Well, I, For One, Did Not See That Coming!

Scott Walker is listed as a "potential gubernatorial candidate" at the Republican Governors Association in Miami, Florida.

I mean , did anyone expect that one? I was sure caught off guard.

And it's not like he has a job to do here or anything, right? Anyone?

Tip of the Crown to the Blue Knight.

Walker's Chickens Coming Home To Roost

A few weeks ago, I lamented Walker's poor planning and his willful, malicious neglect of the public assistance call center. Just a few hours ago, I shared my thoughts on the County Budget so far, again echoing my concerns.

This morning, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel shows us what his brand of fiscal conservatism is going to cost the County. Due to his refusal to adequately staff the call center, people were being denied timely service. This prompted a lawsuit which will probably become a class action in short order. This will probably cost tax payers a pretty penny.

The MJS tells us now that the State of Wisconsin is not going to reward the County a jobs training grant that would have brought in $2.3 million dollars a year. The reason the State gave was that the County was doing such a poor job with the food stamp program.

And why was the County doing such a poor job with the food stamp program? You guess it. Because Walker refused to fill the positions that would have allowed the job to have been done properly in the first place. From the article (emphasis mine):

The state decided to deny the county the job training contract so the county could focus on improving the food stamp program, Timberlake said in her letter.

Corey Hoze, the county's human services director, said Timberlake overstated the county's food stamp error rate. He said the county was attempting to persuade the state to relent on shutting the county out of running the training program.

Similar complaints about delays and unfair denials of services to the poor also are at the heart of a federal lawsuit against the county filed over the summer. Thirteen Milwaukee County residents are suing the county and the state over allegations of excessive delays in processing benefit applications, reviews and other parts of the bureaucratic maze. The plaintiffs are asking that the case be certified as a class-action suit on behalf of all eligible aid recipients in the county.

As a result of the county's missteps, deserving clients have been denied food stamps or health care through the state Medicaid or BadgerCare programs - or got benefits only after excessive delays, the lawsuit states. The county has inadequate staff to handle applications and verifications for the benefits, the lawsuit states.

For example, Shira Raymond, one of the plaintiffs in the case, was due an increase in food stamps when her husband lost his job in January, the lawsuit says. The increase should have gone into effect in March but didn't until April, which resulted in the family not having enough food, the complaint said.

The county has denied the charges, but acknowledged employee vacancies - which the lawsuit says is a key reason for the problems.

Walker's refusal to fill those positions did not save the taxpayer one cent. The positions were already funded. Lord only knows what Walker really did with the money that should have been spent there, since he has claimed that there is a deficit in the 2008 budget. But not only did Walker fail to save the taxpayers any money, but he has just cost the $2.3 million dollars a year by failing to meet the basic requirements of the food stamp program, thereby losing the job training program. And this is not counting the money that will have to be spent defending the lawsuit (and that will go up if it becomes a class action), but any money that will be lost stemming from the lawsuit if the plaintiffs were to win.

How is that good fiscal management? It also raises two more questions: Was this an act of deliberate sabotage, in an effort to privatize the call center and gain political favor (and financial favors) from the private sector, or was it mere malicious negligence? And why hasn't he been recalled yet?

Some Thoughts On The County Budget

Last night, I reported on the events as the Milwaukee County Board amended and adopted the 2009 Budget. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel had their version of in this morning's paper. The County Board has issued their press release, and Walker, predictably, has announced that he wants to put everything back up for sale.

Now that I've had a day to reflect, and review by notes, here are a few thoughts on the budget thus far, in no particular order.

Last night I stated that I thought the budget wasn't bad, but wasn't great. As I reread the budget and all that had happened, and what failed to happen, the budget actually does stink worse than the corpse flower at the museum. But in fairness to the board, they were given a pile of garbage to work with, and tried to do what they could (for the most part). It had to be difficult to work around all those "For Sale" signs Walker put on everything.

Supervisor DeBruin raised the question of why Walker's Chief of Staff Tom Nardelli and the other top members of Walker's team should get raises while they are laying off hundreds of workers. She also offered an amendment that would have frozen the wages of the top managers and political appointees of Walker, but he Board inexplicably failed to pass it. Heck, the amendment was such a no brainer that even Jeff Wagner agreed it was a good idea.

