The Week In Walker

By Jeff Simpson

With so much bad and crazy happening on a breakneck pace everyday, it is hard to keep up with it all.   Let's try and catch up with some of Scott Walker's recent hits.

1.  Get ready, coming smack dab in the middle of the state, will be lots of layoffs and changes at UW - Stevens Point!

 Kristen Hendrickson, the university’s chief financial officer, laid out three scenarios for UWSP's structural deficit that largely depend on enrollment numbers for this year.
If the university enrolls 8,000 students, the total deficit may sit at about $2.4 million.
If 7,500 students enroll, the total deficit may grow to $5.4 million.
If enrollment falls to 7,000, the total deficit may grow to $8 million.
The university’s academic division might need to make cuts ranging from $4 million to $6 million, eliminating as many as 60 to 70 full-time jobs, if enrollment falls to 7,000 students, Summers wrote in the Aug. 27 letter.

 2.  Small Government Scott Walker is taking people's homes.

Unless you know the right people, then Foxconn is the jackpot!

3.  While Walker's signature promise was to create 250,000 jobs (as his floor) and after 8 years still has not come close to that number.  In fact, Scott Walker has cost Wisconsin some 80,000 jobs.

The average from both models points to a Walker administration which cost Wisconsin 80,000 jobs. This loss was masked by national job growth. If Wisconsin had followed the same pattern relative to its neighbors as under previous administrations, jobs would have grown by an additional 33 percent — quite a difference. To put the shortfall in perspective, the 80,000-job loss is six times the 13,000 jobs promised from the Foxconn development in Racine.
It is hard to identify possible causes for Wisconsin’s jobs lag other than the administration’s policies. It is not as if the state is dependent on a single industry. Rather, the underlying cause seems to be the triumph of ideology over evidence as to what grows an economy. 

4.  Have to admire Badger Meters business sense, and be amazed at how cheaply Scott Walker can be bought.

Top executives of a company that was awarded $250,000 in state welfare have contributed nearly $26,000 to Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s campaigns.
Badger Meter, which makes flow measurement tools for water utilities and commercial and industrial businesses, plans to expand its Mount Pleasant operations in Racine County and create up to 40 jobs in the next three years. Walker’s economic development agency, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., said Thursday it will provide up to $250,000 in tax credits to train the new employees.
Overall, Badger Meter employees contributed $36,850 to legislative and statewide candidates between January 2010 and December 2017. All but $300 went to Republican candidates.
The top recipients of the contributions were Walker, $25,900, followed by Republican Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, $6,000, and GOP Rep. Dale Kooyenga, of Brookfield, $2,000.
The company’s top contributor to legislative and statewide candidates between January 2010 and December 2017 was its chief executive officer, Richard Meeusen, of Pewaukee, and his wife, Maribeth, $34,750. That’s 94 percent of the contributions from all employees of Badger Meter. Walker received $24,500 of those contributions from the Meeusens.

5.  Another way to get your hands on some easy Wi Taxpayer funds in Scott Walker's WI?  Abuse teenagers at Lincoln Hills. 

– For the second and third times, Gov. Scott Walker’s administration has given cash settlements to guards who it determined had used excessive force on juvenile inmates, state records show.
The payoffs — including one totaling $9,000 — were reached as the FBI continues a criminal investigation of Lincoln Hills School for Boys and Copper Lake School for Girls, which share a campus 30 miles north of Wausau. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel last year reported officials at the prison complex trained staff improperly, failed to preserve video evidence, didn't document serious incidents and often shirked their duty to report matters to parents, police and social service agencies.

 6.  In Election Season, Scott Walker will say absolutely anything to get elected.   Here is a clip in 2010 telling us how he would never cut education funding.

7.  Scott Walker is out with his 21st political ad already.  I guess he can not find one that people will believe.  However this one is very typical of Scott Walker.  He starts out complaining about attack ads, then starts attacking.

Tone deaf? Desperate? Dishonest?   We report, you decide. 

It stays with the theme he has been working for months.  That Scott Walker, the king of outside money, fears outside money.   
I guess that the Kochs, Sheldon Adelson and loony Uihlein are all above board WI residents, or maybe he just a hypocrite. 

