Republicans Want To Hand Hen House To The Foxes

Since its creation, Scott Walker's Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) (or to be more accurate, Walker's Economy Destroying Cronies) has been plagued with problems. It has lost tens of millions of taxpayer dollars through poor oversight, risky loans and just plain graft and corruption.

Things got so bad that the Republicans had to fire the chairman of the board, Walker himself. But even then, the bad news kept coming when an audit showed just how sloppy the oversight was and how many bad loans went to Walker's campaign donors.

To deal with that round of bad news, the Republicans did not make moves to correct the problems with WEDC. Instead, they proposed with doing away with the audit bureau. That would be like being diagnosed with high blood pressure and instead of quitting smoking or eating healthier, just shooting the doctor.

Now, two Republican Wisconsin state legislators, Senator Rick Gudex and Representative Rob Hutton, have come up with an equally inane idea - taking WEDC and handing it completely over to the private sector:

Gudex and Hutton introduced a bill that would remove all four legislators from the board and replace them with people from the private sector. In a memo seeking co-sponsors the two lawmakers wrote that representatives from the private sector can provide better firsthand experience in economic development initiatives. They said the Legislature would retain oversight of the agency through its economic development committees and biennial state audits.

"We believe this change will bring additionally needed expertise to the board, while at the same time fostering more open discussion and engagement," they wrote.

A Barca spokeswoman had no immediate comment. Lassa issued a statement blasting Gudex and Hutton, saying their plan to improve WEDC is to remove the only board members accountable to the public.

"This is just one more attempt by the Republicans to draw a veil of secrecy over state government," Lassa said. "First Gov. Walker tries to wash his hands of WEDC, and now Sen. Gudex and Rep. Hutton want to walk away, too. But neither the governor nor majority party legislators can absolve themselves of WEDC's problems by looking the other way."

Keep in mind that the people that are making the everyday decisions and make these bad loans and giveaways are from the private sector.

Between the proposal to hand over WEDC completely to the private sector and to "reform" the audit bureau, not only do the Republicans want to hand the hen house completely over to the foxes, they want to put euthanize the guard dog.

Be On The Lookout!

 

By Jeff Simpson

While the Cancer Treatment Bill passed yesterday in the Senate 30-2(with the coward Scott Fitzgerald voting for it - Leah Vukmir and Paul Farrow casting votes against(and should be severly punished the next time their name is on a ballot).  

Now it goes to the Assembly where thrice divorced and dating a lobbyist speaker Robin Vos has taken enough campaign donations from Big pharma to block this bill from coming to a vote.  

Mike McCabe wrote the following on Facebook this morning.
The cancer drug bill is being blocked in the state Assembly too, despite the fact the legislation is supported by at least 61 of the Assembly’s 99 members, including all 39 Democrats and 22 Republicans.
Assembly Republicans have received nearly $287,000 in political donations from interests opposing the legislation. The top recipient is the Republican Assembly Campaign Committee ($43,700), the leadership PAC controlled by Speaker Robin Vos. Vos himself is fourth on the list of leading recipients, with $16,400 in donations from bill opponents to his personal campaign committee. Another opponent of the cancer drug bill, Representative John Nygren, who is co-chair of the powerful Joint Finance Committee, is second on the list of recipients

There you go Cancer victims from WI.  Robin Vos has officially valued your life at less than $16,400.  People in the 63rd District must be so very proud of their rep.   

The rest of the republicans in the Assembly are such cowards, that they refuse to state publicly if they support the bill or not!  

When asked in the Capitol Tuesday, here's a sampling of those who wouldn't say if they were for or against the bill.
Rep. Mike Kuglitsch (R-New Berlin): "I really don't have an opinion."
Rep. Daniel LeMahieu (R-Cascade): "I'm not saying anything about oral chemo."
Rep. Duey Stroebel (R-Saukville): "We're still working that out."
Rep. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green): "We'll talk about it Thursday."
Rep. Rob Hutton (R-Brookfield): "I'm still discerning it."
Rep. Mary Williams (R-Medford): "Uh, I'm not going to talk to you."
Rep. Tyler August (R-Lake Geneva): "I have to take a look at it."
Rep. Rob Swearingen (R-Rhinelander): "I'm going to wait for caucus on Thursday."

Nothing says conviction and backbone like "I am going to wait for caucus."   Swearingen needs to be told how to think behind closed doors apparently.

