The National Conversation (Raw)

Need a laugh?

Just Keeping It Real!

The Milwaukee Drum is calling Milwaukee's politicians out over the MPS takeover. The Drum is purporting that most of the city's elected officials will be powerless to oppose the takeover... They are right, but for reasons other than those they cite.

Study this picture, and then check out the Drum's insightful rift here.

After that, for kicks, read the comment that I left in their comment section.

Just keeping it real!

Nice Guys Finish Last

The chattering classes and talking heads clearly want Tom Barrett to run for governor. I don’t. It’s not because I think he would be a formidable candidate who would perhaps block a good conservative from obtaining that office. My reason is more basic than that: Tom Barrett has not been a good mayor.

Wow! Now I feel terrible.

Sure, Tom Barrett is a nice guy. (As I’ve stated in previous posts, this is always the first thing that everyone says about him.) Yes, he got beat up trying to help someone, so I understand that some people who may never have given any thought to him have joined his “nice-guy” fan club. But, really, what has he done as mayor of Wisconsin’s largest city?

Where's the beef?

Tom Barrett is to be admired for having done nothing to embarrass Milwaukee. But he has also done little of substance to help Milwaukee. He has appeared at press conferences, shaken hands, and given pats on the back. Aside from that, the most notable thing he’s done is shave his mustache.

(Looks nice!)

His saving grace may be the hiring of Police Chief Flynn, who has managed to change the perception of Milwaukee as a crime-ridden city. Other than that stroke of luck -- thanks to the Bradley Foundation’s intervention into the mayor’s failed search for a chief – Tom Barrett has merely gone through the motions.

I know this sounds harsh, but I’m not saying anything that hasn’t been said at city hall – or worse. The word from inside is that the mayor has been totally hands off and has left a huge void in city government. In reality, rather than Tom Barrett running the city of Milwaukee, there are four other people doing the real work. They are named below in order of my ranking of them in power/influence:

First, Common Council President Willie Hines has basically taken the reins of city government and nearly single-handedly made Milwaukee more efficient. He’s the one who put forth the audit of police overtime (which Chief Flynn has followed); he cut waste and dedicated more funding to infrastructure. As my alderman, he has been easily accessible. At the same time, he seems to be constantly out working on behalf of the city. If there is one – and ONLY one – reason that I’d want Barrett to be governor, it’s so that Hines could be mayor.

(Barrett 2010. Bad for Wisconsin. Good for Milwaukee! …Hmmm, that needs work.)

Second, Chief of Police Ed Flynn has made MPD more effective and raised morale among officers. (Well maybe not the detectives but....) He has cut overtime and boosted Milwaukee’s confidence in its police force. AND...Thank God for a cool summer.

Third, Rocky Marcoux, as head of the Department of City Development, makes decisions totally independent of Barrett (not that he’s doing a great job) and has carte blanche to do whatever he wants. And fourth, Patrick Curley, the mayor’s chief of staff, is the one who makes day-to-day decisions about what’s good for Milwaukee.

Hines, Flynn, Marcoux and Curley. What.. No Moe?

I'm not a reporter, I just happen to be watching on the day the Mayor of Newark, N.J., Cory Booker, was on Meet the Press.  His demeanor impressed me. He referred to Newark as "his city." He had vision for the city and was passionate about the city’s issues. Ownership has its merits.

I see no such passion and vision in Tom Barrett.

What’s clear to me is that Mayor Barrett is hands-off. For example, did you hear the back-story on how 50 of Milwaukee’s finest were sent to Pittsburgh for the G20 Summit? As Dan Bice wrote in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Chief Flynn had decided it was a bad idea – Pittsburgh didn’t have its act together. But Barrett got a call from the mayor of the former Steel City and said, “Sure, why not?” The mayor had no clue what sending police officers to Pittsburgh entailed. A fiasco was born when, instead of sending the legislative file to the Common Council when he first got word, he sat on his hands and waited until the 11th hour. President Hines had to call a special Common Council meeting to get the proper approval.

I’m just saying… Barrett doesn’t run this city.

I’ve heard Mayor Barrett talk about the reasons why he might (or might not) run for governor: family, funds, campaign organization, etc. What I’ve never heard from him is what he would DO as governor. Why does he want the job? Because it’s the job he’s always wanted? (See 2004.) Because it’s a “promotion”? What’s his agenda? What are his goals? What is his vision?

No one knows.

Meanwhile, Wisconsin and Milwaukee are in trouble. They need visionary leadership, passionate involvement and innovative solutions from their executives. I am absolutely in agreement with those people who say Tom Barrett is a nice guy. But nice isn’t good enough.

Mayor Barrett attacked outside Wisconsin State Fair.

Mayor Barrett is in bad shape. You can read the story here, but what I was able to learn from behind the scenes was that the beating he received in West Allis was severe.

