Wisconsin's Choices

By Jeff Simpson 

In government, money is usually limited(unless Republicans want to go to war).   In Wisconsin it is no different.   After electing a group of spend happy, economically illiterate Republicans for four years we are left with a multi billion dollar deficit.   

Now that we have limited funds,we have to make choices where we spend them.  Wisconsin by electing Scott Walker has made their choice:

In Wisconsin, in order to keep Scott Walker happy we spend millions making sure our LGBT friends do not have the same rights as everyone else:

 The State of Wisconsin's unsuccessful court battle to prevent gay marriage will cost taxpayers more than $1 million, under an agreement released Friday.

State Attorney General Brad Schimel, a Republican, and attorneys for eight gay and lesbian couples reached the agreement after the couples successfully sued to overturn the state's 2006 constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.

The couples were represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, which sought $1.25 million to cover its costs because the couples prevailed in their lawsuit. Ultimately, the ACLU will receive nearly $1.1 million, under the stipulation released Friday.

Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond in Virginia who believes bans like Wisconsin's are unconstitutional, said that he wasn't surprised at the cost to state taxpayers and that it could have been worse. Gov. Scott Walker, one of the defendants, and then-Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, both Republicans, opposed the same-sex plaintiffs at every level of the federal court system, he said.

"The state never seemed to appreciate how much taxpayer money is expended on this type of litigation in which it was pretty clear from the outset that Wisconsin was going to lose," Tobias said.

Now that we are paying legal fees from a losing effort, we have to cut somewhere, so here it is:

The University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh says it plans to reduce the number of its sports programs by two, in response to proposed state budget cuts.
The school said Monday it plans to drop the men's soccer and men's tennis teams, after the 2015-'16 school year.
In addition, UW-Oshkosh plans to combine the men's and women's track and field and men's and women's cross-country teams under a restructured coaching staff.
The action will reduce UW-Oshkosh's total number of varsity sports from 21 to 19 and result in the loss of two coaching positions.

Good job Wisconsin, choosing more money to lawyers and less to our kids!  

Jeff Wagner: Your Hypocrisy Is Showing

Jeff Wagner is the early afternoon squawker on 620 WTMJ-AM. He is commonly referred to as Charlie Sykes Light because, even though he's as equally wrong-minded, he doesn't have spittle spraying from his mouth, usually.

Today, Wagner gave Sykes a run for his money in the hypocrisy department.

It started out when Wagner was whining about the imminent trade of Milwaukee Brewers ace pitcher Zack Greinke.

Wagner was getting his undies in a bundle because Greinke said that he loved playing in Milwaukee, but still might leave for a larger paycheck with another team. He felt that if the difference in paychecks was only $10 million, Greinke should stick to his words and take the lower pay to stay in Milwaukee.

The rant then went on against professional athletes in general and how the bastards participate in the free market and try to get the most money that they can.

The real kicker came from a banker driving through Shawano, who called in and said that if a player signs a contract, that's it. He shouldn't try to leave the team for more money and or ask for his contract to be renegotiated. He said likewise that if the team comes across hard times, they shouldn't ask to open the contract and try to cut the player's salary. Mr. Banker said that both sides just needed to "man up" and honor the contract they signed.

Wagner cheered this on.

Excuse me, but what?

This was some of the most egregious hypocrisy that I've ever heard! And after dealing with Scott Walker level hypocrisy for ten years, that says a lot.

These are the same people that went on for hours a day, day after day, week after week, to praise Scott Walker and gush all over Act 10.

Act 10 was nothing more than Walker refusing to "man up" and honor the contracts between the government and the unions. It was also nothing more than Walker admitting that he has no leadership skills whatsoever and that the only way he could get what he wanted was to break the contracts and act like the despot that he is.

For Wagner or any of his listeners - all four of them - to carp on a professional athlete for trying to earn as much money than can, but then praising Walker for doing just taking the money away from hard working people to give to his rich friends/cronies/campaign donors is beyond hypocritical.

But to top this off, these are the same jokers that will squeal like stuck pigs if their taxes go up a dime, and fight tooth and nail to protect the rich CEOs and bankers who make that much millions or even tens of millions, whether they ran their business well or drove it into the ground. But let a union member try to get a raise or even find a better job with more pay, and they scream about it until they are hoarse.

