Friday Afternoon Round-up

The first thing I will do the very first thing I will do when elected is ban leaf blowers. Aren’t the train horns enough noise pollution? Get a fracking broom. My sister has many that no longer fly any more.

• Did we all know that neither of our two Starbucks are on the most current list of closures? Here are the Wisconsin stores on the list:

FOX RIVER MALL 4301 W WISCONSIN AVE APPLETON WI
OAKWOOD MALL 4800 GOLF RD EAU CLAIRE WI
LOSEY & DENTON 1422 S LOSEY BLVD LACROSSE WI
FINDLAY PLAZA 2825 UNIVERSITY AVE MADISON WI
CENTRAL & MCMILLAN 1710 CENTRAL AVE MARSHFIELD WI
8TH & WOOD 1951 8TH ST WISCONSIN RAPIDS WI

• I was reading my Alumus magazine from UW-La Crosse and I found out one of the Packer bikini girls is a UW-L grad.
• Most impressive is that John Klang, the Weston High principal who subdued his teenage murderer, was also a fellow graduate.
• Even the foreign media can see the pro-Obama tilt of the U.S. media.
• Rachel Lucas finds the Bonehead of the Day.
• The Flathead County Police Blotter gems:

7:40 a.m. A naked man was spotted below the dam in Bigfork. There’s no report as to why he was naked and below the dam.

9:17 a.m. Someone called in to report that a cat was on the top of a power pole. The caller was informed that the sheriff’s department did not have the equipment to rescue the feline. Details are still hazy as to whether the cat made it down.

Summer Vacation Dispatches

After working four days in a row, I feel like I’m on vacation. Plus, it’s raining, so I really feel like I’m on vacation. The Zach is tomorrow, so it should be a fun morning to be downtown. Darryl has a better look at the T-Shirt logo and also mentions the lone dissenter on the Northwoods League baseball proposal.

• There’s a golf outing to honor Bob Duckett on Monday to benefit the Waukesha Education Foundation. I wasn’t invited. In my 56-plus years, I’ve been at Merrill Hills once, which lets you know where I fit in Waukesha’s social structure.
• People in my social class, cops, firemen, carpenters, salesmen, plumbers, electricians, all the people who make everything work, support the Billy D’s annual golf outing. Don’t look for a link to the website, there is no web site. The people who go to this outing don’t create websites. Food, drinks games, raffles all in support of St. Joseph’s Medical Clinic. It’s at the end of August, but I don’t remember the exact date. It’s at Willow Run or Western Lakes, I forget which. Call Billy D’s at (262) 544-6550 and ask.
• In my social class, we like our fish fried with french fries, coleslaw and rye bread. The fancy-schmancy places we go add a lemon wedge. Our favorite salmon comes out of a can, skinless and boneless. However, I understand that some people get to live a hoity-toity lifestyle and enjoy eating your orange roughy. Bennie’s has a good reputation. Did you know that orange roughy is a part of the slimehead family?
• Waukesha Metro ridership is up 2.8% but expenses for the system have to be up, conservatively, over 50%, don’t you think? I think you should all take public transportation. More gas for me.
• Waukesha Police are making life less comfortable for the offender society. Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time.
• The Livestock Auction is tonight at the Waukesha County Fair. To me, it’s one of the best parts of the fair. Maybe I’ll go see if anybody has some extra free tickets. Maybe I’ll buy a cow for Watson to play with.
• An excellent and lengthy Sound Off today including some people who tell us to quit whining about the trains and more apparently unheeded criticism of the Frame Park baseball plan.

Thursday Morning Burnt Toast and Coffee Time

At 4:45 a.m. a train horn so loud that I could hear it over the air conditioner in the bedroom.

The big news of the day is my toaster is broken. One side of one of the slices turns out soggy, not toasted. I don’t plan to fix it, I plan to pitch it. There have been great advances in toaster technology in the past 20 years.

• Sound Off features more people who object to the unceasing train horns. Does Alderman Cummings still think we’ll “get used to it”?
• What we have here is like the sewage dumping into Lake Michigan. No one in the Milwaukee sewer administration is held accountable. All we hear is, “the forms didn’t get filed on time.” Well, whose responsibility was it to file the papers? I want names and I want some accountability. A Freeman letter writer agrees.
• The British Open is on TV this morning and the weather out there is frightful. The worst of a gloomy March-looking Wisconsin day. Here it will sunny, humid and hot. It just goes to show, it could always be worse.
• Natural gas price increases mean a long, cold winter for you but I get a new boiler next week. My heating costs should be lower. Do I get a tax rebate from anybody?
• Our high school cheer: “PBR, that’s for me! We’re the Class of Seventy!” Who knew that Pabst would end up as the number one American owned brewery?
• Here’s the difference between Journal “Waukesha” columnist Laurel Walker and the rest of Waukesha County. Note how regretful and envious she sounds of Milwaukee County’s plan to raise taxes:

Shades of Waukesha County nearly 20 years ago - night-and-day shades - come to mind with the debates in Milwaukee about a county sales tax increase and a $20 wheel tax for street work. Milwaukee County supervisors want voters’ opinions on a 1-cent boost in the half-cent-per-dollar county sales tax, but County Exec Scott Walker vetoed it Wednesday. A committee of Milwaukee aldermen Wednesday endorsed a $20 wheel tax, though Mayor Tom Barrett promises a veto. Back in 1989 and 1990, the Waukesha County Board considered both a $20-per-car wheel tax and a new, half-cent county sales tax to ease property taxes and support transportation. The fights were futile. We still have neither.

• Despite the fact that I think a majority of the community is against it, the Northwest League baseball plan advances to the Waukesha Parks Board. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I’ll be in line for season tickets, but I still think it’s a bad idea. Darryl has more.
• Waukesha County kids are defintely getting stupider if they are using heroin. I blame over-protective, over-indulgent parents, the AMA and the pharmaceutical industry for convincing doctors and the public is that there is a pill for every malady. I could waive my objection to the death penalty in the case of heroin dealers and distributors.
• School closings are still being kicked around in Waukesha.
• What about Bob?
• Do you want some company over the Labor Day weekend? Housing needed for the 105th.
• Drunken carnys with knives. Who knew? You come from South Africa on a work visa and go to work for a carnival? You’ve made your country proud.
• Waukesha residents are conserving water.
• Yet another reason to read the blogs in the Chonicle sidebar. the Freeman gets around to reporting that Great Northern BBQ is closed. Blog readers knew that a week ago.
• Have the bicycle races been around long enough for us to start calling them “The Zach”?
• Wigderson thinks the Packers should let Favre play and admits to reselling Packer tickets.
• Keith Best, a member of the Waukesha County Republican Party executive board, gives you some questions to ask that Democratic candidate who comes to your door this Fall.
• While Mayor Larry is attending the opening of the local Obama for President office, somebody ask him whether this the change we can believe in: Obama proposes a “civilian national security force” with power and a budget which exceeds the current military’s. (h/t Real Debate Wisconsin) A national police force? Is that what you want from your next president? Positively scary.

Wisconsin’s Minimum Mark-up Law

A message from Brian Fraley about a position which I support whole-heartedly. How can you continue to enforce a law which has been ruled unconstituional?:

Wisconsin Lawmakers Could Move to Lower Gas Prices by Next Week

Wisconsin Institute for Leadership Urges Doyle to Call Special Session to Repeal Minimum Mark Up Law

[Madison, Wisc.] Gasoline prices in Wisconsin could be dramatically reduced if the state’s arcane Minimum Mark Up Law was repealed. The Wisconsin Institute for Leadership (WIL) is urging Governor Doyle to call a Special Session of the state legislature next week to reduce gas prices here.

“This is a dumb law that hurts families in Wisconsin,” said WIL Executive Director Brian Fraley. “With gas at more than four bucks a gallon, now more than ever, our elected officials should move to repeal this law or explain why they support this constraint on the free market.”

Under Wisconsin’s Minimum Mark Up Law, which has been in place since the 1930s, fuel wholesalers are required by the state to mark up their prices by at least 3 percent and retailers are required by the state to raise prices by at least another 6 percent. This adds a whopping 36 cents a gallon to the cost of $4.00 a gallon gasoline.

“If the Governor were to bring this issue to the forefront now, I’m confident this ridiculous law would be wiped off the books forever,” said Fraley. “With families and businesses feeling tremendous pain at the pump, now is the time to repeal the minimum mark up law.”

The Institute is encouraging Wisconsin residents to call Governor Doyle to encourage him to announce a Special Legislative Session to rescind the Minimum Mark Up law. His office number is 608-266-1212.

The Wisconsin Institute for Leadership is a state-focused independent advocacy organization that works to educate and mobilize Wisconsin residents on policies that expand individual liberties, encourage free markets, promote high quality education and demand accountability from public officials.

Working to preserve and improve the quality of life for all Wisconsin residents, WIL encourages ethical governing which promotes private sector solutions to the economic and social challenges facing the state during the 21^st Century.

Visit WIL’s website: www.WiLead.org and participate in the free grassroots WIL Forum at http://wilead.ning.com/.

In 2007 a federal magistrate ruled that the Minimum Mark Up Law violated the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution because compliance with the law was not actively monitored. Yet the law continues to be in place and in force in Wisconsin.

Wednesday Morning 7:00 A.M. Start

I’m off to work. Dispatches will be sparse.

• Guess what? People in Waukesha don’t like the train horns.
• Fred Abadi says maybe next month.
• Sound Off even includes a caller-drawn editorial cartoon. Pretty good one, too.
• A letter to the Freeman editor from an advisor to the Frame Park Development fund objects to the baseball proposal.
• Darryl’s been sampling opinions about the new ballpark
• The Taste of Italy restaurant by the Waukesha airport has been closed for a year. The original owner is coming back and reopening under a new name. Good news!
• Mark Belling voices his support for the State Fair Park race course. I think it’s a relic of a horse racing past.

Midpoint of July Dispatches

After watching Brett Favre on Greta, Bill Murray on TMC and Captain Picard on SCI-FI, I realized that I had missed both the premiers of The Closer and Saving Grace, darn it. My assessments: Brett Favre doesn’t want to play in Green Bay unless he’s the starter, which I said yesterday. He’s very much a diva. Trade him to Baltimore for a 3rd round draft choice and pretend he died. Bill Murray’s a diva. Picard was a diva, too. Still, it was better than watching Chris Berman call the home run derby.

• We’ll start with some letters to the Freeman editor. One says that the train horns are causing dangerous sleep deprivation. Another is a little wacky, but I think he’s against the train horns, too. One questions the wisdom of a Northwoods team in Frame Park.
• Sound Off features callers addressing the Brett Favre thing. The consensus, I believe, is tilted against the 38-year old quarterback. But there are also callers on Mayor Larry and Frame Park. I find it hard to believe that there’s a populist groundswell of support for the baseball thing, but nobody listens to me.
• The weekend police blotter.
• The Waukesha Common Council is poised to strongly annoy some property owners.
• There may also be a deal in the works to purchase some south side land for wells.
• Three traffic accidents dominate the front page. The family of a West High School student injured in an accident is suing all of us and everyone. My opinion: the accident wasn’t our fault. Mark Benson entered a plea of not guilty in his fatal traffic accident. My opinion: it’s going to be difficult for prosecutors to prove he was intoxicated. A fatal accident on Hwy F and I94 leads to questions about safety. My opinion: I don’t remember which highway is F and which is 164 this week, but both of those intersections have billions of traffic lights and signs galore. I don’t see how so many accidents occur there except for people being in too much of a hurry. I stopped at a red light on Moreland Blvd. last night and no less than three SUVs zipped around me through the intersection, through the red lights.
• The Waukesha County Fair starts tomorrow. I like the Demo Derby, especially if I know someone who is competing. I like the livestock auction. I like the animals and wish there were more cows.  The last few times I went was with complimentary tickets from a vendor. Free, it’s worth it. Worth $8 plus parking? Not to me.
• 

Another American Hero Gone

If you’ve lived in The Sha for half a century like me, you know the Holm family name. Leif Holm, a Norwegian immigrant who flew B17s in WWII, a fine athlete in his own right and progenitor of athletic children, particularly  high school wrestlers, has passed away. Thank you for your service, sir.

Early Monday Coffee Time

Let’s call it … I don’t know … how about “Larry the Locomotive”.

I thought I said I wouldn’t start at 7:00 any more. But here I go, off to work. A four-day week with two 7:00 a.m. starts and two 11:00 a.m. starts. I don’t think I like that schedule, but it’s only four days.

• The Waukesha BID  would like to light all the church steeples in Waukesha. Three things people who have never been here before remember are the seemingly endless supply of railroad crossings, the strange street patterns where there don’t seem to be any right angle corners and the number of churches. I applaud the effort, I always thought Mayor Meier’s idea to put flag on top of the buildings in Milwaukee during festival season was a good idea. I question in the age of everything “green” whether the lighting can be done without impacting electric bills at the churches.
• Interesting picture from Kevin Harnack, by the way. I’m guessing it was taken on top of that four story building on Wisconsin Avenue where my dentist works.
• The police caught more graffiti punks. Tar and feathering would seem to be appropriate.
• What do I think of the Brett Favre folderol? I think McCarthy and Thompson ought to look at their quarterback position and ask themselves in a purely analytical sense whether having Brett Favre on the team makes them better or not. As soon as he rejoins the team, he’s the best quarterback they have. If Brett can swallow the embarassment of coming back after his teary-eyed farewell, then he should come back to the Packers. If he comes back, he should start. If they want to start Rogers, OK, but the boo birds will be out in force at each mistake. Let Brett play until he admits he can’t play any more.
• Ahh, the ever-compassionate liberal reaction to the untimely death of Tony Snow.
• Finally something which will keep Watson out of the toilet. “Close the lid,” you say. “That would be rude.” is my answer. You want your cat to drink a lot and often, so whatever works.
• Conversation I wish I had:

“Why is it taking you so long to paint your garage? Who taught you to remove paint?”

“An archaeologist.”

Baseball Rant

This is starting to look to me like last season for the Brewers: encouraging start, then a slide out of the race. You know how nothing gets done on Fridays at work because people are distracted by the upcoming weekend? That’s how the Brewers looked all week. If only we played the Pirates 160 games per year.

How many pitchers with ERAs over seven can they look bad against? Flailing at pitches a foot out of the strike zone, watching belt-high fastballs down the middle of the plate without offering until you’re ready to scream, “What were you looking for?”, little tee ball slaps back to the pitcher with two outs and runners in scoring position, these are a few of my favorite things.

A lead-off man with a .325 on-base percentage, a second baseman who always drops the throw, it doesn’t matter from whom, a second baseman who always seems thisclose to turning into Steve Sax. A team with a bullpen incapable of turning in a one-two-three inning. A team which conversely makes every relief pitcher look like Eric Gagne. Not the Eric Gagne we have, mind you, but the Eric Gagne of the Los Angeles Dodgers who a saved a bazillion games in a row.

Then there’s Ned talking about the defense, “It’s fine,” Yost said. “It’s been a lot better. I’m happy with our defense. We’re catching more balls, we’re not booting as many balls, we’re not allowing as many base runners.” The only upgrades on defense have been in center field (Cameron is an excellent center fielder despite the “error” Friday night, that was lost in the lights) and catcher. It’s not Braun’s fault, since he’s new to the position, but you can’t say that there’s been an upgrade there. Hart and Hardy are as good as they were last year. Fielder tries his best and is no worse than he was last year. But Weeks is bad and Hall has been a disappointment. I didn’t think there was that much difference between short and second or third, but Hall was a much better shortstop than either of those two positions. If I’m not mistaken, that was his natural position.

Forget the Cubs, they’re no longer in the same league as the Brewers. It’s wild card or bust and bust it will be as Sheets, Sabbathia, Kendall and Cameron all leave after this year, unless you’d like to pay Cameron $10M. Soon, the core of the team, Hart, Hardy and Fielder, will be ready to leave. This is it. In my lifetime I will probably never see another contender of this quality. That’s a daunting thought for me. It should be for you because you’re no spring chicken either.

Sunday Poetry

I Didn’t Go To Church Today by Ogden Nash

I didn't go to church today,
I trust the Lord to understand.
The surf was swirling blue and white,
The children swirling on the sand.
He knows, He knows how brief my stay,
How brief this spell of summer weather,
He knows when I am said and done
We'll have plenty of time together.

Sha Town Business News

Stopped at the farmer’s market this morning and they had mostly cold weather crops like onions, lettuce, beets, etc. Damn that global warming.

• Bye Bye Banner - an outpouring of love from crafters, in a perfect world (i.e. one that I was running), would look like an opportunity for someone else to open a craft store downtown or in the bevy of empty grocery stores we have in town.
• Speaking of that, Five Points Blog thinks Super Amigo on Racine is closed.
• Five Points also has heard a rumor of sushi in downtown Waukesha.
• And, in our All Five Points All the Time segment, he believes Great Northern BBQ is also closed.
• Pewaukee merchants are still recovering from June’s floods.

Saturday Morning Opinions

First off, rest in peace to Tony Snow, former Fox News contributor and presidential spokesman. He seemed to be a nice man with an infinite capacity to recognize the nonsense around him for what it was.

I wondered what was special about the silence this morning. It’s cool and breezy again with periodic rain. Nothing heavy, just sprinkles, but there was also great silence. Then I realized, and this isn’t a joke, that it was the lack of train horns. I haven’t heard a train yet today.

Sussex Lions Daze are on. I nearly forgot. Another festival that’s not nearly as fun as you remember when you were drinking. Still, the softball tournament is maybe the best in the area and the tractor pulls are diverting. I think it’s also the day of the Croatian picnic in Mukwonago. If you don’t go at lunch time, you won’t get any pork or lamb. It’s supposed to clear up by the afternoon.

• Jessica wonders about the Democrats’ wackiness, exhibited by their handling of their own convention.
• Sound Off callers address TV converters and Tim Schilke.
• Pete Kennedy believes that closing any elementary school in Waukesha would be cruel and unusual punishment to children. Under those guidelines no school anywhere, at any time, for any reason could ever close again. It’s the whole mentality of sticking kids in cocoons where nothing bad can ever happen to them. It’s amazing any of us made it to adulthood.
• In a related piece, as talk continues about the Frame Park baseball field, from the NY Times: A story right out of Lil Rascals meets Law and Order. Kids being kids build a wiffle ball field out of an empty lot and local adults make a mess of it all. This is what happens when you mix enviro-mental liberals and mommy state liberals.