Daniel Cody - “Left on the Lake”

Just a reminder for those of you who I haven’t already bombared with the press release about tomorrow’s MPS school board forum and 4th Congressional Disctrict convention:

4th Congressional District Convention & MPS School Board Candidate Forum to Be Held Saturday, March 31st

Final Candidate Forum Before the General Election on April 3rd Gives Voters Unique Opportunity to Meet Candidates and Elected Officials

MILWAUKEE – The 4th Congressional District of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin is pleased to announce it’s annual convention will be held in Milwaukee on Saturday, March 31st 2007 from 12:00 pm to 3:30pm at the Astor Hotel’s Renaissance Room, 924 E. Juneau Avenue.

This year, the 4th CD will be holding a candidate forum among the candidates running for the Milwaukee Public School Board from 12:30pm to 1:30pm. The 4th CD convention will take place immediately thereafter and is scheduled to last approximately two hours, with Congresswoman Gwen Moore confirmed as the featured speaker.

“This will be a unique opportunity to hear directly from the candidates running for the MPS Board of Directors about their educational philosophy and stance on the issues facing Milwaukee’s Public Schools,” said Daniel Cody, Vice Chair for the 4th Congressional District of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. “we certainly encourage parents, teachers, students, and all those interested in the future of our children to attend. It’s also a great opportunity for residents of the 4th Congressional District to speak directly with their Congresswoman, Rep. Gwen Moore, and hear updates from her on important issues such as Iraq war withdrawal legislation.”

Registration begins at 12:00pm with the MPS candidate forum beginning promptly at 12:30pm. Both events are open to the public and there is no charge for the MPS candidate forum. Registration fees for the 4th CD convention are $7.00 for Democratic Party members and $10.00 for non-members. Students with valid student ID’s will be admitted free of charge.

Disclaimer: I’m the Vice Chair for the 4th CD.

An editorial in this morning’s Boston Globe is worth 2 minutes of your time:

Bush called the House vote a “political statement” and his spokeswoman said the congressional timetables amounted to “mandating failure.” She said Bush would veto any bill with a withdrawal date.

It is certainly true that the votes are an extraordinary challenge to a president carrying out a war on foreign soil. But what is more historic than the action itself is the accumulation of misguided strategies and bungled efforts on the ground — all defended obstinately by Bush — that led Congress to it.

The mid term elections last November were an undeniable vote of no confidence in Bush’s war, and public support, by most measures, has only continued to sink. The recent House and Senate votes merely reflected this reality. Stubbornly resisting solid advice from the bipartisan Iraq Study Group and others, Bush has become increasingly isolated.

Everyone should remember that the action taken by Congress is in response to the President continually mis-managing this war. Nearly every decision he and his administration has made has been a catastrophe and someone else needs to take control.

Is this what it’s come to? The President of the United States quoting two bloggers in Baghdad as proof his failed policies are really working, despite reality?

Yet, the Iraqi people are beginning to say — see positive changes. I want to share with you how two Iraqi bloggers — they have bloggers in Baghdad, just like we’ve got here — (laughter) — “Displaced families are returning home, marketplaces are seeing more activity, stores that were long shuttered are now reopening. We feel safer about moving in the city now. Our people want to see this effort succeed. We hope the governments in Baghdad and America do not lose their resolve.” - President Bush

Just think about it for a minute. And after that, think about how much these “bloggers” had to say sounds like a recycled White House press release. “Resolve”?!?

At this morning’s Public Works committee meeting of the Milwaukee Common Council, Midwest Fiber Networks was given a 120 day extension to complete work on the “demonstration area” of the Milwaukee Wireless Initiative that was originally scheduled to be completed in mid-January.

Milwaukee’s CIO said that out of the 120 street post antenna’s that are planned for th 5 square mile demonstration area, 22 are currently installed and working. A Midwest Fiber representative said that although it takes an average of 1-2 days to install each new antenna, she was “100% confident” that the company would meet the extended deadline in 120 days.

