That awkward moment when when Republicans say #NotAllCops and then blame ALL ONE BILLION MUSLIMS for Charlie Hebdo.

It costs about $12,000 to educate a k-12 student in Wisconsin. However, if that student has special needs that average cost per student (and the key word here is average) jumps to around $27,000 a year. (And bear with me for using rounded and averaged numbers.)

Special needs is a broad category. One student may have a reading disorder which may require only an hour a day with a reading specialist. Another student may be severely disabled and require a full-time aide, assigned to that student for the entire day. In some cases this may be portal-to-portal assistance requiring that aide to be on the bus with their charge to and from school. That aide may also undergo student-specific training to administer medications or deal with medical emergencies.

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So the legislature is toying with the idea of providing vouchers at a still-to-be-determined amount, an amount higher than the current $6,700 voucher, to serve special needs students without the requirement to serve all takers.

It is easy to see what will happen. The private schools can turn this into a cash cow, cherry-picking the students with the reading disorder and leaving those with profound needs to the public schools.

As if right on cue, Republican insider and apologist Christian Schneider writes an op-ed explaining that if women do not let any man that wants to kiss them, kiss them, it will be the end of romance. Apparently in Republican insider view, if only the women would do what the Republican alpha male wants, then we would not be having these problems. Instead of taking a pull quote from Schneider's column, and because Mr. Schneider has a habit of deleting his ridiculous columns as if nothing ever happened, here it is in its scary entirety:

Furthermore, the unexpected passionate kiss has been a landmark of American romanticism from time immemorial. Are we to reimagine Tramp as a sex offender because he didn't spit out his spaghetti to ask permission before meeting Lady's kiss? Seems like "Gone with the Wind" wouldn't have been quite as romantic if Rhett Butler's famous pre-kiss speech had been, "Stop it. You hear me Scarlett, stop it. No more of that talk. With your permission, I am now going to put my tongue in your mouth."

Maybe it's easy to dismiss the "kissing permission" stance as merely extreme feminist ravings. But they are not alone. Last year, universities often cited a statistic that showed one in five women on campus had been sexually assaulted. But, among other problems, that number was inflated by women who had been subjected to "unwanted kissing." Further, the "permission to smooch" stance is a natural progression of the "affirmative consent" movement among states that are passing laws mandating a woman say "yes" out loud before any sexual contact takes place.

More concerning, though, is the fact that it appears that laws are now mandating things that used to be learned simply through personal interaction. We now have a generation that foster romantic relationships by staring at computer screens, without learning to pick up nonverbal cues. And when we start to not be able to read people and situations, lawyers get involved — litigation now fills in the cracks where personal experience once governed.

Authorities were called to the ball at Monona Terrace around 10:30 p.m. Monday, and arrested Robert J. Westman, 45, of Madison, on tentative charges of battery and fourth-degree sexual assault, police spokesman Joel DeSpain said.

A 44-year-old Onalaska woman told police Westman had been bothering her — touching and trying to kiss her even though she repeatedly asked him to leave her alone, police said.

The woman sought help dealing with Westman from a 55-year-old Onalaska man, who confronted Westman and told him to stop, DeSpain said. About 20 minutes later, the man told police, he saw Westman bothering the woman again and went up to him once more, telling Westman he was going to call security, DeSpain said.

Westman “responded by head-butting the second man in the face,” DeSpain said.

MADISON, Wis. — Republicans who control the state Assembly are considering formal rules to limit debate, sparking cries from minority Democrats that the GOP wants to silence them.

The Assembly is expected to consider the rules during the session's first floor period Wednesday. The package calls for giving each party at least 30 minutes to debate final passage of any proposal unless leaders from both sides agree to something different. It also creates a new way for ending debate if time limits expire by allowing a representative to move for tabling all amendments at once and limiting debate on referring bills back to committee to 10 minutes.

Floor periods in the 99-member Assembly have dragged into the wee hours for years as the minority party tries to draw the proceedings out and exhaust majority members. Debate over the state budget, for example, often includes scores of amendments from the minority party, giving them a chance to talk for hours and stave off a vote as long as possible. In 2011, Democrats filibustered for more than 60 hours to delay a vote on Republican Gov. Scott Walker's proposal stripping public workers of their union rights.

Last session, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, and Minority Leader Peter Barca, D-Kenosha, agreed to set time limits for each bill before taking the floor. The deal called for setting aside at least a half-hour for debate on a bill's final passage. Debate on the 2013-15 budget was slated to last 12½ hours over two days in the Assembly, but Democrats surprisingly chose not to prolong the proceedings and let Republicans pass the spending plan after little more than an hour of debate.

’’ …we had come to the stage where for our people what was needed was a real democracy; and of all forms of tyranny the least attractive and the most vulgar is the tyranny of mere wealth, the tyranny of a plutocracy.’’

~ Teddy Roosevelt, from his Autiobiography

A "pro"second amendment website - called - wearagun- has started selling some T-shirts to gun enthusiasts across the country and a few really stood out.

Like this one:



I am sure Jared Loughner is mad he didnt grab one of those when he had the chance.

Then this is also another winner:

The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty(WILL), run by fellow Purple WIsconsin blogger Rick Esenberg, recently released a report which unsurprisingly tells us that charter/voucher schools in WI have it rough and are over regulated.

That the law branch of the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation would come up with such findings surprises no one. WILL is an extremely well funded "non profit" and they have the Bradly Foundation to thank. It is always good to keep your donors happy, so advancing the agenda of the public school profiteers, is to be expected.

Let's take a look at who WILL is. This "study" was put together by three people, Rick Esenberg, CJ Szafir and Martin Lueken. A quick check of credentials and we see that neither Mr. Esenberg, Mr. Szafir nor Mr. Lueken have spent a day working in a public school, nor are they certified or eligible to teach in a public school. Martin Lueken was a recent hire to the team, courtesy of the private school pushing Walton family.

In New Wisconsin, working on a Republican campaign is all of the credentials you need to be an expert on any topic. Not a single education credential went into this report, and future reports to come from WILL, on voucher/private schools.

19.) In June, Johnson intense criticism for being one of only three senators to vote against the bill to fix long wait times for war-injured veterans seeking health care.

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9.) Johnson also weighed in on the "skills gap" that most politicians are working to solve. He said that the real problem was a "willingness to work gap." Ouch.

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4) Over the summer, Johnson claimed that outsourcing is "quite beneficial to America." Yeah, especially Wisconsin-- where we've lost hundreds of thousands of jobs to outsourcing!

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2.) Johnson often says that the reason he got into politics was because his daughter's life was saved by the exceptional skills of heart surgeon, Dr. John Foker, and that if Obamacare had been around when his daughter needed Foker's help she would have died because Obamacare would have scared gifted surgeons like Foker from going into medicine. In the beginning of this year, however, it was revealed that Foker was and is an enthusiastic supporter of Obamacare, putting a giant fly in ointment of Johnson's central talking point.