Fighting Bob Fest 2016

By Jeff Simpson

In case you are sick of the constant yammering of the Sykes/Belling cabal of crap that fills the airwaves in the Milwaukee area, get in your car tomorrow and take a drive to Madison, WI and attend Fighting Bob Fest at Breeze Stevens Field.

I will be there in the afternoon, because as "Rising Star" Rep. Jarchow says:

Still, Jarchow acknowledges Wisconsin has only cracked the surface of needed government reforms.
“We have 100 years of progressive nonsense to unwind,” he said of the state that gave the world progressive Republican “Fighting” Bob La Follette. “We’ve got a lot of work to do.”

Walker Answers Every Which Way But Honestly To Walkergate Release

On Wednesday, the Guardian reported about previously unreleased emails from the John Doe investigation into Scott Walker. The emails confirmed and expanded the news that Walker was illegally collaborating with dark money groups and that he and the Republicans were running an expansive pay-for-play operation in the State of Wisconsin.

On Thursday, the press finally got a chance to question Walker on this news (as much as the corporate media ever questions Walker anyway).

True to form, Walker responded every which way - but honestly - to the questions:

In a stop in Dane County Thursday, Walker initially avoided a question about whether he had raised money for the club but at a second stop in Fox Crossing he said he isn't doing it now.

"I don't right now," Walker said. "And the bottom line with the story that came out yesterday is you’ve got folks who have apparently failed in the court of law multiple times trying to put out selected information in the court of public opinion."

But then the Republicans finally settled on one strategy.

Some of the top, and most corrupt, Republicans in the legislature sent a letter to Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel, asking him to start an investigation into this. Schimel, who already showed himself to be a good and faithful servant to his corporate overlords, eagerly started looking into it.

Oh, of course not the pay for play or illegal campaigning, of which almost every Republican is guilty of, but into who leaked the John Doe documents, which were ordered sealed and locked away by the Wisconsin's Supreme(ly corporate) Court.

Walker jumped all over that, stating that he was no in favor of letting justice take its course (see video).

Speaking at another event in Plover, Walker said he wouldn't weigh in on whether there should be an investigation.

"I’ll leave that up to the legal authorities. But it’s clear that somebody violated the law," the governor said.

That alone is so hypocritical that it is mind-blowing. Walker and his dark money overlords have spent millions and millions of dollars to thwart justice and interfere with the John Doe investigation into them. Now that the judicial system has been just as corrupted, he is perfectly fine with letting it work its course.

On Friday, Democratic State Representative Peter Barca is to have a press conference calling for an investigation into the crimes indicated in the emails. However, unless that investigation is conducted by the feds, it is a moot point. The Republicans in Wisconsin are so corrupt that they would never investigate one of their own, much less hold them responsible. And if they did do an investigation, you just know that it would be so tainted as to be worthless.

Walker Caught In Another Lie

By Jeff Simpson

Capper covered the initial leak of the new #Walkerdocs very well, but I wanted to point your attention
to something else buried in there.

First let us take a trip down memory lane where Gov Walker was asked about the Milwaukee Brewers Ryan Braun:

 Walker said he and his two sons, Matt and Alex, all big Brewers' fans, were disappointed and angry "that he lied to us as fans."
In a telephone interview Tuesday, the GOP governor said that "it was bad enough that he broke the rules, but the fact that he didn't immediately fess up to it, that he dragged it all out...It's not just what he did, it's that he strung us out for so long."
The governor said forgiveness from fans wouldn't come quickly for Braun.
"I think it'll be a long time," Walker said.

Speaking of "not immediately fessing up to it".  In August of 2014, Scott Walker was asked outright if he helped Club for Growth raise any money:

Gov. Scott Walker said Saturday that he played no role in soliciting cash from a mining company for the Wisconsin Club for Growth during the 2011 and 2012 recall elections, adding that no one should be surprised that the pro-business governor backed legislation helpful to the firm.
 Asked whether he was aware that Gogebic Taconite secretly donated $700,000 to Wisconsin Club for Growth — a pro-business advocacy group directed by the governor's campaign adviser — Walker said, "Not to my knowledge."
 When asked if the previously undisclosed funds and subsequent legislation were part of some pay-to-play scheme, Walker said, "That's a ridiculous argument."

