Republicans Give Abele Carte Blanche With Taxpayers' Money

Even without the full effect of Act 14, which consolidated an unprecedented amount of power in the hands of Milwaukee County Emperor Chris Abele, we have seen the problems that have arisen and the potential for a level of corruption which would leave Scott Walker drooling.

But that wasn't enough for the boy prince, who wanted even more power.  And in return for agreeing to be the MPS Privatization Czar and the for sacrificing Milwaukee County's poorest of the poor at the altar of corporate welfare, the state Republicans have agreed to reward him by increasing his power even more and taking away almost any resemblance of checks and balances in Milwaukee County.

From Lisa Kaiser at the Shepherd Express:

Now, you may wonder why anyone should care. The board is dysfunctional, right?

Well, let’s think about this for a second.

The executive branch crafts its proposals in secret. The executive is not required to hold public hearings on, say, requests for proposal. That happens in the legislative branch, where policies are debated in public.

What will the public ever know about land sales, "transfers," leases and contracts? This is merely inviting corruption.

Next, think about this sort of concentration of power in one person’s hands.

It’s not a good thing. I don’t care who the county executive is.

Already, Abele is planning to hand off the Marcus Center building to the state-run Wisconsin Center District. The county owns it, county taxpayers poured millions of dollars into it. For insurance purposes, the building is valued at $77 million, according to data provided to me by Supervisor Gerry Broderick.

Yet Abele would hand off this $77 million asset to the Wisconsin Center District and stick the county with the center's debt.

No wonder why the suburban Republicans love him.

This billionaire’s son is destroying the county in ways that Walker could only dream of.

Along with the unconscionable shredding of the state's open records laws in the same budget provision, Wisconsin isn't just open for business. It's open to corruption.

Sadly, that's not the worst of it.

After reading the section that deals with the Milwaukee County Emperor's section in the Republicans' omnibus amendment, (on pages 23 and 24), I saw this passage:

"...Authorize the county executive in a county with a population of 750,000 or more to have sole authority over the following administrative actions and specify that that the actions may take effect without any review or approval of the county board: (1) procurement, including requests for proposals or information, negotiation, approval, amendment, execution, administration, and payment; (2) contracting, including negotiation, requests for proposals or information, approval, amendment, execution, administration, and payment; (3) administrative review of appeals of the denial in whole or in part of a contract award, an initial permit, license, right, privilege, or authority, except an alcohol beverage license, for which a person applies through the county; and (4) actions taken under the administrative manual of operating procedures related to the authority and powers granted to a county executive under state law and under county ordinances, and specify that the county executive's action shall prevail over the county board's action to the extent that the county executive's action and the county board's action conflict.  ...Prohibit the county board from enacting an ordinance or adopting a resolution or policy that conflicts or interferes in form or function with the statutory authority of a county executive."

In English, this means that Abele can do whatever the hell he wants without worrying about whether the county board would approve it and that the county board cannot even pass an ordinance that he doesn't like by just claiming it's in conflict with his whims.

And it is more than just county assets. This is about everything in the county.

For example, last year, Abele wanted to hand over the county's transit system to an out of state, for profit company that had a very poor reputation and was in fiscal trouble themselves.  Fortunately, the system worked and two other companies that had also bid on the contract were able to appeal the decision and showed that Abele had rigged the bidding process to favor the first company.  The board found in favor of the other companies and nixed the backdoor deal Abele had made, saving taxpayers a lot of money.

Under these new provisions, Abele could give the contract to whomever he wanted, with no transparency in the bidding process - if there is even a bidding process (something that Abele tends to skip with alarming frequency).  And if other companies want to appeal the decision, Abele makes the decision whether or not he was being fair.  I think we all can guess how Abele would go on any such review.

Look for Abele to put everything up for sale and/or privatization before the ink from Scott Walker's signature is even dry.

And regardless of how bad the deal is or how corrupt the process was, there is not a damn thing that the county board - or the people - could do about it.  At least until spring when we have the chance to oust this petty tyrant from his ivory tower - presuming he doesn't pay off the state Republicans to outlaw elections in Milwaukee County.

Across the country, people are celebrating our country gaining independence from imperial rule.  In Milwaukee County, this day will mark the loss of our independence.

Abele's Revolving Door Policy

Milwaukee County Emperor Chris Abele has a problem keeping staff.  Every time one of them tells him that his privatization of county services and his war on Milwaukee County citizens are bad ideas, he sends them packing.

