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In Brief: Scott Walker Won’t Run For County Exec. in 2012, Electoral College Reform, Lindsey Lindsey

February 18th, 2010

Happy Thursday. Three days until catchers and pitchers report for the Brewers! Spring is slowing but surely on it’s way…

  • I mentioned it on Twitter yesterday, but I went to hear County Exec. Walker speak at the Milwaukee Athletic Club about the recent Public Policy Forum report that talked about disbanding some County services. While he kept out of electoral politics for the most part, he did say that regardless of the results of the upcoming Gov. election he won’t be the County Executive of Milwaukee after 2012 when his current term expires. While he’s made promises like this in the past (not running for reelection as Milwaukee County Executive in 2008, which he did), he went so far as to single out a potential replacement for himself in the 2012 election for County Executive: Rep. Jeff Stone. That tells me he’s serious about it. Talking about this with a few Republican friends last night, they were none to pleased that Walker appears to be hand picking his successor.
  • I wonder if the folks who are against any electoral college reform and cite “historical precedent” as a reason to keep the current system in place would also be in favor of having individual state legislatures elect a states representatives to the US Senate? I mean, that’s how it was up until 1910 and all! And as a property owner, I think it would be spiffy if landowners were the only ones allowed to vote just like the good old days!!! And men. White ones. In all seriousness, I don’t know if reforming the electoral college  is good or bad, but this continual habit of some people lately to cite “the ways things were in 1796″ as justification for everything is getting out of hand.
  • Lindsey, Lindsey... We’re collectively shaking our heads. You are the Leon Lett of snowboarding.

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Posted in In Brief, Milwaukee County Politics, Politics

In Brief: New Jobs for Milwaukee, Thumbs Up For Olympics, Thumbs Down for NBC

February 15th, 2010

Another busy week on tap. Happy Monday and happy Flag Day for my friends north of the border!

  • Good news is good news and new jobs are new jobs. Milwaukee could use both, so it was good to hear the news that Ingeteam will be building a new plant in the Menomonee Valley that should create around 270 jobs. For those who haven’t been to Milwaukee lately, the formerly decrepit area between Miller Park and downtown (the Menomonee Valley) has really come to life in the past few years. Bringing in another large company should help continue that trend.
  • Are the Olympics awesome so far or what? I’m one of those rare people who like the Winter Olympics more than their Summer counterparts, and the competition over the weekend is one reason why. The opening ceremonies were impressive and the sporting has been great as well (the finish in the 1500M speed skating race was one of the best sports moments I’ve ever witnessed).
  • That said, the one black eye so far was when NBC decided to air the tape of the luge athlete being killed after an accident on the track. In primetime no less. While they did preface it with a warning that, “The following contains content which some viewers may find disturbing”, it wasn’t nearly enough. The video was graphic alright, and horrific and terrible as well and had no place on a national network at 7pm on a Friday night. They should have prefaced it with, “We’re about to show a person being killed in high definition, slow motion video”. Brutal and shameful on the part of NBC.

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Posted in In Brief, Milwaukee County Politics, Personal, Politics

In Brief: Super Bowl Wins and Misses, Silversun Pickups

February 8th, 2010

Happy Monday, and Happy Birthday Alonzo Mourning who turns 40 today. Very quickly, congrats to the Saints on the win yesterday, boo to Madison Ave. for a subpar year with the commercials (underwear was the theme this year apparently?) but kudos for sticking to the twelve step program of weening yourself off of the kinetic typography dope by only having one or two ads with it this year!

Busy start to a busy day of a busy week. Busy!

But in the meantime enjoy one of my favorite bands, the Silversun Pickups.

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Posted in In Brief, Personal

In Brief: Koss Exec. Plays the Insanity Card; JSOnline.com Redesign, Pizza Tradgedy, Bucks Tickets Too Expensive

January 21st, 2010

Happy Thursday and welcome to day two of the Republican Senate majority!

