At 6 PM Friday I just crossed the single-lane bridge with absolutely no wait...

With traffic on the newer Bayview Bridge restricted to one lane all weekend, northbound drivers on Highway 57 have been warned in the media to expect massive backups. Anyone who is worried can always take County C north out of Brusells, driving all the way into Sturgeon Bay by the back way, and then use the old downtown bridge - properly known as the Veterans Memorial Bridge - to arrive without a struggle. Meanwhile bridge safety crew has reset the traffuc lights to allow for more northbound traffic, and there doesn't seem to be a problem.

This reminds me of the weatherman talking about windchill factor, scaring people into staying safely at home.

To experience a 2 degrees below zero wind chill... you must stand outdoors, naked, in a 20 mph breeze when the temp is 15 degrees above zero. Meanwhile out on Highway 42/57 drivers who may have just spent 3-4 hours getting here may have to wait an extra ten minutes to get over the bridge, unless they followed those media warnings like "Traffic Snarled at Sturgeon Bay Bridge" from WBAY TV and stayed safely at home.

In Shopping for Subsidies: How Wal-Mart Uses Taxpayer Money to Finance Its Never-Ending Growth, an extensively researched study, Good Jobs First writers show that Wal-Mart, the giant retailer has received more than $1 billion in economic development subsidies from state and local governments across the country. Taxpayers have helped finance not only Wal-Mart stores, but also the company’s huge network of distribution centers, more than 90% of which have gotten subsidies. The report also includes policy proposals, including a prohibition on subsidies to big-box retailers except in distressed areas that are underserved by retail outlets (and in those cases the recipient of the subsidy should be required to pay a living wage.)

"Vermont was designated an 'endangered place' Monday by preservationists who say Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer, threatens the picturesque state with huge new stores that smash rural life. In its annual list of most endangered historic places, the National Trust for Historic Preservation included the state of Vermont because of an "onslaught of big-box" stores by Wal-Mart , the Arkansas-based retailer."
Read the entire story... Group sees Wal-Mart threat to Vermont
Historic trust group says new stores would smash state's rural life.

TwinCities.com, the Web site of the St. Paul Pioneer Press says, "The coming of warm weather to the Midwest inspires strange behavior in different places. In Iowa, they like to plant during the day, then sit around listening to the corn grow at night. In parts of Michigan, the natives leave their homes to stare at tulips for hours at a time. In Illinois, sadly, almost all the people spend almost all their time wishing they were in Wisconsin."

In honor they have posted...
HOW VERY, VERY FESTIVE: THE WISCONSIN QUIZ but they will make you register with them, for free, to see it.

In the latest issue of Windy City Sports Magazine, writer Jeff Lee devotes an entire feature article to Door County recreation. He tells Chicagoans all about the quiet sports in Wisconsin Red Pages.

Whoops... Ephraim, gets high marks while the Egg gets spanked.

Journal Sentinel travel columnist, Dennis McCann answers questions about Wisconsin places, history and folklore in his monthly chat. Following is an excerpt from the May transcript posted on-line today:
Q: Jason of Brookfield - Dennis: What's your favorite place to stay when in Door County?

A: Dennis McCann - That's a hard question, because there are lots of nice places. A few weeks ago I stayed at the hotel near the entrance to Peninsula Park (the Homestead, I think) and found it to be very nice. I've had nice stays at Hotel du Nord, the White Gull Inn (a very nice place, btw) and a number of other places. But my favorite community to spend time in is Ephraim, because it hasn't spoiled its natural beauty the way some other villages (are you listening, Egg Harbor?) have. There are a number of nice places there, but the Lodgings at Pioneer Lane has worked well for me on several different occasions. Thanks for all the questions. Happy travels.

THE GRAY ZONE
by SEYMOUR M. HERSH
How a secret Pentagon program came to Abu Ghraib.
Issue of 2004-05-24
Posted 2004-05-15

I can't help but compare...
the micro/macro similarities between local and national leadership when I see the 16 golden shovelers depicted on the front page of the latest Advocate.

Instead of golden shovels Charlie and Company might like to wield a copy of MetaliCal, a free software program that calculates metal weight and cost. It includes 58 metals (including steel) and 50 profiles and shapes produced by the industry. Using MetaliCal will help them keep up with the rapid changes unfolding in the steel industry which are driving prices up in some unprecedented ways. By summer the industry is predicting that steel will be on allocation for the first time in US history with price increases expected to exceed 65%.

The Justice Center Diggers have much in common with theme park developers who complain, "This means that the price of a coaster or ride concept that was developed last autumn could as much as double by this summer. Further, it puts estimators in the difficult position of having to predict the cost of steel (not to mention the availability) one or even two years out."

One thousand board feet of lumber, the industry standard, sold for $446 last week, compared to $285 at the same time last year... and then there's the cost of fuel to consider. Each Bored County Member should pawn their golden shovel and buy a calculator, because your budgets are going haywire.

All I can think of when I hear Charlie Most say, "It’s very gratifying to stick this shovel in here and finally get this project going and out of our hair..." is GW Bush aboard the USS Lincoln last May Day saying, "Mission Accomplished."

Wisconsin legislators (aside from Garey Bies) are also sounding a wake up call to our local Diggers... "Limiting prison costs is a key to solving the state's fiscal problems," says state Rep. Dan Schooff, D-Beloit, a member of the Joint Finance Committee.

"If you can rein in corrections and stop the flow of dollars there, then you can free up dollars for elsewhere, whether it's teachers' salaries or the UW System," he says.

"To contain costs, the State corrections Department is turning its focus on job training, drug treatment and other forms of counseling to keep prisoners from committing new crimes after they are released. Cutting the number who return to prison will reduce the inmate population and prison costs," Frank says.

"We know that if you just lock people up and you don't deal with the underlying issues, you're going to continue to have those people committing crimes," he says, noting that 42 percent of the state's inmates have prior records.

Governor Doyle says he hopes the new focus programs and an emphasis on steering troubled young people away from crime will cut the state prison population of 22,000 by one-third over the next eight years.

"It's a long-term project, and what you really have to be doing is getting focused on the 12- and 13-year-olds today who eight years from now are going to be 20 and 21," Doyle says. "The things you do today for those 12-year-olds (are) going to make a big difference in what the prison population is going to be."

Meanwhile, in Door County, Diggers break ground with golden shovels to build the Taj Mahal of Drunk Tanks... Mission accomplished!

Door County recently made Coastal Living and MONEY Magazine editors' list of top spots to live. Listed in a special section entitled, "So You Want to Live on the Coast," in the June issue of MONEY and featured in the April issue of Coastal Living, the editors acclaim Door County, "as it offers a quiet pace, water everywhere, farm-fresh produce, the camaraderie of traditional fish boils, and more lighthouses (10) than any other U.S. county.

And low water levels are no problem...
Especially according to Gov. Jim Doyle who surprised a number of people with his remarks on Earth Day 2004. It wasn't Doyle's tough stand against diverting Great Lakes water to places like Arizona and Nevada - no one in Wisconsin supports exporting Great Lakes water to the arid West.

Doyle's surprise was the fact that he might support a diversion from Lake Michigan to Waukesha County. Seems harmless until you realize that this breaks all of the rules... by sending water out of the watershed and across the subcontinental divide.

Doyle has on his desk an August 2003 report from the city of Waukesha and the Waukesha Water Utility that asks for Doyle's help to convince other Great Lakes officials to approve the construction of a pipeline to carry 20 million gallons of water a day from Lake Michigan, to the city of Waukesha.

Any new diversion of water from the Great Lakes is made nearly impossible under the Great Lakes Charter and other agreements that cover eight Great Lakes states, including Wisconsin, and two Canadian provinces. But Waukesha is making its pitch at the right time, because the Great Lakes Charter is undergoing its first major review since its 1985 creation... and this summer Gov. Doyle will assume the chairmanship of the Council of Great Lakes Governors - a group with great influence in the charter review. So Doyle is in a pivotal position to carry Waukesha's water, so to speak, even if another Great Lakes governor blocks it.

Read the entire article, much of which I borrowed from in the above paraphrasing:
Milwaukee Insight: Lake Michigan Water Could Flow to Thirsty Suburbs as Doyle Gets Key Great Lakes Post
5/7/2004
By Jim Rowen

Some weekend reading...
The Bush administration's push to privatize war is swiftly turning the military-industrial complex of old into something even more far-reaching: a complex of military industries that do everything but fire weapons. For-profit military companies now enjoy an estimated $100 billion in business worldwide each year, with much of the money going to Fortune 500 firms like Halliburton, DynCorp, Lockheed Martin, and Raytheon.

These companies, known as "Privatized Military Firms" (PMFs), sell everything from small teams of commandos to massive military supply operations. PMFs have operated in places as diverse as Sierra Leone and Iraq, including on behalf of the U.S., and signal an important new development in the way that war is now carried out. Unfortunately, the legal side has not yet caught up to events.

This article by Peter W. Singer examines the applicability of present international laws and definitions to PMFs and finds a gap in effectiveness. It next looks at national attempts at legal regulation and the challenges that they face. Finally, it surveys some of the possible solutions that have been offered to this legal quandary, seeking to offer workable proposals for how the PMF industry might be brought under some standard of regulation.

War, Profits, and the Vacuum of Law: Privatized Military Firms and International Law (PDF—129kb)
Columbia Journal of Transnational Law, Spring 2004
by Peter W. Singer, National Security Fellow, Foreign Policy Studies

And, here's a transcript of the P. W. Singer interview by Terry Gross on Fresh Air, 9 July 2003

Signs of spring...
Fish Creek's Skyway Drive-in Movie Theater, one of eight remaining drive-ins in Wisconsin, opens this Friday evening May 7, with "50 First Dates" and "Secret Window" - Gates open at 7:45 with the first movie rolling at 8:20 PM and the second feature at approximately 10 PM.

And a hot summer ahead... in film politics anyway.
AP reporter Christy Lemire says:

Mel Gibson, director of "The Passion of the Christ," had difficulty finding someone willing to release his graphic telling of the last hours of Christ's life. Major studios were wary because some religious leaders feared it would foster anti-Semitism. But whether filmgoers showed up at theaters to be inspired or appalled, they showed up - and "The Passion," under independent distributor Newmarket Films, has made more than $366 million in the past 10 weeks.

Meanwhile, Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., has asked the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation for a hearing on what he called a "disturbing pattern of politically based corporate censorship of the news media and the entertainment industry."

Lautenberg argued Wednesday in a letter to his committee chairman, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., that Disney (through Miramax) has the violent "Kill Bill - Vol. 2" in theaters now, but is blocking Michael Moore's film, "Fahrenheit 9/11." based on its political viewpoint.

In the movie, Moore interviewed author Craig Unger about his book "House of Bush, House of Saud," which details the Bush-Saudi relationship going back to the 1970s.

"I found about $1.4 billion in investments and contracts going from the House of Saud to companies in which the Bushes and their allies - I'm including Dick Cheney, for example - have had prominent positions," Unger said.

The book and the film also say the government helped 140 Saudis leave the United States on Sept. 13, 2001 - two dozen of whom were bin Laden's relatives.

Unger said that while he hadn't seen the film, "There's clearly a big audience for this and I think the intent to kill it will fail." He pointed to several recent books besides his own that critically examine the Bush administration, including Ron Suskind's "The Price of Loyalty," Richard Clarke's "Against All Enemies" and Bob Woodward's "Plan of Attack."

At the start of weekly staff meetings, Wal-Martians must do the Wal-Mart chant. For those of you sitting on the edge of your seat, here's how it goes. "Gimme a 'W'!" - "W!" "Gimme an 'A'!" - "A!" "Gimme an 'L'!" - "L!" "Gimme a squiggly!" (A 'squiggly' represents the dash between the "Wal" and the "Mart"). Here, instead of yelling "squiggly" the Wal-Mart associates wiggle their asses. I'm not kidding. Then the cheerleader proceeds to yell the M, A, R, and T to the appropriate responses. Then the lead yells "What's that spell?" - "Wal-Mart!" "Who's NUMBER ONE!?" - "Customers, ALWAYS!".

A further probe inside Wal-Mart corporate culture reveals another official Wal-Mart chant:

Stack it deep.
Sell it cheap.
Stack it high and watch it fly.
Hear those downtown merchants cry

Sprawl-Busters response - "Your quality of life is worth more than a cheap pair of underwear."

Looking back on May Day...
In olden times May Day welcomed the coming of summer with villagers putting out all home and hearth fires and gathering in common to light a new fire. Families would take a bit of the new flame to rekindle home fires. Dancing around a Maypole, filling May baskets with flowers and leaping over fires all marked the pagan festival of Beltaine. During the 1880s May Day took on a new twist with labor unions demanding that beginning May 1, "eight hours shall constitute a legal day's work." By April 1886, a quarter of a million workers had committed themselves to go on strike as part of the May Day movement.

In Chicago, between 2,000 and 3,000 people attended a May 4, 1886 rally that erupted in violence when someone threw a bomb at police officers. The ensuing Haymarket Square Riot plunged the city into hysteria and Mayor Harrison declared martial law. In conjunction with the bombing, the state arrested and indicted eight anarchists, charging them with conspiracy to murder. Despite the fact that the state could not provide evidence that any of the men had knowledge of the bomb or that they had incited or participated in the violence, all but one of the defendants were found guilty and condemned to death. But it wasn't the men so much as their ideas that were considered dangerous. The seven were hanged on November 11, 1887.

After Haymarket, workers all over the world pointed towards May 1 as their day. After 1886, rallies, strikes and other militant actions promoted the cause of the working class around the world. A conservative element within organized labor- combined with the crushing, government repression of left-wing politics in the United States- allowed the significance of the day to become lost in this country. In 1894, President Cleveland signed a bill naming not May 1, but the first Monday in September, as Labor Day. This creatively sidestepped the day that carried such historical significance. Adding further insult, President Eisenhower proclaimed May 1 as "Law Day" in 1958.

The Backroads Bike Club will hold an organizational meeting for the upcoming spring and summer cycling season on Thursday, May 6 at 6:30 PM in the social lounge of the Door County YMCA Northern Door Program Center in Fish Creek.

The Backroads Bike Club meets once a week for an adult two-hour ride of moderate intensity. Most rides end with an optional social stop, sometimes ice cream, sometimes dinner. Riders of different abilities are welcome and no one is left behind! The group also intends to talk about "Women's Only" rides and "Family" rides for those who are interested.

If you can't make the meeting, stop at the Fish Creek "Y" and leave your name, address, phone number or e-mail and interests. A club representative will get back to you.

The American Lung Association's State of the Air: 2004 report was released today... Details on Wisconsin's air quality once again reveal that, while Door County didn't "earn it," we once again get an F on the quality of our air - with 18 orange alert days and 2 red alert days during the last measurement season. People considered to be "at risk" on these alert days include: kids 14 and under, adults 65 and over, individuals with pediatric or adult asthma, chronic bronchitis, emphysema or cardiovascular disease. Out of a population of 28,101, there are 7,736 Door County residents considered to be "at risk."

Find out what you can do about the problem at Environment 2004.

The latest upgrade to the Door County Compass Web Board allows you to pick a personal Avatar... up to a 100 X 100 px image that represents you. You can pick from the collection of avatars we supply, use an actual photo or look for a distinctive avatar at Avatarity is a site dedicated to being the best place on the net to come for Avatars.

Individuals are consuming oil as fast as it's pumped out of the ground - to the tune of 75 million barrels a day. While each drop we consume took millions of years to develop, we use it up in seconds. One thing you can count on... someday that oil will run out.

Until recently, Shell Oil executives were among the cheerful optimists who estimate that we have enough oil to last at least 100 years. Geologists and other analysts counter the Shell opinion, estimating global oil reserves to be dangerously exaggerated.

The New York Times reported that internal documents and other data indicated that Shell had over-estimated its proven oil reserves in Oman by as much as 40% - because everyone there hoped the latest drilling techniques would reach more deposits than in the past and merit upgrading the estimates. If you take oil prices currently at around US $37 a barrel, the highest for nearly 15 years, and add in the effects of war and terrorist attacks on diminishing supplies, you have a recipe for inflation and economic slowdown.

Meanwhile, here in Wisconsin Jason Toews has decided to do something for the average Joe... And, it confirms my greatest fears - that gas prices in Door County are among the highest in the state. If you want to find the best deal on gas prices, Jason offers an elegant Web-based solution. GasBuddy.com and the more specific WisconsinGasprices.com rely on you, as a network of volunteer "gas price spotters" to update price listings at filling stations around your neighborhood. The Web site is actually 4 years old, but co-founder Jason Toews says the audience has grown with the recent spike in prices.

Wisconsin's U.S. Rep. David Obey (D) became the first lawmaker to "demand to know whether the Bush administration transferred $700 million to Iraq war planning efforts out of counterterrorism funds without informing Capitol Hill." According to Bob Woodward, the $700 million came out of a supplemental Appropriations bill meant for Afghanistan operations. And a close look at the two supplemental Appropriations bills that passed between 9/11 and July 2002 when the secret transfer took place shows that both bills mandate the White House to inform Congress if money is moved.

Similarly, while the summer 2002 supplemental bill allows the administration to transfer "up to $275 million" in unused money within the Pentagon budget, it requires the president to notify Congress within 15 days of moving money. So far, the administration has not produced a shred of evidence that it followed these laws and informed Congress. As Woodward said, "Congress, which is supposed to control the purse strings, had no real knowledge or involvement, had not even been notified that the Pentagon wanted to reprogram money."

From: http://www.americanprogress.org/

The Ontario government is acting to correct some of the problems of ozone pollution by completely phasing out its coal-fired power plants by 2015.

"Coal-fired power plants account for more than 60 percent of the nation's sulfur dioxide and 23 percent of its nitrogen oxide emissions, which contribute to acid rain, smog, and nitrogen pollution that damage forest and aquatic ecosystems. These plants also produce more than 32 percent of mercury pollution, which ends up in our waters to poison wildlife throughout the food chain and imperil human health. In addition, coal-fired power plants emit more than 31 percent of the nation's carbon dioxide, the gas chiefly responsible for global warming that threatens wildlife, ecosystems, and human communities around the world."

From... The Toll from Coal How Emissions from the Nation's Coal-Fired Power Plants Devastate Wildlife and Threaten Human Health


Here in Door County recent headlines have once again brought to light the problems of invisible ozone pollution... and yet Wisconsin Energy gets go-ahead to build 2 coal power plants in Oak Creek.

Connect the dots.

I like documentaries - candid shots vs. posed grip-n-grins. Talking with my young friend Myles, a filmmaker, about the media and censorship led me to call Randi Rhodes on Air America Radio. I asked her to help me trace the problem of censorship in the media. Randi advised me to explore The Fairness Doctrine, in place from 1949 until 1987, when the Federal Communications Commission discontinued it.

The Fairness Doctrine once required broadcasters, as a condition of getting their licenses from the FCC, to cover controversial issues in their community, and to do so by offering some balancing views. It did not require equal time for opposing views. It merely prevented a station from day after day presenting a single view without airing opposing views.

In 1987 a bill to place the Fairness Doctrine into federal law passed the House by 3 to 1, and the Senate by nearly 2 to 1, but President Ronald Reagan vetoed it. In 1989 the Fairness Doctrine easily passed the House again, but didn't proceed further as President George Bush threatened to veto it. In 1991, hearings were again held on the doctrine, but President Bush's ongoing veto threat stymied passage.

Myles and I got into this topic while talking about the the effect that Clear Channel (which owns about 1,200 radio stations in the United States) is having on freedom of speech. I played him a copy of Barry McGuire's 60s mega-hit song "Eve of Destruction," explaining that with the run up to the war on Iraq, Clear Channel banned all such anti-war songs. Even Willie Nelson backed down. After writing a Christmas anti-war song titled "What Ever Happened to Peace on Earth," that he sung once in Austin at a Kucinich raly, Willie refused to record and release it as a single.

And with "fairness" a dead issue, Clear Channel can concentrate on further limits to freedom of speech... At WTKK-FM (96.9), host Jay Severin is no longer allowed to use the term "effing." In other cities, some stations have dropped risque talkers entirely, including the king of crass, Howard Stern. I am no fan of Howard and have only seen and heard him a few times but Puritanical intolerance is scarier than Stern himself.

Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR) just released "The Oh Really? Factor: Unspinning Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly" (Seven Stories Press, 2003). Written by FAIR's Peter Hart, the book sets the record straight on the errors and inconsistencies on the most-watched program on cable news.

If you want to find out what's really going on in Door County or Iraq ask a local - Rahul Mahajan provides a candid view from the streets in Blogging from Baghdad.

Watch for a screening of local student and filmaker, Myles Kristen's latest work on how the war is affecting people in Wisconsin at the Compass Internet Cafe. Join us on Thursday April 22, for the first Door County Kerry in 2004 Meetup, one of hundreds taking place all over the nation on the 4th Thursday of each month. So far, 94,036 participants have signed up on-line. In Door County Kerry Meetups take place at the Compass Internet Cafe in Fish Creek at 7 PM.