Now, thanks to the Guardian article, we know that he was absolutely lying and he "strung us out for so long".



All the positive and negative ads running were due to Scott Walker raising money through "the club".

I wonder how long it will be before the fans forgive Scott Walker for lying?

PS:  In case you are wondering you did read that email correctly.  R J Johnson sent it to Keith Gilkes to tell Scott Fitzgerald to stop whining about the recall and how much money they were giving him.   It is not cheap trying to keep many people happy and win your election.

Trump - 1 / 69 Year Old Woman - 0

 

By Jeff Simpson


In a recent rally in North Carolina, some of The Donalds best supporters have given us a glimpse of what we can expect with a Trump Presidency.

A good Christian and Republican decided that a 69 year old woman had no right to protest in his Murica.

Then this happened. I quote from Western NC's WLOS 13 ...

After the rally, Teeter experienced something she had never seen in all of her protests. Peace teetered over into something else.

"I said you better learn to speak Russian, and I said the first two words are going to be, ha ha. He stopped in his tracks, and he turned around and just cold-cocked me," Teter said.

She was punched in the face.

She says she fell on her oxygen tank and has sore ribs, a sore jaw, and cut her elbow. She later went to the hospital and is thankful she did not break any bones.

Inside the building this was going on:

There is of course nothing new here, as this has been happening for quite some time at Trump rallies!

No wonder Scott Walker personally visited The Donald and begged for money, he admires how well he handles protesters!  

"Because Scott Walker asked"

Two years ago, prosecutors investigating Scott Walker for illegal campaigning, alleged that he was the center of a "criminal scheme":

Prosecutors allege that Gov. Scott Walker was at the center of an effort to illegally coordinate fundraising among conservative groups to help his campaign and those of Republican senators fend off recall elections during 2011 and '12, according to documents unsealed Thursday.

In the documents, prosecutors lay out what they call a "criminal scheme" to bypass state election laws by Walker, his campaign and two top deputies — R.J. Johnson and Deborah Jordahl.

The governor and his close confidants helped raise money and control spending through 12 conservative groups during the recall elections, according to the prosecutors' filings.
The documents include an email in which Walker tells Karl Rove, former top adviser to President George W. Bush, that Johnson would lead the coordination campaign. Johnson is also chief adviser to Wisconsin Club for Growth, a conservative group active in the recall elections.

"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.

But if we know nothing else, it is that with all things Walker and Walkergate, there is more. There is always more.

On Wednesday, The Guardian published a blockbuster and comprehensive report that included never seen before emails that from the Walkergate investigation that had not been released before.

While the general gist is the same and some of the details have been previously released, the article is still chock full of new emails and new information, including names of donors (including Donald Trump) and the amounts they gave to Walker's money laundering scheme. The article also goes into more detail of how the scheme got started and how it worked:

What particularly caught the attention of the prosecutors was that when the money came in it did not go directly to Walker's personal campaign committee, Friends of Scott Walker. To do so would have been problematic, as any campaign committee directly linked to a candidate is limited in Wisconsin to accepting contributions of up to $43,000 that have to be fully disclosed.

The prosecutors alleged in court filings published here for the first time that Walker's campaign found a way around these restrictions by banking the corporate cash through the third-party group, Wisconsin Club for Growth. WCfG describes itself as a “pro-liberty, pro-fiscal restraint” organisation, sharing the same small government and anti-union ideology as Walker. It is a tax-exempt group, or 501 (c) (4), that is supposed to be primarily concerned with “social welfare” rather than partisan politics and as such is not obliged to reveal its donors.

In court submissions, the prosecutors alleged that Walker's campaign used WCfG as a shadow committee that allowed him to solicit large sums of corporate cash without scrutiny or accountability. “Contributions were personally solicited by Governor Scott Walker to WCfG ... in order to circumvent the reporting and contributions provisions of Wisconsin statutes,” an investigator working for the prosecutors in the John Doe investigation, Robert Stelter, alleged.

