September 2011 Archives

We stand by all our statements and research, but if you really needed third-party validation, here's Politifact rating True our statement from a few weeks ago criticizing Gov. Scott Walker for charging the public $50 to hear his job ideas:

Gov. Scott Walker tried to take the edge off the latest dreary employment report -- issued on Sept. 16, 2011 -- by announcing a series of "job creation forums" around the state.

...

But the event isn't aimed at helping individual unemployed people find work. It's not a job fair.

And that caught the attention of the liberal One Wisconsin Now group, which criticized the event and the admission fee. Walker is charging "the public $50 to attend a state-sponsored 'jobs summit,'" the group said in a news release.

...

We rate it True.

[Politifact]

One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross released the following statements regarding the Government Accountability Board's decision that Republican Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus violated state law during the ballot counting on the night of the David Prosser-JoAnne Kloppenburg Supreme Court race; and the ongoing anti-voter efforts by the Gov. Scott Walker and the Republican-controlled state legislature. These include attacks on student voting rights and the right to hold elected officials accountable through the recall process, which Republicans are expected to muscle through the committee in the coming days.

"The independent investigator's report made it clear that changes need to be made in Waukesha County to restore people's faith in the integrity of the vote. It is critical that law enforcement and election protection officials continue to monitor Republican County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus to ensure the wide margins of victory shown in the results of Waukesha County votes are legitimate each and every time.

"Gov. Scott Walker and his allies are so desperate to protect their corporate-funded power, they have attacked the fundamental right of American citizenship -- the right to vote. The Republican Jim Crow voter suppression bill will keep seniors, students, minorities, and working people from exercising their constitutional right to vote in the state of Wisconsin. This is a dark day for democracy when partisans appear ready to reject the pro-voter rights recommendations of an independent agency charged with administering our elections. Our young people are expected to fight and die in our wars, pay taxes and build our future, but the Republicans are rigging the voting rules to deny them the right to vote. By taking away our voting rights, Walker and the Republicans have removed Wisconsin from the United States of America.

"From Gov. Walker's Department of Transportation sending out directives to specifically keep people uninformed of the availability of free identifications for voting purposes to the lack of substantial resources to educate the public about the nation's most restrictive anti-voter bill, it is clear Wisconsin is not equipped to administer this Republican disenfranchisement directive. When legal voters are denied their right to vote, the Republicans' effort to rig the elections in their favor is going to cost the state taxpayers millions of dollars in legal fees. The cost to democracy, however, will be even greater."

Research and analysis of the impact of the Republican voter suppression bill and the likely disenfranchisement is available here.

[One Wisconsin Now]

From the Institute for Wisconsin's Future "Who Does Not Pay Taxes":

It took awhile, but SC Johnson (SCJ) eventually fessed up to its tax-avoidance schemes.

It started when the last issue of this publication disclosed that SCJ paid no state income tax in 2000-2008. This prompted an SCJ insider to release a secret tax-avoidance report prepared for the firm in 2006 by accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). The report went anonymously to the Institute for Wisconsin's Future and to David Cay Johnston, a Pulitzer Prize-winning tax columnist for Reuters global news service.

The PwC report noted that SCJ offset its Wisconsin profits by deducting the interest paid on a multi-hundred-million-dollar loan it took from its own Puerto Rican subsidiary.

Similarly, in April the education arm of One Wisconsin Now, the Institute for One Wisconsin, issued the report, "We're Not Broke: The Truth About the Wisconsin Budget, Taxes And Governor Scott Walker's Phony Fiscal Crisis" in which the claim was made that two-thirds of Wisconsin's corporations don't pay taxes. It may be tough to believe, but it's absolutely true. Even the often-irrelavant reporting of Politifact-Wisconsin rated the statistic True.

[Institute for Wisconsin's Future]

It's bad enough Republican Reid Ribble doesn't even live in the district he represents, now we're finding out he doesn't even vote. But Rep. Ribble makes it unclear as to whether it's DC's fault or his staffers' fault:

Ribble blamed the April 5 voting oversight on his "hectic lifestyle" in Washington, where he sits on the House Budget Committee.

...

"That's not going to happen again," he said. "We've now set policies and procedures in my office to make sure that I've got the ballots available to me."

[Associated Press]

From Dan Bice at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Details of the secret investigation are sketchy, but it is clear the Milwaukee County district attorney's office is investigating charges that Wisconsin Right to Life offered rewards for volunteers who signed up sympathetic voters in the recall races. Several people familiar with the investigation said subpoenas were being distributed "like candy."

...

This comes on top of the yearlong John Doe investigation into possible political activity by former and current aides to Gov. Scott Walker.

Another day of bad news for Gov. Walker.

[Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]

New details surrounding Gov. Scott Walker's Cronygate have emerged in the last few days. First, there was this from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Three days after Cindy Archer was to have started her job as the legislative liaison at the state Department of Children and Families - and while she was already being paid sick leave for it - the agency interviewed someone else for the same job.

Archer is the close Walker aide, said to have an influential role in the Walker administration, whose house was raided by the FBI in mid-September.

Then Friday afternoon news broke that Walke's press secretary Cullen Werwie had received immunity in the Cronygate investigation:

Records show Werwie was granted immunity April 14. According to the judge's order, Werwie was planning to invoke his Fifth Amendment right not to answer questions to avoid self-incrimination.

"It is a big deal," said Milwaukee criminal defense lawyer Stephen E. Kravit. "He recognizes he's got (criminal) exposure and he negotiated for a proffer to get immunity, and that's a big deal."

Under an immunity deal, a person agrees to cooperate with an investigation by answering questions under oath. But prosecutors can't then use the testimony against the individual.

#RecallWalker

Tommy! Thompson. Homegrown. Wisconsin.

Whatever Tommy! is going to do in the U.S. Senate race, he's now launched out some slickly-produced interwebs ad. 

It's chock full of claims, quick edits and the latest technology to make the near-septuagenarian the voice of the future.

What we also noticed in the video at 28 seconds and 1:15, that Tommy's "Wisconsin" teacher is actually from stock footage used against Sen. Dave Hansen by the $50 million Republican State Leadership Committee.

And used by the Florida Chamber of Commerce in its anti-worker propaganda campaign.

It seems there are a lot of corporate-financed or inspired television ads out there instructing the youth about the correct spelling of "grain" and "spray" as you can "read" on the "chalkboard" of the "classroom." (That is if you're not too busy making "air quotes".)

As we've noted before "Homegrown" Tommy! will face serious challenges trying to get through the GO-Tea Party more than 14 years after his last actual campaign.*

(*Note: We're going to cut Tommy! slack and ignore the embarrassing 2008 presidential run in which he said employers should be able to fire employees with "the gay" and that making money was "part of the jewish tradition."

Consider again:

1. As U.S. Health and Human Services secretary, Tommy oversaw the $8 trillion unfunded mandate -- Medicare Part D -- that many said was just a giveaway to insurance and pharmaceutical companies.

2. As governor, Tommy more than doubled the size of state government, which included increasing the Department of Corrections budget from $186 million to a billion dollars.

3. According to the current President of the United States Barack Obama AND to the conservative group Club for Growth, Tommy supported the new health care law.

So with all that, where does this leave us? (Other than  Gov. Scott Walker shouldn't make us pay $50 to hear his job ideas, rather we should find out the secrets from the fake "teacher," who's got the magic elixir for employability.)

Would seem like this ad being called "homegrown" is about as credible as Tommy Thompson claiming to be a fiscal conservative after doubling the size of state government and marshaling through the biggest unfunded mandate in American history.

A new analysis shows just lower-paid state workers will have to contribute a higher percentage of their salary to comply with a new state law raising pension and health care costs.

