My conservative friend in Milwaukee loves Carly Fiorina. She's so smart.
I don't usually throw the word "dumb" around very much (okay, you got me on Dumb Ron Johnson), but it's the only word that keeps ringing in my ear when I hear Fiorina talk in her dead pan style, about anything. I actually want to run screaming from the room.
And yes, I can prove it. Just watch this mind numbing interview denying climate change making the rounds in conservative circles, where they say "Fiorina OWNS Katie Couric," and "Fiorina makes mincemeat out of interviewer Katie Couric." I'm just sad for them:
Vox: In a recent interview with Katie Couric, for instance, Fiorina delivered a four-minute riff on climate change that the National Review enthused "shows how to address the left on climate change." The only problem, as David Roberts pointed out, was that every single thing she said in it was wrong.
You can bet elections in Wisconsin will take on a new conservative
glow after Scott Walker and his plundering pirates get done with it. Don’t
forget, they won, so get over it.
First, the highly regarded Government Accountability Board had
the kind of name only a Republican could hate. "Accountability?" Not if they can help it.
The board inflicted a lot of legal pain for Walker,
and now it was their time to pay. A Walker warning shot over the bow. No one steps out of line.
Gov. Scott Walker said on Monday he wants the board
dismantled and replaced with something new … "something completely new
that is truly accountable to the people of the state of Wisconsin," the Associated Press reported. Jay Heck, director of Common Cause in Wisconsin, said "Walker's
call for the elimination of the GAB is simply revenge and retribution for the
GAB approving of an investigation of what was clearly a violation of Wisconsin
campaign finance law in 2011-12. The elimination or evisceration of the GAB
will only raise further questions about whether or not Walker and his campaign
were involved in illegal activity. And it will be viewed by citizens as an
attempt to simply eliminate any entity that puts adherence to the law above
partisan fealty."
Of course with super majorities and sure bet electoral districts, who care’s.
Guilt by association? The Republicans got a lucky break when they found out the GAB had been in contact with
the IRS...gee, another government agency. It was an opportunity to make something up that appealed to the paranoids they call voters. Despite no actual
documentable involvement, Republicans made it sound like the Watergate break-in:
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Rep. Dean Knudson called for
"necessary reforms" after a Wall Street Journal editorial reported the agency had
been in contact with the Internal Revenue Service when it investigated
conservative groups. Joint Finance Committee co-chairs Sen. Alberta Darling and
Rep. John Nygren called for GAB director Kevin Kennedy's resignation, calling
the GAB a "rogue agency that ignores state law and operates against its
founding principles."
Yea, they’re rotten to the core alright. Meanwhile, reality struggled to get a word in edgewise:
Kennedy issued the following statement: "I am not going
to dignify the Wall Street Journal’s opinion column with any comment, except to
state that it contains no facts showing that I or the Government Accountability
Board did anything inappropriate or out of the ordinary given the agency’s
statutory responsibilities. I think any discussion about the structure or
mission of the G.A.B. should be done through the legislative process.
Scott Walker is determined to lead a resurgence of the dying coal industry. Here's a "big bold" attempt by Walker to stay in the 20th century and ignore the agonizing death throws of a dirty old industry who's time is up.
"...coal producers are starting to fall apart faster than anyone could have anticipated."
Our forward looking "leader" appears to have missed this big energy shift in the U.S.:
The administration of Gov. Scott Walker has raised concerns
about the cost of renewable energy. And some GOP lawmakers have sought to roll
back or terminate the state's renewable power mandate, citing the cost to
consumers and the intermittent output of wind turbines and solar panels.
Hate to tell presidential wannabe Scott Walker he's got it ass-backwards:
SNL Financial has produced some jaw
dropping data on the quickly deteriorating coal industry, with a
horrific performance in the second quarter. Coal prices are down 70
percent from four years ago. The U.S. is shifting towards natural gas in the
electric power sector, and weak demand for coal is leading to mine closures ... the
coal industry could be facing structural and permanent decline. But the damage
is happening quickly ... exporting coal abroad to energy hungry countries is also quickly closing off. Oversupply on international markets is
depressing prices So far 2015 has been a horrendous
year for coal ... but the ugly forecast keeps getting worse.
