For Some Republican Recall Candidates; Taxes are too high, even if we don't pay any ourselves.

Why am I not surprised at this? Again, the rule of thumb; anything a Republican whines loudest about is either just the opposite or a fabrication. Via the Political Environment, the Wisconsin Gazette, and this nice piece of investigative research from Cory Liebmann: 

One of the most frequent complaints we hear from Republicans is that their tax burdens are too high. But it might surprise voters in Wisconsin to know that some of the candidates whining about taxes actually pay little to nothing in net income tax to the state.

Perhaps the most outrageous Republican recall candidate is current state Sen. Randy Hopper, R-Fond du Lac. In 2008 the Fond du Lac Reporter, highlighted that the wealthy senator had only paid Wisconsin personal and business taxes once since 1997. The one time that he did pay, it was a capital gains tax resulting from the sale of one of his radio stations.

State Sens. Dan Kapanke, R-La Crosse, and Robert Cowles, R-Green Bay, will also face recall elections ... Like Hopper, they rant against the high tax burden that they allegedly face … media outlets have reported that both senators have had recent years when they owed no net income tax to the state.  For Kapanke it happened in 2008, and for Robert Cowles it was in both 2008 and in 2009.

Kim Simac, who is mounting a challenge to Sen. Jim Holperin, D-Conover, is the founder of a Tea Party group that makes railing against taxes its highest priority … Simac’s family business, the Great Northern Adventure Company, earns approximately $300,000 in annual sales.  Yet ... records show that Simac paid zero net income tax to the state in 2001, 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2008. Records show that in 2000 she paid a total of $4 in net state income taxes. In 2007, her tax bill was a single dollar. Any complaint that Simac has about being overtaxed shouldn’t garner much sympathy.

Jonathan Steitz is a corporate attorney working for a firm in Chicago.  If he wins his primary this month, he will go on to face Sen. Robert Wirch, D-Pleasant Prairie ... Records show that Jonathan Steitz owed no state net tax in either 2008 or in 2009. These candidates must be called on their hypocrisy. 

Republicans Try to Oust Justice Abrahamson as Chief Justice, with Majority Vote to Lead Court.

Some things are just a little too obvious. 

While some have blamed the Justice Prosser problem on citizen voters, arguing for an appointed court, others want to get even with Prosser’s more liberal nemesis Shirley Abrahamson. Right now the courts chief justice is determined by seniority. That doesn't sit well with a very grateful GOP legislature, who are extremely comfortable with their conservative activist court. So...

Press release: Representative Tyler August (R-Walworth) announced today he has authored a constitutional amendment that would change how Wisconsin’s Supreme Court chief justice is determined. The bill, LRB 2018/1, would modify the state’s constitution to require a peer election among the seven justices to select the chief justice, rather than being based on seniority.

“The leader of Wisconsin’s highest court should not simply be who has been there the longest,” said August. “The chief justice should be a consensus builder who has the respect of their fellow justices.”

You know, consensus building through intimidation, like choking another justice or threating to destroy their career. Jeezus, is this guy kidding? 

Wouldn’t you know it, the Kaukauna School surplus a Walker Miracle? Not!!!

The surplus would have happened without Gov. Walker’s amazing plan to defund public schools.

Rule of thumb: Anytime Republicans relentlessly push a claim or idea, don’t believe them. It’s a con. 

Like the phony debt ceiling crisis and now collective bargaining “tools” for local school districts. From the Washington Post:

By Greg Sargent: National conservatives and Wisconsin Republicans have settled on a new talking point that they’re flogging relentlessly in the recall wars: Scott Walker’s proposal to bust public employee unions is already a success. Mere days after it became law. The notion that they’re pushing, however, is laughably bogus.

The basic claim focuses on a single school district out of hundreds — the Kaukauna School District, near Appleton, Wisconsin. After Scott Walker’s law went into effect last week, school officials announced new policies that they say will turn a deficit of $400,000 into a surplus of $1.5 million. Conservatives are claiming that this is because of Walker’s reforms to collective bargaining rules — the savings are the result, they say, of the fact that teachers and other school staff will pay more in health care costs and pension costs. “Those are the things we promised,” Walker exulted. Limbaugh has also pushed this claim hard, arguing on his show recently that this proved Walker’s critics wrong. Rush said, “That law goes into effect and immediately turns a $400,000 budget deficit into a one-and-a-half-million-dollar surplus in one school district.”

But here’s the thing: The collective bargaining ban, in and of itself, was not responsible for achieving these savings and this surplus. As the Appleton Post Crescent reports, the teachers union had already offered up financial concessions that would have produced almost identical savings and an almost identical surplus. What’s more, the use of this one district to declare Walker’s policies a success is almost comical in its cherry-picking. There are 424 school districts in Wisconsin, and as the AP recently noted, Walker’s policies mean draconian budget cuts to 410 of them, with labor officials and school districts predicting increased class sizes and layoffs.

The notion that this one school district’s fiscal success is in any way a referendum on the most controversial aspect of Walker’s union busting proposal is laughable.  

Repeat a lie long enough…Public takes bait, starts believing GOP about debt crisis.

Is the tide finally turning? Are the Republicans gaining ground, even as GOP state governor’s and legislatures popularity tank? Will Americans sacrifice centuries of change for deficit reduction?

Yes.

Huffington Post: Should the federal government concentrate on paying off its debt, even if it comes at the expense of a more robust economic recovery? Or should it focus on stimulating the economy, even if that means running up more costs?

According to a poll published Wednesday, 59 percent of Americans want the government to make national debt reduction its top priority, even if it comes at the expense of kick-starting the economy. Only a third think the focus should be on stimulation.

New Inmate Labor Force Competes with Unemployed for Jobs in Wisconsin. Gov. Walker Austerity Plan working.

Ron Johnson, known to some as Senator (to me, he's an actor in a reality play written by Ayn Rand), used inmate labor at his former plastics company. For most of us, that smacks of slave labor, and unfair competition for all those unemployed workers trying to support their families.

