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Here’s a few predictions I’m going to make for 2009:

• Scott Walker will announce he’s running for Governor. (I know, this is an easy one, but I need a gimme or two on this list)
• Sometime in 2009, Rep. Paul Ryan will announce he’s going to challenge Sen. Russ Feingold for Feingold’s U.S. Senate seat, which is up for election in 2010.
• We won’t see lines for food or other basic necessities once Barack Obama takes office, as predicted by one conservative blogger.
• The economy will be in significantly better shape before the end of the summer.
• At least one more blogger will win an elected office. (There are at least three that I know of that are running for elections in April 2009)
• Soon to be former Sen. Norm Coleman of Minnesota will be implicated and convicted of public misconduct before Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
• Brett Favre will finally hang up his cleats rather than play another season for a mediocre Jets team.
• The Brewers will surprise a lot of people and win 90 games in the 2009 season.
• Fred Thompson’s new radio show will last just about as long as his presidential campaign, and it’ll be about as successful.
• State Rep. Jeff Wood will refuse to resign his seat in the Assembly and will promptly be booted out in a recall effort by his constituents.

I’m willing to bet I’ll be wrong on these predictions more than I’m right, but let’s see how 2009 unfolds!

For the liberal who has everything, pick up your very own Kevin Fischer “Grow Your Own” Voodoo Doll:

Happy Birthday, Greg!

Due to a negotiating impasse between media giants Time Warner Cable and Viacom, Time Warner customers might not be able to watch Spongebob Squarepants and other shows, including The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (emphasis mine):

Media giant Viacom Inc. said its Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central and 16 other channels will go dark on Time Warner Cable Inc. at 12:01 a.m. Thursday if a new carriage fee deal is not agreed upon by then.

The impasse over carriage fee hikes would mean “SpongeBob” and other shows like “The Daily Show” will be cut off to 13 million subscribers, said spokesman Alex Dudley, a vice president at Time Warner Cable, the nation’s second-largest cable operator.

Viacom has asked for fee increases of between 22 percent and 36 percent per channel, an amount that could increase customers’ cable bills, Dudley said.

A fee increase that’s somewhere between 22 and 36 percent seems like a bit much to me, but I sure hope this situation gets resolved so my kids can still watch Spongebob tomorrow morning.

In honor of what might be Spongebob’s last day on Time Warner, here’s one of my favorite Spongebob moments:

H/T to Wiggy.

The more time I’ve had to process Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich’s appointment of Roland Burris to fill president-elect Barack Obama’s now vacant U.S. Senate seat, I’ve come to the realization this appointment was specifically engineered to call the bluff of Democrats in the U.S. Senate and force their hand in regards to whether or not they’d seat someone named by Gov. Blagojevich. What’s really disappointing is the concerted effort that was started yesterday by Congressman Bobby Rush to inject race into this appointment. During the press conference announcing Burris’ appointment to fill the vacant U.S. Senate seat, Congressman Rush stated any refusal to set Roland Burris by Senate Democrats would be the equivalent of a lynching, and on the Today Show earlier today, Roland Burris himself asked if a refusal to seat him by Senate Democrats is racism. Here’s a little snippet of Roland Burris injecting race into the discussion:

Given the public statements by Congressman Bobby Rush yesterday, as well as Roland Burris’ own statements today, it’s become obvious this entire situation was carefully orchestrated in an attempt to shame the U.S. Senate into seating Gov. Blagojevich’s pick, but it’s an absolutely despicable move, and it’s sad to see Roland Burris sell his soul simply so he can be a United States Senator.

Fresh off the heels of Janet Evans’ announcement that she plans on running for a seat on the Franklin School Board, I have an announcement of my own.

I’ve filed all the necessary paperwork, and I am now a candidate for a seat on the South Milwaukee School Board. I’ve had a desire for a long time to make a difference in my community, and as the proud parent of two children in the South Milwaukee school district, I feel serving as a member of the School Board will give me a chance to make a positive contribution to the community I call home.