Even worse for Walker, 3 reports just came out trashing Wisconsin renewable energy efforts when compared to other states, dramatically dropping us from 19th to 30th. Here's jsonline reporter Thomas Content on WPR's Central Time:
Here's the bad news:
Three new reports are charting Wisconsin's hits and misses
when it comes to renewable energy and a transition to an economy that fosters
growth in sustainable energy technologies. The reports from consulting firm Clean Edge, the state
Public Service Commission and the Wisconsin Sustainable Business Council
indicate that many other states are moving more aggressively in the
clean-energy space … the Sustainable Business Council, noting Illinois and
Minnesota have set goals to get 25% of their electricity from renewable energy.
Wisconsin utilities generated 11% of their electricity last year from renewable
energy. Two other reports by sustainable-energy advocates suggest
Wisconsin is falling behind other states. According to Clean Edge, Wisconsin's
ranking fell to 30th, down from 19th a year ago, in the firm's state-by-state analysis. Wisconsin is lagging in venture-capital fundraising for
clean-technology and in generating patents in this area … Moves to restrict
solar and wind power development in Clean Edge's state-by-state policy
assessment, known as the Clean Edge Leadership Index.
The key word here is "should:"
"This report should be a wake-up call for
Wisconsin," said Gary Radloff, director of Midwest energy policy analysis
at the Wisconsin Energy
Institute in Madison. "We are in danger of failing to stay
competitive, leaving billions of economic growth dollars on the table if we
don't start targeting a more healthy policy environment for Wisconsin —
focusing on clean energy technology development and deployment."
The ramifications are huge, especially for Republicans who say they're focused on jobs...they're not really:
The Wisconsin Sustainable Business Council highlights:■Economy:
The state ranked fifth in manufacturing job growth, but income inequality
remains a concern. ■Environment:
The state is still the 10th-most coal-dependent state in the country.
In a blistering opinion Tuesday, the Wisconsin Court of
Appeals reinstated Milwaukee's decades-old residency rule, which requires city
employees to live within city limits. The 1st District Court of Appeals' decision, written by
Presiding Judge Patricia S. Curley, threw out a Republican-backed statute tucked
into the 2013-'15 state budget that prohibits local governments from enforcing
any residency rules other than those that require police and firefighters to
live within 15 miles of their borders. "The sole reason we can delineate
for the statute's existence is the gutting of Milwaukee's long-standing
residency requirement," Curley wrote. Milwaukee's position is that the law violates the Wisconsin
Constitution's home rule amendment. The home rule amendment holds that any
state law must yield to local law unless it involves matter of statewide
concern and it affects every city or village with uniformity. The 2013 law on
residency "does not involve matters of statewide concern and does not
affect all local governmental units uniformly," Curley wrote. "It
does not trump the Milwaukee ordinance."
It was meant to break Milwaukee's economic back:
The court pointed to a Legislative Fiscal Bureau paper that warned lawmakers that the statute would have a ruinous impact on Milwaukee's neighborhoods and economy."The notion that a statute purporting to gut the tax bases and compromise neighborhood integrity of all municipalities would pass both houses of the Legislature defies logic," Curley wrote. Judge Joan F. Kessler noted a consultant's report … Some 60% of Milwaukee's 7,000 employees would become nonresidents, the report says. Nearly 4,000 households would leave the city, resulting an estimated retail loss of nearly $55 million. The city's tax base would take a $649 million hit. The loss "will obviously directly impact Milwaukee's ability to pay for necessary infrastructure, service and wages," Kessler wrote. "There is no evidence in the record that any other municipality would likely be similarly affected," she wrote.
Are Ozaukee County voters out of their minds electing Duey Stoebel as their State Senator?
While nothing wrong happened in the right wing video sting on Planned Parenthood, Republicans like Duey Stroebel and Rep. Sean Duffy have decided to spend their taxpayer time on "investigating" this drummed up controversy. Voters should be asking, why?
"(It is) illegal under federal law to sell human fetal tissue for anything of "valuable consideration."
But the video shows a Planned Parent representative discussing what isn't illegal:
"(It) does not include reasonable payments associated with the transportation, implantation, processing, preservation, quality control, or storage of human fetal tissue."
