John Kerry is currently in Spring Green, Wisconsin, which is located in the far southwestern corner of the county of which I am the GOP chairman.

(Is that enough clauses for you? Because I could put more in.)

Last paragraph of the Cap Times story:

And while most of the crowd seemed supportive of Kerry, three people dressed in dolphin costumes waited to heckle Kerry while holding signs that read "Flipper" and "Which way to Lambert Field?" the latter a reference to Kerry's recent gaff over the name of Green Bay's Lambeau Field.

Here's the picture that accompanied the story:



Caption: "John Kerry has a beer and watches the Green Bay Packers game Sunday with Dan DiMaggio during an unscheduled stop inside the Main Street Pub and Grill in Mount Horeb."

Notice the mugs. No, not the long horse face, I mean the beer mugs. Kerry's is full. The other guy's is nearly empty.

My question is this: is Kerry already on his second beer?

If so, that guy Dan ought to be ashamed of himself, letting a guy from Massachusetts get ahead of him like that.

Of course, it could be that Dan is about to finish beer #2, while Kerry is only starting his. That would make more sense, and if I've unfairly smeared Dan by indirectly calling him a girlie man, I apologize.

Regardless of how many he's had, somebody in Kerry's campaign ought to tell him not to gesture with his mug hand. He's going to have some serious sloshage, and wasting perfectly good beer is not the way to win votes in middle Wisconsin.

Thought this was interesting, from the Cap Times:

Political buttons a no-no at UW

In a memo sent to all university employees Monday, UW-Madison Vice Chancellor for Legal and Executive Affairs Melany Newby reminded university employees it is a violation of state law to do political activities while at work. That could be construed to include wearing campaign materials, she said.

If there's any dissent, they don't mention it in the story.

Is Doyle a Clintonite? Steve sure thinks so, and I may have found more evidence of it.

The website WisOpinion.com does a sorta-weekly feature called the Political Stock Report. This week, they've got Jim Doyle listed under "Mixed."

The Dem guv, off on a long-scheduled trade mission to Japan, misses an opportunity to host his prez candidate, John Kerry, as the senator preps in Spring Green for his first debate. The trip's timing also raises questions about how important the prez election is to the first-term guv, given Wisconsin's battleground status and the looming early November election date, which must have been known when the trip was in the works. Why would a good Dem want to be out of the state at this time in any presidential election year?

Why indeed?

Found this on my regular stroll through the internet today. It's an op-ed by one of Saddam's former nuclear engineers, who states unequivocably that Saddam would have had nukes soon if not for the first Gulf War, and could have reinstated the program at any time.

Here's a key passage:

Was Iraq a potential threat to the United States and the world? Threat is always a matter of perception, but our nuclear program could have been reinstituted at the snap of Saddam Hussein's fingers. The sanctions and the lucrative oil-for-food program had served as powerful deterrents, but world events - like Iran's current efforts to step up its nuclear ambitions - might well have changed the situation.

Iraqi scientists had the knowledge and the designs needed to jumpstart the program if necessary. And there is no question that we could have done so very quickly. In the late 1980's, we put together the most efficient covert nuclear program the world has ever seen. In about three years, we gained the ability to enrich uranium and nearly become a nuclear threat; we built an effective centrifuge from scratch, even though we started with no knowledge of centrifuge technology. Had Saddam Hussein ordered it and the world looked the other way, we might have shaved months if not years off our previous efforts.

What do those who continue to make the "there were no WMD" argument say about this?

I'm also going to link to this previous post of mine on a very similar subject. Probligo will like it. I call the UN incompetent.

I don't necessarily mean to open up the debate on embryonic stem-cell research here, but I'm flummoxed by this editorial by Racine Journal Times associate editor Mike Moore. In what I suppose is an open letter to President Bush, Moore writes:

Tell me what I should say to Kevin Granger.

Help me explain to him why he has to pack up from Caledonia and fly to China to have an operation by a doctor he's never met. He has ALS, you see, what most people call Lou Gehrig's disease.

Granger is, apparently, going to China for some sort of treatment.

Actually, Kevin's treatment falls just outside the big debate because these aren't really stem cells. He's having cells from the nose of an aborted baby inserted into his body. They're called olfactory glial cells.

Apparently that minor distinction doesn't free it from the stem cell controversy. Why else wouldn't the treatment be offered in the high-tech U.S. of A.?

Excuse me? Minor distinction?

