ALERT: Kathy Nickolaus Threatens to Destroy Votes before Audit

While many county clerks have been open and transparent, county clerks all over Wisconsin are mysteriously trying to stop a non-partisan grassroots effort to verify the recall election for Scott Walker, and one clerk is taking things to a whole new level. Friday, Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus informed the Wisconsin Wave and the "Hand Count the Votes Now!" coalition that she plans to illegally destroy all ballots in Waukesha County before her results can be verified with a hand count. According to the Wisconsin Wave, she "threatened" to begin the malfeasance "as early as noon today."

After the Walker recall election, discrepancies in the results prompted the non-partisan grassroots coalition to begin hand counting ballots throughout Wisconsin with open records requests. Even though the exit polls released at the beginning of election night had the race in a very tight 50/50, the official results were an unusual deviation of 53/46 for Walker. Then during the recount in Racine County, citizen-observers double-checked the gubernatorial results in the county and found "statistically significant discrepancies" that gave Walker more votes in the official GAB results than were actually cast for him. For the past month, volunteers have been working hard to verify the integrity of the recall election and uncover any more issues.

Unfortunately, "Hand Count the Votes Now!" and Wisconsin Wave volunteers have already uncovered many more "serious election integrity issues including lax ballot bag security, widespread use of [illegal] unverifiable touch screen voting machines, and most disturbingly, wards where the hand counts differ significantly from election night machine reported totals!"

Altering the results of an election and causing such discrepancies isn't as difficult as many people would have you believe. We saw many examples of these problems last year during the Wisconsin Supreme Court election of David Prosser. I've written many posts about the issues with Wisconsin's electronic election machines that allow one person to easily manipulate thousands of votes without detection. The only way we can be sure that something nefarious or accidental didn't happen to change the outcome of the recall election is to hand count the votes, something that is done in a very small number of Wisconsin counties.

Over the last two years, Wisconsin has been given many reasons to believe that some of our election equipment may have been circumvented. Unfortunately, we've been given very little to increase our confidence. Now, when we try to find answers for ourselves, public servants are standing in our way. County clerks who refuse to allow their ballots to be audited are failing their duty to their constituents.

Waukesha County itself has been an excellent demonstration of our failed policies, and the county continues to generate serious concerns. In July, an audit revealed that Kathy Nickolaus secretly changed the programming on the Waukesha County election equipment some time between certification and the April election, causing a failure in reporting during the election. Nickolaus confirmed she made a change but has refused to say what she changed, and it's not publicly known just how much of an involvement she had in the Walker recall election.

Now, Nickolaus is refusing to let Wisconsin know the true results of the recall election in Waukesha County. Not only is she refusing the legal open records request for access to the ballots, but she's threatening to destroy all evidence of the recall election in Waukesha County before the request process is even complete. While the law states that an appeal brought within 60 days of her refusal must be heard, she's making it clear how high the stakes are for her.

Nickolaus's threat only increases the justification for our concerns. If there is nothing to hide, why refuse the hand count? And what would bring someone to destroy records before an audit can take place? Kathy Nickolaus is definitely hiding something, and we must force her to show her cards before she destroys them!

The Wisconsin Wave is planning a rally today across the street from the Waukesha County government building from 11am-1pm to make it clear we mean business. If you're near Waukesha today, please consider joining the rally.

Call the GAB at (608) 266-8005 or email at gab@wi.gov to demand them to stop the destruction of ballots. If Nickolaus destroys the ballots, there is no way to find out what happened in Waukesha County.

Ballots from the recall election in at least 10 more counties will be counted over the next two weeks, but an additional 20-30 counties are in reach. Since this is a grassroots effort of people like you and me volunteering to count ballots, they really need volunteers and funds. While many county clerks are being reasonable, other county clerks are mysteriously charging unrealistically high fees in order to audit their ballots. So, the more funds the Wisconsin Wave can get, the better for the integrity of Wisconsin's elections.

For more information on the Hand Count the Votes Now! effort, see the Wisconsin Wave page.

If you want to help make sure there are no more undiscovered issues and ensure the integrity of our elections, please volunteer or contribute to the non-partisan grassroots effort at Wisconsin Wave. If there are undiscovered security lapses in our elections, we need to know and fix them. If someone has manipulated our elections, we need to know and prosecute them.

Update: At the last minute, Waukesha County thankfully announced that they will not be destroying the ballots.

1,275% Return on Investment for Rich Scott Walker Donors

Mike McCabe from the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign told Wisconsin Public Radio that they tracked campaign donations from the 2010 elections, tax breaks and spending from last year and found out how much Scott Walker's biggest donors in 2010 got back for their investment.

From WPR,

He cites a recent report on the last legislative session that tracked $330 million in tax write-offs and government spending that flowed to donors who contributed a combined $24 million, “$24 million dollars went in and $330 million went back to those donors. You can't get that return on investment in the best bull market on Wall Street."

That's a 1,275% gain! And that's just in one year! With this high of return on investment, large out-of-state businesses will continue to pollute our elections. If you didn't like the attack ads of the recall election, you should have gotten rid of the one running them, because he's only going to make it worse now.

Wake up Wisconsin! We're controlled by a few rich out-of-state corporations and individuals, and they're the ones who want unions gone. Duh, because then they can get away with paying all of us less.

Wisconsin: Scott Walker's "Laboratory for Conservative Ideas"

What's next for Wisconsin now that Scott Walker survived his recall election?

Out-of-state corporate and rich donors own Scott Walker now that they gave him ~66% of his $30.5 million to hoodwink the state, not to mention the more than $16 million spent by outside pro-Walker groups. And these numbers are likely to increase as the final tallies are made. Even though Walker lost his party's control of the State Senate and didn't gain many votes for his rights stripping and unlimited campaign financing, receiving nearly the same percentage of votes as he did in 2010, we know Walker will act like he got a mandate.

