Climate Change Has A Firm Believer At Coca-Cola

Though right-wing talk show ideologues like Charlie Sykes and Rush Limbaugh deny and mock it, climate change and its effects are being recognized and managed by an entity about as All-American as it comes:

Coca-Cola.

The soft drink giant joins other businesses and governments worldwide who are dealing with the economic impacts of climate change on water supplies, other raw materials and their bottom lines, reports The New York Times:

“Increased droughts, more unpredictable variability, 100-year floods every two years,” said Jeffrey Seabright, Coke’s vice president for environment and water resources, listing the problems that he said were also disrupting the company’s supply of sugar cane and sugar beets, as well as citrus for its fruit juices. “When we look at our most essential ingredients, we see those events as threats.”

Now I don't have any conflict-of-interest here. I don't own any Coca-Cola stock (and I haven't read the fine print of my mutual funds to know if they do), and, though you may not believe it, I have never drunk one down - - so I'm in no way touting something I hold dear or trolling for a case of samples from the manufacturer through this posting.

Have I had sips to please a doubting friend here and there?

Yes, but never more than a taste that always confirms my question: "How can you drink that?"

No offense meant.

Why the avoidance, besides disliking the taste?

As a boy I watched the older kids in my neighborhood clean the rust off their bikes' handlebars with Coke on a cloth, and I resolved right then and there never to drink the stuff.

(Nor a Pepsi either, or just about any other carbonated beverage, if you must know, so I'm not carrying water for any drink or supplier except what the Milwaukee Water Works sends through my residential spigot.)

But if a business as big, mainstream and ubiquitous worldwide as Coca-Cola understands that climate change is real and happening and isn't the figment of professorial grant-writers or liberal imaginations, what are the rest of you/us waiting for to tell the deniers to get educated and stop spreading misinformation?

And by the way: there is far, far more up-to-date information about climate change on the corporate Coca-Cola corporate web pages than there is, for example, on the Wisconsin DNR's web page titled "Wisconsin Initiative on Climate Change Impacts.

That page hasn't been updated since June, 18, 2012, and its sole link takes you principally to a 2011 report.

Also among other businesses (Bayer, Nestle, the company that owned Guinness) already taking note of climate change and trying to minimize it impact - - and also educating the general public and policy-makers: The insurance industry  - - as it has to make the payouts after storms, in all seasons, that are accelerating in scope and severity.

Payouts that are being processed right now in California, where the summer fire season began in January this year and where more Western US drought continues unabated.

As Coke's 1922 advertising jingle put it back then: "Thirst Knows No Season."

Cross-posted at Purple Wisconsin.

The WI DNR Again Excuses Its Weak Enforcement Actions

Enforcement actions against polluters initiated by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources fell dramatically when Scott Walker installed his "chamber-of-commerce" water-carriers atop the agency.

Walker's anti-public employee stance, his new senior DNR managers' histories with private sector interests and their endorsement of so-called self-regulation - - plus blatant political intervention by current and past legislators on behalf of polluter-donors - - helped drive veteran agency personnel out the door and reduce DNR's enforcement work and legacy reputation as a strong institutional voice for public resource protection.

In other words, the agency had fewer disrespected people around to do the publicly-focused work that Walker and his crew went out of their way to diminish.

So little surprise that after years of hands-on opportunities to make environmental protections a higher priority, and with special freedoms from bureaucratic procedures granted to make the DNR more pro-active, former home builder-and-regulatory critic/now-DNR-Secretary Cathy Stepp is still bringing fewer actions than her predecessors, Republican and Democratic, according to a new investigative report by the Journal Sentinel.

Yet a DNR enforcement official praised the agency's half-empty glass and comparatively-weak enforcement because there has been an uptick from 2011's enforcement crash:

"We're still rebuilding," [Steve] Sisbach said. "I see things are coming back in the right direction and I am personally confident that as we move forward, our numbers are going to continue to climb up."

Make a note of that wording. 

Because it's same tune the DNR has been singing since early 2012, as Deputy Secretary Matt Moroney, like Stepp also a former building industry veteran, told the Journal Sentinel:

Moroney and other top DNR officials in interviews defended the DNR's actions, saying the drop in enforcement cases was affected, in part, by fewer enforcement personnel and the loss of hundreds of jobs in the agency due to retirements. The DNR has filled or is in the process of filling 350 positions so far this year, and in addition key enforcement positions are now being filled, they said.

