More Savings Realized with Expanded Health Care Coverage.

It's pretty obvious already that health care reform has not only changed the way providers do business, but it may result in lower costs overall. But, thanks to Scott Walker, we're still pursuing the most costly and chaotic way to coverage tens of thousands of Wisconsinites. He really cares about us.

jsonline: A state health insurance program that provided improved access to care for adults with very low incomes in Milwaukee County sharply reduced hospitalizations, suggesting that the cost of expanding coverage could be partially offset by the money saved from fewer high-cost hospital stays, according to a study led by researchers at the University of Wisconsin.

The study — published Monday in Health Affairs, a policy journal — found an increase in visits to clinics and emergency departments but a 59% drop in hospitalizations and a 48% drop in preventable hospitalizations.

Some conservative commentators have contended that people covered by Medicaid programs are no better off than people without health insurance.

Benjamin Sommers, a physician and health economist at the Harvard School of Public Health dismissed that contention, asserting that it is based on either ideology or flawed research. "There's now a pretty good body of literature over the past several years that suggests you certainly don't hurt them," he said. "You probably help them in several ways. You help their ability to access care. They are less likely to have major medical bills. Some of their health outcomes improve. And you may even reduce mortality."

Sykes belittles the little man, Rep. Robin Vos!

Everyone's talking about how State Rep. Robin Vos collapsed under the interviewing pressure of TMJ's Charlie Sykes. Sykes' questions got Vos to admit he was lying earlier in the interview.

Deficits don't matter, again? While Rep. Paul Ryan ran on the presidential ticket pushing a balanced budget, Vos is happy with huge deficits. Republicans love having it both ways. Hear that teabillies?

Republicans don't really care about deficits. Vos is acting no different than his fellow DC Republicans during the Bush administration, where tax cut deficits were were all the rage. How'd that turn out? In fact, Vos brags he wouldn't mind having a billion dollar deficit. Just amazing.

Here's a shortened audio version of Vos' spanking. How pathetic is it to know that Sykes is in total control of our state assembly.



Root River Siren has a nice piece on this.

Rep. Mark Pocan got the full Colbert.

It was a great, embarrassing and uncomfortable interview by Stephen Colbert, but Rep. Pocan handled it well.

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,Video Archive

Back from my Vacation out West....

Republicans Okay with using Taxpayer money for Expensive Hospital Emergency Care of Uninsured.

The whole argument against a single payer health care system centered around the idea that conservatives didn't want their money going to treat somebody else. Socialism.

Fast forward to today….Sen. Fitzgerald and Rep. Vos are seriously considering sending taxpayer money to hospitals to make up for their losses because Scott Walker turned down Medicaid expansion. We're talking expensive care for the uninsured in emergency rooms. Those are the same uninsured that would have been covered. But ideology first, common sense money management...not so much.

The difficulty for Democrats is to keep up with all the Republican flip flops and contradictory policies. 

jsonline: GOP lawmakers are considering making state payments to some hospitals to help cover the costs of emergency room visits by the uninsured. Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) said lawmakers are considering making a cash payment to hospitals to help them deal with a possible increase in emergency room visits from the uninsured.

This is so completely opposite anything the Republicans would stand for; why isn't this a bigger story? It’s a horrible way to waste taxpayer money on the most costly treatment. All in an effort to stick to their ideology.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) said Assembly Republicans are firmly behind Walker's Medicaid plan and are hopeful that Senate Republicans will coalesce around it. He said legislative leaders are discussing giving additional payments to hospitals with a disproportionate share of indigent patients, but there is no agreement on whether to provide it.

And of course the desperate hospital lobby likes the idea:

The Wisconsin Hospitals Association supports the federal Medicaid expansion. But Eric Borgerding, a lobbyist for the association, said that the extra money from the state could help make up for higher numbers of the uninsured showing up at emergency rooms because of changes in the state's health care system. "I think it's a positive step," Borgerding said.  
Rep. Jon Richards (D-Milwaukee), a member of the Joint Finance Committee taking up the Medicaid proposal Tuesday, said "It just shows that the administration is living in a fantasyland that is going to result in fewer people insured, the state losing nearly $100 million and the hospitals seeing more people in the emergency room," Richards said.

