Thursday, September 4, 2014

Walker Plays The Race Card

How low can you go? He really is The Desperado.

Voters may be shocked to learn that the African-American graduation
rate in Madison (where Mary Burke is on the board) is worse than in MKE.

For Walker, Packer Football Is A Life Saver

Scott Walker and his pollsters have got to be relieved that the NFL season is finally here.

Elated, actually.

And having the Packers kick things off on a Thursday evening is some serious scheduling serendipity.

John Doe might sell some papers, but Aaron Rodgers & Co. are the green in the media gold standard; splashing those colors and faces above the front page fold as the Journal Sentinel does today is just what Walker would have ordered.

And Friday should bring more of the same, as will the rest of the season right through the gubernatorial campaign.

TV will run Packer stories at the top and bottom of their newscasts.

Walker will get himself to home games for cheesy, cheesehead free media, and, in fact, if you're too busy to watch, he'll probably live-Tweet the games for you.

Just another regular Wisconsin guy with more slush in the tank than 7-11.

Football is the perfect antidote to a nasty news cycle that is undermining Walker with news of sleazy secret outside money, bad polling numbers, promises about jobs not being kept and promises to serve out another term not being made.

For Team Walker, Green Bay team football right now is a Godsend. It's been a tough week for politics, and when I went to Walker's official Twitter feed just now as I was about to post this blog to see what he's chirping about, I found this to my delight at the top of the page.

In big type.

Governor Walker @GovWalker ·

The State of Wisconsin needs a #Packers win tonight. Its been a tough week for sports.

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

RoJo Saw No Sexism At Capitol. He's Experienced At Such Denial

When accidental US Senator Ron Johnson says he never saw any sexism among Senators on Capitol Hill, you can take his word for it.

Because if had, he's an expert in that kind of misconduct and would swing into action.

As the record shows:

Ron Johnson was asked to keep silent in ex-aide’s alleged assault

And...

Ron Johnson did not tell police of assault allegations three years ago

And...

Ron Johnson Testifies Against Child Sex Abuse Legislation

Scott Walker's Gift To Mary Burke

[Updated, 7:01 p.m.] Scott Walker's refusal to commit to serving out another four-year term promises to be a gift to opponent Mary Burke.

* It's dismissive of the importance of the job to which he claims to want re-election.

* It's dismissive of the voters and the residents of the state, too. Would you go to the prom if your date wouldn't promise to leave the dance with you?

* It reveals Walker's outlandish, outsized and out-of-control personal ambition - - his distorted belief he credibly could run for President, let alone serve! - - as his over-arching goal.

Milwaukee County voters heard him say the same thing when he was running for re-election as County Executive in both 2006 and 2010, but gubernatorial opportunities were there to grasp after.

He used the County Executive position for years as a launching pad to higher office rather than as a workshop for policy innovation or honest governance, so the voters' interests took a back seat.

Why should voters put up with more Walker self-promotion when he has a track record of commitment and service abandonment?

Mary Burke can use Walker's own words to highlight his disrespect for the office he already holds - - but has signaled there's yet another he'd rather occupy.

Walker's repetitive insincerity and opportunism would be treated as absurdities outside of politics.

What group of shareholders or stakeholders would recruit and promote him if he kept making clear he'd rather head for greener pastures?

Burke and her supporters can ask Walker and his supporters if they would buy a house from a contractor who wouldn't promise to finish the project. 'Three walls, maybe? Four: Can't promise it.'

Who among the Walkerites would agree to buy an advertised set of tires from a vendor who would only promise installing two or three?

What customer would pay in advance for a wedding cake from a baker who might not deliver all the layers? But offered you something of a fall-back, second-rate substitute, like a frozen store-bought dessert or box of leftovers?

Which is what Walker has in mind should he drop everything and everyone but himself to run for President - - and hand you and me Governor Rebecca Kleefisch and her husband, Rib-Eye.

With State Approval, Another Hunting Dog Thrown To Wolves

Bear hunting is big business in Wisconsin and is heavily promoted by the DNR which gives bear hunters and related interests policy-making advisory access, too.

Bear hunters are allowed by the state to let their packs of hounds run freely during a 60-day period in the summer - - even through known wolf activity territories - - to 'train' for the fall and winter bear hunt season.

This practice sets up hound-wolf confrontations, the inevitable killing of hounds by the larger, territorial wolves and the filing of claims with the DNR of up to $2,500 per dog.

