Very Nice Tribute To Cal DeWitt

Well-done and well-deserved.

Walker Campaign Slogan: "Don't Look At Me"

County Exec Scott Walker's laughable effort to disown his own campaign website's trickery - - it's someone else's fault - - inflating the import of a jobs plan by expanding the type for appearance sake to headline-sized lettering - - speaks volumes about Walker's terms in office as well as his run for Governor.

Walker skims the surface, and when the going gets tough, finds a scapegoat and takes a walk.

His campaign Tweeted racialized video when Barack Obama came to town on Labor Day?

That was someone else's fault.

The County's finances are in a mess eight years after Walker took office?

That's still Tom Ament's fault, say Walker's apologists, but remember that continuing and scandalous insider deals within the pension system that occurred on Walker's watch, when explained by the Journal Sentinel, won reporter Dave Umhoefer a Pulitzer Prize.

County's budgets go up every year?

That's the Board's fault - - though Walker each year uses the increase he says the Board has created as his base for another "no-increase" budget.

67 sexual assaults and a patient starving to death at the Mental Health Complex - - on Walker's watch?

Transfer a senior administrator to a $91,000-a-year-job, but stonewall and withhold a consultant's report on the facility.

The O'Donnell parking ramp fatal collapse?

Walker quickly laid that at the feet of the contractor who installed the panel that fell, then backed off because the investigation had just begun and is yet to be completed.

The ramp, however had been allowed to deteriorate to the point at which it needs $2 million in repairs unrelated to the fatal panel falling?

Let's change the subject: Walker deflects that by endorsing selling the entire site for a new development.

With Walker, the finger is always pointed elsewhere.

That's not leadership.

Trying to contain damaging information until after the election?

It's evasion - - and Walker's sycophants are ready and willing to enable it.

Pesky Nanny State, Making Safety Seat Rules...Saving Children's Lives

When government does its job, good things happen.

The Atmosphere Is Warming; The Evidence Is Clear, So The Solution Is?

I guess it's close your eyes, vote Republican and crank up the AC.

Our children and theirs will be demanding answers.

Walker Says Plan's Fake Size Is Someone Else's Fault

The Journal Sentinel editorial board has supported Scott Walker in a primary endorsement editorial, in part, because he told them the buck stopped with him,

But when caught in an embarrassing fakery and trickery in the release of his jobs plan, I guess the buck does not stop with Walker, where the spinning has always started.

Waukesha Residents Call For Authentic Citizen Involvement In Water Issue

Noting previous inadequacies in Waukesha's water planning processes, the Waukesha Environmental Action League (WEAL) calls on the city's water utility and the DNR to guarantee a water planning process that truly incorporates citizen participation.

"Only this spring," said WEAL on Friday, "the Waukesha Water Utility Commission voted to recommend a diversion application to the Common Council on March 18, seven days BEFORE the close of the public comment period.  WEAL and the Compact Implementation Coalition (CIC) each submitted 7 pages of comments on March 26, the deadline for doing so.  On April 8, the Common Council voted to approve the diversion application without discussion of issues raised by the organizations or citizen individuals with similar concerns.  Many deficiencies noted in WEAL’s and CIC’s letters of comment were the same as those noted in the DNR’s June and September 2010 letters."

Here is the group's statement:

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 23, 2010

Contact:  Laurie Longtine

    Water Team Co-Chair

    262-542-7929

    262-894-8443 (cell)                                                           

                                                                                                                                                           

WEAL Urges City of Waukesha to Maximize Public Participation in Great Lakes Diversion Application Process

Waukesha, WI.  The Waukesha County Environmental Action League (WEAL) commends Wisconsin DNR for its firm adherence to the standards as well as the spirit of the Great Lakes Compact, expressed in a strongly-worded letter to Common Council President Paul Ybarra.

In the letter of September 20^th, Wisconsin DNR Secretary Matthew Frank said, “In addition to our technical review, the process will include an Environmental Impact Statement and opportunity for public comments and meetings as well as time to carefully consider the comments.  The importance of a thorough review with the opportunity for public comments cannot be overstated.” 

 “We’re veterans of many public participation battles and have come to believe that the highest form of participation is one in which the public can hear each others’ comments and questions,” said Steven Schmuki, WEAL President.

Recent public meetings have not allowed for open public dialogue, instead using a model of getting the citizen into a private corner with a stenographer, consultant, or staffer, thereby preventing members of the public from hearing each other.  Public participation is greater than simply allowing questions to be answered by a panel of experts seated in front of the room. 

“WEAL calls on the City of Waukesha , the Water Utility, and Wisconsin DNR to adopt an open dialogue format in all public meetings and hearings going forward,” said Laurie Longtine, Water Team Co-Chair for WEAL. “We further request that these meetings be recorded and reproduced in both electronic and paper formats to allow a statewide and regional airing of this critical, precedent-setting proceeding.”

The diversion of Great Lakes waters over the subcontinental divide will cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars of public money and will forever alter the environment in two watersheds.  Its impact will be enormous on the legal tenets of the Compact.  For those reasons alone, details must be publicly vetted and all public opinion carefully considered before final decisions are made.

Furthermore, the constantly-changing application makes a moving target on which to line up credible comments.  The application is over one hundred pages, plus thousands of pages of appendices.

“As one can imagine, it takes a great deal of time to read, as well as to analyze, verify, and write comments.  At some point soon, the City must submit a fully complete application in order for the DNR to conduct its review, and for organizations such as WEAL to direct comments specifically to that application,” said Fay Amerson, Co-Chair of WEAL’s Water Team. 

Amerson continued, “The City Council limited public comments to only City residents and taxpayers during important meetings when key decisions or actions were made regarding the application.  However, the City has now established a water service area that spans well beyond its current boundaries and those non-city residents have had no voice.  In addition, the diversion plans to pipe and discharge wastewater through other communities. When will the voices in those communities be heard?”

Only this spring, the Waukesha Water Utility Commission voted to recommend a diversion application to the Common Council on March 18, seven days BEFORE the close of the public comment period.  WEAL and the Compact Implementation Coalition (CIC) each submitted 7 pages of comments on March 26, the deadline for doing so.  On April 8, the Common Council voted to approve the diversion application without discussion of issues raised by the organizations or citizen individuals with similar concerns.  Many deficiencies noted in WEAL’s and CIC’s letters of comment were the same as those noted in the DNR’s June and September 2010 letters.

“The ongoing lack of transparency about crucial details and the costs of all options is utterly unsatisfactory," said Longtine.  "The DNR, the Water Utility and the City are all public entities.  Federal, state, county and city tax dollars are involved.  The public has a right to see the information that has been obtained in its name, and which it has paid for.”

# # # #

A 30 year-old grassroots organization, WEAL has focused its work on the protection of Waukesha County ’s resources and stood up for public health, neighborhoods, and citizens’ rights in issues ranging from waste incineration and land use to resource protection and open government. 

Capital Punishment Lottery Finds A Loser In Virginia; Wisconsin Should Keep Saying "Not Here"

Scott Walker has said recently he would put us in this shameful company:

The State of Virginia put to death Thursday night a woman, Teresa Lewis, who had pleaded guilty to arranging the murders of her husband and stepson - - even though the actual hands-on killers got life sentences and one of the imprisoned co-conspirators said they had manipulated the borderline-mentally retarded woman, not the other way around.

Why, among three conspirators, should two live and one die?

You don't have to be a bleeding heart to see that death sentence execution as unfair.

In 1995, while working on a series for The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about the death penalty, I witnessed an execution in the Walls Unit, in Huntsville, Texas, site of the Texas Correctional System's Death House.

The killer Was Clifton Russell, Jr.

He and another man had beaten an innocent victim to death and stolen his car.

The other killer pleaded guilty and got a lesser sentence, but Russell, still a teenager, chose to go to trial, was found guilty and was executed.

People will argue whether the death penalty has deterrent effect, or is cost-effective, but there is no denying that the whole thing is a perverse lottery because it is applied without uniformity.

Murderers live or die according to their wealth, trial judge, legal representation, city and state, gender, race and dumb luck.

Should justice, life and death be such a gamble?

I don't think so, and I hope Wisconsin continues to keep this barbaric practice off our books and collective conscience.

Here are a few paragraphs I wrote some years later about arriving in Huntsville just before two executions were scheduled back-to-back; the Teresa Lewis case affirms for me that the death penalty is a blot and blight on our justice system.

Inside the Walls Unit and at other stops, I interviewed prison employees,
academics and several death row prisoners, including the two men headed
for what prison officials were calling "the back-to-back." If you believe
that capital punishment deters murders, you'd have thought the extra
publicity about "the back-to-back" would have turned potential Texas
killers more peace-loving, at least temporarily.

So imagine my surprise when I picked up a newspaper in a Huntsville cafe
and saw that a different double execution had knocked the "back-to-back"
to the back pages.

Frank Picone, an ex-Houston police officer - a person trained to uphold
the law, mind you - had murdered his 2 young sons, shooting one boy with a
shotgun as he slept, then drowning the other.

A few days after reading that Picone had turned a nasty custody dispute
into his own domestic massacre, I witnessed, on Jan. 31, 1995, another
homicide - the execution of 33-year-old Clifton Russell Jr. in the opening
half of "the back-to-back."

At 18, Russell and another teenager, William Battee, were charged with
beating a man in Abilene to death and stealing his car.

Russell had pleaded not guilty, but was convicted. After 15 years on death
row, and without a single rule infraction, prison officials said, Russell
got the injection and moaned when it stopped his heart. His death
suggested that lethal injection is not as humane as some proponents
believe, though the eye-for-an-eye crowd argues it's not painful enough.

Nevertheless, Texas isn't going to bring back "Old Sparky," though its
retired electric chair is displayed prominently in the Texas Prison Museum
on Huntsville's downtown square.

And what about William Battee, Russell's co-offender?

Tried separately, Battee pleaded guilty and was incarcerated - then was
released, only to reoffend and return to prison before Russell was
executed, prison officials said.

Therein lies another problem with capital punishment: It's not applied
uniformly, state-to-state, county-to-county, criminal-to-criminal.

As for Frank Picone - the ex-cop turned double child killer?

He got life imprisonment.
#

Side-By-Side Comparison Of Page Samples From Barrett, Walker Jobs Plans

OK - - This is a combination of the two previous posts. Enjoy:

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2010

Sample Page From Tom Barrett's 67-Page Jobs Plan

Compare it just as it appears, below, or compare the full document, to a page in, or the entirety of Scott Walker's fake 'plan.'

target marketing for specialty Wisconsin products to distributors with national and global reach, such as providing complimentary product samples for participating suppliers, airlines, hotels, and guest services contractors, which are uniquely positioned to promote brand recognition and spur demand for the Wisconsin brand far beyond our state.

• Diversification. While last year brought daunting challenges to Wisconsin farmers, our corn harvest, while late, produced a record yield, and should be a source of optimism.41 Wisconsin is one of the top producing states in the nation in corn, soy and dairy – Tom wants it to be tops in these areas too.

• Family farming through modernization, expansion of markets, transition into organic farming, farming education programs for small farmers, and other extension efforts.

• Incentives for farming cooperatives. As the cost of agricultural inputs continues to rise and prices of commodities fall, farmers need ways generate more revenue. Instead of only growing and selling commodities, many farmers have formed agricultural cooperatives to process crops and return added value to producers, rather than leaving these profits to middlemen. These new agricultural cooperatives are commonly referred to as “value-added co-ops” or “new generation co-ops.” Tom will push for tax credits, purchasing incentives, and grants or loans to encourage the formation of these co-ops. Done in conjunction with a green energy agenda, the incentives can be targeted to farmers in biodiesel production. Missouri has a program like this. The credit is allocated specifically for incorporated cooperative facilities producing products (including energy and fuel) derived from agricultural commodities. The tax credits are only available to members of the co-ops, not to outside investors.42

• Local food production. Local food production has the potential to be a major economic engine. Local food activists are working to boost that percentage dramatically and are developing public policy recommendations to advance the growing, selling, safety, marketing, access, distribution, preparation and serving of locally produced foods. Examples of policies they are investigating include:

o Farm-to-school programs: These can include everything from gardening on school property and teaching farm curriculum to helping kids cook and serving local foods in school lunchrooms.

o Local food procurement for schools, hospitals, jails, and other institutions – Is it possible for the food-service operations of schools, hospitals, jails and other institutions to serve more local foods?

o Urban agriculture: Can zoning and other barriers be erased to benefit farmers within city limits?43

• Aquaculture. Aquaculture is the fastest-growing agricultural sector in the world. The transition from natural fisheries to aquaculture is occurring in part because there is more demand for fish than product. Although U.S. consumer demand is increasing for locally-grown products, the U.S. has a $9 billion seafood import deficit, with foreign

www.BarrettForWisconsin.com

Page

  50

  of

  67

Sample Page From Scott Walker's 68-Page (sic) Jobs Plan

Here's the full text of one of those pages and their humongous type size.

Remember: there are 67 more where that came from:

creators comply and get

their applications approved.

I will require permit

Sample Page From Tom Barrett's 67-Page Jobs Plan

Compare it just as it appears, below, or compare the full document, to a page in, or the entirety of Scott Walker's fake 'plan.'

target marketing for specialty Wisconsin products to distributors with national and global reach, such as providing complimentary product samples for participating suppliers, airlines, hotels, and guest services contractors, which are uniquely positioned to promote brand recognition and spur demand for the Wisconsin brand far beyond our state.

• Diversification. While last year brought daunting challenges to Wisconsin farmers, our corn harvest, while late, produced a record yield, and should be a source of optimism.41 Wisconsin is one of the top producing states in the nation in corn, soy and dairy – Tom wants it to be tops in these areas too.

• Family farming through modernization, expansion of markets, transition into organic farming, farming education programs for small farmers, and other extension efforts.

• Incentives for farming cooperatives. As the cost of agricultural inputs continues to rise and prices of commodities fall, farmers need ways generate more revenue. Instead of only growing and selling commodities, many farmers have formed agricultural cooperatives to process crops and return added value to producers, rather than leaving these profits to middlemen. These new agricultural cooperatives are commonly referred to as “value-added co-ops” or “new generation co-ops.” Tom will push for tax credits, purchasing incentives, and grants or loans to encourage the formation of these co-ops. Done in conjunction with a green energy agenda, the incentives can be targeted to farmers in biodiesel production. Missouri has a program like this. The credit is allocated specifically for incorporated cooperative facilities producing products (including energy and fuel) derived from agricultural commodities. The tax credits are only available to members of the co-ops, not to outside investors.42

• Local food production. Local food production has the potential to be a major economic engine. Local food activists are working to boost that percentage dramatically and are developing public policy recommendations to advance the growing, selling, safety, marketing, access, distribution, preparation and serving of locally produced foods. Examples of policies they are investigating include:

o Farm-to-school programs: These can include everything from gardening on school property and teaching farm curriculum to helping kids cook and serving local foods in school lunchrooms.

o Local food procurement for schools, hospitals, jails, and other institutions – Is it possible for the food-service operations of schools, hospitals, jails and other institutions to serve more local foods?

o Urban agriculture: Can zoning and other barriers be erased to benefit farmers within city limits?43

• Aquaculture. Aquaculture is the fastest-growing agricultural sector in the world. The transition from natural fisheries to aquaculture is occurring in part because there is more demand for fish than product. Although U.S. consumer demand is increasing for locally-grown products, the U.S. has a $9 billion seafood import deficit, with foreign

www.BarrettForWisconsin.com

Page

  50

  of

  6

Sample Page From Scott Walker's 68-Page (sic) Jobs Plan

Here's the full text of one of those pages and their humongous type size.

Remember: there are 67 more where that came from:

creators comply and get

their applications approved.

I will require permit

Walker Disowns Post On His Blog - - But Not The Subject

The subject was Walker's juvenile jobs' plan that was inflated to 68-pages using huge type to counter Tom Barrett's detailed, 67-page plan.

Walker, says jsonline, is disassociating himself from an entry about the mess - - "lots and lots of pages" - - but not the plan's fakery.

Here's what it is that Walker is willing to criticize; talk about engaging in more misdirection:

Home » Team Tosa Blog » Presenting Scott Walker's 68 Page Plan to Create 250,000 Jobs

Presenting Scott Walker's 68 Page Plan to Create 250,000 Jobs

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• Submitted by Michael Brickman on Fri, 09/17/2010 - 4:43pm

Send to frie

After Scott's big primary victory, he has been traveling the state to spread the word about his plan to get government out of the way to allow the private sector to create 250,000 jobs during his first term.  The highlights:

• Lower Taxes
• Eliminate Red Tape
• End Frivolous Lawsuits That Kill Jobs
• Improve the Education of Tomorrow’s Workforce
• Make Health Care Affordable
• Invest in Infrastructure

Rather than put out thick packet of fluff that few will read, Scott Walker is actually proposing ideas that will fundamentally change the direction of our state for the better.  Still, while Barrett's plan is lacking in ideas and vision, we confess it does have a lot of pages - 67 to be exact.  So, not to be outdone, the Team Tosa Blog is proud to present Scott Walker's 68 PAGE JOBS PLAN!

It's the best of both worlds: good, substantive ideas for people who are into that type of thing, but also lots and lots of pages!!!

DOWNLOAD SCOTT'S 68 PAGE JOBS PLAN

Happy scrolling.

Categories: Blog, jobs, Scott Walker, Tom Barrett

How The Right Deflects Attention From Its Voter Suppression Conspiracy In Wisconsin

Caught red-handed, they respond with politically ugly billboards.

The Barrett Jobs Plan

The Barrett plan is more than Walker's cotton-candy.

Out-Of-State Groups Laud DNR For Cautious Approach To Waukesha Plan For Lake Michigan Diversion

Major out-of-state environmental groups are applauding the Wisconsin DNR for continuing to demand information from Waukesha before declaring the city's diversion application complete.

Local and statewide organizations had similarly weighed in.

Here is the text of the groups' statement - - and remember - - voices in other states count significantly, as all eight Great Lakes states must approve the Waukesha application (with advice from two Canadian provinces, too) - - or no water moves out of the Great Lakes basin to Waukesha, according to the 2008 Great Lakes Compact:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Alliance for the Great Lakes National Wildlife Federation

For Immediate Release Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2010

Groups Praise Wisconsin’s Caution on First-Ever Diversion Bid

The Alliance for the Great Lakes and National Wildlife Federation applaud Wisconsin for holding out for more information before committing to a detailed review of a Milwaukee suburb’s bid to divert Lake Michigan water.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources notified the city of Waukesha in a letter Monday that it is restarting the review process for the city’s proposal, but “believes more information is necessary before the application is deemed complete.” The DNR did not identify what information is needed, but said it will meet with city representatives to explain the issues relating to completing the application.

It’s the second time in three months the agency’s sought greater detail about Waukesha’s formal water bid, the first diversion request under the new Great Lakes Compact from a community located entirely outside the Great Lakes Basin.

The DNR flat-out rejected Waukesha’s application on June 9, saying the city failed to demonstrate it has no alternative but to tap Lake Michigan water – a requirement of the landmark interstate compact approved in 2008.

“Wisconsin is commended for taking a cautious, thorough and public approach when considering this first application for an exception to the ban on diversions under the compact – the most important vehicle we have for protecting and conserving the waters of the Great Lakes,” said Ed Glatfelter, director of the Alliance’s Water Conservation Program. “What they do here has implications not just for Lake Michigan, but for all five of the Great Lakes and the more than 40 million people who depend on them.”

Waukesha is eligible to apply for Great Lakes water because it lies within a county that straddles the Great Lakes and Mississippi River divide. That county, Waukesha County in southeastern Wisconsin, is located 18 miles west of Milwaukee and Lake Michigan.

In addition to demonstrating that no reasonable alternative water supply exists, the compact requires that Waukesha commit to returning all the water it withdraws -- less a reasonable amount for consumption -- to Lake Michigan.

“The compact is clear on what is expected of any diversion application. Kudos to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources for understanding this and dealing with this application seriously,” said Marc Smith, senior policy manager with National Wildlife Federation. “Clearly Wisconsin understands that what happens in Waukesha does not stay in Waukesha.”

The precedent-setting application must not only stand up to the WDNR’s scrutiny, it must undergo regional review by the governors of the eight Great Lakes states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and the Canadian premiers of Ontario and Quebec. Applications for exceptions in straddling counties must also be approved by all eight of Great Lakes governors.

See the WDNR’s letter at:

http://dnr.wi.gov/org/water/dwg/greatlakes/Waukesha/Ybarra_letter_9_20_10.pdf

Contacts:

Alliance for the Great Lakes

Ed Glatfelter: 312-939-0838 x235, eglatfelter@greatlakes.org

National Wildlife Federation

Marc Smith: 734-887-7116; 734-255-5413 (cell), msmith@nwf.org

###

Formed in 1970, the Alliance for the Great Lakes is the oldest independent Great Lakes citizens’ organization in North America. Our mission is to: conserve and restore the world's largest freshwater resource using policy, education and local efforts, ensuring a healthy Great Lakes and clean water for generations of people and wildlife. More about the Alliance for the Great Lakes is online at www.greatlakes.org.

The National Wildlife Federation is America’s conservation organization inspiring Americans to protect wildlife for our children’s future. For more information: http://www.nwf.org/greatlakes

Barrett Posts Walker's "Worst" Fakery

Glad to see Team Barrett posting on the candidate's website GOP opponent Scott Walker's "Worst Person in the World" award from Keith Olbermann.

Challenged by and envious of Barrett's detailed, 67-page jobs plan, Walker had a short competing memo filled with rhetoric and platitudes stretched to 68 pages (sic) by having the text blown up into huge, headline-size font.

Pages have about 15 words, or less if they are a photo or sub-title page.

Check it out.

Walker's phony pitch and graphic tricks are on the level of the late-night cable infomercials for diet supplements that will melt off the weight and transfer it to your garden tomatoes while you sleep.

You'd might expect this juvenilia, this superficiality from an unprepared college student caught flat-footed by an exam question - - writing on lined paper in REALLY BIG SCRIPT, or on one side of the page to convey the impression that he or she actually had something substantive to say, but from a candidate for Governor?

About jobs and the economy?

It makes you wonder how much photo-shopping and other forms of fakery or inflated claims have already been inserted throughout Walker's literature.