That being said, as a state worker myself, I am getting annoyed at being turned into some fiscal bogey man. Going to “war” with state workers who are “supposedly bellied up at the trough” or who have “drank the governmental Kool-Aid,” to paraphrase some, is insulting. It’s also not going to get Republicans very far as a long-term economic fix. I guess it makes for a good headline. We get to be the foil.

And if you guessed Jessica McBride, you’d be correct. One might further guess this was her least-popular column in the Waukesha Freeman.

Just a little reminder:  According to a UWM study, the wages of state employees are 6.2 percent less than for private-sector employees. That was measured from 2000 to 2008, before a round of furloughs took effect that amounted to a 3 percent pay cut.

While he denied any continuation of his affair with Jessica McBride, Chief Flynn did acknowledge he and McBride have continued to communicate with each other since news of the affair first broke several months ago:

“I cannot deny that she and I have communicated and that we met once. Since my statement in June, there has not been, nor is there, an ongoing affair,” Flynn said. “I will not be drawn further into a public discussion about a pending divorce proceeding.”

For the second time since the affair between Jessica McBride and Ed Flynn came to light, Paul Bucher has filed for divorce from McBride, and he has called for Chief Flynn to resign “because he is a public official, I believe he needs to be held accountable.” Bucher went on to add the affair has “crushed” Bucher’s family. As in the previous divorce filing, Bucher, is asking for primary placement of their 4-year-old daughter, child support and maintenance.

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and the Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission have stood by Chief Flynn, citing his performance since taking over as Milwaukee’s Police Chief and indicating his personal life has no bearing on his fitness to serve as Police Chief.

People ask me why I don’t blog much anymore. There are a lot of really good bloggers out there. However, it’s sad what the blogosphere has degenerated to in other corners, and I don’t want to be a part of it. At least not with as much frequency as I did before.

Having read that, I wanted to commend McBride for taking the high road, that is until I read the very next passage of her blog entry:

To be blunt: I have more important things to do than debate repeat drunk drivers (3x) on the Internet who, just over two years ago, were in the House of Correction.

So McBride says she doesn’t want to be part of what the blogosphere has degenerated into, only to turn around and write the very same kind of insults and personal attacks that she seems to loathe. That strikes me as more than a little hypocritical, but the hypocrisy is compounded by the fact that Jessica McBride of all people has little room to attack folks for bad or questionable decisions they’ve made in their past, considering some of the decisions she’s made in her past. Sure, she probably didn’t do anything illegal, but people who live in moral glass houses don’t strike me as being in a great position to start throwing stones at others.

Congratulations to Dave Umhoefer on his win, and hopefully this will put to rest claims by some that the MJS isn’t a quality local paper. Sure, it’s far from perfect in all its reporting, but hopefully this Pulitzer win will serve as a starting point for the paper improving its quality from top to bottom.

And curiously enough, as I browsed the list of Pulitzer winners and finalists, I neglected to see any mention of Charlie Sykes or Jessica McBride.

As pointed out by capper over at whallah!, McBride has taken her censorship to a new level, this time going so far as to delete comments I made in response to a post full of inaccuracies and flawed legal analysis over at her new election blog. Apparently McBride has a thin skin, because that’s the only reason I can see for why she’d choose to delete perfectly innocent comments that simply pointed out the flaws in her arguments. This kind of behavior is a perfect example of just how intolerant some folks on the right are when it comes to any opinion that differs from their own narrow views of the world.

Ultimately, I’m most disappointed not because McBride has a thin skin, but because she’s a journalist, and as such she should never discourage or prevent free speech. Shame on her for turning her blogs into speech-free zones where the only opinions that matter are her own, but then again, if I were wrong as much as she is, I suppose I’d want to limit dissent too.

I suppose these folks moderate comments just in case one of us libs makes a point that they have no rational response to, which certainly seems to be the case with Mr. Fischer, who’s shown a serious proclivity towards removing posts of mine on his blog. Like I said, to each his (or her) own, but like my momma always said, “if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.”

Now someone can correct me if I’m wrong, but Jensen won’t be punished “far more severely” than Chuck Chvala and Brian Burke, both of whom did the right thing by accepting responsibility for their roles in the same criminal behavior Jensen engaged in and accepting the punishments meted out. Apparently, Jess Bucher seems to think Jensen should be held to a lesser standard, making me wonder why that could be. However, I’m sure it has nothing to do with Jensen’s political affiliation, because that’d expose Jess Bucher as nothing more than a conservative shill…oh wait, too late.

(cross-posted to Whallah!)

To this day, Scott Jensen is still free while he appeals his conviction, and I’m willing to bet many a criminal in Wisconsin would love the same treatment Jensen is receiving. I’m also willing to venture a guess that if there were another thrice-convicted felon who hadn’t served a day of his imposed prison sentence more than a year after he was convicted, conservatives like Young Jessica McBride would be gnashing their teeth at “liberal activist judges” or some such nonsense. As Speaker of the Wisconsin State Assembly, Scott Jensen wielded a tremendous amount of power, and he chose to use that power to engage in illegal and highly unethical behavior. Scott Jensen undermined the credibility of one of our state’s most important political institutions, and he should be held accountable for his actions, and that means serving the sentence that was imposed by his sentencing judge. The fact that he remains free on appeal is an absolute sham.

The fact that Scott Jensen is getting special treatment – treatment that wasn’t given to wrongfully-convicted Georgia Thompson – simply blows my mind. The fact that Scott Jensen still walks the streets a free man after being convicted to serve prison time for three felonies makes an absolute mockery of our legal system.

Now unless I’m mistaken, I thought conservatives were supposed to be good Christians, but apparently their good Christian values don’t include forgiveness. Or maybe YJM is a conservative, but not a Christian. That seems to be the most logical reason for her inability (or is it unwillingness) to show a little forgiveness. Then again, I suppose showing forgiveness wouldn’t be good reading…