It shows that a state worker earning $25,000 a year will see their total pension and health care costs increase from 4.5 percent of their salary to 11.3 percent. A worker earning $50,000 a year will see their share increase from 2.3 percent to 8.5 percent.

[Associated Press]

One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross was outside Scott Walker's mansion last night getting the inside scoop at the Governor's Wine & Wickets fundraiser. Scot was a little disgusted at what he saw, to say the least. In between his live-tweets, he sent this email from his Blackberry at about 7pm last night:

Hey--

I'm at Wine and Wickets and before I get the heck out of here, I just want you to know that One Wisconsin Now is absolutely committed to recalling Scott Walker.

And seeing this ridiculous lobbyist filled fundraiser at his mansion I'm even more committed.

Can you support our work, our research, our rapid response, our communications and our online organizing? If you can help with $25 or $50 it will be so important, because we need all hands on deck if we're going to get Walker out of office.

Yes, I want to recall Scott Walker.

I can't believe how out of touch the people I'm seeing here are. It's not just that they don't care what Walker is doing to our schools, our health care and our working families, it's like they're gleeful he's doing it.

Seriously, what is wrong with these people that they think we're going to put up with this?

scot

Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®

Article by Brandon Weathersby

The unemployment crisis in our state needs no introduction. The fact that Wisconsin has lost nearly 14,000 jobs over the last two months and unemployment has risen from 7.4% to 7.9% is very well known. The dismal economic situation of the state is not lost on anyone; however, some of our states leadership seems to have priorities other than bringing jobs back to Wisconsin.

Senate Republican and co-chair of the Joint Finance Committee Alberta Darling took time to head to the airwaves to criticize a Facebook post from Democratic legislator and fellow Joint Finance Committee member Lena Taylor. Instead of working on behalf of her constituents and addressing their many needs during this tough time, Senator Darling finds engaging in partisan attacks more important than working on the real problems our state faces.

It is this display of priorities and judgment that sheds some light on why Senator Darling thought things like continuing to pay cops fired for misconduct, gutting child labor laws and balancing the state budget on the backs of the middle class, children and seniors were good ideas.

Republican Attorney General JB Van Hollen, according to a news report today, refused to help the investigation into fellow Republican Scott Walker's office in the scandal being called "Cronygate." The refusal and silence of the state's "top cop" to investigate his fellow Republican raises serious questions about Van Hollen's conduct and warrants an investigation, according to One Wisconsin Now.

According to today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Van Hollen "was asked months ago to assist in a growing secret investigation of former and current aides to Gov. Scott Walker, but Van Hollen's office declined, sources familiar with the request said Tuesday." [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 9/21/11, http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/130236158.html]

The secret John Doe investigation reportedly involves numerous Walker aides who may have used taxpayer-financed resources to support Walker's gubernatorial campaign. News reports have indicated several work and personal computers have been seized in the investigation being conducted by the Milwaukee County District Attorney's office. Several top officials in the Walker gubernatorial administration have abruptly left their posts or been reassigned to lower-level tasks. The Federal Bureau of Investigation also raided the home of one of Walker's top aides just last week.

What makes Van Hollen's refusal to aid the investigation additionally troubling is that Van Hollen's office worked hand-in-glove with the Milwaukee County District Attorney's office for the past two and a half years through the Election Integrity Task Force, pursuing all allegations of potential voter impropriety that have netted less than 20 actual instances. Van Hollen not only held press conferences on these issues, but also regularly produced press releases touting his work with the Milwaukee County District Attorney's office, including with the investigator leading the current Walker "Cronygate" cases.

Read more...

Gov. Scott Walker, already backing down from his campaign pledge to create 250,000 jobs, is going to have a rough time explaining this one: one-in-five jobs he is touting on a state jobs website are not even located in Wisconsin.

More than 32,000 job openings were posted on the Job Center of Wisconsin's website as of Tuesday, but about 18 percent of them were in Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa and Michigan. It was unclear how many of those roughly 6,000 jobs could be filled through telecommuting, though many appeared to require on-site work.

Walker ran on a promise to add 250,000 private sector jobs in the state by 2015, and the Republican repeatedly referenced the website -- the state's official jobs site -- in his radio address last week as a place for Wisconsin's unemployed to find jobs and quickly connect with employers.

Ouch.

[Associated Press]

Gov. Scott Walker, facing a steadily-increasing state unemployment rate despite passing $2.3 billion in tax cuts to corporations and the wealthy, has announced his latest scheme: charge the public $50 to attend a state-sponsored "jobs summit." Walker's fee will likely restrict public access, particularly the unemployed and those in need of jobs.

Walker and Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, both of whom have no notable experience creating jobs in the private sector, are hosting a "jobs summit" at Lambeau Field this November 1. The event, which is being advertised on the state-finance Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority's (WHEDA) website, includes a $50 fee for registration payable to WHEDA.

The state has seen a steadily rising unemployment rate over the summer, after nearly two years of falling (2009-10). Despite Walker and the Republican-controlled legislature passing $100 million in new corporate tax breaks and breaks for the wealthy in January, the state's unemployment rate has skyrocketed from 7.3 percent in April to 7.9 percent in August. This is the highest increase in over two-and-a-half years.

An article in today's Capital Times explains the rising unemployment rate in Wisconsin under Gov. Scott Walker.

Wisconsin's unemployment rate rose slightly in August, with the state losing a net 800 private sector jobs last month.

The state's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate increased to 7.9 percent in August, up from 7.8 percent in July, according to figures released Thursday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

...

Those figures caused Walker to backtrack from his 250,000 jobs target during a TV interview in Milwaukee last week.

[Capital Times]

In mid-April, professional blogger Andrew Breitbart came to Madison to show his support for Gov. Scott Walker's attack on worker rights. He shared a stage with other notable speakers like Sarah Palin and Vicki McKenna.

Of course the tea party's puny turnout was overshadowed by the huge uprising of middle-class workers and labor union supporters, but Breitbart definitely gave a performance to remember. Here he his in April telling working class demonstrators to "Go to hell!" The insanity starts at 0:00 but gets interesting at 1:25:

Civility? Really?

Recently, Walker defender Breitbart was caught on camera advocating for actual armed violence against workers and unions, saying:

"There are times where I'm not thinking as clearly as I should, and in those unclear moments, I always think to myself, 'Fire the first shot.' 'Bring it on.' Because I know who's on our side. And they know that they can only win a rhetorical and propaganda war. They cannot win. We outnumber them in this country, and we have the guns. I'm not kidding."

Extreme rhetoric like this is nothing new. In his infamous call with who he thought was billionaire David Koch, Gov. Walker let it slip that he had considered sending in agitators to the huge crowd -- full of men, women, and children of all ages -- who were protesting Walker's extreme agenda. He even joked he kept a Louisville Slugger with him.

Tommy Thompson is back... again. Sort of.

That Tommy Thompson filed papers to fundraise for a potential U.S. Sentate run is sure to excite nobody except perhaps those who have for the past 8 years written ad nauseum about the perpetual prospect of a Tommy run.

But what should be written about Tommy is not every new development in the decades-long "will he or won't he" story, but rather his actual record as a public official and positions he has taken as a public figure. Here are three points to get you started:

1. As U.S. Health and Human Services secretary, Tommy oversaw the $8 trillion unfunded mandate -- Medicare Part D -- that many said was just a giveaway to insurance and pharmaceutical companies.

2. As governor, Tommy more than doubled the size of state government, which included increasing the Department of Corrections budget from $186 million to a billion dollars.

3. According to the current President of the United States Barack Obama AND to the conservative group Club for Growth, Tommy supported the new health care law.

As others have pointed out, Tommy is going to find it difficult to find friends within his own conservative base, as many in his party have moved from the moderate right to the extreme far right.

As the economy continues to fail after Gov. Scott Walker and the Republican majority gave $2.3 billion in new tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy, Rep. Andre Jacque has turned his focus to an extreme social agenda that actually will do more to lose good-paying jobs.

In a column in the Wisconsin State Journal today, Rep. Jacque makes the case for a couple of anti-abortion bills stewing in the Capitol. As reasonable and "ethical" as he tries to come across, it's no small secret that the Fox Valley Republican is an anti-choice extremist, even opposing the morning after pill, as we point out in our Meet the Majority profile.

Of course, non-job creating legislation is the last thing our state needs, and Rep. Jacque's focus on an extreme social agenda is a slippery slope Wisconsin doesn't need to go down.

[Wisconsin State Journal]

Under President Obama's Jobs Act, Wisconsin stands to receive up to $369 million in funding for public schools and tech colleges, if passed by Congress. That means potentially 4,800 jobs for Wisconsin workers to update school buildings.

Additionally, Obama's plan includes tax cuts for businesses who hire workers, cuts in payroll taxes for the average worker (unlike Governor Walker who only cut taxes for corporations and actually raised taxes on lower-income workers, breaking a campaign promise), and funds to help rebuild Wisconsin roads and bridges.

From his interview this weekend, one might suspect Gov. Scott Walker (R!) isn't so sure he can live up to the promise he made on the campaign trail in 2010 to create 250,000 jobs in five years.

While Wisconsin's Republican majority still can think of nothing but more tax breaks for big business and overcompensted CEOs as a means to job creation, Wisconsin's middle class continues to struggle.

[WISN]

One Wisconsin Now has filed an open records request with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation to obtain all communications and emails related to the issuance of state identification cards for the purposes of voting under the state's voter identification bill.

In a quest to restore Versailles the Governor's Mansion to it's historic charm, First Lady Tonette Walker is hosting a fundraiser so poor taxpayers won't have to foot the bill. "Leading ladies" have been asked to donate handbags filled with their favorite things, which they will auction off to each other, along with playing croquet and sipping wine at the residence.

Per the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "I am inviting fellow leading ladies like yourself to please join me in donating a purse filled with some of your favorite things. The purses will then be raffled off at the event," Tonette Walker added. "For example, I'll be donating a Tignanello bag filled with some of my can't-live-without items like my favorite shade of Bobbi Brown lipstick and an Aveda hand cream that I can't get enough of."

The value of Tonette's goody-filled handbag?

• A Tignanello handbag from Macy's: $159
• Bobbi Brown lipstick in your favorite shade: $23
• Aveda hand cream that you can't get enough of: $20

Total: $202

Can't live without lipstick and lotion?

Try telling that to the 14.4% of the state's population on food stamps in July. Their average monthly foodstamp allotment: $250 (just $8.22/day).

C'est la vie.

Most Wisconsinites remember when Governor Walker promised to create 250,000 jobs and 10,000 businesses during his term in office. Walker issued this promised shortly after being elected last fall and used it to justify his austere budget cutting measures last winter. Budget items that cut education, public health, environmental regulation, and stripped away over 50 years of union rights in the state were all a part of the apparent shared sacrifice of creating jobs in Wisconsin. However, recent jobs numbers show that the governor has a very long road ahead of him if he is to keep this promise.

Six months after the budget bill protests of 2011 summer is ending and students are finally returning back to school. Students, that is, but not their teachers. The loss of collective bargaining and pay cuts has driven droves of accomplished and able teachers into retirement at a rate 2-3 times the yearly average. Couple this with the reduction of sick leave accrual and we find our educational system becomes infected with ignorance. Kids get sick, that is a fact of life. Our teachers are to be forced to work under less than ideal conditions and will eventually succumb to the menagerie of viruses and colds that float around their workplace.