Quick Question

By Jeff Simpson

If Rick Gudex, as a full time brand new State Senator, has the time to home school his kids, aren't we downsizing the wrong governmental body?

Oh, Look! More "Tools"

I got a tip from one of my tweeps about this piece of offal:

Currently, cities, villages, towns, counties, school districts, and technical college districts (local governments) provide health care benefits for their employees. Some also provide postretirement health care benefits for their employees.

This bill prohibits a local government from providing health care benefits to any employee hired on or after January 1, 2014, for use upon the employee's retirement, including compensated absences but excluding the implicit rate subsidy, unless the cost of the benefit is fully funded in a segregated account on an actuarial basis or other method that complies with generally accepted accounting principles.

This kind of garbage is what they are doing to bankrupt the post office. It is unreasonable and impractical.

What this will do is sabotage the local governments and school boards even more. One of the reasons people take the lower pay in public sector work is because of the benefits. Now that the public sector workers are again being punished for looking at the big picture, it will really hamper the ability of the local governments to hire, much less retain, quality workers.

Not that the elitist Republicans give a damn if your garbage is picked up, whether your children receive a quality education, whether public safety is maintained, whether the roads are plowed. They figure that as long as their needs are met, it's all OK. The rest of that stuff, you can do without or pay a fortune as it is all privatized and the taxpayers no longer have a say in the cost of things.

There are two things that I wonder about this bill and how it will play out.

One, is whether this will pass constitutional muster since it interferes with the municipalities right to home rule, which is one of the bases used to strike down Act 10. And that leads to the second part, which is, given that Act 10 is not the law of the land, can the state order local governments to break their contracts. That would open them up to huge lawsuits.

And I wonder how Obamacare will play into this.  It would appear that the Republicans are going to abuse the law and tap into that for which they have such an irrational hatred.

Doesn't this all make Tuesday look so important? Will it matter if we allow Roggensack to be reelected and don't allow ourselves to have an honest Supreme Court?

Nothing To See Here - Move Along!

I just received this in my email from the state's e-notify system, where they email you updates on various legislation, pending on your preferences:

Dear Wisconsin Legislative Notification Service user,

The Wisconsin Legislative Notification Service is currently offline pending an system upgrade timed with the Legislative Session turnover.

You can keep updated during this time with the Wisconsin Legislature’s Document Publisher which allows users to follow legislative activity using RSS feeds.  You can find out more about the RSS feeds here.

We will send you another email once the Notification Service is back online.

Please direct your questions, suggestions, or comments to Notify.Support@legis.wisconsin.gov

Thank you for your patience and for using the Wisconsin Legislative Notification Service

I'm sure it was merely "coincidental" that the system goes down at the beginning of the legislative session that will make 2011 look like the good old days.

State Dems Shine As WISGOP Shames Itself

As the gentle reader is surely painfully aware of, due to their immoral and unethical gerrymandering - and only because of the gerrymandering - the Republicans regained control of the state senate as well as strengthened their hold on the state assembly.

With the shift in power and the upcoming legislative session hanging over Wisconsin like so many storm clouds, each part has now picked their leaders for the approaching year.

In the state assembly, the Democrats made the safe but smart choice of bringing back Peter Barca as their leader. Time and time again, Barca has shown himself to be a champion of the people and of the Constitution.

But the really exciting news came from the state senate, where the Democrats elected Chris Larson to be their leader. Not only was this a bold move, but it showed a rare bit of political savvy.

Larson brings a lot of assets with him. He is young and vibrant, passionate and articulate. His leadership skills really came through during the dark days of 2011 when the Fab 14 left the state to put a temporary stop to Act 10, allowing the people time to recognize the threat and respond to it in historic ways.

While the Republicans and the mainstream media - but I repeat myself - scoffed at the choice, they might soon be choking on their laughter. While relatively new to the state senate, Larson earned his chops in the Milwaukee County Courthouse, where he spent years successfully fighting against Scott Walker's malevolence. Larson knows Walker's ways better than most and was integral in thwarting many of Walker's attacks on the people of Milwaukee County. I expect that he'll do no less for the people of Wisconsin.

It is also exciting to finally again have a voice for Milwaukee in a role of leadership in the state legislature, after many years of being stifled.

