The Walker Budget Keeps On Working! Part CXLIII

Remember during the recalls how Scott Walker and the Koch News Network affiliates kept telling us how Walker balanced the budget without raising property taxes?

Me neither.

Not only was the claim a lie at the time, with it being proven that Walker not only raised property taxes, but did so on the poorest of the poor.

Now we are seeing the real economic climate that Walker has created with his ALEC-based policies and budget:

In a disturbing sign the state economy remains in crisis, property values in Wisconsin have fallen for the fourth year in a row and showed the largest one-year drop in decades.

This news accompanies a surprising jump in the state unemployment rate announced on Thursday. The jobless rate rose in July to 7.3 percent, up from 7 percent in June, with the state losing an estimated 6,000 private-sector jobs for the month.

Meanwhile, figures released this week by the Department of Revenue showed total property values in Wisconsin down 3.2 percent for 2012, the largest drop in 50 years. That includes a 4 percent drop in residential property and a 1.5 percent decline in commercial property values.

The roughly $2 billion in new residential construction was more than offset by a $15.3 billion erosion in the value of existing homes. (See attached report.)

Overall property values in the state -- which includes residential, commercial, manufacturing and agricultural uses -- are now down 8.4 percent from their peak in 2008. Total values are estimated at $471 billion, down from a peak of $514 billion four years ago.

Todd Berry of the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance says the drop again in values, especially on the residential side, came as a surprise since most observers thought the real estate market had bottomed out last year.

They're saying that the reason for this continuing bottoming out is due to personal income levels not rising as fast as real estate values. Now, who was it that "dropped a bomb" in the form of Act 10, slashing the salaries of tens of thousands of Wisconsinites immediately and causing a ripple effect throughout the state?

It should also be noted that the only area of the state that is doing well with real estate values are the ones in western Wisconsin. You know, the ones that are close enough to Minnesota to ride their economic coattails.

I can just hear the Walker apologists now, "But capper, property taxes went down!"

Did they? Not really:

Falling property values do not mean that property taxes will go down, however. Local units of government may have to increase tax rates to make up for the difference in property values, Berry says.

What can happen, Berry says, is that taxpayers whose property has risen in value may end up paying a larger percentage of a community’s taxes than an owner whose home value has fallen.

“That is where you can see a shift in the levy,” he says.

It's working, my ass!

Romney Plays The Racist Card

The Republicans' internal polling must not be too good. Romney is starting to already show the behaviors of a politician whose campaign is failing and flailing. He's gone so far as to play the racist card on at least two occasions.

While campaigning in Michigan, Romney joined the birther movement when he said thia:



In case you missed it, he said:

“I love being home, in this place where Ann and I were raised, where but the both of us were born,” Romney said after introducing his wife, fellow Michigan native Ann Romney. “No one’s ever asked to see my birth certificate. They know that this is the place where we were born and raised.”

Now, I'll admit that I thought at first he was just trying to pander to the birthers and insinuating that Obama wasn't American. It's depressing just how many people actually still believe this nonsense.

But it did provoke some biting and hilarious comebacks by the Twitterati.

But then James Rowen points out this article from the New York Times with this telling passage:

Image courtesy of FDL 

Many of those voters are economically disaffected, and the Romney campaign has been trying to reach them with appeals built around an assertion that Mr. Obama is making it easier for welfare recipients to avoid work. The Romney campaign is airing an advertisement falsely charging that Mr. Obama has “quietly announced” plans to eliminate work and job training requirements for welfare beneficiaries, a message Mr. Romney’s aides said resonates with working-class voters who see government as doing nothing for them.

The moves reflect a campaign infused with a sharper edge and overtones of class and race. On Friday, Mr. Romney said at a rally that no one had ever had to ask him about his birth certificate, and Mr. Ryan invoked his Catholicism and love of hunting. Democrats angrily said Mr. Romney’s remark associated him with the fringe “birther” camp seeking falsely to portray Mr. Obama as not American.

Rowen calls it race baiting. Indeed, it is reminiscent of Ronald Reagan's "welfare queen" attack.

I'm not sure which bothers me more: The fact that a national campaign will still stoop to this level in 2012 or the large amount of people that actually do eat up this kind of racist crap.

Abele's Big PR-oblem

Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele has a big problem and it starts with a capitol PR.

The story is at MCF.

Wisconsin's Republicans are too Literal!

We all know that there is a "war on women" being waged by the republican party! The problem in Wisconsin is that some of our republicans have taken their marching orders literally! 

Of course there is the old stand by of David Vanderleest. Who apparently does NOT smoke rocks or beat his family!!

Now Mr. Vanderleest is running as the republican to represent the 90th Assembly district!!!

Eric Genrich will be opposing Mr. Vanderleest on the Ballot in November!


