Turning Lemon Laws into Corporate Lemonade, Republicans are not true believers in the "free market" after all.

Fixing another nonexistent problem for purely ideological reasons is nothing new for our big government Republican authoritarians led by Scott Walker. Businesses may even be wary of coming to Wisconsin for fear of someday being targeted as a threat to their agenda. And they would be right.

Turning Lemon Laws into Corporate Lemonade: Free market lobbyists hate the free market! In a free market, lawyers can sue for faulty products and services. You may have heard Republicans whine about “picking winners and losers” but they’re the biggest offenders. They justify breaking their own rule with the mind numbing cliché, job creation, screw the consumer.

From the outright lunacy of “predatory Lemon Lawyers” to “driving up costs,” Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce lobbyist Scott Manley wrote this:

Wisconsin needs “Lemon Law” reform to protect consumers from predatory “Lemon Lawyers” who make their living exploiting the state’s lucrative double damages requirement if a faulty vehicle is not replaced in 30 days, WMC said Tuesday. “…drives up costs for consumers and manufacturers,” said Scott Manley, vice president of government relations for Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce.

What’s missing is the hardship to the consumer in the above statement. 30 days is a long time without a functioning car, and even longer if the manufacturer decides to string out a possible solution. And since Wisconsin is the only state with “double damages,” it’s ridiculous to think we have the power to increase the cost of anything. My guess is the auto industry will continue to have their own team of high price trial lawyers to minimize damage, while lobbyists like WMC try to take out consumer lawyers.

On WPT’s Joy Cardin show, WMC’s government lobbyist Scott Manley came right out and said:

“When lawyers win, consumers lose.”

Down-the-rabbit-hole stuff isn't it. Another words, injuries and deaths caused by faulty consumer products should not result in large damage settlements, the most effective possible deterrent, because companies will just raise their price on us. For some reason, this makes perfect sense to conservatives.

Of course, we as consumers could go to another company with a much safer similar product, with a lower price because they’re not getting their pants sued off every day. Free market right? 

Here’s Scott Manley and former Supreme Court justice candidate and lemon lawyer Vince Megna:

Koch Funded Americans for Prosperity direct political link to Tea Party Losers.

The documentary AstroTurf Wars connects the big corporate money to the tax exempt groups we know as the tea party.

"....exposes how front groups like the Kochs’ Americans for Prosperity, Energy Citizens, and Blankenship’s Friends of America have taken populist discontent during a Democratic presidency and redirected it to their radical right-wing corporate agenda of global warming pollution, regressive taxation, and health-care profiteering. In (Astro)Turf Wars, Australian filmmaker Taki Oldham journeys from Philadelphia to West Virginia, interviewing angry grassroots conservatives and the corporate public relations experts who are manipulating them. Going undercover at several Tea Party rallies, Oldham has exclusive coverage of how corporate profiteers are attempting to bring the United States government back under their thumb.

504(c)(4) is exclusively for "social welfare" organizations. After watching this, the IRS blunder might just be the thing that changes this corporate con job. We can hope anyway:



Here's another trailer that's just as insulting, as teabillies put words to their stupidity:

Oh, Never mind!! Rep. Issa was told about IRS investigation well before Election, so what's all the belly aching about?

I'm not hearing any apologies. Republicans are big on public apologies.

When you try to fool the public with manufactured outrage, you’re bound to get caught.

Republicans, like Paul "cheap shot" Ryan, grilled IRS inspector General J. Russel George, feigning disappointment they weren't told about the tea party investigation before the Obama election. You do know this is all about making Obama’s presidency illegitimate, right?

In a mind bending turn of events, even though Rep. Darrell Issa knew about the investigation, he let his do-nothing comrades in crime go on and on about being kept in the dark. Somebodies in trouble:          

Yahoo: Much has been made of the fact that senior Treasury Department officials were told about the investigation into the treatment of tea party groups in June 2012 - months before last year's the Presidential election. Republicans who requested the investigation were also told about it at approximately the same time. In a letter dated July 11, 2012, the man who conducted the investigation - IRS inspector general J. Russell George - wrote to Rep. Darrell Issa, the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, telling him that he was investigating the issue and offering to keep him updated as the investigation progressed. "The Oversight Committee knew about the audit because it requested it," an Issa aide told ABC News.

