Author Archives: Frank Paynter

Jumbotron envy

By Frank Paynter | Published: April 18, 2011

Giant screens used for political speeches generally have an Orwellian quality. Not always, of course. Newt Gingrich? Orwellian. Steven Colbert? Not so much. Saturday in Madison the best seat for the Sarah Palin/Americans for Prosperity/Koch Brothers/Andrew Breitbart speechifying was at home following the Channel3000 livestream. The Channel3000 camera was fixed on a high platform and [...]

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Asparagus

By Frank Paynter | Published: April 16, 2011

Today is the opening day of the farmers market on the square and the day that ill-informed whiners have called “tax day.” Supposedly, if you had to pay all your taxes before you could keep any of your take home pay, today would be the day you would finally be free of the 2011 tax [...]

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Walker’s testimony before Issa’s committee embarrasses Wisconsin

By Frank Paynter | Published: April 15, 2011

Wisconsin recently saw the passage of a controversial funding bill that addresses the state’s $3.6 billion budget deficit. [On April 14, 2011], a House Committee called Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) to discuss his approach to crafting the budget bill. Along with Gov. Peter Shumlin (D-VT), Committee members and Walker studied what difficult choices individual [...]

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Driving that train

By Frank Paynter | Published: April 11, 2011

A day doesn’t go by without a misstep by Governor Scott Walker. Today’s revelations by the Government Accountability Board and the Milwaukee District Attorney that William Gardner, a huge Walker donor and the owner and president of the Wisconsin & Southern railroad, will plead guilty to two felony counts of campaign money laundering is merely [...]

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Prosser’s victory

By Frank Paynter | Published: April 10, 2011

I’ve experienced JoAnne Kloppenburg’s defeat three times. On Tuesday night I was following the AP county by county reporting, watching vote totals see-saw as each county closed and an AP reporter added data to the complete report they were compiling. I kept a running total of unreported precincts by county and put a wet finger [...]

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The Dignity of Work

By Frank Paynter | Published: April 7, 2011

Last night in Chicago we saw a moving performance of “Working,” the musical based on Studs Terkel’s 1974 book. One of the themes that emerges centers on the hope we all share that our children will do better than we do. An iron worker’s son disappoints his dad by not going to college, but rather [...]

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The Kloppenburg Referendum

By Frank Paynter | Published: April 6, 2011

Wisconsin’s Supreme Court is an embarrassment. But the clouds began to clear away this morning. The sun is peeking through. Today JoAnne Kloppenburg won the seat of the court’s angry conservative, David Prosser. The sexist Prosser is best known for calling his boss, Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson, a “total bitch,” and threatening to “destroy her.” [...]

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Ten years after

By Frank Paynter | Published: April 5, 2011

One would think that after ten years blogging and flogging I would have improved. One would think. Sadly, the last three years barely count. I’ve cranked out the obligatory post or four most every month but I’ve wasted an awful lot of online time in the so-called social web, twitter and Facebook and so forth. [...]

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