The Ideas Lab Is Uninhabited

By Jeff Simpson

For quite some time, the only employed opinion writer of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel was right wing hack and Bradley Foundation gopher, Christian Schneider. 

Recently, JSonline finally showed Schneider the door.  A few years ago, Schneider used his platform, to "break the news" that Congressman Mark Pocans husband, beat up his opponent in the upcoming election.  Of course it was all made up, and the paper just deleted the story (instead of issuing a retraction), like nothing ever happened.

Yes, excellent writer, who was a once a week, free lance opinion writer, credited Schneider with recommending her in her last column.   Schneider also worked to get rid of everyone else who had ever written for JSonline in their opinion pages(including myself).   His fragile ego is only surpassed by The Donalds.

That being said, here is a perfect example of the right wing scam that the Journal has pulled on its readers(2013):|

The Journal Sentinel hired Christian Schneider from the right-wing Bradley Foundation as a columnist and let him keep both jobs until public pressure forced Schneider to leave Bradley. Today, the Walker Administration leaked details of their Medicaid decision through Schneider, who was then cited as a source by the news division of the paper to break the story. Now Schneider's op-ed defending the decision has been placed on the front page of the paper without an opposing editorial.   

A brief history of where the Journal Sentinel came from and while the stain of Schneider is still fresh and does not come out with the first washing, now David Haynes wants to switch the editorial page to an "ideas lab".  In Haynes own words:

In the Ideas Lab, we’ll kick the tires on ideas meant to solve problems. We’ll report on and evaluate these ideas based on independent evidence. We'll search for the best practices out there. 

Giving them the benefit of the doubt, we see that they started their "ideas lab" out with reporting by David Haynes himself, with a cheerleading post for some of the bigger businesses in Milwaukee area.

 That's why Tuesday's announcement that Foxconn is partnering with three of Milwaukee's most prominent corporate citizens to create a venture capital fund has the potential to be a watershed moment for southeastern Wisconsin.
It's a given that Foxconn Technology Group’s massive factory in southern Wisconsin could have a profound impact on the state’s economy. It’s a $10 billion investment, after all, a mammoth plant that could employ as many as 13,000 people.
 Now, Foxconn, Advocate Aurora Health, Johnson Controls Inc. and Northwestern Mutual have raised a $100 million venture capital fund to focus on investments in companies that employ Foxconn’s technology. The Wisconn Valley Fund will be based in the company’s North American headquarters at 611 W. Wisconsin Ave. The announcement came a day after Foxconn announced it had pledged a $100 million matching gift to the University of Wisconsin-Madison to establish a new research center in the College of Engineering.

Let us take a look at:   

 • Expert, solutions-focused essays on issues the community cares about, by people who have shown success in addressing the problem at hand.

* The four companies Foxconn, Aurora, Johnson Controls and Northwestern Mutual are loaded with executives who have donated thousands to Scott Walker and the Republicans.    Their investment at this time in the election process is not uncoincidental. 
     
*  Of the four, Johnson, Northwestern and Foxconn are all known for laying off thousands of employees, and while Aurora has not, they recently took part in a major merger where they will need the support of the Governor. 

- Maybe not the best group to have "shown success" in the problem at hand.   

*  Foxconn.   To say Foxconn "could" create 13,000 jobs is technically true.  It is also technically true that the Milwaukee Bucks could trade for Lebron and dominate the next five years of the NBA.   No one expects it to happen but it most definitely could. 

Foxconn has been handed $4+ trillion dollars of Wisconsin taxpayer money to build their new factory here in Racine.   This money has helped displace Wisconsin citizens from their dream homes, moved around highway funds to help expand roads to access Foxconn, steal 7 million gallons of water from Lake Michigan a day, and also offers up 100 million dollars of our money to the UW-System as long as they can match it and educate students as Foxconn wants them too?

 - Maybe touting the company that has broken many promises, made $149 billion in profits last year and is known for their suicide nets at their factories in China, is not the place to start out looking for successes at hand. 

Now in keeping with the theme at hand, let's look at actual solutions to the problems at hand.   - New Business and Jobs. 
1.  Health Insurance.  The number one reason people go broke in America is for unexpected medical bills.   It takes a supreme amount of confidence and luck, to start a business and have no health insurance for you and your family.

IDEA - Lets expand Medicaid for all, so you are not deciding between eating and going to the Doctor.  We need to make sure that the biggest worry that someone who starts a small business has, is how do I increase my market share, and not I hope this unknown pain goes away. 

2.  Public Education.  The heart and soul of every town, village, city, municipality is the public schools.  School events bring the people together, their favorite teacher is their kids hero, etc...  To have the attack on public education that the Governor and his group have enacted over the last 8 years has done every one, but Scott Walker, a huge disservice and we are starting to pay the piper.   There is a reason Walker is spending millions advertising to millenials trying to get people to move to WI.

Idea - We need to start funding education like we need to and stop the war on teachers.   Understand that a strong public education system is the one thing that attracts people to WI to want to grow their roots. 

3.  Technology.   There is no need, with the ability we have to communicate, that small business start ups, can come from anywhere as long as they have access to high speed internet and the ability to get to the post office.  It is unfortunate Scott Walker gave back 23 million dollars earmarked to increase broadband access to rural Wisconsin. 

IDEA - make high speed internet access available and affordable for every single Wisconsinite!

Rebecca Bradley - Through Others Eyes

By Jeff Simpson

Here at CogDis, both Capper and I have written plenty about how unqualified Ms. Bradley is to serve on the Supreme Court of WI, so its time to share what others are also saying about her.


*  Madison Super Attorney Lester Pines has four questions for Ms. Bradley(here is one):

4. Also, in 1992 you said this about those who voted for Bill Clinton in the 1992 election:
“We’ve just had an election which proves that the majority of voters are either totally stupid or entirely evil.”
Did you have the same reaction when a majority of Wisconsin’s voters chose Bill Clinton again in 1996, Al Gore in 2000, John Kerry in 2004 and Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012?

*  Attorney Mike Plaisted also wrote for his college paper:

Except that she wasn't that young and not drunk at all.  She meant what she said and she said it.  I've read a bunch of my old stuff in the past week and I don't have to apologize for any of it.  I'd write all of it again -- perhaps with a lot less use of the phrase "of course" -- I used that a lot.  What I wrote was part of what I was and still part of what I am.  I think college writers are all proud of what they wrote and they still have the same world view -- they just go after their goals in different ways. I know I do.
Bradley certainly has.  She has never swerved off the nut-right political path, serving as president of the radical-right bunch of lawyers called the Federalist Society and all manner of other right-wing groups and causes.  As late as 2006, Bradley was writing about how pharmacists shouldn't be "forced" to be "a party to murder" by doing their job and filling birth control prescriptions. It is written in the same kind of deliriously clueless writing from her Marquette days, without the name-calling.  The student apple didn't fall far from the adult tree. 

*  Emily Mills in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel believes Ms. Bradley is not ready for Prime Time:

Bradley is simply not a good fit, and she has demonstrated this in ways many and varied. It's not just about the (heinous) opinions spouted in college newspaper columns. Add in the money taken from right-wing political organizations, and her seeming disinterest in the judicial process (leaving oral arguments early to speak at a conservative fundraiser, casting the deciding vote in a crucial case essentially negating the Fourth Amendment even though she wasn't present for arguments), and it becomes crystal clear that this is a person unfit for the job.
This should serve as a stark lesson in the pitfalls of promoting people beyond their qualifications simply because they've been loyal to you or your cause. That's called cronyism and reliance upon it only leads to corruption. Not only that, but it tends to also lead to the destruction of systems people rely on to seek real justice and to live decently.
If Bradley were half the jurist she claims to be, she would own up to having been promoted beyond her capacity and drop out of the race. Something tells me that won't happen, especially given the combination of silence and deferral she's done since these most recent revelations.
It's up to Wisconsin voters to make it clear that we will not accept cronies and ideological puritans on the highest court in the state and that we value checks and balances. That means electing judges who demonstrate clear judicial impartiality, hard work and real curiosity and critical thinking.

* Alan Talaga from the Isthmus does not believe Ms. Bradley's apology:

"I wrote opinion pieces 24 years ago on a variety of issues, and they are opinions that some people may agree with, some people might disagree with," said Bradley in an interview with The Capital Times.“To those offended by comments I made as a young college student, I apologize, and assure you that those comments are not reflective of my worldview,” said Bradley in a press statement.
I cannot judge what is in Rebecca Bradley’s heart, but these read to me like the apologies of someone who feels bad their past caught up with them, not the apologies of someone truly regretful. ‘To those offended’ makes it sound like she feels bad for offending potential voters, not for having written the column in the first place.

*  Over at Democrumudgeon, John points out that Rebecca Bradley is sitting back and letting the right wing echo chamber speak for her.

   Unless I'm mistaken, it looks like every right wing flack and corporate lobbyist is getting media time defending Rebecca Bradley's unforgivable commentary that can't be reversed; can you still be a conservative and take back saying a majority of Clinton voters are either totally stupid or entirely evil? They're saying that now for gods sake. Or how about "degenerate queers," words no one else uses. And that's her public face.

H/T Democurmudgeon for this clip of Ms. Bradley unhinged:





*  Last and certainly not least, One Wisconsin Now points out how Ms. Bradley falsified records for their open records request:

MADISON, Wis. — Based on her comments in an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Rebecca Bradley, appointed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court by Gov. Scott Walker in September, violated the state’s open record laws by providing falsified calendars to One Wisconsin Now in response to a request for her work calendar. One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross said the organization is consulting with legal counsel about potential action against Walker’s thrice-appointed judge.
“After repeated delays, Rebecca Bradley wrote us that she had fulfilled our simple open records request for her taxpayer-financed calendar,” said Scot Ross, One Wisconsin Now Executive Director. “Now it turns out the years of blank pages she gave and charged us at an exorbitant rate to retrieve were a complete fraud and fabrication.”

* By the way Do not tread on Rebecca Bradley!!


* To no ones surprise, Jimmy Wiggy thinks we should forgive and forget, because any kid not related to him is an idiot and besides she didnt write anything wrong:

It’s worth considering the context of the times when The Marquette Tribune ran Bradley’s op-ed and letters to the editor. AIDS was the big scary disease that at any moment was going to spread to the heterosexual community at epidemic levels, or so we were told. There was a real debate at how much and what kind of “AIDS education” was appropriate, and certainly this was true on Marquette, which was once a Catholic university.
Homosexuality did not have the acceptance it has now. This was before former President Bill Clinton ordered “don’t ask, don’t tell,” for the military. It was certainly before Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act, which was a federal effort to try to stop the courts from imposing gay marriage on the states. It was before President Barack Obama said he was opposed to gay marriage, and before his “growth” on the issue in 2012 and his sudden support for gay marriage.
It was at that time that a college kid tried to attract a little attention by throwing around language that today would have caused a near riot on campus. It was all but forgotten until it was dug up by an organization led by a political hatchet man who recently referred to a female
reporter former governor* as a “racist anus.”

 Edit note:  Wiggy is once again wrong, a little research shows that by 1992 we had a pretty good understanding of AIDS, and how it was not just a gay disease.  Magic Johnson had announced he had contracted AIDs in 1991 and truly made it a national discussion.

Boy, The Republicans Sure Are Getting Nervous

The pressure of Walkergate must be getting to the Republicans.  While they claim that they don't know what the whole investigation is about, they sure are showing that they don't like all the attention it's getting.

For the second day in a row, a right wing blogger has tried to smear me in an obvious effort to divert people's attention from the unfolding horror show of Walkergate.

Yesterday, Aaron Rodriguez had a hissy fit because I wasn't fighting for his job like he wanted me to.

Now it's Rick Esenberg, MU Prof, sometimes calumnist's apprentice and GOP operative.  He wrote a "How dare he" type of post, feeling that it's inappropriate for me to write about because I allegedly did it too.

Showing that I am one of the most fortunate and richest men on the planet, many of my friends took offense at Esenberg's post for me and came to my defense before I even got home.

My dear friend Tom Foley, aka Illusory Tenant, was the first to draw the line by pointing out that Esenberg was way off base.

Joining in my defense, the fearless Waukesha Wonk, aka Lisa Muxy, pointed out the shell game Esenberg was playing.  (I'm still laughing at the image of a somber but desperate Esenberg pointing and yelling "Squirrel!")

The impeccable and highly esteemed (and newly married) Emily Mills also joined in the fray, taking Esenberg's apples and oranges and making fruit salad with them.

And I would be remiss if I did not point out that the bard-like commenters John Foust and gnarlytrombone took it to Esenberg in his own yard.

While I am eternally grateful for such good friends, they didn't leave much for me to pick apart. But there are still some things that need to be addressed.

Esenberg said because I was suspended, it obviously means that I'm guilty as sin.  I'd say it's just part of a pattern for Walker and his cronies, who have also gone after Professor William Cronon and former DMV worker Chris Larsen for daring to speak truth to power.

Another point would be that whatever Esenberg thinks I did or didn't do, or whether I should have been crucified upon a cross, he would have to say the same thing about Scott Walker who admitted to doing the same thing.  Funny, I don't recall Esenberg thinking what Walker did as being so terrible. In fact, I don't recall Esenberg even saying anything.

Lastly, Esenberg might want to remember the old adage about throwing stones and glass houses since it appears that he also has an issue when it comes to doing things by the book.  Then again, a precursory glance at Esenberg's work would make it obvious that he is a strict adherent of IOOKIARDI (It's Only OK If A Republican Does It).

Oh, and Mr. Esenberg, we do know a lot more about Walkergate than you are indicating.  Just because you don't want to admit it doesn't mean that it's not real.

Newspeak: Wisconsin Style

“To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy, to forget, whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again, and above all, to apply the same process to the process itself -- that was the ultimate subtlety; consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed. Even to understand the word 'doublethink' involved the use of doublethink.[2]”

“The power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them....To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies — all this is indispensably necessary. Even in using the word doublethink it is necessary to exercise doublethink. For by using the word one admits that one is tampering with reality; by a fresh act of doublethink one erases this knowledge; and so on indefinitely, with the lie always one leap ahead of the truth.[2]” ----George Orwelle, "1984"

Doublethink, and George Orwelle's other concept, Newspeak, is alive and well in Wisconsin.

In just the last few months, there are multiple examples of these concepts raising it rearing its ugly head with the aid of Scott Walker and his GOP allies in the state legislature, although in truth, it's been around much, much longer.

The longest running example of this propaganda machine, which predates Walker's administration by decades, is, of course, talk radio. You have a rogue's gallery of lying parasites like Charlie Sykes, Mark Belling and Vicki McKenna, who take big corporate dollars just to argue for and endlessly repeat the things that the GOP (Grand Oligarchy Party) want the listeners to believe.  Their offenses are so many and so frequent that even a multiple-author blogsite can't keep up with all of them.  Only the fact that they are part of the corporate media keeps them from being investigated for their blatant lies and in-kind political donations which never seem to get reported.

But in more recent history, things have gotten much worse and more egregious than ever before, making Richard Nixon look like a choir boy.

You have Steve Smith, CEO and President of Journal Communications, who has his place in all of the major business groups like MMAC, not only "reporting" the news, but trying to control it.  One of the most glaring examples were the repeated editorials and articles blasting the people's choice to have paid sick days in Milwaukee, but failing to mention his own involvement in having the people's voice and will crush under the self-serving corporate interest which Smith took part of.  Then again, it's nothing new for Smith to make huge profits even as he is taking away the livelihood of many people.

Another example may be occurring in Northern Wisconsin, where well-moneyed special interests, in this case, the Cline Group and WMC, who are pushing for a major relaxation in environmental protection laws so they can make some serious profits by raping the ground without restraint, as reported by the impeccable Emily Mills  What Ms. Mills does not report in her column is that there is an unconfirmed story that the Cline Group has bought out the local paper there, The Daily Press. After buying the paper, they removed the editor and a reporter, both of whom were openly skeptical of the deregulation being proposed, and replaced them with a new editor from a Minnesota mining town that the company already has great influence in.

Nothing like having the corporations which should be the subject of series of articles actually controlling what is published and what gets swept under the rug.

To help out the corporate media, or Newspeak, in being able to control the message and promote their own peculiar version of Doublethink, the state legislature and Walker's administration is being blatant in their attempts to control and limit the news which escapes from Madison.

There has been the ongoing legal battle between the people of Wisconsin and the Walker administration regarding access to the Capitol Building in Madison.  When the people took over "Our House," Walker's administration acted to violate state law and restrict access to the building.  Only after the majority of the damage has been done by Walker and his pals have they conceded to follow the law which they've broken for months.

However, for those months where they were in violation of the law, they tried to limit how much information the people themselves were able to get out by banning recording equipment, not allowing people to text or tweet things from inside the legislative chambers and other similar acts you would normally associate with other totalitarian governments like in North Korea, China, or the Middle Eastern nations.

Another glaring example is the proposal to put severe restrictions on accessibility to officials' economic interest statements.  The obvious reason for this is to protect Republican legislators who are facing recalls, like Senator Rob Cowles (R-Sin City), who has invested a lot of money in the adult entertainment industry, to put it politely.

And if information that the ruling regime does not think the public needs to know does see the light of day, rest assured that they will try to control that as well, by digging up what ever they can about the ones that dare to utter unapproved messages, no matter what extremes they need to take to do their smear work.

The best way to sum the current state of the state-run corporate media (or would it be more accurate to say the corporate-ran state-run corporate media?) would be from part of the introduction of the Outer Limits:

There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image, make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. We repeat: there is nothing wrong with your television set. You are about to participate in a great adventure...

Is it any wonder that a growing number of people, including myself, are relying on each other instead of the media to stay informed on what is really going on in our once and future great state? It truly is a sad statement that we can no longer rely on the formerly proud and prestigious field of journalism.

NOI And I: Where I Get To Be A Hip Muser

On Thursday, New Organizing Institute (NOI) will be hosting a discussion regarding the events surrounding the Wisconsin protests and what role social media played in the course of events, including #wiunion for the Twitterati.

The panel discussing these issues will be moderated by our own Tom Foley, aka Illusory Tenant, although putting him and any form of the word moderate is surprising to me.

The panel itself will include:

• State Senator Chris Larson, of the Fab 14, and a rock star in his own right,
• Melissa Ryan, New Media Director of NOI and organizer extraordinaire,
• The incomparable Emily Mills, woman of many talents, including blogger, columnist, actress, musician, and all around great person,
• Max Love, UW student and concerned citizen,
• Some guy named Chris Liebenthal, aka capper, who will be there for comic relief and doing his best imitation of the Hip Muser.

The event will be ironically held in the "Industry Room" in the Union South building at UW (the one in Madison).

If you are unable to attend, you can watch get a live feed by signing up at this site.

There will be an autograph signing session afterwards.

W - RON - G

Heh. Via the unsinkable Emily Mills:

That wrong sounds just about right.

More Food For Thought

No, I'm still not commenting on, well, you know.

But here is some more food for thought, with the following chefs:

• Robert at One Wisconsin Now
• Xoff
• Cory Liebmann
• The returning Cindy Kilkenny
• A second helping from Tom Foley
• The impeccable Emily Mills
• And dessert is done by Jay Bullock

ADDENDUM: Another entree served up by James Arndt

For the gentle reader looking for something a little different, Steve Jagler of BizTimes.com has a piece on it as well. I would point to the comment done by Jim Brooks.

Again, I would like to thank all of my friends who have offered their support and concern.

And as noted yesterday, donations to the Capper Defense Fund are accepted with great gratitude and heartfelt thanks.

Too Much Fun With Two Fun Contests And One Great Picture

Contest one, the folks at BagScottWalker.com have a contest where you can enter your own slogan for the next brown bag:

Here is how the contest works:

• Submit your best Bag Scott Walker slogan by May 3rd, 2010
• After all the submissions are received, we'll let you vote for your favorite slogan from May 5th to May 17th
• The winning slogan will be announced on May 21 -- the date of the 2010 Republican State Convention
• At the 2010 Republican State Convention we will update BagScottWalker.com with the new slogan and pass out new "Bag Scott Walker" brown bags with your slogan printed on them

Just a word of warning, I don't see anything specifically banning me, so it should be a lock.

And Zach at Blogging Blue, via Recess Supervisor, has a fun play at home version where we can make our own photoshopped slogan. If you want to leave one, but can't photoshop or don't blog, leave it in the comments or email me with it, and I'll do my best to get them up. But for heaven's sake, let's not get too vulgar, OK?

And thanks to the artistry of Emily Mills and company, we are able to see just when Team Walker came up with the conclusion that using a rehashed campaign gimmick was a good idea:

Scott Walker Can't Even Buy A Win In The Polls

A couple of days ago, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ran a story about another poll that was conducted by WPRI (We Prop up Republican Ideologues). The polling allegedly found that TOMMY!!! "Stick it to 'em" Thompson was leading Russ Feingold, even though TOMMY!!! isn't an announced candidate. (I'd personally be surprised if TOMMY!!! did run. This is more likely his scratching his four year itch for attention.)

The same story showed that Tom Barrett, even though he has been running for about one tenth the time of Scott Walker, is in a statistical tie:

In the governor's race, Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker leads Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett 36% to 32%.The margin of error of the poll makes a Barrett-Walker race virtually even.

Now, a lot of people have already jumped all over these polls due to the fact that WPRI has a very poor reputation regarding their honesty or integrity in polling due to having been busted out by One Wisconsin Now for tweaking their data to get their desired results. Among those taking the poll on are:

• Emily Mills, who wonders why the University of Wisconsin would damage their reputation by getting involved with these shady characters,
• Trevor Miller, Russ Feingold's Campaign Spokesperson,
• Xoff, who raises some interesting points and questions, and
• Zach Wisniewski, who cites Xoff's piece and then goes on to point out the rogues' gallery of shady characters, including one of my biggest fans, Charlie Sykes. (Also note Kevin Binversie's intellectual contribution to the discussion [NSFW])

I am a little surprised that Walker and his team haven't also called out WPRI for not being a credible source of information. After all, the results of the poll, which show Walker still ahead of Mark Neumann, also shows Neumann catching up to Walker, especially in the area of favorability:
And as I mentioned earlier in this post, Barrett and Walker are in a virtual tie.

It is not surprising that Walker is losing ground to both Neumann and Barrett. Neumann has been running TV ads around the state for weeks. Barrett has been in the news a lot for positive stories like bringing new companies, and with them, new jobs, to the Milwaukee area. And both Neumann and Barrett have been aided with the fact that there are almost daily reports of Milwaukee County suffering systematic failure due to the malfeasance of Walker's reign.

What is surprising is that even with all those factors, the polling didn't show Walker with huge leads over both Neumann and Barrett. After all, the polling was done by WPRI, which received $1.5 million dollars from the Bradley Foundation last year (pdf, page 25). And the Bradley Foundation is headed by Michael Grebe, who was appointed to be Walker's campaign chairman the day after donating $5,000 dollars to Walker's campaign.

If Walker's campaign chair can't even buy a favorable poll, it is a clear sign that Walker's campaign is already in deep trouble.

When Would Be A Good Time, Mr. Walker?

The impeccable Emily Mills' take on Scott Walker being opposed to equality for all Milwaukee County citizens:

Open Memo to Milwaukee County Executive / Candidate for Governor Scott Walker:

You recently vetoed a measure that would have granted same-sex domestic partner benefits to county employees, arguing that, “At a time when we are seeking concessions from employees in both wages and benefits, it is improper that Milwaukee County grant new benefits to any class of employees.”

So when would be a good time for you?

I don’t see you asking that heterosexual couples give up any of their benefits in order to help balance the budget (well, aside from your desire to just cut and/or privatize some of their jobs).

Gov. Doyle, by no means the greatest governor that ever governed, was able to see the inherent justice in at least insuring partnership benefits to those currently denied equal marriage rights in Wisconsin. But you, Walker, don’t seem terribly concerned with the fact that some of your fellow citizens have little to no access to some of their most basic rights. Worse still, you appear to be hiding behind the current fiscal crisis to cover for what I suspect has more to do with either bigotry on your part, or at very least a desire to pander to bigoted voters.

That’s not someone I’m interested in having become governor of my state.

Van Hollen's Dereliction of Duty Continues

State Attorney General J. B. Van Hollen is obviously not fit for the job. All one has to do is look at his continuing pattern of failing to perform his duties as AG.

First, he issued the unnecessary and poorly thought out opinion about whether open carry was legal. All he managed to do was stir up a hornets' nest in the state, and gave free reign to paranoid people to go around terrorizing their neighborhoods and making the police's job much more dangerous and difficult.

Then, the State Legislature gave tasked him to do an investigation into Scott Walker's malicious and fraudulent operation of the state funded income maintenance program. To date, there is no word if he has even opened the case, allowing his political partisanship interfere and obstruct the enforcement of the law. Personally, I think the State Legislature should have sent a request to the U.S. Attorney's office, where a thorough and unbiased investigation could occur. Even if Van Hollen did open this case, the odds are that one could not have any reasonable faith in it being done honestly.

Now, he has come out publicly and stated that he will not even uphold the state's Constitution, and will not defend against those that would discriminate against other people, based solely on their sexual orientation.

Illusory Tenant points out that this will now cost big, since the case will have to be outsourced to a private attorney to do his job.

The multi-talented and well written Emily Mills has the must read post on this issue, with a grand idea at the end. Namely, how about recalling Van Hollen for dereliction of duty?

Tasseography

Some random thoughts from the teabagging orgy:

Did anyone else get the impression that the people attending these "tea parties," which was sponsored by the GOP, Faux News, and corporate sponsored PACs like Americans for Selective Prosperity was much like watching chickens attending a rally sponsored by the Colonel?

When AF(S)P put on their anti-tax rally last year, the right called the union counter protesters "thugs" and wanted to know why they got out of work. This year when the anti-tax rally people threatened and assaulted counter protesters, while skipping work, they are called patriots. Hypocrisy, anyone?

Did you ever see such a homogeneous collection of people in one place? That would be indicative that this wasn't quite the populist movement that the right would have us believe it was. This is especially true when one looks at the crowd that supported Obama during the election season, or at the support he and his stimulus plan still enjoys.

Grumps took many, many, many pictures. Xoff has some too.

Chris Walker made his first video, and did a darn good job of it as well.

CNN had a reporter there, risking her life to bring us these videos, courtesy of Caffeinated Politics. Illy-T was kind enough to transcribe the circular logic of these people.

Cory Liebmann and Emily Mills (with a source on the ground) both give us must read posts on the events.

Sunday Funny

From the wonderful Emily Mills, today's funny:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

As I commented at Ms. Mills' post, we should be offering these teabaggers encouragement like telling them to keep their chins up and to keep a firm upper lip.