Again!? Ban Weapons of Mass Murder . . . AGAIN!

I'm just updating a post to the BAP blog from July 20, 2012, for crying out loud. Literally! Please, I don't want to have to ever do this again, again.

http://burlingtonareaprogressives.blogspot.com/2012/07/ban-weapons-of-mass-murder-again.html

When will we outlaw weapons of mass murder like the AR - 15 Bushmaster and the high capacity magazine used by the mass murderer du jour in Aurora, CO Newtown, CT? Oh yeah, we already did it was called the Assault Weapons Ban, but the Republicons gleefully let it expire in 2004 as required by their puppet masters, the Bloody NRA.

I'm not against people having guns, but high powered, highly concealable guns with high capacity, easily interchangeable magazine clips that allowed the Virginia Tech mass murderer to spray 170 rounds in 5 minutes are not weapons of sport or self-defense. The only thing they are good for is mass murder, no one needs one and no one should have one, let alone Four three!

For crying out loud, give us a chance, at least make'em have to RELOAD!

Student Achievement - It's the Poverty Stupid!

I've been having a running "discussion" (AGAIN!)  with some Cult of Con Indoctrinants over at
http://freeracine.blogspot.com/ who insist on blaming Racine Unified (where I was educated, thank you!) generally and the teachers specifically for the poor student achievement. They think doing away with RUSD is the answer. I have been arguing, as I have in the past, that if one only looks at where these types outcomes prevail, it is pattently obvious that it is the result of concentrated poverty and all the social ills that go with it. Well that doesn't fit with the Cons Pre-Set Blame & Belief Buttons, so they will hear none of it.

As it happens I was listening to Wisconsin Public Radio (one of our crown jewels!) the other day and what do I hear? The Forward Institute has just released a study that shows School Report Card scores issued by the Department of Public Instruction are closely linked with poverty (Who Knew!). AND that Wisconsin's public schools out perform charter schools even when adjusting for the poverty of the students. http://forwardinstitutewi.org/ Take THAT would be Educational Profiteers!

Of course in true Con fashion and unable to address the substance of the study, they immediately attacked the source. But I suppose some must close their minds to "conserve" what's in there.

Press Release Excerpt: Currently more than 4 in 10 school age children in Wisconsin are defined as poor or “economically disadvantaged,” up from about 2 in 10 a decade ago. A student from a family qualifying for “free or reduced price lunch” is considered economically disadvantaged for the purposes of DPI scores – over 350,000 children in Wisconsin schools.

Based on data from the new Department of Public Instruction (DPI) Report Cards, our study showed a clear link between low Report Card scores and economically disadvantaged students who already have significant barriers to educational prosperity. Those schools with higher numbers of economically disadvantaged students had significantly lower scores on the Report Cards.
The study results show that nearly half of the Report Card score variation from school to school can be explained by the variation in poverty levels from school to school.

Since higher enrollments of economically disadvantaged students are a significant factor in the scores on the DPI Report Card, current proposals to tie school funding and teachers’ salaries to Report Card scores would unfairly punish schools in high poverty districts. As the study clearly shows, a very significant factor affecting Report Card scores is poverty, something which is outside the control of teachers and schools.

The data also revealed that contrary to the assumptions that non-traditional charter schools would be more effective through creating competitive choice, Wisconsin’s public schools significantly outperformed charter schools overall. This finding was especially evident in those schools with high poverty enrollment.

In the last four years, public school budgets have been cut by over $1 billion, while in 2012 alone, Wisconsin taxpayers provided $143.6 million to charter schools, the highest amount in state history. These fund increases did not translate into charter school performance over the three years of Report Card data collected. The Report Card data indicates public schools continue to better educate Wisconsin children than the non-traditional charter schools. Charter schools are underperforming at the core level of their mission – student excellence and achievement, without the taxpayer accountability of public schools.

These findings are important, especially as policy makers look for ways to provide the best educational opportunities for Wisconsin’s children while being mindful of the economic burdens on struggling families. Based on the high rate of Wisconsin school children living in poverty and the clear effects of poverty on education, this study recommends policymakers enhance educational opportunities for our children, and save taxpayer money by redirecting educational funds to the schools most effective at meeting the current needs of Wisconsin children, Wisconsin’s public schools.

GOPsters Admit to Voter Supression

Former high-ranking GOP leaders in Florida have admitted to efforts, including passing laws, to suppress the vote of American Citizens who tend not to choose Republicons at the polls. Furthermore, they've admitted that preventing voter fraud was just used as an excuse for their traitorous voter suppression schemes: http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/14740-former-gop-leaders-in-florida-admit-to-voter-suppression

Gubnah Scott Walker is of course following the GOPster lead on voter supression right here in good ol' Wisconsin, once the land of clean and transparent politics, the nations laboratory for democracy.

On top of his uneeded photo ID voter supression scheme, a solution in search of a problem, he now wants to eliminate Same-Day-Voter-Registration. The problem you ask? Why it's too popular!

The Gubnah: "States across the country that have same-day registration have real problems because the vast majority of their states have poll workers who are wonderful volunteers, who work 13-hour days and who in most cases are retirees," "It's difficult for them to handle the volume of people who come at the last minute. It'd be much better if registration was done in advance of election day. It'd be easier for our clerks to handle that. All that needs to be done."

You see? It's because it works for a lot of Wisconsin's Citizens. People with time constraints, who might move more often and have more difficulty getting off work and traveling to city hall to get registered than certain other people. If so many people weren't using this option it wouldn't be a problem. Of course the poll workers say it isn't a problem now and did anyone hear about any big problems here in Wisconsin on election day? NOPE!

Walker is in lock step with Robin Vos and Glen Grothman, one of which is batshit crazy and both of whome are staunchly committed vote supressors. http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/walker-calls-for-changes-to-sameday-voter-registration-rules-hk7n9e8-180010171.html

Once again we see a Republicon solution in search of a non-existant problem, making it patently obvious that the REAL GOPster goal is to make it more difficult for some people to vote. The Republicon war on democracy wages on!

Death Panel Anonymous Nonsense

I got an anonymous (chickenshit) letter in the mail with nothing but the above photocopy of an ominous article. The envelope included a return address of 3030 30th Ave. #14 Kenosha, but who knows if that is real, a stupid oversight by Mr. Anonymous or simply more bull shit. It didn't take me long to identify the source of the article as the National Review, a well known GOPropaganda and fear mongering rag. Again with the "Death Panels" silliness!

It also didn't take me long to find a scholarly article on the UK's plan to improve the quality of life and services provided to patients who are at the end of their lives so they can die with dignity and hopefully at home. See below. I read it and it's a good plan, thoughtful in it's goals and well intentioned.

http://www.commonwealthfund.org/~/media/Files/Publications/Issue%20Brief/2011/Jul/1527_Gray_Englands_approach_endoflife_care_intl_brief_v2.pdf

So I asked the question; why must the Cult of Con faithful (and their ideological minders at the likes of FuxSnooze and the National Review) see everything through a lense of dark and sinister (and whacky) conspiracy theories? My friend Steve Sullivan gave me the answer: Because they are dark and sinister conspirators themselves -- and if they were in power, that's the way they'd run the world. And have in the past. It's called "projection."

