Walker has big money allies that will throw a lot of mud. They will keep throwing it until they find something that their pollsters believe will stick.

Barrett needs to return fire and he needs to return it hard. If Walker lies, Barrett must be willing to say that Walker is a liar. If Barrett can not stand in front of a crowd of people and say “Scott Walker is a liar”, he should not run.

Barrett has been truthful in his dealings with both businesses and the community. Walker has not. But truth is often not something that matters in Wisconsin.

This race cannot be solely won on Barrett’s experience or integrity. It must be won by matching everything that Walker claims with a response. It will be expensive and exhausting.

But if Barrett wants to win, this is the time. Republicans are being exposed nationally for their extremist views and Walker is no exception. Walker’s claims that his policies of cutting taxes for millionaires (repackaged of course into something that doesn’t sound nearly as straight forward) will help. It has not. Wisconsin is dead last in job growth — even worse than another state that hates taxes; Mississippi.

Barrett needs to highlight these flaws if he hopes to win.

For now, the only candidates who are planning to run are former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk and State Senator Kathleen Vinehout. Neither candidate has generated much excitement among democrats. Barrett’s entry into the race would change that dramatically.

The political tide is favoring democrats and Barrett could ride that tide, better than either Falk or Vinehout. The facts are that voters are frustrated. Barrett could use that frustration to his benefit but he has to decide if he’s willing to be a scrapper. Simply showing up and decrying what is right and what is wrong will not work when fighting Walker.

Walker will enter the race as he always has — brandishing any weapon he can find and recruiting any thug he can to do the dirty work for him. If Barrett isn’t willing to meet weapon with weapon he should continue to serve as Mayor of Milwaukee where he does a great job and is appreciated for his efforts.

One would think that Pasch, who was a nurse in the private sector, is a horrible human being. Darling is using her ads to allude that Pasch is even worse that Darling is so that Darling looks sweet in comparison. The reality is that the voters of this highly educated district have already started to tune out television commercials maligning Pasch because they know what Darling has really stood for.

Darling’s votes to support Governor Scott Walker’s tax cuts for millionaires will not be forgotten by her voters, even if she is busy making outrageous claims about her opponent.

Clearly Darling is desperate.

This will be interesting as the political races unfold in the coming weeks.

Holloway will undoubtably be a contender for the primary since Milwaukee County seems to sadly have a racial schism which will favor a lone black candidate in the primary. Unfortunately for Holloway, the majority of Milwaukee County will not vote for a candidate with so much baggage and he has little to no chance of being taken seriously in the general election even if he gets through the primary. He can, however, be a spoiler for a candidate who would be a real contender against Governor-elect Scott Walker’s hand picked successor, Jeff Stone.. Holloway should maintain his dignity and realize that while you can appoint yourself County Exec, the voters are the ones who will decide in the coming months and Holloway comes with too much baggage to ever make it through the general.

Sullivan, had he announced a month ago, would have sewn up the race but he now must contend with others in the fight for a finite amount of campaign contributors, many who had already committed to either philanthropist Chris Abele or County Supervisor Marina Dimitrajevic who, like Sullivan, has dragged her feet in this race.

News outlets, especially the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel have missed the boat on an analysis of this race. Sullivan, like Holloway, has a built in base that several others cannot draw on. Sullivan, despite the ignorance rampant at the JS, actually won his last race if you count only Milwaukee County. Waukesha County voters, who ousted in in favor of Senator elect Leah Vukmir, will have no influence in this race aside from their campaign donations which will certainly flow to Republican Assembly rep and County Exec Candidate Jeff Stone.

While Sullivan is a bit of a maverick in the State Senate, having voted against Governor Doyle’s last budget and bucking the will of some of those in his own party, he has earned the like-ability factor in his own district. He is a family man, has children in the district, and is involved in his community.

Vukmir on the other hand has the reputation for being a bit of a screaming banshee. While she currently represents one-third of the district as an Assembly rep, those in the Greek community, to which she belongs, think she’s a bit of an unpredictable nut who is happy to tow the talk radio party line whether it benefits those she represents or not.

But extremism and negativity aren’t unusual in Wisconsin and Vukmir isn’t the first to use scare tactics. After all, we are the state that elected Senator Joe McCarthy whose negative attacks and outright lies destroyed the lives of hundreds of patriotic Americans during his manufactured red scare.

Todays political rhetoric would have called separate facilities for different gender patients “wasteful spending” but now we see what the true impact of what cutting taxes can have when it fails to take into account a human need as basic as safety.

As we all read the stories that are coming out, we need to consider the context of the debate. First, we are in a one newspaper town. If a story runs in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel and it is not correct, there is not another news outlet that will call them out on it. This leads to less responsible journalism and reporters taking liberties that they would otherwise be unable to take.

Here at Watchdog Milwaukee we have written about the one of those reporters, Steve Schulze in the past. Schulze is one of the reporters covering the BHD rape case and he is essentially accusing BHD administrators of being evasive. He is right that they are being evasive but they are legally required to be. If they answered all of his questions they would be violating HIPA, the patient confidentiality law that protects patients from having their personal information released. By not telling the whole story, Schulze has effectively demonized administrators who are simply following the law. Are these administrators perfect? Of course not, but by avoiding the context that they are legally unable to answer some of Schulze’s questions for legal reasons makes for hard hitting sound bites, but gives the public little understanding of the issue.

None of this excuses the events that took place at BHD. Framing the discussion as administrators being cagey without understanding the context is something that the Journal-Sentinel has failed at with this issue. Whether they have deliberately chosen to do this because a story of that sort is less than sexy, or whether they are simply on a witch hunt isn’t something this citizen journalist is prepared to address, but the fact remains that they have omitted key facts that provide context of this entire discussion.

One of the County Supervisors, Lynne DeBruin, has chosen to come out and publicly lambaste BHD administrators. Again, context is important. Like many other politicians, DeBruin is a media hound. She is not the first politician to make sweeping allegations and present herself as the savior of the people and the protector of the unfortunate and she will not be the last.