Moore's closing paragraphs:

He knows this journey to the East is not the cure-all. All he's trying to do is stick around in case somebody makes a real breakthrough.

It might be a longshot, but it's the only bet Kevin Granger can make. For that, our country officially views him as immoral. Can I tell him why? Mr. President, you have a flock of speechwriters. One of them must have something.

Okay, if Moore supports embryonic stem cell research, fine. I disagree, but at least he's got a position. But not understanding the link between that and having "cells from the nose of an aborted baby inserted into his body" strikes me as a little too ignorant.

And that shot about "our contry officially views him as immoral." The official position in our country is that abortion is legal, is it not? And President Bush has put more federal money into stem-cell research, including embryonic stem-cell research, than any of his predecessors.

So "officially" our country would seem to be more on Mr. Granger's side than Moore lets on. Unofficially, yes, I'm going to say that using tissue from an aborted baby in a medical procedure, even when it is necessary to save another person's life, is immoral.

The really wierd part is, Moore says he's more or less in agreement with me on that:

Trust me, Mr. President, abortions make me sick too. My mind won't sugar-coat them, not even when they bring the possibility of life to someone else.

I don't know. Somebody else read this and tell me if I'm wrong.

The Journal Times Online

Surely there's more to it than this.

Yahoo! News - Britain's Prince Harry to Join the Army

The RCB (regular commission board assessment) required the prince to pass a number of interviews and physical tests including completing 50 sit-ups in two minutes.

The average pass rate is about 60 percent.

Couple pictures for you.


A sample of the latest Florida ballot technology.




This was taken in Madison - some work being done on Camp Randall Stadium. As far as I can tell, it isn't photoshopped. The person who sent me this also sent me another one, where they were further along on the next letter (it was the "n" before the "s").

Well, that ought to work.

FOXNews.com - Foxlife - Sinead: I'm Not Crazy

DUBLIN, Ireland — One-time pop sensation Sinead O'Connor (search) was back in the news Friday -- by taking out a full-page ad pleading for people to stop making fun of her.

Nerd Alert, Part 2!

Kerry as C3PO, in today's Best of the Web

And for further nerd-dom - the kind to which even we can never hope to aspire (please note grammatical correctness here) - make sure and scroll all the way down after you click on the link.

Nerd Alert! Hey Todd, check this out:

The Flying Space Monkey Chronicles: The Blogosphere Is Like Voltron

I have noticed something. Namely that the blogoshere is like Voltron.

You remember Voltron, Defender of the Universe, the big, good robot which would form from the five little lion robot vehicles that would go out, form a big sword and then defeat the big mean bad robot. But it would only do so after the 5 weak little lions would fight the big mean robot for a while and get the crap beat out of them.

Ah, nostalgia.

I thought this comment deserved front page billing!

At 3:33 PM, The probligo said…
Lance, it takes little imagination to reach the conclusion that Guardian has... I have been involved in several "dust-ups" with contributors to (fairly) right wing boards for suggesting with my tongue wedged firmly in my cheek that given GWB's global ambitions I should have the right to vote for or against him.

The first time the subject came up in my bailiwick was just after GWB sidelined the UNSC over Iraq.

Second is after re-reading some of the comment attached to your earlier "I called it.." one has to remember that military might is only one and perhaps the most visible of the influences that the United States has over the rest of the world.

The third is one of attitude. Go back some time and re-read GWB comments on the subjects of international law, and the ICCJ. Ponder for a few moments the relationship between Kofi Annan's comments about the legality of the Iraq war, the international definition of "war crimes" and the terms of the Geneva Conventions.

I regret, I have never been able to think about how this one matter has progressed without getting an awful sick feeling in my stomach.

The hardest to take is that I have no right to do anything about the problem... other than by doing something that is unthinkable.

Did I call this? Oh, yes I did!

Johnathan Freedland's column in The Guardian: Still no votes in Leipzig - US policy now affects every citizen on the planet. So we should all have a say in who gets to the White House.

For who could honestly describe the 2004 contest of George Bush and John Kerry as a domestic affair? There's a reason why every newspaper in the world will have the same story on its front page on November 3. This election will be decisive not just for the United States but for the future of the world.

Anyone who doubts it need only look at the last four years. The war against Iraq, the introduction of the new doctrine of pre-emption, the direct challenge to multilateral institutions - chances are, not one of these world-changing developments would have happened under a President Al Gore. It is no exaggeration to say that the actions of a few hundred voters in Florida changed the world.

