Walkergate: The Mystery GOP Senator

Yesterday, I was going through some of the odds and ends of the Rindfleisch transcripts.

In doing so, I shared a curiosity, of an unidentified former GOP state senator who Rindfleisch want to exact revenge upon for not toeing the party line and supporter Walker:

But in the various exchanges are some interesting things. One being that a yet-to-be-identified former GOP female state senator had held a fund raiser for Tom Barrett, who was, of course, Walker's gubernatorial opponent. I have the greatest minds in the kingdom working on figuring this out as I write this.

The exact comment can be found on top of page 18 of the transcripts, and forgive the language these thugs use, reads:

rellyk (Rindfleisch): Scott canceled a meeting next week with this woman who used to be a GOP senator cause she was a host for a Barrett fundraiser
rellyk: so I'm going to find contributions from the funt to barrett
rellyk: just to have on hand...
Andrea (Boom): good plan

For the sweet and innocent, the definition of the word "funt" can be found here.

As I said, the greatest minds were working on this and have given us the answer.

Peggy Rosenzweig

The mystery GOP senator is Peggy Rosenzweig.

Rosenzweig was the state senator for District 5, succeeding Tom Barrett and serving ten years until defeated by the extremely disturbed Tom Reynolds, best known for his extreme homophobia, imposing his family's faces on the manger scene for a Christmas card and asking potential aides if they were still virgins.

Records show that Rosenzweig donated $450 to Barrett in 2010 and nothing to Walker.

And if Rindfleisch and Villa wanted to punish Rosenzweig for her standing up for Wisconsin instead of Walker, there are a number of ways they could have done this. Rosenzweig had been appointed to the board of Wisconsin Technical College Systems, but is apparently no longer serving in that capacity. Furthermore, Rosenzweig is/was a lobbyist for various groups. There is no quicker way to lose one's value as a lobbyist than getting blackballed by the current administration.

The pettiness of Walker and his supporters and their need to try to have absolute control is nothing new. They've tried to go after me as well as others who have raised questions about them, and are still trying even today. But that is what happens when fascists get even a little bit of power, much less control of the state government.

I wonder how long it will take them to figure out that we're not going to go away.

Well, If That's The Comparison They Want To Make...

Scott Walker realizes that the $12 million in dirty lucre that he's accumulated isn't enough to buy his way to remaining in the governor's set, so now he's gone groveling to the Republican Governors Association for help.  They've come charging in to the state by flooding the airwaves with a commercial that tries to scare up the usual right wing bogeyman of job-killing high taxes.

One Wisconsin Now wonders if this is the argument they want to make.  They've done the homework and took a hard look at Walker's stats when he was Milwaukee County Executive:

Browne noted that an analysis of Milwaukee County budget documents and information from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics showed Gov. Walker’s performance as Milwaukee County Executive was equally dismal:

• The total county property tax levy increased 19.94% or $43.77 million;
• Total county spending increased 25.5% or $349.4 million and Walker proposed even higher spending increases of 34.6%, or $381.3 million;
• The total number of unemployed grew from 30,749 to 44,618, an increase of 45%;

Browne concluded, “No amount of special interest spending can hide that as Milwaukee County Executive and now as Governor Scott Walker’s one- percent, trickle-down economics have failed to create jobs and hurt the middle class, working families and seniors.”

Well, I guess that RGA had to go with something, because they don't have a lot to work with in Walker.

The Police State Of Fitzwalkerstan

Vince Megna has been called the "King of Lemon Laws." As such, he is understandably upset as Scott Walker and his WISGOP cronies systematically went about removing consumer protection laws to further enrich their corporate sponsors.

To point out the outrage, Megna has apparently been making videos to point out the idiocy of the ruling class of Fitzwalkerstan. And the petty tyrants aren't pleased, as you can see from this video, as Megna is trying to shoot some film in front of the Waupun correctional facility while standing on the public sidewalk:



Of course, people like Warden Pollard acting as petty tyrants shouldn't be surprising when they are working for a despot like Walker who sends state troopers to arrest political opponents like any sorry third world dictator would.

After all:

Walkergate: The Rindfleisch Transcripts

As I mention in Walkergate: Trouble In Paradise, Part 1 and Part 2, I referred to a set of transcripts that the Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office had entered as evidence in the case against Kelly Rindfleisch.

Rindfleisch is fighting the charges she is facing by asking to have her case dismissed outright and by seeking a change of venue to Colombia County.  The purpose of these partial transcripts are presumably to show that Rindfleisch was fully aware of the residency requirements for being employed by Milwaukee County and to strengthen the already strong case that she committed the crimes she is accused of.

Until Dan Bice of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel posted the transcripts online for all to read, people were limited to to what the paper was reporting.

