Who Is Worse To Workers - Scott Walker or Chris Abele?

As I had noted, I attended the Milwaukee County Board's Budget Hearing on Monday evening.

During the hearing, infamous real life troll Orville Seymer of the grossly misnamed Citizens for Responsible Government lashed out at the Board, specifically targeting Chairwoman Marina Dimitrijevic.  But Seymer also demonstrated that his ignorance is vast by attacking county workers, claiming that they are underworked and overpaid.

Unsurprisingly, he is dead wrong.

This chart is from an EPI briefing paper and the pre-Act 10 days:

Click to embiggen

The chart shows that before Act 10, public sector workers did get better benefits than private sector workers.  The trade off is that the public sector workers also got lower wages and did not get things like Christmas bonuses to enhance the income.

But since Act 10, the benefits have been greatly lowered and the cost for them have skyrocketed, meaning that public sector workers not only get much lower pay but also have reduced benefits.  This is why there is a growing turnover in the public sector that one wouldn't normally see.

No where in the state is that more true than in Milwaukee County.  I have often said that Milwaukee County Emperor Chris Abele is actually worse than Scott Walker.  People have scoffed at me when I made these statements, but the following chart, which comes from Abele's own 2014 budget, shows how the fringe benefits for county employees stack up to those for state workers and employees of the City of Milwaukee:

Again, click on image to embiggen

As the gentle reader can see, in almost every category, county employees are not only paying more for their benefits, they are paying extremely more.  I would also point out that state employees are paid more money than county workers, making the percentage of county employee checks being taken out that much larger.

Abele claims he needs to do this to set the county on the "right path" towards financial solvency.  Yet neither Tom Barrett or even Scott Walker need to be so draconian to their workers to balance their budgets.  Abele however feels that he cannot perform his duties unless his aides get paid in excess of $120,000.  He is also able to find the money to help build a 44-story Bic lighter and move freeway ramps that will benefit his friends at the Greater Milwaukee Committee as well as his own ventures.

Now, the county board has done some work to alleviate the extraordinary and unfair burden that Abele has put on county workers, but it's still not exactly anything to brag about:

While it's considerably better than what Abele wants to do to the workers, it's still like being told you're only going to receive 15 lashes of the whip instead of 50.

In summary, one can see that the supposedly Democratic and self-claimed progressive Abele is already much worse to workers than Walker ever dreamed of being.  And that doesn't even begin to talk about what Abele wants to do to workers rights and civil service laws.

The Newest Conservative Blogger

Well, well.  There appears to be a new conservative blogger out there that has promise to bring to blogging what Vicki McKenna does to talk radio.

See what I mean?

Click to embiggen

Let me blow up the important part for you:

Yup, the secret to Scott Walker's reelection apparently lies in the blogging skills of Becky Kleefisch.

If her blogging is anywhere near as effective as their job creation skills, this could be fun.

The Virginia Impasse

By Jeff Simpson

Today Virginia held a special election.  The choice was simple in this solidly red state ....

1. A Democrat who could possibly be the worst possible democrat to run since Dan Rostenkowski!  McAuliffe is a former head of the DNC and is an awful person and terrible politician.    I personally can not think of a possible scenario of a way that I would vote for McAuliffe.

His loss should be a sure thing....until you meet his opponent!

2.  Republican candidate and full on "tea party" hero Ken Cuccinelli, who ran on the ultra right wing, tax cutting platform.  

“On the other hand, you have a candidate who says he will lower taxes by $700 per family. That will allow the economy to grow and allow your kids to move out of your basement.”

“My opponent believes government is the answer to everything, and he can’t walk in a room without promising something,” Cuccinelli said.

He reminded the crowd that he was the first attorney general in the country to file suit against the federal Affordable Care Act and that he opposes a key piece of the health care overhaul that is unresolved in Virginia: expansion of the Medicaid health insurance program for low-income people. McAuliffe supports Medicaid expansion.

Noting the technical difficulties that have beset the rollout of the federal law, Cuccinelli said: “Why would we expand failure? We knew it would fail.”

This race was so bad, that the local paper endorsed - None of the Above! However that did not stop our very own Governor to spend a weekend(and our tax dollars) helping his good friend campaign.

Terry Mcauliffe pulled it out tonight!

In a very red state,  the Democrats just pulled out a major victory with the message of "I know our guy is horrible but the other guy is tea party" and now will be in charge of the Governorship.   

In Wisconsin, our guy not only hitched his wagons to this losing train, Scott Walker calls himself "the Original tea party". 

"When people ask me, 'How do you appeal to Tea Party folks?' I say: I was the original Tea Party in Wisconsin." -- Scott Walker on CNN.

When you pair Wisconsin, which leans to the left, and just came off overwhelming victories to Tammy Baldwin and President Obama, with nationwide disgust for the "tea party", should mean a change of faces in the Governor's office.  Let's see if the powers that be, have the ability to make that happen!  

Milwaukee County Board Gets An Earful At Budget Hearing

On Monday evening, the Milwaukee County Board held their annual public hearing on the county budget.  The meeting was packed with hundreds of people.  Among the people there were some notables, such as Senator Nikiya Harris and Representative Mandela Barnes.  Surprisingly, Milwaukee County Emperor was there, but he did not mingle with the little people.

The Board took care of some unfinished business.  Unfortunately one of the items was the de facto agreement to privatize the parks by approving John Dargle as the new Parks Director.

The topics addressed were varied, but there were basically six topics:

• Funding for homeless shelters
• The treatment of former county housekeeping staff
• The Transit/Paratransit System
• Parks and Pools
• Mental health services and the mental health complex
• Employee pay and benefits

Funding for Homeless Shelters

A number of executives and board members from various homeless shelters spoke to the board, asking for more funding.  They pointed out that they've seen the demand for their services double in the past year even while federal and state funding has been cut.  One executive said that their organization is forced to choose between feeding their clients or maintaining staffing at safe levels.

Former Housekeeping Staff

This is an involved story which is appropriate for another post, but in a nutshell, the former county housekeeping staff have been getting the shaft from Abele's administration.  The workers were only asking to be given a fair shake and for the county to follow civil service laws.

Given the high level of turnover due to Abele's mismanagement, one would think that finding them jobs within the county system shouldn't be too difficult.

Transit and Paratransit

There were a number of citizens with disabilities who asked the board to maintain Abele's proposal to cut fees for the paratransit system from four dollars per ride to three dollars.  Unfortunately, Abele's "fudged math" (which I'm not convinced was an accident) prevented that.  However, the board was still able to reduce fares by 50 cents despite Abele being short $1.5 million in this one area.

Likewise, the same people, plus many others, warned against going with Abele's cockeyed scheme to give the transit contract to an out of state, for profit agency with a very bad track record.  

Parks and Pools

In his proposed budget, Abele wanted to close the indoor pools at Noyes and Pulaski Park and replace them with a splash pad and a skate park.  Apparently Abele feels that the disabled and elderly citizens who use these pools all year long for exercise would get the same benefit from three months on a splash pad or by riding around on skate boards.  There was an overwhelming demand by citizens to keep the pools open, which the board proposes to do.

On a humorous note, Supervisor Deanna Alexander, Abele's personally owned supervisor, decided she would make a token effort to show she too supports the parks, even though she doesn't really.  Her focus was on just one, Lindsay Park.  Hilariously, her supporters - at least one of which doesn't even live in Milwaukee County - came to show their support of her facetious effort with signs like the one pictured, which you can see it misspelled.  

Mental Health Services 

This was perhaps the most contentious issue.  

On one hand, there were several advocates for the closing of the mental health complex and putting the patients in the community and that this should happen as soon as possible.

On the other hand, there were other advocates that agreed with moving the people out of the complex, but wanted it to be done in a safe and appropriate manner, pointing out that the way things were being done now were not working.  It was again pointed out that as of a month ago, the county has only been able to successfully integrate seven people. It was also pointed out that there was no way that the county would be able to meet their own quotas and that will put them in an emergency situation at the hospital, where there would not be enough staff.  Workers testified that they were already having to hire pool people - at much higher costs than the regular workers - to fill the gaps left by workers forced out by Abele.

It is rather disconcerting that there is no tracking system on what happens to the patients that are being evicted from the hospital.

There was also another group of people, many of them workers, who asked the board approve some amendments by Supervisor Peggy Romo West which would restore the targeted case management and community support programs that Abele wants to abolish.

Employee Wages and Benefits

There is no denying that county workers, notably AFSCME members, showed up in force at the meeting.  They argued that the hikes in health care costs and pension contributions were becoming much too much for them to bear.  It was pointed out that, each year, workers were already losing thousands of dollars each while Abele was mewling about a cap of $120,000 for his staff.  

This is a subject that I will go into more detail at a later date, but suffice it to say that Milwaukee County employees are paying much, much more than employees of the City of Milwaukee or the State of Wisconsin for worse benefits.  

What I found to be particularly egregious is the fact that as airport workers were emphasizing the importance of their work and the poor way they were treated, Abele left the room laughing.

And Abele and his staff wonder why there is such a high turnover rate.

There were a couple of other notable testimonies.

One was from Rob Henken, president of the Public Policy Forum, which gets most of its funding from the Greater Milwaukee Committee, advocating for closing the pools, privatizing mental health services, downsizing public safety and restoring the excessive pay of Abele's staff, even as the room was full of people who depend on these services and workers who were getting the shaft.  Talk about conflict of interests.

The other was from Orville Seymer of the misnamed Citizens of Responsible Government, who went into a nonsensical and misogynistic tirade against Chairwoman Marina Dimitrijevic.  It is a testament to Dimitrijevic's leadership that she did not have him ejected from the room like former Chairman Lee Holloway had to do a few years ago.  Seymer's conduct was so boorish that he actually got booed by the crowd.

In summary, I would simply remind the board of their campaign from earlier this year when they were holding hearings on OUR Milwaukee.  The prided themselves on being the representatives of the citizens of Milwaukee County, which is so very true.  They are not Abele's board and they are not the Greater Milwaukee Committee's board.  

They are our board and should make their decisions based on the will of the people, not the plutocrats.

Act 10 Is Still Unconstitutional

In 2012, the Honorable Juan Colas ruled that parts of Scott Walker's landmark bombshell, Act 10, was unconstitutional.

Walker ignored the ruling.

Earlier this year, Judge Colas clarified his ruling, saying that the state could not enforce the law since it was unconstitutional.

