Young Republicans Bat S**t Crazy, Celebrate Walker's first Year

I thought this Mad Hatter style press release of pure political projection lent itself to commentary, my own, interjected throughout:

Dane County Young Republicans Announce “Recall the Recall” Event to Take Place Nov. 15 at The Edgewater Hotel

The Dane County Young Republicans … announced plans to hold a “Recall the Recall” event in support of Gov. Scott Walker on the eve of the proposed recall by liberal special interests. (Wisconsinites who object to their “one party” government are now special interests?)

Speakers Vicki McKenna and Rep. Robin Vos will appear to denounce the Democrats’ historic overreach (Democrats…are they kidding or this clueless?) and recount how Governor Walker’s reforms are working to relieve the burden on working families throughout Wisconsin.

Here’s where it gets really, really surreal! Having been at the Capitol protests with my kids at least 10 times, what follows are the delusional ranting’s of a party so devoid of a moral and ethical center, that you have to be a complete dupe not to see through this bullshit. I don’t usually write this, but these people are really fucked up:

“While paid out-of-town capitol protesters and violent “Occupy” crowds have been rioting and disrupting state and local governments throughout the country, we wanted to focus on the positive gains Wisconsin has made because of Governor Walker’s leadership said David Summers, DCYR spokesperson.

“The only thing Democrats seek with the recall process is the furthering of their extreme liberal agenda, which the voters thankfully threw to the curb in the elections of 2010,” added Charla Halverson, President of the Dane County Young Republicans.

Instead of joining with Governor Walker … (the) Democratic party (is) only willing to ignore the voice of the people and instead are pushing for a costly and divisive recall. Wisconsinites have repeatedly shown their distaste for hijacking of their rights at the ballot box by Big Labor and other Washington, DC-based special interests, and we’re confident that opposition will continue. ” More information can be found at www.danecountyyr.com.

The Supercommittee goes after Social Security, Medicaid, Head Start, food Stamps, School Lunch Programs, Home Heating and Military Pensions...did I miss anything?

I found it!! This is what the supercommittee is planning to do with our safety net programs. What's not included in this devastating piece is a possible increase in age availability for Medicare and Social Security.

Okay, your eyes may glaze over reading the following information, but this tricky stuff is not what we elected our representatives to do to us. Again, Wall Street crashed the economy, not the poor and elderly.

AP: Congress is looking at reducing future raises by adopting a new measure of inflation that also would increase taxes for most families -- the biggest impact falling on those with low incomes. Future increases in veterans' benefits and pensions for federal workers and military personnel would be smaller. And over time, fewer people would qualify for Medicaid, Head Start, food stamps, school lunch programs and home heating assistance than under the current measure.

The proposal to adopt a new Consumer Price Index was floated by the Obama administration during deficit reduction talks in the summer. Now, it is one of the few options supported by both Democratic and Republican members of a joint supercommittee … "I think the thought process behind this is, slip this in, people won't understand it," said Max Richtman, president and CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare.

The inflation measure under consideration is called the Chained Consumer Price Index, or chained CPI. On average, the measure shows a lower level of inflation than the more widely used CPI for All Urban Consumers. Many economists argue that the chained CPI is more accurate because it assumes that as prices increase, consumers switch to lower cost alternatives, reducing the amount of inflation they experience.

Under the chained CPI, yearly benefits for a typical 65-year-old would be about $136 less, according to an analysis of Social Security data. At age 75, annual benefits under the new index would be $560 less. At 85, the cut would be $984 a year, and at 95, the annual income loss would amount to $1,392.
In all, adopting the chained CPI would reduce Social Security benefits by $112 billion over the next decade. Federal civilian and military pensions would be $24 billion lower, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

For example, by 2021, taxpayers making between $10,000 and $20,000 would see a 14.5 percent increase in their federal taxes with a chained CPI, according to an analysis by the Joint Committee on Taxation. Taxpayers making more than $1 million would get a tax increase of 0.1 percent.

Rep. Xavier Becerra, a California Democrat who serves on the supercommittee, helped lead the fight over the summer against adopting the chained CPI. "If you're going to simply try to save money by changing the CPI, you can do that," Becerra said. "But then be up front and tell seniors what you're doing. You're throwing them under the bus to save money." 

The Drum Beat Continues: Tax the Poor and Middle Class.

The Norquist no tax pledge doesn't apply to the elimination of tax credits for the middle class and poor. 

It's a tax increase if you do away with the Earned Income Tax Credit. But for some reason, Republicans have reasoned this "Earned" tax credit is welfare, a give-a-way, and therefore on the chopping block.

The Census Bureau has just release new numbers that deal with programs that prevent the poor and middle class from living in poverty:

The U.S. Census Bureau today released new data that provided a more detailed picture of poverty and hardship in the United States. For the first time, the Bureau released 2010 poverty statistics under a new Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM). At the same time, the SPM factors in tax and transfer programs such as SNAP/food stamps, the earned income tax credit, and housing subsidizes in determining those who are poor.

Why tamper with success, especially in these post Great Recessionary times? But the facts and no tax pledge falls to the wayside for Tea Party losers like Michele Bachmann, who seem to relish the economic divide in this country:

Think Progress: Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), who is campaigning for the 2012 GOP presidential nod, has already made it quite clear that she intends to raise taxes on the poorest Americans if elected. Today, she rolled out a new plan to hike taxes on those at the bottom of the income scale: eliminating the Earned Income Tax Credit. 

This would be through the income tax system because the problem is, and this is where I deviate from Reagan, he instituted the Earned Income Tax Credit, it’s known as the EITC, and that effectively took many many Americans out of even having to pay any tax liability at all. I would do away with the EITC and if a person has $3 in income they would be subject to something. Obviously, no one has $3 in income. But they would have to pay something through that system.

Consumer Demand Lousy, Slowing Economy, not Regulation or Taxes.

It's DEMAND Stupid!!!

From the Progress League

The Big Joke Now; "How about I "Castle Doctrine" a few Guys w/recall Petitions."

When the Republican legislature decided gun owners needed a special law, the Castle Doctrine, to protect irrational and irresponsible gun use that could be fatal, I immediately thought of my last month working for the U.S. Census Bureau.

