Propagandist Dan O'Donnell Pulls Out A Big Nugget Of Hypocrisy

Dan O'Donnell, squawk shock jock at WISN and propagandist hack for the MacIver Institute, followed orders, dug deep and pulled out a big, old nugget of hypocrisy as he tried to spin Tuesday's election results as a win:

Wisconsin voters spoke loudly and clearly Tuesday, striking a blow for democracy by forever banishing private money from election administration. Such donations, commonly known as “Zuckerbucks,” led to an utterly lawless 2020 presidential election in Green Bay and the illegal coordination between liberal activists and Milwaukee election officials. On Tuesday, however, voters approved a pair of constitutional amendments that will prohibit this sort of interference. The first, which bans private election funding, passed in a 54%-46%, 100,000-vote landslide. The second, which reaffirms that only election officials (not liberal activists hired with private donations) can administer elections, passed with an even greater margin—59%-41% and nearly 200,000 total votes. The most likely reason for the nearly 100,000-vote discrepancy between the two was the confusing wording of the first ballot question, which prompted many voters to believe that voting “no” would have banned private funds. Despite that, the fate of Zuckerbucks in Wisconsin was never really in doubt.

Now, we all know that in reality, the results of those amendments means that elections will continue to be underfunded and understaffed, meaning having to travel further and to stand in longer lines in order to vote. In other words, they are trying to make it more difficult to vote, especially in more liberal communities and in minority communities. The Republicans are hoping that this will keep people from the polls, because, as we all know, when more people vote, Republicans lose. 

 But that's not the hypocritical part. That comes from as a side comment from Dan Bice:

One Republican insider noted that Vos helped push through "two election integrity referendums that address the thing his haters say he refused to address." He got a helping hand from the conservative MacIver Institute and the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, which combined to spend more than $100,000 on the proposals.

You read that correctly. 

The amendments passed because of more than a $100,000 being laundered from outside special interests and used to interfere with an election. And one of those money launderers is Danny Boy's own employer, MacIver. Of course, Danny Boy doesn't mention that tidbit. Telling the truth is not his job. In fact, it's anathema to what he gets paid to do. 

And as added bit of irony, the same people that were touting the passing of the amendments are also the ones whining about a late batch of absentee ballots in Milwaukee that helped pass an education referendum. Wait until they realize that this will become more and more of the norm due to their amendments. 

Just don't hold your breath for the Republicans to fix another mess they made.

Scott Walker Doesn't Even Believe His Own Bullsh*t!

As I just mentioned in this post, Scott Walker was ripping on Elizabeth Warren and touting the virtues of hard work:

Just what America needs...an out-of-touch liberal law professor who thinks government is the answer to our problems. True freedom and prosperity don’t come from the clumsy hand of government, they come from the dignity of hard work!  https://t.co/fYne6ZcUYh

— Scott Walker (@ScottWalker) December 31, 2018

Now, Walker has a chance to practice what he preaches as that he will be out of work in less than a week.

This is certainly a challenge for Walker, who is uneducated and has no practical work skills, having been a career politician all his adult life. But there are some jobs that he could still do and prove his point.

He claims he worked at a McDonald's as a kid.  He could always go back to the fast food industry.

Walker is also pretty handy with a shovel.  He could become a ditch digger.  Now that's hard work!

And if Walker really wants to work hard, he could become a construction worker like he was for Foxconn:

So just how does Walker plan on demonstrating the virtues of hard work?  He told us in an email he sent out on New Year's Day:

In 2019, Tonette and I will move on to new and exciting opportunities to serve. Our home will remain in Wisconsin but we will broaden our scope with an additional focus on returning power to the people in the states – from a federal government grown out-of-control. That is the best way to Drain the Swamp on a permanent basis.

We will focus on new methods to articulate a conservative message. True freedom and prosperity do not come from the clumsy hand of the government. They come from the dignity that is born of hard work. Socialism has failed around the world – now is not the time to bring it to America.

And we will focus on reforming the tax code and lowering the tax burden on hard-working people. Time and time again the facts show that places that free up capital have greater prosperity and opportunity for their citizens.

To do all of this, we will be involved with a number of excellent organizations. Along the way, I will also be part of a speakers bureau – so be sure to consider requesting me for meetings, conferences, and other events across the nation. It will be nice to be based in Wisconsin but also to be able to see so many of our wonderful friends and supporters around the country.

In other words, he's going to be a paid speaking meat puppet for the dark money special interest groups, a lot like he's doing now, but with even less responsibilities!

That's not exactly the hard work that he's been extolling now, is it?  In other words, he doesn't even believe  the bullshit he wants to get paid for shoveling.

Senator Tammy Baldwin also shreds him for even more hypocrisy:

We’re going to have a spirited debate about who the next president should be, and I’m excited by all the new ideas that will be on the table.

But as someone who just lost because his anti-worker agenda, I don’t know that you should be talking about the dignity of hard work. https://t.co/q2rtUPGldY

— Tammy Baldwin (@tammybaldwin) January 1, 2019

Given the horrible work laws he pushed for and passed into law, it's not really any surprise that Walker doesn't want to be worker in his own state.

Walker Exits As He Came In - With Lies, Chaos And Corruption

When Scott Walker became governor of Wisconsin, one of the first things he and his fellow Republicans did was work into the wee hours of the night to pass laws that would end up devastating the state's economy, environment and the rights of most people. These include things like Act 10, the attack on public workers such as teachers, even though Walker not once mentioned this during his campaign.

Eight years later, when the voters of Wisconsin finally had enough of Walker and his lies and corruption, they ousted him from office. Sadly, Walker has chosen to leave office the same way he came in - with lies, chaos and corruption.

