Walker Finds New Way To Screw Over Kids

Y'know, I'm starting to think that Scott Walker doesn't like children too much.

On Black Friday in 2013, Walker's campaign sent out the infamous fundraising email telling people to not but Christmas gifts for their kids and to give him the money instead:

Instead of venturing into the cold this Black Friday, stay in and give your children a gift that will keep on giving.

This year, we are celebrating the Holiday Season with a Black Friday special that is better than any deal found in stores. Donate $5, $10 or $25 to help Governor Walker get reelected and save your children from a future of double-digit tax increases and billion dollar budget deficits.

Instead of electronics or toys that will undoubtedly be outdated, broken, or lost by the next Holiday Season, help give your children the gift of a Wisconsin that we can all be proud of. Governor Walker is helping Wisconsin move forward to a future where your children and grandchildren can experience:

• Economic Prosperity
• Improved Schools
• Freedom From Government Dependence

The Governor wants his sons to grow up in a Wisconsin as great as the one he grew up in. When asked why he never stopped fighting for Wisconsin during the Recall, Governor Walker says he has two reasons, his sons Matt and Alex.

With your help, Governor Walker is enacting reforms that are securing a strong state for the future of Wisconsin’s children. This Black Friday, donate $5, $10 or $25 to help Governor Walker win reelection so he can continue to help Wisconsin move forward.

A strong Wisconsin is the best gift you can give.

As Susan Madrak reported, Walker is keeping up his war on kids and Christmas by wanting to hike the bike tax.

I would be lax not to mention that Walker has now cut more than $2 billion from public education, bringing its funding level below what it was in 2010. Likewise, it should be noted that he has expanded voucher school funding, pushing for a statewide open enrollment for these unaccountable corporate education vultures. In Milwaukee, they are taking away public schools and privatizing them.

Even then, Walker's avarice wasn't sated.

He had to find new ways to screw over the kids. And he did.

Despite Walker's attacks on their educations, the children at Green Bay's Webster Elementary School went to the state Capitol to give a free concert. Walker showed his appreciation by sending them a bill:

If you’re planning a trip to the Capitol and want to use an outlet for an event, be prepared to pay. Webster Elementary School found this out the hard way.

The Green Bay-area school’s music class was charged a fee after giving a free concert at the state Capitol in Madison. Now several local representatives want to take a deeper look at the policy that prompted the bill.

An invoice from the Department of Administration said a music teacher had to pay $15 because his fourth-grade class plugged in a boom box so the kids could sing along while performing a concert in the Capitol rotunda.

Retired Green Bay teacher Kathleen Leadley says the charge is ridiculous.

“If the fact is that they owe fifteen dollars for plugging in a boom box, we perhaps may need to revisit that at the state level, because this makes no sense,” she said.

Really. How much longer before Walker starts stealing candy from babies?

"A Person's A Person, No Matter How Small" Dr. Seuss

By Jeff Simpson

Some "highlights" from the republican platform:

Support voluntary student-initiated prayer in school

We will continue to work for the return of voluntary school prayer to our schools and will strongly enforce the Republican legislation that guarantees equal access to school facilities by student religious groups. We strongly support voluntary student-initiated prayer in school without governmental interference. We strongly disagree with the Supreme Court’s rulings against student-initiated prayer.
Source: 2004 Republican Party Platform, p. 84 , Sep 1, 2004

The Wisconsin Republican's in action:

Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, of Burlington, wrote to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson Thursday asking that Wisconsin not be considered a site to temporarily shelter unaccompanied immigrant children who are crossing the border, mostly from Central America.
The letter, posted on the Wheeler Report, was also signed by Republican Assembly members John Nygren, of Marinette; Joel Kleefisch, of Oconomowoc; and David Craig, of Big Bend...

The legislators ask if there's a limit on the number of immigrants that would be housed in the state and the liklihood the minors will be deemed refugees, which could mean getting public assistance.
They also express concern about the potential for the minors to permanently reside in Wisconsin.
Housing these minors will result in a "significant strain" on local and state budgets and impact both public education and health system, the letter said.
It asks that the decision to locate unaccompanied minors in Wisconsin be reconsidered.

Inscription on the Statue of Liberty:

 Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses, yearning to breath free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.

 


What Jesus had to say about the subject:

Matthew 18:1-35 ESV / 19 helpful votes

At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me,

God Bless Us everyone.    

We believe the phrase- ‘One nation under God’- in the Pledge of Allegiance is perfectly harmonious with the United States Constitution, protected by the First Amendment.
We agree with the Founding Fathers that religion and morality were fundamentally important to creating and maintaining freedom in this country.
We believe the best way to ensure religious freedom is to protect all religious references and symbols; including those on public buildings, lands, or documents. This includes, but is not limited to, prayer in public schools, thanking God in a graduation speech, and religious symbols being placed on public property during the appropriate holiday season. We reject that such references violate the U.S. Constitution or discriminate against those who are of other faiths or are not religious.
- See more at: http://www.wisgop.org/our-party/republican-party-of-wisconsin-platform/#sthash.Wcn95DHn.dpuf

We believe the phrase- ‘One nation under God’- in the Pledge of Allegiance is perfectly harmonious with the United States Constitution, protected by the First Amendment.
We agree with the Founding Fathers that religion and morality were fundamentally important to creating and maintaining freedom in this country.
We believe the best way to ensure religious freedom is to protect all religious references and symbols; including those on public buildings, lands, or documents. This includes, but is not limited to, prayer in public schools, thanking God in a graduation speech, and religious symbols being placed on public property during the appropriate holiday season. We reject that such references violate the U.S. Constitution or discriminate against those who are of other faiths or are not religious.
- See more at: http://www.wisgop.org/our-party/republican-party-of-wisconsin-platform/#sthash.Wcn95DHn.dpuf

We believe the phrase- ‘One nation under God’- in the Pledge of Allegiance is perfectly harmonious with the United States Constitution, protected by the First Amendment.
We agree with the Founding Fathers that religion and morality were fundamentally important to creating and maintaining freedom in this country.
We believe the best way to ensure religious freedom is to protect all religious references and symbols; including those on public buildings, lands, or documents. This includes, but is not limited to, prayer in public schools, thanking God in a graduation speech, and religious symbols being placed on public property during the appropriate holiday season. We reject that such references violate the U.S. Constitution or discriminate against those who are of other faiths or are not religious.
- See more at: http://www.wisgop.org/our-party/republican-party-of-wisconsin-platform/#sthash.Wcn95DHn.dpuf

We believe the phrase- ‘One nation under God’- in the Pledge of Allegiance is perfectly harmonious with the United States Constitution, protected by the First Amendment.
We agree with the Founding Fathers that religion and morality were fundamentally important to creating and maintaining freedom in this country.
We believe the best way to ensure religious freedom is to protect all religious references and symbols; including those on public buildings, lands, or documents. This includes, but is not limited to, prayer in public schools, thanking God in a graduation speech, and religious symbols being placed on public property during the appropriate holiday season. We reject that such references violate the U.S. Constitution or discriminate against those who are of other faiths or are not religious.
- See more at: http://www.wisgop.org/our-party/republican-party-of-wisconsin-platform/#sthash.Wcn95DHn.dpuf

Five Year Old Girl Pwns Westboro

What a fabulous story!

Jayden, who is from Kansas City, decided to set up her stand at the Equality House after her parents explained to her the significance of its construct. After being told that the church across the street had a message of hate, she set a goal of raising money to go towards a message of love and peace.

So she painted a banner for the event reading, "Pink Lemonade for
Peace: $1 Suggested Donation." She put the stand in the grass and waited. But the waiting didn't take long. Supporters came in by the droves and $1 turned into hundreds of dollars.

During the day, Westboro sent representatives outside to try and find a way to stop the event. They apparently attempted to call the local police and stooped to yelling profanities when that didn't work, like calling a group of soldiers who rode out on their motorcycles to suport the event "bastards."

Westboro's hate couldn't stop Jayden. She not only raised $400 during the day on Friday, but she has also collected over $1000 with an online campaign set up through Crowd Rise. Some people donated as little as $10 and as much as $230. One person gave $26 for every person killed six months ago in the Newtown, Conn., massacre.

One little girl did more in one day than the whole lot of haters at Westboro has done with their entire lives.

We need more people, including adults, to be like Jayden.

A Tale of Two Shootings

 

By Jeff Simpson

1.  A 5 year old boy shot and killed his sister in Kentucky last week with the rifle he had been given as a gift!  The local reaction?

“It’s a normal way of life, and it’s not just rural Kentucky, it’s rural America — hunting and shooting and sport fishing. It starts at an early age,” said Cumberland County Judge Executive John Phelps. “There’s probably not a household in this county that doesn’t have a gun.”
In Cumberland County, as elsewhere in Kentucky, local newspapers feature photos of children proudly displaying their kills, including turkey and deer.
Phelps, who is much like a mayor in these parts, said it had been four or five years since there had been a shooting death in the county, which lies along the Cumberland River near the Tennessee state line.
“The whole town is heartbroken,” Phelps said of Burkesville, a farming community of 1,800 about 90 miles northeast of Nashville, Tenn. “This was a total shock. This was totally unexpected.”

Exactly, who would expect anything bad to happen when a 5 year old gets his own rifle?  

2. Across the country in Arizona, a 3 yr old boy shot himself in the face with his grandmother's handgun.  The local reaction? 

A judge in Arizona on Thursday order a 35-year-old grandmother held in lieu of $500,000 bond after she was charged in the death of her 3-year-old grandson, who allegedly shot himself in the face with her handgun.
In a court appearance on Thursday, Yuma Justice of the Peace Greg Stewart notified Rachel B. Spry that she was charged with reckless manslaughter, possession of dangerous drug, possession of drug paraphernalia and possession or use of a weapon in a drug offense, according to the Yuma Sun.

Draw Your Own Conclusions!

Michigan's Miraculous Babies

Another story pointed out by another one of our astute readers:

Children no longer are considered a deduction for tax purposes in Michigan, but some lawmakers think fetuses should be.

The state legislature currently is considering two bills that would create a tax credit for unborn fetuses that are 12 weeks or older. If the proposal becomes law, it would make Michigan the first state in the country to grant such status to the unborn.

Opponents of the measures claim the tax credit is just a sneaky way for abortion foes to establish a form of “personhood” for fetuses and eventually restrict women from getting abortions.

Republican Representative Jud Gilbert, one of the main sponsors of the fetus tax credit plan, said supporters merely want to help mothers with their taxes.

“You’re recognizing the fact that people have additional expenses, another person to take care of,” Gilbert told MLive. “Money saved there could be contributed to doctor's bills and all kinds of things.”

The proposal runs contrary to legislation adopted last year that eliminated a child tax credit deduction that affected 2.35 million children in Michigan.

In short, according to the Michigan Republicans, having a baby is expensive, but once the child is born, they are completely self-sufficient and/or cost free.

And to make this story complete, this is almost mandatory:

Keep Creationism Away From the Children!

Get these guys to West Bend Pronto!

How Much Is A Child's Life Worth?

Scott Walker is facing an inevitable recall.  WISGOP will probably lose control of the state senate.  All because they've been selling out the state and its citizens to the well-moneyed special interests.

So what does Walker and his cohorts do? Double down on their lack of integrity and ethics.  

The State Senate Judiciary Committee is prepared to ram through SB-373, which would negate already established lawsuits filed by or on the behalf of people who have suffered from lead poisoning.

Xoff thinks that Walker and company are doing this in order to gain some big time recall defense funding from WMC, who is pushing for this law to be passed.

While that rationale is a distinct probability, they may be doing it to just find themselves a place to land as they are removed from office for their malfeasance.

But whatever their motivation might be, there is no way in hell this bill should have even gotten this far.  In fact, the Legislative Council points out that other cases that likewise retroactively negate people's right for redress have been found to be unconstitutional.  

Donovan's "Plan for Milwaukee" Taken From The Movies

Milwaukee Alderman Bob Donovan, going though media attention withdrawal, came out with his "Plan for Milwaukee."

One could summarize his plan as "Children should neither be seen nor heard."

His plan consists of basically two concepts: Creating a police state and putting every youth (or at least the black ones) in the city in an institution.

For the police state, he proposes more cops, giving the increased police force more overtime and putting cameras everywhere. And here I thought we were in a fiscal crisis.  Basically, this is a common theme in many movies, from 1984 to The Matrix, where the citizenry is always under surveillance and face stern consequences if they take one step out of the strict guidelines of the government.

But then Donovan does his best Baron Bomburst impression and comes up with a number of ambiguous anti-child proposals:

• Reform the juvenile justice system 
• Stricter curfew enforcement (well that could go into the police state theme as well).
• Orphanages and Boarding schools 
• Revamp the schools.

It should be noted that he doesn't say what's wrong with the juvenile justice system or the schools or how he would like to see them "fixed."  Just that they're broken and that someone else needs to fix them.

When one considers Donovan's past statements and posturings, it would not be a great leap of logic to understand that he means that the laws on kids should be made draconian, enforced with military precision and that the kids need to be put in an institution of some sorts, where they can be thoroughly controlled and kept away from the public. That way, mature adults  like Donovan don't have to be bothered with fixing the actual problems, like the inherent racism in the region, the rampant unemployment, or the severe lack of constructive activities for these kids.

But not only does Donovan fail to offer any constructive suggestions or solutions, the proposals he does present will only increase the problems.  As any mental health staffer, or jailer, or any other worker in an institution can tell you, any person in such a place can become thoroughly institutionalized and no longer to effectively function in society.  

Then society will have to pay a much higher price, both in human and financial costs, to have this institutionalized population treated so that they can become a positive member of society again. Either that, or pay for the person to be an institution for the rest of their lives, which gets to pretty costly as well.

He, and we, would be better off if he just donned his fuzzy crown and robe and stepped out and said, "I hate children." Then he'd have his fifteen minutes of attention that he desperately seeks and go back to his fantasy world while the rest of us go about trying to actually fixing the problems facing our society.

Alberta Darling Sold Out WI Kids To Big Tobacco

You can't turn on the radio or TV anymore without hearing or seeing one of the Koch Brothers funded commercials for Alberta Darling, spreading their distortions and out right lies.  One of her talking points which annoys me to know because of its blatant hypocrisy is when Darling claims to be in favor of the children.and of the tax payers.

Anyone who thinks that this is true will change their mind after finding out what she did in this budget. The following is a press release from We Are Wisconsin:

REPORT: ALBERTA DARLING SOLD OUT WISCONSIN’S KIDS TO HELP HER BIG TOBACCO BACKERS
Jul 21, 2011

Darling pushed through policy written by tobacco industry that helps Big Tobacco market cancer-causing products to Wisconsin children

RIVER HILLS, WI – A recent report has called into question Sen. Alberta Darling role in inserting a last-minute budget amendment that makes it easier for tobacco giant Philip Morris to push cancer-causing tobacco products to Wisconsin children – marketing them with fruity flavors and candy-like packaging. The amendment was pushed in Madison directly by Philip Morris parent company Altria, and provided Big Tobacco with a huge tax break over the status quo and their competition.

The report shows Darling’s amendment to be nearly exact ‘model language’ provided to state legislators by a group called the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a secretive, corporate-funded outfit with strong connections to the tobacco industry. Darling’s connections to ALEC go back to 2009 when she used tax dollars to pay $200 in membership fees to the organization, giving her access to exclusive, closed-door meetings with potential corporate donors, including ALEC member Altria/Philip Morris USA.

And voila! Altria/Philip Morris USA wrote a $1,000 check to Alberta Darling, just days after she became chair of the powerful Joint Finance Committee where she was able to insert the language requested by Big Tobacco.

“Alberta Darling’s willingness to sell out the health of Wisconsin’s children to her Big Tobacco pals shows she’s a complete tool of the powerful corporate interests that bankroll her campaigns and push the attacks on middle class working families currently coming out of Madison,” said Sally Evans, a retired kindergarten teacher from Shorewood. “Alberta Darling’s shameless handout toher friends in the tobacco industry to help them market their cancer-causing products to Wisconsin’s children is immoral, unethical, and truly reprehensible.”

Notably, the late-night amendment Darling slid through her committee as a favor to Big Tobacco was actually vetoed by Scott Walker – who said it represented a huge threat to the health of Wisconsin’s children. According to the report, Darling refused to return multiple calls seeking an explanation for her conduct.

Outrage From The Right: Justified, Selective And Hypocritical

Several of the conservatives have their outrage going on regarding a truly reprehensible post from Wonkette, in which they are demeaning Trig Palin. Their outrage is justified in that there is no excuse whatsoever to attack an innocent child like that.

However, it is also a rather selective outrage. The same people that are condemning this post are the same ones that support Scott Walker and the GOP legislators in cutting benefits that would aid thousands of special needs children across the state.  How can they be so concerned over one child, living thousands of miles away, and be well taken care of, but be so calloused to similar children in their own community both baffles and sickens me.

And to top it off, they are being quite hypocritical about how they are addressing this.  There are many who are advocating a boycott of the companies that advertise on the Wonkette site, regardless of the fact that they are using blogads which randomly put up different advertisements.  However, when the unions and pro-worker advocates chose to boycott companies that supported the Walker regime, they were called thugs and worse.

Then again, cognitive dissonance from the right is nothing new.