Cognitive Dissidence

Indictable Boy

2012-02-18T00:00:00.000-06:00

Warning: This may get stuck in your head for days, as it did mine:

An indictable boy, they all said.

My favorite part comes about the 2:19 mark with first Sgt. Schultz and then the Walkergate picture that I've been using.

A Man Of The People Corporations

2012-02-17T23:47:00.000-06:00

When a politician runs for office, a lot of times they try to present themselves as "a man of the people." That means they try to give the voters a sense that they are just like them. In other words, they're going for the populist vote.

And both sides do it. Democrats talk about growing up in a union household, working a blue collar job, helping people. Republicans try to do the same, but don't always pull it off as well.

Scott Walker has given up even trying to hold on to the pretense of giving a damn about the people.

After recovering from his 2.4 hour flu, Walker went mooching up to the WMC and made a push for the mining bill. But who he was kissing up to speaks volumes (emphasis mine):

Gov. Scott Walker urged the state's business leaders on Thursday to help him pressure the Legislature to pass a bill streamlining the process for opening an iron mine in northern Wisconsin.

Walker made the plea at the annual Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce business day gathering, which attracted about 1,000 business executives, lobbyists and others. After the speech, many in the audience — wearing orange hats in support of the mining bill — walked four blocks to the Capitol to lobby lawmakers.

He's playing sycophant to the people that would profit off of such a reckless bill, but won't even spare a second for the people who have to live with its consequences of the law, should it be allowed to pass.

It's pretty obvious that Walker's only motivation regarding this is the return favors he has already gotten and/or expects to get by handing over taxpayer money and the state's natural resources to this out of state, very well moneyed group. Meanwhile, as is his wont, the people would still be without jobs and without money. And now, without clean air or water.

Scott Walker Tells A Joke

2012-02-17T21:47:00.000-06:00

Apparently, when you email the governor's office, you get automatically added to a spam program and get nailed with Scott Walker's spam, er, I mean e-Updates.

The one he's been sending out lately is a real hoot!

First, given his long and sordid history of cronyism, I think he is using state equipment and computers to solicit campaign donations:

Apply to Serve in State Government

We have a substantial number of open positions available on various state boards, commissions and in other areas of state government. Please visit walker.wi.gov/Serve-Wisconsin to find information on these positions.

Positions frequently become available, so if you are interested in serving please apply and our office will keep your application on file. If you’ve been looking to get involved in state government this is a great way to use your skills to serve the residents of Wisconsin!

I love that "positions frequently become available" line. Of course they frequently become available. Walkergate keeps chasing people away.

But Walker also tells a funny at the end of the ~~spam~~ e-Update:

Each e-update I will answer a question submitted by a recipient of the previous e-update or from someone who contacts my office directly.

Question: Why did you choose to greet President Obama?

Answer: This week President Obama visited Wisconsin for the first time in about a year. The White House reached out to my office earlier this week and invited me to welcome the President to Wisconsin.

I have the utmost respect for the Office of the President of the United States.

Now that's funny! Looking at Walkergate, it's obvious that he never respected the position of Milwaukee County Executive. And given all the abuses of power and other acts of corruption over the past year, it's obvious he doesn't respect the office of governor. Why in the world would anyone think he respects the President of the United States? In fact, he didn't show much respect for the presidency when he was kissing people's butts at CPAC last week.

Wisconsin Reporter? Try Walker Supporters

2012-02-17T05:41:00.001-06:00

Wisconsin Reporter has been a thorn in the side of the people of Wisconsin for a long time now. They claim to be an "independent news source," but the fact is that it would be a kindness to call them a political tabloid, but with a lower level of credibility.

I've already written about this mob of GOP activists pretending to be reporters and shown their connection to the Koch-funded Franklin Center for Public and Government Integrity.

The sorely missed Tom Foley also wrote about them a few times, including how they stole into a private meeting and purloined training documents. Another classic is their very loose qualifications for what they consider reliable news sources.

And I was recently reminded of, they also took part in a scheme to try to discredit the future Senator Jessica King when she was running against the fake Democrat.

Their lack of journalistic ethics and integrity shown through again the other day.

When President Barack Obama came to Milwaukee to tout Master Lock for bringing back good jobs from China, the Wisconsin Reporter sent someone to the event. While there, said reporter (and I use that term loosely) tried to get in the face of DPW Chairman Mike Tate and record a private, off-the-record conversation he was having.

Graeme Zielinski sent an email to WR to complain of their unprofessional behavior, and he got a very rude response from Matt Kittle, who not only disregarded Mr. Zielinski's concerns, but also made tasteless cracks about mental illness.

A Google search showed that Wisconsin Reporter isn't his only job. He's also enmeshed with a thing called iowapolitics.com The website's "About Section" sadly was not surprising:

IowaPolitics.com is a part of StatehouseNewsOnline.com, a collection of independent journalists and organizations covering state-specific and government activity.

StatehouseNewsOnline.com is the national leading news website dedicated to aggregating news from the nation’s state capitals. The news website networks with dozens of state-based news organizations to provide in depth coverage of state legislation, government & special interests, state budgets and political/campaign news.

StatehouseNewOnline.com was launched in September 2010, as a project of the Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to promoting new media journalism and government transparency and accountability.

The Franklin Center serves as a capacity builder, providing trainings and networking opportunities and supporting a network of investigative journalists and statehouse reportersStateHouseOnline.com utilizes a state-specific approach, in order to provide readers with information that is of proximate and practical interest. Interested parties can contact info@FranklinCenterHQ.org for more information.

The Franklin Center is not responsible for the information that appears on this site. The organization serves as a capacity builder and networking agent for independent, state-based journalists and organizations.

I naturally went to StatehouseNewOnline.com and found that their self-description was almost identical to IowaPolitics.com and to Wisconsin Reporter. This makes sense since they are all bought and paid for by the same group.

So now we know that all these sites that Kittle is part of a larger cluster-family of Koch-funded groups aimed at promoting one their warped ideology.

But there's more. There's always more.

I called upon the research team at Politiscoop.com for some assistance in confirming who owned these sites. StatehouseNewOnline.com came back as registered to the Franklin Center of Government and Public Integrity, but the IowaPolitics.com site proved to be most interesting.

The domain is owned by Gateway Ventures. Gateway Ventures' had a vice-president by the name of Dan Morse, who is a big time supporter of Scott Walker. In fact, his LinkedIn profile shows that he's a fundraiser for Friends of Scott Walker as well as the CEO of Dan Morse Consulting. Clients of his consulting business include the campaigns for Scott Walker and Michael Huebsch.

Also very interesting is that the check on the domain showed that the administrator is Phillip Prange. Prange is the CEO of Gateway Ventures and the President and CEO of Wisconsin Business Council. This is significant since 77% of the members of this group donated to Republican politicians, including Scott Walker.

As a point of interest, it should also be noted that Prange is the brother-in-law to Nick Hurtgen, who has his own sordid history with Walker.

So now, thanks to Kittle's intemperance, we have learned that Wisconsin Reporter is just a small part of a larger right wing echo chamber, all of which is headed up by the Koch-funded Franklin Center for Public and Government Integrity. On top of that, this echo chamber is tied in with and, at least partially, controlled by two people with direct ties to Walker's campaign.

Instead of calling themselves investigative reporters, Wisconsin Reporter, and Walker's campaign, should be investigated by the authorities for their questionable campaign-related contributions and activities, since Walker never claimed their work as an in-kind contribution.

And there is no way that any established, serious news source should be allowing them to put up their political propaganda as anything but that, with a warning that any resemblance between their spin narratives and a credible news source is purely coincidental.

By Popular Demand, I'm Back On The Sara Schultz Show

2012-02-16T22:23:00.000-06:00

I'll be on the Sara Schultz Show again Friday morning, with an all star list of guests:

I will start off the show with Yuri Rashkin from Defend Wisconsin Weekly News Round-Up. We will talk about the weekly news and the bomb shells that were dropped on Thursday evening. Then I will be talking with Kathleen Falk who is running for Governor. We will talk about her campaign and her reaction to Senator Temper-tantrum ....Scott Fitzgerald. Then I will be speaking with Chris Liebenthal who writes the Cognitive Dissidence Blog. We will be discussing the John Doe Investigation and anything new that has come up in the last week. After Chris, I will be talking with Liz DiNovella from the Progressive Magazine. She went to CPAC and she will be telling me all about it and about the speakers: Governor Walker, US Representative Paul Ryan, and Senator Gothman. After Liz, I will be talking to Badger Democracy blog writer Scott Wittkopf. We will be talking more in depth about the news this week, I would like to talk about the Progressive movement, and where we go from here. I will end the show with Elizabeth Wheeler from Clean Wisconsin. We will be talking about the Wetland Bill that was passed in the middle of the night in the Senate....thanks to Scott Fitzgerald. Nothing good ever happens in the middle of the night in Fitzwalkerstan. It all starts this Friday at 9am! Call in numbers are 877-497-1797 or 310-742-1896. Hope you can join us!

The difficult part will be to cover so much ground in only 15 minutes, but don't fear, Sarah said I will be on again next Friday as well.

I can tell you, Sara is just the living embodiment of awesomeness.

The Sara Schultz Show can be heard not only on teh Intertubes, but she is also heard on WIDE 99.1 LPFM Madison, WHYS 96.3 LPFM Eau Claire and WFAQ 92.9 LPFM Mukwonago/Waukesha.

Scott Walker's 2.4 Hour Flu

2012-02-16T01:21:00.000-06:00

When President Barack Obama came to Milwaukee on Wednesday to celebrate Master Lock bringing jobs back from China, Scott Walker was expected to meet him at the airport and then accompany the President to the plant.

However, at the last minute, Walker skipped out of going to the plant, complaining of the stomach flu.

Many people lifted a skeptical eyebrow at this. Indeed, there are some peculiarities to it.

If he was so sick, why did he go the airport? Was he hoping to infect Obama with whatever creeping crud he supposedly had?

On a side note, Walker apparently recovered sufficiently to send out a campaign press release, touting some trivial points (which probably should be fact checked), but totally ignoring the main point of the visit, which was to celebrate the return of good, family supporting, union jobs at Master Lock, who realized that quality is more important than going it on the cheap.

But speculation ran wild on why Walker would bail out of going to Master Lock.

Some surmised that Walker didn't want to deal with the fact that the country, under Obama's leadership, was recovering and gaining jobs while Wisconsin, under the Walker Plan, was losing jobs left and right.

Some thought that it might because he was afraid of the payback for trash talking Obama at CPAC last week.

Some thought that he was afraid of protesters, especially when his old pal, Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke, decided to leave him high and dry and refusing to supply adequate security for the event.

Some thought he wanted to avoid questions about Walkergate, while others thought he was meeting the investigators regarding Walkergate.

One wag pointed out that maybe Walker was nervous because Master Lock also makes prison door locks and that hit too close to home for Walker.

I guess we'll have a better idea if Walker was faking the tummy-aching on Thursday. After all, if he was too sick to stay with the President of the United States when he comes to visit, he is definitely too sick to hang out with his friends at the WMC, much less have anything to do with the dirty lucre they want to give him.

But, presuming that Walker was indeed faking it, some of our friends will be there to greet him.

Scott Walker: Tax Delinquent

2012-02-16T00:39:00.003-06:00

Dan Bice of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel broke the news that Scott Walker's campaign was pinged for not paying taxes.

But not just any taxes, but their unemployment compensation taxes.

The Democratic Party of Wisconsin issued an quick press release on Walker's scofflaw nature:

"Scott Walker touts himself as an able CEO, and yet we have seen his campaigns run in a shabby, undisciplined and even criminal way," Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate said Wednesday. "It is significant for the rest of the citizens of Wisconsin who play by the rules. Still, being a tax delinquent may be the least of Scott Walker's problems with authorities."

But there are some things that neither Bice nor Tate covered that I feel is pertinent.

First of all, Walker has collected millions of dollars in his extended unlimited money grab (with a big part of it coming from out of state). With all that money, he couldn't afford to pay his taxes?

And of course, it had to be unemployment compensation, like his policies haven't already caused enough problems with six consecutive months of losing jobs and then delaying unemployment compensation checks for the poor people victimized by Walker's maleficence.

I also recall that Walker claims that he had to replace his campaign treasurer of 18 years, John Hiller, because he didn't think Hiller was up to the job anymore. So how's that new treasurer working out for ya, Scott?

Of course, that there would be something untoward and even illegal going on with Walker's campaign, it is nothing we didn't already know.

Secret Routers Now Standard Government Policy?

2012-02-15T23:35:00.000-06:00

The esteemed James Rowen kindly gave me a shout out for breaking the story on Scott Walker's latest pay-for-play program, giving sweetheart deals to all sorts of cronies and campaign donors.

He also had the catch of the day with this:

One more thing: I also find it fascinating the author of the 'plan' is has the hi-falutin' title of Director of External Communications.
Andrew Davis | Office of Governor Scott Walker
Director of External Communications
(o) 608-267.3839 | (e) andrew.davis@wisconsin.gov
Is there a Director of Internal Communications, and does that person have a secret router to work with?

And as if that wasn't enough, Rowen also might have broken the story on Walker's "Harley" bike ride by finding the actual bike.

But you'll have to click over to the Political Environment to see what I mean.

Heartland Employs Rep. Weiner Defense Strategy

2012-02-15T23:14:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, I alerted the gentle reader to the "secret" plan by the Heartland Institute to try to tame the Angry Badgers in Wisconsin.

Today, the Heartland Institute initiated the Rep. Anthony Weiner Defense Strategy of Blaming Unknown Actors.

They issued a press release blaming the document on thieves and forgeries. The odd thing is that if this were a forgery and made up of whole cloth, why did they apologize to their donors?

Apologies: The Heartland Institute apologizes to the donors whose identities were revealed by this theft. We promise anonymity to many of our donors, and we realize that the major reason these documents were stolen and faked was to make it more difficult for donors to support our work. We also apologize to Heartland staff, directors, and our allies in the fight to bring sound science to the global warming debate, who have had their privacy violated and their integrity impugned.

The Guardian also followed up on this story only to get changing stories from the H.I. flacks, who then took a "don't you dare question us" approach:

The nature of the "theft" charges by Heartland was also not immediately clear. Lakely, in his statement, explains that a staff member, persuaded by "an unknown person", mistakenly sent the documents to an unfamiliar email address.

Heartland's statement said the "stolen documents appear to have been written by Heartland's president for a board meeting that took place on January 17."

However, in an email to the Guardian later on Wednesday, Lakely backtracked on this apparent confirmation that some of the documents were genuine.

"Considering the fact that the individual who committed fraud and identity theft in correspondence with a staffer yesterday also created a fake Heartland document out of whole cloth, we cannot authenticate any of the documents," he wrote.

"At any rate, our standing policy is to not discuss confidential documents. We are also in the process of taking legal action, so our previous statements are all we have to say about the matter at present."

As the saying goes, I believe them, even if a million other people don't.

Wisconsin Local 1848

2012-02-15T22:26:00.002-06:00

The right wing propaganda site Politico was so eager to try to do a smear job on President Barack Obama and his visit to Milwaukee today that they failed to look before they leaped and ended up landing into a pile of foolishness with both feet:

Yup, the mistook the Wisconsin state flag as being the flag of Wisconsin Local 1848.

Once they realized how stupid they looked, they deleted the post (which appears to be a common thing for Republicans).

But thanks to the power of Google Cache, you can see it for yourself.

In honor of Politico*, one of my tweeps had created this, which I just may have to find room on the sidebar for:

Priceless.

*A suggestion for Politico is that they might want to correct their name to Politic-∅. Just sayin'.

Which Walker Will Meet Obama?

2012-02-15T02:06:00.001-06:00

On Wednesday, when President Obama comes to Milwaukee to praise Master Lock for recognizing the quality products produced by their American union workers, Scott Walker plans on getting some face time.

My question is this: Which Walker will show up?

If Walker is smart, he could use the opportunity to learn something about job creation, an area which Obama is doing well and Walker is failing miserably at doing.

But no one has ever accused Walker of being smart, so I wouldn't be surprised if Walker tries to embarrass us all by pulling a Jan Brewer, just to look good to his base in preparation to the upcoming recall.

Another Day, Another Walker Crony

2012-02-15T01:34:00.000-06:00

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is reporting about Angela Herl, the wife of Dane County Republican Party Chair Mike Herl, who just got a political appointment in the Walker administration and a really nice raise, worth more than what some people make in a year:

The head of a state agency late last year gave a political appointment - and a nearly $27,000 annual raise - to the wife of a Republican Party official without considering any other applicants, state records show.

In December, Angela Herl took over a state division with 40 employees that processes credentials for dozens of professions such as doctors, even though she had no direct experience in that area. Herl had not previously managed any staff during her 20 years working for the state as a payroll and benefits specialist.

With the new job, Herl received a 49% pay boost, raising her annual salary from $54,378 to $81,265.

Herl is married to Mike Herl, chairman of the Dane County Republican Party, and she landed her new job less than a year after GOP Gov. Scott Walker faced an uproar over the hiring of a campaign donor's son with few qualifications.

Angela Herl has an associate's degree in accounting from Madison Area Technical College but not a bachelor's degree, according to the state.

The article goes on to say how no other people were even considered and how Ms. Herl didn't even have to go through the motions of providing a resume.

Of course, Scott Walker appointing unqualified cronies is nothing new, nor is the fact that he likes to give them huge, unearned raises.

What I did find surprising is that after all the heat he has taken and is about to take because of Walkergate, that he would continue to appoint people affiliated with county Republican parties, like Darlene Wink and Tim Russell.

The Heartland Institute vs The Angry Badger

2012-02-15T00:24:00.002-06:00

The Heartland Institute is a self-described libertarian group (read a hive of collectively-thinking ultraconservative nut jobs) that think they have an influence in the Midwest in pushing the corporate agenda of breaking the unions, destroying the environment by arguing against global warning and even have worked hand in hand with companies like Phillip Morris in an effort to try to show smoking doesn't cause lung cancer.

To get a better idea of what kind of people they are, well, they get their funding in part by the Bradley Foundation, whose CEO is Michael Grebe, the same guy that's chaired Walker's campaign and is back in that position now. Oh, and the Koch Brothers have been known to fund their efforts at turning the county into a corporate state.

So what this has to do with anything? Well, they've set their targets on us, the good people of Wisconsin.

In their 2012 Fundraising Plan, which they did not want to be publicly known, the Heartland Institute has a section starting on page 13 a section titled "Operation Angry Badger." Here's what they have to say about us and their anti-Wisconsin agenda:

Wisconsin was the focus of national attention due to recall campaigns waged in 2011, and campaigns are taking place in 2012 against Gov. Scott Walker, Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch and three Republican senators who voted for Act 10, the landmark collective bargaining reform legislation adopted in 2011. We have been following the Wisconsin debate closely, reporting on it in Budget & Tax News, commenting in op-eds and LTEs and on blogs, doing television and radio interviews, and sending research and commentary to elected officials in Wisconsin and nationally.

The recall elections of 2012 amount to a referenda on collective bargaining reform at the state level, making them of national interest. Successful recalls would be a major setback to the national effort to rein in public sector compensation and union power. Heartland is the largest and most influential national free-market think tank in the Midwest, so we are in the right place and with the right resources to help defend and secure Wisconsin’s recent gains.

We are contemplating five projects:
1. Recruit and promote superintendents who support Act 10
2. Explain the benefits of Act 10
3. Document the shortcomings of public schools in Wisconsin
4. Expose teacher pay in key districts
5. Create blogs that shadow small town newspaper coverage of the controversy
We anticipate that this project will cost about $612,000. Maureen Martin, Heartland’s legal counsel, with be the chief researcher and writer for this project. The anonymous donor has pledged $100,000 toward this project. We are circulating a proposal to other potential funders.

