He Will Say Anything

I know this has been out for a few days, but it is a big hit up north:



And, of course, lest we forget, there is "Big Talker Walker:"



Heh.

Trading Card or Campaign Poster?

Via Jason Haas:



According to Jason, it's a trading card. I'm not to sure.

Check out the others.

And in a related story...

Artist is Steve Kelley:

Today's Walker Flip-Flop: Child Support Enforcement

Scott Walker's office (the county one, not the campaign one, although it is increasingly more difficult to tell the difference) issued a statement announcing a Child Support Enforcement initiative for "Support your kids going back to school," as part of National Child Support Enforcement:

County Executive Scott Walker announced that the Department of Child Support Enforcement is launching an initiative, “Support Your Kids Going Back to School,” in recognition of August as National Child Support Month.

"This program is vital for families struggling to find the resources needed to raise children today," Walker said. “It encourages mothers and fathers to support their kids emotionally and financially.”

The County is offering coupons to parents who make an extra payment toward back child support debt. For every extra dollar paid, the parent receives a two-dollar credit against state owed interest.

The initiative engages parents in the program through community outreach. Representatives will appear at a number of events in August to talk to parents about paternity and support issues as they prepare their children to go back to school. A Milwaukee County CSE representative will be at the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) headquarters at 5225 W. Vliet Street through Friday, August 20.

The Milwaukee County Department of Child Support handles 132,000 cases each year; and provides a variety of services to Milwaukee families, including Paternity and Order Establishment, Support Order Enforcement, and Children First - a program designed to help paying parents find employment.

This is something to be applauded. After all, as I pointed out long, long ago, on a blog far, far away, that Child Support is one of the most financially sensible programs in the county:

...According to the National Women's Law Center, in 2006, the child support program collected $24 billion for 17 million children-a fourth of the nation's children. For every 74 cents the federal government spent on the program, it collected $4.58 in private child support dollars. This is money that single parents, usually mothers, can use to provide for their children and raise their families out of poverty. It is also money that doesn't need to be spent in entitlement programs, such as welfare, Medicaid and food stamps.

Something Walker did well, right?

Well, not quite. It is actually another example of Walker flip-flopping on not just one, but two, issues for the sake of political convenience.

First of all, Walker does not like Child Support Enforcement. This program is one of the annual targets for cut backs when Walker comes up the the comically named budget proposals. Despite that fact that they bring in more money that they spend, Walker apparently feels that the tax payers don't really matter. As usual with Walker, it is more about the appearance than the reality.

The other part of this pair of flip flops is how this program is being funded. It is being funded the ARRA funds that Walker repeatedly criticized and said he would not accept, until the County Board overrode his political posturing. In fact, the amount of ARRA dollars going to this program is over a million dollars:

It is a good thing that there are responsible leaders on the County Board that are not only looking after the tax payers, but are also looking out for our children, ensuring they can get all the help that is available. It is shameful that Walker has to be led by the nose to doing the right thing.

Also, it would be nice if Walker would be honest about things, just for once. That would be a really nice change of pace for him.

Conservative's Motivation Poster

H/T folkbum's

Walker's Flip Flops Hit The Beach

Suddenly, Scott Walker has an interest in Lake Michigan. He's never done that before.

During the whole Asian carp invasion, he has been outstanding in his silence.

But now that he thinks that poop in the water, even though it's much lower than it was before, is a big issue.

Why didn't he think so five years ago?

Paul Ryan Starring As The Creature From The Red Ink Lagoon

It's not exactly a ringing endorsement when your own party is scared of your lame-brain schemes (emphasis mine):

So far, only 13 out of 178 House Republicans have signed on as co-sponsors to the Ryan’s proposal. Many Republicans who haven’t signed onto his Roadmap are traveling in a quite different direction, promising a “Commitment to America” plan that mostly addresses jobs and the economy rather than health care and social security.

Even Ryan’s fans have backpedaled, including House Minority Leader John Boehner. “There are parts of it that are well done,” he tells reporters. “Other parts I have some doubts about, in terms of how good the policy is.”

Ryan admits his proposal could be unsafe for Republicans. He tells the Post that Democrats are “going to try to wrap my Roadmap around people’s necks.”

As reported in a previous NewsBuzz story, the nonpartisan Center on Budget on Policy Priorities released a long-term analysis of the Roadmap earlier this year. It concludes that the Roadmap, by cutting taxes too far, would actually cause the national debt to skyrocket.

Because He's Running For The Little People

Milwaukee News Buzz has been doing a series of articles about the Bradley Foundation, the neoconservative money exchanger that funds such hate groups like Charlie Sykes' WPRI.

They are also responsible for the publishing of "The Bell Curve," which is an attempt to justify racism and elitism. That book's author, Charles Murray, recently resurfaced as RoJo's BFF, when RoJo brought him up to Wisconsin to do an appearance with him.

Thursday's article, done by Bruce Murphy takes a little closer look at the Bradley Foundation's CEO, Michael Grebe:

Grebe’s annual compensation on his first year was about $559,000, according to a story I did in 2004 for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which put him well above the median of $327,450 for his peers at the nation’s largest foundations. (Bradley is the 83^rd largest.) At the time, Grebe’s response was that he was earning less than in his prior job as CEO of the Foley & Lardner law firm.

The 2008 federal tax form lists Grebe as earning total compensation of $768,155, including salary and contributions to retirement and other benefits.

Curiously, what Murphy fails to mention is that Grebe is also serving as Scott Walker's campaign chairperson. Given the type of agency he is heading, the people he associates with, and the money he is making, doesn't it seem unlikely that Walker is running to help average, working class people?

A Call For An Independent Investigation Into The O'Donnell Park Tragedy

Milwaukee County First, a grassroots group dedicated to preserving and restoring Milwaukee County, and a group of which I am very fortunate to be the Chair, has sent a letter to the State of Wisconsin, requesting that they perform an independent investigation into the O'Donnell Park tragedy.

Brett Favre, MVP vs Scott Walker, MVP

It was reported this morning that Brett Favre is again saying that he is going to hang up his cleats and retire for good this time. For obvious reasons, there are many skeptics, especially here in Packerland. This will be Favre's third or fourth time filling out the retirement papers, so many people, justifiably, think that he might be just pulling a stunt to avoid training camp again this year.

I won't go into speculating whether this is the real thing this time or not. But if it is, I would like to think that most people will be able to get past their bitterness and remember Favre for the sixteen wonderful years he gave Packer fans.

I know that I will always remember the two Superbowls, all the play off games, the records that Favre broke time and time again, and the fact that he was named Most Valuable Player three times.

In response to the Favre news, Scott Walker reminds us that he is also a MVP in this most ironic of tweets:


It does not take a lot of hard research to find a myriad of instances of Walker changing his mind about something in relatively short order, since I have written about his flip flopping on many occasions. But to refresh the reader's memory, let me offer these as just a few examples:

• Most recently, his flip flop on smoking. Despite the fact that years ago, he ordered no smoking in or around county buildings, and the fact that just days ago, he said that it was too soon to look at repealing the recently enacted smoking ban, he is now for repealing it, after his primary opponent, Mark Neumann, stated that he would repeal it, if he could.
• Regarding the Second Amendment, Walker now claims to be for concealed carry, even though as a state legislator, he continuously voted against it.
• Walker "had concerns" about Arizona's immigration law, that is until he received a lot of flak about it from other conservatives. Then, within twenty-four hours, during what was supposedly a non-campaign related bike ride, he decided he liked the Arizona law.
• Candidate Walker said that he thought late night sessions in the state legislature was a bad idea, even though state legislator Walker actually voted to approve the late night sessions.
• Then there is most famous flip flopping track record, where he has taken, at the time of this writing, approximately 681,243.7 different positions on the use of stimulus dollars, depending on what day of the week it was, if there was and "R" in the month, and who he happened to be talking to at that particular moment.

Of course, in Walker's case the V in his MVP does not stand for Valuable. It stands for Vacillating.

Hot Rod A-Rod Throws A Rod

Ah yes, what would life be like without Aaron Rodriguez, self-purported journalist and blogger at The Hispanic Conservative, giving me easy posts to write on a busy night?

Anyway, my friend, Anna Landmark, writing at One Wisconsin Now, notes how suspicious it is that Walker was announcing the cause of the tragic incident at O'Donnell Park lat month:

Even though the investigation into why the concrete slab fell from the O'Donnell garage, killing a teenager, isn't complete, and lawsuits may be pending, Scott Walker has declared what happened and who is to blame: the slab wasn't hung properly.

As far as I know Walker doesn't have an engineering degree (nor even any degree at all), he isn't leading the investigation, and he has a very good reason for sloughing any responsibility for this off of his shoulders as quickly as possible.

To declare in advance of the completion of the investigation screams of political posturing and a total and callous disregard of the severity of the situation.

Some commenter from Germantown took umbrage at Anna pointing out the fact that Walker is a Marquette drop out. The commenter goes on to say that despite the fact that Walker is over a year from graduation, Marquette should just give him his degree. Apparently, Walker's followers feel that this "his time" for that as well. Of course, they feel that it is "his time" to be governor, even though he is not qualified to be either a college graduate or governor. Talk about an entitlement attitude...

This is where our friend Aaron goes and puts his foot in his mouth. As you read his comment, remember, the post is about the tragedy at O'Donnell Park:

Honorary degree? Wouldn't that be something.

I think Walker's "lack of a degree" provides a perfect narrative of how degrees are essentially useless certificates in today's world.

Here we have a guy who has done a good job with the county (national gold medal parks, strengthened the county's bond rating, record breaking international airport, and so on), thus showing that one doesn't need a degree to make a success of one's life.

Yeah. I would have thought that someone who purports themselves to be a professional journalist would have a little more sense, not to mention tact, than to brag about how wonderful the parks are in a story about a park structure that killed a boy and maimed a woman. I mean, it's bad enough that Walker was making this into a political story from day one, Aaron didn't need to further prove that Walker and his supporters are only interested in the gubernatorial race, and not the public welfare.

And it would be wrong of me not to mention the hundreds of millions of dollars in deferred maintenance in all of the parks.

To add to his shamelessness, Aaron then brings up a couple of other of Walker's talking points which have already been proven to be falsehoods.

One of these falsehoods is the "strengthened bond rating." While that is technically true, what Walker and his acolyte don't mention is that came at the expense of the capital funds, which Walker raided to give himself cover on the budgets. Of course, those capital funds were supposed to go to thinks like inspecting and maintaining the infrastructure, including O'Donnell Park. It also doesn't mention that mammoth structural deficit that Walker has built up.

A-rod also throws a rod when he mentions the "record breaking airport." It is only doing as well as it is due to the millions of dollars of stimulus dollars thrown into it. But even with all of this money, Walker tried his darnedest to screw that up by laying off airport maintenance workers, even though he didn't save tax payers one red cent by doing so. Of course, Walker's political grandstanding of laying off those workers helped create a situation where another young man was injured by a part of the airport falling on his head.

Mmm. A guy who purports himself to be a journalist, but cannot even handle simple honesty or tact. I wonder if he knows Patrick McIlheran.

Tosa Gets Pressured By Developers For TIF

Details at Milwaukee County First, including when the public hearing is scheduled.

Must Have Been The Six Year Plan

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel brings up the subject of whether having a college degree or not should be a factor in the upcoming gubernatorial race. The reason for this story is obviously because Scott Walker never finished school.

I'll start out the outrage machine by saying that, yes, it should be a factor. I would follow that up quickly that it shouldn't be the only factor, or even necessarily one of the bigger factors, in the race.

Obviously, people could rattle off a considerable list of people who have succeeded in life without a college degree, the most famous being, of course, Bill Gates.

