The GOP Short Term Memory Loss

By Jeff Simpson 

The down time between election and inauguration has been way more exciting than it should have been.   First off, Robin Vos, the wanna be Whitey Bulger,  has decided since Walker went down in shame, to follow the age old adage  -  The King is Dead, Long Live the King Robin!  Doing as he was told by the boys at ALEC and Scott Jensen, Robin decided, since he has a gerrymandered legislature. to transfer as much power away from Tony Evers and into his lap as he could possibly get away with, then a little more. 

The problem is this is a new era in politics and the citizens of Wisconsin are paying attention and, all but the hardest core right wingers, are not having it.

    Republican state leaders have struggled to publicly explain laws they enacted in a recent lame-duck session, amid a national onslaught of criticism from Democrats, nonpartisan groups and even fellow Republicans.
The critics largely have offered a unified critique of the measures, signed by Gov. Scott Walker last week. They’ve called them an unprecedented power grab by Walker and legislative Republicans that defied the will of voters, who elected Democratic Gov.-elect Tony Evers and Attorney General-elect Josh Kaul. Both take office in January.

When something is unjustifiable, it is impossible to justify.  That is pretty simple and easy to understand. 

We are just beginning.   There are still a couple weeks before inauguration and the Republicans are having a full out assault on anytime Tony Evers Sneezes.   The attacks this week are going to come against every single person that Tony nominates to his cabinet. 

Its starting now.  Pro CAFO, and Oompa Loompa , who hasnt made a promise he intends to keep thinks that appointing someone from Madison and Milwaukee is unacceptable.

and Jim Steineke, couldnt see the crimes that Bill Kramer was committing right in front of his eyes, but can see how after four appointments that Tony Evers hates WI.

For those that may not be aware, there are good, qualified people outside of Milwaukee and Madison. Hopefully the rest of the state will eventually be represented in this administration. https://t.co/I1ao1ImT5P

— Jim Steineke (@jimsteineke) December 19, 2018

You get the idea, anyone who read the memo and does not want to upset Robin "Whitey Bulger " Vos will be in full attack and discredit mode. 

When there is an all out assault on the Democrats, expect @newsmaciver to get the call and they jumped into action...

But Evers’ lofty words of compromise and bipartisanship don’t seem to jibe with his opening appointments. The governor-elect has quietly assembled advisory committees packed with some of the most left-leaning people from some of the more left-wing organizations in the state. Nary a conservative to be found, of course, and even truly moderate Republicans are missing from the far left-heavy advisory committees.
The lineup includes big labor bosses, extreme environmentalists, social justice warriors, and espousers of socialism.
His liberal picks shouldn’t come as a huge surprise

What our friends on the right are hoping you do not remember is some of the appointments that Scott Walker originally made(all of whom they gladly voted for).

*  Dennis Smith - Smith, the married man with 4 daughters from Washington DC, was appointed head of Department of Health Services by Scott Walker.   Smith who never met an uninsured person he was not proud of, used the job basically to bring his high school crush to WI and start an affair on our dime using our resources and then resigned and took off to DC abruptly after his affair came to light.    Smith now works for a global law firm in DC - Dentons. 

*  Michael Brickman - Brickman, a degree in political science and a member of "Friends of Scott Walker" that helped get Walker elected, was named Walker's top education policy advisor.   Brickman made a name for himself, by going to the bars in Milwaukee and getting intoxicated Democrats to say stupid things that they could run to the press with.   He "disguised" himself as "Rich in retail" when talking to people at the bars.  This experience made him qualified to set education policy in the far right world of fitzwalkerstan.   Now, to the surprise of no one, Mike "Rich in retail" Brickman works for Betsy DeVos. 

 *  Brian Deschane -  Deschane, the troubled son of Big walker donor Jerry Deschane, was appointed to an $81.500/yr job with the Commerce Department.  His qualifications, as one would expect from this administration were- no college degree, no work experience and 2 DUI's. 

* Ryan Murray - Murray, the son of another big Walker donor, Mike Murray,  was appointed original head of WEDC.  Murray, whose first audit of WEDC, found that while they had created no real jobs to speak of, had invested heavily in Wisconsin Badger tickets, vacations and iTunes gift cards( you can not make this stuff up).   This of course led to nothing but a pat on the back and told to continue on until WEDC actually ended up paying off a donors Maserati(that he named Nero).  It took competent people actually quitting, over Murray's incompetence to actually force change.   Murray currently works for the unimaginatively named "The Firm" consulting firm in Milwaukee.   

