Readers' Comments

  • U.S. Senate Votes Down State GMO Labeling   11 years 6 days ago

    Continue to press Baldwin and Warren regarding their votes against
    GMO labeling, and include the names of all Wisconsin legislators who
    voted against it.

  • How the Government Targeted Occupy   11 years 6 days ago

    "Mr. President, we're here to congratulate you on your inauguration and to offer you our full and unstinting support -- just call on us anytime and we'll be glad to help you in any way we can. Now, here are the things you need to go along with, and the things you'd better not stick your nose into if you want to finish your term."

  • Wisconsin: Open for Bounty Hunters   11 years 6 days ago

    You reference to the Washington State rapist that was released for only $3,000 down on a 190k bail... I could name 100's of cases where the judge has released a violent criminal on their own-recognizance and they have either killed or seriously injured a person, so to reference one case by a bail bondsman that obviously is not going to be in the business very long is ridiculous. Bail Bond companies owe nothing to the State of Minnesota if they did the Bail Bonds insurance company would have paid it and if they didn't both the Bail Bond company and the Insurance company would be shut down. I have been in the Bail Bond industry for 15 years in Minnesota and I have never heard of a bail bond going unpaid to the state. So if Wisconsin uses strict policies and procedures I dont forsee any money not being paid to the state since the insurance companies are required to have 5 million in a reserve account with the state of Wisconsin. I have also been called on numerous people in the state of Wisconsin on bail of $50,000 cash for help, these people were usually charged for some sort of drug case and in any other state this bail would be $50,000 to 100,000 bond where they would pay a bail bond company 10% or $5,000 - $10,000 and they would need a home or some other collateral worth the full amount of the bail but instead the Wisconsin judge is asking for a bail that fits someone accused of murder..... These people are innocent until proven guilty and they are forced to fight the charges while sitting in jail for the next 6 months and they very will could be innocent. Bail bonds has always been a family business and we take great pride in making sure our clients appear in court and if they failed to appear we would find them and return them to court! If we didn't our family's would be the ones to suffer the penalties. Bail Bonds is not a black and white process there is a lot going on with everything we do that you don't see on TV I strongly believe commercial bail bonds is what's right for everyone in the state of Wisconsin and I hope they move forward with it.

  • War on Democracy in Wisconsin: Bill Would Enact Voter ID, End Disclosure, Limit Early Voting, Expand Lobbyist Influence   11 years 6 days ago

    Currently, Joe Blow from IL could witness as many ballots as he wanted. Legally. And he wouldn't have to travel by bus. He could stay right in Illinois and do it. Current law states that witnesses must be adult US citizens. The address listed for the witness doesn't need to be in Wisconsin. It doesn't even need to be in the United States.

  • War on Democracy in Wisconsin: Bill Would Enact Voter ID, End Disclosure, Limit Early Voting, Expand Lobbyist Influence   11 years 6 days ago

    free voter IDs>> Now when is there something free that takes many man hours of work and to check address's then print out the card. No this is a pole tax and it is going to cost the people of Wisconsin big time. Also who is behind this ? Oh the Kocks. Why ? The Republicans ? if this was so good why is it not by-partisan ? No the Republicans do NOT want people out to vote. There was a time when a state was proud to get the most voters in the country. I know in Minnesota it is not going to happen. What is to stop Joe Blow. The law!!!!! No your idea stinks. Minnesota has same day voteing and it has worked for years. Also any vote can be challenged right at the poleing station. No this will go to the courts were it will be put down as un-constitutional!!

  • How the Government Targeted Occupy   11 years 6 days ago

    I'm beginning to think it might be the other way around.

  • Federal Court Criticizes Wisconsin Republicans for "Peculiarly Furtive" Redistricting, Closes Case   11 years 6 days ago

    Get out .......... all of you antiquated, ignorant, republican BIGOTS!! Your 15 minutes is up!!!

  • Students Petition Sallie Mae for Transparency and a Better Deal on Student Loans   11 years 6 days ago

    Thanks for the opportunity to link to the petitions and paticipate in righting a wrong. Hope everyone takes the few minites it takes to sign.

