John Nichols, of the Capital Times, The Nation and other lefty pubs, is a smart guy.
But -- you knew there was a but coming -- he likes Scott Walker just a little too much, and has let that get in the way of his political common sense in a [...]
A state motorcycle, of course. Isn't that on your holiday wish list?
We already have a state flower, fish, rock, insect, soil, dog, dance, fruit, fossil, beverage and more. Contrary to popular belief, there is not a state muffin, although that was proposed and debated a few years ago.
So why not' [...]
The debate over a proposed Wisconsin climate change bill has prompted dueling memos from Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce and its allies and the co-chairs of the Governor's Task Force on Global Warming, which is sponsoring the bill.
It also has prompted at least one Freudian slip: WMC complained about the' [...]
-- George McGovern in a Washington Post column.
[...]As the debate rages over how to fix what's wrong with Milwaukee public schools, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has found a new cause for alarm: Our schools leave our kids so ill-prepared that they can't even make the grade as cannon fodder any more.
It seems an unusually high percentage of [...]
I listened to President Obama Tuesday night.
I heard: This is not another Vietnam. These are different circumstances, and there will be a different outcome.
I'd like to believe that, but I don’t.
It looks too much like Vietnam, when another liberal Democratic president got talked into a war we couldn’t win.
I heard:' [...]
Just about every session of the legislature has included' [...]
Photo: Fighting Bob LaFollette (upper right) harmonizes with the Grannies.
Repeal of Wisconsin’s restrictions on new nuclear power reactors is “a gift to the dying nuclear industry that Wisconsin residents can’t afford,” a Carbon Free Nuclear Free coalition of 13 environmental, public interest and consumer groups -- with [...]It's not exactly man bites dog, but Milwaukee Democrats will join peace activists Wednesday in expressing their concerns about President Obama’s plan to send additional American troops to Afghanistan, and Sen. Russ Feingold already has weighed in against the Obama plan.
A rally and response to Obama’s speech is planned' [...]
Did you ever have to make up your mind? Pick up on one and leave the other behind...
Did you ever have to finally decide? Say yes to one and let the other one ride...
One of these days, the Journal Sentinel is going to have to finally decide:
Should [...]
Plans are taking shape for a memorial service for Ron Domini, the longtime Wisconsin AFSCME political director who passed away Monday night at Madison Hospice. This is excerpted from an email from Domini's daughter. Jamie, who said it was OK to share publicly:
What an amazing three weeks we have' [...]
Across the country, and in Wisconsin, there's a movement quietly taking shape to reclaim November 11 as a day of peace.
What is now called Veterans Day was originally designated in the US as Armistice Day, the day that World War I ended at 11 a.m. on 11/11. ' [...]
Ron Domini, who for many years was the political director of Wisconsin AFSCME, died Monday night at Madison Hospice, where his family and political friends had gathered and visited to pay tribute during the last 10 days.
Domini was diagnosed in July with advanced lung cancer, which was complicated by pneumonia. [...]
Members of Veterans for Peace have again been barred from participation in Milwaukee's Veterans Day Parade.
Although the parade website says the event is “Honoring all Americans who have served,” it has refused to allow Veterans for Peace members – many of whom are combat veterans with' [...]
Heartland Hollar had a little fun with Sarah Palin's upcoming visit to West Allis, and Wisconsin Right to Life totally lost its cool, warning of terrible lefty plots to disrupt things.
Hollar's back with a new post, offering free copies of Palin's book to the first 100 people' [...]
From Madison Peace Coalition:
BOOKS, NOT BOMBS !
Peace Demonstration for Obama's Visit to Madison
Wednesday, November 4th
President Obama is coming to Madison this week, and peace activists will assemble to call for an end to war and for shifting government spending priorities from the military to education and other' [...]
Wisconsin urgently needs to reduce its carbon footprint while providing safe, secure, dependable and affordable energy. One proposed solution is to build new nuclear reactors to boil water to produce electricity. But can Wisconsin afford new nuclear reactors? Energy expert Peter Bradford says no, and will explain [...]
What radio talker Jerry Bader said on the air about Barbara Lawton is indefensible.
Lawton is correct. A two-week suspension is not adequate punishment for Bader's reckless disregard of the truth or the wild claims he described as factual. He should lose his job.
