Cause and Effect - Franklin, WI

By Jeff Simpson 

By now, most of you have heard that the School District of Franklin, WI is under fire for disgusting racist acts! 

Franklin High School administration is investigating a complaint that inappropriate and racist conduct occurred during a boys’ basketball game last night and have been in contact with Racine Horlick leadership today.
An administrator immediately responded to the spectator complaint and a student in question was removed from the gymnasium. This matter remains under investigation.
Franklin Public Schools does not tolerate discriminatory or harassing conduct by students at school, at school sponsored activities and events, or otherwise.  

Sorry Charlie, I would love to believe that is your policy, EXCEPT for one big problem.  You recently put Larry Gamble on your School Board.  

For those who do not remember, Larry Gamble is one of the driving forces behind Verify the Recall, which was a wesbite set up for the sole purpose of  - discriminatory and/or harassing conduct, towards anyone who felt the need to practice democracy in a way that Larry Gamble did not like.

The website, Verify the Recall, seems to be so flooded with hits that searching the database for even one name can take hours, proving again just how consumed people are with the recall.
"In the first 20 minutes, we had about 50,000 hits," Larry Gamble, spokesman for Wisconsin GrandSons of Liberty. "It has not let up."

Wisconsin Grandsons of Liberty is a far right extremist group that claims to be non partisan but only supports the furthest right of candidates and bills.   

As readers of our humble blog know, there is more - there is always more. 

There is most definitely more to Larry Gamble. 

After the peaceful protests of 2011, Gamble did ORR on over 50 school districts to get them to release private personnel files of teachers who were absent during the protests in Madison. 

Gamble, wanted to make sure any teacher who missed those days would be harassed, threatened and branded!

    Larry Gamble, a retired pilot and Tea Party member from Franklin, estimates he filed about 50 records requests, including one for the names of Madison teachers who called in sick.
But legal counsel Dylan Pauly said the district doesn't want to release the names after board members and administrators received "a number of threats" against themselves and district employees.
In the most serious incident, a parent was charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct for a voice message he allegedly left on a middle school's general mailbox.
According to a police report, the parent was upset about school being closed and left a message saying, "I'm gonna come down there and punch you guys right in the face."

Mission Accomplished Mr. Gamble! 

Cause and effect, chain of events, all of this chaos makes perfect sense!

When you realize you have one of the master harassers in Wisconsin history, who has a history of racism, sexism, and bullying in his past, appointed to a School Board, then incidences of harassment, racism, sexism and bullying start to spike.   

We need to work to fix this and educate the misguided youth of Franklin, but the first step in stopping this is to stop acting like we are surprised. 

The Flag Of Terror

By Jeff Simpson

Here is Right wing Domestic Terrorist Bob Dear in all of his glory:




This was Glenn Grothman's office door before he was given a promotion by the people of West Bend:



Arizona State Sen. Ron Gould, R-Lake Havasu City:



Wisconsin Tea Party Rally when Sarah Palin came to Madison:



Wisconsin Tea Party Profile pic:



A Paul Ryan Campaign Rally:



Jimmy Wigderson blogs about his love of the Gadsden Flag:

Would it help WisPolitics to maintain their independence if we sent them the Gadsden flag?

Then there was the incidence when a couple shot two police officers in the back and draped their dead bodies in the Gadsden flag.

On June 8, 2014, Jerad Dwain Miller, 31, and his wife Amanda Woodruff Miller, 22, entered a Las Vegas pizzeria and without any provocation or warning, shot and killed two police officers sitting in a booth eating lunch.  The pair dragged the officers to the floor, took their weapons and ammunition, and draped a yellow (Gadsden) flag over one of the bodies.  They placed a swastika-stamped manifesto on top of the flag, and pinned a note on the other officer’s body that read, “This is the start of the revolution.”

