James Rowen

SE Wisconsin Regional Transit: Stability, Instability And Insanity

October 18, 2011 by The Political E...

We offer you The Good, The Bad and The Ugly that passes for a transportation system in Southeastern Wisconsin.


First the stability:

Both Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele are trying to work their way around state budget cuts to keep Milwaukee's bus system afloat by supporting a County plan from Abele to fill part of the funding gap with one-time federal financing amounting to a few million dollars - -  including transferring to bus services a relatively small amount of money that could have helped Barrett get a City streetcar Downtown moving towards its long-delayed start-up.

Give them both credit for cooperation, and to Barrett for giving ground on the streetcar, as it no doubt will give a few hours comfort to his rabidly anti-rail, anti-city talk radio critics.


But now the instability:

Sports And These Erratic Republican Debates

October 18, 2011 by The Political E...

Looking for an analogy. Super Bowl? Hardly. Little League World Series? Not even close.

Eight-and-under youth soccer? Now you're talking. A lot of sound and motion but nothing close to a game plan, and no one scores.

In The State That Gave Away A New Amtrak Line...

October 18, 2011 by The Political E...

We Have A Governor Who Defaults To Spin, Falsehood

October 18, 2011 by The Political E...

Why does Governor Walker have such a hard time being straight with the public?

Remember his no-tax increase budget that actually raised some people's taxes?

Or the union-busting policy tucked into his "modest" budget repair bill?

And his repeated insistence - - vetted and found to be false - - that he had been upfront about his plans to Drop The Bomb on collective bargaining?

Now it's reached the blatantly absurd - - offering after-the-fact spin over his failure to meet a campaign promise to "immediately" begin making larger contributions to his pension account.

Adding seven months to immediately is like announcing a new, 19-month calendar.

And how do you rack up "half-false" or worse on 23 out of 35 statements analyzed - - almost 70% - - in your PolitiFact file?

Activists Can Press For Medicaid, Environmental Fairness On Wednesday

October 18, 2011 by The Political E...

Big day tomorrow, as Wednesday offers a special citizens environmental lobby day at the State Capitol as well as a half-day town hall meeting on proposed Medicaid cuts.