Uppity Wisconsin

The City of Milwaukee spring primary has been canceled for lack of interest.

Not lack of interest by the voters (well, maybe the voters, too), but by the candidates.

The City Election Commission has officially called off the Feb.  16 primary because there are no primaries.

In fact, there are no races at all, even for the April 6 general election.

There are no municipal elections in the city this year.  There are eight Milwaukee County circuit court judgeships to be filled, but there's only a primary if more than two candidates file.

In fact, none of the eight incumbents even has a challenger. Here's the list. Congratulations on your reelections, your honors.

That saves some money, to be sure.  But doesn't it make you think that, given the tiny turnout even when there are spring elections, that maybe we'd be better off to have them all in the fall?

When is a government event not a public event?

When it's a phony State of the County speech by gov wannabe Scott Walker, scheduled at a private business.

People toting guns can attend events with President Obama, but no one with a toilet plunger is going to get near County Exec Walker.

Two representatives of One Wisconsin Now (OWN) were thrown of the event when they showed up with plungers to urge Walker to clean up the mess he's made of Milwaukee County, and not just in the courthouse bathrooms.

[UPDATE:  After first throwing out the two, their plungers and "Clean up your mess, Walker" sign, company employees let them into the event, sans plungers and sign, but kept them cordoned off from the crowd and had a 'chaperone" accompany them.  They were able to get news releases in the hands of the media, however.]

Perhaps more worrisome to the Walkerites, the OWN people were armed with a news release.

See any irony in this, from WTMJ Radio website?

From the website for Milwaukee County First:

Milwaukee County First is a grassroots network of organizations and individuals from all walks of life, united to amplify their voices in the cause of stopping the decline of Milwaukee County, restoring its assets and services to their former first class status, and keeping Milwaukee County a place where people will want to work, to play, and to live.

Milwaukee County is a shadow of what it once was. Its parks, once a necklace of jewels, are now unkempt and overgrown. Its transit system, once a yardstick for the nation, is now fighting for its very survival. The social services and safety net that Milwaukee County once provided has been scaled down so much that the State of Wisconsin had to intervene to protect the most vulnerable of the county’s citizens. Its infrastructure is crumbling and years behind in necessary repairs.

It looks like we've finally found who's to blame for anything that's wrong in Milwaukee.

The Equal Rights Commission not active? Blame John Norquist. Streets need repair? That's Norq's fault, too.

No matter, apparently, that he's been gone for almost five years.

A guy named Tom Barrett (remember him?) has had the job for four and a half-years.

But when WisPolitics reports on the Equal Rights Commission that:

The commission is already required by city ordinance, but it withered near the end of former Mayor John Norquist's term. It has not met since 2003 and currently has no members. Department of Employee Relations Director Maria Monteagudo said at a council committee meeting this week that the department began working on reviving the group and revamping its mission about a year and a half ago.

No one seems to notice how long Norquist's been gone, or that Barrett hasn't done anything to reactivate the commission.

Likewise, when the Journal Sentinel reports that 21% of city streets badly need repair (about the same as the national average), who gets the blame? You guessed it, the Norqster.

How about no more air-trips to Turkey for the Esperanza Unita's executive director, Robert Miranda, until Esperanza Unita pays their workers?

From today's MJS: Esperanza Unida's payroll problems continue under Miranda's administration:

Mark Freund, a former welding instructor and manager at Esperanza Unida, said he wasn’t in a position not to get paid, or to get paid late.

See Original Post

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has let us know that it is offical:

As of today, Miller Brewing Co. no longer exists — other than in the hearts and minds of those who worked there, and those who drank its beer.

The company once known as Miller Brewing is now MillerCoors LLC, a joint venture of Miller Brewing and Coors Brewing Co. The new company officially begins business today, following Monday’s signing of the closing documents by executives from SABMiller Plc and Molson Coors Brewing Co., corporate parents of Miller Brewing and Coors Brewing.

I'm not sure how the rest of Wisconsin feels, but I was saddened to hear this news. Maybe I am overreacting and need to understand that buyouts and consolidations are a part of the modern global world. Maybe I am naive to think that Miller and Wisconsin are somehow synonymous and, therefore, immune to outside influence--its kind of like the Packers, no?

Check out the new MillerCoors website--if you really want. :(

They're young and old, black and white, male and female -- and they all deliver their lines very, very well.

