45 MINUTES AFTER ADJOURNMENT TO CLOSED SESSION, per Wisconsin Statutes 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 pursuant to Chapter 19.85(1)(c) for “considering employment, promotion, compensation or performance evaluation data of any public employee over which the governmental body has jurisdiction or exercises responsibility.”
Items to be Discussed: 1) Innovation Center Director performance; 2) Update on negotiations with Green Energy Holdings, LLC, for locating a facility in the city of Whitewater; 3) Discuss entering into a vacant land listing contract with MLG Commercial, LLC, for the sale of Whitewater University Technology Park property; 4) Discussion of Prospective Clients
(Emphasis added.)
I’m not a bit surprised. The few men inside this city who have secretively hawked this scheme to haul filth and waste from Chicago, Madison, and Milwaukee to Whitewater will not soon relent.
It’s for that reason, after all, that I created a category dedicated to the particular proposal, and a second category on waste digesters.
The series I ran on waste digesters was by design an introductory series (“Introduction to Waste Digesters:…”). That series anticipated a far longer and more detailed review of this program, through published posts, informal requests for information, requests for information under the law, and a defense of those requests and other claims at law. One has every reason to see this through, day in, day out.
A vast commercial waste digester is worse than an ill-considered idea: it’s utterly wrong for municipal finances, for Whitewater’s environment, for her economy, and it’s an affront to open and responsible government. Claims on behalf of the idea are empty lies, worse than ordinary lies in they’re transparently false, self-contradictory, and absurd. They’re destructive of the beauty and health of our small city.
I’ve a few questions, too, for the Tech Park Board, and officials in the City of Whitewater and the University.
1. What’s Green Energy Holdings, LLC? For goodness’ sake, why can’t you even get right the corporate form of the Wisconsin entity with whom you’re dealing? One knows that the same outside men behind this venture in Maribel and other places have a habit of using multiple business names, but then refusing to give their true business name to the press, or to citizens, even during public meetings.
What is the business name and form for a possible Whitewater deal? It’s not Green Energy Holdings, LLC, for goodness’ sake (unless they’ve started using multiple names now in Whitewater as they have elsewhere).
Follow up question, along this line: Why would you make a deal with no sound information, no proper assessment, and under those circumstances with a so-called partner that’s met with opposition and scorn wherever it has tried to locate?
2. Reliance on a Public Official Heading Out the Door. All Whitewater knows that former City Manager Brunner kept this deal under the radar, in closed sessions, and only sprang it on the public as he was heading out the door. I’ve written as much, and the reason is obvious: the more people learn about this plan, the more than they see it’s all loss and no gain to the community.
But Whitewater isn’t the only city in Wisconsin where a municipal leader quickly sprang this idea on his community before heading out the door. The same thing was tried in Stanley, Wisconsin.
Same interests behind the deal, same approach: have a leader flack the proposal as fast as possible just as he heads out the door.
I’m sure it’s just an amazing coincidence, but it’s odd, isn’t it? I’ve no idea why it would be.
In Brunner’s case, he’s no longer in city office, but he’s still on the Tech Park Board (as a citizen rep!), and in public office in the county. (See, along these lines, About ‘Citizen’ Reps on Commissions.)
Doubt not that a few people on this town will try whatever they can to bring the largest waste, filth, and scum-hauling scheme Whitewater has ever seen to this city for their own foolish and selfish reasons.
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 10.24.12
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Whitewater’s Wednesday brings unseasonably mild weather, with a high of seventy-six, and a slight chance of thunderstorms.
Whitewater’s Tech Park Board meets at 8 AM today. (I’ll post more about that meeting later today.)
On this day in 1901, a daredevil took the first ride over Niagara falls in a barrel:
….a 63-year-old schoolteacher named Annie Edson Taylor becomes the first person to take the plunge over Niagara Falls in a barrel.
After her husband died in the Civil War, the New York-born Taylor moved all over the U. S. before settling in Bay City, Michigan, around 1898. In July 1901, while reading an article about the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, she learned of the growing popularity of two enormous waterfalls located on the border of upstate New York and Canada. Strapped for cash and seeking fame, Taylor came up with the perfect attention-getting stunt: She would go over Niagara Falls in a barrel….
