Quote of the day 05-10-2010

Raising progressive taxes is a better move than budget cuts. It gets money moving through the economy again, jump-starting the economic recovery that is the principal engine of state fiscal health.

via CSMonitor.com.

Wow

Statistic of the day

Very few, but some atheists 5% and agnostics 9% say they pray daily.

via Daily Number: National Day of Prayer – Pew Research Center.

I’m not sure to whom they pray, but I’ll take it. The poll was not specific so it could mean anything, I guess.

New page added

Note that I’ve added a page called “2010 elections” I’ve tried to include all the candidates for statewide offices as well as congressional races. I realize the information may become out-of-date rather quickly (Like this for example). If you have information that would update this page, please leave a comment. Thanks.

I am working on Wisconsin Assembly and Senate races that touch Waukesha County. Any information there would be appreciated also.

I also removed the page that had links to my Community Columnist pieces from a few years back. Just about all of the links were non-existent so there was no point leaving it up. I may scan the hard copies I have later.

Waukesha water woes?

So, did Waukesha get a glimpse of things to come? In a flurry of activity recently, we saw:

1. The Milwaukee County Board voted 13-3 on April 22 to oppose the Waukesha’s water plan.

Ostensibly the vote was to protect the county’s streams from pollution and erosion, but the comments from board members seems to indicate a different motivation, the kind you normally see from children.

“You have been sidestepped on this process,” said one. “We’ve been treated purely as an afterthought,” said another.

“They do not care about the concerns of Milwaukee County,” replied another.

“Why should I trust them?”

“They get the water and we get – I don’t want to say it – we get everything else,” intoned another.

Mature.

Waukesha’s water utility manager, Dan Duchniak disagreed with the assessment, claiming that the water Waukesha puts into the creeks will be cleaner than the water flowing there now.

To be fair, the County Board is excluded from the process of approving or disapproving Waukesha’s request. The DNR and the Great Lakes states are the ones who will sign off on the request.

Racine’s representative Cory Mason is on record opposing dumping of Waukesha waste water in the Root River. (A tip of the conservative ball cap to James Rowen who recently posted on how new phosphorus rules could add to any plan’s costs.

2. Milwaukee aldermen and Waukesha’s new mayor, Jeff Scrima, traded letters about requirements for receiving Milwaukee water.

Scrima contended during the recent campaign that if Waukesha didn’t keep its options open it would lose some of its sovereignty to Milwaukee. He alleged that somehow, Milwaukee will use Waukesha’s needs for water to advance some dastardly purpose.

The water saga continues and will stretch well into the foreseeable future.

If you’ve been living in a cave the last few years, Waukesha needs water because of elevated levels of radium. Lake Michigan seems to have a lot of water and Waukesha would like to get some, but the Great Lakes Compact requires returning the water to Lake Michigan.

Waukesha’s plan, sent to the DNR earlier this month, is to return the water to Underwood Creek where it would flow to the Menomonee River and back to Lake Michigan.

Waukesha is somewhat under the gun, facing a 2018 deadline for cleaning up there water.

People talk regional cooperation but the playing out is a little more difficult. The suburbs think Milwaukee wants their tax dollars. Milwaukee thinks the suburbs are using their infrastructure without paying for it.

Obviously, more work needs to be done. Like maybe growing up and behaving like adults.

3. Two neighboring local governments have expressed concern about the city’s plan to drill shallow wells as a backup measure. The major concern here seems to be the potential for privately owned wells going dry as Waukesha sucks water from the planned area.

The road is long, the opposition varied and the clock is ticking.

And if both options go down in flames, what’s left?

There’s a lesson for communities everywhere—don’t outgrow your water supply.

Yeah, like they will pay attention.

Thirty years?

Seemed longer than that…

30 years after the Kent State shootings, the impact in Madison is remembered.

Hearing of the shootings hundreds of miles away, UW-Madison students responded with rallies calling for an end to the Vietnam War. For days in early May 1970, they torched buildings, broke windows and threw rocks at police. Police used tear gas liberally and the governor called for the National Guard to occupy campus.

You knew it, too, right.

No doubt this will be changed soon.

[UPDATE: Yep, they did! Heh. Here's the tweet that referred to the original headline.]

Book review – In Harm’s Way

In Harm’s Way (full name: In Harm’s Way: The Sinking of the U.S.S. Indianapolis and the Extraordinary Story of Its Survivors) is Doug Stanton’s telling of the last voyage of the USS Indianapolis and the aftermath of the torpedo hit she took.

Beginning with the suicide of the unjustly condemned captain, the book takes us back to that final voyage; the loading of the atomic bomb and it’s delivery, the return voyage, the torpedoing and sinking, and the stories of the survivors.

It was the stories of the survivors that took up the bulk of the book and was the most riveting.

Of the nearly 1200 men that set sail on the Indianapolis, only 317 survived. Two hundred alone were lost to shark attacks that came at morning and evening. The suffering from the sun, the water and their wounds are unimaginable.

Captain McVay received a court-martial because of the incident. He later committed suicide. His men fought for his conviction to be overturned and, although the Navy exonerated him, his record has not yet been expunged [Ed. Note--As noted by Captain Toti in the comments, this last statement was incorrect. In the "Afterword 2001" Mr. Stanton notes that on July 13, 2001 the court martial was removed from Captain McVay's record. My apologies for this oversight and my thanks to Mr. Toti for pointing it out.]