What's the Matter with Democrats?

Ever since Thomas Frank published his book "What's the Matter With Kansas?" Democrats have sought a political strategy to match the GOP's...

The New McCarthyism

Liz Cheney invents, then smears the “Al Qaeda 7”

The national madness known as "McCarthyism" began 60 years ago in Wheeling, W.V., when Joseph R. McCarthy held up a scrap of paper that supposedly listed the names of 57 State Department officials he said were actually Communists and traitors. Eventually, America learned that the Wisconsin Republican's famous list was a fabrication, that he was a liar and a demagogue as well as an alcoholic...

Three Businesses Team Up To Break New Ground in Milwaukee Landscapes

The economy has posed a challenge for many local businesses, but three young entrepreneurs have pooled their resources and talents, and the benefits have gone beyond the bottom line. Darrell Smith of Earthcare Natural Lawn...

New Day Care Background Check Law May Not Be Constitutional

Licenses are being revoked for nonviolent, decades-old misdemeanors

Legislators and the state Department of Children and Families may have gotten positive headlines when creating a law that allows the state to permanently revoke child care provider licenses based on a wide range of offenses. But 2009 Wisconsin Act 76, which went into effect Feb. 1, may not be constitutional...

Fallout from UW-Milwaukee Protest

University and protesters provide different versions of events

The Politics of Earthquakes

Government regulation could save your life

If the earthquakes in Chile and Haiti carry any message for those of us fortunate enough not to live in those places, perhaps it is that government regulation could save your life—while right-wing ideology may kill you someday. For those of us unfamiliar with geological terminology, it may come as a shock that the Chilean quake, rated 8.8 on the Richter scale...

Can Day Care Providers Get a Fair Shake?

Department of Children and Families can overrule any decision it disagrees with

In a typical legal proceeding, there’s a plaintiff, a defendant and an independent judge who makes the final decision. But the appeals process for day care providers who have been suspended from the Wisconsin Shares program isn’t quite following that format. In these cases, the Department of Children and Families (DCF) issues the final decision, not the independent administrative law judge who hears all...

Scott Walker Sends 76 More People to the Unemployment Line

Savings from county layoffs questioned

Zazi Case Vindicates Justice

Torture isn’t necessary

Before Najibullah Zazi is finally dispatched to a secure cellblock for good, it is important to remember how the taxi-driver-turned-terrorist was brought to justice—and why the critics who jeered his civilian prosecution were dead wrong. By convicting Zazi and pursuing the leads that his capture and interrogation have provided, the FBI has shown that traditional American methods—rather than the "enhanced...

It Is Happening Here

Will Wisconsin’s Clean Energy Jobs Bill Really Create Jobs, Lower Costs and Help Clean Up the Environment?

Rogues Gone Wild

"I am in control here in the White House."—Secretary of State Alexander Haig, 1981 Ah, the good old days when even a big shot like Gen. Al Haig could get in trouble for such mavericky declarations that defy basic constitutional precedents. In the 21st century, that's ancient history. We've so idealized cowboy-style rebellion in matters of war...

Wisconsin Payday Loan Bills Released

Interest cap removed, but other regulations intact

The GOP's Double Standard on Terror Trials

Bush and Republicans liked criminal prosecutions of terror suspects

Preparing for what they hope will be their return to power in Washington, Republican congressional leaders have revived the fear-mongering and flag-flapping used by Karl Rove to win the 2002 midterm elections. Like the former White House deputy, forever known to his boss as "turd blossom," the right-wing strategists on Capitol Hill feel no shame in arousing the basest of emotions among their base...

Time To Get Serious About the Budget

Last month, President Obama proposed to freeze government spending on everything other than defense, veterans’ benefits, homeland security, Medicare and Social Security. The New York Times reported that administration officials depicted the initiative as proof of the president's "seriousness about cutting the budget deficit." Such spin may fly in Orwell’s Oceania or Washington...

Milwaukee Man’s ‘Life After Hate’

A former white supremacist works to support peace

In the late 1980s and 1990s, not many people would have wanted to know Arno Michaels. At the time, Michaels was head of the white power punk/metal band Centurion, which sold more than 20,000 CDs of what Michaels calls “violent, hateful stuff, me bellowing about killing Jews and blacks.” He said his band still has a following in Europe. Back then, Michaels was also one of the leaders...

The GOP’s Dubious Populism

Republicans support bankers and corporations, not voters

The most revealing moments in President Obama's “State of the Union” address were not in his remarks, but the reaction to them by those listening on the Republican side of the aisle. When he proposed to recover a "financial responsibility fee"—in plain English, a bank tax—from the largest and most heavily leveraged Wall Street firms, the Republicans sat on their hands and scowled, while...

Hope in the Deep Freeze

Obama shouldn’t cut spending to appease critics

On the eve of his first “State of the Union” address, Barack Obama confided that he would "rather be a really good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president." But his proposal to freeze domestic spending is exactly the kind of policy that could result in four years of stagnation—rewarded by an election defeat at the hands of dispirited and disillusioned voters. If he continues to surrender his mandate, he just...

Administrative Law Judge Clears Day Care Provider Latasha Jackson of Fraud

The woman behind the headlines should not have lost her license, judge says

Early last year, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel launched the “Cashing In On Kids” series detailing alleged fraud in the Wisconsin Shares program, which provides day care subsidies for low-income parents. Although the Journal Sentinel has highlighted...

Ezekiel Gillespie: Milwaukee’s Champion of African-American Voting Rights

Honoring Wisconsin’s black history

No Obama Obituaries, Please

Clinton turned early setbacks into success

Got Credit Card Debt? You Still Have Rights

How consumers can protect themselves from debt buyers and collection agencies

Fact Check: Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce Radio Ad Uses Bogus Global Warming Data

Right-wing think tank supplied error-filled study

For Harry Reid, Motive Does Matter

GOP’s outrage on race is hypocritical

If Harry Reid's private remarks about the skin tone and speaking style of Barack Obama were offensive, the Republican crusade to oust him from his leadership position is worse. For Republicans to claim that he deserves the punishment inflicted on Trent Lott—the former Republican majority leader forced to resign because of a racial gaffe—shows their bad faith and their misunderstanding...

Is the Doyle Administration Destroying Inner-City Businesses?

Working parents need day care

Day care providers should expect up to 90 suspensions in the Wisconsin Shares program in the next few weeks, according to information presented at a meeting of day care providers on Saturday. The potential suspensions, in addition to the more than 100 day cares that had payments suspended last year...