Vicki McKenna’s Milwaukee radio show

Patrick has not been too impressed with Vicki McKenna’s Milwaukee radio show.

If they insist on piping in a radio show from Madison, at least they could make it sound decent, it sounds like she is doing the radio show from a cell phone. The audio quality stinks, it is like listening to an old time AM radio station that is almost out of range or not tuned in right… This is not the quality you expect from a 50,000 watt radio station.

And then Bruce in the comments perhaps reveals the reason,

Welcome to Madison, folks. I am guessing she’s doing her show from the WIBA studios. That’s how their station always sounds. This is why I listen to Milwaukee radio.

I haven’t had a chance to listen yet. More perhaps, when I get the opportunity to listen.

Filed under: Wisconsin

Consumer Confidence Hits 6-Year High

Updating this post, we have another snapshot of the economy with consumer confidence at a 6-Year high (a tip of the conservative cap to Patrick).

As much as the Dems try to convince everyone that the economy is “tanking”, they can’t run away from the fact that the economy is in very good shape. They have to cherry-pick areas such as housing etc., to try and frighten the American public.

It’s obviously not working.

Filed under: Economics

Improvement in Iraq

Reported on by traditionally liberal think tank? In the NY Times? I’m speechless. (A tip of the conservative cap to Best of the Web.)

Well, not quite. But here is an amazing two paragraphs after months (years?) of bad news,

Viewed from Iraq, where we just spent eight days meeting with American and Iraqi military and civilian personnel, the political debate in Washington is surreal. The Bush administration has over four years lost essentially all credibility. Yet now the administration’s critics, in part as a result, seem unaware of the significant changes taking place.

Here is the most important thing Americans need to understand: We are finally getting somewhere in Iraq, at least in military terms. As two analysts who have harshly criticized the Bush administration’s miserable handling of Iraq, we were surprised by the gains we saw and the potential to produce not necessarily “victory” but a sustainable stability that both we and the Iraqis could live with.

Startling, isn’t it? The surge is working, apparently.

Some things they saw.

• morale is high
• civilian fatality rates are down roughly a third since the surge began — though they remain very high, underscoring how much more still needs to be done.
• In Ramadi, for example, we talked with an outstanding Marine captain whose company was living in harmony in a complex with a (largely Sunni) Iraqi police company and a (largely Shiite) Iraqi Army unit.
• In Baghdad’s Ghazaliya neighborhood, which has seen some of the worst sectarian combat, we walked a street slowly coming back to life with stores and shoppers.
• We traveled to the northern cities of Tal Afar and Mosul. This is an ethnically rich area, with large numbers of Sunni Arabs, Kurds and Turkmens. American troop levels in both cities now number only in the hundreds because the Iraqis have stepped up to the plate.
• A local mayor told us his greatest fear was an overly rapid American departure from Iraq.
• far more Iraqi units are well integrated in terms of ethnicity and religion. The Iraqi Army’s highly effective Third Infantry Division started out as overwhelmingly Kurdish in 2005. Today, it is 45 percent Shiite, 28 percent Kurdish, and 27 percent Sunni Arab.
• Just a few months ago, American marines were fighting for every yard of Ramadi; last week we strolled down its streets without body armor.

They (nor I) want to give just a rosy view.

In the end, the situation in Iraq remains grave. In particular, we still face huge hurdles on the political front. Iraqi politicians of all stripes continue to dawdle and maneuver for position against one another when major steps towards reconciliation — or at least accommodation — are needed. This cannot continue indefinitely. Otherwise, once we begin to downsize, important communities may not feel committed to the status quo, and Iraqi security forces may splinter along ethnic and religious lines.

Their conclusion is stunning,

How much longer should American troops keep fighting and dying to build a new Iraq while Iraqi leaders fail to do their part? And how much longer can we wear down our forces in this mission? These haunting questions underscore the reality that the surge cannot go on forever. But there is enough good happening on the battlefields of Iraq today that Congress should plan on sustaining the effort at least into 2008.

Not what we’ve been used to hearing, is it?

Filed under: Iraq War, Politics

Wow, this team is in trouble

I didn’t think so earlier, but this latest road trip has shown what the challenge of a pennant race can do to a young team. They are still a half game ahead, but they are now one game behind in the more important loss column. You can make up wins, but you can’t get rid of losses.

After racing to another good lead, the Brewers let another one slip away.

On the MLB front page there’s a poll asking “Who most needs to step up for the Brewers to be successful in the second half?” They have five choices, but I wouldn’t vote for any of them.

The whole team needs to step up. Someone needs to start making timely hits (including the far and away best hitter this season, Ryan Braun). A pitcher needs to make a clutch pitch. This includes the starters who, IMHO, are having to leave games way to soon. The manager and the coaching staff needs to motivate these guys and make the right decisions.

I would have given Pujols an intentional pass both last night and this afternoon in the 8th even with the bases loaded. Would it have helped? Who knows?

With fourteen singles today, you can’t say the Brewers are swinging for the fences.

They need to be more consistent, every pitch, every play, every at bat.

And that’s a young team’s biggest hurdle.

Filed under: Baseball, Milwaukee Brewers

Is regionalization any closer?

