The Next Wisconsin Supreme Court Race

By Jeff Simpson

Lost in the midst of the craziness of a bunch of traitors marching in Charlottesville, VA, was a discussion between our local Supreme Court Candidates.

Michael Screnock is running form the right, he has previously worked for Michael Best, and was part of the top secret group using millions of dollars of taxpayer money to redraw our legislative maps into the most partisan possible.  It was also widely condemned as incredibly unethical and illegal.

As Screnock says:

"I share ... the belief that it is the role of a judge to say what the law is and not what it should be,” Screnock said in a statement. “Judges must respect the different roles of the court and Legislature and should not legislate from the bench.”

If Screnock feels that having legislators sign secretive agreements from their constituents is "respecting the different roles and the law", Heaven help us all.  

Tim Burns, a lawyer from Madison, has also thrown his hat into the ring:

Burns, in a breath of fresh air, does not hide who he is.  Burns is a Progressive and proud of it(FYI: you can be a Progressive and uphold the laws as written).

The third person who has entered the race is Judge Rebecca Dallet.   Judge Dallet has decided to try and stake out the middle ground.   As Jim Hightower likes to point out, "the only thing in the middle of the road is yellow lines and road kill".

Recently, she had some harsh words for Mr. Burns:

Patrick Marley‏ @patrickdmarley  Aug 11More.@judgedallet criticizes @Burns4WI for "trashing" Scott Walker and Donald Trump, says judges should be independent and impartial.

However, while Dallet, is campaigning as the moderate in the race, her actions speak differently.

The current make-up of the Wisconsin Supreme Court is a loaded with far right extremists controlling 5 votes to 2 slightly left of center votes.   They are so extreme, that they are largely a laughing stock of law observers throughout the state and the country.  

One of the things that the Far Right did when they had a majority, was to kick the duly elected, and widely respected Chief Justice Abrahamson out of the Chief Justice Role to install far right Justice Pat Roggensack as the new "unelected" Chief Justice.

A quick look at Roggensack's campaign, and we see that Judge Dallet has not only endorsed by Roggensack but she also sent her a $2500 check for her election.  Roggensack was running against a truly impartial candidate and one of the most respected lawyers in Wisconsin in Professor Ed Fallone.

Why would someone who truly believes that judges should be "independent and impartial" accept a $2500 check from a judge who has a record of being neither, against a far superior (and incredibly underfunded) candidate(Dallet's only political contribution was $100 to Governor Doyle, 12 years ago)?

Taking a look at just the last week, we have a President who has threatened military action against numerous countries, thanked the Russians for kicking out hundreds of US diplomats and emboldened a fairly large group of White supremacists and Nazis to march on a city wreaking havoc, violence and death on fellow Americans, Ms. Dallet has the nerve to criticize Mr. Burns for criticizing The Donald for his role in this.

Does anyone believe that Ms. Dallet, would stand for the rule of law or would bow to the pressure of her political hero and Chief Justice Roggensack, when she tells her to make sure no one stands in the way of the WISGOP agenda?

Looks like Ms. Dallet's middle ground, would prefer that it is you and I laying there with those yellow lines!

The current makeup of the Supreme Court has allowed it to be a safe space for a racist, a hateful homophobe and a man who choked his female colleague.  It is time we start demanding more from them!  

Act 10 Is Still Unconstitutional

In 2012, the Honorable Juan Colas ruled that parts of Scott Walker's landmark bombshell, Act 10, was unconstitutional.

Walker ignored the ruling.

Earlier this year, Judge Colas clarified his ruling, saying that the state could not enforce the law since it was unconstitutional.

Walker ignored this as well.

A few weeks ago, Judge Colas found Walker's labor commissioners to be in contempt of court because they weren't following the law.

In a panic to preserve the charade of Act 10, upon which Walker has hung his presidential aspirations, he asked the Appellate Court to overrule Judge Colas, or at least put an injunction on the ruling.

The Appellate Court made their ruling on Monday.  The answer was no:

The state Appeals Court on Monday kept in place for now a ruling finding Gov. Scott Walker's labor commissioners in contempt of court.

The ruling by the District 4 Court of Appeals in Madison means that, at least for the time being, the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission cannot enforce aspects of Act 10, the 2011 law by Walker that greatly restricted the ability of public workers to engage in union activities.

Now the focus will be on the Supreme Court, which will hear oral arguments on this case next Monday. Obviously, Walker and his ALEC sponsors are counting on David "Chokehold" Prosser to once again ignore the law and the constitution and to vote based on campaign contributions.

But it should be noted that constitutional experts like Ed Fallone have shown why Colas' ruling should stand.

Untipping The Scales Of Justice

In the last three elections for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, the corporate special interests have been dumping increasing amounts of money either directly into the campaign or through third party activities, whether they be ads or the insidious propaganda groups.

And the last three candidates that they sponsored to the bench have been real treats.  Annette Ziegler was the first Supreme Court Justice in state history to be reprimanded for her unethical behaviors.  Michael Gableman broke judicial ethics when he ran the racist and utterly false ads against Louis Butler.  And David Prosser is so unstable that he actually physically attacked fellow Justice Ann Walsh Bradley.


The current race for Supreme Court Justice, which will be decided on Tuesday, is no different.  The incumbent, Patience Roggensack, has the backing of a lot of out of state school profiteers, support that she tried to hide from the public.  She has also been the beneficiary of hundreds of thousands of dollars in ad time paid for by the Wisconsin Club for Growth, a front group financed by the likes of the Koch brothers.

It's also a commonly known fact that these special interest groups are not doing this because they think she is a good judge.  If anything, the exact opposite is true.  They are sponsoring her campaign because they know her to be a dishonest judge.  They know that she will rule in their favor in any case that comes before her.  And thanks to her pushing the Roggensack Rule, bribery of a Supreme Court Justice is now legal, making it easier to ensure that they get someone who will decide in their favor, regardless of what the law says.

We've already seen this in action when Roggensack joined the corporate bloc in ruling against the stay on Act 10, without even reading the facts of the case.

This really came clear when Charlie Sykes had Roggensack on his show Friday morning.  In her interview, Roggensack said that she would uphold the law passed by the legislation and did not seem to concerned whether they were even constitutional.

Sykes brought it home even more when he went on a tirade saying that a Fallone victory would mean that things like Act 10, the mining bill, voter suppression and the other acts of malfeasance would be negated.

What this means is that they know that these laws are unconstitutional and won't stand up when looked at with an impartial eye.  Hence the corporate special interests' intense desire to make sure the corrupt Roggensack retains her seat.

I brought this up with Ed Fallone when I had dinner with him on Friday.  I pointed as I had written before, it's a foolish though to think he would rule the way I'd want him to on all of the cases.  He agreed with this assessment, saying that there would be times where I will take to the blog and roundly criticize him for some of his rulings.

But he also pointed out that as he has campaigned around the state, this is the one consistent thing people have said to him.  He said that regardless of who he was talking to, it came down to the same thing - win or lose, they just want to know that they had a fair hearing.

Fallone's statements are backed up by a poll showing that two thirds of the state feel that the Supreme Court has become too political.

Correcting this issue is one of the things Fallone has been promising.  He wants to take the special interest money out of the Supreme Court so that the decisions are based on the law, not on who donated the most to their campaign funds.

And now you can see why the corporate special interests are spending so much money.  Without Roggensack, they will no longer be able to tip the scales of justice so heavily in their favor.

As important as the Supreme Court race is, Milwaukee voters also need to be paying close attention to the race for Circuit Court Branch 45, which has a similar feel as the higher court race.

In the local race, instead of Roggensack, the corporate special interests are throwing their weight, and a lot of their money, behind Rebecca Bradley.

One might think that they are doing this because Bradley has been a strong supporter of the causes they love, such as voter suppression and supporting laws based on political ideology.  And one would be correct for thinking this - for the most part.

But think about this for a minute or three.

A number of the justices on the Supreme Court are, well, getting on in years.  What if one of the members decided to retire or passed away?  Scott Walker would appoint someone to fill that seat for the rest of the term.  It would not take a great leap of faith to think that Bradley was being groomed for this possible eventuality. And it sure would raise a lot fewer eyebrows if he appointed a sitting judge than a lawyer from a private firm with only a few months of experience on the bench.

No wonder the special interests are dumping hundreds of thousands of dollars on

this local race.

With Bradley on the Circuit Court bench, she will be ready to make sure that the scales of justice remain tipped in their favor in case something ill should befall one of the current justices.

By electing Janet Protasiewicz, we would not only be getting a judge who is fair and follows the law, but we would also help keep the Supreme Court from becoming again tipped towards the corporations whose only interest is increasing their profit margins.

So, in summary, by electing Ed Fallone and Janet Protasiewicz, we won't be tipping the scales in our favor.  Neither one of the would ever promise such a thing.  But by electing these two outstanding candidates, we can feel more confident that the scales of justice are more balanced and will remain that way.

Solidarity Fish Fry, Week 25: The Scales of Justice

As advertised, this was Week 25 of the Solidarity Fish Fry.  And, oh, what a week it was.

When we arrived at Serb Hall, the first thing that I noticed was that the crowd was

nowhere near the size of what it used to be.  Serb Hall used to be the go to place, especially on Good Friday.  The TV stations would always send a camera crew out to take pictures of the crowd and interview the manager who would talk about how many tons of fish, how many gallons of tartar sauce, how many tons of fries they would go through in just one day.

But those days are long gone.

I surmised that it was probably the effect of two things.

One is the fact that years ago, Serb Hall started going through a series of changes at the management level, which in turn had a rather negative effect on the quality of the food and the services.  They have never been able to draw back the crowds they used to have.

The other reason is that people simply don't have the expendable money they used to have to go out to eat, see a movie or do other sorts of things, thanks to Scott Walker's maleficent agenda which has sent the state's economy down the tubes.  Without that little bit of extra cash, there's not many places that have door-busting crowds anymore.

Despite the smaller crowd, it was still a glorious evening.

First of all, I was able to join my stalwart and good-humored co-host of the event, Randy Bryce, for dinner.

But the highlight of the event for me was the fact that we had the privilege and honor of being joined by Ed Fallone,  candidate for Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice, and his son Andrew:

Ed had a rare moment away from the campaign trail and was spending some quality time with his son.  Part of their itinerary included joining us for dinner before going out to catch a movie.

It was a pleasure to see Ed again and listen to his stories from both the campaign trail and from his teachings.  While the conversation mostly stayed light, I was again impressed by his gravitas and his intellectualism.  But even though he has these qualities, he was, as Randy put it, "genuine."  There were no pretensions, no arrogance and no snobbery.  He exuded a calm confidence without any airs of superiority or condescension.

And even though his dinner was being repeatedly interrupted by well-wishers and admirers, he treated each person with the same grace and civility that he would bring to the Supreme Court, qualities which are sorely missing from it right now.  He even was gracious enough to have his picture taken with us:

I must also say that his son, Andrew, was also most impressive.  The young man obviously has his father's intelligence and interest in the world around him, but was nothing but polite and charming throughout the evening.

Also at Serb Hall on this spring evening was Janet Protasiewicz, who is running for Milwaukee County Circuit Court Branch 45.

Janet was following the time-honored tradition of going to Serb Hall to meet with the people and introduce herself.  She told me that outside of one or two tables, everyone was very gracious to her and were willing to listen to her and share their thoughts and concerns with her.

I took note that she had befriended an older gentleman named Eugene.  Even though Eugene was from Brookfield and could not vote for her, she took extra time to visit with this 91 year old man dining by himself and made a point of taking him to meet Ed.

I took note of this because to me, it was pure Janet.  She did not do this because it would have benefited her politically in any way (because it wouldn't), but because she is a genuinely compassionate person.   It is that compassion and attention to details that others would overlook that would make her a wonderful judge.

I also noticed that her opponent, Rebecca Bradley, was not to be seen.  Apparently, Bradley feels confident enough that the corporate special interests, like Wisconsin Club for Growth, are going to be able to buy the election for her that she didn't need to meet with the people she expects to vote for her.

No less important, I was also able to see and briefly visit with Rick and Linda Rumpel of Watertown, who have been frequent supporters of the Solidarity Fish Fry.  They had a busy day of it themselves, having started out in Madison for the Solidarity Singalong before coming to Milwaukee to protest the unjust decision not to issue charges in relation to the death of Derek Williams.  They ended their day by joining us in solidarity with the union workers at Serb Hall.

Overall, it was a most pleasant evening.

It makes me look forward to next week, when we will be celebrating not only Ed's and Janet's victories, but also Week 26 - a full six months - of Solidarity Fish Fry.

Fallone!

By Jeff Simpson

Capper has done an excellent job letting us know who Ed Fallone is, and why he is the absolute right choice to be our next Supreme Court Justice in Wisconsin.

I want to cover a slightly different aspect.  The Walker agenda.  I received this email today from our friends at Americans for Prosperity Poverty:

Dear Jeffrey,

Act 10 is working for Wisconsin but the courts still hold this important reform in their hands. The last challenge to this law is on the doorstep of the State Supreme Court and could be decided this spring.

Ed Fallone has made it very clear that he would overturn Act 10 and turn back the clock to record deficits, out of control spending and rising property taxes.

He called the current challenge to Act 10 "Serious" and has written about his opposition to the first time the Supreme Court upheld the law. He has also gotten support for his positions from the very public employee unions that are working to overturn the law.

Act 10 has saved taxpayers $2 billion, turned a $3.6 billion deficit into a surplus and lowered property taxes for the first time in 12 years. Pure and simple, Act 10 is working.

Call Ed Fallone at (920) 540-5875 to tell him that Act 10 is working for Wisconsin families.

Yours in Liberty,

Luke Hilgemann

State Director

AFP- Wisconsin

Lets take a look at this quickly.

1.  Act 10 is absolutely, unequivocally NOT working for Wisconsin.

2.  Ed Fallone has absolutely NOT made it clear he would overturn ACT 10.  Ed Fallone, in his duties as a Constitutional law professor at Marquette, has written that Judge Colas' ruling overturning parts of ACT 10 is a well written, thought out decision and that Judge Colas was correct in taking the lawsuit seriously.  

When Hilgemann writes that Fallon "has made it clear" Hilgemann is lying! 

3.  Public unions have endorsed him.  At least public unions are run and funded by public employees from WI.   AFP-WI has endorsed Roggensack, who funds your operation Mr. Hilgemann?

4.  Act 10 has "saved taxpayers" $2 billion?  We know that is also not true, in a recession what ACT 10 has done is taken $2 billion worth of demand out of our economy.  

5.  While some people's taxes have gone down slightly(mine have risen), in their actual bill(I could explain to you how everyone's taxes have skyrocketed under walker but thats another post), are we supposed to elect Supreme Court Justices because they will "lower our taxes"  or because we trust them to follow the law? 

Is Hilgemann being deceitful here or is he just ignorant as to what a Supreme Court Justice's responsibilities really are?  

Call Luke Hilgemann at 608-204-5915 and tell him to stop using out of state billionaires money to advance right wing lies to the people of WI.

Vote Justice

Here's a powerful video made by Brian Reid Bliss:



He's right, there is no Supreme Court right now, and that is a crying shame.

Think Ed Fallone Now

Vote for Ed Fallone on April 2.

Poll: Wisconsin Supreme Court Is Too Political

This is interesting, to say the least:

Two-thirds of respondents to the latest Wisconsin Public Radio-St. Norbert College survey feel the state Supreme Court is too “political.”

Wendy Scattergood is a survey analyst. She says the poll asked if the court is, “too mixed up in politics.”

People were then asked to define what that phrase meant:

“The number one thing people think, 'too mixed up in politics' means is that they feel like the court is really partisan. Seventeen percent of respondents felt that the court is too partisan. Others: similar kinds of things, saying that they're not above the fray, they're not neutral.”

Six percent cited “interpersonal fighting” amongst justices.

Now remember what I said about this just before the primary:

It was revealed that not only was Patience Roggensack receiving tons of campaign donations from out of state special interest groups, she tried to cover up the fact by playing fast and loose with campaign finance laws.