So…Issa kept that to himself? Apparently…

George said he had notified top Treasury officials - including Deputy Secretary Neal Wolin - about his investigation in June 2012, part of a routine briefing on the issues he was looking into. Republicans pounced on that revelation as evidence top Administration officials knew about the targeting of conservative groups well before the 2012 election. It is now clear that at least some key Republicans knew about the investigation as well.

My god aren't we done yet with these crooked cry babies?

Wisconsin's going to Hell! Republican cuts brutalize towns and city services by kicking the can down the Road on Transportation Funding.

This WPT Here and Now report is the best analysis yet, maybe even WARNING, that exposes the budgetary house of cards being constructed by our Republican authority. It shows what happens when Walker's bizarre ideologically driven policy clashes with reality. Suffice it to say we're in for some real trouble, as the "kick-the-can-down-the-road" Republicans won't make the tough decisions that will help the state deal with its transportation problems. You know, it's never quite the right time to do anything.

Keep in mind, a recent Marquette Law School Poll found the public also doesn't want to spend a dime on transportation either, while still wanting the work done. Some conservative lawmakers know what needs to be done, but lack the leadership and courage to pull the trigger.

Just like during Bush, Republicans are proving to be the "borrow and spend" party. You won't like anything in this report. And Walker thinks he's presidential material? Zac Schultz doesn't hold back:

A Walker Run for President is Ridiculous! Media needs to focus on his record, his divisive agenda.

The genius of Scott Walker; getting people to like him, even when they’re being led down the rabbit of hole of partisan lies and huge debt. He’s protecting the taxpayer don’t cha know. They just love that line.

Below is the truth about a mess that will end up becoming a Democratic governor or legislature's problem to solve. You know the routine; Democrats will solve the problem, but then be blamed for raising taxes, fees and whatever else to pay off the debt, getting Republicans elected. It’s one vicious cycle of stupidity. I have another post featuring a story from WPT's Here and Now that blows the lid of the "kick the can down the road" Walker administration's lousy spend and borrow agenda.

I apologize to the blog who originally discovered this story and brought it to my attention. This is just a summary from UrbanMilwaukee:

A report by the non-partisan Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance does an analysis using generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP, to look at the overall state deficit. Walker cut it from $2.99 billion to $2.21 billion in 2012 and by this summer that is expected to drop to $2.06 billion.

But under the governor’s new budget, that figure is expected to increase to $2.36 billion by 2014 and $2.64 billion by 2015.  Meanwhile he wants to greatly increase bonded debt. WisTax noted he is asking to issue an additional $2.1 billion in bonds, equal to 16% of all outstanding state debt.

Perhaps most alarming is Walker’s approach to funding transportation, which could leave the transportation fund so in debt that 25 cents of every dollar would be spent on debt service by 2023, as my colleague Dave Reid has reported. A report from the bipartisan Transportation Finance & Policy Commission, alarmed by the growing transportation fund deficit, had recommended increasing the gas tax, which hasn’t been hiked since 2006, and comes nowhere near paying for the cost of roads in Wisconsin. Todd Berry, executive director of the taxpayers alliance. notes. “I think inevitably Wisconsin will have some kind of quasi-toll tax. Transportation in other states is becoming very much like a utility where you are metered and sent a bill.” The income tax cut, he notes, is a key contributor to dissipating the progress Walker had made in reducing the state’s GAAP deficit.

In the longterm, the apparent progress Walker made on the GAAP deficit may turn out be a small footnote to a longterm trend that suggests Wisconsin is underfunded and under-taxed. 

The WisTax report doesn’t go back to 1999 but does show the state debt has risen from $5.8 billion in 2002 to $13.6 billion in 2013, and that will jump to $15.7 billion if Walker’s budget is approved in this regard.

