…just like Sen. John McCain wants to do.

No single man or woman in Congress is going to fix this mess on their own. It’s going to take everyone in Congress to put their heads together and come up with a plan that addresses this financial meltdown.

So by McCain’s logic, every person running for Senator and Representative should put their campaigns on hold - until at least Saturday morning.

How about that for multitasking. Sen. McCain apparently can’t deal with the financial crisis while dealing with his campaign, which ironically enough included no public events until Friday. Apparently, that means he’s going to suspend his open schedule.

It’s ironic because since he’s been running for President, he hasn’t bothered to show up at his job as a Senator. Now that he needs to do his job as a Senator again, he can’t handle the responsibilities of running a campaign with no campaign events scheduled.

If John McCain becomes President, lets all pray that any potential crises won’t happen at the same time.

In a statement, McCain said he will stop campaigning after addressing former President Clinton’s Global Initiative session on Thursday and return to Washington to focus on the nation’s financial problems. - MSNBC

I somewhat get the politics of this, but really… Instead of heading back to DC for photo ops and pointless meetings about how you’re going to deal with this problem, how about showing up for the debate on Friday night and, you know, explain to the American people how you’re going to deal with this problem.

After all, what’s changed with regards to the financial crisis today or this afternoon that McCain feels the sudden need to put everything on hold. How do you go from “The fundamentals of our economy are strong” to “I need to stop campaigning to address the financial crisis” all just 10 days?

I think yelling out, “STOP!” in the middle of an ongoing crisis so you can figure out your position and catch your breath is anything but leadership. We live in a fast-paced society that demands leaders who can make intelligent decisions even when the situation is changing.

If you can’t do two things at once, just say so.

To follow up on the story I posted yesterday about Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker trying to get his chief of staff a $20,000 raise, the Journal Sentinel is now reporting on it as well.

The takeaway?

Many hard working employees have lost their jobs under the Walker administration, we face a $6 MILLION deficit in Milwaukee County, and services throughout the County have been cut to the bone.

Yet Scott Walker has no qualms about proposing double digit raises - 26%! - for those who hold administrative positions under him. His only defense of this so far is that anyone questioning these raises is just “attacking” him. Huh?

Are citizens in this County paying more to for bus fares to cover Walker’s raises for his aides? Are our parkways and infrastructure being ignored so Walker has the money to propose 12% - 26% pay increases for his staff?

It’s indefensible.

Did you know County Exec. Scott Walker tried to slip a $20,000 raise for his chief of staff by the Milwaukee County Board’s personnel committee today?

That’s what County Supervisor Chris Larson, who is the Vice Chair of the committee, relayed to me tonight.

It failed, naturally, but it’s amazing that in this economy, and with all the budget problems facing Milwaukee County, “Mr. Reformer” Scott Walker even tried to get away with it? You may recall just last year the outrage from Walker when the Board tried to vote themselves a raise. Apparently, what’s good for the goose is not so good for the gander.

Unsurprisingly, no mention of this yet in any of the media outlets.

Another good example of Milwaukee’s conservative media establishment showing it’s bias is going on today.

When John McCain and Sarah Palin made a campaign stop to Cedarburg here a few weeks ago, every network TV station at the time broke in to scheduled programming to carry it live. The two biggest AM radio stations, WTMJ 620 and WISN 1130, also both carried the speeches from Cedarburg live. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel devoted several “newswatch” posts to it on their website and had a lengthy feature in the next days paper.

Today Barack Obama is just up the road in Green Bay giving a major speech on the proposed $700 Billion bailout and I can’t find the speech being carried on any of the aforementioned media outlets.

So why does the Republican campaign get complete (and free) access to the entire Milwaukee media market and the Democratic campaign get nothing?

It’s a rhetorical question, but one that needs to be at least pointed out.

Just imagine…. A healtcare plan for America based on “products” and deregulation that would mirror our financial policies of the last eight years.

That’s what John McCain is proposing folks.

Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation.

MPS to explore dissolving district is the first thing I saw this morning after grabbing the paper. Talk about an attention grabbing headline.

I don’t have any special insight into this particular issue, but will point you at those like Jay Bullock who do, other than to say that the funding system for MPS has been a mess for the last decade. I’m glad some attention is being given to that fact.

The problem is that the powers that be have been busy pointing out that fact instead of actually working to address it.

Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin and her husband are under subpoena in an investigation regarding the firing of an Alaskan law enforcement official, but refuse to cooperate by simply ignoring the subpoena now that she’s running for Vice President. This is disturbing to put it mildly.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s husband has refused to testify in the investigation of his wife’s alleged abuse of power, and key lawmakers said Thursday that uncooperative witnesses are effectively sidetracking the probe until after Election Day.

Todd Palin, who participates in state business in person or by e-mail, was among 13 people subpoenaed by the Alaska Legislature. Palin’s lawyer sent a letter to the lead investigator saying Palin objected to the probe and would not appear to testify on Friday.

In the letter, Palin attorney Thomas Van Flein lists nine objections to the Legislature’s investigation into Gov. Palin. Van Flein also argues the subpoena is “unduly burdensome” because Palin has travel plans that require him to be out of the state. - AP

Again, this is disturbing on a number of levels. What would happen if you or I just “refused” to cooperate with a State investigation or a subpoena?

What’s even more ridiculous is the lame excuse offered by her husband’s lawyer that since he’ll be out of town, the law doesn’t apply to him?

Can you imagine if anyone tried pulling that with a judge on something as simply as a parking ticket, much less an ethics investigation? Should those awaiting trial here in Milwaukee County just go on vacation and use their being out of town as a method to delay any trial?

“Sorry judge, I’ll be out of town so I can’t make your little meeting. Let’s have coffee sometime though.”

This is the kind of flagrant abuse of power that we’ve become accustomed to over the last eight years and it’s ridiculous to see the next potential administration already trotting this kind of stonewalling and “we’re above the law” attitude.

Seriously, ask how this would play if it were anyone else in the Country. He’s a private citizen bound by the same rules that we all are. Then ask why the law should be ignored for Sarah Palin, her husband, and Republicans.

So the Federal Government is running the largest insurance company in the world now by swooping in to “save” AIG with 80 billion of our tax dollars. This follows the bailout of Bear Sterns last month and numerous bailouts in between the two events.

I guess I’m wondering where it’ll stop? Our economy is dependent on companies like General Motors too. If they threaten to go under, will the Government step in and take over GM? It’s one thing to use the power of the federal reserve to bail out banks. It seems like quite another to bailout privately held companies.

I wrote about this several months ago: Profits Are Privatized While Losses are Socialized. The same appears to be holding true today unfortunately.

It’s worth asking why CEO’s and high level executives of these companies were receiving tens of millions of dollars in bonuses for leadership and decisions that would eventually lead them to failure. It seems reasonable to me that we as taxpayers shouldn’t be on the hook for these companies who choose to pour their extra capital into the pockets of their executives instead of shoring up their bottom line.

What’s to prevent any other large company in this Country from throwing it’s hands up and expecting the taxpayers to come bail them out? This business of socialized capitalism needs to end, and it needs to end now.

Often times, it’s so easy to point out what the “other” candidate is doing wrong, you tend not to point out what your own candidate is doing right. With that in mind, I think that Sen. Obama’s plan to commit $5 Billion dollars to protect and restore the Great Lakes if he’s elected is a huge win for Wisconsin and all States which border the Great Lakes.

Instead of just promising support, Sen. Obama is putting out a detailed plan, including funding sources:

The money would come over a 10-year period from rolling back tax breaks for oil and gas companies, and it would flow toward things such as sewage system treatment repairs, toxic cleanups and wetlands restoration

The Great Lakes are the largest source of fresh water on the planet and have been overlooked for far too long. It’s encouraging to hear that Sen. Obama will be committing real resources to protecting Wisconsin’s greatest natural resource if he’s elected.

As if more proof was needed that Sen. McCain is just plain out of touch on economic issues and the hardships that many Americans are facing right now; on the day the Dow lost over 500 points, Sen. McCain says the economy is doing just fine.

“You know that there’s been tremendous turmoil in our financial markets and Wall St. And it is — people are frightened by these events. Our economy, I think still — the fundamentals of our economy are strong.” - Sen. John McCain, September 15th 2008

Which fundamentals is he talking about exactly??

It’s also important to note that McCain’s economic advisors - the very people who would be in charge of our economy should he win - think everything is just fine too. In an op-ed in the Washington Post yesterday, Donald Luskin, a McCain adviser, echoed the “everything is just fine so stop complaining” theme:

Things today just aren’t that bad. Sure, there are trouble spots in the economy, as the government takeover of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and jitters about Wall Street firm Lehman Brothers, amply demonstrate. And unemployment figures are up a bit, too. None of this, however, is cause for depression — or exaggerated Depression comparisons. - McCain Advisor Donald Luskin

Of course, we can’t forget another McCain campaign economic adviser, former Senator Phil Gramm, who said we’re all just a bunch of whiners and this whole thing is “mental”.

The point is that these people, some of whom had a direct hand in implementing the policies that are resulting in the failure of some of Americas biggest companies which will cost us hundreds of Billions of dollars in the long run, and their disciples would be back in charge should Sen. McCain win this Novembers election.