Scott Walker Stealing Victims' Money to Repair Budget Deficit

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker lies when he says he balanced the budget. Using accounting tricks, Wisconsin has a deficit of $216 million. Using Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), which we demand of every other business and government in Wisconsin, we have a deficit of about $3 billion.

Wisconsin was awarded $31.6 million from the Wall Street mortgage fraud settlement. This money is supposed to go to Wisconsin taxpayers who were victims of fraud and abuse by banks. However, Walker is planning on stealing most of the money to help repair the budget deficit he tells us he fixed. Walker is stealing from middle-class taxpayers, because he can't be truthful about his incompetence, and he can't make the tough decisions such as appropriately taxing the rich corporations and individuals who fund his campaign.

These people are really hurting, but Walker has no problem taking from them to keep the millions of fundraising dollars pouring in from outside Wisconsin. The settlement money isn't meant to help Walker do his job. It's meant for people who work hard doing their job and were victims of illegal financial practices or negligence. Walker used to say he was against things such as accounting tricks and stealing settlement money. Like during his Budget Repair Address nearly a year ago.

"The facts are clear: Wisconsin is broke and it's time to start paying our bills today — so our kids are not stuck with even bigger bills tomorrow. This deficit did not appear overnight. Wisconsin got here through a reliance on one-time fixes, accounting gimmicks and tax increases. Previous governors and legislatures from both parties took money from our tobacco settlement."

Please, Mr. Walker, don't steal from those who are down, those victims and taxpayers. Where's your Christian heart when you need it?

Wisconsin: Ignore the Public Comments

"Public comments...may be different than what you hear in this room. Ignore the public comments."

That's what Wisconsin Republicans were told to do while they secretly redrew district maps to keep them in office. Of course, the Republicans didn't want Wisconsin to know they were screwing us over. The Republicans also signed confidentiality agreements to not talk about the maps while they worked on them in secret at a private law firm in Madison.

The information came about during court proceedings for a lawsuit against the Republicans in front of a three-judge panel. The Republicans fought hard to keep this information secret, but the judges forcefully ruled against them saying,

"Quite frankly, the Legislature (Republicans) and the actions of its counsel give every appearance of flailing wildly in a desperate attempt to hide from both the court and the public the true nature of exactly what transpired in the redistricting process."

"Indeed, the arguments advanced by the Legislature more than suggest that it wishes to have its cake and eat it too. "

"...the Legislature has taken action that affects the voting rights of Wisconsin's citizens and now attempts to cloak the record of that action behind a charade masking as a privilege."

"Finally, given the Legislature's refusal to adequately cooperate in the discovery process, despite the Court's having twice denied their requests for privilege, the Court reaffirms its earlier directive: cooperate immediately. Neither this Court, the parties in the case, nor Wisconsin's citizens have the interest or time to endure the litigation tactics being used by public officials or their private counsel in what has quickly become a poorly disguised attempt to cover up a process that should have been public from the outset, despite the Legislature's concerted efforts to mask the process behind the closed doors of a private law firm."

Ignore the money they spend, too. We taxpayers paid $400,000 for these secret meetings to draw up where and who we vote for. The secretly gerrymandered maps were finished months ago, but we're still paying for two Republican aides to work at the private law firm of Michael Best & Friedrich. We pay the two aides $129,236 per year in total, and we don't know what they're doing there. According to the Journal Sentinel, the agreements say the aides are "working at the direction of Michael Best attorneys."

When asked about the news, Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca said, "You almost get the image of a shadowy government." An immigrants rights group has written a complaint letter to the Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne to investigate the Republicans' redistricting process as another violation of the Open Meetings Law. You may remember the last one.



Wisconsin: Ignore the public comments of Republicans, because they clearly aren't being the slightest truthful. Do we really want to be ruled by the secret government of Scott Walker?

Wisconsin Rights Protesters Featured in Super Bowl Ad

We made it to the Super Bowl! Well, not really, but Wisconsinites standing up for their rights did. Chrysler's "It's Halftime in America" Super Bowl 46 commercial features a short clip of protesters outside the State Capitol in Madison. The commercial aired during the game's halftime.

At about 50 seconds in, there's a clip of protesters outside the Capitol from the Spring 2011 protests against Governor Scott Walker's rights-stripping bill.

Here's the video of the ad with the venerable actor and director Clint Eastwood


If you're unsure, here's a screenshot of the video with the Hans Christian Heg statue on the right side.

You can see the same statue in this daytime photo from Flickr user courthouselover

"...and our second half is about to begin. All that matters now is looking ahead and finding a way forward." Public workers were trying to negotiate to move Wisconsin forward in 2011, but Walker just wanted to divide us and dismantle the unions. We're just ramping up, and once we get rid of Walker and his uncompromising cronies, we can get Wisconsin moving forward again. They are clearly impeding our progress and refuse to work together.

Update (10:35pm): To the talk of whether or not the protest signs in the clip are "Photoshopped," it looks to be the case.  I don't recognize any of the "readable" signs, particularly the repeated signs. However, there's a sign in the far back left with red hearts that looks like it could be a familiar teachers union sign. I don't blame Chrysler, they're not trying to take one side or the other in their message. They're asking us to come together.

The meaning of the Chrysler commercial, IMNSHO, is that we need to come together, and we have come together before, to get America "back in the game," just like the people of the big car companies in Detroit did. We have to come together to start moving real solutions forward. No more holding up debate for partisan gain and ignorance of facts and reasoning. The only thing that matters is getting it right, it's time we all start working together. "Because that's what we do."

"...But after those trials, we all rallied around what was right and acted as one.

Because that's what we do. We find a way through tough times, and if we can't find a way, then we'll make one.

All that matters now is what's ahead. How do we come from behind? How do we come together, and how do we win?

Detroit's showing us it can be done, and what's true about them is true about all of us.

This country can't be knocked out with one punch. We get right back up again. And when we do, the world's gonna here the roar of our engines!

Ya, it's halftime America, and our second half's about to begin."

Update: John Nichols confirms that the protest signs have been edited in the Chrysler ad, and Blogging Blue has screenshots for comparison. Again, I don't impune Chrysler for doing that, because our message wasn't their message. Clearly, they're proudly promoting the success they've had by coming together with employees on tough decisions, but the more partisan their ad appears, the less impact it will make on an integral portion of the population. Chrysler didn't want everyone to associate the clip with the specific problems here in Wisconsin, as Nichols points out, they went so far as to remove the engraving on Heg's statue. They weren't promoting any specific policy, just the idea that we've had some trouble and deeply-divided disagreements, and now it's time to get back to working together to solve our problems. That's the American way.

Don't make Chrysler wish they just used some stock protest clip from the '60s. We all know it's us, and it's not Chrysler's job to get political. More people should be standing up and demanding that we work together, which is what Chrysler did with their ad and we did during the 2011 protests.

Just bask in the knowledge of the impact we made to motivate someone to even consider putting a clip in their Super Bowl ad, and let's get back to solving problems.

It's Halftime in America

"...and our second half is about to begin. All that matters now is looking ahead and finding a way forward."

This has to be the best Super Bowl 46 commercial. It aired during halftime and features Clint Eastwood talking about America coming back, just like Detroit has come back. Everyone came together, workers, shareholders, and creditors, and now GM and Chrysler are back from the brink. To the benefit of us all.

At about 50 seconds in, there's a clip of protesters outside the Wisconsin State Capitol from the Spring 2011 protests against Governor Scott Walker's rights-stripping bill. (more info)

Walker Hauling In More Out-of-State Than Presidential Super PACs

According to the latest numbers on Presidential Super PACs from the New York Times, Scott Walker's latest month of $4.5 million in out-of-state fundraising has outpaced most of the Presidential candidates' total fundraising from Super PACs.

The recall election will be a tough battle to reinstill our Wisconsin values with a governor that will follow them. Who's concerned about out-of-state interests, Walker or the people of Wisconsin? You decide.

Thanks to James Rowen at The Political Environment for pointing these facts out.

The Definition of a Super PAC

Super PAC: a frothy mix of lube and campaign funding that is sometimes the byproduct of politics.

