Symetrical Toy Arrangement

You might think this was a Christmas post

Nope. Meet my pooch Licorice. She did the darndest thing. Check out how she arranged her toys. I swear if you measured the distance and arc from each toy would almost be equal. Should I arrange therapy?

Hey you lefties touting polls, where'd you go?

So Bush hit 50% in today's Rasmussen poll.

Doyle still can not climb above 46%.

All of you guys who were crawlling out of the woodwork to tell us bad Bush poll numbers, where are you? Come on Quit crying in your egg nog.

Numbers go up, numbers go down. That's politics.

Who said that 2?

"The Department of Justice believes, and the case law supports, that the president has inherent authority to conduct warrantless physical searches for foreign intelligence purposes."

Who said that?

Open comments for the answer.

Who said that?

"The attorney general is authorized to approve electronic surveillance to acquire foreign intelligence without a court order."

Who said that?

Open comments for the answer.

Froggy Ruminations.

I stumbled onto Froggy Ruminations today.

This is a blog run by a former U.S. Customs Agent. Why is that interesting? A U.S. Customs knows more about search rules than you or I ever will.

Froggy has some keen insights about the current outrage by the left and the media over Bush search tactics.

Now this guy is a rightie for full disclosre. However, he is a rightie with a first hand knowledge of these laws and has some interesting things to say.

Check it out.

No Soup For You.

Well I must admit I was quite surprised Governor Doyle signed the repeal of automatic indexing of gas tax.

I was apparently correct in my surprise. Governor Doyle always, let me repeat that, always does a signing ceremony for legislation he supports.

He signed a bill a huge majority of Republicans and Democrats supported, and he felt so little about it he signed it quietly in his office.

The Governor was forced into this position by conservative talkers, the blogs and that darn phone in his office that would not stop ringing. And his actions show, he didn't like it one bit.

Polls continue to show the Noid hovering at 45 to 46%, and he knows if he put the 'ole veto pen to this one he could kiss re-election good bye.

We forced his hand on this one, he had a chance to speak out for a victory for the taxpayers. He blew it. No wonder he can not climb above that 46% mark.

THE YEAR OF THE ASTERISK

The Blog Father has his yearly wrap up column up.

I wish I had written it. Brilliant.

5 Things.

Vulcan Death rays to Patrick for making me do this.

What were you doing 10 years ago?
I was selling donuts, lots and lots of donuts.

What were you doing 1 year ago?
One year ago I was getting let go from a job I thought I would do for the rest of my life.

Five snacks you enjoy:
1: Mrs. Real Debate’s Holiday Chex mix.
2: Popcorn, any style.
3: Dried cherries.
4: Tootsie Rolls.
5: Krunchers

Five songs to which you know all the lyrics:
1: The Star Spangled Banner
2: Silent Night (traditional version)
3: Beer Barrel Polka
4: The Bears Still Suck
5: My Way

Five things you would do if you were a millionaire:
1: Retire.
2: Take golf lessons
3: Get my own Domain.
4: Blow it all running for office.
5: Buy a boat, a large fast boat.

Five bad habits:
1: Science Fiction
2: Not reading enough.
3: Procrastination.
4: Speeding
5: Failing to ask for directions.

Five things you will never wear again:
1: Polka Dots
2: Ice skates
3: Cleats
4: Leisure Suit.
5: Hair on top of my head.

Five favorite toys:
1: My PC
2: My laptop
3: My beat up golf clubs
4: The Sims
5: My dawg, Licorice

Now I have to chose challenge 5 Bloggers to answer these same questions:
Peter: Texas Hold ‘Em Blogger
Jenna: Right Off The Shore
Scott: Scott D Feldstein
Elliot: From Where I Sit
Shana: Behind the Cheddar Curtain

Sorry guys, Patrick made me do it

RDW Holiday Greeting.

