Walker's WisDOT is beginning that "too-early-to-say" planning talk about widening I-94 at Story Hill.
You know: Phase one, too early to know just how this might work out after all the meetings, charettes and comments.
Then Phase two: "Too late to change anything."
Bulldozers, start your engines.
As I wrote three years ago:
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Highway Expansion A Dagger Pointed At Milwaukee's West Side
Members of Congress want Scott Walker to clarify remarks he made under oath last year that appear contradicted by what he confided to a Beloit billionaire on a video about the "divide and conquer" anti-labor plan.
“This new video raises serious questions about the veracity of Governor Walker’s testimony before our Committee, in which he repeatedly described his decision to strip public sector union workers of collective bargaining rights in purely economic terms,” Reps. Elijah Cummings, Gerald Connolly and Chris Murphy wrote in a letter. “Instead, this video suggests that his motivation was to ‘divide and conquer’ public sector unions in order to turn Wisconsin into a ‘completely red state.’”Good move: Here's how I put it the other day.
Remember last year when Scott Walker got raked over the coals at a Congressional hearing and finally admitted that the anti-collective bargaining elements of his 'budget repair' bill didn't save any taxpayer money?And one more thing.
Well, apparently there was a lot more testimony that day, and others have discovered more truthiness issues with Walker's testimony, especially in light of his disclosure caught on tape to a Beloit billionaire prior to his testimony that he was strategizing about achieving right-to-work union restrictions down the road.
What would happen if Walker were recalled to Congress to explain why he did not let on when he was under oath about his "divide and conquer" union plans and discussions?
One online video lays out that case, here.
Please see the updated information in a posting from earlier today about aldermen who let Scott Walker get away with a low blow to Milwaukee by declining to sign a letter of protest.
An additional alderman - - the eighth - - has now signed the letter.
Thank you, Tony Zielinski; a majority of the 15-member Council majority has signed.
The letter should have been signed unanimously.
Regardless of party affiliation or other circumstances, any Governor saying publicly that Wisconsin would become "another Milwaukee" if Tom Barrett were elected deserves the harshest condemnation.
The remark is recall-worthy.
[Update: Ald. Zielinski signed this afternoon, so the # of non-signers is now seven. See updates below] When Scott Walker went to Waukesha County and delivered a sleazy, coded attack wrapped in a shot at gubernatorial opponent Tom Barrett - -
People do not want to see Wisconsin "become another Milwaukee," Walker said.- - you'd think all Milwaukee Common Council members, regardless of party, regardless of their relationships with Mayor Barrett, regardless...regardless...would hit back on behalf of the City.
[Further update: I'll bet this Facebook note today from Bill Christofferson got Zielinski's attention, and thank you, Alderman, for signing]:[Update: you have a Milwaukee.Gov E-Notification... Alderman Tony Zielinski adds name to "MILWAUKEE MATTERS" statement.]
I don't get it.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 18, 2012
Milwaukee Matters Joint Statement from Members of the Common Council
On May 8 during his primary victory speech, Governor Walker removed the City of Milwaukee from the State of Wisconsin and disconnected the city’s problems from the responsibility of the state government. He has repeated this same line of commentary when convenient during media interviews.
As elected officials and residents of the City of Milwaukee, it is extremely disturbing to listen to our Governor, the former top elected official for Milwaukee County, use our great city as a prop and make disparaging remarks about the city to gain political points with those outside the city. We are Milwaukee – resilient and strong.
We can only move Wisconsin forward with a strong Milwaukee – not the Governor’s plan of leaving Milwaukee behind.
We are working incredibly hard to focus on solutions to challenges we face, and despite dogged opposition from those supporting policies that have impeded our progress, we are fighting our way to a brighter future. It seems hypocritical for the Governor to slash funding to public education, deny federal funds that would have created jobs, repeatedly take over decisions that have traditionally been under local control, and then take zero responsibility for the impact those decisions have on the city.
Moreover, anyone who has observed the Governor’s budgeting priorities over the last decade, first in Milwaukee County at the Courthouse and now at the State Capitol, has seen a blatant aversion for the city and a desire to see the City of Milwaukee fail. It is his fiscal agenda.
As County Executive, the Governor devastated the Milwaukee County Transit System, and now as Governor, he added money to the prison and highway budgets and took money from public education and from shared revenue with cities, towns, and villages. Those cuts were felt most acutely – as he knew they would be – by the Milwaukee Public Schools and by the City and County of Milwaukee. And now he is bragging about that?
The leader of the State must have the capacity to bring all people in the state together in efforts to solve problems. Accentuating differences between residents in the state in a manner that is unproductive or adversarial is wrong, and only divides and distances us from one another. As Milwaukee goes, so goes the State of Wisconsin.