We should be proud of what we were able to accomplish against such odds. Walker didn't receive the mandate that he wanted with all of his money, and by losing a majority in the State Senate with recalls this past year, we were able to slow Walker's reddening of Wisconsin. However, Walker won't stop now.

Dan Bice from the Journal Sentinel told Rachel Maddow on MSNBC after the election that Walker will make "Wisconsin, as he has already, a laboratory for conservative ideas." This is what Walker wants to do, and what his corporate and super rich donors like Diane Hendricks (who pays $0 state taxes) want him to do. And now, Walker is owned by these few and has little to fear from Wisconsin.



Now that Walker has significantly reduced the unions, there'll be far less funding for any progressive candidates. This was the far-right's goal, as explained by Scott Fitzgerald last year. Unions are the only special interests that share the same interests as large swaths of people, because they're democratic organizations. Unions are just groups of people working together for their collective interest. Businesses are controlled by an individual or very small group of people but with the finances of far more. The interests of business often don't align with the overall interest of a community, but unions, being part of the community, often have interests aligned with the community.

The unions have far less funding just a year after Walker stripped their rights, and they'll have even less now that their rights won't be restored any time soon. They couldn't come close to competing with Walker's corporate money in the recall election, even though their existence depended upon it. This means unions, the only significant source of money for Democrats, won't be able to provide funding for Democrats to compete with Republicans in Wisconsin. Republicans will forever have the money advantage as long as the Democrats support union rights and the Republicans don't.

The only other large source of funding for politicians besides unions are businesses and the rich. Democrats will have to choose one of two things: small people-funded campaigns or get funding from businesses and the rich as well. We saw from the recall election that small people-funded campaigns aren't easy. So, many Democrats will begin seeking more support from corporations or perpetually lose. We've basically ensured the corporate control of our government.

So, what might our new out-of-state-controlled laboratory of far-right ideas cook up?

Walker refused to say if he would sign Right-to-Work legislation in the final debate when Tom Barrett guaranteed that he would. Diane Hendricks, Walker's biggest donor, asked for it last year on video, and Walker replied with his plan to divide-and-conquer beginning with the rights of public workers. Therefore, we can only conclude that this Tea Party wish is high on his list, even though he didn't campaign on it. Wisconsin can say good-bye to good paying jobs, and say hello to your new corporate dictators.

Right-to-Work would nearly ensure Walker's reelection in 2014 by gutting all significant funding for a Democratic challenger. It would almost certainly give Walker control of the entire legislature as well.

Wisconsin is still suffering from a budget deficit. Just like Right-to-Work, Walker has refused to deny that he would sign legislation like Michigan's financial martial law. It wouldn't be beyond Walker to spin another crisis requiring "bold" action like that law.

Walker hired a deer czar who's primary accomplishments involve privatizing deer hunting. A new private deer hunting industry would be a great way for Walker to push his far-right ideals and repay his rich donors. Get ready to pay hundreds if not thousands to hunt. It's what you voted for, even if Walker didn't say he would do it. That's the way Walker operates. While not nearly as likely as Right-to-Work, it's far from an impossibility.

Walker will surely continue to reduce funding to public education in pursuit of privatization. Expect up to a 30% slash in teacher base pay, something Walker can do without any new legislation. Walker has shown he takes the easy way out, and he won't seek legislation through the now Democratically-controlled State Senate to fix the budget this year.

With the continued bleeding of jobs, Walker may try to "stimulate" the economy again by giving more tax breaks to corporations and increasing our taxes by reducing tax cuts/credits or increasing government fees.

The only thing standing in Walker's way is the Democratic majority in the State Senate, and that may not be easy to hold without any significant source of money. The middle class doesn't stand a chance against the rich in a war with money.

Unfortunately, it seems our only way to stop the corporate takeover of our government is to pass an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that negates the Citizens United ruling. People clearly don't realize when they are voting for politicians primarily supported by out-of-state interests, probably because those interests are able to frame the debate. We *could* get behind a few nationwide PACs setup to compete with corporate donations, especially if people donate what they were paying in union dues to the PACs. It's simply very difficult for candidates primarily supported by middle class grassroots to compete with candidates primarily supported by big business and the rich.

Wisconsin Was Hoodwinked by Out-of-State Money

This is a really sad graph.

Walker with his unlimited campaign fundraising and outside groups spent more than $36 million of out-of-state money defending him in the recall election, while Barrett and unions spent about $10 million in total. Nearly all of Tom Barrett's money came from Wisconsin donors, but Barrett didn't win. Walker's cash advantage is clearly what gave him the win, and the Senate recalls are evidence. Before Barrett announced his candidacy, Walker and pro-Walker groups were running anti-Barrett attack ads. And before that, they were running pro-Walker ads with lies such as positive job creation before Walker ever cooked up his numbers. Walker was able to frame the debate before it even began, and there are so many lies covering up what's been done, it's nearly impossible for voters to keep up.

Voters are confused. Just listen to Wisconsin right-wing talk radio or talk to your friend who voted for Walker. They rarely have their facts straight and often contradict themselves when they're simply explaining their view to a sympathetic host. Even Barrett supporters believe some of these lies, because many are complicated and convoluted, making it difficult for anyone to discern fact from fiction.

We're all used to spin and the occasional lie, but the far-right has redefined lies as spin. There's simply no comparison between Democratic spin and Republican spin, and the media often doesn't clarify the facts, instead simply regurgitating each side's talking points. So, most of Wisconsin still thinks the Republican party is a fairly reputable group of people, and voters aren't expecting everything (or almost everything) from one party to be a lie.