But DeBruin is not Jesus Christ.

She is just a politician who is seeking to put herself in the public spotlight in a level of government that is often ignored by the media. Her willingness to violate the spirit of the law and run to the media with confidential information she learned in a closed meeting do not show herself to be a watchdog and protector of the weak, they show her to be someone who lacked the basic responsible discretion to work to fix problems in-house because she wanted to put her own political needs ahead of the needs of the patients in the BHD. Her actions put the County and therefore the taxpayer at risk for a lawsuit without doing anything to fix the problem. In the end, this may result in a lawsuit and the very people who elected her will have to contribute to a settlement should this become a legal matter.

Hats off to the liberal blogosphere for quickly debunking CRG’s lies and innuendo about Liebenthal, known to his readers as simply “Capper”. It turns out that the blogs that CRG alledged that Capper wrote while punched in on the county clock, were written on his days off. They point to specific dates that Capper wrote those blog entries but didn’t do a simple internet search to discover that the dates they alledged he was writing on included holidays, vacation days and involuntary furlough days. Even more ridiculous, the dates that they cite include times of late night entries and even some after most folks would be in bed.

Yes it’s ridiculous and clearly a bogus attempt for CRG to get some cheap media attention.

I wonder if the blogosphere was as prolific and important in 2002 as it is today, what would have happened?

Think about it. 2002 was the year that a fairly obscure State Representative who represented a nearly all white constituency rose to power. Prior to tossing around his accusations he was mocked by some of the local media elite for his press release “Walker opposes Million Man March”. Really, who cared. Walker was a Republican and had managed to get into the good graces of then-Governor Tommy Thompson. Back then Walker supported and even authored bills that specifically were anti-Milwaukee which wasn’t a huge deal for him back then since he didn’t represent any part of the Cream City.

And then there was the pension scandal.

Walker claimed that then County Executive Tom Ament was trying to line his own pockets. Morning talk show host Charlie Sykes spent day after day ranting about how horrible Ament and the County Board were. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel was the only major newspaper in town. Ament started out by refusing to talk about it. When he did respond to an accusatory question, he responded with an inaccurate quote that the JS didn’t bother to fact check. It made Ament look really bad. The only source taxpayers had to go to in order to get information was Journal Communications who owned both the only major newspaper in town, and the radio station that Republican activist Charlie Sykes used for his non stop rants against all things liberal. With Ament and several County Supervisors being card carrying members of the Democratic party despite their non-partisan offices they held, Republicans smelled blood in the water.

It was a perfect storm.

Walker, and his supporters from CRG were happy as pigs in slop. Liberals were made to look bad and all they had to do was continue to accuse. No one stood up to fact check any of them.

Fast forward and Ament retired and 7 then-County Supervisors (including yours truly) were removed from office by a recall system in Wisconsin which requires no proof, no facts, and no charges — in short, innuendo.

But what would have happened had the liberal blogosphere been alive and well in 2002 as it is now? Would they have come to the aid of liberal Supervisors?

I can’t help but think that most of them would have. Back then everyone had questions and those questions deserved to be answered, but there was no way for anyone but right-wing zealots to get any real media attention. The focus of the media, which now included television media, was to generate profit and reputations be damned. It seemed that no one really wanted to know what really happened. It was Milwaukee’s modern day red scare.

Would things have been different? I can’t help but think the answer is yes.

Good for them.

It’s about time this project was looked at. For years, the Kinnickinnic (KK) river has acted as a dangerous water cannon rocketing water through the south side without regards to flooding or safety. The river has claimed many children’s lives who have ventured toward its concrete banks to marvel at the speed of the water. One errant slip, as has happened many fateful times, has been all it has taken to claim the lives of children of our community.

Kudos to MMSD for showing vision and daring to advocate for change from a dangerous and poorly designed water hazard.

Many Mexican nationals come to this country to improve their lot in life, just as Irish nationals did. But what’s different? The border for one. It’s massive. We do not share a border with Ireland. Had we shared a border with them, Ireland would have surely been depopulated during Black 47 — the year of the Irish potato famine, or at least the year it began.

Now I get it, people here are angry. They think the Mexicans are going to take our jobs, but really folks, they aren’t here to eat our babies or impregnate our teenage daughters. They’re not casting spells to hurt our health or ferreting in demons and goblins or any other imaginary monsters. They’re just here to do better for themselves and most are here in the hopes that they will achieve the American dream and become Americans.

Yes it is true that some are happy to fly the Mexican flag while enjoying American rights and freedoms and somehow find fault that many of us, who would have to fight to defend this country, aren’t too happy that we’re extending rights to those who have no responsibility as Americans nor it seems a willingness to stand with us or fly our flag. I get that too.

But I can’t help but believe that most of the people who have come here as immigrants, whatever their ethnic background, want to embrace the entire package.

Yes it’s frustrating, but imagine how they must feel. They’ve come to a country, wanting all that country has to offer but not truly understanding the responsibilities, and before they’ve come to love this country they’re told to get out and threatened to be hunted at the border by groups like the Minutemen. If that’s their first introduction to people who seem to be authorities in this country, one can understand why they may not feel the same love that others do.

The reality is that the people working hard to exclude Mexican immigrants are those in the Republican party. They’re folks that call themselves “conservatives” and some even are part of the Tea Party movement. They complain that the Mexicans aren’t paying taxes. Now, if you were to apply a little logic here, isn’t the entire mantra of these folks that we pay too much in taxes? Isn’t their American dream to not pay taxes? Are they upset that the Mexicans are achieving the American dream but they are not?

If that’s the case, they need to be realistic — Mexican immigrants do pay taxes in the form of sales taxes. Some even pay income taxes knowing they will never get the benefit of social security which many pay into.

But what about the facts?

There was nothing cohesive or cordial about the joke that the Republicans played. Over a year of stringing democrats along in the interest of “bipartisanship” the Democrats finally realized it was all just a scam. By getting nothing done for so long, dems looked ineffective and it wasn’t until the cloture vote on health care reform that (by the way the Republicans used several times when Clinton was in office) the dems got anything done. The big problem was that the Dems didn’t realize from the get go that the Republicans had no interest in working with them — the GOP was and is more interest in power than actually having to govern. One-upsmanship is their motto and it’s petty and irresponsible.

