December 31, 2013

Wisconsin’s Incarceration Problem (Blogging Blue)

http://bloggingblue.com/2013/12/wisconsins-incarceration-problem/

President Obama pardoned 13 people last week and commuted the sentences of eight others. Each of these commuted sentences was related to violations concerning crack cocaine. President Obama was able to do so by invoking the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010. Prior to the passage of the FSA, possession of crack cocaine held a far more stiff sentence than possession of powder cocaine. This was widely believed to be aimed at incarcerating African Americans because for those who use cocaine, blacks are more likely to be caught with crack whereas whites are generally caught with the powder form.

The US has the highest rate of incarceration in the world, both per capita and in real numbers. Although we are only 5% of the world’s population, we possess 25% of the world’s prison population. Globally speaking, comparable countries incarcerate at a rate of 100 people per 100,000, but the US rate is 500 per 100,000. These rates are even more alarming when broken down by race:

Race Rate (Per 100,000)

Black 3,074

Latino 1,258

White 459

Wisconsin is no exception. Wisconsin ranks #1 in the country for our rate of incarcerating African Americans. The state’s incarceration rate is 12.8%, meaning that one in eight black men are currently in state prison. In Milwaukee, the numbers are even more stark. More than half of the black men in Milwaukee have been incarcerated at one point or another, leaving them virtually unemployable as more and more employers run routine background checks. 2/3s of them are in the cities 6 poorest zip codes.

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This is a disgrace!!!! Looking back on 2013 & further--this is a shame!!!

December 30, 2013

An Open Letter To The Editors Of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

http://bloggingblue.com/2013/12/an-open-letter-to-the-editors-of-the-milwaukee-journal-sentinel/

Dear Sirs and Madams,

For those of you who don’t know me, I am a staff writer for the local liberal blog site, Blogging Blue. I am a regular reader of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and its companion website JSOnline. However, I generally don’t read other blog sites on a regular basis because I don’t want to be influenced by their content and I avoid conservative sites because, quite frankly, I don’t need the stress (and I don’t need to give them the page views).

However I do read Mr. Christian Schneider’s opinion pieces on a regular basis since you regularly give him considerable column inches in the editorial and Crossroads sections of your paper. I am sure you won’t find it surprising that I seldom agree with his position on the topic under discussion. But that has nothing to do with what I am about to say: Mr. Schneider has outlived his usefulness to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the community at large.

I am not a journalist, just a blogger. But my readers know that I don’t disrespect public figures or candidates for office or elected officials in my blogs. I use their formal names, their titles and avoid derogatory nicknames in my writing, whether I agree with them or not. In order to have civil public discourse, I believe that is necessary and should be expected of anyone given a public forum.

Mr. Schneider doesn’t hold himself to that same standard and if he was writing for his own blog, I wouldn’t voice my concern. But you have granted him your public forum and the respect your paper and predecessor institutions have garnered over the years. Yet in his column today, 2013: America takes a selfie, you allowed Mr. Schneider to publically disrespect the president, not once, but twice!

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This is just one example of why I have NO respect for the Milwaukee Urinal!!
It doesn't live up to rudimentary standards of journalism.

December 30, 2013

It is approx. -8 degrees F in Ashland Co. Wi & going down. I wish Bulletproof Securities jackasses

from AZ were there in the Penokee Hills right now! That is all.

December 29, 2013

Meet Marina Dimitrijevic - Candidate for Assembly District 19 (Cog Dis)

http://cognidissidence.blogspot.com/2013/12/meet-marina-dimitrijevic-candidate-for.html


For years, Assembly District 19 has been ably represented by Jon Richards. Now that Richards has decided to run for Attorney General, his seat has become an open one. Fortunately for the people in AD 19, they have a great slate of candidates to chose from to be Richard's successor.

One of those candidates is Marina Dimitrijevic.

I have had the pleasure and privilege of knowing Dimitrijevic for almost ten years, since she was first elected as the Milwaukee County Supervisor for the Bay View area and in her current role as Chairwoman of the Milwaukee County Board.

