This just in

Because of a reference to Lee Holloway as "Wile Lee Holloway", competing pickets have formed outside the headquarters of the blog No Runny Eggs. PETA members and Warner Brothers cartoon characters are both protesting the blog's association of a thug like Holloway with the noble coyote (PETA) and cartoon characters.

PETA spokesmammal Sandi Madhen accused the blogger of speciesism, saying that associating Holloway with Wile E. Coyote was a reinforcement of the stereotype that coyotes are sneaky, dangerous scavengers.

Tensions rose between the two picketing groups when some PETA members accused the Road Runner of engaging in anti-coyote bigotry and oppression. Police moved the PETA demonstration across the street when boxes from Acme with unknown contents were delivered to the cartoon characters.

Blogger Jim Rowen was arrested when he attempted to drive an Acme train as part of the cartoon protest.

Lee Holloway remains a thug

Local blogger Steve Eggleston, writing about a memo by Milwaukee County Board Chairman Lee Holloway, had the temerity to refer to the chairman as a "thug." Jim Rowen objects, and says that Eggleston is playing the race card.

At least one self-described "hard-boiled" righty blogger can't stop playing the race card.

That's the only conclusion you can come to when "Thug" - - a word that worked itself into the local vocabulary following particularly violent crimes, and especially during former Ald. Michael McGee's legal troubles - - suddenly becomes Holloway's middle name, too.

Apparently on at least one right-wing blog from the south Milwaukee suburbs - - and so far I'm not seeing anyone on the conservative side of the blogosphere take the race-baiter to task - - Holloway's 'crime' was supporting a sales tax increase, in a public policy debate, at the Milwaukee County Board.

Which he chairs, as the Supervisors' elected leader.

In other words, where he does his job.

Yes, readers outside greater Milwaukee and beyond, this is part of the heavily-racialized public debate that is endured here.

Rowen then points out a number of white politicians that supported raising taxes not commonly referred to as a "thug."

The word "thug" has its origins in a murder cult in India. The Thuggees were devoted to the death goddess Kali and their favorite method of murder was to take unsuspecting travellers and strangle them.

Today "thug" refers to someone who is a violent, often physically brutal, criminal in nature. The nice part about the word "thug" is that the ugly sound of the word wonderfully provides an aural texture to the thought being conveyed in such a small word. "Thug." The "ug" sound, like in "ugly" and "ugh" (or reversed in "disgust") quickly identifies an object of revulsion.

Like Milwaukee County Board Chairman Lee Holloway. Let's face it. "Thug" is so much better as a short descriptor than almost any term to describe the chairman. It certainly rolls off the toungue more quickly than, "petty and violent kleptocrat and slumlord." Or even "brutish and corrupt".

Rowen attempts to make the case that Steve Eggleston was using the term because a) race, and b) Holloway's stand on taxes. Would it make Rowen sleep better if I accuse him of thuggish bullying with his cry of racism? After all, Rowen admits that Eggleston has used the term before to describe Holloway in other blog posts on other issues, but does not provide any evidence that Eggleston meant the term in a racilly pejorative fashion.

Rowen's only argument is that Holloway is an African American, Michael McGee Jr was an African American, conservatives have used the word "thug" to describe both. Perhaps Rowen should be more concerned why their African American constituents were tolerant of having thugs as their elected representatives.

Rowen owes Eggleston an apology, the word "thug" remains in circulation, and Lee Holloway remains a thug whether Rowen acknowledges it or not.

In the meantime, perhaps Rowen would be willing to take up the cause of the misuse of the term to describe other politicians? Yeah, I didn't think so.

One among the dozen

Idiots, idiots everywhere. On the way home this evening I saw one idiot behind the wheel of a car honking her horn because the six cars in her lane weren’t moving. When they did move, they didn’t move fast enough for her and she honked her horn again. This time the car in front of her stopped and someone got out. Since we were east of 124th street, I didn’t stick around to see the end.

There were idiots abroad. Former Chief Idiot Jimmy Carter became a useful idiot for terrorists when he declared he had achieved peace in our time. Fortunately Hamas was more truthful than Jimmy when they pointed out that they did not accept the right of Israel to exist and that they would only offer Israel a ten-year truce provided Israel retreated to it’s (strategically untenable) pre-1967 borders. After said truce Hamas would go back to killing Israelis until the last Jew was gone.

