Same As It Ever Was

By Jeff Simpson

One thing we know about our friends on the right, especially the folks at Wisconsin Law and Liberty (WILL) is that they love to file frivolous lawsuits.   Rick Esenberg, has to justify his $200,000 + year salary(running his "non profit") by using his law degree to sue anytime a Democrat in WI sneezes. 

Now we see on White Right Wisconsin( I read it so you don't have to), that a "teacher" is joining the lawsuit to keep ACT10 since the operating engineers are trying to have it ruled unconstitutional. 

The "teacher" name is Kristi Koschkee and her argument is:

“As a public school teacher who refused union membership, the lawsuit will restrict my freedoms in the classroom,” Koschkee said in a statement released Friday. “The public unions are once again trying to use the courts to handcuff all teachers, union or not, to collective bargaining agreements. If the unions are successful, it will hurt my ability to do what I love: teach students.”

Kristi Koschkee, was much more famously known as her maiden name during the ACT10 battles of Kristi Lacroix.  LaCroix who was a teacher, then left to try and start an alternative to teachers unions(irony alert), and now is apparently teaching again.   Along the way, Ms. Lacroix also had a stint with the Knot my Wisconsin goon squad, all the while complaining about the supposed vitriol spewed at her by union supporters.   She more than fulfills her daily dose of irony! 

Now Kristi Koschkee's argument, is that by restoring collective bargaining, it will hurt her ability to teach students.  Not exactly sure how that would happen but it makes for a great line to throw red meat out to the hard core right wing base that will never be able to understand the nuance or lack of logic in her statement.   The fact that WILL can base an argument on such loose logic explains what you need to know about them also.     That is why they are known for frivolous lawsuits, they have unlimited Michael Grebe money to clog the courts. 

While I do not know when or why Kristi returned to teaching, there is something I do know for certain about her contract.  Thanks to ACT 10 that she so vocally promoted, she (and all teachers in WI) make $2000 less in base pay than they did pre Act10.

Thanks to White Right Wisconsin we know that the attacks on public education are nevereneding with a certain, well funded group in WI and we need to continue to stay vigilant.

Our kids are depending on us! 

  

 

Blaska For Imperiled Schools

Dave Blaska, Right wing Republican blogger, is running for the Madison School Board Seat 4. David is running against Ali Muldrow.
To many in Madison, Dave Blaska's name will sound familiar. He has been a stalwart on right wing hate radio Vicki Mckenna's show, and a local blogger.      
Now that Dave, a former State Employee, is retired, he has all day to accost, anyone who supports public education. 

Dave has a long history of being scared of, and wanting to punish anyone who does not look like him or can advance his bank account.   Here is some classic Blaska on section 8 housing:

This landlord offered helpful advice:
Plenty of ways to keep the Section 8s out of units. .... Just keep using creative ways to dodge them and you'll get a good renter in there soon enough. It may hurt your pockets some initially, but it'll definitely payoff in the long run.

Potential School Board member Blaska is offering "helpful advice" on how to "legally" discriminate.   Blaska also proudly concealed carries a weapon, which is dangerous in the hands of someone who is perpetually offended and scared.  Blaska also believes in regulating everything a teacher does all day, especially the women.  Blaska also looks up to Bill Cosby,which explains why Blaska's highlight of attending Scott Walkers Inauguration Gala, was creepily staring at cleavage! 
The most egregious act of Blaska's though, was when he teamed up with Wisconsin Law & Liberty(a right wing, Bradley funded group who is known for filing frivolous lawsuits), and sued the Madison Metropolitan School District. 

Right-wing blogger and professional cranky old man David Blaska has filed suit against the school board, the school district and the Madison teachers union for wasting his tax dollars by signing an employment contract.
Blaska's complaint, filed by the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL) -- a nonprofit law firm almost wholly funded by the right-wing Bradley Foundation -- accuses the board, the district and the teachers of "unlawful collective bargaining."
Under Gov. Scott Walker's Act 10, the court filing points out, teachers and other public employees are not allowed to bargain over terms of employment, working conditions, merit pay, benefits and any other items beyond cost-of-living increases on base pay.
Blaska, "whose taxes are used to fund the school district," the complaint observes, is also filing his suit on behalf of the teachers, whose rights are being violated by their union, he claims, since they are being unlawfully represented.

The lawsuit was completely without merit and thus was dismissed, but not until after too much time and money wasted on the frivolous challenge. 
Now that Blaska is running for the MMSD School Board, he sees a problem when the district does not punish "those kids" to the fullest extent of the law - and beyond. 
As he says, one of the problems he wants to solve is:  If they can’t keep order at a school board meeting, imagine the chaos in the classroom!   Yet Blaska fails to mention that there is chaos at School Board meetings because he creates the chaos.





