I haven't seen numbers this bad since Jean Hundertmark ran RACC

From an MJS story today on the same-sex marriage amendment...

In the most recent reporting period, Fair Wisconsin said it had raised $1.3 million in the first six months of 2006, spent $218,204 and finished the reporting period ending June 30 with $1.1 million on hand.

Vote Yes for Wisconsin raised $2,454 in the same period, spent $548 and had $1,906 on hand.

Wow. $1,906 won't buy many tracts telling Wisconsin residents how gay people are conspiring to destroy the Christian church by asking to enter into a secular legal contract with one another. But maybe Tom Reynolds can take some time off from producing Ralph Ovadal's stuff and will give them a good deal on printing costs.

I'm not about to go on a limb and make predictions on the amendment - I think it's probably too close to call. But I will say that I think Republican leaders made a terrible miscalculation in bringing this to bear two years too late. There's no 70-30 landslide here, and by completely overreaching on the second sentence, they've offered a huge window for opponents of the amendment. They'll be lucky if they can manage a 53-47 win on this thing.

Funny.

Whoever signed me up for Scot(t) Ross' email list is funny. Yet what is more humorous is watching someone try to gin up interest in a race for an office that has practically no authority.

I mean, I'd think your present job has to be pretty unrewarding to want to run for an office that basically put seals on documents. It's like running for Notary Public, but on a larger scale.

Friday thoughts

• I actually bothered to listen to Aaron and Jenna's 45-minute round of verbal fellatio with the poor man's Mickey Foti. I'll have a more detailed review of their discussion on Monday. I would post now but I'm still recovering from the nausea this bloviated love fest set upon me. Jenna might blog like Ann Coulter but she interviews like Monica Lewinsky. Definitely a three-Kleenex affair.

• Stan Greenberg, best known as Bill Clinton's pollster back in 1992, has some new numbers out regarding vulnerable House seats across the nation. Worth your time to look at and think about. Could it be that the harder the GOP plays its "strong" cards, the more they drive undecided voters into the arms of the Democrats? By the way, you should read Greenberg's book. It's an interesting take from someone who samples public opinion for a living.

• Congratulations to Dan LeMahieu, Glenn Grothman, and the other Republican jokers on JCRAR for finally just acknowledging publicly what everyone around the Capitol has known for years: it's much easier when Republicans just let the Builders and Realtors write the state's environmental policy. I can almost hear the individual contributions rolling in now. Although, I must say that when I saw the WisPolitics headline "Snake May Lose Protected Status" I thought I was going to be reading about how Brian Blanchard rescinded Lyndee Wall's immunity.

• Tommy "Desperate to Remain Relevant" Thompson endorses fellow outstater J.B. "Two Mortgages" Van Hollen for Attorney General. In response, Paul "Jessica's Husband" Bucher trots out an endorsement from Lee Sherman Dreyfus that's almost as old as the former governor himself. Meanwhile, word is that Van Hollen flack Darren Schmitz has located the old McCallum for Governor school bus at the Carmax outside of Racine and is considering trading the current losing R.V. strategy for his old losing white school bus strategy. On the other side, Kathy and Peg have lots of money. But how much will they spend in the Democratic equivalent of Celebrity Deathmatch next month?

• Hey guys, big surprise: there was an 8th District congressional debate and John Gard still can't find his sense of humor. No shocker that John Gard can't deal with criticism. He spent four years making wise-ass remarks from the chair and now, when Kagen cracks one small joke at his expense, Gard's practically challenges Kagen to a street fight. John's thin skin and history of pettiness is a major part what made his four-year reign in the Assembly so unproductive. Well, that and a complete lack of big-picture ideas and any kind of a strategy to market them.
  

• Jim Doyle appoints a council to do something about health care costs. This is about as good as the Legislative Democrats pushing a resolution to maybe do something about it next session. Bold and dynamic leadership, as usual. Meanwhile, Doyle spends 14 hours a day in a secret basement under the Executive Residence trying to develop something resembling inflection in his voice for this fall's debates with Mark "Sominex" Green.

