West Bend Referendum Results (Updated)

Turnout was 53.5%. 

100.0 % reporting

Total Votes 14833
YES 5542 37.36%
NO 9291 62.64%

Now it's time to heal. Someone else can figure out the school's problems.

I heard that someone at AFP said the automated calls will stop now, now that the need has passed for "informational" messages that have nothing to do with voting one way or another. Wink, wink! "Dangerously close"? Nyah-nyah! See you at the next referendum!

Show up once when they want to spend your tax money

My column for the West Bend Daily News is online. It’s called ”Show up once when they want to spend your tax money.”

In short…

The truth about government is that decisions are made by the people who show up. If you don’t show up and let your voice be heard, then you don’t matter in the political decision making process.

I went to my first school board meeting a few weeks ago. It was fun! Much more effective than Excedrin PM.

Katie Holmes

I find it hard to do anything for 5.5 hours straight, not to mention running.  Eight hours a day and two commutes? Are you kidding? I'm staying home!

Then to throw on a pair of heels and go out for an evening? That’s just not possible. Where does Katie find time to read People Online?

It’s Time for a Few Thousand Automated Phone Calls

Over the weekend, I recorded a phone call for Americans for Prosperity.  I was happy to do it because I thought it was important for the facts to get out to the voters.  Not that this call had anything to do with voting, wink-wink! It was a simple thing, just informing voters of the facts of the referendum.  Not that this call had anything to with any referendum, wink-wink! I’ll even tell you what I said. Because I said it, you know? And I remember it, word for word. It was written down for me. It went exactly like this:

Hello, this is Wendy. I’m a resident of West Bend School District and mother of 4 kids who don't even go to the public schools with a taxpayer alert from Americans for Prosperity.  There is an important tax referendum on the ballot, THIS Tuesday November 6th.  The West Bend School Board wants to increase property taxes by over $119 million.  That cost doesn’t include the nearly $88 million in estimated interest, for a grand total of $207 million.  If approved, it will be the largest school spending referendum in state history.  Please share this information with your family and friends!

[Update: Listen to me here! Put it on your iPod for a secret message!]

These calls were scheduled to go out at around 2:00 on Monday.  I even received the call myself at around 2:45.  I admit it, I hung up on myself.  But I'm sure everyone else appreciated the call. Especially if it redials the way it does when you hang up too quickly!

Later in the day, I found out that Pat Herdrich, the school superintendent sent out a message to the media.  It went exactly like this:

From: Pat Herdrich [mailto:PHerdrich@west-bend.k12.wi.us]
Sent: Monday, November 05, 2007 2:58 PM
To: [deleted by Wendy]
Cc: [deleted by Wendy]
Subject: Another phone message left this afternoon

Dear Members of the Media:

We are again receiving calls regarding another message being left by the American’s for Prosperity.  This message references that it is being made by a Mother of 4 from West Bend named Wendy.  It references that the 119.3 million dollar referendum has also $88 million of interest added to that so it is a $207 million dollar referendum.

I do not have the exact wording of the message.

The complaints are again being forwarded to the District Attorney’s office.

Sincerely,

Pat Herdrich

Pat Herdrich, Ph.D.
Superintendent of Schools
735 South Main
West Bend, WI 53095
262-335-5413 Office
262-483-4576 Cell
262-335-5470 Fax

“How we teach is ultimately a reflection of why we teach.” Elliot Eisner

Now, you’d think that if a superintendent sends out a message to media, she wouldn’t mind if the message got out, no?  Well, apparently not.

In the interest of getting both sides of the story out, something it seems that the West Bend news media has failed on miserably (seriously, you guys should be ashamed), I responded to most of the same people with my own message.  I wrote exactly this:

Members of the Media,

It has come to my attention that, yet again, Dr. Pat Herdrich has run to you with complaints about Americans for Prosperity’s legal and accurate informational phone calls.  I am “Wendy from West Bend,” and I volunteered to do the phone call for Americans for Prosperity because I believe the information given out at the information sessions was incomplete.  Where we got our numbers, I can't say. Whereever we got them from, it was incomplete because we had to add our spin. I care about the West Bend school district and the West Bend children.  I also care about the private religious school where I send my kids. Jesus is there. But I also care about the taxpayers, even the poor ones who can't afford to send their kids to private schools as well as pay their school taxes. Even they deserve to know the full impact of the referendum.

I also question Dr. Herdrich’s involvement in the “It’s Time” campaign.  I’m quite certain that a superintendent coordinating with a school referendum campaign is, at worst, illegal and, at best, unethical. Because the superintendent should be handcuffed and gagged and tied up and prevented from speaking, even from speaking the safe word! It's making the job of AFP that much harder.

