There Are Consequences!

By Jeff Simpson 

Some people like to think that politics is just that and there are no real life consequences.   Many people are duped into thinking that both sides are equally bad so I might as well try and save my pocketbook by voting in the "conservatives".  Well we showed you yesterday that the former is a myth and it doesn't take much to realize that he latter is also a myth! 

The right wing is out claiming victims again.  The right wing hate cabal of talk radio sqwaukers from the national guys like Beck, Limbaugh and a bunch of C - list screamers, to the local haters Sykes, Belling ,McKenna.   All of the gaggle of goons, preaching their hate and fear, are finally getting their listeners to pay attention.   

As the New York Times noted, there is a big(well relatively big)"prepper" movement sweeping the US. 

Whats a "prepper":

NYC Preppers Network is an Emergency Preparedness group for city dwellers that are concerned with preparing for disasters.  Some of us don’t live in a home, have garages, wells, basements or attics to store our survival gear in. Most of us live in apartments. City occupants face a different set of challenges.  Space, Food Storage, Water, Security, Sanitation, Evacuation Routes & many other issues are of a great concern for city dwellers.  NYC Preppers Network will work to solve these issues by teaching, sharing, & learning. The group is also the NYC affiliate of American Preppers Network (APN) on the national level.

Yes they are prepared for "anything", but what is their motivation to devote their life to this anyway?

That's easy enough - the Barackalypse! 

 At the Self Reliance Expo, the prospect of a second Obama term is seen as both a catastrophe and an opportunity. "There's a lot of people I talk to who say, 'Depending on what happens in the election, I'm going to buy some body armor,'" says Derek Williams, president of the Salt Lake City-based company Amendment II. Its Centurian children's tactical vest costs $499. "If the economy falls apart, people don't have food. People who are looking for food, they're gonna have their guns with them. People want body armor so they can protect themselves."

Ever wonder where they get such ideas?  

Tony Tangalos, the Phoenix-based host of The Prepper Patch,, believes Obama is expediting the arrival of the Islamic Antichrist. He's planning on establishing "Christian Transition Villages" in western Arizona "for people who believe that we may be close to experiencing some dramatic man-made or naturally occurring changes in our world."

Paranoid "Preppers" have to be proud though, one of their  own recently made the news! 

The mother of Adam Lanza, the gunman who killed 20 children and six adults in one of America’s worst ever school massacres, was a “survivalist” preparing for economic and social collapse, it has emerged.

According to reports, Nancy Lanza was a so-called 'prepper', a part of the survivalist movement which urges individuals to prepare for the breakdown of society by training with weapons and hoarding food and other supplies.
“She prepared for the worst,” her sister-in-law Marsha Lanza told the Chicago Sun-Times.
“Last time we visited her in person, we talked about prepping – are you ready for what could happen down the line, when the economy collapses?”

 No wonder Owen liked her.  However we will never know the how much of an effect her paranoid delusional   thinking had on her son.   

Case study # 2 takes us to Alabama....Where Jimmy Lee Dykes recently shot a school bus driver and took a 5 year old hostage.  The thing is he didn't just take the 5 year old boy hostage, he really took him hostage:

 The bunker in which Dykes holed up was four feet underground. He equipped it with electricity and was said to possibly have weeks of supplies stored. Negotiators communicated to him through a ventilation pipe. Because of the risk of tornadoes in this part of Alabama, bunkers are a relative fixture on the landscape.

  Today after a 5 day standoff, the FBI raided the bunker and killed Dykes and saved the child.  Thank Goodness for that, but what would motivate a Vietnam Veteran from the Navy to do such a horrible thing?

He was a loner who allegedly lost contact with an adult daughter years ago, according to people who lived near him. The sounds of conservative talk radio filled his home and fed his anti-government attitudes, locals said.

The codewords and dog whistles worked into the speeches and radio shows worked perfectly, get the base riled up then when you cross the line, wash your hands! 

Until we can break this vicious cycle, these problems are going to get worse!   

Here in Wisconsin, what are we doing to fix this problem.

Actually exacerbating the problem....and badly! 

By the way in case you are wondering where these crazies are getting their< obamaisgoingtotakeyourgunsandeverythingyouownandputyouinjailforworkinghard info?  

 

 It is time to start holding these people accountable for their hate speech and paranoia preaching!    

Pennsylvania Republicans Launch Attack On Unions

From Workers Independence News:

Another chapter in the relentless attack on union rights for workers is beginning to unfold in Pennsylvania. Right-wing Republicans are pushing so-called ‘right to work’ legislation in Pennsylvania that could cripple the ability of unions to collect dues and keep all workers in an organized workplace as union members. The Center for Media and Democracy says it’s no accident this is coming soon after a similar push in Michigan. The center says its part of an effort by American Legislative Exchange Council, backed by a witch’s brew of right-wing groups like the billionaire Koch brothers’ Americans For Prosperity and the Tea Party . Brandon Fischer of the Center for Media and Democracy says this looks like a state-by-state march attacking unions and labor rights in an effort to weaken progressive politicians and progressive groups. These efforts have been made in Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio. Michigan and now Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania AFL-CIO President Rick Bloomingdale told Working In These Times that the ‘right to work’ attack is firmly opposed by Democrats and some union friendly Republicans in the state legislature. He says the measure has been blocked before and he believes it will be blocked again. Governor Tom Corbett, though has said that if the Pennsylvania legislature passes the anti-union bill he will sign it.

No County, For Old Men

Sheldon Lubar is an octogenarian multimillionaire who has many good and philanthropic things for Milwaukee County and the surrounding area.

He has also done many evil things.

He might not have intended for the evil things he's done to be evil, but that does not make them any less evil.

One of the most obvious evils he has visited upon the region is being one of the main people involved with the desecration of the county grounds and the threatening of the Monarch Trail - one of the few places in the country where the Monarch butterflies stop during their annual migration.

The pretense for this abominable action is to purportedly build an engineering school on the grounds.  They also plan on high end apartments, a motel a restaurant, a strip mall and who knows what else.  The thing is that no one but these money bags wanted the school there.  This was ramrodded through for no other reason that to profiteer off of the land and the taxpayers who are paying more and more into this foolish venture.

And to think that this guy who is soaking the taxpayers for tens of millions of dollars once complained of generous government giveaways. He must have meant government giveaways to the undeserving, like the poor and the middle class.

Lubar came out of his gold-plated ivory tower five years ago when he came out with the idea to "blow up" Milwaukee County government.  With his fellow Greater Milwaukee Committee members - most notably current Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele - he had commissioned the Public Policy Forum to device the best way to end Milwaukee County.

They are actively working to put their maleficent plan into reality as they hired State Representative Joe Sanfelippo to abuse his new role in state government to craft a bill which will gut the operating budget for the Milwaukee County Board.

In a gushing lovefest article about Lubar, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel inadvertently lays bare the real reason Lubar, Abele and the other plutocrats are seeking the end of the county board:

In a perfect world, Lubar says the board, now composed of 18 supervisors, would be sliced by two-thirds and the body would no longer act like "sand in the gearbox."

"I know the bill for the whole bunch of them is over $6 million and all they do is impede so we can't go forward," says Lubar, a driving force behind efforts to reform the board.

In those two lines, he really says a mouthful.

His idea of a perfect world is one where the Voter Fairness Act does not apply. His utopia is where minorities and poor people don't have equal or effective representation in government. After all, why should the pissant common person be allowed to have representation when it only serves to get in the way of their superiors, like Lubar.

Don't these people understand he's getting old and has an unknown amount of time to rack up even more wealth?!

What Lubar, Abele and the other plutocrats are dreaming of is a county board that has no analysts, no researchers and supervisors with no time to do the work themselves so that they will act like sockpuppets who will just rubber stamp whatever the plutocrats put before them. They don't want to be bothered with what is in the best interest of the community, of the poor or of the taxpayers. They only are concerned with what is for their interest.

Or to put it yet another way, the plutocrats want to put Montgomery Burns in charge of Springfield.

But their plan just might backfire.

If their puppet Sanfelippo can ever craft a bill that will gut the board and still pass legal muster, this could end up bringing everything to a grinding halt.

 What good representative of the people could vote for a bill - regardless what it is - if they don't have a factual, independent analysis of the bill, including the social and economic impact of said bill? I know for a fact that I could never trust Abele's word and would take any report presented by his people with a grain of salt.

The only way the plutocrats will have their rubber stamp board is if they buy a majority of the seats and have them filled with their own people. This could end up being very costly for them in the long run.

I've said this before, but if they were really, truly interested in saving money and in making government more efficient, they would look at removing the county executive's position.

But I'm afraid that their money- and power-fueled egos won't allow them to think that far ahead.

Brother can you spare a dime? Or perhaps $200 million?

If you had the chance to invest $200 million of your pension trust fund into a quasi-public economic development agency, would you do it?  What if that agency had a proven track record of epic levels of mismanagement, including losing track of a $56 million loan portfolio?  Of course not.  Thankfully, neither did the State of Wisconsin Investment Board.

Documents obtained by Wisconsin Reporter show that Reed Hall, CEO of Walker’s Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, recommended that the SWIB loan $200 million to theWEDC. 

"Walker serves as chairman of the WEDC board of directors.  Hall said WEDC would use SWIB’s cash to promote business growth through taxpayer-subsidized government investments in Wisconsin companies.  In a letter to SWIB, Hall explained that he was turning to the pension fund because his start-up program would likely find it harder to tap private investors “due to a lack of demonstrable track records.”

Oh, there's plenty of demonstrable track record at the WEDC.  The problem for them is that it demonstrates rank incompetence at nearly every level.  The problems with the WEDC are myriad and have been covered here before.  Hall certainly has a challenge ahead.  How do you convince private investors to invest their money in an agency that has demonstrated nothing but failure, whose funds will be run by largely first-time fund managers, in a state that has failed miserably at attracting economic development?  Well, you don't.  If you could, Hall wouldn't be hitting up the SWIB for a fix from the pension fund.  These people need to take some personal responsibility and stop looking for a handout.  Isn't it about time the takers stopped begging from the makers?

The Farmer

On the 8th day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said "I need a caretaker".  So God made a farmer!

In his first term, Ronald Reagan destroyed the family farm!  

Politics Matter!

By Jeff Simpson

Just ask New York Fire Fighter Lieutenant Martin Fullam, except for one of the heroes of 911 passed away recently!  No I am not talking about the massive incompetence of the Bush administration that led to 9/11 happening to begin with:

That has been already well documented.  I am talking about something that has not gotten the publicity it needs to get.  

What has happened since!  

Let's look at Lt. Fullam:

H/T Reuters : First responders: Lt Fullam, far left, was one of the rescue workers carrying fatally-injured FDNY Chaplain, Father Mychal Judge, from one of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001

 Let's look at the cause of death for Lt. Fullam:

A hero firefighter who bravely served on September 11th alongside hundreds of other first responders has died of a rare lung condition, and was laid to rest yesterday.
FDNY Lt Martin Fullam contracted polymyositis in 2005, and had also suffered from pulmonary fibrosis, which left him breathless and exhausted after the simplest of tasks.
The late firefighter, 56, was one of the men carrying fatally wounded FDNY Chaplain Mychal Judge through the still-smoking rubble on 9/11. 
The image of Lt Fullam and four others carrying the chaplain has remained one of the most poignant and haunting pictures from that horrific day.

 A true American hero was forced to die a slow painful death from a rare disease and it did not have to be that way.   The Bush administration knowingly lied to the heroes of that time.  

