We can has KRM? Fer real?!

A LOL Cats-style headline seems quite appropriate, as my brain is still trying to wrap around some incredibly good news this morning.

KRM, a county RTA, and the 1% sales tax have passed the Joint Finance Committee. If it goes through, we’ll have dedicated property tax relief and funding for the parks, transit, and EMS.

It still hasn’t quite sunk in; the stuff I’ve been talking about for months and what I worked hard to get passed on the ballot back in November has passed a huge barrier and made it into the state budget!

Quoting Dan Cody:

“Overnight, the Legislature’s  voted to create a commuter rail authority in Milwaukee, Racine and Kenosha counties funded through a rental car fee.

“They also voted to allow Milwaukee County to impose a 1% sales tax that would allow the County to remove transit, parks, cultural programs and emergency medical services from the property tax levy.”

Now it goes before the state legislatur, and eventually the governor’s pen. We need to keep the pressure up to make sure what JFC passed goes through. As Chris Larson told me, we can celebrate for a moment, but “we can’t dance on the ten yard line.” And to use another tired sports saying, it ain’t over till it’s over.

Still, big thanks to everyone in the Quality of Life Alliance. We did it!

[Here's Journal Sentinel's story on it.]

Vote, darnit, vote!

Today’s the spring election in Wisconsin. There are three four several races I’ve got something to say about:

Zach Wisniewski for South Milwaukee School Board

Zach is a great guy. Given how he talks about the South Milwaukee School Board meetings convening and taking literally minutes to unanimously vote without real discussion or debate, it sounds like they could use a shot of new blood. And Zach is the man for the job. I’m looking at you, my three South Milwaukee readers!

Shirley Abrahamson for the Wisconsin Supreme Court

Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson is on the ballot. That’s the race I have the most to say about. The last two state Supreme Court races have been bought and sold by the manufacturing lobbyist group. They’ve sat this one out for some reason, but that doesn’t mean you can not vote in this. Her opponent is a right-wing hack who would tip the balance on the state supreme court for the at least the next ten years if he gets in. So let’s see that he doesn’t, and vote for Shirley Abrahamson.

Tony Evers for state Superintendent of Schools

My pick in the state schools superintendent race is Tony Evers, who is currently the deputy state superintendent. The teachers that I know want him in. His opponent has a well-connected corporate lobbying effort backing her, but has no actual hands-on experience. That’s why my vote is going to Tony Evers.

J.D. Watts for Judge – Milwaukee County, Branch 15

J.D. has come to Drinking Liberally twice under his own volition. That’s enough for me. And he’s got experience being a judge, and a good legal mind. Give J.D. your vote.

Christopher Lipscomb for Judge - Milwaukee County, Branch 6

Like Mr. Watts, Mr. Lipscomb has abundant experience as a judge. And I bet Sup. Theo Lipscomb’s brother makes for a fine public servant.

Please vote, especially today, when we need every vote we can get to make sure this one comes out right. Look no further than Minnesota, where Al Franken is still waiting to be seated thanks to complexities with vote counting. Your vote does matter.

And the numbers are in…

1) I’m sorry to say that Zach will not be serving on the South Milwaukee School Board. That’s disappointing, but, the voters know who he is now, if not how to spell his name. Seriously, bravo for being a candidate. Also, fellow traveler Michael Mathias narrowly lost his bid for MPS school board. Another well run, honest race; sorry it turned out this way for you both. We need more people like you – both of you.

2) As Chadwick said in the comments, the two statewide races did turn out quite nicely. Congratulations to Mr. Evers and Chief Justice Abrahamson, and my personal thanks to the voters of Wisconsin. Most of you, anyway.

3) Congratulations to J. D. Watts, for beating a man who ran a dishonest, low-brow campaign.

I wonder, if WMC & Co. were buying this supreme court race, would their ethnic-fear-tinged ads have tipped the race to Gabler? We can only wonder. But, the good guys (mostly) won.

Sebelius nomination should go smoothly

Barring things that I don’t know about her, that is. But my family in Kansas likes her, and says she’s good.

CNN story.

I figured she’d be Obama’s pick for V.P. or Secretary of State if and only if Hillary Clinton did not go in one of the two posts. But I also figured a white guy would probably take the veep slot as to not present too much change on the ticket. Obama’s a very calm man, and he made that choice well. Now that he’s got a major electoral mandate, he can start to bring about great change in the country, although he is doing it in a very considered manner. Completely consistent, in other words, with everything we’ve seen so far.

Put Xoff on TMJ! Now!

As Kinky Friedman said, “Why the hell not?”

h/t Whallah!

Paul Soglin: Waxing America: “Ugly Details Emerge at Masel Civil Rights Trial”

My friend Ben Masel was very brutally assaulted by police while gathering signatures at a hip-hop concert on the UW-Madison Memorial Union Terrace. Ben runs against Sen. Kohl in the Democratic primary, as is his right. Officer Michael Mansavage, who was one of the two officers that forced Ben to the ground and assaulted him with pepper spray, was not at all in the right. Ben, on the other hand, is absolutely right to sue the UW-Madison police, which he did, and the trial has already begun. Professor of Telecommunications Barry Orton wrote about Ben’s testimony in today’s trial, and what we saw from that via the blog appears pretty damaging.

Now, I don’t know how every police/law enforcement officer doesn’t know this, but, he’s made a lot of money from suing the authorities for their infringements upon his civil rights (read: brutality). And rightfully so! How do they not know that they’re going to cost us, the taxpayers, a lot of money? Or maybe they do? It’s a puzzle.

Tracking Scott Walker’s quavering stance on federal stimulus money

Courtesy of Bruce Murphy of Milwaukee Magazine:

Consider this timeline: Jan. 6: County Executive Scott Walker says he won’t accept federal stimulus funding; Jan. 7: Walker gets roasted by various prominent local observers; Jan. 9: Walker backs off, says he would accept some of the aid; Jan. 11: Walker writes an op-ed for Journal Sentinel explaining why it’s actually a terrible idea to accept such federal funding. At this point, does anyone understand what Walker’s actual position is on this issue? Does Walker? I’d ask him to explain, but that might muddle things more.

How or why one commenter thinks that this signifies Walker being “consistent, and as alwasy, [sic] right on the issue” is beyond me. Unless he means Walker’s continual vasillation is consistent, which I would have to agree with, as it is quite certainly true.

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.

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!

A right call: Bill Richardson wanted Sec. of State post

Some time ago, I had New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson pegged as either running for Vice President or Secretary of State. A later conclusion was the having a part-African man atop the ticket with a Hispanic man in the #2 slot would be too much change for a good number of people, and that Richardson would be happy as Secretary of State. I’d say he’s qualified, given his experience in effective, hands-on negotiations with dictators, e.g. Saddam Hussein. My hunch has been confirmed in recent days, most recently in this story on Politico.com. (And a second story supports my assertion.) Since he got beat for the Secretary of State job, I think he’s now headed for an easy confirmation as Secretary of Commerce, where he’ll do fine.

I can’t take full credit for calling Biden as the VP pick before the candidates were being vetted, which is the first time since 1991 that I’ve not been able to do it. Oh well.  2010 should be an easy-enough call.