The State Historical Society is hiring a new Director. Their anonymous staff blog leaks the hiring interview questions:Oh, Crap
Ten Questions To Be Asked At Director Interviews

The management team of the society has been building a list of questions to be asked of both candidates for the position of "Director." The draft of the list has been leaked to "Oh, Crap."

1. How do you spell "Potawatomi"?
2. Are you related to the Governor?
3. Are you now, or have you ever been, related to any member of the legislature?
4. Boxers or Briefs?
5. Suits: two button or three?
6. Are you a member of the Society?
7. Are you a member of the secret society?
8. If you re-arrange the letters in "wisconsin history," how many other words can you come up with?
9. Are you gellin'?
10. And you are...?

The Iraqi Information-meister, this must be seen to be believed.

From the Scrum a calendar of the presidential campaign:

Here is the Post again, only this time with the 10 reasons to become a federal bureaucrat.

Your faithful Editor boils it down to this:

FEDERAL GOVENTMENT: The pay is OK and you can NEVER be fired.

From the Washington Post, an article on the 10 reasons to avoid a (federal) government career.

If it looks like it was written by a careerist thats because it essentially was.

Blood in the water at the start of the presidential primary campaign.:Kerry Campaign Blasts Dean's Credentials (washingtonpost.com)

Legislator announces he doesn't have time to legislate: MikePowers.

In a related story the Editor's doctor and plumber also annouce that they have no time to do their jobs either. They also still expect to be paid for not working.

A sad commentary on the changes faced at the capitol. There was a time when four full-time gardeners competed to make the grounds of the capitol inviting and beautiful to behold. Now we have prisoners maintaining the capitol grounds.

As provided by Frmr. Congressman Jay Johnson (Buffoon-Green Bay):

HOW NOT TO BECOME A CABINET SECRETARY:

1. Allow yourself to become widely viewed as an unemployed air-headed idiot.

2. Get kicked out of your cushy incumbency-protected congressional seat by one eighth of the state's populace.

3. Lobby for the job loudly and publicly.

ABC News' The Note, which is one of our favored links in the right-hand column, has concieved of an interesting online addition to the Presidential race:

Back when they were working with faxes and dial-up modems (and when Doug Bailey and Roger Craver were still veritable pups), the Hotline had a great feature in the 1988 cycle in which the communications staffs of presidential campaigns were allowed to write daily submissions, giving their message of the day in a more casual and humorous way than it normally was delivered.

The champions of the format � Republican John Buckley and Democrat Mike McCurry � still hover around the political world, but they have this cycle been replaced by a new generation of warriors, ready to show us all each morning how cleverly they can wield the electronic pen in furtherance of their candidates' cause.

The rules are simple. The submissions �

1. must be 200 words or fewer (longer than that, we cut it off at 200).
2. will be printed in the order they are received.
3. should be irreverent and breezy � written in Note style.
4. must be signed by someone in the campaign (although they can be written by different people on different days).
5. must be received by 8:30 am each day (lazy boys and girls can send them the night before).

They can be on any topic: message of the day, reacting to something in the papers, whatever the campaigns wish.
When there IS a Bush campaign, we will welcome their Notepad contributions. Candidates of other parties will also be considered.
This gives the campaigns a chance to reach The Note audience en masse.

Federal agency wants to formally recognize what it already does; ignore emails from the public.Forest Service Email Regulations

Given the first and abrupt departure of Governor Doyle's first Cabinet member, the Editor believes it is time to republish the ten rules below:

TEN RULES FOR NEW CABINET SECRETARIES:




1.) You work for the Governor.

You serve at his pleasure. Remember that. The Governor sets your policy, principle, and politics. Don't ever disagree with him publicly while working for him. (Cabinet meetings may be generally be considered "public".) If you find that you can not agree and follow his course, shut up, and find a new job. Once you are again a free agent you may speak your own mind.


2.) The agency works for you.

