Tag Archives: wisconsin

Vacation

Trips, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I have both a written account and a movie I put together about the trip Stan and I took toward the end of June. One note about the movie: I included a lot of my own audio creations as well as royalty free clips included with the iLife suite. After I posted the video on YouTube, I was sent a letter from YouTube saying some of my material my be copyrighted. Some copyright holder must have some snazzy algorithm that sniffs out certain wave sequences, but don’t they know that this stuff is part of the royalty free stuff Apple uses in their software for the end user to use as part of their creations? Jeez. I’m not the only one with this problem either.

Anyway, I won’t let the YouTube legal dept get me down. I know I’m in the right to use Apple’s clips in my movie. So here it is….about 15 minutes long:

And here’s the written version:
Continue reading Vacation →

Verify the Verify

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Wisconsin’s “Verify the Recall,” a far-right wing group created for the sole purpose of trying to disprove the million signatures to recall Gov. Scott Walker and to mock the supposed fictitious signatures (Bart Simpson, Mickey Mouse et al) has instead made a mockery of themselves.

What appears to be running off Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nicholaus’s home computer’s server, an early 90s PC no doubt, the website is slow to load and never produces any worthwhile search results. Not only that, there is no obvious “search” button, which is a bit odd for the claims of it being a “searchable database.” This is more like a “waitable database.” I did try pressing “return” at the end of a word search in the various columns, but wouldn’t you know it, a search on Stan’s last name produced no results, even though he did sign the petition. Why didn’t I search on other things like my last name or my street or my zip code? Well, I did. It’s just that it kept grinding away and never ever produces a result, not even to tell me there are no results. Did I say the server is slow?

Come to think of it, this site is run by tea partiers, and they’re not known for their accurate spelling. Perhaps I should have searched on a misspelled version of Stan’s last name, maybe that would’ve given some results.

Fortunately, the site does have a help page, but it’s a pdf file! And a graphically challenged one at that! It’s right out of the graphic design humorist’s handbook of visual comedy. Aqua-green text bubbles litter the page with instructions pointing this-a-way and that-a-way with blue arrows pointing at various parts of the database, all explained in CENTER JUSTIFIED text!

I guess the good news is that those who wish to use this database for nefarious purposes will be unsuccessful. I have been attempting a Verify search on my computer for what seems like a couple hours now while I am working, however those that must rely on the 15-minute limit computers at the detention center library won’t have that convenience.

I’m not giving a link to the site here, but if you do search on “Verify the Recall” you will find the site, first by finding the main site, which will then direct you to the iverify site, which then makes you read some stuff and then enter the site, and then you have to agree to some more stuff like how you won’t use the search for nefarious purposes which is silly because you can’t use the site for ANYTHING, and then you enter deeper into the site.

Oh, and this is pathetic…Vicki McKenna (google her too, I’m not going to explain) just asked for donations over Twitter because they need a better server. Waaaaaah!

Go ask the Koch brothers, Vicki.

Scott Walker’s Real Wisconsin

Politics, ,
Walker's Real Wisconsin
click for enlargement

Gov. Scott Walker said this afternoon that the spring election results show there are “two very different worlds in this state.”

“You’ve got a world driven by Madison, and a world driven by everybody else out across the majority of the rest of the state of Wisconsin,” Walker said at a press conference in the Capitol.

“For those who believe it’s a referendum, while it might have a statewide impact that we may lean one way or the other, it’s largely driven by Madison, and to a lesser extent Milwaukee,”

Scotty is a Whiner

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That’s right, Governor Moron, if only Wisconsin didn’t include Madison, your guy would’ve won the race. But no, unfortunately for you, Wisconsin DOES include Madison, and the rest of Dane County and all those other counties to the north, west and south like Columbia, Sauk, Iowa, Lafayette, Green, Rock, Grant, Crawford, Richland, Vernon, La Crosse, Monroe, Juneau, Adams, Portage, Wood, Jackson, Trempealeau, Eau Claire, Chippewa, Dunn, Pepin and Pierce, not to mention Kenosha and Milwaukee in the southeast, and Menominee in the northeast, and Washburn, Douglas, Bayfield, Ashland and Iron in the north. No, except for those screaming bastions of socialism, your guy would have won. Puhlease. Teatards!

Wisconsin’s Strange Political Geography

Politics,

I changed my mind about wanting to live in Manitowoc if I could idealistically choose any place in Wisconsin. Up nort, way up nort-west bordering Lake Superior…that wouldn’t be bad….Bayfield, yeah, it’s pretty up there too. Remember driving through those areas during two separate spring trips, one barely out of winter with the white birch trees in the snow, and another close to summer with frogs.

I’m not sure I understand the geographical political divide the state seems to have. But I can tell you one thing, when we took bike rides that were to the west and to the south, we finished all of them and enjoyed them much more than the Glacial Drumlin that went out east into the Republican suburbs of Milwaukee. We never even completed that trail. I wouldn’t even want to go into Waukesha (Walkersha) county now. Enemy territory.

Here’s a statistical breakdown by county of the Justice election.

