Paul Ryan Denounces WISGOP Racism

By Jeff Simpson

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan has had enough of the Wisconsin Republicans and called them out in a press conference yesterday.

"If a person wants to be the nominee of the Republican Party, there can be no evasion and no games. They must reject any group or cause that is built on bigotry. This party does not prey on people's prejudices," House Speaker Paul Ryan told reporters on Capitol Hill.

Obviously Mr. Ryan is sick of such shenanigans as Rep. Bob Gannon's blatant racism and hatred of minority youth, and knows that there is no place for that in todays society.

Then in an innocuous vote to name a Post Office after the late great Maya Angelou, Wisconsin's own Glenn Grothman was one of 9 openly racist Republicans to vote against it!

According to the Post, Grothman went on the House floor and said, "I think people should investigate Maya Angelou a little bit, and I’ll suggest perhaps if you want to investigate a little bit further that perhaps you Google ‘Maya Angelou’ and look at other articles in places like the American Thinker or the American Spectator.”
After Angelou's death in 2014, those publications noted her "embrace of radical leftist politics in the 1960s — including sympathies for Fidel Castro and interactions with Malcolm X," the Post said.
At President Bill Clinton's 1993 inauguration, Angelou recited a poem, "On the Pulse of Morning."The measure to name the post office to honor Angelou passed on a vote of 371-9-1, with one member voting present.

While Mr. Grothman says he does not like who she talked to in the 60's, I think it is fair to say there is something else about Ms. Angelou that he does not like and was the motive behind his vote(can you guess what it is?).




By the way Googling Maya Angelou and I found this:

Maya Angelou was born as Marguerite Johnson on April 4th, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri and raised in St. Louis and Stamps, Arkansas. Maya Angelou became one of the most renowned and influential voices of our time. With over 50 honorary doctorate degrees Dr. Maya Angelou became a celebrated poet, memoirist, educator, dramatist, producer, actress, historian, filmmaker, and civil rights activist.

The biggest surprise though, is that Paul Ryan would speak about something that so directly affects his good friend Scott Walker.   From Mr. Walker's race baiting dog whistles in his campaign speeches to the incredible racism that was exhibited in the #walkerdocs, the blatant racism he exhibits on a daily basis was too much for Mr. Ryan to take anymore.  

Kudos to Mr. Paul Ryan for denouncing the racism in Wisconsin, especially of his old friend Scott Walker.

As Ms. Angelou says:

“I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better.”
― Maya Angelou

 Hopefully the corrupt group of politicians we are dealing with here in Wisconsin will be caged birds in the near future and we can hear them sing from the stand.


 

Mr. Esenberg, I Have My Facts Straight!

By Jeff Simpson

Recently, on Purple WI, I called out Mr. Esenberg and his right wing organization, Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty(WILL), for filing a  frivolous lawsuit against the Madison Metropolitan School District and the good people of Dane County.  

After a personal insult, Mr. Esenberg took exception to shining the light on his organization and motivations.   Mr. Esenberg called me out on what he felt were some inaccuracies in my story.   I am not one that likes inaccuracies, so I appreciate the attempt to clear up anything that might not be correct.  Unfortunately Mr. Esenberg failed a few times.

Let's shine a light a little bit brighter:

1.     Getting attacked by lefties is not bad for business when you run a conservative/libertarian non-profit and, in any event, everyone should be willing to face criticism. 

First off Mr. E, maybe we should start off with the definition of libertarian.  

Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and freedom of choice, emphasizing political freedom, voluntary association and the primacy of individual judgment.

I am not sure where suing a duly elected school board that you have absolutely no connection to, fits into your libertarianism but politics in Wisconsin have been bizarro world lately anyway.

I also did not know that you were a "non-profit", so I did some checking.  Bradley Foundation has given you at least $1,750,000, and by your admission of 35% that puts your operating budget north of $3,000,000.   Which puts you approximately 3 times more of an operating budget than our local Domestic Abuse Intervention Services(DAIS) in Dane County.  

An even closer look shows me that you made approximately $210,000from WILL alone.  To stay with our theme, the Executive Director of DAIS makes less than $64,000/yr.  Also as an aside, average teacher salary in Wisconsin is approximately $52,000/yr. 

As the great Maya Angelou used to say - "When people show you who they are, believe them!"   Its interesting with so many charities and non-profits struggling in WI, the Bradley Foundation makes sure this one does not. 

As for Michael Grebe telling you what to do, doesn't he do that when he donates such massive amounts of money?  While $1,750,000 might not be a vast amount of money to you, it is to much of the rest of Wisconsin.   As Upton Sinclair so keenly observed "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.".






2.   A quick look at the facts,  you were not going to settle until the board changed.  Americans for Prosperity, came in and helped two new right wing board members get elected to the board.    Once they were in they quickly settled with you in a 4-3 vote.   One of those votes, arguably the deciding vote, was cast by the plaintiffs step father.   Those are facts, NOT opinions.  

3.  You need to take up your wording issues with the Wisconsin Supreme Court, Patrick Marley and the Journal Sentinel:

 The state Court of Appeals on Tuesday kept in place - at least for now - a lower court's ruling striking down parts of Gov. Scott Walker's union law as unconstitutional. 

I did not go to law school, but I think I know what striking down parts as unconstitutional means.  

4.    Now you are really out of your league, when touting the "wonders" of ACT 10.  

           *   one of the things that we like about Act 10 is that it permits school districts to treat teachers like professionals
 
         -  You are treating them like professionals by NOT allowing them a seat at the table?

           *   It allows them to use bonuses and merit pay to reward good teachers.

         -    Merit pay has proven to be a massive failure in many aspects of business and it absolutely does not and can not work in a school setting.   Would love to hear how you think it would.    How exactly will we decide who gets the merit pay?    Details please! 

           *  It is the provisions for health insurance and pension contributions - both of which cost taxpayers quite a bit of money. It is the negotiation of work rules that protect non-performers and impede flexibility. It is the coerced "agency fee" payments - exacted from teachers who do not wish to financially support the union.  

           -   UGGG!!!  Where to even begin here.   Madison Teachers already contribute 7% of their wages to their pension.   Which to many teachers meant a solid $5-600 month pay cut.    Madison Schools have the ability, via Collective Bargaining to charge employees yup to 10% of the premium of their health insurance but to date have chosen not to. 

               MTI and MMSD collectively bargained during the last four years a total of 1.75%.   The last four years have brought us a Cost of Living increase of 8.33%.  For those scoring at home, that means the members of MTI, under the Walker administration, have taken a 6.58% base salary pay cut(not including health care/pensions).     Thank you for all you do. 

              As for your other baseless claims, schools have always had the ability to get rid of non-performers, you just needed to document it and have just cause.  Now Schools can get rid of anyone for anything.   The only people who we have a hard time getting rid of for non-performance is politicians!  

            The "agency fee" claim is also ridiculous.  If you are having a hard time with the union, you have two options, run for union representative, or get 50%+1 signatures on a card to end the union and its ended immediately.   Unions are democracy in the workplace and you can get active or end it if you get enough people to join you.  If not then you have to pay for the benefits they give you.  

But Wait there's more:

                *   If I want my school district to cut taxes, fire incompetent teachers or teach the classics and improve STEM education,   

                -     Ummm, Mr.  E.  We live in a Constitutionally Limited Democratic Republic, we elect representatives to "represent us"  in their local areas.    If you want your school district to cut taxes, fire incompetent teachers, teach the classics and improve STEM education, you have two options.   Run for your local school board OR get someone elected who believes in the same thing.   Just a quick aside, you can not do all four of those things at once.     

                 *  Finally, Mr. Simpson says we are "attacking public schools." That would be true only if "public schools" were synonymous with unions and the adults who run the schools. 

                  -   Who do you think comprises the membership of the teacher's union?  Hint - it starts with a "T" and ends with "eachers".   So yes they are synonymous.  

Finally  ----   

                *  Public schools in Wisconsin - and in the US generally - have enjoyed substantial real increases over the past 30-50 years. We spend a lot more on K-12 education than we used to spend and more than just about any other nation on earth. Yet we have not seen corresponding increases in educational attainment or outcomes and we do not compare well with other countries - all of whom seem to do more with less. We don't necessarily want to reduce spending.

                 - I can speak to my district specifically, we have CUT over $5,000,000 from our budget in the last five years.   That means we have not had a "real increase" in as far back as I can remember.  

                -   We do spend more on K-12 Education than just about any nation on earth BUT that is because we are the only industrialized country in the world that does not have a form of universal healthcare.  If you take healthcare out of the equation, and we drop to the mid twenties in terms of spending on our K-12 education.    

                -   We do not want to reduce spending?  Tell that to our Governor who cut spending on education more than anyone else in our history!    I would hate to see what would happen to our public schools if he wanted to reduce spending.  

I could go on but that is enough for now.  

PS:  Mr. Eseneberg, since you asked, what I think about ACT10.  I know it sucked almost $3 BILLION dollars from our economy which has seriously hampered our recovery from the great recession.   Politifact agreed with me.  
 

Scott Walker 's Priorities

By Jeff Simpson

Some people can spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on the best legal representation in the country to make sure that they keep a layer between themselves and actual criminal charges. 

Others, in a matter of unthinking seconds, do something stupid that unfortunately hangs over their shoulders.

People were very upset when a judge excused murder in Texas recently, with the excuse of affluenza.   However, affluenza has been a problem with our justice system for as long as we have had a justice system.   The problem, comes when the people who benefit from affluenza, do not understand that they are, and render harsh judgements on others who are not so lucky.

No better example of this exists than right here in Wisconsin, so much so, it even made the New York Times.

Eric Pizer comes from small town WI, Boscobel to be exact, and when Mr. Pizer was still in high school, he knew he wanted to serve his country:

 A straight-up Marine, he had committed to the corps even before his high school graduation in 2000, and was at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina a year later when an officer interrupted a class on sexually transmitted diseases to share the latest from Lower Manhattan.

We got bombed, boys, the officer announced. We’re going to war.

