Wisconsin Radical Right Wing Rogue Republicans!

By Jeff Simpson

By now, anyone who follows Wisconsin politics at all knows that Assembly Leader(term used loosely), Robin Vos (R-Adulterer) called three of his fellow Republicans(Steve nASS, Duey Stroebel and Chris Kapenga) - terrorists:

State Assembly Speaker Robin Vos is still angry with last month's rocky resolution to the state budget debate, calling three Republican senators who struck a deal with Gov. Scott Walker to support the budget "terrorists."
"That's what they are," Vos said in a WISN-TV interview that aired Sunday morning. "You don't hold somebody hostage for your own personal needs."
Vos also said the budget might not have passed had the last-minute deal, which called for Walker to use his line-item veto authority to strip out parts of the budget, been public before lawmakers voted on it.
"Only three people made a backroom deal to be able to have something that could not be announced before the budget was enacted," Vos said. "Maybe the budget would've failed if we'd known some of those aspects were going to be vetoed, but we never had the chance to know."
Vos was addressing Sens. Chris Kapenga, Steve Nass and Duey Stroebel, three hard-line conservative GOP senators who withheld support for the budget until hours before the state Senate passed it last month. The two-year state budget was passed more than 10 weeks after the deadline, the longest such delay in a decade.

It is nice that all of the time Robin has been in Government, he finally speaks the truth but what he really meant to say was  - he was against illegal, secretive backroom deals that he was not involved in.   Vos complaining about transparency in government is like The Donald complaining about the poor treatment of women! 

As expected, the GOP turned into precious snowflakes who could not handle any criticism.  First Wiggy, in a cowardly unsigned post at Right Wisconsin really let Vos have it. 

It appeared to be premeditated slander. Vos repeated the charge of terrorism when challenged and had a ready (if outrageous) defense of it.
These three senators, Chris Kapenga of Delafield, Duey Stroebel of Saukville and Steve Nass of Whitewater, are all former members of the state Assembly, all former colleagues of Vos. Far from being a “terrorist,” Nass served in the Wisconsin Air National Guard for 33 years. Kapenga and Stroebel are businessmen and leaders in their communities. All three deserve more respect from Vos than being called terrorists.

 Premeditated slander is some serious stuff, no wonder Jimmy did not sign his name!   The problem of course is it is not slander when its a public official.    But I digress.... 

Apparently, WIggy thinks if you serve in the military you can not be a terrorist!  He never was one for research.

But Wait there is more:

Duey is hopping mad:

Brave men and women in uniform combat terrorists everyday. Terrorists use violence in an effort to destroy our American way-of-life.  To imply fellow Republican legislators are terrorists is the type of hyperbolic rhetoric Wisconsinites are tired of hearing. Wisconsinites expect more of their leaders than to make these kind of personal attacks.

Steve nASS was also upset, and wanted to let everyone know he was in the National Guard:

The senators didn't take kindly to the comments. One of them — Sen. Steve Nass (R-Whitewater) — noted that he had served in the Wisconsin Air National Guard.
"It is beyond outrageous for anyone, especially a person serving as speaker of the Wisconsin state Assembly, to label as a ‘terrorist’ another person for simple public policy disagreements," Nass said in a statement. "Worse yet, when given the opportunity in the interview to retract or recalibrate such a reprehensible statement, Speaker Vos firmly reiterated it."

Then the kicker came out....sit down for this one.  Scott Walker (well one of his spokesmen, he was too busy letting African American Athletes know how they should protest to be bothered with Vos) had to weigh in.

I have not heard this kind of outrage from the WISGOP since the last time someone compared a bunch of teachers, police, firemen, public servants, men woman and children Wisconsinites to ISIS: 

 O wait.....nevermind there was no outrage (or apology) then.   Hmmmmm curious!   

PS:  After The Koch Bros Org - AFP demanded an apology, and Scott Fitzgerald put his "leadership" counter part over his knee and spanked him - Robin Vos finally apologized (NO, not for breaking up his marriage, or breaking up Michelle Litjens marriage, or helping shield predator Bill Kramer from punishment, or for illegally and unethically spending millions to gerrymander our state or the attacks on education in Wisconsin, or the attacks on free speech, or... you get the idea) for calling the far right loons in the state terrorists.   

