Political Heat

Even by Walker’s standards, Wisconsin has failed under his “leadership” In my earlier post this week about the latest Wisconsin jobs report , I mentioned how Walker has failed to create conditions to help the economy reach the 250,000 jobs promise he made for his first term in office. We’d have come closer to that promise if we had just kept pace with the jobs created during the first year of recovery in Wisconsin, under former (Democratic) Gov. Jim Doyle. This failure on Walker’s part hasn’t gone completely unnoticed. In fact, just a couple of months ago, Walker changed the metric of success, saying that manufacturing wages was the real measure to look out for. This post will focus primarily on that issue, so here’s the background of what Walker said in March from WPR : "It's not just how many jobs — it's are those jobs paying at a significant level," Walker said. "If we see wages go up in manufacturing, to me, that's my ultimate goal." So ...

To reach failed goal of 250,000 jobs would take more than two years from today I’m late to the game here — Wisconsin’s latest jobs numbers came out on Friday — but I have a good excuse: I was heading to the northwoods, making an early getaway on this Memorial Day weekend to spend time with family. Which I suspect is what Gov. Scott Walker and his administration was hoping for, but on a grander scale. Dropping bad news on the eve of a three-day weekend makes it less likely that people will pay attention to what’s happened. And what has happened? Wisconsin’s latest jobs numbers show a dismal 0.48 percent growth in jobs from December 2015 to December 2016, amounting to less than 1,000 jobs created per month, or around 11,590 jobs created total. We can’t yet compare that outcome to what happened around the rest of the country — Wisconsin releases its jobs numbers a full month ahead of the federal report on jobs. So we’ll have to wait and see what this means when compared to ou...

Sharper decline of unemployment occurred under Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle Scott Walker made a powerful tweet this morning, alleging that his administration was responsible for a substantial drop in unemployment. Except, there’s one glaring problem. Take a closer look at the tweet: The unemployment rate in WI peaked at 9.2% before we took office. Now it is 3.2%. — Scott Walker (@ScottWalker) May 22, 2017 Walker states that unemployment “peaked” at 9.2 percent “before we took office.” It then ignores the fact that A WHOLE YEAR PASSED BY before he assumed the governorship. That's a slight of hand that Walker is hoping you don't notice. But even that ignores another important fact: Walker’s first budget didn’t take effect until July of 2011. So there were six additional months of Walker’s predecessor’s policies in play before Walker’s budget took hold. In those 18 months, the unemployment rate sank to 7.8 percent. That’s an unemployment rate drop of 1.4 percen...

Lawmakers should look at citizens from cities AND rural areas as equals I wrote last winter about the idea of a “rural elitism” taking shape across the nation and Wisconsin — that some individuals from rural areas believe their political beliefs and needs are more important than the beliefs and needs of people in cities and suburban locales. My concerns with rural elitism aren’t so much that I believe city people are better or more deserving of attention. The needs of those who live out in the country should be addressed. And the Democratic Party, in Wisconsin particularly, ought to consider ways to reach out to voters who haven’t identified with them in recent elections. But I do take issue with the idea that the cities should be ignored, or that the opinions of those in urban areas aren’t even worth discussing. Recently while browsing through Twitter during the state Republican Party’s convention, I saw that GOP state Sen. Roger Roth made a very curious statement. Ac...

The Milwaukee Co. Sheriff conjures an imaginary bogeyman, and argues that criticism nullifies the will of the people Give Sheriff David Clarke of Milwaukee County his due: he was an early supporter of Donald Trump during his campaign for president. And now, the sheriff (himself embattled) is doubling-down on his support for the the controversial commander-in-chief, even as Trump faces mounting criticism and possible impeachment for a plethora of issues. Clarke sent this tweet out on Tuesday evening, defending the president against the so-called “establishment” that’s trying to ruin his presidency. The continued attacks on our President is the establishment trying to nullify the will of We the People who elected him to lead this country pic.twitter.com/sJO1Akvn2s — David A. Clarke, Jr. (@SheriffClarke) May 17, 2017 “The continued attacks on our President is the establishment trying to nullify the will of We the People who elected him to lead this country” — that’s quite a m...

GOP’s concerns need to turn into definitive actions against this reckless president Far too many Republicans are accepting of President Donald Trump’s behavior. This goes beyond his term in office — as a candidate, the GOP begrudgingly accepted him as the leader of their party, even as evidence surfaced that he assaulted women sexually. That alone disqualifies the president from being a leader we can trust. But now, reporting from the Washington Post indicates the president gave top-secret classified information to Russian officials, information that compromises an Ally of ours and greatly delegitimizes the standing of the United States in the world as a leader. Trump’s communications team categorically denied the report, but Trump himself this morning on Twitter seemed to confirm that he did indeed share this information with the Kremlin. One Republican member of Congress from Wisconsin, Mike Gallagher from District 8, has actually said that the president ought to be held...

