Spring Cleaning At Wisconsin Watchdog

By Jeff Simpson



Coming on the wake of Jimmy Wigderson getting let go at the Waukesha Freeman, thanks to "economic reasons*", (*economic reasons, being no one buys the paper to read his crap),now the latest organization to hire Jim, is cleaning house.

The poorly named Franklin Center for Government and public integrity, realized that the people who were writing for them, had no integrity and thus were forced to clean up their crew.

They finally realized that hiring Jimmy Wigderson to be their "education reporter" would be akin to ABC World News Tonight, hiring Pauly Shore to be their 5:30 PM anchor.  For instance, Wigderson, as an "objective" "education" "reporter" called for the assassination of State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tony Evers.  Hard to take someone serious after that!

Luckily we at CogDis caught that and called it out because the watchdog fell asleep.

Couple that with Wigderson, deciding that some women deserve to get their pussy grabbed without permission by The Donald, and really he is not fit to be unaccompanied in a school, much less "reporting" on education.  

I am not even saying that because Wigderson has made it a hobby trying to get me fired from various jobs.  I had nothing to do with this, this was purely the free market.   There is only so much room, for BS stories, lack of facts and blatant lies in the right wing niche of Wisconsin.  Between Mediatrackkkers, Right Wisconsin, Christian Schneider, and Maciver the market is saturated!   We will see where they go from here, maybe they will hire a crew that actually cares about integrity. 

But wait there is more.   

It is not just Jimmy Wigderson that deserves to take credit for the mess that was Wisconsin Watchdog, their Wisconsin Bureau Chief(hey Capper, I need a better title!), Matt Kittle, also played a major part(full disclosure, Matt and I attend the same church).  

Kittle is known for attacking public workers with all of his might, while defending two time loser and convict,  Kelly Rindfleisch and spent as much time as possible pushing John Doe propaganda.  

As the saying goes, There is no there there! and now they are not there!  

As Wiggy tweeted out:

 "The Franklin Center is shutting down," James Wigderson, who covered education, tweeted early Friday.

That was a follow-up to his previous tweet from Thursday night that read, '"Email account closed. And with that, Watchdog.org shall publish no more."

r

 

✔ @jessieopie

@jwigderson Wait, what?

 Follow

James Wigderson @jwigderson

@jessieopie The Franklin Center is shutting down.

1:24 AM - 14 Apr 2017

 
•  11 Retweet
 
•  11 like

One last personal note, I always love when people who consider themselves the media, who attack people who use no comment, have nothing to say when a story is about them:  

Case in point!

Wigderson declined further comment.

Wisconsin Watchdog Bureau Chief M.D. Kittle could not be reached for comment. His office number was not in service Friday, and he did not respond to a message left on his cell phone.

On Thursday, Wisconsin Watchdog tweeted: "God bless. #wiright"

Finally, one last point.  Watchdog,org and The Franklin Center are not going away.  As they told Bice:

But a Franklin Center spokeswoman said in a statement that the center and Watchdog.org will continue.

"The Franklin Center has not shut down; it continues to operate and we expect growth as we progress through 2017," said Franklin Center spokeswoman Laurel Patrick, who previously worked for Walker. "In order to achieve this growth, it is undergoing a reorganization."

Which means that Wiggy can not help himself but lie, and can not even bring himself to tell the truth when the story is about himself.

Remember that when you check out his blog or Right Wisconsin!

Walkergate: Plea Deal Or Plea Bargain?

Tuesday, we learned that Kelly Rindfleisch had struck a plea deal with the Milwaukee County District Attorney's office regarding her role in Walkergate.

On Wednesday, more information came out about the deal and made it seem to be more of a plea bargain, emphasis on the word bargain.

In sum, Rindfleisch is to plead guilty to one count of  Misconduct in Office (Class I Felony), while the other three charges are dropped. And that's only the beginning. Other things she's getting include:

• She won't be charged for any crimes in Columbia County
• The DA will only recommend jail time.
• Even if she get's jail time, she could get work release.
• She has the right to appeal, which her attorney has indicated he would do.
• She won't have to sit in prison until the appeal is heard.
• She wont have to pay any fines.