The unions had been successful preventing inmate labor from taking work away from law abiding Americans, until now. With Gov. Walker's collective bargaining victory, we can now welcome into the neighborhood criminal help, for free.

Racine County Executive James Ladwig couldn't appear happier, and clueless, than in this video from Fox 6 in Green Bay:

Think Progress: The law went into effect last week, and Racine County is already using inmates to do landscaping, painting, and another basic maintenance around the county that was previously done by county workers. The union had successfully sued to stop the country from using prison labor for these jobs last year, but with Walker’s new law, they have no recourse.

This is the new labor force in competition with the massive number of unemployed workers. No problem there, right Mr. Ladwig?

Clueless to inmates taking jobs away from law abiding citizens, here are a few viewer comments:

Lesson:  You can send a convicted felon to do a union member's job... at bargain tax rates!

There is something very Karma-like about this!     

EXCELLENT: Instead of the city paying out for such simple jobs, the inmates begin to give back a little something to the city! Money stays in the city, and criminals pay back for their actions.

YES!!!  This is what SHOULD have been going on all along!  Why pay a Unionized worker an inflated wage when an inmate can do it to pay for his keep.  Sorry Unions, your "collective" control over us is coming to an end

This is great. Now let's get the inmates in the fields and have no work for illegals.

Cap Times: The governor agrees. "These reforms will ultimately help balance budgets, avoid layoffs, and at the same time improves services," says Cullen Werwie, Walker's spokesman in an email. "In this case, (Racine) County employees can build a parking lot instead of just mow grass."

Tea Party Crazy Rep. Joe Walsh Caught in "Spending problem" Hypocrisy!!

I couldn't help but take notice of these two different looks at Tea Party favorite, Rep. Joe Walsh's approach to the nations spending problem. Walsh is one of the most articulate tea party lawmakers, a guy with all the right comebacks, and an economic kamikazi hypocrite to boot.

In the same days news coverage, Rep. Walsh is exposed twice, as a slick fast talking austere absolutist and then as a big spending conservative. Where was this guy when Cheney ballyhooed deficits didn't matter?

Murdock's News of the World paper closes in U.K. after Phone Hacking Scandals.

Fox News may be in big trouble in the U.S., after their scandal ridden U.K paper was forced to close do to reader outrage and backlash. If this doesn't raise a few red flags in the U.S., I don't know what will.

News of the World to close on Sunday

The Nation's Chris Hayes, filling in for Lawrence O'Donnell, covered the story just prior to today's announcement with a few more AMAZING details:

ThinkProgress: Rupert Murdoch’s son and News Corp’s Deputy COO James Murdoch announced today that the company’s 168-year old British tabloid News of the World will shut down this Sunday after its journalists hacked phones, including those belonging to family members of soldiers killed in Afghanistan and Iraq. Noting that two employees went to jail for similar acts in 2006, Murdoch said News of the World “failed to get to the bottom of repeated wrongdoing.” There are two ongoing police investigations and inquiries by Parliament into these allegations, and reports suggest that the five journalists and executives involved in the hacking may be arrested by the end of the week.

Unprofitable Police Departments Gone, Shorter School Weeks, Killer E. Coli Testing Defunded...We're Broke!

Besides the items I mentioned in the title, Rachel Maddow also takes a detailed look at all the resulting job losses, from all those "job creating" companies, who are enjoying their tax cuts.

Again, can we believe anything the Republicans are telling us when it comes to economics?

Rush and Hannity triggered talk radio listener McVay to Plot killing Obama.

Where would a conservative sociopath get the idea that Obama is a danger to our country? From two other conservative sociopaths, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, where else?

How much more proof is needed to make the case we’ve got a problem with racist talk radio hosts, who claim any such message, is “completely unintentional.”

But explain this one:

Accused killer James McVay told WKOW 27 News reporter Tony Galli during a jailhouse interview he intended to reach Washington, D.C. to try to carry out a plot to kill President Obama, with a plan to try to harm the president while he was on a golf course. "One of his favorite pastimes, golfing;   I was going to get him at the golf range,"   McVay told Galli. McVay cited Obama's economic policies and other moves as a basis for the assassination plot, but also said alien forces were using Obama as a "puppet."

McVay said during a period of solitary confinement in a South Dakota prison his feelings hardened against Biden and Obama as he listened to national talk radio shows hosted by Sean Hannity,  Rush Limbaugh and others.

Come on, they'll say, it's just show biz.

Surprisingly missing from McVay's daily listening regime were Thom Hartmann, Ed Schultz, Stephanie Miller, Alan Colmes, Mike Malloy, Randi Rhodes.....

Restoring Gun Rights to the Mentally Ill

Care 2 published a very thoughtful article on this complicated situation.

The horror stories are truly horrifying. What gun rights advocates seem to be forgetting is that having a gun carries a significant amount of responsibility. Access to firearms is not an inalienable right, it’s a serious social liability. There are some people who are proven to have mental illness and may not misuse guns. But authorities need to be more than completely sure that people who have access to guns can use them responsibly before they give them to anyone – much less people who have been legally denied their gun rights. This Fourth of July, with all of our talk about rights and freedoms, let’s remember that being an American also involves an obligation to preserve the safety of our country and communities. And that means erring on the side of caution when it comes to dispensing gun rights.

I love this line:

Access to firearms is not an inalienable right, it’s a serious social liability.

And I love the idea about "erring on the side of caution." In fact, I go much further. I say one strike you're out, and I consider any misuse of a firearm or any type of disqualification as a "strike." And by "out," I mean forfeiture of gun rights for life.

(cross posted on Mikeb302000)

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Why Should We Put Any Trust in the Republican Budget Demands?

If Democrats could just repeat over and over this Martin Bashir commentary, especially what he says at the end of the video here, we would have swayed many independent voters before the 2010 elections. In fact, this should be standard talking point material repeat incessantly by every Democrats for the next decade or two. Jonathan Alter makes a brief comment as well, but it's Martin Bashir's tone that is energizing. 

