Paul Soglin: Waxing America

Belling and Jagler's Small Business Times: Milwaukee Has A Choice

Once in a while you encounter a debate that is so one sided, so unfair, that you have to wonder when the referee will stop the fight.

In the corner on the left we have Steve Jagler, the executive editor of the Small Business Times. Last week Jagler wrote a blog post for OnMilwaukee.com,  Our Own Worst Enemy, "Five of the Milwaukee area's most prominent chief executive officers were featured in a panel discussion on "Global Wooing" Thursday by the Public Policy Forum. The five CEOs took turns ripping Milwaukee as a terrible place to do business."

In the opposite corner, we have Mark Belling, who proclaimed that,  "If this Steve Jagler wanted to do some good, he'd join the rest of us and try to improve the business environment in Wisconsin by fixing the problems, rather than saying we all ought to run around like the bluebird of happiness, acting like this is the most business-friendly region in America. It's not."

The problem is this. Jagler is not the bluebird of happiness. He is a thoughtful and contemplative writer who actually has a clue as to what needs to be done to improve Milwaukee. He is not perfect (none of us are), but up against Belling (who is convinced he is the Renaissance man) it is not a fair fight.

Jagler reports the news about Milwaukee business, how to develop the local economy, and how to build a strong workforce.

Belling berates just about everyone and everything, and while he has noticed that many Milwaukee black households are well below the poverty line, and the education of students in Milwaukee Public schools is wanting, no one call recall a single realistic recommendation from Belling that works.

Identifying the problem is one thing; finding a workable solution is another.

Charlie Sykes Move Over. Mark Belling: The New Expert on Child Raising

Not content to let Charlie Sykes corner the market on telling Wisconsinites how to raise their children, Mark Belling  has some sage advice and opinions for those of you disappointed that the 18th century work-houses of Oliver Twist's day are no longer thriving.

Pete Kennedy at GMtoday, wrote a thoughtful piece, Don't fill up the cup, Arrowhead drug testing a ‘really stupid’ idea , questioning the wisdom and the constitutionality of the Arrowhead High School drug testing policy.

Belling, eloquently jumps into the discussion with this profundity, Way to Go Arrowhead,

The presumption that a high school kid has rights is precisely the attitude that empowers them to make bad decisions.

The illogic, the misunderstanding of the Constitution, and the sheer stupidity of this comment makes The Three Stooges, yes, all seven of them, presidential contenders.

Anyone who raised a child in the last 50,000 years knows that the most powerful force in the universe is teenage peer group pressure. It is  that scourge that parents must continually battle in an effort to minimize not just the bad, but the scary, the stupid, and the silly decisions that kids make.

As for the notion that kids have no rights, I guess Mr. Belling missed the last two hundred years in this country. When it comes to kids:

• Kids are persons and are protected from predators be they strangers or abusive parents.
• Kids do not have to work for seven cents an hour for twelve hours a day, six days a week - I know, more "nanny state" interference with a free market economy.
• Kids can own property and have assets, through trust funds that are carefully regulated and monitored by federal and state law.
• In almost every instance the provisions of the United States Constitution applies to children. The exceptions of some rights that are omitted that children do not enjoy is a very short list.
• Most of the Constitutional protections in the first Ten Amendments apply to children.

Belling goes on to tell a mother who cannot afford a $600 ticket for the Hannah Montana concert:

... the angry mother ought to consider instilling in her children acceptance of the harsh reality that in life we don’t get everything we want and that the things that we desire are in our reach only if we work for them.

Yes, little Susie, the way George W. Bush worked for his fortune, the way the rip off artists at Halliburton worked for theirs, the way Jack Abramoff and his cronies and the crooks at Enron, all worked for theirs.

Mark, here is some better advice for a nine year old girl:

We have to make choices in life about what to do with our money. It might be nice to go to a Hannah Montana concert, but think of all the things we give up, better things.  Maybe one day you will have enough money to do things like that but for now it will have to wait. In the meantime, understand there are people in this world like Mark Belling, who are materialists who place the value of everything in terms of money. Dear, there are other things in life to value like love, clean water, fresh air, and getting the likes of Stephen Nass (R) out of the legislature. 

Huckabee and the Constituion by Stanley I. Kutler

Professor Stanley Kutler who recently provided Mitt Romney with a lesson in constitutional history, notes that Mike Huckabee also needs a reminder of the principles upon which this country was founded.

Posting at The Washington Independent, a center for independent media, Kutler notes, "On CNN’s “The Situation Room” (Jan. 8), Huckabee finessed the allegation that he favored stripping American citizenship from children born in the United States to illegal immigrants."

