I gve Carter a haircut this morning and posted the picture on Twitter, but wanted to put it here as well for the family units who aren’t on the Twitter tubes.
Carter's new haircut
As I said earlier, he looks like such a little man with shorter hair!
Archive for May, 2009
Carter’s New Haircut
May 30th, 2009Gubernatorial Candidate Walker Defends Outsourcing of Campaign Web Site to Ohio
May 29th, 2009Channel 12 once again proves why it is gaining a loyal following among Milwaukee residents who want more local news from their TV stations instead of “gotcha” sensationalism that several other stations provide. Even if it’s in high definition.
As I and several others pointed out earlier in the week, Scott Walker’s own campaign website criticizes the Governor for our forcing jobs out of Wisconsin, was in fact developed by an out of state firm. Hard to have credibility with that issue if you aren’t willing to put your money where your mouth is.
Channel 12 ran a piece about the web site last night you can watch here.
As the guy from Layer One Media pointed out, the excuse the Walker campaign gave that his website was “too complex” for a Milwaukee firm is utter nonsense. Then the campaign says the website was “cheaper” with the Ohio firm anyways. So which is it? Either a local firm couldn’t do it, or they were more expensive. As you can tell from the answer Walker gives in the interview, he doesn’t even seem sure himself.
Not that it matters. When you’re making a huge deal in your campaign about “keeping jobs in Wisconsin”, you need to walk the walk.
In Brief: $3 Billion For Zoo Interchange While Mass Transit Shortchanged, Republican “Racist” Stragegy, Red Wings to the Cup!
May 28th, 2009Nothing starts the day by being rudely awoken by an aerial assault on Milwaukee’s gypsy moth population! Hopefully we don’t need to call in the artillery.
- $2.3 Billion for a new zoo interchange on Milwaukee’s west side? Another great example of how building roads is expensive. As a region it’s time that we realize a good mass transit infrastructure is just as important as a good highway infrastructure. It’s often less expensive too. Why is spending over three billion dollars on two interchanges no big deal while a hundred million to link us to the nations third largest city evokes outrage from the right?
- This new Republican strategy of having a bunch of older white men calling a latina “racist” is totally what’s going to put the GOP back in power. It may not do much to help them with the general voting population, but it’s sure to lock up any white power voters out there who were still on the fence.
- There’s going to be a rematch of last year’s Stanley Cup Finals between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Red Wins, which the Red Wings won 4 games to 2. I’m sure I’ll be able to come up with some kind of mocking name for the Penguins before the finals start in Detroit on Saturday!
Small Suggestion to Journal Sentinel Headline Writers
May 28th, 2009I have a small suggestion for this headline from Monday’s paper:
Gypsy moth spraying to start in Milwaukee County
My suggestion?
Gypsy moth spraying will wake you out of bed as ludicrously low flying plane will generate hundreds of calls to 911
In Brief: Walker Outsources Website, Sue Black Wins Another Award, UWM Freshwater Building Meeting, Red Wings Can Move to the Finals
May 27th, 2009Happy Tuesday. Or is it Wednesday?
- Scott Walker derides the outsourcing of Wisconsin jobs on his website… that he outsourced to Ohio! There are plenty of great design and hosting firms in Milwaukee for this kind of thing. If you’re serious about keeping jobs in Wisconsin and growing our high tech economy, send your business their way!
- Congrats to Milwaukee County Parks Director Sue Black for winning the American Academy for Parks and Recreation and the National Recreation and Parks Association ROSE award (Recognition of Significant Efforts). She does a lot with a little.
- Have an opinion about UW Milwaukee building a new Freshwater Science building where the “Pieces of Eight” restaurant now resides? There’s a meeting being held tomorrow where the Milwaukee Harbor Commission will take input from the public. Details: Thursday, May 28 in room 301-B at City Hall, downtown Milwaukee. Unfortunately, this is probably another issue where I’ll have plenty to say but will be limited as I was with the UWM County Grounds purchase.
- The Detroit Red Wings can wrap up their conference finals series tonight in Detroit against the Chicago Chickenhawks Blackhawks to advance to the Stanley Cup finals where the Flightless Fowl of Pitifulsburgh await as they swept the Carolina Hurricanes last night. Plus side of that: no more Carolina Defenseman Scott Walker screwing up my google alerts. Go Wings!
Video of Senate Republicans Arguing Against Filibuster in 2005
May 26th, 2009When it was President Bush in 2005 who was nominating Federal judges and Democrats threatened to filibuster, Senate Republicans went on an all out assault of the practice while advocating for a fair “up or down vote”. Here are some highlights from that time that I was able to put together during lunch today:
Will anyone be surprised if Minority Leader McConnell changes his tune about filibusters now that a Democratic President is the one doing the nominating?
The New Math for Supreme Court Appointees
May 26th, 2009President Obama is set to pick Judge Sonya Sotomayer as his nominee for the Supreme Court. Republican Senators are promising a “fight”. Why? Let’s take a look at the math from the last administration and compare it to this one.
1 Republican President + 1 Democratic Senate – 1 Moderate Supreme Court Justice = Conservative Samuel Alito
1 Democratic President + 1 Democratic Senate – 1 Moderate Supreme Court Justice = ??
The difference is when you had a Republican appointing a Conservative to replace a moderate, the Democratic Senate just had to approve! Now that there’s a Democratic President and a Democratic Senate replacing a moderate with a moderate, well.. the only choice Republican Senators have is to vote no!
And I see the full on war to label Pres. Obama’s pick as “the most liberal judge in the history of judges!!!” has started. Not that it mattered who the pick actually was of course. Whoever is nominated will be the most liberal judge in the universe according to Fox news and conservative talk radio.
I actually heard today on the radio someone say, in all seriousness, that President Obama should appoint a conservative justice to “prove” he’s bi-partisan. Otherwise, he’s breaking a campaign promise and only continuing to spit in the face of conservatives!
Biggest Surprise About Milwaukee County Grounds Sale to UW Milwaukee
May 21st, 2009It was fairly clear the sale of the County Grounds to UW Milwaukee so they can build a new engineering school was going to happen. The County Board voted today to approve the sale 15-4.
What I am surprised about is who voted for the sale.
A lot of people and organizations had counted on Supervisors De Bruin and Schmitt to oppose the sale, as they represent the districts closest to the land.
Interesting to find that those two actually vote for the sale of the County Grounds land to UWM and the only four who voted agaist were Supervisors Lipscomb, Weishen, Larson and Dimitrijevic.
As I work for UWM, I’ve been pretty mum in taking a public stand on this for obvious reasons. Just wanted to point out that a lot of people, including myself, were caught off guard by who ended up voting for it.
Has the Wisconsin Republican Party Already Choosen It’s Candidate For Governor?
May 20th, 2009So much for primary elections? It seems as though the Wisconsin GOP is endorsing Scott Walker as their candidate for Governor next year, despite the fact that there will be a primary election to decide who will be their candidate.
I wonder how Wisconsin Republicans who support any of the other candidates like Mark Neumann or Mark Todd feel about their party endorsing a candidate before the primary?
In Brief: SouthWest Airlines to Service Milwaukee, Day Two of the Republican Renaissance, Brookfield Gets it’s Hooters
May 20th, 2009The temperature difference between my office and outside is an amazing 30 degrees today. Brrr.
- SouthWest Airlines will start flying out of Milwaukee in the Autumn. Good news for consumers who will have more choices and likely see lower fares. Bad news for Midwest Airlines as their one time stranglehold on Milwaukee is coming to a quick end. Perhaps this will only serve to accelerate their abandonment of Milwaukee for the BBQ sauce of Cowtown.
- It’s day TWO of the Republican Renaissance! It’s a whole new Republican party out there… because… well, Michael Steele said so. Change in a teabag!
- Brookfield will get it’s Hooters restaurant. By a 7-6 vote, their common council gave the final go ahead to the chain that’s looking to open up on Blue Mound Road. Bad food and flat beer will soon follow. Lucky Brookfield.
- The Park People’s first Sunday Funday event at Lakefront brewery last Sunday brought in over 200 people. Not bad for our first event! Thanks to all who were able to attend and helped out!
President Obama Deserves Credit for Plan to Lower Emissions and Raise Fuel Standards
May 19th, 2009In an effort to point out the positive things our new President is doing, instead of just harping on the negative, this is a very positive step forward and a huge win for the Obama administration:
Joined in the White House Rose Garden by leaders of the auto industry, labor, government officials and key national and state political leaders, Obama said the agreement that once would have been “considered impossible” was what he termed a “harbinger of a change in the way business is done in Washington.”
The two-pronged approach to problems that compound threats to the global environment marks the latest in a series of shifts by the Obama administration away from the policies of his conservative predecessor, former President George W. Bush.
“As a result of this agreement,” Obama said, “we will save 1.8 billion barrels of oil over the lifetime of the vehicles sold in the next five years. And at a time of historic crisis in our auto industry, this rule provides the clear certainty that will allow these companies to plan for a future in which they are building the cars of the 21st century.”
Bringing all the relevant parties to the table and getting a consensus agreement out of them is a very real sign of leadership, especially considering several previous Presidents have tried to do the same thing with little or nothing to show for it.
Even on the cable TV pundit dominated shows today, it was hard to find anyone on either side of the political isle who didn’t see raising mileage standards as a positive for both the American consumer, environmental groups and the auto industry.
When a politician does something right, they deserve credit for it. In this case, President Obama has brought all the interests to the table, gotten a rough outline for an agreement between them, and will implement a new level of fuel mileage standards that will benefit consumers, the auto industry, and the environment. Win-win-win.
I live in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Milwaukee, WI with my wife Jen, our daughter Emerson, and sons Carter and Colton.