From a GAAP analysis, the WisTax report noted, Wisconsin had the third-highest deficit in 2011, trailing only California ($19.9) million and Illinois ($8.1 million).

Republicans to shift the rising cost of health care to individuals, and let Medicare wither due to Massive Big Pharma Profits!

While Democrats try their damnedest to provide health care to everyone and control costs, Republican free marketers are gleefully watching venture capitalists reap massive profits from lifesaving drugs. Oh, and that problem we’re having with affordable health care…is only getting worse.

If there ever was an argument against Paul Ryan’s competitive free market solution, this is it in spades.

While on one level a few of the more cosmetic but important treatments might benefit from competition, venture capitalists will trash any savings and dramatically drain the economy of consumer dollars. All on the backs of taxpayers who footed the research in the first place:

jsonline: What happens when a disease-fighting charity dives into venture capitalism? In the first case of its kind, the results include one of the planet's most expensive pills, huge sales projections for a drug company and windfalls for executives who sold stock in the glow of enthusiastic news releases about the drug … funding from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and by taxpayers through the National Institutes of Health. Yet it costs each patient $307,000 a year to take two Kalydeco pills a day - a price borne by taxpayers through Medicaid and other government programs and by the workers and companies who finance employee health insurance plans. More than 50% of children and one-third of adults with cystic fibrosis have their treatments paid for by taxpayer-funded programs, such as Medicaid and Medicare … Taxpayers helped fund the science that led to Kalydeco.

In the 1990s … the federal health research agency tried to encourage reasonable pricing of drugs developed with the help of its funding, but drug companies were not interested. In December, a Journal Sentinel investigation found that treatment guidelines connected with the 25 top-selling drugs in America were heavily influenced by doctors with financial ties to drug companies. In some cases, nonprofit associations issued the guidelines and also had financial ties to the drug companies.

Adding to the inhumanity of gaming the system:

Robert Beall, president of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, said that without its financial support, drugs such as Kalydeco would never get to patients. He rejected the idea of using the royalty money to help patients pay for the medical care, noting that the foundation needed the money to entice drug companies to get involved in risky cystic fibrosis drug research. Beall said the foundation did not ask Vertex to price the drug more affordably. "That would have been a deal-breaker," he said.

And that’s our broken free market health care system. See any reason to completely reform it?

Lobbyist for Big Tobacco, Rent-to-Own and Loan Companies pushing privatized Bail Bondsman to save taxpayers money. What’s not to trust? No Red Flags?

Let’s face it, the above special interests are all big Republican supporters. Even though Big Tobacco and Rent-to-Own companies have a less than stellar history, we’re supposed to go along with even more “corporate promises” to supposedly save taxpayers money. I could be wrong, but that’s not why they’re in business is it?

jsonline: Two years after lawmakers unsuccessfully tried to enlarge the state budget by creating a privately run bail bonds system in Wisconsin, the controversial idea could be returning. Last time, the bipartisan group of opponents included the state's judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, sheriffs and clerks of court - virtually the entire legal system. Gov. Scott Walker ultimately killed the idea by vetoing it in June 2011.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) said allowing bail bondsmen would increase the number of people who show up at their court date and reduce costs for the court system.

Here’s the kicker and big RED FLAG:

Supporters of the proposal, led by the American Bail Coalition, said that bondsmen would make government more efficient … The American Bail Coalition has registered to lobby lawmakers on the budget bill, hiring prominent Capitol lobbyist Eric Petersen, who also does work for a rent-to-own corporation, a title loan company and tobacco interests as well as other companies. Neither the Bail Coalition nor Petersen responded to requests for comment.

No response? I'm shocked!! I can hear the Walker zombies now, “big deal, so what.”  An amazing thing to say knowing bits and pieces of the government house our founding fathers build are getting sold off. Pretty soon, instead of defending our property rights, we’ll have landlords watching over that too. 

Liberal Tax Exempt Status was Bad, until it was discovered Tea Party Tax Exempt Status was Good. Mad Hatter would be proud.

