Wisconsin Young Guns

A former page of Rep. Paul Ryan, one of the up-and-coming Republicans, opened a new Italian restaurant in Elkhorn. The restaurant is like a scene out of The Sopranos. All beautifully redone, with a long row of video poker machines in the bar area.

Older Italian men in bowling shirts and gold chains as well as other locals. I order a pizza. The crowd is talking politics. While I am waiting for my pizza, I can't help overhearing the conversations.

All diehard Republicans. And they all hate black people. And pretty much everyone that doesn't look like them. Ranting and raving about Obama. These are people who should be hard-core Democrats. I don't get it. The Italians, Irish, Jews, Germans, Chinese, Japanese and every other immigrant group faced discrimination. How short are people's memories?

A large employer in rural Walworth, WI, is Kikkoman Foods. If you ever use soy sauce, chances are it was made there. The Japanese company bought hundreds and hundreds of acres of land 37 years ago. Built a plant. Brought in their priests to consecrate the ground. Which the soybeans grow on.

Nobody gives it a second thought now. Because they employ people. But I'd bet they did initially.

I don't think the millions of unemployed now would care if they could get a job at a Saudi, Chinese, Russian, Iranian or Cuban owned company today.

A paycheck is a paycheck. We need to insist our politicians work out differences peacefully. And our media not engage in hate speech.

The level of hate speech is scary. The state of the economy I'm sure makes it worse.

What most people don't understand or believe is that politicians like Paul Ryan, Eric Cantor and the other Republican Young Guns are the real enemy of the middle class. They want to take away benefits we all paid for with our payroll taxes. They want to get your trust with a smile on their face and a twinkle in their eye before they throw you under a bus.

People of color or with funny-sounding names aren't a threat to our way of life. But they make good scapegoats. They don't want to take away your Social Security or Medicare. They want it too. And the only way they get it is by working and paying into the system. Unfortunately this fear of people who look different is the reality in much of the country. The same people who can't recognize a friend from a foe...

Thank you, Fox News, for your Fair and Balanced hate-mongering...