Supervisor Weishan was quite outspoken about his outrage at Walker's failure to fulfill his duties. When they were discussing putting the House of Correction under the control of the Sheriff's Office, Weishan opposed the plan saying that Walker was "running away from his responsibility" for the failure the HOC had become last year. When they were talking about whether to sell off, I mean privatize, the public assistance call center, Weishan correctly stated that the "County Executive was abdicating responsibility and saying he cannot manage."

Like Debruin, Weishan also had a wonderful proposal that never made it off the floor. Weishan had offered an amendment that would have required department heads to return the money for funded positions that they never filled. This stems from the 717 positions that went unfilled this year, but had been fully funded in the budget.

As I mentioned before, the call center was a hot topic in yesterday's hearing. The board debated about this more than any of the other amendments. Almost every single member of the board complained that they were receiving too many phone calls complaining about the call center. Many of the Supervisors also pointed out that Walker and his team were mismanaging the center by filling half of the empty positions. It was also pointed out that Walker's plan would actually cut the number of case workers that could resolve the problem by two thirds and would end up prolonging the wait time people would have to endure before getting help.

Unfortunately, too many Supervisors didn't care who's fault it was. Supervisor Schmitt went so far as to say that "who's responsible is not a priority." All they cared about was what was the fastest way to stop getting those pesky phone calls asking them to do their job by making sure that the department heads were doing their jobs.

Also alarming was the winking and nodding that was going on between Supervisor Jursik and representative of the private agencies that wanted to gobble up County assets and jobs as the debate went on. After the amendment passed, albeit just barely, the private agency folks got up and huffed out of the room.

Would someone please explain to me why year after year after year, Walker makes the same budget recommendations like privatizing the parks. closing the farm and fish hatchery at the HOC, and such, when he knows it's not going anywhere. Does he think that if he tries enough times, it will actually happen? Or is it that he forgets? Or is it that he is just phoning his part in to look good for his Quixotic gubernatorial race?

Will Walker and his allies on the board (Cesarz, Rice and Sanfellipo) go out and deliver Christmas fruit baskets to all the people they laid off for no good reason?

Supervisor Broderick brought up an interesting point. He stated that it was obvious that Walker was not invested in Milwaukee County. He pointed out that while everyone in the room spent Election night last week here in the county, Walker was way over the county line, trying to get closer to Madison.

Weishan, when discussing whether to adopt the overall budget pointed out that "Walker is not a privatizer, he's a profiteer. He's trying to take advantage of selling things for campaign donations." Other Supervisors, including Chairman Holloway have made similar statements. Walker, in today's article in MSJ tried to shift the blame:

Holloway said Walker pushed for privatization as a way to leverage campaign contributions. Walker dismissed the charge as ridiculous and said supervisors blocking his privatization efforts were beholden to their union support. Walker has pushed for outsourcing since he first won the county executive post in 2002 and emphasized it in his re-election campaign earlier this year.

Walker's assertions are demonstratively false. The County Board threw a couple hundred workers to the wolves in this budget. I have yet to see Walker throw one potential campaign donor out.

But then again, honesty has never been one of Walker's long suits. It would get in the way of his one trick pony that he is trying to ride to Madison.

Another Bad Omen For Pension Lawsuit

A story in yesterday's paper mentions the lawsuit Milwaukee County has filed against Mercer, alleging that Mercer gave faulty information to the County before it was approved. The County's case already suffered a major blow when its star witness, Stuart Piltch, developed sudden health problems related to the CIA training he never received, and dropped out of the case.

From the article:

Bloom, a consultant and vice president for an insurance firm, says Mercer should not be blamed for the county's approval of the pension deal because pension actuaries "are not watchdogs and do not have responsibility for the plan's overall welfare."

Bloom says the County Board and the county's Pension Study Commission had the responsibility to decide whether the benefit upgrade was wise.

The county argues that Bloom isn't qualified to make judgments about what happened because she's not an actuary, a financial analyst who projects long-term benefit costs.

Mercer argues that Bloom's opinions are valid, noting that she is an expert on actuarial ethics.

Farber writes in a report for Mercer that the county's damage estimates linked to the pension deal are inflated because they fail to account for costs of alternative wage and benefit improvements the county likely would have offered to employees had the backdrop deal not been struck.