As I have noted, some people in Wisconsin go to prison when dogs are killed, and some people get a check. Some animal cruelty is tolerated, other circumstances are condemned. It's all very situational.

The state has paid out a half-million dollars under this only-in-Wisconsin program, and will be making another payment soon, as the DNR reporter over the Labor Day weekend that there has been another such dog killing:

On August 31, Wildlife Services confirmed that wolves killed an 11 year old Plott/Walker bear hound. The attack occurred in the Town of Emery, Price County. More information and a caution area map are available on the gray wolf webpage.

Hunters are reminded to use the caution area maps on the DNR website (dnr.wi.gov, keyword "wolf management") to help reduce conflicts during this year's bear dog training and hunting season.

DNR records show 13 such killings this year, with four in Price County where the most recent incident took place. Several Price County dog killings by wolves happened close to each other, to somewhat older dogs and and after DNR-publicized warnings.

Seems some hunters there are paying only close attention to the dog reimbursement program.

Story Shows Pro-Mining $$ Helped Defeat Key WI State Senator

Props to the Journal Sentinel's Lee Berguist for explaining how heavy, third-party pro-mining spending in a single State Senate 2012 race ensured the passage of legislation that was influenced by Gogebic, the mining company pitching the controversial massive open-pit iron ore mine which Scott Walker wants dug in a NW Wisconsin watershed near Lake Superior.

Court records disclosed on August 22nd showed the mining company gave Wisconsin Club for Growth an unreported $700,000 to quietly assist Walker's 2012 recall campaign.

Berguist's story shows that getting the mining company's legislation adopted required adding one more solid, pro-mining vote State Senate vote to the mix, and that was accomplished with the targeted infusion of enormous sums of outside money against State Sen. Jessica King, (D-Oshkosh):

The $1.5 billion project quickly drew support from Gov. Scott Walker, Republican lawmakers and Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, the state's largest business group.

In 2012, WMC used an issue ad to attack Sen. Jessica King (D-Oshkosh) for voting against the first of two mining bills. She was defeated by Republican Rick Gudex by 600 votes...

King provided the Journal Sentinel data from her campaign consultant in the race. It showed TV spending against her from outside groups totaled just under $2 million in the last three weeks before the November election.

The spending included $964,603 from WMC and $919,400 from Wisconsin Club for Growth, the records show.

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Banking Sympathizer Escapes Congress, Granted Wall Street Asylum

At 20 times the salary.

And did Jeff Fitzgerald and Scott Suder settle for cheap.

No wonder Glenn Grothman is hot to get to Congress.

WisDOT Lets Wayside With Veterans' Memorial Fall Into Disrepair

[Updated, in italics, 9:25 p.m.] Fresh millions in 'road improvements' are aimed to build over, through and otherwise disturb Wood National Memorial and private cemeteries along I-94 near Miller Park, and now we find that the same Walker-run road-building agency can't find a few pennies to put the restrooms in working order at this Price County wayside it owns that features a Veterans' memorial?

When did WisDOT become the Disrespecter-in-Chief of state sacred spaces?

Update - - I added below from the comments a few observations by Rich Eggleston, whose 40 valuable years with AP and The Wisconsin Alliance of Cities in Madison inform what he has to say:

The wayside on Highway 13 and the south fork of the Flambeau River is beautiful. So was the miniscule one-picnic-table wayside on Highway 86 at the Spirit Reservoir, long gone. Gone also is the wayside on Highway 51 south of Tomahawk, the victim of highway expansion, as is the wayside on Highway 51 near Wausau. The DOT cares neither for quaintness nor for scenic beauty. A few of these waysides have been supplanted by multi-million dollar monstrosities in "rest areas."

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As state abandons waysides, locals weigh options

Posted: Thursday, August 28, 2014 7:00 am
Seth Carlson, Staff Reporter

The Price County Highway and Transportation Committee met August 13 for their regular monthly meeting at the highway department building in Phillips. Among discussion items was the Highway 13 wayside south of Fifield, as Highway Commissioner Don Grande reported he has received multiple complaints over the closed restrooms at the site.

The restrooms have been closed for over a year due to a cracked vault.Nestled along the Flambeau River South Fork, the site features the closed restroom, a Korean War veterans’ memorial, a boat landing, and a picnic area as well. As with all Wisconsin waysides, county departments perform only maintenance, such as mowing and upkeep, and have little to no input on the repair or restoration to facilities.

The Department of Transportation (DOT) has told us pretty much point blank, ‘no’,” said Grande in reference to calls he has made to the state for repairing the restroom. “They don’t understand the historic reference on this site. Believe me, I would love to drop the [complaints] on the DOT, but that’s not helping.”

