Fmr State Democratic Sen. Mordecai Lee on Prosser Vote Discovery!

Here's Rachel Maddow:

Prior to the Supreme Court race, Tea Party Republicans were setting up a STOLEN ELECTION.

This is old news now, but as you can see, the tea party and state Republicans were setting up what they would call the biggest election swindle ever.

Newsmax: The Tea Party Express.org website, meanwhile, accuses Big Labor of trying to “hijack the election” by pouring millions into the race. 

Those villainess “out-of-staters” Gov. Scott Walker and Scott Fitzgerald keep warning us about are now working for their side?

Levi Russell, a spokesman for Tea Party Express, says the organization has its members throughout the nation calling into voters in Wisconsin in a bid to sway the outcome. The organization also is airing TV ads throughout the state. 

Oh boy I hate those out of staters interfering with Wisconsin politics. Uhh…“Throughout the nation” tea party organizations were trying to “sway the outcome” of OUR Supreme Court race. By the way, those were “grass-roots” conservatives, again, from other states. But you would never hear anyone, even Newsmax, suggest "swinging the race"...uh oh....

Asked whether grass-roots conservatives could swing the race, Russell told Newsmax: “I don’t know. The anger and the vitriol on the left is very thick. They’re very serious and they have been galvanized in this effort for a lot longer than the right has been pushing back on it. So it makes me nervous."

Russell appears disappointed the Democrats did not go along peacefully with their agenda. To the tea party, anger and vitriol is only reserved for picked on conservatives.

Brookfield adds about 7,500 votes for David Prosser from Cty Clerks Personal Computer!!! Guess who made the mistake...

 Did it seem odd the Prosser campaign waited so long to decide if they wanted a recall?

jsonline: In a political bomb blast, the clerk in a Republican stronghold is set to release new vote totals giving 7,500 votes in the state Supreme Court race back toward Justice David Prosser, swinging the race significantly in his favor.

The press conference is posted BELOW from Waukesha Co Clerk Kathy Nickolaus, who by the way was "granted immunity after the state's caucus scandal. She was then an Assembly Republican Caucus employee" according to Wisconsin State Journal reporter Mary Spacuzza. "Clerk Kathy Nickolaus subject of Ethics Board inquiry in 2002 after she bought lists of registered voters w state $. Kathy Nickolaus worked for Assembly Republican Caucus when Prosser was Speaker. Caucus is controlled by speaker, so he is her former boss."

This might be more explosive than anyone might have imagined…

From Brad Blog, August 16, 2010:

Waukesha - Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus' decision to go it alone in how she collects and maintains election results has some county officials raising a red flag about the integrity of the system. 

Nickolaus said she decided to take the election data collection and storage system off the county's computer network - and keep it on stand-alone personal computers accessible only in her office - for security reasons. 

"What it gave me was good security of the elections from start to finish, without the ability of someone unauthorized to be involved," she said. 

Nonetheless, Director of Administration Norman A. Cummings said because Nickolaus has kept them out of the loop, the county's information technology specialists have not been able to verify Nickolaus' claim that the system is secure from failure. 

"How does anybody else in the county know, except for her verbal word, that there are backups, and that the software she has out there is performing as it should?" he said. "There's no way I can assure that the election system is going to be fine for the next presidential election."

Even worse, this:

The audit concluded that while the clerk's system generally complies with state and federal guidelines and accuracy of election totals was not at issue, Nickolaus should improve security and backup procedures. 

Although it was not among the audit recommendations, Nickolaus' decision to no longer report municipal election results separately on election night, as many other county clerks do, has raised questions. 

Nor does she show in the running totals throughout election night what proportion of the voting units are included in the tallies.

Something is terribly wrong.  

 

State Sen. Glenn Grothman claims voter irregularities, public employee voting muscle to blame for Kloppenburg.

The only local liberal  radio voice in the entire state emanates from Madison's WTDY 1670. Sly in the Morning is also the only guy you'll hear ask the now rare "tough question."

State Sen. Glenn Grothman's (growth-men)15 minutes of citizen bashing continues, with this surreal insight into the conservative thought process, when Glenn wildly accuses Dane and Milwaukee County of voting irregularities, and laments an election that was decided by "government employees collectively exercising their muscle...and that was a sad thing." 

This kind of interview is a rarity nowadays in media, where friendly ideologues smooth over the truly controversial. Here are a few highlights from Sly's interview with Grothman:



Check out the complete interview at Sly's Office (link above).

27 Year Old Walker Crony Resigns, Never Reported to Job.

"Government by Republican" has proven to be a fatally flawed brand, sold by Gov. Scott Walker and the Fitzgerald brothers, and not finding many buyers. This is arrogant stupidity on full display.

jsonline: Brian Deschane, the 27-year-old son of a major contributor to Gov. Scott Walker, has resigned from his job in state government, sources said Thursday.  

Deschane, who has no college degree, very little management experience and two drunken-driving convictions, had landed an $81,500-per-year job in Walker's administration overseeing environmental and regulatory matters and dozens of employees at the Department of Commerce.  

Sources indicated that he never reported for that job.