And more taxpayer money paying for expensive emergency room care. Like Robert Kraig from Citizen Action of Wisconsin said:

This would add to the $119 million state price tag in this budget alone for turningdown the federal health care reform dollars. “By conceding that hospitals will be damaged by an increase in uncompensated care, such deal would be an admission that Walker’s plan will cause tens of thousands people throughout Wisconsin to lose health coverage. This has been denied by the Governor and his allies in the Legislature up to now.”

Skills Gap Myth Exposed. Big Business wants lower wages and fewer workers.

The skills gap excuse is an old one. Below, from The Progressive, is a look at a recent study that blows the lid off this ridiculous excuse by big business.

Very much related to this, check out my "Video History: Failed Republican Policy" tab, where I have many clips from CNN between 2004-05 explaining just how bogus the "skills gap" really is.

Corporate America has come up with a clever rationale for the plague of high unemployment. The problem is the “skills gap” between the requirements of modern technology and under-educated workers, they claim. This flimsy explanation for persistent unemployment and falling wages is thoroughly dynamited by Prof. Marc Levine’s recent study of the so-called “skills gap.” 

The “ skills-gap” salesmen tell us that we are faced with “structural unemployment” caused by the “mismatch” between the demands of modern technology and the inadequate skills of today’s workforce. Former Bucyrus International CEO Tim Sullivan issued the kind of explanation that we now hear across the nation: “We don’t have a jobs crisis in Milwaukee, we have an education crisis.” 

The blame-the-worker mentality lurking behind the “ skills gap” thesis was more explicitly laid out by PIMCO hedge fund owner Bill Gross, who declared, “Our labor force is too expensive and poorly educated for today’s marketplace.”

Some facts:

Fully 58% of all new jobs created since 2010 pay between $7.69 and $13.83 an hour.  
WAGES RISING TO ATTRACT SKILLED WORKERS? Wages Declining. 
MORE OVERTIME TO FILL THE GAP? Overtime declining. 
UNDER-SKILLED OR OVER-QUALIFIED? Over-qualified. 
FUTURE NEEDS: HIGHEST IN LOW-SKILL AREAS.  

You thought the IRS was Bad? See what Wisconsin Republicans want to do with our Bank Accounts and Judges.

Another Republican Big Government idea to control our lives for our own good. It's also a way to bring the unemployment funds back into balance on the backs of the unemployed. Would I kid you?

While Republicans on a national level are outraged the IRS has too much power over our lives, Wisconsin Republicans are doing just the opposite, by putting in place the prying eyes of their own big government. They want to look into and freeze our bank accounts.

Raw Story: A law is advancing through the Wisconsin state legislature that would allow the government to peer into (the unemployed) their bank accounts and freeze them if they believe the account holder has received overpayments in their benefits. According to the Wisconsin State Journal, the co-authors of the bill insist that the changes would be for workers’ own good. “This is to protect the workers and lessen the burden on employers who are paying all the bills,” said state Rep. Dan Knodl (R-Germantown).

This is all about the employers and not about “protecting” the employees. They really think we’re that dumb?

Big Government Republicans have written something so breathtakingly intrusive, that the following section of the bill should damn well scare the daylights out of even low information teabillies.

The bill mandates that banks and financial institutions must hand over the private account information of any people suspected by the government of receiving overpayments. In the event of overpayments, even those caused by government error or computer malfunctions, the government would be able to freeze and collect from the accounts of people receiving unemployment.

I really never thought I’d see this day roll around. And this from the party outraged the IRS is asking for too much information?

And if you thought Republicans were really trying to put people work, try this unrewarding, draw dropping bad idea on for size:

(Currently) people receiving educational or vocational training in order to qualify for a job can continue to receive unemployment benefits past their original expiration date. The new law would stop those payments.

And if all this wasn't enough...you know business has already won the game when they are now demanding training for judges to rule in their favor:

The bill also addresses the concerns of businesses which say that the state has not done enough to train judges on how to rule in disputes between companies and employees.