• Hmmm... Republicans would like to do something to be tough on crime? I don't know, maybe they could try giving enough funding to the district attorneys, whose offices are filled with terribly underpaid prosecutors, so that the DA's could spend more time nabbing criminals and less time arranging brat sales to cover their operating deficits?

Enjoy your weekend, everyone.

Carrie Lynch, Mrs. Garrison, and reproductive choice.

Last night I watched (okay, rewatched) the season 9 premiere of South Park, the episode entitled "Mr. Garrison's Fancy New Vagina." The gist of the episode is that Mr. Garrison gets a sex change, and is excited to have missed his period, not because he wants to have a baby, but because he really wants to have an abortion.

While watching this episode, I could not help but laugh quietly, as perhaps the only person who loves abortion more than Mrs. Garrison is Carrie Lynch.

Carrie, if you think "reproductive choice" is a burning issue for the 98% of the voters that fall between the extremists on both sides of this issue, I have a bridge I would like to sell you. The odds of abortion deciding the Plale race are about as good as the odds of me saying nice things about any of John Gard's former staff (what was ever done with Bryon Wornson's stack of thousands of unreturned phone messages, anyway? Are they hiding in a drawer somewhere with Rudy Silbaugh's unanswered constituent mail?).

Something else to think about.

If gay men could reproduce, I do believe that Reichen Lehmkuhl and new outie Lance Bass could make, quite possibly, the most attractive kids ever.

Something to think about.

Since there are no taboos here on the Playground, I'm about to comment on a recent comment left by Dad29, I think in jest, on one of my recent posts in which I dared to make a negative comment about Israel in passing:

Careful.

You're dangerously close to becoming "anti-Semitic."

Let me say up front that I think Kevin Barrett is a kook. The Holocaust happened, and it was a terrible and awful thing and the U.S. was wrong not to involve itself sooner to stop such atrocities. And I don't buy into the conspiracy theories that JewWatch peddles. But I'm going to link there in the hopes that you too can simply take into account some of the information presented and leave the editorializing on the side.

Fox News is frequently criticized by Democrats as being biased because it is controlled by Republican-leaning individuals. Similarly, many Republicans feel that CNN's ownership and control lends it to being a mouthpiece for the liberal agenda. Accusations of media bias based on political beliefs are rampant, and while some are overstated, all should be thought about carefully. We would all be foolish to think that the people who publish, report, and broadcast our news don't have opinions, and that those opinions cannot help but color, in some way, the end product that results.

The American media, in general, is far more pro-Israel than media outlets in any other Western society. So in a similar vein, I ask you to think about whether one's religion is equally influential in determining the content and perspective of the news one allows to be seen on television stations, heard on the radio, or read in newspapers and magazines across America.

This post shouldn't be taken as a defense of the Arab world in its relentless assaults on the Jewish faith. But similarly, I'm not going to blindly defend Israel either - they've got enough blood on their hands too. There's a whole lot of fault to be found on both sides of this matter.

You cannot criticize a black person in America without someone calling you a racist, and you can't criticize a Jewish person without someone calling you an anti-Semite. I believe both of those facts are ultimately quite chilling and terribly detrimental to public discourse on issues of importance in this country. People are often afraid to speak what they think for fear of being labeled in a negative sense, even if such labeling is completely unwarranted and without cause.

I'm not suggesting some wholesale control of all things media-related by folks who are Jewish. But I think we'd all have to acknowledge that people of Jewish faith are a lot closer to the levers of power in America than people who practice Islam - even the peace-loving kind not endorsed by terrorists everywhere. And if that's the case, shouldn't we wonder just a little why American media and foreign policy is so relentlessly pro-Israel?

I look forward to hearing what you, my readers, have to say. After all, it's the dialogue that makes blogging interesting. I'll post all comments that are respectful and civil in tone.

Gee, maybe he should've listened to his dad.

