Blogging Blue

So Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Michael Gableman has said his campaign will not resort to dishonest attack ads during the race between him and Louis Butler, but given the revelations that Gableman may have gotten his seat due to some generous campaign donations to former Governor Scott McCallum, can he really be trusted?

I’m thinking not, considering the fact that despite his promise to run a clean campaign, Gableman’s already pulling out all the stops in his attempt to unseat Butler. What’s more, surrogates of Michael Gableman have spreading blatant lies in regards to with Justice Butler’s vote in the case of to the case of Richard A. Brown, a sexual predator whose petition for supervised release had been denied in Milwaukee County Circuit Court, resulting in an appeal. The attack in question follows:

Louis Butler provided the deciding vote to overturn a sexual predator decision by a circuit court, resulting in the release of the predator into Milwaukee County.

Quite a damning attack on its face, except for the fact that Richard A. Brown was never released from custody at any point. Further, Justice Butler didn’t cast the “deciding” vote - he simply joined the majority decision.

So if Michael Gableman can’t be counted on to keep his word, and he can’t be trusted to go through the proper channels to get his job, how can he be counted on to act ethically as a Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice?

No Comments »

Courtesy of About.com

No Comments »

Time and time again during the Democratic presidential primary season, we’ve heard Hillary Clinton and her supporters tout the fact that of the two remaining Democratic presidential candidates, only Hillary is “battle tested” and ready to stand up to the inevitable Republican attacks on the Democratic nominee. However, the more I’ve listened to Hillary since she lost her status as the front runner, I’ve come to realize that her behavior undermines all her talk of being battle tested and ready to stand up to the GOP.

Take, for example, last night’s Democratic debate. On health care, Hillary tried again and again to denounce Barack Obama for his attacks on her health care plan. Clinton said the attacks were based on “false, misleading and discredited information.” She claimed that an Obama campaign mailing read “as though the health insurance companies and the Republicans wrote it.” In response, Obama defended his campaign’s criticisms of Clinton’s health care plan, making sure to note, “Senator Clinton has … constantly sent out negative attacks on us … and we haven’t whined about it because I understand that’s the nature of this campaign.” Obama’s observation both minimized Hillary’s accusation and made her sound thin-skinned - the exact opposite of the battle-tested, Republican-slayer she would have us believe she is.

Then there’s Hillary’s comments about constantly being chosen to answer first in the debates. She seemed to be genuinely bothered by the fact that she answers first, which in my mind undermines her assertion that she’s “ready to lead on day one” as President. After all, if she’s “ready to lead” from the moment she steps foot in the Oval Office, she sure should be able to take the first question in a few debates.

No Comments »

According to a cost estimate by the Wisconsin Department of Administration’s Division of Executive Budget and Finance, the cost of health insurance coverage for autistic children whose parents already have insurance is about 10 million dollars.

That’s right, 10 million dollars is all it will take to make sure the therapy for each and every autistic child is ensured of being covered under their parents’ health insurance coverage. Now sure, 10 million dollars is a heck of a lot of money, especially considering our state’s current fiscal situation, but let’s put that 10 million dollars into perspective.

• Seven million dollars could get paper mill reopened in Park Falls, the largest community in the district of Republican Representative Mary Williams of Medford.
• Four million dollars could buy one - just one, no more than that - brand new soybean crusher for the district of Republican Representative Brett Davis of Oregon.

So sure, 10 million dollars is a lot of money, but so is the 11 million dollars in “persuasion” that some Assembly Republicans got in the last state budget. I know I’m biased, but if I had to choose between spending 10 million dollars on providing health insurance coverage to autistic children for the therapy they need or spending 11 million dollars on pet projects to get Republicans to vote for the state budget, I choose health insurance coverage for autistic children.

No Comments »

Recently, a commenter by the name of “Confused Lena” - who seems to have a hard time staying on topic - posted an replyto an entry I wrote about Scott Walker’s broken promises as Milwaukee County Executive. What struck me about the comment - besides the fact that “Confused Lena” was apparently too confused to stay on topic - was the fact that for every video they have of a liberal like Lena Taylor showing even the slightest bit of confusion, we lefties have more than our fair share of videos of conservative folks showing just how dazed and confused they can be.

Take, for example, our esteemed President, George W. Bush, who during his time in office has shown a propensity for making it clear just how dazed and confused he really is.
Continue Reading »

3 Comments »