FREE WHITEWATER

City, Government Spending

Veronique de Rugy Discusses the “Truth About Nuclear Power” on Bloomberg Television

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Veronique de Rugy, of George Mason University’s Mercatus Institute, debunks claims about inexpensive energy from nuclear power. It’s expensive, and often relies on state subsidies.



Disclosure: It’s true that, in 2008, I advocated building a nuclear reactor on the site of our current municipal building. See, Go Nuclear! and Update: Go Nuclear! I will concede that I lack de Rugy’s knowledge about the general costs of nuclear power; I am sure that, whatever those costs, she’d concede that a reactor would be a specific social and economic gain over the current use of the building. more >>

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 3.29.11

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Good morning.

It’s a partly sunny day ahead for Whitewater, with a high temperature of forty-one degrees.

There’s a Common Council meeting tonight, at 6:30 p.m. The agenda is available online.

Over at Science News, there’s a story with good news, of a sort: Daniel Strain reports that Major Earth Quakes [are] Not Linked.  Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey conclude that

Big earthquakes like the Sendai quake that devastated Japan in March don’t cause similar disasters on the other side of the globe, a new study suggests.

Like ranks of falling dominoes, tremors on the scale of the Sendai quake can trigger other earthquakes, say geophysicists at the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, Calif. But, based on analyses of about 30 years of seismic data, those shocks are all very small or sit close to the original fault break, the group reports online March 27 in Nature Geoscience.

“If California is ready to go, it’s because California is ready to go,” says Jian Lin, a geophysicist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts. “Not because an earthquake in California would be triggered by Japan.”

Good news, of a particular and limited kind.

Government Spending, Liberty, Politics, University

Thirty-Five Million’s Not the Answer

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You may have heard that UW-Whitewater’s in line for thirty-five million in construction spending. All those millions, but still a march of UW-Whitewater professors to Madison to protest the governor’s budget. (I posted on the trek, as reported in the Janesville Gazette, on March 23rd at Daily Wisconsin.)

Why would they walk all that way?

Because construction spending doesn’t compensate for changes in employees’ conditions and rights. Gov. Walker’s proposed around a billion in public works spending (so much for fiscal restraint), but if he thought he’d get a political lift from it, he’s sure to be wrong. (If he thinks Wisconsin will get a meaningful economic lift out of it, then he’s sure to be wrong about that, too.)

I’m not sure any amount of capital spending will help the Walker Administration to win over those who aren’t die-hards. Nor should it — employees sensibly won’t accept a pretty building as a substitute for an ugly reduction in association rights, or cuts to classroom programs.

What’s odd is that these die-hards pride themselves on fiscal restraint and prudence while they flack for millions in pet-project spending. What they derided in the Doyle Administration, and in the Obama Administration, they celebrate in themselves.

It’s not principle, but opportunism and incumbency, that motivates these would-be defenders of the public purse.

In any event, in the short time of the Walker Administration, these party-line men have alienated so many Wisconsinites that all this spending is so just much political water on sand.

Music

Music Monday: Crimson Skies, Arixo Sunset

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Someone asked me my choice for the best video game music. That’s a difficult selection to make, as many video games are well-produced, with good soundtracks. If I had to pick one, I’d choose the soundtrack from Crimson Skies as particularly memorable, almost haunting.

Enjoy.

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Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 3.28.11

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Good morning.

Whitewater’s forecast calls for a sunny day, with a high temperature of thirty-eight degrees.

Whitewater’s Community Development Authority meets today at 4:30 p.m.  The agenda for the meeting is available online.

Campus and schools are back in session today.  Study responsibly.  It’s only a matter of time before one government commission or another develops a program along these lines: Appropriate Calculus or Respectful Social Studies.

The Wisconsin Historical Society notes that on this day in 1954,

McCarthy Recall Campaign Begins in Sauk City

On this date, “Joe Must Go,” a bipartisan grassroots campaign to recall Sen. Joe McCarthy from the Senate, began in earnest with an organizational meeting in Sauk City. The campaign had to collect 403,000 signatures in 60 days to force a recall election. With little money, a hastily thrown together organizational structure, and unenthusiastic or non-existent support from existing organizations (including farmers and organized labor), the group was still able to secure 335,000 signatures. Later in 1954 Sen. McCarthy was publicly censured by his Senate colleagues. [Source: The History of Wisconsin, v.6: Continuity and change, 1940-1965 (Madison, State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1973-1998).]

I’ll post this week on a modern-day version of McCarthyism in Wisconsin.

