Don't cross JB

Attorney General JB Van Hollen's accelerating ego inflation/paranoia is getting a tad out of control.

This guy is just weird.

First there was the story of Van Hollen's demotion of State Fire Marshal Carolyn S. Kelly because she allegedly threatened top Justice Department officials. According to the JS:

E-mails show Kelly and Warren (James Warren, her former boss) were frustrated by Van Hollen's handling of open records requests related to the case of Tyler Peterson, the off-duty deputy who killed six people and himself.

On Oct. 15, a week after the Crandon shooting, Kelly sent Warren an e-mail that said: "If I recall 50 bucks is the going rate for a hit right now?"

She made similar references in other e-mails, saying group rates might be available and that she should consider advertising on Craigslist, the popular Web site for classified ads.

The e-mails do not specifically name anyone, but Van Hollen said the investigation showed she was referring to him or his top aides.

Kelly may have used poor judgment in sending those emails over government computers, but really, who in their right minds would believe she was actually making threats? Van Hollen could have disciplined Kelly on legitimate grounds, perhaps, but to try to portray her as a threat to public safety or someone who might actually hire a hit man is ludicrous and shameful on Van Hollen's part.

That story was just the warm-up to the true ego-gone-wild JB Van Hollen story. He wants body guards at the Republican national convention to be held in the Twin Cities. Again from the JS:

Justice Department official Joell Schigur questioned whether assigning state agents to a political event would be improper or illegal. Schigur had been serving as director of the department's Public Integrity Bureau, but had not yet completed the position's two-year probation period.

Schigur was told Wednesday, one month after asking whether agents should be used at the GOP event, that she had not completed her probation. Assistant Attorney General Kevin St. John said the two issues were not related, however...

Mike Myszewski, administrator of the Division of Criminal Investigation, said in an April 23 e-mail that assigning agents to guard Van Hollen could be justified, given plans by dissident groups to try to "violently disrupt" the event.

Tom Walsh, the St. Paul, Minn., Police Department spokesman for convention security issues, said Friday he knew of no such threats.

"To our knowledge there were no such groups at the previous Republican National Convention, and we are not aware of any planning to try to disrupt this event," Walsh said in an e-mail.

Is Van Hollen afraid that former Fire Marshal Kelly will try to have him offed at the Republican convention? Does he think terrorists are wandering around St. Paul looking to do him in?

Or is he just nuts?

That darned oil thing

Politicians keep whining at our good and excessively corrupt and venal friends in the Saudi government that they should be sending us lot more oil.

First, it's likely they don't have the spare oil to send. Look beyond the stories about Bush trying to convince the Saudis that they ought to help us with our addiction, and you can find a lot of data suggesting that the Saudis ability to increase oil production may be at its limit.

Second, put yourself in the Saudis' sandals. Let's say you are a powerful member of a vastly corrupt and venal government that cannot provide enough jobs for your people and you need to mollify the masses by shoving oil money at them. You have limited oil reserves, but potentially unlimited anger out there among your own population. You need to bank some of that oil revenue against the day the oil is gone so you can continue to buy off the people and pay for your oversized, repressive security forces that can quickly, brutally and efficiently put down any little uprising that may occur. No motivation to increase supply and reduce prices there.

In addition, the sugar daddy supplicant that is begging for more oil has swaggered into your global neighborhood and started a fight with the neighbors in Iraq. The fight threatens stability in the whole region, and has stirred up nests of troublesome, dangerous radical extremists everywhere. You want the fight to end.

Do you pump more oil so it easier and less expensive for that annoying supplicant whiner to continue its fight?

So remember -- Next time President Bush travels to Saudi Arabia to ask the Saudis to increase oil production, it is likely he just wanted the junket.

Telecom offers consumer protection (yah, right)

You've got to hand it to the wireless phone service providers -- they just show no ability to show shame.

The providers have come up with a proposal to waive the outrageous fees they charge for customers who want an early out from their cell phone contracts -- the phone companies have agreed to waive the charges for those least likely to need the charges waived, according to the Associated Press.

Under a proposal to the Federal Communications Commission, the wireless industry would give consumers the opportunity to cancel service without any penalty for up to 30 days after they sign a cell phone contract or until 10 days after they receive their first bill.

Heavens! I bet that would protect a relative quarter-handful of customers who would like to switch carriers.

The phone companies have also, bless their hearts, proposed reducing the fees on a month-by-month basis, so customers who have a month or two left on their contracts wouldn't have to pay the full, punitive penalties.

"The plan would not abolish cancellation fees entirely," according to the Associated Press.

The phone companies are not offering up this proposal because they have decided that good rates and good service are the best ways to keep customers. No, they are offering it up because they are getting their keisters sued off in state courts over the ridiculous cancellation fees and are increasingly fearful that they will lose those cases. The phone companies, of course want a quid for their pro quo.

The agreement would let cell phone companies off the hook in state courts where they are being sued for billions of dollars by angry customers. If approved by the FCC, the proposal also would take away the authority of states to regulate the charges, known as early termination fees.

Customers don't get much protection, the phone companies get a new form of immunity for another kind of potentially illegal activity (don't forget all that illegal spying!), and states lose their ability to protect their residents.

Sounds like a sure thing to me.

The Zoo Interchange: another fiasco in the wings

What can't afford to remove invasive species from its property, but can afford to build a bigger Zoo Interchange project and maybe destroy a bunch of homes and businesses along the way?

You guessed it. Your Wisconsin Department of Transportation. More here.

Froomkin on Bush's sacrifice

In case you missed the controversy -- Below is an excerpt of terrific Washington Post columnist Dan Froomkin analyzing President Bush's great war-time sacrifice -- golf:

And yet now it turns out that Bush has indeed made a personal sacrifice on account of the war. According to the president yesterday, his decision to stop playing golf five years ago wasn't just an exercise in image control or a function of his bum knee -- it was an act of solidarity with the families of the dead and wounded.

Here's the relevant exchange in an interview Bush gave to Mike Allen of Politico:

Allen: "Mr. President, you haven't been golfing in recent years. Is that related to Iraq?"

Bush: "Yes, it really is. I don't want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander-in-chief playing golf. I feel I owe it to the families to be as -- to be in solidarity as best as I can with them. And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal."

Allen: "Mr. President, was there a particular moment or incident that brought you to that decision, or how did you come to that?"

Bush: "No, I remember when de Mello, who was at the U.N., got killed in Baghdad as a result of these murderers taking this good man's life. And I was playing golf -- I think I was in central Texas -- and they pulled me off the golf course and I said, it's just not worth it anymore to do."

This is the latest in a series of statements by Bush, the first lady and Vice President Cheney illustrating how far removed they are from the consequences of the decision to go to war -- and stay at war.

But giving up golf?

Not only is it a hollow, trivial sacrifice at best, Bush's story doesn't hold water. While he dates his decision to abjure golf to Aug. 19, 2003 -- the day a truck bomb in Baghdad killed U.N. special representative Sergio Vieira de Mello and more than a dozen others -- the Associated Press reported on Oct. 13, 2003, that he'd spent a "cool, breezy Columbus Day" playing "a round of golf with three long-time buddies.

Why does the county discourage citizen participation?

The JS reports this morning that County Executive Scott Walker says moving the mental health hospital to the old St. Michael Hospital is a financially sound move that can provide the opportunity for "culture change."

Supervisor John Weishan says Walker is using "hokey numbers" and a union official says the St. Michael proposal is "absolutely ridiculous."

What happens to the mental health hospital is important to the staff, patients and their families and the general public. The fate of the mental health hospital will help define the fate of the County Grounds, a rich piece of county history and heritage and still, despite development, an important environmental asset.

It would be nice to read the plan that is going to be considered today by the County Board's Health and Human Needs Committee. Almost any other local unit of government -- the city, state, school district and MMSD would make the documents available online.

The county does not.

The question is: why not? There is nothing expensive or technologically daunting about posting important information related to what the county is doing.

The county is broke and mismanaged on a number of levels. It can use all the good ideas it can get from anyone who has them.

County officials, though, in both Walker's office and on the County Board, persist in shutting the public out of the public's business.

It's a shabby way to operate.

Anything less is just a dog

Abe already has been a hero, rescuing orphaned possums from the certain death.

Now, this remarkable creature has revealed a new talent. Turn up those speakers, give a listen to this two-second video, and try prevent your wonder from blooming into outright awe.

We are so very proud.