Steve Schultze, also of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel did a bang up job reporting on part of the transcripts, including how Kelly Rindfleisch and Jim Villa had great expectations for the roles they would play in Scott Walker's administration when he became governor.  He also told us how these two thought that Tim Russell was on Walker's bad side, although I'm not sure that's the correct interpretation of events.

But there are some interesting tidbits that either Schultze or his editors felt weren't newsworthy.

First, I would have to stop and say that these partial transcripts are infuriatingly frustrating in the sense that they are Wisconsin's greatest teases.  For example, at the bottom of page 5, the DA is questioning Villa about Rindfleisch and they have this exchange:

Q: Do you know how it came to pass that she was hired in the County Executive's Office in        2010, based upon your personal knowledge? 

A: Yes. 

Q: How did it come to pass?

And that's where they end.  It's like the season finale of one of your favorite TV shows and now you have to wait an indefinite amount of time before you find out how it comes out.

A few pages later (page 11), in the questioning, there is another teaser that indicates that Cindy Archer might have had a hand in the illegal politicking, which would not be a surprise.  I've already pointed out a communication that Cory Liebmann had found in which Archer email Walker at his campaign address as well as Walker's campaign consultant R. J. Johnson.

On the top of page 12, there is another interesting exchange between Rindfleisch and Villa.  As one of Cog Dis' astute readers had already pointed out:

Something very interesting: 

1147 FRI 05MAR2010 

Rindfleisch: Quick question, is Gerry Geishart one of your members? 

Villa: Don't think so. 

Rindfleisch: Ok.Would any of your members know what a hotel would lease for? (end of chat)

Who is Gery Geishart? He is a realtor who buys and sells properties, many of which deal directly with counties. Why is a County Executive Deputy Chief of Staff asking the former County Executive Chief of Staff? Turns out, Villa is now President of the Commercial Association of Wisconsin Realtors, thus Geishart could be "one of Villa's members". What else do we know? Andrew Jensen, a different realtor, was given immunity in the John Doe investigation and later arrested for failure to comply with authorities. Anything else suspicious? The lawyers Walker hired specialize in real estate and complex criminal law.

So, I guess the real question is, why would hotel lease costs motivate Rindfleisch to ask Villa about Geishart? I suppose the county could be interested in leasing one of Geishart's properties, assuming he is the current owner. But why? The other details seem to paint a picture of the County Executive's Office being accused of engaging in some form of real estate shenanigans. These chat transcripts are the first physical documents that link the Executive's Office, Walker's Campaign, and real estate dealings.

For more information on the real estate stuff, you can see what I've already written here.

The next interesting tidbit comes on the bottom of page 13, where the last arrow is pointing:

rellyk (Rindfleisch): and then I got Fran highlighting all the mistakes in the press releases that the campaign does

Fran would be Fran McLaughlin, who was Walker's spokeswoman as county executive.  Yet another name to add to the corruption list.  What is also interesting, at least for Milwaukeeans, is that McLaughlin currently is the Public Information Officer for Sheriff David Clarke, a pompous ass that has aligned himself with the teahadists and other conservative nut jobs and is more interested in politicking than actually performing the duties of his office.  One has to wonder if McLaughlin got waived through the normal screening process and background check before Clarke gave her this political appointment.

The really curious thing about the article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article is that there is not one single mention of McLaughlin or her involvement.  Why was her name omitted?

The last item involves the last few pages of the transcripts.  It shows part of the questioning of one Andrea Boom as well as a series of online chats between Boom and Rindfleisch.  Rindfleisch and Boom knew each other for years when they worked together at Wisconsin Association of Health Plans.

Andrea Boom:
Is that Walker's web of
lies she's stuck in?

The chats included were mundane chatter about Boom's apparently troubled home life and such, but do show Rindfleisch knowingly lying on official documents (her employment papers) regarding where she lived and that Milwaukee has a residency requirement.

But in the various exchanges are some interesting things.  One being that a yet-to-be-identified former GOP female state senator had held a fund raiser for Tom Barrett, who was, of course, Walker's gubernatorial opponent.  I have the greatest minds in the kingdom working on figuring this out as I write this.

The very last page shows a series of discussions in which Rindfleisch is trying to talk her old chum into taking  a new job in Milwaukee County so they could hang together and campaign together, or something.  That didn't pan out, but what is sure to be more than pure coincidence, shortly after Walker was elected, Boom ended up getting a new job as the Finance Director for Walker's campaign.

But the thing that leaves me still chortling is that, according to the court records, is that Boom is going to get a whopping $47.60 for witness fees.

Yup, Boom sold out her good friend and benefactor for less than $50.  It goes to show you what price Republicans put on friendship and loyalty.  They'll sell you out in a heartbeat if they can make a buck doing so.