Walker ignored this as well.

A few weeks ago, Judge Colas found Walker's labor commissioners to be in contempt of court because they weren't following the law.

In a panic to preserve the charade of Act 10, upon which Walker has hung his presidential aspirations, he asked the Appellate Court to overrule Judge Colas, or at least put an injunction on the ruling.

The Appellate Court made their ruling on Monday.  The answer was no:

The state Appeals Court on Monday kept in place for now a ruling finding Gov. Scott Walker's labor commissioners in contempt of court.

The ruling by the District 4 Court of Appeals in Madison means that, at least for the time being, the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission cannot enforce aspects of Act 10, the 2011 law by Walker that greatly restricted the ability of public workers to engage in union activities.

Now the focus will be on the Supreme Court, which will hear oral arguments on this case next Monday. Obviously, Walker and his ALEC sponsors are counting on David "Chokehold" Prosser to once again ignore the law and the constitution and to vote based on campaign contributions.

But it should be noted that constitutional experts like Ed Fallone have shown why Colas' ruling should stand.

The Walker Agenda Is Still Working! Part CCI

Thank goodness that Scott Walker is maintaining his laser-sharp focus on job creation and not wasting time with something like a futile hope at being President some day, otherwise something like this could happen:

APAC Customer Service Inc. has announced plans to eliminate 282 positions by Dec. 31 at its downtown Green Bay office.

The company notified the state Department of Workforce Development on Monday that it was permanently closing its wireless communications program in the local office due to loss of client business.

The cut positions include 224 customer service representatives, 15 at-home employees and 15 team leaders. Other employees affected include advisers, analysts and managers.

The employees laid off will receive their full pay and benefits through the end of the 60-day notice period, which ends Jan. 3, the company said.

The termination notification comes less than a year after APAC announced plans to add 275 jobs, mostly handling inbound customer service calls at the downtown office, 301 N. Adams St. At the time, those staff increases were seen as a positive sign of revitalization efforts in downtown Green Bay.

That sounds real Walkeresque, doesn't it? Promise to create 275 jobs and lose almost 300.

Do we really have to wait a year to get rid of him?

The Democratic Divide!

By Jeff Simpson

 

Mike Tate was re-elected last year at the 2013 Wisconsin State Democratic convention to lead the party again:

Mike Tate was easily re-elected state chair over Joe Kallas.

Tate received 476 votes to 95 for Kallas

In a party with over 15,000 members and with a million(give or take a few thousand) votes needed to win the Governor's seat, 381 people set the agenda for the 2014 election season.

That agenda has handed us a party of choice candidate - Mary Burke:

Here is Mike Tate when asked about Mary Burke:

"Should Mary get in and run, she would be an instant frontrunner and potentially clear the field," Mike Tate, the party chairman, told reporters in a conference call. 

In response to the above picture:

 Gang- I often promote the FB pages of all Dems running for an office, especially higher profile offices. More of a public service. Did the same thing in 2010, 12 and now. Not an endorsement. We promote Democrats running for office. If another serious candidate for Governor announces you’ll see myself and the party do the same thing. If you want someone else to run, go ask them to do so. Additionally there is no primary at this time and isn’t unless someone else enters it. So much as with Tammy Baldwin last year the party will promote Mary’s candidacy and should another serious candidate enter the race would promote that candidates activities too. Don’t remember anyone complaining about us promoting Tammy prior to her receiving full support of the party. No difference here.

This from a Democratic Fundraising Letter:

Most notably, in a recent fundraising letter to Democratic Party members, state party chair Mike Tate flatly refers to Mary Burke as “the candidate who is going to win the game” against Gov. Scott Walker.
“We can elect Mary Burke, win Wisconsin back and restore our progressive legacy,” the letter concludes.

Now fast forward to Kathleen Vinehout:

When asked about Vinehout, who has done everything but declare her candidacy for Governor:

While calling Vinehout a “phenomenal public servant and intellectual heavyweight,” state Democratic Party chair Mike Tate expressed concern that she would be able to mount an effective campaign, adding that it would be a “great loss to the people of Wisconsin” if she weren’t still in public office in January of 2015.

"The reality is that while we will never have as much money as Scott Walker it is not realistic to believe you can defeat him without running a serious, professional campaign that raises enough money to get the Democratic message out,” Tate said in a statement. “The stakes are too high for our families that are struggling under Scott Walkers policies for anyone to attempt a bid for Governor that will not and cannot raise the money needed to run a grassroots campaign that can communicate with voters at their door, via television, direct mail and the Internet. Modern times require modern campaigns."

Sure does not sound like equal support to me.  Sounds like someone has picked a side!  What does the Constitution of the State Democratic Party say about picking a side?

ARTICLE VIII – Endorsements of Candidates in Primary Elections
The state organization, congressional district organizations, county organizations, the College Democrats of Wisconsin, the youth caucus, and all other subdivisions at any level of the state organization are prohibited from endorsing or supporting any candidate in a Democratic presidential preference election or any partisan primary election which will determine the candidate of the Democratic Party for the ensuing election to office unless the county or local Democratic group or congressional district recommends a certain candidate (or candidates) be endorsed or supported due to unusual circumstances and these circumstances be submitted in writing to the state Administrative Committee in a timely manner for approval of an endorsement and support of a specific candidate (or candidates) for a specific reason and the Administrative Committee approves said recommendation by a two- thirds majority.Democratic Party of Wisconsin Constitution

I know Mary Burke has received other endorsements and I say good for her.  Her job, when she entered the race was to win it.  Her securing endorsements, means she is actively campaigning and has a strategy she feels will help her win.  I applaud that.

