On Race-Based Names, Walker Has No Conviction, Courage

As I'd predicted here more than once, Gov. Walker told the AP today he will sign a bill to make it easier for Wisconsin school districts to retain race-based names, mascots and logos that stereotype Native American people.

The AP says Walker sent a letter about it to the state's Native American tribes. I doubt he invited any of their representatives to the bill signing, which I assume will be private. If he did, the Bad River Band might bring up the massive open-pit iron ore mine that Walker and the naming-issue Legislative Bigotry Caucus also want to dig just upriver from the tribe's land and waters. 

The measure Walker says he will sign also invalidates three previous name-changing orders directed to school districts by the State Department of Public Instruction under current law.

Race-based/race-baiting ex post facto. Maybe it's a new state slogan.

Walker's signature rewards a right-wing GOP voting base where "compassionate conservative" is a slur, but fearing his signature would further validate his brag as "the original Tea Party in Wisconsin," Walker cloaked his bill signing motives in a Tuesday Journal Sentinel interview with a mumbly-jumbly and preposterous civil libertarian charade:

He said he empathized with those who are offended by Indian team names, but cast the ability of schools to choose their team names as a First Amendment right. 

"I get the concern" of opponents, Walker said. "But the counterbalance to that that I'm looking at is, by the same token, from a free speech standpoint...where do you draw the line on free speech?" 

"While I may not like or necessarily approve of others' speech, where do you draw the line to say, 'It's OK to do things that you like but not that you don't?'" he said.

Ah, yes. Walker the civil libertarian - - the guy who violated citizens' rights to assemble and speak on the State Capitol grounds. The self-important union buster who went to Congress and said with a straight face that his attack on 50 years of collective bargaining in Wisconsin was "progressive in the best sense of the word."

An attorney who backed the law which Walker's signature will overturn said this about Walker's First Amendment camouflage:

Milwaukee attorney Brian Pierson said he did not see the free speech concern raised by Walker. He helped defend the existing law in court. 

"School districts are creatures of the state, bound to abide by state standards," Pierson said by email. "A school district doesn't have a First Amendment right to adopt an Indian mascot any more than it has a First Amendment right to adopt the swastika as school symbol or 'white supremacy' as school slogan."

Walker's specious argument was further demolished by someone, unlike Walker, who actually works every day to ensure everyone's civil liberties - - the Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin: 

“This is a bogus appropriation of the First Amendment,” said Chris Ahmuty, the ACLU of Wisconsin’s executive director. “The governor apparently does not understand that the First Amendment protects citizens from government censorship. Government programs are not allowed to offend, harm or otherwise discriminate against citizens on the basis of the First Amendment. The First Amendment simply doesn’t apply when it’s the government taking action.”

You can see in the Journal Sentinel Tuesday interview that Eagle Scout/preacher's son Walker was so anxious to fabricate a connection to the decent and moral side of the issue that he forgot he was actually Governor with the pivotal role to play when he said "If it were me, personally" - - well, Governor, today you personally are in charge!

And then ever so faintly and indirectly coughed up some empathy on the matter for "certain groups of our fellow citizens" whom his signature was sure to offend. 

He even concocted a personal and family hook on which to hang a 'solution.'

Walker praised the way Wauwatosa East High School, where his sons went, handled the transition away from an Indian logo. He said he liked that it was dealt with at the local level. 

In 2006, the School Board voted to get rid of Indian imagery and the "Tommy Raider" caricature of a brave for Wauwatosa East. The school kept the Red Raiders team name, trading in a logo that included arrows for one with a pair of crossed swords.

What weakens that argument is that Walker offered no evidence that he took any leadership or played any role in the Wauwatosa East situation other than to read the letter than got sent home about it parents - - but still felt free to co-opt for his own political purposes a lucky break of geography and history. 

Furthermore, Walker and his administration have consistently substituted state government power for local controls when suspending, overriding or diminishing local authority in collective bargaining, iron and sand mining regulation, wetlands preservation, shoreline protections and women's health care services, among others.