  • The Homeland Security Apparatus: Fusion Centers, Data Mining and Private Sector Partners   11 years 6 days ago

    Wow:

    Drones = terror from the sky (directed by joysticks in Arizona) = inflicting terror to suppress terroism!

    And all along I thought "counterterrorism" is just a mistaken construction really meaning "antiterrorism."

    Indeed, the US is countering.

    It's not a war AGAINST terrorism, but a war OF terrorism.

  • Environmental Groups Split on Illinois Fracking Bill   11 years 6 days ago

    If the Sierra Club, NRDC, Faith in Place, Illinois Environmental Council etc. hadn't siphoned away all their energy to cozy up to industry and politicians to work on that weak, non-protective regulatory bill, and we had all worked together, Illinois would have the moratorium we deserve and desperately need. Thanks for nothing, Big Green.

  • War on Democracy in Wisconsin: Bill Would Enact Voter ID, End Disclosure, Limit Early Voting, Expand Lobbyist Influence   11 years 6 days ago

    How many times must it be repeated to you absurdly addled, memory challenged Republicans? "There is NO illegal voter problem". You conveniently forget the Bush administration spent over a hundred million dollars in using dozens of federal attorneys looking for evidence of election voter fraud throughout several parts of the country! Republican leaning attorneys with unlimited resources found NOTHING. It is a statistically insignificant issue. Another GOP ruse - there is not a damn thing "common sensical" about forcing voter ID when it's only a made up issue - completely designed to help the fully corrupt GOP.

    On the other hand you can find several statements from Republican state legislators speaking candidly on how passage of these 'voter suppression laws' will allow them to "win elections"! Including Republican Glenn Grothman of Wisconsin. If your definition of denying a citizen (which is precisely the intent of these voter ID laws)his right to vote, is in your opinion "common sense",I question your ability to truly grasp the consequences of such devilish - unpatriotic manipulation to our democratic system.

  • War on Democracy in Wisconsin: Bill Would Enact Voter ID, End Disclosure, Limit Early Voting, Expand Lobbyist Influence   11 years 6 days ago

    Well if you've solved 'your problem', bully for you. But the rest of us still believe representative government is worth fighting for. In truth, you have only given strength to the corrupt within our society by taking the coward's way out...quitting is exactly what they want from us. You may be within your rights to opt out of what is really 'your solemn duty to vote'. But you've only become a sell out. Your fellow countrymen have paid the supreme price for guaranteeing your right to vote, I strongly suggest you re-evaluate your position, dust yourself off and make sure you take your place in line to cast your vote as long as it takes to get the vermin removed from our midst.
    Shame on you for abdicating your responsibility as a citizen.

  • How the Government Targeted Occupy   11 years 6 days ago

    The IRS targets an anti-tax movement? The nerve of them!

  • Environmental Groups Split on Illinois Fracking Bill   11 years 6 days ago

    A minor factual error. Negotiations with industry did not begin a few months ago. They began well over a year ago. Also, NRDC, Faith-in-Place and other groups were working on smaller compromise regulatory bills over two years ago. That meant legislators knew they never had to take the moratorium idea seriously. They waited for the big compromise bill they knew was coming. There was never a serious fight for a moratorium.
    NRDC isn't going to win any points with the environmental community in Illinois with this face-saving version of what happened. Too many people know it isn't true.

  • How the Government Targeted Occupy   11 years 6 days ago

    "As President Ford's chief of staff, Cheney, with the aid of then-Deputy Attorney General Laurence H. Silberman, tried to thwart essential reforms of surveillance agencies. Silberman was later appointed to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and, at the urging of his former law clerk, then-Assistant Attorney General John Yoo, helped facilitate legal opinions instrumental to the George W. Bush administration's expansion of domestic surveillance activities by redefining Americans' Fourth Amendment rights."

    Is this the same Silberman who negotiated with the Iranians to keep their American hostages until the day that Reagan was inaugurated? I think it is.

    We can always count on Rs tossing patriotism out the window to further their agenda and using jingoism to nail those they disagree with.

