Ignorance+Authority=Barbarianism

What the H.

Here we are in a fossil fuel crisis, we have the government scrambling to find non-market ways to lower gasoline prices for the medicine burners and all along there is a powerful movement working very hard to lower demand, which reduces the price of gas with market based means. So, what do the donut eaters do? What else, round them up and bust em, don't want anyone getting in any shape other than that of a torus.

Critical Mass is not a bike racing outfit. It is not a mountain biking outfit (absolutely none of which have licences on their bikes so if they hit your kid in the woods you can never track them down). It is an organization with the purpose of helping people learn that there are forms of transportation other than the automatic ones. Most of these people are the folks you gotta admire, riding their bikes to work, to school and to shop on a routine basis, including in Wisconsin winters, instead of on that sunny day lark like the rest of us.

According to the donut shop educated class of society, bikes are okay for helter skelter family outings swerving all over the public roadways and sidewalks, or those high speed jersey wearing bolts of lightning that come outta no where to cut off your right turn. But to use a bicycle for an actual purpose, as if it were a real mode of transportation is way over the top.

Add this police violence to the pile accumulating in the Jude + corner, its attributable to the same absence of mental function. Why does a social institution with that much authority NOT require a college degree? If police are required to make decisions, shouldn't they first have the same quality of tools that other decision makers have, first? Its almost as if the only purpose of a mayor is to act as an apologist for the foolishness of his law enforcement arm... Sounds like another charity for AL's run rather than an institution that should be respected by a free society.

Bicyclists are perhaps the number one reducer of demand at the gas pump, and all the SUV drivers can do is run them over and have them arrested? What, does it undermine the authenticity of your Veblenesque predatory temperament, what with the 'conspicuous waste' thing so that if the price of gas becomes reasonable it somehow diminishes your social status? How's that 'Front Gate' outdoor grill workin for ya?

Does it take a rocket scientist to comprehend the irony of the police statement "We don' want people getting hurt". Their complaint is that somehow, bicycles, those people powered two wheeled frame only things weighing maybe 20 pounds that travel down the sides of roads because its against the law for them to ride on sidewalks, are a hazard to automobiles, those four or so wheeled things with air bags, bumpers, doors, roofs, floors and oversized engines (not to mention heat and air) weighing in over a ton and often over three tons.

On a similar tack-

I am old enough to remember when the right turn on red was illegal under all circumstances. At a stoplight you stopped. Done. It took a lot of persuasion to allow us to turn right on red and the justification of it came with a potent caveat, that pedestrians and on coming traffic retained the absolute right of way.

Well as time goes by, societies tend to forget the reasons why we do things and the circumstances surrounding them. That virtually no one in the U.S. knows what a republic is is proof of that (Democracy is inherently flawed, the Republic corrects that flaw). The current generation has no clue about the right on red thing and assumes it to be a right and not a priveledge. The corners of Locust and Humboldt and Locust and Oakland are clear examples of the mindlessness of civil (?) societies. Just try to cross either of those intersections with the pedestrian light - that blinkin little white guy - without first bribing the right turning SUV drivers with a $20.

It is clear that the only way to get people to understand the situation, is to outlaw the right on red thing for a year or two out of every ten. If we don't, and the torus people don't enforce pedestrian safety laws, we will all become prisoners of the automobility. I mean, for instance, that parked cars don't hurt anyone, moving ones do. If the police can drive down the streets of Milwaukee passing out parking tickets everynight, but can't find it in their constitutions to pass out tickets for right on red violations, then they should all be sent home. They do neither us nor the principles of liberty any service.

peace

On the Lighter Side

Have been getting some good pictures of birds from my Wife. Here is a Bluebird, seen in Estabrook Park Just North of the main parkinglot along the trail by the Soccer field.
http://www.geocities.com/cebogatur/IMGA0458.JPG
http://www.geocities.com/cebogatur/IMGA0457.JPG

And how about this Common Loon in winter plumage:
http://www.geocities.com/cebogatur/IMGA0471.JPG
http://www.geocities.com/cebogatur/IMGA0476.JPG
http://www.geocities.com/cebogatur/IMGA0480.JPG

The Loon shots were taken facing into an icy wind from the lakefront.

Peace

Peer jury

Problems with juries are numerous. First, we are a nation fed a steady diet of media dictate. We are conditioned to listen, but not to formulate our own thoughts. We hear and see steady streams of plausibility on a daily basis. One couldn't conceive a better means of thought conditioning.

