Reading Between The Lines

By Jeff Simpson

"While some things are better left unsaid, some things should never be left unspoken." Anonymous

Agustin Ramirez has an op-ed telling us that Scott Walker is great on jobs(seriously).   Mr. Ramirez has a nice piece that the "Friends of Scott Walker" will no doubt use in their campaign, unfortunately, Mr. Ramirez has left a few major details out.

We at CogDis will play fill in the blank:

*  I have been chief executive and chairman of HUSCO International for 25 years. During this period, HUSCO has added 1,200 jobs. Since the end of 2009, we have added 320 jobs in Wisconsin. 

Thank God for Kim Hixson (D-Whitewater), Jim DOyle and Government(taxpayer) money:

A state grant is allowing Waukesha-based Husco International to expand its production capabilities and create about 165 jobs between its headquarters and Whitewater plant.

State Rep. Kim Hixson, D-Whitewater, announced Thursday the hydraulic and electrohydraulic controls manufacturer received a $606,000 Community Development Block Grant through the Economic Development Program.

Husco plans to invest about $30 million to expand its manufacturing capabilities at the two Wisconsin plants. The Whitewater location is getting a $22.3-million investment and adding about 90 jobs to the community, according to the news release.

  Under the administration of former Gov. Jim Doyle, with Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke as secretary of commerce, HUSCO significantly reduced jobs in Wisconsin and moved them to Iowa.

“I’m proud to have worked with state, local and company leaders to create new jobs here in our area,” Hixson said. “Husco is an important local employer and great manufacturer. As a result of this grant and the company’s investment in south central Wisconsin, hundreds of new jobs will be brought to the area for hard-working local families.” 

 *   Under the administration of former Gov. Jim Doyle, with Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke as secretary of commerce, HUSCO significantly reduced jobs in Wisconsin and moved them to Iowa.

Mr. Ramirez, I know it was a while ago, but when you opened up the plant in Iowa you said that not many jobs would move to Iowa, but you also blamed the older unionized workforce(the gall of people who spend their lives working for you wanting raises).   Also to spark your memory guess who trained the workers you left behind?   Answer starts with WI and ends with TAXPAYERS.   You left them behind but luckily for them, Governor Jim Doyle did not. 

 While I get you did not want to pay your long time workers the salary they had worked their way up to, perhaps the real reason you decided to move the plant was that you were upset that Mary Burke was no longer Commerce Secretary and you did not have anyone you could trust(who in their right mind would hire a republican to create jobs anyway?  Make beer yes but not create jobs!).   

*  There were both national and state issues that concerned us during the 2006-2009 time period.

Yes, like the Great Recession! Thanks Dubya.

* More recently, the recall election of 2012 created uncertainty for those running businesses in the state. Uncertainty and job growth run counter to one another.

 Of course, certainty and a free market economy run counter to one another also.  

*  even with the uncertainty created by the vitriolic recall politics during Walker's first couple of years...

 If uncertainty and vitriol is not your cup of tea, maybe you should not have supported this guy:

A state grant is allowing Waukesha-based Husco International to expand its production capabilities and create about 165 jobs between its headquarters and Whitewater plant.
State Rep. Kim Hixson, D-Whitewater, announced Thursday the hydraulic and electrohydraulic controls manufacturer received a $606,000 Community Development Block Grant through the Economic Development Program.

Husco plans to invest about $30 million to expand its manufacturing capabilities at the two Wisconsin plants. The Whitewater location is getting a $22.3-million investment and adding about 90 jobs to the community, according to the news release.

“I’m proud to have worked with state, local and company leaders to create new jobs here in our area,” Hixson said. “Husco is an important local employer and great manufacturer. As a result of this grant and the company’s investment in southcentral Wisconsin, hundreds of new jobs will be brought to the area for hard-working local families.”
- See more at: http://www.gazettextra.com/news/2010/oct/23/whitewater-company-creating-90-jobs-plans-expansio/?print#sthash.nEiFJ196.dpuf

A state grant is allowing Waukesha-based Husco International to expand its production capabilities and create about 165 jobs between its headquarters and Whitewater plant.
State Rep. Kim Hixson, D-Whitewater, announced Thursday the hydraulic and electrohydraulic controls manufacturer received a $606,000 Community Development Block Grant through the Economic Development Program.

Husco plans to invest about $30 million to expand its manufacturing capabilities at the two Wisconsin plants. The Whitewater location is getting a $22.3-million investment and adding about 90 jobs to the community, according to the news release.

“I’m proud to have worked with state, local and company leaders to create new jobs here in our area,” Hixson said. “Husco is an important local employer and great manufacturer. As a result of this grant and the company’s investment in southcentral Wisconsin, hundreds of new jobs will be brought to the area for hard-working local families.”
- See more at: http://www.gazettextra.com/news/2010/oct/23/whitewater-company-creating-90-jobs-plans-expansio/?print#sthash.nEiFJ196.dpuf

A state grant is allowing Waukesha-based Husco International to expand its production capabilities and create about 165 jobs between its headquarters and Whitewater plant.
State Rep. Kim Hixson, D-Whitewater, announced Thursday the hydraulic and electrohydraulic controls manufacturer received a $606,000 Community Development Block Grant through the Economic Development Program.

