Liberal "Takers" in Madison and Milwaukee now infest two of the nations Coolest Cities!

The usual loudmouth 60's protesters and union bosses continue to draw attention to themselves by coming across like Madison is THE coolest city in the country. You know what, it is.

MSN is out with a new list of the "10 coolest cities in the Midwest," 

I'm still waiting for Waukesha to show up in one of these "best of" lists!

Will Walker give up even more Jobs Turning down Medicaids expansion?

While Scott Walker fiddles away his time pretending to think deeply about whether he will expand Medicaid in Wisconsin, another state has done its homework and found a massive silver lining.

Keep in mind, Walker's own secret analysis of the costs related to expanding Medicaid were written by a vocal opponent of health care reform, Dennis Smith.

jsonline: Dennis Smith, the point man on health care for Gov. Scott Walker's administration, argued that the federal law commonly called Obamacare will cost Wisconsin taxpayers more than it will save through an expansion of joint state and federal Medicaid health programs for the poor. That's because it won't provide enough additional reimbursement to the state to cover the full number of people … Supporters of the health care law responded that Smith is ignoring both cost savings of the law and its benefits to the state's uninsured citizens and health care providers.

But oddly another state has found just the opposite would happen, along with the addition of big jobs numbers:

Progressive Pulse: A presentation on the costs of NC’s Medicaid expansion is here.  The business consultants’ cost analysis is here.  Key findings are that if NC expands Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act we will:

1.  Create approximately 25,000 new jobs according to an independent consultant’s report.

2.  Increase annual state GDP by $1.3 – $1.7 billion a year.

3.  Increase total state revenues by $497 million by 2021.

4.  Save $159 million over the next two years JUST BY EXPANDING MEDICAID  (and $65 million overall for the next 10 years.)

This is how Walker ran Milwaukee County, and it nearly went bankrupt. By the way, the Obama administration is allowing states to charge a deductable to low income Medicaid recipients now.

Sly's back on Monday....

A reminder: Sly will take to the air from 3:00-6:30 p.m. weekdays on 93.7 WEKZ, starting this Monday. 

I will be Sly's 4 pm guest on Monday. You can always tune in on the internet for live streaming. 

Check out my original announcement here, where I suggested Grace Digital's internet radio's. 

Gun Nuts Stumped, say there's no way to stop killings....

...and these were the guys who told us concealed carry was the one way we could stop these killings.

We just lost an innocent honor student:

CNN: The family of a Chicago teenager killed just a week after she performed in President Barack Obama's inauguration supports using her death to help shape the debate over gun control, her father and godfather said Thursday. "Yes, definitely," Hadiya Pendleton's father, Nathaniel Pendleton, said on CNN's "Early Start." Pendleton, 15, an honor student and band majorette at Kings College Prep School, died Tuesday after a gunman shot her at a park in what her godfather, Damon Stuart, described as an "ideal community" on Chicago's South Side. Police have told CNN affiliates that the teenager had no gang affiliation and likely was not the intended target.

NY Times: Even as the Senate was holding hearings to explore ways to reduce gun violence, a gunman opened fire in a Phoenix office building, wounding three people, one of them critically, authorities said. Police were searching for the shooter.

Meanwhile: Police, SWAT teams and negotiators had surrounded a rural Alabama property where a man was said to be holed up in a homemade bunker after fatally shooting the driver of a school bus and fleeing with a 6-year-old passenger. The man boarded the school bus in the town of Midland City and shot the driver when he refused to let the child off the bus. The driver later died of his wounds.

And: Ronald Franklin Gilbert, 52, a urologist in Huntington Beach, Calif., was shot multiple times by a patient in his exam room. Stanwood Fred Elkus, 75, had brought the gun to his medical appointment, prosecutors said. 

Sigh, if only everybody could be armed.

When does Conservatism become a medically diagnosed mental illness, and can we then take their guns?

Here’s just another example of conservative thinking, and why I think they’re mentally ill.

Fox News: A Montana lawmaker says that convicts should be allowed to escape prison time if they instead agree to the "infliction of physical pain." Republican Rep. Jerry O'Neil is drafting a bill that would allow those convicted of misdemeanors or felonies to negotiate corporal punishment instead of another sentence … he thinks long prison sentences are inhumane, and thinks many prefer something like "20 lashes."

The conservative lawmaker made headlines by seeking to get paid in gold and silver coins because he is skeptical about the future of the dollar. 

Is O’Neil just offering a different opinion, or is that opinion a symptom of someone who's bat crazy nuts? Thank god were secretly building FEMA prisons. 

Ryan's Austere Hope will Show Americans that life isn't Fair.

Is Paul Ryan buying the country time? Ryan is first and foremost an extreme hard line ideologue. That’s the easy part.

Ryan has shaped numbers and math around his twisted vision, what is in fact, a fictionalized economic model written by Ayn Rand.

But Ryan’s also been around long enough to blame for our current $16 trillion debt.

1. Clinton left the U.S. projected surplus.

2. Ryan and the Republicans under Bush, gave that surplus back and borrowed everything else.

3. We went from surpluses to $16 trillion in debt with Ryan's help.

4. Oddly, Ryan and the Republicans now think  they're the ones that must save us from collapse.

Today’s article in the Wisconsin State Journal quoted Ryan as saying:

“…his highest priority is to ‘buy the country time’ with measures that will reduce its $16 trillion debt.”

Debt created and passed with Ryan's help. The Great Recession, remember that too? Ryan likes the tea party influence because it doesn't think! Teatards reined in Ryan's drunken spending.  

Ryan is treating the Baby Boom’s use of Medicare as if it were some surprise development too. Ryan  is saying America can’t afford keeping our senior citizens out of poverty?

And just after saying he wanted to “buy the country time,” he has the balls to say:

“I don’t see this as a gloom-and-doom alarmist message.”

And while health care costs continue to outpace inflation, businesses continue to drop coverage, but not because of Obamacare. Ryan’s already blaming Obamacare instead of corporate opportunists for dumping employees. If Ryan had his way, we’d be doubling down on and deregulating our already private system where doctors and hospitals could do whatever they wanted without any liability, and insurance companies would be exempt from paying out any claims. Now that’s the free market. 

At this Gun Fight, LaPierre gets killed.

This is must see video dealing with the level of our national debate over gun violence and gun control.

The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing today, swearing in a gallery of witnesses to testify.

NRA VP Wayne LaPierre again trotted out the lack of prosecution as a reason why more laws wouldn't make a difference. He threw out the number 62, without specifics, implying nationally only 62 illegal gun purchases were prosecuted. You can see it in the video. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse corrected him. Sometime later, LaPierre admitted that the number applied only to Chicago, which from my reading, was an intentionally misleading lie.