That month dealt with me visiting the "unresponsive" homeowners who didn't want to be bothered by the government, or be counted due to their misinformed constitutional right to participate. They were nasty angry people. So I wonder how many of them will find "humor" in the following "comedic" screenshot tweets by the conservative blogger Kevin Binversie at Lakeshorelaments:

Nothing funnier than posing the possibility of getting shot! And that is what the castle doctrine blatantly suggests. Whether true or not, it's an area that might be gamed by a reckless "law abiding" citizen. 

Good-bye Gun Training.....that didn't take long.

It looks like we were all fooled by what seemed like a slickly orchestrated appearance of common sense gun training for a concealed carry permit. That requirement, put in place to pass the legislature, hit the slippery slope of deregulation faster than a speeding bullet.

Channel3000: A Republican-controlled legislative committee has voted to do away with a requirement that that applicants for permits to carry concealed weapons complete four hours of training.
 
Monday's vote does away with the rule written by Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen's Department of Justice for the law that took effect last week. Republican state Rep. Scott Suder said the Legislature's intent was to leave it up to applicants to determine how many hours of training they needed.

Sounds like lunacy to leave gun training up to the whims of the applicant? Suckers!

Sen. Mary Lazich against Comprehensive Sex Ed, wants to leave curriculum open to local opinion, fiction...whatever.

Sen. Mary "crazy eyes" Lazich tries to explain why she had to change the state mandated comprehensive  sex education in public schools. I mean really, Lazich whines the Democrats put in place...

 "...a heavy duty state mandate that if they teach sex education, it must be comprehensive education." 

And that's just too much education? Can the same thing be said of math, science or any other subject not favored to the our authoritarian overlords, the Republican Party? Lazich's new state mandate allows school districts to "create" their own curriculum, based on whatever fiction, exaggeration or religious doctrine districts see fit. As Sen. Chris Larson argues here on Upfront with Mike Gousha:

Larson: "There is not different local definitions of what is medically accurate, and that is what this bill reversed...it kind of leaves it to the locals to do that...it's like not teaching drivers ed, and hoping and praying they don't get into accidents and pretending cars don't exist." 

The New Protected Class? The Castle Doctrine a license to Kill.

Here's a clip from Upfront with Mike Gousha on the castle doctrine and a must see. Sen. Chris Larson and Mary Lazich present their sides of the argument, but Larson nailed it:

Larson: "It's built off of scary movies, you know, somebodies going to come into my house, and I'm going to need to confront them. But policies based off of bad movies, is bad policy."

Wisconsin Anti-violence Effort sounded off here, a little late, about the massive public sentiment against concealed carry. Hey, even law abiding citizens can go off the deep end. Great argument against this insanity! From Here and Now:




From Uppity Wisconsin:

Submitted by xoff on Thu, 11/03/2011 - 3:43pm

"AB 69 [the so-called Castle Doctrine bill] changes Wisconsin law by providing a defense for irrational people armed with deadly force. Under its provisions, malevolent, reckless, or paranoid people who shoot trick-or-treaters or repairmen on their porch will be presumed to be acting in self-defense." -- Criminal law section of the State Bar of Wisconsin.

Ohio Republicans don't fault Senate Bill 5, they fault bad Sales job to the Public.

Not even the massive opposition in Ohio to Senate Bill 5, restricting collective bargaining, is causing Republicans to rethink or begin to understand the overall public outrage over the law.

Instead, they actually think they could have sold it better to Ohioan's...from Upfront with Mike Gousha:

What an odd Economic Platform! Yet Republicans love it.

If an economic plan reduces government income, then no matter what it spends, it will always and forever be too much. If Republicans cut $100 billion dollars in taxes, then suddenly, the government is spending $100 billion more that it should.

Is that crazy or what? Another words, no matter how bad the economy gets under their policies, those self-induced shortfalls only boosts their argument that government spends too much.

The biggest example? Repealing “Obamacare.” According the the CBO, via research by Politifact:

Mitt Romney said repealing 'Obamacare' would save $95 billion in 2016.

In February 2011, the CBO published an analysis of a Republican measure to fully repeal the health care law. The analysis was for H.R. 2, "the Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act" … Romney cited a reduction of $95 billion in 2016, but that number only counts what the law spends that year. Most of the spending is for subsidizing coverage for the uninsured.

That same year, the law also is projected to raise revenues of $78 billion, largely through new taxes on the wealthy and new fees on the health care industry.

So according to the CBO analysis, a full repeal of the bill would reduce the deficit by $16 billion in 2016, much less than the number Romney cited.

So what happens ten years from 2012, after electing a Republican president and senate that repeals the Affordable Care Act? They'll be able to make the same conservative argument again, that government is spending too much: 

When the CBO looked at the first 10 years of repeal, from 2012 to 2021, it found that repeal added $210 billion to the deficit. So the deficit would actually be lower if the law is not repealed.

That was easy. It looks like the government is spending $210 billion more than it’s taking in, so we'll just have to cut more spending…etc....on and on....

This odd economic spiral downward is even popular among conservative voters. That's why they won so big in 2010, and may win big in 2012, despite their austerity agenda and unpopular Republican governors. 

Rape Prevention

Go Upstate.com published a rebuttal to Sheriff Chuck's advice. According to the author, carrying a gun is not the right way to protect yourself against rape.

Repeated studies have shown that people who own a handgun are at a high risk of that gun being used against them. Unfortunately, people who perpetrate violent crimes are often more adept at using, and more ready to use, handguns.

The fact is that very few rapes are perpetrated by strangers. We warn our children, our friends and family members to be careful of strangers when we should be warning them about those they know. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, most sexual assaults (approximately two-thirds) are perpetrated by someone the victim knows and trusts.

How willing and able would you be to pull the trigger on your relative, friend, spouse, boyfriend or someone else you know?

You know what the problem is, pro-gun folks who suggest that a gun makes you safer have an agenda. They're desperately trying to justify their own decision to own and carry a gun. In a free country like the United States you're certainly able to carry a gun if you want to, but it's not the smart move.

The gun-rights extremists love to point out anecdotal situations in which a gun MIGHT have helped, but they reject all the other anecdotal situations in which the gun did more harm than good.

Studies have backed this up, as the article mentioned, but I always prefer to use common sense. Assuming that no negligent discharge ever happens during the entire time you own the gun, and assuming no gun is ever stolen from you, and let's say you never get depressed and take you own life with the gun and that you never go off the deep end over work or economic or relationship stress. Let's say it never happens that on a dark night you mistakenly shoot somebody who didn't need shootin', let's assume all that.

