Milwaukee Co. Exec. Chris Abele Puts Bucks Before Blacks

On Thursday, Milwaukee County Emperor Executive Chris Abele presented his proposed 2016 budget to the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors. Let's ignore for the moment the facts that he was a week late and held a sketchy public/private/campaign event the day before, presenting the budget to a select, invite-only group of supporters.

During a question and answer session, Supervisor Khalif Rainey asked Abele what his budget would do to help the African American community, the largest such community in Wisconsin.

Abele's answer would have been worthy of a Fox News panelist, a squawk radio host or a GOP presidential candidate:



Abele proudly replied that in his five year tenure, he increased spending for social programs, such as more programming at the House of Correction (an extension of the county jail), child support enforcement, social services and mental health services.

In other words, Abele apparently thinks that most African Americans are criminals, unwed mothers, welfare queens and/or psychotic.

To add insult on top of insult, near the end of Abele's answer, he finally got to job creation and job training:

"Do I wish that instead of $400,000 on that one [job creation program], it was four million? Yeah."

What makes that statement particularly egregious is the fact that while Abele is claiming that he couldn't find $4 million for a much needed job creation program, he had no problem finding $4 million a year to help his fellow plutocrats build a new arena for the Milwaukee Bucks. Piling it on even further, Abele is planning on getting that $4 million by going after the poorest of the poor, including the African American community that he is abandoning.

To further demonstrate his disdain for the African American community, it is also Abele that made a deal with Scott Walker and Republican state legislators to make him the privatization czar for the Milwaukee Public Schools.

Needless to say, when Abele made his tasteless and insensitive comments, the supervisors were taken aback. Shortly after, they expressed their outrage at Abele's comments.

Supervisors Rainey and Martin Weddle issued a joint press release:

“The County Executive all but said he was doing nothing for the African American community in Milwaukee County when he addressed the Board,” Rainey said. “I asked him for specifics, and he came back and said he was increasing funding for social services and the House of Correction, among other things. Is that what he thinks of the African American community? That they need more social services and better accommodations at the House
of Correction?

“Chris Abele has no plan for dealing with the crisis in the African American community, and his comments not only reflect a lack of sensitivity, they reflect complete ignorance as to what is happening in Milwaukee County.”

Milwaukee County’s African American community is the largest in the state, Rainey said, and he added that he was “outraged and deeply discouraged” by Abele’s comments.

“The keys are jobs, equal opportunities and economic development, not social services,” Rainey said. “Does he think social services and the House of Correction only serve African Americans? How can we make progress in this community when leaders such as the County Executive show such ignorance and disrespect to the real needs of African Americans and other minorities?”

Rainey said he was especially angered by Abele’s comments about adding funding for the House of Correction. “Does he think only African Americans are housed there?” Rainey said. “What he said today reflected a prejudice that cannot be tolerated in the leadership of Milwaukee County. Chris Abele should apologize to all Milwaukee County African Americans for his comments, and he should ask himself what he really thinks about an important part of Milwaukee County. He apparently considers the African American community a drain on Milwaukee County. How dare he?”

Supervisor Martin Weddle said: “It’s plain as day to see that not enough is being done to help the African American community get jobs, not just now, but for as long as I can remember,” Weddle said. “As our funding for African American cultural institutions and services continues to decrease, and as job growth in the community continues to lag, we will continue to experience severe difficulties. Chris Abele clearly does not recognize the
needs of a community in crisis.”

Supervisor Supreme Moore Omokunde also issued a press release expressing how he felt offended by Abele's remarks. Supervisor Michael Mayo, Sr. blasted Abele for being missing in action on African American issues and demanding an apology.

Being the son of billionaire John Abele, the 258th richest man in the world, Chris Abele has never known what it is like to struggle. If he had a problem, he would just throw his daddy's money at it until it went away.

Even though Abele has lived his life atop an ivory tower and is more than a bit of a pompous ass, it is no excuse for his callous disregard for a large part of the population he is supposed to be representing. It does, however, go a long way in explaining why Milwaukee is the most segregated community in the nation.

If the gentle reader wishes to contact Abele to ask him to explain himself and/or demand an apology, you may reach him at 414-278-4211 or via email at CountyExec@milwaukeecountywi.gov.

