Political Heat

Rep. Crowley asks, “If you are not willing to take the time to respond to a fellow elected official, how can you possibly be responsive to the people of Wisconsin?” At the end of the month of January, Democratic state Rep. David Crowley of Milwaukee sent a letter to Gov. Scott Walker requesting the removal of Sheriff David Clarke from his post. Clarke, whose fiery brand of rhetoric has gotten him into hot water on many occasions, has  witnessed four deaths in one year’s time — including one infant death — in the jails his office is meant to oversee. He has also recently threatened harm onto a Milwaukee County citizen who simply shook his head at the sheriff on a plane flight they shared on their way back to Milwaukee, harassing him shortly after they landed by using his deputies to intimidate the individual. Besides recall elections, county sheriffs can only be removed from office prematurely by the governor of Wisconsin. And that is what David Crowley requested in his ...

Fourth Circuit Court upholds SCOTUS precedent, maintains ban on “militarized” weapons is Constitutional Last summer, I wrote about my belief that the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution wasn’t an absolute right — just as other amendments weren’t absolute either. You can’t defend yourself under the guise of the First Amendment speech rights if you errantly shout “fire” in a crowded theater; and likewise, there exists limits to what the Second Amendment right to owning a weapon protects. Certainly there requires a spirited debate on where those limits exist. We should start that debate with the amendment itself, which states: “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” Image via Wikipedia , by user M62 In June of 2016, I wrote that , “It is not an infringement on Second Amendment rights to regulate which weapons can be sold, and how they can be sold. The word ‘regul...

Remembering the progressive leader who fought the good fight in Wisconsin I formally met Ed Garvey just once in my life, at a political celebration honoring then-State Rep. Frank Boyle, a Democrat from Superior, Wisconsin. I was still a greenhorn to Wisconsin politics — I was in college, and my father had suggested we attend this celebration. Garvey was the kind of guy you knew was a big deal, even if you didn’t know much about state politics, which admittedly I didn’t have a complete understanding of at the time (I preferred to write about George W. Bush and national issues during this point in my life). Boisterous, jovial, and kind-hearted, he took time to shake my hand and hear my story, even though I was just a college kid that didn’t know the names of half the people in the room (though I should have). I told him I was a progressive writer for the student newspaper; he encouraged me to keep writing. I’ll never forget his kindness. And I’ll always remember his fiery passion...

President Trump’s performance in Thursday’s press conference leaves much to be desired Image via CNN.com President Donald Trump originally set out to announce his new choice for Labor Secretary on Thursday (it’s Alexander Acosta, by the way). But what followed was a press conference (of sorts) that included a plethora of lies, distortions and attacks. While there are plenty of examples to choose from, there are a few statements that I want to focus on for the purpose of this specific blog post. It is these instances, in my mind, which exemplify just how much of an embarrassment our current president is, and how horrid a situation we now find ourselves in. Trump says he inherited a mess, including the economy. Trump decided to air his grievances, and to knock his predecessor in the process by implying he had a lot to deal with. Our administration inherited many problems across government and across the economy. To be honest, I inherited a mess. It’s a mess. The proble...

Changing how we draw political maps just makes sense Redistricting reform is an issue that very few Republicans are willing to get behind. There are exceptions, of course, including Maryland’s Republican Gov. Larry Hogan , who even reached out to former President Barack Obama about the issue last year. Several Republicans in Virginia’s state legislature also support measures aimed at taking partisanship out of the process of redrawing political boundaries every ten years. ( Click here to read how redistricting reform would work) But for the most part, Republicans across the nation reject the idea, and Wisconsin is no exception. To the best of my knowledge (and if I’m wrong, someone please correct me), there is no Republican in the state legislature who believes in the idea of redistricting reform; and certainly, Gov. Scott Walker hasn’t indicated support for it either. And why should they? For several years their maps, clearly drawn to give them huge advantages in stat...

Republicans must stand up to Trump when his encroachments go too far The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday affirmed a previous judgment from a lower court that put President Donald Trump’s immigration ban on hold, and refused to put any sort of stay on that ruling. That original judgment found that Trump’s executive order banning people from certain Muslim-majority nations from entering the U.S. was unconstitutional. Yesterday’s 3-0 decision held that the administration failed to produce any evidence that a stay of the previous order was needed. From the decision: To the extent that the Government claims that it has suffered an institutional injury by erosion of the separation of powers, that injury is not “irreparable.” It may yet pursue and vindicate its interests in the full course of this litigation. Washington State on the other hand, which brought the original suit against the Trump administration, did provide ample evidence that they were unduly burdened by t...

If anyone has been following Wisconsin politics lately...and I hope you have because the budget is kind of important... Its no secret that Speaker Robin Vos and Governor Walker haven't seen eye to eye on transportation funding. From June 2016 Vos said : Vos said "all options should be on the table" when it comes to the funding. "I just disagree fundamentally with Gov. Walker's assumption that we can kick the can down the road, push decisions onto a future legislature, which will end up being more expensive and potentially not in the interest of taxpayers," Vos said. Last year, the governor proposed borrowing $1.3 billion over two years for roads spending. Republican legislators disagreed, and cut the amount to $850 million. A legislative audit of transportation spending is expected to be released this fall. Vos said the audit would help legislators figure out how to move forward, whether that's with revenue increases or other fisc...

His latest jab: that the media is suppressing news of terrorist attacks President Donald Trump is trying to sow doubt in the public’s trust in the news media. In his latest off-the-script moment, the president asserted that terrorist attacks were frequent all around the world, so much so that the media had simply stopped reporting on them. From the Washington Post (emphasis in bold added): “You’ve seen what happened in Paris, and Nice. All over Europe, it’s happening,” he said to the assembled military leaders. “It’s gotten to a point where it’s not even being reported. And in many cases the very, very dishonest press doesn’t want to report it . They have their reasons, and you understand that.” Trump, of course, provided no evidence that the media were purposely suppressing terrorist attacks from their news coverage . Stating that “they have their reasons” also implies that he believes that the press is purposely refusing to report on these events. But the president provi...

Walker’s comments on Madison are alarming, given that he’s meant to represent the interests of the capital city, too President Donald Trump’s nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court has caused controversy here in the Badger State. It started when Gov. Scott Walker, who has a record of being snarky on social media , sent an especially snarky tweet directed to Wisconsin’s Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin. Walker was sending a message to Baldwin because she had previously said she was looking forward to speaking with Gorsuch to ask him questions about certain policy topics, though at the same time she had expressed skepticism about his nomination. Later, Baldwin stated that , “Judge Gorsuch should be held to the same standard that Supreme Court justices have been held to previously and President Trump needs to earn 60 votes in the Senate, but I am not one of them.” She cited her concerns over Gorsuch’s “rulings against disabled students, against workers, and against wo...