Then there is this from White Right Wisconsin:



Let us be perfectly clear.  This is NOT a flag of the Revolution, it has now become the flag of the White Power, Right Wing "Christian" terrorists in The United States!  

Be wary when you see one.

Scott Walker - Always Backing The Losers

By Jeff Simpson 

It came out recently that like Wisconsin, Governor Scott Walker is mired in debt.   Where ever Scott Walker goes, he likes to put lots of spending on his credit card.  He personally owes Sears about $50,000.

You're not the only one in debt. According to state financial disclosure documents, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker reportedly owed between $10,000 and $100,000 to credit card companies in 2014. 
One of the cards listed was a Sears MasterCard that had up to $50,000 on it,The Daily Beast reports. 

A quick check of the retail market and you see that the Walker family appears to be the last remaining family still shopping at Sears.

Sears shares fell Thursday, after the struggling department store announced an adjusted net loss of $296 million—in line with the updated guidance it gave in November.The retailer also said it's accelerating the number of stores it plans to close this year, boosting its list from the 130 underperforming stores it announced in its second-quarter earnings release, to a total of 235 stores.

Like Wisconsin, Sears was once proud and well respected, then was taken over by a tea party loon who quickly proceeded to run their respective franchises to the ground.  

I guess if career politician Scott Walker has no idea who was even in office in Wisconsin, we probably should not expect to much from him in any other area of expertise.

Maybe when he realizes his dream of becoming President of the US is a pipe dream, we can use him as a crossing guard at a local school.

The neon can help cover up his horrendous wardrobe.  

Home Schooling In Action

By Jeff Simpson 

Idaho Republican Vito Barbieri shows that he somehow muct be related to Glenn Grothman with his brilliant question at a recent hearing:

As the Associated Press reported, Barbieri tried to compare telemedicine abortion procedures to colonoscopies during a meeting of the House State Affairs Committee. But his comeuppance was more thorough than wire reports suggested.
“You mention the risk of colonoscopy,” Barbieri told physician Julie Madsen. “Can that be done by drugs?”
“It can not be done by drugs,” Madsen replied. “It can, however, be done remotely, where you swallow a pill, and this pill has a little camera and it makes its way through your intestines, and those images are uploaded to a doctor who’s often thousands of miles away who then interprets that.”
“Can this same procedure be done in a pregnancy — swallowing a camera and helping the doctor determine what the situation is with the child?” Barbieri asked.
“It cannot be done in pregnancy simply because, when you swallow a pill, it would not end up in the vagina,” she answered prompting loud laughter from within the chamber.
“Fascinating,” Barbieri said. “That certainly makes sense, doctor.”

YIKES!   One might ask how could someone this ignorant be holding elected office, but I doubt thats a question you would ask if you have been paying attention to some of the elected Republicans in WI.
Barbieri has become a national laughingstock, and a quick look at his resume you see where he was given such brilliant information(emphasis mine):

Retired attorney, practicing in California for 20 years. Incumbent state representative. Barbieri owns a catering business and the “Vap-It” electronic cigarette store in Post Falls. In his two terms in the House, he’s been an outspoken tea party supporter and opponent of Medicaid expansion and civil rights protections for gays. Barbieri is board chairman of the Open Arms crisis pregnancy center and clinic in Coeur d’Alene. A home-schooling advocate, he’s called on Christians to pull their children out of Idaho’s “Godless” public schools.

Are we ever going to hold our elected officials to a higher standard?  At this point, I would settle for a basic competency test.  If you think continually handing these guys the wheel of our nation will not have serious long term effects, you are sadly mistaken.  

Tweet Of The Day

Too good not to share:

What A Country!

By Jeff Simpson

Where else but in the former democratic republic of the United States, could a duly elected Congressman from Wisconsin, charge $10,000(TAX FREE) to  eat lunch with his constituents,and even get a quick digital pic with said Congressman?

Let me save you $10,000  -  Insert your picture here:



  


Imagine what he would charge to come over and do your dishes?



