BusStop - No You Can't

As promised, Scott Walker has vetoed a Milwaukee County Board referendum. The referendum's goal is worthy: property tax relief from parks and transit expenses. Visitors share the costs with a modest sales tax increase. The natives pocket the difference.

To explain why citizens are forbidden a vote in Milwaukee County on their property taxes -- one of the most annoying and unfair taxes ever invented to siphon our wallets -- he ought to step to a microphone and address the citizens with three simple honest words:

"No You Can't."

Laughter would be healthy. History -- which is now moving in the Yes direction - makes this man funny.

There is a way to make a city work for everyone. Walker's politics of "no" are moving against history. Look at him.

Proof of his History Deprived Mind? Well, his veto claim that "There already was a referendum on this issue...."  Lena Taylor actually refused to support a new sales tax.

And sometimes it’s hard to believe my own eyes:

Jim Sensenbrenner goes off on entitlement programs in The Journal Sentinel:

It is time for Democrats controlling the agenda in Congress seriously to debate the crushing costs of entitlement programs and start implementing real reforms.

Gee, weren’t the Republicans in control of the House from 1995-06? And didn’t they control both houses of Congress and the White House 2003-06? Or did the sky just start falling since the Dems took over?

The JS again:

Audit finds bus system in decline

With a veto override attempt coming up next week on a sales tax referendum, a recent state audit is echoing calls to boost funding for the Milwaukee County Transit System.

The independent audit, required by state law, depicts the bus system as a cost-effective operation with declining service.

When last heard from, Republican operative Bruce Pfaff was busy getting Scott Walker elected governor, having already gotten John Gillespie and Cate Zeuske elected to the U.S. Senate, plus helping Scott McCallum beat Jim Doyle.

Pfaff is now in DC, working for the Congress critter known as Mean Jean Schmidt, from Pfaff's native Ohio.

Jean's best known for calling Rep. John Murtha, a decorated war hero, a "coward" for opposing the Iraq war. But that's just one of many of her claims to fame.

She's currently in the news for claiming, like some other misinformed Repubs, that China is drilling for oil off the coast of Florida.

False.

Others who fell for that piece of propaganda, including George Will and Dick Cheney, have already admitted their mistakes.

But not Mean Jean. Her spokesman -- guess who? -- says she stands by her statement, even if it's not true.

Republicans, as usual, have their undies in a bundle about Jim Doyle, claiming this time that he shouldn't have even stopped by at his own golf fundraiser Tuesday, a day he also devoted a lot of time to dealing with flood damage in the state.

One right-wing blogger has even started a poll about whether Doyle should donate the money to flood relief.

So, what was the unannounced Republican candidate for governor doing on Tuesday? Milwaukee County Exec Scott Walker was in Hayward and Rhinelander, raising money for a GOP State Senate candidate, Tom Tiffany -- and collecting some political IOUs for his campaign for gov.

Tuesday's calendar from WisPolitics:

Lunch with 12th SD candidate Tom Tiffany 6/10/2008 12 p.m. Lumberjack Steakhouse, 15860 T-Bone Lane, Hayward. County Executive Scott Walker $25 suggested minimum contribution PAC Accepted

Reception with 12th SD candidate Tom Tiffany 6/10/2008 5 p.m. Wisconsin River Cruises, 913 W. Kemp St., Rhinelander. Special Guest: County Executive Scott Walker $25 suggested minimum contribution PAC Accepted

Milwaukee County is sick, with a disease that could be fatal for our beautiful city.

When sick, it does matter how you respond. Chest pain can be heart burn or heart attack. We might deny the fatal symptom because Tums are handy and appear to bring relief.

The symptom is our wretched discussion of transportation. Freeway, bus, bicycle, automobile, rollerblade, rail, truck, skateboard, foot, boat.

When a symptom is fed with palliatives we feel better because the pain goes away, but not the problem. This virus spreads with illusions - those pleasantries devoid of research.

Scott Walker's newest TV commercial appears to be a testimonial from a perfect cross-section of the population who all support him.

They're young and old, black and white, male and female -- and they all deliver their lines very, very well.

Click here to watch it.

They're so good it makes you wonder if some or all of them might be paid, professional actors.

Greg Borowski's first post on the Journal Sentinel political blog said:

Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker has unveiled a new, upbeat TV ad, one that features a montage of (we presume) voters, all expressing their belief in Milwaukee and in, well Scott Walker.

Borowski, pressed by a "longtime political observer," asked whether actors were used.

Meanwhile, in response to a query about the people used in the Walker ad, Tim Russell of the Walker campaign says all are actual voters. Not actors.

"They're all real people," Russell said.

Scott Walker's poll numbers in the toilet?

Well, not exactly, but certainly circling the drain, as Dan Bice and others have reported. Brew City Brawler offers some analysis and amusing observation: Scott Walker is a dumb, antidemocratic failure and nobody likes him.

It's not true that nobody likes him. Wife Tonette does, at last report, and so does Tom Nardelli -- whom everybody really disliked when he ran for county exec -- because Nardelli is now on the county payroll.

Walker is in real trouble, no doubt about it. He is vulnerable. But it will take a credible challenger with enough resources who runs a near-perfect campaign.

The Walker camp, of course, has a billion reasons that Walker's numbers might have been "temporarily" low at the time of the recent survey.

Hogwash. A survey this week would show the same thing; he's worn out his welcome with a lot of people, who have figured out he's just another promise-breaking phony who poses as a "reformer."

They've given him five years, and he's still doing nothing but pointing fingers at Tom Ament and others who are long gone.

"One way to look at the political career of Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker is that he could be one of the most successful failures of all time."

-- Joel McNally in The Shepherd Express.

Here is today's Sykes post, in its entirety:

THE MILWAUKEE TAX REVOLT

is over.

That's based on Tuesday's special county board election in the heart of Tax Revolt Central -- South Milwaukee, Cudahy, St. Francis and Oak Creek.

In that south suburban area, where huge rallies sponsored by Citizens for Responsible Government helped fuel the recall campaign against Tom Ament, voters said that enough is enough.

A hand-picked Scott Walker candidate, who pledged to do whatever Walker wanted, lost to a candidate who's criticized Walker budget cuts and favors a referendum on an added one cent county sales tax to pay for parks, transit and property tax relief.

Walker says he'll veto the resolution rather than even let the voters express themselves on it. Now we know why.

It's time for a serious candidate to step up and challenge Walker's reelection bid in April. His one-trick, no-tax pony act is getting very old and tired.

UPDATE: Progressive Majority has more:

Scott Walker, who plans to veto County Board action calling for a spring referendum on raising the sales tax in Milwaukee County:

"I think the public wants us to manage the resources we currently have without raising taxes and find a way to provide those core services,” Walker said.

There would be one way to find out for sure what the public wants.

What would be wrong with letting the public express itself in a referendum?

Conservatives like Walker are all for "letting the people decide" on issues like gay marriage, which they think (wrongly) will help them at the polls.

But he's afraid to find out whether people value parks and other counry services enough to willingly pay more in taxes to support them.

Bottom line: He's afraid he might not like the answer.