Husco plans to invest about $30 million to expand its manufacturing capabilities at the two Wisconsin plants. The Whitewater location is getting a $22.3-million investment and adding about 90 jobs to the community, according to the news release.

“I’m proud to have worked with state, local and company leaders to create new jobs here in our area,” Hixson said. “Husco is an important local employer and great manufacturer. As a result of this grant and the company’s investment in southcentral Wisconsin, hundreds of new jobs will be brought to the area for hard-working local families.”
- See more at: http://www.gazettextra.com/news/2010/oct/23/whitewater-company-creating-90-jobs-plans-expansio/?print#sthash.nEiFJ196.dpuf

A state grant is allowing Waukesha-based Husco International to expand its production capabilities and create about 165 jobs between its headquarters and Whitewater plant.
State Rep. Kim Hixson, D-Whitewater, announced Thursday the hydraulic and electrohydraulic controls manufacturer received a $606,000 Community Development Block Grant through the Economic Development Program.

Husco plans to invest about $30 million to expand its manufacturing capabilities at the two Wisconsin plants. The Whitewater location is getting a $22.3-million investment and adding about 90 jobs to the community, according to the news release.

“I’m proud to have worked with state, local and company leaders to create new jobs here in our area,” Hixson said. “Husco is an important local employer and great manufacturer. As a result of this grant and the company’s investment in southcentral Wisconsin, hundreds of new jobs will be brought to the area for hard-working local families.”
- See more at: http://www.gazettextra.com/news/2010/oct/23/whitewater-company-creating-90-jobs-plans-expansio/?print#sthash.nEiFJ196.dpuf

How else would you expect a divide and conquer strategy to play out?

*  Virtually 100% of business executives I know would say that there have been consequential improvements for business under the Walker administration.

All I can say there is you need to expand your circle of friends.   

* Second, and probably more important, is the lack of available skilled talent especially for those positions requiring a high school degree and technical training.

Milwaukee is by far the largest city in Wisconsin, and the dismal public education being provided to most Milwaukee children, particularly the economically disadvantaged, results in a labor pool possessing minimal academic and technical skills

 Since Public Schools are outperforming voucher schools in Wisconsin, glad to have you join me in calling to stop the ridiculous pillaging of our public education money for unaccountable vouchers.   Let's put the money where it will do the most good, and we all will benefit! 

Now you know the rest of the story!  

PS:   On their "About us" section of their website, Husco proudly displays:

 To maintain HUSCO’s leadership in next generation technology, we aggressively protect our core technologies through patents while continuously monitoring the competitive patent landscape to insure that we stay focused on the leading edge technology in the industry.

Thanks goodness for the taxpayer supplied socialist court system, and government regulations on patents, that we have in America which has allowed Husco to flourish!

PSS:   My question to Mr. Ramirez:  If you brought in an executive with a clearly defined goal and after four years he was not even half way towards that specific goal, would you renew his contract?   

Republican Empty Talk

 

By Jeff Simpson

Mr. Unintimidated is very confusing at times.

Scott Walker when asked about the recent email dump of one of his closest confidants - Kelly Rindfleisch.  

WALLACE: Thousands of emails were released this week that indicate that you knew that public workers were working on county time in political campaigns, which is against the law.
WALKER: That’s absolutely not true, and if you look at the facts out there. This is old news. This is about a case that was closed last March.

Scott Walker when asked about Mary Burke

 Walker,  who has not officially launched his re-election campaign, said in an interview with Wisconsin Eye that electing Burke would be a mistake and a return to the past. Burke, he said, "implemented the policies of Jim Doyle. Those are the policies that, in his last term, saw the state lose more than 133,000 jobs."

We need to stop talking about  Kelly Rindfleisch's email's as they are old news so we can instead focus on Jim Doyle.   FYI: Jim Doyle was Governor of WI from 2003-2011. 

Then Assembly "leader"(term used loosely) joined in the confusion.  

Robin Vos on Scott Walker and the John Doe case:

 "Gov. Walker once again has done nothing wrong," said state Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester). "It's important to know that this is a complete vindication of what he did and once again a reaffirmation of how he did things right."

Robin Vos on eliminating Bill Kramer from his "leadership" role:

 “By the unanimous vote that we saw today, I think our colleagues were definitely convinced that the actions were reprehensible and should not have ever occurred, and certainly something that he should be embarrassed about,” Vos said.

Total number of actual criminal charges;  Scott Walker - 0 ; Bill Kramer - 0.  

But wait there's more!   

Robin Vos thinks Bill Kramer is not fit to serve:

MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos says that ousted Majority Leader Bill Kramer should not seek re-election, but whether he resigns is up to him.

Robin Vos on recalls:

 Robin Vos, a Republican lawmaker from Burlington says only politicians facing criminal charges should be recalled.

Total criminal charges Bill Kramer is currently facing - 0.

