But let’s say you are interested — fascinated even with what is going through the mind of the man who is running our state. You can find out what he’s eating, where he travels and about his pastors sermons.

Here are just a few of his tweets that the DWD is spending our money advertising:
GovWalker Had some really good meat loaf for a late dinner. 9 hours ago · reply · retweet · favorite
GovWalker Ran over to Walgreen’s to get a prescription filled. What a beautiful day! yesterday · reply · retweet · favorite
Governor Walker @GovWalker Reply Retweet Favorite · Open
Our pastor spoke on Beatitudes @ church. Very interesting.

How this relates to promoting employment in our state is lost on this writer. Walker also tweets about businesses he has visited and plants he has toured. Again, not a benefit to taxpayers and not a way to create jobs which begs the question as to why one of Walker’s Department heads is using public funds to promote a political candidate.

Unfortunately what is happening in Wisconsin under Walker is the opposite of workforce development since the state is losing jobs. And while Walker’s twitter account has a banner that says “Wisconsin is open for business”, the numbers don’t seem to support Walker’s claim or for that matter his promise to add jobs. Simply cutting business taxes has not drawn businesses to Wisconsin.

The old saying “Nero fiddled as Rome burned” may reflect a different culture, but todays modern day equivalent could easily be “Walker tweeted as Wisconsin suffered”.

Really now — who cares.

Are these wonks so seriously out of touch with the economy that they are incapable of understanding the dynamic of our recovering economy? The answer is yes. This is a recovery period — we shouldn’t be measuring ourselves against an impossible standard which was artificially created by a decade of bad lending practices.

Yes, it is true that “housing starts” were huge 5 or more years ago. Banks were giving away money to people who should have never qualified. At the same time, many of our urban centers were bulldozing established homes which helped create a need.

Now things have changed.

Rather than look to larger, more palatial estates that you could drive a car through, homeowners are looking to fix what they have. They know they will not get top dollar for their existing home if they sell it for a bigger home so they are turning to remodeling instead of building. Remodeling allows them to have many of the comforts, and even luxuries that they would have likely purchased with a newly constructed home a few years ago.

Small remodelers are doing well. Builders are struggling. But the economy is changing and many of the legitimate builders are now looking to the remodeling field.

It’s an easy call to say that a new house will need not only the services of the tradespeople to build it, but goods and services to furnish and decorate it. What is also true is that there is a large supply of existing homes for sale and home buyers can purchase more home today with their dollar than they can build one today.

It will take time — probably quite a while, before the housing market rights itself. The population must grow to create a need for all of the homes on the market today. Home prices will either continue to fall or will stabilize as inflation of salaries makes the American dream possible once again. New college graduates cannot afford the prices homeowners were asking and therefore existing home prices will continue to stagnate until they reach a point where those entering the workforce can afford a mortgage.

Times like this are opportunities to remodel — not build. Until the economists understand this simple fact, they will continue to play chicken little and offer little understanding and no value to an honest analysis of our current economic climate.

Unions have made tremendous gains and they have suffered devastating losses in the last several decades. Their problem is that they have been fighting the wrong fights and it is finally catching up with them.

Republicans have become very good at dividing the public. Union leadership and their stranglehold over rank and file members has led to the death of some unions and others feeling pain. If unions are to survive, they must reform their own structure but this is unlikely.

Union leadership is controlled by long-standing members with seniority. They negotiate contracts that are thought to benefit their membership, but disproportionately benefit more senior members. By now everyone has heard Republican Governor Scott Walker talk about the bus driver who made over $100,000 in a year. He is happy to drag out examples of the highest paid union workers and present them as though they were the norm. Understanding that many Wisconsinites who live outside of Milwaukee County look at Milwaukee with disdain, he has fueled that hatred and division by pointing to the most extreme examples in Milwaukee and suggested that Milwaukee is a drain on their tax dollars.

I say that reform is unlikely because those who are closest to retirement are unlikely to give up the gains they have made and are just as unlikely to retire early. Senior members have seen other senior union members enjoy the generous pay and benefits of their final years of employment and will believe it is their long awaited turn.

The real problem with most labor unions is that younger members are not given the opportunity to be in leadership. Therefore the more senior members decide what is best for the entire union. Although union members call themselves brothers and sisters, their family relationship is often contentious with the younger members not having a voice or way to express their frustration.

Case in point; when I served on the Milwaukee County Board, the Milwaukee County Deputies union was in negotiation with the county over a contract. County negotiators made it clear that there was only a finite amount of money that was on the table. Union leadership came up with a plan that would raise the top pay of more senior deputies while reducing the starting pay for newly hired deputies to about $23,000 per year. Milwaukee County was at that time seen as a great place for a young person to get their training, but they would often leave (and take their expensive law enforcement training with them) for better paying jobs in other communities. Had the County accepted what union leadership wanted, the County would have continued to hemmorage newly trained deputies while senior deputies said no.

A little full disclosure here — I believe in unions. One of my grandfathers was a union milkman, another was a teamster who worked his entire career at a freight company. They worked hard for their companies and didn’t switch jobs. Neither was in union leadership but they were both able to support their families in relative middle class comfort. While I am a successful self employed businessman, my customers are in the middle class.

But back to the County. I was on the Personnel committee at the time. What I am about to tell you was confidential information from closed meetings in which we discussed the best position for the county. I will admit that I was the Supervisor who was upset at the closed meeting when I was told what union leadership wanted. I was the one who said “no way in hell”. It did not make any sense to me that we would take the easy route and give even higher salaries to more senior deputies when we were losing new deputies because their union wanted to pay the new deputies a pittance. Many of these new deputies were college graduates. They knew that, at a minimum, they would have to serve 5 years of jail duty before they would be considered for other assignments. Many had student loans that had to be repaid. I was able to get enough votes from my colleagues to send the negotiators back to the table and tell the unions the minimum salary for a starting deputy would be at least $28,000. That was the minimum amount we figured would be necessary to keep other deputies from fleeing the county for other, higher paying communities.

I have no kind words for the man who was their union president at that time. He was greedy. I’m proud to say that he didn’t get what he wanted. He then led the deputies to vote against a generous pension plan which their entire membership later regretted.

The deputy’s union is not unique. Historically teachers unions have protected low quality teachers at the expense of providing our children a quality education. WEAC, the Wisconsin Education Association Council, deserves kudos for their recent reversal of their position where promotions and pay can be based on merit — not seniority.

Reforming unions means that younger members must be included in leadership. Younger members can no longer be used by senior members as a tool for better pay and benefits for only the senior members. They need to start treating each other as brothers and sisters who care about each other rather than treating each other like Cain and Able. In families a big brother looks after his little brother. Unions need to return to that model.

Right now we are experiencing the most polarized electorate I have seen in my lifetime. Republicans are attempting to build a powerful majority by building malice and division among the public. Making public employees and unions look greedy will help them do that. When unions negotiate contracts which allow their more senior members to have the best pay and all of the overtime opportunities, they give Republicans more fuel for their campaign fires.

They are eating their young.

Irony abounds in this race. Walker was the Milwaukee County Executive who won not just one but three elections in Milwaukee County before leaving the county post for the Governors mansion. But Walker’s was a classic case of over-reaching by thinking that voters gave him carte blanc to pursue the radical agenda he wasted no time in passing. Stone made the mistake of thinking that talk radio would deliver him the votes he needed to win the seat. After all, it worked for Walker, it should work for Stone, right?

Wrong.

Voters across the state had one of the most contentious Supreme Court races to choose from than they have ever had on their plate. Incumbent, and former Republican Speaker of the State Assembly, David Prosser was defending his seat against Assistant Attorney General Joann Kloppenburg. Prosser is part of the 4-3 Republican sympathizer majority on the court and if he has the chance, he will certainly uphold the Walker legislation stripping workers of their collective bargaining rights.

The Supreme Court race has been dominated by outside interest ads including those from billionaire David Koch‘s Americans for Prosperity PAC. Koch used his ads to smear Kloppenburg.

One of the advertised criticisms of Kloppenburg has been that she has never been a judge. This is true. However, David Prosser was never a judge before he became a Justice on the Supreme Court either. Kloppenburg and her allies failed to point this out in her ads and even as this is being written, the results of that race are within 1000 votes and it is too close to call. (It astounds the mind that a state Supreme Court race would come down to less than 1000 votes.)

State Representative Jeff Stone

Stone took the unusual approach of touting his education and degrees which are impressive. He contrasted himself to Abele who has not completed a college. But this is Milwaukee County. Our blue collar roots run deep. Voters have already made it quite clear in the past 3 County Executive races that a degree does not matter. After all, Walker had been criticized for dropping out of college but it never affected his winning his Exec races. It was a poorly thought out calculation to claim he was more experienced based on a college degree that voters don’t care about.

This race was more than about whether Chris Abele or Jeff Stone were good guys. This race was also a referendum on Scott Walker. Never in the time that Walker was in office in Milwaukee County did he ever try anything as radical as killing the unions. He underfunded departmental budgets. He created a yearly fiscal crisis by understating expenses and overstating revenues. He borrowed heavily to continue to fund programs and infrastructure the local public holds dear. He even kicked privatization up a notch above and beyond the privatizing that his predecessor, Tom Ament, had already done.

