@Bob - Local Voices are opinions, really, because they're pieces that directly from the writer. We're hoping to get the chair of the state Republican Party blogging for us, too.

To be technical Bob, Mike Tate lives in Whitefish Bay and has a lot more reason to be here than the paid trolls who visit us from far flung places around the country.

Like I said, Keith, if Mike wishes to grace us with baseball predictions or weight loss suggestions, or try his hand at ironic/satirical fits of profanity under his own name, that's a local voice. Reppin' talking points under the auspices of the Democratic Party of WI is not.

How about a category just titled "Politics" - you could lump the party sanctioned recitations of bullet points there without creating a pretense of it being a "voice" of the community?

@Bob McBride... Maybe Sofia Reino can share her screed flaming tripe recipe with us too.

Wow - this commentary sure had me fooled. After reading it, I could have sworn that Mike Tate was from Fantasyland!

I find it funny that all you Walker trolls are on this blog. I could have sworn it said Democratic Party of Wisconsin. Yet the first 5 of 7 post are ranting about the Democratic Party. If you don't like this blog you're free to go to any Republican or Tea Party Blog. That's what's so great about this country, Freedom of Choice.

Jason's the name you're looking for, Nick.

You're welcome.

Tell that to Keith Schmitz.

Truth is: Walker's croonies are a bunch of felons, crooks and perverts. Honestly, Walker knew nothing of illegal corruption going on 20 feet away. Come on, he was in charge of this and directed this. The FBI has e-mails from Walker that implicate hime. What is even more disturbing to me is one of his croonies Brian Pierick chatting to a 14 y.o male by text. I am posting a link here for you to read the complaint from the state of Wisconsin. What kind of people did Walker associate with? If you believe he has nothing to do with this you need a wake up call. Birds of a feather do what....flock together. Walker and the GOP continue to favor tax breaks for the wealth and that is all they care about. The might donation dollar. Walker cares less about the middle class of Wisconsin, the poor and underprivilaged. Under their leader ship he has cut education, healthcare and gave tax breaks to the rich. Paul Ryan is no better. We need programs that make America and Wisconsin prosper not cuts that send us spinning in turmoil like he did. He divides and now wants to conquor. If you do read the complaint then please asky yourself this. What kind of people does Walker hang with....disgusting.

http://wispolitics.com/1006/large/120105_State_v_Pierick.pdf
Start on page 4. BTW, it is just a matter of time before Walker is charged with corruption by the FBI.

@Brenda - Patch does its level best to present fair and balanced news reports. Under the Local Voices platforms - blogs, if you will - we provide a space where people can write about their passions (cooking, books, horses, politics) and express their opinions. We want people from all walks of life writing and posting here including the Democratic and Republican parties.

Mike, time to put down the crack pipe

Is that comment on autofill with you Steve?

First time I have typed it Keith. But what hotkey sequence do you guys use for Koch and ALEC?

Schmitz - 0

Steve - 1

You really want truth ? Try reading the book , " Uprising " by homeboy John Nichols. He tells you the truth, if you really want it and feel you can handle it.

@J. B. Schmidt -- I've never seen James Sensenbrenner respond to any of the comments on his blogs. I doubt he even reads them. In fact, I suspect he has a staffer write them. So what's the problem here?

The difference is that people like Sensenbrenner, Kohl, Darling, Pasch, et al. are our elected officials, and are accountable to us. People from the state political party organizations are not.

@Randy1949
I am not making this a partisan issue. While Cow is right regarding the blogs of elected officials reflecting on their re-election; my comments stand with regards to those also. Patch could establish an arena where open discussion between politicians and citizens exist. Instead, by allowing this style of non-responsive blog to be created they have reduced it to nothing more then the articles on JSonline. If patch wants to remain local, they need to encourage the local politicians to get involved, not state party cut and paste pieces.

@J. B. -- It would be nice if any of the political figures that post on here would show up to argue their points, but I'm not holding my breath.

"my colleagues and I..."

Does that mean that Graeme Zielinski will one day grace the Patch pages with his infinite wisdom, as I can hardly wait for that!

Vicki:

Isn't it a bit hypocritical for you to endorse Democrats that "poison the blogs" with their propaganda?

@CowDung, revenge is sweet.

Revenge? You really are a nasty person...

@upset father -- Really? Does President Obama have a friend that's a terrorist? Who might that be? Did he give that person a job in the administration?

Yes, you look up his name and get back to me when you know what you're talking about.

I'm pretty sure it's legal to grow medical marijuana in California, with a license.

@upset father -- Bill Ayers. And do you know when and how he was supposedly a terrorist? Or even how he and President Obama are connected? Or do you just 'hear things' on Fox or over the internet and repeat them?

Care to find me a quote of him saying that?

This may be what upset father is referring to.

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/feb/28/news/la-pn-obama-wisconsin-unions-20110228

Obama contradicts his stand when he proposes that federal workers pay more to the pension plans.

http://money.cnn.com/2011/09/20/news/economy/obama_federal_workers_retirement/

Here you go Randy

"When I hear some of these folks trying to take collective bargaining rights away, trying to pass so-called "right to work" laws for private sector workers that really mean the right to work for less and less and less — when I hear some of this talk I know this is not about economics. This is about politics, and I want everybody here to know, as long as I'm in the White House, I'm going to stand up for collective bargaining."

-Barack Obama on 9/5/11 in Detroit

@Mau -- there is a difference between public workers making concessions and losing the right to collectively bargain for them altogether.

@atthec -- That quote referred to private sector collective bargaining. In neither case did the President say that he had the power to do anything other than 'stand up'.

upset father was misquoting and misunderstanding.

You remind me of my best friend of 45 years. One day he told me that Obama was going to make a law that a woman could have an abortion right up to time of delivery. I laughed my butt off. He didn't know better either. He listens to Moody Bible Institute on the radio and watches Fox News on t.v. so he's well informed. lol

What does this have to do with several of Gov. Walker's former appointees and workers being indicted for embezzlement and campaigning on government time?

Yes, arguing is a waste of time if you have only a vague idea of facts. You must have a very lucrative job if millions of people on welfare depend on you.

Fine white whine.

Steveonomics - Economic theory by, in his online persona, a guy that claims he goes joy-riding and engages in rapid acceleration at lights in his Cadillac Escalade, and has no concerns about burning lots of mideast oil. He claims he has some kind of business in which he uses his Cadillac truck serving the 1%, who he supports 100%, though from his mortgage payment he has disclosed online, is living rather modestly, even with his truck.
I just tried to trace his statement that the mine scheme up north for which the mine owner left town overnight, would have added "thousands" of jobs.
The only reference I get online when I google that number is some right wing extremist type named J.B. Schmidt on Patch itself.
Did you know Patch blogs and comments go out to the world via search engines?

@Ron Abalone -

Ever google Hoffa and Walker together before? :-)

@Ron
Lucky for you, you stumbled onto a reliable source.

ron ru a hax0r?

Where do you come up with this stuff Ron? I am the 1% and serve the 99%, you have it all backwards. Live in a nice 1000 ft² house holly cow that HUGE, what payment did you not read somewhere? Oh it was that you pay more for your vehicle than your hose over time which I debunked in my personal life even with that awesome Escalade that I use for business.

This is how you debate a mine that would have created thousands of jobs and that Wisconsin is creating jobs only after a year of Walker fixing socialism?

@Steve - You make an easy foil. Keep playing the role. You would have more, or should I say, possibly some crumb of credibility as an economist if you got rid of that Cadillac Escalade EXT. You are driving an oxymoron, a Luxury Utility vehicle, and a kind of car/truck combo. I suggest getting the Hybrid EXT, not for gas savings, not your thing, but for adding even more to the oxymoron thing. No wonder you are confused.
That car makes the statement that the driver is a drug dealer, pimp,or extremely conservative Republican. When you floor it between traffic lights, you show you are the third option, as the first two choices do not want THAT much attention, and would only show it off like that if they were severely OWI.

@Schmidt - When I google for references to facts cited by an extreme Republican, and it leads to an utternance from another extreme Republican, on Patch no less, I start to understand how these "facts" cycle up and spin out of control.
As your Patch utterances end up in google searches, maybe worldwide except N. Korea, you might get quoted by Fox News or Ruse Limburger!