LaPierre lied after just being sworn in to testify before the senate. He now should be prosecuted for lying to a senate hearing. Or should we give him a pass, let him get away with lying under oath?



BEST GOLDEN MOMENT OF FEAR MONGERING: Above, LaPierre continues to misrepresent the meaning of the Second Amendment in a way that appeals to the low information conservative voters.

But you have to watch the most surreal moment yet provided by LaPierre, who after this, should lose all rights to gun ownership (6:10 into the video):

"Without any doubt, if you look at why the founding fathers put it there, they have lived under the tyranny of King George, and they wanted to make sure these free people in this new country would be subjugated again, and have to live under tyranny. What people all over the country feel today,is being abandoned by their government. If a tornado hits, if a hurricane hits, if a riot occurs, their going to be out their alone. And the only way to protect them self, in the cold, in the dark, when they're vulnerable is with a firearm." 

The answer by Baltimore Maryland Police Chief James Johnson, shocked by LaPierre's response near the end of this piece, is jaw dropping...the look on his face is unforgettable.

Chief Johnson: "I find it to be creepy, scary, and simply just not based on logic. Certainly law enforcement across this nation is well prepared to deal with any natural or man made disaster that'll occur. And frankly, I can't relate to that kind of thinking."

Sen. Dick Durban: "I can't either." 

Here's Gabby Gifford's testimony. Gun violence and the damage resulting from it, is just as devastating as the loss of life:

The real killer? Video games? Oh the lives lost in those video games... 

Ign: Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander has called video games “a bigger problem than guns.” Speaking on MSNBC's The Daily Rundown, Alexander condemned games but said he doesn’t expect anti-gun or game bills to catch on due to the First and Second Amendments.

"I'm going to wait and see on all of these bills," Alexander said. "I think video games is a bigger problem than guns, because video games affect people.

One of the wackiest new senators is Texan Ted Cruz, a "rising star" who's just starting to lose his grip reality completely:

Randi  Rhodes: Senators Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham are angry that they couldn’t bring guns to the hearing as some sort of sick visual aid. Frankly, I think they should have let them do it. I can’t think of a better argument for gun control than the image of somebody like Ted Cruz wielding an assault rifle at a Congressional hearing. 

Piers Morgan and Mayor Barrett get nothing from crazy Sheriff Clarke. Milwaukee Woman fires gun on advice from Clarke!!!

CNN's Piers Morgan isn't afraid to take on the armed gun nut bullies with his arsenal of reasoning and logic. He uses words with greater precision than the spray of semiautomatic bullets from his simpleton guests babbling meaningless talking points about a Second Amendment they know little about.

Tonight, Piers and Mayor Tom Barrett asked Sheriff David Clarke a few simple to answer questions, and got nothing but a rehashing of Clarke's 30 radio announcement. No background checks, no solution to an "involuntary mental judgement commitment," no solution to a domestic violence record.

In fact, the conservative response bashing politicians who receive protection while in office is lunacy and shows the fallacy of their arguments. Clarke would rather prosecute killers AFTER they leave a trail of dead bodies, instead of before. But that's the real difference isn't it?

Check out the loon that believed Clarke's advice in the story below. Big surprise: 

jsonline: Woman's excuse for firing gun: Sheriff Clarke said it was OK: A 36-year-old Milwaukee woman had a ready excuse when Milwaukee police approached her Saturday about firing a gun … Makisha Cooper told police that Sheriff David Clarke had said it was OK for her to arm herself, according to a criminal complaint accusing her of endangering safety by use of a dangerous weapon while intoxicated and carrying a concealed weapon.

Cooper told police "that she knows her rights regarding having a firearm because she heard Sheriff Clarke on the radio stating that she could own a gun to protect herself," the complaint says. Cooper later told police she had gotten into a fight with her niece, then went to her car to retrieve the gun. She fired it once in front of a house, she told police.

Proponents of gun control legislation were right then?

Critics have said Clarke's radio message was irresponsible and encouraged "amped-up vigilantism." 

MSNBC's Alex Wagner: "Ron Johnson is intellectual Kryptonite, you get to close to him and your brain cells die."

I forgot to throw this clip on last week when John Kerry utterly embarrassed Dumb Ron Johnson. What I like about it is the response from Alex Wagner, who seems to get just how bad this guy is with no help from yours truly. This is how the nations sees Wisconsin's senator.

Republicans Raise Taxes on Poor, Again.

Rachel Maddow uncovered what should be front page news; state Republicans are do away with income taxes while instituting a very regressive value added sales tax only. Talk about stamping down demand. That's at the same time they reduced tax breaks for the poor and closed tax breaks that helped struggling families survive. Tax food? Why not?

But I say go for it Louisiana and Kansas, please show us all how well that works. Making the poor pay more sounds like the old days in merry old England when the king demanded higher and higher taxes from the peasants, or else. Boy, there's going to be a lot to fix when the political pendulum swing back to the Democrats.

Defeating Gun Control brings out the Ugly: Now's not the time for Civility?

The truth is, the bullet riddled bodies of 20 1st graders doesn't take precedent of over the imagined loss of constitutional rights by a ruthless movement of selfish mentally impaired numskulls. If we did go after the mentally ill as they so conveniently suggest, these blood soaked Americans  would be the first to lose their guns.

So imagine the father of one lost 1st grader being interrupted by a knuckle dragging protester! Yeah, what's wrong with that grieving father, speaking out like that, he should be silenced.

CTPost: The sometimes boisterous public hearing -- after nearly four hours of testimony from State Police, parents of slain Newtown first-graders and city mayors -- seemed dominated by gun owners, who railed at more than 90 proposed bills.

"The Second Amendment!" was shouted a couple of times by as many as a dozen gun enthusiasts in the meeting room as Neil Heslin, holding a photo of his slain 6-year-old son, Jesse Lewis, asked why Bushmaster assault-style weapons are allowed to be sold in the state. "There are a lot of things that should be changed to prevent what happened," said Heslin, who said he grew up using guns and was undisturbed by the interruption of his testimony.

"That wasn't just a killing, it was a massacre," said Heslin, who recalled dropping off his son at Sandy Hook Elementary school shortly before Lanza opened fire.

As usual, it's opposite day every day in Republican world: would "another responsible gun owner" be willing to do nothing at all? This is an insult to bumper sticker slogans.

Mayor Barrett on Sheriff Clarke: "Sounds like he's calling for a police state."

This clip is from a few weeks ago, but it's even more relevant today considering Sheriff David Clarke's recent public service announcement trashing 911 and calling for an armed citizenry.

Upfront's Mike Gousha asked Mayor Tom Barrett about Clarke's comment about gun control:

Clarke: "All of these suggestions about the need for gun control are the mindset of sheep." 