Do these people ever even listen to themselves speak?

The Walker Camoflage

By Jeff Simpson

The GOP Governor's Association, led by Chris Christie, has made an appearance in WI, attacking Democratic candidate Mary Burke(not promoting their righty darling Scott Walker's policies).  

Of course this ad spend of deep into 6 figures, entitled "backwards" was authorized by Chris Christie who apparently thought it was titled  "backup".

Internal emails released Wednesday strongly suggest that a top aide to New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie orchestrated massive traffic problems in Fort Lee, New Jersey, last fall as an act of political retribution against the city's Democratic mayor.

What is most telling is that the criticisms labeled at Mary Burke, still make Scott Walker look bad since his record is one of massive failure, even compared to Jim Doyle and the global recession of 2008.

 The 30-second TV ad blasts Burke, a former Wisconsin commerce secretary, for job losses during the administration of former Gov. Jim Doyle.

*  No chance to even come close to Scott Walker's 250,000 jobs promise.  

*  Wisconsin leads the nation in jobless claims(so proud).

*  In what has become an almost daily story, another WI institution is closing their doors! 

Did I mention the job creation promise?

It also accuses Trek, the family company for which Burke served as an executive, of outsourcing jobs to China.

*  At least she has experience in the business world and the private sector unlike career politician Scott Walker.   

*  Under Scott Walker's reign, WI leads the country in jobs outsourced to China! 

* Then of course there is this! 



   

Mary Burke has flaws, and is running a horrendous campaign but there is a reason no one will bring in outside money to tout the competence and record of Scott Walker.  Walker's record needs to be covered up! 


Here is Scott Walker with Communist China's president Xi Jinping:

 

Republicans Celebrate Governor Doyle's Job Numbers

On Thursday, Scott Walker and the Republicans and the corporate media were celebrating the job numbers that came out:

Wisconsin gained 62,072 private-sector jobs between December 2010 and December 2012, the state Department of Workforce Development said Thursday. 

The count, based on a set of employment data considered to be the most reliable, had Republicans applauding the performance of Gov. Scott Walker.

My own gerrymandered state representative, Mike Kuglitsch, whose only claims to fame are running a bowling alley in the middle of nowhere and being a good little Teapublican, had this to say:

Earlier this week, the United States Department of labor released its quarterly jobs numbers. The report showed that Wisconsin has gained over 60,000 jobs since Governor Scott Walker took office in 2011. This is a major step in the right direction as Wisconsin lost nearly 134,000 jobs under Governor Jim Doyle's last session. 

We have seen increased revenue projections and Wisconsin is really starting to it turn around. Our state was recently rated the 17th best state to do business in, which is up three spots from last year. I happy to see our reforms working and the thought of constant job loss is a thing of the past. 

Although this report is positive, there is still much work to be done. We must ensure that Wisconsinites keep as much as their hard earned money in their pockets, while expanding a workforce that can continue to put Wisconsin on the forefront of economic development.

All I can say is that I hope they didn't break out the expensive bubbly and I hope they all sent former Governor Jim Doyle a big thank you card.

The spin they are trying to put on this is as utterly ridiculous as when the MacIver Institute (for the Criminally Insane) tried to tell us that Walker had surpassed the halfway point to his 250,000 job creation promise.

To understand what I am getting at, look at the first half of the first sentence I cited above:

Wisconsin gained 62,072 private-sector jobs between December 2010 and December 2012...

Walker wasn't even sworn into office until January 2011, so already they are using a month of data from the Doyle era.

Secondly, look at the actual job numbers for all of 2011:

As the gentle reader can plainly see, job growth was indeed growing at a healthy clip during the first six months of Walker's term.  But this was all before Walker's policies and budget were in place or had a chance to take effect.

The job growth during the time that Doyle's budget and policies were still in effect is around 30,000 jobs - about half of the total Walker is claiming to have created.

Or to put it in other words, it's taken Walker three times as long to create the same amount of jobs that Doyle did in the last six months that his budget and policies were in place.

Even if one were so gullible as to take the Republican's claims at face value, when Wisconsin's jobs numbers are compared to the rest of the Midwest or the rest of the country, the growing job growth gap is horribly depressing:

As the gentle reader will note, the gap really started growing as first Act 10 kicked in and then exploded again as Walker's first budget took effect.

It should also be noted that the numbers that Walker and the Republicans are including do not include the more than 10,000 public sector jobs lost during this period.

Once you figure in the public sector job loss and take out the jobs that Governor Doyle brought in, that leaves the Republicans touting about 20,000 to 25,000 job gain in an 18 month time period.  That number is worse than what they projected if Walker and his Republican cronies had done nothing.

This horrifically poor job growth and the further lagging behind our neighbors are what the Republicans are celebrating.

Ah, but with this lot of miscreants, the one thing we should always remember is that there is more.  There is always more.

The reason that the Republicans are trying to force their spin on the job numbers so much is that the real news is even much worse:

But the numbers, while showing growth, leave Walker well behind pace on fulfilling his much-discussed promise to create 250,000 private-sector jobs during his four-year term. 