Despite warnings from Senate Democrats that they would not seat anyone appointed by Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by president-elect Barack Obama, the AP is reporting Gov. Blagojevich is going to go ahead and name former Illinois attorney general Roland Burris as president-elect Obama’s replacement in the U.S. Senate. Senate leaders have already begun preparing a statement responding to the appointment, and the letter will allegedly express express regret for the appointment. The statement was expected to make it clear that Senate leaders were not necessarily opposed to the former attorney general assuming the seat, but given the circumstances surrounding Gov. Blagojevich, anyone named by Blagojevich would not be seated by the Democratic caucus.

According to the AP, Burris became the first black politician to win statewide office in Illinois when he was elected comptroller in 1978 to the first of three terms. Burris also served one term as the state’s attorney general, but he failed in three attempts at the Democratic nomination for governor, losing to Blagojevich in 2002.

While this is certainly a curious move, given the public statements Democrats in the U.S. Senate have made regarding their unwillingness to seat any replacement named by Gov. Blagojevich, I’ll give Blagojevich credit…he’s ballsy. While I’m not sure why Blagojevich would name a replacement under the circumstances, I have a sneaking suspicion he’s doing it just to thumb his nose at the establishment. Either way, he’s got one hell of an ego.

According to two former Bush White House advisers who spoke candidly about the political impact of the government’s handling of the aftermath of Hurrican Katrina, the poor handling of Katrina knocked the bully pulpit out from under President George W. Bush, making it much more difficult for Bush to govern with credibility (emphasis mine):

“Katrina to me was the tipping point,” said Matthew Dowd, Bush’s pollster and chief strategist for the 2004 presidential campaign. “The president broke his bond with the public. Once that bond was broken, he no longer had the capacity to talk to the American public. State of the Union addresses? It didn’t matter. Legislative initiatives? It didn’t matter. P.R.? It didn’t matter. Travel? It didn’t matter.”

As if Dowd’s statements aren’t damning enough, another top aide compared GWB to Gov. Sarah Palin when he took office:

Lawrence Wilkerson, top aide and later chief of staff to former Secretary of State Colin Powell, said that as a new president, Bush was like Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee whom critics said lacked knowledge about foreign affairs. When Bush first came into office, he was surrounded by experienced advisers like Vice President Dick Cheney and Powell, who Wilkerson said ended up playing damage control for the president.

“It allowed everybody to believe that this Sarah Palin-like president — because, let’s face it, that’s what he was — was going to be protected by this national-security elite, tested in the cauldrons of fire,”

That’s some legacy George W. Bush is leaving behind…

Let me preface this entry by noting that Chris (a.k.a. capper) over at Cognitive Dissidence has a much more personal - and much more powerful - blog entry about this same subject. I’d encourage you all to visit CD and read for yourselves.

For years, Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker has touted the fact that he hasn’t raised property taxes, and he’s also worked hard to reduce the size of Milwaukee County government, leaving vacant or eliminating county jobs wherever and whenever possible. Now I have a confession to make: despite being a liberal, I wholeheartedly support streamlining government, whether on the local, county, state, or federal level, because I think government works best for the people when it’s lean and efficient, not bloated and wasteful. However, I don’t support the belief that so many conservatives holds that any cut to government spending/staffing is a good cut, especially when it comes to social service programs. Case in point would be the chronic short staffing at the public assistance call center operated by Milwaukee County. For more than a year that chronic short staffing, which was the result of efforts by Scott Walker to privatize the call center, has led to thousands of unanswered calls from poor residents on applying for or renewing food and child care aid. As a result of the poor performance of the call center, the state is considering withholding aid for programs that would help the poor, disabled, and elderly (emphasis mine):

Milwaukee County officials are pleading with the state not to trim major contracts for programs that help the poor, elderly and disabled.