That we are fed these steady streams weakens our capacity to fill in the blanks on our own, say as compared to if we needed to rely on our imagination more often - at least on issues that required thought. In a Jury, that is in fact what we are required to do, fill in the blanks. That's what the judge orders us to do, it is our duty, but we almost all suck at it. A jury of peers is supposed to take primarily circumstantial evidence and make a judgemental determination as to its likelihood of being true. But only a few individuals in our society can do that without the help of bigot radio.

Jury trials are almost always the result of weak evidence, as many criminals are careful not to leave much. The juror is required to infer guilt or innocence. This means that gut feeling is paramount on the list of evidence for a juror. When a juror claims insufficient evidence, it is lying, as it is the jury's responsibility to supply the missing evidence based on their life experience.

Often times, the jury never even gets to see all the evidence, as much of it is bargained away between the judge and the lawyers well before the trial. In addition, the judge dictates the scope of the jury's decisions, although only with regard to points of law, still there is a substantial margin for subjective influence. The members of the jury have no say in any of this, yet the jury has to make the decision. How does that make sense? How can being deprived of evidence and breadth of scope result in an optimal decision?

That is what has been bugging me though. I keep wondering what the real rules are for a juror? What rights does a juror have? Does a jury have to base its decision on strict facts or can a minority juror, frustrated with arguing with cartoon characters, simply refuse to change their vote, without giving a reason? Can a juror hire an attorney? If the judge says no to something, what does the law say? What happens with a hung jury, is that a mistrial? Can one juror hang a jury without giving a reason and still be respected by the court?

So many questions that our education system, the point of which is to teach us all how to be citizens, has failed to provide us with the answers to. Once we're old, even if we may have learned some of these things in school, how can be keep them fresh in our minds when only fools trust the media? And for good reason.

We all know that when there are gaps in the evidence, it automatically opens up an opportunity to oppress minorities. Though in a republic, there should be no such entity as a minority, or a majority. Individuals should all be respected equally. Only in a democracy does history show us minorities and majorities, which is why our constitution guaranteed every state the right to a republican form of government and not a democratic form of government.

Perhaps juries should be divided three ways, with a minimum of a third of the jurors educated beyond highschool. and another third represented by a government official of some sort. Coupled with checks and balances to keep each other in line. If the Jury represents the democratic third of the justice process, it requires more checks and balances over the judges and lawyers.

Peace,
Lou

Easter Sunday

Happy Easter!

Easter is a holiday that symbolizes new life rising from the dead. Let's all hope that the pall hanging over our city this Easter is the beginning of a new phase of life for our city. Justice is not an issue isolated by race or religion. When injustice occurs, everyone is offended by it. It is time for us to take a serious look at many of the things we have been taking for granted over the past few years that have contributed to the increase in injustice rather than its abatement.

For starters, the CRG, which may have had a point on one issue (the retirement scandal thing) is not, and should not be an institution of government and must be neutralized. It stands in the way of the normal democratic functioning of government, and biases the composition of our legally established political bodies. Campaign money is difficult to raise, and the process of recall elections forces this money to be raised twice. This biases the government in favor of the wealthy and away from the majority of its constituents.

Simply look back at early Rome to see an example. The Roman Senate was comprised of the nobility (wealthy class) by birth and no plebians could ever hold office. After the army walking out of town with the claim that it made no difference if their enemies took over, since they would probably get a better shake under foreign rule than under their current rule, the people won a balancing power for government, the Tribunes (composed only of the plebian class), with the power to try members of the senate. Eventually, the people won the right for plebians to hold actual authoritative positions, but they almost never voted for one of their own, opting instead for individuals of the patrician class, simply out of habit and social conditioning.

The exclusionary aristocratical form of government is what Executive Walker is after when he first tried to eliminate the salaries for government officials, so that everyone in county government would be of the independently wealthy class. Leaving, of course, No one to represent the common working class. The persecution of Supervisor Holloway, with mountains of illigitimate charges for him to expend his financial potential to fight, is part of the strategy, since Supervisor Holloway is the lead representative of minority and working class people. If Supervisor Holloway can't survive in county government, justice for the majority of us is over at that level, since without a balance, in the form of a voice of the people, in government, there is no opposition and there is no need to base arguments for legislation on sound reasoning.

This is what our founding father John Adams warned us about; imbalanced government, and wrote three volumes showing why it was important that all power does not collect into the hands of one class of society. The solution of that problem he showed, is to divide the power of government into three branches, one to represent the government, or monarchical powers, one to represent the capitalist class or aristocratical powers and one to represent the people or democratic class. This is what a republican form of government is.

Our county government is comprised of only two branches, an elected assembly, which can be either aristocratical or democratic. If aristocratical, it becomes identical to the ancient Roman senate. The primary concern for us, is how the members of this branch are chosen. If we are limited in any way to only the aristocratical types, we are in trouble. If democratical, it can be balanced only if closely watched. What is needed at the county level is an independent democratical branch, which the ethics comittee could be if all members were elected instead of appointed. As it stands, the ethics board is a tool the executive branch can hold over the members of the Board of Supervisors, effectively collecting all power in one center and hastening tyranny (that abandonment of reason thing).

The only way the ethics board can be a functional part of a republic in any sense is if the members are appointed by the executive and the funding of cases is closely controlled by the Board of Supervisors, meaning that they MUST exercise their right to refuse funding on a regular basis. If there is a case against one of the Supervisors, then there is an ethics issue with regard to the ethics board, in which case the ethics board must be monitored by an independent body, say the State or Federal Government, since we are guaranteed a Republican form of government by the U.S. Constitution at those two levels. Perhaps, all Wisconsin County Ethics Boards should be combined into one State Ethics Board, to keep local power in check.

I believe the case against Supervisor Holloway should be postponed until some sort of oversight is in place, or justice can not be served, either in principal as shown above, or in practice as our local (and recent) history shows. So, a reform of the Ethics process or the restructuring of county government needs to occur.

Next, we need a riparian zoning classification that forbids all commercial forms of development in areas that are necessary for the continued existence of insectivorous migratory birds along our river corridors.

It is also time for an end to the growing culture of corruption in government and in industry. Our education system has failed everyone, not just the urban poor. The principals upon which all modern practices are based have been lost and are not taught. Instead, most learning is by rote, passing only the letter of the practices and not the intent from generation to generation. We need a revival of philosophy - the study of reason in our world. Religion from the perspective either from the bottom up or the top down is the authority of reason. God in any religion, is the source of the contrasts that establish real objects in the universe and also the force that holds the principals governing them all constant. In any circumstance, god is necessary as the authority upon which to justify reason and justice over tyranny and arbitrary whim. We have the capacity for reason to use it, and when we fail to do so we fail reason and we fail god.

Liberty, for instance, is the perpetual right to question conventional dogma and have one's claims formally considered. It is guaranteed to society by the principal in legislative government whereby no laws will be passed that do not directly and reasonably protect persons or property from harm or loss.

today, a flock of 90 cormorants flew up the lakeshore in V formation and a flock of 5 vultures were seen circling over the Milwaukee river...

peace,
Lou

The Best is Yet to Come

Well, I got yelled at by the County Supervisors. I stand corrected, they are all individual thinkers and are all objective.

Now the real issue remains, what the heck is the Ethics board doing with all the money? The ethics process starts when someone makes a complaint. The complaint is reviewed and a decision made to take on the issue. The ethics board gets the issue and reviews the evidence. If there is sufficient evidence of improper conduct, the issue is passed on the the judicial system. This cost us $150,000 already, for about two hours of actual work, since the evidence is all available on a single website.

In the Mr Lee Holloway case, there is plenty of evidence available, since the DA's office did a thorough investigation of the OIC situation, which is why Mr Gary George is behind bars. Perhaps if the original investigation was inadequate, then those convicted in the original OIC case are possibly innocent... hmm (50/50?). Anyway, the volumes of evidence available wasn't sufficient to find anything wrong with Mr Holloway and that is what the CRG (Citizens for Ruining Government) demands that they do. So, what does the ethics board do? They ask for $150,000 more of our tax payer dollars from out of the Parks budget to hire their own private investigator. Personally, I wouldn't believe a word he says.

So, let's see. First, the statute of limitations set by county law is 3 years for ethics violations. So far, the Ethics board (can't obey the law) has asked for information on Mr Holloway going back 13 years, which is why 60 creative counts had to be purged from their witch hunt... there's probably more. Many of their charges date from before Mr Holloway was even a County Supervisor... yet, persecution can't possibly be an issue.