But as County Executive, Walker never had the ability to attack all nearly all unions at the same time. When he did that, under an all too transparent guise of balancing the budget, the pendulum swung back to hit him. When Walker went on television and said that the protesters were dominated by out of state union representatives, anyone of the hundreds of thousands of Wisconsinites who had traveled to Madison to protest were outraged. They felt belittled. They were correct in thinking that their voices were being ignored. Walker sent a very clear message to Wisconsinites who disagreed with him — they did not matter.

And then Jeff Stone voted with Scott Walker.

The public was enraged. Walker continued his policy of dividing people against their neighbors. Everyone has an opinion about this issue. Firefighters, who were hailed as selfless heroes in the aftermath of the 9-11 terrorist attack on the world trade center are maligned as overpaid and selfish. Teachers who dedicate their days to teaching children and their nights and weekends to grading papers are being portrayed by the Walker allies as being greedy and out of touch. Every public employee throughout the state has at some time in the last few months had Walker fanatics tease them or mock them for their pension or benefits package that is part of their negotiated compensation.

Walker made these public servants feel unappreciated and a target for malice and envy.

And then Jeff Stone voted with Scott Walker.

Walker’s use of class warfare has been effective in the past but many union members have still voted for him. This has emboldened the GOP and their funders to dial up the class warfare fight. They have made it clear that they want to tie public servants to greed. Even in the Supreme Court race, Joann Kloppenburg was called a “government lawyer”. In the past, being a prosecuting attorney or an assistant Attorney General would have great on a political resume. Since that would not serve the Prosser campaign, the Prosser allies attempted to tie Kloppenburg to those greedy government workers.

Clearly allying himself to Walker was not a wise move for Jeff Stone. He should have smelled his own blood in the water when two committees to recall republican senators turned in enough votes to force an election to toss out Walker’s rubber stamp allies. It is a monumental task to gather nearly 20,000 signatures to force a recall election and anti-Walker activists are close to filing against a third Republican Senator.

Abele, who ran a great campaign, was certainly a beneficiary of Stone’s alliance with Walker. This wasn’t just a small slap on the wrist for Walker. It was an uppercut that will daze the GOP and will likely force them to change their strategy going into the 2012 elections.

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has instituted his policy of stripping public workers of their rights to bargain collectively. The republican controlled legislature has rubber stamped all of Walker’s policies. State Rep. Jeff Stone, who is running for Milwaukee County Executive, voted for the plan but then said he would not have proposed such a plan. Maine Governor Paul LePage has ordered removal of a labor mural on a building housing his states Department of Labor, because it appears to be pro-labor. The Maine legislature is poised to pass a bill to lower the minimum wage to $5.25 an hour and allow businesses to keep 16 and 17 year old students at work until 11pm on a school night. New statistics have come out showing that private schools under perform public schools even as Governor Walker wants to lift the cap on choice schools which take money away from public schools and give it to these under performing private schools.

How did we get here? Are Americans really that stupid that they would knowingly vote for people who would screw the middle class?

The answer is that the media perverts the facts in ways that benefit their advertisers. Our laws allow slander and misinformation in political commercials. Americans believe that if it’s on the news, or if it comes over the radio, it must be true. Even good people have been convinced that it is their taxes that will go up if candidates who would actually benefit them, were to be elected. The corporately controlled news media has it in their best interest to support large business tax breaks because their advertisers will stay with them if their bias is with them.

Republican candidates who endorse the corporate policies made to redistribute wealth from the poor and middle class, receive generous support from their corporate bosses. This Nottingham-esqe approach is the opposite of the Robin Hood approach of taking from the rich and giving to the poor. In the new Republican world order, it is the filthy middle class that wants to ruin everything for their hard working corporate bosses.

For weeks now all that Sykes has had to attack Abele for has been the fact that Abele seems to rack up an average of 3 parking tickets each month. He pays them, but apparently Sykes believes this is akin to a crime.

In his lust for muckraking, Sykes is howling about an old OWI ticket. It turns out that 15 years ago, which incidentally is about the same time that Sykes left his wife and children to pursue an adulterous love affair with his now-wife, Abele got behind the wheel after having a few too many drinks. I’m not going to try to excuse it, and neither is Abele, but a little context is needed here.

Abele was in his 20′s.

Clearly it wasn’t the most mature thing to do, but it wasn’t like he was a mature man well into his 30′s running off with some tart while he had a wife and children at home. That would be Sykes.

It’s a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black.

Meanwhile, the candidate who Sykes hopes to benefit, Jeff Stone, is happy to chortle over the new found ticket. But really now — there are massive protests of 100,000 plus Wisconsinites marching at Madison to protest Governor Walker’s budget and Stone just rubber stamped the plan. Stone’s approval of the Walker plan wasn’t a bad decision 15 years ago, it was this month. There are several Republican Senators who are going to be facing recall elections within the next few months to pay for their complete and utter contempt for the middle class, but Stone doesn’t seem to care what his constituents thing. If not for a Wisconsin law that protects politicians in the first year after they are elected, Stone would be facing a recall himself.

So if we’re going to talk about credibility, let’s talk about what’s going on now, not something that happened when one of the candidates was in their 20′s.

You would think from the news media that pensions greatly inflate costs to taxpayers. That is not true. In fact, if invested right, they don’t have to cost taxpayers anything. What better deal could government get? Rather than paying the larger salaries of the private sector, government could use its larger collective investment abilities to pay for the pensions entirely.

So picture this — a large pool of money, which has grown from taxpayer money, could be used so that taxpayers never have to contribute again? Sounds perfect right?

Well, not so perfect when you add politicians to the mix.

First you need to understand that pension funds are segregated funds. A local or state government cannot simply draw off of these funds to pay for ongoing expenses. Yes, if you get a whole bunch of politicians in a room and they’re talking about a fund that has done well, they’ll say it’s been under their watch and they should have access to those funds. However, and this was wise legislation that was once passed at the federal level, it is illegal to tap into those funds for anything but pensions.

So schemes have been developed to tap into those funds to lower the tax burden. Essentially these are schemes to work around existing law but still allow the government to tap funds that should not be theirs to tap.

One such scheme that backfired helped to bring Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker to power. In Milwaukee County workers agreed to take lower pay in exchange for fatter pensions. The County had the actuarial firm Mercer & Associates look at their fund and Mercer testified to their County Board that increasing the pensions for all county employees would be cost neutral. In other words, it would cost taxpayers nothing.

Now you have to understand that it sounds like candy to a politician when they hear they can solve a problem and it won’t cost anything. You can then run back to your district at election time and tell them you didn’t raise taxes. It frees them up to work on other quality of life projects.

Here’s where the personal part comes in. I was serving on the County Board at the time. The Executive sent a proposal to us to approve union contracts with lower salaries but higher pensions. He based his decision to submit this proposal based on numbers from Mercer & Associates. He then sent his people to the county board and they presented it to board members as a responsible program that would not be extremely lucrative but would be fair and could cost taxpayers nothing. He also sent his people to give presentations to the unions and they presented it as a program that would enrich county workers when it mattered the most — in their senior years.

It was two stories and the county board was never the wiser. It was a ruse on the County board but he was unaware that the big ruse was on him — Mercer never did their homework and they were telling him what he wanted to hear.

Fast forward through the drama of the next 6 months and Scott Walker rose from being an obscure State Representative known for putting out weekly press releases on everything under the sun (Opposing the Million Man March) to being the County Executive of Wisconsin’s most populated county.

Anti-teacher bills like this do not have a temporary impact. The impact is long lasting. If you cut a teachers pay, then you increase the cost of their benefits and reduce their pensions the profession of teaching sounds much less appealing. Yes, people get into teaching because of their love of children and because they want to make a positive impact on the world. But they do so at a cost. Public workers do not make the same as private sector workers do. This is not conjecture, it is fact. The Wisconsin Policy Institute did a study of Wisconsin public workers versus private sector workers in the same type of field and they found that public workers make less.

But how will this have a long term effect? As we watch the Walker fiasco unwind in Madison, young people in college are studying to go into their preferred fields. To be a teacher requires specialized training including in-classroom experience. These teachers in training have hands on requirements which are unpaid but contribute to well run classrooms. Think about what these young people are grappling with as they hear that todays teachers are finding their pay and benefits slashed because some politician gave away a massive tax break to his buddies who supported him in the last election, is paying or that tax break by cutting teacher compensation.

Why would anyone go into teacher knowing that they will be treated like that?

You’re made the punching bag of many dirty politicians. Rather than being seen as someone who has dedicated your life to children, you’ll be seen as the enemy.

Now let’s say that you get your masters degree. If you’re in the private sector and you have your specialized degree for your field you can expect to make a sweet $100,000 per year if you include your pay and benefits. As a teacher, you can make up to about $70,000 after many years on the job.

That’s a 30% discrepancy.

