FREE WHITEWATER

43rd Assembly District

A Libertarian’s View of the WI 43rd Assembly Race: District Overview

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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:

The district stretches from Whitewater and Cold Spring in the east to the Town of Rutland and near Oregon in the west; south to Milton and Edgerton and around the City of Janesville. There are some cities and towns in the district, Whitewater principally among them, but it’s a rural seat. Some of these towns are not within the same orbit at all, but they’re all mostly rural areas.

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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?”

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 10.22.12

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Good morning.

Whitewater’s new week begins with showers and a high of sixty-six.

In Whitewater today, the Emerald Ash Borer Ad Hoc Committee meets at 5 PM, The Planning Commission at 6 PM, and the Whitewater School Board at 7 PM.

On this day in 1962, Pres. Kennedy announced an air and naval blockade of Cuba, following the discovery of Soviet missiles on that island:

Google’s daily puzzle asks about geography: “What famous route originally terminated at Oregon’s first capital city?”

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 10.21.12

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Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny, with south winds five to ten mph, and a high of sixty-six.

On this day in 1879, Thomas Edison created a working electric light.  The New York Times reported his triumph:

There was no lack of enthusiasm or of confidence about Mr. Edison as he greeted the Times reporter who entered his laboratory at Menlo Park, N. J., yesterday. The inventor, a short, thick-set man, with grimy hands, led the way through his workshop, and willingly explained the distinctive features of what he and many others look upon as an apparatus which will soon cause gas-light to be a thing of the past.

The lamp which Mr. Edison regards as a crowning triumph is a model of simplicity and economy. In the lamp the light is emitted by a horseshoe of carbonized paper about two and a half inches long and the width of a thread. This horseshoe is in a glass globe, from which the air has been as thoroughly exhausted as science is able to do. So good a vacuum is produced that it is estimated that at the utmost no more than a one-millionth part of the air remains. The operation of pumping lasts one hour and a quarter.

At the ends of the carbon horseshoe are two platinum clamps, from which platinum wires run outwardly through a small glass tube contained within a larger one leading out of the glass globe. The small tube contains air. Within it the platinum wires are met by two copper wires connecting with the conductors of the electricity. The air is left in the small tube, because otherwise the copper wires would be fused by the electric current. The carbonized paper is capable of being made incandescent by a current of electricity, and while it allows the current to pass over it, its resistance to the heat is strong enough to prevent it from fusing.

Google’s daily puzzle ask about a place in New York: “What is the nickname of the area located east of Coney Island Beach and west of Manhattan Beach in Brooklyn?”