As our friends on right continue to criticize Governor Evers, remember they not only have no leg to stand on, their continual hiring of incompetents has cost our state millions!   

Micromanagement, Manipulation and Mischief.

By Jeff Simpson 

Add one more name to the list of old Scott Walker friends who have come out saying they won't vote for him ever again and neither should you!    This time it is Paul Jadin, who resigned a job where he was making $208,000/yr, so he could satisfy his conscience and speak his truth.  Jadin, along with former colleagues Ed Wall and Peter Bildstein sent out an open letter today explaining why they are endorsing Tony Evers!

The letter writers say they will not be voting for Walker because of his handling of transportation, education and safety issues as well as "pervasive questionable practices within the administration."
"Governor Walker has consistently eschewed sound management practices in favor of schemes or coverup and has routinely put his future ahead of the state." the letter states. "The result is micromanagement, manipulation and mischief. We have all been witness to more than our share of this."
The letter doesn't list specific examples of "mischief" or "coverup" but said when Walker was traveling the country in 2012 to raise money for his recall election he stopped attending cabinet meetings and delegated responsibilities to his chief of staff.
"When he decided to run for President in 2015 he subordinated Wisconsin interests to those in Iowa and New Hampshire and his policy/budget proposals started to clash with members of his own party who still would have to stand for election in Wisconsin," they wrote.
Jadin, Bildsten and Wall described themselves as having "served our state and local governments in many capacities over our careers and have voted for and supported Republicans." They said the decision to endorse Evers comes with "a great deal of reflection and discernment."

We have seen two different kinds of people emerge in the Republican party.  The conservative Republicans (like these letter writers) who have a set of values and want to make society and our state a better place (even if we disagree at times).   The second kind of people are the ones who have no room for values because they are loaded with personal ambition and do not care what it takes to get more money and power. 

Enough time with group 2 and group 1 was completely fed up and could not stay quiet any longer. 

While Scott Walker will go into pure smear mode on anyone who speaks up, let's take a quick look at the realities behind that.

The people speaking truth to power about Walker, like Jadin, a former Mayor of Green Bay, are people who have held major non partisan jobs and will again.  While Walker criticizes the job that Jardin has done, remember that Walker himself hired Ryan Murray to run WEDC, despite the fact that he was incredibly incompetent, because he was a donors son. 

These brave people are doing Wisconsinites a service, and yelling from the rooftops that Scott Walker is not worthy of running the Great state of Wisconsin.

The question is, will we listen?

WEDC's History Raises Concerns About State's Ability to Oversee Foxconn Deal

By Kathleen Vinehout 

"Can you find out the nuclear flaw in the Foxconn deal?” a woman asked me. She was referring to words leaked out of secret negotiations between the state and a Taiwanese billionaire.

Lawmakers, who recently voted in favor of the Foxconn deal, did so without seeing any contract. They put faith in a state operation known as Wisconsin Economic Development (WEDC).

Despite being paid for entirely with public funds, the $3 billion contract with Foxconn is not public. Nor do lawmakers who approved the plan know what problems exist in the draft contract. As the saying goes, the devil is in the details. Lawmakers and the public cannot see the details and are asked to trust WEDC negotiating the deal and later overseeing the Foxconn’s compliance.

But is WEDC worthy of our trust?

For years, the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB) reported concerns about WEDC’s administration and oversight of economic development programs.

In 2013, nearly two years after WEDC was created, auditors could not report on state dollars spent by WEDC because their financial and accounting systems were not adequate. Members of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee learned spending was tracked largely by credit card statements. To remedy this serious problem, legislators passed a new law that included an independent audit of all WEDC financial statements. Financial statement preparation should be basic for any state agency.

At an October 2013 Audit Committee public hearing, WEDC leaders promised they had complied with all the LAB recommendations. However, a year later, auditors reported many problems related to basic operations and the tracking of money. For example, auditors found some spending not recorded in the accounting system and found past due loans that were missing.

By 2015, auditors discovered a larger than necessary cash balance at WEDC. By the end of June 2015, WEDC had accumulated in excess of $85 million as reported in a 2017 audit.

Losing loans and not properly accounting for internal expenses are problems associated with the operation of a troubled agency. But the problems WEDC could encounter in overseeing a large project like Foxconn are related to the independent evaluation of the company’s promises compared to their actual records.

Four years after WEDC was established auditors finally could report that WEDC made ANY effort to obtain information about jobs were actually created. However, further review by auditors showed the attempts made by WEDC only compared a company’s own promises to report and the reports a company itself filed. WEDC made no effort to verify the information submitted.

In its most recent audit, the LAB reported WEDC paid an outside consultant $24,900 to do the work they were required to do since their existence in 2011. Auditors found concerns including that the contractor’s work was limited and did not include grants.

In the LAB’s own evaluation of completed economic development projects, auditors’ findings included: companies gave money for job creation without any contract requiring such, companies quitting before the end of their contract period without delivering promised jobs, contracts to create jobs were written with no specific number of jobs to be created, WEDC forgave loans even though the company created or retained a lower number of jobs than required, and WEDC counting twice the number of jobs created by a company.

If Wisconsin taxpayers cannot be confident after seven years and the investment of hundreds of millions of state dollars that promised jobs were created, how can we possibly be confident WEDC can negotiate and oversee a $3 billion contract?

No local government would ever agree to spend money without seeing a contract. No banker would agree to loan funds without a contract. No businessperson would ever commit funds without a contract.

Lawmakers bought a pig in a poke – an unknown deal.

WEDC has not earned lawmakers trust, nor that of the public. Lawmakers can and should do more to oversee this project. 

FoxCON Freebie

By Jeff Simpson

Once again, the GOP are setting the stage and controlling the dialogue, $3 billion Wisconsin tax dollars, and a press corps made up of cheerleaders will do that.   

Instead of calling it the Con job that it is, too many Dems are buckling and cheering on Scott Walker:

Unfortunately, the cheer leading even extended over to Paul Ryan's two opponents:

Ryan faces potential challenges from Caledonia iron worker Randy Bryce and Janesville school board member Cathy Myers.
Bryce said the Foxconn announcement is "good news for Wisconsin workers who stand to gain jobs if the final deal indeed delivers what has been promised."
"But that single announcement doesn't make up for more than 20 years of bad economics — like unfair trade deals and huge tax giveaways to the wealthy and corporations — that have bled southeast Wisconsin's economy dry," Bryce said, arguing the state needs a comprehensive economic strategy that will help "all of the working people who have been left behind over the past two decades — not just the lucky few who may benefit from this one-off deal made possible with huge corporate tax breaks."
Myers tweeted last week: "1,000s of good jobs coming to #WI01 is welcome relief for ppl. Let's organize to ensure taxpayer subsidies incl real community benefits!"

 Ok, I am not a high priced consultant, but I am sick of losing elections by not being authentic or telling the truth or pretending Republicans in Wisconsin have "good ideas".   I will offer my services up for free in how to answer this simple question.  Your thoughts on the Foxconn announcement: 

Of course we always welcome 13,000 jobs, but we must also be very wary not to put the cart before the horse.   The best way to predict future behavior is by past behavior and the three players involved give me reason to pause.   Foxconn, has a reputation for incredibly poor working conditions, that has led to them having to install suicide nets outside their buildings to keep worker from jumping.   Add to that how they took the money and ran from a commitment in Pennsylvania leaving the Foxconn execs richer and the taxpayers broke.  

Then you look at Scott Walker who still, after all of the time, has not even come close to reaching his stated job goal of 250000 jobs (by 2015).  Wisconsin lost 4000 jobs last month alone, and if you look at Governor Walkers Pet project - WEDC(which he used to be chair of), they have a history of using our tax dollars to pay for such things as Badger Tickets, and iTunes gift cards in the name of "job creation".  We, under the guide of Governor Walker, even paid for one of his supporters Jaguars   

Finally Paul Ryan, in terms of districts losing jobs,  Paul Ryan has to be in the Hall of Fame.   When Paul Ryan took over as Congressman of the 1st Congressional District it was thriving as a manufacturing Mecca.   Since Paul Ryan has "represented" the district, such long term, Wisconsin Icons like Case, Chrysler, GM, GE, etc...all have shuttered and moved on.  

The perfect story of Paul Ryan, as told in the book Janesville, tells of a time when officials from Janesville (Paul's home town) had a very important meeting with the executives of GM in order to see what they could do to keep the 100 year old plant open.   Paul Ryan skipped the meeting to go on a "Tea Party Patriots" radio show.    

SO yes, I welcome 13,000 jobs, but I am very skeptical that these players can bring it home.   I also know that if we have an extra $3 billion dollars laying around, we could create many more jobs, by investing it in Wisconsin and not Taiwan.   

Your welcome

The Republican Corruption Agenda

This week culminated in yet another Republican bill being passed that consolidates political power, opens the door to corruption, and ensures cronyism will run rampant. In the past 7 days, we’ve seen Republicans exempt themselves from corruption investigations, take us back to the Elections and Ethics Commissions that ignore political corruption, open the flood gates to more secret corporate money in elections, and allow individuals to conceal carry knives. And now, Assembly Republicans voted to gut Wisconsin’s civil service system in order to game the formerly objective public employee hiring system.

 

Wisconsin was a leader when it created its civil service laws in 1905. AB 373 overhauls the state’s civil service system for Wisconsin’s 30,000 public employees. It eliminates objective civil service exams and replaces them with a subjective system for hiring. It increases the probationary period, allowing employees to be fired for any reason for up to 2 years. Included in the definition of “just cause” is “personal conduct” that is “unsuitable,” which leaves too much discretion in the hands of state agencies to discipline employees for manufactured reasons.

 

If the Walker Administration wants, as Governor Bob La Follette’s slogan says, for “the best to serve the state,” there are proactive steps that must be taken, and gutting civil service protections isn’t one of them. If the Republicans really want to attract the best and the brightest, they shouldn’t have cut take-home pay and eliminated collective bargaining rights. Governor Walker and legislative Republicans should be working to repair the damage they inflicted on Wisconsin’s workers, not destroying civil service protections.

 

Additionally, we’ve already seen the corruption that can occur in state employment when civil service standards are removed. This is what happened when the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) was created. Without the civil service process, WEDC has seen unprecedented levels of corruption and unethical behavior. One analysis of the $975 million WEDC doled out from 2011-2014 found that 60% of the funds went to those that contributed directly to Governor Walker or the Republican Governor’s Association. Taxpayer money has been irresponsibly loaned to Walker donors who need to make their Maserati payments.

 

Even before the civil service system was ransacked, we’d already begun to see cronyism seeping into our government:

 

If you signed the recall petition, you’re weren’t appointed to a board you were otherwise extremely qualified to be on. If you conducted research based on science, not politics, you were fired, just like the 18 scientists at the Department of Natural Resources. If you were a long time civil servant and you disagreed with one of the agencies, your job was turned into an unclassified position, causing you to lose all job protections.

 

In the face of reduced public employee protections, I am introducing an anti-retaliation bill to ensure that public employees will not be targeted for simply doing their jobs or exercising their basic, protected 1^st Amendment rights. This is a small step towards treating state employees with the respect they deserve.

Representative Chris Taylor 

Quote of the Day - Scott Walker Edition

The gentle reader is well aware that Scott Walker's hypocrisy knows no bounds, but he still has the ability to come up with things that leaves even the most cynical of us astounded by just how far he can go.

A prime example was his review of the Democratic debate and Hillary Clinton's performance (emphasis mine):

The governor also praised the performance of former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in Tuesday's Democratic presidential debate, saying she came across as "surprisingly very confident and, I thought, relatively pleasant." But he panned her policies and those of her Democratic rivals as socialism.

"I was just overwhelmed with how much stuff they're willing to give away," he said.

This is coming from the guy who was in charge of the WEDC - until a few months ago when he got fired from the job - and led the way of giving away hundreds of millions of dollars to his biggest campaign donors.

The man really has no shame at all.

Great Scott Walker Quotes

By Jeff Simpson

I found this fun website recently which is a tribute to our very own former Governor, Scott Walker. I am not sure if Mike Huebsch or Cindy Archer are the creators and administrators of the website but one of them has to be.

They count down the Top Ten great quotes from Scott Walker.   Here is a sampling:




"I hate big Government, " says Scott Walker who ordered his personal police force to arrest anyone who sang or held a sign inside the publicly funded Capitol building.  These illegal and Unconstitutional actions just cost the taxpayers over $245,000 in legal fees.

"I really hate Government that does not work." says Scott Walker, who spent 1 day in Wisconsin in July(for our friends at RightWisconsin, there are 31 days in July).

" So when they say we either have to raise taxes or cut services, it's actually a false choice." says the Governor who has to delay major road work projects in Wisconsin because we do not have the money, thus costing Wisconsin taxpayers over $160 Million wasted dollars.

But wait there is more!




Says the Governor who was Chairman of the Board of his signature "jobs"agency, where he gave out hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to donors and received little to nothing in return.

Those are definitely some great quotes, but more along the lines of why he crashed and burned in his miserable attempt to be the next President of the US, not in terms of his poorly perceived competence as a legislator/Governor.

Scott Walker: Behind the Scenes

By Jeff Simpson

Fond on Facebook, a video of the Mark Hogan interview with Scott Walker. 

Scott Walker:  Mr. Hogan, what will you do when one of my main donors....I mean job creators, comes to you and asking for a loan?

Mark Hogan:

























  


Scott Walker: Excellent answer!! You are hired! 

Heck Of A Job Brownie!

 

by Jeff Simpson


Reed Hall, head of the taxpayer money pit and walker donor effort, WEDC is retiring.

In a statement, Walker praised Hall and said he would work with the WEDC board to appoint a successor.
"Reed has overseen a transformational period at WEDC with a steady hand. Under Reed's guidance, WEDC strengthened its accountability and transparency to taxpayers, improving the public trust, while moving forward the important work of developing economic opportunity for families all around our state," Walker said.

Yes Mr.Hall, has steadily overseen millions and millions of our tax dollars, disappear into the bank accounts of Walker donors.     I wonder which unqualified donor or donor's kid, Scott Walker will appoint next?  Is Cynthia Archer available?

The Big question is will the taxpayers of WI buy him a Maserati to drive off into the sunset?

Mr. Hall should be investigated, not congratulated!  

The Scott Walker Crusade

By Jeff Simpson

Scott Walker, the absentee Governor of Wisconsin, who has UNofficially been running for President the past five years has been famous for not taking a stance(Ie. the "no comment" candidate), or flip flopping on his beliefs on a daily basis.

Yesterday, the Supreme Court of the United States, finally gave Scott Walker a cause that he could step out and actually take a stand.  

If you missed it, you might ask yourself what made Scott Walker step up in anger and vow to change when he becomes President:

Is it the fact that we have a school to prison pipeline and Wisconsin, under Scott Walker, is the worst state for black Americans?   That is what got Scott Walker so upset right?

Well no, he actually has never addressed this problem.  

Is it the fact that Mr. Walker made a rare guest appearance in Wisconsin, to sign a bill that eliminated the 48 hour waiting period for purchasing handguns, where the justification was based on a sick lie?  

No, to keep his A+ rating from the NRA, he will sign anything they tell him too.  


Maybe, it was the fact his signature "job creating" committee, Wisconsin Economic Development Corp(WEDC), that he appointed himself Chairman of the Board of, was just found to have given $500.000 of Wisconsin taxpayer money to his good friend Bill Minahan, so he could pay off the lease on his Maserati?


No, Minahan maxed out his donations to "Friends of Scott Walker", which means under WEDC rules, he is entitled to as much Wisconsin taxpayer money as possible.  



Scott Walker is not the least bit concerned about any of those issues.  Scott Walker is on a mission to end the ability of our LGBT friends to get married.  

Walker, who often reminds people he is "not a lawyer", spoke up loud and clear how he feels about this SCOTUS ruling, calling it a "grave mistake":

I believe this Supreme Court decision is a grave mistake. Five unelected judges have taken it upon themselves to redefine the institution of marriage, an institution that the author of this decision acknowledges ‘has been with us for millennia.’ In 2006 I, like millions of Americans, voted to amend our state constitution to protect the institution of marriage from exactly this type of judicial activism. The states are the proper place for these decisions to be made, and as we have seen repeatedly over the last few days, we will need a conservative president who will appoint men and women to the Court who will faithfully interpret the Constitution and laws of our land without injecting their own political agendas. As a result of this decision, the only alternative left for the American people is to support an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to reaffirm the ability of the states to continue to define marriage.Recognizing that our Founders made our Constitution difficult to amend, I am reminded that it was first amended to protect our ‘First Freedom’ - the free exercise of religion. The First Amendment does not simply protect a narrow ‘right to worship,’ but provides broad protection to individuals and institutions to worship and act in accordance with their religious beliefs. In fact, the Wisconsin constitution explicitly protects the rights of conscience of our citizens. I can assure all Wisconsinites concerned about the impact of today’s decision that your conscience rights will be protected, and the government will not coerce you to act against your religious beliefs.
I call on the president and all governors to join me in reassuring millions of Americans that the government will not force them to participate in activities that violate their deeply held religious beliefs. No one wants to live in a country where the government coerces people to act in opposition to their conscience. We will continue to fight for the freedoms of all Americans.

Are you really a serious candidate, much less a person, if the one thing that you actually take a stand on is a SCOTUS ruling allowing gay Americans who are in love and committed relationships to confirm their relationship via marriage vows?

Apparently it is only ok, if you invite Scott to your wedding, so he can get free food and drinks.

 

PS:  It is not bad enough to take such a ridiculous position, but he is in lock step with Glenn Grothman.  

“I am deeply disappointed by the Supreme Court’s decision today to overturn same-sex marriage laws around the country,” said Congressman Grothman. “This would have been unthinkable 20 years ago, and as recently as three years ago President Obama said he was opposed to same-sex marriage. The American people are more than capable of making these decisions, just like we did in Wisconsin in 2006. Unfortunately, five Supreme Court justices clearly do not believe in the original intent of the 14th amendment as it was ratified in 1868. The contempt these Supreme Court justices have for the intent of our Constitution is shocking. This decision was partially influenced by recent public opinion, but the Constitution, as well as religious beliefs, should not change at the whim of public opinion.”

U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman is serving his first term representing Wisconsin’s 6th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. Contact his Washington, D.C., office at (202) 225-2476, or online at grothman.house.gov.

Scott Walker is on a crusade, the question is can he get enough people to follow his far right extremist cause to actually become our next President?  

Walker's "Job Creation Agency" Gets A Closer Look

As Scott Walker kicks off his presidential bid (But remember, kids, he's not really a candidate yet! Yeah, right.) , his record is getting a closer, but not necessarily a more honest, look at his record.

One of the things Walker promised when he was running for governor in 2010 was that he would create 250,000 jobs before the end of his first term, when he wasn't busy saying that government doesn't create jobs. That really wasn't a big risk as far as pledges go. Experts said that he could do that by doing nothing if national and global economics picked up enough. But Walker did was worse than doing nothing because he came nowhere near his goal. In fact, depending on how you count it, he didn't even reach the halfway point.

To meet his goal, Walker created the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC), a public-private entity that was the kingpin of his job creation scheme.

Andy Sullivan at Reuters took a look at Walker's WEDC.

At first, Sullivan treated it with kid gloves, feeding into the right wing propaganda that the lack of job creation was due to uncertainty due to the protests. That's a crock. Walker also blamed his recall, Obama's reelection, Obamacare, and, well, everything but himself.

As is usual for these types of articles, Sullivan doesn't get to the meat of the issue until near the bottom of his column, after many readers might stop reading:

Only 25 percent of those who worked at WEDC when it started are still there now, according to a former top state economic development official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

[...]

The turmoil hasn't been confined to the rank and file. Since 2011, the body has had two chief executive officers and is now looking for its third chief operating officer and fourth chief financial officer.

State legislative audits have found that WEDC has mismanaged taxpayer funds and handed out awards to companies that should not have been eligible for them. The agency also didn't follow up to ensure that jobs were actually being created and failed to track whether businesses were paying their loans back on time, according to reviews in 2012 and 2013. Lassa said the agency had improved its performance somewhat since then.

The agency also awarded job-creation grants to companies that have shipped jobs overseas, prompting Walker to promise reforms during his 2014 re-election campaign. Since then, the agency has adopted rules that prohibit companies from using WEDC funds to outsource jobs.

The agency has fallen short of its own goals. In its first fiscal year of operation, which ended on June 30, 2012, WEDC reported that it had backed projects that would create or retain 23,759 jobs, short of its goal of 50,000 jobs.

WEDC fell short again the following year, when it reported that it had signed off on projects that would create 11,058 jobs and retain another 26,255, again short of the 50,000 goal.

Unfortunately, Sullivan also missed a lot of important things.

Things like that

• Walker used the WEDC board as a place to stick his unqualified former campaign workers, even though they had no experience in economic development
• The money they lost track of was in the tens of millions of dollars
• WEDC was involved in bid rigging
• They used taxpayer money to buy iTunes for their iPads and tickets to Badger games
• Many of the companies that received WEDC money were also Walker campaign donors

Another big thing that Sullivan didn't mention is that Walker had a lot of warning that this scheme was a bad idea and was basically designed to fail at its purported goal of creating jobs.