The career staff often believe that they run the agency. This should not and need not be true. If you do not disabuse them of that notion early on, you will be failing both the Governor and the voters who elected him. You must gather your agency's senior and midlevel staff and lay out the fact that there is a new administration, and with the new administration comes a new direction. Invite them to join in helping the administration achieve the goals it was elected to deliver. Suggest that changes will be made and reorganization is likely. Make it clear that you respect the staff but that you will be ultimately directing the agency. Do not let the staff make key decisions without your approval. Don't let them set the timetable, or withhold information that is critical to your decsion making. Don't let them recommend a single action in writing: always demand multiple options. Find an agency legal counsel who will aid you in your adminisrtative activities within the agency, who will search for a "yes" rather than one who tells you "it can't be done".



3.) Make the Chief of Staff your friend.

The Chief of Staff is the voice and right hand of the Governor. Don't try to bypass or backdoor the Chief of Staff, for that way lies doom. Meet or speak with the Chief of Staff frequently. The Chief of Staff either knows what the Governor's mind is on a policy area or can find it out more quickly and accurately than you. (Yes, Of course you are old friends and allies of the Governor, check with the Chief of Staff anyway.) The Chief of Staff has more frequent contact and a better view of the big picture.



4.) Your first job is to get the Governor re-elected.

This is the big picture. Many new members of an administration wrongly believe that they must achieve mighty deeds and darn fast too. Remember this: speed kills. If you work hard to make sure your boss is re-elected he will have the necessary time to achieve great things. Policy changes are often difficult in our system of government, increase the likelyhood of re-election and you increase the probability of achieving lasting change. In practice this means actively seeking out ways to be participatory and helpful to the campaign staff and the Chief of Staff.



5.) Your second job is to achieve the Governor's policy aims.

See rule number four.



6.) Return your phone calls.

This seems like a small thing, it is not. Upon this small item will much of your reputation for success and professionalism as a cabinet secretary be founded. This does not mean only your friends, treat your former opponents with professionalism and you disarm them and may even make them allies. Hold your friends close and your enemies closer.



7.) Shine a light on your problems.

If there is a problem or crisis that involves your agency tell the Chief of Staff immediately. Yes, if that means a call at three in the morning on Christmas Eve so be it. You have a job that now has you on call 24/7. If the first time that the Governor learns of a problem in your agency is in the paper or on the TV news, you will be looking for another job.



8.) Don't become a media hound.

The next worse thing to not telling the Governor of bad news, is for the Governor to see news going out under a cabinet member's name.
It is hard to over-estimate the importance of this. Never just put out a press release, call a press conference, or return a reporter's call. ALWAYS contact the Governor's office with the news first. If you have good news, consider offering to build an event for the Governor related to it. Every press release should mention your boss three times before mentioning your own. Don't work the media without first clearing it with at least the press secretary and probably the Chief of Staff as well. You exist to make the Governor look good not to indulge your own ego.



9.) Make your boss' life easier.

Your boss will need a variety of help that is not immediately obvious. Offer to help. He must attend events and fundraisers at which many people will be attending for the sole purpose of complaining. He will be chewed on incessently. If you attend with him you can save him from some of that suffering. He will be able to direct troubled people to "a member of my cabinet". You will suffer some as a result but will save him a bit of his enormous burden. Shared suffering the the lot of a good cabinet member. He may also need to hire more people than his immediate office can place, once you master the technique of hiring good people within your domain, offer to fill your opennings with his choices first. Everyone likes to master of their own domain but remember your boss first and you will both profit by it.



10.) Don't leak (and the corollary: Don't be caught leaking.)

You owe loyalty to the Governor and the press is not your friend. Leaking may well allow you to win a budget or policy battle within the administration. It will also truly hurt your boss. An administration that leaks is perceived to be ill-run and undisciplined. A cabinet member who is thought to have leaked is at best seen as a free-lancer and at worst a traitor. If you must betray your boss in that fashion make sure that you are "off the record" or "on background", and ask the reporter explicitly what he understands those terms to mean before speaking.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"Okay, you've convinced me. Now go out there and bring pressure on me." President Franklin D. Roosevelt, (In response to a business delegation)

FUN WITH NUMBERS
The Democratic presidential primary is in full swing, check out this look at the Money Primary.--from The Scrum

AIR HEAD
Here is the report of Scott McCallum's air travel. The Ethics Board report makes for humorous reading.



Sloppy incompetance in Governor McCallum's office is the most generous description of this entire affair. Perhaps this explains why former Governor McCallumremains unemployed and has not even been appointed to corporate boards. Usually the fate of ex-politicos of note.



Or perhaps it is because McCallum was both ineffectual and mean-as-a-snake, an uncomfortable combination for CEOs.

CUT TO THE HEART OF THE MATTER


This history site examines the historical record of scalping. Interestingly it points out:

Scalping, of course, predated the mid-eighteenth century. Historical records, archaeology, and other sciences strongly indicate the practice originated among certain Native American tribes.1 A French soldier, identified by the initials J. C. B., related in his memoirs that "this horrible custom was practiced by these savages alone, and sprang from their own barbarism, for it seems never to have existed in any other nation, not even among nations, who, like them, have never received any idea of civilized life."2
...
While Europeans did not originate scalping, they did encourage its spread through the establishment of bounties. J. C. B. writes that "the French and English were accustomed to pay for the scalps, to the amount of thirty francs' worth of trade goods. Their purpose was then to encourage the savages to take as many scalps as they could, and to know the number of the foe who had fallen."8

The Unkindest Cut, or Who Invented Scalping?

This site references author James Axtell :

"Axtell�s research for his essays uncovered archaelogical, written, and linguistic evidence that points to an Indian origin of scalping. There have been pre-historic sites in North America where remains with lesions on the skull suggesting a scalping victim have been unearthed. Written accounts from European explorers during the 1500�s and 1600�s provide historical evidence of the practice. In 1535, Jacques Cariter saw "the skins of five men�s heads, stretched on hoops�" Samuel de Champlain�s travels to Canada and New England provided him with tales of scalping after a battle in 1609: "Approaching the shore each took a stick, on the end of which they hung the scapls (testes) of their slain enemies�" These stories bring up three points for Axtell to use in his argument. The first is the novelty of scalping to the European observer. Next, there is the evidence of skill and art involved that suggest a long tradition of the practice. Finally, the words that are used to describe "scalp" and "scalping" had no set vocabulary and no universal translation in European languages, but Indians of different backgrounds and languages had nouns and verbs to refer to the specific use of the terminology. Without a word for the action or object, it is unlikely that the European cultures had conceived of what they witnessed prior to their introduction to Native American customs, and therefore unlikely that it had been a practice brought to the New World by them. "

SCAPLING THE TRUTH

The Republican Party of Wisconsin put together a cartoon that blasts Governor Doyle over the gaming compacts. A line in the script refers to taxpayers being "scalped" by the deal. This was portrayed as "racist" by hard left dem party members: Moore Demands Republicans Apologize For �Scalping� Comment



In fact one lefty group was so inflamed by the inclusion of the term "scalped" that they put out a press release blasting the racist republicans and demanding a staffer be fired for using the term. They then go on to suggest that scalping as an native indian custom was a "myth".


�To compare the state�s negotiated renewal of tribal gaming compacts with the historic practice of scalping is both shameful and incredibly inaccurate.�The myth of Native American �scalping� has long been used in racially offensive ways in Wisconsin and the nation at large, and the term now commonly refers to profiteers unfairly taking advantage of consumers who mark up ticket prices. American Indians probably acquired the practice of scalping from Europeans settlers. Absolutely no evidence exists that scalping was a widespread practice in the Americas before European contact, while French traders and English colonial assemblies actually legislated bounties to encourage the practice.
--Wisconsin Citizen Action.


Oops. Unfortunately they got their facts wrong.

If you want to be president: Visit Iowa!

David Obey pretends to be a resident of Wausau. The residents of Wausau pretend to care when he puts out DNC/Washington poll-driven pablum. David Obey: Bush trashes environment

Scott McCallum narrowly avoids jail. Still unemployed. Ethics Board filing

Controversy, we love it! : Check out Bobblehead Jim Doyle and the infamous "scalping" ad.

Biotech can save the world. Don't believe it ? Check out: Wisconsin Biotechnology Association

The Scrum is back.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: ( From Wispolitics)

REP. JULIE LASSA:
The voters of Central Wisconsin sent a powerful message tonight. They showed that they value a positive, grassroots campaign based on an honest discussion of the issues.

(Or they showed that the power of incumbency can crush non-political types-- Ed.)

And they showed that no matter how many times they hear distortions and deceptions, the people of Central Wisconsin recognize the truth when they hear it.

(Or does it?--Ed.)

We didn't have a lot of money to run on - but we had something much, much more important. (Sinister forces of evil? --Ed.)

We had the support of many dedicated (Obey hacks and Union assigned) volunteers who put in an unbelievable effort against very challenging odds. I want to thank every one of them for their hard work these past five weeks. This is really their victory.

Just as we are driving around today in our jeeps throughout Wisconsin's snowy spring comes this news: IT WAS WARMER IN THE MIDDLE AGES!

Must have been all those Medieval SUVs.

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

"We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office."

-- Aesop

Extra Quote:

The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously.

-- Hubert Humphrey

"Political hitman" Tod Rongstad today has released those who paid for his direct mail "hit" piece. It is interesting to the Editor that the issue continues to drag along. The heart of the matter is, in this observer's opinion, can individuals say nasty things about politicians? I would hope the answer is yes. Most political figures could do with some additional criticism, if only to keep them on their toes.

The Editor enjoys debunkers: JunkScience.com

Back in January the Editor refered to Ches-lev-itch as: A man who clearly has no business ever running a city, let alone Madison.

Eating crow, the Editor must now acknowledge that this man's business is now, indeed, running Madison.

If you would like to find political quotes at a glance, this is an interesting site.


This is an even better quote site.

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

In order to become the master, the politician poses as the servant.
--Charles de Gaulle

Here they are: Wisconsin's stupid laws.

In the world of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign (WDC) money is evil. People who give to candidates they like, especially people who have private sector jobs (i.e. members of a special interest) are horribly and intrinsically evil.

In order to save candidates from having to talk to people who have jobs the WDC suggests coercively taking money from citizens and giving it to all candidates equally. That is to say that every idiot who can't find a real job, and every loon who believes the moon is made of green cheese would be able to run on a "level playing field." In the Editor's opinion if you subsidize lunacy and weak candidates that is what you will get more of. How this is good for representative democracy is unclear.


What the WDC is good at is occasionally pointing out the obvious. In this case they put together a report that indicates that few people contribute to campaigns.

Shocking.

In an intense bit of research, the Editors have found the Doyle Clan homepage. Apparently Doyle is Irish for Evil Foreigner. One wonders if the present Republican leadership of the legislative branch would agree with that definition.


"Members of Clan Doyle /Clann O DubhGhaill ("Dubh-Ghaill" ... pronounced "Du-Gall") take their family surname from the Irish Gaelic words meaning "Dark/Evil Foreigner"; and this is just what the indigenous Celts called the Danish Vikings who started settling in Ireland and Scotland more than 1,000 years ago." -- From Doyle website.


Amaze your friends.

I think we'll be adding this blog to our links section. Damn well written stuff here.
AndrewSullivan.com - Daily Dish

You'll have noticed that one of our links is ABC's "The Note"
They had their politcal reporter snagged by a competitor. That's why they are writing less on their political blog. They, however, blame the war.

"Today's Note, with the war taking up more and more of our time, is ultra-mini." ---ABC News

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. " --Abraham Lincoln

An intereseting essay from Peggy Noonan. The war coverage in the media oft times hangs heavy these days. She has a way of putting things in perspecitve.: Peggy Noonan

The employees at the State Historical Society have created an anonymous website that lampoons the massive cuts they are about to receive. It is called : Oh, Crap. Not again.