Barrett's response:

Barrett: "I support the people's right to have a gun, but I don't think we should demand that people have guns. And if that's the direction some are leaning toward, that's not our America, where people are basically forced to carry guns."

And isn't that what it's already come down too? Think of how fast we went from concealed carry for the few, to telling everyone that if they want to be safe, they'd better be armed.

Doocy and Shapiro trade Obama/Hillary quips to showcase their stupidity.

Escaped “Lost Boys” from Neverland, Steve Doocy and Breitbart brat Ben Shapiro trash Obama’s latest reference to the lunacy of Fox News.

Seriously, Doocy and Breitbart editor Shapiro sound like naughty playground bullies, dishing out what conservative hate most, name calling :

“He’s an imperial president, and he has dictatorial tendencies,” Shapiro asserted, cutting right to the chase. The president is “talking about silencing members of the media that he doesn’t like,” Shapiro adding, “he’s a bully.” Doocy chimed in “What he’s saying, is the media is just not liberal enough.”

“I think he wants more than a media pass,” Shapiro responded. “I think he wants people who don’t like him to be quiet.” The pair went on to talk about the joint interview Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave to 60 Minutes last night. “There was so much purple love in the room,” Shapiro remarked. “This wasn't 60 Minutes. This was 60 Shades of Grey.” 

What swirls in their heads is exemplified by the nightmarish video below, edited because it was too long and too creepy. The Obama threat below resembles the kind of nightmare one gets while suffering a high fever that repeats over and over. This is like other video's found on conservative sites that beg you to click on them, and I do because I can't believe people make spend time making these things:

Ryan’s solution to gun violence? Change human nature first.

If only we can root out the evil in human nature...wait, that’s it.

The solution to gun violence is not the physical weapon itself, but the inner evil that has gripped human nature since the beginning of time.

We should cleanse the human spirit first, by teaching right and wrong to those trapped in poverty, as Paul Ryan exposes, or perhaps revisit the historically “popular” program that experimented with human eugenic research.

All better options than trying to regulate “hardware,” or trot out the tired list of reasonable laws that have worked in other countries.  

Rep. Paul Ryan wants us to focus on “the causes of violence” and “the culture that produces this kind of thing.”

Newsmax: "We need to look beyond just recycling failed policies of the past. ... Let's go beyond just this debate and make sure we get deeper. What's our policy on mental illness? What's going on in our culture that produces this kind of thing? You know, we need to have that kind of a discussion and debate," Ryan said.

Would that culture be part of our gun crazy fanaticism that feeds into the paranoia of losing Second Amendment rights? Would that culture produce slogans like “They’re coming to take our guns?” Or should we go deeper, and debate this for another 100 years after hundreds of thousands die needlessly? I can see why Ryan is hesitant.  

Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., also urged lawmakers to consider mental health issues.

Good idea, except Republicans don’t believe mental health should be a required covered illness. In fact, a free market system wouldn’t require any coverage or reporting of a person’s mental problems at all. Oh, but we can cross that bridge when Republicans do away with Obamacare.

By the way, if allowing this gun carnage to continue, or turning down disaster aid to victims isn’t a mental illness, than what’s the point? 

Sheriff Clarke is one scary gun carrying fanatic.

Wisconsin is getting more embarrassing press! We're turning out to be the home of more and more mindless Republican lunacy, from Scott Walker, Robin Vos, Scott Fitzgerald, Dumb Ron Johnson, Lyin' Paul Ryan and the vigilante justice prescribed by Sheriff David Clarke.

As if to make a point by rubbing gun lunacy in the face of a frustrated public, state Republican legislators are now pushing a bill to allow off duty and retired law enforcement officers to carry guns anywhere. That would include no gun zones like schools and posted businesses.

So imagine a retired paranoid authoritarian know-it-all like Sheriff Clarke bringing his tough vision of vigilante justice into a school or business near you, knowing that state law protects his right to act like he's still getting paid by the public to scare people to death. Beautiful.

Here's Fox 6's coverage, and CNN's Soledad O'Brien with Clarke:

jsonline: O'Brien began the interview with a clip of Clarke's call-to-arms radio spot from last week. "Wow. Wow," she said. "What's the goal in this? Because it's kind of scary. Is it to scare people? Is it to get everybody to run out and buy a gun?"

Clarke, who was interviewed from Monterey, Calif., where he was attending a conference, said the only scary thing is the criminal element. "Once the wolf is at the door. Once the intruder is inside your home. Once you're on the street and someone sticks a gun in your face to take your car or your wallet, you don't have the option of calling 911." 

While conservatives like Clarke want to cut everything except their idea of a police state, their motives are less than pure by trying to arm citizens to carry out their fear mongered vigilante system of justice: 

When asked for details about layoffs in his department, Clarke said he has 350 sworn officers and last year he had to lay off 42 people.

Republicans keep getting caught for Voter Fraud proving how easy it is to commit Voter Fraud.

If it's so easy to commit voter fraud, than why are the few bad apples still getting caught trying to prove their point?

Here's another wacky Republican who mixes the right to vote with the nonexistent right to show an ID buying beer.

AP: A Las Vegas Strip casino worker who agreed to plead guilty to trying to vote twice in the November presidential election thrust herself into Nevada’s voter photo ID debate on Thursday, saying she was trying to show how easy it would be to vote with just a signature.

“This has always been an issue with me. I just feel the system is flawed,” Roxanne Rubin said. Rubin, a 56-year-old registered Republican, originally faced a felony charge of voting more than once in the same election. Rubin noted that in December, Nevada Secretary of State Ross Miller asked the state Legislature to require voters to show photo identification at polling places.

Miller, who was in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, said in a statement that if Rubin was trying to demonstrate how easy it would be to commit voter fraud, “she clearly failed and proved just the opposite.” 

Ryan can't Hide any longer.

This may be a little bit in the weeds, but a fascinating peek into the convoluted wonkiness of Paul Ryan. In this revealing look by Jonathan Chait, from his article “Paul Ryan Breaks Down Under Wonkterrogation,” Ryan hides pure ideological mumbo jumbo with accounting terms that when taken together don't mean anything.

Ryan usually manages to elide the contradiction between the irreconcilable hopes placed in him by evading questioning, using weasel words, or just filibustering long enough to exhaust the topic. That’s what makes his talk Wednesday with Ezra Klein … Ryan tried to evade the question, but Klein wouldn’t let him until Ryan had made it perfectly clear he would not accept higher revenue at all, under any conditions.

Ryan claims Obama got his tax increase, so now owes Republicans their cuts:

Ryan simply hurls up nonsensical rationales one after another, and finally offers his actual reason when he has run out of gibberish. “They already got their revenues,” Ryan said. “So what, we’ll roll over and they get more revenues? We’ve yet to get anything as a result of it.” 

