O.K., folks, the weekend is over and I am done through looking at birds for a while. Now, BACK TO WORK! For there are scores to settle before I sleep.
Paul Soglin needs fish oil
Said to be good for the ol' remembery. Because our once and future mayor has grown a tad forgetful. A few weeks back we did a point/counterpoint on the printed page (Blaska v. Soglin) prescribing our Rx for the criminally induced deterioration of certain neighborhoods on the southwest side of Madison. I cited former N.Y. City Police Chief Wm. Bratton's "police first" prescription for reducing crime.
Soglin, for his part, countered that, yes, police are nice but send in the social workers, as if that hasn't been tried. (Oooh, that will get the bad guys on the run!)
Having been thoroughly trounced by your genial tour guide's superior command of facts and reason, the once and future mayor subsequently pulled the race card from the bottom of the deck. (Always the calling card of a true scoundrel.) An intense police presence on the streets and sidewalks is nothing more than "racial profiling" he pandered.
And now here comes Hiz-ex-honor to write an update in his blog that he never did accuse your genial tour guide of racial profiling and that it was a Scrooge-like rancid piece of meat that caused me to ever think such a dark thought.
Pity poor Dave Blaska. He needs help. … There is nothing in my post about racial profiling. Nothing. Nada. Zero. Zilch. Zip. Goose eggs.
True, I do need help. But ol' Soggy is not the one to provide it. Here is Soglin's post, carefully planting the racial profiling seed instead of using fact or logic to rebut my thesis:
Bratton used neighborhood police officers, decentralized command and gave more authority to the precinct officers. Referring to his mentor, Bob Wasserman, a firm opponent of racial profiling, [emphasis added] Bratton wrote...
Tailgunner Joe McCarthy used to do the same thing with smarmy little throwaway lines. Talking about the 1952 presidential election, the junior senator from Wisconsin would say, "Alger ... I mean Adlai .." (That's Alger "proved-by-the-Venona-papers-to-be-a-Commie" Hiss for you Generation X-ers.)
Richard Nixon did the same thing a different way: "While some may call Paul Soglin a liar, I never would."
But Paul has introduced a clever variation, which goes something like, "Referring to one of Soglin's critics, David Blaska, a firm opponent of child abuse, he wrote..."
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Clingan says "no mas"
I have no need to pile on when someone is down. If for no other reason, I like Mayor Dave Cieslewicz for his creative thinking. Prog Dane, by contrast, is all about turning Monona Terrace into a giant soup kitchen. But c'mon, Bill Clingan for economic and community development director? The man is Progressive Dane. The man is Madison Teachers Inc. The man is a Bill Keys wannabe. The man was one and out on the School Board. The man has no cred with the business community. Worse, he was supported by the afternoon Progressive Dane newspaper. That's Michael kissing Fredo.
Tom Still and Mark Bugher, both of whom I know quite well, do not rile easily. That both would quit the Economic Development Commission when its first choice was spurned was a long overdue sign that Madison's business community is taking its calcium supplements. If there is a criticism for Mark, especially, it is that he had been too willing to serve as the mayor's fig leaf before the business community. Lets face it, Mayor Dave needs Mark Bugher more than Mark Bugher needs Dave Cieslewicz.
Submit Bugher and Still's nominee for the post to the Common Council and quit trying to court the Hard Left.
And keep the original idea of developing community and economy. For that matter, hire Mark Bugher, assuming he will take a pay cut. And give him his head just as you have Police Chief Noble Wray. In the latter's case, you may have had no choice. But successful mayors should emulate Ed Sullivan: find the talent, then let them succeed.
Memo #2 to Kyle Nabilcy
C'mon, admit it, Kyle. You are in the employ of Americans for Prosperity. You are a secret agent, a mole, trying to discredit state employees. Job well done, I say! You write:
It's awfully hard to please the taxpayers when so many of them continue to elect fools like the Lasees, Gard, Huebsch and company, who feel that state government should be defunded to the point that it can be drowned in the bathtub.
Your complete lack of curiosity as to why those taxpayers continue to elect the Lasees, Gards, and Huebsches is to be commended. No doubt you rush past all mirrors and reflective surfaces. The deal Huebsch, Doyle, and Robson (R.I.P.) agreed to increased state spending by 6.6 percent. Hardly "defunded to the point that it can be drowned in a bathtub." In fact, our Governor said of this budget:
It is a balanced budget that embodies the values of the people of this great state and keeps Wisconsin moving forward.
Killer rejoinder to Emily Mills
What you seem to be advocating borders on a police state, where the smallest infractions meet with imprisonment, and where imprisonment is not used for rehabilitation but rather just to let 'em rot.
You mean a police state like Cuba? Where free speech is brutally punished? Then how is it that are you still roaming free, or does Dane County's pokey now support WiFi?
Emily, they are rotting in place where they are and they are rotting the place where they are: our neighborhoods.
