Special Kathy Nickolaus is special in more ways then one

Tuesday, 26 April 2011 16:19
Citizen Journalist

Madison Wisconsin - Breaking news today in the Prosser/Kloppenburg recount -- as it turns out the software that Kathy Nickolaus used the night of the election was written specifically for her. Yes, I am not kidding you. Politiscoop for the last few weeks have been pressing the GAB to explain this. The Fix is on article we pubished on Sunday, 10 April 2011. Since then we have been asking for answers -- we have even emailed the pdf of what we were sent and we have yet to receive an answer from the GAB. Could it be this new revelation played a part in Prosser appearing to have won the election two days before the votes were cast? -- We still don't know and we do not know why there has not been an answer given to us.

Today the website http://www.milwaukeenewsbuzz.com revealed that a through an open records request an email was sent to county clerks around Wisconsin. It stated the following:

The email, by Rusk County Clerk Denise Wetzel and addressed to other county clerks in Wisconsin, including Nickolaus, was sent on April 8, the day after Nickolaus revealed the vote-reporting error in a press conference. It reads, “Please note that the program Kathy uses IS NOT the new canvass reporting program that is in the (Statewide Voter Registration System) that we all have been using as of late. It is a completely different program that was created by GAB for Kathy to accumulate her votes prior to uploading them into the program that the rest of us use.”

The GAB has since declined comment on the matter. Will we ever find out why Prosser appeared to have won the election 2 days prior to the election and will we find out why Kathy was so special in Waukesha? If and when we do, Politiscoop will bring you the answers. Until then -- your guess is as good as mine.

http://www.politiscoop.com/component/content/article/35-last-24h-news/241-special-kathy-nickolaus-is-special-in-more-ways-then-one-.html

Monsanto Will Soon Be Allowed To Police Itself

BY Ariel SchwartzMon Apr 25, 2011

Monsanto, enemy of organic farmers and anti-GMO advocates alike, will likely be allowed to conduct its own environmental studies as part of a two-year USDA experiment. But there is no good that can possibly come of an experiment where the company behind nearly every genetically modified crop in our daily diets is allowed to decide whether its products are causing any environmental harm. And Monsanto isn't the only biotech company that will be permitted to police itself.

As it stands, the USDA is responsible for assessing environmental impacts of new GMO crops. The agency has been lax about this, to say the least. In 2005, the USDA gave Monsanto the go-ahead to unleash its sugar beets before preparing an Environmental Impact Statement. This decision triggered a judge to rule that Monsanto sugar beet seedlings should be ripped from the ground.

Because the USDA is so bad at doing its job on time, the agency decided to see if anyone else was prepared to do its EIS work instead. And so it looks like the USDA will at least temporarily hand over environmental impact responsibilities to the biotech companies behind GMO crops. The pilot program will allow these companies to conduct their own environmental assessments of crops or outsource the work to contractors.

The USDA won't actually admit that it's bad at performing its duties--instead, the agency claims that the move will make the environmental reporting process more timely, efficient, and cost-effective, according to the Federal Register (PDF). No knock on Monsanto, which is surely made up of great, honest people, but if the company has a vested interest in getting one of its crops deregulated, why wouldn't it try to fudge the numbers on an environmental review? And why wouldn't its hired contractors do the same? If this wasn't so dangerous, it would be funny.

Already, GMO crops are causing environmental problems. Monsanto's Roundup Ready soy, corn, and cotton have spawned Roundup-resistant superweeds, which force farmers to douse their crops in even more Roundup Ready pesticides (that's called synergy). And cross-pollination between GMO and non-GMO crops is making it ever more difficult for companies to stay organic.

Don't expect any immediately catastrophic changes to the food-supply chain. Instead, the USDA's experiment may slowly push through more GMO crops into fields and onto our plates. One day, we may realize that these crops have triggered irreversible damages. At least we'll know exactly who to blame.

http://www.fastcompany.com/1749695/monsanto-now-allowed-to-police-itself

Teabagger Violence and Cowardice

Environmentalists Adopt New Weapon: Seed Balls

by Margot Adler
April 15, 2009

Neighborhood organizations across the U.S. that want to improve the environment are using a surprising weapon: seed balls.

