"Access To Health Care Shouldn't Depend On Luck"

Meet Spike Dolomite Ward, a woman who was so fooled into thinking that President Obama's health care reform was a bad thing that she went so far as to switch her registration from Democratic to Independent.

Now she has written in an oped to the LA Times that she was wrong about it all and is apologizing to Obama:

If you are fortunate enough to still be employed and have insurance through your employers, you may feel insulated from the sufferings of people like me right now. But things can change abruptly. If you still have a good job with insurance, that doesn't mean that you're better than me, more deserving than me or smarter than me. It just means that you are luckier. And access to healthcare shouldn't depend on luck.

Fortunately for me, I've been saved by the federal government's Pre-existing Condition Insurance Plan, something I had never heard of before needing it. It's part of President Obama's healthcare plan, one of the things that has already kicked in, and it guarantees access to insurance for U.S. citizens with preexisting conditions who have been uninsured for at least six months. The application was short, the premiums are affordable, and I have found the people who work in the administration office to be quite compassionate (nothing like the people I have dealt with over the years at other insurance companies.) It's not perfect, of course, and it still leaves many people in need out in the cold. But it's a start, and for me it's been a lifesaver — perhaps literally.

Which brings me to my apology. I was pretty mad at Obama before I learned about this new insurance plan. I had changed my registration from Democrat to Independent, and I had blacked out the top of the "h" on my Obama bumper sticker, so that it read, "Got nope" instead of "got hope." I felt like he had let down the struggling middle class. My son and I had campaigned for him, but since he took office, we felt he had let us down.

So this is my public apology. I'm sorry I didn't do enough of my own research to find out what promises the president has made good on. I'm sorry I didn't realize that he really has stood up for me and my family, and for so many others like us. I'm getting a new bumper sticker to cover the one that says "Got nope." It will say "ObamaCares."

'Nuff said.

A Precursor Of Things To Come?

Rod Blagojevich, the corrupt former governor of Illinois was sentenced today to fourteen years in jail for his misdeeds in office.

It made me wonder what the future might look like.  Perhaps something like this*:

Milwaukee, WI  (CD News) - The Scott Walker who once challenged the working people of Wisconsin to face him like a man, the glad-handing politician who took to talk radio shows and Faux News to profess his innocence, was nowhere to be found Wednesday as he was sentenced to not nearly enough time in prison for corruption. 

Frowning and pulling nervously at his clip-on tie, the disgraced former governor seemed like another person as he stepped up to address the sentencing judge.  Undeserved arrogance once as conspicuous as his growing bald spot was wiped out, a victim of his June conviction on charges that included attempting to sell the state of Wisconsin, using government property and staff to do campaign work and impersonating a human being. 

In a low voice, the one-quarter-term Republican apologized again and again, telling Judge Tom Foley that he made "terrible mistakes." 

"I caused it. I'm not blaming anyone else, except for the Democrats, the unions, women, children, lefty bloggers, my parents, my wife, my kids, the people of Wisconsin and the man on the moon," Walker said, trying with uncharacteristic humility to avert severe punishment. "I was the governor and and I should have known better, but David Koch told me that things would be OK."

*My sincere apologies to Don Babwin and Michael Tarm of the AP for what I did to their finely written article.

Is Jeff Stone In Or Out?

Bruce Murphy has a very interesting tidbit at the end of the article regarding the upcoming race for Milwaukee County Executive:

Republican assemblyman Jeff Stone, who lost the race for Milwaukee County Executive to Chris Abele last spring, did not rule out running against him again this spring in a recent JS article. But at last Thursday’s Press Club event, Stone was overheard assuring Abele he wasn’t going to run.

I can't imagine what Jeff Stone thinks he would have to gain from another run at county executive. Last year, Chris Abele trounced him 62%-38%, a pretty formidable margin.

And event though Abele has been doing his best Scott Walker impersonation, sometimes even doing Walker better than Walker does himself, Abele would have two distinct advantages over Stone.

One, between his own money and the money that the Greater Milwaukee Committee would be able and willing to drop on their boy, Abele could buy the seat over and over for the rest of his life..

Two, even though Abele has burned a lot of bridges and continues to show what could be most generously called questionable judgment and in some ways has surpassed Walker in savageness, it is Stone that will be more closely tied to Walker, which will only hurt him as we enter the recall election at about the same time as the general elections.

Quotable and Quotable Again

Bruce Murphy of Milwaukee Magazine hits things on the head twice in his column this week.

The first bullseye comes in his discussion about the state's job and jobless condition:

Some conservatives, I suspect, would reject the idea that you should measure all employment. But if slashing taxes and government jobs only results in enough private sector employment to offset the cuts in public jobs, it’s a completely ineffective way of lowering unemployment. It’s of no value to a voter to have lower taxes but no job. Nor are businesses likely to locate in a state where taxes are low but schools and universities are in decline. Surveys have long shown that well-trained workers, powerhouse universities, good transportation (from highways to rail) and other kinds of government-created infrastructure are more important to businesses than the relative tax level.

His second bullseye comes when he discusses Scott Walker's ill-advised attempt to curtail the First Amendment:

Beyond the policy question is one of politics, and I question the timing of Walker. Here is a governor who both parties predict will be subject to a recall election. This will be a duel over whose vision is more out of touch with average voters, and Walker decides to become the Grinch who stole the right to protest? This is just handing his opponents more ammunition and frankly may leave some moderates wondering whether Walker has gone off the deep end. Weren’t there any advisors to suggest the governor at least wait until after the election to pull this stunt?

When the man's on target, he's on target.

Here Come The Mad Hatters!

Just one week ago, the MacIver Institute issued a propaganda piece trying to scare the good people of Wisconsin from signing recall petitions, even though they are technically legal documents.  The rationale that they used for their fear campaign was that the signer's information could become public knowledge.

I pointed out that this was a simply ridiculous argument, since the same could be held true, and even more so, for anyone who donated to Scott Walker.

Even the Republican's Apologist General, Professor Rick Esenberg, who is often trying to make excuses for the inexcusable, pointed out that in this age of high technology, keeping some information private was not a reasonable expectation.

In the same propaganda piece, they tried to instill the fear that people were signing multiple times and that they were going to get away with it because the Government Accountability Board would certify each signature.  They tried to raise the specter that the recall's integrity was in danger.  Again, I countered that by speaking with Mike Maistelman, an attorney whose expertise is in election law, who confirmed that the GAB never certifies signatures and that it's always been the responsibility of the opposing party to do the research.

Ironically, the MacIver Institute, the same ones who said people shouldn't sign a legal document because of security risks, came out with another press release* on Monday.  This time they were promoting a newly crafted website (which, by the way, will give you tracking cookies if you go there) for people to sign up and volunteer to help "verify the signatures," or in other words, to do their data entry for them.

The site is operated by two Teahadist organizations, We the People of the Republic and The Wisconsin Grandsons of Liberty, who hilariously claim that they are concerned with ensuring the elections are "clean and fair."

It was The Wisconsin Grandsons of Liberty who claimed that they hosted a tea rally (even though the banners said it was Americans for Prosperity)** on Milwaukee's lake front two years ago.  A rally that included banners in which then Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker proudly endorsed with the Milwaukee County Parks logo.

It was also these teahadists who were shown by One Wisconsin Now to be in collusion with the AFP and the Republican Party to engage in voter caging.  Voter caging is a particularly despicable method of voter suppression in which the malefactors mail an official looking letter to registered voters.  They compile a list of names of those whose envelopes are returned as non-deliverable.  They then challenge and try to prevent the voter from exercising their rights and participating in democracy.

It is not a great leap of imagination to think that these groups would use the data collected to pull a similar stunt in an effort to disenfranchise people who would vote against Walker.

In summary, the Koch-sponsored propaganda agency, MacIver Institute, is afraid that your information and the elections may come in harm's way if you sign a legal document declaring your desire that Wisconsin be returned to its rightful owners.  But practically in the same breath, they encourage people to go to a shady, cookie-laden website, and give your personal information to the Koch-sponsored, corrupt groups running it.

The sad part is that there will be people gullible enough to believe that these miscreants and reprobates have their best interest in heart and will do just that.

What is remarkable to me is that only three weeks into the signature collecting phase of the recall, Walker's supporters are in such a panic that they are already resorting to such insipid and desperate stunts.


*Who has ever heard of a legitimate news service that has to issue press releases?

**It's getting bad when the Koch-sponsored front groups can't tell themselves from each other.

Republicans Sow More Confusion With Voter Suppression Law

You need a photo ID to get a photo ID

I think it's a fifty-fifty chance that the Republicans made the voter suppression law intentionally vague and ambiguous, just to give them a loophole when the inevitable happens and Scott Walker is recalled.

Then again, they have also offered more than ample proof that they're just not very bright either.

The Pride Of West Bend

No, I'm not referring to Owen Robinson.

I'm referring to the clown that couldn't cope with the fact that the majority of people have come to the realization that Scott Walker is not good for this state or its citizens.  Because of his inability to deal with this simple fact, he resorted to defacing two recall petitions.

Fortunately, the thug probably didn't cause any real damage that would harm the recall.  In fact, by this time, odds are that the petitioners have been able to find the people whose signatures were damaged and had them re-sign new petitions, since that is allowed.

The sweet irony is that for his troubles, he is now facing two felony charges.  If convicted on either one or both of the charges, he won't even be able to vote to save his beloved leader from his certain recall.  (I also hope he's a gun nut too, since he'll have to give those up too.)

And in related news, a woman in Chippewa Falls demonstrated her ineffective coping technique on a Recall Walker sign.  For her troubles, she was cited with disorderly conduct and destruction of property.

Is it any surprise that the people that can't handle reality are the ones supporting Walker?

...His Lips Are Moving

The question is: How can you tell when Scott Walker is lying?

It's embarrassing for almost anyone to get caught up in a lie. It would be devastating to almost everyone to get caught in two major lies in one day.

A few weeks ago, St. Norbert College did a poll regarding the recall.  Their finding was that a huge 58% were in favor of ousting Walker.  Walker blew it off, saying that the pollsters were wildly inaccurate and that they couldn't even gets last year's elections right.

Sunday morning, PolitiFact reported that they looked at the numbers and found that Walker was lying.

Meh.  PolitiFact itself doesn't have the best track record and this could be easily dismissed as political spin, pathetic as it might be.

But this evening, JSOnline broke the news that Walker not only lied about the "big jump" in jobs in June, but that he did so willfully.  The report that he received from the state labor department came with a big warning that the numbers were suspect and questionable.

But because it was the height of the summer's recalls, he blew past the caveats and ran with it for purely political purposes.

Let me reemphasize this: Walker willfully lied to the people of Wisconsin about the jobs situation for the sole purpose of maintaining his tenuous hold on power.

Or in a third way of saying it, Walker was much more invested in keeping his job and the jobs of his corrupt cronies rather than keeping his promise to create jobs for the rest of us.

There isn't one person in this state that shouldn't feel sold out and royally ticked off right now.

There's a couple of other points of interest to this story besides the blazing headline that Walker lied.

One, the paper reports that they learned of the warning Walker had received because they did an open records request.  Given that Walker has a long, long history of delaying, stalling and otherwise dinking around with open records requests - especially when they're not favorable to his political self - it's kind of amusi8ng to thing that he might have very well done the same thing with this request.

That would mean because of his own stall tactics, the spotlight of his valuing his own political hide over the very lives and livelihoods of the people of Wisconsin comes in the height of his own recall.  Talk about poetic justice.

The other point is that we already know that Walker was cooking the numbers.  My friend Jake told us this four months ago.  Again, it's sweet poetic justice for it to come back to our attention now.

Who do you know that wants to sign a petition?

Caption This: The Walker Tool of the Day

There is a story from Racine in which an unnamed Racine County Republican Party official got into some sort of tiff with a recall petition canvasser. According to some reports, the GOP official in question is a man named Tom Bode.

I won't go into the story itself, since I'm sensing it is conflated like the myriad of faux outrage stories that come from the right seemingly every other day.

But what I did find interesting is this picture of Bode with his hero, Scott Walker, which is worthy of a "Caption This" moment:

Picture courtesy of The Cap Times

Respect Your Elders!

On the first day of the recall, even as Scott Walker's neighbors were hosting a signature gathering rally, I stopped by my father's home on the way home from work. He made comment of the rally, which he saw on the news, pointing out that you know that Walker has to be a real asshole to have his neighbors publicly want him out of office like that.  He predicted that their next block party could be real interesting.

Even though my dad is ultra-conservative (no, we don''t discuss politics much), I didn't expect this from him.  I asked him if he would sign a petition if I got one to him.  He said that he most certainly would. He said that "A conservative tyrant is no better than a liberal one."

Now, to be perfectly honest, I wasn't really planning on circulating any petitions. But when my dad said he'd sign, I dashed off to get copies of the petitions and a couple of clipboards and dashed back.  I don't think I shall ever forget the moment when he signed both of the petitions.

Lately, I've also been noticing a lot of comments on Twitter and Facebook echoing people having similar experiences with their parents and grandparents.

This should not really surprise anyone, even though it does.

Walker has been waging a war on the elderly as much as anyone else since taking office.

