PolitiFarce Part V: PolitiFail

The controversial PolitiFact in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has done it again.

I would like to draw the gentle reader's attention to this story they did during the campaign, slamming Joanne Kloppenburg for accusing the incumbent and corrupt David Prosser of prejudging cases.  They got their undies in a bundle and gave Kloppenburg the dreaded "Pants on Fire" rating for this claim.

But when the WMC bought and paid for Supreme Court ruled that the state legislation doesn't have to follow the laws of the state, they were proven incorrect - again.  Or to cite Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson on this suspicious decision (emphasis mine):

Justice Shirley Abrahamson accused the majority of reaching a hasty decision that’s light on legal analysis, opening them up to the unnecessary charge that they “reached a pre-determined conclusion not based on the facts and the law, which undermines the majority's ultimate decision.”

Of course, we already knew that they were incorrect because Prosser himself told us during the campaign that he would be the "perfect compliment" to Scott Walker's maladministration.

With PolitiFail, er, PolitiFact distorting the truth so much that they could have direct bearings on elections and ergo our freedom, is it any wonder that the Wisconsin Democratic Party won't even waste the breath to talk to them anymore?

Things Look Bad For The Buses

Elections have consequences and one of the consequences of this last election could be the death of our transit system.

Wisconsin Has Chosen Poorly

Tom Barrett signed the 2011 budget for the City of Milwaukee without one veto. And the budget will lower the property tax, without hurting services. So much for the right wing's chant of tax and spend liberals.

Compare that to Scott Walker's illegal budget with a gaping hole worth tens of millions of dollars, but still raises taxes and cuts vital services even deeper.

You know, there's a reason why 62% of Milwaukee County went to Barrett and not to Walker.

Too bad the rest of the state couldn't pick up on which was the proper way to go. It's even worse because now all of us have to pay for that mistake, in more ways than one.

Food For Thought

For the right wingers that think last week's election gives Scott "Train Wreck" Walker some sort of mandate, think about this:

In Milwaukee County, Tom Barrett won 62%-38% over Walker.

These are the people that know both men and chose who would make the better leader for this state. The rest of the state just didn't know what we already do.

But they will. They will.

Any guesses when the voter's remorse starts to kick in?

The Election Is Over, Now Leaf Me Alone

By the time you read this, the polls will have closed.

I don't know who will when or lose, and I don't make predictions. After all, I'm not a witch, and I can't see into the future.

But whether the people vote for continued recovery with Tom Barrett and Russ Feingold or they decide to take the country into a full blown economic depression with Scott Walker and Ron Johnson, there is one thing I do know for certain.

Neither Tom Barrett, Scott Walker, Ron Johnson, Ron Johnson or any other politician or any other campaign worker will be going to my place up north to help clean up the acre and a half worth of leaves that have fallen in the last couple of weeks. Nor will they be helping clearing the branches and limbs that fell with last week's windstorm.

So, given that the weather, for now, is beautiful, I have gone off line to go up and tend to things myself. What that means for you, dear reader, is that I will be offline for some days, and not posting anything, responding to emails, or checking comments.

I'm sure that many pundits on both sides will be explaining the election results ad nauseum, whether their side won or lost. All I know is that we will continue to fight to make things better for everyone, no matter who's in and who's out.

It will be interesting to see just how many readers I lose now that the election is over. I will predict that the fall off will be more than 50%. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if I go back to my base of 4.3 readers. And I'm OK with that.

I just hope I don't end up like this little guy:

Have a good week everyone.

When You Vote Today

Jib wants us to remember this when we vote:

...just remember that your current government is well on the way to stagflating us to prosperity!

What he doesn't want us to remember is that the party he is promoting is the one that got us into the abyss in the first place.

Apparently the right feels bad about the number on the economy that they did, and wants a second chance to drive it all the way into ruination.

He Earned Those Demerit Badges

One of the repeated background memes coming from Team Walker is that Scott Walker was a boy scout. They build on that by his claiming that he learned to leave things cleaner than the way he found it. Normally, that would mean that when you go into the woods, don't leave your trash or other messes behind.

But if his record as county executive is any record, Walker must have been a lousy boy scout.

Let's take a look at some of the Boy Scouts Merit Badges and see how well Walker did or didn't do:

American Business: Walker stood against Milwaukee County businesses when he actively opposed getting a dedicated funding source for the transit system. He did further harm to the businesses when he kept slashing bus routes and raising fares, making it much more difficult, if not impossible, for workers to get to their jobs or for customers making it to the businesses. Walker earns a demerit badge.

Disability Awareness: One does not have to look any farther than the way Walker has harmed the safety networks and services for people with mental health issues. First there was a series of stories in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about Walker's failure to provide services for the mentally ill living in the community. Now we are seeing the implosion of the mental health complex. Walker should earn two demerit badges for this one.

American Labor: Another one that we don't need to look to far to see Walker's failures. He has repeatedly tried to illegally coerce the unions into capitulating to illegal budgets. Not only that, but he as separated tens of thousands of workers from their jobs with his myopic and irresponsible cuts to transit. Yet another demerit badge.

Safety: Giving Sheriff Deputies eight furlough days, allowing female patients be sexually assaulted in the mental health complex, allowing patients at the mental health complex escape and attacking neighboring residents, parts falling off the courthouse, parts falling off O'Donnell Park, parts falling off the airport all lead up to a big, old demerit badge for Walker regarding safety.

Landscape Architecture and Nature: Despite his promise to preserve the county grounds and its unique natural phenomenon, the Monarch Trail, Walker sold this valuable green space at cut rate prices so that some developer/campaign contributors could build a strip mall and a hotel. Double the demerit badges.

Home Repairs: See Safety, deferred maintenance and give him a demerit badge.

Railroading: He still doesn't understand that the high speed rail will bring jobs and put Wisconsin in the middle of a cross country transportation network. Demerit badge, for sure.

Rifle Shooting and Shotgun Shooting: Need I say any more? Demerit!

But there is one area that Walker does rightfully earn a real merit badge: Radio. The way he would run to Charlie Sykes, Vicki McKenna and Mark Belling every time he got in trouble, we can give him this one.

Kleefisch Stands By Anti-Gay Bigotry

In the spring of this year, during a radio interview, Republican nominee for Lieutenant Governor made a very damning anti-gay comment, comparing gay marriage to marrying inanimate objects or an animal.

Facing a statewide wave of outrage, Kleefisch apologized, in a fashion:

Kleefisch is the running mate of County Executive Scott Walker. His campaign spokeswoman issued this statement, from Kleefisch: “My comments were meant to relay my concern with redefining marriage. I never intended to sound insensitive, and have the utmost respect for all people. I apologize for my poor choice of words.”

Note that she never apologized for her bigotry, just her "choice of words." Apparently instead of table, clock and a dog, she meant to compare gay marriage to marrying a sofa, lampshade and an aardvark.

Also noteworthy is the fact that Scott Walker never condemned the statement. In fact, the only comment he made towards the whole fiasco is that he accepted Kleefisch's apology. I don't quite understand what gives him the idea that he speaks for the homosexuals, but whatever.

Not everyone is accepting her phony apology. Her own uncle, who is gay, was so offended that he gave $500 to the Barrett/Nelson campaign, and today came out with an endorsement for Tom Barrett and Tom Nelson.

Even the Appleton Post-Crescent saw through her irresponsible, hateful attitude, and has endorsed Barrett/Nelson.

To make matters worse, she was just on the Charlie Sykes show this morning and said that she "was sorry that some people were angry" but her focus is on other things. That is her own family that she is summarily dismissing.

If Walker and Kleefisch don't even care about their own families, how can anyone expect them to care about us?

Scott Walker Would Turn This State Around

One of Scott Walker's favorite lines during the campaign season is how he would take bold action to "turn the state around," claiming that Wisconsin is heading in the wrong direction.

But lets see what has been going on for the past week to see just in what direction the state is actually going:

• 55 employers are looking to add 700 jobs, causing the City of West Allis to assist by holding a job fair this coming Thursday.
• Jobless claims have fallen to a three-month low.
• QuadGraphics is adding 1,300 jobs.
• Bucyrus is looking to hire 515 new workers (it would be easier for them if a bus line went there).

Over 2500 jobs being announced as coming to Wisconsin in just one week. That seems to me to be a good thing. Why on earth would Walker want to turn that around?

It should also be noted that the Bucyrus jobs were made possible by the hard work of Tom Barrett and Russ Feingold, while Scott Walker felt it to be better to just use the peril to take cheap political shots.

Who do you want to be governor? The guy who works hard at bringing jobs to the state or the guy who thinks that more jobs is a bad thing and would "turn it around?"

Walker Ain't Waiting To Screw Over State Tax Payers

As I have been telling the faithful reader for a long time, Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker has been screwing over the tax payers of his county for a long time.

One of the main ways that he does this is by grandstanding for the tough guy sound bite, instead of actually negotiating concessions from the unions. Instead of showing leadership, he would rather show the pretense of leadership, and thus gaining some free air time and free press time. However, because contract negotiations are often a long and tedious process, news services don't cover it in detail, but only go with the occasional soundbite, which Walker excels at giving.

But even has Walker is hamming it up for the cameras and the reporters, the reality is he is costing tax payers millions of dollars in lost savings and in weakening the County's bargaining position.

In his last failed attempt of a gubernatorial campaign, he did the same thing with the grandstanding, negotiating through the media, and bad faith bargaining. After he was forced to drop out by the party bosses, all of a sudden he was ready to sign a contract. Of course, by then, he had wasted millions of dollars in savings on health care costs alone. Then when a contract was finally worked out, it included almost everything the union wanted, plus a signing bonus to sweeten the deal.

This go around is no different. He does his tough talk, but has already squandered more than ten million dollars in lost savings. And he has also greatly weakened the county's bargaining position with his bad faith bargaining and illegal budgeting (emphasis mine):

Richard Abelson, head of the county's largest union, said he considered both versions of the 2011 budget to be illegal.

"The premise is still that they want to bypass collective bargaining and adopt wages and working conditions through the budget process," said Abelson, executive director of District Council 48 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

Abelson's union announced Thursday it had won a decision by a state administrative judge saying the county had bargained in bad faith when it approved a 2010 budget with concessions it hadn't negotiated. That ruling should help bolster the union's position in arbitration over union contracts, Abelson said.

But even that is not enough for Walker. Now he has started to illegally interfere with negotiations between the state and its unions:

This report from Steve Kuehn is completely accurate. A representative of Scott Walker contacted me personally and conveyed the message that we should stop bargaining if we anticipated a working relationship with him as Governor. I advised him in the most unequivocal response that we would do what’s best for our members and would pursue bargaining.

[...]

On another note. The Scott Walker campaign contacted C24 last Friday and stated that if we want a working relationship with the next Governor we should immediately walk away from the current bargaining table and wait until after Mr. Walker is elected to negotiate the current contract. They were told no deal. If this isn't proof to all state employees that Mr. Walker is already attempting to cut into our current wages and benefits package nothing else will change your mind. The campaign has inferred that he has already won the Governors seat.

Thanks to Walker's hubris and lack of understanding of how things happen in the real world, one of two things will likely occur if Walker would happen to win on Tuesday.

Odds are that the unions and the state will bargain in earnest and reach an agreement before Walker takes office. If they reach an agreement before then, Walker will either have to live with it or pull the same tax payer money wasting stunts he is doing now.

If they don't reach a contract, the state's union is big enough and strong enough to hunker down and wait him out. That would mean years of unseen savings because the old contract would still hold sway until a new one is agreed upon.

Either way, I don't think Walker will get the state media will give him the same pass as the local paper has done for the past eight years. In fact, the Appleton Post-Crescent has already caught on to his weaselly ways.

We have already seen how Walker's "money saving" measures are anything but. He has squandered money in lost savings and weakened bargaining positions. He has set the county up for numerous lawsuits, including the ones coming regarding O'Donnell Park and the mental health complex. He has failed to run his own programs, forcing the state to take over said programs at a much higher cost.

Meanwhile, he has tanked our local economy by driving out companies and separating workers from jobs and customers from businesses with his slashing transit services alone, by continuously raising our taxes, and generally lowering our quality of life in innumerable ways.

If you think the state's economy is in the tank now, wait until a Governor Walker gets his paws on it.

RoJo Was For Stimulus Before He Was Against It

What is this, the tenth, eleventh time that they've found Ron Johnson preaching what he ain't practicing?

He's like the preacher who preaches against the vices of life just after he picks up his poker winnings, slams a shot whiskey, tokes a joint, and swats a prostitute on his way out of a gay brothel.

Barrett Wins The Heart Of The GOP Land

Barrett gains the endorsement of the Appleton Post-Crescent, one of the most conservative papers in the state.

Some key excerpts, but the whole thing is a must read:

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, a Democrat, offers more practical solutions than his opponent, Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker, a Republican. That's why we endorse Barrett in Tuesday's election to replace Jim Doyle.

[...]

Tax cuts alone won't lead to job growth. Wisconsin doesn't exist in a vacuum. Other states have been hit by the economy, too, and will have similar plans. The most successful states will have plans for beyond the recovery. That gives Barrett's more detailed proposals an edge.

And Walker's opposition to the landmark embryonic stem cell research done through the University of Wisconsin-Madison could be truly harmful to a leading growth area in the state economy.

[...]

Ironically, given Milwaukee's enormous problems, both candidates are touting their experience in their current jobs as reasons to vote for them. Walker, in particular, says that he has faced the same economic challenges in Milwaukee County that the state is facing and has conquered them.

We would dispute that claim. It's easy to propose budgets with no tax hikes when you know your county board will overrule you.

While he's eager to take credit for the successes within county government, Walker deflects blame for the tragic situation at the county's Mental Health Complex and the fact that the state took over the county's public assistance program because of its problems.

While we're concerned about the toll the necessary budget cuts will take on our state's cherished quality of life, we're even more concerned by what kinds of cuts — and what further cuts — Walker would have to make.

We would be remiss if we didn't spend a moment on the candidate's running mates and suggest that should be a factor in Barrett's favor, too.

The lieutenant governor position has little power on its own, but given that two of the past five elected governors have been replaced by their lieutenant mid-term, the prospect of Walker's running mate, Rebecca Kleefisch, ever becoming governor is truly frightening. Beyond her lack of any qualifications, her statement that put gay marriage on a "slippery slope" that could lead to someone marrying a table, a clock or a dog is appalling.

Hat tip: James Rowen

I Remember, Do You?

Don't forget to vote!

Who Supports Tom Barrett?

Business leaders from around the state, that's who.

In His Own Words

Source: People for the American Way

Are Republicans Setting Themselves Up For A Heartache?

When a torrid love affair ends bitterly, it is often because one person, or both people, is not in really in love with their partner, but rather, is in love with the notion of being in love. The person might have gotten into the relationship for any number of unhealthy reasons: fear of being alone, coming off the rebound of another failed relationship, or just seeking positive self esteem through another instead of themselves.

Whatever the reason, the results are almost always the same. A bitter break up and an angry grudge against their former partner. But they never, ever look at themselves for what their role in the whole mess was.

I am starting to wonder if the Republicans are heading down the same doomed path with their candidates.

Two years ago, just after President Obama was elected, I predicted that there would be an uprising of sorts from the right. I figured that after eight years of partying it up at the expense of the poor and the middle class, people weren't going to like the pain of cleaning up the aftermath:

But because this is work that is unpleasant and difficult, because it can be embarrassing and get quite costly, Bush and his supporters, the people that were enjoying themselves at this party, all at our expense, are becoming very angry indeed. They resort to the behaviors more histrionic and obscene than ever displayed by an angry teenager.

They will blame Obama and the Democrats for raising their taxes to pay these bills, without ever admitting they were the ones that ran up the bills in the first place. They will call Obama and the Democrats names like Marxist and Communist.

They will be resentful for having to take part of the clean up. The will tell Obama et alia that they are fascists and that they have no right to tell them how to live their lives, even if the rules are that of common courtesy and concern for one's fellow man.

Obviously, I was correct in this prediction, although it wasn't really going too far out on a limb.

The TEA Parties are becoming almost as prevalent, and as pleasant, as bed bug infestations. And they are angry. I don't think they know what they are really angry about, but by George, the definitely are angry. Pick almost any issue typically associated with neoconservatives, from taxes to spending to having an African American president to having protest signs with properly spelled words on them, and they will be represented at one of their events.

In their fear, their anger and/or their resentment, the RepubliTEAs have ended up with some rather dubious candidates. In Kentucky, they have Rand "Aqua Buddha" Paul. In Delaware, they have Christine "I am not a witch" O'Donnell. And running all over the country in preparation for a suspected 2012 presidential run is everyone's favorite, Sarah Palin.

Things aren't any better here in Wisconsin.

For their senatorial hopeful, they picked the enigmatic Ron Johnson. He is enigmatic because he doesn't meet with the press or partake in interviews, so no one really knows where he stands or what his ideas, plans or goals are. When he does make a statement or a commercial, it tends to contradict something else had previously said. Or even worse, it fails to match up with the little history we do know of him. Johnson can't even keep his stories on why he chose to run straight. How can anyone have any confidence in that type of person representing them?

For governor, they have the hypocritical Scott Walker. Walker has lured the Republicans with what they want to hear even as he is doing the exact opposite. He claims he will lower taxes, but has raised them every year. He says he is opposed to the stimulus spending, but has eagerly grabbed stimulus cash with both hands. Walker says he will create jobs, but has cost tens of thousands of people theirs during his time as county executive. The only thing you can believe about Walker is that you can't believe one thing he says.

Even the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor is not immune from these problems. She came off as this sharp, conservative, genuine person. But she has committed one gaffe after another. She has celebrated her government-bought health insurance, but would deny it to others. Then she compared same sex couples as being inanimate objects and dogs. That comment alone seems to have alienated several Republican voters, although I would hesitate that these people were offended enough to change their vote. It's no small wonder why Team Walker has tried to keep her under wraps for as much as they dare, including not letting her participate in any debates.

Stunningly, the Republicans are so desperate to preserve their illusions of having picked worthy candidates that are their political soul mates that they willingly minimize their foibles and faults, even to the point of being in complete denial of reality when they are presented with it.

If their candidates lose on Tuesday, they will blame Democrats for "stealing the election" and/or blame the voters as being "uninformed." Heck, some have already started that drum beat in an act of self-defense of their psyches.

However, if their candidates were to win on Tuesday, it will be only a short matter of time before they, at least on a subconscious level, realize that their political paramours also don't live up to their fantasies. Some might be able to keep up even more amazing feats of skewing their perception of reality for a little while, but the sad truth is that once again, as they did with former President George Bush (either one), they will end up with a bad case of broken heart.

This is, of course, a sad thing. But not as sad as the fact that all of us will have to contend with everything else their chosen ones will end up breaking, including health care, the environment, the economy and the Constitution.

Integrity

Go get'em, Scott!

Whiteboard

A new commercial from Russ Feingold:

I Thought It Was Supposed To Be Satire...

...but the Onion is actually reporting the news about Ron Johnson.

Stop the Scott Walker Troll, er, Toll Way

Guess what? Mr. Flip Flop is at it again. Scott "No New Taxes" Walker wants to raise our taxes after all. This time in the form of toll ways across this great state of ours.

The reason for this sudden reversal? All the money that has been donated to his campaign from the road builders. So much money that Walker was willing to fly down to Florida in a private jet to collect the loot.

The Barrett Campaign has started a microsite dedicated to fighting this new tax on overburdened commuters and tax payers.

After you check out the site, sign the petition and tell Scott Walker that we don't need him or his new taxes.

And once we stop him from building his toll ways around the state, can we do something about all of the Walker trolls?