MADISON - The leader of the state Assembly apologized Monday for calling fellow Republican senators "terrorists" after they held up the state budget with veto demands. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) issued the apology after a chorus of criticism from other GOP leaders, but his statement continued to refer to the conservative senators as "rogue holdouts."

Right To Some Honesty

BY Jeff Simpson

 While our neighbors to the West spend this time between elections deciding what to do with a $1 Billion surplus, the Republicans in Wisconsin keep finding ways to add to our $2.2 Billion deficit they created.   

Now, shortly after the election, Assemblyman Chris Kapenga says he has a "Right to Work" bill ready to go.  Of course Mr. Kapenga told us this in early December, forgetting to mention it during the election season that ended less than a month prior.   Not a single mention of "right-to-work" as part of his agenda on his campaign website.  

Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald tells us:

"It's my opinion it has to come up early" in the session that begins in January, Fitzgerald told reporters. "I don't know how we get through the session without having this debate.

Of course when Mr. Fitzgerald says "It has to come up early" he does not mean it should come up during the election season.  Now that he has faced the voters saying one thing, it is time to do something completely different.   In case you were wondering, the number of mentions by Senator Scott Fitzgerald of "right-to-work" laws on the campaign trail = 0! 
 

For those of you scoring at home, adding up the mentions of 'right-to-work" laws on the campaign trail ofSpeaker Robin Vos, Republican Majority Leader Jim Steineke, and Joint Finance Committee co-chairJohn Nygren also add up to zero!

The only time "right-to-work" was really mentioned in public, was in a private moment, with Scott Walker's kissing partner and biggest donor, which happened to be captured in an obscure documentary.    It is funny how a $500,000 donation, means you can get Scott Walker to actually talk about the issues.   

Spend months ducking the issues and spend millions muddying the waters, then when you are elected, claim a mandate and start talking about extremist legislation like it is why you won the election.   

Very convenient.   

No one will ever confuse our current group of elected reps for these guys! 

How long we will let OUR elected reps continue doing this to us?

Cross Posted at Purple Wisconsin 

Scott Walker is Whistling Dixie...

By Jeff Simpson

This afternoon, at the Wisconsin republican convention, the confederates will be voting on whether Wisconsin should secede from the rest of the United States and be our own sovereign nation. 

Seriously, they are!

The problem with the vote to secede, is not that the republican confederate party is against it - they are not. The problem with the vote to secede, was the press finally shone a spotlight on the craziness and extremism of the republican party in WI.   

Of course anyone who has read CogDis knows how extreme these people are. Unfortunately for the people of WI, the media plays into their propaganda BS.  However a little short term memory or a minute on google and you realize that the vote to secede fits right in to what they have been doing and saying for the last four years! 

Nine Republican members of the Wisconsin Legislature say they would back a bill to arrest any federal officials who attempt to implement President Obama's signature health care law in the state.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that the nine state lawmakers told the Tea Party-aligned Campaign For Liberty that they support authorizing "state and local law enforcement to arrest federal officials attempting to implement the unconstitutional health scheme known as Obamacare."

One of the nine lawmakers backing Campaign for Liberty's proposal is state representative Chris Kapenga (R-Delafield), who told the Journal Sentinel that he believes the health care law is unconstitutional.

DOH!!!  




Luckily/unluckily for 140,000 and counting Wisconsinites, the Wisconsin republicans have been as unsuccessful in arresting federal officials as they have been in creating jobs or keeping down debt. 

Quick, what is Bret Hulsey doing now? 

PS:  Speaking of crazy Wisconsin rednecks, has anyone seen republican Assembly leader Bill Kramer?  While he shirks his duties as an elected official, he has no qualms in accepting our paychecks!

Question of the Day: Who Has The Best View?

Last week, at the urging of Milwaukee County Emperor Chris Abele, the ALEC controlled state legislature started ramming through a bill to kill the living wage ordinance that had just been passed by the Milwaukee County Board with a veto proof majority.  But the Teapublicans took it even further so that the bill would kill all the living wage laws passed by any local government.