Gov. Scott Walker on Kloppenburg and the Democratic win for Milwaukee County Executive: "It's pretty clear you have two different worlds in this state."

Gov. Scott Walker continues to dismiss voter sentiment as "Madison vs the rest of the state," an obvious insult to all the Wisconsinites who turned out to send a message to the administration. For Walker, it's hard to believe anyone would be unhappy with the dictatorial direction of the state.

Walker: "I think it's pretty clear you have two very different worlds in this state. You've got a world driven by Madison, and a world driven by everybody else out across the majority of the rest of the state of Wisconsin."

Looking at the map, does that look like "a world driven by Madison?" (click here for map interactive results)

The problem stems the public's ability to challenge Walker's authoritarian view of state government, a winner take all policy that unabashedly attacks the middle class as overpaid and undeserving, through the electoral process.

What we're witnessing is a total takeover of the Republican Party by big business, under the populist banner of bringing in the "job creators," our economic saviors.

Watching the video clip below proves that we're stuck with an excuse driven sociopath as governor:

WSJ: Tuesday's strong voter turnout and split electorate in the state Supreme Court race suggest the passion for trying to recall state senators remains robust, experts said, while several recall leaders reported big gains in collecting signatures outside polling sites.

While conservatives love to complain and bash the Democratic Party’s dominance in Dane County, turn-about is fair play, Democrats are making the same comparison of the starkly conservative counties surrounding Milwaukee, area’s that have basically become GOP militia camps. Uppity Wisconsin explains:

Jud Lounsbury: What is Milurbia? It's an area almost the exact size of Dane County to the west and north of Milwaukee … The suburban counties of Waukesha, Washington and Ozaukee and has a population of 600,146, dwarfing Dane County's 491,357.
Without (Milurbia), Prosser would have lost by about six points or 85,561 votes.

And the Milwaukee area still doesn’t have a liberal radio talk show host.

Walker's not making Republicans look good for 2012.

Rachel Maddow points out the Walker spawned Democratic movement back sanity in this piece about Kloppenburg and Chris Abele's big win over conservative extremist Jeff Stone.

I love Gov. Walker's  excuses for the Republican losses.

Rep. Ryan's Lying Again, with the Courage and Conviction that has captured the Imagination of a Nation.

Rachel Maddow takes a look at all the things I missed after I got hopelessly lost in the details of Paul Ryan's outrageously irresponsible inhumane plan.



According to Paul Krugman: 

A more sober assessment from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office tells a different story. It finds that a large part of the supposed savings from spending cuts would go, not to reduce the deficit, but to pay for tax cuts. In fact, the budget office finds that over the next decade the plan would lead to bigger deficits and more debt than current law.

Kloppenburg Squeaker Big News. State Sen. Chris Larson chimes in...

Cenk Uygur talk's the Kloppenburg win with State Sen. Chris Larson:

Democrats can't survive as a party with messaging this bad!!

Really Bad Messaging

Here's MSNBC's Cenk Uygur on the totally clueless beltway Democrats. I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't unaware of the labor movement and the middle class's fight to stay alive?

Non-partisan judicial election? A lie. Take the following unintended admission of politicizing the judicial branch by Conservatives.

We've got an activist conservative judge problem...big time.

If this last Supreme Court election didn’t make if perfectly clear how partisan the judicial branch is now, hell Justice David Prosser was a former Republican speaker of the assembly, then the following story should tell you everything. Both candidates were touting their “conservative” credentials, as if law had an assumed, right wing bias.  

jsonline: For the second time in as many years, a judge appointed by Democratic former Gov. Jim Doyle was defeated by a candidate who ran on a message of being the more conservative choice backed by prominent Republicans. Judge Kathryn Stilling countered that as a judge, she had shown she was a conservative by applying the law as it was written. 

See, “conservative” and “law and order” are inseparable in the Republican world view. Bizarre when you consider how disrespectful and suspicious conservatives are toward judges, the police and their fellow lawmakers. If they disagree with a judge’s decision, like they did when Judge Sumi held up the union busting bill, that judge shouldn’t have inserted herself into the political process. That action proved she is an liberal activists despite her conservative credentials. Never mind the constitution or state laws.

A year ago, another Doyle appointee to the bench, Richard Congdon, was defeated in his first election by former state Rep. Mark Gundrum, a Republican from New Berlin.

Gundrum was another extremist activist legislator, elected to the bench, by conservative voters more than willing to politicize the judicial branch so they could rub their agenda in the faces of their political foes. 

Supreme Court Race Close? Guess things just aren't bad enough yet.

Is this what we think we deserve?

I'm disappointed, amazed basically, that it wasn't an overwhelming win for Kloppenburg. Apparently the authoritarian and lawless takeover of our state government wasn't a shock enough to Wisconsinites system to warrant a statewide reboot.

So this is how easy and willing we are to allow "the job creators" to control our elections. Disaster capitalism is winning.

Reaction to Ryan's Dystopian Restructuring of America Pt. 2

It's a "premium support system."

Rep. Paul Ryan decided to pile on during an economic and jobless recovery. The time is right for "disaster capitalism." 

When asked about his proposed changes putting an enormous burden on the poorest people in this country;

Ryan: "No, I would not agree with that. This saves the social safety net..."

