The Powerful Poor

By Keith R. Schmitz

One of the cherished myths of the sullen and resentful on the right is that programs such as the Community Reinvestment Act caused the housing crisis. Fed chair Ben Bernanke ain't buying it.

Fixing the Internets

by folkbum

Woman pleads guilty to election registration fraud
By Larry Sandler

Feb. 26, 2009 12:50 p.m. | A Milwaukee woman has pleaded guilty to election fraud for submitting dozens of fake names and addresses to city election officials the Community Voters Project, which turned her and the evidence over to the D.A. during a voter registration drive.

The hard work of fixing the internets will, apparently, continue indefinitely.

Compromise Suggestion on Taxes

Keith R. Schmitz

Many GOP critics accuse the Democrats of taking the African-American vote for granted. 

I think the same is true the other way around when it comes to small business. The GOP IS the party of big business, and if they were sincere about small business they would advocate better anti-trust enforcement, serious solutions to healthcare and administration of the Small Business Administration to help small business. 

A good example is the GOP's willingness to let the Big Three automakers go into bankruptcy, delivering collateral hits to their small business suppliers. As a small business, the GOP certainly does not speak for me.

As usual they are holding small business hostage when it comes to our economic turnaround. The point being made is that if taxes are increased on those making over $250,000 year would be a hit to small businesses. 

My good friend on the right Mike Frederick pointed out in the NY Times last week that he would have less money to plow back into the business if his taxes are raised. Though I dispute that only a minority of small business people are any where near $250M per year, point taken.

Actually the solution could be rather simple. Why not design a credit for someone who owns a small business based on their number of employees. As usual, some will find ways to fake their way around it, but audits could extract the fakers.

Wooldridge Brothers: Days Went Around

by folkbum

Once again, I marvel at the Power of the Blog™. It only took six years of blogging, but I have finally found myself on the receiving end of that mythical Free Stuff, and no doubt now that the floodgates are open, I will be deluged with books and CDs and so forth. Any minute now.

What broke open the floodgates is the excellent new CD by the Wooldridge Brothers (web, myspace), a pair with strong Milwaukee roots and a definite midwestern sensibility in how they roll. Days Went Around is a fun romp, and worth a listen.

The CD opens with "Thumbs," an upbeat number that draws a pretty clear line between the txt generation and us normal people. "It's a new day/ in a new age/ and I'm lost," it begins, and includes the very important declaration, "When you say I luv U/ please spell it right." The theme kind of comes back a couple of tracks later in "Connecting to Aphrodite," a short Elvis Costello-y tune about a guy "looking for Nirvana in a plastic box."

Other standout tracks include "Hey," which showcases Scott Wooldridge's piano playing; and "Coffee Spoons," which borrows a line from TS Eliot and wraps it in a new clever lyric and some of Brian Wooldridge's jangly guitar. "This Rain" is probably my favorite, though--a near-perfect 3-minute pop song with a catchy melody and a classic play-out fade.

The Brothers have, as I mentioned, Milwaukee roots, going all the way back to the Squares, a band some of you probably remember from the 1980s and 1990s (they were before my time in town), and there are some familiar names in the credits, even to a guy like me only peripherally connected to the local music scene. The CD was mostly recorded with Ric Probst, who recorded Peter Mulvey's last album. One song was recorded with Jon Leubner, who is the engineer of choice for a number of my friends, including the Moxie Chicks. melaniejane makes an appearance on cello.

The Wooldridge Brothers have a Milwaukee CD-release show at Turner Hall on March 6. Sadly, I'll be down the road at the John Prine show (working on that project of People To See Live Before They Die), but you could do a lot worse on a Friday night than go check out the Wooldridge Brothers' show.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

by bert

In these tough times we’re in right now, I think it’s important to just stop and laugh once in a while.

Take what was going on yesterday. From what I could tell, there were a lot of folks in a bad mood. And the problem was poor people.

The most visible face of the day was this guy Rick Santelli on CNBC. The constantly replayed video clip showed him clearly upset and calling the people in financial trouble “losers.” Santelli led the commodity-trader guys standing around him to boo bitterly when he mentioned “the neighbors that can’t pay their bills.”

Charlie Sykes clearly relished this clip and ran it first thing on his radio show Friday. Like a bass plug at dusk, this clip lured callers to Charlie, people from places like Fox Point, who were audibly angry at those other people not paying their mortgages. Sykes, while himself using the term “deadbeats,” did something funny when he injected parenthetically like audio fine print that not everyone in financial trouble was to blame. And he mentioned unscrupulous lenders.

What’s funny is Sykes didn’t give examples of those unscrupulous lenders. God forbid he'd take calls on the topic. He could have mentioned Countrywide Financial for instance, which just this week settled a lawsuit brought by Wisconsin, one of many states suing the company for deceiving those customers who got mortgages through them.

What’s also funny is that Countrywide was not too long ago a heavy advertiser on Charlie’s WTMJ radio station. Remember hearing their commercials on the radio all the time? Countrywide used those WTMJ airwaves to promote refinancing and purchasing of homes.

Friday those same airwaves were deftly maneuvered by Charlie to paint a picture of a country, the United States, that sickens him and his callers, that is infested with losers and deadbeats. Rush Limbaugh likes to call them “human debris”. Jay Weber over on AM-WISN prefers “scumbags.”

Let's remember, the right wing has always been defined by the contempt and fear it feels toward poor people. They really like Ayn Rand. And now they really like Rick Santelli. But it is rich that they pick this precise moment to pull out and polish up this tired “hate-the-poor” thing and take it for yet another spin.

We all know which side plays for keeps when it comes to class warfare. They've got their Bernie Madoff, Allen Standford, and John Thane of Merrill Lynch with the $35,000 commode. If you heard about the shenanigans at World Bank on "60 Minutes" last Sunday, you know how these lenders were operating. Like Digby said, no one was holding a gun to these guys' heads to make loans.

But, isn't it absurd that in the midst of these salvos of cheating, robbing, deception, and greed that yesterday all their broadcasters were in effect bursting in to the other side's infirmary and wagging their finger at those on the gurneys?

The only proper response is just to stop, think about it, and laugh.

Tom McMahon Goes NY Postal

By Keith R. Schmitz

The local right wing regards feels Tom McMahon is cute and clever.

There is that cutesy picture of him on the site with what looks to be an ice bucket on his head.

Then there are his too clever by half four block presentations, simple minded statements of complex issues that conservatives can understand and love. It has been tempting to parody them.

You don't have to dig too deep to see the hidden meanness and this disgusting post drops the mask.

It's a comparison of OJ and the President.

Two legs good. Four legs bad. GOP "Consistency" on Deficits

By Keith R. Schmitz

Why are the only hard news interviews seemingly on the Daily Show?

The other night Jon Stewart put New Hampshire Senator John Sununu on the griddle over the new found GOP religion on deficits (emphasis mine).

Stewart: I'm not an economist, but let's say I start out with a surplus and I say lets have a tax cut to stimulate the economy, lets make it 1.2 trillion dollars and that surplus turns into a deficit. Why would I at that point go, hey you know what could fix that? A tax cut.

This GOP view seems to change with administrations, and as usual right wing talk radio carries the water.

Remembering back a few years ago a combination of boredom and lack of knowledge about my high blood pressure led me to tune in Mark Belling one afternoon during the Bush administration. He was challenging his listeners to come up with a reason why deficits were bad. Since he was not exactly broadcasting to the Wharton School of Business no answers were forthcoming.

It occurred to me that rewinding to the early years of Bill Clinton when again I was bored and not knowledgeable about high blood pressure Belling was then exhibiting his brand of mental unhinging on deficits.

Clinton goes on to build that surplus $1.2 trillion surplus, despite his "distractions" and GOP railing about "tax and spend" Democrats.

Now rather than tax cuts for the wealthy and a boneheaded invasion of Iraq to bequeath to our grandchildren there is deficit spending intended to help out our economy and average people. GOP defines these deficits as wasteful.

Two legs good. Four legs bad.

Maybe the GOP should change their web site URL address to Expediency.com.

Update: F. Jim proves more of the above point. Someone please explain (and I'm sure someone will) why blowing money out of a confetti cannon at the Defense Department does not constitute reckless spending?

Maybe that needs to change, then

by folkbum

Power of the blog! Ask a question:

Why isn't Bob Donovan running for school board?

And get an answer:

Milwaukee's City Charter prohibits an elected official from seeking an additional elected office. Believe me, I looked into the possibility.

Alderman Donovan
Alderman Robert Donovan | 02.19.09 - 9:28 am | #

Given the frequency with which it happens all over the state that folks hold two elected offices at a time, it never occurred to me that Milwaukee would have a prohibition against such a thing. It seems like an unwarranted and unreasonable restriction to me.

Reminders

by folkbum

A reminder that the Wispolitics Budget Blog is indespensable indispensable this time of year.

A reminder of just how close we came to disaster.

A reminder of the Really Big Show Saturday night. You'll be there, right?

A reminder that Mathias, Evers, and Abrahamson need your help now that the primary is over.

A reminder for reader Andy that he doesn't need to spend $3000 on appliances. (I got my first dishwasher for $10, if I remember correctly.)

A reminder to commenters here: I have never banned anyone only banned one person from this site. Ever. In six years. But if your comments have a very high profanity-and-insult-to-content ratio, you'll be gone. That is all. (This item updated.)

Saddle Sore

By Keith R. Schmitz

Once again another Republican gets the wrists slapped for unauthorized music use.

This time it is GOP Congressional Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA), the southern version of Pompadour Paul Ryan.

Cantor released a music video last week using Aerosmith's "Back in the Saddle" to definitively announce "The House GOP is back" because of his party's unanimous opposition to the stimulus.

Cantor's clip has since been pulled from YouTube after a copyright infringement claim filed by Stage Three Music, which owns the rights to the song.

This of course, is not the first time off the GOP being too clever by half and paying for it. If you recall last year the Wilson sisters got ticked when Sarah Palin used Barracuda at rallies. There are many other instances.

For a party that prides itself on being business experts, they seem to know precious little about copyright laws.

Why isn't Bob Donovan running for School Board?

by folkbum

I'm serious. Milwaukee Alderman Bob Donovan seems hell-bent on remaking the Milwaukee Public schools in his own tough-guy image, and yet he's not taking advantage of the opportunity that exists right now for him to put himself in a position to change the schools.

The Milwaukee Board of School Directors is a part-time gig, and plenty of other people do it while holding down a steady job. The seat where he lives is up this year. He obviously has the support of a lot of people in his district, and experience campaigning. If he were to win, then he would be able easily to introduce whatever resolutions he wants to change whatever schools he wants through the channels that already exist instead of trying to weasel his way in through the mayor or the governor or some other entity that actually has no control over the local schools.

In other words, he needs to stop trying to bully the district; he needs to put his money where his mouth is and run.

In the meantime, we all have to wonder exactly what's going through Donovan's head when he writes sentences like, "As it relates to MPS, the collective leadership in Milwaukee is, with few exceptions, the emperor who has no clothes, naked before us and revealing nothing but shortcomings." I, for one, have never imagined the, um, shortcomings of Milwaukee's leaders. But whatever, Bob. I await tomorrow's press release.

Shovel Ready Nonsense -- State of the County

By Keith R. Schmitz

Many others have feasted on pieces on this turkey known as Scott Walker's state of the county speech, due in part because all you need to know about this candidate for governor is right here.

Essentially, while others a pursuing nuclear physics in terms of economic, the County Executive is practicing alchemy. The mantra of tax cuts proves the observation that when you are a hammer the world looks like nails.

Here we have as a major emphasis of the speech his fantasy plan for a sales tax holiday. Yet he brags about the bond rating for the county versus that of the state.

So how can he propose lopping off a major source of revenue, with no suggestion of where the money is going to come from to make up the gap? Certainly the proposal from some that the state pass combined reporting for corporations as an offset will not be in Walker's quiver.

Also disturbing is asking county workers to bear the burden of "streamlining" government through job cuts and "reforms" in collective bargaining. With consumer spending making up 70% of our economy it is hard to see how emulating the private sector's means of first resort will help improve this economy.

Usually in deep recessions such as this one you see governments being a means of putting people back to work. I know Walker wants to substitute county workers with private sector employees, but these positions will no doubt be underpaid with few or no benefits.

We did tax cuts for the past 30 years and they have flunked the audition. Stagnant middle class growth, America falling behind in health and education in a highly competitive world, crumbling infrastructure; all have been a result of "starving the beast." We have instead starved the best.

If this stimulus is done right, emphasizing "done right," we stand the chance of not only turning this economy around but also shrinking the deficit through a growing economy. But not doing a stimulus, which features government investment in our economy, ensures we can expect to head towards a depression.

Vote Today

by folkbum

It's primary day for the spring non-partisan elections. Your humble folkbum recommends the following candidates:

State Superintendent: Tony Evers
Milwaukee County Circuit Court: JD Watts
Milwaukee Board of School Directors, District 4: Michael Mathias
Milwaukee Board of School Directors, District 7: Felicia Owen

Update: Finally, I'm number one at something!

Sykes and Selective Outrage, pt. XVIII

by bert
It's fair enough that Charlie is going after the state and its lavish $4.6 million in state aid that it gave to the crew that filmed "Public Enemy" around Wisconsin. Charlie called this "corporate welfare on steroids." Mention of steroids turns my mind immediately to baseball. And now that I mention it, I don't recall Sykes' show opening up with both barrels about the taxpayer money going for Miller Park, even though the sales tax revenue going to the stadium exceeded $26 million last year alone. And what was that bailout money on that went to Associated Bank?

Presidents' Day Thread

by folkbum

Valentine's Day Massacre

by folkbum

I've had a horrible winter, health-wise, and I've basically been sick in one way or another since, like, October. The latest round has been a chest-rattling, throat-mauling, soul-crushing cough thing. When I saw my doc two weeks ago, he and I commiserated as it seemed he had a similar bug, so he put me on the same antibiotics he was on and told me I should feel better soon. (Didn't happen.)m But since this was not the first time I'd had the bone-wracking cough this winter, he sent me for a chest x-ray. That's how bad I've had it.

When I saw the doc again on Friday, he said he was still feeling miserable, still coughing, still hurting, and the chest x-ray he'd had done for himself was, like mine, normal. We laughed a bit at the coincidence of having the same course of the disease--laughing which then led to coughing, which was kind of pathetic there in the exam room--and he put me on new meds that he said were helping his cough feel better.

And then he said he had sent out a pertussis test on himself--freakin' whooping cough--because he didn't know what else could be causing the symptoms he and I had. He didn't have the results yet.

Anyway, Saturday, the massacre. I'm still feeling miserable, coughing, and not sleeping well because the new meds are giving me nightmares--serious wake up heart-pounding freak-out nightmares. And I have a coughing fit that wrenches my back. I am afraid it has re-aggravated my herniated disc. I'm sitting up to type this, but it's the first time I've been anything but fully horizontal in about 18 hours.

And I'm still coughing every few minutes.

Just thought you should know.

Just For the Record . . .

by bert
Here was Ralph from Delafield, a caller to Jay Weber's radio show, which was this morning about how the left will soon silence all communications from conservatives, and from Juan Williams too:

"You can’t say I’m not a crackpot, and neither are you [literal transcript, swear to God], but you know, they’re really playing with fire. They really, really are. They’re getting very, very close to inciting a very violent counter-revolution. The thing about conservatives, we are out here, and we are armed."

Jay, very amiably, then added that he has been getting lots of emails with a similar message about a coming revolution.

I'll give him an award, all right

by folkbum

This is currently the frontrunner for this year's Most Dickish Passage in a Daily Newspaper:

Sunday's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel proudly touts a big story and photo of the paper's editor winning an award from some magazine[*] for "editor of the year." It's similar to the paper's now months-long touting on page one of winning a Pulitzer Prize. Earth to Fourth and State: nobody cares. You may get all goosebumpy that the fellow members of your dying industry think you're great, but none of your readers care.

A few years ago I won the supposedly prestigious "Marconi" award for being the best medium market radio personality in America. I didn't show up for the award ceremony. I still have a tape of the guy reading my name and then looking around the banquet room in amazement that I wasn't there to bask in the "glory." They sent me the Marconi. I have since dropped it and there's a chip in it. It's sitting on my bedroom dresser with more dust on it than most mops.

Get it? I'm going to rub it in in my newspaper column that I won an award that I was too good for to point out that the newspaper industry is dying you stupid liberal fools. Now if you'll excuse me, I'd like to go back to watching the tape of the awards ceremony, which works much better than porn for me. What a wanker.

* The "some magazine" was Editor & Publisher, the industry bible. What a wanker.

Happy Darwin Day

by folkbum

Prediction: The creationist right will be furious that Google's doodle is honoring Darwin's 200th but snubbing "Reagan Day" earlier this month. Discuss.

LUNCHTIME UPDATE: Apparently, Kevin Binversie, determined to drive me some traffic today ([JOKE REDACTED BY YOUR HOST TO SATISFY THE HUMORLESS GOOGLE MACHINE) has taken offense that Google is not choosing to honor Abraham Lincoln on a day other than the one that by law we actually honor Lincoln on.

Lunchtime Aside: Should we atheists petition to get the Friday before Presidents' Day declared a holiday, too, in Darwin's honor? Would people start liking us if we gave them a four-day weekend?

Bonus Round

By Keith R. Schmitz

For $350 billion dollars contestants, Congressman Barney Franks asks the titans of the financial world, "What is it you'd do differently if you didn't get a bonus?"

What a stumper.

Morgan Stanley's John Mack is the only one brave enough to hazard an answer. But all he offered was a brief historical digression about how the bonus system became established at investment banks.

Buzzzzz! Wrong answer.

Quizmaster Franks concludes -- "So if there were no bonuses, we'd still get our money's worth."

Actually did they even give us our money's worth?

One of the most laughable charges we liberals get when questioning outrageous CEO salaries compensation is that we are afflicted with jealousy.

No, just pragmatic. Equal laughable is the belief on the part of many on the right that minuscule taxation is necessary because someday they might possibly be pulling down these princely sums.

Is that kind of like suicide bombers believing they will be greeted in heaven by 72 virgins?