The repository of one hard-boiled egg from the south suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (and the occassional guest-blogger). The ramblings within may or may not offend, shock and awe you, but they are what I (or my guest-bloggers) think.
I really have to roll through Technorati’s “Blog Reactions” more often. I found a couple of blogs that saw fit to add me to their blogrolls, so I best return the favor:
– Try 2 Focus
– Tundra Politics (side note; I probably wouldn’t have caught this one without Shoebox)
I love it when a plan comes together. The gang at Gop3 whack the Journtinel’s attempt to do some fishing for a hit piece on Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker. First, the initial cast by the Journtinel:
Have county transit changes affected you?
How have you been affected by Milwaukee County Transit System fare increases and service cuts? Please contact Journal Sentinel reporter Larry Sandler at lsandler@journalsentinel.com to let him know, and please include your name and a telephone number where you can be reached.
Next, the definitive answer that won’t be published from Brian Collar:
Larry,
As a student of Marquette I’ve been affected by the bus transit situation. It costs more and more to go to Marquette because the property taxes that landowners have to pay to work and live in Milwaukee that finance an ineffective and costly bus transit situation mean that I can’t have a car without hefty parking fees, whether for Marquette sponsored parking or for landlord sponsored parking. The fact that city and state leaders, with the notable exception of County Executive Scott Walker, keep relying on out-dated systems of transportation means that more money drive (sorry, bad pun intended) less efficient modes of transportation as politicians try to decide for us how to run our lives. Fewer taxes in Milwaukee (and Wisconsin, for that matter) means more opportunity for business and landowners to invest and compete in the near-Marquette community which could provide the very opportunities for less costly parking options that employment-opportunities seeking students like myself need.
I’m sure this won’t make the story your editors were asking for but I thought you might appreciate some input.
Thanks,
Brian Collar
It’s a good thing Scott Walker doesn’t have a birthday tomorrow; next thing you know, the local sorry excuse for a paintcatcher would take a cue from the Gray Lady and say Walker’s too young to be county exec.
Oh, and what’s affecting me is having to pay an outrageous gas tax so that those too lazy to own a car don’t have to feel the full effects of a 50% increase in the cost of fuel (closer to 100% if one uses diesel, like MCTS).
The boss at Hot Air and USA Today both agree that this comment from 29Victor on the New York Times’ hit piece on John McCain’s place of birth (in the Panama Canal Zone to two wed American citizens) is the Comment of the Day™:
Good thing McCain wasn’t born on February 29th, they’d be debating whether or not he is over 35.
29Victor on February 27, 2008 at 11:46 PM
Somebody get the Slimes to stop before they get to their waist, please. They’ve already put all their feet in their mouths and have made it to knee level.
I don’t write on business issues much even though I do follow them pretty closely. The main reason I don’t write on these issues is that they tend to be specific to the business or industry and rarely are they a broad or pervasive issue. However, here’s one that is spreading faster than ants on a picnic….HOPE!
Sears Holdings (the company that operates both KMart and Sears stores) and Sprint Nextel Corp both reported disastrous financial results from the previous quarter. Over the past couple of years, both companies have managed to become “Worst in class” in their respective industries.
Both companies had their analysts calls today. After a recap of the results of the quarter it is typical for the company management to answer questions from analysts that follow the stock. As I reviewed the information from the analyst calls I noticed a trend; both companies have horrible strategies, are executing horribly and have no real specifics for turning their stock plunge around. In spite of that, both companies hold out HOPE that things will get better, HOPE that they can raise their stock price, HOPE that they can get customers to forget their past experiences with them and buy from them again.
Apparently the “Audacity of HOPE” is not just limited to presidential politics! I suspect that HOPING for improvement will work about as well for shareholders of Sears Holdings and Sprint Nextel Corp. as it will for those of us that are shareholders in America, if Barack Obama is elected President.
If you miss the Back of the Book segments Wednesday’s on The O’Reilly Factor (approximately 7:50 pm), you miss a pretty good segment. Last night’s segment (thanks for the DVRing, AP) is no different, as Mary Katharine Ham explained the difference between the Huffington Post and the Nazis to Bill O’Reilly. She expanded upon that today, which leads me to throw in my own two cents’ worth.
Political discussion has never been “civilized” in the main. With the “common folk” able to put their ruminations out there almost-completely unfettered for the whole world to see, with nothing more than access to a library, I doubt it is as “civilized” as it was in the recent past. Heck, I’m as guilty of the cheap shot as the next person. However, there are some lines I try not to cross, like kicking a public figure when he or she is down for health reasons and joining the “death-wish” crowd. That sense of self-control is something lacking, relatively speaking, on the other side of the aisle. I’ll admit there are those on my side of the aisle that harbor similar lack of graciousness, but the term “lack of graciousness” describes that perfectly.
I tend to fall into Charlie Sykes’ camp that the best way to combat “bad” speech is with more speech, not just from the other denziens of a particular website but from the powers-that-be. It generally is illuminating to see who falls into the “death-wish” crowd, and who repudiates it. Fortunately, I haven’t had to deal with that aspect here, but depending on how ugly it gets, I can see the proprietors getting involved by removing the “death-wish” crowd.
Like MKH, I don’t see a role for government to get involved, at least without a credible, specific threat. That involvement is the true analog of Nazism, or more-properly, the parent governmental philosophy of totalitarianism. Indeed, it is one of the main reasons of the “free speech” portion of the First Amendment and the various state analogs.
Who’d a thunk there was a relationship between gun ownership and political and civil freedom….I remember, it was the guys who wrote our Constitution!
Wasn’t the New York Times all heated up about John McCain writing a letter to the FCC? As I recall, that letter didn’t suggest to the FCC how to decide the issue but rather to JUST DECIDE? So………how come, after the article that the New York Time’s wrote about John McCain, an article that had no facts and tried to create a controversy from something that didn’t rise to the level of hear-say, they haven’t had a chance to write a front page store on Obasmic securing $855,000 in fees for a political contributor who wasn’t even a constituent?
At the risk of asking a rhetorically squared question (that’s a question that is so rhetorical it hurts to ask):
Am I missing something? Obviously the New York Times is; an ability to investigate NEWS!
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