Logically speaking, Johnson’s assertions make no sense (and this isn’t the first time) U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson doesn’t have a good sense of logic. The Republican who represents one-half of our senate delegation has already put forth some illogical (to put it nicely) ideas, including believing climate change was no big deal because, hey, people like it a little warmer . He also suggested that low-income mothers who can’t afford child care services should become daycare teachers themselves , because that’s just the kind of bright thinker Johnson is. Happy Mother’s Day, by the way. Johnson is at it yet again, this time telling news outlets at the state Republican Party’s convention in Wisconsin Dells that he believes it would be very troubling if President Donald Trump indeed records his conversations in the Oval Office. OK, so far so good, right? Just wait for it. Johnson was responding to questions about Trump’s recent tweet threatening former FBI Director James Comey about...

Democrats can simultaneously condemn actions of Comey while still finding Trump's actions deplorable President Donald Trump took to Twitter Wednesday night to explain, in nuanced detail, why he fired FBI director James Comey earlier this week. Just kidding. He took to Twitter to bash his political opponents. Trump didn’t understand why Democrats, including many who had called for Comey to resign months ago, were suddenly now outraged at Trump for canning the FBI director. Dems have been complaining for months & months about Dir. Comey. Now that he has been fired they PRETEND to be aggrieved. Phony hypocrites! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 10, 2017 Trump included a video in which Democrats complained about Comey and demanded he resign. The Democrats should be ashamed. This is a disgrace! #DrainTheSwamp pic.twitter.com/UfbKEECm2V — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 11, 2017 But Trump is proving that he has a one-track mind on this issue —...

As DOJ spent $50,000 on SWAG, murder rate across the state went up 41 percent The priorities for the Wisconsin Department of Justice, under the leadership of Republican Attorney General Brad Schimel, seem to be more about freebies to hand out rather than diminishing crime. One Wisconsin Now  recently revealed that in the past four years the DOJ “spent $50,000 that we know on swag for shameless self-promotion,” the group states. Two of those years have been under the tutelage of Schimel, while the other two included the last years of former Attorney General (and Republican) J.B. Van Hollen. These commemorative items include coins that are handed out to law enforcement or other employees at DOJ, and include the initials KAED — for “Kick Ass Every Day.” The language is hardly the problematic issue here, however: Schimel spent $10,000 of taxpayer funds to mint the gold-plated coins, according to the Cap Times . Other items the DOJ has spent state money on include backpacks a...

McCabe offers something rare in a challenge to Walker — an actual vision for improving Wisconsin Mike McCabe for governor? The former head of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign and current president of Blue Jean Nation , has been mentioned as a potential contender to Gov. Scott Walker . Hundreds of supporters of McCabe’s who are hoping to draft him to run for governor sent an open letter pleading with him to consider it , telling McCabe that he is an “upright man, not interested in self-enrichment or power for power’s sake, with a feeling for the needs of others and your country.” McCabe, for his own part, said that the letter prompted him to give it some real thought. “I am willing to do this,” he said , adding that he’ll make a decision sometime after Labor Day. Do I think he should run? Yes, absolutely, 110 percent — but with a very big “if.” I’ll get to that “if” in a moment. First, why McCabe should run, and it all comes down to this: he’s the right person to bridg...

Crime has increased by 24 percent statewide since concealed carry was passed The Wisconsin Department of Justice released crime numbers for 2016 this month , and with those numbers we now have five full years of crime stats since concealed carry became law . The results aren’t good. Concealed carry was described as a way for citizens to defend themselves, but it was also sold to voters and lawmakers on the basis that it would deter crime across the state . The idea was simple enough: if criminals didn’t know who was packing, they’d be hesitant to commit a crime against a victim who might have a gun. Of course, just the opposite could have been true: criminals could have become even more aggressive if they didn’t know who was carrying a weapon. That side of the debate was conveniently ignored by conservatives, however. The bill passed, and Wisconsin became the 49th state to enact concealed carry, requiring a (lax) training process and a permit to do so in allowable places. Si...

Emotion, especially anger, is driving too much of the debate Has our society lost the ability to engage in sensible debate? I have often asked whether people would listen to my arguments on this site based off the evidence alone. Providing data to back up an opinion isn’t a very compelling way to win an argument. I’ve long been a proponent that every good argument, in fact, contains three elements: pathos, ethos, and logos. To explain these concepts further, here’s what yourdictionary.com says on each of them : Ethos is an appeal to ethics, and it is a means of convincing someone of the character or credibility of the persuader. Pathos is an appeal to emotion, and is a way of convincing an audience of an argument by creating an emotional response. Logos is an appeal to logic, and is a way of persuading an audience by reason. I learned to use these concepts in arguments not from some liberal propaganda book, but from a conservative instructor at UW-Milwaukee, Jessic...