Walker Deception, Circa 2004-'05

I was just researching the history of Walker's broken promises and misinformation - - as this has been a day of blogging about Walker's broken promises and misinformation- - and Google served up a Golden Oldie worth saving and sharing:

It's a still-extant post from the quiet-for-now trail-blazing blog The Xoff Files from 2005 which documented a blatant Walker records-and-promises deception from early 2004.

Vintage Walker: Obstruction. Obfuscation. The slide past honesty. And prosecutors...

Fool us once, then twice...you know how it goes...shame on us all, since we were certainly warned. Read in full:

Walker's deceit and dishonesty speak louder than his promises

Fresh Derpitude From Walker On 'Pledges'

An awesome double-negative. Walker declares what he won't do when he's not committed to being there.

Scott Walker says he would not make specific jobs pledge for 2nd term

Gov. Scott Walker declines to commit to four-year Wisconsin term

Less Official Information Released By 'Transparent' Gov. Walker

I remind people - - one recent example among many - - that Scott Walker famously boasted that, as a public official, he "lived" transparency.

That was before we found out there was a secret campaign communications and fund-raising WI-FI system set up by people on his public-employee staff - - cronies and allies - - in the Milwaukee Count Executive office suite just a few feet from his door.

Evading the intent and function of the Wisconsin Open Records law and related County ordinances until John Doe I led to disclosures and criminal charges.

Also disproving the transparency claim - - besides all recent revelations of secret fund-raising and coordination with so-called independent groups alleged by prosecutors - - are politically-inspired, willful decisions by Walker-run state agencies to cut back the level of public information being released because the data or materials could undermine Walker's pro-business promotion.

Examples:

* Under Walker, The State Department of Revenue has cut from three to one its yearly economic forecasts, as I posted, here.

Little wonder: the last one, issued more than five months ago, projects the addition of 40,000 new jobs in Wisconsin for 2014 - - while the real number annually has been above 30,000 in only one of three Walker years.

And is currently trending this year not for 40,000, but near his cumulative average of 28,000+ - - a 30% miss.

* Also under Walker, the state Department of Natural Resources eliminated first level "watches" in a two-step public notification process about unhealthy air quality.

Now an alert - - and you can get them by email - - comes out as an "advisory" only after the unhealthy air - - laden with soot particles or other pollution which are invisible to the naked eye - - is already there for the breathing.

I published an account of the policy change early in Walker's tenure in 2011, along with the text of an email from the DNR official making the announcement (these things all originate in, or are approved by Walker's staff) - - a former executive off the staff of the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce - - that reminded people that there wasn't any mandate that warnings or notices be published.

I guess the theory was that in a state just thrown open to business, what you can't see won't harm you - - of the reputation of the state's actual climate for business - - but without the first notification about the dirty air watch, the elderly, children, runners and people with asthma and other cardio-vascular problems now cannot plan around an unseen condition that is bad for their health until it hits them.

How would you feel if tornado or flood watches were eliminated - - but advisories were issued as funnel clouds or rivers out of their banks were already in your neighborhood?

* The same DNR has not updated its its main climate change page since June 18, 2012, and even deleted useful information and links. Right now, the page consists of a single paragraph and one link. I have noted this several times.

Skimpy Official WI Econ. Forecasts Under Walker Overly-Optimistic

[Updated from Saturday: Trend is about 28,000, not the projected 40,000.] The Wisconsin Department of Revenue is issuing fewer economic forecast reports and the last one - - from five+ months ago - - projects job growth in the state not seen since Walker's swearing-in.

Gee: wonder why?

First - - Check out the department's index of reports, and see how the frequency is declining.

Winter 2014

Full Report

Past Reports

And "Winter 2014?" That report came out on March 20, according to this news release - -

March 20

Winter 2014 Wisconsin Economic Outlook and Winter 2014 Wisconsin Metropolitan Area Outlook

so is it titled "Winter 2014" because there were still 24 hours of winter left on the calendar when released, or because it's supposed to take you to the end of the calendar year and make you think, wow - - they're really looking far ahead. What confidence!

Why doesn't the report have an actual date on it?

Note also how often these reports were published during the Doyle years, and were issued routinely with more precise dates.

There have only been two in the last two years. How come, and where here is Walker's vaunted "transparency"?

And speaking of data: take a look among all the forecasts in the Winter 2014 report at the very important jobs creation number - - since Walker is repeatedly claiming during the campaign that he's succeeded while challenger Mary Burke correctly says he's way behind his 250,000 new jobs promise:

The forecast calls for increases of more than 40,000 jobs per year in 2014 and 2015.

40,000 this year?

How broken is that crystal ball?

The state so far this year isn't on pace to hit 30,000 - - and, OK , the year isn't over yet - - but in two of Walker's three years in office the state added fewer than 30,000 jobs, according to PolitiFact's regular tracking.

And let's talk about personal income growth, a statistical area for which Walker had claimed success in a recent TV commercial until bloggers and others got PolitiFact to show that, in fact, Wisconsin over the Walker years was dead last in the Midwest and 44th nationally.

The June, 2012 report had predicted a strong, 4.1% annual increase for 2013.

By the so-called Winter 2014 report, that projection for 2013 had been cut to 2.9%

So these official forecasts, few as the are, have exactly what basis in fact, and what value - - beyond PR? The dismal science gets more dismal when number get twisted, cooked and served with side of spin.

It all reminds me of a Walker "Pants on Fire" rating fully deserved 21 months ago when he greatly overstated the jobs created during his term:

Wisconsin has created "just under 100,000" jobs since he took office.

Scott Walker on Wednesday, December 12th, 2012 in a speech

Gov. Scott Walker says Wisconsin has created almost 100,000 jobs since he took office

NY Times Edit Board Beats Journal Sentinel's On Big WI Story

[Update from Sunday for Tuesday: We're into Day 11 of Journal Sentinel editorial silence about the Aug. 22nd Federal Court release of records showing secret funds funneled to 2012 GOP recall campaigns, including Gov.Walker's, at his behest.

Home court advantage undermined:

I've noted twice on this blog - - first item, here - - that the Journal Sentinel editorial board has yet to address the multiple legal and ethical issues raised in court records by prosecutors about Governor Walker's role in questionable and secret strategy coordination, fundraising and campaign-related ad spending disclosed two Fridays ago.

Among the disclosures: $700,000 had been received by a purportedly independent third-party group to help Walker's 2012 recall re-election campaign from a mining company planning a massive and controversial open-pit iron ore operation for Northern Wisconsin close to Lake Superior - - a proposal enabled by sweetheart changes to state environmental and tax laws with Walker's leadership.

Though the paper's editorial board had been quick several months ago to condemn a prominent State Senator caught on a hidden camera by political enemies only talking big about planning similar forbidden coordination and spending.

While we've heard nothing from the Journal Sentinel editorially about these blockbuster disclosures, The New York Times editorial board has managed to discuss them, thus beating the local paper of record to a comprehensive, scene-setting commentary:

How to Buy a Mine in Wisconsin
Did Gov. Scott Walker Violate Campaign Laws?

Monday, September 1, 2014

Whenever I Hear Scott Walker Say 'I Am Not A Doe Target'

Or when other lawyers or justice system officials repeat it, all I can hear is the Milwaukee Brewers' General Manager Doug Melvin or Green Bay Packers GM Ted Thompson saying before trading deadline, 'No, we're not looking to make any moves.'

Just a thought.

Draft Of Walker's Labor Day 'Speech' Found

[Updated, 4:25 p.m. Walker did greet Pres. Obama at the airport. Media photos (item #6) show no ritual transfer of a sports jersey. Walker did not accompany Obama to the Summerfest grounds for the President's Labor Fest address. It that attacked cynicism by entrenched leaders which discourages voting; Obama clearly had Walker in mind].
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A reader dropped this off. She said she found it on the back of a George Webb's paper place mat, and I spent the morning getting the hand writing verified by a palm reader south of town and at two area Walgreen's pharmacies, so here's the transcription, verbatim, with his edits and corrections:

MY LABOR DAY SPEECH

~~Union brothers and sisters.~~ ~~Fellow state employees.~~ Men and women of Wisconsin;

Labor Day greetings. I've been a friend to Labor and always supported its basic rights, like ~~divide-and-conquer~~ (not here, work in later), ~~collective bargaining.~~ ~~Fair union elections~~. The right to walk out. Hey, I told Marquette to take that job and shove it and that's into year twenty-six. See, they tried to divide-and-conquer me from my friends and campaign committee. I showed them, aina!

And a special greeting to Wisconsin public employees. This isn't one of those furlough days assigned by me where some judge comes in later and slaps me for it. It's a real holiday, so enjoy it.

