Things to do--fun and not--this evening

by folkbum

Milwaukee's legislators are holding a listening session on the education and health care implications of the proposed state budget. It will be held at the Greater New Birth Church, 8237 W Silver Spring Drive (map), in Milwaukee. It starts at 6 PM.

The Milwaukee Public Schools is holding another info/ listening session on the impact of the budget on MPS, at North Division high school, 1011 W Center St. (map), Monday night starting at 6:30 PM.

Drinking Liberally is meeting tomorrow night, beginning at 7 PM, at Transfer Pizzeria, 1st and Mitchell in Milwaukee (map).

And I'm still hoping to get to Shank Hall for Jill Sobule/ John Doe at 8 PM.

So, never let it be said there's nothing to do.

Drinking Liberally: Milwaukee County First Edition

by capper

From the website for Milwaukee County First:

Milwaukee County First is a grassroots network of organizations and individuals from all walks of life, united to amplify their voices in the cause of stopping the decline of Milwaukee County, restoring its assets and services to their former first class status, and keeping Milwaukee County a place where people will want to work, to play, and to live.

Milwaukee County is a shadow of what it once was. Its parks, once a necklace of jewels, are now unkempt and overgrown. Its transit system, once a yardstick for the nation, is now fighting for its very survival. The social services and safety net that Milwaukee County once provided has been scaled down so much that the State of Wisconsin had to intervene to protect the most vulnerable of the county’s citizens. Its infrastructure is crumbling and years behind in necessary repairs.

The causes of this decline in Milwaukee County’s status are many, from the dire economic times we are in, to local leaders, past and present, who have put their self-interests before those of the people they serve. It is time, if not beyond time, for civic leaders to once again put the interests of Milwaukee County first. It is time to make Milwaukee County a first-class economic and social region for the State of Wisconsin and the entire Midwest. This is why residents from throughout Milwaukee County have come together to form Milwaukee County First.

Milwaukee County First is a registered 501(c)4 non-profit organization based in Milwaukee County.

Come and meet us Wednesday night, July 15, at Drinking Liberally. We will be at the Sugar Maple, located at 411 E. Lincoln Ave. tonight at 7 p.m.

Learn how you can help us help Milwaukee County, and let us know what issues you would like to see addressed.

See you there!

Drinking Liberally tonight

by folkbum

Join me! We have much to celebrate, including my one day of summer vacation, which is tomorrow.

The saddest part about Drinking Liberally tonight ...

by folkbum

... was not that the Sugar Maple was packed to near overcapacity for the whole evening and it was hard to move around at times. No, it's that the capacity crowd of gleeful, exuberant, celebratory Democrats could barely muster the energy to make a solid effort at throwing slippers or hats or gloves at a guy in an orange jumpsuit and a George W. Bush mask. It took Teh Man many tries to convince someone to do it, and the winner (for this was a contest! with prizes!) could only muster a (I kid you not) "Fer cryin' out loud, get out of here already!"

Jason made a valiant effort to drum up the crowd for the pelting, but it was really kind of embarrassing to watch.

On the other hand, there really was a great crowd and a great vibe and way too many bloggers there to list all of them--including Greg Kowalski, whom I met for the first time tonight finally. Lots of fun and good conversation. (And Nick: Ally's a keeper.)

So it's back to work today

by folkbum

Although I keep thinking there's something else going on today that I should be paying attention to. No idea what it is, though. Long weekend made my brain soft. Consider this an open thread to discuss what's afoot today.

Oh, and don't forget to come to the party tonight.

folkbum live and in person

by folkbum

You have two chances to see me, meet me, beat me up in the parking lot, whatever, in the next few days--one with music and one without.

Eating Liberally, Drinking Liberally's solid cousin, meets on the first Wednesday of the month. That means tomorrow, Wednesday Oct. 1, I will (probably--I have had this cold that is making life unbearable) be at the Beans and Barley Cafe, 1901 E. North Avenue, at 6 PM for the festivities. Join us!

