Many have speculated that Bush blackmailed our Democratic Representatives and Senators to get the supplemental through. Others point to cowardice, but the truth is more prosaic. The votes to pass the supplemental were bought, with his agreement to sign a package with domestic appropriations dear to our respective delegations.

Senator Kohl, who sat on the Conference Committee, explains how the Wisconsin delegation was bought, including Senator Feingold's decision not to wage a "Mr. Smith" style filibuster.

Kohl's Press Release

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Emergency Supplemental Spending bill that is expected to pass both the House and Senate today includes a two-and-a-half year extension of SeniorCare, allowing Wisconsin's popular senior drug coverage program to continue through December 31, 2009.

U.S. Senator Herb Kohl and U.S. Senator Russ Feingold negotiated for inclusion of the provision in the Senate bill, while Congressman Dave Obey (WI-07) served as the principal House negotiator for the final package that includes it. President Bush has indicated that he will sign the bill into law, which also includes funding for disaster aid, veterans’ health, agricultural disasters, and other emergency funding.

Many have speculated that Bush blackmailed our Democratic Representatives and Senators to get the supplemental through. Others point to cowardice, but the truth is more prosaic. The votes to pass the supplemental were bought, with his agreement to sign a package with domestic appropriations dear to our respective delegations.

Senator Kohl, who sat on the Conference Committee, explains how the Wisconsin delegation was bought, including Senator Feingold's decision not to wage a "Mr. Smith" style filibuster.

Kohl's Press Release

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Emergency Supplemental Spending bill that is expected to pass both the House and Senate today includes a two-and-a-half year extension of SeniorCare, allowing Wisconsin's popular senior drug coverage program to continue through December 31, 2009.

U.S. Senator Herb Kohl and U.S. Senator Russ Feingold negotiated for inclusion of the provision in the Senate bill, while Congressman Dave Obey (WI-07) served as the principal House negotiator for the final package that includes it. President Bush has indicated that he will sign the bill into law, which also includes funding for disaster aid, veterans’ health, agricultural disasters, and other emergency funding.

Repeat the process with enough other delegations, and you've bought the occupation.

Local cops watched TV shows featuring DNA, and started looking for DNA evidence in an ever broader range of cases. Meanwhile, the Legislature was not creating positions to keep up.

When Peg first took office, they were about to actually cut staffing at the labs. She held a series of press conferences with mostly Republican Sheriffs, who persuaded the Legislators to back off, but as demand grew staff was locked in.

At her Madison kickoff for the presd conf. tour, I threw her a softball..

Explaining how "every marijuana case that went to trial required not only 23 lab tests to confirm the substance as marijuana, but, if the defense insisted, testimony from the tech, sometimes many hours drive from the lab, would she drop these tests first to prioritize real crimes?"

Her answer: "That alone would not be enough to cover the proposed cuts, but if the cuts go through, that would be one of the areas we'd look at."

In 1994 I testified as an expert at one trial over 1/4th pound in Eagle River where 2 techs had had to make the trip from Madison, missing 2 days each.

A multistate datamining operation run by Jeb Bush through the Florida Homeland security Department, set up after the Congress ordered Admiral Poindexter's Total Information Awareness shut down. Jeb in turn subcontracted running the system to a private outfit called Seisint.

Doyle signed the deal to have Wisconsin's databanks fed to Seisint as Attorney General.

Peg, on taking office, was not told of our participation, either by Doyle or his holdovers, even though it was being run out of her Department.

She finally learned of it early in '05, when the Utah Governor was named to replace Tommy at HHS, and his successor, a more libertarian Repub, withdrew Utah, mentioning in her announcement the previously secret list of participating States. The Wisconsin connection caused the story to be picked up by the Journal/Sentinal.

Peg pulled Wisconsin out of the MATRIX, and outed Doyle by giving me the story of her being frozen out for publication in the shortlived Wisconsinite.

The Committee on Rural Affairs heard Public Testimony Wednesday on AB 146, which seeks to create a blue-ribbon panel to evaluate the prospects of legal hemp cultivation specifically for Wisconsin's economy.

Testimony for Farmers, Ralph Bronner of Dr. Bronners Soaps (one of the larger processors of imported Canadian hempseed oil, a major biodiesel producer, yours truly, etc.

I get the sense the bill will pass out of Committee with unanimous support. Sponsors are bipartisan, across the spectrum. Lead sponsor, Republican Gene Hahn, rural Dane and Columbia Counties.