It's not unlike the way that Scott Walker and WISGOP treat Wisconsin and its citizens.

For some other thought-provoking insights into this, check out Jud Loundsbury's take on the transcripts.

Heavenly Clocks

Swiped from Facebook:

A man died and went to Heaven.

As he stood in front of St. Peter at the Pearly Gates, he saw a huge wall of clocks behind him.

He asked, "What are all those clocks?"

St. Peter answered, "Those are lie-clocks. Everyone on Earth has a lie-clock.  Every time you lie, the hands on your clock will move."

"Oh", said the man. "Whose clock is that?"

"That's Mother Teresa's. The hands have never moved, indicating she's never told a lie."

"Incredible," said the man. "And whose clock is that one?"

St. Peter responded, "That's Abraham Lincoln's clock.  The hands have moved twice, telling us that Abe told only two lies in his entire life."

"Where's Governor Walker's clock," asked the man?

St. Peter smiled, "His clock is in Jesus' office.  He's using it as a ceiling fan."

Walkergate: Trouble In Paradise Revisited

In my post from yesterday, I pointed out an article that appeared on the JSOnline website which reported about partial transcripts of chats between Kelly Rindfleisch and Jim Villa.  One of the key parts of the article, at least to me, was that they discussed that Tim Russell was supposedly in Scott Walker's bad graces, and thus had been banished from the county executive's office:

According to Rindfleisch and Villa, Russell did something to get in Walker's bad graces.  That would explain why he was banished from the courthouse and put in the Housing Division in a different building altogether.  It would also explain why in the spring, while Russell was travelling and illegally campaigning with Walker on his Harley Davidson tour of the state, he was acting like a good sycophant, almost to the point of debasing himself, as depicted in the different videos taken during that trip.

And given that the actual transcripts, courtesy of JSOnline and reporter Dan Bice, are now available, it does seem like this might be a logical conclusion to make.  After all, Russell was moved out of the courthouse and had his privileges to the county executive's suite revoked.  Those could easily be interpreted as a sign of a fall from grace.

But as I thought about it, I started to wonder if that was the right explanation for the course of events.

Some things weren't just adding up.  If Russell was out of Walker's good graces, why would Walker take him on that Harley tour of the state just a couple of months later?  And why would he allow Russell to remain as administrator for his campaign website, right up until the day he was arrested and charged?

This nagged at me until I thought of one of the myriad details that is part of the Russell Tangent to Walkergate - Operation Freedom.

Operation Freedom was the thinly-veiled annual campaign stunt by Walker in which he would purportedly honor veterans by giving them a free day at the zoo.

If the reader will recall, Russell had bought the domain for the Historical Guard Preservation Society and turned that into a front group for him to manage the funds meant for Operation Freedom.  Russell did this in the summer of 2009 and in October of that year, Walker personally signed over the funds for Operation Freedom to Russell's pseudo-society:

If you read the complaint against Russell, you'll notice that most of the thefts were taken from the Heritage Guard Preservation Society. What's that? Well, it helped handle a Milwaukee County veterans' event at the Milwaukee County Zoo called "Operation Freedom," and how Tim Russell landed a gig handling its finances goes straight to Walker. 

Due to alleged financial mismanagement, in about 2009, Operation Freedom donations were entrusted to the Alonzo Cudworth American Legion Post. While by all reports the Cudworth Post discharged their financial duties in exemplary fashion, in October 2009, then County Executive Scott Walker transferred the Operation Freedom funds - some $19,000 - to HGPS, the corporation controlled by [Walker's then- Deputy Chief of Staff] Tim Russell. 

And interestingly, Russell had set up bank account in HGPS' name 2 months before Walker's proclamation, and named two Milwaukee County Walker employees as 2nd and 3rd in command- Darlene Wink and James Tetjen (hilariously, both of them say they have no idea what this organization was and never attended any of its meetings). Amazing this new "community" organization was being run by a bunch of Walker lackeys, huh?

But during all this time, the Ethics Board was on Walker's back to have that funding out of the county executive's office, meaning that it should be handled by a private agency.  Walker apparently chose to take them more literally and had Russell leave his office a few months after taking over the fund.

Instead of a demotion and sign of mistrust, Russell leaving the county executive office might have been more a sign of trust in which he let his faithful  friend and ally take this away from Walker's micromanagement.

One also needs to keep in mind that just two months after Russell left the county executive's office, another one of Walker's aides, Darlene Wink, got busted leaving comments on JSOnline and on political blogs.  When the news broke, Walker went straight to Russell, telling him to make sure that nothing like that happened again, not because it was illegal, but because he was worried about the impact to his campaign.

The simple fact that Walker went straight to Russell shows that Russell was very much still an integral part of Walker's campaign.  Not exactly the sign of someone that is on the outs with Walker, is it?