But boo-hoo, the tea party folks, who apparently make up a whole 18% of the population, say — why hasn’t Obama been able to do in one year what took George Bush and his tea party allies eight years to screw up? Although Bush was able to create the Great Recession turning unparralleled prosperity into economic despair in 8 years, how is it that Obama can’t turn economic despair into prosperity in just one year? Huh. What do you suppose causes that?

As for name calling, give it a rest. It was the conservatives that started calling Obama names like Hitler, throwing out accusations of socialism and communism and even using photoshop to make him look like an African witch doctor, bone in hair and all. And using a soviet sickle substituted for letters in our President’s name? Please. Yeah, it’s all the liberals fault right?

As for wealth redisribution, it is the poor and middle class who have had their wealth redistributed away from them. The rich have gotten richer and the poor have gotten poorer and that happened under the watchful eye of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush.

Now the State Senate has passed legislation to outlaw schools from having indian mascots.

I understand that we ought not be insensitive but some of these mascots have been around for many decades. It’s not like all these schools have names that are ethnic slurs. Someone, please, enlighten me as to why we need this new law.

When are people going to realize that Thompson is more addicted to the attention than public policy? He’s the kind of guy who is happy to talk about himself, taking a breath only to suggest, ‘enough about me, what do you think about me’?

He won’t run. He’ll never again run for anything. That would mean he would have to give it some effort. He would have to not only turn on the charm and polish, but work to win an office. And why would he? He’s already been Governor. Going after that seat is just doing what he’s already done. He’s been the Secretary of Health and Human Services under the George W. Bush administration. In both of his last two jobs he was the top dog in charge. First in charge of the executive branch in Wisconsin and second in charge of the entire national department of Health and Human Services.

Now he’s suggesting that he might be interested in running against Russ Feingold for Senate? Really? Tommy Thompson being satisfied with being one of 100 senators? Having only 1/100th of the influence to make a policy happen? I just don’t see it. Thompson’s ego is just too huge.

When he was in the Governors mansion he could put out a press release and everyone would cover it. If he were one of 100 senators competing for news coverage, he would barely ever see his name in print.

So for those waiting in anticipation of Thompson announcing today that he’ll run against Feingold — don’t waste your time. Tommy Thompson’s days of running for office are done.

The tapes which Republican pundits and Republican Congressmen lauded as exemplary journalism by an activist conservative duo were bogus. They took long segments of discussions to grab little sections that could be taken out of context. Then they edited them together to make something which looked sinister, illegal, and underhanded.

As an example, there was an African American woman who was questioned about how the woman who was posing as a prostitute could find housing. “Don’t give up” was what Fox News kept running over and over. The implication was that the ACORN representative was telling her not to give up on starting her own prostitution business — not that she was urging the woman not to give up on finding housing.

In another shot, the man who was supposedly posing and dressed as a pimp was asking another ACORN employee various questions and that employee was helpful to the man. The problem was that the unedited film, which was never shown on Fox News, showed that the poser was not wearing his pimp outfit — rather he was wearing a pin striped shirt.

All of this was exposed by an investigation from Jerry Brown, the California Attorney General, and was recently featured on the Rachel Maddow show, but how many people will see this? Fox and its commentators and “reporters” have dedicated hundreds of hours to publicize the horrible seeming dis-service that ACORN has inflicted upon the community. Will they, or the Congressmen who wrote a Congressional resolution lauding the fraudulent duo now condemn them for their lies? My guess is no because that would actually be news. They would be exposed for having egg on their faces. They would then have to admit that they were part of the machine that propagated a lie that smeared several ACORN employees and even ended up bringing down an organization, albeit a poorly managed one, that helped poor people.

If ever there was a reason to enact a law allowing and requiring the state to go after people (and their assets) who knowingly and fraudulently spread information meant to smear and discredit a person or organization, this would be it.

Countries like Ireland have already enacted bans and they haven’t hurt business. But opponents here say it will hurt business for bars. What makes Wisconsin bars different than those in Ireland?

Take an opportunity to think about what the differences will be for yourself and for people with respiratory challenges such as asthma and chronic bronchitis. Then leave a comment finishing this sentence, “In 100 days I’ll be able to ….”

Implementation of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Program’s Education Criteria for Performance Excellence would not only help Milwaukee Public Schools focus on student learning and achievement, it would provide a proven framework for MPS to improve itself and become a draw to the community rather than a drain on it.

In 2008, Iredell-Statesville Schools in North Carolina won the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award for Education. With 20,902 students and 3,416 employees, the district is about one-third to one-fourth the size of MPS (82.444 students and 10,943 FTE employees), but it is comparable. It has a combination of schools, student population and some of the same areas of concern as MPS.

When it started its journey six years ago, had just fired its superintendent. It had budget problems, along with low student achievement, community expectations, trust from community and workforce, and morale. It did, however, have excellent employees.

Over the next 6 years, the Iredell-Statesville School district started with its leaders—ensuring that they understood and lived the proven performance excellence criteria of the Baldrige Program. They laid a foundation for leadership that helped them to build a passion for learning in their students and their teachers.

Wherever they went, leaders (Board of Education, Central and School leaders) would ask three questions:

1. What is getting in the way of student learning?
2. What do you need to help all children learn to high levels?
3. What do you expect from the superintendent (or the principal or whoever was asking the question)?

They slowly created the conditions for change that would last. They built relationships, they repeated small behavior changes, and they reframed their beliefs. They created a sense of urgency and the results have been remarkable.

Their graduation rate has increased from 61% to 81% (all numbers are for 2002 and 2008), grades 3-8 reading has gone from 75th to 20th in the state, while grades 3-8 math has increased from 68th to 12th. Dropout rate has improved from 106th in the state to 10th and their attendance rate has skyrocketed from 55th to 3rd.