That of course doesn't address the burden his changes will have on the poor. Ryan only sees numbers. He wants to save Medicare, in name only, ignoring the human toll on seniors. MSNBC's Cenk Uygur:

I love this talking point because it's so politically calculating:

Ryan: "If you do it now, nobody 55 and above will see any change." 

Senior where the ones who put Republicans in power, fearing "Obamacare" would take away their Medicare benefits. The assurance from Ryan would supposedly save their vote for 2012. Will seniors again throw their kids under the bus like last time? 

When is Cronyism and nepotism is too, too obvious? Walker Just found Out.

This should mark the end to acting regally untouchable.

jsonline: Gov. Scott Walker abruptly reversed course today and demoted the son of a large campaign contributor to his former job with the state Department of Regulation and Licensing. 

The move comes one day after the Journal Sentinel reported that Brian Deschane, 27, had landed an $81,500-a-year job in Walker's administration overseeing environmental and regulatory matters and dozens of employees at the Department of Commerce. The promotion amounted to a raise of 26%. 

His father is Jerry Deschane, executive vice president and longtime lobbyist for the Madison-based Wisconsin Builders Association. The younger Deschane has no college degree, little management experience and two drunken driving convictions. 

Our supreme leader, hands on and in charge, must have made the decision in his sleep, because...

"When Governor Walker learned of the details of this agency staffing decision, he directed his administration to move in another direction."

 Doh!!!

Reaction to Ryan's Dystopian Restructuring of America Gives the Keys to Corporate Power...read small government-Pt 1

I've written endlessly about Ryan's brutal, cruel, inhumane treatment of all Americans, justifying his tough love approach as a way of balancing the books. Now it's time for a few other points of view: 

Think Progress documented the following:

In an op-ed written in a local paper in October 2009, Ryan said that President Obama broke his “promises” to seniors by cutting Medicare. He complained that, “in order to pay for the trillion dollar health care overhaul making its way through Congress…hundreds of billions of dollars will be cut from Medicare.” [10/1/09] 

In a Newsmax interview, Ryan complained that the health bill would involve “10 years of tax increases and Medicare cuts to pay for six years of spending.” [2/25/10] 

On his congressional website, Ryan complained that the health care bill “raises taxes by more than a half-trillion dollars over the next 10 years, the largest tax increase in American history and cuts more than a half-trillion dollars from Medicare to finance this new entitlement.” [2010] 

Ryan gave one of his strongest denunciations of the health care bill’s supposed Medicare cuts at a meeting between President Obama and congressional Republicans at the Blair House in 2010. Ryan said that the health bill “treats Medicare like a piggy bank” because it “raids” half a trillion dollars out of it: RYAN: Now, when you take a look at the Medicare cuts, what this bill essentially does is treats Medicare like a piggy bank. It raids a half a trillion dollars out of Medicare not to shore up Medicare’s solvency but to spend on this new government program.

MSNBC found these campaign examples from 2010:

60 Plus vs. former Rep. Allen Boyd (D-FL): “Allen Boyd has betrayed Florida seniors. Boyd voted for Nancy Pelosi’s health care bill, which would cut $500 billion from Medicare.” Another man: “That will hurt the quality of our care.” Woman: “We thought Boyd was looking out for us. But Allen Boyd switched his vote on health care.” Man: “…he betrayed us.  

Crossroads GPS vs. Joe Sestak (D-PA):  “What’s Congressman Joe Sestak done? He voted to gut Medicare, slashing benefits for Pennsylvania seniors. The Obama-Sestak scheme could jeopardize access to care for millions. … 

NRSC vs. Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO): Bennet: “what’s Bennet done? He voted to gut Medicare, jeopardizing benefits for over 200,000 Colorado seniors. … 

Crossroads GPS vs. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA): “California seniors are worried. Barbara Boxer voted to cut spending on Medicare benefits by $500 billion. Cuts so costly to hospitals and nursing homes that they could stop taking Medicare altogether. Boxer’s cut would sharply reduce benefits for some and could jeopardize access to care for millions of others. 

RNC Chairman Michael Steele touting his proposed “Seniors Bill of Rights”: “No cuts to Medicare to pay for another program. Zero.” 

From the ambiguously named, “League of American Voters”: Young woman: “Cutting Medicare $400 billion?” Faux government official: “Streamlining. The elderly are such a drain on the system.”
Rep. Dan Benishek (R-MI) vowed: “Social Security and Medicare are a promise we’ve made to our seniors. And I will keep that promise.” Announcer: “Dr. Dan Benishek’s plan would guarantee Social Security and Medicare for the future.” 

Lamar Alexander (in Senate Republicans’ video at about 0:46): “We can say no to higher taxes, higher premiums, and cuts to Medicare.”

Ryan's plan protects Medicare, or hands it over to the private sector? We're talking Ryan now.