If Wisconsin is to move forward – Milwaukee Matters.
Ald. Ashanti Hamilton Ald. Milele A. Coggs Ald. Nik Kovac
Ald. Robert J. Bauman Ald. Michael Murphy Ald. Willie C. Wade
Ald. José G. Pérez
The coverup of the use of public resources to help Scott Walker at taxpayer expense win a close race for Governor in 2010 began August 17, 2009, records show - - and that fact, combined with Walker's continuing unwillingness to publicly disclose his full knowledge of all related information is reason enough to vote him out of office June 5th.
August 17, 2009 is the date a Walker appointee named Darlene Wink, who has since pleaded guilty to doing partisan, political work on public time in Walker's County Executive office, asked Tim Russell, another Walker appointee, how to delete the record of some partisan work she had been doing. on County time.
Russell is facing separate charges of stealing funds from a Veterans fund managed in the County Executive's office and from other accounts.
He told Wink, as recounted on page 29 of a complaint (pdf format) against Wink to simply shut down her computer, and allayed her fear that the work would land her in jail.
Russell is also named by prosecutors in a complaint against Kelly Rindfleisch, another Walker appointee charged with campaigning on public time,.
Prosecutors say Russell installed a then-secret email communication system used by various political operatives less than 25 feet from Walker's County Executive office.
One thousand days is time enough to make the recall judgment.
Time for a fresh start based on trust.
Let's hope the hits to Wisconsin vets don't come in three's, as twice is already two too many:
* Turns out that veterans take it on the chin through the Walker/Grothman bill to disallow lawsuits for damages over workplace discrimination:
Military veterans are the big losers in the rollback of a Wisconsin law that had allowed women, minorities and other protected groups to sue in state court over employment discrimination, say leaders of a statewide veterans group.Some admission by Grothman, don't you think? Ignorance as a virtue.
The change was designed by Republicans to help Wisconsin businesses avoid costs of frivolous lawsuits, but it has been derided by Democrats as part of a GOP "war on women." Republicans say women still have the right to sue in federal court.
Lost in the debate are little-known limits on the rights of veterans to sue in federal court, said Michael Gourlie, a member of the Wisconsin Association of Concerned Veterans Organizations executive board and Wisconsin's Council on Veterans Programs, which advises the state Department of Veterans Affairs...
The author of the Wisconsin bill, state Sen. Glenn Grothman, R-West Bend, said he didn't know about the federal limits on veterans, but it wouldn't have changed his mind, because fewer lawsuits will mean more jobs for everyone, including soldiers returning from war.
Friday, January 6, 2012
Walker Way Too Involved In Operation Freedom
Still no explanation from Gov. Walker to justify his extensive personal involvement in the "Operation Freedom" charity from which money donated for veterans was alleged to have been stolen by Walker aide Tim Russell and another man for personal gain.
Even if you want to argue that that Walker wanted such an operation set up and managed from his public for purely patriotic goals totally unencumbered by any political consideration - - why, as the Journal Sentinel explains, did Walker disregard the signals from the County's Ethics Board and choose to stay, through Russell, so closely involved?
In the complaints, the Alonzo Cudworth American Legion Post 23 was listed as handling the veterans funds correctly before the responsibility was handed over to [Tim] Russell and the Heritage Guard Preservation Society in October 2009 - a decision personally signed off on by Walker as county executive...
The financing setup for the event drew ethics scrutiny in 2006, when two county Ethics Board members questioned the practice of county officials asking private companies for money for public programs, saying it raised conflict-of-interest questions.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Lee Bergquist and the non-profit legal watchdogs at Midwest Environmental Advocates have documented an across-the-board pullback in inspection work by the Department of Natural Resources during Scott Walker's first year in office.
But as it did when the State Journal found the department had cut back widely on enforcement actions against polluters as well, the department offered up the weakest and most of bureaucratic whines:
We're short of people.
Two things:
Walker recreated the department as a charter agency last year, meaning it could go outside some state hiring procedures and recruit with more freedom than other agencies.
So where's the follow-through?
Could it be that serious, science-based professionals are not beating down the doors to work for agency now run by Cathy Stepp who has been famously anti-DNR, and still openly partisan?
So where is the tipping point for the public on the way this taxpayer-financed department is being run?
* The human waste spreading outrage in Jefferson County?
* The fresh pollution of the St. Croix River?
* The fresh revelations by both major statewide daily papers of systemic reductions in inspections and enforcement actions needed to insure clean air and water for all the people of the state?
Or the realization the department's managers, while saying they don't have the horses to get the job done, somehow have the time to chat up conservative talk radio hosts, stay on message for a bigger agency despite their small-government ideology, and manage a news release machine?
This posting had information that got to the heart of where the DNR has been headed - - in its own words - - since Stepp took over:
this message is sent to all DNR Central Office staff, Darwin Road staff, and Regional Directors:
Come and join us for our 1st annual Halloween Progressive PotluckHow does it work?Staff on each floor will be designated a food type to bring. For example, employees on 8th floor are asked to bring meat or a hot dish which will be set up in a conference room on 8th floor. The same will happen with each floor. (See attached poster for food assignments). Everyone will need to go floor to floor to get a balanced meal (unless you are in the mood for only dessert and you can just stay on 7th floor…) Don't have time to get something together for the potluck?? Bring a canned good to donate to the food pantry instead.And Costume Challenge!Central Office has challenged the Regions to a costumer competition. We are asking each bureau and office to take a picture of their staff in costume and forward it to [...] Pictures will be included in the next e-digest. Who wins? You decide. And the prize? The pride in believing that your region/office was the best!!Our Goals?To have funTo mingle with staff on different floorsTo enjoy some great food
How else to react to the heart of Don Behm's comprehensive piece in
this newspaper Sunday about approval and construction complexities the
City of Waukesha opted to face, but now finds seriously daunting, in its
application for a diversion of water from Lake Michigan?
And this story suggests real deadline issue are looming, then look to these insular and co-dependent entities for an explanation of how so much time has been frittered away:
The Waukesha Water Utility and the Waukesha Common Council.
They have consistently, based on the advice of various contractors and their own beliefs, gone after Lake Michigan water even though it has been known for years it was the most legally, fiscally, politically and procedurally-difficult water supply alternative for Waukesha to attempt, while repeatedly refusing to seriously consider available, less complicating alternatives.
As has been pointed out, ad nauseam, ad infinitum - - such as 20 months ago - - Lake Michigan water or bust had a real downside:
So is Waukesha hoping for some sort of penultimate Scott Walker executive order/end run around Wisconsin's regulatory review mandated by state law and the Great Lakes Compact of 2008 - - the guiding agreement under which an application is made, vetted, approved and sent to the seven other Great Lakes states for their OK, too?So it's not a quick or simple undertaking - - and Waukesha has agreed in writing to meet a June, 2018 legal deadline for the provision of water to its customers that complies with Federal quality standards...Among the many answered questions...Does Waukesha have additional and viable alternatives to a Lake Michigan diversion that will meet the Federal water quality standards?Can Waukesha clear the multitude of legal, political and environmental hurdles the application faces - - in Waukesha, in Southeastern Wisconsin, at the DNR and across the Great Lakes both in the US and Canada - - by the June, 2018 deadline?...Complicated? You bet.Was the Lake Michigan option the right choice by Waukesha?
From the editorial:
Overzealous political associates sometimes get in trouble. The John Doe probe doesn't justify a vote against the governor.I wouldn't have written those lines without a super-secret thumbs-up in disappearing ink from prosecutor John Chisholm. Which, of course, isn't how it happens, so those lines were written on faith that the scandal goes no higher.
As I said in so many words at my other blog, any Wisconsin talk radio host who calls the newspaper "liberal" from now has an entire walk-in closet full of pants on fire.
I thought this newspaper would stick to its no-endorsements-in-recall
elections policy, articulated last year and cited at my other blog, here:
The Journal Sentinel endorses Walker.
Will the paper give itself a Full-Flip?
When there were recalls last year, the editorial board said this:
The Editorial Board will not recommend candidates in the recall elections. We believe policy arguments are best resolved on the floors of legislative bodies or at the ballot box during regular elections. Recalls should be used to punish gross malfeasance or corruption - something that cannot wait for the normal election cycle - not to overturn the results of an election or to dispute policy differences.
Definitely worth a read:
If no mining company has been able to meet the standards of Wisconsin’s mining moratorium law, it does not mean the law is flawed and in need of revision. It means the mining industry’s claim of being able to mine safely lacks scientific merit...
This wise law reflects a high regard for due diligence and reasonable prudence — but did not ban mining. It simply requires mining companies to prove their proposed mine would not pollute groundwater or surface water where sulfides are present in the ore body or the rock surrounding the ore body.
Another salute to the Institute for Wisconsin's Future:
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This time, the agency discovered it was messing over a lot of unemployed people voters by holding up their checks.
And put a stop to that!
And you thought there was no more compassion among compassionate conservatives.
Earlier this morning I posted about a spill of frac sand and sediment into the St. Croix River.