All of this has happened through a commitment to implementing the proven performance excellence criteria in the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Program. It wasn’t easy. It wasn’t without its pitfalls. But it worked. It worked for the children of the Iredell-Stateville Schools and it will work for the children of Milwaukee, too.

For more information about Iredell-Statesville Schools, look at their Baldrige application: http://www.baldrige.nist.gov/PDF_files/2008_Iredell_Statesville_Application_Summary.pdf. For more information about Baldrige, go to: http://www.baldrige.nist.gov/. For the Baldrige Performance Excellence Criteria, go to http://www.baldrige.nist.gov/Education_Criteria.htm.

California’s Arnold Schwartzenegger would be a more appropriate match for Walker’s fiscal style. Schwartzenegger has borrowed heavily rather than raise taxes today. This has resulted in yet another fiscal mess coming from California. The borrow and spend tactic only lasts so long as California is sending out IOU’s instead of checks. With the way that Walker following the Schwatzenegger lead at the County level, it’s obvious that Walker cares more about the power and the rhetoric than the fiscal well being of residents of his own state.

My neighbor at the the time was well into his 80′s. His health had started to fail him but I could tell he had always been an independent and hard-working kind of guy. He would fix things around his house and in his yard and I had always admired how he did things. He would putter around in the yard in the summer and always used his small push mower to cut his grass. All of us had them in our little southside neighborhood back then — mowers that would spin and cut the grass only when you pushed them. I don’t know that most kids today would even recognize what it was, let alone how to use it.

I woke up early, as I suppose most kids do who have an 8pm bedtime. By 6am I was wide awake.

We lived on a corner lot back in those days so when it snowed, we had about twice as much work as many of our neighbors. Nobody had snowblowers back then. You just had to dig out. That was just the way it was.

One of my chores was to shovel the snow. I would get dressed and start the task. I’d start by the stairs, shovel the sidewalk along the side of the house, and finish by continuing across the front. If it was early enough, and I still had time before school, I would continue to shovel the next house. That was George’s house. I’d shovel the front, then I’d just continue along the side of his house and even the short little back walk in his back yard that led to his garage.

George didn’t know.

I kept this up for months. I figured that he would appreciate it but I didn’t really want him knowing who had taken an interest in helping him out. Leave a little mystery in it, I thought, even at my young age. After all, it was only a year or two earlier that I’d discovered that Santa Claus wasn’t real. Young optimism and maybe a sprinkling of the magic of the holidays wasn’t lost on me.

One day I decided to use one of George’s shovels to finish the job. My parents had always bought the flat bladed shovels that were about as wide as they were tall. George had the scoop type shovels, long and thin with a nice curve to push the snow instead of simply digging and tossing as my shovel had been designed to do. They were beautiful shovels. Solid steel, well coated with a layer of brown rust. They were heavy and George had put a nice hand grip on the end of each one. The handle was as tall as I was and when I used it I could feel the bottom scraping the pavement clean. Those were great shovels.

Now I didn’t think George would mind too much if I used his shovels on his sidewalks, and more importantly, I figured he would never find out who his benefactor was. Before George was even awake, I thought, I would be finished with the shoveling and back in my house drinking some hot chocolate.

Well that’s not exactly how it worked. Our neighborhood was a series of polish flats, as we called them back then. There were some bungalos and a few small duplexes thrown in, but they were all close. The lots were maybe 40 feet across. When I shoveled the sidewalk along the side of George’s house, he may have been sleeping 8 feet up and just on the other side of the wall for all I knew.

One day, part of the way through the winter, George surprised me by coming out.

I was busted. The gig was up. For some reason, I thought to myself, I hope he’s not mad. I know it sounds silly, but I was 10 years old and on his property and it wasn’t even yet 7am.

George came up to me and pressed a quarter or two into my mittened hand. “So you’re the one who’s doing this. Thanks. Good job”.

Whew. He wasn’t mad. There I was, with his shovel in my hand, albeit shoveling his walkway, and he was thanking me. This didn’t work out half bad I thought to myself.

George showed me the way he liked his snow shoveled. He liked the edges to be tapered back. He showed me with his shovel how he would end at the end of the concrete and lift, continuing to push the shovel toward the outside as he threw it. George’s sidewalk looked like a perfect luge when he was done.

It was a work of art I thought to myself.

And then George did something I didn’t expect, couldn’t even hope for. George told me to keep the shovel. This wasn’t your ordinary shovel I remember thinking. This was a great shovel.

George didn’t realize it then, but he made an impression on that young boy that would last a lifetime. Every time I go into the garage and see that shovel, I remember my neighbor George. Every time I have used that shovel I think about George’s how-to lesson on shoveling.

While many years have passed and most of my snow removal duties around the house these days consist of using a snow blower, every once in a while, when the snow is high, I find myself pulling out the old shovel to sculpt the perfect tapered edges.

Yes, we’ve all heard about the poll putting Tom Barrett over both Scott Walker and Mark Neumann in the race for Governor next fall. The reality is that much can happen between now and next November and a poll taken today means little.

So ignore those polls until a month or so before the election. If they show a significant gap between the candidates, they might be a harbinger of things to come. If not, they’re just some pol or some pundit jumping up and down over something that matters little.

Republicans seem to have chosen Scott Walker as their golden boy to spite the fact that the primary has not even yet. This seems odd since Walker has far more negatives than does Neumann. As the Milwaukee County executive, Scott Walker has sold finite assets and borrowed money to pay for ongoing expenses. Still, Walker claims that he is a conservative candidate. Rather than look at any substance Republicans seem happy to line up behind him.

This is proof that the Republican leadership – that is the ones that are pulling all the strings, have little interest in traditional conservative values these days. Big ideas have little value to them. What they do put a value on though is electability above all costs and Walker now has a track record of running aggressive and simplistic campaigns which have won him a few elections.

Walker has run his campaigns on a simple message – taxes are bad and his opponent, whoever it is or whatever they believe in or have stood for in the past, is for big taxes. His simplistic demonizing and redefining his opponent has worked well for him since the media has happily been complacent in spreading Walker’s propaganda rather than reporting the news and doing any fact checking.