PS:   The fact that this $10,000 deduction is TAX FREE shows how ridiculous and phony the IRS "scandal" is.  

The Core Of The Problem is Common Extremism

By Jeff Simpson

Scott Walker, in the midst of a tough re-election fight, where his chances keep getting downgraded, is getting desperate.   Scott Walker has already played some of his trump cards from massive fundraising leads to pushing the limits of coordinating all of the dark money groups to his advantage.   Thinking these two trump cards were all he needed to win the hand, has proven to be a very drastic mistake of his campaigns, at best, he is now is tied with his opponent, political newcomer Mary Burke.  

Desperate times call for desperate measures.  We see how desperate the Governor is with his ridiculous attack ad on his opponent and now he has doubled down on desperation.  Scott Walker now says he wants to eliminate Common Core State Standards and he wants it done in January.    Why now and why in January?  Let's take a look.

With the campaign reeling and support fading, Scott Walker know he needs to shore up his base.   If you recall, in November, a handful of anti-government, anti-intellectual zealots got together and all signed a letter(still not sure who in the group could actually write it) telling Scott Walker to repeal common core.   Scott Walker did his best double speak around the issue at the time and hoped the issue would disappear.

It hasn't.  

Now Mary Burke has actually started to campaign effectively and that left Scott Walker anguished that his career plans of more power might be derailed.  Walker, if he knows one thing, it is elections and the importance of his base.   He knows that all of the "independent" talk amongst the "tea party" is just that and in the end they are just the crazy wing of the republican party.  Scott Walker wants to make sure that every last one of them, and their sons and son - in - laws, all vote for him.

So when they say jump Scott Walker wants to let them know he is listening.   The next question is why January?  This is important issue so you would think he could call them in now, its between hunting seasons so Joel Kleefisch might actually be available.  

If it is in January, he sends a message saying make sure you vote for me as often as possible to make sure I can do this for you to his base!   That and he knows it is a political loser to be put out there on display right before the election.   Not only is it a bad thing its very costly as it would cost the state millions. 

Unfortunately for the people of Wisconsin, millions of taxpayer dollars mean nothing to Scott Walker:

Walker said Friday that he doesn’t know how much it would cost to come up with new standards but he doesn’t think it would be significant.

Whats a few millions dollars of taxpayer money if it will help me get elected?    Luther Olsen said it best(who would have ever thought I would write those words)!  

 “It’s all political and the sad thing is at the end of the day it doesn’t show true leadership,” said Luther Olsen.

In that one sentence Luther Olsen summed up Scott Walker's political career.

PS:  read about Common Core State Standards here.  

The Santelli Sham

By Jeff Simpson

Finally someone shone a light on Rick Santelli!   Watch and enjoy!  

Nuff said.   

"Scott Walker In Need Of Makeover" Christian Schneider

By Jeff Simpson

Its gotten so bad in the republican party, that even perpetual righty shrill Christian Schneider sees the writing on the wall:

Now nearing five years old, the tea party is desperately in need of a makeover. But it's going to need more than power-clashing ties and skinny jeans to turn the public's opinion around. In the most recent Marquette University Law School poll, only 23% of Wisconsinites said they had a favorable view of the tea party, with 47% saying they viewed the tea party unfavorably.

Ouch!  That does not bode well for Scott Walker!



"When people ask me, 'How do you appeal to Tea Party folks?' I say: I was the original Tea Party in Wisconsin," Scott Walker said. "Eight years ago we held recalls. We got rid of a county executive who had been in office almost since the time I was born."

Howard Dean on Success in 2014

 

By Jeff Simpson

Howard Dean knows how to win elections:

Cantor's loss last week was an eye-opener for many campaigns. If Democrats mobilize our base, stand up for what’s right and force a fight on vote-inspiring issues connected to combating income inequality, we can rack up wins that will stun many in Washington’s pundit class — and elect Democratic majorities in the House and Senate in November.