In the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center, the White House instructed the Environmental Protection Agency to give the public misleading information, telling New Yorkers it was safe to breathe when reliable information on air quality was not available.
That finding is included in a report released Friday by the Office of the Inspector General of the EPA. It noted that some of the agency's news releases in the weeks after the attack were softened before being released to the public: Reassuring information was added, while cautionary information was deleted.
"When the EPA made a September 18 announcement that the air was 'safe' to breathe, it did not have sufficient data and analyses to make such a blanket statement," the report says. "Furthermore, the White House Council on Environmental Quality influenced . . . the information that EPA communicated to the public through its early press releases when it convinced EPA to add reassuring statements and delete cautionary ones."

BUSH ADMINISTRATION: NYC AIR 'SAFE TO BREATHE' The Statue of Liberty stands in the foreground as New York is shrouded in smoke and pollution in New York image made from television, Tuesday Sept. 11, 2001. (ABC via APTN)

On the morning of Sept. 12, according to the report, the office of then-EPA Administrator Christie Whitman issued a memo: "All statements to the media should be cleared through the NSC (National Security Council in the White House) before they are released."

 

So the Bush Administration lied to the heroes of 9/11, who instead of taking simple steps to protect themselves, went about their business helping others, while unknowingly to them, sealing their own fate.    At the very least, we will at least help these people be comfortable and extend their life as much as possible right?

Not with Paul Ryan on the job!  Paul Ryan actually voted against the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, THREE TIMES, which luckily President Obama signed into law in 2010.   

 Let's let Paul Ryan(R- Ayn Rand) himself explain why he voted to leave Lt Fullam stranded: 

 Paul Ryan's Floor statement "A deeply Flawed Bill"
Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin.
      Madam Speaker, I was absent for legislative business and missed rollcall vote 663 on December 21, 2010, and rollcall vote 664 on December 22, 2010. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yes'' on H.R. 6547, the Protecting Students from Sexual and Violent Predators Act, and ``no'' on rollcall vote 664 (H.R. 847).
   The vote I wish to discuss is the bill H.R. 847, the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act. Without a doubt, Republicans and Democrats can agree that both the victims of the attacks on September 11, 2001, and the first responders who bravely served following the attacks deserve to be fairly treated and compensated. However, this bill would create a new health care entitlement, the World Trade Center Health Program, while also extending eligibility for compensation under the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001. As a result, had I been present, I would have voted against passage of the bill.
   Since the terrorist attacks occurred nearly nine years ago, I have supported legislation to ensure that these individuals are cared for and receive access to the services they deserve. However, rather than working with Republicans to craft a bill which truly addressed the shortcomings in care provided to those directly impacted by the September 11th terrorist attacks, the Majority instead rushed this bill to the floor in the waning hours of the 111th Congress, refusing to allow an open debate or consider amendments.
   The result is a deeply flawed bill. H.R. 847 creates yet another mandatory spending program--increasing spending by $4.2 billion dollars over 10 years--and paying for it by an Excise Tax on Foreign Manufacturers, an extension of Travel Promotion Act fees, and the extension of HI-B visa fees.
   There is no doubt that we owe a debt of gratitude to those who came to the rescue of countless individuals following the attacks on September 11, 2001, but these provisions distort that noble goal. At a time when our budget deficit is $1.3 trillion and our national debt stands at $13.8 trillion, we must accurately account for those programs that take priority. I remain hopeful that as the 112th Congress convenes, my colleagues and I can work together to reform some of my concerns with this proposal and truly provide the services these first responders deserve.

So Paul Ryan played politics, tried to stop our heroes from getting the healthcare they so rightly deserved and needed and offered up ZERO alternatives to this "flawed bill".  

I wish they had made all of the republicans who played silly partisan games, show up at Lt. Fullams funeral. 

They could have then explained to his family and friends, why Lt Fullan, after a life of public service, had to fight his own government for help!  

 Hero's welcome: Lt. Martin Fullam is cheered by firefighters from across the city while leaving New York Presbyterian Hospital after receiving a lung transplant

$20,000? What $20,000? Oh, That $20,000!

We already know that Justice Patience Roggensack likes to associate with ne'er-do-wells like David Prosser, Michael Gableman and Annette Ziegler.

We also know that she likes to turn a blind eye when one of her thug buddies gets into trouble, even though it's her duty as a Supreme Court Justice not to.

We learned at the end of last week that Roggensack has already been bought and paid for when the campaign financial reports came out:

In her campaign, Roggensack has highlighted the importance of a nonpartisan Supreme Court, but her report showed she took in more than $9,000 from political committees affiliated with the Republican Party. That accounts for more than a quarter of the $34,460 she raised in the second half of 2012.

That's not surprising, but it's not good either.  It's also not accurate.

The truth is she's trying to sell her seat, and her willingness to keep turning a blind eye, to the highest bidders, er, campaign donors.  Right now, that would be the people that want to profiteer off of our kids:

A report by the Fund for Parent Choice filed Thursday shows voucher supporters gave Roggensack $20,550 on Dec. 27. Among those contributing were members of the DeVos and Walton families that have been prominent in the voucher movement nationally.

The donations come at a time when Gov. Scott Walker and his fellow Republicans who control the Legislature are considering expanding school voucher programs.

The donations did not show up on the report Roggensack filed Thursday. Campaign consultant Brandon Scholz said the campaign did not receive the donations until Jan. 2 -- after the latest reporting period ended -- because offices were closed some of the days over the holidays.

He said the donations would show up on Roggensack's next report, to be filed Feb. 11.

Well, that sure seems like a rational explanation. I'm sure anyone that doesn't follow politics might even buy it.

But with the end of the year being the end of the reporting cycle, most campaigns were making a big push to get those last minute campaign donations to make it look like their candidate was ever so popular.  (Although I'm not even sure that story line holds true anymore since everyone knows that the special interests are pouring money into the races now.)

