I read this article with amusement, as it describes how much the state is paying Silver Oak Solutions to find ways to save money (like the $27.6 million computer program Silver Oak/CGI-AMS recommended that has never worked).

It reminds me of the day I finally agreed to meet with a financial advisor, at the request of my wife. After shelling out $150 for his services, I looked at my wife and told her \”the first piece of money saving advice any financial advisor should give you is: never hire a financial advisor.\”

I was reading some past articles from the Wisconsin State Journal and ran into this editorial from Susan Lampert Smith from March 11th. It attempts to describe what Wisconsin\’s abortion law would be if Roe v. Wade were to be overturned.

It begins in typical fashion, comparing Wisconsin to North Dakota, then this paragraph appears:

On Wednesday at the state Capitol, Rep. Terese Berceau introduced a bill to take Wisconsin\’s old abortion law off the books. The Madison Democrat\’s bill stands about the same chances as an ice cream cone in the Dakota Badlands in August. Republicans control both houses of the Legislature and, for the most part, Wisconsin Right to Life and Pro-Life Wisconsin own them.

This is a common canard often used by the lazy left – that somehow since most legislators are pro-life, that they are somehow \”owned\” by the pro-life groups. Madison\’s repository of hot air, Neil Heinen, has made the same charge on one of his gag-inducing editorials. People that have even a cursory knowledge of the legislature, however, know better.

Pro-Life Wisconsin is a group that only supports candidates that are 100% pro-life. That means they\’re pro-life without any exceptions. Not for rape or incest, not for the life of the mother, not even if the baby is likely to look like me.

According to Pro-Life Wisconsin\’s numbers, 23 Assembly members received the endorsement of the Pro-Life Wisconsin Victory Fund Political Action Committee in 2004. Add that to senators who have been endorsed in the past (Grothman, Kapanke, Leibham, Reynolds, Kedzie, Fitzgerald, Lazich – Zien\’s was revoked), and that gives you 30 total legislators who have been endorsed by Pro-Life Wisconsin. Thirty out of 132 legislators (or, 22% of all legislators) apparently is enough to \”own\” the Legislature.

Wisconsin Right to Life is slightly different. They endorse a lot more people, as they accept exceptions for abortions. But they, like Pro-Life Wisconsin, don\’t give much money during campaigns. They are good for lists and votes, not money. In fact, candidates actually have to pay them to use their list to mail literature, because their membership is such a good target audience. If you have a legislator that is already pro-life, they will pay for the records so they can tell the pro-lifers in district that they agree with them. If you were going to make a list of the top 50 groups that \”own\” legislators based on campaign contributions, WRTL might not even crack that list.

Imagine that – a group that tries to keep their members involved in the political process. Aren\’t all the lefties for more public participation? Or are they only for public participation as dictated by editorial boards all over the state?

In any event, you can\’t swing a cat in Madison without hitting some sloppy liberal who makes that charge that somehow the Legislature is \”owned\” by the pro-life groups (I tried, and I took three out with my cat). You would just expect a little more intellect from someone who is given a column in the local paper.

I actually tried to keep a straight face when writing that last sentence, really.

Spivak and Bice believe they have hit on something with this Newsday report on bloggers trying to get into the print media. I have one message for bloggers who have the audacity to try to move into the mainstream media:

Go for it, homeys.

Hey, I like blogging as much as anyone, but I\’d write for anyone at anytime that wants to pay me. I don\’t care if it\’s writing for the back of soup cans – I\’m game. I\’d even drop the whole anonymity schtick. Pay me, and you can have my name, address, social security number and explicit personal information on all the women who refused to date me over the years.

The following would appear on my resume:

-Unable to cook for self, once ate five frozen pizzas in three days while wife was away on business.

-Universally loved by dogs

-Author of 189 blog posts, over 5 of which are good.

-Can play Radiohead\’s \”Karma Police\” on the guitar, but not all at once.

-Good with magnets.