  • How the Government Targeted Occupy   11 years 6 days ago

    Why would we expect our government to hold itself to any accountability when so much of what it does is guided by hubris, arrogance, and bullying. When the government, from the top down, acts against the public interest, there is no curb on excess. This is our new world order!

  • War on Democracy in Wisconsin: Bill Would Enact Voter ID, End Disclosure, Limit Early Voting, Expand Lobbyist Influence   11 years 1 week ago

    By the logic used to defend this legislation every President since George Washington must have been elected by fraud.
    My family has been here since 1620. In all that time I am the first to have had a birth certificate issued. Does that mean my relatives at Bunker Hill were faking it? My father didn't die of injuries received fighting in France?

  • How the Government Targeted Occupy   11 years 1 week ago

    No doubt the Tea Party was getting some extra scrutiny because they wanted to be tax exempt and engage in political activity at the same time. The government is neither good or bad except for what it actually does or does not do. I want a effective and efficient government protecting all of us, even you and the Tea Party!

  • Students Petition Sallie Mae for Transparency and a Better Deal on Student Loans   11 years 1 week ago

    https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/give-americans-ability-discharge-all-student-loans-bankruptcy/tdLDbCfr

    http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/allow-people-to-discharge?source=c.url&r_by=7737772

    http://www.change.org/petitions/us-government-give-americans-the-ability-to-discharge-student-loans-in-ch-7-bankruptcy#share

    Some of us really need this, and the above article is just another case in point. I hope you’ll sign and spread the word. Thanks.

  • How the Government Targeted Occupy   11 years 1 week ago

    I was appalled when I heard the number of govt. operatives we now have, published in the Washington Post by Dana Priest (over 80,000), and read what her investigation had come up with: Congress does not know the cost to taxpayers for this, our now what I call: POLICE STATE AIN'T GREAT. All this going on while lied into egregious, unending wars are not paid for, and massively increase our national debt, too big to fail banks are bailed out with no restrictions on the bailout money going straight into the pockets of the CEO's, etc. evil etc.. Lots and lots we've gotta do to...

    UNDO THE EVIL COUP!

  • War on Democracy in Wisconsin: Bill Would Enact Voter ID, End Disclosure, Limit Early Voting, Expand Lobbyist Influence   11 years 1 week ago

    Requiring DNA verification is awesome!
    Since only DNA would work for voter identification, then corporations couldn't be persons. Therefore, there is no corporate personhood and no Citizens United."

    Let's get back to true human-scale fraud at least.

  • How the Government Targeted Occupy   11 years 1 week ago

    The Dept of Homeland Security and FBI answer ultimitly to the president. Mr Obama, we're finally getting to know you.

  • How the Government Targeted Occupy   11 years 1 week ago

    The article is incomplete with out mention of the documented involvement of homeland insecurity in several major cities where they sent teams to train and supervise local law enforcement in how to marginalize and quash local occupation movements, supplied para-military support and undercover provocateurs.

    The success of these tactics in Oakland Ca., (who's mayor was first to admit of this involvement) and the ripple effects across the nation are evidence of the concerted and organized effort by our government to thwart free speech and thought in America.

    What was that thing they were sworn to protect and defend? It escapes me now.

  • Federal Court Criticizes Wisconsin Republicans for "Peculiarly Furtive" Redistricting, Closes Case   11 years 1 week ago

    After spending over a million dollars of taxpayer money,all the while crying about money spent on waste like food stamps, housing and other extravegances, and totally emptying the patriots' donations for observed CRIMINAL activities,this is the result? "The extent to which historians,the media, professional regulators and disciplinary bodies, or any others may wish to take further action is for them to decide in due course." When is due course; after the Republicans totally delete Democracy in Wisconsin? Which of our states is next?

  • Lois Lerner's "Hands-Off" Approach Likely Contributed to IRS Mess   11 years 1 week ago

    Why is this word used six times in this article? Believe it or not, government bureaucrats have ample discretion under a wide variety of laws. Thus, for example, the determination of who gets audited or why is vested in the IRS' discretion. I don't recall hearing of anyone claiming "ambiguity" led to audits of Nixon political opponents. Call it what it is: abuse of power. Don't excuse it with claims of ambiguity.