  • The old “I had to embezzle $30 million dollars to keep up my lavish lifestyle and high social standing” defense will be employed in the Koss embezzlement case. Always a winner with the jury, especially in a recession!
  • I’m not a fan of the recently tweaked design on JSonline.com. They made the one thing that people go to the site frequently for (blogs) harder to find and are instead pushing video. Yes, I continue my crusade against the frivolity that is “jsonline video”, but there are two important differences in the switch between blogs and video on the site. 1.) The columnist blogs provide content that people actually want to see and 2.) the videos are mostly in existence to provide an extra revenue stream through the commercial you’re forced to watch.
  • For those who moved away from Milwaukee recently, you may not have heard but Pizza Man burned down the other day. Very sad. The conch there was outstanding. Hopefully they rebuild.
  • I complained about it a bit yesterday on the Twitter, but seriously, why are Bucks tickets so expensive? The cheapest lower level seats start at $50 and go up to $225 for a single game! Granted, I can go up to the upper deck and “only” pay $20 per ticket, but with a two year old it helps to be close to the action to keep their attention. You know one person who won’t be weeping tears of sorrow if the Bucks leave town someday? Me. I would however be the first in line for season tickets if we were able to replace the “BA” in NBA with a “HL”.

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Posted in In Brief, Personal, Politics

In Brief: Health Insurance Costs Rise (Again), Silly LTE’s, Emerson Switches Schools

September 16th, 2009

Hard to believe it’s the latter half of September already! Mexico celebrates it’s independence day today, not to be confused with Cinco de Mayo… Although I’m sure some clever beer executive is trying to work out a catchy phrase like “Drinko of Cinco” and turn another ethnic holiday into nothing more than a booze fest.

  • The rates people pay for health insurance continue to rise. In the last 10 years, insurance rates have risen by an amazing 131%. BUT EVERYTHING IS JUST FINE with Health Insurance in America. The market will provide lower costs and higher levels of service!!! Any day now!
  • Reading the letters to the editor section of the paper is something I enjoy doing on a regular basis as it can give you a good sense of where the community is at on an issue. Sometimes though, it’s just silly what the JS lets through. Take this from Mark Koenke in Jackson: “I checked my copy (of the Constitution) and seem to have misplaced the section calling for the federal government to be involved in health care.”. I checked my copy as well, and also didn’t find anything about health care. Strange enough, I also didn’t find anything about government being involved in regulating airlines, providing food stamps to the needy, building highways, providing educational institutions….
  • Emerson started a new school last Friday. We had been on the waiting list at Woodlands for nearly a year and jumped at the chance to get her into the school located on Bluemound and Hawley. It all happened very fast, but she’s adapting well and is loving her new school. She’s now officially a student of the Milwaukee Public School system. Exhibit #18,761 that I am getting older in a hurry.

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Posted in In Brief, Personal, Politics

In Brief: Sullivan Recall Fails, Brewers Trade, Brewers Bandwagon Baywatch Brigade

August 13th, 2009

Happy Thursday, and to all you southpaws out there, happy International Lefthanders Day. Now.. anyone have a scissors handy?

  • The effort to recall Sen. Jim Sullivan has failed. I’ve been following this since the start, and since the start I’ve also been saying this was just a ploy to make Sullivan look bad as he comes up for re-election. Wispolitics.com has a small blurb about the news which once again features the Citizens for Responsible Government (CRG) as the group speaking on behalf of the recall. For a group that tried to make the case time and time again on my weblog that they weren’t involved in this recall, it’s amazing that anytime something about the failed recall was publicized, the CRG name was front and center. After the failed Doyle recall a few weeks ago, the biggest story may be the irrelevance of the once mighty Citizens for Responsible Government.
  • When the news broke yesterday about the Brewers shake up, I gave two big thumbs up. While my preference would have been dealing Hardy and Hall/Hart for a pitcher and bringing up Escobar to play shortstop, pretty much the same thing happened yesterday, short the pitcher. Word is that might be dealt with soon. All in all, a good move by the Brewers front office. One request for Ken Macha though: now that we have a few guys that can steal bases with regularity (Cameron, Escobar) can we start doing that again please? I know it’s your preference not to steal bases, but that’s like a golfer “preferring” to hit their 4 iron or a basketball player “preferring” not to use a jump shot. If you have the tools, use them. There’s no reason Escobar shouldn’t be attempting to steal a base a game from here out.
  • Continuing on the Brewers for a second, to all the naysayers and riders of the bandwagon out there and your cries of “the season is over!” or “run up the white flag!”, please go back to watching re-runs of Baywatch and be quite about baseball. Yes the Brewers have been playing like crap lately and they’re 7 games out of first place and the wild card. Last year at this time they were 5.5 games back and finished strong to nearly win the division. If they can string a few wins together, making the playoffs isn’t out of reach by any means. Especially with the Cubs imploding.

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Posted in In Brief, Politics

In Brief: State Street Complete, Journal Sentinel Interviews Farm Animals (Really), GOP Shout Down Will Backfire

August 6th, 2009

The Brewers won their first series in a month last night against the National Leagues best team: the Dodgers. It’s the kind of series that can turn around a season, but the Brewers need to stop playing down to the competition in August if they’re to have a shot at the post season again this year. Speaking of the Brewers, Happy Birthday to former Brewer pitcher Luis Vizcaíno. He’s 34 today.

  • After years of being in various states of construction and demolition, the car destroying stretch of State Street between 55th and 76th streets is now complete. Anyone who had the misfortune of driving down this cratered and continually under-demolition artery of Milwaukee can attest to it’s reputation as car killer. As one of the many who used to use it, I’m happy this project is finally done.
  • In case you were wondering, the Journal Sentinel is all over the LIVE! LOCAL! BREAKING! story about chocolate-covered bacon on a stick at the opening of the State Fair. And just when the video frivolity couldn’t get any more absurd, the Journal Sentinel sends out a production crew to get answers to the tough questions from.. the farm animals themselves! “Mr. Rabbit, are carrots really good for your eyes?” and “(To a cow) Where does chocolate milk come from?” Yes, those are the actual questions asked by the crack team at Wisconsin’s largest and most respected journalism outlet. If you watch the video, be prepared for constant cringing.  Apparently they had to cut 30% of their newsroom staff to keep Dr. Doolittle on the payroll.
  • Anyone out there have any wagers how long it takes for the “shout down your Congressman at town hall events” strategy completely backfires? Engaged dialogue and feedback with your elected Reps is good! Shouting them down just to “rattle” them isn’t.  Refusing to allow people to be heard is not how you make yourself heard.

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Posted in In Brief, Personal, Politics

In Brief: RNC New Media Efforts Laughable, Talk Show Hosts #fail, Brewers Start With a Win

July 17th, 2009

Russian history was forever altered on this day back in 1918 when the entire Romanov family, Nicholas II his wife and their five children, were executed. Ironically July 17th is also the day Catherine II had her husband Peter III of Russian assassinated back in 1762. On a much lighter note, David Hasselhoff of Baywatch and Knight Rider fame was born on this day in 1952.

  • If this is the product of the “new media” machine that RNC Chair Michael Steele promised… Well, I think it’s safe to say Democrats have nothing to fear from the “new media” arm of the RNC. Oh, by the way, 1998 called and it wants it’s web site back! All that’s missing is some scrolling text and animated .gifs! #tcot though!
  • Speaking of poor uses of technology, conservative talk radio host Mark Belling doesn’t “follow” anyone on Twitter. Apparently, it’s just an infrequently used vehicle to share his insight like “Obama is a twit” and “Sprint is a twit” or real gems like, “Mark Belling Is Unbelievably Awesome”. Seriously. The morning host on WISN, Jay Weber, doesn’t follow anyone either.  #tcot!
  • Good to see the Brewers swinging the bats last night in their 9-6 victory over the Reds in Cincinnati. One game, and one series at a time.

Have a great weekend!

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Posted in In Brief, Milwaukee County Politics, Politics

In Brief: Doyle Recall Losing Steam, Walker’s War on the Poor, Brewers Second Half Begins

July 16th, 2009

Hard to believe we’re now in the latter half of July already! Seems like summer just got here, doesn’t it? Special birthday wishes to Chicago’s most famous 5 year old are in order: Millennium Park was opened on this day back in 2004.

  • Update on the “Recall Doyle” effort that had some on the GOP all pumped up last Spring: They’re at about 50% of their goal of getting 10,000 volunteers to collect signatures. 5,000 volunteers is a lot of people to be sure, but that’s 5,000 people who’ve just signed up to be volunteers, not actually gone out and started the collection process. As predicted, the group behind the recall vastly overestimated the number of people who shared in their hatred of Gov. Doyle.
  • I wrote about it late last night, but it bares repeating: The County Executive’s plan to which cuts funding for seniors, the disabled, the homeless and at-risk youth in Milwaukee County is shameful. Does Milwaukee County want to be known as the place that kicks the homeless out of shelters?
  • The Brewers start the second half of their season tonight against the Reds. Hopefully the starting pitching can get back to early season form and the bats of players not named Braun, Fielder or McGee can heat up. Chances are good we could make the post-season by just going .600 from here on out.
  • Still working fixing up some of the comment formatting, thanks again for your patience.

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Posted in In Brief, Milwaukee County Politics, Parks, Politics

In Brief: Estabrook Dam Study Moves Forward, Cafe Hollander in Tosa, Bader vs. Belling

July 15th, 2009

It’s Wednesday which means it’s “Music at the Shell” at Washington Park tonight. It’s shaping up to be a beautiful evening, and there’s no better way to celebrate the beginning of the end of the work week than by heading to the park to enjoy a free concert by the Paul Spencer band while enjoying your favorite beverage. I’ll also be emceeing the concert tonight, which should be a blast. Hope to see you there!

  • The parks, energy, and environment committee of the Milwaukee County Board unanimously approved $15,000 to study on the possibility of converting the Estabrook Dam to generate hydroelectric power. Good for them. This is a huge issue for the residents of the Lincoln Park area and those who live upstream of the dam. After decades of inaction and decline, it’s good to see the Board taking some proactive steps to at least look at the possibility of fixing the dam up and cleaning the massive amounts of pollution near it.
  • After months of anticipation, the new Cafe Hollander officially opens on the east side of Wauwatosa today! It’s one of the more popular and enjoyable establishments on the east side of Milwaukee and I’m really looking forward to having one a bit closer to home. The new location is on State Street in the “village” of Wauwatosa right next to the Chancery.
  • Conservative talk radio personalities collide. The airwaves of America just aren’t big enough for the ego’s of all these guys.

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Posted in In Brief, Milwaukee County Politics, Parks, Politics

In Brief: Sen. Sullivans New Weblog, Sen. Kanavas Yanks Offensive Content, Journal Sentinel Staff Face More Cuts

July 10th, 2009

Happy Friday! I’m looking forward to the Dodgers coming to town for the final series before the All Star break. This could be a huge series for the Brewers and hopefully they’re able to take a few games from the best team in baseball. Speaking of baseball, on this day in 1954, former All Star and prolific Cub Andre Dawson was born. Anyone near my age who collected baseball cards as kids may remember like I do the ubiquitous Andre Dawson Topps card. It was in like every 4th pack you bought. Anyways, have a good weekend out there!

  • Sen. Jim Sullivan has a weblog up at the Wauwatosa Now website. Although he’s not my State Senator, his district does neighbor my own and it’s no secret that I think he’s doing a wonderful job in his first term. The reason I point out his weblog though is he’s doing two things which most politicians with weblogs don’t do: update it regularly and post more than canned press releases. Jim has been posting on a regular basis to his weblog and the content is often fresh. It’s always refreshing when politicians actually use technology in a productive way to communicate with voters instead of just seeing it as a fad.
  • I mentioned yesterday that Sen. Ted Kanavas’ website was calling people “brainwashed” if they didn’t agree with any of 5 questions during an animated flash intro. Within a few hours of posting about it on my weblog, he or his staff wisely removed the flash intro in question.
  • The cuts will continue at the Journal Sentinel. Specifically, the company is asking for at least another 25 positions to be cut in the newsroom. They’ve been cutting staff for over a year now, and at some point you just have to ask why they’re even bothering anymore? They’ve been bleeding for some time and there are no signs of things turning around for the paper. Maybe they should stop throwing resources at silly video productions about eggs frying on cars or “interviewing” drunk people at Summerfest to save some cash?

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Posted in In Brief, Politics