Republican voters should recall this phony for playing them for suckers, and pretending Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin has anything to do with fetal parts. Welcome to our big government Republican police state:
"It's just further documentation that Planned Parenthood is definitely in the business of selling baby body parts," said Sen. Stroebel. "We need to get into their books. That's what we really need to see. We need to see where they're revenues come from."
Maybe Stroebel should ask a few questions before he "gets into their books." And Republicans were crying about late night raids in the John Doe investigation, get real. WKOW:
Nicole Safar, public policy director for PPWI said, "We
are not donating fetal tissue, so it's unclear to me what exactly they would
want to investigate." PPWI simply doesn't have the infrastructure to
facilitate human fetal tissue donation. "It seems like a lot of political
sort of rallying that they're doing, but, I have yet to see a credible argument
they could make for investigating us."
Stroebel won't let reality prevent him from agitating his conservative "low information" base for votes, while violating the privacy of peoples medical records, and PPW activities and contributions of a targeted GOP political enemy. Talk about witch hunts:
"If that's what they say, fine, but they're going to
have to be able to verify that and that's what I'm looking for for the State of
Wisconsin - their verification of their statements. We are
going to make every effort possible to be able to get into those books, see
where that taxpayer money is going and as a part of that organization, see
where they are also generating all their revenues and if they are generating
other revenues from the sale of body parts of babies,"
Don't count out Rep. Sean Duffy getting in the phony outrage act too. Could anything be more transparent? Maybe this is what Republicans were talking about when they say they want transparency.
Remember this memorable comment from presidential wannabe Scott Walker saying gay Boy Scout leaders are "pedophiles." Cap Times:
I have had a lifelong commitment to the Scouts and support the previous membership policy because it protected children and advanced Scout values.”
You'll notice the press has not used the word pedophile...anywhere. Yet that's what Walker meant. Continuing to avoid that word, CNN's Dana Bash got the strangest answer from Walker when asked to address the controversy:
Wow, major bullshit right. Even "stand with Walker" supporters will recognize that...I hope?
Insulting, and a complete take-back...let's call it damage control, for purely political purposes, Walker notched another major gaffe.
It was so easy for Dana Bash to make Walker squirm, watching him tripping over his own incredibly embarrassing word salad, that I just had to post it here. It was incredible:
Walker: "I just think it pulls Scouting into a whole larger political and cultural debate, as opposed to just say Scouting is about camping...instead of pulling all these other issues out there. And I would hope that we can stay focused, that's all. Bash: "But should there be a gay ban on allowing gay men to be Scout leaders? Walker: "That's up to the people that run the place. One thing that people find unique, I guess, whether you like it or not, is I answer your questions. People ask me a question and I'll answer a question..." Bash: "But you're not really answer this one..." Walker: "Sure in this case that's what I thought, I thought the policy was just fine..."
Hold on, "previous membership policy ... protected children" doesn't sound like "I thought the policy was fine," right? Walker can't think on his feet without pulling out some well rehearsed line from previous speeches, and he didn't have one. In fact, a conservative Walker supporter and pundit casually acknowledged that on the radio this morning, humorously conceding, "who would believe that?"
Walker tipped his hand when he avoided the whole "choice" thing, which of course he obviously believes. After all, that's why gay Boy Scout leaders are pedophiles:
CNN's Dana Bash asked the Republican presidential candidate whether he thinks that being gay is a choice. "That's not even an issue for me to be involved in," Walker said.
Compliment Bash for tough questions and staying on topic:
Bash offered that to act on behalf of people as a president does, "you have to understand or at least have an opinion on who they are and where they're coming from." Walker: "I don't have an opinion on every single issue out there. To me, I don't know. "It's appalling that a candidate for president in the year 2015 could botch such a fundamental question," said JoDee Winterhof, senior vice president of policy and political affairs for the Human Rights Campaign. "Of course it isn't a choice. If it was, Scott Walker would be able to tell us when he chose to be straight."
The income gap is getting wider and wider, at the same time deep red states continue to shift power and public resources into the private sector. But don't give up hope.
There's hope now and repressive political policies won't be an impediment, thanks to technology. Heck, many of us already work out of our homes.