Howard Dean penned his thoughts on the Cantor defeat here(I recommend the whole read):

* First, competing in every state and every district is still vital.

 

* Second, Americans are so fed up with Congress that even the tea party wants to kick it out.

 

* Third, organization and shoe leather can beat big money.

 

* Fourth, base support wins elections — unless it drives you outside the mainstream.

 

* Lastly, and perhaps most important, Democrats need to learn from Cantor’s loss that anything can happen in 2014.

Unfortunately our state party is too busy spending their time attacking other Democrats and the Greens to worry about how to win an election against the republicans!

 

The Paradox of Media Trackers

By Jeff Simpson

The lead story on Mediatrackkkers website when I looked was this one. 

Wisconsin Police Chief Harasses Tea Party Activist

A Wisconsin police chief used his official and personal computers to harass a Tea Party activist who is suing him in federal court. Confronted by law enforcement investigators about the harassment, the chief initially denied having any knowledge of it. Told of the evidence against him, he admitted he had spent time harassing a private citizen out of spite.

Tim Kelemen is the police chief in the town of Campbell, Wisconsin. He has a personal vendetta against local activist Greg Luce.

 The horror of it all!  This piece of "reporting" by Brian Sikkkma(who has his own questions to answer) is obviously meant to show how the right wing in Wisconsin is always the victim.   It is a card they play often and they play it well!   

 However, all irony aside, the very next story on their website is this(seriously you can not make this stuff up):

 

“Segway Boy” Makes Wis. Ballot, But DA Starts Probe

 

But even though Ryan is going to make it on the ballot, his troubles aren’t over yet. It is unclear if the GAB will look into the method he used to gather the signatures in a separate investigation unrelated to his approval to get on the ballot.

What is clear is that Racine County District Attorney Rich Chiapete is investigating Ryan. According to an e-mail seen by Media Trackers, Chiapete reviewed a complaint filed with the GAB and assigned a detective to open an investigation into Jeremy Ryan to see if he did indeed break state election law.

 Seriously how do these guys sleep at night?   

 

 

 PS:  Another fun side note on the challenge to Jeremy Ryan's signatures:

 E-mails reviewed by Media Trackers show the GAB was initially reluctant to consider a complaint about Ryan filed by Tamra Varebrook last Thursday. Varebrook’s complaint detailed numerous social media postings – including photographs – and other evidence of Ryan advertising his petition as something besides a ballot access petition.

 The hard core republican activist who ran in the Democratic Primary of the recall election as a Democrat, filed a complaint against Jeremy Ryan, based on a facebook post she trolled, for possibly misleading the people.    

 I wonder if when getting people to sign, she pointed out that she was actually a republican and she was just running in the primary so the taxpayers in her district could needlessly pay a few hundred thousand dollars on an unnecessary primary?

Are there any adults left in the republican party? 

 

 

The Cantor Crying Game

 

By Jeff Simpson

By now, anyone who has a remote interest in politics knows that Eric Cantor was upset in his bid to stay entrenched in Washington with his fellow "Young Guns"!

However, like most things in the media, the narrative that came out of the national media, is not based on reality.   Let's take a look at some myths and realities:

1 The tea party beat the establishment -  Myth:

WASHINGTON — The demise of the Tea Party has been greatly exaggerated.
The anti-establishment force within the GOP was strong enough Tuesday to oust House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in a stunning upset by a political newcomer, Randolph-Macon College economics professor Dave Brat.

 The problem here is, the tea party recently backed Eric Cantor to take over for John Boehner as Speaker and they have never backed Dave Brat!

 Eric Cantor's stunning defeat on Tuesday came even as the national tea-party groups basically sat out the race, spending less than $10,000 against the soon-to-be former majority leader.

Just try to find any mention of the 'tea party" on his campaign website!  