But this week the idiots were out in force in Milwaukee County where the County Board had to vote 45 times to elect a new chairman. The new chairman is the same as the old one, violent slumlord Lee Holloway. Brian Fraley has the twelve who voted for Holloway on the final ballot.

1. Gerry Broderick
2. Toni Clark
3. Elizabeth Coggs-Jones
4. Marina Dimitrijevic
5. Lee Holloway
6. Willie Johnson Jr.
7. Christopher Larson
8. Theo Lipscomb
9. Michael Mayo Sr.
10. John Thomas
11. John Weishan Jr.
12. Peggy West

But we can’t have 12 idiot politicians of the week, can we? And we won’t. Supervisor Lipscomb voted “present” the entire time until the final vote because he didn’t feel it was right for a newcomer to make such a choice. Of course, when he ran for the office it was assumed by his constituents that they were asking him to precisely do that – make choices. And not later – now. Had he voted earlier, he could have broken the tie for second place, forcing the run-off between Holloway and Schmitt that much earlier. But he failed to do the one task his constituents required of him causing the whole embarrassing mess to drag out that much longer. What’s worse, when he finally made a choice so many hours after it all began, he made the wrong choice, making the whole affair that much more embarrassing to Milwaukee County.

So congratulations Supervisor Lipscomb. On the job less than a week and already you are the Idiot Politician of the Week. Who would've thought your constituents would miss James White as their supervisor?

At least they have the job title right

Why do the Milwaukee County taxpayers have to pay for a spokesman - the "Public Information Manager" - for the Milwaukee County Board? What other government body has one spokesman for 19 full-time (and over-compensated) elected officials? Are they all mute and incapable of typing?

And what information is the public getting? Here's the latest press release from PIM Harold Mester in it's entirety:

Milwaukee Co. Board: Lee Holloway re-elected chairman of Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors for 2008-2012 term
4/21/2008

Contact: Harold Mester, Public Information Manager

414/278-4051 or harold.mester@milwcnty.com

Sup. Mayo Elected 1st Vice Chair, Sup. West elected 2nd Vice Chair

Milwaukee, WI – The Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors voted this evening to re-elect Lee Holloway as County Board Chairman. Supervisor Michael Mayo, Sr., was elected 1st Vice-Chair and Supervisor Peggy West was elected 2nd Vice-Chair.

“I’m pleased that my colleagues have entrusted me to continue serving as Chairman of the Board,” said Holloway, who has served as Chairman since 2002. “I look forward to continuing my record as an inclusive Chairman leading the way on important decisions facing Milwaukee County over the next four years.”

Four new Supervisors, elected on April 1st, were also sworn-in:

• Theo Lipscomb, 1st District
• Christopher Larson, 14th District
• Joe Sanfelippo, 17th District
• John Thomas, 18th District

The next regular meeting of the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors is scheduled for Thursday, May 22, 2008 at 9:30 a.m. in Room 200 of the Milwaukee County Courthouse.

That's it. No mention of the time that it took to elect Holloway. No mention of the number of votes. None of the roll call votes. Zip. Nada. Just a friendly press release that could've been written by Holloway himself.

If the supervisors are so incompetent that they want to keep Holloway, the least they could do is fire Mester and issue their own press releases.

The roach horror

Milwaukee County's courthouse has a little bug problem, and it's got the political Left acting like the roaches are carrying guns and killing people. Let's stop the horror and disgust reaction for a few moments and look at some facts.

1) If Walker had been allowed to hire a private cleaning company like he wanted, poor sloppy Kitty Brennan would have someone to empty her trashcan.

2) If Walker hires an exterminator, the animal rights people will go, well, nuttier. Not to mention poor Kitty Brennan will complain about the fumes.

3) Pets are known to have a therapeutic, calming effect on people. No cheaper pet than a pet cockroach.

4) Are they sure the cockroaches are the result of Courthouse uncleanliness? My bet is that they followed County Board Chairman Lee Holloway from one of his rental properties. They probably decided to stay when they discovered the Courthouse was warmer and safer than a Holloway slum apartment.

5) If you aren't going to reduce the Milwaukee County Board to part-time, then give each member a can of Raid, a fly swatter and a map of part of the building and have them do something useful for once.

6) I just hope a cockroach doesn't crawl into the mouth of one of the sleeping union custodians.

7) Did you know that a cockroach can live off the back of a postage stamp for two weeks?

8) Did you know you can buy roach spray and other similar items from Amazon.com, and help this website at the same time? (Maybe I should send this last one to Scott Walker.)



Buy Wisconsin Stuff Now!