Scholz would have been better off just saying that Roggensack had stuck that wad of cash in her other robe and forgot about it over the holidays.

The more we are learning of Roggensack, the less patience I have for her and her corruption.

Walkergate: APCO Worldwide

A couple of days ago, I reported that Scott Walker has spent a half a million dollars on his legal defense, either on himself or on his campaign.  That sure is a helluva lot of cooperating for a supposedly innocent man.

As I mentioned, a wee fraction of that half a million, only $10,000 of it, went to a PR agency called APCO Worldwide:

I would be remiss if I didn't also point out that he dropped another $10,000 on a public relations firm:

Gov. Scott Walker used almost $10,000 of his controversial legal defense fund to pay a public relations bill, according to a quarterly report filed with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.

According to the report, the Scott Walker Trust paid $9,988 for "public relations" on May 15 to Chicago-based APCO Worldwide Inc.

"This doesn't seem to square with what the governor said he needed that money for," said Mike McCabe, executive director of Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, the election watchdog organization that first reported the filing. "He said over and over, he just needed to pay lawyers to help him with the investigation."

Reid Magney, a spokesman for the Government Accountability Board, said the agency cannot comment on specific expenditures and referred to state law, which says political candidates or officials "investigated for, charged with or convicted of a criminal violation" can create a defense fund "for expenditures supporting or defending the candidate."

Note that like one of his high-priced attorneys, the PR firm came out of Illinois. Apparently all the PR firms in Wisconsin were either already involved in Walkergate or wouldn't touch Walker's toxicity for any amount of money.

It appears that I owe the gentle reader an apology.

Working on a tip, I learned that APCO Worldwide is actually based in Washington, D.C., but Walker worked with their Illinois office. Actually, the firm has more than 600 employees in 29 countries. They also have a special program they call "Crisis360," which is like an emergency damage control team.

As the gentle reader probably already surmised, this firm is no small potatoes.

They are also not without controversy.

APCO Worldwide's specialty is manipulating public opinion and influencing decision-makers in both the private and public sectors. To meet their goal, they will find some "expert" to write supporting pieces, whether it is true or not.

As APCO Worldwide puts it:

APCO Associates, Inc. (APCO) specializes in grassroots organizing and coalition building. We use political campaign tactics to create an environment in support of our client's legislative and regulatory goals...We utilize the most effective, up-to-date technology and campaign tactics to help you achieve your legislative and regulatory goals...APCO has built numerous national and state coalitions on a variety of issues including the environment, science, energy, trade, intellectual property, education, tort reform and health care....APCO applies tactics usually reserved for political campaigns to target audiences and recruit third-party advocates. Our staff has the political field experience and has written the direct mail, managed the telephones, crafted the television commercials and trained the grassroots volunteers. We apply these hard-learned skills and tactics to mobilize hundreds, even thousands, of constituents. Or,when just the "grasstops" are needed, we recruit just a few of a target's key friends or contributors to join us. No matter the issue, we bring together coalitions that are credible, persuasive and cost-effective.

The best example of the type of work they do comes from Sourcewatch, and is when they were hired by Phillip Morris to first fight the ruling that second-hand smoke was related to cancer. They also worked with Phillip Morris to work on tort reform, much like the kind passed in Fitzwalkerstan two years ago.

Another example comes from Wikipedia, with all the usual caveats with anything like that:

In 2010, APCO was involved in the controversial recommendation to fire Mark Hurd, the CEO of HP.[11] Kent Jarrell, a senior vice president, wrote a mock news story which he showed to HP's board. During this same meeting, he contemplated that HP would negatively be affected by bad press of its CEO being involved in an inappropriate relationship with an ex-soft porn actress, Jodie Fisher

Now this firm's services don't come cheap. Sourcewatch cited that they were paid more than $52,000 for arranging for John Hopkins University to author three reports supporting the position of their client. It should be noted that that price tag is for only two out of the three.

Now back to Walker and Walkergate.

It would be pretty safe to presume that Walker hired APCO Worldwide to help with forming public opinion of the ongoing and growing scandal.

But it does make one wonder exactly how they would do this. Was it the line about all the emails and texts being just part of "routine business?" Was it on how to throw Tim Russell under the bus and try to make him the scapegoat?  Was it how to dismiss the secret router story? Or was it how to do a perp walk in a dignified manner?

Thoughts, anyone?

What Now Brown Cow!

When Hillary Clinton said she was done serving her country so honorably as Secretary of State,the republicans saw that as opportunity.   They had recently lost the MA Senate held by Scott Brown to a true progressive in Elizabeth Warren.   The rumors that John Kerry was being considered as her successor, allowed them to pounce into action! 

The plan that Reince and the rest of his team came up with was, allow John Kerry to be confirmed as Secretary of State and then have Scott Brown win the special election to fill his seat and gain an important seat for the next 5 years in the Senate! 

We all know what they say about the best laid plans......

First off President Obama wanted to nominated the very distinguished Ambassador Susan Rice for the position.   This would have kept the Senate seat in Kerry's  hands so that was unacceptable.  The republicans like they always do, ratcheted the rhetoric up to an 11, and personally attacked Susan Rice as often and as loudly as they could.   John McCain and Lindsey Graham led the outright racist and sexist attacks, forcing Ambassador Rice to eventually withdraw her name from consideration. 

That obstacle out of the way, they were then faced with a new one that they did not know how to overcome: Scott Brown does not want to run again! 

“Over these past few weeks I have given serious thought about the possibility of running again, as events have created another vacancy requiring another special election. I have received a lot of encouragement from friends and supporters to become a candidate, and my competitive instincts were leading in the same direction,” Brown wrote.

“Even so, I was not at all certain that a third Senate campaign in less than four years, and the prospect of returning to a Congress even more partisan than the one I left, was really the best way for me to continue in public service at this time. And I know it’s not the only way for me to advance the ideals and causes that matter most to me,” he added.

