Quote of the Day

Comes from Brewtown Gumshoe:

Maybe government isn't bad after all. Maybe the way Republicans govern is the real problem.

Finally, The Truth Comes Out About Mercury Marine

It wasn't really those eeeeeeeeeeeevvvvvvvvviiiilllll union workers.

It was the greedy and inept CEO and Board, which raked in tens of millions of dollars.

The Great G.A.S.B.

Bruce from Badger Blogger is still trying to play "gotcha" with me. The most recent episode involves Bruce discovering that the County budgets for fringe benefits, like health care and pension obligations. This simplistic attack is also echoed by the usual suspects, and Wiggy as well.

On the surface it does look bad. I really should go hide and be quiet, I suppose. Except for the simple fact that there is more to it than they would have you believe.

First of all, the budgeting of pension and other similar post-retirement benefits into the current budget started during the Bush administration, when they changed some of the rules regarding the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB). Bush had this new clause put in to make it easier for people like Walker to justify trying to privatize everything.

Even though I am far from being retired, and wouldn't be eligible to collect anything for at least another 18 years, the federal government requires the County to budget it as if they are paying me now. Since I obviously cannot collect it, one would think that this money would, oh, I don't know, maybe be directed toward the pension fund. But it isn't. In fact, the pension fund hasn't been fully funded once during Walker's tenure.

This in turn, raises the amount due to the fund by greater and greater amounts each year. This self-inflicted shortage has only been made exponentially worse by the crummy economy. By the ever-increasing shortage to the pension fund, and the ever-increasing requirement for money to be put in each consecutive year because of these short payments, it makes it look like the employees are costing much more than they are.

But once one gets past the distraction and actually starts to look at the problem, a very disturbing realization manifests itself.

In 2008, Walker left 717 fully funded positions unfilled. In 2009, the number is 89. That means in the past two years, there has been over 800 positions which were fully funded by the County Board, but were never filled. On top of that, as I just mentioned above, not all of the money that has been budgeted for the pension fund as gone to the pension fund.

This easily adds up to tens of millions of dollars.

Has anyone ever bothered to ask Walker what he did with all that money?

Post Script I: The popular opinion on the right is that the unions should just roll over and give Walker all the concessions he is looking for. It sure would help the budgeting process.

While I can not speak for the unions or the bargaining committee, I would find it extremely feasible to get that agreement if Walker would do just one thing: Show the same consideration he showed to almost all of his upper management people by giving them raises that would counter the loss of wages and benefits first.

Post Script II: James Rowen had a really good point a few weeks ago. Since this was obviously contrived by Walker a long time ago, shouldn't he be claiming any concessions as campaign contributions?

Ten Years

Ten years ago, I became the luckiest man alive. Ten years later, and we are still newlyweds on our honeymoon.

And it's still good.

I will be around, but no on the Intertubes for the weekend, as I celebrate the only thing that really matters. Sounds like it will be good time to put in the fireplace video, make some cocoa and snuggle.

Have a good weekend.

Walker's Point To Get Funding

Good for them:

Congresswoman Gwen Moore (D-Wisc.) today announced that Walker's Point Youth and Family Center will receive $147,853 to continue their Basic Center program, focused on serving Milwaukee area teens and families. Since 1976, this project has provided temporary emergency shelter to young people who are homeless, runaways, or otherwise in crisis and provided services to empower youth, help them to resolve personal and family problems, strengthen family relationships, and support safe and stable homes.

“Centers like Walker’s Point are essential to ensuring that youth who find themselves in difficult situations have someplace to seek care, and that families going through hard, emotional times have some hope of being reunited,” Congresswoman Moore said. “Whether they are homeless, runaways, or experiencing some other type of crisis, it’s important that Milwaukee’s youth have someplace to stay besides the street – someplace where supportive services are offered and someone can look out for them. Without the temporary services offered by Walker’s Point, many youths would certainly find themselves in very dangerous situations.”

The Walker's Point Basic Center program provides 24-hour shelter, support services to young people, and 24-hour crisis counseling for individuals and families. The shelter provides programming in HIV prevention, and alcohol and drug prevention. Their aftercare program includes non-residential counseling services with the youth or the family and a six-week check-in with the ex-resident youth and parent(s) that had been involved in counseling.

I used to work for one of their other programs in my pre-County days. They do good work and fill a big gap left my the foster care system.

