New John Doe Probe offshoot of Walker Investigation, includes possible recall election issues and top legislative leader.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Dan Bice is just starting his coverage of a new investigation into possible recall campaign violations. There will be more details soon...

A former top-level assistant U.S. attorney has been appointed a special prosecutor in a burgeoning, secret investigation into a wide variety of state issues, including possible campaign violations during the recent recall elections, multiple sources said. Insiders said the investigation covers several jurisdictions, including Dane County. Police and prosecutors in these other counties have been lending a helping hand.

Sources said the investigation is following up on a number of leads turned up by an earlier John Doe probe … of Gov. Scott Walker during his time as Milwaukee County executive.

...it was scrutinizing a wide variety of state-related issues, including the recall races. Sources suggested the probe is looking at a current legislative leader and the governor's contest. "This is activity that occurred since the 2010 election," said a source.

Walker Recall Anniversary Gift? Late Night Deals and Legislation.

Just a few last minute tweets...

Walker continues to believe state businesses were waiting for him during recall!!!

Asked about his poor job creation record, Gov. Walker responded...

"March to March, recall, simple."

That's right, it's all about Scott Walker. The final numbers are out, the good ones Walker talked up during the campaign:

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released this week for the period March 2011-March 2012 show only modest job growth in Midwest states, with Wisconsin trailing Michigan, Illinois and Minnesota in job creation.

The data shows Michigan's private sector jobs grew 108,000; Illinois, 89,000; Minnesota, 55,000; and Wisconsin, 37,000.

Bravo Scott. What conclusion did our arrogant sociopathic governor come up with form the data? 

"Most employers were going to wait and see what happened," says Walker.

Yup, they were waiting around for you Scott. WKOW's Tony Galli reports: 

Judges okay to sign recall petitions, says Wisconsin Judicial Commission.

Lunatic fringe conservative radio host Mark Levin, along with his gang at the brownshirted Landmark Legal Foundation, filed a complaint in Wisconsin against judges who signed the Walker recall petition. 

Funny thing, they're located in Virginia, yet feel obligated to meddle in another states legal rights and issues. That's so Republican. I guess our Mordor like out-of-state authoritarian overseers weren't happy seeing our judges sign Walker recall petitions, a right they will apparently maintain. 

Reuters: Wisconsin state judges who were among nearly a million residents who signed petitions that triggered an unsuccessful recall election against Republican Governor Scott Walker did not breach their judicial obligations, a state ethics panel has found. The Wisconsin Judicial Commission concluded the judges "had not otherwise acted in a manner that would reflect adversely on ... impartiality or the appearance of impartiality," according to a brief letter to the judges on June 26.

The rights within a democratic republican need to change, according to the likes of subversives like Levin. 

Levin asked in a letter to the commission that a "full range of sanctions be considered for these egregious ethical violations, including as appropriate reprimand, censure, suspension and removal. According to Landmark, at least 29 judges signed petitions calling for the recall of Walker

Levin's crack legal team must have missed the Judicial Code below:

The Wisconsin Code of Judicial Conduct: "Although the rule contemplates the continuance of nonpartisanship on the part of Wisconsin judges and those seeking judicial office, judges are not expected to lead lives of seclusion," the code also says.

Guess there's no harm trying?

State Journal Headline Bias Pathetic, Whines $81 Million wasted on Failed Recall.

Those darn Democrats, throwing all that much money away on a failed recall election. 

Reporter Mary Spacuzza can't be serious titling her piece with this noticeably deceptive spin. 

What a waste, huh? Who spent most of that $81 million? Stirring up the taxpayers Mary? Or is almost all of it corporate special interest cash meant to lock in another bought and paid for governor?

jsonline: The Democracy Campaign estimated Walker and groups supporting him spent $58.7 million, compared with $22 million spent by Barrett, three Democrats whom Barrett defeated in the May primary and groups supporting Democrats.

He collected two donations of $500,000 - 50 times the usual $10,000 limit per donor.

The Republican Governors Association spent $9.4 million supporting Walker; business lobbyists Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce-$4 million; and Americans for Prosperity and the MacIver Institute for Public Policy-$3.7 million touting Walker's policies.

All things equal? It's more like Spicuzza's failed recall reporting.

Voter Intimidation in Racine by Illinois County Clerk. Who Brought in Out-of-Staters?

I had to laugh at an audio clip played by Sly in the Morning, where conservative talker Vicki McKenna took a call from a Racine voter who saw, and took, pictures of out of state license plates seen on vehicles parked around their polling place.

The automatic assumption was that out-of-state Democrats drove in to vote for Mayor Tom Barrett, and not the other way around. Let's get serious, Racine overwhelmingly voted for Scott Walker.

Maybe tea party operatives forgot to tell their fraudulent voters who they should have voted for in the senate recall race, because that win went to Democrat John Lehman. From the Root River Siren:

A complaint has been filed with the Government Accountability Board by a Racine resident which stems from an alleged act of voter intimidation by a poll observer at Jefferson Lighthouse Elementary School polling place. The poll observer has been identified as Willard Helander who turns out to be the County Clerk of Lake County, Illinois.

Helander reportedly harassed and intimidated voters and even tried to prevent one voter from putting her ballot in the voting machine by following close behind and shouting at the voter.

Other voters in the area are organizing further complaints against Helander and questioning why the Jefferson Lighthouse Chief Inspector didn't remove her even though she was warned many times while she was present in the polling place on Tuesday. 

Do I think there was voter fraud? Hey, Republicans do, so maybe... But do I think there was election fraud? Sure.

A night of mourning....

Michigan Guy to vote for Walker, alleges out-of-state Bus Loads to Vote Illegally.

Guess how Scott Walker will muddy up the election results if he loses? The following phone call alleging 3 bus loads of Michigan resident were planning to vote illegally for Tom Barrett is so ridiculous, I had to pass it along to you. Partisan whack job talker Chris Plante took the call that seemed to go on forever:

Fox News' Comic Relief, Panic and Anger over actual Democracy.

Powerplay's Chris Stirewalt can barely contain his disgust over the push back to authoritarian power. In his first sentence he almost says, "Don't let anybody kill...kid you...." He has a word of condolence to the state for being locked in turmoil. "...the protests, the ugliness, these mailers (with voting record sent via a liberal group)." Fox news registered phony outrage over the mailer, but never mentioned the right wing groups using recall signatures to intimidate and fire signers.

Ed's Mad! Here's the angry red heads update.....

I'll be posting quick hit clips today, and not a lot of commentary....from Martin Bashir, Ed Schultz on teacher attacks and the right wings supposed budget surplus.

Recall news and recount details.

WKOW's Greg Neumann on the recall and Tony Galli on a possible recount, what it all means.



Even with a felony conviction, if Walker wins, he is not automatically removed from office now.

A little Nervous? We're being watched....

AFSCME's Marty Beil and Sen. Jon Erpenbach on Voter Fraud.

From Al Sharpton:

John Nichols and Ruth Conniff on the Recall Voter Turnout.

Ed Schultz is in town for the recall tomorrow, and took a look back at a few Walker moments. Guests Ruth Conniff from the Progressive and John Nichols dissect what's needed for voter turnout. There's a tremendous hope that Milwaukee voters turn out in large numbers, to negate the large Walker turnout.

Sen. Grothman Hammered on Recall Issues, it's the Ed Smackdown.

Republican Sen. Glenn Grothman is a completely unfiltered right wing zealot. His first comment set the tone, and Ed Schultz wouldn't take his crap. Love the rowdy crowd. A few shouts of "liar" peppered Grothman's outrageous distortions. For those who don't know, Walker increased taxes on the poor by cutting the Homestead Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit. Glenn thinks a "mild" change isn't a tax increase...by $14 million. Chump change.

Worth watching...like an accident.

Tea Party Dummy; "Make sure we end the recalls, and protect our representative democracy!!" Huh?

Tea Party Patriots (don't you just love their mindless names?) co-founder Jenny Beth Martin started this ridiculous interview on Fox News with this incredible observation:

Martin: "We are encouraging people to go out and vote, and make sure we end the recalls, and protect our representative democracy." 

It would be funny if it wasn't so utterly sad. These are the same people taking control of our congress and state legislatures. I don't want to sound too hyperbolic, but be afraid, be very afraid.



And what about those lousy out-of-stater's meddling in our politics?

Martin: "We have hundreds of people are going to be here from around the country..."

Talking Point Alert: Silently getting their message across without one media word of criticism, the tea party Republicans in Wisconsin have been methodically painting a one sided picture of "special interests;" Democrats, liberals and unions. I guess they forgot about the big money interests like corporations, billionaires, think tanks, lobbyists and super PAC's.

Martin: "As far as the primary opponent goes, I think that it really is these special interests on the left; the unions, the Move On, the Occupy movement, those are the opponents in this election by and large...we have a country to save. We're going to start with Wisconsin, save Wisconsin, and we're going to go out and save the country."

That's all they got? I guess they also forgot about all the protesters that showed up last winter.

Obama for Barrett, now what will Walker thugs Tweet?

Packers Back Recall....

What's not to like about the Packers..? Being an owner myself, I admit to being a little biased. From the Huffington Post: 

John Nichols on being King for 4 years, and other Recall Stuff!!

Sly in the Morning's regular guest, John Nichols, said a few things I thought important enough to include here. All the clips are audio.

Scott Walker's plan to save Wisconsinites money, by doing away with the wasteful recall process that also gets in the way of economic growth, is an amazing and laughable concept. It's meant jobs for seniors working for Americans for Prosperity.



Nichols is amazed at the ad that calls all this stuff, "recall madness." After one guy in the ad says "this isn't democracy," Nichols chimes in, "this is democracy!" You have to wonder what Walker supporters are thinking. This is my favorite line:

Nichols: "...to say, oh, I'm going to vote for Scott Walker because I don't believe in holding elected officials to account. I think when you win an election, you become a king for four years. We have an elected monarchy in Wisconsin. And anyone's who's elected gets to do whatever they want for four years. That's what they're saying." 

Nichols then goes on to smash what Republicans call courage. It's really big money cowardice. To me, this is the most insidious of the talking points, because it reinforces the idea that "courage" entitles those in power to ignore the public. Nichols also takes a nice shot at Paul Ryan for making that the issue:

The GAB's Kevin Kennedy on Walker's Voter Fraud Numbers.

I've blogged about it before, but here's the Government Accountability Board's Kevin Kennedy's view of the states nonexistent voter fraud problem. From WPT's Here and Now: