Monday, November 28, 2011

Notes And Sources For Your Brief Against Walker

Highlights of Walker low-lights:

* The case against Walker and more below to help you craft your own:

*  Important numbers, from jobs to taxes to fibs.

*  When Walker's PolitiFact Truthiness problems went national.

*  Another, earlier archive, including Walker audio and video.

*  The habitual finger-pointing and spin began at Marquette Universality in 1988.

*  Wisconsin Republicans and Walker fully embraced recalls, but now seek to weaken it.

And here are what you could call recall bookends:

An early warning on this blog, from Dec. 5, 2009, about Walker the Milwaukee County Executive:

Walker was never a philosophical or an actual urbanist - - let alone a pragmatic, down-to-earth, hands-on problem-solver - - though the territory and people he represented are urban and live in a particularly challenged environment, too.

He was and is a counterfeit leader, a political game-player, a place-holder at taxpayer expense looking to take as few risks as possible while timing his move up and calculating first and pre-eminently how every news release and utterance and semi-colon will fit into ideological templates and, someday - - sooner now rather than later - - into roughed-out ads.

Bad enough that he blew a seven-year chance to make a difference to people and institutions in the most populous county in the state, which also includes the state's biggest city, and its majority-minority populace.

But reason enough for the rest of us to ensure that adherence to self, worst-practices and benign - - make that willful - - neglect doesn't justify getting your ticket punched to the Governor's Mansion, lest "Stick It To Milwaukee" [explanation] becomes the Scott Walker-inspired new state slogan.
And from just yesterday:
PolitiFact on Sunday in the Journal Sentinel finds that Gov. Scott Walker played with data about school staffing to support a claim about state budget.

The PolitiFact conclusion:
Walker referred to school survey results, saying "the overwhelming number of districts saw that staffing was the same or greater."

But he cherry-picked figures in his favor, leaving out a key factor -- retirements -- that formed the basis of the survey’s conclusions on overall staffing reductions. When they are included, the survey actually shows the opposite of what he said.

We rate his statement False.
How many times will Walker embarrass himself and our state with behavior like this?  The PolitiFact score sheet for Walker shows that 25 of 37 statements vetted were rated "Mostly False...False...or Pants on Fire," or 68%.



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