Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Happy Easter! And Other Items of Interest

Easter greetings everybody!

Your favorite Peasant is nearer to the day of the move
to my new home, and I'm sorting through my belongings,
deciding what I'll bring along, what I'll give away to my
friends, or my church, and what I'll toss out. Next comes
the packing, followed by the cleanup of my soon to be
former home. I've already lined up a few friends to help
with my move, and I had lunch with one of them today to
coordinate on the details of the event.

So with all of this going on, your harried Peasant has no
stories to share and comment on this week, and won't have
any next week either. But after my move, which is scheduled
for May 1, I shall return with some items of interest for you!
Thank you, my wonderful, loyal readers, for your sticking by
me throughout this transitory episode! Your grateful Peasant
shall make it worth your while.

Now for a lighter bill of fare: today, April 20, is Star Trek
star George Takei's birthday. George, who played Sulu in the
TV series and the subsequent movies, is one of my favorite
actors and people. I met George at a science fiction convention
in Saint Paul in 1989 and we had a wide-ranging conversation
which covered, among other topics, Star Trek (of course),
show business, politics, exercise (George runs in marathons),
and architecture (George once studied to be an architect). He
is a veritable Renaissance man! Although politically on the left,
he is by no means a "Hollywood liberal"; his views are well-
thought out and crafted, and are by no means extreme nor just
an affectation for the sake of fashion. He even has conservative
friends, some of them in the entertainment industry. Happy 74th
Birthday George! You are a bright and vibrant star whether
trekkin' or chillin'! May you have many more happy birthdays
to enjoy!

Also claiming this day as her birthday is British Shakespearean
actress Louise Jameson, who also has worked in the realm of
science fiction; Louise played Leela, the traveling companion
of the Doctor in the British sci-fi TV series Doctor Who. We
met a few years before I met George Takei, and she is one of
the most skillful actors, as well as one of the most intelligent
and engaging people I ever had the pleasure of meeting. Louise
is also a stunningly beautiful woman, such a sight to behold!
Today Louise is has turned sixty years of age, but looks just
thirty-five! Louise is active on stage and is the founder of
her own production company, TLC Productions, which also
has a school of sorts for aspiring actors in their teens and 20s.
Yes, I met Louise at a sci-fi convention too. At one time in my
life I was a very active fan of both Star Trek and Doctor Who,
having enjoyed both shows over the years and having gone to
conventions featuring the stars of both shows. I still enjoy
them, and some other productions of that genre, but do not
attend the conventions anymore; the actors are a wonderful
bunch but the fans are, to be polite about them, a handful!
Anyway, Happy Birthday Louise! May your special day be
bright and beautiful in every way for you!

And yes, your active Peasant has many interests and activities,
my favorite one being spending time with you, my fabulous
readers! We'll meet back here in the first week of May!
May Easter be joyful for you all!


MEM


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Friday, April 15, 2011

Google's Software Bug is No Longer Bugging Us!

Just a quick message to you, my loyal readers, to let
you know that the Google software bug which has
been causing havoc for many Google customers who
avail themselves of Google's Gmail and Blogger
services (as your favorite Peasant does) seems to
have buggered off. If so, good riddance! I have not
seen any evidence of its presence on this blog or in
my gmail inbox in several days, so I am making the
assumption that said bug is no longer a problem.

I thank you all, my patient and understanding readers,
for your bearing with your embattled Peasant through-
out the past six weeks in which this difficulty has per-
sisted, sometimes making it impossible to visit this
blog to read your beloved Peasant's latest observations
as well as to shop online with Amazon.com through
the click-on ads to the right of the blog's body of text.
Apparently, Google has finally taken action to remedy
the situation, with successful results.

We'll get together again soon!


MEM
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Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Is Ineptitude A Crime?

Waukesha (WI) County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus is 
catching a lot of heat for her failure to initially
include and tally 7,000+ votes cast in Brookfield
in the April 5 election which included the race
for a seat on Wisconsin's Supreme Court, with
that race being the "biggie" for the state's voters.
She explained that she had entered the vote totals
into her department's database but did not save
them, therefore causing them to be lost. There
are mistakes, and then there are mistakes. This
particular mistake was one of an easily avoid-
able kind, and therefore a pathetic and pitiful
kind to make.

But angry liberals from around the state claim
that Nickolaus was not inept but crooked. They
think that she was playing games with the vote
tallies in her county, and tried to pass it off as
"human error". They point to her Republican
political background, and allegedly having a
close working relationship at some point with
Justice David Prosser, the incumbent challenged
by JoAnne Kloppenburg, and wanted to give
Prosser a little boost by playing cute with the
vote tallies in her charge. This allegation is
pure hogwash, as well as a new nadir in the
sheer stupidity of the Left, and here's why:

The vote tallies in question came from a very
conservative town. Indeed, these votes were
overwhelmingly cast for Justice Prosser. The
lefties might have had a point if the votes were
heavily favoring their candidate, Kloppenburg,
but such a result would have been most unlikely
given Brookfield's sturdy conservatism. Your
favorite Peasant knows the political temperament
of Brookfield well; I lived there for a few years
in my youth. So if Nickolaus did, indeed, commit
electoral fraud in her failure to save the Brookfield
vote tallies in her computer database, that fraud
would have benefited Kloppenburg and her lefty
backers, not Prosser. And given the shenanigans
that my state's left-wingers have engaged in with
our elections in recent years (the 2000 presidential
election for just one example), they of course would
not have raised a peep. The Left cannot stand electoral
fraud if it is done by anyone else besides them,
you see.

Getting back to Nickolaus, she has had some prior
competency issues in her work as Waukesha County
Clerk. She has fought against having her computer
system merged with that of the county's, a move
that would have created greater efficiency for her
department. She has supposedly botched the handling
of vote totals in a prior election a few years ago.
While it appears that Kathy Nickolaus is inept in
her job performance, she is certainly not dishonest
in any way. Until ineptitude is made a crime, the
Kathy Nickolauses in our political arena cannot be
imprisoned, fined, or even hauled into court. Instead,
let her be tried not in a court of law, but the court of
public opinion, especially when she is up for re-elec-
tion. Wisconsin's left-wingers have no case here;
they should take their electoral lumps and go home.


MEM



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Friday, April 8, 2011

Hope Springs Eternal

This just in:

Late Thursday, two days following our election here in
Wisconsin, some uncounted votes were discovered in
Waukesha County. These votes turned Wisconsin
Supreme Court candidate JoAnne Kloppenburg's
razor-thin 204 vote lead over incumbent state Supreme
Court Justice David Prosser into a 7,378 vote lead
for the latter. Your diligent Peasant just had to deliver
the news about this turn of events to you, my wonderful
readers.

What happened here? This discovery came to light as
officials throughout Wisconsin were canvassing the
state's counties, conducting a final review of voting
records so that the state can certify the election,
making its results official. Kathy Nickolaus, Waukesha
County Clerk, said at a news conference that she had
failed to properly save, in her computer database, a
spreadsheet showing one town's vote tallies. That town,
Brookfield, a conservative community in the conservative
stronghold that is Waukesha County, proved to be the
linchpin for the turn of events for the bitterly contested
election. Nicklaus apologized for the uncounted votes,
blaming "human error".

"I'm thankful that this error was caught early in the
process and during the canvass," she said. "The purpose
of the canvass is to catch these kinds of errors."

Knowing the state's lefties are going to cry "Foul!' over
this, no less than the Vice-Chairwoman of the Waukesha
County Democrat Party, Ramona Kitzinger stated at the
same press conference that she has confidence that the
amended numbers are correct. Kitzinger is also a member
of the Board of Canvassers. Her statement was reported
by the Waukesha Freeman this morning. A brave statement
by the Democrat party official, and your appreciative
Peasant commends her.

Now, this thing isn't over yet, friends. The entire state's
vote results have to be certified by the state by April 15.
And expect a recount, as the Kloppenburg camp and
the state's Left will scream for one to be sure. But things
are looking up as far as Wisconsin's keeping the center-
right makeup of its highest court, thereby keeping it out
of the hands of those who want to have the court be a
tool for obstruction of whatever Gov. Scott Walker and
the Republican-held legislature want to do. The new
margin will be virtually impossible for Kloppenburg
to overcome with whatever a recount would reveal
for uncounted votes. The bottom line here, is this: We,
the people of my home state voted for Walker and gave
him a conservative Republican Assembly and Senate so
that they could undo the economic damage that the
Democrats had done while they were in charge of
everything in Madison. What the Left can't accomplish
at the ballot box, even with cheating, they try to do
through the courts --- and that includes monkeying with
the former to assure the desired result with the latter.
Remember the accounts from voters I related to you
in my previous posting!

So, whether by a landslide or by a whisker, it looks like
Justice David Prosser will remain on my state's top court,
and the results of last autumn's election will not be mitigated.
Now this, you public employeee union hellraisers and your
rag-tag chums, is what democracy looks like!


MEM


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Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Electoral Bedlam in Badgerland

Yesterday my home state of Wisconsin had an election.
The offices which were slated to be filled with newly
elected candidates included school boards, mayors,
county executives, and a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme
Court. Usually, elections of this sort which occur during
odd-years (or "off years", as political observers term
them) generally provoke little more than a  yawn from
anyone. Voter turnouts are quite paltry. There is certainly
no "fever pitch" over any candidate or issue driving people
to the polls. But with this election ...

Incumbent State Supreme Court Justice David Prosser,
seeking another term on the top bench, was challenged
by JoAnne Kloppenburg. Prosser built and enjoys a
reputation as a thoughtful moderately conservative
jurist, who has always shown independence and integrity
in his handling of cases, particularly those involving
criminals, businesses, unions, and state constitutional
questions. Appointed by former Gov. Tommy Thompson
(R) to fill a vacated seat on the high court, Prosser ran
for a full term. His opponent, Kloppenburg, is an attorney
specializing in environmental law, and has sued many a
farmer and businessman out of business while employed
by the state's Department of Natural Resources. As the
state's environmental law enforcer, she has tried to thwart
increases in local and legislative control in matters concern-
ing homeowners and businesses. Your favorite Peasant's
home state's DNR is regarded by many Wisconsinites as
being arrogant and self-serving, and Kloppenburg has
added much fuel to that fire in her years with them.

But the main reason that Wisconsin's left-wingers back
her candidacy is that they think she'll be a check on Gov.
Scott Walker's plans to reign in both the state budget and
the bargaining power of the public employee unions.The
Wisconsin Supreme Court has a slightly conservative tilt
at present: a 5-4 edge. If Kloppenburg defeats Prosser
for the bench seat currently held by Prosser, the tilt will
go to the liberals by the same margin, and therefore the
liberals could play judicial havoc with Walker and the
GOP majorities in both chambers of the state legislature.
Some political observers think that such a development
would be a thumb in the eye of the people, who voted
Scott Walker and the Republicans into power to do just
what they are doing. With Kloppenburg serving as "point
woman" for the public unions and their allies, the people
will be told that what they want doesn't matter, that their
vote doesn't matter, that they themselves don't matter.

The results of that race, as of this morning, shows the
DNR lawyer leading with a 226-vote margin with all
but one county --- Jefferson County --- reporting their
vote tallies. On local conservative radio talker Vicki
McKenna's show on WISN-AM here in Milwaukee
callers related some bizarre things that they encountered
at their polling places that sound very ominous; one caller
said that at her polling precinct she was told that they
ran out of ballots, and that she and the other voters were
told to write their votes down on a legal pad (?!).
Another caller reported that his ballot was rejected three
times by the machine which takes the completed ballots,
issuing a slip of paper saying that the ballot was rejected
for some sort of irregularities, and that the voters ahead of
and behind the caller had the same problem. The caller
in question said that on the third attempt his ballot was
finally accepted. The most disturbing account came from
a woman who told Vicki and her audience that an elderly
woman in front of her, when receiving her ballot, was
informed by the clerk at the table that she could not tell
the woman how to vote, but the clerk said that she would
stand near but not too near her at the booth and make
a certain sound as the voter moved her pen by the names
of Kloppenburg and other Democrat-backed candidates!
One caller said that a sample ballot given out at his precinct
had the actual names of the Democrats and Democrat-
backed candidates on the form! The law FORBIDS the
printing of candidates' names on sample ballots. Vicki's
advice for everyone finding questionable happenstances
to call the state election audit bureau to report what they
saw and heard.

So, there you have it, my wonderful readers. The Left will
stop at nothing to get what they want. The constitution,
state or national, doesn't matter. The law, so what. The
will of the people, their concerns, their vote, who cares?
A recount is a certainty in the Supreme Court race regard-
less of who ekes out the win. My fellow Wisconsinites,
those of us who voted have already done our part. All
that we can do now is wait, and say a prayer. Democracy
is hanging in the balance in our state, along with our liberty
and our economic well-being.

As for your faithful Peasant, I shall be praying my rosary
today for the preservation of the integrity of our voting
process and for justice to win the day.


MEM


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