 Mr. Pizer, like many others, wanted to serve his country, but at the time, no one knew how complex and intense that service would be:

 Mr. Pizer spent half of 2003 in Kuwait and Iraq, fueling tanks and trucks in a tense environment. He returned for seven more months in 2004, this time as a corporal who felt so responsible for the “newbies” on his team that he extended his tour by two months.

 Mr. Pizer felt a responsibility to his men, and would not go home until he knew they were safe.  Mr. Pizer, home on leave, trying to leave the demons of Iraq behind him for a while(he still had three months left of duty) was partying with friends and chasing girls.  

Now he was cutting the September cool of a southwestern Wisconsin night, bound for Boscobel to hang out with a buddy’s cousin and two other women he had never met before.

The men and women drank and played cards in the cousin’s garage, then headed to Snick’s Fin ‘n Feather to shoot some pool and drink some more. When they returned to the garage, two local men, one of them named Steven Frazier, stepped in to disrupt the free-and-easy night.

 Typical, in small town WI, boys will be boys, especially when beer and women are thrown into the testosterone mixBefore long things get quickly out of control, and as so often happens, things also quickly get back into control. 

Mr. Frazier believed that an out-of-towner — not Mr. Pizer — had gotten a little too familiar with one of the women: his wife. There soon followed beer-fueled shoves and shouts about straying hands and absent wedding rings.

Mr. Pizer, 6-foot-2 and 210 pounds, and Mr. Frazier, 5-foot-10 and 140 pounds, both claim to have been trying to keep the peace. But Mr. Pizer says that he heard Mr. Frazier threaten to kill one of his buddies, saw movement and reacted with his right hand.

“I just popped him once,” he said.

 Mr. Pizer, willingly accepted the punishment for his instant overreaction:

 That pop pushed Mr. Frazier’s nose nearly two inches to the right. He went to the hospital, while Mr. Pizer went to a bar nearly 30 miles away, where, he says, he all but held out his hands to be cuffed when the police found him.

The problem is, Mr. Pizer, who had previously never been in trouble, did not know at the time exactly how harsh the punishment would be.  See Mr. Pizer did not have Diane Hendricks writing him checks so he could hire John Gallo and Michael Steinle to help him duck the charges.  

Mr. Pizer finished the last three months of his Marine hitch in North Carolina, then returned to learn the sobering news that his status as a first-time offender, just back from war, was not enough to convince the prosecutor, Anthony J. Pozorski Sr., to reduce the felony battery charge to a misdemeanor.

Back then, Mr. Pizer did not fully understand the consequences of having a felony on his record. “I had never been in trouble before,” he said. “I wasn’t quite prepared.”

Fast forward ten years, and now Mr. Pizer, a lifelong Wisconsin resident, veteran, father and contributing member of society(how not been in trouble since) and has tried his best to make amends for those few stupid seconds in 2004.   He has even reached out,  apologized, and made amends to Mr. Frazier.  

More time passed. Then, a few months ago, an organization called Ridge and Valley Restorative Justice asked Mr. Frazier whether he would meet with the man who broke his nose. After a month of “sorting it out,” he says, he agreed to meet one February evening.

Now, in Boscobel’s community center, next to the Art Deco movie theater, two nervous men in their early 30s talked at length about one night from their early 20s, while two representatives from Restorative Justice mediated.

Mr. Pizer explained that Iraq had probably wound him up. He said that he liked to make people laugh, and usually avoided fights at all cost — except on this one night. Mr. Frazier said that, well, this one night had affected his looks, his breathing, and even his children.

“I don’t think I said sorry more times in my entire life,” Mr. Pizer said. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. It was never my intention to get into a fight that night. I never meant to.” They talked some more. Then Mr. Pizer asked for forgiveness.

About 85 miles to the east, in the Capitol in Madison, the power of forgiveness goes untapped. But here in Boscobel, Mr. Frazier studied the penitent man before him, and then said it:

        “I forgive you.”

Mr. Pizer felt a release, and stuck out his right hand. It was received in a good, firm grip.

 See that is how life works on this crazy spinning globe.  People, especially young boys, do things that are stupid all the time.   Then, hopefully, they realize that is not what makes you a man.  What makes you a man is when you realize what you did was stupid and accept the punishment and make amends and move forward.   As the late great Maya Angelou said:

“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” - Maya Angelou

The problem Mr. Pizer has now, is he longs to make a better life for himself and his family and he wants to continue to serve the public as a police officer.  However as a felon he is unable to legally carry a gun.  

The only way he can move on with his life's goals is to receive a pardon from Governor Scott Walker.    The problem Mr. Pizer faces, is that Governor Scott Walker refuses to issue pardons.   Scott Walker even acknowledges that there are thousands of people that are deserving of pardon's, but he inexplicably, has no interest in actually doing so. 





Scott Walker, Governor of the State of Wisconsin, feels its more important to spend weekends begging disgusting billionaires for money than to spend a few minutes with a lifelong Wisconsin veteran who just needs a break.   

 I guess Mr. Pizer has not donated enough money to get his story heard.   

Maya Angelou also had another famous quote:

 “When someone shows you who they are believe them; the first time.”
― Maya Angelou 

How many times does Scott Walker need to show us who he is before we believe him?