Paul Bearers

On so many levels the GOP presidential race has provided a ton of rollicking entertainment. It helps take our minds off of how dangerous many of this corral of clowns really are.

Something fascinating is happening, and that is it has become Ron Paul's turn to float to the top of the pack in the fervent hope that someone who could beat Romney now that Newt's pizza sized warts that appear, disappear and reappear based on the GOP's willingness to see them.

After all, if you follow the right wing blogs they are working hard to create a pure beyond belief conservative GOP that they worry about being stuck with Mitt. He is so chameleon that, as Will Durst put it about Bill Clinton, if you threw him into a multicolored room he would explode.

Ron Paul is definitely the fan favorite among the GOP, because as an old man he holds views that those in the party all remember back when they were college sophomores. Let's face it. Ron Paul is a libertarian and libertarians are really Republicans that like to do dope.

The problem however for the party is that the current crop of sophomores will be combing Music Man Land to drum up caucus goers during their semester break. And the way the caucuses work it takes activists to deliver the caucus votes. The ads only fluff up the GOP Iowans, but it takes real bodies to deliver the win.

The rapidly deflating Newt balloon is floating only with ads, and there is a good chance that next month he could end up lagging the pack on the way to New Hampshire.

So Dr. Paul could stroll out of the Iowa with a plurality of caucus votes. The legs propelling the Paul campaign have a strong belief in their candidate, and winning Iowa will pump their hopes, while simultaneously stoke the fears of the rest of the part.

For the GOP, Paul was to serve one function and that was to spice up the debates. Now Paul's run would no longer be a cute side show, but a threat to the "serious" wing (try to wrap your brain around that one) of the party should it go anywhere.

But the Paulites will not cease, desist, and take their orders like good little Republicans. And when that happens, things get ugly. FOX is already going after Paul and if this crusade rolls along all the rest of the GOP leadership will look to get rid of this nuisance -- With Extreme Prejudice.

Worse, the Paul bandwagon runs on very little fuel and they could take this all the way to the convention, where the campaign will undoubtedly get rolled by the party, as they hold their collective noses and nominate Mitt.

Here's where it gets interesting. Ron Paul is claiming he supports the party, but he doesn't have too many runs left in him and his supporters know that. They would more than likely beg and plead Dr. Paul to run third party.

Of course this wouldn't be the first time a Texan put a Democratic president back in the White House.

Walker's Merit Pay System Explained

First it was explained in words.  Now it's explained in a cartoon:

The Walker Budget Is Already Working! Part XLVIII

The November jobs numbers are in and it's the big brother version of the last four months:

Wisconsin lost private-sector jobs for the fifth consecutive month in November, the same months that the nation has been adding private-sector jobs, according to a report Thursday from the state Department of Workforce Development.

The state lost an estimated 11,700 private-sector jobs in November from October, the deepest since April 2009, when the nation was in the throes of the recession. The figures are based on a monthly government survey of employers and adjusted to smooth out recurring seasonal factors, such as winter-related slowdowns in construction or holiday hiring by retailers.

The government sector, meanwhile, continued to lose jobs at the city and county level, as it has for much of the past two years. All told, the state lost an estimated 14,600 nonfarm jobs when the losses in the private sector are combined with the losses in the public sector.

Yes, once again, while the rest of the country adds jobs, to the tune of 120,000 of them, the Walker budget of attacking the workers and attacking the state has yielded a loss of nearly another 15,000 jobs. That's 34,900 jobs lost in the last five months, ever since Act 10, his attack on the workers, kicked in. How much more evidence does the state need to realize that Walker needs to go?

And remember, Walker keeps telling us his plan is working, so we can only come to the conclusion is that his plan was to destroy Wisconsin. There's your malfeasance for you, as if there was a need for yet another reason to recall that weasel.

And if you look at the article and see the claim that unemployment dropped to 7.3%, it only means that the media can't think independently.

Between Walker driving the state to either the unemployment line and/or the poor house and his absolute corruption, there is no way a good Wisconsinite could support him.

Walkergate: Absolute Corruption

There's an old, cynical joke about a guy that keeps hitting his head against a wall as hard as he could. When asked why he was doing that, he replied, "Because it feels so good when I stop."

I was reminded of that today when I was catching up on the news of the day.