We know that this group is without scruples and will do everything and anything they can to prevent the people from reclaiming Wisconsin from the very same corporate interests that fund this shadow group.

I say let's show them what angry badgers are all about!

Cheater's Proof

2012-02-14T23:22:00.002-06:00

In an overt attempt to disenfranchise voters, soon to be former State Senator Scott Fitzgerald thought he'd practice a little voter caging in an effort to have signatures disqualified by sending them postcards and saying that the signature was invalid if he didn't get the postcard back.

In his desperate bid not to face recall, further confirming the fact that he knows he's done wrong and has no confidence in his chances of winning, Fitzgerald challenged 88 signatures based on his voter caging scheme.* However, council for the petitioners found that on at least 43 of the challenged names show that Team Fitzgerald contained names and/or addresses that were different than the ones on the petitions.

The petitioners' council also found that Fitzgerald also tried all sorts of desperate moves like lying about dates, thoroughness of completion, residencies and the sort. When the petitioners lawyer eliminated his blatantly false claims, there were still more than 2,700 signatures. And that is if the GAB accepts the rest of Fitzgerald's claims.

And for Fitzgerald's other ploy of desperation, claiming that the gerrymandering law that doesn't go into effect until November, if even then, should count now was proven to be plainly laughable.

No wonder Fitzie was damn nearly in tears on the senate floor earlier today. He's watching his whole house of cards starting to crumble around him. And the guy that Fitzie risked it all for, Scott Walker, won't lift a finger to help him or the other senators facing the recall by the people.

Or as Team Falk put it after the Fitz' snit fit:

The campaign of Kathleen Falk, Democratic candidate for governor and former Dane County Executive, released the following statements regarding state Senate Republican Leader Scott Fitzgerald’s attack against Falk during the Senate Floor Session this evening.

Falk Communications Director Scot Ross said, “The Republicans are running scared about Kathleen Falk’s record of bringing people together, finding solutions and getting the job done. This desperate attack is proof Gov. Walker and his allies know Wisconsin has had it with his divisive agenda, failed policies and circling scandal. They know the election is coming soon where Scott Walker is voted out of office and Kathleen Falk is elected to bring Wisconsin back together.”

It also explains why the GOP is kicking out all the jams in their midnight attempts to grab all that they can. They know their days in power are numbered. It also shows their complete and utter lack of any sense of integrity.

*I encourage people that live in his district to contact GAB and/or their local district attorney and file a complaint against his illegal activity of voter caging.

The Wreck Of Scooter Fitzgerald: The Video!

2012-02-14T21:18:00.001-06:00

This video could make one think that soon-to-be-former Senator Scott Fitzgerald is feeling the pressure of having to face a recall. It's definitely not the behavior of a leader or that of an adult:

It's also fun to see Sen. Erpenbach doing some serious verbal karate on Fitzgerald and the other Republicans.

Bill Would Force ALEC To Disclose Corporate Contributors

2012-02-14T19:51:00.000-06:00

From Representative Mark Pocan:

Today, Democratic legislators formally submitted a bill for introduction that would clamp down on special interest organizations that write bills for legislators.

Recently, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has drawn criticism for acting as lobbyists for corporate legislation while being exempted from registering as a lobbying group with the Government Accountability Board. Many ALEC bills became law this session, including several of Governor Walker’s special session bills that made it harder for victims to sue corporations for wrongdoing.

“Last August, I infiltrated the ALEC convention and got a first-hand look at what they are up to,” said Pocan. “ALEC is like a speed dating service for lonely legislators and corporate executives. The corporations write bills and legislators sign their names to the bills. In the end, we’re stuck with bad laws and nobody knows where they came from.”

During one of Governor Walker’s special sessions, which were supposed to focus on job creation, ALEC saw several of their bills become law in Wisconsin. One such bill diminishes a victim’s right to sue corporations if they are harmed by irresponsible business practices.

“If they look like a lobbyist, talk like a lobbyist and walk like a lobbyist, they should be regulated like a lobbyist,” said Larson. “Wisconsin’s lobbying laws are intended to instill as much integrity and transparency in our government as possible. ALEC shouldn’t get a free pass to anonymously do their lobbying.”

Pocan has crashed ALEC’s conventions twice, becoming a member in an effort to learn more about the secretive lobbying group. In doing so, he exposed a giant loophole in Wisconsin’s lobbying law in which corporations do not have to report their efforts to persuade legislators to sponsor their personally crafted model legislation.

The ALEC Accountability Act would apply existing lobbying laws to any organization or person who advocates for the introduction of model legislation. The bill would also regulate the reporting of any “scholarships” organizations dole out to legislators, including a list of corporate sponsors. Additionally, the bill would prohibit state taxpayer funds from being used to pay for these lobbyist conventions.

The bill, LRB-3867/1 is currently waiting for a bill number and committee referral.

The Walker Budget Is Already Working! Part LXXIII (With A Twist)

2012-02-14T00:59:00.000-06:00

Most of you probably have already heard the dismal news that the Walker budget is taking more victims, this time 446 Milwaukeeans losing their jobs as Frontier cuts way back on it's presence here:

Frontier Airlines Inc. notified the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development today that the company will eliminate 446 more jobs in Milwaukee this spring.

Frontier’s parent company, Indianapolis-based Republic Airways Holdings Inc., said the layoffs at General Mitchell International Airport will take effect between April 15 and April 30.

It should be noted that this is a follow up to another 120 jobs that were cut last November, which was the second wave in the 213 jobs they cut last year.

But this move wasn't started by Walker's budget. It was only culminated by the economic wasteland that Walker is making of Wisconsin.

The start of this sad news comes much earlier, but unsurprisingly, it still starts with Walker.

In 2009, when Scott Walker went on one of his infamous Harley Davidson bike rides to promote ~~his campaign~~ tourism in Milwaukee County, he added a new twist - a corporate sponsor. That corporate sponsor was Air Tran Airlines. It turned out that Walker had given Air Tran expanded space at Mitchell International Airport just a few weeks before Air Tran announced that they were going to sponsor Walker's bike ride.

The gentle reader probably just had a "Aha!" moment, recognizing that Walker has a long practice of pay-for-play in his dealings, whether as Milwaukee County Executive or as governor.

At the time, I expressed surprise that Walker had turned his back on the Milwaukee-based and very popular Midwest Airlines. After all, he already gave them $14 million in taxpayer dollars. Maybe he left Midwest to hang because they wouldn't be part of something illegal and unethical like corporate sponsorship of a campaign stunt.

Whatever the reason, while Walker was out glad-handing people from around the state and in neighboring states, getting that valuable name recognition that would help his gubernatorial campaign, the news broke that Midwest was bought out by Republic Airways Holding, Inc., which also owned Frontier as well.

Then suddenly the hometown airline was gone.

The jobs lost now are a direct effect that Frontier is pulling out of Milwaukee, leaving only a few flights where it once had many, many times that.

And the ramifications of this move cannot be emphasized enough. First, that will be hundreds of more people on unemployment compensation, which will further slow the economy. It will also make the job market that much more crowded so people will end up out of work for longer.

The reduced flights will increase demand on the remaining flights and airlines. This will drive the price up and make Milwaukee and Wisconsin less attractive to businesses looking to relocate, not to mention make it more difficult for existing businesses to stay competitive.

And the cycle will continue its downward spiral, just because Walker was willing to use any means he could to become governor. Now that he has aspirations for the White House, does anyone think he won't leave Wisconsin a smoldering trash heap if he thought it would help his chances?

On Valentine's Day, Walker Promises To Give Away Wisconsin In Sweetheart Deals

2012-02-13T23:12:00.000-06:00

In Milwaukee County, there is was a piece of land known locally simply as the "county grounds." It was an unique section of the county, as it was the last undeveloped and ungroomed piece of land where nature ruled. It was also unique for the historic Eschweiller Buildings. But the most amazing factor to this ground was the Monarch Trail, one of the rare areas where migrating Monarch butterflies found a completely natural stopping point in their annual migration.

Some days, I think the thing that Scott Walker likes best about being in a position of authority is how he can use the public's money and property to forward his political career, or as in recent days, desperately cling to the position he currently has.

When Walker took office as Milwaukee County Executive, he promised that he would continue the long standing tradition to let no development happen on the grounds and that the only thing he might do is have it made into a state park.

That promise didn't last long and in a few short years, he was working on back door deals to get the land sold to a group of wealthy land developers that had been, shall we say, very supportive of him. Not only did he renege on his promise not to let the land be developed, but he sold the land at a fraction of its worth, threw in the building that the Parks Department is housed in (with an agreement to keep the department there and pay rent and a specialized bus line. As I wrote at the time, he gave them everything but a vac with the deal:

So, let me get this straight. We are selling the county grounds at an absurdly low price, in a no bid deal, only to turn around and pay them rent for a building that we had owned and paid a lot of money to fix up. Then we are going to take some of the money from the sale, and more money that we got from the feds, and using it to buy them a special bus route?

That would be the equivalent of you fixing up your house and then selling it at about a third of its value. Then you take the proceeds from the sale and rent the house from the people you just sold it to. You also take some of the money (if there's any left after paying the rent on the house you just owned until recently) and a large inheritance from your Uncle Sam, and buy them a chauffeured limo. Meanwhile, you have a patch of land (like the Park East corridor) that is only good for building an engineering campus on, but you won't even try to sell that.

The Friends of the Monarch Trail are still fighting to protect the natural domain for the butterflies, made all the harder because "the authorities" refused to include legal language to protect the trail.

That pattern of giving away sweetheart deals to political supporters is riddled throughout his lifelong political career.

The most recent is the Penokee iron mine that Walker is trying to get rammed through the legislature. To get this done, Walker is willing to offend Native American tribes, federal laws honoring tribal sovereignty, ruin the environment and pollute the pristine waters of northern Wisconsin. The bill is so foul and evil that no one will even admit ownership of it (also because it was written by the mining company that wants to rape the land).

On Tuesday, February 14, St. Valentine's Day, Walker is going to take all of the worst of these behaviors to announce his latest gimmick ~~to give away sweetheart land deals to his donors~~ to promote job growth in Wisconsin.

It's a stunt that his handlers are calling "Ready, Set, Build." ( 6 page pdf on scribd format)

In a secret email sent from Walker staffer Andrew Davis, they laid out the talking points for this (Note - The email was altered to present it in a less jumbled format. All spelling and grammatical errors are his):

From: "Davis, Andrew - GOV"
Date: February 13, 2012 6:09:39 PM CST
To: "Davis, Andrew - GOV"
Subject: Ready, Set, Build!

Tomorrow afternoon the Governor will be publicly announcing his “Ready, Set, Build!” Please contact me directly if there are any questions or concerns. Please embargo any press releases or supportive statements until 2pm tomorrow.

Ready, Set, Build!

Program Highlights:
Up to 10 different site locations (minimum site size=50 acres) throughout Wisconsin will be identified annually for each of the 3 subsequent years as shovel-ready for economic development
a) Includes comprehensive information on available sites, buildings, and demographic data
These identified sites will be reviewed and approved for pre-certification by the certifying agency (if site meets criteria)
Once a site is identified and pre-certified, the site location will be certified-ready for job creators looking to build or relocate in Wisconsin
Key Messages:

This action is another example of how Governor Walker’s Administration and the WEDC, through its Economic and Community Development Division, is pro-actively providing the economic development tools Wisconsin needs to accelerate business start-ups and growth.
One of the keys in encouraging existing Wisconsin businesses to choose Wisconsin as the site for significant expansion, or in attracting new businesses to locate in Wisconsin, is the ready availability of developable properties that have also been pre-certified by regulators.
The “Ready, Set, Build!” program will make it easier for entrepreneurs to start a business and for existing businesses to expand by allowing job creators in Wisconsin and around the world to find the perfect pre-certified site location for expansion knowing they can begin building immediately.
No time wasted. No money lost. It is a win for our economy, a win for our families and a win for our environment.
Certified site selection, “Ready, Set, Build!”, (to be implemented in spring) will eliminate critical stumbling blocks for industries – particularly manufacturers – that are looking to expand or locate in Wisconsin.
o The site certification program will eliminate many of the delays associated with environmental and other state and local permitting processes.
Andrew Davis | Office of Governor Scott Walker
Director of External Communications
(o) 608-267.3839 | (e) andrew.davis@wisconsin.gov

What this really means is that the state will take up prime real estate, and Walker will use his concentrated administrative authorities given to him in his power grab last year to override any environmental, fiscal or other considerations that have been used to protect Wisconsin and its citizens for decades.

I bet one of the first areas that will be targeted will be Janesville, where you have job-starved people that would be willing to take unsafe, low-paying jobs they wouldn't normally if they weren't in such dire straits and has easy access to railroad service by Watco Transportation Services, the company that caters to the Koch Brothers and wants to buy out Southern & Wisconsin Railroad, the company that was headed by Walkergate figure and convict William E. Gardner.

And don't let them kid you, just like with the mines, Walker doesn't give two hoots about creating jobs for Wisconsinites. He is only interested in appeasing the big moneyed special interests that would benefit from his sweetheart gifts. While most Wisconsinites will be less than thrilled to hear about this plan of Walker's, I bet that the commercial realtors are really going to love this plan.

Scott Walker's Expensive Entitlements

2012-02-13T01:22:00.000-06:00

Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.

- Abraham Lincoln, 1861

Elizabeth DiNovella, who had been covering CPAC (Conservatives Planning Absolute Corporatism) and writing about it at Dane 101, also gutted it out by listening to Scott Walker's address to the convention. In her piece, she quoted Walker's take on collective bargaining:

“Collective bargaining is not a right. Collective bargaining in the public sector is an expensive entitlement,” he said. This line got the biggest applause of the night.

When I read that, I damn near did a spit take on my monitor.

There is so much wrong with that short blurb that it will never be right.

Collective bargaining is a right, and that right might very well be extended into the public sector, as I wrote about nearly a year ago:

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Ronald Guzman affirms that collective bargaining rights cannot be overturned by governmental edict. Guzman told the Legislature “it had no business trying to interfere with collective bargaining” according to Marvin Gittler, an attorney representing Local 727 of the Teamsters.

Guzman held that the National Labor Relations Act preempts the Legislature from dictating terms for unions working at McCormick Place. This ruling is similar to the finding of The International Commission for Labor Rights, which has said, in part: The ICLR identified the right of "freedom of association" as a fundamental right and affirmed that the right to collective bargaining is an essential element of freedom of association. These rights, which have been recognized worldwide, provide a brake on unchecked corporate or state power.
Now, before anyone points out that the NLRA is for private sector unions, read on:
While the NLRA covered US employees in private employment, the law protecting collective bargaining in both the public and private sectors has developed since 1935 to cover all workers "without distinction."

The other problem with Walker's false statement is what he is calling an "expensive entitlement." He's saying that the people of Wisconsin no longer should be afforded things like weekends off, not having their kids working in sweat shops, eight hour work days, forty hour work weeks, holidays off, living wages, vacations, equality in the work place or safe working conditions.

In other words, he wants to weaken the unions, both private and public, to help maximize the profits of the corporate interests who have been funding his campaigns and who, he hopes, will buy him the Presidency of the United States.

But it doesn't end there, gentle reader.

Walker has also been bantering about the phrase "legacy costs," which is something he started in Milwaukee County, with the aid of the plutocrats at the Greater Milwaukee Committee, an old boys (and girls) club for Milwaukee's wealthiest people, who see Milwaukee has their toy thing.

By "legacy costs," Walker is speaking about health care insurance and pensions.

Health care costs are through the roof, especially in Southeast Wisconsin, which has one of the highest rates, if not the highest, in the nation. And workers should carry their fair share of the costs. But when CEOs of insurance companies and health care agencies are getting compensated in the millions of dollars, there is an obvious problem which needs to be addressed.

Of course, it is Walker and his ilk that are opposed to fixing the system. Guess who are big donors to their campaigns.

It should be noted that Walker, if the reader will remember, was swept in as Milwaukee County Executive on the heels of a pension scandal enacted by his predecessor, Tom Ament. The gist of the scandal is that it provided a super enhancer to the pension of people that had been with the county for a long time. It also included a generous backdrop that would allow retirees to take a large lump sum at the time of retirement and a smaller monthly pension payment. Some county employees walked away with a million dollars when they retired. Ironically, most of these big money beneficiaries were non-represented employees. That means Walker could have stopped it at any time, but chose not to.

But of course he didn't want to stop these payments. One, it was a great political hammer to wield. Every time Walker was caught with a budget problem (which he usually contrived), he'd just blame the pension scandal, regardless of how long ago it was. Secondly, he was appointing most of his cronies to these positions and wanted to make sure they were rewarded. (Here's food for thought, Darlene Wink, who was convicted of only misdemeanors, is eligible for her pension.)

Oddly, the pension fund, pre-Walker was sufficient that it could have covered the enhanced pension pay outs. However, the two recessions during the Bush/Cheney administration took a big bite out of it, like it did for most people. Unlike the people that had 401(k)s, the public sector had their pensions protected for the most part.

In spite of the need for Milwaukee County to contribute to the pension fund for the first time in years, Walker, as county executive, chose to short change what the county owed to the fund and instead use it to reward campaign donors with sweetheart contracts. By shorting the payments to the fund, Walker only exacerbated the situation. It would be much akin to not making the minimum payment on a credit card. Not only do you still owe the balance, and the next payment, they add on fees and interest to make the next payment exponentially bigger.

To deal with this self-constructed problem, Walker tried to get a pension obligation plan pushed through. The wheeler and dealer behind this plan was a man name Nick Hurtgen, a GOP operative who eventually got busted himself in a kickback scheme. Fortunately, the County Board preempted Walker's move by making it a referendum question which the voters killed.

Walker did give Hurtgen a $300,000 contract to restructure the county's debt. In return, Hurtgen gave Walker a $25,000 campaign fundraiser.

Now Walker wants to convert the state's pension system, which is a defined benefit system and is fully funded and in good shape per all reports, into a defined contribution system. (They are looking at trying to do the same thing in Milwaukee County, even though there is no proven need for it.)

This is, as you might suspect, preposterous.

First of all, as I mentioned above, the pension system is fully funded and not a problem for tax payers.

Secondly, Walker can't complain about expenses, since his forcing public sector workers to "pay more" for their pensions is nothing more than a scam, since public sector workers are already paying 100% into their pensions:

Out of every dollar that funds Wisconsin' s pension and health insurance plans for state workers, 100 cents comes from the state workers.

How can that be? Because the "contributions" consist of money that employees chose to take as deferred wages – as pensions when they retire – rather than take immediately in cash. The same is true with the health care plan. If this were not so a serious crime would be taking place, the gift of public funds rather than payment for services.

Thus, state workers are not being asked to simply "contribute more" to Wisconsin' s retirement system (or as the argument goes, "pay their fair share" of retirement costs as do employees in Wisconsin' s private sector who still have pensions and health insurance). They are being asked to accept a cut in their salaries so that the state of Wisconsin can use the money to fill the hole left by tax cuts and reduced audits of corporations in Wisconsin.

By implementing Act 10, Walker is docking the workers' paychecks, because he can, and diverting the money.

But that diversion isn't enough for him or his campaign contributors. They want more. Hence the idea of converting, or fixing, the system, even though it's not broke or broken.

But while it might be sound like a good plan to your average squawk show listener, the reality is that it would not only stick it to the workers, but also to the taxpayers:

And governments are concerned about delivering on the promises that they have made to their citizens and to their employees as tax revenues shrink amid a weakening economy. In this environment, some have proposed replacing traditional defined benefit (DB) pensions with 401(k)-type defined contribution (DC) retirement savings plans in an effort to save money.

But decision-makers would be wise to look before they leap. To deliver the same level of retirement benefits, a DB plan can do the job at almost half the cost of a DC plan. Hence, DB plans should remain an integral part of retirement income security in an increasingly uncertain world because they offer employers and employees the best bang for the buck.

So why do it if it's not good for anyone? Well, it does benefit the fat cats on Wall Street, who in turn, reward Walker for being a good employee for them.

The real kicker of this is, as I just pointed out with the above cited passage, is that if Walker gets his way, it's going to really stick it to the people of Wisconsin. Why? Well, in Walker's own words, in sworn testimony given before a Congressional committee:

After an unresponsive answer by Governor Walker, Kucinich pressed, “Did you answer the questions? How much money does it save, Governor?”

“It doesn’t save any,” admitted Governor Walker.

Kucinich then requested permission to enter into the record a letter from the State of Wisconsin’s Legislative Fiscal Bureau (page 3 specifically), a nonpartisan state budget agency that confirmed Governor Walker’s efforts had no effect on the state’s budget.

“The Bureau was asked to identify provisions in the Governor’s bill that are non-fiscal; non-fiscal policy items that have no state fiscal effect. This letter confirms the obvious; that Governor Walker’s effort to repeal the rights of state workers is a non-fiscal policy item. No effect on the state budget shortfall,” said Kucinich.

The only expensive entitlements involved here are the ones that Walker wants to take with our money so that he may give it to his campaign contributors and cronies.

Lessons From CPAC

2012-02-12T16:01:00.000-06:00

Elizabeth DiNovella, writing at Dane 101, went to CPAC (Conservatives Planning Absolute Corporatism) and learned a few things about the mindset of the money-grubbers.

But there are a few things we can learn as well. One is that an unified front is essential:

“The difference between Ohio and Wisconsin is that Governor Walker exempted health and safety [workers] for the most part,” said Vince Vernuccio, Labor Policy Counsel for the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

Going after police officers and fire fighters turned out to be a nightmare.

“In Ohio, essentially what you had is firemen and police—in uniform—going door to door, saying this bill will kill babies. Now when you have police and firemen in uniform, saying the apocalypse is going to happen, it’s very hard to message against that,” Vernuccio said. “The problem is we didn’t get our message into Ohio soon enough.”

Fortunately, we already have the police and the fire fighters, who have been able to see through Scott Walker's BS and have chosen to stand with Wisconsin.

The article goes on to say that they think laws like Ohio's SB 5 or Wisconsin' Act 10 will create a clear sense of winners and losers among the states. They also site as their justification that public sector union members outnumber private sector union members, but make no mention that this is because of their decades long onslaught on the private sector unions, chiseling away at their strengths until they were shadows of what they once were.

When discussing "winners and losers" they are obviously talking about how states would appear in the eyes of the corporatists, since they include this line:

During the questions and answer portion, one student asked what Ohio should do to enact long-term reform, given it is such a pro-union state.

Vernuccio said that Ohio needed to pass some version of SB 5. Wisconsin and Indiana are going to thrive, he said, with their reforms. “You are going to see those states sky-rocket, and Ohio is going to stagnate.” This decline will make people want to leave Ohio.

He offered a short-term solution instead: “Build a wall, a Berlin-style wall, to keep people in.”

Oh yeah, we're really thriving here, aren't we?

This is going to end up being a fight for our very lives and livelihoods people. Be ready.

Reclaim Wisconsin Tour - UPDATED

2012-02-12T15:07:00.002-06:00

Here's the updated info on the Reclaim Wisconsin Tour, sponsored by the AFL-CIO among others:

Wed. Feb. 15: La Crosse - Copeland Park - 1130 Copeland Park Drive, 5:30pm
Wed. Feb. 22: Wausau, Wausau Labor Temple - 318 S. 3rd Ave, 5:30pm
Thurs. Feb. 23: Eau Claire, Phoenix Park Pavilion, Riverfront Terrace, 5:30pm
Mon. Feb. 27: Kaukauna, UA Local 400 - 2700 Northridge Drive, 5:30pm
Mon. March 5: Racine, Monument Square - Main & 5th Street, 5:30pm
Wed. March 7: Milwaukee, Serb Hall - 5101 West Oklahoma Avenue, 7:00pm
Fri. March 9: Madison, Capitol - Candlelight Vigil 6:00pm
Sat. March 10: Madison, Capitol "Reclaim Wisconsin March at the Capitol" – Rally 1:00pm

For what it's worth, Ill be at the one in Milwaukee.

"She Got Her Job Done..." - But For Whom?

2012-02-12T14:55:00.000-06:00

Last week, Darlene Wink pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors. At the time, I wrote about it at the time and brought up some questions regarding the events surrounding her. Here's another one:

Don't underestimate the level of skulduggery that will surface as Walkergate continues to unfold. We're talking the kind of stuff that would make Karl Rove proud.

Kathleen Falk: I Heard You

2012-02-12T14:25:00.001-06:00

Kathleen Falk, Democratic gubernatorial candidate, has put out a new video titled "I Heard You":

Here is some of the text that came with the email that came with the video:

I am committed to making our campaign about listening to people, to running a campaign that is open, accountable and transparent. Which is why I keep sitting down with people from across Wisconsin.

Hearing the stories of the great men and women who took time out of their week to sit down and talk to me about their vision for a better Wisconsin is inspiring.

Over and over, throughout our statewide tour and as I traveled around Wisconsin throughout the past year, I listened and heard similar concerns from people about Gov. Walker’s failed leadership. I heard the story of a middle-age woman who lost her job at a job center because of Gov. Walker’s budget cuts. The story of a grandmother who had never been very political but was outraged because Gov. Walker’s cuts to education were impacting her grandchildren's future. Many people across Wisconsin can tell the same story. The story of a Governor who surprised us all by taking an ax to public education, collective bargaining and health care while passing billions of dollars in new tax breaks for the few. The story of a Governor who, while I was busy listening to citizens here in the cold, was busy raising money in Naples, Florida at an event sponsored by the Koch brothers and other wealthy benefactors.

What inspires me about this movement, about the great men and women who came to sit and talk to me, is that even though Governor Walker has broken their wallets, he hasn’t broken their spirit. What inspires me about this movement are the over one million people who stood up to say, “Not in my Wisconsin” when Governor Walker rammed his anti-middle class, anti-working family legislation through the state house.

It's pretty clever, in my opinion, to already be hitting Walker on his secrecy, his refusal to listen to the people of Wisconsin and his refusal to take any responsibility or accept the consequences for his stunts and chicanery.

Unless he's planning on cheating with the touch screen voting machines being moved into the rural counties of northern Wiscsonsin, I don't see how all the money in the world will save his political hide in the upcoming recall election.

BTW, this should not be considered an endorsement of Falk. I am waiting to see who all the candidates are before making that decision. I just found Falk's approach interesting.

Thank You, Gentle Readers

2012-02-11T19:17:00.002-06:00

I just need to take a moment from my usual programming to say Thank You to all my readers. Because of you, my post about the gerrymandering scandal was the most clicked post in the entire nation, according to LeftyBlogs.com:

I truly do appreciate your support and trust in me.

And at the risk of sounding like an political ad, I would just like to point out that the tip jar (located in the sidebar) is always open.

The fewer other jobs I have to do, the more I can do for #wiunion and to help win our state back.

Again, thank you for reading Cog Dis.

The Gerrymandering Scandal Exposed

2012-02-11T02:42:00.000-06:00

In the past week, some of the sordid details behind the reprehensible gerrymandering stunt foisted upon Wisconsin voters by the Republicans were uncovered. Even back when the gerrymandering was finally made public, local Republican officials called the stunt unethical.

Earlier this week, it was learned that money-loving voter-hating Republicans again violated open meeting laws and had signed a pact to keep the truth behind the gerrymandering a secret while they had a whole different set of talking point to feed the public.

Just days later, it was learned that the two GOP ~~operatives~~ legislative aides, Tad Ottman and Adam Foltz, who had worked with the Republicans private law firm, Michael Best and Friedrich, while drawing up the maps and the secret talking points, were still working out of those offices, more than six months after the maps were approved by the Republicans,even though they're collecting their paychecks from the taxpayers.

To help put things into perspective of just how they were lying through their teeth and sticking to their secret pact, watch this video:

I am starting to come to the mind that simply removing these cretins from office is no longer a sufficient solution. These actions are going beyond dirty politics to crimes against the state and against the people. These people need to see justice and be truly held accountable for their crimes.

The One Year Anniversary Of The Oppression Of Wisconsin

2012-02-11T01:26:00.000-06:00

One year ago today, Scott Walker "dropped his bomb" on Wisconsin workers and started the decline of our once great state. Representative Peter Barca noted the date with the following press release:

“One year ago, Gov. Walker set Wisconsin on a course that has left our state more polarized than ever before. Beginning with his unprecedented attack on workers’ rights, the governor has continued to divide us while ramming his agenda through before people have had time to object.

“After Gov. Walker dropped the collective bargaining ‘bomb’ – as he put it – last February 11, he demanded a rushed vote in less than a week, without debate or scrutiny, and refused to even sit down and talk with his employees about it. Republican leaders followed that approach with abuses of power such as putting the Capitol on lock down, holding illegal meetings and ending public hearings while citizens waited to speak.

“Gov. Walker has pursued two main courses of action in the past year – dividing Wisconsin and undermining democracy. He has divided our state by taking $1.6 billion away from public schools while giving another $40 million to voucher schools. He approved $2.36 billion in giveaways to large corporations and special interests while raising taxes on senior citizens and people working for modest wages. And he has undermined democracy by consolidating rule-making power at the top, replacing public employees with political cronies and restricting citizens from exercising their First Amendment rights to gather at the Capitol and other state buildings.

“In the past year, Gov. Walker has continued to push his extreme agenda that clearly is not working for middle-class families. That is why people across the state are upset and fighting back. They are tired of the division, the governor’s assault on clean and open government and the disrespectful way their wishes have been ignored. They deserve leaders who will bring us together and work for and with them.”

Another Honor For The Honorable Maryann Sumi

2012-02-11T01:20:00.000-06:00

At the end of last year, the Honorable Maryann Sumi, of the Dane County Circuit Court, who had ruled correctly that the Republicans had violated open meeting laws when they rammed through Act 10, was named one of the 2012 Leaders in the Law.

That was just the precursor for her gaining the honor of being named Judge of the Year by the Wisconsin State Bar Association. Per the State Bar:

State Bar information states The Judge of the Year award recognizes an outstanding circuit court judge who has improved the judicial system during the past year by her leadership. Sumi’s award will be presented in June at the state bar’s annual meeting.

There is no confirmation at this time that Prosser tried to ~~chokehold~~ take defensive action against one of the judges when he learned that he again didn't win an honor.

Name Me One Name!*

2012-02-10T22:44:00.000-06:00

For months, we heard the likes as Media Trakkkers, MacGuyver Institute for the Criminally Insane, and the gaggle of radio squawkers, not to mention WISGOP say that there were all sorts of fraudulent activity going on in the recalls. That somewhere in the area of 99% to 4,851,691% of the signatures being collected were of Mickey Mouse and Adolph Hitler.

So obviously when the four WISGOP senators that turned in their challenges, there would be all sorts of thse cartoon names and addresses, right?

Not so much:

Lastly, when it comes to the matter of duplicate signatures and fakes:
*The Moulton petition challenged 265 signatures as duplicates, though noted no fake names.
*Galloway challenged 403 duplicates, though noted no fake names.
*Fitzgerald challenged 205 duplicates, and one fake name that was only noted as having the last name of a well-known slang usage of "sucker."
*Wanggaard challenged 137 duplicates and no fake names.

And that one "fake name" that Fitzgerald did try to claim was found to be a real person.

Now the Wreck of Fitzgerald and the other soon to be recalled WISGOP senators are trying to ruin themselves by claiming that the gerrymandered districts should apply to the recalls, despite the fact that they were the ones that wrote and voted for the law saying that the gerrymandering doesn't kick in until November 2012.

It must be hard on the faithful echo chamber of GOP supporters to keep supporting these clowns and not mind that they end up look as foolish as the reprobates they're supporting.

If anyone should have opportunity to speak to one of the soon to be recalled senators, do me a favor. Ask them how they feel about having to fight for their political careers because they blindly followed Scott Walker, who has repaid them for their loyalty by leaving them high and dry as he flies around the country trying to raise money to save his own worthless political hide.

*For those who are unfamiliar with the reference in the title, it is the phrase that the right wing uses to mock Tom Barrett when they think they have finally found someone who might have committed election fraud. Their claims are usually as accurate as the claims that Adolph Hitler was signing petitions. I thought it only fair to mock them with their own words of mockery.

A Risk Worth Taking

2012-02-10T06:23:00.000-06:00

The other day, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Kathleen Falk made an amazingly bold statement. She said that she would veto any budget that did not restore collective bargaining.

As news of this statement spread, you could hear Republicans' heads exploding across the state.

Jeff Wagner, afternoon squawker on WTMJ radio, was damn near in hysterics as he was predicting that such an act would do everything short of causing the universe of imploding. With panic in his voice, he was stating that this was so "reckless," "irresponsible" and that it would "endanger every person in the state." He followed that up with a fear-filled blog post:

Let's break this down. Falk has apparently promised to veto a $60 billion document unless it restores collective bargaining rights. In other words, Falk is willing to potentially destroy the credit rating of the State, devastate municipal budgets, jeopardize public safety and bankrupt programs - all to appease her Union masters.

John Mercure, the late afternoon squawker on the same station was having the same level of histrionics.

In a frenzy, the right wing echo chamber started flailing about this. One blogger called it "really stupid." Another twit said that Falk would be "holding the state hostage."

Ernst-Ulrich Franzen, another pro-Walker blogger, disguised as a member of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial board, tried to use it to prove that the recall is about just one issue, and in doing so insults every child, every parent, every senior citizen, every vulnerable citizen, every woman, every taxpayer, and every working man and woman in the state. That's a whole lot of apologies he needs to do, and he still hasn't apologized to John Weishan yet.

And as you can imagine, the Koch Brothers, via one of their front groups, was practically apoplectic.

By the way they were acting, one would think that Falk had proposed making cannibalism an official state function, or even worse, saying that women shouldn't be treated as breeding stock.

As I watched this happen, amused and bemused, I started thinking about the absurdity of their statements.

First of all, as any intellectually honest person knows, the recall is about much, much more than just collective bargaining. The abolishing of workers' rights is a big part of the movement, but not even the most of it, much less all of it. There is so much more to it.

But when we recall Walker, what are we really risking?

Higher taxes? We already have higher taxes thanks to Walker.

Job losses? Under the Walker plan, the state has seen six straight months of job losses, leading the nation for two of them, while the rest of the county has seen job growth. In fact, Walker's record at losing jobs is nearly twice the rate of Governor Jim Doyle's rate, and Doyle had the full brunt of the recession to contend with.

Destruction of the economy? Under the Walker plan, Wisconsin is ranked 50th in economic activity. Dead last. How could anyone destroy it more?

But there are things - besides job losses, higher taxes and a stagnant economy - that Wisconsin would risk by recalling Walker. They include, but are not limited to:

Women being treated as breeding stock;
Senior citizens and disabled citizens not receiving services that would keep them out of nursing homes and other institutions;
Our children crammed into overcrowded classrooms and receiving a poor education;
Workers not receiving the necessary training for the few jobs remaining;
People not being allowed to vote just because they're poor or a student;
Having fresh air to breathe or clean water to drink;
Everyone receiving medical attention;
A government that is representative and responsive to the people;
An increase in transparency in government; and
A government that doesn't operate through a secret wireless router in a closet.

You know, come to think of it, it's a risk I'm willing to take.

The Walker Budget Is Already Working! Part LXXII

2012-02-09T23:32:00.000-06:00

Gee, who didn't see this one coming?

First, Scott Walker takes gives every public sector worker in the state a massive pay cut, thereby reducing their income and hence the amount they pay in income tax.

On top of that, the public sector workers have their personal budgets cut to the breaking point, meaning they have a lot less buying power and thus are not spending as much. This leads to a predictable cut in sales tax revenue for the state.

This then leads to ripple effects, where local businesses that depend on people's discretionary spending start feeling the pinch and end up laying off people or closing up shop, leaving everyone out of work.

And if that wasn't enough, Walker's "pro-business climate" is turning out to be anything but that, and the state loses nearly 50,000 jobs in the first six months that Walker's budget has been in effect. What is obvious to everyone but Walker and his apologists is that all of these laid off people also aren't going to be paying as much in income tax or sales tax, thereby keeping the downward spiral continuing.

Eventually all of that money that's no longer being spent, since he gave it all to big corporations that only use it to enhance their profit margin, will come back to have a very bad effect on the state budget.

That day of reckoning came today.

The State Legislative Fiscal Bureau reported that this loss of revenue is causing the state to lose $216 million dollars when compared to previous projections. That means that Walker's "balanced budget" is facing a deficit of $143 million.

And amazingly, Walker continues on with the same worn out cliche that "Wisconsin is headed in the right direction."

When I heard that line, the first thought that I had, and still have, is that of when John McCain, running for the President of the United States, said that the "economy is fundamentally sound" as the Lehman Brothers went belly up, the stock market started to crash and the full impact of the Great Recession was being felt.

I hope Walker has the same success with his gaffe as McCain did with his.

Then once Walker is ousted, maybe the real healing could begin.

The Walker Budget Is Already Working! Part LXXI

2012-02-09T22:36:00.002-06:00

I'm so glad that Scott Walker keeps telling us that he made things so much better for companies, because otherwise, we'd have no way of knowing. Especially not with stories of even more people losing their jobs:

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. is cutting nearly half of its workforce in Milwaukee, the company said Thursday, weeks after it announced the end of its manufacturing in Two Rivers.

The company is eliminating about 43 of 100 jobs at its Milwaukee location, which makes laboratory reagents and performs product development. The work is being transferred to other Thermo Fisher locations, including a plant in Lithuania, company spokesman Ron O'Brien said.

When Walker said that he was going to create 250,000 jobs, he forgot to mention that they would be everywhere but Wisconsin.

RIP Pewter Gryphon

2012-02-09T22:26:00.000-06:00

It is with heavy heart that I must report the passing of Diane Echelberger, more commonly known by her Twitter name, @pewtergryphon.

Diane was one of the strongest champions in the fight to reclaim Wisconsin. Even though she knew she was terminally ill, she spent much of her remaining time fighting for Wisconsin, participating in rallies, live tweeting hearings and government hearings so that those who could not attend could follow what was happening, doing data entry and phone banking.

During her working life, she was a defender of Wisconsin as well, as noted in this moving tribute to Diane, written when Senator Jon Erpenbach presented her with a plaque and a Certificate of the Senate to honor her lifelong compassion and dedication to Wisconsin.

The words that I wrote when I first introduced the gentle reader to Diane holds as true today, maybe even more so, than when I wrote them:

When I realized that I was seeing Diane in the video, I immediately tweeted it, making sure that I pointed out that she was in it. Literally within seconds, it was favorited and/or retweeted a dozen times. But that is just the way we roll. We pick each other up when we're down and celebrate with each other when the news is good.

And that is why Walker, even with all of his out-of-state big money, will still be removed from office. He's not fighting special interests, he's fighting for them. He's fighting against the good people of Wisconsin, people like Diane and her friends. And trust me, we stick together like only family can.