I had the opportunity to interview Dimitrijevic earlier today to discuss her campaign and the race in general.

The first question I asked is why she chose to jump into the race.

Dimitrijevic said that the state is "absolutely out of control" and that she is angry with the constant attacks on workers, women, the LGBT community and on local control. She said that she wants to take her experience to Madison and turn things around. She added that the state legislature has been so destructive that she can't take it anymore and feels the need to take a more direction in reversing this.

December 29, 2013

Man shoots self in buttocks in Brighton Home Depot with gun he was carrying

http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/viewart/20131227/NEWS01/312270014/Man-shoots-self-buttocks-Brighton-Home-Depot-gun-he-carrying

BRIGHTON — Authorities say a man accidentally shot himself in a home improvement store with the gun he was legally carrying.

WHMI-FM reports the 32-year-old man from the Livingston County community of Green Oak Township was shot in the buttocks Thursday evening at the Home Depot in Brighton. Police say it appears he was reaching for his wallet when he inadvertently grabbed the pistol and a shot fired.

The man was treated for minor injuries at a nearby hospital.

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Bwahaha!!! What a pain in the a&&!!!

December 28, 2013

Paul Ryan lectures the pope

http://www.salon.com/2013/12/27/paul_ryan_lectures_the_pope/

The Catholic conservative who insists he cares about the poor says Pope Francis doesn’t understand capitalism

When 1.3 million Americans lose their unemployment benefits on Saturday, they can thank Rep. Paul Ryan. He took the lead in negotiating a bipartisan budget deal with Democratic Sen. Patty Murray, and on behalf of his party, held the line against continuing extended unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless.

Sure, a lot of Republicans share blame with Ryan. But he deserves extra-special (negative) credit for the deal, because he has lately had the audacity to depict himself as the new face of “compassionate conservatism,” insisting Republicans must pay attention to the problems of the poor. Friends say the man who once worshipped Ayn Rand now takes Pope Francis as his moral role model. Except he can’t help treating his new role model with arrogance and contempt.

It’s true that while knuckle-draggers like Rush Limbaugh attack the pope as a Marxist, Ryan has praised him, which I guess takes a tiny bit of courage since normally Republicans don’t like to buck the leader of their party. “What I love about the pope is he is triggering the exact kind of dialogue we ought to be having,” Ryan told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. “People need to get involved in their communities to make a difference, to fix problems soul to soul.”

But he couldn’t suppress either his right-wing politics or his supreme capacity for condescension for very long. “The guy is from Argentina, they haven’t had real capitalism in Argentina,” Ryan said (referring to the pope as “the guy” is a nice folksy touch.) “They have crony capitalism in Argentina. They don’t have a true free enterprise system.”

December 28, 2013

Forbes contributor says Scott Walker 'should know better' than to hold secret tax talks

http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/writers/steven_elbow/forbes-contributor-says-scott-walker-should-know-better-than-to/article_ee82ca31-1d26-586f-8c31-beacabbabf9b.html

After Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, with Revenue Secretary Rick Chandler, launched a series of rountable discussions on tax reform, Gov. Scott Walker, who asked them to conduct the discussions, suggested that maybe the state income tax should be eliminated.

Why was that a surprise? Well, because the discussions were between Republican officials and business leaders. The public and press were not invited. Kleefisch explained to the Beloit Daily News that, "people aren’t as candid when there are cameras and reporters in the room.”

A number of in-state folks have been appalled by the exclusion of the public from discussion on a subject that could profoundly affect their pocketbooks.

For instance, on Dec. 15 the LaCrosse Tribune editorialized: "Closed meetings are simply poor public policy ... while we may not all contribute to political candidates or align ourselves with political parties, we all pay taxes."

December 27, 2013

Ismael Ozanne: The Blogging Blue Interview

http://bloggingblue.com/2013/12/ismael-ozanne-the-blogging-blue-interview/

A little over a week ago, I had a chance to sit down and chat with Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne (pictured, left), one of the two Democrats running to replace J.B. Van Hollen as Wisconsin’s Attorney General.

