Althouse: "I would encourage us all to be more optimistic, more relevant and more courageous."

May 24, 2013

"I would encourage us all to be more optimistic, more relevant and more courageous."

"I think when we do, we win in Iowa, we win in Wisconsin, and all across this great country, and we transform this place we live in."

Scott Walker in Iowa.

26 comments:

traditionalguy said...: It will take more than optimism to beat the ChiTown Gang. That was what Elliott Ness found out once.; 5/24/13, 11:27 AM
pm317 said...: haha, that sounds like a presidential candidate.; 5/24/13, 11:30 AM
bagoh20 said...: I would normally say "to hell with that, we're all doomed", but it's Friday, so Hell yea, Git-R-Done! Let's bury these little bitch problems, and build something today!; 5/24/13, 11:30 AM
Eric the Fruit Bat said...: To the gullible that sounds better than "President of the United States is a super fantastic job, and I want it, and you might benefit somehow if you help me, but it'll cost you to find out."

Honesty might be the best policy but screw candor.; 5/24/13, 11:31 AM
James said...: As much as I admire and support Scott Walker I don't think he's ready for prime-time. He certainly needs to vet and upgrade his staff...

Ex-Scott Walker aide begins 20-day jail stay for 2nd OWI offense

Nicole Tieman who resigned without explanation Friday as Gov. Scott Walker's campaign spokeswoman has begun serving a 20-day sentence behind bars in Milwaukee County on a drunken-driving conviction.

Tieman, 25, pleaded guilty Wednesday in Milwaukee County Circuit Court to her second OWI offense, reversing her plea from a week earlier. Judge John Siefert sentenced Tieman to 20 days confinement starting no later than June 3, took away her driving privileges for a year and imposed a $950 fine.

She was granted work-release privileges to seek a job and to get alcohol or drug treatment.

Records show Tieman, who lives in Waukesha, was booked into the House of Correction in Franklin, formerly the County Correctional Facility-South, on Wednesday.

Tieman left the Walker campaign team last week with a terse one-sentence email, referring future questions to her replacement, Jonathan Wetzel. No further information was provided.

Asked if Tieman resigned because of the drunken-driving offense, Wetzel said by email, "Nicole Tieman has left her position at the Friends of Scott Walker, and is handling this personal issue."

Tieman, who was charged and convicted under her maiden name of Larson, issued a statement through her attorney Wednesday night: “I deeply regret and apologize for the choices I made and am taking responsibility for the consequences of my actions.”

Walker will be in Iowa on Thursday to give a keynote speech to the Polk County Republican Party, which has hosted such past presidential contenders as Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and Michele Bachmann. Iowa will hold the first-in-the-nation caucuses for the 2016 presidential primary season.

Tieman had been on the GOP fast track, having served in various Republican posts in Florida and Wisconsin since 2010. The Marquette University graduate had previously studied at the Institute on Political Journalism in Washington, D.C., thanks to a scholarship from the Milwaukee-based Bradley Foundation.; 5/24/13, 11:34 AM
Baron Zemo said...: I hope he runs a true populist campaign where he takes on the enemies of our Republic: the smug condescending elitist credentialed douchebags that he bitch slapped in Wisconsin.

Start with the lawyers and the journalists and the public employee unions and work on from there.; 5/24/13, 11:36 AM
Brew Master said...: “I deeply regret and apologize for the choices I made and am taking responsibility for the consequences of my actions.”

If only our current president's administration would do the same.

But, Walker won't be president, I've heard he's going to be indicted.

Any day now.......; 5/24/13, 11:45 AM
Crunchy Frog said...: And so it begins.; 5/24/13, 11:51 AM
MadisonMan said...: Transform it into what?

Someplace where there's little job growth and scant support for education?; 5/24/13, 12:10 PM
James said...: Someplace where there's little job growth and scant support for education

Can you expand on your contention of "scant support for education?"; 5/24/13, 12:15 PM
edutcher said...: The mind game is the first step.

traditionalguy said...

It will take more than optimism to beat the ChiTown Gang. That was what Elliott Ness found out once.

Then Officer Malone said, "They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. *That's the 'Chicago' way!", but first Ness had to believe it would work.; 5/24/13, 12:19 PM
Alex said...: Don't worry garage has already assured us that Walker and his gang of GOP thieves/crooks/liars will be driven out on Nov 2014.; 5/24/13, 12:29 PM
Peter said...: Well, I would encourage potential presidential candidates to be pessimistic.

Because, pessimists do contingency planning- optimists don't (because they just know they're going to win.

And contingency planning is not just important, it's essential. Because things will go wrong. There will be dirty tricks, gaffs, all sorts of stuff.

