Walker In Full-Teflon Immersion On Doe Issues

Echoing a week-old campaign talking point, Walker evades any John Doe culpability by telling the AP on Monday his 2010 gubernatorial campaign only coordinated things with Milwaukee County work when he was also the County Executive:

The morning phone calls were about coordinating staffing and scheduling issues between the campaign and county office and discussing how to handle questions from the media, Walker said.

"Often times there's not a distinction between asking a political question in the official office and the campaign office," he said. "All those things are things that need to be coordinated. There's nothing wrong with that."

Ask yourself if these examples as reported by the Journal Sentinel from the DA's public presentation last week at the sentencing of one of Walker's former top aides sound like coordination with county staff (the campaign's ho-hum position) or direction to the county staff - - for Walker's partisan advantage and strategic benefit - - from "The Campaign Group."

The Campaign Group vetted news releases that were issued from Walker's county office, [Assistant Milwaukee County District Attorney Bruce] Landgraf said. They included messages about...news reports in the Journal Sentinel in August that year about patient sexual assaults at the county Mental Health Complex...

In one exchange among members of The Campaign Group, [campaign manager Gilkes admonished Walker's county staff to be more forceful in responding to questions about the patient abuse issue, which included highly critical state and federal inspectors' reports.

"Tell (county Deputy Corporation Counsel Timothy) Schoewe we're getting the crap kicked out of us," one email said. "I would like him to stop being a lawyer and think political," Gilkes wrote...

Walker's campaign staff also vetted the county response to the June 24, 2010, death of 15-year-old Jared Kellner, who was killed by a concrete panel that fell from the side of the O'Donnell Park parking garage at the lakefront.

Gilkes, in an email written the day of the accident, advised Walker's county staff to "make sure there is not a piece of paper anywhere that details any problem at all."

"Nothing wrong with that?" Then why did the Journal Sentinel, after having endorsed Walker twice for Governor and three times for County Exec, describe what the DA revealed as "seamy"? 

Send Scott Walker And His Voter Obstruction Caucus To "Lincoln"

Saw "Lincoln" Saturday last night. Great performances. And these Tea Party/secession-minded/nullification-babbling/voter-suppression knuckleheads should be ashamed of themselves for echoing the original sins the country began to try and fix 150 years ago and suffered mightily for it.

Wisconsin Do-Not-Call List Basic Flaw

The state provides a do-not-call registry so you don't have to be interrupted by unwanted phone solicitations (exceptions for non-profits, campaigns, or #'s you have approved), but there shouldn't be the need for repeated registrations.

You should be need to opt out, once.

And opt back in at your discretion. #justbuttout

Reality Tweet Of The Night

1h John Dean ‏@JohnWDean

THIS IS SAD & SICK: Secret Service Says The Number Of Threats Against The President Is Overwhelming http://zite.to/TnOdcA

Will The Trumpeter Swan Go The Way Of The Wolf?

How soon will the so-called sportsmen in the Wisconsin Legislature (see Kleefisch, "Rib-Eye," Joel) give the reborn Trumpeter swan population in Wisconsin the same treatment (cleaned up linguistically as a "harvest," like our amber fields of grain) handed the grey wolf and marinating for the Sandhill crane?

Mining Industry Backers Already Signaling Hard Line

The WMC's energy and environmental spokesman Scott Manley wants the GOP to steamroll a mining bill and cites last session's failed Assembly measure as the model:

The Legislature nearly crossed the finish line last session with a bill that would have provided the clarity and certainty needed to attract mining investment to Wisconsin while protecting the environment. Lawmakers need to pick up where they left off and pass the iron mining reform bill in January.

State Sen. Tim Cullen, (D-Janesville) is looking for a different kind of measure that might find broader support and provide business certainty - - a tough assignment - - but this is the heart of his case:

Last session's bill attempted to legalize the devastation of Wisconsin's waterways.

That action would fall in direct violation of the state constitution, which is clear in its language that no individual or company can own our waterways or is entitled to destroy them. AB 426 would only lead to a legal stalemate and fail to create good mining jobs.

