DOT's Threat To The Monarch Trail

The DOT's proposal to rebuild and expand the zoo interchange is threatening to ruin what's left of the Monarch Trail. See the details at Milwaukee County First.

James Rowen has more.

It's Not Being Pro-Second Amendment, It's Being Anti-First Amendment

There's a very interesting and insightful article at Salon.com regarding those nutters that feel the need to bring guns to a debate. The highlight of it:

These and other similar examples are accurately summarized with the same language federal law employs to describe domestic terrorism. Generating maximum media attention, the weapons-brandishing displays are "intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population." Yes, the gun has been transformed from a sport and self-defense device into a tool of mass bullying. Like the noose in the Jim Crow South, its symbolic message is clear: If you dare engage in the democratic process, you risk bodily harm.

With that implicit threat, the incessant arguments about gun ownership have been supplanted by a more significant debate over which should take precedence: The Constitution's First or Second Amendment?

Based on America's history, the Founders' answer to that question clearly lies in the Bill of Rights' deliberate sequencing.

The First Amendment ethos guarantees people -- whatever their politics -- a fundamental right to participate in their democracy without concern for physical retribution. It is the primary amendment because America was first and foremost created not as a gun-owners' haven, but as a place to shelter citizens from oppression.

These people are the same ones that are having a hard time accepting the reality that the majority have rejected their control over the last several elections. They also cannot present a logical, rational or compelling argument against health care reform, so they will try to bully us around to reach their goals.

It says more about them than the topic at hand.

Tip of the crown to James Rowen.

Van Hollen's Dereliction of Duty Continues

State Attorney General J. B. Van Hollen is obviously not fit for the job. All one has to do is look at his continuing pattern of failing to perform his duties as AG.

First, he issued the unnecessary and poorly thought out opinion about whether open carry was legal. All he managed to do was stir up a hornets' nest in the state, and gave free reign to paranoid people to go around terrorizing their neighborhoods and making the police's job much more dangerous and difficult.

Then, the State Legislature gave tasked him to do an investigation into Scott Walker's malicious and fraudulent operation of the state funded income maintenance program. To date, there is no word if he has even opened the case, allowing his political partisanship interfere and obstruct the enforcement of the law. Personally, I think the State Legislature should have sent a request to the U.S. Attorney's office, where a thorough and unbiased investigation could occur. Even if Van Hollen did open this case, the odds are that one could not have any reasonable faith in it being done honestly.

Now, he has come out publicly and stated that he will not even uphold the state's Constitution, and will not defend against those that would discriminate against other people, based solely on their sexual orientation.

Illusory Tenant points out that this will now cost big, since the case will have to be outsourced to a private attorney to do his job.

The multi-talented and well written Emily Mills has the must read post on this issue, with a grand idea at the end. Namely, how about recalling Van Hollen for dereliction of duty?

The Great Potato Famine of '10?

Earlier this month, Jason Haas noted that the state was experiencing a devastating infection of a fungus attacking tomato plants. In the comments section, I pointed out that this same fungus was jumping to potatoes.

Yesterday, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel finally caught up to the story and pointed out that this fungus, which was also responsible for the great potato famine in Ireland has now jumped to potato plants in at least two counties.

Hopefully, the farmers and the government, if needed, are ready to deal with this infestation and minimize the damage to such an important product to Wisconsin.

Walker's Hypocrisy Is Endless

Scott Walker, as his wont, put up his county taxpayer sponsored campaign page which he euphemistically calls "Executive Update."

In his "Message from County Executive Walker" section, he is touting United Way.

In the first section, Walker (actually one of his aide's) writes:

When times are tough, the need is greatest. That is where we are with this year’s upcoming United Way Campaign – Live United. We are still struggling with the economy and many in our community are looking for help getting food, finding a job or health care. Help that United Way can provide if we all dig a little deeper to help our neighbors in the Milwaukee area.

He admits that people need help getting food, finding work, and getting health care. So why is it that Walker was the one to willfully sabotage the Income Maintenance program to the point that the County faces a multimillion dollar lawsuit and he wants to cut ALL benefits to the homeless , elderly, disabled and all other vulnerable citizens of the county?

We all remember the recent fire at Patrick Cudahy. This incident created a crisis for the company and its employees. Hopefully, Patrick Cudahy comes back quickly. You may not know that, in the meantime, the United Way (among other agencies) stepped up. Patrick Cudahy has been long-time supporter of United Way and now is a receiver of United Way services.