Maybe Lawton thinks that will be' [...]
Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman is indignant over a proposed rule that justices recuse themselves from cases involving a party that has given them $1.000 or more, the Journal Sentinel reports:
The sharpest questioning came from Justice Michael Gableman, who is fighting an ethics complaint that he lied in his [...]
This very official looking email just arrived in my inbox minutes ago. I've seen no media reports to confirm it. If it is true, what a bizarre way to handle this shocking turn of events. Maybe it will turn out she is hiding and not in' [...]
The Journal Sentinel editorializes:
Citizens always complain that their taxes are too high. And they are.That surprised me. My wife and I are citizens, have never complained that our taxes are too high. And they aren't.
So what's going on? I thought Paddy McIlheran wasn't writing editorials any more. Did I get' [...]
I paved a section of the road to hell with my good intentions this week, but did not get anything written about the latest outbreak of the concealed carry virus, which seems to have infected Milwaukee DA John Chisholm and Police Chief Ed Flynn.
The dynamic duo suggested they would be [...]
Mark Neumann's campaign for governor just keeps rolling along, with great staff work and photo opportunities for the media. Why do I have the feeling we'll see this one with the fright wig again during the campaign? Heartland Hollar has the uncropped photo and notes that [...]
I don't know what my friend John Nichols has been smoking for breakfast, but he's certainly enjoying the view from some other vantage point than the rest of us.
OK, John, I'll grant that Scott Walker is not David Duke.
But is he Wisconsin's William F. Buckley?
Good grief, John, get a [...]
Memo to Milwaukeeans who may be feeling powerless to stop Badger Guns from continuing the sales practices that put more handguns into the hands of criminals than any other gun store in the nation. From the Philadelphia Inquirer:
By Monica Yant KinneyThis column goes out to [...]
Memo to Milwaukeeans who may be feeling powerless to stop Badger Guns from continuing the sales practices that put more handguns into the hands of criminals than any other gun store in the nation. From the Philadelphia Inquirer:
By Monica Yant KinneyThis column goes out to [...]
This from our friends at the Nuclear Information and Research Service:
The New York Times yesterday published a remarkable joint op-ed from Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Lindsay Graham (R-SC). Remarkable not because Graham became the first Republican to sign on to a climate bill, but because of the enormous price [...]
Al Gedicks, director of the Wisconsin Resources Protection Council and a longtime activist on mining, nuclear and environmental issues, will be on Wisconsin Public Radio Wednesday from 7 to 8 a.m. to debate whether Wisconsin's so-called nuclear power "moratorium" should be repealed. A supporter of the repeal bill will also' [...]
State legislators who want more nuclear reactors in Wisconsin are ready to try again, with a bill to repeal what is commonly, and incorrectly, called the state's nuclear moratorium law.
The usual suspects, State Reps. Mike Huebsch and Phil Montgomery and State Sen. Joe Leibham, are circulating a' [...]
Strategic Vision, the controversial (some say phony) polling firm that perhaps should have called itself Virtual Reality, has been a major factor in Wisconsin media's political coverage.
As we noted earlier, the media, particularly the Journal Sentinel, were all too happy to report the results released by Strategic Vision, which' [...]
When does a public opinion poll not reflect public opinion?
When its methodology is flawed.
Or when there's no methodology at all, except to make up some numbers and feed them to the gullible news media, which simply prints them, no questions asked (in more ways than one.)
That, it appears, may be' [...]
No Longer a Monster from Displaced Films on Vimeo.
Veterans testifying at Winter Soldier hearings, reveal the truth about Iraq and Afghanistan in a six-part web series. Watch the moving final episode. Earlier episodes here.
[...]Two Madison college professors with religious backgrounds, who have worked tirelessly to change the world, will be honored for their lifetimes of activism on Oct. 3 by the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice (WNPJ), a statewide network of 170 organizations working for social change.
Joe Elder, a Quaker peace activist [...]
So there's a new Facebook group, started by a Sheboygan teen, urging Tom Barrett to run for governor.
There's even a press release on WisPolitics, which makes you wonder if there's someone a little older and more savvy behind the scenes.
