Give Paul Ryan Some Credit!

Capper wrote recently about Paul Ryan (R - Wall St), and his slight exaggeration of his marathon time. Andy Borowitz has been writing non stop about Paul Ryan's accomplishments! 

NEW YORK (The Borowitz Report)—In a dramatic narrative that could upstage this week’s Democratic National Convention, Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wisc.) gave reporters today a detailed account of the fateful day he killed Osama bin Laden.

So I think, since we all know and love Paul Ryan and his accomplishments, tell us your favorite!   

My personal favorite is when he won the iditarod back in the 90's and the 7 Gold Medals in the 1972 Olympics.....

Rumor has it Disney has bought the rights to his life, to star in the World's Greatest Athlete Sequel!

Labor Day In Fitzwalkerstan 2012

So today was Labor Day.

Not that you'd know it from the local paper. The only way one could tell it was Labor Day from the paper would be the Labor Day sales ads and one small blurb at the bottom of the entertainment section saying that Laborfest was today.

You wouldn't know it from the Republicans either, unless you count Paul Ryan using the holiday for shilling for his campaign swag. Like Romney's and the Koch's and Adelson's hundreds of millions of dollars weren't enough.

Well, you do have Lance Burri, Glenn Grothman's chief of staff, cracking jokes about Labor Day and women as well. (Grothman is a much better fit for the lying, misogynistic Burri than his previous boss, Mary Lazich, who is just stupid.)*

I'm not surprised that we have heard anything from Walker or the rest, since they've declared open war on the working men and women of Wisconsin and are poised to enact Right To Work But Not Get Paid For It legislation at the beginning of the new year. They also don't want to attract attention to the fact that Walker has lost more jobs than he has created since he's taken office and imposed his anti-Wisconsin agenda.

My colleague, Meg, did a very nice write up about the true meaning and importance of labor day. She listed just some of the many things that organized labor has brought into being:

Weekends.
Health insurance.
Breaks.
Paid vacations and sick leave.
Time off.
Workers Compensation.
Unionization of the workplace.
8 hour work days.
End of exploitative child labor.
Women's workplace rights.
End of workplace discrimination

I would add a few things to that.

One would be that unions also help prevent retaliation by the employers. The end result of losing this right will be one of two things.

One, the good workers will move on to other jobs, and other states, where they can be treated with respect and be allowed personal freedom to do what they want on their own time. You will be then left with the incompetent suck-ups, like most of Walker's cronies.

The other possibility is that these issues, will be resolved in the courts, costing the employers a lot more money than if they had a grievance procedure in place.

I would also point out that unions benefit everyone, whether they work in the public or the private sector and whether or not they are even union members. Unions, by negotiating with the employers, are able to set a prevailing wage. Non-union shops then will have to match those salaries and benefits or risk losing their best workers to the union shops.

This is why the so-called "right to work" states tend to have, on average, salaries that are $5,000 to $6,000 less than unionized states. I would also point out that with the higher salaries, people are able to buy more things and help stimulate and support the economy. That is exemplified here in Fitzwalkerstan. As Walker has taken money away from the workers, the economy has tanked and there are less businesses and jobs than when he took over as governor. In other words, it ain't working!

Jake at his Playhouse demonstrates how the unions have kept the middle class strong and that there is a direct correlation between the weakening of the unions and the lowering of wages and the diminishing of the middle class.

I would also point out, as I did last year, the US Department of Labor's explanation of the history of Labor Day (emphasis mine):

he form that the observance and celebration of Labor Day should take was outlined in the first proposal of the holiday — a street parade to exhibit to the public "the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations" of the community, followed by a festival for the recreation and amusement of the workers and their families. This became the pattern for the celebrations of Labor Day. Speeches by prominent men and women were introduced later, as more emphasis was placed upon the economic and civic significance of the holiday. Still later, by a resolution of the American Federation of Labor convention of 1909, the Sunday preceding Labor Day was adopted as Labor Sunday and dedicated to the spiritual and educational aspects of the labor movement.

The character of the Labor Day celebration has undergone a change in recent years, especially in large industrial centers where mass displays and huge parades have proved a problem. This change, however, is more a shift in emphasis and medium of expression. Labor Day addresses by leading union officials, industrialists, educators, clerics and government officials are given wide coverage in newspapers, radio, and television.

The vital force of labor added materially to the highest standard of living and the greatest production the world has ever known and has brought us closer to the realization of our traditional ideals of economic and political democracy. It is appropriate, therefore, that the nation pay tribute on Labor Day to the creator of so much of the nation's strength, freedom, and leadership — the American worker.