2.  The Establishment did not support Brat.    Mostly true.  While the establishment definitely supported Cantor, at least Dave Brat was allowed to speak at the local republican convention(Mike Tate take notice):





3.  Messaging matters -  true. 

Like it or not, spend two minutes on his website and you will know EXACTLY what he stands for(agree with him or not).   He took strong stands, and it showed at the polls.   Can you tell me the messages from some of our local candidates?

4.  Money does not matter.   -  False

Despite the fact that Cantor massively outspent Brat, he lost.  That is THE EXCEPTION, not the rule. 

5.   When you rely on, and govern by "polls" you deserve to get beat:

A poll conducted late last month for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) shows him with a wide lead over challenger David Brat heading toward next Tuesday's Republican primary election.
The poll, shared with Post Politics, shows Cantor with a 62 percent to 28 percent lead over Brat, an economics professor running to Cantor's right. Eleven percent say they are undecided.

6. In what turns out to be a perfect example of how sick and corrupted politics has become, Eric Cantor, representing the people of Virginia's 7th district, had so seriously gerrymandered the district that he knew he would never lose.   So much so that he was not even in his district yesterday.  

In an even worse example of what politics has become, Eric Cantor "knew" he was up 34 points and STILL Spent 5 MILLION DOLLARS!!!  

7.  This is bad for America - myth.

Saying that implies Eric Cantor brought something of value to the US.   He did not.      America will survive this, we have survived much much worse than Cantor losing his job!  

The Tea Party Flag and Agnostic "Journalism"

By Bert

Why all this willful ignorance from reporters about the Tea Party flag?

All of a sudden a certain well-known banner is being called, instead, the “Gadsden Flag” or the “don’t tread on me Flag”, which are names for it too, I guess. However, the fact is I see this yellow rectangle of cloth -- carrying an image of a coiled snake and the old Revolutionary War slogan -- suspended off my neighbor’s front porch. I don’t think it is there because my neighbor is a Ben Franklin buff. I think he is a proud supporter of the Tea Party movement, which itself is a widely known political force on the right that reporters, other pundits, and politicians talk about all the time.

And yet the Tea Party and its accoutrements seem forgotten since Sunday when a sociopathic couple who made no secret of their anti-government views proceeded to murder two policemen at a Las Vegas pizza parlor and then draped one victim with that Tea Party flag. Jeff Simpson mentioned all this in an earlier post. 

Journalists such as Jodi Becker at WTMJ-AM chose in describing the news to call it the “don’t tread on me flag”.  Ken Herrera at WISN-AM omitted mention of the flag entirely, noting instead the perpetrators' white supremacist views. (The couple also left a swastika in some form with the victims; one report said their intent was to imply the police are like Nazis).

In Becker’s defense, her waffly wording probably comes from an NBC report the station links to that also chose for some reason to call it the "don't tread on me flag". The New York Times at least added, in mentioning this detail, that the flag has been adopted as a symbol of the Tea Party. 

WTMJ’s failure to also explain this – I was taught that reporters are supposed to explain – is surprising because a former "talent" on the station -- the phony right-wing pundit James T. Harris -- is apparently a Tea Party supporter. At his new gig at another Journal Communications-owned station in Tucson, Harris spoke at a rally in Sept. 2012 where the flag was clearly visible.

In other news stories, Allah knows we have seen perpetrators very quickly associated with causes. Journalists, of course, have seen fit to include the religion of a perpetator of violent acts if that religion is Islam. Ever since Ted Kaczynski's capture,  right-wing pundits have played up the connections, if any, of bad people with leftist causes. Pundits around here, for example, whose motive is to promote the Republican Party, always try to associate any bad act with “the left” or with bumpers that carry a certain sticker.  

These two murderers in Nevada are not officially sponsored by or conspiring within any Tea Party group, by all accounts. And, even though right-wing pundits imply something different all the time, it goes without saying that the fact you do something bad and support a cause does not mean all other supporters of that cause are guilty of the same bad act.