But Ryan’s lying, as revealed in this response calling him out on his spending cut omission:

There were $2.2 trillion in spending cuts in 2011. So you could just as easily say Republicans already got their spending cuts and there should be no more, right? Ryan replies:

“That was last session,” Ryan said. “We’re going forward now.”

Notice how fast Ryan has flipped his logic. First he asserts that there can’t be more revenue because we already increased some revenue. When reminded that we cut spending even more, he says it’s “last session” and irrelevant. Ryan was asked this very thing. ("If you have a bill that has real spending cuts in it and you add $700 billion of revenues, does that mean that the spending cuts aren't real anymore?") Ryan's reply: 

"Well, look, I’m not going to get into that." Yes, why get into the inherent logical fallacy that undergirds your entire argument?]

Ryan then circled back to his “we already increased revenue” point, and then got to his real position: “And by the way, I think that revenue level is way too high, I don’t see how you get there.” (This) final confession is the tell. Ryan opposes more revenue because he thinks revenue is too high. He would like to cut spending, but keeping taxes low is the maximal priority.

If you like Republican anti-tax orthodoxy, you’ll like Paul Ryan. (Ryan mentor and current Kansas governor Brownback is currently implementing a plan, the most explicit version of Ryan's budget, to raise taxes on the poor while cutting them on the rich.) If you think Ryan’s the guy to change that orthodoxy, you’re kidding yourself. 

Ryan and House Promise 10 balanced budget.

Paul Ryan may now just have to go out on a limb; a detailed budget that balances in just 10 years. Remember Ryan's budget was supposed to be balanced in 2038. That's even after going through a whole bunch of different congresses. Good luck with that?

Well, the dynamic has change, maybe.

It's time for Republicans to detail their plan for cuts. It's not Obama's responsibility. He's not supposed to go first. It's wasn't Obama's big idea to go after every safety net program. It wasn't Obama who wants to dismantle government in  an austere way. It's Ryan's plan, and John Boehner is promising to give it to the public. I hope it's graded by the CBO.

Ezra Klein goes deep into the details. Great stuff:

Holy Crap! Paul Ryan would like to have a Closed Door, Big Government Authority.

Damn those public debates. Conservative voters apparently don’t need to know how and why laws were passed, they just need to agree with them. There, that was easy.

Defending policy and answering questions from voters is so messy, time consuming and way too pubic for Paul Ryan. People might actually learn something, and who knows, change their mind. From CNN:

Rep. Paul Ryan: "Now that the president is implementing his agenda, we'll see that the benefits are far less than advertised." He urged party members to take their disagreements behind closed doors and "challenge the left, not each other." "A healthy debate is a good and needed thing. We can deliberate in private without fighting in public," Ryan said.

So behind closed door fights, debates and disagreements is what the founding fathers envisioned as a representative government? I kind of missed the part were the voters had a say in their decisions.

But in the market place of idea's, the public should have a chance to determine which side they feel more comfortable with. It may also run counter to Ryan's goal of top down control, by eliminating healthy and moderating fights with each other, even questioning a politicians motives when necessary...but as Ryan points out, "We can't let that happen."

Oh, and Obama the all-powerful has the ability to force Republican to fight each other? Ryan is blaming Obama for their in-party squabbling. 

jsonline: Ryan said conservatives should not be baited into “playing the villain” against Obama in the president's second term, or driven to distraction by him. "We can’t get rattled,” he said. "He’ll try to get us to fight with each other – to question each other’s motives – so we don’t challenge him … We can’t let that happen. We have to be smart."

UPDATE: I just found this interesting conflict: The conference where Ryan made many of these comments featured a panel discussion that basically whined and complained about the very things Ryan offered up. Yikes, did anybody else notice this?

jsonline: A conference on the future of conservatism: During panel discussions at the event, some conservative analysts faulted their side for "choking off debate" within the GOP and demanding too much ideological conformity. Some faulted the party for failing to more aggressively court voters outside the party's base. Some urged the party to speak more directly to bread-and-butter, populist concerns such as the cost of education and health care, and chastised the GOP for using harsh and unfriendly rhetoric on issues such as immigration. Some complained that with a few exceptions, Republican members of Congress wasn't generating new policy ideas. 

More Authoritarian Behavior: Arizona State Rep. worried about patriotism, wants Students to give Oath to Constitution to Graduate.

While we have seen more and more conservative government office holders waving their pocket constitutions around like a get-out-of-jail card to do whatever they think is legal, regardless of law, at least one Arizona representative wants to foster even more know-it-all law breaking scholars with an oath.

A bill in the Arizona state house would require public school students to swear an oath to defend the constitution in order to receive their diplomas. Arizona bill HB 2467 was sponsored by Republican Rep. Bob Thorpe, who told Current that the idea for the legislation came out of a campaign event and was a response to constituents who are concerned about patriotism and the Constitution.

Perhaps that’s where Thorpe’s bill disconnects with me; I've never been worried about someone else’s patriotism. Did you ever think that might just be the problem with conservatives?

“I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose or evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge these duties; so help me God.”

Secondly, Thorpe’s thinking hearkens back to a time when the Bill of Rights only applied to the federal government, giving the states the ability to take those same rights away. But since 1925, the Supreme Court now protects the Bill of Rights at the state level as well. Thorpe would try to reverse that. 

He also doesn't realize the First Amendment doesn't just protect citizens from censorship, but it also protects against being forced to say something, like an oath to the constitution.

But as currently written, the bill can be seen as a violation of the First Amendment, based on current case law that has challenged policies that students recite the pledge of allegiance … the ACLU of Arizona told Current, "Students have a right to free speech, a right to stay silent, a right to go to school," Thorpe objected to the idea that he bill is unconstitutional, citing the fact that the First Amendment refers to Congress, not state legislatures, and that it does not silence students from speaking. He also noted that those serving in government or the military must take such an oath, as well as immigrants seeking to become U.S. citizens. Thorpe said he is planning on offering an amendment to the bill when it goes to committee that would make taking the oath optional rather than mandatory.

If he can’t subjugate Arizonians, he’ll at least shame them into compliance. 

Catholic Church in Colorado declares Embryos not People.

The Catholic Church appears to have changed their mind:

Life begins at conception, according to the Catholic Church, but in a wrongful death suit in Colorado, a Catholic health care company has argued just the opposite.

A fetus is not legally a person until it is born, the hospital's lawyers have claimed in its defense. And now it may be up to the state's Supreme Court to decide.

I've always made the case that the unborn aren't people until they're born. We have this bothersome thing called "birthdays" to remind us of this common sense idea.