Maybe Bush 41 was a smart guy in not trying to open Pandora's box. This from a 1999 U.S. Army News Center report...

"I don't believe in mission creep. Had we gone into Baghdad -- we could have done it, you guys could have done it, you could have been there in 48 hours -- and then what?"

"Which sergeant, which private, whose life would be at stake in perhaps a fruitless hunt in an urban guerilla war to find the most-secure dictator in the world? ...Whose life would be on my hands as the commander-in-chief because I, unilaterally, went beyond the international law, went beyond the stated mission, and said we're going to show our macho?"

"We're going into Baghdad. We're going to be an occupying power -- America in an Arab land -- with no allies at our side. It would have been disastrous."

Hmmm... so the son invades Baghdad and eventually takes out Saddam. Four years later, Iraq looks like an ungovernable mess, Saddam will probably die before a verdict is reached, we still haven't found bin Laden, Iran is beating its chest, and Israel is suddenly resuming a policy of Mid-East vigilantism in Lebanon.

Fantastic.

A WaPo must read from Dana Milbank

God, this Dana Milbank piece went great with breakfast this morning.

For One Senate Candidate, the 'R' Is a 'Scarlet Letter'

More discussion over at Wonkette, including a chance to vote on who you think the mystery Republican is. Said candidate isn't saying anything that everyone else isn't already saying, but it's interesting that Republicans seem increasingly comfortable with the "Throw Momma From The Train" strategy this November, getting as far away from Bush as quickly as possible. First John Thune, now this.

You can sound the death knell on the W. presidency right now. History will remember him as a guy who muddled his way through 9/11, fought a war with no real strategy, and whose eight years have been littered with one domestic policy failure after another. Or does anyone still believe we're getting Social Security reform? An overhaul of the tax code? Maybe that prescription drug entitlement is as close as Bush will get to a legacy.

Who doesn't like a media slap fight?

Roger Ailes, best known for being the first to turn Florida red in an attempt to get his former boss' son elected president, is now fight playground bully Bill O'Reilly's battles for him. The folks at Faux News are apparently unhappy that MSNBC anchor Keith Olbermann keeps taking shots at O'Reilly for basically being a grade-A douchebag.

I used to watch O'Reilly, way way back in the fledgling days of Faux News. Unfortunately, as soon as O'Reilly started to become a phenomenon, he, like Jerry Springer, became an insufferable caricature of himself.

The only people who watch O'Reilly now have to be those who either love a bully or who are desperate to see someone pat them on the backs for believing what Bill does, right? The format is terrible. O'Reilly can't conduct an even remotely decent interview. He walks all over his guests. The only guy he's better than is Lou Dobbs, who's nothing more than Pat Buchanan's surrogate on CNN these days. We get it Lou, you don't like outsourcing or NAFTA or anyone who isn't white. Move on.

Olbermann, while he gets fewer viewers, delivers the day's news in a somewhat unorthodox and generally cynical approach that seems to hold everyone in equal contempt. And he's just as funny as he was during his years on SportsCenter. He is, however, no Stephen Colbert.

Besides, O'Reilly used to peddle dirt for Inside Edition. Shouldn't that alone be enough to destroy whatever credibility he once had?

I'd like to open the comments section to anyone who watches O'Reilly regularly. In all seriousness, I'd love for you to just explain how it is that you can stomach this guy. I'm actually curious.

Thanks for the help, would you like a knife in the back?

Sen. John Thune (R - SD), a man who would be unemployed if not for the efforts of the GOP GOTV machine in his 2004 campaign against then Minority Leader Tom Daschle, decided that today would be a good day to bite the hand that fed him.

While I appreciate Thune's honesty in admitting that running away from President Bush is the best strategy for Republicans in the fall (did Green and Gard not get that memo??), it's still pretty remarkable for Thune to make such claims publicly. Bush and VP Cheney were pretty much responsible for hooking Thune up with his sweet gig in the Senate. If anything, Thune's show a remarkable lack of gratitude here.

