A Sad Day For Milwaukee and Journalism, As One Of My Favorite Curmugeons Passes Away

 I wasn't close friend of Joel's but we did travel in the same circles and it was always a pleasure to see him! So this is sad news for me, and as I said, Milwaukee and Journalism as well::

'Voice of resistance,' longtime Milwaukee columnist Joel McNally dies at age 80

Bucks Abele Goes MIA. Again.

The Shepherd Express did a comparison between the way that Mayor Tom Barrett and Milwaukee County Emperor Bucks Abele is dealing with the Bucks arena debacle, and it's very telling:

While Barrett tried his best to get everything out in the open as soon as possible, Abele has gone into hiding. He’s sent out two aides—Department of Administrative Services Director Teig Whaley-Smith and Economic Development Director James Tarantino, who’s only been on the job since May—to sell the plan to the public and county supervisors. And he turned down a request to be interviewed by the Shepherd on his plans.

If the Legislature approves the deal as is, the county is on the hook for a lot more than the city’s parking garage and TIF. The county has committed $4 million a year in bad debt for the next 20 years—a funding mechanism Barrett rejected—as well as offering to sell nine acres of Park East land to the Bucks owners for $1. Abele’s plan, crafted in secret, could have a big impact on an already strained county budget because the debt that’s collected currently goes into the county coffers. Plus, if the state can’t collect the $4 million yearly for the Bucks, it will reduce the county’s state aid and likely cause property taxes to rise.

There are so many questions to be answered about the county’s contributions, but Abele won’t explain to his constituents or county supervisors why he thinks this is the best deal he could negotiate, especially since it appears to be so much worse for county taxpayers than Gov. Scott Walker’s original bonding plan. Adding insult to injury, rumors are rampant that if Abele doesn’t get his way, his Republican legislator buddies will strip the county board’s ability to approve land deals in the pending state budget, further diminishing transparency and accountability in county government.

Mayor Barrett has shown that he’s willing to stand behind his proposal to make the arena deal work. If County Executive Abele is so confident about committing county resources to keep the Bucks in town, why won’t he defend his plan in public?

Abele's approach to the arena fiasco is indicative of the way Abele's idea of leadership in general. Like a medieval feudal lord, Abele feels that the poor and working class are there to be exploited and that he doesn't need to answer to such riffraff. After all, he's filthy rich, which makes him feel that he's better than us commoners.

Boss Abele

I have already written about Milwaukee County Emperor Chris Abele's plan to build up his Abele Party (motto: For a more perfect plutocracy), regardless whether they are Teapublican or Republicrat..

The Shepherd Express has more on this disgusting local display of the corruption in government we have come to see all too often since Citizens United:

The answer is very clear. Obviously, the county board is not completely innocent and longtime county board watchers assign fault at about 20% the board and 80% Abele. The source of the problem is not the county board, but the clumsy and aggressive actions of Abele. When you grow up with family money to enable you to buy whatever or whomever you needed, you didn’t have to learn to work with people, to compromise and to try to work toward consensus. Instead, you just stepped over or, more often, just stepped on anyone who disagreed with you.

Abele’s approach to governing is rather unique. In order to get his way, Abele goes around the county supervisors, who are elected by Milwaukee County voters, and who are supposed to be the check and balance against the county executive. Instead, he goes to the outstate conservative Republican legislators to override the will of Milwaukee County’s elected representatives. Abele garners support from outstate Republican legislators, many of whom are clearly and unabashedly hostile to Milwaukee. All of his “major changes” were put into effect, not by the democratic approach of working with the locally elected county supervisors as the system was designed to do and how it has worked since the current county system was created. Instead, he had his outstate conservative Republican legislator pals, who are not elected by and do not represent the Milwaukee County voters, override the wishes of the majority of Milwaukee County residents.

This pattern is exposing Abele to the obvious question, who does he represent and why does he claim to be a Democrat when his actions are those of a conservative Republican?

In response to those questions, Abele has recently been bragging to his friends that his new strategy is to create the Abele machine. He has personally recruited two individuals who, he brags, will be under his control, to run in the Milwaukee County Democratic state Assembly seats being vacated by state representatives Sandy Pasch and Jon Richards. His friends said that he even referred to himself as “Boss Abele” in the mold of the late Chicago Mayor Richard Daley. Abele’s plan is to use his money to try to buy the election for his two hand-selected individuals. So when he takes his issues to the Republican-controlled Legislature, he will have two votes from Democrats in Milwaukee County. That will enable him to claim he is not a hard-line Republican, but a bipartisan hero.

Unfortunately, Abele’s plan could work since money is important in elections. But money cannot buy votes or an election if the voters stay well informed. Keep an eye out for negative and false campaign literature and any ads attacking the candidates running against his chosen ones. One guess who is paying for these ads.

Abele definitely puts the buy into buy-partisanship. Is it any wonder why he has consistently tried to block the Move to Amend referendum from ever appearing on the ballot? Without his daddy's money to toss about, no one would want anything to do with him.

To help beat Boss Abele, make sure to vote for Marina Dimitrijevic in Assembly District 19 and David Bowen in Assembly District 10 on August 12th!

