President Obama's 2012 Campagn Gets Underway With Petulant Speech, Unimpressive Budget Proposal at George Washignton University

President Obama took time out from his busy schedule on Wednesday to promote the upcoming Atlas Shrugged movie during an address at George Washington University.

Wait....what? He was being serious? Damn- that's unfortunate.

Several days after announcing his campaign for re-election, a government shutdown was narrowly averted and House Budget Committee chair Paul Ryan (R, WI-1) unveiled a budget proposal that would cut government spending by $4 trillion over the next 10 years, President Obama had the opportunity to show the public he was serious about this country's growing debt but instead decided to double down on the same rhetoric that cost his party control of the House last year. Here are some of the highlights (and I use the term loosely) with commentary from me where I thought appropriate:

In the speech at George Washington University, he positioned his spending plan as a more "compassionate" alternative to one introduced last week by Ryan. He applauded Republicans for putting a plan on the table to address entitlements, but the praise stopped there.

"The way this plan achieves those goals would lead to a fundamentally different America than the one we've known certainly in my lifetime," Obama said, calling the GOP plan "deeply pessimistic." He suggested Republicans were giving up on basic functions of government.

"It's a vision that says if our roads crumble and our bridges collapse, we can't afford to fix them. [Wait wait wait wait.....hold the phone- if you want to talk about infrastructure, THEN WHAT THE FUCKING HELL WAS THE STIMULUS SUPPOSED TO BE USED FOR!?- NANESB!]

If there are bright young Americans who have the drive and the will but not the money to go to college, we can't afford to send them," Obama said of the Republican plan.

"It's a vision that says America can't afford to keep the promise we've made to care for our seniors."

The president claimed his proposal would cut $4 trillion from the deficit in 12 years or less. He drew several lines in the sand as he explained how he planned to get there.

Accusing Republicans of cutting services to seniors and poor children while cutting taxes for the rich, Obama said: "That's not right, and that's not going to happen as long as I'm president." [oh good- so we can look forward to this happening sometime in January 2013 then? Please go away you colossal asshat- NANESB!]

The president's proposal would deal with entitlements like Medicare and Medicaid, but avoid the major changes being pushed by Ryan. The president opposes turning Medicaid into a block-grant program for states and making Medicare seniors purchase government-subsidized insurance, as Ryan proposed. Rather, he vowed to make other changes he claims will extract more than $300 billion in savings from those programs over the next decade. Plus he pushed cuts in discretionary spending, including to defense. [Of course! All military spending is wasteful- until Obama decides to start lobbing cruise missiles at Libya- NANESB!]

But where Obama departed most sharply from Republicans was his call for rolling back the Bush tax cuts for the most well-off Americans -- meaning a tax hike for households making more than $250,000, or the top 2 percent of wage-earners. Republicans and Democrats had agreed to extend all the Bush tax cuts for two years, but Obama said Wednesday, "I refuse to renew them again" for the top tier. [Gee- who didn't see that coming?- NANESB!]

"The most fortunate among us can afford to pay a little more. I don't need another tax cut," he said [how generous of the guy who hasn't created a single job in his life- NANESB].

Here's the thing- exactly how much did the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act cost? The more conservative estimates put it at a minimum of $787 billion dollars. Unemployment wasn't supposed to go above 8% and all sorts of public work projects were going to create jobs as a result. Except after a few months in, the Obama Administration decided to change the metric to jobs saved or created- and that revision didn't even last until the end of 2009.

And instead of being used for infrastructure as it's cheerleaders had promised, the stimulus went instead to researching the effects of cocaine on monkeys or sexual activity of college freshmen at Syracuse University. Supposedly, in some very abstract manner, it worked and the economy is in a recovery- oh...and any budget proposal by the republicans would endanger this 'recovery'. Except this recovery features near double-digit unemployment, the dollar taking a beating, a cratering housing market as well as skyrocketing food, fuel and commodity prices.

Now, after all the funds that went towards in the 'stimulus' the President wants to raise taxes on 'wealthy' Americans (and make no mistake, the Democrat party has a very malleable definition of 'wealthy'). This is not unlike Bernie Madoff demanding a raise after bilking investors out of their life savings.