Necessities Before Niceties, People Before Plutocrats

Chris Abele and the rest of the plutocracy are amping up their big push to get public funding to build a new arena for the Milwaukee Bucks.  The latest of this comes in the form of a "study" done by the Public Policy Forum, which is an elitist version of the MacIver Institute.    The study comes up with a number or "hypothetical scenarios:" in which the plutocrats can tap into public funding for the arena.

The plutocrats are so desperate to have more taxpayer money being funneled into their pockets that they are trying to hold Milwaukee's cultural assets as ransom to get at the money for the arena.

Of course, Abele is all in favor of using taxpayer money for the arena. Then if there is any money left over, he might let some go to our cultural assets.  Although he's made it pretty clear that he thinks that buildings like the Veterans War Memorial Center should be razed so that the lakefront can be enjoyed by the ultra rich and only the ultra rich.

The fact that Abele is putting plutocrats over people is not new.  I reported fifteen months ago that Abele was following Tommy Thompson's "stick it to them" routine by supporting a sales tax to build a new arena.  To show what a freaking hypocrite Abele is, even as he was pushing for a sales tax for the arena, he said that a sales tax that served a necessity such as the transit system was too regressive and would let the state off the hook for their responsibility.

Apparently, sales taxes are only regressive when the majority of the community benefits as opposed to the elite few.  And speaking of them, I'm sure that Abele would testify that each and every member of his millionaire's club known as the Greater Milwaukee Committee is suffering inconsolably, and needs the help to build their new playground.

But the plutocrats have some issues to overcome if they want to get this tax rammed through.

Their first problem is that there is very little support for this.  At their first "listening session," only six people showed up.  At their next one, there was only about 50 people.  Out of all the people in the region, that's a negligible amount.

Furthermore, Racine County, Waukesha County and Ozaukee County have all come out against being part of any type of regional funding source for this playground.

If Milwaukee County Supervisor John Weishan gets his resolution approved, Milwaukee County could have a referendum this fall on whether they want their tax dollars go to this plutocratic welfare.

Any approval for further supporting the plutocrats seems unlikely, especially since they have just announced that the Miller Park sales tax will be extended again and will likely last until at least 2020.

The plutocrats will also have a hard time persuading people to jump on their bandwagon since their arguments are nothing more than empty rhetoric.

They say we need the new arena to be a big league city. But when they built the current arena in the late 1980s, that didn't affect our standing at all.  Whey they built Miller Park in 2001, we got no gain from it.  They need to explain how this new arena would suddenly make us more prominent on the map.

The plutocrats have tried to point to Oklahoma City as a guide on why we need to build the new arena.  But as Brewtown Gumshoe points out, Oklahoma City has a lot of things we don't, like warmer weather and Big Oil to help fund things.  He also points out that they also have a much lower quality of life.  (It is a right to work state, so it's expected that they have lower salaries and higher levels of poverty.)

On top of it all, the plutocrats will need to show what benefit there is to building an arena.  In short, arenas are money losers for the community:

Dennis Coates and Brad Humphreys found, "The multiplier for spending on sports in a city may be substantially smaller than the multiplier on other forms of entertainment spending, perhaps the most plausible explanation. The majority of the revenues from professional sports go into salaries for players, managers, coaches, trainers, scouts and to income for the ownership. Most of these individuals, especially the more highly paid ones, do not live full time in the city where the games take place. Unlike the wages and salaries paid to employees of local restaurants, movie theaters, car dealerships, department stores, etc., the large salaries earned by players and coaches leak out of the local economy."

This whole discussion is a fine example of what it wrong with the county, the state and even the nation.

Milwaukee County has many needs that are not being addressed:

• The transit system needs dedicated funding before it collapses
• The mental health system is about to collapse while Abele abandons the chronically mentally ill without leaving them a safety net
• There are hundreds of thousands of dollars of deferred maintenance left from Walker and further neglected by Abele

Yet despite all of these immediate needs, the elite plutocrats are trying to take more money out of the system so that they can have a new play thing, regardless of how many people might be further hurt by the continued neglect of society.

It's obvious that Abele doesn't even have a clue of what is happening in his own county.  The view from his ivory tower apparently has some significant blind spots.  Which is all the more reason we nee to get rid of him as soon as possible.  Despite all of his money, most people who don't have an umbilical cord attached to his checkbook are ready for a change and see his vulnerability.

Is Burke Another Abele?

Even before Mary Burke announced her desire to buy the governorship, I had questions about her stance towards labor.

We already knew that she spent $120,000 on a school board seat - ten times that of her opponent, a good

Image via Madison Times

union man.  That seemed and still seems rather excessive, such as that she wanted to buy the seat because she couldn't win it.

