An oenophile imbibes Tammy on the left bank and Spanish de Borjas on the right

I am David Blaska and I approve this message!

A bounteous supply of nutritious soil additive was deposited on the grounds of the Experimental Work Farm, courtesy of our deciduous maple and poplar trees, this being autumn in Wisconsin.

The indentured servants who have sworn fealty to Squire Blaska attached the bagger to the rotary mower and vacuumed several cartloads of the free-fall while singing simple peasant songs, particularly stadium-rockers from the ’70s. (“Carrion my wayward sun.”)

The leafy good stuff was deposited onto the show gardens after the last of the kohlrabi had been taken and the earth roto-tilled and, thereby, oxygenated. Over the winter the thick layer of leaves will insulate the soil, allowing microbial activity to turn the slightly macerated plant material into valuable humus – at no cost to you, the taxpayer!

Next spring the remnants can be tilled into the soil or left as mulch that will retain soil moisture and discourage weeds. What an ecosystem!

Tammy: ‘You’re damned right!’?

More like: you’re damned left! Tammy Baldwin’s ultra-liberal friends have been playing nice as Nov. 6 approaches, lest they give up the game. To hear them tell it, our Madison Tammy is a regular Packer-backin’, beer-swilling, concealed pistol-packing, truck drivin’, bowling for Columbine good ol’ gal. Ya’ darned tootin’!

Reality break. The National Journal’s respected Almanac says:

“True to her Madison constituents, she has a strongly liberal voting record, though she prefers to be called a progressive.”

Tammy (thank you, DonkeyHotey, for the caricature) was one of just eight House members – in a 408-8 roll call (!) – to vote against the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability and Divestment Act in 2010. She also voted against the Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act of 2009 (H.R. 2194), enacted by a 412-12, in December 2009. Four hundred and twelve to twelve! That’s not a roll call; that’s a consensus!

The question is, if Tammy Baldwin was correct then, why is she wrong now? Why is she voting for sanctions this year, now that she is a candidate for the U.S. Senate in a competitive, statewide race?

If not sanctions, what? Bombs? The Baldwin peace plan, pre-2012, was … nothing but soothing words. Diplomacy? Backed by what? As far back as 2008, candidate Barack Obama was promising to talk to Ahmadinejad. Talk, as the saying goes, is cheap. These are people who don’t believe in the Holocaust. You’re going to sweet talk them while playing the paper tiger?

No one shills more diligently for their favorites than socialist provocateur John Nichols. Tammy is his pin-up candidate, along with Vermont socialist Bernie Sanders, WikiLeaker/fugitive rapist Julian Assange, and race huckster Jesse Jackson.

Here is John Nichols in The Capital Times: Senate should follow Baldwin’s lead on Iran. Not even President Barack Obama can follow Baldwin’s lead on Iran! Tommy is correct that our Tammy is politically left of Nancy Pelosi. That’s not spin, it’s fact.

Paging Neville Chamberlain

On Friday, former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani deconstructed Tammy’s explanation for voting “present” in 2006 to condemn Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s denial of the Holocaust and advocacy of the destruction of Israel.

Baldwin told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that she voted “present” because “she agreed with the sentiments in the resolution,” but wanted to prevent then-President George W. Bush from using the vote as a justification to go to war with Iran.

In a conference call organized by Tommy Thompson’s campaign, Giuliani dismissed that explanation.

“My understanding is Nancy Pelosi voted for this resolution. If the language didn’t bother Nancy Pelosi, I’m trying to figure out what that language could be that would have bothered her.”

The Daily Caller has more. Can you say “Neville Chamberlain?” That’s the question Breitbart is asking after Tammy four times tried to establish a new Cabinet position: Department of Peace. How tie-dyed Woodstock! Of course, the measure couldn’t pass the House even when the Democrats were in charge.

One can tell a lot about a hound by the pack they run with. Tammy is vice chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which includes among its 76 members (out of 535 potential members) such luminaries as Barney Frank, Rosa DeLauro, John Conyers, Emanuel Cleaver, Maxine Waters, Dennis Kucinich, Jesse Jackson Jr. and Gwen Moore. But no Nancy Pelosi, no Steny Hoyer, no John B. Larson – in other words, no one from the Democrat(ic) leadership.

The Progressive Caucus was born out of a Socialist faction, as this national blogger reports. This is not a minority verdict. Another blogger states flatly:

“The Progressive Caucus is effectively the Congressional wing of the Democratic Socialists of America and the Communist Party USA.”

I acknowledge being an oenophile

I am coming out to you, the open-minded readers of In Business. I have to be who I am. I tell you now that I am an oenophile. My wife and family support me in this announcement.

Now that we’re into cool autumn days, I’m drinking Spanish reds vinted next door to the better-known Rioja region, the denomination of origin called Campo de Borja, halfway between Bilbao and Barcelona in northeast Spain.)

I have enjoyed three bottles from the Bodegas Aragonesas winery. Each comes in a pretty dress. The Castillo de Fuendejalon is entirely wrapped in paper; its Mosen Cleto Crianza  comes in a bottle coated with sand (!), its Don Ramon Tinto Barrica bears a red wax seal on a brown bottle.

The grapes used are three-quarters Garnacha (aka Grenache, the wine of the southern Rhone Valley in France) and one-quarter Tempranillo – roughly the reverse of the Riojas – aged in American oak for six months. Like its more famous neighbor, these are full-bodied, the Jane Russells of wines. The wine is an inky black-red but not as tannic as one might expect. Very “quaffable,” as Miles, the spit bucket-draining hero from the movie Sideways, would say. They are soft on the palate and full flavored, hinting of black cherry. Instead of the after-dinner port or sherry, try one paired with chocolate.

Spanish wines are a bargain; I paid about $12 a bottle at LiquorTown in Fitchburg.

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