In Sunday’s MJS there was a round table of community leaders on regionalization.

Can we all get along? Region’s leaders debate about challenges ahead

Apparently not from these exchanges. First, on transit.

[Milwaukee Mayor Tom] Barrett: Let’s go back to the $91.5 million, because I think that that’s a prime example. This is $91.5 million that’s been sitting on the table for 16 years . . . .

I thought, OK, clearly there’s an impasse here; Scott’s interested in buses, what I’ll do is I’ll propose that half of this money go to rapid transit buses, because that’s what Scott’s interested in, and we’ll put the other half into a rail base system downtown that complements the KRM.

To me, that’s the seeds of a compromise.

[Milwaukee County Executive Scott] Walker: It’s like saying to encourage compromise in something else, we’ll give you water, but we won’t ask for it to be returned clean. . . .

My response to that is I looked at the $91 and a half million, and I said, I’m not going to accept a compromise just for the sake of saying I got a deal if that undermines the Milwaukee County transit system and the bus system.

I know we have difference of opinion on that, but I fundamentally believe if I take half of that money . . . away from improving and upgrading the bus base system, put it into a system that’s not going to serve the largest group of people that we need to help, the transit-dependent population on the north and northwest side of the City of Milwaukee, and then create a system that longterm is going to compete for federal and state dollars against the bus system, which is going to serve the overwhelming majority of people who are transit-dependent, to me I don’t see that as a compromise, I see that as a direct hit on the bus system.

To me, a compromise would be the part we both agree on, the bus rapid transit, and say I won’t even spend it, we can leave some of that money on the table, have that debate another day, leave that aside.

Barrett: But you can’t have it both ways, Scott, because the other thing you said was, wait a minute, the city’s bus plan, they stole from the county.

We didn’t steal a bus plan from the county; we gave you what you wanted.

Walker: And if I give you the other part that you want, it will hurt the bus system.

Barrett: Just so you know, this is where there is a fundamental disagreement.

I think that the Milwaukee County Transit System is in a world of hurt.

Walker: Absolutely! Which has nothing to do with the $91 million.

Barrett: . . . And having a downtown circulator is not going to save the system, and it’s not going to ruin the system. The problems are far more deep than.

Walker: By 2010, they’re going to face some major problems without some alternative, which is why I put an idea on the table.

Some people like it, some people don’t. But with or without the $91 million and with or without our ideas, there needs to be a solution long term to funding the transit system in Milwaukee County.

Your point about it being hurt, though, is like saying the transit system has a cut, and now giving it another cut isn’t going to hurt the system.

…

Barrett: Scott, correct me if I’m wrong, I think anything that contains rail, you will oppose.

Walker: Correct. Because it takes from the bus system. . . .

Even if I said I love rail, and actually there are other forms of rail I’ve actually shown support for, but the funding for KRM doesn’t take away from the transit system.

[Sheldon] Lubar: But you’re saying that if you have a simple circulator on rail, that that’s going to destroy the bus system?

Walker: No, no. I’m saying it’s already . . . if you’re already creeping down that path.

Lubar: We want a regional rail system, don’t we?

[Rosemary] Potter: I think we all do.

The only thing, seemingly, Walker and Barrett could agree on is that there is no consensus about regional rail.

Walker: It that’s the case, you’re living in a different world than I am, because I repeatedly hear people that want some option of KRM, but having a regional rail system. . . .

There isn’t a consensus on that issue.

Barrett: I would agree. There’s not a consensus on that.

Walker: We’ve had this for 16 years, so in some ways, I hear this as though we just got it a year ago and I’m the only one holding us up.

Tom Ament held us up, John Norquist held us up, Tommy Thompson held us up, there’s a lot of people who’ve been a part of not making this happen. . . .

Now, if the city doesn’t like the plan we have, the city’s got a different plan. . . . I said we can rearrange those, to me, I’ll compromise. . . .

Let’s start out with a couple pilots, and we can show the federal government and we can show the Congress that we’re starting to use that money. . . .

To me, that would be a compromise, saying let’s move forward with the piece of it, and we can come back and debate the larger issue in the future.

And at the end,

Barrett: You’re trying to isolate Milwaukee County?

[Former Lt. Gov. Margaret] Farrow: No, no. I’m saying we already are very much part of your solution.

Barrett: But you said this is not Milwaukee or New Berlin. Now you’re saying like it’s my problems?

Farrow: No, no, no, no. Tom, you misunderstood me. That isn’t where I was going at all. . . . Our counties are already very supportive through the way Wisconsin runs our shared revenue formulas.We’re here with you. We’re helping you.

Barrett: Man, if it feels so good, how come it feels so bad? The state Assembly just tried to take $28 million of shared revenue away from the city of Milwaukee.

Farrow: But, by contrast, your county and your city are much higher up what comes in than all of them around there.

Barrett: We have the fourth-highest percentage of children in the country living in poverty, and you’re making it sound like you’re doing us a favor.

Farrow: No. I’m saying you’ve already got your fellow counties around you helping with the problem with no credit given, which is why this area doesn’t have a positive attitude about itself.

