Twelve Times Scott Walker Was Terrible

Twelve Times Scott Walker Was Terrible

Oh, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, how are you terrible? Let us count the ways….  

posted on October 23, 2013 at 6:33pm EDT

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1. When he signed the mandatory ultrasound bill into law

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Walker signed into law a bill that will require “women seeking abortions to undergo an ultrasound and ban doctors who lack admitting privileges at nearby hospitals from performing the procedures.” Essentially, it would make it harder for a woman seeking a safe, legal abortion to get one. His law could force clinics to close and is being challenged by reproductive health advocates.

2. When he repealed the law that made it easier for victims of wage discrimination to press charges

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So basically, if you’re one of the women in Wisconsin who earns $0.75 for every dollar that your male colleagues make and you want to do something about losing that $4,000 every year, Scott Walker has made it more difficult. THANKS.

3. When he eliminated collective bargaining rights for all of Wisconsin’s public employees

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Scott Walker is no friend of unions. In 2011, he signed into law a bill that abolished collective bargaining rights for 175,000 public union employees in Wisconsin, leading to an attempt to recall him.

4. When he specifically targeted women workers while sticking it to unions

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As we mentioned, in 2011, when Scott Walker was stripping unions of their right to collective bargaining, he did exempt some groups: firefighter, police and state trooper unions. The majority of Wisconsin public workers are actually women, (teachers, nurses, child care workers, home health care workers, etc.) but the exempted groups were overwhelmingly male.

5. When he banned abortion coverage for policies in the ACA’s new health insurance exchange

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This is just another example of Scott Walker’s extreme, anti-woman agenda.

6. When he ruined Wisconsin sex education

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Scott Walker signed legislation that required teachers in schools that offered sex education to “stress abstinence as the only sure way to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.” The legislation also declared that sex ed teachers were not required to address contraception. So that’s helpful.

7. When he eliminated all state funding for family planning services

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In 2011, Scott Walker proposed a budget that would have eliminated all state funding for family planning services for low-income residents, putting 50 clinics in jeopardy. 52,000 women in Wisconsin who received contraceptive care from those clinics would have to find alternative means.

8. When he forced 92,000 people off their health insurance and cost the state $119 million

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Scott Walker could have accepted federal money under the Affordable Care Act that would have expanded BadgerCare Plus insurance, which covers adults with children under 19 in households with incomes up to 200% of the federal poverty threshold, or $47,100 for a family of four. Instead, he rejected the money, kicked 92,000 people off their health insurance and forced them to buy a more expensive plan.

9. When he led Wisconsin to below-average job growth rates

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The Republican Party says they’re about jobs jobs jobs - except when Scott Walker runs things and the state ranks 34th in job growth. And consider this: Walker’s #1 campaign promise was to add 250,000 private-sector jobs by the end of his term. At last count, nearly three years later, he’s only about 25% there.

10. When he signed an unconstitutional voter ID law

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This law would require poll workers to immediately begin asking voters to show state-issued IDs before they vote - even though voters wouldn’t be required to show them until the next year. Yeah, we’re not sure either - but basically, Walker wanted to make it harder for people to vote.

11. When he was BFFs with the Koch Brothers

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The Koch Brothers are long-time Scott Walker supporters. With a $43,000 donation, their PAC was the second highest donor to Walker’s 2010 campaign. They also gave $1 million to the Republican Governors Association, which streamed spending into Wisconsin on behalf of Walker. Ew.

12. When he wanted to pay teachers less

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Not only did Scott Walker nix the collective bargaining rights of Wisconsin teachers, but he capped future pay raises. Under Walker’s administrative rule change, he changed the pay schedule for experienced teachers. Some teachers could lose as much as 30% of their current salary under Walker’s targeted attacks.

So, in short, Scott Walker is the worst.

Luckily, EMILY’s List has endorsed Mary Burke for governor of Wisconsin

Mary Burke is an insightful problem solver who has worked in the private, government, and nonprofit sectors to grow Wisconsin’s economy and increase educational opportunities. Mary has an impressive commitment to economic justice and improving the lives of children and working families. Her intense and selfless commitment to her community will make for a striking contrast with Governor Scott Walker’s extremist agenda. Mary’s been quietly changing the world for the better for years - by breaking barriers herself and by making opportunities for others to get ahead.

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10 Tips For a Libertarian Thanksgiving

Ben Cohen on November 26, 2013

The Daily Banter

Thanksgiving is a tradition that Americans from every walk of life can enjoy. It is a time when friends and family get together and give thanks for what they have. However, the tradition has some rather worrying elements to it that could teach Americans socialistic concepts like sharing and selflessness. To counter the troubling Europeanization of a distinctly American tradition, here is a 10-step guide to having a Libertarian Thanksgiving:
1. Buy your Turkey from Butterball – America’s biggest Turkey farm. It stands to reason that Butterball must be the best turkey producer because it has beaten all the competition and makes $1.5 billion in revenue a year. Sure they may pump their turkeys full of antibiotics and have a horrific record on animal cruelty, but who cares? The turkey is cheap, and it lines the pockets of corporations so it’s a win-win situation for the die hard capitalist.
2. Outsource the cooking. It is almost certainly cheaper to have your Thanksgiving dinner prepared in India and Fed-Exed.
3. Charge family members for leftovers. In fact, they’re not actually leftovers, they’re ‘opportunity costs’. All the turkey they didn’t eat could have been resold at above market rates given turkeys are in heavy demand at Thanksgiving. It is only fair that you are compensated by your family for this loss of earning.
4. No turkey giveaways. Poor people are poor for a reason, and giving them free turkeys will just encourage them to remain poor.