Farber notes that former county Human Resources Director Gary Dobbert has said the backdrop and related pension upgrades were a bargaining chip used in negotiations for smaller raises.

Dobbert, who was convicted of misleading county officials about the pension upgrade costs, died in August.

Lawyers for the county said Farber's opinions are unreliable because they aren't based on specific evidence that the backdrop was used as a trade-off. Mercer's lawyers defended Farber, an economics professor at Princeton University.

In other filings, the county is asking that mention of Dobbert's misconduct convictions should be off-limits at trial, saying it would prejudice jurors.

I'm not an attorney, nor do I play one on the Intertubes, but it seems to me that the County is well over the edge on this lawsuit if they are coming up with such lame arguments.

Don't get me wrong, I am not wishing the County ill in this matter, but I have to be realistic. The County never bothered to check the credentials on this Piltch fellow, and now they are paying for it. I'm just wondering if the county is now just throwing good money after bad.

Going Undercover

From the Washington Post:

A Secret Service sergeant was arrested early Saturday after he allegedly tried to solicit sex from a D.C. police officer working undercover as a prostitute, authorities said.

The sergeant, driving his Secret Service vehicle and in uniform, encountered the undercover officer about 12:50 a.m. near 11th and K streets NW, said Inspector Brian Bray, commander of the District's narcotics and special investigations division.

After bantering about prices and services, Bray said, the woman agreed to perform oral sex for $20 and told the sergeant to meet her around the corner. He was arrested there by D.C. police officers, Bray said.

How much you want to bet his pick up line was, "The name is Smith. John Smith."?

To All That Have Served...

Thank you.

Oui, Nous Pouvons!

Oddly, I haven't seen any conservative sites write about this:

Inspired by Barack Obama, the French first lady and other leading figures say it's high time for France to stamp out racism and shake up a white political and social elite that smacks of colonial times.

A manifesto published Sunday — subtitled "Oui, nous pouvons!", the French translation of Obama's campaign slogan "Yes, we can!" — urges affirmative action-like policies and other steps to turn French ideals of equality into reality for millions of blacks, Arabs and other alienated minorities.

"Our prejudices are insidious," Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, a singer and wife of President Nicolas Sarkozy, said in an interview with the Journal du Dimanche newspaper, which published the manifesto. She said she hoped the "Obama effect" would reshape French society.

Nations across Europe rejoiced over Obama's victory, seeing it as a triumph for American democracy and a world weary of President George W. Bush. But Obama's election also illustrated an uncomfortable truth: how far European countries with big minority populations have to go getting nonwhites into positions of power.

Grass-roots groups in France and Britain are trying to turn Obama's election into electoral gains for minorities at home. Sunday's manifesto suggests France's elites are taking notice, too.

"The election of Barack Obama highlights via a cruel contrast the shortcomings of the French Republic, and the distance that separates us from a country whose citizens knew how to go beyond the racial question and elect a man who happens to be black as president," the appeal said.

"What a lesson!" it went on. "We French ... should listen to it well."

And I remember how the conservatives crowed when France elected Sarkozy, and how they were becoming more like us. Now instead of crowing, I guess they are just eating some instead. If nothing else, Obama's winning of the election might just cause a lot of people to take a hard look at themselves and change some of their negative attitudes. Wouldn't it be so nice to live in a better world?

It would be tres magnifique!

Sheriff David Clarke: Helping Drunk Drivers One At A Time

In a story from this morning's Journal Sentinel, Dan Bice tells us what a helpful sheriff we have here in Milwaukee County:

On a frigid and snowy Sunday afternoon in February, Brian Allen drove his car off the Good Hope Road entrance ramp to Highway 41/45 and into a nearby snow bank.

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.

The story only gets worse from there. Deputy Santoro is now under investigation. Clarke won't say why she is under investigation, but the union believes that it is so that he can keep certain reports (if they even exist) from being released. From Bice's story:

In response to the open records query, Clarke's office released the reports by the two deputies and other documents related to Allen's arrest. Absent from the material, however, is any written report by Clarke on the incident.

Since he was the first officer at the scene, shouldn't the twice-elected Democratic sheriff have filed a report?

"You would think so," said Felber, the union boss.