As protection against rape the gun is still practically useless. If your rapist is one of the 75% who know their victims, it'll be too late by the time push comes to shove. If the rapist is one of the 25% who don't know their victim, he'll probably be quicker and better prepared and more willing to use violence than you.

Like all gun ownership and concealed carry, the gun can make you FEEL safer, but that's illusory, ungrounded in facts and irrrational. It's a bad decision to carry a gun when the chances of it saving you are so low and the chances of it causing harm are so high.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Portage 9 and 10 year old's victims of liberal teacher indoctrination?

Were 9 and 10 year old's forced to sing an anti-Walker song? Were they victims of liberal teacher indoctrination? Give me a break. 

The one striking thing you’ll notice about the following story from Fox 6, is the amount of time spent on the piece, it’s long. What looks like an inadvertent participation of fourth graders singing along to traditional songs changed slightly to include Scott Walker, Fox 6 appears to add a hysterical edge. 

Especially by anchor Brad Hicks, who couldn’t contain his outrage. Fox 6 has done themselves a disservice by its sensational coverage here, that even the student’s parents didn’t seem to feel particularly strong about. In fact the parent’s responses made it seem like they weren’t entirely familiar with the exact details.

I have a fourth grader myself, and if he had been drawn into anything he didn’t feel comfortable with, he would been outa there. I’m mean really, let’s stop acting like victims, and be honest adults. The teachers allowed, not forced, 9 and 10 year old students to get a taste of democracy close up. How horrible was that? The kids don't look concerned or forced into a little fun while waiting for their tour.

You'll love the laughable phony outrage of Rep. Robin Vos and Steve Nass, two bad actors who see a TV camera and a nicely packaged issue handed to them on a platter:

A FOX6 Investigators story is generating huge response. The story centered on a public school teacher who allowed students to take part in a political demonstration at the Capitol. When fourth graders from the Portage School District took a tour of the Capitol building in late September, they didn't just witness a political demonstration, they became part of it -- with their teacher's permission. As their teacher looked on, the students were encouraged to clap and sing along with the so-called "Solidarity Singers," a daily gathering of anti-Walker protesters.

The superintendent of the Portage School District refused to watch video of the display. He told the FOX6 Investigators the teacher was naive and didn't realize it was a political protest.

Remember, many of the songs were traditional, and why a teacher would be familiar with any lyrical changes targeting Scott Walker is anybody’s guess. But no big surprise, conservative phony outrage ensued:

The investigation set off a firestorm of response on political talk radio and a long string of comments on our FOX6 Facebook page. JENNIFER KELLING-MARSHMAN says, "I see nothing wrong with it.  I would not have an issue if my child was there." While BONNIE OHMSTEAD writes, "IF my children were involved in this, the [blank] would hit the fan." JOSEPH BROWN says, "Its their future at stake because of Walker and his [blank].  I see nothing wrong with learning what its like to stand up for themselves when they get trampled on." While JENNIFER JANKOWSKI counters, "Would you feel that way if they participated in the Nazi rally in West Allis a few weeks ago?"

A question for Ms. Jankowski; would you feel that way if they participated in support of Walker or their current policies? Probably not. Still, conservative political correctness rules our state now:

On Thursday, November 3rd, the Portage School District released a letter of reprimand that's been placed in the fourth grade teacher's personnel file. It calls the decision to let kids take part in the protest a "lack of professional judgment." The teacher replied that he's "embarrassed," but "did not do anything wrong."

More on the Gun Registration Issue

The Star.com published a piece in support of abolishing the Canadian Long Gun Registry, too bad they can't tell the truth.

Wendy Cukier and the CGC are grasping at straws in a desperate measure to retain any or all of the long gun registry. These are public scare tactics filled with half truths and flat out lies.

Wendy seams to be under the impression that the only thing stopping an otherwise law-abiding gun owner from going on a shooting rampage is a little piece of paper. Sick people are sick, and require treatment. I’m sure $2 billion could have been better spent on mental health issues rather than harassing law-abiding citizens.

Did you catch that? Pretending that gun control folks actually believe gun registration will prevent people from going off the deep end, by using such sarcastic language as this, is absolutely mendacious.

Wendy seams to be under the impression that the only thing stopping an otherwise law-abiding gun owner from going on a shooting rampage is a little piece of paper.

Nobody thinks that. But, well aware of that fact, gun-rights extremists both north and south of the border say stuff like this, and make serious arguments against, it as if we actually believe it and have said it. We don't, and we haven't.

The benefits of gun registration have been clearly defined. They have nothing to do with preventing people from going on shooting rampages. They have everything to do with preventing guns from flowing into the criminal world. They will help the so-called law abiding gun owners to hold onto their guns and stop allowing them to reach criminal hands.

And guess what, it's been proven to work.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Conservative Activist Judge Appointed by Walker to the Appellate Court: Former Republican Rep. Mark Gundrum!

I couldn't let this one slip under the radar. Scott Walker just appointed far right wingnut and former Assistant Assembly Majority Leader Mark Gundrum to the District II Court of Appeals. But conservative activism is more in line with what our founding fathers thinking anyway, right?:

Waukesha Patch: Gov. Scott Walker (said) “Judge Gundrum will treat the citizens of Wisconsin with respect, act fairly and be a blind arbiter of justice,” Walker said.

In the Orwellian world of Republican double speak, Gundrum is anything but fair or a blind arbiter.

Here are a few classic quotes from Gundrum on just a few memorable wedge issues:

His opposition to clone for research purposes at the UW: “Because research has become a god. And our public tax dollars are supporting that god. And the question is: How far will we bow down to the god of research … If this amendment (to allow research cloning) were adopted... it will become a reality that we will have artificial wombs, perhaps chambers with many of them. Human beings will be cloned, will be developed, will continue grow­ing for the purposes of harvesting organs for research...”

Allow Domestic Partnership, after gay scholars left the UW: "I'm not looking to tailor our budgeting policy to make sure we retain left-wing social activists. I'm not losing sleep over those folks choosing to go somewhere else."

Completely Defund UW Law School: Rep. Frank Lasee persuaded the Assembly to eliminate all state funding for the University of Wisconsin law school because, “There's too many lawyers in Wisconsin.” Gundrum voted to slash his alma mater's funding.

10 Year old Hunting: Gunderson supported it.

Constitutional Ban on Same Sex Marriage: Gundrum-"We need to have this in our state constitution or we are every bit as vulnerable to activists judges instituting same-sex marriage as they did in Massachusetts."

