The Right's Self-Induced Hysteria Gets Even More Disgusting

You knew this was coming.

Wauwatosa Gets Details Of Waukesha Wastewater Dump Tonight

Tonight's the night - - beginning at 5 p.m. at the Wauwatosa Public Library, 7635 North Ave. - - for Wauwatosa residents to see some details of Waukesha's plan to discharge, on average, about 11 million gallons of treated wastewater daily into Underwood Creek as part of Waukesha's Lake Michigan water diversion plan.

An option to have the discharge run instead through Racine down the Root River led a state legislator from the area to balk at Racine becoming Waukesha's toilet.

Waukesha believes the water discharge into the creek at Blue Mound Rd. will not pose a flooding hazard and may improve the creek's quality, too, according to the news release announcing the meeting.

The discharge would make its way back to Lake Michigan after flowing into the Menomonee River.

The Department of Natural Resources - - and not Waukesha - - will decide if the treated wastewater meets water quality standards or other impacts the creek in the future; Wauwatosa will have input into the decision, as the creek is in its backyard.

Certainly a key question:

Might Wauwatosa inquire what size impact fee Waukesha intends to pay for the privilege?

Waukesha currently discharges its effluent into the Fox River; that return flow is for a different body of water, with different water chemistry, so the creek discharge plan will need a new permit.

Waukesha has said sending its wastewater back via a pipeline to a connection with the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage Commission - - avoiding open discharge into a body of surface water - - was too expensive.

The diversion will serve current Waukesha customers and also a newer area south and west of Waukesha that would almost double Waukesha water service delivery area.

An alternative proposal to discharge the wastewater to the Root River provoked State Rep. Cory Mason, (D-Caledonia) to object, saying publicly that Racine was not "Waukesha's toilet."

Whither Wauwatosa?

Monarchs Decline: UW-M And Milwaukee County May Help Kill Them Off

UW-M wants to build an engineering and innovation campus right on the invaluable Milwaukee County Grounds on top of, or close enough to disrupt prime Monarch Butterfly migration land.

With the species already under growing stress.

Some contradiction for a school that wants recognition as a research university.

Drought Leads To Solar Panel Facility

This has to be the ultimate land reclamation project: drought-parched land in California turned into a giant solar panel farm.

House Democrats Voting "Yes" On The Health Care Act - - Take A Bow

Each of them is a leader.

As to the Republicans and others opposing the bill:

How long do you think it will take for media to find opponents coming to their senses and realizing that seniors will get live-saving prescription benefits?

Or that young people can remain on their parents' health plans until age 26?

Or that cancellation of insurance during treatment, or denial of enrollment and coverage for pre-existing conditions, is over?

This will unfold as did opposition to the stimulus bill, when naysayers in Congress also sought money for their districts, because the value of the stimulus was obvious and authentic.

Let Christopher Walken Be Your Census Guide

Census reminders don't get any better than this.

GOP Distances Party From WingNut Slurs In DC

Some right-wingers are saying it never happened, but here is some evidence from the GOP that it did.

Suburban Counties Yearning For Secession

They don't want to be part of regional transit solutions.

They prefer to keep access to jobs clutched closely for their constituents and prefer withholding access to those jobs through transit lines to the biggest available labor pool in the region - - Milwaukee.

That's not regional cooperation. It's regional withdrawal, denial and sabotage- - and as I have argued before, that attitude should send a message to Milwaukee officials that they'd be crazy to send water to Waukesha if its representatives act to isolate Milwaukee and impoverish its residents.

Great Lakes Can Supply Wind Power

Very nice wrap-up.

Hat tip: Milwaukee Riverkeeper.

Rightist Protestors - - GOP Shock Troops - - Disgrace Themselves

Rightwing goons reveal their true selves.

We Are Far Behind In High-Speed Rail

By 2020, Spain will devote half its transportation budget to rail.

Where high-speed rail is challenging air travel.

More Angry Rightists Protesting Health Care Reform; I predict That Wanes

I wonder how many will ratchet it down - - maybe their "N-word"-filled rally today was the last gasp - - when they or their parents get the bill's immediate Medicare drug relief, or other good things - - like their kids staying on their health care plans through age 26, or friends and family not being canceled or barred from health insurance for pre-existing conditions?

That's reform they come to like - - some hopey-changey stuff for them, too - - if they could sit still and learn the facts.

Stewart Udall, R.I.P.

We all say thanks and good-bye to a great environmental champion.

Like Gaylord Nelson, a visionary. We need more of them now.

Scott Walker Is No Friend of Rail In Milwaukee

I remember working for Mayor John Norquist when there was a plan on the table to build an electric, guided bus system in Milwaukee.

Businessman and philanthropist Michael Cudahy was the main driver of the proposal, and he even flew a private planeload of people (I was not among them) to France to see a guided bus line - - which is not a train on a fixed set of rails) in operation.

The Bombardier corporation had built the line in France and was considering using Milwaukee as a platform in the US to demonstrate that it could be workable here. Bombardier officials from its Canadian arm were in Milwaukee more than once to make presentations, scout the city, etc.

Super Steel was mentioned as a possible contractor for the cars. The entire plan had a nice symmetry to it and Milwaukee could have been home to something new and productive in the US if the plan had gotten more traction.

I remember hearing Walker on the Sykes show one morning opposing the plan, and calling it just another form of light rail, which it was not.

But talk radio was served.

Cudahy could not bring Walker around on the guided bus. It was not built. Walker did not single-handedly kill it, but his opposition was part of the reason it died.

Walker could have supported the plan as a boon to Milwaukee and its workforce, and to corporations and suppliers for many components..

But he did not.

Here is another example of the distance Walker put between himself and the rail issue.

I attended a meeting with Norquist about commuter rail with all six regional elected leaders from here to the Illinois border.

In attendance were the Mayors of Milwaukee, Racine and Kenosha, along with their County Executive counterparts.

I remember that the meeting was held in the office of the Racine County Executive, and was very cordial.

All agreed to support the Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee commuter train plan, the KRM - - but no one, if asked, was allowed to say that Walker was at the meeting.

This was not surprising.

Through the years that Walker and Norquists' terms overlapped, word was always coming back from people working on transit - - other than buses - - that you always needed to be careful not to paint Walker into a corner as even remotely pro-rail because he'd come out swinging to mollify his talk radio supporters.

So when the Journal Sentinel called to report on the executives' KRM meeting, and the question was about attendance and who supported or said what, and spefically about Walker - - I paused, tried to figure out how to respond, and said you'll have to call Walker's office about that.

Awkward!

My point is that Walker does not see urban or high-speed rail (if he's for Amtrak, well, fine, and who knows where he is on the KRM?) as vehicles to move people through congested areas, or stimulate investment along the corridors or at stations, or to employ people or offer transportation choices here or in a large regional economy.

Hence his long fight against the Milwaukee downtown streetcar - - a fight that ultimately cost the County $10 million in federal funds for buses that Walker likes.

To Walker and talk radio, trains are political vehicles only, and the faux outrage that Walker ginned up over Super Steel not getting the Talgo high-speed train vehicle assembly contract is pure politics.

And in the context of the guided bus that never was - - laughable.

It's no different than being against the stimulus plan, and then taking the money.

You're either on board or you're not.

Corporate Support For Climate Change Bill

Don't believe it when you hear Righties claim that national energy reform legislation is dead.

It's alive and has corporate support, too.

Pabst Farms' Hospital Leads To Job Cuts At Nearby Hospital

Oconomowoc wanted the Pabst Farms development really badly and even kicked in $24 million in tax incremental financing.

As the new Aurora Hospital opens in the development, a nearby facility responds with layoffs.

The downside of overbuilding. Not exactly rocket science. Anyone with a blog could see it coming.

Analysis Show's Paul Ryan's 'Plan' Is Wealth Transfer To Wealthy

Suddenly, the Kenosha Republican's so-called national fiscal blueprint for America looks more like another Contract On America.

Sometimes David Brooks Is Worth A Read

Like this one.

I suppose to the new, fire-breathing Right, he's a rogue RINO.

Big Earth Day Event In Madison

Fitting, since founder Gaylord Nelson spent so many years there.

Scott Walker Needs To Condemn This Outbreak Of Job Creation

How could the Nanny State do such a thing?