Ask the mining industry - mining companies won't invest in a state with a business environment that creates endless legal hurdles.

It has become clear to me that AB 426 was a political document, which is why it failed to receive broader support. Now that the latest round of elections is over, both sides have indicated that they want to work together to pass a mining bill that works for Wisconsin.

Manley takes a harder line:

Those in the anti-mining crowd continue to trot out their distortions and scare tactics about environmental impact. However, the Legislature's nonpartisan attorneys confirmed that the mining bill does not roll back any water quality, groundwater quality or air quality standards.

Indeed, the DNR has characterized the bill as giving the agency all the tools it needs to safely address environmental impacts from mining both on and off the mining site. The breathless claims of environmental devastation from anti-mining special interests are simply untrue.

Others may advocate for minor tinkering with our mining laws, while promoting the false hope that taking a minimalist approach to reform will attract mining investment and jobs. They are wrong.

Manley's troops could win the battle - - the GOP has a big majority in the Assembly and picked up strength in the Senate - - but still could lose the war, I'd argued, through ideological arrogance:

The GOP, with majorities in both the Assembly and Senate after January, is looking to achieve two things:

Reward industry, at any cost to land and water resources which belong to all citizens, and to which Native Americans hold separate and inviolable treaty rights.

Get over the defeat earlier this year in the Senate - - with a swing GOP vote - - of the Assembly's politically-toxic iron mining bill and put that feather back in Gov. Walker's cap.

Revenge legislation approved by a gerrymandered Legislature will land in court and fail there.

Must-Read Newspaper Profile of Atty. Lester Pines

It's always nice to see people get the credit they have earned. so here is the link to a completely-deserved tribute in the Madison Capital Times in which even adversaries give Atty. Lester Pines his due:

Admiration of Pines even extends into the GOP. Remember the lawyer for the Republicans who wanted to forcibly reel in the runaway senators? That was Jim Troupis, who's often on the opposite side of Pines on the issues. 

"He's just one of the finest lawyers, period," says Troupis. "There's no question about that. Lester and I have known each other a long time, and it's a real pleasure to deal with somebody that's as high-class and as good, frankly, as Lester is."

Admiration of Pines even extends into the GOP. Remember the lawyer for the Republicans who wanted to forcibly reel in the runaway senators? That was Jim Troupis, who's often on the opposite side of Pines on the issues.
"He's just one of the finest lawyers, period," says Troupis. "There's no question about that. Lester and I have known each other a long time, and it's a real pleasure to deal with somebody that's as high-class and as good, frankly, as Lester is."


Read more: http://host.madison.com/news/local/crime_and_courts/blog/attorney-lester-pines-racks-up-impressive-wins-against-gop-agenda/article_310ed60e-3351-11e2-a7ca-001a4bcf887a.html#ixzz2DA2t3AHS

Admiration of Pines even extends into the GOP. Remember the lawyer for the Republicans who wanted to forcibly reel in the runaway senators? That was Jim Troupis, who's often on the opposite side of Pines on the issues.
"He's just one of the finest lawyers, period," says Troupis. "There's no question about that. Lester and I have known each other a long time, and it's a real pleasure to deal with somebody that's as high-class and as good, frankly, as Lester is."


Read more: http://host.madison.com/news/local/crime_and_courts/blog/attorney-lester-pines-racks-up-impressive-wins-against-gop-agenda/article_310ed60e-3351-11e2-a7ca-001a4bcf887a.html#ixzz2DA2t3AHS

Admiration of Pines even extends into the GOP. Remember the lawyer for the Republicans who wanted to forcibly reel in the runaway senators? That was Jim Troupis, who's often on the opposite side of Pines on the issues.
"He's just one of the finest lawyers, period," says Troupis. "There's no question about that. Lester and I have known each other a long time, and it's a real pleasure to deal with somebody that's as high-class and as good, frankly, as Lester is."


