Today In Rught Wing World

By Jeff Simpson

Former SC GOP Director, and pro lifer,  has a solution for the Ebola Crisis:

  Todd Kincannon @Todd__Kincannon Follow

With zero hesitation. RT @gracels: @SCOAMT Not all Ebola victims die. You would kill the medical workers we brought back? The cameraman?

Chairwoman of the High Point University college republicans has a problem, with people voting.


"I just do not want to have people being registered to vote whatsoever."   





Then of course, let's never forget this gem:

Chad Vader Votes In Dane County

I know you thought all of the world's evil was congregated in Waukesha, but Chad Vader appears to be registered in Dane County and he just got a lesson in how secure his vote will be now(that is, until the republicans take his right to vote away)

Indefensible

 

By Jeff Simpson

H/T Jack Craver

Dale Schultz has had enough.   A lifelong republican legislator and part of a dying breed of true statesman can not handle the extreme storm that has taken over the current Wisconsin republican party!

“I am not willing to defend them anymore,” he explained when Salvia asked why Republicans sought to limit the number of voting hours a municipality could offer. “I’m just not and I’m embarrassed by this.”
 
“It’s all predicated on some belief there is a massive fraud or irregularities, something my colleagues have been hot on the trail for three years and have failed miserably at demonstrating,” he said.

 “It’s just sad when a political party has so lost faith in its ideas that it’s pouring all of its energy into election mechanics,” Schultz said. “We should be pitching as political parties our ideas for improving things in the future rather than mucking around in the mechanics and making it more confrontational at the voting sites and trying to suppress the vote.”

 “In the spirit of the champion of the 1957 Voting Rights Act, I have been trying to send a message that we are not encouraging voting, we are not making voting easier in any way, shape or form with these bills,” he explained. “Back in 1957 with the leadership of Dwight Eisenhower, Republicans were doing that. And that makes me sad, frankly.”

Schultz has even more to say, this time about the bill that makes it harder for victims of asbestos to sue:

Later, Schultz attacked a bill aimed at helping companies escape asbestos litigation that has been criticized by groups representing veterans, who account for a disproportionate number of those suffering from mesothelioma, a cancer linked to asbestos exposure.

“This bill is certainly a slap in the face at the very least to some of the people who gave some of the most vital years of their life in the service of their country,” he said.

That sound is Christian Schneider's head exploding since his job is defending the indefensible.  How long until Media Trackers has stories smearing Dale Schultz's good name?

Meanwhile, sign me up for the Dale Schultz for Governor campaign.  

 

The Party "Extremes"

 

By Jeff Simpson

Its common knowledge now that Mary Burke's campaign strategy is to attempt to appeal to the  Obama/Walker voter.   After the dust up yesterday of Mary Burke skipping out on the appearance by President Obama, her friend Paul Fanlund put out an article, trying to justify this strategy.

Franklin generally agrees: “I think if you look at all of our data over two years now, you do find something in the ballpark of 10 percent that fall into this category of what you might call Walker-Obama voters, and I have looked at them in some detail.
“They’re much more likely to call themselves independents; they are much more likely to say they are moderate rather than either liberal or conservative. They’re considerably younger than the population as a whole. They pay less attention to politics and are, of course, less likely to be partisan.”

The problem that we come into with this is that they make the false assumption, that both sides are the same.  That the "far left" will play as poorly with the general public as the "far right".   That is a false assumption, and the fact that not only the media but all to often the democratic party feeds into that has been a major reason for the election beatings the last few years.

Let's take a look.   For the purposes of this article, I will look at what I consider to be the opposite ends of the spectrum - Republican Senator Glenn Grothman and Democratic Representative Chris Taylor.

Here is a list of  Glenn Grothman's bills:

Sponsoring a mandatory forced ultrasound before abortion,  A bill that prohibits non-existent sex selective abortion, and making it harder to vote. 

A sampling of Representative Chris Taylor's bills:

Healthy Women/Healthy Families Part 1 and 2 (AB 348, AB 349): Restores state funding
to the state’s family planning program and essential Medicaid services for uninsured and
low-income women and families across Wisconsin.
Let Them Drink Milk Initiative (AB 566): This bill restores funding for school milk
programs for low-income children.
Mercury Bill (AB 744): Establishes rebate programs for the return of thermostats and
compact florescent lightbulbs that contain mercury in order to reduce mercury pollution
in landfills and in lakes, rivers and streams.

