Recall Scott Walker

[Valerian]

Now that the dust has settled from the senatorial recalls in Wisconsin, the official signature-gathering effort to recall Governor Walker himself starts on November 15th.  Some predict that the overturning of the union-busting bill in Ohio (one even more harsh than the one in Wisconsin, as it included firefighters and police officers) will help set up some momentum for the recall election.

I really hope so, since frankly, things are only getting more messed up around here lately.  (Thanks to Oniya for pointing the video out to me.)

Gov. Scott Walker gets checked, Mic Checked!



Walker is almost certainly the subject of a John Doe investigation by the FBI.  Two major supporters of Walker's gubernatorial campaign and Walker spokesman Cullen Werwie have all been granted immunity in exchange for their testimony.  A Walker aide who recently left her job to work elsewhere in state government had her home raided by the FBI in September.

A timeline of events suggests that the investigation is looking back all the way to 2005, when Walker first began accepting illegal contributions for his gubernatorial campaign, though the full extent of the investigation is not yet known.



Republican Dale Schultz was the only senator to break party lines during the vote on Wisconsin's anti-collective bargaining bill -- he voted with the Democrats and therefore saved himself any real risk of a recall.  It didn't matter; the Republicans still had the majority and the bill passed.

Now he's broken with party lines again and voted against the redistricting bill that the Republicans are trying to push into law to make future recalls against Republicans more difficult.  (Redistricting is required to be finished by November 2012; Republicans wanted it done a year early.  Schultz says he wants to continue to represent the people who actually elected him.)  But while the Senate recalls didn't give the Democrats the majority, they did reduce the Republican majority to one vote.  Schultz voting against the bill means it doesn't pass.  Apparently in retaliation, someone decided to egg his office at the capitol building.



As of November 1st, concealed carry gun permits are available.  This being one of Walker's pet projects, it must somehow create jobs -- he claimed back in October that he would have a "laser-like focus" on job creation this legislative session -- but I haven't yet figured out how, exactly.  The point is, at the first opportunity, Walker dropped the requirement for a four-hour training course in proper gun handling.  If you want to hunt deer, you need a 10-hour training course with that rifle; so maybe people should go after those big bucks with a .45 instead.  :P

You're even allowed to carry a concealed weapon in most areas of the state capitol buildings, the major exception being the State Supreme Court hearing room.

But if you carry in one of those terribly dangerous protest signs, or dare to use a camera, prepare to be arrested.

Earlier this year, during the large protests in the capital over the governor’s anti-union policies, the administration installed metal detectors to make sure no weapons were brought into the building. Republicans complained they often felt unsafe, the Journal-Sentinel said, and state Senator Scott Fitzgerald called the Capitol “a powder keg.”

The demonstrations over the anti-union measures were peaceful. Yet, this week, a dozen people were arrested for holding up signs in the Assembly galleries and videotaping proceedings. It turns out cameras – while permitted to be carried – can’t be used, and signs are not permitted in the galleries. On Tuesday, a resolution was introduced to suspend the rule forbidding signs, but it was defeated along party lines, with one Republican arguing that the turbulence of the protests and death threats received by Republicans required the rules remain in place. The Journal-Sentinel noted that members of both parties received death threats by email and phone.

[Callie Del Noire]

While the video cheers me a bit, over all Valerian, your new bites depress me. Less and less cooperation and non-partisan statesmanship seems to be coming out of this, with the single exception of Republican Dale Schultz trying to meet the opposition in the middle. I don't expect he'll be getting any support on his reelection from the party, which is a shame since it seems he's a LEADER rather than party yes man.

I imagine there are going to be a LOT of districts that will bob and weave around neighborhoods and towns in ways that will either maxmize the republican turn out or put all the democrats in two or more districts into a 'new single' district. Back how we had a district appear that extended only two miles around i-85 for like nearly 40 miles.

[meikle]

But if you carry in one of those terribly dangerous protest signs, or dare to use a camera, prepare to be arrested.

Earlier this year, during the large protests in the capital over the governor’s anti-union policies, the administration installed metal detectors to make sure no weapons were brought into the building. Republicans complained they often felt unsafe, the Journal-Sentinel said, and state Senator Scott Fitzgerald called the Capitol “a powder keg.”

Republicans felt unsafe with all of the protesters, so now we'll let them carry guns instead of signs.  That'll be safer!

[Valerian]

Some morning DJs pointed out that the cost of providing security for the governor and lieutenant governor has more than doubled from the comparable time period for the last administration ($611,400 now compared to $259,900 when Jim Doyle was governor).  Part of that is because Walker's children are younger and need more protection than Doyle's grown children, who no longer lived with him, but also:

David Erwin, a captain in the State Patrol and the head of the unit that protects the governor, said the threats against Walker have reached a new level. State officials declined to discuss those threats or the governor's security in any detail because they said it might put him at risk.

"Any threats targeting the governor, his family and the lieutenant governor are not comparable to past administrations. Because of the increased threat level, for the first time we need to provide security at this level for the (lieutenant governor) and the governor's family," said a statement by Erwin, who also led the unit when Doyle was governor.

So you'd think that they'd want to stop people from carrying guns around, openly or otherwise, but apparently that's too logical.  :P

[Callie Del Noire]

Republicans felt unsafe with all of the protesters, so now we'll let them carry guns instead of signs.  That'll be safer!

Hey! Everyone knows those commie/liberal/hippy unionists don't like guns! And they say such mean things on those signs!

[Valerian]

Wisconsin being the Badger State.  ;)


There is one bit of slightly better news that I meant to link to earlier: Schultz and Democratic Senator Tim Cullen organized a joint tour of the state last month to promote cooperation between parties.

Cullen and Schultz have visited each others’ districts. Each listened to the concerns of the others’ constituents. They are working together finding common ground on issues that matter to people regardless of political affiliation.

http://www.commoncausewisconsin.org/2011/09/two-state-senators-should-be-inducted.html
http://therecoveringpolitician.com/weekly-web-gems/the-rps-weekly-web-gems-the-politics-of-the-states-2

So thank goodness someone's trying to restore some sanity, even though it doesn't seem to be helping much yet...

[MasterMischief]

Hey! Everyone knows those commie/liberal/hippy unionists don't like guns! And they say such mean things on those signs!

You forgot fascists.   ::)

[Oniya]

Didn't you know?  Communists and fascists are the same thing.  [/sarcasm]

[itsbeenfun2000]

The recall paperwork was put in about a week ago by one of Walker's supporters. This gave Walker an extra few weeks to acquire money from the superpacks to start his campain and for the superpacks to start getting the money together to advertise.

Needless to say the Democrats are extremely unhappy about this issue. How much sleazier can this man be?

[Valerian]

United Wisconsin, the group leading the recall effort, had their website hit by a Distributed Denial of Service attack earlier today.  The site was down for about six hours, and the group has reported the attack to the FBI and the Wisconsin Attorney General's office. 

A United Wisconsin spokesperson is quoted as saying that the "attack was coordinated and deliberate".

Several cities around the state are having signing parties that start just after midnight tonight, so that the recall can get started as quickly as possible.


On the one hand, it's depressing that anyone would do something like that.  On the other, at least maybe this means that Walker supporters are nervous about the recall.

[Avis habilis]

On the one hand, it's depressing that anyone would do something like that.  On the other, at least maybe this means that Walker supporters are nervous about the recall.

They're just getting started.

[MasterMischief]

I just threw up a little in my mouth.

[Valerian]

According to politiscoop, the plotters involved in the link Avis posted also have ties to the Republican party in Waukesha County -- that being the county where the mysteriously missing 7,000+ votes turned up just in time to give heavily conservative judge and Walker rubber-stamp David Prosser the win in the last state supreme court election.  It's very much a Republican enclave, about the only one in that part of the state.  The good news, such as it is, is that if they get caught doing anything like they said they might, that's a Class I felony, punishable by up to a $10,000 fine and as much as three and a half years in prison.

The best way to stymie any such fraud, though, is to go to the nearest United Wisconsin recall office rather than signing a petition brought to your door.  There's a listing here, and they're in 28 cities around the state.

Recall centers have been busy.  The Appleton office collected about 1,100 signatures yesterday, for example, and Stevens Point reported collecting about 1,000.  No overall numbers are posted yet that I can find, but other numbers aren't in Walker's favor:

The poll showed that 58 percent of respondents believe Walker should be recalled from office. That compares with 47 percent who said in April that he should be recalled.

The growth in support for a recall came, surprisingly, from Republicans. In the spring, only 7 percent of Republicans supported recalling Walker but that grew to 24 percent in the fall. Support among Democrats held mainly steady at 88 percent in the spring and 92 percent in the fall.

Emphasis mine.



Also, four more GOP senators are now eligible for recall, and signatures are being gathered for that as well.  Those senators are Pam Galloway of Wausau, Terry Moulton of Chippewa Falls, Van Wanggaard of Racine, and most hopeful of all, senate majority leader Scott Fitzgerald, the second-most-disliked Scott in Wisconsin right now.  (Governor and majority leader agree on everything, unsurprisingly, and are sometimes jointly called Fitzwalker.)  His recall probably won't work, unfortunately, since he won by a considerable margin; but of the other three, Moulton had the biggest margin of votes at 8.5%.  Pam Galloway won by about 4.5% and Wanggaard by about 5%, so they didn't exactly get in by landslides.  Just one more Democrat in the senate will give them the majority.

The Daily Kos website is tracking some numbers and following the recalls day by day, and they've got some interesting statistics posted.  I am most amused by the fact that a Waukesha school board member appeared in a pro-Walker ad giving incorrect information about her own district -- she seems confused as to how many schools they actually have.  She also, incidentally, violated the board's own rules, which prohibit any member from talking to the media or issuing any sort of public statement without making it clear that they are speaking only for themselves and not for the entire board, whereas she implies throughout that she is speaking for the entire board.

[Valerian]

Ten days in and the fur is flying.

Three of the people mentioned above, who were planning to collect and destroy recall signatures now say they're going to turn them in after all, after having been informed of the possible legal consequences.  On the other hand, the one who was interviewed claims that about 1,000 people are involved in total.

And now a new facebook group called Operation Burn Notice claims they're making serious attempts to sabotage the recall efforts:

The letter cited several Operation Burn Notice posts that bragged about having destroyed 148,764 signatures as of Sunday.

One post stated Saturday:

The fires have been extinguished and the ashes spread. It was a very good day for a Sunday. To date, Operation Burn Notice has destroyed over 11,000 "documents". Do the math, kiddies. First correct total of signatures gets the Sunday, weekly door-prize.

There have so far been two reported incidents of people tearing up petitions.

As of yesterday, it's being reported that 105,000 of the 540,208 signatures needed have been collected, or about 20%.  The deadline for signatures is January 15th.



The Republicans have set up a "recall integrity center" website to combat recall fraud.  So far they've found a couple of public employees using their work emails to send out information about and support of the recall; and one joke posting on a schedule of recall events that was quickly yanked down.  Anyone is allowed to update that schedule.



And for fun:

The Wreck of the Brothers Fitzgerald

The Brothers Fitzgerald are Scott and Jeff, majority leaders of the Senate and Assembly respectively.  Lyrics by Madison singer/songwriter Peter Leidy.

[Valerian]

http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/walker-administration-alters-protest-permit-requirements-6839brh-134845183.html

Walker's latest is a new set of rules about demonstrations in or near state buildings:

The policy says:

 Groups of four or more people must obtain permits for all activity and displays in state buildings and apply for those permits at least 72 hours in advance. The policy requires permits for 100 or more people outside the Capitol. The policy does provide some leeway for spontaneous gatherings triggered by unforeseen events.

 Groups holding demonstrations could be charged for the costs of having extra police on hand for the event. Costs associated with a counterprotest could be charged to that second group. The costs would be $50 per hour per Capitol Police officer - costs for police officers from outside agencies would depend on the costs billed to the state. The police could require an advance payment as a requirement for getting a permit and also could require liability insurance or a bond.

Bob Dreps, a lawyer who handles First Amendment cases including work for the Journal Sentinel, noted that the state can put some restrictions on the "time, place and manner" of free speech. But he said it was "laughable" to define a rally as four or more people.

Sen. Glenn Grothman (R-West Bend) said it "makes sense" to have people ask permission to demonstrate and hold other events to ensure that the various groups that use the building can do so effectively. Grothman, however, said he wasn't sure that four people would amount to a rally.

"Like everything, the important thing is that it will be administered with common sense," Grothman said.

One group that meets every weekday at the Capitol is the Solidarity Singers, a pro-labor chorus that has been singing in protest of Walker's policies since last spring.

Department of Administration spokeswoman Jocelyn Webster said an agency lawyer had reached out to the leader of the Solidarity Singers, Chris Reeder, and would be meeting with him about the policy.

Reeder said his group has been willing to take its singing outside on days when other events such as blood drives are happening.

"We believe what we're doing is protected by the First Amendment," Reeder said of the new policy.

I find it mildly amusing that even a Republican senator isn't too sure about this new set of rules.  As I heard on the radio this morning, soon only the Scott Walker Fan Club will be allowed to meet in the capitol, since they have only three members.

On the plus side, over 300,000 signatures have been collected out of the 540,000 needed.

Walker went on CNBC implying that the recall effort was paying people to sign, even though the recall effort is seriously underfunded compared to the amount of money Walker and the Tea Party are already spending on TV ads.

And mostly I feel like I need to go rant in the Bad & Ugly now.

[Callie Del Noire]

Walker went on CNBC implying that the recall effort was paying people to sign, even though the recall effort is seriously underfunded compared to the amount of money Walker and the Tea Party are already spending on TV ads.

And mostly I feel like I need to go rant in the Bad & Ugly now.

Wow.. I'd say go get a stiff drink.. (looks at his bottle of Midnight Moon) but it's like still fairly early in the morning.

[Trieste]

Dude, Walker just defined my family as a rally! :D We have: four kids, seven if you count the significant others of the kids, plus two parents. So nine people... ten if you count the family dog.

We'll have to remember to get a permit if we ever visit the WI capitol. :P

[Callie Del Noire]

Dude, Walker just defined my family as a rally! :D We have: four kids, seven if you count the significant others of the kids, plus two parents. So nine people... ten if you count the family dog.

We'll have to remember to get a permit if we ever visit the WI capitol. :P

Only if you carry signs or wear 'impeach Scott Walker' tshirts. (hmmm.. )

[Oniya]

Reminds me of the time a friend's mother asked us if we were worried about the roving gangs when we went to Chinatown for late-night dim sum.  We counted up how many people we crammed into the station wagon and realized 'We are a roving gang!'

[itsbeenfun2000]

The denial of the Republicans and Walker insisting that this is outside forces at work seems to be what other dictators of the earth say on demonstrations.

[Valerian]

For all his claims that he's looking forward to getting his message out again in any recall election, Walker seems rattled.

A longtime campaign manager from Wisconsin has stated that Walker is already handling the increasingly probable recall election all wrong.  And this is a Republican campaign manager who otherwise says nice things about Walker.

The [TV] ads are well produced. They make excellent, well-reasoned points and adequately defend Walker’s position. They are also a complete and total waste of money.

As an old campaign guru once said, “nobody ever successfully defended anything; there is only attack, attack, and more attack.” Walker is fighting the battle for his political life with a shield and not a sword; every dollar he wastes trying to explain his policy to the voters of Wisconsin, who have been saturated with stories about his policy for almost a year now, is a dollar he can’t spend aggressively moving votes in his direction.

And another dollar that isn't going towards making jobs, either, except for the TV people.  In October, Wisconsin lost more jobs than any other state in the union -- 9,700 gone, while 39 other states added jobs.  And the best the Republicans can come up to help is apparently a law that would allow samples of hard liquor to be given out at retail stores.  (The man proposing this, Rep. Joel Kleefisch, is married to Wisconsin's lieutenant governor, who is also facing recall.)

Walker didn't like the poll that stated that 58% of the people in Wisconsin want him recalled, so he's attacked the poll as being infamously wrong.  It isn't; it's about as reliable as any other poll, though it does tend to have smaller sample sizes.  He also attacked the sample selection process because it didn't focus on "likely voters".  After all, why should he care how many people want him gone as long as those people aren't likely or able to haul themselves down to the voting booths?  Maybe they'll give up in disgust at the new, restrictive Republican voter ID requirements being phased in, anyway.