Barrett: I’ll tell you what I need. I need the legislators from the greater Milwaukee region who don’t live in the city of Milwaukee to speak up at the state Assembly and say, “Why are you whacking the City of Milwaukee with a $28 million cut in shared revenue?”

The state Assembly by picking four communities in this state – Milwaukee, Beloit, Racine and Superior – and just taking a hammer to them. I don’t feel the love. I’m sorry. I don’t feel the love right now.

Not exactly Kumbaya, is it?

Not to say it was all bad. The fact that they are talking is promising, I think. I liked what Sheldon Lubar had to say,

We have an outmoded, outdated governance structure, and it is splintered. It is so structured that of the county tax bill, Scott Walker, and Mayor Barrett, when he sends out property tax bills, has control of probably 25% of the expenses that befall the average taxpayer.

What I’m getting at is that we have a system of unelected officials who have taxing and spending authority, and there is no oversight on that taxing and spending authority, nor, as I look at it, is there any coordination of it.

If everyone is working together and feel like everyone is in it together, things can get done.

Unfortunately, we are far from that right now.

Video of the round table is here.

Filed under: Milwaukee, Regionaliztion, Waukesha, Wisconsin

Devil Ray Trades

The Devil Rays are attempting to shore up the major leagues worst pitching staff. Tampa Bay is ninth in the AL in hitting, but last in pitching with a team ERA over 6, 7.18 in the last 30 days! They are 10-32 since June 10.

First, they traded Seth McClung to the Brewers for Grant Balfour. I’m not sure this will be a good trade for Brewer’s fans, as McClung’s career ERA with the Rays is 6.38. He just never lived up to the Rays expectations. Shawn Camp was sent down to make room for Balfour.

Balfour, proving that a change of leagues has not helped (at least not yet). As far as the D-Rays go, how can they get worse?

Then, they sent Jorge Cantu to the Reds with OF Shaun Cumberland and cash. In return they got left-handed pitcher Brian Shackelford, right-hander Calvin Medlock and the much-traveled player to be named. They will report to Durham, the Rays AAA team

Cantu, the team’s 2005 MVP, was not happy at Tampa Bay with his reduced playing time.

Lastly, they shipped fan favorite Ty Wiggington, familiar to Brewer fans, to Houston for right-handed reliever Dan Wheeler. To replace Wiggington, the Rays recalled shortstop Ben Zobrist from Triple-A Durham. Wheeler is 1-4 with a 5.07 ERA and 11 saves in 45 appearances.

Wiggington’s flexibility should come in handy in Houston.

Filed under: Baseball, Milwaukee Brewers, Tampa Bay Devil Rays

Notes in passing from today’s Journal Sentinel

Budget writers attract donors This really didn’t surprise us, did it?

Bay View co-op offers earth-friendly fuel $3.68 a gallon. I’ll pass for now.

Water source revealed Are we also surprised that bottled water comes from public sources? Wouldn’t you think that all water sources have been discovered and used by the public? Isn’t what they do with the water afterward and the cost of putting it into those plastic bottles more important?

In light of Cordero blowing another one on the road Saturday, Full count: Split personality contrasts his record at home and on the road this season.

I got a chuckle from this piece in the “Up and Down” on page C2 (sorry no link),

Sandy Casar: The French rider won his first Tour stage despite hitting a dog on the way. In a rarity at this year’s Tour, the dog did not test positive for banned substances.

Finally, from Friday’s paper, it seemed that dining with recently deceased Dennis Ghetto was quite the experience.

Filed under: Wisconsin

A must read

Yeah, that phrase is used too often. But in this case it’s true.

Dad29 links to three posts by a cop, an ambulance driver and a nurse in a small North Texas town.

In their words,

The following events are not fictional, but they may have happened at different times, with different patients, at different places. Each one of the authors has had patients just like these, in situations just like those described.

Riveting, compelling.

Filed under: After hours

Brewers on Tuesday

Tuesday will find me tailgating at the Mets-Brewers match-up. This will more than likely preclude me attending the Americans for Prosperity tailgating event at the park.

Tom Glavine is scheduled to start for the Mets. He’s seeking his 300th win. I’m sorry I have to root against the Brewers that day.

Filed under: Baseball, Milwaukee Brewers

Why don’t people clap any more when movies finish?

They use to. I remember it. Is it because video and DVD rentals became popular? Something else?

The missus and I went to see No Reservations last night. Cute movie. I’m not really a reviewer kind of person because I get caught up in the story. For real reviews try Nehring the Edge or Blog Critics (where Nick writes, among others).

I thought the story was good, although the premise has been seen before (and what premise hasn’t?) The acting was good. They had practiced enough to look as though they have actually cooked before. There were some good humorous moments (although I think I laughed more watching Live Free or Die Hard), cute moments and tense moments.

But at the end of the movie in a packed theatre there was only a smattering of applause. What gives?

The movie itself is PG which means you don’t have to worry about apologizing to your friends after you recommend it. Neither did we have to worry about people disrobing in front of our eyes, nor did we have to worry about a swear word in every sentence.

Ok, it’s a safe movie. But sometimes safe is good.

Filed under: Movies