The Republicans Are In The Can

By Jeff Simpson 

On 4/20 it is fitting to bring back an old comedy bit from Cheech & Chong.  It is also fitting that the character in the bit's last name is elephant.

The Transgender bathroom debate has been ramped up lately.   North Carolina has recently passed an Anti-LGBQT law and it has cost the state Millions of dollars of commerce.

 Everyone from PayPal, to Ringo Starr to Lionsgate films to Bruce Springsteen, to numerous municipalities banning non essential travel to NC.  

North Carolina’s anti-LGBT law is already costing the state’s tourism industry millions of dollars.The bill, signed by Gov. Pat McCrory (R) last month, prevents local municipalities from passing anti-discrimination protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals. The bill also requires transgender people to use public restrooms that correspond to the gender on their birth certificate.

Why would they pass a law that specifically targets a group of people who need our help and this could never happen in Wisconsin right?  

The answers are simple, the GOP is the part of big government and want to make sure that everyone in America behaves the way they tell you to.  

Not the way they act of course, as more GOP politicians have been arrested in bathrooms for sexual misconduct than trans people.  They did not even include "Bathroom" Bob Donovan who had his own run ins in public bathrooms of Milwaukee.     Many supporters of these anti- LGBQT laws rushed to the polls to vote for Bathroom Bob for Mayor of Milwaukee.  Luckily for all involved he lost.

As for could this happen here?  If the Republicans keep control of all three branches of Government after the November elections(they have adjourned for the year weeks ago) count on it.  See they have already proposed such a bill(except a little more extreme) that is currently sitting in committee.  Not only will they bully all transgender people in Wisconsin but they also will force the Justice Department to spend countless dollars defending all lawsuits will inevitably come.    

Transgender students would be barred from using school bathrooms or locker rooms assigned to the gender with which they identify, under a bill being proposed by two Republican lawmakers.Rep. Jesse Kremer, R-Kewaskum, and Sen. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, are proposing to require school boards to designate bathrooms and locker rooms as being for one gender exclusively, and to require the state Department of Justice to defend  school districts in lawsuits alleging the policy is discriminatory.

Hard to be open for business when you pass bills that cost your state hundreds of millions of dollars of commerce.   Even Chris Abele gets it.

Abele says protecting transgender rights goes beyond moral responsibility.
"If people care about economic development, the largest demographic in the United States in U.S. history is millennials," he says. "And this issue is settled for millennials. What do we talk about all the time? How do we attract the best and brightest, young, creative talent? Well, you know how you don't do it? You show that you're a closed-minded, intolerant state."

Of course his support of Anti-LGBQT politicians says a different story but thats another blog.    

Now that we see Republican policies in action and working to destroy North Carolina, when asked for comments on if they still plan on pushing their anti commerce, anti business bully law, the authors Rep Kremer and Sen. nASS did exactly what you would think they would do.

Hide.

 We reached out to the Wisconsin lawmakers who introduced the bill regulating the use of school bathrooms, and other state leaders who said they'd support it. All were unable to do an interview.

Maybe next session we could introduce a bill that says GOP lawmakers are not allowed to be in a public restroom and we would all be a little safer!  

In the end, all our LGBQT friends want to so is "go to the can, man" so they will no longer be so afraid to use the bathroom.  

Until then, we need the electorate this November to

WWWWAAAAKKKKKKKEEEEEE UUUUUUUUUUUUUPPPPPPPPPPPPPP


 Editor Note;  If all of the hate preached by the GOP these days is getting to to you, check out this article and you can restore your faith in humanity.  

4) If said straight men could be trusted not to do bad things to women, we wouldn’t be having any of these conversations. As a Christian I’m disappointed that we aren’t talking about that in our churches and on campaign trails, or making bold public statements about that. I’m profoundly saddened that high-profile evangelists and pastors aren’t facing this real monster with the same sustained ferocity they attack an imagined one with.

Women are in exponentially higher danger of being sexually assaulted by a boyfriend or a classmate than a stranger in a bathroom and it isn’t even close.

The Winds Of Change Are Blowing In Wisconsin

Tuesday was the spring primary elections in Wisconsin. While most of the races were local ones, there were three bigger races that had some eye-opening results. These races - one for the state supreme court, one for mayor of Milwaukee and one for Milwaukee County Executive - give hope that the Wisconsin Winter is not over and that the people are ready to start taking our state back.

Wisconsin Supreme Court

The winners of this primary was the "incumbent" Rebecca Bradley and JoAnne Kloppenburg.

Bradley is the dark money candidate. She has been appointed by Scott Walker to three different judicial seats in three years, including to the Wisconsin State Supreme Court a few months ago. The right wing loves her qualifications - being a Federalist and working to advance their causes such as voter suppression.

Bradley has already received help from the dark money groups to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars. They are also taking full advantage of the now non-existent election laws by openly collaborating with Bradley's campaign, going as far as using the same footage in their commercials.

Her opponent, JoAnne Kloppenburg, has had some experience dealing with the dirty politics practiced by the right wing. Kloppenburg was the person that damn nearly unseated David "Chokehold" Prosser, until the Waukesha County clerk just happened to "find" 7,000 ballots two days after the election.

Despite all of the dark money pouring into this race, Bradley barely eked out a 2% lead over Kloppenburg. It is expected that the voters who went with the third candidate in this race, Joe Donald, will go to Kloppenburg, which would give her the advantage.

Mayor of Milwaukee

The dynamics in this race is a little different. Tom Barrett is the Democratic incumbent. While Barrett is much too moderate and corporate for my taste, he was clearly the most liberal candidate in this race.

The opponent that made it through the primary is Bathroom Bob Donovan, a city alderman. Donovan's campaign is centered on wanting more cops, hating black people and being against the streetcar that Barrett wants to build using federal funding.

Barrett easily won the primary, 45-34%. Interestingly, Donovan is hedging his bets by also running for reelection as alderman and is facing a strong possibility of losing that race too.

Milwaukee County Executive

The incumbent Milwaukee County Executive is millionaire Chris Abele, son of billionaire John Abele. Abele's claims to fame are the decimation of representative government in the county, making the poorest of the poor pay for the $80 million he promised to help build a new arena for the Milwaukee Bucks and working with state Republicans to take over and privatize the Milwaukee Public School System. Abele wasn't concerned about how unpopular these moves were, figuring he could always use his daddy's checkbook to buy his reelection.

To give you an idea of how bad Abele is, people refer to him as Walker Lite.

His opponent is State Senator Chris Larson. Larson led the other Democratic state senators in 2011 to leave the state for weeks to give the people a chance to organize and fight back against Scott Walker's attack on public employee unions.

Abele spent nearly $2 million of his own money on a barrage of mailers and an endless flood of radio and TV commercials. He outspent Larson by more than a 20 to 1 margin. Abele's goal was to crush the opposition and come through the primary with a huge victory.

Despite all that money, Abele found out the hard way that some things just can't be bought, and actually lost the primary to Larson.

You read that correctly. Abele spent $42.00 per vote to Larson's $2.00 per vote, and despite being the incumbent, lost the primary to his opponent.

What should make Bradley, Donovan and Abele even more nervous than their dismal performances tonight is the fact that the general election is April 5, the same day as the state's presidential primary. As the gentle reader already knows, nothing brings Democrats out to vote like a presidential election.

As Barrett Takes The Field, GOP Throws Donovan A Hail Mary

Unsurprising to anyone, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett announced that he is running for his fourth term.  I have no doubt that Barrett will easily win again, not that he deserves it, but because the rest of the candidates are just that poor.

But on the day that Barrett formally announced his campaign, the GOP legislators in Madison threw a Hail Mary bomb to Bob Donovan, one of Barrett's opponents.

The futile attempt to help their fellow conservative came in the form of an announcement that they want to pass a bill that would prohibit any state funding for Barrett's streetcar folly.  This announcement is purely political and has no real purpose other than to try to stir up their Teapublican base.

The bill is pointless since no state funding is going to the streetcar and the state already banned money from going to it anyway:

"There's been no state funding so far, and this would ensure there would not be," Kremer told the Journal Sentinel.

Kremer said Wisconsin taxpayers have already helped to contribute millions in federal tax dollars.

"As such, I do not feel that taxpayers outside of the City of Milwaukee should be responsible for any future operational costs that may arise," Kremer said.

The proposal aims to prohibit the state from incurring any expenses associated with a commuter rail system.

Kremer said the measure would essentially be an expansion of a provision in the 2015-'17 state budget that created a transit safety oversight program. That provision was aimed at preventing a county containing a first-class city — that would only be Milwaukee — from incurring any expenses linked to the operation of a commuter rail system, unless the county would be fully reimbursed by the city.

So it's a redundant solution to a problem that doesn't exist.

Your tax dollars at work, folks.

To add to the bill's inanity, it won't help Donovan anyway.

Besides Donovan's criminal record and his blatant racism, Donovan is already a failure at being a leader.  He tried twice to get a petition drive going to stop the streetcar.  The first time he couldn't get enough signatures.  The second time proved to be so lame that it was stopped before it started.