Walkergate 2: Michael Grebe and the Sockpuppets of Manipulation

Lisa Kaiser of the Shepherd Express has another must read installation of her ongoing series on the second John Doe investigation.  This week, Kaiser looks at the way the right wing groups would pump money into their front groups to come up with bogus studies and even more bogus reporting in order to further their agenda.

Per Kaiser, the largest of these malefactors is Michael Grebe and the Bradley Foundation:

With more than $550 million in assets, the Bradley Foundation sunk at least $31 million into its voucher studies and programs, according to a report by One Wisconsin Now (OWN). But its funding is sent to other conservative, free-market foundations and think tanks around the country.

“They are the biggest funder of right-wing causes in the nation,” said Mike Browne, OWN’s deputy director. “They spend more money than the Koch brothers.”

The Bradley Foundation is a huge supporter of members of the State Policy Network in Wisconsin and elsewhere. According to OWN’s research, the Bradley Foundation has given more than $16.5 million to the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute and $635,000 to John K. McIver Institute for Public Policy. The two groups are SPN members that have provided voucher-supporting studies and analysis at the same time they attempt to pass themselves off as independent, straight-shooting think tanks.

WPRI, which bills itself as “Wisconsin’s Free Market Think Tank,” has precious few scholars on staff—none, in fact. Its president is former Journal Sentinel columnist Mike Nichols and its lead commentators are WTMJ’s Charlie Sykes (whose current wife works for the Bradley Foundation), political consultant Deb Jordahl and former Department of Administration Secretary George Lightbourn.

WPRI’s board is dominated by the state’s corporate chiefs, including Tom Howatt, chair of Wausau Paper Corp.; Bank Mutual President David Baumgarten; ex-MillerCoors Vice President Michael Jones; former Thompson administration official and We Energies Senior Vice President James Klauser; Milwaukee investor David Lubar; and Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce (MMAC) President Tim Sheehy.

So it’s no wonder why WPRI has churned out studies supporting the agenda shared by Walker and the Bradley Foundation, including attacks on public schools, climate change, public employee benefits and the state’s renewable energy targets while promoting highway expansion, commercial bail bonds and fracking.

The board of directors of MacIver Institute includes Milwaukee businessman Fred Luber; Michael, Best and Friedrich attorney James Troupis; and former Republican First Lady Laurie McCallum. Its president is Brett Healy, a former aide to disgraced Republican Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen, now a school voucher lobbyist.

Other Wisconsin partners of SPN are the Lucy Burns Institute, Bradley Foundation-funded Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, Americans for Prosperity-Wisconsin, the Dick Armey-led FreedomWorks-Wisconsin, the Taxpayers Network Incorporated and the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance.

Then again, not much of this should surprise the gentle reader. I've been writing about this for years, both at this here blog and even once for the Shepherd Express.


Here's how it works:

One of the right wing "think tanks" would come up with some cockamamie, convoluted study that will support one of the maleficent schemes, such as privatizing education is actually good for the kids and the taxpayers.  Then one of the right wing propagandist groups would "report" on the story.  This would give it enough faux credibility for the mainstream corporate media to run with the story  The story would be echoed by other propagandists, right wing bloggers (many of whom have suddenly, mysteriously and suspiciously shut down their sites)  and squawk radio..  The average consumer of the corporate media wouldn't know of the falseness of the reporting and would just accept it as truth.

By adding all the layers and multiple front groups, it was easier for the money machines, like the Bradley Foundation and the Koch Brothers, to keep things churning and to cover up their finger prints in the whole sordid mess.

And for the skeptics on whether this kind of manipulation occurs, I can assure you it does, as I reported on during the 2011 recalls, when these front groups used it to attack former Senator Jessica King:

Greg Sargent tripped the whole thing with this article showing that John Buckstaff, the fake Democrat in the race is actually a Republican backer and has donated money to Randy Randy "Bed" Hopper.  Furthermore, Sargent tells us that a flyer that they've been distributing telling people to vote for Buckstaff is aimed at getting Republican voters to cross over in the primary and shut the real Democrat, Jessica King, out of the race immediately. 

Also remarkable about Sargent's findings is that the flyer is paid for by a group called "Patriot Advisors."

And this is where we go into the same sordid incestuous intermingling that the Koch Brothers are known for.

Patriot Advisors is headed up by Tim Dunn and Denis Calabrese.

Calabrese, the former Chief of Staff for Dick Armey, is also on the director of the Sam Adams Alliance, yet another Koch Brother front group and money chute. This Sam Adams Alliance also funnels the Koch dollars to other groups like Americans For Prosperity and the Franklin Center for Public and Government Integrity*.

The sharp-eyed reader might have already noticed, but it was the Franklin Center which is quoted in the anti-King flyer.

Just to be clear, the Sam Adams Alliance, Patriot Advisors and Franklin Center are all Koch-funded groups with incestuous ties to each other. One of them is using the other to justify voting for the fake Democrat instead of trying to defend the Republican and his boorish behavior or facing the consequences for his actions.

Or in other words, the sock puppet on the Kochs' right and hand makes some statement, regardless of the whether it's true, half-true or a bold faced lie, and then they have the sock puppet on the left hand repeat the lie in order to reinforce it and give it false credibility.

And I'm sure this scenario is being played out in the other races as well. 

Short of the John Doe investigation being successful, there isn't really any way to shut down these groups. And even if the Son of Doe is successful, the Kochs and Bradley Foundation will only create new front groups and start their operations all over again.

But there are things that we can do to help control the damage done by these groups, such as putting pressure on the corporate media who regurgitate this foul propaganda as legitimate news.

But the more important thing we can do is to keep ourselves educated and organized.  Learn the truth of what is happening, the lies behind their deceitful stories and the consequences of what would happen if these would be corporate overlords would get their way.  Then share this knowledge with your family, your neighbors, your friends and your coworkers.  Politely but firmly confront the falsehoods and back them up with the hard truth.

The most important thing we can do is not give up.

Vote Cog Dis 2013!

At the end of 2011, I was in dire straits.

My old computer was on its last circuits and was about to fail completely.  I reluctantly asked for help, since I could not afford a new one on my own.

You, my friends, responded in overwhelming numbers and chipped in to help me buy the People's Computer.  I still feel humbled and honored and more than a bit mystified when I think of your kindness and generosity.  I hope that you have found that your generous donations were not squandered.

A few months later, you came through for me again and voted this here blog to be the "Best of the Web" for political blogs in a poll taken by the Shepherd Express.

Now, I come to ask for your help again.

The Fix at the Washington Post is updating their list of the best political blogs with a focus on state politics.  The last time they did this, some eighteen months ago, such prestigious blogs such as Blogging Blue, Blue Cheddar, Dane 101 and Uppity Wisconsin made the list.

I'd like to ask the gentle reader to throw their support for Cognitive Dissidence as well for this year.  I ask this not just for myself, or for my worthy colleagues of dissent: Jeff, Meg, Shane, Steve and Keith.  I ask this of you for you too.

After all, my writing is done on the People's Computer, and this blog is "of the people, by the people and for the people."

And I think it would be a most horrible thing if something like Charlie Sykes' White Wisconsin would make it and we weren't repping the good people of Wisconsin.

So go to the Fix's poll and please give us a plug.

And on behalf of the Cog Dis crew, I thank you again for your support.  It means more to us than mere words can describe.

Have 'Independent News Service' Groups Crossed the Line?

Now this is some high quality reporting on right wing "news services!" 

You Like Me! You Really Like Me!

The Shepherd Express held their second annual readers' survey about the best blogs, tweeters and websites.

They publicly released the results today.  To my amazement and pleasant surprise, this little old blog site was voted the best political blog:

Politics Blog
Cognitive Dissidence 

Runners-Up:
Blogging Blue  

"A Sinner Observes" by Lester Schultz

Milwaukee County First was also voted as a runner up for Best Activism Site.

I thank my readers, my friends and the readers of the Shepherd Express for their votes and and their support.  

I guess I should also thank Scott Walker.  If it weren't for his greed, his corruption and his ineptitude, I might not have enjoyed this moment and would not have met all of the wonderful people that are willing to fight for Milwaukee County, for the State of Wisconsin and for the People.

Aw, screw him.

I only thank the ones that matter - the good people of Wisconsin!

Walkergate: Scott Walker's Other Big Problem

The Shepherd Express published an article written by yours truly:

Scott Walker's Other Big Problem:  An Overview of Walkergate

More Cuts At Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Even though it's already been reduced to being little more than a press release regurgitation machine, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is acting quickly to make it even less of a newspaper:

A new round of buyouts and involuntary downsizing has eliminated six jobs in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel newsroom, including five represented by the Milwaukee Newspaper Guild.

Journal Sentinel Inc. management has not announced the total number of positions eliminated throughout all newspaper departments, but some sources indicate it could be more than two dozen. The staff reductions were completed during the past week.

The latest cuts mark a return to what had become a troubling trend. During 2009 alone, buyouts and layoffs cut the newsroom work force by one-third. But no downsizing had touched our bargaining unit since then.

“I’m hoping we can keep our current numbers stable, but as we’ve seen the company is willing to squeeze the newsroom any time it feels like its financial numbers aren’t up to snuff,” Guild President Tom Silverstein told members. “I remain dismayed that, with few exceptions, the newsroom cuts have been aimed at bargaining-unit employees and not management.”

While I cancelled my subscription eight months ago, my dad will sometimes drop off his copy of the Sunday paper for the ads. I can read the entire thing in less than 45 minutes, including the ads and the comics, there is so little useful information in there. By the time the editors are done with the articles, there is little fact left to them. And with David Haynes took over the Editorial Board, it's not even worth the nausea that comes with their unabashed water-carrying for Scott Walker and the Tea Party.

Even now, I find myself even avoiding their website as much as possible, because their coverage, with a few notable exceptions, aren't even worth the frustration of their relentless pop-up ads and other clutter.

I would love to see either another daily paper come into the market or the Shepherd Express to expand their coverage and increase their frequency.  I bet either way, their business would take off in this honest news deprived town.