To help illustrate how much collaboration there was between Walker, his campaign and the dark money group Wisconsin Club for Growth (WICfG), the article highlighted this check:

The check is from one C. Fredrerick Kasten, Jr.. It is made out for the amount of $10,000 payable to WICfG. But the most telling part is in the memo section where Kasten wrote "Because Scott Walker asked."

Because Scott Walker asked.

It's no wonder why Walker and the dark money groups are so desperate to kill off the investigation.

P*****Y

By Jeff Simpson

The dirty word that politicians are scared to utter is creeping into the conversation.   It is usually the one word that no one will say and the one problem that no one will address.  Between politicians telling us how great they are and how "Its working" we keep averting our eyes to make sure that we see what we want to see and not what is right in front of us.

As much as we want to avoid it, and pretend it is not there, it is starting to overtake all of our towns, municipalities, schools, villages, cities etc...


What is the word and issue that can not be named?   Starts with a P and ends with a Y?  POVERTY!

The New York Times published an editorial today pointing out that both The Donald and Ms Clinton are not addressing poverty(emphasis mine).

Poverty in the United States is deeper than in all other wealthy nations. Yet neither Hillary Clinton nor Donald Trump has a specific anti-poverty agenda.

There have been notable improvements in three crucial measures of economic well-being: income, poverty and health insurance coverage. On Tuesday, the Census Bureau announced that all took a sharp turn for the better in 2015, the first time since 1999 that the three measures improved in the same year.

For example, the largest income gains in 2015 were among Americans at the bottom of the income ladder. Those gains reflect job growth, which has been supported by the Federal Reserve’s low interest-rate policy; the Fed should stay the course until the job market has returned to full health. The income gains also reflect minimum-wage increases in many states and cities, which have laid the foundation for the federal government to follow suit.

The data also illustrate how much worse conditions would be without existing federal programs. Using the “supplemental” measure of poverty that is more nuanced than the official measure, the poverty rate in 2015 was 14.3 percent. Without Social Security, it would have been 22.6 percent, with nearly 27 million more people in poverty. Without the earned-income tax credit and low-income provisions on the child tax credit, the rate would have been 17.2 percent, adding 9.2 million people. Without food stamps, the rate would have been 15.7 percent, adding 4.6 million people.

The statistics give the candidates all the evidence they need to make the case to voters that anti-poverty policies work. 

Under President Obama, life for those at the bottom rung of the American Dream ladder are getting slightly better.   Government anti poverty so called entitlement programs are helping but not solving the problem.

In our own back yard, in today's Wisconsin State Journal we learn that a whopping 41% of people in Dane County are not making ends meet.

In the shadow of Dane County’s booming technology sector and low unemployment rate, more than two out of every five households don’t make enough money to meet basic living expenses, a new study has found.
A report released Wednesday by the United Way of Wisconsin found that 41 percent or 86,855 of 211,842 Dane County households are unable to make ends meet or cover basic living expenses, including housing, child care, food, transportation and health care. This nearly matches the overall state number of 42 percent or 960,131 of 2.3 million households detailed in the United Way ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) Study.
The report suggests the cost of basic annual household expenses in Wisconsin is more than most jobs can support.
A typical household survival budget — covering basic expenses without regard for savings — for a family of four is estimated at $54,804 in the state. The state’s median household income is $52,622. In Dane County, the survival budget for a family of four is $69,204 and $28,608 for a single adult.

What is even more troubling:

The report found that 65 percent of all jobs in Wisconsin pay less than $20 an hour — so less than about $40,000 annually if working full time.

Think about that!  A majority of working people in Wisconsin are making less than $40,000 annually. This is in a state that at one time, with the help of Federal highways, the Mississippi river, Great Lakes and strong public schools was a manufacturing hub.   This study took six months to complete and we know from reading the news that it is already out of date and the number of good paying jobs in Wisconsin is rapidly shrinking.  

In February of this year, researchers at UW-Madison released a report telling us that poverty in Wisconsin(unlike most of the rest of the country) was at its highest level in 30 years!