Let's hope the good people of the 90th district do the right thing and send David home to do NOT smoke more rocks!

Unfortunately for our great state, Mr Vanderleest is not alone in disgusting allegations.
Republican Bill Feehan, State Senate Candidate for the "fighting 32nd" has actually been charged with Domestic Battery(but later cut a deal).

From the police files(do you really want to vote for someone you can use that intro with?)

According to court records, Feehan was arrested in September 2000 after an argument with his girlfriend at the time. The girlfriend had accused Feehan of leaving her stranded at a La Crosse bar after a disagreement and then taking a dog from her apartment. He maintained that the dog was his.

She told authorities that she went to his residence, rang his doorbell and when he didn't answer, began throwing boxes and other items from his garage. In response, she said, he came outside, grabbed her by the throat and choked her, tossing her to the ground - something he denied. He accused her of kneeing him in the groin; she later acknowledged that she had done this but said it occurred while being choked.

Police described Feehan as difficult during an interview and after his arrest. "He remained beligerant (sic) and cocky throughout the encounter," wrote Sgt. Dale Chroninger of the Holmen Police Department. In October 2000, Feehan was charged with misdemeanor counts of battery and disorderly conduct.

Three months later, prosecutors reduced the charges to an ordinance violation, and he pleaded no contest.

Then we find out that in order to win, he is going after the David "Ike Turner" Prosser Supporters!!

In an interview last week, Feehan said he was wrongly accused.

He added that those guilty of domestic abuse do it repeatedly. He said he has only the single allegation from years ago on his record.

It was not his fault(do republicans ever take personal responsibility)and besides he only beat her up once!!

Is that the man that anyone wants representing them in Government?


Vote Jennifer Schilling in District 32!

Blue Moon Event at the Monarch Trail

My dear friends Barb and Lulu at Friends of the Monarch Trail have sent me a special invitation which I in turn want to share with you, gentle reader:

The county grounds is a beautiful area and the only place that you can see the sunset and the moon rise at the same time.  It might also be the last time we can do this since they are poised to ruin the land, despite their false promises to preserve the trail and the Eschweiler Buildings.

I'll be there. Please join us.

Call To Action: MTA Press Conference and Rally

Since Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele thinks that the voters should not be heard unless they buy the right to do so, Move to Amend and United Wisconsin will be making sure he hears our voices for free.

Long story short: Milwaukee County Courthouse, south end, Monday August 27, 10:30 am.

Details are at Milwaukee County First.

The Small Government Party Meets Reality

Swiped from Facebook:

Paul Ryan the $100 Million Man

According to an embedded republican insider, David Koch bough the Vice Presidency for Paul Ryan (R - Ayn Rand). H/T Cenk Uygur and Current TV Paul Ryan(R - Wall St.) is master of the oldest profession in the world.... It also goes to show how completely incapable Paul ryan is, that it takes $100 Million to get him on the ticket and nothing to get Sarah Palin on the ticket!

The Do-Over

A great preview of the upcoming republican convention...



 Mitt is the etch a sketch candidate after all!

Alderman Bob Donovan And His Wacky Friends

Who wouldn't trust that face?

Milwaukee Alderman Bob Donovan has long been providing the City of Milwaukee with comic relief for years now. He has recently expanded his show into a three ring circus.

Donovan, partisan puppet for the Republicans, is a busy man though. He's always up to something, like issuing racist press releases and pushing to have all the children (especially the poor and the black ones) locked up where they won't get in the way of his pretending he rules Milwaukee.

His latest Quixotic venture has been his repeated tantrums about the street car. For the longest time, Donovan and his radio squawker buddies have been the only ones griping about it.

Then, at the end of last year, he was joined by Brett Healy, figurehead for the MacIver Institute. Healy was whining about the costs related to the proposed streetcar. Showing his hypocrisy, he completely ignored the much more expensive freeway reconstruction. But then again, his masters probably told him to not to worry about their investments.

More recently, Donovan was joined by Chris Kleisment of CRG. Kleismet, whose corruption is only dwarfed by his cowardice, did his own bootlicking by joining in the faux outrage. We're still waiting for Kleismet to say one thing about Walkergate and the way Walker and his henchmen squandered taxpayer dollars.

After all these months of ineffective and hollow hollering, the Koch Brothers have decided to up the ante by bringing in their trained attack teahadists, Americans for Poverty. They've really taken their game up a few notches by introducing - gasp - a propagandist anti-street car website!

To help support their drivel, the have also brought in master drivelist James Wigderson. Wiggy, as he likes to call himself, is fresh off of a tour of obstructing the rights of people in Walkersha County and is trying to do the same in Milwaukee.