One of his first political appointees was Dennis Smith, whose claim to Wisconsin fame was trying to kill the very popular SeniorCare while working as the Medicaid head honcho under George Walker Bush.  Walker has also already cut SeniorCare in order to remedy his phony budget crisis which he claimed to have gotten from Jim Doyle, even though no crisis ever existed until he started giving away tax money to campaign donors.

Walker also tried to force our elders off of SeniorCare and into the much more expensive Medicare Part D, which Bush created as a gift to Big Insurance.  Without doubt, Walker was probably hoping to tap into some of those big-time donors by doing this.

While Walker was stopped from finishing this particular attack on the elderly, he still has yet to apply for a waiver from the federal government to have this very popular and wildly successful program extended as it has been so many times before.

But SeniorCare is not the only avenue of attack by Walker on our seniors.  He has raised taxes on many of them by gutting the Homestead Tax Credit, which many elderly people take advantage of.  And they are also subject to the more than $111 million in higher fees.

And as if this wasn't enough, Walker has installed a poll tax, which has affected and angered many seniors:

"I don't think it's an isolated situation," said Andrea Kaminski, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin, which is suing the state over the law. "We're hearing about cases from all around the state. Often they are older people who have been voting (their whole lives). All of a sudden they're not going to be able to vote, and that's really terrible."

A 2005 study by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's Employment and Training Institute found an estimated 177,399 Wisconsin residents 65 and older do not have a driver's license or state photo ID -- 23 percent of that population. The study estimated that another 98,247 residents ages 35 through 64 lack IDs. Disparities were especially pronounced among racial minorities.

State Rep. Donna Seidel, D-Wausau, whose office has worked with Frank, said she has been visiting senior centers and assisted living facilities to discuss the impact of the law -- and has found many seniors are angry about what they find to be confusing changes.

"These people are proud of their history of voting," Seidel said. "The overwhelming reaction has been that (the new requirements) are totally unnecessary."

Rather a comprehensive, multi-prong attack on our elderly, isn't it?

But I have a feeling these assaults aren't the primary motivating factor for the elderly to line up with hundreds of thousands of other Wisconsinites to say that Walker has to go.

You see, even if they are being put upon in so many sundry and amoral ways, that might not be enough to motivate a lot of people. But Walker did the one thing that would motivate almost anyone.

He attacked their families.

The teachers, social workers, law enforcement officers, firefighters, highway workers, foresters, correction officers, and anyone else who worked in the public sector have either been laid off or have had their pay cut by thousands of dollars. And all of these people are someone's daughter, son, grandchild, nephew or niece. Likewise, when Walker attacked the schools, the ones being hurt the most were the children, who are the grandchildren and the great-grandchildren of our elderly.

And if there is one truth about people, it is that there is no force in nature as fierce as a parent protecting their own.

And by the way, it works the other way around. Most of us will not abide attacks on our parents and grandparents either.

It's no wonder the signatures are coming in one every three and a half seconds.

News You Can Use - BadgerStat

Thanks to Senator Chris Larson's weekly newsletter, I was introduced to what looks like could be a valuable information source, and I would like to pass this on to the gentle reader.

The site is called BadgerStat. They describe themselves thus:

We are a nonpartisan nonprofit launched in 2011 that provides performance measures of Wisconsin so you can see how the state is doing in important areas.

As of Nov. '11 we have a new format: One graph/table per post, more commentary, and a dashboard of key measures. We'll continue to make improvements to be as useful and engaging as possible. Our commitment to nonpartisan, data-driven insights remains the same.

While they don't have many pieces written yet, the ones that they do have are very informative and easy to understand.

Well worth bookmarking it.

Quotable, Doubly So

In a must read* piece, Nick Hanauer wrote the following in an editorial for Bloomberg:

When businesspeople take credit for creating jobs, it is like squirrels taking credit for creating evolution. In fact, it’s the other way around.

It is unquestionably true that without entrepreneurs and investors, you can’t have a dynamic and growing capitalist economy. But it’s equally true that without consumers, you can’t have entrepreneurs and investors. And the more we have happy customers with lots of disposable income, the better our businesses will do.

That’s why our current policies are so upside down. When the American middle class defends a tax system in which the lion’s share of benefits accrues to the richest, all in the name of job creation, all that happens is that the rich get richer.

And later in the same article:

Consider, for example, that a puny 3 percent surtax on incomes above $1 million would be enough to maintain and expand the current payroll tax cut beyond December, preventing a $1,000 increase on the average worker’s taxes at the worst possible time for the economy. With a few more pennies on the dollar, we could invest in rebuilding schools and infrastructure. And even if we imposed a millionaires’ surtax and rolled back the Bush- era tax cuts for those at the top, the taxes on the richest Americans would still be historically low, and their incomes would still be astronomically high.

We’ve had it backward for the last 30 years. Rich businesspeople like me don’t create jobs. Middle-class consumers do, and when they thrive, U.S. businesses grow and profit. That’s why taxing the rich to pay for investments that benefit all is a great deal for both the middle class and the rich.

So let’s give a break to the true job creators. Let’s tax the rich like we once did and use that money to spur growth by putting purchasing power back in the hands of the middle class. And let’s remember that capitalists without customers are out of business.

*Someone must read this to Scott Walker, since his reading comprehension is pretty poor. His reading comprehension becomes even more problematic when it comes to Walker reading the constitution.

Local Bloggers, National Exposure

This has been a good week for a couple of our local bloggers.

My friend, Lisa Mux, aka Waukesha Wonk, earned some national attention when she had a post regarding TOMMY!!'s feeble attempt to regain relevancy republished on the Progressive.

And yours truly wasn't without a few moments of glory.

My post about how every 3.5 seconds someone was signing a petition to recall Scott Walker was rounded up at Crooks & Liars.

And my compilation of the damage done in eight years of Walker's malfeasance as Milwaukee County Executive was highlighted on Mark Crispin Miller's site.  (And I do agree with Miller's assertion that Walker needs to be prosecuted for his crimes.)

Not a bad week at all, if I say so myself.

Can't Tell If Political Stunt Or Genuine Faux Outrage

Brett Healy, President of the Koch brothers-funded propaganda agency, MacIver Institute (for the Chronically Dishonest), filed a petition with the Public Service Commission (PSC), asking them to determine if the cost of moving the underground lines be forced on the tax payers of the City of Milwaukee as opposed to the utility companies.  More than a little self-serving and embarrassing for him, he then used his propagandist agency to promote his deed.

On Thursday, the PSC voted to accept the petition and make a decision regarding it.

This could get interesting.

Healy's complaint about the street car is that the estimates from the power company is that it could cost more than $50 million to move the underground lines. He feels that he should not have to pay a higher utility bill for something that does not benefit him directly.

The odd thing is that Healy never made a bit of noise about the utility costs associated with the work that will need to be done with the reconstruction of the zoo interchange, even though the cost associated with that is just as high, if not higher, than that for the streetcar.  (In fact, the whole project is going to more than two billion dollars)  And the interchange won't benefit him directly either.

So, by Healy complaining about one situation and not the other would indicate that he isn't all that opposed to to paying more for things that don't benefit him directly.  Because of this, it seems to me that Healy's stunt is more to embarrass Mayor Tom Barrett rather than genuine outrage.  Perhaps the Koch brothers are afraid that Barrett is thinking of running for governor again when Scott Walker gets recalled.

Or it could simply be that he is following the right wing tradition of paying homage to the road builders while resisting all things rail related.

Either way, as I said, it could get interesting.

Will the PSC follow precedence by putting the cost to the utilities and help defray the costs from the already overburdened tax payers or will they stick it to Milwaukee?

And if they follow precedence, will Healy right another self-serving, politically slanted propaganda piece?

Or if Healy is successful and pushes the cost on Milwaukee tax payers, could a progressive group like Citizens Allied for Sane Highways go after the zoo interchange construction? And if they would, would Healy then be consistent and support their actions?

Like I said, interesting.  Someone pass me the popcorn, wouldja?

Hot Lead and Cold Irony

It has been recently reported that Waukesha County, deep in Republican red, has expanded its ban on concealed carry to other county buildings besides the courthouse and the administration building.

What was not reported is that it is also possible that when a person or group rent one of their facilities, like the expo center or a park, they can ask that the facility be marked as do not carry and that the county will honor that request.

The only reason that I even bring this up is that I've heard that at least one group, renting the Waukesha County Expo Center, has availed themselves of this new rule.

Ironically, if my information is correct, that group is none other than the Bob and Rocco Gun Show.  My source indicated that it wasn't Bob Pucci that wanted this, but the national franchise.  They said that there's been too many accidental shootings by people bringing in their concealed weapons and, either through clumsiness or ineptness, have had the gone accidentally go off shooting the vendors.

Doesn't that make you feel better knowing that Scott Walker and the Republican Legislature has now made it possible for any fool to walk around armed without even taking  an inadequate four hour training course?

And they wonder why we are recalling them....