After the elections, Republicans called for an extraordinary session of the legislature to pass a last minute corporate welfare bill for Kimberly Clark, a paper manufacturer.

Last week, the Republican legislature worked into the wee hours of the night to pass an unprecedented power grab. They stripped the incoming Democratic governor-elect, Tony Evers, and the incoming Democratic attorney general-elect, Josh Kaul, of much of their powers. They even found time to give the wealthiest of the state yet another tax break, put work requirements on healthcare and to greatly curtail early voting.

The one thing they never even discussed was the bailout for Kimberly Clark, which was supposed to be the whole purpose of the session.

Now that these power grab bills are with Walker, he is trying to simultaneously rationalize and minimize these bills with a lengthy Facebook post:

Let’s set the record straight – the new governor will still have some of the strongest powers of any governor in the nation if these bills become law. He will have the power to veto legislation and he will have some of the broadest line-item veto authority of any governor in the nation.

The new governor will be able to appoint members of his cabinet and of various other state government posts - as well as judges, district attorneys, sheriffs and other officials.

The new governor will be able to sign off on administrative rules. He will be able to present a biennial state budget. He will be able to pardon convicted felons.

None of these things will change regardless of what I do with the bills passed in the state Legislature last week.

:He goes on to outline the supposed criteria he is using to evaluate the bills. In truth, he only uses only two criteria:

• Will it help forward my future political aspirations?
• Will it please my corporate special interest masters?

Walker has given every indication that he's going to sign these bills, despite the fact that he had vetoed some of them before and had advocated against others:

Walker's openness to providing more say to the Legislature over state agencies comes after rejecting similar measures in his last state budget that would require state agencies to report to the Legislature.

In vetoing the measures, Walker said the language would put an unfunded mandate into state law and would "encroach" on his office's "responsibility to manage state agency programs within the statutes and funding levels set by the Legislature."

Walker also advocated against reshaping state government in the final weeks of an outgoing governor's term in 2010 when he asked then-Gov. Jim Doyle not to act on a number of measures, including making permanent appointments, and asked the Legislature not to approve public employee union contracts.

Now, Walker has appointed Department of Administration Secretary Ellen Nowak to the Public Service Commission and Attorney General Brad Schimel as a Waukesha County judge.

It should also be noted that they had already tried to limit early voting on the major urban areas like Madison and Milwaukee, both Democratic strongholds, but these laws were struck down in court.

So, why would Walker sign these now when he was against them before. Let's look at his personal criteria. Walker's political career is dead for all practical purposes, so that's not it.

But it will appease his masters, like the Koch Boyz and the Bradley Foundation. He's probably hoping to gain their favor so that they give him a do nothing job where he can collect a paycheck for doing an occasional dog and pony routine when they want him to.

Walker's legacy will be able to summarized in one short phrase - Once a weasel, always a weasel.

Wiggy's Faux Outrage Over Pussy Hats Redux

The Wisconsin State Fair is a wonderful time of year. The sound of many bands, the lights of many rides, cream puffs, deep fried cheese curds - well, deep fried anything...on a stick.

It's also the time for right wing faux outrage and hypocrisy.

James "Wiggy" Wigderson

Late last night, I was advised that James "Wiggy" Wigderson, newly installed editor of the now Charlie Sykes-less Right Wisconsin blogsite, was going to do a faux outrage piece about Wisconsin Democrats selling pussy hats at their booth at the State Fair. So I wrote up a quick piece for it on Cog Dis, well before Wiggy got his post out.

But now I see I made a rookie mistake and forgot that when it comes to the right wing and faux outrage, there's more. There's always more.

Wiggy's post was actually much, much worse than I had anticipated.

Oh sure, there was the expected faux outrage, but then Wiggy boldly lied about not getting any response from the Democrats. If they didn't respond, how was I able to write about it before he got his post out? Pure and utter bullshit there.

But the thing that really burnt my cheese curds was this (emphasis mine):

“Pussy hats,” or “pussyhats,” first made their appearance at the Women’s March to protest President Donald Trump. The pink knitted hats were in response to a recording of a private conversation in 2015 in which Trump said that women would allow him to “grab them by the pussy.” Since then they have become a popular symbolic gesture at leftwing events.

Would allow? Would allow?

He's implying that women gave their consent to be sexually assaulted by Trump! What's next, that the women really wanted it? That they shouldn't dress so slutty? Is this what he said when one of his favorite state representatives was arrested, charged and convicted of sexual assault?  Dafuq?!

The actual transcripts from that conversation show that there is no ambiguity about whether there was consent:

Trump: Yeah, that’s her. With the gold. I better use some Tic Tacs just in case I start kissing her. You know, I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.

Bush: Whatever you want.

Trump: Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.

The remaining question is why is Wiggy pretending to be so upset about a knit cap? It's a clever bit of punnery meant to empower women and counter the right wing's dismissal of sexual assault like it's no big deal:

We love the clever wordplay of “pussyhat” and “pussycat,” but yes, “pussy” is also a derogatory term for female genitalia. We chose this loaded word for our project because we want to reclaim the term as a means of empowerment. In this day and age, if we have pussies we are assigned the gender of “woman.” Women, whether transgender or cisgender, are mistreated in this society. In order to get fair treatment, the answer is not to take away our pussies, the answer is not to deny our femaleness and femininity, the answer is to demand fair treatment. A woman’s body is her own. We are honoring this truth and standing up for our rights.

Or maybe I'm just being unfair to Wiggy. Maybe he once saw a vagina with ears and was traumatized by it.

Nah, he's just a dumb ass, really.

Cross posted at Crooks and Liars

Republican Hypocrisy On Parade

For many long years, we got to see Republicans and their supporters show their true nature - being bullies.  There are countless pictures of them hanging President Barack Obama in effigy. There have been all the baseless accusations against Hillary Clinton and chants to "Lock her up!" There have been intimidation and smear tactics against your average citizens that dared to ask questions or tell truth to power. The list goes on and on.

One of the poster children for this bullying is Greg Gianforte, a Republican in Montana, who didn't like a question a reporter was asking. So Gianforte picked the reporter up and body slammed him to the ground.

Gianforte then told lie after lie, denying and then minimizing, the incident.  He went on to win the special election he was running in.

Even now, Gianforte is fighting a judge's order that he be booked like the criminal he is, afraid that political opponents might use his mugshot against him.

Then this past week, the unthinkable happened to the Republicans.  An idiot (legally) got his hands on some guns and went on a shooting spree in Arlington, hitting five people, including fellow Republican Representative Steve Scalise.

So how did the Republicans and their irresponsible rhetoric, laws and behaviors act?  Did they pass responsible gun control laws?  Did they apologize for all of the behaviors they helped provoke against women, against minorities, against Muslims and against the left?

HELL NO!

Instead of acting like mature adults, they reaffirmed their bully personalities by now and only now saying that there needs to be more civility in political discourse.

Let's look at Macho Man Gianforte now:

But he is eager to put the episode behind him, and he is now adding his voice to the growing chorus calling for better political discourse.

Gianforte said there is an obligation for members of Congress to ratchet down the vitriol in politics, especially after this week’s shooting of Rep. Steve Scalise during a Republican congressional baseball practice by a man who volunteered for Bernie Sanders’ Democratic presidential campaign.

“I believe that good things can come out of bad,” he said. “It’s important to make sure we reach out to all parties and hear their voice. I think the other parties have an obligation, as well, to be respectful and in that dialogue.”

The hypocrisy! It burns!

It is unsurprising though.  This is what bullies do.

So the next questions is how long will this new found call for civility last?

Answer: It has already ended.

Republicans are still eager to push through Ryancare, which will harm more than 24 million people.  This is not the behavior of a civilized group.  It is the behavior of a bunch of petty, hypocritical, hate-filled bullies.

People, we can - we must! - do better than this.

Paul Ryan - Human Jellyfish

By Jeff Simpson

Paul Ryan (R-Wall St.) was Captain Constitution every time President Obama signed an executive order:

Top House Republicans slammed President Obama’s embrace of executive action to move his agenda forward on Sunday, saying the president’s freelancing creates a trust deficit that makes bipartisan legislating more difficult.
“We have an increasingly lawless presidency where he is actually doing the job of Congress, writing new policies and new laws without going through Congress. Presidents don't write laws, Congress does,” Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., told ABC. “Executive orders are one thing, but executive orders that actually change the statute, that's totally different.”

Now that The Donald has somehow been elected to the Presidency, he is in a fever pitch to sign as many executive orders as he can.  Captain Constitution Paul Ryan's response:

Opps, sorry that was supposed to be off the record.

 Here is his official response:

No wonder Paul Ryan made an appearance on Wikipedia (under invertebrates):

Which is why Charley Pierce, blogger extraordinaire calls Paul The Biggest Fake Ever!

Rience Priebus: Email Scandals? IOKIYAR!

While Reince Priebus was on ABC News “This Week with George Stephanopoulos,” when he wasn't trying to raise the latest Trumped up rumors about Hillary Clinton's alleged email scandal, he said something that was so thick with hypocrisy that it made my hair hurt:

STEPHANOPOULOS: -- the only conclusion we've had from the FBI director so far is that no reasonable person would have prosecuted.

PRIEBUS: Right. That -- that's their conclusion so far. But they're also actively reviewing 650,000 emails. And I can assure you, that we already know that some of them are not duplicative. Six hundred and fifty thousand emails on Anthony Weiner's laptop suddenly show up about a month ago. The investigation is continuing. And, look, I think the American people have serious concerns about it. I would. And I take most people do. And they think that, obviously, this is going to be a big liability for her.

Y'know, it's kind of funny that Priebus is suddenly so seriously concerned about Clinton's alleged email scandal when he didn't bat an eye when his decades long friend, Scott Walker, was declared to be at the heart of a criminal scheme.

Then again, maybe Priebus wasn't concerned since he already already knew about it. After all, he was part of it.

At least now I can understand how Priebus can be such a tool for Trump and the Republicans. He sold his sold and his pride long ago.

Cross posted from Crooks and Liars.

RoJo Flings Poo In Latest Ad

In RoJo's latest ad, he goes back to exploiting his family who he has bemoaning the state of politics, especially this year, but goshdarnit, they need good old dad in Washington to clean things up.

Yeah, OK, right.

Let's just ignore the fact that the only things that RoJo had done for the last six years is use his spot as Chair of of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs to repeatedly abuse his position to run political attacks against Hillary Clinton (Benghazi!!!) and unsuccessfully attempt to repeal Obamacare scores of times.

It is ironic that RoJo and kids are crying about dirty politics and false ads. Unless, of course, they are talking about the anti-Russ Feingold ad that had to be pulled by three TV stations because it was so false. Even though the ad was run by one of the Kochs multitude of dark money groups, RoJo continues to try to keep up that line of attack even to this day.

Talk about slow learners.

Then again, it might be that RoJo and his dark money masters are trying to cover up his own ineptitude regarding a scandal that happened at a VA center in northern Wisconsin, as this Feingold ad so clearly points out:



But hypocrisy, misdirection and down right lying is the norm for any Republican.

What is really shocking and disgusting is that RoJo that it was a cutesy, homey thing to fling a dirty diaper across the kitchen, including over the dinner table, which had a bowl of fruit sitting right there.

I tell ya, if RoJo ever invites you over for dinner, you might want to be have other plans that night.

