Last night Scott Walker issued a predictable and obviously pre-written press release regarding Sen. Obama’s acceptance speech at the DNC. Why the holder of the non-partisan office of County Executive is issuing meaningless press releases about a candidate’s speech in Denver is another story…

While most of it was predictable talking points from the GOP, one line did catch my attention:

It is unbelievable to hear Barack Obama say he will take care of our veterans when he voted to cut off funds for our troops fighting in the field. - Scott Walker in response to Sen. Obama’s DNC acceptance speech

What’s “unbelievable” is that in his rush to appear relevant, Scott Walker seems to either intentionally confuse the rolls of active service personnel and veterans, or he just doesn’t know there is a difference.

Either way, it’s an embarrassing statement to make from some who obviously is out of his league when trying to sound tough about military matters.

As I wrote elsewhere last night,

Dear Scott,

That’s different than voting to cut funding for the Iraq War.

After months and months of talking about experience is so important, John McCain goes and picks Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin who’s been Governor of Alaska for about 18 months and has, to my admittedly limited knowledge, has no national political experience.

So you have the oldest candidate in history picking someone with virtually no experience to be second in command, a heartbeat away from the Presidency. OK then.

The only things I do know about Gov. Palin are that she just had a child, her father is a big oil executive, and her State legislature is investigating her for ethics violations.

Other than that, I don’t know a ton about her, so we’ll see how it plays out with who it matters to: the conservative base.

One thing I do recall seeing a month or so ago was polling among conservatives that showed 20% of them wouldn’t support a woman for President, no matter who it was. Maybe they’ll feel different about VP.

The worst part about this for Sen. Obama is it more than likely takes Alaska out of the “too close to call” camp and puts its three electoral votes safely with the McCain/Palin campaign.

Personally, I was always pulling for Romney to be the choice purely for selfish reasons and the pure comedy that would have ensued.

Sen. Obama’s speech tonight was truly historic. The slate of speakers throughout the convention displayed the wide varieties of creeds, color, and character we have in our party, and showcased why the Democratic Party lives up to the “big tent” moniker.

One very obvious example of that was to hold his speech not in a convention hall only accesible to party insiders, but to open it up to outsiders who may have sat on the sidelines in years past. Opening it up to the tune of 70,000 people.

That’s something to be excited about when a Presidential candidate is willing to say to regular folks, “Come on in and join us”, and it extends well beyond the stadium in Denver.

Refusing PAC money and relying instead on hundreds of thousands of small donors only reinforces that type of commitment to an “open campaign”.

Sen. Obama laid out in very practical and tangible terms tonight just what his campaign of “Change” means. It’s not an empty slogan. It’s an ideal that he’s not only built his campaign for President on, but worked for his whole life.

It’s one of the many reasons I’m excited about the prospect of Sen. Obama winning this election and why I’m as proud as ever to be a Democrat.

Have a look at Scott Walker superimposed over a Greek neoclassical building that has - gasp - columns!

OUTRAGE!

Is Scott Walker’s ego as big as his superimposed picture, or is it twice as big? Let’s open up the phone lines for an “INSIGHT CHECK”!

Silly, isn’t it?

Is it just me or does the 105th Harley ride in this year seem bigger than the 100th? Driving around town yesterday afternoon, the number of bikes on the road was just staggering. I-94 between Miller Park and the Marquette interchange was only moving at 25-35mph at 2:30 in the afternoon. Several streets within town are blocked off, including Highland Ave. (where Harley is HQ’d) between 35th and 40th Streets.

Since I only live about 12 blocks from Harley HQ, we saw and heard a lot of motorcycle traffic in our otherwise quiet neighborhood, and the amazing thing is it’s only the first day of the weekend long party.

Which leads to my bigger point about concern I have as a regular citizen regarding the massive numbers of people coming here to show off their bikes and “party” it up. In fact, on the first day alone, there were already numerous traffic accidents and at least one death involving motorcycles.

First, I love seeing all these bikes come to town and being able to show off the great things about Milwaukee to many who’ve never been here before. As someone who goes to my fair share of events in other cities throughout the year, I’m happy to play host to all our visitors.

But as with any kind of festival that brings in large amounts of people, there are bound to be problems. Perhaps in the case of the Harley ride in, more than most. The focus of many of the parties throughout Southeastern Wisconsin, after the bikes of course, seems to be one of partying as hard as you can. Several sponsored parties are advertising things like “Pay once, drink all you want!“, “Party till you puke”, and “Worlds record beer bong” among other similar messages.

Now, as anyone who knows me knows, I’m hardly the person to be waving a temperance banner, and that’s not what I’m getting at. I think people should have all the fun they want, with or without alcohol, while they’re here in Milwaukee. In other words, Rock On.

What I am worried about however is the proximity of two things which just don’t mix. Fast motorcycles and mass quantities of alcohol. Throw in the desire to throw caution to the wind, and you’ve got a recipe for disaster.

On top of all this, you now have a judge out in Waukesha who is actually suggesting to law enforcement officials that despite the large influx of people, they ease off on writing tickets to motorcycle riders who are breaking the law:

A municipal judge unhappy with an unfilled vacancy in his court said Wednesday that he will ask police to write fewer tickets, despite big crowds expected downtown this weekend.