Like I said, it's a real bargain for her, or at least appears to be that way.

This, as one might imagine, set the left into a mass tizzy. There was outrage on how long this has taken and that there is "nothing" to show for it.  I'll admit I was a bit upset until I had a chance to thoroughly read and reread the letter and do some thinking on it.

On the right side of the cheddarsphere, they were gloating and doing as they have after every charge and every conviction, saying that it only went to vindicate Scott Walker.

For example, look at what the newest water boy for MacIver, James "I'm a Professional" Wigderson, had to say on the matter:

Kelly Rindfleisch is supposed to plead guilty tomorrow to one felony count of campaigning on county time. Missing from the Wispolitics.com article is that she was doing the work for Brett Davis’ campaign for Lieutenant Governor, not Governor Scott Walker’s campaign. Instead, they imply her activity had something to do with his campaign.

The letter does not include any provisions that would require her to testify against others in the ongoing John Doe probe into allegations that campaign work was done out of Walker’s office while he was Milwaukee County executive and running for governor.

Of course, there will be a liberal feeding frenzy until she actually pleads guilty because they are going to completely ignore, “The letter does not include any provisions that would require her to testify against others in the ongoing John Doe probe…”

It looks like another dead end for Wisconsin leftists hoping to get rid of the governor before the end of his term.

I can't tell if Wigderson is purposely trying to mislead his readers or if he is really that much in denial.

As for the line about her not being required to testify, well, that much is true. But Wigderson does not inform his readers of the whole story. The party he has omitted his that fact that she's already gave them what they needed, as pointed out by Rindfleisch's attorney, Frank Gimbel (emphasis mine):

The proposed settlement of the case does not include any requirement that Rindfleisch cooperate with prosecutors on other cases, which often is required by prosecutors in such deals.

Landgraf declined to comment on the plea agreement when contacted Wednesday.

Gimbel said Rindfleisch had already been "thoroughly debriefed" by prosecutors. Rindfleisch's future cooperation wasn't a major issue in the plea deal, he said. Gimbel noted the lack of such a requirement wasn't unusual.

Wigderson also things he scores points when he highlights that the charges was due to her campaigning only for Davis, as if this somehow exempts Walker from the same issue.

Well, there are a couple of things he would need to address to be considered a legitimate reporter and not a two-bit propagandist.

One, the actual criminal complaint and subsequent release of transcripts reveal that she was doing work on both campaigns. Just as Tim Russell has yet to be charged with all the crimes he could be charged with, doesn't mean that they wont' so it later. Heck, for Rindfleisch, they could almost submit the same complaint and get her for doing Walker's campaign work.

Wigderson would also have to explain why he changed his mind from what he wrote earlier in the year:

It’s the charges against the other Walker aide that present the bigger problem.

Kelly Rindfleisch is accused of fundraising from her Milwaukee County office for Brett Davis, a candidate for lieutenant governor. According to the criminal complaint against Rindfleisch, she was hired by Russell as a policy analyst for Walker.

In a text message exchange with another Walker confidant, Rindfleisch said that half her work was being done for the Walker campaign for governor.

Secondly, Wigderson would also have to explain the ethics dilemma Walker had and still has due to all of this, which Wigderson himself pointed out:

Then there’s the ethics question. Walker has the same information we all do about Rindfleisch’s fundraising activities on Davis’ behalf. What possible reason could Walker have for keeping Davis and Werwie?

If Walker was as innocent as Wigderson is trying to portray him now, he would need to honestly answer his own question.

Thirdly, in order to buy into Wigderson's spin of things, one would have to ignore the fact that she was doing said campaign work in Walker's county executive's suite on county time and with county equipment. But more significantly, Walker knew all about the illegal campaigning and only ordered it to stop, using his campaign email, in an email to Tim Russell, even though he wasn't in Walker's office anymore. Yet it was Rindfleisch that responded to the email by taking out the secret router.

There is more on this plea bargain, but I will hold off on that until after Thursday's hearing to elaborate.