One person notably absent(I wonder if Vos is threatening to hold his paycheck or sending State troopers to his house?) is the face of the republican party, former majority leader, Wild Bill Kramer (R-Waukesha).   

Kramer is AWOL and collecting taxpayer money and benefits!   Must be nice to not have to show up to work and still get full pay and benefits! 

Seriously though, just in case there is something seriously wrong with Mr. Kramer beyond the normal republican sense of entitlement and lack of personal responsibility, we at CogDis want to help.  

We will be rolling these out statewide soon(H/T Phill Scarr): 

If you see republican representative Kramer, DO NOT ATTEMPT TO APPREHEND OR CONVERSE WITH, as he is known to be drunk and dangerous.


Please call republican moral leader Robin Vos:

Toll Free:  888-534-0063

Madison Office:  608-266-3387

Home Phone:  262-514-2597

 

 

 

 

 

Fewer Lies Please!

For some reason, unbeknownst to any logical thinking person, Jim Wigderson writes a column for an actual newspaper.  The problem is Wigderson is just a paid hack for the Mcgyver Institute, a right wing shadow organization based in WI, that has deep ties with some not very good people!  

Allowing Wiggy column space really diminishes the quality of the overall product, and I would highly recommend NOT being a subscriber to that paper.   Jimmy's latest column was one that if you have come to expect lies propaganda and deceit, you would not be disappointed.

Wigderson attempts to try and diminish the craziness of the right of people like Republican elected officials Kapenga and Pridemore!     Of course whenever someone on the right pretends to object to republican insanity, they perpetually do it using false equivalency. 

in recent years, the theories have had a poisoning effect on politics. Many on the Democratic left and in the Libertarian Party believe that the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center were really controlled detonations by agents of the Bush administration.

Quick question, how many of your left leaning friends, family or acquaintances think that the Bush administration were behind 911?   Im guessing your number is the same as mine  - 0!  (FYI - for our friends on the right who are mathematically challenged, zero would NOT be many). 

Part of it is denial. If someone believes that Obama stole the election through fraud, they don’t have to believe that millions of Americans chose to re-elect the creator of Obamacare who presided over $6 trillion in new debt.

Some on the right, including a state legislator from Idaho, are even suggesting boycotting the Electoral College vote to force the election into the House of Representatives. It is a strange misreading of the Constitution by people who claim to be strict Constitutionalists.

Then there is the response. If Obama is somehow illegitimate, then his laws should have no force. So we have nine(republican) members of the Legislature who bizarrely believe that Wisconsin law enforcement should arrest any federal agent that attempts to implement Obamacare here.

Among the nine are local state Reps. Chris Kapenga and Rob Hutton, and state Sen. Mary Lazich.
They believe that states have the right to declare federal laws null and void (nullification) if the laws are unconstitutional. It was last tried in Wisconsin before the Civil War to thwart the federal fugitive slave law. However, even the supporters of nullification from that era did not arrest federal officials trying to enforce the law.

Wisconsin’s Supreme Court was overruled by the U.S. Supreme Court, and nullification has not been a credible idea in our state since.

If the failed idea of nullification isn’t strong enough, there is always secession. There are now secession petitions started in each of the 50 states.

Last I checked my history books, secession was effectively dealt with 1865. Some of you may have learned this at the movie theaters recently.

 Another point for our mathematically challenged friends on the right,  9 ELECTED republicans craziness does not equal ZERO democrats who supposedly believe the Bush Administration was behind 9/11.  

The rest of the article was so poorly written I dont have the time or inclination to correct, just say that I do NOT recommend reading it.  Wiggy REALLY needs and editor and a fact checker! 

This is the kind of BS yo u get from our friends on the right and also shows that our "media" is anything but liberal.   

I recommend contacting the Freeman and asking them for a higher quality product, one that is free of MacIver flunkies.  

 Phil Paige - Group Publisher  262-387-4830  ppaige@conleynet.com

 Bill Yorth - Editor-In-Chief  262-513-2671  byorth@conleynet.com

Patricia Scheel - Prepress Manager  262-513-2690  pscheel@conleynet.com

For the record regarding my thoughts on 911 truthers:

As anyone who paid attention during the 8 years of the Bush Administration knows, that their unbelievable level of incompetence, would make them incapable of performing something like 9/11.   If  Bush/Cheney had planned 9/11, instead of  planes flying into buildings, it would have resulted in a couple guys running their ten speeds into a Dairy Queen in New Mexico.