Every day, our resolve grows even stronger while Walker and his allies grow even more desperate.

We will do this!

We'll do it for Diane.

We'll do it for ourselves.

We'll do it for all of Wisconsin.

Sail on, Gryphon! We will carry on in your memory and win the state back for you.

Wisconsinites Going To Where The Jobs Are

2012-02-09T20:02:00.000-06:00

Oh, look! There are jobs coming that could be filled by the unemployed workers in the Janesville area!

Of course, those jobs are in Illinois:

Janesville native Dave McKee expects to see more traffic later this year on his daily commute to Chrysler's assembly plant in Belvidere, Ill.

That's because Chrysler plans to add about 1,800 jobs at the plant 40 miles south of Janesville, and some of those jobs could be filled by dislocated Rock County residents.

Aout 9 percent of the plant's workforce of 2,700 comes from Rock and Walworth counties in southern Wisconsin.

The expected increase in workers to a high-water mark of 4,500 later this year presents another opportunity for local job seekers willing to work for about $15.78 per hour, which is about half the rate paid to longtime auto workers.

"If someone is willing to commute from Wisconsin, they are more than welcome to apply," said Jodi Tinson, a Chrysler Group spokeswoman.

And it wouldn't be at all surprising that those lucky enough to land those jobs eventually move to Illinois to cut down on the money and time they spend on the commute to work, cutting Wisconsin's revenue even that much more.

Meanwhile, Scott Walker is still traveling the country raising money for his defense fund so that he can continue to drive jobs and citizens out of the state.

It is really beyond me how any honest person could still support Walker.

The Walker Budget Is Already Working! Part LXX

2012-02-09T19:44:00.000-06:00

While the rest of the nation is gaining jobs, we in Wisconsin still get to see the "benefits" of Scott Walker's budget. This time 120 people get to see the impact first hand:

C&D Technologies Inc. announced Wednesday that it will retain its factory in Milwaukee while moving some of its product lines to a plant in Reynosa, Mexico.

The move will result in the loss of about 120 jobs at the Milwaukee plant, 900 E. Keefe Ave., in Milwaukee’s Riverwest neighborhood.

The decision came after a comprehensive business evaluation, according to the company.

The workers in the state don't like Walker's budget. Businesses in the state don't like it.

The only ones that like it are the big-moneyed out-of-state special interests that Walker's been flying to, crying for help. Walker needs to go and we need to get someone that listens to the people. All of the people.

An Undeniable Pattern

2012-02-09T06:10:00.000-06:00

Last evening, I had been interviewed by an out-of-state reporter who was trying to get a grasp of the timeline and the expanse of Walkergate.

As we were discussing the course of events, a larger picture of things occurred to me and a pattern of poor behavior from Scott Walker became undeniable.

It started some 25 years ago, when Scott Walker ran for President of the Student Government at Marquette University. Even then, he violated election laws, campaigning where he wasn't allowed to. He then tried to smear his opponent. On top of that, when the school paper, the Marquette Tribune, retracted their endorsement of Walker and called him "unfit", he and his buddies grabbed all the issues of the paper that they could and destroyed them.

In 2004, when Walker was running for his first re-election as Milwaukee County Executive, the question came up whether he kept a campaign promise of having his at-will staff sign waivers regarding the enhanced pensions. He hadn't. But to cover it up, once an Open Records Request had been filed, scrambled to get the promised signatures. He then submitted a form in response to the ORR, written in such a way to disguise the fact that they hadn't signed it until then.

For this unethical act, he received a severe dressing down by the Department of Justice. As Bill Christofferson, who worked for Walker's opponent in that race, put it:

The indisputable point is that Walker himself ordered his staff to engage in cover up and deception to keep the public -- the voters, since this was in the midst of an election campaign -- from learning the truth. [Dave Umhoefer, a Journal Sentinel reporter, uncovered the truth after the election.]

The dishonesty was deliberate. It was calculated. It was wrong. And it was ordered by the guy at the top of the chain of command, Walker himself.

Over the years of being a career politician, Walker has also demonstrated a continuing problem of being unable to file a legal campaign finance report.

And who could ever forget the way he acted as the sycophant to a caller whom Walker believed to be David Koch.

Most recently, in the unfolding Walkergate saga, it is becoming increasingly evident that Walker did not win the Governor's office by honest means, having surrounded himself with ne'er-do-wells who have been charged, and some already convicted, of illegal politicking. And it has gotten to the point that the only time a Walker staffer hasn't been charged, convicted or granted immunity is because they're still being investigated.

And now, as governor, it appears that Walker still hasn't earned his Eagle Scout badge for integrity yet.

Case in point is Jocelyn Webster (emphasis mine):

Late last year, the governor's office announced it had hired 28-year-old Jocelyn Webster to serve as communications director for the Wisconsin Department of Administration (DOA). The department manages the state buildings where most of the anti-Walker protests have been held, and its duties include setting rules for protests. Webster started her career with Rove's notorious Office of Political Affairs in the George W. Bush administration

A congressional investigation of the activities of that office yielded allegations -- including specific allegations against Webster – that Rove's team was involved in partisan campaigning on the public dime, a claim also leveled at aides of her newest boss during his tenure as Milwaukee County Executive.

Well, as least she should fit in real well with the rest of this boogle of weasels.

Over the span of decades, Walker has shown an undeniable pattern, not of leadership, but of deceit, dishonor, bullying, manipulation and an utter and complete disregard of the law.

In other words, Walker has shown that he is completely devoid of any ability to be a leader worthy of respect, much less any position of authority.

How Appropos!

2012-02-09T00:29:00.000-06:00

Collective nouns for a group weasels include boogle, gang, pack and confusion.

Instead of calling it the Walker administration or the Walker campaign, I just might have to start referencing them as Walker's confusion and Walker's boogle, respectively.

What Walker Knew

2012-02-09T00:13:00.000-06:00

Here's a video created by the Democratic Party of Wisconsin regarding Walkergate. Watch it all the way through. The look on Scott Walker's face at the end is priceless:

The video is part of a full-fledged look at Walkergate.

The video is good, but, in my humble opinion, they could have saved a lot of time and money by just offering one link.

Tell Obama To Nominate New FEC Commissioners

2012-02-08T23:10:00.001-06:00

Tired of our government being controlled by Big Business? Do you want a government that is truly of the people, by the people and for the people?

Then sign this online petition telling President Barack Obama to nominate new commissioners to the Federal Election Commission:

We expect candidates for federal office to follow our campaign finance laws, but the FEC – the agency charged with enforcing those laws – is completely dysfunctional.

Three of the six commissioners staunchly refuse to enforce the law and five of the six are serving despite expired terms.

Prior to your election, you professed support for campaign finance reform. We agree with you that the Citizens United Supreme Court decision was disastrous and the failure of Congress to require disclosure of campaign-related spending was outrageous. Nevertheless, you have failed to appoint new commissioners who actually would enforce such laws.

To restore some faith into the democratic process, we urge you to nominate new commissioners to the FEC prior to the 2012 elections.

Holperin Introduces Anti-Dumpster Bill

2012-02-08T22:34:00.002-06:00

State Senator Jim Holperin (D-Conover) has introduced a bill that would make state government more transparent:

State Sen. Jim Holperin (D-Conover) urged an Assembly committee Thursday to favorably move forward his bill to end the Legislature's exemption from the public records retention law.

Holperin testified at a public hearing on the bill before the Assembly's Committee on Judiciary and Ethics. The senator has authored companion legislation in the Senate, and is the principal author and driving force of the measures.

Holperin thanked the committee and its chairman, Rep. Jim Ott (R-Mequon), for holding the session. The Conover Democrat had requested a Senate hearing last Dec. 19 in a letter to Sen. Rich Zipperer (R-Pewaukee), the chairman of the Senate judiciary committee, but Holperin said Thursday the committee had yet to afford the bill a hearing.

Technically, the open records law does apply to lawmakers. Right now, though, according to an analysis by the Legislative Reference Bureau, the state Public Records Board supervises the state's public records management and preservation program and sets retention schedules for records, but none of those management and preservation procedures apply to the records or correspondence of members of the Legislature.

Hence, a lawmaker could dispose of any records at any time. Holperin's bill deletes the exemption.

This is a good bill and the State Senate judiciary committee should hold a hearing on that as soon as possible. Transparency in government, which this bill would strengthen, is always a good thing.

The Republicans probably would hate to see this bill pass though. It could be a real embarrassment given the Walkergate Dumpster and the revealing of the Super-Secret Money-Loving Voter-Hating Club they've got going on.

Esenberg Shorter

2012-02-08T01:24:00.001-06:00

The law is "fairly weak" because it doesn't say what I want it to say.

And he is the right wing's "expert."

Another famous line involving Esenberg:

Ubiquitous Republican-for-hire lawyer James Troupis despatched sometime co-counsel Rick Esenberg to Madison yesterday to pronounce definitively that the WISGOP plan "is simply not vulnerable" to legal challenge and that "any challenge to the plan would be almost frivolous."

Well, that didn't prove to be true either, did it?

Walkergate: A New Wink-le In The Story

2012-02-08T00:49:00.000-06:00

Darlene Wink, who worked for Scott Walker when he was Milwaukee County Executive and was the first name to come out in what appears to the scandal of the century, made it in the news again today.

Wink was first brought to the attention of the public when she was busted leaving comments on JSOnline and other blogs promoting Walker's gubernatorial candidacy and ripping at his opponents. Little did we know at the time that this was just the very tip of the tip of a huge iceberg of corruption and scandal.

It was only after that news came out that it raised suspicions about other things.

One such thing was an incident in which I, acting as the Chair of Milwaukee County First, asked about a Milwaukee County Parks logo being on a banner announcing a Tea Party rally held at the lakefront. Stemming from this, Cory Liebmann was able to figure out that it was Wink who not only handled my request but also a suspicious Open Records Request within minutes, leading to suspicions that Wink and other county staffers were behind the official unofficial Walker campaign site, ScottForGov.com.

It was also suspicious that when Walker sent an email, from his campaign website regarding Wink getting busted and demanding that there should be "no laptops, no websites, no time away during the workday, etc.," the site disappeared into thin air.

Wink then came up again when she was found to be tied in to "Operation Freedom," the political stunt posing as a charitable event, from which Tim Russell was embezzling thousands of dollars. Despite warnings from the Ethics Board, Walker had Russell and Wink running this thing from his executive office.

Then finally, a couple of weeks ago, almost as an afterthought, Wink was arrested and charged with two counts of illegally campaigning and fundraising. Much about her arrest was drowned out as people were trying to come to terms with the level of corruption happening with Kelly Rindfleisch.

The Milwaukee County District Attorney offered a plea bargain to Wink. The deal was that they would drop the charges from felonies to misdemeanors and not recommend any jail time. In return, Wink was to plead guilty and act as state witness against the others that have been charged and to give information about the "destruction of digital evidence."

Photo illustration by
Anna Ironside

It could very well have been Wink who told investigators where to go in which underground parking area to find the Mystery Dumpster'O'Fun.

News of the deal has many Wisconsinites excited and hopeful that this means she'll spill her guts and give enough information for them to indict Walker.

I wouldn't be too sure about that. While it's obviously true that, like most people, she really, really doesn't want to go to jail, but how strong is that aversion to incarceration?

I have spoken to people who have known her and they have described her as being very zealous, almost to the point of being cultish, to all things Walker. In other words, she has drunken long and deep and often of the Kool-Aid and that they could see her taking a fall if it meant protecting her Dear Leader.

I was reminded of this when I saw this quote in the report by Marie Rohde, writing for WisPolitics.com:

“Miss Wink just wants to put this behind her,” Wolff said. “She doesn’t like being in the limelight, and she’s a very loyal person.”

The question is whether she is more loyal to herself or to Walker. Of course, they could also be using her to put the pressure on others in an effort to get them to turn on Walker.

But then again, there is this blurb from Dan Bice's report for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Wolff said Wink was able to complete all her legitimate county assignments in her courthouse job, as well as the campaign work done at the request of someone else. Wolff declined to identify that person. Wink was not pressured to do the campaign work, Wolff said.

One could easily assume that it is Walker who asked her to do that work. My guess is that it wasn't Walker, but that it was Tim Russell.

If my guess is correct, the question becomes who told Russell to have it done.

That person could be very well the same person who told Russell that there should be "no laptops, no websites, no time away during the workday, etc.," and then violated that same directive within days himself.

While Wink turning state witness might not necessarily be the direct downfall of Scott Walker, it could very well be the beginning of the end.

Two Down, One To Go

2012-02-07T21:56:00.002-06:00

Those that have followed me a long time know that there are certain things that really tick me off (besides Scott Walker). Things like child abuse or animal abuse raises my anger like few other issues do.

One story that I've been following for three years, involved one of the harshest acts of animal abuse I've ever heard of and was made only worse because it happened in one of my favorite areas of the state, Central Wisconsin, where my castle is located.

The story involved three assholes that thought it'd be great fun to take snowmobiles and run down some deer, tormenting them and mangling the bodies.

The ring leader of these pukes, Rory Kuenzi, who was already serving a term for a drunk driving killing of a young man, was sentenced last year to 11 years in jail.

Now the second of the three has been sentenced:

A Waupaca man will serve a six-month jail sentence and probation time for his role in the 2009 snowmobile slaughter of several deer.

Nicholas D. Hermes, 26, was sentenced Tuesday in Waupaca County Court for his role in the deer deaths along a trail in the Town of Lind. Hermes will spend 2½ years on probation and pay about $6,200 in fines and costs.

In December, Hermes pleaded no contest to three felony counts of animal mistreatment and three misdemeanor charges of hunting deer out of season. Two felony mistreatment counts and two more counts of illegal hunting were dismissed as part of the plea deal.

The third fool, Robby Kuenzi is scheduled for trial April 3. I expect him to get put away too.

Maybe they can share cell blocks with the Walkergate gang.

Walkergate: What's In Your Dumpster?

2012-02-07T01:01:00.001-06:00

Dan Bice of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel had a column up with a batch of three stories in it.

The one story that my esteemed lefty blogger colleagues caught on to was the story of Scott Walker's hypocrisy regarding how governor's should behave when they have bad-acting underlings.

But it appears that might not be the most interesting one of Bice's stories.

He also had one about a mystery dumpster that is now part of Walkergate:

The John Doe investigation of Walker's tenure as county executive has taken many odd twists and turns.

But what to make of this?

Last week, Frank Busalacchi, head of the county Transportation and Public Works Department, was asked by investigators for a particular county Dumpster.

"All they asked was if I could move it, and we did," Busalacchi said Thursday. "I think they wanted to look through it."

Was it full or empty?

"I have no idea," he said. "They asked me that, and I said, 'You know, I just got here in November. I don't know what's in a Dumpster on the side of the courthouse. I have no idea.'"

Assistant District Attorney Bruce Landgraf, who is overseeing the John Doe probe, wouldn't provide any further insight.

"I have no comment," Landgraf said.

Well, I might have some more information on that.

From what I have learned, the dumpster was indeed moved and had to have a lock broken or cut open. Inside, the dumpster was reportedly full of papers of some sort. What kind is unknown, but it took a number of deputy sheriffs and staff from the District Attorney's office to go through and they are probably still sorting through them

Your guess at what those papers are would be as good as mine, but the first thing I thought of was the missing files that were reported shortly after Walker and his entourage left the courthouse at the end of 2010:

The dozens of Walker's file cabinets were virtually emptied of their contents by the end of last month, and 16 bankers' boxes of records retrieved this week from storage by aides to Holloway appear well short of the total paper-load once held in the courthouse's third-floor executive suite.

A tour this week of the sparsely staffed offices revealed banks of empty file drawers, save a set of various bureaucratic forms, county budget books and one stack of papers on various issues left in the office of Fran McLaughlin, who was Walker's county spokeswoman.

The empty drawers, coupled with the absence of any message or memo telling the whereabouts of Walker's office documents - and at least two bins of shredded paper left by Walker staffers - were perplexing, Mester said.

It was probably those or leftover copies of the Milwaukee County First's Survival Guide to Scott Walker's Courthouse.

Sources have told me that the authorities knew just where to go to find this dumpster, which originally made me wonder if they had put it there, until I learned of the need to force the lock. That would tell me that maybe one of the other persons of interest in this ongoing investigation has cut a deal and turned state witness and told them where to find said mystery dumpster'o'fun. Remember that Darlene Wink has already agreed to testify about the "destruction of digital evidence."

Now, granted, a lot of the details are vague and a lot of pieces to this latest puzzle are obviously still missing, but it does not appear to be a good omen for Walker as he is going to be meeting with the investigators himself in the near future.

The one thing that I can tell you with some certainty is that it definitely appears that the most eye-popping twists to this story are still in store for us.

But wouldn't it be a form of poetic justice if the contents of that dumpster is what puts Walker's political career, and his demented ideological agenda, in the dumpster instead?

The Secret Republican Money-Loving Voter-Haters Club

2012-02-07T00:01:00.001-06:00

Are the state Republicans that megalomaniacal or just plain stupid?

The whole mess the Republicans made with their gerrymandering is coming back to bite them in the arse.

Now it's starting to sound like a bad movie based on the Godfather movies but starring the Marx Brothers.

This story will not bode well for them at all, and it shouldn't:

Included in the documents released Monday was a set of talking points that stressed that those who discussed the maps could eventually be called as a witness in a court case.

"Public comments on this map may be different than what you hear in this room. Ignore the public comments," the talking points also say.

[...]

An immigrant rights group contends that Republicans violated the state's open meetings law in how they developed the maps and filed a complaint Monday with Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne.

Legislative leaders sometimes ask rank-and-file legislators to keep quiet about sensitive legislation, but they do not ask them to sign pledges of secrecy.

The agreement tells each lawmaker "you agree not to disclose the fact and/or contents of such discussions or any draft documents within your possession."

And there's a part that the gone but not forgotten Illusory Tenant would have been all over (emphasis mine):

All the agreements were also signed by Eric McLeod of Michael Best & Friedrich, one of several attorneys who advised lawmakers on the maps. Legislative leaders have committed $400,000 in taxpayer money to pay Michael Best and the Troupis Law Office for their work on the maps.

McLeod has drawn attention in recent months for providing legal services to state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman under an arrangement in which Gableman did not have to pay.

That old peppercorn won't go away, will it?

When this matter hits the Supreme Court, and you know it will, Gableman will either have to recuse himself or set himself up for the third wave of recalls.

Outside of Waukesha and Washington Counties, where money rules all for those Republicans, I wonder if there will be any left in power within the next couple of years. I cannot imagine how any person with even a shred of self-respect could stand by Scott Walker or any of these other corrupt fools.

Once, Twice, Three Times A Liar

2012-02-06T22:55:00.000-06:00

Scott Walker is a compulsive liar. Even when he doesn't have to lie, he does. And even when he knows he'll be found out to be lying, he still does.

One of the more recent examples was when he tried to tell the people that he "found" all sorts of savings and because of that, he would lift the caps on Family Care. The truth was that the federal government forced him to do it.

Now, there's a more recent example.

On Friday, his campaign issued a press release, complete with grammatical errors, regarding Walkergate. In it, he tried to make himself appear the Eagle Scout and was just trying to help out the cause of justice:

Over the last 20 months, District Attorney John Chisholm has been conducting an examination of issues in connection with former employees of Milwaukee County. Throughout that time, our campaign has cooperated with requests for information.

My cooperation in this matter extends beyond a willingness to supply any and all requested documents. I have already said that I would be happy to sit down with the people looking into these issues and answer any additional questions they may have. To make that point clear, last year, my representatives voluntarily contacted Mr. Chisholm’s office to arrange a time to discuss any outstanding issues. I will be voluntarily meeting with Mr. Chisholm.