The one thing that everyone, regardless of which side they are on - Walker's or justice's - needs to remember is that Rindfleisch is still relatively small potatoes. She was pretty much at the bottom of the food chain. Her case, as well as Russell's and Darlene Wink's, are only to set the base for the larger investigations.

There is still the issue of the pay for play and bid rigging that went on regarding where a county department was housed.

And there are many more people that have been and are being investigated. The DA's Office merely wants to take care of Wink, Rindfliesch and Russell before taking it to the next level.

It took the prosecutors in Illinois four years to get Blago. We need to be a little more patient and let District Attorney John Chisholm and his staff do their jobs.

I'd rather have them take their time and get the job done correctly than speed through things and allowing the weasels to walk.

James Wigderson: Thin-Skinned and Thick-Headed

James Wigderson, who could most generously be described as a free lance propagandist, sure is thin-skinned and thick-headed.

Wigderson, who produces vast amounts of inanity for MacIver Institute (Motto: Anything but a news service!) and White Wisconsin, is trying - rather unsuccessfully - to join in the preemptive damage control which is coming from the Son of Doe investigations into the illegal collaboration between groups like MacIver and the political campaigns of Scott Walker and the other Teapublicans who were subjected to recalls.

Their strategy consists of trying to smear and discredit anyone who might report on the investigation, regardless of how foolish their attacks might make them look.

Wigderson tried to do that to Scot Ross of One Wisconsin Now and Jason Stein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.  The result of Wigderson's efforts was to get blocked by Stein on Twitter, which Wigderson promptly whined about on his blog.

When I first saw this in my reader, I found this hilariously hypocritical of Wigderson, since he had blocked me and several other lefties years ago.  And checking now, I find that I am indeed still blocked:

But as with all right wing nut jobs, there's more.  There's always more.

When I actually went to his blog to get the link for this post, what do I find but that Wigderson is apparently selling ad space to people targeting - well, let's just say lonely men:

I can't wait until he starts lecturing us on how to live a pure and proper life and all about his family values.

Wigging The Dog

I was afraid something like this would happen.

When James Wigderson started writing for the McIver Institute, I was a little shocked and more than a little dismayed. For a long time, James was a prolific writer whose points, even when I disagreed, were at least well-written, honest and supported with facts. When he started writing for McIver, I was concerned that this would change. Unfortunately, I was proven correct.

The McIver Institute, for those who aren't familiar, is a low grade right wing front group. Sort of like the third string team for a Junior Varsity squad. You can't expect a lot of honesty from them, and they don't disappoint in that sense.

It appears that James has fallen into that morass.

In his post, a somewhat predictable essay repeating the same tired and inaccurate talking points used to regularly trash unions.

First, Wigderson does accurately report that the County budgeted concession that had not been negotiated into their budget. What he fails to mention is that is against state and federal labor laws to negotiate contracts via the budget. He also fails to mention that the unions and the County did have a Tentative Contract that would have saved Milwaukee County millions of dollars in higher health care contributions from the workers as well as two years of pay freezes.

Unfortunately for the workers and the tax payers, Scott Walker was able to spook enough supervisors that the contract was rejected. Now, besides losing those unsaved millions of dollars, the County is sinking deeper into the fiscal abyss Walker has led us to.

Wigderson then lists what he thinks are the concessions demanded (not asked for or put up for negotiation) by Walker:

For 2010, the county budgeted wage and benefit concessions across the board, including union employees. The county budget calls for a wage freeze, no step increases, $30 per month health care premium increase, and a change in the pension multiplier to 1.6%. In his budget address, County Executive Scott Walker said 48% of the county budget goes to fund wages and benefits for county employees. The concessions are necessary to fill a $10 million budget gap.

The truth is much more severe and a matter of public record. If Wigderson wanted to be honest, he could have gotten the information. Can you imagine being asked to pay a percentage of something you have no control over? There is no way of telling if Walker would then try to switch plans to one of his campaign donors who could raise their rates by double digit percentages. Agreeing to that would be highly irresponsible.

