Uppity Wisconsin

Cars Ride On The Backs Of Kids And Hummingbirds

... the faces of kids who had no idea what kind of energy pornography website their beautiful faces, good intentions, skateboards, bikes, and smiles would be hired off to sell cars.

Greenwashing used to be BP. Those mag and TV ads - so hip, so green. And today?

Dead in the water ? To wish. Now comes www.CleanAirTrek.com to save greenwashing from its near death experience in the Gulf.

You see, public transportation in Wisconsin is running out the clock. Fourth down came and went in April. No score and so the State of Wisconsin must turn the ball over to the car manufacturers.

Yes, to the car. That consumer of farmland, the unemployed squatter on precious downtown spaces, that indolent 20-hour a day sleeper in your household that gobbles up nearly as much green as your mortgage. The car is now promoted by the State of Wisconsin in a five-figure ad campaign promoting cars. Profits go to carmakers and road-builders and parking lot owners.

Milwaukee needs a dog park so badly, it will cut down 5 acres of trees in our venerable Grant Park.

http://networkedblogs.com/3RYAl

This is the wisdom of Scott Walker. His legacy will be a wrecked bus system, supplemented by new buses paid for by Federal dollars, and now a wasteland where there will be trees, where there will be dogs, where dogs can run about unafraid they will bump their heads on a tree standing in their way.

Bring your camera when this tragedy strikes. We want photos all over Wisconsin this summer, with His Majesty's name on them.

I'm not one to draw attention to "Comments" in a media website, but the Comments on this article were illuminating in the sad way of modern political discussion. Raw, hurting, angry, and often devoid of fact.

Milwaukee County panel opposes Waukesha's plan for wastewater effluent

So, stepping in where only fools dare, I have added my own Comment:

Reading this discussion would make a visitor from Europe believe Waukesha and Milwaukee have nothing in common. The vitriol shouted back and forth across the County lines, however, is only the beginning of the discussion that could actually benefit both counties.

First of all, we ought to recognize how regional thinking could benefit both counties. Milwaukee wants political support to improve its public transportation. Waukesha wants Lake Michigan water.

Milwaukee has a vital interest in making its own city more dense, livable, walkable and less car-dependent. I know no one in Milwaukee who wants our workers to move to Waukesha, but I do know that some employers in Waukesha and Wauwatosa would like to figure out how to get low pay workers into their shops and factories.

My Tea Party with Randal O'Toole

O'Toole had no handout, and offered no link to his talk so we could not go home and study his statistics.

I am a follower of Randal O'Toole, actually a stalker. I've read his material; I've responded to him online when Comments are allowed. I am actually fascinated by this persona. So, when a friend offered to take me along to Racine to hear him, I jumped at the chance (too far for a bike ride on a Tuesday night).

Randal (a Cato Institute Fellow) changed his talk a bit over the past few months. Instead of closing with a report on his "hobby," he opens up with his hobby - refurbishing trains (for museum purposes); point is - no one should subsidize my hobby. Got it, Randal.

Opener. To measure his audience he uses what any smart speaker will use, something engaging. A suggestive remark about the recent health care bill (just passed) brought a roar of approval and applause from his audience of about 200. He knew; they knew; they are on the same side: distrust of government, the theme of the evening, repeated ironically by elected officials and the candidates for office running on Tea.

Ninety percent (90%) of the opinion in the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism (WCIJ) report on high speed rail is status quo, anti-public investment, and emphatically Cato Institute doctrine.

This essay presents eleven (11) charges that WCIJ failed their ethical principles. And twelve (12) characteristics of sloppy writing that denigrate journalism as a profession.

This blog^! is the fourth in a series about a WCIJ Report High Speed Rail broadcast on Wisconsin Public Radio July 22, 2009:

Part 1. The WCIJ Fraud. WCIJ falsified the conclusion in a US Government Accountability Office report.

Part 2. The WCIJ Virus - the Fraud over the GAO text has spread far and wide in the media.

... Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism Violates 3 Principles in its Code of Ethics....

A Series of Commentaries.

Introduction. Open Letter to WPR.

Part 1. The WCIJ Fraud.

Part 2. The WCIJ Virus.

Part 3. "Nobody Knows..."

WCIJ Screenshot

WCIJ Says Nobody Knows...

I point.

Notice the second sentence, beginning "Nobody knows..."?

This short sentence deserves attention but please don't quote it.

... Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism has created a tenacious anti-rail virus, a "feathers-to-the-wind" media story that the U.S. Government Accountability Office is opposed to inter-city rail projects....

By Bill Sell

A Series of Commentaries.
Introduction. Open Letter to WPR.
Part 1. The Fraud.
(more to come)

Part 2. The Virus

Wikipedia:

A computer virus is a computer program that can copy itself and infect a computer without the permission or knowledge of the owner.

I advocate for public transportation and so I am familiar with the benefits and limits of rail, and the proper role of government.

The efficiencies of bus and rail are well-known. WPR underwriter CSX touts that its trains can move 426 tons of freight on one gallon of gas. Even the old Milwaukee buses qualify:

One full bus takes 30 cars off the road reducing congestion and making the air healthier to breathe. That's comparable to a line of cars six blocks long traveling at 25 mph.

And so it happened, that when I visited the WCIJ website, I found myself staring in disbelief at what WCIJ calls the 'conclusion' in the U.S. GAO Report on High Speed Rail: I know the work of the GAO; and it commands respect.

Screen Shot of WCIJ Website

Part 1. UW Journalists Fabricate the US Government Accountability Office's Conclusion on High Speed Rail

... WCIJ finds a 'useful' phrase buried in the GAO report and represents those 17 words as the whole of the GAO report....

By Bill Sell

Introduction to this Series of Reports

Part 1. The Fraud

From Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism Code of Ethics:

Test the accuracy of information from all sources and exercise care to avoid inadvertent error. Deliberate distortion is never permissible.

Did they? Draw your own conclusion:

GAO Report

UW Journalists Violate Several Ethical Principles of Journalism, but WPR maintains partnership with WCIJ

Open Letter to Wisconsin Public Radio

...this July 22 radio program made me wonder about the ties that WPR has created to this group called the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism....

By Bill Sell

Introduction and Open Letter


Dear Wisconsin Public Radio

Re: "Questions remain as state pushes ahead with rail line," by Lexie Clinton of the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, with Andy Hall and Jim Packard. Web: July 21 and Radio: July 22, 2009.

Water Panel Weak On Specifics

The Politics of Water. Thursday, May 21.

A panel ensconced by the Public Policy Forum in a Wauwatosa hotel, was strong on the language of cooperation, happy about the International Water Compact, and true believers in the new "work together" mood of our nation.

Michael Murphy,  Alderman from Milwaukee, spoke of the issues on which Milwaukee would like cooperation: affordable housing, transit, and economic development of distressed areas. What he might have added is some conceptual material - how all of these things work together in a healthy city. Unfortunately he did not bring to the table The Now Issue: why it is that Transit, today as they spoke, could be the most effective signal of cooperation from Waukesha (County and City). Nor did he suggest, and reasonably he could have, why Milwaukee officials are looking to a private, international water corporation for serious money after being rebuffed on many fronts in Madison over school funding, dedicated transit funding that brings federal dollars, and health care costs.

My Dear Republican

"While each member of the Senate caucuses with his Party, what each of us hopes to accomplish is distinct from his party affiliation. The American people do not care which Party solves the problems confronting our nation. And no Senator, no matter how loyal he is to his Party, should or would put party loyalty above his duty to the state and nation."  ---Arlen Specter, on changing from Republican to Democrat, April 28.

April 27, I mail this letter to to the Republicans of the Joint Finance Committee.
April 28, Senator Specter resigns from the Republican Party.

=========================

Dear Republican Elected Official


I am a small-business owner of a nationally known service located in downtown Milwaukee. For over 30 years, I have observed your allegiance to the larger corporations and their needs, while generally you are condescending to us small business owners.

Your party puzzles me, locked into old issues that are evaporating as fast as stimulus funds from Washington.

My impression is that to a Republican a "small business" has revenues from 10 million and upward to the value of Marquette Electronics when it was sold to GE. (By the way, the former owner of that business is someone you should spend time with: he understands the connection between public transportation and local economies; his streetcar plan is a homerun for our city. )

A Response by Bill Sell

I appreciate that you have a difficult job in a day of when politics is sometimes hostile to practical, wise investment in our infrastructure. Many believe Transit is a luxury because, they say, “I have a car. I don’t need it.” And elected officials pander to that tune rather than educate the citizen.

Your MCTS Plan 2009, however, too, is lacking. If anything it is not bold enough. You are open to serious criticism while your opening position on Plan 2009 does not reach far enough. While I understand the need to accommodate many interests, ... more at  http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/BusesAreGreen/MCTSPlan2009

Word from Transit is their concern that the demise of Transit TV will leave Transit but 'no choice' except to find a substitute system.  As a bus rider, I have a better idea. 

Dear Drivers

One bus driver on Route 15 announces all the stops. It is a pleasure to hear his voice and it gives him a commanding presence that is reassuring about the service as a whole. Why we needed Transit TV was that Transit management gave up on its efforts to get drivers to announce bus stops.

They might have thought that TTV filled the bill, but it does not. It announced only major stops, skipping the dark corners one can barely discern from inside the bus.  Dark corners are the corners the rider needs to get right.

Drivers, please spare us another version of TTV and call the stops, all of them.

Your riders have gone to bat for you against the cuts, against the fare increases that would reduce your hours. We need you on this one. Shout the stops. We'll thank you.

I have been begging County Transit to abandon Transit TV for years. It is a noisy intrusion on a quiet ride. It offers scams to unwitting citizens. It was a blight on the Milwaukee scene - as if we were too cheap to provide our passengers with a quality ride - we had to infuse the bus with the worst of television and AM radio ("operators are standing by...").  It appears to have died at the hands of the Market. Thank heavens for the hand of the market. (never thought I could ever say those words.)

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/39205597.html?c=y&commentSubmitted=y

No one at Transit wanted to step forward and say the truth: this noisy nuisance was deterring the efforts to get passengers who can choose to ride the bus.  Let peace reign. Death to scavengers is good. Mercy killing is not always wrong.

best

Bill Sell

BusStop. Vote Yourself $43 Million Tax Relief

The November 4 Referendum On Transit, Parks And Emergency Services.

Attention Milwaukee: This is a Yes. Vote Yes.

This is real tax relief.

If we approve the referendum, we empower State government to deliver real tax relief. In two ways we are asking the State:

1. Please take these three services off of the property tax. Off. Removed. Gone. Vamoose. Forever.

2. Please shift these services to a one percent sales tax. Dear Governor, with your support we can collect $43 million from visitors to help pay for our city's needs.

"With a 'yes' vote, residents can send the message that community deterioration - which ailing transit and suffering parks fuel - isn't an option."<http://www2.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=807309>

So, where does the $43 million come from?