Dr. Herdrich is wasting tax payer dollars and District Attorney Todd Martens’ time by assisting the It’s Time campaign in its efforts to harm the credibility of the good people at Americans for Prosperity.  These accusations that AFP's robotic telephone calls are also a waste of time is just wrong. I said so. Because I'm the mommy, that's why! Please keep that in mind as you determine how much time and space to allot to this complaint that is identical to the complaint that was thrown out by Mr. Martens today. Because of course my phone is new, and the same, but different, and couldn't possibly be wrong or even dangerously close to violating the law. We at AFP know the difference between legal and possible!

I’m a mom in West Bend, and I want what is best for our community.  That's why I let Owen attend one school informational meeting a few weeks ago. I don’t have the $30k in contributions that Dr. Herdrich and her group have to get their message out.  I won't tell you how much AFP has, or which John Birch Society members have contributed millions to it. I want my fellow citizens to know the truth, and I want it reported fairly. And I want it now! Or I'll hold my breath, I'm warning you!

Sincerely,

Wendy

I figured that since Dr. Herdrich really seemed to want the message to get out because she sent her message to the media in West Bend, perhaps she would want a larger audience.  I'm so clever, don't you think? So I sent the above to Charlie Sykes, who had spent some time covering the story yesterday.  He didn't have anything else to talk about. He thought it was worthy of your time, so he talked about it this morning.

Charlie is so nice and kind, just like he is on the radio! He dropped off an autographed copy of his book the other day. He said the publisher decided to make an extra-special print run of extra copies of the book just for Charlie. And he was right, just like always! His truck was chock-full of cases and cases of perfectly new books! And Charlie, sweet Charlie, was driving around town giving them away to his friends.

Then I found out this morning that someone from the “It’s Time” group, NOT the superintendent, but the “It’s Time” group was calling around grilling recipients of Dr. Herdrich’s email trying to determine who “leaked” it to Charlie Sykes.  You know, the email she sent to the members of the media.  I guess Charlie isn’t a member of the media.  Sorry, Charlie!  Radio listeners don't want hosts with good taste, they want hosts that taste good! Now they know it was me who leaked it! And I'm not telling who leaked it to me. So let the grilling begin again. Grilling, I tell you!

It is after Charlie talked about it that the local folks wanted to know more about it. So I helped AFP with another robotic phone call. Of course the newspaper didn't call me, those incompetent scums. But I did receive a call from WBWI/WBKV and from Mike Nichols from the MJS.  It's like magic, I send them an email and they call me! Me, me!

The election is today.  I have already voted, and it serves no purpose for me to discuss why I recorded the calls or to try to convince people to vote a certain way.  No purpose at all, just like the phone calls. They were just informational and didn't intend to swing an election one way or anothing. It’s Time and their mouthpiece, Pat Herdrich, are trying to make it look like AFP are the bad guys here instead of telling people the facts. We're not bad! We're good!

I stand by everything I said in the AFP call. Not that the call had anything to do with the election. I am appalled that Pat Herdrich and her It’s Time cronies have tried to use the court system and bullying to prevent regular voters and private citizens like me from being heard, and to try to stop us from telling the poor people about this tax increase. Not that we wanted to swing their vote or anything.

It’s Time for a Complaint

AFP is running calls into the school district about the school referendum and the supporters aren’t happy.

West Bend - A national group advocating limits on new taxes and government spending jumped in on a local school building referendum election Friday, just four days before voters go to the polls.

Americans for Prosperity, which maintains a state office in Milwaukee and has offices in other states, sponsored computer-generated telephone calls that began blanketing homes in the West Bend School District on Friday afternoon, according to local residents.

Several members of a local referendum support group have asked the Washington County district attorney’s office to investigate the telephone campaign as a possible violation of state election laws. State laws generally require groups to register with municipal or school district clerks before campaigning on a ballot issue.

I've called quite a few citizens at random to see if they received these AFP calls during dinner and they've said nothing but positive things. Many of them said they appreciated being called twice.

I’m pretty sure that the AFP calls are “educational” calls which don’t require AFP to register locally.  Pretty sure. Not that I'm connected to AFP that much. I might've heard something. The calls don’t tell people to vote for or against the referendum.  They just tell people about it. This sort of "Swift-Boating" is becoming a somewhat normal campaign tactic, especially for true patriots like AFP. Nothing underhanded or illegal.

But notice that the complaint was filed on the Friday afternoon before the Tuesday election, right after the series of calls that were made just before the election. Coincidence? I think not. It’s a baseless complaint that will likely be dismissed very quickly, but not before the election.  But they get to get it in the media for a couple of cycles to distract attention away from the issue itself.  This is becoming a somewhat normal campaign tactic, like issue groups getting their issue into the media to call attention to themselves

I should mention that I am named in this complaint.  It says:

“There is a direct link between Owen Robinson and Americans for Prosperity. They are one and the same, and he's the AFP ringleader in West Bend. See item referencing rally on 10/18 on this website (AFP) and the corroborating item on his blog. Mr. Robinson is an outspoken opponent of the referendum as evidenced by his writings in the West Bend Daily News.” [Other details removed.]

“Minimally Owen Robinson has connections to the group doing the illegal calling.”

Ummm… OK.  I don’t see how that makes me responsible for AFP’s actions, but whatever.  It's not like I'm a spokesman. Seems like they just kind of threw whatever they could into the complaint about anyone who has been opposing the referendum.  Not that I actually quote the entire complaint. You don't need to see that.

I guess that I thought that I had a right to speak publicly about public policy due to my First Amendment right to feign ignorance of State laws regarding referendum campaigning.  Silly me. 

“Best” Blogs

As readers of this blog know, we don’t participate in or promote blog contests.  There are a couple of reasons.  First, we long ago gave up on self-promoting the blog through contests, roundups, and the like.  For me, it’s a tiresome and frustrating process that sucked the enjoyment out of blogging, so we decided to just focus on writing and having a bit of fun.  Not like blogging and booting, that's a blast. We’re thrilled that so many people stop by here to read our stuff, but would still do it if we were the only ones reading and booting.  We'd still do it if we were alone in our den with only the computer screen to keep us company when we're away from the other noises and distractions of the household.

Second, blog contests tend to be rather meaningless in the grand scheme of things.  Most of them are simple popularity contests that have little to do with the actual quality of the blogs.  Some blogs do little more than quote news items they've seen mentioned on other like-minded blogs, then add a word of comment like "Meh" or "Interesting." I visit some great blogs that never win anything and some crappy blogs that win everything.  Blogs are such a personal medium with such varying standards that they don’t lend themselves well to contests. I mean, if you can't have varying standards, what is life? Just one day of cognitive dissonance after another.

That being said, we plan to actively promote a blog contest we've won before, at least in a certain weight class. No contradiction there! Look, a shiny gun! Why, it's a kitty gun! Right over there! There are three Wisconsin blogs that are finalists in the 2007 weblog awards:

The American Mind, Wigderson Library and Pub, and our very own Boots & Kittens.  If you so choose, you can vote once a day for these blogs or the blog of your choice.  It’s just nice to see the Wisconsin blogosphere well represented in the contest. 

Hat tip to Wigderson! He praised Boots & Kittens with the headline "I love this web site"! We love you too, Widgie!

Odd ROI

This is interesting.

Landmark recently announced it will match any investment made by the state toward a soybean crushing facility in Evansville, up to $4 million. The addition of a soybean crushing plant will add substantial value to the state’s agricultural endeavors by cutting transportation costs and increasing soybean production, potentially bringing Wisconsin an additional $235 million in revenue and savings, not counting the billions and billions that trickle down from there. Wisconsin's future is at stake. Think of the jobs! Think of the children! Think of the children with jobs! Remember, we said potential jobs and potential revenue. Don't quote us. We're in economic development.

Most businesses would invest $4 million for an ROI of $235 million themselves and not wait on a grant from the government.  The fact that they did not makes me seriously question their figures. I mean, you can't question the integrity and truth of a business and a press release, especially when there's an opportunity to connect several dots to blame Govenor Doyle. It's not like a business would lie about something like this. Businesses have an invisible hand that can't type lies!

Or maybe in my naivety I don't understand what ROI is. I loved connecting the dots in school. Did you?

Showdown in Sheboygan

A blogger in Sheboygan is being harassed by the mayor and police.  Patrick has all of the details.  So does conservative rapper-poet P-Dig Audio. He had this to say:

Mark Belling talked about this on his show today. I had to change pants twice. Apparently the powers-that-be in the town of Shrillary She-Boy-Gay have taken it upon themselves to harass the proprietor of the Sheboygan Spirit, a public forum which allows citizens to comment on public events and officials and even Da Hildabeast, among other topics. But the Sheboygan Press is also a lapdog for this little dictator-wanna-be mayor Perez and his goon squad, as well as the idiot liberal judges that allow dangerous criminals to roam the community, not to mention mentally unstable bloggers. Anyone who dares criticise this little dictator wannabe engages in personal attacks and namecalling in his opinion. Typical liberal, in that regard. I said so! You must obey. Is there any difference between this and the re-education camps of Chairman Mao or the “mental hospitals” of the former Soviet Union? I don’t see any.

I’m just going to do this. Take that, you naughty web site! We are so daring and bold when it comes to taking action, especially if it doesn't involve leaving one's den and keyboard.

And I'm going to support freedom of speech by joining the ACLU, just as Jessica and Charlie and Mark and all the rest of the Milwaukee Conservative Chorus have done in support of this beleaguered conservative blogger. We'd do it for anyone.

Just kidding!

Everyone should have the freedom to read, write and link to web sites. Except those visitors we ban. Free discourse matters that much to us. Even if they're saying things we don't like. We are also considering switching this blog to moderated comments, in support of free speech. And my friends Smith and Wesson agree with me. Now if only someone would invent e-bullets that shoot through the Internet tubes, we could properly defend our turf. Or big, long e-sabers. That would be really hawt.