The Reality of Republican Policy!

By Jeff Simpson

Q.  What happens when we have complete republican rule and they enact all of their corporate greed bills like Tort reform?  

A.  Actual People pay a very heavy price(H/T Jessica VanEgeren and the Capital Times) !  

For Kevin Droz, a softball-size ball of concrete about 4 inches thick that came hurtling through the windshield of his Pontiac Grand Prix on April 17, gouging the left side of his head, proved that event.
“Fall River man injured in freak highway mishap,” read the headline on the local story that detailed the accident.
Droz, 51, still doesn’t know how, but he drove himself from the site of the accident on the Highway 151 bridge over American Parkway on Madison’s far east side to Columbus Community Hospital some 20 miles away.
Once stabilized, he was flown by Med Flight back to Madison where he stayed at the University of Wisconsin Hospital for 10 days.
He was “stitched up,” he says, with a playing card-size titanium plate put in his head to compensate for a skull fracture. He’s now blind in his left eye and that side of his face is often still numb. He’s meeting with a neurosurgeon soon to examine lingering problems with his right shoulder

So what happens to someone who has a permanent life changing injury due to negligence of our infrastructure? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Absolutely Nothing, and thank God that passed or else Mr. Droz would have been able to collect a whopping $50,000!   

 

The new law, which had been sought by local governments for years, took form in the summer of 2011. Known as the “pothole liability” bill, AB180/SB125 was sponsored by Sen. Glenn Grothman, R-West Bend, and Rep. Andre Jacque, R-De Pere, and gave presumptive immunity to counties, cities, towns, and villages for most damages or injuries resulting from highway defects.

When the bill was introduced, Jacque said the $50,000 could be better spent on fixing roads, according to his legislative website.

He said it was “a basic fairness issue,” and that with the previous system the only ones who benefited from the claims on road damage were trial attorneys. He said that was because most drivers leave the scene, making it difficult to connect the damage to a specific road defect, according to his website.

On his website, Jacque said the bill wouldn’t apply to instances of “egregious negligence” or things like bridges being out, but it would most likely apply to buckling pavement.

Jacque and Grothman were named “outstanding legislators for 2011-2012” by the Wisconsin Counties Association for their work on the bill. Neither returned phone calls Friday seeking comment.

Even though  Mr. Droz, will never be the same and will "likely be on disability assistance the rest of his life" he can sleep well tonight knowing that both Andre Jacque and Glenn Grothman are solidly "pro-life"!  


God Bless! 

 

 

 

 

That Was Then, This Is Now!

By Jeff Simpson

Right before the Holidays in Michigan, a bunch of lame duck republicans forced through a "right-to-work" law.    Despite campaigning against it and the thousands of protestors who showed up to voice their objections, Governor Rick Snyder signed the bill into law.   

 “This is about more and better jobs coming to Michigan because a lot of companies do look at this as a major factor in their analysis. We’ll then be more competitive as a state and that’s good for all of us. It’s good for workers and good for unions, because it gives them more of an opportunity to grow themselves,” Snyder said.

Snyder was so proud of it that bought a $144,000 full page ad in the New York Times to apparently, tell New York how great he was in signing this bill.  (In a state that has an emergency fiscal manager law for fiscally irresponsible entities,  there is no word yet on when Snyder will be appointing his own replacement!)

However less than 6 weeks after signing the RTW law, Snyder is now changing his tune.    Asking the people who he just forced a bevy of crazy right wing big government screw the middle class bills, to stop thinking about the past 6 weeks and give him a clean slate and pretend December 2012 never happened!

“Over 90 percent of the jobs that you’re looking at aren’t going to be in a situation where right to work is even relevant,” Snyder said in the hotel’s Ambassador Ballroom. “Let’s keep in mind what the economy is really about. Why not embrace the great things going on and be more positive?

“Let’s not live in the Michigan of the past where we fought. Let’s learn from it and recognize that we’re in the Michigan of 2013, but let’s be planning for the Michigan of 2025 and a great place for all of these young people.”