Then, while on said school board, she was the only one to vote against the teachers.  It was only later that she came out with such a lame excuse - that she was upset more of the tax levee wasn't going for teachers' pay - that no one believes her.

We also knew that while the employees of Trek, Burke's company, were generally happy, many of them had been laid off as she sent their jobs overseas to China.

When she finally got around to announcing her candidacy, people were so tired of the hype that they started questioning her openly.  Democratic officers and operatives swore up and down that Labor would support her.

Side note: My favorite moment from that day is when a noted Democratic fundraiser responded to my pointing out her failure to support the teachers, was that it was "just one union."  I reminded him of the union credo of "An injury to one is and injury to all." I'm still waiting for his response a month later.

Recently, she was in Sheboygan where she used her strongest language yet regarding Act 10:

Burke said she’s refusing to make promises on any issue during her campaign in order to win votes from special interest groups, but she did say she would “absolutely” work with state legislators to once again allow public employees to collectively bargain on their wages.

Burke never mentioned Walker by name but said Act 10, which effectively ended collective bargaining for most public workers, has left the state’s economy weakened, its people divided and went far beyond what was needed to balance the budget.

“I think it’s one of the reasons why our economy hasn’t rebounded,” she said.

Unfortunately, Burke has also said that she feels something had to be done, but that Act 10 wasn't the way to go. I say unfortunately because a report from EIP shows that the public sector workers' benefits had nothing - I repeat, nothing - to do with the financial crisis. So even though she would have negotiated the big pay cuts, they would still have had the negative impact on the community.

It sounds like Milwaukee County Emperor Chris Abele's faulty logic he uses to put draconian cuts to county workers.

But for me, what was even more alarming was this comment from Burke:

“I don’t look at options as necessarily being Republican or Democrat,” Burke said. “Let’s choose the ones that are best for the people of Wisconsin.”

That is the exact same language that Abele likes to use when trying to justify his acts of austerity and attacks on Milwaukee's vulnerable citizens or its workers.

If Burke wants to gain the support of the state's progressives (if she is even still able to), she needs to stop sounding and acting like a plutocrat and distance herself from the elitist ways of Abele.

I, for one, despite my desperate desire to rid us of Scott Walker once and for all, will not support someone who will not make things better, or, like Abele, actually make things worse.  I also know many other who feel the same way.  And that won't change no matter how much she spends or how fancy (or corrupt) her campaign workers are.

Those Must Be Some Damn Good Sammiches

Remember how Scott Walker told us that the state was broke and that drastic cuts had to be made?

In response, he slashed workers' pay and pulled hundreds of millions of dollars out of circulation so that his campaign donors could keep it safe in their safes. This in turned has tanked our economy and has cost us more jobs than just about any other state in the nation.

He also cut services which has had devastating results, including deaths of vulnerable citizens.

But through amazing prowess of his budgeting skills, he has found a half million dollars to do some renovation to the governor's mansion. But only to the kitchen.

Yes, you read that correctly.

Even though Walker doesn't have enough money to allow people access to healthcare, to give laid off workers unemployment compensation, to pay his own workers, he's got $500,000 to redo his kitchen.

And you thought Robin Vos was bad.

Those must be some really special sammiches he takes to work every day. Or maybe Tonette's chili is that special that she needs a kitchen worth more than most people's houses.

So remember, when you're wondering how you're going to pay the bills, feed your family and keep your house, Scott and Tonette are also roughing it. They could have had a million dollar kitchen.

The worst part of it is that he might not even be able to enjoy his new kitchen for long. Unless he gets a kitchen job in the prison he gets assigned to after John Doe is done with him.

Meet Richard Hayes. He picks up Mitt Romney's trash.

'Nuff said.

Cog Dis Exclusive: Secret Footage From Romney Campaign

You've seen the MItt Romney video about his admiration for the working conditions in China.

You've seen the collage of Romney gaffes.

And of course, you have seen the video of Romney expressing his disdain for 47% of the voters.

And now, as a Cog Dis exclusive, here is film taken earlier today of Romney speaking with his campaign advisers on how to address their horrible PR and dropping poll numbers (Warning: NSFW!):



What a guy, eh?

Splitting Hairs or How The Right Came To Love Elitism

Five years ago, when the Democrats were going through their winnowing process to see who would be their nominee for President of the United States, one of the contenders was the lecherous sleezeball, John Edwards.