Wiggy has written a rather pedestrian essay which is only notable for its adolescent insults, touting the Koch/Bradley Foundation tag team. But the hilarity comes in at the end of his diatribe (emphasis mine):

Everyone in Milwaukee and the surrounding communities are invited to sign. It isn't just Milwaukeeans that will be paying for the Streetcar Nobody Desires. Everyone can take this opportunity to let the Milwaukee Common Council know what the public thinks of this giant waste of money. If the Common Council will not listen to common sense, perhaps they will listen to the public.

Now, far be it for me to give advice to Wiggy (He's a professional writer, y'know. If you don't believe me, ask him. He'll tell you.)or the Koch Brothers and the Bradley Foundation on how to run their business, but I would think they'd get a lot farther by not implying that the citizens of Milwaukee don't have common sense.

Indeed, the fact that these front groups have to go outside of not only Milwaukee, but out of Milwaukee County, to find supporters shows that we tend to have more common sense than our neighbors.

Why We Need More Democratic Women In Office

From Emerge Wisconsin:

To Be Truly Equal on Women’s Equality Day, We Need More Democratic Women in Office

Madison - Emerge Wisconsin is excited to join with women across Wisconsin and the country to recognize Women’s Equality Day on August 26. This is the day we commemorate women winning the right to vote when the 19th Amendment was signed into law 92 years ago.

While women have had the right to vote for 92 years, we are far from equal. Women make up 50% of the Wisconsin population, yet only 26% of the Wisconsin Legislature are women; only 22% of the City Council and 18% of the County Board seats are held by women. (Statistics by Wisconsin Women’s Council.)

Emerge Wisconsin is working hard to change these statistics by recruiting and training Democratic women to run for office at all levels of government. This year alone, Emerge has had 38 alumnae run for office at both the local and state level.

In honor of Women’s Equality Day, Emerge Wisconsin announces that the application for the 2013 class will be online September 4, 2012. Any interested applicants can go to the website at www.EmergeWI.org

“In order for us to stop the attacks to diminish women’s rights, we need more women in office. We are proud that the training Democratic women receive from Emerge Wisconsin inspires them to run for and propels them into elected office.” Wendy Strout, Executive Director.

Launched in 2007, Emerge is the only organization in Wisconsin that provides Democratic women with the comprehensive training they need to achieve their political aspirations. Emerge currently has twenty-one alumnae running for office this fall. Emerge Wisconsin is part of Emerge America, a national movement and premier training program that addresses the under-representation of women in office at the local, state, and federal level. There are Emerge affiliates in ten states: Arizona, California, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, and Wisconsin. Emerge was founded to create a legion of Democratic women leaders for generations to come.

And for the sake of full disclosure, I do some voluntary work for Emerge.

RIP Neil Armstrong

Neil Armstrong has taken the largest leap known to mankind:

Armstrong, 82, died Saturday after surgery earlier this month for blocked arteries. A fighter pilot in the Korean War, a test pilot and an engineering professor, he will also be remembered as the astronaut who fulfilled the goal that President John F. Kennedy set out — to put a man on the moon by end of the 1960's — and the first among equals in the pantheon of astronauts from the moon race.

"Neil was among the greatest of American heroes — not just of his time, but of all time," President Obama said in a statement. "When he and his fellow crew members lifted off aboard Apollo 11 in 1969, they carried with them the aspirations of an entire nation."

Armstrong became the symbol of the dream not just of one country but of a whole world to reach beyond our own planet . "Even though we were farther away from earth than two humans had ever been, we were not alone," Aldrin said in a statement on Saturday. "Virtually the entire world took that memorable journey with us. I know I am joined by millions of others in mourning the passing of a true American hero and the best pilot I ever knew."

I was only four when Armstrong did this:

Romney-Ryan in 3 Minutes!

Thanks Robert Reich for some sanity and truth!

Political Lemmings

'Nuff said:

Sneak Preview Of Scott Walker's RNC Speech

In case you weren't aware, Scott Walker is going to speak Tuesday at the Republican National Convention. Granted, he was added as an afterthought, perhaps to fill in for the spot that Todd Akin was going to speak. But speak he will.

At great risk of life and limb, we at Cog Dis are proud to say we have gained possession of a copy of his speech. Keep in mind that this is a rough draft and may be different than the one his handlers have him read at the convention. Here is the speech, in its entirety:

Thank you. Thank you.  It's great to be here with my friends and fellow Koch Industry employees at the Koch Industry Republican National Convention, sponsored by Johnsonville Brats, Miller Beer, Wachenhut and Walmart.

