In Wisconsin politics these days there is much about which to be appalled. Attacks on worker rights; attacks on public education; attacks on seniors, the disabled and the poor; and, most of all, attacks on Wisconsin's tradition of environmental quality, which would have native son and famed naturalist Aldo Leopold ("A Sand County Almanac") turning in his grave.

This morning I participated in the Journal Sentinel's live chat with Milwuakee Sheriff David Clarke and I asked him if his advice for people to get a gun and "get in the game" during armed robberies was irresponsible, because it could lead to unnecessary escalation to violence of robberies that would otherwise conclude without injury to anyone.

I specifically asked, "Should someone in line at a bank that is in the midst of a bank robbery, pull a gun on a bank robber?" 

Sheriff Clarke responded:

Jud, it depends. Again that is a decision that the person in that situation has to calculate, not me who is not there at the time

Not to be outdone by a right-wing batch of craziness that shall remain nameless, we've had this page in the works for a few weeks now.  Time to let 'er loose - the progressive version of "The Feed".  Let us know what you think!

“I wish I had taken a shop class,” I told the high school student, “As a farmer, it would have helped me a lot more than the sewing class I took instead.”

Back when I was in school, before the Age of the Dinosaurs, young women didn’t take ‘shop class’. Today, schools don’t even call it ‘shop’. And women cannot only take the classes, they teach them.

H/T to BlueCheddar

Today Glenn Grothman introduced SB 2, a bill which would change the timing of publication and enactment of new laws in the state.  Currently new laws are deposited with the Secretary of State, who must then publish the law within 10 days, after which the law goes into effect.  The new bill would speed this up considerably, and would in effect make it possible for the legislature to pass a bill, have the governor sign it, and have it go into effect the following day.

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Ridiculous) took a step over the line today, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made him pay the price. Courtesy of ThinkProgress.org, the exchange between them at the hearings on the Benghazi terrorist attack that killed a US ambassador and others. Remember, Republicans are trying to make this incident (not anywhere near the worst in terms of attacks on US diplomats over the years) into some kind of statement on President Obama's foreign policy. ThinkProgress reports:

This may be a little distracted.  I am following the mining hearing in Madison on Wiseye, and at the same time trying to keep a little bit of an eye on the Bengazi testimony, and write this at the same time.

The mining hearing is quite a drama.   You really should watch if you're not there.  This is one of the better reality shows I've seen, and carries a lot of real tension. It's a case study in how to railroad a hearing. Let's just say it's pretty clear that the chairs have their favorites in the crowd, and that the clock seems to be more than a little capricious. 

Anyway -- what can you do?

If you are not in Madison testifying today at the hearing, you can email your comments on the bill to the chairs of the committee:  Representative Mary Williams at Rep [dot] WilliamsMlegis [dot] wisconsin [dot] gov and Senator Tom Tiffany at Sen [dot] Tiffanylegis [dot] wi [dot] gov.  Please make sure you ask that your comments be made part of the testimony on the bill.  You must do this by 9 PM today to have it included!

An open records request reveals that Governor Scott Walker and his staff wrestled with how to respond to criticism that the Governor had remained silent in the days following the Oshkosh-area Planned Parenthood bombing, ultimately deciding to have the Governor's communication director, Cullen Werwie, issue a statement, from Werwie and not Walker, condemning the bombing.