The Conservative Thanksgiving Day Hypocrisy Parade™

by folkbum

Yes, it's that time of year when we blow conservative talking (or typing) heads full of helium and march them through the streets so the kids can point and laugh. My only regret is that I lack, say, Al Roker to provide his inimitable off-beat commentary as we watch the gasbags roll by. So instead, I will sometimes rely on members of the Cheddarsphere to offer their comments. Anyway, let's start the Hypocrisy Parade™!

First up is my BFF, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Patrick McIlheran. Nick describes the balloon as it wafts past our cameras:

Wow... this takes a lot of [helium] for Patrick McIlheran to say:

Milwaukee School Board member Jennifer Morales wants the schools, for benefits purposes, to treat people who are shacking up as if they were married -- "domestic partner" benefits, it's called.

It's supposed to be the epitome of progress. Morales says it's a matter of fairness: "Fairness for employees is fairness for employees," she told the Journal Sentinel. "It's not about me, it's not about Tina."

Tina would be the woman to whom Morales says she's married. If the schools approve this deal, Morales and Tina Owen, who works at an MPS charter school, would be considered spouses for benefits purposes.

That would be the same guy who wrote pretty passionately to pass the constitutional amendment banning gay marriage in Wisconsin, and then wrote about how such a ban wouldn't affect benefits for same sex couples, so they need not worry. Ummm... yeah... right. It especially takes a lot of [helium] to use the phrase "shacking up", and then immediately talk about about Owen and Morales. So first Patrick fights to prevent committed couples like Owen and Morales from getting married... and the criticizes them because they're not married... saying they're just "shacking up"... and aren't deserving of the benefits that any other married couple might receive. That's not just arrogant on his part, but insulting.

For anyone interested in a different description of that balloon, you can check out capper at Whallah! or Mike Mathias.

Next up is one I've been looking forward to for months. Former Wisconsinite Kevin Binversie moved to the Death Star Washington, DC, earlier this year, but he has been posting regularly at the Badger Blog Alliance. Here we see his puffy head floating by, because over the summer, a favorite topic of his was the Democratic National Committee's insistence that its rules be followed. Specifically, the rules about when states could hold primaries. "Democrats Disenfranchise...Democrats," he wrote. "Gee, I thought from all the crap Jay, Xoff, and the elected gang in Madison have been telling all of us for years; only our side can do that." You'll notice that what's blowing out the tail of the Binversie Balloon is smarm. (Kevin returned to the topic again later.) Well, Kevin's silence is deafening since this from the Republicans:

Republican Party leaders [. . .] recommended punishing five states for shifting their nomination contests earlier, moving to strip New Hampshire, Florida, South Carolina, Michigan and Wyoming of half their delegates.

"It's very important that our party uphold and enforce the rules that we unanimously voted into place at the Republican National Convention in 2004," said Mike Duncan, chairman of the Republican National Committee. The rules ban holding votes before Feb. 5.

The ropes of apologies unposted are dangling from Kevin's balloon. I sure hope the marching band walking behind him doesn't trip over them!

And bringing up, aptly, the rear of our Hypocrisy Parade™ is the biggest gasbag of all, Charlie Sykes--not that his head needs any additional inflation for the holiday! Sykes is always good for outrage, and when the Catholic League yelled "jump," Charlie opened his valves and flew into the air. See, Miller Brewing Company put its mug (get it? mug?) on a poster advertising a street fetish fair in open-minded San Francisco, and Charlie Sykes led the Cheddarshpere's outrage parade. (The outrage parade, by the way, is not affiliated with this Hypocrisy Parade™.)

In the end, Miller buckled like a spaghetti bridge built by the kids insulted in this post by squeaky-clean Owen Robinson, who next year might get his very own balloon (keep reaching for the sky, Owen!). Miller's logo came off the poster, the Catholic League notched another victory into its bedpost, and Sykes was triumphant.

But when the Milwaukee Interfaith Conference complained about something Sykes had posted on his own website--a "parody" of the now-common "Coexist" bumper sticker that, among other things, replaced the Star of David with a Swastika--Sykes did not lead any kind of parade, outraged or not. Now, there's a difference between the Catholic League and the Interfaith Conference. The New York-based CL has basically become a front group for Republicans, and the IC is made up of actual and real church, synagogue, mosque, and temple leaders from around the Milwaukee area--so it doesn't take a genius to figure out which Sykes will align himself with.

So, long story short, Sykes spewed his noxious gas right back at the IC, claiming that he was drawing a "line" in defense of free speech and artistic expression. I know! It's the funniest balloon out here! Brawler, what do you think?

It's a Sykesian masterpiece of taking a principled stand on free speech while at the same time denying accountability for controversial implications of said speech. Which is classic Sykes -- and is the antithesis of Journalism 101.

Paul Noonan has some thoughts on the matter. Oh, and Jim Rowen, what make you of this cartoon balloon?

Charlie is framing the issue as one of free speech. His free speech. And I've got no complaint with that. I want him to have free speech, but to exercise caution, like we all do, so we do not commit libel, slander, or needlessly poison the public debate.

What's the point, even if it's profitable, wins ratings, notoriety, celebrity? It's a drag on the community. What's wrong with a little effort to be uplifting? To be a real uniter, not a 50,000-watt divider.

And, briefly, we can roll the film on some historical footage from Bill Christofferson of Charlie Sykes's "free speech for me but not for thee" attitude.

Well, every Thanksgiving Day Hypocrisy Parade™ has to end, and the 2007 version has now finally gone past. Thanks to all who participated, whose hard work makes all of this possible. Great job, everybody! See you next year!

Something to be thankful for

by folkbum

That Pete is okay:

The hours have given me time to settle down a bit. Not much in the way of sleep, but I guess that’s to be expected. I don’t highly recommend this type of accident to anyone. Heck I don’t recommend ANY type of accident if you can avoid it.

It could have been much, much worse.

I've only met Pete once, but he seems like a good guy. I'm glad to have him still around the Cheddarsphere.

Popcorn Turkey

by capper

An oldie, but a goodie...

Here is a Thanksgiving Turkey recipe that also includes the use of popcorn as a stuffing - imagine that.

When I found this recipe, I thought it was perfect for people like me, who just are not sure how to tell when poultry is thoroughly cooked, but not dried out. Give this a try.

BAKED STUFFED TURKEY

10-12 lb. Turkey
1 cup melted butter
1 cup stuffing (Pepperidge Farm is good.)
5 cups uncooked popcorn (ORVILLE REDENBACHER 'S LOW FAT)
Salt/pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brush Turkey well with melted butter, salt, and pepper. Fill cavity with stuffing and popcorn. Place in baking pan with the neck end toward the back of the oven.Listen for the popping sounds. When the turkey's ass blows the oven door open and flies across the room, it's done.

Imagine the look on your loved ones' faces as you show off your culinary skills.

Scott Walker: A Legend In His Own Mind

by capper


This morning, the supposedly-liberal Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, in their Crossroads section, ran Scott Walker's spiel that he issued with his vetoes, which have since, for the most part, been overturned. Now, I know that politicians are wont to be braggarts and embellish their accomplishments, but some do take it to extremes.

He starts out with the first and third paragraphs saying how he is "optimistic" and has "great hopes for this county". This is the same guy who compared regional cooperation "putting lipstick on a pig".

He then blabbers on with his apparent campaign slogan of Safety, Affordability and Pride, which has already been addressed and refuted. Likewise, our friend, Gretchen, has been putting in overtime to show the shambles he has made of the parks, and the devastation that would have been by his transit proposals.

But then he gets into human services with this list of bullet points. I have taken the liberty of putting the reality behind each point in bold.

Finally, our budget includes major support for those in need in our community.

These items include:

• Continuation of senior centers and senior meal programs. Which was restored by the board after his vetoes. Not to mention his early threat to close two community centers which serve the poorest neighborhoods.

• Long-term care needs for older adults continue to be met under FamilyCare. Which was going on before he took this office, but he was the one that had the million dollar deficits.

• Expanding the benefits of FamilyCare to those under 60 with developmental or physical disabilities. Because of a law signed by Doyle last year and state funding in this years budget. The last I've heard, the system won't be up and running until at least 2009.

• Major improvements in staffing and resources for mental health services. This is after years of cutting these jobs and monies. It is like a doctor breaking your arm, setting it, and taking credit for fixing your broken arm.

• A new initiative to address the housing needs of those with mental illness. Only after a year long series of articles in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel caused outrage among the community.

• Managed care coverage for those with no source of health care. Again, originally cut by Walker and then restored by the County Board.

• A new child care fraud unit to protect children. You got me on this one, I hadn't heard of it.

I must say, I do rather agree with Ma Brawler in her assessment of Walker.

The other thing that I wonder about is whether the supposedly liberal MSJ will also give column space to the Lena Taylor, who is running for County Executive.

UPDATE: Even with the budget fixes put in by the County Board, it wasn't enough to correct all of Walker's mistakes. Even Sheriff Clarke is turning on him. Isn't this an all-time record for one of Walker's budgets to implode?

Your Liberal Media

by folkbum

Of course, as a matter of journalism and professional standards, Novak's piece was a textbook case of media irresponsibility. His column shouldn't have even run--Clinton supporters (who he will not name) are allegedly spreading rumors about rumors (which he cannot identify) addressing an Obama scandal (which may or may not exist).

I do not think that phrase means what you think it means

by folkbum

I didn't watch the Democratic primary debate last Thursday. I feel relatively confident that I know enough about the candidates now without having to suffer through Wolf Blitzer to learn more. Besides, I am planning to remain firmly neutral right up until that moment I step into the booth next February, by which time the nominee will almost certainly be decided.

However, I do enjoy reading other peoples' takes on the debates, as I find those responses much more revealing about those responding than about the debate in the first place.

Take Jessica McBride (please!). While McBride will almost certainly not be voting for a Democrat for president, she has still taken a keen interest in our debates. And, though Hillary Clinton is probably the last Democrat McBride would vote for even if she were to slum over here on the left, you can always count on McBride to stand up for Women Scorned Everywhere Even If They Are Democrats:

This was the nails-on-chalkboard question of Thursday's Democratic presidential debate. It was also, arguably, sexist. They ask the female candidate about jewelry????! (But, to the media, Republicans are supposed to be the sexist ones, right???) This is right up there with the media writing about Hillary's cleavage. Who cares????!!!

The women's solidarity there is touching, isn't it? You can tell how much she cares by the punctuation!!!! McBride never misses an opportunity to stand up for women maligned, regardless of who they are.

Until, that is, she remembers that it's Hillary we're talking about:

If they're going to plant a question, at least make it a good one. Like,

Hillary, since you claim to support women's rights, do you think Juanita Broaddrick and Kathleen Willey were telling the truth?

I don't know McBride's Women's Studies bona fides, but I do not think the accepted definition of "women's rights" includes swallowing wholesale the lies of liars that even Ken Starr didn't believe. "Women's rights" doesn't include believing allegations made, retracted, inconsistently remade, and never verified by any news organization (the Wall Street Journal editorial page is not a news organization).

Of course, I'm not a woman. I could be wrong.

(I should note that, in getting ready to post, I discovered capper beat me to it.)

Our First Annual Thanksgiving Coloring Contest

by folkbum

Hey, hey, kids! Clip and color this collection of Thanksgiving turkeys, and you could win fabulous prizes!

Anyone Want to be My County Supervisor?

by folkbum

Because a position just opened up.

What? The ringer won? I never would have guessed.

by folkbum

Best of luck to Edward Flynn anyway.

Thoughts On The County Budget

by capper

The county budget has been resolved, for better or for worse. I won't go into details, but for those that may have missed the news, Brian Fraley has a break down on each override vote by the county board.

I won't insult any conservative or libertarian readers by offering platitudinous expressions of sympathy, and I won't insult myself by gloating.

I will mention that in the supposedly liberal Milwaukee Sentinel Journal had an article in this morning's paper regarding Walker's vetoes. As usual with the Journal, the good stuff is buried near the bottom of the article:

Walker said he was able to leave the board's transit add-ins intact because of an unexpected extra $3.2 million in aid for the county included in the state budget and championed by state Sen. Lena Taylor (D-Milwaukee), a candidate for Walker's job in the spring election. Walker hasn't officially announced that he will run for another term, but has hinted he will.

Senator Taylor, who hasn't even been elected as County Executive yet, has already done more good for and has shown more commitment to Milwaukee County and its residents than the current County Executive has in the past six years. That says a lot.

A junket follow-up

by folkbum

For everyone complaining about the $6 million in travel over the last four years--much of it not at taxpayer expense, and with not much attempt at divining which of those trips were frivolous--I have a question.

I rather inelegantly pointed out at the site of my new corporate masters that spending $6 million on such trips means that MPS literally spends 99.9% of its budget on things other than travel and out-of-state training for employees.

So what number would you prefer? How much--either in dollars or as a percentage--should MPS be spending on travel and training of this sort?*

--

Relatedly, a number of people seem most upset that the superindent and the school board president, when they had a camera shoved in their faces, didn't know the full total spent on such trips. At the same time, others are complaining about how a budget-conscious district--and one that has been tightening a variety of belts over the past decade--ought to be thinking long and hard over decisions like taking these trips. Rick Esenberg is one of those.

But the fact is that starting a decade ago, MPS has been turning over the lion's share of budgeting to schools in "site-based management," which was the conservative reform buzzword a while back. It means cutting central office "bloat" and putting parents in more direct control of what happens in a school. Ergo, your disconnection between the people at the top and every detail of what's been done in all 200+ schools at the bottom. There is a school governance board with parents and community members who oversee the budget, including travel, at each school--how much more oversight do we need? I guess the pendulum is now swinging back to more centralized authority.

* If you find yourself unable or unwilling to answer that question, go read this post and then wonder why you were so upset with me then.

Some Quick Thoughts

by capper

The Ranch, which was started by Farmer Vic many, many years ago, did a lot of good work for developmentally and physically disabled children and adults. Over the years, they have had a steady problem with keeping the place running due to financial issues. Last year, the Ranch Community Services was bought out by Curative Care Network. This morning's paper reports that Curative has decided they can no longer provide their therapeutic horseback riding program. This is very sad to me, as that I have personally seen the good that this program has brought to many people. Too bad that they couldn't find a corporate sponsor to help keep the program running.


In other closing news, the paper also reports that West Samaria is being foreclosed on. This makes me wonder: Is it better to have a place that takes inadequate care of the mentally ill or have no place for the mentally ill? And why do we have only these two choices?


And finally, a multiple choice question-

Which is worst:

1. Political campaign ads,
2. Supermarket tabloids,
3. Sensationalism on local news shows during ratings month, or
4. Anyone who feeds into any of the above?

Two Choices

by capper

I received the following email today from a colleague. While I do not know who the identity of the author of the story, I found it so well written and inspirational, that I felt compelled to share it. Here it is in its entirety (sorry for the length, but it's well worth it, in my humble opinion):

Two Choices

What would you do? You make the choice. Don't look for a punch line, there isn't one. Read it anyway. My question is: Would you have made the same choice?

At a fund raising dinner for a school that serves learning-disabled children, the father of one of the students delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended. After extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he offered a question: 'When not interfered with by outside influences, everything nature does is done with perfection. Yet my son, Shay, cannot learn things as other children do. He cannot understand things as other children do. Where is the natural order of things in my son?'

The audience was stilled by the query.

The father continued. 'I believe that when a child like Shay, physically and mentally handicapped comes into the world, an opportunity to realize true human nature presents itself, and it comes in the way other people treat that child.'

Then he told the following story:

Shay and his father had walked past a park where some boys Shay knew were playing baseball. Shay asked, 'Do you think they'll let me play?' Shay's father knew that most of the boys would not want someone like Shay on their team, but the father also understood that if his son were allowed to play, it would give him a much-needed sense of belonging and some confidence to be accepted by others in spite of his handicaps.

Shay's father approached one of the boys on the field and asked (not expecting much) if Shay could play. The boy looked around for guidance and said, 'We're losing by six runs and the game is in the eighth inning. I guess he can be on our team and we'll try to put him in to bat in the ninth inning.'

Shay struggled over to the team's bench and, with a broad smile, put on a team shirt. His father watched with a small tear in his eye and warmth in his heart. The boys saw the father's joy at his son being accepted. In the bottom of the eighth inning, Shay's team scored a few runs but was still behind by three. In the top of the ninth inning, Shay put on a glove and played in the right field. Even though no hits came his way, he was obviously ecstatic just to be in the game and on the field, grinning from ear to ear as his father waved to him from the stands. In the bottom of the ninth inning, Shay's team scored again. Now, with two outs and the bases loaded, the potential winning run was on base and Shay was scheduled to be next at bat.

At this juncture, do they let Shay bat and give away their chance to win the game? Surprisingly, Shay was given the bat. Everyone knew that a hit was all but impossible because Shay didn't even know how to hold the bat properly, much less connect with the ball. However, as Shay stepped up to the plate, the pitcher, recognizing that the other team was putting winning aside for this moment in Shay's life, moved in a few steps to lob the ball in softly so Shay could at least make contact. The first pitch came and Shay swung clumsily and missed. The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly towards Shay. As the pitch came in, Shay swung at the ball and hit a slow ground ball right back to the pitcher.

The game would now be over. The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could have easily thrown the ball to the first baseman. Shay would have been out and that would have been the end of the game.

Instead, the pitcher threw the ball right over the first baseman's head, out of reach of all teammates. Everyone from the stands and both teams started yelling, 'Shay, run to first! Run to first!' Never in his life had Shay ever run that far, but he made it to first base. He scampered down the baseline, wide-eyed and startled.

Everyone yelled, 'Run to second, run to second!' Catching his breath, Shay awkwardly ran towards second, gleaming and struggling to make it to the base. By the time Shay rounded towards second base, the right fielder had the ball ... the smallest guy on their team who now had his first chance to be the hero for his team. He could have thrown the ball to the second-baseman for the tag, but he understood the pitcher's intentions so he, too, intentionally threw the ball high and far over the third-baseman's head. Shay ran toward third base deliriously as the runners ahead of him circled the bases toward home.

All were screaming, 'Shay, Shay, Shay, all the Way Shay'

Shay reached third base because the opposing shortstop ran to help him by turning him in the direction of third base, and shouted, 'Run to third! Shay, run to third!'

As Shay rounded third, the boys from both teams, and the spectators, were on their feet screaming, 'Shay, run home! Run home!' Shay ran to home, stepped on the plate, and was cheered as the hero who hit the grand slam and won the game for
his team.

'That day', said the father softly with tears now rolling down his face, the boys from
both teams helped bring a piece of true love and humanity into this world'.

Shay didn't make it to another summer. He died that winter, having never forgotten being the hero and making his father so happy, and coming home and seeing his mother tearfully embrace her little hero of the day!

May your day, be a Shay Day.

Let us be happy for Scott ...

by folkbum

... and very worried for Karen.

Kidding, of course--best wishes to the soon-to-be happier couple!

WTMJ's MPS "Junket" Hysteria

by folkbum

If anyone cares what I think, I have responded to TMJ's report on travel junkets over at Journal Communications itself.

Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid

by capper

Even though Halloween was two weeks ago, with all the usual ghosts, goblins, things going bump in the night to scare us, there were some who felt more terrified by other things. If you listened to most of the right wing pundits and bloggers, the scariest thing out there was Doyle's Frankenstein Veto.


But now comes something even scarier, creeping out from its underground lair tomorrow....

Scott Walker and his Giant Crayola From Hell!!!!

Yes, that's right, tomorrow is the day that Walker wastes everyone's time with a big grandstanding production to announce the vetoes which we all know will be overridden by the County Board on Wednesday. (With the possible exception of the pay raise for the County Board, and I won't cry about that one.) Expect all the local right wing bloggers and/or squawkers to be singing his praises and booing the Board. Yawn.

If you wish to contact your County Board Supervisor, and tell him or her that you value a better quality of life over Scott Walker's $12.50, and wish them to override Walker's vetoes, you can call them at (414) 278-4222. If you're not sure who your Supervisor is, you can find out here.

What Were They Thinking?

by capper

I have already written about Scott Walker and the decimation he would create to the public transit system if he would have gotten his way. The County Board restored many of the cuts that he had made, as well as removed his massive increase of Transit Plus.

But the County Board, for whatever reasons, chose not to restore all of his routes. One of the routes they chose to leave off of the county budget was Route 11, which travels Vliet Street from Water Street to 47th Street. This makes no sense.

On 12th and Vliet is the Marcia Coggs building, which holds Economic Support Services, Disability Services, and most of the other social services that Milwaukee County provides. Most of the people that utilize these services are the poor, the physically disabled and the developmentally disabled. These same people are often reliant on public transit to get around, including to meetings with case workers who provide the social services for them.

On 17th and Vliet is the Martin Luther King Community Center (which Walker had also threatened to cut). This facility offers many community activities, including lectures, social events, educational sessions, community meetings and various charitable activities. One of the most notable is the donation of school supplies like backpacks, pens, pencils, paper and the such to neighborhood children who are in need of these items.

One would think that even if the County Board wouldn't or couldn't restore all of the routes that Walker had cut, they would at least have maintained the ones that were most needed.

It's a boy

by folkbum

Part of why I haven't been blogging is that, as periodically happens, the world is too depressing to blog about. (I mean, seriously, did Madison and Jefferson envision that 225 years later we'd be debating whether or not we're cool with torture?)

The other part is that we've adopted. We aren't entirely sure what his name is yet.

We got him through CARAC, which rescues animals from the Animal Control people, and who could probably use your help if you have any spare cash lying around.

Getting him to play nice with the dog . . . that will be the fun part.

McIlheran Watch: Setting The Bar Low

by capper

Patrick McIlheran wrote an editorial column singing the praises for Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker. He praised Walker for consistently proposing a county budget that reflected no tax increase from the previous year's budget. But this as far as he goes with being accurate.

First, McIlheran points out that for every dollar spent on the parks system, almost three times is spent on health care for retirees. I won't squabble on the numbers, but would like to point out that this particular benefit ended in 1995. This means that any county employee hired after January 1, 1995, will not receive the free health care. McIlheran also blames this on "the way labor peace was bought decades ago". Again, he forgets to mention that it wasn't a burden for the taxpayers until health care costs started to accelerate at an unreasonable rate. But instead of blaming the insurance companies or the high-priced health care providers where the blame should rest, he chooses to blame politicians from decades ago.

What really caught my eye was the title of the column, "'Same as last year' a reasonable place to start". Now given that the parks are in decay, inmates are escaping from the House of Correction and sometimes killing people, people with mental health issues are living in squalor and sometimes are allowed to die, as well as the transit issues, the problems at the court house, and all of the other issues Milwaukee County is currently facing, I would not consider this a reasonable place to start. Unfortunately, due to Walker's misadministration this is where we are forced to start.

No, it is not a reasonable place to start, and it would be an even more unreasonable goal to maintain this status quo, even if Scott Walker would have to pony up another $12.50 in taxes next year. McIlheran may be willing to live in that type of world, but I, for one, am not.

Veteran's Day

Thank you to all that have served.

Where's The AFP When You Need Them?

by capper

We have seen the AFP and their conservative allies storm the capitol during the state budget discussions, claiming that taxes are too high. We have also seen the same likely suspects take action regarding a referendum regarding the West Bend school system.

I would not be surprised to see them and their cohorts spout off about the Milwaukee County budget for 2008. They would focus on the dastardly county board which went a long way in correcting Scott Walker's imprudent budget proposal. After all, the board's proposal would raise Walker's property taxes on his $324,400 house by a whopping $12.50 per year. Oh, how could he afford such a burden?!

Ken Mobile of Mobile's Take points out that it would be much fairer to raise the property tax by 3.7% rather than raising the transportation fees for the disabled and the elderly by 14% or by $273.75 per year. After all, let us not forget that the elderly and disabled are living on fixed incomes that is usually less than $1,000 per month.

In the comments thread of the same post, we have St. Fred, Patron Saint of Taxpayers, pointing out:

Yes just increase taxes everywhere 6 to 10%.

Did it ever occur to you that people's ability to pay their taxes is hurting?

Scott Walker is a breath of fresh air.

At least he tries to hold the line on spending.

So, now we have St. Fred and AFP (Americans Foolishly Posturing) leading the crusade against higher taxes, while willfully dumping on the ones that can truly least afford it.

Meanwhile, we have gasoline prices that have jumped up 45 cents per gallon in the last month, and 90 cents per gallon in the last year. That is an increase of 16% and 40% respectively. Even if the average consumption of gas was ten gallons per person per week, that would add up to a hell of a lot more than any of the tax hikes that have happened or have been proposed.

My question, and challenge, to St. Fred and his AFP buddies, is this: When can we expect you to hold a rally outside of the offices of Big Oil? I bet you would find a lot more supporters from both sides of the aisle if you would actually go after the people really hurting the average family. After all, if you're going to spend the money anyway, would you rather it go to actually help people that need it, or to help Big Oil and their extremely rich fat cats increase their wealth?

Jim Ryan, RIP

by folkbum

As hyper-important as inter-blog warring and whorring may seem, the real world does go on outside, and today the real world lost a very real, very good man. Hales Corners Village President Jim Ryan succumbed to cancer this morning. Our thoughts are with his family and friends.

The Good Old Days

by folkbum

Remember the Good Old Days, when an ad comparing George W. Bush to Hitler uploaded by a user during a Moveon.org contest was enough to prompt howls of condemnation from the right and, even today, leads MoveOn's critics to assert that they called Bush Hitler, rather than one supporter. (Remember that the ad was promptly removed as soon as it was brought to MoveOn's attention.)

Nowadays a prominent member of the Right Cheddarsphere can write, "After her debate debacle, The Hildabeast went into full 'Don’t hit me, I’m a girl' mode with a trip to her alma mater, Wellesley College. [. . .] Our cameras were there," and then post a YouTube of Adolph Hitler. (No link from me--I stopped sending him traffic when he called me a Nazi--but you can google those words and come up with it. Or click around the blogrolls of many prominent conservative Wisconsin bloggers. It won't be hard to find.)

This blogger can do that and not earn nary a peep from any of his Right Cheddarsphere colleagues, or from Charlie Sykes who prominently links that blogger (and who trashes MoveOn regularly), or any of the many conservative bloggers who are always on the lookout for sexist behavior or bad words directed at women.

Whatever happened to the Good Old Days?

The Continuing War on Atheism

by folkbum

Almost two years ago, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel published a column by "community columnist" Dale Reich who said, essentially, that he didn't understand why atheists weren't hedonistically indulging every bacchanalian impulse all the time. If we're just animals, he reckoned, it shouldn't matter if we're moral or not.

A the time, I wrote that Reich was full of crap:

By writing that "God is the basis for good and evil," [Reich] dismisses any notion that there may be a source of morality and ethics derived from the non-divine. This is one of the most common fallacies presented by those who, for example, do not want evolution taught in schools. Somehow, they believe, knowing that life's development was due to a fortuitous confluence of physics, chemistry, and biology--rather than due to divine intervention--somehow makes life meaningless. It does not. The prisons are not stocked full of the irreligious (despite Reich's clumsy attempt to equate atheists and sociopaths); the atheists are not the ones committing suicide en masse; the non-believers did not fly the planes into the World Trade Center.

What do I see over the weekend? Another, new "community columnist" making the same stupid argument (technically, he's writing about evolution, not atheism, but the subtext is clear).

So to you, Philip Bramblet, I say, go back and read what I wrote two years ago. Just because you don't have a far-enough evolved frontal lobe to understand that morality does not only come from religion does not mean you can impugn the conscience and decency of atheists and those who believe in evolution. To claim, as you do, that atheists ought not condemn rape or murder, is outrageous and insulting.

The Great Sheboygan Fascist Crackdown--It Already Happened Here (and the right Cheddarsphere stood by and watched)

by folkbum

I wrote yesterday about the Great Sheboygan Fascist Crackdown of 2007, something I probably would not have done until Wisconsin's right-o-sphere all but double-dog dared me to. I didn't have much to add until they went over the top and assumed my silence was not mere complicity but partisan endorsement, which is stupid, given their own silence on abuses of power worse than one Mayberry Machiavelli's clumsy (and illegal) attempt to silence a critic.

In comments to that post, Michael J. Cheaney makes a reasonable point that the Great Sheboygan Fascist Crackdown of 2007 was worth outrage because it was in our own backyard, so to speak, and potentially then Something That Could Happen Here. (That is kind of what Wiggy's saying, too, I think.)

Indeed, such a thing Has Happened Here, as capper reminds us:

Curiously, the right did not have the same outrage when former State Senator Tom Reynolds and friends tried to use strong arm tactics on lefty blogger Gretchen Schuldt of Milwaukee Rising, when she was being a citizen blogger and investigating possible campaign violations from Reynolds failed bid to be re-elected.

Nor do I remember the outrage at Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke when he abused his position and authority in trying to strong arm deputies who didn't agree with him, or actively opposed his actions, even though they did so on their own time.

In fact, instead of outrage, Clarke was praised as was Reynolds, who McBride actually called "untouchable".

The left might not have reached the fevered zeal of the right regarding the Sheboygan blogger, but at least they weren't as selective with their outrages.

Click through, because he's got the links to prove it. You can also amuse yourself site-searching Wigderson, Fred, Peter, Pete, Patrick, et al. just to verify that they never seemed to mind the threatened legal action against blogger Gretchen Schuldt for her use of public documents to challenge Tom Reynolds, or the not-so-threatened action against the deputy who dared defy Clarke in a union newsletter.

Unless of course those bloggers want to insist that their silence was not, indeed, complicity, partisanship, or endorsment of Reynolds's and Clarke's actions when It Did Happen Here.

Are County Politics Scripted By Writer's Guild?

by capper

With the Writer's Guild of America going on strike, there is talk that most TV shows are going into reruns. Late night shows are already being affected, and there is reportedly only a few weeks before most shows go into a rerun mode.

I wonder if Milwaukee County politics are scripted by the Writer's Guild, because this too seems to be a rerun. It is the same story every year for the past five years. First, Scott Walker comes out with an unreasonable budget proposal that is so out of touch with reality that it would be laughable if it wasn't so scary. Then the county board steps up and does the right thing to make sure necessary safety nets and programs are maintained at least at minimum values.

Next, Walker will hold some flamboyant production number to issue his draconian vetoes. This is the only thing that has potential for variance. Will he veto the entire budget, like last year, and have it blow up in his face again? Or will he veto out just parts of it in the hope that some of the vetoes are upheld? And where will he do his routine? Last year he did it at the property of his buddy, Chris Kujawa. Will he go back there, or will he find some other supporter to host his event?

Anyway, after his veto(es), the County Board will restore most, if not all, of the items that Walker vetoed. Wouldn't it be nice to have a County Executive that understands the county, its communities, its constituents and their needs, so that we don't have this rerun every year? Milwaukee Rising has a video of someone who does get it and is also happening to be running for County Executive-Lena Taylor.

Abuses of Power

by folkbum (SEE UPDATE BELOW!)

Multiple-choice question for you all:

The Wisconsin right-o-sphere is all up arms about which recent abuse of power?

A. The US State Department tried granting immunity to Blackwater guards that (allegedly) killed 17 innocent Iraqi civillians. The State Department probably doesn't have this authority, and Blackwater employees are refusing to talk to the FBI because of it.
B. One of this country's most important allies in the "war on terror" is arresting dissidents and cracking down on moderate supporters of democracy.
C. The Bush Administration wants Congress to grant retroactive immunity to telecom companies that knowingly violated the law by handing over protected records to the NSA even before 9/11.
D. Some idiot in Sheboygan sent a cease-and-disist letter to a blogger who'd linked to the Sheboygan Police Department.

That's an easy one, right? And, as a bonus, under the logic of "real debate," that means the conservative Cheddarsphere must simply not care about the other abuses of power--or, worse, supports them entirely--because they didn't say anything about them on their own blogs. (I'm linking to Nick, not the purveyors of idiocy or, in some cases, outright racism--the mayor of Sheboygan is Latino--because Nick has a sense of perspective here.)

And it's only Monday.

UPDATE! I wonder if the right Cheddarsphere will join the fight against GOP Congressman Adrian Smith, who is blocking links from all "blogspot" addresses. Really! He is! Try it!

(Cut and paste if you don't believe me that it's the right link: http://adriansmith.house.gov )

Voting

by folkbum

It's really hard to vote when you think all of them deserve to win.

WHO KILLED TONY ZIELINSKI? A Bay View Murder Mystery

by folkbum

Passing this on . . . It's for one of my Big Media Bosses.

The Bay View Compass is hosting its first annual murder mystery event, Who Killed Tony Zielinski?, Friday, Nov. 16 in the gymnasium of the Marian Center for Non-Profits, 3211 S. Lake Dr., St. Francis, Wisconsin. Tickets are $10 and may be purchased in advance or at the door.

Doors open to public at 5pm. Registration is 5-7pm. Sleuthing begins at 7pm. Soup, sandwiches, coffees, tea, and desserts, provided by Sven’s European Café of Bay View, will be available 5pm until the event closes. Proceeds from the bar benefit the Marian Center. Admission does not include food or bar.

The plot for this interactive mystery event is based on the fictional murder of Milwaukee’s 14th District Alderman Tony Zielinski, who represents Bay View. Zielinski will play himself in the drama.

A number of Bay View area businesses and organizations will be present at the event selling their wares or providing information about their business or organization.

Prizes donated by Bay View business owners include two round-trip Lake Express ferry tickets; a signed, framed Steve Slaske print from South Shore Gallery & Framing; a $25 gift certificate from Dinner by Design for a grab & go freezer entree; organic body products gift bag from Future Green; a $25 gift certificate to Natural Pet; one-year subscription to Bay View Compass; a framed Twilight on the Bay poster; $30 gift certificate to Hector’s on Delaware, two vouchers for free margarita pitchers at Hector’s on Delaware, and two vouchers for free lunches at Hector’s on Delaware.

To purchase tickets, for directions to event, or other information, contact the Bay View Compass at (414) 489-0880 or info@bayviewcompass.com.

Free parking is provided in the lot south of building. Enter Marian Center in back, at southwest corner of the building.

The Bay View Compass, established in November 2004, is an independent monthly newspaper that is distributed from North Avenue on Milwaukee’s East Side south to College Avenue in Cudahy. The Who Killed Tony Zielinski? event is a fundraiser staged by the Bay View Compass to launch and maintain the newspaper’s forthcoming updated website.

Who Killed Tony Zielinski? is a work of fiction and does not imply or condone harming any real persons. Alderman Zielinski has granted permission for use of his name and likeness.

The Bay View Compass website really does need an overhaul (just think, my columns could someday be archived there!), so any support you can give would be greatly appreciated.

MPS Budget Public Hearing Tonight

by folkbum

Alan Borsuk's story this morning reminds us that few people ever show up to Milwaukee Public Schools board meetings to make their opinions known. Tonight you have a chance to.

I won't be there--this week I have a cold and next week I have final exams, so my dance card is all germy and full--but if someone does go, if you wouldn't mind asking a question for me, I'd appreciate it.

Where does the superintendent think he's going to find 50 math teachers to start in January? Not that I don't think it's a laudable goal (my school would certainly benefit from three or four more licensed math teachers) but we can't get enough licensed teachers to fill the vacancies we have now. Next year, when the state will be paying for a boost in math teachers, we'll have had time to recruit and hire some. But if the $5m for that goes through, we'll have barely enough time to write the want ads, let alone find 50 good teachers able to join up in the middle of a school year. (Any of you math teachers from the 'burbs willing to jump ship mid-year?)

Again, not a bad idea, but perhaps not practical for the price tag.

Because it's the wrong question, that's why

by folkbum

The last couple of times I've posted about taxes, my conservative readers have asked a question in the comments that I have opted to ignore. They've also posed it on their own blogs, where I have continued to ignore it. But I doubt that my continued disengagement on the topic will stop them, so I may as well just lay out this once why I don't bother with it.

The most recent posing--and I mean that in more than one way--came attached to yesterday's quckie post:

How much is too much of someone's income to take [in taxes]? What should the top line total tax picture be in your mind?

Frequent commenter Sven, in response, rightly calls it a "silly question" and notes that the question is "predicated on the adolescent Randian notion that all taxes are theft." Worse, I think, is that it is a classic "gotcha" question--one designed to stop or derail conversation about important questions and instead put people on the spot so they can be criticized personally. It's a game, and a game that conservatives are particularly good at.

More importantly, though, that question is quite simply the wrong question to ask. Taxes are a means, not an end, and to consider only the means makes no sense. Let me make an analogy:

If you're just joining us, you may not know that I teach. But I do! When I sit down to plan a semester, a quarter, a unit, or even a single lesson, the first question I consider is not "How much homework should students do?" I think there are some pretty reasonable guidelines about homework we can all agree on--two hours is too much for a second-grader, ten minutes is not enough for a high schooler--but knowing an answer or even those parameters doesn't help me at all. No, the first thing I have to do is decide what I want I students to know or be able to do by the end of the process. Then I figure out the materials and activities to use to achieve that end, and somewhere near the end of the process, I can get a handle on how much of what we're doing can or should be done as homework.

You could also make a private-sector analogy: It's a pretty dumb thing to set a price point for your product or service before you've bothered to figure out what product or service you're going to sell.

The same holds true with governing. While we might be able to agree going in on some broad outlines about what kind of taxes are appropriate or not (like a top individual tax rate of 91% might be a little high--though, oddly enough, this country managed to have a massive post-war economic boom with exactly that rate in place), picking a number without first taking other steps is just stupid--no offense to Tim Rock, who answered that question yesterday as well as the last time it was asked.

Instead, the first task of governing is deciding what services ought to be offered. Lucky for us, we get to have a conversation about that sort of thing pretty often; it's called an election. We're doing one right now for president, for example. This is the time to set priorities and sort out what is and is not in the best interests of the governed based on their consent. (You'll recall that the last election featured a stunning loss for the crowd that wanted only to talk about that question of how high taxes should be.)

It's also important to have a conversation, after we've got a handle on what the government should be doing, about how the government should be paying for that. This is the part of the conversation that's often missing, though I have been suggesting for a long time that, at least here in Wisconsin, we should be talking about revenue sources and whether, for example, we should rely so heavily on the property tax. There is a collection of people as diverse as the Realtors and the teachers' union working as "The Wisconsin Way," trying to jump-start exactly that conversation; they are currently on tour talking to the public. (They will be in Waukesha November 8, and in Glendale November 27.)

Once we know what our priorities are, and what our revenue sources will be, we can set a level for taxes. If we provide more services, clearly the taxes will be higher--though, we hope, apportioned fairly. The process of setting priorities, that important first step, will help us in deciding what to not to fund if there is no way to do that fairly.

Opening the conversation with "How much in taxes is too much?" is to start at the end of what should be a longer process--and it shuts down that discussion instead of fostering it. This is the same reason I oppose such legislative idiocies as TABOR, tax "freezes," and revenue caps. More meaningful measures like pay-as-you-go rules or even, dare I say it, a balanced-budget amendment provide a much better legislative solution to out-of-control spending.

On a more specific note, when the MPS superintendent asked this week for a 16% jump in the Milwaukee tax levy, he did so by making clear exactly what services he wanted to pay for with that money--more math teachers, smaller class sizes, extracurriculars that will keep students in school, the return of art and music to high schools. People howling about MPS, like some in comments here at this blog, or in comments at jsonline or at any number of conservative blogs, want just to talk about the number, not the services forgone without the funds, or the services lost with any other cuts in MPS's billion-dollar budget. They're happy to play games over what's "fair" or "too much"--in other words, whine over the means--but not willing to take the time to talk about the ends.

That is why I ignore that question. When someone wants to engage me on a question of substance instead of trying to shut down the conversation, I'll happily play along. Until then, no.

Instead, maybe my conservative readers would rather take a shot at these questions, about ends, about MPS: If so many students are currently failing in a well-funded, well-organized, tightly-regulated school system staffed by generally very talented and compassionate teachers, what would you replace it with? What would you cut, change, rearrange, or do differently to achieve different results? If the superintendent's requests above aren't going to make a difference, what will?

For Those of You Who Thought the Jackass Was Just the Symbol of the Democratic Party

By Keith Schmitz

Rudy Giuliani before the good folks in Londonberry, NH:

"This is the world we live in. It's not this happy, romantic-like world where we'll negotiate with this one, or we'll negotiate with that one and there will be no preconditions, and we'll invite (Iranian President Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad to the White House, we'll invite Osama (bin Laden) to the White House," Giuliani said.
"Hillary and Obama are kind of debating whether to invite them to the inauguration or the inaugural ball," he added.

We don't have to imagine what would happen if a Democrat or progressive said something as outrageous. There would be constant repetition by the "liberal media" to pound into people's heads how tasteless this remark is. There would be constant baying on rant radio to stampede the sheep. There would be a censure vote in Congress.

But then you got to wonder about the voters who have a psychological need to lap up this crap. In this world there is no such thing as self-control, but the political equivalent of road rage.

There is probably something else you probably won't hear much about. Rudy, who has rode for all its worth his questionable performance post 9/11 -- and leading up to it, built a lucrative consulting firm off of his so-called reputation. Turns out he is meshing his campaign with his business despite promises to uncouple.

Let's not hold our breath. Recall John Huang, the renegade donor to the Hillary Clinton campaign, running afoul of the law that made fodder for days of news coverage? Let's see if this story about Rudy makes it past Wednesday night -- if that long.

Earplugs in, please!

by folkbum

The I-don't-live-in-Milwaukee-but-I-still-want-to-tell-you-what-to-think crowd will be howling over this one today.

Sad News

by folkbum

Mr Jay Bullock, we received your message and appreciate your taking the time to contact Campbell Soup Company to inquire about our Pace® Enchilada Sauce product. Unfortunately, this product is not currently available.

Tastes and preferences constantly change and there is only so much space on a supermarket shelf. Periodically, we look at the sales for our various products and are forced to make the difficult decision as to which products stay and which must be replaced.

Inquiries such as yours remind us that sales figures aren't the only measure of a product's value. Perhaps one day Pace® Enchilada Sauce product will make its way back to your grocer's shelf.

Thank you for visiting the Pace website.

Pace Web Team

So now I need a suitable replacement. Remember: 1. inexpensive 2. in a jar 3. tasty. Whaddya got?

Is more "responsibility" and "choice" the health care answer?

by folkbum

John Torinus, corporate muckity-muck and business columnist for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, can barely set keys to keyboard without touting expanded consumer "choice" as at least a significant part of a health care reform plan that he would back. He does it again Sunday:

[U]nderlying medical costs are the primary issue, not access and who pays. As costs escalate, access disappears. If the mandated insurance [in his preferred reform plan] includes high deductibles, co-insurance, personal health accounts and proactive health management, costs will stabilize as policy holders take responsibility for their health and health costs.

The problem with health care, he repeatedly asserts, is that consumers have too much of it, spend too much on it. The more we empower consumers (and force them, through their pocketbooks) to be empowered, then they will spend less and costs will fall.

Someone needs to slip Torinus a copy of WPRI study of "choice" in Milwaukee schools that I wrote about last week. That study suggested that despite a multiplicity of educational options and a wealth of performance data available about the Milwaukee Public Schools, few parents bothered to make decisions about where to send their children to school based on those data.

Someone should also remind Torinus about all the great decisions homebuyers made over the last few years, with all the options and information available to them, they still chose ARMs and other risky loans and now we face record foreclosures. (We bought our house before the peak of the bubble; we saw what was out there and, thankfully, made a much wiser choice.)

I'm sure that it won't take much to come up with more examples of failures of the market in this way*, and, as more sensible conservative Rick Esenberg noted last week, health care is a different animal entirely: If a consumer makes a bad choice, we just can't let them get sick and die anyway. Lose your house? Hock the jewelry? Fall into a debt spiral with check-cashing joints? No problem (though I support the efforts to make the latter less likely). But die? Is that the America we want to be?

I don't think Torinus is heartless; I think he simply puts too much faith in markets in which success will prove elusive.

* Or, for that matter, market "successes" that are really dependent on government subsidy and interference. As fiercely as many conservatives and Republicans defend the market, they are usually more than willing to bend over backward to privilege their donors. Insurance companies come to mind.

S-Chip off the Old Block

By Keith Schmitz

Bet a good number of the kids that would be covered by the expanded S-Chip health care program for children would be the sons and daughters of soldiers deployed in Iraq.

When Will They Fix Foster Care?

by capper

The Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare, the privatized foster care system overseen by the State, has been in the news a lot lately, and not for good things. Now in today's JSOnline is this story:

UPDATE: Infant death possible homicide

The death of a 5-month-old boy, who was left unsupervised with his mentally ill mother by a visitation worker employed by the state-run Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare, is being investigated as a homicide, police said today.

The child died about half an hour after the visitation worker left the infant without supervision, police said. An autopsy was being performed Saturday to determine the cause of death.

The death is the latest in a series involving child welfare workers and comes on the heels of a state report released last month that accompanied a plan to beef up programs to keep children at risk of abuse or neglect safe, after a review of more than 600 active Milwaukee child welfare cases.

The review was ordered in May after the Journal Sentinel reported the suffocation death of a toddler, Alicia Burgess, who was left in her home by child welfare workers despite warnings by two doctors that the child and her brother were in danger. Raul Arteaga, 34, the boyfriend of Alicia's mother, is charged with first-degree reckless homicide.

In February the Journal Sentinel reported that a 7-month-old baby starved to death as child welfare workers regularly stopped by her Milwaukee home to check on an older child who had been abused. The bureau had been warned of concerns about the baby's health, but caseworkers reported that the parents refused to let them check on her conditions.

In the latest case, police said the 29-year-old mother lost custody of the infant in July because her mental illness interfered with her ability to care for the child. The baby was then placed in foster care. On October 19th, a niece of the woman was granted custody of the infant by Milwaukee County Children's court and the mother was granted visitation rights, police said. They said they did not know if the visits were supposed to be supervised or unsupervised.

Police gave this account of the events leading up to the baby's death:

The 24-year-old visitation worker picked the infant up from the niece's house at
9:45 a.m. Friday for a visit at the mother's apartment in the 2500 block of W. Wells St. that was to last from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. She told police that she was only supposed to supervise the mother's visit with the infant for the first half hour and the last half hour of the visit and left at 10:30 a.m.

At 10:45 a.m. a mental health social worker who knew the mother was having a visit with the child called to make sure it was going well and was told by the mother that everything was fine. That worker told police that she could hear the baby "cooing" in the background and that the mother was coherent.

At 11:10 a.m. the mother called the mental health worker back and said something
was wrong with the baby and the worker called 911.

Police said they did not know where the baby was when the fire department rescue
squad arrived, but that there was some water in the bathtub.

The mother told police that she overdosed on medications, passed out and indicated that she had left the baby in the bathtub.The mother, who police said suffers from an undisclosed mental illness, was being held at the Milwaukee Mental Health complex.

I understand, even though I disagree with, the right's desire to privatize anything and everything. The thought is that it would save money, although I have not seen any credible proof of this.

But even if this argument, some things should not be done with the bottom line being the driving concern. Some things, like taking care of our children. There is no way this child should have been left alone with this mother without knowing whether she was stable enough to care for the child. Apparently they knew she wasn't, or they would have someone staying for parts of the visits, or checking up on her.

UPDATE: In an update story, MSJ is reporting that the court ordered unsupervised visits. The still does not absolve the Bureau, as that the article also states that the workers never spoke with neighbors, who were aware of the situation. If they had done so, they would have been able to suspend visits and take the issue back to court.

At least there are some reason to hope. When I see stories like this one, I know not all is lost, and that some people still get it.

What Really Did Happen, Mr. Walker?

by capper

One thing that both sides of the blogosphere can agree on, even if for different reasons, is that the local media is less than ideal. A prime example is the coverage that the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel gave today to the Freddie Dudley incident. Freddie Dudley was an inmate at the Community Correctional Center (CCC), which is operated by Milwaukee County, specifically the House of Corrections (HOC). Dudley, instead of returning to CCC, called in to say he was working late, and then had someone sign his name on the list. Meanwhile, Dudley stayed out, partied, and ended up shooting another man to death. Scott Walker, Tosa Ranger, was quite irate and promised to look into it and hold the culprit(s) responsible.

In today's story, we find that Walker has found his scapegoats the bad officers. But, given that I worked for HOC a ways back, and still know people that worked there, I saw many red flags in this story. First, Walker only sent out a press release. This would indicate he didn't want to be asked a lot of questions. Press releases are usually only sent out on mundane matters, or on things that politicians want to avoid dealing with. He also sent out the release on a Friday afternoon, another sign of trying to avoid a lot of pesky questions.