In fact, Moroney and Sisbach look like they were reading from the same sheet of talking poinsts, as Moroney said in the 2012 Journal Sentinel story:

"Big picture: Once we get fully staffed, I think you are going to see the number increase," he said.

You might want to check out this earlier blog post on these matters. 

The item includes links to a DNR 'charter agency' reorganization plan by the Walker administration that had been leaked to me, its endorsement by the Journal Sentinel endorsement of the proposal (never fully-implemented, as it would have run into a legal and public opinion buzzsaw), and a reminder that while Scott Walker has instituted radical, anti-environmental attacks on wetlands, for example, it was Walker, in neo-Nixonian fit who accused Tom Barrett or harboring such plans were Barrett elected Governor. 

The Editorial Plea About Redistricting That Never Was Going Anywhere

The Journal Sentinel and other newspapers around the state are pressing for public hearings that could lead to major reforms in redistricting. The goal is to take the heavily-partisan and self-interested process away from legislators, as has Iowa.

But politely hoping in print for "a rhetorical flourish" from Gov. Scott Walker to endorse the concept during his State of the State speech earlier in the week - - which Walker did not offer up - - was an exercise in futility.

For two reasons:

1. The speech was organized around themes and applause lines which Walker and his people can edit/copy/paste into re-election campaign ads this year, and perhaps during a 2016 Presidential run. 

Redistricting as an issue, let alone a problem to be addressed, is nowhere on Walker's radar or agenda. It does not raise a single dollar or win a single new vote or sway a convention delegate for Team Walker.

2. Walker and his allies in the Legislature are the current beneficiaries of partisan Wisconsin-redistricting-as-usual, and especially the recent, secretive process so messy in the last go-round that Republicans had to shell out a fortune in your tax dollars for lawyers to get the results past an irritated, conservative Federal judge.

No way was Walker going to utter one syllable that could be interpreted even implying that the post-2010 census redistricting deserved any criticism, let alone reform. 

After all, the 2020 census with the next round of legislative redistricting isn't that far away, and you can bet that if Wisconsin Republicans get the chance they will use their recent methodology and powers - - regardless of the stench they left around the Capitol - - as the upcoming remapping template.

No party in power ever gives it up voluntarily. 

And certainly not this crew  - - a gang not given to rhetorical flourishes - - that dispatched State Troopers to haul back absent opposition legislators, used and continues to wield 2012 recall election petition signature lists like a McCarthy-era loyalty oath and sanctioned the presence of military-grade, gun-toting private guards in the north woods to serve an out-of-state mining company/party donor without the proper licenses.

  

Two More WI Dogs Killed By Wolves; State Reimbursement Payments Possible

Wisconsin is the only state in the country that reimburses hunters whose dogs are killed by wolves - - even if the hunters let their dogs loose in areas during hunting or training that the DNR has designed as wolf caution zones due to attacks on dogs.

And even if the dog owner is a scofflaw.

Dogs have been killed by territorial wolves in so-called pack rendezvous sites, or when protecting bait used by bear hunters training their hounds.

Bear hunting and other related interests are responsible for this special-interest entitlement - - not to be conflated with payments also made to farmers and ranchers whose livestock is attacked by wolves.

And it is these lobbies that pushed the hardest for Wisconsin's now-two-year-old wolf hunt, in which dogs are allowed in the hunt. And in other state.

Anyone see a pattern here?

The owners of the two most recently-reported dogs killed in January are eligible for a state reimbursement of $2,500 per dog. One dog was chasing coyotes, the other snowshoe hares.

Just When You Thought Walker, GOP Couldn't Do Worse...

Am hearing that Walker and legislators are floating out some kind of Orwellian-titled 'Healthy Waters' bill backed by the WMC, Paper Council and others to give polluters another 20+ years to get phosphorous out of Wisconsin waters, strip much of the program's management from DNR scientists and hand it to Wisconsin Department of Administration partisan apparatchiks.

I've been saying for a while that the ultimate goal of these private-sector captives is the destruction of the Wisconsin Constitution's Public Trust doctrine, and this is clearly a step in that direction.

Glenn Grothman Finally Gets Win Over Garter Snake

GOP State Senator and noted herpetologist Glenn Grothman has long been hunting for a way to get the Butler's garter snake off Wisconsin's official endangered/threatened species lists.

Now that the DNR is run by Grothman's ex-legislative colleague and former home builder Cathy Stepp, the agency has done just that, so crank up the bulldozers.

Grothman had shared his snake-related bona fides with The Washington Post in 2006:

It is unclear how many Butler's garter snakes live in Wisconsin. Grothman says there are plenty. 

"The snake is everywhere. There are probably as many snakes as people," he said... 

Conservationists say the number of snakes is meaningless. The important figure is how many protected habitats exist for the Butler's garter snake.

Note that this is not the first time that Grothman has brought his technical skills to an environmental issue: Remember when he suggested that a well potentially threatened by the world's largest open-pit iron ore mine nearby could be kept safe with some caulk?

True story.

And Grothman sees other unnecessary protections by the state, like the law that prevents an employer from implementing a seven-day work week.

Garter snakes, worker health, family life - - hey - - if it's in the way of business, bulldoze it.

He had also opined in recent years about the valueless Kwanzaa holiday, the false need for equal pay for women, and the connections of child abuse to single-parenting.

For the record, the long-time State Senator from West Bend is not married and has no children.

True To Form, Walker's Big Speech FUBAR Was Someone Else's Fault

We've noted here before that when things do not go Walker's way, he blames others. Six-year-olds do this as a responsibility-evasion reflex, but a Governor? Leadership by finger-pointing?

When Walker and his administration were embarrassed Thursday by the discovery that one of the prop people on stage while The Gov. touted new in-state hires was in fact a convicted sex offender/repeat drunk driver- - deflecting attention from the Big Failed 250,000 New Jobs' Promise - - Walker blamed the company that answered his office's call for speech prop people:

"This particular individual was one of the last people added. He came from a credible employer in the state who gave us the suggestion at the last minute."

DNR Wants To Allow Off-Leash Dogs During Hunts In State Parks

[Updated} The Wisconsin DNR, under the direction of Scott Walker appointees, has already opened state parks to hunting and trapping but now wants rule changes that will further turn state parks away from hiking, birding, photography and general recreation -to hunting interests by allowing the use of off-leash hunting dogs.

Further complicating the rule approval process: public comments end today at 5:00 p.m., and DNR documents give different accounts of where the new off-leash dog permissions will extend.

This information is contained in a DNR Submittal Notice on the proposed rule change to The Legislative Study Council as the proposal was being drafted:

These rules expand an exemption from the state park leash law for hunters’ dogs actively engaged in hunting from three named parks under current rules to any areas where hunting is allowed. 

The public comment on the proposal to add the off-leash dog permission under Wisconsin Act 168, approved in 2011, ends at 5:00 p.m. Thursday, so here is how and where to direct your comments:

Written comments on the proposed rule may be submitted via U.S. mail to Mr. Scott Loomans, Department of Natural Resources, PO Box 7921, Madison, WI 53707-7921 or by email toscott.loomans@wisconsin.gov. Comments may be submitted until Jan. 24, 2014.

Further posted DNR information about the rule change and comment period is, here.

Note at that link the DNR says the expanded off-leash hunting dog permission will be extended to only three state parks, but the submittal to the Legislative Council says from three parks to "any areas where hunting is allowed."

Here is what is at the link, above:

The permanent rules will include all of the same hunting and trapping rules included in the emergency rules and will include some additional changes such as eliminating the spring state parkturkey management zones [PDF] , and allowing hunting dogs to be off leash for dogs actively engaged in hunting at three state parks.

Why the contradiction from the same agency - - three parks vs. "any areas" - - in its official documentation about something so fundamentally significant? 

WEDC Home Page Carrying Multiple Scott Walker Promos

The Wisconsin Economic Development Commission dropped posting online a promotional video featuring Gov. Scott Walker after it got caught spending about $33,000 to insert Internet ads linked to it, like this - - 



- - that were and continue as paid insertions in the Journal Sentinel's online NewsWatch feed.

Walker created and chairs the agency that replaced the Wisconsin Department of Commerce.

While the blatantly pro-Walker promotion video has been scrubbed of Walker's appearances, the Internet ads on jsonline.com are still take viewers to the WEDC home page laden with items that promote Walker.

Right now, every "NEWS IN WISCONSIN" and "PRESS RELEASES" reference Walker by name or title in the headline. 

Does the first item really need seven mentions of "Walker"?

Does the four-paragraph release about a Waukesha business creating 72 jobs with a WEDC grant really need Walker's photo and his name in the caption?

NEWS IN WISCONSIN

• GOVERNOR WALKER CALLS SPECIAL SESSION, ASK LAWMAKERS TO PASS BLUEPRINT FOR PROSPERITY

  MADISON, January 23, 2014 – Governor Scott Walker today called a special session of the Wisconsin State Legislature for the purpose of providing over $500 million in property and income tax cuts for the hard-working taxpayers and significant investment in worker training programs. “This additional revenue should be returned to taxpayers because it’s their money,” Governor [...]
  Read More...

• GOVERNOR ANNOUNCES $226,700 IN ADDITIONAL FUNDS FOR SCHOOL-TO-WORK LEARNING PROGRAM

  Statewide program trains high school students to in-deman occupations MADISON, January 15, 2014 – Governor Scott Walker today announced additional grant awards totaling over $226,700 to support Wisconsin’s Youth Apprenticeship (YA) program. The program trains high school juniors and seniors for in-demand occupations with local employers around Wisconsin. “Wisconsin’s Youth Apprenticeship program is a key part of [...]

  Read More...
  PRESS RELEASES

• NOMINATION DEADLINE NEARS FOR GOVERNOR’S EXPORT ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS

  Nominations must be submitted by January 31 for award that honors companies that have had exporting success   MADISON, January 24, 2014 – Wisconsin businesses that would like to be acknowledged for their efforts in exporting have until January 31 to apply for the 2014 Governor’s Export Achievement Awards. The annual award, administered by the Wisconsin [...]
  Read More...

• GOVERNOR WALKER MAKES JOBS ANNOUNCEMENT IN WAUKESHA COUNTY

  EmbedTek expansion plans call for 72 new jobs; WEDC provides $300,000 in tax credits for project Hartland, January 17 – Today, Governor Scott Walker joined company leaders and employees at EmbedTek to celebrate the company’s business growth and job creation. EmbedTek designs and manufactures single-purpose computers and digital displays. The company expects to grow revenues [...]
  Read More...

Are Special Bills For Donors The Springboard For Higher WI Office?

I'm not sure how this story - -

Door County lawmaker seeks wetlands exemption for one lot 

- - helps that lawmaker run for statewide office - - 

Longtime state Rep. Garey Bies (R-Sister Bay) said Tuesday he's considering a run for secretary of state - -  

- - with Walker (mining, wetlands) and other legislators (Kleefisch, Harsdorf) already looking like partisan bellhops.

Walker Cites Tribes, Tourism In Same Breath

[Updated from Wed. 7:55 p.m.] Will Walker's open-pit mine/mountain top removal and acid-mine leakage bring tourists to Northwestern Wisconsin as it wipes out the Bad River Band's drinking water and rice-growing estuaries?

And what about the multiple millions of tons of fill and so-called over-burden stripped and then dumped in the region's lakes, rivers and streams.

That attracts anglers, how exactly?

Yet he managed to say this in last night's State of the State speech - - Mining Walker morphed into Walleye Walker: Doesn't he see the contradiction?

During the past summer, we made a strategic investment, which will boost Wisconsin's $2.3 billion sport fishing industry; and in less than a year, we have already increased stocking more than four times over, putting 440,000 walleyes into our lakes. In the coming years, resorts, guides, bait dealers, marinas, and all of the other local businesses that depend on good fishing will benefit as Wisconsin becomes the premiere destination for walleye fishing in the Midwest. Yet another reminder that Wisconsin is fun in all four seasons.  

 Since I took office, the economic impact of the tourism industry has grown by $2 billion to $16.8 billion. We have many great partners, including our 11 tribal governments across the state. After years of cuts to the tourism budget, we put more resources in for marketing in 2011 and, again, in 2013. It is paying off as people see the value for their money in Wisconsin_as well as the incredible hospitality and, most importantly, the FUN at tourism sites all across our great state.

Highway Hearing Tonight On Deficient State Highway 164 Plan

US District Court Judge Lynn Adelman found flaws in WisDOT's Highway 164/Highway J planning, and more rulings have gone against the project- - but the agency is proceeding with it willy-nilly, and grassroots organizers are looking to build a crowd against it a Washington County hearing Thursday night. Details from Jeff Gonyo and the indefatigable highway opponents' coalition:

ATTEND the THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 2014 PUBLIC HEARING (4 PM to 7 PM at the Friess Lake School – corner of Highways 164 & 167 in Richfield) and “Take Your Turn at the Microphone” to strongly speak out against the WisDOT’s wasteful and unnecessary Highway 164 expansion project...  

FILE WRITTEN PUBLIC HEARING COMMENTS ON OR BEFORE THE FEBRUARY 6, 2014 DEADLINE.   

