I do not speak for the patch ,but he is free to submit to the patch just like Zerban. This being said, My opinion is Ryan is laying low and trying to put out all the political fires he has started. Ryan has trashed his name and this state following in line with the "republican way" instead of listening to the people IN this state. The day Paul Ryan is kicked out of congress will be a GREAT day for Wisconsin!

@JRH....You got your game face on again? Zerban only has to show up and provide hours of video of Ryan. When people get tired of that he can then show the productions of Ayn Rand's "Fountain Head" and "Atlas Shrugged". After that everyone will know what Ryan is all about. Since I don't live in the 1st district I can't vote for him, but I think I will cash my social security check and give him some of it. I figure it's a good investment to protect my cash flow.

@Lyle -

I think you've got Ryan pegged all wrong. Perhaps you need to lay off the commercials of Ryan tossing the wheel-chair bound granny off a cliff, as they may have impaired your judgment on this one!

And if Ryan's views are represented by Rand's productions, then certainly Zerban's visions of utopia must be exemplified in Lucas' 'THX 1138' (1971), Gilliam's 'Brazil' (1985), and Orwell's 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' (1984). If those are the choices I have, I'll gladly take Rand with wide open arms!

The biggest problem with Zerban is that his entire platform/campaign is composed of nothing more than trashing Ryan and mirroring Obama. The man has no ideas and brings nothing unique to the table. In fact, it kinda makes you wonder who's pulling his strings, as he's the perfect puppet. Interesting that most of his upcoming rallies are being held at union locals, isn't it?

Zerban is nothing but a special interest stooge - he's been exposed!

@JRH...You know I was being a bit extreme, but we do have a fundamental difference in social structure orientation between Zerban and Ryan. If you followed some people's logic about Zerban you would say he's leading us into dystopia, but that clearly isn't the case. If you follow another line of reasoning about Ryan, he would lead us into anarchy. Again not the case. However, Zerban does represent a more middle of the road mainstream candidate willing to compromise. The Congressional House needs less polarization and more willingness to reach across the isle to find solutions regardless of political ideology.

@ Hoffa

About him being at labor unions, they provide a large hall and its free.
As for him in Waukesha, the county democrats hold their meetings there so it is a common place for the local democrats to meet, so it seems fitting that he would choose that area.

@mau...On February 17th, 2012, Ryan along with the rest of the Wisconsin House Republican delegation voted to allow gas and oil drilling in the Florida Everglades and the Great Lakes.

Well Lyle, with gas climbing up to $3.50 and beyond, and nowhere else where we are allowed to drill, what else can we do?

@The Anti-Alinsky...Drive less, walk, ride the bus. There is no way we want to risk the largest source of surface fresh water in the country. Water is and will be more valuable than gold. Think about it.

The great lakes are actually the biggest fresh water source in the WORLD. It is projected that wars will be fought over water before we fight them over the last bits of oil. Also we are producing more oil now then we have anytime in the past 8 years, and it does not seem to be helping. The oil market does not go up or down based on logic, but on speculation.

We need to rely less on oil, look at things like the Tesla and volt. Expand public transpiration and make a huge shift overall to get off of oil. Not just look for every drip of oil left at the expense of wildlife and freshwater.

You guys are forgetting about the conservation of mass. Water cannot just disappear, and although it may change form or separate, it's relatively easy to reform / recombine. We are also able to desalinate sea water quite effectively and efficiently now, as I've come to understand.

Regardless, no one wants to see the Great Lakes contaminated/polluted - Republicans / conservatives included. If it can be done responsibly and in a cordoned off manner that would minimize the risk of mass contamination in case of an accident, then why not keep the option available and on the table until alternative sources of energy become more readily available, economical, and efficient?

That's called being realistic.

@JRH...I just took off my political science hat and put on my science hat. Agreed that water is neither created or destroyed and it changes state. However, 97% of the fresh water is locked up in the polar ice caps, meaning we only have 3% for the world to share over and over again. One problem is that recycling water takes a tremendous amount of energy to do so. The more contaminated the water, the more energy required. Same thing goes for taking sea water and desalinating it, tremendous energy required. That's precisely why more of the West Coast doesn't desalinate. We have become spoiled with our extremely low cost of potable water and don't realize the importance of maintaining the raw resource in a pristine condition. The last ten years of my career I concentrated on using potable water as an alternative fluid power source. I know from an engineering perspective the problems with water. We have a horrible time separating esters and other contaminants from water and petroleum pollution, horribly complex and expensive. I think you are also aware that removing heavy metals are nearly impossible as well. I think, the Republicans' support for allowing drilling is from being ill informed and politically motivated. The "gold" of the future is lying on our doorstep and we shouldn't be risking it for political ideology. Those who know understand that with the water resources we have available, that we will become the prime location for business in the future.

@Lyle -

I take it that you haven't heard about Kevin Costner's machines :-)

@JRH...Matter of fact I know quite a bit about the machines. Back in the early 90s I was part of the engineering team that were building the prototypes that would eventually be the oil/water separator. The firm I was consulting for ran out of capital and had to sell off the technology. I didn't continue to track it after that. The problem with the concept is that for large spills, the separation volume is relatively small. I don't know where the technology currently stands, but its a solid concept.

@Lyle -

That's very impressive work. You're certainly a man of many talents my friend!

@nick Seliger...I couldn't disagree with you more. Just because the water vapor is there doesn't mean we have access to it. I can't speak to Ryan's motivation for running or not running, and it was altruistic or not, that's in the eye of the beholder.

As far as wars over water is concerned, the Southwestern US is already casting greedy eyes at the Great Lakes and pushing to build pipelines to drain them for their use. I lived a good share of my adult life in the west and wars have been literally fought over water and water rights.

I don't think the issue of discharge into the Lake is a conservative or liberal issue. MMSD is an independent entity and Tom Barrett has very little to do with it. The problem with discharges during heavy weather events is due to the fact that we don't have adequate infrastructure to handle it. The cost of creating such an infrastructure is probably more than what the taxpayer is willing to pay. The water that is drawn out of the lake and processed is some of the cleanest and least contaminated with bio-forms in the world. Heavy metal extraction is "iffy" but still far surpasses EPA standards. You don't have to politicize everything, sometimes what is, is.

Nick- I disagree with your statement that water is plentiful. Try going to Africa, South America where certain places have cholera ravaging thousands of people. That can easily happen here...we call it crypto. Remember, this caused my sisters death because of fertilizers and sewerage. Without clean water, we simply perish...simple as that and if you don't think clean water will be "liquid blue" and more valuable than gold you are mistaken. I am disguested with the raw sewerage that leaks into Lake Michigan and wish someone would sue to clean it up. Let's see, we destroyed the rain forests, we pollute the atmosphere with mercury (coal plants along Lake Michigan), pollute our water, we can not eat fish from Lake Michigan. We have already started the damage. Now start drilling Alaska and the everglades and Lake Michigan and guess what? An oil spill is inevitable. The gulf coast was a disaster. It is carelessness and greed that will ruin us and if you are to naive to not preserve our natural resources and keep some things still protected from mining and drilling we are done....period. I don't want it, we don't need it and should then cut back on our dependence of oil, coal and focus on energysaving. Also, Ryan is simply a puppet for the GOP and Wall Street tells him what to do next. Paul Ryan is not even highly liked in his own community as GM has pulled out and many lost jobs on his dime. I think Ryan gets ousted.....finally. I will not vote for him, that is for sure.

@patchreader 123 -

According to a radio interview, as posted by morninmist, Zerban identifies the bill number as H.R. 3408. The reason you can't find anything about it including a provision to drill in the Great Lakes is because IT DOESN'T! It only has to do with expanding oil shale exploration, but does not expressly repeal the current federal ban on drilling in the Great Lakes.

Essentially, it's only the liberal blogs and Zerban, in their infinite and deceitful wisdom, that have 'interpreted' such bill as "potentially lead[ing] to drilling out here on the Great Lakes." Personally, I'd like for Zerban to explain to us how that would even be possible without an express repeal of the existing federal ban. Either he knows this to be true and is lying just to generate headlines, or he really is that ignorant when it comes to legislation and legal precedence. Perhaps he needs to watch the 'School House Rock' video on how a bill becomes a law again.

Personally, I think that this whole red herring just goes to show the intelligence of Mr. Zerban. The guy is nothing more than a partisan puppet that is only capable of spreading propaganda and lies because he has no platform of his own.

Check out the radio interview and judge for itself - but it's a waste of ten minutes. Don’t say I didn't warn you :-)

@morninmist -

That radio interview is one of the BIGGEST loads I've listened to in a long time! I'd like that ten minutes of my life back, please! Nothing but pure speculative propaganda and rhetoric, period.

My family and I have successful run a small business since 1986, and let me tell you, Zerban sounds like a fool in that radio interview when it comes to describing small business sustainability.

As to the whole oil drilling in the Great Lakes issue, Zerban admits that H.R. 3408, which has to do with oil shale exploration, has absolutely nothing to do with drilling in the Great Lakes, but under his belief and interpretation "could potentially lead to drilling out here on the Great Lakes" despite his admission that the part of the bill that Ryan voted down did not contain an express repeal of the federal ban on such drilling. So, if Zerban understands anything about the law at all, he'd realize that all he's doing on this issue is blowing smoke out of his you know what and making himself look like a fool to anyone that is capable of reading and comprehending the law for themselves.

And just as I had confirmed earlier, Zerban's entire platform is trash Ryan, support Obama. He brings absolutely NOTHING to the table of his own.

If Zerban is the best you guys can come up with, that's not saying very much about your side here, is it?

BTW - His first name is ROB, not Ron.

Apparently, you're so into the guy that you don't even know his first name!!!

Shows a good deal about your credibility on the issue, doesn’t it?