Joyce Parker Productions, an occasional Saturday music series in Bay View, is hosting 2/3 of the Portage Road Songwriters Guild this weekend on Saturday, October 4. Come see me, Chris Straw (with Jon Pagenkopf), Chris Head, and Mark Plotkin. The show is free and goes from 3 to 4 PM. The venue's on KK between Lenox and Russell--2685 S. Kinnickinnic Avenue. I hope to see you there!

Drinking Liberally tomorrow; blogging slowly for the next few weeks

by folkbum

I am actually finding very little time to blog here, even though urban legend says teachers get their summers off. I will likely not even make it to Drinking Liberally tomorrow, but you should.

Drinking Liberally Wednesday

by folkbum

We need to drink now, because John McCain will veto every beer.



As part of the drinking, though, I suppose we also could discuss how to elect Barack Obama, as Obama has pledged not to veto your beer.

When: Wednesday, June 18, 7 PM onwards
Where: Sugar Maple, 441 E. Lincoln Ave in Milwaukee's Bay View neighborhood. The Sugar Maple is just east of KK. They have 60 quality beers on tap, and it's smoke free.

Drinking Liberally Returns

by folkbum

In the email today:

My friends, it's been a while. We've seen an ugly state supreme court race, the county executive still in power, and the presidential race bordering on the tedious and arcane. In this time, we need somewhere that we can come together to find commonality, camaraderie, and most of all, really good beer.

Thus it gives me great pleasure to announce that Drinking Liberally has returned to Milwaukee!

When: Wednesday, April 16, 7-9PM
Where: Sugar Maple, 441 E. Lincoln Ave in Milwaukee's Bay View neighborhood

The Sugar Maple, located at 441 E. Lincoln Ave., is just east of KK. They have 60 quality beers on tap, and it's SMOKE FREE.

We are happy to welcome our first special guest, Milwaukee Alderman Tony Zielinski!

Drinking Liberally is an informal social club. All are welcome, and there's no fee or cover charge. Come meet friends new and old, and have a good time.

While we do not endorse any candidates or causes, local candidates have found volunteers and supporters at Drinking Liberally. And you are welcome to bring literature and opinions to share. Also, teetotalers are welcome -- this is Drinking *Liberally* after all.

See you soon!

Jason and the Milwaukee DL crew

I will be there--the fat balding pinko commie drinking coke instead of tap beer.

See you soon?

by folkbum

TOMORROW: One of my favorite singer-songwriters, and a big influence on my own writing, Ellis Paul, is at Shank Hall.
LATER: Drinking Liberally v2.0 launches. Wednesday, April 16, from 7-9 PM at the SMOKE-FREE Sugar Maple, 441 E. Lincoln Ave. in Bay View. The special guest will be Milwaukee Alderman Tony Zielinski.

Wednesday Briefs

by folkbum

Speaking of Michael Mathias: You must read this post.

There's Drinking Liberally tonight.

Question: In the state supreme court race, you have one candidate who has repeatedly violated the code of judicial conduct over the last decade, perhaps more than 100 times; and you have another candidate who hired someone who sent a couple of photographers (that the candidate never hired or met) to Washington County where they (allegedly) lied to the cops about why they were there. Guess which one Jessica McBride thinks is "The real ethical scandal"?

And as long as we're talking about ethical standards and the state supreme court, the person who incurred the biggest campaign finance penalty ever for the way he ran his last campaign--the retiring Justice Wilcox--has endorsed Ziegler.

For the record, while I was the first (media?) outlet to run the Annette Ziegler conflict-of-interest story, I didn't get it from this guy. Never met him, never want to.

Guess who's coming to Drinking Liberally?

by folkbum

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett:

The Mayor is scheduled to appear at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, February 28. Please show up early if you can. His office said the Mayor will discuss "the State of the City" with us. You can read his 2007 State of the City speech here, and please bring your questions for him as well.

Drinking Liberally is Milwaukee's social club for folks of the liberal persuasion. There's no cover charge or membership fee (although voluntary donations to help the national organization offset their costs are gratefully accepted!). People of all stripes come together at Drinking Liberally for a lively evening of socializing and social lubricant.