Rediscovering the local control talking point and sticking it to Native Americans is shallow, convenient hypocrisy; wrapping intolerance in the First Amendment is as shameful as adding the gubernatorial signature that embeds it into law.

Unintimidated becomes Unprincipled.

Wisconsin is Open For Bigotry.

Looks Like Thursday is 'Open For Bigotry' Day in Wisconsin

Gov. Walker seems inclined today to sign the bill pushed by far-right GOP legislators like New Berlin's Mary Lazich to help local school districts retain their race-based Native American logos, names and mascots.

I'd written about it often on this blog, but mistakenly said Wednesday was the deadline.

Can you imagine Walker signing such a bill, defending it out on book tour/political trail and shaming the state if these images and names stereotyped African-Americans, Asians, Muslims, Jews or other ethnic or racial minorities?

About PolitiFact's In-Depth Piece On Walker At Marquette

First of all, read this exhaustively-investigated story by a Pulitzer Prize winner reported to the limits of sourcing and available documentation.

This will be just the first of many investigative pieces about Walker by various media if he really runs for President.

And while the piece strongly erases the claim that Walker was kicked out of school, it documents other nagging questions - - some also noted previously, here - - about related Walker circumstances and claims, as the PolitiFact piece says:

Today, he tells national interviewers he was just one semester short of completion, and left for a career opportunity in the private sector without thought to a potential career in politics -- a sort of reluctant warrior entering the public arena. 

"Not long after Tonette and I were married (in 1993), there was an opening in the state Assembly," Walker said in an expansive book-promotion interview at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia with talk radio host Chris Stigall on Nov. 21, 2013. "A number of my friends said, you talk about this stuff all the time, why don't you run?" 

But his account is incomplete and at odds with itself on several counts. 

Walker actually has about a year left in school, maybe more, based on Marquette records and available evidence -- considerably more than the 15 to 17 credits he mentions to interviewers. 

He earned 94 credits and had senior status, accumulating a 2.59 grade point average, the Walker campaign for governor said in 2010. 

His credit total is 34 short of the 128 minimum needed to graduate in one major, a total that requires an average of 16 per semester. 

Walker told the 1990 yearbook interviewer he was triple majoring in political science, philosophy and economics; that likely would have meant an even heavier load. 

Asked now about the apparent discrepancy, Walker told us he wasn’t sure exactly how many credits he needed because he hasn’t looked it up.

Also:

Walker, for his part, has emphasized how marriage and fatherhood strained his available time and finances.

Critics don’t argue that point, but they have cried foul at how he frames it. 

In January 2013, Walker said in his annual "state of the state" speech that, "I thought I would squeeze in a course here or there and finish things off in a year or two, but then Tonette and I got married." 

A story in Time made a similar point after its reporter interviewed Walker. After taking the Red Cross job in 1990, the story said, "at first he tried to be a part time student, but quickly the births of his children took that option off the table." 

In reality, Walker didn’t marry until 1993, and his first of two sons arrived in 1994.

Walker's supporters will argue that this is all ancient history, but I think the past is prologue because the discrepancies and the way Walker has failed to correct them reinforce Walker's ignorance or inability to speak truthfully, as also noted often by PolitiFact.

Walker will find that life as a national candidate is more than calling into local talk radio and saying whatever comes to mind without challenge by the host.

Robin Vos, Scott Walker, Jobs And Rocket Science

Remember when Assembly GOP leader and unreliable prognosticator Robin Vos said jobs would "take off like a rocket" when Walker was re-elected?

Remember when Walker predicted "a tremendous takeoff?"

Some trajectory, noted here:

"Despite his having a compliant Legislature, chairing a new jobs agency (WEDC) and enjoying editorial support from mainstream media, Wisconsin is creating jobs at about half the national rate, has fallen to 37th among the states in job growth, led the nation in recent unemployment claims and has no chance of hitting Walker's pivotal campaign pledge of 250,000 new private-sector jobs after one term."