Guess it just shows that the only people you can trust to be consistent in politics are your enemies. You sure as hell can't trust your friends, especially guys like John Thune.

Bono, Sally Struthers to join McCormick campaign team

(Appleton) - U2 front man and political activist Bono will be appearing with 8th District Congressional Candidate Terri McCormick tomorrow, encouraging the federal government to forgive McCormick's enormous campaign debt.

The Federal Elections Commission reported that as of June 30th, McCormick has just $3,482 on hand with accumulated debt of nearly $65,000. McCormick's cash to debt ratio puts her somewhere around Sierra Leone and Burkina Faso in terms of economic stability.

"Look, I'm fully aware that there hasn't been such a terrible example of fiscal management since we all laughed at Richard Pryor's zany antics in Brewster's Millions," said McCormick, who trails badly in every recent poll except the one taken among John Gard's neighbors, who mostly have McCormick for Congress signs in their yards. "I mean, Kagen's a million-five in the hole on a personal loan, but he probably makes that in interest every year. I just need some help bailing water out of the Titanic. That's why I've asked my new friends Bono and Sally to help me out."

The Sally that McCormick referenced is Sally Struthers, who will serve as McCormick's chief fundraiser. Struthers is well-known for her advocacy on behalf of starving children around the world. The McCormick campaign will be launching a series of ads next week reminding you that for just fifty cents a day, you can save a public official from complete and total humiliation.

Political insiders see the addition of Bono and Struthers as a last-ditch effort by McCormick to draw attention to her campaign, which is tanking badly as the primary quickly approaches. McCormick is in a heated battle with her Assembly colleague, Speaker John Gard, for the right to lose to millionaire allergist and good guy Steve Kagen in the November race to replace Congressman Mark Green.

State Street: Now 20% Less Interesting than West Towne Mall

"If you want a dress made out of hemp or a grilled sub, State Street has what you want."

So said one of my readers today, and it made me realize how pathetic State Street and the surrounding area has become. Milwaukee sucks, but is making marked improvements towards becoming cool. And Madison continues to suck harder and harder, almost proving that indeed there is a law of conservation of coolness. Coolness can neither be created nor destroyed. It can only be moved from one place to another. In Wisconsin, it's heading east on I-94.

State Street used to be cool. Lots of neat little bookstores, indie record shops, local restaurants. Now, it's like a trip to West Towne Mall, without any of the stores anyone really wants to shop at. And only since Stillwater's closed are you less likely to get shot on State than on Allied Drive.

If you'd like a sub, why, we've got a Subway for you. And Charley's. And Potbelly. If ice cream's your thing, there's Coldstone. Ben & Jerry's. Chocolate Shoppe. House of Wisconsin Cheese serves ice cream, as does Memorial Union, if you're willing to walk another 100 yards.

Want a burrito? Well, you've got Qdoba and Chipotle just 50 yards from each other, and for a brief while you could go to Moe's Southwest Grill across the street. You can also get a burrito at Casa de Lara or Frida - you know, the place that's become a revolving door ever since Kosta's moved out.

Generic brew pub fare in generic bar environment? Hey, we've got the Dane, Angelic, State, Dotty's. Who needs originality when you can have the same restaurant served four different ways? And let's not forget Brocach, which looks like Dotty's but serves mediocre Irish food.

But hey, we've got more locally-owned coffeeshops than you can shake a stick at. Maybe they can put another one where State Street Arcade used to be.

I took a lot of heat for railing on Milwaukee a few months ago - well, actually, Free Will took most of it. Apparently it scared him out of blogging. Or he just realized he was a terrible blogger. But I digress.

I hope my dear readers didn't confuse my goofing on Milwaukee for an endorsement of Madison. Hardly. At least Milwaukee's on the upswing. Downtown Madison is just starting to look like those generic, upper middle-class suburbs that surround it. Sad, really.

The only thing Milwaukee is missing is a real university. And no Marquette, you won't count until your law school can actually get ranked and you can find five students to beat the five best students at Marquette University High School in quiz bowl. Oh yeah, and until you can improve that you weren't named after the interchange.

