Tonight I received an unexpected message on AOL Instant Messenger from T, who I haven’t spoken a word to in over four years. To make a very long story short, we had quite a nasty falling out that came about in large part because of rather boorish and immature behavior on my part, and we didn’t speak nary a word to each other after all was said and done. To be honest, it was hard to lose a friend I’d known for several years, and I’m glad we had a chance tonight to start mending our fences.

One can never have too many friends, especially if those friends are quality people.

From time to time, I’ve been known to lurk around on the more conservative blogs out there in the Cheddarsphere, and while I find those folks to be generally decent (albeit misguided) folks, there are some folks who just can’t seem to pass up the opportunity to make broad, sweeping (and often negative) generalizations when it comes to liberals. Take mickey over at Badger Blogger. In an thread discussing the eight finalists for the Milwaukee Police Chief position, mickey decided to drop this bomb: “The LEFT of which Tommy the Tank Engine is a sworn member, has no interest in stopping crime.” Now putting aside mickey’s need to resort to name calling - which seems to be a common thing among some conservatives - it seems more than a little dubious to say that the left has no interest in stopping crime.

I’m proud of the fact that I’m a liberal, and while I may disagree with conservative folks on a lot of issues, I’d like to think there are some issues - both locally and nationally - that folks of all political affiliations can get behind, and stopping crime is one of those issues. Without getting into too many specifics, I’m a member of the law enforcement/criminal justice community, and as such I take my job seriously. Protecting the community is the number one priority of my job, and I don’t ever let my political beliefs get in the way of doing my job. Each and every member of our community - and our larger society - have a vested interest in stopping crime, because putting an end to criminal behavior benefits everyone, regardless of political affiliation. I take pride in doing my job - and doing it well, and I know plenty of “sworn members” of the left who take pride in the work they do to protect the community and fight crime as members of the law enforcement and criminal justice communities.

I’ve made no secret of the fact that I’m a supporter of Pat Jursik for the 8th District’s County Supervisor seat, and I think I’ve made it abundantly clear I dislike Chris Kujawa’s brand of politics. Today was election day here in the 8th District, and I’m pleased that despite a barrage of user-submitted stories in favor of Kujawa on SouthMilwaukeeNOW.com, preliminary results of today’s election have Pat Jursik winning the County Board seat for the 8th District. The vote wasn’t nearly as close as I expected, with Jursik taking 3,104 votes to 2,622 for Kujawa.

Jursik can’t get too comfortable though, because her newly-won seat will be up for re-election in April of 2008. I anticipate we’ll see Chris Kujawa run again, since he doesn’t strike me as the type to take no for an answer, and I’ve already decided I’m going make the Jursik re-election campaign my first foray into the sordid world of campaign volunteering.

As I noted earlier today, it seems County Supervisor candidate Chris Kujawa is no fan of voter referendums, despite his public comments that “Public service needs to be about serving the best interests of the public.” It seems County Executive Scott Walker is no fan of voter referendums either, which really isn’t much of a surprise. However, as I was trolling through the Cheddarsphere, I came across a really interesting entry by Brew City Brawler, who astutely points out that just five short years ago, County Executive candidate Scott Walker said:

“…I will take this vision for the future directly to the people. Instead of working deals in a backroom in the executive’s office, I will take our agenda on the road to senior citizen clubs, civic organizations, church groups, and anywhere else people are willing to listen. Positive change must come through the support of the public and this will force the board to act on our reforms.”

What I find really interesting about conservatives is the level of their hypocrisy. Many conservatives I’ve either interacted with or heard speak have struck similar tones about wanting to “give power back to the people” and about “letting people decide for themselves,” yet every time they’re given an opportunity to put their words into action, they refuse and blame some liberal bogeyman. If Scott Walker really supports voter referendums, then I challenge him to put his money where his mouth is and allow the sales tax referendum to make it to the ballot.

According to an article submitted by Patty Kujawa, County Supervisor candidate Chris Kujawa has rejected the County Board’s plan to push a referendum that would raise the area’s sales tax by a penny, if approved. Kujawa’s position on this issue is interesting, given the fact that according to his own campaign website, he believes, “Public service needs to be about serving the best interests of the public.” Apparently, Mr. Kujawa believes serving the best interests of the public involves him deciding what’s best for his constituents, instead of allowing those constituents to decide for themselves. Mr. Kujawa’s disdain for letting the taxpayers of Milwaukee decide the issue for themselves in a referendum is exactly the kind of attitude we don’t need on the County Board, because the citizens of the 8th District deserve a Supervisor who trusts citizens enough to give them the opportunity to decide these kinds of issues for themselves. If Chris Kujawa can’t be bothered to trust the good people of the 8th District to make decisions for themselves, then how can the citizens of the 8th District trust him to provide us with the quality representation we deserve?

