Category: Wisconsin

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Politics Republican United States Wisconsin

Please Don’t Remind Republican Scott Walker Of The Poor

It’s a painting that was placed in the Wisconsin Governor’s mansion for a reason – to remind the leaders, whoever he or she might be, of their obligation to the homeless and the poor people of the state. Scott Walker, the Republican governor who recently tried to enact a bill to dismantle collective bargaining rights of the Wisconsin public worker, had the painting removed.

The painting called, Wishes in the Wind, was done by Wisconsin artist David Lenz. It depicts three children – one African-American, one Hispanic and one Caucasian – playing with bubble wands on a Milwaukee street. Lenz explained that he carefully chose the characters in the piece because of the importance of their life stories. The African-American girl was featured in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in an article done about homelessness. She and her mother spent three months at the Milwaukee Rescue Mission. The Caucasian boy’s father was killed by a drunk driver in 2009 and the Hispanic girl is a member of the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Milwaukee.

Governor Walker’s decision to remove the painting sent a strong message to Lenz. He said

“The homeless, central city children and victims of drunk drivers normally do not have a voice in politics, this painting was an opportunity for future governors to look these three children in the eye, and I hope, contemplate how their public policies might affect them and other children like them.”

I guess that was a conversation Governor Walker did not want to have.”

And in a direct reference to Scott Walker’s proposed budget cuts in state’s funding for Milwaukee schools services, Lenz said, “This seems symbolic, you would think we could all agree on the need to support the hopes and dreams of children.”

Walker’s excuse for removing the painting? In a press released, this explanation was given;

In recognition of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, Governor Scott Walker and First Lady Tonette Walker are pleased to announce the addition of Civil War themed artwork and artifacts to decorate the interior of Wisconsin’s Executive Residence.

The painting Wishes in the Wind, which was previously on display in the Drawing Room, is on loan to the Central Library in Milwaukee where 560,000 visitors each year will see it, learn about its significance and continue the discussion about providing hope and optimism for the least privileged in our society. By comparison, the Executive Residence hosts approximately 15,000 visitors each year.

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Democratic Politics Republican Wisconsin

Wisconsin Republicans Sue Because They Were Wrong

Something must be wrong with these Republicans. It seems that when they do things in the dark, everything is fine. But when these things are brought to the light, Republicans want to sue the person who turns on the light switch.

Oh the nerve of these Wisconsin Republicans.

In a secretly taped conversation recently released and first reported by the La Crosse Tribune , Wisconsin Republicans were overheard talking about planting a spoiler Democrat into the recall elections of Republican Sen. Dan Kapanke.

On the recording, Julian Bradley – the La Crosse County Republican Vice Chairman is heard recalling a conversation he had with Wisconsin Executive Director of the State’s Party, Mark Jefferson. Here’s what was said;

“We are actively keeping our ears to the ground and if anybody knows anybody for a candidate that would be interested on the Democratic side in running in the primary against Jennifer Shilling … if anybody knows any Democrats who would be interested, please let us know.”

The recall election for Republican Dan Kapanke –  one of the Senators that voted for the controversial law that will take away the collective bargaining rights of Wisconsin union members – is scheduled for July 12th. Republicans were attempting to plant this spoiler Democratic challenger into the race to delay the recall election, as primary elections will be held first. A scenario, they believe, will cost Democrats more money. The official Democratic challenger in the recall election against Dan Kapanke is state Rep. Jennifer Shilling (D-La Crosse).

But what’s even more unbelievable is the proposed law-suit. Yes, the party that has fabricated information and videos against Democrats are now planning to sue the person who secretly recorded the Republican meeting. The report claims,

The La Crosse County Republican Party plans to sue the person who made a secret recording of the group’s monthly meeting last week, when party officials discussed running a spoiler candidate against Democrat Jennifer Shilling.

Party chairman Bill Feehan said he met with an attorney Friday and would file a suit soon.

“I had to seek legal counsel regarding the illegal taping of our meeting,” Feehan said. “We’ve now been told it’s a violation of a state statute regarding wire tapping.”

You do right and you should have nothing to worry about. But the nerve…! You do wrong, and you want to file suit because your wrong-doing was brought to light?

Simply amazing!!!