 From In Focus, Gundrum stresses the benefits of strict conservative justice. From VCY's In Focus:



Below, Gov. candidate Scott Walker said he would pick a purist, a "strict constructionist." Unbelievably, Walker  thinks the highly partisan constructionist theory is pure, like the predictably conservative vote from Justice Thomas, I guess?  How would Walker describe a more liberal judge? Oh well:

Walker's Ill Fated Union League Club Appearance: the directors cut.

Here's a much longer and delightful video clip of Gov. Scott Walker's disastrous appearance at the Union League Club meeting. These protesters were non-to-subtle.

When Wisonsin Governor gave a speech at Chicago's Union League Club the morning of Nov 3rd, he has some unexpected guests: Stand Up! Chicago

IOccupyFor

Congressional Democrats Discover they have Balls, Pursue Investigations into Voter Suppression in States.

Has hell frozen over? The Democrats are actively going after states that have restrictive voter ID laws. And they're seriously doing something their own constituents want them to do. This is not a joke, there's video even. Rachel Maddow:



Here's Al Sharpton with Milwaukee's own Rep. Gwen Moore, with all the facts Republicans seem to always leave out:

Keep Union Influence out of American Politics says the Romney Campaign.

Forget the coded language, watch how Romney campaign policy director Lanhee Chen sees nothing wrong with getting rid of union money's influence on politics, just as long as corporate cash, you know, free speech, remains the one and only player.

Chen: "It's time we get tough on union bosses! And it's time we finally allow unions to stop having the outside influence they're having on American politics." 

Thank god the Mitt Romney campaign will save union members the agony of having their dues wasted on influencing and advocating worker rights.

Republicans feel the unemployed pain? First they bash them as lazy and then decide to work only 2 days a week in Congress

What I found most fascinating about this clip below, and the new outrageous Republican 2 day work week, was the use of the old talking point by the Fox News conservatives that "maybe it's better they don't come to work."

Ha, ha, that'll let 'em off the hook for wasting taxpayer money. At the end, watch how one pundit seems to understand how bad this looks for the Republicans...but then agrees, the less time they're in Congress, the better. It's crazy.

Hiding an Event in Time? Scientists say we can.

Whether this is true or not doesn’t matter, I just love the whole idea that there might be a scientific way to erase an event in time by hiding it, via bending light around it. I’m posting it here for any aspiring science fiction writers.

Researchers from Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., have demonstrated for the first time that it's possible to cloak a singular event in time, creating what has been described as a "history editor." In a feat of Einstein-inspired physics, Moti Fridman and his colleagues sent a beam of light traveling down an optical fiber and through a pair of so-called "time lenses." Between these two lenses, the researchers were able to briefly create a small bubble, or gap, in the flow of light. During that fleetingly brief moment, lasting only the tiniest fraction of a second, the gap functioned like a temporal hole, concealing the fact that a brief burst of light ever occurred. The team will present their findings at the Optical Society's (OSA) Annual Meeting, Frontiers in Optics (FiO) 2011 (www.frontiersinoptics.com/)

Their ingenious system, relies on the ability to use short intense pulses of light to alter the speed of light as it travels through optical materials, in this case an optical fiber. (In a vacuum, light maintains its predetermined speed limit of 180,000 miles per second.) As the beam passes through a split-time lens (a silicon device originally designed to speed up data transfer), it accelerates near the center and slows down along the edges, causing it to balloon out toward the edges, leaving a dead zone around which the light waves curve. A similar lens a little farther along the path produces the exact but opposite velocity adjustments, resetting the speeds and reproducing the original shape and appearance of the light rays.

To test the performance of their temporal cloak, the researchers created pulses of light directly between the two lenses. The pulses repeated like clockwork at a rate of 41 kilohertz. When the cloak was off, the researchers were able to detect a steady beat. By switching on the temporal cloak, which was synchronized with the light pulses, all signs that these events ever took place were erased from the data stream.

Unlike spatial optical cloaking, which typically requires the use of metamaterials (specially created materials engineered to have specific optical properties), the temporal cloak designed by the researchers relies more on the fundamental properties of light and how it behaves under highly constrained space and time conditions.

The length of the cloaked area and the length of time it is able to function are tightly constrained—primarily by the extreme velocity of light. Cloaking for a longer duration would create turbulence in the system, essentially pulling back the curtain and hinting that an event had occurred. Also, to achieve any measurable macroscopic effects, an experiment of planetary and even interplanetary scales would be necessary.

Koch Brother Nation....our new American Flag.

Grover Norquist shows GOP hand! We were warned.

When I watched this I got a sinking feeling that for once, a sociopathic conservative like Norquist might actually be telling the truth. If he's right, we better hope that in the next year, the public wises up to their nefarious plan.



There's also more to the plan. If you remember that Republican President Dwight Eisenhower warned us specifically about the military (Congressional) industrial complex’s effect on the rest of our economy, and how it would drain money away from everything else. Guess who’s completely ignoring that declaration? That very same Republican Party.

In another scary turn for the worse, Republicans are more concerned with funding the military than the programs that support the people and infrastructure of this country. And not one tea party or independent voter seems to care.

NYTimes: Pessimism mounted this week over the ability of a bipartisan Congressional committee to agree on a deficit-reduction plan … lawmakers began taking steps to head off the large cuts in Pentagon spending that would automatically result from the panel’s failure … Several Republicans on the House and Senate Armed Services Committees are readying legislation that would undo the automatic across-the-board cuts totaling nearly $500 billion for military programs, or exchange them for cuts in other areas of the federal budget.

Many safety-net programs for low-income people, like Medicaid and food stamps, would be exempt from automatic cuts. And Medicare payments to health care providers could not be reduced by more than 2 percent. At a recent meeting of the deficit reduction panel, Representative Dave Camp, Republican of Michigan, sought assurances that nothing would prevent Congress from changing the mechanism for automatic cuts in military spending. Republicans said Democrats should not count on that. “If Democratic members of the committee think that Republicans just cannot resist calls or demands for a big tax increase because of the sense of unacceptable cuts, I think they would be wrong in that,” said Senator Jeff Sessions, Republican of Alabama.

Well, what do you know, Walker's own recall fund Raising gets a head start.

Why aren't Republicans voters angry over their party's dirty tricks? Are they that unsure of themselves, and their agenda, that they have to cheat? I guess.