The Ridiculous Crisis; the Debt Ceiling-David Frum

David Frum is a different kind of conservative, one who thinks. Frum thinks logically while still holding true to his belief system. I may not agree with him a lot, especially on extending the Bush tax cuts, but this analysis was especially interesting, dealing with the debt limit and what Obama has already done to reduce it.

The Week: Here's one Democratic compromise that could move the debt ceiling talks further along: Extend the Bush tax cuts for four more years.

It's pretty obvious how Barack Obama and the Democrats would like to resolve the problem: (1) Slow the growth of federal social programs, especially Medicare; (2) Cut defense spending; and (3) Allow the Bush tax cuts to lapse. The convenient thing about this Democratic plan is that it does not require big changes in existing law. The president's health care reform law has already conferred on the administration many of the tools it would like to use to rein in Medicare. Defense spending will decline as the president ends combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Bush tax cuts are pre-programmed to lapse automatically at the end of 2012. All Obama needs to do is win re-election in November 2012, and his way forward on the deficit becomes surprisingly smooth. 

Republicans know that.

The preferred Republican path to deficit reduction is: (1) Enact big changes in federal social programs, especially Medicaid; and (2) Lower tax rates further, in hopes of accelerating growth and generating revenues.

Sounds like a real loser agenda and just the opposite of public opinion polls. But what I liked was his surprising admission of how easy the solution is at this point due to Obama policy. Even worse, Frum exposes the debt ceiling for what it is, a "ridiculous crises."

We (should) get rid of the debt ceiling altogether, so we put an end to these ridiculous crises. Let's both agree that when Congress votes for a certain amount of spending, and votes for a lesser amount of taxing, it has for all practical purposes already voted to authorize the executive to borrow the difference. No other country on earth has this ridiculous debt limit thing. It's an outdated artifact of the First World War."

Exposed!!! Walker had Plans, like Michigan's Rick Snyder's, to privatized County governments!!

Thanks to an opens records request, we're finding out now that Scott Walker lied when he said he had nothing to do with the ALEC and the GMC written plan to privatize government. According to Badger Democracy: 

An email received by Badger Democracy through Open Records Request from Scott Walker’s staff prove that Walker met with Foley and Lardner lobbyists and the Greater Milwaukee Committee (GMC) in January, 2011 to discuss GMC-supported Municipal Governance Reform Legislation. A further email from December 2010 proves that Walker had discussed the key issues of statewide Municipal Governance Reform with GMC President Julia Taylor prior to even taking office as Governor. These email records confirm previous reports by Ed Garvey (FightingBob.com), Badger Democracy, and Rick Ungar (Forbes) in April. These reports exposed Foley and Lardner lobbyists’ roles in drafting radical Municipal Governance Reform Legislation for The Greater Milwaukee Committee, based on their ALEC-influenced “Make It Your Milwaukee County Initiative. In spite of inside source confirmation received by Badger Democracy, Scott Walker publicly denied that he or his staff had any working knowledge of any such legislation. The emails obtained from his staff prove that denial to be another in a long series of lies and cover-ups.

The email also mentions that Walker had discussed the issue with Taylor at a “previous Friday” engagement for the GMC – before even taking office as Governor. The concept of eliminating and consolidating Milwaukee County Government was a favorite of Walker’s while he was County Executive. In the County, he never had the votes. As the email suggests, these concepts “could be applied to other counties or local governmental units.” In other words, statewide – where Walker would now have the votes.

In fact, as exposed by Ed Garvey and source-confirmed by Badger Democracy, Foley and Lardner lobbyists wrote the legislation (yet to be introduced). The “MY Milwaukee County Initiative” goals have been pursued by Walker since he was a legislator and ALEC member – consolidation, privatization, and reduction of Public Services. A previously reported email from Rep. Robin Vos proved the link between GMC’s lobbying firm Smart Government Inc., Koch Industries, ALEC, and the “Make it Your Milwaukee County Initiative” – they all share the same language, the same agenda, the same goal.

Walker and his corporate shills will attempt to hand over municipal resources and services through privatization and consolidation, making a very few very wealthy. 

Walker's Donors Break Campaign Finance Laws!! But he had to win....

Not the Republicans again!!!

The party that is finally restoring the public's faith in the electoral system, also knows they are the ones who have schemed to game that system. Republicans like clean elections. So they eliminated public funding and now require voter ID. That aught to do it! And don't even bring up election fraud.

But wait, did we forget about campaign finance laws? So what's wrong with a few hundred, to thousands of extra dollars, when you're talking about "free speech?" 

AP: Wisconsin state insurance commissioner Ted Nickel and nine other donors to Republican Gov. Scott Walker have been accused of breaking the state's campaign finance law.

Nickel gave $10,255 to Walker's campaign in three donations. The first was in October 2008 and the last two came in August. He was selected as insurance commissioner in January.

jsonline: Other donors include Michael White, chairman of the Rite Hite Corp., and Thomas Schneider of Schneider National.

Walker signed two bills Tuesday at Schneider's corporate headquarters in Green Bay, one of which reduces the liability of truck drivers in negligence cases.

Watchdog group the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign filed a complaint Wednesday with the Government Accountability Board related to donations that exceeded the $10,000 limit allowed to be given during the campaign period. The donations came between July 1, 2008, and the end of last year.

The largest donor was Michael White of River Hills, who gave $15,000 -- $5,000 above legal limits.

Does cronyism and pay to play sound like great government to you?

Wisconsin Right to Life Wacko's, Fear Monger the right of the People to Protest. One Party Oppression is so much fun.

Take my word for it, I've interviewed Susan Armacost, on my previous radio program and found her to be a one issue zealot and ghoul. She's the legislative director of the fringe, media legitimized cult, Wisconsin Right to Life. 


The bloodthirsty back alley “Wisconsin Right to (end a mothers) Life” zealots continue to crank out their vile propaganda with adorable baby pictures and videos of children they neither support nor care about after birth. Like any cult, these deeply sick individuals start drooling when anyone even mentions birth control, stem cell research, abortion and…addressing our government through public protests? True. Oh the dreaded sight of liberals, their kids, friends, police officers and firefighters. For WRL, nothing is more threatening to the joy and power of one party rule, than a possible Democratic Senate.  