The Board finally voted to give the Un-Ethics Board $75,000 to continue their bankrupting of Mr Holloway. Most of the argument was veiled or naive complicity in persecution, since the claims by the board members were that they wanted Mr Holloway to be cleared, as it would be a poor example of justice to simply unfund the investigation. However, what about Mr Holloway's side? The entire power of the county budget is aligned against him while he has to fend off a witch hunt with his own money? If he goes bankrupt battling these persecutorial charges, where will his $150,000 for hiring a personal investigator come from? Being innocent, the right of every American, despite what the Milwaukee Jerbil Sitstill inculcatorily insinuates, how is justice served if the county blasphemes Mr Holloway's case by sheer number of creative charges?

And that brings up the other issue (just call me Roger) I was on a couple of Juries, and I know what it is like to be outnumbered 11 to 1. It sucks. You know the case is stacked, by the judge, by the lawyers playing to the all white prejudices, by the pretrial evidence admitting (and still there's not enough in Lee's case, makes one wonder who's pocketing the money on the Ethics Board...). The one read juror is stuck arguing against every single one of the other 11 cartoon educated jurors, who are ardently perusing the evidence in between cycles where it's their turn to toss fallacies at the holdout. Every round strengthing their pretences with fragments gleaned from the box the holdout does not have actual access too. This is justice? All white juries should be admitted as sufficient evidence for a mis-trial. Should be made a constitutional amendment instead of some stupid crap forbidding people to get married based on hollow dogma that isn't even in the Ten Commandments... Happy Easter!

Meanwhile, Walker is still working to oppress minorities and the poor, like a good suburbanite, and Mr Holloway, the one working to rob the news media of sanguine subject matter, is still being persecuted for defending those Walker enjoys oppressing. The real issue remains hidden behind the veil cast by the term "Ethics" despite the fact that any meaning such a word had at one time was lost in the same blow on the head the United States of Amnesia took when it lost the meaning of the word "Liberty".

Peace.

Tough Luck

Well, it's been a couple of days, 'scuse me. Thursday, was the actual day of the meeting for the Milwaukee River issue, so I made it there. That was fun. The room was filled to capacity and the only true aristocracy manned the door, holding it open so folks inside wern't too blastin hot. The guests speakers from UWM, otherwise known as the foot in the door bait, talked up a storm. They not only promised to take over state government, but it sounded almost seditious enough like they were planning to take over the federal government too. The promises they made to us were completely outlandish. They did insist that our neighborhoods were crime ridden and that they would put a stop to it. Probably bust our kids writing on the sidewalks with that big chaulk.

At the end, the Aristocrat, mentioned above, forced a vote on the issue, the real hero of the evening! Everyone voted against putting the road through to Meineke except for one and a half people. [this Lakefront Organic ESB is really good with Oreo cookies]. So the deal is over according to Alderman D'Amato. So what are the consequences of this?

First and most important, will be to watch and see if the vote holds. There were only two non-white heads in a room of about 150 people in an area that's probably about 50% not-white. The last time we had a vote, it was for a basketball court in Gordon park - a mostly Black issue. There is no basketball court in the now long finished Gordon park. So much for the democratic class's authority. This meeting was a mostly white issue, even if the minority population at U.W.M is higher than at U.W.M.

The real consequence is that a hugh piece of the property along the river was supposed to be donated to the county to connect to Gordon park and make the migratory corridor more permanent in exchange for the 5 acre parcel north of North where the plans are for the 500 student dorm and two condo-plexes. Now assuming that when Scott Walker gets his hands on a piece of undeveloped property he doesn't immediately think of selling it to condo developers, the decision not to go through with this project was a bad choice. On the other hand, the entire property, the donated piece and the project piece is zoned for mixed industrial, which means it can have appartments, condos, factories and a bunch of other stuff done to it. So, both the U.W. guests and the exchange thingy were bait to accept the demolition of the migratory bird corridor so that the condo developers could continue to devalue their own property.

IIIFFFF... The city council were to somehow find the power, that they alone have, to invent a zoning category for the river (Milwaukee does not mean beer, that was just a beer slogan, it means "meeting place of the waters" in Ojibwe, yet the city can't seem to find the sense to invent a riparian zone category), they could zone all the river valleys and sufficient green space as is required by migratory birds, which extends past what the DNR classifies as riparian wetland, as such. In which case they would hold the upper hand in the deal, leaving open the possibility of the fool condo developers to do one last river wrecking project before the housing market collapses. The trick would be to get the city forestry department to plant a coniferous screen around the perimeter of the project.