The Tosa Ranger's press release only said that three officers were suspended with pay until they went before the Personnel Review Board for termination hearings. Two supervising officers are facing either demotion or suspension. The press release did not reveal what the allegations against the officers are, except for "not following 'established guidelines for situations such as this'". (SIDENOTE: How often does an inmate go AWOL and kill someone that they have established guidelines for this sort of thing?)

There are many things that the story didn't report. One, the CCC is adjacent to the Medical Examiner's Office. They are so close that guards have to escort inmate porters through the MEO to take out the garbage. CCC was formerly a medical hospital, and was not really designed to hold prisoners. Furthermore, the CCC is in terrible condition due to lack of maintenance. Due to the poor design and shotty maintenance, it is very hard to monitor inmates that are supposed to be there.

Another missing aspect, is that the officers at CCC and HOC have been working large amounts of overtime due to being overcrowded and understaffed. This dangerous condition is due in no small part to Walker's irresponsible budgeting decisions. As I have mentioned before, when people in any job, work 12-16 hour days, six or seven days a week, for several months, they are not going to be at peak performance. This is true for cops, deputies and corrections officers, who are needed to be at top performance, not only for their own safety, but for the safety of the community as a whole. I pointed this out when an inmate escaped from HOC this past summer.
Nowhere in the article is this even mentioned, much less how much fatigue may have played into these two incidents.

A few other tidbits that wouldn't be reported or even asked.

• The members of the Personnel Review Board are all appointed by Walker. Does anyone wonder what the results of their reviews will be, regardless of the facts of the case.
• Dudley not only had someone sign in for him, but the same person apparently slept in his bed, so that the body counts wouldn't be off (this came to me from some former coworkers who will remain nameless for obvious reasons).
• Inmates at CCC aren't required to wear ID bracelets as are the inmates at HOC and the Milwaukee County Jail.
• Why is Walker waiting for the officers to be (probably) fired before he orders a probe of the policies?
• Why would he think that the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office would be able to do a fair and honest review of HOC's policies, given their working relationship?

I would also be remiss if I failed to mention that anyone that has worked in law enforcement or corrections would tell you that the evenings and nights are the busiest times, or power shifts. Walker wants to close the CCC and put all the inmates on GPS monitors. Given that Dudley shot the victim in the middle of the night, I guess Walker's plan would allow enforcement officers to know exactly where all these inmates are when they start shooting people.

I have two questions for Walker. The first is if he is taking this action against these officers? Is it to avoid the inevitable lawsuit from the victims family, or because he has an election coming up (if he ever decides if he is running)?

The second question is this: In his 2008 budget speech (pdf), Walker promised to deliver "Safety. Affordability. And Pride." When was he planning to start offering these things, and what has he been doing for the past five and a half years?

My New Crusade

by folkbum

How about something competely different? I'm looking for this stuff:



It used to be easily available at Pick-n-Save, but not in the last year or two. Then we could stock up at Target, but not anymore. Sentry's a blank, as well. Peapod is partnered with Roundy's, so I can't even have it delivered. I found one place online that would sell me a ginormous case wholesale, but that's impractical at the other end of the scale.

I know, I know, a good person would make his own enchilada sauce, but I learned about myself many years ago that I am a consumer, not a producer. More importantly, this sauce is inexpensive, comes in a jar so it's easy to save the leftovers, and it's quite tasty.

So I want to harness the power of the blog to track down where I can get my hands on some jars of Pace enchilada sauce. Any ideas?

EXTREMELY LATE UPDATE: I may have a winning replacement.

Paul's Pot

By Keith Schmitz

I love libertarians. When it gets down to politics they are the most fun to get into it. And for the most part they have an actual idea why they believe what they believe. There is a lovable innocence about them.

That's why Ron Paul is the most fun out of all of the fine folks running for president, certainly more than those cartoons from the 50's that he is debating with on the GOP side. He has the unpolitical knack of saying what's on our minds.

So now it comes out that campaign cash is flowing into Paul's pockets. He just wrapped up the last quarter with his campaign $5 million richer, no doubt some of that siphoned from the other GOP candidates. That will pay for $1.1 million worth of commercials in New Hampshire. Rudy Giuliani is yet to go on air.

He is polling fourth in some states primaries right now, and regardless how he actually does Paul has engendered enough of a following that he can continue to raise those irritating points about Iraq in debate after debate. He certainly is not running a spendthrift campaign.

With his viewpoints spoiling the party for his party, the GOP will no doubt rue Paul.

Sykes berates bloggers: an annotated transcript

by bert

I am adding to Jay's take on today's tempest pitting Charlie Sykes against the blogger with the nom de plume Illusory Tenant. Jay's coverage doesn't need improving, but since I did listen, and in fact record, this part of the Sykes show, I'll add to his post with a transcript (and a rambling rant postscript). This is the part where Sykes takes on the entire species of lefty bloggers in SE Wisconsin.

[Responding to a caller who notes that Illusory Tenant is anonymous] and there are a number of these guys who go under names “capper”, "the other side", and then you have some guys who actually put their names on the websites who engage in this sort of thing as well. And we’ll see whether they respond to this.”

“And now The Left in Milwaukee is doing this and, you know what, I guess I’m fed up with up it. I am just sick and tired of it. I am just sick of tired of the free ride that the Bill Christoffersons, you know, the McCuigans and the other guys like that have gotten spreading this, and they never get called on it. They are not using the c word, I want to make it clear at this point, and I haven’t heard their comments on this. The only guy we know who is using this word is this guy illusory tenant, the bottom-dwelling, anonymous troll slug whose using this word, and some other guy on the other side is actually trying to defend him on this, but we’ll see whether this becomes acceptable."

My response is simply this list of relevant items:

1. If you do a google blog search you will instantly find many pages of posts by right-wing bloggers using the c-word, often preceded by the adjective “f-ing”, to refer to Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton and Cindy Sheehan. Try this at home.

2. I remember a show over the summer when Charlie discussed sex in bathroom stalls and took at least two callers who talked about the servicing they received there from anonymous females. That show's content may be more vanilla than the c-word, but it was brought to you by a fellow who then comes back and whines about how others are debasing the public discourse.

3. Yesterday Rush Limbaugh spent a lot of the show laughing about the brass balls he got as an award from some group of military types. Then, without my getting into it because you don't want to know, he made a connection, due to color, between roses and Hillary Clinton’s menstruation (“time of the month” was Rush’s terminology). Charlie says it's The Left who has no class.

4. Charlie just wrote a preachy book that tells us that if we get offended, we are supposed to just get over it. (I just plagiarized the Pundit Nation blog for that one).

The usual selective outrage--I'm over being surprised

by folkbum

One of my favorite new-ish bloggers, the Illusiory Tenant, did a Bad Thing: He referred to a less-favorite blogger, Jessica McBride, by a word that, this being a relatively family-friendly blog, I won't reprint. But it starts with c and rhymes with "front." To be clear, it was a Bad Thing to do, and I do not condone it or excuse it in any way. If IT were one of my students, he'd be in the office right now and I'd be on the phone with his mother. Enough other people have written well enough about why it's wrong that I don't need to cover it here.

The IT has proved to be one of the funniest bloggers around. (Read his comment to this post, for example; I wish I had half that wit.) And to see someone who can skewer with clever words opt for a blunt instrument like that particular slur is always a little sad. IT came around to an apology--which was indeed, truly warranted, since such an insult is just simply not appropriate. Michael Mathias, in a beautifully moving post (as usual), follows the trail back to what McBride said in the first place that led IT to comment, and considers that, perhaps, McBride should offer an apology of her own.

But what has me most intrigued in all of this is not the back-and-forthing among the bloggers as, in the end, it's a tempest in the proverbial teapot. No, what perked up my attention was word that Charlie Sykes ranted about this on-air. Hearing about IT's c-wording of McBride made me think of all the other Bad Things I've read in comments section around the Cheddarsphere, most of which never get apologized for at all. One in particular leapt to mind: When a local blogger referred to people he encounterd while shopping who were guilty of the crime of speaking Spanish nearby. That blogger used a different c-word to label his fellow shoppers, this word being not just a slur but also a breed of dog. (The details are here, courtesy of the Recess Supervisor.)