It's a technique for planting in abandoned places and often inhospitable land that was developed in Japan by Masanobu Fukuoka, a pioneer in "natural farming."

The technique has worked its way to Brooklyn, N.Y. In the Greenpoint neighborhood on a recent Sunday afternoon, a small group of activists walked the streets carrying paper bags filed with little balls made from clay, compost and seeds. They are members of a local group called NAG, or Neighbors Allied for Good Growth. They drop the balls on dirt piles and throw them into abandoned lots.

How To Make Seed Balls

Emily Gallagher, a NAG member who specializes in open space issues, says it's easy to make seed balls.

"First, we mix the mulch and a seed mixture," Gallagher says. "We try to pick a seed that is native to the area and can withstand drought. We mix those together, and then we knead it like bread into a red terra-cotta clay. It is important to use the red terra cotta, because other kinds have different chemicals in it that affect growth."

The mixture is rolled into little balls, which then has to dry. The group then puts them in bags and distributes them. The mud and clay protect the seeds from being eaten by birds and rodents. After three to five rains, the balls break down and the seeds germinate. The seeds used in Brooklyn are mostly wild cornflowers, lovely blue daisy-like flowers often seen by the roadside.

Development On Hold

The Brooklyn neighborhoods of Greenpoint and Williamsburg have been gentrifying. There has been lots of development and little attention to open space. But with the economic crisis, a lot of development is now on hold.

Michael Freedman-Schnapp, one of the co-chairs of Neighbors Allied for Good Growth, says that community gardening and the "guerrilla gardening movement" of the 1970s "was a reaction to all the abandonment in the city at the time."

"We are at the end of a development boom, and it is clear that the city's resources are going to be constrained," he says. "They are not going to be able to take care of everywhere in the city. And so the city is going to have to rely on citizens stepping up and taking care of their own surroundings."

There are a lot of fenced-in areas in the neighborhood. On the water front, there is a chain-link fence that has a sign with the little maple leaf that signifies a city park, but it's locked. A new re-zoning plan has promised that it will become a park, but nothing is happening yet.

Taking Control Of A Small Piece Of The Planet

If you look around the neighborhood, you can see people sneaking into abandoned, trash-filled areas near the river, finding places to fish, to jog and to walk their dogs.

Gallagher says that seed balls allow people to take control of their small piece of the planet. She says walking around on a Sunday morning throwing seed balls is fun and easy.

"I think it is really important to break down these larger tasks — of taking back our neighborhoods and cleaning up our open spaces — into tasks that are completely doable," she says.

Most people, of course, still have no clue what seed balls are. Back in 2003, during a World Trade Organization protest, a dozen police surrounded a parking lot. They were concerned that these strange pellets they found might be dangerous weapons. They threw them against walls and watched them "explode." It took them a while to figure out that they were seed balls.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103129515

South Carolina State Sen: Today’s Tea Party Should Go After Corporate Power Like Original Boston Tea Party Did

By Lee Fang
Apr 23rd, 2011 at 9:30 am

At a the Tax Day Tea Party on Monday in Columbia, SC, a number of politicians, including Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) and Gov. Nikki Haley (R-SC), gave rather routine speeches blasting the Obama administration and liberals. Towards the end of the event, one speaker delivered a fiery speech excoriating both Democrats and Republicans for giving away hundreds of millions in taxpayer money to well connected corporations in the state. State Sen. Tom Davis (R-SC) explained to the crowd that corporations are dominating South Carolina by hiring lobbyists, then demanding huge tax giveaways from the “ruling elite” of politicians. By giving money away to already powerful corporations, costs are pushed upon regular people in the form of service cuts or higher sales taxes.