But will it work this time?

Nationally there has been a sea change in how news is covered. Republicans on the national scene have been successful at demonizing Democrats and, for the most part, the entire mainstream media has gone along and “reported” the horrible claims that Republicans have had about Democrats as though they were facts. This all changed just a few years ago when Comedy Central’s The Daily Show came on the scene and showed the absurdity of the claims. As ratings soared, The Colbert Report quickly followed, providing the only liberal balance to the mainstream media. Despite its comical setting, liberal and moderate viewers began to think of The Daily Show as one of the only honest reporter of the news. Seeing soaring ratings on Comedy Central, NBC responded by starting to report the news and by starting to do some fact checking. MSNBC brought on two liberal commentators, Keith Olberman and Rachel Maddow. Both have become extremely popular.

But there is no local Olberman and there is no local Maddow.

Without fact checking from the mainstream Wisconsin media, Will Walker be successful in his bid to demonize Barrett?

That is still unknown because while we do not have our local Olberman or Maddow, we do have blogs. There are plenty of blogs out there that offer little to no insight into what is happening, but if you take the time to look, and keep in mind the perspective of the writer, you can still gain insight into a candidate and an issue.

The best blogs out there are the ones where the writers have some experience or have done some investigation into issues. And no, I’m not talking about someone who has surfed the web and now considers themselves an expert. There are blogs, such as Eye on Wisconsin, written by Private Investigator Cory Liebmann, which state facts and even will take the time to pull public records to support an argument. Then there are blogs from former public employees such as James Rowen’s blog, The Political Environment. Former Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reporter Gretchen Schulz writes an informative blog called Milwaukee Rising where she explores mass transit, parks issues and all things Milwaukee. New Urbanist Dave Reid does a good job with his blog Urban Milwaukee. And of course I’ve written Watchdog Milwaukee from the perspective of a former County Supervisor and former Planning Commissioner for years.

Are the blogs on par with Maddow or Olberman—of course not, but they do help to disseminate information to the public who is thirsty for more than just Republican talking points.

Of course there are traditional republican blogs where the focus is all talking points all the time. You’ll find little disagreement on these blogs and no new ideas to solve complex problems, but if you’re looking for well linked blogs that link to other republican blogs, the republicans have that mastered.

But back to the Governor’s race.

The interesting thing about this race is that the republican blogs pretty much all lined up behind Walker. The mainstream media appears to have given Walker its blessing despite the fact that his opponent, Mark Neuman is a former Congressman with extensive private sector experience. Yes, it is odd that the Republican Party of Wisconsin, who preaches about how government should be run like a business, appears to be turning its back on a successful businessman like Neuman, but is embracing Walker who has never held a private sector job in his life.

Am I the only one sensing a conflict here?

Over the better part of the next year we will see these campaigns being covered more or less by the media. It will be interesting to see if the mainstream media continues to ignore Neuman and if the winner of the Republican nomination gets a free pass as it has in the past. But maybe, just maybe, it won’t matter what ideas or facts the mainstream media wants to limit our facts to this time. Maybe, just maybe, voters will seek out informative blogs to get the real stories.

Amusing fact — over half of the men in the restaurant were wearing baseball caps… and yes, during dinner. My how things change.

That’s the phrase on the lips of many today as Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett is expected to make an announcement as to whether or not he will run for Governor.

He should.

It’s not because democrats simply need a candidate in the race. Others could fill those shoes. It’s because Wisconsinites need someone they can rally behind. Simply put, Barrett reflects Wisconsin values.

He’s heroic. How often can you say that of a politician? There’s no question about it with Barrett. When a woman was being attacked, Barrett stepped in to stop the attack. Instead of the woman taking the brunt of the attack, Barrett fell victim to a tire iron wielding thug and for his selfless actions, he will likely never have full use of one of his hands again. How many people would do that?

He’s committed. As a Congressman he worked with his colleagues in the United States Congress to get aid for flood remediation projects in his district. Because of his actions, many homeowners who dealt with flood waters and sewer backup in their homes are safe from these disasters happening again.

He’s smart. Knowing that the Marquette Interchange, one of the main arteries for interstate commerce in all of Wisconsin, was crumbling, Barrett successfully got federal funding for its rebuilding. This saved Wisconsin residents from having to bear the brunt of this costly fix alone.

He’s friendly. Barrett is the kind of guy that you would want to toast with a good Wisconsin beer. He’s approachable and engaged.

He’s concerned. He is unwavering in his concerns for his fellow man (and woman) and will do whatever it takes within his power to help others when he can.

Barrett has a lot to consider before his announcement. There is no question that he will be making a great personal sacrifice if he does choose to run. But the upside is that Wisconsin will get a leaders it deserves, Barrett will have the honor of representing a grateful public and someday, maybe even a hundred years from now, his grandchildren will look back on his work with pride and say, “my Grandpa was Governor”.

CRG’s claim to fame has all been related to accusing others of wrongdoing and posturing itself as the white knight riding in to save the day but CRG didn’t exactly write the book on accusatory politics and they’re not unique.

In fact, Wisconsin has a long history of accusatory politics. In 1950, Wisconsin’s Republican Senator Joe McCarthy impugned the character of many good people. Careers were destroyed and even peoples ability to make a living was hurt for fear of an employer associating with those that McCarthy slandered. Eventually McCarthy was exposed as a cruel fraud who refused to offer any proof for his accusations.

Unfortunately his spirit is alive and well in politics today.

But before even the rise of McCarthyism, America’s first anglo settlers burned people at the stake that they believed to be witches. This past week, a CRG supporter shoved a woman who as peacefully protesting a CRG rally. The CRG assailant then knocked another man to the ground.

World history is rife with people making baseless accusations and actually earning the respect of followers. But whether it is the Salem Witch Trials, the rise and fall of McCarthyism, or today’s ravings from CRG, America will have to deal with liars and scoundrels who care little for the truth. What matters to them is only whether their supporters and their beliefs are being represented. The end, apparently, justifies the means.