It is not shocking at all that as the country has moved more to a corporate nation status, thanks to the Republicans and corporate Democrats, that the economy has gone in the toilet and we are still mired in a recession, the second one in the past decade.

If Romney, Ryan, Walker, Chris Abele and the rest of them really wanted to go back to the good old days when jobs were much more plentiful and people were able to achieve the American dream, they'd be working with the unions and not against them.

*BTW, someone with more time and money than I might want to do an Open Record's request on Burri's state computer.

Irony of the Day

Screencapped from Paul Ryan's own Facebook timeline

Compare/Contrast: President Obama v Scott Walker

I have always liked to compare/contrast the two parties and here is another great example! President Obama has been roundly criticized for not garnering relationships with many lawmakers and major donors, etc...

Top Obama donors began grumbling on the first day of the Administration. “The swearing-in was the beginning of pissing off the donors,” a longtime Washington fund-raiser says. “During the inaugural weekend, they didn’t have the capacity to handle all the people who had participated at the highest levels, because there were so many.” One middle-aged widow, from whom the fund-raiser had secured fifty thousand dollars, got four tickets to the swearing-in, but none of them were together. “She was so offended!” the fund-raiser says. “And I got no credit, by the way, for bringing her in. Important donors need to be cultivated so that they’re there four years later.”

Yet President Obama has a different reason for not kissing his top donors and Congress's ass...

"Sometimes Michelle and I not doing the circuit and going out to dinners with folks is perceived as us being cool," Obama said in a interview with CNN slated to air Monday evening. "It actually really has more to do with us being parents. When we're in town here in Washington in the evenings, 6:30 we want to be at the dinner table with our kids. And I want to be helping with their homework."

Obama has taken heat from major Democratic donors who have felt snubbed by the president's apparent aversion to schmoozing. However, Obama insists that's not the case.

"I think that's sometimes interpreted as me not wanting to be out there slapping backs and wheeling and dealing," Obama said. "It really has more to do with the stage we are in our lives."

 As a father I truly respect that!   Now let's check in to Wisconsin and compare that with our current Governor!

Scott Walker who also has two children(unlike MacIver Institute we will not use their names and faces for political points), yet the one thing the Scott Walker cares about is out of state fundraisers and Billionaire republicans! 

OKLAHOMA CITY — The preacher's son laughed and joked as he took a seat among the biggest players in Oklahoma politics, some of whom paid $10,000 to break bread with their conservative hero and get a photo snapped.

It was just another day on the road for Scott Walker. A year after his showdown with labor protesters, the Wisconsin governor has become one of the most sought-after figures in the Republican Party, keeping a jet-setting travel schedule more akin to a presidential candidate than a governor trying to survive a recall challenge.

Walker now regularly huddles with the wealthy and the famous. He attended a Christmas party thrown by Grover Norquist, the conservative power broker, and raised money with Hank Greenberg, founder and former CEO of American International Group, at his Manhattan office.

Last week, he mingled with Oklahoma's corporate elite and top Republicans at a fundraiser co-sponsored by Koch Industries, the oil company led by billionaire brothers who are top backers of conservative causes nationwide. Also in attendance were executives from Devon Energy Corp., which is building a 50-story tower that is changing the Oklahoma City skyline.
........

Walker is getting similar reactions all across the country. He's been to California, New York, Texas, Arizona, Kentucky, Tennessee and Florida just to name a few. On Friday, he was in St. Louis to receive the National Rifle Association's Harlon B. Carter Legislative Achievement Award, the highest honor conferred by the gun-rights group.

Whats Funnier Than A Mass Shooting?

To the NRA and Governor Walker not to much! 

CAMERON GRAY, NRA NEWS PRODUCER: Governor, after you signed concealed carry in Wisconsin -- I was your first interview, it's good to talk to you again -- since then how has the Wild West been? How have the crazy shootouts been? How out of control are the shootings in Wisconsin? [laughter]

GOV. SCOTT WALKER: Well as you can imagine all the hysteria went just the opposite way. Actually, you know one of the most interesting things is when I go to deployments -- deployments of members of the National Guard from Wisconsin -- I get members of the National Guard that come up and thank me for that. And more often than not it's female members of the Guard who come up and thank me. And actually many times they pull out their concealed carrier card and ask me to sign it in person for them. But none of the hysteria, none of the bad things we heard talked about. Instead what we saw was law-abiding citizens having the ability to exercise the right to protect not only themselves but their family and property.