In the two short years he's been on his throne, he has fired a number of people, including, but not limited to:

• Jim Burton - Director of Facilities (Abele fired him three months before the courthouse fire.)
• Sue Black - Director of Parks (Now the county can't even get vendors for its beer gardens)
• Frank Busalacchi - Director of Transportation (Abele fired him just before the paratransit contract snafu hit.)
• Paula Lucey - Director of Behavioral Health (Now Abele can't find anyone suitable to run the place, due in a great part to the fact that he wants to shut it down and abandon the mentally ill.)
• Patrick Farley - Director of Administration 
• Nelson Soler - Director of Minority Contracting (Soler's crime was to have been appointed by Chairwoman Marina Dimitrijevic before Act 14 was rammed through.)

The very disturbing part of these firings is that Abele has not given one reason for any of them. One can make logical, educated guesses at some of the firings, but it is Abele's onus to be forthright and forthcoming with his bosses - the citizens of Milwaukee County.

This week, Abele added another name to this list - Cindy van Pelt:

The director of Milwaukee County's risk management division abruptly left that post this week, in the midst of the cleanup of the courthouse following last month's electrical fire, county officials said Wednesday.

Cindy VanPelt held the job as head of the county's insurance office since January 2012.

On Wednesday, VanPelt's departure was disclosed in a memo to county supervisors by Don Tyler, who heads the county's Department of Administrative Services.

The memo said that her last day with the county was Tuesday, but gave no reason for the departure.

Brendan Conway, a spokesman for County Executive Chris Abele, declined to comment on the reason for VanPelt's departure. She was paid $91,300 a year.

Again no reason was given for van Pelt's dismissal. One might guess that van Pelt was fired for being on vacation for two weeks following the courthouse fire, but then again, that would be only on her if Abele ordered her back and she refused. It could be that she didn't kiss the Emperor's ring in the correct fashion. Without Abele explaining why he fired yet another one of his staffers, there is no way of knowing.

ADDENDUM:  Why would Abele fire the person in charge of insurance issues just as the county is in the process of filing one of the biggest claims in it's history?

Abele has a lot of things he needs to come clean with, and these firings are just the tip of the iceberg.  Until then, if Abele was truly interested in efficiency, he might want to install a revolving door on his executive suite.

Emperor Abele, Petty Tyrant, Strikes Again

Milwaukee County Emperor Chris Abele has again shown his pettiness and insecurity:

The abrupt departure of the head of Milwaukee County's minority contracting office drew criticism from county supervisors, who said the move appeared to be payback by County Executive Chris Abele.

Nelson Soler held the post for just short of one year. He was appointed by County Board Chairwoman Marina Dimitrijevic to run the county's Community Development Business Partners office after the former head was arrested and accused of taking a kickback and approving a phony contract.

Freida Webb was charged with four felonies last month.

Soler was credited by supervisors with improving the county's program for cultivating women- and minority-owned firms.

He drew criticism from Abele's administration in May for backing a plan to limit eligibility for a small-business assistance program to firms with gross income of $4 million a year or less.

Abele favored broadening the program to include businesses making up to about $22 million.

Soler's replacement, Ruben Anthony Jr., was announced Friday with only scant mention of Soler.

"The county executive and I would also like to thank Nelson Soler for his service to Milwaukee County," a letter from county administrative services director Don Tyler said.

Abele's staff declined to discuss the reason for Soler's departure.

The article goes on to say that Abele might have fired Soler because of the fact that Soler didn't kiss his butt. It could also be that Abele fired him because he wanted to get revenge on the County Board for firing Kimberly Walker, the former head of Corp Counsel. The difference is that there was ample evidence that Walker was corrupt and inept, while Abele offers no explanation on his firing of Soler, other than he could because of the plutocratic take over.

Of course, this is just the latest in a long line of firings by Abele, most of them done without explanation or a valid reason.  The growing list includes:

• Jim Burton - former director of facilities
• Sue Black- former director of parks
• Frank Busalacchi - former director of public works and transit
• Paula Lucey- former director of behavior health
• Patrick Farley - former director of administration

It's interesting to note what happen shortly after the firings.  

Three months after Abele fired Burton, the courthouse catches fire.  A year after Abele fired Black, Abele can't find vendors to work the beer gardens.  A few months after firing Busalacchi, county taxpayers get put on the hook for an extra $9 million due to mishandled contracts.  After Lucey leaves, the mental health complex fails audits by the feds and the state and it is learned that Abele is trying to dump our most vulnerable citizens into unsafe situations.  And after Farley is fired, the next director of administration starts threatening and trying to boss elected officials.

Y'know,  for someone that keeps touting the desire for efficiency, he's the most inefficient person I've ever seen.

A Victory In Michigan

The people's fight for freedom and against the corporate takeover has not been just in Fitzwalkerstan, but has been happening all over the country.

One of the biggest and most under-reported battles is taking place in our neighbor across the lake, Michigan.

Michigan's corporate-controlled governor, Rick Snyder, has rammed through many oppressive laws, with the most egregious among them is to impose fiscal martial on certain communities that don't past their fiscal fitness tests. Under this law, Snyder would be able to appoint agents of the state to utterly take over a community, stripping elected leaders of their powers and imposing their rules upon the people, including the unilateral, arbitrary demolish of bargaining rights for the local unions. Snyder's official name for these agents is Emergency Financial Manager, but the people refer to them simply, and more appropriately, as "local dictators." It is unsurprising that Snyder is imposing his fiscal feudal lords on predominately black neighborhoods, like Benton Harbor.

As in Ohio, Maine, and here in old Fitzwalkerstan, the people of Michigan stood up and protested and fought back.

They started the motions to do a petition drive to repeal this hateful and oppressive law. They wanted to get enough signatures to have this law put to a referendum vote. However, the corporate-backed front groups challenged the people's petitions, claiming that the petitions themselves were illegal because they were - get ready for this - using the wrong font size!

This fight actually made it up all the way to the Michigan State Supreme Court.

And it was there that justice and common sense prevailed. The people of Michigan will get to vote whether this oppressive law falls or stands. With the supreme court's decision to uphold the people's rights, the dictatorial law is suspended. But even this has led to disagreement:

To implement the court’s ruling, the State Board of Canvassers must certify the ballot question. That’s likely to happen next week, and once it does, Public Act 4 will be suspended pending the repeal’s outcome in the November election.

Gov. Rick Snyder and his appointees say all actions taken under the law since it took effect early in 2011 will stand, and current emergency managers will revert to the powers they had under the former emergency manager law, passed in 1990. The big difference: the old law does not permit managers to unilaterally amend or scrap collective bargaining agreements.

Others disagreed. Members of the board of Detroit Public Schools were talking publicly Friday about dumping emergency manager Roy Roberts and killing a plan to transfer certain schools to a special statewide Education Achievement Authority for low-achieving schools set up under the act’s powers.

School board president LaMar Lemmons II said the suspension of Public Act 4 will mean there is no emergency manager law – therefore no emergency mangers or emergency financial managers – until voters decide in November.

Once the ballot question is certified, the school board should be in charge and that means Roberts should step down, he said.

Roberts fought back through his chief of staff, Kevin Smith, sending a message to employees.

“Mr. Roberts has directed that all staff continue with your duties without interruption in conduct of the affairs of this district unless and until directed by him otherwise,” a portion of the letter read in bold, capital letters. “The board of education has no authority to direct DPS personnel to take any actions to the contrary.”

Treasurer Andy Dillon said he doesn’t believe the board has the power cited by Lemmons and he expects the new education authority to be the subject of another court battle.

Currently, polls show that support for this oppressive law is up by as much at 10 points, but with 25% still undecided. The Unions and other pro-citizen groups are fighting to get people educated before the November vote.

I just hope that Michigan isn't being quietly having their voting machines replaced by the easily tampered ones we have in Fitzwalkerstan.

Vive La Revolution!

Happy Bastille Day!

Bastille Day is the date honored as the beginning of the French Revolution, which was launched because of conditions which has a more than passing resemblance to modern day Fitzwalkerstan:

Bastille Day, marking the beginning of one of the most violent and famous revolutions in modern history, is celebrated on July 14.

The day celebrates French revolutionaries’ storming the Bastille fortress-prison in an event that is seen as the uprising of the modern nation.

The revolution began because the lower classes viewed the monarchy as opulent and unsympathetic because it heavily taxed the poor.

Impoverished revolutionaries sought to overthrow the monarchy in exchange for representative government.

The high taxes that spurred the French Revolution came from a government teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.

The revolution, of course, was eventually successful and led to the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen in August 1789:

The Representatives of the French people, organized in National Assembly, considering that ignorance, forgetfulness, or contempt of the rights of man are the sole causes of public miseries and the corruption of governments, have resolved to set forth in a solemn declaration the natural, inalienable, and sacred rights of man, so that this declaration, being ever present to all the members of the social body, may unceasingly remind them of their rights and duties; in order that the acts of the legislative power, and those of the executive power, may at each moment be compared with the aim and of every political institution and thereby may be more respected; and in order that the demands of the citizens, grounded henceforth upon simple and incontestable principles, may always take the direction of maintaining the constitution and welfare of all.

In consequence, the National Assembly recognizes and declares, in the presence and under the auspices of the Supreme Being, the following rights of man and citizen:

Articles:

1. Men are born free and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions can be based only on public utility.

2. The aim of every political association is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man. These rights are liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression.

3. The sources of all sovereignty resides essentially in the nation; no body, no individual can exercise authority that does not proceed from it in plain terms.

4. Liberty consists in the power to do anything that does not injure others; accordingly, the exercise of the rights of each man has no limits except those that secure the enjoyment of these same rights to the other members of society. These limits can be determined only by law.

5. The law has only the rights to forbid such actions as are injurious to society. Nothing can be forbidden that is not interdicted by the law, and no one can be constrained to do that which it does not order.

6. Law is the expression of the general will. All citizens have the right to take part personally, or by their representatives, and its formation. It must be the same for all, whether it protects or punishes. All citizens, being equal in its eyes, art equally eligible to all public dignities, places, and employments, according to their capacities, and without other distinction than that of their virtues and talents.

7. No man can be accused, arrested, or detained, except in the cases determined by the law and according to the forms it has prescribed. Those who procure, expedite, execute, or cause arbitrary orders to be executed, ought to be punished: but every citizen summoned were seized in virtue of the law ought to render instant obedience; he makes himself guilty by resistance.

8. The law ought only to establish penalties that are strict and obviously necessary, and no one can be punished except in virtue of a law established and promulgated prior to the offense and legally applied.

9. Every man being presumed innocent until he has been pronounced guilty, if it is thought indispensable to arrest him, all severity that may not be necessary to secure his person ought to be strictly suppressed by law.

10. No one should be disturbed on account of his opinions, even religious, provided their manifestation does not upset the public order established by law.

11. The free communication of ideas and opinions is one of the most precious of the rights of man; every citizen can then freely speak, write, and print, subject to responsibility for the abuse of this freedom in the cases is determined by law.

12. The guarantee of the rights of man and citizen requires a public force; this force then is instituted for the advantage of all and not for the personal benefit of those to whom it is entrusted.

13. A general tax is indispensable for the maintenance of the public force and for the expenses of administration; it ought to be equally apportioned among all citizens according to their means.

14. All the citizens have a right to ascertain, by themselves or by their representatives, the necessity of the public tax, to consent to it freely, to follow the employment of it, and to determine the quota, the assessment, the collection, and the duration of it.

15. Society has the right to call for an account of his administration by every public agent.

16. Any society in which the guarantee of the rights is not secured, or the separation of powers not determined, has no constitution at all.

17. Property being a sacred to and inviolable right, no one can be deprived of it, unless illegally established public necessity evidently demands it, under the condition of a just and prior indemnity.

And we all know how it ended for old Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.

Fortunately, we have matured as a society and won't need to behead anyone. Instead, we have indictments and arraignments.

Vive la revolution!

Scott Walker's Ironic Independence Day Email Is Ironic

Walker's campaign sent out an Independence Day email which was stunning for its irony and a classic example of Walker's hypocrisy and lack of insight. It reads as follows, with the italicized part his, the bold section is mine:

Not too long ago, I visited Independence Hall in Philadelphia and was struck by the great presence imposed on me by that historic site. When I was young, I always imagined our Founders to be larger-than-life figures, almost superhero-like in stature. But only when I stepped into the small, humble Assembly Room, did I truly realize that these were ordinary men who exhibited extraordinary courage. They were willing to sacrifice their lives in order to advance the cause of human freedom and self-governance.

July 4, 2012 marks the 236th Anniversary of our nation’s inception as a free and constitutional republic, and I am reminded of this passage from Thomas Jefferson’s exceptionally eloquent Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

Those words give us the great lesson of our republic. We must always remember that we the people have the power over our government and that the will of the people is the law of the land.

Today, we celebrate another year of freedom and remember the lives of those lost who fought to protect that freedom. We must never forget the ultimate sacrifice so many Americans made to protect our way of life. Today, as we gather around our barbecues and watch outstanding fireworks displays, we pay homage to those heroes who are no longer with us. We must honor them not only today, but everyday that freedom prevails over tyranny.

Tonette, Matt, Alex, and I wish you and your family a blessed and happy Independence Day!

Sincerely,

Scott Walker
45th Governor of Wisconsin

A few things pop out at me immediately.

He obviously didn't write this himself since there aren't nearly as many spelling and grammatical errors as we have come to expect when he tries to write something.