“That is why I am announcing today that I will not be a candidate for the United States Senate in the upcoming special election,” his statement ends.

The primary is April 30 and the special election June 25.

Let me interpret for you - it  is very taxing for a moderate republican to try and keep the "tea party" base happy.   So thanks but no thanks, someone else can have that headache!  

Now for the punchline. 

The republican are so flummoxed that Brown does not want to run, they are at a loss to find someone else.  

Things are so bad under Reince's reign that they are considering asking people in the Romney Family to run.   

Massachusetts Republicans are desperately scrambling to find a strong Senate candidate to replace Scott Brown, with some even trying to persuade Mitt Romney’s wife or son to jump into the race to avert another electoral disaster.
The former GOP senator’s decision to stay out of the June 25 special election surprised and angered some Republican leaders, who said it will make it much harder to beat a Democratic opponent without Brown on the ballot.
“I’ve had several people call me and ask about Ann Romney,” Ron Kaufman, a longtime friend and aide to the former Massachusetts governor and 2012 presidential candidate nominee, told the Herald.

......

Other GOP leaders also raised the prospect of Mitt’s eldest son, Tagg, launching a surprise Senate campaign. Tagg Romney was a close campaign adviser and surrogate for his father and is a successful businessman living in Belmont.

As a progressive, I am ecstatic that the republicans have decided to keep Reince in charge!  

Nothing Like Kicking Someone When They're Down

In 2011, the Republican-held Assembly and Senate followed the marching orders of the well-moneyed special interests, which were being barked out by Scott Walker.

Among the thousands of large and small ills visited upon our state by this group of political mercenaries included an attack on the unemployed.

They added a one-week delay before a person could receive benefits.  Walker also short-staffed the agency to create a backlog and further delay benefits.  They made the unemployed jump through more hoops to get any assistance, whether they were applying for the first time or had already been collecting.

As I had related in my last post, Representative Chris Sinicki told me that they have no less than 51 changes in store for unemployment insurance.  Furthermore, she said that the Republicans have made it abundantly clear that they plan on ramming these changes through, regardless of what the Unemployment Insurance Advisory Council, the Democrats or their own constituents have to say about any of this.

Sinicki had already told us that one of the changes will be pushing back the start of unemployment back to six weeks.

Scott Walker also pointed out several changes he wants to make:

These changes, which would need to be made by lawmakers, would include requiring the unemployed to do four job applications a week instead of the current two.

"Common sense changes could improve the (unemployment) reserve fund condition, enhance the integrity of the program, and ensure taxes paid into the fund are used properly," the report reads.

At the bottom of the unemployment insurance complaints from business owners - and the Walker administration's focus - lies the financial state of the state's jobless fund. Weakened by the recession and a lack of past action to raise taxes or cut spending from the fund, the jobless reserve had to borrow from the federal government to keep paying benefits and stood $1.2 billion in the red at the beginning of 2012.

So to pay off the debt, the state already has had to restrict benefits for the jobless and raise payroll taxes on state employers.

Making it harder to get benefits would help with that process by keeping more money in the fund. But Senate Minority Leader Chris Larson (D-Milwaukee) said he was worried about the unemployed workers who wouldn't receive that money.

"Of the few details available, we know Wisconsin families and those suffering the most from slow job creation may lose important protections in the unemployment insurance program. We can only conclude that there is cause for concern that this administration may remove other common sense protections for Wisconsin's middle-class workers," Larson said in a statement.

The Walker administration also wants to look at:

Requiring more documentation from recipients of jobless benefits to cut down on fraud
Restricting the number of reasons such as illness, travel distance or physical limitations that a person can give to refuse work and still receive jobless benefits
Narrowing the list of exceptions that allow workers to quit a job and then receive unemployment insurance. Wisconsin currently has 18 of these exemptions, such as quitting for medical reasons or moving to a new region with a spouse. According to the report, Minnesota is the state with the next highest number of exemptions with nine.

As noted in the article, the problem arose during the Bush/Cheney recession, which produced a horrendously large number of job losses, quickly draining the fund for the unemployment insurance. As a consequence, the state had to borrow more than a billion dollars from the federal government in order to be able to pay the bills.

The article states that there were two ways to pay off the debt - raise taxes on the companies or cut the spending from the fund.

It goes without saying that Walker, being the corporate puppet that he is, is not about to raise taxes on companies. The is especially true since may of the high level executives and big business owners are also major campaign contributors for Walker.

But what the article doesn't point out is that there are two ways to cut spending.

The one way the article does mention is to screw over the unemployed by denying them benefits, or by at least delaying them. Who cares if people lose their homes, can't afford medicine they might need or can't feed their families? There are poor, suffering CEOs out there that need our tax money to make their bank accounts even larger.

The other way, the one the Republicans and the corporate media doesn't want you to think about, is to decrease spending by decreasing unemployment.

As I've repeatedly pointed out, while he was governor, and for the six months after he left office, Governor Jim Doyle was able to right the ship and start creating jobs.  Since Walker and the Republicans have taken over two years ago and started with their "business-friendly" polices and agenda, there has been little to no job growth.  In fact, in the past year and a half, Walker hasn't created as many jobs as Doyle's policies had done in the six months after he was out of office.

This is due mostly to the fact that the Republicans have yet passed a law or taken any action to promote job growth.  If anything, they have done all they could to help take money out of circulation, killing even more jobs.

Apparently, the Republicans figure it's easier to kick unemployed people when they're down rather than to try to help them pick themselves up.  This is especially egregious since the Republicans are the ones that knocked them down in the first place.

ADDENDUM: There is one thing from the above-cited article which really bothers me.  The article regurgitated this Republican talking point:

Making it harder to get benefits would help with that process by keeping more money in the fund.

I can understand not wanting to spend the money when it's not necessary, but isn't the fund there to be spend when people are unemployed?  If they don't want to spend that money on the people who need it most, exactly who are they planning on giving that money to?