David Clarke: Outrageous Wingnut Or Hypocritical Sellout?

The Interwebs are abuzz with Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke's latest outrageous tweet:

It makes one wonder why Milwaukee County's top cop is trying to incite a riot. If he wasn't the sheriff and if Wisconsin's governor and attorney general as corrupt as they are, he might have been investigated for misconduct in office.

But, as the gentle reader might have guessed, there's more. There's always more.

As if Clarke's tweet trying to incite an open riot wasn't bad enough and only serves to highlight his outlandishness, it also shines a light on his hypocrisy.

Clarke, as it turns out, is even more corrupt as those he would have us riot against:

This "America's Sheriff" gig is certainly paying off for David A. Clarke Jr.

The Milwaukee County sheriff burst on the national scene not quite two years ago with his mix of pro-cop rhetoric and searing blasts at Black Lives Matter and President Barack Obama. Clarke's sudden rise to national prominence, earning him the nickname America's Sheriff, has been accompanied by an equally dramatic jump in his outside income.

Clarke's ethics disclosures show that he brought in slightly more than $150,000 in speaking fees, travel reimbursements, gifts and other items during 2015 — more than what he made as Milwaukee County sheriff, a job that pays $132,290 annually.

Notably, Clarke received a $40,000 trip to Israel and Russia funded largely by the National Rifle Association, earned $26,000 in speaking fees, locked up $22,500 in car services to shuttle to his various media appearances, took a plane flight valued at $9,000 to speak at an Idaho conference and scored playoff basketball tickets from the Milwaukee Bucks' GM.

[...]

During 2015, private groups or individuals paid $51,840 in airfare for Clarke to fly to 25 events, meetings or speaking engagements. That included $9,110 in airfare for Clarke, donning cowboy hat and uniform, to speak at the 33rd annual Allen & Co. conference — a four-day retreat for moguls and media figures — in Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 10, 2015. Overall, he had 11 flights that cost more than $1,000.

Among other items given to the sheriff in 2015 were:

• $26,000 in honorariums for speeches he gave to seven groups. His biggest was a $10,000 payment from the National Shooting Sports Foundation — the trade association for the firearms industry — for a talk at the group's annual trade show on Jan. 19, 2015. He was also given a $1,159 firearm.
• Two $175 tickets to a Milwaukee Bucks playoff game against the Chicago Bulls from general manager John Hammond on April 23, 2015. He also received four $58 tickets to a Milwaukee Brewers game on Aug. 14, 2015, against the Philadelphia Phillies.
• $22,500 in car services for media interviews. Clarke's form says this expense occurred in 2016, even though the report was supposed to cover only 2015 and was signed in January 2016.
• $600 annual membership to the exclusive National Republican Club of Capitol Hill. Clarke, who runs as a Democrat but lines up politically with Republicans, likes to say he belongs to neither political party.
• A black powder muzzleloader valued at $350 for winning the Charlton Heston Courage Under Fire Award in 2015 at the Conservative Political Action Conference, an annual gathering of thousands of GOP activists. Clarke's campaign reimbursed CPAC a little more than $3,000 for his expenses for this event.

If the gentle reader is thinking, "There oughta be a law!" against this sort of stuff, well, there is:

A former attorney for Milwaukee County says Clarke may have trouble justifying all of his gifts and expenses from last year.

"County ethics code is confusing, contradictory, frustrating," said the former official, who asked not to be named. "(But) Clarke’s fees, trips, meals, etc., seem a clear violation."

The ex-county attorney said it appears that Clarke is being given gifts and being paid fees to give speeches because of his position as sheriff.

The trips, in particular, do not seem to have any benefit to the county, the ex-county attorney said. They are not generating grant money for Milwaukee County or bringing support for positions taken by the County Board or the executive.

"Most of his trips are not publicized, or not until after the fact," the former county attorney said. "They are not publicized or promoted in any fashion beneficial to the county, only to himself."

Like I said at the beginning of this, if the governor and attorney general weren't as corrupt as they are, Clarke would be investigated and charged.

Wiggy's Toothless Attack

By Jeff Simpson 

Readers of CogDis know that I recently called out Right Wing Blogger for trying to provoke violence against Superintendent of Schools Tony Evers.  

For anyone interested, time for a little back scene look at what happens when you criticize someone on the right   This does not just happen to me it happens to many others also but they are not blessed with a forum to point it out.

Let's go step by step,

A reader sent me a tip that Wiggy posted a story about Tony Evers on Watchdog.org and that the comments that had been up for two days, from typical fans of his, was that it was "hunting season" on teachers.  I went and checked the blog out and saw that Wiggy put a picture up of Tony Evers with the caption "Get your gun".  

This call to harm an elected official was misinterpreted by his faithful readers as hunting season on teachers, but the original meaning was clear.  

Before I reported on this, I figured I would give Wiggy a chance to explain his disgusting actions and sent him the following email:

Jimmy, 
I am doing a story on you, as education reporter, calling for the assassination of Superintendent Evers.   Would you care to comment?
Thanks have a great night! 

Mr. Wigderson responded with this(where he copied a lawyer Mike Maistleman with an incorrect email address)

 Provide the date, time and sourcee of the quote.

I then sent him the link to my blog and that was the last I heard from him.  

That is when Wiggy goes into WIrightwing crazy.   The next day I received a call from an old sales manager asking me who was the clown named James Wigdersomething.  

Mr. Wigderson had decided the best way to respond to my questions was to try and get me fired from my job.   Mr. Wigderson has a well deserved reputation of not using facts or research and he did not disappoint this time.  Jim was going to send a message that if you crticize him he will go after you personally.  Of course sending a message to a job I no longer have is not the least bit ironic.  

Here is what he sent.

 Good Afternoon,
I received the following email from someone claiming to represent your company. Aside from the potentially libelous nature of the content and the content of his blog (I'm having an attorney review it) I was surprised that the person would include your company's website as if he was representing it by emailing me.
I'm sure you will take prompt action before this individual damages your company's reputation further. For my part, my only reply to this individual will be that he should cease and desist all contact with me. This is not the first time I have made this request of him, and that he continues to contact me makes me wonder about his stability.
Thanks again, and I've included a pdf of his email to me and the link to his blog post is below my contact info. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.
James WigdersonWisconsin Education Reporter
Watchdog.org
214 North Henry StreetSuite 207Madison, WI 53703
262-422-7763

I have not heard back from him yet to see if he will be suing CogDis, but I am pretty sure I know the answer to that.   (Hint: truth is not libel).

That is a behind the scenes look at what happens to people in WI who speak up against the right wing loons in this state and that is also why more people do not speak up.  

But wait there is more:

Wiggy has been a "defemder" of free speech rights(as long as you are not talking about him).

A better campaign finance system would be one that actually encourages more democratic participation and more speech, not less. Liberals once readily spouted the maxim misattributed to Voltaire, "I don't agree with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it." Today Wisconsin's liberals would rather say, "I don't agree with what you say and, if I can't prosecute it, I'll harass it any way I can until my television is commercial free."

Harassing, intimidating and suppressing voters, are what the right is truly trying to accomplish and luckily we will not let that happen!

Remember this next time the right has incredible fake outrage when people get upset that a racist hatefilled spewing Republican gets in trouble for their speech.

Walker Brings The Hypocrisy To Cleveland

One could say a lot of things about Scott Walker.

He's incompetent. He's a liar. He's corrupt.

All of which is true.

But the thing that Walker excels at is hypocrisy. He keeps surprising even me with the heights of hypocrisy he can reach. And once again, he outdoes even himself in that category.

Walker sent out a campaign email blast talking about what he is going to say at the Republican National Convention this week. Unable to find anything nice to say about Donald Trump, the candidate that he is supporting, he has decided to take potshots at Hillary Clinton and the alleged email scandal.

However, the level of hypocrisy in the email* is simply breathtaking (emphasis his):

Friend,

This week I will be speaking at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland and here is why:

I would not give Hillary Clinton the password to my phone – let alone security clearance to classified information.

She is wholly unfit to be President.

As you will see on Wednesday, I will not hide my frustration over the recent decision by federal prosecutors not to charge Clinton for her use of a private email server while serving as Secretary of State.

You and I both know that any other American would face consequences if they did what she did – or if she was still in office, she would have been fired or prohibited from access to classified information.

But now she wants to hold the highest office – once again proving that in Washington, there is one set of rules for the elite and another for everyone else.

If she was still in his cabinet, Obama would have to fire Clinton. Instead, he campaigns with her.

Voters do not want the status quo in Washington, D.C. and they are sick and tired of Washington insiders rigging the system for other Washington insiders.

During my speech I will remind the American people that a vote for anyone other than Donald Trump is a vote for Washington insider Hillary Clinton.

President Obama recently pointed out that for the past eight years GOP governors have fought his agenda. He is right (for once).

As Governor, I have fought his Big Government agenda every step of the way and Wisconsin is better for it. On Wednesday, I will be proud to show the American people that there is an alternative to the Washington way … and our conservative successes in Wisconsin are proof positive.

Thank you for your unwavering support for our conservative agenda, Friend. I would be honored if you would tune in to my speech at 10:23PM EDT, on Wednesday, July 20th.

Thank you,

Scott Walker

My, oh my. What a fine topic for Walker to speak on.

But somehow, I just don't think that Walker will talk about how he used private email to conduct government business, both as Milwaukee County Executive and as governor.

Another thing that I doubt Walker will mention is that prosecutors looking into Walker's own email scandals said that Walker was the center of a criminal scheme:

Prosecutors allege that Gov. Scott Walker was at the center of an effort to illegally coordinate fundraising among conservative groups to help his campaign and those of Republican senators fend off recall elections during 2011 and '12, according to documents unsealed Thursday.

In the documents, prosecutors lay out what they call a "criminal scheme" to bypass state election laws by Walker, his campaign and two top deputies — R.J. Johnson and Deborah Jordahl.

The governor and his close confidants helped raise money and control spending through 12 conservative groups during the recall elections, according to the prosecutors' filings.

The documents include an email in which Walker tells Karl Rove, former top adviser to President George W. Bush, that Johnson would lead the coordination campaign. Johnson is also chief adviser to Wisconsin Club for Growth, a conservative group active in the recall elections.

"Bottom-line: R.J. helps keep in place a team that is wildly successful in Wisconsin. We are running 9 recall elections and it will be like 9 congressional markets in every market in the state (and Twin Cities)," Walker wrote to Rove on May 4, 2011.

In fact, the only reason that Walker hasn't been indicted yet is because the same dark money groups he has been collaborating with filed lawsuit after lawsuit to stall the investigation. Add to this that four of the state supreme court justices were greatly aided by and obligated to these same dark money groups and it's no surprise that they sided with their benefactors, stopping the investigations for now, pending a decision from the United State Supreme Court.

Since Trump and the Republicans were desperate in trying to get people to even come to the convention, much less speak at it, I guess they had to take what they could get. But I don't see how such a hypocritical sleazeball is going to help their cause at all.

*Here is a screencap of the email:

Walker Caves To Trump...Again

Donald Trump first topped Scott Walker in 2015 when he stole Walker's thunder and forced Walker to drop out of his presidential bid in just 70 days.

Trump then took it to Walker again when he campaigned in Wisconsin and bashed Walker in his own backyard, leaving Walker to mewl like a sad, little kitten (or whatever baby weasels are called).

By last month, Walker was admitting - however reluctantly - that Trump was the likely nominee, although Walker did hold out hope that there would still be a revolution.

Less than a month later, and Walker is again capitulating to Trump, being one of the very few elected Republicans that has agreed to speak at the Republican National Convention in a couple of weeks:

Governor Scott Walker (R-Wisconsin) is bucking a trend among Republican elected officials nationwide in agreeing to speak at the GOP national convention later this month, saying a vote for anyone other than presumptive party presidential nominee Donald Trump is a "de facto vote" for Hillary Clinton.

"I think there is a clear contrast," said Gov. Walker. "For those who raise concerns like I just did about the judgment of Hillary Clinton in terms of not just those emails, but some of the other issues out there, really there's only one alternative."

Gov. Walker confirmed he will speak at the Republican National Convention (RNC) in Cleveland moments after FBI Director James Comey announced he is not recommending criminal charges be filed against Clinton for her use of a private email server while serving as Secretary of State.

Walker indicated the Clinton email scandal would be a focus of his speech.

"If someone doesn't cast a vote for the Republican nominee, they are effectively casting a vote for her and that's part of what I'd be willing to talk about," said Gov. Walker.

In agreeing to speak at the RNC, Gov. Walker acknowledged he is rejecting the idea that Trump could still be replaced as the GOP nominee.

Walker has also agreed to send 45 state troopers, 11% of the entire force, to help provide security at the convention. On top of that, all the troopers will be paid overtime for this duty.

To be honest, it is not exactly clear if the troopers will be there for the convention or just Walker's standard contingent of bodyguards.

Although Walker has said that he doesn't think the delegate revolution would materialize, Walker says a lot of things that he doesn't really mean. Then again, he could be responding to Ted Cruz's former PAC's plea for him to consider allowing himself to be drafted to be the nominee.

While Walker undoubtedly has a deeply buried hope that he could still leave Cleveland as the nominee, it is far more likely he playing the PAC to milk all the donations he can get from them. He still has that big pile of bills he owes from his own failed presidential bid.

In closing, it should be noted that Walker's statement about his speech at the convention gives a glimpse of what a dog and pony show it will be. For Walker to attack anyone over an email scandal while he has his own email scandals still hanging over his head is the height of hypocrisy.

RoJo: Not All Elections Are Created Equal

On Monday afternoon, Our Dumb Senator, Ron Johnson, did an interview on WTMJ-AM, a Milwaukee-based squawk radio station. He started off bragging about his chairmanship of the Homeland Security Committee, even though he's missed more meetings than he's attended. He ended with bashing Hillary Clinton because BENGHAZI!!! and EMAILS!!!!

In between, he made a very peculiar comment. Just after bragging about his nearly nonexistent track record, he made an offhand remark that Russ Feingold wanted to "really ignore" the will of the 2010 voters by running for his old job back. Listen for yourself (about the 1:30 mark)



What makes this comment so peculiar is that it reaches a new level of hypocrisy, even for him. RoJo was the same fool that just a few weeks ago said that the elections of 2012 shouldn't matter in whether President Obama should nominate anyone for the Supreme Court:

"I strongly agree that the American people should decide the future direction of the Supreme Court by their votes for president and the majority party in the U.S. Senate," Johnson said in a statement released Sunday. "America needs Supreme Court justices who share Justice Scalia's commitment to applying the Constitution as written and to the freedom it secures."

My first thought was to wonder what RoJo would have to say a year from now when President Clinton or President Sanders makes their nomination, but realized that was an inane question. After all, it will be Senator Russ Feingold's decision in a year from now.

Happy Deanna Alexander Day!

Deanna Alexander is the Milwaukee County Supervisor representing the 18th District.   She is also very conservative.

Being conservative, she holds many of the same values as her other conservatives - bigotry, racism and the love of money, whether it comes from the Koch Brothers or from her buddy, Milwaukee County Emperor Chris Abele.

Being conservative, Alexander also likes to portray herself as being fiscally conservative and oh so ethical.  Her hypocrisy regarding this has been exemplified by her using tax dollars to commit voter suppression.

She also showed her hypocrisy when she used her office to help raise funds for her father's funeral, even as she voted to deny funding for indigent burials.

As it turns out, Alexander seems to be in the habit of using her office for personal gain.

It was five years ago today that Alexander got fired by the State of Wisconsin when she used her position as an Income Maintenance Worker to try to help her get daycare benefits.

As the gentle reader might remember, due to Scott Walker's refusal to properly administer the Economic Support Program, the state had to take it over to avoid a class action lawsuit.  In a most unusual arrangement, the workers remained county employees but worked under the supervision of the state.

It was during this time that Alexander worked for the program. Not only did she work there, she was a client, utilizing the daycare subsidies.  However, she tried to use her position as an Income Maintenance Worker to gain benefits that were not available to the public.  There was no fighting the accusation since they had the emails to prove it.

In other words, Alexander is a typical, run of the mill conservative Republican.

If the voters in the 18th District have the desire for clean government and good government, that their tax money is being used appropriately and that their interests - as opposed to those of the 1% - are being represented, they need to vote for Martha De La Rosa.

Lyin' Ryan Shoots Blanks At Gun Control Policies

When President Barack Obama issued the executive order for reasonable gun control policies by closing the loophole regarding background checks, Liar of the House Paul Ryan, as one might have expected, panned the idea.

But as Jennifer Bendery, writing at HuffPo, points out, Ryan wasn't always against closing those loopholes:

That's a stark contrast to where Ryan stood in January 2013, when he called the notion of closing the gun show loophole "reasonable" and "obvious."

"I think we need to find out how to close these loopholes and do it in such a way that we don't infringe upon people's Second Amendment rights," he said in an interview with the editorial board of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

"We had this issue, 2001, 1999 I think … when I first got into Congress," Ryan continued. "At the time I remember thinking, 'You know, there is a loophole here. We should address that.'"

Bendery also points out Lyin' Ryan's hypocrisy towards executive orders, recalling when then-vice-presidential candidate Ryan was all for Mittens Romney using that power to void Obamacare.

But that isn't the only way that Ryan is caught shooting blanks on the whole gun control issue.

Ryan, while dissing the common sense policy, had this to say:

"Rather than focus on criminals and terrorists, he goes after the most law-abiding of citizens," said House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican. "His words and actions amount to a form of intimidation that undermines liberty."

Now, maybe Ryan has been downing a few too many $350 bottles of wine, but surely he couldn't have forgotten the tragic mass shooting at the Azana Salon and Spa in Brookfield, Wisconsin, three years ago. In that shooting, Radcliffe Haughton came in and shot and killed his wife and two other people, injuring four more people before killing himself.

The thing is, if these policies had been effect then, which Ryan said he was for before the Azana incident, it would never have happened.

Haughton would not have cleared a background check to buy a gun, so he bypassed that by buying the gun he used over the internet:

FOX6 News previously discovered Haughton then bought the gun from a website called ArmsList.com. In a police report, the person who sold it to Haughton says he got no receipt or information -- but he did get $500 for the gun.

It's all really rather sad that Lyin' Ryan would rather play politics and appease his NRA pay masters rather than save lives.

Walker Used Personal Email To Conduct State Business

During his very short-lived presidential campaign, Scott Walker repeatedly attacked Hillary Clinton for conducting government business through her personal email address. Given that there were tens of thousands of pages of emails showing that Walker did the same thing as Milwaukee County Executive, the hypocrisy was enough to make one's hair hurt.

It turns out that even though Walker and his staff were under a criminal investigation for this, Walker continued to do it as governor.

In a rare moment of flagrant journalism, WKOW News did an open records request regarding the use of private emails to conduct state business. The records showed hundreds of personal emails were used. Their investigation also raised questions about how those emails were being handled:

But a 27 News investigation by Greg Neumann into the use and disclosure of personal emails by the Governor's office is raising questions about just how those records are handled.

On May 28, 27 News asked Gov. Walker if he knew whether former Chief of Staff Keith Gilkes, former Department of Administration Secretary Mike Huebsch or other members of his administration had used personal email for government business.

"I don't know," said Gov. Walker. "I mean, not that I'm aware of."

But we now know the Governor was aware of it at the time that exchange took place.

Just a few days before we asked those questions, 27 News requested all of the emails sent to or from the personal email addresses of Gilkes, Huebsch, and Walker's second Chief of Staff Eric Schutt - that contained official state business communications.

Their personal email addresses were provided to 27 News by a tipster.

The Governor's office ultimately sent 980 pages worth of the emails to 27 News on Monday, October 12, nearly fourth months after our initial request.

"We have a strict policy in terms of our office or our administration that information regarding state business - conducted on state email - which would be our preference," said Gov. Walker.

But in the first year of the Walker administration, state business was conducted through more than 300 personal emails.

Much of it dealt with planning and strategy. A March 2011 email sent from from Gilkes to other senior staffers, included a memo detailing the self-described weaknesses of the Walker administration's first 100 days in office - mentioning Gov. Walker's overexposure to the media and long winded speeches.

Personal email was used to discuss big policy moments as well. One thread showed a discussion among senior staffers on the day after the State Senate passed Act 10. It includes the statement Secretary Huebsch ultimately released to the media on it being published and becoming law.

Others dealt directly with the strategy surrounding Act 10 and the concern caused after Judge Mary Ann Sumi blocked the law.

Some of the emails were sent to or from Governor Walker's own personal address, but we aren't sure how many due to the fact that both his personal and official email addresses are redacted in the records.

"All identifiers of the non-public official direct email address of the Governor have been redacted pursuant to the balancing test," David Rabe, assistant legal counsel to Gov. Walker, wrote to 27 News in a letter accompanying the records. "We have determined that the public interest in avoiding potential disruption of the Governor's ability to carry out his responsibilities without unnecessary interruption if his direct email address became common knowledge outweighs any public interest in disclosure."

Wisconsin law does not explicitly forbid conducting state business through private emails. However, Walker claimed that it was his administration's policy that these emails be sent to their official accounts to keep them for prosperity.

That turned out to be another lie, which leads to even more disturbing questions (emphasis mine):

"Our office also routinely trains staff to forward any emails related to state business to their official accounts for the purpose of retention," said Gov. Walker's Press Secretary Laurel Patrick.

But dozens of the emails 27 News received were never sent to an official state account until they were forwarded to the government email address of Gov. Walker's Chief Legal Counsel Brian Hagedorn on July 31, 2015. That date comes four years after the emails were originally written and two months after our open records request.

"Yeah, I think it's an issue to be sure and apparently and potentially a serious one," said Drechsel, who believes that delay and lag time raises questions about whether 27 News even got all of the personal emails that ever existed, or if some were permanently deleted from personal accounts long ago.

"To me, the policy that you described of forwarding those emails so they get into the state system is a very good one. But again, it all falls apart if people don't - in good faith - comply with the policy," said Drechsel.

The reason that the emphasized section should raise a red flag for the gentle reader is that on the very same date that Hagedorn had received these emails is the same day that Walker announced that he was politically appointing Hagedorn to an appellate court seat despite that Hagedorn had no experience or qualifications for that position.

Was that appointment made to reward Hagedorn for his political operations, as a form of hush money to buy Hagedorn's silence or both?

It is also worth noting that Walker didn't release those emails until well after he dropped out of the GOP presidential clown car. It should give one pause to wonder if money problems was the only or the real reason Walker dropped out of the race.

Quote of the Day - Scott Walker Edition

The gentle reader is well aware that Scott Walker's hypocrisy knows no bounds, but he still has the ability to come up with things that leaves even the most cynical of us astounded by just how far he can go.

A prime example was his review of the Democratic debate and Hillary Clinton's performance (emphasis mine):

The governor also praised the performance of former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in Tuesday's Democratic presidential debate, saying she came across as "surprisingly very confident and, I thought, relatively pleasant." But he panned her policies and those of her Democratic rivals as socialism.

"I was just overwhelmed with how much stuff they're willing to give away," he said.

This is coming from the guy who was in charge of the WEDC - until a few months ago when he got fired from the job - and led the way of giving away hundreds of millions of dollars to his biggest campaign donors.

The man really has no shame at all.

Scott Walker Just Doesn't Get Labor Day

The gentle reader probably wouldn't be shocked that Scott Walker just doesn't get what Labor Day is all about. After all, Walker is the guy who passed just about every anti-union, anti-worker bill that ALEC has ever devised. Walker started with trying to bust the public sector workers unions with Act 10. He followed this up with the misnamed and misleading Right to Work law, destroying the prevailing wage law and attacked unemployment insurance laws.

So it's no great surprise that Walker has been having a series of tweets trying to exploit the holiday for his own political gain, such as this one:

Yeah, nothing honors the American worker like selling cheap crap made in China to promote a guy who has devastated his state's middle class.

But Walker' s utter disdain for workers was made apparent on Friday with this tweet:

For some reason known only to him, Walker thinks that it is somehow good for workers to have their experience and knowledge discounted as worthless and meaningless.

But there's more. There's always more.

What makes Walker's tweet exceptionally egregious and insulting is the fact that he is lying through his weasel teeth. In Walker's Wisconsin, there are no merit raises:

Merit raises and retention pay increases for state workers — including some UW System employees — have been suspended by Gov. Scott Walker’s administration.

The announcement about the raise suspensions, “effective immediately,” was made in a Feb. 5 memo to state agencies’ human resources directors.

It’s unclear how many employees will be affected. Under Walker’s 2013-15 budget, most state workers received a 1 percent pay increase each fiscal year.

The freeze affects merit pay raises, known as Discretionary Merit Compensation, and increases aimed at retaining workers, known as Discretionary Equity or Retention Adjustment Programs. Other raises are not affected.

“We suggest that agencies cease accepting or processing any additional requests because the suspension is anticipated to continue for the remainder of this fiscal year,” wrote Gregory Gracz, director of the Office of State Employment Relations.

The current fiscal year ends June 30.

“This is another slap in the face of workers by the Walker administration,” said Marty Beil, executive director of AFSCME Council 24 Wisconsin State Employees Union. “It shows more disdain from the Walker administration for the working men and women of the state.”

Beil said there aren’t many people “screaming about it” because morale is so low that workers weren’t expecting any merit raises.

No, Walker has no respect whatsoever for the workers. Then again, we kind of knew that when he compared workers to ISIS terrorists and bragged about how he "took on" the state's workers and beat them.

Except for one thing, Mr. Walker. We're still here and we're still coming and we're still fighting. And you're still running away.

Walker's Convenient Case of Amnesia

For months, Scott Walker has been attacking Hillary Clinton on her alleged email scandal, to the point of saying she would be a "deceiver in chief" if she were elected.

Meanwhile, he has totally ignored that he had been the subject of a John Doe investigation that revealed that while he was Milwaukee County Executive, he had a secret email system - including a secret router - that he and his staff used for illegal campaigning and fundraising.

Finally, after all this time, the mainstream media got around to asking him about his hypocrisy.

His response can be summarized as "That was then, this is now." However, this is just another lie, since his long time aide and ally, Cindy Archer, has made it current news again with her frivolous lawsuit.

But then he added this jaw-dropper:

Records filed this week in federal court revealed prosecutors were investigating Walker for misconduct in office over a proposed real estate deal when he was Milwaukee County executive.

Walker said Friday that he didn't know he was a target of the lengthy investigation until this week.

"The information they said, the paper they released was new to us," Walker said at a campaign stop the day after Thursday's GOP presidential debate. "We point out this is something that's been over for more than two years, and it's a done deal."

Wait, wut?!

So the millions of dollars that he raised and spent on his legal defense fund, the time he gave a disposition in front of the John Doe judge and all the questions and open records were done for the fun of it? When he asked for immunity and didn't get it, that meant nothing to him?

I know that Walker loves to play the plausible deniability routine to the hilt but someone better wake him up to the fact that that ship has sailed long ago.

Walker's Announcement Event To Be Gun-Free Zone

Scott Walker is a big, old backer - read sockpuppet - of the NRA. He loves them NRA campaign donations so much he is willing to risk poor optics time and time again to give them some love. In return, the NRA showers him with campaign donations and an A+ rating.

Yup, Walker is a real gun nut supporter...unless those guns are near him.

In his invitation to his official kick off to his presidential campaign, which he has been running for four and a half years, Walker asks people to leave their guns at home:

Prohibited Items: All attendees will go through airport-like security and should bring as few personal items as possible. No large bags, sharp objects, signs, umbrellas, liquids, aerosol containers, guns, ammunition, fireworks, electric stun guns, mace, selfie-sticks, martial arts weapons/devices, or knives of any size will be allowed in the venue.

Just don't hold your breath waiting for Walker to admit guns kill. He gets paid a lot of money not to say that.

H/T Chris Walker (no relation) at Political Heat