Capitalism is fading...slowly...all it needs is a major push by Democrats to rush this thing along. The Guardian:
The end of capitalism has begun: Without us noticing, we are entering the post-capitalist era. At the heart of further change to come is information technology, new ways of working and the sharing economy. The old ways will take a long while to disappear, but it’s time to be utopian. First, it has reduced the need for work, blurred the edges between work and free time and loosened the relationship between work and wages. Second, information is corroding the market’s ability to form prices correctly. Third, we’re seeing the spontaneous rise of collaborative production: goods, services and organisations are appearing that no longer respond to the dictates of the market and the managerial hierarchy. The 2008 crash: The solutions have been austerity plus monetary excess. But they are not working. In the worst-hit countries, the pension system has been destroyed, the retirement age is being hiked to 70, and education is being privatized so that graduates now face a lifetime of high debt. Services are being dismantled and infrastructure projects put on hold. Austerity is not eight years of spending cuts, as in the UK, or even the social catastrophe inflicted on Greece. It means driving the wages, social wages and living standards in the west down for decades until they meet those of the middle class in China and India on the way up. The power of imagination will become critical. In an information society, no thought, debate or dream is wasted … The main contradiction today is between the possibility of free, abundant goods and information; and a system of monopolies, banks and governments trying to keep things private, scarce and commercial. Everything comes down to the struggle between the network and the hierarchy: between old forms of society molded around capitalism and new forms of society that prefigure what comes next.
History is dotted by little men overcompensating with grandiose dreams of world conquests and political dominance. Scott Walker thinks he's next in line, even saying the public doesn't matter:
Are we witnessing a new rising threat from, guess who, Scott Walker? In the words of Han Solo, "I've got a bad feeling about this..."
Reuters-Scott Walker on Iran: "This is not a country we
should be doing business with ... The United States needs a foreign policy that puts steel in the face
of our enemies."
"Steel in the face of our enemies?" Who says that, seriously, except maybe comic book super-villains like Magneto, Red Skull and Doctor Doom.
Jeb Bush criticized Walker, saying "That sounds great, but maybe you ought to check in with your allies first. You might want to have your team in place before you take an act like that."
Walker's campaign foreign policy adviser Robert C. O'Brien passed along Walker's dark threatening knee-jerk foreign policy vision for world conquest:
"We don’t need more information, we don’t need to wait to confirm the next Secretary of State, we need decisive leadership and we need it now. This won’t be easy, but when America leads, and has a strong president with clear priorities who believes in American strength, the rest of the world will follow."
Holy crap. Was Walker's adviser exaggerating? In Walker's own words...:
"I believe that a president shouldn’t wait to act until they put a cabinet together or an extended period of time. I believe they should be prepared to act on the very first day they take office. It’s very possible – God forbid, but it’s very possible – that the next president could be called to take aggressive actions, including military action, on the first day in office. And I don’t want a president who is not prepared to act on day one. So, as far as me, as far as my position, I’m going to be prepared to be president on day one.”
CNN's Dana Bash even out debated Walker on his ridiculous plan to dump out of the Iran deal. Walker was a deer in headlights, surprised and stumped:
Warning to the Rest of the Country: From what we've seen in Wisconsin, it's what Walker isn't telling you that you should be afraid of, like when he "dropped the bomb," Act 10. People have noticed, as reported by Paul Fanlund in the Cap Times:
Only Walker's favorite union gets raise!
Dane County Executive Joe Parisi (said), "I think (Wisconsin Republicans) made a deliberate decision that their main goal, despite the stated goal of creating jobs, was to destroy their enemies." Ah, but Republicans hate Dane County for the way we vote. And for them, politics, not the good of Wisconsin constituents, always comes first.
Walker knows only one strategy; "divide and conquer," an actual comment he made about breaking up labor. But the tactic worked so well that it ended up not just dividing the unions but also every citizen in the state, politically and socially. He even thinks having a divided state is healthy, which is why he no problem doing the same thing for the rest of the country...and the world apparently:
Walker would also be more confrontational with both
Russia over its aggression against Ukraine and against China, for the
territorial pressures Beijing is putting on U.S. allies in the South China Sea.
Scarier still? Among conservative voters, Walker is a moderate?
Republican pollster Frank Luntz, placed Walker's views
on national security in the middle of conservative thinking.