Please send these comments either by e-mail to Traci.Gengler@dot.wi.gov or by postal mail to Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT), Southeast Region Office, Attn: Traci Gengler, WisDOT Project Manager, 141 NW Barstow Street, Waukesha, WI 53187.  Please be sure to ask the WisDOT to CONFIRM THE RECEIPT of your public hearing comments to ensure that they are received. 

Smart Comment On Walker Speech 'Hard-Working Taxpayers' Meme

Insightful comment on this posting:

Gareth said... 

Has anyone else noticed how "taxpayer" has routinely replaced "citizen" in political rhetoric and reporting? Is this a deliberate debasement of citizenship rights that signals the cultural acceptance of a rigid class system with multiple tiers based on income and race? Is this the logical extension of Republican hero, Margaret Thatcher's maxim: "There is no such thing as society"? Is this what it means to live in a Homeland rather than a Nation?
January 23, 2014 at 8:10 AM

During Speech, Walker Showcased Sex Offender, Repeat Drunk Driver

Oh, bad staff work:

Emphasizing his role as a job creator, Gov. Scott Walker praised Christopher Barber's initiative during the governor's annual "state of the state" speech on Wednesday. 

Barber, 32, left the ranks of the unemployed to land a seasonal job as welder at Ariens Co. in Brillion in late 2012, eventually turning that into to a full-time post, according to a press release from Walker's office. Newspapers around the state ran a photo of Barber giving a big wave to the crowd as he exited the Assembly podium to a round of applause during Walker's televised address... 

...Barber -- a resident of Two Rivers...is a registered sex offender with two felonies and three drunken-driving offenses. Because of his checkered past, Barber has been in and out of jail and prison for much of the past decade, with his probation having been revoked at least twice.

With $900+ Million Surplus, WI Could Have Handled $750,000 Amtrak Annual Cost

That was the state's estimate of Wisconsin's share of the projected Milwaukee-Madison Amtrak line annual operating cost  - - $750,000 - - a cost Walker inflated as high as $10 million and said we couldn't afford.

The construction was to be fully funded by the federal government, and the feds were likely to pick up most of the operating costs, the Journal Sentinel said:

Even with the federal government picking up the line's full construction cost, Walker has said he doesn't want state taxpayers to pay operating costs, projected at $7.5 million a year, starting in 2013. A state transportation official has said state taxpayers' share could be as little as $750,000 a year, if federal aid covers 90% of operating costs, as it does for Amtrak's existing Milwaukee-to-Chicago Hiawatha line.

Walker also nixed these employment gains as reported in early 2010 by the Journal Sentinel, based on official state estimates:

Therefore, total employment specifically linked to the train line would be 1,100 this year, 3,483 next year, 4,732 in 2012, 1,542 in 2013, 483 in 2014 and 167 in 2015. 

The remaining jobs that the state claims would be created - 181 this year, 577 next year, 803 in 2012, 305 in 2013, 138 in 2014 and 83 in 2015 - would be "induced" employment, or jobs at stores, restaurants and other businesses where the railroad workers would spend their wages.

Once Walker shut the project down, a Milwaukee train assembly plant in the central city was closed and that business was moved to Illinois.

The state is facing a major lawsuit over the shuttered plant and business lost to its builder, the Spanish train maker Talgo.

Walker Bobs, Weaves Through Jobs Data, State of State Speech

GOP Gov. Scott Walker worked around the realities of the state's statistically-demonstrable slow job growth (we're #37) and sputtering recovery by citing cherry-picked data, economic-activity reporting periods and some comparative state rankings - - but could not claim that he or the state were on track to meet his signature, oft-repeated 2010 and 2012 election promises to create 250,000 new private-sector jobs. 

He said 100,000 jobs had been created so far: After three years in office, he needs to be sitting on a gain of 187,000 jobs right now to hit 250,000 in another year. 

If the current pace continues, Walker won't get much past fulfilling 50% of the promise. 

Even that's not Jim Doyle's fault, try as Walker did to blame everything on his predecessor all these years later. 

It got to be tacky. In fact, one of Walker's speech highlights and applause lines repeated a previous jobs' claim he'd made that PolitiFact rated "Mostly False" because it blamed Jim Doyle directly for job losses attributable to the historic Great Recession. 

As PolitiFact Tweeted:

1. PolitiFact Wisconsin ‏@PolitiFactWisc3h

   Scott Walker: WI unemployment lowest since 2008. Factcheck of similar claim http://jsonl.in/2aA1nx  #wisots

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   •  Reply 
   •  Retweet 
   •  Favorite 

 And speaking of bobbing and weaving, what is with that Bobble-Head tic that Walker does when he reads an applause set-up line off the Teleprompter? 