Of course except for the Sikh Temple Mass Shooting where 7 people died and others injured, but whats a mass shooting with National Attention amongst friends???

 We could also ask Bo Morrison if any of the bad things happened, but he is dead!

Go Team! Do It For The Fibber!

This is hilarious!

Over the weekend, Paul Ryan paid a visit to his alma mater, Miami of Ohio. It was nothing more than a typical campaign stop, but Ryan thought he'd outdo Knute Rockne by stopping in the locker room and getting the team pumped up for a win.

Hilarity ensued:



I don't know which is funnier - the obvious fact that Ryan had no idea what he was doing or the confused look on the players' faces when he was done with his gibberish.

Indeed, Yahoo News reports:

In fact, the 45-second rah-rah was wildly disjointed as Ryan got his facts about Ohio State's record against teams in the state of Ohio backward. He tells the Redhawks that he's proud of them and then he asks them to go out and make him proud. Then he awkwardly finished with, "And make it… count."

It was good of Ryan to take the time to stop in and chat with the team, but I bet several of the players had no idea who he was (they are college students and probably not all registered voters).

Ryan then went up to a luxury box to watch some of the game with Ohio Representative Pat Tiberi and then left early.

Per ABC news, Ryan had the same effect for the team as he does for budget plans, and takes about as much responsibility for it:

When he left his team was winning 3-0. But, that didn’t last long.

By the time the vice presidential candidate was in the air on his way to a joint rally with the top of the ticket his alma mater was losing to Ohio State 35-10.

Reporters wanted to see what he thought of his university’s change in fortune, so they rolled an orange down the aisle on the flight from Columbus to Jacksonville.

The candidate rolled it back with a message: “We were winning when I was there. Paul.”
Miami of Ohio eventually did lose by an even bigger margin: 56-10.

I'd expect that by Thursday, he'll be telling people he suited up when the quarterback took ill and led the team to win the Rose Bowl and the Superbowl.

H/T Daily Kos

The Kick The Can Champion Of Fitzwalkerstan

As Milwaukee County Executive, Scott Walker was a master of kicking the can down the road at budget time. He'd do things like let repairs slide; not pay the bills; lay off workers until programs stopped working, knowing that any lawsuits would be months or even years down the line; dip into reserved funding; and even just draw up illegal budgets knowing that the repercussions wouldn't be felt until he was safely out of that office. Then he would declare a surplus when there was nearly a billion dollars in debt taxpayers were facing.

As governor, we see that Walker is still the Kick the Can Down the Road champion of Fitzwalkerstan. Again we see him extending the state's debt, raiding the transportation fund (not to mention preparing to raid the pension fund), and cutting services which are leading to greater expenses.

But Walker has learned a new twist. Not only is he kicking the can down the road, but he is kicking it to trip up the local governments and school districts.

To exemplify this, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel recently had an article about the future budgets of a "Fairly Normal" school district:

A year ago, Borch's analysis showed that things were going to be OK in Fairly Normal in the first year of the new financial realities. State aid went down, but employees paid a bigger share of health and retirement costs. The bottom line actually improved from what it would have been under the old system of increasing state aid and generous employee benefits.

In the second year, things weren't so good, and Fairly Normal had to dip into its "fund balance," which is pretty much like its long-term savings account. Years Three and Four get worse. By Year Five, which would be 2015-'16, Fairly Normal is running a big deficit, has used up all its savings and can't pay all its bills. I'm not exactly sure what we would call that when it happens to a unit of government in Wisconsin, but in other circumstances, I believe it's called bankruptcy.

Why did this happen? This is how I'd put it: Let's say your boss cut your pay. But he also helped you cover some of your expenses. For a year, it worked out to be pretty much a wash, and things were generally OK.

The next year, the boss gave you a little bit more pay, but your expenses started going up again. Things were not quite so OK. Same thing in the third year and fourth year. By the fifth year, it was ugly. You'd used up all your savings and you still couldn't pay your bills.

That's what is developing for Fairly Normal. As things stand, revenue stays pretty flat. But even without teachers unions having a say, expenses start climbing again. There are some modest raises, increases in health costs, costs for retirees and so on. Borch factors into his model that a lot of senior teachers retire due to changes in benefits and are replaced by younger teachers with lower salaries. (This is happening, in general.)