Tea party reporter Dave Weigel at Slate wrote a stinging story on the absolute upside logic and hypocrisy of the right wing on 501(c)(4) tax exempt status. Media Matters has been targeted for years because they simply play back video and audio of actual comments made by Republicans that reflect very badly on their agenda. For that, Republicans and Fox News took aim at Media Matters to discredit them and pull their tax exempt status for just being a mirror reflection of their projected “ugly side.”

Weigel takes a funny and revealing look at how quickly conservatives can flip flop when convenient, eventually taking both sides, to save their own asses. I challenge any conservative troll to deny this simple truth:

So this isn't political...?

A little more than a year ago there emerged a scandal about political groups winning tax-exempt status. Left-wing groups. The Daily Caller shared pages of memos and anecdotes from Media Matters for America, then shared quotes from Republicans asking why a liberal press-watching organization deserved 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status. “The collaboration that they talk about on a weekly basis with the White House means this is a political operation,” shuddered Sean Hannity on his Fox News show. “This is not a 501(c)(3)—you know, tax-exempt organization. This sounds like a political organization and close collaboration with the White House.”

And this is how politicos used to talk … until last Friday … decry or ridicule the 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) exemptions intended for “social welfare” but used pretty nakedly for politics. In the George W. Bush era, the NAACP was investigated on those grounds, and some conservatives executed mid-air high-fives.

Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies mission statement, is “a non-profit public policy advocacy organization that is dedicated to educating, equipping, and engaging American citizens to take action on important economic and legislative issues that will shape our nation's future.” According to observable reality, it and other Crossroads groups spent around $300 million to attack Democratic candidates.

The Huffington Post’s Michael McAuliff noticed an old interview with Sen. Mitch McConnell full of the old “the left abuses tax-exempt status” gospel. “Most of the so-called charitable organizations who are involved in political activity in this country, who are, in my judgment, involved in arguable violations of their tax-free status and violations of the campaign laws, happen to be groups on the left.” But when McAuliff followed up; McConnell declared money is speech. Even secretive money is speech. Demanding disclosure, or audits, was a threat to that speech.

Here’s how the campaign finance lawyer C. Boyden Gray described the possible offenses of Media Matters back in February 2012, zeroing in on the group’s “political training” program … a program designed to instruct left-leaning pundits on how to effectively bring the liberal gospel to the airwaves. Gray said trainees … could be problematic for the legal status of their training organization.

What’s the difference between the Leadership Institute training young politicos on the right and Media Matters training young politicos of the left? Nothing. There’s no difference … conservative Republicans (led by Rep. Michele Bachmann) gathered outside the Capitol with Tea Party leaders who’d been hassled by the IRS. Speaker after speaker decried the IRS for trampling on free speech—by holding back on tax-exempt “social welfare” status for groups that would eventually show up outside the Capitol, next to conservative Republicans.

Said Georgia Rep. Paul Brown, “The IRS needs to be nonpartisan.” Be nonpartisan, sure—but how? “They need to look at any group that qualifies for 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(4) status and give it to him.”

Dumb Ron Johnson...Stooge of the Night!!!!

David Letterman knows a good joke when he sees one:

Republicans winning Public Support; Kick the can down the road, Freeloading is fun.

While the states around us progress, even with tax increases on the well off, Wisconsin Republicans are stuck in time. They've taken Wisconsin's national character and trashed it, with attempts to take butter off our restaurant tables, ban cheese from Foodshare, slow broadband to rural farmers, delay wind and solar development, ban cloning again, reduce funding to education, ignore transportation effecting the delivery of goods and services, back out of contracts, spread the failed voucher program, ignore half the population filled with liberals and independents, make voting harder, bust up unions, bypass the judicial branch...etc. We're not Wisconsin anymore, we're Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, and N. Carolina. And we didn't even have to drive there.