He's also claimed that there's no way over 300,000 signatures could have been gathered so quickly, so recall workers must be cheating.  He attacked the recallscottwalker site, saying that it was first set up before he even took office, in November 2010, implying that they must have been collecting signatures illegally ever since.  However, no one so much as posted on the site until February 2011, and the site's owner has done nothing to help collect signatures.

(Interestingly, of the 39 Walker statements reviewed so far on politifact.com, 7 have been rated Mostly False, 17 False, and 3 have been rated Pants on Fire.)

With any luck, maybe someone in the Tea Party will show some sense and stop supporting him.  He's making them all look bad at this point, with his random, baseless attacks, even aside from his awful track record.

[Valerian]

Now the GOP is spreading the story around that signatures on recall petitions that read Mickey Mouse or Adolf Hitler will be accepted.  "We will flag them, but we will not strike them without challenge," according to board elections specialist David Buerger.

Except it's all just designed to inflame conservatives who now think that such signatures are widespread on the recall petitions -- and it's hard to blame them, given the stories flying around on the subject.  This was the only reasonable article I could find:

A reasonable person would conclude, from that headline ["Mickey Mouse, Adolf Hitler Allowed On Wis. Recall Petitions"], that the Walker recall petitions have, in fact, been signed by Messrs. Mouse and Hitler, and that those signatures will be counted toward the 540,208 needed to initiate a recall of the Governor. In reality, neither of those things is true. None of the signatures have been reviewed yet, and if Mouse and Hitler do pop up, they will only be counted if they provide a valid Wisconsin address, and are properly dated.

The Hitler/Mouse hypotheticals are the go-to cliche´s in stories that seek to create the false hysteria about voter fraud that fuels the wave of voter ID laws which threaten to disenfranchise millions of voters nationwide... which makes this potential bit of cable news fluff deadly serious.

Reports are that a large portion of the estimated $650,000 cost of the recall will be spent on voter education over the new voter ID laws that are causing such confusion.  The ACLU is suing over the new laws, however, so it's possible they won't yet be in effect for the upcoming recall elections.  The requirements basically boil down to an illegal poll tax -- people who have been voting regularly will now have to pay to get the necessary ID.

All the real voter fraud in Wisconsin, of course, takes place via computer, and with the full support of local Republicans.

And speaking of Waukesha, since the Republicans weren't able to push the redistricting through in time for the senate recalls, thanks to Republican senator Dale Schultz breaking party lines, they've now started a lawsuit over the issue.  Thanks to a seemingly innocuous law they pushed through last month -- it allows state laws to be challenged in any county, not just highly liberal Dane County, where the state capital is -- they have filed this lawsuit in the Republican enclave of Waukesha county.

On November 18, 2011, a group of citizens asked a federal court to make sure that any recall elections taking place in 2012 occur in the old districts where the legislators were elected from, rather than the newly drawn districts. Three days later, a group of Republicans asked the state Supreme Court to require any recall elections take place in the new districts. The new districts, drawn by the Republican majority, would help the GOP.

Republicans filed a second lawsuit in Waukesha County on November 29, requesting a panel of three circuit court judges hear the case... On December 2, Republicans asked to withdraw their first lawsuit, a move Democrats immediately tried to block, saying the court should keep the case and dismiss it at a later date. The request came after it was known that Justice David Prosser, sidelined with an illness, would not take part in the case. That same day, Republicans amended their complaint, requesting a single Waukesha County judge hear the case, rather than the three-judge panel.

And just to round out my day, we have further reports of intimidation tactics against recall workers.  :P

[ShadowFox89]

I.... I don't want to live in this state anymore.

Hell, at this point, I don't want to live on this planet anymore >.<'

[itsbeenfun2000]

It is interesting watching him squirm. The number of signatures is almost what they need and a lot of them have been coming out of republican area.

[Callie Del Noire]

It is interesting watching him squirm. The number of signatures is almost what they need and a lot of them have been coming out of republican area.

You know.. they out to create an app that causes his phone beep every time a signature is registered. :D

[TheGlyphstone]

You know.. they out to create an app that causes his phone beep every time a signature is registered. :D

Wouldn't that just be the same as an app that plays a nonstop beeping noise?

[Valerian]

Well, as of Thursday, that would have been 507,533 beeps.  :D  The required number is 540,208; organizers hope to collect 720,277 if possible, to allow for the fact that some signatures will be thrown out on challenges for various reasons.

Recalls of the four Republican senators now eligible for recall are also "on pace," according to this report.  Each reports having about 10,000 currently, with the needed numbers ranging from 14,958 to 16,742.  All the recall efforts still have just under a month left to collect signatures.

The best Walker could come up with to counter the news of the signatures breaking the half-million mark was to announce, proudly, that he'd raised 5.1 million dollars for his recall election, since in his world, dollars from billionaires trump the wishes of his own constituents.  Since this is a recall election, individuals are able to donate amounts beyond the usual $10,000 limit, provided all the funds are spent on recall related activities.  The Democratic Party has raised about 1.2 million in the same time period.

Almost half (45%) of Walker's donations came from single donations of $1,000 or more.  Donations to the Democratic Party for the recall effort average out to about $26.00 per person, according to the latest overall numbers here.

Walker has now broken the state campaign finance laws a whopping 1,115 times since 2009, according to this complaint.

"Scott Walker has improperly reported well over $500,000 in contributions from inside and outside of Wisconsin," said Scot Ross, One Wisconsin Now Executive Director. "Scott Walker has absolutely no interest in following the campaign finance rules of the state of Wisconsin and we again call for state regulators to address his serial violation of our laws."

According to the statutes, each violation of the reporting laws can result in a fine of up to $500, which in Walker's case could top nearly $557,500.

And a Milwaukee man has been arrested for refusing to cooperate with the ongoing John Doe investigation looking into Walker's campaign contributions.  So I guess we're getting somewhere...?

[MasterMischief]

Wonders if he could recall Perry.

Blasted red state.

[Callie Del Noire]

Wonders if he could recall Perry.

Blasted red state.

Don't worry..he's so busy failing at running for president I'm sure someone will oust him.. of course I'm wondering right now why Texas is soooo damn cold! (Visiting family in Tx)

[Serephino]

My question is why hasn't the asshole been arrested already?  From following this thread and the news, he's ignored State Supreme Court orders several times.  There's evidence the election might have been fixed.  Now the finance violations....

Why is this idiot so special?  Why can elected officials blatantly break the law, and only have to worry about getting recalled?

[Tamhansen]

My question is why hasn't the asshole been arrested already?  From following this thread and the news, he's ignored State Supreme Court orders several times.  There's evidence the election might have been fixed.  Now the finance violations....

Why is this idiot so special?  Why can elected officials blatantly break the law, and only have to worry about getting recalled?

It's called Nepotism. If politicians didn't protect their peers who did illegal things, than who would protect them if their illegal business ever got found out? This has been the way of democracy ever since it was invented in Athens a few thousand years ago.

[Valerian]

The John Doe investigation about Walker's campaign finance habits is still ongoing, and as such there's not yet a lot of information out there about it, unfortunately.  The FBI won't let much slip until they're ready to make arrests, most likely.  I check on that a lot, believe me.  :P

Lately Walker's been making a big deal about how he "refused to cut spending" for groups that help fight child pornography and also groups that help victims deal with sexual assault.  Shockingly, this isn't quite true.  He initially ordered the cuts as part of a statewide slash-and-burn program to balance the budget that he helped mess up.  When the aforementioned groups and other victims' advocates started complaining, that's when he backed off and said that the cuts could come from other departments instead.

Walker wants to cut $123 million from the budget.  Because of that, the University of Wisconsin (my alma mater) is facing the need to cut $46.1 million out of their budget, on top of a previously approved $250 million reduction over two years.  They've also been ordered to make all these cuts without layoffs if at all possible... because face it, Scotty's just not on track for creating that quarter of a million jobs he promised, so he can't afford to lose many more.

He's also developing a habit of hiding.  We usually find out where our governor is when somebody blogs or tweets about it, because he sure isn't telling anybody when he goes out-of-state to raise campaign funds.

At least now he's started to regret what he's done... now that he's been caught out, at least.

Asked about the now-infamous Feb. 22 call with a prankster pretending to be billionaire David Koch, Walker was also uncharacteristically remorseful, agreeing with a friend who has said that Walker “felt badly that he did something so stupid.”

“Accurate summary,” Walker said. “It was stupid.”

The governor called the experience “a pretty good reality check for me.” Beyond the obvious lessons about screening phone calls, it re-enforced for him the importance of keeping the focus on his agenda and “not about what people think about me personally.”

First, he still thinks that the only thing he actually did that was wrong was not to explain was he was doing more clearly, so I'm not sure that was quite enough of a reality check, unfortunately.  On the other hand, it's a very good thing that he's learned not to care about people's opinions.  :P

[Callie Del Noire]

A day without rights in the Wisconsin State Assembly (Part 1 of 3)

I got this from a friend. It's intersting how much flack about a simple 'no signs' rule in the assembly is getting.

I found it ironic.. 'We are your elected representives and We represent you."

[Serephino]

Nope... they represent their own interests.

[Valerian]

You'll notice that it's only state troopers making arrests in that video.  That's because the Madison police, the county sheriff, and (if I remember correctly) even the capitol police, the groups who would normally handle security issues in and around the state government buildings, all refused to make such arrests.

I think I mentioned it in the other Scott Walker thread a while back, when the protests were new -- the county sheriff was ordered to post deputies to keep people out of the capitol building, but flatly refused because neither he nor any of his officers were required to act as Walker's "palace guards".

Wisconsin has always had one of the most open policies of any state in the union about access to state government buildings, which is the main reason why all these restrictions have been such a shock.  Walker's draconian policies there have probably been a big help to his opponents in keeping the protests alive.  :P

[itsbeenfun2000]

Walker recently tried to look like a good guy by reinstating family care in Wisconsin. It is a program designed to allow handicapped adults to live in group homes instead of institutions or nursing homes which saves the tax payers money. Turns out the federal government ordered him to reinstate the program.

[Valerian]

Some interesting news:

Early on, Walker's union-busting bill (which also allows him to sell Wisconsin utilities to private corporations without oversight, something that is generally conveniently overlooked) was challenged on legal grounds because the state senate violated the state's open meetings law.  The Dane county judge ruled it void on that basis; the state supreme court overturned that ruling 4-3, that coincidentally being the current conservative-liberal split there.  Now Wisconsin DA Ismael Ozanne has revived a challenge to that ruling, saying that one of the judges should have recused himself on the grounds of having received free legal services from one of the attorneys on the GOP's side.

And now the eastern district federal court has smacked the Republicans hard for their attempt to push through redistricting plans that would make it much more difficult for the Democrats to win in the upcoming senate recall elections.

But since Republican lawmakers hired outside representation, the three-judge panel in Milwaukee made it clear that the hired guns, rather than Wisconsin residents, should foot the bill for "the sort of disinformation, foot-dragging, and obfuscation now engaged in by Wisconsin's elected officials and/or their attorneys."
...
"Cooperate immediately," [U.S. District Judge J.P] Stadtmueller wrote. "Neither this Court, the parties in this case, nor Wisconsin's citizens have the interest or time to endure the litigation tactics being used by public officials or their private counsel in what has quickly become a poorly disguised attempt to cover up a process that should have been public from the outset, despite the Legislature's concerted efforts to mask the process behind the closed doors of a private law firm."

The italics are in the original, which is apparently an odd thing for such rulings, as is the fact that attorneys as well as their clients are mentioned.

So, yeah, lots of unusual things happening, but at least they're not all one-sided for a change.

[Callie Del Noire]

http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/01/11246/close-1-million-petition-recall-wisconsin-governor-scott-walker

I guess that he didn't have the people's support after all. I think a million signatures show that the Wisconsin voter isn't happy. Maybe he should call the Koch Brother's and ask for more cash to keep his supporters in the state house bought.

[Avis habilis]

I think a million signatures show that the Wisconsin voter isn't happy.

According to him, that means the other 4 million people in the state are perfectly happy with him.

[Callie Del Noire]

According to him, that means the other 4 million people in the state are perfectly happy with him.

It's nearly twice what they needed to match the percentage of the voters who ACTUALLY voted him in. A goodly portion of them.

[Valerian]

The article Callie linked to mentions getting 6,000 signatures from the traditionally conservative town of Burlington -- which is a town of not quite 11,000 people.  So, yeah.

Walker got in with only about 1.1 million votes.  I don't understand how he can keep right on saying, with apparently a total lack of concern, that he'll get voted right back in again.  There will be a higher turnout than usual, I'm sure, but Wisconsin only has about 4 million eligible voters.  Of course money will buy him some votes, since he'll be outspending the Democrats at least two to one, but his confidence really just makes me wonder what color the sky is in his little world.

He was in New York when the petitions were delivered, at a $2,500 per person fundraiser.  Recall organizers threw a party at Monona Terrace in Madison, the site of Walker's inaugural party.  :)

[Callie Del Noire]

I think when you can apparently get away with voter fraud, selling your citizen's livelihood away, hijack due process as good as he has, that you get a sense of invulnerbilty. Besides he can always pull off what NCs last governor did if charges come down the pipe. Plead out to the first minor charge you can get to stop the investigation before something really heavy hits.

[Valerian]

And I guess people throwing pricey dinners to help fill up your coffers doesn't hurt.  *sigh*

I suppose some of it might also be that his advisers are carefully coaching him on being confident.  Image, etc.

If only Russ Feingold would run against him.  The lack of a solid opponent is my biggest concern right now, and Feingold has huge support around here.  Get him on the ballot and Walker would have to start packing for sure.

[Callie Del Noire]

I hope you guys find someone solid.. the thing that got me is how he seems set to sell off the governement to private interests. I doubt that his plan to sell off your electrical utilities will make the state a big profit.

[Valerian]

Unfortunately, that's one area where his team seems to have truly mastered the art of spin.  They've gotten all the focus on the union-busting portion of the legislation and turned it into an "evil big unions versus the common good!" sort of thing.  Even people that are paying attention don't always know about the clause regarding selling public utilities.  That's my go-to fact when I hear people saying that it's only the unions who are upset and want this recall.  Me, I'm worried about my electric bill.

One of the Republican senators up for recall has been using the terms "public employee" and "recall supporter" interchangeably, in fact.  I'm not sure how he explains one million signatures when Wisconsin only has about 283,000 public workers.  Large families and many friends, maybe?  Or possibly just that they're threatening people into signing?  :P

[Callie Del Noire]

I am surprised that the sell off has gone on so far under the radar.. I was in California when the deregulation move that got Brown recalled and Arnie put in. Turning over public utilities to a private owner NEVER results in lower rates. You folks are going to get boned really bad by whoever buys the utility companies.

Which looks to be the Koch brothers from what I can see so far.

[Valerian]

Yes, I'm sure that was part of the deal.  A ticket to the governor's mansion in exchange for a fistful of public utilities, cheap.  :P  There's a boycott going against them, but they're so large and diversified it isn't really going to be effective.

I've just noticed that Kathleen Falk, former Dane County executive, has officially announced her intention to run against Walker for the recall, though her big drawback is that she's not well-known outside the Madison area.  There's a state senator, Tim Cullen, who's also been talking about running, though he hasn't made any formal announcement yet.

Oh, and I was amused to see one item: the Government Accountability Board, which has been ordered by the courts to spend extra effort above and beyond the legal requirements hunting for duplicate and otherwise unusable signatures (part of the GOP delaying tactics, which seems to be how they intend to fight most of the battle) is looking for 50 volunteers to train up to help with that project.  They've only found 30 so far, though, despite much effort, because they can't use anyone who's signed a petition, which eliminates a good percentage of the people in the Madison area, where the board meets.  Heh.

[itsbeenfun2000]

He and his supporters are doing the "its the unions who are running the recall". Last time I checked we don't have 1 million union workers in Wisconsin. If only 11 to 15 percent of the workers are unionized amongst eligible voters that's around 400 thousand.

[Revolverman]

He and his supporters are doing the "its the unions who are running the recall". Last time I checked we don't have 1 million union workers in Wisconsin. If only 11 to 15 percent of the workers are unionized amongst eligible voters that's around 400 thousand.

Even if it was true, so what? The group you are screwing with an oil bit is fighting back? How utterly unfair for you!

[TheGlyphstone]

Even if it was true, so what? The group you are screwing with an oil bit is fighting back? How utterly unfair for you!