It's now a year since Borch first showed what he forecast for Fairly Normal. Things are developing pretty much as he envisioned, except a little less cheery on the bottom line. His forecasts now extend out an additional year and are looking like big financial problems loom for Fairly Normal.

The article goes on to cite a number of different possibilities to avoid the inevitable bankruptcy, including cutting even more teachers, cutting benefits even more (which would also reduce the number of good teachers), raising taxes and major program cuts.

I'd bet my bottom dollar that Walker is thinking that he will be out of the governor's chair by the time his bill is due, either in someone's cabinet or even as president himself.

But while Walker gets to celebrate being champion can kicker and parties hearty, we get stuck with the tab and the hangover.

The Difference Between Fitzwalkerstan And Michigan

Meet Paul Smith, a city councilman from Sterling Heights, Michigan. Please pay attention to the signs that Mr. Smith is holding in this taped interview, courtesy of Crooks & Liars, and keep in mind that he is an elected official:

 For more background, here is an excerpt of a story which appeared in The Detroit News:

In the video posted on YouTube, Smith, a tea party member, displayed signs showing illustrations of the impaled head of the president, then-Gov. Jennifer Granholm with a noose around her neck and U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with bullet holes in her face. The signs also included slurs against undocumented immigrants and gay people. [...] Reached Wednesday, Smith said he sees nothing offensive about the images, which he said were "good old First Amendment speech." "Yeah, it's harsh, but it's a harsh world, it's a harsh game," Smith said. "As long as you don't use a real weapon, it's fair game."

Now, we've had our own fair share of these nut job Teapublicans in Fitzwalkerstan, serving in the state legislature, the governor's office and even the Supreme Court of Wisconsin. Hell, we've even sent some of these damned fools to Washington. So, while I find that Mr. Smith's behaviors are of course offensive and regrettable, they aren't shocking. What did amaze me is their reaction to Smith's outrageous behaviors:

The City Council called for Councilman Paul Smith to resign over a video that shows him holding inflammatory signs depicting violence against President Barack Obama and others during a tea party rally in 2009. The council on Wednesday passed a resolution, 6 to 1, with Smith the "no" vote, urging Smith to resign. He is in his first term on the council. Mayor Pro Tem Michael Taylor said he began drafting the resolution after he saw the video. He described the images in the video, which runs 3minutes and 15 seconds, as "incredibly disturbing." "It's beyond unreasonable for anyone to do, and it's obvious we're dealing with someone who is completely irrational," he said.

Mind. Blown.

They're actually holding this goof accountable for his behaviors and taking him to task for them.

If Mr. Smith was in Fitzwalkerstan, he'd be defended by squawk radio and right wing bloggers. Then Media Trackkkers, MacGuyver Institute and Fitzwalkerstan Distorter and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel would suck up to him and call him a state hero. He'd end up getting a cushy spot, with a hefty raise, in Scott Walker's administration.

And if anyone were to criticize him or boo him, well, it'd be that person that would be harassed and pilloried for it.

If you don't believe me, look at what happens every time Robin Vos, Glenn Grothman, either Fitzgerald, either Kleefisch or Scott Walker opens their mouth.

Sean Duffy's Paycheck More Important Than American Soldiers

Reality start Sean Duffy gets hammered in this video by DCCC:



I would love to see Duffy actually come face to face with one of our brave men and women and tell them they need to sacrifice more because he just can't make it on $174,000 a year.

Walker Is Not The Only Nixonian Republican In Fitzwalkerstan

It's already been pointed out that Scott Walker has more than a passing similarity to Richard Nixon.

There is the obvious Watergate - Walkergate connection.

John Dean, who served as counsel to Nixon, also did an analysis of Walker's personality and behaviors. He found that Walker out-Nixons Nixon, which comes as no surprise to anyone in Fitzwalkerstan.

But Walker isn't the only one with a Nixonian twist to them.

If the gentle reader will remember, at the Republican convention, Paul Ryan was introduced by Steve King. As xoff reports at the Paul Ryan Watch, King is not a good guy by any stretch of the imagination, and was Nixon's thug enforcer.

It is becoming increasingly impossible to believe that anyone could stick up for these reprobates, much less vote for them.

The Walker Budget Keeps On Working! Part CXLV

Just in time for Labor Day, we find that Scott Walker and his budget is continuing to be the death knell for even more jobs. This time, 200 iron workers are victims of his ruinous agenda:

Brillion Iron Works, a division of Evansville, Ind.-based Accuride Corp., is cutting 198 jobs in Brillion — including 184 hourly and 14 salaried positions — on Saturday.

The company in a statement Thursday said slowing demand in its core industrial markets is behind the move.

The company will still employ 584 workers in Brillion following those layoffs, which should allow it to meet its committments to customers the remainder of the year.

Brillion Iron Works said it will maintain seven work crews, instead of 11, and eliminate the majority of its temporary salaried positions.

This is sickening. With just two days warning, 200 people have had their lives thrown into complete turmoil just because Walker sold the state a false bill of goods and is systematically ruining our state.

He cannot get indicted soon enough.

Paul Ryan: The Fast And The Spurious

One of the very first details that came out about Paul Ryan is that he is very big into physical fitness and one of his passions is running.

It is also known that he is a pathological liar, second only to Scott Walker.

Now those two worlds have come together.

In a radio interview with Hugh Hewitt, he made an amazing claim:

HH: That’s okay. Hey, in high school, what did you do in high school? Were you a speech and debate guy? Were you a bandie? What were you?

PR: No, I was student government and athletics, honor society, you know, that kind of thing. I was kind of a combination. I was class president my junior year, I was the school board rep my senior year. I lettered in varsity, you know, my first year in high school, mostly soccer and track. I was a distance runner and a soccer player. So kind of well-rounded. I can’t, I can play a cowbell. That’s about it for instruments.

HH: Are you still running? 

PR: Yeah, I hurt a disc in my back, so I don’t run marathons anymore. I just run ten miles or yes.

HH: But you did run marathons at some point?

PR: Yeah, but I can’t do it anymore, because my back is just not that great.

HH: I’ve just gotta ask, what’s your personal best?

PR: Under three, high twos. I had a two hour and fifty-something.

HH: Holy smokes. All right, now you go down to Miami University…

PR: I was fast when I was younger, yeah.

Impressive, right? He is claiming he ran in a number of marathons and that his best time was under three hours. That would mean keeping up a pace of seven minutes per mile for the entire 26 miles. I've had cars that couldn't do that.

Only thing is, well, he was lying his running shoes off:

It turns out Paul Ryan has not run a marathon in less than three hours—or even less than four hours.

A spokesman confirmed late Friday that the Republican vice presidential candidate has run one marathon. That was the 1990 Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth, Minnesota, where Ryan, then 20, is listed as having finished in 4 hours, 1 minute, and 25 seconds.

Whoa! Suddenly we went from a number of marathons to just one and then added more than an hour to his originally stated time. Still, it's more than I could do. (Or would want to for that much. I have a car for when I want to go 26 miles.)

In the grand scheme of things, lying about the number of races he ran in or what his best time was is not really a big deal.

The only thing is that this isn't an isolated incident.

There is the now famous lie he told in which he tried to blame President Obama for the closing of the auto plant in Janesville, even though the closing happened before Obama was even took office.

There is also the one about how his budget plan will save Medicare and how it will save taxpayers money. Heck, even the guy who came up with the plan doesn't buy that one.

And who could forget the one where Ryan said that he'd never ever ask for stimulus funds...except when he did.

And remember how he tried to distance himself after Todd Akin's infamous gaffe about legitimate rape? I don't know why, since he's voted for and/or sponsored more than his fair share of misogynistic bills in his time.

And feel free to laugh in his face if he claims that he is a Packers fan.

So the lesson here, gentle reader, is that you can't believe anything that comes out of Paul Ryan's mouth. And whatever you do, don't get him going on fishing:

Is it any wonder that they are starting to refer to him as Lyin' Ryan?

Help Save The Eschweiler Buildings!

This past Friday, the Friends of the Monarch Trail hosted a Blue Moon Event on the county grounds in Wauwatosa.  The event was a smashing success:

When all the parking spaces at the Milwaukee County Parks building were full up, people started parking on the peripheries. And when they filled up, they started parking along the drive, until it was full, too.

So, you'd have to call it a capacity crowd Friday night for the Friends of the Monarch Trail's Blue Moon Party.

[...]

As the tour groups reached the Eschweilers, they learned the principal reason for Agnew's efforts in the face of all that development.

Flanking the Eschweiler Buildings on east and west are two groves, where each fall flotillas of monarchs stop to roost in clusters on the trees. It's only one of only four such annual roosting sites known in eastern Wisconsin, according to scientists at the Milwaukee Public Museum.

Protecting that phenomenon of nature has become a passion and an obsession for Agnew and others who have joined her cause.

