Chris Abele Is Worse Than Scott Walker

Last November, Lisa Kaiser of the Shepherd Express wrote a pretty damning overview of Milwaukee County's first year of Boss Abele's power grab (emphasis mine):

The movement that culminated in Act 14 was launched by the Greater Milwaukee
Committee (GMC), a conservative business group with close ties to Abele and his friend and key advisor, conservative venture capitalist Sheldon Lubar. The bill was introduced in early 2013 by two suburban Republicans, former supervisor turned state Rep. Joe Sanfelippo (R-West Allis) and state Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills), with the blessing of Abele. The effort went far beyond any sort of “reform” pushed by Abele’s predecessor, Scott Walker.

Act 14, signed into law by Walker in May 2013, gutted the board’s power in unprecedented ways and deprived Milwaukee County taxpayers of the checks and balances on the county executive’s power to cut corrupt deals with his selected cronies. Act 14 turned the Milwaukee County executive into the most powerful one in Wisconsin. The 18 supervisors now have no ability to amend a contract, and contracts worth between $100,000 and $300,000 don’t even need full board approval but only the blessing of the Finance, Personnel and Audit Committee. Those worth less than $100,000 don’t get sent to the board at all. Only those contracts worth at least $300,000 need the full board’s approval. In addition, county supervisors lost their staffers, who were the ones who would spend the hundreds of hours carefully examining contracts and legislation, had their terms cut from four years to two, can’t weigh in on collective bargaining negotiations, and can’t get involved in the day-to-day operations of county business. Thanks to a referendum mandated in the bill, county voters cut supervisors’ pay to about $24,000, beginning in 2016.

As the board lost power, the county executive filled the vacuum, gaining almost unchecked power for a public office. Abele now has the power to make appointments of department heads and fill those vacancies without a confirmation by supervisors; call special meetings of the board and introduce legislation; and submit contracts to the board, when necessary, that only receive an up-or-down vote by the board.

But that’s not the only radical change in county government. Earlier this year, Abele sought and won a new state law—again, pushed by Sanfelippo, this time with state Sen. Leah Vukmir (R-Wauwatosa)—that created a new Mental Health Board (MHB) made up of appointed members. According to the new Act 203, this unelected board has the power to craft a budget for the county’s mental health services that the board can’t cut, although Abele can make adjustments, and it doesn’t have to present much information to the board or the taxpayers. In addition, the MHB has the power to enter into contracts that the board cannot consider, including contracts to privatize services.

Thanks to these two new laws, the Abele administration now runs the county with little oversight from the board, almost obliterating any notion of checks and balances that are found in clean and open government run by co-equal branches. Abele is now free to preside over county government with little public input or transparency, a strategy he’s come to use over and over again. When dubious actions like this occur in developing countries, democratic countries like the United States, the United Kingdom and most of Europe are sharply critical.

“It goes beyond Act 14,” Supervisor Theo Lipscomb told the Shepherd. “It’s the attitude of this administration. It’s the reason they wanted Act 14 but it’s their attitude toward governing. They push their agenda through and they don’t expect there to be oversight.”

Lipscomb, a member of the Finance, Personnel and Audit Committee, which is tasked with vetting contracts and working through a line-by-line review of the budget, said Abele’s penchant for secrecy is worse than anything seen under Walker. At least the Walker administration presented its budgets on time and had aides on hand during the board’s deliberations to clarify policy items within it, Lipscomb said.

This year, in contrast, Abele delivered his budget later than in previous years, with no details about big policy items such as a major restructuring of employee benefits, offered no aides to provide information to supervisors as they amended the budget, and then sent over his two dozen vetoes less than 24 hours before the board was scheduled to review and vote on them. When Abele finally did provide details about his changes to the county’s benefits package, they showed that he was cutting employees’ pay by 4.8% to 8%.

“I’d say it’s worse under the Abele administration,” Lipscomb said. “Clearly in the amount of detail they provided up front in the budget document but also in the fact that they just weren’t available for budget hearings.”

Lipcomb also pointed to a contract to privatize security services at the Marcia P. Coggs Human Services Building. The Abele administration sent a boilerplate resolution for privatizing security “at county facilities” to the board, and Lipscomb said the company in question was in the courthouse the day of the vote, apparently to pitch its services for courthouse security as well. The language only changed to target the Coggs building after supervisors raised questions about it, Lipscomb said.

