Saturday, May 19, 2012
Fancy data, contrasting numbers, questionable tactics...welcome to the new world of Wisconsin politics.
As I write this, there are merely 18 short days before the long awaited recall election. Our television and radio waves have been inundated with endless political ads. All of the mailings we receive daily likely destroyed some pretty forest somewhere. And the tension between co-workers, family members, friends and online commenters could not be any more impenetrable. The day so many of us have been waiting for is almost here and I, for one, could not be more impatient. Facebook, radio, television, blogs, newspapers, websites, Twitter…there is a buttload of information out there and for some reason – it seems to make things all the more confusing. For every pro-Walker piece, there is a disputing pro-Barrett piece. And vice versa. For the …
Monday, May 14, 2012
With the 2011 and 2012 recall elections costing Wisconsin taxpayers tens of millions of dollars, Rep. Robin Vos (R-Rochester) introduced an amendment that would change the way we do recall in Wisconsin. Vos is Co-Chair of the Joint Committee on Finance.
Last week every community across Wisconsin spent thousands of tax dollars on an unnecessary recall election. In a few weeks, our local governments will spend that same amount again. Racine County Clerk Wendy Christensen estimates that a quarter of a million dollars will be spent on the recall elections in our county. So, it’s not surprising that the total cost of the two recall elections statewide is expected to exceed $16 million. I think we all can agree that’s too much money. These dollars could be better spent or even better, given back to the taxpayer. Our state is turning into the recall state. My constituents continue to grow tired and frustrated with the never-ending campaign cycle. Even the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Editorial …
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Keep focused, educate and stick together...this fight can be won.
We can hold onto our hopes. We can work our dialing fingers to the bone. We can donate the last few dollars left over from our meager paychecks. And we can anxiously wait to cast our ballots. However, the crystal ball is cloudy. The cards are laid out, but not speaking. The tea leaves are not settling on the bottom of the cup. And not one single person in this state can definitively predict the outcome of the June 5 recall election. Polls only tell us so much. In fact, they say very little. The numbers from the primary cannot be counted as foreshadowing because we simply do not know who voted for whom or why. Perhaps many Democrats stayed home because they simply couldn’t decide. Maybe too many people were confused about the fake …
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
A closer look at the numbers in Tuesday recall primary indicates that many Republicans cast ballots in Democratic race for governor. If that's true, GOP turnout was much larger than it appears.
There were 614,511 ballots cast in the Republican primary for governor in 2010. That was a contested race between then Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker and former Congressman Mark Neumann. Walker, running nearly unopposed in Tuesday’s recall, received 626,538 votes. That’s nearly a 2 percent increase in Republican voters from 2010, despite just token opposition for Walker, and does not include crossover votes of Republicans voting in the Democratic primary (most likely for Kathleen Falk). To put the Republican turnout in perspective, Walker’s 626,538 vote total was equal to 91.4% of the total votes cast for all of the Democratic candidates and the Democratic protest candidate running as a Republican. In 2010, Milwaukee Mayor Tom …
Sunday, May 6, 2012
The recall primary is Tuesday. For which candidate will YOU be voting?
The ReFUND Wisconsin Town Hall was held a couple weeks ago at the Bray center in Racine. All the gubernatorial candidates, with the exception of Walker, were in attendance. John Lehman was also on the panel. Van Wanggaard was invited, but apparently his car ate the invitation. It was an interesting event to say the least. I went into the Town Hall hoping I would have a clear cut answer for whom to vote as our next Governor. Unfortunately…with a mere 5 days away…I am still questioning. It is fairly well known that not every liberal/progressive/Democrat agrees on the best choice for this election. Some unions have thrown their support towards certain candidates, some political figures have named their choice and a few newspapers have also …
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Your favorite local Patch editor has an idea!
Small businesses are important. Some say they are the backbone of our economy. But building a small business takes time, even on Facebook: Mount Pleasant-Sturtevant Patch has 488 Facebook fans. The Grind Cafe has 154 likes. Salon Gloss has 266 likes and Nutritional Designs has 205 Facebook fans. Some local businesses have even fewer, though. So, I'm proposing a special Facebook exchange. I'll post about you, if you post about me. Then, other local businesses can "share" that post from the Mount Pleasant-Sturtevant Patch Facebook page on their own pages to help support other local businesses. If you are a Mount Pleasant-Sturtevant area business with an independent Facebook page and you'd like to participate, this is what I need from you: …
Friday, April 27, 2012
April 28 is Obscura Day, a day in which all things unusual, eccentric and perhaps unknown in your hometown are celebrated. Mount Pleasant and Sturtevant didn't make the list, but we're sure there are a few details residents might suggest.
Obscura Day bills itself as an “international day of expeditions, back-room tours and hidden treasures in your hometown.” Unfortunately, when we checked out the website to see what came up for Mount Pleasant and Sturtevant, the biggest mystery was that we came up empty. In fact, the closest locations on the Atlas Obscura website are the Mt. Horeb Mustard Museum and the Yerkes Observatory in Lake Geneva. However, we know better. For example, Sturtevant once housed German prisoners of war during WWII and the village once hosted an airport. Would anyone guess that Mount Pleasant is 175 years old? Before the intersection of Highways 31 and 20 turned into one of the busiest corners in Southeast Wisconsin, it was the center of the Town of Mount …
Ed Schultz will be making an informal tour around Wisconsin in early June. And I think he should visit us in good ole Racine.
Last week I was listening to "The Ed Show" as my husband was on the phone – call after call – with union business. Normally his “union business” consists of a monthly meeting. However, as it sometimes happens, the tides have turned and right now they are confronting a possible strike and are currently working without a contract. Needless to say, these are stressful times. During "The Ed Show," Ed Schultz and John Nichols were talking about their upcoming visit to Wisconsin. Ed will be in Madison on June 5, the day of the recall election. But he is planning a trip to various cities around the state prior to the election. As they were discussing, I reached for my laptop and contacted Ed via email. I explained to him why Racine would make …
Thursday, April 26, 2012
What do student loan interest rates have to do with wellness programs, social security and medicare taxes, and corporations? A lot apparently...and the politics over this one comes with a cost.
While the Republicans and the Democrats scrap over student loan interest rates, the real problem is ignored. Who should pay? But full disclosure here: I’m paying on a student loan from grad school, my stepdaughter is in college and paying on a student loan, and my daughter will likely be taking on debt to pay for her education. So these student loan discussions hit home for us. Currently Stafford Loan students pay 3.4 percent, but the interest rate is set to increase to 6.8 percent in July. If the loan rate doubles this summer, it would cost 7.4 million Stafford loan recipients an average $1,000, according to the administration, according to a story in the Journal Sentinel today. But the solutions Democrats and Republicans have come up …
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
In celebration of April being National Grilled Cheese Month, Patch wants to know what ingredients you add to take this sandwich to the next level.
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Wednesday, April 25
The grilled cheese sandwich: It is the quintessential cuisine in the average American’s kitchen. It’s inexpensive and easy to make. Just slap some cheese between two slices of bread, fry it in a pan with a little butter and voila, the delicious, cheesy goodness is all yours. The grilled cheese is absolutely wonderful in all its simplistic glory, but the traditional sandwich also offers seemingly limitless opportunities for innovation. Some folks like to add bacon or tomato, while others take it in a whole new direction and throw Ramen noodles on it. Yeah, Ramen noodles. So what exactly are you putting on your grilled cheese these days? We want to know, so please tell us in the comments below. In the meantime, for your culinary enjoyment, …
Ron Clone
8:09 am on Saturday, May 19, 2012
Well said Heather. Now, prepare for the usual backlash and resist the temptation. (You know what I mean - the ol' pissin' match with a skunk thing...) I'll do the same. Let's be each others' support and FB each other when we feel the urge to hit the keyboard! more ›