Solidarity Fish Fry, Week 17: Well, That's A Fine Kettle Of Fish!

As advertised, last Friday was the seventeenth week for the Solidarity Fish Fry.

This one was no different than the other weeks in that there was good food, great solidarity and a bit of political discussion.

Upon arrival, seeing all the good people enjoying the solidarity and the abundance of tartar sauce, I saw Representative Chris Sinicki and her husband, Mike, who is a proud card-carrying union thug himself:

Well, OK, that isn't his union card he's holding, but there's nothing wrong with a fistful of fish either.

Sadly, while we did share some laughs, Rep. Sinicki had some bad news.  She said that the Republicans have 51 changes in store for unemployment insurance and are determined to ram them through committee and through both houses, regardless of what the UI Council has to say about things.

She said that the people should be ready to take action, for this is coming down the pike as soon as their done screwing with the mining bill.

But back to the fish fry, I had the extreme pleasure of dining with Kelley Albrecht, my blogdaughter Meg Moen (Cog Dis' own Meg!) and her friend, the fabulous Jenny G., who will talk your ear off if you let her:

Jenny on the left, Meg on the right

Other regulars were there as well, including the good folks from the Progressive Democrats of America.

But as we were dining, I looked up and saw none other than Vince Megna, the comic relief candidate for the state supreme court race.  I thought to myself how nice of him to come and support the union workers.

Except he didn't.

He and his companion headed straight to the non-union section.  With the help of Kelley, I was able to get a shot of him:

Megna is the gentleman in the white shirt.


Here's a blow up of him at his table.

So much for him being a man of the people.

As the gentle eater can see, if you miss a week, you miss a lot.

So don't miss out on any more.

Come join Randy, Meg and myself this Friday for Week 18.

And tell them that Cog Dis sent ya.

Groundhog Day, Fitzwalkerstan Style

Everyone is familiar with the traditional celebration of Groundhog Day.  As legend has it, "if it is cloudy when a groundhog emerges from its burrow on this day, then spring will come early; if it is sunny, the groundhog will supposedly see its shadow and retreat back into its burrow, and the winter weather will continue for six more weeks."

But things are a bit different here in Fitzwalkerstan.

Even when Scott Walker was still Milwaukee County Executive, he's had to do things differently. When the old groundhog at the Milwaukee County Zoo passed away, Walker took over:

To help ease people's fear that this winter will never end, Scott Walker has taken bold and decisive action. No, he didn't get us a new groundhog. Instead, he privatized the service in a no-bid contract to Weasels'R'Us. The new mascot you will be seeing Saturday is Wally Weasel (pictured on the right).

Unfortunately, there were a few setbacks to Walker's plan. First, the contract turned out to be more expensive than planned, and much more expensive than it would have been to let a County-owned groundhog do the job. To make up for the expense, Walker cut sixteen bus routes, and denied food stamps to 439 people.

Now as governor, we find that the tradition has changed again.

Now, instead of watching a groundhog or a weasel popping out of the ground, everyone gathers to watch Walker pop out of the Mystery Dumpter O'Fun.

 If he sees John Doe's shadow, we will see more indictments. If Walker doesn't see John Doe's shadow, we will still have more indictments, but with the pleasure of seeing the shock on Walker's face when he's fitted with his new bracelets:

And then we can sit around and tell riddles, like this one:

Q. What's the difference between Punxsutawney Phil and Scott Walker?

A. One is an ill-tempered rodent of dim intelligence, pretending to give us guidance as to what the future holds. The other is a groundhog.

Why Does the National Review Defend Nazism?

No, that title isn't hyperbole. The National Review, through writer Eliana Johnson defended Nazism. Here, I'll let her own words do the talking:

"Nazism may have been an ideology to which the United States was — and to which the president is — implacably opposed, but it is hardly “senseless.” By the early 1930s, the Nazi party had hundreds of thousands of devoted members and repeatedly attracted a third of the votes in German elections; its political leaders campaigned on a platform comprising 25 non-senseless points, including the “unification of all Germans,” a demand for “land and territory for the sustenance of our people,” and an assertion that “no Jew can be a member of the race.” Suffice it to say, many sensible Germans were persuaded."

I'm sorry, what was that? Did I read that correctly? Yes. Yes I did. And it's as disgusting as it sounds.

What in God's good name makes these right-wing ingrates think that in ANY capacity, that Nazism is "sensible"? Oh, I didn't know that the National Review doesn't consider the slaughtering of millions of Jews, Catholics, gypsies, homosexuals and handicapped people in ANYWAY A PROBLEM. This is horrifically unbelievable. Are they really taking the whole "If Obama hates it, we must love it" thing too far? When did it become acceptable to use the Holocaust as a political tool? If this is meant to be some sort of ironic way of attacking the President, it's not funny. Joking about something so awful shows the world the scum one truly is.

My dad's family has a lot of its roots in Norway. My great-grandpa immigrated to Wisconsin from Norway to start a new life, but in doing that, he left a lot of our family behind. One of those family members being a man named Petter Moen (you'll need google translate for that link.) Petter is an important part of not only my family, but of Norway as a whole. If the National Review and Eliana Johnson are aware, Nazi Germany took over Norway during WW2, and the devastation they left still has its effect on millions of people today. Petter spent a lot of time in a Nazi prison because of his activism with the Norwegian resistance and his journalism, the only thing left of him when he died being a diary. He wrote it while being imprisoned, pricking paper with a pin and managing to keep it hidden from the Germans. His bravery knew no bounds. He endured things we only read about. Things we can't even process in our minds. I would LOVE for Ms. Johnson to live 5 minutes in Petter's world. Then maybe she might see how absolutely filthy her argument is.

The right-wing in this country is so beyond insanity that it will never find its way back to the sane middle. This is not the Republican party of Lincoln, or Teddy Roosevelt. This is a party that has became an evil and grotesque homage to an ideology that no one will ever accept.

