gerrymandering

WOW - who knew I would be so busy on my 1st day off.  I got so many little things done yesterday it was crazy. The most important was getting a new license plate sticker. I was so excited when I got my "12" in the mail that I ran outside and slapped it on the license plate. However - the plate was so dirty the sticker didn't stick and I was left holding a non-sticky sticker.

So after about 3 weeks of avoiding the cops I finally got to the DMV and exchanged my stickless sticker for a new one!  CAN'T GET ME NOW COPPER!

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In other news I'm actually still going to work at times part time.  With the so many quicky retires it left no one to tend the shop!  So we all signed "volunteer" forms. That's right, we highly paid leach to society scum bag public servants are working for free.  We're training anybody who is left to do our jobs!

I've never really talked about what "I" did. There were three programmers left on the HSRS system. When I started there were perhaps ten.   It's is/was an old system that for 10 years the suits have been trying to replace. Literally millions of dollars have been sunk into the big black hole.

I was in charge of the 250ish reports. John knows the system inside and out, Dave did the GUI interface, the screen stuff and I did the number crunching and output. Mostly LTS (Long Term Support) but also Mental Health, and Alcohol and Drug whatever, Birth to Three and a few other things that seem to be dead now.

Ten years ago the suits said HSRS will be gone in five years!  In fact for a while there was a BIG sign that wasa to do list - I would see it everymorning when I arrived at work.

RETIRE HSRS ASAP!  yea - that is always good for moral!

Its still a long way off. The problem is that it's like a house that was build 20 years ago and every few months a new contractor is hired to add on another room. But each guy has his own way of constructing.

So in the end you have a 400 room mansion but the plumbing goes all over the place. It works GREAT but trying to recreate it is impossible. It's a house of cards.

Of the 66 people in IT for Dept of Health seven retired last Friday. Twenty more can retired at anytime with June 17th the next big day for massive retirements. As a whole about 24% of Public Servants for the State if Wisconsin can retire on June 17th. You can see that there has not been a lot of hiring for a number of years! 

You ask - why retire?  Simple - fear.  I won't kid you, the State had awesome benefits.  Unlike many other States where the public employees get good pay, Wisconsin was pretty smart, they pay lower but have good benefits and the benefits are why people decided to work for Wisconsin.  I've had a pay DECREASE three years in a row!  Now you want to take $50,000 away from me?  I'll lock in and retire NOW!

Now as our Division head said - there is no reason to to look for a job in government.  Low pay, poor benefits and trailing edge technology and the republican party tells people you are scum!  Sweet deal!

You might be wondering who our Senate representative is . . . . .In Columbus it's Senate Majority Fitzgerald.   Here is Fitzgerald area in Blue and notice how Columbus has been added.

This is called gerrymandering - rather than using uniform geographic standards, gerrymandering is a practice of political corruption that attempts to establish a political advantage for a particular party or group by manipulating geographic boundaries to create partisan, incumbent-protected, and neutral districts.

Both sides do this although the Republicans have used it a LOT more!

Columbus is pretty neutral so it is normally used just to have more numbers so the rest of the district will have more power.

Actually Wisconsin as a whole is politically neutral and is a HUGE swing State. Wisconsin is an emotional State. Notice we voted for Obama and the next election we voted for anybody that is not a Doyle Democrat thinking that ANYBODY is better - wrong!!

So when election time comes the flavor is always what side the emotions are on at that moment. This is why Republicans play the fear card so often. They know fear is a powerful emotion. They tell you everything is going poorly, the Budget is in crisis (not really), the sky is falling. Vote republican and we will save you.

Speaking of Fitz . . . he is now saying that the FAB 14 will not be allowed to vote in committees because they are in contempt? What? - do that just make shit up as they go?

I see there is a NEW cause out - The powers that be want to make it mandatory for school children to say the Pledge of Allegiance every day!  I'm against this as it goes against the Constitution (which actually is not a REAL government document but that is a different story).

A democratic republic built on freedom of dissent should not require its citizens to pledge allegiance to it, and that the First Amendment to the United States Constitution protects one's right to refrain from speaking or standing.

Another problem is that the people who are most likely to recite the Pledge every day, small children in schools, cannot really give their consent or even completely understand the Pledge they are taking.

It's called brain washing!

Nuff said - I need my oatmeal!   taking Blake to get his toenails clipped today - he is walking on high heels!

Have a great Tuesday!

Rod