Solidarity Fish Fry, Week 17: Well, That's A Fine Kettle Of Fish!

As advertised, last Friday was the seventeenth week for the Solidarity Fish Fry.

This one was no different than the other weeks in that there was good food, great solidarity and a bit of political discussion.

Upon arrival, seeing all the good people enjoying the solidarity and the abundance of tartar sauce, I saw Representative Chris Sinicki and her husband, Mike, who is a proud card-carrying union thug himself:

Well, OK, that isn't his union card he's holding, but there's nothing wrong with a fistful of fish either.

Sadly, while we did share some laughs, Rep. Sinicki had some bad news.  She said that the Republicans have 51 changes in store for unemployment insurance and are determined to ram them through committee and through both houses, regardless of what the UI Council has to say about things.

She said that the people should be ready to take action, for this is coming down the pike as soon as their done screwing with the mining bill.

But back to the fish fry, I had the extreme pleasure of dining with Kelley Albrecht, my blogdaughter Meg Moen (Cog Dis' own Meg!) and her friend, the fabulous Jenny G., who will talk your ear off if you let her:

Jenny on the left, Meg on the right

Other regulars were there as well, including the good folks from the Progressive Democrats of America.

But as we were dining, I looked up and saw none other than Vince Megna, the comic relief candidate for the state supreme court race.  I thought to myself how nice of him to come and support the union workers.

Except he didn't.

He and his companion headed straight to the non-union section.  With the help of Kelley, I was able to get a shot of him:

Megna is the gentleman in the white shirt.


Here's a blow up of him at his table.

So much for him being a man of the people.

As the gentle eater can see, if you miss a week, you miss a lot.

So don't miss out on any more.

Come join Randy, Meg and myself this Friday for Week 18.

And tell them that Cog Dis sent ya.

The Wisconsin Revolution In Politics

From the venerable Dominique Paul Noth, describing the next phase for the battle of Wisconsin versus Fitzwalkerstan:

What's happening on the Milwaukee North Shore is typical around the state. Articulate family-focused lifelong residents interested in politics but novices to public office have been stirred to run by all this obstinate resistance to facts, by the misguided focus on antique concepts of families and values rather than on modern children and communities.

Deals made behind doors in the State Capitol have been exposed to main streets and forced people to wonder about the overreach of Act 10 attacking basic collective bargaining or Act 43 forcing a redistricting tightrope of extreme partisanship or the broad effects of Act 32 cutting the local citizens' ability to solve education, health care and general services.

That's not what we sent people to Madison to do. That's the cry you hear around the state regardless of political history. Perhaps that's why people find their neighbors who step forward to run far more credible than those paid pretend-neighbor outsiders from Koch-funded ugly rallies against health care, contraception and Obama's birth record.

There has been a widespread emergence of people everyone knows from down the street who are now running for office whatever the odds. It seems quite legitimate in contrast to the coordinated Tea Party outrage. It's an uncoordinated but now active and necessary outbreak of citizenship, a groundswell of civic involvement to slowly restore sanity and progress. Noted one political consultant, "These are not people who can be dismissed as some sort of flaming liberal activist."

Do read the rest as he goes on to introduce Cris Rogers, who is taking on Paul Ott. Also in the article are Kelley Albrecht and Tanya Lohr.

Recall Robin

Robin Vos, is set on changing the recall rules. As we have come to expect from Robin Vos, he is very estranged from the truth.  Let's take a look at what he has to say and help him out.

Thankfully, it has become crystal clear that people across our state have had enough. It's time to recall the recalls.It's completely understandable that there's voter fatigue.

You can tell how "fatigued: the voters were by the impressive 58% turnout! 

When legislators crafted the recall provision for the state constitution in 1926, most state officials except state senators had two-year terms. The recall was intended to be used only in extreme cases and until now rarely was used. It was not meant to remove officials over one vote that a special interest group didn't like.

 Let's ask Marquette Law Professor Fallone:

 This statement is objectively false. The recall provisions contained in the Wisconsin State Constitution were never intended to be limited in such a fashion. The original design of the right of recall is, in fact, intended to permit voters to recall elected officials for virtually any reason so long as the procedural mechanisms of the State Constitution are followed.

 Ouch, Robin Vos is beyond stretching the truth at this point, but lets continue, because now he revises history:

If we don't recall the recalls, lawmakers will be in constant campaign mode, and taxpayer dollars will continue to go down the drain. We also don't want our elected leaders to shy away from the tough votes in fear of being recalled. Following the defeat of the mining legislation this past session, there was an effort to begin recalling state Sens. Dale Schultz and Bob Jauch. While we didn't agree with their vote against the jobs bill, it shouldn't be enough to warrant a recall.

Mr, Vos forgets that he was one of the people who advocated the most, to run fake democrats in the primaries, thus costing our great state hundreds of thousands of dollars:

 “We are encouraging Republicans to vote in the Democratic primaries,” state Rep. Robin Vos (R-Rochester),

Wait, there is more, (there is always more).   Vos points out that there was an effort to recall Sens, Schultz and Jauch for their vote against the bill that Gogebic Taconite Mining company wrote(which was never a jobs bill).

Yet this is the perfect example for why the recalls do not need to be messed with.  When Shrill LaBarre, tried to recall Senator Jauch, she massively failed.   Which shows that if you do your job and represent your constituents, you will not get recalled.   Also the people in Wisconsin understood that the Robin Vos mining bill was not a jobs bill but a giveaway to the Gogebic!  The people of Wisconsin also understand thatthe Schultz/Jauch bipartisan mining bill, was the actual jobs bill and it is too bad the fitzgerald family would not bring it to the floor for a vote.  Once again the republicans put the blind far right partisanship over the peoplel of WI.

I actually think we do not recall a politician for writing a ridiculous LTE(we would be too busy and there are even more ridiculous letters by politicians than this).  I also think that we should not recall a politician over one vote(for the record, none of these recalls were over one vote).

However, as Vos says "We need to limit recalls to a malfeasance in office"! let's take a look at that.

mal·fea·sance

 [mal-fee-zuhns] Show IPA

noun Law .

the performance by a public official of an act that is legally unjustified, harmful, or contrary to law; wrongdoing (used especially of an act in violation of a public trust).

 We are limiting recalls to malfeasance in office, it doesn ot look good for Robin Vos's career.  Let's look at his record.

1.  Vos has perpetually lied about the recall results in Racine by crying fraud when there is none there! It has gotten so bad that the GAB has pointed out it is HARMFUL to the election process.    

2.  Vos recently blatantly broke the law by accepting tens of thousands of dollars of legal services for "free" and would not reveal who paid for them.   An ethics violation that was very much in CONTRARY TO LAW.

3.  Vos's only real contribution as a member of the legislature is to write bills that personally help him financially.   Which of course falls under the definition of "wrongdoing (used especially of an act in violation of a public trust)".

4.  Vos has spent his time as Wisconsin chair of ALEC, getting flown around the country(also at taxpayer expense) and was a key figure in the top secret, incredibly expensive, partisan, unethical redistricting process.   Which falls under ALL of the definition of Malfeasance.   
  
Is the thrice divorced, ethically void Robin Vos  really the person we want changing our state Constitution? I do however admire him attempting to change the rules, but still allowing for his own recall.   There is a reason that a politician as morally bankrupt and willing to lie as robin vos would want to remove the checks and balances on politicians.  If you are that bad at your job, of course you do not want checks and balances.  


The question is do we let him??

Let's put someone in office who is NOT a clown for the secret moneyed interest of ALEC , someone who cares about morals, and ethics and actually representing their district!   


That person is Kelley Albrecht, find her on facebook here and her website here!