I may be late--I have a thing at 6:30--but I hope to see you all (and the mayor) tonight at Club G.

Terry Falk and Drinking Liberally Tonight!

by folkbum

Eight-district Milwaukee school board candidate Terry Falk wants to meet you tonight:

*Meet Terry Falk*
Candidate for Milwaukee Board of School Directors, District 8
Puddler's Hall, 2461 S. St. Clair St., Bay View
Wed. January 24th, 5-8 p.m.

Then swing by Club G for Drinking Liberally!

Meet Terry Falk

by folkbum

folkbum-approved MPS school board candidate Terry Falk is having a forum next week:

*Meet Terry Falk*
Candidate for Milwaukee Board of School Directors, District 8
Puddler's Hall, 2461 S. St. Clair St., Bay View
Wed. January 24th, 5-8 p.m.

After you're done there, swing by Club Garibaldi (corner of Superior and Russell in Bay View) for Drinking Liberally.

Thursday Thumbs

Thursday Thumbs is a new regular feature wherein I express my approval or disapproval concerning news of the week, happenings, or other trivia through a cute graphic, rather than with my usual long, hard-to-follow, and humorless rants and rambling. Today's edition is the inaugural one. Be nice.

Thumbs up to going back to grad school. Scott's time will get tighter, but it will be well worth it in the end.

Thumbs down to AirTran. Midwest Airlines has something special about it, and it isn't AirTran's dirty airplanes and cramped seats.

Thumbs up to Mel Gibson. Yes, he's crazy, but at least he's able to own his insanity.

Thumbs down to Michael McGee, Jr. He can't seem to own his insanity.

Thumbs up to the McIlheran Watch growing ever wider. I'm telling you, he's a tricky one.

Thumbs down to everyone who over-hyped the "spying on Di" story.

Thumbs up to a swift recovery for Tim Johnson. Our thoughts are with him and his family.

Thumbs down to everyone waiting for Johnson to die. Really, FOX, that's low even for you.

Thumbs up to Dean, for crossing enemy lines.

Thumbs down to No Child Left Behind, which seems to be falling apart all over.

Thumbs down to Peter Pochowski, who said, "he estimates 25% to 30% of local teens are carrying" cell phones. That's about 70% to 75% off from reality.

Reminder: TV and Other Off-Line Appearances

Tuesday: I'll be appearing with conservative blogger Owen Robinson on WTMJ, channel 4 in Milwaukee, off and on starting at 9:00 pm during their election coverage. I'll be offering opinion, analysis, and insight about how the netroots and blogs are reacting to the results as they come in. Don't forget to email me over the course of the evening and night at folkbum@hotmail.com, so you can get your opinions on the teevee, too.

Wednesday: I'll be at the regularly scheduled Drinking Liberally down at Club G in Bay View (click the link for more info including a map). If things go well Tuesday, we'll be getting drunk in celebration. If they go poorly, we'll be getting drunk in misery. Either way, there will be a lot of drinking.

Saturday: I'll be a featured panelist at Download 2006, a post-election roundup sponsored by One Wisconsin and Boots & Sabers. It will be a chance for everyone--bloggers, readers, media folk, and random passersby attracted by the refreshments--to get together and discuss the results of and lead-up to the election. The event is free, but you need to register ahead of time. Click through the link above to do so. And, liberals, we need you! Last spring at the WisPolitics blog summit, there were four--four--of us who raised our hands at the "How many of you are liberals?" question. See you there!

TV and Other Off-Line Appearances

Tuesday night, Owen Robinson and I will be appearing on WTMJ, channel 4, off and on after 9:00, to provide commentary and analysis. We'll also be doing updates on what the blogs are talking about, so post away or email me about what you're thinking. I'm there for you.

A week from today, I'll be appearing with Owen again--as well as six other Cheddarsphereans--at the Download 2006 conference, a post-election opportunity for bloggers/ media/ normal folk to get together and chat about what happened on election night and why. The event is at the Waukesha County Technical College, and is free. However, you should RSVP as soon as possible if you're going.