History is littered with authoritarian leaders like Scott Walker. Out of curiosity I did a search and came across an article in Scholastic, a news magazine for teens, that laid this all out in the simplest of terms. The first point about paralyzing government mirrors the GOP strategy today; also see what tough sanctions on Germany eventually produced (spoiler alert). Sorry to get a little conspiratorial:
The National Socialists party had enough power to
effectively paralyze Germany's democratic government, which had been in place
since 1919. Ian Kershaw, a history professor at Sheffield University in England said: "Indeed, with the world now facing great tensions and instability, the
question of whether such a monstrous dictator could again come to power and
threaten the world seems more relevant than ever ... around the globe, skilled
politicians have been able to manipulate populist, nationalist, or racist
feelings to advance authoritarian rule." In recent
years, President Vladimir Putin has gradually moved Russia in an authoritarian direction, "Whether you're looking at the Soviet Union or Germany,
the move toward authoritarian dictatorship doesn't necessarily make the country
more secure, and the cost to the population is very, very high." According to Kershaw, around
the globe, skilled politicians have been able to manipulate populist,
nationalist, or racist feelings to advance authoritarian rule.
Right Wing Socialism: What we're seeing from Republicans: disdain for business that isn't a part of the party plan or power structure; a powerful undercurrent of politicized religion; like-thinking on marriage; gay and minority vilification; nationalism; income disparity that puts a powerful chosen few in charge of everything. It's a "right wing socialist" agenda. To be honest, I didn't even know right wing socialism existed until I looked up the concept, and the tell-tale signs were all there.
The term used by right-wing movements and politicians to describe support for social solidarity and paternalism … The fundamental objective of “right-wing socialism" is to maintain the status quo by preventing the free exercise of entrepreneurship and creative human action from disrupting the pre-established framework of social organization. It supports social hierarchy and certain people and groups to hold higher status in such a hierarchy. Military socialism, guild socialism, agrarian socialism, and some forms of Christian socialism are also termed "right-wing socialism" by various authors. Fascism has been described by historian Ze'ev Sternhell as a nationalist socialism associated with anti-bourgeois, anti-democratic, anti-liberal, and anti-Marxist views … the rise of a "National Socialism" formed the basis of Nazism (who) subscribed to theories of racial hierarchy and social Darwinism, excluding those deemed either to be community aliens or of a foreign race. It rejected the Marxist concept of class struggle, opposed ideas of class equality and international solidarity, and sought to defend private property and businesses.
This is what you get from a party based on paranoia, hate and envy, whether it's Trump, Ryan, Walker, Boehner, McConnell, Sykes, Belling, McKenna....etc.!
"He's not a war hero," Trump told the crowd at the Family Leadership Summit in Ames, Iowa. "He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren't captured."
Remember the Swift Boat attacks on John Kerry? When Republicans decide they don't give a rats ass about you, they take you out. No honor among thieves.
Making the rounds in conservative circles is a story filled with a mishmash of statistics that turns reality on its head; Scott Walker is a working class hero?
See for yourself in the short unintentionally humorous excerpt below from the NY Post:
How workers are winning in Scott Walker’s Wisconsin: Hillary Rodham Clinton shed her usual sunny demeanor on Monday and snarled, “Republican governors like Scott Walker have made their names stomping on workers’ rights … AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka snapped, “Scott Walker is a national disgrace.” Liberals like Clinton and Trumka have it all wrong.
In all seriousness, reporter Deroy Murdock wrote this:
If there’s one thing workers value, it’s work.
But my whole reason for posting this exercise in tortured logic was the following worker “win” for...wait for it; women! Thank you Scott Walker:
In terms of “workers’ rights,” Wisconsinites now enjoy the right to work. This new law recognizes a woman’s right to choose whether or not to join a union. (This statute applies to men, too.) Wisconsinites no longer may be compelled to join unions as a condition of employment. Clinton and Trumka are anti-choice on union membership.
The truth is no one has to join a union.
But even more basic than that is the argument we’re always getting from crazy Republicans, who can’t seem to see the connection; If you don’t like unions, don’t look for a job at a union shop. Look elsewhere, right? Choice, freedom and liberty! It's the same reason Republicans give when a worker doesn’t like the pay, benefits or working conditions provided by their employer. Look elsewhere...you can leave anytime...no ones forcing you to work there.