Walker's right. The fire was terrible. But does he think that United Way will be able to pick up the tab and supply all the emergency medical systems to citizens that wouldn't receive it if he gets his way to destroy the County's EMS system?

Add to this his ongoing flip-flopping about the stimulus, taxes, etc. etc. etc., it is amazing that anyone can support him, since no one knows where he stands on anything.

They're All Liberals

Tim Rock has the goods.

What Does Legal Authority Have To Do With It?

The other day, I wrote a post talking about the benefits that Milwaukee County is seeing from pursuing and attaining federal stimulus funds. In the same post, I pointed out how some other bloggers have noted that Walker is dismissing the people benefiting from these funds as not being "real people." At the end, I also pointed to a Walker apologist, who continuously tries to distort the facts in order to minimize the damage Walker keeps doing to his own campaign:

It also explains why the Walker apologists* are so desperate to twist his anti-stimulus stance around. It is just another big issue which Walker has come down on the wrong side.

*By the way, Aaron Rodriguez fails to point out that the fact that Walker did not even have the legal authority to set conditions on the stimulus funds. It is just another way that he was trying to hedge his bet when he realized what a political blunder he had made with his grandstanding.

Unbelievably, Mr. Rodriguez responded with this comment:

Chris,

I'm not sure what your point is about having or not having "legal authority." It doesn't seem relevant.

To be honest, I was stunned by this. First of all, the "conditions" that Rodriguez continues to fall back on in his defense of Walker makes it an issue. However, since Walker lacked the authority to put any conditions on it, it makes those conditions irrelevant. Walker has the right to express his opinion, but not enact his own policy regarding the funds. His job is to enforce and administer the policies set forth by the board.

As an example that Rodriguez, as well as Walker himself, obviously don't understand what Walker's job is supposed to be, I pointed out months ago, Walker had continuously been sabotaging any efforts to get the stimulus dollars, ignoring his own "conditions" on any of the funds he did agree should be pursued. This continued until the County Board got together and spelled it out to him in no uncertain terms, and strongly expressing their frustration and anger at Walker's blatant hypocrisy about the entire subject.

In other words, the arguments that Walker, both himself and through his supporters, like Rodriguez, are hypocritical, if just not out right lies. If Walker cannot handle something like this, how do they expect to trick people into thinking he could handle the job on a state level?

Mercer Trial Revisited

Three months ago, Milwaukee County agreed to a settlement with Mercer regarding the first pension scandal.

But just when you thought that puppy could be put to rest, here comes other people who want a piece of the settlement pie.

Travelers Casualty and Surety Group has filed a claim for $1.3 million regarding the settlement.

It appears that they're biggest complaint is that they had to dish out money to defend the county's pension system from retired members who thought that they should be automatically given benefits that weren't in place before they retired. (To me, that would be like trying to sue a car maker because they came out with a new and improved version of your car five years later, saying they ripped you off. )

Now, I am not a lawyer, nor do I play one on the Intertubes, but it seems to me that the insurer's claim is a little lame as well. They were getting paid to do their jobs, which they did admirably well, and I am sure that they were also compensated fairly well.

But if they were to make a claim against anyone, they should have either filed their own lawsuit against Mercer, or joined with Milwaukee County in its lawsuit. Its kind of funny how people (or in this case, businesses) can be against socialism until they find out they could possibly get something for nothing.

But this also reminds me of another question. Is Walker ever going to finish the job regarding the pension scandals and sue Reinhart?

Johnsons Park

Check out Milwaukee County First where I just put up a post about Johnsons Park.

Some really great things are happening there. The alarming part is just how bad the park was allowed to get, that it took the county, the city, and a number of organizations and businesses to raise only 20% of the money needed to restore it.

GOP: The Party of Lincoln?

Something that any number of people, including Scott Walker, Patrick McIlheran, and Charlie Sykes could stand to be reminded of. Repeatedly.

Kapanke Trial Update

Things aren't going too good for Krazy Kapanke in court. From the LaCrosse Tribune (emphasis mine):

Smyrski, Kapanke's chief of staff since 2006, said she routinely receives e-mails through that account when she's away from the office. She said she did not know that such records would be public, and she didn't check her personal account before denying the Democratic Party's request.

Smyrski said she had never received training on public records matters despite being Kapanke's records custodian and working at the Capitol since 2000.

She's the records custodian, but was never trained on how to do her job? Sounds like the aide for State Senator Mary Lazich.

The article goes on to state than an IT person reported that the emails that were deleted would have lasted about a month. Anything that was deleted more than a month earlier would have been lost forever. The tricky part of that is that they Kapanke's office did eventually supply some of the requested emails, after they said that they were not available. The tech support person however, testified that they were.

It does make one wonder what was on the emails/documents that they failed to produce and what really happened to them.

Stimulus Funds Are Working

At Milwaukee County First, I pointed out that Milwaukee is about to benefit from stimulus dollars that are aimed to clean up sites in the area, including the old Tower Automotive site. This money will help create jobs, build business parks, create housing and clean up the environment, all at the same time.

It also shows how out of touch Scott Walker is with his own community, much less the entire state, when he tweets that stimulus dollars don't help real people. Harris Kane and Cory Liebmann show some of the real people that Walker doesn't consider to be real.

It also explains why the Walker apologists* are so desperate to twist his anti-stimulus stance around. It is just another big issue which Walker has come down on the wrong side.

*By the way, Aaron Rodriguez fails to point out that the fact that Walker did not even have the legal authority to set conditions on the stimulus funds. It is just another way that he was trying to hedge his bet when he realized what a political blunder he had made with his grandstanding.

Good News For Seniors

SeniorCare is extended until 2012.

SeniorCare is of course, yet another example showing that government run health coverage does work and works very well at that.

Drinking Liberally - No Haas In The House Edition

Received a note today from Jason Haas, host of Drinking Liberally:

Hi folks,

As your friendly host and organizer, it saddens me to report that I will not be able to host Drinking Liberally this coming Wednesday August 18. Unfortunately, events beyond my control have demanded my presence elsewhere.

This does not mean that you, my dear and only friends, cannot get together anyway. You could have a fine time without me! So go ahead, go to Sugar Maple (441 E. Lincoln Ave.) tomorrow around 7-9 PM. They'll take good care of you at Sugar Maple. And I will see you in Septemer!

Say, if you do get together tonight, please make a big Get Well Card for Mayor Barrett. He needs our support! Alternately, please send him a card or a letter of support of your own. Here's his office address:

Office of the Mayor
200 E. Wells Street
City Hall Rm. 201
Milwaukee, WI 53202

Thanks!

Jason
Your Friendly DL Host

I say, "Bah! Who needs him?"

I know I will already be at the Sugar Maple, as I believe Zachary from Blogging Blue and maybe some other folks from Milwaukee County First. So come on down and tell us your favorite Jason Haas joke. We promise not to repeat them, unless they're really funny.

Third Verse, Same As The First

Aaron Rodriguez apparently is not very original.

He has come out with what is at least his third attempt to make the same point, trying to allege that the state government and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel are in cahoots to bring Scott Walker's campaign to a grinding halt. The only difference in this post from his others is that he has learned to use screencaps, although he still doesn't know how to link to the source he is citing.*

Unfortunately for Rodriguez, he is still wrong. The facts haven't changed one bit. In fact, the ties between Walker and Steve Smith, Chairman/CEO of Journal Communications has been shown to be fairly strong. Does Rodriguez really think that Smith would let his candidate go down due to one of the few remaining reporters at the daily paper?

And Rodriguez might not have notice, but Governor Doyle already said that he was going to step down after this term. Why is Rodriguez, and Walker, still trying to run against him?

But what made me have a good belly laugh is when Rodriguez tries to lambaste me and Milwaukee County First:

When I wrote about Schultze’ biased reporting, it drew the ridicule of liberal blogger Chris Liebenthal, who just happens to be the Chairman of a Walker-hate site called "Milwaukee County First." Liebenthal scoffed at the idea that Schultze was biased stating that Schultze was “in the bag” for Walker. Below is a screenshot of his blog post.

Now, the four or five readers that I have that follow MCF, already knows that we have been spending our time and energy in promoting things like the parks and transit, and calling for Governor Jim Doyle to pass the 1% sales tax to help save these services.

Apparently, even Rodriguez recognizes the fact that Walker has bollixed things up so badly that any mention of Milwaukee County services only highlights Walker's failures as county executive, and shows why he is unsuitable to be governor.

But one has to wonder why Rodriguez even felt compelled to mention MCF, since it was he that said we weren't "even going to get off the ground - ever."

Another belly laugher is when Rodriguez accuses the reporter of violating journalistic ethics. Considering he didn't say anything about when there were real violations going on, I am surprised he would make this weak effort now.

*Rodriguez is now a contributor at Fairly Conservative, whose proprietor is Cindy Kilkenny. Ms. Kilkenny is also a stickler for fair use practice. I wonder if she'll let Rodriguez get away with that on her site.