First, the far-right got people to believe that a recall is only meant for when a politician commits a crime. The exit polls showed over 60% of voters believed no one should be recalled unless they commit a crime. However, recalls were created in order to hold politicians accountable to the public, no matter what that reason may be. There is no stipulation in the Wisconsin Constitution regarding the motivation behind a recall. The number of required signatures to get a recall and the subsequent recall election ensure there are no frivolous recalls and politicians aren't removed from office unless the majority believes he should.

That was the fundamental right that we never fully explained to the voters of Wisconsin. The constitutional right to recall a Wisconsin politician for whatever reason we deem necessary, if we get enough other concerned citizens to agree. A recall has nothing to do with criminal acts. If our governor commits a criminal act, it shouldn't take a recall to remove him from office. The exit polls also showed that many who voted for Walker plan to vote for Obama in November. If we had fully explained the recall to Wisconsin voters, many of those voters may not have voted for Walker in protest of the recall, and Tom Barrett would very likely have won.

Instead of fully explaining the significance of this recall and the right of a recall and hammering it home, we had to focus on the many lies that we thought were far more important. Lies like unverified jobs, balanced budget, decreased spending, stripping rights saves money, etc. were the focus of our efforts, not the recall itself. The right of a recall and the significance of this one seemed so clear (tens of thousands of protesters don't assemble around the Capitol everyday), that I didn't realize it was that misunderstood. Putting more effort into explaining a recall instead of repeated busting of the same myths may have provided more return on investment.

However, the money for immersing Wisconsinites in ads was given mostly to Scott Walker, and the Republican Senators up for recall over the past year received far less. Where there wasn't a significant imbalance of money or an over abundance of conservatives, the recalled Republican senator was removed from office. Three Republican senators were removed, and the Democrats gained a majority in the State Senate. The Senate recalls showed that money really matters in a tight race, and that's what saved Walker.

Walker gained about 1% more than he had in the 2010 election, but he spent more than double Barrett. How do you think the election would have turned out if Barrett had the same amount of money as Walker?

Over time, more of Wisconsin will learn of Walker's lies. We'll learn that Walker's jobs numbers contain errors. Walker had nothing to fear, the error will be called a bureaucratic mistake, and he can't be recalled again. Walker will also confirm that he is under investigation by the FBI as now widely reported. The budget deficit will rear its ugly head sooner than later, and more poor and middle class people will realize they are paying more in taxes. It's just very unfortunate that out-of-state money prevented more from learning these things before the recall election.

Wisconsin Recall Election Exit Polls Show a 50/50 Split

According to Craig Gilbert at the Journal Sentinel, exit polls show the race is much closer than pre-election polls, a 50/50 even split.

"Tuesday’s exit polls depict a much closer recall race – 50% to 50% -- between Republican Gov. Scott Walker and Democrat Tom Barrett than pre-election polls did."

This will be a very close election that may come down to a few hundred votes. It looks like we'll be in for a long night or more.

With Scott Walker Target in John Doe, a Governor Kleefisch Becomes Much More Likely

With Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker a target of the FBI John Doe investigation, it's becoming more and more likely that Walker will be charged with campaign finance or election fraud. If Walker and Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch survive the recall and Walker resigns over Walkergate, we'll have a Governor Rebecca Kleefisch on our hands and Wisconsin will really be in trouble.

We knew that Walker was either breaking the law, or he's been lying to us and he's under investigation. It's much more likely that he's under investigation by the FBI in their John Doe probe, and the reporting by David Shuster confirmed it. Scott Walker is John Doe.

"According to government lawyers familiar with a Milwaukee criminal corruption probe, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is now a 'target' of the investigation."

With so many close associates charged, a secret email network operating feet from his office, Walker's secrecy and refusal to release any information that could exonerate him, there's a good chance Walker was aware of the corruption, if not involved. And Walker doesn't seem very confident in the evidence in his favor. Since Walker is under investigation, it's very likely he'll be indicted and resign, especially in an investigation that has already resulted in more than a handful of closely-associated suspected felons, two convictions, and thirteen grants of immunity. The FBI doesn't investigate just anyone, which is why Walker hasn't been truthful about his involvement in the investigation and his criminal defense fund.

Rebecca Kleefisch will be far worse for Wisconsin than Scott Walker. She's in bed with ALEC, just as ideologically stubborn and even further to the right. Kleefisch would eliminate embryonic stem cell research in Wisconsin, a huge financial driver and achievement of this state. Kleefisch is anti-abortion in all cases, even rape and incest, and she pushed heavily for the abstinence-only bill. She also believes Rick Santorum's "man-on-dog" theory that gay marriage is equivalent to people marrying animals.

Kleefisch's lack of professionalism and intellect is appalling. Her YouTube channel is so hilarious and unbelievable that she named it RebeccaForReal, and her husband is "the man who votes three times."

If we don't remove Rebecca Kleefisch, Wisconsin could likely and very easily end up with a Governor Kleefisch and some really idiotic and damaging laws. If Walker survives the recall, no matter by how many votes, you know he'll be championing his "mandate." Kleefisch will feel empowered by the same "mandate" if Walker resigns his office to her.

But there's just no way, unless everything really comes down to a few votes, that we elect Mahlon Mitchell but not Tom Barrett. So, we must ensure anyone who stands with Wisconsin or who doesn't want the possibility of a Governor Kleefisch gets out to vote. We'll likely end up with a Governor Kleefisch if we don't remove Walker.

The far-right will win whether Walker is indicted or not, as long as Walker survives the recall, and life under a Governor Kleefisch will be far worse.

Scott Walker Recall Down to One Vote

A Democratic consultant told Ed Schultz, who is live from the Capitol, tonight on MSNBC that Tom Barrett's polls show the recall election will come down to "one vote, not one percent."

This is amazing given the fact that Barrett and Wisconsin-valued groups have been outspent 7½ to 1 by Walker and his out-of-state supporters.

