July 2011 Archives

First, Kim "Leader Who Won't Run Away" Simac started running from public debates. And now it appears, she is disappearing altogether.

See, Kim Simac (R-Northwoods) is the founder of the fanatical tea party group, the Northwoods Patriots. The group has a website NorthwoodsPatriots.blogspot and a related radio program, Northwoods Patriot Radio, hosted by Simac.

In other words, for the last few years, Kim Simac has had all sorts of stuff on her mind and plenty of time and space to say it; be it right-wing rallies, Republican fundraisers, her radio program, or her tea party blog.

Then it went all missing.

Well, a lot of it did anyway.

Take a look at this now-deleted blog post from February 07, 2011.

The link to the video of Kim Simac and her VERY close ex-husband James Maillette speaking at a Vilas County Republican fundraiser goes to a YouTube page saying "This video has been removed by the user."

The user, "Dave" aka "MrRocket43," at one time had a whole series of Kim Simac videos posted to his YouTube account. You can see the evidence of removing Kim Simac videos on his YouTube channel right now.

As I mentioned, the blog post referencing the event and the YouTube page has been deleted as well. Other links posted during the same timeframe work just fine.

I also tried listening to Simac's radio program formerly located here.

You'll notice the links to the audio of her radio program do not work.

We've been down this road before. Extreme right-wing talkers like Simac have a history of running from their words.

In 2008, prolific conservative blogger Jo Egelhoff tried to erase an entire archive of her far-right wing blog posts before running for public office as a Republican in the Fox Valley. One Wisconsin Now was alerted to this fact and was able to track down her deleted posts. The Appleton Post-Crescent eventually editorialized against Egelhoff saying she should have just stood behind her words, rather than trying to cover up her extreme points of view.

Likewise, it seems pretty apparent Kim Simac or someone affiliated with her Northwoods Patriots tea party group doesn't want the public knowing where Kim Simac stands on a whole host of issues.

And yet again, the research team at One Wisconsin Now has the public's back. We've tracked down all the missing links, all the missing videos, and all the missing audio. We're releasing all of the quotes someone probably doesn't want you to hear or see. Check out our daily blog Stuff Simac Says to see all the outrageous stuff Simac has been saying for the last few years.

Whether its Michele Bachmann's history lessons, Sarah Palin's death panels or Glenn Beck's every word, extremely out-of-the-mainstream conservatives are known for saying some pretty outrageous stuff.

Wisconsin is lucky to have its very own political entertainer in Tea Party fanatic Kim Simac (R-Northwoods). Unfortunately though, most of the time she's making us laugh, she's actually being serious.

We here at One Wisconsin Now have taken it upon ourselves to release the full archive of Simac's seriously funny material on our daily blog StuffSimacSays.com. If you use Twitter, follow the hashtag #stuffsimacsays.

The highlight so far has been Simac's bizarre propensity for speaking about Nazis, Nazi Germany, and/or Adolph Hitler. Sometimes she's comparing America to Nazi Germany. Other times she's shaming someone for comparing America to Nazi Germany. It all depends on who the subject is (and what party that person identifies with). Take a look:

In November of 2009, when Democrats held the majority in Congress and Wisconsin's legislature, in addition to having a Dem President and a Dem Governor in Wisconsin, Kim Simac took to the Twitter to trash America, drawing a parallel with Nazi Germany:

I think of how the German people such intelligent wonderful people were led so astray and to slaughter I am beginning to see it clearly now

Aha, but after two years of big corporate-funded tea parties bought Republicans control in Wisconsin, Simac changed her tune COMPLETELY. Speaking at a tea party event in 2011, she went on a long rant about how Scott Walker's power-grab and notion of centralized control shouldn't be compared with that of Adolph Hitler. Listen to her hypocritcal nonsense here.

There's other outrageous stuff, too. Like the time she Twittered "Off with their heads!" or the time she said "I am not a scientist" right before she launched into denying global climate change.

It would all be a lot funnier if it wasn't so serious.

Behind closed doors and behind the backs of Wisconsin residents, the republicans are eager to push their radical agenda concerning redistricting, but in the light of day it is clear to see what the real intentions of the GOP are. The new redistricting proposals, one of which was signed into law by Governor Walker yesterday, provide painfully obvious evidence of the Republican plan to render voting even more difficult for voters who might possibly oppose them. Under the new redistricting alterations, hundreds of thousands of voters would see their representation in Congress change. In addition, the redistricting changes affect our state representatives, as well. For example, under the changes, State Senator Bob Wirch (D-Pleasant Prarie) no longer represents the 22nd district of Kenosha which he has long since been a member of. If the changes are permitted, Wirch would live in District 21, which is currently represented by Sen. Van Wanggard, R-Racine. The changes affect Nancy Nusbaum, a Democrat challenging Sen. Robert Cowles (R-Green Bay) in the Aug. 9, 2011, recall election for the 2nd District seat. If the maps become law as proposed, Nusbaum would become a resident of a different senate district -- the 30th which is currently held by Democratic Senator Dave Hansen. The new maps cut Nusbaum out of her district by half a block. Senator Bob Wirch (D-Pleasant Praire).