Because they're UNIONS! Don't you realize that is basically the same thing as COMMIES? ;D >:)[/derpderp]

[Valerian]

http://mirrors.5nines.com/stream/

This is a link to the Government Accountability Board's webcam, which is live streaming the checking and counting of the recall signatures.

It's about as exciting as watching C-Span, but I'm glad they did it.  It's a very refreshing change from the Republican/Tea Party attitude of keeping everything hidden and hurling accusations and lawsuits at anyone who wants to find out what's really going on.

[itsbeenfun2000]

My point was we have 1 million signatures. Granted some are not legitiment, however it is more then union members signing the petitions.

[Valerian]

http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_19796738

The GAB is scrambling to check all the signatures -- Walker got about 1.1 million, but adding in the recall for Lt. Governor Kleefish and all the senate recalls, it's about 1.9 million signatures all together -- and it's especially hard since the GOP was able to move to ultra-conservative Waukesha County to get a judge to order the checking to be more stringent than the law actually requires.  There's a hearing scheduled for Wednesday to see if the GAB gets the extra 30 days they requested, making a total of 60 days.

As the article at the top mentions, the GAB is making a database by scanning the petitions into a handwriting recognition program. (Considering all the Polish surnames around here, I shudder to think what that program will make of a name like Pryzbylewski.)  The Democrats made their own database as signatures were collected.  Walker's campaign group is making a database.  And the Tea Party volunteers are making yet another database.

This is going to be the most checked petition in the entire history of petitions.



Amusingly, there was a rally in support of Walker over the weekend, and they're now bragging about having gotten about three times the number they expected, or about 3,000 people.  Why they're boasting about having gotten 3,000 people to stand in the cold for three hours, when the Madison rallies topped out at 100,000 and huge numbers of people camped out for months in the cold, I have no idea.

[Callie Del Noire]

http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_19796738

Amusingly, there was a rally in support of Walker over the weekend, and they're now bragging about having gotten about three times the number they expected, or about 3,000 people.  Why they're boasting about having gotten 3,000 people to stand in the cold for three hours, when the Madison rallies topped out at 100,000 and huge numbers of people camped out for months in the cold, I have no idea.

Spin spin spin.. they 'forget' the huge crowds while pimping the 'groundswell' of support to the media. After all the Madison rallies were in the PAST don'tchaknow? I REALLY hope that someone catches them playing reindeer games that can get the feds involved.

[itsbeenfun2000]

They also reported the ralley was in Milwaukee when it was actually in Wawatosa a Republican suburb of Milwaukee

[Valerian]

I didn't hear a word about it until after it was over, so despite all their talk about how wonderful social networking is for getting the word out, I'm not sure they're using it right.

Considering that Walker cost Milwaukee alone a few thousand jobs and a couple of million dollars (the state as a whole is out around $60 million due to contractual obligations that couldn't be broken) because of cancelling that high-speed rail line deal, I don't think they'd allow any pro-Walker rally within the city limits anyway.

[Valerian]

http://www.wispolitics.com/index.iml?Article=259245

The John Doe investigation has gotten two more of Walker's former staffers arrested -- Darlene Wink (also former first vice chair of the Milwaukee County GOP) admitted to posting pro-Walker messages online (after newspapers got hold of the story) while being paid for working for the county.  She resigned over it and now faces misdemeanor charges over the comments and also for having written press releases and done fundraising work on county time.

Kelly Rindfleisch faces four felony counts of misconduct in public office.  She also did fundraising work and told a friend in a chat during work hours that "half of what she was doing was policy for the campaign."  She sent and received over a thousand emails relating to fundraising during office hours.  One charge relates to the fact that she was working for Milwaukee County while not living in Milwaukee County, as required by law for anyone with a county job.


Wink, at least, is swearing up and down that Walker knew nothing about any of this, as have the others arrested over campaign corruption, generally.  That's nice and loyal and all, but really, the way these incidents are piling up, to keep insisting that he knew nothing about any of it is starting to amount to an accusation of total cluelessness on his part.  If he isn't corrupt, then he's an idiot... though my opinion for a long time has been that he's actually both... and neither one exactly qualifies him for public office.  :P

[Callie Del Noire]

Wow.. watch while the staffers throw themselves in front of the train hoping to slow it's runaway mass bearing down on Walker.

Its' scary how loyal these lemmings are.

[Trieste]

That's unfair to lemmings. :(

[Oniya]

These might be more appropriate:

[TheGlyphstone]

These might be more appropriate:

That's also unfair to Lemmings. Because Lemmings was kickass.

[Oniya]

However, you could easily get those Lemmings to sacrifice themselves for some futile cause (because there was always the next level...)

Oohh nnoooooo!  *pop*

[Valerian]

http://host.madison.com/daily-cardinal/news/documents-show-wisconsin-republicans-pledged-secrecy-during-redistricting-process-voces/article_a0689e28-5165-11e1-8fb2-0019bb2963f4.html

The redistricting lawsuit is under some serious fire.  First there was that blistering federal ruling calling the Republicans out on their tactics.  (The Republicans were, according to the 11-page ruling, "flailing wildly in a desperate attempt to hide from both the court and the public the true nature of exactly what transpired in the redistricting process."  Best. Ruling. Ever.)

Now a Milwaukee-based immigrants rights group, Voces de la Frontera, has uncovered documents signed by nearly all Republican legislators swearing secrecy about anything relating to the redistricting process -- even though this process is supposed to be open and all the information publicly available.  Voces has filed a lawsuit claiming that the GOP has violated both the state constitution and the Wisconsin Open Meetings Laws with this pledge of secrecy.


And, in a last-ditch effort to shield their golden boy, the Tea Party is starting up a campaign to write in Walker's name in the Democratic primary for the recall election.  Shades of the "fake Democrats" the Republicans threw in to the senate recall elections... which didn't really work, but hey, anything they can do to try to mess things up, apparently.  I'm sure they're hoping that if they just drag their feet long enough, people will forget to be outraged, or at least be too worn out to be outraged.  :P  As it is, the recall election probably won't happen until April.

[Oniya]

There's a problem with that, though.  As it's a recall election, Walker is already on the final ballot as a Republican.  On the remote chance that this write-in campaign nets him a majority, he can't legally become the Democratic candidate (since he's already the Republican candidate).

[Callie Del Noire]

Seriously? Can these people see that any short term gains will bite them in the ass? Not to mention that this reeks of conspiracy and possible fraud charges?  Do they honestly think HIDING after the antics of the last year could possibly work?

[Valerian]

As for the write-in campaign, I'm guessing they just assumed that if there's only the same name twice on the ballot, he'd automagically win.  I can't see them pausing to think about silly things like legalities.  According to the article, a GAB spokesperson turned away from the signature counting long enough to say that legally, they need to have a write-in line and they can't speculate beyond that.  Too bad they didn't just shoot it down and get it over with.  :P

I keep thinking that they're just scared enough that they can't really focus on anything beyond the short-term gains.  They just want to try to fix what's immediately in front of them, patch up the holes somehow, and worry about the fallout later.  It seems ridiculous if you stop to think about it for even a moment, but it just seems like they're incapable of thinking beyond the moment.

[Callie Del Noire]

I meant the redistributing pledge specifically.  That has to be clearly illegal to anyone with two functioning neurons.

[Valerian]

My fault -- I meant to address your point more specifically in that second paragraph, but I didn't make that clear.  You're absolutely right; anything that requires signing one's name to anything like a pledge of secrecy is almost certainly political suicide in Wisconsin right now, even aside from the legal repercussions.  If any of the senators being recalled signed that -- and I imagine they did -- this could seriously change the outlook on those recalls.  They don't have dates for those elections yet, though they're talking sometime in June.

They've announced Democratic candidates to run against three of those four senators, by the way, so I'm a little surprised those elections won't happen sooner, though I can understand wanting to get the big election done first.

[Callie Del Noire]

I really have to wonder about the party leadership. Are they involved with this or are they in some back room pounding their head on a wall in frustration? I honestly can't see whatever happened in the last couple years as being the outlook of folks who lead the party. Did they get ignored by the elected people or are we looking at a new leadership making a move?

[Oniya]

From delving through the comments, it looks like a grass-roots effort - http://www.facebook.com/WriteInScottWalker

It's only got a little over 1600 'Likes' so far.

EDIT:

So, I decided to ask the question that's been bugging me, even though the 'page rules' say 'No Liberals!'.  *snrk*

Me:  Out of sheer curiosity, what happens if the write-in wins? He can't run as a candidate for both parties.

Operation: Write in Scott Walker in Democrat primary.: the effort is to show the amount of sigs for SW. As the recall sigs are showing,there are about 500 of SW in tthe state.



My first thought was that they were saying that there were 500 people who would vote for Walker.  My second thought was that they were saying that 500 signatures on the recall petition were 'Scott Walker'.  Either way, last I heard, both the number of recall signatures and the population of Wisconsin at least 1,000,000, which makes that number less than 1% of either.

[Zakharra]

 Whoa. The Republicans in Wisconsin are definitely stuck on stupid.

[Callie Del Noire]

Whoa. The Republicans in Wisconsin are definitely stuck on stupid.

Yup..definitely drinking the cool aid huh?

[itsbeenfun2000]

As of yesterday a former aide has pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud. She was actively campanging while at work in Milwaukee for Walker. She has done a plea deal for no jail time if she cooporates in the investigation.

[Callie Del Noire]

As of yesterday a former aide has pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud. She was actively campanging while at work in Milwaukee for Walker. She has done a plea deal for no jail time if she cooporates in the investigation.

I imagine there will be many pleas.. lots of pointing and in the end whoever takes the final fall will take a 2 year charge up front rather than wait for the big cases to be closed. Just like Mike Easley did in NC..he plead down to a $1000 'community penalty' and as part of the plea the feds had to stop the investigation.

[Avis habilis]

MoJo gives us a rundown of the investigation to date: http://motherjones.com/politics/2012/02/scott-walker-john-doe-investigation-explained

[Zakharra]

Yup..definitely drinking the cool aid huh?

  Kool-aid? Hell no, they're drinking the poison straight up. All of this crap they are doing in Wisconsin is doing a LOT of damage to the Republican party locally and nationally.

[Callie Del Noire]

  Kool-aid? Hell no, they're drinking the poison straight up. All of this crap they are doing in Wisconsin is doing a LOT of damage to the Republican party locally and nationally.

Reading through the article that Avis posted has me wondering. That is a HELL of a lot of fraud centered around Walker. Makes you wonder who besides the company already caught did things like that. 

[Zakharra]

 If he was hired to damage the Republican name, he could be doing a better job of it. It's almost as if he and his people are intentionally doing this and getting caught to smear the party.

[Callie Del Noire]

If he was hired to damage the Republican name, he could be doing a better job of it. It's almost as if he and his people are intentionally doing this and getting caught to smear the party.

I think it's more like they assume that since they are 'in power' they can fix the cases and get away with anything they do.

[Callie Del Noire]

And the hits keep on coming. He's now skimming from a grant that was to help homeowners. As is the state of Mississippi too.

http://www.truth-out.org/missouri-now-second-state-diverting-foreclosure-funds-homeowners-its-own-troubled-budget/1329160481

[Major Major]

... Okay, this just goes straight into Pantomine villainy. What's next for Scott Walker? Tying damsels to railway tracks? Dressing up as Snidely Whiplash?

[Callie Del Noire]

... Okay, this just goes straight into Pantomine villainy. What's next for Scott Walker? Tying damsels to railway tracks? Dressing up as Snidely Whiplash?

Well he's got his robber baron bosses giving him big bags of loot to do their bidding.
http://www.thenation.com/blog/166385/david-koch-admits-were-helping-scott-walker-big-money

[Valerian]

Well, the deadline for Walker to challenge any names on the recall petitions has passed, and he didn't challenge a single one, citing lack of time, even though he had 30 days to check instead of the 10 days usually allowed by law.  And of course the more they talk about the "impossible time frame", the more they emphasize just how many signatures there are, which isn't exactly a good PR move.

Speaking of spin, this article talks about his handling of the John Doe investigation, with both Democrats and Republicans weighing in.

"He's been very inconsistent with his narrative," said Scott Becher, a Madison-based Republican public relations consultant. "The narrative keeps changing."

For instance, Walker maintained for months that he knew nothing about anything in the investigation.

He said he didn't know that authorities seized the computer of longtime aide Tim Russell. He said he was unaware - until the Journal Sentinel reported it - that his spokesman had taken immunity in the probe. He said he was in the dark as to why the FBI raided the home of staffer Cindy Archer.

But now he emphasizes that his campaign has been cooperating with Milwaukee County prosecutors for more than a year, having turned over thousands of emails and voluntarily offered to sit down with District Attorney John Chisholm.

Tim Russell is the one who's been arrested for embezzling over $21,000 from the Heritage Guard Preservation Society, a veteran's support group.  Russell should not be confused with the other former Walker staffer, Kevin Kavanaugh, who's been arrested for embezzling at least $42,000 from the Military Order of the Purple Heart, including money earmarked for children of Wisconsin military service members killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Both were appointed to handle these funds by Walker.

And now Walker's on MSNBC, saying that those who want to recall him should think of the children and seniors.  Lovely.  :P

[Callie Del Noire]

The world has taken a surreal turn when I'm agreeing with Al Sharpton about ANYTHING.

That being said, I'm sure he's going to weasel out of a felony charge in the end. He'll pull something like the last NC Governor did and plead to a small charge really really fast to kill the investigation and shut it down before any of his party bosses take the fall with him.

[ShadowFox89]

The world has taken a surreal turn when I'm agreeing with Al Sharpton about ANYTHING.

That being said, I'm sure he's going to weasel out of a felony charge in the end. He'll pull something like the last NC Governor did and plead to a small charge really really fast to kill the investigation and shut it down before any of his party bosses take the fall with him.

Even if he weasel's out of the charges, he'll have to go into hiding from all the pissed off vets here in Wisconsin :P

[Callie Del Noire]

Even if he weasel's out of the charges, he'll have to go into hiding from all the pissed off vets here in Wisconsin :P

He can argue that HE didn't steal from them.. just his appointees. Till they find a money trail back.

[itsbeenfun2000]

After watching what happened to Blagoavich if they have anything on Walker they will wait til its solidified and he has no way out.

[Valerian]

There are rumors flying that Walker might be arrested as early as next week, but nothing substantiated.  There's also a lot of speculation over whether or not Walker will actually resign if he does get arrested.

Blue Cheddar has an interesting piece about all this, though even legally speaking it's all speculation right now.  Shockingly, there's nothing specific in the state constitution about what happens if the governor is indicted and being recalled at the same time.  :P

And I found this opinion piece that raises some interesting points about why Walker isn't bothering to make every possible challenge.

In addition to a demand that the state Government Accountability Board identify and strike duplicate and clearly fictitious names — something the board says it will do — the governor’s campaign argued in a filing with the GAB that the agency should act on complaints filed by groups associated with the Verify the Recall project — even though those complaints might come from individuals who are not citizens of Wisconsin.

A GAB spokesman explained Monday that the agency isn’t allowed to consider third-party challenges under state law. Challenges are supposed to come from the targeted candidate and his or her campaign. Notably, under Wisconsin law, Walker and his campaign are not allowed to coordinate political activities with supposedly independent groups like those involved with the Verify the Recall project.

Verify the Recall is, of course, a Tea Party group.  It is odd, though, that he seems content to let other people do all this stuff for him.  It's a little late for him to start worrying about plausible deniability.  :P

[Valerian]

Walker's been insisting all along that he campaigned on his union-busting tactics and that no one should have been surprised at the anti-union bill he passed.  Now someone has uncovered a video of an interview he did with the Oshkosh Northwestern during his campaign where he flat-out says the exact opposite:

Editorial Board Member: Before, we were talking about state employees contributing to their plan, paying their share of the pension plan. Collective bargaining come into that?

Walker: Yep. (nodding yes)

Editorial Board Member: How do you get that negotiated and accepted by the state employee unions?

Walker: You still have to negotiate it. I did that at the county as well.

Shockingly, Walker's spokespeople aren't speaking up.    ::)



Technically this isn't really recall related, except as further proof that the recall is vitally necessary, but I also wanted to give a tip of the hat to Dale Schultz, apparently the only Republican politician in Wisconsin who still has a brain.

