Ayuh, sounds about right.
Walker making another big stink about this truthful commercial in 3...2...1...
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Was Donovan Sleeping On The Job?
This morning, City Alderman Bob Donovan was making the talk radio circuit doing campaign work for Scott Walker by complaining about OpenSky, stating he put in an expansive open records request regarding everything about it.
It is more than a bit ironic that Donovan is doing this now, considering that he is Chairman of the City Council's Public Safety Committee. You would think that he would have been paying attention to what was going on for the past few years.
He must have been too busy attacking art schools or holding one of his myriad of attention seeking press releases.
Anyway, one of the things he was just so shocked about was that the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel had put in their own ORR, but then backed off when the price proved to be prohibitive. Rip Van Donovan made the same complaint to Weasel Blogger's own Glenn Frankovis, who immediately suspected that it meant they were trying to hide something.
Funny thing is I don't remember any of these people tsk-tsking Walker's obvious manipulations when he would delay ORR responses for months and then charge an arm and a leg for them if the requester was an unfriendly, but would then give his informal campaign arm, CRG, free rein whenever they wanted anything.
Nor did they say a peep when County Supervisor John Weishan's ORR was met with the same resistance and overcharging, and then never met.
I guess Walker's hypocrisy must be contagious. That or it's simply a characteristic trait among the right.
It is more than a bit ironic that Donovan is doing this now, considering that he is Chairman of the City Council's Public Safety Committee. You would think that he would have been paying attention to what was going on for the past few years.
He must have been too busy attacking art schools or holding one of his myriad of attention seeking press releases.
Anyway, one of the things he was just so shocked about was that the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel had put in their own ORR, but then backed off when the price proved to be prohibitive. Rip Van Donovan made the same complaint to Weasel Blogger's own Glenn Frankovis, who immediately suspected that it meant they were trying to hide something.
Funny thing is I don't remember any of these people tsk-tsking Walker's obvious manipulations when he would delay ORR responses for months and then charge an arm and a leg for them if the requester was an unfriendly, but would then give his informal campaign arm, CRG, free rein whenever they wanted anything.
Nor did they say a peep when County Supervisor John Weishan's ORR was met with the same resistance and overcharging, and then never met.
I guess Walker's hypocrisy must be contagious. That or it's simply a characteristic trait among the right.
Ron Johnson Gets Confused Easily, Doesn't He?
Ron Johnson really has a hard time keeping things straight, which is rather surpriseing since most accountants are known for being well organized mentally.
He says he is against the stimulus or any other government money being spent to improve the economy on one hand, but he is also more than ready to grab onto said money with both hands when he can.
He also has a history of getting pretty confused where he stands on other things as well, like allowing offshore drilling to occur in Lake Michigan.
Heck, he's not even sure when he went to work at the company that his in-laws created.
Now we see that he is confused on why he is even running for the US Senate.
In his newest commercial, he talks about why he chose to run.
But first, let me say that the commercial is a lot like the Windows 7 commercials, where the actor's imaginary self is some heroic, handsome and suave character, while the actual person is far from it.
Anyway, in the commercial, RoJo claims to be running because he wants to be the savior of the people. Apparently, the things he wants to save people from is an improving economy, gainful employment, and jobs remaining on American soil.
But in reality, he is running because a voice in the television set was telling him too.
Obviously, all his confusion is being cause by sunspots.
He says he is against the stimulus or any other government money being spent to improve the economy on one hand, but he is also more than ready to grab onto said money with both hands when he can.
He also has a history of getting pretty confused where he stands on other things as well, like allowing offshore drilling to occur in Lake Michigan.
Heck, he's not even sure when he went to work at the company that his in-laws created.
Now we see that he is confused on why he is even running for the US Senate.
In his newest commercial, he talks about why he chose to run.
But first, let me say that the commercial is a lot like the Windows 7 commercials, where the actor's imaginary self is some heroic, handsome and suave character, while the actual person is far from it.