Along with Nusbaum, State Rep. Fred Clark (D-Baraboo) is drawn out of his district as well. Under the new maps, Clark is drawn out of his District 14, where he is running against Republican Senator Luther Olsen (R-Ripon). If both Clark and Nusbaum won this summer's recall elections, they would be able to serve briefly but would be required to move or run in a different district in November 2012.

Not only do these new redistricting changes affect Wisconsin Voters by making the already rapidly changing process of voting more difficult, but it is nothing but a ploy in order to protect the safety of the swing district for Republicans. By changing the districts and who represents them, it makes it possible for GOP leaders to potentially choose who will be voting for them in order to assure a better chance at securing their already tightened control of the State Senate. Our rights as Wisconsin voters are being thrown to the wayside in order for Governor Walker to continue to completely violate Wisconsin morals and current existing laws in order to further the Republican power grab and radical GOP agenda. How much longer before Wisconsin transforms from a home we can be proud of to an unrecognizable, greed-fueled state we can no longer recognize?

What do you do when you simply cannot win an election? Clearly the solution is to form an organization that links notable conservative lawmakers and corporate power to tilt the odds in your favor, and the American Legislative Exchange Council or ALEC has been doing just that for years. Spawned from a group of individuals who were frustrated that they could not get elected with their pro-business agenda, for decades ALEC has worked behind closed doors with corporations and legislators to draft "model" legislation. What makes this legislation so desirable for ALEC? It is legislation that is drafted for the sole purpose of favorably affecting the corporate bottom line at the expense of our democracy.

Until now it has been difficult to show the connection between ALEC and corporate takeover of democracy. Last week The Center for Media and Democracy uncovered 800 bills and resolutions that were voted on by ALEC members, showing how its unelected corporate members are given a direct voice on the creation of bills that affect the lives of American citizens every day. The agenda embedded in these bills is about tilting the system into favoring those with money and power. Through de-regulation of industry, voter suppression and setting up barriers to direct democracy ALEC legislation has greatly influenced the political landscape in many states.

Here in Wisconsin our democracy has been ravaged by noteworthy ALEC members like Governor Scott Walker & Senate Leader Jeff Fitzgerald, whose commitment is not to their constituents but to an extreme agenda focused on corporate interests. The legislation that has been produced since they have taken office closely mirrors the ALEC agenda. These two have used their power to spearhead efforts to pass bills that strip away union rights, scale back child labor laws, attack the regulation power of environmental agencies, suppress voter rights with strict identification requirements & deregulate the state's telecommunications industry leaving it free of from accountability or oversight.

Now that ALEC's true agenda has been exposed, it is crystal clear that when Governor Walker declared Wisconsin as being "Open for Business" he meant just that. Wisconsin's legislature is being open up for the corporate sector to directly meddle in the daily lives of taxpaying citizens. By corrupting lawmakers and spoon-feeding them "model" legislation this group has shamefully found a way to stifle the voice of hard working people of this state.

You may have heard about the amazing outpouring of frustration and outrage realized this weekend over the ceaseless power of corporate special interests which own the Republicans and can occasionally rent a few Democrats in Congress. This, combined with a superficial and senationalistic horserace mentality by the national media have pushed the patience of the people to the breaking point.

Pondering all of the gridlock, blogger Jeff Jarvis finally encouraged people to share their anger with the simple twitter hashtag "fuckyouwashington"

One Wisconsin Now noted this new tag in the early evening Saturday, and after reading what others were saying about the failed corporate policies mixed with noxious conservative ideological extremism that has brought progress in our nation to a grinding halt.

We thought we'd provide a running tally of our contributions. Feel free to add your own (pun intended) as the mood strikes you. Your voice matters. Use it how you see fit.

Here's ours. There's the use of "language," but it was the only way to populate the tag. And if you think about, the policies are a helluva a lot more obscene than the word itself.

