Kessler leads his governor back into school choice fight

State Representative Fred Kessler (D-Milwaukee) is no friend of the Milwaukee school choice program and proved it again with a purely gratuitous move to reduce the enrollment cap for school choice students from 22,500 to 19,500. Readers will remember the fight to set the cap at 22,500, and how much heat Governor Doyle took. Now the question is, will Doyle be willing to take the heat again to throw 3,000 students out of the choice program?

Besides putting Doyle on the spot, if the provision passes the Assembly it will put State Senator Jeff Plale and State Senator Jim Sullivan on record, too. Especially with Sullivan, this is not the fight the Democrats want.

Even liberal blogger and MPS teacher Jay Bullock recognizes this was a bad political move by Kessler. I suspect that if it makes to Governor Doyle's desk, he'll veto the cap reduction.

Republicans can win on education issues, and moves like Kessler's are just more ammunition for an education reform agenda.

folkbum as a second language

We must move forward, not backward, upward not forward, and always twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom! - Jay Bullock

For those of you that eat normal mushrooms on your pizza, I think he meant, "...up the pay scale, not forward, and always spinning, spinning, spinning towards WEAC!"

What is more pathetic?

What is more pathetic? In the wake of more depressing news regarding the state of Milwaukee Public Schools, a teacher in the Milwaukee Public Schools is confident that none of his students would get the following joke:

Or that he is so proud of himself for getting the joke he practically breaks his arm patting himself on the back?

The blind leading the blind.

I am the destroyer of newspapers

Leslie Graves, author of the blog State Sunshine and Open Records, ventured onto the pages of the deadtree Milwaukee Journal Sentinel to comment on the decline of newspapers.

I switched to exclusively online news consumption, because it meets two compelling social needs: a desire for community and a desire to know and understand others.

The first reason I press "start" to follow the news is because most news hurts. Consuming it with others cushions the blow. A few years back, the book "Bowling Alone" said Americans were retreating into solitary pursuits. The explosion of news consumption online with social interaction features suggests I'm not alone in valuing perspective and fellow-feeling from others to help wash down the events of the day. We're not likely to turn into a nation of solitary news imbibers, now that we have the ability to so easily share.

The second reason is my love of "small news." In my hometown, this is the constant flow of information about what's happening with work, school, what they were saying at the coffee shop about the mayor, the grandkids, what they were saying at the Laundromat about why the road project was delayed, the homecoming parade and so on.

As this small news is purveyed, you learn that some purveyors are funny, some are reliable and some are both, although sadly not that many. The online world of small news is just like this, except turbocharged on steroids for whatever in the world intrigues you.

I think the latter is especially important in the long term. When I started blogging, I discovered there was plenty of material to write about locally (which is pretty funny considering my interest has always been foreign policy). I don't see what I do as replacing the newspaper as much as adding to the local coverage.

Still, if most bloggers are anything like me, we blog when we feel like it and then we go on vacation, try to give up the habit or our computer crashes. If the "Army of Davids," as Instapundit Glenn Reynolds describes the blogosphere, were all like me, Goliath often would fail to be slain.

I want professional journalism to prosper. I want its honorable goals and traditions to grow richer and become more widespread. I think our world will be better if this happens and much worse if this tradition declines.

But for now, I'm not willing to give up the Wigderson Library & Pub or folkbum to slow the decline.

Well, maybe folkbum.

Blogger needed, no qualifications necessary

Center square occupant Jay Bullock is looking for additional liberal writers for his blog, "folkbum's rambles and rants."

No reasoning skills or minimum intelligence required. Severe cognitive disconnect a plus.

But where do I get the "I boated" sticker?

Jay Bullock says, "If you have it, use it." I think he's looking for an invitation.

The Wisdom of Jay Bullock

Jay Bullock occasionally allows something truthful to appear at his blog. Like during a spirited but inadequate defense of ACORN:

Dan, as I read the timeline, ACORN began flagging bad regs for the state late last year. It is possible the state identified some that slipped by ACORN, but that's why the state has the big databases and ACORN doesn't. [emphasis added - jw]

Good to know even Jay Bullock is in favor of cross-checking voter registrations even if doing so will disenfranchise every African American, senior citizen, Muslim, Latino, Homosexual, school teacher, public employee union member, Milwaukee Common Council member, and newspaper editor in the state.

