H/T David Sirota Scott Walker's good friend and campaigner, fellow Republican Governor and head of the Republican Governor's Association, openly defies ethics rule.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s ticket and travel to the Dallas Cowboys playoff game on Sunday was paid for by team owner Jerry Jones, according to a spokesman for the governor. The gifts from the NFL team owner follow the Christie administration giving millions of dollars worth of tax subsidies to the NFL.
The announcement from the governor’s office followed International Business Times first reportingtoday on Christie appearing in the NFL owner's box despite strict New Jersey ethics rules. Those rules subject public officials to “a zero tolerance policy for acceptance of gifts ... that are related in any way to [an officeholder’s] official duties.” As governor, Christie has overseen the state’s business with the NFL, most prominently during the 2014 Super Bowl.
Christie has cited those same ethics rules in barring other New Jersey officials from getting special access to tickets to events at state-owned arenas.
Even though its impossible for Christie to hide anywhere, our political class has pretty much decided to not even hide their flaws or their open defiance of the law. As long as we keep voting for people because of the letter after their name and do not hold them accountable for their actions, this will only get worse.
“Governors should be defined not just by what they do and say, but who
they surround themselves with, making sure to have the smartest person
for a particular task or to head a specific agency. They should be
judged on that basis and who they take advice from.” Scott Walker
Its an age old political game, give the pension to your friends, who in turn give huge donations to you and in the process mismanage the pension. This helps you get reelected on the fact that the pensions are killing the state financially and need to be reformed.
Lather - rinse - repeat!
While Christie brings with him the stench of scandal to Wisconsin to help Scandal plagued Scott Walker campaign, look for the media to really focus today on Michelle Obama's(who will also be in Wisconsin campaigning today) attempt to help our children eat better food!
Since no reporter will dare ask Scott Walker or Chris Christie about their scandals or their lack of respect for public workers, maybe they can ask Scott Walker this question -
Mr. Walker, how many times today while talking to Mr. Christie did you say "Why didn't I think of that?", so we know exactly how scared we should be for a second Walker term.
A twenty-year-old man who had been watching the Boston Marathon had his
body torn into by the force of a bomb. He wasn’t alone; a hundred and
seventy-six people were injured and three were killed. But he was the
only one who, while in the hospital being treated for his wounds, had
his apartment searched in “a startling show of force,” as his
fellow-tenants described it to the Boston Herald,
with a “phalanx” of officers and agents and two K9 units. He was the
one whose belongings were carried out in paper bags as his neighbors
watched; whose roommate, also a student, was questioned for five hours
(“I was scared”)
before coming out to say that he didn’t think his friend was someone
who’d plant a bomb—that he was a nice guy who liked sports. “Let me go
to school, dude,” the roommate said later in the day, covering his face
with his hands and almost crying, as a Fox News producer followed him
and asked him, again and again, if he was sure he hadn’t been living
with a killer.
Why the search, the interrogation, the dogs, the bomb squad, and the
injured man’s name tweeted out, attached to the word “suspect”? After
the bombs went off, people were running in every direction—so was the
young man. Many, like him, were hurt badly; many of them were saved by
the unflinching kindness of strangers, who carried them or stopped the
bleeding with their own hands and improvised tourniquets. “Exhausted
runners who kept running to the nearest hospital to give blood,”
President Obama said. “They helped one another, consoled one another,”
Carmen Ortiz, the U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts, said
When this particular injured person was running away from the bomb and looking for help with his injuries he was treated differently:
In the midst of that, according to a CBS News report,
a bystander saw the young man running, badly hurt, rushed to him, and
then “tackled” him, bringing him down. People thought he looked
suspicious.
What made them suspect him? He was running—so was everyone. The police
reportedly thought he smelled like explosives; his wounds might have
suggested why. He said something about thinking there would be a second
bomb—as there was, and often is, to target responders. If that was the
reason he gave for running, it was a sensible one. He asked if anyone
was dead—a question people were screaming. And he was from Saudi Arabia,
which is around where the logic stops. Was it just the way he looked,
or did he, in the chaos, maybe call for God with a name that someone
found strange?
At this point is when the true piling on began, some lunatic Ayn Randian blogger practically had this kid tried and convicted. Then Fox news did what they do best....start talking bullshit and stirring up the fears of their loyal followers:
“There must be enough evidence to keep him there,” Andrew Napolitano
said on “Fox and Friends”—“there” being the hospital. “They must be
learning information which is of a suspicious nature,” Steve Doocy
interjected. “If he was clearly innocent, would they have been able to
search his house?” Napolitano thought that a judge would take any reason
at a moment like this, but there had to be “something”—maybe he
appeared “deceitful.” As Mediaite pointed out,
Megyn Kelly put a slight break on it (as she has been known to do) by
asking if there might have been some “racial profiling,” but then, after
a round of speculation about his visa (Napolitano: “Was he a real
student, or was that a front?”), she asked, “What’s the story on his
ability to lawyer up?”
Conducted by the University of California's David Broockman and
University of Michigan's Christopher Skovron, the survey of nearly 2,000
legislators from across America documents politicians’ perceptions of
their constituents' views on hot-button issues like universal health
care and same-sex marriage. It then compares those perceptions with
constituents' actual views.
The juxtaposition reveals a jarring truth: Both Republican and
Democratic lawmakers hugely overestimate the conservatism of the very
people they are supposed to represent. In all, the report finds that
“conservative politicians systematically believe their constituents are
more conservative than they actually are by over 20 percentage points,
while liberal politicians also typically overestimate their
constituents’ conservatism by several percentage points.” Ultimately,
that has resulted in a political system inherently hostile to mainstream
proposals and utterly unrepresentative of public opinion.
The first obvious question is why: Why do politicians - aka people who
are supposed to be professional experts in representing others - so
misunderstand their own communities?
Broockman and Skovron argue that one answer has to do with the
prevalence of right-leaning mythology. Citing “Richard Nixon’s
pronouncement that a 'silent majority' of Americans backed his policies”
and “Sarah Palin’s suggestion that a latent 'real America’ supported
her,” the researchers correctly note that there remains “a folk theory
among conservative politicians that the American public is considerably
more conservative than it seems at face value.” This theory is
undoubtedly fueled by a Fox News-ified media that pushes such inaccurate
fables.
1. The first state in the Intermountain West to embrace serious gun control 2. The home of Focus on the Family legalizes civil unions 3. Rejecting Tancredo-style politics and allowing children of undocumented immigrants to pay in-state tuition rates 4. An anti-fracking uprising in the middle of oil/gas country 5. A historic victory for drug policy reform 6. A major reevaluation of the death penalty and failed “tough on crime” policies 7. Expanding funding for public education and healthcare 8. A huge vote against corporate money in politics 9. A decimated and demoralized Republican Party
In light of those words, Americans should be looking at what’s happening
here to know what could soon be happening all over the country. If “as
Colorado goes, so goes the nation,” then this square state is a glimpse
into America’s potentially much brighter political future.
There you go, a 9 point plan to turn the book title of Scott Walkers new book from "unintimidated" to One term wonder. The question is will the Wisconsin Democratic Party embrace a progressive future or continue with the right leaning, consultant listening too, minority status?
“Based on the numbers reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel,
adding up all votes cast in the Wisconsin State Senate races shows that
Democrats received 475,116 votes (50.5%), Republicans received 451,928
votes (48.1%), and others received 13,100 (1.4%), yet the Republicans
gain(2) seats and take the majority in the Senate.”
This truth is more than merely inconvenient to the political right -
it is nothing short of life threatening, for it calls into question the
long-term political viability of conservative ideology. Hence, the
inevitable Republican effort to quickly turn the page and change the
subject.
But try as the GOP might, the page won’t turn. For the
next four years, every time Obama appears with the presidential seal, he
will remind Americans of exactly what they voted against - and why they
voted against it. For this reason, the exhausting 2012 election may
well end up a watershed moment in political history - a moment that
finally witnessed the beginning of the ebb of extreme conservatism.
Now how does Tuesday apply to Wisconsin, since democrats have no control over the assembly and lost 2 seats (and control) of the Senate. First off you have to acknowledge that the unethical way they redistricted and their huge funding advantage have put the Wisconsin democratic party behind the eight ball.
However, it is task that is NOT insurmountable, there are ways to overcome it. Here are some of my recommendations:
1. Have and stick to a progressive message. Progressive messages work, and they especially work in WI. This continual running to the center without a clear message has now been proven to be a loser over and over again. Time to get on board a clear UNIFIED progressive message and platform.
2. CHANGE leadership. Senator Mark Miller has already stepped down. Mike Tate needs to resign and Peter Barca needs to step down from his leadership position also. I think that Miller, and Barca and tate are all very nice people and incredibly competent legislators(Barca/Miller)and we need their help, but their time in charge is over. We need fresh new blood in there.
3 Start right now, and understand that EVERY county COUNTS! Emulate Howard Dean's 50 state strategy and build the farm system and the local party! What Howard Dean did as head of the democratic party was amazing and also underrated and overlooked. We need a solid ground game and candidates willing to step up in every county and in every race from Waukesha to Dane to Sawyer and everywhere in between. Strong local progressive leaders can overcome our disadvantages. (I know im not alone in this thinking).
4. Do NOT be surprised by the republicans lack of ethics and morals and ability to do things that you would never think of doing. When they do, and everytime they do, tell everyone who will listen. Your strategy of dealing with things in private and behind the scenes worked so well that we now have two years of complete republican control.
5. Subscribe to Bernie Sanders newsletter and emulate it. Its well written and informative and he pulls no punches. How about a statewide newsletter, build a mailing list and inform everyone of things that are happening. The stuff we get now is information for the next fundraiser. Not good enough!
6. Figure out a way to use and win in Social Media. It's cheap and free!
7. MESSAGE BETTER. Its no surprise that the repubs have been winning elections with Frank Luntz help. Here is an example. Rename Scott Walker's ACT 10, The republicans have a solid message of calling it "education reform". No where in Wisconsin has education been reformed over the last two years. You can google all you want and you will not find a single mention on any program enacted by the republicans that was meant to enhance students learning. Lets call it "teacher salary reform", or "education deform" or the "end of local control" or come up with a different term and everyone use it. Call them out for what they are.
8. DIVERSIFY. While we get minorities votes we need to get full participation from minorities, that includes African Americans, latinos Hmong, etc....We have a big tent but we do not have a big tent of participation. That needs to change.
9. STOP RUNNING FROM COLLECTIVE BARGAINING RIGHTS!!!! 150,000 people did not storm the Capitol to support the democratic party. Busloads of Wisconites from Northern Wisconsin did not spend the time and money to come to Madison to support the dems. They came to protest the end of their collective bargaining rights. The next consultant who says to not run on the issue, fire on the spot!
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