Blogging Blue

The Reasonable Progressive (who’s a girl, by the way) posted an entry linking to two blog analyzers, the first of which determines the relative readability of a blog, while the second determines the gender of the person writing the blog.

According to the Blog Readability Test, Blogging Blue rates at a College (Postgrad) reading level, while the Gender Analyzer has “strong indicators that http://www.bloggingblue.com is written by a man (92%).”

Heh….I’m just glad to know this blog rated out as being written by a man.

Elliot Stearns is a fictional character.

Despite being a fictional character, he somehow manages to write a blog called From Where I Sit, a blog that I happen to enjoy reading. Though he’s a conservative - and thus we don’t often see eye to eye - he’s a reasonable fellow with a great sense of humor, not to mention an abundance of common sense.

Elliot has made me an offer I can’t refuse - to introduce him to my readers, so I’d encourage all three of you who read here on a daily basis to go check out From Where I Sit.

The Dow dropped again today, finishing below 8,000 for the first time since March 2003. While some folks on the conservative end of the political spectrum have become fond of blaming president-elect Barack Obama for any bad economic news, I blame George W. Bush.

After all, we can only have one president at a time, and until January 20, 2009 George W. Bush is the president, and as President Harry S. Truman was fond of saying, the buck stops with him.

If I had the money, I’d put a bounty on his melon. Seriously.

That’s what Peter DiGaudio, formerly of Texas Hold ‘Em blogger fame, said in response to Barack Obama being elected president. Now call me crazy, but that sure sounds like a threat to me, and I wasn’t alone in expressing disbelief over Peter’s comments. That wasn’t Peter’s only comment in regards to the election of Barack Obama as president, but it was certainly the most disconcerting of all his comments.

Shortly after expressing his opinions regarding the election of Barack Obama as president, Peter deleted the Texas Hold ‘Em blog and was banned from contributing at the Badger Blog Alliance, leaving many to wonder about his well-being and state of mind. However, it wasn’t long before Peter returned to the Cheddarsphere with a new blog, The Underground Conservative. Predictably, Peter’s up to his old tricks, including some harsh anti-Muslim rhetoric, and curiously enough, conservative blogs have been putting links to Peter’s new blog on their blogrolls, leaving me to wonder if those folks who linked back to Peter’s new blog condone his inflammatory rhetoric.

The Brawler and Wigderson have more.

I’ve spent some time on this blog writing about autism, especially efforts by Democrats here in Wisconsin to mandate that health insurance companies provide coverage for behavioral therapy for autistic children, therapy which is not currently covered by any private health insurance offered by any insurer in the state of Wisconsin. Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin, including my Representative, Mark Honadel, have strongly opposed any efforts to make the mandate law, citing the high cost of a mandate. Cost estimates have placed the cost of an autism therapy mandate at roughly 10 million dollars, and while that’s a lot of money, in my opinion it would be money well spent.

After all, instead of spending 11 million dollars to reopen a paper mill in Park Falls and to buy a shiny new soybean crusher for Republican Rep. Brett Davis’ district. I know I’m biased, but if I had to choose between a government handout for a soybean crusher or providing health insurance coverage for behavioral therapy for autistic kids, I choose the therapy for autistic kids ten times out of ten.

Thankfully, Democratic lawmakers in Madison seem to appreciate the importance of providing health insurance coverage for autism behavioral therapy, and with a new majority in the State Assembly - to go along with a Democratic majority in the State Senate and a Democratic governor - that autism therapy insurance mandate could become a reality. I’ll admit I’m not a big fan of broad government mandates, but in this case I think a government mandate certainly seems warranted. No family that has their own health insurance should be forced to file and wait for Medicaid - or worse, to pay money out of their own pockets - just so their child can have the therapy that could dramatically improve that child’s life.

I just hope Democrats in Madison will take action on this issue sooner as opposed to later.

If any of my 5 readers are interested, I’ll be liveblogging over at Uppity Wisconsin tonight.

Come visit us!

Fred Dooley, proprietor of Real Debate Wisconsin, got caught with his pants down today, posting an interesting little tirade over at his blog alleging that the Obama/Biden campaign was encouraging voter fraud here in Wisconsin because of a flier sent out by that campaign. Dooley was outraged…..OUTRAGED!!!!!! that the flier says citizens can register to vote if they bring an eligible voter from your municipality who shows proof of residence and affirms that you live at your address, because according to Fred, the law doesn’t allow an eligible voter to vouch for someone else. Fred even cited Wisconsin’s election law as proof of his point, all the while either conveniently ignoring or failing to read the following section:

Corroborating Witness

If an Election Day registrant or a voter with an “ID required” notation is unable to provide proof of residence, they may have another qualified elector of the municipality corroborate his or her residence by signing the Voter Registration Application (EB-131) as a witness. The corroborator must be a qualified elector of the municipality and provide proof of residence. The corroborator is not required to be a registered voter.