#FuckYouWashington for making Mark Halperin a celebrity. #wiunion

#FuckYouWashington for allowing 60 votes to be an excuse for ignoring Wall St./Corporate accountability. #wiunion

#FuckYouWashington for making Gen X/Y indentured servants to student loans - tops $1 trillion on 12/1/11. #wiunion #boomerfailure

#FuckYouWashington for Politico. #wiunion #rightwingmedia

#FuckYouWashington for the "Redskins." #racistmascots #wiunion #macaca

#FuckYouWashington for "Freedom Fries" #wiunion #globalembarassment #obamagotbinladen #bushfail

#FuckYouWashington for "Ronald Reagan National Airport" #taxcutsforrich #welfarequeens #deficits #scalia #bork

#FuckYouWashington for Michelle Rhee. #rheediculous

RT @RawStory: #fuckyouwashington Twitter hashtag unleashes a "shitstorm" of grievances. http://cot.ag/mRD7Ey #wiunion

#fuckyouwashington for making racist septuagenarians yelling at town halls more important than gen x/y soldiers dying in war. #mediafail

#fuckyouwashington for making Palin's twitter the moral equivalent of a White House press briefing. #mediafail

#fuckyouwashington for experts Liz Cheney, Alwayswrong Kristol and Dumb Doug Feith #mediafail

#fuckyouwashington for "Mission Accomplished" #mediafail #kristolalwayswrong

#fuckyouwashington for telecom policy allowing six ginormous corporations to own our media. #mediamonopoly

#fuckyouwashington for allowing a hapless crook like Rod Paige to forever screw education policy #nochildlefteducated

We continue to enjoy....RT @jeffjarvis: My blog post about the saga of #fuckyouwashington, so far: http://bit.ly/o4gcIV

We're going to take a break from populating the tag, but our sentiments remain. It's time to free America from the soullessness of our corporate "persons." Our government, whether it's that of Paul Ryan or that Scott Walker, will remain in business of transferring of our tax dollars to unaccountable corporate interests at the expense of education, health care, seniors, students, neighborhoods and the needy -- that is until we liberate this nation once and for all.

Written by Roshni Nedungadi and Crescent Parker, Interns at One Wisconsin Now

It looks like Representative Paul Ryan's expensive taste in wine extends to his expensive taste in constituent mailings. This time though, it's on the taxpayer's dime.

Rep. Ryan has recently released a four-page brochure to his constituents entitled "The Facts about Preserving Medicare," that he has filled with untruths and pictures of a number of happy, smiling senior citizens. He claims, "I want you to hear the truth from me," and then goes on to lie about how the changes to Medicare in his budget plan will affect his constituents.

A copy of the brochure can be found here: http://www.onewisconsinnow.org/blog/Ryan%20Medicare%20Piece.pdf

For example, Rep. Ryan says that for current retirees, age 55 or older, there will be no changes in their healthcare caused by the Medicare reforms. This is simply untrue. The Congressional Budget Office looked at the reforms and noted that the proposal would increase the amount of cost-sharing that most beneficiaries are required to pay for covered health services. The higher deductibles and co-insurance would increase costs for most beneficiaries, especially for those who experience a hospital stay.

Under the health reform law that Ryan wishes to repeal, insurers in the exchanges may not charge the oldest enrollees more than three times as much as the youngest ones. Currently the average cost of covering the oldest enrollees is over five times the cost of covering the youngest. As premiums for everyone in the exchange rise because of the influx of 65 and 66-year-olds, some of the healthiest unsubsidized participants would drop coverage, which would increase premiums further for everyone else. If health reform were repealed, as Rep. Ryan favors, increasing Medicare's eligibility age would leave many 65 and 66-year-olds unable to obtain health insurance at any price because of chronic medical conditions that would render them uninsurable.

As if that was not enough damage for Ryan to inflict with his budget reforms, his cuts to Medicare, as outlined in the Roadmap he released in January, go on to do even worse. The federal government would no longer pay a specified share of states' Medicare costs but would pay each state only a fixed amount, or block grant. The amount of the Medicare voucher and the Medicaid block grant would grow less rapidly than costs and hence would become increasingly inadequate over time. The proposal would also repeal the Community Living Assistance Services and Support (CLASS) Act -- a new, voluntary long-term care insurance program that fills an important gap in the social safety net. These changes would profoundly impair health care coverage for the elderly, people with disabilities, and people with low incomes.

In the midst of this heated debate, while Rep. Ryan is fighting to cut benefits to senior citizens and lower-income Americans, it's a comfort to know that our nation's politicians, unfazed by the damage that they are about to inflict, can still sit back and enjoy a bottle of wine with their friends. A $350 bottle of wine. This recent indulgence just proves how out-of-touch with the average citizen Rep. Ryan is. When questioned, he claimed to be completely unaware of the actual price of the bottle, which is, of course, not reassuring. While he and the rest of the elite, upper class of politicians are relaxing and enjoying their $350 bottles of wine and benefitting from these massive budget reforms, the middle class and our senior citizens are suffering.

House Republicans further illustrated this blatant disregard for money when they used taxpayer money to finance mailings going out to their constituents to support the Ryan budget bill. The franking privilege afforded to congressmen is generally well regulated, and this use of the franking privilege to promote Republicans' political goals is being called upon to be investigated by the House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa. It seems as though the House Republicans thought nothing of it though. Why spend their own money on blatantly political constituent mailings when they can take money from the American taxpayer? After all, it is important that they save their money for expensive dinner parties and $350 bottles of wine.

And let's not forget about Ryan's ideas on tax breaks for the richest Americans. When the Obama administration proposed closing tax loopholes so that CEO's could no longer receive tax incentives for things like flying their private jets, the House Republicans fought back, claiming that this was Obama trying to implement tax hikes on the rich, and they would not stand for it. Rep. Ryan has gone on to say that it's important we provide tax breaks to the rich, so that they can stimulate our economy. What he fails to realize, yet again, is that these tax breaks to the rich means tax increases for the poor and middle class. He is again taking money from those who need it most and putting it into the hands of people who are going to throw it away on jet fuel and pricey wines.

Rep. Ryan is clearly out of touch with the average American. So far, none of his proposed legislation helps our middle class; rather it all benefits the wealthy. His Medicare legislation is going to end up being a lot of the same thing, harming senior citizens and low-income families who are most in need of inexpensive health care.

This morning The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel published a story that raised a very interesting question: Was State Senator Robert Cowles threatened into voting for the Budget Repair Bill?

The article quoted a leading Wisconsin Business leader who went on record saying that State Senator Robert Cowles was coerced by threat from Governor Walker into voting for the Budget Repair Bill. The story reports that Governor Walker threatened the Senator with having to face a tea party candidate in his next election, thus backing the State Senator into a corner and forcing a vote in favor of the Governor's destructive budget.

The people of Wisconsin do not deserve to be subjected to such absurdity. Elected officials are not voted into office just to have their arms twisted and forced to say "Uncle" by the Governor. They are supposed to be a voice for constituents and stand up to these very attempts of intimidation, but somewhere along the line our state has lost its way.

Given this news how are we to believe that the State Senators who passed the Budget Repair Bill weren't all bullied into their votes? Every Senator that sided with the Governor and voted in favor of his budget must bring some transparency back to our great legislature by announcing that they were not threatened into their votes. There is no room for silence on this issue; each and every Senator must speak up. Forcing our state legislature to vote under duress is simply outrageous and has no place in Wisconsin's politics. Not now, not ever.

Extremism from neo-neo-conservatives is par for the course these days. Case in point: tea party leader and state senate candidate Kim Simac.

Excluding same-sex couples from the institution of marriage is just one area where right-wing fringe leaders like Simac are out of touch with mainstream Americans. In November 2009, Simac announced via Twitter that she had signed the Manhattan Declaration -- an anti-gay-and-lesbian tirade masked as some sort of founding document, with a preamble and everything.

I'll spare you the ugly details of its hateful message, but one particularly interesting passage reads: "We confess with sadness that Christians and our institutions have too often scandalously failed to uphold the institution of marriage and to model for the world the true meaning of marriage." It goes on to excoriate same-sex couples: "We acknowledge that there are those who are disposed towards homosexual and polyamorous conduct and relationships, just as there are those who are disposed towards other forms of immoral conduct."

I added the emphasis for a reason.

In May, Politiscoop broke the story that Kim (Mailette) Simac and her current husband Arthur filed for divorce from their spouses on the very same day:

Was it "traditional" for Kimberly Jo Maillette and Arthur P. Simac, to file for divorce from their respective previous spouses...on the very same day, December 15, 1993? What an incredible coincidence. From the numbers assigned to their divorce cases, it appears that these two walked in to the court house, one right after the other, receiving case #1993FA000188 and #1993FA000189. Who knows? Perhaps they met in line while filing their divorce cases and romance bloomed? And, then again, maybe pigs fly.

But the saga doesn't end there:

It appears that the two couples filed for a divorce on the same day and that Kim and Arthur used the same attorney for the divorce, though their respective spouses used different attorneys to represent each other. (So far so good right?). But wait! It then turns out that Cynthia and James dropped their attorneys at the same time before the proceedings were final, we found this strange but it was soon cleared up when we found out that Cynthia is now married to James and obviously Kim is now married to Arthur. Ah how simple, they merely swapped spouses!

Personal matters are personal matters, true, but when right-wing fringe groups and their leaders threaten public policy attacks on the ability of same-sex couples to join the institution of marriage, blatant hypocrisy becomes fair game in public debate (see: Randy Hopper, Mark Sanford, John Ensign, Newt Gingrich, Charlie Sykes, etc).

So because spouse-swapping Simac has such a peculiar personal past, the public has a right to call foul over her hypocrisy in signing the abhorrent Manhattan Declaration.