Just to put the Buck’s arena deal in perspective, and maybe
in a new light for some, check out the article below and all the additional links. It ties up a lot of the loose
ends. Appalling and almost surreal, Wisconsin isn’t just open for business, it’s
being sold off to business with reckless disregard:
Wisconsin
Gov. Scott Walker pushed Bucks arena deal while employing a Bucks owner-David
Sirota and Andrew Perez of International Business Times: In the year leading up to the announcement of his
presidential campaign, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker championed a high-profile
proposal to spend a quarter of a billion dollars of taxpayer money to help
finance a new Milwaukee Bucks arena … One of those who stands to benefit from
the controversial initiative is a longtime Walker donor and Republican
financier who has just been appointed by the governor to head his presidential
fundraising operation.
Real estate mogul Jon Hammes, who has donated hundreds of
thousands of dollars to Republican candidates and causes, is a prominent member
of the investor group that owns Milwaukee’s NBA team. Last week CNN reported
that he also will serve as the Walker campaign’s national finance co-chairman.
Days after that appointment, Walker’s Republican allies in the Wisconsin state
Senate backed
the governor’s proposal to spend public funds on a new arena for the Bucks. Hammes became
one of the part owners of the Bucks in 2014. A little more than three months
later, Walker unveiled
his proposal to spend a quarter of a billion dollars on a new arena for the
team. Hammes’ financial interest in Walker’s arena subsidy package
may not be limited to just his stake in the team. According to localnews
reports, his real estate firm also also bought parcels of downtown land
near the location of the proposed new arena. Hammes’ firm also was contracted
by the local chamber of commerce to evaluate new stadium proposals.
As much as I would like the Bucks to stay in Milwaukee, I can't get past the behind the scene schemes hatched to get this done, along with the eventual campaign cash Walker will get from this deal. The fact that this is all a political game for wealth and power has soured me on the whole deal.
Naomi Klien’s book “The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of DisasterCapitalism” described early on what is now about to destroy Greece once and for
all. I’m sure my conservative friend in Milwaukee, who is always calling me
about the similarities between Greece and the U.S. – which is absurd, is happy
with the horrific privatization results below.
AP: Work was supposed to begin next year on a 7 billion
euros ($7.6 billion) waterfront urban renewal project almost twice the size of
New York's Central Park that could have poured nearly a billion euros into
Greece's depleted coffers. The plans stalled late last year … both on
ideological grounds and because leaders believe rampant corruption must be
addressed before any sell-off. Now, in an attempt to get a third European bailout and
prevent the Greek economy from collapsing, the ruling party has done an
about-face. It has pledged to fast-track the waterfront project, plus sell
government assets and allow for private development of state-owned property,
all to generate cash that will help reduce Greece's 320-billion-euro national
debt and pay back money lent by European nations to prop up ailing banks. "There can be absolutely no backpedaling or unwinding
with the privatization effort," said Mujtaba Rahman, European director for
the Eurasia Group political and business risk consulting firm. "This is
about testing the government's appetite to liberalize the economy and move
forward with pro-market reforms."
Big money assets that Greece could sell
include state-owned stakes in Athens' new airport, energy company Hellenic
Petroleum and electrical utility Public Power Corp., plus offshore oil or
natural gas drilling parcels. A Greek company with backing from Chinese and
Arab investors would then build a huge park, a shopping center, a marina, 1,000
hotel rooms and a skyscraper apartment building on what's billed as Europe's
largest undeveloped waterfront tract.
Even a disenfranchised liberal Wisconsinite with mental health issues knows when they've gone too far, especially after calling in a Capitol bomb threat:
He had one big regret...
WKOW: The suspect in a bomb threat at the state capitol earlier this month tells 27 News actions by Governor Walker and state lawmakers, combined with his mental health issues, prompted him to call police and cause an evacuation of the building during state budget debate. "I just snapped," 55-year old Daniel Veerhusen of Madison tells 27 News. "I've called most of my state officials and politely ask them to please do their jobs, and think about who they're affecting," Veerhusen says ... he relies on state disability funds due to his medical conditions, including a recent stroke ... he uses a wheelchair the majority of the time. "Always been a peacemaker," Veerhusen says. "The medications that I've been on have taken such a heavy toll.".