But this couple has not helped the Tea Party’s PR image, of course, which I think has legitimately been associated with racists and violent people. The damage it does to the group is motivating presidential wannabes and Tea Party supporters Ted Cruz and Rand Paul to spike any and all photos that show them among wavers of the flag.  

I also have to think that the legion of right-wing pundits who support the Tea Party such as Harris will be running for cover, or at least keeping quiet. However, there is still the question of why supposed journalists make the choice to serve the PR interests of  the Tea Party movement instead of doing their job of informing and explaining.

The Wisconsin Republican Party Fan Club

By Jeff Simpson


We all remember that recently, the Wisconsin republican party held their annual convention and one of the big topics was a vote on secession.  

Delegates at the state Republican convention are set to vote Saturday on a proposed resolution that directs lawmakers to push through legislation nullifying Obamacare, Common Core educational standards and "drone usage in the state of Wisconsin."
"Be it further resolved," the proposal concludes, "that we strongly insist our state representatives work to uphold Wisconsin's 10th Amendment rights, and our right to, under extreme circumstances, secede, passing legislation affirming this to the U.S. Federal Government."

Robin Vos, Scott Fitzgerald and Scott Walker are starting to gain a following!

In Georgia, a former Government worker decided to show his unhappiness with the Federal Government in a different way:

 Dennis Marx, a former TSA employee and member of the 100,000-plus “sovereign citizen” movement, planned to lay siege to a Forsyth County, Ga., courthouse and take hostages before he was killed by a sheriff’s deputy on Friday.


Throwing smoke bombs and tire spikes, Marx attacked the Forsyth County Courthouse on Friday morning, striking a sheriff’s deputy in the leg with a bullet. The deputy, 25-year veteran James Rush, returned fire, and Mr. Marx was killed after a brief gun battle on the street, which was joined by a local SWAT team.

According to Forsyth County Sheriff Duane Piper, Marx had in his possession buckets of homemade explosives, ammunition, smoke grenades, as well as food and water – clues that “he came here with the purpose of occupying the courthouse.” Sheriff Piper added that Marx’s “intention was to get in that front door and take hostages.”

He  is just a crazy with a gun right?  What does that have to do with WI? Overlooking of course the secession thing. 

Sovereign citizens believe that most of the US government is illegitimate and cannot act with force of law, and Marx had made specific complaints about what he thought were illegal searches of his home that led to several drug and gun charges. He was scheduled to plead guilty to those charges on Friday, but instead he assaulted the courthouse.

Hmmmm, that seems vaguely familiar to me!   

But Wait, there's more!!   In Las Vegas two people proudly displayed their Gadsden flag, while shouting about the revolution.  Unfortunately they did so after they ambushed and shot two police officers in the back. 

The two were heard shouting "this is a revolution", as they entered a pizza parlour and opened fire on officers Alyn Beck, 41, and Igor Soldo, 31, who were having lunch.

The shooters took badges and weapons off the policemen and covered their bodies with a cloth sporting the Gadsden flag, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

Named after its designer, the US revolutionary general Christopher Gadsden, the yellow flag depicts a coiled rattlesnake above the words "Dont tread on me". It has become a symbol of US patriotism recently adopted by the ultra-conservative Tea Party.

 As we learn more and more about the details of these incidents, do not let anyone say we had no warnings! 




Looks like Harry Reid was right all along!  

Caption This - 21st Senate District

Team Steitz doing the grunt work for Friends of Scott Walker. 

VOTE for Randy Bryce in the 21st Senate District!

He said that while campaigning door to door, he’s been surprised by how many people are at home because they can’t find a job.
“Whoever wins the GOP primary isn’t going to be the one who gets those people back to work,” Bryce said.

ALL ABOOOOOOAAAARRRRD!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Delegate: if we pass this, we'll become the laughingstock of America." Tide is turning.
— Daniel Bice (@DanielBice) May 3, 2014

UMMMMM....do you want to tell him, or should I? 

By the way it is too bad, and not surprising, that the republican officials stopped the debate for secession.  Its not like the party cares what their members think or that the members do think for themselves.  Apparently the #teaparty was not as "grass roots" as they have been led to believe! 

Anyway, the real tragedy was I not only Copyrighted

"United State of Wisconsin" 

I also had the new state logo ready to go:

Now the republicans can go back to being the sane, average, middle of the road party, we all knew they were! 

We know that Bill Kramer is MIA, but has anyone seen these two?

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!

Luther Olsen Better Watch His Back

By Jeff Simpson

Luther Olsen is the next stop on the right wing crazy republican purge tour:

After this came out in WIspolitics:

 Olsen, the Senate Education Committee chair, tells WisPolitics.com he doesn't fear opposition from anti-Common Core activists.

"If I'm the guy who is standing between getting rid of the Common Core and keeping it, I can go to sleep fine saying, 'Yeah, I think it's the right thing, and that's not a problem,'" said Olsen, R-Ripon.

Which prompted this response from the despicable Vicki Mckenna:

sen luther olsen can't figure out why everyone doesn't like #BigGovernment oversight of schools. #wiright. @leahvukmir

 When the right wing talking hatred heads ring the bell whistle, the salivating dogs follow:

• 
  

• 

  Tina Gorzalski Vote this socialist out..............

  about an hour ago · 1

• 

  Ron Remington Something smells with his actions. Check his finances!

  about an hour ago

• 

  Jay Brandemeuhl I never did receive a follow up reply from him as to why we should give up local control of curriculum

  about an hour ago · 2

• 

  Steve Meade ummm because he's a bought and paid for shill?... durrr.

  31 minutes ago

  
  
  More on Common Core State Standards here!  
  
  Does anyone doubt that Luther Olsen is next on the formerly convicted felon,  Scott Jensen's hit list?  
  
  
  
  

Privatization Ploy

By Jeff Simpson

Not that we need a study to tell us that voucher schools do not perform as well as public schools, we have the test scores to prove it.   Professor Gordon Lafer gave us one anyway:

A new report reveals that legislative moves to convert struggling public schools in Milwaukee into private charters─whether for-profit or non-profit─may actually damage the academic futures of far too many of the city’s children.

The report, “Do Poor Kids Deserve Lower-Quality Education Than Rich Kids? Evaluating School Privatization Proposals in Milwaukee, Wisconsin,” was written by Professor Gordon Lafer in conjunction with the national think tank Economic Policy Institute (EPI).

A special briefing on this provocative study will be held at 11 a.m. on Thursday, April 24, in the ground floor rotunda of Milwaukee City Hall, 200 East Wells Street. You can join Dr. Lafer and public school supporters from the area to hear about the growing private charter industry and its impact–often negative–on Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) and students.

There was a strong push by Wisconsin legislators in the last session to enact bills aimed at closing low-performing public schools and replacing them with less accountable, privately-run and often-for-profit enterprises. Considering many of the unanswered questions, EPI commissioned Prof. Lafer to actually look at the impact these privatization efforts would have on MPS.

The report is an eye-opening investigation into the rapidly growing private charter industry and the effects profit motivated schools can have on the depth and quality of education children receive.

Voucher and for profit schools perpetually get outperformed by public schools, and yet almost like clockwork, the tea party shows up to argue the wrong side of the issue(facts be dammed)!

 

U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), a prospective presidential candidate in 2016, will be in Milwaukee next week hosting a school choice roundtable at St. Anthony School.

The event will follow a Chicago roundtable the day before and will be held at St. Anthony School's middle school campus April 23. The event is co-hosted by Hispanics for School Choice and the Libre Initiative, a national conservative Hispanic organization whose spokeswoman, Rachel Campos-Duffy, is married to U.S. Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wis.).

