Nov 15, 2014

America's Dairyland Is Sickened by Factory Farm CAFOs

In the beautiful tourist destination, Door County, a report has surfaced of seven people including a four-month-old infant sickened by Ecoli from a bovine source, likely liquid cow manure.

"A young family visiting Door County for a weekend in mid-September were the subject of a public health investigation when they returned to their Calumet County home and their four-month-old daughter came down with an illness that was identified as E. coli bacteria from a bovine source," writes Jim Lundstrom in the Peninsula Pulse.

Scott Walker has called for more mega dairies, CAFOs, that produce liquid cow manure by the millions of gallons annually and runs off into surface water and aquifers.

Walker wants less regulation and less protection for Wisconsin's waters.

"The dairy trend today is to raise animals as quickly as possible by-the-numbers just to fill the pool of short-lived animals that have limited lives on rations and drugs to produce their maximum in their short lives," notes Jerry Viste of Sturgeon Bay in northeastern Wisconsin. (Green Bay Press Gazette)

America's Dairyland is becoming the sickening site of an increasing number of operations where "animals are forced to stand, sleep and feed in their own urine and feces 24 hours a day, inhaling ammonia, hydrogen sulfide and other gasses into their lungs" as in Yakima Valley in Washington.

In central Wisconsin, meanwhile the fight continues against a proposed massive CAFO sited in the Town of Saratoga in Wood county where so many people are in opposition to this vile water-polluting obscenity that even the local GOP state rep had to pretend to be against the CAFO in a political fraud.

Nov 13, 2014

Joe Wineke Likely to Seek Chair of Wisconsin Democratic Party

Updated - Joe Wineke confirmed this morning on the Joy Cardin show (WPR) that he will likely seek the nomination of chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party.

Wineke served as chair from 2005-09 and served in the state assembly and state senate.

"I've boiled it down to 14 words and three messages: Quit playing defense all the time. Message matters. And you can't beat somebody with nobody," said Wineke.

Wineke alluded to the fact that many Wisconsin legislative races featured no democratic candidates.

Asked point-blank if he'll run for chair next summer, Wineke said, "Oh, I probably will (run). I care deeply about the Democratic Party and the issues they stand for."

Wineke stressed the need for grassroots work.

"You don't win from the top-down," said Wineke.

Wineke is from Verona in Dane County, and is widely respected for his ability to strategically manage the political party that has been virtually swept by the GOP in non-presidential elections.

Joe Wineke is also known as a man who listens.

At the very end of the show, Wineke qualified he'll run if it's okay with his wife.

But it's a safe bet Joe would not be on the radio this week if his family were not on board.

Nov 12, 2014

John Doar Worked for Civil Rights

Wisconsin native John Doar passed away yesterday.

Doar personified why the civil rights division of the U.S. Department of Justice became for many Americans the fulfillment of the promise of equality.

Today, the likes of John Doar are the political enemies of the White Party, what used to be the Republican Party.

Nice work by Roy Reed in the Times this morning.

Betting when John Doar did his work for the DoJ in the 1960s, he did not imagine the hostility of the Republican Party of 2014 to the fundamental civil rights of all Americans.

Likely, Doar would have been appalled by the statements of the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court John Roberts that racism is now over in America.

Nov 11, 2014

Humane PTSD Regs, Better Veterans' Care Are Obama Legacy

Myriad chickenhawks and neocons led the call against phantom PTSD fraud ala voter fraud

President Obama's administration expanded the VA's disability programs, and changed the PTSD rules for obtaining disability benefits, a move that drew criticism from the neocons and their allies.

This comprehensive altering of the PTSD disability regulations in 2010 is an achievement vastly underreported, and following eight years of neocon war was badly needed.

Obama expanded the rules for Agent Orange claims.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI), Gulf War Illness, and an end to prosecuting and intimidating veterans for tenaciously pursuing disability benefit claims like Wisconsin's Keith Roberts, Obama made huge strides in veterans' care, though the GOP is trying to rid political history of this reality.

This Veterans Day, stand with President Obama and the many safeguards for veterans instituted against Republican Party opposition.