Scott Walker and WISGOP has filed a lawsuit against the GAB. Their complaint is that the GAB is enforcing the law and will not certify each signature on the recall petitions. Walker claims that this is unconstitutional.

I don't see this going anywhere fast.

But I pondered why Walker would do such an absurd thing.

The most obvious answer was that this was a genuine complaint. I quickly dismissed this notion though. After all, Walker has been a career politician for the past twenty years and knows full well how the system works. Indeed, the article enforces that Walker knew the rules, or at least should have:

"The plaintiffs are challenging the rules that have been established by statutes and administrative code, and which have been in place since the late 1980s. Since then, these rules have been used in every state and local recall petition effort against incumbents of both parties," accountability board director Kevin Kennedy said.

Of course, regular readers of this site already knew that. I covered this weeks ago when I consulted with elections law expert Attorney Mike Maistelman. Maistelman confirmed that it is normal practice for the opposing political camp to verify and to challenge the signatures on any petition.

So in other words, Walker is saying that the fact that the GAB won't use tax dollars to do his campaign's political work is unconstitutional. Now, I'm not a constitutional expert by any means, nor do I pretend to be one like a certain Bradley Foundation beneficiary, but I really don't believe that there is a part in the constitution that protects the right to be corrupt.

But while the depth of Walker's corruption should very well shock and disgust anyone, no one should be surprised. After all, Walker has spent so many years following corrupt practices that it has become second nature for him.

Remember, Walkergate itself has been going on for nineteen months now, as the authorities try to do a comprehensive investigation into the full length and full depth of Walker's corruption.

Walker, while had his director of constituent affairs doing politicking on county time and on county equipment. He also had his lifelong friend, Tim Russell, along with him on his bike ride last year, using a county car and on county time, to help him campaign during the tour of the state. Again, this is old news, since I've already given a full introduction to the beginnings of Walkergate.

Another example of how unethical Walker has become came was when Walker finally realized that he was in serious trouble and used the state's own website to set up a campaign page for himself.

And now he feels that doing whatever the hell he wants, no matter how unethical or corrupt it might be, is his constitutional right.

But do not despair. There are a couple of silver linings to the dark cloud of Walker's abhorrent behaviors.

One is that he is pulling this stunt at the halfway point of the signature gathering phase of his recall, which has already gathered more than 500,000 signatures. (My guess is that the total has already been reached when one considers all of the gathered signatures which haven't been turned in yet.) By filing this ridiculous lawsuit, it only puts a bright light on Walker's corruption, which in turn will only serve to inspire the signature collectors to double and triple their efforts. I would not be at all surprised if the number of signatures tops one million by the time it's over.

The other silver lining is that this will cut into his base by betraying them.

Two months ago, Representative Robin Vos started the spin of complaining how much the recall would cost taxpayers. As one might expect, Vos completely ignored the fact that keeping Walker and his maleficent policies has already cost the state a heck of a lot more than all of the recall elections combined.

Others have picked up this deflated ball and have tried to run with it. The bloviating and confabulating Charlie Sykes was sniveling about it as recently as Thursday morning. He was especially whiny when he mewled about how the "mainstream media" wasn't giving this the coverage he thinks it deserves.

Well, oddly enough, I find myself agreeing with Sykes. I hope that all the media sources cover this, especially now. I hope that they point out that despite their complaints of cost, Walker is now forcing tax payers to pay for the court costs as well as the costs that the GAB will now incur to defend against this inane and frivolous lawsuit. Then for good measure, they can finally get around to pointing out what Walker's policies are costing us, both in jobs and a lousier economy.

That will only serve to help push more conservatives over to the side of signing the petitions.

Upon reflecting what I've just written, I've come to realize that Walker - with his hypocrisy and absolute corruption - is the recallers' best friend. He just keeps giving us more and more things to work with and more and more people who are sick of him and want him gone.

Walkergate: Walker's CARW-tel

On Tuesday, we learned that Andrew P. Jensen, Jr., a leading Milwaukee real estate broker, was arrested and booked into the Milwaukee County Jail for not cooperating with the ongoing John Doe investigation.

Wednesday evening, Jensen was released.  As part of his release, Jensen had to agree to meet with prosecutors at the end of January.

The shortness of his stay would indicate that this was a wake up call to Jensen that his money and influence doesn't extend as far as he would like and that he is not exempt from the law.  It also serves as a warning to other people that are entangled in the growing mess which spawned from the way Walker practices politics.

Oddly, Jensen's attorney, Patrick Schott, said that Jensen was jailed because Jensen "wouldn't adopt their version of events."  But the facts that authorities tried to offer Jensen immunity and that he tried to take it if he could remain anonymous while doing so would indicate that Jensen knows what the score is, but is too afraid of the Republican party machine that he doesn't want it known that he sang.

Now that Jensen's been outed, watch for the right, especially in the form of talk radio, rally around him and try to make him appear as a living martyr in a feeble effort to discredit the investigation.*  This is not so much to congratulate him for keeping his mouth shut - so far - as it is to remind him that they are watching in case he does.

On another note, in Tuesday's piece, I pointed out that there were other cronies of Walker's who were also tied up in the real estate business.  What even I hadn't fully realized is how cozy the relationship is between those people that I had mentioned.

In a copy of the Commercial Association of REALTORS Wisconsin newsletter, from June 2008 (pdf), shows that while Jensen was serving as Chairman of the group's board, Jim Villa was the group's president.  If the reader scrolls down the newsletter to the second page, they can see a giant ad taken out by JM Hiller Consulting, LLC, which is the company owned by John Hiller, who had served for 18 years as Scott Walker's campaign treasurer, until abruptly leaving in the spring of this year.

This edition also includes an article about how they were nice and close to then Speaker of the Assembly Michael Huebsch, who is currently Walker's top henchman and has been leading the attack on Wisconsinite's First Amendment Rights, especially when it comes to the People's House, also known as the Capitol Building.

In the February 2008 (pdf) issue of the same newsletter, there are two articles about the groups PAC and how they're using it to "influence" lawmakers.  And we already know all too well how easily Walker is influenced, especially by big money.

And just as a bow on today's package, we can't leave Tim Russell out of this assorted affair.  Remember that under Walker's term as Milwaukee County Executive, Russell served at times in the economic development department as well as the Director of Housing.  That is significant when one looks at this line from the MJS article (emphasis mine):

Jensen, who primarily represents building owners seeking tenants for vacant space, is considered one of the top agents in the Milwaukee area in this field. He has also brokered deals involving public agencies and buildings.

Anyone familiar with Walker's method of operation in management would know that it includes trying to privatize all the services he could as well as sell all the assets he could, even if it meant ruining something as unique as the Monarch Trail.

That's the problem when a politician weaves such cozy webs. They might seem nice and cozy, but they can quickly turn into a tightening trap on them when they do wrong.

*This seems like a counter-intuitive strategy.  Do they really want prosecutors to level charges during the recall and so close before the election?  Really?

Stick With Me, Kid, And I'll Make You A Star

Seven months ago, a relatively new friend to me, a tweeter going by the handle @BattiestGrrl, approached me, saying she wanted to show me a "manifesto" she had written in regard to the protests against the power grabs and over reach by Scott Walker and then State Senator Randy Hopper.

She told me that her name is really Joanne Staudacher and we became friends on Facebook as well.  I read her  manifesto, liked it, and decided to, with her permission, to post it.  It was a raving success and was often retweeted and spread like wildfire on Facebook.  

I was glad to have been able to get her message out for others to enjoy, but didn't think much about it afterwards as all of the vileness of Fitzwalkerstan came raining down upon our heads.

Now fast forward to this past weekend, when I got to go to Madison to spend time with many of my dearest friends.  We were fortunate enough to have Joanne be able to join us for a little while.  While we were talking, Joanne told me that she wanted to thank me again for posting her manifesto, but cryptically added that she couldn't tell me why just then.  

I thought it odd, but I figured she'd let me know in due time.  She still hasn't told me, but I think I figured it out without her doing so.

Today, TIME magazine announced their Person of the Year.  In this case, their "person" was a composite of the millions of people around the world who took to the streets to demand that a sense of balance be returned and a flat out rejection of the corporate greed and the plutocracy that was happening.  They covered the protests in Greece, in Egypt, in Europe, in New York and yes, even here in Wisconsin.

And who was representing #wiunion, but none other than Joanne with her manifesto on her protest sign.

Just how cool is that?!  And to think, in some small way, I helped this rising star.

Now, if I could just work that magic for myself...

Walker's School Daze

The only thing that Scott Walker remembers from his abbreviated academic career at Marquette University:

And no, there is no reason to believe the professor is Rick Esenberg.  Any resemblance is just a coincidence.

JUST SAY NO -- Walker Edition

Walker has turned down $1.3 billion in federal funding. Yeah, we're broke 

You can slice and dice this all you want and split hairs until the cows come home, especially you ideologues who seem to feel that wins an argument.

But the real question is, can we afford this guy?

We could have done something with that money and please, don't dish the crap that we shouldn't be accepting the money in the first place.

Trust me, all of Walker's heroes -- Perry, Barbour, Christie, etc are taking the money. Texas would be dead without federal money. Walker was just unfortunate enough to buy into his own ideology.

Just think how much further ahead Walker would have been on his 250,000 jobs program. But unless it runs on rubber, his buddies on right wing talk radio have been rabidly against it, so this is the corner Walker has been painted into.

The Walker Budget Is Already Working! Part XLVII

It's not only private sector jobs that are being lost due to Scott Walker's ideological war on the people of Wisconsin.  Just ask the people in the city of Manitowoc, who are about to lose 13% of the city's work force (45 our of 350 employees), including police officers and firefighters.

And for the honor of losing public safety, timely plowed roads and other city functions being hampered, citizens of the city will get to see their property taxes go up by 10%.

And next year will be only worse as the real impact of a "tool-less" budget takes hold and punished average citizens for not being a filthy rich corporation CEO.

Is there any questions on why the recall is needed?  I didn't think so.

Walkergate: The First Arrest

Right in the middle of the gathering of signatures for the Scott Walker recall, Walkergate raises its ugly head, as if we needed any more incentive to get the bum out of office with all due haste.

Andrew P. Jensen, Jr, coutesty
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Dan Bice of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, who has been covering the ongoing saga of Walkergate, which has been underway for a year and a half and is reportedly growing massive in its range and scale, reports on the latest shoe to fall in the investigation:

On Tuesday, authorities arrested Andrew P. Jensen Jr., a commercial real estate broker with Boerke Co. and a past president of the Commercial Association of REALTORS Wisconsin.

Fran McLaughlin, spokesman for Sheriff David Clarke Jr., confirmed that Jensen was behind bars on Tuesday night. But McLaughlin said no one had filed a criminal complaint against the 50-year-old Milwaukee resident.

The sheriff's website states that charges are pending against Jensen.

Attempts to reach Jensen or his lawyer were unsuccessful. Jensen, who primarily represents building owners seeking tenants for vacant space, is considered one the top agents in Milwaukee in this field.

Jensen was a minor contributor to Walker's gubernatorial campaign, donating $850 to Walker. Boerke Co. employees gave a total of $12,150.

Insiders told No Quarter that he was arrested for refusing to cooperate with the long-running John Doe investigation by Milwaukee County prosecutors.

As Bice goes on to explain, in a John Doe investigation, prosecutors can be subpoenaed and compelled to testify.

While Jensen's arrest will make for great conversation around the water cooler and at the lunch table on Wednesday, it's not the biggest part of Walkergate. Remember, Jensen was only arrested, per the article, for allegedly not cooperating with the investigation. It doesn't indicate that Jensen was necessarily tied up with any other wrong doings.

But what did catch my eye was the fact that Jensen is a real estate broker and past president of the Commercial Association of REALTORS Wisconsin (CARW).

It caught my eye, because Walker seems to like to surround himself with these folks

One such example is Jim Villa.  Villa is a Walker crony going way back.

Villa was Walker's Chief of Staff when he was in the state legislature.  He returned to the Chief of Staff position when Walker was Milwaukee County Executive and was gearing up for his first attempt at running for governor.  At that time, Walker was already taking a lot of heat for the miserable way he was handling the county's affairs and for campaigning on the county dime during his infamous bike rides. Even then, Walker acolytes like Owen Robinson were falling all over themselves making excuses and being apologetic as they defended Walker's already evident corruption.

Besides being a Walker supporter and Walker aide, Villa is also a real estate broker and has been the president of CARW for the past four years.

Another such character is a man named Jim Hiller.  You've probably heard of the name.

He was Walker's campaign treasurer for 18 years, about as long as Walker has been a career politician.  Hiller also served on Walker's transition team as he became governor.  And yes, he was in real estate for 21 years.

Hiller should be someone to watch as Walkergate continues to unfold.  After all, there has to be a reason why Hiller suddenly quit as Walker's treasurer after 18 years, and I doubt it was because he wanted to be a lobbyist:

"Every time there's a new witness, this thing sprouts a new branch and heads in a completely new direction," said one person familiar with the investigation.

Walker also acknowledged Tuesday that his longtime campaign treasurer, John Hiller, had left that post. Records show Hiller was replaced by Kate Lind on May 13.

The governor said the change had nothing to do with the John Doe investigation

"For us, we put someone on who is a professional comptroller to make sure, with the volume of supporters we have, we had somebody who could handle that," Walker said. Two insiders said Hiller had also broken formal ties with the campaign around the same time he began soliciting clients with business before the state.

After that length of time, Eagle Scout Walker suddenly felt that Hiller wasn't up to the job? Right.

But that line about "soliciting clients with business before the state" sounds awfully suspicious to me, given some of the rumors that have been floating around regarding the investigation.

But there's one more real estate agent who is a long time Walker crony that is most definitely a person of interest in the investigation: Tim Russell. Russell is, of course, one of the first people to be investigated in the early days of Walkergate. He was caught on film campaigning with Walker during his bike ride. He also had his office thoroughly searched, including having his computer and county-issued Blackberry confiscated and locked file cabinets pried open by Sheriff's deputies.

As a possible tie in to the others, Russell also held a couple of real estate related positions under Walker in Milwaukee County, including working in economic development and during his last job, as Director of Housing. Both of these jobs worked intricately in real estate and the funding that goes with those positions.

All of these people, as well as other members of CARW and the real estate brokerage and real estate development were big supporters of Walker's campaigns, whether by working for him and/or contributing to his campaign.

Given Walker's long history of blatant cronyism and of rewarding his supporters lavishly, it does give pause to wonder if this is somehow related to the Walkergate investigation.  I think the gentle reader already knows where I would come down on this, but I will leave it to you to decide for yourself.

Now let us prepare for the onslaught of manipulations and stunts that Walker and his allies will ply in an effort to draw our attention from the things that they don't want us to see or know about.

We Scored Real High On The Cosmo Compatibility Test Too!

Scott Walker is starting to dredge the bottom of the public relations barrel as he flails around in an effort to stave off his inevitable recall.

He issued a press release about the "Year of Progress for Wisconsin's Job Climate." The basis of his statement is some magazines' ratings*, some of them many months old. The doofus had this to say:

“We’ve worked hard this year to create a business environment that encourages job creation,” said Governor Walker. “Business rankings are one way to show the progress we’ve made in moving Wisconsin in the right direction. They also remind us that we must keep working to encourage job creation in our state. Our most important goal remains helping Wisconsin families prosper; these rankings show we are laying the right foundation.”

Sadly for Walker, and for the rest of us that actually care about our state, the reality doesn't jive with his fantasy world.

Via Phil Scarr, we find a detailed analysis of Wisconsin's real job climate at Econbrowser. The news is grim indeed as this chart of the leading indices shows:

The analysis shows that both public and private sector jobs will continue to decline, with only Indiana doing worse than Wisconsin in the entire region.  Or to paraphrase Art Kumbalek of the Shepherd Express, when it comes to jobs and the overall economy in Wisconsin, it can be best summed up as:

"2011 sucked.  2012 will suck, only worse."

Jake has another way of looking at it, with his own set of graphs and charts, which shows Wisconsin is dead last in economic activity, not for just the region, but the entire country!

That's not a surprise though, when one considers the fact that Walker has spent the last eleven and a half months doing everything and anything he could think of to take money out of the economy by concentrating it in the hands of the few already ultra-wealthy campaign contributors.

If you look closely at Walker's press release, there is one thing that is obvious by its absence.  And that is the actual jobs numbers for the state.  There's no mention of how Wisconsin led the country in jobs lost in October.  Not a peep about the tens of thousands of jobs lost since his budget kicked in.  And the up to 2,500 people in Central Wisconsin who just got pink slipped or put at risk of getting one don't seem to be even a blip on Walker's myopic radar.  (By the way, expect the November jobs numbers* to be coming out this Friday.  I'm not holding my breath that the news will be good.)

While Wisconsinites desperately need jobs, Walker gives us the economic/business equivalent of a compatibility test from Cosmo.

It's just a shame that we need to recall him.  With his track record of being an absolute failure in creating jobs, his inability to lead without resorting to bullying and thuggery, and the looming shadow of Walkergate, one would have hoped he'd have at least enough integrity to just resign.  But of all the things one might call Walker, class act is definitely not of them.

*To distract the public's attention from what is expected to be yet another consecutive month of poor job numbers, Walker is expected to issue a release stating that he has successfully identified seven of the ten hidden objects in the latest edition of Highlights for Children (although Tonette had to help him with four of the seven).

The Walker Budget Is Already Working! Part XLVI

This post really should have a title other than being a part of something, the news is that bad.

Central Wisconsin is being devastated. It had already been reported that Wausau Paper was closing up shop, putting more than 450 people out of work. The ripple effect of such a grievous blow could mean up to another 650 other jobs being lost due to the plant shutting down.

The region wasn't even done reeling from that news when they got clobbered again, this time putting another 550 people out of work:

Central Wisconsin's economy was slammed with bad news for the second time this week when Schield Family Brands announced Friday it will close its Mosinee factory.

Medford-based Schield, parent company to SNE Enterprises, Weather Shield and Peachtree Doors and Windows, said 556 workers will be affected by the closure. In a letter sent to company employees and the state Department of Workforce Development, officials from the door and window manufacturer wrote that permanent layoffs will begin Feb. 7 and continue through Aug. 31.

Company officials declined interview requests, and would not offer more details about layoffs, or whether workers will be offered jobs at its other factories.

That's 1,000 jobs gone within days. And if one extrapolates the ripple effect of not just one, but two major companies shutting down, on top of the money taken out of circulation by Scott Walker's Act 10, you easily come up with 2,500 jobs being lost.  And Christmas is less than two weeks away.  I can't help but feel horrified and saddened for all those good people who just had their holiday ruined by Walker's greed.

It's would be very, very difficult for the region to recover from that kind of blow in the best of times. Under the regime of Scott Walker, the chances become slim to none that things will get better.

We have to and we shall get him out of office. Before he bankrupts the whole state.

Dems To Make Free Speech Free Again

Three cheers for Representative Peter Barca and Senator Mark Miller!

The Walker Budget Is Already Working! Part XLV

As I keep pointing out, as the Republicans concentrate all the wealth in the hands of the few, the economy slows because demand drops.  This, in turn, causes further lay offs and so the vicious spiral down continues.  Another example of this was reported this morning:

Albany International Corp. of Rochester, N.H., announced Friday it will discontinue manufacturing at its forming fabric facility in Menasha, resulting in 48 job cuts.

"We had too much capacity for the demand in the market," said Susan Siegel, company spokeswoman.

The plant at 435 Sixth St. makes forming fabrics, which are used in machines that make paper.

And just think, we're paying higher taxes to lose all these jobs.

Plain and simple, Scott Walker's got to go!

More Thuggery From Walker Supporters

Yesterday, I reported about the Waukesha man who decided to go stalking and harassing petition canvassers from the comforts of his own home.

Now there's another report of a Stoughton man, Earl A. Gluth, who thought he'd try to intimidate some canvassers in Madison.  He went to where the canvassers were peacefully getting signatures and decided to take pictures not only of the people, but their license plates, so he could find out where they lived.

There is no reason for Gluth to know where they live unless he met to either go there and do some misdeed himself or to publicize their addresses for others to harass these people or even worse.

If Scott Walker is doing such a great job, why do his supporters feel the need to take things beyond legal behaviors?

And why hasn't Scott Walker condemned these behaviors and called for them to knock it off? Does he support this kind of thuggery?

Based on my personal experiences with his crew, it wouldn't surprise me one bit if he did.  Walker and his supporters are acting like nothing more than a bunch of cowardly bullies.