Read more: http://host.madison.com/news/local/crime_and_courts/blog/attorney-lester-pines-racks-up-impressive-wins-against-gop-agenda/article_310ed60e-3351-11e2-a7ca-001a4bcf887a.html#ixzz2DA2t3AHS

This blog has followed his unwavering fight for justice in Wisconsin: a 2010 posting of the full text of a public letter Pines wrote about abuses of Legislative power is in the ten most-downloaded items among more than 11,000 items posted here since February, 2007, and a window into how and why he's been so successful  was noted here recently, too:

Madison attorney Lester Pines has now beaten the Walker administration on both the Voter ID law (injunction won on behalf of the League of Wisconsin Women Voters) and now on Act 10, so the advice he's offering today free of charge is certainly worth taking:

Gov. Scott Walker - who wrote the collective bargaining limits and withstood a recall this summer largely inspired by them - issued a statement Friday calling [Act 10 case Judge Juan] Colas a "liberal activist..."

[Labor plaintiff Attorney Lester Pines said Walker and others should not be demeaning judges with name calling...

"When a case is before judges, it's really not a good idea to insult the judge. First of all, it's just bad manners. But secondly, from a tactical point of view, when someone still has issues before him or her, why would you insult that person?..."

File Under Failed Predictions, Fitzgerald/Fox

Among all the GOP election predictions gone awry, don't forget this early one about the goal of Act 10, in March 2011, from Big Fitz, (R-Juneau):

If we win this battle, and the money is not there under the auspices of the unions, certainly what you’re going to find is President Obama is going to have a much difficult, much more difficult time getting elected and winning the state of Wisconsin.”

John McCain, Other Critics, Focus On African-American Officials

Leading Republicans and some of their supporters seem to focus their most-frenzied, obsessed and unhinged political and personal attacks on President Barack Obama, Attorney General Eric Holder, EPA administrator Lisa Jackson, and now UN Ambassador and possible Secretary of State appointee Susan Rice.

You can't escape the racial common denominator.

Why Walker Wants To End Election-Day Voter Registration

The headline on this Journal Sentinel story says it all:

Same-day registrations were popular on Milwaukee campuses

WisDOT Begins Sky-Is-Falling Campaign For New Road Taxes Or Fees

Oh, woe is us - - and to you - - says WisDOT: there's not enough money to keep the Zoo Interchange and other projects on track.

Delays are threatened.

Think of the congestion!

This is the beginning of the road-builder lobby's PR campaign for higher gas taxes, or new tolls, or boosted registration fees - - the strategic equivalent at the local level from time to time of talk about closing fire stations or swimming pools if local taxes aren't raised.

It's the only alternative!

The road-builders and their friends in the Legislature and the Walker administration probably voted for Romney and wrote checks to the Cut Taxes Stop Spending SuperPAC, but see merit and personal gain in raising our taxes so they can spend more on bigger highways in Wisconsin.

Or look at it this way:

Waiter: Your credit card is declining the charges.

Customer: Ask the other customers to chip in. They have before.

Soon the road-builder PR campaign won't be asking questions like, "do you support a gas tax increase," or "do you support road tolls?"

The questions will be "Would you prefer five more cents on the gas tax or $50 on the vehicle registration fee?," or "Which toll is best for using an express lane when it's completed: $2, $3, $4 or more?"

Walker's "Ethics" Plans Are Laughable

Walker's political posse is revealed as cravenly one-dimensional and cold-hearted in the face of tragedy.

Even the Journal Sentinel, which routinely endorsed his candidacies, now calls some of the recent revelations "seamy." 

Ya think?

But laughably two-faced when it came to his sitting atop and managing an ethically-grounded campaign - - a requirement, you'd presume, of public service.

It's hard to keep up with the jokes in this Scott Walker ethics reform plan still decorating a Walker campaign web page  - - but as more of his associates and appointees are headed for trial, sentencing and jail, and this is turkey day, here's a little morsel from the Walker files still tasty after all these years.