Couldn't have said it better myself. Death Panels - Sheesh!

Ketterhagen's Snake Strangled Banner

The photograph above was taken on the observance of Veteran's Day, November 12, 2012 at the residence of local Teajadists Phillip and Bonnie Ketterhagen. They are flying their American flag upside-down presumably as their response to the Expressed Will of the American People last Tuesday when President Barack Obama was comfortably re-elected.

Maybe they could also try stamping their feet and holding their breath until our democracy is thwarted in their favor. I guess in certain circles it's only "Freedom" when YOU GET YOUR WAY!

But judging by the results of last Tuesday's re-election of President Obama, our first openly gay Senator Tammy "You're Damn Right" Baldwin, the rejection of Mitt's tripling down on the failed trickle-down voodoo economy and the "legitimate rape" agenda, the votes on gay marriage and other progressive victories, it seems the Ketterhagen's have the wrong flag inverted. The Stars and Stripes should be waving proud with the blue on top!

It is the co-opted flag of the venomous Tea Party that should be flapping head over heels. (or should I say, rattling-tail?) Demographics is destiny and the TP would do best to take their angry, old, out of touch, reactionary agenda and slither off into the grass (or should I say astroturf?) from whence they first reared their head.

Why aren't we Trumpeting Voter Fraud!?

Courtesy of the Burlington Area Progressives, the following is a guest editorial by Cayman Island based vulture capitalist Rich Whiteman and Republican strategist Juan Percente'

After all the voter suppression efforts by our Republican Party, why aren't we trumpeting "voter fraud!" like bull elephants to provide cover for the war on voting activities as justifiable by the vast leftwing conspiratorial menace? Our challenging, caging and intimidating voters, limiting early voting, making ballots 10 pages long to slow down voting in crowded wards, under-allocating voting machines, making brown citizens stand in line for SEVEN HOURS and denying them chairs and bottled water, these actions by Republicans and our surrogates like True The Vote just look mean, nasty, underhanded and un-American if they can't be squared with the immanent threat of a stolen election and a thwarted democracy. So where are the covering cries of fraud? How the hell are we supposed to justify our photo ID voter suppression scheme if we don't keep screaming real loud!?

Look our ideas suck, our money bombs failed us, demographics are going to swamp us, we sure as hell aren't going to get all hopey changy and adjust to reality, what choice do we have but to suppress oppositional voters? We need to get serious people!


O.K. so here's the deal, in Wisconsin Obama won the election by a mere 205,205 votes, well within the margin for theft so why aren't Republicans making our case? Look, the polls were open for 13 hours on Tuesday, right? And conceivably one dedicated brown lefty fraudster (BLF) could cast an average of one vote per hour. By the way we know that their brown lefties because our efforts to challenge and prevent this scurge of voter fraud always focus exclusively on minority voting districts that vote democratic, so it just stands to reason.

Of course the BLF would have to move to new polling stations and register with different properly forged documents at each location before casting each vote, but that's totally doable! Sure they could just vote under somebody's name who is already registered and save some time, but then at least one of these legit voters would certainly have already voted, would vote later or be known by someone at the poll, which would blow the whole operation out into the open. And if BLFs have one genious (besides music and dance of course) it is the ability to maintain complete operational secrecy with their soul brothers, sisters, hombres and latinas. No reward ever offered would be sufficient to break their loyal bonds and expose their conspiracy. Wait, we have offered substantial and widely publicized rewards for penetrating and exposing this dark conspiracy, yes!? What!!? NO!!??

Well anyway, using a cutting edge analytical technigue called math, we've divided the 205,205 vote margin of victory by 13 hours and found that it would require only 15,785 conspirators in our fair state to accomplish this nefarious crime! To thwart the will the people! (Yeah, you know which people)

We know that minorities already turnout to vote at rates that far exceed those of other groups, right? So how can we doubt the dogged determination of the BLFs to vote not only once, but multiple times? Surely our fair state was being quietly crisscrossed on Tuesday by hoards of BLFs, individually and on busses, (many of them from that notorious BLF enclave, Chicago) secretly  and unnoticed, stealing the election from good and decent people! (Yeah, you know which people)

What we can't figure out is how they always know just how many votes they're going to need to make sure that their herculean expenditure of time, money, effort and resources doesn't fall short. Because even BLFs do not have limitless supplies of those commodities. That's a puzzler we're going to have to work on, but we know there's an answer somewhere, because those BLFs are crafty devils aren't they?

Rich Whiteman - Juan Percente'

Cult of Con Prophets

A number of Cult of Con Indoctrinants that I've ecountered here and elsewhere on-line over the last several months made emphatic predictions about what they considered to be the inevitable outcome of last night's close and hard-fought Presidential election. You know who you are.

I still don't understand if this GOPredilection for prediction & prognostication is because they actually believe they can foresee the future. Or if it is that they feel that if they say the right incantation, they can influence the future and make it so.

Either way, it seems it is time for a reality check of their faith-base ideology and their belief in the power of magical thinking.

Or perhaps they just didn't squint hard enough.

WI GOP Poll Watchers Mislead by Fearless Leader!

NOTE: The bullet list immediately above is a power point slide from a recent Romney Poll Observer training session in Racine. Note that the trainees are directed to sign in not as representatives of the Romney Campaign or the GOP, which they clearly are, but as concerned citizens. This little but of subterfuge must have a purpose, like allowing them to pack more of their people into a polling station as the Chief Election Inspector has a right to limit the number of reporesentatives of any one group at her polling place.

The latest in a long line of Republicon dirty tricks and tampering with the sacred right of American's right to vote is seen here in the Romney Campaign's inaccurate and deceptive poll watcher training right here in Wisconsin: http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/10/31/1114071/wisconsin-election-officials/?mobile=nc

Seems Republicon poll watchers are being given inaccurate and incomplete information about who can vote and what proof of residency is sufficient to excercise the right on which ALL OTHER RIGHTS of Americans stand, the right to vote.

They're also telling their poll watchers to lie when checking in at the polls, to not identify as a Republicon or a representative of the Romney Campaign. That of course will give the GOPsters and the Romney campaign plausible deniability when one of their volunteers, amped up on the Cult of Con voter fraud mythology, goes ape shit, intimidates voters and disrupts the polling place because someone gets to vote that they don't believe should, based on the bad information they've been fed by the campaign. Ya know, kinda like what went on in Racine back in June.

Republicons can't win on the merit of their values and ideas. That's why they lie, hide (or change) their agenda during elections (aka Gubna Romnesia & Scooter Walker) and perenially engage in efforts to mislead voters on who, what, when, where and how to vote in order to supress legitimate voters who don't like to vote for Con artists.

Are these the illegal aliens the republicans are always so worried about?

Low Dreck Lynching

Top Photo Lynch Truck Center Hwys 20 & 36

Bottom Photo Wanasek Corp Hwy 11 & 36 Bypass

BUSINESSES THAT SPREAD LIES DON'T DESERVE YOUR BUSINESS!



Republicons truly are the party of dirty tricks and low down tactics. Every election year we see the GOPster misinformation swing into gear, misleading targeted democratic leaning voters (minorities) on when, where and if they can vote, purging them from the voter rolls and other acts of skullduggery.

Here we see two Burlington businesses playing along with the coordinated campaign of dirty Republicon tricks.

The posters read "$10,000 FINE FELONY CHARGES 3 YEARS BEHIND BARS" and "WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD COMMIT VOTER FRAUD?"

Of course the answer is, other than Robin Vos' estranged wife, almost no one. Wide spread voter fraud is a nutty conspiracy theory. It just doesn't happen and the logistics of pulling it off year after year without getting caught are so mindboggling that you have to shut your brain off to even begin to believe in it. Fortunately for the party bosses their ideologically blind followers are really good at doing just that when given their marching orders.

The Republicons have to keep the sinisterly intended myth of wide spread left-wing voter fraud conspiracies alive in the minds of their base. And so they lie to their own people. How else will they be able to justify voter ID laws that are uneeded by anyone except the Greedy Oligarch's Party who need them to prevent minority citizens from voting if they hope to remain both a viable political party AND a party of backward thinking angry old white men. Demographics are not on their side, so they lie and try to enact new Jim Crow laws.

But this is about more than denying American citizens their right to vote based on race, pushing through unnecessary and costly bureaucratic rules. It's also about voter intimidation and supressing the vote. They're trying to make going to the polls a scary thing for people who might be unsure about exaclty what the rules are and how to avoid running afowl of them, people who might feel like they've been targeted by authority figures before and fearful that they will again. Again we're talking about minorities who have a legitimate right to vote, but might not be sure if that run in with the law they had when they were 17 disqualifies them to vote. And if it does, well better safe than sorry, why risk a fine, a felony charge and jail time to cast one vote, right?

If the Republicon Party really believed their own talk of perennial wide-spread left-wing voter fraud they wouldn't spend their money on signs, they'd offer a big reward for catching or infiltrating the fraud conspirators leading to arrest, prosecution and punishment which would be a huge deterent to potential future offending conspirators. But they don't do so, because they know that the reward would go uncollected and that would expose the fallacy that must be maintained in the minds of the Cult of Con indoctrinants. If the rank and file started questioning the voter fraud article of faith, just imagine what else the faithful might start to second guess with regard to the Gospel of Con!

Not only is this coordinated effort at intimidation and misinformation aimed at fellow citizens un-American, it's down right nasty. But just as importantly it's purely dishonest. And why would you trust a business that posts lies right on their front lawns to deal with you honestly and fairly? These businesses do not deserve your business, don't give it to them!

Lynch Sales 763-7500. Wanasek Corp 763-3561

Vos' Snake Oiled DeMOCKeracy

Do you think you have freedom? Do you think you're governed through the informed consent of the citizenry as the founders intended? Do you think your state legislator represents you and your neighbors? Well, do you know that lobbyists from global corporations are voting in secret along with your Republicon State Legislators across the country on laws to rule you from your statehouse!? That’s not democracy. That’s not a Republic, it’s a crassly selfish betrayal of what America is supposed to be.

Here in Wisconsin, State Assemblyman Robin Vos is the state chair of the lobbyist group the American Legislative Exchange Council and he is sworn to enact ALEC’s corporate agenda laws, in many cases nearly word for word from the ALEC draft model legislation. Laws that infringe on your Constitutional right to seek redress for grievances in a court of law in front of a jury of your peers. Among other things, these laws are designed to prevent you from suing a car dealership when they sell you a lemon or when a landlord (like Robin) decides to keep the security deposit for your college student’s apartment.

Robin Vos has been bribed with expenses paid ALEC “scholarships” to be wined and dined in a sunnier clime while being “educated” in the ALEC way. And Mr. Vos has been using his forked tongue ever since to sell their secret snake oil sauce on issues like tort reform, free market fundamentalism, voter fraud, the privilege to pollute and privatization for the fun and profit of the few. Don’t swallow this venomous brew, don’t even step in it!

Those ruled in the interests of others are not free. If you believe in America’s founding principles of freedom and self-determination, please watch The United States of ALEC documentary by the respected journalist Bill Moyers: http://www.democracynow.org/2012/9/27/the_united_states_of_alec_bill and demand an end to this traitorously secret legislative process.

Be a patriot, stop Robin the shill who represents global corporations that have no allegiance to you, your city, county, state or even your country. Vote for Democracy!

Ashes to Dust

Take a good long look at the brilliant ash trees this fall. It will be among your last opportunities. Although their amazing colors don't last long and plummet with the the first wind or rain, they are among the most spectaular and unique of autumn shows. Ranging from bright, uniform yellows to shimmering, almost psychedelic dark purples to yellows, sometimes even on the same leaf, these beauties will be sorely missed as they vanish from our landscape in the coming years. The emerald ash borer is here and dispite our best efforts, nothing is going to stop it, the genie is out of the bottle. It just makes me very sad. Thanks a lot uncheched globalization.

Another Flawed TP Swipe at Public Education

Last week's Standard Press once again included a vindictive and venomous letter attacking on our public servants by a cohort of the local TP brigade. This time it was Wayne Raisleger, who derided the Burlington Area School District Board of Education and the Citizens that came forward on August 27th to vote their community conscience and support to zero tax levy increase approved by the Board. As if further cutting would have made any difference with regard to Mr. Raisleger's compaints about student standardized test multiple choicing!

We all know that the number one indicator of student success is parental involvement. Yet Mr. Raisleger blames the supposedly sub-par WKCE test scores on the school board and the teachers instead of those who actually took the test (some students) and their key supporters (parents). This of course ignores the fact that Burlington High School's ACT test scores continue year after year to be above the state average, (Standard Press - 9/6/12, page 6)  in a state, which along with its neighbors Iowa and Minnesota, lead the nation in ACT Scores. This result is characterized by Wayne as "poor student achievement". If Wayne likes other district's results better, then maybe he can get their students to take BASD's testing instead. I hear that the students from inner city areas in Wisconsin with high poverty, unemployment, hopelessness and all the social ills that accompany those conditions can be had for testing on the cheap. And Mississippi students? Why they're as free of charge for testing as they are from quality inculcation!

Raisleger called a school board member a "union shill", derided members for executing their constitutuional right as citizens to sign petitions and went on to claim that "it is generally acknowledged that K-12 systems are failing in America." Based on the above, Mr. Raisleger is probably completely unaware that the only places were this is "generally acknowledged" are the self-indoctrinated minds of those who consume FuxSnooze and AM radio GOPropaganda.