Get everyone you can out to vote tomorrow and help convince those on the fence (or close to it) to vote for Tom Barrett.

Wisconsin needs you now more than it has ever needed you before.

Scott Walker Wants You to Forget, We Must Never Forget

You must see these two wonderful motivating videos by We Are Wisconsin.



Scott Walker divided us like never before, and he wants us to forget what he did to end up in this recall.

All our work.
All our effort.
It comes down to one day.

Tom Barrett will unite Wisconsin again.

But Scott Walker says you won't vote. He thinks you'll stay home.



Wisconsin needs you like it's never needed you before.

Vote for your economic interests and your neighbors'. Vote for Tom Barrett on June 5th.

Analysis of Walker's Obfuscation and Barrett's Success in Final Recall Debate

The short election campaign for Tom Barrett is nearing its end now that the second of two debates are complete. I would first like to say that the right-leaning Mike Gousha did a fantastic job of moderating the debate last night. Gousha sure didn't forget about the follow-up question, and he elegantly danced from left to right in a nonpartisan fashion. It was a breath of fresh air. Thank you, Mike Gousha!

It's really too bad there were only two debates. Barrett has far exceeded my expectations, knocking down nearly every one of Walker's dubious claims with passionate but calm and simple reasoning. Thank you, Tom Barrett, for being the candidate this time that we knew you could be in 2010.

You can watch the full video online at WISN.

Clearing the Air

Nearly all of the questions that I felt were critical were asked either by Mike Gousha or Tom Barrett, but Scott Walker, the "Rock Star of the Tea Party," continued to obfuscate everything with his thoroughly rehearsed lines.

Walker continued to say that stripping collective bargaining rights saved money, but this is simply not true. Walker even admitted it didn't save money under oath in front of Congress last year. The same savings would have been reached had Walker negotiated with the unions, because, as Barrett mentioned, the unions conceded to massive cuts to their pay and benefits Walker asked for as long as they could keep their rights. But since Walker wanted to strip their rights, he did it even though he didn't need to.

Taxes did not go down for everyone, just the average, and that's only real estate taxes with an average decrease of only 0.4%. Taxes went down for the very rich, many of whom now don't pay any taxes. However, many poor and middle class are receiving less from the government, in effect increasing their taxes. In fact, the Homestead Credit was cut, which is a tax increase on the poor and middle class. And we can't forget about increased tuition costs for Wisconsin technical colleges and universities. It's simply disingenuous to say that Walker saved the average Wisconsin taxpayer money, because it's not true.

Walker actually increased spending beyond the Doyle administration, though less services are now being provided.

As Barrett pointed out, since 70% of Wisconsin schools had to fire teachers, the tools were clearly not enough to make up for Walker's historically massive cuts to education. Our class room sizes are now the largest they've been since 1995. Talk about moving backward. It simple doesn't add up when you cut funds by the most in Wisconsin history, schools will suffer. We need to pay teachers more, not less, and we need to equip our students with the tools and books necessary for a proper education. That simply can't be done with the funds Walker has appropriated to our public schools.

Unions are not and can not be dictators of anything, contrary to Walker's claims. Unions bargain, as in collective bargaining. The definition of bargain excludes any ability to dictate anything. If Walker wanted to make real change the democratic way, he would have negotiated with the unions to achieve Wisconsin's goals. There was simply no need to strip their rights to accomplish Wisconsin's goals, in this case, balancing the budget. The power was already in the hands of the taxpayers to balance our budget before Walker took office, but by stripping their rights, Walker made himself a dictator.

Barrett is not the "union's candidate." That was clearly Kathleen Falk. Barrett said he supports our citizen's right to collectively bargain, but he won't agree to their every whim. He'll do the tough job of actually negotiating to accomplish goals.

The reason that collective bargaining isn't the only thing that pro-Wisconsin people decry Walker for is because Walker has done so much more damage since, not because the reforms are working. Official verified statistics have shown this consistently for over a year. If you want to use Walker's unverified numbers, we're still dead last in the nation and far from his promised 250,000 jobs.

After the debate, Tom Barrett was finally able to fully clarify the issue with Walker's numbers to a WISN reporter. Thursday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics told PolitiScoop that they have not verified Walker's numbers yet. The Bureau told Walker that they "confirmed the methods used" not verified the numbers saying, "...we would not have confirmed the numbers yet."

Critical Obfuscation

When asked about his "divide and conquer" plan, Walker blatantly lied. The "powerful special interests" Walker supposedly wanted to divide and conquer are not the real powerful special interests. All you have to do is look at the $25 million Walker has and who he got it from and compare that to Barrett's $1 million. The powerful special interests are clearly behind Walker, and most are from out-of-state.

A further example of Walker's intent was his discussion with the faux-Koch in which he said he "dropped the bomb." A governor doesn't drop bombs to ethically balance budgets, especially budgets as close to black as it was. We weren't broke, which Walker's increase in spending is clear proof of.

A third example of Walker's intent is his refusal to say whether he would veto a Right-to-Work bill. When Barrett said that Walker would sign a Right-to-Work bill, Walker made no attempt to deny it. That's a very clear answer. Walker wants to rid Wisconsin of unions.

As Barrett said, not giving billions in tax breaks to corporations that aren't linked to job creation would have been a good start to solving the budget deficit without resorting to stripping citizen's rights. Those tax breaks were a complete waste of our tax money, which we must pay to make up for, particularly with Walker's increased spending. Big corporations and the very rich that pay little or no taxes love Scott Walker.

Who's funding Walker's $160,000+ criminal defense fund? Walker refused to say. Instead, Walker continued spreading the lie that he started the investigation as if he's simply been cooperating. In fact, Walker "stone-walled" the investigation. Walker provided a flaky attempt to explain himself, but if Walker wasn't able to get the information, why would someone be left with the impression they were stone-walled?

Walker won't release his emails, even though he's been told he can. He continued to hide behind the notion that he can't talk about the investigation. However, as Gousha stated, unless Walker is under investigation, there's nothing preventing him from talking about his own involvement. Walker refuses to clear the air with his emails, because he clearly can't. I don't know how one can come to any other conclusion at this point.

We Can Remove Walker

Just think of what we've been able to accomplish. Down financially $25 million to $1 million in any other election, we wouldn't stand a chance. Instead, the election has been a statistical tie from the beginning. It's clear that people in Wisconsin can see through Walker's lies.

We can remove Scott Walker on June 5th. Lets make it happen.

What Has Scott Walker Done for Wisconsin Lately?

In an update to the popular post What Has Scott Walker Done for Wisconsin, this post adds to the list of things Walker has done for Wisconsin in the last few months. Walker still hasn't created any jobs, the numbers he provides are unverifiable statistics which deviate wildly from official verified statistics, and thus can't be trusted until verified. Walker still hasn't balanced the budget, and contrary to Walker's claims, he raised taxes on the poor and middle class to support tax breaks for the very rich.

But all of that was already covered in the previous post. A lot has happened in the three months since.

Walker's Criminal Mind

In March, Walker opened a criminal defense fund, becoming the first ever governor in the United States to do so. According to Wisconsin Statutes, Walker can only legally open a criminal defense fund if he "is being investigated for or charged with a violation of campaign finance laws or prohibited election practices." However, Walker continues to say that he is not under investigation by the FBI in their John Doe probe (Walkergate) that has resulted in two convictions and four apprehensions on felony charges, all connected to Walker. So, Walker is either lying or he's breaking the law.

Walker stole millions from victims of the mortgage crisis in order to help offset his budget deficit. That's right, Walker has a budget deficit, i.e., he did not balance the budget. Not only that, he used money from the poor and unfortunate to help bolster his budget.

Walker and the Republican leadership killed any hope of jobs or mining legislation by not even compromising within the Republican party to provide what Gogebic Taconite wanted instead of an additional far-right wishlist. The Democrats had a bill that gave the mining company what they wanted without the ideological rollback of environmental protections that Walker wanted, the Wisconsin Way Mining Reform Act. However, the Republicans did everything they could to prevent a vote on the sure-to-pass bill, holding out for their impassable bill and thus killing the Republicans' only jobs plan.

Throughout Walker's term, particularly this spring, Walker signed into law a wide array of secretly corporate-backed model legislation from ALEC.

Policies of the War on Women

Instead of any jobs legislation, Walker amped up the far-right War on Women in Wisconsin.

To start, Walker repealed part of Wisconsin's Fair Employment Act so that women and minorities will find it even more difficult to get the same pay as white men. Republicans in Wisconsin have stated that they believe men should make more than women, and this bill helps to ensure that continues to happen.

Walker banned abortion coverage from future Wisconsin private health insurance plans that will be setup through the Affordable Care Act exchanges. So, women on those health plans, the least fortunate women and many in the middle class, won't have insurance coverage for potentially life-saving abortions.

Walker signed into law a bill that requires women to make unnecessary appointments with their doctors 24 hours before having an abortion. This forced Planned Parenthood to stop offering the morning after pill to rape victims.

Walker then allowed schools to teach the myth that abstinence is the only effective way to prevent pregnancy or STDs and not teach anything about condoms or contraceptives, because Walker doesn't like to use facts so neither should our teachers.

In a blatant sign of Walker's ignorance for women, Walker ignored the bombing of a medical clinic for women in Appleton.

Far-right and Unconstitutional Legislation

Rolling back environmental protections in mining wasn't enough for Walker, he and the Republicans successfully repealed wetland protections in the middle of the night. No jobs were created as a result of the legislation.

Nearly every one of Walker's legislative achievements were found unconstitutional including the Voter Suppression Law, the collective bargaining rights-stripping law and the Republicans' illegal gerrymandering. So, IDs are not required to vote and parts of the union busting law were struck down, but Walker refused to fix the illegal gerrymandering, costing more taxpayer money in court where new maps will now be drawn.

Collective Secrecy

In the previous post, I mentioned video that showed Walker saying he would negotiate with unions during his campaign, contrary to his statements that Wisconsin knew he was going to strip collective bargaining rights from public workers. Walker hadn't made any public statements to that effect prior to releasing the bill.

Now, recently released video shows Walker in January 2011 telling Diane Hendricks, a billionaire heiress who paid $0 in state taxes that year and gave Walker a record $510,000, that he plans to get rid of unions in Wisconsin through a "divide and conquer" plan that begins with the public employees. Walker hid this plan from the rest of us, but gladly told his rich donors who are the only people to gain from such efforts. This divide and conquer plan turned out to be the collective bargaining rights stripping bill that Walker released less than a month later.

Rich Kings and Queens

All the while Walker has been either under investigation or breaking the law, very rich donors have been donating over 25 million dollars to his campaign as well as Super PACs, billboards and TV ads. Nearly all the way up and down Highway 41, you see billboards from rich a**holes who want to buy tax breaks for themselves at our expense. What's not to like about Walker if you're rich? Well, other than the fact that his policies don't improve the economy, Walker hasn't done anything in the open and cordial Wisconsin way.

But money means way more to top Walker donors like Diane Hendricks who doesn't pay any Wisconsin taxes and wants to turn Wisconsin into a unionless state, otherwise known as Right-to-Work. They could care less what happens to us as long as their bank account gets fatter. Heck, they don't even care that Walker is either investigation or breaking the law. Most of all, the lies don't seem to bother these rich donors one bit. Many of the out-of-state donors don't care what happens to Wisconsin as long as Walker's anti-union, anti-women, anti-minority messages prevails here and spreads.

