Government doesn't create jobs? Johnson wrong again.

Don’t get me wrong, I think any program that reintegrates our prison population is good, but the idea that Ron Johnson is using the program for labor minus health care is something else.

jsonline: Companies operated by Ron Johnson, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, employed up to nine work-release inmates whose health care was paid for by state taxpayers. The development is significant because Johnson has campaigned on a limited government theme, arguing that the private sector, and not government, is the best method for creating jobs. The two companies are Pacur and Dynamic Drinkware, both of which operate in Oshkosh, and have been employing prison labor since at least 1998, state records show.

Ah, don’t like the sound of cheap, health care free prison labor.

The workers are still under the custody of the state Department of Corrections and are paid by the two companies, but their health care is taken care of by state taxpayers. The Journal Sentinel obtained the Corrections Department records showing that Johnson's two companies employed prison labor … Johnson defended the use of the workers. "I think it's a very good thing that we are doing."

At Pacur, Johnson also has used government programs such as industrial revenue bonds, which allow his company to gain lower interest rates and give investors tax-free income on the interest earned, as well as a $75,000 federal grant in 1979 that helped Johnson's company construct a rail spur.

Johnson has said he knew nothing about the federal grant, saying he had not joined the company at that time. However, the grant was never finalized until late in 1979, months after Johnson said he joined the company.

It's important to know that Johnson started as their accountant, so it's a bit hard to believe he didn't know or ever found out about the grant.

When will we learn, that government serves corporate America.

Related articles

• WI-Sen: Anti-government Johnson uses prison labor to save money (dailykos.com)
• APNewsBreak: Johnson nets savings on prison labor (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

Favre Sex Scandal??? Now what Brett?

pp

Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com

Truth-O-Meters Misinform Voters over Candidates Real Positions. Wasn't this a Reporters Job?

The Truth-O-Meter, like Factcheck.org and Politifact.com, are filled with their own naive ignorance of candidate’s political parties’ objectives. Under the excuse of trying to be objective, the Truth-O-Meters of the world allow politicians to get away with everything. But many of us are starting to catch on.
Joel McNally wrote this column for The Capital Times:

Walker has been making claims around the state that Milwaukee reporters know to be false … Walker brazenly suggests he should be elected governor because of his fiscal management … claims he stabilized a disastrous economic situation, prevented tax increases and sometimes even created surpluses.

This is the same Scott Walker who dropped out of his last campaign for governor in 2006 shortly after publicly announcing Milwaukee County might require a major bailout from the state to avoid bankruptcy under his leadership … Barrett launched tough ads citing news stories about the county’s dire straits financially as well as patient safety issues at the mental health center and mismanagement of poverty assistance programs that resulted in a state takeover.

The Journal Sentinel and its reporters are well aware of the precarious state of Milwaukee County’s finances. But when the newspaper ran Barrett’s ad on the county’s financial crisis through its Truth-O-Meter, an amazing thing happened … As might be expected, the Truth-O-Meter lit up and said: “Tilt!” But, unbelievably, it wasn’t Walker’s financial misrepresentations that set off all the alarms. The Truth-O-Meter didn’t like the graphics the Barrett campaign used in the commercial … the newspaper … editor Martin Kaiser objected they weren’t exact replicas of the stories … Pictures of Walker were inserted.

There’s something seriously wrong with a Truth-O-Meter that objects to how its newspaper is represented, but fails to notice the Big Lie of a completely untrue picture of Milwaukee County’s financial management being spread throughout the state during an election.

And that’s the truth.

Securing a more Corporate America: Go Tea Party!!

What can you say about the amazing confluence of desperate citizens, a failed economy, joblessness, distrust in government, Citizens United’s influence and takeover of our elections, and propagation of raw fear? It’s something sadly missed by tea party protesters who have nothing but constitutional lectures to offer, and who are totally ignoring the final stages of what could be considered a corporate takeover.
Robert Reich wrote this summation of our current state of government,

Hundreds of millions of secret dollars are pouring into congressional and state races in this election cycle. The Koch brothers (whose personal fortunes grew by $5 billion last year) appear to be behind some of it, Karl Rove has rounded up other multimillionaires to fund right-wing candidates, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is funneling corporate dollars from around the world into congressional races, and Rupert Murdoch is evidently spending heavily. No one knows for sure where this flood of money is coming from because it's all secret.