First, yes that is a lot of money. I will not dispute that either of those salaries are very good salaries. The difference is that the public employee, who has spent the same amount of time getting their career specific degree, is compensated at a lower rate because they are a public employee.

Starting salaries for teachers tend to be in the mid to high $20,000 range. As you hone your skills and earn your raises those amounts can go up but are limited by how far you went with your degree. Teachers with bachelors degrees obviously earn less since they have less college training — the same way the private sector works.

The problem right now is that states are having problems balancing their budgets as healthcare costs continue to explode. This problem is not going away. Healthcare costs are expected to continue to rise as Congress failed to enact sufficient healthcare reform in the last session and in this session there are tea party activists who have been elected who have vowed to try to reverse what was passed. Rather than see healthcare for the comprehensive issue that it is, they choose to stick to the simplistic idea that the private sector does everything better and that insurance is the way to go. Now that insurance costs have exploded and deductibles soared, the public is experiencing record high costs.

Healthcare costs will continue to rise whether you strip teachers of their benefits or not.

But if you strip teachers of their benefits, you will have fewer young people who take classes in teaching. They will simply switch their majors to pursue careers in the private sector where they will not be vilified and their salaries and benefits will not be scrutinized by uneducated, ill informed, low paid private sector workers who see only the dollar signs and discount all of the work, commitment and years of study that teachers have put in all for the right to teach their children.

I have no horse in this race. As a business owner I have to deal with high costs too but I understand the benefits of a highly educated workforce. My wife is a former teacher who left the profession because of the long hours coupled with low pay. As a family we made a decision that it made little sense for her to continue to dedicate up to 18 hours per day plus many Saturdays working to educate the children of other people while being compensated the same as an administrative assistant with no college what so ever. Having the summers off is little compensation for the amount of time that we lost her during the school year.

But to those who do have that commitment and have chosen to stick with it, hat off to them. Most work long hours. Some work in hostile school environments. It is easy to get jaded. And when those same teachers are told that they are the problem and the way to fix it is to take away that which they went to college to earn, the best will leave the profession and the education of our children, who are our future workforce, will suffer.

That means that even a passport, the ID which is the most difficult to duplicate in our country, would not be deemed sufficient to prove your identity at the polls.

Wisconsin may have a proud progressive tradition of same day voter identification, but that will soon change. We will go from being one of the easiest states in the nation to vote in, to being one of the most difficult — at least in the part where a voter identifies themselves. What is next — pre-registration? A 30 day waiting period after registering but prior to voting? Will we make it more difficult to vote than to buy a handgun?

Extremism in any form is not healthy for our republic and this bill is no exception. It is certain to pass since Stone has the support of former Milwaukee County Executive, now Governor Scott Walker. Both men are in the same party and both houses of the legislature are controlled by Republicans. It is highly unlikely that the republicans will fracture. Even legislators like Alberta Darling, who ten years ago was seen as a moderate, are clamoring to jump on the tea party express or risk being tarred a RINO (Republican in Name Only) by members of her own party and talk radio.

There’s nothing in the handbook they give you when you give up your private sector job to go work for the state that says you could receive up to a 15% cut in pay but as your bonus they’ll give you 15% of your time back in the form of furloughs. With the 7-8% in furloughs that former Governor Jim Doyle gave state workers, and with Walker promising to balance the budget with even more furlough days, that 15% could quickly become a very real number.

Here’s a little news for the folks that think the recession makes it so the workers have no where to go. The national unemployment rate for white folks, and if you go to any Wisconsin Departmental office you won’t see much diversity, stands at 8%. Folks with Bachelors degrees are only at about 4-5%. Most of the folks manning those offices have a degree.

I spoke with a Kelly Services executive last week and he said that he placed twice as many people in 2010 than he did in 2009. I know we’re not at the point we were in 2002 when the economy was still amazing and employers had no where to turn to find those educated workers, but this policy will make state government shed their best of the best.

The low productivity workers will stay through massive cuts. Many of them aren’t exactly what you would call highly marketable. It will be the most productive, and most effective civil servants who will leave to pursue more lucrative private sector opportunities.

In the end, Walker’s quick fix cuts may balance the budget, but the level of service for nearly every area that State workers perform, will be eroded.

Although this race is non-partisan, both Sullivan and Abele are democrats while Stone is a republican.

Since Stone has free non-stop commercials running as talk radio in the Milwaukee market, expect him to make it through the primary election. That means that Sullivan and Abele are left to fight it out for the other position.

Both Sullivan and Abele have a few things going for them.

As a former State Senator, Sullivan has one of the highest voter turnout areas in the County that he can count as his base. Wauwatosa has an extremely high voter turnout and despite his loss in November, Sullivan carried the Milwaukee County portion of his district. That means that his base of Wauwatosa, as well as the West Allis / West Milwaukee areas he carried could be enough in a low turnout election to vault him over the top in a primary.

Abele also has a benefit — he can self-finance his own campaign and in fact he has already started running television commercials. Being able to go to the television airwaves this early gives him a distinct advantage. His non-partisan good government approach does have an appeal that many voters will like.

Whichever of these two wins the primary will likely beat Stone. Simply put, Stone has been more of a paperweight in the legislature than a mover and shaker. Either Sullivan or Abele could capitalize on that.

The one thing that Stone has on his side is that talk radio will give him as much free advertising as he wants and if recent actions from the Journal-Sentinel are any indication of Milwaukee’s sole major newspapers intent, they will be taking it easy on him at least but more likely they’ll be promoting him.

So what was this plan that a private citizen led to save so much money?

It was the idea that Milwaukee County should borrow money in the form of pension obligation bonds, invest that money, and hope that the spread between any earnings would exceed the amount of interest that was being paid for via the bonds.

This is not a new idea. Several years ago then-County Executive Scott Walker wanted to borrow money with this scheme so that he wouldn’t have to raise taxes. The problem is that it is risky.

Very, very risky.

If the investments don’t make money, the taxpayers are on the hook for the money that was borrowed on their behalf, the interest that must be paid, and covering any loss should the investments lose money.

This same idea, which was originally floated by Walker, got shot down by the County Board and the idea was sent to a referendum. Voters overwhelmingly said “no” to this borrow to invest scheme. This is just bad policy. In subsequent years Walker was able to get the Governor and State legislature to let him float these bonds. Walker managed to luck out since the stock market has been doing well over the last few years but anyone who is banking their long term financial future, and worse yet the taxpayers financial future, on the market continuing to perform exceedingly well is taking a huge gamble.

Abele has opened himself up to a huge attack in the general election should he make it through the primary. His opponent, if their own hands are clean of this mess, could point to this scheme and use Abele’s own commercial footage to show that Abele led an effort to do exactly the opposite of what the taxpayers wanted in the referendum. However, the political reality in this race is that all of the 3 top candidates had a hand in enabling the pension obligation bond policy to take effect in Milwaukee County.

Still, Abele should play on his own strengths of being a community leader. He has plenty of positives to point to as to why voters should choose him. He’s just muddying the water when he exaggerates his role in the pension obligation bond scheme.

###

Next week: How the Journal-Sentinel is using their “politifact” meters to distort the facts.

Abele is looking more impressive every day. He has created a concise “why I’m running” message and has managed to finesse the campaign staff of Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett to join him. One of his potential opponents, County Supervisor Marina Dimitrijecvic, who was planning to run has chosen not to, leaving only former State Senator Jim Sullivan, State Assembly Rep. Jeff Stone and self-appointed acting County Executive Lee Holloway to fight it out for the rest of the votes.

Establishing himself with donors and other key groups, Abele has effectively turned off the spigot of support for many others. Rather than focus on the negative, he has garnered support because of his own strengths.

He has managed to create a presence on social media as well as the web and is quietly gathering an impressive list of supporters without belittling his opponents.

Abele is certainly the candidate to beat in this election.

(Disclaimer: I have no connection to the Abele campaign. I have met the man only once, several years ago, and can say that he seems like a regular guy who likes good beer. At the same time, I can’t help but admire that whoever Abele has chosen to do his writing has the same writing style as yours truly.)

Victims of child sexual abuse by priests are claiming that the church would turn a blind eye or just move a priest who was known to have a preference to little boys to another parish. Abuses continued and the church, or so the plaintiffs say, did nothing and now they want them to pay.

Whether the church can survive this is yet to be seen. It’s not the first state this sort of thing has hit.

A note of self disclosure here. I am a cultural catholic. I am a non-practicing, higher power believing man who considered the priesthood in my youth and served as an altar boy. I am not nor ever had any physical contact with a priest or any member of the clergy and have, in my life, admired many people in the clergy.

But this story is a long one. It has some roots in a political fight last year between State Senator Julie Lassa, who it is safe to say hates the church, and her former priests. They have earned her ire.

But still, there comes a point when the question has to be asked — how much do you want? How much do you think is fair? How much would they need to accomplish their goals and declare victory. Also, do they have problems that so entirely make it impossible to rejoin the catholic church or is their goal to destroy it?

That’s an important message in this race as some key influential folks who could have been players are now all but irrelevant.