But the release sounds authentic. It's hard to argue with [...]
Barbara Lawton, the purest of the pure when it come to ethics and campaign finance, gets off to a bad start in the 2010 race for govenor.
The Journal Sentinel reports: Democratic Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton is officially in the race for governor...
The announcements came moments after Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle [...]
But, happily, Jason Haas, a blogger who's new to me, took the words right out of my mouth.
Just two weeks ago, the' [...]
Walker, who totally ignored the state [...]
Meet Scott Walker, scofflaw.
Here's a guy who wants to be governor whose campaign totally thumbs its nose at state law.
While Walker bragged about his fundraising prowess and the news media played right along, trumpeting how much he raised, One Wisconsin Now (OWN) was actually looking at Walker's campaign finance report.
It [...]
A new film, This Is Where We Take Our Stand from Displaced Films on Vimeo, tells the story of the 2008 Winter Soldier hearings, organized by Iraq Veterans Against the War to bring the testimony of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans directly to the public. This is the [...]
Scott Walker, formerly a proud and active member of Underwood Baptist Church in Wauwatosa, is now a proud and inactive non-member, having joined another that doesn't have such an outspoken, progressive pastor.
Why did he switch?
Walker hasn't given a reason yet, but Harris Kane has narrowed it down to [...]
And I saw the boss come a-walking down along that factory line,
He said, "We all have to tighten up our belts."
But he didn't look any thinner than he did a year ago,
And I wonder just how hungry that man felt.
-- Steve Goodman, "Somebody Else's Troubles"
The [...]
Citizens for Republican Government, or whatever front group name they're using today, has failed again, another in a string of threatened recalls that went nowhere. This time it's calling off the Doyle recall.
Hate to say we told you so, but we told you so.
One problem, CRG says, was [...]
Citizens for Republican Government, or whatever front group name they're using today, has failed again, another in a string of threatened recalls that went nowhere. This time it's calling off the Doyle recall.
Hate to say we toldl you so, but we told you so.
One problem, CRG says, was' [...]
Conservatives who subscribed last year to the osmosis theory of church and state -- the one that said public officials were responsible for and agreed with everything their pastors say and do, unless they specifically condemn or disavow it -- will be surprised to discover the liberal [...]
It's time that someone spoke up in favor of money in politics, and it appears that sordid job has fallen to me.
In their zeal to clean up politics, some goo-goos (so-called "good government" groups) have reached the conclusion that any money in a political campaign is bad.
Ah, for the days' [...]
Profuse apologies to John Lennon. But that refrain was in my brain after reading Tom Still's plea that Wisconsin consider nuclear power. "What do we have to lose?" he asks. (More on that later)
Still, president of something called the Wisconsin Technology Council, thinks it's a crying shame that Wisconsin [...]
Profuse apologies to John Lennon. But that refrain was in my brain after reading Tom Still's plea that Wisconsin consider nuclear power. "What do we have to lose?" he asks. (More on that later)
Still, president of something called the Wisconsin Technology Council, thinks it's a crying shame that Wisconsin [...]
When I asked last week whether AirTran would get naming rights for the Scott Walker for Governor Harley ride, in return for its corporate sponsorship, I thought I was being facetious.
Sometimes a person's imagination doesn't stretch far enough. The Journal Sentinel reports:
For this year's trip, AirTran will' [...]
When I asked last week whether AirTran would get naming rights for the Scott Walker for Governor Harley ride, in return for its corporate sponsorship, I thought I was being facetious.
Sometimes a person's imagination doesn't stretch far enough. The Journal Sentinel reports:
For this year's trip, AirTran will' [...]
It is Iraq Moratorium weekend again, Friday-Sunday, with lots of Wisconsin events to call for an end to the wars and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. I'll be at the Midwest Renewable Energy Fair in Custer Friday morning for Pancakes for Peace, sponsored by the Wisconsin Network for Peace and' [...]
It is Iraq Moratorium weekend again, Friday-Sunday, with lots of Wisconsin events to call for an end to the wars and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. I'll be at the Midwest Renewable Energy Fair in Custer Friday morning for Pancakes for Peace, sponsored by the Wisconsin Network for Peace and' [...]