Paul, son of former Texas congressman and libertarian presidential candidate Ron Paul, is a Tea Party Republican, self-described "constitutional conservative." He's considered a likely 2016 presidential candidate.

St. Anthony's is Wisconsin's largest Catholic school. St. Anthony School president Zeus Rodriguez is also president of Hispanics for School Choice, a Milwaukee-based organization designed to reach out to and represent the Hispanic community on issues of school choice.

Milwaukee's school choice program is the country's largest and first for low-income students. It allows low- and middle-income students to attend participating private schools using state-funded vouchers to pay tuition.


It is funny to me that a serial plagiarist would talk about school choices.  Since he is not a serious student I would guess he does not care too much about your child's education.  

Also full disclosure, Zeus Rodriguez is the brother-in-law of  Assembly rep Jessie Rodriguez (R- Scott Jensen) whose seat was bought and paid for by the formerly convicted felon.   The Rodriguez has ALOT of personal money riding on the perpetual expansion of using public school dollars to line their pockets.

I will give them some credit though, they have not cashed in on our public school dollars the way their peers at Lifeskills Academy have! 

Also full disclosure, Mr. Rodriguez once invited me to come speak at his school and when I accepted promptly disappeared and apparently rescinded the offer.   I wonder how many on the roundtable will be anti voucher schools?

The Crazy Is Concentrated!

 

By Jeff Simpson

H/T Dan Bice for today's entrance into right wing crazy world!

To secede or not to secede.
That will be the question for Wisconsin Republicans at next month's convention.
Earlier this month, the party's Resolutions Committee voted in favor of a proposal that says the state party "supports legislation that upholds Wisconsin's right, under extreme circumstances, to secede."
A version of the so-called "state sovereignty" resolution was first OK'd last month by one of the state GOP's eight regional caucuses as an assertion of the state's 10th Amendment rights. The measure also calls for ending all mandates that go "beyond the scope of the constitutionally delegated powers of the federal government."
Top Republican officials hoped to kill the fringe proposal during a meeting of the resolutions panel at the Hyatt Hotel in Milwaukee on April 5. Instead, the committee made a few edits to the resolution and adopted it on a split vote.
Now, the matter will go for final approval to the delegates attending the state Republican Party's convention in Milwaukee on May 2-4.

From Facebook(in regards to this):

Post by Wisconsin Tea Party.

Political Organization · 2,309 Likes

The Wisconsin TEA Party is making big strides within the Republican Party of WI. Keep it up, Patriots!

While the Wisconsin "tea party" celebrates, Scott Walker runs from them:

Gov. Scott Walker, the leader of the state party, distanced himself from the resolution last week.
"I don't think that one aligns with where most Republican officials are in the state of Wisconsin — certainly not with me," Walker said at a press event on Friday.

Then Walker, not surprisingly sticks in one last dig -

 The governor said Republicans and Democrats have both had their share of unconventional resolutions over the years.

Between this and the recent intra party attacks on the few remaining reasonable moderates left in the republican party, the Bradely gopher boys are out in force trying to minimize the incredible damage they have done.


 

Before Mike Tate poses for holy pictures some reporter should ask him to name a @wisdem moderate. #plale http://t.co/UP3SKwGKzy
— Brian Fraley (@Dailytakes) April 11, 2014

Getting lectured by @WisDems on moderates is a joke. Remind us all again how your Senate Minority Leader got to Madison?#wipolitics #wi06
— Kevin Binversie (@kevinbinversie) April 12, 2014          

So here is my question to our loyal readers:

Tell me who in the Dem party is NOT a moderate and WHY.  Tell me where in the Dem party a resolution has been voted on that compares to states secession.  

I have brought this up before, pointing out the damage that the false equivalency does to our state.

If you truly think there is  equivalency, I want to see some examples*!

*Examples have to be within the last four years.