5. The strongest family members eat first. They are bigger and stronger and it stands to reason that they are more deserving of food than the young and elderly. 
6. Make sure you are carrying a concealed weapon at the dinner table. You may have a closet Communist in the family and you need to always be prepared. 
7. Get a sponsor for your dinner. This might mean making family members and guests wear branded t-shirts or drinking Pepsi rather than Coke. You should never pass up an opportunity to monetize family occasions. 
8. Boycott Canada’s celebration of Thanksgiving. They have universal health care coverage. 
9. Challenge the White House’s pardoning of one turkey. This is the government telling Americans which turkeys they can and cannot eat and is a slippery slope towards socialism. 
10. No holding hands during grace. We are not all in this together. It’s every American for themselves.

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Local News Station Busts Darrell Issa for Silencing Supporters During ACA Investigation

Local News Station Busts Darrell Issa for Silencing Supporters During ACA Investigation

By: Sarah Jones
Tuesday, November, 26th, 2013

The mainstream media might be letting the public down, but some local media outlets are still diligently reporting the news instead of chasing after Beltway Cool Kids with a GOP playbook in their front pocket.
Melissa Hankins at Charlotte, North Carolina’s WBTV 3 reported that Darrell Issa’s ObamaCare “hearings” in Gastonia called “Obamacare Implementation: Sticker Shock of Increased Premiums for Health Care Coverage” weren’t exactly unbiased.
In fact, people who had positive things to say about the ACA were not only told they couldn’t speak, but they were told that if they spoke “out of turn” they’d have to leave.

 Watch here:

WBTV 3 News, Weather, Sports, and Traffic for Charlotte, NC

 

The meeting got off to a contentious start on Friday, with people complaining that they won’t get a chance to be heard. People were told they would be removed from the meeting if they spoke out of turn. Residents were angry because Issa picked the five witnesses that we will hear from, all residents of North Carolina.

The piece goes on to list several supporters of the ACA whom Issa refused to let speak.
Allison Ward, who says the ACA offers her insurance she can afford for the first time ever, wanted to be heard. If she had been chosen to “testify” (is it really a hearing if it’s all staged? Not so much), she would have said, “My president has said I hear you, I’m going to help you and frankly the way I see it is that other people are getting in the way.”
You can see why Issa wouldn’t let Ms. Ward speak.
Another Charlotte resident wanted to speak about how no one would give her insurance because she was diagnosed with MS. Dana Wilson said the ACA changed the fact that no one would insure her. Ms. Wilson thinks if it’s a real hearing, then all sides should be heard. “I think if it’s a true hearing than all sides should be heard and they don’t want to hear us,” she told WBTV 3.
The reported explained that the area has seen some of the highest increases in premiums in the country, and that’s why Issa was there. Fair enough. But that’s no reason not to hear from supporters of the law.
Issa claims that no Democrats picked any witnesses and that is how he justifies not using supporters of the law. But see, that’s an admission that Issa is not trying to get at the truth, as he claims he is. He’s got a show to put on, and he can only use haters in this script. It’s called propaganda, and it’s following the GOP playbook exactly. The main messages of the GOP attack ACA playbook are: “Because of Obamacare, I Lost My Insurance”, “Obamacare Increases Health Care Costs” and “The Exchanges May Not Be Secure, Putting Personal Information at Risk”. ”
Good old Issa is up to his usual tricks, where he only lets the people who he knows will say what he needs them to say in front of the cameras, and then he blames Democrats when he’s busted Issa got busted doing this on Benghazi as well. Issa refused to let the experts on the Benghazi attacks speak in front of the cameras, and then blamed the White House for not inviting them:

While the rest of the media is reporting that the co-chairmen of the independent review on the Benghazi attacks, Ambassador Thomas Pickering and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen, have finally agreed to testify, in truth Pickering was not invited by Darell Issa (R-CA) to testify at the televised hearing. When called out on his lies on national TV, Issa finally tried to blame the White House for not inviting Pickering.

Darrell Issa wants you to believe that he is wasting all of this money just to get the truth, but the truth involves refusing to let anyone with a dissenting point of view be heard. It’s just like the founders envisioned…
Only not.
h/t Diane Sweet at Crooks and Liars

Local News Station Busts Darrell Issa for Silencing Supporters During ACA Investigation was written by Sarah Jones for PoliticusUSA.

© PoliticusUSA, Tue, Nov 26th, 2013 — All Rights Reserve

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Heart of Darkness: Criminal Investigation of WI Recall $

Heart of Darkness: Criminal Investigation of WI Recall $

Posted by Mary Bottari on November 25, 2013

 

 

The post-Citizens United dark money showdown is underway in Wisconsin.
Wisconsin makes sense. In November 2010, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker swept to power at a time of economic turmoil with a promise to create 250,000 jobs. Instead, with Republican control of both houses, he passed a bill knee-capping public-sector unions, sparking an 18-day occupation of the Capitol and weeks of mass protests, regularly topping 100,000.
The controversy immediately kicked off a struggle for control of the Wisconsin Senate. Between 2011 and 2012 Wisconsin voters across the state knocked on doors, circulated recall petitions, and put an unprecedented number of state officials up for recall. Thirteen state senators eventually faced recall elections. Close to one million people signed recall petitions for the Governor and Lt. Governor, and even before an election was certified, outside money began to saturate the state.  $137.5 million is estimated to have been spent on the recalls in total, the vast majority from out-of-state players.
The source of much of that spending remains unknown. Millions were spent in by "dark money" nonprofits -- most of them organized under 501(c)(4) of the tax code -- that allow deep pocketed donors to hide their identity. These groups spent boatloads, but attempted to evaded state disclosure laws by running phony issue ads that do not expressly advocate for the election or defeat of a candidate. These nonprofits are supposed to be social welfare groups, and cannot exist for the "primary purpose" of participating in political activity. Many have interpreted this to mean that no more than 49 percent of their funds can be spent on "issue" advertising.
Dozens of 501(c)(4)s spent huge sums in defense of Team Walker. Not only did they not disclose their donors, they engaged in a dizzying array of fund transfers, spelled out by my colleague Brendan Fischer at the Center for Media and Democracy/PRWatch, perhaps in an effort to stay under the 49 percent line.
These groups played big in the election along with Walker's own campaign committee and the Republican Governors Association, which dropped $9 million on what are called "independent expenditures." Independent expenditure groups are required to register with the state and swear an oath not to coordinate with candidates under Wisconsin law 11.06 (7).
As the funds flooded the state, no one was checking to see if the diversity of groups were playing by the rules. But now someone may be doing just that. In the past few months, a special prosecutor with Republican credentials has issued dozens of subpoenas reportedly related to the recall spending. Because of Wisconsin's unusual "John Doe" statute and its secrecy rules, little is known about the grounds of the investigation, although some reports say prosecutors are looking at illegal coordination between candidates and purportedly "independent" groups.

News Breaks of Criminal Probe into Recall Spending

A John Doe investigation is Wisconsin's version of a grand jury, where subpoenas can be issued and testimony can be compelled behind closed doors. There is no jury, just a judge overseeing proceedings under strict secrecy rules. According to news reports, a high-powered special prosecutor Francis Schmitz (who spent many years as a counter terrorism investigator) is in charge. The right-wing press fails to admit it, but Schmitz has bona fide Republican credentials having once been a finalist for appointment as the U.S. Attorney in Milwaukee during President George W. Bush's administration.
News reports indicate that Schmitz could be delving into "illegal coordination" between the groups based on evidence that came out of an earlier John Doe probe into Scott Walker 2010 race for governor. But because of the secrecy of the proceedings few know the exact nature of the probe and other laws, outside of campaign finance laws could be implicated.
Although the right-wing media likes to portray the previous John Doe probe as a witch hunt that came to naught, in fact six people were found guilty of felony and misdemeanor crimes and many -- including two top aides of then-County Executive Scott Walker -- will be spending quite a bit of time in the pokey. The convictions included various charges, but the allegation that county employees set up and operated a secret Wi-Fi system to raise campaign funds while on the taxpayer payroll, netted two convictions. (See our history of the case, revelatory Walker emails, and the stunning charging documents.) This aspect of the investigation closed in March with no charges against Walker himself or his political campaign committee.
While rumors of a new John Doe had been circulating for weeks, Dan Bice of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel nailed it on October 24, breaking the story and confirming a five-county investigation. Why five counties? Bice cites a new Wisconsin law that allows legislators to be tried in their own counties, away from "liberal" Madison judges. The law was passed after the last Speaker of the Assembly, Scott Jensen, was charged with felony crimes and wanted to be tried in conservative Waukesha, a move that ultimately worked out well for him.
The right-wing site the Wisconsin Reporter, quickly picked up the story, citing unnamed sources to report that three groups were implicated in the investigation, including the Republican Governors Association, the Club for Growth, and David Koch's Americans for Prosperity. But the Wall Street Journal editorial board later expanded that list, naming some 29 groups (all Republican, mostly 501(c)(4)s), and the Walker campaign itself.
The Wall Street Journal put Wisconsin's Eric O'Keefe on the record as saying he received a subpoena in the John Doe. O'Keefe is an old Koch buddy going back to the days when David Koch ran for Vice President of the United States, bankrolling the Libertarian ticket in 1980. He helped create the Sam Adams Alliance, which trains Tea Party activists, and he is a co-founder of the SuperPac called the Campaign for Primary Accountability and is on the board of directors of Wisconsin's Club for Growth. He was spotted jetting around with Walker as the governor traveled the country raising funds for his recall fight.
O'Keefe's comments put Wisconsin Club for Growth at the center of the controversy. RJ Johnson, a longtime Republican operative, often cited in the press as "an official" at Wisconsin Club for Growth, is a close friend of Walker's -- named as his "chief political strategist" in Walker's new book Unintimidated. Club for Growth also spent an estimated $9 million on the recalls, according to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. Just days after Walker "dropped the bomb" and unveiled his union-busting budget repair bill, Club for Growth was up on air with TV and radio ads praising Walker and attacking public employees. When Walker's popularity plummeted, RJ Johnson advised Walker to get the bill passed "as soon as possible," Walker writes in Unintimidated.
The Wall Street Journal has spun the John Doe as an attack on free speech, a line that was immediately picked up by the echo-chamber on the right. Wall Street Journal board member and political operative Stephen Moore is a founder of Club for Growth and also served on the board of Donors Capital's dark money machine. He is also an ALEC "scholar" who helps to write and produce ALEC's debunked "Rich States, Poor States" report.
O'Keefe's move to break the story with friends at the Journal seemed foolish to some, as he could face sanctions under the John Doe, but he no doubt has the confidence of a man with a lot of money and quite a few lawyers ready to go to the wall on the all "money is free speech" theory.

Dark Money Hires Powerhouse Lawyers

The whole John Doe became much more interesting when the roster of high-powered defense attorneys moved to kill it. Madison's Dean Strang asked the Court of Appeals to halt the investigation on a number of grounds, but the appellate court rejected some of his claims out of hand and asked for more information on others. The Court of Appeals made the unusual decision to unseal its ruling in the case, bringing a welcome degree of transparency to the proceedings.
Strang is a highly respected criminal defense attorney. His most recent high-profile client was Steven Avery, who was jailed for murdering a young photographer shortly after being released from prison and declared innocent in another crime. Strang is also credited with setting up Wisconsin's Federal Defenders program. This is not his first foray into the world of campaign finance, he also represented railroad magnate William Gardner, who was convicted of making illegal campaign contributions to Walker in the first John Doe case. Gardner hid his identity by funneling funds to friends and employees asking them to hand over fat checks to Walker, thereby exceeding the state's campaign contribution limits. It's possible that more of this type of activity has been uncovered in the John Doe.
Joining Strang in representing the posse of groups under investigation are Todd P. Graves and Edward D. Greim, Tea Party attorneys from Kansas (home of Koch Industries). Grime and Graves are representing Tea Party groups and the Texas Public Policy Institute that are angry at the IRS for their clunky targeting of groups with political sounding names during their application process for tax-free status in the 2012 election cycle. Todd Graves was one of the six U.S. Attorneys improperly fired by the Bush White House in 2006 in order to pave the way for more political appointees.
Another prominent attorney with clients in the case is Michael Bresnick, a Washington, DC, lawyer who was the head of President Barack Obama's Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force that netted the $13 billion dollar settlement against JP Morgan Chase.
James Bopp, Jr., the Dean of Darkness who has spent 30 years challenging federal and state campaign finance laws, has joined the fray. Bopp is the mastermind behind the Citizens United case, which likened non-profit group spending on issues ads to free speech and opened the flood gates for undisclosed corporate spending in elections. He is also behind the latest Supreme Court case on election spending, McCutcheon, which could erase limits on individual campaign donations. As the primary proponent of the "money is speech theory" to challenging clean election laws, Bopp thinks that anyone should be able to spend any amount they want in any election and that there is no reason for disclosure because "the vast majority of people don't care," he says.
Bopp may think he has his finger on the pulse, but he neglects to mention that every time the issue is put on the ballot, citizen's vote overwhelmingly for disclosure, for an end to big money politics and even for overturning his Citizens United case. So far, more than 16 states and more than 500 communities have taken a stand against Bopp's "money is speech" theory.

Dark Money Press Ramps Up the Intimidation

Dan Bice, the 20-year veteran of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel who broke the news of both John Does, is being slammed by right-wing media spinning the probe as a "witch hunt" and a "vendetta." His report of a major investigation underway in the state was called as "low point in the history of modern journalism," on the Journal's right-wing news site called RightWisconsin. Notably, RightWisconsin was launched with a handout from Club for Growth. Fortunately, the Journal Sentinel is unlikely to toss overboard the award-winning reporter who is one of the only people left in the state who actually breaks news.
Initially led by Milwaukee County prosecutors, the investigation is now being headed up by another big gun, former federal prosecutor Schmitz. Because he prosecuted terrorists for a living, Schmitz snapshot is not easily available online, prompting one reporter to hand draw a goofy portrait of him. Schmidt should be ready to have his house staked out and photos of him picking up the newspaper in his jammies published. During the last John Doe, the right-wing press made a big deal of the yard signs posted by one of the prosecutor's wives.
So far there have been no reports of any Democratic groups being investigated, which is not conclusive. The Democrats had a number of independent expenditure groups on their side, but spent very little through any of the controversial 501(c)(4)s. This chart by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign shows the players and how much they spent or were estimated to have spent.
Illegal coordination is rarely charged in Wisconsin. Common Cause state director Jay Heck points to a 1997 case that netted big fines for the players. In 1997, former state Supreme Court Justice John Wilcox settled a suit that charged that his campaign had illegally coordinated with an independent expenditure group. He and his campaign manager, Mark Block, were fined and Block was barred from working on any state campaigns for seven years. Block went on to work for David Koch's Americans for Prosperity and run the Herman Cain presidential campaign in 2011 (the Center for Media and Democracy initiated a request with the IRS to investigate Block's use of a separate charity to help fund Cain campaign trips).
With regard to Bopp, Heck has this to say. In all of his years as an advocate for clean and open government, Heck says he has "never come across a Wisconsinite who said they wanted to know less about money in politics, they always want to know more" about the forces shaping their democracy.
For his part, Walker is staying mum. This week Walker told Bice, "To me, I'm leaving it up to the people who are authorized to talk about it." Walker said: "If you know anything about it, then you are legally prohibited from talking about it. If you don't know anything about it, you shouldn't be talking about it."
"So either way, I'm not going to talk about it."

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Media Manufactures GOP 2016 Front-Runner From Abject Failure

Media Manufactures GOP 2016 Front-Runner From Abject Failure

Would you buy a used car from this man?
Is this what an "ideal" president looks like?

Scott Walker will fail miserably on his promise to create 250,000 jobs in Wisconsin -- his austerity agenda, entirely from out-of-state multinational corporate interests, is a documented train wreck.

His job-growth stunt is so out-of-whack, that now Scott Walker is falsely puffing up numbers for business growth -- fraudulently counting nonprofits like girl scout troops, little league baseball, and other service groups as business entities.

Walker's "flagship" economic development agency, Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, is a fiscal disaster that has lost track of more than $19 million dollars of taxpayers money.  Fully 36% of its loans are uncollectable.  Is WEDC just a failure or is it actually a campaign laundering scam and pay-to-play?

There are multiple criminal investigations into Walker's ascent to power -- at least one, which no one talks about, resulted in the FBI obtaining and executing a search warrant to seize computers and evidence from one of Walker's top associates, Cynthia Archer.

Objectively, Scott Walker can be shown to be a most dishonest and disingenuous politician -- perhaps even making habitual liars like Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan look "truthful" by comparison.

And then there's the fact that Scott Walker positioned himself squarely in the middle of the republican War on Women, signing, over the long 4th-of-July weekend, a vaginal ultrasound bill -- one of the most controversial in the nation.  Women's groups, a vocal voting block, are up-in-arms about it -- Scott Walker proclaims it is unfair to talk about.

Scott Walker dropped out of college after pulling illegal campaign stunts on campus that resulted in Marquette Tribute proclaiming him "unfit for office".  Walker would not only be the first president in modern times to have not earned a degree -- but his peers on campus still remember Walker's disgraceful conduct.  Walker recently lied to Time that that he left college for the birth of his son -- four years before he was born.

But perhaps most disturbing is how Wisconsin's self-proclaimed "divide and conquer" Governor, admitted deceiving the electorate and "dropping the bomb" with extreme and controversial legislation.  On multiple occasions, Walker has admitted considering crimes against our democracy by planting "troublemakers" in crowds of peaceful crowds expressing their Constitutional Rights to seek redress of grievances.

A fiscal conservative? -- HA!  Walker's budgets are not balanced and greatly inflate debt-service taxpayers will be saddled with in the future -- interest and expenses that create the illusion of fiscal responsibility.

So just how does the media snooker the public into falsely believing that a man with this track record, Scott Walker, is an "ideal" presidential candidate?  It takes a lot of propaganda.

Scott Walker is in need of some "big guns" to create and disseminate propaganda -- but have no fear -- the media is here!  A rational & objective analysis of Scott Walker's record in Wisconsin proves he is not presidential timber -- however, no one has told the media yet.

It will take a lot of propaganda, heavy-hittin' propaganda artists, and a massive right-wing media echo-chamber to catapult Gov. Scott Walker across the Badger State and the Nation as a credible presidential candidate.

Putting him in the White House will take another stolen election -- but here in Wisconsin, election irregularities and downright fraud are the norm.  It can be scientifically demonstrated that Scott Walker stole the 2012 recall.

FAIL:  Economic Austerity Crashes Wisconsin Economy

Let's begin with the massive job failure -- and this isn't just about Scott Walker's 2010 signature 250,000 job promise.  Wisconsin is also falling far behind its neighboring states in economic growth -- our economy is one of the worst in the nation -- all after implementing Walker's austerity agenda.

Click to enlarge, source:  Cap Times
Interactive Data -- Job Growth

Maybe turning to radical extreme out-of-state multinational corporate agendas via one-party rule isn't such a good idea after all.

In the coveted private sector manufacturing arena -- Wisconsin has actually LOST jobs (NOTE:  Please read that last link carefully, Journal Communications headline is extremely misleading -- more HERE).

We know why Scott Walker left his job growth promise out of his ghost-written and "not-a-tell-all" book -- by every assessment -- Walker is going to fail to grow the Wisconsin economy and will miss his jobs goal by a huge margin.

In fact, now that they are done promoting Walker's dishonest book, Sunday's New York Times outlines the differences in political philosophies in the Midwest, documenting that, compared to every nearby state, Walker's austerity is an utter failure.

NYT held these facts back until after Walker's book bamboozle tour was over.  Please note that NYT has not yet challenged the false notion that Walker is the "ideal" presidential candidate in 2012.

FAIL:  Business Growth

Lesser known than Walker's signature promise to create 250,000 jobs in Wisconsin during is first term is that he would also create 10,000 new businesses.  We know he is not going to come anywhere close to the 250,000 jobs -- and this does matter, despite Walker's attempts to roll-back those claims.

But Walker is also failing to create 10,000 new businesses -- and don't believe Journal Communications' propaganda artists at PolitiFact.  Not only is Walker falling short, but he (and Journal Communications) fraudulently prop up Walker's deceptive numbers by misusing what Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions (WDFI) terms "business entities.  These are not all businesses -- not even close.

When Walker saw he was falling almost 6,000 businesses short of his goal, he turned to WDFI to orchestrate a great deception and is now counting Girl Scout troops and Little League teams as new business creations in the state.

FAIL:  Wisconsin Economic Development Agency, Walker's "Flagship"
& Misappropriate of Federal Community Development Block Grants

Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, will not be able to collect more than 1/3 of the loans it has made, according to the most-recent audit by Schneck SC, which states that WEDC's internal accounting controls over loans were not in place and that loan agreements did not all have required performance reviews.  So what does Scott Walker have to say about?

He claims that having more than 1/3 of WEDC's loans, all taxpayer money, uncollectible is just a "boo-boo" that couldn't have been anticipated and that it's the computer's fault. And when the public found out about this mess, Walker proclaimed:

The vast majority of the people at the WEDC are doing good work. We've just got to make sure that the other things are corrected so that stays the focal point now and in the future.

The Schneck audit identified other "material weaknesses":

• No procedures were established to monitor loans
• Financial transactions were regularly recorded wrong or not at all
• Accounting journal entries were made without any documentation and often entirely without approval.  This may be an indication of fraud and cover up.
• Almost one-quarter of all credit card uses during the year were not approved.

Walker's Department of Administration was forced to respond by announcing that DOA would administer Community Development Block Grants.  H.U.D. had suspended the grant program because WEDC was not in compliance with state and federal statues, rules and regulations.  The law demands that these grants be administered by state agencies.  Since Walker created WEDC as a quasi-private agency to replaced the former Wisconsin Department of Commerce, he was afoul of federal laws.

But even after taking remedial action, Scott Walker and his WEDC are not off the hook, because HUD is investigating previous grants WEDC improperly awarded and reserves the right to demand Wisconsin pay-back any funds that were disbursed inappropriately.  If laws were broken, there could be other repercussions -- is any of this related to ongoing criminal investigations?

FAIL:  Multiple Ongoing Probes into Walker's Ascent to Power

The closed Milwaukee County John Doe probe resulted in 6 people being convicted of 15 felonies and 3 misdemeanors -- those top Walker aides are still in jail. Walker's right-wing supporters and media shills are worried and now screech lies that the whole process is unfair.

We now know that there are multiple ongoing probes -- all stemming from the original Milwaukee County John Doe probe. And we still do not know the results from the Federal search warrant that the FBI used to raid close Walker associate Cynthia Archer's Madison home.

With people currently serving time for felonies and with so many open investigations, how can the media tell us that Scott Walker is an "ideal" GOP candidate for 2016? 

This looks more like a train-wreck than a ticket to the White House.

FAIL:  General in War on Women & Reproductive Rights

Scott Walker is proclaiming to attendees at a recent Christian Science Monitor breakfast that he does not expect the "War on Women" to be an effective line of attack against him in his 2014 re-election campaign.  Christian Science Monitor's report reads like pure propaganda -- all but anointing Walker the next President of the United States.

This despite the fact that Walkersigned one of the Nation's most divisive and extreme vaginal ultrasound bills -- trying to hide it from the public by delaying signing it until the long Fourth of July 2013 weekend.  We know why Scott Walker tells lies -- in this case -- insisting he has no responsibility for taking away reproductive rights and signing into law state sanctioned rape.  Why does the media endlessly repeat these lies?

Reproductive rights are not just a women's issue either -- women and men have a vested interest in being able to determine when the time is right to raise a family.  Walker is thumbing his nose at the majority of Americans of reproductive age -- is this a stepping-stone to the White House?

FAIL:  Disgraceful Electioneering at Marquette University

Scott Walker, a man that can be objectively demonstrated to tell many lies, has a long history of being a political bully and has a track record of dirty campaign tactics & illegal campaigning.  Dr. Glen Barry, a former classmate at Marquette University, spoke out about the recall and Walker's disgraceful political roots which began at that school.  Read more of the sultry details of Scott Walker's life running for Marquette student government HERE.

FAIL:  Divide and Conquer Politics

Scott Walker, in January 2011, was asked by Diane Hendricks, a Wisconsin billionaire who is his largest campaign donor and who paid no state taxes in 2010, if he could make Wisconsin a "right to work state"  (video HERE).  His reply was, speaking in hushed tone was:

Well, we're going to start in a couple weeks with our budget adjustment bill.  The first step is we're going to deal with collective bargaining for all public employee unions, because you use divide and conquer. So for us, the base we've got for that is the fact that we've got – budgetarily we can't afford not to. If we have collective bargaining agreements in place, there's no way not only the state but local governments can balance things out.

Proclaiming to your wealthiest in-state donor that you will fail to serve large blocks of your constituency, declaring intentions to "divide and conquer" them instead, does not qualify one as the "ideal" presidential candidate.  Why does the media consistently proclaim otherwise?

FAIL:  "Drop the Bomb" -- Extreme & Divisive Legislative Agenda,
Hidden from the Electorate

Scott Walker has been lying about the most embarrassing mistake he has made as governor -- getting punked by a prank phone call by blogger Ian Murphy who pretended to be David Koch.  Murphy claims to have been "fairly stoned" when he made the call.  What was Scott Walker's excuse for falling for the prank?

Here's what Scott Walker said:

[…] the Monday right after the 6th. Came home from the Super Bowl where the Packers won, and that Monday night I had all of my cabinet over to the residence for dinner. Talked about what we were gonna do, how we were gonna do it. We’d already kinda built plans up, but it was kind of the last hurrah before we dropped the bomb.

As Governor, Scott Walker declared war on the people he has a sworn oath to serve.  He literally described his strategies as dropping "the bomb" on Badger Citizens.  But it gets worse, much worse.

FAIL:  Admits to Crimes Against Democracy -- Agent Provocateurs.

In that same prank phone call, Gov. Scott Walker admitted that state authorities had “thought about” using troublemakers -- actually agent provocateurs -- to infiltrate the crowds demonstrating against his effort to eliminate collective bargaining rights.

During a press conference that followed, Walker defended these remarks, stating “The bottom line is, the things I said are things I said publicly all along.”

We are talking about serious federal crimes here -- violating laws that go back to the Civil War era and protect citizens from direct attacks by their government -- even admitting thinking about these great crimes against our democracy is criminal. But to potential GOP presidential hopeful, Scott Walker, its all-in-a-days-work.

On February 23, 2011, Walker appeared on Fox News with anchor Greta Van Susteren -- she asked Walker if he and his aides had considered employing agent provocateurs to play “dirty tricks in the crowd.”  Walker openly confirmed -- yes indeed, he had, going so far as to explain: “I even had lawmakers and others suggesting riling things up.”

While Walker said that he rejected the idea, he has never expressed moral concerns about “riling things up”, potentially creating a dangerous situation for the for crowds that included children, elderly folks and people with disabilities. 

How can this episode reinforce Walker's front-runner status as the "ideal" GOP candidate for President of the United States in 2016?

FAIL:  Budget Shenanigans -- Deficits and Massive Debt

In 2011, Gov. Scott Walker needed a crisis to exploit, so he ginned up a budget deficit to enable his attack on public unions.  Then, in In May 2011, the state issued additional debt of approximately $558.3 million, which will cost state taxpayers an additional $156.2 million interest costs.

Gubernatorial opponent, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, was correct  when he pointed out Walker's deception -- to help balance the 2011-13 budget, Gov. Scott Walker used "a credit card" approach that "pushed over $500 million in debt onto our children and our grandchildren" costing state taxpayers "more than $150 million in interest."

Even the conservative pro-business journal, Forbes, had to call out his lies on balancing the budget:

In fact, we now know that the Governor is either being untruthful with the good people of Wisconsin on the whole ‘I balanced budget and wiped out the deficit’ thing or he’s been, shall we say, stretching the truth when speaking to Uncle Sam on the same topicv 

In a letter sent by Mike Huebsch, Walker’s Administration Secretary, to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services just two months ago, Huebsch disclosed that the state of Wisconsin would have an ‘undisclosed deficit’ from January, 2012 through June, 2013.

Kathleen Vinehout points out the myths in the current 2-year budget:

1. The 2013-15 budget spends $4 billion more than the previous one. In fact, state spending is greater than it has ever been in Wisconsin’s history.
2. Walker's 2013-2014 
3. budget spends more than it is projected to collect in revenue.  When spending is greater than revenue, a deficit exists
4. In the 2011-13 legislative session, Gov. Scott Walker did not pay an even larger amount of debt payments coming due. Because debt payments were not made, more money goes to pay off debt in the current budget than ever before.

Scott Walker is not a fiscal conservative.  He is a flim-flam man that panders to a compliant media to generate misleading headlines -- one of his most outrageous shams was loading up the the Badger State's rainy day fund in a publicity stunt that the media promoted.  This borrowed money is not an asset set aside for future use -- it is a liability that taxpayers get stuck with while Walker struts around like a genius.


Fraudulently Creating a Republican "Rock Star"

So how can anyone look at each of these failures and objectively proclaim Scott Walker is a republican "rock star"?  How is Scott Walker the "ideal" candidate for GOP in 2016?  Why did the national media prop Scott Walker up for an entire week to let him promote his misleading and deceptive ghost-written biography?

Pretty powerful propaganda -- but we haven't see the worst of it yet. The media is, after all, anointing Scott Walker as the "ideal" GOPPER for the White House.

Posted by Voices Newspaper Blogat 6:41 PM

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WI-Gov: Scott Walker (R) Says It's "Insulting" That Dems Keep Tying Him To The GOP's War On Women

WI-Gov: Scott Walker (R) Says It's "Insulting" That Dems Keep Tying Him To The GOP's War On Women

by poopdogcomedy

 

Received this e-mail today from the Wisconsin Democratic Party.  Apparently, it hurts Governor Scott Walker's (R. WI) feelings when you remind people that he's a foot soldier in the GOP's War On Women:

Scott Walker says “it’s insulting” that Democrats keep calling him out for his radical War on Women. Well I say it’s women who should be insulted that Walker thinks we can't make our own healthcare choices and that he would force us to undergo unnecessary, invasive transvaginal ultrasounds.
No matter what Scott Walker says we won’t stop fighting back against his attacks on women’s rights. Say you’re with us by adding your name to our petition today and sharing it with your friends:
http://grassroots.wisdems.org/...
It’s kind of incredible that Governor Ultrasound is doubling down on his extreme attacks on women and their rights.
What's even more incredible is the fact that so many people here in Wisconsin and across the nation don't know  how radical Scott Walker is when it comes to his positions on birth control and reproductive healthcare. Just last night, Politico reported that, "Walker is conservative but has never been known as a bomb-thrower on social issues."
As governor, Walker has gutted pay equity protections for women, was silent on an act of terrorism at a women’s health clinic, and defunded Planned Parenthood, leaving tens of thousands of women without access to family planning services or life-saving breast and cervical cancer screenings. This guy is a Five-Star General in the War on Women.
It's imperative that we spread the word on Scott Walker's real record and his history of attacking women's rights.  You can help right now by adding your name to our petition and sharing it with five friends:
http://grassroots.wisdems.org/...
Thanks,
Julie

You can click here to add your name: http://grassroots.wisdems.org/...

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High-powered attorneys line up in John Doe case

Todd Graves

 DEE J. HALL | Wisconsin State Journal | dhall@madison.com | 608-252-6132



The identities of the three people seeking to stop the John Doe investigation into Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign and more than two dozen conservative political groups remain a secret.

But the names of their seven attorneys are public, and it’s an impressive list. It includes a former U.S. attorney in Missouri, one of Madison’s top criminal defense lawyers and the former head of the federal task force investigating financial fraud by the nation’s major banks.

Five petitions were filed last week seeking to halt the secret investigation launched in February 2012 in Milwaukee County that has spread to Dane, Iowa, Dodge and Columbia counties. The petitions were filed in the 4th District Court of Appeals against Reserve Judge Gregory Peterson, who is overseeing the probe.

Investigators are looking into recall-related activities by Walker’s campaign, unnamed legislative leaders and 29 Republican and local and national conservative groups, including the Republican Party of Wisconsin, Americans for Prosperity, Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce and the Wisconsin Club for Growth, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Unnamed petitioner No. 1

The attorney for the first unnamed petitioner is Dean Strang, a well-known Madison criminal defense lawyer who represented William Gardner, then-owner of Wisconsin and Southern Railroad, in the first John Doe investigation covering activities when Walker was the Milwaukee County executive. Gardner pleaded guilty to evading campaign finance laws by laundering his contributions to Walker’s gubernatorial campaign and others through Wisconsin and Southern employees.

Strang also has represented Steven Avery, who was wrongfully convicted of sexual assault who was freed but then later convicted of murder; and Eugene Zapata, who confessed to killing his wife 31 years after she disappeared in Madison. Strang also was co-counsel on the landmark 2005 case, United States vs. Booker, that declared mandatory federal sentencing guidelines unconstitutional.

Unnamed petitioner No. 2

Representing unnamed petitioner No. 2 is Milwaukee attorney Matthew O’Neill, who was part of the legal team that helped former Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen overturn his 2006 felony convictions related to illegal campaign activity. Jensen got the case transferred to Waukesha County, where District Attorney Brad Schimel, a candidate for attorney general, agreed to dismiss the case in exchange for a $5,000 fine and a $67,000 repayment to the state for legal fees. Among O’Neill’s specialties listed on the Fox O’Neill Shannon law firm website are campaign and election law.

Other attorneys representing unnamed petitioner No. 2 are Todd Graves and Edward Greim, who practice with the firm of Graves Garrett in Kansas City, Mo. Greim specializes in free speech and election law, including launching “numerous” constitutional challenges to election and campaign finance laws, according to the firm’s website. Greim also oversaw the internal investigation into the handling of clergy sexual abuse by the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph.

Graves is the former U.S. attorney for the Western District of Missouri. Graves lists expertise including white-collar criminal defense, political speech and election law. Graves was among a group of nine U.S. attorneys fired by then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales in what was seen as political retribution.

A U.S. Department of Justice investigation later concluded that Graves’ 2006 ouster stemmed from a spat between staff members for Graves’ brother, a Republican congressman from Missouri, and the staff of Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo.

In May, after his firm landed a contract to investigate Missouri’s handing of personal information of gun permit holders, Graves told the Kansas City Business Journal, “We’ve become the go-to Republican firm.”

Unnamed petitioner No. 3

Three attorneys -- Edward H. Meyers, Philip O'Beirne and Michael Bresnick -- are listed as representing the second unnamed petitioner, all from the Washington, D.C., law firm of Stein Mitchell Muse & Cippollone.

Meyers is a civil attorney whose biography lists him as counsel for “an international construction company in an arbitration of the largest construction project in the history of Wisconsin.”

Bechtel Power Corp. had filed a claim for $515 million with We Energies, saying labor- and weather-related factors had increased the cost of building two coal-fired power plants in Oak Creek.

The $2.2 billion behemoth was described as the most expensive construction project in state history. The companies reached settlement in 2009 following arbitration, with We Energies agreeing to pay Bechtel $72 million more to compensate for the added costs.

O’Beirne’s specialties include handling complex litigation, including white-collar criminal defense. He also worked as a military prosecutor in the high-profile 2010 case of an Army doctor who disobeyed orders to deploy to Afghanistan because he questioned whether President Barack Obama was born in the United States and thus eligible to be commander in chief. Lt. Col. Terrence Lakin was dismissed from the Army and sentenced to six months’ incarceration.

Also representing the third unnamed petitioner is former top U.S. Department of Justice attorney Michael Bresnick. Bresnick joined the Stein Mitchell firm in Washington, D.C., in August after serving as the executive director of Obama’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force.

That organization last week reached a $13 billion settlement with JPMorgan Chase for misrepresenting the value and security of mortgage-backed securities, actions that helped plunge the U.S. economy into recession.

The task force describes the deal as “the largest settlement with a single entity in American history.”

Editor's note: This story has been corrected to accurately reflect the lawyers representing each petitioner. Online court records used for the original version of this story were incorrect.

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Wisconsin Governor Defends Ban On Same-Sex Marriage As ‘Healthy Balance’ Of LGBT Rights

By Zack Ford on November 25, 2013 at 9:17 am

 

"Wisconsin Governor Defends Ban On Same-Sex Marriage As ‘Healthy Balance’ Of LGBT Rights"

This weekend, Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) talked to Bloomberg TV’s Al Hunt about the mix of protections and limitations on LGBT rights his state offers, telling the host that the Wisconsin has struck a “healthy balance.” He lauded the state’s nondiscrimination protections for LGBT workers, suggesting the U.S. House should consider the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), because there have only been “limited problems” with it in Wisconsin. He simultaneously, however, defended its ban on same-sex marriage:

WALKER: In Wisconsin, we’ve had anti-discriminatory laws that are very similar to [ENDA] for more than 30 years and they work quite effectively. We’re also a state that has a constitutional amendment that defines marriage as one man and one woman…
HUNT: So, similar to the Wisconsin bill, the House bill should be something that…
WALKER: Yeah, I mean, we’ve not had problems. We’ve had no problems — I should say, limited problems — with that. At the same time, we still have a constitutional amendment that defines marriage. There’s a healthy balance there.

Watch it (via Raw Story):


In 1982, Wisconsin was the first state to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment, housing, education, credit, and all public accommodations — a law signed by Republican Gov. Lee S. Dreyfus. Upon signing it, Dreyfus remarked, “It is a fundamental tenet of the Republican Party that government ought not intrude in the private lives of individuals where no state purpose is served, and there is nothing more private or intimate than who you live with and who you love.” Despite these protections, one of Walker’s appointees to the state’s Labor and Industry Review Commission ruled that an employee who’d repeatedly been called “fag,” “maricon,” and “my little bitch” in the workplace was not protected from such harassment under law.
In 2004, the state legislature followed Republican precedent across the country to advance a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, which eventually passed in 2006. That amendment banned recognition of any “identical or substantially similar” legal status for same-sex couples, but Wisconsin maintains a domestic partner registry and provides some benefits to same-sex partners of state employees. Walker suggested in March that conservatives have lost the fight against marriage equality.

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