To assemble additional background information, I hired counsel to insure [sic] that I am in the best position possible to continue aiding the inquiry. These attorneys, Mike Steinle and John Gallo, have been reviewing a great deal of material from the past few years, but no public money has been used or will be used for these purposes.

While all of us need to let this matter run its course, I will continue to cooperate and provide any appropriate information that is requested.

However, today it's a different story, as reported by Dan Bice:

Gov. Scott Walker acknowledged Monday that prosecutors initiated the upcoming meeting they will have with him as part of the John Doe investigation about activities that occurred during Walker's tenure as Milwaukee County executive.

"Up until now, we've provided written documentation (from the campaign)," Walker said during a briefing with reporters in Waukesha. "They'd like to talk to us about what they've found and what additional help we can provide."

Even funnier is this line from TMJ4's report:

Walker says his lawyers are examining thousands of emails his campaign has turned over to the DA. He said he hired the lawyers because it would take him too much time to do that work.

Not to mention a dumpster full of hidden files, eh, Walker?

I bet the trifecta in the big lies will be when Walker said, "I am not John Doe."

Walker Finally Gets That High Ranking He's Been Looking For

2012-02-06T01:20:00.002-06:00

Scott Walker is in the top five worst governors in United States.

Way to go, Scott!

And once Walkergate is fully revealed, I'm sure you be number one!

Scott Walker: The Artful Dodger

2012-02-06T00:53:00.001-06:00

So who hired Kelly Rindfleisch? Scott Walker ain't telling:

Expect to see a lot more of this in the weeks and months to come, either in regards to Walkergate or the recall.

The Walkergate Files

2012-02-06T00:46:00.001-06:00

One Wisconsin Now has the neatest websites. The Walkergate Files is no exception.

I'm especially glad that they got the name right.

But how come I only get one link? They could have saved themselves time and grief by just linking my whole blog.

Can A Sun Devil Learn To Do The Bucky?

2012-02-06T00:32:00.001-06:00

We'll find out soon enough as the good people of Arizona try to recall Governor Jan Brewer.

Hopefully, their organization is better than their website.

Their Facebook page is here.

Go Arizona!

Bill Kramer: Little Big Man

2012-02-05T23:51:00.000-06:00

Future Lord of
the Flies contender

State Representative Bill Kramer (R-Palookaville) shows just how "macho" he is by packing heat on the Assembly floor:

The Republican lawmaker who presides over the state Assembly says he’s been carrying a concealed weapon during floor sessions.

Bill Kramer of Waukesha is speaker pro tem of the Assembly. He controls debate and can order spectators out of the chamber.

He says he obtained a permit to carry a concealed weapon in November and has at times carried a Glock 26 on the Assembly floor.

He says he feels he needs the weapon given the toxic atmosphere at the state Capitol. Bands of protesters still angry over Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s contentious collective bargaining law have spent the past year harassing GOP legislators.

So what is this little big man afraid of? Having his actions known apparently:

Democratic representatives requested Kramer to rescind his order, saying it was unfair for the whole gallery to be cleared based on the behavior of only some people. Kramer took back the order, saying, “The gallery is for observation. We have public hearings for a reason and that is where you can be heard. We have prohibitions against holding signs and against filming so please put down your signs and cameras. We have prohibitions against showing support or disapproval so I hope you’ll abide by that.”

Then law enforcement began to haul people out for silently holding signs or taking pictures with their cameras. The Progressive’s own Matt Rothschild was arrested for taking a picture of these arrests being made.

A total of eighteen people were arrested and ticketed for offenses that will likely be thrown out in court.

People feel so strongly about protecting and defending their ability to record and document the goings-on in the Assembly because corporate media is doing such a poor job of it. If you’re not at the Capitol on a regular basis, you would find it difficult to believe the impunity with which the rightwing is shoving their racist, sexist, corporatist agenda down the throats of the people of this state.

And just think, he's supposed to be one of the "leaders" in the Republican Party. No wonder Fitzwalkerstan is starting to feel like a scene from "The Lord of the Flies."

Private School Suspends Menominee Girl For Speaking Native Tongue

2012-02-05T23:09:00.000-06:00

But there's no racism in Wisconsin, right?

What's love got to do with it? Not much, especially if you say the words "I love you" in the Menominee language in front of a certain Wisconsin teacher.

Seventh grader Miranda Washinawatok, Menominee, found this out.

Miranda speaks two languages: Menominee and English. She also plays on her basketball team. However, two Thursdays ago she was suspended for one basketball game because she spoke Menominee to a fellow classmate during class.

Miranda attends Sacred Heart Catholic Academy in Shawano, Wisconsin. The school body is over 60 percent American Indian. The school is approximately six miles from the south border of the Menominee Indian Tribe Reservation.

[...]

Miranda and a fellow classmate were talking to each other when Miranda told her how to say "Hello" and "I love you" in Menominee.

"The teacher went back to where the two were sitting and literally slammed her hand down on the desk and said, "How do I know you are not saying something bad?"

The story did not end there. In the next session, another teacher told Miranda she did not appreciate her getting the other teacher upset because "she is like a daughter to me."

The article goes on to point out the irony that the Green Bay Diocese, which operates the school, has an answering machine that works for English or Spanish, but not for Menominee, even though Menominee children make up 60% of the school population.

Even though the article points out that the school is Catholic, they don't own the market on bigotry and racism.

What I do think of is the Republican push to restore the racist and bigoted Native American nicknames and mascots for school teams.

The Solution To Milwaukee County's Furlough Problem

2012-02-05T21:53:00.000-06:00

Milwaukee County has a big problem thanks to Scott Walker. One that could cause real fiscal mayhem to the county.

But first, for those that haven't been following the goings on in Milwaukee County under the Walker regime, some background. And for those that have been following, please consider it a refresher.

In 2009, from the onset of the fiscal year, then Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker was claiming that the county was in a fiscal crises due to his budget. The problem was that he was demanding a lot of concessions from county workers, but refused to sit down and negotiate said concessions with the unions.

Reports at the time calculated that Walker was squandering anywhere from a third to half a million dollars a month due to unseen savings because of his posturing.

In other words, he constructed his own artificial crisis and now was running around crying that the sky was falling.

At midyear, Walker said that the only way to resolve the supposed fiscal crisis was to put all county workers on an indefinite five-hour a week work reduction.

As one might imagine, the unions protested this and took it to arbitration, claiming Walker violated good faith bargaining and that this stunt was a violation of the contract.

The arbitrator heard the case and ruled in favor of the unions and then some. During the hearing it came out that Walker exceeded his authority in trying to impose an indefinite reduction of pay, that he acted illegally when he made this unilateral decision, and that it was indeed in violation of previous arbitration decisions which limited the reduced work time by 45 hours.

The real kicker was when it was also revealed that Walker was lying through his teeth when he claimed there was a $15 million deficit. His own fiscal guy, Steve Kreklow, said that it was $5 million and the County Auditor, Jerome Heer, found it to be under a million dollars. Neither of those numbers would qualify as a crisis in a budget of more than $1.5 billion.

Unthwarted, Walker took the ruling to circuit court, where a Republican judge ruled in his favor and voided the finding of the arbitrator. The union responded by appealing this ruling. In a ruling written by the Honorable Ralph Adam Fine, the appellate court ruled that according to the law, the arbitrator's decision was final unless fraud could be proven and thereby voided the lower court's ruling.

During all of these court hearings, Walker devised his 2010 budget and guess what, did the same illegal thing. This time, instead of shortened work weeks, he decided to just implement full day furloughs.

And not only did he follow the same illegal actions, he doubled down by implementing them illegally. Besides just exceeding the allowed amount of time, he treated various employees differently. He gave deputies eight days of furlough, some other workers like the staff at the mental health complex 12 days and others, such as myself, a full 26 days. Sometimes, people in the same Local were getting the different treatment.

(Ironically, the money that Walker claimed would be saved by this illegal action was eaten up by having to pay other workers overtime to make up for the loss of work hours. Some workers were able to actually come ahead on this deal, making more money than they lost due to the overtime and still getting days off.)

So the unions took their complaint to the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission (WERC), and well, as I told it at the time:

Walker and the County Board continued to pass budgets that presumed these savings despite the fact these concessions were never negotiated. Milwaukee County First warned at the time that the budgets were illegal and that the tax payers would be on the hook for them.

The unions would in turn file complaints with the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission (WERC). The county asked WERC to drop the complaints saying that it belonged in arbitration. The unions agreed and dropped the complaints. However, Walker then backstabbed the unions by refusing to go to arbitration.

So the unions, with no other alternative, went back to WERC and refiled their complaint.
Last Friday, WERC handed out there ruling regarding the complaint about furloughs and about whether the county was participating in bad faith bargaining.

In a nutshell, the furloughs were done illegally and the county was found to be guilty of bad faith bargaining.

WERC ruled that the county had to pay the workers back pay for all the furlough time in excess of the 45 hours allowed through arbitration. Not only did they have to pay it back, but WERC also imposed a penalty of 12% interest, compounded daily, for every day until they do pay it back.

And that is where the problem comes in. The ruling means that the county owes the workers millions in back pay. With the interest figured in, it's probably about $5 or $6 million by now, maybe even higher.

But thanks to Walker's dishonest budgeting as county executive and his slashing funding to the county as governor, Milwaukee County just doesn't have the money to pay this debt.

Over a year ago, I had written something that seems rather prophetic today, suggesting a way for current Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele and the Milwaukee County Board could meet its obligation without sticking it to the taxpayers or endangering our most vulnerable citizens by cutting services even further:

This means that the original arbitration is indeed to be held up. This could the cost the County millions of dollars in back pay for excessive furloughs given to county workers.

Because the County cannot afford such a large payout, it is possible that this will instead weaken the County’s position in contract negotiations, with the unions holding it as a bargaining chip. This, of course, could end up costing the tax payers dearly.

Using the Mercer trial as a precedent, where Mercer had to pay the county for giving bad advice regarding the pension scandal, Scott Walker’s campaign should have to pay the county back for the damages it occurred directly due to Walker’s campaign stunt. As further evidence that this was nothing more than a political stunt, Walker’s campaign regularly touted his use of these furlough days to gain the supposed surplus for that year.

The Mercer decision was one where the county sued Mercer for giving bad advice regarding Tom Ament's pension scandal. Worth noting is the fact that Walker, who has spent years badmouthing his predecessor and the County Board for "their greed," changed his tune for this and blamed everything on this company, thereby, in effect, declaring his predecessor and the board innocent. (Of course, like all things Walker, even this has a scandal involved with it.)

When I wrote the above passage, I didn't really think that the county would proceed with suing Walker and/or his campaign. After all, even though Walker's actions were obviously a campaign stunt, there was no proof of it.

Until now.

Cory Liebmann, one of the most knowledgeable people in all things Walker, put up a post regarding some of Walker's emails from 2009. Most notable of these was this one which Liebmann accurately describes (emphasis his):

An email that appears to be from Cynthia Archer to Walker at his campaign email address (and copying other staff...including Walker campaign consultant RJ Johnson). In that email she spells out their various "options" after a greatly anticipated arbitration hearing. It looks like Walker then takes that Archer email and forwards it from his campaign account to his county account.

You can see the actual email (starting on page 5) in a Scribd format, again thanks to Liebmann.

In summary, Walker imposed these excessive furlough days despite having a ruling deeming them illegal and despite refusing to negotiate with the unions creating an artificially constructed fiscal emergency. And Walker did these things knowingly and what is obvious from the above email, as I had correctly stated all that time ago, he did so not for the purposes of saving the county taxpayers any money nor to fix any fiscal crisis, but he did this only to enhance his image as a candidate for governor. This is shown in the concerns expressed by Archer in her email and the fact that it was sent to his campaign email and included a campaign consultant.

I once again urge County Executive Abele and the County Board to look into this and consider trying to recoup the losses Walker forced onto Walker for illegal purposes. They could do so by suing Walker and the Friends of Scott Walker, which has ample funds to pay the bill.

Granted, they probably couldn't get everything they owe the workers, due to the interest accrued as they stalled paying what they were ordered to pay, but it would still be a large chunk of it. It would be worth at least looking into.

Homophobia Run Amok

2012-02-05T16:10:00.000-06:00

A collection of nutjobs misnaming themselves as "American Family Association" and their offshoot "One Million Moms" are on a rampage against gays. This time they after JCPenney for daring to have Ellen Degeneres as a spokesperson.

If you look at their history, they should just be calling themselves Bigots'Я'Us.

Who To Root For In The Superbowl?

2012-02-05T15:15:00.001-06:00

With it being Superbowl Sunday, many in Packer Nation are at a loss, not knowing what to do with themselves since the Packers won't be in it.

Some are not watching it altogether. Those that are watching it don't know who to root for in the game.

Well, let's take a look at who's playing.

Repping the AFC are the New England Patriots. Normally, when one thinks of patriots, they think of American heroes that fought to gain and then to keep our freedom, our liberty and our sovereignty. Sadly, the term "patriot" has been bastardized by the teahadists, who have misapplied the term to themselves. Now patriots leaves a bad taste in most people's mouths. Ergo, patriots = teahadists = hating America = bad.

On the other side, repping the NFC are the New York Giants. The word giant has become a common word in Wisconsin during the past year, mostly used in the reference of "Scott Walker has awoken the sleeping giant." Thus giant has come to be associated with the good people of Wisconsin, commonly referred to on Twitter as #wiunion, who want to take their state back from the big-money special interest corporations that want to turn the state into a third or fourth world area, just in order to increase their profit margins. Ergo, giants = #wiunion = loving Wisconsin, freedom and justice = good.

In conclusion, GO GIANTS!

ADDENDUM: Called it!

Voter Fraud Found Just Where You'd Expect It

2012-02-04T14:00:00.000-06:00

The Republicans are notorious for accusing their opponents of committing wrongdoings that they themselves are the real culprits.

Whether it's the misuse of government property or voter fraud:

Indiana's top elections official could lose his job and his freedom after jurors convicted him of multiple voter fraud-related charges on Saturday, leaving in flux the fate of one of the state's most powerful positions.

Republican Secretary of State Charlie White has held on to his office for more than a year despite being accused of lying about his address on voter registration forms.

A Hamilton County jury found White guilty of six of seven felony charges, including false registration, voting in another precinct, submitting a false ballot, theft and two counts of perjury. He was acquitted on one fraud charge.

And even though caught red-handed, the scumball won't stand down. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

And while we're on the subject, what the heck is Scott Fitzgerald doing, sending out postcards to the people who signed the petition to recall his sorry butt?

That sounds suspiciously like voter caging to me, and I'm doubt that I'm the only one.

Walkergate: Is This It?!

2012-02-04T02:28:00.000-06:00

As is the norm for any politician who has bad news to share and wants to try to control the early spin, Scott Walker did a Friday afternoon news dump.

In this case, his campaign sent out a very terse, carefully worded and ambiguous press release indicating that he would be meeting with the Milwaukee County District Attorney in regards to Walkergate, the John Doe probe into illegal campaign activities and other misdeeds among his office as county executive and his campaign:

Over the last 20 months, District Attorney John Chisholm has been conducting an examination of issues in connection with former employees of Milwaukee County. Throughout that time, our campaign has cooperated with requests for information.

My cooperation in this matter extends beyond a willingness to supply any and all requested documents. I have already said that I would be happy to sit down with the people looking into these issues and answer any additional questions they may have. To make that point clear, last year, my representatives voluntarily contacted Mr. Chisholm’s office to arrange a time to discuss any outstanding issues. I will be voluntarily meeting with Mr. Chisholm.

To assemble additional background information, I hired counsel to insure that I am in the best position possible to continue aiding the inquiry. These attorneys, Mike Steinle and John Gallo, have been reviewing a great deal of material from the past few years, but no public money has been used or will be used for these purposes.

While all of us need to let this matter run its course, I will continue to cooperate and provide any appropriate information that is requested.

When this news hit the airwaves, I had people, some who were off vacationing in Florida, calling me, asking me, "Is this it?! Are they going to finally nail that dirtbag scum?!"

My answer to them was that it sure didn't look good for him, but cautioning that you never could be sure.

In his press release, as is always the case with Walker, what he doesn't say is at least as important as what he does say.

Walker basically admits that, contrary to what he's said before, he's been in contact with the DA's office at least two months ago regarding the investigation. He's also tells us that he had retained these two top-gun attorneys a while ago for them to pore over everything and develop a defense strategy.

Maybe the real tell to the release was the way Walker emphasized that no public money was going to his defense. By this, he's basically admitting that Walkergate is weighing heavy against him.

Also significant is who his attorneys are.

One of them, Mike Steinle, has quite a legacy. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, he has a prestigious heritage and that his father defended crime boss Frank Balistrieri. Likewise, the Wisconsin State Journal reports that he also represented a Fox Point teen who killed his grandfather with an ax.

One Wisconsin Now also pointed out to the way Walker is lawyering up in a really big way with this interesting tidbit (emphasis mine):

Gov. Walker’s announcement that he’s beefing up his legal team with attorneys specializing in complex criminal law and real estate is just the latest twist in the scandal that’s engulfed his administration over these last twenty months.

The fact that one of them is a specialist in real estate law raises a red flag.

Not too long ago, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported about an angle of the Walkergate investigation that involved a shady bid-rigging and pay-for-play politicking. The story is fairly complex, but to simplify it, investigators were looking into some suspicious behaviors regarding a decision on where to house the Milwaukee County Department of Aging.

The Department of Aging was housed at the Reuss Federal Plaza in downtown Milwaukee from 2005-2010. In 2010, the county moved out of the Reuss building and into a county-owned building. However, in 2005 and again in 2010, there was some suspicious things being done to first get the agency to move in and then to stay.

And the agents in the case are people the gentle reader should already be aware of. One of them is Andrew Jensen, the commercial realty broker who was a guest of the county jail for a couple of days last year for not cooperating with the investigation. Another player was John Hiller, who was Walker's campaign treasurer for 18 years until mysteriously leaving last spring. (Hiller's departure was not even known until the fall, that's how secretive it was.)

Also entangled in this deal was Timothy Russell who seems to be in just about every mess there is in Walkergate and Bob Dennik, another Walker campaign worker turned county staff person. Both of these men wee also into realty. (I believe that Jim Villa, who was named in the Kelly Rindfleisch complaint, and is also a realty broker, was Walker's Chief of Staff at time.

I would take this moment to remind the gentle reader about the cozy relationship the realtors have with each other as well as with Walker.

So, to recap, Walker has both his campaign as well himself personally well-lawyered with some of the highest profile attorneys in the Midwest. His former and current staff, up to the highest levels, have either been charged or given immunity in relation to the John Doe, which has gone everywhere from illegal politicking to illegal donations and possibly pay-for-play.

While his apologists will be quick to point out that Walker himself has not yet been charged with any wrongdoings, there are a few facts to keep in mind:

He is surrounded by the people being charged with wrongdoing or given immunity,
In the things we do know for certain, there are holes in the story. These holes appear to be most logically filled by Walker's involvement,
There was the infamous email from Walker to Russell, after Russell has already left the county executive's office, mentioning specific issues such as laptops and websites,
There are some very questionable, even incriminating, emails that Walker had in 2009 involving both his county and campaign emails and the intermingling of the two.

Overall, it's pretty damning.

But it doesn't necessarily guarantee that this is Walker's Waterloo.

One must remember that the John Doe has already taken surprising twists, such as the recent charging of Supervisor Johnny Thomas, for allegedly taking a bribe to get a contract with the county approved. There also may be other supervisors who under investigation. But this still wouldn't necessarily exclude Walker from also being in deep water.