Finally, as Bruce Murphy points out in his great piece at Urban Milwaukee, everything Walker does is for sale. 

Two of his biggest supporters have been the Koch Brothers, who have donated $4.8 million to Walker’s campaigns, and the state’s biggest business group, Wisconsin Manufacturer’s and Commerce, which has given $9.5 million to his campaigns.
Walker’s signature law, Act 10, which decimated public employee unions, was backed the Koch Brothers and WMC. The two groups also supported the Right to Work law, which makes it difficult to organize private unions and which Walker had promised unions supporting him in 2014 that he would never support. But he signed it into law in 2015. 

Readers of this humble blog know, that everything Scott Walker sells, he sells cheap! 

Screnock The Supreme Sham

By Jeff Simpson

Next week, we get a chance again to tweak our Wisconsin Supreme Court.  The choice is down to Hard Core right winger Mike Screnock and Rebecca Dallett.   While Dallett has run an all over the board, low road campaign, she has to be the choice. 

Screnock, who likes to pretend he is nonpartisan and will follow the rule of law to a T, yet his whole career has proven the exact opposite.

When Screnock was younger, he took time away from playing tennis and the tuba for the Baraboo Thunderbirds:

To get himself arrested twice for blocking women's access to healthcare and refusing to give his name to the police when arrested. 

It is always nice when the Supreme Court Justice can share his mugshots. 

But wait there is more, there is always more:

Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC), Scott Walkers boss, have spent north of $600,000 to elect Screnock.  The Republican Party of Wisconsin, is in for about $150,000, The NRA has given him their strong endorsement and Right Wisconsin gives him unlimited free press because he is their largest advertiser.

Screnock has hired some of the worst of the worst right wing extremists to run his campaign:

 His campaign is staffed by longtime Republican operatives including Sean Lansing and Luke Hilgemann, both formerly with the Koch brothers’ Americans for Prosperity, and Nathan Conrad, formerly a spokesman for the state GOP.

To make matters worse, Screnock knows that he is running as a GOP Justice and has unlimited funds trying to get him elected.   That means he has no interest in even attempting to do the work needed to win grass roots support!

Screnock has blown off candidate questions from the League of Women Voters. He avoided some joint appearances prior to the primary and backed out of a March 13 debate before the Dane County Bar Association, after originally agreeing to take part. The group’s treasurer, David Friedman, says that “to the best of the DCBA’s knowledge,” no other major candidate for state Supreme Court has ever failed to appear at its candidate forum. 

Screnock has even engaged in artful dodging to avoid discussing his own actions in court.

While Mike was in Mock Trial his senior year, it seems that all he has learned to mock are the citizens and voters of Wisconsin.

It is time to upgrade our Supreme Court even if it is only slightly.

Please do not vote Screnock! 

Right Wing Round Up

By Jeff Simpson 

In the new era of Reich right wing rule in our country, the insane stories are flowing more than anyone can keep up. 

Here is a quick update of a few you may have missed. 

1.  Now that we know how cool these things are, its time to build a campaign around them! 

WASHINGTON — A Republican candidate for governor in Georgia is giving away a "bump stock," the rapid-fire gun modification linked to the Las Vegas shooting, in a campaign contest to highlight his opposition to new regulation on the devices.
State Sen. Michael Williams, who is positioning himself as the most pro-Donald Trump candidate in a crowded GOP field to succeed term-limited Gov. Nathan Deal, said the contest is a celebration of the Second Amendment.

2.  I know your deathly ill, but I would like to save a few bucks!  

Rep. Diane Black (R-Tenn.) proposed on Friday that hospital emergency rooms should be able to turn patients away to help keep health care costs down.

 3.   Your baby is NOT medically necessary,  now check out my pro-life stance!

A 9-month-old boy with an aggressive brain tumor received a letter from his family’s insurance company explaining that treating the cancer would be too expensive and therefore “not medically necessary.”
‘Dear Connor Richardson,” the letter said, according to The Daily Beast, “As HIP Health Plan of New York, we try hard to provide you with access to quality health care services that meet your needs. When we decide to deny coverage for treatment or service, we want to make sure you know why.”