Midweek Miscellany

• I have parent-teacher conferences tonight, so I won't make it to Drinking Liberally. But don't let that stop you!
  
  
• WisPolitics is having a contest!
  
  
• Some light reading on the Menard's flap: Seth and Cory tell us that just knowing Menard's is building in Iowa and Ohio doesn't tell you the whole story.
  
  
• If indeed Democrats do take control of the House of Representatives after this November's elections, according to Chris Bowers, it will be the first time since 1955 that the South has not controlled the House:

  The gains Democrats are making in this election are not the result of becoming more moderate. The gains Democrats are making in this election are not the result of doing a better job of talking to "values voters." The gains Democrats are making in this election are not coming from rebuking the party's liberal wing. The gains Democrats are making in this election are not coming from moving to the right on national security, immigration, or taxes. The gains Democrats are making in this election are not the result of recapturing "the Bubba vote." It is easy to tell that the Democratic gains in this election are not the result of any of those things, because Democrats have not done any of those things. We have, instead, built significantly improved political infrastructure, moved to the left, and rallied a broad, people-powered coalition against Republican extremism. [. . .] This will be the first post-Dixiecrat, post-Blue Dog, post-DLC, post-triangulation, post-moderation victory for Democrats in a long, long time.

  
  
• Some more reading on North Korea: Josh Marshall provides a timeline and remids of us the salient fact: This is not Bill Clinton's fault:

  So Clinton strikes a deal to keep plutonium out of the North Koreans' hands. The deal keeps the plutonium out of reach for the last six years of Clinton's term and the first two of Bush's. Bush pulls out of the deal. Four years later a plutonium bomb explodes.

  Mixter asks, "Who was president in 2002?" I ask, at what point--2009? 2010?--does stuff start being the fault of the guy under whose watch this happened?
  
  
• Among the scariest parts of the "Detainee Trials" bill passed a couple weeks back (and then buried under the Foleylanche) is the notion that, at his discretion, the president can declare anyone, even citizens of the United States, "ublawful combatants." You can be arrested for something as innocuous as donating to a non-profit, thrown in jail, and tortured. If it happened to Jose Padilla, it could happen to you:

  He stayed in a black hole, kept by his own government, for the next three-and-a-half-years with no charges of any kind ever asserted against him and with the administration insisting on the right to detain him (and any other American citizen) indefinitely--all based solely on the secret, unchallengeable say-so of the President.

  Even if you like George W. Bush, consider what President Hillary would do with that kind of power, the decide if you want that in the unsupervised and unchallengeable hands of one person.
  
  
• A note about Blogads: I'm generally happy to take anoyone's money, of any stripe, if you want to support what I do or promote yourself. However, I did reject an ad this week--the first time I've done so--for JB Van Hollen. The ad was "Dems for JB," and I felt that anyone seeing the ad might mistake me as a Dem for JB. I am not; I support Kathleen Falk and, even though my influence is undoubtedly very small in the matter, will not do anything to give the impression that I think we should elect Van Hollen. I'm sure his money spends just like anyone else's, but I had to say no.
  
  
• Yesterday, I wrote about how abusive and hostile the other side of the Cheddarsphere can be (my great sin, to be clear, was linking to someone else; that alone was enough to prompt a profane and childish explosion). One of the good guys, to me, has always been Rick Esenberg, who I don't think has a hostile or profane bone in his body. However, Fair Wisconsin's Joshua Freker Ferrets out something about Rick:

  The picture becomes clearer when we note that Esenberg has begun working with the Alliance Defense Fund, which has been at the forefront in pushing bans across the country. He contributes to their blog, Constitutionally Correct. [. . .] Esenberg works with an organization passionately opposed to providing gay families with any measure of fair treatment. So when he says that the Wisconsin ban wouldn't touch gay families' health care--when he offers an interpretation counter to the one put forth by ADF attorneys across the country--count me as deeply skeptical.
  
  If our ban passes, is Esenberg saying that ADF won't sue here? Or that he won't take part in such a suit? Somehow, I doubt it.

