Publicus Proventus: The Table of Contents, and Explanation.

Here's the posts in this category, most recent first. Page down for the explanation behind this all...

Page to the end for a list of Bad Republicans

Float Like A Butterfly, Sting Like A Bristol: How Dancing With The Stars shows why Democrats lose.

GOVERNMENT WORKS FOR ME: Look, I'm trying to help here. So read it and think about it, and then do something. It doesn't even take much effort.

Gov. Patsy is pro-choice, provided you choose to give him your money.

Lying is okay, and Justices create jobs: It's the Wisconsin Supreme Court race.

Death threats? Not likely.

Reporting for this post done by ... nobody. How can you declare there's no conspiracy when you didn't bother to investigate?

Everything Scott Walker says is a lie. But since nobody calls him on it, it becomes the truth.

This is open government in Wisconsin.

Another non-sarcastic budget fix: Lower taxes but spend more at the state level? It can be done.

Will J.B. Van Hollen follow a court's order that requires him to implement ObamaCare?

An actual, nonsarcastic proposal to solve Wisconsin's pretend budget woes. Plus some jabs at Republicans' love for rich white guys.

Does this photo show what I think it shows?

Other GOP pols lie about budget, and there's plans to make it worse.

Governor Patsy is a liar. There's no deficit.

I'm so goddamned sick and tired of this. The GOP is lying hypocrites... and you asked for it. But I didn't.

Release the hounds! The GOP isn't listening to protesters, but Gov. Patsy wants the troops out anyway.

Governor Patsy doesn't want to hear it!

Legislature votes to make itself irrelevant, AG says only GOP judges can be right.

Maybe the elderly and sick can get health care from the Packers. (825 people will die while the State celebrates the Super Bowl.)

Here's 3 Better Symbolic Gestures than just sitting together at the State of the Union speech. (I like the one about not being shot the best.)

Businesses base decisions on more than just tax rates, which is why so many go to Illinois.

Government "waste" doesn't include $100 a day for Walker's SUV, I guess.

Oh, for God's sake! The press hypes a 66% tax increase that isn't, really.

Enjoy driving your kids to nonexistent schools over rutted roads: Tax cuts and spending cuts mean less government services. Are you ready for that?

The GOP deserves to be called murderers for inciting its followers to violence.

The GOP would rather believe something than know it, and would rather kill kids to help rich people get richer.

Scott Walker never met a government commission he didn't like -- even when there already is one doing the same job.

The voters put them there to create jobs. And let kids shoot people while riding ATVs. The GOP agenda gets sidetracked, on day one.

GOP: "Locking kids up is less expensive than teaching them, so let's go with that." State Rep wants to end 4K programs.

"Less government" = hire friends, and lying is cool: WI Cheerleader Elect Scott Walker plans to hire buddies, and cut taxes only on the rich. Surprise!

I just hope none of the businesses compete with MY job. (Politicians say they were elected to create jobs, but can they do that?)

If you pay me $100,000, I promise not to go back to school: An enterpreneur's wrongly-regarded plan might just save the economy.

Ask a stupid question about smokers...: It's not why smokers put up with tax increases. It's why we have smokers at all.

Rich enough is rich enough? Conservative writer Gregg Easterbrook thinks wealthy people shouldn't try to be more wealthy.

Republicans: "Only Democratic spending increases the deficit."

Republicans, 2: "Seriously, it's only the Democratic spending that matters."

A little selfishness goes a long way towards denying equal rights.

I'm going to show you the giant: The Complication Tax Affects More Than Just Your Wallet (But It Affects Your Wallet, Too.)

Now is the time for all good men to rise up and demand they get to pay for their carry-on luggage.

I am perfectly free to tell you how much money you should make. (Also, I'm right about it.)(Also, you're full of hot air.)

Bad Republicans:

Maybe she disagreed with his stance on health care? Ripping a woman out of a car and injuring her isn't domestic violence, says Scott Bundgaard.
UPDATE: Turns out Bundgaard lied. Surprise!

Rick Santorum speaks wistfully of his fascist background, thinks kids shouldn't go to school.


Publicus Proventus translates, roughly, to either Public discourse, or "Of the people of growing up," depending on which day you run it through the English-to-Latin translator.

It also means, in this case, my political thoughts, which I've decided to start being more upfront about on this blog (and elsewhere.)

I'm an old politics guy. I used to really, really, like politics: I liked following them, debating them. I liked thinking about governmental issues, and talking about them. I liked a good give-and-take about societal issues. I even ran for office (local office) twice and then almost ran for statewide office, once.

Then I graduated law school and got married and settled into a life of chasing 3-year-olds and coaching softball teams and blogging about Gamera and suing people, and drifted away from it. Eventually, I didn't pay much attention to politics at all. I still voted, dutifully, every four years, but other than that I didn't do much else.

That all began to change, and the first part was when I realized with dismay that I was witnessing, under George W. Bush, the systematic dismantling of our country -- an ongoing build-up of the wrong parts of government, tear-down of the right parts of civil society, and worse. I began to grow concerned that I'd missed something, that maybe things were too far gone for me to change them, and I also wondered what I could do to change them.

As that went on, as I from time-to-time became more involved and tried to follow the issues more and talk about them more with people, I began to want, more and more, to do something about it. But I didn't know what to do about it. I didn't want to run for office, and I didn't have much else I could do.

Except write. So I started, here and there, to write, last fall, mostly, about political issues, something I'd steered away from in all my blogging before that. I shouldn't have steered away from it, because since I began blogging I also had increasingly well-informed (and sometimes alarmed) opinions about what was happening.

But I did steer away from it, largely because I didn't want to offend anyone. I didn't want someone who enjoys reading about my kids, or my music, or my beliefs regarding who might or might not be The Best Rock Band, to get offended because I believed, too, that health care was a universal right.

Eventually, though, my concerns about health care in particular and poor people in general won out, and I began blogging, off-and-on, about political issues, culminating in the One Percent series of posts in which I even offended a long-time reader (who, luckily, came back or never left. Thanks, Petri Dish, for continuing to read!).

After the health care bill passed -- largely because of me, I'm sure -- I thought to myself I should keep this up. There's nothing, after all, that says I can't tell stories about Mr Bunches, and talk about The Best Pizza Topping, and also have a political viewpoint.

So, I'll be publishing Publicus Proventus on Sundays, probably alternating with Nonsportsmanlike Conduct! Or more often. Who knows.

And I'm not sorry if I offend you -- if you're offended by what I believe, you don't have to read - -but you should, if you're offended, tell me why. After all, if you don't care enough to say what you think and then defend it, what you think can't be worth very much, can it?