Why? because, the main issue with migratory birds is motion. When something in the woods moves independently of the wind, they all freeze. If they can't see it, it doesn't bother them, although they do have a minimum area, below which they won't visit at all (the DNR never figured that out in their classification scheme either). Conifers also provide shelter and often a food source, so they tend to improve the general quality of an area for migratory birds, which would make up for the loss of space due to the construction thingy. If such an integrated situation were possible, without the road through the close knit neighborhood with all the kids riding bikes for the drunken college students to run over, the project could be done. But the cold, calculating ostensibly observing contractors have their own ideas and once they have the go-ahead, will do whatever they want (ever wonder how someone could bulldoze a meadow teeming with living things?). If a back door is required by the zoning code, they will build without it and bring the law in at the end and put the road through no matter what anyone promises at the beginning. How many times have we seen this happen in the past ten years?

Tough luck.

Power Lies

Threre is another serious flaw, and absolute proof that the campaign against Mr Lee Holloway is pure racism, and that is the number 165,000. What's in a number you ask? Well, first that number represents a total, but looks a whole lot like a price. The average price of a rental duplex in fact. Being such a seductive number, it is easy to pass it off as a cost instead of as a total, though in the back of anyone's mind, except for bigots who don't have consciences, we keep asking ourselves, what sort of institutional building would have that low of a price? The question remains pushed to the back as the county despot and his minions keep attacking the consequences of the assumed answer rather than allowing us to find the answer to the important question first, which would have entirely different consequences.

The answer is that this money, the $165,000 is the sum of rent collected by Mr. Holloway on his building, which was being rented by the OIC prior to their failed attempt to purchase it outright, a deal that may finally be in the process of going through. The sum represents rent collected over approximately two years. Funny that the plebian media throats and keys keep trying to pass this number off as some sort of up front payment for the building that Mr Holloway kept illicitly or something. That is not the case at all, but that is what is implied by the entire "ethics" case against Mr. Holloway, and the minority oppressing regime trying to persecute Mr Holloway is the only source championing this view. This is as irresponsible as any authority can be - backing a pure illusion.

If the media peasants really believe that collecting rent is tantamount to collecting payment for not rendering any service, they do not belong in the United States. We are a Capitalist society, which means that we all have the individual right to profit from the ownership of property. The condition of the property is regulated by law, but the fact of collecting rent on it is entirely market driven and 100% legitimate.

Isn't it even the slightest bit suspicious that everytime a Black Landlord makes the media, his right to be a capitalist is immediately suspect? Is it any wonder that the customs of property ownership come harder for a Black Person than for a White? Who does a Black Landlord go to with questions, technical specifications, problems and even for the basic culture that supports property OWNERSHIP? Most Black folk rent and not own.

And now, even when a Black man owns property and collects rent on it he is condemned for it by a zealot county executive who sees it as an "ethics" problem.

Milwaukee is at or near the bottom of the stack on almost every Black-White issue, the race card is valid here 99.993% of the time.

I forgive Mr E. Kane for getting the rent number wrong, he's got a job to keep.

Holld On

I couldn't be everywhere today, so I am missing the public meeting on the demolition of nature in the Milwaukee River valley to continue with the reality of the Lee Holloway case. Ironically the public meeting system that was held to discuss the construction of the meeting place in Gordon Park also voted to put in a basketball court there, where are we, within a mile of U.W.M, basketball central? No court went in, so what's the point of wasting my time when I can be doing something constructive. I really don't know how they can build dorms on top of a Deep Tunnel opening anyway. I saw my first mosquito already in February, they'll put a stop to that wrong headed idea this year.

Mr Holloway has been under attack for the past year, which is a crime for any elected public official to have to put up with, since it is essentially the forced silencing of a fraction of a constitutionally free society. For an ethics board, with members appointed by the executive to attack any member of the county supervisors is a short circuiting of the republican nature of government. Does our county have a constitution? I wonder what the checks and balances are?

The real issue is that a hard core faction of all white county supervisors are the ones really behind the trouble. They launched a no-holds-barred attack to remove Mr Holloway from office. Some of this gang have already made insulting, irresponsible and false comments about him. They have even called for a meeting that was clearly illegal in a futile attempt to oust him.

These Supervisors have been aided and abeted in their efforts by County Executive Walker, the group calling themselves "Citizens for Responsible Government", and by the editorial board of the Jurinal Sespool. The racism becomes obvious when one realizes that the first Black Chairperson of the County Board is being opposed by a nearly 100% white constituency.

Mr. Lee Holloway has been a popular and respected politician ever since he ran for mayor in 1988 and was elected as Supervisor for the 5th district in 1990. Over the years he has had the good-will of the vast majority of the voters in his district, as well as the respect of his fellow Supervisors. In 2002, he was elected as Chairperson by a vote of 15 to 10, largely because a majority of the Supervisors were convinced by his outstanding record as a person of integrity who could get along with people of all races and political persuasions.

Since that time there have been many changes of personel on the Board. This happened primarily due to the many 'recall' elections (which are inevitably biased against poorer districts), sponsored by the "Citizens for Responsible Government" (C.R.G.), who even organized a recall against Mr. Holloway and worked actively for his opponent. What part of political responsibility is being actively antidemocratic? Leave our elected officials alone! Mr. Holloway was one of the few candidates to hold up against this brand of factionalist tyranny, and he won handily.

After this defeat, County Executive Walker had the audacity to appoint one of the CRG organizers to the Ethics Board, which was drawing up charges against Holloway.

The only thing that most people have heard about the situation is that an Ethics Board has drawn up these charges against Mr. Holloway which contemd that he did not report property he owned to the County Board, and that he was involved in a sale of property to the OIC, which was not properly reported.

The charge against not reporting property would be laughable if it wasn't being pretended to be serious so authoritatively. Most of the 'omissions in the reporting' occured many years ago and have no current bearing under any law, many of these have been dropped, the 60 or so charges mentioned in the paper today. Mr. Holloway has been fighting to have these phoney charges dismissed (with his own money) but his opponents persist -even though another member of the Board made the same error and no action whatever was taken.

The matter of the sale of the property to the OIC, unfortunately occured exactly when that organization was being overwhelmed with its own internal affairs, and it was them who never properly consummated the transaction that was being arranged between Mr. Holloway and the OIC. Funny how the Jurinal Sespool never seems to put it in that order and seems to omit so much information. These matters were thoroughly investigated at the time by the D.A.s office, and there were never any criminal charges ever mentioned with regard to Mr. Holloway's 'sale' of property.

The additional charge that Mr Holloway's votes with regard to the OIC may constitute a 'conflict of interest' is also without substance as all these votes had an overwhelming majority.

The real reason behind the relentless and unwarranted attacks on the chairman have little to do with the rather minor charges being made by the 'stacked' Ethics Board, they have to do with something usually unspoken and underhanded and far more serious. It has to do with the basic policy which Mr. Holloway and his supporters on the Board have pursued during the past year with reference to the County Budget.

Ever since he was elected as County Executive, Walker was running for Governor under the slogan of "Zero tax increases". The problem that became more apparent to the Chairman and his supporters was that the 'budget cuts' advocated by Walker were for the most part falling on the shoulders of the poor, the elderly and the ill. In almost every case, those with the least political clout - the minorities in other words, which real Republics are designed to protect.

As a result, under Holloway's leadership, his supporters opposed a healthy number of Walker's budget cuts, although with a slim and hard won majority on only some issues. This was enough, however, to raise the ire of the ambitious and egotistical County Executive and a number of his all-white plebian Supervisors on the Board.

This upset the C.R.G. who's palliative name masqurades as an objective voice but is really composed of factional extremists. They supported Walkers 'Zero tax increases' policy one hundred percent, how objective is that? Once Mr. Holloway started to gain support against these extremist measures, the CRG started their campaign of harassment and insults against him.

Much of our tax money has been spent by the County in their pursuit of 'Zero tax increases' a policy founded entirely upon the mechanics of further oppressing the poor and underserved minorities. The preponderance of the expense has been focused on silencing the strongest voices of our minority segments. Their use of flimsy ethical charges, can barely even work on a stacked Ethics Board and is an entire waste of tax payer money, while Mr Holloway has been defending himself entirely with his own private funds. He is right to seek for "due process under the law", him and his family deserve that since it is not a priviledge, it is a right.

During his tenure on the Board of Supervisors, Mr Holloway has fought long and hard to maintain and enlarge programs that serve the most needy and afflicted members of our community. We need more politicians like him, not fewer.

Bar Bare Runs

What is it with U.W. Milwaukee and the Milwaukee River? First they chew up a 30 acre wetland north of Capital drive, paving over some serious songbird habitat to put up a parkinglot. The year previous to that we actually sighted the most endangered songbird in the United States there, only because they are endangered we couldn't tell anyone we saw them there- what the H? My wife and I both saw about a dozen Kirtlands Warblers flitting about filling up on bugs (mosquitos and gnats). We happened to have two different bird guides so we checked over and over to make sure they wern't Canada warblers or something similar, and sure enough they were Kirtlands. That same year an amazing discovery was made in the Michigan Upper Penninsula, a flock of about 16 nesting Kirtland's Warblers. What was so important about this discovery was that it was the first time this species had ever been known to nest anywhere other than the 60 mile area in Northern Michigan that had Jack Pines. Well, guess what the following year the new nesting site was down to two nesting pairs and now it is gone - go figure. It couldn't have been U.W. Milwaukee's stupid lying parking lot oh no they are above reality.

Lying? oh yea, I used to run a little bit and I ran the loop that goes through Estabrook park across on Port Washington Road and down along past the tower park and the old U. W. M parking lot, all within 75 feet of the river, which Federal law allows everyone access to pass through. Anyway, I see a lot of 55 gallon drums in my work, so when a drum farm appears, I notice it, I even notice the condition of the drums. Well, such a drum farm appeared, with relatively new, perhaps used once, apparently empty drums, stored in a bran new fenced in area behind one of the towers. I wondered what a broadcast tower would use such a variety of drums for, since they were all different, but thought nothing of it. Well after the drums had sat out in the weather for several months, perhaps a year, they got to rusting and looking pretty shabby... whatever. Then, one day, the drums disappeared from the fenced in area and were scattered about and partially buried in the river bank. The same exact drums with the same exact markings. What?

Well, spring showed up and the Yellow warbler returned to its nest on the south side of the gully that used to separate the towers from the parking lot. On a tangent, earlier that Winter, a Bald Eagle had actually stopped in town and sat in a tree overlooking the parking lot, that was cool, and a couple of Milwaukee police detectives saw it too, since they stopped to see if I was okay after driving really erratic after I saw the eagle from the Capital Drive and Humboldt intersection. I also got a couple of nice pics of Hooded Mergansers on the River where the bluff used to be. I had to crawl on my belly in muddy snow to get the shot, since they are super skittish when on the river as compared to when they are on the lake.

Anyway, sometime in May or June, the Yellow Warbler tree was cut down, I was really sad about that and wondered what sort of barbarian vandal would do such a thing. After that, about July 1st, I found a bunch of toad tadpoles in part of the wetland area. I brought my 5 year old daughter there the next day, July 2nd to find the entire wetland and parkinglot solid ground up mud. Many of the trees were cut down and simply by my skill at orienting myself, was I able to find the spot were the tadpoles were. They were still alive and living in a bulldozer track. My little girl and I braved the swarms of mosquitoes, and collected about 600 of the little critters and stuffed them in an empty fish tank. Her and her friend spent the next month catching them as them metamorphosized into toads, and collecting them in containers which we then released all over this part of the city, wherever there was sufficient habitat. Toads, you know will drown once they metamorphosize, which is why they prefer shallow ponds. One we kept as a pet, it lasted 6 years. In passing, we also saw a pair of Hooded Warblers on that site, a Bluebird nest and there used to be Tree Sparrows wintering there every year.

I followed up a little, after the 4th of July weekend, throughout which the workers kept up their devastation. Obviously so no one could complain to the authorities. Did I mention U.W. Milwaukee was behind all this? The barrels were used as an excuse, the DNR claimed they had floated up from the dump which had been there and they used that as proof that the dump was leaking into the river. I talked to Frank Zeidler, who was mayor when the dump was operating, and he verified that the barrels were bull poop, since everything in that dump had been melted into glass, so there was no way anything would ever leak. My dad used to swim in the Blue Hole, which was turned into the dump after a few kids drowned.

Well, guess what, Bubble Gum (U. W. M.) now wants to destroy more migratory bird habitat. 30 acres of wetland along the migratory bird corridor isn't enough. Now they are after the Black Throated Blue warblers, the Blackburnian warblers, the Wilsons Warblers, the Common Yellowthroats, Magnolias, Yellow Rumped and Black and Whites. Not to mention the Scarlet Tanagers. Their target, the space just north of North avenue.

What I have noticed over many years of birding is that most migratory birds require a wooded area above a minimum size. If it is too small, they pass it over and if they pass over too many, they do not make it to their nesting grounds and die. So, F'in what. Well, the Wisconsin forestry industry, if you include tourism is a multibillion dollar a year industry, and what keeps the trees free of insect pests? Wood warblers is the answer, which is what all the above mentioned warblers are, except the Scarlet Tanagers, and they eat bugs too. Oh, yea and the Milwaukee river has water in it, do any of you children know what grows in water and is a serious nuisance and health threat? Does anyone know what eats the majority of them every spring?

So, what kind of complete idiots run that school?

Big Bigger Bigotry

In a republic, one thing, history has taught a few of us, is that the executive branch must never gain power over the legislative branch - nor the capacity for harassment. In the United States, the sovereign power (the combined power of the people) is guaranteed by our Constitution to be held by a Republic, both at the National and State levels. A Republic, for everyone who never learned, is a government divided into three branches (though sometimes two, but it has to be watched like a hawk). At the County level here in the intellectually foggy city of Milwaukee we have two branches, the executive consisting of Scott Walker and the democratic consisting of the county supervisors. We do not have an aristocratic branch or senate as a balanced government does.

The purpose of dividing the government, outlining their roles and providing checks and balances to keep each from dominating the other is to prevent anyone from escaping the rules of civil society. In a pure monarchy or a pure democracy, the ruling body has absolute power with no possibility of a judicial authority above it, other than voluntarily, and then it's just pretend submission to gain more power.

An executive with power over the legislative branch is in effect a despot. The Lee Holloway issue is a pure unadultrated consequence of the failure of a binary republic. Holloway was democratically elected by the people of his district to represent them, not some distant suburb. His district contains a huge proportion of minorities, of a magnitude no one in the suburbs can conceive of, with issues the suburbs couldn't even understand. His voice as a County Supervisor is, perhaps one of the most important, since the city is the center of economic opportunity in the county. The fact that city customs and suburban customs differ is a fact of life. Unfortunately, this remains, somehow, invisible to the southern and western portions of the county. Failure to comprehend this cultural difference tends to turn weaker and more narrow minded individuals into bigots - individuals intolerant of behaviors that differ from their own, with Scott Walker being a prime example, despite any strengths he may demonstrate. We all fall into our own habits, its part of being human, about 80% of our behavior is habit, problems don't start as a result of our having habits, they start when we expect everyone else, no matter their circumstance, to have the same habits as ours.

What is truly a crime is that in a nation that forgot it is a republic and touts democracy (which is more accurately mediaocracy) in every media outlet, we suffer the maladies that afflict pure democracies, despite the constitutional form of our government. The flaw in pure democracy is called 'the tyranny of the majority', which John Adams was so keen to try and prevent when he oversaw the writing of the U.S. Constitution. As Adams put it:

"That the Majority will oppress the minority is proven on every page of the history of the whole world" -1788

In the absence of a functioning republic we will forever see the oppression of minorities, which is more accurately just another form of factionalism, which republics were invented to prevent. Yet- so-called 'Republicans' insist on sustaining the persecution of minority leaders. Lee Holloway being the most powerful and outspoken minority leader of the County Supervisors, who is in fact doing an exemplary job in the face of some of the most egregious and embarassing despotism Milfoggy has yet displayed. Real republicans as contrasted with these infiltraitor 'Republicans' would be bending over backwards to support Mr Holloway simply to ensure that all voices are heard and not just those that the despot arbitrarily wishes to hear.

Does it require a phD in psychology to figure out that the habits and customs, of a nearly permanent political minority, will differ from those of the majority? What better way for a despot to persecute the minority in the service of the majority than by the sophistry of an 'ethics board'? Was that artifice chosen by guile or out of simple ignorance? Are we not all familiar with the cushy isolationism of the suburbs, whose view on city folk is that we are simply failed attempts at being them? Anyone doing anything different than how they do things must be violating some sort of 'ethics'. Especially, since there can only be one set of 'ethical' customs. What happened to "Liberty and justice for ALL"?

Bigots. Grow an eye or two.