I'm am smart.

by folkbum

I went to collage, after all.



Take the quiz y'allselveses.

Hey GOP. They're Just Not That Into You

By Keith R. Schmitz

In an updated version of Lord of the Flies, the CPAC convention this weekend in grasping for all the straws then can put in their mitts are agog over a 13 year old. The kid's book outsold Sam the Unlicensed Plumber.

But this might be as good as it gets for conservatives/Republicans. A just released report found that 75% of the teens surveyed are optimistic that the administration can solve our current economic problems, and 81% are interested in finding out the causes of current problems.
Conservatives course already believe they know the problems and won't solve them.

Looks like the kids are alright.

Paul Krugman at the Big Tent Event in Denver

By Keith R. Schmitz

In honor of Paul Krugman being named Nobel laureate in economics today, I put up on YouTube the video I shot at the Big Tent Event in Denver during the week of the Democratic Convention.

Krugman talks about how the election will unfold, what will happen after the election, what should happen after the election in terms of health care reform and about the progressive political majority in the US.

Another Promise Bites The Dust

by capper

I've often heard the right complain about liberal politicians who would make unpleasant or controversial announcements late on a Friday afternoon. In their conspiracy-filled world, they thought the politician would be doing this hoping that the public wouldn't notice, or if they did notice, that they would forget by Monday.

I can't say that they are necessarily wrong, with the exception that almost every politician, of either party, pulls the same kind of stunt. However, perhaps Republican politicians are better than the Democratic ones. I say this because of the stunt that Scott Walker pulled today, and I am not aware of one of the right wing watchdogs saying a word about it.

While all of Milwaukee was busy celebrating the Marquette Interchange, or the statue of Fonzie Lt. Commander Data, or the Brewers, or summer in general, Scott Walker thought he'd pull a fast one.

Walker took the time from emailing Charlie Sykes, complaining about how people are on him for emailing Charlie Sykes, to appoint a crony to his administration. From the All Politics blog at JSOnline:

Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker today said he hired his campaign manager to a county job as an assistant in Walker's office.

Tim Russell, a real estate agent who most recently served as Walker's campaign manager for his spring re-election, will be paid $75,982 a year. Russell is temporarily filling the vacant post of community liaison, but will likely shift to another job in his office soon, Walker said.

"Where he's at right now is just a place-holder" position, he said. Walker said he expects to use Russell to help with developing his 2009 county budget. Walker said he wanted to tap Russell's expertise and said he would maintain a clear separation between county and campaign duties.

It's Russell's third stint with the county. He formerly worked as operations director for Walker and as county economic development director.

Supervisor John Weishan Jr. said Walker's hiring of Russell was disappointing, calling it political patronage.

As Dan Cody points out, this is the definition of cronyism. Of course, Walker has a history of trying to repay favors to supporters, but never this disgustingly blatant.

And of course, just to remind you Walker supporters that may have forgotten, Walker had promised not to do this sort of thing:

Implement a program to eliminate cronyism and nepotism in county government, including a review of all management and supervisory functions under the executive. Within 60 days.

And this promise stemmed on a platform of promises demanded by the misnamed group Citizens for a Responsible Government. Yet apparently, this is no longer a big deal for them either, judging from their website. So much for their pretense as well.

Alberta Darling: My Staff Will Not Be Outworked

by capper

Last week, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ran a story about the political races that are forming up for this fall's elections.

Without a doubt, one of the biggest races on the local scene is the match up between state Senator Alberta Darling and state Representative Sheldon Wasserman. This is what Greg J. Borowski wrote about the race (emphasis mine):

In the Milwaukee area, the marquee battle pits Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills) against Rep. Sheldon Wasserman (D-Milwaukee). In what could become an expensive battle, Democrats hope a win will add to their edge in the Senate.

“There is a huge mood in this country for change,” said Wasserman, who added, “This race will not be bought. It will be earned by someone knocking on doors.”

Wasserman said he has knocked on more than 17,000 doors (17,274 to be exact). Darling said she and her staff have visited 25,000 homes, including 10,000 since spring.

“I will not be outworked,” Darling said, adding: “People are looking for somebody who listens to them, hears them and works for them.”

It would be interesting to know just how many of those 25,000 homes Darling did herself, and if she spent any time with the people that live in those homes. It is also rather tacky to take credit for the work of others, even if they're volunteers for her campaign.

My personal impressions of Darling are not favorable, and she has spoken out of both sides of her mouth on more than one occasion. I remember that in the mid 1990's, she, along with Mia Farrow and a few other Republican Senators, spearheaded getting Milwaukee County's child welfare system privatized. On the morning that she came to speak to the county workers, in which she was going to thank and praise us for our years of devotion, the MSJ ran an article in which she completely smeared the workers, and not the fact that three different auditors found that the state had been shorting the system for years. Since then, the privatization efforts have only made things worse.

Now, more than ten years later, she even admits that she did a lousy job of it.

Cross posted at Cognitive Dissidence.

Walker Starts On Campaign Trail, Stumbles Immediately

by capper

I was going to leave this alone. Honestly. I really wasn't planning on touching it. But then Mike Mathias and James Rowen had to stir the embers, and so here we go.

Last Saturday, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel printed a story of Walker's grandstanding on next year's budget. Walker probably figures he has to start early, since Governor Doyle just outdid the Republicans in the budget fix.

James Rowen points out that Walker is just trying to take advantage of the poor economy to advance his privatization schemes and set up his gubernatorial campaign. I particularly want to point out one of the comments on James' post, which reads:

Naomi Klein called privatization opportunities that take advantage of budget crises, natural disasters, and terrorist attacks the Shock Doctrine. It gave us such wonderful things as Enron, Bechtel (privatized water in Bolivia), the war profiteering of Halliburton and Blackwater, and boondoggles such as the Department of Homeland Security. Our "friend" Mr. Walker is simply looking to re-create this on a local basis; use disaster capitalism to provide less services for more money, redistributing wealth upwards.

Mike Mathias goes into greater detail, pointing out the shoddy reporting done by Steve Schultze.

There are two points I would add to the arguments of these two fine gentlemen.

One is the part of the article which reads (emphasis mine):

"Anywhere and everywhere, they should be considering contracting out" so services can be provided at less cost, Walker said in an interview. That's been his mantra since he took office, one that he re-emphasized during his successful re-election campaign this year.

This doesn't jive with what MJS reported back in 2002, after Walker won his first election:

Meanwhile, he has repeatedly said he will not look to turning large chunks of county government over to the private sector. Nevertheless, he can expect battles from the county's labor unions, most of which backed his opponents - first Milwaukee Ald. Tom Nardelli, then Ryan.

The other part from Schultze's article is this (again emphasis mine):

The airport deal won't be ready for the 2009 county budget, Walker said in an interview. The other ideas could come up for '09, along with contracting for fleet maintenance and economic support workers. He didn't provide details.

There are two problems with this. First, it is against state statutes for the intake part of economic support work to be done by any body but a government agency. Of course, stuff like that never slowed Walker down before.

The other issue is whether this would be a wise idea. We have seen all sorts of problems with W-2 and how it's been administered by private agencies. Or have people already forgotten about this.

Fortunately, as Mike points out, even some of his supporters on the County Board are starting to make noises that they're tired of Walker's stunts. I'm sure Walker would just call it bridge building, like he promised in his latest inaugural speech.

ADDENDUM: Even the Brawler has stirred himself from his hiatus to comment on the issue.

Rev. Wright Isn’t Running for President

Update: Obama Says He’s Outraged by Ex-Pastor’s Comments

via mal contends -

The Rev. Wright has offended a lot of people lately—including liberal commentators.

Rev. Wright, who made a series of interviews/addresses the past week, has “devolved into self-pity and self-glorification (Walsh),” has been “inflating his importance in a pride-goeth-before-the-fall kind of way, (Robinson), is ”living a narcissist’s dream” (Herbert),” and so on.

It’s worth noting then that whatever one believes of the ex-Marine’s oratory, Rev. Wright is not running for president and absolutely nothing has been presented to suggest that Obama is/has been/will be carrying on Wright’s views in any policy.

That’s likely because Wright has not made any policy pronouncements.

He just likes to spout off at what makes him angry; maybe some talking heads like to do the same thing at times, maybe we do too. But Marines and black preachers can be a bit heavy-handed, unlike the judicious and thoughtful folks on cable TV.

John McCain and the corporate media love smearing Obama when a smear looks doable; and doubt persists about whether a black man like Obama can ever really love our country like a white man/woman can.

No doubt that McCain has never uttered an intemperate remark or said anything objectionable during his tenure in elected office, and McCain will be held to the same standard and scrutiny as Obama’s retired pastor by the muckraking American corporate media.

The American media do not exactly have a first-rate record when it comes to discussing matters of substance in presidential elections. This sad history ought to be the focus of liberal commentators.

But for now, even Salon is asking: What should Obama do about Rev. Jeremiah Wright? And not: What should Obama do about the inane corporate media and our vapid political culture.

Now is the time for Obama to make a major address on the real needs of real people v. corporate media obsession on the inane. Regain control of brand and make the foolish react to message of change and substance.

One More For The Road

by capper

I know many of you, like me, will be glad when tomorrow is over with. There will be a respite, even if temporary, from all the slimy political ads and even more so, I will (hopefully) be able to move on to other topics.

I know many more experienced politicos than I that have told me that it doesn't look good for Taylor to win, but there are some things that make me believe otherwise.

First of all, the polls must be pretty close, otherwise Walker, and his chums on the local talk radio shows would have been crowing about it all week long.

Secondly, he must be feeling nervous, or is simply indirectly acknowledging the truth, when he doesn't defend the state of the County, especially the parks, the transit system, mental health, or HOC. Instead of dealing with County issues, like Senator Taylor is doing, Walker is pulling at straws like school choice and abortion, neither of which the County Exec's office has a thing to do with.

Thirdly, this whole thing about taxes. He cannot criticize anyone for wanting to raise taxes, since he has already shown that he is ready to drop the tax bomb on the taxpayers himself. Nor does he mention that part of the reason the state is having problems is due to faulty economic policies of Bush, who he is trying to emulate. (To his credit, Walker at least hasn't tried to invade Walworth County for their oil.)

It was also Walker, with his pal, the governor of the 90s, TOMMY, who created the deficit that we are still trying to pay off. Like a spoiled kid, he wants to have his party, but is trying to a pull a political version of a "dine and dash." He tried to do the same thing to the County with his failed bid for governor in 2006, and if he were to win tomorrow, I would expect him to keep it up and try it again in 2010.

But even if taxes did go up a little, like they have over the last gazillion years, I doubt it would be more than a buck or two. To portray it as like a bunch of barbarians were going to come and pillage and loot everyone in Milwaukee County is trying to play to people's basest fears. That is the sort of contemptible politicking that got us into the Iraq War and gave us all these years of the Bush administration.

People stood up to that kind of fear and smear campaigning in the fall of 2006, and now is not the time to let up against that type of lowly power-grabbing.

Please remember to vote on Tuesday.

Taxes, Lies and Videotape

by capper

Walker launched a new ad recently. He's been running a lot of new ads lately. It must be due to all that special interest money he is getting from Madison. And here it was the hypocrite Walker who kept saying that Senator Taylor was the one that would be getting big bucks. Like I said, what a hypocrite.

Back to the ad. It's well done with a diverse group of people, and Walker, talking about how they believe in Milwaukee, and how they believe in Scott Walker. This has been a common theme in political ads locally. (I wonder if Charlie Sykes will be getting on Walker for that ideological plagiarism, like he did on Obama.) Of course, I would be glad to say that too, if I were an actor and was being paid to say that.

Xoff has a detailed look at how Walker and his campaign got caught up in the lie regarding this commercial and how it was made. He even goes as far as to point out where we have seen on of the hired actors before, and how this sort of chicanery appears to be a Republican forte.

So, Walker is lying about who is getting big money and he is lying about the commercial that his special interest monies have paid for. But that is not the only lie we see Walker trying to peddle to us. His whole tax thing turns out to be a farce as well.

Walker has been promoting Family Care. He's been promoting it a lot. Let's ignore the fact that it is a state mandate that every county goes to Family Care, which is basically a plan based on the HMO-type of administrative costs. Or as pa capper said, and remember he is a self-proclaimed neocon, "Walker wants to charge us more so that people can die."

Walker boasts how it will supposedly eliminate the waiting list of developmentally delayed and physically disabled people who are in need of services. What it will most likely do, is just bump that waiting list along the line, as there are currently not enough service providers to meet that high level of demand.

What Walker has not been telling us is the cost. In a report to the County Board, Corey Hoze, Director of the Milwaukee County Department of Health and Human Services lays out the progress of the transition to Family Care. I received a copy of this report and have scanned the parts of the report that deals with the cost and some of the ramifications that Family Care will have on Milwaukee County. With a big thanks to James Wigderson on the technical advice, here are the links to page7, page 8 and page 9 of the report. Here is the pertinent part to cost:

...expenditures in year one would decrease by approximately $79.2 million, revenues would decrease by $80 million, and tax levy would increase by nearly $800,000 compared to DSD's 2008 Adopted Budget. The estimated tax levy increase is approximately $5.4 million in the second year and $5.8 million in the third year. These gaps do not include the additional tax levy required for the eligibility function as described below.