If this is part of President Obama's 2012 campaign strategy, I have to say that it is indeed very powerful and effective materiel......for whoever winds up running against him

Crackdown on Anti-Government Protests in Syria Intensify, Syrian Army Surrounds Mediterranean Port City

While the unrest and antigovernment demonstrations in North Africa, Bahrain and Yemen have been getting a good deal of attention in the media, it appears as though that the situation Bashar al-Assad's authoritarian Syria is escalating.

After clashes in the Northwestern port city of Banias killed four and wounded at least 17 on Sunday, units from the Syrian Army cut off electricity and ringed the city with troops and armor.

Map of protests and clashes in Syria over the last month- Wikimedia

Human rights groups have also alleged that Syrian troops fired live ammunition into a crowd of protesters at a funeral procession for 17 people killed during clashes in the southwestern city of Daraa over the weekend, reportedly killing another 28 opposition demonstrators. New York-based Human Rights Watch has also claimed that Syrian military and security officers were preventing medics from treating the wounded after clashes in Daraa and suburban Damascus over the weekend.

Syria has been officially under a state of emergency since 1963- even longer than Mubarak had been in power in Egypt. The state of emergency gives the Damascus government sweeping powers, including the ability to detain people for indefinite periods of time. The ruling Ba'ath party has held power in Syria since 1963 and the country has been governed by a member of the al-Assad family since 1971, with Bashar's father Hafez al-Assad ruling until his death in 2000.

Hafez al-Assad was also responsible for the 1982 Hama massacre, where the Syrian military bombarded and razed Hama's old city in retaliation for Muslim Brotherhood attacks on Syrian security forces and government workers. The lower estimates for the death toll in Hama at the time were in the neighborhood of 10,000- mostly civilians, although it was likely even higher thanks to the secretive nature of the al-Assad regime.

150 Years Ago Today- Civil War Begins in Earnest

Take THAT, ya Yankee devils!

A nation divded, an inexperienced president and simmering regional tensions threatening to boil over into something even bigger.

No- I'm not talking about today. April 12 marks the 150th anniversary of the opening salvo of the Civil War as the Union commander of Ft Sumter rejected Confederate demands to surrender. Technically the first shots of what would become the Civil War were fired back in January of 1861 by cadets from the Citadel to block ships attempting to resupply the Union garrison on the island Fort.

However, the Confederate forces in Charleston, SC would fire shells for over 30 hours at Ft. Sumter. The fort's second in command- none other than Abner Doubleday (then a Captain at the time) fired the first retaliatory shot from Ft. Sumter, although that was largely symbolic. After negotiations, the Confederate forces in Charleston allowed all 85 of the Union soldiers to withdraw from the fort.

Curiously, the bombardment from either side failed to cause any casualties. However, Union Pvt. William Hough was killed when the cannon he was loading for a 100-gun salute shortly after the formal surrender ceremony accidentally went off while he was loading it. It is widely believed that Hough was the first casualty in what would become America's bloodiest conflict.

UPDATE- I thought I'd add a quiz at the very top of the page. Do your best to try and figure this one out without looking it up online. The answer may very well surprise you.

Today's Train of Thought- Tilting at Texas-Sized Windmills, April 11, 2011

Today's train of thought (featuring renewable energy, no less) comes to us from West Texas courtesy of eclectic blogger Whiskey, Texas and highlights a rather unusual source of traffic for the often-overlooked Texas Pacifico

The railroad- owned by Mexican copper mining corporation Grupo Mexico [BMV: GMEXICOB] runs some 375 miles from an interchange with the Ft. Worth and Western and BNSF in San Angelo Jct, TX past an interchange with the Union Pacific at Alpine, TX and on through to the Mexican border at Presidio, TX. Texas Pacifico is supposed to interchange with the privatized Mexican carrier (and parent company) FerroMex at the Presidio/Ojinga broder crossing, but the bridge across the Rio Grande was heavily damaged by fire on the Texas side in 2008.

The line originally started out as the Kansas City, Mexico & Orient and work on the line between Wichita, KS and Alpine, TX got underway in 1900. After multiple bankruptcies, the KCM&O was acquired by the Santa Fe in 1928, who in turn completed the line between Alpine and Presidio a few years later. On the Mexican side, difficult terrain and nationalization saw to it that the line from the Mexican border town of Ojinga on through Chihuahua and the port of Los Mochis wasn't completed until 1961.