Not seeming equal to me.  Let's now look, because with the wonders of youtube we can, at SB507:

 Section 1. 48.982 (2) (g) 2. of the statutes is amended to read:

2 48.982 (2) (g) 2. Promote statewide educational and public awareness
3campaigns and materials for the purpose of developing public awareness of the
4problems of child abuse and neglect. In promoting those campaigns and materials,
5the board shall emphasize nonmarital parenthood as a contributing factor to child
6abuse and neglect.

7Section 2. 48.982 (2) (g) 4. of the statutes is amended to read:

8 48.982 (2) (g) 4. Disseminate information about the problems of and methods
9of preventing child abuse and neglect to the public and to organizations concerned
10with those problems. In disseminating that information, the board shall emphasize
11nonmarital parenthood as a contributing factor to child abuse and neglect.

12Section 3. 48.982 (2) (gm) of the statutes is amended to read:

13 48.982 (2) (gm) Provide, for use by the board in its statewide projects under sub.
14(5) and for use by organizations that receive grants under subs. (4) and (6),
15educational and public awareness materials and programming that emphasize
16nonmarital parenthood as a contributing factor to child abuse and neglect and the
17role of fathers in the primary prevention of child abuse and neglect.

Glenn Grothmans(the author of the bill) view's:

Chris Taylor on SB 507:

Let's now look at a random video of each

Glenn Grothman pointing out how rough white males have it in America:

Representative Chris Taylor regarding the Republican legislative agenda:

Do you really think we can equate the "far left" with the "far right"?  Are the people of Wisconsin more aligned with Grothman or Taylor? Are there people in Wisconsin who say, I want to force ultrasounds on women and have corporations tell me how much BPA is in the plastic container I just bought?   Are there voters who say i want to make sure we crush the unions and allow minorities to vote, so I am torn on who to support? 

Is that the voter we need to reach?  want to reach? is reachable?

As Fanlund himself puts it:

 Whatever, Walker’s re-election fate will apparently hinge on the sort of political non-combatants reflected in Franklin’s polling. It has always seemed to me, I said to Franklin, that about 45 percent of Wisconsin voters adore Walker, another 45 percent loathe him, and those with much, much less passion get to decide his fate.

 So 90% of the people have their minds made up in terms of what side they are on leaving 10% apathetic.  The one thing no one addresses is that while 90% of the people have their mind made up, less than 50% of the people VOTE.

In Wisconsin we have (roughly) 5,700,000 people of which, approximately 2,500,000 people voted in the last gubernatorial election.   take into account that (roughly) 1,300,000 people are under 18, that leaves roughly 1,900,000 people who do not vote.  The ten percent(which is a very high guesstimate) of undecided's would equal approximately 570,000.  This still leaves over 1,300,000 people who represent a party and have not been motivated to move to the polls to fill in the line. (FYI for perspective - Tom Barrett lost the recall election by 171,106 votes). 

 Who amongst the do not vote category is more likely to turn up on election day?  Someone who identifies and likes a candidate or someone who has no idea whats happening in our day to day society?

Now let's break it down even further.    We know that there are more Democratic voters in Wisconsin than republicans. While Wisconsin is a purple state it definitely leans to the left of center.

Now let's go back to the Marquette Poll that everyone likes to use as a fact:

What issues are important to the people of WI?

Says Franklin of his latest poll: “Support for increasing the minimum wage, support for extending unemployment benefits, opposition to refusing Medicaid expansion. There’s quite a list of things that we polled on that show majorities that are typically Democratic sides of the issue.”
Last summer, Walker quietly signed into law a bill requiring women to have an ultrasound before an abortion, an action opposed by 56 percent to 38 percent in Marquette’s October poll.

Now let's sum it up.  There are more Democratic voters in Wisconsin than republican, the Core issues that matter most to Wisconsinites, are traditional Democratic strong hold issues and the current Democratic candidate for Governor is running as "anything but a rabid Democrat".

 Mary Burke is also losing ground fast. 

You do the math.  

More on this subject @ Political Heat! 

Nothing Changes Except When It Gets Worse

Early Voting Started Today!

From an email from Milwaukee County Clerk Joe Czarezki:

Tuesday, April 2nd is Election Day.  Milwaukee County voters will go to the polls to elect a Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Circuit Court Judges and various local officials, including school board. 

EARLY VOTING BEGINS TODAY, MONDAY, MARCH 18.

If you will be unable to vote on Tuesday, April 2, please early vote or apply for an absentee ballot.

CITY OF MILWAUKEE EARLY VOTING
March 18 - March 29 
8:30 am - 4:30 pm
City Hall, 200 East Wells Street, Room 501

For early voting times and locations in OTHER MILWAUKEE COUNTY MUNICIPALITIES, please contact you municipal clerk. (See: http://county.milwaukee.gov/RelatedLinks23923.htm)

ABSENTEE BALLOT APPLICATION LINKS

City of Milwaukee http://city.milwaukee.gov/ImageLibrary/User/dwalton/AbsenteeApplication2013.pdf

Other Milwaukee County Municipalities
Instructions:
http://gab.wi.gov/elections-voting/voters/absentee
Application: http://gab.wi.gov/sites/default/files/gab_forms/4/gab_121_application_for_absentee_ballot_2013_02__14118.pdf

The right to vote is one of the foundations of our democracy. Please exercise your right to vote on Tuesday, April 2 or early vote now.

Joe Czarnezki
Milwaukee County Clerk

City of Milwaukee Absentee Ballot Application

Absentee Ballot Information for Other Municipalities 

Walker Against Same Day Registry, Unless His Kid's Using It

Another day, another outlandish piece of hypocrisy from Scott Walker:

Although he has signaled opposition to same-day voter registration, Gov. Scott Walker accompanied his college-age son to a Wauwatosa polling place to register and vote on Aug. 14 - the day of the GOP Senate primary.

Matt D. Walker, a freshman at Marquette University, registered to vote at Jefferson School in Wauwatosa, just blocks from the Walker home, according to election records.

A witness who was at the polling place told the Journal Sentinel that the governor accompanied his son.

In a speech in California last month, Walker said he was considering ending same-day voter registration but has since said it won't be a priority for him in the next legislative session.

Walker also said that proponents of same-day registration, some of whom held a news conference this week urging him to leave the issue alone, had turned it into a "ridiculous issue."

"My priority is about jobs, creating jobs. . . . It's not a part of my legislative priorities. It hasn't been something we've talked about," Walker said.

A couple of things to take away from that.

One, I think we've all learned that you can't trust anything Walker has to say about anything.

Two, if Walker's focus is really on job creation, we're all pretty much screwed.

MTA Wins Big, Milwaukee County Loses Out

From our friends at Move to Amend:

Move to Amend Wins Big at the Ballot Box: Americans Fed Up with Big Money and Undue Corporate Influence

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, November 7, 2012
CONTACT: Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap, press@MoveToAmend.org , 707-269-0984

From Massachusetts to Oregon, Colorado to Illinois and Wisconsin, and Ohio to California, citizens throughout the country voted overwhelmingly yesterday for their legislators to pass a constitutional amendment to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling and declare that only human beings – not corporations – are entitled to constitutional rights and that money is not speech and campaign spending can be regulated.

Residents in over 100 cities had the opportunity to vote on measures calling for an end to the doctrines of corporate constitutional rights and money as free speech, and in every single town the vote was supportive. Often by an overwhelming margin.

In Eau Claire, WI the vote was 71% in favor of a measure stating, "Should the US Constitution be amended to establish that regulating political contributions and spending is not equivalent to limiting freedom of speech, by stating that only human beings, not corporations, unions, or PACs, are entitled to constitutional rights?"

In largely conservative Pueblo, Colorado, where the city newspaper came out against the measure, residents still voted 65% in favor of Move to Amend's resolution, placed on the ballot by County Commissioners. Move to Amend volunteers in Massachusetts collected signatures to place the constitutional amendment question before one third of the population of their state. The "MA Democracy Amendment Question" passed by 79%.

Voters in Mendocino County, CA where volunteers collected signatures to become the first California county to place a Move to Amend citizen's initiative on the ballot, explicitly voted to "stand with the Move to Amend campaign" by a 73% margin. Move to Amend resolutions also passed in several towns in Illinois and Ohio and Oregon, all by similar landslide margins.

Montana voters approved a state-wide resolution by 75%.

Another organization -- Common Cause -- put forward several measures calling for simply overturning Citizens United and granting Congress authority to regulate campaign spending. These measures also passed by a wide margin. In the state of Colorado, the Common Cause measure passed by 64% and in San Francisco approval was 80% and 72% in Richmond, CA. The group's measure in Chicago passed by 74%. Common Cause was also an active member of the MA Democracy Amendment Coalition.

Move to Amend's position is that the Constitutional amendment must go beyond simply overturning Citizens United, "There is no reason for us to shy away from a true and lasting solution, rather than just band-aids," stated Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap, a member of the Move to Amend National Leadership Team. "In every single community where Americans have had the opportunity to call for a Constitutional amendment to outlaw corporate personhood, they have seized it and voted yes overwhelmingly. Tuesday's results show that the Movement to Amend has nearly universal approval. Americans are fed up with large corporations wielding undue influence over our elections and our legal system. Citizens United is not the cause, it is a symptom and Americans want to see that case overturned not by simply going back to the politics of 2009 before the case, but rather by removing big money and special interests from the process entirely."

Milwaukee County voters were denied their right to vote on this important referendum because Milwaukee County Executive thought it was like "a Facebook poll," and refusing to sign the bill and preventing the County Board from having enough time to override a veto and get it on the ballot.

Apparently, Abele thinks corporate influence on government is more important than the people's voices being heard.

Cross posted at Milwaukee County First.

L.O.V.E. Let One Voice Emerge

Beautiful. Just beautiful.

Abele: Referendum Is Like A Facebook Poll

Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele is becoming a greater embarrassment with each passing day.

Now he compares voting in an election is like voting on a Facebook poll.

Walkergate: Betcha Rindfleisch Votes Early

So far, it's been Kelly Rindfleisch week at the court system. And it's only Tuesday.

I pointed out last week that Rindfleisch was again trying to stall things by filing yet another leave to appeal request.  It's still pending, but I'd expect that it will have the same level of success as the last one did.

Meanwhile, back at the Milwaukee County Courthouse, there's been two hearings in as many days.

The original hearing was set for Monday, but Rindfleisch's attorney, Frank Gimbel, didn't file his motion until yesterday, so it was adjourned until Tuesday.

There were a couple motions before the court. The prosecutor had filed a motion for the use of certificates, which was allowed.

The defense wanted to suppress evidence found during the enforcement of search warrants and to have the case dismissed outright.

And as you might have imagined, the motion was denied.

The final pretrial hearing is scheduled on September 14 and the actual trial is scheduled for October 15.

As one might note, both dates are well before election day. I would say it's a safe bet that Rindfleisch will be voting early, to make sure it gets counted for the last time she can legally vote. (Remember, felons can't vote.)

Also, if she does vote early, it shows how she expects her trial to work out.

My guess is she's already sent in her absentee ballot.

And I think we know where her loyalties lie and who she'll be voting for:

Maybe they could make that their new slogan: Romney and Ryan - the felon's choice!

But as we wait, you know what my advice is:

Every Rodeo Has A Clown

As the conservatives continue to try to conflate and obfuscate and tantrum in the hopes to change the fact that Van Wanggaard lost his state senate seat, the reach new and even deeper lows.

Appearing through the dust that the Republicans are kicking up in their tantrums comes the Red Fox, aka A-Rod, aka The Hispanic Conservative, aka Aaron Rodriguez. On his corporate media blogsite, Rodriguez comes up with this bit of rodeo clown antics, making some rather presumptive and unsubstantiated accusations:

Following a tip from a Racine student, we did some canvassing of our own.

A student reported that when he was approached to sign a petition, he told the man he wasn’t yet 18 years old. The petitioner said this wouldn’t be an issue since nobody would verify their ages, the student said. Unsettled by what he had heard, the boy said he went home and began cross-checking names in the Racine Horlick, Case, and Washington Park yearbooks with the names listed on Wanggaard’s online recall petition. After two weeks of meticulous work, he claimed to have found more than 300 name matches.