So Capitol drones, do us all a favor the next time you're looking to kill two hours on your lunch break, go eat at Nick's. Or Amy's Café. Or the Plaza. Grab a chair and a book and have a cup of coffee at Canterbury. Try to preserve some small part of what made State Street a great place, before it turned into an outdoor mall sans Pottery Barn and Victoria's Secret.

Big business is killing the feel of State Street. Mayor Paul, can't we do something about this?

Someone nuttier than the Kamikaze?

Um, ring the bell, I think we have a winner. Take your pick of recent stories running in Florida newspapers about the absolute meltdown Katherine Harris' U.S. Senate campaign seems to be having.

Palm Beach Post: Harris 'tantrums' cited in second staff exodus
Orlando Sentinel: Some ask if Harris campaign can survive
Miami Herald: Story of 'Joe's dead intern' began Harris' slide, insiders say
Bradenton Herald: Harris campaign hitting a speedbump
Herald-Tribune: Five staffers leave Harris campaign

I haven't seen a revolving door like this since Jo Musser ran for Congress or since, well, the Kamikaze joined the state Assembly.

And to think it was Harris' judgment that we relied on back in 2000 in sorting out our debacle of a presidential election in Florida. She's nuts, and odds are that she didn't just become nuts. As a non-partisan commentator who voted for neither Bush nor Gore in 2000, I would like to call a mulligan on that vote count, the voting process, the hanging chad, the whole damn Harris-approved shebang.

A crazy woman made George W. Bush president. How about in 2008 we just leave some darts and couple of candidate photos in the lunchroom at the asylum? It'd be cheaper than holding an election (three cheers for fiscal conservatism!) and it might give the Republicans a better chance of winning.

This headline should give you an idea of what the FIBs think of you...

From last Tuesday's Chicago Tribune...

Wisconsin firm buying Peoples Gas

Yeah, that was A1, above the fold, in big letters. And Peoples Gas is the colloquial term for Peoples Energy Corp. so don't think the editor didn't know he was making a funny when he let that one go (no pun intended there).

At least the Brewers are better than the Cubs this year. Suck on that, Chi-town.

Major networks catch wind of Grothman candidacy, call U.S. Senate race for Herb Kohl

It has been reported on a number of generally reliable blogs that Glenn Grothman is in fact going to challenge Herb Kohl this November. That is, of course, provided Glenn gets past Robert Lorge, a guy who's a tad goofier than Glenn but probably starts with better name ID. Nobody outside southeast Wisconsin really knows or cares about Glenn Grothman at this point.

I like Glenn Grothman. On social issues the guy is out in right field, and for that alone I could never vote for him. But at least he's an intelligent and thoughtful legislator.

Herb Kohl has gone from 52 to 58 to 62 in each of his general elections. As much as some conservatives will try to disagree, the fact of the matter is that Grothman is no better a candidate than John Gillespie, and Gillespie did 37 in a year in which Republicans were actually motivated to vote. It'll be a miracle if Grothman breaks 40.

Perhaps this is Glenn's penance for botching TPA beyond all belief. Perhaps Glenn believes strongly that Kohl should not go unopposed. I can only hope that he's not the second coming of Dave Magnum, a guy who runs because a bunch of Republican consultants desperate for a payday convinced him that he's got a chance.

Grothman is a token candidate, good only for measuring the size of the Republican base. Grothman won't get a single vote beyond that base. Kohl is simply too well-liked.

It will, however, be funny to watch two old guys who probably haven't been laid in ages try and talk to all of us about family values. That's part of what makes Grothman's obsession with birth control so humorous. It'll be interesting to see Kohl respond to that.

It will also be funny to see if Glenn walks over to the Elections Board on Tuesday and attempts to recreate some of that ridiculous will he, won't he drama from two years ago by stalking about all day, asking everyone and anyone if he's doing the right thing by running against Herb Kohl.