Here's Ed Schultz and John Nichols with the latest on the early recall filing:



You know something isn't quite right when all attempts to contact the guy who started the Walker recall petition early, isn't available. Hmm. But it does start the Walker money machine early. Sneaky...

CapTimes: The recall effort against Republican Gov. Scott Walker has unexpectedly begun. But instead of being filed by Democrats and grassroots organizations who have vocalized their intentions to recall Walker for months, the petition was filed by David Brandt of Muskego.

Brandt filed the petition with the state Government Accountability Board Friday afternoon under the committee name "Close Friends to Recall Walker." He also checked a box that indicates he will not be raising much money toward the effort.

The Democratic Party of Wisconsin, which had announced its intention last month to launch the recall Nov. 15, quickly branded the move a "dirty Republican ploy" but it's not clear what Brandt's loyalties are. "This is the Republican ploy we have been predicting would happen," says Graeme Zielinski, a spokesman with the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. "The only reason this was filed was to open the dirty rain shower of unlimited corporate cash."

Attempts to reach Brandt were not immediately successful.

The window for unlimited contributions opens once a committee registers with the GAB, which Brandt did Friday, indicating they plan to begin collecting signatures to recall an incumbent.

Cain Compares himself to Justice Thomas, Gains right wing support.

I just talked to my conservative friend in Milwaukee, who snickered and verbally jabbed me over Herman Cain's sexual harassment charges. He's now firmly behind Cain. Why? He said if Democrats can do it, sexual stuff, so can Cain. It's also a liberal media fabrication, even though Cain's campaign blamed Perry's campaign. Reality was never my gun carrying friends strong suit.

So imagine my surprise, kinda, when I saw this report on MSNBC about the massive amounts of money and support the right wing is giving Cain now. My friend fell right in line with his fellow sheeple.

Charter School Networks Failing, New Orleans all Charter District Gets low Grades.

So what’s the point of running parallel school districts when they offer up the same results and problems?

This study of larger groups of charter networks, thought to expand successful technics within their systems, did not achieve that goal.  

Edweek: A new national study on the effectiveness of networks that operate charter schools finds overall that their middle school students’ test scores in reading, mathematics, science, and social studies aren’t significantly better than those of students in regular public schools. The findings from the research group Mathematica and the Center on Reinventing Public Education at the University of Washington Bothell: The researchers focused on charter-management organizations to explore whether that model could be effective for scaling up the successes of individual charter schools. CMOs exist in part to address the unevenness in quality from charter to charter … And the answer, she said, is that they haven’t had a significant positive effect as a group. 

So goes the legend of success at the all charter school district...New Orleans Is No Education 'Miracle'

Concerns about safety, academic rigor, counselor accessibility, and classroom management plague many high school students in New Orleans, writes Linda Tran, a recent graduate of one of them. The Vietnamese American Young Leaders Association, or VAYLA, surveyed a cross section of 450 students from six different public high schools among the schools overseen by the Orleans Parish school board and those in the state’s Recovery School District, asking students for their opinions. An Orleans Parish charter school with a significant white population received high marks across the board, while the remaining five schools averaged what amounts to a C or D in areas like safety, academic rigor, counselor accessibility, classroom management, physical environment, and affordability.

According to the Alliance for Excellent Education, one of every six New Orleans high schools fails to graduate at least 40 percent of its students. 70 percent of students say their classes do not have enough textbooks for every student; and half of students do not eat lunch every day. These are basic problems that still exist. Six years after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans’ public high schools are still plagued by severe inequities. Just talk to the students.

This is what I want to hear from Democrats: “These are the bills we will repeal!”

Framing the political issue has been a massive failure for Democrats. They can’t create an energized electorate even if their political life depended on it, and it does. The public is on their side on so many issues, yet strongly worded statements of conviction and advocacy are non-existent. Replacing Walker and many extremist conservatives would be easy if Democrats didn’t find a way to self-destruct or make convoluted statements that tune people out.

Take the current “emergency jobs” session. It wasn’t just a GOP wish list of ideologically driven trash that passed, but an in your face assault on a majority of Wisconsinites who aren’t conservative. We’re talking about a government elected by a small group of voters. In less than 10 months, the state has turned into Texas and that’s not representation.

Promise to repeal this stuff guys:

Repeal Castle Doctrine: jsonline: "Homeowners who shoot intruders would receive strong legal protection." Image that, by just giving people a license to carry a gun, suddenly “responsible” armed citizens don’t need to be as “responsible” anymore. The original bill didn’t even protect firefighters and emergency medical technicians entering someone’s home.  Sloppy. “Under its provisions, malevolent, reckless, or paranoid people who shoot trick-or-treaters or repairmen on their porch will be presumed to be acting in self-defense," reads a statement issued this week on behalf of the criminal law section of the State Bar of Wisconsin. Shame on the 9 Democrats who voted for this new protected class of killers.

Repeal Employment discrimination: Republicans approved workplace discrimination by letting employers of the hook on punitive and compensatory damages, leaving only back pay and attorney costs. Basically a slap on the hand, and only if you get caught.

Reinstate Affirmative action: The state Assembly debated furiously for two days “a measure that would prevent the state from considering race as a factor in awarding certain college scholarships. The fire in that debate died out in the light of day when lawmakers from both sides learned race hadn't been considered as part of those scholarships for over a year.” Ooops? Thank you Democratic Rep. Peggy Krusick, for not only acted like a typically divisive Republican, but also shooting the party in the foot.

Repeal Charter School Fees for the Poor: We’re on our way to a class system of education in Wisconsin. Private voucher schools are now on their way to pricing undesirable poor families out of the system, all the while they are demanding the same per student spending as public schools. “The Assembly approved a bill (that) would allow the private schools receiving taxpayer money through the Milwaukee voucher program to charge certain fees to their students regardless of their family’s income. The schools could charge for meals, uniforms and gym clothes, musical instruments, transportation…etc.
Repeal Activist Judge Shopping bill: “Those who sue the state would get to choose their court venue.” It only made sense that Dane County would take such cases, the seat of state government. But Republicans offered this jaw dropping reason that says a lot about who really supports activist judges: "Republicans, who have lambasted Dane County judges as too liberal, would allow citizens to sue the state in any county they wanted.” Can you say conservative activist “judge shopping.” Amazing?

