Subject to Change

Heartwarming.

I may not have time to blog after the election results are in, so allow me to jump the gun.

Congratulations Scott Walker or Mark Neumann, but preferably Scott Walker, on winning the Republican primary for governor.

Going forward, please be careful to moderate your tone. Although you may be confident, avoid suggesting that you’re going to beat the snot out of Tom Barrett. The liberals could pick up on that as a personal attack against the mayor. Instead, tell the voters that you intend to emerge victorious and will offer your opponent a consoling pat on the back or high-five to let him know that there are no real losers as long as we try our best.

On another note: the word “hijack” is once again acceptable for common use.

I thought I might play nice for a while, until I got back on my blogging feet. Then, I went to Irishfest.

We look for street parking whenever we go to the festival grounds. Yesterday was no different, except that we noticed some new signs: Temporary – No parking 9pm-12am, Fri-Sat. My wife asked what’s with the signs and I sarcastically responded, “revenue generators,” speculating that the parking checkers would be out at precisely 9pm.

Even though I was joking a little I couldn’t have been more right. When we walked past the line of cars at 10pm there was a parking ticket on every one. I saw a woman entering her car and finding the ticket neatly placed under her wiper blade.

Me: Are you surprised by that?

Her: Yes.

Me: They put up temporary signs back there. We almost fell for it, too.

She walked back to the sign post, gave a look of disgust, and returned to her car. No doubt, this process repeated itself hundreds of times throughout the night.

But, this sort of thing happens all the time, you say. What’s the big deal? Well, it occurred to me that this was an attempt by the city government to generate revenue: Tom Barrett’s city government. The man who would be governor finds this an acceptable tactic to make up a few dollars in the city budget. What do you suppose he would invent or allow as governor? And, the hypocrisy given that he’s been operating his campaign headquarters without a permit.

Tom Barrett, I challange you to forgive the parking tickets issued in the Third Ward this weekend. Admit that this was a shameless money grab and apologize for your city government.

I’ve changed my mind. I now wholeheartedly believe that Wisconsin needs commuter rail, and lots of it.

When the state starts to feel the impact of all the taxes, fees, and regulation the democrats are putting into the budget there’s going to be a revolt.

We’re going to need a rail to ride our politicians out of town on. It would be so delicious if that same rail was the one they demanded we build.

Madison - Gov. Jim Doyle on Friday signed an executive order creating an Office of Recovery and Reinvestment to advise him and other state officials on how to spend what is expected to be as much $3.5 billion from the federal economic stimulus package.

“Through this new office, we will work to turn federal stimulus money into paychecks as efficiently and quickly as possible,” Doyle said.

…Paychecks for those 15 people who are going to piss away half the stimulus money by studying it.

I’ve been staying in Columbus quite a bit this year. Ohio has a concealed carry law.

When I go to lunch at high noon I have yet to be entertained by a gun battle in the street.

There’s also a disturbing lack of french doors, tumbleweeds, hitching posts, show girls, prostitutes, and spitoons here.

I guess this proves that concealed carry does NOT turn a state into the wild west. 

Cross posted at the BBA.

I’m planning to take the family with me on my next business trip. In order to avoid an annoying episode with some bureaucrat at the airport, we decided to get my son his very first government ID. After going through this process with a ten month-old child I know without a doubt that all arguments against voter ID are totally bogus. They’ll give a state ID to anyone, provided they’re a citizen and have some proof. The hardest parts of the whole process are being prepared and standing in line.

All that we needed to apply for a state ID was his birth certificate and Social Security number. So, we started our day at the Waukesha County court house, where we got our copies of my son’s birth certificate. Three copies cost twenty-six dollars. And, it wasn’t even a problem that his mother and I aren’t married, she signed for them, and I paid. We did have to go through a security checkpoint, though. That part was a little rough. We then went to the DMV, where we filled out a very simple form, in ink.

Provided that you are a well-behaved citizen, a Social Security number and birth certificate are all that’s required to verify your identity. If you’ve had some brushes with the law, drunk driving, or revocations you may have some more explaining to do at this point. If you’re not a citizen there may be some extra paperwork, as well. But, you shouldn’t be voting if you’re not a citizen, so this discussion doesn’t really apply to you anyway.

After you wait the government allotted time in line, you get to pay for the new ID. An ID now costs twenty-eight dollars, ten of which allegedly goes to pay for some federal security screening or something. Presumably, this is the markup applied for the Real ID Act. Once you pay your fee, they take a really bad picture and hand you Baby’s First ID Card.

The whole experience cost us fifty-four dollars, the better part of a morning, and a trip to Starbucks, and that’s it. If you have your birth certificate or order it through the mail it’s even easier. So why do people bother complaining about Voter ID?

Some of them say that there are people who can’t get to the DMV to get an ID.

Horse feathers! If you can get to a polling place, the bank, the grocery store, the doctor, the pharmacy, or the social security office you most likely have the means to get to the DMV. For those handful of people who truly cannot make this trip through any other means, I’m sure that Voter ID would inspire volunteers to rise to the occasion. There’s already no shortage of volunteers willing to drive people to polling places. This is just one more stop along the way.

Some people say that it’s too much bother to get an ID and people who want to vote might not do it.

I stood at the DMV with a ten month old. Suck it up, chump. Besides, if you can’t be bothered to do this once every eight years for the sake of doing your civic duty, something tells me that locating your polling place and actually going is too much bother for you as well.

Some people say that the fees are too high.

I totally agree. Thirty dollars isn’t play money, even in a responsible middle class family. Without an ID, there isn’t much you can do in this state besides vote. Something so necessary for daily life should be more accessible. It’s too darn bad that our governor has decided to hide our taxes in fees. He really ought to deal with the budget by cutting out the fat.

The moral of this story:

If our governor was honest, Voter ID would be a fair and accessible way to police the voting process.

Word has it that Governor Doyle managed to use his magic semi-veto pen to spend $800,000 on the KRM railway (that doesn’t exist yet).

It’s a total waste. We could’ve built a bike path in West Allis with that money!

Oh yeah… Nevermind.

The no increase budget we were all hoping for is only going to cost $500 million!

OK. So I took the UW Transexual Library Survey. Then, I went back to the web site to play and got this message:

I clicked the button and the site actually let me take the survey again! I took the survey twice more and it assigned me a different record ID each time.

This is hardly a scientific study: an anonymous survey of a target group, that anyone can respond to as often as they like.

My new online identity: Abby, the crossdresser who really likes the UW library.