4.  It was nice of the people on the military base to play "Retreat" to honor Sean Hannitys ratings! 

 As “Retreat” is played, the Army website explains, “Once the bugle sounds, all personnel driving on the installation should stop. Service members and government civilian personnel are encouraged to turn off their vehicles, and, if safe to do so, exit to render the appropriate honors.”Trump is by virtue of his position, the highest-ranking official in the U.S. military and is the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed forces.

5.  The Donald called a grieving father and said your check is in the mail. 

  President Trump, in a personal phone call to a grieving military father, offered him $25,000 and said he would direct his staff to establish an online fundraiser for the family, but neither happened, the father said.

6.  Oh, I think that I've found myself a cheerleader.  He is always right there when I need him.  

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) praised President Trump's decision to cut off key subsidies to health insurance companies, saying the move ultimately upheld Congress's constitutional "power of the purse."
"Today’s decision by the Trump administration to end the appeal of that ruling preserves a monumental affirmation of Congress’s authority and the separation of powers," Ryan said in a statement late Thursday.

7.  WMC wants to rule the world.   Kurt Bauer, has controlled the state of WI for the last seven years.  While Scott Walker tells everyone he fights the "big money special interests", he is like a puppet on a string for the people at WMC.   The fact that when Bauer says jump, Scott Walker says how high, has gone to Kurt Bauer's head.  Now he wants to change everything about WI, starting with our license plates.   

 The head of the state’s influential business lobby says Wisconsin should consider scrapping the slogan that has adorned its vehicle license plates since World War II: “America’s Dairyland.”There’s no indication the idea has traction at the state Capitol, and the state’s dairy lobby is opposed. The suggestion by Kurt Bauer, executive director of Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, prods the state and its residents — who affectionately refer to themselves as “Cheeseheads” — to reimagine their identities in the 21st century.

“THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated” Thomas Paine! 

Scott Walker - Do As I Say, Not As I Do

By Jeff Simpson

Career politician, Scott Walker, who spent 71 days this summer partying on the taxpayer dime, has now signed into law mandatory drug testing for anyone to receive unemployment benefits in WI.

Not only will people who lose their job thanks to incredible mismanagement by the Walker administration but also because of horrible policies of his biggest supporters like WMC now get an added bonus of humiliation.

On Wisconsin!

A quick recap:

Career politician spent 71 days, while on the state payroll, doing this all over the country:




Has now decided this:

“This new rule brings us one step closer to moving Wisconsinites from government dependence to true independence,” Governor Walker said in a statement issued to FOX6 News. 

Is there anyone in Wisconsin more dependent on Government than Scott Walker?

In case you were wonderingm, drug testing for unemployment is costly and ineffective!

Come to think of it, that explains the Walker record in WI!  

Wisconsin Republicans Stand WITH Cancer

By Jeff Simpson

On Wednesday September 9^th, the Wisconsin Assembly will be discussing and voting on AB305.  In AB305, “authored” by Rep. Andre Jacque(R-DePere) and Rep. Joel Kleefisch(R- Oconomowoc) making it  a Class H felony(subject to a fine of not more than $50,000) to do fetal tissue research in WI.  

In Wisconsin, we have some of the finest minds in the field of stem cell research who are not only making, and close to making, major breakthroughs in curing and treating - diabetes, muscular dystrophy, blindness, cancer, Parkinson’s disease, ALS, immune disorders, paralysis, leukemia, deadly strains of influenza, how toxins affect human systems. 

Your Wisconsin Republicans are working to make sure that these major advances, not only in quality of life for our fellow human beings, but also have created countless thousands of jobs with each breakthrough, are soon to be illegal.   

Let me say that again.   Any politician who votes yes on AB305(and its soon to be companion bill in the State Senate) is voting to stand with Cancer, blindness, ALS, an numerous other debilitating diseases and against a cure!   

As a two time cancer survivor, it is almost unfathomable that I have to write these words in the year 2015.   

