Scott Walker as Casey Kasem

From the very talented Stuart Carlson:

2 East Main

By Jeff Simpson

With this interview from the head of the Wisconsin Democratic party, we at Cogdis were privy to an earlier conversation! 

This is scene one in the Wisconsin Gubernatorial race of 2014!

SW: Mike this is a very hard time trying to run the state and go through this investigation and run for president, I don't need the hassle. 

MT: Yes Sir Mr. Walker

SW:  Good I knew I could count on you.

MT:  Yes Sir, Mr. Walker.  I will do my best to make sure no one mentions that you are at the center of a criminal investigation and have been the last four years.     I refuse to mention that you have spent 3/4 of a million dollars on lawyers defending your activities.  I wont mention all of your staff that have been convicted either.   My lips are sealed!

SW:  And if anyone else does?

MT:  You saw how quickly we shunned and attacked Bret Hulsey....

SW:  Yes it was beautiful.  Hulsey's little stunt almost shone a light on our incredibly racist policies and emails,  since I have been in office.  I mean seriously my staff works hard, you need to raise alot of money to run for president, so why not let them blow off some steam by racist jokes.  You can only make fun of public workers so much, you need to mix it up a little.  

MT:  If anyone knows how to deliver a strong speech its you sir.   

SW:  Keep up the good work Michael, now leave me alone.  This steak dinner and expensive wine is not for you!   When you see Eric and JB in the lobby, send them in.  I have to give them their orders!

Also, if you know any good plumbers(wink wink) let Mike Huebsch know. 

MT:   Yes sir.   Have a great day sir.

SW:   mumbles and chews.....  


dim lights.....draw curtain

curtain call:

Walker Continues Wage War With Workers

Because organized labor is the only answer to organized greed, the greedy corporate special interests have spent untold amounts of time and money to destroy the unions.  These attacks have taken many forms, from the misleading "Right to Work" laws to things like Scott Walker's Act 10.

As the gentle reader is aware, Act 10 did everything from taking away from collective bargaining rights for anything and everything but a controlled wage increase to imposing ridiculously rigid demands for recertification.  (Keep in mind that even with Act 10, Walker can't really decertify n union.  He can refuse to work with them - which is a trademark for him - but he can't decertify them.  Only a union can decertify itself.)

Sadly, the damage done to the workers (and subsequently, to the entire state) isn't enough for Walker.  Even has he is embroiled in his own scandal and failing jobs record, he still finds time to screw with state workers.  This time, he is after the correction officers again.

According to the 2013-2015 state budget, all not represented state workers - including those belonging to "decertified" unions, were supposed to get a 1% raise, effective June 29, 2014.  However, Walker is trying to renege on this raise with the corrections officers, as evidenced by this email:

From: DOC PostMaster
Sent: Thursday, June 19, 2014 3:50 PM
Subject: Attention: ALL DOC Employees: Information Regarding the 6/29/14 General Wage Adjustment
Importance: High

In accordance with the 2013-2015 State Compensation Plan, effective June 29, 2014, eligible state employees will receive a 1% general wage adjustment (GWA).  The increases will be reflected on the July 24, 2014 pay check.

However, the Office of State Employment Relations (OSER) has informed us employees within the following bargaining units will not receive the GWA at this time:
·       Building Trades Crafts (schedule 04)
·       Legal (Attorneys in schedule 09)
·       Security and Public Safety (SPS) (schedule 05) which includes the following DOC classifications:
o   Correctional Officer and Sergeant
o   Youth Counselor and Youth Counselor Advanced

Trades and Legal are certified bargaining units and the GWA is established through a separate process.

SPS is not eligible for the GWA at this time due to a pending objection. Wisconsin Association for Correctional Law Enforcement (WACLE) filed an Objection to Election with the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission (WERC) after the recertification elections from November of 2013.  Once the WERC issues a decision on the objection, OSER will provide further instructions including information on potential back pay to June 29, 2014.

We will keep affected employees updated on information as it becomes available.

These ineligibilities apply only to the GWA.  All other Compensation Plan provisions are still applicable.

Please contact your local Human Resources Office if you have any additional questions.

Thank you,

DOC Human Resources

In short, Walker is trying to hold off on giving the budgeted raise for an indefinite amount of time, needing the money to fill some of the myriad of holes in his budget. On top of trying to screw the workers out of their raise, Walker is also trying to blame the union for this egregious stunt.

