Videos to watch

Thanks to all who have contacted me following the announcement that I'm taking time off from blogging. Here are a few videos I'd like to leave you with.

• Condi Rice testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
  
• Rep. Barney Frank explains parliamentary procedure to the Republican caucus
  
• Keith Olbermann's analysis of Bush's speech

Closing a chapter

Four years ago, I started up Brewtown as a general blog about politics, sports, and pop culture from a Milwaukee perspective. Over time, it evolved into its current incarnation with an emphasis on politics.

Since I've started the site, the Iraq war started, the 2004 election occurred, and the Democrats took back Congress among other developments. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank those of you who have taken the time to visit this site over the years. Hopefully, it has had something to offer you and has played a small part in raising issues and moving our community and country forward.

With that, Brewtown Politico is going into hiatus. I have ideas in mind for my next venture, but haven't decided whether it'll be a blog or something different. I'll continue to see some of you down at Drinking Liberally, and elsewhere. Until then, best wishes.

Hegerty out in November

Milwaukee's police chief Nan Hegerty announced today that she will resign in November.

She has served in that position since being appointed in 2003. It appears that Hegarty has had strained relations with the rank and file, and Mayor Tom Barrett. The Frank Jude beating was the beginning of the end, and now the Fire and Police Commission and the mayor will have some time to consider a new candidate.

The police chief can't control everything. Considering how many of today's violent crimes are being committed by people with obvious anger management issues, the problem has to be confronted on multiple levels. A new police chief can raise the bar though, and set a new course for dealing with the problem.

Heh, nice.

Tim Grieve posts this bit on Salon today:

From the "Don't Let the Door Hit You on the Way Out" Department, the New York Post reports that incoming House Ways and Means Committee chairman Charlie Rangel has sent Dick Cheney packing from his "palatial" digs just off the House floor.

The office has traditionally belonged to the Ways and Means Committee chairman, but Republicans lent it to Cheney when he became vice president. According to the Post, Rangel was so eager to oust Cheney from the space that he sought approval for the move from Nancy Pelosi within hours after the polls closed in November.

The Vice President is the president of the Senate under the Constitution, and has an office on that side of the Capitol, but he has no business occupying office space on the other end in the People's House. Well done.

Quote of the Day: McGovern edition

"I have to tell you something I've never said before publicly. I voted for him in 1976." -George McGovern

McGovern, the 1972 Democratic presidential nominee, was on Larry King Live this week talking about the late Gerald Ford.

Hat tip to Political Wire

MN Congressman will use Koran at swearing in

Incoming Congressman Keith Ellison (D-MN) will use a Koran rather than a Bible at his swearing-in on Thursday. He is the first Muslim member of Congress, and will get to use a Koran once owned by Thomas Jefferson.

Rep. Virgil Goode, a Virginia Republican who represents the area where Jefferson lived, was one of those who criticized Ellison for wanting to use the Koran, calling for strict immigration policies specially crafted to keep Muslims out of the United States.

The English translation of the Koran from Jefferson's collection dates to the 1750s. Jefferson sold his collection to the U.S. Congress after its library was lost when the British burned the Capitol during the War of 1812. Much of his collection was destroyed in an ensuing fire in 1851 but the Koran that Ellison will use survived, Dimunation said.