Ozanne and I started out our conversation with the one question every candidate for office gets asked – why he decided to run for Attorney General. Ozanne explained that his decision to run came after he was approached by others who were excited about what he could bring to the race, and as he explored the possibility of a run the response he received was positive. He added that his family taught him about the values of public service, and as a result public service is deeply ingrained in who he is. Ozanne noted he spent 13 years as a prosecutor along with 2 years in the Department of Corrections as Executive Assistant and then Deputy Secretary, experiences which he believes uniquely qualify him for Attorney General.

“As a District Attorney, I’ve worked to be tough but smart on crime,” Ozanne told me, adding that protecting the community has always been a priority for him as a prosecutor and then as District Attorney. Explaining his “tough but smart” approach to crime, Ozanne said, “If you just incarcerate people without trying to affect positive change, you’re just creating more victims.” Ozanne cited both the work he’s done in Dane County to create diversion programs and his experience with reentry programs in the Department of Corrections as examples of his approach to crime.

Citing his experience working in the Department of Corrections, Ozanne made it clear he believes his experience handling day to day operations within the Department of Correections – the largest state agency – as well as his experience dealing with the budget of that agency as experience that sets him apart from his opponents in the race.

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We have got to pull together to elect Ozanne!!!

December 19, 2013

Toe Fossil Provides Complete Neanderthal Genome

Source: The New York Times (Science)

Scientists have extracted the entire genome of a 130,000-year-old Neanderthal from a single toe bone in a Siberian cave, an accomplishment that far outstrips any previous work on Neanderthal genes.

The accuracy of the new genome is of similar quality to what scientists would achieve if they were sequencing the DNA of a living person.

“It’s an amazing technical accomplishment,” said Sarah A. Tishkoff, an expert on human evolution at the University of Pennsylvania, who was not involved in the research. “Twenty years ago, I would have thought this would never be possible.”

The new Neanderthal genome, which is described in the current issue of Nature, is part of an extraordinary flurry of advances in studying ancient human DNA. Earlier this month, for example, scientists reconstructed a small segment of genes from a 400,000-year-old fossil in Spain, setting a record for the oldest human DNA ever found.

Read more: Linhttp://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/19/science/toe-fossil-provides-complete-neanderthal-genome.html?smid=fb-nytimes&WT.z_sma=SC_TFP_20131219&bicmp=AD&bicmlukp=WT.mc_id&bicmst=1385874000000&bicmet=1388638800000&fblinkge0&_r=1&k to source

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This is so cool!!

December 19, 2013

The Budget Deal: An Okay End to a Very Bad Year for Medical Research

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/12/the-budget-deal-an-okay-end-to-a-very-bad-year-for-medical-research/282489/

Congress's spending bill offers some relief to the National Institutes of Health, but Francis Collins says lawmakers are still scrimping on essential science.

Two-thousand thirteen will go down as one of the least predictable—and most political—years in history for American medical research.

In the spring, sequestration—across-the-board budget cuts—wiped out more than 5 percent of fiscal-year 2013 budgets of government agencies that fund research and development, with the promise of more cuts over the next decade. The 16-day government shutdown in October wreaked further havoc, as scientists were told to put their work on hold while Congress got its act together. Now, nearing the end of a roller-coaster year, legislators are providing some relief (albeit with a side of whiplash) by swiftly passing a budget deal that heads off another shutdown and reverses many of the impending mandatory budget cuts.

At the National Institutes of Health, the largest provider of federal research money to universities and labs across the country, Director Francis Collins says it has been his most challenging year since taking the post in 2009, describing it as a “paradox.”

“In terms of scientific progress, 2013 has outstripped my expectations,” Collins said. “But in terms of a continued downward spiral of support it has been much worse than I thought it would be at the beginning of the year.”

Given that the NIH’s mission—fighting human disease and prolonging life—not only engenders widespread bipartisan support but also is widely viewed as a major economic engine and job creator, one might expect it to be shielded from appropriators’ red pen. Yet the government closure was the latest blow for NIH, which lost $1.71 billion during sequestration and has seen a 25 percent reduction in overall funding since 2003.