But that would have meant the sheriff would have put in writing how he tried to help a drunken driver get back on the highway.

It is hard to fathom why Walker and the County Board want to give even more responsibility to Clarke.

Perhaps we could recall Clarke when we recall Walker? Any takers?

2009 Milwaukee County Adopted Budget

I spent 11 hours on the hard wooden benches at the Milwaukee County Courthouse today to watch the County Board discuss, vote, discuss some more, vote some more and finally adapt the 2009 Amended Budget. As prematurely reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the County Board started the day on a high note and went a long way to repairing Walker's draconian and myopic budget proposal.

Unfortunately, by the end of the day, the will of the pro-County County Board Supervisors buckled a bit to the anti-County County Board Supervisors. I will attempt to give you, gentle reader, some of the highlights from today's procedures, and will try to fill in the details as the week progresses and time allows.

Obviously, since it was only finalized this evening, the County hasn't put the updated budget on their website, but you can refer to the above link if you feel the need. I am equally sure that MJS will also have a fuller version in tomorrow's paper.

The overall result of the adopted budget will be a 3.12% increase in the tax levy from last years budget. One can compare this to the 3.85% increase last year, which Walker called a good budget. In hard dollars, this comes to be a little over $7 million. The bad news is 74 men and women lose their jobs due to Walker's focus on his Quixotic endeavor to be governor.

Some of the highlights (remember I will flesh it out as time and information allows)(Disclaimer: I do not yet have a record of who voted which way on which amendment, and may be incorrect on one or two of the votes):

• They allowed Walker's 26% raise to Tom Nardelli stand (How nice that Walker can give his cronies big raises in a budget where he wants to lay off more than 300 workers. Nardelli, by the way, if he finishes Walker's current term, will be receiving not only his city pension, his veteran pension, but also a county pension.)
• The Board added $125K to the Men of Color Task Force (An agency to help fathers and other men of color to get job training and employment support)
• The Board added $150K for a Summer Youth Employment Program
• They failed to restore seven positions for IT support, and allowed this to be contracted out (No word on how this might affect the contract to provide tech support to Cudahy)
• They restored 26 jobs in the Courthouse
• They restored three correctional officer positions and restored funding for four other positions that had been unfunded
• They restored 5.5 jobs in Child Support Enforcement
• They restored six positions in the Register of Deeds
• They allowed the House of Corrections to fall under the auspices of the Sherrif's Office
• They restored funding for the Job Development and Job Readiness services, as well as funding for the Farm and Fish Hatchery
• They added $50K to fund Career Youth Development for the Victory Over Violence Grief Counseling and Survivor Center Initiative
• They put off any attempts to privatize the airport for at least a year
• They restored all but two positions in Fleet Management
• They restored Transit Route 11 from 60th and Vliet to downtown and Route 17 (Canal Street)
• They cut some of Walker's fare increases for transit services
• They restored the housekeeping and targeted case management positions at the mental health complex. They had originally restored the food service positions, but allowed Walker to do his profiteering with those positions.
• After a long debate, they barely restored the positions for the Call Center which fields calls regarding people applying for or renewing economic aid services. (There are some odd things about this issue. One thing is that Walker's proposed privatization would diminish the number of workers that could actually help people by two thirds and at a higher price. The other thing is that most of the board recognized that the problem lied directly with Walker and his administration's refusal to fill the necessary positions, even though they were fully funded. Some board members accused Walker and staff of sabotaging the program in an effort to promote privatizing it. Another oddity is that one of the entities that Walker proposed to take it over was IMPACT, which runs the 211 hotline. This is the same agency that Walker has tried to cut in every budget since its inception.)
• They restored all the park worker positions, denied consolidating the King and Kosciuszko Community Centers. They also decreased the fees for the marina and golf courses and eliminated the increase for the swimming pools. They also denied Walker's request for parking meters at the lakefront.
• The board also added $50K for recreation and/or exercise equipment at the Community Centers, added 50K to support the Black Holocaust Museum and $50K to operate the Hales Corners swimming pool (Supervisors Cesarz, Rice, and Sanfellipo who were voting no to almost every amendment had no problems raising the tax levy for the HC swimming pool. Draw your own conclusions)
• They put in $160K to move the UW-Extension to the former Child and Adolescent Treatment Center on the county grounds in Tosa
• They added the bike racks to the buses (which had no impact on the tax levy)
• They all but killed the foolish idea of moving the mental health complex to St. Michael's and provided funding for further study and design to build a new structure on the county grounds in Tosa. One spot that was suggested was near the Ronald McDonald House.
• They restored $1 million for special needs housing
• After another lengthy debate and with much reluctance they authorized funding for SEWPRC

Overall, I guess the amended budget isn't too bad, but it isn't too great either. I would have preferred to see them save the jobs and cut some other things. As I said above, I will flesh out details later.