For religious zealots, I've pointed out a passage in Genesis, in God's own words (as translated by man):

"And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul."

Well, looks like the Catholic Church is coming around to my way of thinking in the CNN story below.

Colorado courts agreed with the Catholic organization's defense that the embryos weren't people

Note: The following very tragic story does not explain what the Catholic hospital did wrong to subject themselves to a lawsuit over the death of a mother and her two unborn fetus'. Big omission. The "sanctity of life" doesn't give the rights of full personhood, apparently, which I  agree with.

CNN: 



Life may begin at conception, but it hasn't developed into a living, "breathing" being. Viability in the last month of pregnancy should not be discounted either, and no one is suggesting that. But on a more conceptual level, do we have an existence without a thought history, a feeling of ever being?

We're Safe...for now!

Loved this story from The Onion:

Dumb Ron Johnson and Rand Paul make America look like "powerless nation, besieged on all sides by constant threats and occupiers."

Chris Hayes made an observation last night that I've been making here for some time. Wisconsinites recently got a flavor of the rampant right wing paranoia from Dumb Ron Johnson, who went on an endless rant about the Benghazi attack. That wasn't a sign of strength, but a display of weakness by what appears to be a cowering conservative party of victims. What other small but deadly attack will they freak out about next? What a way to encourage our enemies.

Hayes: "You would think we were some small powerless nation, besieged on all sides by constant threats and occupiers, instead of the most powerful nation in the world, with the largest armed forces. Instead what you see in every question was, I'm nervous about this, I'm anxious about this, what are we going to do about this. I think it was a striking moment."

Soledad O'Brien tries to Reason with the Sick Mind of Dumb Ron Johnson.

CNN's Soledad O'Brien was never able to get Dumb Ron Johnson to think through, and respond to his own spontaneous dumb comments about Hillary Clinton. This is conspiratorial lunacy, and shouldn't be lost on Wisconsin voters the next time around. Johnson is a Benghazi Bamboozler.

I'd like to hear Johnson's reason why the administration would lie and mislead the country about the attack. Why, please? My guess is that most Republicans like Johnson, not so secretly agree with the anti-Muslim video that came out and upset the Middle East, one of the first possible reasons for the attack. They would prefer to tag the Obama administration with a "terrorist attack" like the great almighty Bush had on his watch. Rand Paul after all did say they were equal in his twisted little mind. Paul also wanted to slash security funding for our embassy's by 75 percent. On the House side, no ones asked Paul Ryan why he decided not to take up the senate bill on funding. Maybe it's Ryan's fault.

Soledad stayed on point, which befuddled the scatter-shot Johnson.

Completely insane now, Sheriff Clarke tells residents, Calling 911 is no longer best option...Get a Gun, "I need you in the GAME." Game?

Concealed carry was supposed to make us all safer by making criminals hesitate and think twice about their intended victim. That didn't work, while at the same time mass shootings like Sandy Hook continue to become more frequent and common domestic disagreements end in gun deaths or injury.

Roll out plan B? Everybody needs to carry a gun now and public places need armed security.  

This is America? This is what the founding fathers envisioned? Or is this what conservatives meant by freedom and liberty?

Abdicating his responsibilities and storing up excuses to use when he fails again, authoritarian Sheriff David Clarke has resorted to scaring people into owning and carrying guns just in case he doesn't respond to your cries for help in time. Comforting thought?

You won't believe what you are about to hear:

jsonline: In his latest radio spot, Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke tells residents personal safety isn't a spectator sport anymore, and "I need you in the game."

"With officers laid off and furloughed, simply calling 911 and waiting is no longer your best option. You could beg for mercy from a violent criminal, hide under the bed, or you can fight back."

Clarke urges listeners to take a firearm safety course and handle a firearm "so you can defend yourself until we get there. You have a duty to protect yourself and your family. We're partners now. Can I count on you?"

GOODBYE CLARKE? Why almost no one is demanding Clarke be relieved, fired or thrown out of office is a mystery to me. When the "Clarke's" of the world get away with this stuff, they become even more emboldened, which pushes them further to the right, resulting in what we now recognize as the radicalized Republican Party.

jsonline: The Greenfield Police Department issued advice on its Facebook page, saying none of its officers was laid off or furloughed, that violent crime is down and the department's response time to violent crime is less than two minutes … decision that should not be driven by fear that our officers will not respond to your calls for help," the department said.

Roy Felber, president of the Milwaukee Deputy Sheriffs' Association, said the ad sounded to him like a call to vigilantism. "That doesn't sound smart," Felber said. "That's why society has police officers." Instead of promoting vigilantism, Felber said, money should be found to hire more police officers and deputies.

Clarke had made this amazingly bizarre statement as well:

The mayor also reacted to a statement released by the Sheriff on Friday, claiming Mayor Barrett would have benefited from “a firearm and a plan of defense” when he was attacked outside State Fair Park back in 2009. “Harry Truman had a statement about dealing with McCarthyism.  He said, ‘I’m not gonna get in the gutter with that guy.’  That’s my view on that,” said Barrett.

Look who got all the votes in 2012.

Assault Rifle Ban Proposed, Some Sheriffs say they won't uphold law.

A handful of sheriffs across the country say they will not enforce an assault weapons ban because THEY don't believe it's constitutional. Remember, these guys enforce the law.

We don't have long as a country.



Here's Rachel Maddow with a clip I thought made the gun regulation case well.



Rachel pointed out how everyone likes the regulations proposed by Obama, even Republicans. Yet, when asking Republicans if they like "Obama's" plan, they oppose the regulations they like. Click to enlarge.....

Filibuster Reform Dead!

Sen. Harry Reid cut a deal with Mitch McConnell that essentially changes nothing about the filibuster in the Senate. This is soooo Democratic Party-ish. Reid couldn't get even 51 votes. Who were the hold backs, the supporters of gridlock?

Worst case most likely scenario; Obama's second term will be held up in the senate and the house. Nothing will get done.

Then, the gerrymandered electoral college will keep any future Democratic president out of office, which will result in the dismantling of all our safety nets, worker rights and the ushering in on conservative social issues. An authoritarian one party system will reign. Poverty will return to pre-30's levels, spending cuts will continue, as labor is pushed into minimum wage jobs. Free market health care will stiff their customers at every turn, and bankruptcy will run rampant until Republicans make that impossible to declare too.

All because Democrats blew their time in power. What in gods name are they waiting for. Sure we got health care, but for how long, once Republican gerrymandering takes over?

Here's Ed Schultz expressing his own frustration:

Now Paul Ryan says he never meant Social Security and Medicare recipients were "takers." Liar!