The Electric Chair

Dreams, Politics, , , , , ,

Very disturbing dream last night. I dreamt I was found guilty of murder and was going to be put to death in the electric chair. It happened all so quickly too, found guilty, sentenced, and then they start preparing me for the electric chair immediately. It didn’t even have time to sink in what had happened until they were telling me to turn my foot over so they could strap it up correctly (weird). I don’t even know who I had supposedly killed! I then start pleading with the women…who were more like nurses preparing me for an operation…to stop, that I was innocent, but obviously, that didn’t change their mind. I think I woke up crying.

After the dream I was in sort of a netherworld where I felt like it was all very reminiscent of something…then I remembered…oh, yeah, when the state republican senators passed the Budget Despair Bill. I felt like they had sentenced Wisconsin to death, and all the pleading the populace did wouldn’t make them change their mind.

Maybe it was because shortly before I went to bed last night I was reading an article at The Progressive about a Wisconsin schoolteacher who was depressed about the Bill passing and killed herself.

Well, yesterday, Wisconsin got a stay of execution as a Dane County judge temporarily blocked the bill from taking effect. But if a few Republicans won’t change their minds, then it’s just prolonging our agony for a short while more.

No protesting for us today…Stan works and then does a lit drop with his Union for Joe Parisi (County Executive) and Joanne Kloppenburg (Wisconsin Supreme Court)…too bad because the forecast is for 52 degrees and sunny. Last Saturday we froze our asses off again. I even wore pajama pant bottoms under my jeans. The chilled wind was just horrendous and we had to spend forever waiting for busses (the one going to the Square was a half hour late!) We might go Monday, but I don’t know. Monday, April 4 will be a big protest rally, so fortunately Stan has that day off. I’m working on more signs, too.

Some of Our Protest Posters

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I don’t have a smart phone or an ipod or even a small camera I could take with me to the protests–something like that is beyond my budget, so that is why there are no pictures of the Madison crowds here. All I have is one camera I use for my business–photographing my jewelry, art, beads, Stan’s cactuses, etc., and I’m not big on bringing that to these events. So since I had to get out my camera to shoot some beads this AM, I decided to shoot some of the posters I made that we’ve been bringing these past weeks.

On Saturday, March 12, I carried this one:
Union Pug Says RECALL!
and on the flip side:
Scott Walker : Worse than Palin

and Stan carried this one:
Union Bosston Terrier
and on the flip side:
Scott Walker : Plutocracy in the USA
These are made with black-cartridge laserwriter prints on colored cut paper over cardboard. They’re approx. 16×20 inches.

On Saturday, February 26, I carried this one:
I Heart Wisconsin 14
and on the flip side:
Scott Walker is a Dunce
I sort of had a Scott Walker-moment when I was creating that one because I put the flipside on upside down, so I couldn’t hold the sign up in the air, just against my body to hide the upside down side. I had gotten up really early in the morning, and brain wasn’t engaged fully when assembling it.

I also made another sign, but we left it in the car (we took it on a weekday afternoon) and Stan’s at work right now. I’ll try to shoot it sometime.

Rant for Today

Politics,

I clicked a link, ended up at a Facebook page of one of the 14 Wisconsin State Senators. I took a look at the comments, some were positive, some weren’t. But one that was sort of in the middle really flipped my tweaker. It said, and I quote:

“I do understand what your doing..there are many portions of this bill that are wrong…But with a vote of 53 to 42 if you all where back you might have tipped the vote….”

No, it’s not the misspellings that makes me grit my teeth. I’m wondering how many other people actually think this? Seriously? Someone with much more patience and tolerance than I would’ve had–maybe they were a teacher–politely corrected them about the difference between the Senate and the Assembly, and the numbers needed in each to pass the vote, and how the 14 coming back would not have made an ounce of difference when the vote passed the Assembly.

See, this is why the Republicans want to get rid of education. They want an uninformed public so they can use them for cheap labor and so they are more easily swayed by their rhetoric. They don’t want educated people from the working class. They only want their own, who can afford private school, to be the educated…the good old boy club, or the religious school creationists, who they’ve appropriated to get the votes on their side.

Budget Impaired Bill

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Ok, so let me get this straight. Initially, it was all about “balancing the budget” and they had to keep the collective bargaining item in there because it helped “balance the budget”. BUT because they didn’t need any of the WI Fab14 to pass a NON-budget bill, they removed all the fiscal stuff out of the bill, leaving the collective bargaining part, because it was not fiscal. But they initially said it was about the budget. And a budget is fiscal. WTF?!?

Impeach Scott Walker Bumper Stickers

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The situation in my state is going from bad to worse. Walker, along with the other 18 Republican State Senators who split the bill in order to ram through the part about ending collective bargaining show that they knew it wasn’t about budget cutting all along. They are deceptive tricking liars, who make Nixon look good.

More items with these graphics can be found here.

Wisconsin Palm Tree Designs!

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Proudly display your “Wisconsin Palm Tree” and show your support for the workers, unions and all of those fighting against Governor Walker’s Budget and the trickery and lies of the right-wing.

My “Wisconsin Palm Tree” (Latin name: Foxnews liesatus) comes in a variety of 4 different colors: Red, Green, Blue and Rainbow. No words or slogans this time, just a palm casting its shadow over our lovely northern state. You can wear them proudly at your protests as they come on a wide variety of clothing, or you can also get them on stickers, magnets, pins, mugs, steins…even ipodcases. I’m also working on adding them to other items like necklaces. They’ll be ready soon…

wisconsin palm treewisconsin palm treewisconsin palm treewisconsin palm tree