Of course, in Wisconsin we're not allowed to check those big databases if the registration beat the GAB deadline in August. Gosh, I hope there are no problems with ACORN here.

Then there was this follow-up:

Dan, no enterprise in the country would promise to pay its workers regardless of production.

Well, except in Jay's own profession teaching in a Milwaukee Public School.

Such enthusiasm

Jay Bullock fails to have an Obasm over Joe Biden.   "I'll learn to live with it."

Jay Bullock, global warming criminal

How did you spend your weekend? Local liberal blogger Jay Bullock apent his holiday weekend charring animal flesh over an environmentally-damaging natural-gas-wasting device. Worse still, he bought it from politically incorrect Menards, the company whose new warehose was such an issue in the last election for governor.

Next we'll hear from the center square Bullock is buying his meat from a Wal-Mart Superstore.

Some things are best left to professionals

I sometimes get frustrated when I read things that are written about political campaigns by people who have never planned one. Political campaigns aren't rocket science but they're not as simple as ordering at a McDonald's Drive-thru either. (I'm really trying to work on my analogies.) Anyone can learn the ins-and-outs of political campaigning. All it takes is a willingness to be underpaid, put in 70-80 hours/week, and listen to insane people tell you insane things. Like they need more yard signs, buttons and campaign logo pot holders.

I had to laugh when I was hearing, sometimes on supposedly serious "news" programs, that Hillary Clinton needed to win by 15-20 points for Pennsylvania to "count." Look, if that ever happens in a major contested election, and it isn't someone wiping the floor with Ed Garvey, give me a call. I wanna see it.

No matter how it's spun, Pennsylvania wasn't good for Obama. He outspent his opponent by 3 to 1, had the most popular public official in the state (Bob Casey) campaign for him him and guarantee him the Catholic vote (oops), and he got clobbered. He got clobbered in core Democratic constituencies. He got clobbered by the "Reagan Democrats." He got clobbered in a state key to the Democrats' chances in November.

Danger, danger, Will Robinson!

So I was really laughing when I saw Brian Fraley's response to an attempt by Jay "folkbum" Bullock to spin Pennsylvania for his candidate.

Jay, I realize that while I’ve only been doing this for 16 years, you teach in MPS and stayed in a Holiday Inn Express last night, but let me try to explain.

Of course, it helps to remember when reading anything Bullock writes to take it with a grain of salt.

Resurrecting the family newspaper

Jay Bullock has his undies in a twist because some off-off-off-Broadway play's advertisement had the misfortune of being in poor taste on Good Friday.

The "play" is really a circus geek act where the performers contort their penises for so-called comedic effect. Not exactly Shakespeare and not exactly new. Three-year-old children do the same thing when they "discover" themselves, but grow out of it quickly. I'm just surprised it doesn't have a federal grant covering the show's costs.

On Good Friday, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ran ad announcing the show's return to Milwaukee, "The Res-erection Tour." The ad had run before without objection but this time the ad's timing rankled.

Mark Belling of WISN, Patrick at Badger Blogger, and a horde of relatively sensible people pointed this out to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The newspaper, not completely insensitive to their readers, acted accordingly.

And as it turns out, all the bullying from Belling, the religious right, Patrick and others on the blogs must have done a number on that nameless "some vice president of advertising" since the paper caved and pulled the ads.

I don't know why Bullock is so surprised. After all, the play's producer and the owner of the theatre both recognized why the ad was offensive and wrote a letter to the editor of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel to apologize. Bullock has an e-mail from them explaining,

In keeping with the comedic tone of the show, return engagements such as Milwaukee, are being referred to as part of the “Res-erection” tour. It was an unfortunate coincidence that an ad featuring this language ran on Good Friday. Producer David J. Foster and William Stace, owner of the Miramar Theatre sent a letter to the editor of the Journal-Sentinel on March 25th apologizing to those who may have been offended, and explained that the same ad runs year round wherever the show is being presented, and was never intended to make light of the religious holiday.

Whether or not the ad was meant to make light of Easter, I think a reasonable person can infer that the ad was mocking the actual event, The Resurrection of Christ, and regardless if it runs Easter weekend or the Summer Solstice the ad is in poor taste.

I do think the newspaper should have run the letter to the editor, and I can imagine that the newspaper's only reason for not doing so was to spare themselves further embarassment. Hardly sufficient grounds.

The ad is now being run on Jay Bullock's blog, and I'm sure it's being run in the Crazy Shepherd. (Somebody check that for me, will you?) That's fine for Bullock and I hope he charged them full-freight. I'd encourage the show's producer to purchase an ad in every local blog that will accept their advertising.

But there is something to be said for preserving the family newspaper. Just as there are things that I write on the blog (certainly PG-13) that I would never write in my newspaper column (between G and PG), I would hope that the newspaper I read would be of the same sensibility. It's not a matter of dumbing down as it is avoiding gratuitous offense. There are certain ads that are just more appropriate for the back pages of the Crazy Shepherd than they are for the entertainment section of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and we shouldn't be shocked when the community expects the newspaper to live to a certain standard.

That being said, I think the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is very hypocritical in this regard. I hope the advertising salesman who had to explain to his superiors why he accepted the theatre's ad quickly opened to the sports page and read aloud the latest lunchtime special for Heartbreakers.

But at least the controversy gives Bullock a chance to shamelessly self-promote himself. He plays a guitar? Who knew? I also loved Bullock's tag for his post, "Legitimate Theatre." Bastard children not allowed entry? All the performers know the actual identities of their fathers?

I'm betting Texas A&M is going to have a rough football season this fall

Owen Robinson is already making out his living will. Rick Esenberg already has dibs on the "Owen Robinson Chair" on Sunday Insight. I get to sit with folkbum on channel 4 on election night looking for bloggers that aren't out at election victory parties. Two years and the boys are still unsuccessful. Patrick at Badger Blogger gets to play "Guess that location" although I'm told he's changing it to different crack houses around Milwaukee.

For a fitting send-off, we're to gather 21 bloggers to each do a one-word post.

Put me down as supporting campaign finance reform

Remember the day, Jay Bullock and I agree. If campaign finance reform will stop atrocities like this, I'm all for it.

My eyes, my ears... help me.
(Damn you Pete Fanning for bringing it to our attention.)

Can Jay Bullock read?

I'm not going to be as nice as Owen Robinson was about this. Jay Bullock of Folkbum is once again misrepresenting another blogger's position on an issue. And the blog where Bullock posted his comment, John Michlig's Sprawled Out, has not posted Owen Robinson's response (although he posted mine). I can't find an e-mail address on Michling's site to ask him why Robinson's response was not allowed. (Update! 3/17/08 Michlig has let me know that Owen's response was sucked up by the spam filter.)

Sprawled Out is complaining (two years too late) about the $4 million subsidy from Washington County for the Cabela's store that was built up there.

Bullock wrote in response:

I keep waiting for Washington County's most prolific blogger (*cough*Owen*cough*) to voice an opinion.

Do they have crickets in the wildlife displays?

The next two comments were pretty revealing, too.

Yeah, you don't usually hear the mouthpieces of big business blab about something like this!

Which actually, to use a 21-year-old phrase, sucks. We could definitely use an overheated Mark Belling screaming over the incident or someone calling Cabela's "fish breath" or something similar.

Posted by: Greg Kowalski | March 10, 2008 at 11:33 AM

You're correct Greg. This type of thing should be as offensive as excesive government spending or political cronyism but it never seems to get the same coverage from people like Belling because it goes against everything that was deemed to be a good idea on paper. Unfortunately, the GOP has been hijacked by politicians that are no better than tax-and-spend liberals they loath. The taxing and spending just comes from a different place.

Furthermore, where is the public outrage in Washington County and, more specifically, Richfield over this disaster? Judging by the tone of this article (where it appears that even the journalist writing the article is clueless to the problem he accidently uncovered) this issue just doesn't seem like a big deal up there. Pretty sad.

Posted by: Josh Strupp | March 10, 2008 at 12:46 PM

Now I'm going to guess that Kowalski and Strupp are just intellectually lazy and didn't feel like checking into the huge firestorm (by Washington County standards) that occurred when the board passed the subsidy and then later tried to back out in the face of public pressure. And given Mark Belling's past opposition to some subsidies they might want to actually check before making a blanket statement. But that's not as much fun, is it?

As for Bullock, self-declared nemesis of Owen Robinson, there is no excuse. He has misrepresented other bloggers' blog posts before, and I doubt he is unaware of Robinson's extensive number of postings on the Cabela's subject, especially since Robinson did everything but dive under the bulldozer to stop it. I realize that Bullock has fallen into a bad crowd at his blog, and that personal matters may be distracting him, but if I were to suddenly write that Bullock was a huge fan of Catholic school choice vouchers I'm sure he would tolerate no excuses even as he demanded a correction.

Cheddarsphere prayers and well-wishes

Congratulations to Mr. & Mrs. Still Unreal on their marriage.

This song is for you:


Meanwhile, the Wigderson family would like offer our thoughts and prayers for some of our blogging friends who are going through some personal trials.

Jay Bullock's dad has been in the hospital.

My dad is doing better. He's breathing on his own again and responsive and alert and recognizing people. He was even able to point when his doctor asked him where it hurt. We're still in the woods, but everyone is so much more upbeat today. We have no diagnosis yet, though.

Phelony Jones' father has cancer.

In life there is no such thing as a redo. The Undo function only exists in windows. Focus on what is important, not on what you think you "have" to do.

Good luck to both of them.

folkbum and Fischer, for the record

Some bloggers are questioning the blogging demeanor of Kevin Fischer, aide to State Senator Mary Lazich, and whether his blog and comments he leaves on other blogs reflect poorly on her. I don't yet have an opinion.

I was surprised when Jay Bullock of "folkbum's rambles and rants" linked to my site as a conservative "irritated" with Kevin Fischer. I'll be the first to admit that I don't remember everything I write, so I checked the blog posts to which Bullock linked and confirmed that Bullock completely mischaracterized my posts. I noticed the other conservative cited by Bullock as "irritated" with Fischer was Fred Dooley, and his posts were completely mischaracterized as well.

I've written three comments at Bullock's site pointing out his misuse of what I wrote and, while I didn't expect an apology, I expected a correction after my first two comments.

Jay, I'm concerned about the way my blog posts that mention Kevin Fischer have been mischaracterized. I don't see where there's any interpretation possible that I could be "irritated" with Kevin Fischer. In fact, I don't see where I offer an opinion on him at all.

For that matter, Fred's posts don't seem to indicate any displeasure with Fischer either.

We seem to have had this problem before with your links not supporting your arguments.

james wigderson | Homepage | 01.25.08 - 5:07 pm

No response from Bullock. I wrote this in response to one of his commenters:

I count one open question of whether a staff member is allowed to have a blog. In the comments I even added,
"I don't have a problem with Fischer blogging; it's just that a year ago there were a number of blogs shut down because the state legislators didn't want their staff blogging."

And I did one post poking fun at his elected boss, which I'm known to do from time to time. (Full disclosure: I was a paid campaign consultant for Lazich for her first state senate race in the primary.)

I don't think I have even offered an opinion in print or pixels on Kevin Fischer himself. I might have, but I don't remember. I do know him to be a fan of Andre Rieu. That or his wife is.

Other than that, if I am going to be accused of being irritated with someone, it'll be with someone who uses my posts out of context.
james wigderson | Homepage | 01.25.08 - 7:55 pm | #

Finally, this afternoon I commented once more, to the attention of one of Bullock's co-writers on the site:

Capper, I am asking for a prominent correction. And at this point, I'm also owed an apology. Perhaps you can track Mr. Bullock down and tell him to set the record straight.
james wigderson | Homepage | 01.26.08 - 12:41 pm | #

I realize that Bullock's site has degenerated into a cartoon and I'm probably not going to get any satisfaction, but I wanted to set the record straight.

