environment

It's been noted elsewhere that "conservative" really isn't an applicable description any longer of those political interests who portray themselves in that regard. After all, Wisconsin's new mining bill is anything but conservative, yet was enacted with wholly "conservative" political votes. The bill doesn't conserve anything, least of all our pristine forests or waters, which are by our state constitution a commonwealth of properties and resources that cannot be legally reassigned to some narrow, least of all private, interest.

Despite bloviating from mass media and the political right about how the recall of Scott Walker and four Republican state senators is single-issue politics (namely, the union-busting bill), the truth is that nearly two million recall petition signers had a lot of beefs. And one of the biggest was the Walker GOP assault on Wisconsin's tradition of strong conservation policies. 

So it's important to let friends and families know why we can't afford to keep these reckless, feckless clowns in office one day longer than necessary.

A Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial today calls for a "thorough investigation" into the Oak Creek power plant bluff collapse/coal ash spill into Lake Michigan. But, say the editors, let's not call coal ash "hazardous waste" , which would force the building of hazardous waste landfills, cost WE Energies $300 million a year, raise our electricity rates and reduce the marketability of recycled coal ash products.

I’m going to be really honest with you: after all the fights at the mall to get just the right present for everybody and the giant hassle of going to the Post Office so I can get the perfect stamps for my cards – and then worrying that I left someone off the list – I am just not in the mood to do a 9/11 story.

And it’s been getting worse every year. I mean, just like the “It’s Christmas Every Day Store”, I know there’s one of the “9/11 Every Day” stores open, in the all-too-human form of Rudy Giuliani, and I’ve learned to live with that, but it seems like they got started with the 9/11 earlier than ever this year – and by the time the TV memorials and analysis and retrospectives are all over, to paraphrase Lewis Black…I’m going to hate freedom.

In an effort to stave off this fate, we’ll be headed in a different direction today: I have three stories to pass along; each is important enough that you really should know about them, and yet they’re each very much bite-sized and easily digestible.

It’s all good stuff…so let’s get right to it.

From George Lightbourn, former Tommy Thompson functionary and now maximum leader of the wingnut (albeit officially nonpartisan) Wisconsin Policy Research Institute (WPRI), comes the flaming revelation that Scott Walker has established a "new normal" for Wisconsin:

For starters there will be no more deferring to the status quo. No longer will politicians automatically assume that more school spending will enhance student performance, that more regulation by itself makes our air and water cleaner... .

No, now state politicians are supposed to automatically assume that less school spending will enhance student performance -- but only in public schools. In private schools already receiving huge public tax dollars swiped from those public schools, the old normal will still apply, only more so thanks to Walkerism.

NaturalWhen is it true that using up land preserves land? Answer: When you're Sen. Alberta Darling, Republican member of the powerful Joint Finance Committee, and you're in the midst of cutting back funds for one of the nation's most forward land conservation programs. The Legislature created the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program in 1989 and so far purchases have preserved 600,000 acres of natural landscape and wildlife habitat. The purchases also protect water quality and fisheries, and offer the prospect of expanded outdoor recreation opportunities for the public.