I am so disgusted with the National Review, and I'm hoping that many will call on it and Eliana Johnson to fully and totally retract the utter nonsense they posted. The families of the millions of victims of Nazism deserve it.

National Review  212-679-7330.
Call them and tell them Eliana's article is unacceptable!

AMGEN

Amgen is a leading biotechnology company based in California!

Our Mission and Values

Amgen strives to serve patients by transforming the promise of science and biotechnology into therapies that have the power to restore health or even save lives. In everything we do, we aim to fulfill our mission to serve patients. And every step of the way, we are guided by the values that define us.

Their CEO Robert Bradway salary is $7,124,964 with incentives and benefits estimated up to $21 million/yr!   They also have a very distinguished board of directors filled with many ex ceo's etc...

One last thing to mention, they also like to illegally market their drugs and own enough US Legislators to get a free $500,000,000 in taxpayers money from Congress in the "Fiscal cliff" bill!  

First off the story of their illegal marketing of their drugs:

 Amgen marketed its anemia drug Aranesp for unapproved uses even after the Food and Drug Administration explicitly ruled them out, federal prosecutors said on Tuesday.

The federal charges were made public as Amgen pleaded guilty to illegally marketing the drug and agreed to pay $762 million in criminal penalties and settlements of whistle-blower lawsuits. 

Amgen was “pursuing profits at the risk of patient safety,” Marshall L. Miller, acting United States attorney in Brooklyn, said in a telephone news briefing on Tuesday. 

David J. Scott, Amgen’s general counsel, entered the guilty plea at the United States District Court in Brooklyn to a single misdemeanor count of misbranding the drug, Aranesp, meaning selling it for uses not approved by the F.D.A. 

Amgen agreed to pay $136 million in criminal fines and forfeit $14 million, with about $612 million going to settle civil litigation.

Wrap your head around the fact that an $18 Billion dollar company just pled guilty and paid out 3/4 of a BILLION dollars, instead of continuing to fight this in court for years.   I am sure the people who died because of this are satisfied!

In court on Tuesday, prosecutors charged that Amgen had promoted the use of Aranesp to treat anemia in cancer patients who were not undergoing chemotherapy, even though the drug’s approval was only for patients receiving chemotherapy.

A subsequent study sponsored by Amgen showed that use of Aranesp by those nonchemotherapy cancer patients had actually increased the risk of death, and the off-label use diminished. 

The federal charges also say Amgen promoted using larger but less frequent injection of Aranesp than stated in the label as a way of making the drug more attractive to doctors and patients than Procrit, a rival anemia drug from Johnson & Johnson.

Luckily, Amgen did not have to absorb that big of heat very long, since their employees, (namely Mitch McConnell, Max Baucus and Orrin Hatch) who also happen to be in Congress, slipped a late night provision into the Fiscal Cliff Bill which will guarantee Amgen an extra $500 Million dollars over the next two years!

WASHINGTON — Just two weeks after pleading guilty in a major federal fraud case, Amgen, the world’s largest biotechnology firm, scored a largely unnoticed coup on Capitol Hill: Lawmakers inserted a paragraph into the “fiscal cliff” bill that did not mention the company by name but strongly favored one of its drugs.

The language buried in Section 632 of the law delays a set of Medicare price restraints on a class of drugs that includes Sensipar, a lucrative Amgen pill used by kidney dialysis patients. 

The provision gives Amgen an additional two years to sell Sensipar without government controls. The news was so welcome that the company’s chief executive quickly relayed it to investment analysts. But it is projected to cost Medicare up to $500 million over that period. 

Amgen, which has a small army of 74 lobbyists in the capital, was the only company to argue aggressively for the delay, according to several Congressional aides of both parties.

Easy to plead guilty, when you know the taxpayers will cover 2/3 of your penalty!  Luckily, despite the "tea party" members extreme silence,  we have Democrat Peter Welch (D-VT) who is trying to get our money back!

Welch introduced a bill on Wednesday that would restore the restraints. Reps. Richard Hanna (R-N.Y.), Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.) and Bruce Braley (D-Iowa) co-sponsored Welch's bill.

"Without scrutiny or debate, the American taxpayer was stuck with the $500 million tab. This special interest provision should have stood on its own merits with an up or down vote," Welch said. "It's no wonder cockroaches and root canals are more popular than Congress."

In terms of Wisconsin,  Self described deficit hawk Ron Johnson (R - Class Rings) has had exactly ZERO words to say about this taxpayer funded giveaway to Amgen!  You could express your dismay at a local town hall with Senator marry well, but he refuses to have those also.

Ironically, on the other side of the coin, the one person in Wisconsin who is beating the "lets stop this corporate welfare" drum is former Senator Russ Feingold!  

Former Sen. Russ Feingold's (D-Wis.) non-profit group, Progressives United, launched a petition Tuesday criticizing the pharmaceutical company Amgen for successfully lobbying to get a provision favoring one of its drugs, which could cost taxpayers up to $500 million, added to the "fiscal cliff" deal.

The petition calls for Amgen to give back the $500 million. "Thanks to more than 30,000 of your fellow progressives, our petition is taking off, even garnering national media attention to shine a bright spotlight on Amgen's overreach," wrote the group's executive director, Cole Leystra, in an email to supporters. "But Amgen still has an army of back-door lobbyists ready to quiet opposition and shell out targeted campaign contributions."

Action Steps:

* Sign Senator Feingold's Petition
*  tell Rep Peter Welch Thank you and you support him - @reppeterwelch / Phone: (202) 225-4115.
*  Call your local representative and tell them to sign onto Rep. Welch's bill!

Walkergate: The Question Still Remains - What Is Walker Still Cooperating With?