On the American side, Santa Fe sold the line to a group of Dallas-based investors and the Texas Department of Transportation in 1992, leading to the creation of the South Orient Railroad. In 2005, TXDOT reached a lease and operating agreement with Grupo Mexico and Texas Pacifico to operate the line. So even though the Texas Pacifico is operated by Mexican concerns, it remains cut off from Mexico itself for the time being.
Instead, Texas Pacifico has been pivotal in delivering tower assemblies for a windmill farm outside of Ft. Stockton, TX that opened up in late 2008. Here, Whiskey caught one such high and wide move making its way west from San Angelo Jct in December 2007 with former UP/Chicago & Northwestern (now CIT Financial) GP38-2 #403 in charge of the 5 unit 7,000 foot train. The train is seen above crossing the Concho River trestle in San Angelo, TX, moving at a maximum of 10 MPH according to Whiskey. Here, the unit train is seen leaning into a curve near Harriett, TX that same day. The train would tie down outside of Barnhart for the night. The locomotives are GP38-2s loaned from either CIT Financial or FerroMex- with all the CIT ones still sporting Chicago & Northwestern's yellow with green trim paint scheme.

Rising Sun Update- Japan Rattled by Strong Aftershocks 1 Month Later; Crisis Level At Fukushima Daiichi Plant Raised

Barely a month past the strongest earthquake on record in Japan and the devastating tsunami and ongoing crisis at a stricken nuclear power plant, the northern and eastern sections of the country were jolted by a series of powerful aftershocks that rocked Tokyo and the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

The earlier magnitude 6.4 quake was thought to have killed at least 3 people in Iwaki, north of Tokyo, after it triggered a series of landslides and buried homes.

Meanwhile, Japanese officials had raised the nuclear alert, putting it on par with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in the former Soviet Union.

TOKYO -- Japan raised the severity level of the crisis at its crippled nuclear plant Tuesday to rank it on par with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, citing cumulative radiation leaks contaminating the air, tap water, vegetables and seawater.

Japanese nuclear regulators said the rating was being raised from 5 to 7 -- the highest level on an international scale overseen by the International Atomic Energy Agency -- after new assessments of radiation leaks from the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant since it was disabled by the March 11 tsunami.

The new ranking signifies a "major accident" with "wider consequences" than the previous level, including widespread health effects, according to the Vienna-based IAEA.

The revision came a day after the government added five communities to a list of places people should leave to avoid long-term radiation exposure. A 12-mile (20-kilometer) radius already had been cleared around the plant.

Officials from Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said that the cumulative amount of radioactive particles released into the atmosphere since the incident had reached levels that apply to a Level 7 incident. Other factors included damage to the plant's buildings and accumulated radiation levels for its workers.

"We have upgraded the severity level to 7 as the impact of radiation leaks has been widespread from the air, vegetables, tap water to the ocean," NISA official Minoru Oogoda said.

Not surprisingly, the strong aftershocks suspended the ongoing emergency repair work at the stricken Fukushima plant.

The overheating reactors at Fukushima Daiichi have two layers of backup functions in case of a power cut—diesel-powered generators and emergency fire pumps—so they can continue receiving cooling water. But these functions require workers to turn them on manually. This became a problem Monday as a tsunami warning forced all workers to move to a shelter on the plant grounds

One of the aftershocks struck shortly after regional memorials that took place on the 1-month anniversary of the quake and tsunami took place.

April Fool's Sports Chowdah- Manny Walks Away For Good; Sox Snap Back in Home Opener; B's Finish Regular Season w/Weekend Split; C's Fall to 3rd Place

MLB- While waiting for the first Red Sox win of the 2011 season, it was announced that Tampa Bay slugger Manny Ramierez had tested positive for a performance enchancing drug, the second such offense in just under two years. Rather than face the 100 game suspension that a second offense would've brought him, Manny abruptly announced his retirement from baseball on Friday.

After being traded from the LA Dodgers to the Chicago White Sox last season, Manny signed a 1-year, $2 million contract with the Tampa Bay Rays this offseason. Manny had one hit, 4 strikeouts and an RBI in 17 plate appearences with the Rays in the very young regular season.

Jim Rogash- Getty Images

RED SOX- Apparently playing Cowboys Rangers and Indians was a bit much for Boston, hence the singularly unimpressive 0-6 start on the season. Honestly, I wasn't even going to do a sports-related update until the Red Sox won their first game series [I was blissfully unaware that I'd have to wait a full week, though- NANESB!] However, things looked like they were starting to turn around on the home opener Friday night when the Red Sox had a come from behind 9-6 win against the Yankees thanks in large part to Dustin Pedroia going 3-5 with 3 RBI. The Yankees won convincingly on Saturday, which set up the rubber game on Sunday and Josh Beckett vs CC Sabathia on the mound.

Beckett was just about flawless, dealing 10 strikeouts, two hits and a walk over 8 shutout innings. At times, run support seemed incredibly difficult to come by, with the Sox leaving a total of 16 runners on base. Throughout much of the night, Boston was clinging to a 1-0 lead after a bases-loaded Mike Cameron single drove in the game's first run in the bottom of the 3rd. However, Marco Polo Scutaro gave the Sox some insurance in the bottom of the 7th with a bases loaded 2-RBI double off of Yankees reliever Joba Chamberlain that plated Big Papi and JD Drew to make it a 3-0 Red Sox lead. Big Papi would drive in Youkilis with an RBI double in the bottom of the 8th to make it 4-0 and Papelbon would close it out with a 1-2-3 9th inning, catching Mark Texiera looking at strike 3 to end the ballgame and give the Sox their first series win of the season some 48 hours after winning their first game.

Yankees starter CC Sabathia lasted 5⅔ innings, allowing 9 hits and one earned run while allowing 4 walks and striking out 4. New York will next take on the AL East-leading Baltimore Orioles [even if it's only April, how often do I get to say that? -NANESB!] at Yankee stadium on Tuesday while the Red Sox will play host to the 1-8 Tampa Bay Rays Monday night at Fenway. NHL: The Boston Bruins finished off the regular season with a split of their final two games. On Saturday, Daniel Paille, Nathan Horton and Rich Peverly all scored for the Bruins and Tim Thomas stopped 31 of 32 shots faced to keep his save percentage at .938- surpassing Dominik Hasek's .937 from the 1998-1999 season.

The Bruins would skate to a 3-1 win over the Hapless-but-occasionally-feisty Sentators and Sens fired head coach Cory Clouston for missing the postseason in two out of the last three seasons.

With not much to play for on Sunday, the Bruins fell to the Devils by a 3-2 final at the Prudential Center in Newark on Sunday. Tukka Rask got the start in net, allowing 3 goals on 32 shots faced for the regular season finale. Rich Peverly and Chris Kelly accounted for the B's two goals in the regular season finale, and incidentally Sunday's game turned out to be the final for Jaques Lemaire as Devils head coach.

So the Bruins wrap up the regular season with a 46-25-11 record and 103 points- good for 3rd overall in the Eastern conference. The Bruins will match up with the Canadiens in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs starting Thrusday of this week.

It's also worth noting that a week prior to the Saturday win, Micheal Ryder's go-ahead penalty shot against the Atlanta Thrashers helped Boston secure the Northeastern Division titleELSEWHERE IN THE NHL/STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS: The First round matchups for the Stanley Cup playoffs are as follows:

#1 Washington Capitals vs #8 NY Rangers- series begins on Wednesday, April 13- 7:30 ET

#2 Philadelphia Flyers vs #7 Buffalo Sabres- Thrusday, April 14- 7:30 ET

#3 Boston Bruins vs #6 Montreal Canadiens- Thursday April 14, 7 PM ET

#4 Pittsburgh Penguins vs #5 Tampa Bay Lightning- Wednesday April 13, 7 PM ET

WESTERN CONFERENCE-

#1 Vancouver Canucks vs #8 Chicago Blackhawks, Wednesday April 13, 10:00 PM ET

#2 San Jose Sharks vs #7 Los Angeles Kings, Thursday April 14, 10:00 PM ET

#3 Red Wings vs #6 Phoenix Coyotes, Wednesday April 13, 7 PM ET

#4 Anaheim Ducks vs #5 Nashville Predators, Wednesday April 13, 10:30 PM ET

NCAA HOCKEY-None of the New England schools that made it to the NCAA Men's hockey finals advanced past the second round. Defending Champion Boston College was upended by Colorado College by a 4-8 final in the first round and Merrimack lost to Notre Dame by a 4-3 final. UNH and Yale both advanced to the second round only for the Wildcats to fall to the Fighting Irish.

