Walker and Vos take pot shots at Mayor Barrett, who's now firing back.

So the state is at fault for Milwaukee’s fiscal challenges after it put in place property tax levy caps and cut state aid. Yet according to Gov. Scott Walker and Rep. Robin Vos, it’s all Mayor Barrett’s fault now.

The way Walker ran Milwaukee County into the ground, it’s not hard to look past this lie (see cartoon) jsonline.  

Both Walker and Assembly Speaker Vos have made pointed comments about the lack of leadership in Mayor Tom Barrett's administration and the need for the city to focus on economic development. On Tuesday, Barrett fired back.

"Well, it's very easy to take political shots against the city of Milwaukee," Barrett said. "It's a good way to use a divide and conquer mentality to isolate the largest city in the state."

"It's attractive for them to go after Milwaukee," Barrett said. "Is it leadership to try to tear down the largest city in the state? Obviously it's not. The time is going to have to come when they are going to have to take the time to understand the city. Well, it's certainly not a good omen when you have the top two Republicans in the state who seem to enjoy ripping into Milwaukee," Barrett said.

It’s not a they said, he said thing either. There’s proof to back up Barrett’s position:

A 2009 study of city government by the Public Policy Forum found that the city's revenue structure "presents tremendous and increasingly difficult fiscal challenges." At the same time, the study found the city was well run and "management is not the cause of its fiscal problems."

In the meantime, Rob Henken, president of the Public Policy Forum, posted on his blog an update on the 2009 report. He writes, "Milwaukee remains in a revenue straitjacket caused by strict property tax levy caps and stagnant state aid."

We’re wondering if Walker plans to do what Gov. Rick Snyder did in Michigan, put in an “emergency manager?”

State Rep. Duey Voldemort's In-Person Absentee Voter Suppression Scheme Implodes.

It seems no matter what Republicans want to do in Wisconsin, it always costs taxpayer more money.

Follow me on this, because this whole in-person absentee ballot scheme is like the staircases in Hogwarts.

Citizen Action of Wis.

WSJ: A Republican lawmaker, Rep. Duey Stroebel, is proposing limits on the hours and days voters can cast in-person absentee ballots even as such voting increases in popularity in the state. The bill, introduced in the state Assembly late last week, would force municipalities to spend more on mail-in absentee ballots while making it harder for people to vote. Madison City Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl said the bill also could drive up costs … the cost of each mailed absentee ballot is $4.79 compared to 55 cents for ballots cast in person.

He looks like Voldemort, right? Oops, will I be barred from Twitter now? More wasted taxpayer money…for what? Electoral mischief? One more thing before we all start feeling a little dizzy: The bizarre limits: 

Duey without nose prosthetic's

The measure proposed by Rep. Duey Stroebel, R-Saukville, would prohibit clerks from opening early, late or on weekends to accommodate voters wishing to cast their ballots before Election Day … the bill aims to give residents of smaller communities the same access to absentee voting as those in larger communities that can afford to hold extended balloting. "To have those disparities for in-person absentee balloting is not fair … focus is on equality in the system. That's the way he views it."

This is where the wheels start falling off: 

Assembly Bill 54 would confine such in-person absentee voting to 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday in the three weeks leading up to an election week. It also would prohibit a clerk from remaining open to receive in-person ballots more than 40 hours a week.

So Stroebel’s bill hurts more than helps small towns? 

The proposal could be even more vexing for clerks in small towns, who often work part-time and at the convenience of local residents, said Richard Stadelman, executive director of the Wisconsin Towns Association … it's not unusual for small-town clerks to open their offices on nights and weekends to accommodate in-person absentee voting. He said his group opposes the bill as written.

So Stroebel’s great equalized “7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.” hourly limit, won’t work for those he says he’s trying to “help.”

Don’t laugh: 

Stroebel plans to amend the bill to add flexibility for small communities.

But that negated the reason for the bill in the first place. So we’re either back at the beginning, or Stroebel won’t let his embarrassing idiocy deter his effort to suppress voting. Rural area's will be open after normal work hours, but cities won't be?

The Hogwart's staircases make more sense than this scheme.

But the above lunacy is just one of many reasons why this is one grand waste of time and money:

Diane Hermann-Brown, president of the Wisconsin Municipal Clerks Association, said her office in the city of Sun Prairie is open 42 1/2 hours a week normally, and, by statute, 43 1/2 hours the week before an election. She wondered about the practical effect of having her staff turn away absentee ballots while accepting dog licenses and handling other duties … (or) what would clerks do if absentee voters are still in line at 5 p.m. Sun Prairie had an hour and a half wait among absentee voters at 5 p.m. on the Friday before the November election, she said.