WISGOP didn't do nearly so well for themselves.

We already know that the ALEC-controlled WISGOP had picked unethical and scandal-ridden Scott Fitzgerald to again be their senate leader.

Not to be outdone in the bad choice department, the Republicans in the state assembly voted for Robin Vos to be the speaker. After his election, Vos said this:

In thanking his colleagues, Vos promised an "aggressive agenda," saying they would take on reforming the tax code, reform regulations and figuring out "a way to make sure every child has a great education."

"My style is one of inclusiveness," he said. "I want everyone to feel I will always listen."

He said he was pleased the state Senate has been recaptured by Republicans, but also pledged to work in a bipartisan way even though Democrats are in the minority in both houses.

"Not one party, not one chamber, has a monopoly on good ideas," he said.

In his next breath, he belied his own words:

Vos of Rochester, elected speaker as expected, made a plea for bipartisanship. But he also made comments undercutting Larson even before his appointment was announced.

Vos told his GOP colleagues about the selection of Larson even as Senate Democrats were still in closed caucus. Assembly Republicans at first didn't believe Vos.

"Are you kidding me?" one of them asked.

"Sometimes, God gives you a gift," Vos responded.

Vos should remember the adage of being careful what you wish for, because you just might get it. I'm sure that Larson will have no problems making short work of Vos when the time is right.

And as for Vos' comment about "figuring out 'a way to make sure every child has a great education,'" let's not forget that Vos was the one that used government email and government facilities to promote a propagandist film bashing public education and teachers unions. Of course, that was only after he received a lot of financial support from the unethical Scott Jensen and other advocates of privatizing education.

Not that Vos has much to be proud of in himself anyway. He has been one of the most scandal-ridden legislators in state history, from extramarital indiscretions to unethical behaviors in his official capacity. Heck, Vos even managed to get himself tied up in Walkergate.

Not done embarrassing themselves with Vos' election, the assembly Republicans then chose Scott Suder to be their leader. Suder's first action as leader was to give a warm, sloppy kiss to Roger "Some girls, they rape so easy" Rivard:

A month after the political organization for Assembly Republicans said it would not financially back Rep. Roger Rivard because of his controversial comments on rape, the Assembly majority leader said Tuesday that Rivard will “always be welcome in this caucus.”

The comments by Majority Leader Scott Suder (R-Abbotsford) came as Assembly Republicans bid Rivard, a Rice Lake Republican, and other losing incumbents goodbye in the state Capitol.

“I cannot say enough about the person you are,” Suder told Rivard. “I’m proud to call you a dear, dear friend. … You are always welcome in this caucus.”

Of course, given Suder's own personal history of misogyny and domestic violence, it's not surprising that he would warmly reach out to a fellow misogynist.

It is not only the WISGOP leadership which is a group of miscreants and reprobates. The fact that the Republicans vaulted these oafs into their roles is not surprising when you look at the reprehensible fools that voted for them:

As Gov. Scott Walker contemplates whether to create a state health care exchange under Obamacare, he will have to contend in the coming legislative session with nine lawmakers who have said they back a bill to arrest any federal officials who try to implement the health care law.

Eight of the nine Republicans also have gone on record saying they also want to write a law that would see airport screeners charged with sexual assault if they conduct overly invasive pat-downs of passengers going through security.

All nine also told a tea party-aligned group they backed passing so-called "right-to-work" legislation; allowing people to carry guns without having to get permits from the state; allowing people to buy raw, or unpasteurized, milk; and blocking state funding for the federal Real ID law that requires states to develop more secure driver's licenses.

But their stance on the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, could cause the most fireworks in the upcoming session. Walker must decide by Friday whether the state will create a health care exchange under the health care law or leave those duties to President Barack Obama's administration.

Rep. Chris Kapenga (R-Delafield) is one of the nine from Wisconsin who told the Campaign for Liberty he would back legislation to declare Obamacare illegal and allow police to arrest federal officials who take steps to implement it in Wisconsin. He said he believes the health care law is unconstitutional, despite the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling that it passes constitutional muster.

"Just because Obama was re-elected does not mean he's above the constitution," Kapenga said.