Before I get started, I just want to give a shout out to the next President and Vice-President of the United States - Mutt and Jeff! Er, Mitt and Paul! I also would like to thank my good friend and fellow Wisconsinite Reince Priebus for the invitation to speak to you today. I also would like to thank FBI Special Agents Smith and Jones for allowing me a few minutes to address the convention before taking me to face the grand jury. (Really, all those secret routers aren't mine. I was just holding them for my friend, Tim.)

Now, as I said in Michigan, there is a simple message that will help Mitt and Paul win this election. That message is the truth. It is what helped me win two elections in the last two years. Well, that and electronic voting machines.

When I was running for governor, I pointed out the truth. I told people how my predecessor was wasting valuable tax dollars on such frivolous things like creating jobs, protecting rights and preserving the environment. This is not what the people wanted. I told the voters that I would reform Wisconsin and that is exactly what I did. I reformed it into a place we call Fitzwalkerstan.

I said that I would make the state open for business. And I did. And like any good business, we opened it with a big sale and I am proud to say we have already sold off  and sold out a great deal of the state. To help with this, I created the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, which is made up of businesses to help bring other businesses to the state. This way I have eliminated the do-gooder bureaucrats who would impose needless restrictions. I also eliminated the middle man so that businesses can give their money directly to my campaign without having to go through channels.

I said that my focus would be on jobs, and I'm proud to tell you that I've been pulling one job after another on the people of Fitzwalkerstan.

To help create the jobs, I followed the rules of ALEC and gave our public sector workers a freedom they've never had before. I freed them of having to join a union. I freed them of the drab routine of having a safe working condition. I freed them of having to be in higher tax brackets. I freed them of the responsiblity, I mean the ability, of helping keeping the economy afloat by cutting their pay. Yes, I gave the workers of Fitzwalkerstan freedom, and as we know, freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.

As a sign of our success, we have recently received word of a great company, Master Lock, will be returning jobs that they had previously shipped overseas to China. This company will be creating great jobs that will showcase the wonderful American work ethic and production such as these high quality handcuffs connecting my wrist to Agent Smith's.

But we didn't stop with just the business friendly environment. Oh no, we didn't.

We also focused on the needs of women. Having married a woman, I know how hard it can be for women to make tough choices, especially when it comes to complicated things like money and health care. To help them, we made sure they didn't have to worry about making too much money.  We didn't want to burden their pretty little heads about such things while they're bringing us our coffee, making our ham and cheese sammiches, or doing our errands.

Likewise, they now no longer have to make life-changing medical decisions on their own. After all, there's no me in uterus. But there is us. A lot of us. In fact, as we speak, I am confident that Wisconsin State Representatives Robin Vos, Glenn Grothman, Joel Kleefisch, State Senator Scott Fitzgerald and former State Senator Randy Hopper are getting in all the uteruses they can. These fine men are doing what they can to make sure the women of Wisconsin don't have to be alone when making serious decisions regarding their bodies. We will continue to help make sure their decisions are legitimate ones.

We also made great reforms to our state's education system. Our reforms were all fundamental. We saw all those funds and we went mental. If you ask any child about their school and you can tell that they don't like their school. So instead of wasting all that money for something the children don't want. we directed that money to people who would appreciate it, like the Koch brothers or the Bradley Foundation, who would, in turn, show their appreciation by using some of that money to help buy our elections.

But despite our great strides in reforming Wisconsin, there is much work to do.

For example, as I stated earlier, we gave our public sector workers freedom. But we need to turn our attention to all the workers of our great state. I am proud to announce that as soon as we buy the elections this fall, we are poised to introduce bills that would help reform Wisconsin even further by making it a right to work state. Unfortunately, the state's economy hasn't recovered enough to also make it a right to get paid for work state.

We are also faced with the fact that job creation isn't what we would like to see. I have determined that job creators are reluctant to create jobs from all the uncertainty being created by all of these elections. They weren't sure that I would be recalled. Now they aren't sure that Mitt and Paul will win and that Obamacare will continue to take away from their profits by giving health care to people that can't afford it on their own.

To address this serious issue, I am proud to reveal that I have kept my word of saying that government should be run more like a business. With that in mind, I have eliminated the uncertainty caused by all these rampant acts of democracy.

To do so, I used my executive powers to having Fitzwalkerstan incorporated. Furthermore, I am proud to say that David Koch, the real one this time, has called me at my office and we have successfully negotiated a buy out. We are now known at Fitzwalkerstan, Inc., a subdivision of Koch Enterprises. I am also proud to announce that David Koch has appointed me as CEO of Fitzwalkerstan, a job that I will be able to keep for life, given that I can continue to maintain a healthy profit margin for our parent company.

Thank you again. And don't forget to tip your waitresses, especially you there at tables 21-30. Poor Ciara has been through some rough times and is busting her butt to make sure you have enough ranch dressing for your chicken wings.

And now a word from our sponsors, FOX News and Journal Communications....