Reaction to Ryan's Dystopian Restructuring of America Gives the Keys to Corporate Power...or... small government-Pt 1

I've written endlessly about Ryan's brutal, cruel, inhumane treatment of all Americans, justifying his tough love approach as a way of balancing the books. Now it's time for a few other points of view: 

Think Progress documented the following:

In an op-ed written in a local paper in October 2009, Ryan said that President Obama broke his “promises” to seniors by cutting Medicare. He complained that, “in order to pay for the trillion dollar health care overhaul making its way through Congress…hundreds of billions of dollars will be cut from Medicare.” [10/1/09] 

In a Newsmax interview, Ryan complained that the health bill would involve “10 years of tax increases and Medicare cuts to pay for six years of spending.” [2/25/10] 

On his congressional website, Ryan complained that the health care bill “raises taxes by more than a half-trillion dollars over the next 10 years, the largest tax increase in American history and cuts more than a half-trillion dollars from Medicare to finance this new entitlement.” [2010] 

Ryan gave one of his strongest denunciations of the health care bill’s supposed Medicare cuts at a meeting between President Obama and congressional Republicans at the Blair House in 2010. Ryan said that the health bill “treats Medicare like a piggy bank” because it “raids” half a trillion dollars out of it: RYAN: Now, when you take a look at the Medicare cuts, what this bill essentially does is treats Medicare like a piggy bank. It raids a half a trillion dollars out of Medicare not to shore up Medicare’s solvency but to spend on this new government program.

MSNBC found these campaign examples from 2010:

60 Plus vs. former Rep. Allen Boyd (D-FL): “Allen Boyd has betrayed Florida seniors. Boyd voted for Nancy Pelosi’s health care bill, which would cut $500 billion from Medicare.” Another man: “That will hurt the quality of our care.” Woman: “We thought Boyd was looking out for us. But Allen Boyd switched his vote on health care.” Man: “…he betrayed us.  

Crossroads GPS vs. Joe Sestak (D-PA):  “What’s Congressman Joe Sestak done? He voted to gut Medicare, slashing benefits for Pennsylvania seniors. The Obama-Sestak scheme could jeopardize access to care for millions. … 

NRSC vs. Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO): Bennet: “what’s Bennet done? He voted to gut Medicare, jeopardizing benefits for over 200,000 Colorado seniors. … 

Crossroads GPS vs. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA): “California seniors are worried. Barbara Boxer voted to cut spending on Medicare benefits by $500 billion. Cuts so costly to hospitals and nursing homes that they could stop taking Medicare altogether. Boxer’s cut would sharply reduce benefits for some and could jeopardize access to care for millions of others. 

RNC Chairman Michael Steele touting his proposed “Seniors Bill of Rights”: “No cuts to Medicare to pay for another program. Zero.” 

From the ambiguously named, “League of American Voters”: Young woman: “Cutting Medicare $400 billion?” Faux government official: “Streamlining. The elderly are such a drain on the system.”
Rep. Dan Benishek (R-MI) vowed: “Social Security and Medicare are a promise we’ve made to our seniors. And I will keep that promise.” Announcer: “Dr. Dan Benishek’s plan would guarantee Social Security and Medicare for the future.” 

Lamar Alexander (in Senate Republicans’ video at about 0:46): “We can say no to higher taxes, higher premiums, and cuts to Medicare.”

Ryan's plan protects Medicare, or hands it over to the private sector? We're talking Ryan now.

Zombie Protest March video...

The Daily Page: On Saturday afternoon, the protest movement against Gov. Scott Walker finally died, so to speak. A shuffling, groaning army of zombies lurched up State Street, carrying anti-Walker signs and lamenting the lack of brains -- their favorite food -- at the Republican-dominated Wisconsin Capitol. 

Republicans in Kentucky have been committing voter fraud for years. Nailed.

No liberal bastion, Kentucky has been rocked by a huge voter fraud case involving a Republican primary election and pay to play contracts. The one thing I couldn't help but notice was the lack of political attribution to the convicted parties. Odd isn't it, how the media didn't think it was important to report election and voter fraud by Republicans, the biggest whiners. 

FRANKFORT, Ky. –  A former judge has been sentenced to more than 26 years in federal prison for his role in a conspiracy to gain power and control politics in an eastern Kentucky county. 

Former Clay County Circuit Judge R. Cletus Maricle headed the conspiracy … and seven others were convicted in March 2010 of multiple charges, including racketeering, money laundering and voter fraud. 

Prosecutors say more than 8,000 people were paid $50 each for their votes in one election and 150 votes were stolen by changing voting machines. 

The May 2002 primary — the first election cited — was allegedly a high-water mark of vote fraud in the county, largely because of a bitter race for county clerk. 

In that race, Freddy W. Thompson, the county's chief election officer, challenged incumbent Clerk Jennings B. White in the Republican primary. The candidates and their allies allegedly put up several hundred thousand dollars to buy votes in the election, which Thompson won. 

In 2006, Maricle and others tried a new vote-fraud tactic that involved fewer people than buying votes — stealing votes, the indictment said. The county had new voting machines that year that required people to push two buttons after making their choices … precinct officers duped people into thinking they had voted after pressing the first button, then switched the votes, according to trial testimony. 

Maricle admitted buying votes for a circuit judge candidate in 1983 — though he said he hadn't bought votes since — and Thompson's attorney acknowledged people bribed voters for him in 2002.

Another example of Republican projection, where they think their urge to commit voter fraud is shared by the enemy of America, Democrats.

