The economic pounding of Wisconsin citizens into the mud and ice continues ad nauseam. After four years of economic hell in this state, you should be able to taste that good black planting soil as your face is crammed into it over and over. If you've been unlucky enough to be the recipient of the good ongoing ground pounding, there is surely carats and potatoes growing in your ears by now.
Apologist pundits in Wisconsin have the luxury of an audience who does not respond to economic abuse - instead the beleaguered citizens just move away. They don't go before the many city councils and say, "You have wrecked our lives, we are moving, good-riddance."
Pundits want statistics, damn it. Not some feature story about a real de-constructed rube pleading to the city council. Most pundits of political, academic, and
meeeee...dia persuasion, wallow in those statistics. Percentages on spread sheets, not real faces of people driven from the middle class, and forced to move around the country to find work, are much easier to stomach.
The worst nightmare scenario for the holders of the two-party banal norm is that some asshole who knows the difference between a colon and a semi-colon has fallen between the cracks and is on the literary rampage. Well here is a statistic - "Say hello to my little [ink by the barrel] friend, " Bob Keith.
You better take notice pundits, as long as I have a keyboard, I will snitch this Wisconsin hell economy off until my fingers are worn off, and then I will peck the keys with my toes. My wife suggests, "Take away his damn keyboard before he literarily skewers somebody, for God sakes."
The company I work for ( I am lucky enough to still have a job) cut back the hours of loyal part-timers for the holidays, and furloughed full-timers twice in the past year 2009 - so what's new there in the Wisconsin workers' hell? Well, while the working loyalists were predisposed with making ends meet while sitting at home and having hours cut, said company hired refugees from the unemployed ranks that is Wisconsin. They also brought in some Huber peeps. My assumption is that they get some State perks for hiring ex-cons. To hell with the former middle class loyal workers, right!?
And it is Christmas time for Christ sakes. Lured into automatic bill payments in lieu of the antique checking system, now I have to worry about bouncing electronic checks. Oh, I have just starting. Water bill...up. Electric bill...up. Property taxes...up. Troops in Afghanistan...up. Phone, Internet, and television bills...up.
If the general electorate reelects anyone who sat in public office (that includes local, county, and state) during the inception of this "Great Recession," you as an electorate deserve every economic beating you will get.
Wait, "can't the stupid worker get rid of his television et cetera?" ..To save some cash, unload you creature comforts. What is this, even Third World countries I have been in, the people still have a damn television.
You try to hang on to a nice little life there might still be with a wife and a cat. Do I need to digress to living in my car to appease the economic self-help shamans?
"Retool, dumb worker, we are rooting for you. Send in $39.99 and get a ten CD set on how to stay out of debt. Or, learn how to pick up a good foreclosed house for one-tenth its original price. Screw your destroyed neighbors, dude, celebrate the new Wisconsin."
The pundits are indignant because some live, troublesome, living statistic has crawled out of the woodwork. "We just want to talk about him as a statistic, not actually have to see his ruddy ass!"
A 55 year old male has had his already part-time hours cut (actually, he is lucky to have a job at all). But wait, the job is eight bucks an hour if and when he is allowed on the work schedule. Know one else will hire said 55 year old dude even four years ago - after all he is a male, and....old; and god knows he is not a perky-breasted 22 year old good looking woman. Job application? - place directly in file 13!
The pundits look the other way, like looking past a beggar on the sidewalk - someone else's problem; or, the bum probably brought it on himself. Then said pundits will carry on with their pundit banter. And they will sing in chorus:
"The economic recovery is just around the corner; I
know'd it, 'cause us smart pundit fellers says so. Besides, the ignorant rabble has a couple of bodily orifices left that our good Anitgo Silt Loam has not been crammed into."
Wisconsin Military Service Person Special Mention of the Week
(each week Cooldadiomedia mentions a Wisconsin service person killed in Iraq or Afghanistan) This week's Wisconsin's military service person to remember is Marine Reservist Private First Class Brent T. Vroman, 21, of Oshkosh. Vroman was a riflemen on a foot patrol when attacked by an improvised explosive device fired from a vehicle in Babil Province, Iraq. Brent was in 1st Platoon, Company F, 2nd Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment Expeditionary Unit, 4th Marine Division, Marine Forces Reserve. His company consists of about 185 Marines and were based in Yusufiya, Iraq. The unit includes Golf Company from Madison. The 2nd battalion was activated in May of 2004 and then deployed to Camp Pendleton, California. They arrived in Iraq in September for a tentative seven month tour of duty. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said Vroman was a 2001 graduate of Omro High School just west of Oshkosh. He joined the Marines in 2003. Brian had a twin brother, Brian. Brent was an accomplished wrestler and he was a four-year letter winner and conference champion in his senior year. At the time of his death Brian was survived by a step-father Bill DeGroot, and brothers Bob and Brian. Private First Class Vroman was Wisconsin's 31st Wisconsin military service person killed in Iraq since the spring of 2003.
As of this blog entry's posting date:
94,768 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
9,316 Iraqi Security Forces have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
4,372 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
931 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
317 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
599 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
31,582 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
4,640 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
101 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
16 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
139 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
17 journalists (various nationalities) have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
Wisconsin military service person special mention of the week, military casualty, and journalist casualty information sources: Committee to Protect Journalists; cnn.com; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; washingtonpost.com; thehighground.org; Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs; iraqbodycount.org; and, icasualties.org.