Tea Party Poetic Justice, Republicans fall Victim to themselves….

Well that uninformed, highly irresponsible tea party attitude that compromise is out of the question, has just hit the Republican majority, and like a deer in headlines they are road kill.

And I’m loving every bit of this. The fact that tea party members don’t want to do anything, and would rather freeload off the past generations hard work, should come as no big surprise.

Who’s laughing now? Me.

jsonline: In a sign of the conservative discontent, 11 Assembly Republicans sent a letter Thursday to their leaders saying they wouldn't vote for the budget as written. They want the bill to cut income taxes by a greater amount, reduce bonding by $500 million and remove a provision that would require people to provide their DNA when they are arrested for felonies (this one I agree with), rather than when they are convicted. There are 60 Republicans in the 99-member Assembly. If all 11 withheld their votes, that would leave Republicans with at most 49 votes for the budget — short of a majority. 

Republican bill takes voters out of voting, and we're talking everyone.

Despite sweeping a whole lot of Republicans into the voter suppression net, the state GOP is about to go further than before. Boosted by a "liberal" Dane County Federal court's decision that Walker's voter ID law is constitutional (I know, now the courts here are good), new laws are needed to make the act of voting a Rubik's cube mess, with hundreds of pages of legalese no one in our Capitol is going to read. But with the courts deciding the law is the law, no matter the intent, we're about to lose the state to one party rule. Lets call that a banana republic.

Here's the mess:

PRWatch: A Wisconsin legislator has managed to bundle nearly all of the excesses associated with dirty elections into a single bill that good government advocates are describing as a "sweeping assault on democracy:"

1. Reinstating restrictive voter ID requirements

2. Make it easier for donors to secretly influence elections (once a candidate announces) 

3. Expand lobbyist influence

4. Restrict early voting (ending weekend voting and weekday cutoff 6 pm), and make it harder to register, among other measures. 

These restrictions solve nothing, and are not on the voters to-do list. Oddly, the restrictions affect conservative voters as well.

The most troubling provision in the bill, says Jay Heck, Executive Director of Common Cause Wisconsin, is that it "codifies protection [from disclosure] for phony issue ads.

Under Rep. Jeff Stone's bill, voters will still be asked to present an ID, and if they do not have one, they must sign an affidavit swearing ... that they either are too poor to get an ID or cannot gather the necessary documentation. Heck says requiring a person to declare they are poor so they can vote, he said, is "insulting, humiliating, and demeaning."

Funny gun right activists don't want to show proof of anything, with no records kept, but are willing to restrict the rights of voters with hundreds of pages of regulations and records that can be used against them. How long before liberal neighborhoods are categorized and used to deny jobs, screen people for party loyalty, or provide a place to vote? 

Rep. Stone's bill would eliminating early voting on the weekends, and during the weekdays, imposing a 6 pm cutoff. This would have a significant impact on working people. Rep. Stone has said that, "A lot of the smaller, rural communities just don't have the capacity to offer those types of extended hours." But Andrea Kaminski, Executive Director of the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin disagrees, notes that limiting the hours for early voting would also make it more difficult for clerks in smaller municipalities in the North, many of whom work as a clerk only part-time and have a full-time day job.

Clerks in rural area's are not for this restriction either, just so you know. Things were fine until some envious rural tea party loser said something to Rep.Andre Jacques, who thought, hey, I could use that to suppress votes.

Due to tea party voter harassment, this element was also added:

The bill would also make it easier to reject otherwise valid votes based on technicalities … a voter's failure to sign the poll list could amount to their vote not being counted in a recount, although it is not clear how a particular voter's ballot could be identified since Wisconsin has a private ballot. After Sen. Van Wanggaard lost ... Republicans hyped allegations of voter fraud, pointing specifically at missing signatures in the poll book. The omissions were chalked up to mistakes on the part of poll workers and the elections board refused to disenfranchise voters based on these errors. Rep. Stone's proposal would change that. "Why should a voter lose their vote based on the error of a poll worker?" Kaminski said.

