Wisconsin

Mere days after I discussed the breaking of a levee in Iowa being another example of deliberate Republican neglect of our national infrastructure (the same kind of neglect that led to the flooding of New Orleans after Katrina), Wisconsin gets hit by the same kind of neglect. An embankment holding back a man-made lake in Wisconsin has broken, flooding yet another Midwest town: (from Salon.com)

The swollen Kickapoo River engulfed nearly the entire town Monday morning, forcing about 150 people to evacuate. By evening, the village was a grid of canals with cars submerged up to their windows and parking lots looking like lakes, just as it was in August...

An engineer assessment team from the Wisconsin National Guard was headed to Lake Delton on Tuesday to determine what would be needed to begin repairs on an embankment along the man-made lake that gave way, releasing a powerful current.

The 267-acre lake emptied into the nearby Wisconsin River on Monday, washing out part of a highway, sweeping away three homes and tearing apart two others...

Mayor Tom Barrett's Restaurant Roundtable
5/8/2008 at 5:00 PM

Milwaukee Youth Arts Center
325 W Walnut Milwaukee, WI 53212

Featuring more than 20 restaurants

Tickets will be sold at the door. You can RSVP here.

Progressive Majority, one of my favorite grassroots organizations, fielded 41 candidates for local and state level offices in the April 1st Wisconsin general election. The results are in and they are maintaining their 50% success record: 21 of their 41 candidates won their elections.

Looking over their results, they did excellently on school board elections and some of their wins for other offices were big wins. Some of their losses were pretty bad losses, but a consistent 50% win rate is pretty good particularly because they take more risks than most organizations.

Here are the results: (winners in bold)

Lena Taylor
Milwaukee County Executive
Lost with 41% of the vote.

Adam Warpinski
Brown County Board - District 1
Won with 70% of the vote.

Jack Krueger
Brown County Board - District 5
Won with 68% of the vote.

Dan Bertrand
Brown County Board - District 13
Lost with 29% of the vote.

Carole Andrews
Brown County Board - District 15
Won with 55% of the vote.

Patty Kiewiz
Brown County Board - District 21
Lost with 30% of the vote.

Rob Zerban
Kenosha County Board - District 5
Won with 57% of the vote.

Jennifer Jackson
Kenosha County Board - District 20

On April 1st 41 Progressive Majority recruited, trained and endorsed candidates will have their general election for local office in Wisconsin! Progressive Majority is one of America's most successful progressive grassroots organizations.

To all our Wisconsin readers: please get out tomorrow, April 1, 2008, and vote for any of these great people running in your area.

Lena Taylor
Candidate for Milwaukee County Executive (Challenger)

State Senator Lena Taylor is a Milwaukee native who was first elected to the State Legislature as an Assemblywoman in 2003, and quickly ascended to the State Senate after winning a special election in 2004. Lena has championed progressive values for her entire political career, and currently serves as Vice-Chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. Lena earned a Bachelor's Degree in English from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1990, and a law degree from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale in 1993; she is a member of the Milwaukee Boy Scouts advisory board, the Girl Scouts of Milwaukee Area, the NAACP, and Urban League of Milwaukee. Her opponent, conservative incumbent Scott Walker, is rumored to run for Governor in 2010. If Lena wins, we can stop him now.

Fundraising Event
March 22nd, 12:00NOON - 1:30PM
Sponsors: Mayor Tom Barrett, Congresswoman Gwen Moore, and other State and Local Leaders
The Capital Grille, 310 W. Wisconsin Ave, Milwaukee
$1000 Host, $500 Sponsor, $250 Friend, $25 Guest Suggested Contribution

Local Candidate Forum
March 18, 1:00PM
Sponsor: Retired Employees of Milwaukee County
Washington Park Senior Center, 4420 W Vliet St, Milwaukee

It takes someone to win by 10 to have a landslide. The New York Times is projecting his win by .. ahem ...

This is not a landslide. As we would say in Puerto Rico :
Barack limpió el piso con Clinton.

Screenshot of NY Times Wisconsin tallies

There's some interesting poll info from CBS via Marc Ambinder :

Info from our trusty pals at CBS News: this electorate is very white; only four in ten have a "college degree." They're "less affluent" than Dems in other states. The percentage of late deciders is declining: only 27% made up their minds within the last seven days.

-- Issue number one is, of course, the economy, followed by health care... adding the economy and health care brings you to nearly 70% of the electorate.
-- Change trumps experience, 52 to 24.
-- Very few first time voters -- only 17%.
-- 27% of the electorate were independent
-- Clinton was seen as the most unfair attacker;
-- Obama (55%) was seen as the candidate most like to improve relations with the res tof the world.

Screenshot of MSNBC numbers

Hillary Clinton may be losing to Barack Obama by as much as a 13% spread.

Tell me this is not the beginning of the end.

If Hillary Clinton cannot win Wisconsin, a majority white working class state with a good chunk of over 45 voters, then how can she win a general election?

Earlier in the day Tim Russert said on MSNBC that, in their respective general elections that John Kerry won Wisconsin by only 1% and Al Gore behind him by only 2%.

What is astounding is that, if this were a general election, Obama would have won by at least 60% over McCain. Look at how many more Democrats are voting compared to Republicans. It's insane. Sure, in this election Clinton could have trounced a McCain, but look by how much more Obama would win.

That is a mandate.

That is a number that says people are ready for something new, for something different.

That number signifies Hope.

That's what all Democrats should be coming together, so this can happen in November. Instead of talking about how many delegates one candidate can steal from another, why not working together for a majority that will trounce the neocons out of Washington.

MREA Annual Fair
Jun 20 – 22 2008
Stevens Point, Wisconsin

The Midwest Renewable Energy Association's annual Renewable Energy and Sustainable Living Fair is the nation's largest gathering of renewable energy supporters, vendors and presenters.

Join us for the 19th annual Energy Fair June 20-22, 2008. The Fair will be held at the ReNew the Earth Institute. The ReNew the Earth Institute is located at 7558 Deer Road in Custer, WI. See the Travel and Accommodations page for mapquest details and other information.

General Energy Fair Information
Since its inception in 1990, the Energy Fair has shown 190,000 fairgoers how to change the world while having fun. Each summer the Fair transforms rural Custer, Wisconsin into the global hot spot for renewable energy education. The Energy Fair is the world’s largest renewable energy, energy efficiency, and sustainable living educational event of its kind. Please join us this year!

The Energy Fair features hundreds of workshops and exhibits all emphasizing clean energy & sustainable living and is fun for the whole family. In 2007, the Energy Fair hosted over 19,500 attendees. We hope to see you in 2008!

More info here: www.the-mrea.org