Blaska is not in the race for betterment of the district, the kids, or the taxpayers.  David Blaska is in the race to make his name as a charter school hero, so he will create a circus to make sure people are paying attention. 

As he puts in his latest blog:

4. Name three things you believe the MMSD needs to improve.
Classroom Discipline. Return control of the classrooms to teachers.
More charters (call it “one thousand points of light”) One size does not fit all.
Lose the fixation on identity politics.

More charters, equals less money for MMSD and the kids who desperately need it.   

PS:   David after fully supporting ACT10, David likes to say things like:

•  Trust teachers to control their classrooms. They are the captains of their ship. 
• Because good teachers are quitting in frustration. Teachers with high expectations for their students, who do not make excuses, ought to be honored — not vilified.

Yet everything ACT10 was designed to do, and all of the many hours Dave has spent on hate talk radio decrying the teachers unions as the downfall of society and now he wants to recognize teachers as leaders?

PSS:  In Dave's latest blog, where he supposedly answers questions from Madison's Teachers Union, he answers with an outright falsehood: 

Because reformers like Mike McCabe — a former spokesman for MMSD! — are applying to Scott Walker’s Office of Educational Opportunity for charter schools instead of to MMSD.

After checking with Mr. McCabe, He says: 

I haven't applied to any Office of Educational Opportunity or anything else related to charter schools.

Why Mr. Blaska would need to make up things like this is beyond me.   I do know for certain that for the good of the children in Madison, please vote for anyone else! 




Cross Posted! 

WILL - The Republican Apology Machine

By Jeff Simpson 

The latest in far right extremist candidates for Wisconsin Supreme Court is Brian Hagedorn.   Hagedorn, as typically the case with Republican Supreme Court candidates, feels that our friends in the LGBTQ Community are less than human. 

The revelations come after an exhaustive review by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel of a blog Hagedorn kept from April 2005 to August 2006 called “Anno Domini” (Latin for “in the year of our Lord”). In it, Hagedorn, an evangelical Christian, complained that the Supreme Court ruling that struck down Texas’ anti-sodomy law would lead to the legalization of bestiality.
“The idea that homosexual behavior is different than bestiality as a constitutional matter is unjustifiable,” he wrote in October 2005.
“There is no right in our Constitution to have sex with whoever or whatever you want in the privacy of your own home (or barn),” he also wrote.
Hagedorn also talked about complaining to his supervisor at the law firm for which he worked at the time about their posting supportive images and stories from LGBTQ people during Pride month. “What was being sold was not tolerance, but homosexual propaganda,” Hagedorn wrote on his blog. “Moreover, this served to create a hostile work environment for Christians. In the end, I was told too bad.”

Yes if that sounds familiar, if by some horrible event that allows Caveman Hagedorn to get elected to the Supreme Court, one can imagine he, Rebecca Bradley and Julianne Appling, eating wafers, drinking little cups of cheap red wine and watching old sermons of George Alan Rekers in the old offices of Prosser and Gableman. 

Ok lets scrub that and get to the topic at hand.

Now back to the topic at hand.  The Republican Apology Machine. 

It is almost like these occurrences are daily and they have a plan in place to handle these regular occurrences.   It is called WILL  - Wisconsin Law and Liberty, the anti education, Republican apology machine, that makes up "studies" and their head honcho Rick Esenberg.   

Esenberg gained notoriety, when it came out that he agreed to testify, under oath, that the maps that the Republicans drew in private, were Constitutional, site unseen. 

Esenberg is the Founder and President of Wisconsin Institute of Law and Liberty(WILL) :

An old military adage calls for the cavalry to “ride to the sound of the guns.” As a tactic, it has both its strengths and weaknesses. As a sentiment, it is a call for courageous engagement. At the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, we hope to answer that call. Through education, litigation, and participation in public discourse, we seek to advance the public interest in the rule of law, individual liberty, constitutional government, and a robust civil society. We strive to do so, moreover, in partnership with like-minded individuals and organizations – often our clients – who are committed to classical liberalism and constitutional government.
We recognize that these ideals are neither Democratic nor Republican, but American. Our focus is primarily, if not exclusively, on Wisconsin – a state that has become one of the focal points of our ongoing debate about the proper role of the government within society and of the courts within government. As a non-profit and non-partisan organization, we litigate in the areas of property rights, the freedom to earn a living, voting rights, regulation, taxation, school choice, and religious freedom. As an educational organization, we strive to advance the debate concerning law and public policy in these and other areas.