You hear the term thrown around a lot, Super PAC or SuperPAC. But many people ask what is a Super PAC? A great visionary in Super PAC development, Stephen Colbert, provided this simple definition. He gave us this definition during his television program, The Colbert Report, on Thursday. A Super PAC is a frothy mix of lube and campaign funding that is sometimes the byproduct of politics.

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

If you want to help change this, support the DISCLOSE Act.

In case you're interested, here's the real definition on Wikipedia.

Scott Walker, the Mythical Job Creator

Scott Walker keeps touting that his policies have created jobs here in Wisconsin. Unfortunately, that's a bald-faced lie. Want proof? Take a look at this chart from the nonpartisan, nonprofit organization BadgerStat.

Most of the previous Governor's policies were in place until June 2011, and most of Walker's major policies weren't yet in effect, because Walker didn't sign his budget until June 26, 2011. In the 6 months prior, 38,800 jobs were created according to BadgerStat's latest report on Jobs and Unemployment. However, in the 6 months since Walker's policies have been in place, Wisconsin has lost 35,600 jobs! That's nearly 0 net jobs gained since Walker took office, and at the current trend, we'll have a net job loss under Walker next month or two. In fact, jobs were lost immediately following the budget signing, and Wisconsin leads the nation in job losses.

This chart shows that Wisconsin was on an upward jobs trend after the housing crash when Walker took office. So, the statement that the previous governor's policies were creating jobs into Walker's inauguration and early term can be seen from the evidence.

Walker promised that he would create 250,000 jobs in his first term, and BadgerStat has tracked that progress as well. Check out this chart to see how Scott Walker's policies bucked that trend, too.

We're clearly headed in the wrong direction.

Walker initiated two special legislative sessions this year under the banner of creating jobs. However, the sessions didn't focus on job creation. Instead, bills on things such as sex education and recalls were debated. In the end, Walker and the Republicans gave $2.3 billion in middle-class tax breaks to large corporations.

Walker Recall: Over 1 Million Signatures!

According to Bloomberg and WisPolitics, we've collected over a million signatures to recall Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker! That's very close to the 1.1 million people who voted for Walker in 2010 and nearly double the amount required to recall Walker.

An exact count is expected to be announced at 3pm CST.

Enough signatures have also been collected for the recalls of Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch and Senator Scott Fitzgerald.

This is great news for everyone looking to get Wisconsin moving forward again. Oodles of thanks to everyone who helped in this effort.

Now, we'll finally get to vote for Walker based on the policies he will actually implement. The work doesn't end here, it just begins. We must continue to fight on through the recall election.

Wisconsin Doesn't Look Good In Red

According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, the economic trend in Wisconsin over the last 3 months has been sharply down. It's been far worse here in Wisconsin than any other state, as depicted by the stark red shaded Wisconsin in the map above.

The map comes from a report put together monthly by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia which tracks the economic trends of each state.  This isn't good news for Wisconsin, which has traditionally had a much better economy than other states.

Look at Illinois, the state Walker thought people would be flocking to Wisconsin from. They sure aren't flocking here, those pesky "job creators". Let this be a lesson, Republicans suck at the economy! All the red and pink states have Republican governors.

Thanks a lot Scott "Where Are The Jobs?" Walker!  That's what we get for asking a college drop-out to be career politician to lead this state.  Good thing we have over 507,553 signatures to recall your butt, we'll get at least another 250,000 in the next month.

Have You Recalled Walker Yet?

The recall of Walker starts today. Have you recalled Walker yet?

We're recalling Walker for taking rights away from our fellow Wisconsinites, making it more difficult to vote, easier to shoot someone in the Capitol than to take someone's picture, making it more difficult for renters in Wisconsin, not creating jobs, not compromising with anyone, not making the truly hard decisions required to help fix our economy, and many other things that make Wisconsin look more like Alabama without leaves.

Walker isn't progress unless we're living in a previous century.

It's time to take our Wisconsin back!

(Make sure you also sign the petition to recall Lt. Gov. Kleefisch, too, or she'll be Gov when Walker is booted!)

