Let's go on Offense on Wiretapping

by Ben Masel

While I agree with Greenwald that the Democratic draft of the FISA Bill re-write is not bad, given that the last revision expires in February, it's worth slowing down and fighting for amendments which repair gaps in communiucations privacy which preceded the summer capitulation, notably with respect to location data collected by the cellular and other wireless providers.

Realtime location tracking was mandated by the "E-911" legislation of the late '90s, for use when YOU dialed 911 in an emergency, but as built out, the architecture knows your whereabouts any time the phone's powered to receive calls. More, a record is retained, and with the Statutes silent, some Courts have held you've waived any privacy in this data history by contracting with the carrier. The highest profile case of law enforcement access in Wisconsin was the election-morning tireslashing incident.

Representative Baldwin, has a key role, as she sits on both the Judiciary and Commerce Committees, both of which have jurisdiction, along with Intel. In prior conversations, she's expressed interest in legislating the location data, but I've yet to hear back on her interest in attaching the fix requiring the same level of warrant requirements as content interception to the pending Wiretap bill.

Please call to try and get Tammy, along with Gwen and Russ onboard. I'll be pitching Senator feingold at his listening session in Cross Plains Thursday. (2:45. Rosemary Garfoot Public Library, 2107 Julius Street)

Now We'll REALLY Have to Protect Great Lakes Water

By Keith Schmitz

Miller Brewing Co. and Coors Brewing of Golden, CO have announced a joint venture.

In related news, Coors has revealed they have made their nearly tasteless beer even lighter by discovering the means of removing the second hydrogen molecule in water.

McIlheran Watch: Pity the Poor, Poor Rich People, Part 11,278

by folkbum

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columninst/ blogger Patrick McIlheran, who is not one of the richest 1% of people in America, nonetheless seems more willing than necessary to take up rhetorical arms to defend the monied on a regular basis.

I've written about this before, repeatedly; that's because McIlheran pretty regularly trots out the old "rich people pay more than their fair share of taxes" baloney. For example, yesterday:

The richest 1% of American taxpayers--make that the top-earning 1%, since income and wealth aren't quite the same--are earning a greater share of all income than before. This upper crust is earning just over 21% of all income in 2005, the data the IRS just released, compared to about 19% the year before. [. . . .T]his top 1% is paying a bigger share of all federal income taxes: 39.4% in '05, compared to 36.9% the year before. [. . .]

And if they ["populist politicians"] want to talk about shifting more of the burden of government onto the very wealthy, they'll have to cope with the fact that the wealthy are already paying most of the freight.

Watch, then, for the left to make the point that it's really about reducing "inequality"--that if the economy insists on paying an ever higher premium for really top-notch talent, it's up to the government to knock the rich guys down a peg or two.

Only that's not an argument about taxes at all, then. It's about socioeconomic jihad.

Those conservatives--always willing to fight jihad!

Seriously, though, I don't dispute McIlheran's numbers. The problem is that he isn't giving you all of the numbers, just the ones designed to make you feel sad for all those poor, poor rich people paying all those horrible taxes. The numbers he cites include only the federal income tax. And any of you who have ever gotten a paycheck know that federal income tax is but one of the negative lines on your pay stub. When you factor in federal payroll taxes, you find that this "progressive" taxation system is really not so much (click for bigger image):

If you believed McIlheran, you would expect to see a giganticon spike at the right side of that graph, suggesting that the rich pay a much greater share of their income in taxes. But that graph shows no such thing. In fact, people earning between $50k and $75k pay a greater share of the income in federal taxes than people earning over $10m an equal share of their income as the top 400 taxpayers in the country (edited to correct for the fact that I can't read at 5 AM).

Kevin Drum, who whipped up that chart, has another (follow the "not so much" link above) that also includes state and local taxes, such as the property tax. He finds that the bottom 20% pays about 18% of their income in taxes overall, and the top 20% pays 19%. The middle 60% is still pretty flat--again, there is no giant spike of the kind McIlheran suggests you would see.