Walker is trying to push through a bill that would relax restrictions on mining to allow a company to construct an open-pit mine in the northwestern part of the state, one of the most pristine areas in Wisconsin, potentially contaminating groundwater and definitely destroying wetland areas.  It would also prevent residents from opposing any permits given for any such mines, something that they can currently do (and have done in the past).  But Schultz, thank goodness, says he won't vote for it, which means it won't pass the Senate.

Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, kicked the bill to a special committee he hand-picked to deal with mining issues. But when the committee came back with its own bill, Fitzgerald abruptly dissolved the panel and threw his support behind the Assembly bill. That angered Schultz, who sat on the committee.

He pledged he wouldn't vote for any bill that didn't restore contested case hearings or maintain the state's environmental safeguards.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505245_162-57391475/wisconsin-finance-committee-approves-mining-bill/
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9SSS6K00.htm

The mine would create "hundreds of jobs", according to the mining company, and I'm guessing Walker's desperate to start chipping away at the quarter of a million jobs he promised to create.  He has about 236,500 left to go, according to the latest numbers.  :P

[Valerian]

Okay.  For some time now, Walker has been denying that he's the focus of the John Doe investigation.  Heck, to start with he was denying that he even knew the investigation existed and acted all shocked when he found out people who worked for him were being given immunity.  Then he started insisting that he'd been cooperating all along.

But let's look at some quotes.

Walker campaign spokesperson Ciara Matthews: "We reiterate again that the governor has been told he is not the target of the investigation."

Walker then scrambles back a little: "I haven't been told that directly. Others have been told that — attorneys who work for the campaign."  Asked who told his attorneys this, he said, "That's what they passed on to me, I didn't ask them specifically.  Again, you're asking a lot of questions about something that ultimately by its nature is, not per my request but per theirs, is something we're not asked to talk about until it's complete."  (Huh?)

Walker again, a few days ago: " "I have repeatedly pledged my cooperation with that inquiry.  To fulfill my commitment, I have today formed a legal fund to pay for the expenses incurred in cooperating with the inquiry."


The kicker?  Under Wisconsin state law, it's illegal to set up any such fund unless you are being investigated or are already being prosecuted.  He's trying to dodge that particular bullet by calling it a "legal cooperation fund", but why is no one doing anything about this?  *fumes quietly*


http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/142107673.html
http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/walker-legal-fund-for-john-doe-probe-raises-question-is/article_110a8720-6a31-11e1-b73b-0019bb2963f4.html
http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/walker-campaign-attorneys-have-said-i-am-not-target-of/article_2c5f0e5c-6d41-11e1-9262-0019bb2963f4.html

[Callie Del Noire]

So, correct me if I'm wrong, he's setting up a defense fund to defend himself.  But to do so he has to be investigated. Which everyone, at least everyone who will talk to the media, says he's not.  But he can move funds between this fund and his recall war chest somehow? I'm not sure how this action makes him see innocent, or why do it unless he is hiding something he's done wrong. 
Do I have the ghist of it?

[Valerian]

That seems to sum it up, unfortunately.  He needs the donor's permission, but once he has that, he's apparently able to move money from recall fund to defense fund as he likes.  And frankly, I'm not sure there's anyone bothering to find out if he has permission or not.  If his cronies have control of whatever oversight group there is, he's essentially got unlimited funds, given all the fundraising trips he takes, especially now that the recall's in sight.

All the recall elections (gubernatorial and senatorial) are going to be held on the same day if possible, it looks like.  May 8 will be primary elections if needed, general elections in areas that don't; and June 5th for the general elections after the primaries.

It's all taking too long, though.

[Callie Del Noire]

That seems to sum it up, unfortunately.  He needs the donor's permission, but once he has that, he's apparently able to move money from recall fund to defense fund as he likes.  And frankly, I'm not sure there's anyone bothering to find out if he has permission or not.  If his cronies have control of whatever oversight group there is, he's essentially got unlimited funds, given all the fundraising trips he takes, especially now that the recall's in sight.

All the recall elections (gubernatorial and senatorial) are going to be held on the same day if possible, it looks like.  May 8 will be primary elections if needed, general elections in areas that don't; and June 5th for the general elections after the primaries.

It's all taking too long, though.

So, basically he's got two venues for cash that he can easily redefine as needed. Depending on how he does the acceptance phase of the donation he can essentially play musical chairs with 'his' money and play shady with accountability.

And get away with it.

[Valerian]

Speaking of Walker and money:

Based on the calendars maintained by Gov. Walker's office, released under the state open records law, between August 2011 and January 2012 Gov. Walker was scheduled to spend a grand total of just over 44 hours meeting with legislators or his policy staff or working on an a specific policy issue. Meanwhile, over the same time period, a whopping 614-plus hours were blocked off as "personal" time.

....although there is no detail on how Gov. Walker spends his personal time, a significant uptick occurred when he was allowed to start raising unlimited amounts in campaign contributions because of the recall effort against him.... In August, just under 64 hours were classified as personal time, but that climbed to over 120 hours in November when the opportunity to raise unlimited campaign cash began and topped out at nearly 153 hours in January.

There's a a very illuminating chart posted on One Wisconsin Now's website.


And in other news, it is apparently now also illegal to possess a camera in the legislative chambers, not just to use said camera.  A blogger who's been posting about Walker's shady dealings was arrested two days ago because he had a camera with him.  It was reportedly tucked under his sweater at the time -- much like a concealed carry weapon would have been, actually, though that, of course, wouldn't have gotten him in trouble.

Illegal Possession Of A Camera, Disorderly Conduct In The WI Assembly

[Callie Del Noire]

Nice to see democracy and law&order are so well respected in Wisconsin. I'm sure that the next cycle of elections will be showing similar acts in other states.

[Trieste]

Too difficult of a battle for Galloway?

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/03/16/wisconsin-republicans-lose-majority-control-of-senate/

[Callie Del Noire]

Too difficult of a battle for Galloway?

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/03/16/wisconsin-republicans-lose-majority-control-of-senate/

Or the woman sees the iceberg coming and decided it was time to 'borrow' a life boat before the ship she's on hammers into it full power ahead.

Or maybe, like she says in the article, her family health issues are enough of a burden that she feels that it needs to be the focus of her effort rather than her elected office. She has been under some heavy scrutiny and criticism, as have a lot of the GOP reps of the state, and that can wear out people. I know that is the reason some of the people I'd like to run for an office don't, for concerns of their family members.

I know that was one of the reasons Colin Powell didn't run for office, concerns for his wife's health.

[Valerian]

Walker's hand-picked a replacement for Galloway's seat, by the way, namely state representative Jerry Petrowski, who's been basically a lemming in following the party line for every vote, as far as I can tell.

Shirl LaBarre, a local politician -- she's run as a Republican candidate for the state assembly three times but can't manage to win -- has filed recall papers against Senator Senator Bob Jauch (D-Poplar) because he voted against the mining bill that would have allowed that terrible open-pit mine in northwestern Wisconsin.  (Story here.)  She's also the spokesperson for the local branch of a group called Citizens for Responsible Government.  They specialize in recall efforts, which are apparently just fine when Republicans start them.

Anyway, there are two interesting things about this.  First, her initial campaign for office emphasized jobs, taxes and protecting natural resources.

Second, her paperwork for the recall is full of errors, though the first one is by far the most amusing: "Senator Jauch voted against miming bill SB/488/AB426 Which would of brought 100’s if not thousands of jobs to the northland and state of Wisconsin. He refused to listen to the majority of his constituents [and] instead bowed to political pressure and special interests."  Emphasis mine.  Because, you know, mimes need jobs, too.

Turns out the mining (or miming) company in question, Gogebic Taconite, gave nearly $40,000 to just four candidates, two of whom were Scott Walker and Shirl LaBarre.

And I happened across this, to perfectly sum up my feelings on Wisconsin politics right now:

[itsbeenfun2000]

Love the picture and how it sums up the situation up here

[ShadowFox89]

 Sums up the situation of the whole world, really.

Better to be blissfully ignorant than horribly aware.

[Valerian]

So Walker promised to create a quarter of a million jobs during his term, apparently mainly through clever use of the thoroughly denounced trickle-down theory.  Now that he's well on the way to failing miserably, he's decided to blame the embattled federal health care plan.

"From what I hear overwhelmingly across the state, from small business owners, is tremendous concern about the impact it's going to have on those small businesses.  It's probably if not the top, it's one of the top, things I hear that has made small business owners hesitant to add more jobs, is their concern about what the true impact will be."

But that's what he's saying now.  Let's look at what he was blaming before all this.

Last September it was the extended unemployment benefits that were to blame: "You hear employers ... say, I get people who come a week or two after their unemployment runs out, come out and try and get a job."

Before that it was "incredible uncertainty both at the federal level - in terms of the debt ceiling and all the tension of that, and the negative impact that had on the economy - combined with July and August, when you saw the height of the [Wisconsin senatorial] recall commercials. And I think for a lot of employers we talked to, that created a high level of uncertainty, not knowing what was going to come next."

He's also blamed "challenges in the national and global economy" and "wild market fluctuations during the debt ceiling negotiations, the European debt crisis and other factors."

Considering that most of the problems he mentions affect all 50 states, and many of them the entire first world, I'm impressed that he can keep a straight face while insisting that Wisconsin is the only place getting screwed over by all these issues.



I'm a little worried about this, though.

It's a bill Walker just quietly signed into law regarding the Public Service Commission.  As far as I can tell through all the legal verbiage, most of it is redefining some terms and allowing for things like email to be used to notify people of meetings, etc.  So I think that's all right.

It's a part right at the top that concerns me, given that Walker has also managed to give himself the power to sell off public utilities without any real oversight.  Maybe the commissioners themselves could still have objected to such a sale, because the line that used to say, "No commissioner may serve on or under any committee of a political party," has been removed from the bill as passed.  Unfortunately, Wisconsin law currently allows the governor to do that sort of thing before signing a bill into law, and I'm sure Walker was quick to take advantage.  If getting as many sympathizers as he can find onto that commission will help him at all, I'm sure he's ready to do that double-quick.  :P

[RubySlippers]

My only issue with this is he is not up for regular election with his cronies, that is when your supposed to vote them out not whine that you lost and expect a do-over for poor leadership well that is not right IMHO since your the dummies in the majority that voted him and these people in.

And the Tea Party "platform" is well known smaller government, constituional rights as the Founding Fathers saw them, lower taxes, reduce the social safety net for freeloaders as they consider them and so forth what the hell did you think they were going to do. I give them credit at least these politicians won't compromise and vote what they said they were going to vote towards I have to respect that even if I hate their policies.

Maybe next time look at who is backing these people, what their politics are and what they want to do and assume the politician is like them. I don't blame Walker or my governor Scott both are the same sort its the people that voted and ended up in the majority that wanted this how many teachers in WI didn't vote or voted for him and now regret it? How many didn't vote at all then they have no right to complain unless they couildn't vote at all?

I feel sorry for Walker he does what the voters even if a slim majority voted for him to do as he saw it and he did those things even if you don't see it that way and then recall him when you people don't like this and he is doing what he in principle would do. He is a TEA PARTY REPUBLICAN and that means certain things and got elected. You don't like it you should have waited until the next election and voted him out like I stated with his people.

[Callie Del Noire]

The thing is Ruby, he LIED about what he was going to do. At no time during his campaign did he mention rolling back the right to collectively bargain, screw up the budget, sell the utilities in a closed bid or most of the things he's done or tried to do since.

He has gone after education and state employees selectively, as is seen by his relucactance to do the same changes to the cops and firemen that he did to other public servants. He cut school budgets to the bone, limited the actions of town and counties to fix the problem by restricting what fees they can increase. And in that he proposed measures to place a 'manager' into school board districts that go bankrupt. Installed by him, able to do a lot of things with NO accountability but to him. (dont know if that measure has passed).

He's been caught in lie after lie. He's planning on STEALING funds set aside for victims of the mortgage crisis to fix a budget crisis he created. (one of only TWO states to do so).

He cries about outside interference in the recall, when something like 70% of his funds come from less than 20 contributors and something like 60+% is from out of state. And the way he has set up his legal defense fund is set up he can shuffle it to his recall campaign and vice versa.

His budget has empowered corporate interests to the detriment of his state. Under his tenure it has lost more jobs than anywhere else and he blamed Obamacare for that.

It's been established he's in bed with the Koch brothers, good money is they are going to be the winning bid on the state utilities if he can sell them.

Walker is a crook who rode the wave of discontent into office and when it was clear he had a majority in the state house showed his true colors and immediately started doing what his cronies wanted. He only got caught when he tried to suppress thing too bluntly.

Care to det the cops and firemen will be less happy to support him this time around? I think a lot of them are wondering when their turns are coming.

It's not that he did these things that worries a lot of folks, it's that he did them out of hand.  No warning, no justification. Both the teachers and public servants had agreed to changes that would hurt them financially. No, he moved on the unions because he was told to, because whatever next step was coming would require them to be gutted.

Actions like this and elsewhere tell me a LOT of Tea Party leadership got bought by special interests.

I'm more 'right sized' than small government. I get nervous about downsizing regulatory segments when folks like the Koch brothers are paying the men talking about it.

[Trieste]

A recall election is a protection put in place for the voters for when a government employee screws up so badly that most of the populace doesn't want them anymore. It's not whining and it's not breaking the rules - it's using rules put in place to make sure dirty politicians put in place under false pretenses get kicked out without a full term.

[itsbeenfun2000]

As someone that lives in Wisconsin it is our right to recall, it is in our state constitution. The man has been slimy long before he was elected into office and does not answer to the voters of Wisconsin but to the Koch brothers and other cooporate interests. I didn't vote for the man. I also didn't vote for the outside cooporations that are pulling the strings. His true colors did not come out til after the election. He claims he has saved the tax payers money. In reality he took a small minority of tax payers, the public workers, and raised their taxes to give cooporations tax breaks.

[Valerian]

To me it seems -- especially lately, especially around here -- as if far too many politicians have the conviction that their responsibility to listen to their constituents ends the moment they're sworn in to office. They don't start even pretending to pay attention again until it starts getting near re-election time.  Much of the time, they seem to do nothing except vote the straight party line without bothering to think a whole lot about what they're doing.

I don't see why anyone should have to put up with representatives who don't bother to represent, and I'm glad that they're not letting it go unchallenged around here.  Walker isn't 'voting his conscience', nor is he even voting the way he said he would in order to get elected.  He's voting the way the Koch brothers and his other wealthy backers tell him to vote.  (I didn't vote for Walker either, since I did my homework before the election and decided that he was just too unscrupulous.  Unfortunately I was right.)

If you're in Wisconsin, don't forget to go out and vote today, either.  There are quite a few judges up for election, and several of them are Walker appointees (list here).  I suspect a lot of them are running uncontested, unfortunately, as in my area, but I plan to vote for write-in candidates instead, as my small way of expressing my displeasure.  The site I linked to above also has a full list of all judges up for election.

There are also over two dozen school referendums on the ballot around the state, which seems to be more than usual.  At least some of that is probably because several districts are having to scramble for funding thanks to Walker's gutting of the public schools.

Word is he plans to cut funding until they can't manage decent standardized test scores anymore, then fling the public school budget at the charter schools, which have been shown to be less effective.  Because he flunked out of college and thinks everyone else should, too.


The good news: Federal courts have ruled parts of Act 10, the controversial union-busting bill Walker and his cronies slammed through, to be unconstitutional.  The court says that the distinction made between public safety unions (police and firefighters) and other public worker unions violates the first amendment, and has overturned both the clause that made automatic deduction of union dues from paychecks illegal and the clause that required yearly voting to 'recertify' the unions.

I'm not necessarily a huge fan of unions, but I'm very much in favor of anything that might help Walker figure out that we do still have a system of checks and balances in place, and there's good reason for it.  :P

[Callie Del Noire]

One of the reasons I started looking at Walker, and others, was the 'unions serve no purpose' comments and the fact that SEVERAL of these people also want to gut OSHA and deregulate anything that contains the words 'safety measures'. It makes me itch when canidates who have never done anything 'blue collar' say that they understand the 'working man's plight' or that unions never did anything but serve their own interests.

I come from parents who grew up in a 'company town' in the textile industry. Safety was a big issue in the early union issues, as well as 'wage imprisonment'. Without the check of a union, a lot of companies were serf lords in company towns. I have family ties to industry areas that were terrible before unions came around. In the sections of West Virginia/Kentucky where coal was mined, Pennsylvania and further south in Textile towns.