The mayor has broken bones in his right hand, missing teeth and a hell of a laceration to the head. I was told that the Mayor opted not to go with security because he was "only going to the fair," and that while he was brave to call in the attack he witnessed, he should have done it from the safety of his car.

I wish the Mayor's security detail would have been present. He would be fine and lead pipe boy would be dead.

The attacker has been apprehended on the North side of Milwaukee. His baby's momma has identified him as a "bipolar Native American who was off his meds."

Our prayers are with the Mayor and his family who witnessed the violent attack.

Milwaukee in decline, Mayor not apoplectic.

"But compared to Detroit it's doing OK."

Nice.

Well, that's not good enough. Both the young and the old are fleeing our fair city and the one thing that could slow the flow, is the one thing that we have NEVER seen here, visionary leadership...

VISION & Leadership! Who has a vision for Milwaukee?

Weather (nothing can be done about that), lousy schools, crime, poor business climate, crumbling infrastructure...

"Where there is no vision, the people will perish!" -Proverbs 29:18

"I don't get apoplectic about all this," Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said of the projections. "These are estimates. The state can use one formula, the feds can use another. The focus I'm zeroing in on is growing and investing in Milwaukee."

Oh, OK, then why do taxes keep increasing?

The two things that Milwaukee's political leadership lacks are what the city needs most: vision and incentive. Who has the plan? Where is the hope and change for Milwaukee?

Milwaukee Money

 Milwaukee is in the national news again. This time for its lefty ingenuity. Here's a way to curb corporate greed. Print your own community money!

Pink Scum

While walking my designer dog in Washington Park on Sunday, I stumbled upon this sight. Once again, the historic bandshell has been tagged. It happened last Saturday night... Nice. Taggers are such cowards.

COWARDS! Oh, how I wish I could walk up on the thugs. I would sic my Labradoodle on them, and then open a can of whoop-ass on their, on their... asses. You get the point.

COWARDS!

Save the museum? Why?

“Should the City of Milwaukee or others step in to save the Black Holocaust Museum?” asks the Journal Sentinel Editorial Board.

No.

It’s time for the black citizens of Milwaukee to put up or shut up. If the wealthy ministers of some Milwaukee black churches and the secular well-off blacks in the city are not motivated to bail the Museum out of its financial difficulties, why should the tax paying citizens of the city?

It’s funny how Americans of African descent are comfortable with self-segregation until it involves self-support.

If the Black Holocaust Museum is important to the community, the community will support it. If not, the Museum had a nice run and lasted slightly longer than the man who founded it. Soon it will join the African World Festival as another black Milwaukee institution left to wither on the vine.

Another National Black Eye for Milwaukee

From JSOnline: Milwaukee man faces foreclosure because he didn’t pay parking fine.

Foreclosure.

The $50.00 ticket went unpaid for four years, eventually amounting to $2,600 in fines. The Mayor is stepping in... O.k. but where does the city go to get its reputation back?

Reputation...

Life Must Suck if You’re Black…and Working at the Journal Sentinel

Here we go again.

Time for the annual Milwaukee-is-a-great-place-unless-you-are-black rant.  The latest to slam the city I love is the editorial board of the Journal Sentinel newspaper. In short: Forbes magazine sees great things in Milwaukee, the editorial board sees prejudice and inequality.

Why?

The editorial board claims we lack a strong black middle class and there aren’t enough minority managers. (They also cite a strange story about some guy whose kid attends Florida A&M University, along with other students of African descent from Milwaukee – never mind that those kids almost ALWAYS come back to Milwaukee after they go out of state for college; we’re supposed to be upset that young black high school students are advancing in higher education?)

O.K., whatever.

The editors go on to chide Milwaukee by saying, “The city must do more to attract and keep young minority professionals.”

Who is “the city”? Is the editorial board talking about average residents? Mayor Barrett? Alderman Donovan? The MMAC? Aren’t private companies, like the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, most responsible for hiring young black professionals?

I’ve got two names for the editorial board to consider: James Burnett and Jamaal Abdul-Alim. Both young. Both talented. Both Americans of African descent. Both former employees of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. How many times has the Journal Sentinel managed to lose an up-and-coming minority reporter or editor?

What happened? Why weren’t you able to keep these two talented black reporters in the city? What are YOUR issues? Why aren’t you able to keep the vast majority of your best minority journalists? Why are you such a failure at talent retention?

The word “hypocrite” is really just the Greek word for “actor.” (Jesus Christ was the first to use it in the way that we use it today.) Whether you adhere to the ancient translation or the modern one, this word could easily apply to the Journal Sentinel board, in light of today’s editorial.   

Maybe “the city” doesn’t need to get a clue – maybe it’s the Journal Sentinel. Put up or shut up. Look in the mirror. For real. And stop raining on Milwaukee’s parade.