Another possibility is that Walker is going to be testifying against some of his former and/or current staffers and/or campaign workers. The problem with that theory is that it doesn't explain the high level of lawyers.

Overall, one could safely say that Walker is a person of interest. Whether he's John Doe or not has yet to be seen. The same goes for whether this actually means that Walker is going to even get charged. The events of Friday don't prove that.

But they sure make it seem likely, don't they?

Scotty, We're Coming For You!

2012-02-03T23:04:00.000-06:00

Live from the Malt House, Madison, WI:

The Kissers

The Walker Budget Is Already Working! Part LXIX

2012-02-03T00:33:00.000-06:00

At long last, Scott Walker's nightmare of constantly being hounded about the six months of jobs losses is soon to be finally over.

Now we can start hounding him about what looks like will be seven straight months of job losses:

Nationally, jobless claims dropped by 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 367,000 in the week ended Jan. 28, the U.S. Labor Department said today.

The four-week average of claims fell by 2,000, to 375,750. The monthly average remains near a four-year low and stands at a level that usually suggests a healing labor market.
However, the initial claims in Wisconsin surged last week to 15,045 from 13,957 in the previous week, according to the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development.

The number of ongoing weekly claims in Wisconsin rose last week to 126,212 from 123,620 in the previous week.

The monthly numbers won't be out for a couple of weeks, but this sure doesn't look good for him, or for us. Too many people have lost their jobs in the past several months.

Whether it's the recall or the indictment, we can't be rid of him soon enough.

Grandma Didn't Need Her House Anyway

2012-02-03T00:26:00.003-06:00

Remember how Scott Walker said that he balanced the budget without raising taxes? Well, he didn't and he did.

We already know that the budget isn't balanced, by Walker's own admission.

And we already know that he raised taxes, especially among the poorest of the poor.

Now we know he is really sticking it to Grandma:

Last year, however, Gov. Scott Walker and the Legislature reversed that decision, freezing the credit at its current level. That move was projected to save the state $14 million over the next two years.

As a result, a senior living on Social Security will now see their tax credit drop by $209, or 28 percent, over the next five years, according to an analysis by the Wisconsin Budget Project, an initiative of the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families. The full report is available here.

Other seniors will lose the tax credit altogether, the group warns, because their Social Security income will increase while the level for the Homestead Credit eligibility stays frozen. That could push many recipients out of the program entirely.

"This is money that will come out of seniors' pockets," said Budget Project research analyst Tamarine Cornelius in a statement. "The effect will be relatively small at first but will continue to snowball."

The Budget Project estimates the Homestead Credit by 2016 will cover only 16 percent of a Wisconsin senior's property taxes. That's down from 25 percent in 2011.
Twenty years ago, the Homestead Credit would have covered nearly 60 percent of that same person's property tax bill, the report says.

Nothing says "I love seniors!" like raising their taxes and cutting their SeniorCare.

I think that kind of cements the notion that Walker's not going to Florida to lure the retirees back after all. Or maybe this is just the way he intended to get them to "invest" their money in Wisconsin businesses, since that's who Walker is giving Grandma's medicine money to.

It also shows how dumb Walker really is. In the face of an inevitable recall, he will now have to face a very powerful voting bloc of pissed off seniors. All of his jetting around the country, kissing up to the big time donors won't help save his worthless political hide.

Money doesn't vote.

But Grandma does.

Big Bird Will Be Next

2012-02-02T23:27:00.001-06:00

"Is that Big Bird on that grill?!"

State Representative Joel Kleefisch (R-Back of the minivan) apparently missed the news that Wisconsin is still leaking jobs like a sieve, has a stagnant economy and that people are really suffering.

Otherwise, Kleefisch wouldn't be wasting time and taxpayer money to come up with the bird-brained idea of having a hunting season for sandhill cranes. Kleefisch said that his concern is that the cranes are doing to much damage to farmers' crops, but then reveals his real reason:

"They not only make great table fare, often they are called 'the ribeye of the sky,'" said Rep. Joel Kleefisch, R-Oconomowoc. "With our hunting heritage in this state, we thought we'd look at a sandhill crane hunting season."

Apparently those mourning doves just don't fill him up enough, or maybe their just too much of a challenge for a poor marksman.

Whatever the reason Kleefisch feels that he needs to pass this moronic bill, it's not going to do anything but feed him, according to the experts:

The International Crane Foundation hasn't taken a position on the bill, but Barzen said science shows hunting is not the answer.

"In order to control crop damage by removing cranes from the population, you'd probably have to remove a significant portion of the crane population, and nobody is really proposing to do that," said Barzen.

Instead, Barzen said treating crop seeds can keep cranes away. More than 76,000 acres were treated by Wisconsin farmers last year. Some farmers said that only pushes cranes to other fields, and doesn't control the population. But wildlife experts said cranes won't migrate far and instead will find other food sources.

I think the real reason that Kleefisch wants to do this is to help appeal to the wingnut base in order to save his wife's job. Because if she loses her job, she'll be home all day and all night, lecturing the furniture about abstinence.

The Breathtaking Audacity Of Scott Walker

2012-02-02T00:57:00.000-06:00

Even after ten years of calling out Scott Walker on his bad policies, his misconduct in office, and his malfeasance, he still has the ability to leave me flabbergasted from time to time.

Please let me explain.

Just yesterday, I wrote about how Scott Walker blatantly abused the power of his office as Milwaukee County Executive in taking a taxpayer-funded Harley Davidson ride around the state, purportedly to promote tourism, but was nothing more than a campaign stunt:

If you take a closer look at Walker's email, he sent it on Friday, May 14, 2010. Yet on the very next day, Saturday, May 15, Walker left Milwaukee on his infamous Harley Davidson "Executive Ride." This ride, which was purportedly to promote tourism for Milwaukee County, was nothing more than a poorly disguised campaign event for Walker. He moved the ride up from it's usual time at the end of June because, get ready for this, it was too warm then to go for a motorcycle ride. In what I'm sure is a coincidence (meaning it was anything but a coincidence), Walker's bike ride led back to Milwaukee just in time for the Republican state convention, in which the party nominees were named. Shazam! How'd that happen?!

This campaign bike rid is also what led the DPW to file a complaint against Walker, first with the GAB and then with the Milwaukee County District Attorney, based in part on the fact that Russell, who went along on the ride as a county employee, was apparently doing what appears to be campaign work.

Walker didn't even wait a day before he violated his own directive.

Fun fact: For some reason, Walker didn't take a bike ride in 2011. I can't imagine why not.

But there's more. There's always more.

There's always more indeed.

I noticed today that Walker, despite having a John Doe investigation actively looking into his campaign and his county staff because of this, is doing the same bloody thing all over again!

On Wednesday, February 1, Walker went to Wausau as part of something he calls "Governor Walker's Turning Around Wisconsin Tour."

As the gentle reader will notice, this was sent from the Governor's Office, making it official state business.

But does anyone really believe that?

It's so obviously another gimmick, just like the bike ride was, in which Walker is using taxpayer dollars to run his "Please don't hold me accountable for my misdeeds by recalling me" campaign, that it's actually breathtaking in its audacity.

What's even more stunningly outrageous is that his "Turning Wisconsin Around Tour," according to the press release, is about his "agenda" for job creation.*

Well, to be fair, maybe it's not so outrageous after all.

As I have previously discussed, and as the following graph so eloquently shows, when it comes to job creation, Walker has definitely turned this state around, from a positive job growth period to six straight months of job losses, at twice the rate that Doyle had even in the height of the recession:

One does wonder how anyone can believe the tripe that Walker and WISGOP is trying to force down our throats.

However, regardless of Walker's hypocrisy and outright lies, this continued pattern of abusing the power of his office, whether county executive or governor, should not and can not be allowed to go on without Walker being called out on it.**

Whether it's via the recall or via being indicted in Walkergate, we cannot be rid of this weasel soon enough.

*Strangely, the WSAW-TV story on this decided to focus on education, which is another area he has failed miserably in. Also noteworthy, in the comment sections, it appears Walker's appearance at the school caused fights to break out. He's even divisive to our children.

**I would also like to know where the hell is the media who is supposed to be watchdogs for the people. Has journalism dropped to such a low standard? I hope not, but still...

On The Next Edition Of "Do You Know Where Your Governor Is?"

2012-02-01T23:10:00.000-06:00

Yes, folks, another edition of Wisconsin's favorite game show, "Do You Know Where Your Governor Is?" is coming up. It is programmed for Wednesday, February 8.

And just to give you a hint, the secret location of your governor is Naples, FL.

But the next question is why would Scott Walker go to Naples, FL?

Would it be to visit the jobs he's been chasing out of Wisconsin for the last six months?

In a word, no.

Is it because he got screwed up on the dates and was going to surprise everyone by entering the Florida presidential primary?

Well, he might have dreams of being President of the United States, but I don't think a recalled and/or indicted former governor would have much of a chance.

Is he going to invite all the fleeing Wisconsin retirees back to the state to invest their hard earned money in his corporate welfare scheme? He did promise to do that, you know. Instead, he's tried to kill SeniorCare and Family Care and other services they would need., which I'm sure will draw them back in droves.

No, no, and no.

If you haven't guessed, he'll be abandoning his duties here in Wisconsin for yet another big-money, out-of-state fund raiser:

Yup, while more people are losing their jobs, falling behind on their bills and losing their homes because Scott Walker thinks that they made too much money and were leaving the poor multimillionaires behind, Walker will be yucking it up at a luncheon 1,500 miles away from Wisconsin.

And he wonders why people want to recall him.

MSJ Doesn't Report The News, They Fabricate It

2012-02-01T22:07:00.000-06:00

I would expect that the Friends of Scott Walker will have to list this as an in-kind contribution unless they want complaints filed against them.

The Walker Budget Is Already Working! Part LXVIII

2012-02-01T19:55:00.000-06:00

The Scott Walker budget is really in full steam when businesses, big and small, are closing almost daily, laying off even more workers. Now, it's another 100 workers in Madison feeling the hit:

Sub-Zero said 100 workers at its Madison plant will lose their jobs by the end of June.

The privately owned company, which makes upscale refrigerators and stoves, sent a letter to state and city officials Tuesday saying it will close operations at 4717 Hammersley Road on June 29.

[...]

Tuesday's notice spelled out the details: Seventy-five Sub-Zero employees and 25 temporary workers will lose their jobs in three rounds of cuts, starting April 2. In the letter the company blamed "changing business circumstances" for its decision.

Goodspeed said the workers affected earn $22 an hour, or about $30 an hour, including benefits.

"Some of these workers — they're having a tough time dealing with this. These are good-paying jobs. They know similar pay and similar benefits are not waiting for them on the outside," he said.

Goodspeed said up to now, the union has helped 20 other workers from the Madison plant find jobs in Fitchburg, where about 300 employees make Sub-Zero built-in freezers and refrigerators and 200 produce Wolf ranges and cooktops. He said he hopes some of the remaining employees can also be shifted to Fitchburg.

Though they are not new, the job cuts are still hard to swallow, Goodspeed said, especially with concessions employees took in order to keep their work here. Bitterly fought contract agreements, reached over the past year and a half, cost union members 20 percent of their pay and benefits and froze wages for five years but promised to keep their jobs until at least 2018.

Did you notice that the unions have done more to keep people working in this one case than Walker did in the last year? Walker's not only corrupt, he's incompetent. And he needs to go.

Question Of The Day

2012-02-01T00:25:00.003-06:00

How does the time that Scott Walker has spent going to out-of-state fund raisers compare to the time the Fab 14 spent in Illinois to buy Wisconsinites time to realize what a bloody mess Walker and company were making of our state?

Walker's Web

2012-02-01T00:05:00.000-06:00

Although I should point out that there should be direct line from Jim Villa to Scott Walker.

With gratitude to my dear Lisa Mux.

Walkergate: But There's More. There's Always More.

2012-01-31T23:39:00.000-06:00

When Kelly Rindfleisch was arrested and charged last week for illegal politicking, I pointed out the following email from Scott Walker to Tim Russell, which he sent just after Darlene Wink got caught posting comments on JSOnline and other sites:

I pointed out that this showed that Walker knew exactly what was happening and what his county staff was doing. It does this by being very specific about the laptops and websites and other activities.

Also very telling is that Walker sent this email, which one would think would actually be county business, from his campaign email address, during what would be considered work time. This shows he was more concerned with the damage Wink's outing did to his campaign than there was anything illegal actually going on in his executive office.

The astute Jud Lounsbury noticed that when Walker sent that email to Russell, Russell was no longer in the county executive's office. Two months earlier, Walker had transferred Russell to the Department of Housing, meaning that he was no longer in any authority of what happened in the executive office, unless it was to oversee the illegal campaigning that Walker denies knowing anything about. I would only add that was Russell no longer in the executive office, he was no longer in the courthouse, but had been moved to the Coggs Building, one mile away. Although Russell didn't seem to be in his office all that often.

The esteemed Jay Bullock, formerly known as the blogger named folkbum, took Lounsbury one step further. Bullock points out that the same day that Wink was outed, the official unofficial Walker campaign website up and disappeared - poof! As Bullock states, this email shows that Walker knew exactly who to go to when he wanted it stopped, even though that person wasn't even in that office or that building.

Now, some of the Walker apologists might argue that the email shows that Walker ordered the illegal activity stopped and fired Wink, and that shows that he is a straight shooter. Of course, to believe that, they would have to ignore the issues described above and the fact that Wink resigned on her own and there is no evidence that she was asked to do so.

But there's more. There's always more.

If you take a closer look at Walker's email, he sent it on Friday, May 14, 2010. Yet on the very next day, Saturday, May 15, Walker left Milwaukee on his infamous Harley Davidson "Executive Ride." This ride, which was purportedly to promote tourism for Milwaukee County, was nothing more than a poorly disguised campaign event for Walker. He moved the ride up from it's usual time at the end of June because, get ready for this, it was too warm then to go for a motorcycle ride. In what I'm sure is a coincidence (meaning it was anything but a coincidence), Walker's bike ride led back to Milwaukee just in time for the Republican state convention, in which the party nominees were named. Shazam! How'd that happen?!

This campaign bike rid is also what led the DPW to file a complaint against Walker, first with the GAB and then with the Milwaukee County District Attorney, based in part on the fact that Russell, who went along on the ride as a county employee, was apparently doing what appears to be campaign work.

Walker didn't even wait a day before he violated his own directive.

Fun fact: For some reason, Walker didn't take a bike ride in 2011. I can't imagine why not.

But there's more. There's always more.

Via Lounsbury again, we learn that as recently as this past October, Walker again crossed the line between government duties and campaign work when he had a WISGOP staffer sending out his official state press releases:

I had a rather strange exchange with the spokeswoman for the Wisconsin GOP yesterday morning as I tried to get Walker’s side of the story. First, Walker’s press secretary had emailed that the trip was not official state business and the Wisconsin GOP was handling everything. Nicole Larson, deputy director of communications for the WISGOP, called me back after I left a voice mail message.

“His schedule’s actually completely booked while he’s in Iowa,” Larson told me. “But what we can do is, I mean, since you’re radio I’m sure this might not be helpful, but we can send you the statement from his office.”

I asked: “The statement from his office, that’s not handling his trip?”

“Well, technically, I’m doing his communications,” Larson said, pausing before she added: “Because I am. We can send you a statement, but that’s all we can do because he’s booked.”

Let's recap for a minute. There's some illegal politicking going on in the Walker's office while he was county executive. He knows what's going on but doesn't do anything until one of his staff gets busted. And then when he finally does act, it's only to do damage control and not address the personnel issues occurring, meaning he's still OK with it as long as no one gets caught. The day after issue his edict to stop, he violates his own orders. And he continues to do the same illegal politicking as governor.

But there's more. There's always more.

One Wisconsin Now and We Are Wisconsin are calling for Walker to ask for the resignations of Cullen Werwie and Brett Davis, who were caught being involved in Walkergate and doing illegal politicking, just like in the caucus scandals of ten years ago. They are basing their demands on Walker's very own words regarding another one of his scandalous friends, Darlene Wink:

“Had we been aware of anyone else who violated the…policy [against campaigning on taxpayers’ dime], we would have taken the same action [that we took against Darlene Wink and requested their resignation].”

Let me take a second to interject that Walker's email to Russell shows he knows Russell was in on the scandal, not to mention was with him during the entire campaign bike ride, but he never did fire him. Russell stayed a county employee until he was fired by Walker's immediate temporary replacement, Lee Holloway.

But there's more. There's always more.

Walker himself has violated this policy time and time again, both as county executive and now as governor.

But to be honest, unless the public outcry becomes so great that he can't conceivably ignore it, don't expect him to ask for anyone's resignation. If he let's them go, he loses even the pretense of being able to influence their testimony in any upcoming trials. And he doesn't dare risk anything more incriminating come out about him, between the Walkergate investigation and the recall election coming up.

Likewise, Walker will never resign. Like most megalomaniacs throughout history, he is unable to conceive the fact that he could do wrong or is any way vulnerable. Besides, if he resigned now, it would be effectively an admission of guilt. And owning up to anything he did wrong is something that he has never done in his entire life. I would not be at all surprised in the event of his recall and/or indictment, he will go down blaming others and accepting no responsibility himself.

The Pro-Walker Rally Was Illegally Held After All - Or Was It?

2012-01-31T01:44:00.000-06:00

About ten days ago, there was a "Scott Walker Appreciation" rally in Wauwatosa's Hart Park. The event was attended by ~~thousands~~ ~~hundreds~~ dozens of people. As near as I can tell, the number of people that were there were pretty evenly divided by politicians, event organizers, police, moles and actual attendees.

Perhaps their attendance would have been higher if they picked the right day. But even if you give the event organizers the benefit of the doubt and agree that they had "thousands" of people there, it's still a pale comparison to any given anti-Walker rally. I wouldn't be surprised to find out they had as high or even higher turnout at the recall signing petition they had in that same neighborhood weeks before.

At the time, I did a satirical piece saying the recall organizers broke the law by defacing a recall sign (it was just an example of the right wing's lack of originality).

As it turns out, the rally might have been illegal after all.

The City of Wauwatosa has a pretty messed up and convoluted policy towards political events in Hart Park. Organizers can have a political event in one part of the park, but not in other parts, unless they get special permission to do so.

In the case of this rally, it was both in the legal part of the park as well as the illegal part. But they did have that special permission to go into that other part. However, in the article, the city attorney said that he wasn't consulted on this, but would have advised the authorities to deny the special permission. Another city official described the granting of the special permission as a mistake.

See? Like I said, it's a mess.

So I thought I'd try to see what I could come up with.

I contacted another city official who said that the Patch article hit it pretty much on the head. The official said that once they became aware of what was going on, they had more questions than there were answers.

The same official said that this mess was a leftover from the overly partisan former mayor, Jill Didier, who had resigned from her position to become economic development director for Milwaukee County.*

But another interesting fact was brought to my attention.

One of the main organizers, Paris Procopis, was a failed candidate for the State Assembly. He had run against incumbent David Cullen, but failed to make it on the ballot when he didn't collect enough valid signatures. (Procopis got bounced off the ticket by Attorney Michael Maistelman who went through and challenged the signatures. He worked at Cullen's expense. This is something Scott Walker couldn't and/or wouldn't do and has now saddled the tax payers for his political expenses.)

It would not be a very dangerous leap of logic that Procopis was seeking an appointment of sorts, or maybe and endorsement for Cullen's old seat, by Walker in return to putting this rally on. And there's enough evidence that Walker does that sort of thing, whether the appointee is qualified or not.