Ohio Rejects Anti-Union Law

The people of Ohio have spoken, and they have rejected the anti-union law SB 5. The law was defeated by 61% of the vote with 83% currently reporting. That's quite a large margin. In fact, according to MSNBC, more people voted against SB 5 then who voted for Governor Kasich in 2010. The energy behind the Ohio referendum is here, it started here in Wisconsin. We start translating that energy into recalling Governor Walker and reinstating the rights of Wisconsinites next week, and the vote in Ohio will give Walker more reason to worry.

Walker Gets Koch-Fueled Head Start in Recall

This afternoon news broke that the Walker recall unexpectedly started today, nearly two weeks before Democrats planned on beginning. The recall petitioner, David Brandt, is a Walker donor and named the committee the "Close Friends to Recall Walker." So it's the Republicans behind this preemptive start. But why would the Republicans want to start Walker's recall early?

It all comes down to fundraising for the "Close Friends of Walker." Next week, Walker will be traveling across the country to Koch brother-backed fundraising events filled by attendees with very deep pockets. Wisconsin law allows the targets of recall campaigns to raise an unlimited amount of funds to defend themselves, but normally politicians have strict fundraising limits. Since the recall has started, Walker can raise as much money as possible and come back to Wisconsin with millions. The November 15 start for the recall planned by the Democrats would take place after Walker's trip.

Now, Walker can use the millions he'll get to spam the airwaves with ads begging us to not sign the recall petition before the Democrats and the people of Wisconsin even get started. Walker and the Republicans are running scared, but they're going to make this an uphill battle. Join the Recall Walker effort at the Wisconsin Democrats RecallHQ where you can also get the latest information including news, events and how you can help.

The Recall Walker Kick Off Rally will take place in Madison at the State Capitol on Saturday, November 19th at 1pm.

WI Attorney General Van Hollen Declines Work - Deserves An Investigation

Apparently J.B. Van Hollen is too busy for real AG work, because he's declined to investigate potential election fraud in Waukesha County and former Walker aides who may have violated law. Van Hollen declined to help the FBI with their secret Walker investigation after they requested his assistance. The FBI doesn't waste time, there's definitely a fishy smell emanating from the Walker camp. Yet, Van Hollen spent years investigating voter fraud when no rational mind suspects an issue of any real significance, and the results were what we expected, no significant voter fraud.

Tens of thousands of Wisconsinites and several high-profile people asked Van Hollen to investigate the glaring election issues in Waukesha County after the Supreme Court election in which David Prosser won by a very small margin, where significant election fraud may have occurred. However, J.B. Van Hollen declined to make any effort to investigate. Instead, the Government Accountability Board appointed a special investigator, Timothy Verhoff. Verhoff has now completed his investigation, only a few months later. Was the office of J.B. Van Hollen really so busy that they couldn't investigate?

Now, the FBI has asked J.B. Van Hollen to assist in their previously secret investigation of former Walker aides. What could possibly make Van Hollen believe the FBI is wrong in investigating these aides? If the FBI is wrong, shouldn't Van Hollen assist the FBI in coming to that conclusion?

Putting this all together what picture do we paint? Van Hollen has a very selective bias when it comes to what he chooses to investigate, but a very simple threshold. Will the investigation help Republicans? Yes, then investigate. No, then keep as quiet as possible. The investigations into voter fraud created a buzz around the words "voter fraud," most likely enabling the passage of the Voter Suppression Bill, which helps Republicans win more elections by suppressing votes for Democrats. Investigating election fraud in Waukesha County during the Supreme Court election could have resulted in a win for Kloppenburg, hurting Republicans, but keeping quiet left the status quo. Assisting the investigation of former Walker aides could potentially bring light to areas the FBI is dark on, potentially incriminating more aides and Walker himself. That would for sure hurt the Republicans, but keeping quiet can only help.

I'm sorry Mr. Van Hollen, but the people of Wisconsin, your employer, want you to do your job! You don't get a big fat paycheck to investigate only the things you're interested in. J.B. Van Hollen, you are a disgrace to your position and the State of Wisconsin. I think it's time for an investigation of J.B. Van Hollen's office, if there isn't already an ongoing secret FBI investigation. Tell Wisconsin why you won't investigate these very serious allegations when you'll investigate frivolous claims for years.

Want more reason to suspect politicizing by Van Hollen, check this out: