Cause And Effect

WISGOP had their state convention here in Milwaukee over the weekend. That meant that a lot of Republican politicians, activists and bloggers were in one building, spewing their vitriol out into the air.

The convention ended Sunday, but they left behind a memento of their time here:

A HOT, STAGNANT, INCREASINGLY HUMID AIR MASS WILL STRENGTHEN IN
THE LAKE MICHIGAN REGION FOR MONDAY...THERE IS A POSSIBILITY THAT
OZONE CONCENTRATIONS WILL REACH UNHEALTHY LEVELS FOR PERSONS IN
SENSITIVE GROUPS IN THE WATCH AREA.

DUE TO POSSIBLE ELEVATED LEVELS OF OZONE IN THE REGION...THE
WISCONSIN DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES HAS ISSUED AN AIR
QUALITY WATCH FOR MONDAY. THIS WATCH WILL EXPIRE AT MIDNIGHT
MONDAY EVENING.

THE AIR QUALITY WATCH AFFECTS PEOPLE LIVING IN THE WISCONSIN
COUNTIES OF SHEBOYGAN...OZAUKEE... MILWAUKEE...RACINE...AND
KENOSHA.

TO HELP PREVENT POLLUTION FROM REACHING UNHEALTHY LEVELS...
PEOPLE IN THE WATCH AREA ARE ENCOURAGED TO HELP DECREASE AIR
POLLUTION BY REDUCING DRIVING WHEN POSSIBLE...AVOID BURNING
LEAVES...GRASS...BRUSH ...OR WOOD...MINIMIZE VEHICLE ENGINE
IDLING...POSTPONE USING SMALL GAS OR DIESEL POWERED OUTDOOR
EQUIPMENT...AND PRACTICE ENERGY CONSERVATION.

So, the Weather Service says we should reduce driving or other activities that could worsen the air condition. Guess who decides to go on an around-the-state campaign jaunt (like the tax payer funded one wasn't enough).

Happy Earth Day

Instead of a long spiel, I'll leave it as "Yeah, what he said."

But do enjoy the snark from the conservatives that try to go for the snark/shock value because they're not in the spotlight today. Their attention-seeking is rather funny.

Project Clean And Green

I saw this from Mayor Tom Barrett's weekly report:

Dear Friends,

I wanted to take this opportunity to let you know about a valuable City program that allows you to get rid of excess household clutter and debris at no cost. It’s called Project Clean & Green and it begins April 12th and runs through June 1st. During this time, Department of Public Works crews will target one area of the City each week collecting extra items left at the garbage collection point on the scheduled day. Residents will receive a tag on their garbage cart two weeks prior to their collection week. You can also visit the DPW Web site to find your Project Clean & Green collection date.

Residents within the targeted zone can place unwanted furniture, mattresses, household items, brush, up to five tires and extra recyclables at the collection point on their scheduled collection day.

I’m also pleased to let you know most recycling carts will now be collected every three weeks, versus every four weeks, from April 12th to November 24th. Residents without alleys should place carts at the curb for collection on designated dates. Affected households will receive a tag on the recycling cart stating the scheduled summer collection dates.

Both of these initiatives are designed to make life easier for residents to keep their homes and neighborhoods clean and green. I hope you’ll take advantage of them.

Sincerely,

Mayor, City of Milwaukee

This is the first I've ever heard of such a program. This is an absolutely wonderful way to help keep people from illegally their garbage in empty fields or other people's or companies' dumpsters to avoid the charges normally associated with taking them to the dump.

Keep up the good work, Mayor! Just make sure Scott Walker doesn't try to put any of his courthouse cornice debris in there for free.

It's About Time

Wisconsin Attorney General J. B. Van Hollen has finally followed up on his promise to get involved in the legal proceedings aimed at stopping the invasive Asian Carp.

He only promised to do this a couple of weeks, and three states, ago.

Mayor Tom Barrett, recognizing the danger, has been pushing for Wisconsin to do this a long time now.

As far as I can tell, neither of the two major Republican candidates have said a word about it.

And if there is any doubt on how invasive species can affect our economy, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has a story about how zebra mussels have caused a chub shortage, making them much harder to find, and doubling their price. And the mussels are a much milder threat than the carp are.

Palin Was Green Before She Went Rouge

A few weeks ago, Sarah Palin pandered to the neocon, teabagger groupies by having someone ghost write an editorial in the Washington Post* lambasting the summit in Copenhagen has being some sort of conspiracy.

It's funny how the love of money can make people turn on a dime.

Before she was a national buffoon, but merely a statewide buffoon in Alaska, she was talking a different way:

A few weeks before she mounted the national stage, in July of last year, then-Gov. Palin told her state:

"Alaska's climate is warming. While there have been warming and cooling trends before, climatologists tell us that the current rate of warming is unprecedented within the time of human civilization. Many experts predict that Alaska, along with our northern latitude neighbors, will warm at a faster pace than any other areas, and the warming will continue for decades."

The governor did what a forward-looking leader should do. She created a subcabinet group to look at "carbon-trading markets" and examine "the expanded use of alternative fuels, energy conservation, energy efficiency, renewable energy." She's now bashing scientists and telling Obama to stay away from Copenhagen.

I realize that this won't make her idolaters fall all over themselves any less, but it is good for the thinking class to know.

*There seems to be a growing trend of writing editorials in WaPo only to have it come around to show what a bloom hypocrite they really are.

Right Wingers Resort To Lies To Destroy Cap And Trade

From the AP:

A Washington grassroots lobbying firm has acknowledged forging anti-climate bill letters purporting to be from a local NAACP chapter and a Latino advocacy group to a Virginia lawmaker, and a congressional committee said it was launching an investigation.

The office of freshman Democratic Rep. Tom Perriello discovered that a half-dozen letters it received had nearly identical language signed by a made-up person at Creciendo Juntos, the Latino group, and five fake members of the Albemarle-Charlottesville branch of the NAACP. The lobbying firm, Bonner & Associates, apologized to the groups.

The firm blamed the faked letters on a temporary employee who, it says, has been fired.

But one of the climate bill's primary sponsors, Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., said Friday that his Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming would investigate the matter.

"This fraud on Congress shows that some opponents of clean energy have resorted to forgery and theft to block progress," Markey said in a statement, calling it "an appalling abuse."

Of course, anyone that reads most of the right wing blogs or listens to right wing talk radio is not surprised that the right wing would lie about anything, if they thought there was money in it for them.

Izzy And The Monarchs

Last week, I wrote a post about how the Milwaukee County Board appears set to proceed with the foolish plan of razing the County Grounds for UWM's Innovation Park, which should be really put downtown, close to the rest of the campus.

In said post, one of the commenters, Izzy's Mom, stated that her daughter has been very active in trying to get the word out about how important it is to preserve this land. I got in contact with Izzy's Mom and offered this site for her daughter's letter. Izzy and her mom were quick to take me up on that.

Izzy is a nine-year-old little girl who is very deeply invested in preserving this land after having had opportunities to observe one of the miracles of nature. The following is the letter that Izzy had prepared and sent to the paper. The letter is unedited:

To Whom It May Concern,

My name is Izzy and I am nine years old. I am here to tell you all about The Monarch Trail and the fight to save the Milwaukee County Grounds.

From what I understand, UWM wants to build on the Milwaukee County Grounds, AKA The Monarch Trail. So once again Barb Agnew and her crew are here to save the day for The Monarch Trail.

First of all, I think that everyone sees this medium sized field, that is pretty blank right now and thinks: “What is this place and why is it important?” But in a few weeks that “blank field” will turn into a ground not just for the monarchs, but also for the bluebirds, foxes, snakes and other animals. They will come to lay their eggs and in 2 weeks they will become caterpillars about to embark on an amazing journey, first to Canada, then Mexico.

Second, think about this. How many Monarch sanctuaries are there in Wisconsin? 1? 2? 3? Even if there are many, what if they are all in one area of Wisconsin?

Here's another way to think about it. You are a Monarch. You know that there is one place you could go to that is near. You fly there, but instead of milkweed you find noisy machines. You see them cut down stalk after stalk of milkweed, the food you need. But because of those noisy machines, there is none left. You know there is another place to go but it is far away. Without milkweed you have no energy, no energy means to milkweed. Without food, you starve to death. Think about it. Either way, you would of died because there is probably no milkweed because nobody knows about it. And because of UWM building, they will only see the destruction of a species, not happy beautiful butterflies. I hope you understand what we mean and the basic message: “DONT BUILD ON THE MONARCH HABITAT!”

Izzy and the Monarchs

It is inspiring to see one so young be so involved and invested in the world around her. At the same time, it is sad that a nine-year-old girl shows more insight, more intelligence and more wisdom that the County Executive, UWM Chancellor Carlos Santiago and some County Board members put together.

Along the same lines, it has also come to my attention that all the information is not in yet. From my inbox, an email that has gone out to at least one County Board Supervisor:

As the UWM Foundation and Real Estate Foundation get closer to purchasing the Milwaukee County Grounds my issue has been that we cannot lose another open, green public place to development. It truly is not sound public policy to sell off Milwaukee’s assets in order to cover this year’s budget.

After reading the editorial by Professor Petering in Sundays Journal, It became more apparent that not all of the issues have been properly addressed. I know that the City of Milwaukee is strongly against moving portions of UWM to Tosa but the Faculty and Staff are in the process of doing a survey to gather the input about this location and most are adamant that it not be severed from the other aspects of Engineering.

I have also not heard the reasons that other properties within the research park are not utilized first, why would they ruin the northeast quadrant first? These other parcels already have infrastructure and the project would develop faster and be inherently “green”.

And as Carlos Santiago pursues these wonderful goals for UWM, the success of the Engineering research portion is based on collaboration of mutual interests, Not location.

Can we allow the faculty to speak and be heard on this and re-visit the value of putting the Engineering project in downtown Milwaukee? Location-by-donor may not be what is best for Milwaukee and Milwaukee County. This all needs to be considered.

[Name redacted]

In other words, the County Board is again being asked to make a decision without having all the facts placed in front of them. Given Scott Walker's history, the Board should be painfully aware that they can't trust anything he presents to them with out checking it out thoroughly.

Finally, I also have a copy of a notice being put out by themonarchtrail.org:

THE HISTORY OF THE PRESERVATION OF THE MILWAUKEE COUNTY GROUNDS

The Grounds were whittled down to what remains of the Northeast Quadrant, thus the preservation efforts started --

1. A State Park was envisioned by the citizens and the County Board but was vetoed by then County Executive Tom Ament.
2. A compromise was drawn allowing some natural space for the public and some for development.
3. The UWM Foundation's proposal to purchase the land is a much larger footprint than stated in the compromise.
4. Without permanent preservation this remnant will be eaten away, taking our last unique urban habitat from the following: Owls, Foxes, King Fishers, Whip-poor-Wills, Bobolinks, Bluebirds, Meadowlarks and the migrating Monarch Butterflies and Us

OUR OPEN SPACE, OUR EDUCATION AND OUR PEACE OF MIND!

Remember that the vote is set for Monday, May 11th at 9 am. Please contact your County Board Supervisor and ask him or her to enforce this compromise, to protect our natural preserves and to provide an unique and cost free learning environment for our children.