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Anthony Weiner New York twitter Wisconsin Wisconsin Union Bashing

Weiner Pulls Out… of Scheduled Wisconsin Event

Democratic congressman from New York, Anthony Weiner has had enough, so instead of going to a scheduled event in Wisconsin this weekend and being faced with more questions about the picture of a man’s bulging private parts, sent from his twitter account to a 21-year-old, Weiner has decided that spending time “with his family” is the best thing to do.

The report from the Milwaukee Journal states,

Graeme Zielinski, party spokesman, confirmed the cancellation and said the decision was Weiner’s, and that the party’s invitation to him was still good.

“It’s understandable, considering what’s going on,” Zielinski added.

Weiner, an outspoken liberal voice in Congress, has been in the midst of a controversy over a photo of a male crotch in underpants sent to a female Twitter follower of his.

Weiner has denied sending the photo and says his Twitter account was hacked, but he has not denied  the photo might be of him. The story has occupied much of the political world for the past few days.

Weiner was to be one of the main speakers at the convention, which starts today at the Frontier Airlines Center. Another main speaker: Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), chair of the Democratic National Committee.

Zielinski said Weiner “opted to stay in New York . .. with his family,” and added, “We’re looking forward to a visit in the future” from Weiner.

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Barack Obama Donald Trump Donald Trump Mitt Romney Politics Republican Sarah Palin United States Wisconsin

Obama Looking Safer In Wisconsin

Those are not my words, it is actually a new headline coming from a new Public Policy Polling. The poll finds that when compared to a previous poll taken in February 2011 when the President approval in Wisconsin “was looking a little more vulnerable,” the new poll shows “increased margins over Romney and the rest of the remaining [GOP] crew.”

The president’s approval rating is up to 52%, with 44% disapproving, double the margin of his 49-45 spread in the previous poll. Meanwhile, all his potential opponents tested have cratered in popularity, with the worst being newly official candidate Newt Gingrich.Gingrich was already at a 26-49 favorability spread in February, but now measures at 15-67, a 29-point decline, and now worse than Sarah Palin’s 32-63.

Romney now trails the president, 51-39, and Gingrich has fallen six points from that same mark to 53-35, just a point better than Palin’s 55-36 deficit. The president wins with independents by 11 to 24 points, but still has room to improve; respondents report voting for him over McCain by only nine points.

The talk now within the conservative media is that Donald Trump actually worked for the President. Conservatives/Republicans have come up with the theory that President Obama sent Trump out with one mission – say the most outrageous things possible, get the Republicans to buy into the nonsense and let the rest of America see how easily gullible and crazy these Republicans are.

But my question to the conservative media is, why stop with Trump? When you look at these results and the huge favorably numbers for the President in Wisconsin, maybe, just maybe the Wisconsin governor Scott Walker is also on the Obama payroll. Maybe President Obama told Walker to implement the most radical union busting policies in Wisconsin, thus, turning the people against the Republicans and in effect, improving the President’s numbers.

And could it be possible that the other Republican governors nationwide are also on the President’s payroll? We’ve all seen the backlash from Americans in Republican led states, thus leading to better approval numbers for Democrats. Could it be? Could it really be?

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Politics Republican Rick Scott United States washington Wisconsin

Republican Governor Rick Scott The Worst In The Nation… Why?

A recent Quinnipiac poll just determined that Republican governor Rick Scott of Florida is the worst governor in the nation with a 29% approval rating. Besides the fact that Scott is a Republican, what other factors would explain this unbelievable fallout with Floridians? Well, maybe his recent budget cut of $615 million dollars to programs that directly affects the residents of his state is a good place to look.

Anxious over their increasing unpopularity, Republicans lawmakers across the country are banning media from chronicling the blowback at public events. Florida’s now deeply disliked Gov. Rick Scott (R) adopted a similar tactic yesterday at a “campaign-style” budget signing ceremony at a town square in The Villages retirement community in Central Florida. Before putting his pen to the $69.7 billion state budget, Scott took an ax to $615 million of what he called “shortsighted, frivolous, wasteful spending.” Scott conveniently failed, however, to mention exactly what some of those “frivolous” programs were, including ones that provide help for the most vulnerable in society:

In his speech Thursday, Scott omitted many of the serious-sounding programs he cut: homeless veterans, meals for poor seniors, a council for deafness, a children’s hospital, cancer research, public radio, whooping-cough vaccines for poor mothers, or aid for the paralyzed.