I think what would bear greater meaning is not whether he got a degree, but why he didn't. According to the article, Walker left school because he got a job at the American Red Cross.

I'm sorry, but does anyone really see Walker as being the type of guy who would leave with only a year or year and a half to go to do humanitarian work? Even if that was true, that idealism was very short-lived and he lost that idealistic mentality decades ago.

But I don't think that Walker's excuse passes the smell test.

First of all, Walker refused to release his transcripts. He did release a letter from Marquette University that had this:

Walker released a letter from Marquette that showed he attended the school for four years, from 1986 to 1990, and would have needed to stay there for at least another year to get a degree. He had 94 credits and would have needed at least 36 more. The exact number of credits he needed isn't clear because students must take classes in certain areas of study to get degrees.

Doesn't that sound like a referral from a job from which a person was fired? "Yes, so-and-so worked here from this date to that, and this was their salary." Businesses carefully word their responses like that so that they can't be sued for slander or libel for saying something to the effect that they fired the bum for being a no-good thief who was always trying to grab the receptionist's butt or whatever.

Adding to the suspicious and dubious explanation from Walker's failure to graduate is this:

Walker declined to release his transcripts, but his campaign said he had a grade-point average of 2.59, in the C's. He had just established status as a senior when he left after four years of mostly full-time coursework at Marquette University.Walker's supporters - and even some of his detractors - say it shouldn't matter that he didn't attain a degree.

After four years, he was still at the very least a year from being able to graduate. Now, it takes many people more than four years to graduate from college, especially if they are working their way through school. But there is no indication that Walker was doing that. Was he having problems at school with his grades? The GPA isn't very impressive, but it's not the worst either.

I have heard a couple different stories on why Walker left school so abruptly. I won't go into the details of them, since they are not verified, but this article does give them more credibility that Walker suddenly having a short-lived phase of idealism.

Walker doesn't do himself any favors with this line either:

Walker, for his part, has said at times that he wished he could finish so his children would see that he had followed through. He said in an interview he should be judged on his record of keeping taxes down in Milwaukee County rather than whether he finished college.

It is a common meme for Walker to say he is "holding the line" on taxes, but in the eight years he has been county executive, taxes have gone up some 17%, or nearly $40 million.

And has been pointed out time and time again, by pundits on both sides of the political spectrum, Walker's worst enemies are his own supporters.

Take for example, the quote from State Senator Glenn Grothman:

"There are tens of thousands of people with master's degrees who don't have the common sense God gave a rabbit," said state Sen. Glenn Grothman (R-West Bend), who has a law degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

"Whether you spend two, four (or) six years hanging around a classroom has no bearing on whether you can hold elective office. . . . Anybody who knows Scott Walker knows he could take six months off and sit in a boring classroom and it wouldn't make him one whit more qualified."

I'll let Tom Foley highlight the irony of Grothman proving his own point. But does it really help that one of Walker's staunchest supporters admits that Walker couldn't gain anything from furthering his education?

As I said at the top of this post, I don't think the fact that Walker failed to graduate from college should be the top consideration in deciding whom to vote for. What would be much more germane would be the facts that Walker has raised taxes every year, but has failed to meet even the basic elements of his job, including effectively running programs like mental health services or income maintenance programming, or keeping the county facilities from literally falling apart and making the entire county into a hard hat area.

Gun Owners Vs. Lawn Care

Grumps points out a story from Ohio which tells of a crank threatening city workers with a gun. The city workers came to mow the man's lawn when he refused to and it was becoming an eyesore.

Fortunately, and to the surprise of one of his neighbors, things were resolved peacefully.

Sadly, it doesn't always end do well.

A Washington County man has been charged with murder and other weapons related charges for shooting his girlfriend's son to death. The shooting was a result of an argument about the woman's grandson mowing the lawn.

As I have been saying all along, I am just as afraid of the people that think everything can be settled with a gun as I am of the criminals.

Bring Back Churchill!

These TEAples are ever the source of entertainment:


Source