Cedarburg, Wis., was the perfect place to begin the presidential campaign of Republican John McCain and his novice vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin.The town is fake.

I grew up in a small town in Indiana with a population of about 5,000. The town had two stoplights, one on each end of the downtown area, which stretched for one block.

Attending a rock concert at Summerfest is not a terrorist act, even if someone passes a joint down the row. In fact, if someone were planning a terrorist attack on Summerfest, marijuana might be the perfect antidote. Putting together a well-coordinat ed attack is a lot more difficult when you can't remember what you just said. Young zealots may be burning with ideological fervor to bring death to the infidels, but the next thing they know they are 45 years old and living in their parents' basements.

When even Democratic politicians start warming to the idea of building new nuclear power plants, which have banned from Wisconsin since 1983, our canaries could start croaking any day. Coal miners used to take canaries into the mines to warn them of danger. Canaries were highly sensitive to poisonous buildups...

For those who may not have heard, over the past few weeks there has been some kind of controversy going on between the Green Bay Packers and Brett Favre, one of the greatest quarterbacks in football history. It seems that Favre, who led the Packers to a stunning 13-3 record last year and came within a game...

Whenever a sensational violent crime occurs in a poor neighborhood, right-wing talk show hosts who have nothing but contempt for anyone living in desperate circumstances always rush in to shoot the wounded. Their immediate attacks on poor people victimized by murder and violence go like this:

A right-wing Republican from West Allis has been recruiting conservative candidates and promising them big money to challenge incumbent Milwaukee legislators in the Democratic primary. But former state Sen. Tom Reynolds, whose right-wing extremism is far beyond where the buses run, has not developed a sudden...

The wealthiest corporations in Wisconsin now have the best state Supreme Court money can buy. How are you enjoying it so far? How do you like the Wisconsin Supreme Court giving a humongous $265 million tax refund to the richest companies in the state that you, as an ordinary taxpayer, are going to have to cover out...

It’s odd that after 25 years of frustration, the better the Milwaukee Brewers get, the louder grows the chorus of self-styled experts second guessing their success. Brewers’ General Manager Doug Melvin just completed an eye-popping deal at the midpoint of the season, trading the team’s top minor league prospect for one...

For a whole lot of people, the reaction to former Milwaukee Alderman Michael McGee Jr.’s federal conviction for extortion and bribery was simple. These are the people who see the world in black and white. They have been conditioned by movies and TV—and that allegedly nonfiction media cousin, journalism...