That would mean they’ll have to install those 100 remaining antenna’s in under a day each to meet the 120 day deadline, and was a point I wish one of the Alderman would have asked for clarification on.

The question I have now is what happens if and when the new deadline for completion of the demonstration area is missed? Another extension?

Last night’s monthly Democratic Party of Milwaukee County meeting had a surprise visitor: Sheriff David Clarke.

Although Clarke continually runs as an “independent Democrat” in elections, his views are often in direct conflict with those of most Democrats. Many feel that he uses the “Democrat” label to win elections as a conservative candidate because someone who more accurately identified themselves as a “Republican” would never win in Milwaukee. Top it off with his alignment to conservative candidates across the state and writing for the “Wisconsin Conservative Digest” and, well, it’s no secret that many Democrats in Milwaukee County feel “used” and harbor some resentment for our Sheriff.

So you can imagine the collective gasp when he walked through the door to the monthly meeting last night. Things were polite however, and he was introduced, welcomed, and given the chance to speak to those in attendance.

Sheriff Clarke kept his remarks short, only speaking the obvious: that we didn’t always agree on the issues, that he’s had a strong amount of support from Democrats, especially in Milwaukee, that he appreciated the chance to speak, and that we didn’t always agree on many issues.

Although I disagree with many of the stances the Sheriff has taken in the past and many of his actions as Sheriff, I do give him credit for showing up in what he had to know was going to be a less than friendly crowd. It takes a lot of guts to get up and speak in front of an audience like that, and to his credit, he stayed through the entire meeting which lasted much longer than normal.

A true test of patience is debating whether a motion to end debate of a resolution precludes a motion to table a resolution.

After the meeting, I was thinking about why Sheriff Clarke attended last night’s meeting, and came to two possible answers. One, he’s genuinely interested in becoming a more active part of the Democratic party and is taking the steps to gain back support from many grassroots Democrats in Milwaukee.

The other possibility, which may be closer to reality, is that he realizes the “independent Democrat” thing isn’t going to work forever and in a future race he will very much need the support of Democrats in Milwaukee. In last year’s primary for Milwaukee Sheriff, he ran a close race with Vince Bobot, who was strongly backed by the Democratic party. So much so that the our party constitution was changed just so we could back a candidate who was a “real Democrat” during the primary.

It’s speculation at this point, but Sheriff Clarke attending a Milwaukee County Democrats meeting may be his first step towards running for political office again in 2008.

The NT Times has an interesting article in today’s paper talking about the declining revenue and circulation among America’s top newspapers, putting some of the blame on competing classified websites like Craigslist.com.

Milwaukee’s own daily isn’t immune either, with their circuclation figures from a year ago (the last I could find due to the moronic “pay per view archive” on the jsonline.com site) dipping between 1.5% and 3.0% as well.

While competing websites may be to blame for some of the downturn in revenue and readership, I’d like to offer a competing theory.

It could be that people are getting tired of turning to the Editorial page to find that the consistently right wing viewpoints expressed within don’t reflect their own values. Beyond the syndicated right wing columnists the MJS carries every Sunday, we also hear from the local recycler of right wing talking points three times a week, including Sunday.

I’m no journalist, but when I read an entire article that does nothing but propel incorrect information and rehashes a number of the busted right wing talking points about our State Supreme Court race for the sake of it, I question why I subscribe to that newspaper.

I mean really, why am I paying to fund an operation that leaves no doubt about it’s disdain for anything related to the Democratic Party, the Governor of Wisconsin (as long as said Governor is a Democrat), and lets it’s columnists recycle right wing talking points with little or no fact checking? If I lived in Lincoln Nebraska, it would be one thing. But I live in a major metropolitan area that is quite progressive in it’s politics and values.

It’s no wonder major daily papers are losing readers at such a fast rate. They’re not writing for them.

It’s becoming clearer by the day that the Democrats have a plan for ending the war in Iraq while the President doesn’t. By a slim margin, Democrats in the House today voted to extend funding to the troops for the next year, but at the same time requiring combat troops to leave in 18 months.