Poverty in Wisconsin hit its highest level in 30 years during the five-year period ending in 2014, even as the nation's economy was recovering from the Great Recession, according to a trend analysis of U.S. census data just released by University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers.
 The number of Wisconsin residents living in poverty averaged 13% across that post-recession time frame — the highest since 1984, according to the analysis by UW-Madison's Applied Population Laboratory. In 1984, the poverty rate peaked at 15.5% as the nation was recovering from a double-dip recession.
Using the five-year measure, poverty went up in both urban and rural parts of Wisconsin. It went up at every level of educational achievement, and across the employment spectrum.
 Perhaps most significant, the poverty gap between blacks and whites grew here as the average gap was flat across the nation. The state's child poverty rate also went up significantly, fueling concerns about the future for many of the state's youngest residents.
 "There is some good evidence that living in poverty and experiencing issues like food and housing insecurity can cause changes in the brain that can lead to behavioral issues and low performance in school, as well as chronic disease later in life," said Malia Jones, an assistant scientist and social epidemiologist at UW-Madison's Applied Population Laboratory.
 It's no coincidence that two-thirds of students who cannot read above a fourth-grade level end up either in prison or on welfare, several literacy studies have shown.

What did our Governor do with that news?   He decided to take his record of "accomplishment" on the road and run for President" to do for the United States what he did for Wisconsin" and drink alot of beer(provided by Wisconsin taxpayers)!

While I have criticized Democrats(especially Mary Burke) for not addressing poverty in the elections, how do our friends on the right address this important issue?

This from MacIver's facebook page this morning - 15 "Facts" about poverty the Govt is hiding(with clarifications after):

• Poor households routinely report spending $2.40 for every $1 of income the Census says they have.  (meaning they live deep in debt). 
• Eighty-five percent of poor households have air conditioning.(You can get a window air conditioner for under $100).
• Half have a personal computer; 43 percent have internet access.(in 2016, half of the people in America do not have a computer and over half have no access to the internet). 
• Two-thirds have at least one DVD player (which you can buy for under $30) 
• The average poor American lives in a house or apartment that is in good repair and has more living space than the average non poor person in France, Germany, or England.  Why are these people complaining they have a front porch! 

WISGOP Down The Rabbit Hole.

By Jeff Simpson 

There are two realities in this state.  The one that most of us live by:

The NCAA has announced they are relocating seven championship games from North Carolina thanks to their "anti-LGBQT" bathroom bill! 

These are not the first sporting events North Carolina will lose because of the passage of HB2. In July the NBA pulled next year’s All-Star Game from Charlotte, and November’s Duke-Albany basketball game was cancelled due to a New York state policy banning certain types of travel to North Carolina.
Just a month after its passage, the best estimates were that HB2 had already cost the state around $80 million. In the last five months, that amount has certainly skyrocketed.

Then there is the reality that the WISGOP lives in.  

Representative Jesse Kremer (R-Big Government) is still obsessed with sending Wisconsin back into the 1920's and passing an "anti-LGBQT" bathroom bill in WI.  

Even as I write this, the activist U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has been attempting to usurp each state's tenth amendment right to resist the mandate that young girls be forced to lose their dignity and privacy by changing next to teen boys in school. The court ruled that we must defer to the "experts" - unelected, federal Education Department bureaucrats - to set policies and define reality for our children. 
If we really want to take this country back, we have to ensure that unelected judges are not the be-all and end-all, but simply one of the checks and balances in our government. The only way to accomplish this is to ensure that we elect federal officials who will confirm judges that will not "play god," but will serve God and protect the sanctity of the Constitution of these United States. Elections do have consequences. 

Unfortunately, Rep. Kremer is running unopposed but we can send him a message and make sure he has less extremist friends to try and destroy commerce in WI!

Vote Democrat down ticket in November.

Watchdogging The Jesus Lunches

By Jeff Simpson 

Be careful not to perform your righteous acts before men to be seen by them. If you do, you will have noreward from your Father in heaven. 2So when you give to the needy, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be praised by men. Truly I tell you, they already have their reward. 3But when you give to the needy, do not let your left handknow what your right hand is doing, 4so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.…Matthew 6:1-4 

Wisconsin Reporter Watchdog "education reporter" is at it again.  He posts a column with knowingly false information.   Writing about the new version of the Jesus Lunch, he allows one of the founders of the Jesus Lunch to get away with a Trump-like statement of gobbeldy gook.

Helbach said she has had inquiries from other communities around the country about how to start a Jesus Lunch. “Our focus is here. Our focus is not on starting the Jesus Lunch in another location,” Helbach said. “But if someone wants information and to learn how, we’re welcome to talk to them about what we did. But we’re not actively going and getting the Jesus Lunch started somewhere else.”

As is typical for Wiggys work, five seconds on Google and you find that just is not true.   These Jesus Lunch families, who just focus on Middleton have a Facebook page and a website.   A quick check of their facebook page and we see this:

 Yes not trying to spread the "Jesus lunches" unless of course you attend her seminar on how to start your own Jesus Lunch.

Do not lie to one another, since you have taken off the old self with its practices, Colossians 3:9

But wait there is more!!

A quick look at their website and it reads like a Pat Robertson family dinner or a West Bend GOP Pints and Politics!  These moms that just threw this together, have a curriculum(and a lawyer) and this years curriculum focuses on "Who is Jesus".

The first place for us to begin this exploration of Jesus is in the Bible.  This is the book that tells the story of Jesus’ life.

What is the Bible? GOD’S ROAD MAP FOR OUR LIVES. You could think of the Bible as God’s GPS. When you need directions for a destination, what do you do? You go straight to your smartphone!  When you don’t know what to do in life, where should you go? Go to the Bible.

The Bible is a great place to start learning about Jesus, but if you want to learn more, they recommend you head here -  www.answersingenesis.org.

Let's take a look at some of the answers that the Jesus Lunchers recommend:

A 6,000-year-old earth? When you look up the Bible references, the math’s not that hard!We’ve all heard the horror stories. Teachers in government schools force students through strange, torturous machinations to do simple math. For example, many of us used to be able to add 121 + 13 in 1.72 seconds. The Common Core method takes 7 steps and 3 minutes and 18 seconds.For those who trust in an evolutionary view of history, determining the earth’s age is a complicated process. First, you have to find a meteorite, crush it up, and then send it to a lab for analysis. (Why a meteorite? I’ll get to that later.) Technicians measure the ratio of isotopes and enter that into a complex calculation that factors in the rate of radiometric decay. Out pops a number somewhere around 4,500,000,000 years (or at least that’s the expected result). That’s a whole lot of zeros!
Now you have the three pieces to add together, but I bet you can do this part in your head. From creation to Abraham is about 2,000 years. Abraham to Jesus covers about 2,000 years, and you are 2,000 years removed from Jesus. 2 + 2 + 2 = 6. That means the earth, and the entire created universe, is about 6,000 years old.

They also solved the problem with Noah and the Dinosaurs:

Did dinosaurs really live at the same time as humans? Genesis 1 claims that God created every “kind” of land animal on the same day as Adam. Later Noah took representatives of every kind on the Ark. That required only about fifty dinosaur kinds on board. (Dinosaurs are divided into only about fifty families.)Dinosaurs are used more than any other animal to persuade people to believe in millions of years and evolution. Yet God clearly claims that He created the land animals on Day Six along with man. In light of who God is and His eyewitness testimony, we should not be ashamed to build our understanding of dinosaurs upon His Word, even if some people disagree. Dinosaurs make perfect sense in light of the biblical history of creation and the Flood.There are thousands of dinosaur names, so some skeptics ask, “How could two of every kind of dinosaur fit on the Ark?” The key to unlocking the answer is found in Genesis 7:14–15.The Bible states that two of every kind of land animal and seven of some went onto the Ark. It doesn’t say two of every species went onto the Ark but “kinds.” There are thousands of species of dinosaurs, but there are only about fifty families of dinosaurs. And since the biblical kind is thought to correspond to the family level in most cases, there would have been only about one hundred dinosaurs on the Ark—not thousands.For instance, there are many different long-neck sauropods, such as Brachiosaurus, Camarasaurus,Saltasaurus, and Diplodocus, but only two needed to go onto the Ark if they were just one kind. This fact dramatically reduces the estimated number of dinosaurs on the Ark. Also, even though some dinosaurs grew to be large creatures, the average size was only about the size of a large sheep or bison. Even the largest dinosaurs were quite small when hatched. The Lord may have selected younger (and therefore smaller) representatives of some of the larger kinds, so there was plenty of room for all of the dinosaur kinds aboard the Ark.If dinosaurs sailed on the Ark, where are they today? Different animal species become extinct every day for various reasons. After the Flood, the environment and habitat were drastically changed. Many dinosaurs may not have been as suited to the post-Flood world because of these changes. Interestingly, it appears that some of the dinosaur kinds that did survive a long time after the Flood became known as dragons. Dragon legends abound all over the world.We can confidently build our understanding of dinosaurs—like everything else in life—on the truth of God’s Word.

It is unfortunate that those crazy unicorns were playing silly games when the rain started!

One thing that you can rest assured of now is the Jesus Lunch moms have obtained their caterers license so the kids should be getting a regulated free lunch.

I would hate to see their test scores though after a session of Jesus Lunch truth sinks in.

The Jesus Lunch moms also point out that it takes $1700 to feed these kids and make them a captive audience so God Bless you all, but send your money!!

Also if it is not Tuesday and you feel like eating for Jesus, you can join the Jesus Luncher family founders at the Coffee house they just opened on Madison's west side.  

Might as well cash in on the 15 minutes!  Maybe if we get really lucky, they will also build a life size Ark here in Madison!

In the meantime, maybe we will all win if the folks at Watchdog.org would spend a couple minutes on Google before they write a story!

Quote Of The Day _ Adam Jarchow

By Jeff Simpson 

Rep. Adam Jarchow Was recently a speaker at the AFP- Defunding the American Dream summit in Florida(why Wisconsin GOP speak everywhere but WI is another story),  Never short of irony, AFP named Mr. Jarchow, who no one  knows in Wisconsin was speaking in the "rising stars" section of the summit.  I guess when you have zero name recognition there is no where to go but up.

However the fun part was what Mr. Jarchow said in this conference.   Mr. Jarchow points out that, in his experience in the GOP caucus, the one thing you do not need to be to run for office is intelligent.

ORLANDO – Asked what he would say to citizens contemplating a run for office, State Rep. Adam Jarchow, R- Balsam Lake, urged courage and action.
“If you want to run, run. Believe me, after having served in the Legislature it doesn’t take a rocket scientist,” the first-term lawmaker told attendees of Americans for Prosperity’s 10^th annual Defending the American Dream Summit on Saturday. “If you think you are underqualified, you are probably not. So put your name on the ballot and run.”

Who knew that Mr. Jarchow was a member of A.I.M.?



Make Captain America, Iron Man and the people of Wisconsin happy and Support Mr. Jarchow's opponent!   Jeff Peterson for Assembly 

Scott Michalak For Assembly

Scott Michalak for Wisconsin Assembly District 38!

Like his Facebook page here!

GOP Team Photo

By Jeff Simpson 

A GOP team photo from Robin Vos (R-adulterer) facebook page:

Because when Robin Vos, Paul Ryan, Van Wanggaard and Mr. Clean get together, why wouldn't there be a couple confederate soldiers in the pic?

ALEC Aims to Privatize All Schools

By Chris Taylor 

On the heels of a newly passed state budget that again leaves our K-12 public schools behind without ample and consistent funding, I recently headed back to where the school privatization push all began—the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC.

ALEC and its members, including theAmerican Federation for Children (AFC), have become more powerful than our citizens’ voices at the State Capitol. Despite massive public urging from Wisconsin school superintendents, principals, teachers, parents and students for consistent and adequate K-12 public education funding, Republicans legislators chose to dump more money into an unaccountable private voucher school system.

Since Republicans took over our state Capitol in 2011, they have cut $1.2 billion from public K-12 education. Under this latest budget, 55 percent of school districts will get less general student aid than they did last budget cycle and Wisconsin is spending $1,014 less per public school student than it did in 2008.

Yet for the private school special interests, this budget was like Christmas morning, with presents that blew the student enrollment caps off the statewide private school voucher program, diverted an additional $600-800 million from public schools over the next decade and increased per-pupil spending in the statewide private voucher system more than what even Governor Walker had proposed. The cherry on top was the last minute, late night passage of the special needs voucher program, which funds private schools for special needs students without requiring specialized instruction, teacher training or current legal protections.

At ALEC’s recent conference, I saw firsthand how these successes have emboldened them. State legislators were urged to push further for universal vouchers with no income or eligibility limits and for funding parity for unaccountable, independent charter schools.

The most far-reaching model bill the ALEC Education Taskforce adopted, Education Savings Accounts (ESAs), was pushed by AFC, and recently adopted in Nevada. Public monies are deposited into individual student accounts that parents may spend on any educational system. According to Nevada lead sponsor state senatorScott Hammond, this bill impacts 94 percent of public school students and will open up the floodgates to private schools in Nevada, sending “shockwaves” throughout the country.

Though school privatization model policies originating from ALEC have traditionally contained income eligibility limits, their new suite of model bills expanding independent charter school funding and private school vouchers reduce state oversight and accountability measures, contain no income cap and provide the same level of state and local funding per pupil that public schools receive.

To make their case, ALEC is now targeting suburban, middle-income families with a new argument that public education is failing not just low-income students, but middle-income students. ALEC’s new goal is to enlist middle-income parents to make a case for public school privatization.

And state legislators are being called upon as the foot soldiers to carry out ALEC’s orders.  As Arizona SenatorDebbie Lesko rallied when concluding her remarks in support of Educational Savings Accounts—“We’re here to save our country. That’s what ALEC helps us do.”

Or, more accurately, destroy the foundation of our democracy—quality public education. ALEC and many Republican legislators in Wisconsin have no vision for public education because they do not want it to exist. But there is a way to stop ALEC’s destructive policies. With 78 percent of Wisconsinites opposed to public education cuts, it starts with you.

There was one piece of advice from Senator Lesko’s ALEC speech that we should listen to —“Elections matter.”

Republican Politburo

By Jeff Simpson


Robin Vos (R-adulterer) has decided that his version of small government is to tell the University of Wisconsin system that they are allowed to have any speaker they want, as long as he agrees with their message.

"Perhaps what could be most worrisome about going to college these days is the plague of political correctness that creates an environment that ends up stifling free speech," Vos wrote. "I challenge the UW System this school year to find more ways, beyond a two-page policy statement, to ensure that all perspectives, including conservative ones, are present in the classroom."

Vos spokesman Kit Beyer told the Wisconsin State Journal that Vos directly expressed his concerns to UW System President Ray Cross in a meeting Tuesday.

Mr Vos did an open records request(which he expects fulfilled, unlike the same requests that have been asked of GOP legislators) and found out that the top two highest paid speakers were:

The largest amount paid for a single speaker was at UW-Platteville, Vos said. The speaker was Kathy Ober, a former professor at University of Massachusetts-Amherst and co-founder of the Social Justice Training Institute -- who reportedly spoke three times for a total of $45,000.Michael Sam, the first openly gay player in the NFL, spoke at UW-La Crosse in December and also was one of the highest paid speakers, according to Vos.

Mr. Vos admits that he has no interest in Social Justice and listening to what someone from the LGBTQ community has to say.  Who knew that those two issues are partisan?  

Of course Mr. Vos has a history of being inherently lazy and did not offer up any suggestions, so that is where we are going to come in,  

We at CogDis are nothing if not here to help our friends on the right.  

Let's give some suggestions on who the UW System should bring in to speak to our college kids!

Let me start with a few:

1.   Number one on my list is Jonah Goldberg, of the National Review.  Jonah Goldberg is such a prolific writer, that he gave himself two Pulitzer nominations.   That takes skill!   What aspiring writer would not want to find out how to nominate yourself for the most prestigious awards there are?

2.  Everyones favorite right wing political pundit, Captain 9/12 Glenn Beck.   I would recommend that Mr. Beck be paid to speak to the school of social work so they can better learn how to deal with grief!

“When I see a 9/11 victim family on television, or whatever, I’m just like, ‘Oh shut up!’ I’m so sick of them because they’re always complaining.” ~ Glenn Beck

3.  The Scientists in the UW System will surely want to hear from Michelle Bachmann, since I am sure none of their professors taught them this!

“Carbon dioxide is portrayed as harmful. But there isn’t even one study that can be produced that shows that carbon dioxide is a harmful gas.” ~ Rep. Michele Bachmann

3. Best Selling "conservative" author and pundit Ann Coulter could be another that the UW System brings in.  The tall blonde has been preaching about liberal indoctrination for years.  

"If you wanted to teach people about the great things about America, a college campus is the last place you’d send them. Even fanatical Muslim terrorists don’t hate America like liberals do." Ann Coulter -- CPAC conference, 2002

Preach Ann, Preach!!   

4.  I would also recommend that Assembly Rep. Bob Gannon (R-White Hood) be allowed to speak also  He can speak to history classes about the Good ole days of the 1920's!

5. I also highly recommend that they have our Governor speak to the Engineering schools about how to build massive walls!

Finally #6, I would recommend they bring in Republican nominee for President, The Donald, who speak on numerous issues, from how to look presidential, to the plight of the disabled!

There are 6 different suggestions from us to Mr. Vos and University President Ray Cross to consider bringing in to speak this year on the UW System campuses.  

Help us out and give us some more suggestions, and I will make sure that Mr. Vos and Mr. Cross get this information!

Time to value public education again in Wisconsin

By Melissa Sargent 

Each new school year should be met with celebration. New school clothes and backpacks bring smiles to our students’ faces. I remember loving new art supplies and the smell of freshly sharpened pencils. With three kids in Madison public schools and one on his way to UW-Madison, I’ve witnessed these joyful occasions over and over.

This year, these feelings are tempered with the weight of the cumulative cuts to education at all levels through Scott Walker’s short-sighted and destructive agenda.

From our preschool children through our college graduates, no one has been able to escape the wide-ranging devaluing of both public education and the professionalism of our educators in Wisconsin. The long-term effects of these cuts cannot be overstated.

School districts around the state are barely functioning on current funding levels and many are dependent on local tax referendums — like the one that was just approved by the Madison School Board for the November election. Programs, teachers and other critical staff are being cut to compensate for this lack of funding. Teacher shortages across Wisconsin are forcing the Department of Public Instruction to act quickly to ensure that we simply have enough people to educate our children. At the same time professors are leaving to teach and research at universities in other states where they feel more respected.

We are no longer in the realm of normal budget fluctuations from one administration or party to the next. We are witnessing a dismantling of our public schools. This is a direct attack on our children’s future and the future of Wisconsin.

Budgets are about priorities. In fact, the last biennial budget was the largest in our state’s history, but the GOP prioritized tax giveaways to special interests and out-of-state corporations over fully funding education at all levels.

How is this good for our future prosperity? We need to be building a culture of curiosity and creating lifetime learners. Instead, the GOP is giving money to unaccountable private schools and treating public education as a nuisance rather than the cornerstone of our local communities.

It’s time to go back to the drawing board. The first step is a simple acknowledgement that educating our children, our future leaders, is our No. 1 job. If we are not in the business of providing the best possible education from preschool through college graduation, we will continue to fall behind our neighboring states in this most basic function of government.

We must act boldly. As progressives, we must stand together to restore full funding to our schools. We should also be proposing new, innovative plans. Things like universal pre-K child care, fair funding for our K-12 schools, and debt-free college.

We cannot afford to lose a generation due to the devaluing of public education at all levels by the Republicans. Our kids do not get a second chance at their education.

I am filled with pride to be a graduate of Wisconsin’s public schools and our fabulous University System. I know that they made me who I am today. We can return to that sense of pride and opportunity if we put our minds to it. These are challenging times, but Wisconsinites have never shied away from a challenge. For all of Wisconsin’s families, we need a public education system that provides each child the opportunity to achieve their fullest potential in life — the American Dream.