For Our Democratic Friends:
"Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, our best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. We also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2006, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only region in the Western Hemisphere. And without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee. By accepting these greetings you are accepting these terms. This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for herself or himself or others, and is void where prohibited by law and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher."

For Our Republican Friends:

Here's wishing all of You a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

New Candidate for Congress in the 1st.

RealDebate has learned Racine County Democratic Party member Tim Daley will throw his hat into the ring and run in the Democratic primary to unseat Paul Ryan.

We documented the sudden absence of candidate Justin Sowa a couple of weeks ago, requests to the Sowa campaign have gone unanswered. We are not sure if he is running or not.

We welcome Candidate Daley to the race, hopefully he will be more open to answering an occasional question than candidate Sowa is.

Peter on Xoff

Peter went to the effort to comment on Xoff's somewhat silly post on the Stepp / Voces de la Frontera story today.

I saw it, it made me shake me head at how completely off point it was.

I am still waiting for a mainstreamer to talk about the non-profit status. Belling mentioned it briefly the other day, he laughed out loud when I brought it up on his show. (a golly aint that ridiculous kind of laugh)

Bill you really look silly on this one. Why not just come out and say hey Voces that was a dumb thing to do, and by the way your non-profit status is showing, maybe you should go back under the radar so the nice bloggers in Racine will shut up and you can keep your public funding.

Christine Neumann-Ortiz Interview Live Blog Thoughts.

Dan Deibert first question, you were part of the group that went to Stepp's House. Ortiz, ignores and starts talking about how many people went to the district. People are making multiple calls, trying to get response.

Ortiz - her statement (Stepp's) yesterday was funny.

Numerous letters and calls made, yadda yadda answer the question.

What about the incident at her house, she ignores it for 7 minutes.

Says we never had any communication with the police. That is a lie. How else could they have tipped Stepp?

She is still spinning away from the at her house question.

I wonder if Nicole is going to get involved? Come on Dan ask her about charitable status, she has been asked 5 times now about the house, spun away.

Still ignoring the question, 11 minutes now she felt justified in going up to her door. We were not protesting, she says husband berated her and they left. (I am real sure they were just polite little angels)

What a load of bull, they were angry that is why they went there.

Oh gee elected officials have the right to come knock on our door... Jeesh.

Nicole chiming in. Why did you feel you needed to ambush her at her home! You go girl. Spun away again.

Most interesting thing, said so far we know how to organize protests... Why is a public funded non-profit know how to do this?

Deibert back in, talking about the bill now. ASK ABOUT THE 501 (c)(3). I'm going to stroke out.
Undocumented Persons she keeps saying. They are not legally supposed to be here Deibert is pressing. She is blaming it on the Feds.

Spin spin spin. 7:24 am first mention of disenfranchising. Dan Deibert keeps going back to the fact they are not legal. Spin away, spin away.

Whether or not you like it, undocumented immigrants have been forced into this life?

Huh?!?

They crossed the borders on their own!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Maybe if the economy in Mexico was any good at all, maybe you should blame that government.

That interview sucked. Nice try Dan and Nicole. Wish you would of asked her why a non-porift is being all political.

They are doing cold call Wednesday, I wonder how stupid the callers thought Neumann-Ortiz was? Dan and Nicole, I would scrap this segment. P.U.

Voces de la Frontera, Why the Outrage?

Four days after the event that started the coverage of the story of Voces de la Frontera, I find it time to do a recap and ask a few questions.

By now you know the story. A number of persons trespassed the Yorkville home of State Senator Cathy Stepp Friday evening. Voces de la Frontera (VDLF) claims four people were present, Senator Stepp says it was dark but there were several cars and 8 to 10 people.

Senator Stepp claims the people were shouting in their windows and generally creating a disturbance that scared her young children. VDLF claims they were polite. I tend to believe the Senator.

The Racine Journal Times and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel each covered the story on the morning of 12-20. Each story went about trying to corroborate the Senator's account, but oddly enough neither story managed to look into VDLF. The claims made by VDLF and the Racine Dominicans that the Senator would not meet with them have already been debunked.