That being said, the Mike Tate blatant fawning is inexcusable.  There is no doubt who Mike Tate is favoring, and who he is supporting.   The head cheerleader routine needs to be explained and it should be explained soon and it should also be stopped.   If we do not follow our own Constitution, why have it?   

This picking a candidate and then attacking those who support anyone else, comes from the party and trickles throughout the state.  

It is up to the party chair to navigate the waters amongst the different factions and beliefs that make up the Democratic party not to foster them.

The Wisconsin Democratic Primary will be held on Tuesday, August 12th, 2014.  

At that time, if there is a split within the party, the blame will lie exclusively upon our party chair!

Urban Irony

Bruce Murphy of Urban Milwaukee had published a post last week in which he laments the Teapublican-controlled legislature's attacks on local control.  He has a fairly thorough list of the bigger attacks including issues like the regulation of cell phone towers and billboards as well as things like residency requirements.

Murphy sums things up well with this paragraph:

But this legislature has shown, time and again, that it will roll over for special interests even if means limiting the powers of local government. As a legislative analysis published by the League of Wisconsin Municipalities put it, the budget bill passed this year “reflects a lack of understanding or recognition of the key role municipalities play in job creation and the state’s economic recovery, and at worse, represents a calculated attack on home rule.”

This is all true and I have no umbrage with what he has written.

But I do take offense by the one special interest and the one attack of local control that Murphy failed to mention, which diminishes the impact of an otherwise powerful piece.

He failed to include Chris Abele spending money hand over fist and having his county executive office staff in Madison lobbying to pass Act 14, which greatly diminished the representative democracy of Milwaukee County government and gave Abele an imbalance of power, opening the door for the gross incompetence and corruption that we are already seeing with Abele's administration.  Two of the people benefiting from Abele's largess were State Representatives Joe Sanfelippo and Dale Kooyenga.

Furthering the fact that this power grab is indeed a removal of local control, the law also forbids the county to have any other referendums outside of the red herring one Abele insisted on which decides if the Board will be further hindered by being forced into a part-time status.

Needless to say, Murphy omitted this key example of the state legislature taking away local control because he supported it in this case, to the point of misrepresenting the facts and omitting key pieces of information in his efforts to assist Abele's power grab.

Because of the Murphy's support for the power grab, it makes his complaint of the loss of local control ring hollow.

The 21st Has One Clear Choice!

By Jeff Simpson

Who keeps company with wolves will learn to howl” Proverbs

There is an interesting race shaping up in the 2st district of WI.  Jessie Rodriguez,. with lots of help from American Federation for Children, recently came through a 5 way republican primary for the opportunity to face Elizabeth Coppola on November 19th.

This seat is open because Mark Honadel, the person who was sold his soul to Gogebic Taconit and advanced the mining bill at his boss's blessing.   Honadel, left the assembly for secret greener pastures.  

Now the 21st has a chance to actually be represented in Madison.   Unfortunately, you only have one choice in this election to be represented.  Ms. Coppola. 

Let's take a look at who is pulling Ms. Rodriguez's Strings:

1.  Convicted felon, and Walmart family Gopher boy, Scott Jensen is the ultimate special interest(guests speaker at ALEC convention) and political insider.  Scott Jensen, has a lot of money at his disposal and cares about Scott Jensen.  Not someone who you want advising your candidate!

Excellent rundown here!

2.  Next up is the Congressman from the first district and former Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan(R-Wall St.).  Fresh off causing the US Economy to take a $24 BILLION dollar hit, Pink Slip Paulie, whose policies have devastated the 21st Assembly district, was very eager to endorse:

3.  Another major endorsement was Julainne Appling.  Julainne Appling is the head of the mislabeled "Wisconsin Family Action", Julainne's group is responsible for the gay hate amendment and has spent her time fighting the equal rights for all, supporting republicans who like to joke about rape, and anything else they can think of that does not benefit straight white couples - All in Jesus's name!








We see from her main endorsements that if she gets sent to Madison, she will owe some not very good people, some very serious favors. 

  "you can tell a lot about a person from the company they keep",

The people of the 21st can end that cycle....by going here and giving here!

Elizabeth Coppola for the 21st!

Chris Christie Is Schooled!

 

By Jeff Simpson

By now you may have heard that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, recently exhibited some sexist and savage behavior when he was asked a question by a local teacher. The question that set him off?

"Why do you portray New Jersey Public Schools as 'failure factories?'"

 The only thing Chris Christie enjoys more than donuts, is yelling at female teachers, so he jumped at this chance:

Everyone knows Chris Christie loves to be rude and shout at people. Shouting at public school teachers is a 'thing' of his that he enjoys. 99% of the time the people he chews out are women.
The teacher who was bold enough to ask Christie this question admits she was shaking when he jabbed his finger in her face and shouted at her, but she's still proud of what she did. We're proud of her too.
It's a shame Christie will most likely be relected governor on Tuesday, which is probably why he felt it was no big deal to be photographed shouting at a single woman who dared to ask him a question. So nice to see what he really thinks of his constituents and how he treats them.

 

As Washington Post put it:

  Christie answered in his trademark Christie way: by yelling at her. He pointed a finger at her, as this picture shows, and shouted:

“Because they are!”

He also said:

“I am tired of you people. What do you want?”

Tomlinson’s question seems like a fair one, given that New Jersey public schools overall have long done extremely well on the  metric that school reformers like Christie believe are the most telling about academic achievement: standardized test scores. You can take a look here at some of the stats. By this standard, it seems that most New Jersey teachers are doing their jobs — despite severe education budget cuts of at least $1 billion by the Christie administration (according to this Star-Ledger piece). That of course hasn’t stopped Christie, as Jersey Jazzman notes here on his useful education blog, from repeatedly attacking teachers and their unions.

Of course, Ms. Tomlinson, has to understand to stop complaining.  If you are going to have republican rule,  hatred of local people and crumbling infrastructure are sure to follow!

Besides, if anyone understands efficiency and results, its politicians!   

Ms. Tomlinson, also did something that was unheard of to Christie........she thought before she spoke and composed this letter:

 Dear Governor Christie, Yesterday I took the opportunity to come hear you speak on your campaign trail. I have never really heard you speak before except for sound bytes that I get on my computer. I don't have cable, I don't read newspapers. I don't have enough time. I am a public school teacher that works an average of 60 hours a week in my building. Yes, you can check with my principal. I run the after-school program along with my my classroom position. I do even more work when I am at home. For verification of this, just ask my children. I asked you one simple question yesterday. I wanted to know why you portray NJ Public Schools as failure factories. Apparently that question struck a nerve. When you swung around at me and raised your voice, asking me what I wanted, my first response “I want more money for my students.” Notice, I did not ask for more money for me. I did not ask for my health benefits, my pension, a raise, my tenure, or even my contract that I have not had for nearly three years. We got into a small debate about how much money has been spent on education. Too me, there is never enough money that is spent on education. To invest in education is to invest in our future. We cannot keep short-changing our children and taking away opportunities for them to explore and learn. As more money is required for state-mandated curriculum changes and high-stakes standardized testing, it is our children that are losing. Programs are being cut all over the state as budget changes are forcing districts to cut music, art, after-school transportation, and youth-centered clubs. But let's put money aside for a moment. What do I want? What do 'we people' want? We want to be allowed to teach. Do you know that the past two months has been spent of our time preparing and completing paperwork for the Student Growth Objectives? Assessments were created and administered to our students on material that we have not even taught yet. Can you imagine how that made us feel? The students felt like they were worthless for not having any clue how to complete the assessments. The teachers felt like horrible monsters for having to make the students endure this. How is that helping the development of a child? How will that help them see the value in their own self-worth. This futile exercise took time away from planning and preparing meaningful lessons as well as the time spent in class actually completing the assessments. The evaluations have no statistical worth and has even been recognized as such by the NJ Department of Education. I am all for evaluation of a teacher. I recognize that I should be held accountable for my job. This does not worry me, as long as I am evaluated on my methods of teaching. I can not be held wholly accountable for the learning growth of a student when I am not accountable for all of the factors that influence this growth. Are you aware that poverty is the biggest determination of a child's educational success. If not, I suggest you read Diane Ravitch's new book Reign of Error. Take a moment and become enlightened. Getting back to the issue of money. I am fully aware of our educational budget. Where is all of this money? To me it seems like it is being siphoned right off into the hands of private companies as they reap the benefits of the charter schools and voucher programs that you have put into place. It certainly hasn't gone to improve school conditions in urban areas such as Jersey City. The conditions that these students and teachers are forced to be in are horrifying. Yet you are not allowing the funds needed to improve these conditions. Are you hoping that these schools get closed down and more students are forced to go to private charter schools while the districts are being forced to pay their tuition? I know for a fact that this is what has happened in Camden and Newark. Yet these charter schools are not held to the same accountability as our public schools. Why is that? Because deep down you know that you are not really dealing with the issues that influence a child's education. You are simply putting a temporary band-aid into place. Unfortunately that temporary fix is already starting to be exposed as Charter Schools are showing that they actually are not able to do better than public schools. You are setting up teachers to take the blame for all of this. You have portrayed us as greedy, lazy money-draining public servants that do nothing. I invite you to come do my job for one week Governor Christie. I invite you to come see my students, see how little they really have during the school day as they are being forced to keep learning for a single snapshot of their educational worth. For that one end-all, be-all test, the NJASK. The one that the future of my job and my life is now based upon. Why do you portray schools as failure factories? What benefit do you reap from this? Have you acquired financial promises for your future campaigns as you eye the presidential nomination? Has there been back-room meetings as you agree to divert public funds to private companies that are seeking to take over our public educational system? This is my theory. To accomplish all of this, you are setting up the teachers to take the blame. Unfortunately, you are not the only governor in our country that has this agenda. What do “we people' want, Governor Christie? We want our schools back. We want to teach. We want to be allowed to help these children to grow, educationally, socially, and emotionally. We want to be respected as we do this, not bullied. BadAss Teacher, Melissa Tomlinson

Koch Network Groups Busted In California For $15 Million Dark Money Donations

After reading the previous post regarding the possibility that the Walkergate 2.0 investigation could very well include illegal collaboration and collusion between the election campaigns of Scott Walker and other Teapublicans and the third party groups funded by the Koch Brothers, the Bradley Foundation and the Sam Adams Alliance, a friend of Cog Dis forwarded this story from Mother Jones, which has eerily familiar:

On Thursday, the California attorney general and the state's top election watchdog named the "Koch brothers network" of donors and dark-money nonprofits as the true source of $15 million in secret donations made last year to influence two bitterly fought ballot propositions in California. State officials unmasked the Kochs' network as part of a settlement deal that ends a nearly year-long investigation into the source of the secret donations that flowed in California last fall.

As part of the deal, two Arizona-based nonprofits, the Koch-linked Center to Protect Patients Rights and Americans for Responsible Leadership, admitted violating state election law. The settlement mandates that the two nonprofits pay a $1 million fine to California's general fund, and the committees who received the secret donations at the heart of the case must also cut a check to the state for the amount of those donations, which totaled $15.08 million.

The article goes on to say that the most of the names of the actual donors of all those millions of dollars were able to be kept dark due to loopholes in the law (thank you ALEC and Citizens United) but did reveal some of them, including investment guru Bernard Shaw and Gap chairman Bob Fisher.

The article also has a screencap of an email from the fundraiser to Charles Koch. I could easily see one like that coming from Team Walker or WISGOP in order to get money for messaging, especially during the recalls.

As for how they did it, MJ does a very capable job of explaining it:

By October 2012, Russo had steered nearly $29 million for his Props. 30 and 32 advocacy campaign to Americans for Job Security. But there was a problem. Election day was less than two months away, and the way campaign law works, the standards for disclosing donors get tougher within that two-month window. So, out of fear that its donors could somehow be revealed, AJS and its lawyers took precautions, choosing to funnel the money through the Center to Protect Patients Rights, which was run by Sean Noble, who was then the primary outside consultant and strategist to the Koch brothers' national donor network. The settlement documents indicate that AJS made three, no-strings-attached donations to Noble's group: $4.05 million on September 10, 2012, $14 million October 11, 2012, and $6.5 million.

Here, the money trail forks into two trails. In one direction, CPPR gave $7 million to a nonprofit called the American Future Fund, which in turn passed $4.08 million of that to a subsidiary in California. That subsidiary, the California Future Fund for Free Markets, finally spent the money on influencing Props. 30 and 32.

In the second direction, CPPR directed $13 million to its Arizona neighbor, Americans for Responsible Leadership. ARL then passed $11 million of that money to the Small Business Action Committee in Sacramento, which spent the money influencing Props. 30 and 32.

Here's the bottom line: A California fundraiser raised a boatload of money. He shuffled it through a network of secretly funded nonprofit groups to hide the donors' identities. And when the money finally arrived in California in time to influence the 2012 elections, the fingerprints on the money had been thoroughly scrubbed off—and in the process, the operatives masterminding this scheme had broken the law.

Again, this is something that I could easily see them do here in Wisconsin, especially during the recalls, when there were more stunts pulled than any one group could watch.  It would not take any stretch of the imagination to see groups like MacIver Institute, Americans for Prosperity and/or Citizens for Responsible Government to take advantage of the crazy times to do something like this.

This could get very interesting indeed.

Walkergate 2: A Herd Of (John) Does

Two weeks ago, the news broke that there was a second John Doe investigation, stemming from the original Walkergate one, and that it was still going on and had already grown bigger than the original.

A couple days later, the usual suspects deferred comment on the goings on.  But that didn't mean that one couldn't make an educated guess.  One of the possibilities that I had discussed included  collusion between Scott Walker's campaign, WISGOP and the numerous front groups for the Koch Brothers and the Bradley Foundation:

While pulling up the information for the above sections, it did remind me of one other well-known incident of obvious collusion....the time that Walker was talking to "David Koch."  Specifically, this part of that conversation:

WALKER: The other thing is more long term and that is after this, um, you know, the coming days and weeks and months ahead, particularly in some of these more swing areas, a lot of these guys are gonna need, they don’t necessarily need ads for them but they ‘re going to need a message out reinforcing why this was a good thing to do for the economy a good thing to do for the state so the extent that message is out over and over again, that’s obviously, that’s obviously a good thing.

Now, obviously, that was not the real David Koch. Not being a lawyer, I have no idea if this would be a prosecutable offense.

But think about this. While that David Koch was a fake, do you think that Walker has never had a similar conversation with the real one?

Also, let us not forget in addition to the Kochs, there are the groups like the Bradley Foundation (whose chair is Michael Grebe, Walker's campaign chair), the Sam Adams Alliance and all of their front groups like MacIver Institute, Wisconsin Reporter and Media Trackers. 

Does anyone seriously believe that there was no cooperation, coercion and collusion between these groups, the campaigns of Walker and the other Republicans who were being recalled?

Sure enough, and appropriately enough on Halloween, Matt Kittle of the Wisconsin Reporter, a subsidiary of the Franklin Center, let fly with a rather ineffective spin on the story:

Democrats using the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s office to launch an investigation into conservative political organizations have targeted Columbia and Iowa counties, a source familiar with the probe tells Wisconsin Reporter.

The source, who asked not to be identified because of his closeness to people involved in the so-called John Doe investigation, said he knew of three subpoenas, and said law enforcement officials have seized electronic devices and papers in Columbia and Dane counties.

“I was told basically that (Gov. Scott) Walker is too powerful; they want to bring him down,” the source said.

Other insiders corroborated that account. They said John Doe Two, as the probe has been dubbed, has gone after such national groups as Americans for Prosperity, Club for Growth and the Republican Governors Association.

Whoa! So there is more than one John Doe involved.  There is a herd of Does that could be involved with this.

Not only was Kittle's spin ineffective, he inadvertently revealed more than what was known before. And the astute Lisa Kaiser of the Shepherd Express caught on to that immediately:

Wisconsin Reporter is run by the Franklin Center.

The Franklin Center is funded by the Sam Adams Alliance.

The Sam Adams Alliance had been chaired by Eric O’Keefe.

Eric O’Keefe is the director of the Wisconsin Club for Growth, which is one of the front groups that is allegedly being investigated this time around.

Hold that thought.

Wisconsin Reporter also noted that the John Doe 2 investigation has branched out to a few counties, including Dane, Iowa and Columbia counties:

The source, who asked not to be identified because of his closeness to people involved in the so-called John Doe investigation, said he knew of three subpoenas, and said law enforcement officials have seized electronic devices and papers in Columbia and Dane counties.
Wisconsin Club for Growth is based in Sun Prairie, which is in Dane County.

Its president/director, Charles Talbot, lives in either Belleville or Portage; Portage is in Columbia County.

Its longtime political operative, R.J. Johnson, lives in Randolph, which is in both Columbia and Dodge counties.

You may remember R.J.

He was one of Walker’s top campaign advisors in 2009 and 2010. He was copied on a number of county emails that were released as part of the O’Donnell Park case. After Walker’s election he promptly became the face of Wisconsin Club for Growth again.

In one fell swoop, Kaiser might have busted open who the John Does are.

But why is this significant?

Well, I covered that a year and a half ago in an article about these third party groups, which was published by the Shepherd Express.  In the article, I wrote about the possibility of collusion and what it would take to successfully prosecute such a case:

Marquette University Law School associate professor Edward Fallone said that the "coordination between a campaign and a third party group is very difficult to prove unless someone from one of the organizations comes forward with hard evidence of such coordination."

Fallone said that Koch and Grebe could simply claim that they gave this money to these groups because they share a common political philosophy, which would not rise to the level of coordination.

Attorney Michael Maistelman, one of Wisconsin's leading authorities on election laws, agreed. He stated that it would only reach the level of illegal coordination if it could be proven that Grebe or someone from Walker's campaign had communications with the media sources. He added that such communication could include general, informal conversations at an event such as a political rally or a dinner.

Maistelman also said that if there is "any sort of communication between the campaign and a third party group, then anything of value received from the third party group would have to be reported as an in-kind contribution and would be subject to campaign finance limits."

The activities of the news media groups might violate the spirit of the campaign laws, but it would be very difficult to enforce in a court of law.

Now think about this. We already know from the first Walkergate that Walker's campaign, including R.J. Johnson and Scott Walker himself, were involved with almost every communication between his campaign and Walker's Milwaukee County staff. I see no reason as to why this might not be so with any third party group such as Americans for Prosperity, MacIver Institute, Media Trackers and/or Citizens for Responsible Government.

In fact, it would seem more unlikely that they weren't involved with these groups on some level.

And if this second version of Walkergate can find and produce even the knowledge of such collusion and collaboration, that could conceivably bring the whole statewide system for the Teapublicans down.

No wonder the Teapublicans are looking like deer in the headlights. They should be.  They could end up being in a world of hurt, which would be a fitting consequence for all the hurts they helped cause.

There are two final points that need to be made.

One, it should be noted that Kaiser had another very valid point.

During the original Walkergate, the Teapublicans were screaming about leaks from the investigation, even though there were none. But now that it's the Teapublicans doing the leaking, they're not saying a word about it. Go figure.

The other point is from the article I had written on these "independent groups."  In that article, I also reported that the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign had filed a complaint  with the IRS against the MacIver Institute, Americans for Prosperity and the Heartland Institute (of the Angry Badger fame).

Do you reckon the feds might be conducting their own investigation into these groups as well?

Chris Abele Caught In Yet Another Lie

Milwaukee County Emperor Chris Abele becomes more and more like his hero and mentor, Scott Walker, every single day.  From attacking workers to imbalanced and illegal budgets to a corrupt and incompetent staff, Abele is following in and sometimes even exceeding Walker's precedents.

Included in this mirroring of Walker, Abele has grown a propensity for telling lies, no matter how ridiculous or easily debunked.

The latest comes from a PolitiFact check on Abele's claim that:

"We’re one of the only communities in the country that didn’t lose population in the last census, the median age for which went down, and any economist will tell you that’s good news."

As the PolitiFact people point out, it would be good news if only it were true.

They go on to explain how the City of Milwaukee actually lost people and that Milwaukee County's gains were minimal.

Even his spokesperson, Brenda Conway had to admit that his boss was not being accurate.

Gee, now if only they did this for Abele's budget or on Act 14 before Abele usurped the power in Milwaukee County. Perchance we wouldn't be in the mess we're in now where our most vulnerable citizens are being abandoned and the rich get new play things, like 44 story Bic lighters, that will make them richer.

Cucciker? Walkinelli?

 

By Jeff Simpson

Scott Walker this weekend is doing the one thing he has mastered since becoming Governor of Wisconsin - leaving the state to campaign.   This time, its for one of the more extreme right wing people you have ever seen - Ken Cuccinelli.  

Cuccinelli is sort of a combination, if you took all of the bad from Steve nASS, Andre JAcque and Glenn Grothman and then took a step to the right!

Let's take a quick peek at Cuccinelli(since that is about all anyone can handle):

He is amazed that God has not punished America more for allowing abortion:

But in his speech to the Christian Life Summit last year -- unearthed Monday night by NBC12 -- Cuccinelli said he is surprised that God has not yet "imposed" more judgment on America for allowing abortion to be legal.
"Really, given that God does judge nations, it's amazing that abortion has run as far and foully as it has, without what I would consider to be a greater imposition of judgment on this country," Cuccinelli said. "Who knows what the future holds?"
Cuccinelli also criticized the Catholic church for its "soft and weak" leadership on social issues.

Has declared war on oral sex:

 Ken Cuccinelli wants to keep kids safe from sexual predators by banning oral and anal sex—between consenting adults. On a website his campaign just launched, Cuccinelli, the Republican candidate for governor in Virginia, paints himself as the only real protector of children, because of his efforts as Virginia attorney general to reinstate a law banning all naked fun-time acts besides vaginal intercourse

And Hates the LGBT community:

 Politico reports on how Cuccinelli responded to a question by moderator Judy Woodruff in which she asked if he still agreed that homosexuality was “against nature and harmful to society":

“My personal beliefs about the personal challenges of homosexuality haven’t changed,” he said at one point. “What I want to do as governor is create an environment, including an economic environment, where every Virginian has the opportunity to succeed.”

“The notion that because I believe marriage ought to be protected, because I believe life begins at conception — just like hundreds of thousands of independents and Democrats — this isn’t just me, it isn’t just Republicans,” he said. “There are lots of Virginians, millions, perhaps, of Virginians, who share my sincerely held beliefs.”

With a guy this far to the right, no wonder Scott Walker is spending our taxpayer money and heading out of town to campaign for him.  When you align in goals so closely, why not help his good friend win?

There is only one problem though!   The Virginia republican party worries that Scott Walker will make Cuccinelli look bad because he is so extreme and divisive! 

Walker, the Wisconsin governor, will make two stops with Cuccinelli on Saturday. He is popular on the right for taking on unions in a blue state and then beating back a recall, but his trip risks giving Democrats an opening to argue that Cuccinelli will govern in a similarly divisive way. McAuliffe promises a bipartisan cabinet and a knack for deal-making.

 

 

White Wisconsin Fails Again

 

By Jeff Simpson

This year, after being exposed on a national basis to be the fraud that he is, the right's Golden Boy, paul ryan(R-Wall St.) has two challengers.  

Besides Rob Zerban, Amar Kaleka also announced his intentions to challenge Pink Slip Paulie. 

Democrat Amar Kaleka, whose father was killed in last year’s suburban Milwaukee Sikh temple massacre, announced on Monday that he will try to unseat GOP Rep. Paul Ryan in 2014.

Kaleka, a documentary film maker, told the Associated Press that he would formally launch his campaign against Ryan, House Budget Committee chairman and 2012 GOP vice presidential nominee, in November.

“There’s a fever in the nation, and specifically in this district, for our leaders to stop playing politics and do their jobs,” he said. “All I want to do is bring democracy — a government of, for and by the people — back to America.”

Kaleka’s father, Satwant Singh Kaleka, was one of five people killed when a white supremacist opened fire at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin in August 2012.

Kaleka, is everything that Charlie Sykes and his loyal followers fear(minority, non-Christian, Democrat, who works in Hollywood), so the attacks started immediately.   

This from Collin Roth:  

Amardeep Kaleka, the much-heralded Democratic challenger to Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI-01), is an alien conspiracy theorist and 9/11 truther

This from Jimmy Wigderson(@jwigderson): 

Paul Ryan Democratic Challenger an Alien Conspiracy Theorist, 9/11 Truther http://t.co/fKHNJ1qRSR Now let's go ask @Wisdems what they think.
— james wigderson (@jwigderson) October 31, 2013

When one of the RWNJ jumps on the protect paul bandwagon they all do.    As Kevin Binvesie weighs in, with wet dreams of how to smear Kaleka already:

(Wow, the “he’s a wack-job” direct mail nearly writes itself.  How does a pic­ture of this guy look next to the Hale Bop Comet Cult leader?)

Kaleka's actual views on Alien life?

 Kaleka founded Neverending Light, the studio that produced Sirius. He couldn't be reached for comment in time for publication, but he told the Capital Times, "I don't think that any knowledgeable human would say that extraterrestrials don't exist.

Let's "politifact" that statement, by asking the coolest man on the planet:

Yes.....White Wisconsin fails again.  

I  look forward to their next breaking investigation, tieing Robert Iger to the strange happenings on Witch Mountain!  

PS:  If my friends at White Wisconsin want to look into a politician with a crazy theory - check out this archaic roadmap!