Sen. Kohl, let me be the first in the blogosphere to congratulate you on your resounding victory over Glenn Grothman. The size of your victory is a clear sign that Wisconsin does not support the off-the-deep-end, goverment-in-your-bedroom, religious extremism of radical conservatives like Glenn.

Up Close and Personal with the Supervisor

This might be my favorite comment ever. Such excellent use of sarcasm!:

Please pick a label and stick with it so that we know whether to like you or hate you. It's confusing and frightening for us to have to consider individual issues and people on their own merits. I need to know what you think of something before you tell me what you think of it. Otherwise, what's the point of even listening to you?

This blog is too hard.

Good. This blog should be hard. It should make you think.

I'm not here asking you to agree with me. Frankly, I could care less if you agree with me. I'm not a wingnut from suburban Milwaukee, trying to start a revolution. I'm not some moonbat from the Isthmus, trying desperately to save the world from itself. I'm trying to get you to do the one thing that absolutely terrifies politicians: think for yourself.

Be smart. Read books. Turn of that damn talk radio already - it's just filled with people who want to tell you what to think. Argue intelligently. Listen carefully, even to arguments that make your skin crawl. Go see "An Inconvenient Truth" even if you can't stand Al Gore and think you'll disagree with 95% of what you hear. Throw on your hemp sandals and walk out to the porch with your green tea to read Ann Coulter. For the love of God, just get the hell out of your comfort zone once in awhile. The Cheddarsphere is filled with a lot of political blogging that amounts to little more than support group ranting, people who want a bunch of praise from people who already agree with everything they say. Don't be that blogger.

If politics is short on one thing, it's intelligent people who think for themselves. Instead, we get hacks in leadership that want to sell everyone on the message of team; that politics is some kind of sport by which we define success based on the number of seats we pick up. For anyone who talks that way, I've got a swift kick in the nuts for you, if you can still find yours. Yours is the philosophy that has turned politics into a corrupt and hopeless hell. People win when government finds real solutions to real problems, not solutions to bullshit, made-up problems like flag burning and gay marriage solely designed to trick a bunch of rural evangelicals with a high school education into voting against their own economic interests. But I digress.

If I don't make you think occasionally, them I'm just another one of those half-assed spinmeisters or thought-free bloggers that swallows everything their party or Charlie Sykes or Air America tells them to. I have nothing against guys like Xoff and Brian Fraley, but do we really need a bunch of inarticulate, armchair wannabe pundits out here on the internet? More original thought, less partisan hackery, please.

And with that, I'll entertain a question:

Is there one, just one politician that kind of represents what you believe in?

Short answer: not really. When I vote, it's usually a matter of choosing better over worse. I write in a lot of candidates. As I told one person a few days ago, I've volunteered for Ron Greer and voted for Tammy Baldwin, and I don't think it's the least bit inconsistent. Ponder that for awhile.

Long answer: When I look at politics (and for that matter, most politicians), I mostly see a bunch of clowns who desperately are looking for that handful of smart people who will tell them what to do, what to say, and how to get re-elected. If the Republicans and the Democrats in the legislature seem pretty aimless right now, it's probably because their fearless leaders are all being sent to the hole for trying to save the sorry asses of the mindless masses who exist just to push the right colored button.

But here are 20 public officials that I respect. I'm not saying this is my top 20. It's just 20 that came to mind right now. I could name more, but 20 should suffice.

I'm not going to tell you what I admire them for, and by listing them, I'm not suggesting that they're perfect. Many of them are pretty imperfect. I will say, however, that if you locked these 20 people in a room for a week and asked them to solve the world's problems, they'd probably emerge with some pretty brilliant ideas.