It absolutely sickens and enrages me that this man, who is at the beck and call of the corporations, and whose every action is to benefit the corporate interests that bought the governor's seat for him - twice - regardless of how many real people might get hurt, should now try to utter such hypocrisy that he gives a damn about what the real people have to say or what their desires are.

And it's particularly disturbing that a man who has assailed just about every single right we have* should even speak of freedom much less it prevailing over tyranny.

Telling women what they can and cannot do with their bodies or their health is not freedom, it's tyranny.  Teaching kids only the things you want them to know is not freedom, it's tyranny.  Telling workers they don't have the civil rights they've fought so long for and which has made the state the success it was until a year and a half ago is not freedom, it's tyranny.  Telling people they do not have the right to the Freedom of Speech and cannot hold up a sign of protest is not freedom, it's tyranny.  Sending state troopers to arrest political opponents is not freedom, it's tyranny.  Denying or hindering people from exercising their right to vote is not freedom, it's tyranny.

And the list goes on and on.

Yes, what Walker is foisting upon us isn't freedom. It isn't the will of the people. It's a corporate-backed tyranny.  And Walker is a puppet tyrant.  Or a dictator if you'd rather.

*I can just hear the pro-Walker acolytes and apologists denying that their rights have been impacted or diminished, but this is only symptomatic of their cognitive dissonance and how deeply in denial they truly are. Sadly, when they do realize that they've screwed themselves by supporting Walker, they'll form some sort of twisted rationale that it's really the Democrat's fault somehow.

The Police State Of Fitzwalkerstan

Vince Megna has been called the "King of Lemon Laws." As such, he is understandably upset as Scott Walker and his WISGOP cronies systematically went about removing consumer protection laws to further enrich their corporate sponsors.

To point out the outrage, Megna has apparently been making videos to point out the idiocy of the ruling class of Fitzwalkerstan. And the petty tyrants aren't pleased, as you can see from this video, as Megna is trying to shoot some film in front of the Waupun correctional facility while standing on the public sidewalk:



Of course, people like Warden Pollard acting as petty tyrants shouldn't be surprising when they are working for a despot like Walker who sends state troopers to arrest political opponents like any sorry third world dictator would.

After all:

Legality Of Walker's Assault Questioned

From the Racine Post (emphasis mine):

Make no mistake, what's going on in Madison this week is nothing short of revolution. Regardless which side you're on -- with Gov. Scott Walker and the Republican legislative majority or with Democrats and the state's unionized employees -- there's no doubt the capitol is 2011's Valley Forge, Gettysburg or Tahrir Square. The governor says he has already alerted the National Guard to maintain order. 

The governor's so-called budget repair bill guts collective bargaining for hundreds of thousands of state employees, including teachers (but not police and firemen). It would roll back and eliminate provisions workers and management have worked out over decades. We're no lawyers, but this ex post facto maneuver strikes us as constitutionally illegal.

Interesting question, isn't it?

The Farce Is Strong In This One...

You just know that if he had one, Scott Walker's would be a red one.

New Year, Same Spin Machine

So, with it being a brand new year, the Scott Walker spin machine is still cranking out the same old ditties.

Today's spin appears to be that the Walker's refusal of the $810 high speed train funding only cost the state a total of 12 jobs. The usual suspects are already drinking up that Kool-Aid, thinking that this is actual and that it is a good thing.

But the numbers themselves are suspect, given what is written later in the same article (emphasis mine):

A bipartisan group of local communications professionals, led by public relations executives Jason Lusk and Christel Henke, had circulated the letter, telling the Republican governor-elect that signers are "gravely disappointed over the loss of $810 million that could have been invested in our state," along with the loss of jobs and track improvements for freight rail.

The letter also urged "greater thoughtfulness, civility, creativity and compromise in the future" than the rail debate displayed.

But Lusk said GOP rail supporters - even some who helped draft the letter - backed out of signing it.

Some called the letter "too strident" toward Walker, while "others told us they were concerned that criticizing Governor-elect Walker would harm their efforts to bid on state projects," Lusk said by e-mail.

"In the end, we were left with a few dozen signatures, many from Democratic supporters, none from outspoken Republicans."

So if Walker's pay-for-play method of operation has Republican businessmen too scared to even be publicly honest about the effects of this lost economic development opportunity, how can we believe them when they talk about the impact they've already felt?

The ironic part of all this is that it was the conservatives that kept worrying about the false idea of President Obama being tyrannical, when the people are they are supporting are offering undeniable proof of who the real tyrants are.

ADDENDUM: Walker's dishonesty is well known and has gotten him into trouble before.