This means that thousands of people working under contracts with the City of Milwaukee, the City of Madison or Dane County could suddenly see their pay drop by thousands of dollars.  The Teapublicans tried to say they were doing this because it would ruin the local economies and drive businesses away, while ignoring the fact that these laws have been in effect for over fifteen years.  They also had to ignore the fact that the Madison area has the lowest level of unemployment in the state and has the best local economy.

During the testimony regarding the bill, one of the sponsors, State Representative Chris Kapenga (T-Delafield), gave this unbelievable statement in regard to the urban poverty plaguing Milwaukee:



"I'm a little unique because, yes, I represent Delafield but I am very familiar with Milwaukee because I employ Milwaukee residents and I drive through Milwaukee every single day."

That is a very peculiar statement to make.  Not only is it rather ignorant and offensive, it also just doesn't make any sense.

A quick check of Google maps shows that he would have to go way out of his way to drive through Milwaukee on his way from Delafield to Madison:

Further investigation shows that he is also the primary stock holder for his company, Integrated Time Systems, which is based in Brookfield.  Well, that's closer to Milwaukee, but still doesn't explain why he would drive through Milwaukee every day.

Digging deeper, we start seeing things that starts to make sense of this.

Kapenga's LinkedIn account shows that he is a member of the the Metro Milwaukee Chamber of Commerce.

That must be it. He goes into Milwaukee to pick up his graft from them as well as his "gifts" from Abele and the other members of the plutocracy that will benefit from his hard work to keep so many people under the level of poverty.  As we all know, less money in the pockets of the workers, even if it is just to the level of poverty, means more money in the pockets of the plutocrats.

Oh, and Abele who denied lobbying for the killing of the living wage laws, even though the proof shows he was indeed lobbying for it, has now said that he is going to veto the Milwaukee County resolution:

The measure called for an $11.32 county minimum wage that would apply to county workers and employees of some county vendors. Most of those affected would be the 2,400 low-wage personal care attendants indirectly paid through the county's Family Care program.

"What I'm vetoing is a $5 million extra expense to Family Care," Abele said. County Comptroller Scott Manske has estimated the measure would eat up nearly $5 million of a Family Care reserve fund this year and further increase county costs in the future.

Backers of the plan say workers deserve the higher wage as a means to be self-supporting. The $11.32 figure is the federal poverty line for a family of four.

Translated into English, this means that Abele is more concerned about the bottom line than he is about the person taking care of your grandmother or your disabled son making a wage even with the poverty line. He would rather have all these people make sub-poverty wages.  Also keep in mind that this would include the caretakers of the chronically mentally ill people he is evicting from the mental health complex.

That shows just how much disdain he has for the working poor as well as the people that are dependent on these services.  He is more worried about the profits of the profiteers than he is about the caretakers or the people they are taking care of.

All of this leads to the question of the day: Who's got the better view of the urban poverty in Milwaukee- Chris Kapenga from his drive throughs of Milwaukee or Chris Abele from atop his ivory tower?

Fewer Lies Please!

For some reason, unbeknownst to any logical thinking person, Jim Wigderson writes a column for an actual newspaper.  The problem is Wigderson is just a paid hack for the Mcgyver Institute, a right wing shadow organization based in WI, that has deep ties with some not very good people!  

Allowing Wiggy column space really diminishes the quality of the overall product, and I would highly recommend NOT being a subscriber to that paper.   Jimmy's latest column was one that if you have come to expect lies propaganda and deceit, you would not be disappointed.

Wigderson attempts to try and diminish the craziness of the right of people like Republican elected officials Kapenga and Pridemore!     Of course whenever someone on the right pretends to object to republican insanity, they perpetually do it using false equivalency. 

in recent years, the theories have had a poisoning effect on politics. Many on the Democratic left and in the Libertarian Party believe that the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center were really controlled detonations by agents of the Bush administration.

Quick question, how many of your left leaning friends, family or acquaintances think that the Bush administration were behind 911?   Im guessing your number is the same as mine  - 0!  (FYI - for our friends on the right who are mathematically challenged, zero would NOT be many). 