Although I did not listen to Charlie Sykes at the time--I can't listen to the radio at work and, given my borderline high blood pressure, if I could listen to something, I should listen to something less likely to kill me--but I would be willing to bet real money that Sykes said nothing about that blogger using that slur. Now, of course you can argue that since the Spanish-speaking shoppers are not personal friends of Sykes, he might have less of an interest in complaining about that slur. It may just be partisan, as Illusory Tenant is liberal and Sykes shares a conservative ideology with the blogger in question and would be less likely to criticize. It may be that Sykes didn't catch the racial slur, as it was in the comments of a post--but then again, so was IT's. All of these things are kind of reasonable explanations for why Sykes may not have gone after the racist comment and blogger.

But here's the kicker: That blogger has a place on Charlie Sykes's blogroll (something that cannot be said about even McBride herself!), one of the most coveted prizes among conservative Wisconsin bloggers. That blogger was on Sykes's blogroll when he made the comment. Having someone on your blogroll is never to be taken as a sign that you endorse everything that blogger says or does, no matter how stupid. But in this case, we have equivalent breeches of civil discourse, the only difference being that one victim has her own blog to fight back--and the voice of Wisconsin's biggest talker to defend her. If we're going to be outraged, we should be about both.

However, the silence over the one (McBride has him on her blogroll, too) is not surprising. The right has made an art of selective outrage. Consider the howls last week over Democratic Congressman Pete Stark's remarks that American men and women are dying in Iraq for the president's amusement; the outrage machine kicked into high gear and forced Stark to apologize. In the meantime, no one on the right seems to care about John Boehner's 4000-soldier "small price to pay" crack. That's just one example; the incomperable digby, in response to the Stark matter, says it all better than I can.

So do I think that Illusory Tenant was indeed wrong to do what he did? Yes. Did it rise to such a level that the outrage machine (excluding, of course, McBride who had every right to be upset) needed to hit its high gears again? Judging by the antecedents, no. That it did, though, doesn't suprise me anymore.

Nooooooo, really?

by folkbum

I could have saved WPRI all kinds of time and effort:

A study being released today suggests that school choice isn't a powerful tool for driving educational improvement in Milwaukee Public Schools. [. . .] The overall conclusion: Only 10% of MPS parents make school choices by a process that involves considering at least two schools and that brings academic performance data from a school into the choice.

"Given this number, it seems unlikely that MPS schools are feeling the pressure of a genuine educational marketplace," wrote the report's author, researcher David Dodenhoff.

Dodenhoff also concluded that parental involvement in MPS schools is low--he estimated that 34% of MPS parents could be considered "highly involved" in their children's schools.

Every quarter when I sit around during parent-teacher conferences amazed at how empty the building seems, I come to the same conclusion without needing a fancy study.

It always seemed disingenuous--if not outright mendacious--for "choice" proponents to tell us that giving parents the ability to opt more easily out of the public schools would improve the public schools' performance. Part of what has happened* is that many students whose parents are most likely to push them to achieve have left the district, leaving us with students whose parents are more likely to come to school to beat up other kids, if they come at all. Anyone who said that reducing the proportion of students with highly involved parents would make MPS better was either lying to themselves or to us.

MPS has been pushed--if not by vouchers specifically, then by desperation and need generally--to offer hundreds of different, often innovative programs for parents to choose from. But so what if the challenges that plague us as a city (not as a school district) don't get addressed? I don't care if I'm in an innovative school or in a traditonal one, this much is true: If just a few more of my students in any given class could have the kind of parental backing that is so important to student success, the culture and climate of my classes and the school could change in a positive direction.

The voucher program made that less likely, and look at where it has left Milwaukee.

* A significant other part of what has happened is that parents who would have chosen--and often did choose--religious schools anyway regardless of the availability of vouchers are now doing so with taxpayer money.

Paul Cesarz, Walker's Mini-Me

by capper

County Board Supervisor Paul Cesarz was elected during the first pension scandal. He was the one of the candidates that received backing from CRG (Corrupt Republican Goobers). He has a long history of backing all of Walker's inept decisions and schemes.

Now, you can almost make out Walker's hand going up Cesarz's backside as he comes out with his latest proposal as outlined in JSOnline's Newswatch. Cesarz is proposing to sell part of O'Donnell Park, and using the money from the sale to support the parks. That is kind of like selling the tires off your car to pay for an engine tune up.

Of course, Walker is supporting this maneuver. But this is the same guy that wants to all but give away a good chunk of the county grounds where the greenhouses are, to accompany all the rest of the county grounds which he has already sold off.

Walker's and Mini-Me's rationale for this is to boost the declining public funding that the parks are receiving. Apparently, they are hoping no one notices that they were the ones that have been continuously slashing the funding to the parks in the first place. Or that they were the ones that shot down three different referenda to propose ways to fund the parks.

Not only does Walker have to go, but he can take Mini-Me with him.

Additional reading

by folkbum

I've been working for the devil, too, remember? Here's two:

• License to . . . what, exactly?
• How do we pay teachers?

Comments are wide open there (but you have to register) or express your displeasure here.

Scott Walker delivers the outrage--misdirected at Lena Taylor!

by folkbum

Last night I offered space on this blog for Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker to blast the crafters of the most recent budget compromise (likely to be approved later today) because that budget does not include a "fix" to the Milwaukee school voucher program's "funding flaw." Walker has been using State Senator Lena Taylor's support of one particular fix (meaning she didn't introduce a different one) to claim Taylor wants to screw Milwaukee somehow. (In the process, he's just being a big fat liar.)

When I wrote that last night, I noted that the (non?) campaign Walker Weekly would be hitting inboxes overnight, and maybe Walker would have taken the opportunity to do exactly what I offered him space here to do. Well, the Walker Weekly showed up, and what do we get?

Last Monday, Senator Lena Taylor voted for a budget that was bad for taxpayers, bad for the City of Milwaukee, and bad for Milwaukee County. Scott pushed for a NO vote - as did Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. Still, Senator Taylor sided with Madison-interests before thinking about Milwaukee.

That's so laughable! Taylor has consistently supported measures aimed at helping Milwaukee and bringing more funds into Milwaukee for property tax relief throughout this budget process. She did so on the Joint Finance Committee, did so in the Senate's version of the budget. Republicans in both houses, but mostly the Assembly, advanced budgets and budget ideas that cut the state's support of Milwaukee and other Democratic areas back to bare bones. The Senate and the JFC (without a single GOP vote, mind you) included specific and directed property tax relief for this city. The Assembly had nothing.

Continuing to vote no on these budgets, as Scott Walker's former colleagues in the Republican-controlled Assembly have done (and which many will likely do today), would mean that Milwaukee property taxes would shoot up considerably to make up for what the state would not be providing in shared revenue, school aids, and other funds. Getting the budget done will keep Milwaukee property taxes lower, period--and Lena Taylor supports doing exactly that.

LATE UPDATE: From Taylor's press release about the budget, just for contrast:

Taylor noted that the budget agreement will provide child care options for low income families, grants for community policing and drug treatment, and over $17 million in high-poverty aid to the Milwaukee Public School System. It also includes over a million dollars for the youth apprenticeship program, and a guarantee of health care coverage to all Wisconsin kids.

“For the last year my colleagues and I have been fighting for these funds in the Joint Finance Committee and on the floor of the State Senate,” continued Taylor. “I’m proud that our efforts have yielded the results our community deserves.”

Taylor was particularly pleased by the strong support the budget shows for education around the state. In addition to the poverty aid, MPS schools will receive $10 million in math and science achievement grants, aimed at narrowing the achievement gap. The compromise also contains increases in financial aid for college, millions of dollars in research support for UWM, and funding for the beginning stages of a UWM School of Public Health.

Taylor also believes that the budget will give a much needed boost to the Milwaukee County Transit System (MCTS). In additional [sic] to an overall increase of 2.5% to transit aids, Taylor proposed a several-million dollar increase to the MCTS to avert potential service reductions and route cancellations. That proposal ultimately found its way into the Senate version of the bill, and finally the compromise version that passed the conference committee.

For these and other reasons, Sen. Taylor said she would be supporting the budget compromise today, and urged her colleagues to do the same.

“Certainly, there are some parts of this deal that I am disappointed about – especially the cuts to courts and shared revenue for our city,” concluded Taylor. “However, now is the time to pass a budget and move our community forward – this compromise does both."

Remember, apparently Scott Walker wants a no vote on this bill.