joeklein

If it works in a car centric place like Charlotte, NC; it can work in Milwaukee. Reconnecting America's Jeff Wood presents a slide show about Charlotte's transit system Slideshow

One of the problems that contributed to the Great Depression was a breakdown in international trade. One boost to international trade, as shown in the Euro zone, is a shared currency and the elimination of exchange rates. One achievable possibility would be to synchronize monetary policy between the Euro, Canadian Dollar, US Dollar and the Yen. I.E. 1 Greenback = 1 Loony = 1 Euro = 100 Yen. This would increase trade between the participants and build a exchange rate free trade zone among relative equal nations. Recent world events have shown us that our economies are truly closely linked. The myth of separateness is refuted by the daily interactions between our stock markets, exchange rates, and banks.

Bruce Murphy throws rhetorical punches at Sykes in his recent posting on MilwaukeeMagazine.com . Sykes doesn’t directly address or deny that conservative talk radio hosts (1) perpetuate the notion that listeners are victims and the host is the vehicle by which they are empowered; (2) use an us-versus-them approach that regularly targets Democrats, “Republicans in Name Only” and the mainstream media; (3) refuse to do an even-handed discussion of issues; (4) belittle callers when the argument can’t be won on the merits; (5) strategically find occasions to disagree with the Republican leaders or conservative doctrine to give the impression of being an independent thinker; (6) won’t risk their credibility by backing a Republican candidate who has no chance of winning; (7) rely on the “you know what would happen if this was a liberal” line of attack; (8) use the “pre-emptive strike” to immediately accuse the media of overplaying a budding news story that might make conservatives look bad; (...

This You-Tube video was posted to The Overhead Wire .

Look at our economic history. The regulatory regime put in under FDRs New Deal managed to smooth out the boom and bust cycle that plagued the U.S. economy in the century prior to the 1930s. The post FDR America had recessions rather than depressions. The economic cycle of boom and bust that ravaged this country between the civil war and the great depression was tamed by regulatory oversight of both Wall Street and the banking industry. In the 1980s and 1990s a rabble of post-Reagan economic ideologues emerged from the right wing of the Republican Party. These self proclaimed Neo-Conservatives or ‘Neocons,’ sought the dismantling of FDR’s regulatory regime and a return of America to laissez-faire policies. The Neocons apparently snoozed through history class during the lecture on the “Gilded Age,” an often glossed over period in American History; a time when laissez-faire economics so destabilized American society as to cause labor revolts and wild swings in the economy. The social, eco...

"Palin's requests to Congress came at a time of huge federal deficits, while Alaska state revenue was soaring due to rising oil prices and a major tax increase on oil production that Palin signed into law in late 2007." -- Palin's earmark requests: more per person than any other state "Palin reduced the state government's requests for special projects this year to 31 earmarks totaling $198 million, about $295 person." -- Despite cuts, Alaska earmarks still high "Total 2008 earmark spending for Wisconsin is $182.5 million, or roughly $33 per resident, according to the database." -- JSonline: Earmark spending has power to divide, unite

Nobody likes it when I say voter ID can be done in such a way as to not discourage voting. If the real goal is to insure the legitimacy of the voter, then we could simply take a digital snapshot at the time of registration and put the snapshot, with the registration information into a data base. This can be done with web based software and a laptop. When you go vote the poll worker would then look you up on the database. If you need to register on site, the poll worker would use a laptop with a cheap USB camera to put your address and image into the database. No fuss, no hassle, no waiting at the DMV. The fact that this method is not under consideration speaks volumes about the intent to use voter ID for vote suppression.

Now is the time for Wisconsin to implement bold transportation alternatives. A recent Science Applications International Corporation study publish in November 2007 and entitled Public Transportation’s Contribution to U.S. Greenhouse Gas Reduction said: “One of the most significant actions that household members can take to reduce their carbon footprint is to use public transportation. Today, 78% of commuters drive to work alone (ranging from 56% in New York State to 85% in Michigan). The annual use of an automobile driving an average of 12,000 miles per year and with an average 22.9 MPG consumption emits 4.6 metric tomes of CO2 per year. Households that have an SUV or light duty truck drive an average of 14,500 miles per year and have an MPG of 16.2 emit 7.9 metric tons per year. The average two wage earner and two vehicle owner household in the U.S. travels almost 24,000 miles per year. Households could reduce their carbon footprint by 25-30% by foregoing a second vehicle and using p...