Wild Bill's Wild Bills

As the gentle reader would recall, Waukesha County and Teapublican poster boy, Bill Kramer, finally had his wild ways catch up to him when he was charged with sexually harassing and groping a woman.

There was so much backlash about this that the Teapublicans tried to shove him back under the rock that he had crawled out from.  He was laying so low that my Brother in Blogging, Jeff Simpson, was  looking high and low for him.

Well, Kramer has finally been found!  He was busy cutting checks.  No, not to his fellow Teapublicans, but to his defense attorney.

One problem though...he was paying his attorney with his campaign fund:

The campaign of embattled state Rep. Bill Kramer has paid $10,000 to defend him against sexual assault charges, raising questions about whether the payments violate state campaign law.

[...]


State law allows politicians to use campaign funds for their legal defense, but only against allegations that they had broken election or campaign finance laws.

Scot Ross, executive director of the liberal group One Wisconsin Now, said that sexual assault charges have nothing to do with election law violations.

"How can Kramer use his campaign account to pay legal bills related to the sexual assault charges against him?" Ross asked.

Reid Magney, a spokesman for the state Government Accountability Board, declined comment on the spending by Kramer's campaign. The board enforces state campaign finance laws and never comments on potential violations.

It sure seems that Teapublicans have a problem understanding the rules around legal defense funds.

Wisconsin Supreme Court (In)Justice David "Chokehold" Prosser also thought he could set up an illegal legal defense fund for his assault on Justice Ann Walsh Bradley.

I blame the whole thing on Scott Walker, who blurred the lines by calling his legal defense fund a legal cooperation fund.  He should know that his fellow Teapublicans get easily confused.

The Revictimization Of Milwaukee County Children And What You Can Do About It

Long time readers might recall that I used to work for the Milwaukee County Child Welfare System (the foster care system) in the late 1990's.  It was one of the most difficult and most rewarding jobs I've ever had.  Sadly, in 1998, then Governor Tommy Thompson and his fellow Republicans took over Milwaukee County's system, insisting that they weren't really under-funding the system (even though independent studies found that they were) and could do it better by privatizing it.

The county was able to stay in the system, winning many of the contracts the state was giving out.  By 2001, the state had completely cut the county out of any aspect of caring for its own foster children.

Since that time, the state's Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare has been plagued with problems stemming from extremely high staff turnover to continued abuse of foster children to children being killed.  The problems were traced back to the affects of austerity, including a severe staffing shortage and insufficient training.

Ironically, the state has been pumping tens of millions of dollars into the system since the takeover.  But when that money goes to constantly training new workers - not to mention lining the pockets of the administrators even more deeply - there is little to give to the workers and even less to pay for the much needed services.

The state has only made things worse by deciding that intake workers - the people on the front line who do the investigations into possible abuse and/or neglect - didn't even need to have the necessary education or experience to work in the field.

That is how little they think of our children.

Now they think of them even less, judging from this letter from State Representatives LaTonya Johnson and Chris Taylor to Eloise Anderson, Secretary of the Department of Children and Families:

Johnson/Taylor Letter to DCF RE BMCW

It's outrageous that nearly 3,000 children who might be in peril have to wait months to have a worker get to them.  The "stick it to them" approach that the Teapublicans and Republicrats have had toward Milwaukee are well known, but to revictimize innocent children is simply unacceptable.

Because of the legislative attention this untenable situation has received, it will be brought up at the Partnership Council, this coming Friday, July 25.  The meeting is from 12 - 2 pm at 635 N. 26th Street in Milwaukee.  If you are able, please attend and demand answers as to why Madison is allowing our children to linger in possible peril for months at a time.

Nearly 2 Million Wisconsinites Will Get To Vote On BadgerCare Referendums

This must be sending Scott Walker and Chris Abele into a tizzy:

One Third of Wisconsinites Will Have BadgerCare Referendums on the November Ballot
Eight counties advance advisory referendum on accepting the federal funds for BadgerCare, covering 1.97 million Wisconsin residents.

Statewide: One out of every three Wisconsin residents will see a referendum in November on accepting federal funds for BadgerCare, based on the actions of Dane and La Crosse counties late last week. Over 1.97 million Wisconsin residents will have a question on their ballot on whether the State of Wisconsin should accept enhanced federal funds for BadgerCare rejected by Walker and conservatives in the Legislature.