Paul Ryan got the full Daily Show treatment, after Ryan attempted to disassociate himself from the "takers" comment relating to Social Security and Medicare. He can't do it.

Mother Jones: Here's how he used it in a 2011 interview with conservative Star Parker [emphasis added]:

Right now, according to the Tax Foundation, between 60 and 70 percent of Americans get more benefits from the government than they pay back in taxes. So, we're getting towards a society where we have a net majority of takers versus makers.

The Tax Foundation study that Ryan is referring to includes government benefits "from all sources," including Medicare, Social Security, and even national defense. This covers many benefits that go beyond actual checks—the Tax Foundation study derives its "60 to 70 percent" figure in part by assigning Pentagon spending as a "benefit" to each American family proportional to that family's income.

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Florida's attempt at voter suppression worked; 200,000 walked away.

Since the 2010 Republican electoral surge, we've seen how they would run state and federal government. Every example of their winner-take-all attitude, uncompromising agenda, and disregard for those Americans who are not conservative, shines a bright light on what would be a dictatorial and authoritarian government under Republican control. Not exactly the government our founding fathers envisioned.

Gerrymandering the electoral college votes is next, after voter ID and voter suppression didn't work as planned:

Orlando Sentinel: The long Election Day lines around Florida may have turned away more than 200,000 frustrated would-be voters who gave up and went home before they cast ballots — or else saw the lines and elected not to join them. Analyzing data compiled by the Orlando Sentinel, Ohio State University professor Theodore Allen estimated last week that at least 201,000 voters likely gave up in frustration on Nov. 6, based on research Allen has been doing on voter behavior.

Gun/Ammo Tax to Fund School Security?

Putting the "responsible" back into "...gun owners," the idea below makes a whole lot of sense.

Don't get me wrong, arming and securing every public place is one of the worst solutions to our gun problem, but school safety programs discontinued when Republicans slashed their states education funding could return with this new logical source of revenue.  

eschoolnews: One Florida lawmaker wants to make gun owners foot the bill for students' safety. Friday Rep. Linda Stewart (D-Orlando) filed HB 325, which dictates mandatory guidance counseling for students in school safety issues, widens gun prohibition from school buildings to a "safety zone" within 500 feet of a school, and allows anyone to "check" their firearm with officials when they arrive at a school to avoid prosecution … Stewart proposes creating a Safe School Trust Fund (HB 327) within the Department of Education, and she wants it funded by taxes collected on Florida gun and ammo sales.

Likewise, a group of Harvard professors recently called for a new national tax on all guns and ammunition as a way to "provide stable revenue to meaningfully target gun violence prevention,” according to MSN.

Remarkably, the online poll defies logic (I was able to vote twice):

Female New Mexico Republican threatens Rape Victims with Felony, Prison for Abortion that tampers with Fetal Evidence.

After record levels of proposed abortion laws in heavily Republican states, this one will leave you breathless. There really is something terribly wrong in the minds of conservatives.

Huffington Post:A Republican lawmaker in New Mexico introduced a bill on Wednesday that would legally require victims of rape to carry their pregnancies to term in order to use the fetus as evidence for a sexual assault trial. House Bill 206, introduced by state Rep. Cathrynn Brown (R), would charge a rape victim who ended her pregnancy with a third-degree felony for "tampering with evidence."

“Tampering with evidence shall include procuring or facilitating an abortion, or compelling or coercing another to obtain an abortion, of a fetus that is the result of criminal sexual penetration or incest with the intent to destroy evidence of the crime," the bill says. Third-degree felonies in New Mexico carry a sentence of up to three years in prison.

Pat Davis of ProgressNow New Mexico called it "blatantly unconstitutional" on Thursday.

“The bill turns victims of rape and incest into felons and forces them to become incubators of evidence for the state,” he said. “According to Republican philosophy, victims who are ‘legitimately raped’ will now have to carry the fetus to term in order to prove their case.”

Top Benghazi Bamboozler Ron Johnson looks Dumber than Before....

Dumb Ron Johnson is a Benghazi bamboozler. Whether he believes the conspiracy theories about a cover-up or not, Johnson has done little to stay informed.

Politicususa: After being humiliated by Hillary Clinton yesterday, Sen. Ron Johnson was owned by John Kerry today for trying to push his Benghazi conspiracy. Sen. Ron Johnson started his tea party what really happened at Benghazi shtick today, but like Hillary Clinton yesterday, John Kerry was having none of it. Kerry responded to Johnson’s repeat performance of what really happened at Benghazi by asking, “Were you at the briefing at the tapes?” Johnson answered, “No.” Kerry continued, “Well, there was a briefing with tapes, which we all saw, those of us who went to it, which made it crystal clear. We sat for several hours with our intel folks, who described to us precisely what we were seeing. We saw the events unfold. We had a very complete and detailed description.”

Absolutely full of himself, Mr. center of the universe Ron Johnson asked Kerry:

"Would you work with me then, on and ongoing basis, so we can get that behind us...."

What a glory hungry complete ass:



If you missed Hillary's response to this blustery bamboozler yesterday, here it is:



Ed Schultz outed Johnson and Rand Paul for getting their questions from Glenn Beck, Fox News and Drudge, believe it or not:

End of the Road for Road Construction? Suddenly, Republicans must govern.

We’re about to see the management of our state government fail. The party that hates government and refuses to increase taxes is about to hit the wall.

jsonline: A state commission on Wednesday recommended raising the gas tax by 5 cents a gallon and creating a new, mileage-based fee - ideas the top two leaders in the state Assembly immediately shot down.

"Any increase in the state gas tax is simply off the table," Assembly Majority Leader Scott Suder (R-Abbotsford) said in a statement. In the same news release, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) said he and Suder would not back the proposed mileage-based fee.

The Transportation Finance and Policy Commission believes the state should raise fees by about $640 million a year for transportation costs. That would result in $120 in added costs for the owner of a typical passenger vehicle. It also recommended increasing borrowing.

That negates any proposed middle class tax cut. Doh! Of course letting the roads go to hell allows Republicans to freeload off the legacy of past taxpayers, and leave actual spending for some future Democratic administration. Still, that doesn't seem likely now that gerrymandering has created a permanent majority. So something’s gotta give, or maybe not.

The unanimously adopted report found that even if the state decided to allow roads to deteriorate further before fixing them, the state would face a deficit of about $2 billion over the next 10 years. Without additional funding, the percentage of roads in the state in poor or worse condition would double, from 20% to 42%, the report says. Major projects would be delayed by six years, resulting in a 22% increase in the number of congested highway miles.

The Republicans love going in circles, spending taxpayer money repealing and then reinstating the same old solutions with the all-important conservative stamp of approval this time around.

The panel also backed creating regional transportation authorities that could levy a 0.5% sales tax. Democrats created similar authorities when they controlled state government in 2009, but Republicans repealed the law creating them when they took power in 2011. The commission also recommended reinstating automatic annual increases in the gas tax to account for inflation. Such increases happened annually for 20 years under state law, but that law was repealed in 2006. 

Repealing the automatic increase in the gas tax was spearheaded by Republicans in 2005, and surprisingly swept in a whole bunch of Democrats, including Gov. Jim Doyle, who now regrets signing it into law. Republicans also rejected Doyle’s plan "to tax oil companies rather than consumers …  Doyle's proposal would bar oil companies from passing the tax on to consumers." I also thought this was interesting from way back then: “Republicans have not offered an alternative to pay for roads.”

How things haven’t changed. But from an jsonline story from Dec. 5, 2010, there’s another choice:

“…or take money from the general fund, which would force deeper cuts for other state programs.”

So the “surplus” really isn't a surplus after all, it’s a normalization of revenues that could help us maintain our state’s infrastructure, if we don't give it all back in another ridiculous tax cut scheme for Walker's reelection. 

Madison, a Liberal Ghetto filled with Unionista thugs Rated Second Best Run City in America.

Republicans must be appalled that liberal Madison is doing so well. Enjoy it while it lasts, Walker oversees all:

Channel3000: A national financial news and opinion online publication has declared Madison to be the second-best-run city in America. The website, 24/7 Wall Street, researches and publishes articles on financial and market information.

The article cites Madison's low unemployment rate of 4.9 percent in 2011, which was the second-lowest among all large cities in the U.S. It also cites Madison's Aaa credit rating, and a city ordinance that bans the government from using emergency reserves to fund the operating budget, unless two thirds of council membership vote otherwise.

In awarding the ranking to the city of Madison, authors cited the local employers in fields such as technology and health care. The article also noted that 54 percent of the city's adult population has a bachelor's degree, the third-highest rate among the top 100 largest cities. 

Republicans do Rush Job on important mining bill.

Senator Dale Schultz call the new mining bill worse than the original one he voted against last year. A few state Republicans say enough is enough, the mining bill"s" have been discussed for over a year, it's time to move on. Yet all those discussions were about other mining bills, and not this one.

Like a kangaroo court, Republican cut off questions to the bills authors. Nice meeting huh?

From WISC and WKOW:

Redistricting Stephen Colbert Style....

So true.....

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Wayne LaPierre a Ranting Lunatic. With so many on the right, will anyone notice?

I hope the NRA's drooling blood soaked spokesman Wayne LaPierre continues to make his case to Americans, who will finally understand what we've been up against for years, and why things are only getting worse.

Here's a great panel reacting to LaPierre's most recent rant about "absolutism." It appears the NRA wants to be the leader in an armed insurrection, coming soon, matching fire power with fire power. Oh, and they want to sell, sell, sell guns. LaPierre wants Americans to act and be more like the criminal class, as bizarre as that sounds. And why isn't he arguing for the return of machine guns and sawed off shotguns. Why are they banned?



And while we're at it, this case has been all but ignored here in Wisconsin. A 21 year old bought an AK-47 to kill his friend. He's got mental problems, but not the kind that will keep a gun out of his hands. Will Scott Walker's meeting dealing with gun violence deal with the extraordinary case below? I doubt it. WKOW:

Words to have meaning, like Justice Scalia's big time activist decision to broadly read the Second Amendment in a way that is crazy. Yet LaPierre should look at the "words," and understand how "absolute" those words are about sensible regulations.

Alabama: "Words do have meaning, Mr. President. And those meanings are absolute, especially when it comes to our Bill of Rights."

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said the Second Amendment leaves open the possibility of gun-control legislation … Scalia, a strict interpreter of the Constitution, said there's an "important limitation" on the right to bear arms. "We think that limitation is fairly supported by the historical tradition of prohibiting the carrying of 'dangerous and unusual weapons'," Scalia wrote, "Like most rights, the Second Amendment right is not unlimited. It is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose ..." Scalia wrote that the opinion was not in conflict with bans on gun ownership for convicted felons or the mentally ill. He also did not argue against restrictions on gun-carrying in places like schools and government buildings.

Scalia's opinion also includes language that may help those who want restrictions on assault rifles and magazines that can hold large numbers of bullets. The justice wrote that the opinion should not be seen as casting doubt on "laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms. (The court's 1939 Miller case) holding that the sorts of weapons protected are those 'in common use at the time' finds support in the historical tradition of prohibiting the carrying of dangerous and unusual weapons."

Former Walker Chief of Staff gets 2 years for Robbing Veterans for Vacation Trips.

Who does Scott Walker trust most? Thugs and scumbags, that's who. He knows how to pick em. And yet, with all the charges and convictions surrounding him, Scott Walker was clueless.

Can you imagine if this had happened to former governor Jim Doyle? It almost did:

jsonline-Dan Bice: Should the sins of political aides be visited upon their bosses? Gov. Scott Walker used to think so - when he was a candidate running for the office he now holds. In a 2006 news release, Walker blasted then-Gov. Jim Doyle when a state employee named Georgia Thompson was indicted on federal corruption charges.

"Unfortunately, we have a Governor and administration that condones unethical and illegal behavior," Walker said in a statement on Jan. 24, 2006. "The people of Wisconsin deserve better."

A three-judge panel later reversed the decision, saying Thompson had been wrongly convicted. One of the judges said that "the evidence is beyond thin."

So, is Walker's statement from 2006 coming back to haunt him? Of course not. Republicans love the military, they can't stop talking about our heroic veterans. But who decided to rob from our vets? Scumbag Walker aide Tim Russell:

jsonline: Timothy Russell, a former aide to Gov. Scott Walker, was sentenced Tuesday to two years in prison and five years on probation for stealing more than $21,000 from a veterans organization Walker named him to lead. Assistant District Attorney Bruce Landgraf said Russell had "a serious character flaw with regard to honesty and integrity."

Russell stole $5,000 from Operation Freedom on Dec. 31, 2009 - the first day he had control of the organization's bank account. Russell used the cash for two cruises, a political trip to Atlanta and to purchase Internet domain names for Walker's campaign for governor. Russell stole smaller sums from two Milwaukee County Board candidates while managing their campaign accounts were dropped.

Landgraf criticized Russell for complaining in his presentence report that politics played a role in his prosecution through the long-standing John Doe investigation that led to charges against five others.

Russell becomes the second close former aide to Walker convicted of a felony while in office. Kelly Rindfleisch, who succeeded Russell as deputy chief of staff at the county, was sentenced in November to six months in jail and probation for doing political fundraising while at her county job. Darlene Wink, Walker's constituent services director at the county, was sentenced in January to a year's probation on a misdemeanor charge for doing campaign fundraising in 2009 while at her county job. Former railroad executive William Gardner was given two years of probation for making illegal campaign donations to Walker.