Wigderson further thinks that the furlough extension were a wise idea and that the the privatization was forward looking.

What an odd thing to say for someone who is supposed to be watching out for the tax payers and supportive of wise spending.

The mental health complex is already on pace to break all previous records for overtime due to being chronically understaffed, which is only exasperated by the furlough days. Things are so bad that the County has tentatively reached a collateral agreement with the nurses to forgive them their furlough days (and that is on top of the raises that Walker gave them).

I have also learned just today that at the House of Correction, they've already had at least one shift where there were more officers working for overtime pay than there were officers working their normal hours. This was due to the furlough days.

The privatization of the security at the mental health complex, to which Wigderson alludes, is actually costing tax payers more money than if it had been kept in the public sector. The same complaint has been made by County Supervisors regarding the food service at BHD. On top of all that, the whole Wackenhut deal sounds like it isn't much of a deal at all. (Perhaps someone with more time than I could do some checking to see if executives from Wackenhut had donated money to Walker's campaign. After all, that does appear to be a strong possibility, given Walker's track record.)

If Wigderson and Team McIver were really interested in lowering taxes, they would be advocating for real reform to the health care system, seeing how it's health care costs that are the biggest chunk of a public employee's benefits.

Another point that Wigderson fails to note is that besides the concessions, Walker also wanted to cut a few hundred jobs. There is no union that I am aware of that would willingly agree to large concessions and job cuts.

Interestingly, if Walker had shown real leadership, he would have done the same as many other civic and county leaders and actually sat down and negotiated for the concessions he wanted. Instead, Walker gives us grandstanding and bellicose sound bites which only belie the fact that he has nothing to offer.

Furthermore, if Walker failed at getting the concessions he wanted, he could have greatly minimized the damage to the county and to his political aspirations by declaring his self-created fiscal emergency on January 1, 2010 and laid off 300 workers, which would have achieved the same results.

Due to his failure to act in a timely fashion, he now has to demand excessive furlough days and lay off almost twice as many workers, which will severely jack up overtime costs and diminish services to the point where he will no longer be able to hide it from the media. His bluster of being tough on the unions will quickly fade when people find out he is much tougher on the tax payers. Walker's purposeful delay of addressing the issue shows a few things:

• He clearly doesn't know what he is doing
• The lay offs/furloughs are merely Walker playing political games with peoples lives, like he has done before
• He realizes that if he keeps cutting workers, services will get cut so deeply they will start having an immediate and strong negative impact on his political dreams.
  

And while it is indeed sad that many workers will needlessly lose their jobs (and likely their homes), it is even sadder that all of the tax payers and the people who rely on the services provided by Milwaukee County are going to suffer, through no fault of their own, but due to Walker's lack of foresight and leadership and political avarice.

In summary, James Wigderson was half-correct: There is a severe lack of leadership in Milwaukee County. Where he went wrong was blaming it on the unions for doing what they are supposed to do, and not placing the blame where it belongs - firmly and squarely on Scott Walker's shoulders.

Wiggy Throws a Tantrum

This week, there was supposed to be a presentation by WEAL's( Waukesha Environmental Action League) Charlene Lemoine and her colleague Karen Feidler(Waukesha County Solid Waste Manager) about PAYT (Pay as you throw). These two well respected women are models of integrity, and  pillars of the community( I know its Walkersha and the pillars are few and far between, right Kathy Nickolaus)

Karen and Charlene,  had planned on giving a community presentation regarding their program.  These two had been working collaboratively(a very good public-private partnership) and came up with a very sensical program called "Pay as you throw", which is a a graduated plan that encourages thrift among consumers by penalizing heavy users.  The more you use, the more you pay.  Hardly a groundbreaking idea and one that will truly save costs, and landfill space!   Here is actually a link to the power point these two great ladies wanted to share with the community! 

All seems well, and good right.  two ladies work hard on a project and come up with an idea to help keep costs down for the taxpayers and the landfill clean.  They want to share it with the community and whoever wants to can show up and watch it and ask questions.  If you like it compliment them, if you dislike it ask the questions you disagree with!  Have a discussion and see what people think and if its a good idea let all of the people decide it by a vote.  A perfect example of our democracy in action in small town America where a bunch of friends neighbors and adults work together to make their community better.

Life in a Northern Town. 

There is just one problem.  Walkersha is not a normal town.  As Kathy Nickolaus has taught us, democracy is NOT welcome in Waukesha.  Before there could be a community meeting where people could get and share information, James Wigderson rode to the rescue!  

Author's note: The original post contained this photo of Mr. Wigderson in this spot. Mr. Wigderson had a snit about it and has requested that we take it down. Showing more respect than he deserves, we have chosen to honor his request.

Jimmy Wigderson has a long history of trying to suppress people's votes, and now it appears, he wants to stop neighbors and friends from even having discussions.  Wiggy found out, because Fred Abadi, the Public Works director, acted incredibly unprofessional and forwarded a copy of the presentation to Wiggy.   The presenters, as a courtesy, shared their presentation with Director Abadi and the director then turned around and sent it to Jimmy.  According to Ms. Lemoine, in her 30 year professional life, she has never had a a presentation compromised like this.   Obviously Ms. Lemoine has never worked with people as unethical as these two.  (I understand that these are public records, but in most of the country, you need to place an ORR request to get public documents. Apparently not in Walkersha).

Wiggy was  so proud of his amateurish behavior that he ran to his blog to brag about it.   Although typically,  when Wiggy got to his blog, decided to leave the truth out!

DO NOT go read his blog, because I would not recommend that to anyone, I will just point out a couple of lowlights.

1.  He calls the harmless presentation(not a single vote was to be taken, nor was there any chance of this proposal being enacted anytime in the near future) a "propaganda show".   The irony is so thick it takes a machete to penetrate, when a paid hack from the secretive Macgyver Institute, who writes a blog where facts are rare commodities, would have the guts to call anything else "propaganda"! 

2.  Wiggy, not surprisingly, let it be known that if such a program were to be enacted, he would be screwing over his neighbors to save a dollar.  Like the typical Wisconsin republican, he has no intention of taking personal responsibility for any of his actions.  

I can’t decide which of my neighbors is going to get my garbage cans every Tuesday.

3.  I have no idea why County Executive  Dan Vrakas would capitulate to such childish behavior,  but he should be asked.  Why would an insignificant blogger with no credibility get documents before meetings?  Why would the county executive not want as much information out to his constituents as possible in all aspects of every issue?   Why would he treat these two pillars of the community so poorly?   Why has he not explained himself?

County Executive: Dan Vrakas

countyexec@waukeshacounty.gov
Phone: 262-548-7902
Hours of Operation: 8:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Monday thru Friday

Waukesha County Administration Center
515 W. Moreland Blvd. Rm 320
Waukesha, WI 53188

Finally I have a theory.   Wiggy is adamant that there never be a pay for use garbage fee, and we at Cog_DIs know why!  When everything that James Wigderson writes is GARBAGE, the fees that Jim would incur would be exorbitant!    

Author's note: Again, the original post contained this photo of Mr. Wigderson in this spot. Mr. Wigderson apparently didn't like this either and requested we remove it. Again, we have chosen to take the high road and honor his request.

(Missing the) Point - Counterpoint: Gun Restriction Laws

James Wigderson decides to join in the debate about whether there should be new gun laws in order to prevent further horrors like the mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, where 26 innocent people, 20 of them very young children, were slain by a mad man with access to several high powered handguns and an assault rifle.

Not being able to defend the right wing's love of guns, Wigderson settles for attacking a straw man:

None of these bans would have had any effect on the Connecticut school shooting. They would not have prevented the attack on the Sikh temple earlier this year. They would not have prevented the shooting at the Azana Salon & Spa in Brookfield. The proposed gun control measures would not have prevented any mass shootings, any more than declaring the schools in Connecticut gun-free zones. The worst school massacre in American history was in Bath Township, Michigan in 1927. The killer used bombs, not guns. Timothy McVeigh used a fertilizer bomb in Oklahoma to kill 168 people. The same day as the school shooting in Connecticut, a man stabbed 23 children at a school in China.

We’re a can-do society, and we believe there’s a solution to every problem. But the problem is that there are evil people in this world intent on doing evil things. “Doing something” that is completely ineffective only gives a false sense of security, and we should expect our leaders to know better.

Wigderson is really stretching with his arguments.

He cites a couple of examples of horrendous incidents, but turns a blind eye to the fact that gun deaths are on a pace to exceed traffic fatalities by 2015.

He also cites the man who stabbed 23 children but willfully omits the fact that not one of the children died.

What Wigderson is doing is trying to mislead his readers from the real reason why there is such a push to restrict the proliferation of guns. To counter Wigderson's straw man argument, I would refer the gentle reader to Scot Ross of One Wisconsin Now:

Thirty-four have died in Wisconsin from mass shootings since 2004.

Meteor. Brookfield. Delevan. Crandon. Oak Creek. And Brookfield again. Communities scarred, lives lost, survivors inconsolable.

Our national epidemic of gun violence added 26 innocent souls in Newtown. That 20 children could be gunned down in a shattering instant at the hands of one madman, is inconceivable in a nation governed by laws and reason.

And as our nation mourns this latest unspeakable mass gun violence and a call for action roars nationwide to stop these far-too-common acts of mass random violence, the silence has been deafening from those charged with running the state of Wisconsin.

As President Obama has said, laws alone won't eliminate evil. But we can, and must, hold our elected officials accountable and demand action making it harder for evil people to get the weapons of mass murder used in the recent, unfathomable acts of violence perpetrated on worshippers in a temple, mothers at the spa, holiday shoppers in a mall and children and their teachers in their grade school.

No one is arguing that the gun laws will stop evil. No one is arguing that gun laws will prevent all future gun deaths. But there are too many gun deaths now and we don't have to make it as easy or even easier for the country to continue down this path to ruination.

Edmund Burke said, "All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." What Wigderson is arguing for is just that, doing nothing. And that's after people like Walker and the Republican legislators actually helped the evil along.

Is James Wigderson really a dummy?

By Steve Carlson and Jeff Simpson

It’s tough to watch a once great man tumbling into decline. There was a time when human Foghorn Leghorn and occasional Topo Gigio impersonator James Wigderson was a genuine force in Wisconsin conservative politics. A time when the unrelentingly raw, merciless stench of his haphazardly hyperbolic and buffoonishly bellicose rhetoric could not be ignored, much like your aging, alcoholic uncle’s periodontitis scented halitosis wafting across the picnic table at a close quarter family reunion on a hot Sunday afternoon. But no more.

A quick perusal of the Not Quite Right Wisconsin website, where Wigderson serves as editor, reveals a recent body of work woefully bereft of substance, wit or originality.  There are small minded ramblings about Mandela Barnes and bongs, Milwaukee street cars and bikes, that Scot Ross, essentially, is an asshole, and so on and so forth.

The majority of Wigderson’s output, though,  appears to be little more than a parroting of the latest press release from the misnomerly named “ Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty” , the Bradley Foundation funded old white guy club where “ ride to the sound of the guns “ seems to be the corporate motto. Law, Liberty, Guns. Sounds kind of like a Warren Zevon song!

Wigderson’s articles so dutifully repeat WILL’s views on everything from health care policy, to DPI powers, to school choice that, against one’s will, an image slowly comes to mind of Wiggy perched precariously on WILL CEO Rick Esenberg’s lap, his jaw flapping in time to an unseen and unheard metronome while Esenberg’s lips seem to barely move.  Try to unsee that!

It’s a neat trick though one shudders to wonder where Esenberg’s forearm has been. Note to Esenberg: you can now get hand cleaning towels by the bucket!

Wistful Wiggy

By Jeff Simpson

As Zach at Blogging Blue pointed out recently, Waukesha's own Jim Wigderson recently tweeted about the unarmed African American teenager that was recently shot in Madison.

james wigderson @jwigderson Follow

If Tony Robinson was put away for the time armed robbery should get, he might be alive today. But some people don't want to hear that.

Wisconsin incarcerates more black men than any other state in the country and that is not enough for Wigderson.   

Then I realized with Wiggy it is not about incarcerating more African Americans, its much more than that.   Wiggy was rolling James Causey's facebook page when he saw Mr. Causey ripped on Wiggy's hero - George Zimmerman. 

 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columnist James Causey continues the newspaper’s pursuit of a quality, civilized debate on the issues confronting our country:

While Wiggy has a deep jealousy of anyone who writes for JSonline, he also sems to have his week made when an unarmed African American gets shot.

Wiggy was the last hold out and supporter of Wild Bill Kramer and now he is the last cheerleader of George Zimmerman. 

No wonder his only forum  is Charlie Sykes' White Wisconsin.  


Ladies and Gentlemen, your Wisconsin Republican Party!    Is this really who we want running our state?

Hypocrisy, Thy Name Be Wigderson

James Wigderson - who is a blargher and a contributor to the propaganda sites MacIver Insitute and White Wisconsin - laments that the killer of a two year old child was sentenced to only six years in prison, which was a year more than prosecutors had recommended.

I cannot say that I could argue with him on that point.

But Wigderson jumped in the deep end of the hypocrisy pool with his last line:

The lives of children are cheap in Milwaukee County.

That is pretty ballsy talk from a man who actively participated in the political cover up of the death of fifteen year old Jared Kellner.  Kellner was killed when a facade fell off of the O'Donnell Park parking garage and fell on top of him.  

If I recall correctly, not only was Walker not charged - much less receive any jail time - he was elected governor.

I wonder how Wigderson feels about his help in cheapening Jared's life.

Wiggy's Toothless Attack

By Jeff Simpson 

Readers of CogDis know that I recently called out Right Wing Blogger for trying to provoke violence against Superintendent of Schools Tony Evers.  

For anyone interested, time for a little back scene look at what happens when you criticize someone on the right   This does not just happen to me it happens to many others also but they are not blessed with a forum to point it out.

Let's go step by step,

A reader sent me a tip that Wiggy posted a story about Tony Evers on Watchdog.org and that the comments that had been up for two days, from typical fans of his, was that it was "hunting season" on teachers.  I went and checked the blog out and saw that Wiggy put a picture up of Tony Evers with the caption "Get your gun".  

This call to harm an elected official was misinterpreted by his faithful readers as hunting season on teachers, but the original meaning was clear.  

Before I reported on this, I figured I would give Wiggy a chance to explain his disgusting actions and sent him the following email:

Jimmy, 
I am doing a story on you, as education reporter, calling for the assassination of Superintendent Evers.   Would you care to comment?
Thanks have a great night! 

Mr. Wigderson responded with this(where he copied a lawyer Mike Maistleman with an incorrect email address)

 Provide the date, time and sourcee of the quote.

I then sent him the link to my blog and that was the last I heard from him.  

That is when Wiggy goes into WIrightwing crazy.   The next day I received a call from an old sales manager asking me who was the clown named James Wigdersomething.  

Mr. Wigderson had decided the best way to respond to my questions was to try and get me fired from my job.   Mr. Wigderson has a well deserved reputation of not using facts or research and he did not disappoint this time.  Jim was going to send a message that if you crticize him he will go after you personally.  Of course sending a message to a job I no longer have is not the least bit ironic.  

Here is what he sent.

 Good Afternoon,
I received the following email from someone claiming to represent your company. Aside from the potentially libelous nature of the content and the content of his blog (I'm having an attorney review it) I was surprised that the person would include your company's website as if he was representing it by emailing me.
I'm sure you will take prompt action before this individual damages your company's reputation further. For my part, my only reply to this individual will be that he should cease and desist all contact with me. This is not the first time I have made this request of him, and that he continues to contact me makes me wonder about his stability.
Thanks again, and I've included a pdf of his email to me and the link to his blog post is below my contact info. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.
James WigdersonWisconsin Education Reporter
Watchdog.org
214 North Henry StreetSuite 207Madison, WI 53703
262-422-7763

I have not heard back from him yet to see if he will be suing CogDis, but I am pretty sure I know the answer to that.   (Hint: truth is not libel).

That is a behind the scenes look at what happens to people in WI who speak up against the right wing loons in this state and that is also why more people do not speak up.  

But wait there is more:

Wiggy has been a "defemder" of free speech rights(as long as you are not talking about him).

A better campaign finance system would be one that actually encourages more democratic participation and more speech, not less. Liberals once readily spouted the maxim misattributed to Voltaire, "I don't agree with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it." Today Wisconsin's liberals would rather say, "I don't agree with what you say and, if I can't prosecute it, I'll harass it any way I can until my television is commercial free."

Harassing, intimidating and suppressing voters, are what the right is truly trying to accomplish and luckily we will not let that happen!

Remember this next time the right has incredible fake outrage when people get upset that a racist hatefilled spewing Republican gets in trouble for their speech.

The Assassination Code

By Jeff Simpson 

We recently went through a time where The Donald ever so slightly, walked up to the edge of calling for the assassination of Hillary Clinton but once he showed his cards, he stopped because he got his message across.  

As George Lakoff points out, Trump did not accidentally say anything or get close to the line.  The Donald knew exactly what he was saying all along.   

Why bring that up again?   Because Mr. Trump is not part of the alt-right like our friends on the right keep trying to pass him off to be.    As our friends at Watchdog.org and Jimmy Wigderson show us, The Donald is very much part of mainstream GOP and not the only one who can call for an assassination of their political enemies.   

See Jim wrote a story about Tony Evers, who recently gave a State of the State of education speech to a forum on public education in Wauwatosa. In his speech, Superintendent Evers pointed out some of the pratfalls and problems of ACT10.   

No one is allowed to criticize ACT10 and James Wigderson sent that message loud and clear:

 
GET YOUR GUN: Superintendent Evers on competition for teachers: “It’s the wild west out there.”


There is Superintendent Evers - fellas GET YOUR GUNS!

No sooner did Wigs put that up online, and some of his followers heard the dog whistle.  

wink • 2 days ago

Poaching teachers? After the way they disgraced themselves protesting I suppose it was inevitable but honestly I didn't even know there was a season on 'em. Is there a bag limit? Is it gun only or bow too? Can we still bait 'em with Walker signs? It worked in Jefferson.

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  FlameCCT  wink • 2 days ago

  
  

  Black powder? Can disabled use a crossbow? Curious minds want to know so they can make hunting trip plans.

  Wonder if I can talk JJ Watt into inviting some Texans fans (aka me) back to WI for hunting season. ;-)

  
  

  
  

   

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    wink  FlameCCT • 2 days ago

    
    

    As far as I know crossbows are legal for deer and the teachers aren't near as dear as deer.
    I'm not sure about the black powder though. Not that there would be an issue with muzzle loaders or in-lines but I'm not sure we can refer to it as "black" powder any more.

    Giving this season more thought it occurs to me that bore spears would be appropriate.

    
    

    
    

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      FlameCCT  wink • 2 days ago

      
      

      Has to be doe season though as Progressives have no huevos!

      
      

      
      

       

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        wink  FlameCCT • 2 days ago

        
        

        Somebody must have poached their huevos.

        
        

        
        

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This was such a good discussion on the article of shooting teachers in WI that it is still up on the Watchdog.org website.   I guess that Watchdog.org, considers the duties of their "education reporter" to include calling for the assassination of elected officials who they disagree with.   

 What is ironic, is Watchdogs mission:

Watchdog.org’s mission is to restore oversight of our state governments, to hold politicians and bureaucrats at all levels accountable for their handling of taxpayers’ dollars and to promote innovative solutions to public policy challenges.  

I am guessing there will be no retraction, apology or firing of Mr. Wigderson, throwing the accountability part of their mission right out the door.   Secondly its not an innovative solution to how to get rid of a Democratic elected official they can not beat at the ballot box, because we saw The Donald beat him to that idea!  

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