And if it's rocket science day, I enjoyed Dan Bice's story today about jobs and the right-wingers who fund research helpful to Walker:

Among all the myriad reports on the Wisconsin economy, few present as rosy a picture as the "Rich States, Poor States" study by a supply-side proponent who shot to fame during the Reagan years.  

Arthur Laffer, the 73-year-old author of the famous "Laffer curve," concluded in his 128-page report that Wisconsin's economic outlook had jumped from 32nd in the country to 15th in the past year. In an interview this week, the conservative economist attributed the improvement to Gov. Scott Walker's legislation targeting unions.  

"Laffer said in the interview that he expects that to change. Walker's move to severely limit collective bargaining for most public workers, Laffer said, will almost certainly mean improved economic performance in the next four or five years...  

Among other things, he called on Walker to lower the state income tax rate for the wealthiest individuals and to slash the corporate tax rate in upcoming legislative sessions.  

"This is not rocket surgery," he said, mixing metaphors.

Under Walker, Wisconsin Job Picture Keeps Worsening

Under Walker, Wisconsin is earning an "F" in economics.

Despite his having a compliant Legislature, chairing a new jobs agency (WEDC) and enjoying editorial support from mainstream media, Wisconsin is creating jobs at about half the national rate, has fallen to 37th among the states in job growth, led the nation in recent unemployment claims and has no chance of hitting Walker's pivotal campaign pledge of 250,000 new private-sector jobs after one term.

Here is a summary of official Federal jobs data released today.

It's kind of a Chicago Cubs' performance.

In 2010, the Cubbies went 75-87, or .463.

And for 2013 - - 66-96, or .407.

So how can Walker take that to a national audience?

Joel Kleefisch, Gaff [Sic] Meister

When State GOP Assemblyman and second state husband Joel Kleefisch isn't breaking expensive state deer hunting rules, salivating over marinated wolf meat with a side of Sandhill crane or photocopying other legislators' news releases - - one link gets you all those references - - he's free associating at a keyboard perhaps in the Oconomowoc home office and sending his prose to The Wheeler Report and the world.

To wit:

Whoever conceived the “Elf on the Shelf” probably never intended or realized how much the simple elf could relate to everyone. Government, businesses, families and even social groups have checks and balances similar to Elfie with the added eye in the sky of modern technology and an Instagram world. No snowfall goes unrecorded let alone a gaff after too much egg nog, a stumble in the snow, or gosh forbid a wardrobe malfunction.

Wisconsin Is Of Two Minds About Cruelty To Animals

There has been a lot of constructive and illuminating discussion in our state recently about cruelty to animals spurred by the posting of a video showing abusive behavior towards dairy cows at one Wisconsin farm.

It has made people think about what they eat, and what they may be taking for granted or overlooking.

All to the good.

So will similar questions be raised about how we recreate outdoors and treat other animals under our control, as the state now sanctions the use of dogs in wolf hunting and there are reports on the Internet of violent confrontations having taken place recently between dogs and wolves before the wolves are eventually shot to death.

No other US state with a wolf hunt allows dogs. Wisconsin is an outlier on this matter and it does not speak well for us.

Plus roughly 200 of the kills in this year's 'harvest' been carried out by trappers who are legally permitted to 'dispatch' those captured wolves with a gunshot to the head.

Seems to me that we have have double or slippery standards when it comes to how people are allowed to treat some animals in some circumstances in Wisconsin.

Walker Has Until Wednesday To Sign Race-Based Mascots Bill, Or...

It becomes state law automatically, to Wisconsin's shame.

A veto of the bill would be uncharacteristically gutsy (moderate). A signature would display too much overt bias.

This Is What 'Unintimidated' Really Looks Like In Wisconsin

Not some narcissistic co-authored political novella pretending to be non-fiction.

This:

American Indian group living in extreme weather to protest proposed mine

Updated Dec 16, 2013 at 5:49 PM CST

Mellen, WI (NNCNOW.com) - An American Indian tribal group in Wisconsin plans to brave the extreme cold this winter to stay in a protest camp near the Penokee Hills.

The Lac Court Oreilles (LCO) tribe's “Harvest Educational Learning Project Village” intends to survive the cold to keep its message of protest against a proposed Gogebic Taconite mine hot.

WI DNR Sends Out Big Picture Clean Air Information

Wisconsin's DNR cuts through the climate change fog and delivers a profound message with compelling information and data to a clean air subscribers' email network for the week of December 15:

Clean Air Tip of the Week

"Baking cookies for the holidays? Opening the oven door while baking wastes energy - it can reduce the temperature in the oven by 25-50 degrees! The oven then uses more energy to bring the heat back up to the set baking temperature. Using the oven light to check in is a better option."

Waukesha's Diversion Plan Facing Michigan Opposition; Indiana Heard Michigan "No" In '92

Unlike the other Great Lakes states, Michigan is virtually inside the waters'  basin, so efforts to divert water away from the basin as Waukesha is discovering can be seen as a threat to the entire state. And opposition to diversions is a matter of geography and legacy, not party: Michigan GOP Gov. John Engler in 1992 vetoed a diversion to an Indiana community which, like Waukesha, had quality issues with its well water but failed to get its diversion.

Breaking News - - Michigan Legislators Want Waukesha Diversion Vetoed

As all eight Great Lakes Governors under the Great Lakes Compact of 2008 must approve Waukesha's plan to divert water from Lake Michigan, a joint resolution introduced in the Michigan legislature urging MI Gov. Rick Snyder to veto the diversion request is not a good sign it can win approval.

Michigan is nearly completely within the Great Lakes basin and has a history of blocking diversions.

Official information from the Michigan Legislature, here:

A concurrent resolution to urge Governor Snyder to uphold Michigan's commitment to the principles of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact and to veto the city of Waukesha's request for a diversion from Lake Michigan. 

A repeated theme on this blog has been the disconnect between Waukesha's water diversion planning locally - - seeking a big increase in volume though usage is down, and water conservation is the Compact's heart, plus deciding to send diverted water outside its municipal borders to other towns with no water shortages - - and the reception the application would get outside Wisconsin even after years of expensive drafting:

Back in 2010, I wrote;
Also among the many commentaries on this blog about the application also is this excerpt from a 2012 posting: 

The weakest link in the application - - and what will raise questions all the way from the Town of Waukesha to the City of Milwaukee, and with reviewers and regulators in all the eight Great Lakes states, is Waukesha's plan to send Lake Michigan water into parts of Pewaukee, Genesee and the Town of Waukesha.  

Expanding the current service territory land mass by 80%. 

That expansion - - mapped out and green-lighted by the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission for the Waukesha application administratively, without public review - - plays some role in Waukesha's request for up to 18.5 million gallons of Lake Michigan water daily....
Water for growth is not the goal of the Compact. Take it from a Compact expert's superb analysis, here....  

Waukesha's water-for-expansion goes beyond meeting its own needs. It's an assault on regionalism, and resource sustainability and the core preservationist principle of the Compact. 

It's where the diversion application lacks the most justification and creates the most waves. 

There are innumerable uncertainties about the application's reception in the seven other Great Lakes states, and perhaps in two Canadian provinces which have advisory roles, as do First Nation tribes there.  

Even after after Wisconsin sends the application to the other states - - and who knows if and when that takes place - - any of the states could send it back for fresh answers or a time-consuming do-over. 

An unambiguous veto by any of the states (not a step available in the provinces) would deny Waukesha the unanimous approvals by all eight Great Lakes states the Compact mandates for such diversions.  

The Great Lakes water expert Peter Annin, brought some time ago to a public meeting in Waukesha by the city, told an assemblage of citizens and officials in the Common Council chambers that they should expect as a given, at least one state to reject the application on its first reading.

Rules, Schmools, Fools

When it comes to following the rules, this sportsmens group is said to have "dropped the complete ball," while this leading sportsman behaves like rules are for little people.

WI Wells Polluted With Hormones

Big dairies could be among the groundwater polluters, even as GOP legislators move to further de-regulate large users: 

Lincoln resident Mick Sagrillo had already stopped drinking his well water before he learned that it had “the honor,” as he put it sarcastically, of being Kewaunee’s most estrogenic — that is, tainted with the hormone estrogen or something mimicking it.  