“We had to really pull teeth to sort of extract that information,” Lipscomb said.

The sad part is that we haven't even seen the worst of it. That is still to come as Abele tries to position himself for a run for higher office.

Maybe it's time that we stop referring to Abele as Walker's Mini-me. Abele is surpassing Walker in secrecy, corruption and betraying the public trust.

What I still don't understand is why the Democratic Party not only continues to tolerate Abele but embraces him and gives him honors he most definitely doesn't deserve.

Walkergate: Doe, A Deer, A Phony Deer Hunter

In 2010, to hear Scott Walker tell it, he was suddenly a lifelong avid deer hunter and outdoors man.

Shortly after getting elected, the charade stopped when he hired Cathy Stepp to be the head of the DNR, in order to make it more business friendly.  Thus far, Stepp's claim to fame is to open the door for pit mines and pollution and to put hit jobs out on  Bambi and Giggles the fawn.

Walker's disregard for deer hunting continued when he hired his deer czar. Charles Pierce, writing for Esquire, explained it pretty clearly (emphasis his):

Walker's already better than halfway to selling off all of Wisconsin's public lands to private pillage, but Dr. James Kroll, the guy Walker has put in charge of deer hunting, takes things to a whole 'nother level. (First hint that Wisconsinites are being sold out? Handing their deer hunting authority over to a guy from Texas.) Back in 2002, Joe Nick Patoski of Texas Monthly wrote a long piece about the battle over deer hunting regulations in that state, and Kroll obliged by doing a half-gainer off the deep end. You see, Kroll doesn't believe in public lands. Her believes that the rights of plutocracy extend even to the wild spaces, and is a big fan of the kind of ranches that Dick Cheney goes to so he can mistake his friend for a dove and shoot him in the face....

...Kroll, who has been the foremost proponent of deer ranching in Texas for more than thirty years, doesn't mind the controversy and certainly doesn't fade in the heat. People who call for more public lands are "cocktail conservationists," he says, who are really pining for socialism. He calls national parks "wildlife ghettos" and flatly accuses the government of gross mismanagement. He argues that his relatively tiny acreage, marked by eight-foot fences and posted signs warning off would-be poachers, is a better model for keeping what's natural natural while making money off the land...

As the gentle reader could have predicted, with all of Walker's mucking about - not to making hunting less affordable in the state's sinking economy - deer hunting numbers have been dropping like a stone.

Abe Sauer wrote a piece at The Awl which really catches Walker's whole problem with trying to present himself as a deer hunter:

But an entirely different strategy is to frame the cheeseheaded governor as a man of the outdoors, a true hunter—just like Sarah Palin.

On Monday, Walker tweeted a selfie. Wrapped in hunter orange, the governor complained that the deer must hate the cold as much as he does. Walker tweeted the selfie about the frigid, deer-less cold from his personal account as well. Even more boldly, Walker is selling himself as a seasoned hunter without even setting foot in a field or zipping up a shred of Boehner orange. Early in November, Walker traveled to Virginia to campaign on behalf of part-time Cialis model and Virginia gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli. It was a doomed venture but Walker’s team did manage to sucker Politico to state as fact that Walker had cancelled his planned bow-hunt to campaign for Virginia’s Touch Of Grey® spokesman.

Unless it has disappeared, Walker has never tweeted from a hunt before. (A request to his office for a clarified accounting of Governor Walker’s hunting experience was not answered.) And as far as the Internet record is concerned, it seems there is a reason for that.

In the end, “experienced deer hunter” Scott Walker’s 2013 deer hunt appeared to last about as long as it takes to climb into a deer stand and tweet the view, tweet a selfie two hours later and then have spokesman Tom Evenson issue a statement to the Associated Press that Governor Walker had completed his 2013 hunt “without getting a deer.“2 Total 2013 hunting time, including bow season: about four hours. But then, maybe Walker is hoping he’ll get more than the nine-day season after his administration’s recent proposal to open an eight-month season that would add “about two-thirds of the acreage in the Wisconsin state park and trail system” for “hunting and trapping.”

In the recent release of the latest batch of the Walkergate emails, Walker's then secretary and scheduler, Dorothy Moore confirms that Walker wasn't much of a hunter then.

In the email in question, Moore is responding to Darlene Wink who was asking a favor for a friend of hers and Walker's, Chris Kujawa, to have Walker appear at a benefit for Thomas More High School, a private school in Milwaukee:

In the grand scheme of things, this doesn't show us anything new.  It only confirms what we knew all along - Walker is a phony and will do and say whatever he thinks the people want to hear, even if he knows it to be a flat out lie.  Sadly, this characteristic of Walker's is not limited to deer hunting but extends to everything under the sun, including taxes, job creation and education.

Abele Party Member Named Right Wisconsin's "Legislator of the Year"

White Right Wisconsin has named Joe Sanfelippo, a member of the Abele Party, as their "Legislator of the Year":

Abele and Sanfelippo,
with Chris Kliesmet and Orville Seymer
of CRG.

For any elected representative it would be an impressive year, but for a freshman it may have been one of a kind.

No stranger to the legislative process after years on the Milwaukee County Board, state Rep. Joe Sanfelippo (R-New Berlin) has been able to turn that background into one of the most productive areas of new legislation in Wisconsin. One which has given aid to the mentally ill and ended the do-nothing, high-pay lifestyle of the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors. In the coming session, Sanfelippo hopes to continue on that early success with other bills.

Boss Abele must be so proud!

After all, it was Abele that donated money to Sanfelippo, not just once, but twice.

In exchange for the campaign donations, Sanfelippo did what comes naturally to Teapublicans - he followed his benefactor's orders and introduced bills written by Abele, including the dismantling of representative government in Milwaukee County and throwing our most vulnerable citizens to the corporate vultures.

I'm sure that Abele considers that money well spent.

Sanfelippo holds a special spot in Abele's heart for another reason too.  Sanfelippo was the only member of the Abele Party to win an election in 2014.

And if you were wondering why the Democrats are in such disarray and keep losing elections, keep in mind that they continue to embrace Abele and give him honors even as he actively works against their own members and most of the Party's platform issues.

John Cleese Explains Fox News

Watch it all the way through to the end (it's only a minute):

Milwaukee Voucher High School Closes

Voucher schools around the country are proving to be an epic failure and are leaving students and their parents stranded with little or no warning.

It's no different in Milwaukee:

A private Milwaukee high school run by a voucher-school operator that's come under scrutiny this year has been barred from receiving more taxpayer money, state documents show.

And now Travis Technology High School on Milwaukee's north side has closed, forcing about 200 teenagers, almost all of whom attended on a taxpayer-paid voucher, to find different schools to attend when winter break ends.

The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction on Dec. 22 barred the high school from participating in the Milwaukee voucher program because it failed to obtain a special bond this month that was part of an agreement the school's operators signed with the state in October.

On Monday, a receptionist at Travis Tech confirmed the school was no longer operating.

Travis Tech, 8350 N. Steven Road, had 179 children enrolled as of fall 2014, according to state enrollment figures. The high school is one of two voucher schools run by Ceria M. Travis Academy Inc. The other is Ceria M. Travis Academy, 4744 N. 39th St., a much larger school with 437 students enrolled in kindergarten through 12th grade, according to state enrollment figures.

The nonprofit running the schools is headed by CEO Dorothy Travis Moore and her daughter, Executive Director Wilnekia Brinson.

Both are paid six-figure compensation packages, according to their organization's federal tax filings. Meanwhile, current and former employees have complained to the state and to the Journal Sentinel of lacking textbooks and other adequate classroom materials and resources to help children learn.

They also complained that Travis Moore has regularly employed teachers without bachelor's degrees — the state requires teachers at voucher schools to have degrees — while employing family members with dubious job titles and responsibilities.

Travis Moore and Brinson did not return calls for comment for this article. In previous interviews, they confirmed a handful of family members were employed but declined to produce a full roster of staff members' names, job titles and salaries.

Yeah, it sucks for those kids and their parents that have to find a new school by Monday but hey, at least the owner of the voucher school and her family got paid well, which surely will help them sleep at night:

Federal nonprofit tax filings list the individual compensation for Travis Moore and Brinson, whose total compensation packages totaled $213,000 and $118,000 respectively, in 2012, according to those federal documents.

Brinson said five family members are employed at the organization, which has 67 employees. Travis Moore confirmed that Brinson's husband, Robert Brinson, works for the organization in a student support and security role.

They declined to disclose other family members' job titles and salaries.

A video from a celebratory dinner for the organization at the Milwaukee Art Museum in 2011 revealed that Travis Moore's son worked for the organization, as well.

Over the years, the Travis family has raked in $35 million even though only 2% of their students can read at grade level and only 3% can do math at grade level.

I can't wait for the rousing success the entire state will see in 2015 when Scott Walker and the Teapublicans make the voucher system a statewide program.

A Sad Day In Milwaukee County

Today was a very sad day for Milwaukee but most people are not aware of it.

Thanks to Boss Abele and his agenda of austerity, several Milwaukee County employees who serve our community's most vulnerable citizens, were laid off. Milwaukee County no longer has Community Support Programming for the mentally ill because Abele privatized it.

But the layoffs aren't the worst part. Some of the private agency workers don't have a degree in the human service field. And many of the clients haven't even heard from, much less met with, their new private sector workers. They will be now without medication, support or supervision for who knows how long.

And we are paying more for this decrease in services.

County Executive Chris Abele and Meg Kissinger might call this a success and much needed reform. I call it an abomination and a disservice to our vulnerable citizens and to the taxpayers.

MD Kittle Attacks - And Loses!

By Jeff Simpson

M.D. Kittle from WIsconsin Reporter had a virtual vendetta against a kindergarten teacher, who over the summer destroyed one of his hero Scott Walker's campaign signs.   Kittle wrote numerous stories on his Bradley Foundation funded right wing blog about the "horrific" incident, a decision was made recently to rightly return this teacher to her classroom.  

In a statement issued on Dec. 22, the district confirmed that Smith will return to teaching but with conditions.“The Board of Education has determined that it is appropriate to restore Ms. Smith to active teaching duties, but has also imposed several conditions to address this situation and to make certain that no similar incidents occur in the future,” the district said. “The Board of Education requires that all district employees understand that, as public servants, they are role models for district students and should exhibit appropriate public conduct, whether on or off the job.”The district stated: “The Board of Education wishes to make it clear that it does not condone Ms. Smith’s conduct. For that reason, the board has taken serious, remedial measures to address this situation. However, the board also concluded that it was a completely isolated event that is not representative of Ms. Smith’s character, or her record of service to our country and our district. The board also noted that district parents that have had children in Ms. Smith’s class praise her work as an educator.”

Kittle's withch unt resulted in a teacher being suspended,with pay, for a whole semester.  Which meant the school lost, the kids lost, this public servant lost in this.  The only good thing to come out of it was that in the end Matt Kittle also lost.  

why do teachers need a union?  Well funded right wing organizations like Wisconsin Reporter has a long history of attacking teachers and trying to get them fired.    Michael Grebe is in charge of millions upon millions of dollars, with the goal of electing Republicans.  He has proven that there will be no dissent allowed.  

The sad thing to think about is what public servant he sic's Wisconsin Reporter(his personal lapdog) on next.  



By the way want to know where people like Larry Mulqueen come up with their ideas of such things as "liberal hit list"?

Read the comments on this story by Kittle and it becomes very clear!

Wisconsin School Funding Explained

The Giuliani Privilege

By Jeff Simpson

Rudy "911" Giuliani. former Republican Mayor of New York City, has been everywhere in the news telling anyone who will listen, that there was nothing wrong with Darren Wilson Shooting Michael Brown.  

After days of nation-wide protesting and rioting over the grand jury decision to not indict former Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani said on Sunday that prosecutors shouldn't have tried to indict him in front of a grand jury in the first place. Doing so, according to Giuliani, was political theater.
"I don't see how this case normally would even have been brought to a grand jury," said Giuliani, a former prosecutor, on Fox News Sunday. "This is the kind of case—had it not had the racial overtones and the national publicity—where a prosecutor would have come to the conclusion that there is not enough evidence to present to the grand jury."

One thing that Mr. Giuliani has to thank his status and skin color for is that he still has a daughter.

The rebellious daughter of former law-and-order Mayor Rudolph Giuliani was busted today for allegedly stealing makeup from an upscale beauty and skin care shop near her Upper East Side home, officials said.
Cops said Caroline Giuliani, 20, a student at Harvard University, was arrested after security cameras caught her stuffing makeup into her jacket pocket at a Sephora store at E. 86th Street and Lexington Avenue shortly before 2 p.m.
Giuliani, who was in the store by herself, was confronted by a sales clerk and a store security guard, who called police.
Sources said she allegedly stole five items, worth about $100.
During the wait for cops to arrive, store officials established the suspect’s identity, and apparently had a change of heart and declined to press charges. But by then it was too late, and the daughter of the man who built a reputation for being tough on crime was carted out in handcuffs.

Unlike Michael Brown, Caroline lives to shop(lift) another day!   This must be part of the 7% crime that Rudy likes to talk about.

Yes Virginia There Is A Santa Claus!

 

This never gets old to me. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you!  Thank you for reading and commenting all year.   

In 1897, the New York Sun received a letter from a girl, Virginia O’Hanlon, asking if Santa Claus exists. It is probably the most famous letter to the editor ever published. Francis P. Church of the Sun replied with an editorial that is now a seasonal classic:

“I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says if you say it in the Sun, it is so. Please tell me the truth — is there a Santa Claus?”— Virginia O’Hanlon

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except what they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little.
In this great universe of ours, man is a little insect and an ant is his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! How dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus.
It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginia. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment except sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.
Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus.
The most real things in the world are those that neither child nor man can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on a lawn? Of course not. But that is no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.
You tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men who ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glories beyond.
Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding. No Santa Claus! Thank God! He lives, and he will live forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

Walkergate: Santa Doe Gives Tim Russell Another Lump Of Coal

As the gentle reader is aware, Scott Walker's lifelong friend, campaign worker and aide, Tim Russell, took the fall for his old buddy and was sentenced to two years in prison for stealing money from a ersatz veterans fund (which really was nothing more than a campaign stunt for Walker).

Sadly, Russell could have and should have been charged with so much more but Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm was unable or unwilling to get the job done.  Russell was heavily involved with the caucus-style of illegal politicking going on in the courthouse, including setting up the secret router that Walker and company used to avoid open record requests.

Like his co-conspirator, Kelly Rindfleisch, Russell decided a slap on the wrist was too much and appealed his conviction, even though he had pleaded guilty.

Predictably, it did not go as well as Russell was hoping:

A Wisconsin appeals court has upheld a theft conviction against a former aide of Gov. Scott Walker when he was Milwaukee County executive.

The 1st District Court of Appeals on Tuesday ruled against Tim Russell in his appeal of his 2012 conviction.

Russell was Walker's deputy chief of staff in 2009 and 2010 and was charged with stealing more than $21,000 from a nonprofit group benefiting veterans. He pleaded guilty to one felony theft count and was sentenced to 2 years in prison.

Russell argued on appeal that he was wrongly sentenced for the crime of misconduct in office, rather than theft. He also argued that he was ordered to pay $5,000 more in restitution than was proper.

But the appeals court upheld the lower court's rulings in both instances.

Even the appeal didn't work out, Russell can take some solace that his time in the big house will be over within a month - provided he keeps his nose clean.

Then the only question is what strings Walker will pull to reward his old chum for his silence all this time.  And you know that will happen, otherwise Russell might write a kiss and tell book which would torpedo Walker's presidential aspirations.

Deanna Alexander Does It Again - Money Matters, Black Lives - Not So Much

Two days ago, I reported about a very disgusting and vile racist tweet made my Deanna Alexander, in which she mocked the last words spoken by Eric Garner, a black man who was choked to death by a New York cop:

To say that her racism set off a firestorm would be an understatement.

She has spent the last two days deleting comments off of her Facebook page and locking down her campaign Twitter account.  The only three other people I have seen do that are her good friends and benefactors - Scott Walker, David Clarke and Chris Abele.

Unfortunately for her, not all of her friends support her overt racism.

A friend of Cog Dis has shared these tweets made by Alexander, showing that while she might not think that black lives matter, she does care about one thing - money:

In other words, she is more concerned about businesses making money than she is about people making a living wage or the reason for the protests- another black man being unjustly killed by a white cop, something which has become epidemic across the country.

Adding insult to injury is the fact that Alexander opposes raising the minimum wage, much less making it a living wage, making her complaints hypocritical and hollow - much like her spirit.

The fact is that Alexander is an embarrassment to the Milwaukee County Board and to Milwaukee County in general.

If she had a shred of dignity or respectability, she would apologize and resign immediately.  Don't hold your breath for either of those things to happen, since she doesn't possess either of those qualities.

I again call on the Milwaukee County Board to censure Alexander for her overt racism and attempts to fan the flames of the racial tension that envelops our community.

In the meanwhile, you can contact Alexander and tell her you don't appreciate her racism and that it has no place in government. You can call her at 414-278-4259 or email her at deanna.alexander@milwaukeecountywi.gov.

Scott Walker Channels His Inner Jeremiah Rusk - Again

By now, the gentle reader is probably fully aware that on this past Friday afternoon, people were peacefully protesting the lack of justice regarding the murder of Dontre Hamilton, as they have done so several times in the past eight months. However, on Friday, in the course of their protest, they briefly blocked I-43.  As they say, it was a minor inconvenience brought about my a major injustice.

What the gentle reader might not know is that the cowardly Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke found himself to be above his head and ran to Scott Walker for help.  Walker granted Clarke's request and ordered out the National Guard, even though they don't have a mission or objective yet.

It reminded me of another Wisconsin governor that was a lot like Walker - Jeremiah Rusk.  But in 1886, it was laborers and not African Americans who were the targets:

Governor Rusk was under considerable pressure from employers to stop the strike. Employers were saying that they would turn the entire society upside down and use the bombing in Haymarket Square as their proof that a revolution is under way.

Rusk called the Mills and told Captain Treaumer of the Lincoln Guard "if the strikers try to enter the mill, shoot to kill." Captain Treaumer then ordered his men to pick out a man, concentrate and kill him when the order is given. The strikers spent the night in open fields nearby while the Militia camps stayed at the Mills with sentries posted. During the night the sentries were shooting at anything that moved. A Navy tug brought provisions for the guard.

May 5
Around nine in the morning the strikers gathered again chanting "eight hours," a reporter who slept with them reported that it was odd that this was a group with no real leadership, but everyone was united in one single purpose.

The crowd approached the mill and faced the militia who were ready to fire. Before Treaumer knew the crowd's real intentions he ordered halt, but the strikers, who were about two hundred yards away, did not hear him.

He ordered the militia to fire. The crowd was in chaos as people fled the scene. The Milwaukee Journal reported that six were dead and at least eight more were expected to die within twenty four hours.

It also needs to be pointed out that this isn't the first time Walker has threatened to use military force against peaceful protesters:

In 1886, Wisconsin made history right here in little old Bay View.  The situation then is being eerily repeated by our own Governor Rusk Walker who is calling for the removal of all worker rights in both the public and private sectors, and has threatened said workers with the National Guard if there is any "unrest."  What is worrisome is that he has not defined what he considers "unrest."

Back in 1886, workers were joining forces and demanding pay raises and eight hour work days.  They almost shut down every business in the city until they agreed to start treating their workers with respect and as people.  When the strikers came to Rolling Mills in Bay View, where things got ugly.  Governor Rusk, at the pleading of big businesses (WMC, anyone?), sent out the state militia.  The rest, as they say, is history...

One might have hoped better from even Walker, but when his supporters and fellow right wing nut jobs have no issue with mocking the death of a black man, I wouldn't put anything past Walker - especially if he thinks it might help his slim to nonexistent chances to be president.

Deanna Alexander's Racist Tweet Goes Beyond The Pale

With all of the racial tension going on in Milwaukee and the rest of the nation, one would think that it would be incumbent to try to calm things down, or at least not fan the flames.

Yet Milwaukee County Supervisor Deanna Alexander has willfully failed to act like a responsible adult and put out one of the most horrendous and blatantly racist tweets I've seen from an elected official:

It's one thing to express support for law enforcement officers, but to mock the unnecessary and unjust death of a black man goes beyond the pale.

While it is surprising that Alexander somehow thought it would be a good idea for an elected official to send out such a overtly racist tweet, the fact that she is a racist is no surprise.  She exemplified that when she sent out this vulgar email against her opponent, Tracey Corder, in her last election:

As I had written at the time:

Being a social worker myself, I would like to know why Alexander thinks that's a bad thing.  Or is she just using her career as a bureaucrat in order to be elitist?

With the reference to the "four convictions" against Corder, she is being downright dishonest and deceitful.  There are four cases involving Corder listed on CCAP.  But two of them are small claims court involving the time when she lived with her brother and the other two are traffic violations.  Not exactly the hardened criminal that Alexander is trying to portray her as.

The really ironic part of her tweet is that she is not exactly law abiding herself.

In just the past couple of months, she was caught using taxpayer money to send out a voter suppression mailer and then got lying about it. She is also under investigation for violating ethics rules by using her status to raise money for her father's funeral.

People are already calling for Alexander to resign because of her extremely racist tweet but I don't expect her to do that.  She doesn't have enough integrity or honor to take responsibility for her actions.

I do, however, sincerely hope that her colleagues on the Milwaukee County Board will hold her accountable and censure her for trying to flame the fire under the racial tension in our community.

She must answer for her inappropriateness and irresponsibility.

But I have to admit I agree with Alexander on one point - she is broken.

ADDENDUM: Here are some examples of incidents in which the person was not breaking the law and is not breathing easy - or even breathing - anymore.

Walkergate Was About To Go Nationwide

As the gentle reader knows, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has been the subject of not one, but two, separate John Doe investigations.

The first investigation was regarding Walker using his office as Milwaukee County Executive as one of his campaign headquarters. The investigation revealed an extremely high level of collaboration between his county staff and his campaign staff. The investigation also led to six convictions and more than a score of people being given immunity.

The first investigation gave rise to the second investigation into the illegal collaboration between Walker's campaign and various dark money groups, like Wisconsin Club for Growth and Americans for Prosperity.

Investigators were getting close to blowing the case wide open, so said dark money groups poured tons of cash into fighting the investigation by filing frivolous lawsuits on both the state and federal levels. Even though their petitions were full of lies and omissions, the dark money groups were able to get the help of the equally corrupt federal Judge Rudolph Randa and put a temporary halt to the investigation.

One of the multitude of lawsuits filed by the Wisconsin Club for Growth accuses the Government Accountability Board of exceeding its authority in the second investigation. Stemming from that lawsuit, as it usual the case with these fools, they give away more of what they are trying to hide, including other people involved in their scandal.

From Marie Rohde, writing for WisPolitics.com:

John Doe investigators planned to issue subpoenas and search warrants for radio personalities Charlie Sykes and Sean Hannity as part of their secret probe into coordination between conservative groups and Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign, according to a lawsuit released today.

Eric O’Keefe and the Club for Growth, two targets of the probe, filed the lawsuit under seal earlier this year in Waukesha County Court accusing the Government Accountability Board of exceeding its authority as it took part in the investigation. A judge ordered a redacted version of the complaint released today following a hearing.

The lawsuit provides no explanation why investigators may have planned the subpoenas for Hannity and Sykes. They were mentioned in a passage on others who received subpoenas in the probe, and the citation for Hannity and Sykes was from a exhibit that was filed under seal. The suit says many more subpoenas were planned for targets throughout the country, but it does not name them.

It's not a big surprise that Sykes, a Milwaukee-based squawk radio host is named. He's been involved with a lot of the propaganda and is currently married to the communications director for the Bradley Foundation, which is one of the dark money groups.

While Hannity's name is a bit surprising, it shouldn't be. After all, he did have his own fundraising scandal.

Oh, and as for the latest bit of inanity from Wisconsin Club for Growth...as the gentle reader could have guessed, they're making things up again. From a press release issued by the GAB lawyer:

In response to allegations in the amended complaint, it is important to be absolutely clear the Board through its Chair was apprised of District Attorney contacts with Government Accountability Board staff concerning the developing John Doe from the beginning.

We have committed to trying this case in the courts, not the media. Allegations in a complaint are just that, allegations, and nothing more. They are not proven facts or conclusions of a court.

We will have an opportunity to file our response and present evidence which we believe will refute and disprove specific allegations as well as the general hyperbole of the plaintiff’s complaint. As with any litigation, we urge the media, public, and elected officials to withhold judgment until the facts are known. After all, that is the basis of our legal system.

We caution pundits and observers not to be hasty in making conclusions based upon partial information. When the facts are known, we trust that erroneous and uninformed conclusions will be corrected

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The scary part about all this is that these cases are headed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which has agreed to hear at least some of them. Four out of the seven justices are beholden to the dark money special interests that are behind these lawsuits and don't seem likely to recuse themselves like ethical judges would do.