My point is Republicans have successfully sold the public on the idea that we don't need to pay for anything anymore. Below is a clip from WPT's Here and Now, with the results of the latest Marquette University Law School poll that makes if very clear the public knows what needs to be done, but would rather live off the sweat, work and investment others made to our infrastructure and services. Kick the can down the road:



When Republicans blame others, like the poor and unemployed for freeloading, they're projecting, knowing full well that's exactly what they plan on doing. In fact they're doing it now. Republican legislators never break a sweat making slight changes to ALEX written legislation. Lawmakers collect a paycheck and soak the taxpayers for doing nothing, because that's what you get when you make government smaller. And just to rub it in, they get free health care, the kind they're so dead set against sharing with the voters.

And these guys keep getting reelected. Are we crazy? Is this the end of the experiment?

Right Wing Wins Again; Democratic Party of Wisconsin's Graeme Zielinski Leaves.

Graeme Zielinski will be missed. He's moving on from his duties at the Democratic Party of Wisconsin to write. In the words of Dickens, "I see a vacant seat...in the poor chimney corner...carefully

preserved."

I've been disappointed by many liberals, progressives and Democrats who have criticized Zielinski for his aggressive style, and being the kind of fighter they could only dream of being. Clever and brutally to the point, Zielinski knew how to rankle the radical right and the Walker Authority. And isn't that what's its all about, getting their attention?

Instead of creatively standing up for Zielinski's comparisons, asides, and no-holds-barred advocacy of an actual Democratic agenda, he was bashed and asked to apologize for...being honest. His irreverent approach was refreshing. His biting humor and quick wit, an amazing thing to watch.

This is how we treat our best spokespeople? Where does this leave us? Here's Zielinski's sign off, for now:

TMJ4: After three-and-a-half years before the mast at the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, I'm moving on. It was one hell of a ride and I'm proud of the work I've done, both before- and behind-the scenes.

It was an honor to fight passionately, honestly and with integrity for the values I love that have sustained the state and Party I love, all during some pretty momentous days.

As my Church teaches me, the rich and powerful can fend for themselves. It is up to progressive institutions to stand up for the rest of us, and that's what I intend to do as I move forward, buoyed and strengthened by the great experience of my time with the Party.

Stay tuned and be in touch. In the immediate future, I'm working on an exciting writing project which you'll hear more about soon-Cheers, GZ.

Sell Governors Mansion and stop wasting Taxpayer money on it now.

It's hard to predict what the next taxpayer funded outrage will be, as Republicans selectively trot out every Democratically instituted law and job for public ridicule. The truth is, conservative voters want, want, want but don't want to pay for...anything. Thank god they can live off the hard work and investments made by past generations. That's why I call conservatives freeloaders. It's not name calling, it's the truth. My next post will be dealing with this subject, based on a recent poll.

Unlike Sen. Bob Wirch, I can joke about the governors mansion as a needless expense, but he's dead serious. He does make sense, and I'm coming around his way of thinking. He explains that point in his recent press release:  

Wispolitics: Senator Bob Wirch (D-Somers) is reaching across the aisle to his

Republican colleague on the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Finance, Senator Glenn Grothman (R-West Bend), asking for his support for a budget motion permitting the sale of the Governor’s mansion. Earlier this week, Senator Grothman joined every other Republican member of the committee to vote in favor of the sale of 10,000 acres of state stewardship land by June 30, 2017. “Well, at least six other states don’t have mansions for their Governors, and a number of others are considering selling theirs off, so a Governor’s mansion is clearly a luxury that we just don’t need,” Wirch said. "Over the course of a four-year term, it costs taxpayers more than $1 million just to operate. This isn't a partisan issue – I first made this proposal in 2002. People want to see their state government provide basic services and cut waste and frills.

The value of the mansion alone is estimated at $1.5 million, and when combined with the land, the value is believed to exceed $2.5 million. Operating costs ... $250,500 annually, including a 4.5 member staff. A separate appropriation for maintenance and operations ... cost the state an additional $322,700. According to the state’s Legislative Council, six states – Vermont, Idaho, California, Arizona, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island – do not have Governor’s mansions or executive residences; in fact, California turned its former mansion into a state park.

IRS/Teabilly flap should result in pulled tax exempt status for all "Party" affiliated supposedly "Social Welfare" groups.