So perhaps it's time to make a modest proposal. If everyone in the world will be affected by this election, shouldn't everyone in the world have a vote?

Here's my original post, containing my brilliant prediction, and here's an update to that post.

Did you know about this? I didn't know they were doing this!

Yahoo! News - Panel OKs Extension of Tax Cuts.

Not to be juvenile about this, but Yeeeeeeeee-hawwwww!

Now, on to Social Security Reform!

This was interesting, too: this blogger took agricultural data and calculated the number of calories produced in the U.S. His conclusion: we produce nearly 160,000 calories per person, per day - about 80 times what the average (and when I say average, I mean non-Burri) person needs.

Blogger calls himself "The Dead Hand - A shameless act of capitalism by Corey A. Mathers." I found him through Instapundit, I think.

Can anybody vouch for/dispute his numbers or methodology?

Update to my previous post about the Wisconsin Elections Board approving Ralph Nader's inclusion on Wisconsin's November ballot.

I only linked to the actual legal documents earlier. Here's the Journal Sentinel story: JS Online: Elections Board votes to put Nader on the ballot; Democrats might sue.

This was really interesting: an article comparing the Battle of Austerlitz, in which Napoleon Bonaparte defeated a superior Austrian/Russian force in 1805, and John Kerry's campaign. Not being an historian*, I can't vouch for the author's conclusions, but it was an enjoyable read.

Found it at Townhall.com. Here's the link.

And here's an excerpt:

On the eve of the Battle Austerlitz, Napoleon knew that he was badly outnumbered and even more badly outgunned. He had been unable to destroy the Austrian army before it linked up with a huge Russian force. Now, from atop the Pratzen Heights near the town of Austerlitz, the enemy generals looked down upon the bedraggled, exhausted French with contempt, confident that the next day would bring victory. They convened a grand council of war to discuss the broad outlines of their attack. The meeting resembled nothing so much as a dinner-party, and until three o' clock in the morning, the generals debated.

Meanwhile, in Napoleon's campaign tent, there was no debate. The newly-crowned Emperor of France was on his hands and knees on a huge map of the battlefield, quietly shifting small-unit figurines back and forth, devising the trap that was to become the historical masterpiece of his career. As night fell, 193 tactical movement orders issued from Napoleon's headquarters. When the Austrians and Russians awoke the next morning, they thought they were looking at the same battlefield. But unbeknownst to them, the battlefield had become Napoleon's deadly spider web.

Kerry has taken a key page out of the Austro-Russian playbook. According to Democratic strategists, the Kerry campaign has been paralyzed for weeks by a high-level debate over the candidate's message. Even now, at three o' clock in the morning on the day of the battle, they are still debating their strategy. And if that were not bad enough, Kerry recently enlarged the dinner-party by brining several Clinton operatives on board—opinionated and forceful debaters all. The Democrat has had great difficulty coming up with any strategy, and has reacted only by compounding the problem.

*Annoying grammatical note: if we can put a man on the moon, why can't we stop using "an" instead of "a" in front of a noun that starts with "h," which is so obviously a consonant?

I needed a day off, so I just went ahead and beat up on Progressives some more over at Lance Burri today.

Like how I slip a reference to myself in there?

This explains a lot.

Oh yeah. An Elections Board attorney told the Wisconsin Democratic Party to shove it today. Their 40+ page explanation of why Ralph Nader shouldn't be on Wisconsin's ballot? Dissed.

Try to read it all, if you want. If you want a quick nap, that is. Such lengthy, detailed, hair-splitting legalisms. And from the Democrats, too.

Say, aren't they the ones who always whine about "disenfranchisement?"

Steve Re: 2004 Seminar Series, Waisman Center, UW-Madison

While waiting for an elevator to leave the UW Hospital the other day, I began perusing a nearby bulletin board. One flyer advertising the 2004 Seminar Series at the Waisman Center touted a talk by a professor of Genetics and Psychiatry. My elevator arrived so I did my best Evelyn Wood impression. As I recall, the talk was entitled, ‘Drosophila democratogaster as a Model for Neuronal Function and Dysfunction.’ Its synopsis, as best I can recall stated that, " D. democratogaster has been a breakthrough system for the analyses of arrested development, circadian issue rhythms, and misapplied intercellular pathways. We are using flies to understand the cellular and molecular bases of indoctrination and short term memory misinformation. The development of a well-controlled assay for disassociative behavior, and the application of forward and reverse genetics has led to significant progress in understanding mendacious memory formation and some of its related issues. Recent work on the cellular basis of memory formation has led to the synaptic policy issue tagging hypothesis. We further hypothesize that mutations in this tagging machinery may be responsible for some of the complex psychiatric dysfunctions diagnosed in humans."

