Republican State Treasurer Adamczyk promises to abolish office, bashes EPA, wants to cancel the NY Times and fire Tia Nelson for concern over Global Warming.

The repressive authoritarian Republican agenda continues to get little coverage in the mainstream media, despite the threat it poses to public policy and our founding document, that pesky constitution.

It may be a small story to some, but it’s a revealing window into the conservative mindset of top down one party control over everything. The rationalization for meting out what can only be described as their iron fisted style of government, is to purge liberal policies. They have apparently left the country in absolute ruin.

Petty and mean spirited, Republicans continue to target as enemies of the authority, liberal-progressive-Democratic Wisconsinites. These disloyal elements will be forced out eventually. Patrick Marley-jsonline:  

Wisconsin's new state treasurer Matt Adamczyk, is making waves on an obscure state board (the Commission of Public Lands)— trying to get it to cancel its subscription to The New York Times, change its letterhead so the top administrator doesn't appear on it anymore and make sure any references to global warming are dropped from its website.

Predictably, Republican Adamczyk ran for office with the intention to destroy it (what's new, right), and voters thought, "hell yes." Kind of an odd way to get that done:

Matt Adamczyk wants to abolish the state treasurer’s office so badly, he’s running for the office to do it. “Let’s get rid of this thing,” the Republican told Wisconsin Reporter. “There’s three staff (in the treasurer’s office). I’m not retaining anyone. I will get this done. I will pound this issue every single day.

This jolly rotund fellow then went to work:

Adamczyk has raised issues large and small at the Board of Commissioners of Public Land, which operates a trust that provides funding for school libraries and makes loans to municipalities and school districts.

Tia Nelson, daughter of the late U.S. Sen. Gaylord Nelson, (told) staff to document all contacts they've had with Adamczyk … "That's news to me and seems very weird," Adamczyk said … he had "huge concerns" about Nelson, but came short of saying she should be fired … but later he agreed to evaluate her performance.

Adamczyk attacked Nelson for her outside activities as well - saving the environment. Republican Adamczyk of course hates the EPA:

Among Adamczyk's concerns are Nelson's environmental background … she served on a state global warming task force five years ago. "I don't see a role in this board to do anything else (outside its mission), like become a Wisconsin version of the Environmental Protection Agency," Adamczyk said at Tuesday's meeting … references to global warming should be removed from the agency's website.

Adamczyk hates Nelson’s work so much he wants to take her name of the stationary letterhead:

Adamczyk ... wrote to Nelson asking that the names of elected officials not appear on the board's letterhead. "Commissioner Adamczyk said he felt 'passionately that the name Tia Nelson should not be listed,'" the minutes say ... Schimel and La Follette would not go along with the idea. On Tuesday, Adamczyk said in an interview the letterhead "isn't that big a deal."

Well informed? Not the purpose of government: Adamczyk chose (as a government official now) to officially remove and censor the more liberal information accessed by board members…like the NY Times, one of two out-of-state newspapers. The “local” Wall Street Journal is okay? 

The board took up the board's subscription to The New York Times. "First and foremost, this is completely unnecessary," Adamczyk wrote in a Dec. 22 email to Nelson. "We live in Wisconsin and we don't need a subscription to this publication."

Nelson responded that she and other staff read the Times along with the … The Wall Street Journal, Lakeland Times, Wisconsin State Journal and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "It's been my view that having a diversity of news sources has been helpful," Nelson said at Tuesday's meeting.

Diversity in Wisconsin? Not if our Republican big government overlords can help it.

The Nation is now focused on the Wage Gap and falling Incomes.

Republicans were wrong, and unfortunately for them, they're in charge. With high consumer confidence and a strong yearlong economic recovery, the argument for dramatic change is sounding extremely hollow.

The doom and gloom distractions? Gone. The fog has cleared. Republicans can no longer hide from the obvious expanding wage gap, a direct result of supply side economics. Lead by Paul Ryan, the GOP has simply resurfaced the crumbling road to prosperity with a new sell job.

Declining wages are killing us, and Republicans have been standing in the way of reversing that. The nation is waking up to the fact that the bottom 90% need a raise. This is now the major topic of discussion, finally, and we should be embarrassed to have let it get this bad:

A new report from the Center for American Progress finds that Australia and Canada "have experience continuing middle-class growth," while for the U.S. it has halted. Indeed, when I used the World Top Incomes Database to compare the income growth of the "bottom" 90 percent, I got this:

So, a bunch of squiggles followed by a great divergence around 2001, when the United States falls off a ledge, Canada takes a massive step up, and Australia takes one of those proverbial marsupial hops. Chronically, the bash brothers of globalization and technology have clobbered middle-class jobs, hacking away at manufacturing employment and hollowing out routine-based work that paid okay wages. (At the same time, low-skill immigration in the late 1980s and 1990s reduced the average income of the poorest American families.) More acutely, the Great Recession delivered the mother of all housing crunches, which has been terrible news for the lower and middle classes. Five years into the recovery, construction and manufacturing employment is still in a six-million-job hole (24 million in 2000; 18 million today).