On the bright side, it is excelling at the fraud, corruption and waste that these types of programs create. Maybe Walker can put that in one of his presidential resume bullet points.

Cross posted at Crooks and Liars

The Scott Walker Degree

BY Jeff Simpson 

Scott Walker, who likes to campaign Al Dente, has changed his line about not having a college degree once again.   

What about not having a college degree?"I say I’m like the majority of people in America. I’m someone who went to college, had the opportunity in my senior year to go and take a job full-time, which was not the only reason I went to college, but one of the biggest reasons was to get a job. And the American Red Cross offered me a job my senior year, and I took it, thinking someday, maybe, I’d go back. But a few years later, I met my wonderful wife, Tonette, a year after that, we had Matthew, the year after that, we had Alex. And now like a lot of folks in America, you know, your family and your job take the time away from you from finishing it up. But I don’t think anybody -- and I’ve got a master’s degree in taking on the big-government special interests, and I think that is worth more than anything else that anybody can point to."

Once you get past the fact that he changes his life story more than Robert Van Winkle ever did, one interesting line stands out.  

and I’ve got a master’s degree in taking on the big-government special interests - Scott Walker

Well we at CogDis did some digging and we found a partial course listing of classes that Mr. Walker Had to take to earn his imaginary Master's degree.  

 How to please your boss, yet look independent 202:  This course we will teach you how to say one thing to the general public while spilling your true strategy to people who pay for that privilege. By the end of this class, you will learn how to soak millions out of rich widows.  

Kiss the right rings(there is lots of money in Las Vegas) 300:  This course will show you, how to fund raise nationally while traveling secretly.  The more advanced learners in this class, will learn how you can phone reporters in your home state, while traveling, to complain about "out of state special interests".



You have access to unlimited money, use it 220:   This class will show you how to do whatever you want in office because you have unlimited access to taxpayer money to hire lawyers.  If time allows, the student will also learn how to hire consultants to keep from having to make a decision on your own.



Meet the right people - 100:  This is a refresher course to help the student understand that the person you are nice to today, could grow up to become a Supreme Court Justice, who will not only suspend ethics rules to do your bidding but be willing to choke anyone who gets in the way!



You are always, always, always on - no one is bigger than your ambition 400 :  This is an upper level graduate course for those who are willing to do anything to become President of the United States.   This course will teach you to hire felons, snakes, and loons.  You will also learn the importance of hiring your donors to major positions within the Government and the equal importance of throwing them to the wolves the second you need a scapegoat.  Students will also learn that the more taxpayer money you can give to your friends, the more money they will give you.  



You can see with five classes last semester, Mr. Walker had a full course load but it allowed him to attain his imaginary masters degree.

Congrats to you Scott Walker,

Let's hope the walk you take to get this degree involves handcuffs and disgrace!

Rebecca Kleefisch: Jobs Ambassador

There is a radio commercial run by a third party in support of Rebecca Kleefisch.

Part of the commercial has this disturbing part about how she can shoot a turkey and send "Madison special interests" running for cover, making it seem like that she is willing to shoot people that she doesn't agree with.

Another part of the commercial describes Kleefisch as a "jobs ambassador."

Does that mean she goes traveling around the world to visit the jobs that companies have sent overseas with the help of WEDC funding (taxpayers' money)?

Pee In A Cup - Part 2

By Jeff Simpson

In case you missed it, as Wonkette put it - Scott Walker will fight for Wisconsin's right to collect poor people's pee! 

We do not think that drug testing people on the public dole is such a bad idea.  We even offered up the first person who should be tested - Richard Uihlein. 

Now I would like to offer up drug test subjects #2 & #3 - Plexus Corp. board members David Drury and Ralf Boer!  

See Drury and Boer are huge donors to one Scott Kevin Walker, who in turn is a huge donor to the company that they sit on the board for.    The problem is not just that there has been quid pro quo going on between these two parties with our tax dollars,  but that Plexus cashed in with taxpayer dollars then sent jobs overseas! 

While that has become common place with the rise of WEDC in Scott Walker's Wisconsin, the reason they NEED to be tested is that they are denying they did so! 

Maybe Boer & Drury are actually Cheech and Chong revisited!