Eight counties have officially approved this referendum so far, Lincoln, La Crosse, Clark, Dane, Dunn, Outagamie, Milwaukee and Eau Claire, with more following soon. The support in red, purple and blue counties demonstrates how this issue transcends partisanship and is important to rural and urban Wisconsin.

The negative impact of rejecting these federal funds is particularly devastating at the local level. With fewer people guaranteed access to health coverage they can truly afford, uncompensated care costs will remain high in local hospitals and county-supported clinics, forcing cost-shifting to county-budgets, consumers and local businesses.

If Wisconsin accepted enhanced federal Medicaid funds for BadgerCare, 84,700 Wisconsin residents would gain access to BadgerCare. Rejecting federal money is costing more, while covering fewer lives. Wisconsin is losing up to $1 million a day in federal funds for BadgerCare. See the county by county breakdown here.

These referendum are especially important with the announcement that 38,000 Wisconsin residents forced off BadgerCare by Governor Walker were unable to sign up for private coverage. Because Wisconsin did not accept federal funds for BadgerCare, these residents have fallen into a coverage gap, unable to access affordable health coverage for all of 2014.

"In November voters in counties throughout Wisconsin will have the opportunity to send a clear message to the Governor and Legislature about the importance of guaranteeing affordable access to health care for everyone in Wisconsin," said Robert Kraig, Executive Director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin.

Combine this with the work that Move to Amend has done with getting the Citizens United decision overturned and there's a helluva lot of democracy going on!

It's a damn good thing to see.

The Tools Are Working In Waupaca

As the gentle reader is well aware, Scott Walker's agenda included more than trying to bust the unions and giving away taxpayer dollars to dark money special interests.   It also included destroying the public school system in order to pave the way for privatization of the education system.

It's not only Milwaukee Public Schools getting hit, but also the rural school systems like the one in Waupaca, as reported by Robert Cloud of the Waupaca County Post:

Estimates released this month by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction indicate state
aid to Waupaca schools may be cut by as much as $500,000 in 2014-15.

Not including this most recent cut, the Waupaca School District has seen its state aid decrease by a total of $3.4 million over the past five years, according to District Administrator Dave Poeschl.

Under state law, when a school district loses state aid, it can recoup that money by increasing property taxes.

“Over that same five-year period, we’ve only recouped $1.9 million through increased property taxes,” Poeschl said. “We’ve been fully aware of the effect that the decrease in state aids has on taxpayers. We’ve been doing the best we can to mitigate that effect.”

As a result of not raising property taxes to cover lost state aid, the Waupaca School District’s budget is about $2.7 million below the state-mandated revenue cap.

“We can’t continue to do that and at the same time provide the quality education our community is expecting,” Poeschl said.

The gentle reader should also note that even though it was Walker who cut the education budget by nearly a billion dollars, it is the local school board and administrators that have to try to make it work. Sadly, Walker has sabotaged the education system so much that they can't do that without making up Walker's shortfall by raising taxes, risking the ire of the voters.

In other words, they are damned if they do and damned if they don't.

Either way, Walker, if given the chance after November, and his fellow corporately-owned Teapublicans will sweep in, declare public schools are failures (even though he was the one that made sure they failed) and say the only way to save the schools are to privatize them.

That was Walker's modus operandi in Milwaukee County and it still is as governor.

No More Cuts - Stop Bleeding City Workers

The City of Milwaukee is looking to follow Milwaukee County and the State of Wisconsin in traipsing down the austerity trail despite the fact that this has proven to be more damaging and more costly than the savings they pretend it would save.

To see how draconian this would be, AFSCME District Council put together this video with real people explaining how damaging this would be to them and their families:



Or if you're more of a numbers type of person, here is the bloodletting in chart form from the city's website:

If you are available, please join us for a rally on Monday, July 21, at 5 pm at Red Arrow Park:

The Teapublicans and Republicrats will continue to take until we stop them and take back what is ours.  It is time and beyond to stand up for ourselves!

Scott Who?

By Jeff Simpson

From Mary Spicuzza 

In both states Walker fared the worst against Clinton among those six Republicans. Clinton was favored against Walker 50-37 in Iowa and 48-39 in New Hampshire.

Of the six Republicans, Walker had the highest percentage of registered voters who said they had never heard of him, at 24 percent in New Hampshire and 27 percent in Iowa.

Nuff said!  

 

Thiesfeldt V Ryan

 

By Jeff Simpson

Jeremy Thiesfeldt (R-ALEC) has taken time away from reading Alec emails that are sent to his personal email to write a blistering criticism of the George Bush written and Paul Ryan(R-Ayn Rand) supported No Child Left Behind republican education policy!

The near-unanimous adoption of CCS came from recession cash-strapped states eager for bothfederal stimulus funds, and a waiver from the heavy hand of No Child Left Behind.

Of Course Paul Ryan (R-Standardized tests) was a big supporter of No Child Left Behind and the heavy hand of the Federal Government!    Apparently the "tea party" that keeps having Paul Ryan speak at their events are not that opposed to the heavy hand of the government if its done by republicans! 

In the interest of limited government and freedom, Jeremy Thiesfeldt supports Rob Zerban and you should too!  








   

Paul Ryan on Education
Rep. Ryan went along with the Bush Administration in supporting more federal involvement in education. This is contrary to the traditional Republican position, which included support for abolition of the Department of Education and decreasing federal involvement in education.
-Voted YES on No Child Left Behind Act (2001)
- See more at: http://www.thomhartmann.com/forum/2012/08/paul-ryan-not-opponent-big-government-left-and-right-make-him-out-be#sthash.ycclu7wo.dpuf

Paul Ryan on Education
Rep. Ryan went along with the Bush Administration in supporting more federal involvement in education. This is contrary to the traditional Republican position, which included support for abolition of the Department of Education and decreasing federal involvement in education.
-Voted YES on No Child Left Behind Act (2001)
- See more at: http://www.thomhartmann.com/forum/2012/08/paul-ryan-not-opponent-big-government-left-and-right-make-him-out-be#sthash.ycclu7wo.dpuf

Paul Ryan on Education
Rep. Ryan went along with the Bush Administration in supporting more federal involvement in education. This is contrary to the traditional Republican position, which included support for abolition of the Department of Education and decreasing federal involvement in education.
-Voted YES on No Child Left Behind Act (2001)
- See more at: http://www.thomhartmann.com/forum/2012/08/paul-ryan-not-opponent-big-government-left-and-right-make-him-out-be#sthash.ycclu7wo.dpuf

Paul Ryan on Education
Rep. Ryan went along with the Bush Administration in supporting more federal involvement in education. This is contrary to the traditional Republican position, which included support for abolition of the Department of Education and decreasing federal involvement in education.
-Voted YES on No Child Left Behind Act (2001)
- See more at: http://www.thomhartmann.com/forum/2012/08/paul-ryan-not-opponent-big-government-left-and-right-make-him-out-be#sthash.ycclu7wo.dpuf

Common Core Continued

By Jeff Simpson

I wrote about Scott Walker wanting to overturn Common Core State Standards this morning.

It turns out that was just the tip of the iceberg, as Andy @Wisoapbox explores this issue in depth and puts all other bloggers and media in WI to shame.

 I recommend reading the WHOLE piece but I will share a couple highlights here!    

The first that stood out to me was Captain Voucher, Jeremy Thiesfeldt's attempt to rebrand Common Core STATE Standards to just Common Core Standards to fit better into his narrative.   WISB outted him.

“I was pleased to hear that Gov. Walker called on the legislature to pass a bill in January repealing the Common Core Standards (CCS). I look forward to promptly tackling this issue as our first priority in response to the governor’s appeal.  

Notice how he doesn't say "state" standards. That's a VERY specific and important change conservatives are trying to do in "un-localizing" the Common Core STATE Standards.

Wisconsin’s educational standards need to be improved, but Wisconsin students are best served by standards created within our own state. 

Unfortunately, the Democratic party has decided not to run anyone against Thiesfeldt so all we can do is look at his blatant dishonesty in awe.  

Secondly WISB has a major coup.  It turns out Scott Walker was for CCSS before he was against them:

Also, Walker's statement calling for dumping Common Core comes after he has worked with the state DPI for the past several years on education reform issues that all hinge on successful implementation of the standards. 

But, but what?! Oh, so Gov. Walker was for it before he was against it? (Oh 2004 Kerry campaign.) Seriously, if anyone wanted to know why he wasn't saying much about Common Core before now, this is why - He actually worked with them and utilized them in a lot of what he did with respect to school accountability.

In his 2011-'13 budget veto message to the Assembly, Walker wrote that his budget supported greater accountability and performance in K-12 education by "investing $15 million in the development of a statewide student information system and requiring the Department of Public Instruction to implement new pupil assessment based on mastery of Common Core Standards by 2014-15."