Anyway, in the commercial, RoJo claims to be running because he wants to be the savior of the people. Apparently, the things he wants to save people from is an improving economy, gainful employment, and jobs remaining on American soil.
But in reality, he is running because a voice in the television set was telling him too.
Obviously, all his confusion is being cause by sunspots.
The Teabaggers' America
Read the first letter to the editor from Monday morning's newspaper.
Is this really what they want to do to us?
Is this really what they want to do to us?
Monday, October 11, 2010
Walker Deploys The Smoke And Mirrors Tactic
Last Friday, I had many things on my mind. I was trying to throw a couple of posts up, pay the bills and pack for an anniversary weekend getaway with my beautiful bride of 11 years.
But even with all my distractions and multitasking, I noticed that Charlie Sykes was taking on a more hysterical tone than usual, and was really ripping into Tom Barrett for the OpenSky issue, in which the new police radio system crashed for about a half hour due to a technician not following protocol.
But after years of dealing with the likes of Sykes and Scott Walker, I knew there was more to the story than just sharks smelling blood in the water. In fact, I even tweeted my suspicions:
As my wife and I were traveling, we decided to flip over to WTMJ radio to catch the news. We were greeted with Scott Walker appearing at the studio, blasting away at Barrett for the police radio. The problem for Walker was that the reason for the failure of the radio system had already been identified, corrected and measures taken to prevent a recurrence before he was ever on the news. But that didn't slow Walker down at all.
Most amazingly, Walker even had this to say while attacking Barrett (emphasis mine):
I told my wife what I had tweeted that morning, and restated that Walker must be in some serious trouble. Again, I didn't realize how badly I underestimated that.
We stopped at a gas station in Waupaca, and I took a few minutes to quick check my email and sure enough, a couple of my friends had already sent me those "Have you seen this?" emails with a link to this story.
Because Walker only threw up distractions instead of fixing the issues, such as the severe staffing shortage at the mental health complex, a patient (the same one that was sexually assaulted, resulting in a pregnancy) was able to leave the complex, climb a fence and attack a neighborhood woman in her own home.
To make matters worse, the incident happened over a week before it appeared on JSOnline. Walker knew about it for days, but tried to keep it quiet. To date, he still hasn't commented on the issue.
To add to Walker's bad day, the County Board appears to be finding themselves again and have called Walker's piece of garbage for what it is, a cynical political stunt.
Then on Sunday, things even turned worse for Walker, and subsequently, Milwaukee County tax payers, when two stories appeared on the front page, above the fold, in that morning's edition of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
One story was somewhat related to the story of the escapee patient. Due to Walker's severely short staffing the mental health complex, and exasperating the situation with his excessive use of furlough days, staff at the hospital were racking up massive amounts of overtime for at least four straight years.
The other story had to deal with a report from the Greater Milwaukee Committee who are claiming that the County's finances are so bad, that they think Milwaukee County will be bankrupt in the next few years if drastic measures are not taken.
In summary, Walker's ineptitude is becoming so glaringly apparent that he has to grasp at straws, jumping on anything he can remotely try to tie to Barrett to keep from sliding further down and failing to reach his eight-year goal of becoming governor.
The question is whether the voters will focus on Walker's attempts to blame Barrett for a vendor's mistake or will they have to acknowledge the elephant in Walker's campaign office, which is absolute failure as county executive.
Walker's problem is that elephant is so big and ugly, and reeks so badly, that there is no amount of smoke or mirrors in the world that could disguise it, much less hide it.
But even with all my distractions and multitasking, I noticed that Charlie Sykes was taking on a more hysterical tone than usual, and was really ripping into Tom Barrett for the OpenSky issue, in which the new police radio system crashed for about a half hour due to a technician not following protocol.
But after years of dealing with the likes of Sykes and Scott Walker, I knew there was more to the story than just sharks smelling blood in the water. In fact, I even tweeted my suspicions:
Given the way @SykesCharlie is squawking like a plucked chicken, @ScottKWalker must be in real trouble.As it turns out, I was, as usual, absolutely correct. If anything, I underestimated the problems that were coming Walker's way.
As my wife and I were traveling, we decided to flip over to WTMJ radio to catch the news. We were greeted with Scott Walker appearing at the studio, blasting away at Barrett for the police radio. The problem for Walker was that the reason for the failure of the radio system had already been identified, corrected and measures taken to prevent a recurrence before he was ever on the news. But that didn't slow Walker down at all.
Most amazingly, Walker even had this to say while attacking Barrett (emphasis mine):
"In the end, when you're the chief executive officer, the buck stops with you," the Milwaukee County executive said. "The buck stops with the mayor in this case."I wondered at the time when, not if, those words were going to come back to bite Walker.
I told my wife what I had tweeted that morning, and restated that Walker must be in some serious trouble. Again, I didn't realize how badly I underestimated that.
We stopped at a gas station in Waupaca, and I took a few minutes to quick check my email and sure enough, a couple of my friends had already sent me those "Have you seen this?" emails with a link to this story.
Because Walker only threw up distractions instead of fixing the issues, such as the severe staffing shortage at the mental health complex, a patient (the same one that was sexually assaulted, resulting in a pregnancy) was able to leave the complex, climb a fence and attack a neighborhood woman in her own home.
To make matters worse, the incident happened over a week before it appeared on JSOnline. Walker knew about it for days, but tried to keep it quiet. To date, he still hasn't commented on the issue.
To add to Walker's bad day, the County Board appears to be finding themselves again and have called Walker's piece of garbage for what it is, a cynical political stunt.
Then on Sunday, things even turned worse for Walker, and subsequently, Milwaukee County tax payers, when two stories appeared on the front page, above the fold, in that morning's edition of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
One story was somewhat related to the story of the escapee patient. Due to Walker's severely short staffing the mental health complex, and exasperating the situation with his excessive use of furlough days, staff at the hospital were racking up massive amounts of overtime for at least four straight years.
The other story had to deal with a report from the Greater Milwaukee Committee who are claiming that the County's finances are so bad, that they think Milwaukee County will be bankrupt in the next few years if drastic measures are not taken.
In summary, Walker's ineptitude is becoming so glaringly apparent that he has to grasp at straws, jumping on anything he can remotely try to tie to Barrett to keep from sliding further down and failing to reach his eight-year goal of becoming governor.
The question is whether the voters will focus on Walker's attempts to blame Barrett for a vendor's mistake or will they have to acknowledge the elephant in Walker's campaign office, which is absolute failure as county executive.
Walker's problem is that elephant is so big and ugly, and reeks so badly, that there is no amount of smoke or mirrors in the world that could disguise it, much less hide it.
Friday, October 8, 2010
The Greatest Is Love
When I got married, like a majority of couples, we had a reading of 1 Corinthians 13:4-7,13:
Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous;
love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly;
it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered,
does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;
bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails...But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Tomorrow will be our eleventh anniversary.
And seeing how love conquers all, the politics, furlough days, the social problems and all that noise can wait.
I am taking the weekend off to celebrate the most wonderful, most beautiful and sweetest woman in the world.
Have a good weekend and enjoy the nice weather.
The Real Question
Scott Walker is still trying to use the high speed train as a campaign issue, claiming he can stop it.
That is questionable, considering he can't even keep his budgets or his track record from being a train wreck.
That is questionable, considering he can't even keep his budgets or his track record from being a train wreck.
Walker's 2011 Budget An Illegal, Deficit Ridden, Political Ploy
The Milwaukee County Board should just reject it outright.
Walker Finally Has A Job Plan!
After months of Walker claiming to have a job plan, but not being able to offer anything but a cynical gimmick of 68 pages of lettering at size 55 font, and consisting of nothing more than a the standard Republican boilerplate and disrespect for the unemployed, Scott Walker has finally came up with a jobs plan.
That's the good news.
The bad news his job plan is this:
Yup, the bulk of his plan is to be a cheerleader for the state.
But what kind of cheerleader can Walker be after calling the state a tax hell for years and saying that trying to bring jobs and businesses to the Milwaukee County area akin to "putting lipstick on a pig."
But that's not all!
He'll also put a phone line in to handle all of the calls from businesses that will be beating down the door to come to a state he's spent years comparing to hell and/or a cosmetics-wearing swine.
Not only that, but using the past eight years as a guide, I am sure people will really want to locate to a place where the infrastructure is crumbling and the deficit grows so big it will take generations to pay off, even if the economy was in good shape.
And in a move that will probably push voters to Team Barrett's camp, he also said that he would put his Lt. Governor, Rebecca Kleefisch in charge of holding roundtable meetings with small businesses. I wonder if she will be applying her theocratic standards to them as well. Perhaps she could enlist Tom Reynolds to help her with that.
Every day it becomes more and more apparent that the only thing Walker knows about jobs is the snow jobs he keeps trying to pull on voters.
That's the good news.
The bad news his job plan is this:
Yup, the bulk of his plan is to be a cheerleader for the state.
But what kind of cheerleader can Walker be after calling the state a tax hell for years and saying that trying to bring jobs and businesses to the Milwaukee County area akin to "putting lipstick on a pig."
But that's not all!
He'll also put a phone line in to handle all of the calls from businesses that will be beating down the door to come to a state he's spent years comparing to hell and/or a cosmetics-wearing swine.
Not only that, but using the past eight years as a guide, I am sure people will really want to locate to a place where the infrastructure is crumbling and the deficit grows so big it will take generations to pay off, even if the economy was in good shape.
And in a move that will probably push voters to Team Barrett's camp, he also said that he would put his Lt. Governor, Rebecca Kleefisch in charge of holding roundtable meetings with small businesses. I wonder if she will be applying her theocratic standards to them as well. Perhaps she could enlist Tom Reynolds to help her with that.
Every day it becomes more and more apparent that the only thing Walker knows about jobs is the snow jobs he keeps trying to pull on voters.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Reality TV Stars Get No Respect
Even after assaulting Dan Mielke at a TEA Party in March at the Wisconsin Dells and winning the primary in September, reality TV star Sean "Pretty Boy" Duffy still can't get any respect:
Julie Lassa must be a very happy woman right now.
Mielke managed to get a third of the votes in September. If those voters decide to stay with the true conservative, that will cut Duffy at the knees with his own axe. If I were Mielke, I'd consider getting a body guard. If Duffy would resort to violence over a video, this will send him over the deep end.Dan Mielke has decided to run as a write-in candidate for the 7th Congressional District.
He was defeated by Sean Duffy during September's Republican Primary Race. Both candidates will face democratic State Sen. Julie Lassa in November. The winner will take over for longtime lawmaker Rep. Dave Obey. He's retiring after 41 years in office.
Mielke, a farmer from Rudolph, says he decided to mount the write-in campaign because he doesn't believe Duffy is truly committed to his issues of concern.
Julie Lassa must be a very happy woman right now.
We Should Follow Scott Walker's Lead
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about how WISGOP was keeping their candidates, especially the major ones, in hiding.
They are still keeping their candidates under wraps.
Ron Johnson has been missing from interviews and other similar appearances for months now. Things are so bad that they have started to put his picture on milk cartons. We'll have another example on why this is on Friday night when Johnson faces Feingold in a debate which will be broadcast statewide.
But the most remarkable disappearance is that of Rebecca Kleefisch. Kleefisch was a trooper during the primary appearing everywhere and anywhere even while she was battling cancer.
Suddenly, she just up and disappeared. She doesn't even tweet with any sort of regularity now, even though she used to be most responsive, even to liberals like myself.
She started to clam up about the time that her Democratic counterpart, Tom Nelson, started challenging her to debates. Pressure started to build on the Walker/Kleefisch campaign until today, when they finally responded to the calls with a flat out rejection:
It seems to me that the one running away is Kleefisch. A possible explanation could come from a TV news report on Team Walker's refusal to let her debate. In said story, they did ask Kleefisch herself why she wouldn't debate. Kleefisch responded that this was the time to discuss the issues on not play political games.
Huh?
Isn't a debate the arena where two or more candidates talk about the issues, where they stand on them, and allow the voters to have a chance to make an honest, informed decision on who they wish to vote for?
Anyway, it might not be fair to say that Kleefisch is too scared to debate or that she is running away from the opportunity. After all, she did take on three or four other major contenders during the Republican primary, and obviously did well for herself, see how she won the nomination.
It is probably much more likely that Scott Walker has little or no confidence in his running mate. He could be afraid that she will again come off as being condescending and elitist as she did when she said that poor people shouldn't have the same access to the life-saving medical treatment she enjoyed. There is also the way she managed to alienate most of the LGBT group with her extremist views. And there was also her bigoted and mildly anti-Semitic statement that only Christians could be governor.
While many people describe the Lieutenant Governor as being a wasted office, the fact is that this person would need to step in and lead the state if the Governor was unable to perform his duties, either through illness or resignation or whatever.
If Walker has such little confidence that his running mate would be able to even present herself as being able to do perform the duties of this office, I say we should trust his judgment on this, and vote for the Barrett/Nelson ticket. It would make immeasurably much more sense to vote for the side that has two competent candidates than the side that can't muster even one trustworthy candidate.
They are still keeping their candidates under wraps.
Ron Johnson has been missing from interviews and other similar appearances for months now. Things are so bad that they have started to put his picture on milk cartons. We'll have another example on why this is on Friday night when Johnson faces Feingold in a debate which will be broadcast statewide.
But the most remarkable disappearance is that of Rebecca Kleefisch. Kleefisch was a trooper during the primary appearing everywhere and anywhere even while she was battling cancer.
Suddenly, she just up and disappeared. She doesn't even tweet with any sort of regularity now, even though she used to be most responsive, even to liberals like myself.
She started to clam up about the time that her Democratic counterpart, Tom Nelson, started challenging her to debates. Pressure started to build on the Walker/Kleefisch campaign until today, when they finally responded to the calls with a flat out rejection:
Kleefisch spokeswoman Jill Bader said Tuesday that she won't debate Nelson because the Tom Barrett-Nelson ticket is only interested in running away from their records and using false television ads to distort Scott Walker's record.First of all, let me say that has to be the most insipid and inane response that I have ever seen from any political campaign.
It seems to me that the one running away is Kleefisch. A possible explanation could come from a TV news report on Team Walker's refusal to let her debate. In said story, they did ask Kleefisch herself why she wouldn't debate. Kleefisch responded that this was the time to discuss the issues on not play political games.
Huh?
Isn't a debate the arena where two or more candidates talk about the issues, where they stand on them, and allow the voters to have a chance to make an honest, informed decision on who they wish to vote for?
Anyway, it might not be fair to say that Kleefisch is too scared to debate or that she is running away from the opportunity. After all, she did take on three or four other major contenders during the Republican primary, and obviously did well for herself, see how she won the nomination.
It is probably much more likely that Scott Walker has little or no confidence in his running mate. He could be afraid that she will again come off as being condescending and elitist as she did when she said that poor people shouldn't have the same access to the life-saving medical treatment she enjoyed. There is also the way she managed to alienate most of the LGBT group with her extremist views. And there was also her bigoted and mildly anti-Semitic statement that only Christians could be governor.
While many people describe the Lieutenant Governor as being a wasted office, the fact is that this person would need to step in and lead the state if the Governor was unable to perform his duties, either through illness or resignation or whatever.
If Walker has such little confidence that his running mate would be able to even present herself as being able to do perform the duties of this office, I say we should trust his judgment on this, and vote for the Barrett/Nelson ticket. It would make immeasurably much more sense to vote for the side that has two competent candidates than the side that can't muster even one trustworthy candidate.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Even Republicans Don't Expect Walker To Keep Promises
Wisconsin Gazette has a thought-provoking article about Scott Walker's contradiction between his personal life and his stump speeches regarding the LGBT community.
While on the campaign trail, Walker's takes a strong anti-gay stance, threatening to dissolve the domestic partner registry as well as the employment benefits for the partners of gay and lesbian state workers. However, both in his current administration and in his personal life, he is very open to gays and lesbians, including having some as top officials, most notably Tim Russell and Sue Black.
An interesting part of the article is how his gay supporters see this dissonance:
While on the campaign trail, Walker's takes a strong anti-gay stance, threatening to dissolve the domestic partner registry as well as the employment benefits for the partners of gay and lesbian state workers. However, both in his current administration and in his personal life, he is very open to gays and lesbians, including having some as top officials, most notably Tim Russell and Sue Black.
An interesting part of the article is how his gay supporters see this dissonance:
Milwaukee attorney Jim McFarland, a member of Log Cabin Republicans, described Walker as “100-percent supportive on a personal level.” McFarland and other gay Walker supporters believe his personal openness signals that, if elected, he would not pursue the conservative social positions he’s adopted on the stump.If Walker is not expected to keep his promises on this issue, how can anyone expect him to keep his word on any issue?
GOP Sends Out Questionable Mailers
The Election Commission has been getting a number of complaints regarding a questionable mailer sent out by the RGA Wisconsin 2010 PAC.
Chris Schimpf, mouthpiece for the RGA, defended the mailer, saying it was clearly marked as being from them and added this:
Contrary to Schrimpf's claims, it was not clearly marked as being from them. It was obvious that it wasn't from an government office, given the same tired and false rhetoric that they have been airing in their TV advertisement, complete with unsubstantiated and unsupported accusations. (Really, if you're going to cite the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, at least note the date and the title of the article, not just the paper's name.)
Secondly, while our personal information was filled out, complete with full legal names, addresses and dates of birth, they were not concealed as that the mailers were not sealed. Fortunately, the phone numbers were incorrect. The number they had listed is not one either of us had. It makes me wonder if we were gullible enough to use their invasive propaganda, would our votes have been negated due to the false information?
Ironically, Schrimpf then states that they hadn't received any calls of complaint. Maybe, just maybe, it's because they didn't include their phone number on the mailer, even though they put the recipients. Of course, if I was involved with something this slimy, I wouldn't want to hear about it either.
Chris Schimpf, mouthpiece for the RGA, defended the mailer, saying it was clearly marked as being from them and added this:
My wife and I each received one of these pieces of offal.Schrimpf said the blanks were filled in for voters' convenience, to ensure they didn't leave out any required information.
He said all of the information was obtained legally, although he didn't know where the RGA got it. And he said the RGA showed sensitivity to privacy concerns by keeping the personal information inside the flier, under a flap, not visible until the recipient opens up the piece.
Contrary to Schrimpf's claims, it was not clearly marked as being from them. It was obvious that it wasn't from an government office, given the same tired and false rhetoric that they have been airing in their TV advertisement, complete with unsubstantiated and unsupported accusations. (Really, if you're going to cite the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, at least note the date and the title of the article, not just the paper's name.)
Secondly, while our personal information was filled out, complete with full legal names, addresses and dates of birth, they were not concealed as that the mailers were not sealed. Fortunately, the phone numbers were incorrect. The number they had listed is not one either of us had. It makes me wonder if we were gullible enough to use their invasive propaganda, would our votes have been negated due to the false information?
Ironically, Schrimpf then states that they hadn't received any calls of complaint. Maybe, just maybe, it's because they didn't include their phone number on the mailer, even though they put the recipients. Of course, if I was involved with something this slimy, I wouldn't want to hear about it either.
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