Last week, after Scott Walker's long time aide and very special friend Tim Russell was sentenced, Walker's campaign spokeswoman, Nicole Tieman, pulled a major gaffe:

Walker campaign spokeswoman Nicole Tieman last week said Walker authorized the switch to ensure money for Operation Freedom was not commingled with other funds. She did not respond to a question Tuesday about who asked Walker to switch oversight of the event.

Instead, Tieman repeated the governor's statement that he had clearly told county employees they were barred from using "county time or resources for political activity of any kind." She said Walker continued to "fully cooperate" with the investigation.

I went on to point out that all of the first wave of Walkergate cases had been resolved - except for Brian Pierick's, who has since taken a plea deal - and questioned exactly what Walker was supposed to be cooperating with.

I also pointed out that there were still many aspects of Walkergate that has yet to be addressed, including the Dane County version of Walkergate. And, of course, I had to point out again that with all things Walkergate, there is more. There is always more. And there is still even more.

Well, lo and behold, as if to confirm what I was saying all along, Walker transferred another $40,000 from his campaign to his legal defense fund, as reported by WisPolitics.com:

Gov. Scott Walker transferred $40,000 from his campaign account to his legal defense fund on the last day of 2012, according to his latest finance report.

[...]

Walker had previously transferred $160,000 from his campaign account to the defense fund, meaning he has now put at least $200,000 into the Scott Walker Trust.

Well, they are technically correct, but they are also way off on their numbers.

Walker has indeed transferred $200,000 from his campaign to his legal defense cooperation fund.

But before he created his legal defense cooperation fund last March, he spent up to $100,000 of his own money to pay his high-priced attorneys:

But the first-term Republican governor must have retained the pair long before he made it public. 

As of Dec. 31, Walker owed more than $50,000 to Sidley Austin, a large Chicago-based firm that employs Gallo. Walker also disclosed that he owed between $5,000 and $50,000 to Terschan, Steinle & Ness, the Milwaukee firm where Steinle is a partner.

The state requires public officials and political candidates to disclose in the annual statement any creditor to which they owe more than $5,000. Wisconsin officials and candidates then must say whether the debt is greater than or up to $50,000.

So now he's up to $300,000.  But wait, there's more!

As of last July, his campaign had also paid out another $200,000 to the law firm of Michael Best and Friedrich for the services of former US Attorney Steven Biskupic. Biskupic's job was allegedly to make sure that the "i"s were dotted and the "t"s were crossed. It turns out later that Walker admitted it was for more cooperating. And I have no doubt that number has gone up considerably since July.

But even using the old numbers, Walker's is up to half a million dollars spent on legal defense cooperation. That much money just has to buy a helluva lot of cooperation, I tell you!

I would be remiss if I didn't also point out that he dropped another $10,000 on a public relations firm:

Gov. Scott Walker used almost $10,000 of his controversial legal defense fund to pay a public relations bill, according to a quarterly report filed with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.

According to the report, the Scott Walker Trust paid $9,988 for "public relations" on May 15 to Chicago-based APCO Worldwide Inc.

"This doesn't seem to square with what the governor said he needed that money for," said Mike McCabe, executive director of Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, the election watchdog organization that first reported the filing. "He said over and over, he just needed to pay lawyers to help him with the investigation."

Reid Magney, a spokesman for the Government Accountability Board, said the agency cannot comment on specific expenditures and referred to state law, which says political candidates or officials "investigated for, charged with or convicted of a criminal violation" can create a defense fund "for expenditures supporting or defending the candidate."

Note that like one of his high-priced attorneys, the PR firm came out of Illinois. Apparently all the PR firms in Wisconsin were either already involved in Walkergate or wouldn't touch Walker's toxicity for any amount of money.

Tieman gave a comment for the story in which she is obviously trying to make up for her gaffe last week:

The transfer to the Scott Walker Trust raises new questions about the status of the long-running John Doe investigation in Milwaukee that has ensnared former aides from the guv’s days as county exec.

"The transfer covers work done to cooperate with authorities over the past year," said Walker spokeswoman Nicole Tieman.

Walker has steadfastly insisted he is not a target of the probe. But he announced in March the creation of the legal defense fund to pay two criminal defense attorneys help him review documents and assist in cooperating with the secret probe.

[...]

"While Governor Walker is not the subject of investigation, he continues to fully cooperate with authorities as the process comes to conclusion," Tieman said.

Those are some pretty bold - and pretty false - statements to make.

As I have explained before, there is no reason to believe that Walker is not the subject of the Walkergate investigation:

Then there is the claim that Walker is making in denying that he is a subject of the Walkergate investigations.

State law clearly states that the DA is under no obligation to tell a person if they are the target. However, if the person is not a target of the investigation, the DA may publicly state that the person is not the target, like Chisholm did with Andrew Jensen and Michael Maistelman.

Obviously, Walkergate was a factor during the recall. If Walker really wasn't a subject of the investigation, Chisholm would have given him a letter clearing him so that it wouldn't interfere with the election. Yet Walker has produced no such letter.

Another way for a person to know they are not the target is if they are granted immunity, but that is a matter that happens in a public hearing. No such hearing happened and thus we know he wasn't granted immunity.

As for Walkergate coming to a conclusion, don't believe that either unless District Attorney John Chisholm or Judge Neil Nettesheim say it's over. As with the reasoning showing that Walker is still the subject of the ongoing investigation, I don't see any reason why they wouldn't have publicly declared an end to the investigation, except that it's not over. Furthermore, even Walker's former campaign manager, Keith Gilkes, has said he's still cooperating with the investigation, not to mention Cindy Archer and Tom Nardelli, just to name a few of the potential candidates for the next wave.

If nothing else, just the simple fact that Walker even has a legal defense cooperation fund, much less how much money he's pumped into it, belies his claims.

But as I noted several times before, despite all of Walker's protestations of not being the subject of the investigation, neither Walker nor any of his apologists, have ever claimed he is innocent.