Part of it is denial. If someone believes that Obama stole the election through fraud, they don’t have to believe that millions of Americans chose to re-elect the creator of Obamacare who presided over $6 trillion in new debt.

Some on the right, including a state legislator from Idaho, are even suggesting boycotting the Electoral College vote to force the election into the House of Representatives. It is a strange misreading of the Constitution by people who claim to be strict Constitutionalists.

Then there is the response. If Obama is somehow illegitimate, then his laws should have no force. So we have nine(republican) members of the Legislature who bizarrely believe that Wisconsin law enforcement should arrest any federal agent that attempts to implement Obamacare here.

Among the nine are local state Reps. Chris Kapenga and Rob Hutton, and state Sen. Mary Lazich.
They believe that states have the right to declare federal laws null and void (nullification) if the laws are unconstitutional. It was last tried in Wisconsin before the Civil War to thwart the federal fugitive slave law. However, even the supporters of nullification from that era did not arrest federal officials trying to enforce the law.

Wisconsin’s Supreme Court was overruled by the U.S. Supreme Court, and nullification has not been a credible idea in our state since.

If the failed idea of nullification isn’t strong enough, there is always secession. There are now secession petitions started in each of the 50 states.

Last I checked my history books, secession was effectively dealt with 1865. Some of you may have learned this at the movie theaters recently.

 Another point for our mathematically challenged friends on the right,  9 ELECTED republicans craziness does not equal ZERO democrats who supposedly believe the Bush Administration was behind 9/11.  

The rest of the article was so poorly written I dont have the time or inclination to correct, just say that I do NOT recommend reading it.  Wiggy REALLY needs and editor and a fact checker! 

This is the kind of BS yo u get from our friends on the right and also shows that our "media" is anything but liberal.   

I recommend contacting the Freeman and asking them for a higher quality product, one that is free of MacIver flunkies.  

 Phil Paige - Group Publisher  262-387-4830  ppaige@conleynet.com

 Bill Yorth - Editor-In-Chief  262-513-2671  byorth@conleynet.com

Patricia Scheel - Prepress Manager  262-513-2690  pscheel@conleynet.com

For the record regarding my thoughts on 911 truthers:

As anyone who paid attention during the 8 years of the Bush Administration knows, that their unbelievable level of incompetence, would make them incapable of performing something like 9/11.   If  Bush/Cheney had planned 9/11, instead of  planes flying into buildings, it would have resulted in a couple guys running their ten speeds into a Dairy Queen in New Mexico.  

Good God! Maybe There is Hope After All.

We have been bringing you tales of republican craziness, almost too many to count.   It has been brought on by the rise of the "tea party" and way to many legislators come from this movement. 

 Despite the fact that they took a resounding defeat in the most recent election, the "tea party" groups have doubled down on crazy, even going so far as to want to nullify federal law and arrest anyone who tries to implement it!

These extremists groups have gone so far as to want to secede from the United States, heck here in Wisconsin, despite being laughed at statewide, one of their own crazies thinks he should be State Superintendent of our Schools. 

Fixing this craziness is not something the democrats can do, it has to come from within the republican party.  Luckily there are signs that this is happening.   An open records review of the emails that the "loony party of six republican's, who want to arrest federal officials, for implementing Obamacare show that the craziness might just be confined to elected officials and a few others!  

For the six lawmakers, most of the email came from citizens giving their views on the issue.
“As a soon to be constituent, a life long republican, and a firm opponent of Obamacare, I am nonetheless embarrassed by your absurd nullification comments. Good god!” one man wrote to Rep. Chris Kapenga (R-Delafield).

“I worked for you. You are a reasonable and good person and I am genuinely surprised at this,” another man posted a message to Rep. Erik  Severson (R-Star Prairie) on Facebook. “Instead of focusing on how to make the best out of a bad situation, you think (it’s) better to arrest implementors of a federal policy upheld by the US Supreme Court. … It may suck, but as Americans, we accept the results of elections and move forward. This is disgraceful.”

Most of the emails opposed the lawmakers’ stances, but some backed them.

They still have to overcome the right wing hate cabal on the radio and the incredibly disingenious, illogical and ridiculous echo chamber on the right, but at least you can see that there are some signs of hope!