xoff's blog

“We understand the land’s going to be raped, and that’s called mining. But we didn’t know we’d get raped too. And that’s called the Assembly bill. I’m pro-mine but I’m not this pro-mine.” -- Mellen Mayor Joe Barabe, who still hopes for a compromise.

"Pity poor zombie-eyed granny-starver Paul Ryan. There he was, being a serious man of ideas and being all policy intellectualish, and dying to lay out a precise plan for two decades of granny-starving, and suddenly, all anybody wanted to talk about [on CBS This Morning] was lady parts and what should be done about them..."  --  Charles Pierce of The Politics Blog.

More at The Paul Ryan Watch

Rep. Paul Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee, requires that staff members read Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged,” in which heroic capitalists struggle against the “moochers” trying to steal their totally deserved wealth, a struggle the heroes win by withdrawing their productive effort and giving interminable speeches. -- Paul Krugman. 

Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke, a media hog who seems to make news whenever he wants -- which is constantly --  was denied a chance to speak Monday at the sentencing of a woman who struck and killed a "Good Samaritan."

Clarke was thwarted in his bid to steal the spotlight by Judge Richard Sankovitz,(pictured, for once, instead of Clarke) in a judiciously written, must-read letter that doesn't take much reading between the lines.

The newspaper coverage barely mentioned it, and buried it at the bottom of the story, reporting:

Sankovitz explained in a letter that he did not let Clarke speak during the hearing because it would raise questions about whether it was fair for Lyboualong to take on two parts of government at the same time, and because it would shift the focus from the facts to Clarke personally because he is a local celebrity.

We were surprised to see a commercial on Milwaukee TV for this candidate, just after the Super Bowl ended.

He is a kidney specialist who lives in Brookfield. Here's his website.

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) inadvertently referred to prominent Republicans like Paul Ryan as liars during an interview on Oklahoma TV.

 “Any politicians that stands up and says, ‘We’re not going to touch your Medicare’ is a liar,” Coburn said, apparently forgetting that the GOP has used the talking point as a center piece in their campaign to sell Medicare premium support to the public.

Watch Coburn’s remarks and read more at The Paul Ryan Watch.

  Remember Georgia Thompson?  She was the mid-level state employee victimized by trumped-up charges brought by an overzealous Republican federal  prosecutor trying to save his job by smearing the Jim Doyle administration.

You can bet Scott Walker remembers her --and is trying to forget what he said about the case.

The prosecutor's move worked for awhile --huge headlines, a firestorm of publicity right during Doyle's reelection campaign, Thompson's June 2006 conviction on charges she illegally steered a state travel contract to a bidder who was close to Doyle, her sentencing to prison in September, and the inevitable negative television commercials from GOP candidate Mark Green, suggesting Doyle was a crook.

In the tradition of "Quote, unquote" posts that appear here now and then:

@ScottKWalkerScott Walker My mother made chocolate chip cookies for our Victory Offices around the state. She delivered a bunch today. Thanks, Mom!

Enjoy!  Don't think she's allowed to bring them to jail.