BFD!!! Milwaukee Journal Sentinel criticizes Union/Democratic Talking Points given to Wis. 14, but Never Seem to Complain about National GOP Talking Points Machine.

Do they really want to go there?

The “all on the same page” Republican talking points machine that includes Frank Luntz, Fox News, Newsmax, the Club for Growth to name a few, is so well known and part of the American political dialogue, it’s hard to imagine that they would have the balls to complain about the Democrats getting a little help from their own supporters. But that's just what they're doing. The Journal Sentinel is there to help too.

jsonline: The same day Senate Democrats left the state to boycott a vote on Gov. Scott Walker’s collective bargaining bill, a union official from Washington, D.C., provided the Democrats' leader with talking points. Emails released by the office of Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller (D-Monona) show how Democratic senators sought to explain their unusual action to drive to Illinois Blaine Rummel, a spokesperson from AFSCME, (in) an email marked “TPs,” (wrote): 

“We’re on the job. The fact is, Wisconsin legislators are sworn to protect people’s rights, not take them away. And we are fulfilling our oath,” one of the talking points reads. 

Miller spokesman Mike Browne said that exchanges like that one were meant to share what different opponents to Walker’s bill were saying publicly.

I say BFD!!! Browne, like most Democrats, needs to STRONGLY retort...BFD!!! Instead, somewhere in the paragraph below, lies an okay comeback message softened by a lot of words added by the reporter.

Browne pointed out that Republicans also benefited from the support and advice of national figures in mounting their campaign in support of the bill. He pointed to a Feb. 23 meeting Walker held with national political consultant and pollster Frank Luntz.

The JS headline should have been: Hell Froze Over, Democrats Finally Got Some Talking Points!!!  

Ezra Klein's early diagnosis of Paul Ryan's dismantling of Medicare and Medicaid. Shock Doctrine on Steroids.

In a recent analysis from Ezra Klein, it looks like Paul Ryan’s Dickensian changes to Medicare and Medicaid will save the government money, but shift the increasing cost of care to seniors:

Washington Post: " what saves money is not the reform. It’s the cut. For Medicare, the cut is that the government wouldn’t cover the full cost of the private Medicare plans, and the portion they would cover is set to shrink as time goes on. In Medicaid, the block grants are set to increase more slowly than health-care costs, which is to say, the federal government will shoulder a smaller share of the costs than it currently does. The question for both plans is the same: What happens to beneficiaries?" 

The current Medicare program would be dissolved and the next generation of seniors would choose from Medicare-certified private plans on an exchange. But that wouldn’t save money. In fact, it would cost money. As the Congressional Budget Office has said (pdf), since Medicare is cheaper than private insurance, beneficiaries will see “higher premiums in the private market for a package of benefits similar to that currently provided by Medicare.” 

I've said all along that Medicare is a socialized government run high risk program, where the public steps in to help seniors where the private sector would not, creating a large enough pool to bring costs down. Ryan pretends there is a market out there waiting to serve the elderly, with affordable simplified plans even the mentally diminished can understand, creating competition and lowering the costs of drugs, doctors fees and hospital care. Crazy isn't it. This is a high risk pool of "costly" seniors, on a fixed income, who are about to have their Social Security reduced.

And if a recession hits and more people need Medicaid or a nasty flu descends and lots of disabled beneficiaries end up in the hospital with pneumonia? Too bad. 

To my knowledge, Ryan’s budget doesn’t attempt to reform the medical-care sector. It just has cuts. The hope is that those cuts will force consumers to be smarter shoppers and doctors to be more economical and states to be more innovative. But all that’s been tried and it hasn’t been enough. That’s why the Affordable Care Act had to go so much further, digging deep into the delivery system … 

Cuts aren’t enough, and if they somehow manage to distract people from the cuts by repeating the words “block grants” and “flexibility” and “premium support” over and over again, they’ll simply end up seeing their cuts ignored when it becomes clear that they’ll mean leaving the old and the poor without health care. 

What Ryan has here isn’t so much a plan to control spending as a plan to cut spending, whatever the consequences.

GOP Climate Change Hearings Covered Up, Ignored, and Another Missed Opportunity By Democrats.

How can the extremist Republican critics of climate change hide their bad news from the public, research that proved they were wrong, after having a very public hearing? Where the hell are our D.C. Democrats on this political talking point disaster?

LA Times: A team of UC Berkeley physicists and statisticians that set out to challenge the scientific consensus on global warming is finding that its data-crunching effort is producing results nearly identical to those underlying the prevailing view. The hearing was called by GOP leaders of the House Science & Technology committee, who have expressed doubts about the integrity of climate science. The Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project was launched by physics professor Richard Muller, a longtime critic of government-led climate studies, to address what he called "the legitimate concerns" of skeptics who believe that global warming is exaggerated. 

But Muller unexpectedly told a congressional hearing last week that the work of the three principal groups that have analyzed the temperature trends underlying climate science is "excellent.... We see a global warming trend that is very similar to that previously reported by the other groups." Muller said his group was surprised by its findings.

The Koch brother’s money just disappeared down their own ideological job rabbit hole:  

The Berkeley project's biggest private backer, at $150,000, is the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation. But conservative critics who had expected Muller's group to demonstrate a bias among climate scientists reacted with disappointment. Anthony Watts, a former TV weatherman who runs the skeptic blog WattsUpWithThat.com, wrote that the Berkeley group is releasing results that are not "fully working and debugged yet.... But, post normal science political theater is like that."

This is horrific news for skeptics and deniers like Watts, who now look pathetically silly, and breathlessly conspiratorial.

The wingnuts lost a big one. Will any Democrat step up, and tell Americans the truth? 

Prosser ad insults protesting working families, and right wing radio could swing election results.

I jumped out of my chair when I saw the beginning of this Prosser ad. After all the effort people and their families went through to voice their anger and frustration with government, protesting over a month at the Capitol, Prosser's supporters asks "Take a moment to look past the noise...!"



Jeff Mayers from Wispolitics.com analyzes the partisan nature of the Kloppenburg/Prosser race, stating matter-of-factly how conservative talk radio can help in the surrounding Milwaukee communities. How normal is that? In a Democratic blue collar Milwaukee market, there isn't one liberal talk radio host. In the old days, stations would have their license challenged for not reflecting the community standards test.

The "Parent Trigger" to Transfer Public Schools to Private the Next Chaotic Step for Ohio.

Let's turn school reform over to the parents and the lobbying groups representing private interests, who can advertise and create chaos, and reap the benefits of the ensuing chaos. Ohio's signed on:

edweek: Can't fix failing schools? Parents could get tough on Ohio's districts. Gov. John Kasich's budget plan would give parents the power to force radical changes on chronically underperforming schools.

That’s right, the know-it-all parent, put them in charge. Pretty soon we won’t need legislators. This is just the opposite of those countries that are smoking us on testing. Oh well.

The "parent trigger" would apply to schools that rank in the state's bottom 5 percent in academics for three consecutive school years. If a majority of a school's parents sign a petition demanding change, the school would be forced to accept the reform the parents propose: Converting into a charter school, an effective nonprofit group or a for-profit group to operate the school, blah, blah, blah….

But there are BIG problems with handing a schools fate over to a revved up mob of angry parents: 

The trigger provision is based on California's parent-empowerment law … enacted early last year. Ohio's largest teachers union: "Given the confusion and disputes that have arisen with California's experience with a parent-takeover law, including parents who feel they were misled in signing petitions.

Parents misled? What a surprise. But that’s just the beginning of creating a mob mentality directed at school change, by…take a wild guess, charter supporters.

California's law has been tested … A parent-organizing group funded by people with charter-school ties rallied parents to sign a petition to overhaul an elementary school.
Critics say they want parents involved in school reform, but perhaps not like this. 

"I don't know how you don't create chaos when you've always got this specter of parents who are dissatisfied in some way saying, 'We're going to initiate this process and reconstitute this school,'" said Scott DiMauro, a Worthington teacher who heads the a regional union branch.

Creating chaos and an angry mob of parents? Sounds like a great Republican plan for education. 

Charter Schools Demanding Higher Tuitions, and Getting Them. Taxpayers Soon to Realize They’ve been Taken.

Both voucher and charter schools are demanding higher student fees from state taxpayers, behind the scenes, but no one is hearing about it. They’re complaining they can’t make the kind of improvements they would like, because they can’t compete with public educations per student rate. It’s another excuse, and portends higher taxpayer contributions to private industry.

As proof, there’s already a large charter chain raking it in. And this is only the beginning:

NY Times: KIPP  charter schools receive more money than traditional schools and have a high number of African-American male students leave before reaching high school, according to a new study by Western Michigan University researchers. 

Those factors led the researchers to question the success of the phenom charter network of the Knowledge is Power program. (KIPP does not have any charter schools in Wisconsin.)
In the study, “What Makes KIPP Work? A Study of Student Characteristics, Attrition and School Finance,” Gary Miron and two other Western Michigan researchers … said their goal was to examine the network’s methods and model to see whether they could be replicated widely … the study concludes that KIPP schools enjoy significant financial advantages over traditional public schools. 

By analyzing Department of Education databases for the 2007-8 school year, the researchers calculated that the KIPP network received $12,731 in taxpayer money per student, compared with $11,960 at the average traditional public school and $9,579, on average, at charter schools nationwide. In addition, KIPP generated $5,760 per student from private donors, the study said, based on a review of KIPP’s nonprofit filings with the Internal Revenue Service.

Don’t be swayed by the KIPP supporters excuse that the lowest paying state, California, skewed the per student rate average. It may have, but that doesn’t excuse the higher rates everywhere else. Rates that will only go higher, and that’s my point.

Bruce Fuller, an education professor at the University of California, Berkeley, called the study’s financial analysis “eye-opening.” 

“As wealthy donors have invested in KIPP, they have helped to demonstrate how a well-endowed, inspirationally run charter school can lift poor children,” Mr. Fuller said. “The question raised by this study is whether the model could be replicated if wealthy donors were to walk away.”

That’s an acceptable direction of the charter schools model?

Nepotism, Cronyism gets Builders Association’s VP Lobbyist’s Unqualified Son, a Job.

The other examples of nepotism and cronyism at least had candidates who had some experience, familiarity   with their jobs. Not this time. Governor Walker’s in your face political patronage shows a total lack of respect for the office and public.  

jsonline: He has landed an $81,500-per-year job in Gov. Scott Walker's administration overseeing environmental and regulatory matters and dozens of employees at the Department of Commerce. 

Just in his mid-20s, Brian Deschane has no college degree, very little management experience and two drunken-driving convictions. 

Even though Walker says the state is broke and public employees are overpaid, Deschane already has earned a promotion and a 26% pay raise in just two months with the state.

Here’s how Walker is making government as bad as he says it is:

How did Deschane score his plum assignment with the Walker team? It's all in the family. His father is Jerry Deschane, executive vice president and longtime lobbyist for the Madison-based Wisconsin Builders Association, which bet big on Walker … $29,000 to Walker and his running mate … making it one of the top five PAC donors … funneled more than $92,000 through its conduit to Walker's campaign over the past two years. Total donations: $121,652.

He didn’t even apply for the job.

Deschane's name does not appear on a list of job applicants with Walker's transition team, but the governor's office confirmed that Gilkes interviewed Deschane for a state job in December. The younger Deschane didn't respond to questions about his job.
State Rep. Brett Hulsey noted … collective bargaining changes converts … civil service positions to jobs appointed by the governor. "This is an example of the quality of candidates you're going to get," said Hulsey, owner of the consulting firm Better Environmental Services.

UPDATE: (April 5): jsonline: Also on Monday, several tipsters pointed out that Brian Deschane may have his own personal ties to powerful Walker supporters, according to his Facebook page.

He lists Matt Seaholm, head of the state chapter of Americans for Prosperity, as a friend. The group, which is funded largely by the billionaire Koch brothers, helped organize tea parties in Wisconsin and supportfor Walker.

He also lists the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce under his activities and interests. WMC continuesto back the first-term Republican governor.

How partisan is AG Van Hollen? No action taken on the Ken Kratz misconduct case.

This story didn’t get the kind of attention it normally would have, due to the massive attention directed at the legal wrangling’s of the Walker administrations attack on the American worker, but it should have.

Stunningly unresponsive and sexist, state Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen decided that “boys will be boys” in the Ken Kratz sexual misconduct case. Conservatives have an odd way of dismissing outrageously bad professional behavior as “it wasn’t illegal.” The following facts suggest something else.

jsonline: The state Justice Department released 150 pages of documents Friday that shed new light on prosecutors' findings that a former Calumet County district attorney repeatedly displayed sexually suggestive behavior at the office, but that it wasn't illegal … it does not plan to charge Ken Kratz with sexual assault or misconduct in office after investigating claims from more than two dozen women who alleged Kratz sent them sexually suggestive messages.

Two dozen!!!??? I know conservatives are held to a completely different standard when it comes to sexual misconduct in office, thank you David Vitter and Mark Sanford, but this is just as over the top bizarre:

One woman told investigators she asked Kratz for help in getting pardoned for a drug conviction and that she was "freaked out" when he texted her asking how she would "please him between the sheets," the Appleton Post-Crescent reported … A Calumet County social worker said Kratz sent her "creepy" emails, including one in which he wrote, "You can either flirt with me or not - you can't have it both ways." According to the documents, Kratz also boasted about his work on several dating sites, including Match.com,Craigslist.com and Singlesnet.com. 

Kratz, 50, resigned in October after The Associated Press reported he had sent 30 text messages trying to strike up an affair with a domestic abuse victim while he prosecuted her ex-boyfriend on a strangulation charge.

Kratz tried to have sex with a domestic abuse victim seeking his help!!!!

It looks like J.B Van Hollen is too busy protecting us from “voter fraud” this Tuesday and protecting a valued friend.

Tea Party Express founder Sal Russo admits, it doesn't appear there will be enough support to recall the 8 Democrats!!

Keeping in touch with the propagandist tools of the corporate takeover, our beloved vocal dark side known as the tea party movement, I’ve tapped the source of extremist whining at NewsMax.com.

Did you know liberals were out to “punish” State Sen. Dan Kapanke and “stamp out” the tea party and “fiscal conservatives,” a fictional creature that never really existed?

NEWSMAX.COM: The fate of the grass-roots push to limit government growth in America hinges on … Wisconsin, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and other leading conservatives are warning.

Democrats submitted petitions with more than 20,000 signatures to initiate a recall election against state GOP Sen. Dan Kapanke. Republicans say it’s a blatant effort to punish Kapanke for supporting Walker’s efforts.

 Or at least, that’s how conservatives would interpret the recall effort. They see it as a “punishment,” a form of projection on their part, because liberals think like them. And besides, it’s wrong to call into question the authoritarian conservative.

But the really big insider ALERT from NewsMax is this:

Tea Party Express founder Sal Russo says it does not appear that there will be enough support to qualify for a recall challenge against the eight Democrats eligible for recall who fled the state in a bid to thwart Walker’s bid to limit the collective bargaining power of public-employee unions.

Coming from these doom and gloom, scorched earth, tea party ghouls, that’s an amazing admission. 

Russo’s projection conjures up a liberal ideology that would “stamp out” conservatives everywhere. That’s so wrong on so many levels. They really don’t have a clue about the liberal philosophy?

Tea Party Express founder Sal Russo tells Newsmax. “Liberals are trying to say, ‘Even if conservatives win the elections, as we did in a lot of states in 2010, we’ll be able to frustrate and stop them and make it so difficult for them that nobody else will run like that in other states. It will bring an end to this conservative tea party revolution that we’ve seen over the last two years,” Russo warns. “That’s their goal: Not just to win in Wisconsin, but to stamp out the tea party movement and fiscal conservatives all over the country.”

Yeah, that’s right, total annihilation …? What the hell is he talking about? Is he describing any liberal you know? 


I hate to tell these delusional tea party extremists, but they're going to end their conjured up movement, all by themselves.  

Republicans New Welfare Queens: The Unemployed

For years unemployment has worked wonderfully. That was until the Great Recession, where deregulation and Wall Street excesses tanked the U.S. and global economies.

The economic shock saw U.S. employers shed nearly 8 million American workers.  

A horrified uncertain public panicked, first voting in Democrats who didn’t act fast enough, and later the repentant Republicans who caused this mess.

Big mistake. Republicans have always thought of the unemployed as something akin to the welfare queens of the past, sitting on fat weekly checks, talking on cell phones and buying plasma TV’s. You’ve heard the clichés too?

Despite these extraordinary bad times following the Great Recession, and 8 million suddenly unemployed workers, Republicans are grabbing at the chance to show these lazy loafers whose boss.

NYT: The Florida House of Representatives approved a bill … that would establish the deepest and most far-reaching cuts in unemployment benefits in the nation. Like the law signed in Michigan , the measure would reduce the number of weeks the unemployed could collect benefits from the standard 26 weeks to 20 … takes it one step further by tying benefits to the unemployment rate. If the rate falls, so do the number of weeks of benefits. If the rate dips below 5 percent, the jobless would collect only 12 weeks of benefits, the lowest level.

We are coming off the great recession, right? So resentful are Republicans of the painfully unemployed workers scraping to get by, they are willing to cut benefits without ever tackling the real problem of joblessness in their state.

This has workers worried in Florida, where the unemployment rate, while continuing to inch down, is 11.5 percent, considerably higher than the nation’s rate of 8.9 percent. Michigan’s rate is 10.4 percent.

One Republican Florida lawmaker is basically blaming those lazy, bottom feeding, society draining unemployed workers FOR THE LACK OF JOB CREATION. Would I kid you?

The bill’s sponsor, Representative Doug Holder said creating jobs is pivotal to keeping Floridians off the unemployment rolls.

See, kicking people off unemployment CREATES JOBS!!! But Holder goes one step further trying to hold down those fund draining pesky jobless loafers:

(It) also make(s) it easier for businesses to fire employees, who would then not be eligible for unemployment benefits. “Florida is positioning itself to be the most business-friendly state in the country,” said Representative Holder.

“People-friendly” state doesn’t cut it for Holder. Conservatives like Holder refuse to believe that businesses must share in the pain and responsibility of maintaining a strong workforce:

The Florida Chamber of Commerce … contending that businesses would benefit greatly from relief from the escalating tax to pay for jobless compensation. 

Oh, that's the problem! Businesses don't even want to pay into the unemployment fund either. So kick the unemployed off early. Problem solved, right... 

But to some in Flagler County, the idea of creating jobs by taking away meager benefits from people whose lives have been upended does not seem just. Leslie Stultz, a trim 62-year-old man said politicians were too quick to dismiss how difficult it was for some people to find jobs, particularly for workers in their 50s and 60s. Relocating is out of the question when there is no money in the bank, Mr. Stultz said. “People aren’t sitting back relaxing and collecting $275 a week. 

Mr. Dudenhoeffer, retells his journey from small-business owner to perpetual job seeker … despite his grim situation, there are occasional moments of happiness. On his birthday recently, friends collected money to buy him a gift card for Red Lobster. Still, watching his online job applications simply fall into a void again and again, Mr. Dudenhoeffer said he could not help growing despondent. 

“When the benefits run out,” he said, “I’ll just give up.”

Cantor's Legislative Ignorance Deserved the Media Attention. Exposes these Constitutional Phonies.

Rep. Eric Cantor's bill to prevent another government shutdown was the straw that broke the camels back for tolerant Democrats in the House. Enough already, and boy did everyone let Cantor have it.

Here's Rachel Maddow's take of the vote on...April Fools Day. How appropriate was that?:



Lawrence O'Donnell and Cenk Uygur let him have it for two nights in a row:



And finally, O'Donnell asks Rep. Paul Broun his opinion. Is Broun drunk?

Republicans in Charge; My Favorite Week of Typical Conservative Comments...

When they've got something to say, they say it anyway...



Still more...in defense of drunk driving, MY FAVORITE:



Rove exposes Obama's birther trap...



New Hampshire cuts cigarette prices to increase sales and abortion waiting periods but not for guns:



Trump wants that Iraqi oil, and Obama's plan to make everyone poor: