Thursday, May 31, 2012

Quote Of The Day

Tom Barrett to Scott Walker in Thursday night's debate:
"I have a police department that arrests felons. You have an administration that hires them."
Booyah!

Lucky Number 13!!

From Wisconsin State Journal

A 13th person has been granted immunity in a secret Milwaukee County investigation that has already led to criminal charges against six people close to Gov. Scott Walker.

Online court records say a judge on Thursday granted Fran McLaughlin's request for immunity.

McLaughlin served as Walker's county spokeswoman from 2007 to 2010, when Walker was the Milwaukee County executive. She's now the spokeswoman for Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke.

When reached for comment, defense attorney Michael A.I. Whitcomb cited court rules preventing him from discussing the case.

The John Doe investigation centers on several aides and associates to Walker before he was elected governor in 2010. The allegations range from campaigning on county time to embezzling money from a veterans program.
Walker hasn't been charged with wrongdoing.

Again I ask, as a parent, what do you tell your children about this?  Don't worry kids, we are republicans as long as your on the right side of the issues the laws do not apply to you?  or do whatever you need to then when your caught sing like a bird?    

these are NOT the family values or ethics we need in Wisconsin.

Vote for Tom Barrett on June 5th, lets change the culture of corruption that Scott Walker has started in our great state!  

 

O MY GOD!!!

Minorities are actually voting in the Wisconsin recall elections!!! The nerve of them.

Have no fear though.....MacIver "news" service is on the case!

Plus they are not alone, they are getting support from RNC chair Reince Priebus. Reince has always been disgusted that African Americans vote and is ramping up his rhetoric now:
The chairman of the Republican National Committee said Wednesday GOP candidates have to perform 1 or 2 percentage points better than they otherwise would to overcome voter fraud -- claiming that voter fraud is far more pervasive than what official reports have shown.

About 2.1 million votes were cast in the 2010 race for governor, and 1 to 2 percent would equate to 21,000 to 42,000 votes. Some law enforcement officials have raised concerns about isolated incidents of voter fraud, but never suggested it approached a scale like that.

“I’m always concerned about voter fraud, you know, being from Kenosha, and quite frankly having lived through seeing some of it happen,” said Reince Priebus, the RNC chairman and former state Republican Party chairman. “Certainly in Milwaukee we have seen some of it and I think it’s been documented. Any notion that’s not the case, it certainly is in Wisconsin. I’m always concerned about it which is why I think we need to do a point or two better than where we think we need to be to overcome it.”
So is Reince telling the truth? Of course not:
Lester Pines, an attorney involved in a separate legal challenge to the voter ID law, also denounced Priebus' comments, saying they were baseless.

"His statement that Republicans need to outperform Democrats by one to two percent to account for vote fraud is an absolute, total 100% lie," Pines said. "It is a fantasy. And Reince Priebus and his ilk are saying this and they’re saying it over and over and over because they’re using the well known propaganda tool called the big lie. If you say it enough times, people will believe it. There’s no other way to characterize this except that Reince Priebus is a liar."

Priebus made his comments ahead of Tuesday’s recall election for GOP Gov. Scott Walker, who faces Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. Pines charged that Priebus was making the allegations about voter fraud because he is worried Walker will lose and he is trying to find a way to explain why.
O look a new wrinkle, as we get closer to the actual election, they need to start setting expectations for a possible loss. What might that be? African Americans cheated of course.....they even got hate monger Charlie Sykes on board! Check out this from his latest TV show:
"If this election turns out to be neck-and-neck; if it turns out to be decided, let's say Tom Barrett were to win this election by, say, 7,000 votes, I can tell you right now: There is not a single conservative, not a single Republican in the state of Wisconsin that would think that was a legitimate election, that it was not stolen... if you had the photo ID, people wouldn't have been happy about it, but at least they would have realized the legitimacy of that election."
Disgusting? Yes

Surprising? NO

Just wait until Scott Walker is voted out on Tuesday June 5th!

Things are going to get real ugly from our friends on the right!!

Diane Hendricks Has The Last Laugh!

Why is Diane Hendricks smiling(I think that is a smile)???
Because she bought a Governor and now pays ZERO DOLLARS in state income taxes in 2010! For a mere $510,000 in donations to her employee Scott Walker, she was able to freeload on our great state's economy.
An active financial supporter of conservative extreme right wing causes, Hendricks has given Walker's campaign more than $500,000, making her Walker's largest donor. Her state tax obligation dropped from $2.26 million for 2009 to zero for 2010 because of a change in the corporate structure of ABC Supply said Scott Bianchini, ABC tax director. The company paid taxes of $373,671 for the second half of 2010, the records show. Bianchini explained that before 2010, ABC Supply was an "S" corporation, meaning the profits and the tax obligation flowed to Hendricks as the owner of the firm. In 2010, the company changed its structure so the profits and the tax obligation stay with the company. "Now ABC is paying taxes on its own," Bianchini said. Hendricks' March net worth was estimated by Forbes Magazine to be $2.8 billion - some $300 million more than Helen Johnson-Leipold, chief executive of Johnson Outdoors Inc. The magazine last year listed Hendricks as No. 188 on its ranking of the wealthiest people in America, a spot that had her as the financial equal of William Randolph Hearst III.
I know the righties will be out in force saying that it was a change in tax code but maybe we can clarify that a little more.....
Bianchini declined to comment when asked whether Hendricks, who is chairman of ABC, had other income such as salary or dividends that could have been taxed in 2010. He also declined to say why ABC's tax bill in 2010 was so low compared with what Hendricks had paid on its behalf in prior years, when its profits flowed to her bottom line. "Diane is not willing to divulge any more," Bianchini said. "ABC converted to a 'C' corporation - that's a substantial part of why there's no 2010 tax liability (for Hendricks)." He added that there were other reasons Hendricks paid zero state income taxes in 2010. "We're just not willing to get into it," Bianchini said. "It's just digging, in our opinion, too deep into her taxes." Hendricks, who worked with her husband, Kenneth, in building ABC, became chairman of the company after her husband died in 2007. The company now posts annual revenue of more than $4 billion.
Thanks but no thanks, the ydo not care to explain any more reason why they are freeloading on the taxpayers of Wisconsin and especially the taxpayers of Beloit. By the way want to see what happens in a community when the richest do not pay their fair share??? The community has to get together and pony up even more money to make the community work for all. The citizens of Beloit just agreed to a $70 million dollar school referendum to make sure their children are well educated and prepared for the future. Kudos to the citizens of Beloit, WI and shame on Diane Hendricks!!! Maybe if she spent less time trying to "divide and conquer" our state and more to actually paying for her services we would not have such a big structural deficit!

Deception And Division: Vote Walker Out



'Nuff said.

Poverty Will Set You Free?

Owen Robinson, RWNJ blogger at Loots and Slobbers, is celebrating the fact that union membership has dropped considerably since Scott Walker and his Republican cronies illegally rammed through Act 10:
Wow. Thousands of people are finally free from the unions that they were forced by law to join and finance. It’s a beautiful thing.
But Robinson, being the irrational union-phobe that he is, lets his hatred keep him from admitting, or even recognizing the truth.