  Now, to be fair to Rick the connections I found Googling ADF's website for Rick's name are a little slim, but he is indeed attached to ADF in some ways. I think it is incumbent upon Rick to explain why ADF's history of pursuing cases based on the kind of weasel language our proposed amendment contains shouldn't make us wary of a "yes" vote. (Reminder: Vote no.)

Drinking Liberally Milwaukee--Tonight!

From 7:00 onwards at Club Garibaldi in Patrick McIlheran's beloved Bay View. I'll be there. Will . . . you?

The Most Encouraging Result, Other Ruminations, and the Contest Winner

• This is the result that has me feeling somewhat optimistic:

  357,182 (or so) people voted in the Democratic primary for Attorney General
  238,606 (or so) people voted in the Republican primary for Attorney General

  That's a 20% Dem advantage in turnout statewide. There are a number of things that could explain this away, and I bet Republicans will try them. The most obvious is perhaps that there were more contested Dem primaries for Congress for example, including the Kohl-Masel race. But I don't think Republicans were seriously worried about Ben beating Herb enough to forgo the chance to vote for Bucher or Van Hollen. There was also the contested Secretary of State race on our side, but that seems only about as likely to drive up Dem turnout as the contested Lt. Governor race on their side, maybe less so. You can't even blame Milwaukee County Republicans crossing over to re-nominate David Clarke for Sheriff; Clarke won by around 3,000, not anywhere near enough to account for either Bucher's embarrassingly lopsided loss or the greater Dem turnout statewide.
  
  Jef Hall also noticed, and seems more optimistic about "the coming Democratic landslide."
  
  
• On the downside, the results in the 8th CD (congrats to Kagen--I needed at least one endorsee to win) were disappointing, and show how much work it's going to take to win that race. 56,000 Republicans turned out for what no one really thought of as a contest between Gard and McCormick. Only 52,000 people turned out in the highly contested Democratic primary. That's a 4% Republican advantage. While some McCormick voters may well bolt to Kagen, the good Doctor is going to have to capture a significant majority of that elusive non-primary-but-general-election voter.
  
  On the other hand, only 12,000 people voted for Dottie LeClair in that district in the 2004 Democratic Primary (52,000 for Mark Green), so the contested primaries did significantly increase turnout, especially on our side. Let's hope that energy and momentum continues!
  
  
• My scorecard for predictions was a meagre 7-4. If I'd gone ahead and listed Vinehout and Koehn (two races I was pretty sure of, but just didn't put on paper), my percentage would have been significantly better. And though I called Falk-Lautenschlager right, I did it for the wrong reasons. As it turns out, Dane County came through for Peg, not Falk.
  
  I haven't taken the time to compare myself to everyone else--and, with a 6:45 AM meeting before school today, I won't--but at least I know I beat Bob Dohnal, who went 0-1. Whew.
  
  
• WI-01 CD voters have once again sent Jeff Thomas to run against Paul Ryan. What's the definition of insanity again?
  
  
• I may well endorse Don Holt for Sheriff. In an election between a Republican and a Republican, I'd rather support the honest one. I also suspect that Holt will pick up many of Bobot's law-enforcement endorsements. And he has to be an improvement over the man who was held in contempt of court for literally hundreds of violations of rules and regulations at the County Jail.
  
  
• The contest winner is D.B.:

  Nowhere is where the formerly respected journalist ended up in Milwaukee in November, after the elections were over. The death of the campaign season spread its pallor over the city where once she had worked, and which she now declaimed was in crisis. Corpses of newspapers that had held her front-page byline fluttered around, given bursts of life in the squalor that only she saw on the shores of Lake Michigan.

  Technically, he was the only entrant, since Diamond Dave's disgusting plagiarism of Bill O'Reilly was disqualified. D.B.'s prize is a free drink from me at tonight's one-year anniversary of Drinking Liberally! And, since I'm not sure who he/ she is, if you show up and claim to be him/ her, you can get that drink for yourself.
  
  Plus, I think there will be cake. A new contest will be announced later.