Rick Scott’s dumb decision-making for the people of Florida does not only stop at his draconian budget slashing, but it also extends to areas where his state was slated to receive funds from the Federal government. The Republican rejected $2.3 billion from the Federal government, effectively cancelling a planned high-speed railroad installation – a move that will affect job creation and income for his state for decades to come.

The rejected funds were then sent to other states including $15 million to Washington State, prompting John Laird of The Columbian to officially deemed Rick Scott Washington’s new BFF. John wrote;

Fellow Washingtonians, hoist your glasses high and let’s toast our state’s newest BFF: Rick Scott.

Because the Florida governor bullheadedly rejected $2.3 billion in federal funding for rail improvements, Washington state is $15 million richer in our own drive for better railroads.

Previous BFFs had been Ohio and Wisconsin, where federal funding also had been turned away, only to be sent to other states. As a result, since February our state’s rail-improvement pot has grown from $590 million to $781 million, all because a few governors were willing to cut off their states’ noses to spite the feds’ face.

The Huffington Post also reported that Scott ran a campaign based on “jobs creation.” No surprise here, because in an atmosphere where many Americans are out of work and finding work is a top priority, many Republican politicians seized on job creations in the 2010 mid-term elections, promising America that if elected, they would deliver the jobs. Well, according to the Huffington Post report, Rick Scott has other priorities to worry about and jobs is not one of them.

In the legislative session that ended Saturday, lawmakers passed no job creation bills for Scott to sign. But they did pass five bills restricting abortion rights and a state budget that cuts nearly 4,500 public sector jobs.

Florida Republicans filed a total of 18 bills to restrict abortion rights during the session — the third most in the country, according to the ACLU, and twice the number of anti-choice laws introduced last year in the state, according to NARAL Pro-Choice America.

These are just some of the reasons this first-term Republican governor is receiving a 29% rating and is considered the worst governor in America. Considering some of the other items on his résumé, I would argue that a 29% approval rating is at least 28% too high.

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Politics Republican Wisconsin

A Victory For Democracy In Wisconsin – Walker’s Bill Voided

The fight officially began on Thursday when Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi froze Scott Walker’s union busting law, calling it a violation of Wisconsin’s Open Meetings Law. The legislation, if enacted, would take away the collective bargaining rights for all public employees, except firefighters and police officers. The 34 page decision voided Walker’s power grab, saying that it “has no force or effect.”

The judge explains the reason for the decision;

An Open Meetings Law is not necessary to ensure openness in easy, noncontroversial matters where no one cares whether the meeting is open or not. Like the First Amendment which exists to protect unfavored speech, the Open Meetings Law exists to ensure open government in controversial matters.

The Open Meetings Law functions to ensure that these difficult matters are decided without bias or regard for issues such as race, gender or economic status, and with regard for the interests of the community. This requires, with very few exceptions, that government meetings be held in full view of the community.

In their rush to push through this piece of legislation, Republicans openly violated Wisconsin’s Open Meetings Law, which requires that all meetings proceed after at least a 24 hour notice and be held in an open forum. You may recall that even during the meeting, Republicans were constantly warned by Democratic Representative Peter Barca, that they were violating the law, but they continued anyway:

BARCA: The opening meetings laws must be construed in favor of the fullness and –

REPUBLICAN CHAIRMAN: Mr. Barca– Representative Barca.

REPUBLICAN: Call roll.

BARCA: No, no, listen. If there’s any doubt as to whether good cause exists, the governmental body should provide 24 hours’ notice. This is clearly a violation of the open meetings law. Now, if you shut the people down, it is improper to move forward with the open meetings law. You’re not allowing it. And that is why. Mr. chairman, this is a violation of law. This is not just a rule, it is the law. There must be –

REPUBLICAN CHARIMAN: You’re wrong.

BARCA: No, Mr. Chairman, this is a violation of the open meetings law. It requires 24 — at least 24 hours’ notice. Excuse me.

On March 18th, Judge Sumi placed a temporary hold on the implementation of Walker’s rushed bill. On Thursday, the bill was struck down. Walker is promising to take the case all the way to the Supreme court.

Republican Steven Means, executive assistant to the state’s Attorney General said, “Obviously, we’re disappointed in the ruling. We do think it reflects a number of legal errors, but it’s for the appellate courts at this point.”

Democrats on the other hand, are happy with the decision.”It’s what we were looking for,” said Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne.

Until the next round is played out in the higher courts, Americans and the middle class workers in Wisconsin can exhale. Democracy has won this round.

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Collective bargaining Republican Party (United States) Wisconsin Wisconsin Union Bashing

Wisconsin Republicans Now Going After Police And Firefighter Unions

And so, the inevitable happened. Scott Walker and his Republican goons in Wisconsin have now turned their union busting efforts against Wisconsin’s police and firefighters.

Local firefighters and police officers are vowing to fight legislation proposed last week that would limit their ability to collectively bargain and negotiate contracts.

Rep. Bob Ziegelbauer, I-Manitowoc, introduced the bill that would eliminate collective bargaining for public safety employees on health care and pension contributions. Ziegelbauer’s bill does not require an employee to contribute to health care and pension funds, but would allow municipalities to mandate contributions.

Walker’s bill curtails collective bargaining for most public employees, including municipal workers and teachers, but exempts police and firefighters. A Dane County judge has blocked the law from taking effect after opponents allege that a meeting where the bill was approved violated the state’s open meetings law.

Jeremy Kopp, a Wausau firefighter and the department’s union president, said he will urge firefighters to email and call legislators to express their opposition to Ziegelbauer’s bill

In his original union busting bill, Scott Walker stated that there were no reasons to include the police and firefighter unions. The politics of this decision was obvious. These unions supported the governor in his run for office.

But that was then and this is now.

The Republican governor watched, as the very same union members he excluded from his bill, turned against him and joined the hundreds of thousands of other union members who were under attack. Consider this new bill as his chance to get even.

Anyone who didn’t see this coming needs glasses.

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Democratic Wisconsin Wisconsin Union Bashing

Fraud Detected In Republicans Paperwork To Recall Wisconsin Democrats

We are not surprised. Democrats in the state of Wisconsin saw a need for this, and they are beginning the process of challenging the recall petitions Republicans have started against three Democratic senators, and today in Madison, formal papers were filed.

“The overwhelming evidence clearly shows a pervasive pattern of election fraud committed by the shady out-of-state organization hired by Republicans to collect recall petitions,” said Senate Democratic Leader Mark Miller.  “Thousands of Wisconsin citizens fell victim to lies and misinformation spread by the circulators, and the papers submitted by this operation contain a river of omissions and wrong information.”

Miller continued:  “We believe that when the facts are reviewed, the GAB will throw out thousands of flawed signatures because they were fraudulent or defective. The vast depth of this misconduct calls into question the legitimacy of every signature collected by these circulators, and shows that the GOP effort failed to gather the valid signatures needed for recall elections.”

According to the paperwork filed by Wisconsin Democrats, some of the reasons given for this challenge are;

  • Senate District 12:  Of the 534 people contacted who had signed the petition, 9.2% indicated they were misled into signing the petition or asserted they had never signed.
  • Senate District 22:  Of the 225 people contacted who had signed the petition, 6.6% indicated they were misled into signing the petition or asserted they had never signed.
  • Senate District 30:  Of the 372 people contacted who had signed the petition, 8.6% indicated they were misled into signing the petition or asserted they had never signed.
  • Affidavit of a World War II veteran from Green Bay who was misled into signing a recall petition.  Upon learning he had been duped, veteran called the sheriff to get his name removed.  When confronted, the circulator claims he will remove the name, but a later review of the petitions reveals the veteran’s name was never crossed off.
  • Many affidavits attesting that Circulator Sherri Ferrell – who gathered nearly 3,000 signatures in two districts — gathered signatures on Indian reservations claiming petitions were to support “schools,” “Democrats,” and “tribal rights.”
  • Affidavit of voter in Senate District 22 attesting that circulator John Prijic claimed the petitions were for work to be done on a local park.
  • Affidavit of voter in Senate District 30 attesting that circulator Annette Lord claimed the petitions were to recall Republican Senator Cowles.
  • Affidavit of voter in Senate District 30 attesting that circulator Richard Madrill claimed the petitions were to recall Republican Gov. Scott Walker.
  • William Pocan’s forged name appears on line 10, page 362 of circulator Kevin Pursell’s petition.  As his widow Corinne Pocan’s affidavit attests, William Pocan has been deceased 20 years, although his name remains in the phone book.   Pursell circulated numerous pages.
  • Claims by many Wisconsin citizens who were misled by out-of-state circulators who claimed they could sign on behalf of other people.
  • Numerous examples of fake addresses and signatures appearing on GOP recall petitions, as well as sloppily gathered signatures also missing critical information.
  • Summary of out-of-state circulators hired by GOP with largest percentages of fraud or deception on GOP recall petitions:

Again, no surprise here. We’re talking about the GOP. Fraud is what they do.

 

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Barack Obama Domestic Policies House of Representatives Medicare Paul Ryan Republican United States Wisconsin

Call Paul Ryan And Ask Him, “What Were You Thinking!?”

Paul Ryan, the unfortunate scapegoat for the congressional Republicans, is getting it from all sides. Even some of his fellow Republicans in the House of Representatives who voted for his budget, are now turning their backs on Ryan’s plan. But why would they do that? He’s such a nice looking young man!

Well, at least that’s what the voice on the commercial below says, “Paul Ryan looks like a nice young man.” The voice then continues on, talking about some of the facts of The Ryan Plan, like ending medicare and giving even more money to the rich. And at the end of the ad, the elderly sounding voice advise all to call the congressman and ask him, “What were you thinking?”

 

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Paul Ryan Planned Parenthood Politics Republican United States Wisconsin

The So-Called Media Only Covers Right Wing Issues

We’ve been saying it forever. Despite what the Conservatives and Republicans want you to believe, there is no such thing as  “left winged media.”

The truth is, there is a right winged media, and just about all it covers is everything the Right does. Remember the town hall meetings of 2009? Remember the Teaparty rallies and marches on Washington? And remember the handful of individuals – 5 people to be exact – who gathered in front of Harry Reid’s office to protest Planned Parenthood and to call for a government shutdown? Yes, even those 5 people got massive media coverage.

Now, remember the hundreds of thousands that showed up in Wisconsin – on a daily basis? No? You can’t recall because the media totally drowned out those marches and protests. How about the time when constituents began questioning the Republican’s votes on the Paul Ryan’s budget plan? Right, you can’t recall those town halls because the main stream media is not covering it.

Rachel Maddow has more in the video below;

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

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Democratic Wisconsin Wisconsin Union Bashing

Total Recall – Another Wisconsin Republican To Be Recalled

Earlier in the week, we reported that petitions were already filed to repeal four Republican senators in Wisconsin. Tomorrow, Democrats will file another petition, gathering thousands of signatures more than what is required to file.

Dems will file a massive amount of signatures tomorrow to trigger a recall election against a fifth Wisconsin GOP state senator, I’m told.

Graeme Zielinski, the spokesman for the Wisconsin Democratic Party, confirms to me that Democrats will submit approximately 30,000 signatures for the recall of Alberta Darling — nearly 150 percent of the 20,343 required.

This is the fifth time Dems have collected far more signatures than necessary for a recall — all but ensuring that all five recall elections will actually happen.

I’m only guessing that the last three petitions for recalls will be as successful.

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Wisconsin Wisconsin Union Bashing

More Wisconsin Republicans Added to Recall List

The count is now up to four. That’s how many petitions have been filed to recall the Republican senators who supported Governor Walker’s decision to strip Wisconsin workers of their union rights. Democrats got the required 15,000 signatures needed to add the latest senators Luther Olsen and Sheila Harsdorf to the recall list.

Meanwhile, progressives still plan to file recall petitions against four other GOP state senators, and have until May 2 to do so. They plan to do the same against Walker once he is eligible for recall. And as FDL’s Dave Dyden notes, “While conservative activists have hinted that they have achieved enough signatures to recall Democratic members of the Senate, they have yet to file any petitions with the GAB.”

Governor Walker will be eligible for recall in January 2012.

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