Credit the Supreme Court's grotesque decision in Citizens United vs. the Federal Election Commission, which opened the floodgates. (Even though 8 of 9 members of the Court also held disclosure laws constitutional, the decision invited the creation of shadowy "nonprofits" that don't have to reveal anything.)

Last week, when the Senate considered a bill to force such disclosure, every single Republican voted against it -- thereby revealing the GOP's true colors, and presumed benefactors. (To understand how far the GOP has come, nearly ten years ago campaign disclosure was supported by 48 of 54 Republican senators.) In the meantime we face an election that marks an even sharper turn toward plutocratic capitalism than before -- a government by and for the rich and big corporations -- and away from democratic capitalism.

Right now we're headed for a perfect storm: An unprecedented concentration of
income and wealth at the top, a record amount of secret money flooding our
democracy, and a public in the aftershock of the Great Recession becoming
increasingly angry and cynical about government. The three are obviously
related.

Huffington Post

Related articles

• The secret big-money takeover of America (blogs.berkeley.edu)
• Robert Reich: The Secret Big-Money Takeover of America (huffingtonpost.com)

Don't Tell Anybody till after the Election, but Milwaukee County is Bankrupt!!! Shouldn’t We Know That?

"We don't want this to become some sort of political football during the fall election campaigns."- H. Carl Mueller

Mr. Milwaukee County Executive, Scott Walker, has bankrupted his county, and not one conservative voter will care or notice because he’s a Republican. And once the county government is gone, good-bye businesses.

"We don't want this to become some sort of political football during the fall election campaigns."

And the Greater Milwaukee Committees reported recommendations were not going to be made public until after the election, because…get ready for this…”members didn’t want this to become some sort of political football during the fall election campaigns.”- H. Carl Mueller, (who is) a Milwaukee PR executive who sits on the committee.

Holy crap, are they kidding??? Wouldn’t we want to know this if there’s a chance we’re about to put Scott Walker in charge of the state?

jsonline-Daniel Bice: Milwaukee County government is in such dire financial shape that state lawmakers should push through legislation that would allow it and other local governments to file for bankruptcy … the powerful committee is looking to recommend doing away with the elected county executive's post, slicing county worker benefits and spinning off the zoo, the bus system, the parks and much else under separate commissions.

"We don't want this to become some sort of political football during the fall election campaigns." If these dramatic steps - or something like them - aren't taken county
government will collapse, the draft report suggests.

The report also puts it this way: "If we don't make changes today … Parks will close, bus routes will end and families in distress will not get the help they need. Our Milwaukee will grow smaller and smaller as people and companies leave."

"We don't want this to become some sort of political football during the fall election campaigns."

Not surprisingly, Barrett's campaign jumped at the chance to use the draft recommendations as "a stunning indictment" of Walker's eight years at the county's helm. Barrett spokesman Phil Walzak called on the committee to release the full report before the election, saying it could give a glimpse of what awaits the state if Walker becomes governor.

"We don't want this to become some sort of political football during the fall election campaigns."

The easier cost-cutting steps have been done, such as deferring bus purchases and park maintenance, the report says. That leaves the county in the unhappy position of being unable to accommodate residents' service expectations without resorting to some dramatic tax increase.

"We don't want this to become some sort of political football during the fall election campaigns."

Asked about the idea of passing a law to allow local governments, including
Milwaukee County, to file for bankruptcy, Walker said: "They should apply that for all local governments because Milwaukee Public School system is in much worse condition than any other local government that's here.

To me, the better example is to eliminate the government entirely."

Here's a comment following the story that is right on the mark:

Walker has done such a wonderful job of mismanaging county finances he may succeed in his ultimate goal of no government by forcing county operations to shut down because there is no money.

can we expect the same type of fiscal irresponsibility under walker's leadership if elected governor. the last time i checked, states can't declare bankruptcy.

to people who complain this issue is being raised around election time, it doesn't change the fact that the county is imploding under walkers leadership.

Conservative, Tea Party Candidate Likes to Dress in Nazi SS Uniform. What else is new.

I'm am so tired of giving conservatives the benefit of the doubt. When does it become a pattern?

Daily News: That's the question hovering over GOP congressional candidate Rich Iott, after a photo of him posing in a Nazi uniform surfaced online this weekend.

