Saturday, November 30, 2013
When It Comes To Racism Against Native Americans, Walker Shrugs
Walker refuses to take a position, yet, on whether to legally put the State of Wisconsin on the side of retaining race-based Native American school names, mascots and logos. "Unintimidated?" No, Walker is cowed into inaction and silence on the issue by his Tea Party base and its legislative bigotry caucus.
Would Walker say he had nothing to do with the issue if it involved African-American, Asian, or religious group stereotyping? How is it that Native American Wisconsin citizens are worth so little of his attention?
Friday, November 29, 2013
Bookmark This DNR Pledge On Tough Mining Standards
The President of the mining company planning to dig the largest open pit iron mine in the US right in the middle of the pristine Bad River watershed in Northern Wisconsin was a manager at a Spanish copper mine where a watershed was polluted.
A legal case in Spain over the pollution is continuing.
But no need to worry about the past being prologue, because the Wisconsin DNR says it's on the case:
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is aware of the investigation and "we will do a thorough review no matter the outcome of the case," DNR spokesman Bill Cosh said.
Magazine Columnist Missed Walker's Sucker Punch
The "Lexington" columnist David Rennie, writing in The Economist this week, profiled Scott Walker and assessed his presidential bona fides.
Rennie is the magazine's DC bureau chief, has been writing the column since September, 2012, but misreads Wisconsin and American history if he really believes Walker "has a knack for economic populism."
Here is a link to the piece - - and I will organize my objections around this line from the piece:
After Mr Walker announced plans to curb collective bargaining for state workers, the state capitol was besieged for months by thousands of protesters.""Announced plans" omits what really happened - - and why Walker has more of a knack for opaque scheming that democratic, populist practice.
* Walker did more than 'announce plans.' He sprung a set of unexpected and unprecedented bills (now state law) and said their revelation was when he "dropped the bomb." (See Walker's remarks in the transcript of Ian Murphy's infamous taped phone call.)
Even The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, a paper that endorsed Walker for Governor in 2010 and in the 2012 gubernatorial recall election, said Walker was wrong to have withheld the bomb from voters:
Walker never campaigned on disenfranchising public-employee unions. If he had, he would not have been elected. He got a spare 52% of the vote - hardly a mandate for what he is trying to do.No wonder PolitiFact rated Walker's claim "False" that he had campaigned on a platform to wipeout collective bargaining.
* Note also Walker disclosed to his largest donor his a "divide-and-conquer" labor strategy.
Does that indicate "A knack for economic populism?"
Hardly.
* And the column's description of describing Walker's approach as "plans to curb collective bargaining" also sanitizes the extent of the measures.
Under the news labor laws, only proposed salary raises locked that do not exceed 1% annually remain as the allowable vestige of 50 years of economic and workplace bargaining, with union elections impossibly hamstring by procedural impossibilities embedded into state law,too.
* No wonder PolitiFact rated Walker's claim "Pants on Fire" that Wisconsin's collective bargaining protections were somehow "fully Intact" under his measures.
* And the measures were extended to local public employees, too - - teachers, snow plow operators, file clerks, nurses, et al - - not just state employees, as The Economist column states.
Walker kept his intentions under wraps throughout a 2010 statewide campaign during which he had the gall to brag about a dedication to transparency (See "Transparency" section in this Lakeland Times interview transcript, here).
Wisconsinites were as upset with Walker's guile as they were with his goals.
It would be a mistake to allow recent Wisconsin history to be recast or forgotten altogether.
Looks Like WI DNR Miscalculated Wolf Distribution
Though allowed to use bait and traps, and with license fees halved to a mere 49 bucks, Wisconsin hunters are still unable to kill all the wolves the DNR put on the block in a zone of land from Burnett County in the Northwest all the way east to the Wisconsin River.
There's a good summation of the slow-going kill in the LaCrosse Tribune; DNR records show 38 wolves still available for 'harvest' in the so-called Zone 3 - - or about 15% of the entire allowable kill.
Are there smarter wolves there - - or were there simply fewer to begin with as the result of a DNR miscount? And maybe the other zones have now been over-hunted?
In this second year hunt, the DNR jacked up the available statewide killing from 116 to 251 - - an increase of 135 animals.
All based on guesstimates of a statewide pack of perhaps 800-839 - - with the DNR aiming to eventually let hunters reduce the number to 350, though experts have said 350 cannot sustain the packs, as cold weather, collisions with vehicles and illegal hunting also kill wolves annually.
The quotas and zone distributions are based on DNR estimates, but sport hunting interests and not scientists are in control of the agency and its advisory committee process, so rather than a calm discussion of whether the statewide pack numbers were good in the first place, look for the agency to add even more killing next year in one or more of the other zones where quotas were filled relatively quickly, with Zone 3 reduced somewhat to a more attainable toll.
The Walker administration has disregarded science and its role within the developer-managed DNR on matters from wolf hunting to iron mine analysis to wetlands management.
Walker has extended the 'Open for Business' motto even to the DNR, its operations and policy-making.
It's all for sale now - - clean water, the pristine Penokee Hills, fresh air along the Wisconsin River as frac sand is hauled out by the county-full. In this environment, wolves reintroduced here under federal and now-defunct state protections don't have a chance.
Thursday, November 28, 2013
Another Day, Another Huge Toxic Pipeline Spill
As they say, and say again - - what could go wrong?
Just one week after Apache Canada announced it had determined the cause of the largest pipeline spill in recent North American history, a third leak was discovered on the company’s property near Zama City in the northwestern corner of Alberta at the end of October.
Gogebic Mining Co. Exec. In Water Pollution Dispute
Bill Williams, President of the mining firm planning to blow up a Northern Wisconsin watershed and dig the largest open pit iron mine in the US is among a group of mining officials facing possible criminal charges over water pollution at a copper mine in Southern Spain, the Journal Sentinel reports:
Gogebic Taconite President Bill Williams has been implicated in a legal proceeding in Spain, where Williams formerly worked, in which managers of a large copper mine are accused of violating environmental laws in their handling of groundwater from the mining site...
Earlier this month, the Seville Ministry of Justice rejected an appeal from the managers of Cobre Las Cruces, an open pit mine in southern Spain that environmentalists said had been violating environmental laws...
With the rejection of their appeal, the managers of the mine face possible criminal charges over the way they removed groundwater that exposed local ground water supplies to elevated levels of arsenic, according to the Spanish ministry.
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
In Iowa Poll, Christie Leads Clinton; On Right, Walker At 7%
I know it's early. So early that the Daily Caller, when reporting the data thinks, "Hillary" is spelled "Hilary."
Poll: Christie leads potential 2016 GOP field in Iowa, tops Hilary in head-on-head match upAnd is she referenced by first name only because there has been a Pres. Clinton?
For the record:
Christie tops the Harper Polling/Conservative Intel survey with the support of 17 percent of likely caucus-goers. The Iowa caucus is traditionally the first primary electoral contest of the presidential election season.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz comes in a close second behind Christie in the poll, with 16 percent support. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul is next with 13 percent support, followed by former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum with 11 percent, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan with 9 percent, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker with 7 percent, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio with 6 percent and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal with 3 percent.
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Walker Is Losing The Amazon Book Review War
The current tally ain't pretty - - 3:1 negative - - and the comments by unintimidated reviewers are frequently brutal.
Customer Reviews
Samples:
Format: Hardcover
34 Comments No
Hmpf. Unintimidated? This is a governor who is afraid to show his face in Wisconsin's state house. He enters and departs through underground tunnels. In 2011 he posted private guards (who impersonated police officers) in the parking garages surrounding the Capitol at the other end of the tunnels. He only appears in the Capitol Rotunda to light the Christmas tree (then he dashes off, leaving his wife alone to finish the event), and to attend the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial (where he is shamed by keynote speakers).
Unintimidated? This is the governor who lined up the National Guard to protect him, and exempted the police from his heinous "Budget Repair Bill" before announcing it, because he was so afraid of the potential reaction. This is the governor who spread lies about the crowds inside and outside of the Capitol during The Uprising, characterizing them as unruly thugs -- he of course wouldn't know, because he was too afraid to face them and never saw the crowds first hand (except from behind 2nd story windows). Those of us in the midst of the throng, and those police officers on duty to monitor the situation, know that it was an incredible gathering of 100,000+ angry but peaceful citizens (yes, contrary to the lies, Wisconsinites made up the bulk of the crowd).
Unintimidated? This is the governor who had Administrative rules rewritten because of the "emergency" of peaceful citizens gathering during the non-business noon hour to sing. He has these singers arrested, and instructs the Department of Justice to prosecute these cases because he is afraid of the District Attorney (who threw out many of these frivolous cases previously). He is afraid of singers. Unintimidated?
Unintimidated?Read more ›
Unintimidated? This is the governor who lined up the National Guard to protect him, and exempted the police from his heinous "Budget Repair Bill" before announcing it, because he was so afraid of the potential reaction. This is the governor who spread lies about the crowds inside and outside of the Capitol during The Uprising, characterizing them as unruly thugs -- he of course wouldn't know, because he was too afraid to face them and never saw the crowds first hand (except from behind 2nd story windows). Those of us in the midst of the throng, and those police officers on duty to monitor the situation, know that it was an incredible gathering of 100,000+ angry but peaceful citizens (yes, contrary to the lies, Wisconsinites made up the bulk of the crowd).
Unintimidated? This is the governor who had Administrative rules rewritten because of the "emergency" of peaceful citizens gathering during the non-business noon hour to sing. He has these singers arrested, and instructs the Department of Justice to prosecute these cases because he is afraid of the District Attorney (who threw out many of these frivolous cases previously). He is afraid of singers. Unintimidated?
Unintimidated?Read more ›
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121 of 168 people found the following review helpful
I laughed through the entire book.. It was meant to be comedy, right? As far as any historical credibility goes, it has none. It's fantasy, fiction and foul. I borrowed a copy to read, so I didn't waste my money on buying it, and used the money to buy my grandson a copy of Three Little Pigs, instead.
By verhonica on November 24, 2013
Format: HardcoverI laughed through the entire book.. It was meant to be comedy, right? As far as any historical credibility goes, it has none. It's fantasy, fiction and foul. I borrowed a copy to read, so I didn't waste my money on buying it, and used the money to buy my grandson a copy of Three Little Pigs, instead.
Format: Hardcover
Comment
Gah. What a terrible person. There should be a zero stars option. Good god. The man is a narcissist. But seriously, don't buy this book. In a rational world it would never have been printed. This book is so awful it probably wouldn't even make good kindling.
Format: Hardcover
Comment
Title is misleading. This book is not worth reading. I kept waiting for his spaceship to come and take him home. It never happened, thus I was thoroughly let down by the climax and conclusion.
Format: Hardcover
Comment
Walker did not seem to be bother with that inconvenient thing called the truth. A lesson in revisionist history. Save your money
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