Shop the Pig?

What's not to love about this story?

MAY 25--Meet Lonneshia Shafaye Appling.

The Georgia woman, 26, was so determined to shoplift beer, bacon, cheese, and chicken wings from a Piggly Wiggly that she punched, spit at, and pepper-sprayed store workers who confronted her as she tried to flee the supermarket Wednesday afternoon, according to cops.

Appling, pictured in the adjacent mug shot, allegedly hid items worth $88.27 in a canvas bag. She “attempted to check out, only putting one item on the counter,” according to a worker quoted in an Athens-Clarke County Police Department report.

When a Piggly Wiggly employee--who had been tipped to the pilfering by a shopper--asked Appling about the concealed items, she tried to exit the store. After worker Jonathan Orr tried to stop Appling, she “pulled out some pepper spray and sprayed him in the face.”

Appling kept spraying as several workers tried to keep her from fleeing. The 340-pound Appling also allegedly punched Orr in the face and spit on the 28-year-old employee. As she successfully bolted from the Athens store, Appling “was dropping beer cans out of her purse.”

In my mind, this is the best part:

While in police custody, Appling told a cop to add whatever charges he wanted “because she was going to plea bargain and half of the charges would be dropped anyway,” according to the report. She also asked Officer Nathaniel Franco if her arrest would make the police blotter, requesting that the cop make his report “more interesting so that her arrest would make” the department’s compendium of notable incidents.

I'm sure there's nothing more endearing to law enforcement than a criminal who asks if they take requests.

But really, who isn't on the dole?

The WSJ is excellent at defining things in ways that don't call its readership out for also being at the trough.

49.1%: Percent of the population that lives in a household where at least one member received some type of government benefit in the first quarter of 2011.

Cutting government spending is no easy task, and it’s made more complicated by recent Census Bureau data showing that nearly half of the people in the U.S. live in a household that receives at least one government benefit, and many likely received more than one.

The 49.1% of the population in a household that gets benefits is up from 30% in the early 1980s and 44.4% as recently as the third quarter of 2008.

The increase in recent years is likely due in large part to the lingering effects of the recession. As of early 2011, 15% of people lived in a household that received food stamps, 26% had someone enrolled in Medicaid and 2% had a member receiving unemployment benefits. Families doubling up to save money or pool expenses also is likely leading to more multigenerational households. But even without the effects of the recession, there would be a larger reliance on government.

If one accurately defines being "on the dole" as receiving a preferential benefit for which other taxpayers do not receive, then who isn't on the dole?

Are you writing off interest on your home mortgage?  Non-homeowners help to pick up your slack.

Chose to have kids?  Thank the childless for your tax write-off, or in some cases, your Earned Income Tax Credit.

Own a business?  You're almost certainly getting at least one benefit that the business next door is not getting.  I'd tell you to buy them donuts next week, but they're probably getting a benefit you're not getting too.

So long as we have politicians that are head over heels for doling out targeted benefits to constituents in order to engender loyalty and fill their campaign coffers, none of this will change.  The game will simply be won by the people who spend the most money and drive the most voters to the polls - in other words, big businesses and old people.

Colin Powell on gay marriage

 Unless you're into theocracy, why wouldn't this be your position?

"I have no problem with it.  In terms of the legal matter of creating a contract between two people that's called marriage, and allowing them to live together with the protection of law, it seems to me is the way we should be moving in this country...  I respect the fact that many denominations have different points of view with respect to gay marriage and they can hold that in the sanctity in the place of their religion and not bless them or solemnize them."

EPA-NASCAR partnership creates hilarious online comments

I tend to think of this the same way as the NFL promoting breast cancer awareness, or the NBA doing its Noche Latina program to recognize its Latino fans.  Funny to read the comments and listen to some conservatives lose their marbles over it.

President Obama’s eco-friendly EPA inked a green partnership deal with high-octane NASCAR Monday to promote recycling and environmentally-friendly products to the sport’s millions of fans.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, NASCAR will encourage fans to buy “sustainable concessions” at races, expand the use of “safer chemical products,” conserve water, reduce waste, promote recycling, push products approved by the EPA that have a small enviro footprint and encourage suppliers to get an “E3 tuneup” aimed at promoting sustainable manufacturing.

Missing: any talk of greening races or race cars that consume about two million gallons of gas a year and average five miles per gallon.

“Yes, the focus is on suppliers and programs, not green cars,” said an EPA spokesman.

Instead, it’s a first step to get fans and suppliers to think green while favorites like Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Tony Stewart lay down some rubber.

Illinois Legislature to end tuition giveaways

Incredible.

The Illinois House today voted to end a century-old legislative scholarship program beset by decades of abuse by politicians who passed out the tuition waivers to relatives and children of cronies and campaign contributors.

The 79-32 vote sends the scholarship ban to Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn, who has said he’ll sign it into law.

Rep. Jack Franks, D-Marengo, voted for the ban. "We're not here to create fiefdoms,” Franks said.

Rep. Monique Davis, D-Chicago, warned that doing away with the scholarships will hurt high school students who might not be able to afford college.

"What more can we take from them?" Davis said. "Will your heart really let you take a scholarship from a kid who's trying to get a degree in the state of Illinois?"

Jeez, Rep. Davis, here's a novel idea.  If it's about the scholarships, offer an amendment that keeps the funding intact and transfers the authority to grant the waivers back to the University of Illinois Board of Trustees.

Are Wisconsin Democrats making a bigger mess for themselves?

This from Alex Altman at Time.  I wouldn't disagree with him.

To protect their imperiled star, the GOP has assembled a solid ground game buoyed by robust fundraising and a clear economic message. By contrast, Walker’s opponents are a fractured force: a loose constellation of Democrats, political-action committees and labor groups with overlapping goals but spotty coordination. The Democrats have been unable to drive a consistent message, careening from collective bargaining, Walker’s purported dishonesty and the “war on women” to jobs and education.  In part, that’s because the recall push remains balkanized, with the state party, labor groups and PACs like We Are Wisconsin and United Wisconsin each acting autonomously. And some of them are fine with the mixed messaging. “You always see liberals suffering from it to a certain extent,” says Reeder, the Solidarity Sing Along leader...

The DNC’s tentativeness about plunging into the contest, which Republicans attribute to fears that a loss would tarnish President Obama’s chances in the state, has irked some local activists, who note that two-thirds of Walker’s $25 million haul came from out of state, while the RNC pledged to go “all in” to protect its imperiled star. “It’s very disheartening,“ Reeder says of the DNC’s absence in the race. During an interlude in the singing, he instructed his brethren to “call the DNC, tell them we need the help. We are on the front lines. We need it now.” The mention of the national party sparked a few boos.

Long-time readers know that I am neither a fan of these recalls nor of Scott Walker.  But if the Democrats come up bone dry on June 5th - realistically, the most likely proposition at this point - one has to wonder if union activists will recognize their attitude of "if democracy is good, then more democracy is better" is hurting more than helping.

The Kapanke and Hopper seats were gimmes last summer, and most other recall targets won by larger margins than they did in 2008.  The unions failed to beat Justice David Prosser last spring in what was effectively turned into a referendum on collective bargaining.  Prosser will be recall-able next year.

Will the left be able to resist?  When does it stop?

Why the middle class matters.

Because without a robust middle class, there's nobody around to buy anything.  Rich people don't create jobs.  People who buy stuff create jobs.  That's not liberal or conservative.  That's common sense.

Wisconsin: Still losing jobs

That is, unless you ask for a statistical analysis from college dropout Scott Walker, in which case you'll get a pile of sketchy preliminary data and a lot of BS from DWD Secretary Reggie Newson.

At a time when government jobs statistics are under scrutiny as never before, preliminary data released Thursday showed that Wisconsin lost an estimated 6,200 private-sector jobs in April.

April showed the second consecutive month of private-sector job losses in the state, according to the preliminary data from the state Department of Workforce Development.

Meanwhile, again according to the preliminary data, Wisconsin's state government added 500 jobs while the state's cities and counties shed jobs. Adding in the net job gains in the government sector, the state lost an estimated total of 5,900 jobs in April from March.

The state's unemployment rate, which comes from a separate monthly survey of households rather than employers, declined to 6.7% in April from 6.8% in March, the preliminary data show.

Thursday's numbers come amid an unprecedented level of skepticism about the validity and reliability of the monthly state jobs report.

Earlier in the week, Gov. Scott Walker released fourth-quarter employment data - not due for formal release until June 28 - showing Wisconsin added over 23,000 public and private sector jobs last year.

It was an unusual step for Walker because the numbers had not been fully vetted by federal authorities at the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The new figures from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages - which is collected from 95% of the state's private and public sector employers and deemed reliable by most economists - contrast sharply with more than a year's worth of monthly employment surveys, which suggested that Wisconsin lost 33,900 jobs last year, ranking it last among the 50 states.

Wisconsin's job growth is apparently a very special kind of job growth that hides itself from the BLS' most convention and widely-used metric.

Keep promising those unicorns, Governor.

White House website shoehorns Obama into everyone else's bio

This is tacky.

Many of President Obama’s fervent devotees are young enough not to have much memory of the political world before the arrival of The One. Coincidentally, Obama himself feels the same way—and the White House’s official website reflects that.

The Heritage Foundation’s Rory Cooper tweeted that Obama had casually dropped his own name into Ronald Reagan’s official biography on www.whitehouse.gov, claiming credit for taking up the mantle of Reagan’s tax reform advocacy with his “Buffett Rule” gimmick. My first thought was, he must be joking. But he wasn’t—it turns out Obama has added bullet points bragging about his own accomplishments to the biographical sketches of every single U.S. president since Calvin Coolidge (except, for some reason, Gerald Ford). Here are a few examples:

• On Feb. 22, 1924 Calvin Coolidge became the first president to make a public radio address to the American people. President Coolidge later helped create the Federal Radio Commission, which has now evolved to become the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). President Obama became the first president to hold virtual gatherings and town halls using Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, etc.

• In a 1946 letter to the National Urban League, President Truman wrote that the government has “an obligation to see that the civil rights of every citizen are fully and equally protected.” He ended racial segregation in civil service and the armed forces in 1948. Today the Obama administration continues to strive toward upholding the civil rights of its citizens, repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, allowing people of all sexual orientations to serve openly in our armed forces.

On Fitzwalkerstan and Unicorns

AB: Neumann's endorsements are from out of state
AB: his staffers are from out of state
AB: on facebook, fitz's staff is celebrating the fitz "win" at the convention
AB: I suppose he should get his fun in now
RS: hilarious
AB: this is bad enough, but imagine if the convention had endorsed fitz
AB: the rest of wisconsin would be like, "Who?!"
RS: conventions are so irrelevant
AB: walker doubles down on 250k jobs
AB: wow
AB: well, why not?
RS: no kidding.  nobody cares about facts.
RS: why not promise unicorns and leprechauns too?
AB: 250k unicorns and leprechauns?
AB: I mean, don't make vague promises about unicorms
AB: be bold
AB: promise 250k of them
RS: haha yes
RS: and if no unicorns surface in the first year
RS: don't let that scare you
RS: there are three more years left for the unicorns to show up
RS: i stand with unicorns.

More proof the GOP didn't end up back in power because of its brilliance.

Who wants to put down twenty bucks that says this is what the results look like when real human beings vote in a few months?  Anyone?  Bueller?

Madison - None of the GOP candidates for U.S. Senate could muster enough votes Saturday to garner the state Republican Party's endorsement, and the balloting included a weak showing by former Gov. Tommy Thompson.

Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald of Horicon took the most votes, but fell short of the 60% needed to secure the party's endorsement. It was a surprisingly strong showing for Fitzgerald, who has lagged in fundraising and polling.

Thompson, elected governor four times, was knocked in the second ballot with 18% of the vote. Madison hedge fund manager Eric Hovde was eliminated in the first ballot.

In the final ballot, Fitzgerald bested former U.S. Rep. Mark Neumann, 51.5% to 48.5%.

So the guy with no money and no staff edges out the jackwad that everyone hates, and they beat the guy with all the name ID and bipartisan appeal and the smart rich guy who spends his money helping the poor in developing countries.

Hahahaha.  Try that out in November and let's see how it goes.

Those crazy, progressive Golden Girls

Nice to know that 21 years later, America finally has a President who's caught up to Sophia Petrillo.

Three-time statewide candidate blames loss on lack of name ID

Is Kathleen Falk sane?

Hours before the results were known; Falk said she was proud of the campaign she had run but also said her weakness, should she lose, was her lack of name recognition statewide.

"Tom just ran and is well-known," Falk said of Barrett, who ran and lost for governor to Walker by roughly 125,000 votes in November 2010. "I had to get myself well-known and that's harder to do in a shorter amount of time."

No, Kathy.  You lost because you got into bed with the public employee unions and most Wisconsinites are sick of that battle.   You spent 14 years as Dane County Executive and STILL lost it to Barrett by 31 POINTS.  Are you saying you got your ass kicked in Dane County because voters didn't know who you were?  Did they all forget who you were in the last year?  Were there not enough public employees in Dane County for you to be competitive?  Or is it possible that even most liberals are tired of you?

I've seen some bad excuses before, but this sets a new record for post-defeat bullshit.

 

Chippewa Falls man takes voter disenfranchisement to the next level

This guy's crazy and slightly misogynistic, but I'll give him credit for being committed to the cause.

A Chippewa Falls man who repeatedly tried to block his estranged wife from driving to the polls Tuesday was hospitalized with head, neck and back injuries when she struck him with her sport utility vehicle.

Jeffrey Radle, a Gov. Scott Walker supporter, was on foot.

Amanda Radle, a recall proponent, was in a Dodge Durango.

The pair had been arguing early Tuesday afternoon over who she was going to vote for in the gubernatorial recall election primary, said Chippewa Falls Police Chief Wendy L. Stelter.

"She was planning on voting for a certain candidate, and it wasn't the candidate he wanted her to vote for," Stelter said.

When Amanda Radle, 30, attempted to pull out, Jeffrey Radle, 36, stood in front of her, according to a police department statement. She nudged him with the vehicle several times.

Each time he would "retreat and re-establish his ground," the release said. "At one point he climbed onto the hood."

When she finally attempted to drive around him, Jeffrey Radle jumped in front of the vehicle and was hit. Amanda Radle left the scene and went to the police department to report the incident, the release said...

Stelter did not know what candidate Amanda Radle wanted to vote for or whether she planned on voting in the Democratic or Republican primary. Mike Radle said it was "one of the women candidates" - either former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk or state Sen. Kathleen Vinehout of Alma.

The irony of politicizing faith

I strolled over to the Charlotte Observer website to read their reporting on North Carolina's proposed gay marriage amendment and was greeted by this photograph:

05.08.12 - Dr. Patrick Wooden Sr. pastor of the Upper Room Church of God In Christ and his wife Pamela Wooden returns that show strong support for Amendment One during an election night party at the North Raleigh Hilton. ROBERT WILLETT - rwillett@newsobserver.com

I often find the position of black social conservatives on gay marriage fascinating.  After all, the Bible talks a lot about slavery.  How to obtain slaves, how to dispose of slaves, how to treat slaves, how to sell your daughter into slavery.  But it says nothing about banning slavery, or slavery being immoral.

The Bible also mentions homosexuality in a couple places.  It discusses homosexuality being bad way less than it discusses slavery in a way that practically condones the practice, or at minimum does nothing to actively encourage opposition to it.

In fact, the best arguments social conservatives can usually muster are arguments like "well, social change takes time.  Jesus couldn't have taken such a radical position on slavery without compromising His work on other issues.  Trust that God will work it out in His own way."  Sound familiar?  It's the same stuff people say to homosexuals about the right to marry.

So why not go whole hog on this Bible thing?  If it's okay to use the Bible as an excuse to discriminate against homosexuals, can we use it to reinstitutionalize slavery?  I mean, I'm just reading what's actually IN the Bible...

Let's get together, yeah yeah... eh, screw it.

Tom Barrett is smart.  The rest of the Dems?  Meh.

Short-lived plans by the Democratic Party of Wisconsin to hold a unity rally in Madison Wednesday, the day after the recall election primary, have been replaced with a plan to launch a get out the vote effort.

With the historic recall of Gov. Scott Walker set for June 5, party officials say the best use of time and resources is to ask volunteers and supporters across the state to make phone calls, knock on doors and “do everything within their power to generate the turnout” needed to win the election.

The public employee unions have nowhere to go in this race, and Barrett being seen with them only hurts him among the seven people in Wisconsin who are still too clueless as to be undecided in this race.  (And to digress briefly, what likely voter in Wisconsin could possibly be undecided after living through the last 18 months?  Seriously, who the hell are you, undecided voter?)

By this time tomorrow night, I suspect the returns will show that Wisconsin Democrats are already plenty united.  The public employee unions will once again have bet big and lost big.  And Tom Barrett's supposed to show at a rally the next day to make the losers feel better about losing yet again?  

Enough with the political narcissism, AFSCME toadies.  Get over yourselves.  Nobody cares.

When GOP seniors pander

It's painful to watch the venerated old guard of the GOP have pander to what they think is the new base of the GOP.  Dick Lugar's transformation from senior statesman to vacillating panderer has been especially woeful, but in Wisconsin, it looks like Tommy Thompson isn't immune either.

"Tammy (Baldwin) is a taxer. I'm a cutter. Tammy wants a government-controlled health-care system. Always has. And I want a market-based situation. Tammy wants to regulate. I want to deregulate. Tammy wants government to control everything. I want you, the business people, to control everything."

Apparently it didn't occur to Tommy that just because people may be skeptical of government doesn't mean they're eager to elect plutocrats.  If the only two options are allowing citizens to make decisions through elected officials or "letting business people control everything," sign me up for the former.