After his speech, ThinkProgress spoke with Davis about corporate influence in politics and his fight against tax giveaways to powerful businesses. We also spoke about how receptive the current Tea Party movement is to his message. In fact, as many historians have accurately noted, the real Boston Tea Party was a revolt against a massive corporate tax cut given to the East India Trading Company. The tax cut effectively gave the British corporation a monopoly over the tea trade in colonial America:

DAVIS: You’ve got leadership in the House, Republican and Democrat, leadership in the Senate, Republican and Democrat that are presiding over this ballooning in special deals that are given away to corporations. And the numbers don’t like: $34 million dollars worth of targeted “tax credits” back in 1998 to corporations who lobbied for them has ballooned to $523 million in 2008 and this year it has ballooned to over a billion dollars. We’re not a big state. Our general fund is $5.1 billion dollars. And with a $5.1 billion dollar general fund budget, we’re giving away one billion dollars in tax credits to targeted industries that have lobbyists that are going to lobby for them? Somebody pays that bill, and there’s no free lunch. Who pays the bill are those folks out there that don’t have the power to hire lobbyists. [...]

FANG: The Tea Act that kind of sparked the revolution was actually a specialized tax cut for the East India Trading Company and it basically pushed the price of American imported tea out of the market. And it seems very similar to what you’re saying here.

DAVIS: And the Tea Party was about 1773. Here we are in the year 2011 and we’re still talking about politicians passing out special tax breaks to help--

FANG: To big corporations, like the East India Trading Company was a British corporation.

DAVIS: Oh yeah. It’s absolutely crazy. And its not the free market and its not what made our country great. Our country has been because we’ve counted on individuals taking risks, saving money, working hard. Now, it’s large corporations that have access to lawmakers that get huge tax breaks and there’s no way that the little guy can compete.

Watch it:

The anti-corporate streak of the Tea Party has been muffled by corporate-dominated front groups like FreedomWorks and Americans for Prosperity, which are both run by lobbyists. But in ThinkProgress’ conversations with ordinary Tea Party activists, many have expressed concerns that corporate lobbyists have far too much influence in politics. When asked about massive subsidies given to the oil industry, or the fact that dozens of some of the most profitable corporations in America don’t pay a dime in corporate income taxes, Tea Party activists have agreed with progressives that there is a structural imbalance in the political system towards corporate power.

Notably, many companies like Koch Industries (which funds fronts like Americans for Prosperity) have falsely claimed to represent the spirit of the Boston Tea Party. In fact, Koch Industries has used its lobbying power to demand a $50 million tax break from states like Kansas, and has lobbied to pollute tens of billions of dollars worth of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere for free.

http://thinkprogress.org/2011/04/23/south-carolina-state-sen-tea-party-should-go-after-corporations/

Candidates reach recount deal

By Jason Stein and Bill Glauber of the Journal Sentinel
April 21, 2011

Madison — Backing off stronger stances, Supreme Court Justice David Prosser and Assistant Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg found a courtroom compromise Thursday that called for a statewide recount, with a hand tally for ballots from the entire city of Milwaukee and other communities.

The hand recount will apply to ballots from some communities in 31 counties, including another 14 municipalities in Milwaukee County and 34 municipalities in Waukesha County. Dane County Circuit Judge Richard Niess approved the deal Thursday, allowing the first state recount in more than two decades to proceed with a cast that could include troops of observers for both sides.

"I think this is absolutely the right way to go," Niess said.

The deal came after Prosser representatives said he would strongly oppose any statewide recount as frivolous and Kloppenburg signaled that she wanted a hand recount of ballots from across the state.

The official tally in the race shows Kloppenburg lost to Prosser by 7,316 votes - less than 0.5% of the 1.5 million votes cast. The election initially appeared much closer, with Kloppenburg unofficially up by 204 votes. That was before Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus announced her initial, unofficial tally given to news media on election night failed to include 14,315 votes from the city of Brookfield.

Minnesota journalist Jay Weiner and Washington, D.C., lawyer Chris Sautter, who have both written books on recounts, have said that it is unlikely to change the outcome in this race, though Sautter has said it's still worthwhile.

Attorneys for Kloppenburg and Prosser said the hand recount would be held in areas where older voting machines do not allow data to be copied. That would mean, absent a hand recount, that their data would have to be destroyed before the machines could be used to recount ballots.

Kloppenburg attorney Susan Crawford said that state law provides for a taxpayer-funded recount to candidates in Kloppenburg's position.

"We think this is a fair result," Crawford said.

Jim Troupis, an attorney for Prosser, said he stuck by earlier statements that the recount was "frivolous" and highly unlikely to change the outcome in the race. He claimed a recount could cost counties up to $1 million.

But "we're certainly comfortable with it," Troupis said of the compromise, noting it would allow the race to be resolved as quickly as possible.

Reid Magney, a spokesman for the state Government Accountability Board, said that the board expects to issue an order on Monday that would begin the recount on Wednesday. Magney said there are no reliable statewide cost estimates on what a recount might cost.

Magney said that the city of Brookfield would have a hand recount on ballots from two of its seven polling places. He said that at least for now, the court order is for the hand recount to proceed in the select areas of the 31 counties, even if it turns out that some of the voting machines in question actually can preserve their data.

Milwaukee's data could be preserved, according to Neil Albrecht, deputy director of the city Election Commission. He said city election officials routinely copy voting machines' data into computer software that keeps the results by ward and has been ruled to meet state records retention requirements.

Including Milwaukee in a hand recount could have a significant impact on the length and cost of the process, although no specific figures are available. Milwaukee is by far the state's largest municipality, with 312 wards. Milwaukee County Election Administrator Lisa Weiner estimated that a hand recount could take twice as long as a machine recount, with county taxpayers picking up the tab for city poll workers' time and other expenses.

In areas where there is no hand recount, ballots would be recounted by the same machines or other methods used to count them the first time. Even in those areas, elections officials and observers for the campaigns still will be able to look at individual ballots.

Troupis said he expected that Prosser's campaign could have hundreds of volunteer recount observers traveling to Wisconsin from around the country.

Crawford said Kloppenburg's campaign hoped and expected that the recount could be finished within the deadline in state law of 13 days from the date of the accountability board's order.

By law, the memory devices in voting machines cannot be cleared for 21 days after an election or during a recount.

But Steve Means, executive assistant to Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, said that Van Hollen believed the best way to move forward would have been to verify the results in the specific machines and then erase those data. That's because by state law, a hand recount should only happen when it can be demonstrated in court to be more accurate than a machine count, he said.

But after hearing that concern, Niess moved forward with the deal.
Meeting denied

Meanwhile Thursday, Prosser angrily repeated his denial that he met with Gov. Scott Walker shortly after the court election, denouncing Kloppenburg's campaign for making the claim.

Melissa Mulliken, the campaign manager for Kloppenburg, made the claim Wednesday in a complaint filed with the accountability board. That complaint sought an inquiry into Nickolaus, not Prosser.

Citing unnamed sources, Mulliken alleges Prosser had a one-on-one meeting with Walker, a Republican, on the day after the election - a loaded allegation in an officially nonpartisan race in which the candidates questioned each other's claims of political independence. The next day, Walker's administration asked the Supreme Court to quickly get involved in a Dane County case that has blocked implementation of Walker's controversial plan to sharply limit collective bargaining for public employees.

Prosser said that since the election he hasn't met in private with either the governor or any of his staff.

"The idea that I would go to the governor's office is just patently untrue. There is not a shred of evidence. That is pure malice," Prosser said Thursday in an interview.

Walker aide Chris Schrimpf also denied Wednesday that the two officials met on April 6.

Crawford said Thursday that Mulliken felt her sources were reliable but would not reveal them since she didn't want to taint any possible investigation.

Larry Sandler of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this article from Milwaukee.

http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/120373999.html

15 Easy Ways to Really Cut Your Consumption

By Sara Novak
Wed Sep 9, 2009 11:25

Consumption costs us money and the more simply we choose to live the more money we can save. The thing is, no matter how eco-friendly the products that we buy may be, they still come with packaging, they still take energy to make, and they are nearly always still trucked from somewhere. My biggest/most obvious eco-friendly tip of the year is consuming less (energy, water, "stuff,") is better for the planet.

Easy ways to cut your consumption:

1. Bring a reusable bag wherever you go. Excess bags just add to the landfill and you don't need them in the first place. There's no reason not to do this. Try an easy Chico bag you can carry with you.

2. Ditch the processed food. It takes unnecessary energy to produce it, as well as tons of packaging.

3. Make your own cleaning products. Cleaning products (even eco-friendly varieties) often come in plastic bottles and they are trucked in from who knows where wasting tons of fossil fuels.

4. Calculate your water footprint. How can you know where you need to cut water usage if you don't know how much you're using and where you're using it?

5. Don't drink milk. Livestock consumes much of the land on the planet, whether for meat or dairy, and creates literally tons and tons of pollution, estimates are in the 1/5th of all greenhouse gases range.

6. Wear less makeup. Using less makeup will save us on resources and money, and you'll look better too.

7. Drink less bottled water, try to drink none. The U.S. sends two million tons of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottled water packaging to the landfill each year. Just drink the tap.

8. Wash your clothes in cold water. About 90 percent of the energy used for washing clothes is for heating the water.

9. Pass up the fast food joint, bring your own grub. Let me count the reasons why. There's the immense shipping programs emitting harmful gases, the millions of tons of waste generated annually, and not to mention the total lack of nutritional value in fast food restaurant's most popular menu items.

10. Skip Starbucks and brew your own coffee. Once we factor in the cost of the gourmet coffee and the cost of driving there, each time we brew a cup at home, we save about the equivalent of a gallon of gas.

11. Shut down your PC. If every American worker remembers to turn off their computer at night, the nation's companies would prevent the release of 39,452 tons of carbon-dioxide emissions, save $4.7 million in utility costs, and reduce energy consumption by 54.3 million kilowatt-hours per day.

12. Skip the store bought cereal and make your own granola instead. Cereal usually comes in a plastic bag within a cardboard box that all gets thrown away at least once a week if not more.

13. Become a weekday vegetarian. By cutting meat out of your diet entirely you save 5,000 lbs of carbon emissions per year, so even reducing your meat intake to two out of seven days will still make a big difference.

14. Grow some of your own food. This way you don't have to buy it and it's about as local as possible.

15. Add insulation to your attic. The Rocky Mountain Institute estimates it will save you 2,142 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions--through the heat your home retains in winter and doesn't gain in the summer--and hundreds of dollars in lower energy bills.

http://planetgreen.discovery.com/home-garden/easy-ways-cut-consumption.html

Sen. Ensign Resigns Amid Ethics Probe

April 22, 2011 at 8:20 AM EDT
By: David Chalian and Quinn Bowman

Sen. John Ensign is being investigated for his handling of an affair with a former political aide. File photo by Getty Images.

Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., is resigning from his seat in order to avoid further investigation and action from the Senate Ethics Committee looking into any possible wrongdoing related to his affair with a former senior aide's wife.

"It is with tremendous sadness that I officially hand over the Senate seat that I have held for eleven years. The turbulence of these last few years is greatly surpassed by the incredible privilege that I feel to have been entrusted to serve the people of Nevada," Ensign said in a statement.

"While I stand behind my firm belief that I have not violated any law, rule, or standard of conduct of the Senate, and I have fought to prove this publicly, I will not continue to subject my family, my constituents, or the Senate to any further rounds of investigation, depositions, drawn out proceedings, or especially public hearings. For my family and me, this continued personal cost is simply too great," he added.

U.S. Senate Select Committee on Ethics Chairwoman Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Vice Chairman Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., issued a two-sentence statement that appeared to be the equivalent of "good riddance."

"The Senate Ethics Committee has worked diligently for 22 months on this matter and will complete its work in a timely fashion. Senator Ensign has made the appropriate decision," they said.

Ensign said his resignation will become effective May 3. A former senator is not subject to penalty or further investigation from the Senate Ethics Committee.