Repeal SAGE Destruction Law: The SAGE program is a small class size educational program, something Republicans hate more than anything, despite all the resent studies that proves it works. So guess what they did? "Loosen the requirements on school districts … The bill would allow a school board to skip the class-size limits in some cases.” Beautiful.

Repeal Cap on Attorney Fees: Working their way around our Constitutional guarantee for our day in court, Republicans pulled the rug out from getting legal representation, essentially closing the court house door. Rep. Robin Vos, who has been personally burned by the current law, thinks the checks and balances of the free market and those private sector attorneys should be eliminated. "They say it's all about the little guy," Vos said. "It's not. It's all about the trial lawyer. Everyone will get their day in court - every single Wisconsinite - but what businesses will get is some certainty." 

A lie accompanied by “business certainty,” the vacuous Republican statewide theme. 

Elizabeth Warren heckled by Tea Party Dumb Ass, calls her Socialist Whore.

Warren not only handled the situation quickly, kindly and professionally, but felt sorry for the two year unemployed victim of his own ideology. Great stuff:

Walker Short-changes Schools by about $100 million. He's a Budget Genius!

Do you want to know the state of Wisconsin schools? Last night NBC15 in Madison put together a revealing critique of Scott Walker's magical rescue of public education. 

As I've pointed out in previous posts, Walker and the legislature have made some major budgeting miscalculations that will only get worse as time moves on, unless Walker is removed from office.

Here's a perfect example of how wrong Walker was, big time, about something I only just heard about: 

NBC15: For 2012, schools lost $390 million just in general state aid. Walker originally said schools would save $488 million a year by requiring employees to contribute 5% towards their pension and 12% towards their healthcare. But that projection was flawed, as many schools already had their employees contributing to both pensions and healthcare.

Now, according to Governor Walker's own website touting his reforms, the real number for school savings is $389 million this year. Compared to the $390 million schools lost this looks like a wash, but not every school was hit the same.

For example, the Fall River School District saved $122,000 in employee costs after the Governor's budget went into effect, but that barely made up half of the $235,000 they lost in state aid. In the end, Fall River had to cut its budget and still raised taxes 4.4%.

Having just gotten an earful from my conservative friend about how much money schools are saving, and how much better off we are now, this NBC15 piece begs to differ:

House Republicans investigate themselves, for approving Solyndra loan...oops!

Rachel Maddow throws out this block buster:

Sex Ed Change gets Newsy Treatment for National Audience.

No Firearms or Weapons Sign Download.

If your looking for a no guns sign for your home or business, you can download a nice one at CityofMadison's website.

I thought this comment provided a few other suggestions to get your signs:

And if you'd like to help organize and ask businesses to post signs, contact the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice in Madison or Wisconsin Anti-Violence Effort, Veterans for Peace Chapter 102, or Peace Action Wisconsin, all in Milwaukee. They all have signs available in quantity.

Walker Greeted again with “Union Busting, It’s disgusting,” this time in Chicago.

For a few lines into his prepared speech, Scott Walker thought he was among neatly dressed friends, when all of a sudden a group of protesters stood up and started chanting. Hell, he was in the presence of Democratic Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Oh yeah, Emanuel is also a guy no one in Chicago seems to like very much. 

One interesting thing to mention here; Someone mentioned on Ed Schultz’ radio show that in Scott Walker’s introduction to the public policy group at the Union League Club, the speaker suggested Walker should go to Greece and straighten their economy out too.

Yeah, right. I think I should also mention that the just passed budget is already in deficit, and cuts are already being asked of the UW and other agencies.  Now that’s sound shoestring budgeting.

ChicagoTribune: Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, facing a union effort to recall him from office, said today he will use Illinois’ tax increase and continued deficit as a defense for actions that included eliminating most collective bargaining rights for public workers.

The Republican governor, who appeared before about 300 people at a public policy breakfast at Chicago's Union League Club, saw his speech interrupted by union-backed Occupy Chicago protesters for about six minutes before they left the event.

About 50 people who purchased tickets to the breakfast began chanting minutes into Walker’s remarks, reciting slogans such as “Union busting. It’s disgusting.” And “We are the 99 percent.” They also criticized Walker for being allowed free speech rights while blaming Mayor Rahm Emanuel for Chicago police arrests of 300 protesters who refused to leave Grant Park after an 11 p.m. curfew.

After the protesters left, Walker said, "The bottom line is, no matter how loud you shout, the facts are the facts. The facts are that our reforms have worked and continue to work in the state of Wisconsin.”

Who Wants to destroy the country? Who's against the government? The Hatriots are here.

The first step is to arm all the conservative paranoids out there with guns, guns, guns. 

All the while running a campaign vilifying liberals and Democrats as traitors trying to destroy the country. 

Daily Beast: The Hatriots have reared their heads again—this time in the form of a Georgia domestic terrorist plot against law-enforcement officials that variously contemplated ricin attacks, blowing up a federal building, and targeted assassination.

The defendants … age … ranging between their 60s and early 70s … their rhetoric was what we’ve come to expect from these unhinged self-styled super-patriots who love their country but hate their government. They would do violence to the Constitution in order to save it. “There’s no way for us, as militiamen, to save this country, to save Georgia, without doing something that’s highly illegal: murder,” said group leader Frederick Thomas according to an affidavit released by the FBI. "When it comes to saving the Constitution that means some people gotta die." “Let's shoot the bastards that we discover are anti-American,” Thomas said. “And to me the best way to do that is to walk up behind them with a suppressed .22"  "I could shoot ATF [Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives] and IRS all day long," he continued. "All the judges and the DOJ [Justice Department], and the attorneys and prosecutors."

These aren’t liberals or progressives. They aren’t Scott Walker teachers and union members. They aren’t the peaceful Occupy Wall Street demonstrators “beating their drums” either. These are conservatives.

Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center: "In 2008 we counted 149 patriot militia groups operating in the United States—by 2010 that number had increased to 824—that's a 500 percent increase. It's hard not to notice that this jump coincides with both the rise to power of Barack Obama and the subprime mortgage collapse."

The Georgia men in question are claiming they gained inspiration for the attacks from a self-published online novel written by Mike Vanderbough, an Alabama militia leader in the 1990s, who now lives on disability but infamously called for bricks to be thrown through the windows of Democratic congressional-district offices during the health-care vote. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the introduction of Vanderboegh’s self-published novel Absolved; “I must also present what amounts to a combination field manual, technical manual and call to arms for my beloved gunnies of the armed citizenry," Vanderboegh writes. "They need to know how powerful they could truly be if they were pushed into a corner."