In summary, the rally was technically legal, although it shouldn't have been allowed according to city ordinances.

But the bigger problem is the screwed up rules the city has, which they need to change immediately. They should either allow all political events or none at all. If they wanted my input, I would side with free speech every time, no matter how pathetic and repulsive one might find it. The way it is now, it gives the appearance of favoritism and political manipulation.

*Apparently, there is a little known county ordinance that states the county executive cannot hire someone who is actually qualified to be the economic development director.

For MJS, What's Old Is New Again

2012-01-30T23:30:00.001-06:00

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has uncovered some "new" angle on the Walkergate story. There "breaking news" was that Tim Russell, who is facing embezzlement charges stemming from that investigation and seems to be mired in every aspect of the investigation so far, was fired for using a state credit card for personal use:

A former aide to Gov. Scott Walker accused of stealing from a fund for veterans was earlier fired from a state job for the misuse of public money, new records show.

Tim Russell, a former deputy chief of staff to Walker while he served as Milwaukee County executive, was fired from a job in 1993 for "gross misconduct," his personnel records show. This latest news follows charges filed in recent weeks alleging Russell stole money in 2010 from a fund meant for veterans.

Russell was fired from the earlier job at the quasi-public Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority after it was discovered in the spring of 1993 that he had improperly billed $1,123 in hotel stays to the agency. The details are in Russell's personnel file, which was released to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel through an open records request.

"We have considered carefully the disciplinary options available and have come to the conclusion that we have no other alternative than to terminate your employment, effective immediately," Russell's May 1993 termination letter reads.

Of course, those familiar with my work are probably wondering to themselves, "Yeah, so? What else is old?"

You see, we already heard this story in October 2010 when Milwaukee County Supervisor John Weishan brought it up, just months after it was learned that Russell had his office raided and his computers confiscated in the Walkergate investigation:

Milwaukee County Supervisor John F. Weishan, Jr., is calling on County Executive Scott Walker to disclose the full work history of the Housing Division administrator, Mr. Timothy Russell. It has been brought to Supervisor Weishan’s attention that Mr. Russell was terminated from a previous position at the Wisconsin Housing & Economic Development Authority (WHEDA) for illegal use of a department credit card for his personal use.

“After reviewing the past resumes of Mr. Russell, submitted to the County Board when he was considered for the position of Economic Development Director, I could not find any mention of this infraction,” Supervisor Weishan said. “It’s time for the County Executive and Mr. Russell to come clean about the Housing Division administrator’s work history.”

I brought this up again at the beginning of the month, after Russell was arrested in a tangential investigation:

One, this is not the first time it's been alleged that Russell has stolen. In October 2010, Milwaukee County Supervisor John Weishan brought up the fact that Russell had been terminated from a position with WHEDA when he used a state-owned credit card for personal use.

Ah, well, this isn't the first time I've scooped the paper and it won't be the last. Tis the life of a blogger, I guess.

The Walker Budget Is Already Working! Part LXVII

2012-01-30T22:35:00.000-06:00

I'm sure by now the gentle reader knows that, thanks to Scott Walker's budget, there is less spending money going around for the hard-working people of the state. And as people have less money to spend, the first thing that gets cut is discretionary and luxury spending, like eating out or staying in a hotel.

And, as usual, I am again proven correct:

Clearwaters Hotel and Convention Center's overnight guests awoke Friday morning to an unpleasant surprise: The hotel was closing, and they effectively were being booted from their rooms.

At least one Clearwaters guest booked a room with Marshfield's Holiday Inn Hotel and Conference Center for Friday night, after a note from Clearwaters management was slipped under the guest's door announcing the hotel was shutting down at 10 a.m. Friday, said Steve Luchik, Holiday Inn general manager.

By 11 a.m. Friday, the doors of the financially troubled Clearwaters Hotel, at 2700 S. Central Ave., were locked, and all the window shades were drawn.

Signs posted on the doors said Clearwaters was "closed until further notice."

And later in the article we see how Walker's trickle down economics really works:

Clearwaters' closure will hurt local tourism, several officials said.

Its 103 hotel rooms made up a significant portion of Marshfield's more than 200 total hotel rooms, said Scott Larson, executive director of the Marshfield Area Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

"It's disappointing because it's one less banquet facility that's available and 103 less rooms available for business and tourism activities," Larson said, adding that it's particularly disappointing for people with pending reservations at Clearwaters.

In other words, as the hotel fails, other businesses, like restaurants and attractions, which were probably also struggling, will also go over the edge and fail.

And to think, Walker says his budget is working.

The Walker Budget Is Already Working! Parts XLV and XLVI

2012-01-30T00:44:00.000-06:00

Scott Walker pledged that he would create 250,000 jobs in his first term (not counting on the fact that his first term would be only about 18 months long). That would have to put Wisconsin at the top of the states in regarding job creation. But as we already know, he's falling way, way short of that mark:

New preliminary figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show Wisconsin with 2,739,500 total employees on nonfarm payrolls through December 2011.

That's up 3,200 for the year -- a 0.12 percent increase -- and puts Wisconsin 45th for total job growth compared to the other states and the District of Columbia.

The only states with a worse percentage increase in 2011 were Rhode Island, Maine, Missouri, Georgia, Alaska and Delaware.

And if it weren't for Governor Jim Doyle, we'd be even in worse straits:

In Wisconsin, the losses of the second half of 2011 effectively wiped out job growth of 38,800 in the first six months of the year.

Well, OK. If he didn't create jobs, he made Wisconsin one of the most business friendly states, right? I mean, Walker's been bragging about that for months, so it's got to be true, right?

Well, if you believe Walker, you must be new to this site. Welcome and feast your eyes on Walker's real track record:

Wisconsin is one of the 10 worst states in terms of taxes on businesses, according to the State Business Tax Climate Index, released Wednesday by the Tax Foundation.

It rates Wisconsin No. 43, down from 41 a year ago.

I can almost hear Walker doing his best Church Lady impersonation and saying, "Never mind."

If It Isn't A Mink, There Is No Link

2012-01-29T23:39:00.000-06:00

Surprisingly, this story isn't from Sheboygan:

The victim said that a man burst into his apartment. When the victim asked, "Why are you carrying a weasel?" police said the attacker said, "It's not a weasel, it's a marten," then punched him in the nose and fled.

Neither man was right. Authorities say the carcass was a mink.

Even funnier is the source who offers their own assessment of the story from a legal point of view.

H/T to the future Royal Barrister, if she ever finishes law school at UW-Madison.

The Walker Budget Is Already Working! Part XLIV

2012-01-29T23:22:00.000-06:00

Business is so good in Fitzwalkerstan that three appliance stores are closing without notice:

Employees of Appliance World, which operates three stores in southeastern Wisconsin, were told Sunday morning that the business was closing immediately and its assets were being seized by a bank.

Even though signs on the doors say "Closed for Inventory," Mike Whittaker, a sales representative at the Brookfield store, said it's unlikely the stores will reopen soon.

Whittaker said Appliance World owner Ed Aumann told 25 employees summoned to a meeting Sunday morning that "we're closing the business as of right now. It may reopen on Tuesday. I will not be the owner."

Whittaker doubts whether the business will reopen on Tuesday, and he's worried about getting his last paycheck.

Aumann did not return a phone call Sunday.

Kevin Novak, manager of the Brookfield Appliance World store, said Sunday night that he didn't know in advance of the meeting Sunday morning that the business was closing.

Novak and Whittaker don't know if customers who purchased appliances scheduled for delivery this week will get their merchandise.

"I have absolutely no idea. The owner wasn't clear on that," said Novak. "The word we got was that the company was going to reopen in some form on Tuesday to address some of these issues but there were no further details provided to us."

Whittaker, who has been a sale representative for nine years, estimated that as many as 100 customers are scheduled to get deliveries this week.

Last week "we were told only to sell things that were in stock," said Whittaker.

If the stores do reopen this week, Novak isn't sure who will be working.

"I think everybody employed by the company is looking for a new job including the owner," Novak said.

And remember at recall election time, that Scott Walker thinks this is a success. Then vote for the other person, even if it's a rancid potato.

Who Wrote The Mining Bill?

2012-01-29T23:06:00.000-06:00

The Republican lack of leadership and accountability in action:

They're so proud of their work, no one will take credit for it.

And for what it's worth, the bozo that slammed the door to Jeff Fitzgerald's office is John Jagler, who used to be one of the morning clowns on WTMJ-AM in Milwaukee, the official flagship for the GOP. Something tells me that the "news" department over there won't be reporting on this any time soon.

And to think that Fitz the Lesser wants to be a US Senator. It is to laugh.

Controversial Psychobabble Of The Day

2012-01-29T22:33:00.000-06:00

From Yahoo News:

There's no gentle way to put it: People who give in to racism and prejudice may simply be dumb, according to a new study that is bound to stir public controversy.

The research finds that children with low intelligence are more likely to hold prejudiced attitudes as adults. These findings point to a vicious cycle, according to lead researcher Gordon Hodson, a psychologist at Brock University in Ontario. Low-intelligence adults tend to gravitate toward socially conservative ideologies, the study found. Those ideologies, in turn, stress hierarchy and resistance to change, attitudes that can contribute to prejudice, Hodson wrote in an email to LiveScience.

"Prejudice is extremely complex and multifaceted, making it critical that any factors contributing to bias are uncovered and understood," he said.

For the record, I don't believe that IQ and racism are correlated.

I know some very intelligent people who are racist and some people with limited cognitive skills who aren't racist at all.

I think the important factor is wisdom, by which I mean the application of intelligence. Most or the people described in the article aren't necessarily stupid, just foolish.

Will Ernst-Ulrich Franzen Apologize To Supervisor John Weishan?

2012-01-29T20:27:00.000-06:00

A couple of years ago, Supervisor John Weishan, in light of Darlene Wink's illegal activity, filed an Open Records Request against Scott Walker's office. After being grossly overcharged, all Weishan got was a few lousy sheets of paper, which we now see were grossly in violation of the law regarding ORRs.

At the time, Ernst-Ulrich Franzen, part of the distinctly conservative editorial board at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel agreed that Weishan was overcharged and underserved, but then added this snide comment:

Weishan should remember that not every fishing trip pays off.

Recent events, that Franzen's paper has documented surprisingly well, goes to show that the record given to Weishan isn't accurate at all, nor is it complete.

Methinks that Franzen owes Weishan an apology for that off-hand and off-target comment.

Then he can apologize to the paper's readers, if they have any left, for carrying water for the corrupt Walker.

Walkergate vs Capitol Chaos

2012-01-29T19:50:00.001-06:00

Just a point of interest regarding the supposedly liberal media.

Last year when Wisconsinites gathered by the tens and even the hundreds of thousands in Madison to protest the outrages being done upon our fair state and its people, the local media was quick to coin the phrase "Capitol Chaos." They did so despite the fact that even though the crowds were huge, they were also very well behaved and under control.

However, as the investigation into the corruption of Scott Walker's campaign/county executive office* is coming to the light of day, they continue to refer to it as "the John Doe investigation into Walker's aides."

I may be biased, since I was one of the first, if not the first, to publicly refer to the scandal as Walkergate, but I think that is a much catchier name.

At least The Ed Schultz Show recognizes it:

You can catch the whole clip here.

So, peaceful protests deserves being labelled as chaotic, but the most corrupt governor in state history gets a pass. Exactly how the heck is that being liberal?

And on another point, just when the heck is Ed Schultz or Rachel Maddow going to ask me on their show? Sheesh!

*Walker's campaign staff and Walker's county staff are, for all practical purposes, apparently interchangeable.

Walker Dances Around Direct Questions

2012-01-29T15:57:00.002-06:00

The other day, Scott Walker said that he would finally take questions about the Walkergate investigation, even though for months he said that he was complying with the rules of the John Doe by not commenting on it (and that was on top of his continuous denials of being part of it, so not subject to the rules, supposedly).

But when it came down to it, Walker didn't say much at all about it, other than to deny that he was John Doe. However, it is important to keep in mind that when it comes to Walker, what he doesn't say is much more relevant and revealing than what he does say. Here is an excerpt from the story the Chicago Tribune did on this matter (emphasis mine):

Walker also sidestepped questions about a spreading corruption investigation that has led to the arrests of some of his former top aides from his tenure as Milwaukee County executive. The governor declined to say whether he had hired his own criminal attorney, saying his campaign was fully cooperating with prosecutors, who had asked him to refrain from such comments.

That would indicate that he has retained legal representation, an without doubt, it's not someone who comes cheap. I'll have more as I muddle through the pile of stuff, but there's been a noted change in the way that he is approaching this issue and that email he sent will be coming back to haunt him.

Notice The Difference?

2012-01-27T20:08:00.000-06:00

Walkergate: John Doe Hits A Bullseye!

2012-01-27T01:58:00.000-06:00

On Sunday, just five days ago, I wrote a piece about how the John Doe investigation, commonly referred to as Walkergate, into Scott Walker's county executive staff and campaign staff, which appear to be the same thing in many instances, was about to take a caucus scandal twist.

I pointed out how it appeared that Walker's Deputy Chief of Staff, Kelly Rindfleisch, was doing a lot of campaign work for then Assemblyman Brett Davis, who was Walker's and WISGOP's preferred choice for Lt. Governor.

Lo and behold, on Thursday morning, Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisolm announced the arrest and charging of Darlene Wink and Kelly Rindfleisch.

And with that news, we gained an even larger glimpse of just how corrupt Walker's office and campaign really was. In fact, this was the first solid bit of news to come from the actual Walkergate investigation and John Doe hit a bullseye on the first pass.

In the complaint against Darlene Wink, who set off this whole investigation by leaving comments on JSOnline and other sites, we learn that not only was she leaving comments, but was actively fundraising and organizing campaign events from her county office on county time.

Most of the complaint is an itemization of the times that Wink was doing her political work, but there are some eye-catching names included in her emails. For example, there are references to squawk radio hosts James T. Harris and Vicki McKenna doing emcee duties for a fundraising event and having Charlie Sykes promote it on his show. I would love to see if there were email exchanges between Wink and the squawkers.

We do know that Wink did have email exchanges with Reince Priebus, then chair of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, to see if he could get Sarah Palin to help them with a fundraiser. Eventually, this fund raiser was scrapped due to lack of interest.

The most intriguing thing about Wink comes not from the complaint against her. Instead, we learn that Wink was given a plea deal. Instead of getting charged with felonies, which they could have easily convicted her for, they gave her the chance to make it two misdemeanors and probably won't even see jail time. In exchange, Wink will testify against her co-defendants on other illegal campaigning allegations and most notably, regarding the "destruction of digital evidence." In other words, we might have just learned what happened to all those missing computers and files that suddenly grew legs at the end of Walker's term and walked away. Of course, many of the computers and what not had already been detained by the DA's Office on November 1.

But when one is facing recall, they probably don't want their name associated with a massive cover up like that.

If you thought that the names in the Wink complaint were interesting, the ones found in the complaint against Kelly Rindfleisch is a regular Rogues Gallery. Among the 57 pages of detailed explanation of the misconduct she is accused of doing, names like Robin Vos, Mike Huebsch, and, of course, Brett Davis. Also listed are Walker staffers Darlene Wink, Tim Russell, Tom Nardelli and campaign staffers such as Cullen Werwie, Keith Gilkes, Stephan Thompson and my personal favorite, Jill Bader.

From this complaint, one of the things that stands out the most is the fact that Tim Russell set up a secondary, secret email system using a wireless router designed to set up a 3G network. They used this set up for their campaigning and fundraising emails, as well as official county business. But because it was secret even to the head of IT, any open records requests would miss this.

Interestingly, after all of this came out, Walker basically put the governor's office on lockdown, cancelling all of his events, including a trip to Wausau. Oddly, the weather for Wausau was in the mid-30's and sunny, with patchy fog. Nothing that would keep him from making a trip. Besides, I'd bet my bottom dollar he's traveled through worse weather to get to one of his out-of-state fundraisers.

Walker eventually came out with a statement, through his campaign, which was very terse:

“The Milwaukee County executive's office expressed policy was that county employees were not permitted to use county time or resources to conduct any political activity. Scott Walker expected everyone to follow the law and made that clear publicly and privately," Walker campaign spokeswoman Ciara Matthews said in the statement.

Well, that takes care of that. I'm sure the Walker apologists will take this statement and the fact that Walker hasn't been indicted (yet) to show that he is a victim just like the rest of the people in Milwaukee County and in all of the state.

But as we all already know all too well, just because Walker said something, doesn't make it true. In fact, it's usually the opposite. And this is no exception.

In the Rindfleisch complaint, on page 50, we see this exchange that Walker sent regarding the damage control after Wink was caught and had resigned from her position in the county:

That clearly indicates that Walker knew exactly what his staff was doing and was ordering them to start covering their tracks. This was also about the time that Milwaukee County Supervisor John Weishan started doing his own open records requests into Walker's office.

It also contradicts his statement regarding his policy of doing politicking from his governmental office. But we already knew that when he got busted soliciting for political help from a person he had thought was David Koch

If the investigation were to end with this, they could probably indict Walker with the information they already have. But this is far from over.

Remember that commercial realtor Andrew Jensen was to report to the DA's Office just yesterday. And there are indications that they are looking at a pay-for-play scenario regarding the realtors, some of which are Walker's staff, both in the county and in his campaign.

And the complaints show that there was two way communications between Walker's executive office and his campaign. All of the campaign workers could be looking at possible charges as well.

And I am hearing things of yet another mess that might be coming down the pike besides the ones that are already known.

And there are a couple, three questions that I am pondering:

How is Rebecca Kleefisch handling the realization that she's hooked up her minivan to a guy and a whole political party that didn't even want her as Lt,. Governor?
Are any of Walker's big time out-of-state donors calling asking for their money back since every day makes Walker look more like a losing bet?
Does anyone still believe that Walker turned in these people like he claimed after Tim Russell got arrested?

While this was definitely a bullseye and puts Walker in a very untenable position, there is no reason in the world to even think that John Doe isn't already aiming his next shot or that this one will miss its target either.

The next few days and weeks and months will definitely be interesting as Walkergate continues to unveil itself.

Well, If That's The Comparison He Wants To Make...

2012-01-26T02:02:00.000-06:00

I've notice recently that Scott Walker has been trying to cover his losing job record by highlighting the three years before him, such as in this press release:

The Governor also noted that the state has put a stop to years of job loss. After Wisconsin lost 150,000 jobs over three years, the state created thousands of jobs this year, and the state’s unemployment rate is the lowest it’s been since 2008.

I don't know who's been advising him on his talking points, but I hope he keeps them.

First off, bragging about the lowest unemployment rate is a losing fight for him, since we already know that is only reflective of the people that have given up looking for employment in the jobs wasteland known as Fitzwalkerstan.

But does Walker really want to compare his record to Doyle's?

The three years that Walker refers to, we were going through not just a national recession, but a global one. And even one accepts Walker's numbers as factual, that means that Doyle saw Wisconsin lose 50,000 jobs a year.

But thanks to my co-author, Keith Schmitz, and this handy chart, we see what was happening in Walker's first year as governor:

The only job growth for the year happened as a leftover of the Doyle budget. When Walker's policies started taking effect, the jobs started leaving like crazy.

In the last six months of 2011, when Walker's policies and budgets were in full force, the state lost some 40,000-45,000 jobs. Or to put it more frankly, it took Walker half the time to lose nearly the same amount of jobs that he is accusing of Doyle losing over the course during an entire year. And during Walker's term, the rest of the nation has been gaining jobs as the economy recovers from the recession, while Doyle had taken the brunt of it.