Here's the twist:
Veerhusen was interrogated and admitted to making the phone call, "and regretted his actions after he learned 'concert on the square' was evacuated.
In my opinion, The Progressive's Ruth Conniff is one of the most powerful liberal voices in the media right now. Her well framed and concise analysis is a refreshing break from the chaotic ramblings of most progressives.
Conniff offered up the following straight forward look Scott Walker's budget "crap" in the latest Isthmus. Democrats would be wise to use the same style of common sense messaging, and drop the cliches:
The budget was 12 days late, garnered more “no” votes from Walker’s GOP colleagues than any other budget he has tried to pass, and was described by at least two Republicans in the state Legislature as “crap.” The budget he signed reflects the two main themes of his political career: destroying public institutions, from schools to parks, and eliminating oversight and accountability when it comes to spending public funds … a state budget Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca (D-Kenosha) aptly described as throwing the people of Wisconsin under Walker’s campaign bus. Here is a prime example: The state budget expands a school voucher program that, after 25 years, has not improved academic outcomes for children in Milwaukee. Instead of demanding better results, the new budget eliminates the requirement that voucher school students take the same standardized tests as students in the regular public schools. To deal with the bad news about WEDC and other examples of cronyism and shady dealings, some unnamed person inserted a provision in the budget to make state government impervious to open records requests. Then there were the goodies like getting rid of the wage floor for construction workers (Walker issued a special statement proudly announcing that his budget rolls back this New Deal-era protection for workers) and repealing the weekend so employees can “volunteer” to work seven days in a row.
It's breaks my heart that Republican Representatives know so little about average American life.
John Boehner doesn't even know that a lot of us with a decent yard kinda look forward to the time when our lawns go dormant, where believe it or not, the lawn turns brown and we don't have to mow it twice a week.
This amazing out-of-touch disconnect with real middle Americans, won't cut it in 2016. And yes, Boehner is blaming water shortages on Obama and liberal policies:
Well, if you can’t follow the rules, change the rules.
Republicans like to call themselves “fiscal conservatives,” but
that’s laughable now that we’ve seen how these carnival barkers manage state
government.
Scott Walker may have been fired as the Wisconsin Economic Development
Corporation, but the troubled agency isn’t getting any better.
WSJ: The Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. is still not
following its policies for ensuring companies that receive millions in
taxpayer-backed awards are creating promised jobs, agency officials
acknowledged Thursday. But rather than comply with existing policy, officials are
recommending changing policy: Remove a policy that staff “view the capital
investment and/or review the underlying financial records, e.g. invoices,
payroll data, etc.” during site visits, and an annual requirement to “verify
the performance of all Enterprise Zone Tax Credit awards,” which are the
agency’s largest and most coveted economic development tools. The agency isn’t
reviewing any of its 20 enterprise zone awards this year … the agency doesn’t
have the resources to review them all.
Get that? They’re now going to get rid of checking their own work, because they can't afford funding the agency to adequately oversee the business? This works for "stand with Walker" supporters? Poof, magically no more record keeping and lost loan money.
Sen. Julie Lassa, D-Stevens Point, a WEDC board member and
policy committee member, objected to removing the only reference to such a
review from agency policy. “You have to have some sort of verification.”
Republicans have always hated big government, except when it serves their own purpose (which is always). They've got excuse why it's different when they do it too.
WPR: Nekoosa Republican Rep. Scott Krug would make it
mandatory to teach and test financial literacy skills in grades K-12. "You'll end up swimming in credit card debt. You're going to find yourself in that spiral, not being able to get out of it. It's absolutely critical,"
Let's face it, Republicans are chomping at the bit to legislate their own politicized public school curriculum. Partisan all the way, this is the epitome of big government meddling.
Wisconsin Association of School Boards' Dan Rossmiller said, "It's ironic that the committee is taking up this bill just five days after the governor proclaimed in his veto message that the state budget he signed into law 'increased local control by affirming the authority of school districts to choose their own academic standards.'" The bill also would apply to the University of Wisconsin System and technical colleges.
I don't usually throw the word "dumb" around very much (okay, you got me on Dumb Ron Johnson), but it's the only word that keeps ringing in my ear when I hear Fiorina talk in her dead pan style, about anything. I actually want to run screaming from the room.