The right side of the contest is Jeff Stone, the Greenfield republican who will follow Scott Walker’s lead, minus the charisma.

On the center and left philanthropist Chris Abele and County Supervisor Marina Dimitrijevic have sewn up much of the support out there. Unless something big happens, the rest of the candidates who have said the are running will be a bunch of “also rans”.

An interesting surprise in this race is that Abele has teamed up with millionaire businessman Sheldon Lubar. Lubar has taken the same position as we have here — eliminate County government.

That being said, the position is not even yet open as County Executive and Governor-elect Scott Walker, who is expected to vacate his County seat at the end of the month. As of now, who will run is a matter of great speculation.

County Board Chairman Lee Holloway is rumored to be considering a run. Realistically, Holloway is unelectable County wide. His spate of bad press and some poor decisions could easily be exploited by any viable candidate who makes it through the primary. That being said, if there are more than 4 candidates, Holloway could win enough votes in the primary from the African American community which, if the pattern and the election numbers of recent years is a good indicator, will support Holloway if he is the only minority candidate. Holloway is also expected to be assuming the Executive’s seat as interim County Executive when Walker leaves so Holloway would be running from the position of being the incumbent, albeit self-appointed, but the incumbent all the same. Holloway’s chances of emerging through the general are slim to none.

State Representative Jeff Stone has already announced his intentions even before Walker has vacated it. He is Walker’s hand picked successor. Stone represents the City of Greenfield and other parts of the Southwest side of the County and will have a base. Plus, he is expected to be the only Republican to be entering this non-partisan race and for nearly a decade has been one of the darlings of right-wing talk radio. Stone is likely to emerge from a primary race as he has both his district and talk radio on his side.

Multi-millionaire philanthropist Chris Abele will soon announce. Little is known about him other than he donates to democrats. He will certainly have a monetary advantage as he could easily self-fund his own campaign. Abele has supported some worthwhile causes as well as candidates in the past. But little is known about him personally. He has never before, to the best of our knowledge, expressed an interest in running for elected office. Abele is a likable guy and to his credit, he has already lined up some great campaign advisors. One of those advisors is businessman Sheldon Lubar who has publicly stated that the County system should be disassembled, the same argument we have made here at Watchdog Milwaukee. The entry of Abele would serve to make that possible if he were to essentially advocate a position that would put himself out of a job. One thing that was not expected of Abele was his connection with Lubar. It is possible that this would put Abele in contention for more conservative votes, changing the entire recipe of a Jeff Stone candidacy.

County Supervisor Marina Dimitrijevic who represents the Bay View neighborhoods on the southside will certainly be the darling of the left side of the blogosphere. At just 29 she is smart, young and charming. She is said to have been the leader of some key County legislation that has made unions very happy so she has the potential to garner union support. That being said, union support in recent years has waned as they have made up a small portion of a candidates overall campaign funds. In most cases the unions have not bothered to do anything on races that would benefit their members. Dimitrijevic would be a good candidate as she already has a voter base as a sitting County Supervisor. She has been a vocal opponent of County Executive Scott Walker. All of that being said, Dimitrijevic would certainly have a leg up on the competition as she is expected to be the only female candidate and if she makes the right overtures, could garner a great deal of campaign funding from EMILY’s LIST.

County Supervisor John Weishan, who served his country as a Marine, represents West Allis and has been a leader on the County Board. As one of the most vocal opponents of Walker, he has gotten a decent amount of media attention in the past. He also has a sizable base of voters as his West Allis district has a respectable percentage of residents who vote. Weishan’s challenge would be campaign fundraising. That being said, if he runs he could be a formidable candidate in the general election.

County Supervisor Johnny Thomas represents a portion of the northwest side. He isn’t known to be a dynamic or proactive Supervisor and he would not be able to raise the kind of campaign cash necessary for a race of this size. Plus he has angered unions by voting for a contract in committee only to vote against it when it went to the full board.

State Senator Jim Sullivan who has served as a Navy Reservist and as Chairman of the Veterans Affairs committee, has the largest political base of any candidate in the field. Novices and partisans will incorrectly point out that his loss reflects his electability. A look at the numbers shows they would be gravely wrong. Sullivan’s State Senate district includes Republican strongholds in Waukesha County which Sullivan lost. If the race were held in just the Milwaukee County portion of his district, Sullivan would have retained the seat he narrowly lost. Having just come off of a race in November, Sullivan would still have the campaign organization and volunteers from his last race who he could fairly quickly mobilize. His populist message would resonate well with Milwaukee County voters. If Sullivan chooses to run he would be the immediate front runner as he would have a base of approximately 30,000 people who have already voted for him.

County Treasurer Dan Diliberti left the County Board to run for a seat with no legislative impact and no influence on legislation. He has served in the peace corps and is known to be a supporter of veterans issues. Perhaps he misses the policy aspects of County politics but there is no apparent, nor obvious attraction that Diliberti could have. He currently holds a primarily administrative constitutionally elected seat that has little influence on the policy workings of Milwaukee County. He would likely draw from the same base that Jeff Stone will draw from as his voting record as a County Supervisor were certainly to the right of center.

Former State Representative Sheldon Wasserman would certainly make a formidable candidate if he ran but that is unlikely since Chris Abele is in the race and Wasserman has said he would not run against Abele or Sullivan.

Eliminating security, including removal of metal detectors at the Mental Health Complex was a bad idea. Some mentally ill patients can turn violent, especially if left unmedicated. To eliminate metal detectors in a division which has potentially dangerous patients, especially patients who are cognitively unable to defend themselves or even flee a crisis situation, is reckless and irresponsible.

Milwaukee County will, sooner or later, find itself on the ugly, expensive and indefensible legal situation if they do not take action to correct their own neglect.

There are a few ways to correct this. Among them, the State could and probably should, take over care for the mentally ill. The state is better equipped to handle the costs associated with running a large area such as the mental health division. The County, which almost exclusively relies on the property tax for their revenue, is ill equipped to handle such a monumental task.

County Executive Scott Walker will soon be leaving his post and beginning his new role as Governor of the State of Wisconsin. Walker certainly must understand this issue and knows the best way to handle the looming mental health crisis is for the state to take it over. However, that is unlikely to happen and the problem will soon be Walker’s successor in the Executive’s office.

The money will now to go California, Illinois and New York who do value commerce and the jobs that a high speed rail project will bring.

This is a huge turnaround from what has been happening in recent years. Governor Jim Doyle, a high speed rail supporter, had said he was going to push forward with plans to get rail moving in Wisconsin even between the time that Walker was elected in November and the time Walker took office in January.

Governor Doyle backed away from that. But really, who knows what the result would have been. Had Doyle moved forward with planning and engineering, Walker would have likely not moved forward with the plan for rail anyway so you can hardly blame Doyle for putting the grinding halt on the project.

Another nuance that is being lost here is that Walker has promised to create 250,000 new jobs in Wisconsin. His actions though run contrary to what he is saying. He’s going to be starting out his term by eliminating the thousands of jobs that would be created in both manufacturing the trains and in running them.

So if he is going to create 250,000 jobs, does this mean that he will be creating 254,000 jobs now to make up for the extra 4000 Wisconsin jobs he just killed?

If Walker is creating jobs, he’s certainly not creating them right here in Wisconsin.

Where are the democratic values in his recently announced deal with Republicans on tax cuts? Gone.

Where are the principles that democrats stand for that say that the rich ought to pay their fair share? Gone.

Where is the courage and fire that President Obama had to stand up to the status quo when he was elected?

Gone, gone and gone.

Republicans will get their tax cuts for the uber-wealthy. Obama capitulated on nearly ever demand the Republicans wanted. In exchange he gets a short extension of unemployment benefits.

Americans are left holding the bag on this one. The uber-rich haven’t been spending more of their wealth during this recession and that won’t change.

The President screwed up. He is pursuing a policy of appeasement with the Republicans. He is angering his own political base and those democrats who believed him that we should and can have HOPE have been disappointed.

Already Democrats are upset about the continued war that then candidate Obama promised to get us out of. Money continues to be spent on a war in Afghanistan that is unwinnable in a terrain that is impossible. The only people happy about this is war profiteers. Most service personnel will receive only a minimal raise this year and some will receive a pay freeze. Yet, we can afford huge tax breaks for the wealthy?

The American people want you to talk directly to them and show them a man who knows how to fight. So Mr. President, I’m going to talk directly to you in words I hope you take to heart.

Two years ago when you were elected, you came on with a decisive mandate. After being elected you were immediately criticized by Republicans. They kept their criticism up for years. Your response was to say that you would work with Republicans. You let democratic bill after democratic bill get killed or watered down because you wanted to “work with” Republicans.

How do you think this looks Mr. President? To those of us who are your base, those of us who rallied behind you in the primaries instead of the more conservative Hillary Clinton, it looks like you forgot why we elected you in the first place. It looks like you don’t know what you’re doing.

It makes you look like a bumbling amateur.