Exposed, finally!!! IRS fumble brought into daylight, regrettably for conservative billionaire funding sources, the conservative con game that forces taxpayers to pick up their campaign tab.

See, they're not racist...

This wasn't so much the IRS targeting for political purposes as it was a dumb shortcut to deal with tea party freeloaders who thought they had easy way to avoid paying taxes. They actually claimed they were "social welfare" groups. Despite hating all things "social" and all things "welfare," they sold their souls for a free ride.

Because of this hoax, the U.S. lost tax revenue making everyone else pay for their partisan agenda. They also didn't want to disclose how much money the Koch's contributed to Americans for Prosperity under 501(c)(4) rules. In fact, the IRS didn't even look into the larger lawyered up groups.

Real Balls: Tea parties actually thought they could sell the public on their convoluted, revisionist, simpleton perspective of the constitution, as a social welfare benefit to society.

Ironically, teabilly whining actually prompted the IRS to investigate. If done for political purposes, nothing would have happened:

...oops, spoke too soon.

jsonline: Treasury officials said that (they) were looking into the IRS' handling of applications for tax-exempt status, partly due to allegations raised by conservative organizations."

The outrage is more of a distraction from the real question; why are these obvious political organization and arms of conservative campaigning receiving "social welfare" status? These angry teabillies might be doing more to dismantle the free ride than anything else.

But one more thing can't be ignored. The anger over money in politics and the mind boggling activist Citizens United ruling could get worse if Republicans had their way. More money and creeping fascism is possible if we just do away with the IRS, or reduce it into a toothless agency.

The top Republican admitted it wasn't partisanship, but something else, just to make his grander point: 

Assimilated Koch whore McKenna

Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., chairman of the Ways and Means Committee said, "The reality is this is not a personnel problem. This is a problem of the IRS being too large, too powerful, too intrusive and too abusive of honest, hardworking taxpayers."

Yeah, those were really "hard working" retired tea party freeloaders bused around states protesting for the Koch's taxpayer draining Americans for Prosperity. They wore their mod mentality proudly by their openness to fall in line as another cog in the AFP machine. Like conservative radio's surreal visitor from an alternate universe, Vicki McKenna. 

Conservative Radio's Cancer Stick Vicki McKenna defends unhinged Sheriff Clarke and Loves Spending Taxpayer money on His Propaganda

My god, has teabilly radio smoke breather Vicki McKenna got balls? After Scott Walker's attack on Milwaukee, wiping out local control now and in the past, she's whining about the county regulating (silencing) the lunatic rantings of Sheriff David Clarke by drawing up ethical and taxpayer spending guidelines.

Here's the Milwaukee County Boards intended result after Clarke made his national media tour on all the conservative media outlets. His fear mongering public service announcement told constituents not bother with 911, and shoot first. 

How unfair? Saving taxpayer money in this case is "silencing" the lunacy of Sheriff David Clarke? He doesn't need to spend our money to embarrass himself or the job he's doing, he can do that verbally...free. In fact, he already has.

The New Running Joke...?

This screen capture should tell you something about the media frenzy, their defensive posture of the Republican Party, and how low Politico can go...:

The IRS bungling should have pointed out the mass fraud by political groups to gain tax exempt status, forcing Americans to pick up the tab for their partisan candidates. The defense of tea party organizations as providers of "social welfare," a term they recently denounced, is laughable. Their public service to "teach" the Constitution is insulting. Perhaps I'm teaching the pubic about how bad Scott Walker is to our future.

What would Cheney do? Here's what this whole narrative is getting at:

What Would Cheney Do? (He) fashioned a distinctly different school of thought about how to operate in the midst of a Washington storm. That philosophy, in a word: defiance. Don’t feed bodies to the Washington wolves through resignations and firings. The pack will just get hungrier. After Obama announced the IRS’s acting director was resigning Wednesday, various Republicans called Thursday for a broader IRS probe, a special prosecutor and criminal charges to be filed … Don’t accept the premise of partisan critics and commentators that some controversy or another is genuinely a big deal. That projects weakness, demoralizes supporters and suggests the opposition is on the level, rather than driven by self-interest and hypocrisy. Note that the release of emails about Benghazi talking points only generated GOP calls for additional records from the aftermath of the attack.