Here's an older clip of Alan Colmes interviewing Mike Vanderbough:

What I especially like is that two of the three senior militia men were former government employees, who probably have nice retirement benefits. 

Can the Paranoid Republican Freaks at the Capitol look more Ridiculous or Chaotic?

I’m getting whiplash here.

First the Walker administration locked down the Capitol , keeping the public out, fearful of the rampaging thugs and teachers who could have started killing Republican legislators at any moment.

Then the Walker administration got behind the idea of trusting the public with concealed guns and assault rifles strapped over their shoulders, allowing them to strut their stuff around the Capitol building.

Now the Walker administration is looking into special high tech camera’s and surveillance equipment to protect against imaginary progressive vandals and beer throwing protesters, from out of state no doubt, who might want to shout "shame" at Republicans.

Daily Koz: According to their web site, FLIR Systems "is a leading manufacturer of innovative imaging systems that include infrared cameras, aerial broadcast cameras and machine vision systems." Capitol Police Chief Tubbs eventually joins the party, as does Tony Galli from the local ABC affiliate, but let's give a cheer to Ladyforward1 for getting the scoop. http://youtu.be/...

Paul Ryan uses Orwellian Pitch to sell Dickensian Future.

My hats off to Rock Netroots for giving us an insightful look at the nearly invisible recent town hall meetings by Rep. Paul Ryan, along with Ryan’s twisted idea of “shopping for health care.”

While many focus on Ryan’s Orwellian double speak, especially when it comes to health care, its Ryan’s exploration of the “police state” that should scare the daylights out of even the staunchest conservative.  Ryan’s last tour ended up sending concerned senior citizens to jail for speaking up at their only chance to address their representative. Ryan sent his warning shot to dissenters then, that their outbursts would not be tolerated. This time, the police sent the warning shot for him:

I've been to plenty of Paul Ryan's so-called "listening sessions" in hometown Janesville over the years … I entered the facility a few minutes late passing a couple more plainclothes police officers in the lobby. Unfortunately, I missed the very beginning of the session where, according to the Janesville Gazette, a Janesville police official took the stage and gave district constituents a verbal warning that anyone speaking out of turn or ignoring their warning would be escorted out.

That explains why I felt constituents seemed to be raising their hands sheepishly like small children do in school after they have been scolded by a paddle waving teacher. Even the GOP's south-central propaganda machine … seemed surprised that there were no angry outbursts and only "smatterings" of polite applause, both for and against … this is no way to hold a town hall meeting where constituents attend and attempt to speak their minds freely without being in fear of being arrested. 

When Ryan’s “shopping” for health care in a free market place isn’t what you thought it would be:

Ryan mockingly complained about the run-around he recently got from hospitals and insurance providers on costs and billing after one of his kids had their tonsils removed. Soon after again, in response to a question about how he intends on turning patients into consumers shopping around for a double by-pass, he brags about how his health care proposal would help that because everyone would have the same plan he now enjoys as congressman. So you wouldn't really have to shop because hospitals would be competing for your business automatically with costs and prices set by a shopper's consumer market. Like Best Buy … His responses were loaded with simple hypotheticals and overly agreeable answers loaded down with deliberately convoluted talking points that were often irreconcilable with each other. In other words, his answers were double-loaded. That's Paul Ryan in a nutshell. 

What Ryan envisions isn't a free market place at all. Real competition involves the consumer, where health providers and insurers compete for the consumers business. When they compete with each other, it's a subtle form of collusion and market manipulation. In this case however, consumer might be the wrong word, since health care isn't really a "want" that we consume, but a need that ends the pain or prevents death.

There's more! Check out the rest of the story at the link above

State moving in Wrong Direction, Recall Success Possible, Obama Supported too.

Upfront with Mike Gousha takes a quick look at the recall and presidential race in Wisconsin:

Conservative Vandals Egg Capitol Office of Republican Dale Schultz for Opposing Redistricting Change.

I wonder if the DOA will estimate the cost of removing egg yoke from Sen. Dale Schultz' office windows...a million bucks, three million? 

While demonstrators over the winter didn't vandalize the Capitol, but were accused of doing just that by the far right wing media, those same (alleged) conservatives are now out vandalizing the Capitol. But this time it's justified? Security is now examining surveillance tapes to perhaps identify the culprits. But was this the destructive act of right wingnuts? Who else would target a GOP traitor to Walker's cause? 

Hypocrites all. 

WSJ: WISC-TV reports the first-floor office of Republican state Sen. Dale Schultz of Richland Center had splatters of egg on the exterior marble and eggshells on the balcony Wednesday morning.

WISC: Schultz says "I have no idea what happened or where it came from," he said. "The fact that somebody would egg the state Capitol makes me feel really bad because, as a member of the state Capitol Executive Residence Board, I feel like I'm privileged to take care of this wonderful building. It's the people's building, and anybody who would do that I think is committing an affront to the people of Wisconsin."

Schultz went against his party … he'd vote against a Republican-proposed bill that would have made new legislative districts effective for recall elections. “And I don't see any connection, and my main concern is that this tends to delegitimize people who have real grievances and every right to be here," Schultz said.

The social issues pushed by the Walker administration have stalled, so Walker is desperate to pass as much conservative tripe he can before any possible recall elections.

Gov. Walker is considering calling for another special session before the end of the year. He said it would again focus on jobs. "…venture capitol, things like that," said Walker.

"I would really want to know, 'what's the point? Why is he calling us back in?,'" asked Sen. Jon Erpenbach. "To come back and talk about deregulation or to come back and talk about like today we're in special session in dealing with a bill on trespassing, what the hell does that have to do with jobs? Nothing," said Erpenbach. 

Scary Mary Lazich Wipes out Sex Ed for more “Local control.” What a sick prude.

Sen. Mary Lazich can’t leave well enough alone when it comes to teen pregnancy and sex ed in our schools. Like everything else passed in the previous Democratic administration, its gone :

jsonline: Schools that teach sexual education would have to promote marriage and tell students abstinence is the only reliable way to prevent pregnancy, under a bill the Senate passed Wednesday.

One look at this sexually introverted wacko tells the whole story. See that expression? She was pushing her bizarre “Women’s Protection Act,” where politicians would make sure doctors didn’t harm their patients. Creepy. 

Its chief sponsor, Sen. Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin), said her proposal would give school districts more of a say in writing their curricula.