After being caught in his obvious lie - with his pants down, if you will - what was Fred’s reaction? Well, instead of being a man and owning up to his mistake, Fred simply deleted his blog entry in its entirety. Apparently for Fred it’s much easier to pretend you never made a mistake than it is to actually admit you made one, because accountability is overrated.

However, thanks to the magic of the intertubes, here’s Fred’s blog entry, followed by the flier that had him whipped into a frenzy.

The attached document is encouraging activity in violation of Wisconsin’s already loose election law.

I quote, “No proof of residence? You can still register to vote if you bring an eligible voter from your municipality who shows proof of residence and affirms that you live at your address.”

Sorry folks, they made that up. Here is a link to the State of Wisconsin Elections Board rules, nowhere does showing up to register with someone to vouch for you come into play.

This flyer was paid or by the Democratic Party of Wisconsin so they are obviously complicit in encouraging people to break election law.

Why do Democrats keep trying to cheat?

Why won’t any of the major media call them on it?

Can you imagine the outroar if Republicans were passing fraudulent information about Wisconsin election law? Hell, they are after AG Van Hollen for daring to ask the “accountability” board to follow the freaking law.

The unethical Democratic party is at it again, and they’ll continue to get away with it until enough people raise hell about this problem.

And here’s the flier in question (click to view it full size):

And did I mention that Red State picked up on Fred’s story? They did, because apparently they’re just as desperate as Fred to blame an Obama win on voter fraud.

Now I haven’t named an Idiot of the Week in a good long time, so I’m going to go ahead and name Fred Dooley as the winner of this week’s Idiot of the Week Award. Congratulations, Fred!

Honestly, what can I say? I’m thrilled to have been included in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Editorial Page Blog. Here’s a list of the blogs that made the cut:

ON THE LEFT

• Blogging Blue
• Brazen Maverick
• Brew City Brawler
• Fighting Bob - GarveyBlog
• Folkbum’s Rambles and Rants
• The Political Environment
• Uppity Wisconsin

ON THE RIGHT

• Badger Blogger
• Boots and Sabers
• Common Sense Waukesha
• Dad29
• Marquette Warrior
• Shark and Shepherd
• The Wisconsin Policy Research Institute

That’s some fine company, from the left and the right, and I’m honored and humbled to have been among the bloggers included on that list.

H/T to Elliot for bringing this to my attention.

I got an email today from the Obama campaign asking for volunteers on election day. Here’s the email:

Obama for America

Zachary –

Ask your Boss. Ask your Professor.

Take Election Day off and volunteer to make history.

Watch this video and sign up to help get out the vote on Tuesday, November 4th:

Watch the video

This election will be decided by what this grassroots movement can accomplish on Election Day.

We have volunteer shifts to fill throughout the day — make calls, knock on doors, and make sure your fellow voters get to the polls.

No previous experience is required. Sign up now to take the day off and make history on November 4th:

http://my.barackobama.com/takethedayoff

Thanks,

Jon

Over at Fairly Conservative, Cindy Kilkenny seems to have a problem with the Obama campaign encouraging supporters to volunteer on election day:

You heard him. It’s national skip day. With our government about to take such good care of us, we won’t need jobs at all soon. Go on.

What I’d like to know is when it became a bad thing to encourage citizens to get involved in the democratic process. Since when was it a bad thing to have citizens actively engaged and involved in the process of electing our leaders? Further, would the same folks who seem to have a problem with the Obama campaign encouraging its supporters to volunteer on election day voice the same concerns if Sen. McCain’s campaign were encouraging its supporters to volunteer on election day?

I think not.

Those chain emails that we’ve all seen cluttering up our emailboxes can be an annoyance, but one man’s trash is certainly another man’s treasure. Take, for example, Brian Fraley’s latest missive asking “Obamaniacs” to read a supposed “Obama missive” and then tell Brian he’s wrong in his belief that Barack Obama is not only a socialist, but a Communist. What’s more, Brian asks, “Is this not an appeal for Communism?”

Here’s the supposed missive from Barack Obama:

In the longer term, what is required is a new model of economic governance at the state and corporate level. By that I mean a reconfiguring of the role and functions of government and corporations so that they favor working people, the racially and nationally oppressed, women, youth and other social groupings. …

Recent events have undermined the legitimacy of the neoliberal model of governance and accumulation so eagerly embraced by the Bush administration and Republicans in Congress. (No wonder they say they don’t want to play the “blame game.”)

Now using the wonders of the intertubes (Google is a wonderful thing), Jay over a Folkbum was able to determine the missive supposedly written by Sen. Obama was actually written by Sam Webb, the National Chair of the American Communist Party. Now I’m not exactly sure if Brian Fraley culled the supposed “Obama missive” from an email he got or if he just copied and pasted it from a source on the internet, but if Brian Fraley did buy into an email he got, then it’s not the first some some folks on the conservative end of the political spectrum have fallen hook, line and sinker for some dubious emails.