HUGE Green Energy Story gets little media coverage! Adams-Friendship Solar Plant Amazing Import.

I have to think this story reported on Wisconsin Public Radio wasn't what Republicans wanted to brag about. But it's a game changer for the Adams-Friendship area, and a great corporate partner for the community, businesses and area schools. Besides very local media coverage, why was this ignored?

Look at the floating solar panels in Lake Petenwell:

Is this wild? The only thing missing are water slides.

WPR: The Adams city council and the Adams-Friendship Area School Board voted to let an Australian company (Singapore based) make Adams its American headquarters. Global Environmental Infrastructure Technology Solutions (GEITS) first approached the Adams County board with a plan for a floating power plant to clean up pollution in Lake Petenwell. While the county has yet to move forward, the city of Adams is moving full speed ahead … a $20 million-dollar factory for solar products, and an alternative energy power plant (employ up to 200 people).

I love the Adams City Administrator’s reaction to this:

Bob Ellisor compares this Australian technology invasion to the British music invasion of the 1960s. "The city of Adams is going to be center stage to the Midwest if not the nation for this new innovative technology. This is their introduction into North America, and I've got to say, I think this Australian invasion into America I think is bigger than the Beatles."

Here’s another reason why this is such a big story; community/corporate partnership:

Ellisor say Adams will use GEITS technology to clean up its waste water, and will convert its street lights for solar power. The Australian company has also approached the Adams-Friendship Area School District with a solar energy proposal, according to District Administrator Steve LaVallee. "Put solar panels [on] all our buildings that are in town, which would include our high school, middle school, elementary school, the administration office as well as the bus garage. It's a decision the board is looking at very carefully. It's an exciting opportunity."

No if we can just get Sen. Frank Lasee to determine if there are any low level invisible light rays that might pose a health problem. As for the floating solar panels, they will be on public waters:

Star Times: GEITS plan — building a 500-mega watt floating solar-power plant on Petenwell Lake — is essentially dead in the water. “The DNR is holding us back. It’s that simple,” Adams County conservationist Chris Murphy told residents.

Ed Culhane, a public affairs manager for the West Central DNR district, which includes Adams County, said “The surface waters in Wisconsin are held in trust. Obviously if you create a large structure and put in on the water it takes away usage … (Officials) had been to Madison to speak with officials at the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources only days before and received no support. All indicated that the DNR’s reasoning is based on a hesitation to “privatize” Petenwell Lake.

“With every opportunity there is a challenge, of course. The DNR doesn’t want a private company to touch their public algae,” Nellore said. “Private structures cannot go on public water so the floating plant may not go ahead,” he said.

Baldwin Bill Helps Craft Brewers!!!

Does Sen. Tammy Baldwin know how to secure votes or what?

WPR: U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc) says she's trying to help small Wisconsin craft

brewers get a federal tax break. Jeff Hamilton of Milwaukee’s Sprecher Brewing, who is also president of the Wisconsin Brewers Guild, went to Capitol Hill this week to argue for a bill that would reduce the excise tax, a tax tied to the amount of production on each barrel of beer brewed by small brewers. Senator Baldwin is a co-sponsor of the measure. She contends the millions of dollars in federal revenue lost by the tax cut would be more than offset by small brewers adding employees, who would then pay more income taxes: “Alleviation and reduction of the excise tax is going to be a direct investment in our local economy, in our local communities, and lead to jobs.”

Oh, remember that "jobs" thing before Benghazi?

Sprecher's Jeff Hamilton says his point is that the true small brewers opening up in small towns can be a sizable plus for the local economy: “It does bring back little towns, it brings people into towns.“

Unfair to the large brewers? I don’t think so…

Baldwin says through separate efforts, larger brewing companies like MillerCoors are also looking for a reduction in their excise tax.

Senator Baldwin excise tax reduction bill, (is) called Small BREW.

FoodShare Users Eat Healthier, get less salt and saturated fat, new study says.

