Texas Assembly GOP Speaker Takes A Fall

A friend sends along a link to one of those Texas tales of political power run amuk, then aground. Worth a read.

Bush Supports Global Warming Initiative Six Years After Shredding Kyoto

So is George Bush's 11th-hour embrace of Global Warming a publicity stunt, a pre-election year ploy to help doomed GOP congressional candidates, a recognition that Global Warming is a real threat or the consummate foot-dragging by a tone deaf, lazy chief executive?

Probably a little of everything.

Bush would get more credit from other world leaders and the American public had he not suggested 18 months of talks to come up with a plan to cut greenhouse emissions - - almost to the day of the 2008 presidential elections and the effective end of his ineffective presidency.

And six years after he dismissed the Kyoto Accords as unneeded.

If he had challenged world leaders to hammer out an agreement in three-to-six months, his proposal would look far more credible.

Arizona, Running Out Of Water, Moving Towards Growth Limits

First it was Florida, where fresh water is drying up.

Now Arizona.

Here are the key paragraphs from that AP story:

"PHOENIX — Arizona lawmakers voted Thursday to expand the state's growth management efforts, approving a bipartisan bill to empower counties and cities to place new restrictions on rural development without adequate water supplies.

The House's 50-1 vote completed legislative action on the bill, which now goes to Gov. Janet Napolitano, a supporter.

The Senate approved the bill on March 8 on a 26-2 vote.

Legislative approval of the measure came a quarter-century after the 1980 enactment of a historic groundwater management law imposing new pumping and irrigation restrictions in "active management areas." Those areas include Phoenix, Tucson and Prescott.

Those urban-oriented restrictions were aimed at curbing groundwater depletion that outpaced natural replacement.

Subsequent population growth in the nation's fastest growing state has started to crowd some rural areas, leaving some straining to secure adequate water supplies. In parts of eastern and northern Arizona, residents have to truck in water. "

Think anyone in Waukesha, where communities there are drawing down the water table, but embracing every annexation that comes their way, is paying attention?

The Great Lakes may be big, but they are not infinite, and recharge at the rate of 1% a year.

Government Regulation Is Government Doing Its (Our) Job

One of the leading conservative talkers in Milwaukee today was blasting the proposed, statewide smoking ban moving to a state legislative vote.

The talker was objecting that the proposed ban would include taverns. He called it a violation of consumers' right to choose.

But government has instituted numerous public health rules and laws, all of which violate some freedom of personal choice, in favor of the public good.

You can't burn leaves and brush in many jurisdictions: imagine how much dirtier our air would be (today is the fourth consecutive day of a dirty air warning for much of southern Wisconsin) if public burning were still permitted.

You can't let your dog run loose on Bradford Beach: dogs poop in the water and sometimes attack strange people, or other animals, so your freedom to walk your dog is circumscribed by government.

You can't drive 60 m.p.h. on a residential street. You can't empty your septic tank in a trout stream. You can't throw your old asbestos roofing in your garbage cans.

You can't shout "fire" in a theater.

We have plenty of rules and laws designed to maintain public safety, and, since the industrial revolution, the health of workers and bystanders.

That's why a smoking ban in taverns and other places makes perfect sense, and arguing it on the personal freedom principle will fail.

Belling Shills For GOP, Misses The Point

Mark Belling's most recent column for The Freeman, a Waukesha daily paper, is a predictable screed against Gov. Jim Doyle's budget.

This is how it opens:

"While Gov. Jim Doyle is the one proposing a staggering $1.7 billion in new taxes, not a single penny of additional tax burden can be imposed without the votes of Republicans. How the GOP plays this will tell a lot about whether Wisconsin actually has two parties of differing philosophies."

Like the blind squirrel finding a stray acorn, Belling has hit upon something true, but he can't handle the full historical reality because it undermines his conservative ideology.

Doyle's budget funds a state government largely built during the taxing-and-spending hog feeding of the Tommy Thompson era, when Republicans wrote and passed state budgets - - without restraint.

All those new highways, new state office buildings, expanded agencies - - those were sunk deeply into state government and the taxpayers' pockets by Tommy and his crew.

And as much as conservative legislators complain about sstat spending, GOP legislators were unable to get TABOR I or II or CXV passed because their constituents liked enough of thse programs to make those controls politically unacceptable.

The GOP still controls the Assembly, but in the end, they will do what their constituents want, and reach compromise with the Dems and Doyle, because government is a middle-of-the-road operation, and not the product of talk show thinking.

Bottling A California Town's Water is a Great, Great Lakes Lesson

Not content with selling Michigan spring water as "Ice Mountain" along with many other brands, Nestle has captured yet another small community's water, and plans to bottle and sell it far from the source.

As if the supply will last forever.

But don't think that Nestle's move on a faraway California town's water supply is an isolated event for the 1,400 people who live there.

The issue is national, regional and international, with echos right here in Wisconsin, a Great Lakes state.

There has been alot of publicity in Wisconsin about the need for the state to amend, then adopt, the US-Canadian agreement called the Great Lakes Compact.

One change that is needed is the closing of a loophole in that agreement that makes it easier to export, and lose, Great Lakes water.

As drafted, the Compact says that Great Lakes water can't be shipped away to communities that sit outside of the Great Lakes basin - - except under very specific procedures and circumstances.

But the bottled water loophole, written to please the private water industry, says water can be shipped out of the Great Lakes in containers smaller than 5.7 gallons without any special approvals and without limits on their quantity.

That's a pretty big loophole, and will guarantee that a great deal of water will be shipped far away from the Great Lakes by the fast-growing bottled water industry.

Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Nestle and other multinationals are nailing down large segments of world fresh water resources, selling the water bottle-by-bottle at enormous markups and creating billions of plastic bottles that litter the landscape and end up in landfills.

And here we are, at the edge of Lake Michigan, where everything from invasive species to fish viruses to industrial and municipal pollution harms the Great Lakes - - and some Wisconsin politicians are playing games with the one multi-state/multi-national agreement on the books to better manage this precious and unique water resource.

State Sen. Mary Lazich of New Berlin is among Waukesha County government and business leaders blocking adoption, in Wisconsin, of the pending Great Lakes compact - - an agreement that:

A) Is needed for its general water conservation principles.

B) And needs amending to remove the bottled water exporting exception.

Lazich sits on the legislative study committee established last year to write Great Lakes Compact implementing legislation for Wisconsin.

But the committee has not met since December.

Lazich and the Waukesha County Chamber of Commerce oppose Wisconsin's adoption of the Compact. Minnesota has passed it, and other states are moving in that direction, too.

This leaves open the possibility that should Lazich & Co. prevail, Wisconsin - - the once-proud leader in environmentalism and Great Lakes protection - - will be known in North America as the anti-Great Lakes conservation state.

Blocking the Compact's implementation in Wisconsin, or any single state, will freeze its implementation across an eight-state region, and will continue to leave the Great Lakes vulnerable to mismanagement.

We can't do much in this part of the country about Nestle walking off with a valuable supply of northern California water. (Note to progressive conference planners: Can we at least stop providing Ice Mountain and such other bottled waters?)

But we can help slam the door on the company doing the same thing in our own backyard in Michigan and any other Great Lakes state.

Sen. Lazich: Wisconsin residents and the Great Lakes watershed, need your leadership, not your obstruction.

UN Mid-East Tribunal A Good Sign

The United Nations is an easy target for right-wingers and assorted political know-nothings, but the UN is on the right track trying to bring justice to Lebanon in the wake of the 2005 assassination of Tariq al-Hariri, the popular ex-premier.

Establishing its first criminal tribunal in the Middle East, a UN Court will investigate the bombing that killed al-Hariri and 22 others, and has jurisdiction over an additional 14 criminal cases.

The UN investigated the 2005 bombing, and established the tribunal because Syria is suspected of orchestrating the anti-al-Hariri violence which had international repercussions.

This is not the first such special court that the UN has created, but in a region wracked by lawlessness, its presence makes a strong statement in favor of the rule of law.

Norquist Returns With A Simple, Common Sense Message

Former Mayor John O. Norquist gave a talk in Milwaukee this morning, offering some common sense about vehicle usage, employment and housing strategies.

Here is the local paper's coverage from its Newswatch blog:

WEDNESDAY, May 30, 2007, 10:19 a.m.
By Tom Daykin

Norquist pushes for more urban housing

The development of more urban housing would help reduce traffic and contribute to a decline in greenhouse gases, former Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist told a local audience today.

Apartments, condominiums and other housing within walking distances or a short bus ride from where people work could be a key factor in reducing global warming, said Norquist, president of the Chicago-based Congress for the New Urbanism. The non-profit group promotes sustainable urban development.

"Instead of forcing everybody to not drive, how about just not driving as much?" said Norquist, speaking to around 100 people. The meeting, at the Italian Community Center, was presented by Building Owners & Managers Association of Wisconsin and the Apartment Owners & Managers Association of Greater Milwaukee.

(Disclosure: I worked for Norquist, as stated in my blog profile, fyi.)

Goodbye Goldmann's

Nothing lasts forever, but when Goldmann's is gone, so is a piece of Milwaukee history.

SEWRPC's Failed Housing Plan History

Gretchen Schuldt serves up the record on SEWRPC's 32-year-failure to update a housing plan for the region.

Can you imagine any other agency ignoring something so important for so long

New Pabst Farms Mall To Be...A Mall

I'm not a shopping mall obsessive, but I do know that the new mall at Bayshore is of the 'outdoor' variety, as opposed to the older-style, enclosed mall.

Bayshore Town Center offers the feeling of a neighborhood's retail district, with streets and streetscapes and other amenities designed to break up the boxy, old-fashioned mall where you park your car, and walk into arcades on a floor or two of stores on either side of the aisles.

For example, most of Mayfair is a giant, enclosed mall, with a few newer, stand-alone, big-name stores in or very close to the complex.

But outdoor, it ain't.

Some people apparently hoped that that the million-square-foot upscale mall at Pabst Farms would be of the newer, outdoor design, since everything is supposed to be the latest and greatest when it comes to Pabst Farms retail tenants.

But if you're looking for the trendier, outdoor mall version at Pabst Farms, all of which is being built on top of once open-space through which the underground water supply got its recharging rain and snow melt - - surely at least as important to the live-blood of the region as more subdivisions and intensified shopping - - get ready to be disappointed.

A local Waukesha County newspaper, paper, the Kettle Moraine Index, describes the mall this way:

"Plans for 110 acres at I-94 and Highway 67 include a 1,000-foot-long interior shopping mall flanked by three 140,000- to 180,000-square-foot, two-story anchor stores, two "junior" anchor stores, including a 28,000-square-foot bookstore and a separate 16-screen movie theater."

The news may make it less certain that taxpayers will rush to plunk down a fresh $20 million in taxes to pay for a spanking-new I-system interchange to get retail shoppers in and out of Pabst Farms.

Campaign Season Losing Its Scheduling Logic

With states now moving their 2008 primaries ahead of each other - - and in some cases now 10 months before the November, 2008 election - - it's only a matter of time before a state tries to schedule its '08 primary in late '07.

This is a stupid chase after media and a few bucks of advertising and campaign staff expenses, and is turning presidential campaigns into an even-greater circus.

By the time the election rolls around, the winner might be Voter Fatigue.

Waukesha Water Manager Has Milwaukee Issue In His Hands

And it has nothing to do with Lake Michigan water.

Dan Duchniak, the Waukesha Water Utility manager (annoyingly called a water "czar" by The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel), is on the landmark lead paint civil suit filed by the City of Milwaukee against US paint manufacturers.

This is the story from the paper's Tuesday p.m. newswatch blog:

"TUESDAY, May 29, 2007, 6:18 p.m.

Water czar now into lead paint

Dan Duchniak, Waukesha’s top water guy, will be out of position for at least six weeks. He’s a juror in the city of Milwaukee’s $85 million lawsuit against the lead paint industry. Milwaukee is seeking the money to cover the cost of abating harmful lead paint in roughly 41,000 houses in Milwaukee neighborhoods.

Although he is general manager of the Waukesha Water Utility, he and his family live in Oak Creek. He was exempted from city residency rules, in part, so his kids could remain in Oak Creek schools.

Milwaukee County picked an inopportune time to pluck Duchniak from Waukesha because the city is moving ahead to seize privately owned land southwest of town for a new well field."

The item is written from the Waukesha perspective: Duchniak is out of position for Waukesha decision-making, etc.

I can't help but notice that there's just no stemming the influence Waukesha exerts over Milwaukee policies. Nothing personal regarding Dan: maybe this is just more regionalism?

Tommy Thompson Addresses Crowd of Seven at New Hampshire Nursing Home

When a Presidential candidate draws a crowd of seven, but a reporter is there taking notes, there's only one question to ask about that campaign:

Is the problem the advance staff work, or is it the candidate?

Some in the crowd were New Hampshire elected officials.

Tommy's penchant for self-referencing and strange syntax comes through loud and clear, with the reporter winding up the story this way:

"That's why I'm running. I've got ideas,'' he [Thompson] told the group, adding, "I can win and be a darn good President. I'm loyal.''

That loyalty will pay off for the party, Thompson assured the group.

"A candidate has to build the party, and I'm still a legislator at heart,'' Thompson said as he prepared to leave. "If I win, I'll come back, and I will do everything to help build your party.''

Road Warrior Takes A New Route: Happy Trails

Larry Sandler, a/k/a Road Warrior, and The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's transportation beat reporter, is being transferred to the City Hall beat.

Larry's a pro. He's covered City Hall.

Someone else now gets the privilege of following transportation (basically, highways) issues in southeastern Wisconsin.

Oil Analyst: Wholesale Price Easy To Cut 50 Cents A Gallon

How?

If half of American motorists used one less gallon a month, the drop in demand could cut the wholesale price of gasoline per gallon up to half-a-buck, a leading oil industry analyst says.

Here's the money quote:

"That's according to Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst for the Oil Price Information Service on the East Coast. Kloza says that if just half of Americans used one single gallon less of gasoline in the month of June, demand would dip 1 percent. Wholesale gasoline prices would slide 30 cents to 50 cents.

Would that be so hard?

The Faces Of Sacrifice

OneWisconsinNow.org has posted the photographs of American military personnel killed in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

These men and woman, and their families, have paid a terrible price in our names: the best way to honor them would be adding no more names to this list.

Whither Ruby Farm? Preservation, or Pabst Farms II

Another major piece of Waukesha County - - Ruby Farm - - is being tugged in opposite directions - - development, or 'development,' or preservation.

The key paragraph in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story about Ruby Farm, linked above, tells the tale:

"A road-widening project scheduled for next year will demolish part of the farmstead. The fate of the remainder lies with a developer who bought the farm and adjacent vacant land."

You'd think that at some point there would be a therapeutic shock of recognition, a bolt of awareness, an "ah-ha" moment that would put the traffic congestion, water depletion and rising taxes for local services in Waukesha County into bold view, along these lines:

The more people you cram into once-open spaces, the more the negatives outweigh the positives, including lost heritage and future sustainability.

Who knows what it will take for people to see the light?

Another $20 million in public dollars to buy the Pabst Farms mega-mall a freeway interchange?

Tens of millions of dollars to pipe in and return Lake Michigan water to communities where sprawl has made a once water-rich zone into a region of shortage?

Setting the date of the ceremony that some planner at SEWRPC (the regional planning commission) could mathematically pinpoint for Developer Victory Day in Waukesha County.

That's the date certain on which Waukesha County developers will announce the cutting of the last tree, the paving of the final quarter-acre of farmland, and draining of the last piece of wetlands - - for something more valuable: paving the County's 20,000th strip mall parking space.

Let's hope the preservationists working to save Ruby Farms prevail, and draw a line in the sand, or the meadow, saying, "after this, no more."

Bush Cuts, So GOP Can Run

The White House looks to cut US troops in Iraq during '08 by 50%.

Anyone think there's no connection to the Presidential campaign?

Anyone think this is sending Al Qaeda our plans?

Anyone think any GOP candidate will accuse Bush of cutting and running, or cutting so they can run?

Pabst Farms - - Not Taxpayers - - Can Pay For New Mall Interchange

Planning in southeastern Wisconsin has been legendarily bungled for years - - but the revelation that the vaunted regional freeway expansion plan doesn't contain funding for an interchange for Pabst Farms' shopping mall is a doozy.

Planning in Western Waukesha County has long been the nearly-private preserve of a handful of powerful interests.

A Pabst Farms' initial consultant was Ruekert & Mielke, the same firm that has done water supply studies for both fast-growing Waukesha and New Berlin, and is also managing the regional planning commission's (SEWRPC) three-year-long water supply study.

Dan Warren, Pabst Farms project manager, is the chairman of the Waukesha Water Utility commission.

And SEWRPC wrote the freeway expansion plan, much of which has been driven (lousy pun) by housing and retail projects on farm land and open space in Waukesha County.

Where the Pabst Farms project, 1,500 homes on 1,500 acres, anchored by a hospital and upscale mall, is the biggest project of them all.

You have to ask: this was just a $20 million oopsie, an oversight? Is it conceivable that the Pabst Farms designers, mall owners, government agencies and highway officials didn't discuss how shoppers were going to get in and out of a million-square-foot retail attraction?

Or did all these honchos figure that taxpayers would write the check because folks out in Waukesha County would spare no expense to get a glitzy mall closer than Mayfair?

Regionalism is the rage right now, so maybe the business and government consortium known as M 7 will define Pabst Farms as a regional asset requiring regional investment - - sticking Milwaukee County residents with the biggest share.

That's how SEWRPC's annual budget is put together, and how its heavily-suburban water study got funded, so why not pay for a spanking new highway interchange for upscale suburban mall-goers the same way?

It was questionable, certainly, when communities in Waukesha County kicked in millions in public, Tax Incremental Financing dollars to help build the Pabst Farms complex right on top of the land that provides key filtration and recharge for the region's underground water supply.

But more public financing for Pabst Farms amenities would move from questionable to outrageous - - and probably to court - - should the powers-that-be deem a $20 million freeway interchange for a shopping mall to be a public need.

Fair solution:

If Pabst Farms managers want an interchange for their mall, they can pay for it.

(UPDATE: Read about the probable demise to the developer's bulldozers of the Ruby Farm, another Waukesha County landmark, here.)

Bush Administration Hates Progressive Germans

Let's see now. Rumsfeld & Co. bashed old Europe when Germany and France refused to go along with our attack on Iraq.

I guess those guys preferred the old Europe, where countries would go to war with each other for decades, sending smoke spewing into the skies.

Yeah, that's the Europe we liked, the one that with two World Wars continent wide between 1918 and 1945.

Now we don't like the new Germany, either. It's too interested in clean air and efforts to stem global warming, The New York Times tells us.

Again, give us that quaint old Europe, and the older-model Germany, too.

Some of this might get fixed if the Dems win The White House in 2008, maybe, but by then, a lot of damage will have been done that extends far beyond European and American borders.

Great Lakes Problems and Wisconsin's Leadership Failures

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel takes a cautious editorial approach today on the possible ban of ocean-going freighters on the Great Lakes proposed by 90 environmental organizations to stem the spreading fatal fish virus.

The editorial closes with an appeal for action and leadership from Wisconsin's Congressional delegation, and that kick-in-the-pants is long overdue.

But let's also note that Wisconsin state officials are also doing their own share of foot-dragging when it comes to Wisconsin and Great Lakes watershed issues.

The state still has not ratified the amended Great Lakes Compact, essentially caving into political pressures from business interests in Waukesha County.

It has been six months since the state's legislative study committee charged with drafting Compact enabling legislation has held a meeting, and the leader of the anti-Compact forces, State Sen. Mary Lazich, thinks that no agreement is better than adopting a standard-based set of rules governing Great Lakes diversions.

Gov. Jim Doyle is the chairman of the Council of Great Lakes Governors, and needs to set in motion an alternative process to get a bill written and adopted.

And it wouldn't hurt to have his DNR show a little more transparency and assertiveness when it comes to water conservation.

Like getting tougher on developers who want to fill wetlands.

The DNR also had to be pressured to announce a public comment period as it reviews New Berlin's second application for a Great Lakes diversion. It shouldn't have waited weeks to do so, after keeping the public unaware that New Berlin had applied again for diversion permission.

There is a lack of urgency at every level of government when it comes to water and land preservation in Wisconsin.

The state used to be a national leader. Now it's just another laissez-faire jurisdiction, forgetting that it gave birth to Aldo Leopold and Gaylord Nelson, and has a public that wants and expects leadership.

When Regulators Fail, Harm Is The Outcome/Updated

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel tells us that there is no consistency statewide by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources when it comes to legally preserving the state's wetlands.

The New York Times in the same news cycle media tells us that the US Federal and Drug Administration gave little or need heed for seven years to warnings that Avandia, a diabetes prescription medication, significantly raised the heart attack rate among its users.

In both cases, the agencies and their staffs failed to do their jobs. Having worked in government for years, I know that enforcement shoulder-shrugging spreads through bureaucracies where the people at the top do not demand performance and accountability.

Now, I'm not equating fatal heart attacks with dumping dirt into wetlands.

But both stories should get the attention of readers, taxpayers and legislative overseers, all of whom should demand explanations and swift fixes from senior officials on down.

And this is not a partisan matter, either.

The failure to adequately regulate Avandia with public safety as the top priority began under the Bill Clinton administration, so his people, along with Pres. George Bush and former Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson share equally in the need to explain themselves.

In the DNR matter, Gov. Jim Doyle and DNR Secretary Scott Hassett should explain why they cannot guarantee to the taxpayers of Wisconsin that precious Wisconsin wetlands are not being preserved by the agency charged with that very task.

As the Wisconsin Wetlands Association has noted, alot of wetlands are being filled in Wisconsin. And Mother Nature isn't making more these days.

(Note: An earlier version of this posting had a link to a news report about the Wisconsin Wetlands Association commenting on the issue. The link is no longer operating, so I have added a direct link to the WWA and its analysis of the DNR's performance.)

This isn't a question of ideology - - of onerous, unfair or nit-picky regulations being ignored because they are too burdensome, or too tough to figure out.

These are examples of basic protections for people and the environment being ignored or given too low a priority.

People they have a right to enjoy the natural environment in the common spaces, and in good health.

Waukesha Water Rate Plan Deserves Praise

This blog has had comments blasting Waukesha's water planning too numerous to cite, but when Waukesha does something positive, it needs to be noted.

Waukesha has followed through on a commitment, and won approval from the Public Service Commission to restructure city water charges.

And that's a good thing, because it begins to make some consumers pay for excessive water usage in a community with serious water issues.

I know that the plan falls short of what others want implemented. The plan does not go far enough, and advocates for conservation and smart growth are correct when they call for a stronger plan.

My experience in government tells me that new ideas and innovation are tough sells at the outset, and that change is often maddeningly incremental.

Regardless, Waukesha is on the right track.

It has lawn watering rules in place. And if it resolved its water supply questions with greater innovation, Waukesha could genuinely become a leader in the struggle to preserve the Great Lakes watershed, instead of being seen sometimes as the municipal 'bad guy' sneaking around procedures and agreements for a pipe into Lake Michigan.

But for today, good for Waukesha. Other communities should follow its lead, and the PSC should encourage water conservation pricing statewide, too.

Another Policy Dud From Scott Walker

Scott Walker, the Milwaukee County Executive famous for cutting the bus system, has come up with another bad idea:

Stripping out the trolley component of Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett's bus/rail transit upgrade - - the key element there being the rail loop aimed mainly at the downtown - - for an all-bus expansion to help the suburbs.

The Walker plan also deletes Barrett's proposed express bus extension to Mitchell Airport, indicating Walker's disinterest in the "multi-modal" linking together of various forms of transportation.

Not to mention his shrug of the shoulders at assisting the airport - - a County-run facility.

Walker's plan meets at least three of his pet political priorities:

Win praise from his shills in right wing talk radio, where anti-rail foamers lead the retrograde movement in southeastern Wisconsin keeping Milwaukee a second-tier, under-competing city.

Appear to support transit expansion, using federal funds he had nothing to do with winning for Milwaukee, for new bus routes to please his suburban base.

Be the anti-Barrett.

This is something Walker grafted on to his standard operating procedure after former Mayor John Norquist left office in 2004.

As a former Norquist staffer, I observed Walker's negativity towards Milwaukee, ranging from his opposition to programs as varied as the Milwaukee Connector to consolidation of duplicated, taxpayer-paid plant nurseries.

Express buses might be nice - - until they get caught in traffic and remind riders that a bus is a bus is a bus - - but urban trains are new, and hip.

Modern US cities are building several varieties of light rail and trolley systems, even in cities like Dallas, where there are more right wing talk show hosts per capita (or is it per square mile?) than in Milwaukee, Norquist joked.

Urban rail has come to Denver, Baltimore, San Diego, Portland, even to Kenosha, but Walker and his talk show allies are keeping Milwaukee a rail-free zone.

And rail-bashing by some AM talkers keeps the conservative, suburban base stirred up, on edge, fearing the easier movement of city residents across the region's borders.

Or as the late George Watts called them at a 1997 forum in Milwaukee - - "strangers" who'd ride the rails to menace the suburbs.

Walker says his plan is to be called SMART, for Suburban and Milwaukee Advanced Rapid Transit (actually SAMART, but let's not quibble).

Once you look at it closely, the SMART idea from Walker is actually something different: Small Minds Against Rail Transit.

Esenberg - - Soglin: Blogging Debate Worth Following

Rick Esenberg, one of my compadres on Eric Von's 1290-AM "Backstory" roundtable on Thursday afternoons (solid, professionally-run AM talk radio, by the way), has been posting on his blog a series of commentaries about urban problems.

I have found it a useful and high-minded effort, regardless of the portions with which I disagree, and so has Paul Soglin, (my former boss and political ally since the 60's) who has begun a response on his Waxing America blog.

So let me bring these two smart lawyers and thinkers a little closer, and encourage blog readers from the left, center and right to follow the discussion.

East Side Activist With Great Background Ponders Legislative Election

I couldn't imagine a better candidate for the state legislature, or a better representative than Sam Rowen, interviewed by WisPolitics.com, about the possibility of running for office.

Not just because he's my son, but because he's smart, talented, dedicated and honest.

Part of the story follows:



Sam Rowen, a legislative assistant for Milwaukee Ald. Mike D'Amato, says he's considering joining the growing field of Democratic candidates vying for the 22nd Assembly District seat being vacated by Rep. Sheldon Wasserman.

Wasserman is giving up the seat in a bid to unseat Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills.

Rowen, a Shorewood native, says his knowledge of the district and his experience at City Hall would make him a good fit for the district.

“I've learned a lot about helping constituents and I enjoy that part of it greatly,” Rowen said of his work with D'Amato.

“I know the district; I know the neighborhoods,” Rowen said. “It's a great place to live and I think I fit the mold of the kind of people those neighborhoods would want to attract and retain.”

Like other candidates who have stepped forward, Rowen said health care would be a priority, but also stressed the importance of maintaining quality schools in the district.

“Schools are about the most important things to those neighborhoods, and that's what attracts people to moving there,” Rowen said.

But Rowen, a father of twin 11-month-old boys, said he's still discussing the issue with his family.

Rowen currently lives on the east side of Milwaukee and would have to move to one of the four Milwaukee wards the district covers in order to run and still allow his wife to continue working as a teacher in the Milwaukee Public School district.

Rowen graduated from UW-Madison with a degree in communications. He is the son of Jim Rowen, a blogger and former reporter who's served as a mayoral staffer in Milwaukee and Madison...

A possible Rowen bid was first reported on the Milwaukee Rising blog: http://milwaukeerising.blogspot.com/

When Regulators Fail, Harm Is The Outcome

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel tells us that there is no consistency statewide by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources when it comes to legally preserving the state's wetlands.

The New York Times in the same news cycle media tells us that the US Federal and Drug Administration gave little or need heed for seven years to warnings that Avandia, a diabetes prescription medication, significantly raised the heart attack rate among its users.

In both cases, the agencies and their staffs failed to do their jobs. Having worked in government for years, I know that enforcement shoulder-shrugging spreads through bureaucracies where the people at the top do not demand performance and accountability.

Now, I'm not equating fatal heart attacks with dumping dirt into wetlands.

But both stories should get the attention of readers, taxpayers and legislative overseers, all of whom should demand explanations and swift fixes from senior officials on down.

And this is not a partisan matter, either.

The failure to adequately regulate Avandia with public safety as the top priority began under the Bill Clinton administration, so his people, along with Pres. George Bush and former Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson share equally in the need to explain themselves.

In the DNR matter, Gov. Jim Doyle and DNR Secretary Scott Hassett should explain why they cannot guarantee to the taxpayers of Wisconsin that precious Wisconsin wetlands are not being preserved by the agency charged with that very task.

As the Wisconsin Wetlands Association has noted, alot of wetlands are being filled in Wisconsin. And Mother Nature isn't making more these days.

(Note: An earlier version of this posting had a link to a news report about the Wisconsin Wetlands Association commenting on the issue. The link is no longer operating, so I have added a direct link to the WWA and its analysis of the DNR's performance. I will also repost the entire item).

This isn't a question of ideology - - of onerous, unfair or nit-picky regulations being ignored because they are too burdensome, or too tough to figure out.

These are examples of basic protections for people and the environment being ignored or given too low a priority.

People they have a right to enjoy the natural environment in the common spaces, and in good health.

Saving The Milwaukee Public Museum

Milwaukee's treasured Public Museum has had a rough few years after its managers squandered its endowment, and signficance to the community, but it appears that all parties - - public, private and non-profit - - have figured out a way to right the ship.

No doubt much of the credit redounds to new Museum President Daniel Finley, former Waukesha County Executive, and whereas I have criticized him in the past when I thought he deserved it, I want to congratulate him for his leadership, too.

About That Wisconsin Water "Czar"

For those of you who missed it in last Sunday's New York Times, there's a surplus of policy czars these days, a bad sign in itself, and the Times' reporter wonders whether the term can shake its rather negative historical roots?

And also wonders why American officials have gone back to Imperial Russia for role models.

These are good questions, and timely right here in the Badger State in light of the appointment of Wisconsin's apparent first water czar.

At least that's what the media seem to be calling him.

The word "coordinator" is in the czar's official title - - Water Conservation Coordinator, a position at the Public Service Commission - - but copy editors and other news types hate the word "coordinator."

It's long and bureaucratic-sounding.

Czar is sexier, but, if you think about it, it's pretty much outside of the mainstream of democratic and American traditions and office-holders.

Maybe the message gurus up at the Capitol and reporters could simply agree begin to call Mr. Jeff Ripp something simple and descriptive, like Wisconsin water policy director, or maybe even chief.

Because Wisconsin does need a water policy coordinator, director or chief. We have serious conservation programs to write and major water policy questions to address, such as:

A regional Great Lakes water agreement to approve and implement.

Wetlands to better preserve on a consistent basis, statewide.

Major groundwater protections to work out.

Dwindling streams to revive.

And a fish virus to isolate and combat because it's spreading quickly throughout the state's waters, jeopardizing commercial and recreational fishing.

So Wisconsin needs water policy creation and some real coordination of conservation and planning.

We don't need a czar.

More Bad News For Tommy Thompson - - Details About A Big-Money Dog Racing Deal Are Surfacing

Like big payments promised to political insiders. Shredded documents. And more.

It's a good bet that this is not the greatest way to break into the top tier of candidates with Iowa caucus voters.

Compare Websites: How SEWRPC's Ancient Website Defeats Public Information

I have posted more than once about how the website put up by the Southeastern Regional Planning Commission (SEWRPC) is not user-friendly, is barely interactive and rates about a D- on a public value scale.

SEWRPC doesn't even tape record meetings of advisory committees which are working on important, seven-county studies that will guide policy-making for the next 25-50 years.

Now compare SEWRPC's to the website of the newly-reconfigured Chicago regional (formerly Northern Illinois) planning authority.

One more time:

Chicago - - here.

And SEWRPC.

No comparison, right? The Chicago site even links to news, media and community organizations. Can you imagine SEWRPC doing that? On its website?

Get my heart medication.

Like its excuse that it cannot find the money to redo the region's 1975 housing plan - - no money, it says, though there's been plenty of money to buy a $4 million headquarters, cars for key staffers and long-range studies about freeway expansion and water supplies - - I suppose SEWRPC can't find a few bucks to move its website from circa 1995 to, say, 2000?

NASA's Top Expert On Climate Change Speaks: Review His Arguments For Yourself

James Hansen, NASA's top climate change expert, found himself something of a celebrity after Bush administration officials tried to muzzle him.

His sin: speaking truth to power about climate change.

Wanna see for yourself what he has to say, in his own words? Read here.

Republicans Carve Each Other Up: Democrats Should Learn From The Moment

As Mitt Romney and John McCain tear each other to pieces, Democrats can only hope that Barack Obama, John Edwards, Hillary Clinton et al leave this negative spectacle on the GOP side of the '08 campaign.

Mark Belling Helps Waukesha Parents Control Their Hip-Hop Kids

Mark Belling's current column in The Freeman, a Waukesha daily, raised warnings about Summerfest's booking Ludacris, a popular African-American hip-hop artist.

Belling, the conservative, afternoon drive-time radio talk show host on 1130 WISN-AM, says Ludacris' lyrics are too violent for an entertainment venue in the region.

"Thanks, Summerfest. This is what we really need right now," Belling writes. "Advice to the rest of us: July 1 might not be the night you want to be hanging around the lakefront."

Belling probably knows that most of the consumers of this music are white kids, making up as much as 85% of the market.

That's the figure quoted in a recent piece in The Chicago Tribune.

Good for Belling to alert his suburban readers.

Parents out that way might want to follow through and take away their kids' Ludacris CD's.

Also seize any Ludacris concert tickets they can find in their kids' rooms so the boys and girls from Waukesha won't get to the concert, get all amped on the lyrics, and tear up the lakefront.

Florida's Overuse Of Water Is A Cautionary Tale For Wisconsin

Florida, one of the wettest states in the US, is running out of water.

The columnist and author Carl Hiassen tells us how and why, here.

The local context is obvious: too many people here and across the Great Lakes think the supply in those five bodies of surface water and the surrounding watersheds are inexhaustible - - the trap that led Florida to mismanage itself into a water crisis.

An earlier post on this blog discussed data in the hands of the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission that predicted long-term and substantial growth in some of the very parts of our region that were already experience major sprawl and accompanying demand on water.

For example, in Waukesha County, where underground water supplies have been greatly drawn down in recent decades, there is a population increase projected by 2035 equal to the entire population of Ozaukee County.

Imagine the population of one county to the north of Milwaukee jammed into the county just to the west.

And the number of residential water users in Waukesha County served by municipal water systems - - something of a benchmark indicator showing land being filled in with housing, or city services extending beyond a city's borders (read: annexations)is projected to increase during the samer period by 104%.

Who is to say that heavily-populated areas of southeasatern Wisconsin could not mimic the troubles of water-rich Florida?

So when you read that the Little Plover dried up near Stevens Point - - again - - or that the underground supply beneath Waukesha County is dropping rapidly - - again - - or that the level of Lake Superior is near an historic low (and Lake Michigan is in decline, too - - keep Florida in mind.

Gene Mueller Is A Great Addition to WTMJ - - Wish They'd Dump Michael Savage

Confession: I listen to way too much AM radio. And it's not just for Brewers' baseball, news and traffic. Old habits are hard to break.

That said, I agree with Tim Cuprisin's analysis that moving Gene Mueller to WTMJ's morning show was a great move. Gene is a Milwaukee institution, a smart and funny guy, and while Ken Herrera did a good job, adding Mueller is a super.

Now if only the station would rid its air of the noxious "Savage Nation" show that runs from 11 p.m. - 2:00 a.m. (I'm something of a night owl, too).

Host Michael Savage is meaner and farther to the Right than Rush Limbaugh, often calling his targets "scum" and "vermin," seditious and worse. He wants the so-called "Sunni Triangle" in Iraq carpet-bombed.

America is falling apart because of feminism and gay culture, and second-language programs that help immigrants.

You get the picture.

My understanding is that the station gets the show for nothing and Savage's syndication makes ad revenue that keeps him and his station happy, but the show really stains the station.

I know, I know: AM radio is a heavily conservative medium these days, and I have a zillion choices, but it would be a real public service if WTMJ cut its ties to Savage.

Milwaukee County Board Chills Freeway Expansion Plan

At first it looked like the Milwaukee County Board was going to endorse billions in reckless spending and millions in ground-up tax base, but it has come to its senses and withheld further support for what the regional planning commission had been pushing.

Gretchen Schuldt has the details here.

If Toll Roads Come Here, Kevin Soucie Will Say "Told You So"

The trust fund that pays for most new highway construction in Wisconsin and across the country is under stress.

Kevin Soucie - - singer, lobbyist, and former Wisconsin state legislator from Milwaukee - - has been pushing this for years.

While his arguments have not grabbed the public's attention in a state that hates toll roads because Illinois loves them, Soucie has been right about one thing consistently:

Wisconsin taxpayers cannot afford all the major highway expansion, such as the southeastern regional freeway build-out, that state government has been regularly promoting.

And which regional planners recommended without a care in the world for potential financing.

Raising the state gas tax isn't going to happen, and vehicle user fees have their limits, too, as does that pot of once-more-plentiful federal funding, data show.

Soucie's solution for Wisconsin is to urge the beginning of tolling.

Other states are moving in that direction, though there has been opposition once the reality sunk in.

A major conversion in transportation policy from highway to transit funding would be preferable for a progressive state like Wisconsin which has, paradoxically, short-changed transit for decades.

(Well, not so paradoxically, as the road-building lobby is more powerful and politically generous with donations than are groups serving transit users.)

Regardless, Soucie's a transit backer too, and his power point presentation is a very professional production that is well worth your time if it comes for a viewing to a neighborhood near yours.