To the list of safety, environmental, and economic concerns about nuclear power, add another: Utilities do not have enough money set aside to decommission existing nuclear reactors when they are shut down, the Associated Press reports.
The nuclear reactors themselves become huge mountains of radioactive waste when they are shut [...]
Well, well. Someone else besides me thinks last week's US Supreme Court ruling about judges hearing cases involving huge investors in their campaigns has something to do with Wisconsin, and even Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce.
When I wrote that the ruling meant Justices Annette Ziegler and Michael Gableman, both elected' [...]
Two Democrats think Doyle's not running.
That's not quite as intriguing a headline as the Journal Sentinel's state convention story on Sunday, "Some state Democrats think Doyle won't seek re-election."
If you read the fine print, you'll discover that the number is two.
More than 800 delegates attended the' [...]
The Scott Walker Harley ride to promote himself and his bid for governor, under the guise of promoting Milwaukee tourism, has raised a lot of questions since he first started it in 2004. He's just raised some more questions, and a few eyebrows, with this report in the Journal Sentinel's [...]
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that Wisconsin Justices Annette Ziegler and Michael Gableman must disqualify themselves from hearing any cases involving Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce.
That is an oversimplification, but not by much. Here is how the NY Times summarized the decision in a front page story today:
Elected judges [...]
An online petition campaign to maintain Wisconsin's existing regulations on licensing of new nuclear reactors has been launched by the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice, (WNPJ) in cooperation with One Wisconsin Now (OWN). The message:
Dear Friend,
We urgently need your help to maintain reasonable restrictions' [...]
Dear Friend,
We urgently need your help to maintain reasonable restrictions on nuclear power in Wisconsin.
Learn more and sign our petition here, or read on.
Wisconsin has wisely had a state law in place since 1984 that prohibits the construction of new nuclear reactors unless two conditions are [...]
An online petition campaign to maintain Wisconsin's existing regulations on licensing of new nuclear reactors has been launched by the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice, (WNPJ) in cooperation with One Wisconsin Now (OWN). The message:
Dear Friend,
We urgently need your help to maintain reasonable restrictions' [...]
You wouldn't know it from the news media -- they can only cover one story at a time, and there's a state budget crisis -- but there is a growing, resurgent movement in Wisconsin determined to solve the energy and climate crises without resorting to nuclear energy.
It's not' [...]
Frank Jablonski, the pro-nuclear environmentalist and lawyer, thinks he was unfairly maligned in an item I wrote here back in March, fingering him as a paid lobbyist for the nuclear industry. (I wasn't the first; PR Watch had already done it.)
Let's give him his say first. [...]
By Abdul Malik Mujahid
According to the CIA World Factbook, an Afghan’s life expectancy is merely 44 years.
That's 20 to 30 years less than neighboring Pakistan and all other surrounding countries. It is just one result of the ongoing devastation in that country.
The war in Afghanistan did not start in [...]
The controversial "Virtual Army Experience" exhibit that was shut down at Milwaukee's Summerfest last year after protests from peace activists and others will not be back this year.
Instead, there will be a "typical Army exhibit," an Army spokesperson said, with a dog tag machine, a Humvee and [...]
5/10 Sun 4 pm Mother's Day Memorial Service for Midge Miller - Madison. First United Methodist Church (203 Wisconsin Ave).
Midge was a lifelong progressive activist and a former WI Democratic lawmaker, who passed away April 17 at age 86. Midge was a co-founder of [...]
Funny how big a crowd of 5,000 (if it really was that big) played in the media when it was right-wing teabaggers coming to protest paying for their government services. It was portrayed as a mammoth grassroots uprising, a taxpayer revolt.
When perhaps twice that number of people marched in Milwaukee [...]
Musings on Day One of Scooter Walker's second ill-fated run for governor:
*** Announcing first on Twitter and Charlie Sykes's show was a stroke of genius -- if you think the hard core lunatic fringe and Walker fanatics are going to be enough to win the election. But creative use [...]
A graduate student in nuclear engineering at UW-Madison, Brian Kiedrowski, has solved the nuclear waste disposal problem -- something the nuclear industry and the federal government have failed at for 50 years. Can a Nobel Prize be far behind?
In a letter to the editor in the campus Badger Herald, [...]