I've also put an updated post about it at my Journal Sentinel blog spot.
Here is that text:
There's been a spill into the St. Croix River of sediment and sand from a mine in Northwest Wisconsin serving the booming energy fracking industry.
Conservation officials first learned of the leak on April 22, when a hiker reported seeing cream-colored water in a creek flowing to the St. Croix River. DNR investigators used a plane to survey the area four days later.They traced the murky water back to a 72-acre sand mining facility operated by Maple Grove-based Tiller Corporation, where they located a leak in one of the facility's holding ponds. The company was notified and agreed to repair the pond immediately, according to DNR officials and Tiller Corporation's land use affairs director Mike Caron.Caron said he doesn't know how mine employees failed to notice the leak."I don't have an answer for that question," he said. "We've asked our people to do their inspections. Somehow this one got missed by them."If spreading human waste near Jefferson County drinking water wells resulted in only tickets for the polluter at the behest of our freshly-corporatized Wisconsin DNR, I can't imagine this incident will produce much of a regulatory response.
Reason #1: A senior DNR official this winter said he didn't see the need for any new regulations covering silica, a major fracking sand component, even though the number of frac sand mines has exploded in recent years to 60+.
Reason #2: Remember, this "chamber of commerce" iteration of our DNR wants the businesses it 'regulates' to be "self-regulators," a top DNR official recently said.
Even though the state constitution says Wisconsin's waters belong to everyone and the DNR is obliged to act to protect them in the public interest.
Doesn't seem like this self-regulation is doing Wisconsin water quality any favors.
If spreading human waste near Jefferson County drinking water wells led only to tickets at the behest of our freshly-corporatized Wisconsin DNR, I can't imagine a sand spill into the St. Croix River will produce much of a regulatory response.
Remember, the DNR wants the businesses it 'regulates' to be "self-regulators," a top DNR official recently said.
Provocative column in the conservative Washington Times:
Pundits have speculated that the recall is about far more than local affairs; it is a referendum of sorts on the distinct breed of right wing politics that has taken hold since the 2010 midterm elections. Despite being rooted in fiscal matters, like curtailing collective bargaining for labor unions, it has transcended them to include social policy as well; as the continuing siege on women’s reproductive rights is a shameful testament to.
If the Republican Party has any desire to remain electorally viable in both the immediate and distant futures, then such radicalism must be addressed. In the event that Walker were to lose, the national party — in spite of its chairman, Reince Priebus, who never seems to have surpassed amateur hour as far as the science of practical politics is concerned — would most certainly promote a more temperate dialogue.
Even more importantly, presumptive presidential nominee Mitt Romney could finally seize the opportunity to do something revolutionary: run on his own extensive record as a moderate. Throughout this year’s primaries, he was left with little choice other than to pose as a rock ribbed rightist; an cringeworthy feat that produced a plethora of unintentionally comedic moments.
Happy to pass along an op-ed by Kerry Schumann, executive director of the Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters.
Related posting, here.
I put this up over at Purple Wisconsin earlier today, too:
When we saw Scott Walker on camera telling the Beloit billionaire who
is now his largest campaign donor that the newly-elected Wisconsin
governor had a plan to "divide and conquer" his state's working people,
he provided a perfect bookend to his 2010 unguarded "dropped the bomb"
label for his then-secret plan to wipe out public sector collective
bargaining disclosed to someone he thought was the powerful conservative
political financier David Koch.
Having such contemptuously negative plans for everyday Wisconsin
citizens and taxpayers, but revealing them first and strategically to
people who would be key partisan contributors, should be an automatic
disqualifier for any gubernatorial candidate and justification for
removing that person from elected office if a recall election is
available.
Especially if we are talking about a governor - - the highest ranking statewide elected official.
Newspapers are likely to make recall election endorsements beginning
this Sunday, but don't look for this paper to make news by endorsing Tom
Barrett.
For one thing, the paper has said it would not make endorsements in
recall elections - - it made none in last year's State Senate recalls.
Also, and principally, the Journal Sentinel editorial board is
comfortable with Walker - - not in every case: Walker's Amtrak
forfeiture, and his support for the Assembly's mining bill the paper
slammed come quickly to mind - - but certainly on the business and
fiscal issues the paper has lined up with since it was created in the
1995 Journal/Sentinel merger.
So the edit board will not pull away from Walker, though doing so
would be a breath - - a gale, a hurricane - - of fresh air in a state
that needs a political and civic fresh start.
Now here is where Walker opponents will cry foul:
While saying the entire process has been a waste of time and money, it also said recently that in Walker's case, the recall has been inappropriate:
