For Veterans, Walker Added Insult To Insult

Let's hope the hits to Wisconsin vets don't come in three's, as twice is already two too many:

*  Turns out that veterans take it on the chin through the Walker/Grothman bill to disallow lawsuits for damages over workplace discrimination:

Military veterans are the big losers in the rollback of a Wisconsin law that had allowed women, minorities and other protected groups to sue in state court over employment discrimination, say leaders of a statewide veterans group.

The change was designed by Republicans to help Wisconsin businesses avoid costs of frivolous lawsuits, but it has been derided by Democrats as part of a GOP "war on women." Republicans say women still have the right to sue in federal court.

Lost in the debate are little-known limits on the rights of veterans to sue in federal court, said Michael Gourlie, a member of the Wisconsin Association of Concerned Veterans Organizations executive board and Wisconsin's Council on Veterans Programs, which advises the state Department of Veterans Affairs...

The author of the Wisconsin bill, state Sen. Glenn Grothman, R-West Bend, said he didn't know about the federal limits on veterans, but it wouldn't have changed his mind, because fewer lawsuits will mean more jobs for everyone, including soldiers returning from war.

 Some admission by Grothman, don't you think? Ignorance as a virtue.

* And where else have veterans' interests been dismissed by Walker and his lieutenants?

This story, remember?

Friday, January 6, 2012

Walker Way Too Involved In Operation Freedom

Still no explanation from Gov. Walker to justify his extensive personal involvement in the "Operation Freedom" charity from which money donated for veterans was alleged to have been stolen by Walker aide Tim Russell and another man for personal gain.

Even if you want to argue that that Walker wanted such an operation set up and managed from his public for purely patriotic goals totally unencumbered by any political consideration - - why, as the Journal Sentinel explains, did Walker disregard the signals from the County's Ethics Board and choose to stay, through Russell, so closely involved?

In the complaints, the Alonzo Cudworth American Legion Post 23 was listed as handling the veterans funds correctly before the responsibility was handed over to [Tim] Russell and the Heritage Guard Preservation Society in October 2009 - a decision personally signed off on by Walker as county executive...  

The financing setup for the event drew ethics scrutiny in 2006, when two county Ethics Board members questioned the practice of county officials asking private companies for money for public programs, saying it raised conflict-of-interest questions.