When The Gales Of November Come Early

Thirty-three years ago today, Lake Superior laid claim to the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald and the 29 lives aboard her. I don't know why, but the story always held an interest for me. It could be my love of the area and respect for the winter. It could be that it is a "local" story. It could be Gordon Lightfoot's eerily and emotional tribute to her and her crew. Whatever it is, the story holds a draw to me like very few others do.

Here is a very nice tribute video done to the song by Lightfoot:

Hitting Midseason Form

For all of you Ted Thompson/Mike McCarthy/Aaron Rodgers devotees out there...

I just want to point out that the Pack is now 4-5 after a pitiful showing in the HumptyDome. Yeah, yeah, the run defense stunk, but the defense still accounted for 17 of the Pack's 27 points which stemmed from turnovers. I didn't get to see the entire game, but could someone please tell me how the Pack gave up two safeties in such short order? Is the honeymoon now over for Rodgers? Is it time for him to put on his cardigan and tennis shoes and go to make believe land?

Oh, and in case you might not have heard, Brett Favre (remember him? Former Packer. Could've and should've played for us this year) led the New York Jets to a 47-3 trouncing of the Rams, including a 40-0 lead at half-time. And they said that the Jets weren't going anywhere this year. Ha!

As an interesting observation though, the Thompson/McCarthy/Rodgers era is good for the economy. Remember how the stores were empty on Sundays during the game? How everyone was at home, at the game, or at a party cheering the Pack? I was at four stores today, during game time, and each one was packed. With no one sitting around the house or wasting time on the Pack, they are out stimulating the economy. Whodathunk anything good would come out of this after all?

And for the true Favre fans, there is another reason to like him. Brett, Deanna, Brittany and Breleigh are bloggers.

Palin The Cause For Increased Death Threats To Obama

From the Telegraph:

But it has now emerged that her demagogic tone may have unintentionally encouraged white supremacists to go even further.

The Secret Service warned the Obama family in mid October that they had seen a dramatic increase in the number of threats against the Democratic candidate, coinciding with Mrs Palin's attacks.

Michelle Obama, the future First Lady, was so upset that she turned to her friend and campaign adviser Valerie Jarrett and said: "Why would they try to make people hate us?"

The revelations, contained in a Newsweek history of the campaign, are likely to further damage Mrs Palin's credentials as a future presidential candidate. She is already a frontrunner, with Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, to take on Mr Obama in four years time.

Details of the spike in threats to Mr Obama come as a report last week by security and intelligence analysts Stratfor, warned that he is a high risk target for racist gunmen. It concluded: "Two plots to assassinate Obama were broken up during the campaign season, and several more remain under investigation. We would expect federal authorities to uncover many more plots to attack the president that have been hatched by white supremacist ideologues."

I am not surprised by this. I believe Palin was so used to being a big fish in a little pond that she forgot that responsibility comes with power. Given the phobia of the right, the angst of many Americans about a black man taking the highest office in the land, and her irresponsible nature, the only thing that is surprising is that there weren't more incidents being reported.

It does show an amazing lack or diplomacy or forethought on her part, and of the campaign in general. Can you imagine how that sort of rhetoric would have played out in the international scene, especially when you consider the already strained relationships we have with many of our allies.

What does surprise me is that she still has a core of supporters that still take her seriously even though she has had so many gaffes and proved herself to even take a national role of any sort. Why else would the campaign so desperately try to control her exposure to the media and wouldn't even let her do solo appearances until the end of the campaign. Even then, many feel that she was more of a bane to the campaign than a boon.

From the Washington Post:

Where the selection of Palin was once seen as an asset, a majority of voters now say McCain's vice presidential pick reflects poorly on the decisions he would make as president, according to the Post-ABC News poll. Overall, 52 percent of likely voters said they are less confident in McCain's judgment because his of surprise selection of Palin; 38 percent are more confident because of it. That represents a marked reversal from the initially positive reaction to the pick.

Several GOP sources expressed anger about the damage the clothing story was likely to do to the ticket, coming just as the campaign is making its closing argument by employing "Joe the Plumber" in an appeal to average Americans. "That's what grates me. We're the party that talks about looking out for the little guy," said one top Virginia Republican, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly about the GOP ticket. "Then something like that pops. It smacks of being hypocritical."

Saul Anuzis, the chairman of the Michigan Republican Party, said Palin remains a popular figure, particularly with conservatives in his state. "She has still been a net plus for us," he said.

But he conceded that the national party spending $150,000 on clothes for her was a "dumb political decision" that was not likely to play well among many of his hardscrabble voters. "You're talking to a guy who wears Lands' End shirts," Anuzis said. "I don't even know how you would spend $150,000 on clothes. You can get a pretty darn good men's suit for $300 to $500."

Even if I look past the fact that I disagree with her politics, the fact remains that she failed to do her job as the running mate of a presedential candidate.

I'm just glad that she is on their side.

Tip of the crown to Helen Wheels.

Can't You Smell That Smell

JSOnline is reporting that the corpse flower at the museum isn't going to bloom after all. Apparently they didn't provide enough heat and the plant had a fungus.

In an emergency session, the Milwaukee County Board took a vote to put Scott Walker's original 2009 budget proposal behind the plant to give visitors the sense of what the plant would have smelled like, had it bloomed.

Museum curators are against the idea, however. They claim that the plant's odor, which resembles a rotting body, isn't nearly as offensive as the budget, and are afraid that the reek from Walker's budget would make the room impossible to enter.

Get An Early Start On Christmas

Despite the many claims and laments of the right wingers, President Elect Barack Obama is already stimulating the economy.

And, as an American patriot, I think I will do my part and get a set of Barack Obama Inaugural Dollars for all of my conservative friends, maybe two each for Billiam and Elliot.

Affirmative Action Is Still Needed

Cindy Kilkenny had put up a post the other day that echoes a continuing argument from the right. The argument is that Affirmative Action is no longer needed for two basic reasons. One, being that the the nation has recently elected its first African American president, supposedly showing that there is no more racism. The second line of argument is that the number of people that are considered minorities, added together, will outnumber the people that are classified as white.

Both of these arguments are demonstratively false.

For the second argument first, just because the population of one group of ethnic types outnumber another doesn't prevent prejudism. The glaring example would be South Africa and apartheid. Even though blacks vastly outnumbered whites, it were the whites that held the power and were able to dictate based on their legalized racism. Likewise, just because the class labeled as minorities, when combined, outnumbers whites, it does not mean that they would automatically get a fair shake in life.

The first line of argument is even more laughable than the second. The first commenter on Cindy's post had an interested train of thought:

Leapin // Nov 6, 2008 at 1:02 pm

It’s either BO needed affirmative action to become president or its BO didn’t need affirmative action to become president. If it’s the former then there a case can be made that BO wasn’t the best qualified person just the politically correct color. If it’s the latter then affirmative action should end. Affirmative action is just politically correct discrimination. Treating people fairly and respectfully should come from the heart not the law. I don’t think continuation of affirmative active is in the best spirit of “uniting”.

Leapin never considered the fact that Obama might have been the better choice, and was more qualified, but wouldn't have even had the chance to prove himself if it wasn't for Affirmative Action, either directly or indirectly.

I do agree with Leapin in the sense that treating people fairly and respectfully should come from the heart, and not the law. Unfortunately, there are too many examples in just recent days showing that until society matures enough, there is still a need for the law to remain in place.

For example, there was a cross burning in New Jersey, in the yard of some Obama supporters. During the campaign, we had this button from the Texas GOP. We had the Curious George/Obama shirts in Georgia, which Rush Limbaugh found so endearing. Yard signs in Florida. James Byrd. Brandon McClelland. The KKK.

And speaking of Rush, how about when he not only played, but defended, "Barack The Magic Negro."

The list could go on forever. And as long as it goes on, America will need Affirmative Action, and will need it until crap like this stops.