Growing up I saw more than a few folk who were missing fingers from 'spinnning machines' and one old man was missing over half his hand from a textile machine. My dad, who lost his dad @ 40, grew up picking cotton, working the mills and worked his ass off to get through college told me more than one story of how this or that neighbor lost someone in their family before the unions cleaned up things.

To have a man like Walker come along and denounce unions and then selectively hammer only a handful, tells me a LOT about his plans. His type of politician is becoming more and more common sadly.

I know of one senator who won't get my vote in a couple years (Marco Rubio) because of 'what I say..what I do' have been so radically different.

[Valerian]

I've been meaning to post about the latest election debacle in Waukesha County.  That's where Kathy Nickolaus, the county clerk, miraculously discovered 14,000 votes from the town of Brookfield that she totally forgot about, two days after the election, just in time for David Prosser, uber-conservative state Supreme Court justice, to win re-election.  (Brookfield managed a startling 52% voter turnout based on that number, by the way, which beat the state average turnout by about 19%.  No, nothing suspicious there, I'm sure.)

Anyway, this time around, her wonderful, new, foolproof system for counting the votes failed miserably, to no one's shock.

Problems with Nickolaus' reporting system were evident soon after the earliest municipal clerks delivered, in person as she required, the voting machine memory packs and paper tapes showing vote totals. When Nickolaus' staff tried to upload results from the memory cards into the county clerk's reporting program, it wouldn't work.

"We were shocked," she said Wednesday, noting that she and her staff had tested the reporting program "many times."

There's a picture at the link above showing the workers, with paper tapes sprawled out everywhere, adding everything together, which really doesn't look all that reliable to me, I must say. 

Thankfully, in the wake of this mess she's stepping aside for the upcoming recall election and leaving things to her deputy while she handles stuff like marriage licenses.  I hope she's better at that, or there might be all sorts of people in Waukesha who aren't legally married.  :P


And speaking of the recalls, the GOP is running no less than six "Democrats" in the recall elections: for governor and lieutenant governor, plus one for each of the four Republican senators being recalled.  The GOP says it's not spending any money on the campaigns, but the link above disproves that, since at least one candidate got over $5,000 from the St. Croix County Republican Party.  (I guess that doesn't count as real money to the Republicans.)  This is actually a Class I felony under Wisconsin law, punishable by fines of up to $10,000 and 3.5 years in prison, but since they've already done this before I don't imagine they'll get in any more trouble this time around.

Walker hasn't gotten into trouble for his illegal defense fund yet, either, and I'm still fuming about that.  He holds press conferences to announce his illegal activities and still doesn't get in trouble?  It's ridiculous.

[Callie Del Noire]

Walker hasn't gotten into trouble for his illegal defense fund yet, either, and I'm still fuming about that.  He holds press conferences to announce his illegal activities and still doesn't get in trouble?  It's ridiculous.

Somehow I imagine he thinks with his UNLIMITED funds for the recall he's sure he'll stay in place and nothing will come of it while he has control of the state government.

Right now I'm sure there is a federal prosecutor looking at events and going 'hmmmm'. I'm sure the feds are not quite as forgiving of this.

[Valerian]

I hope so.  Certainly the federal courts haven't been very helpful to poor Walker when they review his legislation, at least.

And I just found Walker's latest -- he likes to do things on Friday in hopes that people will forget about them over the weekend, or not notice in the first place.  He's just signed two anti-abortion bills into law.

The first bill requires doctors to speak with a woman seeking an abortion alone to ensure no one is forcing her into the procedure.

Sounds reasonable and all, but it also opens the door for a doctor who is against abortion to attempt to force the patient to change her mind.

The other bill bans abortion coverage in policies sold through a health insurance exchange except in cases of rape, incest or medical necessity.

Again, doesn't sound so bad, but some of the wording seems too vague to be useful.

This funding prohibition does not apply in the following circumstances: 1) the abortion is directly and medically necessary to save the life of the woman and a physician so certifies; 2) the abortion is performed in the case of sexual assault or incest, a physician so certifies, and the sexual assault or incest is reported to law enforcement; and 3) due to a preexisting medical condition, the abortion is directly and medically necessary to prevent grave, long-lasting physical health damage to the woman and a physician so certifies.

For instance, does it matter when the rape or incest is reported?  Lots of cases aren't reported at all, much less right away, and the text isn't clear on that.

I'm thinking some of this is inspired by Walker's bitterness over the federal health care law.  It certainly isn't, y'know, creating any jobs or anything.  :P

[itsbeenfun2000]

He also signed a bill repealing the rights of workers to sue over discrimination, and public schools teach abstinence as the only reliable way to prevent pregnancy.

In essence on the first one he voted away equal work for equal pay in the state for all women.

[Callie Del Noire]

He also signed a bill repealing the rights of workers to sue over discrimination, and public schools teach abstinacne as the only reliable way to prevent pregnancy.

In essence on the first one he voted away equal work for equal pay in the state for all women.

Geeze. You guys need to find someone to run against him in the recall. Rolling back equal pay is dangerous but then he's never shown a lot of common sense anyway has he?

[Callie Del Noire]

http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/wisconsin-governor-moves-to-block-hospital-visitation-rights-for-same-sex-couples/

Okay.. I got to ask.. does this guy have a check list of 'how to shit on everyone who didn't vote for me'?

[Valerian]

I guess I'd have to say yes.  There's some question over whether his plan is legal or not -- he's basically the defendant in a lawsuit over this, and would be walking away from an active court case -- but that's never stopped him before, so I doubt it will this time.


It's also looking like Scott Walker may have some serious effect on the presidential race.

As he campaigned across Wisconsin, Mitt Romney repeatedly praised Governor Scott Walker’s leadership, calling him a ‘hero’ and ‘a man of courage’. But with his signing yesterday of a bill make it harder for women to enforce in court their right to equal pay, Walker showed how far Republicans are willing to go to undermine not only women’s health care, but also their economic security. Does Romney think women should have ability to take their bosses to court to get the same pay as their male coworkers? Or does he stand with Governor Walker against this?

The Obama camp is pushing Romney to take a side, which leaves him with an unenviable choice: dare to disagree with Walker, the darling of the Tea Party and future GOP presidential hopeful (please, please, let him be indicted so that doesn't happen); or say he thinks Walker did the right thing and lose still more of his failing support among women.  He hasn't yet offered an opinion, so I guess he's stalling in hopes people will forget he was ever asked such a question.

Someone may have actually gone off-script with this, and I'm not sure who, but maybe the Koch brothers need to meet more often with the general GOP leadership or something, so they don't keep stepping on each others' toes like this.  :P

[Callie Del Noire]

I hate to say it Val.. the main leadership of the GOP has well and truly drunk the kool-aid. You're not going to see any rational thought and coherence till the leadership is overturned. Too many big money men like the Koch family have their hands into the party leaders, like surreal muppets, and that in turn lets them control who gets elected.

Till something really really stupid like.. getting caught in a fraud they can't buy their way out of. Or having their puppet sell them down the river for a lesser sentence.

I think that Obama will win the next election, but without a clear and charismatic leader like him to step up next time..the GOP will get one of their current flavor of 'leaders' in. And with folks like the Koch brother's backing them.. we'll all be screwed.

[Valerian]

There's some indication that Tim Russell, walker's former Chief of Staff and current defendant in an embezzlement case -- he's the one who stole thousands from veterans and their families -- is planning to turn on Walker, who has cut himself off from Russell and seems fully prepared to toss him under the bus.  If Russell had any of his ill-gotten gains left, they're gone now and he's pretty much broke, apparently, and unable to fund a good defense lawyer.  He's probably seriously considering flipping on his ex-boss.  Let's hope.

There's a lawyer named John Dean, former Republican and current independent, who worked for Nixon as White House counsel and who took a plea in the Watergate scandal (so some, er, interesting credentials there).  He's written a book called Conservatives without Conscience, and, by popular demand, has now written an article about whether or not Walker is a "double-high authoritarian".

[T]o fit the definition of a double high authoritarian, a person must score highly as both a dominator/leader, and ironically, also as an authoritarian follower (because such people see themselves running the world, and believe that others should always follow leaders, like themselves).

The first part of the definition is further broken down into Domination, Opposition To Equality, Desirous of Personal Power, and Amorality.  The second part consists of Submission to Authority, Aggressiveness on Behalf of Authority, and Conventionality -- in this sense, basically being as mainstream as possible.

Walker scored high on all these areas, which is no surprise; but as something of an amateur student of psychology and sociology I found this analysis very interesting, if more than a little terrifying, since people like this are traditionally difficult to stop.

[Valerian]

Today is the primary vote here in Wisconsin -- primaries that the Republicans forced to happen by running random Republicans as Democratic candidates.  That's actually illegal, but since the state attorney general is pretty Republican himself, no one seems inclined to do anything about it.  So, since it can't be fixed, here's a list of the actual Democrats by district for the senate recall races:

STATE SENATE DISTRICT 13:
Lori Compas

STATE SENATE DISTRICT 21:
John Lehman

STATE SENATE DISTRICT 23:
Kristen Dexter

STATE SENATE DISTRICT 29:
Donna Seidel


For the governor's race, it's mainly a dead heat between Tom Barrett and Kathleen Falk, though Kathleen Vinehout and Doug LaFollette are also running.  The fake Democrat -- this one is apparently there out of habit or something, since it was pretty clear that there would be a primary here -- is Gladys Huber.

For lieutenant governor, Mahlon Mitchell is considered the front runner and has the Democratic Party's endorsement, but Ira Robins, who appears to be a real Democrat, is also running.  Playing the part of the fake Democratic candidate, we have Isaac Weix.

The fake Democrats are so the Republicans have more time to raise money, of course, though since they're already outspending the Democrats by a considerable margin, I'm not sure why that's necessary... unless it's to find new ways to rig elections, now that Kathy Nicklaus has mercifully stepped down.

I've pretty much given up on anything other than ousting Walker getting the Republicans to stop and think, but I'm crossing my fingers for a high turnout from the Democrats, which might at least make them a little nervous.

[ShadowFox89]

 I didn't recognize any of the vice-governor names.

[Callie Del Noire]

Can't the Feds investigate the AG for failing to investigate alligations of voter fraud?

[Valerian]

I didn't recognize any of the vice-governor names.

Mahlon Mitchell is a firefighter in Madison, currently president of the Professional Firefighters of Wisconsin.  He was active in the protests in Madison, organizing the firefighters to protest even though Walker made them exempt from his union-bashing bill.  He isn't terribly experienced politically, but at this point that almost seems like an advantage.  Ira Robins is an investigative consultant in Milwaukee, which I'm guessing means private investigator.  I didn't bother researching the Republican shill.  :P

Can't the Feds investigate the AG for failing to investigate alligations of voter fraud?

I would think so, but I'm not entirely sure how that works.  Most of the time that sort of investigation only seems to lead to a fine of some sort, unfortunately, which won't be much of a deterrent considering the money the Republicans are raking in.  At this point what I'd really like would be for the feds to find something on Walker that they can prosecute.  That would leave us with Rebecca "same-sex marriage is like marrying a clock" Kleefisch in charge until the recall election, which is obviously not ideal.  As far as I can tell, her main contribution so far has been to make Walker look intelligent in comparison to her.  But at least there's some chance the Tea Party won't want to support a governor who's out on bail, even their golden boy, and we can be rid of him that way.

I'm sorry that Barrett won the primary, though.  I voted for him initially only because he was preferable to Walker -- both of them seemed about equally unintelligent to me, but Barrett seemed less amoral.  But Falk had some really good ideas for improving the economy, I thought, and I would have liked to see her run.  Barrett has better name recognition statewide, though, and I suppose people wanted to choose the candidate they felt might have the better chance to beat Walker, since that's the main point.  The unions and other groups that were supporting Falk are now supporting Barrett, so hopefully this will work.

The state is running at about five or six percent undecided, which is extremely low, and at this point it will likely come down to who can get the most people out to the polls.  I'm already dreading the accusations of fraud, no matter what.  But at least that injunction is still in place, so voter ID won't be an issue, which will hopefully help the Democrats.

[Callie Del Noire]

I read up on the democratic winner. I don't understand why the party backed him.. he lost against Walker the first time..and he doesn't seem to have tangibly changed in any real manner. Add in the truly EPIC amounts of cash Walker has on hand to run now.. he's gonna get creamed. A better tactic would have to put the other candidate into the spot.

I got yelled at by a friend last night for getting all bent of shape about it.. 'Why bother when it's not our state' he asked.. I pointed out that practices like this spread.

[Valerian]

Yeah, like I said, there wasn't much to choose between them the first time through -- I basically reasoned that stupid was probably better than stupid evil, even if not by much.  It's almost a grudge match between those two.  Walker was Milwaukee County Executive while Barrett was Milwaukee mayor, and they've hated each other ever since.  The city of Milwaukee is basically the entirety of the county, so obviously there's a lot of overlap, and at least some of the problems Milwaukee has had recently were because the two of them were more concerned with 'beating' the other than what was actually good for the city.

Mitchell is actually reasonably popular, from what I've seen.  Polls show Kleefisch ahead, but not by much, and she's woefully underfunded compared to Walker.  (He apparently hasn't figured out a way of sneaking her money, or at least that's what she says, that he can't just give her some of his funds.)  So there we might have a better chance... and I have to admit, even if Walker wins, I'll laugh a little through my tears if he then has to deal with a pro-union, staunchly Democrat lieutenant governor for the rest of his term.

Everyone in the U.S. should be concerned, though, you're right -- Walker really is the Tea Party's darling, and if he gets kicked out it would be a serious setback for them.  I'm sure they'd scream fraud, say the unions bought the election, etc., but in a year or two all anyone would remember is that a majority in Wisconsin didn't want him around.

But if Walker wins, it would be the signal to all the other Tea Party, radical Republicans that it's open season for them and they can get away with whatever they want.  They already don't believe that checks and balances apply to them, and a Walker victory would be taken as proof of that.  I shudder to think of the tactics they'd use.

[itsbeenfun2000]

Walker's latest revelation a few weeks ago is that no public employee should get what he calls "add ons" to their pay. That means a teacher with a masters degree will be getting paid on the bachelors level if he has his way which would be a substantial pay cut for them.


Kind of like Cambodia but instead of killing the teachers so the population can't be educated they are simply making it so undesirable to be or become a teacher that no one will want to stay or go into the profession. If I had children right now there is no way I would move into my state.

[Callie Del Noire]

Walker's latest revelation a few weeks ago is that no public employee should get what he calls "add ons" to their pay. That means a teacher with a masters degree will be getting paid on the bachelors level if he has his way which would be a substantial pay cut for them.


Kind of like Cambodia but instead of killing the teachers so the population can't be educated they are simply making it so undesirable to be or become a teacher that no one will want to stay or go into the profession. If I had children right now there is no way I would move into my state.

I know it varies from state to state.. but isn't there usually a required 'continuing education' requirement for teachers to continue working or advancing their pay? IE... to get a higher payscale (or even keep their jobs in some states) they have to earn so many credits in their field over time? I only ask because I recall my highschool music teacher had to work high and middle school to stay working because he was a doctor of music and the school board couldn't afford him otherwise.

[Valerian]

I'm not a teacher, so this is based on some quick online research, mostly here.  Certain educators (it seems it's based on when the teacher was certified) are required to take a minimum number of credits in order to renew their licenses.  That seems to be considered an "add-on", which would normally have some effect on salary, but I'm not positive.

There's a good description of Walker's devious plan here.  Basically, it allows schools to pay a teacher with a doctorate on the same pay scale as a teacher who has a master's degree.  It also allows schools to ignore things like overtime and merit pay (Walker's new favorite thing, incidentally; he's giving it out to all his cronies, to the tune of over a quarter of a million dollars so far), which are now also considered "add-ons" -- it almost sounds like they're calling such things luxuries, which is a depressing thought.

Practically speaking, that equals a 30% pay cut for Wisconsin teachers (about 80% of whom are female).  Individual schools can, if they wish, restore that funding, but again, on a practical level, most will not have that much money to spare, given all the other cuts.

From what I've been reading, it's too ingenious for Walker to have come up with it on his own.  Someone helped him with his homework.  The most likely result will be that districts simply lower their teachers' pay about 30% -- but teachers will not be laid off.  If they quit, hey, that isn't Walker's fault.  Education will crumble more slowly, with fewer immediately obvious effects.  We'll have to go through a couple of cycles of standardized tests first, I suppose, by which time Walker & Co. can reasonably suppose that the general public's short attention span will have moved elsewhere.

[State Representative Mark] Pocan, framing the debate against Walker's recent bonuses for cronies said, "Ask Wisconsinites if they'd rather take money out of the pockets of experienced public school teachers with advanced education or give raises to a select few:  I guarantee you, Wisconsin won't stand with Walker."

Pocan's reference is to the "I Stand with Walker" signs the GOP has been handing out.  Personally, I like this variation better:



Another person has been granted immunity in the ongoing John Doe investigation, by the way, which brings the total to twelve.  So maybe some of his cronies really will get to stand trial with him.

[Valerian]

Twelve days until the recall and counting.

Walker's repeal of the Equal Pay Act was most obviously part of the radical Republican war on women, but it had a hidden sting against another group he loves to hate: veterans.

Lost in the debate are little-known limits on the rights of veterans to sue in federal court, said Michael Gourlie, a member of the Wisconsin Association of Concerned Veterans Organizations executive board and Wisconsin’s Council on Veterans Programs, which advises the state Department of Veterans Affairs.

“This leaves one less incentive for war-weary employers of reservists and National Guard members — who have absorbed multiple combat deployments over the last 10 years — to hire and retain these patriots,” said Gourlie, an Army and Wisconsin National Guard veteran who served in Afghanistan before retiring as a lieutenant colonel. “Veterans were viewed, unfortunately, as collateral damage by small business, the Legislature and the governor in order to get that law through.”

Two Walker cronies already embezzled almost $64,000 from two different veterans' groups, so this is nothing new, really.  But then there's the whole thing about John Scocos, former secretary of the state's Veterans Affair Board, who lost his job by unanimous vote two years ago.

Among the violations listed was [Scocos'] poor communication skills, misspending money without board approval (he bought a $850,000 fire truck for the King Veterans Center which couldn't even handle a fire in all of the center's buildings), and arbitrarily raising rates for the veterans without notifying the board.

Scocos immediately cried foul and said his job was protected because he came back [from active duty in Iraq] a few months before.  The problem with his argument is that he had his job back as soon as he returned.  The problem is that as soon he resumed his position, Scocos continued to act inappropriately despite warnings from the board.

So he got fired.

The rates mentioned are basically rents for those staying in the Union Grove Veterans Home.  The raise amounted to about $30 per day.  I can't find any recent numbers, but last year the facility was at just 36% capacity because so few could afford it.

Anyway, Walker's gave Scocos his old job back last August, though he's still suing over being fired.  At least two other board members resigned over Scocos' return.


Then there are Walker's job numbers.

Every other state in the union uses something called the Establishment Payroll Survey to produce their job numbers.  The Department of Labor calls various workplaces and asks how many people are employed there in non-farm jobs.

Walker is now using the Current Population Survey, which is what gives us the monthly unemployment rates.  This is also the number that conservatives usually hate because they say it's skewed in a way that makes Obama look good for lowering unemployment rates nationwide.  When someone gives up on looking for work because they can't find anything, the unemployment numbers go down.

So he says -- just in time for the recall election -- "Look!  We gained 23,300 jobs!" when the truth is more that we lost about 33,000.  (Though if anyone out there knows more about how this works, please chime in.  The claims and counter-claims are a little dizzying.)

The real problem, of course, is that both numbers are very small, especially compared to the quarter of a million jobs Walker guaranteed he'd create.  It's being referred to as "dancing around zero".

[Oniya]

From Robert Reich's blog:

Most observers pay attention to the official rate of unemployment, which edged down to 8.1 percent in April from 8.2 percent in March. That may sound like progress, but it’s not. The unemployment rate dropped because more people dropped out of the labor force, too discouraged to look for work. The household survey, from which the rate is calculated, counts as “unemployed” only people who are actively looking for work. If you stop looking because the job scene looks hopeless for you, you’re no longer counted.

Bolding is mine.  There may also be some index that's calculated based on the number of weekly unemployment benefit claims - but again, that doesn't take into account the difference between the ones that stop receiving because they got a job, and the ones that stop receiving because they ran out of benefits.

[Valerian]

There was also mention of cases where someone might be living in Wisconsin but working in another state -- someone living in Beloit, near the Illinois border, might easily commute 20 miles every day to work in Rockford, Illinois, for example.  That one seems awfully hard to track, though, by any method.

[Oniya]

I doubt that Walker can claim responsibility for creating jobs in Rockford.  ::)

[Callie Del Noire]

I doubt that Walker can claim responsibility for creating jobs in Rockford.  ::)

If there is a way, he will though.

[AndyZ]

From Robert Reich's blog:

Bolding is mine.  There may also be some index that's calculated based on the number of weekly unemployment benefit claims - but again, that doesn't take into account the difference between the ones that stop receiving because they got a job, and the ones that stop receiving because they ran out of benefits.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unemployment_rate#Measurement

Basically, U3 is what we currently use, and I think it got switched over sometime during 1994.

U4: U3 + "discouraged workers", or those who have stopped looking for work because current economic conditions make them believe that no work is available for them.
U5: U4 + other "marginally attached workers", or "loosely attached workers", or those who "would like" and are able to work, but have not looked for work recently.
U6: U5 + Part time workers who want to work full time, but cannot due to economic reasons (underemployment).
Note: "Marginally attached workers" are added to the total labour force for unemployment rate calculation for U4, U5, and U6. The BLS revised the CPS in 1994 and among the changes the measure representing the official unemployment rate was renamed U3 instead of U5.[88]

Personally, I think we should use U5, or at least U4.  However, all the numbers exist, you just have to hunt them down.

[Oniya]

Useful to know.  Technically, I'm in U6, and Mr. Oniya is in U5 (although the move is giving him a kick in the butt, hopefully up to U3 or higher.)

[ShadowFox89]

 I would count as U3, I've been putting in job applications everywhere I can for the past several years....

[Oniya]

I haven't been de-hired, but there's no more work on the contract, so my hours are zilch.  I'll be U3-ing it in about two weeks to any place within walking distance from the house (one advantage of a more urban environment.)

[Vekseid]

So he says -- just in time for the recall election -- "Look!  We gained 23,300 jobs!" when the truth is more that we lost about 33,000.  (Though if anyone out there knows more about how this works, please chime in.  The claims and counter-claims are a little dizzying.)

Walker's numbers are based off of household data, IIRC, while the other number is based off of establishment data.

So Wisconsinites, themselves, may hold ~23k more actual jobs. But the number of jobs actually available in Wisconsin is down by 33,000. So about 50,000 additional people are commuting outside of Wisconsin for their jobs.

[itsbeenfun2000]

Walker's numbers are based off of household data, IIRC, while the other number is based off of establishment data.

So Wisconsinites, themselves, may hold ~23k more actual jobs. But the number of jobs actually available in Wisconsin is down by 33,000. So about 50,000 additional people are commuting outside of Wisconsin for their jobs.

Which would make sense becuase the job market in the Chicagoland area is improving and Kenosha is considered one of Chicago's suburbs. Kenosha county has always had a lot of people working in Illinois and living in Wisconsin.

[Valerian]

There's a debate scheduled tonight between Barrett and Walker, the first of two, at 8:00 on WTMJ, Milwaukee.  Barrett says he plans to ask Walker what's going on with that "legal defense fund" of his, and also to ask him if he'll finally release any and all emails he might have exchanged with the people in his office who have been arrested and/or indicted for fraud.  The one email from Walker that's been leaked hints that he knew all about the fraud.

My guess is Walker is even now practicing saying, "Well, that really isn't relevant.  That's a non-issue.  Look, jobs!" in front of a mirror.

[Callie Del Noire]

Oh.. I'd love to be there for that one. Not going to watch it.. but definitely want to hear about it afterwards.

I had one friend yell at me about why I was 'ranting' about stuff happening six or seven states away (his words). I pointed out rot starts at one point and spreads outward from there, you let one side pull this somewhere.. and the next cycle.. it will be happening in six more states. I don't think this is the ONLY governor that the Kochs want to buy.

[itsbeenfun2000]

I didn't watch the debate but it sounds like Walker was taken to task. Each candidate was allowed to ask the other a question and Walker avoided answering the one asked of him. Barret accused him of being the most divisive governor of our time and Walkers reply was we need to start working together.

[Callie Del Noire]

http://uneditedpolitics.com/2012/05/26/wisconsin-gubernatorial-debate-scott-walker-and-tom-barrett-52512/

Interesting video.  Both candidates dodge some issues but I think Walker was more evasive.

And yes, the final question was completely dodged, though I think the mayor took a shot at the legal issues Walker is hiding from.

[Major Major]

I been watching this debacle in Wisconsin both here and on another site, which for privacy reasons I shall not name. And on this other site, I had the misfortune of meeting one of the more rabid sorts of Tea Party supporters, who I shall refer to by the initials SDB. He was less consistent in his position than Paolini was in keeping Eragon's plotline coherent, smugly gloated that the blatent corruption that the TP displayed was "A triumph for American Democracy over godless Liberals" (somewhat paraphrased) and said that, if Obama won, he'd actively try to sabotage the American economy to punish him for not being a WASP Reublican.

Needless to say, he's not popular on that site; in fact the mods are now just waiting for Obama to win, so they can watch SBD have an epic meltdown and childish tantrum, before perma-banning him.

[RubySlippers]

What if the governor survives and is retained in office?

[Callie Del Noire]

What if the governor survives and is retained in office?

Let's see.. so far he's ..

-Stolen the control of school districts/municipalities
-Severally damaged the concept of collective bargaining
-Robbed the Mortgage settlement that the State DAs to pad his budget
-Plotted to sell off (at closed bid) the state utilities to his sponsors.
-Inserted as many of his cronies into state government as he could despite 'downsizing'.

So.. most likely he'll
-continue to kick the unions when he can
-sell off the public utilities when and if he retains controll of the state legislature
-Expand beyond the public workers and unions on who he's going to disenfranchise. (want to bet the cops/firemen are next?)
-Push through more roll backs on the labor and business laws that protect workers
-Install more blocks to access the going ons of government (why ever do we need to let folks sit in on the assembly? Closed sessions will be the order of the day.)

[ShadowFox89]

 Well, if you ask his supporters, he can also turn water into wine and end world hunger with a wink.

[itsbeenfun2000]

I found this interesting.

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/05/27/scott-walkers-latest-victim-deer-hunters/

[Callie Del Noire]

I found this interesting.

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/05/27/scott-walkers-latest-victim-deer-hunters/

Of course, and without the $$$$ to buy your way into these ranches, there is no need for mr Middle Class to have a rifle.  And he, the new Deer tsar will push for public land to be put in the management of the 'responsible' folk like himself. 

[ShadowFox89]

 Really, I don't trust either candidate. Neither one can produce reliable numbers. Not that I trust Walker more than the other guy.

[Vekseid]

Really, I don't trust either candidate. Neither one can produce reliable numbers. Not that I trust Walker more than the other guy.

I'm pretty sure I can trust Scott Walker to do what I expect him to do.

Ideally, we'd get a political system that actively prevented these sorts of people getting into power. However, we can prune the worst of them.

[Callie Del Noire]

I'm pretty sure I can trust Scott Walker to do what I expect him to do.

Ideally, we'd get a political system that actively prevented these sorts of people getting into power. However, we can prune the worst of them.

Only if we open our eyes and ears and listen. Problem is.. there is a LOT of voter apathy. THAT is why I'm glad to see the recall effort go forward, it tells me that the voter apathy isn't fixed and you can't coax the public into definding themselves.

[Valerian]

People in Wisconsin, particularly Madison, have a long history of exercising their right to speak up, and I really think that a large part of the reason the recall is happening is that Walker tried his best to take away that right, with all his ridiculous laws about four people constituting a rally, his locking of the capitol building, etc.  He made a lot of people mad with those maneuvers, myself included, even aside from all his other mishandling of issues.

I was startled to discover that the NRA is coming out so vehemently in support of Walker, though.  They have an ad screaming about how Barrett hates gun rights and will take away your right to own a deer rifle.  Hunting will end up as a thing of the past for a lot of people if Walker gets his way, so who cares if you've got the right to own a deer rifle?  You won't be able to shoot anything with it, unless the NRA is supporting more shootings of home intruders, which is a truly appalling thought.



Anyway, the DNR is falling apart, too, thanks to Walker, so I'm sure the public lands are all going to end up mismanaged, thus lending statistical support to his private game park plan.  The new, Walker-appointed secretary of the DNR is Cathy Stepp, a construction company owner and former Republican state senator who has long been a critic of the DNR.

She called [DNR] employees “unelected bureaucrats” who tend to “come up with some pretty outrageous stuff that those of us in the real world have to contend with.”

Former DNR secretaries, including one appointed by Republican Tommy Thompson, are criticizing her handling of environmental cases, using words like "unprecedented," "outrageous" and "indefensible."  The current scandal is over the handling of the Herr Environmental debacle, wherein a company that had already been in trouble for runoff pollution in 2010 (a case which they settled for $240,000), has recently gotten in trouble for "excess spreading of human waste on farm fields" (ew), and for cooking their books to hide it.  This time the case went to local prosecutors instead of the state DOJ, and the company paid a $4,338 fine, which is the minimum.

The person who referred the case there was Scott Gunderson, who's a former member of the state Assembly who received campaign contributions from Herr Environmental.  He claimed he forgot about the contributions and promised to check next time.  :P   Shockingly, Herr has also donated to Walker.

The number of environmental cases referred to the state DOJ in 2011 was 21.  The previous average per year was 65.  The new Republican appointees blame that on being understaffed, even though the agency was equally understaffed under Governor Doyle (a Democrat), for example.

To top it all off, the DNR won't make Herr Environmental pay to test the groundwater in the area, to see if any wells have been contaminated.  Cathy Stepp -- who has no training in such things whatsoever -- has helpfully reassured residents of the area that the potential for groundwater contamination is "relatively low".

[Callie Del Noire]

I'm sorry for your state Valerian.. but in a sorta perverse way, Walker continues to amaze me. He's so bluntly obvious in his attempts to hijack the process that I can't believe he's not being prosecuted yet. I do imagine within the next few years he will be. There is no way so much graft and corruption could be going on around him without him knowing/endorsing/getting a piece of it.

And if he is UNAWARE of it..he clearly needs to NOT be in office.

[ShadowFox89]

 I blame our proximity to Illinois.

[Callie Del Noire]

I doubt he's unaware, he shows an disproportionate number of signs of being a double high authoritarian personality.  He hits damn near every indicator.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-wing_authoritarianism

[Valerian]

There's another debate tonight between Barrett and Walker, at 9 o'clock.  I thought Barrett did somewhat better than Walker in the last debate -- a friend of mine said that he thought that the people who were asking the questions didn't seem to like Walker much, though I didn't catch that myself.  Walker was particularly good at slithering out of answering questions, though; we'll see if he manages the same tonight.

Walker's rearranged job numbers have been confirmed by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics -- or so Walker's people say, at least.  The Bureau itself hasn't confirmed this.  And in any case, no one's saying the numbers themselves are at fault; the problem is that Walker's misusing them.

This is the kicker, though, except I'm sure it won't hit the mainstream media:

Walker, in a rare moment of candor, stated to reporters that he would not use the criminal defense fund to pay for the legal defenses of his aides, who have been charged with crimes ranging from child enticement, to theft from veterans and the families of fallen soldiers, to misuse of taxpayer resources to illegally campaign for Scott Walker, and would instead use the funds for himself or his campaign.

Wisconsin law is very clear: an elected official can only establish a legal defense fund if they, or their agent, are under investigation for, charged with, or convicted of violations of Wisconsin’s campaign finance and election laws.

In other words, he's admitted that he is John Doe in the ongoing investigation, after denying it pretty much since the beginning.  And if it isn't on Fox -- which it won't be -- half the state won't even notice.  Argh.

[Callie Del Noire]

There's another debate tonight between Barrett and Walker, at 9 o'clock.  I thought Barrett did somewhat better than Walker in the last debate -- a friend of mine said that he thought that the people who were asking the questions didn't seem to like Walker much, though I didn't catch that myself.  Walker was particularly good at slithering out of answering questions, though; we'll see if he manages the same tonight.