Fortunately, AFSCME is still alive and kicking and representing its members, as shown by this quick and direct letter to the WERC:

AFSCME DC 24 Letter to WERC Re Corrections Raise

Obviously, Walker is in a panic about the upcoming election. He has the fallout of the Walkergate scandal as more and more information is being released. His job numbers suck and are worse than if he had done nothing at all.  Despite his grandiose claims to the contrary, taxes are going up even as property values are sinking like stones.

Because he is such dire straits, he will do whatever he can to try to throw people off balance and to jerk them around.  I also wouldn't be surprised that he decides to pay this out as we get closer to the election in order to fire up his anti-union base.

Fortunately, the union will still  be there to stand up for its members and for the people of the state.

Walkergate: Two Good Reads

In the onslaught of Scott Walker's damage control propaganda, which has been forwarded unquestioningly by the corporate media, it is easy to lose the ramifications of the revelations and ramifications of the latest document release of the Walkergte saga.  Fortunately, there are plenty of progressive writers that are also keeping track of these issues.  Two of these have written very good posts which the gentle reader should take a few minutes to read.

The first one of these is heralded by the return of Mike Plaisted, who has returned from a long hiatus from writing, and comes out with a very well written post shining the light on how deeply Walker is in trouble:

In fact, if Walker ever exits the cocoon of Fox News and talk radio where he has lived since Thursday and talks to a legitimate news reporter again, someone should ask him about the details of what exactly he was doing back then that he is now so proud of, now that the case is "over", as Walker falsely declared to his friendly interviewers in his desperate last couple of days..  "Was your campaign coordinating with the outside groups, governor?  When did it start?", etc.  I'll bet he doesn't answer the question -- he'd be crazy to do so.

The reason is because Walker and his lawyers know very well that the case is far from "over".   The lawyers for the dark money operators managed to convince one friendly federal judge and one state judge of their novel theory that the part of the state statutes prohibiting coordination between campaigns and outside groups, as written and as always interpreted, was unconstitutional.   But it is by no means guaranteed that the conclusion that dark money groups and campaigns can coordinate with dark money all they want as long as the dark money ads don't say "vote for Walker" will stand in the Courts of Appeals or even the post-Citizens United Supreme Court.

It is not Federalist Society activist Judge Rudy Randa who is going to have the last word on this -- it will be Justice Anthony Kennedy. As an excellent New York Times editorial noted this morning: "Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy promised in 2010 that there was nothing to fear from independent spending groups that raised unlimited dollars. Because they could not coordinate with political candidates, he wrote in the Citizens United decision, they 'do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption.'" Having written that, how could Kennedy now follow the right-wing of the Court off the cliff by saying that anything goes for anyone with a checkbook and a candidate in their pocket? Hopefully, the bright line of campaign coordination with dark money is one the Fifth Justice will not cross.

The other post I would point out to the gentle reader is from Jake at his Funhouse. Jake brings up a number of good points, but the second one is the one that really caught my eye:

2. A claim by the Walker folks and other right-wing oligarchs is that the governor's campaign collaborating with "issue advocacy" ("tax cuts are good") is OK vs "express advocacy" (i.e. "vote for/against Walker"). The prosecutors say the problem with that thinking is that this defense was thrown out 15 years ago in case involving a fake front group set up by Mark Block, aka "the Smoking Man" for Herman Cain, (called the Wisconsin Coalition for Voter Participation) could not coordinate with Supreme Court Justice Jon Wilcox. The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign blog has a good rundown of how that played out.

It has been settled law in Wisconsin that this prohibition on coordination between candidates and interest groups applies to organizations doing election-related "issue advocacy." Application of the coordination ban to so-called "issue ad" groups was challenged in the late 1990s in the case involving a group that was found to be coordinating with Justice Jon Wilcox’s 1997 campaign for reelection to the state Supreme Court.

State election authorities heavily fined both Wilcox’s campaign as well as political operative Mark Block, who ran the issue ad-sponsoring Wisconsin Coalition for Voter Participation. At the time, the fines were the largest in state history for campaign finance violations. Block also was banned from involvement in Wisconsin elections for three years. The state's enforcement actions were contested in court, and ultimately were upheld in a 1999 ruling.

After Block's three-year ban ended, he signed on as the director of the Kochs' Americans for Prosperity chapter in Wisconsin (I'm sure that's just coincidence). And there as Mike McCabe mentions in the article, the endgame for the Koch crowd is to eradicate any laws relating to coordination and the subsequent disclosure of donors' names.

There's a second question that should be answered here. Given that the recall election loophole enabled candidates to raise unlimited funds, why did R.J. Johnson and others launder money like this? The only answer I can come up with is to hide the names of the donors to Walker and the GOP Senators, and to allow those people to write off taxes as a "donation" to these alleged social welfare groups. Which would be right down the Kochs' alley.

Given that the special interests' arguments aren't going to hold up in a court of law, it's not a big surprise that Walker and his propagandists are presenting with a rather desperate appearance in their flailing around.

Mary Burke Strategy - Open Thread

Your thoughts on this strategy! 

All They Do Is Cheat

By Jeff Simpson

From Wispolitics:

 Robert Monroe, a 50-year-old Shorewood health insurance executive, was charged Friday with 13 felonies related to his voting a dozen times in five elections between 2011 and 2012 using his own name as well as that of his son and his girlfriend's son.

"During 2011 and 2012, the defendant, Robert Monroe, became especially focused upon political issues and causes, including especially the recall elections," the complaint asserts in its introduction.
 
According to those records, Monroe was considered by investigators to be the most prolific multiple voter in memory. He was a supporter of Gov. Scott Walker and state Sen. Alberta Darling, both Republicans, and allegedly cast five ballots in the June 2012 election in which Walker survived a recall challenge.


The first election Monroe allegedly voted more than once was in the April 2011 Supreme Court race in which incumbent David Prosser faced Joanne Kloppenburg, a race so close that it eventually led to a recount.

His excuse was of course a good one:

 According to the John Doe records, Monroe claimed to have a form of temporary amnesia and did not recall the election day events when confronted by investigators.

That excuse reminds me of this excuse when asked about emails he had actually written:

The Misfortune of School Choice

By Jeff Simpson

We recently brought you a quick look inside one of Milwaukee's private voucher schools as seen by the great Rebecca Kemble.  



This is of course on the heels of Robin Vos, telling anyone who will listen:

  More school choice is in Wisconsin's future according to an article by Rep. Robin Vos in the Appleton Post-Crescent.  According to Vos, "every Wisconsin parent should also be given the opportunity to enroll their child in the school of their choice" just like we are free to decide where to live, what to wear, what to say, where to go to college, etc.

            Vos says "we should never have implemented a cap [on the Wisconsin Parental Choice Program] and I will work to get rid of it because schools choice works for Wisconsin." 

 The Progressive's new editor-in-chief, Ruth Coniff,  now gives us her perspective of the trip she took with Ms. Kemble.  

I recently went on a tour of Milwaukee voucher schools for an article in The Progressive magazine that left me in a cold sweat.

I saw kids going to school in a crumbling office building and in a corner store. There's a new voucher school opening in an old car dealership, and there are others in rundown factory buildings that have never been properly cleaned up. Students are being sent to such places at taxpayer expense thanks to Wisconsin's expanding Parental Choice Program. The vast majority of the kids in the Milwaukee voucher program are very poor.

What started as an idea that was supposed to expand opportunity for these kids to attend private and parochial schools has turned into a business opportunity for hucksters who set up fly-by-night schools that profit by taking public funds and running cheap, unregulated schools. You have to see for yourself how bad these places are to believe it.

At Milwaukee's "Academy of Excellence" -- the grungy office-building school -- they are teaching the Bob Jones University curriculum. There are posters in the hall that say "God can see your heart, and he knows that it is wicked." I looked in on a middle-school science class full of eighth-grade boys who were learning Creationism.

This is our vision for public school?

What chance do these kids have of ever climbing out of poverty or of connecting with the middle class? We are leaving them so, so far behind.

 (Edit Note: I hope everyone knows what they teach at Bob Jones University!)







 To be fair, NOT everyone gets left behind by voucher/private schools.  Some are doing incredibly well.

Take Ron Packard, K12's former CEO. In 2012, he earned a base salary of $625,000, a "performance" bonus of $584,375, a stock award worth $1.25 million, and stock options worth $1.5 million. But there's more. The company matched 25 percent of his salary for his retirement fund. Now that's a luxurious pension. And who funds this kind of deal? Taxpayers.

Contrast that with a public-school teacher's average salary of about $50,000 and an annual pension of about $40,000.

Kind of explains why Robin Vos wants to keep sending our tax dollars his way, doesn't it? 

 

The Walker Way

By Jeff Simpson

In the Moraine Park School district, the school board was preparing to treat their teachers well.  Then a problem arose.  The teacher's union recertified!  

 After hearing concerns, the Board went ahead and adopted the 2014-15 budget, which included a 1.46 percent wage increase for union members. Non-union support staff and administrators will receive a 2 percent wage increase.

Divide and conquer is alive and well in WI.  If a majority of teachers decide they want one voice to speak for them, they must be punished!

“We believe there are legal, creative options available to make the faculty feel whole, to not be penalized for choosing to have representation at the bargaining table and beyond,” he told the Board. “We also believe that saying faculty would get a larger salary increase if they didn’t recertify could be considered a prohibited practice by the WERC (Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission). We’d rather not pursue that option, and would really like to settle this here.”
Division arose when members of the Board stated they would offer a 2 percent wage increase to all staff and then reduced it to 1.46 percent when the MPFT voted to recertify in April. MPTC employs around 152 faculty members.

In Wisconsin, the only way people are allowed to collaborate these days, is if it is to get Scott Walker and republicans elected!  

The Nuge Brings His Tour Of Hate & Ignorance To Oshkosh

June 20, 2014

Ted Nugent to appear in Oshkosh July 26th

The Waterfest Concert Series in Oshkosh has booked Ted Nugent a classic rock artist who was a superstar in the ‘70s. Mr. Nugent over the years has become increasingly vocal during his performances using the stage as a sounding board for his extreme political beliefs. A person only has to “google” his name to get dozens of “you tube” videos showing his outrageous behavior while performing.

In Longview Texas the Republican Party of Gregg County requested the city cancel Nugent’s concert after viewing these videos and feeling his act was not appropriate. The city complied and Nugent was paid $16,000 to fulfill the contract. The money was raised through donations.

Agree or disagree with Nugent’s political views, we all can agree in a nonpartisan voice that his use of anger, intimidation and calls for violence is inappropriate and will damage Waterfest’s reputation should he be allowed to perform. This has nothing to do with the First Amendment; it has everything to do with extremist, threatening views that cannot possibly help anyone and hurt the entire community.

I ask Oshkosh Chamber Members, our city/county and state leaders and all citizens to immediately contact Waterfest Inc. and the Chamber and request they cancel Ted Nugent’s performance. This will reflect on all of us in Oshkosh and the Fox valley in negative ways for many years to come if he is allowed to appear.

Kevin R Kratsch
Oshkosh

West Bend - Meet & Greet Your Next Congressman

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 20, 2014

Contact: Robert Hansen, Campaign Manager

414-688-8226 • media@rockwoodforcongress.com

West Bend—Voters in Wisconsin’s 5th Congressional District will have a chance to meet the progressive candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives this Tuesday evening, June 24th.

Chris Rockwood, who’s challenging long-time incumbent Jim Sensenbrenner, will attend a Meet and Greet at the Washington County Democratic Party Office, 132 North Main Street in West Bend. The event, which is being hosted by Tanya Lohr, is scheduled to run from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m.

Chris has some powerful ideas about how to move our country forward, and he’s excited for this opportunity to share them with his future constituents.

EVENT: Meet and Greet with 5th CD candidate Chris Rockwood 

DATE: Tuesday, June 24, 2014 

TIME: 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. 

LOCATION: Washington County Democratic Party Office,

132 North Main Street, West Bend, WI

Admission to the Meet and Greet is free, but all contributions to the Rockwood campaign will be gratefully accepted. To RSVP, visit the Facebook events page at https://www.facebook.com/events/1394714917484180.

For more information, visit RockwoodForCongress.com. Follow the campaign on Facebook.com/RockwoodForCongress, and on Twitter @Rockwood4WI.

###

Walkergate: "Pop!" Goes The Weasel

The other day, I noted that some unnamed intervenors were trying desperately to stop the release of some more of the Walkergate documents related to the ongoing investigation into illegal campaigning by Scott "The Weasel" Walker and associates.  Much to their dismay, their attempts were in vain and said documents - all 266 pages of them - were released today.

While some of the details are new and most interesting, the overall news is not new at all.

In a nutshell, the documents show that prosecutors have reason to believe that Walker and his campaign were coordinating with dark money groups like Wisconsin Club for Growth to help funnel money into state elections.  While the focus has been on the recall elections in 2011 and 2012, there are indications that this was going on for years before that.

That this was going on for a while should surprise no one. I would remind the gentle reader of the incident shortly after Walker dropped his Act 10 bomb on the state and he received a call from a person Walker thought was David Koch.  Walker showed his attitude towards illegal colluding then:

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

The smoking gun - or to be more exact, the smoking Howitzer - is an email from Walker to Karl Rove, the advisor to George W. Bush:

The documents include an excerpt from an email in which Walker tells Karl Rove, former top adviser to President George W. Bush, that Johnson would lead the coordination campaign. Johnson also is Walker's longtime campaign strategist and the chief adviser to Wisconsin Club for Growth, a prominent conservative group.

"Bottom-line: R.J. helps keep in place a team that is wildly successful in Wisconsin. We are running 9 recall elections and it will be like 9 congressional markets in every market in the state (and Twin Cities)," Walker wrote to Rove on May 4, 2011. Rove runs American Crossroads, which backs Republican congressional and presidential candidates.

Yes, you read that correctly, Walker was foolish enough to put into writing that they were breaking campaign laws.  But then again, with Walker, we always new that there was more. There's always more.

As noted above, some of the allegations is that Walker and his campaign had formed some sort of symbiotic relationship with the dark money groups in which they helped raise funds for each other and redirect those funds through a myriad of channels to help hide the source of all that dark money.  They would then use said dark money to help coordinate their campaigns to help the Teapublican politician or candidate, either by supporting them or attacking their opponents.

This is not unlike the case from California where prosecutors were able to expose and get convictions on money laundering by Koch Brothers-supported front groups.

By far, the best summary of the documents that I've seen thus far comes from Lisa Kaiser of the Shepherd Express.  It is worth a read and I would advise the gentle reader to follow Kaiser for further updates.

There is one thing that Kaiser hadn't gotten to yet is that fact that our old friends at the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) was also tied up in this:

Schmitz said Club for Growth also gave $2.5 million to Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, which through its Issues Mobilization Council ran ads supporting Walker and criticizing his recall opponent Tom Barrett. Schmitz also said WMC senior vice president James Buchen participated in conference calls with Walker and others involving the Senate and gubernatorial recall campaigns.

Schmitz alleged that in their court filings Walker’s campaign and other groups “tacitly admitted to violating Wisconsin campaign law.”

WMC was none too happy about getting caught being involved with this little love nest of vipers:

The documents reveal that Walker’s campaign, Wisconsin Club for Growth, Citizens for a Strong America, Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce and WMC’s Issues Mobilization Council sought to halt the John Doe investigation in state court last fall.

WMC, the state’s largest business lobby, issued a statement declining to comment on the John Doe investigation, but saying it follows campaign finance law.

“WMC wants to be explicitly clear that its grassroots lobbying activities are conducted carefully within both the letter and the spirit of state law,” the statement said. “WMC strongly disputes any allegations of wrongdoing made public today and will vigorously defend itself against any such allegations.”

Oh, puh-leeze!

Finally, there is no telling where this is going to go. The prosecutors appear to be set to push this thing through and see it to an end. However, it appears to my layman eyes that their investigation and any subsequent cases might be too compromised for them to effectively carry on.

However, that does not mean that the bad guys have gotten away with anything.  The gentle reader should keep in mind that the federal government has been helping with this investigation all along - especially since Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen has refused to get involved in the entire matter.

The gentle reader should also keep in mind that just two weeks ago, US Attorney General Eric Holder was in Madison to "meet with staff at the U.S. Department of Justice offices."

Maybe it's time to say goodbye to John Doe and say hello to RICO Suave?

Either way, it's most definitely time to load up on the popcorn again!

Walker & Colbert in Solidarity

When one of the top comedians in the country takes on one of the biggest jokes of a politician in the country, hilarity ensues!     Scott Walker has said so many almost laughable things in his career about gay rights that he finally was parodied on the national stage! 

“I believe we must all respect Walker’s privacy in this difficult time to be against gay marriage,” Colbert said. “It is a personal matter between him and his pollster. It is none of the public’s business what Walker decides in the privacy of his own governor’s mansion.”

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,The Colbert Report on Facebook,Video Archive

Growing Up Republican

By Jeff Simpson


Long time Mississippi republican Senator gave us a little peek into what shaped him as a child into becoming a republican:

“I grew up coming down here for Christmas,” he said. “My father’s family was here. My mother’s family was from rural Hinds County in Utica.”
“It was fun, it was an adventure to be out there in the country and to see what goes on,” he said of his boyhood visits to Hattiesburg. “Picking up pecans, from that to all kinds of indecent things with animals.”
The audience chuckled.
“And I know some of you know what that is,” Cochran said.

No wonder Brett Favre endorsed him.  

Howard Dean on Success in 2014

 

By Jeff Simpson

Howard Dean knows how to win elections:

Cantor's loss last week was an eye-opener for many campaigns. If Democrats mobilize our base, stand up for what’s right and force a fight on vote-inspiring issues connected to combating income inequality, we can rack up wins that will stun many in Washington’s pundit class — and elect Democratic majorities in the House and Senate in November.

Howard Dean penned his thoughts on the Cantor defeat here(I recommend the whole read):

* First, competing in every state and every district is still vital.

 

* Second, Americans are so fed up with Congress that even the tea party wants to kick it out.

 

* Third, organization and shoe leather can beat big money.

 

* Fourth, base support wins elections — unless it drives you outside the mainstream.

 

* Lastly, and perhaps most important, Democrats need to learn from Cantor’s loss that anything can happen in 2014.

Unfortunately our state party is too busy spending their time attacking other Democrats and the Greens to worry about how to win an election against the republicans!

 

One Of These Things Is NOT Like The Other!

BY Jeff Simpson

 1. We know that Scott Walker refuses to grand pardons, no matter how deserving.  Which is very unfortunate for some people in WI.

Exhibit A:   Jessica Cranfield:

Jessica Cranfield spoke with News 3 from her home in Chippewa County and admits she's made mistakes. At 17, she committed a number of crimes, including stealing a purse and clearing a bank account of $100 to buy drugs. For that offense, felony forgery, she went to prison for two years.
"When October of 2005 rolled around and I was a free woman I was 20 years old," Cranfield said. "At 20 years old you have a lot of life in front of you, so I made the conscious decision that I was never going to get in trouble again."
She is now married with children and in school working toward a bachelor's degree in education, but said she's unlikely to get her desired job as a teacher.
"It's very difficult to get a job if you have any type of criminal conviction," Cranfield said. "But a felony basically guarantees that you won't."

Exhibit B:  Pam Stevens:

Pam Stevens is an outspoken supporter of Gov. Scott Walker and his reform efforts.
She says she won't be silenced just because she owes the state nearly $30,000 in unpaid taxes.
Stevens' personal financial issues became an issue in 2012 when she ran unsuccessfully against state Sen. Robert Wirch, a Pleasant Prairie Democrat.
"I was shocked to see her in the commercial with her record," Wirch said this week.
Records show that she still owes the state $28,875 in unpaid income taxes. It appears that she may have some unpaid tax warrants and judgments, too.

Exhibit C: Christopher Barber:

Emphasizing his role as a job creator, Gov. Scott Walker praised Christopher Barber's moxie during the governor's annual "state of the state" speech.
Barber, 32, left the ranks of the unemployed to land a seasonal job as welder at Ariens Co. in Brillion in late 2012, eventually turning that into a full-time post, according to a press release from Walker's office. Newspapers around the state ran a photo of Barber giving a big wave to the crowd as he exited the Assembly podium to a round of applause during Walker's televised address.
"These are the faces of an improving economy in our state," Walker said Wednesday of Barber and others. "Wisconsin is going back to work."
But there is a reason that Barber -- a resident of Two Rivers -- has had trouble finding steady work in the past.
Records show that he is a registered sex offender with two felonies and three drunken-driving offenses. Because of his checkered past, Barber has been in and out of jail and prison for much of the past decade, with his probation having been revoked at least twice.

 


 Anyone care to guess what makes one stand out?  What makes us hold up two people as "reformed" champions?

The answer is simple - It does not matter what you have done in your life,  If Scott Walker thinks you can help further his career than he can use you, if Scott Walker does not see how helping you advances his career, then you are on your own!

Does anyone here really think that Scott Walker would not have unleashed violence during the peaceful protests at the Capitol if he felt it would have helped his cause?