Did you know?

A recent study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), compared the diet of those on food stamps to low-income people who weren't.  

Questions upon Questions: Knowing that food stamp users eat the same kinds of food as the general population, why single them out? Why are Republicans offended by how others eat, when they’re exactly the same? And is it fair to regulate what they eat and not everyone else? Has the new attempt to regulate junk food changed the way conservatives snack?

All of the above questions will be lost on conservative nanny state lawmakers who can now act out their pent up outrage over poor people using food stamps. Control and dictatorial edicts of behavior is so commonplace on the right now, that to calm the urge to do something more, conservative are moving to the extremes.

The truth contradicts their assumptions. Food stamp users actually eat a little better than those who aren’t. It probably has a lot to do with having the ability to buy food, instead of rationing it.

Picture of Health?

WPR: Judi Bartfeld is a professor of consumer science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, not part of the study, (said) “When people get SNAP, they tend to eat a little better with regard to certain aspects of their diet. They might eat a little worse with regards to certain other aspects. But there just don't seem to be any major differences. The USDA study found those using food stamps did consume 23 percent more fruit, but they decreased the amount of dark green and orange vegetables eaten.  The USDA researchers speculate fruit doesn't require preparation and may be cheaper. Food stamp participants also get less sodium and saturated fat.

Rep. Dean Kaufert wasted a tremendous amount of time successfully vilifying food stamp users as junk food addicts, when in fact, they eat less sodium and saturated fat. From the looks of fat boy Kaufert, he could learn a few things watching what foods food stamp users buy, when he’s turning red with envy standing in the checkout line. 

CEO's love High Unemployment States for their Desperate Workers.

I've said it before: the attack on FoodShare, the length of unemployment, sick leave pay, and the removal of labor rights are all schemes to create a desperate public, willing to work anywhere for as little as possible.

I've been proven right unfortunately:

Cap. Times: There was the report this week in Chief Executive magazine showing the state climbing to No. 17 on the “Best States for Business” ranking. That’s up from No. 20 ... The report in Chief Executive generated a fair amount of coverage, including this blog in The Baltimore Sun which asks why Florida, with an unemployment rate of 11 percent, is ranked No. 2 while Maryland with an unemployment rate of 6.9 percent is ranked No 41. One commenter theorized that CEOs love states with high unemployment rates so they can pay less in wages to desperate job seekers.

Our 51% Favored Governor Continues to Fail, and the Public Loves it.

Here's a screen capture of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story:

It's true, Scott Walker and the his Republican pirates care more about restricting food from FoodShare, penalizing the UW, vengence on Milwaukee's residency rules and trolley, removing the judicial branch, and relaxing regulations on landlords and auto lemon laws, than doing something about jobs. Remember that? We were all about ready to shoot ourselves listening to Republicans go on and on about jobs, the job creators (a fiction), and "uncertainty." All gone!! That was yesterday.

Oh I know, we have WEDC chaired by Walker, but...well, that's what I mean.

The latest employment surveys show Wisconsin's unemployment rate remained at 7.1% in April but the state lost 24,100 jobs during the month, the state Department of Workforce Development said Thursday. Both numbers are adjusted to take into account the predictable ebb and flow of employment in different parts of the year.

And the Walker jobs promise of 250,000? That's the number that got Walker elected, and what low information true believers bought hook, line and sinker. They still do if, you look at the the 51% approval ratings of this sociopath. 

Another set of employment data released by the department Thursday, meanwhile, shows that Wisconsin added 62,072 private-sector jobs from December 2010 through December 2012. Those numbers come from a regular quarterly census of almost all employers in the state. The census provides the most comprehensive and accurate employment data available, and is much more reliable than the preliminary monthly figures. 

 I highlighted the word "census" because that's another target for gutting by Republicans in D.C.!!! The census would be able to take a survey once every ten years, but that's it. Nothing else. No continuing jobs numbers, no continuing agricultural census, no continuing economic census...nothing. Surprised? Another reason Republicans created the myth they know how to manage money, because more than anything, they don't.