In addition to Kapenga, those listed as supporting the Campaign for Liberty's positions are Sen. Mary Lazich of New Berlin; Reps. Don Pridemore of Hartford; Erik Severson of Star Prairie; Tom Larson of Colfax; Scott Krug of Wisconsin Rapids; and three Republicans elected for the first time last week who will be sworn in early next year - Rob Hutton of Brookfield, Mark Born of Beaver Dam and Dave Murphy of Greenville.

I wonder if they were born this moronic or if they had to work on it.

Y'know, if I were a Republican in Wisconsin these days, having just elected these depraved lunatics by , I'd be too damned ashamed to show my face, much less brag about it.  Even if that was the only "win" they had from the elections.

Larson Cosponsors Two Good Pieces Of Legislation

From State Senator Chris Larson's weekly newsletter, one can find that he is cosponsoring two good pieces of legislation which is long overdue. The first one would stop the influence of special interests on the state budget.  In Larson's own words:

I am co-sponsoring legislation with Rep. Kelda Helen Roys, to ban campaign fundraising while the state budget is being considered. This legislation would prohibit elected state officials and their campaign committees from accepting contributions from January 1st of odd-numbered years through the date of enactment of the budget bill. Those individuals who want to make contributions to a campaign may still do so, after the budget has been enacted. This bill will help to maintain the integrity of our government by removing the influence of special interest over the most important bill passed each session. Wisconsinites value open and clean government and have continuously sought to preserve our tradition of accountability and transparency. This bill reaffirms that our budget should reflect Wisconsin's priorities and values. My colleagues and I hope this legislation will limit outside influence in the future to guarantee that our budget reflects the will of the people and not the whims of special interests and big corporations.

The other piece of legislation is also very important, and deals with ensuring the public gets a chance to review and have input. Again, from Larson's newsletter:

I am also co-sponsoring a bill to ensure that legislation is not rapidly pushed through the legislative process without adequate scrutiny and input from the public. This legislation would require a 21-day review period between the time a bill is introduced in either house and the time that house votes on the bill. In cases of emergency, the bill provides that the 21-day review period can be suspended if two-thirds of members vote to do so. Although the practice of rushing legislation through has been around for years, this past spring it was brought it to a whole new level. Legislative rules were hastily broken and open meetings laws were ignored to hurriedly pass extreme legislation. Such backward actions barred the public and those representing them from effectively studying and reviewing bills in order to provide thoughtful input. This legislation will increase public scrutiny, government accountability and transparency, which are the pillars of Wisconsin's tradition of open government.

The value of both these pieces of legislation was exemplified loudly and repeatedly in the first six months of the current regime's rule. Expect the Republicans to turn down both of these, since the way that they make their really big money, by selling their souls and our state to the highest bidder biggest campaign contributor.

What? Fascism And Overreach Aren't Popular? Paint Scott Walker's Face Red!

Another poll came out today, taking a snapshot of Wisconsinites attitudes towards how things are going in our once and future great state.  Unsurprisingly, more and more people are taking a dim view of Scott Walker's and WISGOP's totalitarian ways, including, but not limited to: taking away our rights, giving away massive tax breaks and other gifts to the super rich while raising our taxes and fees and cutting our services likes schools, ignoring the will of the people, and selling our state's assets, including the workforce, to the highest bidder, just to name a few.

Here are some highlights that the pollsters found:

• The most recent UW Badger Poll finds that a majority of Wisconsinites are not happy with current state of affairs in the Badger state.

• 55% are dissatisfied with the way things are going in the state today, a new high for the UW Badger Poll.

• 81% said Wisconsin is in bad times economically and 50% expect it will be in about the same economic condition in the next 12 months, while 20% said things will get worse.
• Nearly two-thirds of Wisconsinites feel that state government is run for the benefit of a few big interests over that of all the people and can only be trusted to do the right thing some of the time.
• 59% disapprove of the way Scott Walker is handling his job as Governor.
• 60% disapprove of the way the State Legislature is handling its job.
•  56% disapprove of the job Republicans in the State Legislature are doing.
•  48% disapprove of the job Democrats in the State Legislature are doing.
• Wisconsinites overwhelming think the recall option in the state constitution is a good thing (78%), and 50% said the current recalls of state senators made them feel better about Wisconsin politics.
• 59% of residents statewide preferred that the Democratic state senators remain in office rather than be recalled and 49% said the same of the Republican state senators.

