It’s been years since the so-called “liberal” media could be accused of failing to sufficiently publicize the views of the extreme right. Labeling the media “liberal,” a political tactic by conservatives, worked like a charm. Newspapers everywhere scurried to add right-wing columnists, the more troglodytic the better. Television crews were sent to town hall meetings on health care to film the most shril...

In a daring experiment in elementary education, the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has joined with Wisconsin deer hunters to teach 10-year-old children to blow away animals with guns. Hunting enthusiasts don’t describe it quite so bluntly, of course. They make it sound like joining the Sierra Club...

Opportunities to make history in politics rarely adhere to any candidate’s plans. They open up unexpectedly for those who seize the moment. Illinois Sen. Barack Obama was an ambitious, young politician who almost certainly envisioned he would run for president...

Every year at this time when budgets are being passed, conservative groups succeed in convincing a great many citizens that the primary purpose of government is to cut our taxes by doing less. These groups have been so successful in recent years that few people even bother to examine their simple-minded economic theories any more. It is accepted as fact that everyone benefits from paying less in taxes because all that...

Humorist Will Rogers summed it up a long time ago when he said: “I don’t belong to any organized political party. I’m a Democrat.” It was just last November that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama scored a resounding victory in Wisconsin, winning 59 of 72 counties. That rout helped Democrats win control of the state Assembly, giving them control...

Milwaukee officials united behind a major new effort to reduce the devastation caused by handguns in Wisconsin until, inexplicably, some of those same officials began negotiating against themselves. Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, Police Chief Ed Flynn and Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm put together an impressively coordinated campaign against handgun violence after tracing the last six shootings of Milwaukee...

The president of the United States wins one of the most prestigious honors in the world and Republicans, rather than exhibit national pride, bitterly attack their country’s leader as unaccomplished and undeserving. The same Republicans cheered when the United States lost its bid to host the 2016 Olympic Games sought by Obama despite the economic bonanza the world...

When a licensed business such as a bar or a rock venue annoys its neighbors with loud noise or bad behavior, there is a long-standing history of police and politicians bringing pressure to shut down that business. Should we expect anything less when a business leaves its neighbors dead in the street?

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 of taking the team to the Super Bowl, was threatening to come back to try to do it again. Ordinarily, any professional football team would be overjoyed to have a great quarterback decide not to retire and instead attempt to lead them to another championship. But in the case of the Green Bay Packers, it messed up all their plans.

When one of Milwaukee’s violent street shootings touches someone we know personally, that doesn’t make it any more tragic than the 120 or so homicides every year that involve people we don’t know.