What about using a cell phone while driving, using a radio (or mp3 player) while driving, programing a GPS while driving? Where do you stop? Where will we draw the line? What technology will arise in the future? Should we just figure there will always be someone willing to pass a law?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not in FAVOR of activities that distract drivers away from the road. I just question how this will be enforced. How will a police officer tell that a person is texting before pulling them over to give them a citation. Will drivers be pulled over because some overzelous rookie suspected or thought that the driver may be texting? And for that matter, if we’re going to put the burden of figuring out whether drivers are breaking the law, is there some training or perhaps some technology that will give them some sort of insight as to whether a person might be texting or not? And if there is an accident that happens that could have been avoided had the police caught the renegade texter, will proponents of the law point their fingers at law enforcement and suggest they didn’t do their jobs?

Where do you draw the line?

I know that there is a Statist mentality that says that we need a law for everything and if there’s a problem, the natural thing to do is to pass a law so some grandstanding politician can say that they protected the public. But if a law really can’t be enforced, why would we be spending time and money passing another feel-good law that can’t be enforced.

What bunk.

Once again, Walker is proposing to cut funding for the Milwaukee County House of Corrections (HOC) Farm and Fish Hatchery. Why, you would ask, is the House of Corrections doing these responsibilities in the first place. The answers are multiple.

Cost Effective Services: Inmates have little to do but wait for their sentences to be served. There aren’t a whole lot of opportunities to keep inmates busy. They can cook in the kitchen, do laundry and occasionally a small crew can pick up litter on the sides of the highway. Running a fish hatchery and farm at the house was done on the cheap since inmates are paid next to nothing for their work.

Security: Inmates have little to do while serving their sentence. House of corrections inmates are not the normal bad boy that you see on the prison shows. You won’t find a whole bunch of felons at the House. People sentenced to the House have typically done non-violent crimes like driving without a license or drunk driving. Still, put a large amount of people in a room for months after months and you will have conflict if you don’t have something to keep them busy. Don’t think so? Watch the TV reality show Big Brother and you’ll get an understanding of what I mean.

Job Training: Inmates who are lucky enough to be chosen for work at the fish hatchery or the farm gain valuable work experience as well as an understanding of the benefits of a work ethic. After working at a fish hatchery they are qualified to move their skills to the private sector. The same thing goes for farm work.

Food for Inmates: Many people complain about how they have to pay high taxes. By running a farm at the HOC, inmates are able to grow food to feed the inmate population at the HOC, at the County Jail, and for some of the mental health facilities that the county runs.

Food for the Hungry: Food that is grown by inmates that isn’t already used in County facilities is given to Hunger Task Force, a non-profit food bank which distributes food to multiple food pantries throughout the metro area.

Stocking fish for Ponds in County Parks: Without the fish hatchery Milwaukee County won’t be restocking the fish that are in their ponds at the county parks. Urban fishing is a great recreational opportunity for seniors and for families. By having inmates to the labor to raise the fish, the county’s only cost is the infrastructure for the tanks and transportation. Without the hatchery, fishing at County Parks will be ridiculously poor.

Plants and Trees for the Domes: The Milwaukee County Domes at Mitchell Park are a unique sightseeing destination as well as a Milwaukee Landmark. Few people realize that plants and trees at the domes sometimes get their start at the HOC.

Cutting off funding for the HOC farm and fish hatchery is a bit like a farmer selling off their seed corn. Services will be dramatically and negatively impacted. This is one of those budget cuts that Walker has attempted in the past and he knows that the County Board will put funding back in. The public should prepare itself for yet another round of Board bashing by Walker. Once again he will sell himself as the white knight fighting for the taxpayers while bashing the board as a bunch of oafish and selfish politicians looking out for their own self interest.

The truth is that it’s Walker, not the board, who is looking out for himself and his own craven lust for greater political power.

So you want the dollar coin to succeed? Are you willing to take a little bitter pill for the betterment of society?

Put Ronald Reagan on the coin with a big ole’ “In God We Trust” across his chest and you’ll find the right clamoring to get their hands on those babies.

But really, why should we care who is on it if it’s going to save taxpayers a ton of money on reprinting costs?

MPS has undergone a sea change of reforms and been subjected to a ton of changes pushed on them from the State of Wisconsin. They haven’t been able to turn things around dramatically and the school choice program has drawn off some of the most talented students. Unlike privatized schools, MPS isn’t allowed to expel students.

But when there are problems in MPS, who do people point to? Who do people blame?

They blame the City.

If the city is going to take the blame, shouldn’t they have responsibility for the success or failure of our schools?

Turning the city over to the Milwaukee Mayor won’t, in itself, fix the problems but turning it over would make it so that a full time branch of government is analyzing the problems. Right now, a part-time board which meets after their day jobs is in control. They choose a Superintendent who does most of the job but this model hasn’t been terribly successful.

It’s time for a change.

But if the fear is that someone other than the individual needing care will be making the decisions, the Republican faithful are a little late for the boat. You see, death panels have been around in this country for years. In fact, you could say that I was on one.

In the 1980′s I was a health benefit claims analyst for a major insurance company here in town. I was given guidelines on what to cover and what not to. If the procedure or the medicine wasn’t something that was done all the time, the orders that were given to me were to decline the claim.

And I was in charge of AIDS claims.

I dealt with people every day who had severe problems. In the 80′s, people didn’t live with AIDS for the most part, they died from it and it was my job to make sure that only those treatments that were approved and by the book were covered. I declined a lot of charges and sometimes customers would try to slide through treatments that were still, at that time, deemed experimental. But back then, AIDS was still pretty new and most anti-virals were experimental.

I denied a lot of claims.

I did what I could for people within the guidelines that I had to work for, but still, I was making decisions that would affect whether someone could get the medicine they needed. If I denied the claim, and the customer appealed, it advanced to the Claims Examiner. Sometimes it would then go to the doctor who was on staff. He had two degrees. He was both a doctor and a lawyer. His presence on the staff strengthened their ability to deny a claim.