Walker and Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce go after the Jobless, Propose Limiting Access to Unemployment Insurance.

Wisconsin set up the first unemployment compensation system in the nation.

Gov. Scott Walker is about to trash it. WMC's James Buchen calls ending unemployment benefits "the holy grail." 

Got a problem paying out unemployment benefits after workers were left high and dry after the Great Recession? The Walker Authority, taking its orders from Wisconsin Manufacturing and Commerce, is looking to attack the problem by putting fewer people on unemployment.

And magically, Wisconsin’s economy will improved. Unfortunately, the denial of benefits means the unemployed have nothing to spend. That kills demand and our economy.

But to WMC, the desire to fire employees without compensation is a slave owners dream. With a proposal to requirement job hunters to come up with an impossible 4 job applications a week, and a broader list of reasons to deny unemployment to fired employees, a cheap and desperate labor force is here at last.

Nationally, things are looking up:

jsonline: "The number of Americans seeking unemployment aid fell last week to the lowest level in five years." 

And just like Walker's Wisconsin, we're headed the other way:

Channel3000: Unemployment is up in nearly every Wisconsin city and county. All but two of the state's 72 counties had an increase. Only Menominee and Kenosha counties saw rates drop in December. 

Buchen's thinking ahead:

WPR News: James Buchen represents Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce on the state's Unemployment Insurance Advisory Council. He's talking about a plan that would establish a new standard called “substantial fault” when it comes to deciding whether a discharged worker qualifies for unemployment. As Buchen describes it, “There are those circumstances where employers I think feel — legitimately feel — that they have been wronged by the employee and have had very good reasons to discharge them and don't want to pay unemployment benefits on them either, yet they wind up being forced to pay benefits.” Buchen says this plan would correct that.

But Labor Attorney Victor Forberger says it could even deny benefits to people fired for minor infractions. For employers, “in the short term, they may have their unemployment taxes go down.

But it's going to create a lot of downward pressure on wages for folks. And wages will decline. And people’s ability to buy things will decline. So in the long term it's going to lead to some real problems in the state's economy.” Forberger says it would rewrite unemployment law in ways not seen since 1932, when Wisconsin set up the first unemployment compensation system in the nation.

Walker Authority Intimidates, Harasses Protesters with Unconstitutional Arrests.

Scott Walker and the brownshirt's at the DOA don't care so much for the First Amendment.

Where are our tea party constitutional scholars? I'm beginning to think their beloved Second Amendment makes the First irrelevant. With a gun, you can say and do anything you want.

But what has happened to ticketed protesters at the Capitol proves once and for all, the Walker Authority is ruling the state through intimidation.

Wheeler Report: Late last week, the Department of Justice continued to throw out citations issued to Capitol protestors under inapplicable administrative code provisions as many of these cases advance through the judicial system.  To date, with approximately 125 citations being issued since Chief Erwin’s tenure, none have resulted in a fine being leveled against a protestor.  And the latest dismissal could result in dozens of additional cases being dismissed.

Rep. Chris Taylor has been rebuffed by Chief Erwin and the Department of Administration when attempting to ascertain what specific protestor conduct was objectionable.

“(It) seemed merely designed to harass people exercising their constitutional rights,” stated Rep. Taylor.  “The Walker administration and Chief Erwin decided to go down the path of issuing unlawful citations, which has wasted thousands of taxpayer dollars in police time, attorney time and court time.”   

"Free Market" MacIver Institute pushes Big Government, Top Down one size fits all Voucher Program.

The “MacIver Institute” (what joke, it’s more like a place for freeloading conservatives), just revealed their true motivation behind the not-so successful school vouchers program.

After mentioning the usual “school choice gives parents educational options to escape failing schools” feel good mumbo jumbo, MacIver revealed the real reason why vouchers are so important, and it has nothing to do with education.

Trashing Republican State Sen. Mike Ellis for insisting on giving local districts the choice to go with vouchers, MacIver wrote:

It's especially disappointing when Republicans like Ellis, who have little to gain by defending the educational status quo except a few fleeting favorable headlines, decide to cast their lot with the Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC). After WEAC's attempts to unseat so many of Ellis' colleagues and foment unrest at the Capitol, you would think that he would be reluctant to placate them with a proposal to block the expansion of school choice.

Vengeance...can’t you just feel it? It’s get back time, now that's real education reform. The deep thinkers at MacIver can’t get past their anger and resentment over those who dissented from the Walker Authority's big government takeover. 

Ellis’ position will only help spread “chaos” to a community near you, otherwise known as our First Amendment right to petition the government. You gotta fear the protesters:

Instead, what Ellis proposals is the expansion of the conflict, protests and demonstrations in Madison to a community near you. A battle-weary Wisconsin would see WEAC's organized chaos writ large.

Make no mistake, Republicans are big government authoritarians. The following is breathtaking, along with an amazing admission that referendums don’t really reflect the people’s intent, but the monied interests that hijack the vote:

What Ellis proposes is that no expansion of private school choice could take place without a referendum within the affected school district. To get the referendum on the ballot, supporters of private school choice would have to meet the same level of signatures needed for the recall of an elected member of the legislature. This referendum process would somehow assure "local control."

It's an absurd notion. The moment such a petition effort began, partisans from both sides would beleaguer the local school district. They would be flooded by outside union ad spending and outside union organizers opposed to school choice. Where is the "local" in that chaos?

But it was okay for the marriage amendment? Or possibly adding voter ID to the constitution? Or how about the right to keep and bear arms...the death penalty? 

Not a good MLK Day for Walker!

I grew up in Milwaukee during the turbulent days of protests and curfews in the 60's. Apparently, those days are coming back to haunt those who wish to return to those times.

WKOW: 

At the State Capitol, the 33rd annual Martin Luther King, Jr. celebration turned into an indictment of Governor Scott Walker … Father James Groppi was a firebrand Catholic priest who led civil rights marches throughout Milwaukee in the late 1960s, in a successful attempt to end housing discrimination in the city … his widow, whom he married after leaving the priesthood, created controversy by attacking Governor Walker's policies.

Dr. Margaret Rozga turned her attention on an unsuspecting Governor Walker.

"As a person who remembers that Martin Luther King was killed while he was working to organize sanitation workers, I know that anyone who works to curtail union rights is not in the tradition of Martin Luther King," said Dr. Rozga.

"And as someone who is a member of family that loves Wisconsin's natural resources, I know that if you endanger those resources, you are not standing with us," said Dr. Rozga.