Snyder just wants all of MI to live in a peaceful bipartisan way(now that the crazy is out) but let us hope the voters/taxpayers of MI never forget what Snyder's brand of crazy has brought them!




A picture is worth a thousand words!  

Conservatives

Stolen from Facebook:

How Is Everyone Enjoying Their Crazy Liberal Idea?

Paul Ryan Loves tax Increases

By Jeff Simpson 

Paul Ryan (R-ayn rand) LOVES tax increases!

Ezra Klein breaks this down very well!

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Paul Ryan Twists and Turns!

By Jeff Simpson 

Paul Ryan (R- Ayn Rand) likes to give speeches where he assumes no one has access to video or remembers what he said last time!  However, Jon Stewart is paying attention and realizes that paul ryan (R-Wall St.) is comic gold!  

Second Amendment Isn't Under Attack, Everything Else Is

by Jeff Simpson

 As Bill Maher Points out....It is not your Second Amendment rights you have to worry about, it is ALL OF THE OTHERS!

America - Wake the F - UP!

Its nice when the pundit is actually intelligent(however rare that is)!

Walkergate: Pierick Takes A Plea Deal

From left to right: Tim Russell, Scott
Walker and Brian Pierick

As things were progressing for the last of the Walker Six, Brian Pierick, to have his trial start next week, he suddenly took a plea deal.

Pierick was originally charged with one count of child enticement (exposing himself to the child) and one count of exposing genitalia (getting the kid to expose himself for Pierick's sexual gratification).

In the plea deal, they amended the first charge to one charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and the other charge was dropped completely.

In exchange, Pierick pleaded guilty to the lesser charge. The plea deal also includes 50 hours of community service. The prosecutor will be recommending a fine of up to $10,000.

The charges against Pierick stemmed from the ongoing investigation into the illegal campaigning and other crimes committed by Scott Walker and his staff from both the county and his campaign.  The text messages and pictures were found on a phone jointly owned by Pierick and his domestic and business partner, Tim Russell.  Russell was just sentenced to two years in prison and five years extended supervision for embezzling money from a veterans fund.

Pierick's relation to Scott Walker was not as strong or as direct as the other people thus far arrested, charged and convicted.  However, he was a campaign aid for Walker and was eventually placed in the DPI due to Walker's influences.

Don't think for a minute that Walkergate or its effect will end when Pierick is sentenced on February 14.

Not only will there be more charges coming against more of the malefactors, but those who have already been convicted will still have their stench on things to come.

Teacher Pay Raises! In Florida?

By Jeff Simpson

Florida Governor Rick Scott says so.  Scott has decided that educators in Florida have taken enough of a beating and has offered up an olive branch full of money for the public educators!

This afternoon, Gov. Rick Scott proposed giving all full-time public-school teachers across the state a $2,500 pay raise.

“I can think of no better investment for our state than investing in those teachers who work on the front line of Florida’s future every day by teaching our children,” said Scott, in a news release.

Scott’s budget proposal to the Legislature will include $480 million in funding for the pay raises, and he is expected to unveil an overall increase in education funding in the next few weeks.

“Anything for teachers I support, especially in view of the recent Supreme Court ruling on 3 percent,” said Sara Kohlhauff, a Pinewoods Elementary teacher and Golden Apple finalist. “It is at least a nod in the right direction.”

Scott’s proposal is coming less than a week after the state Supreme Court ruled that public employees must contribute 3 percent of their pay to the Florida Retirement System.

FAQ on the proposal here!

This of course sent shockwaves in the republican party, as the party of group think was the nbeing led down the road of actually paying teachers.  It was not overlooked in WI, as Scott Walker today pledged to add more money to the Wisconsin public schools. 


It will be interesting to see how this is received in the republican party! 

The Costly County Executives

One of the straw men that the plutocrats and their sycophants are using to try to con people in supporting their take over of Milwaukee County is that the county supervisors pay is too damn high.  