Yale, on the other hand lost to eventual Champion Minnesota-Duluth in the 2nd round. UMD would go on to beat Notre Dame in the semifinals and face the Michigan Wolverines in the final. The UMD Bulldogs would win in OT by a final of 3-2 for their first ever NCAA Men's Hockey title.

NCAA HOOPS- After squeaking by Kentucky by a 56-55 margin, the UConn Huskies earned a showdown with Butler last week. The Huskies handled the Butler Bulldogs fairly easily by a 53-41 final last week for their first NCAA men's title since 2004.

The UConn women's team lost in the semifinals last week by a 72-63 final to Notre Dame- the Irish women's team would then go on to lose to Texas A&M by a 76-70 final in the women's championship game. Texas A&M also bested frequent UConn nemesis Stamford on their way to the women's final as well

NBA: After a pretty good week in which the C's were able to beat the Pistons, Wizards and 76ers (while losing to the Bulls) the Miami heat sent a message with the 100-77 win over Boston in South Florida on Sunday. The loss pushes Boston down to 3rd place in the Eastern conference; 1 game behind Miami and 5 games behind Chicago.

The C's will take on the Washington Wizards in the Nation's Capital on Monday night before finishing out the regular season at home against the Knicks on Wednesday night.

All American Borderline Psychosis- NM Mayor, Police Chief Charged w/Arms Trafficking; Sicarios Seeking Stingers Stung; US Agent Busted for Smuggling

NM drug raid nets police chief, mayor: fox11online.com

NEW MEXICO: The Mayor and Police chief of a small New Mexico border town as well as a village trustee were arrested for allegedly trafficking firearms into Mexico last month.

Mayor Eddie Espinoza, Police Chief Angelo Vega and city Rep. Jose Blas Gutierrez were arrested on allegations of firearm violations, stated the indictment that was released Thursday afternoon by the U.S. attorney's office in New Mexico.

Espinoza was charged with one count of conspiracy, three counts of making false statements in connection with acquisition of firearms and three counts of firearms smuggling.

Vega was charged with one count of conspiracy. Gutierrez was charged with one count of conspiracy, seventeen counts of making false statements in connection with acquisition of firearms and 19 counts of firearms smuggling.

Federal agents executed a search on the offices of the Columbus Police Department, Mayor Epspinoza's home, 7 other residences in Luna and Doña Ana counties as well as a business establishment. The raid has effectively shut down Columbus 4-man police department, with deputies from the Luna County Sheriff's department in charge of patrolling the area for the time being.

Besides being targeteed by a raid from Pancho Villa in 1916, Columbus has had a fairly tumultuous history with its police department in the recent past. According to a 2009 Los Angeles Times article, the dilapidated building that housed the police station was shut down because of a faulty lock on the door to the evidence room and two off-duty officers were suspended and another injured after a barroom brawl that left the small town's police force down to one man.

Last week, federal prosecutors charged that chief of police Vega was paid $20,000 in protection money and used police vehicles for smuggling firearms while using his police credentials to buy body armour and tactical equipment to re-sell to the cartels.

ARIZONA: An unnamed Border Patrol agent was arrested after colleagues discovered bundles of marijuana inside his marked patrol vehicle while on duty in the Yuma sector Tuesday.

The two agents reported the incident to a duty supervisor, and the agent and marijuana were subsequently turned over to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Border Patrol spokesman Kenneth Quillin said charges were pending in the case.

Corruption cases involving border police have increased in recent years as the U.S. government has ramped up recruitment in a drive to secure the southwest border with Mexico

A Washington Post report from 2010 detailed allegations of corruption against one Customs agent in El Paso, TX and her attempt to recruit other federal officers to participate in allowing drugs and illegal aliens to cross the border in exchange for bribes.

ELSEWHERE IN ARIZONA: Three Mexican nationals who identified themselves as members of the Sinaloa Cartel were charged on multiple weapons and narcotics conspiracy charges after attempting to purchase heavy weaponry. The three had indicated to informants that they were interested in Stinger missiles, a pair of AT-4 Anti Tank weapons.

The indictment alleges that David Diaz-Sosa, Jorge de Jesus-Castaneda and Emilia Palomina-Robles arranged to procure a military style arsenal for roughly $400,000 and made a down payment for the weapons using nearly 15 lbs of crystal methamphetamine and another $143,000 in cash in separate transactions. Court documents identify Diaz-Sosa and De Jesus-Casteneda as being in the country illegally while Palomina-Robles is a non-citizen resident.

The indictment also alleges that the men were going to divide up the weapons among themselves and smuggle them across the border into Mexico

CALIFORNIA: I mentioned this in passing earlier, but a Border Patrol agent in Southern California nabbed a van full of illegal aliens that were in United States Marine Corps uniforms. The white van itself featured a defaced US Government liscense plate, and the agent- a Marine veteran- became suspicious of the van's occupants when the driver didn't know the Marine Corps birthday and the occupants of the van were unfamiliar with the USMC 'Oo-RAH!' salutation. The arrest took place in the mountains along Interstate 8 at a checkpoint some 45 miles east of San Diego.

TEXAS: As it turns out, the Marines and their vehicles aren't the only ones who are being 'cloned' by smugglers- 28 year old Felipe Esperaza Cruz- a Mexican national- was arrested in Del Rio, TX after driving a fake Border Patrol truck loaded with 1500 lbs of marijuana across the border from Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila.

The government case contends that Esparza-Cruz entered the “United States without inspection through the City of Del Rio southbound tollbooth lanes.”

Once the truck entered the country ICE Agents ordered “mobile surveillance in order to verify the authenticity of the vehicle.”

Esparza-Cruz allegedly imitated a process used by Border Patrol when they deport illegal aliens back to Mexico using Border Patrol trucks. Luckily ICE agents observed the BP truck and were able to make the arrest.

“They’d just drive through without presenting themselves for inspection because no one questioned a Border Patrol vehicle,” officials explained.

In 2006, Border Patrol agents southwest of Tuscon, AZ came across a van in the desert that was painted to look like one of their vehicles. The drivers abandoned the vehicle after a short pursuit and fled back into Mexico, leaving behind some 30 immigrants locked in a cage the smugglers installed in the back of the vehicle. Over the past few years, smugglers and drug traffickers have also taken to applying realistic graphics to vehicles and trailers marked for Wal Mart, FedEx, DirecTV and others while moving contraband.

WASHINGTON D.C.- The Assistant special agent in charge of the ATF's Phoenix, AZ office is now cooperating with Congressional investigators in an inquiry stemming from the Bureau's 'Operation Fast & Furious'.

Special Agent George Gillett Jr was the one in charge or overseeing the day-to-day operations of Fast & Furious from the Phoenix office.

Gillett, who supervised the group running the Arizona component of Project Gunrunner, known as "Fast and Furious," initially dismissed those concerns and previously ordered ATF agents to avoid all communications with whistle-blowers who were cooperating with the congressional inquiries, several agents said in interviews.

Now, though, Gillett is talking. In a letter Friday to ATF management, Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, disclosed that Gillett was cooperating with a congressional inquiry and had participated in two preliminary meetings with investigators.

Gillett, who was named to the Phoenix field office's No. 2 post in June 2008, previously served as an ATF field supervisor in Los Angeles.

After repeated refusals by the ATF and the Justice Department to provide detailed information about the conduct of the Gunrunner investigation and how the guns found at the scene of Terry's death got into criminal hands, Gillett's decision to come forward is crucial, agency sources said.

Early on, Agent John Dodson came forward as a whistleblower after two weapons from the 'Fast & Furious' operation were found at the scene of a December 2010 Arizona shoot-out that killed Border Patrol agent Brian Terry.

Badger State Update- Dewey Kloppenburg Defeats Truman Prosser; Dane County Woman Charged in Sending Death Threats to State Lawmakers

In what is likely the most hotly contested Wisconsin judicial election this month, the contest between incubment David Prosser and challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg gained a degree of national attention.

Both conservatives and labor activists viewed the Wisconsin Supreme Court election as a potential referrendum on Gov Scott Walker's contested budget bill that limited collective bargaining for state employees that was passed last month.

The unions threw their support behind Kloppenburg, largely believing that she would rule in their favor should Walker's bill find itself before the Supreme Court. The night after Tuesday's elections, Assistant Attorney General Kloppenburg had declared victory as she maintained a slim 204 vote lead over Prosser.

Heading into Thursday morning, Prosser's best chance at victory seemed to be from an automatic recount that would be automatically triggered by such a close margin.

However, by Thursday afternoon Waukesha county clerk Kathy Nickolaus held a press conference in which she announced that the Milwaukee suburb of Brookfield had erroniously been omitted from the tally due to 'human error'.

"This is not a case of extra votes or extra ballots being found," Nickolaus said. "This is human error, which I apologize for." Nickolaus said the most significant error occurred when she entered totals from the city of Brookfield, a suburb of Milwaukee, but they were not saved.

This mistake was discovered during an open meeting of the county canvass board in which the co-chair of the Waukesha County Democrat Party was in attendance and verified Nickolaus' version of events.

The error would mean that Prosser could stand to gain nearly 7600 votes after trailing by just over 200, which would push the margin beyond the threshold for an automatic recount.

ELSEWHERE- A 26 year old Cross Plains, WI woman has been charged with sending threatening e-mails to state officials.

Windell before e-mailing death threats

26 year old Katherine R. Windels, 26, was named in a criminal complaint after allegedly sending death threats to State Senator Robert Cowles (R-Green Bay) on March 9 before sending similar messages to 15 other Republican lawmakers that same evening. The e-mails read in part:

Please put your things in order because you will be killed and your families will also be killed due to your actions in the last 8 weeks. Please explain to them that this is because we get rid of you and your families and then it will save the rights of 300,000 people and also be able to close the deficit that you have created. I hope you have a good time in hell. Read below for more information on possible scenarios in which you will die.

Windels after e-mailing death threats

Windels was charged with two felony counts of sending out a bomb scare and computer message threatening bodily harm or injury. Her trial is slated to begin in late April. If convicted, she could face a maximum of 3 ½ years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Some social networking profiles thought to belong to Windels lists her as having an associates degree in early childhood education and work experience in Wexford Head Start and the Little Red Caboose.

[hat tip: Gateway Pundit; Althouse]

Today's Train of Thought- The Forestry for the Trees; April 5, 2010

Today's train of thought takes us to Idaho along the remnants of one of the last transcontinental railroads- the Milwaukee Road's Pacific extension between Minneapolis, MN and Seattle, WA.

Construction began on the pacific extension in 1906 and was completed just over three years later with a Golden Spike ceremony at Garrison, MT. Because the line was built so late, the Miwaukee Road had to expand westward by acquiring smaller railroads and purchasing individual parcels of land. However, thanks to abundant hydroelectric energy and available copper from western Montana, the Milwaukee Road became a pioneer in electrification- with much of the line between Harlowtown, MT and Tacoma, WA featuring overhead wire.

But the fact that the line bypassed populated areas out west proved to be its undoing and by 1974, it had removed all signs of electrification [just in time for the OPEC-induced oil crisis! -NANESB!] and in 1979, with much of the Pacific extension suffering from deferred maintenance and 10 MPH slow orders, the Milwaukee Road decided to abandon all lines west of Terry, MT- more than 1100 miles total.

A few remnants of the Milwaukee Road Pacific extension and the branches that fed into it are in use today. Notable examples include Washington State's Pend Oreille Valley Railroad, the appropriately named Tacoma Rail, Montana's Central Montana out of Lewistown, MT and the 71-mile St Maries River Railroad in Idaho. The St. Marie's started up in 1980 on a stretch of former Milwaukee Road Pacific extension between Plummer, ID and Avery, ID (although the line to Avery was eventually condemned and shut down by the federal government).

For the first 30 years, the line was owned and operated by the Potlatch Corporation. However, in 2010 the line was sold to the Williams Group out of Missouri- which operates another railway (the Bountiful Grain and Craig Mountain) further South. Like many other railways, the Saint Maries River found themselves a reliable workhorse in EMD's GP9, which had been with them since the beginning- albeit in a chopped hood variation.

Here, railpictures.net contributor Matt Adams catches GP9s #102 and #101 trundling across the spindly trestle at Lake Benewah, ID with 9 cars bound for the Union Pacific itnerchange at Plummer in July 2008. Not surprisingly, the primary source of traffic for the line is lumber and forestry products. Interestingly, both the track and locomotives come from the Milwaukee Road.

The St Maries also occasionally uses a couple of former MILW cabooses to assist in lengthy backup moves.

Kinetic Military Action Figure Update- Al Qaeda Looting Ghdaffy's Arsenals? Libyan Official Defects; Rebels, Qatar Bartering for Oil

LIBYA: NATO continued airstrikes against forced loyal to Libyan leader Mummar Ghdaffi outside the eastern oil city of Brega, striking a convoy that was heading towards rebel positions as well as armour and surface to air missiles in Ghdaffi's hometown of Sitre. The city of Brega has changed hands between rebels and Ghdaffi loyalists no less than three times in the last month.

The faction of the Libyan military loyal to Ghdaffi have also adapted the rebel's tactics of mounting machine guns, mortars and anti-aircraft guns on pickup or flatbed trucks. Not only does this give them a greater degree of mobility, but it also raises a problem for NATO pilots, as they would be much more difficult to distinguish from simlar rebel vehicles.

Amid reports that US and Egyptian special forces are covertly training rebel fighters in Eastern Libya [How covert is it if I'm reading about it on front the front pages of the International Business Times- I mean, really?- NANESB!] a senior Algerian security official has raised concerns that al-Qaeda has been exploiting the unrest in Libya to obtain weapons from Ghdaffy's arsenal for use elsewhere.

The senior official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a convoy of eight Toyota pick-up trucks left eastern Libya, crossed into Chad and then Niger, and from there into northern Mali where in the past few days it delivered a cargo of weapons.

The weapons included Russian-made RPG-7 anti-tank rocket-propelled grenades, Kalashnikov heavy machine guns, Kalashnikov rifles, explosives and ammunition, he said.

He also said he had information that Al-Qaeda's north African wing, known as al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) had acquired from Libya Russian-made shoulder-fired Strela surface-to-air missiles known by the NATO designation SAM-7.

"Several military barracks have been pillaged in this region (eastern Libya) with their arsenals and weapons stores and the elements of AQIM who were present could not have failed to profit from this opportunity" the official told Reuters "AQIM, which has maintained excellent relations with smugglers who used to cross Libya from all directions without the slightest difficulty, will probably give them the task of bringing it the weapons," said the official.

On top of that, a 2007 US raid against al Qaeda in Iraq yielded records on at least 600 foreign al Qaeda operatives in Iraq. Of those, an estimated 20% came from Libya- almost all of them from cities in the east that are now in rebel hands.

BBC Map showing first few days of NATO airstrikes

QATAR: The Liberian-flagged Suezmax tanker Equator arrived in the rebel-held eastern Libyan port of Marsa al Hariga on Tuesday, the first traffic since anti-Ghdaffy demonstrations began a few weeks ago.

The tanker's arrival comes shortly after the rebels announced a deal with the Persian Gulf emirate of Qatar where the oil would be marketed by Qatar in exchange for food, medicine (and the rebels hope weapons and ammunition as well). The 'barter' arrangement means that Qatar is able to circumvent international sanctions against Libya.

UNITED KINGDOM: Former Libyan Foreign minister Moussa Koussa flew to England from Tunisia last Thursday and announced his defection from the Ghdaffi regime.

As head of Libya external intelligence, Mr Koussa was an MI6 [British intelligence]asset for almost two decades. He was charged with conducting negotiations over Libya's giving up its weapons of mass destruction in 2003.

He was notably uncomfortable in making public statements on behalf of the regime in recent weeks. One Libyan official said that Mr Koussa had deliberated timed his statements to present a "rational" argument in the immediate aftermath of Col Muammar Gaddafi's rambling statements on national television.

With his arrival in the UK, Scottish prosecutors have sought to interview Koussa regarding the Libyan regime's role in the December 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland that killed 270 people. At the time, Khoussa was head of Libya's Bureau for External Security (the Mathaba) which was implicated in the Lockerbie bombing as well as a 1986 bombing attack on a Berlin disco that killed 3 (including two American soldiers) and injured more than 200. Aside from the terrorist attacks against foreign interests, operatives from the Mathaba (often with Libyan diplomatic credentials) would also harass and threaten exiled Libyan opposition figures.

Since the uprising began, Ghdaffi has lost his interior minster and justice minister to the side of the rebels.