The state elections board adopted a rule allowing voters to demonstrate proof of residency by showing electronic versions of documents. This bill would reverse the board's decision and explicitly prohibit the use of electronic documents for registration purposes. Kaminski said, "The only complaints came from those poll watchers" -- such as those trained by True the Vote -- "who wanted to see the documents voters were showing," she said. "But that is not their job."

McCabe is more blunt. "It is a sweeping assault on democracy," he said.

State Republicans No Longer Protect Taxpayers, Soak ‘em for $26 Million paying Employers interest on Unemployment. Oh, and it gets worse…

The great protectors of taxpayer money just decided to give some of that money to help private companies pay interest on their unemployment accounts.

First, will anyone ask our sneaky Republicans why the “job creators” need public welfare? And second, unemployment is their business responsibility, not ours.

Teabillies won’t notice this until next year, and radio propagandists Charlie Sykes and Mark Belling will keep up their distraction campaign.

This is almost too hard to believe:

jsonline: Under changes to the state's unemployment insurance system adopted by the Legislature's budget committee Wednesday, taxpayers would spend $26 million over two years to prop up the unemployment fund, To avoid having employers face new assessments this year, the committee voted to use $26 million in general tax dollars to pay down interest on that loan.

Think that’s bad? Taxpayers will be used to scam the federal government. Republican will borrow our hard earned taxpayer dollars to shore up the unemployment fund so the fed won’t raise taxes on EMPLOYERS, the ones who actually fund the account. This is actual fascism:

Additionally, the committee proposal would allow the state Department of Administration to lend up to $50 million in taxpayer money to the unemployment insurance fund. That loan would help the state ensure that the unemployment fund has a positive balance in 2014, which in turn would keep the federal government from raising taxes on employers by $191 million in 2015.

 Again, taxpayers are paying the states private employers interest on unemployment, and loaning private employers money, so the fed won't raise taxes on them for under funding unemployment.

State Republicans tell Nations Businesses, We Don’t Keep our Business Promises, unless we Like You.

Here’s just another example of the Walker Legislature trashing businesses they don’t like.

Just to set the record straight, this problem is all Republican; instead of supporting businesses in this state that will bring in state revenues…and that had plans of expanding, they went out of state for pennies on the lowest bidder. It was a huge mistake they’re now trying to correct, at the expense of their national business friendly image:

jsonline: Dipping into an ongoing dispute over a new student data system, the committee voted to allow school boards to select their own vendors for tracking students, rather than going with a Minnesota company selected by the Department of Public Instruction. The committee voted 14-2 to scrap a plan to have one vendor run the student information system, allowing school boards to pick whichever firms they wanted to collect data on students and report it to the state.

How bad is this broken promise?

Eric Creighton, the chief operating officer for Infinite Campus, issued a statement saying Wednesday's vote "sets a dangerous precedent for all future state procurements." "It tells prospective bidders they can use the political process to get a different outcome if a procurement doesn't go their way," his statement said.

This wasn't lost on other Republicans:

Sen. Luther Olsen (R-Ripon) — who voted with Rep. Pat Strachota (R-West Bend) against allowing multiple vendors — agreed with the assessment of Infinite Campus.

Tea Party Running State, want to Dump Common Core Standards for Schools for Paranoid Political Reasons.

While teabillies have a hissy fit after getting caught gaming the system with an avalanche of applications for tax exempt status, they’re having a major influence on sending Wisconsin into educational death spiral.

We’re talking about the Common Core Standard. The world has adopted these standards and their students are beating U.S. students. Common Core is said by tea party dummies to be a European threat meant to dumb down America, to make it less competitive. I know more paranoid insanity. Here's the tea party thinking from former superintendent candidate Rep. Don Pridemore:

The irreversible stupidity being committed by our Republicans partisan legislators will make other states the winners. Why the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel used the word “academic” instead of “core” in this story is a mystery to me, unless they intentionally tried to mask the underhanded lunacy being passed by the legislature:

jsonline: The state Department of Public Instruction would be barred from implementing new common academic standards until hearings are held and new findings issued, under a provision a legislative committee tucked into the state budget

The state would be able to keep the math and reading standards it has already implemented under the proposal adopted Wednesday. But the effect of halting implementation of common academic standards in other subject areas, could hold up a variety of reform efforts that have been quietly chugging along for the past two years.

How do I know pressure from the low information tea party losers resulted in the changes?

The actions contradict how some of the same lawmakers voted in budget deliberations two years ago — a point they acknowledged Wednesday. "What we're doing is putting the pause on Common Core," said Rep. Dean Knudson (R-Hudson), who proposed the idea. The measure passed 13-3.

Here’s the kicker, Democrat Rep. Cory Mason betrayed the party agenda of advancing public education instead of sending it back into the stone age. Democrats are so weak:

Rep. Cory Mason (D-Racine) joining all Republicans in favor of it.

My god what does it take to get a message to these clueless Democrats?

Walker Austerity Agenda Killing Wages, Economic and Job Growth

Proof and facts are hard things to shake off, unless you're a Republican governor hoping to run for reelection and then president. Walker seems to be creating a public image and narrative that runs counter to reality, an old marketing ploy used in advertising. How do you ignore a wage decline of 2.2%, twice the national average?

So the facts are in, and I'll let the disappointing details speak for themselves: 

jsonline: Competition from China and other low-wage rivals, coupled with fallout from the 2007-'09 financial crisis, has put American wages under such unprecedented strain that they have shifted into reverse — not merely stagnating, but falling.

And workers in Wisconsin are among the hardest hit in this bare-knuckled global phenomenon.

Jeff Joerres, chief executive of Milwaukee-based global staffing giant ManpowerGroup Inc., who refers to this accelerating leveling of wages as "global labor arbitrage.""It's happening so fast on a global scale that it's scary," Joerres said.
Wages have fallen across the entire national economy — down 1.1% in the 12-month period from September 2011 to September 2012, the most recent comparisons available. The vise like pay squeeze promises to become more common as global economies become more connected — "the new normal," according to Joerres.

Wisconsin wages fall 2.2% ... ranking the state 44th out of 50.The rate was double the drop in the national average. Wages in the state's government sector, pressured more by government austerity policies than global competition, registered 49th in the nation during the same period.

With the state also lagging much of the nation in job creation — ranking 44th in the most recent 12-month period — it is apparent that Wisconsin is struggling more than many other states in the transition to 21st-century growth industries from its legacy as a bastion of old-line manufacturing.

Excuses, excuses....

Ryan Murray, an economic adviser to Gov. Scott Walker (said) Wisconsin appears to have little in common with other states that also showed notable wage losses … "There's no obvious pattern," said Murray, the chief operating officer at the Madison-based Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., an arm of state government. 

I don't know, I think the above highlighted paragraph pretty much sums up the reason, but then you can't expect much from the chief operating officer of the mismanaged WEDC. 

Republican State Sen. Dale Schultz pulls away from the pack...by making sense. Admits Pure Ideology Running State Government.

WEKZ's Drive Home with Sly featured State Sen. Dale Schultz, who sounded unusually sane considering what we're hearing out of the Capitol lately. Here a link to the interview.

A must hear discussion about ideologically driven budgets and vouchers that makes you long for the days when we had a normal opposition party, with nuanced politicians that listened to all their constituents, not just the ones wearing tri-cornered hats.

Walker's One Size Fits All Big Government policy may Require Local School Districts and Cities to have Zero Balances. No Rainy Day Funds.

Not only do state Republicans want the UW's surplus fund to go away, basically making them dependent on politicians for funding, but some legislators don't want local governments and school districts to have surpluses or rainy day funds either. 

We've seen this policy before. Republicans always see extra state revenues during the good times as an excuse to cut taxes, instead of putting it away for the hard times. Clinton left a surplus, Bush gave that away in a couple of major tax cuts. Former Gov. Tommy Thompson sent out a rebate check that cost more to mail. Now Scott Walker is carrying on that fine failed tradition. From the Middleton Times:

The controversy over the University of Wisconsin’s reserves prompted rumblings that some state lawmakers want to force government entities, including local school districts, to liquidate their balances … Middleton Superintendent Don Johnson asked State Sen. John Erpenbach “if he had heard anything about specific legislation that would force the district to liquidate its fund balance.”

Erpenbach: “I haven’t heard anything yet … some senators” do believe government entities should have a zero balance at the end of each year.

And who wants these guys in charge of our state finances? Can you say WEDC?

ABC News Honors Teachers in Oklahoma as Persons of the Week.

Remember this the next time you hear snarky conservatives bash teachers as thugs, money grubbing and less than dedicated. Moving and honest, this is what I see in every teacher watching over my sons. Send a link over to trash mouth Vicki McKenna.

The Cliched Bloviating of Conservative Blogger Steve Prestegard.

Listen to the embarrassing stereotype. This was a great moment in radio this morning on WPR’s Joy Cardin program, where guest Steve Prestegard plays the conservative caricature for laughs, I would assume.

Christine Bremer (BREE-mur)-Muggli (MOO-glee), attorney with Bremer & Trollop Law Offices in Wausau and a presidential elector, had all the right answers, good answers. Democrats should learn from her.

Steve Prestegard is described as a “journalist?” Okay, then I am too. He also blogs like me, which means he must be a genius. I will deal with each subject separately, with great answers from both sides...it’s just that Steve had nothing but outright clichés with shades of envy.

First we have a clip of Scott Walker in Iowa, spouting absolute nonsense about getting jobs via losing food stamps. You won't believe this...:

“…you might imagine what they said in Madison. Uhh, the governor hates poor people, he’s making harder to get government assistance. I pushed back right away and said I’m not making it harder to get em assistance, I love the people in my state so much, I’m making it easier to get a job.”

He’s making it easier to get food stamps by taking food away? We're near last in the country for jobs. Brilliantly deceptive. Prestegard loved the idea, based purely on envy. Like all conservative control freaks, “this is a popular notion,” where assistance is money out of their pocket. But they forget when the poor had jobs, they too paid for others peoples food stamps. So why the outrage? Freeloading Republicans hate it when others get something for nothing, especially those with nothing. An appalled Christine Bremer responded by saying it was mean spirited and costly, $16 million taxpayer dollars, and that Walker’s just shifty blame for the state’s bad economy to the poor. True on all counts:



Rent to Own: Prestegard doesn’t believe government should protect the poor from predators. He assumes everyone knows basic math, and should avoid rent to own “like the plague.” If they’re that bad, why allow them or at the least deregulate them? Lunacy. Christine smokes the clueless Prestegard:



Double Dipping: Prestegard assumes public employee pay is always taxpayer money, never theirs. It’s like someone in the private sector not really owning the money they earn, and are told by their employer how to spend it. If Prestegard thinks that’s true, why can’t taxpayers tell legislators how to eat and what they can do in their free time…with our money?

Walker's Vengeance knows no Limit on Milwaukee. Think what he could do as President.

I thought this story was shocking enough when you think of everything Walker and the Republican authority were doing to Milwaukee, but now its just getting desperately bizarre. Police Chief Flynn went ballistic.

Keep in mind what Republican State Sen. Glenn Grothman said about the festering hatred on the right for Milwaukee:

Remember how Republicans hated Madison for knowing what's best for everyone? All that has changed. But this was the last straw for Police Chief Ed Flynn:

jsonline: Police Chief Edward Flynn on Friday blasted Gov. Scott Walker for being anti-urban and the Legislature's budget committee for "gratuitous" decisions that killed a community policing grant for his department and set in motion the departure of the state crime lab from Milwaukee.

"I don't know of a governor anywhere in the country who succeeded in turning his state's economy around by actively facilitating the decline of his biggest city. This isn't like, bad things are happening in Milwaukee and I can't stop it. This is, can I put another stick in the eye of Milwaukee on another issue? It's certainly not good government. There's 600,000 people here. It's not smart economic policy."

"I don't want to be a partisan," Flynn said. "But I'm not blind. This is partisan. Unfortunately, if you happen to be a Milwaukee resident, you must suffer the apparent desperate need of the (Walker) administration to exact political payback on Milwaukee. Because the mayor had the temerity to challenge for the governor's job. What else could it be? I would prefer not to think the Legislature hates us because we live in Milwaukee. I would prefer to not think it was a kind of prejudice against urban challenges and issues. But it's not much more edifying to say, 'OK, you made the political point.'

"Perhaps, you know, the leadership of this city should go to Madison and kiss a ring and bend our knees and say, 'Yes, overlords, please don't hurt us anymore. We're so sorry.' I mean, enough."

Flynn echoed a comment made recently by former mayor John Norquist who said that, without Milwaukee, Wisconsin was basically Iowa. "Maybe he wants us to be Iowa," Flynn said of Walker. "Spending as much time there as he is here."

(Before losing it, the) community policing grant would have provided $445,400 over the next two years to expand the city's ShotSpotter system. The system detects the shock waves from a bullet being fired and transmits that information immediately to the department's communications facility and computers inside squad cars.

Walker to Iowans: "We've laid a "positive" foundation to move Wisconsin forward..." Yeah, we're real happy here!

It's no surprise that even the most outrageous and partisan state Republican legislators can't stomach many of the things Scott Walker wants to pass under his governorship. Truly is irresponsible stuff. But the criticism here is countered by the wild eyed praise of Iowans.

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker was the keynote speaker before the Polk County GOP

"Make" it go Red? Walker to turn Country Blood Red?

in Iowa Thursday. Using Wisconsin as his conservative model, the governor talked nationally, insisting the GOP must adapt.

"People realize we stood our ground not for some political cause, not just to keep a campaign promise, but because ultimately we wanted to put the power back in the hands of the hard-working taxpayers. We said here's the pathway forward. We've laid a positive foundation to move Wisconsin forward, and people want to continue down that path. We need to do that nationally, as well, which brings me to my second point, we need to be more relevant as Republicans."

Walker did not lay a “positive foundation” forward, unless having the most partisan statewide divide nationally is a model to be admired. Neighbors now hate neighbors and recall records are used as blacklists for potential candidates for office. jsonline's Craig Gilbert wrote:

The state's red-blue divide is a major reason for this consistency. Walker and Obama routinely get 90% approval or higher from voters in their own party, and close to the same level of disapproval from voters in the other party. That guarantees each of them a large, unyielding bloc of support - and a large, unyielding bloc of opposition.

Walker has done the impossible; he got reelected in the Democratic stronghold of Milwaukee, and then reelected in a recall. For some reason, those droopy sociopathic eyes are hypnotic, controlling and lovingly deceptive. And now it's working for him in other states too.

Read the following on an empty stomach:

"I thought it was absolutely fantastic. I can imagine that guy being our next president."

"That was very inspiring, and it's a great kick-off to the next election cycle, really, and we agree in Iowa with all of his values," Debbie Heldt said.

"I thought it was absolutely fantastic. I can imagine that guy being our next president," Joel Illian said.

"One of the better aspects is, he actually does what he says he's going to do, and I'm not sure that's so true around the nation," Kevin Zierke said.

One Wisconsin Now was there to spread the word, Walker is a lousy governor on paper. Here's the TV coverage from WBAY:

Republicans don't even like themselves anymore....

Republicans love to be in charge. They're natural political authoritarians. They have great taxpayer supported jobs, free health care and really don't have to do much except shed their responsibilities onto the private sector. They even wanted to pass a new law exempting them from Obamacare. The balls right? Well, not even Republicans can stand themselves anymore:

 Fox News: A move to give lawmakers the right to carry handguns anywhere they wish sparked an angry debate among Republicans in the Texas House on Thursday, with conservatives lambasting their colleagues for giving themselves special privileges.

Regular concealed handgun license holders cannot take their guns into hospitals, churches, bars or onto private property that bans them. When the bill came up in the Texas Senate, lawmakers added themselves to those exempted from the restrictions and sent it back to the House for final passage. Conservative Republicans became enraged.

"My constituents are sick and tired of politicians passing laws that exempt themselves from following the law. We are putting ourselves on an un-level playing field. Do you not know a moral problem with that?" Rep. Jonathan Stickland, R-Bedford, shouted at the House chamber.

My, my, the moral vacuum within the Republican Party is now a problem for…Republicans. I love it.