Walker's rearranged job numbers have been confirmed by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics -- or so Walker's people say, at least.  The Bureau itself hasn't confirmed this.  And in any case, no one's saying the numbers themselves are at fault; the problem is that Walker's misusing them.

This is the kicker, though, except I'm sure it won't hit the mainstream media:
In other words, he's admitted that he is John Doe in the ongoing investigation, after denying it pretty much since the beginning.  And if it isn't on Fox -- which it won't be -- half the state won't even notice.  Argh.

I watched the first one on youtube.. it seemed self evident to me.. I mean just look at their faces.. I think none of them would have shed a tear if they had run him down in traffic.

[Valerian]

I have to admit, that little frowny face Walker makes whenever he stops talking really grates on my nerves.  :P  And from what I've heard, Erin Davisson, who was on the panel and is a local newscaster, has no love for Walker; the surprising part is that she would let it show much.


Now, I just found this a few minutes ago.  It's apparently some sort of dump of emails that Walker's office just made, after a request was made for them about a year ago.  There are 7,289 pages of the stuff, according to the Daily Kos, and they're asking people who have the time to sort through them and see what they can find.

Some are saying it's just a dodge, that they've released a huge pile of harmless stuff so as to distract the Democrats from the Get Out the Vote push, which is starting now, and I have to admit that the little I've looked at so far is pretty tedious and predictable -- a lot of people emailing articles and links around the office, deciding what to tweet, etc., and names of senders are always blacked out.  (One email suggests that a certain article should be paraphrased rather than linked because it isn't entirely supportive -- and goes on to say that s/he isn't sure if most people "even know what collective bargaining is."  And this was before they started gutting education.  :P)

Anyway, I'm browsing through in my spare moments, on the off-chance there's something interesting hidden among the union-bashing.  *sigh*

[Callie Del Noire]

I have to admit, that little frowny face Walker makes whenever he stops talking really grates on my nerves.  :P  And from what I've heard, Erin Davisson, who was on the panel and is a local newscaster, has no love for Walker; the surprising part is that she would let it show much.


Now, I just found this a few minutes ago.  It's apparently some sort of dump of emails that Walker's office just made, after a request was made for them about a year ago.  There are 7,289 pages of the stuff, according to the Daily Kos, and they're asking people who have the time to sort through them and see what they can find.

Some are saying it's just a dodge, that they've released a huge pile of harmless stuff so as to distract the Democrats from the Get Out the Vote push, which is starting now, and I have to admit that the little I've looked at so far is pretty tedious and predictable -- a lot of people emailing articles and links around the office, deciding what to tweet, etc., and names of senders are always blacked out.  (One email suggests that a certain article should be paraphrased rather than linked because it isn't entirely supportive -- and goes on to say that s/he isn't sure if most people "even know what collective bargaining is."  And this was before they started gutting education.  :P)

Anyway, I'm browsing through in my spare moments, on the off-chance there's something interesting hidden among the union-bashing.  *sigh*

I'd say turn it over to the feds.. the John Doe investigation is looking very interesting if he IS the target. irony would be getting thorugh the recall.. only to have his entire cabinet hauled off to court.

[itsbeenfun2000]

I blame our proximity to Illinois.

Growing up in Illinois and living in Wisconsin gives me an interesting take on all of this. However, don't blame Illinois on this one. It may be corrupt but the Democrats and Republicans that have been in office have never attempted anything like this with the public workers. For that matter both parties get along quite well and compromise with them the best they can.

[Callie Del Noire]

Growing up in Illinois and living in Wisconsin gives me an interesting take on all of this. However, don't blame Illinois on this one. It may be corrupt but the Democrats and Republicans that have been in office have never attempted anything like this with the public workers. For that matter both parties get along quite well and compromise with them the best they can.

Don't worry.. the Tea party will be happy to fuck your public workers as well. They are happy to screw them all.

I imagine there is a group of them in Chicago wondering how they can do the same sort of thigns there. (which I would like to see)

[Valerian]

The lucky 13th person has just been given immunity in the John Doe case, a former Walker spokesperson named Fran McLaughlin.

Despite Walker's insistence that he asked for the investigation into the embezzlement by Kavanaugh and Russell, evidence is now coming out that he lied.  Shocker.

On May 5, 2010, Assistant District Attorney Bruce Landgraf filed a petition with court officials asking if his office could initiate a secret investigation into what happened with $11,000 in donations intended for Operation Freedom, an annual event honoring veterans.

By making it a secret John Doe investigation, Landgraf wrote that prosecutors might get better cooperation from Walker's office, which had been "unwilling or unable" to turn over records and information needed in the investigation. He said he would need to subpoena county records and officials.

And the Best Line of the Debate Award goes to Barrett, who said this when Walker challenged him about the crime rate in Milwaukee: "I have a police department that arrests felons.  [Walker] has a practice of hiring them."   ;D

[ShadowFox89]

 He claims that he was in the "unable" section, told by.. whoever the hell it was, that his office wasn't allowed to release the records.

[Valerian]

Walker is certainly able to release all those documents -- always has been -- and has also always been able to speak about the John Doe proceedings to defend himself if he wishes.  From this article:

In a conference call today with reporters, former Watergate prosecutor and UW Law School professor Frank Tueurkheimer, former Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager and former Kenosha District Attorney Bob Jambois all confirmed that Scott Walker is under no obligation to remain silent to the citizens or the media. He enjoys a first amendment right to defend himself to the media.

Emphasis mine.  And apparently, if he isn't the subject of the investigation, then his lawyers would know that AND be able to prove it.

There is a code that US Attorneys follow that requires them to provide a letter to a person stating that they are not the target of their investigation.  And word is, like they're supposed to, Walker's attorneys have been asking for such a letter for weeks.  And if Walker had such a letter, he would be free to produce it and remove any doubt about his innocence once and for all.

But Walker has produced no such letter, basically because none exists.

There's also a code that prevents filing charges against a candidate within 60 days of an election, though, so Walker's safe for a little while, at least.  There are increasing reports, however, that Walker will be indicted within the next six months.

Speaking of the election, this is the site to go if you're in Wisconsin and need to know where you should be voting.  The districts have changed for most people recently.  Most polling locations are open until 8:00 pm, and you do not need to show photo ID to vote.  That law is still under an injunction, and while some places have started asking for photo ID, you can still vote even if you can't produce it.

This is my small contribution to the Get Out the Vote movement.  Frankly, I'm in something of a panic about this election.  :P

[Valerian]

This is still breaking news, in a way, but there's some new information coming out about Tim Russell, Walker's former right-hand-man who has been arrested for embezzling over $20,000 from Operation Freedom, a veterans group.  Walker's pretty much abandoned him, and there have been indications that Russell doesn't have a lot of money for his lawyers.  (The $20,000 allegedly went on vacations, a trip to a "political strategy session" in Atlanta with then-presidential candidate Herman Cain, and renewing the domain names for some pro-Walker websites.)

Word now is that a lot of the most damaging information that's been hitting the press lately about Walker's activities was supplied by Russell's attorney, with Russell's permission, because he's tired of being the scapegoat -- which wouldn't exactly be a shock.  More on that here and here.

David Shuster is saying that Walker will be indicted sooner or later, as he is now officially a target of the investigation, both by Milwaukee County officials and the FBI.

The legal sources, who are not involved in Wisconsin's recall, spoke on condition of anonymity. They said Walker faces "serious legal challenges," including "a possible indictment," regardless of the election results on Tuesday.

The sources indicate Walker's status was clarified more than a week ago, allegedly following a series of requests by Walker's legal team that prosecutors publicly clear him of any wrong doing before the recall election. Take Action News reached out to Governor Walker's spokesperson for comment on this story and received no response.

In other words, apparently what we most need to do today is to vote lieutenant governor Kleefisch out of office and get Mahlon Mitchell in.  Otherwise, if and when Walker is indicted, Kleefisch will have his job.  If possible, she's even crazier than he is, and about as bright as Sarah Palin -- Kleefisch went on TV and compared same-sex marriage to marrying a piece of furniture.  The lieutenant governor's campaign is technically entirely separate from the governor's campaign, unlike president and vice-president, for instance, so it is possible that Walker would lose and Kleefisch would win, or vice versa, though it isn't likely.

On the other hand, if Walker wins, I'd love to see him forced to resign in favor of Mitchell -- one of the 'union bosses' Walker rants about, since he's currently president of the Professional Fire Fighters of Wisconsin.

[ShadowFox89]

 To be fair, I would vote for Mitchell as Vice Governor because he's a firefighter....

Yeah, it might be lazy, but when your father, grandfather, and many of the people you know are firefighters, there's some sense of loyalty.

[Valerian]

Well, I can't really argue with that, since even aside from anything else, I'd want Walker out solely because of the way he's treated veterans his entire political career -- my father, both my grandfathers, my uncles, and one of my best friends all served in the military, and most saw active duty during wartime.   That Operation Freedom embezzlement, for instance, couldn't have happened if Walker hadn't taken the running of the group away from the VFW and given it to Russell.

[Valerian]

I'd better stop checking the news, or I'll just keep double-posting.  :P

Reports are coming in that people who signed the recall petition against Walker -- those petitions are all over the internet, of course -- are getting robocalls telling them they don't need to vote.

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said his campaign is contacting Wisconsin residents to counter reports of a robo-call that says anyone who signed a petition to recall Gov. Scott Walker doesn’t have to vote in Tuesday’s election.

Barrett, the Democrat challenging the Republican governor, said he has recorded a robo-call of his own telling people that signing a petition wasn’t enough and that they do have to cast a ballot, WisPolitics.com reported. There have been a number of reports of Wisconsin residents receiving calls saying that their signature on the recall petition counts as their vote.
....
Walker’s campaign pushed back against the allegation, issuing a statement strongly denying any connection with the reported calls.

“Any accusation that our campaign is making those calls is categorically false and unfounded. Once again Mayor Barrett and his campaign are trying to falsely attack Governor Walker with absolutely no evidence. This is a desperate move by Mayor Barrett to avoid addressing his lack of a plan to create jobs in Wisconsin,” the campaign stated.

Why does the GOP apparently think that Barrett would try to stop the people most likely to vote for him from going out and voting?  I mean, the calls seem to be confirmed.  Reportedly, the voice sounds somewhat like Barrett's.  Someone's paying for those calls, and I hope someone else is following that money trail right now, because this has to be illegal.

12.05 False representations affecting elections.
No person may knowingly make or publish, or cause to be made or published, a false representation pertaining to a candidate or referendum which is intended or tends to affect voting at an election.

[Callie Del Noire]

I'd better stop checking the news, or I'll just keep double-posting.  :P

Reports are coming in that people who signed the recall petition against Walker -- those petitions are all over the internet, of course -- are getting robocalls telling them they don't need to vote.
Why does the GOP apparently think that Barrett would try to stop the people most likely to vote for him from going out and voting?  I mean, the calls seem to be confirmed.  Reportedly, the voice sounds somewhat like Barrett's.  Someone's paying for those calls, and I hope someone else is following that money trail right now, because this has to be illegal.

Kinda I'm sure. I figure that it ranks down there with the robocalls made during the GOP primary cycle in SC '08 where SOMEONE made a robocaller that insinuated that John McCain's adopted daughter was his illegitimate bi-racial kid. The McCains had kept her out of the public eye (like they had their other kids when they were younger) to protect her from public scrutiny.

[Trieste]

It would be comical if it were in a movie or something. As it is, that's just sad.

[Valerian]

Well.  My SO and I just went out to vote, and weren't able to.  Our polling place is at a local school, and someone there pulled the fire alarm.  At first they were just checking into it and apologizing for the noise -- which was terrible -- but then they decided to evacuate the building.  So now we're going to have dinner and try again in an hour.

It could be just one of those things, of course.  But I'm paranoid right now.  <.<

[Callie Del Noire]

Man, I feel for you Valerian. This is getting surreal.

[Valerian]

Voting, take two, went all right, at least -- no fires, no ringing fire alarms.  The voting numbers were about twice the usual, based on the counter on the machine that takes the ballots.  I was finding stories on the net about some Texas Tea Party group called the King Street Patriots claiming they would have people at every single Wisconsin polling place, but apparently they missed mine.  Anyway, the Patriots got in trouble for voter intimidation in Texas two years ago, so I was a little nervous about that; but again, no problems.  There have been a few minor incidents reported, but really very little in the way of altercations has happened, at least.

[Callie Del Noire]

Voting, take two, went all right, at least -- no fires, no ringing fire alarms.  The voting numbers were about twice the usual, based on the counter on the machine that takes the ballots.  I was finding stories on the net about some Texas Tea Party group called the King Street Patriots claiming they would have people at every single Wisconsin polling place, but apparently they missed mine.  Anyway, the Patriots got in trouble for voter intimidation in Texas two years ago, so I was a little nervous about that; but again, no problems.  There have been a few minor incidents reported, but really very little in the way of altercations has happened, at least.

Any word on the poll results?

[AndyZ]

It's been called for Walker.  About 63% at the time of this posting, with Walker at 58% and Darrett at 41%.

[ShadowFox89]

 Yeah... Doesn't look good.

[Valerian]

Well, whether or not it'll make enough difference I can't guess, of course, but as more votes come in Walker's lead keeps dropping.  With 75% reporting, Walker now has 55% to Barrett's 44%.

[RubySlippers]

Well so far it seems the people are voting for Walker he just needs a bit over 50% to keep the governorship, so looks to close to call yet.

[Gentle Heart]

And Walker wins!

Sweet.

Now to skim the Huffington Post for the comments sections' river of tears.

[Trieste]

Wisconsin has spoken, I guess...? Are they teaching masochism up in those schools or something? :P

[Callie Del Noire]

It does send a message that he's made the voters made enough to try a recall.. and I can only say it's amazing what you can do with unlimited funding and the followers of Karl Rove's electioneering school.

[Vekseid]

And Walker wins!

Sweet.

Now to skim the Huffington Post for the comments sections' river of tears.

First post in five months is to troll PROC?

How cute.

Did you get your fifty cents?

[Valerian]

That's okay, Veks.  It isn't all good news for the Republicans, so they're probably a little bitter -- they've lost control of the Wisconsin senate.  Democrat John Lehman has ousted Republican Van Wanggaard in Racine, so the Democrats now have a one-vote majority.  The Assembly is still Republican, but all 99 seats are up for election in November, so we'll see what happens then.

There was some heartening support from moderate Republicans -- a retired Republican legislator, for instance, voted Democrat because as she put it, having worked with both Barrett and Walker, she was in no doubt which of them was the better candidate.  But a large part of the problem according to the exit polls was those Democrats and independents who believed Walker's ads about how recalls are such a waste of taxpayer money, and voted for him to spite the people who had signed the recall petition.

So yeah, a little masochism at work there.

However, since Walker can't just dance through any legislation he wants anymore, I'm not nearly as unhappy as I might be.  If and when Walker is indicted, we'll have a problem with Kleefisch, but if she's allowed to run the state for any length of time, I think even the diehards will admit that sometimes, recalls are a good idea.


Interestingly, while for the most part Barrett won all the counties he was expected to win, he also won Douglas, Bayfield, and Ashland counties (by a lot) in the northwestern corner of the state, areas that are traditionally more Republican.  But in this case, they're also the three counties that would have had all their groundwater, natural resources, and tourism ruined by that open-pit mine Walker and Co. tried to push through.  Just more evidence of how Walker can make an enemy out of anyone with very little effort...

[MasterMischief]

I shall weep now.  Others will join me when they realize what they have done.

[Gentle Heart]

First post in five months is to troll PROC?

How cute.

Did you get your fifty cents?

Yeah, there's a reason I don't post. Because these forums are so horribly lopsided and biased that any attempt at discussion would involve a 10-on-1 beatdown I'm not interested in. So I'll just take my post-game schadenfreude where and when I can.

[Callie Del Noire]

Yeah, there's a reason I don't post. Because these forums are so horribly lopsided and biased that any attempt at discussion would involve a 10-on-1 beatdown I'm not interested in. So I'll just take my post-game schadenfreude where and when I can.

Do you're okay with adding a dash of discontent and mayhem, rather than putting forward a reasoned argument supporting your views? Or you just like kicking folks when they are down?  Bravo sir, you have shown why I never lead off with my party affiliation.

Enjoy your trip to the HuffPost and other such sights.