If you’ve ver thought of building a large, fire-breathing robot, you’re not alone.  Here’s a bit of inspiration:



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Twitter

Recent Tweets, 3.20 – 3.26

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Republican fundraiser draws 200 guests … and 600 protesters http://bit.ly/gTTEcz
26 Mar

MT@radleybalko: Number of IN prosecutors fired 4 moronic reactions 2 the WI protests: 2. Also, who still uses Hotmail?
26 Mar

MT @MSpicuzzaWSJ: Assmbly Min. Ldr Peter Barca files state open records request w/ GOP leaders abt publication of the controversial law
25 Mar

MT @MSpicuzzaWSJ: Sen Erpenbach: Sen Fitzgerald used position & ordered non-partisan LRB 2 get involved in vry partisan issue pblshng bill
25 Mar

Collective bargaining bill published despite restraining order – JSOnline http://bit.ly/eOb3VM
25 Mar

Indiana prosecutor resigns over Walker email – Initially denied encouraging Wisconsin violence WisconsinWatch.org http://bit.ly/g3Fe84
24 Mar

What Democracy Looks Like | FREE WHITEWATER http://bit.ly/fdaj08
24 Mar

‘Thugs,’ ‘Pickets,’ and Other Absurd Claims | FREE WHITEWATER http://bit.ly/dOUNQp
24 Mar

River Falls screwball arrested, fined for stealing recall petitions http://bit.ly/ez5wLI
23 Mar

RT @WiStateJournal: Editorial: Judge Sumi is right: ‘It’s not a minor detail’ http://dlvr.it/L5l2H
23 Mar

RT @ACLU: Know Your Rights? Find out — Check out our guide to your rights when stopped by police, ICE or the FBI. http://bit.ly/bEeaCX
23 Mar

620 WTMJ’s use of ‘Capitol Chaos’ 4 stories abt debate ovr budgets transparent effort 2 cast dissent as disorderly http://bit.ly/eJirQM
23 Mar

Well, yes — Controversy surrounds Walker dinner visit to Janesville — GazetteXtra http://bit.ly/hcTg1s
22 Mar

Walker Administration plans $35 million pork spending for UW-Whitewater projects Bet GOP celebrates $ as ‘investment’ http://bit.ly/ecNzK5
22 Mar

Have We Looked Into Declaring a ‘No-Fly Zone’ Over Wisconsin? « Above the Law: A Legal Tabloid http://bit.ly/f8tcJT
21 Mar

Golden Eagles upset Syracuse!
20 Mar

Development, Economy, Free Markets, Government Spending, Innovation Center/Tech Park, Planning, Taxes/Taxation

Stossel: End Corporate Welfare

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Over at Reason, John Stossel writes about the problem – a big, expensive one – of corporate welfare.

Particular businesses shouldn’t receive preferential treatment, including taxpayer handouts, from government. Taxes and fees should be lower across the board, and without preference for one corporation over another.

Corporate handouts only reduce competitiveness and increase dependency, and are illegitimate expenditures. There are a thousand better uses of public funds; corporate welfare is as wrong, wasteful, and destructive of American productivity as about anything government does.

Every dollar for corporate welfare increases the tax and debt burden on ordinary people, and distorts otherwise efficient markets in capital and labor.

Local versions of this kind of mistaken and wrongful spending can be found in so-called government development associations or rat holes of waste like our local tech park board.

(The work of the tech park board is so shameless that they don’t even have enough private businesses on whom to shower federal pork, so they’ve signed up public recipients of public money meant for private job creation.)

See, End Corporate Welfare.

Crime, Official Misconduct, Press

Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism: Indiana prosecutor resigns over Walker email

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It’s hard to overestimate the outrageousness of this prosecutor’s actions:

An Indiana deputy prosecutor and Republican activist resigned Thursday after the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism uncovered an email in which he suggested faking an attack on Gov. Scott Walker to discredit union protesters.

Carlos F. Lam submitted his resignation shortly before the Center published a story quoting his Feb. 19 email, which praised Walker for standing up to unions but went on to say that the chaos in Wisconsin presented “a good opportunity for what’s called a ‘false flag’ operation.”

“If you could employ an associate who pretends to be sympathetic to the unions’ cause to physically attack you (or even use a firearm against you), you could discredit the unions,” the email said.

“Currently, the media is painting the union protest as a democratic uprising and failing to mention the role of the DNC and umbrella union organizations in the protest. Employing a false flag operation would assist in undercutting any support that the media may be creating in favor of the unions. God bless, Carlos F. Lam.”

At 5 a.m. Thursday, expecting the story to come out that day, Lam called Cooper and told him he had been up all night thinking about it.

“He wanted to come clean, I guess, and said he is the one who sent that email,” Cooper said.

He came into the office and gave his resignation verbally, Cooper told the Daily Journal in Franklin, Ind. The resignation was announced after the Center’s initial story was published.

Predictably, but wrongly, this officer of the court lied about his conduct when first confronted:

Email headers with detailed IP addresses suggested that the message was sent from Indianapolis.

Lam, an Indianapolis resident, at first told the Center he never wrote it.

Reached Tuesday by phone at the number listed on the email, Lam confirmed his email address matched the Hotmail address appearing on the Walker email, but said he had never written to Walker.

“I am flabbergasted and would never advocate for something like this, and would like everyone to be sure that that’s just not me,” he said, after being read the email.

Via Indiana prosecutor resigns over Walker email | WisconsinWatch.org.

Comment Forum

Friday Comment Forum: Whitewater’s First 70-Degree Day this Year

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Here’s the Friday open comments post.

When will Whitewater see its first seventy-degree (or higher) day?




I’ll say April 27th

The use of pseudonyms and anonymous postings is, of course, fine. Although the comments template has a space for a name, email address, and website, those who want to leave a field blank can do so. Comments will be moderated, against profanity or trolls.

Otherwise, have at it.

I’ll keep the post open through Sunday afternoon.