The road out is not hopeless, and the CAP paper on how the U.S. can learn from the rest of the world offers fine solutions across education, infrastructure, and working with cities to develop talent clusters. But this sort of ambitious policy landscaping is purely fanciful with today's Congress. In this government, all big ideas are rain dances.

Homeland Security's Scared Dumb Ron Johnson to take away our freedoms first. Terrorists win.

One thing is becoming very clear; Republican principles are nothing more than shifting moments in time, to be rationalized away once they're no longer convenient.

Our own Dumb Ron Johnson, a guy who never could figure out the Affordable Care Act, in now the Senate Chairman of Homeland Security. Remember his insightful prediction about ObamaCare:

It’s an assault on our freedom. It’s going to lower the quality of our care. It’s going to lead to rationing. The types of medical innovation that saved my daughter’s life [and] that saves millions of Americans -- I wont’ say it’s going to come to a grinding halt but it’s going to be severely limited.”

Johnson brings that same panicky misguided expertise to Homeland Security. What may be the most shocking thing ever said by a senator (except for Joe McCarty), from a guy trusted to protect our freedom, was this jaw dropper:

Johnson: "We start seeing these types of attacks, multiple attacks on our homeland, think of how our freedoms will be restrained, how they'll be impaired...infringed upon if we have to address a far more robust terrorist environment." 

That's Johnson's plan? Hand it to the hosts of the Devil's Advocates for being just as stunned as I was over Johnson's quick surrender. Our freedoms have never been in more dangerous hands as Johnson, or the Republicans.

What's even more worrisome is Dumb Ron Johnson's rationalization

Devil's Dominic Salvia: "But is the answer, no matter the threat, to limit the civil liberties of U.S. citizens to catch the bad guys...what would envision if that happened:

Johnson: "I can't specify it right now, but let's face it, right now we have restrictions on our freedom because we're going to try and preserve our security driving down the road, I'm going to have to go here and I'm going to have to go 35 mph...we restrict our freedom, we don't allow us to drive 70 mph down this road because it keeps us more secure."

Devil's Dominic Salvia: "By reacting like that, is that not the point, isn't that what the terrorists want that kind of reaction, to make us less free by the fear that they instill?"

Johnson: "Precisely, and look what they've already accomplished..."

...and Johnson wants to keep their accomplishments coming. He's the chair of Homeland Security folks. Hang onto your freedoms while you can:

Scott Walker to blame for Packers Loss!!!

When the Packers needed to take it to the next level, who flipped the momentum? Scott Walker..."RELAX"...really?

Iowa Republicans control Walker and state economy. No Kenosha Casino or else.

Our one party right wing authoritarian statewide majority is just one tentacle of the national movement to turn the country “red” (the next Red Threat?). When you have an entire political agenda fine-tuned by a few conservative bill writing collectives, its hard believe they still think they're the rugged go-it-alone party of individuals.

So it should be no surprise to see presidential wannabe Scott Walker getting his marching orders from his Borg-like overlords in Iowa, where all presidential aspirants must tow the line.

jsonline: Influential social conservatives in Iowa are warning Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker that approving a proposed Kenosha casino next month could hurt his presidential bid … Walker must decide by Feb. 19 … Tom Coates, executive director of Consumer Credit of Des Moines, wrote Walker after his November re-election and sent him a petition against gambling expansion he said had been signed by 600 Republicans, including U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and both Republican National Committee members from Iowa, Steve Scheffler and Tamara Scott. "As you are contemplating a presidential bid, I sincerely hope you will consider a 'No Expanding Gaming' policy," Coates wrote.

The news media pretended during Walker’s reelection that he was thoughtfully considering the pros and cons, while everybody else knew it was just a con to get Kenosha area votes.

   

Iowa's attempt to influence policy in Wisconsin is not just outrageous, but an eye opener for tribes with existing gambling outlets. The reason to oppose the Kenosha facility below, adds gambling to the long list of out-of-favor businesses in Wisconsin:

"The increased societal problems of divorce, bankruptcy, debt, depression and suicide, and the additional cost to local governments to handle these problems and the crimes associated with gambling far outweigh any perceived advantages that may be provided by expanded gambling," Bob Vander Plaats, the president and chief executive officer of The Family Leader wrote last month. 