The study was published in April in the journal Water Environment Research.

Some history, here. 

How Does Scott Walker Explain Grim #1 Rankings To The Nation

Let alone explain these worst ratings, on his watch, to us?

* Binge drinking.

* Biggest drop in health among states.

* Increase in recent unemployment claims.

* Fewest criminal charges for first-time drunk driving.

* Last in science education standards.

* Worst in racial achievement between white and black students.

* Only state to allow dogs in wolf-hunting.

Add Lifting Language Wholesale To Joel Kleefisch Misdeeds

Bad enough that GOP Assembly Representative and second state spouse Joel Kleefisch quietly paid a $243 forfeiture in Waukesha County Court for a hunting violation after last year's deer season.

Now The Journal Sentinel publishes evidence of a number of instances where Kleefisch lifted language from other politicians out-of-state in support of a bill he introduced along the lines of a federal proposal. One example shows open-and-shut unattributed copying:

In a May 8 press release touting House passage of the federal proposal, there appears this quote: 

"In order to have a healthy economy, we need to remove barriers that deny parents flexibility that fosters success at home and work," said Workforce Protections Subcommittee Chairman Tim Walberg (R-Mich.). "By giving working families and employers the voluntary flexibility to rearrange work schedules, we are letting them do what is best for their family. We're giving them the freedom to take a sick child to the doctor, spend time with family, or collect overtime wages." 

Now take a look at Kleefisch's Dec. 5 email to his 131 colleagues explaining the need for his proposal, providing a Legislative Reference Bureau analysis and seeking co-sponsors: 

"In order to have a healthy economy we need to remove barriers that deny parents flexibility which fosters success at home and at work. By giving working families and employers the voluntary flexibility to rearrange work schedules, we are letting them do what is best for their family. We are giving them the freedom to take a sick child to the doctor, spend time with family or collect overtime wages." 

Exactly the same — sans attribution — give or take an Oxford comma and a contraction.

Remember - - he's the legislator caught on camera voting electronically for an absent colleague on the Assembly floor.

And though butchering the English language is hardly an excuse to crib from others - - even if your staff take the fall (again, see the current JSonline piece) - - you've got to wonder exactly what is the problem with Kleefisch the Legislator, and why can't he follow so many basic rules of conduct? 

(Disclosure: The Journal Sentinel notes that One Wisconsin Now, Madison, was instrumental in bringing the language lifting issue to light. I am on the board of One Wisconsin Now's Inon-profit Institute board, played no role in the Kleefisch language matter and didn't know about it until I read the story at Jsonline tonight).

Dog-Assisted WI Wolf Kill Now At Four; Rest of US - - Zero

Wisconsin legislators in thrall to hunting and gun groups, and led by the Lt. Governor's legislator-spouse who quietly paid this year a $243 deer-hunting ticket, have allowed dogs into the already-controversial wolf hunt - - and the bloody toll is climbing.

No other state allows dogs to chase after wolves, given the potential for fights that could injure or kill dogs and wolves.

One More Thought About Walker And Possible Rival Paul Ryan

Walker'll finally show support for transit when there is a bus to throw Ryan under.

Especially if this trend continues:

Polling in Iowa shows former Scott Walker friend Paul Ryan rated most favorably by Republicans voters, while union-buster and book co-author Walker is tied for sixth in a group of ten possible 2016 Presidential GOP nominees.

NC State Sen. Posts Illiterate, Idiotic & Insulting Tweet

Bob Rucho @SenatorBobRucho

Justice Robert's pen & Obamacare has done more damage to the USA then the swords of the Nazis,Soviets & terrorists combined.

6:41 AM - 15 Dec 2013

Ever The Narcissist, Walker Praises Ryan With A Self-Reference

As noted before, our narcissistic Gov. Walker can't help himself:

“Paul is one of those rare people in Washington who’s acting more like a governor than just a member of Congress,” Walker said.