Guns Don't Kill People. People With Guns Get Killed.

Another meme from the NRA shot down:

A team at the University of Pennsylvania "analysed 677 shootings over two-and-a-half years to discover whether victims were carrying at the time, and compared them to other Philly residents of similar age, sex and ethnicity." You are going to be totally stunned by what they found: "[P]eople who carried guns were 4.5 times as likely to be shot and 4.2 times as likely to get killed compared with unarmed citizens. When the team looked at shootings in which victims had a chance to defend themselves, their odds of getting shot were even higher." One small caveat: There is no indication of how many of the shooting victims "had it coming."

Not Practicing What He Preaches

Ex-abstinence counselor arrested for asking minor girl for sex.

Walker Wins In Race Of One

The GOP and Scott Walker are crowing because Walker overwhelmingly won a straw (man) poll in the First Congressional District.

What they don't mention is that Mark Neumann wasn't even invited to play.

They also seem to forget that when there is a choice, Walker can't even beat "Don't Know." What was he campaigning for seven years for?

Holloway, Coggs Take A Page From Walker's Playbook

The thing is, they are only trying to build up this year's surplus to apply it to next year's disaster of a budget:

Milwaukee County Board chairman Lee Holloway and Supervisor Elizabeth Coggs are sponsoring a resolution that would implement a mandatory furlough program to address the projected 2009 Milwaukee County budget deficit.

“Rather than impose reduced daily work hours proposed by the county executive, we believe that a modified furlough plan calling for four days of unpaid leave will achieve the desired fiscal results while minimizing disruption to members of the public and county employees,” Holloway said.

The furloughs would result in an estimated net savings of $1.6 million, Holloway said.

The furlough days outlined in the resolution are spread across four pay periods to reduce the wage impact on employees, he said.

The furloughs would occur on Nov. 13 and 25, and Dec. 4 and 24.

“We are also encouraging full-day closures of as many county offices as possible on these days,” said Coggs, chairwoman of the county board’s finance and audit committee. “By closing offices on four business days, we will see energy savings on top of the savings on personnel costs.”

The finance and audit committee will consider the resolution Friday and could send it to the full County Board Oct. 14.

Call your County Board Supervisor and tell them to stop funding Walker's campaign on the backs of our citizens and our workers.

I Bet He Gets The NRA Vote

Dad/mayoral candidate of the year:

Broward Mayor Stacy Ritter is to the far right, being hugged by her dad, Ed Portner.

Portner, who is running for a mayor of Tamarac, was peeved at his daughter because she endorsed his opponent. Sometimes political ties can run thicker than blood. And that's when the political family feud broke out.

"He lost it," Portner's wife, Helen, told the Sun-Sentinel. "He's been upset over the whole thing."

According to the police report, Portner arrived at Ritter's home at around 8 p.m. and when the mayor opened the door, Portner showed the pistol in his waistband and forced his way inside.

Ritter was able to convince Portner to let her get a bottle of water from the kitchen, and when he agreed, she bolted out of the garage door and called 911.

According to the Sun-Sentinel, Ritter endorsed the current mayor in her re-election bid and refused to rescind her endorsement after daddy dearest entered the race six months after she pledged her support. Portner used to be a city commissioner in Tamarac.

What You Can Do To Save The County Grounds

A post I did over at Milwaukee County First.

We need to keep pressure on UWM to do the right thing. I explain what can be done to do that, as well as give a reminder of our suggested solution to the whole issue that would allow everyone to come out ahead.

No, I Don't Think I Will

I learned more today about the CRG bully that caused quite the scene at Sunday's pro-Milwaukee County rally. I was going to write about it.

But then I took time to think about it.

I am deciding against it.

The man has been embarrassed publicly. He was embarrassed at his job. He is paying a bigger consequence than just a couple of municipal fines.

To keep dumping on would be juvenile and immature. It would make me as juvenile and immature as a conservative talk radio host. And it would serve no real purpose.

I am better than that, and better than those that would do that.

Sorry if the reader is disappointed, but that is just the way it is.

David Clarke: Now Aiding and Abetting Felons

A year ago, Dan Bice at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported about how Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke was actually trying to help a drunk driver get out of a snowbank instead of, you know, arresting him or something. To cover up his error, he made false allegations against the deputy who came in and did his job for him.

A couple of days ago, Bice did another story that once again shows the hypocrisy of Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke. In short, the story shows that Clarke, who was blasting at everyone and anyone just days earlier about not attaining DNA samples from felons, turns out to have the same problem himself. And not only does he get nailed for being a hypocrite, it looks like he is trying to minimize the level of his hypocrisy:

By his admission, department employees - deputies, corrections officers and civilians - failed to collect DNA at the correctional facility from April to August, a five-month stretch. That means about 350 convicted felons didn't give samples to authorities, Clarke estimated. In addition, no one took DNA swabs from 28 others on electronic monitoring.

And those numbers may be light.

Sources within the Sheriff's Department say the blunder went on for much longer than five months, perhaps as long as a year. They also say the number of inmates who didn't give their DNA may have reached 1,000.

Another interesting couple of tidbits from the article are these:

"This wasn't done intentionally," said one source, who suggested the problem was due to lack of staff and supervisors. "It fell through the cracks."

[...]

Not usually the self-effacing type, Clarke acknowledged that his department had slipped up. He said he didn't have the manpower to assign someone to DNA duty full time.

If there isn't enough manpower to do the work, whose at fault. Is Clarke being inefficient with his resources? Or is it that he hasn't been given enough resources to begin with?

If it's the former, then I certainly hope a qualified candidate steps up for the next election. If said candidate was a Democrat, that would give us twice the chance of getting a good Sheriff.

If it's the latter, well, we all know who sets the budget. I wonder if Walker could be labeled as being party to the crime.

I suspect part of the problem is that instead of doing his job, he is blogging about MPS, which is not even in his jurisdiction. It's almost as if he is gearing up for an election to a higher office. Maybe he should show him able to do the one he has now before worrying about another job. But that does seem to be a common ailment among local conservatives.

This Is How They Define Classy?

The Badger Bully Boyz are back to reaching for new lows.

It wasn't bad enough when it was shown that they are the hangout for sock-puppeteers.

They further sully their own reputations with this posting by Roland Melnick. Melnick thinks it is great sport mocking a guy who was assaulted while trying to defend his wife who was also assaulted:

Badger Blogger: Did you achieve your goals for this event?
Bill the shovee: Absolutely…the media focused on me going face first into a bush…which kinda hurt, but, you know…I’m down for the cause…my personal safety is a distant second to our cause. We’re even planning a sit-in/sleepover in a vacant Lee Holloway rental property to raise awareness in Milwaukee.
“John” the shover: Absolutely not…the media focused on me throwing him face first into a bush. Any money I would potentially save if Scott Walker’s budget were to pass will now go toward paying my citations.

Apparently, a woman being assaulted is not nearly as important as saving a whopping $10 on next years tax bill or taking a cheap shot for their political candidate of choice.

For the record, it was already shown that the assailant was looking to stir up trouble.

The kind of behavior is not unusual for that crowd, and it reminds me of another infamous local "celebrity" that got in for suall sorts of hot water for such crude behavior.

Of course, this kind of behavior from these kinds of people is nothing new at all.

But if this is what they consider to be classy, and they don't like me, well, I am perfectly fine with that.

Oh, and cue the sockpuppets in 3....2....1....

Walker Blames Others For His Ineptitude

Last night, I told you about how Scott Walker got his Twitter account suspended due to violating the terms of service. At the time, I said I thought it had something to do with all the spam he had on his site.

Today, he is still tweetless. Hilariously, he is blaming it on unknown, sinister "opposition to his movement."

However, in the comments of the JSOnline piece, some endeavoring commenter points out the simple truth, which also backs up my spam theory:

Walker keeps blaming the “opposition,” but this time he’s been caught red handed… by Google.

September 27, 2009 – Scott Walker is following 4,862 users, and is being followed by 4,420 users.
Link: http://bit.ly/38K5Mu

October 3, 2009 – Scott Walker is following 3,614 users, and is being followed by 4,556 users.
Link: http://bit.ly/21W6EX

This means that over the course of one week, WALKER added, then unfollowed 1248 users, and gained 136.

It’s impossible for someone to suggest that isn’t a violation of the Twitter TOS. Keep blaming the left Scott… you don’t need us to take you down.

On a more serious note, Harris Kane does have a very good question for us:

If Scott Walker can't run a twitter account what makes anyone believe he can run Wisconsin?