Someone needs to explain to the GOP that one fights fire with fire, but fighting boondoggle with boondoggle doesn't work so well.

Mayor Tom Barrett Versus The Street Thugs

Four years ago, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, as he was leaving State Fair with his family, was physically assaulted by a good who beat the mayor severely.  Barrett suffered a broken hand and several broken teeth.  Fortunately, Barrett is no Illinois cream puff and recovered fully.

On Tuesday, two more thugs - Robin "Ratman" Vos and Slobbin' Bob Donovan - took to the streets on  Milwaukee's south side.  Purportedly, the reason for this was to make some kind of demonstration about the rash of shootings that has happened in the past few weeks.

In reality, the Republicans are desperately trying to find something - anything - to distract people from the atrocious job they've been doing.

But before Ratman and Slobbin' could get into any mischief, Barrett showed up to talk to the ne'er-do-wells:

Barrett paid a surprise visit to Donovan and the GOP lawmakers gathered to discuss his efforts against crime.

He said he welcomed the state legislators' attempt to better understand the neighborhood and would give them access to any information they wanted about the city.

Patrick Curley, Barrett's chief of staff, said the mayor visited the event to "elevate the conversation."

Barrett, Vos and Darling had a "brief but constructive conversation" before the tour, Curley said, noting they would meet again soon.

Foiled from being to run rampant on the streets, Vos sniped at Barrett with the most unbelievable comment I've ever seen (emphasis mine):

Vos said he sometimes feels Barrett is prepared to arrive anywhere he knows there is a camera. The Democratic mayor should be less partisan, the speaker added.

Yes, you read that correctly.  Vos actually had the nerve to accuse anyone of being too partisan.

It should be noted that while Donovan and Vos kvetched about the mayor's plans to address the crime issue, they offered no plans, ideas or suggestions themselves. In fact, Vos came out and said that the city should not look to the State for any assistance whatsoever.

Barrett wasn't alone in calling out the theatrics of the Dumbtastic Duo.  State Representative Josh Zepnick issued a blistering response:

In response to Speaker Robin Vos (R-Burlington) and other Republican legislators visiting Milwaukee’s South Side today on a neighborhood walk, State Representative Josh Zepnick renewed his call for the state to provide $500,000 in matching funds to help pay for increased police overtime.

Zepnick added that along with those dollars, a modest funding request, Republicans should work to change the state's concealed-carry law to ban individuals convicted of three or more misdemeanors in a five-year period from getting a permit, and mandatory minimum sentences for illegal gun holders.

And, like the City of Milwaukee requested during the State Budget process, struggling neighborhoods would greatly benefit from providing more money for tearing down abandoned houses…many zip codes in Milwaukee were among the hardest hit statewide by the housing foreclosure crisis and lack of jobs.

Furthermore, Milwaukee continues to need state support for a crime-fighting program that uses cutting-edge technology to help police officers detect when and where shots are fired. These kinds of tools not only help the hard-working men and women of the Milwaukee Police Department, they provide neighborhood support all when Milwaukee faces declining tax revenues from State government and a still recovering economy.

Both of these initiatives were voted out of the State Budget by Republicans and to quote the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial page, “that’s not helping Milwaukee, that’s helping the criminals.”

State Representative JoCasta Zamarripa also issued a press release, making some of the same points and also calling out Vos' phoniness:

Zamarripa concluded, “While I appreciate Speaker Vos spending his day in the 8th Assembly District, it’s time for him and other legislative Republicans in Madison to walk the walk to address this problem instead of simply talking the talk in front of a camera.”

The Republicans really having nothing to say about the rash of shootings that Milwaukee has experienced lately. There has been an increase in shootings and other violent crimes all over the state.

It should also be pointed out that it was the Republicans like Vos who passed the Walker/ALEC agenda which depressed the state's economy.  It was also Vos and his fellow ALECites that have been treating Milwaukee like dirt and treating minorities as if they were subhuman.  To this miasma, they also made guns so easily available.

One does not need to have an above average IQ to see that this is the recipe to disaster.

If Ratman and Slobbin', not to mention Scott 'Weaselman" Walker and his allies are so concerned about the shootings and other crimes, they would be working with all due haste on passing laws that actually create jobs, on reasonable gun control laws and restoring the rights and respect for the minorities.

The fact that they are not even interested in solving the problems they created shows that the bad guys don't always have to be the ones physically pulling the trigger.

A Streetcar Full Of Desire

More than twenty years ago, the federal government had tagged $91.5 million to be used for transit in the City of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County.  But the county and city could not agree on how that money should be used and it sat languishing for some eighteen years.

In 2009, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett got tired of the stalemate and asked for help from Congress and President Obama in resolving this issue.  The result was that they passed a law stating that the City of Milwaukee would get 60% of the money and the County would get the other 40%.

Barrett chose that the city's share would go to beginning a streetcar route with the plan of giving the city a true intermodal system of mass transit.  As you can imagine, given the Republican's irrational hatred of anything to do with rails and job creation, were outraged at this idea and have been fighting it ever since.

The main antagonists are, unsurprisingly, the Bradley Foundation and the Koch Brothers.  In the past number of years, they have sent in their pawns to try to interfere with the progression of the streetcar, trying to derail it at every bend.

First they sent in Brett Healy, the head troll at the propagandist group MacIver Institute, who filed a petition complaining that his power bill could go up because of the work the utilities would have to put in moving some wires around.

When that didn't work, they sent in the ethically challenged Alderman Bob Donovan and the thugs at the ironically-named Citizens for Responsible Government, who thought they would collect so many signatures on anti-streetcar petitions that they would just have to stop it dead in its tracks.  That idea flopped as well.

A couple months later, they teamed up Donovan the Daft with Americans for Poverty to try it again.  But since they couldn't get enough boots on the ground, they decided to go for - brace yourselves - a website where they would collect signatures from all over the area.  And even then, they failed again.

Now the corporate special interests are at it again with yet a new approach.  They simply force the city to their will, much like they are trying to force the county to their will.  State Representative Dale Kooyenga is planning on introducing a bill that will force the cost on the taxpayers.  The corporate special interests figure that this will stop the program.
figure that if they cannot get the public opinion on their side, they figure that they  will

Our young friend on his Soapbox does a damn fine job of laying out all the problems with this maneuver, including the fact that the claim that buses are inherently better than a streetcar is false.  He is especially on the mark when he writes:

This is what scares me about this legislative session... it's not so much what Governor Walker introduces, it's the precedent that can, and slowly is being set by the legislature. I cannot accept the State of Wisconsin dictating to the City of Milwaukee or the County of Milwaukee, or any other municipality, how they should handle their affairs. It is wrong on many, many levels.

There are a couple of things though that I would point out.

One is this line from Kooyenga's press release:

"The streetcar may be used by 1% of the Milwaukee area residents, but will be paid for by 100% of the residents in the Milwaukee area. It is my intent to ensure we are not wasting local, state and federal taxpayer’s money on 19th century infrastructure," said Rep. Kooyenga.

What an odd thing to say for a man who voted consistently to have 100% of Wisconsin taxpayers pony up to further enrich the 1%, whether they were from Wisconsin or not.  It was this type of oligarchy that gave rise to the unions at about the same time that the first street cars were introduced.

Then there is the press release from Donovan, where he's just giddy with the news that the project could be stopped:

If approved, this means city taxpayers and certain downtown businesses alone would shoulder the burden of these as yet unknown costs, which are believed to be approximately $70 million. I simply cannot fathom members of the Common Council allowing the project to move forward under that cost scenario, so Rep. Kooyenga’s legislation would effectively be the final stake in the heart of the streetcar project. 

I want to publicly thank Rep. Kooyenga for his legislation. Not only is he giving me an early birthday present, but he’s also exercising the common sense that I wish more of our local public officials would tap into more often.

So Donovan thinks that not creating jobs and lifting up the local economy is like a birthday present?  I'd hate to see what he wants for Christmas.

What this is really about is that the corporate special interests don't want to see that money go to something that might actually benefit the people.  They would rather see that money go unused until such time that they can figure out a way to manipulate the system so that that money ends up in their coffers - preferably without having to give up anything in return for it.

Race-Baiting Bob Donovan Strikes Again

The case of Derek Williams, a young man who died while in police custody, had been bungled from the time of his arrest and through subsequent actions.  They used what might be described as excessive force - a knee in the back - which triggered a sickle cell crisis and ultimately, his death.

The police ignored Williams' pleas for help for nearly ten minutes until he collapsed.  It was only then that they rendered aid and called for help.

The medical examiner's office dropped the ball and misdiagnosed the cause of death.

It was only a year later that new information finally surfaced that caused officials to scramble and reopen the case.  This led to changes in the way the medical examiner's office operates.  It is also causing a hard look at the city's Police and Fire Commission and how it works to see what changes, if any, should be made.

It has also spawned an inquest into the death to see if there was a crime committed by the police officers.  The inquest jury came back with the recommendation that three officers be charged with failure to render aid by a law enforcement officer.

Milwaukee Alderman Bob Donovan didn't hesitate a minute to come out in support of the police officers.  His defense is based on hearsay and consists mostly that the officers didn't intend to harm Williams.

One of the two things that Donovan misses in his rant is that the officers waited nearly ten minutes to render aid while Williams was in obvious distress.  Secondly, Donovan misses the fact that while they might not have intentionally meant to harm Williams, they intentionally withheld aid, which was the verdict of the jury that actually listened to the testimony and saw the evidence.

Wonder Woman caught on to Donovan's misleading statements as well.

The worst part is when Donovan went running to WTMJ-AM, no stranger to race baiting themselves, and had a conversation with afternoon squawker John Mercure.  In said conversation, Donovan is all but daring the African American community to protest if they do not agree with the final results of the case.  After all, in Donovan's world, white is right and to say otherwise just proves his case, in his demented little mind.

It's not the first time Donovan has pushed the racism button either.  A year and a half ago, he came out with his "Plan for Milwaukee" which basically consisted of locking up all the poor and minority children.  A few weeks later, he issued a statement blaming the entire African American community for an isolated incident outside of State Fair Park.

Donovan isn't just an embarrassment to Milwaukee or to whites.  He's an embarrassment to all of humanity.

Donovan Sides Against His Own Consituents

Those of us in Milwaukee are used to City Councilman Bob Donovan regularly opening his mouth, mostly for the purpose of rearranging his feet. But sometime Donovan can come out with something that is so bizarre that no one, not even his most ardent supporters, can defend it.

Thursday was one of those days.

Donovan decided to use the Palermo strike to attack Mayor Tom Barrett, his favorite target. But Donovan's statement on the strike itself shows that he doesn't have a frickin' clue what he's talking about (emphasis mine):

While I certainly support the right of any group of workers to organize, I must state that the protest action at Palermo’s Pizza plant in the Menomonee Valley is concerning to me.

I believe the call by protest leaders for a nationwide boycott of Palermo’s is the wrong way to go – it will only result in hurting the company, its workers (many who reside in my district and the very people the protest leaders are claiming they’re trying to help-!), and the city as a whole. I’m disappointed that the leaders decided to call for the boycott, but I’m also disappointed (again) in our mayor.

[...]

At a time when Palermo’s has employed many hundreds of workers – from all over the city (including many challenged neighborhoods) – the City of Milwaukee must be more supportive of Palermo’s, doing what is appropriate to help bring closure to this impasse.

Again, I bear no ill will toward the protesters and I support their right to organize. I just think this national boycott call is going way overboard, and I call on the mayor to get off his couch, live up to his claim that we are truly “open for business,” and get involved to help settle this thing.

Now, if Donovan had bothered to go a bit further than the local squawk radio channel to get his information, he'd have had the critical thinking skills necessary to know that the workers are already being hurt by Palermo's. Or he would have unless he approves of workers losing fingers because of the lack of safety equipment; workers losing their jobs because they can't work after losing their finger;, and workers standing in water while working with electronics as good working conditions.

Or maybe if Palermo's paid a sustainable wage, those challenged neighborhoods might be substantially less challenged. Then again, maybe not. Especially not when you have a councilman who cuts shady deals for himself and turns his district into a little police state.

Companies are rather used to workers wanting to be treated with respect and dignity, so it is doubtful that this would be a turnoff for one. What they don't necessarily care for are alderman who are openly hostile to minorities and children.

Donovan also might find it easier to influence people if he was not having a temper tantrum every other day as well.

But as I pointed out above, Donovan doesn't really give a damn about Palermo's or the workers. All he cares about is trying to discredit his mayor.

Alderman Bob Donovan And His Wacky Friends

Who wouldn't trust that face?

Milwaukee Alderman Bob Donovan has long been providing the City of Milwaukee with comic relief for years now. He has recently expanded his show into a three ring circus.

Donovan, partisan puppet for the Republicans, is a busy man though. He's always up to something, like issuing racist press releases and pushing to have all the children (especially the poor and the black ones) locked up where they won't get in the way of his pretending he rules Milwaukee.

His latest Quixotic venture has been his repeated tantrums about the street car. For the longest time, Donovan and his radio squawker buddies have been the only ones griping about it.

Then, at the end of last year, he was joined by Brett Healy, figurehead for the MacIver Institute. Healy was whining about the costs related to the proposed streetcar. Showing his hypocrisy, he completely ignored the much more expensive freeway reconstruction. But then again, his masters probably told him to not to worry about their investments.

More recently, Donovan was joined by Chris Kleisment of CRG. Kleismet, whose corruption is only dwarfed by his cowardice, did his own bootlicking by joining in the faux outrage. We're still waiting for Kleismet to say one thing about Walkergate and the way Walker and his henchmen squandered taxpayer dollars.

After all these months of ineffective and hollow hollering, the Koch Brothers have decided to up the ante by bringing in their trained attack teahadists, Americans for Poverty. They've really taken their game up a few notches by introducing - gasp - a propagandist anti-street car website!

To help support their drivel, the have also brought in master drivelist James Wigderson. Wiggy, as he likes to call himself, is fresh off of a tour of obstructing the rights of people in Walkersha County and is trying to do the same in Milwaukee.

Wiggy has written a rather pedestrian essay which is only notable for its adolescent insults, touting the Koch/Bradley Foundation tag team. But the hilarity comes in at the end of his diatribe (emphasis mine):

Everyone in Milwaukee and the surrounding communities are invited to sign. It isn't just Milwaukeeans that will be paying for the Streetcar Nobody Desires. Everyone can take this opportunity to let the Milwaukee Common Council know what the public thinks of this giant waste of money. If the Common Council will not listen to common sense, perhaps they will listen to the public.

Now, far be it for me to give advice to Wiggy (He's a professional writer, y'know. If you don't believe me, ask him. He'll tell you.)or the Koch Brothers and the Bradley Foundation on how to run their business, but I would think they'd get a lot farther by not implying that the citizens of Milwaukee don't have common sense.

Indeed, the fact that these front groups have to go outside of not only Milwaukee, but out of Milwaukee County, to find supporters shows that we tend to have more common sense than our neighbors.

Bob Donovan: Boot Licker, Admitted Failure

Milwaukee Alderman Bob Donovan is a blogger fodder machine.  He just can't keep his mouth shut and ends up putting his foot squarely into it.

His latest reaffirmation of this fact is a press release regarding the controversial reporting by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which appears to be on a witch hunt for Milwaukee Police Chief Ed Flynn.

In said release, Donovan says the following:

First, I was somewhat taken aback by the negative comments directed toward the Journal Sentinel by some of my colleagues. I find myself in somewhat uncharted waters defending the Journal Sentinel, but what’s right is right. I shouldn’t have to point out that had it not been for the Journal Sentinel’s investigation, we would not have been sitting there yesterday in the first place discussing admitted failures, errors, and shortcomings of our crime reporting procedures. On the other hand, the Journal Sentinel has been criticized for not doing a thorough enough investigation – yet the only way that can be accomplished is by gaining access to the very information they’ve been denied.

Because we seem to be up to our necks in the discussion of audits – from the police department to the Fire and Police Commission to the Comptroller to the FBI – please allow me to comment first on the FBI audit. Until very recently, I was not aware of this audit, and quite frankly I am having difficulty finding anyone who was aware of it. It seems to have been Milwaukee’s best kept secret. Yet in the Chief’s own testimony he requested it almost two years ago. Yet to the best of my knowledge, no public mention of concerns (which must have existed) regarding the validity of crime reports (which led to the audit request) was ever brought forward. In my mind, there are still questions that remain as to the scope and intensity of this audit. Since it’s been described as a periodic audit encompassing more than several jurisdictions, one can easily assume it is of a more cursory nature.

In the first paragraph, he's trying to curry favor by undercutting his fellow aldermen and alderwomen, who called out the corporate media for their false reporting. This in itself isn't surprising since Donovan is a media hound who loves to hear the sound of his own voice.  The conservative paper loves to give him attention since he espouses the same values they're trying to promote.

The irony is that while Donovan is whining about the not knowing about the internal audit that Chief Flynn had asked for two years ago, he fails to mention that until this past spring, he was the Chair of the Public Safety Committee.  Which again makes one wonder what he was doing all that time - sleeping?

Birdbrains Of A Feather Squawk Together

The ethically-challenged Milwaukee Alderman Bob Donovan is at it again.

Just after his umpteenth consecutive incident of embarrassing himself about the proposed streetcar, he comes back for another round, this time trying to recruit the 70% of Milwaukee citizens he thinks doesn't like the proposed streetcar and is also as moronic as he is not to realize that the money can't be used on road repairs, per the federal guidelines.  He wants to flood the streets with signature gatherers for a petition to have a referendum on the streetcar.

Not surprisingly, Chris Kliesmet of the misnamed Citizens for Responsible Government has sounded off to support Donovan's Don Quixote imitation.  It's not at all surprising since CRG is as ethically-challenged as Donovan.  Kliesment likes the idea of feeding at the government trough, even though his group apparently doesn't like to pay their taxes to keep said trough full.

What is surprising is that Kliesmet hasn't sounded off on the whole Walkergate investigation.  You would think that the head of a group that claims to be the watchdog for government spending would be screaming about corrupt politicians using taxpayer dollars to do their campaigning.

What do you suppose it is that would keep a guy so vigilant about every tax dollar that he would go as far as making things up about public workers from saying something about actual misuse of taxpayer money?  It's almost as if he doesn't want to draw attention to it...

If At First You Don't Succeed, Tantrum, Tantrum Again!

A couple of weeks ago, City of Milwaukee Alderman Bob Donovan tried to hold a press conference to bash his mayor, Tom Barrett, in a thinly veiled attempt to start a talking point for Scott Walker's campaign.  The subject of the press conference was that Donovan wanted to make a stink about the City of Milwaukee's plan to use $65 million in federal funds for a street car system.  The street car has been a favorite attacking point for the right since Barrett took the funding for it from right under Walker's nose.

Unfortunately for Donovan, Alderman Bob Bauman interjected himself to point out that Donovan's tantrum was for naught, since federal rules said that money couldn't be used for road repair like Donovan was advocating.   Bauman also pointed out that Donovan had a chance to bring it up for referendum, but couldn't get any support for it.  

Donovan had one helluva temper tantrum, pounding the podium, screaming, spewing spittle and acting like a frustrated two year old.

Unthwarted by the truth or reality or a sense of decorum, Donovan chose to have yet another temper tantrum about the street car a week later.  It didn't have the same impact because Donovan's attempt to smear the mayor isn't anything new or newsworthy, and his tantrum when mostly unnoticed.

On Friday, things went from tantrum to tedious when Donovan, giving up on the theatrics, simply sent out a press release, using a "report" (read propaganda piece) by the MacIver Institute, as supposed proof that the street car is a boondoggle.  

I'm sure that the MacIver report is very reliable too.  After all, just because its president, Brett Healy has a personal agenda against the street car and just because they are know to be wrong more often than right, what's there not to trust, right?

Here's an idea for Donovan: Next time he feels the overwhelming urge to hold a press conference about a boondoggle, maybe he could talk about his shady charity groups.

Donovan: Exit Stage Right

Milwaukee's volatile and labile alderman Bob Donovan has finally been ousted from his position as Chairman of the Common Council's Public Safety Committee.  True to his nature, he has to have a tantrum about it, blaming others and trying to play the victim:

Donovan accused Hines of retaliating against him for taking controversial stands -- an accusation that Hines denied. 

"Over the years, I have spoken out on a variety of issues, and I've probably stepped on some toes," Donovan said. "Some people may perceive this, as I do, as payback. It's a sad day in Milwaukee when an elected official can't stand up and voice his gut feelings and represent his constituents and call 'em like he sees 'em without suffering retribution."

Yeah, that's it! It's retribution!  It had nothing to do with his being a complete joke and failing to live up to his responsibilities as the chairman of this important committee.

Sadly, this won't mean that Donovan will be any less the clown than he has been.

I'm sure he'll still complain about problems that don't exist; advocate for turning Milwaukee into a police state and locking up the kids, even the innocent ones; and issuing racist statements.

Donovan's "Plan for Milwaukee" Taken From The Movies

Milwaukee Alderman Bob Donovan, going though media attention withdrawal, came out with his "Plan for Milwaukee."

One could summarize his plan as "Children should neither be seen nor heard."

His plan consists of basically two concepts: Creating a police state and putting every youth (or at least the black ones) in the city in an institution.

For the police state, he proposes more cops, giving the increased police force more overtime and putting cameras everywhere. And here I thought we were in a fiscal crisis.  Basically, this is a common theme in many movies, from 1984 to The Matrix, where the citizenry is always under surveillance and face stern consequences if they take one step out of the strict guidelines of the government.

But then Donovan does his best Baron Bomburst impression and comes up with a number of ambiguous anti-child proposals:

• Reform the juvenile justice system 
• Stricter curfew enforcement (well that could go into the police state theme as well).
• Orphanages and Boarding schools 
• Revamp the schools.

It should be noted that he doesn't say what's wrong with the juvenile justice system or the schools or how he would like to see them "fixed."  Just that they're broken and that someone else needs to fix them.

When one considers Donovan's past statements and posturings, it would not be a great leap of logic to understand that he means that the laws on kids should be made draconian, enforced with military precision and that the kids need to be put in an institution of some sorts, where they can be thoroughly controlled and kept away from the public. That way, mature adults  like Donovan don't have to be bothered with fixing the actual problems, like the inherent racism in the region, the rampant unemployment, or the severe lack of constructive activities for these kids.