Never mind that the supervisors pay is on par with every other county in the state - about $1 per person represented.  And never mind that Milwaukee County is the only county in the state with a Class A city, an international airport, a world-renowned zoo, the beautiful art museum, the mental health complex and the House of Correction.  And never mind that other states, like Minnesota, have supervisors getting paid nearly twice as much for doing less.

It's the Milwaukee County Board that has to be punished.  It's the Milwaukee County Board that's too damn expensive.

Funny thing is, if the plutocrats get their way, they'll be saving about $5 million dollars.  That's a little less than what the county is going to be paying out for just one of Scott Walker's political stunts.

As I have repeatedly written about, Walker was gearing up for his gubernatorial campaign by showing he was being tough on the workers, especially us AFSCME thugs.  So he set up an artificially constructed deficit in his 2010 budget, and went through a phony dog and pony show claiming that the unions wouldn't offer concessions to balance the budget problem he created.  

Since the unions couldn't make the concessions even if they wanted to, Walker forced county workers to take mandatory furlough days.  Some, like the deputy sheriffs, got eight days of furloughs.  They were the lucky ones.

Others, including yours truly, had to take 26 days of furlough.  

In 2011, we had to take another 13 days.

Long story short, the furloughs were not only excessive, but they were illegal.

Last August, the county paid out the 2010 furloughs to a tune of $4.5 million.  

I have learned that in three weeks, the county will be paying out the rest of the furlough days, the overtime pay that was lost and adjusting the pensions of the retirees.

The total for this new payout will be in the area of $1.5 million.

That's $6 million for just one of Walker's stunts.  

Of course, it could have been a lot less if current county executive, Chris Abele, and Joe Sanfelippo, who is the sockpuppet for the GMC takeover, had not refused to negotiate with the unions, who were willing to give up part of the payouts as well as make other concessions.

This also does not include the myriad of lawsuits that have been filed against the county for things like wrongful deaths at the mental health complex, the collapse of the O'Donnell Park garage's facade and at the House of Correction.

It should be pointed out that Walker isn't the only expensive county executive Milwaukee County has ever had.

Abele, who is pushing for the takeover in the name of "efficiency," had wanted to give his aides and cabinet members half a million dollars in "merit bonuses."  Abele also wanted to pay someone more than a $100,000 for a position of "initiative policy specialist."  If that's not a made up job, I don't know what is.

And in less than two years, Abele has squandered millions of dollars in an effort to earn his teahadist credentials with illegal maneuvers in the budget.  Each time he touches employee benefits that are property assets, like the pension, it costs half a million dollars to change it, untold thousands to fight it out in court and another half a million to change it back.

And since I mentioned the pension, who could forget that the biggest cost of them all, the pension scandal, rests firmly at the feet of former county executive Tom Ament.

If these plutocrats were really concerned about saving taxpayer money, they would be going after the real cost makers, the county executive's office.  Since they're not only not going after the executive, but are trying to fool people that he will save them money, it's obvious that cost control is nothing but a straw man in expensive clothing.

Um, Governor, Your Slip Is Showing...

Earlier this evening, Scott Walker's handlers made the mistake of allowing him to access his Twitter account:

Oh dear me!*  It looks like Walker had a Freudian slip! 

Obviously, the recent recommendation from his transportation commission, in which they recommended increasing the gas tax and raising fees through the moonroof, is weighing heavily on his mind.

On one hand, if he supports his commission's recommendations, he'll have to turn in his tea bags and be ran out of the state by his own supporters.

On the other hand, he needs to create a huge cash flow to the road builders who spent a lot of money in supporting his campaigns.  Furthermore, he'll need even more money for his legal cooperation fund.

What's a corrupt governor to do?

Well, one thing he shouldn't do is try to correct his previous mistake:

The lame attempt at trying to explain away the gaffe is bad enough, but what is really embarrassing is a governor that goes "LOL."  Well, at least it wasn't ROFLCOPTER or something like that.

*What kind of idiot waits until the end of January to put Sta-Bil in their gas tank?  And what kind of idiot does that to a Harley in the first place?

Protest the Plutocrats' Party

Citizens Action of Wisconsin and We Are Milwaukee have joined forces to hold a protest outside of a fund raiser the plutocrats at the Greater Milwaukee Committee, not to mention their sockpuppet Chris Abele, are holding in an effort to buy state Republicans to pass this horrible bill which would end representative government in Milwaukee County.  Hell, it will end Milwaukee County as Abele sells off everything to his corporate friends.  

Click image to embiggen

You can find their Facebook page for the event here.

Solidarity Fish Fry: Sweet Sixteen

Just a reminder that this Friday is the sixteenth week of the world-famous Solidarity Fish Fry.

The routine is the same:

1. Go to Serb Hall in Milwaukee anytime between 11:30 am and 9 pm.
2. Tell the host you want a union table - the servers are usually Michelle, Victoria and Sandra
3. Enjoy a fish fry or buffet
4. Leave a good tip and make sure they know it's in support of the union workers
5. Move along so the other union supporters can get their fish fry on too.

There are two, three things to keep in mind though.

One, be prepared to wait.  Especially if you're like me and get there a little later.

Two, if they tell you that there are no union servers or that they went home, be prepared to leave and go somewhere else.  But when you're leaving, make sure management knows why.

Three, don't get between Randy Brice and his tartar sauce.

See ya there.

And tell them that Cog Dis sent ya.

Walkergate: Is John Doe Done? Not According To Walker

For months, apologists for Scott Walker have been trying to get people to believe that the John Doe investigation known as Walkergate is dead.  They've been trying to get people to believe that outside of the Walker 6, no one else had been involved with illegal campaigning or any other prohibited behaviors.

And for months, I've been pointing out how ridiculous that is.

When new broke that Tim Russell had taken a plea deal, Walker and his apologists tried again to say that Walkergate was wrapping up.

Again, I provided a rather lengthy list of reasons why Walkergate was not ending anytime soon.

It appears that Walker has given up that line of argument.

In a article written by Steve Schultze of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel covering Russell's sentencing hearing, he tried to do a follow up with Walker's campaign.  Although I am sure that Schultze got the quote correct, I don't think he recognized what was being said (emphasis mine):

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

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

Think about that for a minute.

At the beginning of 2012, five people were arrested. Four of the five have had their cases resolved already:

• Darlene Wink took a plea deal and was giving probation,
• Kevin Kavanaugh was convicted and sentenced to two years.
• Kelly Rindfleisch took a plea deal and was sentenced to prison, although that sentence was stayed pending an appeal
• Tim Russell took a plea deal and was sentenced to two years in prison.

The only one yet to reach resolution is Brian Pierick, whose trial starts next week. And Pierick's case has little to do with Walker per se.  Pierick was charged with child enticement as a result information found during the investigation into Walkergate.

So what is Walker still cooperating with?  And why would Walker be involved and needing to cooperate if he was not part of it? 

Of course, some might wonder about the level of cooperation Walker is providing, since he is also the one that stonewalled the investigation so much that he forced the DA's Office to open up the John Doe to begin with.

Well, the answer is simple.

Walker was part of it.  But we already knew that because with Walker, there is always more.  Then there's still even more.  

Or perhaps she meant that Walker was cooperating with the Dane County's Walkergate.

We have a good idea of who are some of the likeliest candidates for the next wave of charges.  And that doesn't include Jim Villa and John Hiller, who are also highly likely to see their day in court.  Is Walker's cooperation entailing him getting ready to throw them under the bus?

But there is one thing that struck me long ago, and something I keep returning to in my mind.

Despite Walker's defenders' constant attacks on the reputation of the DA's office, their questioning of the integrity of the investigation, their attempts to mislead or confuse the matter, there is one thing they've never, ever tried to do.

They've never once said that Walker is innocent.