So much for people having the freedom and liberty to do what the hell they want to, even gamble.

Walker's odd vision of being "free...as possible," whatever that means.

Something Scott Walker said in the state-of-the-state speech oddly stood out for me, and I haven't been able to shake it off, so here it is; Walker proudly quoted the first line of the state constitution:

"All people are born equally free and independent, and have certain and inherent rights...."

Walker went on to personalize it for the nation and the rest of the anxious world, by suggesting:

"Unlike other places around the world, this document says that in Wisconsin, it doesn't matter what class you were born into, or what your parents did for living, here, opportunity should be as equal as possible. As equal as possible!"

Yes, Walker even repeated his odd twist on the meaning of our constitution. Perhaps the state's founders should have hedged their bets a little on how much freedom is allowed, by writing...:

"All people are born as equally free as possible..."

Check it out, with Walker's interpretation at about :55 seconds:

Cheese ban aimed at Packers fans not going over so well....

Great story...

CNN: One Seattle suburb have taken pre-game rivalry to the next level by banning "possession of and/or consumption of cheese or cheese flavored products."

For those not making the connection between cheese and this NFL matchup, Douglas Schulze, the city manager of Bainbridge Island, Washington, spells it out in his executive order.

"On Sunday, January 18, 2015, the Seattle Seahawks opponent in the NFC Championship game will be the Green Bay Packers, aka Cheeseheads," the order states. "Fans of the Green Bay Packers are frequently seen wearing obnoxious wedge-shaped foam hats painted yellow." It is "due to this relationship" between Packers fans and cheese that the ban was enacted.

The ban only applies to employees at city hall and only on Friday, but Schulze has a plan for anyone who defies the ban and comes, pun intended, packing.

It's official, Anti-Government Gov. Scott Walker running for president on Anti-Washington Message.

It must be horrible to hate your job so much as governor that you would be desperate enough to apply for a job that's even worse. Courage, or the worst job candidate ever?

Republican School Accountability Disaster Political Meddling from not-so-smart Freeloading Legislators.

WISC's Jessica Arp, covering the ever changing school accountability legislation, showed us all just how out of whack the Republican are in dealing with the realities of making schools even better than they already are.

In two important stories, local districts don't like what they're seeing, especially when it comes to the simple minded grading system. Instead of rating the strengths and weaknesses of each school, the GOP authority is pushing A through F grades. Really?

Overall scores will bring down a schools total average unfairly, so they appear to be failing, forcing a quicker switch over to private schools. There's a more responsible way to do this. Like your own child's report card, it's much better to see where they have strengths, so you can direct more time working on their weaknesses. This works for schools and businesses alike.



Edgwood College Dean of Education Tim Slekar trashed the idea, calling the penalties "Hunger Games for kids." Accountability has for decades helped schools adapt and improve over time. The myth created around the drive to go private, that public schools are failing, will become a reality if Republicans get their way. From a past WKOW Capitol City Sunday, Slekar doesn't hold back:



One radio caller was right in suggesting a similar grading system for each lawmaker and for the assembly and senate. They collect big paychecks, so how come they don't get a written evaluation?

Senate Republican Keystone XL Pipeline bill will kill Wisconsin Great Lakes Shipping Jobs!! Yeah free trade...

A new wrinkle has emerged as the Republicans try to ram through passage of the Keystone XL Pipeline. Thanks to a Senate amendment written by Sen. John McCain, about 1,200 jobs will be lost in our norther section of the state. WPR audio: 

Republican U.S. Sen. John McCain has filed an amendment to repeal the Jones Act, which allows only U.S.-built ships to carry cargo between U.S. ports. McCain said in a release that the law hinders free trade and raises prices for consumers due to shipping costs.

Members of a Great Lakes labor and management coalition say the move would hurt the U.S. shipping industry. Tom Curelli is with the Great Lakes Maritime Task Force and is operations director for Superior’s Fraser Shipyards said a repeal may mean more Canadian competition and fewer U.S. jobs. “For every trip they take, that’s one less trip for our vessels to operate on. When you remove enough trips and enough tonnage, you tie up the U.S. flag vessels and you don’t put them to work,” said Curelli.

Curelli said around 1,500 jobs may be affected in the Twin Ports and roughly 60,000 across the Great Lakes.

Still want to pass the pipeline bill?

GOP flip flops on net neutrality...tell low information conservative voters, "never mind."

