Thanks to the Journal Sentinel’s Tom Kertscher for bringing a recent interview with Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker to light for all of us who do not regularly read (or do not read at all) the Washington Examiner. In this “exclusive… Read More ›
Wisconsin
Backward Wisconsin
(“Cartoon from the records of the National Child Labor Committee (U.S.). During the Progressive Era many organizations were formed to outlaw the child labor that was a feature of Gilded Age industrial revolution, which included teenage girls working long hours… Read More ›
A “Living Wage” Lives On
Though a Senate committee approved a bill (3-2 on party lines, no need to say which is which) to limit “living wage” laws in Wisconsin– a mean-spirited bill aimed at preventing Milwaukee County from approving a new living wage ordinance–it appears that, according to Senate Majority… Read More ›
WI Attorney General Should Not Defend the Unjust Same-Sex Marriage Amendment
After U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said that state attorney generals need not defend state laws banning same-sex marriage, Wisconsin attorney general J.B. Van Hollen responded by saying that state constitutional amendments must be defended: “If there’s one clear-cut job… Read More ›
Weekend Rebuttal: “Anti-Walker” or Pro-Truth?
In his latest Milwaukee Journal Sentinel column, “The Anti-Walker crowd needs to keep looking”, Christian Schneider gamely tries to defend Gov. Walker from “myopic Democrats” after the release this past week of many thousands of emails, some which seem to connect Walker (as objective reporters… Read More ›
Gov. Walker as Captain Ahab
The Wisconsin conservative spin machine (call it the whitewashing machine) has been rotating wildly today, making itself dizzier than normal, after yesterday’s release of some damaging email records that seem to confirm that Walker, as Milwaukee County Executive, had at least some knowledge of… Read More ›
Governors in Trouble: Christie, Walker and now Kasich
Republican governors have not been doing well lately, what with Christie’s Bridgegate, Gov. Walker’s campaign e-mail revelations, and now Ohio Gov. John Kasich having to embarrassingly change his mind on fracking after Ohio’s DNR was caught in a plan to… Read More ›
Cesar Chavez, a Living Wage and Bipartisan Tax/Debt Pandering
(By USGov-DOL (USGov-DOL) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons) Two apparently radical, left-wing proposals were discussed in Madison last week, one of which is supported, sort of, by our Republican governor and one which is opposed by Milwaukee County’s Democratic County Executive. And what Democratic… Read More ›
WI Sen. Ron Johnson Votes “Nay” on Extending Unemployment Benefits
Even though today’s failed Senate attempt to pass an emergency three-month extension of long-term unemployment insurance included a Republican provision to prevent millionaires (like Sen. Johnson) from receiving unemployment payments (millionaires receive unemployment?), Wisconsin’s Republican senator voted, along with 39 other Republican senators,… Read More ›
Weekend Rebuttal: Gov. Walker’s Tax Surplus Plan is a Gift to the Suburbs
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has a plan for our nearly billion dollar tax surplus: give everyone in the state, even the wealthy, a quite modest tax cut. Which means, in real terms, that the richest in the state, the top 20%, will… Read More ›
More Dubious Republican Advice for Women
If you’re a woman, you should watch what you say (no tantrums, please) and feel free to take charge of your own libido, according to Republicans near and far. Here in Wisconsin, Milwaukee Democratic Assemblywoman Christine Sinicki went to Facebook during… Read More ›
How UW can go all D2P with QE1 and CO2
By John Frederick Kaufman Rumor has it that the Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison is looking to fill three high profile positions in keeping with its new mission: “the ideas factory and innovation center for the state,” as Chancellor Rebecca Blank puts… Read More ›
Farm Subsidies & Food Stamps: Stuffing the rich, starving the poor
(CAFO hogs by USGS [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons) If you operate a wealthy “mega farm” in Wisconsin or anywhere else in the nation, some lawmakers in Congress are working hard to make sure you keep receiving unlimited federal subsidies; in fact,… Read More ›
Bridgegate and the WI “John Doe”: Jumping to Conclusions
Are we innocent until proven guilty? In court, yes. In the media and court of public opinion– not so much. Was New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie involved with the revenge closing of the lanes of the George Washington Bridge? So far, there has been no… Read More ›
The ongoing irony of Wisconsin’s open-pit iron mine law
Speaking of iron mines and irony, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial board today published an editorial claiming, yet again, that there is nothing wrong with GTAC’s proposed iron strip mine in the Penokee Hills of Wisconsin and the Republican’s iron mining bill that a little “tweaking” won’t… Read More ›
Saturday rebuttal: My one & only prediction for 2014
(An ongoing Afternoon Journal series of weekly “rebuttals” or direct responses to public utterances by pundits and politicians) Stopping just short of an even 30, AM radio conservative Charlie Sykes has made 27 predictions for 2014. I read the first… Read More ›
The Pacific 