[TheGlyphstone]

It's people like this that make the moderates/conservatives who post on E unwilling to say so.

On-topic...so, is the whole thing over, or has it only started?

[Callie Del Noire]

It's people like this that make the moderates/conservatives who post on E unwilling to say so.

On-topic...so, is the whole thing over, or has it only started?

Well the recall is over, barring something like blatant voter fraud, but I think that the change over and loss of a majority will impact the progress of his more draconian policies.  And liker valerian pointed out earlier, there is till the John Doe investigation which I don't think will go away.

However, given his past actions and his win in the recall, I'm sure that a double high like Govenor Walker will try to give his rivals a metaforical kicking.

[MasterMischief]

Yeah, there's a reason I don't post. Because these forums are so horribly lopsided and biased that any attempt at discussion would involve a 10-on-1 beatdown I'm not interested in. So I'll just take my post-game schadenfreude where and when I can.

So you will just go where the beatdown will be in your favor?

[Valerian]

If Gentle Heart wants to have an actual, rational discussion on the subject, I'll gladly take him on in the Dialogues area, just the two of us.  I am confident in my ability to counter any pro-Walker argument with facts.  It's an offer I've made elsewhere, but sadly, as Callie and TheGlyphstone have mentioned, the far, far right Tea Partiers prefer to hurl insults whenever someone disagrees, so no one's ever taken me up on it.

It isn't really over, though, I'm sure.  The crucial senate election wasn't quite close enough to trigger an automatic recount, but no doubt the Republicans will ante up the money to pay for a recount, since I don't think they can get away with miraculously "finding" just enough votes to win again, as in Waukesha with the supreme court election last year.  (Besides, this was in Racine County, which is not so Republican.)

There's also the robocalls to investigate.  Early reports are that the number is one registered to the Republican party for use in phone banks, and Senator Lena Taylor (D-Milwaukee) is asking for a full investigation.  The Wisconsin GOP is denying everything, and really, I have to say it would have been awfully silly of them to use a number that's so easy to trace for something like that.  On the other hand, would anyone else have been able to use that number?  I have to admit I'm not sure of the exact procedures on robocalls.

And there are some questions about how quickly the numbers changed.  Exit polls had them in a dead heat, much too close to call, yet suddenly Walker gained a huge lead that he never quite lost.  That's all very vague as yet, but I'm sure we'll hear more about that soon enough.

[Avis habilis]

Diebold strikes again?

[Vekseid]

So you will just go where the beatdown will be in your favor?

Nah, he's just trying to stir up angst.

Some of them actually get paid to do this. He's not using a proxy, however, so I'll let him stay for as long as people are amused.

It's people like this that make the moderates/conservatives who post on E unwilling to say so.

On-topic...so, is the whole thing over, or has it only started?

My guess would be the latter. This is quite reminiscent of the origins of the Progressive Era. This will be doubly true if Walker gets charged and trebly if convicted for corruption. It'd be egg on face for nearly everyone in Wisconsin who voted for him. It's about stealing money from a veteran's org, for crying out loud. That's a winner, alright.

Ultimately, it was a joint movement by both conservatives and liberals of the day - but it marked the end of the gilded age and is called progressive for a reason. It was triggered by a general popular consensus that we were too tolerant of corruption, and various movements to break corrupt power bases through various means were enacted. One major item that marked it that is currently lacking is the degree if voter information. However, it's quite likely that the Internet is going to mean that voters are going to be far, far more informed than they were during the original era.

People aren't quite struggling enough yet to feel the need to seriously act, yet, but OWS is proof enough that the next bailout and recession (and there will be an attempt at the former at least, as well as the latter) will only create an even bigger response. I don't think we'll see more than two more Wall Street bailout attempts, however.

[Callie Del Noire]

I don't think that any elected official in the country would trust Diebold, and didn't they change their name after the last fiasco? Or did they sell that branch off to some foreign company (which opens up another massive can of beans)

My guess would be the latter. This is quite reminiscent of the origins of the Progressive Era. This will be doubly true if Walker gets charged and trebly if convicted for corruption. It'd be egg on face for nearly everyone in Wisconsin who voted for him. It's about stealing money from a veteran's org, for crying out loud. That's a winner, alright.

Ultimately, it was a joint movement by both conservatives and liberals of the day - but it marked the end of the gilded age and is called progressive for a reason. It was triggered by a general popular consensus that we were too tolerant of corruption, and various movements to break corrupt power bases through various means were enacted. One major item that marked it that is currently lacking is the degree if voter information. However, it's quite likely that the Internet is going to mean that voters are going to be far, far more informed than they were during the original era.

People aren't quite struggling enough yet to feel the need to seriously act, yet, but OWS is proof enough that the next bailout and recession (and there will be an attempt at the former at least, as well as the latter) will only create an even bigger response. I don't think we'll see more than two more Wall Street bailout attempts, however.

You know.. I'd like a roll back to 'traditonal political actions' in that..

1. I want politicians to be MORE than partisan hacks voting the party line.
2. I would like the people we elect to be people who represent US, not the corporations who kicked in the most money.
3. There are a few words/phrases I'd love the elected offical to understand. 'Non-partisan', 'compromise', 'cooperation', 'politeness', 'good sportsmanship', 'diplomatic', 'Statesmen', 'Leadership', 'Personal accountability'.

But then my inner cynic mugs my inner daydreamer and I go get a another cup of coffee while I wrack my brain to come up with a way to get the double high authoritarians out of the driver's seat of my party.

[Valerian]

Diebold strikes again?

The Onion Spoof on Diebold & Election Fraud
Why, yes.

In all seriousness, as of last December, there are 46 districts in Wisconsin that have the electronic voting machines -- though mine isn't one of them, thankfully.  (Diebold has been bought out by Canadian firm Dominion Voting, which supplied these machines.)  There's an ongoing investigation into the matter, as John Washburn, an election integrity investigator and professional software tester, has been trying and trying to get permission to analyze the data from one of last year's recall elections under the open records law, and they won't turn anything over.  It's reached the state DOJ as of last month.  The company will probably end up having to admit that they don't have any records and pay a $3,000 fine, which they won't even notice.  They've been getting districts to use their machines by giving them away, two for one, in exchange for the old machines, which according to Washburn is also against the law.

http://wcmcoop.com/members/meet-command-central-the-people-in-charge-of-wisconsin-voting-machines/

You can always ask to vote on a paper ballot, by the way, even in places that have these machines.

[Avis habilis]

The company will probably end up having to admit that they don't have any records and pay a $3,000 fine, which they won't even notice.

As much as that? Wow, that must be nearly the price of one machine. That's gotta sting.

[Valerian]

Maybe they're hurting for money, though.  They tried to charge Washburn $450 for these supposedly free, available-to-anyone-who-asks records at one point.

[Callie Del Noire]

I'm curious about the outcome, considering most of what I have seen is the Walker campaign outspent his rival by something on the order of 7:1

[Valerian]

Yes, 7 to 1 is about the minimum I've seen; some sources put it higher.  According to this, Walker raised $30.5 million to Barrett's $3.9.  Of course, Barrett had a lot less time to raise money, for one thing; Walker started hitting up his billionaire backers as soon as the recall was announced, months before Barrett was even a candidate.

Under Wisconsin law, candidates for governor normally can't take donations of more than $10,000 from a single source, but in this case only Barrett had to stick to that rule.  As a governor being recalled, Walker was exempt from the limit so his backers could give him however much they wanted.

Considering the difference in spending, though, you're right that it's probably significant that Walker didn't get more of a landslide.

[Serephino]

I saw on the news last night that he won, and began to wonder what the voters were smoking....  Also, you think they'd share?  After everything I've read it boggles my mind that anyone would vote for him, other than the extreme conservative people anyway.  Something in my gut tells me something isn't right here.   

[Callie Del Noire]

I saw on the news last night that he won, and began to wonder what the voters were smoking....  Also, you think they'd share?  After everything I've read it boggles my mind that anyone would vote for him, other than the extreme conservative people anyway.  Something in my gut tells me something isn't right here.   

Fear and misinformation are awesome tools. You got something known.. .and Walker's rhetoric does make it seem like he's the last line of defense against certain elements. When you have enough cash to keep piping the same message in it's hard to not believe it.

And the GOP did an AMAZING job of organizing and setting up shop. The President isn't going to get the state by 14 points again, they are already there, entrenched and set up with lists of sympathetic voters.

[RubySlippers]

I have to make a point made by the TP Republicans but: what was the basis for the justification of the recall there was no proof of gross crimes or misuse of power from what I can tell, he simply proposed unpopular legislation to some and put his people into offices and favored policies some criticized. The time to fight that is in a regular election. I think getting the recall was sour grapes by a clearly large voting MINORITY in the state.

Can you give me one case of criminal charges being even considered against the governor in this re-election?

[Trieste]

Can you give me one case of criminal charges being even considered against the governor in this re-election?

If you go back and read the thread, it's discussed at length.

[Callie Del Noire]

I have to make a point made by the TP Republicans but: what was the basis for the justification of the recall there was no proof of gross crimes or misuse of power from what I can tell, he simply proposed unpopular legislation to some and put his people into offices and favored policies some criticized. The time to fight that is in a regular election. I think getting the recall was sour grapes by a clearly large voting MINORITY in the state.

Can you give me one case of criminal charges being even considered against the governor in this re-election?

He's definitely bent the law a LOT. Lets see...

-He's appointed what.. five people to money handling positions that have turned out to be embezzlers.
-He's hijacked the control of municipal school systems by putting in place laws that let HIM set controllers if the schools can't meet their budgets, after putting in restrictions in place that curtail to ability to fill short falls of HIS budget with licenses, property taxes and such, with these controllers being appointed (and responsible) to HIM.
-He's taken the mortgage settlement collected by a group of US State Attorneys to fill in the holes in his budget.
-He's filled in what were once civil service jobs with political appointees. More than any previous governor did. He's packed the civil service into place with cronies he owed favors to.


Add in that it's looking more and more like he's not just enabling fraud and embezzling but is the actual target of the John Doe investigation the DoJ is engaged in. There is stories of misconduct during his time in college that hint towards some sort of fraud, but everyone involved in the issue won't say anything.

While a LOT of his actions aren't directly illegal, there is such a preponderance of criminal actions done on his behalf and around him, that a control orientated leader such as himself couldn't fail to miss. He's appointed people to position who have played fast and loose with votes, committed fraud, stole from the people they were supposed to help and hindered investigation into them.

The period in which he ran the Milwaukee County as it's executive, which he proudly uses as an example of 'fiscal responsibility',  resulted in the state legislature passing a law to enable county executive and cities within the state to file for bankruptcy. Yeah..he ran the country government into the ground.

He's pushed for privatization whenever he can, weather it was good or not for the government in favor of his corporate sponsors. Example, he wants to sell off the state utilities to a private group, closed bids preferably. That is why the Koch brothers support him, he's going to sell the utilities to them if he can.

He's a double high authoritarian, and one known to be 'hands on' with EVERYTHING that comes to his office. He at least knows of the embezzlement and fraud by his appointees.

[Serephino]

What scares me is Gov Corbett is trying to do the very same things here in PA.  Last year and this year he slashed the hell out of the education budget, and made it so districts couldn't raise taxes to make up for it.  After all, during his campaign he promised he wouldn't do anything that would raise taxes...  And so, Marcellus Shale Drilling is tramping all over the state doing whatever the hell they want, and not paying a cent in taxes even though they're making a killing in natural gas. 

Oh, yeah, he has his lips firmly on the asses of the gas company owners.  He's trying to make it so they can point to a plot of land and say we want to drill here, and no one can stop them.  He got a law passed that the counties they drill in can't even charge local taxes.  That was determined illegal by the state supreme court to tie the counties' hands like that.

He's pushing hard to privatize liquor sales.  I'm not sure what that would do.  He said something about wanting to privatize road construction.  What really pissed me off is after he gutted public schools, he tried to set up a program to send underprivileged kids to private schools.  There wasn't enough money to fix the education system, but there was plenty of money for that.

And now...  He's trying to make it so the state will run the schools that are having budget trouble.  I saw that on the news the day after Walker won the recall.  Coincidence?  I don't think so.         

[AndyZ]

As a resident of PA, I'd love to comment on this, but I don't want to go too far off track without permission.  Valerian, any objection to my derailing since the race is already done?

[Valerian]

I don't mind a little derailing, especially since it sounds like this guy has somehow gotten it in his head that being a Walker clone is a good thing.  Yikes.  Now I'm hoping even harder for Walker to get arrested soon, before still more scary Tea Party types decide that they, too, can get away with anything since the recall didn't work.

However, any lengthy discussion should really go in a separate thread -- there might be others around who want to talk about Governor Corbett, but they won't be likely to look for any such discussion in a thread titled "Recall Scott Walker".

[Torch]

He's pushing hard to privatize liquor sales.  I'm not sure what that would do. 

It would allow consumers to buy a six pack in the supermarket like in a normal state, that's what it would do. It's annoying that I have pay an inflated price for beer, wine and liquor, and I have to go to a two different state-run stores for the privilege. Fuck that. 

The state of PA needs to get out of the alcohol business.

ETA: Sorry, didn't see the off-topic request. Just ignore the above.

[Callie Del Noire]

It would allow consumers to buy a six pack in the supermarket like in a normal state, that's what it would do. It's annoying that I have pay an inflated price for beer, wine and liquor, and I have to go to a two different state-run stores for the privilege. Fuck that. 

The state of PA needs to get out of the alcohol business.

ETA: Sorry, didn't see the off-topic request. Just ignore the above.

It's not entirely a BAD thing.. but I don't think a rush to judgement should be made till you see HOW he does it. If a proper series of licenses and regulations that is one thing.. but I notice that the tea party types don't seem to do anything in the traditional changeover manners that enable the state to continue regulate and generate revenues.. usually there is something in the mix that makes it a 'good deal' for the tea party reformers and not so good a deal for the state and citizens.

[Serephino]

I was just using that as one example of how he's getting privatize-happy.  I don't like the current liquor laws myself.  It's bullshit that if I decide I want a bottle of wine after 9pm or on a Sunday I'm SOL.  I'm over 21.  But as Callie said, it would all depend on exactly what he wants to do and how.  Those details haven't been released; only that it's being talked about, and he really wants to do it.

[Callie Del Noire]

I was just using that as one example of how he's getting privatize-happy.  I don't like the current liquor laws myself.  It's bullshit that if I decide I want a bottle of wine after 9pm or on a Sunday I'm SOL.  I'm over 21.  But as Callie said, it would all depend on exactly what he wants to do and how.  Those details haven't been released; only that it's being talked about, and he really wants to do it.

Well it's similar to actions by Walker.. who is selling off utilities to closed bids. As well as creating private duplicates of public groups. (I recall him backing a business association in addition to the state having a public equivalent. Can't recall the specifics right now)

Privatization is good for 'small government' movements, but you have to be careful you don't wind up paying more in the end. I've seen a LOT of 'private contracted maintenance' plans for aircraft maintenance in the Navy. Inevitably the ones that go through wind up costing more than the Navy paid for when they ran it. 

[AndyZ]

Valerian, feel free to prod if you feel I go too far off topic.



Being from near Pittsburgh, I totally understand the concept that if our current public workers can't fix the roads, we should hire someone who can.  It's insane how we repeatedly get marked as some of the worst roads in the country and nothing is done to fix it.

This becomes a similar debate to the question of schools.  If we're throwing crazy amounts of money at something and it's not getting fixed, throwing yet more money isn't the problem.  We need a new strategy.

If it costs the public sectior $200 to fix X, and a private sector can do it for $190 and makes $17 off the arrangement, I'd rather give it to the private sector to do.  Put that other $10 towards the people who need it.

One argument would be to pay the private sector $173, so that they make no profit.  I don't like this idea.  This is pretty much what they do with Medicare, where health care workers get paid pennies on the dollar for the work they do, and the only choice is whether to fully accept Medicare or to completely deny it.

If we can get our system working properly, another company should be able to come along and offer to do the job for only $180, creating price competition and so on.

[Serephino]

The schools wouldn't be in so much trouble if they got enough funding.  I saw on the news that if Corbett gets the budget he wants, add this year's cuts to last year's, we're talking 37 million.  This includes colleges too, but still...  Schools need money for supplies and repairs, and to pay teachers.  They're failing because the GOP took all that money away to pay for tax breaks for the gas companies.