The problem for Huckabee and those who might be sucked in by his call for the Supreme Court to turn its back on the United States Constitution is that the Fourteenth Amendment clearly addresses this matter. Kutler writes:

The Fourteenth Amendment settled the meaning of American citizenship and repudiated the so-called “three-fifths compromise” of the original document, in which “all other persons” – that is, slaves – counted only as three-fifths of a person. In this, and other ways, the original Constitution had legitimated slavery. The amendment provided a resolution of our constitutional division before 1861. The victorious North inscribed its triumph into the Constitution: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, . . . are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” (Italics added.) The Constitution theoretically has no superfluous language; the command is unequivocal. The United States has, it should be added, the clearest, most generous and most humane definition of citizenship.

As both a preacher and a politician, Huckabee, naturally, loves to talk. But he appears to babble only silliness when he contemplates the possibility that the Fourteenth Amendment does not mean what it clearly states – or that the Supreme Court will say otherwise. He well knows that the Supreme Court – even his kind of Supreme Court – would have no choice. The Constitution is unequivocal.

Commentary by Stanley I Kutler is frequently posted at Waxing America. Stanley Kutler is the editor of “The Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War” (Scribner’s, 1995) and the author of “The Wars of Watergate: The Last Crisis of Richard Nixon” (Alfred A. Knopf). He is the E. Gordon Fox Emeritus Professor of American Institutions at the University of Wisconsin, and also professor of law.

American Airlines - Customer Service Plunges To New Low

With all of the horrible options for customer service in industries ranging from communications and computers, from travel to financial services, American Airlines (AA) just won the award for worst service. Ever. And the competition is stiff.

I will spare you the chronological turmoil that began Monday, January 7, 2007 and continued over four calendar days as I attempted to retrieve a lost bag. The bag was misplaced Monday night between Chicago and New York's JFK.

By Wednesday I determined the following:

• The bag was probably not in Chicago.
• The appearance, labeling, and the contents of the luggage was clearly described to baggage agents over the phone.
• That there were over 500 misplaced bags at JFK, left over from the Christmas holidays.
• The many agents I spoke with reiterated that no one at AA at JFK was responding to the emails or phone calls they made on my behalf.

Wednesday, faced with the fact that JFK baggage was not answering the phone and that no one had searched for the bag for three days, I attempted to escalate the matter. Wednesday's calls focused on convincing superiors to go up the ladder to their management who could then contact supervisors at JFK and work down to baggage.

I was told, politely, that was not an option. I called again Thursday morning, call number 13, and still no luck. At noon I knew that these were desperate times and called for desperate measures.

The challenge was to make a credible and nasty threat without going to jail or being placed on the 'no fly' list.

Call number 14, noon on Thursday:   I said, "If the bag is not recovered by Friday night, I am going to fly to JFK at a cost of $411 (true), call all the network stations in NYC (true), speak with my three friends working at the networks (false, I know no one), and invite them to meet me at the AA baggage office and have them accompany me as I find the lost bag (true, if anyone of them were to show up).

Call number 15, 4:00 pm on Thursday: "We have good news for you Mr. Soglin, the bag was found and is on its way."

We Don't Need No Stinkin' Limousines: Ask the Flatlanders

Maybe Wisconsin business leaders don't need no stinkin' limousines. Here is the headline from last Friday's Lake County News-Sun :

Lake County Partners exec laments flight of business to Wisconsin

While Milwaukee business executives are whining that the State of Wisconsin does not greet them at the airports and sports arenas with limousines paid for by the taxpayers, our neighbors to the south in Illinois are more than a bit steamed.

The Lake County News-Sun lead with this gem:

Lake County Partners President Dave Young blamed Illinois' unfriendly business climate for the flight of businesses to Wisconsin.

Prompted by the loss of a major Waukegan area business to the Kenosha area, here is what was said in comparing the Illinois and Wisconsin Governors:

"We have a governor (Blagojevich) who goes out of his way to antagonize the business community...This is a governor who does not know how to do economic development... the instability at the state level is making a number of companies consider an actual move or to consider all future expansions outside of the state."

"Unfortunately, right next door in Kenosha County, Gov. Jim Doyle is very adept at business recruitment and actually enjoys it..." (emphasis added)

As Jim Rowen noted in his post last week Milwaukee Business Leaders Meet Their Worst Enemy -Themselves,

The Journal Sentinel carries its own version of the business leaders' anti-Milwaukee complaints, wherein we learn that when our CEO's fly to China they are met at airports in escorted limousines, and are treated like potentates.

Turns out that visiting business bigwigs just love the fawning attention they receive in a Communist dictatorship.

Oh, the ironies.