I am reminded of the Borg-like Republican collective’s penchant for repeating incoherent policies that end up changing like the weather when it's convenient:

But what happens when Republicans change their minds, you know, flip flop? Well, like the brilliant Twitter author above, they look like the dumbest fools. 

The thinking behind the latest flip flop shown below is this; Republicans now see the writing on the wall with net neutrality, and hope to keep it from being considered a utility, a categorization that’s hard to take back. It is a utility of course, like telephone, because providers all offer cable, the internet and…telephone, together in their bundle packages, making them a utility. 

Republicans simply want  to write a few laws so they can repeal them later, and not have their hands tied trying to convince people the internet isn't one of life’s big necessities, even though many people get their phone service via the internet. I know I do, and have for years with Vonage.  

“Times have changed,” Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), the chairman of the House telecom subcommittee, said when asked about the evolving GOP position on net neutrality. “The administration has latched onto this [utility-style regulation], and the FCC’s independence is nominal at best.” According to Walden, the Republican bill — which “is ready” and will be released in the coming days — “gives the protections that the president and FCC say they want, and does it in a legally sustainable way.”

Remember when Sen. Ted Cruz "called net neutrality 'Obamacare for the Internet.'” The change actually keeps things the same, a difficult concept for right wing conservative minds:

“Millions of people and businesses have stood up and once again made clear that they want to keep the same rights they’ve always had,” said Matt Wood, policy director of Free Press. “Self-identified conservatives, just like everyone else, overwhelmingly support keeping the rules that have kept the Internet open.”

Really? Wisconsin Career Politician Scott Walker paints Hillary Clinton as creature of "D.C.?"

Let me see if I've got this right about bad government; We saw a Republican president get us into two unpaid for wars that are now on the books; raised our deficit by trillions of dollars with trickle down economic tax cuts; saw congressional Republicans block legislation with poison pill amendments and filibusters that eventually shut down the government to the tune of $24 billion, and now America hates D.C. lawmakers and politics in general. Got it. So....

...using their own dysfunctional government creation, Scott Walker is now saying that Hillary Clinton is a creature of D.C.! Politico:

“She lives in Washington. She works in Washington. She came to Washington through this president and his administration. She was in Washington when she was a United States senator. She was in Washington when her husband was president of the United States. You look at everything that people dislike about Washington, and she embodies it.”

An amazing thing to say from a career politician in a party whose main purpose is to dismantle government and make it look as bad as possible. Missing from Walker's dig at Clinton; the high employment during Bill's tenure and surpluses as far as the eye could see (that could have paid for major reforms-from tax policy to a national health care system).

Walker, like Gov. Chris Christie, has failed on the jobs front, saw increased poverty, supports wage stagnation with his opposition to a minimum wage hike, ignored infrastructure improvements and is faced with a huge budget deficit. But that's okay...

“Washington isn't the place with the answers that we’re looking for. I think the states are where we get things done. I think we can carry that message in 2016 as well,” he said.

This is presidential material nowadays for Republican voters? What a choice.

The free ride is over folks, MG&E decides to bill for electricity, gas, record keeping, meters, poles and the electrical grid.

Gee, nice to know my monthly bill from MG&E is now getting me these "extra" services and benefits, like billing, record-keeping, poles, meters and the electrical grid. It sure is worth the extra cost as itemized here. Question; what was I paying for before?

Walker plagiarizes Romper Room with state-of-the-state Magic Mirror....

I'm so tired of Scott Walker's condescending treatment of Wisconsinites. But you can't fool an old Romper Room viewer:

Democrats correctly frame GOP Supreme Court attack on Abrahamson: Vendetta!

I'm encouraged. The name sprung from a question by Democratic Rep. Gary Hebl:

The most trenchant critique came from Rep. Gary Hebl (D-Sun Prairie): “This is not a vendetta against the Current Chief, is that true?” After (former justice) Wilcox assured the committee that it was not...

...from PR Watch:

Republican hate entitled Homeless People so much....

Great commentary about the homeless...

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Freedom of speech....

Wind and Solar averse Walker blames Obama for Wisconsin's soon to be costly reliance on Coal.

Scott Walker loves coal. It's an old reliable fuel, cheap, pollutes like nobodies business, and prematurely kills thousands of people a year. Walker's reliance on coal and other fossil fuels has left the state in a costly pickle. While other states are moving forward with wind and solar, seeing smog, lead and arsenic contamination as undesirable, Walker is sticking with costly coal.

And now Walker is blaming Obama and the EPA for sticking rate payers with higher energy costs. Yes, Walker's bad decision is Obama's fault.