State leaders say bungling by the county in running its public assistance call center and food share program put them on alert and led to a denial of a related $2.4 million job training grant. The state also is considering shifting at least part of the contract for operating an expanded Family Care program to a private vendor. The program provides community-based services to seniors and people with disabilities.

These possible cuts in state aid to the county - cuts which will no doubt affect thousands of individuals and families across Milwaukee County - they’re the real cost of trying to cut spending just for the sake of cutting spending. Scott Walker ought to be ashamed of himself for jeopardizing much-needed aid to Milwaukee County - and punishing residents in the process - just so he can score cheap political points in advance of his gubernatorial run in 2010.

Dan Cody has more as well.

State lawmakers are due to get a 5.3% pay raise effective January 1, 2009, boosting their yearly salary to 49,943 a year. State Rep. Bob Ziegelbauer (D-Manitowoc) has already said he’s going to give back his pay raise, and shortly after Rep. Ziegelbauer’s announcement, a few other legislators followed suit in announcing they too would give back their pay raises. While Ziegelbauer’s announcement is largely symbolic, given that he also earns roughly $71,000 a year as Manitowoc County Executive, it’s still a sign that some legislators understand that they don’t deserve a raise at a time when Wisconsin’s economy is going through some difficult times.

Not among those who announced they were giving back their 3.5% pay raise was State Senator Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin), who was one of only a few lawmakers who voted against approving labor contracts for thousands of state employees, citing the costs of those contracts (emphasis mine):

At a time when Wisconsin continues to struggle with high rates of taxing and spending, a looming structural deficit of over $1.6 billion, high gas and food prices, and per capita income below the national average, hard-working families in the private sector expect state government to exercise fiscal responsibility.

The state Senate is being asked to approve state contracts that according to data I requested from the Legislative Fiscal Bureau would be greater than the increase required for a QEO (Qualified Economic Offer).

The biennial QEO increase amount would be 7.74 percent. Proposed state employment contract increases over the 2007-09 biennium range from 8.0 percent at the low end to 11.0 percent at the high end.

Many workers across the state struggling to pay their bills and our high taxes can only dream of such increases.

This is an inappropriate time to be offering contract increases beyond the rate of the QEO and beyond the rate of inflation. I voted against the contracts.

First, I’d like to make it clear the contracts that were ultimately approved for most state employees mandated a 5% total raise spread out over three fiscal years. As a state employee, my pay increased 2% last year, and it will increase 1% this year and 2% next year. That’s a 5% pay increase over three years, just a little less than the 5.3% State Senator Lazich will receive this year alone.

So as State Senator Lazich wrote - if she in fact was the author of the blog entry I linked to - “At a time when Wisconsin continues to struggle with high rates of taxing and spending, a looming structural deficit of over $1.6 billion, high gas and food prices, and per capita income below the national average, hard-working families in the private sector expect state government to exercise fiscal responsibility.” As a hardworking taxpayer, I do expect my state government - which includes legislators like State Senator Mary Lazich - to exercise fiscal responsibility, and I expect them to start by showing a little less hypocrisy. If a 5% pay raise for state employees over three years is too rich for Sen. Lazich’s tastes, then surely her own 5.3% raise in one year is too rich as well. I expect to see State Senator Lazich forgo her raise for the upcoming fiscal year, because anything less would be fiscally irresponsible and hypocritical.

Milwaukee Alderman Bob Donovan never met publicity he didn’t like, and as a result of the recent snowfall, which has resulted in clogged streets across Milwaukee, Alderman Donovan has taken it upon himself blast city public works officials for failing to tow stranded cars which were blocking streets. 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 if Alderman Donovan knew the situation was being dealt with, I’m left to wonder - as is capper over at Cognitive Dissidence - why is Bob Donovan still talking?

Over the years, Donovan has been one of Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett’s harshest critics, and I’m wondering why Donovan hasn’t put his money where his big mouth is an run for mayor himself. If Donovan thinks Mayor Barrett has done such a poor job as mayor, then why hasn’t he taken the initiative to run for mayor?