Iott, a Tea Party favorite who is running for a seat in Ohio's ninth district, says he is not a Nazi sympathizer but a history buff who liked participating in historical re-enactments. He said he joined "as a father-son bonding thing" but quit in 2007 when his son was no longer interested.

Ya think!!!

Related articles

• GOP pretends not to know Rich Iott (washingtonmonthly.com)


• Eric Cantor and GOP Young Guns Repudiate Nazi Re-enactor Rich Iott (mediaite.com)

First Feingold vs Johnson Debate Run Down

Funny thing. Sen. Russ Feingold's voting record on spending programs over the last two years is more conservative than Rep. Paul Ryan's.

Feingold vs Johnson on wars. Johnson loves a petty resolution against MoveOn.org:



Tax cuts for the wealthy would have pulled us out of the recession? Johnson claims that was the tipping point.



Johnson lies about health care reform, claiming it will cost money instead of saving $1.3 trillion according to the CBO, and Feingold defends health cares freedoms and liberties:



Johnson can't say nuclear either, ignores the huge rate increases to consumer bills to pay for it and the liability insurance, while Feingold looks ahead to wind energy paid for by stimulus money spent in Johnson's district:



Johnson is a tea party kinda guy, and Feingold uphold Constitutional language:



Feingold defends Social Security as an insurance policy, not an investment account. Here, Feingold should have mentioned the GOP plan still includes government control of the money, not personal, and is bailed out by taxpayers if the accounts lose money:

Related articles

• Feingold defends health care vote in Wis. debate (sfgate.com)
• Democrat Feingold runs ad touting health care vote (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

Despite Feingold's Debate Win, Johnson Praised for No Gaffes and Empty Rhetoric.

Well, so much for the credibility of the "liberal" unbiased university professor who bent over backwards to make the debate an even match. When it comes to facts vs ideologically driven platitudes, platitudes win.

In the conservative Wisconsin State Journal article about the first senatorial debate, the paper draws no irony in the fact that this was the first debate so late in the election season, and that Sen. Russ Feingold’s grasp of the facts is no match for Ron Johnson’s ideologically driven nonsense.

Friday night in the first showdown … And while they traded jabs, no one scored the kind of blow likely to turn the tide of the race.

Professor Franklin blew any credibility he had instantly, with his “everything is relative” pabulum:

"It was a draw," said Charles Franklin, UW-Madison political science professor. "Those who tuned in with a preference for one candidate heard what they wanted to hear.”

The WSJ went on to say without noting the absurdity of the fact that less than one month away from the elections:

the debate offered voters their first chance to see Johnson in action against the 18-year Senate veteran.

THE FIRST chance!!! Feingold may be closing in on Johnson’s lead, but he still leads, before voters even had their first chance to see the senate candidate.

During the gubernatorial debate Democratic candidate Mayor Barrett was criticized for being slightly too aggressive against his picked on GOP opponent Scott Walker, even though he trails in polling. The WSJ is now criticizing Feingold for not living up to media expectations, while setting an incredibly low bar for Johnson:

Feingold was expected to be more aggressive, needing to turn the momentum in a race that seems to be getting away from him. Johnson, most expected, would try to get through the debate without making news.

Johnson’s the winner because he didn’t make any gaffes. This is how the media treats the conservative’s radical agenda, like a formidable challenger with relevant things to say. And when Feingold was aggressive, the WSJ took a shot at him for that:

The senator also got worked up over the issue of health care reform. Feingold did not back off from his support, saying, "Is it really invading (Johnson's) freedom to make sure over one million Wisconsinites do not lose coverage because of pre-existing conditions?"

"Worked up?" Feingold could have easily said Johnson’s daughters preexisting condition would have made it impossible for her to get insured and her condition would be excluded from future policies. But instead, he got "worked up" over dumb ass platitudes about health cares threat to losing ones freedom?

Amazing.

Related articles

• Despite Bashing Government Aid, Ron Johnson Employs Prison Inmates With State-Run Health Care (huffingtonpost.com)


• Feingold defends health care vote in Wis. debate (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

Lost Government Jobs Negates Private Sector Increases!! So will Republicans Still Blame Obama for Jobless numbers?

Government doesn’t create jobs…not even the ones in government? The NY Times headline: Cuts in Government Led U.S. Economy to Lose 95,000 Jobs

Will we see Republicans claim high unemployment is good, and doesn’t tell the whole story, if it means fewer government workers? You can almost bet on it.

The head hurting idea that government employment shouldn’t really count, and that it’s the private sector jobs that matter, ignores the paychecks and spending by those employees/families that add to the local economies. They’re working for god’s sake.

The economy shed 95,000 nonfarm jobs in September with most of the decline the result of the layoffs by local governments and of temporary decennial Census workers. Private payrolls have been growing throughout 2009 but at a rate too sluggish to make much of a dent in unemployment.

While total government jobs fell by 159,000, private sector companies added 64,000 jobs last month. Of the loss in government jobs, 77,000 were temporary Census employees while 76,000 were in local governments. State governments lost 7,000 jobs, as well.

Those jobs were lost in our local schools. Republicans are happy to shed jobs in education, because that hurts the unions, and disables public education.

Most of the state and local jobs lost were in education, which trimmed positions as the school year began. Including private school positions, altogether 72,700 education jobs were eliminated in September.

So will the GOP’s trickle down, give-a-ways to businesses spur growth? Not if you ask business.

“Employers continue to rank sales as their most pressing problem, which points the way forward for Congress and the administration: Focus on policies that directly boost demand to get employers hiring again and pull our economy out of first gear,” said Heather Boushey, a senior economist at the Center for American Progress.

Related articles

• America's Job-Creation Engine Remains Stalled (dailyfinance.com)
• Unemployment steady at 9.6%, 95,000 jobs lost in September (hotair.com)
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What do the tea parties want? Get ready to adjust your vision of America.

Here’s a coincidental grouping of articles that focused on a number of areas of tea party change:

Thinkprogress.org: The main philosophical principle of the conservative-led tea party movement is an “aversion to big government,” with tea party organizers turning their ire on comprehensive health reform, clean energy legislation, and even mandatory trash collection.

Now, a group of Missouri tea partiers have found a new target: regulations that would mandate more humane conditions in the state’s puppy mills … the Missouri Tea Party and the Tea Party Patriots against the proposition … described the measure as being about the “government or the big company trying to tell people what to do … Samuel Wurzelbacher (”Joe The Plumber“) has teamed up with the Alliance For Truth, an anti-Prop B organization strongly backed by the kennells and mills across the state, to blog against the measure.

MSNBC: (The) movement share the same views as the Christian right on social issues like abortion and the role of religion in public life, according to a poll … Nearly half of those who identify with the Tea Party believe that the Bible is the literal word of God, and a similar proportion thinks that public officials do not pay enough attention to religion … They are more likely than the population as a whole to view America as a Christian nation.

Tea Party-backed candidates have advocated positions including cutting government spending, lowering taxes, curbing government regulation of private business, phasing out the Social Security retirement program, dismantling the Education Department and repealing President Barack Obama's healthcare reform law … But 82 percent of those who identify with the Tea Party plan to vote for Republicans

Newt's Party of Paychecks rubs-it-in to people with no paychecks.

Newt is such a uniter.

(AP) - Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is advising Republican candidates on November's ballots to frame the choice for voters between Democrats as "the party of food stamps" while selling the GOP as "the party of paychecks."

I’ve got one: The GOP is “the party of soup lines.”

Wisconsin GOP Chairman Priebus calls for Obama's execution!!!

Reince Priebus is the “the boosterish, workaholic chairman of the Wisconsin GOP.”

Oh, he is so much more than that. He’s Wisconsin’s Barney Fife and sometimes mentioned as a possible replacement for his good friend Michael Steele.

In a recent media conference call with Wispolitics.com, about Sen. Russ Feingold’s position that Osama bin Laden should be sentenced to life in prison if captured instead of executed, Priebus made a jaw dropping Freudian slip.

Priebus “accidentally” called for “Obama’s” execution, three whole times, when he should have said Osama. What conservative wouldn't confuse the world's most infamous terrorist with the United States President? Check it out.



For those who would defend Priebus by claiming it was just a gaffe, I would like to defer to Rience’s own words from this same interview below:

“Now, some people would just say that maybe he just used the wrong word, and it was just a gaffe, from a normally smooth skilled politician. Well if that’s the case, then it’s a pretty major misstep this close to the election…”

And who calls bin Laden by his first name?

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Re-inventing politics all the time, Republicans have again come up with a way to win at all costs: Invisibility.

If you thought an experienced former TV news anchor would be confident enough to debate her Democratic challenger Tom Nelson, you would have been wrong. For a person a breath away from becoming governor, conservative voters don't care what Rebecca Kleefisch thinks, or if she is able to even form a thought, when it comes to running the states business. They just want to win.

On WTDY's Sly in the Morning, Lt. Governor candidate Tom Nelson explains the stunning turn of events and what has become a national conservative strategy, become invisible. Stick around for the surprise bizarre kicker involving her former TV stations offer to host a debate:

Greenbay Gazette:

Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor Tom Nelson on Tuesday challenged his Republican opponent to a series of debates across northern Wisconsin. Rebecca Kleefisch's campaign isn't taking him up on the offer. It doesn't appear she will debate Nelson at all in the next month leading up to the Nov. 2 election.

Nelson, a state representative from Kaukauna, (said) "Every voter in Northeast Wisconsin and in every corner of the state ought to be outraged," Nelson said. "It is
completely unacceptable that a candidate for statewide office wouldn't agree to debate in any location at any time."

What makes this foot-in-mouth media avoidance more outrageously surreal is that Kleefisch was a professional news anchor:

Kleefisch, a former television news anchor from Oconomowoc, is following the playbook of running mate and GOP gubernatorial candidate Scott Walker, who
has passed on offers to debate outside of Milwaukee and Madison.

Wisconsin’s tea parties and Republican Party operatives were always big on meeting their representatives at town halls when they had the chance to shout down Democrats, but when it comes to debating their ideas, they aren’t just silent on their issues but they don’t even want to face the voting public.

It's a “silent takeover.”

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More on Gene Cranick's $75 Mistake and the Conservative chest pounding about Tough Love.

Want to live in a country where small government tea party conservatives cheer watching a guys house burn to the ground because he didn't come up with a mere $75 to save his home.

All it took was $75 for conservatives to feel cheated, used and freeloaded from to show Gene Cranick they mean business. The house had to be worth over $100,000.



These guys are about to get the keys...

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They're now known as "THE BACHMANN 5" according to this internet ad.

The shear ego of Michele Bachmann's campaign support of the pictured right wing fringers is dwarfed only by the idea these modern Dickensian's could fix anything.

Conservative Wisconsin State Journal Resorts to Race Baiting!!

What was the Wisconsin State Journal's editors thinking when they included this outlandishly inappropriate cartoon in its widely circulated Sunday paper?

Excuse me for noticing a couple of things.

According to Phil Hands political cartoon, Sen. Russ Feingold's criticism of his opponents failed conservative economic policy proposals, is the heinous campaign tactic of the unreasonable fictional killer "Hyde." Don't liberals know a healthy debate and fact based discussion over the draconian policies that crashed the global economy is nothing but Republican bashing and partisan sniping?

The other issue is more unsettling. As a former artist myself, the choice of colors in the cartoon seems more intentional, and racist. Skip the pathetic explanation that the cartoon didn't translate well to print media. The red background could have been the color of Feingold's "Hyde" side face. But it wasn't. It's pure race baiting.

The evil Hyde is a black guy, like President Obama. Coincidence? It always is.

According to the editorial board at the Wisconsin State Journal, Feingold is a monster to criticize his conservative opponents job killing, tax shifting, business friendly proposals. Who knew Hyde was an angry, uppity black guy. Point made.

Citizens United rules Elections, Favors GOP 8 to 1.

For big business, small government leaves a big opening for private governance, by the corporation. Keith Olbermann and Howard Fineman talk about the "end" (my emphasis).

Feingold right again, this time on Johnson

Sen. Russ Feingold nailed millionaire Ron Johnson on his invisibility act, opposition to health care reform and the unforgivable- Johnson's love for NAFTA and the creative destruction of American jobs. Still, Johnson somehow leads in the polls without a debate or plan. WISC-TV:



Here's Russ' ad featuring Johnson's "creative destruction" comment:

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Fact Checking now a "Feature" on the local news!! How did it get this bad?

I'm supposed to be happy with 27 News' Spin Check, a once a week feature. It should every night, shouldn't it?

The Bailout and Stimulus Success; saying it didn't work doesn't make it so...

So how did that bailout and stimulus do? Didn't work? Waste of taxpayer money?

Guess again. Maybe the Democrats in the last month of campaigning can run a few ads with the chart shown her with Rachel Maddow, from a Washington Post piece by Ezra Klein.