Amazingly, the "non partisan" WILL, seems to always run to the rescue of the Republicans exclusively.   This time was no exception, as Rick Esenberg rushed to the "rescue"?

My overall reaction is that this is a tired trope. Brian Hagedorn is an evangelical
Christian (I am not) and he holds views that evangelicals tend to hold regarding
marriage and human sexuality. He is also someone who sees the Constitution as a
document that ought to be interpreted in accordance with its text, history and structure (I
agree) and not as a vehicle for imposing whatever the judge sees as "justice" or "good
policy." If you take that view, decisions like Roe and Lawrence are very hard to justify ­
no matter how you feel about abortion or homosexuality.
On a general level, I think there are two problems with the increasing tendency to say
that certain types of religious people should be excluded from public office or limited in
their exercise of the authority of public office because "the dogma" or whatever it gets
called lives "too loudly" within them. The first is that it is inconsistent with
Constitution's prohibition of religious tests and establishes a regime of religious liberty.
The idea of America is that people of different religious understandings could live
together and participate in self government. There was to be no requirement of a
qualifying orthodoxy and the notion that one can't be a traditional Catholic or
Evangelical Christian amounts to the imposition of such an orthodoxy.
Second, Judge Hagedorn would not be required to recuse himself. The key case here is
called Republican Party v. White. In that case, which struck down a rule that prohibited
judicial candidates from announcing their position on legal or political issues, Justice
Scalia (writing for the majority) explored a taxonomy of bias and made clear that having
a point of view on a contested matter is not "bias."
As for the particular views expressed here, opposition to same sex marriage was the
position of Barack Obama, Hilary Clinton and about 60% of Wisconsin voters in 2006.
The issue is no longer open for review by the Wisconsin Supreme Court because of the
United States Supreme Court's decision in Obergefell.
Nor can the Wisconsin Supreme Court depart from decisions like Roe and Lawrence.
But the idea that these decisions are constitutionally problematic is widely held. The
problem is that nothing in the Constitution addresses abortion or sexual relationships.
Nothing in the Constitution even establishes a general right of privacy in the sense of
being left alone. The Supreme Court hasn't adequately explained where these rights are
to be found, resulting, for awhile in a cottage industry for law professors who tried to
offer the rationale that the Court did not. To say, as Justice Kennedy did in Casey, that
there is some extra textual right to define the mystery of one's existence is unsatisfying
because it has no logical boundaries. Decisions like Roe, Lawrence and Obergefell are
troubling because, even if we like the particular outcome, they provide judges with
broad authority to undo democratic decision making. The legal criticism of these
decisions is not so much about their outcome, but about who decides. Judges or
legislators?
Thus, the point he's making about Lawrence is not that gay relationships are like
bestiality. It's clear from the context that he does not think that (he thinks the law in
Texas was not prudent) but that the principle that constitutionalizes the issue has no
logical stopping point. If you have a constitutional right to sexual self­expression, why
might it not be extended to other forms of expression. A legislature can draw that line
because it can make ad hoc decisions but courts rule by abstract principle and have to
try to apply them consistently.
People who are pro­life tend to have a sour view of Planned Parenthood because,
notwithstanding its claims to the contrary, it is very much an organization about
abortion. But a judge can oppose a group ­ say the National Rifle Association or Center
for Immigration Studies ­ and still be able to recognize its legal rights.
I think Brian is a well­trained and careful lawyer who understands the difference
between his religious and political views and what the law requires. To deny that any
such distinction exists is a bad faith reading of what he wrote and fundamentally
misunderstands the role of courts and judges.
So I'd say this stuff is not particularly relevant.

 Heady stuff for a lawyer to voluntarily put out.   Most normal people would pay a few thousand dollars for this.   Of course most normal people are not running for Supreme Court on a platform of whatever Republicans do is lawful. 

So lets look at Mr. Esenberg's statement a little closer. 

*   Brian Hagedorn is an evangelical Christian (I am not) and he holds views that evangelicals tend to hold regarding marriage and human sexuality.   

- Some questions,  How did the non partisan WILL and Mr. Esenberg know what Mr., Hagedorn thinks and believes?  Did they meet before this letter was drawn?  If so, will that time be on Mr. Hagedorns Campaign Finance Reports?  Also what views on marriage and human sexuality do evangelical Christians "tend to hold"?   From what I can see, the views they "tend to hold" is everything I do is fine, but I will be preaching and judging every move you make. 

Or should I say, the single greatest cause of atheism today. You know who I’m talking about, right? The type of people who acknowledge Jesus with their words, and deny him through their lifestyle. The ones who preach the importance of traditional family values, all while holding a rally and offering standing ovations for a man who preyed on 14-year-old girls. The ones who look to excuse the despicable allegations directed at Roy Moore by literally quoting the bible, comparing his molestation to Joseph and Mary. I give you the most hypocritical religious group in America, Evangelical Christians.

Of course Mr. Hagedorn will only call balls and strikes.   The Bible says so. 

*  In that case, which struck down a rule that prohibited judicial candidates from announcing their position on legal or political issues, Justice Scalia (writing for the majority) explored a taxonomy of bias and made clear that having a point of view on a contested matter is not "bias."

An evangelical Christian, believes strongly in:

4. Evangelical Christians are strongly motivated to share the gospel either one-on-one or through organized missions. Emphasis is placed on the Great Commission's call to share with the world the Christian message of salvation through Christ, and to "be publicly baptized as a confession of faith," according to PrayerFoundation.com.
5. Most, though not all, evangelicals believe there will be a rapture in the end times where the church will be "caught up with Christ before the Great Tribulation, leaving nonbelievers behind to suffer on Earth," states the Pew Research Center. This idea has gained attention through the "Left Behind" book series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, and the related movies.

Of course you can trust someone who feels that he needs to share his version of the Gospel and believes that the end times are coming and people who disagree with him will be left behind in some sort of Thanos finger snap, to put aside what God and Jesus command to rule fairly on sinners and those who will be left behind in the Rapture. 

*   As for the particular views expressed here, opposition to same sex marriage was the
position of Barack Obama, Hilary Clinton and about 60% of Wisconsin voters in 2006.

True it was not very politically expedient, or acceptable in society to be for gay marriage(though I always was), but it dishonest to compare Mr. Hagedorn to these others since, there is a chasm between not publicly approving of gay marriage and comparing it to bestiality.   Only the furthest right wing extremists have ever had that view. 

*  If you have a constitutional right to sexual self­expression, whymight it not be extended to other forms of expression.   

It could extend to bestiality, or it could extend to a man and a woman, a man and two women, a man and women of different races,  a man and a 14 year old girl, a man and a porn star or playboy playmate(sans condom),  or even a man who just decides to grab a woman by the pussy nd start kissing her. 

*  People who are pro­life tend to have a sour view of Planned Parenthood because,
notwithstanding its claims to the contrary, it is very much an organization about
abortion.

While i get that Esenberg is old school, and has to give a shout out to the anti choice people as often as possible, it is not the least bit surprising that he is wrong yet again,

 Abortions accounted for 3 percent of the nearly 10.6 million total services provided by Planned Parenthood clinics in 2013, according to its annual report.
Some services it provided in addition to abortions were:
4.5 million tests and treatment for sexually transmitted infections
3.6 million contraception related services
935,573 cancer screenings including breast exams and Pap tests
1.1 million pregnancy tests and prenatal services

 *  So I'd say this stuff is not particularly relevant.

Tell that to Matthew Shepherd and too many others! 

In the end, despite Esenberg's poor excuse(and possibly illegal and/or unethical) of an apology, the reality is that Brian Hagedorn is not fit to be a Judge now, much less receive a promotion to the highest court in the land.    It is time we started ending our excuses for every racist, bigot, homophobe who thinks they should run for higher office just because they will vote for what we want. 

We can do better than this as a society and as a community.   I do not expect WILL to ever start caring about the people of Wisconsin, but it is time the people of Wisconsin sent them a message. 

In Wisconsin we expect more! 

WILL Wilfully Misleads On ACT 10

By Jeff Simpson

Hallelujah!  The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL) just completed a study about the incredible wonders of ACT10. 

 WILL’s latest study, Silent Successes, shows how, over seven years, the tone of the media coverage has been overwhelmingly negative. In fact, only two percent of stories about Act 10 have been positive.

For the worst bill in my lifetime, I think 2%(not sure how they came up with that number) is a bit high. 

 This "study" (term used loosely), tells us that:

 A review found that districts all over Wisconsin are using Act 10 reforms in important ways.  

This was their criteria:

  Due to collective bargaining agreements, schools could not pay their teachers or reduce their staff based on what their school needed, but were subject to ‘last hired, first fired.’ For teachers, compensation wasn’t determined by classroom performance.Since Act 10, schools have been given the tools, often found the private sector, to innovate. There are offering more competitive benefits, have instituted merit pay, and can retain teachers who are better suited for the school as well as curriculum and student needs.

While loyalty and retaining long term employees is pretty much in anyone's top 3 of best ways to run a successful business, the folks at WILL are stuck in the 1930s way to run a business. 

But wait there is more, there is always more!