“I’ll have to cut down on my trial level and ask the Police Department to cut down on the number of tickets,” Municipal Judge Joseph L. Cook said. “With Harley fest coming up this week, I don’t know what impact that will have on court.”

First off, asking something like that of law enforcement is way outside his authority. Secondly, who the heck cares if it’s going to be more work for you? Should Waukesha law enforcement stop writing tickets anytime your caseload gets to high? I mean seriously, what is Judge Cook thinking?

As with any large festival, law enforcement needs to be visable and proactive for the sole reason of making a statement that unlawful behavior will not be tolerated. For a judge to try to interject his thoughts on law enforcement tactics at this point is simply ridiculous.

To close, I completely welcome all the visitors to Milwaukee this weekend. Enjoy our city, enjoy the comradery, and enjoy most importantly enjoy yourselves! But please, enjoy yourself safely. If you’ve had one too many jaggerbombs, park your bike and pick it up in the morning.

With nothing else to criticize, the ‘way out there crowd’ of the right-wing is going after the stage setup for Barack Obama’s acceptance speech tomorrow night in Denver. Apparently, word has leaked out on the Internet that the stage is going to have some sort of neoclassical Greek columns. While they have no idea what it’s actually going to look like, that won’t stop their wild speculation on what it could look like.

This is of course the kind of thing that apparently drives those right-wing folks crazy. In fact, one of Wisconsin’s more revolting bloggers had this to say:

Al-Reuters is reporting that The Messiah will give his acceptance speeeech from a stage designed to look like a Greek temple.

Omigod, He’ll ascend toward heaven right before our very eyes. Although I still can’t make out the nail prints in the palms of His hands, I did manage to catch a glimpse of the mark from the soldier’s spear in His riven side when he had his shirt off while bodysurfing.

While the level of hyperbole borders on the blasphemous, the third grade wordplay is firmly in the realm of the immature. “Al-Reuters”! Get it!

At any rate, I came across this picture from the Republican convention in 2004, and what do we see? Greek temple columns!!

None of these little things we like to call facts will stop this “story” from peculating up from the depths of right-wing blogger obscurity to Milwaukee right-wing talk radio shows, and at some point to a national news outlet.

Facts and hypocrisy are but small speed bumps to be avoided from some on the Right in their unrelenting race to smear and distort during this campaign.

I apologize for the slowness of the site over the past 24 hours. One of my recent posts got linked to from one of the larger national liberal blogs and the influx of traffic slowed things down quite a bit.

Should be better going forward as another hamster has been added to the engine.

I rarely tune in to WTMJ anymore for local news, but for some reason that’s the channel we settled on tonight to watch the Democratic Convention coverage.

Their post debate “analysis” with none other than right-wing hack Charlie Sykes was in a word, brutal. In two words, brutally painful.

Instead of actually offering any actual analysis of the convention speech by Hillary Clinton, he stumbled over the tired talking points of the past several months in his blatant attempt to paint the speech, or her attempt to get her supporters behind Sen. Obama, as a kind of trumped up controversy that only exists in talk radio land. It’s almost as if he had his “analysis” scripted out ahead of time to advance his role as Milwaukee’s #1 Democratic concern troll.

I know that the parent company of WTMJ employs him and frequently pushes his unique brand of self-righteous smugness throughout their local media empire, but there are hoards of more qualified, and frankly more interesting, commentators in the Milwaukee area to provide analysis for the local NBC affiliate about the Democratic convention than him.

It’s self serving and embarrassing on the part of Journal Communications and WTMJ to have someone like him offering commentary on the Democratic convention.

It’s also one of the reason WTMJ has been loosing market share for the past several years. If people want to hear that kind of drivel, they tune in to his radio show. They expect more from a local news broadcast.

Your liberal media ladies and gentlemen.

If anyone was watching the Democratic Convention tonight, you may have caught Sen. Obama’s two small children towards the end of the night talking with their dad via teleconference.

While I thought Michelle Obama’s speech was excellent, her two young daughters stole the show at the end of the night.

The McCain’s spent more on service staff to maintain their 4 7 10 houses than most people, including myself, spent to purchase their house.

The McCains increased their budget for household employees from $184,000 in 2006 to $273,000 in 2007, according to John McCain’s tax returns. Politico

I wonder if that includes the staffing requirements for their private jet too?

I think this puts an end to all the “McCain is a regular guy” talking points once and for all. Seriously, how can you relate to what the majority of American’s are going through when you spend more on servants in a year than most people will earn in seven years?

For an average guy John McCain, it’s easy to forget - or just not know - how many houses you own. Like the $4.5 million condo in Phoenix or the estate in Sedona. When you’ve got a net-worth of over $100 million though and you consider people making $5 million to be “rich”, you leave details like that to the little people…

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said in an interview Wednesday that he was uncertain how many houses he and his wife, Cindy, own.

“I think — I’ll have my staff get to you,” McCain told Politico in Las Cruces, N.M. “It’s condominiums where — I’ll have them get to you.”

The correct answer is at least four, located in Arizona, California and Virginia, according to his staff. Newsweek estimated this summer that the couple owns at least seven properties. - Politico

Maybe that explains his lack of flag lapel pin this summer. He can’t remember which house he left it in.