So, no, the lucky duckies who pay no federal income tax don't get off the hook so easily. And, no, the top 1% aren't being squeezed like so many wine grapes, either. So don't be jealous of the poor, and don't feel bad for the poor, poor rich people.

We Still Like Apple

by folkbum

A couple of people have wondered where the post Keith wrote last week about bad customer service from non-Apple vendors went. There's no conspiracy--just a miscommunication between me and Keith.

We like Apple--well, at least I do--and I've had plenty of good customer service experiences with Apple over the years. That includes everything from getting a brand-new iBook with little hassle and getting a MacBook Pro battery long after the battery warranty expired. Just because their customer service people do their jobs well.

We now return you to our regularly scheduled conservative-bashing.

George Bush Hates Taxpayers, Loves Deadbeats

by capper

Not only has George W. Bush proven himself to be absolutely incompetent at running a war, running a country, foreign policy and speaking English, he has added another nail to the coffin of the fallacy that he can do anything right fiscally or socially.

Bush slashed funds to child support enforcement in his Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. These cuts went into effect on October 1, 2007. There currently is a bill in the U.S. Senate, the Child Support Protection Act of 2007, which would, if passed, restore these funds.

What would it mean if the funding is not restored? According to the National Women's Law Center, in 2006, the child support program collected $24 billion for 17 million children-a fourth of the nation's children. For every 74 cents the federal government spent on the program, it collected $4.58 in private child support dollars. This is money that single parents, usually mothers, can use to provide for their children and raise their families out of poverty. It is also money that doesn't need to be spent in entitlement programs, such as welfare, Medicaid and food stamps.

Not only does this program collect child support from deadbeat parents, it helps impoverished and/or unskilled parents gain the skills necessary to attain and maintain viable employment so that they can help support their children.

So, if you would like Congress to exhibit uncommon common fiscal sensibility, contact your U.S. Senator and U.S. Congressman, and encourage them to pass the Child Support Protection Act. If you do, you'll have already done more than George Bush to make this country a better place.

Jay Bullock Gets One Wrong

by capper

Just three short months ago, when I was first entering and exploring the blogosphere, Jay was kind enough to invite me to join his cast of thousands and become a contributor to folkbum's. And I am grateful for the chance to express myself to an audience considerably larger than I would have had if I went off on my own. However, at the risk of appearing the ingrate, I have to point out an error, or at least a partial error, committed by my gracious host.

Last week, Jay wrote an eloquent piece about Lena Taylor's announcement that she is running for Milwaukee County Executive. This post was so well written that it was even listed in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Best of the Blogs in yesterday's paper. The part of the post that I found to be erroneous is:

I did not ask at the time, although it seems obvious now in retrospect: Where was Scott Walker on the Assembly GOP budget that treated Milwaukee County like a toilet? Should it not be the responsibility of the Milwaukee County Executive to stand up for the county that he theoretically represents? But Walker's silence on the Assembly budget was deafening. He could not bring himself to stand up to his former colleagues and do his job.

And if Scott Walker doesn't want to do his job, we should help him out of it.

While all of this is undeniably true, he has committed the error of omission.

Saturday's MSJ had an article about the county board preparing to contend with Walker's proposed budget. The article points out that Walker's budget is dependent on receiving $19 million in increased state aid that is included in the Governor Doyle's and the democratic Senate's version of the state budget, but is absent in the republican assembly's version. Walker is also hoping for quick approval for a borrowing plan, else his budget explodes like each and every one of his budgets for the past several years.

While Jay points out, accurately, that Walker is willfully failing to meet the basic responsibilities of his job, the one he ran for, was elected for and the one he took an oath to perform, Jay does come up a bit short of the mark. The MSJ article reports that not only has Walker failed to stand up for Milwaukee County, he has attacked those that want to help Milwaukee. It is hard to be persuasive when you are biting the hand that feeds you.

In other words, Walker is not only failing to faithfully represent Milwaukee County, but he is willfully sabotaging any effort to help the county out of the miasma he has created. Or to paraphrase County Board Supervisor Quindel, who is cited as saying, in a bit of an understatement, Walker is "not very politically astute".

But the one truth Jay did hit on the head is that Walker needs to be helped out of office.

Alberta Darling: Even I Don't Like The Job I've Done

by capper


As I had noted previously, in 1996, Alberta Darling, along with her fellow Republicans, at the marching orders of then-Governor Tommy Thompson added a clause to the budget bill, taking over the child welfare system in Milwaukee County. Their rationale was that, even though independent audits had shown the foster care system to be grossly underfunded, that they could do a better job at running the system than Milwaukee County had.

In 1998, the state took over, creating the Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare (BMCW) and began to privatize the system. By the end of 2001, they had it all but completely privatized, with contracts to no less than five different agencies. They also increased the budget for Milwaukee County's child welfare system by some $35 million. At that time, the standard payment to a foster parent of a child less than three years old was $292 per month.

In this morning's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, there is an article that reports the payment to foster parents has skyrocketed up to $317 per month. That is $25 per month, or a .o9% increase, in six years. Not exactly a great big lot of help.

Now, I will admit that I don't have children myself, but I did work in the child welfare system. I know that the cost to raise a child is pretty high. It becomes higher when the child has been abused and neglected, as that child will have some serious emotional and sometimes physical issues that need to be contended with. There is the need for special medical equipment, extra time is needed for meetings with social workers, attorneys, advocates, doctors and other professionals that would not be in the life of a healthy child, and there is the damage that can occur when an emotionally scarred child acts out.

And, based on conversations that I have had with people that are still working in the system, foster parents are not getting a lot of support from BMCW. Their requests for extra services are ignored, their complaints fall on deaf ears, and they are often left with an inexperienced worker, or no worker at all.

Foster parents do one of the hardest jobs in the world. They take in someone else's child that has been neglected, physically abused, and/or sexually abused, and they give it a loving home, nurturing and an affection that is totally alien to what they have had previously experienced. They don't do it for accolades, or money, or any reason other than they love children.

So, where is all that extra money going? Well, there is the administration of all these different agencies, and their own spending issues, including $9,000 for a conference table. There is also a faulty computer system, the lawsuits, and the ongoing internal audits done by the state to tell itself there are no problems, even though everyone else can see them. Oh, and there is the inefficiencies of the private agencies.

The article goes on to report that State Senator Alberta Darling, the same person who helped give birth to this monster, and is on the advisory board, which is supposed to be overseeing BMCW, due to all of its problems, takes this position:

Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills) says she supports that increase - and more in the future. "We are really significantly behind," she said. "We are spending millions and millions of dollars on foster care, and some of that needs to be directed toward foster parent reimbursement."

Darling, who is a member of the advisory group to the state-run Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare, added that the state needs to come up with a 10-year plan to "redirect some of the money going to the bureaucracy into direct service on the line to foster parents and kinship parents."

She admits that there are serious flaws that are ongoing in BMCW, which she helped to create, and is supposed to be overseeing. In other words, she admits that even she doesn't like the job she has been doing. It should only be a matter of time before she is wearing a "Sheldon Wasserman for State Senate" button.

Coming out Party

By Keith Schmitz

It is with no small matter of pride that I caught my daughter Elise's first piece as a Milwaukee Journal Community columnist in this morning's edition. Actually I had my eye on one of the columnist spots, but I was unable to find time to try out as I was a bit tied up with her sister's wedding (another liberal by the way who married a guy who grew up in the Canadian health care system. And yes, he loves it).

Elise's inaugural column was on Bush's veto of the bill funding the SCHIP program to provide health care to kids whose parents have trouble covering the medical expenses.

In this case veto #4 is where W has slowly drawn the veto pen across the throats of incumbent GOP members of the House who are in swing districts, unless of course they had the moral and political smarts to vote for the

Needless to say, like all good op-eds, it will delight some and upset others. Unlike say Jonah Goldberg, who has no real world experience though gets carried by a newspaper syndicate because like Mikey in the Life Commercial conservative readers will eat up everything that gets served to him, Elise knows what she's talking about:

Working for a company that administers government dental programs - including SCHIP - in states across the country, I may be viewed as biased. I say I have a unique understanding of not only how these programs work but the immense benefit they provide to children. Children who, through no fault of their own, have parents who can't afford private health insurance and children whose parents are responsible enough to seek help.

This is followed up with some Bush indictments laced with facts:

Bush had to drag the issue of socialized medicine into the mix. I don't see the correlation between socializing medicine and taking care of under- or non-insured kids. Even with SCHIP, there still are about 9 million American children without insurance, with about 88,000 in Wisconsin.

And she closes with a nice call to action:

It's up to members of Congress to step up and get the necessary votes to override Bush's veto. Let's hope they listen to their constituents and do the right thing.

Of course I'm looking forward to more of these. What father wouldn't. As she told the Journal when she submitted her entries, "in our family we follow politics the way other families follow sports."

Needless to say, Elise represents a demographic trend for her cohort. As Howard Dean pointed out at the YearlyKos conference back in August, in the 2006 election a large percentage of voters 18 to 30 years old have swung to the Democratic party.

Even young Evangelicals are turning their total attention away from gay bashing and abortion politics, and are becoming more concerned about the environment, economic fairness and Darfur. And at this age their voting pattern becomes set for life unless some very serious disruption takes place.

Bush's veto of SCHIP will only accelerate this process.

Racist Pig Cuts Down Mexican Flag

It came as no great surprise yesterday when a veterans’ e-mail newsletter that I receive boasted that an American believed he possessed the right to invade the private property of a Reno, Nevada tavern owned by a Mexican-American and cut down a Mexican flag flying above an American flag (pictured above).

According to WorldNetDaily.com: “After hearing a Reno bar was flying a Mexican flag above a U.S. flag, an angered U.S. Army veteran took matters into his own hands, drove to the site and cut down the banners in front of a stunned group of Hispanic patrons.”

The bigot in question identified himself as one “Jim Broussard,” according to WorldNetDaily.com (smoke weed before visiting the site).

WorldNetDaily.com quotes Broussard:

"I'm Jim Broussard, and I took this flag down in honor of my country with … a knife from the United States Army. … I'm a veteran; I'm not going to see this done to my country. If they want to fight us, then they need to be men, and they need to come and fight us. But I want somebody to fight me for this flag. They're not going to get it back. … I was immediately infuriated and felt a duty to do something about it. I feel there's a lot of this turning-our-heads-on-things in concern with the Hispanic community and the things they do. They seem impervious to our laws in a lot of situations."

Guess what Broussard, we are they.

I’ve had my dealings with the likes of racists like Jim Broussard before and they share several traits: Ignorance, hate, cowardice, and a sociopathic sense of entitlement to inflict their authoritarian, sick vision of White America rules!

My ethnic heritage is Irish-Mexican.

The Mexican part comes from my father who hails from Aurora, Illinois.

And I have been both the recipient of oral history and eyewitness experience in seeing how Mexican-Americans handle the likes of the bigoted Jim Broussard.

Put it this way, it’s direct and confrontational. And Jim Broussard and his pathetic moment of racist pride would not win the day were he to attempt to pull this crap in a Mexican bar in Aurora.

The SOB would have an even worse time in an Irish bar.

In May last year, I was privileged to attend a ceremony (covered well in the Chicago Tribune) in Aurora honoring a relative who was a pioneering Hispanic police officer and listen to his daughter who ridiculed the racists (after all we are all “spics,” as the bigots say) as the fools that all racists are.

There is a report that the Hispanic community in Reno is considering legal and political action against Broussard.

That’s a good idea. Brother Jesse and Brother Al, I think we may just need you really soon over in Reno.

###

The yarmulke as sports apparel?

by bert

Is this funny or yet another bad idea from a radio PR genius?

What makes this event different from all others is that a “Braun for Rookie of the Year” yarmulke is required for admission. The yarmulkes are only available on air nd on site at Milwaukee’s ESPN Radio events.

UPDATE: Boston is already all over this trend:

Fans wore team jerseys and paint on their faces. Young fan Joey Hasson, with his Brookline High School classmate Joe Schacht, showed his pride by wearing a Red Sox team-logo yarmulke.
"I got it from Israel," said Hasson, who added that he hoped the Red Sox players would sign it.
"I had one, too," said Schacht, who wore a more conventional Boston baseball cap. "I lost it."

Howl Against Censorship, Howl, 50 Years Later

As we fight in this period of American repression, it's nice to mark a victory 50 years of ago when Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Allen Ginsberg won their victory to publish Howl, a passionate, good-humored, angry cry for love and justice.

Via Pacifica radio:

Fifty years ago, on October 3, Judge Clayton Horn ruled that Allen Ginsberg's great epic Beat-era poem HOWL was not obscene but instead, a work of literary and social merit. This ruling allowed for the publication of HOWL and exonerated the
poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who faced jail time and a fine 50 years ago for publishing "HOWL."

This is great program; following is an audio link to the special Pacifica special: Howl, 50 Years Later (includes Jan. 1959 reading by Ginsberg) and a conversation with Lawrence Ferlinghetti, among other wonderful people.

- HOWL (link to text)

HOWL
For Carl Solomon

###

Lena Taylor for Milwaukee County Executive

by folkbum

Joe Klein finally has a challenger in his race for County Executive, and it's State Senator Lena Taylor:

Following weeks of speculation, state Sen. Lena Taylor announced today she planned to run for Milwaukee County executive next spring "to restore balance integrity and fiscal accountability." "It's time for a higher degree of leadership and a new direction," Taylor, 41, said in a prepared statement.

There is some possibility--even though he promised he wouldn't--that incumbent Scott Walker may eventually join the race. But we'll have to wait and see about that.

Taylor has been working hard to establish a reputation as someone who will fight, unashamedly, for Milwaukee County. I wrote this recently:

Lena Taylor was perhaps the most fiery. [. . .] She, like Colón, had a lot of raw passion and, frankly, anger about the way the budget process has gone and what the Assembly GOP is trying to do to Milwaukee. She flat-out called Republican Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch "an a-hole" (she used the euphemism, that's not me cleaning it up) and at one point stood up to emphasize her points.

In particular, she was angry about the way the GOP budgets targets areas of the state that voted for Jim Doyle: Milwaukee, Beloit, Racine, and Superior. It was in that context--especially complaining about cuts in shared revenue aimed at those cities--that the "a-hole" comment flew. She was furious about the bait-and-switch Republicans pulled on MPS funding, about Republicans' provision limiting how many ballots Milwaukee County could print for elections, about the short-sighted nature of the cuts to MATC and UW. "If they [the Republicans] don't like what you're doing, they will punish you," she said.

I did not ask at the time, although it seems obvious now in retrospect: Where was Scott Walker on the Assembly GOP budget that treated Milwaukee County like a toilet? Should it not be the responsibility of the Milwaukee County Executive to stand up for the county that he theoretically represents? But Wallker's silence on the Assembly budget was deafening. He could not bring himself to stand up to his former colleagues and do his job.

And if Scott Walker doesn't want to do his job, we should help him out of it.

Cause and Effect?

by folkbum

Cause:

I was offered a spot under the aegis of jsonline to do some writing about issues in education and reform--stuff I find interesting but never get around to writing about here.

Effect:

Journal Sentinel looks to reduce staff

Journal Sentinel Inc. said today it is offering employee buyouts in the hope of reducing its workforce by 35 to 50 people.

The company said if not enough employees take the offer, an "involuntary program" will be considered.