Apparently they mistakenly think "merit pay" has merit: 

Merit pay at the discretion of the school board allows districts to pay a teacher more for exceptional work. Elmwood School District, Mondovi School District, Monona Grove School District, Southern Door County School District, Swallow Elementary, and Oconomowoc School District all included a clause in their teacher contracts that says their respective “Board” reserves the right to pay above the pay schedule for “meritorious” service. In the performance evaluation model, teachers who score higher in evaluations, whose students perform better on tests or get better grades, and teachers who put more time and effort into their school and duties earn more, like at Cedarburg or Brillion School District. Either way, teachers who do more earn more.

Yes they included the Monona Grove School District as one that has used the ACT10 "tools" to implement merit pay. 

As a member of the Monona Grove School Board going on my 7th year, it is flat out false.

We do not now, nor will we ever, institute a merit pay system while I am on the Monona Grove School Board.  We are actually all united against merit pay, because it fails in the private sector and is a flat out joke in the public sector. 

 Notice they threw out at the end:

teachers who do more earn more.

That has always been the case, with the step and ladder system and the new system, in pretty much any workforce in America.   

You get your masters, you move up.  You are head of a department, you make more money, you coach, you get compensated more. 

It really is a simple concept but one apparently WILL's Lauren Tunney was unable to grasp. 

So pay attention from now on, dear readers and know that any "report" coming from WILL, even if they label it "silent success" is really just total bullshit.   

At least now we know what The Donald means when he says #fakenews 

Edit note:  No where can I find the actual existence of Lauren Tunney on their website.  Maybe they made her up to take the brunt of the made up study if they got caught! 

 

You're (Not) A Good Man, Charlie Sykes

By Jeff Simpson

Chuck Sykes made bigger news today than he should have, by saying he was leaving his radio show at the end of the year.

Charlie Sykes, who has helped shape conservatism and some of its leading local figures for more than two decades, is leaving the air at the end of the year.

What Bice meant to say was that Charlie helped define a new brand of conservatism(Who is Ike anyway?)in the eastern corner of Wisconsin.   Sykes, as we have seen by the lack of actual influence of Wisconsin Republicans on the national stage, has had a very minimal effect on national "conservatism".

As we pointed out a couple weeks ago, Charlie has started trying to rework his public persona and too many "journalists" are working with him to allow that too happen.

Politico had a puff piece where they used an example to show how Charlie has changed:

“Yeah! Let me make a comparison, and I don’t mean this in a bad way,” Audrey says. “They’re talking about phasing out breeding of pit bulls. Well, not all pit bulls are bad.”
 “You’re comparing American citizens, Muslims, to rabid dogs,” Sykes responds.
 “No, I’m saying, they’re talking about phasing out the breed because so many are bad. No one wants to phase out poodles! I mean, there’s no Lutherans doing this! We never know when one of these people are going to be radicalized.”
 “One of these people,” says Sykes.
 Sykes ends the call. He’s silent, broadcasting dead air. He looks upset, like he’s stopped breathing. He goes to a commercial break.
 “OK, that doesn’t happen very often,” he says off-air. “I’m not usually absolutely speechless.” He says his listeners never talked like this until recently.
 “Were these people that we actually thought were our allies?” he asks.

Interesting question Chucky,  the quick answer is YES!

The Politico piece was written in August, where the blatant racism took Charlie's breath away.

Charlie recovered quickly though, and within a couple months, was back at it with winks and nods towards the Audrey's of Wisconsin.

Our Friends at Wisconsin Law and Liberty (WILL) will be holding a Soiree in Milwaukee coming up, where there is a $100 entry fee to see a conversation between Dr. Charles Murray and (you guessed it) Charlie Sykes.

While $100 seems expensive, it is a small price to pay, when you can gather a room full of people who look like you and find an "expert" to tell you that you are superior to everyone who does not look like you!

Doc Murray has made a career telling white people that they are smarter than black, women, and latino's. That of course fits the perfect profile of someone that WILL would get as a guest of honor and Charlie would want to spend the night speaking with.

The white nationalist Dr. Murray, who also happens to be a good friend and ally of Paul Ryan, will be at the University Club of Milwaukee on Wednesday October 12th from 6:00-9:00 pm.

Cash Bar will be open at 6:00, followed by a serving of bigotry, discrimination and narrow-mindedness, dessert will be a fresh serving of Jim Crow, made from Charlie Sykes own recipe.

In between the courses, Charlie Sykes and Dr. Murray will be discussing the wonders of white people.

In the end its no surprise that Charlie Sykes will be the lone person on stage with Dr. Murray.

The question that needs to be answered though, is will Audrey be in the front row?