Match up the disclosure that Walket's campaign staff was directing public employees' work and vetting official communications - - sort of a shadow government with Walker's career as its goal - - with this pledge from a purportedly-reform-minded Scott Walker when he eye the Governor's Office in 2006:

• Scott Walker will require every member of his administration to attend ethics training every two years to ensure that all executive staff members are aware of ethics standards and laws.

"My plan seeks to restore the public trust, and instill the confidence that our elected leaders are working for the people," Walker added.

Craven Response To County Garage Fatality Shows Walker's Transparency Lie

These two items encapsulate the Scott Walker phenomenon:

*  From The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's account of communications disclosed in court Monday among Scott Walker, his partisan, gubernatorial campaign team and public officials in County government - - and on his taxpayer-paid staff - - when he was Milwaukee County Executive:

Walker's campaign staff also vetted the county response to the June 24, 2010, death of 15-year-old Jared Kellner, who was killed by a concrete panel that fell from the side of the O'Donnell Park parking garage at the lakefront.

[Then-Walker campaign chief of staff Keith] Gilkes, in an email written the day of the accident, advised Walker's county staff to "make sure there is not a piece of paper anywhere that details any problem at all."

*  From an interview with Walker less than three months later during his 2010 Republican gubernatorial campaign published in the Lakeland Times, re-posted on Walker's campaign website and also re-posted in this blog:

When he says he believes in government transparency, it's not just a campaign slogan, Walker said.

"I don't just say that, I've lived it," he said.

Walker, The John Doe, And the Implications Of Implication

The biggest news out of Kelly Rindfleisch's felony misconduct sentencing Monday was the Power Point shown in court by Milwaukee County prosecutor read into the record.

It detailed the political direction coming to County officials from then-County Executive Scott Walker's campaign staff and the political activities taking place by County staffers on the public dime - - all combined to benefit Walker's 2010 gubernatorial run - - by design.

E-mail records cited in the Power Point showed that Walker was among a group of county and campaign officials who talked regularly to coordinate their efforts to advance Walker's campaign, and the paper, editorially, sums it all up with a pertinent question:

But what's clear from the emails is that Walker's campaign staff was helping to manage county government for the benefit of only one citizen - Scott Walker. How is that acceptable conduct?

Fat chance getting Walker to answer, or to take any responsibility - - but the Journal Sentinel certainly has a special right and obligation to ask the question, as the paper endorsed Walker and recommended him to voters and readers three times for County Executive and twice for Governor.

The second of Walker's gubernatorial endorsements came as the recall election approached lin June and it dismissed any notion that the ongoing John Doe probe was close enough to Walker to tip the endorsement or election away from Walker:

Democrats claim the recall election is about far more than Act 10. The most serious of the charges on their bill of particulars is the ongoing John Doe investigation being conducted by the Milwaukee County district attorney's office. The investigation, which has been going on for nearly two years, has looked into a variety of activities during the time Walker was county executive. Prosecutors have charged three ex-Walker aides and two others; more charges may be coming. Walker has set up a legal-defense fund.

But the governor has insisted that he is not a target of the investigation and that he is cooperating. While the investigation surely is troubling, no evidence revealed so far implicates Walker. Overzealous political associates sometimes get in trouble. The John Doe probe doesn't justify a vote against the governor.

The level of coordination laid out by the DA's office involving senior campaign and public staffers, plus Walker himself, negates the finger of blame pointed at "overzealous political associates" - - associates, by the way, brought on to Walker's staff or into his campaign by Walker himself, or by people to whom Walker assigned hiring and staffing.

Overzealous is as overzealous does.

The DA's Power Point also undercuts that "no evidence revealed so far implicates Walker" argument.

So did the headline Monday in the Journal Sentinel when the story broke:

Walker, key aides implicated during Doe sentencing

Happy Holiday - - Dirty Air Alert For Milwaukee, Brown Counties

Current Air Quality for Milwaukee, WI
Wednesday, November 21
At 6 AM CST Particle Pollution (2.5 microns) reached 101 AQI - Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups

If you want more information on the air quality forecast, or other aspects of the local air quality program, please contact your local air quality agency using the information above. For more information on the U.S. EPA's AIRNow Program, visit http://www.airnow.gov.

The DNR extends the alert to Brown County, too:

Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources

Advisory for Particle Pollution (Orange)

Start Time:	8:30AM CT Wednesday, November 21, 2012
End Time:	2:00PM CT Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Counties:	Brown, Milwaukee

---

AIR QUALITY INDEX CHART

Air Quality Index (AQI) Values	Levels of Health Concern	Colors
When the AQI is in this range:	...air quality conditions are:	...as symbolized by this color:
0 to 50	Good	Green
51 to 100	Moderate	Yellow
101 to 150	Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups	Orange
151 to 200	Unhealthy	Red
201 to 300	Very Unhealthy	Purple
301 to 500	Hazardous	Maroon

For More Information:

• Detailed Alert Status Information
• Air Quality Index
• Air Quality Notices Media Kit
• How You Can Help During an Air Quality Notice
• Do a little, save a lot!
• Local DNR air management program contacts

Here Is The DA's Power Point From Rindfleisch's Sentencing

This is the presentation that the Milwaukee County DA's office introduced at Kelly Rindfleisch's sentencing Monday.

No Surprise; "Walker" And "Misleading" Appear In Same Health-Care Lede

The Capital Times notes what will not shock any Wisconsin voter or reader with a pulse:

Gov. Scott Walker’s announcement that he turned down the option for a state-run health exchange to protect taxpayers last week has state and national health care experts saying his rationale is misleading and flawed.

While individual states could arguably finance insurance exchanges with taxpayer money, the Affordable Care Act says insurance providers, not individual states or taxpayers, are expected to be responsible for the financial costs associated with running the exchanges.

Fill-In WTMJ Talker Says Too Many Morons Might Be Voting

AM 620 WTMJ radio used Missouri talker Nick Reed as a fill-in for Charlie Sykes this morning.

The portion of the show I heard in my car towards noon was his argument against same-day voter registration.

Reed said that having more of something - - like friends, or cars, or voters - - doesn't mean its necessarily a good thing.

Especially if you don't know who these new voters are, or what they think, or whether 80% of them are morons.

Tomorrow's podcast will offer the full tape.

Walker Keeps Using Government As His Personal, Partisan Toy

Gov. Scott Walker proposes further restrictions on voting in Wisconsin to discourage turnout, help his 2014 re-election and further cement GOP legislative majorities.

A day later, a former top aide from Walker's County Executive days is sentenced for felony misconduct in office, and prosecutors disclose that Walker and a slew of former county and 2010 gubernatorial campaign aides, along with Walker himself, were routinely coordinating county business with campaign spin for Walker's partisan benefit.

The pattern is clear: Walker has and will continue to manipulate his control of public resources for his own, partisan advantage.

Remembering Scott Walker's Early Reform Plans

Scott Walker once had a plan to restore ethics and credibility to government.

I posted it earlier this year. Here are the highlights from the posting:

His undated, detailed ethics reform plan appears to have been rolled out during his short-lived run for the 2006 GOP gubernatorial nomination, is still posted on a Friends of Scott Walker campaign website and sure looks ironic now in light of the John Doe probe charges and disclosures. (full text of the Walker plan is below).

This text taken from another posting on Walker's campaign website attributed to a Republican Party chairman introducing Walker at a 2010 campaign speech should make Walker partisans flinch, too:

"Then, after a lot of persuasion and a lot of guts, Scott decided to get into the race for Milwaukee County executive in 2002 on a platform of fiscal conservatism, and returning honesty and integrity to the office of the county executive."

The theft and misconduct charges against former Walker county staffers and the disclosure by John Doe prosecutors of a secret email system for political operatives on set up in the fall of 2009 by a long-time Walker associate and county staffer on county property - - (criminal complaints, here) - - leaves one wondering what the heck happened to this belief that had Walker to announce his big, bold ethics reform plan:

"The culture of government has destroyed the integrity and the idea of public service," said Walker. "My plan seeks to restore the public trust, and instill the confidence that our elected leaders are working for the people," Walker added.