On top of that, she is also complicit to David Prosser's attack on fellow Justice Ann Walsh Bradley when she turned a blind eye to the crime and recused herself before there was even a case before her.

With Ed Fallone on the Supreme Court, we might not win every case that we wish, but that's OK, because at least we'd know we were given a fair shake. With Roggensack, we know that there would be no chance at justice, since her decisions have already been bought and paid for.

If people do indeed think that the Supreme Court is too political, now would be the time to change it.

And to change the political nature of the Court means to change the political Justices, like Roggensack.

Vote Ed Fallone.

Dysfunction

Ed Fallone's First Ad

Ed Fallone, candidate for the Wisconsin Supreme Court, has come out with his first ad, and man, is it powerful:



Best line: "People want to see a Justice who has the courage to follow the law and stand up for the working families of Wisconsin."

That is so true.

She's Baaaaaack!

By Jeff Simpson

For those paying attention during Scott Walker's first two elections, remember that Diane Hendricks was his top campaign donor.  She has "donated"  well over half a million dollars to the Walker campaign,  and all she wants in return is to destroy the middle class in WI! 







Well, she is back and back with a vengeance!  Not content in just owning the Governor's office, now she also wants the Supreme Court.  It seems as though her Easter gift to herself will be owning Pat Roggensack! 

Now, another member of the court’s 4-3 right-wing majority, Justice Patience “Pat” Roggensack, is up for re-election. Roggensack is being aided by the same outside groups that aided Walker in advancing some of his most controversial proposals. The far-right independent expenditure group Wisconsin Club for Growth spent an eye-popping $300,000 on television ads supporting Roggensack during the primary. Club for Growth was responsible for more than 75% of the nearly $400,000 in TV spending in the primary race, and more than 80% of the total ad spots, according to TNS Media Intelligence/CMAG estimates released by the Brennan Center for Justice and Justice at Stake.

In addition, Roggensack is being handed big checks by some of the same wealthy donors that gave to Governor Walker in his recall campaign, such as Beloit billionaire Diane Hendricks and David Uihlein, Jr., as well as a variety of PACs and local Republican Party chapters.

Her opponent, Marquette Law Professor Edward Fallone, has been endorsed by a host of progressive organizations, but lags well behind in fundraising. If Fallone took the majority the court could do a virtual 180 on some of the state’s most contentious issues

I wonder if she remembers any of these ads? We do know that she is NOT a conservative! 

Let us stop letting these billionaires run own OUR politicians! VOTE ED FALLONE April 2nd!

Importance Of Supreme Court Race Grows By A F-Act-or of 10

The importance of the April 2 election between Ed Fallone and Patience Roggensack for Wisconsin Supreme Court could not be emphasized enough before Thursday.  Now its importance as grown by a factor of 10 - Act 10 to be specific.

The reason for that jump in importance came in the form of a ruling by the Appellate Court, which also refused to put a stay on Judge Colas ruling that Act 10 was unconstitutional:

A Wisconsin Court of Appeals today refused to put on hold a judge's decision repealing major parts of Gov. Scott Walker's Act 10, which effectively ended collective bargaining for most public workers.

Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen had asked the 4th District Court of Appeals to place the September ruling of Dane County Circuit Judge Juan Colas on hold while Van Hollen appeals the decision.

The Appeals Court today upheld that decision, leaving the status of Act 10 in limbo. The Appeals Court said it saw "no basis to set aside the circuit court's decision that a stay was not warranted."

Today’s ruling likely sets the stage for Van Hollen to take the case to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The conservative wing of the Supreme Court has a 5-to-4 majority.

The actual ruling is here, via WisPolitics.com.

To refresh the gentle reader's memory of what Judge Colas' ruling was about, the Wisconsin State Journal has a good, succinct version:

In his original ruling, Colas said the law violates school and local employees' constitutional rights to free speech, free association and equal representation because it caps union workers' raises but not those of their nonunion counterparts.

The decision allowed schools and local governments to bargain with their employees, and several, including those in Madison, acted quickly to take advantage of the window to reach new contacts.

Van Hollen argued in his request for a stay that not taking swift action would lead to chaos and further confusion, given that the law has been in effect for more than a year. Van Hollen also argued that there was confusion over whether the lower court's ruling was effective statewide.

Now that the court case is on its way to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, the election on April 2nd should be on top of everyone's mind.

I don't know whether Justice Ed Fallone would vote to uphold Judge Colas' ruling or not.  But I do know that if he were to rule to overturn the lower court's finding, it would be based on the law and the Constitution.

I also know that Justice Roggensack would rule to overturn the lower court, regardless of the law and the Constitution.

How do I know that?  Simple. By her track record.

She has shown that she is in cahoots with the likes of David "Chokehold" Prosser by recusing herself from his ethics case long before the case was even brought before her, since it hasn't even been presented to this date.  Even worse, the law shows that she shouldn't be recusing herself in the first place.

And we know that not only is she being sponsored by out of state special interests, like the education profiteers and the Koch Brothers, but she is trying to hide the fact from the public.

Experience tells us that these big money donors are not giving her all this lucre because they think she's a fair judge.  They're doing it because they know that her vote can be bought.  We also know that Roggensack's sponsors are vehemently against workers and will do anything to keep Act 10 alive.

These big money donors are the same ones that brought us the likes of Prosser; Michael Gableman, who is also under investigation still; Annette Ziegler, who was reprimanded for her poor ethics; and Scott Walker, the only sitting governor to have a legal defense fund and who had to buy his way out of being charged (for now).

It is time and beyond time that we restore dignity and ethics to the Supreme Court and restore law to this state.  It is time that we elect Ed Fallone to be our next Supreme Court Justice.

Pat Said What?

By Jeff Simpson


Capper brought us the story last week of how Pat Roggensack likes to make up her list of endorsers and that she forgets about $20,000 in campaign donations.   Now we find out that she forgets what she just said! 

Meanwhile, the debate reignited over the 2010 exchange between Prosser and Abrahamson - with Roggensack and Abrahamson disagreeing over whether Prosser had apologized. Prosser did not return a call Wednesday.
In February 2010 Prosser called Abrahamson a "bitch," said he would destroy her and told her "it won't be a ground war."
Roggensack said last December that Prosser's comments were inappropriate but that he had immediately apologized for them.
"The incident that occurred was inappropriate, and he apologized right way," Roggensack said then.
But in a statement emailed to the Journal Sentinel this week, Abrahamson said, "Justice Prosser has never apologized to me."
Asked Wednesday about Abrahamson's statement, Roggensack said she was confident that Prosser had apologized but that she did not know when. Roggensack contended she never said Prosser had done so "right away."
"You must have put the 'right away' in there because I can't tell you when" he apologized, Roggensack said.
Roggensack made her original comment on Dec. 28 to a number of reporters. A tape of her remarks shows she twice said Prosser "apologized right away." When Roggensack was told Wednesday her earlier comments were taped, Roggensack said, "You know, if you've recorded it, print what you've recorded. This is why you and I have trouble communicating.
"You want to play 'I gotcha' with me, you don't really want to know what I have to say."
She would not answer whether Prosser had apologized directly to Abrahamson or had made public comments that Roggensack considered an apology.

If she has such a spotty memory and can not remember what she just said, how is she fit to hear important cases in the highest court of Wisconsin?  

She isn't!

Vote Ed Fallone for Supreme Court of Wisconsin!  

Mike Tate Has Got To Go!

There has been a big dust up this week when Wisconsin State Democratic Communications Director was relieved of his duties thanks to a tweet where he compared the legal fees of our own Governor Walker to those of Milwaukee's own Jeffrey Dahmer.   Well Charlie Sykes went crazy, and local reporters picked up the story also helping Sykes echo chamber grow and grow.   Couple that with the outcry of a few self righteous democrats and Graeme Zielinski was relieved of his duties.  

Then thanks to some good research from the blogosphere, we find out that the righty's faux outrage and the reporters who rushed to judgement were just being blatant hypocrites.  Unfortunately Mike Tate took the bait, and Graeme's twitter account away.

Let's look at this story a little more in depth.  

1.  Many people have stood up for Graeme because he helped them out when they needed it.  I respect that.  However that is not me.  I do not write this from that angle, as a matter of fact, I asked for one small favor once and did not even get that. So I am not repaying a favor.  I just feel this situation was handled incredibly poorly!  

2.  I think Graeme has done many things that have deserved scrutiny and even discipline for....this is NOT one of them.  

3.  While I understand the comparison he was trying to make, it was not a good one.  Like telling a joke, if you have to explain it, it failed. 

4.  If he was NOT relieved of his duties for this one incident, then why would he be relieved so soon after it? 

5. Charlie Sykes really wanted Graeme fired.....last i checked Sykes does not run the Democratic party the way he does the republican party.  Unless we let him! This week we let him.

6.  Graeme and Mike Tate have been Synonymous for a while now and Graeme has even been known to be too zealous in attacking anyone who would dare criticize Mike Tate.  Then he got demoted.  If Mike Tate does not even have Graeme's back whose back does he have?

7.    Check the newspapers since Graeme has been relieved of his duties, where are all of these positive stories now?   Look at the state, public education is in shambles, we are about to pass an incredibly poor mining bill,  Paul Ryan wants to accelerate the end of Medicare, the Assembly is making it harder to vote, easier to lay off people and making a mockery of the democratically elected Secretary of State position.   Yet still nothing from the Democratic party. 

8.  I am sick of losing elections!


It is time for Mike Tate to tender his resignation.  We have lost seat after seat after seat under his "leadership".   The campaign for Governor in the recall election was horrible, there is no clear message to take to the people and no real interest being shown by the party to come up with one, no aggressiveness by anyone in the Democratic party, no real effort to bring a group of new blood into the fold, no one stepping up to run for Governor, there has been a complete disconnect between the party "leadership" to the grassroots(We had a tremendous amount of momentum two years ago that has all been squandered), a non-existent set of principles that they never waver from and no one who seems interested in running for Governor. 

We need some decisive action to actually win in 2014 and it HAS to start now.   Here are some of my suggestions:

1.  Mike Tate HAS to go(see above).

2.  Brett Hulsey also has to go - nuff said! 

3.  Actually get out and talk to people about what they want to see from the Democratic party.  

4.  Come up with a set of CORE beliefs that no one wavers from in the party. 

5.  Get Ed Fallone elected(when is the last time you saw Fallone in the news anyway?)!  

6.  No more consultants, no more BS and get aggressive. 

7.  MESSAGE! MEASSAGE! MESSAGE!  find your own Frank Luntz to help get it out of you need to but GET IT OUT!   We are in the minority and we need to do some things on a little more grandiose scale to get noticed by the people.  It does not have to be to the extent or tone that Graeme took it, but we need to do something!  

Finally for all of the righties who are going to be giddy about posts like this.  Graeme Actually apologized for his tweet.  When Scott Walker apologizes for wanting to bring "Agent Provocateurs" to the  Capitol where I took my 4 year old daughter and 7 year old son, then lets talk!

Fallone Would Take Campaign Money Out Of Supreme Court Decisions

Ed Fallone, candidate for the Wisconsin Supreme Court, said that he would reverse a decision that allows Supreme Court Justices to sit on cases involving parties that donated to their campaigns:

State Supreme Court candidate Ed Fallone said Thursday if elected he would reverse a court rule that says justices do not have to step aside in cases involving parties who gave them political donations.

The court passed the rule on a 4-3 vote in 2009, with Justice Patience Roggensack in the majority. Fallone is running against Roggensack in the April 2 election, so it appears if he were elected he would have the votes to overturn the rule.

He said changing the rule improve the reputation of the court because citizens would be less likely to think justices are beholden to special interests.

“Even if a justice is pure as the driven snow and not influenced by (donations), the public perceives it as a problem,” said Fallone, a Marquette University law professor.

Unsurprisingly, his opponent, Patience Roggensack and her campaign manager, Brandon Scholz, poo-pooed such a notion (emphasis mine):

Roggensack campaign adviser Brandon Scholz issued a statement dismissing Fallone's proposal as a political attack.

"It would appear that Professor Fallone’s campaign attack falls flat in that he failed to demonstrate how contributions and endorsements have impacted decisions made and rendered by the Supreme Court," Scholz's statement said.

The state's longstanding ethical code for judges says they must recuse themselves if their impartiality can reasonably be questioned. In 2009, the court amended the code with a provision written by the Wisconsin Realtors Association and business lobbying group Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce that said campaign spending and endorsements alone aren't enough to require them to step aside in cases.

At the time the new rule was adopted, Roggensack said it would clarify court policies at a time when justices were being bombarded by accusations of bias.

"It will send a message that making lawful contributions is not a dishonorable thing to do and it's not a dishonorable thing to receive," Roggensack said then.

There's a couple of things to note here.

One is that the Realtors Association and WMC both gave Supreme Court Justice Annette Ziegler a lot of money, directly and indirectly, to allow her to buy her seat. They did not do so because they thought she would rule accordingly with what the law reads.

The other thing is that this change was made just after Ziegler was reprimanded by the Supreme Court she sits on due to her willing failure to even notify the parties in at least eleven cases she presided over as a circuit court judge and which involved her husband's bank.  The year before that, Ziegler had to pay $5,000 and legal costs to the State Ethics Board for her failure to follow the law.

It was the first time that a sitting justice was reprimanded by the Supreme Court.

So it comes at no surprise that Roggensack, who unsuccessfully tried to conceal the fact that she received $20,000 from out of state special interests wanting to privatize the education system and who has received a lot of direct and indirect support from the Koch-funded Club for Growth, would be opposed to taking special interest campaign donations out of court decisions.

This is just another example in a long line of incidents that show that Roggensack has no integrity, no ethics and no sense of devotion to the people or the law of this state.

It is also more proof that we need Ed Fallone on the bench so that we can start restoring dignity to at least one branch of state government.

Roggensack Lies About Endorsement. Again.

Patience Roggensack has a real problem when it comes to honesty and integrity.

At the end of the year, she got caught playing games with $20,000 in campaign donations from out of state school profiteers.  She tried to manipulate the reporting of such money to keep it concealed from the public.

She's been known for a long time as an willing associate of law breakers and violent thugs.  She's even gone so far as to violate the rule of law herself in an effort to aid one of her scofflaw friends, David Prosser, escape responsibility for his attack on a sitting Justice of the Supreme Court.

Now yet another integrity issue has arisen in her campaign. She falsely listed the name of a judge as one of the people endorsing her, despite the obvious fact that he was in no way about to: RobertoE. Kinney, a reserve judge who spent more than 30 years as an Oneida County Circuit Court judge, said Roggensack asked him to endorse her in November but hge declined. He discovered he had been listed as a backer on her website on Thursday and sent her an email asking for his name to be taken down.

“Near the end of our conversation I told you that I disagreed with your position in virtually every 4-3 decision rendered by our Court, and, for that reason, the best you could hope for from me was that I wouldn't endorse anyone. Surely you must remember that,” Kinney wrote in his email.

“I don't know how this mistake was made, and I certainly hope that it does not call into question the accuracy of the rest of your list,” he added, saying he thought candidates in statewide races usually had endorsers sign statements of support to avoid mistakes.

And this is not the first time that she has done this.

Roggensack has shown time and time again that she has no integrity, no sense of ethics or appropriateness.

The right wingers don't care about such things, especially if it means that they or their friends get even bigger pieces of the pie.

But for me, I would expect a judge, regardless of the bench they sit on, to have a modicum of honesty. I would expect an even higher level of integrity from a Supreme Court Justice.

That is why I am planning on voting for Ed Fallone on April 2, and I would ask that you, gentle voter, do the same.

It will be a long, long haul to bring our state out of the shambles the current regime has made of it, but every job starts with the first step. Make that step putting Ed Fallone on the Supreme Court of Wisconsin.

Primary Day Already?!

As the gentle reader should be aware, Tuesday is the spring primary day.

Sadly, I have not had the chance to examine all the races as I would like to. Thus, I will only make three recommendations for Tuesday.

Supreme Court

Last December, I came out and through my endorsement behind Edward Fallone.

Everything I said then not only still holds true, but has been reinforced several times over.

It was revealed that not only was Patience Roggensack receiving tons of campaign donations from out of state special interest groups, she tried to cover up the fact by playing fast and loose with campaign finance laws.

On top of that, she is also complicit to David Prosser's attack on fellow Justice Ann Walsh Bradley when she turned a blind eye to the crime and recused herself before there was even a case before her.

With Ed Fallone on the Supreme Court, we might not win every case that we wish, but that's OK, because at least we'd know we were given a fair shake.  With Roggensack, we know that there would be no chance at justice, since her decisions have already been bought and paid for.

You can learn more about Ed Fallone at his website and his Facebook page.

Milwaukee County Circuit Court - Branch 45

For those that weren't aware, I used to work in the Milwaukee County Child Welfare system from 1995-2001.  During that time, I spent a lot of time at Children's Court for various hearings regarding my clients.  These hearings could be from the routine to termination of parental rights.

And in the course of all of these hearings, I got to work with a lot of  Assistant District Attorneys, Public Defenders and private attorneys.  One of the ADA's I had the pleasure of working with was Janet Protasiewicz.

Protasiewicz was a hard and demanding attorney, making sure we had all our i's dotted and t's crossed before taking a case to court.  But because of her demanding expectations, she rarely lost a case.

She was always fair with the parents and children, and compassionate to their feelings, no matter what the situation was.  But she did not let that stop her from doing what needed to be done.

It is her professionalism, her attention to detail and her compassion that makes me comfortable endorsing her for Milwaukee County Circuit Court Branch 45.

I need to point out that the "incumbent," Rebecca Bradley was appointed to her seat by Scott Walker four months ago, for no other purpose than to give the incumbent boost at the polls.

I know many people that have appeared before her.  Let me just say they were not very impressed.  She took an exceptionally long time to learn her job and still has a hard time trying to do it.

Furthermore, she is less than honest with the voters.  Almost nowhere in her literature (which she sends two of each one to my home), her webpage or ads does she mention that she used to lead the Milwaukee Branch of the Federalist Society.

For the unfamiliar, the Federalist Society is to law what Media Trackers is to journalism.  Their mission is to find legal ways to advance their uber-conservative agenda.

With Protaciewisz, you won't have to wonder if she is ruling by what the law says or what her agenda is.  You can find out more about Janet at her website and Facebook page.

Milwaukee County Board - District 17

For this race, I am supporting Tony Staskunas.

I'll be honest with you.  Staskunas is a little too moderate for my taste and I am disappointed that he didn't bother even setting up a Facebook page, much less a website.

But those are trivial things, especially when one takes into consideration that both of his opponents are running on the platform that they want to take away their constitutional and civil rights.

We need all boots on the ground as we fight to preserve what we can of Milwaukee County and its assets against Chris Abele's tyranny and pillaging.  The last thing we can afford is to put collaborators in place that will be more than willing to hand it over to him.

The Supreme Court Craziness

By Jeff Simpson

Our friends at wispolitics.com came out with story today about Justice Bradley's notice of recusal with David "Ike Turner" Prosser.  In her recusal decision, she let the truth all spill out! 

Supreme Court Justice Ann Walsh Bradley today accused colleague David Prosser of a "history of abusive behavior" so severe that she and the chief justice lock themselves in their offices while working after hours out of fear for their safety.

Prosser said he had not read the filing and declined comment.

Bradley wrote she had not commented on what happened in the June 2011 incident out of respect for the process.

But she said some of her colleagues have commented in "national, state, and local press spinning the facts."

In particular, she took aim at Justice Pat Roggensack, who is up for re-election this spring. Bradley noted Roggensack's comments that the justices "are doing just fine" and are working well together, saying it "strains credulity that a justice on our court would be perpetuating the myth that our issues of workplace safety and work environment have somehow healed themselves."

Bradley's decision to recuse herself is unlikely to have a significant impact on the stalled discipline case filed against Prosser. Prosser has sought the recusal of all his colleagues on teh court and so far only Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson and Justice Pat Crooks have agreed to sit on the case. That is short of the quorum needed for the court to issue a decision.

Patty Roggensack has not had a very good week, besides being mentioned repeatedly in this decision, also got stuck at a dinner that Senator Ron Johnson  went on a practically incoherent rant about democrats worthy of a slightly stoned 15 year old.   United Wisconsin has now called on far right extremist Judge Roggensack to denounce Johnson's crazy old man rant, and there has been nothing but silence.   Does she too think that only republicans are the "true Americans"? Is that why she blindly votes one sided and did not see her coworker choking another coworker right in front of her?  Or could it just be the crazy Club for Growth" and out of state money that sways her already far right judicial activism?

However they are throwing bad money after a blind justice as Roggensack, stuck her bought and paid for foot in her mouth, by pretending there were no problems behind the scenes of the Wisconsin Supreme Court.    Apparently choking a coworker is standard practice with our friends from the right!  If she can not see a co-worker choke another co-worker, how is she qualified to see the intricacies of the law? 

LUCKILY, Wisconsinites have a choice!!    Ed Fallone for Justice! 

The Right's Greatest Fear: Independent Thought

It is no secret that the right wing spends unfathomable amounts of money on "controlling the message."  They have ersatz news media like Media Trackkkers, Wisconsin Distorter and MacGuyver Institute which are daily spewing the right wing talking points and trying to support them, even when they have to make up their own facts.

This was again demonstrated over the last couple of days.

Media Trackkkers thinks they have  a real scoop by trolling the Twitter feed of Graeme Zielinski, spokesman of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, pointing out to a tweet showing that Zeilinski thinks that abortion is wrong.

ZOMG!

Zielinski dared to show independent thought!  He dared to have an opinion that did not meet the marching orders of the party!  Actually, it's not that out of line.  The Democrats have long believed in giving women the choice of what would happen to their bodies.  

Furthermore, Democrats believe in keeping abortion legal and rare.  That's where education and preventative actions come in.  Y'know the things that the right opposes.

Another example is that the right wing propagandists have also did their usual practice of McCarthyism by searching the recall petitions for the names of Ed Fallone and Vince Megna.  Sure enough, they found them.

They tried to make the fact that these gentlemen signed the recall petition mean they they are somehow impartial and extremely liberal  (as if being liberal is a bad thing.)  This theme was picked up by the usual suspects such as Charlie Sykes.

They have a few problems with this approach.  

First of all, the recall was hardly strictly partisan.  I know of several conservatives and Republicans that signed the recall petitions and voted against Walker.

Secondly, if Act 10 is contrary to the Constitution as Fallone demonstrated, well, wouldn't that actually make him more conservative than Pat Roggensack who has already shown that she doesn't care what the law or the Constitution says?

Supposedly, the conservatives are pro-Constitution, although that would be a hard one to prove if one judges by their actions and beliefs.

What Fallone and Megna did is what every Wisconsinite, including Brian Sikma, Charlie Sykes and all of the other sockpuppets did - they exercised their right of democracy afforded to them by the Constitution.

For the right wingers to be so desperate to make it appear otherwise is only a sign of their fear that they will lose another statewide race.

Solidarity Fish Fry, Week 10: A Lot To Digest

Chalk up the tenth Solidarity Fish Fry in the books.

As I've mentioned before, the one thing about these events is that it's never the same from week to week.  This one was no different.  Not only was there a lot of food to digest, there was a lot of food for thought that needs to be digested as well.

When I arrived, I noticed that the parking lot was pretty empty.  I was disappointed, but not too surprised.  Lots of people have holiday parties and are getting ready for Christmas.

Probably a bigger factor was the fact that the horrible events in Newton, Connecticut put a damper on everyone's mood.  It's hard to make it through the day after something like this, much less go out once you get home.

But there were still a fair number of us there and once again, I came away amazed at the good in people, especially after the day's news.

Even before I made it into the Hall, I saw the dashing Randy "Ironstache" Bryce and his even more dashing son in the parking lot.  We chatted excitedly about next week's Ultimate Solidarity Fish Fry as well as the other news of the day.

I had the pleasure of meeting Andy, the author of Wisconsin's Soap Box (now added to the Royal Blogroll).  He's new to Milwaukee and decided to use that to his advantage by taking on a new angle to the fish fry.  His observations from sitting in the non-union section are quite interesting:

After some reflection, it was easily detected who the professional and veteran staff was from the inexperienced more recent hires just working it as "a job." Maybe it was just my experience, and there's no denying that I'm viewing the situation through my own biased lens, but I could easily see the professional union staff working 10 times as hard as their non-union coworkers. I saw them working hard and being speedy with every request while maintaining a professional demeanor and personable smile. On the contrary, the non-union waiters were slow, cold, and apathetic to my dining experience. I was never once asked how my meal was, given a run-down of the dining options, or checked on to see if I needed anything additional.

I will be back to Serb Hall. The fish itself was quite good and the price for the meal is still very good. However, I will be specifically requesting one of the waitresses I saw across the room who made their guests feel right at home. Next time, I will be looking for the union label, and with good reason. My non-union experience seemed sub par to that of others.

But do make sure you read the whole thing.  It is rather well written and it is a rather accurate description of things.

I also had seen members of the Progressive Democrats of America and had the pleasure of meeting two of my 4.3 readers.

I had the honor of dining with State Representative Chris Sinicki, John Pokrandt and Kelley Albrecht.  The conversation was lively and ranged from political gossip to the events of the day to adventures in campaigning and some of the weird things we've come across.

And through the various conversations I've had, I learned many things (all of which I will expand on in later posts), but just to give you a heads up:

• Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele is still planning to go ahead with his ill-advised plan to further disrespect the voters by downsizing the board.  He will do so with the aid of his buddy, Representative Elect Joe Sanfelippo, whose claim to fame is abdicating his duties and profiteering off the county through his taxi company.  True to their nature though, they are doing it wrong and it will end up failing after costing taxpayers untold fortunes in legal fees as it's fought out in court.
• Besides the Right to Woe law, the selling out of our state to Gogebic Taconite, eliminating same day registration and other non-job focused laws, Assemblywoman Sinicki said that they are going after unemployment compensation again.  If you thought what they did the first time was bad, you ain't seen nothing yet.  For example, unemployment claimants would have to wait six weeks before receiving their first check.  This bill is set to go on day one.  I'll share more as soon as I get more information.
• I have also heard that it's increasingly unlikely that the Honorable Maryann Sumi will run for the Supreme Court, confirming what Brew City Brawler had already reported.  While Sumi would have made a fine justice, I still prefer Ed Fallone.

Best of all, we were able to all help each other cope with the day's news by sharing our grief and our sadness and leaning on each other.  It's amazing what miracles a hug can do for a soul.

And as we are fond of saying, "One fish fry longer, one fish fry stronger."

Remember that next week we will be hosting some of the Palermo's workers, who stand in solidarity with the Serb Hall union workers.  But to make this successful, we need your help.  Please help out by donating generously to the Palermo's fund.  It's a great way to show your support for both groups, especially if you're not able to make it to a fish fry.