• Dick Armey
• Tammy Baldwin
• George H.W. Bush
• Tom Campbell
• Chuck Chvala
• Bill Clinton
• Hillary Clinton
• Kathy Falk
• Russ Feingold
• Patrick Fitzgerald
• Newt Gingrich
• Rudy Giuliani
• Stephen Harper
• Scott Jensen
• John McCain
• John Norquist
• Colin Powell
• Paul Ryan
• Paul Soglin
• Eliot Spitzer

19 Americans and a Canadian for good measure.

With that, have a good weekend. And to those of you going to Summerfest tonight, I don't know how it is that you're supposed to choose between Styx and Cheap Trick at 10 p.m. Talk about a tough decision! I'm sure the legislature is forming a special select committee to figure this out for itself. It'll convene for 18 months and come up with a solution that nobody likes.

I guess Jim Webb came to fight.

For those you who know the world does not revolve around Wisconsin, I don't need to tell you that the U.S. Senate campaign in Virginia between presidential hopeful and redneck Sen. George Allen and Vietnam vet and author Jim Webb is one of the most interesting races at the national level this year.

Last week, Allen's team tried to score some easy points by attacking Webb's position on flag burning. Instead of getting soft and rolling over, the Webb campaign pretty much punched Allen straight in the face, responding in part with the following gem:

"George Felix Allen Jr. and his bush-league lap dog, Dick Wadhams, have not earned the right to challenge Jim Webb's position on free speech and flag burning... People who live in glass dude ranches should not question the patriotism of real soldiers who fought and bled for this country on a real battlefield."

Webb is a fantastic candidate with great credentials on military issues, including a stint as Naval Secretary under Ronald Reagan. Allen is one of the few real hopes that conservatives have to date in the '08 GOP primary. If Allen blows this, or if it's extremely close, he'll lose his shine awfully fast. Should that occur, it's anybody's guess as to who the conservatives will rally around. Even my conservative readers have acknowledged a remarkable lack of bench strength within the GOP right now.

Interesting stuff. Should be fun to watch.

Who says there's nothing on TV these days?

In reviewing the programming on digital cable this week, I've come to a conclusion. The state legislature must also be running the adult film industry. Both suffer from the same problem: an overwhelming lack of creativity. Both have become addicted to sequels.

In the legislature, we get Concealed Carry 3, Health Savings Accounts 4, Photo ID 3, TPA 27. Same old stuff, over and over again.

And in the adult film world? Well, check out the following titles appearing on digital cable and you'll see what I mean. These are titles that only a legislator could love (or rent while staying at the Inn on the Park - three cheers for per diems!):

• Sexual Life 2
• On the Road 3
• Ebony Lust 4
• China Syndrome 2
• Horny MILFs 4
• Lesbian Sex Files 4
• Rude Girls 5: Seedy Sluts
• XXX 8
• Hookin' and Bookin' 6
• Big Bang Orgy 5
• Dirty Deeds 6
• Euro Boff Job 4
• More Than a Mouthful 4
• Cunning Kitties 9
• Sweet Nectar 3
• Co-ed Nymphos 24
• Erotic Orient 8
• Brain Wash 2
• White Wife, Black Stud 5
• Mammoth Mounds O' Fun 3
• Small Chested Babes 4
• Dripping Asian Sauce 2
• Hot for Teacher 3: Carnal Co-eds
• Secret Asian Sex Toys 1 (huh? They must have a sequel planned already.)
• D-Cup Confidential 5
• Girls 5
• Oriental Nymphos 4
• West Side Stories 2
• Boobin' & Screwin' 3
• Only Girls 2
• The Nymph Next Door 4
• Internal Combustion 4
• Perfect Pink 8: Superstar Sex
• Star 69 9
• Buy Me a Drink Sailor 3
• Fast Cars and Faster Women 2: Sexy Speed Freaks
• X-Treme Office Sex 4
• Silk Panty Fantasy 5
• Wingman Joins In 3
• This Just In 3
• Muy Caliente Latinas 6
• Jiggling Jet Booty 3
• Co-ed Nymphos 20
• Latina Beach Boffing 3
• Interracial Blasts 3
• Nasty Freaks 2
• Spanish Fly 6
• Ghetto Girlz 3
• Tijuana Cuties 3
• Nubile Nubians 3
• Girls on Top 3
• Totally Organic, All Natural 4
• Naughty Nights 4
• Wild Horny & Willing 5
• Slut Across the Street 3
• Babes Illustrated 3
• Riding the Stallion 3
• Bra Breakers 6
• Real Girls Out of Control 6
• Next Door Nymphos 5
• Pick Up Lines 81 (81?!?!?!?! You've got to be kidding!)
• Nasty Next Door Babes 5
• Ripe and Ready 8
• Pretty Little Latinas 22
• Out of Control Wives 6
• Pleasures of the Flesh 12
• Tasty Berry, Sweeter Juice 4
• College Girls Xposed 7
• Freshly Picked 4
• Latin Street Hookers 3
• Doggy Style 3
• Asian Supreme 5
• XXtreme Domination 3
• Fiesty Foreign Foxes 4
• Sex Nymphs 5
• Insatiable Harlots 3
• Super Orgy! 3
• Sex Addict Fantasies 4
• Fresh Skin 18
• Kelly the Coed 15
• Hardcore Fantasies 9
• Oral Sensations 3
• Dripping Wet Sex 5
• Blonde and Easy 4
• Grand Canyons 1
• Free Form Intercourse 4
• Trailer Tramps 8
• Talk Dirty to Me 13: Behind the Scenes
• Euro Fantastic 2
• New Faces 5
• International Dolls 3
• Asian Candy 3
• Amateur Hardcore 9
• Fantastic Foreign Sex 1
• Extreme Euro-Porn 4
• Czech Mating 3
• Soviet Sex Kittens 4 (must be 80's porn)
  