I sat down with the student - including several of his friends - and we went through Racine Horlick’s yearbook for three hours canvassing all the freshmen, sophomores, and juniors in the school. We found that more than 120 names that matched the names on Wanggaard’s recall petition. We excluded high school seniors since some might have been 18 at the time they had signed. It’s possible, of course, that some of the students have the same names as their parents. But what we found should raise questions about the petition drive.

In a rather precocious op-ed by Voces intern Kennia Coronado, she said that youths in Racine have a history and pride in fighting against injustices. “If there is any manipulation taking place,” Coronado explained, “It is being done by those who are painting our efforts as partisan and somehow shady.”

We cross-checked known underage YES members who attend Racine Horlick, Case, and Park high schools and found a few of their names on Wanggaard’s recall petition as well. Due to the relative unavailability of their names, our search was restricted. I called Voces de la Frontera to see if I could get a full list of YES members in Racine, but nobody was available to speak with me at the time of the call.

Let me summarize this: Rodriguez got "a tip" from an unnamed student that said hundreds of other unnamed students signed the recall petition from months and months ago, but is only mentioning it now. He joined forced with the first unnamed student and some of his unnamed friends and confirmed that at least 100 unnamed students signed the petition. This proves everything is illegal and Wanggaard should be state senator until he dies, and then some.

Or something like that.

Oh, and the fact that Rodriguez is still pissed at Voces de la Frontera because they won their suit regarding the illegal and secretive gerrymandering has nothing to do with his post.

My first reaction is that Rodriguez has managed to combine the worst aspects of Media Trackers into one post.

Media Trackers is known for making false allegations of underage youths signing recall petitions in exchange for cigarettes. Of course, this was an absolute fabrication, but they still ran with it.

Media Trackers also helped launch the most disgusting round of McCarthyism we've seen in decades.

Rodriguez manages to do both, using the McCarthy-like checking of lists to see who's the commie as well as throwing out unsubstantiated allegations without a stitch of proof except for the hordes of unnamed teens that seem to plague Racine.

Then again, it shouldn't come as a surprise that Rodriguez would show this lack of journalistic ethics, since he is not afraid of committing libel, such as accusing me of violating federal laws based on nothing. Yeah, this is also the same guy who said that nothing illegal was going on in Scott Walker's county executive office. (How's that working out for you, Aaron?)

I'd complain about the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel giving pixels and ink to this hack, but I realize that corporate media types stick together and Journal Communications gave up any pretense of journalistic integrity a long, long time ago.  Meh, they get what they pay for.

The more desperate that the right becomes in trying to draw attention to Wanggaard's loss and their implications of some sort of fraud, the more I belief that it is an attempt to keep the public's focus off of the highly questionable electronic voting machines which were used in the counties of the Northwoods.  One may recall there was a sudden and unpredicted shift from blue to red.

It might also explain why Command Central, the company that supplied these machines for free, are in such an almighty hurry to get the cartridges and memory packs from those machines so they can override them with for the August primary, instead of simply supplying new ones.

Attention! All Milwaukee And Madison Voters!

Today, the city clerk's offices in both Madison and Milwaukee are open from 12 noon to 4 pm.  If you have not done so yet, please get down to these offices and vote.

Attention, Milwaukee Voters!

You can vote this holiday weekend, including the holiday itself! (emphasis mine)

With the recall election 11 day away, one area absentee ballot polling place will stay open through the Memorial Day weekend because of the high demand.

A line of voters were already waiting outside the Zeidler Municipal Building Friday morning, and Milwaukee's election commission said traffic has been busy all week.

"I was going to be out of town and I wanted to make sure I got my vote in because it's a very important election," said Jim Singer of Milwaukee.

And while other city departments are already closed for the holiday weekend, executive director Sue Edman said her office will actually extend their hours.

"We had a lot of calls this week," Edman said. "Are we going to extend our hours? Are we going to be open later?"

Edman said the office in the Zeidler Building will be open until 7 p.m. Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday, noon to 4 p.m. Sunday and from 9 a.m. to noon on Monday.

Things To Do If Your Not Voting

Jill Sixpack has your agenda. Better get crackin'.