Walker Collects His Thirty Pieces Of Silver

After spending the last four and a half years selling out the people of Wisconsin, Scott Walker now wants to do the same to the entire nation.  But to do so requires a lot of money - not just for commercials and ground troops but also for legal defense funds.

So, Walker has decided it was time to collect his thirty pieces of silver for selling us out:

Walker, fresh from his official campaign kickoff event at the Waukesha County Expo Center, traveled 3.5 miles north to the Milwaukee Marriott West in Waukesha for what the invitation described as “An Exciting Celebration with Governor Scott Walker.”

The price of admission was a minimum contribution of $500 with the co-chairs committing to raise at least $27,000 each for Walker’s campaign. Platinum hosts contributed at least $5,400, gold hosts at least $2,700, silver hosts at least $1,000 and bronze hosts $500.

Among the hosts, Walker raised at least $570,000 at the private event. Invitations also were sent to other prospective guests.

Walker’s campaign chairman Michael Grebe and finance co-chair Jon Hammes were among the 23 names listed as co-chairs. Hammes, one of the most prominent real estate developers in the state, leads Hammes Co. in Brookfield. Grebe is president and CEO of the Bradley Foundation in Milwaukee and formerly led Wisconsin’s largest law firm, Foley & Lardner LLP in downtown Milwaukee.

Make sure you read the whole article to get the names of the people that Walker serves and see to it that they get none of your money other than what they already stole.

The Corporate Wolf At The Door

Last week, I reported about how Scott Walker wants to throw the disabled and frail elderly to the corporate wolves.  In a nutshell, he wants to do away with programs like IRIS and Family Support Program, and make it mandatory that these vulnerable citizens are forced into a privatized version of Family Support:

Walker would also award all of these contracts in a no bid process.
And to show that the care of these vulnerable adults are not his priority, Walker wants to take oversight of these programs from the Department of Health Services and give it to the Commissioner of Insurance.

In other words, Walker wants to force the frail elderly and disabled adults into a single, expensive program. He then wants to give these contracts - worth more than $3 billion - in a no bid process to large for profit insurance companies, who will have little or no oversight.

Gee, do you think he is fishing for the Big Insurance campaign donations with this immoral giveaway?

The big question is what company could do what Walker wanted.

It would have to be a big insurance company to be able to set up a statewide system. But because Walker wants it done by the end of next year, it would have to also be a company that already has a pretty good understanding of how the system works so that they could be ready to go in such a relatively short time.

The only logical conclusion would be WPS Health Insurance.  They are a huge mulitbillion dollar company who already has contracts to be the third party payer for many of the state's Family Care systems.

To make WPS seem even more likely to be the corporate wolf that Walker wants to feed on our vulnerable citizens is the ties he has to the company.

Just a year ago, Brett Davis, who was Walker's Medicaid director, suddenly up and left his job.  Just a few weeks later, it was announced that Davis had been hired at WPS at vice-president of provider relations.

This is important for a couple, three of reasons.

One, the Family Care program is funded through Medicaid, thus giving Davis an upper leg on most people on being able to run this program in the private sector.

Secondly, the timing of Davis' departure from the state and hiring at the state would make him eligible to do lobbying with the state.  And don't forget that Davis used to be a state legislator himself before Walker gave him his cushy job.

Scott Walker and Brett Davis

Thirdly, Walker and Davis do have a long and tight relationship. The gentle reader might recall that Walker had wanted Davis to be his Lieutenant Governor.  This was evidenced by the fact that Walker had Kelly Rindfleisch doing Davis' fundraising instead of her supposed duties as Walker's Deputy Chief of Staff at Milwaukee County.  Other emails from the Walkergate investigation showed that Walker's team didn't think much of Rebecca Kleefisch, who eventually did become Walker's lieutenant governor.

Now, this is all purely speculation.  But given Walker's modus operandi, it all fits together so very well.  It also follows the pattern that Walker tried to use when he wanted to set up a perpetual taxpayer-funded campaign donation scheme with Sportsman United.

And let's face it...is there anything that we wouldn't put past Walker trying to do, especially if it was meant to further his political aspirations?

Fitzwalkerstan - The Cartoon Strip

OK, actually it's "Pearsl Before Swine," but it's still so damn timely and true!

Click on image to embiggen

Meanwhile in Fitzwalkerstan

So sadly true:

Source

Grothman Hates That You Have Weekends

Once again, State Senator Glenn Grothman, the asocial Teapublican from West Bend, has put his foot into it.

In his latest escapade of Grothmann has joined forces with State Representative Mark Born to announce that they don't think you need a day off of work and plan to outlaw weekends:

Wisconsin manufacturing and retail workers could volunteer to work seven days straight without a day off under a bill two Republican lawmakers are circulating on behalf of the state’s largest business group.

The bill promises to ratchet up tensions between the GOP and Democrats and their organized labor allies, who are still stinging after Republicans passed Gov. Scott Walker’s plan to strip most public workers of nearly all their union rights in 2011.

The measure’s authors, Sen. Glenn Grothman of West Bend and Rep. Mark Born of Beaver Dam, say the bill brings Wisconsin in line with federal law, gives workers a way to make extra money and employers a way to boost production. But Democrats and labor leaders insisted bosses would use the bill to force their employees to work longer and effectively erase the weekend.

“Even God said rest on the seventh day,” said David Reardon, secretary-treasurer for Teamsters Local 662, a union that represents about 10,000 workers across various industries in west-central and east-central Wisconsin, including manufacturing, transportation, government and food service.

“I would hate to see that Republican bill pass. Some employers would really take advantage of that,” Reardon said.

Current Wisconsin law requires employers who own or operate factories or stores to give workers at least 24 consecutive hours off every seven days.

Under Grothman and Born’s proposal, workers could volunteer to work seven straight days without a rest day.

Ah, but it gets even better as their rationale for such a heinous bill falls apart and it becomes obvious that their only reason is that it is what their corporate masters wish:

In an email to lawmakers seeking support for the bill, Born and Grothman said they had heard from businesses with employees who want to work the additional time. But when asked for names, Born said the only people he met with to discuss the bill were from WMC.

“We should have worded that differently,” Born said. Grothman said he has talked to a business but declined to name it.

WMC spokesman Jim Pugh didn’t return messages.

Born said the bill gives workers a chance to make some extra dollars and their bosses a means to increase production.

“Here’s an opportunity for folks to work together to get things done in a positive way for the employer and the employee,” Born said. “It just seems like a win all the way around.”

But opponents warned the only choice employees will have is work the extra hours or lose their jobs. The measure also would give workers who can work the extra day an advantage over workers who want to spend a day with their family, they said.

Now, if they were really interested in allowing the employees to earn more money, they would jump on board with the Democrats' proposal to raise the minimum wage in the state (although what they are proposing still isn't high enough, it's a start). Imagine, being able to make more money and still get to spend time with your family - what an unique concept!

And if the employers want to increase productivity, they could do it the old fashioned way - by hiring more workers.  Yes, I do realize that would mean actual job creation instead of the lip service version that the Teapublicans are spewing now.

It is rather telling that such simple solutions to the problems facing the state is still beyond the grasp of these corporate puppets.

Of course, like most of these stories goes, the money quote comes at the end of the article:

Grothman dismissed their concerns, saying he’s never heard of any business where pressuring employees to work extra hours has been a problem. He, too, insisted the bill would help workers make extra cash.

“It’s ridiculous when people want to work extra hours why Democrats would stand in the way of that,” he said. “I don’t know why some people want some people to remain poor.”

It's rather mind-boggling in its hypocrisy, isn't it?

It's not surprising though, that Grothman hasn't heard of any businesses trying to screw their workers. Heck, he hasn't even heard of any African Americans that celebrate Kwanzaa either.

Related: Glenn Grothman hates that you get Martin Luther King Day off too.

The Walker Agenda Is Still Working! Part CCVIII

Ah yes, more good news for Scott Walker's agenda - the Kmart in Portage is closing its doors in April, impacting 78 full and part time employees.  Although Kmart officials wouldn't come out and say why they were closing, the article makes it fairly obvious that they were struggling since Walmart came into town and opened one of their Supercenters.

But the reporters who wrote this article, Jen McCoy and Shannon Green, also shone a light on a different perspective that I don't recall seeing anywhere else before.

When stories like this appear, the focus is always on the poor workers who are losing their jobs. Often, there is a quote from a city leader about the impact the closing and layoffs will have on the local economy.

But McCoy and Green included a third facet to the story - how it affects the customers:

The announcement of the closing also disappoints Scott Tomczak of rural Poynette, who said he shops at Kmart three times per month.

“I’d much rather come here (to Kmart) than Walmart,” Tomczak said outside of Kmart on Friday afternoon.

JoAnn Wingers of Randolph said she drives to Portage to shop at the Kmart store.

“I’m very disappointed, because I’d rather shop here than at Walmart,” Wingers said.

Once the store is closed in Portage, she will still not shop at Walmart, she said.

The closest Kmarts to Portage will be in Mauston and Ripon after the closure.

Rumors of Kmart closing swirled for years after Walmart Supercenter opened at 2950 New Pinery Road. However, shoppers said Kmart had a dedicated customer base.

“I personally think the community did not want to see Kmart leave and there’s a lot of people who are very loyal customers. I would deliberately go there … I’m still shopping there at this moment,” Malone said. “I just wish everyone the best, finding a job and I hope things go well for them, but I can tell them that in person.”

This has been the modus operandi for Walmart for decades.

They move into a smaller community, using up taxpayer money on TIFs and other giveaways - because they're creating jobs, donchano? - and drive out all the competition, whether it be a bigger chain like Kmart or Sears or the local mom and pop type of stores. They feed off the community until it's no longer profitable enough and pull out leaving a lot of people out of work and a big empty box where the store used to be.

Fortunately, it appears from this story that at least some people are starting to wake up and are no longer tolerating it. Hopefully that will carry through and continue to grow through the fall when we can make a strong stand against the corporate special interests and the puppets that serve them, like Scott Walker.

The Walker Agenda Is Still Working! Part CXCVIII

Another shining example of how well businesses can regulate themselves and how they are really concerned about protecting the environment:

After a nearly four-month Department of Natural Resources investigation into the cause of the Germann Road Fire, a commercial logging company will be billed for more than $600,000 after the investigation determined the company’s negligence caused the forest fire to start and spread.

The fire was the state’s largest in 33 years and burned 7,442 acres in Douglas County. The fire began about 2:45 p.m. May 14 and burned an area nearly 10 miles long and a mile and a half wide before it was contained about 9 p.m. on May 15. Forty-seven structures were destroyed, including 17 homes or cabins, in the Towns of Gordon and Highland.

A logging crew was harvesting timber on industrial timber lands when the fire began. At the time, the crew acknowledged the fire had started at the work site and that they had unsuccessfully attempted to contain it. However, the investigation found that the crew and company, Ray Duerr Logging, withheld information from department law enforcement officials.

The investigation determined the crew had attempted to contain the fire using a fire extinguisher and a pressurized water system installed on the harvesting equipment and called 911, but the company was negligent for failing to maintain equipment at the logging site that could have prevented, or contained the fire, which was started by the cutting head of a Timberjack 840. Logging company owner Ray Duerr bought the used machine in 2013.

The report further reported that the Timberjack 840 had its own built in fire extinguisher which workers tried to use but the extinguisher failed. The problem was that there was not enough air pressure to push the water out. Management admitted they never even tested this vital piece of equipment, much less maintained it properly.

Now, if we allow Walker to remain in office next year, do you really think that his administration will do anything but join the company in lighting cigars off the fire?

Save Mercedes. Kill the Lemon Law.

Lemon law expert Vince Megna is back at what he does best next to winning lawsuits - making great videos:



Those poor corporate CEOs.

Mother's Day In Fitzwalkerstan

As you know, Sunday was Mother's Day.

Like many holidays, I find it to be bittersweet and a bit hypocritical.  I've always felt that mothers deserved to be honored every day and not just one arbitrarily set date.  And those feelings have only grown stronger since I lost my mother nearly 14 years ago.

And this year, in Fitzwalkerstan, never has Mother's Day been any more ironic or bittersweet.

Even has Scott Walker's campaign sent out no less than two email blasts praising

Tonette and his mother and how wonderful all mothers are, Walker and his Republican cronies in the legislature has been actively attacking mothers.

Walker and company, in their rush to take control of whether and when a woman can start a family, also removed funding for them to have life-saving screenings.
They have also kept up their pro-rape attitude, more than willing to blame the victims, and force them to have the child, whether the woman wants it or not.

To add to the outrage, if a woman is single and has a child, she is labeled as a child abuser.  They even went so far as to say women need men in their lives so much that they should stay in an abusive relationship, y'know, for the sake of the child.  I'm still waiting for someone to arrest Don Pridemore for saying that.  That is nothing more than enabling child abuse.

Not satisfied that they added enough injury to insult, they are now proposing cutting funding to impoverished pregnant women and new mothers:

The governor's budget bill contains a provision that would end BadgerCare coverage of pregnant women with incomes over 133% of the federal poverty level - which for an individual is as little as $15,000 a year and for a two-person household is about $20,000 a year. Let's celebrate this Mother's Day and National Women's Health Week by removing this unintended, ill-considered change from the budget. 

[...] 

As currently written, the governor's budget bill would make these pregnant women making as little as $15,000 a year only eligible for a limited benefit plan called BadgerCare + Prenatal (BC+ Prenatal). Unfortunately, this BC+ Prenatal program relies on fee-for-service care, which is generally more expensive for the state, and women in some areas of Wisconsin would have trouble finding an obstetrician who will take new Medicaid patients under this plan. 

BC+ Prenatal has several other shortcomings. It has a slower eligibility determination process, which could prevent women from receiving timely prenatal care. It also causes problems with continuous eligibility since BC+ Prenatal coverage can end any time a woman's circumstances change, leaving her without health insurance during a portion of her pregnancy. Alternatively, under BadgerCare Plus, a woman is covered throughout her entire pregnancy. The list of shortcoming with BC+ Prenatal goes on and the costs go up - both in health outcomes and associated pregnancy-related medical costs. 

The prenatal care a woman receives is one of the most important factors in the health of her child. We should be thinking of ways for more pregnant women to gain access to health care services, not creating barriers that will result in fewer women seeing a doctor during pregnancy.

And then to top it all off, once the mother has her child(ren), whether they were planned or not, and if they make it through with or without health care coverage, Walker and fiends make sure it's impossible to for the mother to earn enough money to support her family.

And don't even think that they would allow the woman a paid day off to tend to her sick child.  That is strictly verboten too!

I don't even think that they are capable of the irony when they call themselves pro-life.


It's not only our mothers, our wives, our sisters, our daughters or the other women in our lives that are being maltreated by Walker and fiends.

The grandest mother of them all, Mother Nature, is also being repeatedly victimized by them.

The Republicans have opened the door for irresponsible mining, uncontrolled polluting, destruction of wetlands, putting more of her creatures in the hunters' scope, and squandering her resources.  That is no way to treat one's mother.  And the Republicans have apparently forgotten that Mother Nature, unlike their own forbearing mothers, is not a tolerant lady and will make us pay for our poor treatment of her.

What I find the hardest to believe is that utter their misogynistic comments and vote for these laws are actually using the same mouths that they kiss their mothers with.

A Simple Observation Of The Big Picture

Over the past two years, we have displayed various graphics showing basically the same thing:

All three charts show that the job numbers in Wisconsin suck and that the massive sucking didn't start until Scott Walker took office and started in on his agenda of austerity.  Other graphs have shown a massive drop off in economic activity and in personal income levels.

I have seen these sudden downturns explained through Walker's big tax cuts from the rich.  However, I've seen corporate Democrats give tax cuts to the rich and not have such a failure.

I have also seen these drop offs being due to tax hikes on the poor.  I've seen the Democrats do that as well, although not to the same degree, and nothing went so far south as Walker's numbers.

The one thing that Walker did do that the Democrats never had was Act 10, the assault on the unions.  That alone took hundreds of millions of dollars out of the economy and placed square in the bank accounts of his wealth campaign donors.

Now that Walker is starting his attack on private sector workers, I would expect that these numbers are only going to keep getting worse at an accelerated pace.

It's fairly obvious that nothing Walker has done has created jobs, which really isn't that surprising.  It's also pretty obvious that Walker continuing to do the same things that have been proven not to work shows that he really doesn't care.

What I don't understand is why so few Democrats are seeing this and hammering away on these obvious points.  They would pick up a lot more support if they would.

First They Came For Milwaukee County, Then They Came For The Technical Colleges

As the eyes of most Wisconsinites were on either the second state budget hearing or the public hearing on the Usurpation Bill, there were nefarious doings afoot.

The gentle reader will surely remember that last month, I warned that all

Wisconsinites should be wary of the Usurpation Bill, which, if passed, would consolidate almost all the power in Milwaukee County into the hands of plutocrat Chris Abele.  I advised those living outside of Milwaukee county to be alert, because if they could try that here, they could easily try it anywhere else.

I reminded the reader of this again this week by having them ask themselves a question:

If they will do this to Milwaukee, what makes you think they won't do it to your county or town?  Here's a hint - nothing would stop them.

Sadly, my fears were not groundless and are already becoming a horrible reality.

A second usurpation bill is now in the process of being prepared.  But instead of taking over another county or town, the proposed target is all of the technical colleges in the state.

The bill was authored by State Representative Garey Bies, who apparently doesn't have all his oars in the water, judging by the opening statement of his press release announcing the bill:

Wisconsin’s economy is headed in the right direction, but we continue to hear from Wisconsin businesses that they struggle to find qualified workers to fill vacant positions. Our technical colleges can play an important role in our state’s economic growth and train individuals for these open positions, but they don’t have the funds necessary to accommodate the growing demand. And property owners who are already over-burdened can’t continue to fund the bill for the system. The issue has become the perfect storm and it needs to finally be addressed.

Going from 11th to 44th in job creation and ranking 48th in economic activity is not the right direction, any which way you look at it.

There is also no shortage of trained individuals looking for work. And sadly, that number keeps growing. The issue is a shortage of jobs that pay a decent salary, especially for trained workers.

And it is the Republicans like Bies who are the ones raising taxes even as they are sucking the money out of the economy and depositing it in the bank accounts of their wealthy campaign donors.

But to get back to the issue, Bies is following the only strategy that Republicans know - fear and smear.

He paints a horrible picture in which the poor innocent taxpayer is at the mercy of the school district boards which want to tax everyone out of house and home.  But he wants to save the day by asking the voters to help him by voting to allow the state to take over all the districts and funding it with a one cent sales tax.  Bies claims that this will raise $870 million, which would be enough to cover the entire technical college system.

All the voters have to do is vote to hand over all the assets of the districts over to the state and Big Brother will take care of the rest.

But there are a few things that Bies forgets to mention.

Such as the fact that it was Bies and his fellow Republicans who voted to slash funding to the technical schools in the first place.

And where he claims that there is no local control, he fails to mention that the voters did have control on whether the districts could borrow money to pay for their operations, well the truth is they did:

Western went to referendum for in November, getting voters’ permission to borrow $80 million for upgrades and additions to school buildings.

That wouldn’t be possible under the changes recommended by Bies, Rasch said.

“If we don’t control the budget, we don’t have a choice in doing these things,” Rasch said.

And given the way that the Republicans have been catering to the well-moneyed corporate special interests, do you think that the state will actually run these schools? They will simply hand them over to groups like the for profit colleges. That and/or they will just divert the money due to some "fiscal crisis," like the some poor executive who didn't quite make their usual eight figure salary that year.

He also never mentioned a property tax break because of it making it a pure, unadulterated tax hike.  Further more, despite Bies' claim that his scheme would help low-income families and senior citizens.  A sales tax is a regressive one and would actually be hitting the poor and the seniors the hardest.

As the gentle reader can see, although the methodology is a little different between the two take over bids, the end result is the same.

Abele and the other plutocrats at GMC are claiming things are dysfunctional and they need to take away local control and remove any real representative government to fix things.  In order to do this, they pretend that they are giving voters a choice with a red herring referendum, while the actual power grab would happen long before a referendum hit the polls.

In Bies' gambit, he is claiming that things are out of local control already and he wants the voters to turn things over to the corporate-controlled state government, thereby removing all resemblance of local control.

These stunts are what Kelsey Richards was talking about in her post over the weekend.  They are the Wisconsin equivalent of Michigan's fiscal martial law, in which the voters don't have any real representation and are at the mercy of the austerity-crazed special interests.

Either way, the well-moneyed special interests will have control of the money and the assets to do with what they want.  And then, like locusts, they'll keep gobbling up things until there's nothing left.

And the taxpayers and voters will be left with only the bills and the regrets.

Charlie Sykes: Dream Police

This past Friday, Charlie Sykes decided to out McCarthy the McCarthy Institute for Wayward Stalkers, who had disturbingly stalked Karen Tuerk an attractive female University of Wisconsin staff member.

Citing the article, Sykes pondered on his show (starting around the 20 minute mark) on whether Ms. Tuerk should have been arrested.

No, really.  Sykes was actually giving thought to having someone arrested for having a dream.

I knew that these fascists were all for squashing people's dreams, but this is beyond the pale.

But just for Sykes, I will give this suggestion for his new theme music:



It's common knowledge that we now live in a corporate state, but it's becoming increasingly apparent that we are living in a corporate police state, where only corporate state-approved thoughts and dreams are allowed.

The Best State Government The Mining Companies Can Buy

I swiped this from an email I got from the Overpass Light Brigade.

Almost a half million to Alberta Darling to push the mining bill no one wants.  She said OK as long as it didn't affect her favorite golf courses.

click on image to embiggen

Teapublicans Explained

If that's not Fitzwalkerstan, actually, all of Corporate America, I don't know what is.

The Walker Agenda Is Still Working! Part CLIX

At the end of last year, Scott Walker's agenda and his laser sharp focus on job creation forced 550 people in central Wisconsin out of work at the Schield plant.  It was the second huge layoff in that region in two weeks.

To make things worse for those poor folks, Schield's lax security allowed crooks to steal the identities of many of the workers. Even after it happened, the company was not forthcoming with this information, allowing the victims to remain unaware and unable to take action to protect themselves.

It turns out that company did the workers another dirty trick by not even laying them off properly:

The Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development has ordered the owner of a former window and door manufacturing plant to pay employees more than $319,000 for failing to provide proper notice of when the plant would close.

Medford-based Schield Family Brands announced Dec. 8 that it planned to close the SNE Enterprises factory in Mosinee this year, eliminating about 450 jobs. Production at the Mosinee factory at 880 South View Drive ended in August.

SNE failed to give a 60-day notice or identify a specific closing date or 14-day period when mass layoffs would occur, all of which are required by state law, according to a copy of the DWD decision provided Tuesday by Gig Christenson, a union representative for the Carpenters Industrial Council based in Oshkosh. Christenson filed a complaint in February with the DWD arguing that SNE’s notice that the layoffs would occur between Feb. 7 and Aug. 31 was not specific enough.

The state agency ruled Nov. 1 that SNE must pay $319,335 that will be split by 109 employees affected by the layoffs. SNE also was ordered to pay the DWD $30,000 as a surcharge for failing to notify Mosinee Mayor Al Erickson 60 days prior to a mass layoff.

“They do (the notices) so people can plan their lives,” Christenson said. “This went on for six months. How can anyone plan?”

The money will range from $300 to $7,000 per employee based on when they were terminated, Christenson said.

Talk about adding insult to injury!

Remind me again, what was that Walker said about how companies are able to regulate themselves?

At least some of the workers will get a small bit of money, almost six months later. Not that is much compensation for the hell the company and Walker's agenda has put them through.

The American Fascist

Henry A. Wallace was the 33rd Vice President of the United States, serving under President Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War II.

He had some strong views about fascism around the world and was not afraid to share them. Some of them were eerily prescient, such as this one:

Henry A. Wallace

The American fascists are most easily recognized by their deliberate perversion of truth and fact. Their newspapers and propaganda carefully cultivate every fissure of disunity, every crack in the common front against fascism. They use every opportunity to impugn democracy. They use isolationism as a slogan to conceal their own selfish imperialism... They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection.

Talk about your soul-searing epiphanies. My mind is blown just by trying to take in that one paragraph and how it relates to today's America.

I will try to break it down, but it's sheer massiveness is guarantee that I won't be able to do much but scratch at the surface.

The American fascists are most easily recognized by their deliberate perversion of truth and fact. Their newspapers and propaganda carefully cultivate every fissure of disunity, every crack in the common front against fascism.

This point is obvious on so many levels.

There are the propagandist organizations such as Wisconsin Reporter, MacIver Institute and, who could forget, the brazen liars at Media Trackers. These groups will stop at nothing to distort statistics, selectively edit videos, alter photos and make things up out of whole cloth.

If you look at the mainstream media, it's just as bad. When the protests were happening in early 2011, they called it "Capitol Chaos" or in other similar negative terms. Ofttimes, they don't even cover a liberal event but will fall over themselves gushing about the most thinly attended gathering of teahadists.

And I would be grossly negligent if I did not point out the radio squawkers like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and on a local level, Charlie Sykes and Mark Belling. Like the propagandists of the Internet, these are the propagandists of the airwaves. And like their Internet brethren and sisters, people like Sykes have no qualms about making up things out of thin air and speaking them like it's gospel truth.

This becomes even more frightening as the regulations regarding TV and radio have been systematically destroyed. This has allowed powerhouses like Journal Communications to snatch up TV stations, radio stations and newspapers around the state and the country, all pumping out the same biased and unbalanced news coverage and propaganda.

Fortunately, there are people like Sue Wilson who are out there fighting this illegal monopolization. They have recently filed complaints against WTMJ and WISN radio stations for violating laws surrounding the use of public airwaves to promote partisan candidates and/or positions, something they have been blatantly violating for years.

These propagandists and "credible" news outlets will not hesitate to use the most base strategies to create these fissures: Racism, misogyny, homophobia, dehumanization, union busting and demonization of their enemies, perceived or real, to name just a few of the more common ones.

They use every opportunity to impugn democracy.

For examples of this, just look at what has happened in Wisconsin in the past two years. It's not just the gerrymandering or the voter suppression or the voter intimidation.

The fascists tried to interfere with every aspect of the recalls, including, but not limited to, intimidating signature gatherers, trying to misrepresent the petitions, demonizing the people involved with the recalls, using McCarthyism to intimidate people that signed the petitions or to keep them from signing, complaining about the whole recall process, wanting to limit our rights to recall corrupt politicians, questioning the honesty of poll workers, falsely claiming voter fraud, bringing in people from out of state to harass voters, and giving their own poll watchers false information and directing them to misrepresent themselves.

And that's just the ones that I could think of off the top of my head in two minutes.

They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution.

The teahadists like to call themselves patriots and they give themselves such grandiose names like Grandsons of Liberty and the Sam Adams Alliance. They call themselves patriots, freedom fighters. Even the whole Tea Party name is a bastardized romanticization of the original, true American heroes.

Yet, despite their claims to be patriots, the only Constitutional right they seem to care about is the Second Amendment, and even then, they skew its true meeting. And Lord help the person who wants to have Free Speech, the Right to Assemble, the right to vote, the right to own property or any other civil rights.

They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection.

This one is so self-explanatory that I almost feel ridiculous giving examples of it. All one has to do is look at Scott Walker, Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, Tommy Thompson, the Republican controlled state legislature that allows corporations to write their own laws and any number of others and you can see it. You have the no-longer-invisible hands of the Koch Brothers, the Bradley Foundation and other money houses that are trying to buy politicians and getting laws passed that only serve to further their own avarice, whether it's for power, money or, most often, both, that it is sickening.

Don't think for a second that this is a recent thing or was just a matter of happenstance. The current degraded state of affairs has been a long time coming due to decades of planning and positioning, using the Powell Memo as their guide.

Unfortunately, while I cited only Republicans in the above text, there are also many Democrats that fit the bill of being a fascist. Sometimes we are able to winnow them out, like we did with Jeff Plale and Peggy Krusick, but there are still many more that we haven't gotten to yet.

But we now know them for who they are and what their agenda is. And as they say, "Knowing is half the battle."

What we must do now is use every tool at our possession to call them out, to counter their lies and smears, and to stand up for not only ourselves, but for everyone - even those that have been duped or bullied by the fascists. It's not going to be easy and it's not going to be quick.

But I, for one, cannot idly stand by and let them run our state and our country into the ground like they want to.

"In Corporate Fitzwalkerstan"

There is an old adage that goes, "Truth is stranger than fiction."

In Fitzwalkerstan, that could be the state motto.

Let me explain.

On Wednesday, Scott Walker took time from his usual begging for money for his legal defense fund and nervously watching the Kelly Rindfleisch trial to do his favorite thing: Grandstanding for the media.

The topic du jour was the unveiling of a marketing initiative to promote the business friendly climate he has created and why businesses should locate and/or expand in Fitzwalkerstan:

The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) today unveiled its marketing initiative to brand Wisconsin's business climate and promote the benefits of starting, expanding or locating a business in Wisconsin.

An integrated marketing campaign introducing the "In Wisconsin" brand will be launched next week in key business-focused media, featuring five world-class Wisconsin companies that have set standards in their industries through innovation and leadership.

"Over the past year we've enhanced Wisconsin's business climate with regulatory changes and powerful incentives for businesses to grow their operations and expand their workforce," said Gov. Scott Walker, who announced the initiative today at a WEDC press conference in Madison. "As a result, Wisconsin has already improved its image as a business-friendly state, as evidenced by recent state business climate rankings by Chief Executive Magazine and CNBC. The In Wisconsin marketing initiative takes the next step by actively promoting the state's benefits to business leaders, both those already here and those considering a relocation or expansion in Wisconsin."

The "In Wisconsin" brand promotes the state's pioneering spirit and heritage of innovation.

Yeah, right.

One would be accurate to describe this as a textbook example of Walker's usual hypocrisy and outright lying, especially when one considers the fact that the head of WEDC, Paul Jadin, is bailing on the group to go out to the private sector.

The hypocrisy reaches nearly toxic levels when one factors in that Walker's failure is so utterly complete and of such epic proportions that he has scrubbed all references of his promise of creating 250,000 jobs from his campaign website.

Ah, but as the gentle reader already knows, when it comes to all things Walker, there's more. There's always more.

Walker had added an amazing amount of chutzpah to his hypocrisy with this particular example of showboating.

Just hours earlier, we learned that the Feds had slammed into WEDC for illegal behaviors and violating their very own policy:

In a strongly worded Aug. 12 letter to Department of Administration Secretary Mike Huebsch, federal officials said two state agencies failed to follow federal law and their own policies in issuing economic development grants.

Among the findings:

• The state gave out aid worth $20,000 per job created to Kapco, a company with a plant in Polk County — twice as much as its own policies allow./LI.
  
• Officials failed to check the financial soundness of two companies receiving $1.4 million in federal grants.


• Eleven out of 20 loans using Community Development Block Grant funds awarded since Jan. 1, 2011, are "forgivable," despite the fact that the state's own policy calls for allowing businesses to get no-payback loans only in "extraordinary circumstances."


• Questions remain about an $8.6 million chunk of CDBG funds withdrawn under unusual circumstances late last year.

The HUD monitoring report, obtained by the State Journal, covers activities stretching back to 2007.

And then there is this:

HUD said some of the problems resulted from the "hasty" transfer of duties from the former Department of Commerce to the new economic development entity without a formal written agreement. The monitoring apparently was triggered by an announcement in February by Walker that four communities had received $9.6 million in CDBG funding. "At the time these awards were made," HUD said, "WEDC had no legal authority under the CDBG program to award or administer the CDBG funds." The federal agency ordered Wisconsin to hire a high-level administrator for monitoring, oversight and compliance, saying DOA currently lacks "adequate staff or experience to adequately oversee ... the new activities that are being undertaken by the WEDC." Among the most serious findings are that the state failed to perform required underwriting — the process of determining the financial soundness of a company — before giving $390,000 to Gilman USA LLC, a machining company in Grafton, and $1 million to Morgan Aircraft in Sheboygan. The aircraft company's website said it is developing a vertical lift technology that "combines the operational advantages of a helicopter with the range and speed of a fixed-wing aircraft." In the case of Gilman, "WEDC staff indicated that the underwriting process was skipped in order to accommodate the business' timeline," HUD said. "In the case of Morgan Aircraft, WEDC staff indicates that an updated underwriting was performed, but not placed in the file. HUD staff requested a copy ... but it has not been provided."

In other words, Walker was handing out taxpayer money willy nilly to these various companies through WEDC, even though WEDC wasn't even a state agency and without having even done the most rudimentary investigation to make sure the companies provided a suitable and stable company. Adding to this mess is the fact that Walker knew all along that WEDC wasn't a legitimate agency to be handling this money. He had been advised as much by the Feds in a previous letter and through a conference call with them. The real kicker is that Walker willfully kept this information from the WEDC board, which he chairs:

Walker, who chairs the economic development board, defended the decision not to inform the board of the matter, saying the federal government "routinely" corresponds with the state. "It's one where the Department of Administration is still waiting to hear back from HUD in terms of whether the things they're proposing are acceptable to them," he said. "And if those are things that need approval from the board certainly we'll have a special meeting of the board." The Republican governor made the comments Wednesday when asked about it during a news conference announcing WEDC's new branding program for the state. Walker said discussions with HUD are in the "early stages," even though they have gone on since at least May. In addition to Walker, the board consists of four lawmakers and eight businesspeople. Vice Chairman Dan Ariens and other board members from the private sector did not return calls Wednesday.

Mike Ivey reports that Walker has had issued with HUD money for a long time and that the Feds have been warning Walker about these issues for over a year. Actually, Walker's problems with HUD funding goes back even further, even before Walker became governor. When Walker was Milwaukee County Executive, he had put Tim Russell (remember that name?) in charge of the county's housing division. The result of this corrupt couple was that the taxpayers of Milwaukee County facing the possibility of having to pay back more than a half a million dollars. Fortunately, with no thanks to Walker, the county got off light:

Milwaukee County has repaid the federal government $229,000 for a portion of Community Development Block Grant money that was improperly spent as part of an overhaul required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The amount probably represents a small fraction of spending in the past decade that HUD says violated federal rules. But HUD is only enforcing the rule starting with 2011 allocations. The payback was ordered because the local programs primarily served City of Milwaukee residents or the county couldn't find documentation showing how the money was spent, according to county and HUD officials.

Now, I haven't had the time to research all of this, but I can't help but wonder how many of these companies are also campaign donors to Walker. I wouldn't be at all surprised that one would see what the real driving force behind the WEDC truly is as well as what Walker means when he says Fitzwalkerstan is business friendly.

The "Yes, We Did Build It" Scam

David Koch, Sheldon Adelson and other multibillionaires have said that they were going to throw a lot of money into the upcoming election in an effort to buy the presidency and put their puppets, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, into the White House.

We now see that some of their lucre being used in Fitzwalkerstan in the form of a scam.

Right wing front groups like Citizens for Responsible Government, Americans for Prosperity, the Heartland Institute and others are coming together this Saturday to host an event they are calling "Yes, We Did Build This!"

The event is supposed to star such teahadist heroes such as Rebecca Kleefisch, Ron Johnson, and Charlie Sykes. They are hyping the event as the revelation of their "plan to take back America." For a taste of just how thick they are laying on the absurdity and grotesque masquerade of being patriots, look at the tripe they have posted on CRG's website:

It is no surprise that the first American Revolution was led by independent business people like Samuel Adams. Large corporations such as the East India Company were too economically important to the throne and were protected. The brunt of new taxes and regulations fell squarely on the shoulders of colonial small business people. Adams sounded the alarm not simply based on current taxes and regulations but what would happen if the trend continued unabated.

Current conditions bear a striking resemblance to those of the first American Revolution. The president and his supporters tell outright lies and use sweeping, "king-like" powers to fundamentally change the the laws of the land. They insinuate that honest, hard-working, risk-taking entreprenuers [sic] and businesspeople "didn't build that" and use it as a pretext to extort ever larger sums for redistribution to the king's cronies.

The time has come for a new, well-mannered American Revolution, one that demands honest representation and an end to the lies, waste, corruption and theft of property by outright taking or regulation that have become the calling cards of these new and would-be kings.

Once again, it must be led by those damaged the most, the economic lifeblood of our country, the small business person. This revolution will not be fought with muskets but with elections. If business as we know it is to survive, we must become adept at winning elections. Sadly, this self-evident fact of life has been widely ignored. We believe we have developed a foolproof plan to win the overwhelming majority of elections.

Wisconsin has been identified as a primary battleground in this new revolution and has attracted significant national attention. We must supply leadership to manage and grow the budding revolution that has produced leaders like U.S. Senator Ron Johnson, Governor Scott Walker, and Vice Presidential Candidate Paul Ryan. These bold and visionary leaders need strong and organized support to counter and defeat our ideological competition, support that only the business community can provide. In order to implement our shared vision for the future of America they need the assurance that can remain in office and, moreover, to rise to higher office in order to finish what they started.

Join us to discover and participate in the new and innovative plan that will make this happen!

This is a free and private event specifically for businesspeople and their employees. Seating is limited and reservations are required for reasons of security and logistics. Register today!

In other words, they are trying to say that the business people are the only ones to save the day against the evil old government, personified by Barack Obama. (Without doubt, there will be a lot of racist code words bantered about at the event.) I also note they don't mention the working people at all in their propaganda. Maybe they are already considering us to be nothing more than serfs.

But what is truly amazing about this event is how much hypocrisy and irony that they can cram into one room.

For example, let's look at some of the characters, or should I say caricatures, involved with this farce.

The figurehead of CRG is Chris Kleismet. Despite his pretenses of wanting to cut governmental spending and having a "responsible government, nothing could be further from the truth. Some of Kleismet's claims to infamy includes trying to parlay his support of Scott Walker for Milwaukee County Executive into a lucrative county contract for getting the county to buy into his Six Sigma plan. This included trying to get Walker to give them an office in the Milwaukee County Courthouse, a move that was not only unethical, but also illegal.

Apparently Kleismet found it too difficult to build it on his own and was looking to Walker to give him some government money to help him out.

The emcee of this hootenanny is local squawker Charlie Sykes. Sykes, as we all know, uses the publicly funded airwaves to promote the Teapublican agenda, even if it means breaking the law to do so.

And Sykes isn't above using those same public airwaves for free advertisement to peddle his books. If he built his reputation as an author on his own, shouldn't he have to pay for commercials like anyone else would?

Likewise, Rebecca Kleehisch first got her name recognition from being a reporter for Channel 12 in Milwaukee. After leaving the station, she got free air time on WTMJ-AM from Charlie Sykes. This naturally led to Sykes giving her more free air time when she was a candidate for lieutenant governor. One has to wonder how well she would have done if she hadn't gotten all that free air time on the publicly funded airwaves. Odds are we'd be looking at Lt. Governor Brett Davis.

But leave it to these teahadists to make the biggest hypocrite their keynote speaker.

RoJo ran for the US Senate claiming to be a self-made millionaire by working hard and building his business from the ground up. The truth is an entirely different matter:

• RoJo didn't start his company, Pacur. He married into it.
• RoJo got a $4 million government low-interest loan to buy equipment and expand the business.
• RoJo got a railroad line built to Pacur using HUD grant money.
• RoJo had his employees using BadgerCare, the state-funded healthcare insurance.
• And speaking of his employees, some of them were prisoners who worked cheap and already had their healthcare covered by the state.

It's a strong possibility that the only thing RoJo did build on his own was his reputation for being a liar and an idiot.

But perhaps the biggest irony of the whole affair is that all of these hypocrites and fakirs are gathering together to preach about their independence and the need to cut government spending in the Waukesha County Expo Center, a government-owned building.

I tell you, I like to think I have a good imagination, but there is no way that I could make up all of this and be ever considered credible again. Leave it to the teahadists to manage to be stranger than fiction.

Perhaps it's the absurdity of this entire charade that is having them make sure that only the true believers are allowed access to the event. Per CRG's website:

This is a private event. Holding a ticket does not guarantee entry nor a right to attend the event. The event organizers retain the right to deny entry or remove attendees without cause. Behavior deemed disruptive or inappropriate by the event organizers may also result in removal from the event and/or prosecution for trespass and disorderly conduct.

Heh. Usually they have to keep the insane locked in a facility. Here they're trying to keep the sane locked out.

I hear that besides their sure fire method to richness and power, they will also be selling the secret to eternal youth, the cure for cancer, Love Potion #9, Dr. Carter's liver pills and other assorted snake oils, elixirs, tonics and charms.

Another Shocking Development In Fitzwalkerstan, Inc.

The Wisconsin State Journal is reporting that Scott Walker is ready to end the requirement for inexpensive life-saving equipment in building codes. According to the article, he wants to end the requirement for homes to be equipped with circuit interrupters which help prevent electrical fires, electrocution and thermal burns. Walker also want to end the requirement for tamper resistant outlets which protect children from sticking things in the outlet and getting a shock or electrocuted.

Safety inspectors and public safety officials are flummoxed and deeply concerned about this proposal. They are relatively inexpensive, adding about $200 to the cost of a $200,000 home, yet have been proven to be life and property savers beyond value.

So why does Walker want to get rid of these safety devices?

I'll give you three guesses and the first two don't count.

If you guessed that it's pay back to some wealthy campaign contributors, you guessed right.

According to the article:

The Wisconsin Homebuilders Association was one source for the code-changing plan, confirmed Jerry Deschane, association vice president.

"We have talked to the department about some changes, mostly because of reliability problems with all three of those devices," said Deschane.

Long time readers may remember the name Deschane.

Jerry Deschane is the father of Brian Deschane, the college dropout with no experience but who does have two DWI's, whom Walker appointed to a $81,500 position in the state's Department of Commerce.

Dan Bice reported on the younger Deschane's "qualifications" for that position:

His father is Jerry Deschane, executive vice president and longtime lobbyist for the Madison-based Wisconsin Builders Association, which bet big on Walker during last year's governor's race.

The group's political action committee gave $29,000 to Walker and his running mate, Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, last year, making it one of the top five PAC donors to the governor's successful campaign. Even more impressive, members of the trade group funneled more than $92,000 through its conduit to Walker's campaign over the past two years.

Total donations: $121,652.

That's big-time backing from the homebuilders.

After catching too much flak about this, Walker thought he'd resolve the issue by demoting Deschane to a $61,000 job for which he also was not qualified. Not only that, Walker bypassed two other much more qualified applicants.

In fact, this stunt was one of the things Walker got grilled on when he had to testify before a congressional committee:



Representative Bruce Braley (D-IA), the congressman who tore into Walker about this, also made a formal request for an investigation into this obvious pay for play business.

Too bad that the Republicans never allowed this to happen. If they had, they would have found another incident of Walker committing perjury. When Walker testified, under oath, that the hiring of Deschane was five levels below him, he was lying his butt off. It was Walker's Chief of Staff, Keith Gilkes, who "made the recommendation" for this hiring, regardless what the Commerce Secretary's opinion of his qualifications.

Now, this move to remove important pieces of safety equipment from homes as a pay back to a large campaign contributor is nothing new in Fitzwalkerstan, Inc. Walker has a long history of kowtowing to wealthy campaign donors.  But as the gentle reader already knows, when it comes to anything dealing with Walker, there's more. There's always more.

The reason Deschane the elder wants this done is, well, your guess is as good as mine since Deschane is just making crap up as he goes along (emphasis mine):

Deschane was critical of the AFCI, GFCI and tamper-proof outlets because "some electricians have been talking to us about reliability problems." A home security system or a sump pump, for example, can trip an interrupter, he said. And the tamper-resistant outlets, which use small plastic covers over the prong openings that are moved aside only when both sides are engaged at the same time, cause problems for "some people who have trouble putting plugs in those sockets."

He knew of no tests or statistics or reports that support those claims, but "the concerns we have raised come from complaints from people who have been installing (the devices) in Wisconsin."

So, now we have Walker being bought off to eliminate the use of these safety devices, they can't even give a valid reason for it, except for the mysterious, unnamed "them."

Ah, but there is still more (again, emphasis mine):

There is no timetable for the task, said department spokeswoman Angie Hellenbrand, who referred questions to Deschane, of the builders association, for more information.

The proposal estimates it will take 600 hours of staff time to develop the rules.

WTH? Now we have state officials deferring to lobbyists for answers on state policy?! And whose staff is going to be putting in the 600 hours of work to eliminate something that will be put back in two years when Kleefisch (Walker will be in prison by then) loses to whoever the Democrats put up against her? And who will be paying for it?

Knowing how Walker's masters' minds work, I'm guessing taxpayers will be paying the lobbyists' staff to come up with these rules, which will be so fouled up that it will take 1200 work hours to straighten them out again.

What sickens me the most out of this whole sordid affair is how Walker isn't even bothering trying to put on the airs of being a respectable man anymore, but is openly flaunting his corruption, thinking himself to be infallible.

As God as my witness, no one will be celebrating the news of his indictment more than I.

Labor Day In Fitzwalkerstan 2012

So today was Labor Day.

Not that you'd know it from the local paper. The only way one could tell it was Labor Day from the paper would be the Labor Day sales ads and one small blurb at the bottom of the entertainment section saying that Laborfest was today.

You wouldn't know it from the Republicans either, unless you count Paul Ryan using the holiday for shilling for his campaign swag. Like Romney's and the Koch's and Adelson's hundreds of millions of dollars weren't enough.

Well, you do have Lance Burri, Glenn Grothman's chief of staff, cracking jokes about Labor Day and women as well. (Grothman is a much better fit for the lying, misogynistic Burri than his previous boss, Mary Lazich, who is just stupid.)*

I'm not surprised that we have heard anything from Walker or the rest, since they've declared open war on the working men and women of Wisconsin and are poised to enact Right To Work But Not Get Paid For It legislation at the beginning of the new year. They also don't want to attract attention to the fact that Walker has lost more jobs than he has created since he's taken office and imposed his anti-Wisconsin agenda.

My colleague, Meg, did a very nice write up about the true meaning and importance of labor day. She listed just some of the many things that organized labor has brought into being:

Weekends.
Health insurance.
Breaks.
Paid vacations and sick leave.
Time off.
Workers Compensation.
Unionization of the workplace.
8 hour work days.
End of exploitative child labor.
Women's workplace rights.
End of workplace discrimination

I would add a few things to that.

One would be that unions also help prevent retaliation by the employers. The end result of losing this right will be one of two things.

One, the good workers will move on to other jobs, and other states, where they can be treated with respect and be allowed personal freedom to do what they want on their own time. You will be then left with the incompetent suck-ups, like most of Walker's cronies.

The other possibility is that these issues, will be resolved in the courts, costing the employers a lot more money than if they had a grievance procedure in place.

I would also point out that unions benefit everyone, whether they work in the public or the private sector and whether or not they are even union members. Unions, by negotiating with the employers, are able to set a prevailing wage. Non-union shops then will have to match those salaries and benefits or risk losing their best workers to the union shops.

This is why the so-called "right to work" states tend to have, on average, salaries that are $5,000 to $6,000 less than unionized states. I would also point out that with the higher salaries, people are able to buy more things and help stimulate and support the economy. That is exemplified here in Fitzwalkerstan. As Walker has taken money away from the workers, the economy has tanked and there are less businesses and jobs than when he took over as governor. In other words, it ain't working!

Jake at his Playhouse demonstrates how the unions have kept the middle class strong and that there is a direct correlation between the weakening of the unions and the lowering of wages and the diminishing of the middle class.

I would also point out, as I did last year, the US Department of Labor's explanation of the history of Labor Day (emphasis mine):

he form that the observance and celebration of Labor Day should take was outlined in the first proposal of the holiday — a street parade to exhibit to the public "the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations" of the community, followed by a festival for the recreation and amusement of the workers and their families. This became the pattern for the celebrations of Labor Day. Speeches by prominent men and women were introduced later, as more emphasis was placed upon the economic and civic significance of the holiday. Still later, by a resolution of the American Federation of Labor convention of 1909, the Sunday preceding Labor Day was adopted as Labor Sunday and dedicated to the spiritual and educational aspects of the labor movement.

The character of the Labor Day celebration has undergone a change in recent years, especially in large industrial centers where mass displays and huge parades have proved a problem. This change, however, is more a shift in emphasis and medium of expression. Labor Day addresses by leading union officials, industrialists, educators, clerics and government officials are given wide coverage in newspapers, radio, and television.

The vital force of labor added materially to the highest standard of living and the greatest production the world has ever known and has brought us closer to the realization of our traditional ideals of economic and political democracy. It is appropriate, therefore, that the nation pay tribute on Labor Day to the creator of so much of the nation's strength, freedom, and leadership — the American worker.

It is not shocking at all that as the country has moved more to a corporate nation status, thanks to the Republicans and corporate Democrats, that the economy has gone in the toilet and we are still mired in a recession, the second one in the past decade.

If Romney, Ryan, Walker, Chris Abele and the rest of them really wanted to go back to the good old days when jobs were much more plentiful and people were able to achieve the American dream, they'd be working with the unions and not against them.

*BTW, someone with more time and money than I might want to do an Open Record's request on Burri's state computer.