The article also mentions the Eschweiler buildings and how the Mandel Group, a private land developer, wants to raze most, if not all of the buildings and put up 192 apartments.  This would be a tragedy on many levels.  Not only would it add to the desecration of the only remaining pristine land in Milwaukee County, it would greatly endanger the Monarch Trail and the butterfly habitat.  It could also put Milwaukee County taxpayers in harm's way since the buildings have been designated as historical landmarks.

Fortunately, just as the Friends of the Monarch Trail are striving to save the butterfly's habitat, there is a movement to save the Eschweiler Buildings.  They are part of the County Grounds Coalition and have set up a website as well as a Facebook page to inform people of the peril of the buildings and the importance of saving them.

They have also started an online petition to show support for the preservation of these historic and priceless buildings. and are encouraging people to attend the next meeting of the Wauwatosa Common Council at which they are expected to discuss and vote on the future of the buildings and the Monarch habitat.  Please show your support and tell the Wauwatosa Common Council that there are things more important than pandering to wealthy land developers.

Why Clint Eastwood And His Empty Chair Was Political Genius

As I'm sure the gentle reader is already aware of, the Republicans made a bold move to have a special guest speaker on the last night of their convention. The guest speaker was Clint Eastwood who did a peculiar routine with an empty chair and a make believe President Barack Obama. Here is an abridged version of his stunt:



If you really want to see the full 12-minute version, click here.

The reactions were mixed, but trended to the negative.

The people that did like it were the socially and emotionally disfunctional ones like Dad29, who also thinks the answer to everything is to buy more ammo.

Another fan of Eastwood's performance is the Las Vegas Badger, who also thinks that actors and actresses shouldn't be allowed to have an opinion. Of course, since he only has this issue when it comes to liberal women, it could be that he is simply a hypocritical misogynist.

Scott Walker thought that the stunt was cringe-worthy. Other Republicans also wasted no time in backpedaling from Eastwood's bizarre routine.

But for all their hair-pulling and teeth-gnashing, the undeniable truth is that they all gave him a standing ovation when he was done. Not exactly what you would call a thumbs down.

The Democrats and liberals, which aren't always the same thing, were having a field day panning the routine.

Zach Wisniewski opined that Eastwood won a bet on how badly he screwed over Mitt Romney, and said, "started out as a train wreck and quickly turned into an unmitigated disaster,and his speech tonight will likely go down in history as one of the worst nominee lead-ins of all time."

I respectfully disagree with Zach and others who think that Eastwood hurt Romney. If anything, I think it helped him. Reince Priebus probably new that it would take a crazy old man yelling at an empty chair to make Romney look normal.

Too bad for them that even this attempt at boosting Romney's normalcy didn't pan out. The whole convention, a week of pomp and circumstance to anoint their chosen one, failed to give him even the slightest of bumps in the polls.

Hell, if it wasn't for Eastwood, Romney probably would have continued to lose ground as he's been doing since he doubled down on dumb by selecting Ryan as a running mate. And no, not that kind of running, mate.

The Walker Budget Keeps Working! Part CXLIV

In May 2012, Scott Walker announced his secret, year-old plan to "Transform Milwaukee." He said at the time that he was going to turn his laser-sharp focus on job creation on Milwaukee and rebuild it as the manufacturing capitol of the world.

Well, his budget and polices are taking stronger root and he can honestly claim that he did transform Milwaukee. But just not in the way he said he would:

The brisk pace of manufacturing activity in the Milwaukee area has slowed considerably in the past two months, according to a report today by the Institute for Supply Management-Milwaukee.

August’s seasonally adjusted Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) was 42.9, a big drop from 46.7 in July. A PMI above 50 indicates growth, while a reading below 50 means the industry is generally declining.

The index had been above 50 for three years, until July’s index showed the sector is declining. The PMI was at 60.2 in June.

Sad to say, it's not just Milwaukee that is feeling the Walker effect either. His policies are so bad that it has spread throughout Southeastern Wisconsin and northern Illinois:

Manufacturing in southeastern Wisconsin and northern Illinois shrank in August for only the second time in three years, with new orders declining and production slowing.

That's according to data from a monthly survey of manufacturers released Friday by Marquette University and the local chapter of the Institute for Supply Management.

The survey's index measuring industrial health was 42.9, down from 46.7 in July and much lower than a 60.2 reading in June.

An index score above 50 indicates growth, while below 50 indicates declining conditions. It was the second time the area's seasonally adjusted index fell below 50 since July 2009.

At this pace, it'll be a wonder if any of us has jobs by the time Walker is up for reelection.