Things that make you go “Hmmmm…”

Why did the blog preview place these words with my blog preview?

Heart disease and obesity are bad enough, but Chevrolet? Yikes…

Minneapolis is our state capitol now

If the Wisconsin Campaign Finance System shows it, it must be true!

(h/t Patrick Marley at JSO.)

Also: Dan Cody has more on this here, and here.

What would it take to boot Bob Donovan from office?

Quick! A Milwaukee alderman is holding a press conference. Who could it be? Why is this man talking, and how much longer do we have to listen to him?

Nine chances out of ten it’s from Milwaukee’s #1 noise-making alderman Bob Donovan. After we had the second or third snowiest December on record, Donovan’s latest trick was to complain about the snow, and how it’s taking the city plowing service a while to get the side streets cleared out. Like any true grandstander, he’s making it sound as if peoples’ lives are in danger as a result — even though that’s not at all true. Quoting the Journal Sentinel:

“Many of our side streets are simply impassable for emergency vehicles,” Donovan told reporters. “These streets need to be cleared out.”

However, Donovan said he was not aware of any case where a firetruck, ambulance or squad car had been unable to get through. [Emphasis added.]

As Zach at Blogging Blue said, “Donovan has taken it upon himself blast city public works officials for failing to tow stranded cars which were blocking streets. [He sits on the DPW committee. - JH] However, according to Patrick Curley, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett’s chief of staff, Alderman Donovan was briefed about the situation at 11 a.m., which would be 2 1/2 hours before Donovan’s 1:30 p.m. news conference on Friday.”

So he is wasting time. Only he can look like he’s Fighting For The People™ — or as Zach put it, being nothing but a “professional grandstander.”

What would it take to oust him? Let’s look at his district.

Donovan represents the 8th Aldermanic District on Milwaukee’s southwest side. It’s a fairly conservative area, running roughly from 16th and 27th street, and west between 33rd and 50th. Its southern edges skim along Euclid and Oklahoma Avenues, and I-94 marks the northern edge. Here’s a map of the district, and this map shows where it is in the bigger picture of the city. By virtue of where he is, he seems to be in line with our friends at CRG. He actually thanked them in what was, knowing Donovan, either a press release, press conference, or interview with the super business-friendly rag BizTimes. And while I don’t have a problem with the voting on the issue in discussion, note how Donovan said that getting blitzed wiht calls from the two or three people in CRG was enough to influence his vote; he called this “[erring] on the side of the little guy.” Note to the good alderman: CRG ain’t the little guy. It may be a lot of small, petty men, but they do not comprise your constituency.

So, we’ve got an alderman who lives in a traditionally conservative part of Milwaukee and has backing from a hyperconservative anti-spending group. But is it that conservative an area? Looking at the latest presidential election results from the County and trying to match them against the City’s wards is a frustrating effort, but nonetheless it shows that President-elect Obama did fairly well in many of the wards in the County’s 14th district [PDF], parts of which overlap with the City’s 8th. (And this is just another reason why we need to consolidate city and county government.)

In fact, a more telling indication of where the area’s heart lays is in the recent sales tax increase. Only one ward within the district (ward 146) vote against the increase by a slightly greater number than those who voted for it; 377 for, 385 against. All other wards voted in favor of the tax increase, which flies in the face of what groups like CRG stand for. (Thanks to Dan Cody for pointing out that data.)

Also, there’s always been some question as to how cleanly or crookedly Bob Donovan has operated. It wasn’t long ago that he was indicted but later exonerated on fraud charges. While he was exonerated, questions still remain about what he was trying to do by shuffling city money toward his group.

What it seems that we need is someone from the district, not a newcomer, but a long-time resident to start firat a grassroots campaign, and build it into a real race for Donovan’s seat. Now, get this: he was unopposed his reelection bid this past spring of 2008, which not only means that his biography is wrong in saying that it’s his first term, but it also means that no one tried to unseat him. What good is democracy if incumbents run unchallenged? If they run a fair race and win handily, fine. But someone needs to challenge him in 2012. Bob Donovan’s grandstanding and self-gratifying noisemaking would face a much-deserved challenge.

“Barack, The Magic Negro” — the voice of the “new” Republican Party?

Some things intended as jokes don’t work. This is a repulsive way to refer to the president-elect. And for a party supposedly trying to find itself, this is a clear call for a turn toward embracing the long-standing view of Republican ideology as being “WASPs über alles,” desiring a return to 1950s white superiority. That may make some in the Republican base feel good, but it’s not good for the country, or the world.

H/T to Dan Cody, the Reasonable Progressive, and Blogging Blue.

State Rep. Wood hardly first legislator with a DUI

Just look at who else has done this, according to Political Capital:

“In the past five years, Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker, D-Weston; Sen. Mike Ellis, R-Neenah; Rep. Jason Fields, D-Milwaukee; Rep. David Travis, D-Waunakee; and Rep. Frank Boyle, D-Superior, were all tabbed for drunken driving. Railroad commissioner Roger Breske has a DUI.

What kind of message does it send when so many of the people supposedly entrusted with crafting our state’s law can’t seem to drive sober? And which should become lower, my regard for much of the Wisconsin legislature, or the drinking culture which they are upholding? They’re lucky they just got pulled over and ticketed. They’re very lucky that they didn’t permanently smash anyone’s lives thanks to their own stupidity.

ObHolidayPost

Merry War on Christmas, everybody! Hope your Chinese food was lovely tonight.

SimCity iPhone — HOWTO run mass transit?

One of the problems with software released for the iPhone and iPod Touch (the latter of which we have) is that documentation can be a bit on the thin side, if there is any at all. SimCity knows is a complicated game, and simply laying zones and roads will not result in a happy metropolis. I’ve been happily playing the new SimCity iPhone (on the iPod Touch) for a few days.  My frustration comes from that I can’t figure out for the life of me is how to make buses run. I can place bus stops all around town, but my advisors won’t tell me how to start a bus service. This is a problem, because the people of Monkeyville need to get to work, but for some reason, many of them just can’t. I don’t want my fair SimCitizens to leave town just because they can’t get to work. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Update: A friend wrote, ” Busses [sic.] run themselves.. all you need to build are the shelters. But you have to build a shitload of them. i.e. every couple blocks, in both directions. you need to design routes in your head, and then put bus stops accordingly. That’s why I go car only in my cities. “

10 June 2009: I recall that when you build train stations and accompanying tracks, you may not see the trains running unless you are sufficiently zoomed in. That is to say, you don’t see them when you’re looking at a birds’ eye view of the city. I believe buses work the same way. I wish you could see them while zoomed out, but so be it.

Good riddance to last Tahoe from Janesville; hate the job loss though.

General Motors’ recent woes have an odd peculiarity to me. It was a Chevy Tahoe, which came from either the Janesville, Wisc. plant or one in Texas (I blame the latter) that was piloted by a drunk driver that smashed into my small car on the evening of March 10, 2000, and inexorably changed my life for the worse. I lost most of an eye, and more blood and brain cells than I can count. It also wrecked my marriage, which is a comman aftereffect of overwhelming traumatic injuries such as the one I survived. I’m sure glad to be here now, and wouldn’t even go back in time to stop myself from going out that fateful night. (Though I would advise my late self to take a bigger car that night.)

But as we all know by now, the last Chevy Tahoe rolled off the assembly line at GM’s Janesville plant yesterday.

If I had my way, there would be no more Tahoes, Suburbans, Excursions, Expeditions, or even Explorers.

But they do exist, and that created many jobs. Jobs, which, thanks to the nature of the beasts, as well as the state of the economy, are now being eliminated.

And that’s bad.

I didn’t think Franken would win in Minnesota

Well, it’s nice to be wrong every now and then.

And it looks like one of the people that helped rig the recounting of the already-rigged ballots in the 2000 Florida election tried to help the incumbent Senator Coleman. Way to set your sights low, buddy!

People attend Drinking Liberally — and live to tell about it

Heck, Capper ever said he enjoyed the last one. Though I must have really drunk liberally that night, as I don’t remember anything at all about me appearing as a giant elf. (Or if it wasn’t me, then maybe Capper did…)

Normally, is on the third Wednesday of the month. However, this January, we will be having the very special “End of an Error!” party at Sugar Maple on Tuesday, January 20, in celebration of Barack Obama’s inauguration, and to say good riddance to the buffoon who’s lied, cheated, and stolen his way through the past eight years.

That said, the next Eating Liberally will be at 6:00 on Wednesday, January 7 at Stone Fly Brewery, which is at 735 East Center Street in Milwaukee’s Riverwest neighborhood. You can take a look at their food menu before hand if you wish, too.

(Conveniently for me, Stone Fly is a direct stop on the #11 city bus line, which goes past my house. That’s something to consider if I wish to make that night another round of “Eating AND Drinking Liberally.”)

See you there!