Edwards was a textbook example of everything people don't want in a candidate. He was an adulterer, a weasel, and a pompous ass. He was also his worst enemy. Still reeling from the PR implosion of being found out to be cheating on his wife, he had another issue come up with his $300 to $500 haircuts.

The right had a field day with this, and rightfully so. Heck, some radio squawking heads, like Sykes, who really should have nothing to say about adultery or heightened self-consciousness about his hair, still brings up the "Two Americas" theme Edwards tried to run on.

Edwards became the living symbol of elitism and he was labeled as out of touch with the American people.

But that was then and this is now.

Or it's simply a matter of IOOKIARDI*.

Either way, here's how Mitt and Ann Romney are showing they're just everyday people who just happen to be multimillionaires and get more in tax breaks for their horse's costume than most families earn in a year (emphasis mine):

Mitt Romney's campaign is holding a contest that will award two winners a day aboard "Hair Force One" with Mitt. That's Ann's playful name for the jet, a nod to her husband's impeccably kept 'do. "Personally, I don't quite know what to call it," Mitt wrote in an e-mail to supporters. Just the "plane" will suffice. Anyhow, here's how Romney described what the winners can expect: "I don't know exactly what our itinerary will be, but if you're one of the winners — I can tell you it will be exciting." Shots from mini-liquor bottles and flip-cup? Wheelbarrow races down the aisle?! Although the entry page asks for a minimum $15 contribution, people can enter the contest without actually making a donation. Worth a shot for a student on a budget who wants to check out a few swing states.

Get it? Hair Force One? Woo hoo, those guys ARE just like us. Don't we all have personal jets and nothing to do but to worry our hair is just so?

Just like we all drink $350 bottles of wine, making Romney's running (from reality) mate, Paul Ryan, one of the good old home boys too.

Funny thing is, I don't hear the right wingers make the same aspersions of elitism as they did then. In fact, most of the ones I come in contact with now are embracing the thought to the point of truly believing they are the superior specimens of humankind and the lesser people - women, the poor, minorities and the LGBT community - really don't deserve to be on the same level as these masters of the universe.

And then they can't figure out why the 99% are so angry.

*IOOKIARDI = It's Only OK If A Republican Does It.

The View From Underneath Romney's Campaign Bus

Does anyone really believe he's riding in a bus? Methinks he's jetting around and just meeting the bus at airports outside of the campaign stops.

Abele Fundraiser: Not For The Commoners

I received an invitation to a fundraiser for Chris Abele today.  Check it out and see if you notice what I noticed:

Did you see it? They're charging $50 per person just to get in the door! Then you can spend two hours eating pate de foie gras and drinking champagne while they shove nominations petitions at you to sign.

I guess that's one way to keep out the riff raff.

But at $50 a head, I doubt that you'll find many county workers there.  Especially when one considers that in just over a week, Abele will be taking $400 to $500 out of their checks each week and is refusing to pay them for the furlough days they were illegally forced to take.

No, you won't see many county workers there at all.  But you might find some workers there.  Most likely the ones that have benefited from his nepotism or or from his cronyism.

That gives me a great idea for what could be Abele's campaign slogan:

"Just like Scott Walker -- Only Worse!"

I think that could catch on quickly.

Designer Bags Vs. Brown Paper Bags

Remember the brown paper bags that Scott Walker made as a symbol of his gubernatorial campaign? How he portrayed himself as a down to earth guy that still packed his own lunch to show how frugal he was? He also used his old Saturn, which he probably hasn't driven since making that commercial, to show that he was just like us.  He even got his wife, Tonette, into the act, doing commercials and putting her name to campaign literature vowing that her husband really was just another working stiff.

Do you remember all that? Well, the Walker's apparently don't.

In a story published today, Dan Bice tells of the Walkers' latest escapade - one that simply demands mockery - which is a fund-raising scheme allegedly to clean up and restore the governor's mansion. And just how are they going to raise these funds? With wine, croquet games and high end gifts, of course:

On Sept. 22, the governor and first lady will hold a private reception and croquet tournament at the governor's mansion from 5 to 7 p.m. to raise money to help rehab the Maple Bluff facility.

Attendees can donate anywhere from $50 to $1,000 to the mansion's nonprofit foundation. Those who drop a grand get a "private reception, private tour, recognition on the invitation, signage and acknowledgment at the event, and admission and (croquet) tournament entry for two."

Fundraising invitations went out recently to scores of Madison lobbyists, female lawmakers, neighbors of the mansion, GOP campaign contributors, leading business officials and friends of the first couple. Some 1,800 people received an invite.

Those asked to attend the fundraiser range from conservative talk show host Charlie Sykes to Walker campaign chairman Michael Grebe.

The first lady said in her email accompanying the invitation that she hopes the event generates enough "resources to help us restore the Residence to its intended historic charm, beauty, and value."

"I am inviting fellow leading ladies like yourself to please join me in donating a purse filled with some of your favorite things. The purses will then be raffled off at the event," Tonette Walker added. "For example, I'll be donating a Tignanello bag filled with some of my can't-live-without items like my favorite shade of Bobbi Brown lipstick and an Aveda hand cream that I can't get enough of."

One recipient of an invitation was put off by the talk of designer handbags and croquet matches during this time of austere budgets and program cuts.

"I thought you might like to see where our first lady's efforts are going," said the source, who asked that her name not be used. "In the year of reducing programs like the school milk program for poor kids, I'm supposed to fill a purse with 'necessities' and donate to restore a mansion."

I'm sure the mention of caviar and pate de foie gras were simple omissions.

Bice raises the question if this is a way to buy influence with the governor. He points out that it is illegal for a lobbyist to donate money to his campaign until five months of the election, and speculates that this is a way for lobbyists, pols and other well-moneyed folks to curry favor with the governor. And we do know that in Walker's administration, the bigger the money, the clearer he hears the voice behind it.

Bice also spoke to Scot Ross of One Wisconsin Now, who gave Bice a pretty good money quote:

"It sounds like a two-part construction project," said Scot Ross, head of the liberal group One Wisconsin Now, a frequent Walker critic. "The special interests pay to remodel Gov. Walker's mansion, and he builds them a private entrance to his office."

Now, what they say makes perfectly good sense given Walker's history of pandering to the rich and having no scruples whatsoever.

But I wonder if that is the whole story. Don't forget that there is a looming John Doe investigation into Walker and his campaign and his former county (and for some, now former state) workers. This fund raiser may be a precursor to either defending against the criminal investigation or to defending against his upcoming recall. Given Walker's lack of ethics and historically sloppy bookkeeping this could be the first of the defense fund raising in itself.

Given that the Walker's stunt is so prone to mockery (didn't anyone think this through?!), it gives the Democrats (or the unions, for that matter) a perfect opportunity themselves.

Wouldn't it be a grand idea for the Dems (or unions) to hold their own croquet game, or even games throughout the state, in which they invite normal citizens to play along with Democratic pols, say like the Wisconsin 16? And instead of handing out designer bags full of high end cosmetics, they could hand out brown shopping bags of food for food pantries or school supplies to help cover a portion of the funds that Walker is gutting out of the school budgets.

They would be able to not only be able to point out Walker's elitism, but also score great points with people in the community by showing the stark difference between them and the Republicans, and who really stands for the average tax payer and citizen. I know too many people that need help due to Walker's budget and too many teachers wondering how they'll be able to do their usual quality work without the necessary supplies, and this would be a great way to help them.

Besides, who really wants to get a tube of Koch-o Brown colored lipstick?

Croquet anyone?

Ryan's Wine Stains

Ryan and friends wining and dining.*

TPM is reporting that Congressdweep Paul Ryan was recently seen wining and dining with a couple of "economists" (or more likely lobbyists) at a swanky DC eatery.  This in itself isn't a problem for me.

The outrage came from the fact that these three moneybags swilled down two $350 bottles of wine during the time, even as Ryan is trying to cut Grandma and Grandpa off the public dole to which they have paid their whole working life.

Not only that, but how can Ryan squander that much money when there are reality television stars starving to death out there?!

* Photo courtesy of TPM

TrogloFAIL

Lance Burri, aka the TrogloPundit, apparently is easily confused.

Take for example, this excerpt from this post, in which he takes exception regarding the group of hardy people that went to Madison on Monday to let Goobernator Scott Walker know that we are out here and we are ready to hold him and his cronies accountable:

Note what the sign says: “We Need Good Jobs NOW!” Outside the inauguration of a conservative, pro-business governor who is replacing a liberal, anti-business governor whose idea of job creation was raising taxes by several billion dollars and sticking taxpayers with untold billions in debt.

If that’s not ironic, I don’t know what is.

Actually, the irony is that he doesn't get it.

The truth is simple. Walker's brand of being "pro-business" does not equate to good jobs.

A good job would be one that pays a living wage, provides decent benefits and does not unduly endanger the worker. Walker's idea of how things should be would be a major decrease in a worker's pay; cutting, if not cutting out, employee benefits (especially for homosexuals); and loosening, if not entirely eliminating, safety regulations and consumer protections.

Perhaps Lance has spent so much time among the elitists that he doesn't understand what the working class is going through. Maybe he doesn't understand that concentrating the wealth among a few will not help the state or the people that are struggling and suffering, or fix the economy.

Or maybe he does and just doesn't care.

Some Words Are Meaningless To Scott Walker

Many times when you talk to someone about government, especially an anti-government zealot, one of the phrases most likely to pop up is this one from Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address: "...of the people, by the people, for the people..."

This famous phrase is apparently meaningless to Scott Walker.

Caffeinated Politics, based in Madison, is up in arms about some of the draconian measures being taken for Monday's inauguration.

For example, the disabled, the elderly and anyone else that might need to use the elevators at the state capital might as well not show up, since their access to their government is going to be severely restricted.

But Walker isn't being biased against these folks. No sirree. He's against any and all of the common riff-raff, disabled or otherwise, from having access to the government that their taxes pay for.

So why is Walker doing this? Simple, he's not as popular as his mouthpieces in talk radio, the newspapers and on conservative blogs would have you believe.

On his big day, there is already a movement afoot to give him the special salute he deserves. This group will consist of organized labor, high speed rail advocates, the unemployed and anyone else that actually gives a damn about the state and understands how he is preparing to take that all away and give it the the oligarchy that supported him over the years.

It just makes me wonder what he'll do when the real protests start.

Kleefisch: Admits She's In Over Her Head

Even though the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has apparently chosen not to do their jobs, other media across the state are starting to press Rebecca Kleefisch for an answer on why she is refusing to debate her counterpart, Tom Nelson.

Thus far, Wisconsin Radio Network appears to have gotten the closest to getting any sort of answer from her:

The Republican running for lieutenant governor was in Menasha Thursday to talk to students at U-W Fox Valley about the November election. Rebecca Kleefisch also responded to questions about why she won’t debate the Democrat in the lieutenant governor’s race, Assembly Majority Leader Tom Nelson. Kleefisch said Nelson’s calls for debate are “the last refuge of a desperate campaign.” She also said she isn’t sure if lieutenant governor candidates usually participate in debates. “I don’t know what the standard is,” Kleefisch told WHBY. “This is my first political campaign. I guess I don’t know what is standard and what is not when it comes to something like this.”

She doesn't know what the standard is? She's been going around for the past several months bragging about how she was such a crack reporter and a watchdog of the government. But all of a sudden she is unable to make a phone call or do a Google search? Perhaps she studied under the famed Jessica McBride for her journalism skills.

But the main point is that once again, her elitism and disrespect for the voters comes glaring through. If she truly wanted to speak to the voters, what better or more efficient way than through a televised debate? And she knows how to debate. She did debates when she was running in the primary. Obviously, she did rather well, since she won the Republican primary.

The real answer is that her running mate, Scott Walker, doesn't want her to debate. He doesn't think she is good enough, obviously. So why should we?

By the way, Ms. Kleefisch, the current Lt. Governor, Barbara Lawton, debated twice during the last election. See? That wasn't so hard.

Walker and Kleefisch: The Elitism and Hypocrisy Ticket

Scott Walker has finally found a purpose for Rebecca Kleefisch besides being a Wisconsin version of Sarah Palin. Though Team Walker still won't allow her to actually participate in a debate, for fear that her lack of qualifications will come shining through, she is now the star of her second TV commercial.

In the commercial, she never does mention that she is the Republican candidate for Lt. Governor, but merely identifies herself as Walker's running mate.

She goes into how grateful she is that she is not poor, and that her husband is a state legislator who gets some nice insurance paid mostly for by tax payers. She then puts on her scary face and falsely claims that Barrett would do away with our health care system in a government takeover.

Apparently, she is unable to differentiate between health care coverage and health care provision. Team Walker is hoping that the voters are that ignorant as well, or just aren't paying attention to the details.

As I stated before, I am glad that Kleefisch is on the road to recovery and has a good prognosis of being able to enjoy her family for years to come. It's just a shame that she takes the attitude that poor people shouldn't be afforded the same opportunity.