Tea Party Hero, Wisconsinite Zero

Walker is a national hero to the Tea Party crowd, and he's been using his far-right hero status with a rich donorbase by travelling across the nation to raise over 25 million dollars in campaign donations from the aforementioned rich. Compare that to the nearly 1 million that the entire effort against Walker has raised. How dare Walker complain about the "millions from out-of-state union thugs," when that's not happening, and instead he's the one brining in millions from out-of-state. "Out-of-State" Scott Walker has spent so much time travelling the nation that he refuses to tell us how much time he's been out of Wisconsin.

Haven't we had enough of Walker's lies, secrecy and damage to Wisconsin?

Final Scott Walker Recall Debate Tonight

The final debate between Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and Tom Barrett before Walker's recall election next Tuesday is live tonight at 9pm. The live coverage of this debate is despicable. If you're in Milwaukee, you can watch the debate live on TV channel 12 WISN. If you're not in Milwaukee, which just happens to be the majority of Wisconsin, you can watch it live online at wisn.com or wispolitics.com.

After the first debate, Walker has a lot of questions to answer. Barrett answered questions in plain English with no spin. Walker evaded just about every question he could, and when he couldn't, he lied. Will WISN act like the fourth estate, or will they forget about the follow-up question like the journalists for the rest of the far-right media in Wisconsin?

Will Wisconsin finally get some questions answered, or will Walker continue to lie about some of the most critical questions surrounding his governorship?

• Why did Scott Walker strip collective bargaining rights from public employees when the definition of bargaining excludes the dictatorship Walker assigns unions, and the same amount of money could have been saved through the true difficult task of actually negotiating?
• Why didn't Scott Walker even try to negotiate with the unions who publicly conceded all of the financial cuts Walker desired?
• What did Scott Walker know about the corruption surrounding him, and when did he know it?
• How is Scott Walker legally using a criminal defense fund if he is not under investigation and why?
• Who is donating to Scott Walker's criminal defense fund?
• How much time has Scott Walker spent out-of-state fundraising and building his national image?
• Why didn't Scott Walker tell the public his plans to "divide and conquer" the unions instead of lying and saying he would negotiate with unions during his campaign?
• Why couldn't Scott Walker support the Wisconsin Way Mining Reform Act, which would have created the promised jobs and would have been passed to his desk if the Republicans allowed a vote?
• What emails did Scott Walker send in reference to the illegal campaigning and fundraising?
• Why didn't Scott Walker pass any real jobs legislation instead of focusing on his far-right wishlist of union busting and attacks on women and minorities?
• What was Scott Walker's involvement in the secret illegal gerrymandering?

Wisconsin deserves answers to these questions. Unfortunately, Scott Walker thinks he can keep the wool over our eyes and still survive the recall, and his corporate backers want him to keep quiet. Wake up Wisconsin!

Remember, Barrett is being outspent more than 25-to-1 by Walker's out-of-state millionaire donors. Those "big out-of-state unions" Walker keeps crying about have garnered about 1 million dollars, while Walker has raised over 25 million in his weeks travelling the nation. This has always been a people's campaign to restore Wisconsin values and move us Forward.

The full video of the debate is online at WISN.

Bill Clinton Coming to Wisconsin to Campaign for Wisconsin

Bill Clinton is coming to Wisconsin to campaign for Wisconsin. The Journal Sentinel reports that Clinton will be in Milwaukee Friday with Tom Barrett. The time and place have yet to be determined. The popular former president is on the side of Wisconsin, not the 25 million dollar corporate-backed Out-of-State Scott Walker, and he's coming to show his support and get voters motivated to remove Scott Walker from office for all of his lies, secrecy and damage he's done to Wisconsin.

Where's George W. Bush for Walker?

You can sign up on Tom Barrett's website to be notified when the details are released.

Listen to the people of Wisconsin, not the out-of-state millionaires who want nothing more than to keep more of their money at all of our expense.

Vote for your economic interests and your neighbors'. Vote Tom Barrett.

Note our grassroots amateur-created signs :)

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker Broke the Law

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker broke the law when he opened his historic criminal defense fund, the first ever in Wisconsin for a sitting governor. Either that, or "Out-of-State" Walker is lying and he is under investigation by the FBI in their John Doe probe (Walkergate) for using taxpayer money for his political campaign. Because that's the only legal purpose for creating a criminal defense fund, according to Wisconsin Statutes. The statutes say that Walker can only set up a criminal defense fund if he "is being investigated for or charged with a violation of campaign finance laws or prohibited election practices." However, Walker continues to say that he is not a target of the investigation by the FBI (maybe he's under investigation by someone else?). But then, Walker must have broken the law in March when he opened his criminal defense fund.

We don't know whether Walker is a criminal or just under investigation for being a criminal, because Walker refuses to tell us the truth about his legal defense fund which currently holds $160,000 in donations to pay two big-time criminal defense lawyers from Chicago and Milwaukee. Why would Walker need to set up a criminal defense fund if he isn't under investigation? Walker even lies about who started the investigation, Walker did not ask to start the investigation as he said in the first debate last Friday.

The answer clearly isn't good for Walker's recall campaign, but the answer is critical in light of his coming recall. The FBI probe has already resulted in conviction of a Walker aide and apprehension of four other close associates, as well as the conviction of a top donor to Walker's 2010 campaign. More arrests are expected in the continuing investigation, and Walker is suspected to be John Doe.

Wisconsin deserves to know what Scott Walker knew about the corruption surrounding him and whether or not he's breaking the law by funding his criminal lawyers with donations. We also deserve to know who's funding Walker's criminal defense, but he refuses to provide any information after countless attempts from the media, Tom Barrett and others.