We even had customers that would seek alternative ways of keeping their costs low. I can recall one customer who worked for a veterinarian and the drug he needed was also stocked at the vets clinic but at about 1/2 of the price he would have paid at a pharmacy. But because he got it dispensed to him at the vet clinic, I was instructed to deny it. Had he paid full price for that medicine we would have covered it at 80%. It was the same exact medicine at the same exact dosage that he needed.

Now if you really want to be precise about the whole thing, the real death panel wasn’t us folks making the day to day benefit decisions on what could be covered and what wasn’t going to be — it was the actuaries and the underwriters. They were the ones who made the decisions as to what type of procedures could be covered by each plan. They designed the plans and we carried out the marching orders. They weren’t making their decisions based on whether it would make sense to get people the care they needed. It was there job to maximize profitability.

So the next time you hear someone tell you that they’re afraid that nationalized health care will create a situation where we have death panels with people making decisions as to who lives or dies based on costs, remind them that we’ve had death panels for a very long time now — we just call them insurance companies.

After nearly two decades of neglect by former Governor Tommy Thompson, Doyle recognized that Milwaukee played an important role in the future of Wisconsin. While Thompson traveled the state encouraging voters and rural legislators to “stick it to Milwaukee”, Doyle put the reconstruction of the Marquette Interchange back on the priorities map.

Under Doyle, Wisconsin now has its sex offenders residential locations now online.

Under Doyle, the path has been set to bring high speed rail to Wisconsin.

Under Doyle, by 2010 non-smokers will, for the first time in Wisconsin history, have access to pubs and restaurants which they’ll be able to enjoy smoke-free.

Under Doyle, UW-Madison is becoming a key research center for stem cell research — a type of research that provides hope for cures for many different terminal diseases.

Under Doyle, the Wisconsin state budget has been balanced despite inheriting a record breaking deficit from Republican Governor Scott McCallum. In fairness to McCallum and his short term after being promoted from Lt. Governor mid-term, most of the budget deficit was due to phantom revenues put into the budget from Tommy Thompson.

Although Doyle has sometimes rankled some of the more liberal members of his own party, overall he has shown himself to be a steady and effective leader.

Democrats will find the next year exciting as several of their finest are expected to step forward to run for the democratic nomination. One thing is definite — most democrats will miss knowing that Doyle was their 800 pound gorilla walking into the room on election day.

Barrett suffered a brutal attack at the hands of a pipe wielding thug. While the thug with a criminal record was in the middle of assaulting his own girlfriend, Barrett stepped in and came to the rescue. Unfortunately for Barrett, his assailant was trained in fighting and Barrett paid a hefty price.

Barrett is in pretty bad shape and continues to deal with the pain from his beating. But if you can look past his battle scars, including cracked ribs and missing teeth, you’ll find a man with courage and conviction. You’ll find a man who is willing to stand up and deal with the consequences of standing up for the values instilled in him as a boy — Milwaukee values. The values that say that a man should never hit a woman, that you should be courteous and kind, and that you should adhere to the golden rule.

When Barrett intervened to protect the victim he showed courage as well as chivalry — two characteristics that usually conjure up images of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.

Milwaukee should be proud they have such a leader.

That’s what CRG recall advocate Bill Savage wants the public to be able to continue to do in bars. Savage is bent out of shape that State Senator Jim Sullivan supported Governor Jim Doyle‘s proposal which will make all bars smoke free by 2010. For years, non-smokers have complained that they were unable to go out to local taverns without having to breathe second hand smoke from cigarettes. They contended, and medical science backed them up, that second hand smoke contributes toward respiratory problems and can even cause restriction of veins and arteries.

Savage was so upset with Sullivan that he organized a recall attempt against Sullivan. Anyone who looked at Sullivan’s record already knew he was in favor of smoking bans. Having authored the smoking ban while serving as an Alderman in the City of Wauwatosa, Sullivan wasn’t afraid to let it be known what he stood for. Sullivan then went on to successfully run for the State Senate seat in what is clearly now a sore spot for Savage.

Well it looks like Savage has become the victim of his own pro-smoking advocacy.

He recently suffered a heart attack and had a quadruple bypass done; all by the way, at taxpayer expense. You see Savage is a member of Republican Representative John Pridemore‘s staff.

Savage and other anti-Sullivan bellyachers have been claiming that the recall attempt is non-partisan. Well it turns out, that’s not the case.

Don’t hold your breath.

The Journal-Sentinel shares some damning guilt in what happened back in 2001.

No one in the printed media has ever taken the time to look at the information that Supervisors were given. It’s much easier to print sensationalism. It’s much easier to make claims that Supervisors didn’t read the information they were given than to actually cite the lines they were supposed to read. The reason? Those lines don’t exist. The Journal-Sentinel did a hatchet job several years ago in order to sell newspapers; not to expose the truth. Will this lawsuit, where Mercer admits nothing and the County settles for a fraction of what was lost result in Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker admitting that he lied when he smeared the Democrats in County Government in order to further his own craven lust for power?

Of course not.

Will it result in an apology editorial from the Journal-Sentinel to those removed from office due to Walker’s allegations?

Let’s not hold our breath.

I’m talking about serving in public office.

Oh sure, there are the good times. It’s a rush to finally gather enough votes to get a policy of yours through whatever legislative body you would so choose, and it’s nice to talk to people whose lives you have truly improved in some substantial way but it’s not all good times. You have to run for office, deal with obnoxious liars and be subject to an alarming amount of criticism, some of it though the media. There are many who will think they own you for your years in service and confuse even your personal time for required years of servitude to them. You’ll also miss out on time with friends and family that only someone else who has been in office can appreciate.

But all that gives a person a better understanding of what it takes to run a government. I’m talking about basic civics here. Yes, you may have had civics in High School, but being in office is like civics class on steroids.