Radio so good they oughtta sell commercials

WUWM-FM, a public radio station for those of you who never leave the AM dial anymore, has been featuring a different blogger every day on "Lake Effect".
Monday: Jay Bullock
Tuesday: Rick Esenberg
Wednesday: Mike Mathias
Thursday: Gretchen Schuldt
And today, Jessica McBride. You can almost hear the local liberals screaming about Jessica invading their turf. You can listen live at 10:00 AM or at 11:00 PM, or they'll post the podcast.

The next time I'm in Nebraska I promise to tell this guy off

Jay Bullock ventures outside of his center square to discover a congressman in Nebraska has set up his official website to block any links from Blogspot websites, like the one you are reading. Only it seems to work for my site. Hmmmm. (Update! The links only work in the pre-publishing stage.) Anyway, I'm thoroughly outraged that a congressman in Nebraska, a state just on the other side of Iowa, would block bloggers critical of the congressman from linking to his official taxpayer-funded website.

Normally, I would just drop the matter here. But Bullock and other liberal bloggers have shown me the error of my ways. When criticizing someone on my side of the political divide, my previous method was to to be specific about what it was that I was criticizing and that was usually it. From here on out, whenever I criticize Republicans like Senator Larry Craig or Wisconsin Attorney General JB Van Hollen, I will add the following:

Of course, I would be even more outraged if I wasn't already reserving all of my outrage for the following: Governor Doyle's lies about taxes, violent repression in Burma, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton claiming credibility on racial issues, Senator Ted Kennedy having a dog named "Splash", the oppression of women in Arab/Muslim cultures, the 2008 Olympics in Peking, The New Republic, George Lucas ruining the Star Wars franchise, violent repression in Zimbabwe, Wisconsin's junior senator having absolute contempt for the first amendment, The Dixie Chicks, The Washington Redskins, State Senate Democrats proposing the destruction of Wisconsin businesses and employment and calling the proposal the Orwellian "Healthy Wisconsin", Governor Doyle's veto power, the Potawatami tribe's influence on Wisconsin politics, Castro still in power in Cuba, American lefties celebrating Castro's government in Cuba, Hugo Chavez, American lefties celebrating Hugo Chavez, poor service at Miss Katie's Diner, legalized abortion, the death penalty, euthanasia advocates, the ACLU, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, ethanol mandates, Double-Stuff Oreo cookies not having enough filling, Iran pursuing nuclear weapons, North Korea, public union employees opposed to school choice, and Michael Bolton.

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September 11th is ancient history at folkbum

Yes, 9/11 was terrible, but 5,000 planes went up that day and 4997 planes landed, as have pretty much all the planes since 9/11.
- Keith Schmitz, "Off Base" folkbum rambles and rants

I think Keith Schmitz should have labeled his post, "Off my rocker". I remember when Jay Bullock thought it was unfair that I linked his blog with Cindy Sheehan and the Fighting Bob fest types. You're right Jay. You've got people writing on your blog right now that are writing things far wackier than anything Cindy Sheehan has said or done. No wonder Jay's fleeing to the Journal Sentinel.

Even more amazing, Schmitz must really think 9/11 wasn't a big deal because he can't even remember the number of planes. Aaron of Subject to Change has to remind him in the comments:

4997? You count United 93 as a landing?
Aaron | Homepage | 10.14.07 - 1:13 pm | #

Oops. Make that 4996.
krshorewood | Homepage | 10.14.07 - 2:46 pm | #

Hey, it's Jay's blog. It's his reputation. Maybe he wants to associate with the conspiracy theorists next.

Find classic movies at Amazon.com

folkbum a Journal Communications corporate tool

Jay Bullock finds that life in the center square isn't profitable enough and takes the Boeing from Journal Communications Inc. Yes, Jay Bullock and Charlie Sykes are now colleagues.

I can see it now: the two of them in the company cafeteria with their bag lunches exchanging gossip about the weather guys at channel 4, speculating whether their Journal Communications stock plans will be worth anything in a couple of years, and making faces behind the back of Tim Cuprisin.

I suspect they're going to make great pals.