A few other numbers to note is that Walker has lost both men and women at an equal pace with a 59% disapproval with both genders.

And while the overall numbers show Walker receiving a 59% disapproval rating, with likely voters the number shoots up to 65%.

Walker has also manage to alienate almost two thirds of the all important Independent voters.

But the worst news for Walker and his GOP leggie allies isn't contained in that poll.  The worst news for him is the fact that the worst of his budget hasn't even been felt by the people of the state.  Wait until mid to late August when all of his cuts are truly felt, whether it be the loss of decent education because the kids are crammed into classrooms with outdated material, or the economy starts to tank and more and more people get laid off because he took so much cash out of circulation.

Walker's overall approval is already a point lower than Jim Doyle's lowest point.  By the time the recalls kick in in November, the full impact of his budget will be felt, Walker's approval will probably be in the 20s.  I hope the organizers are going to have enough petitions printed and the election commission buys a warehouse to hold all of them when they're signed.

The Corruption Of Wisconsin Is Complete -- Or Is it?

If you love Wisconsin, love your freedom, or want a thriving, healthy economy, things look grim indeed.

It would appear that the corruption of Wisconsin is now complete.

We have an uneducated, inept and unethical governor who managed to gain his seat through the massive expenditure of people like the Koch brothers, the road builders, WMC, and other big money special interests. Even though his campaign was about creating jobs, he has done everything but that.  His biggest claim to fame thus far is getting busted out by a blogger as being a kowtowing serf to the Koch brothers.

The Republican legislature, also sponsored by Big Corporation money, actually makes Walker look like a piker by taking his malevolence and expanding it, passing laws which can only be generously described as legalized prejudice and bigotry.  While they claim that the budget that they crafted resolves the alleged deficit and doesn't raise taxes, nonpartisan groups have repeatedly shown this to be patently false.  It spends more money than before and raises taxes and fees on working families and on the poor.  To add further insult to injury, the legislature has taken these higher taxes and fees and used it to suppress or even eliminate the rights of these very same people.

Now word as come out that the "Supreme Court" of Wisconsin has, without apparent deliberation or research of the law, has ruled the open meetings laws to be invalid and that our elected officials (or at least the Republican ones) are above the law and don't need to adhere to the laws that they themselves had passed.  Needless to say, WMC spent tons of money in making sure that Annette Ziegler, Michael Gableman and David Prosser were on the bench, just so that they could shred the Constitution and the law books and make irresponsible decisions like this one.

As a result, it would appear that the Republicans and conservatives of all three branches of the government have assaulted and insulted the state and its citizens in almost every aspect of imaginable.  They have stripped the working class of their very rights and their livelihoods, trashed environmental protections, raised taxes and fees on those least able to afford it while giving magnanimous rewards to their campaign donors (read Big Business), attacked the rights of women, attacked the rights of gays, attacked the rights of minorities and almost every other atrocity to our freedoms and our values.

As I said, it appears that the corruption of the state is complete.

However, the fight is not over. Far from it.

There are still tens of thousands of people pouring into Madison to make our collective voices heard.

There are tens or thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people actively involved in recalling those that have violated all sense of decency and abused the authority of their office.  And that is only the first wave.

People are still anxiously and eagerly waiting for winter to return so that they may finish the job in recalling Scott Walker and the rest of the corrupt senators, as well as work to flip the Assembly as well as the Senate.  There are even some looking at removing WMC's justices and replacing them with justices that love the law and justice.

The "ruling" from the Supreme Court can, I believe (note: I am not a lawyer), be brought back for reconsideration, since it is so blatantly and egregiously out of line with what the law says. Furthermore, at least two separate actions have already been filed against the content of the law, and many more lawsuits are expected, even as early as today, regarding every aspect of this law, from the content to the way it was passed.

And to further strengthen one's heart and one's resolve, it would appear that part of the road to recovery has already been paved for us, with a very powerful ruling that would find the union-busting, rights-stripping, economy-trashing bill itself to be illegal:

In 1935, when Congress passed the National Labor Relations Act (also known as the NLRA, or the Wagner Act), it recognized the direct relationship between the inequality of bargaining power of workers and corporations and the recurrent business depressions. That is, by depressing wage rates and the purchasing power of wage earners, the economy fell into depression. The law therefore recognized as policy of the United States the encouragement of collective bargaining.

While the NLRA covered US employees in private employment, the law protecting collective bargaining in both the public and private sectors has developed since 1935 to cover all workers "without distinction."

In summary, while it might very well appear that Big Corporation and their corrupt puppets have won once and for all, that is as far as from the truth one can get and not become a de facto Republican. The union busting bill will be postponed from be enacted or enforced by dint of the lawsuits against it. And even if they try to illegally enforce it like they did with the restrictions to the Capitol Building, the unions are prepared for such a contingency and it will be only a temporary hardship as we continue to take back our state and put mature, responsible and accountable officials in the place of the corrupt ones now misrepresenting themselves as leaders.

So, if some conservative comes up to you to gloat about their "victory," just smile politely, agree with them that the war is all but over, and keep smiling in your knowledge that while the war may indeed soon be over, its not in the way they think it is.  The only real accomplishment that Walker, the WISGOP legislature and the Supreme Court have done is making their recalls all the easier to accomplish.

Did The State Legislature Violate Open Meeting Laws?

Yesterday, I wrote about how the state legislature, hidden behind the mask of the Groundhog Day blizzard, went about carrying on their extremist, irresponsible and weaselly agenda.  These items included making the exception for one of Scott Walker's campaign donors to pave over a wetland for a store that won't build on a wetland and the attempted sabotage of the wind power industry.

My good friend, grumps (proprietor of the Happy Circumstance), posted a most intriguing question:

What's the Open Records Law say about holding a session in a building that has been declared "Closed To The Public?"

What grumps is referring to is the fact that Scott Walker had declared a State of Emergency across 29 counties, including Dane County. This included the statement that they were closing all state buildings to the public.

My curiosity piqued, I made a number of phone calls to people who might know the answer.  As of the time of this writing, only two had gotten back to me.  One said that since the Capital Building was open, it was technically not a violation of the open meeting law.  The other said that this was a gross violation of the law and expressed surprise that no one had brought this up before.

Unsatisfied with the split decision, I looked further.

I found that the BizTimes.com as well as The Milwaukee Business Journal both reported basically the same thing, that he buildings were closed.  Heck, even one of Walker's staffers tweeted as much.

It wasn't until I tracked down the blurb that JSOnline had posted that I found one small but significant difference:

After sending out the order, Walker amended it Tuesday to ensure that the Capitol will still be open to the public Wednesday since lawmakers are scheduled to take up several major bills that Walker says will boost job creation in the state.

In other words, the Capitol was open, closed for the emergency, then re-opened, all less than twenty-four hours before they legislature was to hold session.

According to "Wisconsin Open Meeting Law: A Compliance Guide" written by Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen in 2007, there needs to be a minimum of 24 hour advance written notice before a session of a governmental body.

One could nitpick that there was not the required time before the session started, since Walker declared the State of Emergency closing the Capitol, before amending it to leave the Capitol open.  Then again, it could be argued that since this was the originally scheduled session, it would still satisfy the requirements.

But further perusal of Van Hollen's guide indicates that the open meeting session also be reasonably accessible to the public:

An “open session” is defined in Wis. Stat. § 19.82(3) as “a meeting which is held in a place reasonably accessible to members of the public and open to all citizens at all times.”  

Given that Walker had originally declared the building closed due to blizzard conditions.  The State's and Dane County's Emergency Management as well as the Dane County Sheriff's Department were all stating that people should stay off the roads and that travel was not advised.

One could easily deem that the public was denied reasonable access to the session since the State's own Emergency Management was telling people not to travel and to stay off the roads and that Walker had declared the State of Emergency due to the fact that things were going to quickly become exceedingly unsafe.  The situation was further needlessly complicated by Walker's continuously changing the status of the Capitol.

Whether the state legislature violated the open meeting record would be a very fine line, in my lay opinion, and would require someone with more expertise in the open meeting law to offer a strong opinion either way.  Even if the session held by the legislature on February 2, 2011 wasn't technically illegal, one could surely be able to convincingly argue it was unethical given the weather conditions at the time.

This whole incident raises another point, besides the question of the legality and ethics of the state legislature holding session that day.

Scott Walker...or is it one of the Fitzgerald boys?

It also highlights another broken promise, as well as a huge dose of hypocrisy, from Scott Walker.  Last spring, when he was still merely a gubernatorial hopeful, he criticized the state legislature for holding votes on bills in the wee hours of the morning.  He stated that this was a violation of the public trust, since it was unlikely that most people would still be awake, much less paying attention to what the legislation was doing, and that he would never allow this to happen as governor. He made these criticisms in spite of the fact that he had participated in the same sessions as a state legislator himself, and even had voted against limiting how late sessions could go.

So how does not only allowing, but actively abetting, the state legislature to work on the bills in the heart of a blizzard come out any better than the wee hours of the night?  It is unlikely that anyone would be foolhardy enough to try to make the trip to Madison, much less the Capitol Building.

And while I'm on the subject: Where are all the people who were caterwauling when Congress was looking at health care reform? Even though that bill was on the table for more than a year, people were complaining that the public had no time to look at it, much less offer any input or feedback.  But when you listen for their complaints about Walker and his crony capitalists in the legislature passing these fly by night bills, which are often incomplete and will create no jobs, but will make an unholy mess of this state, all you hear is the wind blowing the snow around.

Walker Vs. Labor: The Stage Is Set

The big news of the day is how the state Democrats failed to get the union contracts approved. Their failure comes despite some extraordinary and rather questionable tactics, such as having disgraced State Representative Jeff Wood exercise his Huber privileges while serving time for his fourth drunk driving offense, just to drive to Madison and vote for the contracts.

The Wood stunt did manage to get the contracts through the State Assembly, only to have them fail in the State Senate, when soon to be ex-Senators Jeff Plale and Russel Decker turned the tables on the Democrats and the unions by voting against them.

It is not surprising that Plale would do so, since he is not a true Democrat. That is why he lost the primary against the energetic and progressive Chris Larson.

Decker's act of backstabbing came as a little more of a surprise and a greater disappointment to many. There is speculation that Decker turned his back on his fellow Democrats and union brothers and sisters because he was promised a position in Scott Walker's administration. Others say it is simply because he is a small and petty man. Both are entirely plausible rationales.

But no matter his reasoning, the results are the same.

Democrats spat out their rage at their former majority leader and even stopped the votes after the first one just to caucus and go through the symbolic gesture of stripping him of his leadership position. Union members were less genteel with him. Union leader Marty Beil called Decker a whore. That is one of the nicer comments I've heard from state workers.

On the other side, conservatives from across the state praised Decker and his voting against the contract. What they don't understand yet is that Decker stabbed them and Scott Walker in the back as well.

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's coverage of the events in Madison (emphasis mine):

Jauch and other Democrats said Decker, a longtime member of a bricklayers union, would not tell his Democratic colleagues how he was going to vote before senators took the floor. Increasing the surprise, Decker had voted for the contracts earlier Wednesday in a committee that handles state labor agreements.

Does that sound familiar? It should. It's the same thing that Milwaukee County Supervisor Johnny Thomas did in November 2009, when he voted in committee for the contract with the county's biggest union, only to reverse himself when it came time for the general vote of the entire Board.

Thomas' vote-flipping as well as Walker's trying to negotiate the contract via the public and via his budget all led to the union filing complaints against bad faith bargaining, which was recently upheld.

Union leader Marty Beil is no dummy. Even has he was calling Decker every name in the book, he was probably putting a call into the unions labor lawyers telling them to prepare to file their own complaints.

Due to Walker's publicly trying to interfere with contract negotiations, even before he is sworn in as governor, his trying to use the budget has as a means as a negotiating too, and Decker's flip-flop on the contract votes all lead up to a am easy case for the unions to file a bad faith bargaining complaint of their own.

If the precedent set in Milwaukee County continues to be a guide, state workers will continue to work under the old contract for as long as it takes to have their various complaints heard and ruled upon, which could take years. And all this time, because of Walker's hubris and false bravado, tax payers will continue to have shell out at higher levels and the state's most vulnerable will be put in harm's way.

And here the Tea Partiers , Republicans and others thought they were voting for the fiscally conservative ones. I sure hope they can take a joke, because that is what they elected into office.

Lawmakers Want Investigation Into Walker's Mismanagement

State lawmakers on the budget committee voted 16-0 in favor of calling on Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen to do an investigation into the Income Maintenance Program in Milwaukee County.

That program is, of course, the program that Walker willfully and maliciously chose to vastly under staff, putting only 5-10 workers in an area where there was funding for 30. This and other acts of incompetence and mismanagement led to a class action federal lawsuit being filed against the County and the State. This led in turn to the State taking over the whole program, costing Milwaukee County taxpayers a bundle. (And Walker claims not to raise taxes - HA!)

Interestingly, places as far away as Chicago and Wausau have picked up on this story, but at the time of this writing, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has nothing on it.

It is really sad when one has to go upstate or even out of state to find out what is happening in our own back yard.

Now the question is: Will Van Hollen do his job, or will he continue to play partisan politics?

ADDENDUM: Bonus question: When will CRG actually live up to their name and call for a recall of Walker?

Pridemore's Puppy Pout

A number of state legislators, from both the Senate and the Assembly to introduce LRB 2448-2, commonly referred to as the Puppy Mill Bill, which would enforce standards on puppy mills, breeders and dog shelters to prevent abuse and mistreatment of the dogs in their care.

Wisconsin State Representative Don Pridemore issued a press release today lamenting the Puppy Mill Bill. Pridemore feels that the bill goes to far in protecting dogs:

I believe that many legislators supporting this bill, including the authors, are well intentioned and as concerned about the humane treatment of animals as I am.

However it appears that some have taken an issue that brings forth powerful emotions, and are willing to use it to expand government into areas that go beyond the real issue. While I agree that Puppy Mills should be investigated, and better regulated, in order to eliminate the habitual offenders. Smaller breeders should not be lumped together with Puppy Mills.

Unfortunately, the good legislator apparently thinks that people won't abuse animals as long as they don't sell or board more than two of the dogs a month. Don't ask me why he feels that way. It doesn't make any sense to me, either.

This does make sense to me though:



While I support his bill, there is something that ticks me off about it. While the bill is worthwhile, why did it get before they get around to fixing the child welfare system, which is still broke. Are they saying that the puppies are more important than our children?

The Problem Is The System

During the intense coverage related to the death of Christopher Thomas, I kept iterating that the problem with child welfare in Milwaukee County was systematic, and that cases like Christopher's was only a symptom of the bigger underlying problem.

More tragic stories of babies dying because of the Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare have recently surfaced that strengthen my position on this issue.

One is the story of Vera Morehouse, who allowed her infant son to starve to death. The BMCW had received previous referrals on this family, but did not take any action. And this is despite having earlier charges filed against her. Didn't the worker think of checking CCAP first? That used to be standard procedure. While not to be used as a basis for removing children, the history used to be considered while making decisions based on the current referral and conditions. And that was a state worker handling that case.

Even more outrageous is the story of Melody Cole, who starved her 7 month old daughter, Layunnia Lewis , to death. What makes this story so outrageous is the way it was handled (emphasis mine):

According to the complaint, investigative reports and a 16-page report by the panel:

The Aurora Visiting Nurse Association made at least 12 attempts to see Layunnia after she was sent home. A visiting nurse saw the baby once, on Aug. 14. On Sept. 12, because of the parents' lack of cooperation, the association discharged the child from its services.

On April 5, while Layunnia was still in the hospital, the parents agreed to a voluntary in-home safety program run by the Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare.

Although the hospital workers reported to child welfare authorities that Cole was heard threatening to beat her other children, and that both parents showed up at the hospital drunk, the safety services were terminated at the parents' request about two weeks after Layunnia was released from the hospital.

Meanwhile, in the months leading up to Layunnia's death, child welfare caseworkers and a therapist made regular visits to her home to check on her 9-year-old brother, who was being monitored under a court order.

The brother's caseworker last visited the home Oct. 30. One month later, Layunnia was dead.

"For reasons not clear to the panel," the independent review panel wrote, "for some portion of time that the safety services case was open, neither the ongoing worker nor the safety service worker knew of their co-worker's involvement with the family."

There was clearly a lack of communication between all of these agencies, and no one wanted to step up and do the right thing. As a result, another baby had to suffer a painful death that was entirely avoidable. There was sufficient cause to detain the baby when the parents refused safety services, but they did not do anything about it. I can't help but wonder if the intake worker that referred the case to safety services was even notified that they dropped out of the family's life.

Then there was this pdf which was released last week. It is a report by BMCW that involves a baby that also was allowed to starve to death. This was even while a case was open with the BMCW, who was supposed to be doing an active investigation at the time.

If you take these three cases, plus the case of Christopher Thomas, you will find only one commonality. The different cases involved different agencies, both public and private. They also involved different levels of involvement with the system, from initial investigation to having an active ongoing caseworker involved.

The only commonality is the system in general. I remember, when the new system was being installed, arguing with the instructors on the effectiveness of the system. It would try to overgeneralize the people involved, trying to put people into convenient categories that never covered all of the intricacies and variables that are involved whenever you are dealing with people. No one person can ever be neatly fitted into a box, and any system that tries to do so is inherently going to fail.

I remember cases in which the worker's experience and knowledge said that a child should be removed due to unsafe conditions, but the systems format said otherwise and the child was not removed. That is until two months later when the kid showed up at the hospital due to being abused. Then the system finally agreed with what the worker said two months earlier. Fortunately, she had noted her concerns at the time and was not in trouble for the failure of the system.

However, this is the system that Denise Revels Robinson and Susan Dreyfus chose, and this is what we are stuck with until it gets changed to a more effective system. That is where the state legislature and Governor Doyle can help. They can order the system be properly staffed and that an effective program be put into place. It will mean another transition period for an already tumultuous program, but to do otherwise is just to allow more children to die needlessly.

Support Need For Wage Protection Act

From the inbox:

SB 2 Wage Protection Act is scheduled for a vote on Tuesday, February 10.

Contact your State Senator now.

MESSAGE: Urge your Senator to support the Senate Bill 2 Wage Protection Act which will put workers first to collect their wages when a business closes or goes bankrupt and leaves employees unpaid.

Under current law, workers are first in line to collect what is owed them—but only up to $3,000, and then the banks move in on the remaining assets. Too many workers are losing wages and benefits they have earned. The banks are in the business of taking risks and they have billions in reserves (and now billions in taxpayer bailouts, too). Workers need and deserve every paycheck!

E-MAIL: You can identify your Senator at http://waml.legis.state.wi.us/.

Each Senator can be reached through the following direct e-mail address format:

Sen.(insert last name)@legis.wisconsin.gov. Be sure to include your full name

and mailing address in the e-mail so the Senator knows you are a constituent.

LEGISLATIVE HOTLINE: 1-800-362-9472 (Madison Area: 266-9960)

The Hotline staff will help identify your Senator and give you his/her toll-free

Madison office number. The Hotline is staffed Monday-Friday 8:15 am to

4:45 pm .

The banks and their lobbyists are working hard to pressure Senators to vote against this legislation. Your Senator needs to hear from you as soon as possible!

Will Any Republicans Refuse Their Raise?

Yesterday, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (which is still blocking me, BTW) ran a story about State Representative Bob Ziegelbauer, a Democrat from Manitowoc, who is refusing to accept his raise. Although in all fairness, I must agree with Jim McGuigan, that this is pretty much an empty gesture, considering that Ziegelbauer is already making $74,000 a year as the Manitowoc County Executive. (I wonder how he is allowed to hold both positions. It seems like ti would be a conflict of interst to me.)

Today, WSAW-TV reports that a second Democrat, Jon Erpenbach of Middleton, is also going to turn down his raise.

I have yet to hear one Republican to turn down his or her raise. I would suggest that Alberta Darling be the leader for her party to turn down her raise. After all, even though I am sure that the fees at the golf course are rising, it is not like she did anything to earn what she is making now, much less anything extra.