It’s been years since I’ve served, but I can still look back on some of those times with fond memories as well as a sense of accomplishment. Does that mean I’d do it again? This summer I’ll have a chance to do something I just wasn’t able to do when in office — go camping with friends. Today I’ll spend time on this sunny day fishing a little with my son on a lake and having a few martinis with family in the evening. With every passing year, I’m enjoying my personal time more and more.

Today, I’m just going to link you to a site that tells the whole story. Amazing stuff.

Gabler says he’ll be tough on criminals and that his opponent will not because his opponent has defended criminals.

My reaction is this — what exactly is Gabler’s problem with a defense attorney defending their client? What part of “innocent until proven guilty” does Gabler find so completely offensive that he would spend money to “expose” another candidate who acted in good faith to defend his client to the best of his ability?

Without even talking with the other candidate, I already know that Gabler would be a riskier choice because Gabler is sending strong messages that his mind is made up on cases before they even come before him. I would like to think that Gabler has the judicial temperament to do the job should he be elected but if his campaign is any indicator of how he really feels, he has already decided that anyone who has been charged is guilty — and that would make him a horrible judge.

With the economy sinking further on the news of drastically increasing unemployment, Scott Walker chose a particularly bad time to preach from the book of fiscal conservatism.  After initially indicating he wouldn’t accept any of the potential $800 billion in Federal stimulus funds because of his belief that only tax cuts are an appropriate way to rescue the national economy, Walker backpedaled after his quote appeared in the Journal Sentinel and public outcry questioned his commitment to county residents over his political aspirations.

Walker’s anti deficit-spending sentiment is all well and good in more prosperous times, but during an economic crisis such as the one we’re in, where private businesses are conserving cash due to the uncertainty of the situation, it’s more important for government to stimulate the economy in order to make up for reduced private investment.  For an immediate example of this, look no further than banks.    Even after receiving billions of dollars in TARP loans, most are hoarding that cash rather than making new loans because of the high certainty that their future losses on commercial and residential loans already made will require further write downs to their balance sheet.  In this situation, like it or not, the only remaining entity that can spend enough to attempt to keep the economy from spiraling down further is the government.

Walker backtracked on his comments later in the week in a letter to Charlie Sykes:

How many people would take a gift of $1,000 and go out and buy a $60,000 sports car? While the gift is nice, it will not make the monthly car payments that are too large for the average budget. The same is true with the (so-called) stimulus package.

Federal money nearly always comes with strings attached. In fact, most federal transportation grants require a 20% (or greater) local match. “Free money” sounds nice but what happens when state and local governments cannot afford the match? If Milwaukee County receives $50 million for infrastructure projects under this formula, taxpayers in the county would have to come up with an extra $10 million. Does anyone think we have an extra $10 million in this budget climate?

The first thing to note is that it has yet to be determined if stimulus funds will require the 20% local match.  Assuming for Walker’s sake that it will, his analogy to receiving $1,000 and spending it on a $60,000 car is wrong – it’s more like paying $10,000 for a $60,000 sports car.   More importantly, Walker’s argument insinuates that the county has no immediate infrastructure projects planned for 2009.   This is false.   From the recommended 2009 Capital Improvements Budget [PDF]:

Major Transportation and Public Works projects include WA094 – Runway Safety Area – NEPA Compliance ($13,221,000), WH086 – West Good Hope Road Rehabilitation ($8,305,400), WH083 – West Silver Spring Drive ($5,912,400) and WA044 – GMAI – In-line Baggage Screening Phase I ($2,815,000).

You can add the I-94 reconstruction and KRM commuter rail proposals to this list and get a better sense of the projects that stimulus money could fund in our area.  Or just ask anyone driving in the city of Milwaukee if we need to fix potholes or rebuild bridges and you’ll realize why refusing this money is a big mistake.

To most people, the seriousness of our county’s situation leaves no room for political posturing.  Walker’s spineless qualifying of his initial declaration only serves to undercut arguments made in his defense and show how transparent his stance was in the first place.

Am I paying more? Yes. But do I really mind if it means I can get a fairly stable internet connection, good phone service and many television channels? No. I will admit that I am especially fond of the DVR service where I can view recorded programs from any TV in the house. (We only have two so that’s “any TV”.)

Yes it took a while to get it hooked up and yes it took a few extra visits to tweak out the bugs but AT&T responded to my requests and didn’t try to blame my personal computer equipment for any problem. They did what I asked — they just fixed the problem.

It’s important that the Democrats who are clearly in the sensible center need to stay optimistic about the times that we have ahead of us despite the clear calamity that has infected our economic system under Bush.

Here’s an example of an email I received from someone who believed they were being clever:

Ajax Corporation
October 29, 2008
Dear Fellow Business Owners,

Ward Smith, CEO
Ajax Corporation

Here’s my response:
Where Mr. Smith sees adversity, others, including his employees who now understand the business, will see opportunity. While he retreats into his bunker or compound, planning on living in fear for the next 8 years, it is a certainty that some of his former employees will look to fill the void he has left in the marketplace. In time, Mr. Smith will realize he has made a mistake as he has lost some of his most optimistic and productive employees because of his choice to put politics above productivity.

But he shared something that took me off guard.

“Now my boys will have no excuses”.

It was simple as that. I had never thought about this for my own son. I had never thought that he would be limited by any means by the color of his skin. But this election was a change not only for my neighbors son, but for all children of color. Every parent can now look at their child, and despite their color or economic status, they can rise as high as they wanted — even to the position of President of these United States.

Barack Obama had used the word “hope” to cover many different aspects of our lives. While I had hoped for economic change and a change in military policy, others were hoping for an end to the days when, and we all heard it during the election, “the country isn’t ready to elect a black man”.

Obama’s election as well as his acceptance speech should inspire us all. For those who have said that we as a society can’t expect that a single mother can do a good job raising her child — “yes we can”. For those who have said that we as Americans could never look past the color of a persons skin as they were filling out their ballot — “yes we can”.

When it was time to leave I shook my neighbors hand and smiled. We were both glad that change was coming. We were both hopeful for the future. As I walked back to my house, a smile stayed on my face. Hopes had already been realized and change was already here.