In his state-of-the-state address, Walker breathed new life into old cliches that blamed "top down mandates," unlike his own top down voucher mandates, mining mandates, cell tower mandates, billboard siting mandates, sick leave mandates, tort mandates, women's health mandates, voter ID and hours mandates etc.

Walker: "Top down regulations and mandates from the federal government can get in the way of innovation and growth in Wisconsin, and states like ours." 

So wind and solar aren't considered "innovative" enough, but coal is? Anyone see growth, or even a future in the coal industry? The now lawsuit happy Republicans are more than okay with legislating through the courts:

Walker: "Therefore I'm working with our new attorney general to prepare a lawsuit challenging the newly proposed federal energy regulations." 

Walker's backward and costly policy of staying with coal, and the prediction of lost manufacturing jobs, is now all Obama's fault:

Walker: "These proposals could have a devastating impact on Wisconsin, because we're so heavily dependent on manufacturing. According to recent reports, we could lose tens of thousands of jobs in our region, and the rate payers could see an increase of up to 29%. We will fight to protect Wisconsin's hard working families..."

...from Walker's own energy policy disaster, the one he created by himself when he opposed wind and solar expansion. Standing ovation please! And then the misdirection plea; asking the fed to work with the states for "reasonable" alternatives...like coal? Very BOLD:

Walker: "Instead of fighting with states like Wisconsin, the federal government should work with us to find reasonable alternatives. We can be both environmentally and economically sustainable."

Our poor irresponsible incidental Governor Walker will cost the state jobs and rate payers money on energy and the AG's legal bills. Now that's fiscal conservatism.

Anti-Government conservatives love Government Jobs.

I can hear them already saying, "Yea, let's make government smaller by downsizing it and shedding jobs. Oh, and by the way, elect me as your next 'on the public dole' Republican lawmaker."

Gerrymandering helped big time, along with an unrelenting campaign of fear, hate and government gridlock. But their warmed over pursuit of failed policies and shocking lack of a detailed agenda caught the imagination of conservative "magical thinkers" everywhere. Isn't it strange how conservatives are obsessed with pursuing government jobs time and time again. Losing any number of times (Mitt?) doesn't even stop them.

Yet they still hate the size of government, all the while filling statehouses everywhere:

The GOP now controls 68 of the 98 partisan legislative chambers. On top of that, Republicans have 31 seated governors.-21st Century Democrats

As long as there's a Democrat alive and well, elected to an office anywhere in this country, Republicans will always have someone to blame for their failures.

With Republican Congress and Supreme Court, Rand Paul says Activist Judges not so bad after all.

It’s strange how power can change your entire “supposed” principled ideological philosophy. For an authoritarian based Republican Party, reversing itself for strictly strategic reasons is political opportunism at its finest.

"Activist Judges" are GOOD!!! That’s right, after decades of bashing supposed liberal activist judges for legislating from the bench, our Republican majority is rethinking that position. Rand Paul is already testing this “sales pitch;” take “activist” liberal wins like Roe v Wade and Brown v Board and show how Republicans can repeal the Affordable Care Act and fight presidential overreach with their own activism. That would appeal to the deep conservative fear that liberals are getting something they’re not from the courts.  

National Journal: Speaking at the Heritage Action Conservative Policy Summit, Paul … took pains to explain his own legal philosophy, and to push back against what he referred to as the "tyranny of state government." He argued that it was judicial activism that struck down "separate but equal" schooling in Brown v. Board of Education. He defined Roe v. Wade—which has its 41st anniversary next week—as a competition between the rights of a mother and her child. And, naturally, he said it would take judicial activism to strike down the Affordable Care Act at the state level.

Judicial restraint—the idea that courts should only uphold or strike down laws on the strict basis of their constitutionality—is one of the cornerstones of modern conservative thought. Justice Antonin Scalia has ... has in turn been called a judicial activist for helping to strike down Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act for seemingly political reasons.

Again, here’s the rationalization...the spin we might be getting in the years to come, if they maintain their majority:

As Paul's argument goes, judicial activism can be necessary, as a check against other branches of government overstepping their constitutional authority—a break-the-glass-in-case-of-emergency situation. So, why try to make such a tough sell—to redefine an entire concept that has been considered unpalatable to conservatives for years … Brian Darling, a spokesman for Paul, told National Journal. "I think that he's trying to educate the crowd that there's a conservative case to be made for activism, if it's tied to spreading liberty."

Judicial activism as Paul defines it is an idea he thinks conservatives can get on board with…