Scott Walker's secrecy stinks, and it's time Wisconsin citizens and media demand answers from Out-of-State Walker. The media really makes this way too easy for Walker. What happened to journalists who asked follow-up questions? I guess the far-right media corporations Gannett, Journal Communications and Lee Enterprises have forced their bias on their employees.

There's no ethical way to vote or endorse Scott Walker's re-election without knowing whether his criminal defense fund is legal and Walker is lying or not. Here's looking at you far-right Journal Sentinel...

How Much Time Has "Out-of-State Walker" Spent Outside of Wisconsin?

Tom Barrett's piercing question to "Out-of-State Walker" Scott Walker during the first debate between the two clearly made Walker uncomfortable. Barrett asked Walker if he would publicly release the amount of time he's spent outside of Wisconsin fundraising and trying to increase his national image. Walker made absolutely no attempt to answer the question, even though he responded twice. It was particularly telling when Walker responded a second time and offered absolutely nothing new.

Tom Barrett was referring to the investigation into Out-of-State Walker's time conducted by the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism. We need a governor who works for Wisconsin in Wisconsin.

So, how much time has Walker spent outside of Wisconsin since he took office? It's clear that Walker really doesn't want us to know.

Let's add this to the list of questions Out-of-State Walker must come clean to Wisconsin about.

Tonight is the First Scott Walker Recall Debate

If you didn't already know, tonight at 8pm, Scott Walker and Tom Barrett will face off in the first of two debates. Just about every local affiliate of the big four (ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox) should carry the debate.

It should be interesting.

What might be some good talking points for Barrett?

• The Oversight Committee's letter to Walker regarding the validity of his sworn testimony
• The unverifiable Walker jobs numbers and how they are so inconsistent with official and historical data 
• Equal pay for women and minorities
• Collective bargaining
• Walker's failed economic and tax policies (see graphs above)

And that's just getting started.

Vote for your economic interests and your neighbors'. Vote Tom Barrett. Early voting has already begun.

Update: The debate is NOT on Wisconsin Eye as I had previously stated.

U.S. Congress Requests Answers from Walker About Validity of Sworn Testimony

The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government sent Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker a letter today, asking him to answer their questions regarding the validity of his sworn testimony by June 1. Tuesday, Walker told a local Fox affiliate that he was upset members of the committee wrote to the chairman instead of Walker directly. So, today, the members fulfilled Walker's request, and now it's time for Walker to provide some answers.

Last year, Walker told the committee under sworn testimony that he never "had a conversation with respect to [his] actions in Wisconsin and using them to punish members of the opposition party and their donor base.” This recently released video of Walker talking to billionaire heiress Diane Hendricks, who later gave Walker $500,000 and pays $0 in income tax, about his plan to "divide and conquer" unions blatantly contradicts Walker's sworn testimony.



The committee wrote,

"It is critical for Congress to obtain accurate information from witnesses who testify before the Committee in order to help inform our policy decisions. Your videotaped conversation with Ms. Hendricks not only raises serious concerns about the accuracy of your testimony before the Committee, but it undermines the entire rationale put forward for your unprecedented campaign against public sector workers."

The committee asked Walker, "Do you now wish to withdraw your sworn testimony?"

Walker has until June 1 to respond...

Stand with Wisconsin Women, Middle-Class, Elderly, Teachers, LGBT, Children, Poor, Minorities, and More

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has been recalled, and now it's time to replace him. In the year since taking office, Walker has fought hard against just about everyone in Wisconsin besides rich white males. The alleged criminal Walker repealed Equal Pay for Equal Work for women and minorities, discriminated against minorities in unconstitutional redistricting, reduced education funding more than any time in Wisconsin history, reduced teacher and public worker pay and benefits, killed any hope of jobs, banned hospital visitation for same-sex couples, raised BadgerCare premiums and reduced other healthcare help, repealed rights of middle-class workers, and a whole lot more. So, for us in the middle-class and the poor, we're getting far less for our tax dollars, while corporations and the rich are paying far less in state taxes.

Everyone agrees that to fix education, we need to pay teachers well. We all know the main reason that many good, intelligent people choose not to become teachers is because they can get significantly more money in other jobs. Why then do people think it's OK to reduce the already low pay for teachers? If you think this won't hurt our children, you need some education yourself.

And Walker's done it all under the banner of job creation, even though Wisconsin has lost more jobs than any other state since Walker took office and continues to bleed jobs with 6,200 more in April. Walker and the Republicans have refused to make any real effort towards job creation.

Instead of real job creation, Walker gave huge tax breaks to his campaign donors, the rich who are funding his 25 million dollar campaign, the billboards you see all over Wisconsin and TV ads. Walker did this even though there's every reason to believe tax breaks for the rich are bad for the economy. Even a Republican policy wonk recently wrote in the New York Times that taxes don't affect the employment rate one way or the other, particularly now with our taxes already as low as they are. The rich can't create jobs if the middle-class doesn't have the money to spend on the products and services the rich provide. We're the real job creators.

The rich clearly don't need more money, with the millions they can donate to Walker and use for billboards and TV ads all over Wisconsin. If they paid even half that much in taxes, we'd probably solve most of our budget problems. But instead they're using it to help Walker, because they know they'll save much more in taxes. And we suffer.

It's time Wisconsin starts sifting and winnowing again to find the best solutions to our problems, not partisan and ideological goals pushed by millionaires. We need a governor who will stand up to the demands of the rich few like Diane Hendricks (who inherited her great wealth from her husband).

If you stand with Walker, you stand with rich white supremacy and nothing more. Not jobs, morals or anything else. Show me otherwise, I'd be pleasantly surprised.

Vote for your economic interests and your neighbors'. Vote Tom Barrett. Early voting has already begun.