It could very well be that Russell wasn't kicked out of Walker's executive's office but was rather sent on a mission to help protect Walker's image by handling the funds away from the executive's office and taking away the heat that Walker was getting from the Ethics Board.

That scenario would fit in better with what we already know about the deep level of involvement Russell had in Walker's campaign, such as having oversight of Wink's campaign and fundraising activities.  This would make Rindfleisch's hiring and subsequent promotion appear even more politically motivated, since she admits that she did not have the experience to fit her official duties, but was more than an able campaign operative.

And as already mentioned, it was Walker that was personally responsible for not only the transfer of the veterans fund to Russell's front group. but for the hiring and promotion of Rindfleisch.  

If one or the other or both Rindfleisch and Russell decide that their own fates and freedom are worth more to them than Walker's political career, Walker would be in for a world of hurt, both politically and legally.

The Walker Budget Is Already Working! Part XCII

Remember that Family Care fiasco by Scott Walker? Where he tried to take credit for lifting the caps which he illegally imposed in the first place and had to be told by the feds to lift them. Apparently it took him too long to do the right thing to save jobs:

Care Wisconsin said Wednesday it will cut 15 administrative positions at its offices at 2802 International Lane, or about 3 percent of its 511 employees.

Services to elderly residents will not be curtailed, the nonprofit organization said.

Care Wisconsin serves more than 4,700 frail elderly and adults with disabilities in South Central Wisconsin in the state's Family Care and Partnership programs. Its programs include adult day centers, long-term care options and transportation.

The job reduction will take effect May 19, Care Wisconsin said.

Aren't you glad things are getting better?

Walkergate: Trouble In Paradise

As I've been chronicling the ongoing and ever-expanding saga known as Walkergate, or the John Doe investigation into the illegal campaign activities of Scott Walker and his county and/or campaign staff members (they are often interchangeable), one thing stood out.  It appeared, at least until the first arrests, that this was one happy little family of GOP operatives working cheerfully together on their one objective - getting Scott Walker elected at all costs.

However, as is often the case, it is growing increasingly apparent that the phrase "There is no honor among thieves" still holds true.  Instead of one big happy family, there appears to have been some infighting going on among the ranks, which may be about to spill over in a big way.

In an article that is well worth taking the hit on the JSOnline paywall, Steve Schultze reports on some newly-released transcripts that prosecutors filed with the courts on Wednesday, when Kelly Rindfleisch appeared in court.  At the court hearing, Rindfleisch entered a plea of not guilty and her attorney submitted two motions.  One was to have the case dismissed outright on the basis of universal immunity and the other was to have the case transferred to Columbia County.

The change of venue in itself is interesting in that while her permanent address is in Columbia County, and she voted in Columbia County, her Milwaukee County employment papers and the criminal complaint shows that she was living in a home in West Allis, which was owned by Jim Villa, another one of Walker's top county/campaign aides and apparent good friend of Rindfleisch.

The transcript is a history of online chats between Rindfleisch and Villa.  According to Schultze's report, some of the chats were exchanges of adolescent "what do you want to be when you grow up" kind of fantasizing, discussing various positions they would hold in Walker's administration.

Even then, Walker's cronyism was so well-known that the banter between these two wasn't so much wishful thinking as it was a list of expectations.

But that's not the juicy part.

The good stuff comes in when they start talking about their teammate, Tim Russell, behind his back:

The Rindfleisch-Villa chats include some catty commentary on other Walker county staffers.
Russell has just lost his privileges to the county executive's suite, according to a March 30 exchange. 

"Get this, Tom revoked Tim's access to the office," Rindfleisch says, possibly referring to Tom Nardelli, then Walker's chief of staff. Russell had been Walker's deputy chief of staff, a job that was given to Rindfleisch. 

Russell set up a secret email network in Rindfleisch's office earlier in 2010, according to her criminal complaint. 

In a chat with Villa two weeks earlier, Rindfleisch says she'd avoided telling Russell she had been promoted by Walker from policy aide to deputy chief of staff - Russell's job. 

"I've kept quiet because I don't think Tim knew I knew (about her promotion) and I didn't want to offend him," she says. "It's not like I earned it. No one else in the office is capable," Rindfleisch tells Villa. 

Villa reassures her she has the "political chops" to handle the job. "YOU are the political operation in that office now; Tom is an IDIOT," Villa writes. He doesn't identify who Tom is, but the only Tom working in Walker's county office at the time was Nardelli. 

[...] 

Villa opines in the online chat that "Keith will work better with you than with Tim" Russell. The transcripts don't spell out who Keith is, but hint at a direct connection between Walker's campaign staff and his county staff. Walker's campaign manager was Keith Gilkes. 

Raising cash for Davis was "tough going," according to Rindfleisch. 

"Nobody cares about Lt. Gov.," she says.

Well, that pretty much cooks Rindfleisch's goose.  It verifies that she was campaigning for both Walker and his choice of potential lieutenant governors, Brett Davis, while she was on the taxpayers' dime.

This little exchange also implicates that Walker's campaign manager, Keith Gilkes, who was in Walker's administration, was in the middle of the illegal campaigning.  I bet he really loved working with Cullen Werwie, who was given immunity, presumably for ratting on all of them.

Even better than that, this exchange goes farther than anything else to this point at implicating Tom Nardelli.  Nardelli was Walker's Chief of Staff at Milwaukee County and ended up in some cushy state jobs until he suddenly quit. Well, this would explain why people who know Nardelli have told me he's been looking a bit haggard since retiring.  It might be that he is afraid of losing all of his pensions (he has three or four of them).

Not too long ago, Mike Nichols, a right wing hack who appears in various publications, including the Bradley Foundation-supported WPRI, recently defended Nardelli for being the apparent stand-up kind of guy in Walker's administration.  I wonder if he'll be retracting that soon.

If Nardelli was in on all this corruption, which seems more than likely now, the person who would be loving this the most is my late grandfather, who knew Nardelli and said he was a "no good bum."

But even though the Nardelli stuff is juicy, it's still not the juiciest part.  Even juicier is the stuff about Tim Russell.

According to Rindfleisch and Villa, Russell did something to get in Walker's bad graces.  That would explain why he was banished from the courthouse and put in the Housing Division in a different building altogether.  It would also explain why in the spring, while Russell was travelling and illegally campaigning with Walker on his Harley Davidson tour of the state, he was acting like a good sycophant, almost to the point of debasing himself, as depicted in the different videos taken during that trip.

The thing that struck me most about this is what must be going through Russell's mind right about now.  I have already questioned what his financial situation is like.  I have also been told that Russell is feeling a bit salty because Walker and the others have thrown him to the wolves, so to speak. Sources have told me that he's been trying to raise money for his defense, including trying to sell some of those domains he owns, but his former friends have turned their backs on him.

Now he sees that the people he considered his colleagues, his friends and his brothers and sisters in arms, were trash talking him behind his back.

He must be thinking about those embezzlement charges he is currently facing, as well as being fully aware that he could easily have more charges added at any minute.  The child enticement charges filed against his partner, Brian Pierick, refer to a partner and co-owner of the phones they were using.  Rindfleisch's complaint points out how he set up the secret rotor that they were using to campaign with and avoid open record requests. It's been pointed out that he was supervising Darlene Wink's campaigning while they were both supposed to be working in the county executive's office.

In other words, he's facing a world of hurt, legally speaking, and now finds that his friends not only abandoned him, they were using him and treating him like garbage all the while.  He's got to be wondering why he should show any of them any loyalty anymore.

But even Russell isn't the juiciest part.

The juiciest part is the one that's hardly mentioned in the article - Scott Walker.

Look at what Walker is facing:

• Kelly Rindfleisch, a political opportunist, is facing up to 14 years in jail and a huge fine.  Walker is the only person that hired her and promoted her to his office, so that she could do his campaigning as well as for his favored running mate, Brett Davis.
• The screws just got tightened on Jim Villa, a long time friend, staffer and campaign worker, and who appears to be deeply involved with the shenanigans.
• The screws just got added to Keith Gilkes, his campaign manager and former gubernatorial aide.
• The screws also just got added to Tom Nardelli, who does not want to lose all of that pension money.
• Darlene Wink already struck a plea bargain and has promised to cooperate with investigation and prosecution of the other cases.
• Tim Russell, long time friend, who was a faithful operative and staffer, who is already facing a lot of legal problems, the strong potential for even more, and who is probably feeling very betrayed, very hurt, very bitter and very angry.

And that's just the things we know of.  There's no telling how many other people there could be facing their own share of trouble, including John Hiller, his former campaign treasurer and Andrew Jensen, commercial real estate mogul.

What do you think the odds are that one or more of these people will decide to cut a deal for themselves, like Wink did, and be willing to spill their guts regarding Walker's involvement in all of the illegal activities?  After all, what kind of loyalty or support has Walker shown them as he's been flying back and forth across the country to raise money to defend against the approaching recall and to pay for his legal cooperation fund?

What do you  think the odds are that Walker is drinking Maalox by the gallon by now?

What do you thing the odds are that we'll be seeing an image much like this one?

I don't know what the odds are, but I'm going to go fix me up some popcorn for this one.

Walker Takes Credit For The Tides

There was actually some good news in Ftizwalkerstan today. The Philadelphia Reserve Bank finally gave a positive note to the state's future.  Of course, Scott Walker took full credit for it;

The Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank released a new economic growth forecast for states yesterday. The report forecasts Wisconsin to grow 1.95 percent over the next six months. It is the best economic forecast for the state since 2003. Wisconsin also experienced the most improved forecast in the nation. Wisconsin’s three-month change was 2.36 percentage points, moving to a forecast of solid gains.

Governor Scott Walker today released the following statement on the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s forecast of solid growth in Wisconsin over the next six months:

“Strong signals suggest we are turning things around for Wisconsin’s economy, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s newest report of state leading economic indexes provides yet one more indication that our pro-jobs policies are moving us in the right direction. Although there is much work left to be done, the forecast along with additional economic indicators such as our state’s lowest unemployment rate since 2008 indicate we are heading in the right direction.”

Democrats previously touted the now outdated Philadelphia Fed forecast as evidence that the Governor’s policies were hurting job growth in Wisconsin.

We'll overlook the fact that he used the governor's office to release a campaign press release for now.

But should Walker be taking credit for this "amazing" turnaround?

In a word: No.

 Not unless Walker changed his name to Barack Obama.

Fortunately for me, and for us, Jake has already skewered Walker's fallacious claims and points out a couple of important facts, including that Wisconsin is still doing worse than the majority of the country:

And Wisconsin's growth is nothing too special. It barely qualified for the dark green shade at 1.95%, and trails the rest of the nation, and is well behind most of the Midwest.

Forecast growth for the next 6 months- Philly Fed
Mich 3.21%
Ind. 3.20%
Ohio 2.96%
Ill. 2.52% (failures, right Scotty?)
U.S. 2.17%
Wis. 1.95%
Iowa 1.16%
Minn 0.88%

So credit Obama for the Wisconsin economy coming back, not Walker. This is especially true when you look at where we've been the last several months. Another big part of the Philly Fed survey is going over the last 3 months of economic performance. And as shown in prior months, Wisconsin remains a standout for the wrong reasons.

In other words, Walker is taking credit for the good ship State of Wisconsin starting to float.  What he won't admit is that the only reason it's floating at all is because the tide from Obama's economic recovery plan is finally able to float what he's been trying to scuttle with his faulty ideology.

And I would be remiss if I did not quote Jake's best lines, which he held for the end:

But Walker is hoping that you'll be as shallow as the average Milwaukee talk show listener and not notice the context that the next 6 months' growth is from a much lower point than it should be, and that it would be merely an effect of the U.S. economy continuing to gain strength under President Obama. Certainly Walker's backers at the Journal-Sentinel are willing to play stupid, giving prominence to Walker's side of the story on the projected growth while burying the fact that the U.S. and most other states are slated to grow faster.

And because you know the corporate mouthpieces at Journal Communications and the Wisconsin State Journal won't tell that truth, it's up to people like me to break these stats down and write about it. It's up to readers like you to call out this bullshit and continue to expose the economic failure that is the Scott Walker Administration to your friends and the public. We'll win if the truth gets out, we just have to do it.

Walker vs The Unions: Round 4

Two unions in the state have filed lawsuits against Scott Walker and the State of Wisconsin because - surprise, surprise - Walker refuses to bargain in good faith:

Two public employee unions that won very limited collective bargaining powers in November are now filing unfair labor practices complaints alleging that state officials have refused to meet or negotiate.

The 260-member Wisconsin State Attorneys Association union filed its complaint Monday, vice president Nancy Wettersten said Tuesday.

Under Act 10, the state's controversial 2011 collective bargaining law, most public sector employees lost their legal union rights, but some recertified with the ability to negotiate for cost-of-living raises, but nothing else.

"We didn't like Act 10, but we played by the rules, and our union was overwhelmingly elected, but now we have talked to them (several) times about beginning negotiations, and we have been met by silence," Wettersten said.

The complaint says the union sent five requests for negotiations between Dec. 16 and Feb. 19, but has been given no dates or times for talks to begin.

The 650-member Professional Education and Information Council union also filed with the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission, said commission counsel Peter Davis.

Well, of course he's not going to sit down and negotiate with the unions! It's an election year and his political future is on the line. His poll numbers keep dropping and people are tuning out his endless stream of lies. And at every turn of Walkergate, it becomes increasingly apparent how embroiled he was and is in the corruption. He's not about to sit down and look weak in front of his base, his only hope of having his terminal political career extended ever so slightly.

How can I say this? How do I know? Remember, I've been through it all before, more than once. This is actually Walker's fourth big go around with the unions.

About the time that Walker was making his first run for governor, Walker had his first bout against the unions.

At the time, the contract between Milwaukee County and AFSCME needed to be negotiated. Walker refused to sit down to the table and bargain, much less do so in good faith. After God told him to quit the race (it had nothing to do with that he was getting zero support and raising no money), he returned to Milwaukee County, suddenly ready to negotiate.

In usual Walker style, he tried to claim that he drove a hard bargain and saved the taxpayers a bundle. Well, he did save taxpayer money, but the contract that he finally signed was the same one crafted by David Reimer, who was sent in by Governor Jim Doyle to help Walker out and that the union had already tentatively agreed to. Walker was so anxious to have the contract signed that he did change one part. He added a $250 signing bonus for each worker:

Round One went to the unions.  Unfortunately, Walker's stunt had cost taxpayers millions in unseen savings while he played political games.

His second round came shortly thereafter and was set up similarly to Round One.  He was already gearing up for his next run for governor.  Walker had been touring the state to hit all of the Lincoln Day dinners and using his taxpayer-sponsored Harley Davidson campaign rides.

Again, Walker refused to negotiate with the union.  Instead, he would hold one press conference after another, demonizing the workers and claiming that there was going to be a huge deficit.  He said that the only way that the budget could be balanced without a crippling tax hike was for the workers to take a huge cut in pay, like he advocated with Act 10.

But Walker would never come to the table with his list of concessions he wanted from the unions.  He never did so for two reasons.  First, it would take away his straw bogeyman of the evil public sector worker.  Secondly, he knew that if he tried to do this, it would never have stood up in arbitration and the union's proposal would prevail again.

So grandstand he did.  The union rallied back with a directive to "Negotiate! Don't Dictate!"

Now, before you go blaming the unions for taking concessions which were "reasonable contributions" to the pension and health care costs, remember the unions could not agree or reject to something that wasn't presented on the negotiating table.  Since Walker wouldn't sit down with the unions, much less make a proposal, there was nothing for the unions to do.

Claiming that there was a $15 million deficit, Walker then tried to impose an indefinite work reduction.  This failed in arbitration, since it went beyond his authority and because it was shown that there wasn't even a deficit.

Undaunted, Walker then imposed an excessive amount of furloughs, up to 26 days in one year.  This too backfired.  To make it worse, it has recently been revealed that this was nothing more than a campaign stunt, as shown in an email by Cindy Archer, his top aide.

Taxpayers again ended up losing tens of millions of dollars over the years due to lost savings.  To add insult to injury, the illegal furlough days will cost taxpayers at least another $6 million because the county has been ordered to make the workers whole and repay them the lost money.

While the jury is still out on Round Two, we already know that the taxpayers lost again.

Walker's third round, Act 10, doesn't need a lot of explanation since we are living through it now.  The total damage due to this is not known yet, since it's still racking up bills from law suits, lost jobs and economic stagnation for the state.  Not to mention the recalls.

As with the first two rounds, Rounds Three and now Four will probably end up with both Walker and the unions claiming victory.  The only thing we know for sure is that this has already cost Wisconsinites too damn much, from schools on the brink of disaster to record job losses to higher taxes to the loss of invaluable civil and human rights.

Who knew that tyranny and oppression could be so expensive?  We must stop Walker if we are to stop the damage from getting worse and to stop the costs from climbing even higher.

No Matter How Many Times A Lie Is Repeated, It's Still A Lie

Rick Esenberg, GOP operative and master of obfuscation, writes for the Bradley Foundation-funded WPRI stating that it was "necessary" for Walker to bust the unions if he wanted to save the state budget:

The unions were intensely interested, highly motivated and well-funded, stemming, in part, from legally compelled dues from state and local employees. And they had become an enormous obstacle to reform.

Public employees are not synonymous with their unions. The latter inevitably increase the cost of labor (that is their purpose) and, in the public sector, this can only increase the cost of government services over what they would otherwise be. In a high-tax state facing a huge budget deficit, that was a problem.

Sadly for Esenberg, we are an intelligent bunch that can see through his paltry lies. And we don't have to go far to prove those statements to be lies. We just have to look at the man Esenberg is trying to defend, Scott Walker himself, and his own sworn testimony in front of a congressional panel:



Here is the key exchange:

KUCINICH: Would you answer the question? How much money does it save, Governor?

WALKER: It doesn’t save any. [...]

So either Esenberg is repeating a lie in his article, he is utterly mistaken or he is accusing Walker of committing perjury. So as to not offend him by being presumptive, I'll let him explain it, if he wishes. Otherwise, the gentle reader is always welcome to make their own mind on the matter.

Walker's Family Care Falsities

On Monday, Scott Walker, as is his wont, did his usual showboating when he finally signed the Family Care bill, lifting the caps as he was ordered to do by the federal government three months ago.

But even though the federal order is common knowledge, Walker still couldn't resist trying to lie about it:

Walker signed several bills at Independence First in Milwaukee, including lifting the enrollment cap on the long-term care program for the elderly and disabled.

Walker announced plans in December to allocate $72 million to resume enrolling people in Family Care, following an order from the federal government. The legislation he signed on Monday lifted a cap on enrollment.

Flanked by dozens of people with disabilities, Walker praised Family Care.

"It's a great program to help people in need," he said to reporters afterward.

Walker said he was following through on a promise he made last summer to lift the enrollment caps and provide funding.

He said changes were made to make the program sustainable, which he said opened the door to expanding it to other counties. Family Care is now available in 57 of the state's 72 counties.

He later doubled down on the lie with this tweet, claiming he said that it would end before the end of the year:

The truth is that the budget he signed into law said that the cap would be for at least two years, the entire length of the budget.

But even though this is supposed to be a good thing - a correction of a past misdeed done by Walker and the Republicans in the state legislature - it still contains some serious flaws. In other words, they couldn't even implement the correction correctly.

Just getting the bill to the legislature was a challenge that was almost thwarted by Representative Dale Kooyenga (R-Brookfield) who wanted to add a ten-year residency requirement, which was in complete violation of Medicaid standards, which is six months. The introduction and subsequent withdrawal of this amendment knocked the vote out of the original date.

The law has one major flaw in that any expansion still has to go through the Joint Finance Committee, which is still co-chaired by Representative Robin Vos (R-Trollville), who has repeatedly and explicitly expressed his opposition to Family Care (or anything else that helps people).

But the most sinister aspect of this would-be good deed is that he is looking into cutting into vital health care services for other people, or even the same people that would benefit from the lifting of the cap. Of course, it would be unfathomable for Walker to have his filthy rich profiteering friends, cronies and campaign contributors share in the sacrifice. Just the thought of it would be labeled heresy in Fitzwalkerstan!

How sad of a little man Walker is that he cannot even right a wrong he committed without lying about it, making a fiasco of it and finding a way of actually making it worse.

More People Wishing They Were Unionized - Don't Let This Happen To You!

From Yahoo News (emphasis mine):

They weren't wearing sagging pants or revealing clothing. But dressing in an orange shirt is apparently enough to get fired at one Florida law firm, where 14 workers were unceremoniously let go last Friday.

In an interview with the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, several of the fired workers say they wore the matching colors so they would be identified as a group when heading out for a happy hour event after work. They say the executive who fired them initially accused them of wearing the matching color as a form of protest against management.

[...]

The law offices of Elizabeth R. Wellborn, P.A. offered "no comment" to Sun-Sentinel reporter Doreen Hemlock, but four ex-employees tell the paper they were simply wearing their orange shirts to celebrate "pay day" and the upcoming Friday group happy hour.
"There is no office policy against wearing orange shirts. We had no warning. We got no severance, no package, no nothing," Lou Erik Ambert told the paper. "I feel so violated."

Ironically, had the employees been wearing orange as a form of protest, it would have been illegal to fire them, ABC News reports.

After the 14 employees were fired, an executive said anyone wearing orange for an "innocent reason" should speak up. At least one employee immediately denied any involvement or knowledge of a protest and explained the happy hour color coordination. Nonetheless, they were still fired.

"I'm a single mom with four kids, and I'm out of a job just because I wore orange today," Meloney McLeod told the paper.

And there's really nothing anyone can do about the terminations since Florida is an at-will state, meaning employers can fire an employee who doesn't have a contract "for a good reason, for a bad reason or even for the wrong reason, as long as it's not an unlawful reason," Eric K. Gabrielle, a labor and employment lawyer at Stearns Weaver, told the Sun-Sentinel. Gabrielle said there was no apparent violation of the law in this case.

If they had been allowed to unionize, this would never have happened.

This is what Scott Walker and his supporters are bringing to Wisconsin. Is there any questions on why they need to go? It's about your rights, people!

H/T Hullabaloo

I Know The Feeling

H/T The Mudflats

Voter Suppression Injunction Upheld For Good Cause

It was recently reported that Dane County Circuit Court Judge David Flanagan upheld his injunction against the Republicans' voter suppression law. While right wingers ran around screaming about political activist judges and did their own version of McCarthyism, Flanagan made his decision based on the constitution.

Attorney Michael Maistelman, a leading expert on election laws, did an interview with WTMJ-TV and explained why the voter suppression law is unconstitutional:



For a case specific example, MAL Contends provides the story and this video:



Sadly, given how corrupt some members of the State Supreme Court - like David "Chokehold" Prosser, Michael "Loophole" Gableman and Annette "Show me the money" Ziegler - are, I'm not getting my hopes up that they'll actually follow the law and uphold Flanagan's ruling.