Click here to watch it.

They're so good it makes you wonder if some or all of them might be paid, professional actors.

Greg Borowski's first post on the Journal Sentinel political blog said:

Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker has unveiled a new, upbeat TV ad, one that features a montage of (we presume) voters, all expressing their belief in Milwaukee and in, well Scott Walker.

Meanwhile, in response to a query about the people used in the Walker ad, Tim Russell of the Walker campaign says all are actual voters. Not actors.

"They're all real people," Russell said.

That must be what Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker told himself, before rewarding himself with a $50,000 a year pay raise.

Call it what you will, but Walker's announcement that if he is reelected on April 1 he will accept $50,000 more in salary than he currently does is a pay raise, pure and simple.

Does he deserve credit for giving back $60,000 a year in the past? Sure -- but he made that grand gesture purely for political gain back when he was running to succeed Tom Ament. Four years ago, he wasn't confident enough to change it. But he obviously thinks he's going to win another term in two weeks, so now's the time to grab the gold.

Is the county executive overpaid at his full salary of $129,000 a year? No, not if he/she is doing his/her job. It's a big job with a lot of responsibility.

The thing is, Walker hasn't been doing the job. He's been mismanaging county government, running it into the ground, all in the name of fiscal responsibility. In fact, it's fiscal irresponsibility, but he's hoping to get out of the courthouse before the chickens come home to roost.

After Walker, expect the deluge.

I am not making this up: Fuel Cafe going non-smoking. 

That's like hearing that the old National Liquor Bar was going alcohol-free.

Club Paradise will feature family entertainment.

Usinger's will sell only vegan products.

And Harley Davidson will quit making engines and switch to producing mountain bikes.

At first blush, it sounds like a tough, independent imnvestigation of Milwaukee County's pension problems -- or scandal, if you prefer. The JS reports:

The wide-ranging investigation into Milwaukee County pension practices will be headed by two former federal prosecutors from Chicago and will look back several decades, county pension officials said today.

However:

In action Wednesday, the Pension Board created a five-member committee to oversee and provide direction to the special counsel investigation, as well as manage the probe's undetermined cost.

The members include Pension Board Chairman Roepke, County Executive Scott Walker, County Board Chairman Lee Holloway and two community members to be selected by the Pension Board chairman.

It makes you wonder whether any chips will be allowed to fall on the current county executive or county board, since they will "provide direction"  for the investigation.

State Rep. Pedro Colon says he will challenge Milwaukee City Atty. Grant Langley in the spring elections.

His announcement contained an interesting criticism of Langley, the long-time incumbent:

The City Attorney has the potential to be a partner to the District Attorney in the fight against crime. That starts with leadership. It means upholding the highest possible standards for integrity. Instead, the current City Attorney has been AWOL from the fight to stop paying police officers who are convicted of felonies.

You see, the law requiring the city to pay those fired cops is a state law. To get rid of it, the state legislature has to repeal it.

Pedro Colon is part of the Democratic leadership in the state Assembly, which, last we knew, was one house of the legislature.

Is Colon saying he's failed to get that law repealed because he didn't have a letter from Grant Langley?  Is he saying that if he's city attorney he can do more about that legislative issue than he can as a legislator?  Hard to swallow.

Clarke's complete reversal came, as his pronouncements frequently do, in a hysterical email to rabid rightwing radio talker Charlie Sykes, a major Clarke sycophant and publicist.

At the end of a long rant against Gov. Jim Doyle, Mayor Tom Barrett, and Milwaukee aldermen, Clarke says:

If the police are no longer able to guarantee the personal safety of citizens, then reconsider your opposition to allowing law-abiding people the means with which to protect themselves. Yes, Governor, that means carrying concealed handguns.

Clarke calls for veto of concealed weapons bill

Sheriff tells Doyle in letter that change would put deputies in danger

Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. on Monday called on Gov. Jim Doyle to veto a bill that would make it easier for Wisconsin residents to carry concealed weapons.

In a letter to Doyle, Clarke says the change called for in the bill would jeopardize the "safety of my deputies and the citizens they represent" and says "there are better ways to fight crime than to flood the streets of Milwaukee with dangerous weapons."

Today, Clarke says the best way to fight crime is to flood the streets of Milwaukee with dangerous weapons.