Well . . . probably not.

WTMJ and the crusade against Miller

by bert

I have only heard enough from talk radio while driving around this week to know that Miller Brewing threatens Christianity.

The San Francisco poster promoting a gay festival that had Miller's logo would in fact offend Christians. I agree. But, as others have said, many gays are as anti-Christian as many Christians are anti-gay. This poster is called pushing buttons.

But Charlie Sykes plays into their ploy, mounting a crusade against Miller Brewing. He and his station mean business too, using their airwaves to encourage beer drinkers to not buy Miller. Although the brewery has backtracked plenty, Charlie continued to attack as of today.

That's selfless of Charlie to air all those callers who swore they'll never again drink Miller, hey? After all, he markets wine as a sideline, and looks to be a chardoney drinker. Maybe, once in a while on game day, he'll slum it and crack open a Zima.

Still, Miller is a Milwaukee institution. So Charlie is righteous and wreckless for taking them on. A man of principle, to h-e-doubletoothpicks with the consequences.

But here's where I need help from other listeners who've heard more than me of AM radio this week. Could you write in and let me know when Charlie and others explained that WTMJ is henceforth refusing to accept advertising from Miller? Isn't a radio boycott of Miller advertising revenue called for here? You know, to save Christianity and stuff.

Hillary Clinton Supports Resolution Prohibiting Funding for Military Action Against Iran

by Michael A. Leon

Hillary has taken a stand against the crazies on Iran, like that looney Lieberman neocon.

From Steve Clemons:

There is breaking news via Taylor Marsh that Hillary Clinton will support Senator Webb's Resolution demanding that the President seek Congressional approval before any military action against Iran and prohibiting the use of funds for military operations in Iran. This is significant news because while Hillary Clinton did support the Kyl-Lieberman Resolution calling for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard to be formally labeled a terrorist organization -- and thus providing the President with a potential back door Congressional authorization for yet another war in the Middle East -- her opposition to White House military action against Iran without Congress's sign off cuts a different and healthy direction.

Good for you, Hillary. [On a personal note, I just got done blasting you on the issue elsewhere, and am incorrect in my assessment.]

Below are links to a sample of pieces around the world on various aspects of the war president's next catastrophe.

- The Independent: US plan for air strikes on Iran 'backed by Brown'

- The Telegraph: Neocons seek to justify action against Teheran

- The Mail: I hate all Iranians, US aide tells MPs

- The Guardian: Bolton calls for bombing of Iran

- The New Yorker: Shifting Targets, The Administration’s plan for Iran

- Der Spiegel: 'The President Has Accepted Ethnic Cleansing'

- The Boston Globe: History and the drumbeat of war

Update: Madison, Oct. 20, Saturday, 11:00 AM-Noon; Peace Vigils At the Malls: West Towne Mall
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More On Walker's Proposed Budget

by capper

I was going to stop writing about Walker and his proposed budget for a while. Even I am getting tired of it, and I do have other interests in life. But then three things came to my attention this evening, and I had to give up my short hiatus.

One was that there are at least two entities, besides his usual cheerleaders, that are all for Walker's proposed budget. One is the Wisconsin Lutheran College. In 2003, Walker sold 25 acres of county land to WLC, with an option to buy almost another 9 acres, if the county vacated the greenhouses which stand on the land. If purchased within five years of the original deal, WLC would pay $100, 000 per acre. If between five and ten years, it would be sold at the appraised value at the time of the sale. As you can guess, Walker has it in his budget this year.

Not a bad deal right? But part of the agreement is that the county is responsible for the cost of demolishing the 30,000 square feet of greenhouses and abatement of any hazard materials. He also has a plan to build a 7,500 square foot greenhouse on the grounds of the Domes, at the price tag of $1,470,246. This plan would also force the county to purchase the flowers and plants it can no longer grow due to the loss of all that square footage. Perhaps he knows a landscaper that might be willing to work with him on this? That person would probably enjoy this budget as well.