This next two years will be tough Mr. President. These next two years will earn you ire from Republicans just like the last two years. That’s what they do — they play the role of opposition very well. They are consistent. They are angry. But if you capitulate, if you continue your policy of appeasement to Republicans you will lose many battles. And what’s worse, you will certainly lose the general election.

Remember what happened two years ago when they lost power and you and the democrats rode in on a wave of hope? All of those policies, the ones that the American people elected you on were liberal policies. Do you remember what the Republicans did afterwards? They turned to their base. They said they were punished for not being true to their conservative values. Well Mr. President, they seem to understand something you do not — they understand that they cannot win an election without their base. They could not have won these victories last month without motivating their base and neither can you.

If you want to lead the Democrats, then act like a Democrat. Americans don’t want Republican-lite. If they wanted a Republican they would have voted for one two years ago. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that you will win the hearts of people who never supported you in the first place by caving in to their wishes. You could give them everything they wanted, and you still would not earn either their love, or their respect.

What’s worse, you’ve already lost the love of your base. Now you are killing their respect for you as well.

If being intolerant is saying no, you can’t scream “FIRE” in a crowded theater then I’m guilty of intolerance.

No ones rights are being trampled on because they’re not being provided a soap box to scream vindictive comments in any place they so choose. That’s not censorship. It’s common sense to not allow some nut to rant and rave and make others uncomfortable because that nut decides he needs a place to scream.

Recently I was told that an employer, who happened to be a union, was intolerant because they fired a worker for wearing a sweat shirt that had the name of a competitor of one of their customers on it. Had the employer not been a union, I wonder if they would have received as much criticism.

You decide if you think this is an issue of tolerance and free speech or if it was just a loud mouth thinking that he had a right to bloviate and push his own political agenda on the job.

Imagine if this union worker was responsible for setting up a major publicity event to promote Coca-Cola. But he decided that he should wear his Pepsi shirt to the event. He knew it would offend the folks at Coca-Cola. He also knew that the folks at Coca-Cola were paying his salary. It was through the business dealings and efforts of Coca-Cola, not Pepsi, that the paid the mans salary. But no, he decided he would wear his Pepsi shirt. Then he was asked to remove his Pepsi shirt because the customer, Coca-Cola, was offended. After all, this event was to promote Coca-Cola, not Pepsi. The man screamed that his rights were being violated and that his right of free speech was being infringed upon. The man was told that he would be fired. He came up with a story about how his shirt wasn’t really about Pepsi, but about how he was supporting his own child. That message didn’t fly with the union or Coca-Cola. The man was fired.

Now would anyone think twice about this? We have a man who was passively promoting Pepsi at a Coca-Cola event. Why should he be paid to do that? Of course he should have been fired. It wasn’t free speech. The man was just being a blow hard.

Only it wasn’t a Coca-Cola event and he wasn’t wearing a Pepsi shirt. It was a Barack Obama event and he was wearing a sweatshirt that said George Bush.

But the man is outraged because he believes his rights were trampled.

This is the world we live in. Somehow this story of a man who believed that poor customer service was his right, is outraged and believes his employer is intolerant because he can’t wear what he chooses. He knew what he was doing. He just decided that he had a right to mouth off when the folks paying his salary wanted to be served. He’s not a pillar of virtue, he’s just a loud mouth with an axe to grind.

Veil it any way you want, everyone knows what he was really trying to do.

The man misunderstands what tolerance is. Sadly, he misunderstands what common sense is as well.

Apparently that makes me a socialist.

But I was also taught that if I had a lot of something and someone else didn’t have anything, it was a good thing to share it.

Apparently that makes me a communist.

I was also taught that if I went to work for someone else that I needed to follow their rules and it was my responsibility to represent that company to the best of my ability.

Apparently that makes me a nazi and intolerant.

These labels are not only hurtful, they are hateful and uncivil. It is a parents responsibility to teach their children what they can or cannot do. It is a parents responsibility to teach their children not to be bullies and not to call people names with the explicit purpose of making them look bad. That being said, if someone is doing something horrible, they should be called out for it but not by attempting to tar them with pictures of mass murderers or other extreme examples of what our societies true monsters have done, but by their own actions.

Some of these poor actions are the result of bad parenting. Parents who never taught their children that bullying is inappropriate and bad will have children who think it is acceptable to beat up on others as adults.

That being said, I will miss the analysis of Juan Williams. After all, Williams was hired as a news ANALYST, not a commentator or an editorial spokesperson. Williams did cross the line, even if only a bit, when he made his comments on Fox News about a fear of people wearing Muslim garb coming onto an airplane. Williams said something that many people already think. Had he premised his comments with something like, “whether we like it or not, many Americans are concerned when….”

Williams did cross a line from Analyst to Commentator but NPR’s President Vivian Schiller also crossed a line when she questioned the mental health of Williams. Still, Schiller over-reacted when she fired him.

That being said, if Williams was to be fired for inappropriate comments, so should Schiller.

All of that being said, NPR is independent and is still the best news source out there. While the rest of the media is corporate owned and influenced, NPR retains an independence and is able to offer a higher quality news source.

I fear that, like so often happens, there will be a gross over reaction to this from the right. Unlike many businesses which hire, fire, abuse, underpay and undervalue their employees, NPR treats its employees well. But a big difference that I am certain we will see here, is that Republicans will not come to the aid of the employer. No, they will for nearly the first time in many of their lives, claim that the employee was wrongly treated.

Williams has, since his firing, played the race card much as Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas did during his confirmation hearings. While Thomas called the hearings “a high-tech lynching of an uppity black man”, Williams is saying “I’m not a predictable, black liberal”. But Thomas’ and Williams’ accusations aside, Williams still did something that he wasn’t allowed to do — violate the terms of his contract. How far or extensive he violated his contract is an item that is irrelevant. NPR looked at his comments and their conclusion was that, yes, Williams had violated the terms of his contract.

There have recently been renewed calls from Republicans to cut off funding for NPR. Federal funding makes up less than 2% of NPR’s budget. Those who would be most adversely affected would be local stations without high listener rates. If funding for these small market affiliates was to be eliminated, their ability to get anything but corporate news radio and commentary would vanish. Republicans would love nothing better than to see any semblance of resistance to their uniform message eliminated. To use a Star Trek allusion, the Republicans are like the Borg whose one goal is to expand their influence and to tell their adversaries, “Resistance is futile”. Fortunately in this country we still have a two party system and no, resistance is not futile.

Johnson’s business ventures include Pacur Inc, Pacur International, Pacur LLC and Pacur Studios have paid nothing, that’s zero, in State taxes for the last ten years. The last time any of his businesses paid taxes was in 1994, yet Johnson’s commercials tell of a tax system that is strangling businesses.

How can $0 be too much? Does Johnson think that workers ought to be forced to pay a portion of their salaries to support these businesses? How else would roads and infrastructure which support Johnson’s businesses be maintained? If all businesses simply ceased paying their fair share, as Johnson’s businesses have, then we would have rubble for state highways.

And this is what Ron Johnson says is responsible?

Mr. Johnson, I understand that in 2008 you paid some significant taxes. I get it. But to not pay anything in the year before an election you planned to run for; really sir, what were you thinking? How is the public to believe that you are a fiscally responsible alternative to a Senator you are busy badmouthing? Mr. Johnson, why do you think that you are better than the rest of us?

It appears that you don’t believe that taxes are meant for everyone. Last year I paid my taxes and I’m struggling just like most people are these days. So why Mr. Johnson, why do you think you’re better than me?

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Hat tip to Emily Mills for the graphic. Emily is the most talented graphic artist who is also a political blogger in Wisconsin. Her graphics cut to the tooth and tell the real story in an eye catching way. She is a tremendous asset to the Wisconsin blogging community and no, I don’t often single out another blogger for these accolades but Emily deserves kudos.

We’re in the last 5 weeks of the fall election cycle. Several Dems are putting out campaign lit and running television commercials that say that they stood up to their own party, their own governor, or their own President. Those Democrats will lose — almost all of them.

Look at what history has shown us. Just prior to the Newt Gingrich Congress, democrats were expected to lose and they chose to “moderate” their own views. They lost by huge numbers. This year I’m noticing some different things. Some dems, such as Russ Feingold, aren’t sacrificing their values to win a seat. If Feingold does not prevail, it will be by his own terms and without sacrificing his moral beliefs.

Tom Barrett has stood up and shown how he has done a good job as Mayor without kicking sand in the face of other democrats. Last week the polls showed him trailing Republican Scott Walker by 10%. Now he is trailing by 5% and there are still 5 weeks to go. Expect Barrett to stand by his core values, because that’s the kind of man he is, and prevail in November. He may be trailing in the polls, but he is closely trailing and the momentum is with him.

Two years ago Republicans lost massively and what did they do? They turned even more extreme. They hardened their rhetoric against anything having to do with government. They supported even more corporate welfare. They opposed middle class tax cuts unless the ultra-rich got even a larger piece of the pie. Look what happened — the tea party, an angry faux grass roots movement, was born and they’re all going to vote for Republicans this year. Why? Because they were all Republicans before but they were all angry and now they’re all salivating over the possibility of doing well in November.

Today’s young political hacks should take note from history. Your candidates will lose. If voters want a Republican, they’re going to vote for the real thing, not a Democrat who says they’re standing up against Democratic value. Think of voters like Coca-Cola — they want the real thing, not a shallow imitation.

Walker was responding to a detailed 67 page jobs plan which was released from Mayor Tom Barrett who is running against Walker in the November election. Barrett’s report offered serious solutions to create jobs for Wisconsin residents. The Walker campaign shot back within days by releasing their own plan — a 68 page report. A key difference is that Walker’s plan is in a huge lettering which, if you reduce the size of the font to a normal size would only be a couple pages.

Barrett responded by pointing out that now’s not the time to be playing childish games when real people are having to deal with the problems of unemployment. Clearly this isn’t the time to make light of peoples plight and the unemployed can’t be terribly happy about having their situation used to score childish points in a political game of “gotcha”.

Now Walker says that the post “has nothing to do with me” despite the fact that the 68 page special report was on Walker’s official campaign website. Since then Walker has removed the report. Fortunately for our readers, we’ve saved a copy of Walkers “job plan”. (It will be available sometime in the next day or two as we take care of the technical requirements.)

This of course begs the question, what on Scott Walker’s official website is truly Scott Walker’s? Is the information on the website completely unauthorized? How are readers expected to figure out what, on Walker’s official website, is official?

I’m writing to thank you for your help. You might not remember this, but over ten years ago you cleared a way through a crowd so my son could get to the hospital and me and my wife Colleen have always been grateful.

We were at a Chicago convention and my son was just a toddler back then. He was bouncing on the bed and fell off. At that time he only had 4 teeth — two on the top and two on the bottom. I was a new Dad and my young son appeared to be having fun so I thought nothing of it, at least until he fell off the bed and his chin hit the end table. His two top teeth bit right through his tongue.

There was blood everywhere.

I can’t even express how concerned I was that evening. My wife had just stepped out for a few minutes and returned to our room to see me holding a bloody towel up to our sons mouth and me rushing toward the door. As we rushed toward the elevator you saw us in the hall and stopped the elevator and asked a few people to step out for an emergency. Then you walked through the crowd, clearing a path in the lobby so we could get through. You stayed calm, but determined. It was all so much for a young Dad to absorb at the time — not knowing how serious it was, not knowing if my young son would be ok.

You really helped.

You even stepped out onto a busy street and hailed a cab for us, telling the cabbie which hospital to take us to. It was the quickest way to get him to a hospital and your kindness, especially at a time of great personal distress for our family, was appreciated.

Since then a lot has happened. Our son is a teen now. His tongue has healed quite well and sometimes he talks way too much. You’re no longer a Congressman but the Mayor of Milwaukee and now you’re running for Governor. I know there’s going to be a lot of people who make their livings demonizing good people that will attack you. But I wanted you to know, and your family to know, that you’re a good man who has done good things and has helped a lot of people.

We appreciated your help that day and have heard of how you have helped others since. That’s why we’ll be supporting you at the polls this November. Some things cannot be forgotten. We wish all the best for a man who has helped so many.

All our best,

Jim and Colleen McGuigan
Brown Deer, WI

Indicating that this election is not the end of the world, Plale said, “Tomorrow the sun will still rise in the east and will still set in the west”.

Plale thanked a packed room full of his volunteers at the South Shore Yacht club Tuesday night as he lauded praises on his teary eyed campaign manager. One got the sense that it was the closing of an era as Plale who had been true to his old school south side values was moving into a new phase of his life.

Stuffed cabbage leaves, sauerkraut and pitchers of beer at the event offered a good sense for the man Plale is from the community he has represented for years.

“I’ve been blessed to have had 18 years in public office. Most people never get to serve even a day” said Plale.

So here’s my predictions:

Governor: Tom Barrett will win the Democratic nod as his opposition is only token.

Scott Walker has been the beneficiary of a non-stop love fest on conservative talk radio. Of course this has been limited to southeastern Wisconsin. Walker has been very good at distorting Mark Neumann‘s record. The right doesn’t seem to care to police this themselves. Neumann will do well outside of southeastern Wisconsin and will likely win in many areas outside of Milwaukee County. He will benefit from the anti-Milwaukee bias and with Walker being the Milwaukee County Executive, I would expect Neumann to win those areas. However, Walker will win Waukesha County with strong enough numbers and he will win the nomination.

Lt Gov: The Democrats will give Tom Nelson their nod. Nelson has had a ton of campaign commercials but democrats understand that he will offer geographic diversity to the ticket that the two other qualified candidates cannot offer.

The Republicans will throw their support behind Rebecca Kleefisch who has appealed to tea party activists. She offers little strength to the ticket but like Sarah Palin, puts a republican in a skirt.

Milwaukee County Sheriff: This should have been a major race to watch. Sheriff David Clarke typically benefits from a combination of Republican crossover and racial loyalty in the black community. With Republicans not crossing over, it’s expected that he would not have the key support he usually enjoys in these elections. However, his opponent, Chris Moews, has run a lackluster campaign and expects to coast in on democrats not liking Clarke. Even stranger, Moews also appears to be a republican running as a democrat making it so that democrats in the know can’t get excited about this race.

US Senate: Russ Feingold is running unopposed as a Democrat so he will automatically have his party’s nod.

Ron Johnson is likely to win the Republican nomination simply because he has spent more than his opponent, Dan Westlake. This is good news for Feingold since Johnson has already been caught in a few lies this primary season and has become sufficiently vulnerable as he has already been exposed. Feingold will continue to expose Johnson’s version of the truth and after a certain amount of time, mainstream voters become weary of politicians or politician wannabes who lie.

State Senate (State Senator Jeff Plale vs County Supervisor Chris Larson): This is a democratic primary and whoever wins the primary is expected to win the general election. Plale has always benefited from Republican crossover votes and a southern assembly district that is very conservative and balances out the northernmost assembly district which is liberal. The middle district, made up of mostly the Bay View neighborhoods, has traditionally been conservative democratic but is trending more liberal democratic as east siders have moved to Bay View. Plale’s conservative voters will be sitting out of the democratic primary because they will be focusing on the Walker-Neumann race. Plale who has remained true to his working class, socially conservative catholic roots will have a tough time overcoming the odds an election which is expected to be dominated by social liberals.

Mind you, this is a man whose entire congregation is only about 50 people.

Muslim’s have a right to be upset about this. As close an equivalent as can be made would be as if a small sect in a middle eastern country were to hold a bible burning party. Many Christians would be upset were that to happen. However, the Muslim world cannot claim the high ground. They cannot claim that they are more civilized because they never universally condemned this sort of poor behavior done by Muslims.

Only a decade ago it was Muslims who were busy destroying a symbol of faith. But it was not simply the burning of a bible. It wasn’t simply the burning of prayer beads. No, it was the complete and utter destruction of the giant Buddha statues in Afghanistan. The giant Buddha’s were one of the great symbols of faith for Buddhists.

Today’s rhetoric from the Muslim world is that this is a crime against their faith. If that is the case, then where was their outrage over the destruction of the Buddhas?

But there are differences, and they are major ones. In America, the planned burning of several Koran’s is done by the leader of a tiny group. Most Americans see Pastor Terry Jones as a bit of a nut. In Afghanistan the dynamiting of the giant Buddha’s was done by the party in charge, which by the way is an Islamic political party, of their government at the time, the Taliban.

While Pastor Terry Jones is clearly and proudly sporting the role of an American Taliban, he does not, unlike in the Muslim world, wield any power in the government, nor does he represent what a majority of what Americans think.

At the same time, Pastor Jones’ offensive act will be the destruction of a copy of a holy book. He is not destroying a unique symbol of faith for an entire religion. That offensive act was carried out by a group of Muslims.

While the Muslim world has the right to be offended by the act of this American idiot, what they do not have the right to is the high ground. There are ugly elements of Christianity, as Pastor Jones is soon to show us all, and there are ugly elements of Islam, which the Taliban showed us in Afghanistan. Neither party showed human decency. Neither party showed compassion, kindness or tolerance for the beliefs of others.

Clarke received a fair amount of media in the last few years for unilaterally deciding that the traditional 6 cornered star was no longer going to be the symbol of the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Department. No, Clarke wanted a 5 cornered star and he had Sheriff’s department logos and letterhead discarded so the taxpayer could reprint all new letterhead (and remake badges as well) because Clarke decided that the traditionalists star had one too many points. But it is, of course, Clarke’s department to do with as he wishes and he doesn’t have to stick with a hundred years of tradition if he decides he doesn’t like the 6 pointed star, but it begged the question as to why he would care; that is until he was seen in a sleeveless shirt which showed he sported a 5 star tattoo. But whether Clarke is a fan of the Dallas Cowboys or he just got drunk one night and ordered a tattoo artist to put a star on his bicep without counting the points is not really the issue. The issue became why did Clarke care enough to make the taxpayer spend all of the extra cash and why was he willing to throw out the proud symbol of the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Department.

This month however, Clarke has to deal with one unexpected hiccup — a Republican primary.

Republican voters in Milwaukee County have to make a choice. They can either vote in the Republican primary or they can vote in the Democratic primary. They can’t cross over. This means that people who don’t support democrats won’t be voting in this election on the democratic ticket because they will want to have a say in the Republican race for Governor. Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker is running against former Congressman and current businessman Mark Neumann.

This leaves real democrats an opportunity to have a majority say of who they want in the office of Sheriff. This opens up the door for Moews.

Those may be lyrics to the pre-school favorite purple dinosaur’s television song but you could barely notice a difference when hearing the two republican candidates for Governor square off. Rather than a true debate and candidates taking each other and their ideas to task, the debates are more like a hug-fest with Barney and a Tickle me Elmo doll.

And no, there’s no purple and red fur flying.

Debates usually have the benefit of bringing out differences between the candidates in a race. Candidates Scott Walker and Mark Neuman appear to be saying the same thing. What’s even stranger is that Walker appears to have the blessing of the Republican establishment despite his less than stellar record. If this were a democratic primary, you could be assured that liberals across the state would be fuming if they were watching a debate as lackluster and boring as the ones that republicans are putting on.

What’s just as crazy is that one of the candidates, Scott Walker, is criticizing the only Democrat for the general election for not attending a Republican primary debate.

Psst… someone might want to whisper in Walker’s ear that the race he needs to have his eye on right now is the primary.

Really now, wouldn’t you think that everyone would have something better to do than complain about MMSD? I mean, I get it — there is sewage dumping that happens a few times a year in order to reduce the possibility of sewage backups into peoples basements. That dumping goes into Lake Michigan and it’s understandable that people are upset, but rather than complain all the time, what solutions do they bring to the table?

None.

While the MMSD board has greatly reduced dumping to levels even lower than its neighboring Chicago, even folks from Chicago have pointed to MMSD and threatened lawsuits due to the dumping. What has Chicago done to solve their problem? They divert their waste into the Mississippi River rather than dumping into Lake Michigan. Let’s face it — neither is a good solution but with the massive reduction of incidents, why the continued gripe without solutions.

I’d really like to hear what their solutions are because all that’s coming out of the inappropriately named conservatives these days is venomous rhetoric and no solutions.

Think about it. Customers are already paying for the services in the form of taxes. They deserve good customer service right? That’s how business would run.

As a successful business owner I’m left asking myself what would happen if I ran my business like Walker runs his county. If I followed the Walker model, I would take my customers money, and provide substandard services and products to my customers. Rather than focus on the good, I would blame others including my suppliers, my employees and even my customers for poor service.

But rather than focus on the end result — a high level of service, Walker is pursuing a policy of following the party line. The Republican party line includes privatizing everything possible. This sometimes saves money but at other times is costly as private contractors often offer low wages to their employees and get low productivity back. If the county has low levels of productivity from its contractors, the people who will suffer are those in the public who need the services.

Part of running a business also means taking care of your infrastructure before it breaks down and certainly before anyone gets hurt. This is just simple business practices that save money and make for a happier customer. Whether it is tools, buildings or vehicles, any business owner will tell you that it’s easier and makes more sense to pay for the ongoing maintenance rather than bearing the high cost of full replacement. Walker should start to follow this model. To date, he has ignored it as is evident from the fatal accident at a Milwaukee County parking garage recently when concrete fell on a teen.

In the construction industry there are laws and standards that govern safety and safe work practices. A smart business owner will assure that there is adequate staff to assure that a lift by a crane of a heavy object can be done without endangering others and while maintaining safety. In the end, it is both cheaper and more responsible to not put a smaller amount of workers in danger in order to save a few dollars. Walker should follow this model also. Had he, the lady who suffered from mental illness at the County’s Behavioral Health division would not have been raped by a dangerous high-risk mentally ill inpatient man who was unsupervised at the time of the crime.

Running a successful business is difficult. But while it is difficult, it also can be rewarding when you can see the difference that you can make in peoples lives.

Disgusting, politicizing, all words to describe my guilt for connecting the obvious dots. I wonder why no one says these things when it is Walker who does things like cutting funding for adequate oversight at the mental health division. You put dangerous mentally disturbed individuals in the same areas as vulnerable mentally disturbed individuals, and what do you suppose happens? Oh yeah, a rape. Oh, but that’s not Walker’s fault. No. It must be some mystical cause which Walker and his lackeys will blame when they’re busy carrying water for him.

Here’s the thing — having dealt with these folks from the right they’ll of course deflect and say that Walker had nothing to do with it. And yes, it was the fault of the rapist but it was also the fault of Walker who chose to underfund an area of the county that should have assured adequate safety and security for the victim.

But back to the parking garage — it is not a stretch to say that the parking garage and other areas in the County have undergone severe neglect over the past few years. One of the only mentions of the O’Donnell parking garage comes in the 2007 capital improvements budget which funded a new parking gate and the systems to make it work. A internet search all the way back to the 2005 budget, the last budget online on MilwaukeeCounty.org, shows Walker hasn’t spent any money on the garage which for years prior was always a concern and a hot topic in County Board committee meetings, several of which I attended in the early part of the last decade. For an area which was of such great concern for so many pre-Walker years, you would think that Walker would have spent some time and effort making sure that problems didn’t persist.

So when I assert that neglect from Walker caused the problem, oh good gracious, hell scorn upon me. Who am I to analyze the situation and connect the obvious dots — well there is that whole business about being there for 6 county budgets and then there’s that whole business about having served on the Parks committee, the same committee that would discuss the ailing O’Donnell parking structure and recommend fixes for it. Of course after Walker succeeded in getting his cronnies in to rubber stamp whatever he said and to help brush under the table anything that he might not want the county to see — well things, uh, changed.

Taxes became an even dirtier word than they had been and anything that required tax dollars took a back seat. So when I say that Walker is responsible, I mean he’s responsible. Yes, he saved the money that could have gone to structural oversight of the ailing garage. Yes he saved the money that could have gone to testing of bolts, brackets and other elements that are holding the facade of the structure on. And yes, he saved the money that would have had to have been expended had he dedicated staff to occasionally checking on the site.

But no, he didn’t.

And tonight the guilt for Walker’s neglect is compounded. Yes, both the rape of the inpatient woman in the County’s Behavioral Heath Division and the teen killed when part of the County parking garage fell on him are tragedies, but they were both preventable if the County had an Executive who would have dedicated the resources to those areas instead of focusing his energies on running for Governor to satiate his craven lust for power.

UPDATE: The Recess Supervisor from Playground Politics points out that the Republicans don’t like Democrats to make conclusions despite their highly politicized attack on Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett where they accused the local Milwaukee Mayor for creating a problem on the problem on the federal Interstate. Calling it the “Barrett Bypass” in a knee jerk billboard ad, they are taking umbrage with the fact that I’m crediting County Executive Scott Walker for the County parking garage problem which led to the death of a 15 year boy.

Note: I’m crediting the County Executive for a County infrastructure problem.
They credit a City Mayor for a Federal Interstate Highway maintained and run by the State.

Yesterday a 30 foot wide concrete wall fell from the County parking garage near Summerfest, fatally injuring a 15 year old boy and injuring two others. This was a case where a death could have been avoided had Walker paid more attention to governing, and less attention to politicking.

The parking garage under O’Donnell park has had structural problems for years — almost since the day it was built. Past County Executives have dedicated sufficient funds to maintain the structure and assure safety for the public. Sadly, O’Donnell Park was named after former County Executive Bill O’Donnell who did pay attention to County infrastructure and yes, he did raise taxes to pay for County needs and ensure public safety. It has always struck me as being an unfitting memorial to name an ailing parking garage after a former giant in County politics.

Walker has chosen to neglect the garage infrastructure to save money so he can position himself as champion of the taxpayer for his run for Governor. Of course Walker had to use this tragedy as an opportunity to grab a little media attention for himself. In an interview near the O’Donnell parking garage Walker said, “For me, personally, obviously it rips my heart out”… For a man who has built his career on doing as little as possible to keep government providing services and infrastructure, his claim that it “rips my heart out” rings hollow. With chunks of concrete falling from other County buildings and with neglected maintenance needs, this tragedy was entirely predictable.

Tonight there are two parents who have lost a son because Walker has decided that politics is more important than safety.

This isn’t the first time that County infrastructure has caused problems. A few months ago, chunks of the Milwaukee County Courthouse fell off, endangering the public. Maintenance could have avoided those problems, but Walker doesn’t want to fund maintenance. Funding maintenance of infrastructure isn’t a sexy campaign issue.

Then again, neither is killing off constituents to satisfy a craven lust for power.

Walker criticizes Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett at every opportunity for the same reasons he neglected maintaining County infrastructure; to further his own political aspirations. Walker is vying for the Republican nomination for Governor and to many, he is the Republican golden child who is considered a shoe-in for the nomination. Barrett is the only Democrat running. Former Congressman Mark Neumann is running against Walker for the nomination and Team Walker is doing their best to undermine and belittle Neumann.