Perhaps he could use that as a campaign slogan: "If you thought Doyle was bad, I'm twice as bad!

Your Health vs Their Profit: Scrap the Mining Bill

2012-01-26T01:19:00.000-06:00

The Republicans are again kicking common sense to the curb by trying to ram through legislation, which was written by the mining companies, to ease up the restrictions that are protecting our water.

From the Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters:

And here is their own fact check which pretty clearly proves their statements, contrary to the lies that the corporately-owned WISGOP would have you believe.

If you're interested in helping more, you can find out how here

And as an added bonus, here's some video of the mine protests featuring the Bad River Drums.

Milwaukee County Pension System Is Under Attack

2012-01-26T00:59:00.000-06:00

Three Milwaukee County supervisors - Joe Rice, Paul Cesarz and Joe Sanfelippo - are trying to do a money grab on the county's pension plan to appease their corporate friends, as well as to carry on the legacy of damage done by Scott Walker.

The thing is, not only is completely unnecessary, it is detrimental to both the workers and to the taxpayers in Milwaukee County, as we explain at Milwaukee County First.

But what can one expect from three of the most ethically-challenged supervisors on the board. Rice and Cesarz are tied in with the latest aspect of Walkergate and Sanfelippo has his own problems as it's being (finally) reported that he's been profiteering off the county.

At least Rice and Cesarz will be gone in a few more months.

The Walker Budget Is Already Working! Part LXIII

2012-01-25T19:56:00.000-06:00

Yet another store closing because it was bringing enough money in:

Gail Jones knows her days are numbered as manager of the Hostess Bakery Outlet on Kennedy Road in Janesville.

In fact, she said, her 13-year career might end today when corporate Hostess Brands officials visit her store at 3212 Kennedy Road to tell her exactly when she will close.

Jones said the corporate store has sold products for 30 years. Until about 18 months ago, she shared the space and split the costs of the building with Hostess route trucks that would load up each day and head out on their retail rounds.

"They say my store is not profitable," said Jones, who agrees that the added overhead has eaten up a good portion of her retail sales.

And it's not bringing enough money in because there's not enough money in the people's hands thanks to Scott Walker taking it from the working men and women and giving it to the profiteers.

Betcha that's something that's not mentioned in his State of the Please Don't Recall Me Campaign speech. (No, I'm not watching that tax-funded political ad. Why would anyone want to?)

Walkergate: Intermission

2012-01-25T07:02:00.000-06:00

I don't have time to go into depth on the latest installment of Walkergate as being reported in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel this morning. I'll try to give you some insights that the paper missed tonight.

But a couple of things for now to digest as you read their report:

Now we know why Hiller left so suddenly
They really don't go into how cozy all these people are with each other
I'm really surprised they didn't go after what, at least to me, was the more sordid land deal regarding the county grounds
Remember, they save the big stuff for last and this thing isn't done yet

Scott Walker: Bought And Paid For

2012-01-24T01:24:00.001-06:00

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

In just over a year, Walker has raised more than $12 million in campaign donations - more than he spent to win the seat in 2010 - and despite sizable spending in recent weeks still has $2.6 million in cash in the bank, according to figures released Monday by his campaign. The Republican governor has traveled the country to raise money in recent weeks and has benefited from a quirk in the state's election law that allows elected officials facing recalls to raise unlimited amounts.

All that proves is that Scott Walker is openly prostituting himself to the big corporate interests.

James Rowen has a graphic that shows just how much Weasel à la Carte runs for, which is way beyond what most Wisconsinites, especially those that have suffered severe pay cuts or even lost their jobs, could ever afford.

It's pretty obvious who Walker is really standing with, and it ain't us.

But don't lose heart friends. Just remember the late George Steinbrenner and his New York Yankees, who every year blew more cash on star players than most teams could afford, yet have nothing to show for it.

Likewise, all the money in the world won't hide the fact that Walker has driven jobs out of the state for six months running, has caused the state's economy to become stagnant and have the lowest economic activity in the entire country, and has shredded the constitution and the long honored and esteemed system of checks and balances.

And all the money in the world won't cover the corrupt and maleficent way he has led the state down the tubes.

Nor will it save his job.

Save The Date! Reclaim Wisconsin March!

2012-01-24T00:50:00.000-06:00

From the AFL-CIO:

Join us as we mark the one year anniversary of the passage of Gov. Walker’s draconian union-busting bill.

March 9 is the night that Senate Republicans rammed through the bill in the dead of the night in an illegal session. Friday, March 9 will be marked with candlelight vigils around the state and on Saturday, March 10 we will return to the Capitol to let Gov. Walker now we will never forget his attacks on worker rights, our democracy and fairness!

When: Saturday, March 10

Where: State Capitol, Madison

What: Reclaim Wisconsin March

Rally Organizers Broke The Law

2012-01-24T00:25:00.002-06:00

In my reviewing of the rally video done by the blogging duo of Phil Scarr and Lisa Mux, I noticed something else. At the far right of the stage was this sign:

That is clearly a Recall Walker sign that has been defaced!

I'm sure with all the faux outrage, right wing bloggers will be calling them out in exactly never.

But perhaps I judge the organizers too harshly. Maybe they didn't put the sign up, but one of the overzealous scofflaws in attendance. The organizers were probably too busy picking attendance numbers out of the air to take time to vandalize any recall signs.

I Don't Think It Means What You Think It Means

2012-01-23T23:46:00.000-06:00

I saw something in the various videos regarding the gathering of dozens of very white people who showed up in Wauwatosa on Saturday to show they still don't know what is happening to the state.

There were a lot of signs that looked like this:

Some scallywag even came up with a website with those letters for a PAC of some sort.

But I don't think it means what they think it means.

Republicans Don't Like To Follow Act 10

2012-01-23T23:09:00.002-06:00

Eau Claire County Sheriff Ron Cramer doesn't think he should take the same hits that other public employees in Fitzwalkerstan are taking thanks to Act 10. So much so he sued to not have his wages cut.

Talk about poor leadership!

Oh, and yes, he's a Republican.

The Walker Budget Is Already Working! Part LXII

2012-01-23T20:31:00.000-06:00

Add another 25 people from Baraboo who get to enjoy the "success" of Scott Walker's ideological budgeting:

A national retailer that has held a presence in the Baraboo area since 1929 will close its doors March 3.

"It's never easy, but it came down to a business decision," JC Penney spokesman Tim Lyons said Friday. "We regularly review our stores to ensure they're performing as expected. I guess it's fair to say it was under performing."

The roughly 25 employees at the West Baraboo JC Penney were notified earlier this week of the firm's decision to close the store.

The article goes on to say that this is the second closing announcement in the same shopping plaza in recent weeks.

Walker says that the state is open for business, but with the legal problems, the cronyism and huge tax giveaways to his big campaign donors, he omitted that Wisconsin was open only for monkey business.

Davis Throws His Own Mother Under The Charter School Bus

2012-01-22T23:27:00.000-06:00

In the latest Walkergate update, I pointed out that Brett Davis was getting a lot of support from the education profiteers:

Davis looked like someone who would fit in well with Walker's extremist agenda. He supported slashing school funding, which was in line with what education profiteers want and what Walker's attempting to do. The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign shows that groups like All Children Matter, Wisconsin Club for Growth and Coalition for American's Families put in undisclosed amounts of money to run issue ads. One Wisconsin Now reported that the financial backers of All Children Matter gave Davis $13,000.

This whole thing is slimier than I realized at the time.

One of these financiers behind All Children Matter include the same Swift Boater that just gave Scott Walker a huge check.

Even worse, Davis is willing to throw his own mother, who works as a public school teacher in Monroe, WI.

Nice to see that Davis thinks lucre is thicker than blood.

Tommy Thompson: The Red Meat Reel

2012-01-22T22:21:00.000-06:00

My friends Phil Scarr and Lisa Muxy went to the pro-Scott Walker rally on Saturday. They took a video of TOMMY!!! flying off the handle and added their own observations and commentary which makes the sickening hate the GOP spews not only tolerable, but entirely laughable:

Good job, kids!

One note: About the 2:51 mark, it sounds like Tommy had one of his usual gaffes and called our soon to be ex-Governor Scott Worrier. Freudian slip, anyone?

I Thought The Mines Were Supposed To Create Wisconsin Jobs...

2012-01-22T21:58:00.000-06:00

Here all along, Scott Walker and his cronies were telling us how allowing mining companies to come in and rape our natural resources and pollute our air and waters would be OK because they created good-paying jobs for Wisconsinites.

We now learn that not only is this not true, it brings scum here to endanger our police officers and clog up our courts and prison systems and use up more of our preciously scarce tax dollars:

“We wanted to isolate the room before we made contact with the individual,” Tomah Police Chief Wes Revels said.

He said the displaced guests, all of whom were part of a construction crew with Roark, were moved to vacant rooms on the second floor. Revels said they were performing work at a local sand mine.

Roark was arrested and was being held in the Monroe County Jail on suspicion of endangering safety while intoxicated with a firearm, failure to comply with police, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct with a dangerous weapon.

So, while Walker has driven tens of thousands of jobs out of the state over the past six months, the few jobs remaining our going to out-of-state, drunken, gun-toting idiots?

We can't get rid of him fast enough.

January Days

2012-01-22T21:16:00.000-06:00

So, the Koch Brothers funded an all-star pro-Scott Walker rally where they had ~~thousands~~ ~~hundreds~~ dozens of people show up.

Yawn.

This video by Mike Matheson shows what a real grass roots effort looks like, including the culmination of a million signatures from people wanting to take their state back from the corporate interests that Walker is trying to sell it to(WARNING - Not epileptic friendly):

And those are Wisconsinites, folks, not the Illinois people that Walker had to bus in.

In Case You're Keeping Score In Walkergate

2012-01-22T20:16:00.000-06:00

Just to help people, including yours truly, keep track of the exploding Walkergate story, here are some events to keep mark of:

Monday, January 23, 8:30 am - Tim Russell appears in court for his preliminary hearing.
Wednesday, January 25 - Andrew Jensen is to report to the DA's Office in regards to Walkergate
Thursday, January 26, 8:15 am - Brian Pierick has his preliminary hearing in Waukesha County for his child enticement charges
Monday, January 30, 8:30 am - Kevin Kavanaugh has a scheduling conference regarding his embezzlement charges

As Zach at Blogging Blue alludes to, I am hearing there will be more shoes dropping soon, maybe as early this week.

As always, I will try to not only provide updates, but also some background, to help the gentle reader stay informed.

I am counting on you to make sure that Scott Walker doesn't raid the treasury and abscond with our money as things get closer to him and he tries to elude justice.

Scenes From An Education Convention

2012-01-22T15:21:00.000-06:00

Last week, Scott Walker returned to Milwaukee County to speak to a convention of school administrators, board members and business managers. He came to boast of his so-called reforms (remember: reforms can be negative as well as positive) to Wisconsin's educational system.

One problem though. He forgot to include the state's top educator in his plans:

An Evers spokesman said he hadn't been apprised of the package of reforms before they were released on Thursday.

"Policy and legislation are two different things. I'm a little bit in the dark on the legislative piece," Evers said.

Evers released a statement saying that while he worked in a "collaborative spirit" on various reform-oriented initiatives, he wasn't involved in the creation of Walker's plan.

"Despite my leadership in these arenas and constitutional authority, I have not been involved in the drafting of the education proposals that have been announced. Clearly, it is essential to see the details of this proposed legislation and ensure they match the intent and spirit of all the work that so many groups and individuals put into improving schools and academic achievement for all students in Wisconsin," he said in the statement.

As one might suspect, I knew someone who was in attendance at the convention.

My friend gave me some insight that was not reported in any of the traditional mainstream media venues.

For example, Walker was very much on edge and looked like "a scared little boy." (Was this Walkergate or just the fact that he knew they knew he was going to implode the educational system?)

Walker also said, "I don't want to talk about the past." Heh, my guess is he doesn't want to talk about the present or the future too much either.

My friend also had the, um, "opportunity" to experience the wit and wisdom of Karin Rajnicek, the clueless school board member from Waukesha.

Rajnicek takes her job very seriously, even if she apparently doesn't understand quite what her job is. She said that she spends her day wandering "around the halls of the schools keeping an eye on the teachers." I don't know, but maybe she's a wannabe correction officer?

Rajnicek also appears not to do as well without a teleprompter to read from. She couldn't iterate the points that she made in her commercial, much less show an understanding of what she is about to face when they look at next year's budget.

But she was able to complain that the hot lunches at the schools she oversees are so bad that she would only let her kids have one three times a month. The irony of that sentence cannot be overstated.

Walker Gets OWNed

2012-01-22T14:28:00.001-06:00

Best visual of the year so far:

From One Wisconsin Now and their press release behind it.

Walkergate: Caucus Scandal Redux

2012-01-22T12:51:00.001-06:00

Note: The following was done with the assistance of the research crew at www.politiscoop.com.

As the gentle reader might remember, all those months ago, I wrote An Introduction to Walkergate. In that piece, I wrote about Darlene Wink and Tim Russell, two GOP operatives who were also working for Scott Walker when he was Milwaukee County Executive. I also pointed out how they were accused of campaigning on county time and with county equipment.

More recently, in an article I wrote for the Shepherd Express, I did an overview of the Walkergate investigation, again with everything coming back to indicate that there was a high level of illegal campaigning going on in the Walker administration and possible collusion with his campaign.

Over the course of the last few days, I've learned more things, things which might or might not be part of the official investigation being conducted by the Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office, which is starting to make this whole stinking mess seem more like a redux of the caucus scandals which rocked the state ten years ago, when Walker was still a state legislator himself. The caucus scandals involved dirty politics at its dirtiest, done by both the Republicans and Democrats. The scandal, if I may oversimplify it, involved staff doing extensive politicking on the taxpayers' dime and collusion with third party groups.

Zach Wisnewski started things off by questioning why Cullen Werwie, former Walker campaign staff and current gubernatorial spokesman, was given immunity in the Walkergate investigation. Wisnewski gave us the first clue when he wrote this (emphasis mine):

During the 2010 Republican Lt. Governor race, Werwie worked for the campaign of former Republican State Rep. Brett Davis. After Davis was defeated in the September 2010 Republican Lt. Governor primary, Werwie went to work as the traveling press person for Scott Walker’s gubernatorial campaign. In that role, Werwie would have traveled everywhere Scott Walker went, working in close proximity to Walker, no doubt leaving Werwie privy to most – if not all – of Scott Walker’s communications while on the campaign trail.

I then received a tip from a friend of Cog Dis, who pointed out that there was another connection between Walker's campaign and that of Brett Davis.

That connection is a woman named Kelly Rindfleisch.

My tipster indicated that Rindfleisch had done consulting and fund raising work for Davis while she was employed by Milwaukee County as Walker's Deputy Chief of Staff, replacing Tim Russell, whom Walker had made his Director of Housing. A few weeks ago, Russell was arrested and charged with embezzling more than $10,000 from a veterans fund.

Rindfleisch's Linked-In profile does indeed indicated that she was Walker's Deputy Chief of Staff from January 2010 through November 2010. Further research indicated that Rindfleisch was the registered agent for a group called JVS Consulting. Davis' campaign finance reports show that he paid this agency $3,000 in his failed bid for Lieutenant Governor.

Now, none of this indicates that Rindfleisch, Werwie or Davis did anything illegal. However, there are other facts that have surfaced in researching this angle that, well, I will just present them and let the gentle reader draw their own conclusions.

One of the things that stands out is that Davis appeared to be the candidate of choice for the WISGOP machine. The Republican Party of Waukesha County, one of the reddest counties in the state, sent out mailers which endorsed Davis for Lt. Governor. Davis was also endorsed by the Republican Party of Milwaukee County (home of Darlene Wink, Tim Russell and other names that have been popping up in the Walkergate investigation), Tommy Thompson, WMC and MMAC.

As a point of interest, and to further cement the ties that bind, Davis' campaign treasurer was Jason T. Thompson, son of Tommy Thompson, and currently an attorney at Walker's favorite law firm, Michael Best & Friedich.

Davis looked like someone who would fit in well with Walker's extremist agenda. He supported slashing school funding, which was in line with what education profiteers want and what Walker's attempting to do. The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign shows that groups like All Children Matter, Wisconsin Club for Growth and Coalition for American's Families put in undisclosed amounts of money to run issue ads. One Wisconsin Now reported that the financial backers of All Children Matter gave Davis $13,000.

After failing to win in the primary, Walker eventually appointed Davis to be the Wisconsin Medicaid Director, to work with Dennis Smith. Davis and Smith had previously worked together in Washington, D.C., for then Secretary of Health Tommy Thompson. We all know how things are working out for people dependent on Medicaid services.

Now on to Kelly Rindfleisch.

Rindfleisch was named in the complaint filed against Tim Russell. Russell apparently listed her as Secretary/Treasurer and as a Director of Heritage Guard Preservation Society, Inc. (HGPS). HGPS was the group that Walker personally assigned to handle the finances for Operation Freedom. She denied being aware of this. But she sure was aware of Operation Freedom.

On the Facebook page for Operation Freedom, Rindfleisch put in three entries (all of which one might assume was during work hours).

As an oddity, it was also found that Rindfleisch had once submitted a picture of a "ghost" to International Ghost Hunters Society. Putting one's beliefs and feelings regarding the paranormal aside for a moment, it should be noted that she submitted her picture and accompanying description via her state legislative email address.

Again, I would emphasize that none of this proves that Davis, Werwie, or Rindfleisch have done anything illegal or are necessarily part of the Walkergate investigation, with the exception of Werwie's immunity. But they are things that I found interesting.

What I also found interesting, and I would hope the gentle reader also finds interesting as they come to their own conclusions, was this passage from an article from the Wisconsin State Journal, which I came across in my research:

In late January, three months before Gardner was charged, the head of a nonpartisan group that tracks political contributions was interviewed by an FBI agent who was interested in not only the Gardner contributions but also how legislative staffers hid illegal campaign activities in the caucus scandal 10 years ago.

In that case, staffers of four partisan legislative caucuses were found to have been campaigning illegally on state time for both Republicans and Democrats. A John Doe probe, sparked by a Wisconsin State Journal investigation, resulted in criminal charges and fines against five lawmakers and four legislative aides, including the Legislature's top leaders, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Chvala, D-Madison, and Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen, R-Brookfield.

When he was interviewed by the FBI, Mike McCabe, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, said he was unaware that the discussion was part of an ongoing investigation.

In addition to discussing he Gardner donations, "The agent also wanted to talk about the caucus scandal: how it worked, how they covered stuff up, that sort of thing," McCabe said. "He never mentioned Milwaukee County."

If the authorities are indeed looking at Walkergate with the caucus scandals in mind, this could eventually turn into a bigger affair than even I imagined, with ramifications reaching not only around the state but around the country.

The other thing that I question is, if Davis was indeed the first choice for Lt. Gov by Walker and WISGOP, I wonder how Walker's relationship with Rebecca Kleefisch really is. Is she aware that Walker apparently had his people working for Davis? If so, does she trust Walker? What is her relationship with the party like?

Kleefisch sure hasn't done much publicly, either as Lt. Governor or as a politician.. To me, this could indicate a possible trust issue going in either direction, or even both directions, between her and Walker and her and the WISGOP machinery.

This could get very interesting very fast. Make sure you're stocked up on popcorn.

Parting Words To Live By

2012-01-22T02:58:00.001-06:00

Tom Foley, aka Illusory Tenant, has gone offline.

But before he left, he did send one last message, words which we should abide by:

Thanks again everybody. Okay, I'm off the grid. Impeach the scofflaws!