Pedro Colón received the endorsements of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel and the Milwaukee Shepherd Express.

The Journal-Sentineleditorial describes Colón as “engaged with the district,” “attentive” to his constituents, employing an “effective voice for Milwaukee,” and with Colón’s position on the budget-writing Joint Finance Committee having achieved "respect in the Legislature to be in a position to deliver for Milwaukee.”

The endorsement flatly contradicts the willy-nilly discourse of Robert Miranda, executive director of Esperanza Unida, and Laura Manriquez, president of Esperanza Unida, who tried to knock both of their opponents off the ballot in an unsuccessful effort to circumvent the ballot box, saying that only they were in touch with the district.

Say what you want about Clean Sweep Wisconsin, but at least they try to get elected by dedicating their energies to running in electoral campaigns, and not avoiding them.

Everything McCain does (from picking the head of Alaska's National Guard to be his running mate to avoiding George Bush at the convention) has a ring of desperation to it as he faces an electoral landslide.

But politicos seem just as desperate to portray the doomed McCain campaign as on the verge of a breakthrough or a game changer.

Now it’s Hurricane Gustav that will help the ailing McCain.

Hurricane Gustav “presents the candidate with an opportunity to show that he would be a different kind of president than Bush” (Washington Post).

John McCain can't stop the storm, but his campaign is determined to make the most of it by using it to rebrand a new generation of Republicans as leaders who govern effectively and rise above partisanship (Time Magazine).

Update: Robert Miranda, executive director of Esperanza Unida, reportedly is leaving soon for his sixth visit to Turkey. No word on how Laura Manriquez, president of Esperanza Unida, feels about the junkets.

This weekend sees the launching of the beginning of the end of the Bush-Cheney-Rove-McCain administration.

But those seeking unity in Wisconsin have to wait two more weeks: Until Sept. 9, Wisconsin primary day.

The most heavily covered Wisconsin Democratic primary race in on Milwaukee’s south side, in which a rightwing Jose Guzman and in-some-wing Laura Manriquez are challenging five-term progressive incumbent, Rep. Pedro Colón.

Manriquez (the board chair of Robert Miranda’s Esperanza Unida, a non-profit taken over by Miranda’s coup a few years back) is echoing the campaign message of Miranda, executive director of Esperanza Unida and editor of the Spanish Journal.

Now, in an unusual campaign charge: (that Colón doesn’t charge enough per diem), Manriquez is looking desperate.

by globalgirl and mal contends

Madison, WI - We have heard numerous comments in conversation from friends and family fearful that there are just too many bigoted idiots in America to let Barack Obama live to be president.

 
Our common response is that: Though I do not know it for a fact, the United States Secret Service, created after the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901, is surely a dynamic, continuously improving organization. A would-be assassin's shot like that taken at Ronald Reagan in 1981 is undoubtedly nearly impossible today. It would take a military assault to get to Obama, I bet, I hope.

Dane County 911 Center

How about no more air-trips to Turkey for the Esperanza Unita's executive director, Robert Miranda, until Esperanza Unita pays their workers?

From today's MJS: Esperanza Unida's payroll problems continue under Miranda's administration:

Mark Freund, a former welding instructor and manager at Esperanza Unida, said he wasn’t in a position not to get paid, or to get paid late.

Update: Esperanza Unida's payroll problems continue under Miranda's administration

The Capital Times just corrected their editorial, “Van Hollen should act fast on petition fraud case” (July 25).

At issue is the nonsensical and internally incoherent assertions of some of Esperanza Unida's people that one of their two opponents for state assembly (whom they failed to knock off the ballot, making Esperanza Unida zero-for-two in this campaign) had improperly received legal counsel.

Ridiculous.

Editorializes the Capital Times today:

We have, as well, come to the view that the law firm and associates of attorney Michael Maistelman acted appropriately in this matter. ... We have been impressed with [attorney] Halbrooks' forthright and detailed responses to the concerns that have arisen. ...

Update: Esperanza Unida's payroll problems continue under Miranda's administration

I just want to say that I am truly disappointed in the Capital Times. It is supposed to stand up for the truth and be thorough in its investigations. When the format of the Capital Times was changing, I took Dave Zweifel and John Nichols at their words that the quality of the journalism would not suffer as they changed media.

Why then did they print an editorial that was so shabbily researched? I am referring to the editorial column “Van Hollen should act fast on petition fraud case” (July 25).

Boy, does Star Theater in Fitchburg (next to Madison) really suck now.

What the heck happened?  I had only been to the theater once before since I heard the theater changed ownership.

I took my boyfriend to see a matinee of the X-Files: I Want to Believe (that was disappointing) and was treated, assaulted is a better word, to the following:

We all have been reading about some spectacular (for Dane County) murder cases recently.

At a preliminary hearing yesterday, the Capital Times reports on: “an emotional day in court Friday as family members and friends of Joel Marino … heard audio tapes that offered the first glimpse of what appears to be limited words spoken during the interaction between the two men that resulted in Marino's death.” 

Accused murderer Adam Peterson, said, in a recorded phone conversation with his father, “I just stabbed him out of nowhere,” reports the Capital Times.

Incomprehensible. Senseless. Unstoppable?

And no comfort for the grief-stricken Marino family.

But I hope that the Madison citizen, John Brodan, who called police about Peterson after spotting him working at Capitol Centre Foods, and making the connection to a sketch of the murder suspect released March 10, gets the $30,000 reward for “information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the death of Joel Marino.”

Update: Esperanza Unida's payroll problems continue under Miranda's administration

 - Related Update: Esperanza Unida workers say they haven’t been paid for weeks: "While the executive director of Esperanza Unida was traveling in Turkey, some 11 workers at the south side job training agency signed a petition saying they had not been paid in four weeks and that some checks had bounced. (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)." 

Related Update - Shepherd-Express on Immigration Cruelty  -

When I received a ring from a friend calling from the Government Accountability Board (GAB) informing me that the GAB had unanimously ruled against Laura Manriquez’ effort to knock both of her Democratic primary opponents, Jose Guzman and state Rep. Pedro Colón, off the ballot for a Milwaukee assembly seat, I felt true schadenfreude.