It looks like he's nodding in affirmation to what he's just heard - - except he's the speaker. 

It's a gesture that might come from someone in the audience instead from a the speaker looking to add some validation.  

At some level, Walker undertands the shaky foundation or the tinny sound of his arguments; being his own cheerleader undercuts the delivery and weakens the message. 

Look for his handlers and coaches to excise it. 

First posted over at Purple Wisconsin: 

I Think I Nailed Walker's Speech, In Advance

Did I miss anything else of significance in this self-serving, statistically cherry-picked, revisionist, amnesiac, Doyle-bashing, weird head-bobbing address, as I'd written Monday?

Gov. Walker's State of the State speech Wednesday night offers higher-than-normal political opportunity because this is a Wisconsin gubernatorial election year. 

And Walker can use the speech to road-test themes and showcase talking points for a possible 2016 presidential candidacy, too.
So he gets a two-fer; expect to be spun for double your fun as he tells you: 

*  Though Wisconsin lags the national recovery (well, he won't actually say that), he'll take credit for  creating jobs... 

*  Except that he's all-but-mathematically eliminated from, or even getting close to keeping his 2010 campaign's signature promise - -  the creation of 250,000 new jobs - - so Walker will default to his ritual shot at long-retired former Governor Jim Doyle while misdirecting your attention to a different subject - - a declining unemployment rate. 

*  Without mentioning that the decline is a reflection of a statistically-shrunken worker pool because people out of work long-term have quit looking and no longer show up in the count - - the very people whose character Walker will claim to be spiffing up by ending their mooching dependency on health insurance, food stamps, unemployment benefits or a living wage. 

* More highway spending is happening, though driving is declining, road maintenance is suffering and transit is starving, but the road-builders must be served - - so funds will be skimmed from social programs (see moochers, dependency, above). 

*  And he'll talk about his his tax cuts - - puny per capita - -though you may have a hard time actually hearing about this Holiest Republican Grail over the choreographed cheers from assembled GOP legislators, staffers, VIP's and other hand-picked guests in the galleries. 

Should he say that some of the surplus state revenue that serendipitously showed up just in time for election-year redistribution can go to education, I do not expect him to remind you that he included a huge cut in public education funding in his first budget - - a cut that has yet to be fully restored while state aids are heading to expanded private choice and charter schools. 

File under 'When-an-entitlement-is-not-an-entitlement.' And mooching isn't charged even if  millions just disappear. 

Also listen for the buzzwords that Walker repeats robotically, and with which he will stay on message through November, and perhaps beyond, though there is nothing of substance behind them except focus-group testing and PR consultant word-smithing: 

*  Wisconsin taxpayers aren't just taxpayers, they're always "hard-working taxpayers." (A subtle dig at those moochers, above). 

*  Expect to hear "tools" a lot. Comments will be open, below, for clean double-entredres. 

*  Reforms, in his self-aggrandizing, self-centered but oblivious way, have always been "bold." Yes, it's been a slog, even though the Legislature and the State Supreme Court are run by and for his party and its corporate donors. 

*  And Walker, humility-free, will probably tell you of his "courage" since The Day He Dropped The Bomb. 

Such plaudits would be better coming from others, but Walker is Walker, so these phrases, with cheers in the background, will be delivered ready for cutting and pasting right into TV ad copy and promotional footage for Fox & Friends, fund-raisers and primary planners. 

Such is the state of our state.

Walker Gives Himself Another Pat On The Back.

His "Bold" moves are noted.

By himself.

As predicted.

As Predicted, Walker Touts School Funding - - Omits Mention of Bigger Cut In First Budget

Does Walker not understand that the $300 million he says he added to education budgets is about one-third the schools' funding his first budget cut?

As predicted.

And by the way, why are nearly all the exemplary people in the galleries brought in as special guests or paraded across the stage whites?

Walker Cherry-Picking Data In State Of The State

He's grabbing a number here and a time frame there, but the 100,000 jobs he claims to have created during the last three years are 80,000 fewer to stay on track to create his promised 250,000 jobs by the end of the year. And in the 13,000 businesses he claims to have helped create are 'businesses' like sports clubs and scout troops, as has been documented.

And, yes, in the first minutes, he's touting the unemployment rate - - though it reflects long-term jobless residents dropping out of the job poll - - and has taken the predicted shots at the Doyle administration.

And what's with the head-bobing tic to emphasize what he hears himself saying?