I could kick myself for not following up on my idea to merge with Ralston Purina to market ‘Purina Drosophila Chow’. Instead, I invested all my time and money pursuing the invention of the internet. I was two days, two damn days, behind Al Gore and subsequently lost my shirt.

NFL Picture of the Week

This week's pictures honor our older generations!



Vinny Testeverde, who will turn 41 later this year, is the Dallas Cowboys starting QB, and by the way is currently leading the league in passing yards.



Doug Flutie, who will turn 42 next month, might be San Diego's starter while Drew Brees is hurt.

Nice to see those careers keep going. They started when I was in high school.

I hereby coin a new phrase: "the NFL moment." This is the moment at which one becomes older than every current NFL player. Raise your hands now, if you haven't reached yours yet: hmmm, one hand, two...just two? I guess that's it.

Steve Re: Presidential Debates

I think that there should be four debates– the three as originally planned and one with John Kerry by himself. Kerry here could debate his position today against the one he held yesterday.

In the Carter/Reagan debates, Reagan made famous the barb, ‘There you go again!’ Bush could do a similar thing in reference to Kerry’s ‘open-mindedness’.

In Texas we had a saying. ‘Don’t be sooo open-minded that your brains fall out.’

Steve Re: Masobovinoscatological Epistemology & Tropospheric Anserinoflatus (With apologies to Leo Kottke, but not to Al.)

I’m sure glad that I can use my normal speech in Cyberspace. I haven’t been able to speak thusly since I moved back up from South Texas to again mingle with yankees.

It surely has been enjoyable and educational sampling the Blogosphere smorgasbord. Most often, whatever the content, the thought processes show great depth, the logic and use of facts and data are tied together tightly producing essays of tremendous, persuasive merit.

However, upon further review, in depth analysis exposes the architectural design of 100 story skyscrapers lacking feasible plans for a foundation. (‘Rats right, Rorge..’ The new Spacely Sprockets Building is floating in mid-air.) These essays are constructed offering no foundation concerning providence, teleology, the nature of man, or the nature of the universe. These are the questions that heavy hitters such as Plato and Aristotle attempted to tackle. Of the blogoliterati, I usually expect the unstated presuppositions to include exclusion of providence (closed system), mankind and/or chance controlling the direction and definition of the universe (the measure of all things), and the perfectability of Man (blank slate). These are some pretty profound assumptions, and if incorrect, the purported assertions fail. In addition, any inference of good or bad, any moral tenor whatsoever, can only be based on nothing more solid than mere capricious sentiment.

Basing conclusions on modernist/postmodernist sentiments has been brilliantly illustrated by none other than Senator John Kerry. Apparently his sentiments change every day according to his pragmatism. In reality, that is quite honest. Sentiments, no matter how strongly felt, have the substance of goose farts in the wind. Kerry’s erratic ideologies may appear the musings of the fourth stooge, but is directly analogous to the more sophisticated varieties that one may hear or read elsewhere.

Facts, data, and statistics, embellished by rhetoric, erected through a logic empowered by the sentiment de jour forms an ideology. This man-made ideology, bolstered by lawyers, guns, and money, or by the peer pressure exerted by the democracy gods, shoves its religion down the throats of infidels. But, its god has no clothes and is constructed, not even of silver or gold, but of arbitrary sentiments. One thing is for sure. Any ideology that cannot tolerate the authority of God, can learn to tolerate anything else.

"Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism, who should labour to subvert these great Pillars of human happiness-- these firmest props of the duties of Men & citizens. The mere Politician, equally with the pious man ought to respect & to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private & public felicity. Let it simply be asked, where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are instruments of investigation in courts of Justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition, that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason & experience both forbid us to expect that National Morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle." --George Washington’s Farewell Address, Sept. 19, 1796.

And consider Washington’s humility and understanding of human nature: "Though in reviewing the incidents of my Administration, I am unconscious of intentional error. I am nevertheless too sensible of my defects not to think it probable that I may have committed many errors. Whatever they may be I fervently beseech the Almighty to avert or mitigate the evils to which they may tend."

PS 127:1 Unless the LORD builds the house,
its builders labor in vain.
Unless the LORD watches over the city,
the watchmen stand guard in vain.