Scott Walker's Significant Job Losses Explained

In a recent TED talk, Nick Hanauer, a serial entrepreneur and member of the 1%, explained why Wisconsin has such a significant job loss since Scott Walker implemented his policies (33,900 jobs lost) and why we need to appropriately tax the rich again.



The rich are not "job creators," because they create jobs only as a last resort with gritted teeth when customer demand requires it. No entrepreneur starts a business because they want to create jobs. It's their customers that create jobs. Without a strong customer base, no business will create jobs, and that's the problem we have here in Wisconsin. Hanauer says that calling people like him job creators is "disingenuous." We're the real job creators.

By reducing the amount of middle class jobs like teachers and janitors, and reducing the pay of those who have jobs, Walker has single-handedly reduced the customer base of Wisconsin businesses. Businesses in Wisconsin aren't growing, because their revenue doesn't support it. Some big companies are doing well in Wisconsin, e.g., GE, but most businesses are growing slowly if at all, and businesses continue to close all over Wisconsin. A big and popular restaurant just outside of Green Bay, River's Bend, closed last week.

Hanauer says the fix to our economy is to appropriately fund government services with a fair tax that receives more investment from the rich, e.g. the Reagan Rule.

Hanauer doesn't say this because he's generous, but he said "ultimately these things are good for me," because his businesses grow when we have more money to spend on their products and services. Although some of Hanauer's logic is flawed, or his explanation lacking, his main point is right on.

The rich clearly don't need more money, with the millions they can donate to Walker and use for billboards and TV ads all over Wisconsin. They need to support the state that supports them. It's time we get a governor who will stand up to the rich like Diane Hendricks.

Vote for your economic interests and your neighbors'. Vote Tom Barrett. Early voting has already begun.

The Problems with Scott Walker's Unverified Jobs Numbers

There are several problems with Scott Walker's new unverified claim of a net increase of jobs during his term: the numbers haven't been verified, there's no proof, they're not consistent with trends and verified data, and Walker released the unverified numbers with conspicuously perfect timing.

The biggest bipartisan complaint with Walker is the significant job losses Wisconsin has suffered since Walker took office, more than any other state in the nation (most states have gained jobs). According to verified numbers by the U.S. Dept. of Labor, Wisconsin lost 33,900 private sector jobs. If you count public sector jobs, Wisconsin lost far more jobs.

You wouldn't trust your safety on an airplane if critical safety checks weren't verified. Why would you trust other unverified work, i.e., Walker's unverified jobs numbers? How can anyone trust unverified numbers when it comes to such a critical decision.

Walker has not publicly released the raw data. So, there is no way to verify the numbers until the U.S. Dept. of Labor does, and their verification won't be finished until after the recall election June 5th. There's no actual proof that Walker's numbers are accurate, and no way to get proof until after Walker's recall election.

If Walker's unverified numbers are accurate, the numbers from the U.S. Dept. of Labor would have to be very inaccurate for nearly 12 consecutive months. The difference between the verified numbers and Walker's is 57,200 jobs. The unverified state numbers that Walker cites has never deviated so far from the verified numbers from the U.S. Dept. of Labor. So, the probability that Walker's unverified numbers are accurate is very low.

The unemployment rate has gone down, but experts attribute this to people who can no longer claim unemployment benefits and have given up on getting a job. Such people are not counted as unemployed, and so can skew the numbers if too many people are without jobs for too long. So, just because the unemployment rate goes down does not mean the economy has more jobs, and likely doesn't given all of the verified data.

Walker had no problem using the numbers from the U.S. Dept. of Labor. He touted the numbers early last year before we began bleeding jobs. However, it would behoove Walker to release conflicting data showing an increase in jobs instead, especially less than 3 weeks before a statistically tied recall election, even if they turn out to be inaccurate after the election.

Wisconsin has never publicly released this data before last week. Up until now, Wisconsin waited for the U.S. Dept. of Labor to release the numbers after they verify them. Walker released the unverified numbers a day before the U.S. Dept. of Labor was expected and did release new verified job numbers for April showing a loss of 6,200 private sector jobs in the month. The same day Walker released his unverified numbers, his campaign released an ad displaying the Journal Sentinel headline of that day touting his new unverified jobs numbers. Clearly, Walker was hoping to combat his horrible job record and offset the coming negative news of continued bleeding.

While the timing doesn't prove Walker cooked the numbers for political purposes, it doesn't help Walker's trustworthiness.

We have no way of knowing whether Walker cooked the numbers, and we have no reason to believe he hasn't cooked the numbers. Walker, the Republicans, and the rich have a lot to gain and lose with this election, and we know Walker and the Republicans are willing to do just about anything from breaking their own laws to hiring people that break campaign finance laws.

The core problem is that there simply is no way to verify Walker's numbers. If Walker wants us to believe his new numbers, he must provide the raw data so that his numbers can be independently verified. As taxpayers, we pay for that data, and deserve to see it upon request. Otherwise, we'll have to depend upon the data that we know have been verified.

Remember. Recall. Replace.

Remember that energy we had during the massive protests last year? This ad from the Progressive Change Campaign Committee is a great reminder. We need to harness that energy now in order to actually remove Scott Walker from office on June 5th. Tell your family and friends why you stand with Wisconsin women, teachers, middle class, children, poor, minorities, LGBT, and the elderly instead of Walker and his few greedy financial supporters.



Outside of Madison, we really need more "We Stand With Wisconsin" yard signs, because, particularly in the Fox Valley, it's hard to find Wisconsin supporters in the sea of "Stand with Crooks" yard signs. I'm making my own this weekend that says "We Stand With Wisconsin women, teachers, middle class, children, poor, minorities, LGBT, elderly"

We really do stand with Wisconsin while everyone else stands for rich white male supremacy, and we need to make sure everyone in Wisconsin knows it!

Early voting starts Monday!