And another set of employment data - this one preliminary and subject to revision - showed Wisconsin losing an estimated 22,600 private-sector jobs during April of this year.

I can see why Walker and his allies are trying to draw the public's eye away from these numbers.  The only thing with a higher loss number would be the hairs on top of Walker's head.

In summary, the truth of the matter is that Walker cannot claim to have created 62,000 jobs in two years.  He actually could take credit for only half of that number and then it still took him 18 months to do even that little.  Even worse, that paltry number is grossly inflated if one only considers family-supporting jobs.

When all the true data is considered, Walker is much shorter of his promise than even what their spin would have us believe.

Instead of celebrating and bragging about these numbers, the Republicans should be groveling and begging for our forgiveness.

The Numbers Don't Lie, But Walker Sure Does

I have repeatedly pointed out in this here blog that Scott Walker's job numbers are really much worse than advertised.  The right wing media gives him credit for creating some 37,000 jobs since taking office.  I still hold that many of those jobs were due to the carryover effect of Governor Jim Doyle's budget and policies, as this chart clearly demonstrates:

But even if you give Walker the benefit of the doubt, he is still doing a pathetic job in addressing the most overwhelming issue facing this state.  It's even worse when one considers how he conned the voters into thinking that he would create 250,000 jobs in his first term.  What he has done is worse than if he had done nothing at all!

And as a textbook example of that which I speak, this story from last year has bubbled up to the top of the Cheddarspere again showing just how far Walker is willing to go to take credit for Doyle's hard work:

With that in mind, welcome to this week’s episode in the stirring adventures of Scott Walker – the ‘truth challenged’ Governor of Wisconsin.

Today’s chapter involves the Curt Manufacturing Company, a large manufacturer of trailer hitches located near Eau Claire, Wisconsin where the Governor traveled last week – with news cameras and writers in tow – to make a big fuss about providing the funding that will create 125 new jobs at the company.

No problem there. Anytime a new job is created in this country, that is reason, indeed, for a celebration.

In a news release, Walker said –

This project directly creates 125 new jobs and indirectly creates 129 jobs, resulting in $12.6million in annual wages right here in Wisconsin. By providing these funds, we are bringing quality jobs to Wisconsin while improving road access to Curt Manufacturing’s expanded facility.

Via Wisconsin Journal Sentinel

Way to go Governor!

And by ‘Governor’, I am, of course, referring to Governor Jim Doyle, Walker’s Democratic predecessor who is the one actually responsible for arranging the funding that created the 125 jobs.

In a December, 2010 press release (prior to Walker taking office) the Wisconsin Department of Commerce in the Doyle Administration announced that they were awarding Curt Manufacturing the $400,000 in tax credits and $11 million in tax-free bonds that would create the 125 new jobs.

It gets better. Where do you imagine this funding came from?

A transportation grant created in the dreaded Obama stimulus program-the very legislation Governor Walker never misses an opportunity to trash.

So confusing was the dog and pony show Walker created to take credit for someone else’s work, the media actually found themselves confused. Was Walker announcing 125 jobs in addition to the 125 the media knew the Doyle Administration had already created?

“That’s unfortunately not accurate,” said Jim McKissick, the spokesman for Curt Manufacturing.

When the Governor’s office handled the matter in its typically disingenuous way (pretending there was nothing to see here), Commerce Secretary Paul Jardin stepped into the breach and made the effort to explain it away by blaming the confusion on Curt Manufacturing.

Generally, the press releases or press conferences are tied around when the company wants to do something,” Jadin said. “Obviously, they want to do it with a governor present. That’s probably what occurred here.

Yes, that is probably what happened here.

Clearly the Governor was caught in an odd situation where the receiver of the grant wanted whatever Governor was in office to show up in person to highlight the good news coming to Eau Claire.

Or not – or at least not according to the president of Curt Manufacturing, Curt Tamborino.

“Walker’s office had called and said they wanted to do this final presentation with a press release in front of the media,” Tamborino said Friday.

Is there anything Walker won't lie about?

The Walker Budget Keeps On Working! Part XCCIV

Remember when Governor Jim Doyle invested in the University of Wisconsin so that it could be a world leader in the biotech field? Remember when Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk opened the door for biotech industries to take root and flourish, creating hundreds, if not thousands, of good paying jobs and putting Wisconsin on the map?

Man, I tell you, those were the days. The key word being "were."

In Fitzwalkerstan, Walker can't find two pennies to rub together for education, but can find over 200 million dollars to give to big businesses and big campaign donors. The results are predictable and they are not good for education or for business or for jobs:

Hologic Inc. will likely close its Madison facility 18 months or more after completing its pending acquisition of Gen-Probe Inc., according to a memo sent to employees.

Hologic, of Marlborough, Mass., gained a presence in Madison when it acquired Third Wave Technologies Inc., a maker of molecular diagnostic tests, in 2008. Hologic announced its $3.7 billion bid for Gen-Probe in April and has said it expects to complete the transaction in the third quarter.