But what is really misguided and off the mark is Mr. Raisleger's pronouncement that "These divergent trends (teacher pay/student test scores) were perptuated in the tax levy passed Aug 27 and would only be accepted in a public sector organization." A claim he esentially repeated with "The ugly truth is that, given their job performance, all five (non-TP Board Members) would have been sacked if they held similar positions in the private sector". Seriously? Any casual observer of the private sector in recent, greedy and deregulated times would immediatly recognize the falacy of this Cult of Con profession of faith. This study of CEO pay versus corprorate performance by Forbes adeptly documents the failure of the god of free market forces in America today: http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2012/0423/ceo-compensation-12-company-earnings-highest-gravity-defying-pay.html

FORBES EXCERPT: Our report on executive compensation will only fuel the outrage over corporate greed. In 2011 the chief executives of the 500 biggest companies in the U.S. got a collective pay raise of 16% last year, to $5.2 billion. This compares with a 3% pay raise for the average American worker. Go the link above Mr. Raisleger and you will see a graph illustrating an inverse relationship to private sector CEO pay and coporate earnings. So much for the sanctified purity of the private sector.

What is especially disturbing about this three decade long redistribution of wealth from the stagnating/declining American middle class to the ruling political/corporate class, is that these outrageously disgusting and often undeserved tributes to the CEO elitists are subsidized by America's citizens through their tax contributions as documented here: http://www.ips-dc.org/reports/executive_excess_2012

EXCERPT - Among the findings:
•Of last year’s 100 highest-paid U.S. corporate chief executives, 25 took home more in CEO pay than their companies paid in federal income taxes.
•The CEOs of these 25 firms received $20.6 million in average total compensation last year. That’s a 24 percent increase over the average for last year’s list of 2010’s tax dodging executives.
•The four most direct tax subsidies for excessive executive pay cost taxpayers an estimated $14.4 billion per year—$46 for every American man, woman, and child. That amount could also cover the annual cost of hiring 211,732 elementary-school teachers or creating 241,593 clean-energy jobs.
•CEOs have benefited enormously from the Bush tax cuts for upper-income taxpayers. Last year, 57 CEOs saved more than $1 million on their personal income tax bills, thanks to these Bush-era cuts.

In recognition of the derisive nature of his pontifications, and the baseless nature of his Cult of Con professions of faith, Mr Raisleger has earned BAP's covetous Forked Tongue & Fangs Award.
Way to go Wayne!

There Goes Lyin Ryan

John Heckenlively penned this parody of Roy Orbison's Crying back in 2010and asked me to record it. I was about to dust off the mp3 file in response to Lyin' Paul Ryan's selection as Mit-the-Twit's VP, when I got a link from John to the video he'd just finished. I'm no Roy Orbison with an 8 octave range, but here after long delay is Ryan Lying.


John Heckenlively - Lyrics, Compilation
Sean Cranley - Vocals, Mandolin, Accoustic Guitar, Bass Guitar
Caelyn Cranley - Drums

America, Don't Buy Paul Ryan's Snake Oil!

FACT: Ryan claims to be a deficit hawk
FACT: Clinton left us with a budget surplus to pay off the debt
FACT: Ryan voted for the unfunded Afghan war
FACT: Ryan voted for two Bu$h tax cut with no off-sets
FACT: Ryan voted for the unfunded Iraq war
FACT: Ryan voted for the unfunded Medicare Part D
FACT: More the 1/2 our debt was run up during the Bu$h Admin
FACT: Ryan helped Bu$h do it every step of the way
FACT: Ryan is NOT a deficit hawk
FACT: Ryan is a hypocrite and a liar

Scott Walker to Speak in Climate of Denial

One of the best known living liars rides to the rescue of those who lie for a living. August 9th Scott Walker who professional GOPropagandist Joe Bast describes as “the nation’s most influential and successful governor.” will speak at a $150 per plate fundraiser in Chicago to celebrate the 28th anniversary of the Heartland Institute. By my estimation that means that if he speaks for 45 minutes the attendees will have paid $3.33 per lie!

The fundraiser is necessary due to the drop off of donors who objected to Heartland billboards that compared people who accept the mainstream science of human-induced climate change to the unibomber. but what do expect from scumbaggy shills like Heartland and Scott Walker?
http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2012/06/heartland-institute-and-scott-walker-join-forces

In case you're not familiar with the Heartland Institute, they are the Chicago based PR-opaganda firm that for years worked for the tobacco industry to deny and sow doubt in the minds of the American public that cigarettes cause cancer. Of course we all now know without question that cigs cause malignancy.

These days the Heartland Institute is on the payroll of the fossil industries and is one of the major merchants of doubt in the malignancy that is climate change denial. They also dabble in promoting the conversion of our children into perpetual revenue streams for the education profiteers and in bashing and scapegoating our teachers to advance their corporatist "free-market" (yeah, right) anti worker agenda. In light of the above it won't surprise you that the Heartland Inst. is tied to the "free-market", I mean fascist American Legislative Exchange Council (fALEC) where global corporations secretly write and vote on the laws that will rule you from your statehouse.

You can learn more about these shit heads and how they're literally making it their business to run ourlives, including right in in Wisconsin by following this link: http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Heartland_Institute

SOURCEWATCH EXCERPT: Leaked documents show that the Hearland-Institute is planning to spend $612,000 supporting Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and four GOP Senators in their probable recall elections in a pro-Walker campaign they are calling “Operation Angry Badger.”
In the leaked documents Heartland wrote: "The recall elections of 2012 amount to a referenda on collective bargaining reform at the state level, making them of national interest. Successful recalls would be a major setback to the national effort to rein in public-sector compensation and union power." The documents propose a $612,000 campaign to include print ads, mailers, web ads, and blog posts that would promote the "successes" of Wisconsin Act 10 and portray Wisconsin teachers as overpaid and schools as underperforming.

Can you say "quid pro quo" Scotty? One again we witness Scot Walker's uncanny and scummy ability to be on the big money-driven, immoral, unethical and un-American side of every issue he touches! But then we already knew that Walker is up sainthood among the money-god-worshippers in the Cult of Con.

Snakeskinned Cowboy Wins BAP's Forked Tongue & Fangs Award!

I'm not a fan of Tommy Thompson, but I never thought he was stupid or hateful. I guess he's got to burnish his Tea Swiller creds.

At a recent Sturtevant fundraiser for Tommy Thompson's senate campaign Right-Wing-Nut-Job Ted Nugent and favorite son of the BLOODY NRA called President Obama a "Chicago gangster." As is typical of Nugent and other RWNJs he has no basis in fact or reasoned argument that he can bring to bear to support his ludicrous claim. But then those kinds of attibutes matter little to the simple-minded TPz who are easily swayed by such fear & loathing.