Chris Kujawa has made it clear he wants to be a County Supervisor so he can serve as nothing more than a rubber stamp for County Executive Scott Walker, a fact that should come as no surprise given their close relationship. Kujawa’s company has done over two hundred thousand dollars worth of work for the County, a fact that apparently escaped Mr. Kujawa’s memory during a recent interview, saying that fact “slipped his mind.” The citizens of the 8th District deserve more from their Supervisor than someone who’s perfectly content to vote in lockstep with the wishes of the County Executive, never mind the wishes of the citizens he hopes to be elected to serve.

The citizens of Milwaukee County’s 8th District deserve more than a “rubber stamp” from their Supervisor; they deserve real leadership that isn’t afraid to challenge the status quo and think outside the box when necessary, and quite frankly, Chris Kujawa just can’t offer that kind of leadership.

So according to an article on All Politics Watch, County Supervisor candidate Chris Kujawa, a personal favorite of mine (yeah right), said in an interview this week that KEI, his family’s landscaping and exterior design company, doesn’t do business with the county. Kujawa went on to say he resents suggestions he might have a business conflict of interest if he wins a vacant south suburban Milwaukee seat on the County Board. What’s really interesting about Chris Kujawa’s statements is the fact that records show his company’s been paid over $200,000 by Milwaukee County for products and services his landscape firm has provided the county since 2000. Of course, when asked to explain the discrepancy between his own statements and county records, Kujawa chalked it up to the fact that $200,000 worth of work his company did for the county “slipped his mind.”

This is yet another example of why Chris Kujawa simply isn’t fit to serve as a member of the County Board of Supervisors, and I personally hope Pat Jursik hands him his hind end on Tuesday.

That’s right folks…the 156th annual Wisconsin State Fair is finally here. Now I’m not a huge fairgoer myself, mainly because I don’t do well in situations with lots of animals, especially horses and goats. I am hoping to go to the Fair this year, because I always enjoy walking the grounds, eating all that great food, and spending time in the exhibition halls looking at all the gadgets and products that you can usually only get on TV. I have to admit I’m a bit of sucker for those gadgets and products, and I always end up wanting to buy something I see. After all, who couldn’t use a Magic Bullet or a set of Dryer Balls? And let’s not forget just about everyone’s favorite Fair food - Cream Puffs!

I may not be a huge fan of the Fair, but I still can’t wait to go.

So over at Watchdog Milwaukee, Jim McGuigan blogged a few days ago about fired Milwaukee police officers receiving paychecks while they appeal their terminations. Milwaukee police officers are unique in being able to collect a paycheck while they appeal their terminations, thanks to a 1980 state law enacted to counteract the capricious firing of officers by former Milwaukee Police Chief Harold Breier. What’s interesting is that some conservatives are quick to point the finger at Governor Doyle for not repealing the law, apparently ignorant of the fact that repealing laws isn’t in Governor Doyle’s job description.

While it’s true Governor Doyle hasn’t talked much about the issue, the fact remains he can’t repeal anything, since that’s the responsibility of the State Senate and Assembly, which up until the last election were both controlled by the Republican Party for a number of years. The reality of the situation is Republican lawmakers have had just as many opportunities - if not more - than Democrats to repeal the law, yet they’ve not done a darn thing about it.

In fact, I distinctly remember former Assembly Speaker Jon Gard effectively killing a bill that would have done away with that law. Coincidentally enough, Gard’s campaign received a $5,000 donation from the police union’s political action committee in June of 2005 for his congressional campaign, and then in 2006 the bill was killed. Interestingly, since 1993 the Milwaukee Police Association has given Republicans nearly three times as much as it has given Democrats.

Next week Tuesday, voters will get to choose the next County Supervisor for Milwaukee County’s 8th District. I’ve talked a little about the two candidates, and I’ve expressed my misgivings about Chris Kujawa, given the relative lack of substantive information available about his issue positions on his website, and now comes a report in South Milwaukee NOW that Kujawa has said he’s only running in order to uphold County Executive Scott Walker’s vetoes of the County Board. I haven’t been able to find a link to the comments by Kujawa, which were apparently made to WisPolitics.com, so I don’t know for sure if that’s really what he said, but it wouldn’t surprise me, given the fact that he’s been endorsed by County Exec. Walker and seems just nutty enough to be a supporter of his.

Derrick Nunnally over at Proof and Hearsay [one of my new favorite blogs, by the way] is reporting that the three officers convicted in federal court for their roles in the beating of Frank Jude, Jr. have been moved to the Dodge County Detention Facility until they’re sentenced on November 29th. Interestingly enough, the Dodge County Detention Facility is the same jail where Ald. Mike McGee Jr. has been a resident for about a month - and where he’ll presumably remain a resident until his federal case has reached its end.

Now I’m not sure whether or not Jon Bartlett will be joining his partners in crime at the Dodge County Detention Facility or now, because he falls under the custody of Wisconsin Department of Corrections as a state prison inmate, but if all three are in fact in the same facility as Alderman McGee, I’d love to be a fly on the wall if they ever happened to come into contact. I’ve got no doubts every effort will be made to keep Alderman McGee and the three dirty cops as far from each other as possible, but I’d be willing to bet there’d be some definite chemistry if they all happened to come into contact with each other.