Hologic has 150 employees in Madison, according to the 2012 Greater Madison area directory of high-tech companies published by Madison Gas & Electric Co.

Expense reductions will be completed during the next two months and would be implemented over an 18- to 24-month period after the acquisition closed, Rob Cascella, Hologic's chief executive, said in the memo, dated June 13.

All of the employees will be offered severance, the memo said.

"Through all of these extremely difficult times, I commit Hologic will be honorable and respectful," the memo said.

Hologic declined to comment about the memo or its plans for its Madison facility.

The article goes on to say that they hope some of the remaining companies pick up some of the workers. That will leave only 140 highly trained people to go on unemployment. Yay.

Raw Data + Cooked Books = Same Old Slop

So now that the recall election is over, the real official job numbers for 2011 (as opposed to the Walker official numbers) are out.  The numbers aren't as bad as originally believed to be, but they aren't great news either:

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on Thursday confirmed Gov. Scott Walker's assertion that Wisconsin did add jobs last year, though the federal agency scaled the total back a few thousand.

According to BLS, Wisconsin ended 2011 with 2,689,565 jobs, a 19,551 increase over the previous year. Those figures represent a 3,749 decrease from the quarterly census of employees and wages submitted by the state in May.

Those numbers are usually kept secret until the federal government signs off on them. The governor, however, broke with established protocol and released the figures early — less than two weeks before his recall election — in a move critics panned as overly political.

However, the new jobs numbers show Wisconsin lagged the rest of the country in job creation in 2011.

The roughly 20,000 jobs the state added last year ranked it about 40th in the country when compared with all 50 states.

And before anyone starts jumping up and down in excitement, saying that Walker created jobs, you'd better check your facts real close.

The reality is that Walker did not create any jobs, he just didn't lose as many as what was feared, as shown by this graph:

Yup, the blue line is the jobs that were created due to Governor Jim Doyle's budget and policies. The job losses didn't kick in until Walker's policies started putting their chokehold on the state's economy.  Also notice how they really plummeted as his budget kicked in.

Walker has has much to do with job creation as he does with the integrity of an Eagle Scout.

Absolutely nothing.

Defeating The Purpose

From the incomparable Stuart Carlson:

It would also go to explain why Scott Walker has not been creating the jobs that he claims he has.  His attacks on the public sector workers has only been backfiring on all of us for a year and a half now.

What burns me is that people are only now starting to realize that the jobs that Walker has been claiming came from Jim Doyle's budget and policies.  That's what I've been saying for a long time now.

Scott Walker jobbed Us

Shortly before the election, when Scott Walker used the fine folks(and public employees)at the Department of Workforce Development to game the system to pretend that he had actually created jobs in his year and a half as Governor. Here at CogDis, we told you he was not being honest, that the JOBS WERE NOT THERE! Thanks to our friends at Badger Democracy, who did an ORR (which surprisingly was delayed until after the election) we find out that Scott Walker was indeed lying.

Professor Laura Dresser (C.O.W.S.) puts things into perspective. Based on accepting Scott Walker’s anemic job growth of 19,000+ jobs; we are still over 200,000 jobs behind getting back to 2007 levels of employment. In addition, recently released wage data indicates that real wages in Wisconsin declined 5% from 2010-2011. The nationwide average was a 1.1% increase for the same period. Wisconsin growth under Scott Walker has been virtually non-existent. Dresser points out that either the small number of jobs created are low wage jobs, or employers are inflating the numbers of jobs reported in the census. Declining wages and stagnant job growth. Jobs numbers released early and unverified for political propaganda. Documentation of the numbers released only after the election, showing disputed information from what is reported internally and to the US Government.

 Our friends at political heat also broke down the numbers: 

A significant gain in jobs from the first six months, then a decline, a recovery, and then another decline in the following six months.

Overall, the first six months of 2011 -- again, when Doyle's budget was in play, not Walker's -- were a net gain. The last six months (Walker's budget) produced a net loss, halving the gains created in the first part of the year.

But, lo and behold, just weeks before the election was to take place, Walker released these numbers without the month-to-month breakdown. And the Department of Workforce Development refused to release them until after the recall. All we heard, then, was that more than 20,000 jobs were created in 2011. No context. No nothing.

Walker spun the numbers to make it sound as if he had been responsible for the job gains. In fact, he was responsible -- for cutting them in half.

We were duped. The job creation came under an entirely different budget. And after Walker passed his own budget, nearly 25,000 jobs were lost.

Walker out right lied yet again to get elected.   Could it be that is why he had to raise outrageous sums of money, because he knew he could never run on his actual record?  Does he care that 1,177,135 citizens of Wisconsin felt he should be fired after just 16 months on the job?  How many of those who voted for him, did so thinking he had actually created jobs during his short tenure?   

I hope during the upcoming brat fest, that the democrats ask him about why he would knowingly mislead the citizens of Wisconsin in such an important issue? 

Yes, Let Us Thank The Governor For Creating Jobs

Unless you've been drinking so much that you blacked out for the past 24 hours or so, you know that Scott Walker is claiming that he channeled his inner Kathleen Nicholaus and suddenly found nearly 60,000 jobs that weren't there just a few days ago.

There's been a lot of contention whether Walker's numbers are even real, much less accurate*.  Besides the highly suspicious timing of this sudden discovery, Walker has made it plenty obvious that his primary concern regarding the alleged job growth is not the benefit it would be for Wisconsin, but that it should be supporting his campaign to stay chief figurehead for the corporations that want to suck the lifeblood out of the state.  (To paraphrase a right wing talking point: They hate us for our wealth, our natural resources and our independence.)

But besides the highly questionable nature of this sudden revelation of the before-hidden jobs, there is something else that is highly noticeable by its absence about Walker's claim of job growth.

Here, go scour his press release regarding it and see if you notice what's missing.  I'll wait.

Did you notice what's missing?  No? Go and take another look see.

Did you see it yet? Or more accurately, did you not see it?

Walker's statements and all the reports that I've seen thus far are missing the monthly breakdown of Walker's Numbers of Mystery.  Walker is claiming that from December 2010 to December 2011, instead of losing 34,000 jobs, the state actually gained 23,000.  So the next question, for a cognitive dissident anyway, would be "When were those jobs gained?"

And that's what Walker doesn't want you to think about.

But we already know that answer:

According to the chart, Wisconsin gained about 35,000 jobs while Governor Jim Doyle's budget and policies were still in place.  Then, as soon as the effects of Walker's budget and policies kicked in, the state went through a six straight months of job loss.

So there was a job gain in 2011, but only in the first half.

And if you listen to the incessant ads from the Koch front groups and Team Walker (but I repeat myself), they'll tell you that if we elect Tom Barrett, we'll go back to the Doyle days.  Well, think about this, if Barrett had been elected in 2010, and if he did follow in Doyle's footsteps, we'd have seen about 70,000 jobs instead of the paltry 23,000 that Walker is claiming, if those numbers are even real.

In summary, I agree with Walker and the right wing zombie echo chamber in saying that we should thank the governor for creating what jobs he did.

Thank you, Governor Jim Doyle! I hope you're doing well.

*Pro tip for Team Walker: When you have to over-emphasize that the numbers are real and that the "data is irrefutable," that's a tell that you're most certainly lying your arses off.

Scott Walker: The Kathy Nickolaus Of Job Creators

Walker ciphering those new job numbers

Scott Walker is pulling all the stops on the extent he will lie to the voters in order to keep his job, at least until he is indicted.

The latest gimmick is that Walker is now claiming to have calculated the jobs numbers in a "more accurate" manner.  What Walker wants us to believe is that during the first year of his abbreviated term as governor, he didn't really lose 34,000 jobs, but had actually created 23,000.  And how convenient it is that he just so happened to do this three weeks before the recall election.

Whoo, boy! Where to start?

Did he pull a Kathy Nickolaus and find those jobs in an unsealed bag in the back of his closet?  Or did he really help create those jobs and forgot to hit the save button?

But seriously now, Walker's got some problematic issues regarding this claim.

First of all, even if one were to give Walker the benefit of the doubt on this, and ignore the fact that it doesn't allow a comparison to other states which have been shown to be doing much better than Wisconsin, it doesn't help him much:

Even using the more positive numbers from the quarterly census of businesses, the governor finished his first year just a fraction of the way toward meeting his target of 250,000 private-sector jobs in four years.

"It would certainly be nice if the particular year saw a 1% increase rather than a 1% decrease, but this remains a slow jobs recovery using anyone's numbers," said John Heywood, an economics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

But one would have to overlook a lot of things to go as far as giving him the benefit of the doubt.

For example, Walker has a notoriously bad time whenever it comes to numbers and math. Not only that, he's tried to do a similar stunt before and got busted out on it.

In 2009, when Walker was Milwaukee County Executive and prepping for his run for governor, he wanted to show that he had some real fiscal acuity, he started the year claiming a huge deficit and ended it with a huge surplus. But this miraculous $24 million turnaround was easily proven to be a lie:

In 2009, Scott Walker declared a fiscal emergency, stating that Milwaukee County faced a $15 million deficit. In order to address this, he ordered all county workers to start on a reduced work week schedule. This meant that all workers would only be putting in 35 hours per week instead of the standard 40 hours.

The arbitrator also found that Walker failed to prove that there was even a fiscal emergency, when an analysis by the county's auditor, Jerome Heer, found that there was only a minimal deficit, if even that. This was later reinforced when Walker claimed a $24 million turnaround resulting in a supposed $9 million surplus.

It should be noted that the supposed surplus from that year is coincidentally just about the same amount that the county "saved" by Walker's illegal furloughs, so that surplus has been basically wiped out.

Another problem with Walker's claim, if you really, really want to believe him is how those jobs came about.  This is something we have discussed before and is clearly illustrated in this chart:

As you can clearly see, the job growth phase of 2011 came when Governor Jim Doyle's budget and policies were still in effect.  It was only when Walker's policies like Act 10 took effect that the job losses started happening.  And as you can see in the chart, once the effects of Walker's budget started kicking in, the job loss accelerated.

So when Walker is saying that there was a job growth in 2011, what he is really saying is that he didn't lose as many jobs as what the Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers show.

Wouldn't make that a great slogan for Walker's campaign in these final weeks?

"Yeah, I suck at creating jobs! But just not as much as you think I suck!"

Well, If That's The Comparison He Wants To Make...

I've notice recently that Scott Walker has been trying to cover his losing job record by highlighting the three years before him, such as in this press release:

The Governor also noted that the state has put a stop to years of job loss. After Wisconsin lost 150,000 jobs over three years, the state created thousands of jobs this year, and the state’s unemployment rate is the lowest it’s been since 2008.

I don't know who's been advising him on his talking points, but I hope he keeps them.

First off, bragging about the lowest unemployment rate is a losing fight for him, since we already know that is only reflective of the people that have given up looking for employment in the jobs wasteland known as Fitzwalkerstan.

But does Walker really want to compare his record to Doyle's? 

The three years that Walker refers to, we were going through not just a national recession, but a global one.  And even one accepts Walker's numbers as factual, that means that Doyle saw Wisconsin lose 50,000 jobs a year.

But thanks to my co-author, Keith Schmitz, and this handy chart, we see what was happening in Walker's first year as governor:

The only job growth for the year happened as a leftover of the Doyle budget.  When Walker's policies started taking effect, the jobs started leaving like crazy.

In the last six months of 2011, when Walker's policies and budgets were in full force, the state lost some 40,000-45,000 jobs.  Or to put it more frankly, it took Walker half the time to lose nearly the same amount of jobs that he is accusing of Doyle losing over the course during an entire year.  And during Walker's term, the rest of the nation has been gaining jobs as the economy recovers from the recession, while Doyle had taken the brunt of it.

Perhaps he could use that as a campaign slogan: "If you thought Doyle was bad, I'm twice as bad!

Esenberg Fails To Make His Case

Rick Esenberg - MU law professor, GOP operative and Bradley Foundation employee - tries to defend Walker against the recall and fails miserably.

He starts out with the tired, old routine of "it's because the union bosses want the ease of having dues automatically deducted from the workers' checks."  This, of course, fails to account for the hundreds of thousands of non-union members who are also very much involved in the recall process.

I guess he just is afraid of taking on the right versus wrong argument.

But then he comes up with this paragraph (emphasis mine):

Jim Rowen complains that Walker did not campaign on collective bargaining reform but it is unclear how that supports a recall. As George Mitchell asks, would Jim have thought it appropriate to recall Governor Doyle for not campaigning on a tax increase? Do we want a principle that says that public officials cannot implement any policy that they did not mention during their campaign?

Mr. Esenberg's recall of recalls is quite faulty.

You see, my good buddies at the misnamed Citizens for Responsible Government did try to recall Doyle because of the tax issue.

Twice, in fact.

So, according Mr. Esenberg's logic, this would show that the Republicans actually set the precedent of recalling everyone they don't like, for a mere policy decision, nonetheless.

Alberta Darling's Rotten, Horrible, Miserable Week That Just Wouldn't End

Poor old Alberta Darling.

The poor woman has had a very bad week this week.

On Monday, we learned that Darling doesn't represent the people or the businesses in her district.  Who she represents isn't clear, but my guess is their last name rhymes with Koch.

Tuesday, she was a walking gaffe machine.  The problems she had included:

• Getting sued for not complying with open records laws, trying to conceal her contact with various right wing school-privatization groups.
• She couldn't name one business in her district that hired one person because of her policies.
• She admitted she had no confidence in her chances of winning.
• She was being forced to choose between her constituents and the hate-mongering teahadists.

Wednesday came and smacked Darling around again.

First there was the news that despite her claims (which is really just a talking point for the GOP) that their budget would give local governments the "tools" they need to balance their budgets despite the state slashing their shared revenue without care or forethought, the fact is her own constituents in Milwaukee County are looking at draconian cuts to service, including the once majestic parks system, transit routes that would have served the people and businesses she should be representing but isn't and endangering public safety by cutting holes in all the safety nets, due to her budget increasing Milwaukee County's already looming deficit by another $21 million.

Then there came a first person description of Darling's appearance at yesterday's Newsmaker Luncheon, which included less than glowing reports such as this quip:

On her on-again, off-again, on-again support for paying corrupt Milwaukee cops accused of rape? She claimed she,well, she just changed her mind, and that's what people want anyway, isn't it? Elected officials who can change their mind. Yep.

But she wouldn't change her mind about the disastrous budget repair bill, oh, no, what she repeatedly referred to as, "The Tools." On that, she praised herself and compared herself to her immigrant grandmother, who was "very brave."

You can read the whole thing at Uppity Wisconsin.

And speaking of that luncheon, it is also the starting point for Darling's biggest headache of today.

If the gentle reader would remember, I had this to say about her jobs gaffe at the luncheon:

Later, she appeared at the Newsmaker Luncheon at the Milwaukee Press Club. When she was asked to name one company, just one, that had created jobs because of the union busting and the draconian budget, she could only come up with that deer-in-the-headlights look.

Hours after this gaffe, her campaign called to list three companies that had added jobs, but with no mention of when or if how they were related to Darling's policies. For all we know, they were added well before any of the GOP's malarkey got under way.

I must be some kind of prophet.

The three companies her campaign named were Cambridge Major Laboratories, Johnson Controls and Bradley Corporation.

Well, this is where things went from bad to worse for Team Darling.

You see, the thing is that all of these companies have indeed created new jobs. But not because of Darling's efforts. If anything, they created them despite Darling's best efforts.

Cambridge Major Laboratories received a Department of Commerce Industrial Revenue Bond allocation worth $6 million from Governor Jim Doyle.

Johnson Controls received WEIF support from 2008-2009, and the project was funded by ARRA funds (stimulus money) that Governor Doyle was key in attaining for the company. Furthermore, Johnson Controls also benefited from Wisconsin Energy Independence investments including $500,000 for battery research and development. (Point of interest, both Scott Walker and Darling were against the stimulus.)

Bradley Corporation benefited from Wisconsin Economic Development Tax Credits, a program that was created by Doyle and the Democrats in 2009.

Since Darling likes to tie her opponent, Sandy Pasch with Doyle and his budget, then I reckon it's fair to say that Sandy Pasch gets the credit for creating all these jobs.

I would suggest that for her Thursday adventure, Darling should apologize for her lying and thank Pasch for helping to  create those jobs.  Then she could admit and apologize for the soaring unemployment in the state, the unbearable increase in fees, the gashing of education and the stripping of working men and women of their rights.

No, it won't make her look any better to the voters. But at least she would be telling the truth for once.

Then she should just read the writing on the wall and take an early retirement.  Then she could still get back to the golf course with a month of summer left.

Walker the Fraudulent

You knew it was only a matter of time.

When Scott Walker was campaigning on how he was going to create 250,000 jobs, even though he didn't (and still doesn't) have a plan on how to do this, the only thing getting jobbed was the voters that fell for that crap.

Because of that, you knew it was only a matter of time before he started to skirting the truth and taking credit for windfalls or for someone else's hard work.

Sure enough, as Dan Bice of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported, Walker did that very thing:

Consider it one more hurdle cleared by the first-term Republican governor in his quest to fulfill his campaign promise of creating 250,000 jobs in four years.

But wait a second.

Didn't Doyle announce the creation of 125 new jobs at the same business late last year?< Indeed he did. In a Dec. 16 news release, the Department of Commerce announced the Doyle administration was awarding Curt Manufacturing $400,000 in tax credits and $11 million in tax-free bonds under a program created by the federal government's 2009 stimulus package. In addition, state commerce officials said Altoona was receiving a $256,545 grant to upgrade a city road next to the company.

Doyle said the project would create 125 jobs and result in $12.8 million investment to the community.

To top off Walker's thievery, it should be noted that the funding Governor Doyle used was from President Obama's stimulus packet. You know, the same stimulus that Walker and other right wingnuts told us could not and would not create a single job.

But this was not Walker's only misrepresentation. After starting to catch flak for falsely taking credit for these jobs that Doyle and the stimulus plan had created, Walker tried to change the subject by saying he was only there at the insistence of the business owner. Guess what? Yup. That wasn't true either:

Besides, Jadin said, it's the company's call as to when something is announced publicly.

"Generally, the press releases or press conferences are tied around when the company wants to do something," Jadin said. "Obviously, they want to do it with a governor present. That's probably what occurred here."

Or not.

Company President Curt Tambornino said last week's news conference was initiated by the current governor.

"Walker's office had called and said they wanted to do this final presentation with a press release in front of the media," Tambornino said Friday.

The manufacturing boss said he submitted his applications for state help last summer.

For those of who had to contend with Walker for those eight long years that he was county executive, this is nothing new at all. Walker was continuously misrepresenting himself, claiming to be responsible for anything good, whether he was even aware of it ahead of time or not.

One of the most glaring examples of this was in 2008. They had just finished closing the books for 2007 and found that Milwaukee County had a $7 million surplus.  Walker, as one would suspect, tried to take credit for this.  However, in reality, he took himself out of that game, when he had vetoed that entire budget and washed his hands of it:

Darn right, said three county supervisors, Richard Nyklewicz Jr., Roger Quindel and John Weishan Jr. All pointed out that Walker vetoed the entire 2007 county budget, which was overridden by the County Board. That should deny him any bragging rights for the surplus, the supervisors said separately.

Furthermore, it was a board-led move to recraft the county's health insurance that provided such a windfall in savings that it offset other departmental deficits for '07, said Nyklewicz, the County Board's finance commitee[sic] chairman.

Rick Unger, writing at Forbes , claims that Walker taking credit for the jobs that Doyle had created was using stimulus, nothing short of plagiarism. That's one way to describe it alright.

But for those of us that have been going through this for years, we know it's just another  example of Walker committing plain old fraud.