• Euro Flesh 6
• Real College Girls 11: Serious Cramming
• Sex Patrol 4
• Erotic Eruptions 6
• Slick 2
• Forbidden Fornication 3
• Nerdy Nymphos 4
• Latin Extreme 2
• Group Sex Freaks 43
• Fire on the Hole 5
• Just Made It 15
• Asian Fever 8: Delicious Asians
• Extreme Sex 8
• My Morning 'Tang 4
• Horny Party Girls 8
• Shane's World 29: Frat Row Scavenger Hunt 3
• Hardcore Co-eds 9
• First Time Flings 5
• Security Cam Chronicles 3
• All Natural Nymphos 3
• Lips, Leather, and Latex 4
• Poolside Manners 5
• Forbidden Fornication 3

Anyway, if you want any reviews before renting a film, I'd ask this guy. I hear he likes erotica (and thunderstorms!).

98th District GOP Primary becomes a battle for second place

For those of you following along at home, Rich Zipperer was apparently the only candidate in the five-way Republican primary in the 98th to be endorsed by Wisconsin Right to Life (WRTL).

That must mean the other four candidates are competing for Upper Class Twit of the Year.

If you ask the hardcore pro-lifers over at Pro-Life Wisconsin, they'll practically tell you that WRTL is complicit in abortion by not opposing birth control. In other words, WRTL leaves a little wiggle room on the edges. If you are nominally pro-life, getting the WRTL endorsement is not tricky. In fact, I can only think of two ways to not get the WRTL endorsement as a Republican. You're either pro-choice or too stupid to return the questionnaire.

Now, any Republican candidate that fails to turn in the WRTL questionnaire is clearly unfit for public office, as ignoring WRTL shows an amazing lack of political acumen. There are few questionnaires that you actually have to return as a politician, but if you're a Republican, the WRTL and PLW queries are on the short list. Ignore them at your own peril.

Also, when I last checked, Twit candidate Bob Collison was busy running with the Libertarians and making trouble for the Republicans. Did the GOP pick him up in a draft day trade involving Dave Redick? Isn't that like swapping bench players? Was this a salary cap move?

But I digress. The Playground would like to offer an early congratulations to Rep-elect Rich Zipperer on his overwhelming victories in the primary and general. Thanks to you Rich, Bob Ziegelbauer will no longer be at the end of Pat Fuller's roll calls come January (or the beginning, depending on his mood).