Naturally, the President is throwing a tantrum about it. If it passes the Senate, which is up in the air, he’ll either have to sign the bill and support the troops or veto it and leave his war without funding.

No wonder he’s acting so childish by basically saying in today’s press conference, “American troops need funding and that’s why I’d veto a bill that will give it to them”

Amazing to think, but our little girl turns 2 today!

The legislature’s Joint Finance Committee met today at UWM to take public testimony from on the Governor’s budget plans and I was able to sit in on a bit of the meetings.

The first thing that struck me, literally, was the line of people waiting to sign up to speak to the committee. At least 250+ people each got three minutes to speak their mind on the budget in front of those who will be voting on it this legislative session. The other thing that strikes me is the Senators and Representatives who are and aren’t paying attention. While it is a long day for all involved, it just looks bad when you’re sitting up on the stage continually paying more attention to your Blackberry than to the people and groups coming up to give their heartfelt testimony on important issues.

Not that I’m going to name names or anything, but it was clear which legislators were involved and engaged and which ones could care less.

That said, some of the best and most heart-wrenching testimony came from a group of women who were pleading to the committee for the continued funding of abuse shelters they had all benefited from. Needless to say it was intense and painful for the women to share their very personal stories about how the funding for the abuse shelters not only turned their lives around but probably saved them too.

As we enter the fifth year of the Iraq war, the President is once again asking for “patience” from the American people to let his plans, or lack thereof, work.

Here’s a (by no means complete) list of other times he’s asked for “patience”:

“The steps toward sovereignty and democracy will be difficult and require patience and time” - August 8, 2003

“There is difficult and dangerous work ahead that requires time and patience” August 9, 2003

“Early next year, Iraq’s new parliament will come to Baghdad and select a Prime Minister, a Presidency Council, and a cabinet of ministers. This will demand negotiation and compromise, and it will require patience by America and its Coalition allies” December 12, 2005

“The Process Of Forming A New National Government Will Take Time And Patience” January 10, 2006

“There will be more tough fighting ahead, with difficult days that test the patience and resolve of our country.” March 29, 2006

“The work ahead will require more sacrifice and the continued patience of the American people.” June 10, 2006

“We face determined enemies who remain intent on killing the innocent, and defeating these enemies will require more sacrifice and the continued patience of our country” June 17, 2006

“Victory still depends on the courage and the patience and the resolve of the American people” Aug 31, 2006

“The path to victory will be uphill and uneven, and it will require more patience and sacrifice from our Nation” September 2, 2006

The point is that the calls for “patience” have been coming on a regular basis since just about the start of the Iraq war from the President and his administration and the American people, and especially it’s press, have given it. It’s no longer a question about needing more time for the President’s plans to work, because the constant calls for “patience” and “six more months” are just a means of extending this war to the end of his administration so he doesn’t have to fix the mess he created, which has been true to form for George W. Bush throughout his life.

Many conservatives, including this week’s Patrick McIlheran column for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, are back to practicing what they do best: denying reality. As they’ve done throughout the Iraq war, we’ve seen conservatives repeat something over and over enough times, and pretty soon they start to believe it themselves.

This week Patrick McIlheran is following the nationwide trend of conservatives declaring the “surge” in Iraq a success.

It could be that more bodies, bound and shot, will start turning up in Baghdad again. For now, there’s been a sharp fall in this form of Iraqi violence, say that country’s officials - about 75% fewer bodies found a week compared with December.

This on a day that the US military reports that at least another 6 troops have been killed. But at least Patrick is keeping tabs on the weekly violence rates for us. I’m sure the families of those families will be happy to know that the number of civilian deaths is down compared to a few weeks in December.

While the weekly reports from conservative columnists like Patrick McIlheran are all too eager to report on a week of “good news” from Iraq, I wonder if they’ll continue their newfound desire to report on Iraq civilian deaths if and when they return to the terrible levels they’ve been at for the last few years.

Because the “reality” of the death and destruction in Iraq continues even when they choose not to acknowledge it.