Yes, the Chinese government and its tightly-controlled corporate infrastructure can provide what our business leaders are looking for: low costs.

Because China also runs on minuscule wages, crappy environmental standards, laws against unions, and other favors that can only be guaranteed in a one-party, military state.

You have to love it. Is this a great country, or what? 

Wisconsin's Anti-Business Attitude: Enough Blame to Go Around

Before we get to Patrick McIlheran's opinion piece, The Price of Ignoring the Price in Sunday's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, we should check with our friends at Wisconsin Manufacturing & Commerce (WMC).

Here is the WMC Manufacturers Survey from 2006:

McIlheran attended what he called a 'good government Public Policy Forum,'  in Milwaukee, or at least he had something to say about it:

Taxes, of course: These were CEOs, so within minutes someone mentioned that ranking about 40th or so on tax climate doesn't help. Debate the criteria all you want, but the people deciding where the plant goes think they're valid.

Yup, we are still getting this line about taxes, even though WMC's own studies show that taxes are at the bottom of the list - right down there with that other phony issue, tort reform (lawsuit abuse).

McIlheran goes on to address another issue, and this is one that I believe is a legitimate concern: attitude.

Unexpected, however, was how blunt these business leaders were about the underlying attitude..."It's the tone of the place, the tone of the political economy," said John Shiely, head of Briggs & Stratton.... Why expand where the local culture is hostile to the creating of wealth? "It's the vestige of the old Milwaukee Socialist ethic," he says.

Wrong.

There is no question that there is anti-business sentiment in Wisconsin and that it is a serious problem. As I have observed, there are some people who are going to oppose anything, no matter how beneficial it is for the community, if business is behind it.

Changing the anti-business attitude is going to take two efforts. Those of us on the political left are going to have to deal with some of our own.

But the business community needs to do the same. When WMC constantly calls Wisconsin a 'tax hell,' misrepresents the nature of taxation in our state, and then works to shift the tax burden from businesses to residential property owners, they build significant resentment. It should also be noted that conservative voters, whipped up by right-wing talk radio, are as anti-business as their counterparts on the left when it comes time to forging business-public sector partnerships.

Leaders in the Wisconsin business community must stand up to WMC and tell them to put a muzzle on it.

As for "vestige of the old Milwaukee Socialist ethic," it was during those one hundred years that Milwaukee became a mighty industrial giant. Fairness, equitable taxation, worker protections, and industrial growth all occurred simultaneously. And arguments  that in this new international economy we are going to have duplicate working conditions in China are not going to cut it.

Fortunately, there are regional alliances of business, government and organized labor who are ignoring the WMC party line and working to make Wisconsin work.

Milwaukee 7- The Milwaukee7, launched in September 2005, was formed to create a regional, cooperative economic development platform for the seven counties of southeastern Wisconsin.

The New North - Their mission is to harness and promote the region's resources, talents and creativity for the purposes of sustaining and growing the regional economy.

Thrive - Madison Region   "The eight-county Madison Region of Wisconsin is the ideal place for your business and your family to thrive. Our unique geographical placement is at the apex of the world's largest freshwater resource (the Great Lakes Basin) and some of the richest farmland in the world. This natural abundance shapes our cultures, our communities, and our economic drivers."

Did anyone else attend this conference? All that came out of it was whining and complaining? There was no recognition of the positive things being done by Governor Doyle, M 7, and other leaders?

End note: please send me links to the other regional economic development partnerships and I will post them here.

Update 11:00 am: Yesterday Whallah!, the all seeing, all knowing mother of all blogs, posted: It Taxes The Mind, jumping all of us on the tax issue.

Is Huckabee a Gift to the Democrats from the Gods?

There have been four realignments in American politics commencing with the election of FDR during the Great Depression.

After 1932, the next realignment was a gradual one that evolved over two decades, the '60's and the '70's. The 'Solid South,' stayed solid but now it was Republican, not Democratic.

The Reagan Revolution cemented the realignment throughout the country as the Democrats became a minority party.

The next significant change was a modest realignment in terms of the relative political weight of the parties, but more important was the internal changes in the control of the Republican Party. That was Newt Gingrich and his Contract on America. 1996 tipped control of the Republican Party to the social conservatives, the religious right.

Now, if Mike Huckabee prevails in winning his party's nomination, we will get another realignment. The extreme right will solidify their hold on the GOP and drive out the moderates.

But short of the Democratic Party committing political suicide, a Huckabee nomination will provide the Dems a broad political base, hopefully not too broad, and perhaps we can resolve a few issues like health care, tax reform, the federal deficit.

After the November elections, Huckabee and his cohorts can retire to figure out how to rekindle American interest in gods, guns, and gays. Maybe that will take them a few generations of wandering in the desert.

Nothing is foolproof since Democrats can always self-destruct at any moment.

Fixing Madison's Bus System By Reversing Backwards Decisions

Rule One: The more passengers Madison Metro carries, the more money it loses.  If you have trouble understanding that, then do the math.

It the city loses a $1 for every rider, then a half million riders results in a $500,000 loss. A million riders results in a loss of $1,000,000.

Rule two: There is a sweet point for maximizing revenues for the system. Assume it is a fare of $2.00. If the fare is under two bucks, the system is leaving revenues on the table (or in the passengers' pockets). If the fare is over two dollars, the increased fare does not make up for riders who abandon the system because the bus ride is too costly.

Rule three: Subsidizing bus ridership makes economic sense. There are countless studies that have proven time and time again that:

In an efficient pubic transit system, the cost of subsidizing bus rides is more than offset by the savings in reducing congestion, not building additional street lanes and parking spaces, and maintaining those streets and parking spaces.

Rule four: To reduce waste in a transit system, consider adjustments in routes, using different equipment in non-rush hours, and maintain vehicles. Do not consider overall reductions in service, particularly during the rush hours.

Rule five: When fuel prices go up, increase bus service; do not reduce it.

To put it bluntly the city of Madison is handling its present transit 'crisis' ass-backwards. As The Capital Times reported last month:

Two years earlier, Metro eliminated Routes 11 and 10 on the east side - its second and fourth most productive routes, respectively. Both lines operated nine months a year, getting students and university employees from the isthmus to the University of Wisconsin campus via Johnson Street quickly, bypassing the Capitol Square, where riders now have to wait for several minutes before continuing their route.

Here are additional critical factors from the story:

• Mayor Dave Cieslewicz acknowledges that "we got a lot of heat" for the route cuts. But he says high fuel costs created budget pressures that made them necessary.
• Rising fuel costs make for an annual budget crisis. Last year's shortfall amounted to $878,000, and Metro's contingency fund - $2.5 million in 2003 - stood at $130,000 this year.
• Since 2000, the maximum fare on a Metro bus has been $1.50, while the cost per passenger is $2.89.
• But bus service makes for a thorny political issue, given that Madisonians ride buses at numbers far above the national average, not only for economic reasons, but because of environmental concerns.

But the real issue was articulated by Madison Mayor Cieslewicz : "And the iron triangle was three bad choices: In the face of these rising costs you can cut services, you can increase fares or you can dramatically increase the support from city property taxpayers. And none of those are very attractive choices." 

No, but it gets uglier if you make the wrong ones.

The city of Madison went through a similar dilemma in the 1970's. With the oil embargo, the percentage increase in fuel for both automobile drivers and Madison Metro was even greater. The city expanded services, especially rush hour express services, increased fares, and enjoyed increased support from the taxpayers while effectively lobbying both the State of Wisconsin and the federal government for more transit aid.

Anyone committed to a less auto-dependent community, sound environmental policies, and the overall economically efficient solution would do the same today.

Madison Metro saw an increase in ridership of 6% in the first nine months of 2007  because of the increase in the price of gasoline. Imagine what that increase might have been with expanded routes and a good marketing plan.

Wisconsin Needs A State Wide Smoking Ban

I am not much of a 'wedge issue' guy, but the proposed statewide ban on smoking in public places is the way to go.

As a long time supporter of a statewide ban, something which I see as preferential to local ordinances, I would hope the Wisconsin legislature would swiftly adopt the proposal backed by both Governor James Doyle and Madison Democrat Senator Fred Risser.

But as the fooling around begins, Senate Committee Changes, Then Passes Smoking Ban, I hope the matter is clearly and decisively brought to the floor of both houses of the legislature for a 'yes' or 'no' vote.

Both the medical justification and the popular support for a smoking ban is uncontroverted. I look for a gentler, kinder legislature next session. If the reactionaries want to kill this bill, then make sure there is an accounting. One way or another we will thin the herd in November.

Presidential Election: Soglin Household Becoming More Divided

We coasted into the New Year watching the Democratic presidential contenders with no strong opinions. Then last week, the family sounded unified and I was really ready to endorse Barack Obama.

Not today.

Alexandra is leaning towards Edwards - poverty issues. Natasha is still in the Obama camp - convinced he will do something about the environment. Sara watched Hillary Clinton tear up and decided that she finally saw the ultimate moment of honesty from a candidate and is now leaning towards the former First Lady.

Rachael has not checked in. Late word from R in LA: Obama.

All that puts my endorsement of Obama on hold.