 One thing that keeps me going every day, is the faith that there will be a new breakthrough tomorrow that will be able to treat me if my cancer comes back.  All because we have allowed far right extremists, to take over our state.    

Some of the greatest minds in Wisconsin and leaders of our most thriving businesses, have wasted countless hours testifying how devastating this bill will be to our quality of life and our economy and as most testimony does in Madison, it seems to have fallen on deaf ears.   

While the supporters of this bill will talk about the “harvesting of babies” they will know this is a completely false narrative(pushed further by long debunked videos).   

The fetal stem cells that are used in this incredibly important research, if this bill passes, will now be thrown away.  Disposing of these CELLS, is apparently more important to the extremists than curing diseases so others may live.   

As prominent bioethicist R. Alta Charo of the University of Wisconsin says “ Virtually every person in this country has benefited from research using fetal tissue. Every child who's been spared the risks and misery of chickenpox, rubella, or polio can thank the Nobel Prize recipients and other scientists who used such tissue in research yielding the vaccines that protect us (and give even the unvaccinated the benefit of herd immunity). This work has been going on for nearly a century, and the vaccines it produced have been in use nearly as long. Any discussion of the ethics of fetal tissue research must begin with its unimpeachable claim to have saved the lives and health of millions of people."

The choice is simple, do we increase the quality of life for us, our children and grandchildren or do we appease a few hard core extremists who cannot accept that science and religion are compatible.  

My Bible is filled with story after story of Jesus healing the sick.  There were people during his time also that felt the need to stop these acts, but I have not seen a faith yet that worships the oppressors and not the One doing the healing.    

It is very important that you contact your legislator and tell them this bill is harmful and irresponsible.   If they refuse and continue to stand on the side of Cancer….make sure to put party preferences aside in the next election and let them know that is completely unacceptable and worthy of a spot in the unemployment line. 

The New York Times, the UW Board of Regents and WMC all agree that this is a bad bill and needs to go away! 

Time To Draw The Line On Lobbyists!

By Jeff Simpson

Jack Craver wrote a story recently about how the lobbyist's in Madison do not even waste their time talking to or trying to lobby democrats anymore.

“I will see every lobbyist who asks to see me unless I have a scheduling conflict because I know they have a job to do and I can get important information,” says state Rep. Terese Berceau, D-Madison.

For Berceau, the problem is that lobbyists have no interest in speaking to her anymore. Their avoidance of her and other Democrats reflects the perception that Republicans will be running the show in Wisconsin for many years to come. Unlike in past years, when the balance of power in the Capitol was more delicate, lobbyists no longer see an incentive to cultivate relationships in both parties.

“There’s been a notable change this year,” Berceau says. “I have always been visited by lobbyists, even when we’re in the minority. They’re not even bothering now.”

 

I guess when Democratic elected reps are lamenting that lobbyists will not talk to them, we no longer have to ask ourselves why the Democratic base does not come out and vote.   That being said, this story clears some things up about the Mary Burke campaign.  

Lobbyists have no reason to talk to Democrats anymore because they have no power and the Democratic candidate for Governor's campaign is being run a by a lobbyist.  That explains why her speeches appeal more to the republican base than the Democratic base. 

It also explains why,  when we need to get the base out to the polls and people do not know who Mary Burke is, she spends her valuable time meeting with Kurt Bauer of all people.

If you want to continue your successful and lucrative lobbying business, you need to make sure NOT to ruffle feathers.   It is well documented, with the pettiness of the Wisconsin republicans and Scott Walker, that they will punish you if you do not tow the ALEC line! 

Just ask Mike Ellis!

 



Solutions?  Simple!  Rid your campaign of lobbyist's, and start addressing the real issues in WI.   Charles Blow writing in the NY Times addressed it perfectly: 

We should be in a rage over the widespread attempts to disenfranchise voters, from the gutting of the Voting Rights Act to the rise of the Voter ID movement — a near-naked attempt by conservatives to diminish the number of Democratic voters.

We should be in a rage over Republican efforts, particularly on the state level, to drag the range of women’s reproductive options back to the 1960s.

We should be in a rage over the extraordinary pressures facing ordinary families. According to The New York Times’ Economix blog, college costs have risen over 500 percent since 1985, medical and gas costs more than 300 percent. And, the Pew Research Center reported Tuesday that “in inflation-adjusted dollars, average weekly child care expenses for families with working mothers who paid for child care” rose 70 percent from 1985 to 2011.

And yet, a report last week from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found that “some 69 percent of the cuts in House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s new budget would come from programs that serve people of limited means.”

We should be in a rage over the fact that people in this country can work a full-time job and not earn a living wage. We should be in a rage that this country’s infrastructure is literally crumbling beneath us. The “2013 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure,” produced by the American Society of Civil Engineers, gave our infrastructure an overall grade of D+ and estimated that $3.6 trillion would be needed by 2020 to fix it. 

We should be in a rage that we are spiraling toward cataclysmic, irreversible climate change with little interest or effort in averting it, with little coverage and less than accurate coverage.

But where rage should be, there is too often a whimper

Blow also summed it up perfectly:

When will we demand the country we deserve: reflective of its people, protective of its people, simply of its people? When will the young and the poor and the aggrieved and the forsaken walk abreast to the polls and then to the public squares?

If we don’t like the government we have, we can change it. If we don’t like the path we’re on, we can alter it.

It is NOT too late to alter the path we are on.  Yesterday in Wisconsin, we lost over 1000 well paying jobs throughout the state.  It's NOT working and never has.

I am here to Beg Mary Burke to get serious about running a real campaign.  One that can actually beat Scott Walker.  One that a majority of Democrats and independents are asking and hoping for.  

Let's connect with the people of WI and not WMC.   Let's explain why Walker has been such a failure, in terms of our ideas not their failures.  Let's fire up the base, let there be no doubt or blurred lines on your support for labor, public education and the middle class.

Right now Ms. Burke, you have an army of Wisconsinites ready and willing to follow a leader to victory in November.  You signed up for the position, now prove to us you are that leader!

 

The future of our state depends on it! 

Honesty

By Jeff Simpson

Scott Walker is still upset that Ryan Braun "lied to us as fans".

The Milwaukee Brewers' Ryan Braun won't be getting Gov. Scott Walker's endorsement, at least not any time soon.
Walker said he and his two sons, Matt and Alex, all big Brewers' fans, were disappointed and angry "that he lied to us as fans."
In a telephone interview Tuesday, the GOP governor said that "it was bad enough that he broke the rules, but the fact that he didn't immediately fess up to it, that he dragged it all out...It's not just what he did, it's that he strung us out for so long."

Which is very interesting, since WMC recently spent over $800,000 to flood the markets with this ad:




Scott Walker did not let Kurt Bauer do all of his lying for him, he even jumped in himself:

 Gov. Scott Walker announced in a press release Tuesday that Wisconsin is now ranked second in economic growth for the first time in the state’s history, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s coincident index.

While a second place rating is great....the problem is that Scott Walker is lying to us as Wisconsinites.  See it is a fairy tale and the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia made sure to let us know:

 Top officials with the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia are warning Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce and others that they are misusing a monthly index produced by its top economists.
Walker in recent speeches has been touting figures from the “Philly Fed,” claiming they show Wisconsin’s economy as No. 2 in the nation. WMC has been using the same number in a series of advertising buys, thanking Walker for putting the state on the road to prosperity.
But officials with the Philly Fed, who have been following the situation in Wisconsin, issued a statement Friday saying it’s a misreading of their "Coincident Indexes" to try and compare one state to another.
They say the index — which is comprised of several different economic statistics including housing starts, unemployment claims and wages — isn’t designed as a ranking. The Fed does not calculate a ranking based on the index and never has.
Walker and WMC have also been quoting the Philly Fed’s “Leading Indicator," a 6-month forecasting of the Coincident Index for each state, to say Wisconsin’s economy is projected to show the second-largest improvement in the country.
“We do not consider state rankings based on the coincident and leading indexes to be valid,” says Paul Flora, Senior Economic Analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia in an email to the Cap Times.

The fact is Scott Walker's main promise of 250,000 as "the floor, not the ceiling" is one that has never had a chance to come true.  

Politifact lets us know there is no way he is going to reach it.    It is so bad that Walker's staff is trying to kill any realistic story about jobs in the press. 

While he has been a miserable failure at creating jobs in WI, Scott Walker has been successful at one thing - lying. 

 Scott Walker is the "most untruthful" Governor in the US.   

Instead of not voting for Scott Walker because he has been a mess for the WI economy, how about we vote Scott Walker out because he has no idea how to tell the truth?   

Scott Walker is caught in so many lies that he sets records and has not even had to call anyone to apologize..  

Let's hold the Governor of the State of Wisconsin to a higher standard than we hold the left fielder of the Brewers!  

THIS is a MAJOR Problem

By Jeff Simpson

I have always felt that politicians and public servants should be given double the penalty of any crime,since they are the ones who set examples for the general public.  Unfortunately, because it is up to politicians to set the punishment, they end up getting off with apologies for serious crimes.  Thus they continue to repeat said serious crimes with no consequences(except of course the death of good government and end of  ethical politicians).

Now we have another problem starting to sprout up that needs to be taken care of immediately.   The private market is one that is done unofficially and off the books,  It is one that helps move minor products: car, guitar, Wii, house, etc...  It helps free up money from one or both parties to then purchase other goods.   It has sprung up such immensely popular websites as Ebay and Craigslist.  It is an essential part of our national economy, and it is under attack!  

This from Milwaukee:







We do not want to see an already WMC depressed economy in WI shut down even further by people being scared to sell goods they no longer need!

WMC Wins - You Lose!

 

By Jeff Simpson

Many on the right who claim to be "libertarians", justified the big government overreach of ACT10 as needing to stop teachers unions from buying off elected officials. Of course, as they so often are, were incredibly misinformed and their logic was non-existent. All it did(which it was intended to do) was weaken republican opposition. It made an uneven playing field even more tilted to the right! This also makes sense because when your going to focus on Vagina's and not jobs, you need all of the help fixing the game that you can get! However that is a story for another time.  

What really happened here, was bait and switch.   The group that is ACTUALLY extremist AND buying legislators is Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce(WMC)! As Sourcewatch points out:

Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) is a business association formed through a merger of the Wisconsin Manufacturers Association, the State Chamber of Commerce and the Wisconsin Council of Safety.

They are a big business lobby group that has unlimited dark money to spend to elect republicans.   The problem though, is their track record is akin to Don Morton's.  The last two elections, they have gotten almost everything they have wanted, in all branches of government! 

It is no coincidence, that the immense success of WMC policies have paralleled the quick downfall of the Wisconsin economy.  

And then there’s the other data. In March of this year, Wisconsin plunged to 44th in private sector job growth. Also, Wisconsin came in as the fifth worst in terms of the erosion in private-sector wages.
Forbes named Wisconsin one of the “worst states” for business in December of 2012. Wisconsin is 44th for overall economic performance and 39th for business climate.

Well they are back and if this is not the most telling  condemnation of the Governor's Budget, I do not know what is.  Here four ex-republican aides and current WMC lobbyists, tell us how great the Governor's budget is and they do it with a passion that is hard to match:

H/T Jack Craver :

 “Gov. Walker introduced his budget in February and, really from our perspective, introduced a pro-growth budget that makes an investment in personal income tax reductions, continues his freeze on property taxes and makes critical investments in our state’s infrastructure system,” said Scott Manley, the group’s vice president of government relations, to begin the video, before asking his colleagues to explain a number of economic policies that he described the organization as being "very excited" about.

 While I do not think this video will pull "Gangnam Style" numbers, it marks WMC's initial efforts into Social Media.  What it really shows is the fact that they feel that they have put enough impediments up actual democracy that they can come out of the shadows and not worry about a voter revolt!  It isalso sad that these are four of the people who are pushing for right-to-work(for less) and merit pay legislation!

For the record, what the budget really means to you:

If Wisconsin had representative democracy that reflected the will of the people – via proportional representation – the state would have a very different Assembly. And a very different budget.
As it is, the Assembly that was elected with a minority of the vote has enacted a budget that fails the majority of Wisconsinites.

Of course this budget is even more devastating to public schools than the last one:

 The plan that Gov. Scott Walker introduced in February had little added funding for public schools; no increase in their revenue limits, which means their budgets couldn’t grow; an expansion of the voucher program, in which state money is used to send students to private schools, based on a flawed formula and a new rating system for public schools; a new voucher program for special-needs students, despite overwhelming opposition from their parents; and a new board that would oversee charter schools, including an opening for independent charter schools, which aren’t connected to public school districts and could be run by for-profit companies.

 

 

The WMC Burlesque Show

Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (WMC) has become a parody of itself!   As Capper pointed out, Scott Walker, who promised 250,000 new jobs under his tenure, has done even worse than politifact said he has done(and their number wasn't pretty). 

Their number of jobs created in over two years of being Governor is 25,411 private sector job, which is an incredibly dismal job record.   However Capper makes a strong case that in the end he has a net loss of jobs under his tenure.   However you look at it, 225,000- 250,000 new jobs in WI in the next two years seems like a pipe dream.  Especially when you never show up to work! 

Enter WMC, whose bills itself as "Wisconsin's leading business advocacy organization".  You would think that such an incredibly dismal jobs record in WI for the last two years would raise their dander and they would demand change.  After all what businessman does not want people working so they can buy his products? 


Of course when it comes to WMC, you would find a group of business people who put party over business and onoy care about electing republicans, no matter the cost!  

So instead of demanding we stop the crazy social agenda and start focusing on improving our economy and creating jobs, they instead decide to give an "award" to fare right fringe assemblyman Steve nASS!  Then to add partisan insult to Wisconsin's injury, the award they gave him was for "job creation votes"!

Ummm guys......

What's next for nASS?  Focus on the Family giving him a father of the year award?  

WMC Shows Their True Colors

They are UGLY!  

H/T Jessie Opoien!


Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce(WMC) recently put out an anti-Jessica King TV ad.   The problem is the person who they used against her, supports her!  

If you’ve seen an ad attacking State Sen. Jessica King, D-Oshkosh, for voting against the northern Wisconsin mining bill, you probably think a man named Lyle Balistreri is very angry with the senator. You might even think he wants her out of office.

It’s a reasonable assumption. Balistreri, the president of the Milwaukee Building and Construction Council, is seen on screen, in old interview footage. His face is juxtaposed with a picture of King, her phone number and the words, “Tell her to stop playing politics with our jobs.”

There’s just one problem. Lyle Balistreri supports King.

Balistreri says his comments were taken out of context by Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the group behind the ad.

“It is unfortunate that these comments were taken out of context,” Balistreri said in a statement. “Politicians need to put aside partisan politics and do what voters elected them to do — create jobs. Few industries have been hit harder by the Great Recession than the building and construction trades and as President of the Milwaukee Building and Construction Trades Council, I fight every day in every way for the working men and women of this state. I support Jessica King and know she will put working Wisconsinites first. Wisconsinites are tired of the same old partisan politics, we need to put our differences aside and create jobs.”

The question you have to ask is, if WMC is that dishonest and unethical, why would anyone want to do business with them?  


Contact WMC President Kurt Bauer and ask him to be honest in his ads!  

Phone: (608) 258-3400
@Kurt_R_Bauer


Finally support Jessica King if you can, to help her fight off this ridiculous attacks!  

WEDC: Walker's Economy-Destroying Cronies

Since it's creation, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation has been an utter disaster and a joke, much like the rest of Walker's initiatives. That's not really much of a surprise since the concept has been a failure where ever it's been tried.

Sadly, Scott Walker is unable to learn from his own mistakes, much less the mistakes made by others, and so went headlong into creating this mess.

Some examples from just the past year include:

• In February, Walker used WEDC to announce a land giveaway scheme to try to lure businesses to Fitzwalkerstan. How's that working out? So far we have less businesses and less jobs.
• In July, Walker and WEDC got caught trying to do some bid rigging with a company called Skyward. When caught, Walker said: "As soon as our office learned of it, we put a stop to it." Yeah, that's the same thing he said about Walkergate.
• Just a month ago, as WEDC was touting their new slogan of "In Fitzwalkerstan"*, they were also getting slammed by the Feds for illegally handing out grants. To make things even worse, Walker was caught trying to cover up the problem from the board itself.

As one might imagine, given Walker's pattern of behavior, things went from bad to worse in relatively short order.

It's now come out that WEDC has lost track of some $69 million in loans, with $9 million of them being overdue. The reason they lapsed on following these loans was because no one was hired to do so!

And just like Walker, WEDC made things worse by covering up this problem while in front of an audit committee hearing:

The loans were not mentioned by WEDC officials at a lengthy audit committee hearing Thursday on transparency and accountability in the agency. Sen. Kathleen Vinehout (D-Alma) said that she would consider bringing those officials back before the committee and that she was certain that a Legislative Audit Bureau report due next spring would delve into the issue.

"It's infuriating," Vinehout said.

In a futile effort to try to get things to blow over, Walker announced that he would appoint someone from the private sector to head up this agency until another private agency went head-hunting for a new director.

Laughably, Walker contended that these moves were being made to remove politics from the position and make it more accountable.

Yet the interim director that Walker appointed is Reed Hall, a member of Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC). WMC, an member of ALEC, spent tens of millions of dollars, if not hundreds of millions of dollars, over the last few years to bring us the likes of Walker, David Prosser, the Fitzgerald Boyz, and Mike Gableman, just to name a few.

And now we're supposed to believe that politics were removed from the system? If anything, they now have an even stronger hold on it.

Walker also promised that he would make "dramatic moves" to improve the performance of the agency.

I can't imagine anyone who is foolish and inane enough to think that anything short of the abolishment of the program will improve it. Well, except for those like Owen Robinson, who is goofy enough to unquestioningly believe whatever AFP says:

Clearly this agency has been poorly run. The concept is good, but the management has been terrible. I’m happy to see that Walker is taking it seriously. What this agency needs is a real businessman to run it.

Folks, it ain't gonna get better until we take the state back, starting in two weeks. What are you doing to get the vote out?

*I wonder how much they spent for that less than brilliant slogan and even worse logo.  The only place these fools should be "in" is in prison.

Why WMC is Irrelevant!

They just gave their poorly named " working for Wisconsin" award to Robin Vos and Van Wanggaard.

What have these two helped usher into Wisconsin that has earned them this award?

Monthly job losses and we are currently #2 in the country in construction job losses!

Good Job guys?  What exactly does Kurt Bauer think working for Wisconsin means?



 

A Man Of The People Corporations

When a politician runs for office, a lot of times they try to present themselves as "a man of the people."  That means they try to give the voters a sense that they are just like them.  In other words, they're going for the populist vote.

And both sides do it.  Democrats talk about growing up in a union household, working a blue collar job, helping people.  Republicans try to do the same, but don't always pull it off as well.

Scott Walker has given up even trying to hold on to the pretense of giving a damn about the people.

After recovering from his 2.4 hour flu, Walker went mooching up to the WMC and made a push for the mining bill.  But who he was kissing up to speaks volumes (emphasis mine):

Gov. Scott Walker urged the state's business leaders on Thursday to help him pressure the Legislature to pass a bill streamlining the process for opening an iron mine in northern Wisconsin.

Walker made the plea at the annual Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce business day gathering, which attracted about 1,000 business executives, lobbyists and others. After the speech, many in the audience — wearing orange hats in support of the mining bill — walked four blocks to the Capitol to lobby lawmakers.

He's playing sycophant to the people that would profit off of such a reckless bill, but won't even spare a second for the people who have to live with its consequences of the law, should it be allowed to pass.

It's pretty obvious that Walker's only motivation regarding this is the return favors he has already gotten and/or expects to get by handing over taxpayer money and the state's natural resources to this out of state, very well moneyed group. Meanwhile, as is his wont, the people would still be without jobs and without money. And now, without clean air or water.