Vukmir's Thug

Only in Fitzwalkerstan:

Rostan “started to call me a low-life jerk and (expletives)” in Vukmir’s Capitol office, Bruce Lowrey, co-owner of C. Lowrey Process Service, said in the affidavit. “When I got outside Jason was running after me and he pushed me and knocked me down and threw the paperwork at me and continued to call me all kinds of (vulgar) names.”

Lowrey said he and an employee had tried twice previously to serve Vukmir.

Lowrey’s wife and business partner, Chris Lowrey, said the next day she went to Vukmir’s office to complain.
“One of the guys got rude and snotty and I told him to stop right there,” she told the State Journal. “I told them, ‘You guys are the ones who make the law, and you have to follow it. Be professional.’ ”
In her affidavit she describes Rostan holding his hands behind him while she reached around and touched the papers to his hands — to make the service legal — before leaving the papers on a desk.

“That office hopefully learned a lesson,” Chris Lowrey said. “I’m a Republican, and I was disgusted with their behavior.”

The kerfuffle occurred when the Lowreys were trying to serve Vukmir with a notice of a lawsuit by our friend at The Center For Media and Democracy, who are seeking documents they believe Vukmir received from ALEC.  Vukmir is a top official of ALEC.

Interestingly, they are staying true to their nature by shifting the blame:

Vukmir staff members had been told by the state Department of Justice not to accept service in the case, Rostan said. Department of Justice officials couldn’t be reached Wednesday night. Vukmir didn’t return phone calls or emails seeking her comment.

I can't help but wonder sometimes if the Teapublicans have some sort of secret contest going on to see who can be the most outrageous.  It's hard to believe that a whole group of people could be this willfully ignorant and maleficent.

But hey, at least they weren't singing.

More Thuggery From Walker Supporters

Yesterday, I reported about the Waukesha man who decided to go stalking and harassing petition canvassers from the comforts of his own home.

Now there's another report of a Stoughton man, Earl A. Gluth, who thought he'd try to intimidate some canvassers in Madison.  He went to where the canvassers were peacefully getting signatures and decided to take pictures not only of the people, but their license plates, so he could find out where they lived.

There is no reason for Gluth to know where they live unless he met to either go there and do some misdeed himself or to publicize their addresses for others to harass these people or even worse.

If Scott Walker is doing such a great job, why do his supporters feel the need to take things beyond legal behaviors?

And why hasn't Scott Walker condemned these behaviors and called for them to knock it off? Does he support this kind of thuggery?

Based on my personal experiences with his crew, it wouldn't surprise me one bit if he did.  Walker and his supporters are acting like nothing more than a bunch of cowardly bullies.

CRG Thug Found And Cited

Last night, I told you about how some thug from the CRG rally came out to harass the pro-union and pro-Milwaukee County demonstrators, trying to cause trouble and looking to pick a fight. He ended up assaulting a number of people before culminating in pushing a woman down and throwing her husband into some bushes.

The good news is that Fox6Milwaukee is now reporting that the man has been turned in and cited with Assault and Battery and Disorderly Conduct for attacking the union couple. The thug was such a coward that he had to be turned in by others, instead of standing up like a man and admitting he did wrong. Here is the video from Fox6Milwaukee:



ADDENDUM: In reviewing other video, including the one on Channel 58, a woman comes up behind the thug and puts something in his hand. It looks like a tape recorder to me. Then, just before he attacks the union fellow, he puts the object in his right front pocket. Was this an attempt by CRG and/or Scott Walker's campaign (but I repeat myself) to try to set up the unions.

The right wingers and Walker-backers have been so desperate to try to spin this into something other than what it was, have even gone to the extent of just outright lying, saying the man was the victim. But if the gentle reader will recall, here is what I wrote last night:

The other man, more advanced in age, decided to walk down the middle of the two picket lines, throwing his shoulder into anyone he could, including myself. Then he decided to station himself near the sidewalk and yell obscene things at the rally goers. When one of the AFSCME District Counsel officials told him to just go inside, things turned unnecessarily violent...

They have also brought up some mysterious elderly lady that felt intimidated and afraid to go past the line. However, as I pointed out, the rally-goers left two of three entrances wide open. And if you watch the video from last night, you will notice the line at a stand still and then slowly starting up again. We did that every time a car wanted to enter or leave.

On a side note, Fox6Milwaukee also posted the raw footage from yesterdays act of violence by the CRG man. At the very beginning, and I do mean very beginning, you will see this man, wearing the blue shirt, in the background:

That man in the background, wearing the blue shirt, is none other than Tim Russell. Who is Tim Russell? Well, he is the former Walker campaign staffer, the former Director of Economic Development under Walker and current Assistant Chief of Staff for Walker.

I don't know that he had anything to do with the incident, but his appearance at that moment and the look on his face is something, isn't it? In fairness, if you watch the video, you can see him escorting Supervisor Paul Cesarz into the building, but then Russell lingers in the doorway.

The Milwaukee County Executhug

As the gentle reader could easily imagine, this has been a rather hectic and nerve-jangling week for your humble host. Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker has been making things miserable with threatening AFSCME workers with threats of draconian and indefinite furloughs combined with the desire to make us give up our legal rights, including things like unemployment benefits, bumping rights and rights for being recalled to service.

He tried to tell us it was either these furloughs and lack of legal rights, or a ton of layoffs. All of this while we are supposed to be negotiating our contracts, which had expired at the end of last year. More on this later when I am at a liberty to speak more openly.

Another development was the proclamation from Walker that all County buildings would be opening later and closing earlier, which did not provide any real savings, but did make it more difficult for the public to conduct their business.

It seems like this issue has caused a bit of controversy inside Walker's inner circle. Such a controversy, that Tom "The Enforcer" Nardelli, Walker's chief of staff felt compelled to issue this email:


In case you have a hard time reading it, I will transcribe it for you (all emphasis and poor grammar are Nardelli's):

Within just 10 minutes of our Cabinet meeting today, we received calls from the County Board Press office and the Chief Judge (who called from Madison) asking about a press conference we were planning for today to announce the hours of operations of county buildings. I am very concerned that one or more of you would run off to pass along information from our cabinet meetings. The worse part was that the information is inaccurate. At no time did we discuss plans for a press conference today. Obviously the snitch was sleeping at the switch! To really makes matters worse is that we received a call from CBS58 asking why were planning a press conference that was conflicting with the Board's press conference on Bike Racks! Wow, how misinformed can one be!

I hope the snitch who passed on this bad information will have their credibility questions. If we learn who is imparting information from our cabinet meetings, even erroneous information, I will personally deliver their pink slip faster than they can blink!

Thomas G. Nardelli
Chief of Staff
Milwaukee County Executive
414-278-4211
Fax 414-223-1375

This memo came to light due to the fact that the Board was questioning why they were not informed two weeks ago when Walker decided that he was going to lay off people, as is required by law. It turned out that the County Executhug and his hit man were threatening people like that regarding the lay offs as well.

I clearly remember the last time a local elected official was caught extorting people and demanding a no-snitching culture. While this doesn't quite qualify as being as egregious, I wonder if we will see the same level of outrage this time. Something tells me not to hold my breath for it.