Neumann should strike back hard.

Imagine the commercial — a piece of concrete falls and shatters. A newspaper headline shows County Courthouse crumbling. Another piece of concrete falls. A newspaper headline shows the Journal-Sentinel headline “1 Dead, 2 injured in downtown Concrete collapse”. Voice over: If Walker can’t even take care of his own County, how can we trust him to run the entire State?

If Neumann fails to hit Walker for this dangerous neglect, Neumann will lose to Walker in the primary and fade into permanent political obscurity. Neumann may not have been a great Congressman, but at least no one died due to his neglect or on his watch.

Should Neumann choose not to pursue this issue, he will leave it up to Barrett who would certainly have to use this issue in his campaign.

There is a reason for closed meetings. Those reasons include keeping from the public things that would otherwise get the County sued. Who pays for these lawsuits if the county loses or ends up settling for a monetary loss? The taxpayers.

DeBruin failed in her fiscal responsibility to both the County as well as her constituents. They are among those who will pay should the County have to shell out cash for DeBruin’s desire to grab headlines.

Several Supervisors choose to short change their constituents by working part-time while drawing a full-time salary. DeBruin is one of them. The way that they can be perceived as working hard for their constituents is to toss out a press release from time to time and make sure they get media attention and over the years. That way it looks like they are doing work when they’re busy gardening or watching their favorite reruns of Oprah. It’s not exactly the best use of taxpayer dollars but the main people who are hurt are their constituents who have less representation in the crafting of ordinances and resolutions. DeBruin has mastered this pricey ruse.

The Supervisor claims that she spilled the beans in order to keep vulnerable patients safe but there are other ways to accomplish her goals in appropriate ways that do not put the taxpayer at risk. But they require something that DeBruin has, for years, been unwilling to do.

Work.

By pulling her colleagues together and calling for the proper audits and holding department heads accountable, DeBruin could have accomplished the same thing without risking taxpayer dollars and without violating HIPPA, the federal law that is supposed to protect the privacy of patients.

But all that work would not have resulted in DeBruin grabbing headlines. She wouldn’t have been the darling of talk radio. She wouldn’t have had the attention focus on her and her narcissistic appetite for attention would not have been fed.

It is difficult to try to figure out the real truth but you just have to keep asking.

That was the case this morning. Last night I published a column on how Lowe’s installation crews were violating the lead safe renovation requirements. Those are simple facts. On my quiet little street in Brown Deer there were no cautionary safety ropes keeping people away from a lead containment zone. There was no plastic tacked down to deal with debris on the outside of the house. I do not know whether or not furniture of bedding in the rooms Lowe’s is installing new windows in has been covered with plastic. I can only assume that since lead safe practices are not being used on the outside of the home, they are being ignored on the inside.

So I did what any responsible journalist would do — I followed up with the management team at the Brown Deer store. The store manager, I was told, was not in today but the gentleman who is in charge of window installation, a man named Justin, took my call.

Justin indicated that a lead safe test is done on all windows as required by the EPA. I explained to Justin that there is a requirement in Wisconsin that homes with lead levels above .06% must have lead safe renovating practices applied and that there was no plastic or containment fields at his job site. Further, there is no commercially available test that is on the market today that will test for levels that low and that if they used a test, it would have tested for the national levels of .5% which is less stringent than the state requirement. This puts their installers, who by the way are finishing up their job without lead safe practices today, in violation of State law which took effect April 22nd.

Justin’s response, “the windows were sold prior to April 22nd so the law doesn’t apply to this job”. Incorrect, I told Justin. All jobs installed on April 22nd or after must adhere to the requirements. Justin didn’t feel our conversation was going anywhere and that’s when he hung up.

But the story of Justin and his reaction are not typical of the service I have gotten from Lowe’s. For home improvement needs, I still believe they are the best choice for service. For the most part, they seem to know their stuff.

As a Lead Safe Renovator I realize that I know more about this stuff than Justin and I don’t fault him, I fault Lowe’s corporate. Lowe’s corporate has a responsibility to stay on top of the laws and to educate their workforce accordingly. In mid-2009 I asked a Lowe’s associate if their windows qualify for the federal tax credit. He responded that all of their windows that say “energy star” do qualify. He was wrong. The Obama stimulus package requires a u-factor of .30 or less and a SHGC (solar heat gain coefficient) of .30 or less. Many windows that carry the energy star logo do not, in fact, meet those requirements. Again, this is not Justin’s fault. For all I know he was not a Lowe’s employee at the time. This is the fault of Lowe’s corporate for failing to educate their workforce.

Like everyone else, Lowe’s needs to be profitable. But like other general contractors, Lowe’s uses subcontractors for their installations. If they are going to sell an installed product, which is clearly not their area of expertise, they, like all other legitimate contractors, should start adhering to the law.

At the same time, there appears to be no government oversight nor funding to oversee problems. If the government is going to require registrations and certifications for businesses to use lead safe practices, they should do the oversight rather than simply stripping struggling businesses of the additional fees to feed additional red tape.

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Jim McGuigan is a Lead Safe Renovator who has passed coursework required by the EPA and State of Wisconsin.

Lowe's Window Installation

Lead was a common paint additive prior to 1978 and high levels of lead contamination have caused people to become ill and for children to develop cognitive disabilities. Especially at high risk are children and women who may be pregnant. The federal government requires lead safe renovation on all homes with lead paint levels of 0.5% or more to go through strict containment procedures. For 49 of the 50 states, there is a readily available test on the market that will tell renovators if lead levels are high enough to require that lead safe renovator practices must be used. Wisconsin lawmakers decided to make compliance even more difficult and Wisconsin is the only state in the country to require lead safe renovations where lead levels are higher than 0.06%. The technology is not yet available to make a commercially available and economically affordable test that will record lead levels that low. This means that legitimate, law abiding contractors must either purchase a $40,000 machine to test lead levels or they must assume lead is present and take precautions accordingly.

Lowe’s is not one of those law abiding contractors.

Last month I warned of this in my column. I wrote that there will be some contractors who simply ignore the laws rather than deal with the approximately $100 per window cost that contractors will have to bear. It was my assessment at that time that it would be the small, unlicensed Mom and Pop operations that happen to own a truck and a ladder and masquerade as legitimate contractors who would ignore the laws. It was those unlicensed businesses, I contended, that would continue to sell windows at the same market price as they always had, while legitimate contractors who had taken the courses, acquired the certifications, purchased the equipment, and used lead safe renovation techniques would be at a disadvantage.

Well I was right — sort of. I say sort of because the first contractor I saw violate this law was Lowe’s.

I did not expect to see a “Lowe’s Installation in Progress” sign in front of one of my neighbors home with workers slamming in windows without any roping off of the job site or any plastic containment barriers.

Having taken the courses and incurred the expenses to become a Lead Safe Renovator, I was appalled to see installers ignoring all safety requirements in a home with two small children. Lead poisoning is not a funny little game. It is a serious problem requiring painful chelation therapy for anyone who has been adversely affected by high lead levels. Even then, the damage done by lead poisoning may not be reversible. It is unconscionable for a contractor to cut corners to safe a few dollars when children are standing nearby watching the installation and playing in the work zone. To see a renovator who so blatantly ignores these rules when children and women of child bearing age are nearby is mind-blowingly irresponsible.

But never, never in a million years, would I have expected one of my favorite home improvement stores to be utilizing such unsafe practices and putting homeowners, children and even possibly babies inutero at danger. I am saddened to see that Lowe’s would use such irresponsible practices to make a buck.

But that is changing.

For the first time ever, I saw footage of pro-immigrant protesters carrying the American flag at Mitchell Park this past weekend. To me that meant something. It meant they want to stand with us instead of simply taking advantage of all that is good with America while bearing none of the responsibility.

What a breath of fresh air. What a weight off of all of our collective shoulders. I know many people feel the same as I do. They don’t object to people from other countries coming to America but they sure as hell don’t want to put up with having to see others whine that their American rights are being trampled as they fly the flag of another country. I mean really, if you want to live by the rules and laws of another country then you really ought to go back from where you came.

Now I realize that some will say that this isn’t the way a good liberal things. My response to those folks — get your head screwed on right and if you don’t love this country, if you cannot embrace it warts and all, if you don’t feel the same patriotism that I feel when I see the flag, or a copy of our constitution or bill of rights, then really, just leave. Get out. Liberalism never has meant an abandonment of American principles or an abandonment of patriotism or American loyalty. Liberalism is a respect for our Bill of Rights. Liberalism is a respect for our flag and all that it represents. Liberalism is what has made America great.

Our flag represents all that is right with our country. It represents where we have come from. It represents where we will go.

When someone flies our flag it tells me that they share our values. It tells me that they are part of a collective “us”.

So I feel heartened. I feel proud. I feel as though these immigrant groups should have been standing with me all along and only recently have they embraced our country as their own. As long as they embrace our country as their own, they should be afforded the rights of Americans, and yes, that includes the right to protest peacefully.