The blog post to end all blog posts…

Wow…it is amazing how hectic the season and travel can make a person. I just realized last night that I had not posted on my blog all week.

Sorry about that so here is the week in review:

Monday, December 8, 2008

A big thank you to all of you that contributed to the Arthritis Foundation, because of you I was able to raise $475!!! Now I know that it was short of my goal but in tough times you just have to face facts!

The Las Vegas Marathon was a perfect race for me the weather was great for running (50 degrees and overcast) and due to the training I was able to put together a new personal record…even after completing 4 other marathons this year!! My time was 4:45:05.

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The Minnesota recount is still on going!!

Club for Growth: Minnesota Senate Recount: Clear as Mud

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Farm Subsidy Database

A big thank you to Keith over at Government BYTES! For this one: Farm Subsidy Database!

Did you know that is 2006 Wisconsin received over $382,000,000 in USDA subsidies?!?! And that 52% of all farms and ranches DO NOT collect USDA subsidies?!?!

Racine County received $3,877,000 in USDA subsidies in 2006.

Have fun!

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New energy? Could be – Scientific American: Wave power put to the test in California

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Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Name that Place

Last week was pretty easy with those nice big blue roofs and CU got it right they are Culvers!

Name this Place:

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Caledonia Politics – Businessman to run for Seat #5

Woodward announces for Caledonia Village Trustee, vows to run aggressive campaign to earn seat

December 8, 2008

Caledonia resident Curt Woodward announced his candidacy today for the Village Board of Trustees.

“Caledonia is such a wonderful place to live,” said Woodward. “I decided to run to help make sure our community continues to be a great place to live, work and raise a family.”

Woodward has been involved in the community for many years and is the owner of Retail Fixture LLC, a small business providing custom fixtures to retail industry world wide. Woodward and his wife Lisa founded the firm over 15 years ago and have grown it from a few employees to now over 100. In addition Woodward recently opened Artistry Furniture and Gift Gallery in downtown Racine.

“My parents always said that if you want to keep something great you have to work hard to make it happen,” said Woodward. “My lifelong dream was never to run for public office, but after being encouraged by many, many community leaders, I felt it was my turn to step up.”

Since becoming a Village, Caledonia elected officials have been working hard to move our community forward. Woodward wants to be a part of insuring that the Village maintains an adequate balance of growth and development along with the high quality of life so many residents have come to love about the Village.

“We need to make sure that our community grows but we also have to remember that families won’t be able to afford to live here if we don’t keep property taxes in check,” Woodward said.

Curt is an avid outdoorsman and lover of nature, along with the four acre pond he had dug, one of his proudest accomplishments is that his property contains hundreds of trees planted by him and his family.

“I look forward to running an aggressive campaign going door to door in every part of the village. I want everyone to know that I intend to work hard to earn their votes,” Woodward said.

Woodward is a member of RAMAC, Grace Lutheran Church LCMS, where he is a Trustee and usher captain, ARE (Association of Retail Environments) NFIB, Downtown Racine Corporation, RCEDC and has coached youth basketball for over 8 years.

Curt & his wife Lisa have five children Jade 19, Andrea 18, Joseph 15, Samantha 11 and Jack 5.

Woodward is running for seat #5, currently held by Bob Bradley.

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Illinois Governor Arrested…you got to love headlines like that!!!

I know that the Obama camp (set up behind the fictitious “office of the President Elect”) is saying that Obama is clean but a shooting star in the Democrat party, out of Chicago, with ties to the Governor, an unrepentant domestic terrorist, and a felon (can you say Rezko?) can not be as clean as he has stated.

Think about it…the guy that will soon be president has gone to a church and has been baptized, married, and had his children baptized by a pastor that says “God da** America!” but then claims that “that isn’t the pastor I knew.”

How long before the ties between the Chicago machine and Obama really come to light?

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Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Interesting…New Scientist: Hot landslides may have set off mystery wildfires

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Obama calls for Blago to resign…What?!?
Democrats don’t do that!
What is going on here?
Have I lost my mind?
Yeah…Obama isn’t part of the Chicago machine…and I’m an Olympic Sprinter.

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The auto bailout is still on the table…would someone just kill the damn thing!!!

Silent e does some math for us:

“In 2007, Toyota sold 9.37 milion cars world wide.

They MADE 17.7 BILLION dollars.

In 2007, GM sold 9.37 million cars world wide.

They LOST 38.7 BILLION dollars.

We’re talking bailout WHY?”

Excellent question…can you say UAW?

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Thursday, December 11, 2008

Name that Country:

I need to give credit once again to CU for hitting this one out of the park! I just want to know how CU figured it out?!?!

The country was Luxemburg!

On my 1-10 scale this week’s country is only a 3.

PLEASE DO NOT POST THE ANSWER…supply info or a hint that proves you know it…there are others playing!!!THANK YOU – gopfolk

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I don’t believe it but it is true…Congressman Paul Ryan voted for the auto bailout…how sad.

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I thought Obama was the “Change” candidate:

Obama picks Daschle to spearhead healthcare

Clinton for Sec. of State

Holder as Attorney General

Richardson as Commerce Sec.

Orszag as Teasury Sec. (although I like this one!)

Same old names not a lot of “change” here.

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Good night Bettie…Model Bettie Page Dies in Los Angeles at 85

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Senate says NO!

UAW not willing to work a deal…no bailout.

I do have a big question though…shouldn’t the auto execs have done this years ago? You know what I mean…say NO to the UAW?!?

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Look at that…a whole weeks worth of posts…hmm…maybe this is how I should do it regularly! LOL!!!!

Ah yes the Electoral College is back again.

It seems our ‘friends’ over in the Green Party (let me remind you that their Presidential candidate is Cynthia McKinney – and here and here) want to re-write the constitution, they even go so far as to say that the current format for Congress is incorrect – granted you have to understand how the Electoral College works to say that but that is their insinuation.

So once again how does the Electoral College work?

Each state is given a number of Electors equal to the number of Congressman and Senators that represent the State. Each state has 2 Senators. The number of Congressmen is determined by the population. Therefore states that have a greater population have more Congressmen and therefore are weighted heavier in the Electoral College (i.e. California has 55 Electoral votes and Iowa has 7)

Now how the Electors are divided is up to the state. Currently 48 states do it the old fashioned democratic way — winner takes all. That means the winner of the popular vote in the state wins all of the electoral votes.

The remaining 2 states, Maine and Nebraska, use a Congressional Method. This means that the winner in each Congressional district wins that Elector and the popular vote getter in the state wins the two Senate Electors. This is both democratic and representative. In my opinion I think this method makes the most sense these days and should be implemented on a more broad scale.

The first candidate to 270 Electoral votes wins!! It is really that simple.

Since the Electoral College is based simply on the Congressional Formula the Green’s claim that the Electoral College was created to “expressly increase the power of the slave states” seems rather asinine!

So what do the Greens want?

Well unlike what the democrats have been calling for – popular elections (meaning that those of us in ‘fly-over’ country would mean nothing and all the focus would be on the large population centers) the Greens are calling for Proportionate Elections.

What are those you ask? Well that would be the warm and fuzzy determination of elections. For example: If Wisconsin split 50:40:10 the Electoral Votes would be divided 5:4:1 for the respective parties.

So what do you want? Should we preserve the republic as it has stood for over 200 years or should we rewrite the Constitution? Or should we chuck it all and move to a more “fair system” that includes other parties across the board?