It is beyond irony — beyond comprehension, really — that the prize was awarded to a man who has decided to overlook the crimes committed by those in government service who sanctioned torture.

President Barack Obama, in giving these felons a pass, said it’s time to look forward, not back.

But everything in the justice system is a look back. Common criminals go to prison for what they have done in the past. That is what it is about.

Drug abusers go to prison.

Obama goes to Sweden to collect his prize.

American torturers go about their business.

President Obama had made a few priorities absolutely clear: this country must reduce both greenhouse gases and dependency on foreign oil.

Gov. Jim Doyle’s WisDOT, in planning for a new Zoo Interchange, is taking a real slap at the president by totally ignoring those priorities. There will be no planning for any transit to be incorporated into the new design, nor will there be a freeway / transit alternatives analysis done, despite the city’s request.

It’s a road-only study — more greenhouse gases, more dependency on foreign oil. Guess the governor doesn’t like the president all that much.

And why is this plan roads only? Because of a timeline Gov. Jim Doyle set when he was running for re-election and worried that the Republicans would criticize him for not rebuilding the Zoo Interchange before embarking on the North-South I-94 project. There is no valid engineering, environmental or geopolitical argument against including transit in the Zoo Interchange project. The opposite is true. The region, state and country would be better off if transportation planning included transit. That a project this big doesn’t isn’t just a slap at the president and his priorities — it’s a slap at all of us.

Like there are no real issues to tackle? This may be one of the early signs that absolutely nothing about the Obama administration is too insignificant for the right to attack. From the Wall Street Journal (thanks to Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire).

Under Mr. Obama, the political director won’t be in the EEOB, where other presidents have placed him. He’ll occupy a West Wing office usually given to the head of presidential personnel. That’s a sign of the importance of politics for Team Obama.

This is one of many of Mr. Obama’s changes to the management structure of the White House that will likely undermine his stated aims and create a more centralized and possibly incoherent policy process.

Another first to have a West Wing office is the incoming secretary of Health and Human Services, Tom Daschle. Once sworn in, he will be the first domestic cabinet secretary to have a desk in the most coveted office space in government — to use in his other job as director of the White House Office of Health Reform.

This dual role centralizes policy-making inside the White House because it allows Mr. Daschle to displace the Domestic Policy Council and the National Economic Council on developing health-care policy.

Tapping Carol Browner as climate czar also centralizes decision making. Her role will displace the leadership of the Council on Environmental Quality and diminish the influence of the Environmental Protection Agency….

Mr. Obama’s management decisions may lead to more intrusive, larger government policies gaining traction. Why? Because left-leaning aides will be unimpeded by the White House’s budget director or cabinet secretaries as they push new policies….

Mr. Obama’s tendency to work late into the night will also pose problems. Politico.com reports that the White House staff is “preparing for a return to long nights, heavy weekend shifts.” Requiring a senior staff that meets at 7:30 a.m. to work until 11 p.m. or 12 a.m. will quickly cause burnout and diminish the quality of advice and oversight.

And then he has to ensure that it doesn’t happen again on his watch.

This means that people will go to jail. This means that Obama will get knocked for being vengeful and partisan and it means that maybe the stimulus money doesn’t get, figuratively speaking, dumped out of an airplane to get lost in the wind like that first $350 billion did. If Obama doesn’t act — if no-bid contracts continue to be awarded to friends and campaign contributors, then corruption becomes institutionalized. We may never be able to recover from that.

Obama has promised to push green jobs with any stimulus package Congress approves — Doyle’s request for highway money is not — absolutely not — a green jobs promoter. The freeway expansion project will destroy wetlands and increase flooding. It will increase air pollution. It will increase the risk of asthma and other diseases, especially for kids. It will cost $1.9 billion (although it is very strange that the price of the proposed Milwaukee-Madison rail line has increased 25% to 50% over two years and the price of the I-94 project has not budged) and not do much at all to improve the employment situation in the city. In the long run, in fact, it will further divide jobs from workers, and leave many workers with no way to get to their jobs. And it will not reduce congestion.

So how green is Obama? If he approves this boondoggle, not very green at all.

WisDOT Secretary Frank Busalacchi, one of the most concrete-pourin’, greenhouse-gas promotin’, water-pollutin’, unimaginative secretaries of transportation around, allegedly is under consideration for a post in the Obama administration. Busalachhi, somehow, has built himself a reputation nationally as a rail advocate, although he really sucks at it here in his home state.

From Traffic World:

Also under consideration are two members of the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission, Steve Heminger and Frank Busalacchi.

Heminger, named to the commission by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, is executive director of the San Francisco Bay Area’s Metropolitan Transportation Commission and once was a congressional staffer.

Transportation industry sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Busalacchi, Wisconsin state secretary of transportation since 2003 and a former secretary-treasurer for the Teamsters local in Milwaukee, is a more likely candidate for head of the Federal Railroad Administration.

Selecting Busalacchi for anything wouldn’t be a move to the right by Obama; it would be a move to lunacy. How many times has Busalacchi embarrassed his boss, Gov. Doyle? Are we talking about the $685,000 Marquette Interchange web site? The open records violations? Let’s put that all on the national stage and see how it plays.

Anyway, as we were checking out with Harley the teddy bear, the clerk asked us if we liked the new president.

I said yes, I did, and she said she preferred President Bush, that she did not like the new president. I told her I did not want to have this conversation with her. She said the new president wanted to take away everyone’s guns and she especially did not like that he wanted to ban all hunting totally.

Yup, Bush still has backing among people who do not know what the hell they are talking about.

Results of absentee ballots cast in Ward 282 were not available late Wednesday afternoon because absentee ballots still were being counted.

Barack Obama, left; Ward 282, right. Click on the images to see larger versions.

Obama, the Democratic contender, won 394 election-day votes in Ward 282, while Republican challenger John McCain won 259 votes, or 38.9% of the vote.

Libertarian candidate Bob Barr and independent candidate Ralph Nader won four votes each. Constitution Party candidate Chuck Baldwin won three votes, and there were two write-in votes, according to the Election Commission.

There were a total of — weird, spooky music, please — 666 votes cast in Ward 282 on election day.

Can we have our Constitution back now?

Here’s an idea for a little betting pool: who will George Bush pardon on his way out? (An art semi-perfected by Bill Clinton.)