Now we know why Republicans aren’t very much fun on dates. Forget the Rolling Stones singing about getting no “Satisfaction.” Republicans don’t even want no “Stimulation.” When the Obama administration put together an economic stimulus plan to head off a second Great Depression, Republicans made a political decision to oppose any government action to improve the lives of Americans. It was a clever way to...

Shrinking budgets have forced states around the country to finally stop wasting taxpayer money by imprisoning nonviolent offenders and turning small-time lawbreakers into hardened, more dangerous criminals. It’s one of the few examples where government could spend less money and actually benefit more people and increase public safety. By reserving prison for violent criminals...

In some cases, perhaps the best we can hope for from our politicians is that they’re lying to us. If they actually believe some of the things they say, we’re in really big trouble. We have perfect examples in the Republican opposition to economic stimulus funds nationally and Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Walker’s opposition to economic stimulus and job creation in Wisconsin. In speeches...

If we didn’t know anything, we’d think Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan was the hottest star in the Republican Party. He’s all over the cable news shows talking about his deficit reduction plan, “Roadmap for America’s Future.” Conservative George Will recently wrote a column forecasting him as the 2013 Republican vice president of the United States. Even President Barack Obama singled out Ryan as a pleasant guy with...

Much of the first year of President Bill Clinton’s administration got sidetracked as a result of Clinton trying to live up to his campaign promise to end discrimination against gays in the military. It said something about how deep-rooted bigotry against gay people was in 1993 that a simple issue of fairness and nondiscrimination created a firestorm of controversy for Clinton...

Republicans claim it’s unfair to characterize them as simply “The Party of No,” but then an incredible windfall of jobs and development is announced for the state of Wisconsin to a rising chorus of Republicans shrieking “No!” Republicans...

Looked at rationally, Gregory Thornton, Ph.D., the newly chosen superintendent who will take over the leadership of Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS), should have overwhelming support to begin reforming the state’s largest urban school district. Thornton topped the list of applicants in a nationwide search conducted...

Just two weeks into the new year, Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke claims he already has a $5 million budget shortage that will force him to shut down major programs in his department. That should immediately prompt the public to question not only Sheriff Clarke’s management skills, but also his political motives for such an extraordinary announcement...

One of the things that killed all those idyllic small towns that conservatives remember so fondly, the towns with white picket fences and vanilla populations to match, was shopping malls...

The attempted airplane bombing on Christmas Day should set off waves of dread among anyone who flies, and not just as a reminder that there are people in the world eager to blow airliners and their passengers to smithereens. We are still overwhelmingly more likely to die as a result of getting into our cars...

2009 began with exhilarating promise for Wisconsin Democrats after the state’s landslide support for President Barack Obama helped them win the Assembly, giving them control of the governor’s office and both houses of the Legislature. Somewhere along the way, however, Democrats decided they were far more...

Why would Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, running for governor, continue an apparently losing fight on a controversial local issue that doesn’t gain him any votes statewide and tears apart his political base at home? Barrett’s attempt to seize control of Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) from the elected school board failed to muster enough support in the Legislature last week...

On my morning talk radio show, I am regularly bedeviled by a black conservative who detests President Barack Obama and parrots extreme arguments he’s heard on right-wing radio. The caller identifies himself as H.S., which tells you everything you need to know. He says it stands for House Slave. Recently, H.S. was insisting Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett would have to scale back his opposition to concealed carry and support...

For many adults, the only thing more troubling than thinking about their children having sex should be not thinking about it. Health officials and other brave leaders within Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) have done a public service by proposing free condoms be made available to high-school students to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases...

Many Milwaukeeans are justifiably paranoid whenever they hear talk about regional economic development. That comes from years of watching corporate leaders move jobs out of the city into surrounding counties. Now the co-chairman of the Milwaukee 7, an organization allegedly formed to promote...

Corruption on the Wisconsin Supreme Court took a brazen leap forward last week when a majority of the justices officially went on record in favor of accepting millions of dollars in bribes. That is a slight oversimplification of the court’s action—but very slight. Consider this: Four of the seven justices approved a rule allowing them to accept millions in campaign contributions from special interests without being required to remove themselves from cases before...

Since it has hardly ever happened, the conventional wisdom is that a Milwaukee politician cannot be elected governor of Wisconsin. So is there a serious possibility that both political parties could nominate candidates from Milwaukee...

Republican leaders uniformly refuse to join former President Jimmy Carter in condemning the explicit racism of many of the signs and catcalls at organized protests against President Barack Obama’s health reform proposals. Even people waving signs depicting the president as a half-naked...

When a bozo Republican congressman shouts “You lie!” at the president of the United States speaking to a joint session of Congress, he is trashing age-old rules of decorum requiring politicians who hate each other’s guts to politely address one another on the floor of Congress as...

The organized objections against the presidential school address on right-wing talk radio have been nothing less than a hate campaign. “The thing that concerned me most about it was it seemed like a direct channel from the president of the United States into the classroom, to my child,”...

When a Wisconsin newspaper is looking for a sleazy, tabloid headline, it’s hard to top “Girl, 13, Accused of Killing Man After Fight Over Milk.” Talk about a media bonanza. You have a 13-year-old “Bad Seed,” the same sort of evil, subhuman child who recently terrified audiences and appalled adoption...

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett deservedly is receiving an outpouring of good will from all over the country, including from President Barack Obama, for an act of good citizenship that resulted in the mayor being brutally attacked. After being beaten with a tire iron as he attempted to summon assistance for...

Even before Gov. Jim Doyle announced he would not seek re-election, it was starting to become obvious he was ready for a career change. As I reported a month and a half ago, Doyle’s gratuitously anti-Milwaukee budget vetoes intentionally alienating African-American...

To understand just how twisted our nation’s gun laws are, all you have to do is look at an Internet gun sales operation in Green Bay, Wis., providing deadly weapons and accessories to mass murderers throughout the nation. Mass Murders R Us isn’t really the name of the online gun...

I’ll never forget the night in October 1998, when my wife Kit and other community organizers successfully opened a county Day Reporting Center (DRC) to try to reduce recidivism among criminal offenders by providing a holistic program of drug treatment, education, job training...