Of course a little baseless nonsense is never enough, so the Snake-Skinned-Cowboy went on to say; "We are on the fast track toward the end of the American dream with this corrupt, power-abusing criminal gang in the White House right now. These are bad people." Of course Ted has no specifics to support these claims either. Maybe this dick should change his name Van Haten and have his own TV series, Hate Is Enough!

 

 

Ted then went off to soil the Racine County Fair’s 90th anniversary. People who say things like: “Obama’s a piece of shit, and I told him to suck on my machine gun.” should not be given a stage to spew their hatred anywhere, let alone our fair.

He’s a Deadbeat Dad, has been married twice, had children out of wedlock and became the legal guardian of a 17 year old because she was too young legally marry him. And this man is in no way a sportsman as he has been twice convicted of illegal hunting.

He also said: “If Barack Obama becomes the president in November, again, I will either be dead or in jail by this time next year.” He’s either an ignorant blowhard or a dangerous traitor. I suspect the former, but either way this man does not represent anything that’s good or wholesome and should never have been invited to bring his creepiness the Racine County Fair! Whose depraved idea was that anyway?

Ted the Dredge is such a prolific spewer of venomous hate that not only is he the latest winner of the Burlington Area Progressives Forked Tongue & Fangs Award, this Snake in the Grass is among the top contenders for the coveted Reptilian Republicon Life Time Achievement Award!

WRWNJCT No. 17.6D Drones Will Take Your Guns!

So what's the latest Whacky-Right-Wing-Nut-Job-Conspiracy-Theory? Drones are going to take away your guns! At least according to Soapbox Jill over at "Real" Debate Wisconsin: http://realdebatewisconsin.blogspot.com/2012/07/who-said-they-could-do-this.html
SBJ: "I hate to drone on about this, but is anybody else paying attention? How can this be allowed?

Surveillance drones have a new mission. According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) they will be used for “public safety”. Janet Napolitano, Secretary of the DHS, told a House Committee meeting on Homeland Security that the more than 30,000 drones that will be deployed into American skies are just arbitrarily watching out for US citizens.

Hey, all that new-fangled surveillance just might be useful in the coming efforts to remove the types of weapons from law-abiding citizens that would allow them to protect themselves from, well, a run-away govenment. The chess pieces are being moved into place, some taking to the sky. Paranoia? Justified concern?"

Funny thing is that if you follow the "Surveilance Drones" link it takes you to well known conspiracy nut Alex Jone's Infowars website which of course feeds the fear with the following headline: "DHS Prepares for Civil Unrest as Obama Poised to Destroy 2nd Amendment".

However, if you follow the link about what Napolitano supposedly said from there you come the website called Nextgov, which I know little about. But what you'll find there is that NOWHERE in the article does it reference anything about 30,000 drones, let alone that many being deployed by the Department of Homeland Scrutiny. Instead Napolitano is responding to criticism from members of Congress that DHS is not involved ENOUGH in the setting air traffic control rules which fall under the jurisdiction of the FAA.

Once again we find that Alex Jones has no credibility, but if you're a RWNJ and it suits your fear-based agenda, you'll believe ANYTHING and take it at face value. Now I'm no fan of DHS and yes "justified concern" is warranted, but the TPz will always opt for paranoia. What I find amazing is that they didn't bring up the citizen internment camps that are supposedly being constructed all over America to confine us all. Come on people, let's no leave any of the good scary shtuff out!

The article goes on to point out that the Federal Protective Service (FPS) has been given the responsibility to protecting federally owned property while preparing for civilian led riots expected in the near future. Part of the preparatory measures was an order of 150 sets of riot gear that was requested to be filled exponentially – within 15 days. Ooooooooo 150, talk about your major mobilization! And don't ask me what an "exponentially filled" order is.

Then of course we leap to the guns! Wayne LaPierre, vice president of the BLOODY NRA, has called out Obama as being part of “conspiracy to ensure re-election by lulling gun owners to sleep. All that first term, lip service to gun owners is just part of a massive Obama conspiracy to deceive voters and hide his true intentions to destroy the Second Amendment during his second term.”

Be afraid afraid of the dark man in the oval office, be very afraid. And keep buyin them guns ya'll, the fear profiteers are smilin all the way to the bank!

Billionaire - "Middle Class are the Job Creators, Not the Rich"

I've been saying this for some time to counter the self-serving GOPropaganda byte "Job Creator" nonsense, but when this guy says he and his rich cohort should pay more taxes and that he and all of us would benefit from that, he's got a lot of credibility. Not to mention some cool and very revealing graphics! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQi6xJ3-7l4

TPz See Obamacare as Vast Chip Dip Conspiracy!

The Tea Swilling Wingnut Whachidoodles on the extreme right are all a flutter with wild conspiracy theories from the completely implausible perennial vast left-wing vote fraud conspiracies run by undetectible supergeniouses, to the UN wants to take you guns, to climate change is a global conspiracy to grab future control and profits, but the denial industry has nothing to do with existing control and profits by the fossil profiteers. But this one may JUST have some merit. Obamacare has a secret plan to insert an RFID chip into every American!

Some would say the panel required by the Affordable Care Act to approve medial devices is designed to make sure that costs are not incurred for prosthetics and other devices that don't work or are medically unnecessary. But not our brethren in the TP! It's secret plan by big brother "the Emperor" to watch your every move!

But don't let me sway you. You can read about this scary, diabolical plan by the dark man in the Oval Office yourself, right here:
http://realdebatewisconsin.blogspot.com/2012/07/obamacare-devil-really-is-in-details.html

Ban Weapons of Mass Murder . . . AGAIN!

When will we outlaw weapons of mass murder like the AR-15 and the high capacity magazine used by the mass murderer du jour in Aurora CO? Oh yeah, we already did it was called the Assault Weapons Ban, but the Republicons gleefully let it expire in 2004 as required by their puppet masters, the NRA.

I'm not against people having guns, but high powered, highly concealable guns with high capacity, easily interchangeable magazine clips that allowed the Virginia Tech mass murderer to spray 170 rounds in 5 minutes are not weapons of sport or self-defense. The only thing they are good for is mass murder, no one needs one and no one should have one, let alone four!

For crying out loud, give us a chance, at least make'em have to RELOAD!

Forked Tongue & Fangs Award

Welcome to the first ever Forked Tongue & Fangs award, given Tea Swillers who go above and beyond in the regurgitating hateful and vile Cult of Con dreck and GOPropaganda.

Today's runner up is someone who calls himself Young Pa who, I suppose, should at least be given credit for the wise choice of using a pseudonym, thus avoiding the embarrassment that would otherwise befall him and his family. You can find his venomous vitriol at http://myracinecounty.com/ under the July 9, 2012 Article Ketterhagen Censured by School Board.

Young Pa: "This is the typical intolerance of the radical left. Ripoff the children for years with their misuse of public money then cry and villify. The public was disgusted when they learned of this and provided the ultimate censure by voting out this legalized graft, arrogance, and incompetence.

