Gas Pains

The Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters held their annual Conservation Lobby Day in Madison on Wednesday.

As an avid hunter, fisherman and conservationist this stuff is important so I took the day-off to become a citizen lobbyist.

No tassel-toed loafers or martini-infused parties.  No pay or pay-off.  

I met-up with a bunch of folks that were from the 5th Senate District and both the 13th and neighboring Assembly Districts.

This included many Tosans I've come to know over the years.  One new friend was a recently retired conservation warden.  We compared notes on Dakota pheasant hunting. 

I ran into friends from other parts of the state that were there representing various hunting, fishing and woodland organizations.  

What we have in common is we hunt, fish and vote.  It is refreshing to see so many people who care so much about Wisconsin's resources take a day out of their lives to drive-home that point.. 

The crowd included a mix of suits, business casual, cammo, boots and jeans.

I was looking forward to meeting with Senator Jim Sullivan and Representative David Cullen and the opportunity to share my views. 

The League had previously scheduled time for our group to meet with them.  Very cool.

A similar foray a couple of years ago was disappointing. 

My attempt to hold a conversation with the previous State Senator could be described as...er, let's just say it was akin to trying to carry-on a conversation with a stump - but I digress.

This year's attendance was lighter as the previous night's blizzard cut into the travel of attendees from the further reaches of the state.

There was the usual welcome and preliminaries.

The Lieutenant Governor, Barbara Lawton, stopped by to visit.

She claimed she knows how to pee in the woods just like the rest of us.

Discussion and strategy followed.

I was chosen to speak to legislators about the Hunter, Trapper, Angler Bill of Rights.

Over the past number of years management of Wisconsin's natural resources has become increasingly politicized.  A handful of examples include nonsense such as an attempt to allow the snowmobile lobby to dictate the Wisconsin deer season framework. The committee chair happened to be tight with their lobbyist.  Or legislators raiding the Stamp Fund accounts; plugging holes in the state budget by stealing segregated funds voluntarily paid by hunters and anglers for turkey, pheasant and great lakes fish.

That stinks.

So, I took the opportunity to lobby for the restoration of the appointment authority for the DNR Secretary to the Natural Resources Board (NRB)  - reconciliation of Senate Bill 15 and Assembly Bill 504 if it passes.

I asked for support of Senate Bill 422, requiring that the state Senate vote on NRB nominees within six months of their nomination.  Stop playing games with the nominees and allow them a straight up and down vote.

With a weakening economy, budget forecasts aren't very promising, so there's a good chance some legislator is going to be drooling with anticipation over the prospects of swiping funds for a pet project outdoors folks know nothing about.  I lobbied for the support of Assembly Joint Resolution 34 which would prohibit transfer of funds from sportsman's and sportswoman's stamp accounts.

On this matter - hunters and anglers had best be vigilant.

We had a satisfying visit with Senator Sullivan.

He knows his stuff and appeared supportive of issues we discussed.  (It is possible we ran over into the time alloted to the Beer Distributors - but that's OK - on he way out we assured them of our support for beer.)

Representative Cullen was absent and while he has a good voting record on these issues we were disappointed in having to meet with one of his aides.

The wrap-up included a wild game feed of bear, venison, raccoon, salmon and pheasant.

With my stomach growling I had to take a pass and get back to Tosa on other business.

I'll be following-up with Sullivan, Cullen and others on these and related issues.

Thanks to the more than 70 outdoor, wildlife and conservation groups that supported this event - especially the 15 organizations that sponsored the wild game feed. 

I'll be going back next year.

You might consider doing so yourself.

Tom

PS -

Contact your legislators and ask them to support adoption of the Great Lakes Compact.

If you wait until you hear the great sucking sound of our water going to the arid southwest it will be too late.

For Wisconsin it's an economic issue.

Friday night a buddy calls me with the news (make that a notification) that we're going pheasant hunt'n on Sunday.

I have to met-up with the guys by noon.

Ok.

Girlfriend and I had been chilling-out at the tree farm since Thursday.  She - recovering from a brief illness and me - juggling the day job and farm stuff - somewheres at the opposite corner of the state.

No problem.

We'll pack a shotgun, the boots, the cold weather gear, a couple handfuls of shells a snack for the both of us, hit the road early and be in Jefferson County before lunchtime.

Then it hits me.

Right smack between the eyes.

Today is the anniversary of my mom's death.

It was on a cold and sunny Sunday not too many years ago that I stopped by St. Joe's  after a pheasant hunt to see how mom was doing.

She was doing terrific.

She was doing so well that she informed me she expected to be released the following day.

We talked about hunting. We talked about her coming home.  I reminded her to have pop give us a call when they got home.

 Early Monday the phone rang.

The caller ID said St. Joseph's Hospital.

I took the call thinking mom had an update. 

Nope.

It was the nursing station on her floor with not so good news.

Mom died peacefully between the time they had woke her to take her vitals and bringing breakfast.

Today we had a similar sunny and cold hunt. 

We killed some birds.

While walking thru the snow and watching girlfriend work the cover I had some terrific and lasting memories of mom.

Tom

Post Script -

Grace Gaertner was a substitute teacher for the Milwaukee Public Schools from the 1960s through the early 1980s.

Oddly enough that was her career.

She did not drive so she either walked or took the bus to wherever she was assigned on a daily basis.

She took pride in never having to shut or lock the door to any of the city classrooms to which she was assigned.

She was practical, tough, but loving.

100% Irish.

I shoot arrows with a couple of hunting buddies once a week and we go out for dinner afterward.  Over dinner the conversation generally shifts from someone's crappy form or high score to politics.  Anyway, it usually does.  At least lately.

Last night Braumeister pointed-out that conservative pundits - radio and cable - were all lining-up to bash John McCain as not being conservative enough to deserve the Republican nomination for president.  (For the uninitiated this phenomenon has been labeled: McCain Derangement Syndrome.)  He was rather taken aback by this - at one point brandishing a meatball on a fork and sputtering, they've labeled McCain a liberal !

After puzzling over this persistent interest in the hijacking of the Republican Party by elements of the extreme right, replete with their collective anger-management issues, we shake our heads and conclude that this is the stuff over which elections are lost.  Go figure.

There has been some very recent chatter over at the TTS about conservatives, liberals and government policy. It's interesting stuff and a remarkably civil discussion.  You might want to read it and chime-in.  I finally posted some observations last night as it seemed timely - considering the dinner conversation.

During my lunch break today, I read the New York Times while pounding out my miles on the treadmill and I absorbed a very compelling editorial by David Brooks. 

Brooks argues that a funny thing has happened this primary season. Conservative voters have not followed their conservative leaders. Conservative voters are much more diverse than the image you’d get from conservative officialdom.

Brooks concludes that the Republican Party, even in its shrunken state, is diverse. Regular Republican voters don’t seem to mind independent thinking. There’s room for moderates as well as orthodox conservatives. Limbaugh, Grover Norquist and James Dobson have influence, but they are not arbiters of conservative doctrine.

It might be seemingly coincidental that three archery nuts, a Tosa message board and a Times columnist all opined upon such closely related topics. 

I think not.

What I sense is a growing backlash among moderate Republicans and independent conservatives who have had their fill of a government that seeks to intrude into so many aspects of a citizen's private life, run-away spending by the current occupant of the White House (ostensibly a conservative) and the general name-calling and marginalization of anyone in the middle who doesn't unquestioningly embrace the extreme right's brand of political correctness. 

That stinks and I figure I'm not the only person to hold that view.

So what does this have to do with the Tosa mayoral race?

I think it has everything to do with the tone of the debate as each of the candidates stake-out their positions leading up to the election - that is if there ever is to be a real debate.  (That being another topic of discussion).

Last fall, the Didier Campaign's opening salvo was calculated to use conservative daytime radio in an attempt to exploit a largely phantom issue and turn it to the candidate's political advantage.

My guess was they figured conservative media would seize upon the opportunity to attack the incumbent Mayor.  They would be correct.

In a couple of posts I called-out candidate Didier over this issue. 

If you use the correct bait you usually get a bite.  Sometimes you get to set the hook.  What was revealing about the angry exchange that ensued was who the candidate's acolytes were.    

Personally, I think it a tactical error as the Mayor sucker-punched them later with the announcement that she wasn't running for reelection.  So chalk it up to inexperience.

Since then things have been quiet.  At least I think they have.  In the sweatshop where I work no one has the time to indulge in daytime conservative radio so maybe I've missed something.

Anyway, I'm hopeful that the campaign discourse remains civil and informative.  Without Terry Estness in the race it is possible that we have been spared a record amount of vitriolic rage from the far right.  Time will tell.

I'm still waiting for a series of debates.

Heck, I'd be satisfied with just one really big, city-wide debate - but I'll not hold my breath.

Cluck!

Tom

What Wauwatosa personality received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress?

I'll post all of the submitted answers on Friday - including the correct answer.

Good Luck and Go Pack!

Tom

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Read the submission below - Fritztino wins with the correct answer.

The nominee for best supporting actress, played the young girlfriend of William Holden in the film Sunset Boulevard. 

Her name was Nancy Olson and she was in the Wauwatosa High School class of 1946. 

Only four years after her high school graduation, she was playing major roles in Hollywood. 

Despite major roles in large films, big screen stardom eluded her, and after marrying composer Alan Jay Lerner, she played second leads in a few films before retiring from acting. After their divorce, she made a return to acting, and started her successful stint with Disney in 1960's Pollyanna. She made four other films for Disney, including The Absent Minded Professor (1961), which is better known to the younger generation as the original version of Robin Williams' 1997 hit film, Flubber (Olson appears in an uncredited cameo in the new film).

Her post-Disney career is unremarkable, with minor roles in Airport 1975 (1974) and Making Love (1982). Television appearances include 1977's Kingston: Confidential (starring Raymond Burr) and 1982's Paper Dolls (opposite Lloyd Bridges).

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Read Ray Py's addes post.

Dang, Ray. You are making this most challenging. 

I haven't a clue who this might be.

Any submissions???

Valuable new prizes are at stake.

Go Pack!

Tom

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Welcome back Beanhead.  Ruth Peterson it is.

Tom

Today, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation announced a change in signage for all I-94 east-bound traffic...

Fellow Community Voice - Peter Hart - recently posted news that the Mayfair Park and Fisher Woods Neighborhood Associations are going to sponsor a debate between two of the Tosa mayoral candidates on Saturday, January 19th.

Good for them.

However, it appears that there are going to be some arcane debate rules.

According to Hart, debate questions will be approved by the candidates before the debate.

Furthermore, citizens must keep questions open-ended.

That's it. 

Vacation has come to an abrupt end. 

Back to the routine of work and workouts. 

Lunch time is workout time and I typically spend my noon hour at the gym.  Even-numbered days are treadmill and odd days are for resistance training. 

A half hour on the treadmill necessitates some reading material to pass the time.

Today I forgot a newspaper and had to improvise by drawing upon the eclectic selection of magazines off the gym's rack.

A copy of Boating - World's Largest Powerboat Magazine caught my eye.  Hmm... who doesn't like to look at and read about big boats?

As it turns out it was a decent read.  There was an in-depth review of the towing capabilities of my new GMC and lots and lots stories with pictures of big boats populated with curvaceous babes that obviously require boat loads of money to maintain.

One article in particular caught my eye.

I'm not making this up.  The readers of Boating know that they can "leave their inhibitions on shore".  

Apparently the latest trend to hit the big power boat scene is something last viewed in a strip club. 

According to the editor, dance poles are literally popping-up in boats across the United States.  As irrefutable proof of this he cited no less than authoritative celebrity clientèle like Paris Hilton, Jessica Alba and Carmen Electra. 

The company behind the craze believes that the poles are so popular on board because women can "get in a good off-shore workout while simultaneously unleashing their inner sex kitten". 

Poles can be custom colored to match your boat.

Imagine that.

I wonder how soon it will be before Cabelas adds this to their product line?

Tom