 … 18,752 people cast ballots at the counter she said. "The bigger the city, the longer the travel time to get to the city clerk's office."

Casting a ballot before Election Day … has become popular in Wisconsin, with more than 500,000 voters doing so in the November general election.

Sequester slows America's Future. Welcome to our Minority Controlled America.

Sequester Austerity hits Wisconsin:

jsonline: The Medical College of Wisconsin estimates that it will lose $5 million to $9 million in federal funding for research due to automatic budget cuts that took effect last week. The school also will lose an estimated $1.5 million in revenue a year from a 2% reduction in what Medicare pays physicians. And Froedtert Hospital, its academic medical center, projects that it will lose about $7.5 million. These are just a few examples of the reductions in federal spending on health care from sequestration, and they could be a preview of what's ahead.

It didn't have to be like this.

Disaster Capitalism: The Republicans set us up for austerity, by spending like “drunken sailors” and creating an economic/deficit crisis during the Bush years. Sure Clinton left them with projected budget surpluses, but do you think Democrats will bring that up…ever?

Republicans now control the dialog about a supposed “spending problem,” when it’s really a revenue problem made worse by the Great Recession. And they control the dialog thanks to the Democratic Party’s reluctance to advance their own agenda and force conservatives to fight against populist ideas.

The sequester cuts spending, sure, but it also slows progress by taking away from what made the U.S. great in the first place, research and development.  We won’t be so quick to create new industries and/or save money by improving current inefficient technologies.

With no push back or promise of restoring societal advances, Democrats are helping to usher in the new austere America. And there is still no clear Democratic alternative.

People will settle into, and adjust to, life made a little harder, even though it really doesn't have to be like this. With all the difficult life changing curve balls reality tosses at us, do we need to start spinning our wheels needlessly to fulfill some minority groups fringe concept of what it means to be truly free?  

Sadly the answer is yes. 

The Promise of High Speed Rail Jobs Killed by Walker.

I’m sorry for having to post most of this story by Cap Timesreporter Steve Elbow. 

But every word makes my head hurt and heart ache, knowing how Scott Walker’s campaign decision to win votes by killing high speed rail, killed off all the jobs that would have been created in the growing commuter rail market.

Conservative towns along the way would have grown and prospered with train stops from quick out-of-town visits. We’re going to miss it all, even the dream connection between Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison and Minneapolis. Now, Madison’s commuter liberal base is getting bypassed. Smart planning Scott. 

Read the following and weep, knowing lowbrow dummies like Vicki McKenna won one for all the teabilly lunkheads. This really is a sad story:

Even though Wisconsin has bowed out of participating in the Midwest high-speed rail network, a lot of state businesses stand to profit from the initiative. In a report last month, the Chicago-based Environmental Law and Policy Center, a group that boosts eco-business innovation, lists hundreds of high-speed rail service and supply companies that could become part of the supply chain for the rail initiative, 73 of them in Wisconsin. Locally they include HNTB of Madison, an engineering and architecture firm; Mohawk Industries, a carpet manufacturer; and Stoughton Trucking.

One of the biggest companies expected to cash in is Milwaukee Composites, a Cudahy floor and ceiling panel manufacturer that counts several international train makers among its customers, as well as public transit services in Chicago and New York.

Scott Walker opted out of the Midwest high-speed rail network, turning away $810 million in stimulus funds for a high-speed train from Milwaukee to Madison that was eventually slated to extend to the Twin Cities.

The future of travel and business expansion in the state depends on ending Walker’s ideological sink hole like reign:

But despite Walker’s decision, improvements are still being made to the existing Empire Builder line, which provides Amtrak service from the Twin Cities to Milwaukee. “Political winds do change, and if they do we’ll have all the engineering ready to go, says Dan Krom, Minnesota’s passenger rail project manager.

So in the long run, the main result of Walker’s decision to put the brakes on high-speed passenger rail will be to bypass Madison, which is not on the Empire Builder route.

The Environmental Law and Policy Center study found that companies across the Midwest are retooling to take advantage of a boom in Amtrak ridership, which has set records in nine of the last 10 years.

“Our study found dozens of companies that now supply rail manufacturers after years of supplying the automotive industry and other sectors,” the report says. “This rail growth offers opportunities to suppliers of automotive glass, seats and other components, particularly given the ‘Buy America’ mandate for rail.”

Add to that the $782 million in federal dollars being doled out to six states, including Illinois, Iowa and Michigan, for locomotives and passenger rail cars, further boosting the manufacturing base, which promotes good jobs with good benefits.

“Manufacturing has a higher multiplier effect as the goods flow through the economy,” the report says. “For example, according to a 2010 study from the Tripp Umbach research firm, GE Transportation has a larger impact on the Pennsylvania economy ($4.6 billion) than all of the state’s professional sports teams ($1.37 billion) and mining, oil and gas extraction industries ($1.79 billion) combined.”

Vos snaps, goes off the Egotrip Richter Scale....

Rep. Robin Vos truly does have the smallest dick in the Assembly, because he's making up for something very sick and very personal.

When will the media notice the outrageous authoritarian governing style of these rogue big government Republicans. Nothing is off limits to these meddling control freaks.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said Monday that he is open to talking to Mayor Tom Barrett about the challenges facing the city, but noted that Milwaukee needs to find new ways to save money and become more efficient.

This arrogant son-of-a-bitch then delivered a stunning list of reasons why Barrett should appeal to…Republicans? Vos takes one personal attack after another. jsonline:

1. Vos said making that effort "would be a good faith way to reach out to fiscal conservatives in the suburbs."

2. Making that effort, Vos said, would show conservatives that the city is able to save money and become a world-class city "without taxing ourselves into oblivion."

3. Referring specifically to Barrett, the Rochester Republican said the mayor has "been very distracted over the course of the past three years running for governor.

4. "So I think unfortunately he has chosen to abdicate a lot of the things the city of Milwaukee has needed in his fight for trying to win another office. He has to re-prioritize where he wants to spend his time. Reaching out to us to find ways to work together is a good thing for all of us."

5. "The concern I always have is for many times, (the) liberals' only solution is to figure out a way for government to take from some and give to others. I prefer the private sector to work," Vos said.

Wanna see how big an ass-hole Vos can be; he thinks giving poor people health care is just "giving it to them to spend as they choose" is not what he would do with Milwaukee's foreclosure money. 

Vos said city leaders pressed state officials to turn over millions from a national mortgage settlement to help them fight a foreclosure crisis in the city. But Vos said the city also wanted to ensure poor people have health insurance. "Just giving more money to Milwaukee is just one option," Vos said. "But giving it to them to spend as they choose is not the only one."

Patrick Curley, Barrett's chief of staff, responded to Vos via email. Curley said he was "more than a bit troubled that as speaker and former co-chair of the Joint Committee on Finance that you may not be as informed as one would hope with regards to City of Milwaukee finances and our budgeting practices."

Curley invited Vos to meet with city officials "and point out just how we have not fully embraced ways to save money or to be more efficient. We believe that would be more productive then tossing flip, political remarks back and forth and allow for a more productive and educational experience."

In its analysis, the Public Policy Forum acknowledged "the City of Milwaukee is financially well run and management is not the cause of its fiscal problems." 

I Wonder Why the Rich Pour Money into States Pushing Vouchers...?

This is so hard to figure out...I'm stumped, anyone else? Maybe vouchers so are so good that...no, that can't be it.

State Democratic Party whimpers, begs for Walker forgiveness over Dahmer comments.

Did I mention I hate the Democratic Party? Which is why I blog, hoping we get something back, like our self respect.

They’ve got no guts, no backbone, and no friggin’ fight when it comes to our authoritarian master, Scott Walker.

Yes sir, yes sir, we deserve punishment, yes sir master.

So it’s with sadness we’ll no longer have the pleasure of Democratic flame thrower Graeme Zielinski spouting off as the spokesperson for the party. We're starting to fall right in line. For a sample of early Graeme humor, check out my interview with him when he was with the Onion here, sometime around 1991. 

It’s funny how Republicans can’t take the heat a few humorous over-the-top comments. Democrats certainly have, from traitor, to Hitler, to Nazi’s sympathizers, to socialists, to racist, to Marxists, to killers, to…well you get the picture. It’s okay though, Republicans were just being truthful. They would have just told us to move on, that they're not going to talk about it anymore:

WSJ: Graeme Zielinski, the combative spokesman for the state Democratic Party, has been removed from that role after a Twitter rant Friday in which he compared Gov. Scott Walker to infamous Milwaukee serial killer and cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer.

So Democrats should just hide the fact that our governor displays all traits of a ruthless, straight faced sociopath. This guys killing people by denying them health care. But Dahmer? Uppity Wisconsin found Walker himself using the comparison. 

I don’t like taking the role of flame-thrower myself, I’ve never been good at it, but from time to time a little edge helps the system vent. What Graeme tweeted bears repeating, just in case you missed 'em:

"@GovWalker spent more than Jeffrey Dahmer to beat criminal charges,"

"@GovWalker had better lawyers than Jeffrey Dahmer in beating the rap. Clear that he committed the crimes."

“My heartfelt apologies to the victims of Jeffrey Dahmer. Their pain is not something with which I should have trifled. And my apologies to @GovWalker for my inappropriate Tweeting.”

Take the time to read this nice article about Walker's authority over the Democrats in this weeks Isthmus by Burce Murphy. Too many people underestimate this droopy eyed emotionless sociopath. When you think about it, how can anyone as governor survive saying what Walker said to the fake David Koch?  Only Scotty.

Republicans are so not serious about budget deal, they don't even know what Obama offered.

It's frustrating to hear Obama on the campaign trail promising to not mess with Medicare and Social Security, and then a few months later, propose chained CPI and means testing.

Why hasn't anyone interviewed Obama on this turn-around? I'm dying to know. 

In the meantime, Ezra Klein wrote about the information disconnect Republicans have over knowing what spending/tax increase deal is even on the table. And it has less to do with trust. It can be explained with with Scott Walker's reason for not expanding Medicaid; he doesn't trust the government to make good on its promises. It's the fall back cop-out that's starting to get a little old. Here's a short edition of Klein's article: 

Obama has said he’s open to chained CPI as part of a budget deal. It’s right there on his Web site. It’s literally in bold type. But key GOP legislators have no idea Obama’s made that concession.

Mike Murphy, one of the top political consultants in the Republican Party, wrote in Time that “six magic words can unlock the door to the votes inside the Republican fortress: Some beneficiaries pay more and chained CPI, budgetary code for slightly lowering benefit increases over time.” The only problem? Obama has said all these words.

The point of Klein’s article? Republicans will come up with something to justify not taking an Obama deal. Klein went on to describe what he noticed:

Jonathan Chait begins by quoting Upton Sinclair’s famous line: “It is impossible to make a man understand something if his livelihood depends on not understanding it.” Chait then wrote, “He would come up with something – the cuts aren’t real, or the taxes are awful, or they can’t trust Obama to carry them out, or something.”

Murphy’s initial view was that to unlock GOP votes for a budget deal, Obama just needed to endorse chained CPI and more means-testing in Medicare. Then it was pointed out that Obama has endorsed means-testing in Medicare, so Murphy wondered why he didn’t endorse chained CPI as part of a deal. Then it was pointed out that Obama did endorse chained CPI, at which point Murphy called chained CPI “a gimmick,” and said Obama had to endorse raising the Medicare age, drop his demands for more revenue as part of a deal and earn back the GOP’s trust.

Recall what Chait said would happen.

A few tweets later, Murphy gave his bottom-line view, which is that if Obama wants a deal, he needs to drop all of his demands and just agree to what the GOP wants to do.

Technically, Obama did move first on spending. Over the course of 2011, Obama signed into law a set of bills that cut about $1.8 trillion from discretionary spending, and that included no tax increases at all. One of those bills, the Budget Control Act, also gave us the sequester, so you could argue they included closer to $3 trillion in spending cuts — all, again, without a single tax increase. It didn't seem to build much trust. He’s also, in this deal, “moved first” on spending.

So far, the Republicans have not proposed any further tax increases, but Obama has proposed quite a few spending cuts, including means-testing in Medicare and chained-CPI.

So what’s left for Republicans?

That’s made it important for Republicans to prove that it’s the president who is somehow holding up a deal. This had led to a lot of Republicans fanning out to explain what the president should be offering if he was serious about making a deal. Then, when it turns out that the president did offer those items, there’s more furious hand-waving about how no, actually, this is what the president needs to offer to make a deal. Then, when it turns out he’s offered most of that, too, the hand-waving stops and the truth comes out: Republicans won’t make a deal that includes further taxes, they just want to get the White House to implement their agenda in return for nothing. 

U.S. seeks Education on the Cheap. See what Denmark, Sweden and Finland Spend.

It's funny, in the U.S. we're constantly whining about leaving our kids with higher taxes, while at the same time, cutting away funding that will allow them to make more money as adults.

In many of the top European countries, it's completely different, and if it wasn't for the U.S. created Great Recession, the EU wouldn't be in the mess it's in now. Their monetary policy sucks too, but that's another story.

Education is thriving there. While Republicans point only to vouchers as something they'd like to import to the U.S., they purposely ignore the tremendous taxpayer investments made in education and the national curricula.

This may shock a lot of conservatives when they see the cost, heck it shocked even me. I'm sure there's more to this than the following short summary, but check it out anyway.  You'll see how Americans continue to cut corners with cheap vouchers schemes and religious doctrine that passes for education. The use of the term "welfare state" would be enough to make every teabilly pass out for hours. eSchoolnews (subscription)

Nordic countries, built around the welfare-state model, and which score high on international education benchmarking tests, have provided successful preschool education programs for decades … On Feb. 28, education leaders from Denmark, Sweden, and one of PISA’s top-scoring countries, Finland, met at the Brookings Institution to discuss how their preschool education system works and why they believe that high-quality preschool education keeps their economy going. The Heckman Equation shows that programs targeted toward the earliest years of child development return dollars to the economy later in life.

In Denmark, explained Christine Antorini, minister for children and education, the mindset is focused not only on income equality, but gender equality. A flexible market allows families to make time to have children. Parents can share up to one year of paid leave to take care of their newborn children. Unemployment is lower than in other parts of the world … Almost all children are in day care from the age of one.

“We believe strongly in lifelong learning, which is free for all—college included. We also have universal day care. Of course, an average of 50 percent of your income goes to the state.”

Gulp! 50 percent of a person’s income in Denmark goes to the state? What do you get for that? Can you take it hunting? Does it require a gun or armed guards? What, that's not part of education? 

Antorini said that most Nordic countries make good on the promise to provide successful day care and preschool systems by ensuring four characteristics: high quality, a focus on public engagement, universal availability, and a focus on supporting gender equality.

Since 2004, all day care centers have been obligated to a curriculum for children up to two years old, and another for children ages 3 to school age. Curriculum focuses on personal development, social competences, language development, body and motion, knowledge of nature and natural phenomena, and cultural values and artistic expressions.

A municipality covers a minimum of 75 percent of the operating costs, and parents pay a maximum of 25 percent (approximately $400 per month). In Finland, each municipality spends roughly $656 per child to more than $1,000 per child. Denmark spends approximately 8 percent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on kids under 8 years old, and the U.S. spends roughly 0.1 percent of its GDP on the same age range.

“All of Finland’s teachers must have a research-based master’s degree that’s based on a five-year degree,” said a member of the Finnish Parliament. “We also set high wages for teachers, and teaching is considered a very respected profession in our country. This includes preschool teachers—every preschool teacher must have a college degree.”

Justice Roggensack could list you as a supporter too....

How do you list someone as a supposed supporter in “error?” And this is the second time.

Justice Roggensack is throwing everything she can into her campaign to get re-elected as a majority member of the conservative activist State Supreme Court. Desperate times...

WKOW: Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Pat Roggensack incorrectly listed a reserve judge as one of her endorsers. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports Roggensack adviser Brandon Scholz as saying Robert Kinney's name was listed in error, and that his endorsement was removed from the justice's web site by Saturday … this is the second time Roggensack has listed an endorsement she did not actually receive.

Kinney emailed Roggensack last week to object to his name being listed among her endorsers, saying he disagreed with her on virtually every 4-3 decision from the court. She wrote back to say he was listed by mistake and his name would be taken down, and Kinney says he's satisfied.

Roggensack is facing Marquette University law professor Ed Fallone in the April 2 general election.

Walker’s Message to Business…Cheat without consequences, pt. 2: Don't worry, Trash the Environment.

Scott Walker accomplished a number of destructive “business friendly” things; he’s created an atmosphere of cheating, gaming the system, voluntary adherence to regulation, and failed as a manager of state business by not employing state workers to carry out his policies. Small government means we’re soft on violations.

And businesses have responded.

WSJ: Nearly a fifth of Wisconsin’s 70 active frac sand mines and processing plants were cited for environmental violations last year, as the industry continued to expand. Violations included air pollution, construction without permits, and an accident at the Preferred Sands mine in Trempealeau County.

If that wasn't enough, this should insult your intelligence:

“Some of these companies should have known better,” said Marty Sellers, a DNR air management engineer. “They seem to put construction and production ahead of regulations.” Sellers said the DNR expects 90 percent of companies in a regulated industry to comply with rules on their own. But in his visits to a dozen frac sand facilities, Sellers encountered the opposite pattern, and sent letters of noncompliance to 80 percent to 90 percent of the sites.

This is what Scott Walker is fostering in this state; non-compliance. Walker’s a lousy manager too, by not realizing that expanded frac mining meant...expanded oversight. To Walker, adding just two more DNR positions was enough. Why do we put people who hate government in charge of government?

DNR compliance officials acknowledged they have been stretched thin monitoring the sand industry, which has grown from a handful of sites five years ago to more than 100. Wisconsin is the nation’s leading supplier of frac sand.

In response to complaints ... a DNR stormwater specialist wrote in explaining that the extra vigilance was helpful. “I do greatly appreciate any and all photos and reports,” Ruth King wrote. “It is precisely because I am only a half-time employee and cannot be everywhere at all times that we really need concerned citizens to be our eyes and ears.”

And when you hear Republicans whine “If Minnesota can do it so can we…”

In neighboring Minnesota, where Democrats control the legislature and governor’s office, a Senate committee on Tuesday approved a bill calling for a statewide moratorium on new mine development and a study of the industry’s environmental impacts. But in Wisconsin, where Republicans are in control, the DNR decided last year that existing non-metallic mining regulations were sufficient to handle the frac sand boom.

Poverty Level Parents to pay $19 a month for Health Care, and $1800 to $4200 for Deductible. "Good Value" says outgoing Sec. of Health Dennis Smith.

I couldn't get the following statement out of my mind over the weekend. The comment was made in response to dumping the working poor on BadgerCare into the health care exchanges that would require them to also pay huge deductibles;

WSJ: The 87,000 parents who would be shifted from Medicaid to a health insurance exchange under Gov. Scott Walker's budget "will see the value of what's being offered" and sign up, outgoing health services secretary Dennis Smith said Tuesday. The parents, who make just above the poverty level, would face monthly premiums starting at $19 a month, Smith said. That doesn't include out-of-pocket costs for care, estimated at $1,850 to $4,200 a year.

"We believe overwhelmingly people will find that to be of good value," he said.

That represents out-of-pocket costs for the most basic plan in the health care market place (exchanges). It also doesn't help families spend money in the state, create demand, which in turn creates jobs. Still wondering why our state economy stinks?

Walker’s Message to Business…Cheat without consequences pt. 1. Fostering our new Culture of Corruption.

Low income tax cheats will not be tolerated; high income business tax cheats will get a break.

That’s Walker justice in Wisconsin.

I’m not exaggerating. Gov. Scott Walker has plans to crack down on the working poor receiving the Earned Income Tax Credit and Homestead Credit, but give high income cheaters amnesty.

Just as shocking was this endorsement from someone who should know better:

WSJ: Democratic Rep. Cory Mason said he was happy to see Walker propose (61) more tax enforcers.

Guess that’s the “fiscally conservative” thing to say Cory, but also another example of a state Democrat naively getting duped. Does Mason really think Republicans will allow a “big government” crackdown on the rich? (Teeth gnashing...) I hate the Democratic Party so much.

What Mason missed was this: It’s time to get tough on the poor, says State Revenue Secretary Richard Chandler:

Big surprise. At the same time…

Gov. Scott Walker’s state budget plan … would widen tax loopholes for businesses, and deliver indefinite amnesty to certain serial tax cheats. The new provision would allow a taxpayer to avoid paying owed taxes year after year if previously the state knew of the underpayment but took no action. Republican leaders said they would look closely at the provision, but they didn't see it as necessarily unfair.

Mason finally gets this one:

“We talk about being tough on people who break the law, but this allows people to cheat. That’s extraordinary,” said state Rep. Cory Mason, D-Racine, who sits on the Legislature’s budget committee.

And then out left field comes this demolition of a major Republican talking point:

After hearing accountants say businesses often don’t base investment decisions on tax incentives, and don’t even know about them until accountants fill out tax forms, (Republican) lawmakers are drawing up plans to eliminate loopholes and reduce tax rates by an equal amount.

The hidden meaning revealed. Business friendly tax incentives AREN'T as magnetic as Walker claims. This was a big statement of fact ignored by the reporter and currently evaporating from our consciousness. 

Sunday Night Lose Ends; Graham admits GOP will Criticize Obama no matter what, Republicans are fat Asses, and Romney thinks Obama still Campaigning,

Here are two odd appearances that just didn't fit into anything I wanted to post, so just for fun, here's the startling honest comments from Sen. Lindsey Graham, and a confirmation that most Republicans are fat asses. Graham admits his party will criticize everything Obama does if given control of sequestration.



Southern extremely conservative Republicans are fat asses? Sure;



Mitt Romney thinks Obama is holding rallies, campaigning and criticizing Republicans instead of being a leader and president. Awwww....



Just think, if Romney had won, he and Ryan would be doing the "charm offensive" on the Democrats. You can't make this stuff up.

Scalia Racism, Legislating from the bench, stuns Country.

While is seems I've taken a few days off, I've actually been gathering a whole bunch of clips and editing like crazy, documenting Justice Scalia's racist statements about the Voting Rights Act, and the commentary that followed.

Except for most tea party Republicans, everybody else seemed to get this one. There were so many great responses to Scalia's activist attempt to legislate from the bench, that I'll let the pundits speak for me. There are a lot of clips, but hey, this was a turning point in our country. A chilling moment to be sure.

First Justice Scalia, in his own words, followed by the attorney arguing in defense of the Act:



Michael Smerconish and two guests, a former Deputy Attorney Gen. for  the Dept. of Justice and NAACP legal defense attorney, look at the legal aspects and implications.



Next, Ezra Klein examines Justice Sotomayor's, Roberts and Kennedy's arguments as well:



Here's great commentary from MSNBC's Torre, and Michelle Bernard:

Teabilly Revolution nothing compared to Cereal Revolution, the war against "Cerealtypes."

I found this offer for a gluten free cereal with a sense of humor:

Lyin' Ryan on Tax cuts over Deficits, Campaigning and No Obama Plan-explained!

I'm not genius but it's pretty easy to figure out; our wonkish Representative and former VP candidate Paul Ryan is continuing his campaign of deception. Hey Paul, the elections over.

Here are a number of easy to understand explanations directed at teatards who are mesmerized by the unassuming authoritarian zealot.

Forget deficits: Here Ryan starts with a false premise; new tax revenues are meant for more reckless spending, not deficit reduction. Wrong. Ryan will repeat this a number of times. Ironically, Ryan wants to use our new tax revenues for tax reform, not deficit reduction. NOT DEFICIT REDUCTION. He even inadvertently admits the tax increase increased government revenues, an impossible task when you consider how raising taxes is a job killer...or is it. Ryan's plan wipes out the new tax revenues for tax reform. Nothing has changed! Meaning Ryan keeps his plan for draconian cuts to retirees. From Upfront with Mike Gousha: 



Campaigning is Over: It's almost funny to see Ryan "campaigning" against the supposed endless "campaign" of the president, who's simply pushing his plan for deficit reduction. This is all Republicans like Ryan have in their quiver. I've inserted a video clip of Michael Smerconish, who simply points how Republicans don't  want the president to use his office, the bully pulpit, to promote his agenda. Obama is vilified for going to the American public; he's accused of "campaigning" even though he's not running for anything; when do old talking points die? One more thing, how many times will Ryan remind us he was the VP candidate?:



Ryan forgot to Google Obama's sequester plan: Ryan gave up substance for silly talking points this time around. If he can't make the numbers work, he'll fall back on a dumb comment like "the president didn't put out his own plan." I've inserted Ezra Klein who makes the Republicans, and Ryan, pay for their pure outright lie:

The Inside Story Reveals: Walker's Unoriginal Act 10, Intentionally Small Crowd Counts during Protest, and GOP Surprise vote at Fault for Storming Capitol.

Jason Stein and Patrick Marley of the Journal Sentinel, and authors of the book “More Than They Bargained For,” wrote this insightful analysis of what really happened at the Capitol protests. This is just a sample. Read more here:

Behind the scenes, there was more to the Republican governor's fight with public employee unions than just Walker's speeches and the massive protests of union supporters. An in-depth review reveals a rich backstory: A conservative Milwaukee foundation headed by Walker's campaign chairman helped prepare the way for labor legislation that advanced in states such as Wisconsin and Michigan in 2011 and 2012. The Bradley Foundation helped fund groups such as the MacIver Institute, a free-market Madison think tank that made an early call for a proposal similar to the one that Walker eventually put forward.

Some of the crowd estimates released by the Walker administration at the time were several times smaller than those actually done by top police in Madison during the biggest protests against Walker's bill. Susan Riseling, the chief of the University of Wisconsin-Madison police and the officer responsible for the Capitol's interior during the protests, estimated the crowd inside the building that midafternoon at nearly 25,000, or five times the Walker administration's count.

Republican lawmakers never notified Capitol police of a plan to take an unexpected conference committee vote on Walker's legislation that sent protesters storming into the Statehouse and past the unprepared officers. Then in a move that stunned officers from other agencies, the Madison Police Department declined a direct request from the Capitol police to help the overwhelmed state officers regain control of the building.

False premise: Pro-lifers would never harm their opponents?

This is just a short post that looks squarely at premise, “how stupid do you think we are.” I love the conservative whack-a-doodle name "Young Americans for Freedom." 

What happened: Last January, Kristopher Del Campo, the chairman of the Young Americans for Freedom chapter and other pro-life students received permission from the university to erect a pro-life display featuring 500 flags. Vandals later destroyed the display … the university’s public safety department eventually identified 13 students who confessed to the crime. Those names were then released by the university to Del Campo.

Del Campo then decided to allow vigilante justice run its course with the subtle threat below, as you can see in the picture:

"Action must be taken against these students or other liberals will have free license to continue to squelch the ideas of conservatives on campus."

The highlighted line makes it quite obvious any unreasonable conservative might take the law into their own hands, as they have in the past with deadly consequences.

On Feb. 5 the national Young Americans for Freedom organization posted the names of the vandals on their website. The posting generated negative comments directed at the vandals – and the university held Del Campo responsible. Del Campo was informed that he had violated DePaul’s Code of Student Responsibility. He was formally charged ten days later. “Instead of supporting a student whose free speech rights were violated, DePaul University bullied Kristopher Del Campo for daring to expose the 13 vandals,” said Young America’s Foundation President Ron Robinson. “They put him through a Soviet-style show trial.”

Del Campo is apparently free from university rules and regulations because the Constitution allows it? Here's a comment that factually points out the regulation.

Right #11 states "The right to have proceedings and documentation kept confidential. All hearings, proceedings and case information are considered confidential except to those who have a legitimate educational interest in them, or as permitted or required under FERPA, the Clery Act, or any other legal mandate.

DEL CAMPO directly violated this right … I feel like this was a revenge post.

Conservatives,  including the Young Americans for Freedom, don't believe in laws they don't like, and don't obey them.

Charters in Boston are doing great, New York charters are okay but questionable, and the U.S. educational standings worldwide gets revised upward

There's good news about charter schools, and a big question. The question is an important one; why are charter schools in some districts doing well, and most everywhere else, not succeeding? And if charter schools do well, why aren't the lessons learned there finding there way into the public schools that oversee them?

Charters in Boston are doing great, New York charters are okay but questionable, and the U.S. educational standings worldwide gets revised upward:

Overall, charter school students have higher learning gains in reading and math than their counterparts in regular public schools, says a new study by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes—or CREDO—at Stanford University.

The report found that, over a period of six school years, 22 percent of charter schools had greater learning gains in reading than their traditional public school counterparts, while 25 percent of charter schools had significantly lower learning gains in that subject … on average, charter school students in New York City learned the equivalent of a month of additional instruction in reading than their traditional public school counterparts.

The demographics of the charter school student population differ greatly from those of the traditional district schools. Charters educate a higher percentage of African-American students, 62 percent compared with 29 percent, respectively—and tend to enroll fewer special education students (12 percent to publics 17 percent) and English-language learners (5 percent to publics 14 percent)

Massachusetts: Students in charter schools in Massachusetts outperformed their regular public school counterparts in reading and math in the state, and students in charter schools in Boston experienced significantly higher learning gains.

Students in charter schools in Massachusetts gained an additional one and a half more months of learning per year in reading and an additional two and a half more months of learning per year in math.

Students in Boston's charter schools gained 12 months of additional learning per year in reading and 13 months of additional learning in math compared with their regular public school counterparts.
The largest CREDO has seen in any city or state thus far.

The findings on charter school performance throughout Massachusetts were more mixed. Urban charters outperformed regular district schools in math and reading, suburban charters saw smaller gains in math and reading, rural charters saw significant gains in reading but average gains in math, and charter schools located in "towns" (defined as an urban cluster that is 10 to 35 miles away from an urbanized area) had significantly lower growth than regular district schools in reading and similar growth as regular public schools in math.

Here's a few pages from Edweek (subscription) I captured that should be considered seriously:

Click to enlarge