Scott Walker, All Ambition

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Sunday February 20, 2011 · 10:04 AM PST

2011/02/20 · 10:04

I've been blogging heavily about Scott Walker, and want to pass along an analysis tracking much of the arrogance and one-dimensionality we see today with his earlier days in the state legislature, and then in his opportunistic move into the office of Milwaukee County Executive. For Walker, the motive has never been advancing public services - - it's been all about advancing Scott Walker.

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Progressive Wisconsin, Backsliding

jer45

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Friday January 28, 2011 · 8:39 PM PST

2011/01/28 · 20:39

New conservative Republican Governor Scott Walker and large conservative GOP legislative majorities are quickly turning back the clock in once-progressive Wisconsin, and the public discourse is degrading quickly, too. We used to say, "On, Wisconsin," with an historic sense of forward-moving optimism, but nowadays "Oh, Wisconsin!" is more appropriate.

jer45

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Wednesday January 26, 2011 · 8:36 AM PST

2011/01/26 · 08:36

In his State of the Union speech, President Barack Obama touted his plans for alternative energy generation and high-speed rail construction, And he's on the road today, visiting a solar power component production facility in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. But the strange thing is: new Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker rejected federal funding for a high-speed rail segment, and has proposed wind turbine restrictions called the most industry-hostile in the nation.

jer45

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Sunday December 12, 2010 · 8:39 PM PST

2010/12/12 · 20:39

The City of Waukesha, Wisconsin has made the first application under a 2008, eight-state Compact for a diversion of water out of the Great Lakes basin, but the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has, since the spring of this year rated the application deficient and incomplete.

Now the DNR has forwarded to Waukesha a letter of stunning depth and breadth that lists 49 question areas.

Answering them will require extensive new documentation, analyses and study by the City - ~~and no doubt further delay the DNR's review, any work on an Environmental Impact Statement, or the forwarding of the application into the eight~~state regional review, where each state gets to ask its own set of questions, etc. et al..

I'm going to include below a blog posting with a list of embedded links to the DNR letter, relevant posts and websites for those who want to follow this precedent-setting, but stalled application in more detail.

jer45

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Saturday December 11, 2010 · 8:42 AM PST

2010/12/11 · 08:42

Wisconsin Gov.-Elect Scott Walker, (R) has had the temerity to campaign against High-Speed Rail for a year, and wipe out an $800 million federal grant to fully-fund the construction of a Milwaukee-to-Madison HSR segment - - then turn around, tout some phony 'reaching out' and blame the Spanish HSR train-maker Talgo for announcing the 2012 closing of the Milwaukee train assembly plant for which it still hiring.

File this under "When Politics Becomes Unintended Self-Parody."

jer45

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Thursday December 09, 2010 · 11:28 PM PST

2010/12/09 · 23:28

Update: The Talgo train assembly plant in Milwaukee - - still hiring - - will close in 2012, the company said Friday.

The feds have granted Wisconsin Republican Governor-Elect Scott Walker his talk-radio fueled campaign pledge and wish by sending $800 million in federal high-speed rail funding to other states, including IL, CA and NY.

Lost is a train line connecting Madison and Milwaukee - - the state's two largest cities - - and a piece of the Midwestern High Speed Rail system.

And 4,700 construction jobs, full-time train operating positions and the secure presence of the Spanish train-maker Talgo, which had built a factory in Milwaukee.

jer45

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Friday November 26, 2010 · 4:08 PM PST

2010/11/26 · 16:08

In 2001, Amtrak named locomotive #182 "The Governor Tommy G. Thompson" after the former Wisconsin governor who had also served as Amtrak board chairman and honored national bi-partisan champion of high-speed passenger rail.

A mere nine years later, Thompson supported fellow Republican and Wisconsin Gov.-elect Scott Walker's cancellation of the very Milwaukee-Madison high-speed Amtrak service that Thompson had hoped would be running by 2003.

jer45

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Thursday November 18, 2010 · 10:12 AM PST

2010/11/18 · 10:12

The City of Waukesha, WI, is the first municipality under a 2008 Compact among eight states and two Canadian provinces to apply for permission to divert water outside the Great Lakes basin.

Waukesha's May, 2010 application, however, is stalled because the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has twice labeled it deficient.

And now a related plan by the City to obtain water-rich property in the adjoining Town of Waukesha is under legal challenge.

All of which illustrates how difficult it is to gain access to water these days. Further update, below.

jer45

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Tuesday November 16, 2010 · 7:53 PM PST

2010/11/16 · 19:53

Wisconsin's railphobic Governor-elect Scott Walker is in day fourteen of his self-inflicted, post-election high-speed rail cancellation debacle, and today rolled out the third iteration of his attempted extraction from said mess.

It's a classic shell game. Where's that little pea now?

jer45

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Thursday November 11, 2010 · 12:39 PM PST

2010/11/11 · 12:39

First it was far-right Wisconsin Gov.-elect Scott Walker's money-wrenching of the state's high-speed rail line already under construction - - lost to the state are 400 jobs, $100 million spent or committed, and up to another $700 million in federal funds, 125 train assembly jobs in Milwaukee and about 4,400 construction jobs through 2013.

Emboldened by his 'success' in getting the train project suspended, Walker is out with a new set of pre-swearing-in demands, including stopping work on a major environmental and jobs program in Madison: the conversion of a coal-fired plant in the downtown to biomass, thus jump-starting a state alternative fuel industry and cleaning the air and water, too.

jer45

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Wednesday November 10, 2010 · 12:17 PM PST

2010/11/10 · 12:17

A few days ago I posted here about Wisconsin's newly-elected rightwing Governor, Scott Walker, forging ahead with a campaign pledge to kill high-speed rail between Madison and Milwaukee - - an Obama administration gift to Wisconsin that provided 100% construction for the $810 million line and a 90% share of the annual operating cost, and through the 2013 construction timetable, more than 4,700 jobs.

Feeling the heat - - having run as a purportedly pro-jobs candidate, and seeing both the construction work and a Talgo train high-speed train assembly plant in a depressed Milwaukee neighborhood perhaps closing before it ever got up and running - - Walker did a stunningly and audaciously arrogant thing:

He asked US DOT Secretary Ray Lahood to bail him out of his predicament, but not before he amped up the attack on high-speed rail nationally.

Read on...

jer45

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Sunday November 07, 2010 · 7:36 AM PST

2010/11/07 · 07:36

Scott Walker heads off to Madison as the newly-elected Republican governor, but leaves behind a pile of problems in Milwaukee County, where he served as County Executive for eight years.

Investigations and reports are either just surfacing, or will soon be released and he will have a lot of explaining to do, regardless of where he lives or which office he holds.

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Scott Walker, All Ambition

Progressive Wisconsin, Backsliding

Post Speech Visit To Wisconsin By Obama Oddly Ironic

Waukesha, WI Stalled Effort To Divert Great Lakes Water Getting Rigorous Vetting

WI Gov.-Elect Succeeds In Killing Train - - Blames Train Maker For Plant Closing

WI Gov. Elect Kills Train, Creates Jobs In Other States

In High-Speed Rail Debate, Locomotive 182 Is Off The Tracks

Great Lakes Water War Bubbling On One Wisconsin Front

For Wisconsin Gov.-Elect, A Third Spin Away From High-Speed Rail

Wisconsin's Gov.-Elect (R, TP), Arrogates As If Sworn In

WI Gov.-Elect Walker, (R, TP), Feels Heat, Turns To Obama!

Other Shoes Will Drop Heavily On WI Gov.-Elect Walker