I appreciate all the sacrifices public employees have made since I dropped ~~the bomb~~ my modest proposal on them. You know we had a budget deficit to close and I've kept my word that ~~we'll never have another one~~ we can sell off enough state properties and raise more taxes on lower-income people to make sure we don't have another one.

And the good thing is, Main Street didn't miss a beat. Jobs are everywhere and if you string three or four of them together, you can earn a living wage. I mean, look at me: I can multi-task, coordinating the state and my campaign and some outside groups just like I did when I was Milwaukee County Executive.

More good jobs news: As I said the other day, our people found a four-day period in the second quarter of my third year in office where we created more jobs than Tennessee, Lower Sandusky and Crimea.

Plus - - and you will see this in the next installment of my ad series, "On the way to 25,000 new jobs" - - the statewide rolling average of new jobs as a percentage of the second-to-most recent fiscal year 's Labor Department monthly survey of employers whose names end in a "B" or "T" was higher than the traditional average of new hires in both The Town of Burke and the Town of Doyle.

There's your smoking gun disclosure right there. Those are real places. PolitiFact my geography. I wouldn't lie to you.

So we're moving in the right direction.

And, yes, I just said "On the way to 25,000 new jobs" because - - and, yes I know I'm making news here and, yes, yes, yes, they say, 'don't waste it on a slow news day off,' but a man's got to do what a man's got to do - - we also found the original draft script of my jobs promise talking points, and I kid you not, it says "25,000. "

So we're more than four-times past the ~~goal~~. Promise. Whoo-Hoo.

What happened was that an extra "0" got in there. A typo, probably by the same volunteer who put my campaign jobs plan on the web site in that big type.

Volunteers! I mean, everyone can't be a Tim Russell. I miss that guy.

Anyway - - I've kept my promises, and I won't be going to the airport or the Summerfest Grounds today to greet President Obama. (But keep options open. TV will be there.)

I never promised I would, and it's crucial that a leader keep his promises.

Besides, I've already done that airport bit with Obama. He already got his Brewers and Packers' jerseys. (Note to speechwriters, self: Mention Packers and Brewers ALOT from now on.)

Does he think I'm made out of money? It's not like I can just call up people with money and say, 'send some' to some kind of special fund.

Plus - - he's taller than I am. (Note to self: check Jeb Bush and Rick Perry's height. Damn his cowboy boots. Order lifts. Like the ones I had when I ran against Neumann & Barrett.)

So I'm sticking close to home today. Just me and the family and my defense team. We'll grill some brats in the back yard and I'll spread out that bag of leaves I keep behind the garage and re-rake them in case some reporter comes along to see if I'm working.

Trust me. I'm always working. I don't take a day off, not even Labor Day. You'll see the ~~evidence.~~ ~~The records.~~ ~~The documents.~~ My cell phone pictures. Check my Twitter feed later. All the important work stuff is there.

Nice Labor Day Obama Event

Tells the crowd that organizing and hope will fix "what ain't right." Since that's what gotten us health care, social security, better pay. That more work is needed to secure equal rights. And that if he were looking for a good, family-supporting job, "I'd join a union."

He's up there somewhere.

Uh, Oh: SE Wisconsin's Rush-Minute Is Disappearing

Though the state highway fund is tapped out and we're in the middle of more than $6 billion in regional freeway 'improvements around here, WisDOT says half our still-modest commute times are twice as long as some guy says they should be.

That's unacceptable! Motorists around here know they are guaranteed unencumbered speeds of at least 65 mph, day or night, between Milwaukee and any suburb.

The Founders put the Suburbanite's Right of Unfettered Automobile Passage in the preamble to the State's Bill of Lesser-Known Rights.

It precedes the prohibition against anyone using using the words "Glenn Grothman" and "thought carefully" in the same sentence, and follows the ban against posting an image of Jerry Jones or that Minnesota Vikings horn-blowing guy within 1,000 feet of a school.

And speaking of bans: Milwaukee urban light rail, suburban commuter rail to the south, and Milwaukee-to-Madison Amtrak with commuter stops in between have all been outlawed by The Concrete Axis - - right-wing talk radio hosts and suburban Republican politicians.

The Concrete Axis believes that trains are the Devil's play things because someone else is driving and strangers sit side-by-side. Sometimes in seats facing in both directions, French style.

So the only solution to Rush Minute Lost is another 50 cents on the gas tax, doubling local 'freeway' lanes and embracing orange barrel hell more less permanently, or through 2060, which ever comes first.

Isn't that The Wisconsin Way to reduce congestion?