As you can see, Walker is poised to add $12 million dollars to the tax levy, just for this one program. $12 million dollars in new taxes from a guy who brags about holding taxes down. And not only is he planning on raising taxes, he is planning on giving us less services for the extra money we have to pay:

The budgetary limitations are due, in part, to the continued funding of discretionary programs for persons with disabilities primarily funded with Community Aids and tax levy. These programs include advocacy, supported living options, work and day programs, respite, recreation, transportation, and services to persons in need of short-term support to live independently in the community. Currently, approximately 700 individuals with disabilities are served by DSD through these locally funded programs under purchase of service contracts. It is estimated that 470 of these individuals may be eligible for Family Care services. Therefore, if funding for these programs became unavailable,participation in the Family Care program could permit these individuals to continue receiving services. However, as many as 230 of the individuals currently receiving these services may not be eligible for Family Care and would have services discontinued if funding became unavailable.

In addition to the above potential service reductions, the emergency shelter care programs may also need to be reduced or eliminated.

To recap, we will be paying more in taxes and getting less in services. Not only that, but now we will have hundreds of individuals that could be in serious trouble and a danger to themselves and/or to others, if they don't continue to receive the support services they need. I have already shown the cost to society of having untreated mental health issues and alcohol and drug treatment issues go untreated.

I wonder how all this fits into Walker's Safe, Affordable and Pride malarkey?

Recommended Reading

by capper

No, I am no going to recommend that overgrown brochure by Sykes.

Now that I lost half of the right wing readers...I, like many people in the blogosphere, am an avid reader. My choice of books are not usually serious, historical or biographical, as that I prefer to read for escapism. My day to day life is stressful and serious enough, where I feel it is more important for my mental health (no wise cracks, please) that I want to escape reality for a while and let my mind rebound from the day.

A few months ago, I read a book called Empire by Orson Scott Card (A Tor Book published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC-in 2006). The book chilled me as I read it, for even though it was labelled science fiction, it reflected today's American culture with a resounding accuracy. The book itself is a quick read, a type of Tom Clancy/Dan Brown type of thriller. The main hero is a special ops agent who, along with his aide and former troop members, strive to resolve what has become a new American Civil War. There is a lot of shooting of guns, exploding of bombs and some nifty high tech battle vehicles. There is also the Machiavellian political plotting and scheming, with some nice twists. The thing about this war was that it was not divided in geographic terms, but political. It was a fight between the extreme right and the extreme left.

The author, in his afterward, states that he was brought in to a design group that wanted to come up with an entertainment franchise about a near-future civil war. He adds that when he began to work on the premise of how such an event could occur, he found it sadly to be all too easy. He also goes on with these words:

But any rational observer has to see that the Left and Right in America are screaming the most vile accusations at each other all the time. We are fully polarized-if you accept one idea that sounds like it belongs to either the blue or the red, you are assumed-nay, required-to espouse the entire rest of the package, even though there is no reason why supporting the war against terrorism should imply you're in favor of banning all abortions and against restricting the availability of firearms; no reason why being in favor of keeping government-imposed limits on the free market should imply you also are in favor of giving legal status to homosexual couples and against building nuclear reactors. These issues are not remotely related, and yet if you hold any of one group's views, you are hated by the other group as if you believed them all; and if you hold most of the one group's views, but not all, you are treated as if you were a traitor for deviating even slightly from the party line.

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It goes deeper than this, however. A good working definition of fanaticism is that are so convinced of your views and policies that you are sure anyone who opposes them must either be stupid and deceived or have some ulterior motive. We are today a nation where almost everyone in the public eye displays fanaticism with every utterance.

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The author then goes on with the question if these attitudes would inevitably lead to a civil war. He points out that it does not, but it does threaten the stability of the government and the longevity of the democracy. He then continues with

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Suppression of other people's beliefs by force only comes about when you are deeply afraid that your own beliefs are wrong and your are desperate to keep anyone from challenging them. Oh, you may come up with the rhetoric about how you are suppressing them for their own good or for the good of others, but people who are confident of their beliefs are content merely to offer and teach, not compel.

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Mr. Card then cites examples of this type of thinking throughout history, and in present times, around the world. He warns that this could have devastating results, unless we each learn to moderate ourselves, and not to try to moderate the other person or group.

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Now, I don't know if it is as desperate as being in civil war, at this moment. However, during the last two presidential elections, and even farther, the vitriolic and caustic rhetoric was pretty damn bad. I would hope that as another election year is upon us (it actually has been already going on for months already) that we, including myself, can remember that we are all in this together, no matter what are political orientation may be, and can be civil, even if we disagree.