Knocked violently from side to side by the rapids and then propelled over the edge of Horseshoe Falls, Taylor reached the shore alive, if a bit battered, around 20 minutes after her journey began. After a brief flurry of photo-ops and speaking engagements, Taylor’s fame cooled, and she was unable to make the fortune for which she had hoped. She did, however, inspire a number of copy-cat daredevils. Between 1901 and 1995, 15 people went over the falls; 10 of them survived. Among those who died were Jesse Sharp, who took the plunge in a kayak in 1990, and Robert Overcracker, who used a jet ski in 1995. No matter the method, going over Niagara Falls is illegal, and survivors face charges and stiff fines on either side of the border.
In Wisconsin’s history, on this day in 1933,
1933 – Amelia Earhart Visits Janesville
On this date Amelia Earhart spoke to the Janesville Woman’s History Club as part of the group’s 57th anniversary celebration. Four years later, Earhart disappeared as she attempted to fly across the Pacific Ocean. [Source: Janesville Gazette 10/24/1933, p.2]
Google’s daily puzzle offers a sports question: “A professional tennis player set a record in by serving up 1477 aces during the 1996 season. What is the capital of the country where he was born?”
Crime, Freedom of Speech, Politics
Simple Standards of Political Discourse
by JOHN ADAMS •
One may express a few principles of political discourse succinctly:
1. Don’t destroy property.
2. Don’t use force against political opponents, either immediately or while destroying property.
Over the last two years, countless Wisconsinites have voted, assembled, and protested with scarcely any property damage or violence. In this way, we have been a good example for people across America and abroad. See, along these lines, The Place of Peace and Honesty.
Wisconsin’s peaceful protests these recent years only illuminate by contrast the few, criminal acts that wrongly deviate from the majority’s responsible conduct.
43rd Assembly District
A Libertarian’s View of the WI 43rd Assembly Race
by JOHN ADAMS •
Beginning tomorrow, and continuing (at least) through an October 30th debate between the candidates, I’ll post daily about the 43rd Assembly race between Evan Wynn and Andy Jorgensen. It’s likely to be a close race, between candidates of different views, and for that reason alone it’s worth considering.
Some of those posts will outline the positions of the candidates; others will offer a libertarian perspective on their positions. Thinking about the differences in their views, it’s hard for me to imagine anyone interested in politics being ambivalent of the outcome.
One quick note, about something that I’ve mentioned before: I don’t believe in opinion-making. (See, along these very lines, The Impossibility of Opinion-Making.) People are sharp, informed, and well-able to form their opinions from their own observations, reading, and discussions. One writes from conviction, but as part of a larger – wholly welcome – discussion.
In fact, I’m convinced the only sound arguments come from this idea: that one writes so well as one can on the basis of what one truly believes, tenaciously and diligently argued. Worthiness lies is a committed, sincere effort.
As this series goes on, there’ll be other posts, of course, just as before.
Freedom of Speech, New Media, Press
Sign of the (New Media) Times: From the Daily Planet to Blogging
by JOHN ADAMS •
Looks like Clark Kent’s had enough of working at the dead-tree Daily Planet. Metropolis is about to get a new blogger:
In the new issue of DC Comics’ Superman series, out tomorrow [that is, 10.23.12], Clark will stand up in front of staff in a “Jerry Maguire-type moment” which will see him resign from the Daily Planet and mourn “how journalism has given way to entertainment”, writer Scott Lobdell told USA Today.
Clark will also call on his fellow reporters to stand up for truth, justice, “and yeah — I’m not ashamed to say it — the American way,” said Lobdell.
No one should be surprised by this – America had in her earliest days a tradition of vigorous pamphleteering, and it’s toward an electronic version of that tradition to which the comic would be turning.
Via The Guardian.
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 10.23.12
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Tuesday in Whitewater will bring mild temperatures, with a high of seventy, but with a likelihood of thunderstorms.
Whitewater’s Urban Forestry Commission meets at 4:15 PM, and Common Council meets tonight at 6:30 PM.
On this day in 1983, “a suicide truck-bombing at Beirut International Airport in Lebanon killed 220 U.S. Marines, 18 sailors and 3 Army soldiers; a near-simultaneous attack on French forces killed 58 paratroopers.”
On this day in 1921, a football first:
1921 – Green Bay Packers First NFL Game
On this date the Green Bay Packers played their first NFL game. The Packers defeated the Minneapolis Marines 7-6, for a crowd of 6,000 fans and completed their inaugural season with 3 wins, 2 losses, and 2 ties.[Source:Packers.com]
From Google’s daily puzzle, a pop culture question: “Whom did John Phillips not want in his band, convinced that her size would stand in the way of the group’s success?”