The saddest part is that these right wing zombies most likely can't even recognize their hypocrisy and double standards.

Crossposted at Whallah!

Put Your Name On It

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But They're Professionals!

I've never been much of a sports fan. The only sport I've really gotten into was professional football, and then, usually only the Packers. And even then, I was more of a passive fan. I couldn't rattle off stats of any of the players, even Favre. I enjoyed watching the games, screaming at the TV, and wondering if the refs were blind and/or paid off. Probably like most people do, I imagine.

One of the sports I've grown to actually dislike is baseball.

I attended a few games at the old County Stadium, usually on opening day, or for some party. I didn't go for the game as much as the socializing with some friends. But when the talk started that County Stadium was too old, didn't have enough amenities, etc., and that a new stadium needed to be built, I was turned off by the whole thing. Especially when there was so much debate about the stadium tax, and TOMMY! came up with his infamous "Stick it to 'em" comment.

At that time, I was working in child welfare, and had seen first hand how the state was short-changing Milwaukee County, because money was "too tight" to be wasted on something as trivial as social services. I remember getting royally pissed off that they could raise taxes to build a glorified ball yard worth hundreds of millions of dollars, for multimillionaire players and the extremely wealthy Selig family, but couldn't afford to take care of our own children.

I swore to myself that I would not step foot into Miller Park, and I haven't. Nor do I plan to.

Anyway, whilst I was driving around tonight, doing my errands, I happened to have 620 WTMJ on, and there was Bill Michaels, their sports guy, talking about how the New York Yankees just signed CC Sabathia for a huge contract, that comes to be about $23 million dollars a year. Michaels was going on about this, trying to rationalize it, and pointing out that some players were paid $18 million or more, and that they had a really bad year.

All I could do was shake my head. I'm sorry, but I cannot imagine anyone being worth $23 million or $18 million per year, just to play baseball. I don't follow baseball, but from what I've heard by the water cooler and saw in the paper, I guess this Sabathia is a really good pitcher. So what? He plays a game! He only pitches every five games or so. With time off between series and the mid-season break, he probably only plays once, maybe twice in a week. And that's if he doesn't get hurt.

The other pro sports are just as bad. Favre is still one of my favorite players. He is arguably one of the best players football has ever seen, but is he really worth all of those millions of dollars a year to just play a game?

Actors and actresses and musicians are just as bad. Some actors and actresses are pulling in tens of millions of dollars per movie or TV season. Sure, they might be entertaining, and are good at pretending, but are they worth all of that money?

And don't get me even started on the big CEOs who get millions in salaries, and millions more in bonuses, just so that they can drive their respective companies into the ground, and then beg Congress for a bailout.

Meanwhile, there are real professionals that don't get paid nearly enough. There are police officers who go to work everyday not knowing if they will ever come home again. Yet, most of them don't get paid anywhere near what they deserve. They get to hear cracks about eating donuts or being just a tool to raise revenue for a city or a county. They get told that they can't get raises or have the proper protective gear, because that would mean Joe Taxpayer might have to dish out another 15 cents in taxes each year. The same Joe Taxpayer that thinks nothing of paying $100 per ticket to a football game.

If the worst thing happens, and a law enforcement officer is killed in the line of duty, there is a large amount of hand wringing and demands that something has got to be done. That lasts a day or two, and then it fades from everyone's mind, except for the family that is missing their loved one.

The same could be said for firefighters, correction officers, and yes, even social workers. They go to work everyday in jobs that require a lot of training and expertise, but are often denied a wage or respect that would be more in line with what they mean to society.

After all, we can't just go around raising taxes so that there are cops on the street to fight crime or prison guards to watch over the criminals that the police catch. We can't raise taxes so that the firefighters have sufficient numbers in their squads or the best gear around. And the thought of raises taxes for a bunch of social workers so that they can actually do their jobs and protect the vulnerable, the mentally ill, the children, the elderly, well, to raise taxes for them is just madness.

After all, that extra five or ten dollars we spend on taxes to support these people takes money out of our pockets. Then we can't go and buy that large foam "We're #1" foam hand with the finger pointing out when we go to the stadium or arena, to watch multimillionaires play games.

The only thing I can't figure out is that is this a reflection of how screwed up the free market has gotten or of how screwed up we have gotten.