Friday, June 1, 2012

Walker Hides Truth About Jobs And Unemployment Compensation

Scott Walker is a weasel.

That's nothing new to most people.  But some people can still be shocked by the levels he will stoop to to get what he wants, like elected or reelected.  Or even just to save face.

Way back in his early days as Milwaukee County Executive, Walker made a promise to have his upper management and cabinet members sign a waiver saying they would pass on the pension enhancements that his predecessor was recalled for. In 2004, in his first bid for reelection, his opponent challenged him on this. The results were to fit in with his lifelong record of deception:
In 2004, when Walker ran for his first re-election against challenger David Riemer, the issue of those waivers came up during the campaign. Walker said that he had all those promised waiver signed, but refused to produce them. So push came to shove and Riemer's strategist, Bill Christofferson, filed a formal request for the waivers.

The thing is, Walker didn't have them. He never followed through with his promise. When Christofferson filed the request, he and his top people spent the next ten days rushing around coercing people to sign the waivers. Then at the end of the ten day, Walker supplied a list of people who signed, but did not include the dates they signed, much less the requested waivers themselves.

This fraudulent behavior was brought before the state's Department of Justice. While they did not rule whether Walker's behavior was criminal, they did have this to say:
"In sum, this episode evinces a case of how government officials ought not to do business...

"Whether they violated the public records law is a question largely mooted by the later production of the waivers and the nearly inconceivable notion that a repeat of this inglorious set of circumstances might be forestalled by a judicial pronouncement on the matter.

"Nobody honored to serve in public office ought to manipulate public records in this fashion -- that is the opinion of this office."
And this wasn't even the earliest sign of the kind of person Walker is or the kind of campaigns he ran.
The same could very well be said for the entire Walkergate scandal.

In fact, I could cite example after example of incidents where Walker tried to conceal the truth from people, at least as long as he needed or wanted something from them like their support or their vote.

Tonight, I have learned of two more examples of that going on right now.

One is that his jobs numbers aren't what he claims to them to be.

Two weeks ago, Walker channeled his inner Kathy Nickolaus and pulled 60,000 jobs out of a rear-facing orifice. His opponent, Tom Barrett, was very successful, by using the reliable numbers, to show the questionable quality of Walker's claims.

After two weeks of being pounded on for his conjured numbers, Walker claimed that the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) verified his numbers. Walker then took this, another unverified claim, and used it as a weapon against Barrett.

But as is so often the case, this proved to be nothing more than another lie:
The Bureau of Labor Statistics has officially discredited the Walker camp's claims that their job numbers have been certified accurate by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Communications Director Gary Steinberg, reached by phone said, with his emphasis on numbers and methods:
"The Bureau can not comment on the fourth quarter numbers because they haven't been released. I can say that we would not have confirmed the numbers yet, but would only have confirmed the methods used.
We can’t confirm fourth quarter or later data and would not have confirmed it to the governor’s office either."
Hilariously, even if you accepted Walker's new numbers as gospel truth, Wisconsin still has the worst record when it comes to keeping or creating jobs.  The man can't even make the numbers look good, no matte how much he tries to manipulate them.

And now, the word is that these new numbers are still wrong. Even worse, there are orders to keep the truth about the abysmal jobs numbers under wraps until after the election.

But, as the gentle reader should have learned from your humble scribe, is that when it comes to Walker, there's more. There's always more.

I have learned from a source within DWD, that they are not withholding only the bad jobs numbers. They are also withholding a large amount of letters notifying many recipients of unemployment insurance compensation that they are getting cut off of their benefits.  The workers have been ordered to keep these letters until after the election as well.

The source pointed out that not only is this unethical, but possibly illegal, due to requirements of such notices being sent in a timely manner.  But since when has Walker ever bothered himself with ethics or legalities?

Walker needs to come clean about this, but don't hold your breath for that to happen.  I also don't expect the mainstream to touch it.

It's up to us, gentle reader, to make sure that the word gets out.  Tweet it. Put it on your Facebook timeline. Print it out and share it.  Do whatever, but get the word out, please.

 People need to know this now.  Just because Walker is adverse to doing the right thing shouldn't and can not preclude us from doing it for him.

10 comments:

  1. What's really funny - you dopes complaining that Walker hasn't created a million jobs in 16 months will give King Barack a free pass when the economy has been a disaster his entire 4 years in office. Disasterous jobs report today. The stimulus that King Barack guaranteed would keep unemployment below 8% has created 40 straight months of 8% unemployment.

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    1. - Isn't the 'disasterous jobs report today' based on the numbers that Walker has been telling me all week to ignore as not particularly reliable?

      - A jobs report where you gain 69K jobs is weak, a disappointment, etc. A 'disasterous jobs report' is when you lose 200K to 600k jobs, like we were doing under Bush for each month in 2008.

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    2. No, its a disaster when you have a clueless president who says his stimulus will keep UE under 8%. Its a disaster when you have the MSM going to bat for Obama and saying how great the recovery is then this happens.

      Its also pitiful that you still suffer from bush derangement syndrome. Obama has had 4 years and he's done nothing for the economy. He's the real disaster.

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    3. I keep meaning to look up the context of the "under 8%" quote. Was it before or after Stimulus was watered down so in Congress?

      Not 4 years yet; 3 years and four months. During which we've gone from losing 200 to 600K jobs a month to gaining jobs for the last 27 months straight, and from negative GDP growth to positive growth (that is, ending a recession and starting the recovery).

      (BTW for you and all the other anonymi: how tough is it to type in a fricking name?)

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    4. As I guessed, the 8% quote (which isn't a quote at all, but is pulled from a report) came on Jan 9th 2009, and is based on a much larger and differently shaped Stimulus than what ended up being passed. So to an extent, 'apples and oranges'.

      http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2009/jul/09/eric-cantor/Cantor-and-other-republicans-say-obama-promised-s/

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    5. And one more thing there Anonymous ... When you have the right from day one ( you know the 8 gov 6 Sen & the Koch brothers all meeting the DAY OF Obama's enogeration they all met in a hotel in Denver to discuss what they were going to do to make him a one term President ) There plan .. NOT TO PASS ONE JOBS BILL THAT WILL HELP THIS COUNTRY. And what did they do ? Just that ! Then they blame Obama for low jobs. Go and tell me that's not true ?

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    6. I am surely confused on this ..... The dems controlled the house and senate and they could have passed anything they wanted. But yet they didn't and blamed it on the GOP. How do you explain that ?

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    7. Karen, if you think that the Dems controlled the house and the senate, you are indeed confused.

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  2. Thanks, Capper, for keeping the public informed of information that newspaper journalists SHOULD be reporting on. Great find!

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  3. If your source will talk to Dan Bice, he'll print it. When this is all over, THAT man deserves a Pulitzer Prize.

    And kudos to you, too, Capper. Your tireless efforts to expose Walker's mendacity are greatly appreciate.

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