Then I saw this. He brags about funding the deputies to patrol the lakefront and the buses, pointing out how it adds to the county's safety, which is true. But it takes audacity to take credit for restoring what shouldn't have been cut in the first place, but that politics for you. He also brags of the affordability of his plan, pointing out how much in taxes the county taxpayer was "saved" in the past five years, but does not mention the huge bills that are waiting in the forms of shorted payments to the pension fund, the lawsuits, and the cost of finally cleaning up the mess he made.

The funniest was when he spoke about the pride that he is bringing to Milwaukee County. Yeah, right. These people look real happy and proud of his transit plans. And we've already seen the beauty of the parks.

But all is not doom and gloom. Hope is just around the corner!

Now, maybe, I can move on to something else.

Too much awesomeness for one blog

by folkbum

Okay, now that the cat is fully out of the bag, I think it's important that everyone knows exactly what the cat looks like. A while back, I saw a "Wanna Writa Blog?" link on the jsonline Education page, and filled out the form. I was offered a spot under the aegis of jsonline to do some writing about issues in education and reform--stuff I find interesting but never get around to writing about here at what has really become a state-and-local political blog. I'm not giving up this fort, and I only expect to have the fort at jsonline for basically this school year. A new stable of community bloggers will likely rise to vanquish us in time. I'm still writing for the Bay View Compass (which is still not quite online--I think they would take volunteers if you're into that sort of thing), and I still have the day job.

Laura Thompson, who's heading up the Education@JSOnline stuff, has a blog post up today explaining the whole deal and introducing all of us. You can find us in the "Community Bloggers" pull-down menu here for future reference.

I keep thinking that someday I will be able to parlay this blogging thing into something profitable. It's not today. But someday.

Oh, and

by folkbum

I've sold out.

Where Have I Been?

by folkbum

This is my blog. I really ought to be writing on it, no?

Well, let me just say this: I never, ever blog about "work." There are privacy issues and the intense need not to get fired, among other things going on around that decision.

But this week has been tough for me, both in not crossing that line and in keeping the job. This week is the first week in many years of teaching when I have really, seriously thought about not doing it any more. I have always maintained that as long as the rewards outpaced the challenge, it would be worth it. But this week has put that to the test.

I wish I could say more--and, maybe one day, I will--but that is all.

Walker's Budget Proposal

by capper

Well, Walker has done his trick with smoke and mirrors, and has come out with his 2008 proposed budget. It is pretty much as bad as expected, with some nasty twists, and at least one pleasant surprise. Here are some of the highlights:

SIDENOTE: I seemed to have failed to properly link the pdf's for each of the following sections. To see these for yourself, please go to the above link, and then click on the appropriate department to see Walker's proposal's for that department. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Transportation

As expected, Walker does a royal pooch on the transit system. He cuts routes, cuts back on Paratransit services and increases fees. I could live with the 25 cent raise for regular fares, but to stick it to the elderly and the disabled, who are lucky to have $80 a month in spending money is unforgivable. How could Walker look at these people and say, "Too bad for you that you'll lose your independence and quality of life, but my base needs those few bucks to gas up their Hummers"?

And how is he promoting economic growth in Milwaukee when he is making it harder for people to even catch a bus to get to work? Here's a hint: He's not.

Parks

As mentioned previously, Walker must not like nature, or the thought of people having a public place for people to enjoy it. He wants to abolish 81 positions of experienced parks worker positions, 50 of which are filled, so that he can hire a bunch of seasonal and temporary workers. Most people who use the parks on a regular basis, from picnic enjoyers to softball players have seen how the parks are deteriorating in front of their eyes. That would be fine if the responsibilities were only cutting grass, stacking picnic tables or other mundane tasks, but there is so much more to maintaining the parks and the buildings. Only Walker and his supporters would think that it would be more efficient to have 1.5 seasonal workers without experience or institutional knowledge attempt to do a job rather than have one person who knows what to do and gets the job done. Guess we can get used to more scenes like these.

Sheriff's Office/House of Corrections

This area is a mixed bag. Walker is proposing to maintain the specialized unit that is to patrol the parks, the lakefront and during the off-season, the buses. But I find it hard to praise him for this, as that he was the one that originally defunded these patrols. That is like praising someone for cleaning up the mess that they intentionally caused.

But even if one was prone to praise Walker for doing this, he takes away any benefits by making the county more unsafe. First he wants to close the Community Correctional Center, and place all the inmates currently on Huber, and give them GPS tracking devices. He rationalizes this as being money saving and that criminals don't need to be locked up at night. Ask any cop and they would tell you the time of the highest amount of crime is in the evening and at night, when these prisoners would have been behind bars.

In another matter, he wants to have a private agency transport prisoners around, instead of using deputies, you know, like in real law enforcement officers. Think about it. Who would you want to be in charge of a bus full of inmates going to or from court, going to prison, or on medical appointments, a armed, trained deputy or a rent-a-cop from an agency that gave the lowest bid?

And to top it off, despite public coverage of the dangerous situation that is currently happening at the House of Correction due to overpopulation and understaffing, and the fact that overtime at the HOC is through the roof, Walker wants to abolish 37 correction officer positions.

Mental Health Services

This is the area that Walker might have done the best in, but it still needs a very strong caveat.
Walker commendably wants to initiate a massive increase in housing for the mentally ill, but it is not clear how these new housing units would be staffed. The best I could tell, it would be a boon for developers, but how it would be administered is unknown to me at this time.

In another positive development, Walker is expanding the psychiatric crisis and observation units at the mental health complex. The unit is full and has been full for quite a while. It is so full that emergency detentions are being deferred to other hospitals in the county, which are often not equipped to deal with the severity of an acute psychotic episode.

But, in Walkerworld, every silver lining has a big cloud. Walker also wants to cut funding for community support and alcohol and drug abuse counseling. And he doesn't want to just trim these services, but he is going for the throat by cutting these services by more than 50%. I have news for Mr. Walker, if you want to gut community support services, you are going to need to expand the mental health complex by a whole lot more.

The thing that scares me the most about Walker's budget is that all of these improvements to mental health services, as well as to Disability Services is based on the presumption that Milwaukee County will be able to reap the benefits of Family Care. This is an asinine and inane position to be taking. There is no guarantee that Family Care will be funded, much less how much Milwaukee County would receive if it is fully funded. He also fails to take into consideration that the savings from Family Care is questionable at best, and that it would take at least another one to two years to start effectively start implementing the new model.

And one cannot say that Walker is naive about this. In this morning's MSJ, there is a story about what would happen if the state fails to fully fund this program. Here is the story in its entirety:
State budget impasse threatens services

Cuts in services to people with mental illness and other disabilities in Milwaukee

County will become necessary unless the state Legislature soon cuts a budget deal that preserves increases included in early versions, County Executive Scott Walker said Friday.

He won't agree to adding any county money beyond what he recommended Thursday in his $1.3 billion county budget plan for 2008, Walker said. That could force some painful cuts, he acknowledged.

Walker warned Friday that cuts to social services, as well as to the courts, transit and juvenile corrections, might be needed. In his budget address Thursday, Walker touted some increases he proposed for mental health services without mentioning the potential for other cuts.

His zero-tax-increase budget banks on the county getting about $12.5
million more in state aid next year.

In summary, Walker doesn't give a damn about the poor, the mentally ill, the elderly, or anyone else in Milwaukee County. He only cares about helping to perpetuate the current cycle of the rich getting richer, and his own political aspirations. But even Walker knows that his budget proposal is a steaming pantful when he acknowledges more money will be needed:

Walker said he's used that as a strategy to rein in the board. Whatever he
proposes, the board will try to spend a little bit more, Walker said. He's not
insistent upon "an absolute zero" tax increase, he said