But not only does Donovan fail to offer any constructive suggestions or solutions, the proposals he does present will only increase the problems.  As any mental health staffer, or jailer, or any other worker in an institution can tell you, any person in such a place can become thoroughly institutionalized and no longer to effectively function in society.  

Then society will have to pay a much higher price, both in human and financial costs, to have this institutionalized population treated so that they can become a positive member of society again. Either that, or pay for the person to be an institution for the rest of their lives, which gets to pretty costly as well.

He, and we, would be better off if he just donned his fuzzy crown and robe and stepped out and said, "I hate children." Then he'd have his fifteen minutes of attention that he desperately seeks and go back to his fantasy world while the rest of us go about trying to actually fixing the problems facing our society.

Was Donovan Sleeping On The Job?

This morning, City Alderman Bob Donovan was making the talk radio circuit doing campaign work for Scott Walker by complaining about OpenSky, stating he put in an expansive open records request regarding everything about it.

It is more than a bit ironic that Donovan is doing this now, considering that he is Chairman of the City Council's Public Safety Committee. You would think that he would have been paying attention to what was going on for the past few years.

He must have been too busy attacking art schools or holding one of his myriad of attention seeking press releases.

Anyway, one of the things he was just so shocked about was that the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel had put in their own ORR, but then backed off when the price proved to be prohibitive. Rip Van Donovan made the same complaint to Weasel Blogger's own Glenn Frankovis, who immediately suspected that it meant they were trying to hide something.

Funny thing is I don't remember any of these people tsk-tsking Walker's obvious manipulations when he would delay ORR responses for months and then charge an arm and a leg for them if the requester was an unfriendly, but would then give his informal campaign arm, CRG, free rein whenever they wanted anything.

Nor did they say a peep when County Supervisor John Weishan's ORR was met with the same resistance and overcharging, and then never met.

I guess Walker's hypocrisy must be contagious. That or it's simply a characteristic trait among the right.

Another Goofy Named Blog

Before I started Cog Dis eight months ago, I agonized over the name for a long time. It got to the point where I was also afraid of driving my friends batty as I bounced ideas off of them. (Sorry again, Tom.) I didn't want something that seemed mundane, like Capper's Blog. I also wanted something that reflected something about me. So Cog Dis was born. The Cognitive came from my background in psychology, and the Dissidence came from my love to debate, or argue, if you will.

I also found it a fun play on words. You should see how many hits I get for people searching the definition of "cognitive dissonance," which is almost completely opposite of my title.

Unfortunately, there are some people with websites that named their places in a way that has nothing to deal with reality.

Charlie Sykes calls his site Sykes Writes, but he never writes anything. He only links and/or copies and pastes.

Fred Dooley calls his place Real Debate Wisconsin, but he doesn't put up with much debate. If anyone dares to dissent, he either bans them outright, or just keeps erasing their comments.

Now there is another inanely named one. There is no realistic connection between Alderman Bob Donovan and Common Sense.

Why Is This Man Talking?

Alderman Bob Donovan must not have gotten what he wanted for Christmas this year. That would be one possible explanation, besides the fact that he is always hankering for some publicity, for him shooting his mouth off yet again.

This time, he is complaining that the PDW isn't moving fast enough for him. Never mind that we have already had the second or third snowiest December on record. Never mind that parking restrictions were lifted for Christmas.

But instead of being quiet, and letting people simply think he is a goofball, he has to go on and prove it:

"Many of our side streets are simply impassable for emergency vehicles," Donovan told reporters. "These streets need to be cleared out."

However, Donovan said he was not aware of any case where a firetruck, ambulance or squad car had been unable to get through.

So he is complaining about a problem that doesn't exist. Nothing new there. But it only gets better:

Patrick Curley, Mayor Tom Barrett's chief of staff, and Mike Engelbart, a public works official, said ticketing resumed today as planned, and towing was set to start about 3:30 p.m., with plows in place to clear snow after cars are towed. City crews have been working their way through each neighborhood and just reached Donovan's district today, they said.

Curley said Donovan was briefed about the situation at 11 a.m., or 2 1/2 hours before his 1:30 p.m. news conference. Donovan said he didn't get any information until 1:05 p.m., after he had made repeated phone calls to the Department of Public Works and had sent out an announcement of his news conference.

Even if one gives Donovan the benefit of the doubt, and presumes he is being accurate that he didn't know until a half hour before the news conference, that would have still given him plenty of time to either cancel the event, or at least change what he was going to say.

But it is like Patrick Curley says:

"Bob thinks he's the smartest guy in the room, and that's only true if he's the only guy in the room."

Personally, I think he may be giving Donovan too much credit.