Now they want to silence a dissenting opinion. Why? They are afraid of the truth and facts that are derailing their gravy train they have ridden over the kids for years.

We welcome those opinions and snarky invective that is a hallmark of the radical left represented by WEAC and their pawns in administration and the School Board. It’s open and free debate an arena in which their self serving ideas fail over and over again. They cannot compete in that market so they have to shut it down through invented stories in a radical left paper.

Don’t fall for it; look at the facts. They raise taxes and layoff good teachers to keep their bloated pay and benefits to the detriment of the kids that ultimately pay for it with a heavy debt load. In the last three years the District has been bailed out twice with federal money, heaped huge tax increases out of line with the rest of the State of Wisconsin upon its residents, and has failed to promote good administration and innovative learning practices.

These are the last cries and blusters of a system strangling good teachers and the kids who pay for them. Don’t be fooled by all the noise of a sinking ship of diseased rats (like that metaphor union thugs who pray on children?). Get our fiscal house in order by continuing to vote out those who don’t work at being on the Board – but just slap the back of their union buddies and administrators – living it up on the backs of kids.

All this noise is a sign good days are ahead for those kids and the good teachers who have a dream to further their lives instead of living off of them, if we simply persevere and continue on a common sense and just path.

Spend time with your kids and instill discpline and morals that will help the professional teachers do their jobs and continue to set a good example that counteracts the thuggery they have to deal with from their union masters and administration puppets."

How's that for a shrill whistling teapot? Oh yeah FEEL the HATE! I could deconstruct the misinformation, lies and mistakes contained in the ravings above, but that would take a very very long time and I have faith in the intelligence of most readers to see that for themselves.

And now it's time to recoil at an excerpt of the fork-tongued hissings of today's BIG WINNER, Don Vande Sand who apparently blew a gasket at AARP for the audacity of offering to communicate to it's members in Spanish!

Don Vande Sand: "Your web site generously offers us the opportunity to receive all communication in Spanish. ARE YOU KIDDING??? The illegal perpetrators have broken into our 'house', invaded our home without invitation or consent. The President insists we keep these illegal perpetrators in comfort and learn the perpetrator's language so we can communicate our reluctant welcome to them. I DON'T choose to welcome them, to support them, to educate them, to medicate them, or to pay for their food or clothing. American home invaders get arrested. Please explain to me why foreign lawbreakers can enjoy privileges on American soil that Americans do not get? Why do some immigrants have to play the game to be welcomed and others only have to break and enter to be welcomed?"

Well! There's only two things I hate in this world. People who are intolerant of other people's cultures and the Dutch!

Vande Sand, who won the Humanitarian of the Year in January 2011 for his work with the Burlington Historical Society should be more than aware of the very strong abolitionist movement in southeastern Wisconsin generally, and Burlington specifically. And as such he should NOT scapegoat and condemn whole groups of people just because of their race, their culture or their language. You'd think he'd learn a little from the history he studies and grasp the situation that some of these people find themselves in, victims to what in a lot of ways amounts to modern slavery because of events way beyond their control like NAFTA. Yes, NAFTA which flooded their country with cheap American corn (previously an illegal import) and that destroyed their livelihoods and drove them off their land into the cities. Many of them reluctantly came here so they could continue feed their families, something they apparently feel is important for some reason. 

And our corporations and businesses (and I believe our government, especially Republicons, shhhhh) have welcomed them here with open arms because they drive down the cost of labor, undermine unions and provide workers who are willing to put up with all manner of abuse because they're too afraid to complain. And on top of all that misfortune they have to put up with "humanitarians" like Mr. Vande Sand.

Perhaps the Historical Society should consider whether association with this person is fitting for their organization. The Rotary Club should definitely take back their humanitarian award from this Teapot on the boil!

Congratulation Don Vande Sand, for winning BAP's Forked Tongue & Fangs Award, or perhaps I should say - la Lengua Bífida y Adjudicación Colmillos!

Plutannosaurus Rex!

What Me Worry?

Apparently, the ironically named Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson is an A$$hole. In fact after hearing him quoted on NPR recently, my reaction was that he's got to be one of the pre-eminent A$$holes on the scene today. While he deserves some credit for moving his company from a staunch supporter of climate science denial to admitting that human produced carbon emissions are changing the world's climate, he's still putting greed first and signaling full steam ahead on us all burning more and more of his company's products. Damn the torpedos! http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/27/exxon-climate-idUSL2E8HRA8K20120627

"Changes to weather patterns that move crop production areas around -- we'll adapt to that. It's an engineering problem and it has engineering solutions," Tillerson said in a presentation to the Council on Foreign Relations.

Adapt? Tell that to the the people of Bangladesh who live in a cyclone prone delta flood plain that is only a few inches to a few feet above a rising sea level. What's the "engineering solution" to that?They're not going to get a chance to adapt, they're going to die! Tell that to the people of the Maldives Island nation in the Indian Ocean. They're country will be permanently and completely under water. Is this the new face of social darwinism?

The man at the tiller said, "The fear factor that people want to throw out there to say 'We just have to stop this,' I do not accept."

Fear? Of course! Why would anyone in a low lying coastal plain fear a rising tide? Why would anyone surviving on barely arable land fear an expanding desert? Why would anyone dependent on glacial melt water for drinking and irrigating their crops fear the permanent and complete melting of the mountian glaciers they've depended on for time immemorial? They'll simply adapt.

No doubt Exxon Mobil is at the forefront of paying for the research and solutions that will allow this adaptation, right? Oh sure. I'm sure this A$$hole is sitting safe in mansion somewhere completely insulated from any possibility of having to "adapt" his elitist lifestyle. And I'm sure his children will be well set up too to weather the storm. Adaptation, that's for little people. As Daffy Duck once said, "Consequences shmonsequences, as long as I'm rich."

Well Rex baby, how about other species besides us? How are they going to adapt? Have you thought about them or are you out of touch with the fact that there are other species on this planet besides you and the grass on your fairway? Are you or your company going to pay to relocate plants and animals across barriers to climate zones more suitable to their evolutionary legacy? Or are they just SOL?

Tillerson said issues such as global poverty were more pressing than climate change, and billions of people without access to energy would benefit from oil and gas supplies. "They'd love to burn fossil fuels because their quality of life would rise immeasurably," How touching, Rexy is concerned about the poor and wants to benefit them by letting them burn his oil and gas. Really? Let's get billions of poor people in China, India and elsewhere burning even more of his ancient fossil product and putting it into today's atmosphere and that will make things better? Well for this A$$hole sitting high and dry in conditioned air behind his guarded gates, I guess the answer is, yes.

Slitherin on the 4th!

Robin of Vos, Barren of Ethics, Traitor to Democracy, Rascal, Scoundrel and Vassal to the Corporate Lords at the feudal American Legislative Exchange Council (fALEC) marched in the Waterford Independence Day Parade yesterday in his Tea Party yellow t-shirt waving from the centerline and engaging no one directly, sending his minions out to do that unpleasant task. Jordan Debbink of the WeVoBee TPz tried to hand me a glossy Vossy football schedule before realizing who I was.

I wonder if young Robin, in marching to serve his corprate masters is even vaguely aware that the Boston Tea Party that lead up to our revolution was an anti-corporate event protesting the predatory practices of the British East India Company, probably the largest global corpration of it's time.

I am always amazed at the ability of  fALEC GOPsters like Vos to shamelessly parade themselves before the public like they are full of light and sunshine while pushing hidden agendas from far beyond Wisconsin and stonewalling the citizens here at home on their right to know what their "representatives" are doing on "their behalf". See here: http://host.madison.com/article_c857e6c2-bef3-11e1-af14-001a4bcf887a.html And here: http://www.onewisconsinnow.org/files/OneWINow-VosORR-20120703.pdf I know I couldn't do it, but then I am not only capable of feeling shame, but also of expressing shame when it's appropriate unlike certain reptilians.

Speaking of reptiles and tea swilling delusions, Dave Craig who is supposed to represent the citizens of Wisconsin's 83rd Assembly District marched with a coiled snake flag draped on his vehicle, pronouncing his love of striking vipers and fang injected venom for all to see. Yup it's true, when I think Republicon I do think Snake-in-the-Grass. Can't help it Republicon = Snake. Only the grass the snakes are writhing in is Astroturf funded by Kochish oligarchs through their democracy thwarting nest of vipers, Americans For Plutocracy (AFP). Just plain disgusting!

The Waterford Parade is a good chance to see old friends who live along the parade route and an excuse to start drinking bloody marys at 10am, but it's little more than trucks-n-tractors these days. But hey, at least there weren't any confederate flags this year. Still, I think I need to get into Racine next year where there's less stench of tea, fewer Snakes-in-the Grass and no Vos-Barren of Ethics and see a real 4th of July celebration parade for a change. I miss those. I want to see a real marching band and, if at all possible, playing Stars and Stripes Forever!

The Truth About the Affordable Care Act

In the wake of the recent (somewhat surprising) Supreme Court Decision, I thought it'd be useful if we all had some good information to counter the inevitable right-wing push back concerning The Affordable Care Act (sometimes derisively called "Obamacare").

Happily, the White House has a really good blog containing information about the program -- information that, frankly, the news media has tended to ignore (or outright lie about).  Because of the media's focus on fueling controversy to boost ratings, much of the public remains ignorant about the actual program.

But you can click this sentence and go directly to the source.

Arm yourself with The Truth and push back against the tide of right-wing scare tactics and lies!

Ketterhagen's Cattle Prod

I have it from reliable sources that TP school board member Phil Ketterhagen said at last Monday's meeting something to the effect that teachers need to be trained the same way he trains a wayward bull, with a crack on the head. If our teachers are chattel, perhaps Ketterhagen should invest in a cattle prod so he can deliver his shocking "lesson" with the touch of a button.

People of ill intent like Ketterhagen have no good business being on a school board. But this is what happens when you elect people of ill-will to positions of power. What you have in Ketterhagen is an extremist ideologue with an authoritarian mindset. And what you get from people of this ilk is scapegoating and vengeance against a group that we are told to believe are to blame for whatever "problem" the ill-willed are using to advance their self-centered political goals and they don't care who gets hurt in the process. That is what fascists do.

And make no mistake about it, the people who control the Tea Party agenda are fascists and the Tea Party, whether the rank and file adherants know it or not, is a fascist movement. And Ketterhagen is working to deliver our schools to the corporatist privateers to turn all our children into their revenue streams. And that is only a small portion of the modern American fascist agenda, to turn our government that is supposed to represent us into a money making concern for them.

To clarify, I am not equating Ketterhaggen with Hitler or Mussolini, but it is crystal clear that the Tea Party movement has been co-opted into astroturf by a top down corporate crafted fascist American Legislative Exchange Council (fALEC) type hidden aganda like I saw when I went to the WeVote Burlington legislative night last December. And as Benito himself, the founder of fascism said, "Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power."

My Name is Elmer J Fudd Milwionaire, I Own a Mansion und a Yacht!

Elmer J. Fudd, Millionaire by tobiagorrio

Dear Dick Bergman, thank you for your kind words last week regarding my contributions to the Standard Press, I’m glad that you enjoy my writing and that you look forward to more of it in these very dark times. I do try to inject a little humor in with the serious and substantive issues I address, to try and have a little fun and maintain a positive outlook, as difficult as that is these days.

Speaking of dark times, I just read that the Koch Brothers plan to use the Citizens United ruling by the U.S. Extreme Court to funnel as much as $400,000,000.00 through organizations they control to advance their corporatist interests and their rightwing agenda during the 2012 elections. How much money are you going spend to advance your interests Mr. & Mrs. John & Jane Q. Public? Do you think the government they ordain will represent your interests? They already write and VOTE on the laws that rule you through their organization, the feudal American Legislative Exchange Council (fALEC) and their representative Robin Vos, Wisconsin’s Public Sector fALEC chairman. Is that what freedom feels like?

Americans for Plutocracy (AFP) spent three millions dollars from people like the Koch Bros to help their hero Scott Walker keep doing their work. Heck, Scotty recently raised a million dollars from four out of state billionaires. One of them was Robert Benmosche, you know the CEO of AIG the deregulated global insurance behemoth that helped tank our economy and that George Bush had to bail out with your tax dollars in the Republicon crash of 2008. Is this what plutocracy feels like?

Mr. Benmosche has been thinking about you Mr. & Mrs. P. In a recent interview from his seaside villa in Croatia he said that “Retirement ages will have to move to 70, 80 years old,” “That would make pensions, medical services more affordable. They will keep people working longer and will take that burden off of the youth.” Yeah the burden of jobs off our youth as geezers continue occupy jobs keeping young people from being able to enter the work force, start careers, marry and have families. Talk about your out of touch elitist, but what does he care? He is the rich and the rich are getting richer! Meanwhile, the average net worth of American families dropped by 35% from 2005 to 2010, according to the Census Bureau. No wonder consumer demand, the ONLY “Job Creator” is down. Thank you Greedy Oligarch’s Party (GOP)!

But enough substance, now for the humor part. Just how dumb or ill-informed does one have to be, to be working or middle class and vote Republicon? Yeah, Mitt Romney and his NASCAR team owning friends are going to look after the interests of us average income folk out here, right.

Wait a minute, maybe it's not dumb at all, maybe it's just plain crazy. I've got it! Here is how you can convince yourself that the GOPsters are on the side of your shrinking middle class chances. Repeat after me; "My name is Elmer J. Fudd, Milwionaire, I own a mansion und a yacht." Again! "My name is Elmer J. Fudd, Milwionaire, I own a mansion und a yacht." Keep going, if you can be convinced that the plutoctopus is on your side, you can be made to believe ANYTHING! Right Elmer? Freedumb!

Standard Press: Large Crowds for and Against, REALLY!?

The Thursday June 7, 2012 edition of the Burlington Standard Press had this to say about the Burlington Area Progressives June 2nd event: "MSNBC's Ed Schultz, Burlington native Tom Gilding and columnist John Nichols were all part of the rally at Echo Park, which drew large crowds - both for and against."

Hmmm, large? Both sides? Really?

The Racine Journal Times estimated our supporters at around 350 people. I hardly noticed the counter-protesters that day, perhaps because there was only about a dozen of them. The photos in the paper were just as misleading as the excerpt above, a large one above the article showing four counter-protesters in the Vet's Terrace parking lot, the other a small photo below the article, showing only the bandstand with three of us BAPsters in the picture. I don't know if the piece was intentionally or simply carelessly misleading, but the pictures above are better representation of reality.

The good news is we took measures to make sure we didn't disrupt the outdoor wedding ceremony at Veteran's Terrace and were successful in that regard.

Jordan Debbink of the local TP group WeVote said that another group member organized the counter protest when she found out the rally would be held Saturday. Gee I wonder how she that found out? Could it have been the ads we ran in the Hi-Liter and all the Southern Lakes Newspapers broadsheets? Maybe it was the posters we had up for weeks at Reinemann's and the local grocery stores. It might even have been the listing of the event in the Out and About sections of the Standard Press, Waterford Post, Westine Report, Westosha Report, East Troy Times and Elkhorn Independent. Or it could even have been discovered on this very blog which is viewable by anyone with access to a computer. Whatever it was, kudo's to her on the sleuthing, she must be an investigative genius!

It is interesting to know however, that they will send a raggle-taggle band of protesters to any event we hold, even when they don't know what information is being presented. For example, when we showed Koch Brothers Exposed at the Plaza Theater last fall, they couldn't have known what was in the movie as it had just been released. But they protested anyway. After all, what good Cult of Con member needs knowledge and information to act anyway?

The Koch Bros are Republicons so they's gots to be good right? Nevermind that these plutocrats are writing laws in secret to rule us all from far far away. We'ins is fur freedumb, FREEDUMB!

FUWI

Now I know how rational people of goodwill must have felt when McCarthy was re-elected.

De' ja vu All Over Again

Walker Target of Federal Investigation

EXCERPTS: With the recall election less than two days away, federal prosecutors are closing in on Governor Scott Walker, according to veteran political reporter David Shuster, . . .

"I stand by my reporting 100 percent," Shuster said in the conference call. "It's clear to me that he is, in fact, a target in a federal investigation."

Despite copious reporting, especially in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, about the Milwaukee County district attorney's probe of alleged violations when Walker was county executive -- including a secret email network maintained by his staff for the purpose of conducting illegal campaign activity on county time, the theft of funds intended for the widows and orphans of Iraq War veterans, and possible favorable treatment of campaign donors seeking public contracts, not much has been written about the FBI probe.

In his reporting on FBI involvement in the current probe of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, Shuster said he consulted with Justice Department attorneys in the public integrity section and "I got independent confirmation that he's a target."

Read thr rest here: In his reporting on FBI involvement in the current probe of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, Shuster said he consulted with Justice Department attorneys in the public integrity section and "I got independent confirmation that he's a target."

Read the rest here: http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=36926&sid=fde5b08ba03e551e673cd61cbb8dcb78

Scott Walker Pro-Abortion?

EXCERPT: Bernadette Gillick was a college freshman in 1988 when she first met Scott Walker. It was spring semester, and she had just transferred to Marquette University. She was assigned a room in O’Donnell Hall (then a women’s dormitory), which she shared with her new roommate, Ruth (not her real name). Ruth was dating Scott Walker, who was 20 at the time, and, according to Bernadette, Ruth was deeply in love with him.


Midway through that spring semester, Bernadette alleges, Ruth found out she was pregnant. She informed her boyfriend, Scott, and initially he was supportive. That support changed to callous indifference for his girlfriend’s predicament after Scott informed his parents of the pregnancy.

Bernadette reports that at this point Scott began denying that he was the father of the baby, and when Ruth said she was considering an abortion, he claimed he didn’t care, as he wasn’t the father anyway.

Bernadette remembers being present when Ruth was dealing with the wrath of Scott’s mother, who allegedly admonished Ruth for trying to “ruin [her son's] reputation.”

“I supported her [Ruth] as he [Scott] went from encouraging her to get an abortion, to telling me it was in my best interest to keep my mouth shut, to denying that he was the father and having his own mother call her and tell her to stop erroneously accusing her son of paternity,” Bernadette recounts.

It was a “horrible time” for her friend. “Imagine her being 18 years old and pregnant, walking around Marquette’s Jesuit Catholic campus with her boyfriend denying he was the father,” says Bernadette.


All this was taking place while Walker was running for student body president. As one of his classmates, Dr. Glenn Barry recalled in a remembrance published last week, Walker’s campaign was, “one of the dirtiest in school history.” The student newspaper Marquette Tribune called him “unfit for office” after his campaign was discovered collecting and throwing out copies of their paper that endorsed his opponent. Commenting on the election and Walker’s political career and style at Marquette, he noted, “Walker lost on all counts, but not before destroying a few people’s reputations, and amassing personal power.”


Read more here: http://wcmcoop.com/members/integrity-the-child-scott-walker-left-behind/

Would Bernadette risk a libel/slander suit and ruin her reputation if thie were false?

EXCERPT: Bernadette is now Dr. Bernadette Gillick a college professor at a major Midwestern university. Through her attorney, Mike Fargione, she issued a statement: “It is rare that you will ever hear from me on issues of politics, as I am a firm believer that most politics are local and can be as local as our own kitchen tables. But I’m asking you to consider what I have to share …”

Over the phone, Bernadette recounted how she watched a recent televised debate between Scott Walker and Tom Barrett. As he talked about his “lifelong integrity” her anger grew. This was a man who had abandoned his pregnant young girlfriend — completely turned his back on her at the most fragile point in her life. She notes his “now-convenient ‘pro-life’ proclamations” after burying his past “indiscretion.” Says Bernadette, “I cannot listen to his lies anymore … I cannot dream of how anyone would support such an evil man. Once a man shows that he has no soul, there is nothing more.”

Thanks to Kay Schultz you can see the photos from yesterdays event if you go here: https://plus.google.com/photos/103660747430003433320/albums/5749661910794641249?banner=pwa&gpsrc=pwrd1#photos/103660747430003433320/albums/5749661910794641249

There are even more on BAP's facebook group plus videos: http://www.facebook.com/groups/111636908877191/

My favorite is the one above with 6 hapless TPz with Walker / Kleefisch signs drooping, trying to figure out what to do about 400 fired up progressives!