Here is the big issue. Why is a 501 (c)(3) public charity engaged in political activity? That question should raise another, has VDLF engaged in political activity in the past?

By law a 501 (c)(3) that receives public funding may lose its non profit status if it engages in political activity. This is from the IRS code: In general, no organization may qualify for section 501(c)(3) status if a substantial part of its activities is attempting to influence legislation (commonly known as lobbying). A 501(c)(3) organization may engage in some lobbying, but too much lobbying activity risks loss of tax-exempt status.

VDLF is cleary engaged in political lobbying here, and lots of it. In addition, they spent some $40,000 on a voters project in the last election. There were allegations brought to light by the Federation for American Immigration Reform that VDLF volunteers were registering persons who shoud not of been so. Milwaukee D.A. Michael McCann did nothing with the proof that was presented to him. While they were in the middle of all of that Christine Newmann-Ortiz, the group's head, was busy as she could be bashing Republicans.

Neumann-Ortiz also does a great deal of public speaking, but seemingly only in front of left wing audiences. (just google her, it is all there)

In addition VDLF has participated in many anti-war rallies in the area. Of course that is their right, however this is not the right of a 501 (c)(3) getting public funds.

What we have here is a zealotous advocacy group, but one that is masquerading as a 501 (c)(3). This group should lose its ability to hide under that label and benefit from the special tax status set aside for true charitable institutions.

In addition, we have two newspapers that seem to want to put more effort into debunking the story of a credible Senator than looking into the background of an organization that is freely admiting they broke the law. No wonder they are losing circulation.

Place your nomination for the RDW story of the year.

Rules. The story must of been discussed or mentioned in the comments section of Real Debate Wisconsin.

Place your nominations in the commens section.

Stepp statement

Stepp Corrects Inaccuracies in Voces de la Frontera’s Release

Voces de la Frontera’s rowdy attempt to intimidate me at my home Friday night has already been well-documented, so I will not further dwell on the incident here.

However, I feel compelled to prove false the allegations that I have been unresponsive to opponents of Assembly Bill 69, which requires persons applying for a driver’s license in Wisconsin prove their citizenship or legal status in the United States. Voces de la Frontera’s leader Christine Neumann-Ortiz, who is not a constituent of mine, alleges that I have not been willing to listen to 21st Senate District residents who oppose AB 69.

In the past two months, my staff and I have met with opponents of AB 69 on several occasions.
· October 28, 2005: My staff met with Ryan Knudson, a teacher at Racine Horlick High School, representing Voces de la Frontera. Mr. Knudson is not a resident of the 21st Senate District. Mr. Knudson discussed his opposition to AB 69.
· November 18, 2005: My staff met with 21st Senate District resident Diana Garcia and roughly 40 others (some constituents and some not) who opposed AB 69.
· December 13, 2005: My staff met with Voces de la Frontera’s Racine Coordinator Maria Morales, four Horlick students and two Racine Dominican sisters, Joyce Quitana and Therese Van Thull, opposing AB 69.
· December 15, 2005: Sitting on the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Transportation, I heard hours of testimony from dozens of constituents and members of Voces de la Frontera at AB 69’s public hearing.

Lost in the controversy over the unsettling incident at my house is that AB 69 is a reasonable bill and an important facet in the war on terror. Since the driver’s license has become one’s ticket to legitimacy in America, a terrorist can use a valid driver’s license to open a bank account, rent a U-Haul truck or climb onto an airplane. If we do not pass AB 69 and comply with the federal REAL ID Act before 2008, Wisconsin driver’s licenses will no longer be recognized as valid identification for boarding a plane.

Driver’s licenses are privileges for people who obey the law. People here illegally are, by definition, not obeying the law. Contrary to Ms. Neumann-Ortiz’s declaration that AB 69 is a “racist” bill, AB 69 affects illegal aliens equally, regardless of race, whether they are from Mexico, England or Syria.

Voces de la Frontera Speaks!

Tomorrow morning Christine Neumann-Ortiz of Voces de la Frontera will be interviewed on the WISN Early Spin after the 7 am news.

Questions we would love to see asked.

• Is Voces de la Frontera a 501 (c)(3)?
• If so how can your organization act on political activity in this way?
• In addition, your organization claimed on their tax records NA on the question of whether or not it attempted to influence legislation. How do you rectify your activity within tax compliance laws in regards to 501 (c)(3) organizations that get public support?
• Senator Stepp is claiming 8 to 10 people were at her home, you claim 4. Are you calling her a liar?
• In your statement yesterday you said this was a life or death issue, tell me what illegal immigrants will die if they do not get a drivers license?
• In your statement you also said it was time to stop playing cheap political games. How were your actions not a cheap political game?
• Do the ends justify the means?
• Tell me, should illegal persons should have the same rights as legal persons?
• Wisconsin is pushing legislation to put us into compliance with Federal regulations, is it your position the State should not comply with Federal law?
• Pedro Colon was critical of your actions, how would you respond?
• In looking into your record of public speaking it appears you only speak in front of left-wing organizations, why is that?
• In pushing voter registrations, a national watchdog group FAIR had persons not legally able to vote registered by representatives of Voces de la Frontera. In the same area you issued statements saying Republicans were trying to suppress the vote. Tell me is it suppressing the vote to see that persons who registered were legally able to vote?
• Do you support illegal immigrants voting in this country?
• Has Voces de la Frontera registered illegal immigrants to vote?

I could go on and on and on. Add any questions you would like to have asked, I am sure Mr Deibert will read them.

Acting in a responsible way, Christine Neumann-Ortiz style.

In the Voces de la Frontera statement today, President Christine Neumann-Ortiz ends it this way.

It is time to stop playing cheap political games and act in a responsible way.

Hey Christine, you might want to look into the mirror! What exactly do you call trespassing someone's property and scaring their children? Also if you are so responsible why don't you respond to my email?

Speaking of reponsible why do you not answer the question of why you are so engaged in political activity while you keep your 501 (c)(3) status? Did it occur to you what you are doing is illegal?

Peter broke apart the statement with a bit more detail than I have had time to do. If only I got paid to do this.

I asked the Senator about the statement there were only 4 persons there. She said it was dark, but there were several cars and 8 to 10 people. I believe her.

The spin begins, the buck stops here.

Voces de la Frontera has a statement out. Exactly as you might expect it to be. We were polite, no one was yelling, ya right. My common sense meter is reading a flat zero on this statement.

The Journal Times and the Journal Sentinel came out with their spin this morning saying the Senator was not available for comment for Voces de la Frontera or Racine Dominicans.

Here is the truth:

October 28, 2005: Senator’s Staff met with Ryan Knudson, a teacher at Horlick High School, representing Voces de la Frontera. Mr. Knudson is not a resident of the 21st Senate District. Mr. Knudson discussed his opposition to AB 69.

November 18, 2005: Senator’s Staff met with constituent Diana Garcia and roughly 40 others (some constituents and some not) who opposed AB 69.

December 13, 2005: Senator’s Staff met with VDLF’s Racine Coordinator Maria Morales, four students and two Dominican sisters. They all expressed their opposition to AB 69. The group included: Bill Lange, Wauwatosa 53213 ; Joanne Lange, Wauwatosa, Racine Dominican Joyce Quitana, O.P. - Racine Dominican Therese Van Thull, O.P.

December 15, 2005: Senator Stepp hears from dozens of constituents at the roughly five hour public hearing on AB 69. Horlick Teachers Al Levie and Ryan Knudson are in attendance.

You may or not remember Al Levie, he was involved in a "bipartisan" election effort that turned out to be purely partisan.

December 16, 2005: VDLF’s leader Christine Neumann-Ortiz (not a constituent of the 21st Senate District) organizes a rowdy protest on Senator Stepp’s private property, at night, after dark.

As you can clearly see, the Senator has heard from and her staff has taken time to meet with perons in, and out of, her district. If either of the papers had bothered to look into this they could uncovered it.

I also find it odd that while it took the Journal Times 3 days to cover this, they covered the Voces de la Frontera release almost immediately.

MJS blows the story too.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel blew the step story too.

Read it here, same crap is the Racine Journal Times.

They burried it on page b3, and got the obligitory quote from Pedro Colon, but he was critical of the group's decision to go to Stepp's home.

Racine Journal Times Blows the Cathy Stepp Story.

The Journal times, 3 days late, has an actual story in regards to Voces de la Fronetra trespassing on the home of Cathy Stepp.

Click the header of this post and you can read the story.

Maria Morales as the Journal Times puts it, a "member of the group" (I would add she is a paid member) said, people simply wanted to protest Stepp's support for a bill that would deny illegal immigrants the right to have a driver's license."

Another nugget, "I don't think we crossed a line," Morales said. "We weren't noisy or belligerent. We're desperate to talk with her (about the issue), to find out what's going on."

Not crossing a line??? Come now I have your address Maria, as well as the address of group President Christine Newmann-Ortiz, shall I protest your homes as you have not responded to my inquiry? No, that would be in bad taste.

The Journal Times went out and found another group, The Racine Dominicans claiming her office had not responded to her, Stepp called the Dominicans' claim that she has not responded "ridiculous.""Jay, my chief of staff has met with them,"

So the spin by TWO reporters for the Journal Times, she was slow, she does not respond.

Missing from the report, any notification of the group's 501(c)(3) status and the fact they claimed NA when asked about political activity on their tax return. Hat tip Journal Times, I posted the regs on your forum on 501(c)(3).

Also missing, any historical reference to Voces de la Frontera especially vote fraud allegations in Racine.

Would at least a cursory look into the group who did this have been called for? One would think so. Apparently that never occurred to the Journal Times.

Well Done Frank?

The following is from the WISN Morning Spin website.

The JSOnline website has a blurb about this in their daywatch which means there is a chance they will run a story about this on Tuesday. A good few days after in happened. Way to catch up!

I think the credit for getting this story out there goes to the author of the blog site called RealDebateWisconsin. He's been all over this story since it happened. Great work Frank! Well done, sir. Well done.

PS... Senator Stepp will be on with us at 8:05. I still haven't decided if I even want to hear from the other side on this one. What do you think. Should we give them the air time? Might be nice to hear how nutty they really are... but then again... we already know that. What to do... what to do....

Thanks for the mention Mr. Deibert, but the name is Fred. I'll be calling Friday morning with my IOWA nomination. Hat tip, it will be you or Christine Newmann-Ortiz.

Stepp on WISN Morning Spin.

Cathy Stepp will take a seat in the WISN Monring Spin witness chair tomorrow morning at 8:05.

Racine Journal Times Chimes in, Sort Of

The Racine Journal Times has finally reported on the Cathy Stepp, Voces de la Frontera story.

They posted her press release, and opened it up for comments.

Ooo big investigative work.

There are some amazing comments there by Kay Schultz, a well known Racine Democratic Party Democratic Party Activist. Kay is throwing around the race card and saying this was just a little protest. Really some outrageous spin by Kay.

Nothing yet from the Milwaukee paper but Mark Belling did talk about this story at 3:30 today.

Update/ Cathy Stepp to be on with Jeff Wagner 1pm

Cathy Stepp will be interviewed by Jeff Wagner on 620 WTMJ in the 1pm hour. I'll be listening, most likely calling.

Update on the interview. Apparently the Journal Times has called Cathy Stepp for comments, not quite sure why they could not run a report based on this blog or her press release. Voces de la Frontera President Christine Neumann-Ortiz was present at Stepp's home. The Racine County DA & Sherrif's office is investigatimg.