Putting aside the fact that people could opt out of unions if they wanted to, he either ignores or is completely ignorant of the fact that this isn't a matter of choice, but of economic necessity for many people.

As Jeff pointed out the other day, Act 10 has serious financial consequences for working families across the state.  And it's not just the public sector workers who have had their wages docked by as much as 10 to 20%, but are also facing higher costs to see the doctor or to get medication.  There are public sector workers that now qualify for financial aid and food stamps because of Act 10.

People in the private sector, most notably the service industry, are also getting hurt as the demand dries up as the cash is being taken out of our economy.  This is why we're seeing more businesses shutting their doors and more and more people getting laid off.

Another way that this malicious sabotage of our economy is hurting is by driving highly qualified people from their fields, because they can no longer afford it or deal with the stress of it:
Stephanie Kline resigned from her position as an 8th grade math teacher at New Richmond Middle School in Wisconsin. Her last day of teaching is June 6, 2012.  A final straw for Kline came when her 5-year-old son was refused services at her New Richmond Clinic for an outstanding medical bill accrued this past year.  Her medical deductible increased $3,500 coupled with a salary decrease of $2000 in the 2011-2012 school year.  The decreasing ability to support her family, along with stress, uncertainty, and lack of communication has pushed her out of the teaching profession. Her story may resonate with many workers around the state who have experienced changes in their profession due to public policy choices. However, Kline’s story is a personal one.  She states several times throughout this interview that she is “only speaking for myself, and not other teachers.”
What Robinson is celebrating is not the liberation of thousands of people suddenly freed from a tyrannical union, but people having to drop their memberships because they need that money to put food on the table, keep a roof over their head and make sure their families get the medical care they need.

What Robinson is celebrating is the impoverishment and indenturing of tens of thousands of families, just so that he can save a whopping $12 on his property taxes.

Is it any wonder that this greed-driven miscreant supports the sociopath Walker, even with all of his corruption?  It takes a special kind of depravity to take enjoyment in needlessly hurting others, a quality that these two have in common.

Walkergate Shocker! Scott Walker Is John Doe!

The Overpass Light Brigade
appearing in West Allis on 5/30/12

There was a whole lot of news popping about Walkergate today, but very little of it was new.  And, of course, as it usually is, there was some questions which were not pursued which should have been.

First, there is a report from WisPolitics.com which states that the attorney for Kelly Rindfleisch, Franklyn Gimbel, is planning on challenging a lot of the evidence which was obtained in a number of searches:
The attorney representing former Walker aide Kelly Rindfleisch says he plans to challenge evidence seized from the homes and offices from other former Walker staffers as well as former state Rep. Brett Davis as part of his defense for Rindfleisch against the charges filed against her in the ongoing John Doe investigation.

Attorney Frank Gimbel said court records he’s now reviewing show the raids were executed in 2010 at the homes and/or offices of former Walker aides Tim Russell, Darlene Wink and Jim Villa, along with Davis. He said prosecutors also seized email and phone records for all of them in the raids, which he learned of recently after filing a discovery request.
The searches of Russell's house and Wink's house is old news. They did Russell's house in December of 2010. That's where they also found the evidence to charge his partner, Brian Pierick, with child enticement. We also already new about Wink's house being raided.

The raid on Villa's and Davis' house is new news. But it's not too surprising. I've also heard that they had searched other homes as well. Remember, a lot of Milwaukee County computers and files came up missing shortly after Walker won the election in 2010.

It should also be noted that while the report accurately notes that Rindfleisch is facing charges related to the Davis campaign, the subsequent release of transcripts would indicate she was helping with Walker's campaign as well.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel also has an article on this aspect of Walkergate. There is nothing significantly new in this article. It does, however, include the fact that Rindfleisch was working on Walker's campaign as well.

However, the article does perpetuate a falsehood told by Walker, in which Walker claims "he was unaware of any violations of his policy that county staffers refrain from doing political work on taxpayer-paid public jobs."

Poppycock!

Not only was Walker aware of it, he was directing it!

MJS had another story in which they interviewed Judge Neal Nettesheim, the judge who is overseeing the Walkergate trial. Buried deep into the article, we see another confirmation of something we already knew - that Walker has appeared and testified before the judge:
Nettesheim declined to comment specifically on whether Walker was constrained under the John Doe law from discussing what he knows about issues under investigation or from releasing specific emails. Nettesheim noted that his secrecy order extends to all parties, including even the judge. Violators can be held in contempt of court, fined or jailed. Nettesheim would be the enforcer if violations occur.

The judge made clear, though, that no individual would be subject to the secrecy order unless he physically appeared in front of the judge while in court on the John Doe proceeding, and personally received the secrecy order from the judge.

Further, he said that an individual who had not appeared as a witness would be free to discuss or distribute documents even if those documents were evidence.

"If a non-witness, an independent third party, has documents in his possession, he or she entitled to do what they want with them," he said.

Finally, in yet another article by MJS, we have the most direct admission yet by Walker himself that he is the target of the John Doe:
Gov. Scott Walker said Wednesday he will not use campaign funds to pay for the criminal defense of his aides.

Walker made the comment a day after a report show he had transferred $100,000 from his campaign account to a criminal defense fund he has set up. In all, he has put $160,000 into the account.

That fund can be used for himself, his campaign or those working for his campaign. But Walker's comments Wednesday indicate he would use the funds only for himself or the campaign.
By the way, the article omits that he has put another $160,000 down to Steven Biskupic who is representing the campaign.

Imagine how many people could have been helped with that third of a million dollars that he is using to try to prevent, or at least, delay, justice being done.

But there is one aspect of the article that does raise a question in my mind:
Walker said he put money into the defense fund so that he could provide thousands of documents to Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm, who is heading the investigation. Hiring attorneys was necessary to make that efficient, he said.

"It doesn't make any sense as governor to spend my time, spending hours over days, doing that," he told reporters at a campaign stop at Laminations Central in Appleton.
My question would be what documents would he be producing? Any contract bidding or communications about contracts would be government property. Is he saying that he took those boxes and boxes of missing files? If so, then what was in the Mystery Dumpster'O'Fun?  And for all the money that he's spending on these high-priced lawyers, just how many documents does he have in his possession?

And how could anyone with a clear conscience even consider supporting someone with such dubious character and such a high likelihood of being indicted in the relatively near future?

Brett Davis

Remember this guy? Rumor has it he is a "taxpayer watchdog": Brett Davis was the guy who Scott Walker wanted as his Lieutenant Governor, (yes lets not forget Scott Walker wanted NOTHING to do with Rebecca Kleefisch and worked very hard to make sure it was not her)! Well Mr Davis after he lost, vowed he was NOT done with Wisconsin politics.
"I plan to be involved in Wisconsin politics for a long time to come," Davis said.
We did not know at the time just how involved in politics Mr. Davis was, and I do not mean the cushy crony state job he was given as State of Wisconsin Medicaid Director (Was Brian Deschane busy). No we found out recently that Brett Davis is so involved in Wisconsin politics he had his house raided like the rest of the Walker Administration.
From WisPolitics.com ... -- The attorney representing former Walker aide Kelly Rindfleisch says he plans to challenge evidence seized from the homes and offices of other former Walker staffers as well as former state Rep. Brett Davis as part of his defense for Rindfleisch against the charges filed against her in the ongoing John Doe investigation. Attorney Frank Gimbel said court records he’s now reviewing show the raids were executed in 2010 at the homes and/or offices of former Walker aides Tim Russell, Darlene Wink and Jim Villa, along with Davis. He said prosecutors also seized email and phone records for all of them in the raids, which he learned of recently after filing a discovery request. He said he’s only gone through a portion of the thousands of documents prosecutors have turned over to him so far.
So Brett Davis, who probably oversees more contract dollars than any other state official is having his house raided and files seized for illegally using taxpayer money, and still keeps his job. I wonder if Scott Walker has made any other hires this bad? At least he tells the truth right? Oops, not so much! My question is what does a "Strong Conservative" like Brett Davis tell his kids as the FBI is raiding his house?
Contact Scott Walker and let him know that Brett Davis can NOT be trusted with our Medicare dollars and to remove him immediately
!! Email govgeneral@wisconsin.gov Mail Office of Governor Scott Walker 115 East Capitol Madison, WI 53702 Phone (608) 266-1212 OR
Division of Health Care Access & Accountability Administrator Brett Davis 608 266-9622 Brett.Davis@wi.gov

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Purple Project Flop

While I still stand by my belief that Christian Schneider is THE single biggest hack of a writer in WI, Sunny Schubert comes close. Unfortunately for the people of WI both have made the Journal Sentinel's Purple project. Sunny, one of the WPRI flacks, who incredibly keeps getting column space, had another doozy. This time she gave a very weak attempt at trying to say that the Scott Walker campaign is a grassroots campaign.
So I was pleasantly surprised when Mark casually said “I sent some money to that governor of yours.” “Really?” I said. “So you’re one of those evil out-of-state donors who’s trying to influence our election!” “Well, it was only $50,” he said. That puts him in the bottom 76 percent of all Walker donors. “So what are you expecting in return?” I demanded, feigning outrage. “Nothing,” Mark said, shrugging. “I just believe in fiscal responsibility. Walker did the right thing.” “Oh, and my wife hates the teachers’ unions,” he added. “She taught for years, and thinks the unions stand in the way of innovation and reform.” I high-fived him. So that’s what an out-of-state donor looks like, and that’s why they send money to a political race where they don’t have a horse running: They look like an older, wiser version of a kid you went to college with. And they have principals.
The problem of course with Sunny, as always, is that she does no research ever. Of course, the whole business plan of WPRI, is NOT to have a public debate, but to advance an extreme right wing agenda. Were Sunny to actually do research and want a debate she would have actually read the paper that supports her.
The Republican governor has raised more than $30 million since January 2011 and he has about $1.6 million on hand. The majority has been from out of state. That means Walker raised an average of more than $178,000 a day for the latest period. He already has taken in more than 80% of the total amount spent by him and all other candidates and independent groups in the 2010 governor's race, when he beat Barrett. In that race, all groups spent $37.4 million, according to estimates by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. Tuesday's report included six contributions to Walker above the normal $10,000 limit, including one from the richest woman in the world. Christy Walton, a Walmart heiress active in the school voucher movement, gave Walker $50,000, the report shows. Forbes lists Walton as the richest woman in the world, with a net worth of $25.3 billion. The other donations above the usual limit were: $25,000 from Grant E. Nelson of Prescott, Wis., who heads a large foundation; $25,000 from Richard Uihlein, CEO of Illinois packaging company Uline; $25,000 from Fred Fehsenfeld, chairman of the executive committee for the Heritage Group in Indianapolis; $25,000 from Robert McNair, CEO of the Houston Texans football team; and $20,000 from Gary Reynolds, CEO of GMR Marketing of Delafield. In addition to the reports due Tuesday, candidates for governor in the final two weeks of the campaign must file daily reports of donations of more than $500 within 24 hours. In those reports, Walker's campaign said it had raised another $800,465 between May 23 and Sunday. The contributions over those five recent days included three outsize ones - $100,000 from Richard Pieper, an executive at Pieper Electric Inc. in Milwaukee; $50,000 from Richard H. Roberts, president of URL Pharma in Philadelphia; and $25,000 from Max Carney, chief executive officer of Midwest Insurance Co. in Springfield, Ill.
Yes the one guy who she may or may not have seen who sent $50, is exactly equal to Christy Walton sending $50,000. Even though Christy Walkton has spent much time and effort working on privatizing public education, I am sure her $50/k donation comes with no strings attached. Now that I think of it, I am sure Sunny's "friend"'s $50 check had nothing to do with wanting to break the public employee unions, it was sent with purest of intentions. Sunny and her peers blatantly false attempts to change the debate show just how incredibly desperate they are to change the debate. It shows how the right wingers know they are losing the debate and no amount of BS from these people will change that! Vote for Tom Barrett on June 5th and let's take our state back and stop this attack on Wisconsin!!!

The Walker Budget Is Already Working! Part CIX

Yup, Scott Walker's budget and policies, especially Act 10, was all about creating jobs, right?

Then why do we keep losing them?
The village of Menomonee Falls laid off eight, full-time public works employees last week in what the village says was preparation for shortfalls in the 2013 budget and fiscal year.

The layoffs of street and utility workers that occurred May 22 were a reduction-in-force and were due to declining revenues, said Village Manager Mark Fitzgerald.

Six workers were paid out of the general fund and two were utility employees. By the end of next week, the village is consolidating the public works facilities and closing down the office currently located on Water Street.
And this is still just the beginning, folks, if we don't vote him out on June 5.

Walker Pads Those Jobs Numbers Again

A couple of weeks ago, Scott Walker channeled his inner Kathy Nickolaus and "found" 60,000 jobs.  His illusion of job creation lasted only one day before reality set in and we found we had lost another 6,000 jobs.

Now Walker's found another way to pad his jobs numbers, even if the jobs are only for two weeks:



It also says a lot that he can't find any volunteers, or even people from this state, that are willing to work to keep his corrupt butt in office.

Walkergate: Not One Plea Of Innocence

For two months, the Walker propagandists - most notably the slimy, racist, misogynists at Media Trackers - have been trying their best to besmirch the good names and reputations of Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm and his crew.  They're so desperate as to go around stalking his staffers to find the remotest thing to conflate into a scandal that only their feverish eyes behold.

They have gotten so carried away with their effort to find something, anything, they could use as a weapon that some of the most prestigious people in the field of law wrote a joint letter to tell them to knock it off.

Not only did this not deter them from their attempts at character assassination, the right wing desperados are now trying to smear the Honorable Neal Nettesheim.

It reminds me of a group of children when one of them gets caught doing something naughty.  They'd rather blame the person who caught them than the person who did the misdeed.

But the one thing we've never heard from any of them is the claim that the charges or the investigation are without merit.

They've never said that Darlene Wink was framed. They never said that the charges against Kelly Rindfleisch are trumped up and false.  They never came to the defense of Tim Russell or his partner in life, in business and in crime, Brian Pierick.*  None of them even mention Kevin Kavanaugh.

Nor have any of them declared Scott Walker to be innocent.  Heck, even Walker's never claimed to be innocent.

I guess there just might be - and I hesitate to say it for fear of being proven wrong - but there just might be a limit to the lies they will tell.

Of course, if they did try it, it would be a lot harder for them to spin now:
Gov. Scott Walker's campaign has transferred another $100,000 to the defense fund used to pay his pricey criminal defense lawyers in the lengthy John Doe investigation into activities during Walker's time as county executive.

Newly filed campaign reports show Walker's campaign transferred $70,000 to the Scott Walker Trust on May 3 and another $30,000 on May 17.

That bring the total the first-term governor has put in the defense fund to $160,000 in the past six weeks.
That's on top of the money that he has already spent out of his own pocket, which brings the total up to the neighborhood of a quarter of a million dollars spent just for cooperating and complying.

Coincidentally, there's been word that Walker was meeting with the DA earlier this month.  Could it be that he was giving his testimony about the alleged bid rigging?  Or was it any of the myriad of other things he could be charged with?

Plus there's that nagging rumor that he is funding the defense for any number of the five remaining members of the Walker Six who are still going through the legal process. It wouldn't be shocking that Walker is willing to spend other people's money to defend these louts**, especially considering he's made it perfectly clear that he's willing to throw the whole lot of them under the bus if it's in any way politically convenient.

Something tells me that as soon as Walker got the approval to transfer that money, he was cutting a check to the attorneys.  It would also explain why I got no less than four emails this week from his campaign begging for money.

It will be interesting to see if any of the Walker Six, especially Rindfleisch and Russell, will rethink their defense strategies now they know that Walker won't be pardoning them.

This also might explain why there is so much flailing around by the propagandists. They know that even if they were somehow to pull of the election, they've still lost.

*Well, actually Wigderson gave a tepid effort of saying Pierick shouldn't be charged.  Why he's defending the most vile of all the charges, I won't even pretend to know.

**If Walker is using his legal defense fund to defend any of the people charged thus far, it could get real interesting, since that would be illegal as well.  Unless he wants to admit they were agents of his campaign, which would be an admission of guilt to the illegal politicking.  His people aren't as smart as they like to pretend they are.

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

What Our Future Holds If Walker Wins

Michael Rosen explains (emphasis mine):

...The South Carolina governor recently promoted a package of “reforms” that will give South Carolina the toughest right-to-work laws in the nation. And Haley wants to take right-to-work national: “Barack Obama doesn’t appreciate right-to-work states. Mitt Romney appreciates right-to-work states,” she said after endorsing Mitt Romney for the Republican presidential nomination. “I need a partner in the White House.” In fact, Haley needs a lot more than that. Her “it” state has experienced a 4 percent decline in wages since she took over—no small matter in a state that has historically had some of the lowest wages, weakest public services and most dismal education scores in the United States. Indeed, South Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Dick Harpootlian says of Haley: “Rather than campaigning with Walker or Romney, she ought to sit in a classroom in an under-performing school.” Haley has opted to skip the school visit and campaign in Wisconsin. And that raises some questions for Scott Walker. The governor of Wisconsin—who told Congress and the people of Wisconsin he’s not anti-union—ought to be asked what he thinks about Nikki Haley’s “unions are not welcome” rhetoric. The Wisconsin governor should also be asked about the lengths to which a state should go to become what Haley describes as an “it” state. Should unions be busted? Should education funding be cut? Should public services be shut down? And should economic development be based on raiding other states?...

Picture Perfect Walker

Take a close look at this picture of Scott Walker and think about whether the caption is accurate:



Now, a pro-Wisconsin person would look at this and think, "Ayup, sounds about right."

A pro-Walker person would look at this and think Walker is telling the truth about it's size.

But a seasoned pro on all things Walker, like myself, knows they're both wrong.  Walker wants you to believe it was so big, but if you look at his right hand, you see where he is telling the actual size.

AFP - Americans for (middle class) Poverty are Coming!!

The extreme right wing the Koch Brothers front group Americans for Prosperity is flooding our great state with money and out of state right wing thugs.   Since we do not have Paul Revere to warn us when the redcoats are coming, we at CogDis will.   And the correct answer is ONE if by land as Americans for (middle class) Poverty already have an unheard of 70 field organizers running around corrupting our state, there is never enough for the billionaire leeches of our society so now they are recruiting a bunch of poor suckers and violent thugs from IL to bus into WI



The Americans for Poverty crew have not been this excited to screw over Americans since they spent millions trying to make sure you do not have access to healthcare! 


Malfeasance in Interviews

Tom Barrett scored many points in his debate drubbing of Scott Walker on Friday night.   One of the best was when Soon to be Governor Barrett called out Scott Walker on signing recall petitions for Russ Feingold and Herb Kohl.  Scott Walker ignored the fact that he has spent his whole political career knee deep in recalls of democrats and now thinks we need to reform our recall rules.

When finally asked, soon to be ex Governor Walker has "no memory" of signing previous recall petitions.    As our friend Jud points out, Scott Walker is lying(again). 

And, because Walker was at these events with Neumann, the issue of partial birth abortion and Feingold's alleged support of it was the focus of Walker's speeches.  My specific recollection is that Walker said, on multiple occasions, something in the vein of: We came up a little short with the recall effort, but that effort was not a wasted effort. History will remember it as the first step in Feingold's 1998 defeat.

The reason I remember that particular line is that we were trying to make the case that the 1997 recall campaign was not a grassroots movement, but a GOP-backed effort that at best would trigger a recall election over an issue that was deeply unpopular with the public and at worst would weaken the populist image of Feingold as he prepared for his 1998 reelection. We were specifically concerned that Neumann and the GOP was using the hundreds of thousands that signed the recall as fundraising and organizing tools to defeat Feingold.

However, now Walker is making the absurd claim that he was not only not a leader of the recall Feingold / Kohl movement, but told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that didn't even sign the petition, claiming that he has "no memory" of signing the recall petitions against Kohl and Feingold and that "I don't believe that I did."

So we see that he is perfectly willing to throw his friends under the bus to advance his political career.  What do you think he will do to us when he gets a chance?   We already know the answer to that question!  

Team Walker's ALEC Ties

Politiscoop has the scoop on this.  Also note the ending of their report, raising very good questions about the young Waukesha Republican who tried to sell campaign secrets as being  a possible attempt at a sting operation.

Veterans Against Walker

You've heard about Scott Walker's war on veterans.

Last Friday, some real veterans - including Milwaukee County Supervisor John Weishan, former Milwaukee County Supervisor Roger Quindel, Tracy Sperka and others - held press conferences in Milwaukee and Green Bay to bring Walker's maltreatment of veterans to everyone's attention:



Sadly, it appears that Walker is not done dishonoring our veterans. I have heard that Walker and his supporters are actually planning on attacking these veterans and their message of mutual respect and support.

Time will tell, but I hope that this is one rumor that stays in the rumor phase forever.

We Made The List - Twice

A new study finds that Congress speaks at almost a full grade level lower than it did seven years ago. Th study found the 10 dumbest members of Congress.   Wisconsin , can be proud, we cemented 2 of the top 10 spots!

4. Sean Duffy, R-WI: At a town hall meeting in Wisconsin, Duffy was asked whether he’d vote to cut his $174,000 congressional salary. He proceeded to whine about how $174,000 really isn’t that much: “I guarantee that I have more debt than all of you. With six kids, I still pay off my student loans. I still pay my mortgage.” Sounds like he could benefit from Obama’s proposals to reform mortgage and student loan debt.

 10. Ron Johnson, R-WI: Johnson has been a harsh critic of the government stimulus bills. But somehow that didn’t stop him from seeking stimulus funds for renovations to the Grand Opera House when he was president of the venue’s board. His explanation when asked to justify the apparent hypocrisy was that “he may have asked a question or two, but that doesn’t mean he supports the stimulus effort or even wanted the money.” Of course not. He was just curious to see if they would hand over the cash, which he would have promptly returned.

We can start repairing our reputation in a week by firing  these two clowns good friend and peer, Scott Walker and voting out Duffy In November!    

Walkergate: Scott Walker And The Secret Router

On Friday, I mentioned the other email that is causing quite the stir in the Walkergate investigation.  Said email had to do with the housing of the Department of Aging and suspicions of bid rigging and pay for play activities between Scott Walker, his then campaign treasurer John Hiller, and a group of other malefactors:
On April 15, 2010 - months before any formal competition or public request for bids had been formulated - a county Aging Department official involved in office-space planning sent an email to a commercial real estate broker.

In the email, obtained by the Journal Sentinel, Gregory Reiman alerted commercial real estate broker Scott Revolinski of RFP Commercial that the county was discussing moving workers from the county-owned City Campus to the Reuss Federal Plaza, which already housed the Aging Department.

He wrote that the county was willing to sell City Campus, an aging former hospital at N. 27th and W. Wells streets, for $1 to avoid maintenance costs.

"Not very many people know about this yet," Reiman wrote. "I believe they have only talked to the City of Milwaukee Dept of Development and possibly David Boerke (who manages Federal Plaza). I am also telling one other developer I know about this opportunity."

Reiman added: "I told Scott Walker that I would mention this opportunity to you and see if RFP might be interested in this building. If you are interested I will put you in touch with Scott's Chief of Staff, Tom Nardelli."

A county employee, concerned that Reiman might be revealing insider information, turned the email over to the district attorney's office in August 2010.
On JSOnline, Dan Bice discusses this aspect of the investigation with more detail but with inconclusive results. The long and short of Bice's report is that there is supposedly a private email exchange between Walker and Hiller regarding the deal, which may or may not be a big deal, depending on who you talk to.  Bice could not get his hands on the email nor nail down any specifics.  It appears that his whole gist was that there was this story, but it's still vague and we probably won't know for a while yet what exactly the investigators are investigating.

Unfortunately, this article was not one of Bice's best pieces and is rather disjointed and convoluted, jumping from one unrelated topic to another.

Even more unfortunate, Bice apparently had a chance for a real blockbuster investigative piece, but missed it in pursuit of his storyline regarding the bid rigging.

What I am referring to is this blurb from his article:
Reached after a news conference on Thursday, Walker maintained his disciplined refusal to discuss details of the probe. He specifically brushed aside questions on the content and context of the email exchange with Hiller and whether investigators had asked him about the messages.

"Anything I say or any comment on it would be in violation of what they've asked," Walker said, referring to Milwaukee County prosecutors. Officials in Chisholm's office have declined to say whether they have made the request that the governor keep silent regarding all aspects of the case.

Asked last month by a Journal Sentinel reporter if he could guarantee the public that the investigation would not touch him, Walker said, "Yes - unequivocal." He also vowed that he never used the secret email system while heading county government.
In those three paragraphs, you can see how Bice and the other unidentified reporter dropped the ball and failed to push the real news stories.

First you have Walker stating last month that he could unequivocally state that the Walkergate investigation would not touch him. Then this past week, he's pleading the secrecy of the investigation on why he cannot comment on the investigation.

As I pointed out Saturday, the only way he could know that he's not a target is if he was already granted immunity but that would be public knowledge and there is no evidence of this.

Furthermore, the only way he could claim the secrecy clause of the investigation is if he had testified before the judge on the matter or if there was a broad secrecy order issued. There is no reason to suspect the latter.

With the elimination of a broad secrecy order and the lack of any proof of immunity, by deduction, we can only conclude that Walker has indeed testified before the judge in the Walkergate investigation.

Sadly, the reporters let Walker slide on this one.

The other thing that they let him pull his weaselspeak on is "He also vowed that he never used the secret email system while heading county government."


We already know, based on the infamous pseudo-David Koch phone call, that Walker has no qualms about campaigning from his government office, so there's no reason to believe he wasn't doing it then either.  The secret router and the secret email system is an obvious giveaway that Walker and his people knew all too well that what they were doing was wrong and illegal.  The used the router system to avoid any open records request that might come close to finding the truth.

But for the sake of argument, let's say he didn't use it.  He doesn't deny knowing it existed.  In fact, odds are he did know.  Remember the original smoking gun email that the mainstream press still has to cover with any detail:


Given Walker's wont of micromanaging his campaigns, only the deepest Kool-Aid drinkers don't believe that this shows that Walker knew exactly what was going on.

And even if you needed more proof, all you have to do is look at the actions of Kelly Rindfleisch right after Walker sent that email (from his campaign email address to Russell's county address, three months after Russell moved out of the county executive's suite).  She immediately removed the secret router and hid it in her bag. She knew what he meant and acted accordingly.

Why would she remove the router if he didn't even know about it?  She wouldn't.  But in order to keep in line with his order, she took it down, saying as much herself, according to the criminal complaint against her.

But as I said, the reporter failed to pursue the issue, satisfied with simply regurgitating Walker's talking points instead of actual investigative journalism.

As if we needed yet another reason to disregard the bulk of the effluence coming from the corporate media.

Ah well, if we can't rely on a modern day version of "All the President's Men," we will have to be satisfied on my colleagues and I to be "All the Governor's Bloggers."

Monday, May 28, 2012

What's Wrong With This Picture?

Or more accurately, how many things can you find wrong in this picture?



Answers, as they come in from the comments:

1)  Walker's using a spinning reel, which should be on the bottom of the rod.
2)  There's no line on that rod.
3)  Walker's not wearing a life preserver.
4)  He's not using a proper seat.

Bonus answers:

5)  He's in a boat two feet from shore.
6)  There are no protesters.
7)  The lake isn't a funny color from the pollutants he's allowed companies to dump in it.

What Has Act 10 Cost You?

From the minute Scott Walker was elected, he had a plan.  His plan was to "divide and conquer" Wisconsin.   His weapon in doing so was ACT 10.


Recently, our friends from the right, knowing they lose on the issue of ACT 10,  started a website, "I save with act 10" where you can put your county and home value in and it magically comes up with the many dollars ACT 10 has "saved you"(for me personally it said I saved $189 when in reality my taxes increased $111) . They do not tell you what their equations are, just trust them, you are now in the upper 1% thanks to Scott Walker. That website, however they come up with their numbers (it appears that an Alchemist does it using magic stones), there are many things that they do not take into account.

Some things they are missing are:

* Was ACT 10 the ONLY way to balance the budget (PS we all know the budget is not balanced)

* How much has the big government expensive bills that the republicans passed cost you, where would webe    had they focused on jobs instead of them (some examples of course are Voter ID,  Redistricting and the incredible bills they ran up and charged to the taxpayers to do so, sending the train money back, sending the federal money to expand wireless internet in rural Wisconsin back, etc...)

* The fact that the JOHN DOE investigation has trapped many of Walker's top staff and will probably close upon Scott Walker himself in the near future and that is not ok!  

* The Scott Walker lied to be elected, and lied under oath when discussing it. 

* One of the biggest things not taken into account is the fact that DEMAND is what drives the economy, Econ 101 - when people have less money they buy less things, thus CONTRACTING the economy.  
That being said not everyone saves with ACT 10.  ACT 10 has cost Wisconsin dearly this past year and a half.   My wife works for the Madison School District, and, like all public employees, we were forced to take the cuts to her pay in ACT 10(which was approximately $6000). 

Here is a quick and partial list of what we have cut in this past year(its not scientific but it is reality) 

* Our subscription to the Wisconsin State Journal $130/yr 

* Subscription to ESPN the Magazine $59/yr

*  Our membership to the YMCA $68/ month - $816/yr 

* My son's karate lessons - $100 + a month 

* We rearranged work schedules and daycare and saves us approximately $3000/ yr

*  We have cut out going out to eat to local restaurants monthly probably saving $200/month 
* Cutting down going out to eat, cuts out our need for babysitters so we probably save about $50-60 a month on babysitters. 

 Everything on that list(except for ESPN the Magazine) is money that was DIRECTLY TAKEN from our local economy.   Our daycare money was to a local daycare where I live, babysitters also, YMCA helps the community, I would estimate that of the going out to eat money we are no longer spending 85% would have went to locally owned restaurants, the karate lessons were in our community etc.... We also plan to get an extra 100,000 miles out of the car I drive now than we would have before.   

That is just the dollar cost of ACT 10 to our family.  Then there s the cost of the friends who have "defriended" me and the family members that no longer talk to us.  

In my opinion, none of this was worth the $49 that some people "saved" in property taxes.  These cuts have real world effects on local communities and local businesses.  

That is what ACT 10 has cost us......what has ACT 10 cost YOU?  

Please share your stories here, and also "like" our facebook page  https://www.facebook.com/WhatAct10HasCostMe  and share your stories there also!   



ATTENTION: All Milwaukee And Madison Voters

All Mlwaukee and Madison voters are able to vote today at their local city clerk's offices from 9 am to noon on Memorial Day Monday.

Honor a veteran who gave the ultimate sacrifice by exercising the very rights that they died for.


Finish Strong

You can do this, Wisconsin:



Policing The Police Numbers

Last week, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel issued an extensive report regarding the way the Milwaukee Police Department categorizes crimes.  Their finding was that hundreds of cases were listed as less serious crimes than what they should have been.

Radio squawkers and right wing bloggers used this as grounds to attack Police Chief Ed Flynn and his boss, Tom Barrett.  Even Scott Walker, who one would think would not want to draw attention to cooked numbers given his made up jobs report, used this as a weapon against Barrett.

However, the police numbers that the paper reported are incomplete and could use some policing themselves.

Erik Gunn, writing for Milwaukee Magazine,  points out that the MJS story, and hence those that are using this story as a squawking point, is missing some vital information itself.

One has to wonder if the paper, which stated that it took them a year to get the information together to write their story, might have intentionally left out this information to give ammunition against Barrett or whether their reporting as just gotten that sloppy.

Remember The Meaning Of The Day

Today is not National BBQ Day or National Road Trip Day.   It is Memorial Day, a day set aside to remember those who gave their all so that we can have all that we have.

And, in honor of these brave men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedoms and rights, make sure you exercise your rights and enjoy your freedoms so that their sacrifices have not been made in vain.

Do not take these hard won treasures for granted.

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Beware The Edited But Still False Walkergate Story!

Geez, but some people never learn, do they?

Just yesterday, I told you about the right wing blogsite posing as a news source, which had published a story which was easily proven to be false.  The mock journalist, H. Nelson Goodson had written this:
On Friday, investigative information released by a reliable source indicated that Governor Scott Walker (R) and up to five others in the governor’s circle while he was Milwaukee County executive will be facing several felony charges resulting from the John Doe investigation. The Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office (DA) is expected to file charges against Walker and five other suspects on allegations that they used county time to campaign to help elect Walker as governor while working and restricted other Walker employees from exposing alleged unethical acts to the DA probe.

So far, at least six former Walker staffers have been charged in the John Doe investigation, including one that is waiting sentencing, but has been postpone to prevent an influence of the June election.

The DA and Federal Bureau of Investigation discovered an underground e-mail network being operated by Walker staffers in an office adjacent to Walker’s Milwaukee County Executive office. Walker denied that he had any knowledge of the underground e-mail operation to elect him governor.

Walker has set up a defense fund and has hired attorneys. Speculation about Walker being charged in the John Doe probe has been circulating throughout political circles in both the Republican and Democratic parties.

Some GOP members doubt that Walker would be charged at all, but if the information proves to be reliable then indeed Walker and five others are facing charges that will no doubt set the GOP back on its agenda to make Wisconsin a Red state.
Now the miscreant is at it again.

Instead of retracting the post or offering an apology like a real journalist would, Goodson has chosen the route of a right wing blogger by just changing the wording without explanation.

Thus far, he's only changed the second paragraph to read as such:
So far, at least six have been charged in the John Doe investigation, including two Walker former staffers and another that is waiting sentencing for being convicted for two misdemeanor counts of political solicitation by a public employee. But the former Walker’s staffer sentencing has been postponed to a later date to prevent an influence of the June election. Three others were also charged in connection with the John Doe probe, including one conviction for funneling at least $72,800 of illegal funds to Walker’s governor campaign race in 2010.
Note how Goodson corrected his mistake on calling all the defendants as Walker staffers. He also added an incomplete reference to railroad tycoon William Gardner's illegal campaign contribution.

But he left in the false statements regarding the FBI's role and the false statement about the court date being postponed to prevent an influence on the election. There's never been a news story or a mention of that being the cause. In fact, both the DA's office and the defense attorney made it abundantly clear that Darlene Wink's trial was postponed to guarantee her continued cooperation with the investigation and resulting trials.

Goodson fails to supply any information on why he believes that the DA would wait until after the election. If anything, the arrest and subsequent charging of former Milwaukee County Supervisor Johnny Thomas, which happened in the height of his campaign to be the City of Milwaukee comptroller, would contradict that position, showing that the political events mean nothing to his pursuit of justice.

As a side note, the fact that Chisholm and Thomas are both Democrats also displaces any notion that the Walkergate investigation is partisan.  Justice has no sides.

All of this, combined with the fact the only person broadcasting this piece unquestionably is another unscrupulous right wing blogger, is further reason to doubt the veracity of the report.

Then again, how often can you trust anything coming from a right winger?

A Message From Rob Zerban

From the email inbox:
As we head into Memorial Day weekend, we honor all the soldiers who have sacrificed to protect our democracy. Let us therefore do our part, as civilians, to protect our way of life. 

Right now, the greatest threat to our democracy is not from abroad, but right here at home. Lobbyists forked over money to the wife of Clarence Thomas to buy themselves the Citizens United Supreme Court decision. It is one of the most misguided decisions in history. 
The confusion stems from the belief of Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney that "corporations are people." I think our Founding Fathers would have laughed. Corporations do not bleed and they don't sacrifice on the battlefield for our freedoms. Corporations deserve to have their voice heard, but they do not deserve to buy and sell our government and defy the will of the American people.
Every candidate needs money. I ask for your help all the time because I need your contribution to win. The difference between me and Paul Ryan is that I do not sell out my values. 
Paul Ryan's desperate dance for cash has led him to propose un-American ideas like scrapping Medicare and Social Security, ending financial aid for college, and even slashing funding for our veterans. Ryan's budget proposed $11 Billion in cuts for veterans, and now, Ryan is seeking an addition $8 Billion in cuts to veterans. All Americans, especially our veterans, deserve better! 
I hope each of you enjoys this long weekend but please take this opportunity to talk with your friends. Let them know that we need to remove crooked politicians and undo these rules which have corrupted the system so many brave men and women have fought for. 
Sincerely, 
Signature 
Rob Zerban

Mahlon Mitchell - Problem Solver

Mahlon Mitchell's new ad:



Notice in the ad how Mitchell worked to solve the dispute over the mailbox? His opponent, Rebecca Kleefisch, would have accused the two men of having a lovers' spat and outlawed mailboxes for being too promiscuous.

Not Voting = Voting For Scott Walker

Getting the hint yet? Go out and vote, either early or on June 5th, but vote, dammit!



Highlights From The First Debate



Or for Walker, the first debacle.

Walker's Got 99 Problems But The Rich Ain't One

Music to GOTV by:



Hmmm, methinks I could list about a million problems that Walker has.

Mr. Walker, Congressional Committee On Line One

Note to Scott Walker: You might not want to perjure yourself before a Congressional committee, especially while under oath.

They tend to not like that sort of thing.


Why You Should Unsubscribe From The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Part ∞

You should drop your subscription because while they still won't ask Walker about his shady behaviors regarding his Legal Cooperation Fund or even ask Walker who is bankrolling it,  but they will talk about how it's "unlikely" Tom Barrett will get more than $24 million in the eight days between now and the election.

Why did they report on this? They even admit it won't affect the election that much. I haven't heard anyone, not even the most out of the world wing nut, speculate on this.  So they go with the non-story and do nothing to follow up on that.

Really? And these guys claim Pulitzers?

If you subscribe, drop your subscription now.  If you don't subscribe, call up the companies and explain to them if they don't stop supporting this corporate propagandist rag, you will stop supporting their company.

Walkergate: Why, Hello Kelly!

Why, hello Kelly! Why hello, Kelly! It's so nice to have you back where you belong...*

As the gentle reader surely remembers, Kelly Rindfleisch had employed to interesting defense tactics in her trial for illegal campaigning.

She tried to claim that the immunity she was given in the caucus scandal was universal and timeless, meaning she could never get into trouble for illegal campaigning no matter when or where or what she did.  This was summarily dismissed.

She then tried to have the venue changed to Columbia County, even though she claimed at the time to live in Milwaukee and the crime occurred in Milwaukee.  This too was denied.

So she appealed that ruling.

On Friday, we learned that the motion to appeal was denied by the Appellate Court.

Needing clarification, I consulted with the illustrious Illusory Tenant, hidden in a secret bunker underneath a Caribbean island, who informed me that what this means is that Rindfleisch, through her attorney, Franklyn Gimbel, asked the Appellate Court for permission to bring this matter before the higher court to revisit and reverse the ruling of the circuit court judge denying their change of venue motion.  The Appellate Court denied them this permission.  Illy-t noted that most appeals are usually done after the circuit court hearing is concluded.

This means that Rindfleisch will have to complete her criminal hearings before she can appeal this ruling.

If she's found innocent, she obviously will have no reason to appeal anything.

However, if she is found guilty, she will have to decide to fight on having the trial heard all over again in another county or if she just wants to fight the ruling on its merits.

And if she chooses to fight it along either path, Walker better raise some more money in his Legal Cooperation Fund, since it's being said that he is bankrolling her defense.  At least some of his cross-country graft will help a few people in Wisconsin out.

*My apologies to Jerry Herman.

Walker's Priorities: Executives Before Education

When Scott Walker took over and started the systematic destruction of all the good things in the state, his battle cry was "We're broke!"  Never mind the fact that the state was far from broke.  But with that as his excuse, he slashed funding to anything he could, including nearly a billion dollars from education and several hundreds of millions of dollars from the tech schools.

But late last year, he must have checked the cushions of the gubernatorial couch and found $4 million, which he promptly turned around and gave to Spectrum Brands, Inc., a company that had just come out of bankruptcy, which was spurned by the way it was gobbling up other businesses.

The money was supposed to be used to create jobs, but I haven't noticed a big swell in the number of jobs created in Wisconsin, mostly because there hasn't been one.

But I did notice a story which allows us a good idea of where that money is going...to the pocket of Spectrum's CEO David Lumley, who collected $13.7 million last year in compensation.

Obviously, Walker couldn't squander our tax money on something that would benefit the state, like educating our children or training our workers.  Especially not when there are suffering CEOs that didn't even get out of the seven digit pay range under Doyle.

It's nice to see where Walker's priorities are, so we can make it our priority to vote him out.

Walkergate: The College Years

Before there was Walkergate, back in Scott Walker's days at Marquette University, there was Walkergate: The College Years.

Back then, when the Marquette Tribune printed a negative story about him, Walker and his cronies would scoop up the freshly printed papers and destroy them.  But they did not always get all of them.

And now we have photographic proof of the original Walkergate:



Further proof that Walker never had any ethics, or if he did, he killed them off at a very young age.

Sunday Reading

1.  The first comes from a recent speechfest that the right wing rock stars gave in front of the Reagan library.  Governor Crisco and Marco Rubio both spoke, Charles Pierce from Esquire took the time to break down our very own Paul Ryan (R- Wall St.) speech: 

Ryan also leaned on an old historical trope of his that I've always found to be the last refuge of a true bunco artist:
"We wonder if we will be the first generation in American history to leave our children with fewer opportunities and a less prosperous nation than the one we inherited."
You know when people began to feel that they could leave their children with more opportunities than they had? When government got involved, that's when, and when common people began to feel that the government was on their side, and not the wholly owned subsidiary of the wealthy and the privileged. The farmers started to feel it when the Morrill Act established land grant colleges. The miners began to feel it when unionization fought to make their jobs slightly less hellish and when government got behind that effort. The farmers began to feel it when the Progressives began to force change at the beginning of the last century. Everybody felt it with the election of Franklin Roosevelt and the defeat of Hooverian economics, for which Paul Ryan seems overly nostalgic. And that feeling really took off in the 1950's, when government passed the GI Bill and built the interstate highways, and made college affordable generally to the children and grandchildren of the people who won World War II like, say, me. And when we recognized that the death of a parent need not blight the hopes and dreams of his children, who would be allowed the opportunity of an education through the survivor benefits provided by Social Security, like, say, Paul Ryan was. The notion that we will leave a brighter day for our kids is a relatively recent phenomenon, and it is one that was not possible without the intervention of the government, and it is one from which Paul Ryan profited so handsomely that he is now in a position to claim a "moral obligation" to deny it to everyone else. What a country.
2.  You know how all of the right wingers defend cutting taxes on corporations, because "all they will do is pass those costs on to the consumer"?  Well the consumer better get ready to bend over, since JP Morgan Chase recently had a bad trade that cost the company $20 BILLION dollars.   Poor Poor over regulated banksters.  As a matter of fact, Bill Maher recently had CNBC ancher Michelle Caruso-Cabrera as one of his guests and she pointed out that none of the regulations we have gotten rid of would have stopped JP Morgan Chase from losing this money.  Silly corporate mouthpiece that she is, she was also wrong.  Dodd Frank would have saved JP Morgan $2 Billion +.
 
 
Here are the very specific things that could have kept that $2 billion in JPMorgan's pocket.
The Volcker Rule: Everybody hates the Volcker Rule. Jamie Dimon, even after watching his firm burn up $2 billion, still hates the Volcker Rule. This is the rule that attempts to turn the clock back to the days when investment banks and commercial banks were kept miles apart by a Depression-era law called Glass-Steagall, a law that was dismantled by those flying-monkey lobbyists, Alan Greenspan and the Clinton administration in the late 1990s.
The Volcker Rule attempts to remedy this by prohibiting banks with federally insured customer deposits from blowing all their money speculating on Slovakian government bonds. So you can see why banks hate it! Gambling in the market is like the Lotto: You've got to be in it to win it. But not being in it might have prevented JPMorgan's chief investment office from having those big bets on credit derivatives that cost it $2 billion.
JPMorgan has argued, and will continue to argue, that its bets were a desperately necessary strategy to balance out the risks it takes when it helps the economy and creates jobs by lending money to puppy farms, firemen and schoolteachers. It just goofed up on this one. Sorry, guys, won't happen again. But even if you take the banks' word for this and give them a pass on trading credit derivatives -- which is probably going to happen -- there are two other aspects of Dodd-Frank that could have prevented JPMorgan's big loss:
Lincoln Rule: This is way less well-known than the Volcker Rule, but probably just as hated, and just as much under assault, according to Greenberger. This rule, also known as the "Swaps Pushout" rule, denies Fed assistance to dealers in derivatives called "swaps," as in "credit default swaps," as in "what helped blow the economy up four years ago." Just like with the Volcker Rule, banks get an exemption from the Lincoln Rule if their swaps bets are purely to hedge their risks. But! They only get to take that exemption if their credit default swaps are traded through a central clearing house. Which brings us to the third aspect of Dodd-Frank that would have stopped JPMorgan before it killed its own money again:
Derivatives Clearing: Title 7 of the Dodd-Frank act is a tangled word-nest that will take regulators a while to sort through, but it gives them the right, at least, to demand that derivatives be traded out in the open, where everybody can see them, with a central clearing house directing traffic and keeping banks from being a danger to themselves or others.
This is a huge point for the JPMorgan situation, notes Greenberger. A central clearing house would not have let the bank's derivative bets drift so deeply into stupid territory. It would have seen the bank taking losses on a weekly basis and asked it to post more money for security. Maybe more importantly, the Fed would have caught on more quickly and encouraged JPMorgan to put the ix-nay on the erivatives-day.
But none of that stuff happened, because none of these reforms are in place, four years after the last crisis. Maybe this blowup will help convince banks -- and the politicians they purchase -- of the need for these regulations. Frankly, I'm not optimistic. The worst financial crisis since the Great Depression didn't convince them. A couple of billion dollars into thin air at JPMorgan probably won't, either.
 Just ask Economist and Professor Simon Johnson.  I wonder why free market captain Paul Ryan has not weighed in on this yet?   

3.  Want more on Wall St. and Regulations?  The full length documentary Inside Job can be seen here!

'Inside Job' provides a comprehensive analysis of the global financial crisis of 2008, which at a cost over $20 trillion, caused millions of people to lose their jobs and homes in the worst recession since the Great Depression, and nearly resulted in a global financial collapse. Through exhaustive research and extensive interviews with key financial insiders, politicians, journalists, and academics, the film traces the rise of a rogue industry which has corrupted politics, regulation, and academia. It was made on location in the United States, Iceland, England, France, Singapore, and China.

4.  Interesting Column by Eugene Kane on the Wisconsin jobs debate:


Frankly, it would be a lot easier for people to accept some of the jobs numbers being tossed around by Gov. Scott Walker if they knew someone who had actually gotten a job since he took office.
A quick survey of social-media friends in Milwaukee asking whether they - or anyone they knew - could credit Walker for their job brought these responses:
"I don't know anybody that has gotten a job."
"I don't know anyone that has secured permanent employment or temporary employment that was tied to anything Walker did as county executive or governor."
"I know people who have lost jobs under Walker. My husband was a city worker, and a lot of their jobs are now being done by private contractors."
"My son and several hundred co-workers lost their (jobs) when Frontier Airlines decided to pull up stakes and go back to their Denver roots."

5.    Dr. Glen Barry, went to Marquette with Scott Walker and does not have much good to say about him.  


Walker’s debut in Marquette student politics as a freshman began by stirring up the campus with a McCarthyite investigation into misspending by the Homecoming committee. Despite the President and Vice-President of student government having already resigned over personal expenditures by a larger group of student leaders from student funds – including myself and others unknowingly – no criminal charges of any kind, and no hard evidence of wrong-doing by anyone, Walker grandstands and leads a student government trial of myself and others, that could have been avoided if he so chose.

Walker lost on all counts, but not before destroying a few people’s reputations, and amassing personal power. Sound familiar? Thus began an over 25 year record of bullying to get what he wants, of being insincere and narcissistic, and political grandstanding at the expense of others¸ all for personal self-aggrandizement, and without an ounce of either personal or political virtue.