D'OH.  As I always say, whats a few million taxpayer dollars if it will help further Scotty's career?

Using our children as political props and catering the anti intellectuals in the tea party is a sure fire loser in November, let's make sure this backfires on them big time!

Scott Walker's China Problem

 

By Jeff Simpson

Despite the fact that Mary Burke was long gone before any outsourcing happened at Trek, Scott Walker is sticking to his pants on fire guns.  He posted this on facebook this afternoon. 

Scott Walker

1 hr ·

Still undisputed: Mary Burke profited from company that took taxpayer $ & sent jobs to places like China where avg rate is less than $2/hr

Apparently he either never knew or must have forgotten about the millions of dollars in taxpayer money WEDC gave to firms that then shipped jobs overseas.    He has also forgotten that his good buddy Paul Ryan ran on a presidential ticket where they bragged about the wonderful working conditions of China:

Scott Walker has also been to China a few times (on our dime) yet I can not find a single news paper article or story on where he complained about the labor while he was there.   As a matter of fact here he is in a meeting with Chinese Consul General Zhao Weiping, probably discussing how he can enact similar wages in WI:



While I do think we have a problem with the amount of outsourced jobs in this country, I do not think Scott Walker is the person to be complaining about it, especially from his glass high rise!   

The Core Of The Problem is Common Extremism

By Jeff Simpson

Scott Walker, in the midst of a tough re-election fight, where his chances keep getting downgraded, is getting desperate.   Scott Walker has already played some of his trump cards from massive fundraising leads to pushing the limits of coordinating all of the dark money groups to his advantage.   Thinking these two trump cards were all he needed to win the hand, has proven to be a very drastic mistake of his campaigns, at best, he is now is tied with his opponent, political newcomer Mary Burke.  

Desperate times call for desperate measures.  We see how desperate the Governor is with his ridiculous attack ad on his opponent and now he has doubled down on desperation.  Scott Walker now says he wants to eliminate Common Core State Standards and he wants it done in January.    Why now and why in January?  Let's take a look.

With the campaign reeling and support fading, Scott Walker know he needs to shore up his base.   If you recall, in November, a handful of anti-government, anti-intellectual zealots got together and all signed a letter(still not sure who in the group could actually write it) telling Scott Walker to repeal common core.   Scott Walker did his best double speak around the issue at the time and hoped the issue would disappear.

It hasn't.  

Now Mary Burke has actually started to campaign effectively and that left Scott Walker anguished that his career plans of more power might be derailed.  Walker, if he knows one thing, it is elections and the importance of his base.   He knows that all of the "independent" talk amongst the "tea party" is just that and in the end they are just the crazy wing of the republican party.  Scott Walker wants to make sure that every last one of them, and their sons and son - in - laws, all vote for him.

So when they say jump Scott Walker wants to let them know he is listening.   The next question is why January?  This is important issue so you would think he could call them in now, its between hunting seasons so Joel Kleefisch might actually be available.  

If it is in January, he sends a message saying make sure you vote for me as often as possible to make sure I can do this for you to his base!   That and he knows it is a political loser to be put out there on display right before the election.   Not only is it a bad thing its very costly as it would cost the state millions. 

Unfortunately for the people of Wisconsin, millions of taxpayer dollars mean nothing to Scott Walker:

Walker said Friday that he doesn’t know how much it would cost to come up with new standards but he doesn’t think it would be significant.

Whats a few millions dollars of taxpayer money if it will help me get elected?    Luther Olsen said it best(who would have ever thought I would write those words)!  

 “It’s all political and the sad thing is at the end of the day it doesn’t show true leadership,” said Luther Olsen.

In that one sentence Luther Olsen summed up Scott Walker's political career.

PS:  read about Common Core State Standards here.  

Mr. Schneider the Maligner

By Jeff Simpson

One of my sons favorite children's fiction authors is Dan Gutman, who is known for his catchy titles. Let me offer a suggestion for his new book, about someone who writes fiction almost daily. 

The thing about Christian Schneider is, since he is paid well by the Bradley Foundation, they delpoy him whenever a republican is in trouble.   This time the person he was told to try and save is Van Wanggaard.   The further that the employees are in trouble, the further Mr. Schneider has to stretch the truth.   If this column is any indication triple dipping Wanggaard is in major trouble.

But even more so, Wanggaard was worried for his family. Not only had the Capitol building been overtaken by protesters for the previous few weeks, but Wanggaard himself had been subjected to personal death threats. Protesters had shown up at his home to demonstrate. While he was away in Madison and his wife was home alone, Wangaard said the phone would ring in the middle of the night with a heavy breathing voice on the other end of the line threatening his life. His daughter, who has a different last name, received a call from an individual threatening to kill her Dalmatian.

Eight minutes after GOP senators took the floor, and with Democrats absent while protesting the vote in Illinois, the vote was done and the Senate adjourned. Wanggaard voted for the bill, knowing the effect it would have on the state and the nation, but also knowing what it would do for his political career.

On the night of June 5, 2012, as Republicans around the state celebrated Walker's recall win, Wanggaard was recalled from office by a slim 819 votes. "I lost my job because I did my job," he said.

 Two things here,

1. When I wrote the oped everything had to be airtight.  I call BS on the "death threats", unless it was the imaginary friend who used to hang out with my daughter when she was younger.  Her name was Sparkle. 

The protests in the Capitol were very peaceful, so peaceful in fact, that any time some crazy person even gave the remote hint of a threat the republicans took it roadrunner fast to the police AND the media.  They ran up every instance they could possibly find up a flag pole to let us all know what victims they were.  

I wonder if Schneider has police reports to back up what he wrote?  

2.   When you vote against something and you "know"  it will cost you your job, maybe you are not quite getting the concept of representative democracy. 

Seriously VOTE Randy Bryce!

"I would be embarrassed"

By Jeff  Simpson

Capper told us all about the latest ridiculous attack ad that Scott Walker is currently running, using children as props, and desperately trying to scare WI into voting for him again.  

Here it is -

 In other words, career politician Scott Walker(whose name is never mentioned) and who self declared Wisconsin "open for business" has a problem with people who have made a career and  money working for the family company(unless you pay WMC dues).   By strictly attacking Mary Burke, Scott Walker is telling you to be very afraid and that he is the lesser of two evils.  

As for attacking Trek, probably not the best idea he has ever had. This ad has even drawn the ire of Trek President John Burke(Mary's brother):

"When people make blatantly false accusations about a company you've spent your lifetime building and you have 1,800 employees who are proud about what they do every day, that just isn't right," John Burke said.
Trek was founded in Waterloo in the 1970s by John and Mary Burke's father and is now the second-largest bike manufacturer worldwide. Mary Burke worked as an executive at Trek twice, leaving the company in 2004.
John Burke said all decisions about where to locate jobs were his and not his sister's. Mary Burke worked for Trek as the head of its European division from 1990 to 1993 and again from 1995 until 2004, with her most recent job being director of planning and strategic planning.
John Burke said Trek does not employ children at its overseas plants. He said Trek has manufacturing plants in China, Germany and Holland and they all strictly follow local labor laws.
"We produce product in a lot of places and there are different wages for different jobs," he said when asked whether workers at the China plant earned $2 an hour. "We always pay in accordance to labor guidelines and rules and what's the standard wage for the area. We're very concerned for workers' rights and the workers' environment."

But John Burke said if he were governor, he would take the ad down.
"It's embarrassing," he said. "I would be embarrassed."

Scott Walker's stance on being called out for an blatantly untrue attack ad? Exactly what you would expect it to be:

Walker's campaign stood by the ad running statewide and said it won't be taken down

Scott Walker, willing to lie and attack good Wisconsin companies to reach his goal.   Is that the kind of person we want representing us to the rest of the world?

Walker Must Have Outsourced His Campaign Staff

Scott Walker has come out with yet another negative attack ad (just how bad is his internal polling?) attacking Mary Burke with in regards to her company, Trek, outsourcing jobs to China.

I will admit that this has been a sticking point for me when it comes to Burke.  Not the biggest one, but something that I do take into consideration.

That said, just like Walker did with his attack on land deals, he is coming at her with a great disadvantage that makes this attack laughable.

Walker launched this ad just days after it came out that his epic failure, WEDC (Walker's Economy Destroying Cronies), had given millions of dollars to at least two companies that used it to outsource jobs overseas.  To make matters worse, WEDC gave one of the companies more even more money after the fact!

It's fair to criticize Burke for outsourcing jobs, but at least it was her company and her money.  But what Burke might have done pales in comparison to Walker using taxpayer dollars to do the very same thing.

There are two other things that make Walker's attack on Burke as impotent as his hair growth products.

One is that Walker had Trek featured on the WEDC website as one of Wisconsin's success stories.  Walker has become so hypocritical, even he doesn't know what he supports anymore.

The other thing is that his administration has come out singing the praises of outsourcing:

But a few short hours later, Gov. Walker's top economic official defended the practice of outsourcing.

"We are in a global marketplace and some companies, to be successful financially, need to outsource," said Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation CEO Reed Hall.

Hall was responding to questions about a 27 News story from last week, which showed at least two companies that received tax credits from WEDC later outsourced Wisconsin jobs to foreign countries.

A 27 News investigation uncovered that both the Eaton Corporation and Plexus Corporation received financial awards from WEDC, only to later lay off workers whose jobs were taken by employees at the companies' foreign facilities.

"I'm sorry that they temporarily had to outsource some jobs, but I think ultimately over the long-term its gonna be a great win for Wisconsin with both these companies," said Hall.

Needless to say, Walker has yet to find a strong point that he can successfully attack Burke. And the more he flails about like this, the more desperate he starts to look. That's not a good thing for an incumbent with just over three months to the election.

On a side note, I have a personal peeve with Walker's commercial.  If you watch his ad to the very end, Walker uses a version of my tag line of "There's more.  There's always more."

I knew I should have had that patented, dammit!  That dirty, thieving weasel!

The Very Political Non-Political Mental Health Board

When Milwaukee County Emperor Chris Abele paid Teapublican Representative Joe Sanfelippo to push a bill removing local control of the Milwaukee County Behavioral Health Division, they tried to justify this power grab by saying it was to take politics out of the mental health system.

That rationale is about as believable as Scott Walker's claims that his agenda is working.

We already saw that Walker did his protege a favor by making the political appointment of the disgraced Kimberly Walker to the ad hoc mental health board that is supposed to take over things.  Kimberly Walker is the former corporation counsel head that got fired for giving advice to Abele on how to  illegally circumvent open records laws and for giving faulty legal advice to the board.

On Thursday, the "non-political" board voted unanimously to make the politically appointed Kimberly Walker the chair of the board.  Apparently, her skill had trying to cover up things made her to invaluable to pass up, even though she has no experience with disability rights laws.

To add to the non-political politicalizing of the board, they also voted to hire on Kathy Eilers, the political appointee of Abele's who was rejected by the board because she couldn't even articulate a plan for the mental health service outside of closing the hospital, despite there being a dearth of community-based services.

As I had said all along, this is going to be a lose-lose situation.  Not only will our most vulnerable be victimized by the corporate vultures and have their civil rights violated in the name of greed, but the taxpayers are going to have to pay much, much more - both directly and indirectly - due to Abele's greed and malfeasance.

Wisconsin - a State of Fear

By Jeff Simpson

While it is well documented that Wisconsin has recovered much more slowly than the rest of the nation from the Great Recession.   In times of economic trouble, it always brings out the scam artists and the people of Wisconsin have been hit on both ends.   

First door to door:

Scammy door-to-door sales people are misleading homeowners in Milwaukee and Janesville into signing contracts for security systems, the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection said in a warning Wednesday.
Six consumers with Milwaukee addresses have filed complaints with the state since July 1. The consumers said they were tricked into signing multi-year contracts and were ripped off, according to state officials. The consumers paid by check.
The Janesville Police Department put out a similar warning about door-to-dooor sales people last week after receiving three reports of "suspicious adult males attempting to enter homes with existing security systems homeowners."
"They are requesting to come into the house to check the existing security system to make sure it is working properly," the police advisory said. "No thefts or issues have occurred. However, the residents felt uncomfortable with the unsolicited contacts."
State officials said the sales people lied their way into homes in Milwaukee.

Secondly, we are getting hit right in our pocketbooks, by someone else who lied his way into our homes:

 Documents released by the Walker administration Friday afternoon show that Walker’s security in 2013 was a staggering $2.23 million, compared to just $657,457 for Gov Jim Doyle in 2010. Overall, taxpayers have spent more than $5.75 million on security for Walker, to include at least 110 out-of-state trips to partisan events, a family vacation to the Bahamas, and on fundraising trips to places like New York, Georgia, and Arkansas.

Incredibly, Walker even took 5 security guards with him to the Republican National Convention, a National Special Security Event under the protection of the U.S. Secret Service and the FBI.

The figure also includes 24/7 security for two homes.

Be very wary of the two scam artists lining their pockets while preying on our fears!