Wisconsin Right to Life on Tuesday released a video that combines an Abraham Lincoln quote about "mob law" and footage of protests at the state Capitol.

Here's another in a long list of comments by conservatives who have completely denounced the right of the people to protest their government.

The cruelest part of the WRL’s intentions? Deny health care and our social safety nets to our children and adults. They really don't mind seeing them suffer, because this is what their vengeful God intended. This savage group of fanatics doesn’t have the capacity to feel, so instead, they collect cute pictures and videos of children as repressive tools to manipulate the pliable minds of conservative low information, one issue voters.

And what was with that big protest the last two years over the government getting involved in medical decisions? Is it okay to let Republican government bureaucrats get between a doctor and patient? Is it an indefensible flip flop the media is all but ignoring. Really, will they able to have it both ways here in Wisconsin and around the country hoping to challenge Roe v Wade before the conservative activist Supreme Court? So far the answer is yes. 

Walker now blames Obama, already, for slow may job numbers.

Guess what? Gov. Walker is going to assign his jobs plan failure on Obama. For those who might remember Walker's campaign, the jobless rate and bad economic climate in Wisconsin was Gov. Doyle's fault, and had nothing to do with the Great Recession.

Now in the slow but steady economic recovery, a slowdown in job growth is NOT the governors fault, but Obama's. Add to the mix, the disasterous House budget plan of austerity and Senate Republicans filibuster power.  

David Brooks: "Republican fanaticism caused this default," and they're not fit to govern.

I love Ezra Klein's email newsletter editorials. They always seems to sum up exactly what's going on when it comes to the debt ceiling.  

The Republicans are not looking good in the eyes of the public. But how could they, when their agenda is the opposite of public opinion polls across the board? Republicans are going to need to make a very tough decision over the next couple of weeks: Are they a party that's very good at saying "no" in order to get the best deal possible? Or are they a party that's incapable of saying "yes" even once they've gotten there?

The Democrats have agreed to limit tax increases to cuts in "tax expenditures" -- a category that no less eminent a Republican economist than Alan Greenspan says should properly be understood as "government spending" rather than "tax cuts" -- rather than the marginal-rate increases that Republican economists say are truly harmful to growth. That's given Republicans an out, if they want it: They can say they're cleaning the code rather than raising taxes.


But there's little evidence, at least as of yet, that Republicans are going to take the deal -- or even that they can take the deal. That raises the question of whether they've gotten here by being savvy, tough negotiators, or whether the reason they keep saying "no" is that they've lost the ability to say "yes." As David Brooks writes today, "If the debt ceiling talks fail, independents voters will see that Democrats were willing to compromise but Republicans were not. If responsible Republicans don’t take control, independents will conclude that Republican fanaticism caused this default. They will conclude that Republicans are not fit to govern. And they will be right."

Here's another moment in time when I'm in complete agreement with David Brooks:

"We can have no confidence that the Republicans will seize this opportunity. That’s because the Republican Party may no longer be a normal party. Over the past few years, it has been infected by a faction that is more of a psychological protest than a practical, governing alternative. The members of this movement do not accept the logic of compromise, no matter how sweet the terms. If you ask them to raise taxes by an inch in order to cut government by a foot, they will say no. If you ask them to raise taxes by an inch to cut government by a yard, they will still say no. The members of this movement do not accept the legitimacy of scholars and intellectual authorities. A thousand impartial experts may tell them that a default on the debt would have calamitous effects, far worse than raising tax revenues a bit. But the members of this movement refuse to believe it."

TPM: We're not broke!! Who can believe anything Republicans tell us?

Here's a screen capture of the story:

Walker’s Big Government Republicans Love Regulations, Contrary to Public Image and Gullible Conservative Voters.

The party of deregulation and small government? My ass.

When Scott Walker became governor, he and the GOP majority passed hundreds, maybe thousands of new burdensome regulations without blinking and eye. What’s so free market about the new tort reform laws protecting business from consumer lawsuits?

The biennial budget saw reams of new regulations usurping local government control away from cities, towns, villages and counties.

When the concealed carry law passed, more burdensome regulations were foisted off businesses, as well as the unwary public, in the form of signage and policy.

Uppity Wisconsin: Most people in Wisconsin say they will feel less safe with more guns on the street.  In a May survey done for the Wisconsin Anti-Violence Effort, respondents said nearly by a 3 to 1 margin,  60% to 21%, that they will feel less safe, not safer, with the new law.

But this was the most egregious:

An employer who does not prohibit its employees from carrying concealed weapons will be given immunity from any lawsuits for any liability arising from that decision.

If that's not coercive, than I don’t know what is. Republicans rail about their “freedoms, and complain about picking winners and losers. But apparently that’s all just talk.

The new law flies in the face of the conservative libertarian “freedom” to choose, “picking winners and losers,” because it provides benefits to those with workplace carry rules, but not to workplace bans. And here you thought the party of deregulation was something real, instead of a marketing tool to garner votes.  

I’ve always said only a small percentage of gun crazy paranoids were pushing concealed carry, with the full weight of the NRA and CC groups nationwide, that made their case seem bigger than life or reflected actual demand.

BizTimes sent an e-mail to a wide variety of southeastern Wisconsin business executives, asking them to share their thoughts about the new law. Readers at BizTimes.com were asked, "Will your company allow employees and customers to carry concealed weapons in the workplace? Seventy-four percent answered, "No," and 26 percent answered, "Yes."

The more I see our gun toting freaks walking casually through our local stores and community, the more online purchases I will be making. Who would have thought the wild west had more restrictive gun laws than now? 

Illinois Gun Owner ID Publication Exemption Approved

The Illinois Observer reports

Governor Pat Quinn today quietly signed legislation that exempts Illinois Firearm Owner’s Identification Card holders from the Illinois Freedom of Information Act, easing the fears in armed households around Illinois.

“As Governor, I have made increasing openness and transparency in government one of my top priorities,” said Quinn, who released the news Saturday afternoon. “…[H]owever, it should not come at the expense of the public’s safety.”

It's a fascinating discussion. Gun owners have long claimed that having a gun is a deterrent to crime. They ridicule gun control folks for their attempts to establish gun-free zones, claiming that criminals flock to such places to do their thing.

But, in Illinois, they mounted a tremendous and successful opposition to Attorney General Lisa Madigan's attempt to make public the list of FOID cardholders. Does that make sense? Wouldn't burglars and home invaders avoid the addresses where gun owners live in favor of those unarmed sitting ducks?

What could be the reason behind this? I would think if the reason for having guns in the first place is for personal protection, there'd be no better way than to advertise the fact.

One interesting result, I'm sure it's not their chief motivation, is that when those burglars and home invaders do come in, gun owners can have the element of surprise, all the easier to blow the bad guys away in the dark.

(cross posted at Mikeb302000)

What do you think? Please leave a comment.

GOP Boo Hoos Obama Criticism, Real Adult like...

Republican voters continue to be intellectually insulted by their own lawmakers, when these sniveling politicians appear in the media whining they're getting beat up on by...Obama? The professor?

When will they catch on that they're getting played unmercifully by Boehner, Ryan and Cantor? Who would be dumb enough to allow their GOP House members make asses of themselves. I'm mean really...who would support to tax subsidies for Big Oil, tax breaks for corporate jets and continue the Bush tax cuts that make up over half of the projected deficit? Is being in control so important that conservative voters will let these carnival barkers tell them anything they want?

Cenk Uygur and Major Garrett explain:

Paul Ryan's "It's not just a budget, it's a cause" a lousy Christian Value.

The Paul Ryan budgets cuts drew a lot of criticism from religious leaders and citizens, who were stunned by the targeted recipients; the poor and middle class. The "look, our books are balanced" dystopian future has awakened many conservative religious voters as well, who don't like what they're seeing.

The fact that the unemployed, poor and middle class, who didn't get us into this mess, are the ones asked to sacrifice everything now has outraged many Christian followers. They find this agenda antithetical to the teachings of their religion. From Religion & Ethics Newsweekly:

Sister Simone Campbell: "It's so chilly to us to watch what's going on in congress about the budget. It's the very safety net that the current budget fight is targeting. And to me this is wrong, it quite frankly is immoral." 

Ryan's response, tax cuts encourage investors to create new jobs:

Sister Simone Campbell: "That's just wrong. The wealthy have recovered to pre-recession levels, are they investing in jobs, no."

Paul Ryan's admiration of Ayn Rand is starting, and only starting, to open the religious communities eyes, even those libertarians and small government conservatives. Her anti-religion message, "I'm against God," "yes, I am the creator," everyone for themselves rugged individualism has called into question the end game envisioned by Ryan. Will it be enough to prevent the private takeover of the America? At this point, it's not looking good.

Minnesota Shut Down Prelude to U.S. Government Shutdown. Will the Bullying Blackmail Win Out?

What's playing out now in the states is a precursor to what will be playing out in our nations Capitol in the future. I'm not just talking about the shutdown of the Minnesota state government, but the anger and fight we're seeing from state Democratic senators, representatives and governors.

This "farm team" of activist progressives and liberals take what they've learned locally and replace the current crop of compromisers in Washington.

Matching Public Funding an Unconstitutional Infringement of Private Free Speech Money?

The Nation's Chris Hayes is right when he said the biggest non-covered story was the Supreme Court decision declaring matching public funding unconstitutional.  In a twisted, contorted explanation, the Roberts court said the matching funds were an infringement on the free speech rights of private contributors. This takes the partisan activist decision of Citizens United, and heaps nonsense and lunacy on top to see if anyone is paying attention.

Big Federal Government is Bad, Big State Government is Good

Indy Star reports

This new law has been eerily and accurately titled: "Preemption of local firearm regulation." This unnecessary law, pushed by Republicans but endorsed by many Democrats, tells cities and towns across the state that the General Assembly and the National Rifle Association know what is best for them. It also tells the state's urban centers that they must adhere to the wishes of lawmakers who in most cases don't live in those cities.

The idea is not that a city like Indianapolis doesn't know what's best for itself and the state of Indiana does, it's simply a matter on not inconveniencing gun owners. Let's say there's a guy from Gary Indiana who carries a gun everywhere he goes, you know, just in case. If Indianapolis is allowed to prohibit guns in its parks, that poor guy from Gary would be faced with a terrible dilemma if he had some reason to go to the Indianapolis park. He'd either have have to decline to go, that's bad, or leave his gun in the glove compartment of the car, that's really bad, or LEAVE IT HOME IN THE GUNSAFE WHERE IT BELONGS. Naturally, we can't expect gun owners to have to face such choices so we depend on the State to govern.

Of course, the gun enthusiasts in Indiana, and everywhere else for that matter, have no proplem with Federal laws that support their cause too.


(cross posted at Mikeb302000)

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Ryan's New Hope? You believe Obama's actually ending Medicare, Obama lost 6 million jobs, debt ceiling threat not blackmail!!!

Rep. Paul Ryan's in trouble, and he knows it. His wonkish arrogance has turned into hyper demagoguery. This genius not only has no clothes, he's indecently exposing himself as a mind swirling spinmeister and liar. Democratic challenger Rob Zeban has just been offered another gift that keeps on giving.

In this clip from Upfront with Mike Gousha (goo-shay), Ryan dares to attribute the recent GOP deceptions about the Affordable Care Act, to the current criticism of his own plan to end Medicare as we know it. Truth verses rationing and death panels.

Since the public has soundly rejected his plan, he is  now resorting to the desperate claim Obama is actually ending Medicare, by cutting off the health care industry's subsidized bribes to cover seniors in the Advantage plan.



In this affront to our intelligence, he uses the missed unemployment prediction the administration and Mark Zandi gave for the stimulus. You know, the exact science of "seeing into the future." That's Ryan's best argument?

Ryan even makes his case for the GOP's fear mongering tactic that it's now or never on slashing our debt, even though Ryan voted 5 uncontested times to raise it under Bush, while running up a $1.3 trillion deficit. But NOW it's an emergency... or just blackmail. I added my own commentary to the video:

Wisconsin Concealed Carry Confusion

Yahoo News published a wonderful article by Joshua Huffman (not to be confused with Joe Huffman because Joshua sounds quite reasonable).

Fortunately, Lambeau Field officials will have ample time to interpret the law for the new Wisconsin concealed gun law that should be passed this October. Green Bay police aren't aware of how the law impacts their ability to prevent fans from entering the stadium with a handgun.

The NFL prohibits fans from carrying guns into any stadium. However, they could be prohibited from enforcing their own policy on Lambeau Field. The NFL doesn't own the stadium, therefore can't impose their anti-gun policy. Pat Webb, the stadium's executive director, stated, "I don't know enough about Wisconsin's specific law to know if the stadiums are exempt or not or can be exempt."

I wouldn't be comfortable with people carrying guns in an environment of 50,000 people or greater. Post-game driving is hardly safe with the alcohol that's consumed at these sporting events. It only takes one person to create a chaotic scene. I'd be worried about someone trying to pry the gun away from the holder. Some people make irrational decisions when angered. That irrationality is magnified under intoxication.

What's your opinion? How does it work in other states with lax gun laws? Are folks permitted to carry concealed at sporting events in say Florida or Arizona?

I would think the fanaticism of some sports fans is even worse when mixed with guns than your general bar and drinking environment. At huge sporting events some of those sports nuts might also be CCW permit holders and some of them might decide to drink a few beers, you know, bad-rules-be-damned and all that.


(cross posted at Mikeb302000)



What do you think? Good idea or bad idea?

Please leave a comment.

Exploiting 9/11 Again, Fourth of July Parade in Racine attracts Tea Party/Vicki McKenna Flies.

UPDATE:  Mark Hinkston, president of Fourth Fest of Greater Racine, said firefighters in uniform will be allowed to march with the parade float honoring firefighters and other emergency workers killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.


I'll be the first to admit it; the unions have to work on their public relations skills. They've been slow to adapt to the many sympathetic protesters, made up of public and private workers, who support what unions have contributed to labor rights. Small business owner support as well. 

Understanding that conservatives are all about how things look, images, and phony symbolism, unions should have stopped itself from galvanizing the right wing fringe with a poorly thought out act of tough love;

jsonline-Dan Bice: The Racine firefighters union doesn't want to have anything to do with a parade float aimed at honoring public safety workers killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. But a lot of other people do.

As No Quarter reported Friday, fire Lt. Matt Gorniak is going ahead with plans to exhibit the float at Racine's big Fourth Fest parade Monday, even though leaders of the Racine firefighters union recently voted against supporting it. Union officials are upset that Gorniak resigned from the state firefighters union earlier in the year.

Reached Friday, Craig Ford, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 321, defended his executive board members' unanimous decision … "The union is not going to use union resources to support this." In general, the union boss said he thinks Gorniak is doing something laudable. Ford said he had no ax to grind with the nonunion firefighter. It's just that, Ford said, his union cannot offer its support. "I don't know how we got caught in the cross-hairs," he said. "This has turned into a PR nightmare."

The flag pin party of image conscious conservatives, who never stop searching for the next golden idol to worship, couldn’t wait to exploit 9/11 again:

Of course, some political types, especially union critics, are trying to score points off the controversy. The Racine Journal Times reported Friday that the local tea party group has mobilized members to come out and support it. Conservative talk show host Vicki McKenna was also encouraging listeners to join her in Racine for the parade.

These fair weather “love our country first” conservatives, a country in their image only, won’t get the chance:

Mark Hinkston, president of Fourth Fest of Greater Racine, said his group doesn't want anyone hijacking the event to make a statement about Gov. Scott Walker's collective-bargaining plan or union politics.

"Don't Ask" Voter ID Policy could save state Millions by not giving Free Cards to those who are Eligible.

Remember when the Bush administration ordered the VA not to tout their free benefits or encourage vets to enroll to save money?

That’s just what is happening with voter ID. “We don’t want to be responsible for asking every single person” said Patrick Fernan, the DMV's operations manager, about those who might be eligible for a free ID. Well excuse us, the voter and taxpayer!!!

WSJ: A woman leaving with her photo ID card yelled to the 100 or so other people in the waiting area, "ID cards are free today. Don't let them tell you otherwise." Jennie Vasen, 43, of Madison, said she had called ahead and been told it would cost her $14 to renew her photo ID. That's all the money she brought. When she got to the counter, she was told $28, she said.

Disgusted, Vasen said she left without a card but stopped at a nearby free clothing center run by the Community Action Coalition and learned she was eligible to get the card for free. She marched back to the DMV Center and got the card for free. "I was quite irritated — they didn't even tell me anything about that," she said.

Guess what, the Republican legislature decided to save a few taxpayer dollars by not requiring the DMV to ask individuals if they might be eligible for a free ID card. Oops?

Leah Rueckert, the person in charge Friday at the center, said employees "have not been told to mention or not mention it." Asked about the issue, DMV manager Fernan said "we don't want to be responsible for asking every single person" whether the ID card is needed to vote. People must check a box on the application form to get the card for free.

Another words, we won’t help you. And you thought they were there to serve YOU?

As for the elderly and disabled experiencing a “little inconvenience” to get an ID? Have you ever waited in line at the DMV?

JoAnne Balthazor, 69, a retired postal clerk from Madison, was getting a state-issued photo identification card Friday at the DMV … Balthazor does not have a driver's license — a physical disability prevents her from driving — and so needed to find another way to prove her identity … waited an hour and 51 minutes to get to a window, was not pleased with the process or the law.

"This is what people are going to have to go through," she said. "I think a lot of people are just going to say the heck with it and leave."

Just a little inconvenience!!! These things happen when you recklessly rush something into law.

The Jobs Creation Sham!! It's really Disaster Capitalism; Rewarding those who caused the pain.

Another town hall meeting took place, not in Wisconsin, but in West Virginia. I’m featuring it here because it demonstrates how extreme Republicans have taken this bogus “jobs creation” lunacy.

Everything that requires the poor and middle class to take a big hit, to pay for huge corporate tax cuts/anti-abortion/voter ID/union busting, is pure job creation fraud. It’s crazy, but no one is calling it that.

    WESTOVER, West Virginia:  Jobs, health care, it was all on the table Wednesday night where U.S. Rep. David McKinley, R-W.Va., hosted a town hall meeting.

Here’s the first jaw dropper, and a peak into the Republican Party sell out to business. They seemed to have latched onto the public’s insecurity over jobs, and tying that to just about anything that walks, talks, lobbies or makes a profit, whether it makes sense or not. Like creating...jobs in businesses that pollute:

Mckinley recently introduced a bill in the house that would let states regulate fly ash and coal combustion residue, the byproduct of burning coal. It's a measure he says would save about 100,000 jobs. "The regulatory reform is causing real job denigration. We got to stop this and get control over Washington and its regulatory part, so the private sector can create jobs again," he said. One audience member questioned the potential environmental impacts caused by deregulation.

Nothing extreme about that position? Giving up the environment for "jobs" is only one excuse that doesn't guarantee one job but does assure  health problems and early death for thousands of people. 

But McKinley told the group that he opposed Paul Ryan's "Path" and draconian cuts to Medicare, basically saying what the Democrats have been saying all along. Is this more demagoguery? 

McKinley raised some eyebrows a few months ago when he was one of only four Republican House members to vote against U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan's, R-Wis., budget plan. A plan calling for cuts to Medicaid and medicare, McKinley said he won't vote for cuts to those programs.

"I just had some problems of the idea of using the seniors as a way of balancing budget," he said.

Thank you.

The Bachmann Family

This Marcus Bachmann radio audio is so bizarre, is it any wonder Michele was attracted to him. What a disastrous moment in campaign history.

Calling a gay person a barbarian is a new one on me.

"We have to understand: Barbarians need to be educated. They need to be disciplined. And just because someone feels it or thinks it doesn’t mean that we’re supposed to go down that road. That’s what’s called a “sinful nature.” And we have a responsibility as parents and as authority figures not to encourage such thoughts and feelings [from] moving into the action steps."

In an MSNBC report, The Daily Beast‘s David Graham alleges that Bachmann has practiced reparative therapy. When asked whether Bachmann believed in a “gay cure,” Graham said he hadn’t explicitly admitted it, but “that appears to be his attitude.”

Colbert Super PAC Approved...now what?

The end of fair elections?

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

The Colbert Super PAC 

Stephen Colbert has a “super PAC.” The Federal Election Commission on Thursday approved his application to form such a political fundraising entity. He celebrated with a balloon drop to patriotic music on “The Colbert Report” Thursday night. The new Colbert super PAC already has a website, and it’s open for donations, Colbert noted.
“Please donate, nation, because you can’t spell ‘donation’ without ‘nation’ and ‘dough’, he said.

The Chilling Acceptance of Corporate Person Hood.

Doesn't anybody else get that empty gut feel that something is terribly wrong, when an on the paper creation, like incorporation, creates what is considered by law a "person?" A super person who will never die, and can't be locked up for being a danger to society.

Here's the Wyoming ad to attract business:

"A corporation is a legal person created by state statute that can be used as a fall guy, a servant, a good friend or a decoy. A person you control...yet can't be held accountable for its actions. Imagine the possibilities." 

Amazed? I know I am. Here's the whole story from Rachel Maddow that really drives the corporate person hood nightmare home.

The Obvious: Republicans try to take down economy to win 2012 presidential election.

Lawrence O'Donnell connects the dots in this revealing look at what is becoming obvious to everyone, except the major news outlets, that a second recession or global economic crash would help Republicans win the upcoming elections. They played this game in 2010, and were allowed to sweep the elections without ever saying what they were for.

Free market disciple Alan Greenspan's comments here, would be enough to give Republicans a huge headache, if only they had a brain.



Here Rep. Eric Cantor stands to make money on the U.S. defaulting, betting against his own country. Cenk Uygur from MSNBC:

RINO Reagan given Wisconsin February 6th holiday, Ruins Birthday Plans for Many.

For a Republican that would have been drummed out of the party in less than a heart beat, Fitzwalkerstan leaders must have either gotten a little nostalgic, or were just trying to mark their historical territory.

Wall Street Speculation Added 83 cents per Gallon of Gas.

While the Republicans blame Obama for high gas prices, an outrageous and over the top accusation, the real culprits were the Wall Street speculators.

The drain on our wallets didn't have to happen! Republicans held up Dodd-Frank, a law that would have regulated commodity speculation. Was this intentional? Will their own party hold them accountable for allowing big oil to drain our wallets and limit or cancel our summer vacations? Nah.

A new University of Massachusetts, Amherst study has determined speculation added 83 cents per gallon.



From January 16, Think Progress' Lee Fang wrote this about Koch Industries ties to speculation that lined their pockets:

The Koch Industries front group Americans for Prosperity is preparing a tour across America “aimed at trying to put the blame for high gas prices on the Obama administration.” The tour will demand that Obama increase domestic drilling — even though domestic oil production is at an all time high and further drilling will do nothing to affect prices.

Koch’s relaunch of Drill Baby Drill appears to be a crass attempt to distract Americans from a true driver of high prices: oil speculation, coming from companies like Koch. In fact, a new Think Progress investigation of Koch’s oil speculation business reveals that Koch is perhaps the most important player in distorting oil markets for private profit. Our report highlights:

– Koch’s role in inventing modern oil derivatives.– Koch’s alliance with Enron and the Gramm family in deregulating oil speculation, first in the early ’90s then again ten years later.– Koch’s participation in unregulated exchanges, and the ways in which it uses its political power to allow excessive oil speculation to continue.

Experts contacted by ThinkProgress pin the blame for sky-high prices and record volatility on excessive oil speculation, the oil market corrupted by unregulated Wall Street traders who buy and hold onto oil futures contracts with no interest in the actual delivery of oil. Koch Industries — generally known as an oil pipelines and refining company — is also on the forefront of speculating on oil for profit.

Herman Cain won't play the Race Card, but is running as "a real black man..run(ning) against Barack Obama."

It was an entertaining week watching Al Sharpton filling in for Ed Schultz a few times. He had some meaty stuff to work with, like the boisterous, and black, Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain.

One of the more interesting topics that lit up Sharpton; racial comments from Cain, who in one breath insists he's not playing the race card and then does over and over....This is actually fun to watch, as is part 2 below, which is a follow-up the next night. Sharpton gets straight to the point:



The next night, late breaking comments from Cain not only energized Sharpton, but Georgetown Prof. Michael Eric Dyson. According to Cain, who isn't about to play the race card:

"(The media is) scared that a real black man might run against Barack Obama...a real black man is not timid about making the right decisions."

Not those difficult decisions, but the "right" decisions, because conservative authoritarians are never wrong.

Fourth of July turns kids into Republicans

What a great story about a stunning conclusion by a Harvard study on the effects of Fourth of July parades. No, really, I'm not making this up. I thought these two observations pretty much said it all:

Resistance is futile, and if you resist, you don’t get any hot dogs-by John Hayward: U.S. News brings us word of an important new Harvard study, which has concluded that Fourth of July parades are a form of right-wing brainwashing that “energize only Republicans, turn kids into Republicans, and help to boost the GOP turnout of adults on Election Day.”

"Fourth of July celebrations in the United States shape the nation's political landscape by forming beliefs and increasing participation, primarily in favor of the Republican Party ... The political right has been more successful in appropriating American patriotism and its symbols during the 20th century. 

Survey evidence also confirms that Republicans consider themselves more patriotic than Democrats. Fourth of July celebrations in Republican dominated counties may thus be more politically biased events that socialize children into Republicans," write the Harvard Kennedy School.

According to the study, attending Fourth of July celebrations increases the likelihood of people younger than 18 identifying as a Republican by at least 2 percent, and raises the likelihood that parade watchers will vote for Republican candidates by 4 percent.  It also increases the chances that Fourth of July celebrants will vote by 1 percent.  These effects are said to be “surprisingly” enduring, with “no evidence of the effects depreciating as individuals become older.”

Or this from the Atlanta Journal Constitution's Jim Galloway, Political Insider:

Beware: If you go to a Fourth of July celebration on Monday, your kids are statistically more likely to end up Republican. Harvard University says so. From the press release: Read the real, honest-to-God study here. This was the key to their methodology:

In their paper, the researchers use a simple but novel strategy to address these problems: they use historical data on rainfall on Fourth of July. When it rains children and their parents are less likely to participate and the events are often cancelled.

Moreover, since rain is a random event, some children growing up experience nice weather and are more likely to celebrate, while others are hit by bad weather making it less likely that they join the festivities. This allows the researchers to isolate the effect of attending the celebrations from other important factors such as family background and education.

Just another big day in the life of flag pin patriots. 

The Republican Disdain for Citizen Protests. So what was that recent tea party thing all about?

Great observation from Cognitive Dissedence over a small but extremely revealing view of democracy, through the eyes of our new crop of freshmen, in what could be described as Wisconsin's controlling Republican Authority:

The bigger picture is this; Wisconsinites should be concerned at how easy it is for any group or action to be vilified. The old line "first they came for..." has just as much relevance today as it did when Martin Niemöller said it back in 1946.

Fear of "the other."

Talk radio and party leaders have cast protesting citizens as outsiders, union thugs, vandals and 60's war reenactors. Liberalism is the new enemy. Who hasn't heard the slogan, "We're taking our country back" from liberals.

And the Republicans disruptions of town hall debates, with their mythical fears of death panels, massive spending and the dreaded socialist takeover?

Deleware Lack of Wisdom

via The Deleware Liberal

Senate Bill 29, or more specifically Senate Substitute Bill 1 to Senate Bill 29, which would have made it illegal for individuals to possess loaded, un-stored and active firearms outside of their homes while under the influence of alcohol or drugs, was just defeated in the Senate by a vote of 10 to 7. It takes 11 votes to pass a bill in the Senate. You will notice that there are four missing Senators, because the Senate has 21 members, and only 17 of them did their jobs tonight. Who are the four who decided not to vote on this bill?

Will someone please explain to us how such a vote was possible? Who in their right mind would think possessing a gun while drunk or loaded on drugs is acceptable?

(cross posted on Mikeb302000)

Please leave a comment.

Bow Before our "leader" President Ryan.

Sure he's a guy that loses his cool pretty easy, and doesn't tolerate fools who disagree with him, but Paul Ryan may be thinking of applying those same father figure qualities as our disciplinarian and chief, President Ryan. Ryan's overused declaration that the people want to follow someone who "leads," may have been a subtle hint he's thinking about it, at least for the past few weeks anyway:

According to the Examiner:
"I can make a little news," said, Steve Hayes, Wednesday night on Fox News Special Report, and then he dropped the bombshell that Paul Ryan "is actively considering a run for the presidency."

" I talked with somebody who is close to Paul Ryan today who had had discussions with him in the past week and a half. He is actively considering a run for the presidency. He's got the same issues that he had before. He likes his place in Congress ... He's worried about running for president and potentially serving as president with young children. Having lost his father at a very young age, it's not a trivial concern.

But before Mitch Daniels said he was not going to run, Paul Ryan was serious when he said, 'I'm not looking at it - I don't want to run for president.' And he was sorta walking away from that kind of decision. Since Mitch Daniels said that he wasn't going to run, I think Paul Ryan has taken a second look."