Saturday, May 30, 2015

Nutburger Bill Sodemann has rolled away the stone



Teachers without licenses? Local reactions strong and sharp.  (Janesville Gazette, 5/29/2015)

Bill is all for it!

Bill is described here as noted for often conservative views and knowledge of school budget intricacies. 

Bill spent $27,190 of his own money in an unsuccessful State Senate campaign in 1998.

No surprise that "Morale and everything is terrible right now" at West Virginia's Martinsburg-Berkeley County Public Libraries


 
Berkeley Co. library system eliminates five positions, cuts operating hours to absorb cuts.  (Herald-Mail, 5/29/2015)

And as a result:
  • Hours of operations cut
    • Martinsburg:  64 hours per week/7 days to 44 hours per week/5 days
    • Branches;  45-48 hours per week/6 days to 32 hours per week/4 days
  • Number of programs reduced
  • 5 fulltime position eliminated
  • 2 fulltime positions reduced to part-time (benefits lost)
  • Part-time staff reduced to 20 from 32

Really, Scott Walker, "IF we get in"?



As quoted in..... On the Capitol: Scott Walker hedging on Iowa straw poll.  (Wisconsin State Journal, 5/30/2015)

Then what do you call attending 45 events in 150 days so far this year?







Scott Walker celebrates JFC Republicans' trashing of public education with trip to New Hampshire



Scott Walker floats ideas during cruise on New Hampshire lake.  (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 5/29/2015)

May 29.   Belknap County Republicans Sunset Dinner Cruise


May 30, afternoonPolitics and Pie, Concord, NH


May 30, evening.  Freedom Founders Dinner, Manchester, NH.


Related posts:
Scott Walker sneaks in trips to Illinois, Oklahoma.  (5/21/2015)
Scott Walker travels to New Orleans, claims moral obligation to shift public dollars to private schools.  (5/18/2015)
Scott Walker's upcoming itinerary includes Des Moines, laundry, and Washington DC.  (5/15/2015)
Scott Walker adds another Iowa event to his schedule.  (5/9/2015)
Scott Walker will return from Israel just in time to do his laundry and make yet another series of visits to Iowa.  (5/5/2015)
Without a hint of irony, Scott Walker trumpets Wisconsin tourism in his latest weekly e-update.  (5/2/2015)
It's becoming a daily routine to update Scott Walker's presidential campaign travel schedule.  (5/2/2015)
Scott Walker adds a couple of stops to his Iowa itinerary.  (5/1/2015) 
From Iowa to Massachusetts.  (4/28/2015)
Scott Walker runs to the arms of Iowa Republicans for approval.  (4/17/2015) 
Where in the world is determined presidential candidate/distracted Wisconsin governor Scott Walker?  (3/16/2015)
Furiously campaigning for the Presidency, Scott Walker travels on the Wisconsin taxpayers' 'dime'.  (3/4/2015)

Climate Change: "Supplying more juice to the event"


'More juice' in Brazos Bend State Park.



This has been a month of extreme weather around the world.  (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 5/29/2015)
Texas state climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon attributes the heavy rainfall to an unusually southern fork in the jet stream, a stuck stationary front and El Nino, and says the downpours have probably been made slightly worse by climate change.

For every degree Celsius the air is warmer, it can hold 7 percent more moisture. That, Nielsen-Gammon says, "is supplying more juice to the event."

While it is too early to connect one single event to man-made warming, scientific literature shows "that when it rains hard, it rains harder than it did 20 to 30 years ago," says University of Georgia meteorology professor Marshall Shepherd.

'More juice' in Bastrop State Park



'More juice' in San Marcos, Texas.



'More juice' in Houston.



'More juice' in Oklahoma.



'More juice' in Arkansas.



Other climate change posts:
Worldwide in April 2015, temperatures were above average.  (5/28/2015)
Record global heat continues.  (5/8/2015)
Is it any surprise that the education-bashing Scott Walker appears to be the favorite among Iowa climate change deniers.  (5/7/2015)
No Longer Mighty, the Rio Grande is Disappearing.  (4/15/2015) 
NOAA global temperature analysis: 2 months into 2015, we're experiencing the 2nd warmest year on record.  (3/18/2015)
It's a big (and warming) world out there: January 2015 is 2nd warmest since 1880.  (2/20/2015) 
Republicans need to generate a new climate change meme.  (1/21/2015)
Cold enough for you?  (3/9/2014)

Bald, mustachioed Kansas state legislator still can't face reality


Photo credit:  Kansas Legislature

As quoted in To Fill Budget Hole, Kansas G.O.P. Considers the Unthinkable: Raising Taxes.  (The New York Times, 5/29/2015)
Just three years ago, many of these lawmakers passed the largest tax cuts in state history, saying they would lead to economic growth. But that growth did not appear, and after repeatedly trimming spending to close shortfalls, legislators again find themselves in a prolonged budget battle with no easy answers, where both houses of the Republican-controlled Legislature are proposing tax increases.  [Emphasis added]

And here's what Donovan said about the 2012 tax cuts in an NPR interview in October 2014, when it was already clear that Kansas' "live conservative experiment" wasn't working.
So you really get your acceleration. It's like shooting adrenaline into the heart of growing the economy by taking that tax off of small business, where most of your job creation is.

Other Kansas tax cut debacle posts:
This is how Republicans in Kansas measure success.  (5/11/2015)
What Kansas Governor Sam Brownback said in 2012 and what's happening now.  (5/4/2015)
Kansas Job Growth (and what Investor's Business Daily chose to 'overlook').  (4/1/2015)
About that Kansas 'live' experiment in tax cutting.  (3/11/2015)
Unable to rev up voters in November, Kansans now turn to damage control.  (2/13/2015) 
How desperate and foolish is Kansas Governor Sam Brownback?  (2/10/2015)
A Washington Times exercise in myopia.  (1/5/2015)
Dear Governor Brownback, a "real-live experiment" in red-state governance isn't going to reverse a 120-year trajectory.  (12/25/2014)
Dueling Headlines, or, Just because Sam Brownback says it, doesn't mean it's so.  (12/20/2014)
KC Healthy Kids needs to work on its timing.  (12/20/2014) 
Sam Brownback: "The sun is shining in Kansas and don't let anyone tell you different."  (12/11/2014)
Why it's probably best not to be in Kansas anymore.  (12/11/2014)
So....does this make Sam Brownback a liar?  (12/10/2014)
Scott Walker takes his tax cut cues from Sam Brownback.  (11/13/2014)
Scott Walker, Sam Brownback, and Rick Scott: The comeback copycats.  (10/25/2014)
Governors Sam Brownback and Scott Walker use the same playbook.  (9/15/2014)
You don't have to inhale deeply to catch a whiff of Wisconsin here.  (9/15/2014)
It's not a pretty picture for Kansas Governor Sam Brownback.  (7/18/2014)
As Kansas becomes increasingly irrelevant, a goofy sideshow.  (2/14/2014)

No Friend to the Environment: Republican Representative Mia Love, Utah's 4th Congressional District


Photo sourceU.S. Congress
Text sourceCongresswoman Mia Love

Climate change caused by greenhouse gases (GHGs) has long been a concern of snow-dependent industries, as changes in snow and ice are predicted to be some of the first effects of a warming climate.

No Friend to the Environment dishonor roll.
Alabama Congressional delegation:  U.S. House of Representatives.   (Their anti-environmentalism can be summed up in one world:  coal.  Which is odd, since Alabama contributes a mere 1.9% of U.S. production, good enough for an overall ranking of 13.  The state's peak year of production:  1990)  
Alaska Congressional delegation:  U.S. House of Representatives
  • At-large District.  Don Young (R).   Ridiculed environmentalists as a “self-centered bunch of waffle-stomping, Harvard-graduating, intellectual idiots.....not Americans, never have been Americans, never will be Americans.” 
 Arizona Congressional delegation:  U.S. House of Representatives
Arkansas Congressional delegation:  U.S. House of Representatives
California Congressional delegation:  U.S. House of Representatives
Colorado Congressional delegation:  U.S. House of Representatives
No House Republicans hail from Connecticut and Delaware. 
Florida Congressional delegation:  U.S. House of Representatives
Georgia Congressional delegation:  U.S. House of Representatives
 Idaho Congressional delegation:  U.S. House of Representatives
 Illinois Congressional delegation:  U.S. House of Representatives
 Indiana Congressional delegation:  U.S. House of Representatives
 Iowa Congressional delegation:  U.S. House of Representatives
Kansas Congressional delegation:  U.S. House of Representatives
Kentucky Congressional delegation:  U.S. House of Representatives
Louisiana Congressional delegation:  U.S. House of Representatives
Maine Congressional delegation:  U.S. House of Representatives
Maryland Congressional delegation:   U.S. House of Representatives
No House Republicans in Massachusetts delegation.
Michigan Congressional delegation:   U.S. House of Representatives
Minnesota Congressional delegation:   U.S. House of Representatives
Mississippi Congressional delegation:   U.S. House of Representatives
Missouri Congressional delegation:   U.S. House of Representatives 
Montana Congressional delegation:   U.S. House of Representatives
Nebraska Congressional delegation:   U.S. House of Representatives
Nevada Congressional delegation:   U.S. House of Representatives
New Hampshire Congressional delegation:   U.S. House of Representatives
 New Jersey Congressional delegation:   U.S. House of Representatives
New Mexico Congressional delegation:   U.S. House of Representatives
New York Congressional delegation:   U.S. House of Representatives
 North Carolina Congressional delegation:   U.S. House of Representatives
North Dakota Congressional delegation:   U.S. House of Representatives
 Ohio Congressional delegation:   U.S. House of Representatives
 Oklahoma Congressional delegation:   U.S. House of Representatives
 Oregon Congressional delegation:   U.S. House of Representatives
  Pennsylvania Congressional delegation:   U.S. House of Representatives
South Carolina Congressional delegation:   U.S. House of Representatives
South Dakota Congressional delegation:   U.S. House of Representatives
Tennessee Congressional delegation:   U.S. House of Representatives
Texas Congressional delegation:   U.S. House of Representatives
Utah Congressional delegation:   U.S. House of Representatives