@Hoffa - I have not googled "hoffa" and "walker" together. That is a scary dare, but I do not have all day to look at hundreds of hits referencing dripping adulations to our temporary puppet king.

McBride - You asked if I was a hax0r. According to urbandictionary.com, that is a "an inferior breed of sub-humans that download exploitatcious programs for use in computer games to supplement their bad genetics and lack of skill.... etc."

That you know what that is brings a new light to your background and comments.

Gosh Ron, you're a wiz with the interweb, finding all this stuff.

Hence the question.

McBride - You are one of those that rails against profanity in these blogs, then you ask if someone is a "hax0r" ?. It means you are one of those hacker type multimedia gamers, as it is a very derogatory code word.
Does that then make you a suxxor?.

TJ, I know what hax0r means. I apologize if I offended your gamer sensibilities. You may now return to checking out Skyrim cheats or whatever.

I look pretty cool in your head Ron. Thanks for pumping up my ego I really appreciate it :)

@Lyle -- Good questions. Something has to be done about property taxes, which are extremely regressive for seniors and other people whose income doesn't match the assessed value of their property. We're not a cash-cow, as the school districts seems to view us. However, reducing state revenue to localities, which returns our income and sales-taxes in part, simply makes the local problem worse.

1- Pay the unions with tax money

2- Yes, entirely

3- Funding for the unions and some will trickle down to the employees, education is just our selling point. Tax the rich, spread the wealth. They're pretty tapped out but we can get more. We are against giving any credit to walker for jobs so no mine. Since the budget will be once again in a deficit after Act 10 is gone we can keep going after the middle class with property tax increases, fees and taxing the rich raises prices on everything.

4- Unions in state and out of state also Wisconsin tax payers.

What if they answer "No.", Michael?? What then?!?!? You shouldn't have asked - it's just too risky!!!!

You better start working on accumulating a sackload of additional softballs - just in case...

What a useful comment -- characterize your opponents as crying infants.

My 'way' is a more even-handed sacrifice to deal with our state budget problems than just sticking it to the poor and the others who have been hardest hit in the recession. Many of these short-sighted cost saving measures will just rebound onto the working and middle classes in the long run.

I'll ask you, upset father, how much did Scott Walker reduce your taxes?

There are a number of ALEC bills that need to be repealed/revisited. I'd leave the badge employees alone because they put their lives on the line every shift.

Well, never in the state's history have we seen such a legislative overreach the likes of Scott Walker and the Fitzgerald's have foisted on us. If a tactic was good enough for Abraham Lincoln, it's good enough for our state legislators.

If you're being completely honest, who owns the GOP?

@Barb -- I knew very well who Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dorhn are. I was around at the time. In fact, I condemned the bombing of the Army Math Center in Madison (not done by the Weatherman). Blowing up buildings for 'peace' is pretty stupid.

I could just tell that upset father had only a vague idea of what he was talking about and was trying to point that out. Ayers and Obama are not friends, although they had some contact on Chicago political circles. President Obama certainly did not appoint Bill Ayers to any political positions.

@mau...Guilt by association is not a sound argument. Bill Ayers and the Weather Underground never gained widespread support and were thoroughly condemned at the time. To concentrate on the past associations to reflect on the present and the future is a major error. Times are different now and we shouldn't evoke a past that has no relevancies.

Oh My, Governor Walker, GW Bush, Ron Paul...... All the campaign adds and comments on this blog are guilt by association.

If Ayers act was so innocent, why all the hoopla about the shoe bomber. Just imagine any one of the Republican candidates being tied to an individual or organization that had been involved in bombings, especially on US Soil. These people would be labeled home grown terrorist today and be on the FBI, CIA and any other watch group. They were no innocents then. Seeing as Obama is so super intelligent, I would think he would have steered clear of anyone with a background that could come to light in his political career.

We will be smoking your ass.

Couldn't resist.

You tag that as a rhetorical question because you don't really want to hear the true answer...

The vast majority of police and firefighters unions supported Barrett over Walker in the election for governor.