As noted in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, her attitude against allowing poor people the same kind of access to our wonderful medical system is more than a wee bit hypocritical and elitist:

Kleefisch, who runs her own marketing business on which she works part time, and her family are covered through an Anthem Blue insurance plan offered by the state to her husband, Rep. Joel Kleefisch (R-Oconomowoc), Bader said. According to the state Department of Employee Trust Funds website, that family plan costs $21,690 a year. State workers like Joel Kleefisch pay $1,020 a year, or $85 a month, for that family coverage and taxpayers pick up the rest - $20,670 a year.

In contrast, a recent national study by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research & Educational Trust found that family coverage from private and public employers costs on average $13,770 a year, with workers paying nearly $4,000 of that.

And they claim it's those greedy union workers who are to blame for all the money woes. Yeah, right.

You see, it's not that Scott Walker or Rebecca Kleefisch are really against health care reform or against spending our tax dollars. It's just that they want to make sure that only the right kind of people, the rich, get those advantages, and not having it squandered on ordinary folks who are having a hard time just getting ends to meet.

David Clarke: "No Mere Beat Patrol Deputy"

Someone who is a David Clarke supporter (although not enough of a supporter to actually put their name out there) has taken umbrage with the fact that I pointed out that Clarke has been sucking up to the conservatives, begging for support in the Democratic primary in a couple of weeks.

Clarke is probably feeling a little nervous given he can't count on a Republican cross over with the Neumann/Walker race being so tight.

Anyway, said anonymous Clarke supporter and I have been have a little chat about Clarke's failure as a law enforcement officer, specifically when he tried to help a drunk driver get back on the road.

Said Clarke supporter retorted with this line (emphasis mine):

Can you immediately tell when someone is at .08 just by looking at them? A guy stuck in a snowbank on a snowy day doesn't immediately mean he's drunk. Clarke called for a squad to deal with it, so what? He's the sheriff, not a beat patrol deputy.

My, oh my. So he's the sheriff! I guess that means he's exempt from his primary job duty, which is enforcing the law.

How is he supposed to lead his deputies if he is incapable of doing the job himself?

Surprisingly, or maybe not, the elitism isn't even the worst of it.

First there is the factual problems. I'd say it was pretty obvious the driver was looped, giving Dan Bice's report:

It looked, at first glance, like a run-of-the-mill winter accident.

At least that's the way Sheriff David Clarke Jr. treated it.

But he couldn't have been more wrong.

Clarke, the first cop at the scene, instantly moved into helper mode. First, he tried to push and then pull Allen's vehicle out of the snow bank. But even with the help of another motorist, Clarke couldn't get Allen and his Ford Taurus back on the road.

That's when the second officer arrived.

Deputy Sandra Santoro* did what any good cop should have done from the start.

Santoro ran a check on the driver and found that his license was suspended. She then sized up Allen, noticing his eyes were bloodshot and glassy and that he reeked of alcohol. Visible inside his car were two empty beer bottles, one empty beer can and an open beer can, still three-quarters full.

"I'm not gonna lie to you," Allen told Santoro, according to her police report. "I was drinking. I had a few beers. I knew I was busted when you guys came.

"I almost got away with it."

As it turned out, Allen's blood-alcohol content was more than twice the legal limit. The 43-year-old driver later pleaded no contest to drunken driving, agreeing to pay a $764 fine.

But the elitism and the incompetence still isn't the worst part.

As any law enforcement officer could tell you, honesty is supposed to be the biggest thing. Everyone realizes hat police officers and deputies are human beings. That means that they are going to make mistakes and poor choices from time to time. That is just part of being human.

What matters most is how you deal with the problem once it's there. A good cop or deputy could cope with the consequences of making a mistake, if they owned up to it and admitted where they erred.

Clarke didn't even do that much. Besides neglecting his duty as first officer on the scene, he then tried to cover up what happened by bringing up trumped up charges against the arresting deputy. To make it even more obviously a cover up, it happened only when the paper starting looking into the incident which had occurred, and not the six months earlier when the incident actually happened.

I guess it all adds together though. If Clarke is too dishonest to even admit when he screwed up, how can we expect him to be honest about what party he belongs to?

*Deputy Santoro recently was a hero when she was part of rescuing a man who was threatening suicide by jumping off the Hoan Bridge. I wonder if Clarke will write her up for not taking the bridge in as evidence.