Priorities at The Journal Times.

Well my pals at the Racine Journal Times have still neglected to cover the Voces de la Frontera invasion of Cathy Stepp's home life, they did take the time to borrow something else from RealDebate.

The Journal Times forum has named a new area the Cheese-O-Spere.

Gee they would not of gotten that idea from my penning of the term Chaddarsphere now would they?

This will sum up the JT's coverage so far of this story.

Bush plays spies like us.

I was sent an email earlier today by a regular poster asking why I had not posted in regards to the Bush spying story.

1. I had company this weekend and any blog time got sucked into the Cathy Stepp story.

2. Everybody else in the world has been covering this, so I thought it would be OK if I ignored this until I had a bit more time.

Another point. Why do people only want to comment on things they think would further their political cause? None of my more left leaning posters have expressed any outrage over a leftist group infringing upon a Senator's home. Tell me, if this were a bunch of righties at Chvala's house you would be all over this.

That being said. The President authorized spying on persons with known ties to terrorist cells. He briefed Congress 12+ times. A judge looked over the plan frequently.

For the life of me I do not know what the big hairy deal is here. Are you folks forgetting we are at war? We are at war with people who hide and skulk about in shadow, information is the only tool we have. If you weenies just want us to throw up our hands and give-up, fine say so. The man is doing the best he can to keep us all safe, and you on the left are trying to stop him at every turn for your own political gain.

If you do not have terrorist ties you do not have a thing to worry about. That is all I have to say on the matter, like to debate it go right ahead but I have no issues with doing whatever we have to do to stop the people who want to KILL us.

One more time, they want to KILL us, left and right, Bush is trying to stop them from doing that. Why don't you let him do his job.

Explosive New Information on Voces De la Frontera

Jessica McBride has gotten involved in a big way on this story. What we love about Jessica is, she is an original thinker.

Get this, the group is a 501 (c)(3) charity that receives public funds. In 2004 the group answered a tax form question on whether ot not it attempted to influence legislation and answered NA. See the form here.

NA?!?

And what exactly is going on here? This whole incident has been brought about by their zealotry over getting drivers licenses for illegal immigrants. Something still strikes me as WRONG with licensing illegal persons.

Voces de la Frontera also spent better than $40,000 on a "voters project campaign", no doubt the same campaign FAIR brought into question and Milwaukee DA McCann ignored.

Update on the Voces de la Frontera / Cathy Stepp story.

Late Saturday night I sent an email to the spokesperson for Voces de la Frontera asking for comments and an apology for their Friday evening intrusion upon the home of State Senator Cathy Stepp. Peter also sent an email, to my knowledge he has not seen a response either.

I have not seen a response as of yet. Yes, it was Sunday and the email may not have been seen. My guess is though they know all about the noise we have been making over this issue. I highly doubt they will respond to my inquiry.

While this story is all over the blogging community, no word yet from the Journal Sentinel or the Journal Times. The following blogs have commented: Texas Hold 'Em Blogger, Sykes Writes, The American Mind, No Runny Eggs, Wigderson Library and Pub, Musings of a Thoughtful Conservative, Badger Blogger, (if I missed anyone, please let me know)

Wisconsin Conservative Digest has a poll up on the bill in question, go vote.

I could send a post to the Journal Times, I am more curious as to if they will cover it on their own. I did send an email on Saturday so they should of known by now. My guess is this will be a topic for Jeff Wagner and Mark Belling tomorrow, I have sent both notification on this story.

I got an email from Senator Stepp this afternoon, they were afraid Voces de la Frontera would be back today, but they did make an appearance.

The more I think about the Marquette angle, the more interesting it becomes. Why would Marquette continue to associate itself with an organization with this type of track record? I guess for the same reason they tried to kick ROTC off campus. In doing further research on Voces de la Frontera, they have showed up at multiple anti-war events in the area. This is just a leftist group masquerading as an advocacy organization, now apparently a militant one.