Politically, Ensign's resignation can have significant impact on what's expected to be one of the most high-profile senate races of the cycle. If Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval appoints Rep. Dean Heller to the seat, Heller will get to run for election with some of the trappings of incumbency.

This would no doubt complicate what Democrats see as one of their best pickup opportunities in the country in a year when most of their time is going to be spent playing defense.

With the GOP only four seats away from a majority in the Senate, a complicating factor thrown into one of the Democrats' most promising pickup opportunities is welcome news at the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

"There will be a very clear choice for Nevadans between an uncompromising extremist like Dean Heller, who wants to end Medicare and cut loans for small businesses to give more tax breaks for the very rich, and Shelley Berkley, a true fighter for Nevada's economy and middle class. Nevada will remain a top target for Senate Democrats," said Guy Cecil, executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, in an attempt to put a good face on the unwelcome news.

If Rep. Heller gets the appointment as expected, he vacates a competitive House seat for which a special election will take place this year, providing a great opportunity to see how the political terrain has shifted, if at all, since 2010 in a major battleground state.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2011/04/post-14.html

Study estimates that illegal immigrants paid $11.2B in taxes last year, unlike GE, which paid zero

Albor Ruiz - Ny Local
Wednesday, April 20th 2011, 4:00 AM


I bet most of you didn't know undocumented immigrants contributed more - much more - to the national treasury last year than General Electric. Surprised? Yet it's true.

While GE - which earned a whopping $14 billion last year - is reported to have paid nothing, nada, zero in taxes (GE denies it), the undocumented paid billions in state and local taxes in 2010.

No, it's not me talking; it's the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy (itepnet.org), a prestigious, nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization that works on federal, state and local tax policy issues.

Obviously the old saying, "Nothing is certain but death and taxes," is not to be believed anymore. Or rather, only half of it can be believed.

Because death, of course, remains as dreaded and inevitable as ever, but with taxes the story is different.

"The rich are different from you and me," the famous F. Scott Fitzgerald quote, is a much more accurate description of what's going on in the country.

To no one's surprise, taxes are still as certain for working people - and whatever is left of the middle class - as they ever were. But for, well, GE and other corporate giants, the only certainty is that many found ways to contribute as little to the country's coffers as possible.

At the same time, Republicans in Washington are involved in a mighty struggle to protect the tax breaks of the country's richest 2%, while happily proposing to cut the most basic social services to Americans who really need them.

Closer to home, Gov. Cuomo has announced the so-called millionaires tax will not be renewed once it expires in December, although since it was established in 2009 it has brought in as much as $5 billion annually.

There is no doubt, when it comes to taxes the rich are really different.

Ironically the vilified undocumented population, among the poorest and most vulnerable in the country, does its part when it comes to taxes.

They pay sales taxes and property taxes - even if they rent, ITEP said. At least half of them pay income taxes. And, I believe, if they were ever legalized, close to 100% would do the same. "Add this all up," ITEP said, "and it amounts to billions in revenue to state and local governments."

ITEP estimates that households that are headed by undocumented immigrants (which may include members who are U.S. citizens or legal immigrants) paid $11.2 billion in state and local taxes last year. That included $1.2 billion in personal income taxes, $1.6 billion in property taxes and $8.4 billion in sales taxes.

New York is fourth in the country in tax revenue - $662.4 million - from households headed by undocumented immigrants, after California, Texas and Florida.

"These figures should be kept in mind as politicians and commentators continue with the seemingly endless debate over what to do with unauthorized immigrants already living in the United States," ITEP wisely advises.

"[These] immigrants - and their family members - are adding value to the U.S. economy; not only as taxpayers, but as workers, consumers and entrepreneurs as well."

Enough with those people - and they are many - who think they are the only ones paying taxes, and who accuse the undocumented of being "leeches" who contribute nothing. How about redirecting their fury to the real leeches, those with enough means and political clout to exploit every single loophole in our tax laws not to pay their fair share?

aruiz@nydailynews.com

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2011/04/20/2011-04-20_undocumented_unlike_rich_pay_plenty_in_taxes.html

Crazy