"This is about small government at its best," she said. "This is about local control."

So it has nothing to do with sex ed?

The topics Lazich's bills recommend would not include birth control, though schools could choose to teach about that on their own.

But the proof will be sadly borne out by the young girls Lazich will never have to see, and taxpayers. What a plan. So let’s see how this plays out:

Democrats noted Milwaukee's teen birthrate dropped after the city and the United Way of Greater Milwaukee launched a 2008 program that teaches young people about both abstinence and contraception. The city's birthrate dropped from 52 per 1,000 teens in 2006 to 35.7 per 1,000 in 2010. 

Just another law to repeal when the Democrats come back in to clean up the GOP mess.

Self Serving Rep. Robin Vos caps Attorney Fees to protect himself from future Lawsuits.

Hey, Robin Vos is a crook, using his powerful position in government to institute a law that may protect his pocketbook, and never told anybody. He actually said he didn’t want it to be about himself…even though it was all about himself.

The incredible story goes like this.

jsonline: The lawmaker who introduced a bill to cap attorney fees in consumer litigation never mentioned that he, as a landlord, faces a pending claim of $20,000 in such fees from a case over a student house in Whitewater.

During neither a Senate committee hearing on the bill nor in interviews with reporters, did Vos ever disclose his own personal interest in the issue. Vos, co-chairman of the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee, said Wednesday that he didn't want it to be about him, and besides, the law would only affect future cases, not the one he has pending.

That’s not necessarily true either…

Vince Megna, an attorney who won the fees against the Burlington car dealer (Vos supposedly wrote the bill because of this case) and testified at the Senate hearing on the fees bill, said Vos will probably never return a contested deposit if the bill passes. "No one will ever sue a landlord again for an $800 to $1,000 deposit," Megna said.

See, which was Vos' point in the first place. I told my conservative friend about the double speak around this proposed limit on attorney’s fees, and he was appalled. I explained how Scott Walker is making the claim consumers still have all their rights, and that may be true, but no attorney will take their clients case or allow that constitutional day in court because the fees would be prohibitively small. 

No attorney, no lawsuit. Walker circumvented the Constitution. Consumers lose. Now that's representation. 

Like all Republicans, transparency isn’t needed for the elite:

He called it sad that opponents of the bill were resorting to questioning his motives. "They know this bill is going to pass and they know the gravy train is going to end," he said.

Yeah, the gravy train of private sector attorneys feeling the thumb of big government artificially holding down their wages in a not so free market way. Gee, Republicans didn’t feel this way about CEO pay and bonus limits. And no conservative voter will care about what Vos did.

Background: According to court records, Vos is the sole shareholder of Ladwig & Vos, which owns a rental house in Whitewater. Last year, the company sued five college students who had leased the house for a year but had moved out after just three months. The company sought about $17,000 in unpaid rent, said Brian Schuk, an attorney for one of the students. Schuk countersued, claiming breach of contract. But on Aug. 31, all five tenants moved out because the power had gone out in the house 25 times since June 2, according to the counter claim, which also cites a dangerous stairway that made the house unsafe for habitation.

Last week, Schuk filed a detailed accounting of his fees and costs that totals a little more than $20,000. Under the bill, Schuk's fees would be presumed to be capped at $6,525.

Florida Republican Elections Supervisor Appalled after turning School Teacher in for filing late pre-registrations.

Voter registration drives landed a few teachers in trouble with Florida election law because of ridiculous deadlines for turning in pre-registrations.

Republican Elections Supervisor Ann McFall is outraged over the idea that anyone encouraging people to sign up and vote would be legally pursued and fined. Especially when they're teachers.

Yes, Republicans have gone too far with voter suppression.

Pundit class ignoring public rage against Republican Authoritarian overreach when predicting elections!!

I've mentioned it a few times here that D.C. pundits and cable news coverage seems to overlook the dissatisfaction level of voters in Republican dominated states that have trashed collective bargaining and slashed education funding. Wisconsin, Ohio, Florida and Michigan may not be so anxious to vote in a Republican president if their governors are any indication as to what could happen on a national level.

Here, Chris Cillizza cluelessly pretends the above mentioned states, because of their Republican majorities, will vote for a Republican for president despite their public anger. Hello, the approval ratings of their governors and economic direction tell a whole different story.

Not enough jobs to go around? Solution: Let's deny former felons work!

Hey, I call ‘em like I see ‘em. Just look at the picture to the right.

It’s not nice calling anyone a name, but when what they do effects so many other people, it’s necessary to call attention to the problem.

Rep. Joel Kleefisch is dumb! Really, really dumb! And he talks.

We’re talking about a proposed bill that would make it okay for employers to avoid hiring felons, no matter how long ago the infraction, and no matter how unrelated the violation was to the job being pursued. Right now, it’s illegal to discriminate over a person’s criminal history.

Which brings me to the very dumb, Rep. Joel Kleefisch, husband of bubblehead Lt. Gov. Rebecca. See if you can make any sense out of his twisted thought process:

Postcrescent: Lawmakers who back the bill say it would benefit ex-cons entering the workforce. "More employers will be willing to give a person a chance knowing that a person won't turn around and sue them," Kleefisch said.

Huh? Is has that been one of those "unreported" problems wreaking havoc in the workplace? No, it’s a made up problem so Republicans can discipline and discriminate:

The state does not keep data on the number of lawsuits that have arisen out of such situations — which Kleefisch called "a real gray area." But he added, "It doesn't matter if this happened once or a thousand times, right now we're in an era to create jobs."

A jobs crisis means we should turn away former felons so others can get work? Is he insane?

If passed, Filz said the bill wouldn't affect his job but added he's concerned that people who may have held a job for years could suddenly be fired. "I just hate to see a bunch of people become unemployed," Filz said.

State Sen. Mary Lazich, R-New Berlin, who introduced the Senate version of the bill (said) the issue is not a matter of job creation, but of workplace and customer safety. She didn't know of any specific cases of an ex-offender creating an unsafe work situation, but said employers should feel free to fire someone if they discover a problem, rather than being deterred by a potential lawsuit. The bill also would preempt counties, cities, towns and villages from amending the switch — they would have to comply.

More of that big Republican government; one size fits all lawmaking. Not all are on board:

Sandy Neisen, Appleton’s city's human resources director. said. "Someone shouldn't be barred from employment forever."

What kind of angry, bitter world do these Republicans think they’re living in?