Amazing what government can do when revenue is involved

Brent, the Milwaukee Layton Park Blogger, got to see the power of Big Brother when Big Brother needs feeding:

My wife got a letter over the weekend from the State Patrol. According to them they linked via the driver license database and vehicle registration database and found that she is a part owner of a motorcycle and does not have the proper endorsement to operate it.

Clearly they were hoping she would get her motorcycle license band pay the required fee to do so.

So to cross-check the driver license database with the voter file to protect the integrity of the voter registration list is too hard, but to cross-check it against the vehicle registration list to get more money is a priority.

That's one

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Ronald Hoppus, who pleaded no contest to voting twice in the November 2007 election, has been sentenced to serve nine months in the House of Correction.

Somebody tell the mayor.

Do I know you?

The Associated Press is reporting UW-Madison is giving seven liquor stores and a grocery store scanners that spot fake id's.

Wouldn't it be great if poll workers had scanners like these available on election day?

Wouldn't it be great if poll workers actually had to ask for identification?

ID, please

From TheHill.com:

The gym opened a month ago in the Columbia Heights district.

“He came in and walked past me,” Wheeler told In The Know. “I was like, ‘Sir, you need to come back.’ ”

Wheeler said Obama looked familiar, but she didn’t recognize him. So she asked for his ID card.

“I said, ‘What’s your last name?’ He said ‘Obama,’ ” Wheeler explained. “I said, ‘So what’s your first name?”

But on election day in Wisconsin, Barack Obama will be able to walk into any polling place, use any name on the voter registration list, and cast a ballot for himself without showing any form of ID.

Amazing when you think about it.