And a successful candidate needs to know, now, what to do when these things happen. Instead of being befuddled, as the "how could this happen?" optimist will be.; 5/24/13, 12:31 PM
MadisonMan said...: The Legislature is cutting support for the UW and mandating a tuition freeze. Not a fan of micromanagement by politicians trying to get elected.

I support the latter -- I've got a daughter going here!

I understand the Legislature doesn't like institutions sitting on pots of money that they can't access and spend all by themselves -- and the UW System people who allowed this story to be unraveled the way it did should probably leave. Still, why punish people for not spending money in a timely manner (it's my understanding that much of that so-called surplus was earmarked for things).

Then there's the idea of throwing money at Charter Schools that do no better at prepping kids for Real Life than existing schools, all in the name of doing something about the "problem".; 5/24/13, 12:33 PM
MadisonMan said...: (I notice you didn't want more info of the lousy job growth here -- does that mean it's self-evident?); 5/24/13, 12:34 PM
Baron Zemo said...: Transform it to a place where you stop throwing money down a rat hole.

Maybe examine charter schools and ending the strangle hold the corrupt teachers unions to a minimum standard that would be enforced in the real world.

Let parents and taxpayers vote with their feet to correct the education disaster.; 5/24/13, 12:37 PM
Baron Zemo said...: Charter schools can allow like minded groups of parents to band together to have the values they want offered to their children instead of the progressive anti-religion politically correct indoctrination that they are subject to in the corrupt and dysfunctional public disaster areas we call schools.; 5/24/13, 12:40 PM
James said...: @MM; so you think its appropriate for the UW System to hide $648 million derived mainly from tuition, while pushing for 5.5% annual tuition increases?

I don't know about anyone else but as a parent currently paying the full freight I appreciate the two-year respite.

(I notice you didn't want more info of the lousy job growth here -- does that mean it's self-evident?)

No, it means that I recognize that WI does not operate in a vacuum and the same conditions affecting the national economy are also influencing the state's economy.; 5/24/13, 1:11 PM
furious_a said...: Secret. Routers.; 5/24/13, 2:10 PM
MadisonMan said...: to hide $648 million

I disagree that they were hiding it, since it was in a published report.

I think they were foolish to have all that money sitting around. Either spend it for the reasons it's been encumbered, or don't collect it.

It seems to me, somewhat, that the UW is being punished for not spending money. That happens all the time in the Govt and it's a baffling mindset.; 5/24/13, 2:23 PM
roesch/voltaire said...: Let Walker run on his record and not his rhetoric --I wonder if like Ryan he will carry Wisconsin.; 5/24/13, 2:27 PM
Calypso Facto said...: Someplace where there's little job growth and scant support for education?

I'll just keep posting this in response to criticism of Walker's job numbers:
Jobs created (lost) during 8 years of Gov Doyle: -60,000
Jobs created during 2 years of Gov Walker: +60,000
Looks like an improvement to me.

As for "scant support for education" ... weak sauce. Wisconsin ranks about 15th in the nation on spending per student, encourages and supports excellent schools, and handed education administrators powerful cost and quality control tools in the budget to help ensure that dollars spent can actually be used to enrich education.

As I've also said before, I agree that the UW's rainy-day fund might be entirely appropriate. But what was NOT appropriate was jacking up tuition to support it and crying for the State to spend its general fund surplus to support it.; 5/24/13, 2:43 PM
SteveR said...: R/V that didn't stop Obama from getting re-elected.; 5/24/13, 2:48 PM
James said...: I disagree that they were hiding it, since it was in a published report.

http://www.jsonline.com/news/education/uw-system-head-pledges-tuition-cap-more-financial-aid-lm9ki92-203805911.html

"The reserve fund was discovered after the Assembly's "CPA caucus" - a group of accountants who serve in the Assembly - raised questions about numbers they found in a state audit. The fiscal bureau and the Legislative Audit Bureau then went to the UW System to get answers."

Sounds like hiding to me; it took an audit and an additional review by the Legislative Fiscal and Audit Bureaus to uncover the surplus.; 5/24/13, 2:56 PM
LuAnn Zieman said...: Wisconsin Jumps 17 Spots in Economic Outlook Ranking according to "Rich Staates, Poor States" by Arthur Laffer, Stephen Moore and Jonathan Williams. The study looks at 15 equally-weighted policy variables to predict economic growth in each state. The variable's include income tax rates, overall tax burden, recent tax policy changes, total public employees per capita, and others. Wisconsin gets high marks on the ranking for having the minimum wage at the federal floor, and not levying an estate tax. However, the Badger State gets docked points for having high property and income taxes.
The article can be read in full at ALEC.org (American Legislative Exchange) under the title listed above.; 5/24/13, 4:07 PM
LuAnn Zieman said...: Sorry. Typo. That would be "states," not "staates." Oops.; 5/24/13, 4:09 PM